So these are the arcane rules for now and the candidates play the game. It is unlikely, however, that the founding fathers considered the deep maths involved.

Electoral game theory

In a short paper in 1921, the French mathematician and politician Émile Borel introduced the rudiments of what would a century later become the game you have just played. In Borel’s version, “each player arranges the numbers he has chosen in a determined order” and wins “if the numbers chosen by him are superior to the corresponding numbers” chosen by his opponent. If a majority of a player’s numbers are higher, they win. This is the mathematical skeleton of a political campaign.

Borel recognised the wider applications of this simple structure, writing that “the art of war or of economic and financial speculation are not without analogy to the problems concerning games”.

“The art of play,” Borel continued, “depends on psychology and not on mathematics.” But there is plenty of mathematics, too. In the field of game theory, this sort of competition became a canonical object of study, known as the Colonel Blotto game. In 1950, a germinal paper from the military think-tank now called the Rand Corporation described a “continuous Colonel Blotto game” and the strategies of “the wily Blotto” facing his “enemy”.

The fictional colonel is in charge of an army of troops, as is his opponent, which he has to distribute across some number of battlefields. Whoever is victorious on more battlefields wins the war. Real-world situations, including research and development, patent races, strategic hiring, auctions and, of course, elections have been examined through Blotto games.

Solutions to these games — what game theorists call equilibria — are maddeningly difficult to find. They involve complex “mixed strategies”, randomising across intricate plans so that your opponent cannot outguess you. In this sense, presidential campaigns can be thought of as incredibly rich versions of rock, paper, scissors.

A 2006 paper by a trio of political scientists was among the first to “appreciate the problem posed by the Electoral College and its Colonel Blotto game-like structure” — they argue, for example, that Gore’s hairbreadth loss to Bush in 2000 was due to mistakes in his Blotto strategy. A 2014 paper by two economists spends 20 pages on Blotto maths before concluding that more work would yield “insights into more complicated variants of the game, which may be more representative of real military, political or other environments”.

For now, your campaigning may reveal some glimpses of strategic insight into the political environment. And the real game will be decided on November 5, when Americans — and especially Arizonans, Georgians, Michiganders, Nevadans, North Carolinians, Pennsylvanians and Wisconsinites — go to the polls.

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BY YOUR ovens, ready, set, bake!

The Great British Bake Off returns at 8pm tonight on Channel 4, but what do you do when you’ve baked more cake than you can possibly eat?

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Here are some delicious ways to transform your leftover gateau.

TOP OF THE POPS: Cake pops are a fun way to give leftover cake a new lease of life.

Simply crumble the cake into fine crumbs, mix it with buttercream, and roll the mixture into small balls.

Insert a stick into each one, then coat them in more buttercream and sprinkles, or dip them in melted chocolate.

Pop them in the fridge to set, and you’ll have a fun and tasty treat for any occasion!

BACK TO BASICS: Leftover cake makes the perfect base for a classic trifle.

Layer chunks of cake with creamy custard, whipped cream and fresh fruit in a bowl or glass dish, especially if you’re serving guests.

You can even add jelly for that traditional touch. It’s an easy, budget-friendly dessert.

CRUMBS AWAY: Turn excess cake into crunchy sweet croutons to top your desserts.

Cut the cake into cubes, spread them on a baking tray, and bake at a low temperature until crisp.

Alternatively, pop them in your air fryer for a quick crunch.

These sweet, crispy bites make the perfect topping for ice cream, yoghurt, or fruit salads.

SHAKE IT UP: For an indulgent treat, blend leftover cake with milk and a scoop of ice cream for a “cake shake”.

You can use almost any type of cake, brownie, or even fudge to make your shake and the end result will taste amazing.

SAVE FOR LATER: If you can’t eat all your cake, just freeze it.

Slice the cake into portions, wrap each piece in cling film, and store in an airtight container in the freezer.

When you’re in need of a sweet treat, simply defrost a slice or two – saving you the effort of baking or buying another pudding.

• All prices on page correct at time of going to press. Deals and offers subject to availability.

Deal of the day

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WHIZZ around on the Zinc foldable scooter, now on offer at Argos.co.uk.

Previously £75, it’s now £35.

SAVE: £40

Cheap treat

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SAVE: £4.49

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Log your litter on the Planet Patrol app – ten pieces gets you ten per cent off, the more you collect, the bigger the discount.

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JOIN thousands of readers taking part in The Sun Raffle.

Every month we’re giving away £100 to 250 lucky readers – whether you’re saving up or just in need of some extra cash, The Sun could have you covered.

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MABLETHORPE, near Skegness, is often slated as a seaside town.

It came bottom of the list for England’s seaside resorts this year in a Which? survey but I find it hard to believe, having visited it both as a child and now as a mum.

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The little coastal gem always delivers all the fun in the sun you’d expect at the Great British seaside.

I grew up going to the Lincolnshire coast every year for my family’s annual trip to the seaside and I still love taking my boys back now. 

One of my earliest holiday memories is riding a tandem in the sunshine with my parents and my brothers and going to watch the Care Bears Movie, around the time that Mablethorpe’s cinema was reopened as the Loewen, which is still going strong.

Mablethorpe’s beach stretches for miles and there’s two little trains that run you along the front if you’re staying further out at one of the holiday parks like Haven Golden Sands and want to get into the centre.

The trains are known as Landy and Sandy as one runs on the road and the other on the beach.

Tickets for Landy are £2 each, while Sandy costs £3 per person return or £1.50 for a one way trip and then you can amble back along the sandy shore, paddling in the sea if the tide is right. Under threes travel free and dogs are welcome aboard.

The trains are just one of the attractions run by Jacksons of Mablethorpe, which also offer a beachfront arcade with a mix of machines to keep all ages amused.

As the company is on the cusp of celebrating its 100th anniversary next year, it must be doing something right and there’s plenty of visitors like my family who keep coming back year after year.

If arcades and bars aren’t your thing, my top tip would be to check out the seal sanctuary at North End Beach over the road from the Haven park if you love wildlife or take a trip down the coast to charming Sutton-on-Sea if you fancy a change of scene. 

Golden Sands is a great place to stay, with indoor and outdoor pools and loads of kids activities like archery, climbing, high ropes and a free soft play.

It’s consistently rated as one of the most popular Haven sites and we’ve had loads of brilliant breaks there, meeting up with friends and having a blast.

My favourite time of year to visit is actually the October half term as I’ve often bagged a bargain as the holiday season comes to an end.

It’s fun checking out who’s decorated their caravan for Halloween and holiday parks can be a great place for traffic-free trick or treating.

And Lincolnshire is perfect for a staycay if you want to keep things cheap as chips as it’s not a big holiday hotspot, other than for Midlanders, so the prices are lower than at other seaside spots.

The irony of Mablethorpe’s surprise rating of just 46 per cent in this year’s Which? survey is that it’s only a year since it was named England‘s best beach in research commissioned by car rental firm Sixt, beating the likes of Cromer in Norfolk.

It was judged on water quality, parking, nearby amenities and whether there’s lifeguards on duty.

I’d be far more inclined to agree with last year’s rating, although if you’re looking at Mablethorpe town centre as a whole, there are bits that do look like they need a bit of TLC, like entertainment complex Spanish City, which was recently spotted on hit TV drama Sherwood.

Last year, it was neighbouring Skegness that came joint bottom of the Which? seaside survey, so it just goes to show that fortunes can change overnight.

If you’re looking for an alternative to the hustle and bustle of Skegvegas, the golden sands are what make Mablethorpe a must-visit in my eyes.

What are the Sun team’s favourite seaside towns?

The Sun’s travel team share some of their favourite English seaside towns

Folkestone, Kent

With views of France (on a very clear day), the main attraction is the Harbour Arm, sitting at the edge of the converted train tracks and selling hand-crafted goods and amazing food.

The multicoloured high street with shops and restaurants can’t be missed, my favourites being Burrito Buoy for some amazing margaritas and The Folkestone Bookshop for some novels.

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You’ll need to pack your beach shoes as it has a stony beach over a sandy beach – but after a few drinks at the much loved pilot bar, you’ll hardly care.

Kara Godfrey, Deputy Travel Editor

Mousehole, Cornwall

The small sandy bay has retained it’s chocolate box charm, crammed with weathered fishing boats and backed by pokey cafes and airy art galleries where seaside-inspired works hang from the walls.

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For impeccable views of a wild sea and homemade grub, head to Rock Pool Cafe which sits atop a craggy cliff and order a ‘make it yourself’ hot chocolate.

There are some impressive coastal walks – but be warned it can be hilly.

Sophie Swietochowski, Assistant Travel Editor

Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire

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Accessible on a spit of sand when the tide is out, this quirky little community art project is made up of driftwood, flags and mementoes from those who have visited to admire the huge swathes of golden sands and sparkling waters.

Sadly the original was destroyed in a fire in 2023 but an enthusiastic band of local volunteers are slowly re-building the landmark.

Lisa Minot, Head of Travel

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Two years ago, Nahid Islam graduated from Dhaka University with a bachelor thesis that examined why no student movement in Bangladesh had ever managed to reach its goals. Little does it matter that he forgot what his conclusion was. The 26-year-old has now changed history. 

Islam was one of the most visible faces of a student movement which kickstarted countrywide mass protests in Bangladesh in recent months, resulting in the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, once considered to be among the most powerful women in the world.

“Hasina is a bloodsucker and a psychopath,” Islam told TIME with a calm voice from an opulent black leather chair in his wood-paneled office at the Ministry for Information Technology in Dhaka, on a Sunday afternoon in September.

Not long ago, he was an information technology tutor, forced into hiding in order to avoid being arrested by the government. Now he is the country’s ICT and media minister.

In June, together with a handful of other students, Islam walked into the library at Dhaka University, holding up placards calling on people to take to the streets. The High Court had just reinstated a controversial quota that favored family members of veterans from Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War to get government jobs. Islam and his colleagues demanded a fair chance for everyone instead.

Protests against the quota system first rattled university campuses across Bangladesh in 2018. At the time, the government eventually backtracked and the protests died down. This year too, it could have ended with the issue of the quota system, Islam said. 

But then security forces began shooting live rounds at protesters. On July 16, Abu Sayed, another student leader, was shot dead while walking towards police officers with open arms.

“His killing turned out to be a game-changing moment for the movement,” said Islam. The protests quickly swept up large parts of the population across the country, offering people a welcome outlet for mounting frustration in the face of a corrupt government, soaring prices, and an increasingly authoritarian rule. 

Eventually the protesters focused on Prime Minister Hasina herself. When the students came up with a one-point demand on August 3, it was Islam who delivered it: Hasina needs to resign, he announced on the campus of Dhaka University. On August 5, when hundreds of thousands were closing in on her residence in the heart of Dhaka, she boarded a helicopter and was flown to India, where she remains in exile.

“No one thought she could be toppled,” Islam said, rocking back and forth in his big leather chair.

Read More: Sheikh Hasina and the Future of Democracy in Bangladesh

With the military’s support, the students—all of the sudden in charge of a country of 170 million—asked Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, to preside over an interim government. The economist, who rose to fame when he revolutionized the development industry with his microcredit idea, was in exile himself due to an array of legal charges levied against him by the Hasina government. He’s been acquitted since taking office.

As the head of the interim government, Yunus is Islam’s boss now—but only because the students wanted it this way. When asked who was taking orders from whom, Islam smirks before saying: “Yunus consults us on all major decisions.” 

He points at a red landline on his desk at the ministry. “The VIP phone,” Islam said and shrugged. “No idea what I should use it for. I text Yunus on Whatsapp.”

If Islam is still puzzled about everything that has happened in his life over the past couple of weeks, his stoic demeanor does not give it away.

His personal secretary, a seemingly stressed officer older than himself, keeps rushing in and out of the room, carrying documents for him to sign. Islam’s two mobile phones are ringing constantly. And visitors show up until the early morning hours at his residence in an uncharacteristically lush area of Dhaka, where the living room alone—adorned with a chandelier and white velvet sofas—is almost as big as his old apartment.

The sociology graduate has always been among those who defied the government. In his first week of university in 2017, the Dhaka-born son of a teacher took part in protests against a coal plant on the edge of the Sundarbans, a mangrove forest on the border with India. In 2019, Islam ran for campus elections and later, along with his peers, formed a student organization at Dhaka University, the Democratic Student Force.

But he first became known to the larger public in July of this year, after he was kidnapped and tortured by the country’s intelligence services, notorious for its enforced disappearances of government critics. One sweltering night, around 30 plainclothes officers showed up at a friend’s house where he was hiding to avoid arrest for his role in the protests. He says they put black cloth on his head, then they told him: “the world will never see you again.”

In what Islam believes was one of their secret prisons, they beat him with what he says felt like an iron rod, leaving bruises on his arms and legs. Dizzy from a combination of the pain, tormenting sounds, and a glistening bright light directed at him, he drifted in and out of consciousness.

“Who’s the mastermind? Where is the money coming from?” they wanted to know, he recalled. A day later, Islam says he was dumped beside a bridge. Photos of his injuries were circulated by local media and caused outrage.

“The intelligence services were looking for known faces, for the leader of our movement, but we didn’t have just one. That was our main strength,” he said. And while he seems to be navigating his new role as a minister with confidence, he insists that leading the protests was teamwork: “The media always want one face, but I am not the only leader in this movement. There were many of us.”

After Hasina’s government was ousted, the power vacuum had to be filled quickly. Dr Samina Luthfa, Islam’s sociology professor from Dhaka University, says she met an uncharacteristically nervous Islam on the day the students announced the interim government to the people. “He’s very young, it was a huge responsibility.”

In the aftermath of the overhaul, people’s expectations projected onto the interim government are skyrocketing. In this new Bangladesh, everybody anticipates only the best from the students who guided them in the liberation from a “dictator,” as many now dare to say openly.

Read More: The Trials of Muhammad Yunus

His phone is ringing, again. He is being asked to mediate at a Dhaka hospital, where students attacked doctors after one of their peers died from alleged neglect. The doctors responded with a strike. While he is gulping down his rice and chicken lunch, another call. Can Yunus’ office share his number with some protesters who demand government jobs?  

“It’s odd,” Islam said, “once this was us,” he says, referring to the protesters. “Now we’re the ones who have to manage it.” 

Bangladeshis are energized by the success of making their voices heard after a 15-year rule that was sustained by vote rigging, crackdowns on critics, and a general climate of fear. People are now making use of their new freedom. Women stage demonstrations against harassment cases. Students oppose exams they want to see postponed after weeks of interrupted classes. Even school children in upper-class parts of Dhaka were seen protesting—they didn’t like their principal, they said.

“Over the last 15 years people couldn’t talk, now they finally get a chance,” Islam explained. 

But his biggest challenge might still lie ahead.  

While there is a general sense of relief in the country, there’s not been much time to celebrate. Restoring law and order remains a concern for the new government. And there’s also a lingering fear that the military or the ousted Awami League could try to forcibly take back power. It would not be the first time, as in Bangladesh, politics have traditionally been marred by violence.

Islam says that it is the job of the interim government to root out corruption and bring the country back onto a path of democracy until elections are held. “We will only be here for a short time.”

“All the corruption and the violence – people don’t want this anymore,” he said. “We should understand the pulse of the new generation. We need to move on.”

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has accused the UN of imposing a “socialist” agenda on its members and called on countries to sign up to a “freedom agenda”, in a fiery speech that underlined his status as a political provocateur beloved by the alt right.

In his debut address to the UN general assembly in New York on Tuesday, Milei focused on the 42-page “Pact for the Future” adopted by the UN on Sunday, which includes points promoting climate action, gender equality and regulation of artificial intelligence.

“Argentina will not back any policy that implies the restriction of individual freedoms or trade, nor the violation of the natural rights of individuals,” Milei said. “We invite all nations of the free world to join us, not only in opposing this pact, but in the creation of a new agenda for this noble institution: the freedom agenda.”

He added that the UN’s previous 2030 sustainable development agenda was “a supranational programme of a socialist nature” and accused the UN of becoming “multi-tentacled Leviathan that seeks to decide what each nation state should do and how the citizens of the world should live”.

Milei has courted the global spotlight since taking office in December, speaking regularly at multilateral summits and conservative political conferences and forming friendships with prominent figures such as Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, whom Milei met with for the third time on Monday in New York City.

“My companies are actively looking for ways to invest in and support Argentina,” Musk said in a post on his X platform on Tuesday.

Earlier this month in an interview with broadcaster LN+ Milei referred to himself as “one of the most relevant politicians on planet earth. One is Donald Trump and the other is me.”

Milei’s domestic agenda has largely focused on fixing Argentina’s worst economic crisis in two decades, mainly by rolling out a severe austerity package designed to bring down triple-digit inflation.

But the libertarian economist, who has denied the existence of human-caused climate change and is a staunch opponent of Argentina’s legalisation of elective abortion, has also pledged to wage a “cultural battle” against Argentina’s left.

He has dissolved Argentina’s women’s and environment ministries and shut down its anti-discrimination institute.

“I’m here to warn you that we are at the end of a cycle,” Milei said at the UN on Tuesday. “The collectivism and moral posturing of the woke agenda have collided with reality.”

SHOPPERS are rushing to buy a “fab” snack dupe scanning at tills for £1.20 less than the popular original.

Iceland is currently selling Toast’Em Pop-Ups for just £1.50.

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The product is a dupe for Kellogg’s Pop Tarts range.

Prices for the original do vary, according to supermarket price comparison site Trolley.co.uk.

Frosted Chocotastic Toaster Pastries cost £2.25 at B&M, while the Strawberry Sensation flavour and the Chocotastic Breakfast Pastry Snack both cost £3 each at Sainsbury’s.

Most Pop Tart flavours though are available for £2.69 including “Frosted Hot Fudge Sundae” and “S’mores Choco & Marshmallow” flavours.

Taking to the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK group on Facebook they wrote: “£1.50 in Iceland stores. Opinions?”

They also added a photo of their haul, showing the flavours Frosted S’mores and Frosted Cookies and Crème.

Other members of the group were suitably impressed with the breakfast treats.

One wrote: “My kids love the smore ones they are a firm favourite.”

Another added: “Cookies and creme ones are to die for in my opinion, better than any pop tarts I’ve had. Haven’t tried the smores.”

A third fan said: “My kids prefer these to the original.”

A fourth person chipped in with: “Just like the American pop tarts! Amazing for the money!!”

While one mum posted: “My boys said a bit doughy but good. A fab cheaper alternative.”

There are plenty of comparison websites out there that’ll check prices for you – so don’t be left paying more than you have to.

Most of them work by comparing the prices across hundreds of retailers.

Google Shopping is a tool that lets users search for and compare prices for products across the web.

Simply type in keywords, or a product number, to bring up search results.

The news comes after the supermarket chain launched four different stonebaked pizzas for just £2.50 each.

The pizza’s aren’t the cheapest ones that Iceland sells.

The frozen food giant also has a range of thin crust pizzas which cost £1 each.

Iceland also recently announced that its classic drink Um Bongo is back on the shelves years after it was discontinued in 2003.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories

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