European wildfires threatening Madrid and French resorts have become impossible to control in some areas as hundreds of thousands, including British holidaymakers, are forced from their homes. 

Large forest fires have become ‘out of control’ in southwestern France and central Spain today, sparking an evacuation of an estimated 200,000 people from their homes. 

The fire in Madrid is said to put at risk a NASA and ESA communications complex, one of three comprising a network studying deep space.

About 141,000 people fled their homes in Gironde and Landes in France, while 60,000 were forced to evacuate their houses in Spain, the countries’ respective Interior ministries confirmed. 

Dozens of firefighters have been injured but no deaths have been reported in either country, authorities have said. 

Meanwhile, the Madrid regional government’s emergency management chief, Carlos Novillo, said the blaze near the Spanish capital was ‘at its peak’ and was beyond capacity for firefighters to tame. 

The inferno is currently making its way towards the municipalities of Fresnedillas de la Oliva and Robledo de Chavela, just several dozen kilometres from the outskirts of the city. 

‘It is not possible to attack the fire in that area, so defensive measures are being taken,’ Mr Novillo told the BBC. 

Exactly 25,000 people have been evacuated from the region, while 20,000 more have been placed in lockdown, Madrid officials have said. 

An alert message had been issued to those in Aldea del Fresno, a town west of Madrid, ordering them to leave, emergency services said. It is the first time such a measure has been taken due to a wildfire. 

Plumes of smoke near the NASA and ESA communications complex in Robledo de Chavela, near Madrid

Firefighters battle a wildfire in Cebreros area, near Avila, 80km west of Madrid on July 24, 2026

A firefighter helicopter dumps water on a wildfire in Cebreros area, near Avila, 80km west of Madrid on July 24, 2026

A person runs as the fire spreads in the mountains of Navaluenga, Avila, on July 23, 2026

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David Gonzalez who owns a Martial Arts gym for young people try to extinguish a fire outside his home in Avila 

Firefighters battle a wildfire in the Cebreros region as several wildfires have burnt out of control

The last time Spain declared the same level of emergency alert was during a massive nationwide power blackout last year.  

Meanwhile, tens of thousands have fled from a millionaire’s holiday paradise in France with British tourists caught up in an ‘apocalyptic’ wildfire. 

Mass evacuations have been taking place throughout the day – including by boat – from Cap Ferret in southwestern France, where wildfires have burnt through thousands of hectares of forest and destroyed luxury villas.

Spain’s government has declared a national emergency amid the wildfires for the first time as the inferno in Madrid and the nearby province of Avila sparked mass evacuations. 

Two major blazes near Madrid combined into one single inferno, which quickly burned through 11.5 square miles of land by Friday afternoon. 

A fire in Avila, less than two hours north-west of Madrid, tore through 34 square miles, causing 1,500 people to flee. 

It comes as the fires are being fanned by a heatwave with temperatures expected to hit highs of 39C (102F) in parts of Spain. 

Spain’s Civil Guard has arrested one man and is investigating another for allegedly having used heavy machinery in an area where it was prohibited for fire risk. 

Regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso branded the fires as the worst in Madrid’s history.

Meanwhile, Francisco Martin, the central government representative for the region of Madrid, said more evacuations could be on the horizon. 

A couple sit on the beach of Moutchic in Lacanau, southwestern France, on July 24, 2026

Residents watch the flames on hill crests as firefighters battle a wildfire in the Cebreros area, near Avila, Madrid

A firefighter sprays water on a scorched field, surrounded by burnt trees, following a wildfire in Cotignac, southeastern France

A firefighter suffers an open fracture after a gas cylinder explodes as the Saumos forest fire reaches a house on the outskirts of Lege-Cap-Ferret, Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, on July 23

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Wildfires advance near the Le Proge region, western France, on Thursday 

He said the priority was now to protect the town of San Lorenzo, the home of the Escorial, Philip II’s 16th-century royal palace and monastery. 

Francisco Martínez, the mayor of Burgohondo whose residents were evacuated, said: ‘In my 60 years I have never seen something like this in my village, I have never seen fire of these dimensions.

Footage taken by Spanish broadcasters showed residents retreating as sky-high flames with plumes of smoke barrelled through the woods and scrublands. 

High winds and hilly terrain complicated efforts by firefighters, who combated the blazes with fire engines and bulldozers.

‘All around the town was smoke and fire, I was scared. Everything was fire and smoke, people were nervous,’ Joaquin Espinosa, 33, said. 

He and his neighbours were evacuated from the village of Chapineria, located less than an hour away from Madrid.

It comes as Spain has had the worst fires on record for both the regions of Castilla-La Mancha as well as Madrid in just one week. 

Firefighters were still battling Spain’s second biggest ever fire in Castilla-La Mancha province over the last week. 

Thirteen people were also killed in a fire in southern Spain earlier this month, the deadliest fire in recent memory for Spain.

On Friday morning, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said ‘Spain and neighbouring countries’ were experiencing a ‘dramatic situation’ due to the massive fires that spread simultaneously across western Europe. 

‘The forest fires are ravaging thousands of hectares and affecting numerous towns and villages,’ the Spanish leader wrote on X on Friday.  He also urged Spaniards to ‘follow the instructions’ of officials. 

‘Climate change is what kills, what destroys our villages and our natural and cultural heritage,’ civil protection chief Virginia Barcones told Spanish radio.

She warned some fires become so intense that, despite the deployment of aircraft and ground crews, firefighters stand ‘no chance’.

Ms Barcones said conditions at the Guadalajara blaze were improving but that strong winds and extreme heat remained a danger.

Eighteen firefighting units with specialist troops were working to contain the blaze near the city of Toledo, close to another wildfire that forced the evacuation of several villages on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in southwestern France, distressed tourists are anxiously fleeing the beloved getaway either on boats or by the only road linking the area with the mainland.

An estimated 92,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, while in southwestern France further evacuations of around 67,000 residents further south were ordered after a separate wildfire broke out.  

Pictured: The remains of a property in Lege-Cap-Ferret after a fire tore through the outskirts of the French commune

A fast-moving wildfire reaches the outskirts of Lege-Cap-Ferret after worsening weather conditions fuel its rapid spread

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‘It’s quite impressive and even frightening,’ said Laurent Moretti, an Ares town resident. ‘An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. All we really hope is that the firefighters can quickly get it under control.’

More than 20,000 people had already been evacuated from towns and vacation resorts on Thursday. The new evacuations were carried out by road, with boat shuttles provided for people who could not travel by their own means.

Local authorities in the Gironde department said 53 homes and a campsite have been engulfed by the flames, adding that 42 firefighters were injured.

Around 1,500 people who fled the peninsula arrived by sea in the city of Arcachon, some aboard small water taxis and others on larger boats.

Ross Fitzsimmons and his wife Natasha from Hampton, south-west London were forced to leave their holiday villa in the village of Claouey on Thursday, when forest fires surged towards them.

Mr Fitzsimmons, 70, who runs a bespoke framing business, arrived last Saturday with his wife and their two children, and had originally planned to stay for a week but instead, was forced to drive to Bordeaux.

‘It’s absolutely heartbreaking because the whole Cap Ferret peninsula is such a special place, the smell of the pine, the pristine beaches,’ he said. 

‘The pretty villages by the bay, but to see the forests being destroyed by a wildfire 19 times larger than Richmond Park is devastating.

‘The region is nicknamed the Hamptons of France but it doesn’t do it justice, as it’s far less pretentious and much more beautiful.’

Mr Fitzsimmons described how he could see the blaze around 12 miles away on Wednesday night from his local beach.

‘At that point we weren’t concerned all that much because we were here in 2022, and they had wildfires then. [They] had dug trenches and built fire breaks to help contain future outbreaks,’ he said.

‘But by the following morning, smoke had replaced the clouds and ash was falling from the sky as we ate breakfast. We were getting increasingly nervous.

‘It was clear that the fire was spreading and that we probably needed to move fast as there’s only one main road in and out of the peninsula, which was obviously going to close if the fire got worse.’

As the family was anxiously packing, they heard an official on a megaphone ‘driving around the village’, warning people to evacuate. 

‘We got out about 4pm yesterday in our hire cars and the whole village was deserted. All the shops were closed and there was hardly a soul around. We’d hired bikes but the hire shop was shut so we left them chained up outside,’ Mr Fitzsimmons said.

‘There were gendarmes and other emergency workers lining much of the road out of the peninsula, it was eerie.’

The fires, which began on Tuesday in Saumos, Gironde, have burned for days, with 10,000 hectares (almost 25,000 acres) of land being consumed by the flames. 

A 90-minute drive from Bordeaux, the string of fishing villages is a popular destination for Paris’s elite, often compared to the Hamptons in America.

French residents have described the inferno ravaging parts of the country as ‘mega-fire’ and ‘apocalyptic’.

French President Emmanuel Macron has requested urgent help from the European Union as the country’s growing battle against wildfires intensifies. 

‘It breaks my heart. Because it’s such a pleasant place to live, seeing it go up in smoke is truly sad,’ said family caregiver Corinne Paillaube.

‘It’s totally apocalyptic,’ said Ambre Dubos, from the nearby Landes region.

People are being told to leave via the main D106 road towards Bordeaux while vessels were being made available for others between 7am and 10am local time (6am BST and 9am BST) from four piers

The Cap Ferret peninsula has a year-round population of just under 8,000 but that can swell by ten times in peak summer season

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People in Lege-Cap-Ferret watch as flames tear through a forest 

Luxury homes are erupting in flames as desperate tourists flee down a single road off the ‘French Hamptons’ peninsula amid gigantic wildfires

A bulldozer works to make a firewall as firefighters battle a wildfire in Cebreros area, near Avila, west of Madrid 

‘France has requested the activation of the European Union’s civil protection mechanism. 

‘We will soon be able to count on reinforcements from two Croatian Canadair aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor planes, as well as two heavy Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,’ wrote Mr Macron on X on Friday.

Further down the Atlantic coast, around the town of Biscarrosse in France’s Landes region, another major blaze that began on Thursday afternoon has triggered the evacuations of more than 23,000 people. 

Sophie Brocas, the prefect for the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, ordered the ‘final phase’ of the peninsula evacuation early on Friday morning.

People are being told to leave via the main D106 road towards Bordeaux while vessels were being made available for others between 7am and 10am local time (6am BST and 9am BST) from four piers. 

Aircraft from Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are on their way to assist in the emergency, which the local prefect has described as an ‘XXL fire’.

Meanwhile, thousands of emergency workers in Italy battled scores of fires in Sicily and in the Calabria region, where a local official said arsonists had started fires by tying rags soaked in flammable liquid to the tails of stray cats to spread the flames.

Along with the stray cats, investigators found candles and delayed ignition devices.

Domenico Costarella, of Calabria’s civil protection agency, said: ‘These animals were released into the fields, running around and spreading the fire.’

EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib said Thursday that the bloc was providing three water-bombing planes to France. 

In an 18 month period 77 children under the age of 16 were treated at a Belfast hospital for e-scooter injuries

An MP is calling for urgent action on the illegal use of scramblers, e-bikes, and e-scooters stating what was once a nuisance has now escalated into a public safety crisis.

Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard has written to Justice Minister Naomi Long demanding urgent action on the illegal and anti-social use of such vehicles.

He was responding to the recent Children’s Health Ireland report which revealed that there have been 1,130 emergency department attendances linked to e-scooter injuries between January 2021 and August 2025, alongside a 50% rise in children admitted with traumatic brain injuries in the last year alone.

Locally, 77 children under the age of 16 were treated at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children over an 18-month period between June 2024 and January 2026. As well as this, 59 serious ambulance call-outs were recorded in relation to such injuries over two years.

The South Down MP said: “What started as a simple nuisance is now a critical public safety crisis, and it needs to be treated like one.

“I’m hearing it directly from people right across South Down – parents who won’t let their kids play outside, older residents afraid to walk their own streets, and communities feeling terrorised in their own neighbourhoods. That is completely unacceptable.

“We have laws that simply aren’t being enforced, and that enforcement gap has allowed the situation to spiral out of control. These high-powered machines are being driven recklessly through housing estates and public parks.

“In the worst cases, they are being used by gangs to intimidate residents, distribute drugs, and openly evade the police. Working-class communities, in particular, have borne the brunt of this.

“I have written to the Justice Minister demanding a dedicated joint taskforce between the Department of Justice, the PSNI, and local Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs). Furthermore, I am calling for police officers to be given clear legal authority, specialised training, and modern technology – including drone support – to safely seize these vehicles and take them off our streets.

“Communities deserve to feel safe where they live, and no one should have to think twice before stepping onto a footpath.”

Under the current law, e-scooters and most other small off-road motorised vehicles should never be used on public land anywhere in Northern Ireland. This means they cannot legally be used on public roads, in public parks or on pavements.

It is legal to own, buy, or sell an e-scooter however, they can only be used on private land and only if the landowner gives their permission.

Other lightweight vehicles such as scrambler bikes and quad bikes are also restricted to off-road use on privately-owned land.

Police can issue cautions, fines, report users to the PPS, and confiscate e-scooters being used in public places.

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Emergency services were called to Almond Street after reports of concern for a man, who later died. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.

A man has died after becoming unwell following an incident on a street in Grangemouth.

Emergency services were called to Almond Street at around 7.45pm on Thursday after reports of concern for a man.

Police Scotland said officers attended and engaged with the man before he became unwell.

He died a short time later.

The circumstances surrounding the death have not been disclosed.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Police received reports of concern for a man in the Almond Street area of Grangemouth around 7.45pm on Thursday, 23 July, 2026.

“Officers attended and engaged with the man.

“The man subsequently became unwell, however died a short time later.

“A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.”

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During every visit to Coronation Street, somebody has the worst week of their lives. This week, it’s Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien), and next week’s not looking good for DS Lisa Connor-Swain (Vicky Myers), the woman who just arrested her for murder.

To think that Swarla were just getting back on track.

After Lisa was very nearly tricked into turning her back on her beloved Carla Connor-Swain (Alison King) by her bunny-boiling ex Becky Swain (Amy Cudden), the most shipped couple on the Cobbles finally got their happily ever after…

… then someone was bumped off on the day they got married.

Having the body of a murder victim turn up spitting distance away from your wedding venue does kill the vibe somewhat, even if the victim in question is domestic abuser and all round wrong’un, Theo Silverton (James Cartwright).

This kicked off a street-wide murder investigation which saw Lisa, with the aid of her less-than-upstanding fellow officer DC Kit Green (Jacob Roberts), haul six suspects in for questioning.

The investigation hit its fair share of dead ends, including the wrongful arrest of Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby), not to mention Kit’s determination to put Gary Windass (Mikey North) behind bars for the crime – which we’re all sure has totally nothing to do with the fact that Gary was getting awfully cosy with Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien).

Who is, by the way, the real murderer.

That, as it turns out, explains all the hushed conversations between Gary and Sarah recently. Because she called him on the night of the murder, begging her bad-boy ex boyfriend to help dispose of the body.

But despite Kit’s best efforts to cover up Sarah’s involvement by trying to frame Gary, soap justice comes for us all and the Coronation Street legend was arrested by none other than Lisa herself.

Which would all be fine and dandy, except Lisa’s head isn’t exactly a hundred percent on the job right now. And for good reason.

Lisa’s daughter, Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin) has recently suffered a major stroke that left her unable to speak clearly when it was revealed that she had experimented with consensual strangulation during sex with her boyfriend Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne). Furious, Lisa blamed Dylan for her little girl’s condition and reported him to the police.

Needless to say, Lisa’s not in a forgiving mood right now.

We see this first hand in tonight’s episode of Coronation Street, when Sarah’s desperate insistence that she didn’t mean to kill Theo and didn’t involve Gary fall on deaf ears.

This is only reinforced later when Kit listens to a voicemail from Lisa, advising him to think very carefully about protecting Sarah. Gulp.

Given that Lisa’s family troubles seemed to have turned her into a slightly more scary Mancunian version of Judge Dredd, it’s probably not going to go down well when her wife decides to visit the woman she’s just sent down.

In next week’s trip to the Cobbles, Carla informs Lisa that she’s going to visit Sarah later, she’s not coping very well and her boy Harry is really struggling without her.  Lisa’s left troubled.

Will Lisa let Carla’s visit to Sarah go ahead?

MORE: A bleak end ‘confirmed’ for Sarah after 23 years as she prepares to say goodbye to Coronation Street

MORE: Test your Corrie, Emmerdale and EastEnders knowledge with Metro’s weekly Soaps quiz!

MORE: All over for Sarah in Coronation Street as staggering confessions and discoveries spell the end

Andy Burnham has ruled out calling a snap election after becoming Britain’s seventh Prime Minister in a decade.

In an exclusive interview with the Manchester Evening News, Mr Burnham said he would stick to Labour’s 2024 manifesto. Holding a general election now, he added, would ‘postpone that essential work’.

He spoke after his first day at Number 10 North in Manchester city centre, and his first week as the leader of the UK.

The government HQ is at Heron House, in the same building as the intelligence agency GCHQ. Asked if he was going to call a general election, Mr Burnham said: “No I’m not. I don’t think that is right.

“We live in a parliamentary democracy. There was a manifesto in 2024. I’m sticking to that manifesto. I’m bringing forward my version but it is still within that manifesto. I just think that we need to focus on making the country work.

“That is the biggest priority right now. A general election would postpone that essential work. I’m also trying to do politics differently, as I did when I was mayor of Greater Manchester.”

Though he’s relishing his new role as PM, Mr Burnham says he misses being Greater Manchester mayor. Asked what he missed, he said: “All of it. All the elements of it, and you could probably tell that. It was lovely being back in the city today, I’ve not been back for a while. People were just great, as ever.”

After spending the day with colleagues at Heron House, Mr Burnham stepped outside for a moment to massive cheers. Waving to the crowd, he called out: “I love you Manchester!” before returning inside.

Mr Burnham is set on splitting his time between 10 Downing Street in London and its northern equivalent in Manchester. While some have said this will cost more, Mr Burnham insisted it will save money.

He added: “We all spend so much money going to London all the time, and that’s the way it’s always been. We all have to buy train tickets. We all have to go down to London. Now I can come and meet people from across the country in Manchester, it saves a lot of expense.

“Is it a gimmick? Well, the fact that I was there today with the Chancellor, the cabinet secretary, the First Secretary of State, the Transport Secretary – a large part of the government was there in Manchester with me today.

“And the fact of us being there, taking decisions there, just means that we’re rebalancing power in the country aren’t we? And the benefits that will fall to Manchester are massive. But it’s about No 10 North taking power out of Whitehall and putting it into all parts of the country. That’s its job.”

Mr Burnham said it was also about letting other areas of the country ‘go on the devolution journey that Manchester has been on’. The main priority of the northern HQ is to ‘rebalance power in Britain’, he said, adding: “People should not underestimate the scale of what we’re doing.”

After becoming leader, Mr Burnham said the days of Whitehall resisting devolution were ‘over for good’. “The good news is that the civil service is really strongly buying it,” added. “I think they realised that what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working as a country. We’re not where we should be.”

He said there was a ‘new generation of civil servants’ who believe power and investment need to be ‘fairly distributed’.

“Otherwise we end up where we are, which is a country that doesn’t feel contented,” he said. “People feel alienated, don’t they, frompolitics?”

The PM said voters felt decisions were made far from them and ‘they don’t think those decisions are made with the north inmind’.

He added: “I understand the cynicism, don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to say I don’t. But I hope to show people that it’s misplaced, that this brings some real benefits.”

Mr Burnham has made a series of policy announcements – mostly aimed at tackling the cost of living crisis – including capping bus fares; cutting business rates on pubs and music venues; and cutting VAT on domestic electricity bills.

Some, like the £2 bus fare, are costed. The detail around others is less clear. Mr Burnham said the scrapping of the digital ID scheme – estimated to be in the region of £1.8m over three years – would ‘help pay for new priorities’.

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Mr Burnham has also pledged to end rough sleeping, which will cost £340m over five years. He vowed to eradicate it when he became mayor of the Greater Manchester. There were initially improvements, but data shows rough sleeping in the region is rising again.

How will he do something nationwide when he could not achieve that in the region?

“Well it’s a good question and a fair one,” he said. “And what I would say to that is, obviously, a Bed Every Night scheme still runs and rough sleeping is significantly down on where it was when I came in as mayor.

“But what I discovered was that we couldn’t do what I wanted to do when we were the only area doing what we were doing.”Mr Burnham also said that this meant people were travelling to Greater Manchester as it was the only region offering this support.

“All areas have to do it together,” he added. The Prime Minister also met with regional mayors at Heron House on Friday, telling them No 10 North was ‘at [their] service’ during a National Economic Council meeting.

Labour mayors Tracy Brabin and Steve Rotheram, as well as Reform UK’s Andrea Jenkyns were present.

After the meeting, Mr Rotheram told the Manchester Evening News all regional mayors at the table were ‘in union’, adding: “Over the next few weeks you’re going to get a better understanding of why we are so confident that this can deliver growth now.”

Asked for his response, Mr Burnham said: “Yeah, it was very positive. They felt that what we’re doing was the right thing and could actually help them do their jobs – that was very much the spirit of the meeting.

“The public would have found it refreshing if they could have sat there and heard it.”

A week is a lifetime in politics, as the old adage goes, and it certainly feels like a lifetime already for Mr Burnham.

“I love the job,” he insisted. He admitted the top role is ‘relentless in terms of the waves of things that come at you’.

He added: You can’t ever prepare for it because you can’t ever know what it’s like until you do it, but… I’m getting used to it very quickly because you have to. So I’m in at the deep end, but I’ve started swimming and I’ve enjoyed it so far.”

He said while the job is ‘challenging’ in many ways, making a difference to people’s lives was also ‘rewarding’. Next month, Mr Burnham will be doing a ‘listening tour’ of the UK to win over voters.

Asked about details, he said they had yet to be finalised, but it would include visiting all parts of the UK. Mr Burnham has twice bid for the Labour leadership – in 2010 and 2015 – and lost out.

Finally, this year, it was third time lucky for the new Makerfield MP. Does he feel it was worth the wait?

“It was worth it because I’m better now as a politician than I would have been,” he said. “Manchester made me. My time in Manchester… it gave me the ability to really find what I’m about and, you know, be confident in that and, you know, connect with people.

His time as mayor of Greater Manchester – from 2017 to 2026 – made him ‘stronger than I would have been,’ he said before adding: “It’s thanks to Manchester.”

Some people love to swear. In the workplace, some of those people might be in charge.

You may have worked with one (or be one) yourself. The team leader who likes to pepper a pep talk with spicy language, or the manager who uses swear words to express themselves in the clearest possible terms.

How colleagues respond to colourful language varies. Some might enjoy it, while others are unbothered. It can also be considered a sign of poor leadership, unprofessional – and simply unnecessary.

Our research suggests people’s reactions to a sweary boss depend not only on what is being said, but also on who is listening and where they live.

We found that there is not a single “correct” way for leaders to communicate. But overall, employees were less satisfied with supervisors who frequently used profanity.

So if you’re wondering whether filling meetings with swear words is a good management strategy, it’s probably safer to avoid them.

But some people in our study of 5,660 employees in 19 countries reacted in exactly the opposite way. Those who considered themselves to have more psychopathic and machiavellian personality traits – so with lower levels of empathy – reported greater satisfaction with their leader as profanity increased.

Psychopathy and machiavellianism both involve a certain level of emotional detachment and a willingness to disregard social norms, including the norm that bosses shouldn’t swear. For these people, a boss who swears may come across as more genuine and confident, unconstrained by unnecessary rules.

Employees with stronger narcissistic traits (characterised by a sense of entitlement and a need for admiration) were surprisingly indifferent. Swearing neither impressed nor offended them very much. Their feelings of satisfaction towards their bosses barely changed.

But personality turned out to be only half of the story. The country people lived in also mattered. In societies with higher levels of income equality, such as Sweden and Austria, personality differences were more visible. This meant that the same manager using the same kind of bad language could be viewed as approachable by one employee and unprofessional by another.

In countries with lower levels of equality, however, such as South Africa and Mexico, these personality differences almost disappeared. Regardless of their individual characteristics, employees generally reacted negatively to leader profanity.

Swearing is caring

Why might this be? Research on economic inequality suggests that in more unequal societies, people become more attuned to status and rank. Workplace hierarchies carry greater weight, so a leader’s swearing is less likely to be read as friendliness or authenticity and more likely to be seen as a display of dominance. In these places, the social context appears to override individual personality differences.

The practical message for leaders is refreshingly simple. Communication is never just about the words we choose. The same sentence can inspire one employee, offend another and leave a third completely unmoved.

This also explains why leadership advice often sounds contradictory. One expert encourages leaders to “be authentic”. Another recommends maintaining professionalism at all times. In reality, both can be right, but this depends on the people involved and the cultural environment.

So, should leaders stop swearing altogether? Not necessarily. But they should recognise that effective leadership isn’t about finding one communication style that works for everyone.

It’s about understanding your audience. Knowing your team is just as important as choosing the right (or wrong) words.

There is now widespread evidence that years of heading, tackling and collisions in football and rugby could increase the risk of dementia and other neurological diseases.

The latest – preliminary research presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in July 2026 – examined 142 former professional footballers aged 30 to 60, and 56 people of a similar age who had no history of contact sports or repeated head impacts.

The two groups performed similarly on objective cognitive tests, which measure abilities such as memory, attention and decision-making. The middle-aged retired footballers self-reported having worse mood, higher levels of anxiety and poorer cognition.

MRI brain scans were available for 124 of the former players and 40 non-players. On average, the footballers had less grey matter in several regions involved in memory, attention, decision-making and emotional regulation. Grey matter is brain tissue containing many of the nerve cells that process information.

These findings deserve attention, although they do not show that football caused the differences or that all players will develop dementia. The results are preliminary, have not yet undergone full peer review, and come from a study conducted at one point in time. Researchers will need to follow the participants for years to establish whether their symptoms or brain changes progress.

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In 2020, I worked in a team which compared questionnaire responses from 468 retired male professional footballers with those from 619 men in the general population as controls. Of these, 326 of the former players and 395 of the controls also completed telephone-based cognitive dementia screening tests.

The former footballers were generally healthier, which could have protected them against dementia. Overall, they reported less diabetes, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and less smoking and diagnosed depression – although they had experienced substantially more concussions and serious head injuries.

Average performance was similar on some cognitive tests. But on others, including tests of verbal fluency and everyday functioning, the former players scored less well. After differences such as age, education, hearing loss and health conditions were taken into account, former players had around twice the odds of falling below established dementia screening cut-offs on tests of verbal memory and verbal fluency.

A screening cut-off is a threshold used to identify people who may have cognitive difficulties. Falling below it does not confirm dementia, but indicates that further clinical assessment may be needed.

Former players were also more likely to report that a doctor had diagnosed dementia or another neurodegenerative disease, a condition involving the progressive damage or loss of nerve cells.

This study was cross-sectional: it captured participants at one point in time. It can show an association between a professional football career and poorer results on some measures, but cannot prove the cause.

Heading the ball is one possible contributor to the increased dementia risk. In a separate analysis of 459 retired footballers, those who recalled heading the ball more than 15 times during a typical match or training session had more than three times the adjusted odds of cognitive impairment, compared with those reporting five or fewer headers.

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The ‘unsexy’, low-tech fix that will reduce brain injuries in sport

The finding should not be treated as proof that 15 headers are safe and 16 are dangerous. Players were estimating exposure from careers that had often ended decades earlier, and the study grouped their answers into broad categories. More precise, long-term measurement is needed, including following these retired players over time.

Large studies of former professional footballers in Scotland and Sweden substantiate our findings. Both found higher rates of dementia or other neurodegenerative diseases among outfield players, while goalkeepers did not show the same clear increase. Defenders, who generally head the ball more often, had the highest risk in the Scottish research. We found similar trends in our study.

Heading is only part of the picture. Footballers can also sustain concussion through head-to-head contact, falls and collisions with other players or goalposts. Concussion is a brain injury caused by a blow or force that disrupts brain function, but which does not necessarily lead to loss of consciousness.

In our study of retired professional footballers, concussion accompanied by memory loss was independently associated with greater odds of dementia risk.

Research on former elite rugby players has raised similar concerns about the long-term effects of repeated blows to the head. Separate research at Loughborough University used instrumented mouth-guards to measure head acceleration during matches and found that greater exposure was associated with more symptoms of low mood, anger, fatigue and anxiety in young elite players.

Mood symptoms require support in their own right, but depression or anxiety in a former player cannot be treated as evidence of brain damage. While both have been found to be risk factors for dementia, mid- and later-life depression has a complex relationship with dementia in later life. Long-term follow-up is needed to determine what the findings mean.

Current Football Association guidance for the professional game recommends no more than ten higher-force headers during a training week. These include headers from long passes, crosses, corners and free kicks.

FA concussion guidance also says that any player suspected of concussion should be removed immediately, should not return to playing that day, and should receive appropriate medical assessment. Recovery should involve a gradual return to normal activity and then football, guided by symptoms and professional advice.

Football brings substantial physical, social, health and psychological benefits. The evidence does not justify panic – but it does justify reducing avoidable head impacts, managing concussion properly, and monitoring players throughout and after their careers.

A sickening injury to England’s Gabriel Langton overshadowed his team’s silver medal in the men’s team gymnastics final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The 19-year-old, from the City of Birmingham Gymnastics Club, needed lengthy treatment on the mat after a horrible fall in the final rotation of the evening at The Arena.

Langton fell head first to the floor after missing his catch on the horizontal metal bar, three metres in the air, leading to a lengthy delay to the action as he was tended to by up to a dozen medical staff.

He was eventually led away on a trolley after being moved on to a stretcher with his head and neck braced and left to huge applause from the packed crowd who had spent much of the previous 10 minutes in hushed silence.

Langton was seen to be conscious and moving his legs and arms before leaving the arena floor, while team officials later said he was moving and speaking to doctors.

When competition resumed, his England team-mates were unable to overhaul their deficit to Canada who claimed their first gold medal in the event in 20 years, having finished second to England at the past two games.

Langton, a late call-up to Team England in the place of the injured six-time Olympic medallist Max Whitlock, was unable to join his teammates on the podium as England collected their silver medals.

Team-mate Luke Whitehouse, who was first on to the apparatus after the competition restarted and posted a relatively low score of 11.700, said: “When something like that happens, you’ve just got to forget about it and reset. I just had to focus on my routine one skill at a time.”

Whitehouse added: “From what we’ve heard, he’s doing OK. Gymnastics is such a dangerous sport and things like this remind us of that. It’s one of those things you have to put out of your mind.”

Felix Dolci, who helped Canada to gold and led qualifying for the all-around competition said: “It’s terrible but it goes to show that gymnastics is a very very difficult and complicated sport. It’s dangerous you know sometimes.

“All our thoughts go to Gabriel and the team. Pushing through this is definitely not easy, (England) stayed focussed, they stayed in the zone, a huge shout out to them because that’s not an easy one.

“For any gymnast that was on the field of play, seeing this not only is difficult, but something you never want to see. It goes to show how hard the sport is.”

Hamish Carter from Team Scotland – who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal to Australia in the final rotation – said: “I didn’t actually see what happened. I’m just so happy that he’s alright and, having experienced that, anything could have happened.

“We’ve walked away with no medal but I’m thinking of Gabe in this moment.”

Police Scotland has declared a major incident as emergency services continue to tackle a wildfire which has been burning in the Cairngorms National Park for 10 days.

The force said it followed “a significant change in weather conditions” which has increased the risk of fire spreading towards the village of Nethy Bridge.

All Nethy Bridge residents have been evacuated to allow emergency services to continue their response.

Smoke from the wildfire can now be seen 59 miles away in Aberdeen following a change in wind direction.

Supt Judy Hill said: “The weather conditions experienced within the Cairngorms over the last 24 hours have added further complexities to this situation.

“With evidence suggesting the fire is spreading towards Nethy Bridge, the decision has been taken to declare a major incident and evacuate residents as a precaution.

“Additional police resources are being deployed to assist in contacting those who need to leave their properties and to maintain cordons around restricted areas while our fire service colleagues continue to tackle the wildfire.”

Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs over a major outbreak of an ‘explosive diarrhea’ parasite potentially linked to lettuce from Mexico. 

In a press briefing at the White House, the President said: ‘I think what we are going to do is put a major tariff on Mexico because of the lettuce.’

Trump weighed in as cases of cyclosporiasis soared to 11,000 across 41 states, leaving public health officials scrambling to find the cause.

The President also reiterated his threat to put major tariffs on Canada after wildfires left much of the northern US covered in toxic smoke. 

Health officials have suggested that cases of the parasite, a disease transmitted by food or water contaminated with human feces, may be linked to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms that was sent to Taco Bell restaurants in nine states.

Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania are also now suggested to be affected, alongside Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

Tests on lettuce from Taylor Farms’ manufacturing facility in Mexico have returned a false positive, however, a voluntary recall of the products is still in place.  

The business temporarily closed its Central Mexico site on Thursday.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr claimed on Tuesday that the outbreak was ‘under control.’

The FDA said Wednesday it was tracking another outbreak of the parasite that has sickened 72 people, in a separate cluster from the one sickening thousands and potentially linked to lettuce.

The agency revealed the number of cases but gave no further details, including the location of the patients or the potential source of their sickness.

The announcement of a new outbreak of cyclosporiasis suggests that the agency has identified a cluster of cases that are related to a common source.

It does not mean that the cases are unrelated to the main outbreak, but they may have been listed separately as they are believed to have been caused by a separate contaminated item.

Health officials are now recommending people wash their hands and ‘any fresh produce’ thoroughly before preparing food.

As washing is not guaranteed to remove the parasite, they are also advising cooking food to a temperature of at least 158F (70C) to kill the parasite.

Cyclosporiasis spreads when people eat food or drink water that has been contaminated with human feces.

It is ‘unlikely’ to spread directly from person to person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), because it takes one to two weeks for the parasite to become infectious after passing into the environment.

Dr Luis Ostrosky, an infectious diseases expert at UTHealth Houston, said: ‘Cyclosporiasis spreads via the fecal-oral route, where fecal particles containing the parasite are passed to the mouth.

‘It typically does not transmit from person to person and does not spread in the way that we see with norovirus or the flu.

‘It takes one to two weeks after the parasite is passed in a bowel movement for it to become infectious, and many days to a few weeks after that exposure for symptoms to appear.’

Overall, the CDC has recorded nearly 11,000 suspected or confirmed cases of the infection this year, the most since 2019, when there was an outbreak linked to basil.

It has confirmed 4,100 cases of the infection and is investigating 7,400 others across 41 states. There have also been 308 hospitalizations, but no deaths have been reported.

Michigan is recording the most cases, at up to 2,100, followed by Illinois, Kentucky and Texas, all recording up to 160 cases.

In the major outbreak, the addition of four more states to the tally suggests the agency is beginning to connect cases in states, allowing them to home in on a potential source.

Caused by the microscopic parasite cyclospora, it is a gastrointestinal illness causing symptoms including watery and explosive diarrhea, cramping and a fever.

Patients become sick within a week of infection, which can make it difficult to identify the source.

Individuals suffering from the parasite may also feel they are getting better before symptoms suddenly become much worse again.

A spokesman for Taylor Farms said on Thursday: ‘We’ve commissioned independent experts to conduct a top-to-bottom review of food safety processes and protocols in our central Mexico facility. 

‘We continue to work with health authorities, customers, and independent farming partners to address this issue.’

Taco Bell has removed the lettuce from its supply chain.

A spokesman said last week: ‘Taco Bell has taken precautionary action, and we encourage all relevant restaurants, retailers, and foodservice operators to do the same.’