Teenagers from Haughton Academy, who recently took their concerns about social media to Parliament, said it helps them stay connected with friends and express themselves. But they agree it can also be harmful to young people who do not fully understand the risks.
Sir Keir Starmer announced today that under-16s will be banned from using platforms, including Snapchat, Tik Tok, Instagram and X, amid concerns that social media is unsafe and could cause lasting damage to young people’s mental health. He said: “Social media is making children unhappy.”
The ban is part of the Online Safety Act, a new set of laws that intends to protect children and adults online.
Reacting to the news, Year 10 students in Darlington, Katie Cameron and Ela Wardle said they were unsure if the ban will do more good than bad.
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Schoolchildren from Darlington visited Parliament with the town’s MP, Lola McEvoy, to discuss the challenges they face online (Image: LOLA MCEVOY)
Ela, 15, said: “There are two sides to it because I use it to communicate with a lot of my friends and to express myself.
“I’ve made friends with people at this school that I’ve never spoken to, but they look at my Tik Toks.
“But then I also feel like the ban is a good thing because it’s very damaging to young people and some people don’t know the danger of social media.”
In May, Katie, Ela and their peers visited Parliament with Darlington MP, Lola McEvoy, to meet with the Secretary of State for Digital, Science, Information and Technology, Liz Kendall, to discuss the challenges they face online.
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Ela said: “It was really good, I want to study politics for women’s rights, so it’s been really inspirational.”
Darlington MP Lola McEvoy at an online safety event at Longfield School (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
Ms McEvoy, who created the Darlington Online Safety Forum, a local initiative for young people to come together and discuss the impact of social media, said: “They were so brilliant, grown-up and confident. They were able to articulate on behalf of their peers some of the challenges that they’re facing and I was really shocked.
“I found it to be much worse than I’d imagined because what we as adults see online is not the same as what children are seeing.”
Started by Ms McEvoy in late 2024, the forum was established to use the voices of schoolchildren in Darlington to shape government policy on social media.
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Ela added: “Random people message you, because they can – it’s easy to do. On TikTok, you’ve got a message part where you can accept it, but you can still see the messages and it’s really weird.”
Katie said: “There are some restrictions. I’ve seen there’s something on Tik Tok where you can only view certain pages if you’re over the age of 18, but people get round it.”
Ms McEvoy said she fully supported the Government’s stance, adding: “I’m absolutely delighted that the government is taking action to protect children online.
“Before I was elected, across the town, parents and grandparents were raising this as an issue. They were worried about their children’s future and the undue influence of these massive companies and the content that children were seeing.”
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Katie and Ela’s principal at Haughton Academy, Jane Darbyshire, said: “Safeguarding the children is the most important thing, and from a school’s perspective, it will still be really important for us to educate our young people to know how to keep themselves safe online.”
Ms Darbyshire has introduced a ban on phones during school hours.
She said: “With technology, there are a lot of challenges and one of the challenges young people have had is not being able to go on their phone. To be fair to them, the vast majority of students have been on board with it.”
The government plans to use the same model for the social media ban as Australia, which would capture platforms whose purpose is to enable social interaction, allows users to post material and uses algorithms.
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Apps such as WhatsApp and Signal will not be included in the ban.
Darren McCurry has been in and out of Tyrone’s first 15 this season, but he gave a timely reminder of his classy by scoring six points in their round two win over Mayo in Omagh
At the beginning of the season, Tyrone fans would have been salivating at the prospect of watching Darragh Canavan, Darren McCurry and Eoin McElholm torment defences.
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They are still waiting for the chance to watch all three star attackers fully fit together in unison, although that day could arrive in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final.
All three have battled injury throughout the season and while McElholm started against Mayo on Sunday, Canavan’s role was restricted to a brief four-minute cameo.
McCurry’s game-time was 24 minutes. That was long enough for him to turn the Round 2A clash in favour of the home side as his six-point haul helped see off the determined challenge of Andy Moran’s men with his Edendork clubmate Niall Morgan landing the winner from a two-point free.
McCurry was mobbed by Tyrone fans in the aftermath of the game and he was delighted to play such an important role as the Red Hands confirmed their place in the last eight of the All-Ireland series.
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“I was just happy to come on and make a good impact.
It was a massive game to get through to the next round, into the quarter-finals, where we wanted to be at the start of the year, and thankfully we have done that.
He added: “I could see from watching in the first half that there was a lot of space there. I have struggled all year with injuries, and I haven’t been able to get a good block of training in.”
Was asked to elaborate on his injuries, he joked: “They’re called old fella injuries!
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“It’s just the body – I have struggled since last year’s quarter-final, shaking off a couple of injuries.
“Thankfully, after the Roscommon game, I was able to get a couple of weeks under the belt, I felt sharp in training this last week or so, so I knew coming on there, I knew I was in good shape to make a good impact.”
Another telling aspect of Sunday’s win over Mayo was the size of the crowd in O’Neills Healy Park to watch their thrilling one-point victory.
Tyrone fans have been urged by some senior players to get behind the team with several League games struggling to draw more than a couple of thousand spectators to the Omagh venue.
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That changed on Sunday afternoon when 11,921 fans were in attendance, including a good travelling support from Mayo.
Their one-point win over Mayo was also just the third time since their 2021 All-Ireland final win over the Westerners that Tyrone have put back-to-back Championship victories together. “It’s great to see so many supporters here, it’s a long time coming,” stated McCurry.
“We probably haven’t put on good performances this last year or so, but we’re just delighted to have all the supporters back supporting us, and we’re going to need it in Croke Park.
“It’s massive, it’s something that we talked about this last week or two, getting that back- to-back performance.
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“We played decent against Armagh, but didn’t get over the line, then we put in a good performance and thankfully got over the line against Roscommon.
“Our big aim coming here today was to put in back to back performances, which we haven’t done in a long time.
“The main objective at the start of the year was to get into the quarter-finals and get back to Croke Park.
“A lot of these young boys haven’t played in Croke Park yet, so we were keen to get them in there.
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“It’s the place that you want to be, for if you don’t get over the line, it’s a very competitive draw, so we wanted to get that extra week’s break and get into that quarter-final.”
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The Superb Estate iV SE Technology you see here – with a 1.5‑litre petrol engine, an electric motor and a headline electric range of up to 78–85 miles – is one of the most compelling and rational family cars on sale.
Under the bonnet is Skoda’s new‑generation plug‑in hybrid set‑up: a 1.5 TSI petrol engine paired with an 85kW electric motor for a combined output of 204PS, driving the front wheels through a six‑speed DSG automatic gearbox.
Skoda Superb iV Estate
Officially, the Superb iV will sprint from 0-62mph in 8.1 seconds and top out at 136mph, which makes it brisk rather than exciting, but the emphasis here is refinement and efficiency rather than hot‑hatch drama.
The star number is the electric‑only range. Where the previous Superb iV’s real‑world electric capability was around 20–25 miles, with an official figure of about 35 miles, the new car is claimed to manage 78–85 miles on the WLTP cycle.
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In everyday terms, that means many commutes and school runs can be done without disturbing the petrol engine at all, provided you plug in regularly. Skoda quotes 201.8–235.4mpg on the combined cycle; as ever with plug‑in hybrids, you should treat that as a best‑case scenario if you do most of your driving on battery power and only occasionally venture further afield.
Skoda Superb iV Estate
Run a Superb iV as a de facto electric car during the week and you’ll see three‑figure mpg, but if your life is mostly long motorway slogs with little charging, the figures won’t look so favourable once the battery has depleted.
In comparison to the previous model, the new one’s 70‑plus‑mile capability turns the Superb iV into a genuinely viable EV substitute for many households, with the comfort of a petrol back‑up for the occasional 300‑mile family trek.
Behind the wheel, the Superb iV feels much as you’d expect a large, front‑wheel‑drive estate weighing close to two tonnes to feel: composed, secure and largely unflustered. In E‑mode it glides away in silence, with the instant torque you get in most electric cars, and even when the petrol engine fires up it remains quiet and refined. The six‑speed DSG is smooth and unobtrusive; you can take manual control via paddles on the latest car, or through the selector, but there’s usually little need.
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Skoda Superb iV Estate
Visually, the fourth‑generation Superb doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It’s a very big estate with clean lines, chrome detailing around the grille and dark chrome roof rails in SE Technology guise. The particular car described here is finished in Cobalt Blue metallic and rides on 17‑inch alloy wheels – not the largest rims available, but arguably the sweet spot for comfort.
Inside, Skoda has moved the Superb on from the functional but slightly drab cabin of the outgoing model. The new Loft Design Selection brings a more modern mix of materials and colours, but the real talking point is the tech. A 13‑inch free‑standing touchscreen sits high on the dash, backed up by a 10.25‑inch virtual cockpit. Skoda’s clever new Smart Dials – physical rotary controls with small displays in their centres – give you quick access to core functions such as temperature, volume and drive modes, addressing the criticism levelled at earlier VW Group systems where too much was buried in sub‑menus.
Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, feeding into that big central screen.
Space is where the Superb has always earned its name, and the estate remains one of the most capacious cars on sale this side of a van. The hatchback version offers 645 litres of boot space with the seats up; the estate is larger still, at around 660 litres with the rear bench in place.
Bellwright – it’s just a flesh wound, etc. (Snail Games)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance may have cornered the market on historical role-players but this new indie game takes a more strategic approach to a similar concept.
While there are countless games based on Tolkien’s vision of the Middle Ages, blending people living in primitive conditions with magic, fantastical beasts, and mythical evils, there’s another breed of role-playing game that ignores fantasy in favour of a more realistic and nuanced simulation. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the most obvious example of that brand of historically authentic first person role-playing.
Another is Bellwright, which has just launched on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S after a successful spell in early access on PC. It shares much in common with Deliverance, from its emphasis on unvarnished realism to its Central European setting and historical time period, but it’s in the areas where they differ that Bellwright really gets interesting. While both cast you as an initially lowly peasant who has to work your way up from ragged insignificance, where Kingdom Come is all about you as an individual, Bellwright is a management game at heart.
Not that you won’t be fully involved in absolutely everything, from the mechanics of survival in a harsh winter to battles with brigands, wolves, and soldiers loyal to a corrupt monarch, but thriving in those scenarios is about far more than just forging stronger weapons and armour. In Bellwright, success is a team effort, but at the beginning of the game that team is just you and a grumpy hunter who’s been cast out by the local village elder.
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Finding yourselves alone in a fairly hostile wilderness, you decide to pool your efforts and resources, building an encampment out of materials you scavenge from nature. Where plenty of games have you looting resources for construction, few match Bellwright’s dedication to accuracy, which has you adding each individual branch to your emerging building, assembling the wooden frame piece by piece, before finishing it with a covering of foliage.
You’re immediately encouraged to assign tasks to your new friend, who can be deployed as anything from labourer to mercenary: finding materials, bringing them to the site, and using them to build your camp, mining ore, or acting as a lumberjack. You can also set him to work at the research table, expanding your mastery of its medieval tech tree, a process that improves your ability to survive and fight, as well as letting you build more advanced structures.
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That’s also enabled by the living countryside around you. As you explore, the map automatically records the locations of useful building materials, bandit camps, and natural features. Bellwright is admirably short of mollycoddling, letting you work things out for yourself, wherever it makes sense. That includes where to strike camp in the first place, a decision that turns out to have innumerable ramifications.
The first of those is proximity to resources. If your assembly lines are close to trees, water, and seams of ore to quarry, you’re in good shape, but you also have to consider the territory of local packs of wolves and the location of brigand encampments. Initially, before you’ve researched and assembled serviceable weapons and armour, meeting either of those groups is instantly lethal, and ensuring your opening hours are spent without running into either one is essential to survival.
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As your settlement grows, you’ll increasingly need to gain additional expertise. It’s simply not feasible to become expert in everything, which means you’ll need to recruit specialists in everything from forestry and farming to combat. To do that you need to liberate villages by gradually growing your reputation with them, partly through trading with their elders and partly through completing side quests for locals.
Once freed, you’ll have your pick of recruits from the population and that’s where you can really start laying down useful tradesmen for your operation. This is also key to the overarching story, which has you fomenting a rebellion against a monarch whose cruelty and murderous intentions have all the local villages on edge. Becoming powerful enough to do that forms the meat of the game.
Outside combat, you can staff different facilities, as well as assigning them a level of priority, which governs the order in which your minions undertake the many jobs available. Tinkering with those settings to make sure you enjoy a steady flow of necessary resources, alongside feeding everyone and gradually unlocking the tech tree, will also occasionally be interrupted by raiding parties sent from local bandit camps. It helps keep you on your toes and ensures you never lose your fighting edge, as you build and expand.
You can’t do everything on your own (Snail Games)
With so many complex interacting systems there are inevitably technical issues, mainly in the form of minor graphical artefacts – villagers with transparent torsos or followers wandering around waist deep in the ground. Anyone who remembers the state Skyrim was in when it launched won’t lose too much sleep over this sort of thing and Bellwright has already received post-launch patches, a process that’s likely to continue over the coming months.
The other area where you can sense budgetary constraint is the script and voice acting. There you’ll find a constant flow of peculiar English translations (developer Donkey Crew is Polish), spelling inconsistencies, and characters whose vocal delivery is more about getting the words out in the correct order than adding emotion, making the people you meet sound universally flat and unengaged. You do get used to it, but it’s a world away from the warmth and humanity of Baldur’s Gate 3 or The Witcher.
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It does still manage to deliver a remarkably organic feeling world and overall experience, though. That starts with the lack of obvious structure, with all your learnings about the way systems work coming from direct experience, or via a well-timed quest. One discovery seems to lead perfectly naturally to your next task. In hindsight you will absolutely be kicking yourself for what seem like obvious errors in the opening hours, but looking back with a more seasoned eye, you rarely come across mistakes you can’t work your way around.
Your settlements can be rearranged to optimise efficiency and workers re-prioritised to make up for a lack of key ingredients. You also soon learn that taking on bandit camps solo is not a good idea and as you scale up to larger battles it’s in the overarching organisation and management that Bellwright really excels. It’s a shame a bit more thought hasn’t gone into redesigning its PC-orientated menu system, though, which has to be laboriously navigated using the D-pad, a process that never feels either intuitive or straightforward.
Despite its many moments of clunkiness both systemic and mechanical, Bellwright offers an intricate and subtle medieval life simulator that gradually shifts your attention from survival to construction, before finally moving to insurrection and nation building. It’s a fascinatingly orchestrated and long term process that requires endless learning and refinement as your efforts gain momentum, and while its rough edges are evident throughout, once you get into its flow few games feel so all consuming.
The game can be quite pretty at times (Snail Games)
Bellwright PS5 review summary
In Short: An authentic and complex medieval life simulator that emphasises teamwork and management over individual achievement, and while it’s a slow burn the complexity of options more than makes up for a lack of polish.
Pros: Huge range of accurately modelled processes to learn and master, impressively organic feeling to the way you explore and educate yourself about the game world. A massive amount of content for the price.
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Cons: Menus are a pain to navigate and there are noticeable minor graphical glitches. Inflection and emotion free voice acting is made worse by a dodgy English translation.
Score: 7/10
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Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC Price: £24.49 Publisher: Snail Games Developer: Donkey Crew Release Date: 9th June 2026 Age Rating: 16
Brooklyn posted on Instagram: “I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private. Unfortunately my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed.
“I do not want to reconcile with my family. I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life. For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family.
“The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into. Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade. But I believe the truth always comes out.
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“My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding, and it hasn’t stopped. My mum cancelled making Nicola’s dress in the eleventh hour despite how excited she was to wear her design, forcing her to urgently find a new dress.
“Weeks before our big day, my parents repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name, which would have affected me, my wife, and our future children. They were adamant on me signing before my wedding date because then the terms of the deal would be initiated.
“My holdout affected the payday, and they have never treated me the same since. During the wedding planning, my mum went so far as to call me “evil” because Nicola and I chose to include my Nanny Sandra, and Nicola’s Naunni at our table, because they both didn’t have their husbands. Both of our parents had their own tables equally adjacent to ours.
“The night before our wedding, members of my family told me that Nicola was ‘not blood’ and ‘not family’. Since the moment I started standing up for myself with my family, I’ve received endless attacks from my parents, both privately and publicly, that were sent to the press on their orders.
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“Even my brothers were sent to attack me on social media, before they ultimately blocked me out of nowhere this last Summer.
“My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song. In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me instead. She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone.
“I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life. We wanted to renew our vows so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness, not anxiety and embarrassment.
“My wife has been consistently disrespected by my family, no matter how hard we’ve tried to come together as one. My mum has repeatedly invited women from my past into our lives in ways that were clearly intended to make us both uncomfortable.
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“Despite this, we still travelled to London for my dad’s birthday and were rejected for a week as we waited in our hotel room trying to plan quality time with him. He refused all of our attempts, unless it was at his big birthday party with a hundred guests and cameras at every corner.
“When he finally agreed to see me, it was under the condition that Nicola wasn’t invited. It was a slap in the face. Later, when my family travelled to LA, they refused to see me at all.
“My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first. Family “love” is decided by how much you post on social media, or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo op even if it’s at the expense of our professional obligations.
“We’ve gone out of our way for years to show up and support at every fashion show, every party, and every press activity to show “our perfect family!” But the one time my wife asked for my mum’s support to save displaced dogs during the LA fires, my mum refused.
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“The narrative that my wife controls me is completely backwards. I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety. For the first time in my life, since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared. I wake up every morning grateful for the life I chose, and have found peace and relief.
“My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press, or manipulation. All we want peace, privacy and happiness for us and our future family.”
While attending the properties, the LDRS witnessed a delivery driver walk down the path, unzip his trousers and urinate while still walking. He then turned around, looked at the residents and walked off again. This was despite public toilets being accessible just metres away.
Later on Monday, Mr Pollard said Labour was ending the “hollowing out” of the armed forces that happened under the Conservatives, adding: “But of course, I want more money in the defence budget. It’s a case that we continue to make as the profile of defence spending increases.”
Fox Corp. has agreed to buy the streaming pioneer Roku in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $22 billion, including debt.
Roku will continue to be run as an open, partner-friendly platform, the companies said Monday, and there appears to be no immediate changes that customers will see. Fox and Roku said that the combined company will become the third-largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing.
Media reports had surfaced on Friday that Roku was looking at its strategic options, including a possible sale. Speculation was rampant as to which companies might be interested in an acquisition. Aside from Fox, names being tossed about as potential buyers included Netflix, Amazon, Comcast and Disney.
The deal will give Fox access to more than 100 million global households, along with the Roku channel and its first-party data. Fox oversees a massive sports, news and entertainment network, as well as Tubi, which it acquired in 2020.
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Roku founder Anthony Wood had initially worked within Netflix in the early 2000s as that company attempted to make the seismic shift from renting DVDs, to streaming.
Roku was spun off by Netflix, however, and the company released its first set-top box in 2008.
Wood, who is Roku’s chairman and CEO, said his motivation in pursuing the technology was his desire to record and play his favorite show, “Star Trek.”
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement that combining the businesses will bring together Fox’s live news and sports content with a streaming platform with large viewership. It will also give Fox more exposure to advertising and streaming subscriptions.
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“The combination with FOX is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers,” Wood said in prepared remarks.
Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, said in an emailed statement that advertising revenue is a critical component of the deal.
“The bigger play here is advertising revenue, something all the major streamers are now jockeying for,” he said. “This deal accelerates Fox into that shift with built-in audience scale. With 2026 shaping up as a defining year of streaming consolidation, the market shift is that streaming is no longer just about quality content slates. It’s about controlling the full stack. If this deal closes, Fox will control more of what viewers watch, how they discover it, and how it gets monetized.”
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Wood will have an ongoing role at the company and will join the Fox board of directors after the transaction closes.
Murdoch said during a conference call that the combined company will be better positioned for the next decade of video than either company would’ve been alone.
“We are confident this is the right transaction, at the right moment, for all the right reasons,” he said.
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Fox will pay $96 in cash and 0.9693 shares of its Class A common stock for each Roku Class A and Class B share outstanding. The transaction is valued at $160 per Roku share.
Existing Fox shareholders are expected to own approximately 73% of the combined company and Roku shareholders will own about 27%, once the deal closes.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year. It still needs approval from Fox and Roku shareholders and also regulatory approval.
Fox’s shares tumbled 15% on Monday and Roku declined nearly 2%.
Climate policy has become one of the principle casualties of America’s political polarisation. The Trump administration, for instance, recently announced it is dismantling a key ocean monitoring system, despite growing scientific concerns about the rise of a “Super El Niño” and the prospect of disruption to key Atlantic Ocean currents. This move is consistent with Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint that explicitly calls for dismantling major elements of US climate science capacity.
As a British climate scientist and former chair of UCL’s Climate Action Unit, I am concerned that the UK should avoid following the same path.
For more than a decade, political scientists have documented the rise of what is known as affective polarisation: the tendency for supporters of different political parties not merely to disagree, but to view one another with deep and uncompromising animosity.
In a landmark 2015 study, researchers at Stanford and Princeton universities found that partisan identity in the US had become a powerful source of social polarisation, shaping attitudes and behaviour in ways that rivalled or exceeded many traditional social divisions.
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The UK can still avoid that trap. Not because British politics is immune to division – it clearly is not – but because Britain’s distinctive institutional architecture, combined with resilient public support for climate action, provides a foundation for a different political outcome.
A different starting point
One reason for cautious optimism is that UK climate policy has historically enjoyed a degree of cross-party support. The Climate Change Act of 2008 passed with overwhelming backing from all major parties. Margaret Thatcher was among the first world leaders to warn publicly about the risks of global warming. Theresa May’s Conservative government embedded the net-zero target in law.
More importantly, Britain has built institutions designed to insulate climate policy and research from short-term political turbulence. The Climate Change Act, the official advisory status of the Climate Change Committee, legally binding carbon budgets, and the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 together form a framework that can survive changes of government. The latter constrains ministerial intervention in the selection of research grants under the principle that researchers should decide for themselves which projects are funded.
Unlike in the US, where climate policy and its execution has depended heavily on executive action, the UK’s approach relies on durable institutions and long-term planning – a form of democratic immune system against short-term political shocks.
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Signs of strain
Yet that consensus is showing cracks. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act. Reform UK has made opposition to net-zero a central part of its political platform, with deputy leader Richard Tice calling renewable energy a “massive con”.
Such attacks are real and consequential, but the crucial question is whether they reflect a genuine shift in public opinion.
The evidence suggests they do not.
Polling analysed by the Institute for Public Policy Research and YouGov shows that belief in the reality of climate change, and support for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, remains remarkably resilient. Around six in ten voters continue to support the target. Support is highest among Green party voters, at 86%, with 76-79% of Labour and Lib Dem voters also in favour. Almost half of Tories likewise back the target (48%), although this lower level of support is also more lukewarm.
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What needs to happen
If Britain is to avoid the climate polarisation that has captured American politics, three priorities stand out.
First, actively defending the institutions that have sustained long-term climate policy. The Climate Change Committee, the carbon budgets, and the legislation are all susceptible to attack by future governments. Securing them as essential democratic infrastructure – like an independent judiciary or a professional civil service – rather than as party-political tools is the first line of defence.
Second, building cross-party spaces where moderate voices can cooperate. The newly launched Council for the Future, chaired by former Conservative environment secretary Lord Deben, is a model. It provides a “neutral non-partisan space” to discuss climate policy away from the culture war.
Third, designing climate policy to include tangible household benefits. The government’s £15 billion warm homes plan – offering zero-interest loans for solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and social housing upgrades – is exactly the right model.
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A choice, not a fate
Public support for climate action remains strong. The economic opportunities associated with the transition are increasingly clear. And the institutional foundations for long-term policymaking remain intact.
The question is not whether Britain must agree on every aspect of climate policy. Democracies rarely do. The question is whether climate change becomes another front in an ever-widening culture war, or whether sufficient political consensus can be preserved to address a critical long-term national and international challenge.
The American example vividly illustrates the cost of failure. The UK still has the institutions, the public support and the political space to avoid that fate.
It’s impossible not to notice the shift in the ever stoic Clarke.
Down at Fort Lauderdale two weeks ago, at the squad’s pre-tournament camp at Inter Miami’s training centre, Clarke came over to the pitch-side media – unexpectedly – for a wee chinwag.
Such a relaxed nature can maybe be hoped for on day one of such a special period, but past experience would suggest that’s unlikely to last.
However, Clarke’s candid chat with Eilidh Barbour before his light pre-match news conference at the Boston Stadium on Friday – where he joked about what he learned from Euro 2024 was “don’t get humped” – is evidence of his more relaxed approach this time around.
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“He’s been to two tournaments, he’s told you he’s not enjoyed them, he’s sat and reflected why and then it’s about what can he do to make it more enjoyable, firstly for him,” said Naismith, who failed to qualify for a major tournament as a player.
“Before the tournament, there was so much work done in terms of what the players want, what they need, what they didn’t like before.
“Bringing the families closer, having more family time, having periods of real hard work and then going to relax, taking that pressure valve off so you’re not constantly thinking of football.
At the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, holders France were drawn in a group alongside Senegal, Denmark and Uruguay, and entered the tournament as strong favourites after winning the 1998 edition, plus Euro 2000.
France’s opening game was against tournament debutants Senegal in Seoul. To many, it was a foregone conclusion. But Senegal had other ideas, winning 1-0 thanks to the late Papa Bouba Diop’s goal.
Senegal’s victory sent shockwaves around the footballing world and also helped send France home early. Senegal were eventually knocked out in the quarter-finals, while Les Bleus, winless, were eliminated bottom of their group.
Senegal have made the previous two World Cups, reaching the last 16 in 2022, while becoming the first team to be eliminated by fair play rules, after accumulating more yellow cards than group rivals Japan after the teams finished level.
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France are tournament favourites this time around, while Senegal won this year’s Africa Cup of Nations before being controversially stripped of their title – a decision they are appealing.
The Lions of Teranga have Sadio Mane and a whole host of Premier League talents including Ismaila Sarr and Iliman Ndiaye, but France’s attacking array of Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise will surely be too much for their defence.
Date, kick-off time and venue
France vs Senegal is scheduled for an 8pm BST kick-off on Tuesday June 16, 2026.
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The match will take place at New York New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium) in East Rutherford.
Where to watch France vs Senegal for FREE
TV channel: In the UK, the game will be televised live and free-to-air on BBC One, with coverage starting at 7.30pm BST.
Live stream: UK viewers can also catch the contest live and for free online via the BBC iPlayer or BBC Sport website.
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Live blog: You can follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport’s live blog.
Free highlights: World Cup highlights are available on FIFA’s official YouTube channel and website, along with the BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and ITVX website and app.
France vs Senegal team news
France have no current injury issues, after Arsenal centre-back William Saliba resumed training over the weekend following a recurring back issue.
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Mbappe is heading into a third World Cup and his second as captain after a season with Real Madrid where he scored 42 goals, but failed to win any trophies for the second season in a row.
He will lead the frontline alongside Bayern Munich’s Olise and Ballon d’Or winner Dembele, both fresh off excellent club seasons.
Playing it cool: Kylian Mbappe is France’s captain and talisman
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Mike Maignan, Robin Risser, Brice Samba, Lucas Digne, Malo Gusto, Lucas Hernandez, Theo Hernandez, Ibrahima Konate, Jules Kounde, Maxence Lacroix, William Saliba, Dayot Upamecano, N’Golo Kante, Manu Kone, Adrien Rabiot, Aurelien Tchouameni, Warren Zaire-Emery, Maghnes Akliouche, Bradley Barcola, Rayan Cherki, Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise, Marcus Thuram
Senegal’s attack is their real strength, with Ismaila Sarr and Ndiaye both likely to cause problems to France’s defence. Nicolas Jackson, coming off a season playing second fiddle to Harry Kane at Bayern, will likely lead the line.
Idrissa Gana Gueye, 36, is still a key part of their midfield, while Pape Matar Sarr is coming off a difficult season at Tottenham.
Leader: Sadio Mane will hope to guide Senegal to a strong World Cup campaign
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Mory Diaw, Yehvann Diouf, Edouard Mendy, Ilay Camara, Krepin Diatta, El Hadji Malick Diouf, Ismail Jakobs, Kalidou Koulibaly, Moustapha Mbow, Antoine Mendy, Moussa Niakhate, Mamadou Sarr, Abdoulaye Seck, Lamine Camara, Pathe Ciss, Habib Diarra, Idrissa Gana Gueye, Pape Gueye, Pape Matar Sarr, Bara Sapoko Ndiaye, Assane Diao, Bamba Dieng, Nicolas Jackson, Sadio Mane, Ibrahim Mbaye, Cherif Ndiaye, Iliman Ndiaye, Ismaila Sarr
France vs Senegal prediction
France are strong favourites for a reason here, despite Senegal’s storied history in this fixture.
I expect Mbappe to make a fast start and show new Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho that he remains at the peak of his powers.
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Head to head (h2h) history and results
Senegal’s win over France in the opening game of the 2002 World Cup is their only previous competitive meeting, with the previous two being amateur friendlies in the 1950s and 60s.
France vs Senegal match odds
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