By QUENTIN LETTS, PARLIAMENTARY SKETCHWRITER

Published: 16:17 BST, 3 September 2026 | Updated: 22:30 BST, 3 September 2026

Kemi Badenoch chose a Victorian drill hall in London for her defence-spending speech. ‘Conflict is coming and we must act now,’ murmured the Tory leader in her snooker commentator voice.

Imagine the late Ted Lowe whispering ‘welcome to the apocalypse’ and you will have the idea. A savage message, delivered on a velvet cushion.

She presented war with Russia as an inevitability. This was not, she said, the plot of ‘a Tom Cruise movie’. It was ‘real and it is happening now’, although at present it was merely a ‘hybrid’ war. Worse could soon ensue.

We were at London Scottish House, a listed building on Westminster’s Horseferry Road, almost opposite Channel 4 (hostile agents). Some 200 Conservatives had filled a venue that was lined by London Scottish Rifles war memorials and paintings of long-dead martial gents, some with fabulous moustaches. Plaques listed battles such as Vimy Ridge, Anzio, Loos, Primosole Bridge. ‘Strike Sure’ barked the motto on a regimental shield.

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Mrs Badenoch stood in front of a long list of Rifles who died in the First World War – Johnstones, Kerrs, a Private Macbeth, a Corporal Haggis. Even the date, Sept 3, gnawed at one’s thoughts, this being the day in 1939 that war was declared on Germany. My mother’s life was never the same after that. War is not just about soldiers’ deaths. It throws childhood in the air and leaves emotional scars that last decades. Bloody Hitler.

The Conservatives had completed their sums, said Mrs B, and they now had a clear idea of how to push defence spending to 3 per cent of gross domestic product. This would be achieved by cutting welfare handouts, specifically housing benefits and the Motability cars scheme that has been so nakedly abused. You could say Motability took us for a ride. Mrs Badenoch recalled a story of people claiming a free car because they had tennis elbow.

Kemi Badenoch said we cannot properly defend ourselves by merely capping bus fares

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She delivered her speech on defence at London Scottish House, which was filled with plaques

Proceedings had been opened by the new Shadow Chancellor, Andrew Griffith. He is a slightly twitchy fellow. The eyes keep bulging. High-energy, mind you. He told the gathering that he had enlisted in the party ranks at the age of 14. Tributes were uttered to his predecessor, Sir Mel Stride, making it sound as if poor old Uncle Melvyn had taken a direct hit from a Hun howitzer rather than having merely been given the sack after an honourable run.

Mr Griffith’s contribution was mercifully short and Kemi came purring to the oche to predict the Third World War. ‘National security doesn’t just happen,’ she said. ‘We have to pay for it.’ And look at what our allies were doing: Poland was expanding its army to 300,000 troops, the Germans were aiming for 3.5 per cent on defence spending by 2035 and the Greeks were already there, which may be why their warships were able to get to Cyprus during the recent Middle East crisis while the Royal Navy was still loading baked beans on to the destroyer ‘Dragon’ in Portsmouth.

‘We cannot defend ourselves by capping bus fares,’ averred Mrs Badenoch. ‘If you want peace, you prepare for war.’ V. Putin was hardly going to wait to attack us until Labour had its spending plans ready. ‘Let’s get real and fund defence. Having more mayors is not going to save our country.’

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Then the impis appeared on the horizon, shaking their spears. One refers, naturally, to media colleagues. Why had recent Tory prime ministers not done more for defence? Mrs Badenoch said she was in charge now. Why hadn’t they cut welfare? Mrs Badenoch said they did.

A partisan from the BBC had a long old moan. Kemi bit his head off. A bluestocking from the Financial Times said something vaguely pinko but did so in such Zuleika Dobson tones, I quite forgot to listen to her question. Mrs B replied with even greater social poise. Fight posh with poshness. It is a theory of deterrence long understood in drawing rooms of the gentry by bellicose old trouts.

The Courteeners will play two shows at Middlesbrough Empire on Thursday, October 29, to promote their new album, God Bless The Band.

The Manchester group, fronted by Liam Fray, originally announced a single show at 5pm, but soon added an additional performance at 8pm due to high demand.

Both shows sold out within hours of going on sale at 10am on Thursday, September 3.

The Courteeners will play two intimate gigs at Middlesbrough Empire next month. (Image: Agency)

Middlesbrough Empire. (Image: Picture: MICHAEL ROBINSON)

The shows are being staged in partnership with Jacaranda Records, following the release of their latest album on August 28.

Formed in 2006, The Courteeners have built a huge following with hits including Not Nineteen Forever, What Took You So Long? and Are You In Love With A Notion?

The Middlesbrough shows are among the Empire’s biggest bookings in recent months.

“The annual cost of legacy to policing is £24 million.”

The PSNI has paid out almost twice as much in the past five years in legal costs in civil claims relating to Troubles incidents as it has in compensation to victims’ families, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has said.

Mr Boutcher called on the Stormont Executive and the Westminster government to “come together to find a funding mechanism to deal with these spiralling legacy costs”.

The Chief Constable told the Policing Board that he believed the financial cost of dealing with the Troubles “morally and legally” should sit with Westminster.

In his remarks to his oversight board, Mr Boutcher said it was “unacceptable” that Northern Ireland did not have a budget set by Stormont six months into the financial year.

He said the projected gap between PSNI spending and the indicative budget is £70 million.

He said: “It is impossible to discuss financial pressures without mentioning legacy. We continue to see legacy place an unsustainable and growing burden upon contemporary policing.

“The annual cost of legacy to policing is £24 million.”

The Chief Constable added: “These matters arose during direct rule from Westminster, and those liabilities and costs should not fall upon the already insufficient budget intended for policing the communities of Northern Ireland today.

“I call upon the Executive and Westminster government to come together to find a funding mechanism to deal with these spiralling legacy costs.

“The current position is not tenable.”

Board member Frank McManus asked how much had been paid out by the force to victims and in legal fees in civil cases.

Mr McManus said: “What I’m trying to get here is because I’ve seen quite a lot of cases of where the compensation has been very low, but the legal fees have been obscene.

“Let’s just call them what they are. They’re obscene.”

Mr Boutcher said from July 2021 to July 2026, the PSNI paid out £7.7 million in legacy compensation settlements to families, and £14.6 million on related legal costs.

He said: “Because we’re not funded for legacy, we don’t have an efficient model to deal with legacy.

“With a lot of these cases, particularly civil cases, because we don’t have the resource, we don’t have the ability to recover information.

“Technically, it has to be done by people because we don’t have the software. These cases go on for an inordinate amount of time.”

Mr Boutcher said there needed to be a system where claims are assessed earlier to “stop these unnecessary and extensive legal costs”.

He said the force was taking a “more forward-leaning approach with families” who have civil cases against the PSNI to try to reach an early settlement.

The Chief Constable added: “These cases from the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s…we’re 25 years old in November.

“This organisation, the Executive here, was not in place. Those costs, morally and I think legally, should sit with Westminster government, and I will continue to lobby.”

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Kelly Hashemi, 41, raised concerns with medical professionals but was told her symptoms were perimenopause — a private scan then showed she had stage three ovarian cancer

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A mother-of-one died from ovarian cancer after symptoms that included bleeding, bloating and anxiety were attributed to perimenopause, her husband has said.

Kelly Hashemi, a primary school teacher from Gateshead, was 37 when she began experiencing symptoms and repeatedly sought medical advice. But after concerns were reportedly linked to perimenopause, she paid for a private scan that revealed she had stage three ovarian cancer.

Despite undergoing two major operations and extensive treatment, Mrs Hashemi died in July last year aged 41. Her husband, Arya, 42, said the diagnosis came too late to offer a realistic chance of survival, reports Chronicle Live.

Now, as he prepares to run the Great North Run in her memory, Mr Hashemi is raising money for St Bede’s Hospice in Gateshead, where his wife spent the final three months of her life. More than £5,500 has already been donated to his appeal, which you can also donate to via this link.

The father-of-one explained: “If you catch ovarian cancer early it’s treatable but if you catch it late it’s a death sentence. It’s a really difficult cancer to deal with once it gets hold.

“Kelly was always extremely community-minded. She would have done her job for free. She had so much passion for teaching and gave every bit of her for the children she taught.

“She was a huge environmentalist, a vegetarian and she took her health really seriously. She was the most patient and loving mother. She just had endless love and energy and patience.

“We attempted to live near her primary school and when we were walking around you’d hear ‘Mrs Hashemi we love you”. I felt like I was walking around with a rock star. I was so proud of her. I was so proud that I was her husband. She was really special.”

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Kelly and Arya, parents to 13-year-old Tabitha, shared their family home in the Low Fell area of Gateshead. Kelly received her ovarian cancer diagnosis in July 2022 following a privately-funded scan.

Arya, a practising lawyer, recalled: “Things didn’t feel right. She kept saying this is something else. When she received her diagnosis the doctor said ‘We have caught this at a late stage, you are going to die from this’.

“It was something that she never came to terms with. A simple blood test or simple scans would have picked this up earlier and there was a refusal to do that.”

Arya revealed that Kelly underwent extensive surgery and spent a fortnight in intensive care, followed by several months of rehabilitation before beginning chemotherapy.

He said: “The surgery was enormous. They operated from her throat to the top of her pubic bone. She had to have a full hysterectomy and part of her liver, bladder and diaphragm removed. It was really, really painful rehabilitation. It was a really bleak time.”

In September 2024, Kelly was asked to work in early years at Newcastle High School for Girls, where she spent roughly seven weeks before a scan confirmed her cancer had returned. She was told that with further surgery she could have a year to live and without it she would have a few months.

“She decided to have the surgery again to have some more time with Tabitha and she had that surgery early November”, Arya recalled. “She lost her bowel and it made no difference, the cancer just kept growing.”

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Kelly was admitted to St Bede’s Hospice, based within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital grounds. After spending three months receiving care there, she died in July 2025.

Arya, who now lives in Fenham, Newcastle, with Tabitha, explained: “Her biggest worry was not seeing her daughter grow. Kelly was super prepared and she wrote me lists of things I must do.

“I would say to her ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this without you’. She would say ‘You just have to put one foot in front of the other’. I wake up every morning and say ‘One foot in front of the other’.

“Our daughter is such a special kid. She’s incredibly resilient and determined. She uses school and sport as her form or recovery from this. She represents the region in hockey and netball.

“I just drive her across the country for the sports. We sit in the car next to each other for hours and we talk about her mum a lot.”

On September 13, Arya will participate in the Great North Run as a tribute to his late wife. His online fundraising campaign for the hospice has already raised more than £5,500 in contributions. Arya said: “She had such fear about going into the hospice and losing her dignity and independence. Every single one of their team went over and above, showering her with love, and all of her fears just disappeared.

“They were so kind and compassionate to her. It was an absolute lifeline to me and my family.

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I have stuck religiously to my training plan. I’m scared but I’m very excited about doing it. I know it’s going to be really emotional. It was something Kelly did. She always talked about it as being one of the greatest things she’d ever done. It’s a really nice tribute to Kelly.”

Arya said Tabitha has been supportive of his fundraising efforts. He said: “She thinks I’m mad getting up at five in the morning to do my practice runs but she keeps telling me she’s really proud of me which is all the motivation I need.”

Arya has urged anybody who is concerned about their health to push for help. He said: “I think the only person who really knows if something is wrong if yourself. If something feels wrong fight your corner. No one is going to advocate for you, you have to advocate for yourself.”

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Sydney Sweeney looked completely in love with her boyfriend Scooter Braun as they held hands during Venice Film Festival on Thursday.

The American actress, 28, exuded glamour in a sequin backless dress as she and Braun, 45, led the stars at the Armani Beauty dinner.

Sweeney doesn’t have any film projects to promote at this year’s film festival, yet will be acting as the brand’s poster girl on red carpets with Kendall Jenner.

The Hollywood star wore a cleavage-baring Armani ensemble for the exclusive dinner at the Royal Gardens.

Sweeney was joined by dazzling Nina Dobrev, 37, who opted for a sophisticated strapless jumpsuit. 

Earlier in the day, Sweeney enjoyed a romantic gondola ride with Braun and shared a very steamy kiss.

The American actress, 28, exuded glamour in a sequin backless dress as she and Braun, 45, led the stars at the Armani Beauty dinner

The Euphoria star wore a pretty white summer dress with a yellow jumper draped over her shoulders as she passionately kissed the mogul.

Talent manager, and record executive Braun looked handsome in blue shorts, a crisp white shirt and a backwards baseball cap. 

Prior to their trip to Venice, Sweeney was spotted out and about in Los Angeles with Braun, who she has been romantically linked to since September 2025. 

The couple were joined by Braun’s three children – Jagger Joseph, 11; Levi Magnus, nine; and Hart Violet, seven – who he shares with his ex-wife, Yael Cohen.

Braun tied the knot with Cohen in 2014, before welcoming their three children. But in 2021 their marriage came crashing down when he filed for divorce, which was finalised in 2022.

Sweeney looked affectionate with Braun’s kids on Monday afternoon as they went for a stroll after school before stopping for smoothies.

It marked a major development in the couple’s romance, which began months after they met at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s Venice wedding in June of last year.

After ending her engagement to longtime partner Jonathan Davino in early 2025, when she started seeing Braun, sources said: ‘Sydney and Scooter are still seeing each other and trying to be as low-key as possible, while still dating and having fun…

‘They are just taking things slow and enjoying their time together.’

By December, it was revealed that the couple were ‘serious’: ‘Scooter and Sydney are going strong and things between them are great. They’re in a committed relationship, and things are serious.’

Sweeney has been romantically linked to Braun since September 2025

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Sweeney wowed in her custom Armani look 

Sweeney doesn’t have any film projects to promote at this year’s film festival, yet will be acting as the brand’s poster girl on red carpets with Kendall Jenner

Sweeney wore a cleavage-baring ensemble for the exclusive dinner at the Royal Gardens

Sweeney looked every inch the Hollywood star as she arrived in a glitzy number

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Sweeney showed off her flawless complexion with a bronzed swipe of makeup

She went braless beneath the sequin dress

The Hollywood star was joined by dazzling Nina Dobrev, 37, who opted for a sophisticated strapless jumpsuit

Singer Hayes Warner opted for a silver satin gown

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Jonathan Bailey looked dashing in a black tuxedo for day two of the festival

He slipped on his trendy sunglasses for some photos

Bailey complemented his look with a white scarf

Her bombshell appearance came hours after Sweeney enjoyed a romantic gondola ride with her boyfriend Braun 

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In January this year, Sweeney was asked about speculation around her love life, to which she said: ‘Sometimes I’ll think that I can do a normal thing and have a date in a normal way, and then it gets perceived in a very non-normal way. It’s kind of sad.’

On going public with a romance, she said: ‘I understand that I’m a public person, but I’m still in my 20s. I’m still figuring out love, and it’s hard to do that with millions of people who have their own opinions of what that looks like…

‘At the same time, for all of my 20s, I put my head down and focused on work—and now I want to experience things. But it’s hard deciding that I want to experience love in the public eye. I’m just navigating it all.’

In May, Braun said: ‘I’ve met an extraordinary woman who is kind and generous and smart, and real and down to earth.’ 

Fans of All Creatures Great and Small have been given a first glimpse of the drama ahead for series 7

All Creatures Great and Small fans have been treated to a new trailer that teases trouble ahead.

The much-loved series is back for its seventh season this month and viewers tuning in can expect plenty of drama, romance and heartbreak. While there are plenty of familiar faces returning to the Yorkshire Dales, the latest trailer suggests life at Skeldale House is about to look very different.

Set in 1946, the new series follows James Herriot and his friends and family as they try to build a future after the turmoil of the Second World War. But peace doesn’t necessarily mean life will be simple for the residents of Darrowby.

The 60-second trailer opens with the arrival of newcomer Granville Bennett, played by Caolan McCarthy, who wastes little time causing tension. A rival vet, Granville appears determined to make his mark, with his arrival potentially putting James in an uncomfortable position.

For James, played by Nicholas Ralph, there are also big changes happening much closer to home. His marriage to Helen, played by Rachel Shenton, continues to develop as the pair face the realities of raising a young family. One particularly emotional moment sees Helen having a frank conversation with her father Richard about the future of the farm. Helen makes it clear that she believes it is time to embrace a new way of life, hinting at difficult decisions ahead for the family.

A big moment for James and Helen

Away from the farm, James and Helen are facing another milestone as their eldest son Jimmy prepares to start school. The moment marks another reminder of just how much their lives have changed. After everything they have been through, the couple are now raising a family of their own – but the trailer suggests that parenthood and life in the Dales won’t always be straightforward.

Trouble for Tristan and Charlotte?

There could be heartbreak ahead for Tristan Farnon and Charlotte Beauvoir. The couple declared their love for each other during the Christmas special, but the new trailer appears to cast doubt over what comes next.

Tristan, played by Callum Woodhouse, is left fearing for the future of their relationship as the possibility emerges that Charlotte could be leaving.

After finally finding happiness together, the pair could now be facing a painful separation. Meanwhile, back at Skeldale House, Mrs Hall finds herself adjusting to another change as Siegfried and Dorothy’s relationship continues to grow with a surprise kiss unfolding in the kitchen.

Samuel West returns as the eccentric Siegfried Farnon, while Anna Madeley is back as Mrs Hall. The familiar faces don’t stop there. Patricia Hodge returns as the unforgettable Mrs Pumphrey, complete with her adored dog Tricki, while Tony Pitts, Imogen Clawson, Maimie McCoy, Gaia Wise and Mollie Winnard are also back.

And, of course, no series of All Creatures Great and Small would be complete without the animals. James and the team will once again be dealing with the unpredictable highs and lows of veterinary life, with the stunning Yorkshire countryside providing the backdrop to their latest adventures.

The seventh series is set to bring together everything viewers love about the show – from its emotional animal stories and beautiful scenery to its complicated romances, family dramas and moments of gentle comedy.

But with a new rival arriving, relationships facing uncertainty and major changes taking place within the families, it seems Darrowby could be in for one of its most eventful chapters yet.

All Creatures Great and Small series 7 will air on Channel 5 from 9pm on Thursday, September 17. All Creatures Great and Small: Behind the Magic will air at 9pm on Friday 18 September.

A BBC cameraman was left needing stitches after he was attacked by people smugglers at a migrant camp.

A crew of journalists were investigating tactics adopted by the criminal gangs – who are rumoured to be preparing new ‘mega-dinghies’ earmarked for Britain’s shores.

But the reporters were confronted by a group of the ‘repeatedly frustrated’ crooks in Calais, angry at the sight of their camera.

Despite the crew agreeing to stop filming, one smuggler – standing at 5ft 8in and donning a new grey tracksuit – attempted to grab the equipment before reportedly throwing rocks ‘at a close range’.

The BBC’s cameraman, Pol, was struck above the eye and was later given ‘a few stitches’ – after the crew made a quick getaway as they were chased to their car.

It comes as illegal smuggling gangs are thought to be adopting new tactics as they are reportedly ‘running low on small boats’.

Criminal groups are now said to be working together by loading more migrants on fewer, larger vessels. 

Last month a record 230 people crossed the Channel in one small boat – with the arrivals being more passengers than the typical capacity of a Boeing 737.

It broke the previous record set in July when 165 people made the crossing on a single vessel.

The unprecedented crossing prompted accusations that politicians had ‘lost control’ of illegal migration, while French police once again came under fire for failing to intervene. 

Gang members say more mega-dinghies are now in the works, a source told the BBC.

The groups are said to be quoting up to €2,000 (£1,700) per person – a rise from around €1,300 just a year ago, with passengers being told to pay in cash, to show they are committed.

Former chief inspector of borders and immigration David Neal said: ‘Organised crime gangs are very adept at getting around any measures put in place by law enforcement.

‘If police manage to close down one avenue through which smugglers were obtaining dinghies and maritime equipment, the gangs will immediately switch to look for other manufacturers, importation routes, and so on. Dealing with organised criminals is a constant game of cat-and-mouse.

‘The use of extra-large dinghies suggests that traffickers have changed their tactics in this way. It is likely they have secured a new manufacturer which is now making these larger boats to order.

‘It could even indicate that law enforcement’s success in seizing outboard motors is driving up the size of the boats – in other words, they have fewer motors and so are using them to power a smaller number of larger dinghies.’

The public was stunned by images of a huge inflatable packed with 230 migrants arriving in Britain

He added that these giant boats pose a grave risk to life, due to the risk of people drowning and being trampled and crushed.

‘The authorities may even be more reluctant to approach such vessels at sea because the wake created by patrol boats would risk destabilising these unseaworthy dinghies already so overloaded,’ he said.

Previous ministers have privately spoken of the guilt they felt in the wake of Channel deaths, questioning whether there was anything they could have done to prevent the loss of life.

Mr Neal said: ‘Traffickers care only about their profits and are indifferent to the safety of the migrants they smuggle. They will corral ever-higher numbers of migrants into these death-trap dinghies just to make money, with potentially disastrous consequences.

‘All in all, the very worthy aim of targeting organised crime gangs and their supply chains may have had the unintended side-effect of making Channel crossings even more dangerous.’

However, it remains to be seen whether mega-dinghies will prove as effective as the smaller boats, with Channel crossings hitting a six-year low this summer.

Nearly 7,000 people made the journey in small boats between June and August, its seasonal lowest since 2020. The number of small-boat migrants arriving in Britain is at its lowest since 2019.

While critics have put the decrease down to bad weather, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood attributed the drop to increased international co-operation blocking people smugglers’ supply chain for boats, lifebelts and outboard motors.

By ED HOLT

Published: 18:22 BST, 3 September 2026 | Updated: 21:25 BST, 3 September 2026

A runaway capybara that escaped from a zoo five months ago has been spotted for the first time.

Samba vanished from her enclosure at Marwell Zoo, in Hampshire, on March 17 as she and another giant rodent were being moved in.

Her great escape prompted a massive search operation but after almost six months she has yet to be located.

However, zookeepers have their most ‘promising lead’ yet after a photograph of a capybara taken on August 11 was confirmed to be Samba.

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A Marwell spokesperson said: ‘Yes – the sighting was Samba but we haven’t got any further updates to share at the moment.’

The confirmation means Samba was still alive and moving around the area nearly five months after she escaped.

Her disappearance has attracted widespread attention, with members of the public reporting possible sightings during the search.

A running joke emerged online with social media users posting photos of Samba – often AI-generated – enjoying her life on the outside with various activities like lounging poolside or going to the pub.

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Pictured: Samba when she first escaped – this is not a new photo

Samba in Marwell Zoo before her disappearance. She vanished from her enclosure on March 17 as she and another giant rodent were being moved in

Marwell has not provided any further details about where Samba was seen or whether the latest confirmed sighting has led to her being located.

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In theory, a capybara could survive in the UK. The rodent has an abundant food source with plenty of grass and plants along riverbanks for it to eat.

They also have no natural predators that could hunt them. 

For Samba, the biggest risk to her life could come from traffic and, if she survives, until winter she might struggle to reach food sources due to the freezing temperatures.

Capybaras are also social creatures often living in groups of 20 to 100 animals and solitary capybaras can be prone to stress and depression.   

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Have YOU spotted the runaway capybara? Email: edward.holt@dailymail.co.uk 

The Trump administration wants to disqualify private schools from tax-exempt status if they consider race in school programs, impacting as many as 18,000 educational institutions.

In an effort to crack down on schools that utilize affirmative action to promote diversity, the IRS and Treasury Department said that under the new rule, any private institution that considers race in admissions, educational policies, scholarships, loans, athletics or any other school-supported program would be ineligible for tax-exempt status.

Over the last year, President Donald Trump has sought to punish schools that consider race to benefit racial-minority students, arguing that it violates the 2023 Supreme Court decision that banned the use of affirmative action in admissions.

Trump administration officials have taken the position that the policies are unfair toward white or Asian students.

“Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Thursday press release.

Bessent added: “Today’s Treasury and IRS proposed regulations establish a clear standard, and the institutions that continue to use discriminatory practices will no longer receive the benefits of federal tax-exempt status.”

The proposed rule still needs to undergo a lengthy public comment period before being adopted. But if approved, the final version could go into effect as early as June 2027.

Private schools can obtain tax-exempt status under 501(c)(3) if they are considered a non-profit corporation. In doing so, schools commit to reinvesting their revenue in education, rather than distributing it among owners or shareholders.

Tax-exempt status is a valuable financial tool for private schools – under it, a school does not pay federal income tax, and donors can consider their donation to the school a charitable contribution.

The Trump administration has capitalized on that, threatening to revoke schools’ tax-exempt status if they do not comply with the president’s demands. Last year, CNN reported that the IRS was looking to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status after the president became embroiled in a battle over policy differences.

The IRS and Treasury’s proposed rule did not provide guidelines on how they would examine whether a private school was not considering race in school programs.

But the administration maintained schools would still be permitted to provide financial aid or admission assistance to disadvantaged students under the proposed rule by using race-neutral criteria.

In announcing the proposed rule, the Trump administration said it was relying on a Supreme Court precedent from the 1983 case Bob Jones University v. U.S. that determined an institution could not be tax-exempt if it is in opposition to “fundamental public policy.”

Imagine getting into a London taxi. Someone is sitting in the driver’s seat, but the car is driving itself. If the autonomous system gets into difficulty, they must recognise what is happening, decide whether to intervene and, within seconds, potentially take control.

This is no longer hypothetical. Uber and the British autonomous driving company, Wayve, have been granted licences to operate self-driving taxis in London with human safety drivers seated inside, with more than 100,000 people having joined a waiting list for the service. Uber launched its service, with 15 autonomous vehicles, on September 3.

Much of the debate thus far has focused on whether robotaxis will eventually replace human drivers. But there is another important question: what happens to human skill when our job changes from doing something to watching a machine do it?

Driving involves reading the road, anticipating others’ behaviour, judging risk and
responding to unexpected situations. Autonomous vehicles transfer much of this
work to software, but humans don’t necessarily become unskilled; their expertise
changes.

They become less of an operator and more of a critical supervisor. There
is, however, a problem with this arrangement, one that was identified long before
today’s enthusiasm for AI.

In 1983, Lisanne Bainbridge published an influential paper, Ironies of Automation, noting that automation tends to leave humans with the tasks machines find most difficult, namely, monitoring complex systems and dealing with unusual situations.

The irony is that automating routine work can leave people with fewer opportunities
to practise the skills they need when something goes wrong. Applied to robotaxis, this paradox is striking: the better the autonomous system becomes at driving, the less its human supervisor needs to drive.

However, the less that person drives, the fewer opportunities they have to practise the skills they may suddenly need when the system encounters something it cannot handle.

Meaningful oversight

There are signs of a similar problem elsewhere. For example, a 2025 study of clinicians using AI-assisted colonoscopy found that after routinely working with AI, their ability to detect precancerous growths when working without the technology declined, falling from 28.4% before regular exposure to AI to 22.4% afterwards.

This does not mean that AI makes doctors worse, nor that autonomous vehicles will
inevitably make people poor drivers. The significant distinction is between the
performance of the human-machine system and the capabilities retained by the
human within it.

A system can improve while the human supervisor becomes less practised. We hear about keeping a “human in the loop” in medicine, education, law and workplaces increasingly reliant on machine-generated analysis. However, having a human present is not the same thing as having meaningful human oversight.

For that, the person needs enough expertise to recognise when the machine is wrong,
enough confidence to challenge, and enough authority to intervene.

A temporary job?

Robotaxis already operate in the US, China and the Middle East, sometimes without
a supervisor. This raises an uncomfortable question about London’s safety drivers:
do they represent a new kind of skilled occupation (expertise in supervising
autonomous systems) or are they temporary workers, required until the technology is
considered reliable enough to work alone?

There may, in other words, be two kinds of displacement happening. Eventually, the
taxi driver may be displaced by the machine, but before that happens, driving itself becomes displaced by supervising. And that transformation is likely to reach far beyond transport.

The government had anticipated commercial trials beginning this year, but regulatory and technical hurdles have delayed the rollout. Transport for London has not published the guidance operators will need and no vehicles have thus far completed the approval process required for fully driverless passenger services.

The delay has been welcomed by some campaigners who have raised concerns
ranging from employment and road safety, to privacy and the environmental costs
associated with data intensive technologies. However, the postponement should not
be read as evidence that autonomous vehicles have failed or that they are inherently unsafe.

Indeed, it highlights something more fascinating – that technological capability, regulation and social preparedness do not necessarily develop at the same speed.

Before fully autonomous vehicles can become ordinary features of London’s streets,
regulators must confront questions that are partly technical but also ethical; such as, who supervises an autonomous system? Who is responsible when something goes
wrong?

And at what point are we prepared to decide that the human supervisor is no
longer needed? London’s delayed experiment is therefore testing a relationship with technology that is becoming increasingly familiar: machines performing while humans watch, judge and remain responsible.

As such, the challenge is no longer about keeping a “human in the loop”, but ensuring that when we do, humans retain the skills, judgment and agency that make their presence meaningful.