The Manchester United squad have landed in the Republic of Ireland with Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo among those to join up with the rest of the players

Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo have joined up with the rest of the Manchester United squad for their pre-season tour in Republic of Ireland.

Rashford and Mainoo were both part of the England squad at the 2026 World Cup and were allowed an extended break while their teammates returned to pre-season.

But now, the duo are back and travelled in a private jet to Ireland alongside Lisandro Martinez, who was involved with Argentina at the World Cup, Benjamin Sesko, Senne Lammens, Matheus Cunha and Matthijs de Ligt.

There will be more to follow. We’ll bring you the very latest updates on this breaking news story.

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Wes Streeting, the newly appointed Defence Secretary, has revealed he has encountered an “unbelievable volume” of online homophobia since taking up the role, surpassing all previous experiences in his career.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe, Mr Streeting noted that while his appointment three weeks ago was “almost entirely unremarked upon in the media,” the online reaction has been starkly different.

He attributed the abuse to individuals who “cannot cope with the idea” of a gay Defence Secretary.

Despite the negativity, he views the position as a chance to demonstrate “strength” and “challenge this sort of stereotype that clearly persists in dark corners of the internet.”

Despite the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967, it remained a criminal offence for military personnel until 1994.

Even after that date, homosexuality remained classed as “conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline” until 2000, meaning service personnel could still be dismissed for being gay.

Mr Streeting added: “I am proud of the fact that in my lifetime we’ve gone from gay people not being allowed to serve in the military to a gay Defence Secretary.

“And in my first week, someone in the MoD said to me, you know, as a gay man, I’m really proud that we have our first gay Defence Secretary, and it means a lot to many of us who remember the bad old days.”

Prior to his appointment, Mr Streeting had been considered a potential challenger to Andy Burnham in the contest to succeed Sir Keir Starmer.

But once Sir Keir announced his resignation and Mr Burnham formally launched his bid for No 10, Mr Streeting said he would not stand in the leadership contest.

He told the audience in Edinburgh that he had spoken to Mr Burnham during the Makerfield by-election campaign and decided there were not enough “fundamental differences” between the two men to justify standing.

He said: “I sort of went in with the aim of saying I think we can show a different way of doing politics in terms of how we debate the future of the Labour Party and how we conduct ourselves in a contest.

“And we sat around over a cup of tea, talking about what had gone wrong. And inevitably, when you talk about what’s gone wrong, you give hints to each other about what you think you need to do to make it right.

“And the more we were talking, the more I was thinking, how much do I fundamentally disagree with this guy on anything?”

Mr Streeting said he had told Mr Burnham he would back him on the Friday after the Makerfield by-election, and agreed to make the announcement the following Monday.

He said he and his partner had “gone into hiding over the weekend”, adding: “I sort of spent three days desperate to tell people.

“And the moment I did, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulder.”

Asked whether he thought Mr Burnham would be Prime Minister if he had not resigned as health secretary, Mr Streeting said: “Probably not.”

He added: “What I think my resignation did that week was force choices for others.”

British holidaymakers are being ripped off by rogue bars and restaurants in Corfu using hidden charges, unclear prices and bills so chaotic that even their own staff cannot explain them.

An undercover Daily Mail investigation found tourists being charged for food they had not ordered, quoted one price only to be billed another – and pressured to pay up in cash.

Over three days in historic Corfu Town, we uncovered an extraordinary catalogue of questionable practices designed to squeeze unsuspecting visitors of every last euro, including: 

• Chaotic handwritten bills that even restaurant staff struggled to decipher;
• Food and drinks charged above advertised prices; with one modest meal reaching an astonishing €74; 
• Unwanted appetisers quietly added to the final total; 
• Expensive ‘specials’ promoted without a clear price; 
• €8 soft drinks, weak €14 cocktails and €12.50 ice creams; 
• And meals of such dubious quality that their eye-watering prices appeared impossible to justify.

Little wonder then that one waitress, asked if tourists were being fleeced in Corfu, candidly replied: ‘All of them.’ 

For generations, picture-perfect Corfu has lured British visitors with its sun-drenched beaches, cobbled old town and famous Mediterranean hospitality.

But holidaymakers who have already spent thousands reaching the Greek island increasingly complain that they are seen not as valued guests – but as ‘walking wallets’ to be emptied before the flight home.

For many, the great Corfu rip-off begins within minutes of leaving the airport.

The island is notorious for steep taxi fares and drivers who conveniently ‘forget’ to start the meter. A four-minute and ten-second journey to our reporter’s hotel cost €17. The return trip was steeper still, at €20.

Then, there are the well-documented complaints surrounding some of the island’s less scrupulous hire car firms.

But we found that restaurants, bars and cafés appeared just as determined to wring every last cent from visitors.

The most troubling experience came at a cafe tucked among the tourist-trodden alleys of Corfu’s Old Town.

There, our reporter was handed a handwritten bill so illegible that even the waitress appeared unable to understand it.

Figures had been scrawled across the paper without clear itemisation, making it almost impossible to establish how the total had been calculated.

At the end of the meal, our reporter was presented with this illegible, hand written bill which seemingly included items that hadn’t been ordered. The waitress couldn’t understand it, but it made perfect sense to the owner when he came over to explain in an awkward encounter 

One of the items our reporter did order was this salad – but it arrived with an accompaniment of bread and tzatziki, which the reporter presumed came complimentary with his dishes. Imagine his surprise when an extra €7.50 had been added to his bill at the end  

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Bread costing €2.50 and tzatziki priced at €5 had been added. A small lager was charged at €6.50 – despite being listed on the menu at €5 – and arrived flat.

Asked to explain the bill, the waitress stared at the jumble of numbers in bewilderment.

‘Bread… oh my God. I don’t understand all this,’ she said, pointing uncertainly at the scribbles. ‘There is salad, maybe?’

Unable to unravel it, she summoned her boss. He briskly recited what our reporter had ordered, then walked away before further questions could be asked.

The figures may have made sense to the apparent owner, an unkempt man in his 60s who smoked close to diners.

But they were clearly a deliberate ruse to trick customers – a tangle of figures that was impossible to audit for a Dutch family left questioning why their modest lunch had set them back €75.

The answer lay in three pita bread (€7.50) and tzatziki (€10) which were strategically placed on the table.

‘He gave us free appetisers and he put it on the bill,’ one of the group said. ‘We thought it was free.’

A woman in the party then said with a glum shrug of acceptance: ‘It’s holidays.’

The experience echoed a remarkable catalogue of criticism posted online. When the Daily Mail examined the restaurant’s Tripadvisor page, 40 of 44 reviewers had awarded it just one star.

Customers complained of illegible bills, aggressive staff and charges for items they said they had never ordered.

One visitor claimed to have been billed €13 for a single scoop of ice cream. Others alleged that prices inside differed from the cheaper offers displayed outside.

One furious visitor wrote: ‘The people who run this shabby place tarnish the reputation of this beautiful country with very nice, hospitable people.

‘Doesn’t even deserve one star. You’d better go next door.’

A couple of tourists peruse the plastic menu outside The Corner in the heart of Corfu’s Old Town. Our reporter’s experience there is shared by other customers if the criticism online is anything to go by. On Tripadvisor 40 of 44 reviewers awarded it just one star

The owner, dressed in a green cotton t-shirt drenched in sweat after a laborious day hassling passing tourists, delivered an enthusiastic description of the day’s recommendation, a €22 fish. But the eventual €74 bill with lots of hidden extras told a very different story 

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Our reporter returned to The Corner on his final evening after hearing further about hidden charges.

This time, the owner – his green cotton t-shirt drenched in sweat after a laborious day hassling passing tourists – delivered an enthusiastic description of the day’s recommendation.

‘Today I have very nice, good, fresh sea bass,’ he said. ‘Fantastic. From the Corfu sea. With vegetables – peppers, green bell pepper.’

Any reasonable diner would have assumed the vegetables were included with the €22 fish.

The eventual €74 bill told a very different story. The peppers appeared as a separate €9.50 dish. Bread and tzatziki had again been bolted on.

Three beers were charged at €6.50 each rather than the €5 advertised on the menu, while two scoops of sorbet added an extraordinary €12.50.

How did it come to €74? Well, three beers were charged at €6.50 each rather than the €5 advertised on the menu, while two scoops of sorbet were priced at an extraordinary €12.50

And any reasonable diner would assume the vegetables served without explanation alongside the €22 ‘catch of the day’ were included in the price. Not so. When the bill arrived, the peppers appeared as a separate dish, priced at €9.50

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The male staff member behind the counter was eager to take payment for the €74 bill before our reporter had the opportunity to properly look at it. He hurriedly handed over the card machine and huffed and seemed impatient when the bill was asked for 

When he was afforded the luxury of looking at the bill before paying, this is what the customer was presented with – a barely legible scribbled note that somehow came to €74

When challenged, the man insisted that the fish and vegetables were entirely separate dishes.

Then, rather incredibly presenting himself as magnanimous, he offered to remove the pepper charge.

‘I pay for the bell pepper,’ he said. ‘No problem.’

Asked to settle the bill, our reporter was presented with a card machine before having sight of the bill. 

When one was shown upon request, it again was an illegible series of handwritten scribbles. 

As he left The Corner, a waiter at a neighbouring restaurant remarked: ‘Next time, come here.’

Poring over the illegible scribbled bill, he told our reporter he should ‘go to the police’.

‘It’s terrible,’ he exclaimed apologetically. ‘You don’t pay this for food in England – even in London.’

He insisted the experience was ‘not normal’ – yet a growing number of British tourists visiting Greece might disagree.

Last year, we told of how British tourists in Rhodes were left paying more than €40 for a cocktail and more than €20 for a beer through underhand bar tricks.

In Corfu Town, our reporter was charged €14 for a tepid Aperol Spritz, which resembled more of a flat Irn-Bru than the famous Italian aperitif.

It was served at Piperista, another venue with poor Tripadvisor reviews complaining of high prices and disappointing food.

A €12 fish soup proved to be a watery broth filled with mushy carrots and potatoes, with only the faintest suggestion that a white fish had once been involved.

It was edible – and we endured worse elsewhere – but its quality hardly justified the price.

Bread placed on the table for dipping later appeared as another €2 charge, as did table water.

At another Corfu Town venue – At Piperista – a €12 fish soup proved to be a watery broth filled with mushy carrots and potatoes, with only a faint suggestion white fish had been involved

The most revealing moment, however, came when a young waitress, a Corfiot student, openly acknowledged that tourists were treated as cash cows.

She said: ‘People here are not open-minded. They are so used to their daily lives and the tourists, and they just don’t do anything to pass the time and extend their knowledge.

‘People say, “We have money because of the tourists”, and I don’t like this mentality.’

Asked whether some holidaymakers were being ripped off, she answered immediately: ‘All of them. I’m going to be honest with you – all of them.

‘If you to go a bar, if you go to club, they steal money from you. They are not honest with you.

‘Or even with the shops here, maybe something is €30 and they will give it to you for €60 and say it’s 100 per cent cotton and most of the time, it is not.’

She also said younger visitors who had been drinking were especially vulnerable to being ripped off: ‘They take advantage of that. They take a lot of advantage.’

When a €2 charge was added for bread and another for water, we asked a young waitress asked whether some holidaymakers were being ripped off. She answered immediately: ‘All of them. I’m going to be honest with you – all of them’

On Corfu Town’s elegant Liston promenade, the view was grand as the sun set. However, the bill at Pecorino Wine Bar was less impressive.

A €14 Greek salad appeared reasonable enough, but the €32 total included an extra charge for pitta bread – and an eye-watering €8 for a flat Coca-Cola.

When our reporter attempted to pay by card, having been shown the total on a waiter’s iPhone calculator, he was told it was impossible.

‘It’s only cash my friend because I’ve a problem with my terminal today – a big problem,’ the waiter said.

At Pecorino Wine Bar, on Corfu Town’s elegant Liston promenade, our reporter was prevented from keeping a receipt and was instead told to photograph the waiter’s notepad 

Greek businesses are required to accept electronic payments, with the rules tightened as part of efforts to tackle tax evasion.

It is perfectly possible that the restaurant’s terminal had simply malfunctioned that evening – as it seemingly had on numerous other recent occasions, according to online reviews.

‘The staff kept lying the whole time that paying with card is not possible, trying to swindle out as much money as possible,’ claimed one diner. ‘Then they tried to destroy the receipt, because they’re trying to scam their guests.’

Another wrote: ‘The staff kept lying the whole time that paying with card is not possible, trying to swindle out as much money as possible. Then they tried to destroy the receipt, because they’re trying to scam their guests.’

Our reporter was also prevented from keeping a receipt and was instead told to photograph the waiter’s notepad.

Holidaymakers should note that Greek consumer rules allow customers to refuse payment where a business fails to issue a lawful receipt.

Corfu is filled with tavernas, bistros and cafes – many of which are run honestly and with hospitality at the forefront.

Yet the suspicion voiced repeatedly to the Daily Mail by holidaymakers in Corfu Town is that some businesses viewed them as easy targets.

Darren Sambrook, 54, and wife Kathryn, 57, had already decided against returning – despite being on the island for less than 24 hours.

Kathryn, a production worker, said: ‘It’s so expensive. When you go on holiday, you don’t expect to be paying more than back home.

‘It was €12.50 for a Malibu and Coke. But they can obviously get away with it.’

Civil servant Darren added: ‘We’re making the most of it, but we won’t be back. We’ve been rinsed, straight away.

‘We’ve travelled a lot – it’s not how it’s been when we’ve been to Spain or the Canary Islands. Here, we’re just treated like walking wallets.’

British holidaymakers – Darren Sambrook, his wife Kathryn and their friends, Donna and Martin Griffiths certainly raised their eyebrows at some of the prices they were being asked to pay

Martin Griffiths, 60, and his wife Donna, 48, from Cannock, Staffordshire, were also shocked by the prices.

The couple, who run taxi firm M&D Travel, said basic holiday purchases appeared to cost far more than they remembered.

Martin said: ‘I’ve been looking for a belt today. There’s nothing under €25.

‘They’re more expensive than the shops back home. It’s just like they’re after every single penny.

‘It doesn’t make you feel valued. You feel like a target. It puts you on edge, thinking: “Am I being ripped off here?”‘

At the Gondola restaurant, a seafood platter was promoted on a blackboard without a visible price.

A tried and tested sneaky tactic routinely used in Corfu is the ruse of putting the day’s specials on a blackboard outside the restaurant to entice diners – while omitting the prices, like the seafood platter advertised outside the Gondola restaurant 

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It promised a mouth-watering array of fresh fruits de mer, yet there was no mention of the dish – or its cost – in the printed menu.

A waitress informed us that the mixed shellfish would cost €70 but insisted: ‘It’s worth it. Trust me, it’s worth it.’

What arrived upon our paper tablecloth was anything but – a heap of deep-fried seafood; rubbery squid, tightly shut mussels, oven chips and a mountain of tough whitebait.

There was no recognisable shrimp saganaki – speciality Greek prawns in tomato and feta – as advertised, nor grilled calamari.

‘If you wanted it grilled, you should have asked,’ the waitress later insisted.

A small glass of white wine cost another €9 – twice the price at a neighbouring restaurant.

Even a bottle of water, desperately needed to counter the ferociously salty seafood, added another euro.

One online reviewer described a similarly miserable experience.

And things became no clearer once you got inside the Gondola with no mention of the special or its cost on the printed menu, laminated making it easy to wipe off a price using a felt tip – and replacing it with a higher price if necessary

When he sat down, the waitress informed our reporter that the mixed shellfish would cost €70 but insisted: ‘It’s worth it. Trust me, it’s worth it.’ What arrived (pictured) upon our paper tablecloth was anything but – a heap of deep-fried seafood; rubbery squid, tightly-shut mussels, oven chips and a mountain of tough whitebait

‘We ordered a plate of mixed seafood and it was very disappointing,’ they wrote.

‘The calamari was gum-like, the fried potatoes were rock solid and the taste could get a serious improvement. Would not recommend.

‘Also the lady serving was sticking her hands in my plate to take out an unopened shell.’

Across the island, business owners complained of falling visitor numbers, quieter streets and empty tables during the crucial summer season.

Yet our investigation found that a minority appeared determined to rinse every possible cent from those who still came.

One venue disclosed a €3 cover charge only in small print inside its menu, not on the prominent boards used to lure diners from the street.

One customer dubbed the hidden fee as a ‘knife and fork charge’. In other cases, prices were not clearly stated until after the food had arrived.

At Cofineta, another centrally located café, the atmosphere turned hostile when our reporter attempted to replace an unpalatable drink.

After asking a waitress to swap a sickly off-menu shandy concoction for a small beer, he was told he would have to pay for both.

The atmosphere became tense when our reporter dined at At Cofineta, another centrally located café – and was served a ‘sickly’ off menu shandy. When he complained and asked for a small beer instead, the waitress said he could – but he’d have to pay for both drinks

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Her boss then summoned him over. ‘What’s your problem, my friend?’ he demanded, rising confrontationally from his seat.

Our reporter made clear that the waitress was not at fault – but the drink was not as had been suggested.

We were told that was our fault – for not knowing what we were ordering. And to take the hint that we were not welcome any longer.

Online reviews described similarly ugly encounters.

One customer said staff had initially been ‘kind, helpful and welcoming’ when their party complained about food they could not eat.

But when they requested a discount, they claimed the chef shouted at them, demanded full payment and threatened to call the police.

The confrontation at Cofineta lasted only minutes, but exposed one of the most powerful weapons available to unscrupulous businesses: most holidaymakers simply do not want a scene.

They are in an unfamiliar country, perhaps travelling with children, and may decide that swallowing an extra charge is easier than risking an ugly confrontation.

There was, however, one small piece of good news for British visitors to Corfu.

One of the island’s most notorious venues could not be tested – because it had closed after years of extraordinarily poor feedback.

Before shutting its doors, Cafe Bar Spilia had accumulated a Tripadvisor rating of just 1.2 out of five.

Of its 93 reviews, 89 had placed it in the lowest ‘terrible’ category.

For generations, Corfu has attracted British visitors with its sun-drenched beaches, cobbled old town and famous Mediterranean hospitality. But holidaymakers increasingly complain that they are seen not as valued guests – but as ‘walking wallets’ 

Customers repeatedly claimed they had not been shown menus or price lists before ordering – only to be confronted with staggering bills for ordinary coffees, beers and cocktails.

One review last year of the ‘absolute tourist trap’ raged: ‘They don’t provide menus unless you specifically request one, and it quickly became clear why.

‘Their prices are outrageous, more than double what you’d expect to pay. It’s obvious they’re preying on cruise ship passengers who might not know local pricing.

‘We were charged a ridiculous €7.50 for an apple juice and €10 for a small bottle of beer. When we questioned the bill, the staff insulted us, implying we couldn’t afford it.’

However, they’re not the usual reduced item stickers you usually see in supermarkets.

They have been introduced to show customers how the supermarket is supporting UK charity Marie Curie.

The supermarket has joined forces with the charity to launch the Every Pack Gives Back campaign this summer.

The fundraising event will help support the end-of-life charity and the people who rely on it.

When shopping at your local Morrisons store or ordering online, you might spot the bright yellow stickers on items such as the Coburg Cob, a staple at the supermarket’s bakery.

That’s because the yellow sticker is a nod to the charity’s emblem and means that when buying the bakery item, 25p from every sale will be donated to Marie Curie during the fundraising event.

Throughout August, there will be hundreds of Every Pack Gives Back promotional products including:

• Warburtons Crumpet Thins (8 pack)
• Lenor Scent Booster Spring Awakening 735g
• Soreen Malt Loaf 250g

The products will appear on Morrisons shelves and online so customers can support the campaign from home too.

So far, Morrisons and Marie Curie have reached a significant milestone, having successfully raised £7 million.

The supermarket aims to raise £15 million for the charity by October 2027.

Customers can also choose to donate their Morrisons More Card points to the charity in multiples of 1,000 (£1 value).

David Scott, Corporate Affairs Director at Morrisons, said: “Marie Curie’s dedication to people and communities up and down the UK could not be more important, so we are urging customers to pick up a special ‘Cob for Care’ and show their support for end of life care.

“Throughout August, customers can help raise all-important funds for Marie Curie by buying a product in our promotional Every Pack Gives Back range – where a percentage of the sale price is donated to the charity.”

Emma-May Ward, Marie Curie Clinical Nurse Specialist, said: “Every day, I meet patients and families whose stories stay with me long after my shift ends.

“Every person deserves dignity, support and compassion at the end of their life.

“As a charity, we depend on the generosity of the public to fund the expert care we provide day and night for people who need us most.

“The Every Pack Gives Back initiative helps to raise vital funds so we can reach more patients and families when and where care is needed.”

Morrisons to make self-checkout change at 200 stores

Morrisons is making a major change to its self-checkouts as it introduces new AI-driven technology.

The Evercheck system, developed by technology company Everseen, will be installed in 200 stores during the first phase of the supermarket’s rollout, reports What’s The Jam?

It uses real-time computer vision to compare scanned items with those visibly placed in a customer’s basket and alerts shoppers on-screen if it detects a potential missed item.

The system intends to improve efficiency at self-checkouts by reducing interruptions and wait times and the need for staff intervention in cases of routine scanning errors.

Have you seen the yellow stickers in stores or online? Tell us in the comments below.

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The statement was issued after a Suffolk wildfire destroyed a National Trust reserve

Visitors to a Cambridgeshire nature reserve have been urged to help “protect” it due to a “high risk of fire”. Wicken Fen Nature Reserve has told the public to not bring or light barbeques there due to the “hazardous summer season”.

Visitors have also been asked to not smoke there and to dispose of all litter or take it home. This follows a “devastating fire” at Dunwich Heath, which grew to the equivalent of 220 football pitches in size, according to the National Trust.

A spokesperson for Wicken Fen Nature Reserve added: “Our thoughts are with our colleagues on the Suffolk Coast. We are also mindful of what a fire could mean at Wicken. Thank you for helping us to keep the Fen as safe as possible in this hazardous summer season.”

Firefighters were called at about 5pm on July 29 to a wildfire, which later spread onto Dunwich Heath. The entire landscape was engulfed in flames.

Close the door, shut the windows and turn up the heating, and you have all the ingredients for a sick bedroom in your home – and you spend about eight hours in there every night.

Kitchens and bathrooms usually take the blame for stale air and damp. But researchers spent a winter monitoring airtight, naturally ventilated homes across Scotland. In more than four out of five homes the carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the air remained above the level considered a safe threshold for the entire night. Despite this, more than nine in ten of the occupants thought the air in their bedroom was good.

The reason is not the room. It is you. Awake in the living room, you are a thermostat with hands. When the air turns stuffy, you crack a window. When you feel cold, you close it. This correction stops in bedrooms once you fall asleep, and two things build up: the CO₂ you breathe out and moisture with it.

High levels of CO₂ act as a proxy for stale air. CO₂ levels are measured in parts per million (ppm), a unit of measurement used to describe very small concentrations of a substance.

A study examining 40 Danish bedrooms revealed a troubling threshold: when CO₂ levels reach 1,800ppm, participants’ cognitive function the following day suffered. And sleep quality starts to suffer well below that.

Recognising this risk, strict European standards allow living spaces to reach 1,350ppm above outdoor levels, while restricting bedrooms to just 950ppm above outdoor levels. For reference, CO₂ levels in fresh outdoor air are typically between 420 and 450ppm.

Between 2022 and 2025, I continuously monitored temperature, humidity and CO₂ data using sensors from around 200 Irish rooms in highly energy-efficient but airtight Irish social housing. The bedrooms spent roughly two hours every night in winter above unhealthy levels, while the living rooms next door were fine. The same bedrooms were fine again during summer. The likely reason is that people keep their windows shut in winter to stay warm and open in summer.

Serious health consequences

Two sleeping adults breathe out about a pint of water a night. I run a dehumidifier at home over the winter – it holds two litres, and from October onwards I empty it every other morning.

Moisture, when trapped indoors, settles on the coldest surface – usually, the window or the wall behind a wardrobe. A cold, damp surface in a warm, moist room is an ideal condition for mould to grow.

This is not just a cosmetic problem. Prolonged exposure to mould in a flat in Rochdale, a town in Greater Manchester, killed two-year-old Awaab Ishak in 2020. Consequently, Awaab’s law now legally compels social landlords in England to address damp and mould within strict, fixed deadlines.

Small children are the most exposed of any of us, their lungs and immune systems are still developing, and they sleep longer than adults.

Airing a room by opening the window clears the stale air and the moisture at once, but it lets the heat out. That is the trade-off between fresh or warm air.

The trickle vents (small slots built into window frames for background airflow) are often found shut after energy upgrades, and a 2024 Irish study of retrofitted homes found bedroom CO₂ higher after the work than before, with around half showing visible mould.

This feels like deja vu. After the oil shocks of the 1970s, offices were sealed and ventilation cut to save fuel, and the occupants got headaches, itching eyes and a fog that lifted only when they went home. It was called sick building syndrome. It’s the same – except nobody gets to go home from their bedroom.

Energy-efficient but sick buildings often cost society far more than they save. Renters sit in the middle of it, unable to carry out expensive building changes.

What to do

If an open window loses heat, at least keep trickle vents open. Leave the bedroom door ajar, which gives the moisture somewhere to go.

A generational practice and German daily ritual of Lüften is now popularised on TikTok as “house burping”. By throwing the windows wide open for ten to 15 minutes immediately after getting up, you rapidly purge the stale air and moisture while saving heat loss.

When it is extremely cold, even for Lüften, people often reach for a dehumidifier. These devices cost roughly between £90 and £300, and a typical dehumidifier draws around 250 watts and costs around 6p to 9p an hour to run.

Most dehumidifiers have a humidistat (a small electronic device used to measure and control the humidity) that you can set to a minimum target. A sensible target for a bedroom is 60% – the machine runs until the room reaches it, shuts itself off, and wakes again when the humidity creeps back up. Others run for a specified period, set as desired, or continuously.

Dehumidifiers are a genuine help for a cold, damp bedroom when there are few other options.

While none of this replaces a proper ventilation system, it changes what you breathe at night. For definitive proof of bad air quality in your bedroom, use an indoor air quality monitor. Seeing the hard data is often the best prompt to open a window, clear a vent, or switch on a dehumidifier.

The talented 22-year-old qualifies for both Wales and England

Dual-qualified centre Joe Jenkins says he wants to play international rugby but admits he doesn’t know yet where his loyalty will land between Wales and England.

The 22-year-old will turn out for Leicester Tigers this season after making the move to the East Midlands following four years with Bristol Bears. While he has been held back by injuries at times, Jenkins impressed when given an opportunity in the first team at Ashton Gate and hopes that his big move will help him take another big step forwards in his career.

While he is primarily focused on first earning his stripes with Leicester, the dynamic centre is also determined to make it to the Test arena. However, he admits he is keeping an open mind about who he wants to represent on the international stage.

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Jenkins was born in Halifax but is eligible to play for Wales due to his father hailing from Llanharan. After attending Monmouth School, he vied for a place with the Dragons U16s’ side before being scooped by Bristol and becoming their youngest-ever PREM Rugby starter in 2022, at the age of 18.

Having come through the English pathway system, he represented England at U20s level but, having tried to select him in his squad, former Wales U20s head coach Byron Hayward claimed in 2023 that Jenkins is “100 per cent Welsh” and wants to wear the red jersey at senior level in the future.

“He’s Welsh-qualified,” Hayward said previously. “[His dad] said Joe felt obligated to England because he’d come through their U18s programme, and they had rehabbed him through a knee injury which is totally explainable. I understand and quite admire his loyalty.

“He is 100% Welsh and assured me that Joe wants to play for Wales at senior level and sees himself as a Welshman. However, at this moment in time he felt a loyalty to England because they’ve looked after him.”

Three years on, however, Jenkins admits that he is yet to decide for sure where his senior international loyalties lie, with the youngster keeping “an open mind”.

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has speculated about how long it will take for artificial intelligence to replace senior leadership teams in organisations. “Shame on me,” Altman told the Conversations with Tyler podcast in November 2025, “if OpenAI is not the first big company run by an AI CEO.”

Altman is not the only one thinking about corporate robot leaders. Mark Zuckerberg has revealed he is training an AI agent to partly automate his job as the boss of Meta.

The promise of an AI CEO, powered by machine learning and neural networks, is that it can streamline decision-making and improve management operations. This vision is not new: in 2017, Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, was already predicting the rise of android business leaders.

Since then, several companies have installed a humanoid AI bot as their chief executive, including Chinese videogame company NetDragon Websoft and Polish drinks company Dictador. While these examples are probably publicity stunts dressed up as corporate strategy, the theory is that AI can do anything a human leader can do – only better and cheaper.

For Altman, though, there is a problem: not with AI – you can already run a company by algorithmic processes – but with humans. Workers might not be ready to accept an AI CEO that has the power to hire and fire at will, for example.

For this reason, Altman said he could see himself remaining the public face of OpenAI – a charismatic leader of an organisation that is otherwise largely automated.

Human face, AI brain

Altman’s vision aligns with what we call the “reversal of the Mechanical Turk”, a phenomenon that involves hiding AI behind a human face.

The original Mechanical Turk was a chess-playing machine designed and constructed by the engineer and inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen. Unveiled in 1770 at the Austrian imperial court to impress Empress Maria Theresa, it displayed an Ottoman-dressed figure seated behind a chessboard on top of a large cabinet. The doll appeared to play chess, usually beating its human opponents.

For nearly a century, the Mechanical Turk toured Europe and the US, defeating such eminent figures as Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin. Finally, Edgar Allan Poe’s family doctor acquired it and confirmed what had long been suspected: the machine was an illusion, operated by a human chess player hidden inside the cabinet.

The future of leadership in Altman’s vision is the exact opposite of the Mechanical Turk: a company that appears human (with Altman as its friendly face) but is actually machinic.

In Altman’s view, AI can do all the things a human CEO is supposed to do – including formulating a corporate vision, communicating organisational values and making strategic decisions. But the public will see only the human in the loop, not the algorithms behind the scenes.

Leadership in the age of AI

Could an AI CEO really do the job better than its human counterpart? If the role of CEO is to maximise efficiency and pursue market growth at all costs, then the answer might be “yes”. After all, AI is built to produce high-probability outputs based on patterns in data.

But most people expect more from leaders than algorithmic optimisation – a means-ends logic without heart or soul. The importance still placed on popular concepts like authenticity, responsiblity and value-driven leadership indicate that what we want from corporate leaders is something intrinsically human.

Just as we know that computers are infinitely better at number crunching than humans, we also know that computers are incapable of key leadership qualities like empathy or ethical judgment. A large language model (LLM)-based chatbot is unable to exert true leadership, just as a dishwasher is unable to fall in love.

Yet an AI CEO might be able to imitate the qualities we expect from good leaders. It’s plausible, for example, that an AI CEO could convince us that it cares about its employees or that it feels strongly about the company’s mission, in the same way that any chatbot tells us things we want to hear.

But none of this would be true. An AI CEO can only ever be a bundle of predictive algorithms geared towards operational effectiveness.

Against the anthropomorphisation of AI

The idea of an AI CEO is an extreme form of the anthropomorphisation of LLM-based systems. We already use terms such as artificial intelligence, reasoning models and hallucinations when talking about non-sentient machines. The word “leadership” applied in this context is no different.

The anthropomorphism of AI creates the illusion that chatbots operate “just like a human leader”. At the start of this year, the US AI company Anthropic published an 84-page constitution in which the company set out its “vision for Claude’s character”, including the personality traits for its AI chatbot.

These traits included intellectual curiosity, warmth and care, and a deep commitment to honesty and ethics – all qualities that we normally associate with good leadership.

It is important to call out such chimeras. Doing so can avoid amplifying the illusion of the Mechanical Turk reversed: a belief that an AI CEO could really take the place of a living, breathing corporate leader, supplanting their most quintessential human qualities.

AI has long been discussed as a threat to jobs and livelihoods. But what’s the reality? In this series, we explore the impact it is already having on different occupations – and how people really feel about their AI assistants.

Clarkson’s Farm star Harriet Cowan has been busy since her stint on the Prime Video show, but recently took time out from work to enjoy Y Not Festival with her pals

Clarkson’s Farm star Harriet Cowan has showcased a strikingly different persona after glamming up for a music festival alongside her friends. The 25-year-old rose to fame following her appearance on Jeremy Clarkson’s Prime Video series in its fourth series, temporarily replacing farmhand Kaleb Cooper while he undertook his solo tour, The World According to Kaleb.

Harriet, a TikTok content creator and healthcare worker at the time, rapidly adapted to her responsibilities and established herself as a popular member of the programme. Upon securing the role, however, she confessed she’d never actually watched the series before, which is recorded at former Top Gear presenter Clarkson’s estate at Diddly Squat Farm in Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds.

Despite this, she eagerly immersed herself in the duties, tackling tasks in the cattle barn, the stables, and across the farmland. Accompanied by several pals, Harriet recently attended Y Not Festival, which ran from July 30 to August 2 in Pikehall in the Peak District, drawing approximately 33,000 attendees.

In a video she shared on TikTok, she donned a white form-fitting bodysuit, paired with burgundy cowgirl boots and a coordinating leather jacket. The ensemble was a stark contrast to the clothing viewers typically see her wearing alongside Jeremy Clarkson and fellow cast members on screen.

“Festival weekend,” she wrote in the caption as she twirled for her 844,000 followers. Harriet also turned to Instagram to post a collection of photographs from the festival.

The opening image captured her revelling with friends as darkness fell over the main stage. “Did someone say festival season?” she wrote.

Harriet was also snapped enjoying a few drinks, and sharing her delight at discovering another festival attendee wearing one of Clarkson’s Hawkstone Brewery t-shirts. She struck further poses before the festival’s helter-skelter and mingled amongst the crowds of revellers.

“Damn, I watched that more than I should have…,” one admirer confessed in the comments. A second gushed: “Wow, you look good in that outfit girl.”

A third contributed: “Farm is treating you well!” While a fourth TikTok user declared: “Wow! Simply wow!”

Following her appearance on Clarkson’s Farm, it has emerged Harriet has formed her own private company called Farmfluence, with the organisation registered on July 1, 2025. Based on latest company documentation, the business operations are described as “motion picture, video and television programme post-production activities” with Harriet acting as the sole director/shareholder.

Alongside her growing prominence and recent agency partnership, Harriet has revealed her tie-up with Country Moos, a sock manufacturer specialising in bovine designs, which she will be championing through her social media channels.

This year’s Y Not Festival delivered an exceptional programme, with The Libertines, The Streets, Two Door Cinema Club, and Reytons securing the top billing. The remarkable roster also featured Kaiser Chiefs, The Vaccines, Happy Mondays, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, The Royston Club, Scouting For Girls, Ash, Reverend And The Makers, Keo, and Freddie Halkon.

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