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Wellington, Somerset: Desiccated leaves crunch underfoot and ponds have shrunk to muddy pools. Will I catch a glimpse of bioluminescence?

July is staggering to a close: exhausted, feverish and desperate for a drink. It’s been one of the hottest on record, and still no sign of rain. Townsfolk have become crepuscular: walking the dog before dawn and venturing out only after sundown.

It’s been a terrible year for plants and trees – everyone battling to keep gardens watered and alive. But it’s been an extraordinary year for Wellington wildlife: we’ve had ospreys, beavers – and now glowworms?

Leftwing Democrats are having their moment in the sun, with Zohran Mamdani in New York, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and endless calls for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028. Has Democratic socialism shifted from the political fringe to the mainstream? And can this group lure back the all-important swing voters?

Jonathan Freedland speaks to Bhaskar Sunkara, president of the Nation magazine, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequalities

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Campaigners worry politicians will have moved on by time of elections in which Marine Le Pen is expected to challenge

As dozens of forest wildfires burned across France this week amid the summer’s fourth brutal heatwave and increasing air pollution, some wondered whether voters’ first-hand experience of the climate emergency would change the political debate ahead of next year’s presidential election.

The Green leader, Marine Tondelier, who cut short a tour of France on medical advice that at seven months pregnant she should avoid breathing smoke-filled air in the south-west near a huge wildfire in Gironde, said the political class still had its head in the sand.

Under Özgür Özel, the CHP became Turkey’s most popular party. Now his Yeni (New) movement is growing fast

In May this year, police in Ankara stormed the headquarters of the Republican People’s party (CHP), the oldest political party in Turkey. Officers used teargas to enforce a controversial appeal court decision that reinstated the CHP’s 77-year-old former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu – seen as less of a threat to the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP). CHP members aligned with Kılıçdaroğlu’s successor, Özgür Özel, placed furniture at the building’s entrance, creating a barrier to prevent police from entering. It didn’t work. Hours later, party members loyal to Özel were physically removed from the premises.

Entering the offices of Turkey’s leading opposition party in such a fashion was a spectacular act with historic consequences. Last Friday, Özel and 90 CHP deputies resigned from their party and declared the founding of the New (Yeni) party. The CHP had served as Turkey’s main opposition since 2002. But not any longer: with the exodus of members to the New party, the CHP is reduced to just 44 legislators in the 600-seat parliament, its third smallest party out of seven.

I worked with children for years, so the noise doesn’t bother me. You know you’ve done a good job if they’re quiet on the way home

I’ve been a bus driver for 25 years. Before that, I worked in engineering sales and was on the road a lot, but it became impractical once I had young children. I took my kids to soft play centres and I thought: “I could run a place like this.” I opened my own centre in a Victorian shopping arcade in Otley, West Yorkshire, in 1995. It was great as my daughters could come with me. Then, a customer told me about play buses – vehicles converted into soft play centres with slides, ball pits and climbing frames. I liked the idea.

I went to an exhibition to look at some and bought a doubledecker that had already been converted. My uncle drove it home, because I couldn’t. I had to learn quickly as it was parked outside my house. It had no power steering and a ratchet handbrake. I threw up during my first lesson because I was so scared, but driving it soon became second nature. I passed my test within six months.

​She faced racist bullying as a child – then pigeonholing as an artist. Now following up a hit debut album championed by the A-list, the Croydon singer-songwriter says she finally understands who she really is

In October 2017, Rachel Chinouriri had her first panic attack. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. She’d just landed her first major gig as a professional musician, supporting Celeste at the London members’ club Laylow. Out of nowhere, she began to spiral. “I don’t know what happened,” she says. “I just started having a mental breakdown.” Her manager told her to go home, try again next time. But that only made things worse. “I started feeling like I was wasting everyone’s time,” she says. “I started feeling ashamed.” It would be better, she decided, to go on stage and sing, “half crying”.

Tears were already a familiar response to Chinouriri’s performance anxiety: the first time she sang in front of her classmates at the Brit school – the performing arts institution that trained Adele, Amy Winehouse and more – she burst into sobs afterwards. A rather inconvenient habit for an aspiring pop star, but at least she front-loaded the humiliation at the start of her career. “That was a big milestone for me,” she says of the Celeste show. “The fact that I could stand up there completely embarrassed, with people looking at me like, ‘Don’t really know what’s up with this girl’, but I still got through it and everything was fine.” The experience taught her that the catastrophic scenarios in her head rarely come to pass. “I’d given myself this pressure of, ‘This is the music industry. If they think I’m rubbish, I’m never gonna perform again.’” Chinouriri rolls her eyes at herself.

Campaigners worry politicians will have moved on by time of elections in which Marine Le Pen is expected to challenge

As dozens of forest wildfires burned across France this week amid the summer’s fourth brutal heatwave and increasing air pollution, some wondered whether voters’ first-hand experience of the climate emergency would change the political debate ahead of next year’s presidential election.

The Green leader, Marine Tondelier, who cut short a tour of France on medical advice that at seven months pregnant she should avoid breathing smoke-filled air in the south-west near a huge wildfire in Gironde, said the political class still had its head in the sand.

A zero-waste shop set up by a district council provides plastic-free products at affordable prices in a country that gets through 164m sachets a day

Just after classes finish for the day in Malabon City, in the Philippines, a corner shop begins to fill. Mothers arrive with their children, handing over empty bottles to be refilled with soy sauce and cooking oil. Plastic tubs that previously held ice-cream or biscuits are weighed and filled with flour or sugar. The kids get some sweets and banana chips bagged in brown kraft paper.

This store, Tingi Tindahan, offers a different experience from other small independent shops in the country. It retains the accessibility of micro-retail, colloquially known as tingi, while reintroducing reuse and refill methods instead of selling products in sachets and plastic packaging that too quickly becomes discarded waste.

Queensland police fine driver of another car that allegedly caused Yaris to swerve before it hit kerb and catapulted into air – and bus

A Queensland driver has been fined after being involved in a stunning crash that saw a car become airborne and then stuck in the side of a bus.

The drama unfolded at Rocklea in Brisbane’s south on Wednesday evening. A blue Toyota Yaris hit a traffic island and was catapulted into the air before smashing into the side of the council bus. The back of the car was left protruding from the bus.

Queensland police fine driver of another car that allegedly caused Yaris to swerve before it hit kerb and catapulted into air – and bus

A Queensland driver has been fined after being involved in a stunning crash that saw a car become airborne and then stuck in the side of a bus.

The drama unfolded at Rocklea in Brisbane’s south on Wednesday evening. A blue Toyota Yaris hit a traffic island and was catapulted into the air before smashing into the side of the council bus. The back of the car was left protruding from the bus.

Rescuers say four bodies found in search for team caught in Broad Peak avalanche, after trackers showed rapid descent

The world-renowned Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja – a former British special forces member – is among 10 climbers caught in a deadly avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak.

Rescuers on Friday said four bodies had been found and efforts were under way to retrieve them despite the harsh weather. Two of the dead have been identified: Pur Bahadur Gurung, a Nepali citizen, and Nadhira Alharthy, who was the first Omani to climb Everest.

One Nation leader’s ‘how can you tell me there are good Muslims?’ remarks were the subject of complaints, but police say the matter has now been finalised

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The Australian federal police has determined One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s comments about Muslim Australians “do not meet the threshold” of breaching hate laws.

The AFP said it received several complaints about Hanson’s remarks to Sky News on 16 February.

Across the country, workers are fearful about the impact of AI on their livelihoods in an increasingly fragile labour market

On the tree-lined streets of Wuhan, where cars jostle for space with mopeds and cargo trucks, the malfunctioning of a new type of vehicle has recently been causing chaos on the city’s roads.

In March, several cars from a fleet of driverless taxis stopped abruptly in the streets. The “system malfunction” left distressed riders stranded for hours. The robotaxis, known as Apollo Go and powered by artificial intelligence (AI), were taken off Wuhan’s streets for months for investigations.

Пользователи из регионов начали писать в поддержку одно и то же: приложение не открывается. Симптомы у всех разные. У кого-то вечная загрузка, у кого-то белый экран, у кого-то заходит, только если включить VPN.

На своём компьютере всё летает. С зарубежного сервера проверяю, тоже без проблем. Сижу, чешу затылок.

Сначала списал на случайные глюки у провайдеров. Мало ли, бывает. Но обращений становилось больше, а не меньше, и в какой-то момент стало ясно: это не совпадение, это системная штука. Пришлось лезть в сетевой дебаг с головой.

В этой статье расскажу, как искал причину таймаутов, где я сам сначала неправильно объяснил себе проблему, и что в итоге поменял в инфраструктуре, чтобы всё заработало стабильно.