7 h. ago Ministers aim to export London’s academic success to England’s struggling schools

Ministers aim to export London’s academic success to England’s struggling schools  The Guardian

Politics

3 d. ago ‘Perfect modern player’: Hugo Ekitiké has all the attributes to thrive at Liverpool

Frenchman’s display of natural ability during spells in Denmark and Germany is a positive indicator for his move to AnfieldHugo Ekitiké is a £79m striker who has swapped the Bundesliga for the Premier League champions and is preparing to test himself against the best defenders in England and Europe. Four years ago, he was struggling to make the breakthrough at his boyhood club Reims and was sent on loan to Denmark to learn about football and himself.Ekitiké arrived as an 18‑year‑old in the city of Vejle in January 2021 to join a club primed for a relegation battle, a world away from what he can expect at Liverpool. Although a naturally confident person, he took time to settle into life away from home. But it was quickly apparent Ekitiké possessed natural ability and electrifying pace with which to torment teammates in training and excite his manager. First, though, he needed to get up to speed with the Danish league and began with a cameo off the bench in a goalless d...

Sport

7 d. ago Toussaint Douglass: Accessible Pigeon Material review – an eccentric hour from a fringe fledgling

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe south Londoner’s avian theme frames a fine debut about family, neurodivergence, pigeons, pigeons and more pigeonsTwenty years ago, Original Pirate Material emerged from Brixton and made a star of Mike Skinner AKA the Streets. Now from another corner of south London comes its near-namesake Accessible Pigeon Material, by Lewisham export Toussaint Douglass. Dry your eyes, mate? OK, Douglass’s compendium of autobiography and bird gags may not reduce you to tears. But it’s an eye-catching hour from an act with a distinctive line in do-things-his-own-way comedy.Eccentricity is relative, of course. Douglass promises (or should that be threatens?) that pigeons, pigeons and more pigeons will be all we’re getting, and, to stress the point, there’s one circulating the stage strapped to a remote-controlled car. Pigeon facts are then scattered like seed by a man with an outsized zeal for our feathered not-always-friends. But the show soon deviates from the avian...

Politics

8 d. ago Interest rates LIVE: Bank of England set to make major cut as economy struggles

Interest rates are set to be slashed to 4% this afternoon, marking the fifth cut since last August - and taking the cost of borrowing to its lowest level in more than two years

Economics

1 week ago Split Bank of England will struggle to give clear outlook on interest rates, say economists

Investors expect a cut this week, but a divided MPC is keeping its options open

Economics

4 w. ago 'Climate change doesn't exist,' says Reform UK mayor Andrea Jenkyns despite third heatwave of summer

Her comments came as the East and West Midlands became the latest areas of England to fall into drought as the country struggles with the driest start to the year since 1976

Society