In the midst of a leadership election, the Green Party is facing an ideological reckoning. 

Voting opened for party members on 1 August, with current co-leader Adrian Ramsay (pictured above) and his new running mate Ellie Chowns up against "insurgent candidate" Zack Polanski, said Channel 4 News. Polanski, the "gay, Jewish, London Assembly member from Manchester", is "standing on an eco-populist platform, promising to out-Farage Nigel Farage". But Ramsay and Chowns are warning that his "new direction" could narrow the appeal of the Greens to just the progressive left.

What did the commentators say?
With Labour moving "rightward" in response to the "ongoing threat" of Reform UK, the government is "more exposed on its left flank", said Megan Kenyon in The New Statesman. In this "moment of flux" for British politics, the Greens could succeed – but new challenges are emerging, most notably from Jeremy Corbyn's yet-to-be-named party.

The former Labour leader is a "bloody nightmare for the Greens", Robert Ford, a political science professor at Manchester University, told Politico. Some "see room for a pact", said the site, but not everyone is convinced – including Ramsay and Chowns and also Corbyn, who has suggested the Greens are not left-wing enough for an alliance.

Chowns has insisted that the Green Party must protect its "distinctive identity" and keep the environment "front and centre", while trying to connect with a "wide range of voters". But Polanski told The Guardian last month that he was "open to working with anyone who's up for challenging the far-right threat of Reform and this unpopular Labour government".

What next?
Recent polls show Labour losing nearly as many supporters to the Greens as to Reform, but whether the Greens can "turn the opportunity into political power remains to be seen", said The Economist. "Their choice of leader will be an indicator of how the eco-warriors will approach the battle."

"The tensions are already on show," said Peter Franklin on UnHerd. During a "deeply awkward" recent LBC interview, Ramsay was repeatedly asked if he likes Polanksi. Ramsay eventually said he does, "but I've seen happier performances in a hostage video". It's an "excruciating dilemma" for the Greens. "The losers don't just stand to lose a leadership election, but the party they once believed in."

Jobseekers who manage to land interviews are increasingly facing a new hurdle: being interviewed not by an HR manager but a robot. You might worry that artificial intelligence is "coming for your job", said The New York Times, but it may also be "coming for your job interviewer".

'Paradoxically humanising'
AI interviewers can be a "godsend" for middle managers, said Fortune. The tech can help save time in first-round calls, allowing human interviewers more time to have "more meaningful conversations" with applicants in the next round.

Like it or not, said Futurism, this is a "new reality" that jobseekers "will have to put up with no matter what", because a growing number of companies view it as a "way to free up time for overworked hiring managers", particularly for "high-volume hiring" in areas such as customer service.

It may seem a dehumanising development, but supporters insist that the opposite is true. "It's really paradoxical" but "in a lot of ways", this offers a "much more humanising experience", Arsham Ghahramani, co-founder of Ribbon, a company that produced an AI interviewer, told The New York Times. AI can screen the avalanche of applications and then "ask questions that are really tailored to you".

'Not all AI interviewers created equal'
Yet many jobseekers are "swearing off" interviews conducted using AI, which they say makes them feel so "unappreciated" that they prefer to miss potential job opportunities, according to Fortune. Candidates may reason that the company's culture "can't be great" if human bosses won't take the time to interview them.

However, "not all AI interviewers are created equal", said the magazine. While some are "monotonous, robotic-voiced bots with pictures of strange feminised avatars",  other AI interviewers are a "faceless bot" with a "more natural-sounding voice". And, unlike humans, said Forbes, they can focus on "relevant signals" while "ignoring irrelevant" ones such as those "linked to social class, demographic status" and any other "information likely to decrease fairness".

Newcastle: King Street
A spacious flat in the city centre, ten minutes from the university, with impressive views down to the River Tyne. 2 beds, family bath, kitchen, recep/dining. £235,000; Bridgfords

Bristol: Dowry Square, Hotwells
An elegant flat in a Georgian building on one of Bristol’s oldest squares, close to the university. The property – which dates back to 1721 – has large sash windows and overlooks a garden square tended by the residents' association. 1 bed, family bath, kitchen, living/dining room. £325,000; Boardwalk Property

Plymouth: The Hoe, Lockyer Street
An impressive house overlooking Plymouth Sound and within walking distance of the university. 5 beds (1 en suite), family bath, shower, kitchen/dining room, 2 receps, 1-bed annexe, garden, garage. £975,000; Marchand Petit

London: Cosmo Place, Bloomsbury WC1
This handsome flat is on a picturesque pedestrianised street just a short stroll from the UCL campus, Russell Square and Lamb's Conduit Street. Main suite, open-plan kitchen/living/dining room, balcony. £525,000; Dexters

Has Kemi Badenoch really thought about the problem of evil?
Fergus Butler-Gallie in The Spectator
Kemi Badenoch's revelation that Josef Fritzl's crimes made her "reject God" shows a "remarkably incurious attitude to the deeper questions of good and evil", writes the Reverend Fergus Butler-Gallie. The Tory leader appears to view God "entirely as a quid pro quo giver of gifts, a sort of cosmic Father Christmas", and seemingly isn't "willing or able" to give the issue more thought. Her claim that she "hasn't rejected Christianity", only God, also "reveals a worrying ignorance" since "the two are not coherently separable".

JD Vance has a choice: be Trump's puppet president or become irrelevant
Sarah Baxter in The i Paper
The US vice president will be "cock-a-hoop" that his "head-spinning shift" from "liberal darling" to MAGA loyalist is "paying off 'bigly'", after Donald Trump "picked him to be his successor", writes Sarah Baxter. But J.D. Vance "won't be getting a golden ticket to the top for nothing". Even if he wins in 2028, Vance "won't be free of Trump's grip", just as "Margaret Thatcher continues to cast a pall over her Tory successors more than three decades after leaving office".

Chris Bryant revealing sex abuse allegations in book is not bravery – it's a betrayal
Harvey Proctor in the Daily Express
Labour minister Chris Bryant's recent claim that he was sexually assaulted by five male MPs is a "deeply serious matter" and "he has my full sympathy", writes former Tory MP Harvey Proctor. But it's "indefensible" that Bryant chose to share this allegation "not with the police, but in the press, timed with the release of his latest book". A "sweeping cloud of suspicion" has been "cast over every male MP from that era, with no possibility of redress for the innocent".