The 760-page report from the UK Covid-19 Inquiry makes for “grim reading for the country’s former prime minister, and much of his top team”, said Andrew McDonald on Politico. “Boris Johnson, look away now.”

‘Inexcusable’ delays 
Inaction and palpable Covid “scepticism” turned February 2020 into “a lost month”, said inquiry chair Heather Hallett. Covid cases were soaring but the Cabinet did not meet during the half-term break, and Johnson did not chair a single meeting of the Cobra emergency committee. Scientific models suggest that a nationwide lockdown on 16 March “would have halved the number of deaths in the first wave” but, by the time a lockdown was considered, a week later, it “was already too late”.

Downing Street culture was ‘toxic and chaotic’
Johnson “reinforced” a “toxic and chaotic” environment at the centre of government, in which the views of colleagues, “particularly women, often went ignored, to the detriment of good decision-making”, Hallett said. Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s special adviser at the time, “materially contributed” to a sexist workplace culture.

Devolved nations ‘overly reliant’ on Westminster
The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland “failed to engage with the threat” and were “overly reliant” on Westminster to lead the response, said the report. A “lack of trust” between Johnson and the nations’ First Ministers “coloured the approach to decision-making throughout the pandemic”. None of the national cabinets acted with “sufficient speed”.

Partygate ‘undermined public confidence’
Rule-breaking and “Partygate” events resulted in public outcry. Officials and ministers breaking lockdown rules, and that rule-breaking not being swiftly addressed, “undermined public confidence in decision-making and significantly increased the risk of people not complying with the rules designed to protect them,” said Hallett.

Scientific advice ‘bamboozled’ politicians
The inquiry heard that “many ministers lacked confidence in their ability to understand technical material”, said Jessica Murray in The Guardian, with Johnson in particular singled out for struggling with scientific concepts. Notes taken by then chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance recorded Johnson as “bamboozled” and said watching him “get his head around the stats was awful”.

Although the outcome of Cop30 remains unclear, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has doubled down on Britain’s commitment to tackling global warming. But the actions behind the government’s words paint a more complicated picture.

What did the commentators say?
Miliband and Keir Starmer arrived in Brazil “armed with undeniable climate credentials”, said Politico’s Charlie Cooper. His government remains committed to achieving net zero by 2050, with a target of clean power meeting 95% of Britain’s energy demand by 2030, as well as the promise of hundreds of thousands of new green energy jobs. But international aid, which supports the UK’s global climate objectives, has been slashed, and ministers are exploring watering down a pledge to ban new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.

These contrasting policy positions “neatly capture the Starmer approach to climate action”, said Cooper. “If it suits the domestic economic and political agenda, great. If not, then there is no guarantee of No. 10 and Treasury support.”

“The UK is an example of how not to do energy and climate policy,” said Dieter Helm, a professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford, in The Times. While territorial carbon emissions have been coming down, this “reflects more the transformation of the British economy, and not in a good way”. Britain is deindustrialising, and much of its green energy industry relies on imports from China, which burns half the world’s coal.

What next?
Reform UK has launched an all-out war on what its deputy leader, Richard Tice, has called “net stupid zero”, pledging to rip up green energy contracts if it wins power. The “challenge” for Miliband and his allies “will be to show that his mission is a net benefit, not a net cost”, said The Spectator’s James Heale.

Miliband must “stop digging an ever-deeper energy policy hole”, said Helm in The Times. What we need is “honesty” that meaningful decarbonisation “really costs”.

Miss Mexico celebrates becoming the 74th Miss Universe at a ceremony in Bangkok, following a scandal-filled pageant season. Fatima Bosch claimed the crown weeks after  walking out of a public event after the contest’s director allegedly called her a “dumbhead”. 

Lillian Suwanrumpha / Getty

Tuscany: Torrita di Siena
An enchanting Liberty-style villa. Currently split into two flats, it can easily revert to being a whole house. 4 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, garden, parking. €540,000; Sotheby’s

Lombardy: Piazza Nazario Sauro, Gargnano
A generous first-floor flat on Lake Garda that requires complete renovation. The support of a specialist renovation company is available. 2 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, recep, cellar. €410,000; Sotheby’s

Apulia: Ceglie Messapica
Picturesque 17th-century trulli complex nestled among ancient olive groves in the Valle d’Itria. 3 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, swimming pool, garden, parking. €600,000; Sotheby’s

Tuscany: Via di Montalbano
An impressive villa with far-reaching views, located between Florence and Pisa. 7 beds, 6 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, approx. 8.4 acres of land, parking. €950,000; Savills

Umbria: Monteleone d’Orvieto
Charming farmhouse set in mature gardens with an olive grove. 5 beds, 7 baths, kitchen/ breakfast room, open-plan living/dining room, annexe, swimming pool, garden. €1.14 million; Hamptons

Pisa: Piazza San Martino
An elegant, frescoed first-floor flat in an 18th-century noble residence, located in the historic heart of the city. 3 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, lift, self-contained 1-bed annexe, courtyard, garage. €845,000; Sotheby’s

Boris Johnson is finished – there can be no comeback
Isabel Hardman in The i Paper
The Covid-19 Inquiry report should “mark the point at which any ambitions” Boris Johnson “holds of a return to political life are shown up as being delusions”. The “Boris believers” seem “quieter these days” anyway, “muffled perhaps by their worries about the impact of the Boriswave” of immigration. The former PM “will not feel the level of accountability” many think “he should face for his failures”, but these two issues might now “be decoupled from his future prospects as a politician”.

AI is teaching a university course. We need to stop it
Ceci Browning in The Times
“Robots are taking over universities!” That claim “might once have seemed preposterous”, writes Ceci Browning, but University of Staffordshire students are complaining about online lectures featuring “AI-created slides and an AI voiceover”. I was at university during the pandemic and witnessed the “slide away” from teaching in person, but this is “a new low.” If courses aren’t being taught by humans, students might as well watch “three years’ worth of TikTok videos”, or just not go “at all”.

It’s Time to Trust the Global South
Sophie Eisentraut on Foreign Policy
The US is “leaving an empty chair at this weekend’s G-20 summit”, writes the Munich Security Conference’s Sophie Eisentraut. European leaders say they want “more friends” in the Global South but, with “few concrete initiatives”, they still seem sceptical “about the merits of deeper collaboration”. They should “take a more nuanced look” at how “governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East” have promoted “peace and security, economic stability, global health, climate protection, and human rights”.