Three-quarters of secondary schools in England are breaking the rules on meals offered to pupils by serving junk food too often, according to a new report from a youth activist charity. Bite Back, set up by chef Jamie Oliver, said its analysis had discovered “alarming” and “shocking” breaches of school food standards at nearly 400 state secondary schools. The system is “fundamentally failing our children”, said the charity’s chief executive, D’Arcy Williams.

What rules are being broken?
Researchers found that three out of four of the 391 schools investigated were breaching the guidelines in at least one respect. Around half (53%) were selling products with banned levels of fat, sugar or salt, including crisps, biscuits and pastries. Under current rules, schools are only allowed to sell fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds as snacks.

More than half (57%) were also offering processed meats, such as burgers and nuggets, more regularly than the permitted twice a week. Fried potato products, such as hash browns, were appearing on school menus more frequently than the same recommended limit in 144 schools (37%). At 123 schools (31%), chocolate was included in desserts or baked items, in breach of the rules. But only three schools (1%) were selling banned sugary drinks.

Why are these breaches a problem?
The majority of teachers believe that what children eat at school has a direct impact on behaviour and concentration, according to The Food Foundation. In a recent survey of more than 6,000 primary and secondary school teachers across England, 80% said unhealthy lunch or snack food can lead to disruptive behaviour, and 85% believe diet affects classroom concentration.

What is the new overhaul?
Along with expanding the provision of free school meals to all pupils from households receiving universal credit, the government will further tighten healthy eating guidelines. From this month, deep-fried food, such as nuggets and chips, will be banned entirely, while high-sugar desserts will be restricted to once a week. Fruit-based options will largely replace puddings.

The “ambitious overhaul” will ensure children have “access to healthy, balanced meals” and are “protected from the harms of eating too much ultra-processed food”, said a Department for Education spokesperson. Every school will also be required to “publish their food policy and menus online to improve transparency for parents”.

In January 2023, Lindsay Clancy sent her husband Patrick to pick up a takeaway. She then killed their three children, aged five, three, and eight months. The 36-year-old from Massachusetts, now on trial for murder, does not deny killing her children but claims that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. In the months leading up to the tragedy, she had sought help from multiple medical professionals, tried more than a dozen prescription drugs, checked herself into a psychiatric hospital and twice called a suicide hotline.

Jurors are into their fourth day of deliberations on the verdict, and the televised trial has “gathered extraordinary – and increasingly uncontrollable – momentum among the public”, said The Times.

‘Collective maternal fear’
Many mothers sympathise with Clancy because “she is our very worst nightmare”, said Victoria Smith on UnHerd. She is “a vessel for a kind of collective maternal fear”. This is what happens when “mothers are ignored, when maternal health is trivialised, and when research into female psychiatric disorders is neglected”.

I’m “perplexed” by the support for Clancy, said Nicole Russell on USA Today. Holding her up as a poster child” for struggling new mums is “a bridge too far”. Compassion for Clancy is one thing but it should not overshadow “the demand for justice” for her three dead children.

If any positive can be drawn from this case, said Olivia Petter in The Independent, it’s that a “global spotlight” has been shone on postpartum psychosis, an under-researched condition” that remains “shrouded in stigma”. Clancy’s trial will spark “long-awaited” conversations that should “get more research done” and “ultimately save lives”.

‘True-crime brain’
The trial has been live-streamed on multiple platforms every day, turning it into a “referendum on motherhood and mental health”, said Monica Hesse in The Washington Post. But it has also triggered multiple conspiracy theories.

Given the “epidemic” of “true-crime brain”, the “political and sociocultural moment”, and the “bottomless horror” of the case, it was “inevitable” that this trial would “inspire outlandish counternarratives”, said Jessica Winter in The New Yorker. It’s clearer than ever that the “American public distrusts its legal institutions and media outlets”, and that creates “a vacuum in which wild conjecture can bloom”. 

Aldabra tortoises are fed a platter of vegetables at Surabaya Zoo in East Java, Indonesia. Four of the giant herbivores, a male and three females, have been transferred to their new home from Japan’s iZoo as part of a breeding and conservation programme.

Robertus Pudyanto / Getty

For every traveller who wants to kick back and relax during their holiday, there’s another who refuses to sit still. These hotels are for the active voyager who’s game for a new adventure.

Explore the trails at Río Perdido, Costa Rica
The outdoors is your gym at Río Perdido (pictured above). Hike, run, do yoga or take a peaceful stroll on the property’s 1,500 acres. Guests have access to a vast network of rock trails for mountain biking that twist and turn through dry forest and a thermal canyon. And they can also spike their adrenaline by whitewater rafting on the Tenorio River, which is “both intense and exhilarating if the rapids are strong,” said Condé Nast Traveller.

Play padel at Adare Manor, Ireland
A mix of tennis and squash, this racket sport is growing in popularity, and Adare Manor has the perfect spot to learn the game or hone your skills. The Padel Club houses two custom-built padel courts, with instructors on hand to teach newbies, and a selection of racquets to borrow. Once the ancestral home of the Earls of Dunraven, the grand Adare Manor sits in a “secluded” area, and also offers other activities, including fishing and falconry, that are “fit for Irish nobility”, said Forbes.

Pick up polo at Coworth Park, England
It’s “hard to imagine a more pleasant setting” than Coworth Park, tucked away in the Berkshire countryside, said The Telegraph. There’s a lovely meadow filled with wildflowers, a lake with swans, and polo fields where guests can have customized lessons through the Guards Polo Academy. Learn to properly swing a mallet and glide across the field, or for the more confident rider, enjoy a day out playing alongside polo club members.

Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank
The Financial Times’ editorial board
We must not ignore the “disaster unfolding in the West Bank” as “Jewish settler violence drives yet more families from their homes”, says the Financial Times. Israel has “legitimate security concerns”, but these are illegal “land grabs in the service of ideology”, and the situation for Palestinians is “getting worse” as Israeli elections loom. Western countries must “ban imports” from these illegal settlements and “convince” Donald Trump that Benjamin Netanyahu “is acting against US and Israeli interests by destabilising the region”.

Splintered right-wing vote could turn us green
Melanie Phillips in The Times
The outcome of a “minor” Dover council by-election has “enormous implications” for the right, writes Melanie Phillips. Reform “was expected to win”, but a three-way Reform-Restore-Tory split meant “a constituency that wants gunboats at dawn to stop” small-boat crossings elected the Greens, “a party that thinks anyone who opposes mass immigration should be exiled from the human race”. To avoid this kind of “circular firing squad”, parties on the right must “educate their supporters to vote tactically” to stop the left.

The hill I will die on: No self-respecting adult should use the term ‘picky bits’
Laura Snapes in The Guardian
“Hopefully,” the end of summer also means an end to “the scourge of the phrase ‘picky bits’”, writes Laura Snapes. That’s “the new national name” for bankrupting yourself for a supermarket’s “tragic facsimile” of the deli items that “our European neighbours enjoy” daily. “Who knew your picnic needed Turkish grilled pepperoncini and dressed salsa verde chickpeas? (It doesn’t.)” Just “have some self-respect and tear a rotisserie chicken apart with your bare hands next time you go to the park”.