Argentina is subjecting the Falklands to “economic warfare”, the leader of the British overseas territory’s government has said. As Argentina ramps up its claim of sovereignty over the remote Atlantic islands, restrictions are making life more difficult for Falkland residents, Andrea Clausen told the Financial Times. And at the centre of the power struggle with Britain is the territory’s first oil project: Sea Lion, a joint UK-Israeli venture.

What is life like on the islands?
The Falklands are home to about 3,500 people, most of whom live in the capital, Stanley. The remainder are spread across the sprawling archipelago, which is roughly half the size of Wales. “People are always amazed by the scale when they visit,” one resident told Metro. Leaving the islands “isn’t simple – or cheap”, said the paper. There are two 18-hour direct flights a week to the UK, on a military plane, or one commercial flight a week to Chile.

Because of the limited connections, imported goods can cost more than double their price in the UK. With only one shipping link, to Uruguay, there are sometimes shortages of cheese and other food staples. Most international suppliers “refuse to serve Falklands’ businesses” out of fear of angering Argentina, said the FT. Officials are planning a second shipping link to Chile, scheduled to open between November and December. Some islanders worry that Buenos Aires “could try to disrupt those efforts”.

But in an economic boost, Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum are launching a joint project to extract from an oilfield 136 miles north of the islands. This could “triple GDP” and reduce dependence on the inconsistent fishing industry, said the FT.

What is Argentina doing?
President Javier Milei this month announced restrictions on companies involved in oil extraction, along with additional military funding. His new sanctions regime “appears to target both oil and fishing”, said the FT. On Monday, Milei (pictured above) warned that his government would request an emergency order to stop development of the Sea Lion oilfield if drilling is not halted within two weeks.

“Time will tell” if Milei follows through on his threats, said resident Traighana Smith in an article for The Independent. But in the meantime, the Falklands will “continue to grow its industries and care for its people”.

The sight of a disabled octogenarian being removed from her home on a stretcher has reignited public anger about Spain’s housing crisis. Tens of thousands of Spaniards took to the streets last weekend to protest against the eviction of Madrid pensioner María del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, and demand “stronger protection for tenants in the face of a housing shortage and soaring rents”, said the BBC.

‘You are not alone’
Abascal has lived in her flat in Madrid’s El Retiro neighbourhood for more than 70 years, and was paying around €500 per month in rent when the building was bought by investment company Urbagestión in 2018. The company increased the rent to €2,650 a month, “later reduced to €1,650”, but still well above Abascal’s monthly pension of €1,350, said Euronews.

Three subsequent attempts by the company to evict her were blocked by the courts before Absascal was finally forced to leave. She was brought out on a stretcher after police used tear gas to clear a path between protesters outside who chanted: “You are not alone.” She was taken to hospital, suffering from anxiety and extreme exhaustion. But a few days later, she was allowed to return home, and her lawyers said a new eight-year contract was in place with the rent reduced to the pre-2018 rates.

‘Global symbol’
Nearly 10,000 people gathered in Madrid in the afternoon after Abascal’s eviction to voice solidarity and “frustration over the growing difficulties in finding housing”, said CNN. There was also “a huge wave of spontaneous solidarity” protests in Barcelona, Seville and Valencia.

Amid the mounting pressure, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has brought forward a long-delayed housing reform bill that must be approved in parliament within 30 days. As it currently stands, the bill bans evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, limits rent hikes for two years and prohibits investment funds from purchasing houses for two years.

Abascal’s case has resonated far beyond Spain. She has become a “global symbol for housing activists”, said El País. “What is happening here is a signal for all of Europe,” political analyst Federico Tomasone told the paper. “This transcends borders. There are many Maricarmens everywhere.”

Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron and Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia stroll through the throne room of Madrid’s Royal Palace. The two-day state visit is the first by a French president to the neighbouring nation since 2009.

Violeta Santos Moura / Pool/ AFP / Getty Images

Forget “muddy trenches”, said Belen Edwards on Mashable. In Sky’s new legal drama “War”, battles are fought in “elegant wood-panelled rooms or glassy offices perched high above London’s streets”. But the “polished” setting doesn’t mean the fighting is clean – far from it. The lawyers at the rival firms locking horns in this high-profile divorce case are “itching to get absolutely filthy”.

The combative couple at the centre of the series are film star Carla Duval (Sienna Miller) and tech mogul Morgan Henderson (Dominic West). In the first of many “underhanded” chess moves, Carla enlists her friend to “honeytrap” her husband so she can kick-start divorce proceedings. It’s a “tantalisingly bitter amuse-bouche for all the delicious drama to come”.

Miller and West are “perfectly cast” in this “tasty divorce drama”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. Writer George Kay provides a “snappy script” that charts the couple’s descent into “rancour” and a “battle over Morgan’s fortune”. Carla’s team is led by a “plucky husband-and-wife team” played by James McArdle and Phoebe Fox, while Morgan opts for the “Machiavellian” St John Smallwood (“a classy Pip Torrens”). Add to the mix a supporting cast that includes Celia Imrie, Nick Mohammed and “actor-of-the-moment” Aran Murphy (the “lookalike son” of Cillian), and the show has “a lot going for it”.

“War” is a “triumph” for the most part, said Gareth McLean in Radio Times. “Glossy, smart, very high-end and thoroughly entertaining”, it’s the kind of show that makes you “want to be a lawyer when you grow up – even if the way they operate is pretty appalling”.

Should you be allowed to text in sick?
Mita Dhullipala in City A.M.
“If you’re ill”, you ought to phone your boss rather than “hide behind a text”, writes communications consultant Mita Dhullipala. Staff who abuse sick leave damage workplace morale by leaving others “to pick up the slack”, but having to call “puts more friction between coming into the office and a cheeky duvet day”. It can also help managers spot employees who need support: “a conversation can reveal” when someone “is struggling in a way that a two-line Whatsapp message cannot”.

Is the government trying to radicalise me?
Stephen Daisley in The Spectator
“This is all very awkward,” writes Stephen Daisley. I’m a Guardian reader who still wishes it could “be 1997 again”, but I’m “clinging to liberalism amid borders so open as to be non-existent”, institutions “suffused with the maddest of ideologies and the Gazafication of everything from upmarket bakeries to Ed Sheeran concerts”. I want this government to stop driving me “to the right”. Centrism may “have had its day”, but Labour doesn’t need to “pander to every destructive derangement of its activist base”.

Burnham has promised to become the King of Care. I’m desperate to believe he’ll succeed
Sangita Myska on The Nerve
Our social-care system has long been “the dirty secret of politics”, writes Sangita Myska. Navigating its “Kafkaesque series of bureaucratic tunnels” is “dehumanising”, and its “pay-per-minute” services exploit workers and the vulnerable. So I’m pleased that Andy Burnham “has set his sights on slaying the monster”. It’s “radical” and there’s no “pot of gold” to fund his proposed National Care Service, but he says he’ll sacrifice “political capital” if needed. What’s needed now is “for him to stick to his guns”.