An estimated 96% of the UK's 12- to 15-year-olds have their own phone, according to online safety regulator Ofcom, but a growing chorus of voices are calling for the devices to be banned from schools or even from any use by children.

What is the rationale behind a ban?
One obvious reason to restrict smartphone use in schools is improving concentration during class and reducing distractions. Another primary focus has been on improving mental health among young people.

Time spent on social media has been linked to "lower life satisfaction" for some children. But while it is "tempting to connect these trends with the increased availability of smartphones", said The Economist, "establishing a causal connection is difficult".

What does the evidence say?
Studies have shown that bans "often don't work as planned", said academics from the University of Canterbury on The Conversation. One year after a ban came into effect in New Zealand, students there had "mixed feelings", with some saying it improved their focus but others reporting stress at being separated from the phones and unable to contact their parents.

A recent analysis of the impacts of smartphone policies in 30 English secondary schools, reported in The Lancet's Regional Health Europe journal, found no link between phone bans and higher grades or better mental well-being. But that may be because school-only bans did not have enough impact on overall phone time: the study found that children attending schools with no-phone policies were online as much as their peers during evenings and weekends.

What else might work?
"We need to equip children for healthy technology use," Dr Victoria Goodyear, who co-authored the Lancet study, told The Independent. "There are two key ways: firstly an age-appropriate design, and secondly equipping children with digital skills". Research from the Digital Wellness Lab supports this balanced approach, emphasising skill building over restriction.

"If schools really want to support students, they need to move beyond one-size-fits-all rules," said the University of Canterbury academics. That means "helping young people to use technology safely and responsibly".

The Labour Party is "extraordinarily fortunate that the Green Party are shit". That was the "withering" verdict of an anonymous minister after Labour's recent underwhelming local-election performance.

Reform UK have become the "main receptacle for popular disillusionment", said Owen Jones in The Guardian. But "could that finally change"? Zack Polanski, the Green Party's deputy leader and a London Assembly member, has launched a bid for the leadership, "with a pitch representing a gear shift in strategy" for the party.

'Eco-populism' agenda
Confronting Nigel Farage's "infectious populism" is a driving force behind Polanski's run, said Megan Kenyon in The New Statesman. And climate policy is a key battleground. Farage is using net zero as a "culture war sledgehammer" against the government, and Polanski wants to challenge Labour on this issue too, but "from the left". "I'm really angry about net zero," he told the magazine. "I'm angry that the government is expecting some of the poorest in this country to step up" and pay for it.

While those words sound as if they come straight "out of Farage's own playbook", said Kenyon, they reflect Polanski's broader "eco-populism" agenda – including taxing the wealthy and big business to fund the green transition.

Polanski also wants a "bolder" stance on the prospect of withdrawing from Nato, citing Donald Trump's aggressive stance towards other Nato members including his interest in annexing Greenland, said Byline Times. But this is a "fringe position" among the British public.

Insurgents vs. professionals
As with the last Green Party leadership race, in 2021, members face a choice between "more sober, election-focused professionals" and "insurgent activists", said Peter Walker in The Guardian.

Current co-leader Adrian Ramsay and his fellow MP and new running mate Ellie Chowns can point to general-election and local-election wins. The pair can "thus present themselves" as "exemplars of the party's long-term mission to build up a Westminster presence via local government, with both serving as councillors in the areas they eventually won". Polanski's rebuttal isn't that their approach is "wrong" but that it's too cautious, and Green messaging needs to be transmitted to voters "with more urgency".

When you've created "Doom (2016)" and "Doom Eternal", two of the most highly regarded shooters of the last decade, what do you do next? Announce a prequel, said Phil Iwaniuk in Top Gear. But, far from playing it safe with "Doom: The Dark Ages", the new game "veers wildly into new territory".

So many new options have been introduced that "simply aiming a gun at something and pulling the trigger feels somehow unimaginative". From timed parries to melee attacks and a throwable razor shield, "The Dark Ages" is bursting with combat mechanics.

While 2020's "Eternal" challenged players to pick off their enemies one at a time, this latest release allows you to "obliterate dozens of demons simultaneously", said Rick Lane in The Guardian. "Ripping and tearing is out. Blunt force trauma is in." Although the "less stringent toolset" and emphasis on "standing your ground" doesn't create the same "adrenaline rush", it's a "fascinating reformulation" of the franchise's core ideas.

It's a "successful" transition, said Morgan Parker in PC Gamer but the new game is not without "sacrifice". This is "undeniably the easiest of the trilogy" and feels somewhat "dumbed down", with "uncharacteristically barren" maps and "obvious" puzzles.

Still, it's the "strongest 'Doom' story there's ever been", said Mitchell Saltzman in IGN. Players are transported to a series of "hellish landscapes" as the history of conflict between humans and demons is fleshed out. The prequel is certainly "heavier" than its predecessor but it's "energetic and exhilarating" nonetheless. Developer id Software "has once again proven that, like a Super Shotgun blast from point-blank range, they don't miss".

The good news from Kyiv: with or without a ceasefire, Ukraine has a newfound confidence
Nathalie Tocci in The Guardian
The "mood in Kyiv" is "more confident" than it was a year ago, writes Nathalie Tocci. I was there last week and soldiers, politicians and officials "seemed ever-more determined" to resist the Russian invasion. Ukraine has "growing military self-sufficiency" and is "recalibrating", seeking a "sustainable ceasefire through deterrence". A truce is not "imminent", though, so Kyiv's allies "must be ready" with "support". It's "not a one-way street": closer ties with Ukraine "will only strengthen Europe as a whole".

Entrepreneurs! We need YOU to back Britain
John Caudwell at City A.M.
"I've always believed in Britain", writes Phones 4u founder John Caudwell, but "belief alone is not enough". Britain needs its entrepreneurs to "show their mettle" and "help write the next chapter of our nation's success story". "Sitting back and waiting" for Keir Starmer to "perform economic miracles" won't cut it: the "business community" must "take the lead" and "build, invest, hire, train, export and, above all, inspire".

OK, I confess. My dog's paws smell of 'stagnant Mini Cheddars', and I love them
Carol Midgley in The Times
We didn't need "another study" to confirm that we find dogs "more comforting" companions than our spouses and children, writes Carol Midgley. When I had my dog neutered, "he forgave me instantly, and all it took was a Bonio": I know my husband "would not be so understanding". And "while I never want to sniff my daughter's feet" when I'm anxious, "I always want to inhale the sublime smell of my dog's paws".