The Northern Irish town of Ballymena is reeling after a fourth night of violence that erupted after two Romanian-speaking teenagers were charged with the attempted rape of a local girl.

"Masked rioters hurled petrol bombs, fireworks and masonry at police," said the Financial Times. At least 15 people have been arrested so far, amid violence that has left 63 police officers injured. Some local residents have "put signs on their homes, indicating their nationality" in a desperate bid to avoid being targeted as "foreigners".

What did the commentators say?
"Racism in 2025 bears a startling resemblance to sectarianism in 1969," said Suzanne Breen in the Belfast Telegraph. Ballymena's streets look "like a scene from the start of the Troubles, when families were burnt out of their homes because of their religion". These rioting "thugs" are engaging in a similar "collective punishment"; their "racist attacks" must "be called out for what they are".

The anger in Ballymena "isn't just bubbling among one community", said Rory Carroll in The Guardian. The unrest is "bringing Catholics and Protestants together in combined rioting against the foreigners" – just like the Belfast anti-immigration riots last August, "where you had loyalists with British flags marching alongside Dublin anti-migrant activists who had the Irish tricolour". You don't see that often in Northern Ireland.

This unrest is not just local, said Finn McRedmond in The New Statesman. It echoes the riots in Dublin in 2023 and last summer's riots in Southport, which also triggered that "large scale agitation" in Belfast. The porous boundaries of social media seem to "turbocharge tensions on both sides of the sea".

What next?
"It is hard to see where this ends," said Connor Gillies on Sky News. Many fear this week's unrest is "just the beginning" and could go on for weeks, potentially spreading to other parts of Northern Ireland or beyond.

Speaking after the third night of violence on Thursday, Liam Kelly, the chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, said the police response to the riots so far had "undoubtedly saved lives" and prevented "a pogrom with consequences too painful to contemplate".

On the dating scene, women's "blatant" heightism has always been a problem, said Helen Coffey in The Independent. But Tinder's trial of a new feature that allows paying members to 'filter' potential matches by height has brought a long-running debate "kicking and screaming back into the light".

'What matters most'
Subscribers to Tinder Platinum will soon be able to sort potential matches using a list of options including height and minimum number of photos. "Technically, these are 'preferences', rather than outright filters", said Shivali Best in the Daily Mail, meaning potential matches won't be ruled out based on their height, but preferences will influence the app's recommendations.

Tinder's vice president says the platform is "always listening to what matters most" to users, and height really does matter to "many singles on the digital prowl", said Scottie Andrew on CNN.

Research has shown that men prefer to date shorter women, while women tend to seek out taller men. And Tinder is hardly "breaking new ground" here, said Maia Davies at the BBC: other apps, such as Hinge, already allow users to filter matches according to height. But, as the planet's biggest dating app, the Tinder trial is "significant".

'Undersized halflings'
Any man who has used a dating app will know that "most of us are only there to make up the numbers", said Simon Bourke in the Irish Independent. In the online "world of swiping", only the most "attractive" will succeed. Now, women will be able to "eliminate all those undersized halflings", leaving just the men who meet the "universally accepted 'sexy height' of six foot". "Nobody said it was fair."

You can't blame people for making use of the technology available to find a partner, said Elle Hunt in Vogue. But rigid criteria risk "ruling out people who would actually make us happy".

With this feature, Tinder is "telling you what you should be prioritising", Liesel Sharabi, a professor at Arizona State University who studies the impact of online dating, told CNN. And the narrower your idea of a "perfect match" becomes, the harder it is to forge real-life connections.

Worcestershire: Severnbank House, Shrawley
Impressive Grade II Georgian house set in 12 acres of parkland and mature gardens. Main suite, 7 further beds (2 en suite), 2 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 4 receps, swimming pool, outbuildings, garden, garage. £2.25m

Stirlingshire: Quarter Estate, Denny
This attractive B-listed Georgian house dates back to 1776 and sits in 60 acres of parkland and woodland. 6 beds (3 en suite), family bath, kitchen/breakfast room, 3 receps, garden, parking. OIEO £1.25m

Norfolk: Grange Farm, Honingham
Handsome farmhouse in about 4.5 acres. 5 beds (2 en suite), family bath, 2-bed annexe, tennis court, garden, outbuildings, parking. £1.45m; Sowerbys

Gloucestershire: Lock House, Framilode
A picturesque Grade II house built in 1776 in an idyllic setting on the banks of the Severn. 4 suites, kitchen/breakfast room, 3 receps, garden, garage. OIRO £900,000

A decade of disasters: can Boeing recover?
Hamish McRae in The i Paper
The Air India crash is "first and foremost" a heartbreaking tragedy, writes Hamish McRae, but it is also a "savage blow" to "beleaguered manufacturer, Boeing". It "may well be that the causes" of the Dreamliner downing "have nothing to do with Boeing" but it would be "naive" to imagine this won't affect the company's reputation, already damaged by years of cost-cutting, outsourcing and the "pursuit of short-term profits". New chief executive Kelly Ortberg must "rebuild" a "culture of engineering excellence".

The real Deputy Prime Minister
Eliot Wilson in The Critic
Pat McFadden is a "force at the heart of government", writes Eliot Wilson. The MP for Wolverhampton South East is the senior minister in the Cabinet Office and sits on five key Whitehall committees. He "understands how power works" and, "impatient" to see "efficient government", doesn't "suffer fools gladly". With Angela Rayner "too off-message" to "be an effective day-to-day deputy", McFadden's "reputation as 'the real Deputy Prime Minister'" is "a Westminster punchline".

Trump Will Lose the Trade War
Robert D. Atkinson on Foreign Policy
"It's okay" to wage a "one-front" trade war, but "not a war with the whole world", writes economist Robert D. Atkinson. Donald Trump "seems to think that the United States is still the top dog" but, instead of caving to his tariffs, the rest of the world is now planning "for a post-American trading system". That can only be disastrous for the "many U.S. companies" that rely on "global market access" to "survive and thrive".