Most of the headlines about this year's Royal Ascot have centred on the long queues at water coolers as racegoers in top hats and tails sweltered in the sizzling heatwave conditions. But every year, whatever the weather, the residents of the "picture-postcard" town of Ascot find themselves "bracing themselves for bedlam" in race week, said The Sun. 

'Defecating on doorsteps'
Locals told the paper they face "pissed-up revellers urinating on their properties, defecating on doorsteps and brazenly snorting cocaine off walls", while "yobs" brawl in the street and the litter left behind "attracts vermin".

And it's not just Royal Ascot that hits the headlines for the wrong reasons. Grand National Ladies Day at Aintree is meant to be "one of the most glamorous days" in the racing calendar, said Wales Online, but it's become "debauched", with fights at the 2024 event. "Shocking" pictures included a "suited man with blood pouring out of his mouth" shaping up to hit another racegoer.

Drinks "on the lawns and within sight of the running rail" can antagonise more traditional racegoers, who "simply want to focus on the horses", said Greg Wood in The Guardian. An 80-year-old woman told The Times that "there was a man so drunk at 10am that he was wobbling around", while a 76-year-old man said it was a "shame" that the racing wasn't enough "for some people", and that drinking "seems to take over" in the "modern world".

'Snob and mob'
The increased drunkenness at British racing events has attracted attention beyond our shores: compiling a gallery of racegoing debauchery for the US site Defector, Kathryn Xu noted that "extremely drunk, extremely dressed-up" English people had misbehaved at the 2024 Grand National.

But it's not booze that's ruining racing, said Arabella Byrne in The Spectator; it's the middle classes. "Horsey and racing circles" have always been based on a mix that is "one of the great curiosities of English social life: snob and mob". Ascot should be a "proper knees-up", except "it's not" because the organisers have engaged in "aggressive commercialisation", transforming the meeting into an "exercise in manicured social segregation, led by the Middleton classes". Actually, "true toffs" prefer the experience to be a "bit more bonkers and a lot more louche".

Holidaymakers should "be careful around animals" when visiting rabies-affected countries, said the UK Health Security Agency, after a woman from Yorkshire died from the disease after being scratched by an infected puppy in Morocco.

Yvonne Ford had been on holiday to the North African country in February but only became ill two weeks ago. She "didn't think much" of the scratch from the young stray dog at the time, her daughter Robyn Thompson said in a Facebook post. But once she fell ill, she deteriorated rapidly, "losing her ability to walk, talk, sleep and swallow".

Is there a risk to the public?
There is "no risk" to Ford's family and friends or to the wider public, as there is no evidence of rabies being transmitted from human to human, said the UKHSA. The UK itself is considered "rabies-free", with just six cases between 2000 and 2024, all linked to exposure abroad.

What is rabies?
Rabies is a rare but serious infection, spread by mammals such as dogs, cats, bats, raccoons, monkeys and foxes. It can be transmitted to humans through the saliva of an infected animal, usually in a bite or scratch but also from a lick to the eye, nose or mouth or an open wound.

Signs of infection include numbness or tingling around the area that's been bitten or scratched, muscle aches, headaches, nausea and fever. As the infection progresses to the central nervous system, symptoms can include muscle spasms that make it difficult to swallow, excessive saliva, double vision, seizures, and extreme irritability. In some cases, patients develop hydrophobia (fear of water), aerophobia (fear of fresh air), hallucinations and paralysis.

Is rabies always fatal?
By the time symptoms appear, rabies is almost always fatal. But quick treatment after being bitten or scratched by an animal with rabies can be very effective at preventing infection. And there are precautionary vaccinations you can have before you travel.

In 2004, US teenager Jeanna Giese "made history" as the first person to survive rabies without a vaccination, said the Daily Mail. Doctors placed her in a coma to give her immune system time to fight the virus, in what has become known as the Milwaukee protocol. She eventually made a near-full recovery, though the protocol has had mixed results since.

What should you do if you're bitten or scratched?
Wash the wound immediately with plenty of water, disinfect it with alcohol or a strong antiseptic, and urgently seek medical help and the post-exposure treatment.

Northumberland: High Mote, Elsdon
A traditional stone farmhouse with fine rural views. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, gardens of approx. 3.37 acres, parking. 
£800,000; Finest Properties.

Isle of Wight: Wydcombe Manor West, Whitwell
A 17th century house with Victorian alterations set in rolling parkland. 5 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, garden. £750,000; Spence Willard.

Suffolk: Tawny’s, Aspall Green
A Grade II Elizabethan farmhouse set in approx. 3.2 acres. 3 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/dining room, 2 receps, self-contained annexe, tennis court, large Elizabethan "party" barn, garden, parking. 
£975,000; Bedfords.

Wiltshire: Medbourne House, Liddington
This late 17th century Grade II farmhouse is set in mature gardens, which include a vegetable garden and lily pond. 4 beds, family bath, kitchen, 3 receps, study, garden, garages. £950,000; Carter Jonas.

I hope this is the last piece I ever have to write about assisted dying
Polly Toynbee in The Guardian
There are people "slowly dying" in agony, writes Polly Toynbee, and this "could happen to you or me". The final vote on the assisted dying bill today was "no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing would inflict torture on many". Today's vote "should join this week's abortion decriminalisation as another milestone in the long history of personal freedoms" that is "always" Labour's legacy.

Why the Tories should oppose regime change
Michael Gove in The Spectator
"Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good" is the "golden rule of politics", writes former Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove – and it's "the advice I'd give" those Tories who've been "grumbling" about the leadership. Kemi Badenoch "has been far from faultless" but she's "good and getting better". The agitators are displaying "the impatience of a toddler" and "the stroppiness of a teenager". She's "consistently right on policy" and finally "providing the politics conservatism needs".

Sexiest Politicians of 2025 List yields shock result
The Capitalist in City A.M.
As if things "couldn't get any worse" for Keir Starmer, he's "nosedived from 3rd to 9th place" in this year's Sexiest Male Politician List, writes The Capitalist. "But that's not even the worst of it": in a "worrying sign of the times, the top spot" went to Nigel Farage for the second year in a row. It was a "better showing" for Labour among female politicians, though, with "powerhouse Angela Rayner nabbing the top spot".