Plaid Cymru’s triumph in the Caerphilly Senedd by-election is a “reset for Welsh politics”, said the party’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth. The Welsh nationalists got 47% of the vote in a record turnout of 50%. Reform UK came second on 36% and Labour a distant third with 11%. Here’s what we learned.

UK politics is evolving
The result was terrible for the “two big beasts” of Westminster, said the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason. Labour was “humbled, pummelled, crushed”, while the Tories got just 2%. “Yes, you read that right” – they “managed just 13% of the vote between them”.

The “key lesson” is that UK politics is “moving at speed, with voter loyalties shifting and atomising in unprecedented ways”, said The Guardian. “Those who cannot adapt will be crushed.”

Bad headlines ‘hampered’ Reform
Reform UK “threw everything at the campaign”, said Sky News. Nigel Farage “visited three times” and his party was expected to win, but when the result was declared at 2.10am, the party leader was “nowhere to be seen”.

It’s “possible the party’s chances were hampered” by its former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, admitting to taking bribes to make pro-Russia comments in the European Parliament, said The Guardian.

In-fighting harmed Labour
Labour “had a horror” of a campaign, said Wales Online. Its council leader “quit”, explaining that he “couldn’t support” either Keir Starmer or the "Johnny-come-lately" by-election candidate, Richard Tunnicliffe.
The Caerphilly “drubbing” reinforces the “ongoing narrative” that Labour will do badly in the full Senedd elections next May. Canvassers “might now think twice” about "whether it is worth their effort” to go door-knocking.

Reform’s regional obstacles
Reform coming second is a “solid performance for an upstart”, said Mason, but “insurgencies remain insurgent by winning – and they were easily beaten”.

It’s “clearly not easy” for them to be the first-choice alternative to Labour and the Tories when there’s “another party also claiming that mantle” – like the SNP in Scotland.

Labour faces threat from left
Much has been made of the threat from Reform, but Labour “is losing ground to its left as well as its right”, said polling expert John Curtice in The Times. In Caerphilly, it was Plaid who did “most of the damage”.

Welsh Labour “remains supportive of and loyal to first minister Eluned Morgan”, said Tom Harris in The Telegraph. But there is “simmering resentment” towards Starmer for the party’s unpopularity.

“No one is safe” from the viral 6-7 phenomenon “taking the younger generation by storm”, said Fox News. Page numbers in textbooks, homework questions and maths answers can all set them off.

The TikTok craze that has baffled older audiences since the start of the year has recently exploded. Parents and teachers are at a loss: is this yet another “completely meaningless” digital trend, or “so highbrow that it’s beyond comprehension”? Gen Alpha has “confused the masses”.

‘Repetitive cycles of senselessness’
Many believe Philadelphia rapper Skrilla’s “Doot Doot” (6 7) viral song released last December popularised the phenomenon. Then Taylen Kinney, an up-and-coming basketball player, was launched into “internet immortality” after he created an accompanying gesture for the phrase, said The Athletic. He has since amassed over one million followers on social media and received prestigious scholarship offers. Aptly, “Kinney himself is unclear on why it, and he, have become such a hit”.

Now, when both or either numbers six or seven are mentioned, young people make a “palms-up, seesaw hand gesture”, which looks like something between “juggling and melon handling”, said The Wall Street Journal. It’s a “prime example of brain rot”.

Its meaning is that it has no meaning, which, by a somewhat strained logic, makes it funny because it is unfunny. “Maybe if French philosopher Albert Camus had a TikTok, he could explain it, given how well he understood repetitive cycles of senselessness. But Reddit works, too.”

‘Destined for the slang graveyard’
Attempts to unlock meaning have become increasingly desperate. In history, references to the summer of love in 1967; in geography, seven continents but only six with countries; in religious circles, belief that God created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh, have all tried to rationalise the “inescapable internet slang”, with little success.

But the very lack of sense could explain its popularity, said CNN. It possesses neither a “set-up” nor a “punchline”, but participation allows young people to share a common in-joke at adults’ expense, feeling like a “member of a bigger, cooler group of their peers”.

But the 6-7 craze is “likely destined for the slang graveyard soon”. Teachers, fearing the outburst, are “playing defence” by using it themselves: a sure-fire way to deflate even the most prevalent “shibboleth”.

Jake Jarman leaves heads spinning during the men’s individual floor final on day six of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. He won the gold medal – and world title – with a score of 14.866, and his Great Britain team-mate Luke Whitehouse took the silver.

Tom Weller / Getty Images

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A charming and substantial Victorian house set in mature gardens. The property is located on the edge of a village. 4 beds, family bath, kitchen/dining room, recep, garden room, garden, parking. £650,000; Stags.

Where does Wikipedia go in the age of AI?
Elaine Moore in Financial Times
Wikipedia “remains one of the 10 most popular websites”, but “over the past three years” it’s “taken on a new role, acting as the feeding ground for generative AI models”, says Elaine Moore. “Human traffic to the site is falling” while “bot traffic is up” and “Elon Musk has taken up arms” against what he sees as the site’s “liberal bias”. AI could “enhance Wikipedia’s value” because “in the age of artificial content, human-made work deserves a premium”.

The Pope’s warm welcome for the King shows bitter rifts can heal
The Times’ editorial board
“At a time of strife and separation across the planet, the sight of the supreme governor of the Church of England” praying alongside the “head of the Catholic Church” raised “the spirits — not only of the Christian faithful but of all those who prefer human unity to division”, says The Times. This “ecumenical harmony” would have been unthinkable for even the last generation and Pope Leo “deserves immense credit”. His “Vatican initiative will go down as one of the signature achievements of his reign”.

I’ve loved Strictly – but if Claudia’s out, so am I
Kat Brown on The Independent
“At times of national crisis such as this, it is always tempting to plonk something extreme on the table,” says Kat Brown. So “is it time to say goodbye to Strictly for good”? Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly are leaving the glittery spectacle, which has “become a one-show scandal factory”. In “divided times” it unites people, but it’s “no good for a show to limp on with its heart and soul ripped out”. Plus, “where will the gravity to hold the show together come from?”