As Wimbledon fortnight gets underway today, the record prize pot of £64.2 million has done little to assuage the “increasingly mutinous” mood of professional tennis players, said The Observer. The sport has jettisoned its “gentlemanly image” to become a “global cultural phenomenon”, and its stars want a “bigger slice of the pie”.

What are the protests about?
The players want a larger ratio of tournament revenues to acknowledge their contribution towards each event’s success, with “more money trickling down the draws”, said the BBC. They also want discussion about how much Grand Slams contribute to players’ pension, healthcare and maternity pots, and they want better consultation on questions such as scheduling, late-night finishes and elongated tournaments. 

Prior to Wimbledon, several star names had planned to limit their contractual media commitments in protest, but they will now return to normal media duties following what they describe as “constructive meetings” with the All England Club. 

What’s the reaction been?
Wimbledon announced a 20% increase in prize money only a couple of weeks ago, so the All England Club was “surprised and disappointed” by the players’ threat of action, said the BBC. Former player and BBC tennis pundit Andrew Castle said the players were being “tone deaf”.

Some of the game’s biggest names, including 2025 Wimbledon winner Jannik Sinner (pictured above), Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka, have threatened boycotts of future tournaments. With their huge career winnings and “lucrative” sponsorship deals, they would be “just fine if the money remained the same”, said The Observer. But it can be a “slog” for lower-ranked players, whose winnings must fund coaching and travel in a sport that “spans continents”, leaving them “barely breaking even”. “We don’t do it for ourselves,” said Sabalenka. “We do it for the rest of the players who are suffering to even hire a coach.”

What next?
Wimbledon argues that the players underestimate the costs of running tournaments and staging important warm-up events. But it has made a “commitment to return with specific proposals addressing their concerns”.

The heatwave that’s broken records both here and across Europe could change how we travel in what seems to be the new normal of sizzling temperatures. And the impact of extreme temperatures on “tourism-reliant” countries could be “huge,” Alejandro Saez Reale, of the World Meteorological Organisation, told National Geographic.

‘Coolcation’ trend
Travellers may increasingly seek more comfortable temperatures rather than the hottest destinations. They may also place greater value on places where weather is more steady and therefore less likely to disrupt their holiday.

Travel itself could become trickier during the hottest months as heatwaves, storms, flooding and wildfires cause more delays and cancellations for flights, trains, ferries and even road travel. Avoiding the peak summer months might not even help because heatwaves are “spreading across the calendar”, said National Geographic. In May 2022, Spain endured a heatwave of “extraordinary intensity”, and the following year in France, “severe heat” extended into September. 

There is already an “emerging trend” for “coolcations”: 81% of Europeans are adjusting their travel habits due to the changing climate, with 15% actively seeking out cooler climates and 14% avoiding destinations prone to extreme heat, according to a 2025 European Travel Commission study. Finland, Norway, Poland and Iceland are recording double-digit growth in inbound visitors.

Numbers ‘not dropping’ yet
And yet France and Spain remain the most visited countries in the world, with 102 million and 96.8 million visitors respectively, according to UN Tourism. So, while the “growth rate may have slowed”, the number of visitors to these warmer countries “is not dropping” yet.

“On the whole,” people are still “enjoying Mediterranean destinations during the summer months”, said the Association of British Travel Agents. There is “increased interest in slightly cooler destinations” but it “remains the exception rather than the norm”.

Rescuers, relatives and volunteers dig round the clock, through mounds of concrete, to try to find survivors of the earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week. At least 1,450 are now known to have died but the number is still expected to rise.

Juan Barreto / AFP / Getty Images

“The summer of the can? I’d say so,” said Jane MacQuitty in The Times. Canned wines used to have “dull, tinny, beery and oxidised notes” but advances in technology mean quality is “on the up” – and sales are “roaring”.

Vinca Organic Red
“Fuller-bodied, more robust” reds with higher alcohol content “take best to the canning process,” said MacQuitty. This Sicilian offering is made of “summery nero d’avola and frappato grapes”. It is bold in flavour and boasts “red berry pizzazz”. And it’s organic and vegan.

Mirabeau Prêt-à-Porter Rosé
If you’ve a penchant for a “pale and pink” wine, this one is for you, said Rosamund Hall in The Independent. Coming from renowned Provençal producer Maison Mirabeau, this organic wine is “delicate” in taste and has “aromas of ripe raspberries”, with notes of rose petals and “a lick of cream”. 

When in Rome Pecorino White
Italian wines are summertime’s best bet and a refreshing can of Pecorino is an “uncomplicated, fun” way to drink your grapes, said Hall. It is “packed full of soft nectarines” with “ripe pears and a lemon sherbert twist”.

Not just for rich people: the progressive case for air conditioning
Phineas Harper in The Guardian
Progressives rightly criticise air con for its “environmental harms” but “refusing to explore” better solutions is “blinkered”, writes Phineas Harper. “As temperatures rise, cooling systems” will be “fundamental to a functioning society”. We need to make air-con technology “more efficient”, plant more trees for shade in cities, and put “awnings and shutters” on buildings. And leftists should be demanding “public ownership of the cooling sector” to prevent “corporate profiteering at the expense of increasingly desperate customers”.

Steven Bartlett: the glorified PR man quietly making Britain worse
Eleanor Halls in The i Paper
“The Diary of a CEO” podcast is a “slick podium from which” the powerful “prune their reputations”, writes Eleanor Halls. It has none of “the rigour of traditional media”, so “high-profile names” can “spread their own unchallenged narrative to millions”. Host Steven Bartlett positions himself as “Britain’s more thoughtful answer” to Joe Rogan but it’s “concerning” to hear him “Trojan-horsing manosphere ideology into his content”. Young British men “look up to him” but “he is not the role model they think he is”.

No, we have not had enough of experts
Pilita Clark in the Financial Times
Pollsters tell us “Britain is back in love with boffins”, writes Pilita Clark. “Ten years after Michael Gove” told us we had “all ‘had enough of experts’”, public trust in “scientists”, “economists”, even “weather forecasters”, has risen. This is encouraging: “I’ve always had doubts” about preferring “generalists” in business. Big, successful firms “understand the value of expert leadership” because “having a boss who understands what you do – and did it well themselves” boosts employee confidence to a degree “that outsiders rarely replicate”.