Andy Burnham “enters No. 10 understanding what drives the crisis” of rough sleeping, following his reforms in Manchester, said Jennifer Williams in the Financial Times. He donated 15% of his mayoral salary to help fund his A Bed Every Night scheme – 600 new beds across shelters in each of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs, open 365 days a year – and used the media to draw attention to the issue. Rough sleeping numbers in the region are now 25% below the 2017 peak levels.

But Burnham’s failure to completely end the problem in Greater Manchester has fuelled scepticism about his pledge that every person sleeping on England’s streets is to be offered somewhere to stay this winter.

What did the commentators say?
Burnham didn’t achieve the Manchester target, said Williams in the FT, but he “galvanised a fragmented local system to focus on the crisis, while experimenting with a series of local policies, some of them successful”.

The policy raises “all sorts of political questions” when it comes to homelessness, not least “regarding ‘no recourse to public funds’”, which bans migrants without settled status from claiming most benefits, said Anoosh Chakelian in The New Statesman. This condition is a “significant cause of hardship and rough sleeping”, with the closure of asylum hotels “contributing to more visible destitution on Britain’s streets”.

This is one of the “hardest-to-achieve” pledges in office, said Caroline Hug in Politico. Burnham’s announcement of an additional £102 million in funding gives his “big rough-sleeping pledge some meat”, but the plan is light on detail.

What next?
“Any serious homelessness strategy needs to fund social connection as deliberately as it funds bricks and mortar,” said social inclusion expert Jo Richardson on The Conversation. This requires a dedicated support workforce and integrated partnerships across health and social care – a “bigger, more specific commitment than five years of funding alone can achieve”.

Melania Trump has done only half as many public appearances as she’d clocked up at the same point in Donald Trump’s first term, according to an NBC News analysis. She’s “only made 38” this year, said The Guardian, and now “she’s been MIA for about a month”, following her appearance at the World Cup final on 19 July.

‘Even lower profile’
Melania’s public schedule has “nearly vanished” this summer, dropping to just five appearances in June and July, said the Daily Beast. She’s “dramatically less active” than other 21st-century first ladies: her 29 speeches since her husband returned to office last year pale in comparison to the 130 delivered by Michelle Obama over an equivalent timeframe.

“To be fair”, this isn’t completely “out of character”, said The Guardian. During her husband’s first term, Melania’s “frequent absences sparked various conspiracy theories, including one that she had a body double”. But, this time round, she seems to be “keeping an even lower profile”, although she released a glossy eponymous documentary in January, and a “companion docuseries” is scheduled to air this autumn.

‘Work behind the scenes’
In Melania’s absence, Trump aide Natalie Harp “has seldom strayed far from the president’s side”, said The Independent. The 35-year-old former One America News Network presenter joined Trump’s staff in 2022 and accompanied the president on his state visit to China this May – “a trip Melania Trump did not attend”. The president’s “perceived closeness” to his aide is fuelling “unfounded rumours that the pair are having an affair”, said The Telegraph.

But “this is a first lady who isn’t troubled by what her critics think”, said NBC’s White House correspondent Monica Alba. Melania’s domestic and overseas appearances have been “scaled down”, but officials say “that’s because she’s doing a lot of work behind the scenes”. Her senior advisor told NBC News that she “prioritises results over appearances”. On Monday, the White House announced that the first lady had “facilitated the reunification of another child with her family” after “being separated” during the Russian war with Ukraine. She is now said to be “focused” on her “next reunification” effort.

A lion shows off his razor-sharp teeth at the Berlin Zoological Garden, the oldest and most visited zoo in Germany. The big cats can open their jaws up to 28cm wide and their roar can be heard up to five miles away. 

Tobias Schwarz / AFP / Getty Images

Many stretches of Anthony Bourdain’s “gritty” and “well-chronicled” life could work for a biopic, said Tim Robey in The Telegraph. But in “Tony”, Matt Johnson sticks with “just one summer”, in 1975, when the celebrity chef was 19 – long before he found fame and fortune.

Based on the opening chapters of Bourdain’s bestselling memoir, “Kitchen Confidential”, the film opens as Tony – played by Dominic Sessa, the “deeply talented” young actor from “The Holdovers” – leaves home after failing to get a prestigious summer writing fellowship. He follows a “girl he fancies” to Cape Cod and then gets “self-pityingly drunk” when he finds out she has a boyfriend.

After being thrown out of an oyster shack, a kindly chef (Antonio Banderas) gives him a job washing dishes, and Tony finds himself in the “cramped, all-male milieu of flying expletives and cruel practical jokes”. Johnson effortlessly mixes the “toxic camaraderie” of these scenes with montages of Bourdain’s slow-but-steady daily improvements. “It plays like ‘Rocky’ with kitchen knives.”

Gradually, Tony’s “insufferability” is “hosed away”, said Danny Leigh in the Financial Times. Sessa dazzles in the “contradictory” role of the “charismatic sad-sack”. Johnson has made a “funny, sun-kissed biopic” that is “spry” and “enjoyable” despite the “complicated brief”. This film is aimed at those who know that the chef’s life story will lead to both “glory and tragedy” (Bourdain died by suicide in 2018). It “isn’t the whole story”, but that’s “probably fitting” – the chef was “nothing if not a spinner of yarns”.

Mostly, “Tony” is a “rollicking, surprisingly sunny coming-of-age tale”, said Larushka Ivan-Zadeh in The Times. It’s a portrait of the fiery young chef that’s “spicy, salty, and just sweet enough”.

A fifth season without a verdict on Manchester City charges is scandalous
Oliver Brown in The Telegraph
“Three Prime Ministers, five Foreign Secretaries and 32 Premier League managers have come and gone since 115 charges of alleged financial impropriety were first levelled against Manchester City,” writes Oliver Brown. Since then, City have “spent £690m on strengthening their squad and won six major trophies”, while “we still have no idea” if they’ve been “playing fast and loose with the rules”. While they fight the accusations “fiercely” with a “formidable legal team”, top-flight football remains mired “in farce” for a “fifth straight season”.

Free speech is universal or it’s worth nothing
Alex Massie in The Times
“Everyone loves free speech until a reporter is in their face,” writes Alex Massie. But while journalists “should strive to be kind”, it should not be “at the expense of the truth or legitimate inquiry”. This is “elementary” stuff, but it’s become “close to transgressive” as social media fuels an “inferno of whataboutery”. Yes, there’s “often something sulphurous” about “Fleet Street in full cry”, but “the only thing worse than an unchained press is a muzzled one”.

What parent would actually wish fame on their own child?
Claire Cohen in The Independent
Hayden Panettiere’s life was “shaped” by “having been a child star”, writes Claire Cohen. The “Heroes” actor, who has died at 36, was “pushed into performing aged four” and became a “megastar” at 16. “I hardly need to list” the other child stars who “also died unfathomably young”. The entertainment industry “often fails” such children, who “are thrown into a world where exploitation is rife”. We should ban child stars, but it seems profits “matter more than people”.