I’ve started strutting like Liam Gallagher – and the power is great indeed | Adrian Chiles

I happened to be in Cardiff during the Oasis gigs. Before I knew it, my legs developed a mind of their own, my shoulders got involved and my jaw was chewing

By the time I got into Cardiff Central just before 8am on Friday, the early birds of the Oasis flock were already arriving. With a full 12 hours to go until showtime, this wasn’t a bad effort. Respect. I wasn’t there for the big reunion concert. I’d have liked to have been going, but I couldn’t face the hassle. If a ticket package had been available which transported me to my seat, à la Star Trek, just before the gig started, and then transported me straight to bed when the curtain came down, I would have paid handsomely for it. As it was, I enjoyed bystanding, breathing in the thick air of anticipation, like a kind of passive smoker, detached yet vaguely intoxicated by it all.

I was there to present my radio programme from BBC Wales, just across the way from the station. My studio afforded me a view of the crowds thickening outside. I wanted to scoff at all the blokes of my vintage wearing age-inappropriate bucket hats, and the rampant money-making at the heart of it all. But it was all too moving seeing these people getting reacquainted with their 20-years-ago selves. And as for the Gallagher brothers, hell, money has driven many families apart – so what if in this instance, it’s money that has brought them back together?

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingI’ve started strutting like Liam Gallagher – and the power is great indeed | Adrian Chiles

Carlo Ancelotti fined €386,000 and given one-year prison sentence over tax fraud

  • Former Real manager will not spend any time in jail

  • Ancelotti convicted of failing to pay tax on image rights

The Brazil coach and former Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has been given a one-year prison sentence and a fine of almost €400,000 (£345,000) after a Spanish court found him guilty of one count of tax fraud.

Ancelotti, who managed Real Madrid from 2013 to 2015 and between 2021 and 2025, appeared in court in Madrid in April to stand trial on charges of defrauding Spain’s tax office of more than €1m (£836,857) in undeclared earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015.

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingCarlo Ancelotti fined €386,000 and given one-year prison sentence over tax fraud

Intelligent machines are already reshaping careers | Letters

Young people are not obsolete – but we do need to reimagine employment for the future, writes Ben Woodford, while Clare Coley says graduates are uniquely placed to work with new technologies, and Joseph P Lapinski urges us to learn fast

Your editorial rightly highlights the challenges facing today’s graduates (The Guardian view on the graduate jobs crunch: AI must not be allowed to eclipse young talent, 2 July). But while it casts artificial intelligence as a threat to young talent, it misses a deeper truth: AI isn’t just disrupting the job market, it’s reshaping it entirely.

Unfortunately, the decline in entry-level roles is not a temporary glitch. AI already outperforms most graduate hires in tasks such as summarising, analysing and content creation. As the technology evolves, it will continue to replace higher-skilled mid-level and expert roles in fields such as law, finance, marketing and journalism.

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingIntelligent machines are already reshaping careers | Letters

We must count the real costs of nuclear power | Letters

With efficient renewables, the whole world could have a western European lifestyle and still use less energy, writes Nick Eyre, while Kathleen Askew asks what happens to hugely toxic radioactive waste

Tim Gregory (Can we afford to be afraid of nuclear power? 6 July) makes a series of assertions that are incompatible with recent evidence about the transition to zero-carbon energy. Two stand out.

The first is that the world needs more energy. Poor countries certainly do. But the clean-energy transition involves shifting to much more efficient technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps. Many studies, including by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, show that these can enable rich countries to halve their energy use while improving living standards. The whole world could have western European lifestyles and still use less energy.

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingWe must count the real costs of nuclear power | Letters

Give asylum seekers the right to work in Britain | Letter

The UK would not be an outlier if it allowed refugees to work – and doing so would bring a net benefit to the economy, writes Pete Winstanley

Rather than launching a “blitz” on asylum seekers working illegally, the government should allow them to work legally (Home Office announces ‘nationwide blitz’ on asylum seekers taking jobs, 5 July).

An investigation by the Commission on the Integration of Refugees found that providing free English classes on arrival, involving local councils and communities in resettling refugees and allowing asylum seekers to work if their claims remain undecided after six months would yield a net benefit to the economy of £1.2bn within five years (Proper jobs, English classes and a refugee minister – this is how to fix Britain’s asylum system, 20 March 2024).

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingGive asylum seekers the right to work in Britain | Letter

John le Carré: the constant researcher | Brief letters

An embassy in West Germany | Norman Tebbit | Penis reduction | The Salt Path

I can testify to the accuracy of John le Carré’s research, which you note with reference to a new exhibition at Oxford’s Bodleian libraries (8 July). When researching British foreign policy, I spent a day in the embassy in Bonn in 1973. It struck me as so much like its portrayal in A Small Town in Germany that I remarked that if someone came pushing the registry trolley I would not be surprised to hear it squeak, as he had described it. “It’s a pity you weren’t here two or three years ago,” came the reply, “you would have recognised several of the characters as well.”
William Wallace
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords

• I was never a fan of Norman Tebbit (Obituaries, 8 July) but an ex briefly worked security at Conservative HQ and had nothing but praise for him as the only person who said hello and goodbye to everyone by name every day.
Michelle Kimber
Plymouth

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingJohn le Carré: the constant researcher | Brief letters