Decision on neighbourhood health centres expected in autumn but approach divides policy expertsLabour is preparing to kick off a new wave of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in England to build the neighbourhood health centres at the heart of its NHS 10-year plan.Ministers will make a final decision in the autumn budget about whether to use the funding approach, which was put on pause eight years ago. Continue reading…

Big hitters get their grand unveiling alongside some surprise announcements as gaming’s biggest event arrives in GermanyIf you are in Cologne this week, you will find the place overtaken by cheerful nerds, as Gamescom, the world’s biggest gaming event, descends upon the city once again. (I first went in 2009 – before that it used to be held in Leipzig, a city home to a famous absinthe bar; perhaps this is why my memories of it are somewhat hazy.) Over 300,000 people are expected to visit the Koelnmesse to play upcoming games and enjoy each other’s company, to the extent that it’s possible to enjoy anyone’s company in a giant crowded convention hall with woefully insufficient food options.The event began, as is now tradition, with a showcase of games (pdf) whose publishers could afford the hundreds of thousands of euros necessary to show a trailer on an official livestream. (There was also a live performance of a piece of music from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the big, weird French hit of the year so far, as a welcome interlude.) As ever, I am here to spare you from watching a full two hours of trailers and pick out the most interesting stuff. Without further ado: Continue reading…

Blunt knives cost you more than you think. These simple expert-recommended hacks will keep your blades razor-sharp for years• The best kitchen knives for every job – chosen by chefsA good knife is probably the most important bit of kit you’ll buy for your kitchen. But if you don’t look after it, it will end up being replaced when it doesn’t need to be. As James Ross-Harris of knife makers Blenheim Forge says, too often kitchen knives are “treated as almost disposable objects, used until they are blunt and then rejected. It’s sad to see.”A knife is, after all, a tool that needs to be maintained. “There’s a huge amount of satisfaction to be gained from taking something that doesn’t work as effectively and bringing it back to top condition,” says Helen Symonds, co-founder of knife emporium Kitchen Provisions. Not to mention being cheaper in the long run. So from sharpening to cleaning, here’s how to keep your kitchen knives on pointe. Continue reading…

Club say they want to keep Isak but a move is now in both’s interests and Eddie Howe is best off chasing other targetsAs a general rule, it is almost always best to sleep on things before making important decisions or reacting to provocations. So why, at close to midnight on Tuesday, did Newcastle rush out a seemingly kneejerk response to Alexander Isak’s incendiary Instagram post claiming that, amid broken promises, his relationship with the club was over?In a statement reflecting an appreciably tougher tone than at any time during this summer saga, Newcastle insisted no promises had been broken and that their intention is to keep Isak. The message was that the Sweden striker’s attempt to force a move to Liverpool had failed and he would need to end his one-man strike before being welcomed back to first-team training. The only problem is that while you can lead a horse to water it sometimes really is impossible to make them drink. Continue reading…

Politicians love a single, unifying narrative, but it’s more complicated for those of us who see UK life and history through a different lensAre we, to echo Keir Starmer’s now infamous phrase, “an island of strangers”? No. But there is a deep cultural divide in this country, a cultural dissonance we don’t discuss but should. Witness the row about the Wythall Flaggers, the group that has erected numerous St George’s flags in the Worcestershire village to parade its patriotism. What does it mean? Is it laudable patriotism or a nod to the hard-right, anti-migrant politics that is fast becoming mainstream? Is it inclusive or exclusive? “We have members of the community of all ethnicities and religions stopping by and praising what we are doing so please don’t call this racist,” say the organisers.Maybe that is so, but certainly different people will look at those flags and take different meanings from them, feel different emotions. That’s pretty much our island story now. We are the same, but we’re different. Continue reading…

With on-field war of words it is often a fine line between a genuinely pithy one-liner and cringeworthy stag-do bore“Fat slob?” Well that’s not very nice. But as insults go, I suppose it gets the job done. What’s that? I’ve got a what … a surfboard on my front leg? A surf … say again, Davey? No, you’ve lost me.It has been a busy few weeks for the sledgers. First up Liam Livingstone v Tom Curran. Ding Ding! Curran normally gives off the energy of a man who would only really emerge from his perma-chilled bunker if, say, someone smashed his avocado the wrong way. Yet here he was on a Tuesday evening at Edgbaston throwing off his fedora and dungaree sporting coffee-bro image to give his “good friend” Livingstone an earful as his Oval Invincibles grappled with Birmingham Phoenix.This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading…

Officials who worked on assessment that Russia interfered in 2016 election stripped of clearance; teen detained by Ice walking dog. Key US politics stories from Tuesday 19 August at a glanceNational intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard said on Tuesday that she had stripped security clearances from 37 current and former national security officials, including some who worked on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.In a memo posted on X, Gabbard accused the targeted individuals of having engaged in “politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and/or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards”. Continue reading…

Democrats hoping to retake the Senate in the midterm elections next year are targeting the seat of Senator Collins, a Maine Republican who is seen as a moderate.

President Trump has latched on to concerns about crime, as liberals point to its decline. The politics often flip when it comes to mass shootings.