Category: London

The moon will move to cover the sun in a total solar eclipse for people in Greenland, Iceland and Northern Spain.The UK will only experience a partial eclipse, but around 90% of the sun will be covered by the moon meaning people should still be in for a spectacular sight in the skies.It is the most complete eclipse seen in the UK since 1999.So as the day approaches, the all-important question for any outdoor event in London will be asked “what is the weather forecast?”A woman and her two children watch the start of the eclipse on Westminster Bridge in central London 11 August 1999. London skies were mostly cloudy for the event AFP via Getty ImagesWhat will the weather be like in London for the solar eclipse?The eclipse takes place in summer, so there’s a better chance of clear skies than you’d expect in autumn or winter.At the moment its too far away to accurately predict the weather.The Met’s long-term forecast for the UK up to August 13 predicts “further spells of dry, warm, sunny weather and cooler, wetter and breezier weather” towards the middle of the month.It looks like the better weather will be the south, with the “potential for some very warm or hot spells”. The long-term forecast on the BBC website on Saturday, August 1 suggests the weather could be cloudy during the eclipse.It forecasts light cloud and winds for most of the day on Wednesday, August 12 with a temperature of 29C.We’ll be updating the forecast as we get closer to the day.This year’s solar eclipse will begin at 6.17pm on August 12.The whole phenomenon will last around an hour and 49 minutes until 8.06pm.The height of the eclipse is expected at 7.13pm for Londoners.

Several European cities have made the list of the world’s most hospitable tourist destinations for 2026. Find out which city took the top spot in Europe, which countries are represented in the Top 20, and what criteria were used to evaluate hospitality

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When planning a trip, travelers are increasingly focusing not only on tourist attractions or the cost of their vacation, but also on how comfortable and welcoming the destination country is to visitors. A new international ranking has revealed which cities around the world offer the best conditions for travelers.As reported by Euronews, London was named the most hospitable city in Europe in 2026, and in the global ranking, it was second only to Singapore, which topped the list.Read also: Where Not to Go in the Summer of 2026: 5 Popular Destinations That Could Ruin Your Vacation.Which cities were recognized as the most hospitable for tourists in 2026?This year’s list of the world’s 20 most hospitable cities included representatives from Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. London achieved the best result among European cities, ranking second in the world. In addition to the British capital, another city in the United Kingdom — Edinburgh — also made the list, coming in at 11th place.In total, nine European cities made it onto the global ranking, confirming the high level of development of tourism infrastructure and services on the continent. The United Kingdom, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands performed particularly well this year — each of these countries is represented in the ranking by two cities.Don’t want to miss important updates and useful articles? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!The top 20 cities are as follows:● Singapore;● London (United Kingdom);● Sydney (Australia);● New York (United States);● Boston (United States);● Penang Island (Malaysia);● The Hague (Netherlands);● Hong Kong;● Copenhagen (Denmark);● Aarhus (Denmark);● Edinburgh (United Kingdom);● Utrecht (Netherlands);● Davao (Philippines);● Ottawa (Canada);● Melbourne (Australia);● Prague (Czech Republic);● Amsterdam (Netherlands);● Toronto (Canada);● Montreal (Canada);● Brno (Czech Republic).If you’re planning a trip to one of these destinations, it’s worth taking care not only of your itinerary but also of your personal safety in advance. For Ukrainians traveling abroad, travel insurance from Visit Ukraine will help you get the necessary coverage during your trip and avoid significant expenses in case of unforeseen situations.Which country was named the most hospitable for tourists?Although Singapore topped the global ranking, Canada can generally be considered the most hospitable country. Three Canadian cities — Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal — all made it into the top 20 of the ranking. This is the highest representation among all countries included in the ranking.What criteria were used to evaluate the world’s most hospitable cities?The ranking was compiled by Holafly, which evaluated cities based on several key indicators that affect tourists’ comfort. The study took into account:● visa policy openness;● Henley Openness Index scores;● the number of tourist and information assistance centers.It was the combination of these criteria that made it possible to identify the cities where travelers can most easily obtain the necessary information, access tourist services, and enjoy a comfortable stay during their trip.We remind you! Slow travel is becoming one of the most popular travel styles in the world. Read about which cities topped Saily’s 2026 ranking and why they are best suited for a long and comfortable immersion in local culture.Photo: Lucas Davies/UnsplashWant to know more? Read the latest news and useful materials about Ukraine and the world in the News section.Our recommendation for a safe and comfortable trip: Visit Ukraine Insurance – insurance for a safe stay abroad without unnecessary expenses;Green Card – compulsory car insurance for traveling abroad;Visit Ukraine Tickets – book tickets for buses, trains, and airplanes to/from Ukraine and between cities around the world;Private Lawyer service – professional legal support on visa and migration issues;Visit Ukraine Merch – buy patriotic clothing and accessories with worldwide delivery.© 2018-2026, Visit Ukraine. Use, copying or reprinting of materials on this site is permitted only with a link (hyperlink for online publications) to Visit Ukraine.All rights reserved.

Christopher Nolan’s $250 million action movie version of Homer’s ancient Greek poem is an entertaining way to hide from the high temperatures for a few hours. Nolan’s trademark jumps and twists in the narrative structure are relatively easy to follow, and appropriate for The Odyssey, a narrative of tales nested in tales. My teenagers had a good time. Unlike some of Nolan’s other films, The Odyssey is not boring, thanks to the source material, which is impossible to mess up entirely. It’s a family-friendly audiovisual spectacle, like an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display – and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth.As in his previous films, Nolan is interested in the discontinuities of space and time, in magic, tricks, craft, technology, rivalry, substitution, masks, miscommunication, what we remember and what we choose to forget. Yet again, survival is portrayed as a kind of triumph. Yet again, there are long, claustrophobic scenes of drowning and near-drowning, and technically impressive episodes in which buildings are engulfed in flames and vehicles explode. Yet again, we watch a male character’s desperate quest to recover and/or avenge a female love object. I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters. But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality. Without a tub of wax for my ears – which Himesh Patel’s ever anxious Eurylochus, Odysseus’s doomed right-hand man, uses to sail safely past the Sirens – I was exposed to the full din of thumping sticks, staffs, swords and clashing armour, thunderbolts, crashing waves, grunts, screams, toppling palaces and burning temples. But unlike Matt Damon, the wax-free Odysseus who is tied to the mast as he is conveyed past the Sirens (naked ladies reclining on some uncomfortable-looking rocks), I gazed at the shipwrecks and bloodbaths without any agony of emotion. My eyes stayed dry, even for Argos the dog – whose adorableness as a puppy is predictably amped up to suit our animal-loving times. If only the human characters had been treated with such serious attention.The Homeric epic was already an adaptation. The poem used a relatively new technology – the written alphabet – to rework existing mythical traditions, reshaping the story of a veteran’s homecoming to resonate with the complex concerns of Greek-speakers in the archaic period, an era of migration, colonisation and urbanisation. Some seventh-century BCE Greek communities were ruled by an oligarchy, some by a single man. The poem traces the tension between the needs and desires of groups of men – Odysseus’ comrades or the suitors of his wife, Penelope – and those of a single powerful and cunning man, who wants to rule them all and win eternal fame for himself. In a period of cultural and technological change, it explores a fantasy of going back in time as well as space, while also showing its dangers and costs. The poem wrestles with the challenges of encountering strangers, of entering their homes and welcoming or rejecting them from one’s own. The contemporary resonances are obvious and Nolan’s movie hints at some of them, in interesting if scattered ways. But the film’s vision is too confused, its characters too underdeveloped, to deliver what it half-promises in terms of big ideas – although it is very good at conveying big bangs and big giants.Adaptations needn’t and shouldn’t follow the original with anything like the exactitude of a translation. Some of the best radically transform or resist the source material, providing what Harold Bloom called ‘strong misreadings’ of their ancestors. The most memorable creative responses to The Odyssey – such as Euripides’ Helen, Virgil’s Aeneid, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Joyce’s Ulysses, Walcott’s Omeros, Atwood’s Penelopiad, Madeline Miller’s Circe or Lisa Peterson’s play set in a modern migrant camp – reconsider the poem’s structure, narrative and values. In theory, Nolan seems to understand the assignment and its hazards. His first feature film, Following (1998), was a powerful black and white thriller about the fascination and dangers of tracking strangers through space and time. The hunter is more likely to become the hunted, Following suggests, if the would-be stalker lacks a clear identity beyond a misplaced belief in his own ingenuity. But knowing what temptations should be avoided isn’t the same as avoiding them – as Odysseus’ men learn to their cost when they kill the sacred Cattle of the Sun. Homer’s Odysseus makes it home because he is able, temporarily, to suppress his own desires – for meat and wine, for his wife, for control of his household and land, for slaughter, for victory over time and the threat of being forgotten, for a glorious eternal name. But there is no restraint in Nolan’s version of The Odyssey: every second is jam-packed with incident, lights and noise, and nothing is ever at a human scale.Nolan’s spectacle threatens to drown out his story just as the towering waves of the wine-dark sea – more grey than purple – threaten to overwhelm his hero’s ship. In looks, this Odyssey is often reminiscent of other 21st-century screen ‘epics’, not least Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The visit to the Land of the Dead reminded me of the excursions beyond the Wall in Game of Thrones. At the end of the film, a character sets out to ‘sail beyond the sunset’ and I almost expected everyone to break into Elvish. The film has none of the stylish sparseness of Uberto Pasolini’s The Return (2024), starring a scarred, desperate, mostly naked Ralph Fiennes, conflicted about his homecoming to a convincingly unhappy Juliet Binoche. Lacking the budget for gods or special effects, that film invited us to wonder what remains of The Odyssey and its hero when stripped down to the sinews and the hungry heart. Nolan gives us an all-inclusive buffet.The race-neutral casting of Nolan’s Odyssey was inevitably deplored in some quarters. But there is nothing progressive about it. Most of the non-white actors – Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Himesh Patel, Corey Antonio Hawkins, Travis Scott – play versions of the Black best friend, whose only role in the drama is to provide aid to the white protagonist. Scott, as the Ithacan bard, Phemius, yells a few words and pounds a stick, but does not get to sing, tell a story or play the lyre: the most melodic note in the percussive soundtrack comes from the plucking of Odysseus’ bow (a beautiful sonic image of the archer as musician, borrowed from the poem). Nyong’o’s double part as Helen and Clytemnestra is hugely underwritten; she is given only a few minutes of screen time to perform a set of brief tableaux of female victims (the outraged bereaved mother, the abused wife, the repentant adulteress).There are more female characters than in most Nolan movies, thanks to the source material. But none of them has much to say, in contrast to the characterisations in the poem. Homer’s Calypso has a wonderfully outraged, operatic speech about divine double standards: male gods can kidnap and rape any mortal woman they desire, but when a goddess tries it, Zeus and his cronies scupper her chances. It’s a clever and comical distortion of the mythological ‘facts’: the poem’s listeners know that it is primarily Athena (a female deity) who is taking Calypso’s mortal victim away from her (Hermes, whom she’s complaining to, is merely the messenger) – and Eos, goddess of the dawn, as we’ve been reminded only a few lines earlier, has not been prohibited by the divine patriarchy from holding on to Tithonus. Charlize Theron’s Calypso looks gorgeous, but she is never angry, never funny, not skilled in rhetoric, and never consumed by lust for her scraggly mortal victim. She’s an unpaid therapist, soothing the soul of the bedraggled, PTSD-ridden Odysseus with drugs, and graciously listening to his disjointed tale of woe.Similarly, Homer’s Penelope gives the disguised Odysseus a wonderfully vivid account of a dream she has had about some geese in her yard being killed by an eagle; the eagle explained that the geese were her suitors, soon to be slaughtered by her returning husband. But in the dream, Penelope wept – suggesting a fascinatingly ambivalent response to the return of Odysseus and the imminent end to her long period of waiting, like a bride, for a husband. Nolan’s Penelope has no dreams. Anne Hathaway’s face is as expressive as ever, and she looks beautiful and mysterious, glimpsed mostly through the veil of a clever set design that separates the women’s quarters from the main hall. But the script gives her nothing to do except yearn for Matt Damon, for reasons unknown. The couple have no chemistry and nothing in common. Throughout his wanderings, the uxorious Odysseus clings to a little doll figure, intended to represent his wife (like the spinning top clutched by Leonardo di Caprio in Inception); the real woman is barely more interesting.It’s a challenge to represent deities on film without veering into Clash of the Titans silliness, so Nolan may have been sensible to leave them out. Even Zendaya’s underwritten Athena turns out to be a vulnerable victim of war, or perhaps a projection of Odysseus’ conscience – not a scheming and bloodthirsty war goddess. Other goddesses appear in cameo – Calypso, the seal-lady Sirens, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis – but there is no sign that we are supposed to realise they are goddesses. Poseidon, Hermes and Helius do not appear in person, although there are some scary storms and shipwrecks. One of my favourite moments was when Zendaya assures Damon that gods are not hard for mortals to understand: ‘Who doesn’t understand thunder? Fire?’ But the film wants to have it both ways. There are no gods, and yet shipwrecks and death are presented as the inevitable consequence of blinding the son of Poseidon and devouring the Cattle of the Sun. Zeus’ law is portrayed as being crucially important, and yet there is no Zeus. Nolan’s vision of the world is not quite big enough to include either real gods or real people who might be different from us.There are giants, including Polyphemus (here, a lone Cyclops) and some overdressed Laestrygonians. Circe, played with earthy vigour by Samantha Morton, is Baba Yaga in a Hansel and Gretel cottage; she uses a labour-intensive form of plastic surgery to turn Odysseus’ greedy men into the pigs they already are. There is only one lotus eater, though the theme of amnesia takes on new significance, as you might expect. Famous scenes flash by: Scylla and Charybdis threaten the boat, Eurycleia recognises the scar on Odysseus’ leg, Antinous hurls a footstool at our hero in disguise. A few notable sequences from the epic are missing: the film skips the island of Scheria, home of the helpful princess Nausicaa, where Homer’s Odysseus tells the tall tale of his adventures to the hospitable Phaeacians. There is no room in this maximalist film for anything as charmingly mundane and small-scale as Nausicaa’s laundry and her girlish fantasies about a husband. Damon’s grizzled Odysseus is neither a master storyteller nor a flirt. More substantially, the inclusion of a friendly, wealthy, culture-rich foreign place would have added more confusion to the film’s already muddled premise: that this Hollywood version of Mycenaean Greece is the only ‘civilisation’ in the world – the only place that still just about remembers that strangers and beggars must be welcomed, according to Zeus’ law.The costumes, armour, boats and architecture are a mishmash, which is in keeping with Homer’s poem – itself drawn from many generations of storytelling and incorporating bits and pieces from different eras, dialects and traditions. Linguistically, too, Homeric Greek is a composite – although it is always metrical poetry, not language anyone ever actually spoke. Despite the manufactured online outrage, there is nothing inherently wrong with the movie’s attempt to approximate contemporary American speech. If you’re not going to compose a script in Homeric Greek, or even in metrical English verse, you might as well use something like conversational American English. But writing dialogue is not one of Nolan’s talents. The language is relentlessly expository, humourless and flat. Attempts at vigorous speech – ‘My dad’s coming home’ or ‘Let’s get off this fucking beach’ – sit uncomfortably next to grandiose meditations: ‘Yes, my queen. The breaking of Zeus’ law, spreading like plague. Our age of bronze is collapsing, and maybe he couldn’t bear to see the ruins of what he’d done. Anywhere. Least of all, his home.’As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Nolan has read at least the first line of my translation of The Odyssey into iambic pentameter. In at least one interview, he cited my version of the first line of the poem: ‘Tell me about a complicated man.’ But I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script. Sadly, Damon’s Odysseus isn’t complicated or wily or artful. One of Odysseus’ funniest (and most famous) tricks in Homer is to tell Polyphemus that his name is ‘No Man’. When the blinded giant screams for help from his neighbours, the other Cyclopes are reassured to learn that ‘No Man’ is hurting him. In the movie Odysseus doesn’t have to outwit Polyphemus because the Cyclops is a puppet who has no wits. Nolan’s grunting one-eyed giant is referred to as ‘it’, barely speaks, doesn’t get drunk and has neither neighbours nor a favourite sheep.Perhaps more surprising from the director of Oppenheimer, Damon’s lummoxy Odysseus also seems to lack technological intelligence (polymēchania). He does not build a marriage bed out of a tree growing in his house (it would be a waste of effort, since he so rarely seems to sleep or have sex). The raft on which he escapes from Calypso is cobbled together from a few bits of driftwood (in contrast to the elaborate wood-chopping and shipbuilding in Homer). We don’t see the design or construction of the Trojan Horse; instead, a kitsch, poorly designed horse (with no wheels) appears on the windswept beach as if dumped there by drone. The difficulties of transporting large, unwieldy objects over difficult terrain must have been on the director’s mind as he lugged his IMAX cameras through the film’s many challenging locations.The most obvious new spin that Nolan brings to the source material is a subplot based on a story from the Aeneid, describing the way the Trojans were tricked into taking the Trojan Horse (an invention of ‘cruel Ulysses’) into the city, thanks to the machinations of a Greek double agent called Sinon (his name means ‘harmful’). In contrast to the relatively positive representation of cunning intelligence in Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil makes Ulysses cruel and predatory; Sinon is his deceitful accomplice.In Nolan’s movie, Sinon is played by Elliot Page, and far from being a bad guy he’s the film’s moral centre. He is recruited to the Trojan War as a plucky youngster, thanks to the evil machinations of a teenage draft-dodger, Antinous (played in adulthood by a charismatically slimy Robert Pattinson). The main emotional arc of the film concerns Odysseus’ belated realisation that he is complicit in Sinon’s exploitation because he failed to tell him the truth about the Trojan Horse plot. Once he recovers his memory, Odysseus is racked by guilt. The film doesn’t address the moral dilemmas raised by its own narrative invention, such as why it matters so much whether Batman told the whole truth to valiant Robin, given that he would be killed instantly either way – or why the sinless Sinon wants in on the scheme, if the sack of Troy was as bad as the movie wants to suggest. Odysseus’ lie to Sinon doesn’t start the Trojan War, and the Trojans would presumably have taken the horse into the city anyway – as they do in Homer’s Odyssey. This muddled subplot is foisted on the film in order to make Nolan’s relentlessly didactic point about the contemporary Anglophone world: that the lies and xenophobia of the war on terror and Brexit began a cultural decline that is now destroying the values ‘we’ hold most dear.Nolan’s other major addition to Homer’s narrative is the repeated reference to threats to ‘our civilisation’ from ‘the sea peoples’ – a now debunked 19th-century theory about maritime tribes who were thought to have attacked Egypt around 1200 BCE and to have also been responsible for the roughly coeval collapse of Mycenaean Greek culture. ‘Our civilisation is under attack,’ Penelope wails. Odysseus comforts her by saying that ‘Bronze Age civilisation’, including literacy, will rise again from the ashes. The current consensus, as Nolan clearly knows, is that there was no such thing as ‘the sea peoples’, and that the Greek-speaking world’s shift away from the more centralised, literate palace culture of the Mycenaeans in the 11th century BCE towards the fragmented social formations of the early Greek Iron Age was caused by a range of factors, including climate change, earthquakes and internal unrest. Nolan uses these competing historical theories to create a characteristic narrative twist about the identity of ‘the sea peoples’, which I will not spoil, though you can probably guess it.Zeus’ law is a version of archaic Greek xenia: the idealised relationships between strangers, hosts and guests, who must treat one another with mutual respect, thereby forming multi-generational bonds between unrelated families. In the film, xenia is filtered through contemporary American ideas about the importance of philanthropic charity: wealthy people should be gracious towards the poor and hungry in their midst (without necessarily doing anything to mitigate their poverty). Many of the film’s implicit values directly contradict those of Homer’s poem. Deception, warmongering, extramarital sex, cruelty to animals, abusing women and yearning for honour – all perfectly fine in the world of Homer – are, in this version, very bad. This is not in itself a problem, but it is a problem if the film’s own values and vision don’t hang together, and if the characters’ motivations don’t make sense on their own terms.In Nolan’s Odyssey, slaughtering people with the help of trickery, technology and weapons is presented as bad when the Greeks are killing the Trojans, who have violated xenia, but good when Odysseus is killing the suitors, who have violated xenia. Taking something ostensibly abandoned by Odysseus and his comrades is natural and forgivable when the Trojans lay claim to the horse, but unnatural and unforgivable when the suitors lay claim to Odysseus’ palace, food, wine and wife. Strangers in Ithaca are to be treated with gracious kindness, as possible gods in disguise; but strangers in foreign lands are usually monstrous, to be blinded, robbed and slaughtered. Defying the gods is noble and brave when Odysseus blinds Polyphemus, son of Poseidon; it’s stupid and greedy when Eurylochus eats the Cattle of the Sun. Deception is bad when Odysseus tricks Sinon or the suitors trick Telemachus, but good when Telemachus and Odysseus trick the suitors. Sharing is good, and Odysseus is seen taking his place at an oar alongside his men; but one-man rule is also unambiguously good, and those who challenge monarchy or autocracy, or try to eat more than their allotted portion, are either evil (the suitors) or foolish (Eurylochus). Either way, they have to die. It is bad to fight and kill to accumulate wealth, as Agamemnon does; it is good to fight and kill to preserve the wealth that you have already acquired (even if by war). Any one of these moral contradictions could make for an interesting and generative theme in a movie, but Nolan lets the fragments of an incomplete set of big ideas spin around in the epic whirlpool, with no plank of solid, specific human experience to which we might cling.Homer’s Odyssey gives a clear, moving account of the feelings, histories and perspectives of several of Odysseus’ comrades and subordinates, including Eurylochus and the enslaved swineherd, Eumaeus. Kidnapped, trafficked and sold into slavery as a child, Eumaeus fantasises that his long-lost enslaver, Odysseus, will one day return and give him a home of his own. In the film, none of these subordinate characters has a personality of their own. Mentor (Ryan Hurst), who helps Telemachus (Tom Holland), is not a disguised goddess but a helpful guy with a beard; Eurylochus is not an embittered rival to Odysseus but another helpful guy with a beard. John Leguizamo does his best with the part of Eumaeus, now cursed with cataracts to ensure that he is unable to recognise Odysseus until the right moment, but Nolan’s script gives him nothing to work with; the only wish of this ‘servant’ (the film’s preferred term for ‘slave’) is to make Odysseus’ life more comfortable. But Damon’s Odysseus remains miserable as he hikes doggedly towards the camera across yet another beautiful landscape.The Trojan War is an aberration, the fault of faceless, monstrous Agamemnon (the one in the weird Darth Vader outfit), who has failed as an American family man by killing his daughter. Odysseus is an idealised leader who would never willingly put his people in danger: his foolish men insist on going to check out Circe’s hut for themselves, and he kindly retrieves them (without pausing to have sex with the goddess even for an hour, let alone a whole magical year). Damon’s Odysseus is motivated mostly by anxiety and guilt, though he is also eager to protect his boy (Holland is good at playing a gormless young man of twenty going on twelve).But the representation of Odysseus as a reluctant warlord makes a nonsense of the movie’s imagined world. We are not shown that war or killing are bad, only that good men sometimes feel bad about it – a very different point. Any serious depiction of violence, ancient or modern, must show the perspectives of the victims as well as the perpetrators, and the Homeric poems easily clear the bar – but Nolan doesn’t. The Trojans are dehumanised by their masks; we know none of them by name or face. The hands of Odysseus and Telemachus are bloodied only by the most righteous, computer-game modes of killing, and we feel no pity or horror at the deaths of their victims, whether Trojans, giants, suitors or slaves. During the sack of Troy – which he supposedly organised – Odysseus gazes around in bewilderment and horror, as if he has never seen a massacre before.Yet we are also invited to despise Penelope’s chief suitor, Antinous (‘opposite mind’), for being a coward, a liar and a schemer. The film asks us both to be horrified at war and to celebrate the action-movie sequences in which the reluctant warrior finally gets his hands on his bow and the blood starts flowing. The massacre of the suitors is probably the most enjoyable sequence in the film. The exuberantly villainous Antinous – Pattinson is the only person on set who seems to be having any fun – clearly deserves to be stabbed to death with the dagger of Sinon, but he also deserves one of the Oscars that will shower down on this movie like the golden rain of Zeus.Nolan’s Odyssey lacks many of the elements that make the poem great. It has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war, or about the relationship between one warrior’s glorious return and the lives of his family, adversaries, comrades, friends and neighbours. It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.The most troubling ethical problem with Nolan’s Odyssey concerns the decision to film part of the movie in the occupied territory of Western Sahara, thus normalising the ongoing violence against the indigenous Sahrawi people. It is particularly galling that Nolan used this land simply as a visually striking backdrop for a film that centres, aggrandises and redeems the hero of a territorial war on account of his belated and partial acknowledgment of his own guilt.Despite all this, the release of The Odyssey is still an event to celebrate. In what we are told is the streaming era, this epic is bringing audiences back to cinemas. In what we are told is a time of declining literacy and the ‘death of the humanities’, translations of The Odyssey, including mine, are flying off the shelves. Some of those who buy the book or show up in cinemas to watch Tom Holland may go on to study ancient Greek. Perhaps the film will persuade a few college administrators not to cut their literature, language and history departments. Nolan, who studied English at University College London – where students still study The Odyssey as a first year ‘foundational text’ – is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful.Listen to Emily Wilson discuss this piece with Thomas Jones on the LRB Podcast

Brendan Foley, chairman, president and chief executive of McCormick, said: “This, in combination with our International Headquarters and commitment to Unilever’s world-leading R&D facilities in the Netherlands and our global headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland, reinforces the global nature of the combined operations and positions us for ongoing success.”

London produces an epic women’s 800m
The London Diamond League will be remembered for Josh Kerr’s magnificent world mile record. Under different circumstances, we could have been celebrating 2 world records. When Keely Hodgkinson broke the existing world indoor record earlier this year, running 1:54.87, she let it be known that she was keen to attack the existing outdoor world record, 1:53.28, set by Jarmila Kratochvílová of Czechoslovakia in 1983 in Munich. Earlier this year she told the British media that it would happen when she was ready, but if it happened in London, that would be special. Unfortunately, a training fall put her knee and the world record attempt on ice. “I literally fell over. It’s one of those uncontrollable things that happen and it was just a shame. I was more good because I had to fly out to America the next day and it was really painful. I hobbled my way to Accident and Emergency at the local hospital”.
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Still, winning a Diamond League race in London, in front of 59,000 people, is not to be sneezed at. Keely’s time was 1:56.21, and she commented afterward: “There are mixed emotions today. I am going to take the positives because it has been a tough couple of weeks. Not everything always goes to plan, but I am proud of how I have dealt with it. The only reason I came here today is that I wanted to race in front of a home crowd. I am happy to get that out of the way and focus on the Europeans next. Life is sometimes tough, and it doesn’t always go the way you want it to. I dream big, but I am living in the present”.
Femke Bol, New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Track & FieldBoston MA, USAFebruary 3, 2023World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting, photo by Kevin Morris
Keely has a new rival in the 800 this year, Femke Broeders-Bol, who has switched from 400 hurdles to 800. Having not run an 800m since 2017, Bol has run 4 this year, the slowest being 1:57.41 and the fastest 1:54.33 in Stockholm. In Paris two weeks ago she ran 1:55.60 for second place behind Audrey Werro and then 1:56.46 in London for second behind Keely.
Keely Hodgkinson won London DL, July 10, 2026, photo by Getty for BritishAthletics
In Paris she told me: “It’s a big mind change to switch from 400m hurdles to 800m, and it means a lot of changes in the training, and in the way of racing with everybody in the same lane. In terms of pressure, it’s pretty similar. I always put pressure on myself; it helps me to perform, and I like that. To discover this new distance, you need to be open-minded. It’s fun; I pretty much feel like a junior. I was very excited for my first race in the Diamond League in the 800. Running in a pack – not in one lane – is something new for me. I have to be smart during the race with what I am capable of doing in a race where Audrey will chase the world record, to not make a mess of my race.”
Of the London race she said: “I had a small training block after coming from Paris with a lot of confidence. I am still learning the 800m, but I am starting to feel what an 800 is like and how I need to divide it up. But today was a different race with a lot of moving around through the first lap. The hardest thing for me is the positioning and how you find the right spot. I learn best by racing. I have to get used to being close to people during races”.
Femke Bol wins the 400m hurdles, Tokyo, photo by Brian Eder, for RunBlogRun
Asked about Femka’s potential at 800, Keely said: “Femka is an incredible athlete. I’m not surprised that she’s had this trajectory. She’s Femke Bol. She is a world champion. She’s been doing this a long time. She looks like she’s having fun, which I think is good. And she’s trying a new event, and it makes sense for her. And I just look forward to us pushing each other. We’re really great friends off the track as well.  She’s built like a gazelle. She just runs. And I think she’s been in some really good races and some really fast races, you know, Audrey in Ostrava, Audrey again in Paris. So when you’re in races like that, like the whole field went fast in Paris, there were a lot of 1:55s and 56s. So yeah, I’m happy for her. I think she’s just having fun, like I said before, and I look forward to seeing what that is”.
Audrey Werro wins Bauhaus 800m, in 1:53.98, photo by Diamond League AG
The European Championship next month in Birmingham, Broeders-Bol v Hodgkinson v Werro, could be quite a race.  I already have got my seat reserved.

Since 2015, Stuart Weir has written for RunBlogRun. He attends about 20 events a year including all most global championships and Diamond Leagues. He enjoys finding the quirky and obscure story.

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City Hall has heard a five-point plan for helping turn around the fortunes of the London Stadium. The Greater London Authority (GLA) picks up the bill for operating West Ham’s ground – and its costs have escalated by about £2 million this year now the club has been relegated to the Championship.Lyn Garner, chair of the London Stadium LLP which owns and runs the ground, has warned “the financial situation remains challenging” as she accused the football club of frustrating cash-raising efforts. She admitted the relationship between the club and the stadium owners had “historically been quite tense” but they were hopeful a recent change of management could mean more cooperation.Karim Virani replaced Karren Brady who stepped down as vice-chair after 16 years in April. At a meeting of the GLA’s Economy, Culture and Skills Committee this week, Ms Garner laid out five things the London Stadium LLP are in discussions with West Ham about to help improve the ground, and ease the burden on taxpayers. PAThe London Stadium LLP wants to hold more concerts at the arena in a bid to raise cash. This is because it holds athletics meets over the summer and only has a licence to host 10 concerts. The London Stadium LLP is in talks with Newham Council about extending this. Discussions are also being had with West Ham about playing more away matches in September so gigs could be held at the ground during the football season. Ms Garner said: “Tottenham signed a 10-year contract with NFL, American Football. In October and around the autumn they put NFL on, and they ask the Premier League whether they can play away in that window. “Our club could do the same if we wanted to make use of the September window for concerts. That’s what Tottenham do.”Making the stadium less ‘sterile’Colouring the white seats claret has been discussed as a way of making the London Stadium feel more like West Ham’s groundAFP/GettyWest Ham’s decision to leave Upton Park for the London Stadium ten years ago was controversial. Fans have complained about the lack of atmosphere at the new ground, which feels more at home hosting athletics than football. Ms Garner said the board was working to address the complaints. One idea is to change the white seats to the team’s signature claret and sky blue colours. “There could be some improvements for how the place looks and feels for West Ham fans,” Ms Garner told City Hall. “I think probably it feels a bit sterile. It doesn’t feel like the home… One of the things we’ve considered inside the bowl is turning all the seats claret. “It’s an easy thing for us to do… but it’s very costly, and it would take a long time to do that. But it would feel more intimate and more West Ham-like if the seats were claret as opposed to white.”The London Stadium LLP and West Ham are set to have discussions about hosting women’s football at the ground. A women’s match has not been held at the stadium since 2019 because of cost concerns. Ms Garner said: “We would really desperately like to see women’s football played at London Stadium. It’s not played at the moment because there’s a dispute about how it interacts with the contract and the cost of it. “We’d like West Ham to pick up the cost of the women’s games. They’d like us to run the games on the same basis as the men’s games. “I think we’d all love it if we could get a bit of women’s football into London Stadium. And I think that’s going to be something that will come out of our discussions.”West Ham United players await other results after the final whistle in the Premier League match at the London StadiumPAOne of the biggest revenue raisers for the stadium would be selling the naming rights and this will be a crucial discussion over the coming months. West Ham has been accused of frustrating attempts to do sign off a deal in the past. Three naming rights contracts for the stadium have previously fallen through, including a potential £20 million sponsorship with in Vodafone 2017. A contract with a “major sponsor” also collapsed in 2024 because the club refused to sign it off. “We had a major sponsor at the table,” Ms Garner said. “At the end, we could not get the club over the line to sign that deal. Part of it was to do with the amount of money changing hands for the IP of the club, but it would have been a fantastic partner for us. “It was the closest we’ve ever come.”She added: “It’s probably not the right time to sell the naming rights when we’re in the Championship. We need to get back into the Premier League. “But there are lots of preparatory things that we can do to present a united front in terms of putting the naming rights to the market. “Because one of the reasons the deal didn’t work in 2024 was because we were not a united front, and any partner coming to the table wants a clean, easy deal where they have a single point of contact and they can get on with their commercial opportunity.”Food and drink offerings outside the stadium are set to be expanded. “We want to do that in partnership with the club,” Ms Garner said. “We get some return from food and beverage, and they get hospitality returns. So it’s a partnership that is an easy one to pull off.”

Samsung’s last Galaxy Unpacked event was in February in San Francisco.Samsung/Screenshot by CNET

Samsung’s summer Galaxy Unpacked event happened earlier Wednesday in London, with CNET on the ground to see all the new devices the company unveiled. Samsung usually showcases new foldable phones at its midyear event, like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, but this year things took, let’s say, a different shape.

The company revealed its wide-format Galaxy Z Fold 8 alongside the taller Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, as well as the clamshell Z Flip 8. The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and Galaxy Watch 9 were also shown off, plus the XR glasses Samsung developed with Google.

If you’re ready for what’s next, you can experience Samsung Unpacked as it happened, either through CNET’s live blog coverage or the official stream of the event on YouTube.

Unpacked comes just months before Apple’s annual fall event, giving Samsung time to flex its foldable phone prowess ahead of the rumored launch of the foldable iPhone in September. Though Apple’s been rumored to have been working on an iPhone Fold for years, I’ll believe it when I see it. It’ll be interesting to watch what Samsung does with its latest generation of foldables in the meantime.

Samsung’s next Galaxy Unpacked event was in London on July 22.Samsung

Ahead of the event, the rumor mill was churning with predictions about which new devices might be revealed, like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide and Z Fold Ultra, and even the Galaxy smart glasses.

How to watch Galaxy Unpacked

Samsung’s event was livestreamed on Samsung’s website and Samsung’s YouTube channel. You can watch the company’s livestream below:

Galaxy ‘wide’ foldable

The Galaxy Z TriFold isn’t the only odd-shaped foldable Samsung has been apparently working on.Patrick Holland/CNET

Samsung was on its seventh generation of Galaxy Fold devices, and ahead of Wednesday’s event, we expected that both the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 would be refreshed with new processors, a few other tweaks and the number eight on their packaging. But it seems that the company’s designers might be getting bored, as they’ve experimented with the folding form factor enough to bring new designs to market.

We’ve already had the wild Galaxy Z TriFold with its tablet-sized display released back in January, and rumors suggested a wide version of the Fold that packs a 7.6-inch inner display with a 4:3 aspect ratio. That’d make it wider and narrower than the squarish, almost 1:1 aspect ratio of the Z Fold 7’s internal screen, which would theoretically make the new foldable’s inner display better for watching movies, with less wasted space for black bars at the top and bottom. 

We expected a more “regular” version of the Z Fold 8, which was said to follow the proportions of the Galaxy Z Fold 7. However, rumors suggested it would be rebranded with the “Ultra” moniker to differentiate it from its wider-format (and potentially less powerful) sibling. 

Galaxy XR Glasses

Samsung and Google’s glasses had already been announced, but we were still waiting on more details.Scott Stein/CNET

Google talked for some time about its mixed reality glasses at its I/O event earlier in the summer, including showing off Samsung’s upcoming glasses made in partnership with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. But details about the glasses themselves were a bit thin, with the extent of Samsung’s role held back – likely for the summer Unpacked event.

So while we knew the glasses existed – and CNET’s Scott Stein has already tried some prototypes on – we were excited to hear more details. The glasses will feature cameras and microphones (how else will you interact with Google’s Gemini AI?), but we didn’t yet know how much they’ll cost or exactly when they’ll go on sale. 

There was more talk about features and usability at Unpacked, and I was hoping it’ll have a fancy try-on section where I can pop some on my face and see whether my wife can still stand the sight of me.

Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 was said to be unveiled at Samsung’s event.James Martin/CNET

Rumors fueled by firmware updates and certification filings suggest Samsung would showcase two new smartwatches at this year’s Unpacked event. The Watch Ultra 2 – the company’s more rugged, outdoor-focused model – is rumored to get a huge battery boost up to 800 mAh. That’d be the biggest of any Wear OS watch and should help it keep on tracking your wilderness hikes long after your legs have given up from exhaustion. 

The Galaxy Watch 9 is also rumored to get a bit of a battery boost, along with both models featuring new processors and potentially refreshed designs. 

Galaxy Ring 2 – eh, probably not

Samsung has confirmed it is working on a new Galaxy Ring, but it was too early to see it this summer.Andrew Lanxon/CNET

According to Forbes, Samsung has confirmed that it is working on the Galaxy Ring 2, the follow-up to its 2024 finger-based health tracker. The company’s next ring is expected to get a boost in battery life, feature more advanced tracking and likely come with a refreshed design. 

But while the ring might be in active development, it wasn’t likely to be launched at July’s Unpacked event. While I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a teaser of some kind, it’s likely that Samsung would unveil its next Galaxy Ring either at CES at the beginning of 2027 or at Mobile World Congress shortly after. 

Andrew Lanxon

Editor at Large; Lead Photographer, Europe

When he’s not testing the latest phones or phone cameras, Andrew can normally be found with his own camera in hand or behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food — sometimes all at once.

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Update, July 22, 10:50 AM EST: Now that Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 has wrapped, here’s everything announced at the event. For all the details, check out our Galaxy Unpacked Live Blog.Samsung is set to capture the tech world’s attention next week when it hosts its next big mobile launch event.The Korean tech giant is hosting a Galaxy Unpacked event in London on July 22, and Mashable will be there, reporting live on all of the big announcements. We’re fully expecting to see at least five new devices from Samsung, including the latest batch of flagship foldable phones. As per usual with Samsung, these devices haven’t been leaking so much as flooding.So, as we prepare for the big show, here’s everything we know (and everything we think we know) about the Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event.When is the next Galaxy Unpacked?

The next Galaxy Unpacked Event takes place on Wednesday, July 22 in London. The livestream will begin promptly at 9 a.m. ET. We expect all the new devices to be available for pre-order immediately after the event.Mashable will be attending the event and hosting a live blog, so check back next week to unpack all of the day’s news with us.
SEE ALSO:

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2: What’s actually new (and what’s not)

Three new foldables are arriving, including the Z Flip 8, Z Fold 8, and Z Fold 8 Ultra.

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Samsung’s new foldable phones typically debut during a summer Galaxy Unpacked event, and Samsung recently confirmed that it will be announcing new details about its next-gen foldables on July 22. We don’t have official confirmation on which devices will be announced, but all reports indicate that three new foldable phones will arrive at Galaxy Unpacked 2026:This is where things get a little confusing. You’d think the Z Fold 8 Ultra would be the new addition to the lineup, but recent reports indicate that the Z Fold 8 is actually a new device this year. Rumors for months have pointed to Samsung releasing a wider foldable this year, and it sounds like that phone will take the Z Fold 8 name, while a true successor to the Z Fold 7 will be called Z Fold 8 Ultra. The new phones will probably arrive with price increasesAgain, we don’t have any official details, but it’s very likely the successors to the Z Flip 7 and Z Fold 7 will indeed cost more. Most early reports and leaks indicate a price increase of $100, which is in line with the price increases we’ve seen from Motorola. The global memory crisis has led to price hikes for laptops, smartphones, gaming consoles, and virtually every product that requires memory, and Samsung probably won’t be the exception.Recently, South Korean outlet SEDaily reported that the starting price of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will be $2,099, a $100 price increase over the Galaxy Z Fold 7. The same outlet reported the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide model will start at $1,899.99. Finally, according to leaker Lanzuk (as reported by PhoneArena), the new Galaxy Z Flip 8 will likely have a starting price of $1,199, or $100 more than its predecessor.

Mashable Light Speed

TL;DR: Thanks to RAMageddon, do not be surprised to see year-over-year price increases for all of the new devices.A new Z Fold 8 to compete with the iPhone Ultra FoldRumors indicate that the new Z Fold 8 will potentially have a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.8-inch inner display when unfolded. With a 4:3 aspect ratio, it will be a book-style foldable. These dimensions are very similar to the rumored design of the still-unannounced foldable iPhone, suggesting Samsung wants to introduce this third foldable as a direct competitor to Apple’s upcoming device. It’s the latest salvo in the ongoing Apple iPhone vs. Samsung Galaxy battle for smartphone dominance.

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More Folding iPhone Reports and Rumors

The Z Fold 8’s rumored specs, via PhoneArena:Processor: Snapdragon Elite 8 Gen 5 for GalaxyRAM: 12GBStorage: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TBMain display: 7.6 inchesCover Display: 5.5 inchesCameras: 50MP primary lens, 50MP ultra-wide lens, 10MP selfie lensThe new flagship: Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 (pictured here) was surprisingly thin and lightweight.
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

As mentioned above, we think the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will actually be a successor to last year’s Z Fold 7, which we enjoyed testing. This new foldable should have a new chip and a stronger 200MP main camera on the back. Samsung is also said to have done some work to make the crease on the folding display less visible this year. Finally, a Korean news report indicated the Z Fold 8 will be slightly lighter than the Fold 7, which was already impressively thin and lightweight.At this point, pretty much all of the specs for the upcoming devices have leaked. So, while none of these details are official, we think the Z Fold 8 Ultra will have the following specs, via PhoneArena: Processor: Snapdragon Elite 8 Gen 5 for GalaxyRAM: 12GB or 16GBStorage: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TBMain display: 8 inchesCover display: 6.5 inchesCameras: 200MP wide, 50MP ultra-wide, 12MP telephotoThis week, Samsung revealed that its new foldables (which it didn’t mention by name, unfortunately) will feature a new Flex Titanium technology. In short, a titanium-alloy film and a titanium plate will better support the phones’ flexible display, creating a more durable device and a less noticeable crease. Samsung said more details will be revealed on July 22.The new Z Flip 8 will look very familiar

Last year’s Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 on display.
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

If the rumored specs for the new Galaxy Z Flip 8 are correct, this year’s flip phone-style foldable will look a lot like the Z Flip 7, but with a better processor and a less visible crease.Until recently, the rumor mill indicated that the Z Flip 8 would get a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. However, leaker WinFuture (as reported by 9to5Google) claimed that instead, the flip phone will get a new Samsung Exynos 2600 processor.
And here are the rumored specs:Processor: Samsung Exynos 2600 or Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5RAM: 12GBMain Display: 6.9 inchesCover Display: 4.1 inches Storage: 256GB or 512GBCameras: 50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP selfieNew Galaxy Watches are also on the waySamsung usually uses this summer event to showcase its latest smartwatch advancements, and 2026 looks no different. This year, we expect to see two new Samsung watches:It’s generally accepted that both of these watches will see fairly incremental changes from before. There will surely be new health-tracking features, and some small design changes, with the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 in particular said to incorporate classic numbers on the watch face, a thinner bezel, and better side buttons. Most importantly, for some, it sounds like Samsung is skipping out on a new Galaxy Watch Classic this year. You’ll get a base model and a premium model, and that’s it, as far as anyone can tell. Finally, don’t forget that Samsung is all-in on artificial intelligence, so we expect major upgrades to the Samsung Health app and the watches’ overall health-tracking features.Could we see Galaxy Glasses make their big debut?

The upcoming Galaxy smart glasses as designed by Gentle Monster (left) and Warby Parker (right).
Credit: Samsung

Lastly, Samsung’s long-awaited smart glasses could also make their debut at Unpacked in July. Most likely called Galaxy Glasses, we expect these specs to work similarly to the ones Meta has been releasing for a few years now. We saw a preview of these specs at Google’s recently developers’ conference, and we know Samsung is working with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster on the designs.These smart glasses will not include any augmented reality or heads-up display features, focusing instead on on-board cameras and a built-in AI assistant, courtesy of Google Gemini, to provide information about what you’re seeing, should you ask. We expect the first generation of these glasses to arrive in 2026, and we’re holding out hope that the glasses will get a shoutout or even a proper introduction at the London Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22.It should be a pretty packed showcase, so stay tuned for all of our coverage as we get closer to Galaxy Unpacked. Remember: Mashable will be attending the live keynote in London, and we’ll have a live blog with real-time updates on all the day’s news. Don’t miss it!

We’re reporting live from the company’s event in London, UK.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

It’s time for Samsung to properly unveil its latest lineup of foldables and smartwatches at its Unpacked event today. The launch is being hosted in London, and the company’s presentation will start bright and early at 9AM ET (2PM in London). Our UK Bureau Chief Mat Smith will be on the scene and bringing you the updates live, and he will be supported by myself and senior reporter Sam Rutherford, who will be attending a New York-based satellite event. 
Our liveblog will kick off here at about 5AM ET (or sooner, if Mat is able to park himself at the event early). You should expect plenty of foldable fervor from our resident foldable fanatic (Sam) and maybe some pictures of snacks. We’ll of course be bringing you our analysis of the devices, too. Samsung is expected to show off three foldables today and two smartwatches, kicking off a summer of new hardware. Pictured above, for now, is last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, to jog your memory. We will put in a new photo once we get to the event venue, though!
If you’re here early, feel free to leave us some comments below and we’ll do our best to respond in our liveblog. And make sure to head on over to Engadget’s channel on YouTube, because we’ll be livestreaming after the Unpacked keynote is over and taking your questions live! It should be a fun morning, we can’t wait to hang with you all.

Galaxy AI’s automated app actions support third-party app like Uber.Celso Bulgatti/CNET

You don’t need a crystal ball to know that Wednesday’s Samsung Unpacked event will heavily feature AI. It was certainly a big part of Samsung’s February Galaxy S26 event, where we saw a new Perplexity-powered browser, AI-powered call screening and photo editing tools. This time around, we can now glean a few clues about what’s coming.

Samsung said in its announcement that it will bring “more personal, adaptive experiences” to its devices. That’s certainly aligned with the personalized intelligence trend we’re seeing in the AI industry, particularly with Google, a longtime Samsung partner. Personal AI is exactly what it sounds like — it’s AI services and results that are tailored to your life and your needs. 

What could this look like for you? It’s too soon to know for sure. But it’s likely that Samsung will upgrade its software so the Galaxy AI can access more of your information across apps and services. That way, it has more data to pull from, so it can customize its options to whatever it thinks you’ll like best. 

Of course, very few people decide to buy a new phone purely because of its new AI. But that’s beside the point, at least according to Samsung, Google, Apple and every other major phone-maker. Samsung CEO TM Roh called the Galaxy S26 an “agentic AI phone,” after all.