The government has activated emergency plans to prevent prison overcrowding, as the mass arrest of rioters puts further pressure on Britain’s jam-packed jails. Operation Early Dawn forces police to release suspects on bail rather than take them to a court hearing if there is no prison space available. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel for “crunch talks”, says the FT. America’s top diplomat described the present moment as “probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home” and secure a lasting ceasefire. He appeared to admonish both sides, adding: “It is time for everyone to get to yes and to not look for any excuses to say no.” Comedian Mark Simmons has won Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s funniest joke award, with the one-liner: “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship, but I bottled it.”

The green subsidy swindle happening in plain sight

The fact that wood-burning energy firm Drax gets over half a billion pounds a year in green subsidies is “an affront to reason and nature”, says Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times. Burning wood produces even more CO2 per unit of energy than the coal Drax used to use in its power station, but the company argues those emissions “don’t exist on the nation’s carbon balance sheet” because trees are “renewable”. Sorry, but this is preposterous. Not only is Drax by far the UK’s biggest carbon emitter, according to a new report from the energy think tank Ember, it also emits four times as much carbon as the country’s last remaining coal-fired power station. And almost all the wood the firm incinerates is imported from North America on “vast diesel-fired vessels”.

By any sane standard, the carbon-accounting of Drax and its stooges in the British government is little more than “a scam”. It takes 100 years for a mature tree to absorb the amount of CO2 released by burning one in a power station. So, if we are already in a “climate emergency” as energy secretary Ed Miliband insists, “this payback would come long after we have all been doomed”. Other countries have already cottoned on to the absurdity of the idea of “net zero imported wood burning”: the Netherlands has recently vowed to stop subsidising firms who do it. The UK’s public subsidy to Drax is due to end in 2027 – but the firm is shamelessly seeking an extension. They must not get it. “In a more rational world it would be their profits, not the trees, going up in smoke.”

🌲🪓 If Drax were to switch to using home-grown wood, it would require the felling of 13 million trees per annum, the equivalent of the entire New Forest every four years.

Nigel Farage is the highest earning UK MP, says the FT. House of Commons records reveal the Reform leader trousers a handsome £98,000 a month thanks to his presenting job on the rightwing TV channel GB News. The parliamentary register also showed that in the past year the new MP for Clacton earned £17,000 selling personalised video messages on Cameo and £4,000 writing columns for The Telegraph.

The new superyacht must-have is apparently a “blow-up beach club”, says The Times. The market in large-scale inflatables for luxury liners has ballooned in recent years: one specialist firm, Superyacht Tenders and Toys, charges a cool €250,000 for a custom-made floating hangout, complete with loungers and “sea pool”, as well as slides from €5,000 and inflatable jet ski docks. Others sell climbing walls, jousting arenas and obstacle courses for bored billionaires. The 112-metre vessel Renaissance (which charters for $3m a week) has a full-sized inflatable pickleball court.

Sue Gray is proving to be more trouble than she’s worth

“Keir Starmer needs to sack Sue Gray,” says Dan Hodges in The Mail on Sunday, “and he needs to do it quickly.” In the space of six short weeks, his “power-hungry” chief of staff has driven a wedge between the prime minister and the security services, the civil service more widely, the cabinet, and other senior members of his team. Within days of the election, Gray had begun waging war on Starmer’s head of political strategy Morgan McSweeney “via the No 10 seating plan”, with his desk twice being repositioned further from Starmer’s office. She is also said to have tried to deny him access to an important internal government IT system.

All of this may sound like the normal “jostling for position” that comes with any new administration, but it appears to be “far, far more serious”. A cabinet minister tells me a log jam is developing at the heart of Downing Street, with basic decisions not being taken because of Gray’s insistence on having final sign-off. Civil servants are raising similar concerns. And last week the Mail on Sunday reported that Gray had “actively prevented” senior security officers from briefing the prime minister on a major national security threat. Many who’ve worked with her in the past tell much the same story – according to one: “She used to deliberately withhold information from ministers. She wanted to be in the position where she controlled the flow of the information.” Gray was brought in to help Starmer “smoothly and calmly navigate the corridors of power” as his most senior trouble-shooter. Instead, like Alastair Campbell and Dominic Cummings before her, she’s become “more trouble than she’s worth”.

Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov has taken to social media to show off his new Tesla Cybertruck, which has been mounted with a machine gun for use against Ukrainian forces, says AP News. The 47-year-old autocrat claimed on Telegram that the truck, which is not officially available for sale outside the US, was a gift “from the respected Elon Musk”. The billionaire, who has frequently parroted pro-Kremlin talking points, denies having anything to do with it. Either way, Kadyrov is delighted: “A comfortable car,” he says, in a video of himself at the wheel. “The lads will be happy.”

An annual audit of the French Élysée Palace has revealed that Emmanuel Macron blew close to €500,000 on a lavish banquet held for King Charles and Queen Camilla last September, splashing €40,000 on wine alone. The food menu, which featured blue lobster and Bresse chicken marinated in champagne, was prepared by Michelin-starred chefs and took three months of planning. VIP guests included Mick Jagger and Hugh Grant.

It’s last night’s sunset over Buxton, Derbyshire, which glowed a spectacular shade of red because of wildfire smoke swept across the Atlantic by the jet stream. Skywatchers should also look out tonight, as a rare blue supermoon is due. The orbiting orb won’t actually change colour this time, though it will appear much bigger and brighter than usual.