British households will see a 10% increase in their average annual energy bill, from £1,568 to £1,717, after the industry regulator Ofgem announced it would increase its cap on energy prices from October. The regulator blamed global energy market price rises due to heightened political tensions and extreme weather events. Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic party’s nomination for president last night, with a speech urging undecided voters to reject her “unserious” rival Donald Trump. The vice-president, America’s shortest ever presidential candidate at 5 ft 2 in, vowed to “strengthen, not abdicate” US global leadership. Thousands of homes across Britain have already been left without electricity as Storm Lilian blows in. Heavy rain, flooding, power cuts, and trravel disruption are expected, with yellow weather warnings issued for north England and north Wales. The Met Office shipping forecast has warned of “violent” gale force 11 storms, one wind level below “hurricane”.

Tackling “extreme misogyny” will be a delicate business

When I heard that our new home secretary, Yvette Cooper, wants to tackle “extreme misogyny” in the same way as far-right and Islamist extremism, my eyes rolled, says Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph. Once you start policing misogyny, I thought, chivalry is soon rebranded as “toxic masculinity” and banter becomes a crime. But then I caught myself. We’re not talking about how “nobody’s allowed to wolf whistle or call a woman ‘baby cakes’ any more”, we’re talking about the two to three women murdered a week in the UK; the one in 12 women who will be victims of violent crime this year; and the 37% increase in crimes against women over the past four years. With young boys being radicalised online by misogynistic influencers like Andrew Tate, Cooper’s right. Something must be done.

It’s going to be a delicate job, says Mary Harrington in UnHerd. Yes, there’s a nasty online subculture of “incels” (involuntary celibates), who openly hate women and pose a genuine threat. But a clampdown only on this group misses an important fact about misogyny in Britain today: much of it is imported. Labour politicians tend to be very keen on diversity and in favour of a generous immigration and refugee policy. But “migrants bring their cultures with them”. What if as well as “tasty food”, they also bring, say, the kind of “extreme misogyny” the West spent trillions trying to expunge from Afghanistan? Of course, the government won’t “embolden the far right” by saying anything about this in public. But we must hope that Cooper and co are clear sighted about what “global cultural diversity” really means for British women and girls, “and willing to use Home Office powers accordingly”.

Ultra-progressive activist-speak is finally on the wane in America, says Helen Lewis in The Bluestocking. At the Democratic National Convention this week, politicians have had no trouble talking frankly about “women and girls”, and those “acronyms that read like wifi passwords” – BIPOC, LGBTQIA etc – have been banished. Even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on board. Her 2020 speech pledged to “recognise and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonisation, misogyny, and homophobia, and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past.” This time, she talked about how there’s “nothing wrong with working for a living”.

What are the odds that “rawdogging” will be the Oxford University Press word of the year, asks Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian. “It’s certainly a strong contender.” As recently as last summer, rawdogging – originally slang for having sex without a condom – wasn’t the sort of word you’d hear in polite conversation. Now it’s everywhere, being used by Gen Z in the most innocuous situations. Prefer your coffee black? You’re “rawdogging caffeine”. Don’t drink coffee? You’re “rawdogging your mornings”. Just finished a nine-hour flight with no entertainment? “Bro, you rawdogged travel!”

Why holidays matter

One of the world’s great divides is between people who can afford to go on holiday and those who can’t, says Simon Kuper in the FT. For most humans since history began, it was normal to be born, live and die without ever venturing far from home. There were exceptions – in ancient times, “rich Romans kept seaside villas on the Gulf of Naples”, and Victorian mill workers went to the beach every Wakes Week. But from the 1840s, the coming of the railways began democratising long distance travel. Suddenly ordinary Britons could take “excursions” to Paris or to see the battlefield at Waterloo.

These early travellers mostly moved in tour groups to save money and “enjoy the protection of guides who could mediate strange languages and cultures” – much like Chinese tourists in the 2000s. Today, travel has truly gone global. This year is forecast to be a record for international trips, with billions of people now rich enough to get away. On a recent work trip to India, I decided to visit Goa, expecting to find it a “playground for western backpackers”. But almost all the tourists were Indians, some presumably taking their first vacation. It’s hard to overstate “the life-altering experience of going on holiday”. It offers an escape from life-sapping routine, and being somewhere else always tends to “put your own life into perspective”. You may not learn much about the place you’re visiting, but you’ll learn a lot about home: if you can grasp that “the few square miles of your existence aren’t the entire world”, everything seems manageable.

One of Europe’s most popular budget airlines has announced an “all you can fly" pass offering travellers unlimited flights to destinations as far afield as the Maldives for an annual subscription fee of €499. The Wizz Air scheme, which is effective from September, sold out in most markets within 24 hours, but there are one or two snags. Travellers can only book flights three days before departure (if there are any seats left) and must pay a fee of about €10 per flight. Flights booked with the pass also do not include any checked or overhead luggage.

The Bank of Mum and Dad is more generous to sons than daughters, says The Times. A survey of 1,000 first-time homebuyers found 63% had received financial help from their family to afford a home, 75% of which was from parents. On average, daughters were given £51,671 towards their first property, while sons got £65,004, meaning men typically got £13,333 more. Analysts have mused that more traditional parents may be “reluctant to encourage their daughters to leave home”, or that many will already have paid for a daughter’s wedding, so feel less inclined to splash out. But female first-time buyers told the Times they were “simply better at saving than men”, so didn’t need the extra dosh.

It’s a “Spanx stiletto”, a new high-heeled trainer created by the brains behind the famous tummy-tucking pants brand. Founder Sara Blakely told CBS News she set out to create a “luxury high-heeled shoe that’s as comfortable as a pair of sneakers”. Produced in Spain, the “Sneex” feature luxury materials including Napa leather and Italian mesh, and are available in a variety of styles intended for both casual and formal wear. One pair will set you back around £450.