Three Britons among 16 killed in Lisbon funicular crash

Three British nationals are among 16 people who died when the Gloria funicular derailed and crashed in Lisbon, Portuguese police have said.

The British victims were an 82-year-old man, a 44-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman, police confirmed.

More than 20 people were injured when the funicular derailed and crashed into a building in the Portuguese capital at 6pm on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he is “deeply saddened” to hear that three British nationals died in the crash, Downing Street said.

“His thoughts are with their families and those affected by this terrible incident. We stand united with Portugal during this difficult time,” a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office said: “We are supporting the families of three British nationals who have died following an incident in Lisbon and are in contact with the local authorities.”

Portugal’s judicial police confirmed on Friday that nationals of Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, Canada, Ukraine, the US and France were also among the dead.

Andre Jorge Goncalves Marques, a brake guard who worked on the Gloria funicular railway, was on Thursday named as one of the victims of the crash.

Carris, the company which operates the funicular, said in a statement that Marques had “performed his duties with excellence” and had been an “outstanding representative” of the company.

“His courage and professionalism, recognised by all, came to a tragic end with the loss of his life in the accident that claimed his life,” they said.

They described him as a “dedicated, kind and smiling” professional who was “always willing to contribute to the greater good”.

Portuguese transport union Sitra also paid tribute to Marques. “We also send our condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the accident and wish them a speedy recovery as well as the best recovery to the others injured in the accident,” the company said in a post on Facebook.

“This is one of the biggest human tragedies of our recent history,” Luís Montenegro, the prime minister, said of the crash, as he revised the death toll to 16 after authorities previously said 17 people had died.

Other victims named on Thursday included former volleyball referee Pedro Manuel Alves Trindade and lawyer Alda Matias.

Trindade was named as a victim by the Portuguese Volleyball Federation. The organisation said it was “deeply saddened by the tragedy”.

Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, a Portuguese charity that supports disabled people and orphans, confirmed four of its employees were killed in the crash.

“We are all in shock. We have lost colleagues, friends, people with whom we shared our daily lives and our mission,” Paulo Sousa, the head of the charity, said in a statement on Thursday.

All the people who died were adults, Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency said.

A three-year-old German boy was among the survivors pulled from the carriage where his father reportedly died, and his mother was among 22 other people who were injured.

As well as Portuguese people, two Germans, two Spaniards and one person each from France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Morocco, South Korea and Cape Verde were among the injured, the agency head said.

Seven of those injured are in serious condition. The injured were men and women between the ages of 24 and 65.

Pathologists at the National Forensics Institutes worked overnight on autopsies, officials said.

Witnesses expressed their shock following the accident. British tourist Felicity Ferriter, 70, said she was unpacking her suitcase at a nearby hotel when she heard “a horrendous crash”.

She said she had intended to ride on the popular Lisbon tourist attraction as part of her trip. “It was to be one of the highlights of our holiday,” she told AP news agency.

The Portuguese Institute of Blood reinforced the blood reserves of hospitals that responded to victims in the crash and also activated a contingency plan, the country’s news agency Lusa reported.

The government said the tragic accident “caused irreparable loss of human lives, which left their families in mourning and the country in shock”.

“The government has decided to declare a day of national mourning as an expression of the Portuguese people’s condolences and solidarity.”

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also offered his condolences and solidarity to the families affected and said authorities are working to establish the cause of the incident.

City mayor Carlos Moedas also confirmed funicular operator Carris has been asked to open internal and external investigations.

Initial reports suggest the cable for the funicular came loose. Following the incident, Lisbon City Council suspended three other funicular cable railways – the Bica, Lavra and Graça.

The system’s two cars, each capable of carrying around 40 people, run parallel to each other as they shuttle up and down the hill on a curved, traffic-free road.

The railway, which opened in 1885, is operated by the municipal public transport company Carris.

Carris head Pedro Goncalo de Brito Aleixo Boga reiterated that the funiculars have been working properly since 2007, and technicians check them regularly to make sure there are no problems. All findings are recorded.

Maintenance costs have more than doubled between 2015 and 2025, he added.

The costly mistake behind Daniel Levy’s fall at Tottenham

In an email to Tottenham Hotspur staff, where new chief executive Vinai Venkatesham acknowledged that Daniel Levy’s departure would come as “a shock to all of you”, while insisting that “it is very much business as usual”. Such sentiments were undercut by the very fact that some people were stopped in their tracks, as well as the messages from elsewhere in the club.

Spurs, it has been insisted, will no longer be so much about business. They’re going to be about “sustained sporting success”.

This was the primary reason that the Tavistock Group, under the ownership of the Lewis family, took the decision out of Levy’s hands. They wanted change. There had also been an awareness of fan unrest. Vivienne Lewis, the daughter of Joe, is now seen as an influential figure.

“Business” in short, will not be the same again – and the impact may reach beyond Spurs.

The longest-serving chairman in the Premier League, and a central figure in its political and economic structures, is gone. That is more consequential than it sounds. Many of the most senior executives in football, some who would consider themselves friends of Levy, were stunned.

Multiple such sources spoke of how they’d heard of growing tension at the top level of Spurs, that had been bubbling away for years between Levy and ultimate owner Joe Lewis. This came across loud and clear in a statement given by the family to Sky News.

“Generations of the Lewis family support this special football club and they want what the fans want – more wins more often. This is why you have seen recent changes, new leadership and a fresh approach.

“In Vinai (Venkatesham), Thomas (Frank) and Peter Charrington, they believe they are backing the right team to deliver on this. This is a new era.”

If so, the last acts of the old era were a series of insufficient bids for forwards, as the club desperately tried for another attacker in the last days of the transfer window. Some Premier League figures had long tired of doing business with Levy. “You did a deal once and you never wanted to do it again,” in the words of one source. His previously fearsome reputation in negotiations had long faded. People were just fatigued.

It had even been noted how Spurs were finally willing to spend big money, from new investment, but it was like they didn’t know how to; as if they didn’t know how to go and make a big blockbuster deal happen. This was most evident in a frustrated pursuit of Morgan Rogers. Some close to the situation insisted that one of the other “big six” would have put forward a huge figure to test Aston Villa’s resolve. Spurs wouldn’t do it without having a sense of a price.

It was viewed as typical of the club under Levy, and all the more ironic given his own fixation on being a “big club”. That often applied to refusing to sell players even when it made sense, and in the appointment of so many “name” managers when they weren’t right for the club. Sources began to believe that “ego” was getting in the way.

And yet such sentiments are directly countered by immense admiration elsewhere, especially for the way Levy bust Spurs into that “big six”. Some of the most senior figures in the Premier League enthuse about how he has done a “brilliant job”, and really like him. That was one huge reason that Spurs were brought into the Super League, precisely for his business acumen.

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It’s consequently fair to say he splits opinion, just as he does among fans, to go with that distinctive split in the debate about his legacy: the business versus the football; the macro of running a football club against the micro.

The debate around Levy has always been binary, which is all too fitting for an official who has always brought it down to the numbers. That applied to the prioritisation of the top four over silverware, the number he would always demand in any transfer deal, the wage ratio, the record revenue, and the trophies.

The latter two are what it really will come down to. The last accounts showed a revenue of £528.4m, already up £209.8m from Mauricio Pochettino’s launchpad season of 2015-16. And yet, amid a wage-to-turnover ratio of just 42 per cent, Levy’s chairmanship only produced two trophies.

On finally winning the second, that Europa League in May, Levy excitedly spoke about that victory being the launchpad for more. He certainly didn’t sound like someone who was about to leave, either in the aftermath of that or his revealing recent interview with Gary Neville.

“We want to win the Premier League. We want to win the Champions League. We want to win.”

Spurs may now do so without him. And, if they do, it might well be put down to this decision.

It should never be forgotten that Levy does actually leave Spurs in a better place. Quite literally, given that their facilities are among the best in Europe. The best players and managers in the world are genuinely wowed when they see the training ground and then the stadium. What has put them off has been the pay, and what has happened on the pitch, with the two obviously connected.

Giorgio Chiellini notoriously captured the essence of the modern club when describing a comeback defeat as “the history of the Tottenham”. There, but never quite enough. Spursy.

They were obviously in a better place, but it was no longer the best possible place. Spurs weren’t maximising what they could be.

Given that financial potential, given that London location, the stadium should be talked of as welcoming major trophies more than Beyonce concerts. It was like Levy had become too anchored to a certain way, that had too much power, that was no longer so efficient. Much like his approach to negotiations.

By the end, there wasn’t even a fan debate. The sacking of Ange Postecoglou even left a sour note to the Europa League victory, despite the logic of the decision. And yet all of that must still be put in a certain context.

When Levy was appointed in March 2001, the Premier League was still a relatively parochial competition, at least in terms of profile. Most of the owners were still local businessmen. It’s now a very different world, with two states owning clubs, and multiple capitalist funds.

Spurs have been central to all of that change. Levy has been a driving figure in Premier League meetings, especially about broadcast revenue debates.

The big question now is whether Spurs will cause further change to this world, whether there could even be a third state, given Qatar’s purported interest in buying the club. Industry figures have speculated that much of this activity looks like an institution being readied for a sale, not least in the departure of this one central figure. On the other side, there were at least as many murmurs about the ownership now wanting to bed in and maximise the asset.

The final sentence of Spurs’ statement read: “There are no changes to the ownership or shareholder structure of the club.”

No changes now. But in the future? Industry sources believe there could be a sale if anyone hits the £4bn valuation. The next business will be interesting. It just won’t be the same as before.

It’s time to start treating Israel like apartheid-era South Africa

It’s the moderates you need to watch out for. When they turn, the effect can be much more devastating than the shouters and flag-wavers.

That was my reaction to a column about Israel that Matthew Parris recently wrote for The Times, in which he called for meaningful sanctions to be applied by the international community with the explicit aim of getting rid of Netanyahu and his rotten government.

Parris embodies for me an almost Orwellian notion of Britishness – that’s Orwellian in the sense of the novelist’s essay “The Lion and the Unicorn”, rather than the dystopian nightmare of 1984 (and, to be precise, he was writing there about Englishness, but still).

For decades since quitting as a Tory MP in 1986, Parris has written columns that stand for decency, fair play, moderation, individualism, humour and restraint, as well as liberty in thought, deed, and expression, and an attachment to the past and tradition, tempered by tolerance and pragmatism. He voted Lib Dem in 2019, unable to stomach the unprincipled populism of Boris Johnson, but considers himself a lifelong conservative.

So consider this reasonable man and ponder his sober call for sanctions against Israel – premised, he says, on his personal experience of how sanctions worked against apartheid South Africa, the country in which he was born.

He admits that he was initially opposed to sanctions in the latter case, but ended up convinced of their necessity. And he adds: “Even that wicked regime did not try to extinguish the identity of – or slaughter in their tens of thousands – the Black race, or raze their homelands to the ground.”

If that had come from the pen of Owen Jones, Ken Loach or Jeremy Corbyn, Israel’s defenders would shrug. “They would say that, wouldn’t they?” And, indeed, the very next day’s Times letters page included the now-routine denunciation of any forthright critic of Israel as parroting antisemitic propaganda.

But shrugging off rational, moderate voices seems to me a mistake. The lines of Robert Burns come to mind: “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us/ To see oursels as ithers see us!/ It wad frae mony a blunder free us/ An’ foolish notion.”

Nearly 25 years ago I spent a day in Gaza, as part of a trip to better understand the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It’s a challenging story to edit if you’ve never troubled to travel around the contested lands and speak to people on all sides.

The great majority of the Israelis I met had never been to Gaza and had little understanding of the living conditions there – and, you might say, vice-versa. Decent people over dinner would confidently opine about a world beyond their experience. Driving back to the cosmopolitan comfort of Jerusalem after my day amid the poverty and hopelessness of Gaza, I reflected on the gulf between the powerful and the powerless; the comfortable and the comfortless.

It’s not a long drive – not much more than the journey from Soweto to the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, a journey I had taken in the dark days of apartheid – and I’m afraid the parallels were too pointed to ignore. That night I dined with David Grossman, probably Israel’s leading novelist, whose own son would later be killed in southern Lebanon. He began the meal by saying: “You have been in Gaza today. Then, I’m afraid, you will be very angry.”

Five years later, our Jerusalem correspondent, Chris McGreal – also a former South Africa correspondent – wrote a two-part, 15,000-word series carefully examining the parallels between the apartheid system he had experienced up close in his homeland, and Israel, from where he had reported with some distinction for four years.

McGreal had said what was then unsayable, and all hell broke loose in the form of an organised and ferocious backlash. Despite a 38,000-word complaint to the then regulator, the Press Complaints Commission, no factual fault could be found with the piece; only a minor correction was made, to a politician’s title.

More wounding was a rebuttal from Benjamin Pogrund, the distinguished former deputy editor of the Rand Daily Mail, a paper with a notable track record of fighting apartheid. By then, having lived in Jerusalem for 26 years, Pogrund was unequivocal: “No equation is possible.”

But the wheel turns, and just over two years ago Pogrund ate his words. Having, as he put it, “argued with all my might” against the accusation that Israel was an apartheid state, he now had to bluntly acknowledge: “We are at the mercy of fascists and racists (both carefully chosen words) who cannot, and will not, stop […] The right-wing government is taking the country into institutionalised discrimination and racism. This is apartheid.

“Israel 2023, South Africa 1948. I’ve lived through it before: power-grabbing, fascism and racism – the destruction of democracy. Israel is going where South Africa was 75 years ago. It’s like watching the replay of a horror movie.”

I doubt Pogrund’s heartfelt words cut much ice, even though they came from the most loyal possible friend of Israel. This was two months before Hamas’s heinous attack of 7 October 2023, but even then, mere words had lost much of their power to slice through the hardened, polarised battle lines of Israeli society.

But people should have listened, because Pogrund ended with this warning: “Israel is giving a gift to its enemies in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and its allies […] They have long distorted what is already bad into grotesqueness, but will now claim vindication. Israel is giving them truth.”

And here we are, three years later, and it is not only Israel’s enemies who are demanding sanctions: it’s their friends. It’s the moderates who have turned – and all the signs are that they, too, will be ignored.

Words no longer count – whether from newspaper columnists, humanitarian organisations or world leaders. There’s no point in telling Israelis that their government is trashing their nation’s good name, or that Israel is becoming a pariah state. No one in that country’s government cares.

That is why Parris, along with many other people who would previously have recoiled from such measures, now argues that meaningful sanctions are the only available response. “Otherwise,” as he writes, “we shall look back on these years baffled and ashamed that we let such horrors proceed without any serious intervention on our part.”

Is anyone listening?

Phone ‘hidden in Commons’ to play ‘sex noises’ during PMQs

A phone was planted in the House of Commons as part of an attempted prank which would have seen “sex noises” broadcast during Prime Minister’s Questions, it has emerged.

Parliamentary authorities have launched an inquiry into how a mobile was hidden near where Sir Keir Starmer was due to stand up and face Kemi Badenoch on the front benches on Wednesday.

It was found during a routine sweep before PMQs and was reportedly due to play a sexually explicit audio recording.

There is no clear footage of the phone being planted, however, the incident is being treated as a major breach of parliamentary security. A source told The Times: “It looks like it was just a prank, but it could have been much worse.”

And they raised concerns that it could have been an explosive, adding that “we don’t know how it got here”.

A UK Parliament spokesperson told The Independent: “The safety and security of all those who work and visit in Parliament is our top priority, however, we cannot comment on our security processes or measures.”

The Commons chamber is open to the public on most mornings, raising questions about who could have planted the device.

Multiple live events have been disrupted by “sex noise” pranks in recent years, though the victims have mostly been sport-related.

The Euro 2024 draw was hit as pornography sounds were loudly played as teams were finding out their groups for last summer’s football tournament.

Social media personality Daniel Jarvis, known as ‘Jarvo69’, promptly claimed responsibility for the prank, declaring on a live stream: “We done it, we got in there. Sex noises at the Euro 2024 draw. Love you guys.”

Mr Jarvis previously claimed credit for a similar incident that occurred during the BBC’s live pre-match coverage of the FA Cup third-round replay between Wolves and Liverpool back in January.

That incident caused consternation and hilarity among the presenters as host Gary Lineker and pundits Danny Murphy and Paul Ince had to deal with a loud recording of sex noises beginning to blare out of the studio.

Greg James also faced a similar prank last year at the hands of a caller into BBC Radio 1’s Breakfast with Greg James.

The mobile phone in the Commons marks one of the biggest breaches of parliamentary security since a group of semi-naked climate change protesters disrupted a Brexit debate in the Commons in 2019, glueing their hands to the public gallery’s glass screens.

The protesters spent almost 20 minutes with their buttocks pointing into the chamber.

Further 24 people charged over showing support for Palestine Action

A further 24 people have been charged over showing support for banned group Palestine Action.

It brings the total number being prosecuted since the group was proscribed a terror group in July to 138.

The latest charges come ahead of a planned protest on Saturday where organisers have said they are expecting more than 1,000 people to gather in London’s Parliament Square, holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.

Frank Ferguson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “We continue to make swift decisions in all cases where arrests have been made and are expecting more charges in the coming weeks.

“The public has a democratic right to protest peacefully in this country, and thousands of people continue to do just that on a regular basis without breaking terrorism laws.

“However, Palestine Action is now a proscribed terrorist organisation and those who choose to show support for the group will be subject to criminal proceedings under the Terrorism Act.

“When protest conduct crosses the line from lawful activity into criminality, we have a duty to enforce the law.

“People should consider the real-life consequences of choosing to support Palestine Action, and ahead of the weekend, we continue to urge people to think very carefully about their actions at protests.”

The funniest, strangest and best things from this year’s Fringe

The Edinburgh Fringe is a place where British eccentrics take centre stage and the country’s weirdest most wonderful talents get to explore the craziest outreaches of their creativity, whether it’s staging immersive theatre in a bathroom, or performing a show on a treadmill.

For all the silliness, though, there’s a seriousness to the whole thing: the Fringe is the breeding ground for Britain’s comedy trendsetters: The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen first found audiences here and the international phenomena that are Fleabag and Baby Reindeer got their first outings on the stages of the Fringe.

This year, as ever, the festival’s packed schedule sees Edinburgh veterans rubbing shoulders with dozens of emerging voices on the hunt for an audience, many of them willing to perform anywhere from the backroom of a pub to a book shop, or even a bathtub.

The summer of 2025 is looking like it’s going to be a particularly strong year for established heroes of the Fringe. Winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award back in 2009, Tim Key returns to the Fringe with a new show Loganberry, likely to be informed, in part, by his recent experiences starring in the film The Ballad of Wallis Island and appearing as pigeon in Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17. Expect deadpan poems and much hilarity.

Following the success of her smash hit Channel 4 show The Change, about a menopausal woman rediscovering herself in the Forest of Dean, Fringe-favourite and 2013 winner Bridget Christie returns to Edinburgh with a work in progress at the Monkey Barrel. Also showing a work in progress is Ahir Shah, who has pedigree when it comes to licking a show into shape at the festival – when he did so in 2023, he won the main prize. Television presenter and podcaster Nish Kumar is back on his old stomping ground too with a new show Nish, Don’t Kill My Vibe at the Gordon Aikman Theatre.

For all the tried-and-tested performers who pretty might guarantee laughs, one of the real joys of the Fringe is to be found in taking a risk on an up-and-coming comedian in the hope you stumble across a star of the future.

In some cases that might mean checking out a Fringe first-timer like Toussaint Douglass, who makes his Edinburgh debut with his hotly-tipped show Accessible Pigeon Material, which promises to be joyfully absurd and very pigeon-heavy in terms of content. Or popping in to see if promising young talents can pull off that tricky second album: having scooped a Best Newcomer gong at last year’s Fringe, Joe Kent-Walters is reprising his gloriously demonic working men’s club owner, Frankie Monroe, at the Monkey Barrel Comedy venue (Cabaret Voltaire).

Also keen to build on a promising start will be Leila Navabi, a television writer from South Wales, whose 2023 musical comedy show Composition included a song about having her ears pierced in Claire’s Accessories. This year, she’s back with Relay, which blends jokes and songs to explore her attempts to make a baby with her girlfriend and a sperm donor.

Whether they’re promising young tyros or established names, for many comedians the creative freedom and outright silliness of the Fringe has them coming back time and time again. Take, for example, Ivo Graham whose show this year is called Orange Crush and is described by the man himself as “a show about hats, haters and hometown heroes, from a man who promised everyone he loved that he wouldn’t do Edinburgh in 2025, but then came back anyway, because he simply had to do this show.”

If you are planning to join Ivo in Edinburgh to soak up the comedy chaos in person, don’t forget provisions. The average Fringe day involves walking 15,000 steps, climbing 43 hills and sitting through at least one show in a sauna-like attic with no ventilation. So, pack accordingly: a bottle of water, a sturdy fan and a packet of Maynards Bassetts Wine Gums or Jelly Babies to keep your blood sugar and national pride intact. Nothing says “I’m here for the arts” quite like chuckling through a late-night experimental mime while chewing on a Jelly Baby’s head.

Now you’re in the know, don’t forget to set the juice loose with Maynards Bassetts – grab a bag today!

UK to bask in 22C sunshine after wettest week for seven months

Don’t pack away the garden barbecue just yet, weather experts are predicting a return to sunshine this weekend.

After the wettest week for seven months, the Met Office forecasts the UK will bask in temperatures reaching up to 22C, in London on Saturday.

The warm weather is forecast to continue into Sunday with highs of 22C in Norwich and 20C in Edinburgh.

However, showers are also expected on Sunday across the UK.

“Warm sunshine on Saturday, though winds freshening and a few showers developing in the west,” a spokesperson said. “Turning more unsettled for Sunday and Monday. Rain giving way to sunshine and blustery showers.”

It comes after a yellow weather warning for storms was put in place for much of northern England, the Midlands and parts of Wales on Thursday.

The warning, which was in place until 5pm, predicted further rain and flooding.

England experienced its wettest week for seven months, according to the Environment Agency.

There have been “notable” amounts of rainfall, particularly in the North West, South East and South West, all of which received more than 35mm of rain between August 27 and September 2.

Rivers levels have increased at nearly all the sites monitored by the agency, although just over a third were classed as being below normal for this time of year.

Despite the recent showers, total rainfall in England in August was only 42 per cent of the long-term average.

Long spells of dry and hot weather over the past few months have taken their toll on the environment and agriculture, leading to hosepipe bans, drought orders, poor harvests and low water levels in reservoirs.

Both spring and summer 2025 were the UK’s warmest on record, while spring was the second driest for England since Met Office rainfall data began in 1836.

Yorkshire Water still has a hosepipe ban in place despite some recent rain, while Southern Water still has a ban in place for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Dave Kaye, Yorkshire Water’s director of water services, said: “Yorkshire is in drought following an extremely dry spring and the hottest summer on record.

“While the rain, which was heavy in some areas but short-lived, has been welcome, the majority has been taken up by the extremely dry ground, as well as plants and trees.”

Interns can now earn $35,000 a month – with a very specific skillset

Interns are usually known to take up roles for little pay in the hope of gaining experience and getting a foot in the door of their chosen industry.

But one internship has hit the headlines this week due to offering an eyebrow-raising salary of around £78,000 for about three months’ work – and it’s made available by a British businessman.

The position on offer is an AI researcher for XTY Labs, who aim to develop algorithms for use in trading across the financial sector. But to land a spot earning $35,000 (£26,000) a month, as you might expect, you’ll need a very specific range of abilities.

For starters, you’ll need to be in the middle of obtaining a PhD in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics or similar.

You also need to be based in New York four days a week and have a background in conducting your own research, have in-depth knowledge of machine learning and the latest artificial intelligence developments.

The placement is expected to last between 12 and 14 weeks and future full-time roles are a possibility, the company says in the job advert.

“The base salary for the AI Research Internship role will be $35,000 per month. You will enjoy similar benefits to those of our US permanent employees as appropriate and receive a generous sign-on bonus to be used for covering accommodation costs,” it continues.

Aside from the list of requirements for prospective candidates, the process to land the spot is also a bit more involved than the basic fire-off-an-email-to-HR approach.

An initial interview discussion takes place, before a take-home exercise to construct and develop an AI model and then a final one-hour interview with a researcher at the company.

Get all that right and a three-month stint earning around double the UK’s average annual salary is yours.

XTY Labs is a division within XTX Markets, a trading firm run by Alex Gerko – a Russian-born British billionaire who ranks as the 215th richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg.

Mr Gerko’s personal net worth is around $13.4bn (£10bn). He is now a British citizen, having renounced his Russian citizenship in 2022.

He is known for funding maths programmes among other charitable endeavours and was the biggest individual taxpayer in the country in 2024. He has announced plans to open the UK’s first specialist secondary school for talented young mathematicians.