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These principles included keeping as much of the ball as possible, as far away from his team's goal and as close to the opponent's goal. His game was also founded on the basis of positional play.

Domenec Torrent, a long-time assistant of Guardiola's, offered a nice definition of positional play, describing it as "how you place yourself in relation to others on the field when you have the ball, and where you should be so that you can continue pressing when you lose it".

The coach implements tactics based on the positions of players in the hope of giving their team an advantage.

The end of Torrent's definition highlights another key Guardiola principle, the idea of good rest defence, referring to team-mates behind the ball when their team attacks, ready to defend counter-attacks.

Guardiola's friend and journalist Marti Perarnau spoke to the former City coach about his use of wide wingers during the 2016-17 season.

As noted in Perarnau's book, The Pep Revolution, Guardiola said: "It's a difficult process. You can't just talk to [the wingers] and expect everything to happen.

"My first challenge is to convince [the wingers]. Just stay there on the wing, stay wide. Bide your time, be patient and your moment will come.

"Then, when you do get your chance, think about it, how many opponents am I going to have to get past?

"The answer? Just one.

"We've come up with this whole strategy so that you, the winger, only have to dribble past one man and sometimes there will be nobody in your way. On the other hand, if you stop paying attention and drift into the middle, how many will you have to get past? Four!"

Guardiola, of 10 years ago, perfectly describes the logic and strategy behind Maresca's current system, and one that still works.

Across pre-season, Antoine Semenyo, stationed on the flank, was arguably City's standout player, receiving the ball with time and space to run at his full-back. These situations commonly resulted in him arriving close to the box, cutting it back for a forward to tap the ball in, behind the opposition's defence.

For the players behind the winger, the game is simplified into looking to find this repeatable situation.

After a campaign in which a record-breaking 34 candidates vied for the coastal seat, Farage held on to Clacton, with 22,239 votes (63.34%) of the vote.

His nearest competitor, Count Binface, a parody candidate dressed as an intergalactic rubbish bin, won 9,455 votes (26.93%). The turnout was 44%.

Farage had been widely expected to win. A poll from Survation on Monday put Farage on 75% of the vote, with Binface on 20%. Farage declared himself the winner while the votes were still being counted.

The victory will do little to stem mounting questions around Farage’s and Reform’s financial affairs. A formal investigation by the parliamentary standards watchdog into the £5m gift is due to restart as soon as Friday.

Despite winning, Farage did not appear at the count for a victory lap, and claimed that Essex police had advised him that a plot was under way to embarrass him when the result was declared. The Guardian understands that the force did not advise Farage not to attend.

Farage snubbed Clacton leisure centre, where the count was being held, for Farage Fest, a carnival-like event held in the rural fringes of the constituency.

At the count, there was a heavy security presence, with bag checks and metal detectors at the entrance of the leisure centre. Responding to Farage’s claim that there was an “organised campaign” to disrupt the count, the chief executive of Tendring district council, Ian Davidson, said he would not comment on security matters but there was a “robust policing operation” in place.

Since the contest was called, questions have also been asked about Farage’s links to the convicted fraudster George Cottrell, and the Metropolitan police opened an investigation into donations made to the party.

Shortly after Farage called the byelection, which he claimed would be “the people versus the establishment”, every other main party boycotted the contest, calling it a “media circus” and a “vanity project”. Instead, Count Binface, the self-declared “entirely independent space warrior” created by the comedian Jon Harvey, emerged as Farage’s strongest challenger.

The record-breaking number of candidates means tellers in the counting hall have had to grapple with the longest ballot paper in British electoral history.

After standing in multiple British parliamentary elections since 1994, Farage was elected to the Commons as the member for Clacton in 2024. He won the seat with a majority of 8,400, taking 46.2% of the vote. The Conservatives came second and Labour third. %!s()

The Hangzhou-based startup priced its IPO at 150.8 yuan ($22.4) a share, raising $900 million and valuing the company at 61 billion yuan, or about $9 billion.

Investors expect a big first-day pop from Unitree, when its shares start trading on Shanghai's STAR market later this month, making it the first humanoid robot firm to list on the mainland.

Unitree's offering saw record retail demand in Shanghai's STAR market, with the online tranche oversubscribed more than 5,000 times, translating to a historically low lot-winning rate of 0.018%. Its IPO also attracted strategic investors including AI startup DeepSeek.

A Unitree-linked pre-IPO perpetual contract on Hyperliquid was trading at roughly four times its IPO price as of Friday, as investors turn to crypto-derivative exchanges to bet on stocks before trading begins.

Celebrated for throwing kung fu kicks and bouncing back from knockdowns, Unitree's robots still face questions over whether the technology can scale commercially, with AI and software constraints unresolved.

"For these humanoid robots, to be honest, they're fascinating. They can dance and all that – but never seen them doing any real housework," said Hao Hong, managing partner of Lotus Asset Management.

In its prospectus, Unitree said that progress for large-scale commercial adoption may be slower than expected, as robotic hands are still not precise or durable enough for sustainable use.

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Hong noted that retail investors are piling in partly because there are so few humanoid robotics companies to invest in.

Dominik Pross, equity analyst at VP Bank, says even advanced humanoid robots can typically handle only a small number of tasks – and for just a few hours before having to recharge their batteries. Most humanoid models run for up to four hours while sitting idle.

"Robots have to be specifically trained for each and every task entrusted to them, even the simplest," he said, adding that complex everyday activities are not yet within reach.

More robotics listings are set to follow. Unitree rival AgiBot and Leju Robotics are seeking to go public in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, respectively. LimX Dynamics founder Will Zhang told CNBC last month that "listing is a must." 

Humanoid economics

Lower-cost manufacturing has helped China pull ahead of global rivals in robotics.

Wood Mackenzie expects the global humanoid robot fleet to grow more than 90% annually through 2035 to surpass 10 million units. Annual shipments are projected to top 4 million by then. China is already the dominant player, accounting for more than 70% of global industrial robot installations and nearly 90% of all humanoids deployed last year, according to the research firm.

Average humanoid robot prices have plunged 93% between 2020 and 2025 to $58,000, according to Wood Mackenzie. The firm projects that Unitree's $16,000 flagship G1 model costs just $82 a year in electricity to run for eight hours a day, but says wider adoption could add pressure to electricity systems already stretched by AI data centers.

SemiAnalysis estimates that Unitree has cut the pre-tax price of its G1 EDU model – a customizable one built for research – by more than 45% since last year to $27,300, while maintaining a 67% gross margin.

Falling robot prices and Chinese government support – including investing in domestic manufacturers' shift from labor-intensive work to automation – are helping fuel interest and attracting funds into the emerging sector, said Linda Sui, founder of research firm Smart Analytics Global. While higher production volumes helped bring down costs, it will take time to test the robots' return on investment, Sui said.

Analysts say Unitree's edge lies in its manufacturing scale and cost structure. Unitree's revenue more than quadrupled last year, but first-quarter adjusted profit fell more than 52% as spending on R&D and marketing rose.

Skeptics say much of Unitree's current demand is still concentrated in research and demonstrations. Nearly three-quarters of its humanoid revenue came from research and education in the first nine months of 2025, while corporate tours made up more than half of its still-small industrial business, a company filing showed.

"Unlike many early-stage robotics companies, the Unitree story is backed by real revenue growth," said Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx. Still, he said, Unitree's lofty $9 billion valuation – over 200 times last year's earnings – was pushed even higher in crypto markets, pointing to a speculative element.

Robot politics

The IPO frenzy held up even after the U.S. moved to ban imports of foreign-made humanoid and four-legged robots last month, a move seen as targeting Chinese technology products.

Unitree may be "particularly exposed," deriving 13% of its revenue last year from the U.S., according to SAG. 

Unitree's lower-cost robots have become a go-to choice for research humanoids at U.S. universities, but some researchers are unfazed about new restrictions because small-batch imports for testing and development remain exempt. Unitree's four-legged robots were also used in U.S. state correctional systems and military settings, according to the House Select Committee on China, raising national security concerns.

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Another major geopolitical risk is the possibility that Chinese robotics companies could lose access to Nvidia's hardware and software stack, said SAG's Sui. China's industry leaders are among the early users of Nvidia's platforms for powering robots.

"Chinese robot producers are not yet in a position to do without Western components completely," said VP Bank's Pross.

But China's dominance in rare earths, used in the actuators and motors of humanoid robots, gives the country's players significant leverage over global peers, said Dien Wang, an analyst at Bernstein. 

While the humanoid robotics industry has a long way to go, the potential market opportunity has led to Tesla CEO Elon Musk doubling down on robotics, converting EV production lines at the company's Fremont factory to make Optimus humanoid robots. Production is expected to start later this year.

Some researchers argue Unitree isn't just a humanoid bet. Humanoids are Unitree's largest business, but quadruped robots still account for a sizable share. Purpose-built robots can be cheaper and more reliable in repetitive industrial settings, while humanoids are best-suited for unpredictable and less structured environments, they say. %!s()

In the week of the UK’s fifth heatwave, in which temperatures in parts of England hit 38C, the property website Rightmove said the heat was influencing how Britons thought about their homes, with more people paying attention to how comfortable a property would be during hotter weather.

Searches on its site this summer for homes for sale with air conditioning were up 104% compared with the same period last year.

The website also published consumer research showing that 61% of people said they would consider installing air conditioning, though only 12% had already done so. Meanwhile, 87% said that a property’s ability to stay cool was important when choosing their next home.

A report published in May by the UK’s Climate Change Committee said hotter heatwaves could lead to 92% of existing homes overheating by 2050, adding that they may require air conditioning. Passive measures such as drawing curtains and opening windows were unlikely to be enough.

An estimated 4m homes in the UK now have air conditioning, double the figure from three years ago. The rise in working from home is thought to have fuelled demand.

Some of the UK’s warmest summers have been in recent years, and the UK’s hottest day was in July 2022, when temperatures hit 40C.

In May, the air conditioning specialist Debonair Cooling told the Guardian that owners of both period and new-build properties were enquiring about its cooling systems – which cost about £2,500 per room. “They are struggling to sleep at night, or have children with breathing problems,” it said, adding that loft conversions were also posing problems, with some loft rooms reaching highs of 50C.

In the US and Japan at least 90% of households are said to have air conditioningwhereas for Europe as a whole it is estimated that fewer than a quarter have air conditioning.

Air conditioning is controversial as it is energy intensive, accounting for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, some people in the UK with heat pumps have been able to use them to cool their homes as well as heat them, which could increase demand for the technology.

Rightmove’s property expert, Colleen Babcock, said: “While location, space and affordability remain key priorities, our research suggests that people are paying closer attention to how comfortable a home will be during hotter weather.

“Many households are already making practical changes to keep cool, while others are factoring these considerations into their next move.”

James Waight, head of sales at the estate agent John D Wood & Co, said a home that could stay cool in summer while also retaining heat in winter was “no longer simply a nice-to-have but an important factor in the decision to buy a property”. %!s()

The spread between U.S. COMEX futures and London Metal Exchange prices has historically been used by physical traders, banks, hedge funds, producers and consumers to profit from temporary price differences and hedge against price risk between the two markets.

The arbitrage was historically driven by factors such as Chinese demand shocks or supply disruption in South America.

Now, though, Societe Generale analysts say the trade has been upended by the prospect of fresh Section 232 tariffs on refined copper, pending a White House investigation, with investors increasingly using the COMEX premium as a gauge of further duties.

The U.S. already charges a 50% levy on imports of semi-finished copper products and certain other products made with copper. The Commerce Department has recommended a phased universal tariff of 15% on refined copper from Jan. 1, 2027, rising to 30% on Jan. 1, 2028.

Copper.

"The COMEX-LME spread has increasingly become a gauge of U.S. tariff expectations, with a wider premium signaling greater perceived tariff risk and continuing to pull metal into the U.S.," Ewa Manthey, commodities strategies at ING, told CNBC via email.

The U.S. imported more than 200,000 metric tons of copper in July — its highest level in 12 years.

SocGen analysts led by Mike Haigh, head of FIC and commodity research, said U.S. policymakers have become increasingly concerned about the country's reliance on imported refined copper as AI infrastructure, grid modernization, and defense spending turbo-charge global demand.

Its Section 232 probe reflects a broader objective in "securing access to a material seen as critical to both economic growth and national security," he said

Copper tariff forecasts

To translate the spread into tariff odds, SocGen modelled the cost of moving LME-grade copper from European warehouses to the U.S. East Coast, and compared that all-in delivered price with COMEX futures. Analysts said the current COMEX premium over fully delivered LME metal implies a 14.6% likelihood of the Commerce Secretary's recommended phased universal tariff of 15% by January 2027.

That rises to a 37% probability of a 30% duty by January 2028.

Natalie Scott-Gray, senior metals demand strategist at StoneX, said the overdue U.S. Section 232 decision on refined copper is now the "single biggest catalyst" facing the copper market. In a recent market commentary, Scott-Gray said comprehensive tariffs would squeeze supply outside the U.S. In contrast, no tariffs would unwind the COMEX-LME arbitrage.

Manthey said a wider premium remains supportive for copper prices near term, "particularly as mine supply remains tight and competition for available metal between the U.S. and China intensifies."

"We remain constructive on copper, although tariff uncertainty means volatility is likely to stay elevated," she added. %!s()