Zip wires, darts, wild swimming: why shopping centres are trying new ways to bring in customers

There was a time when the most active thing to do at a shopping centre was jostle to the front of the queue at Primark. These days, however, developers are bringing in sport and health-related activities from zip wires to cricket, football, rock climbing and even wild swimming to draw in consumers and use space no longer wanted by retailers.While the trend for competitive socialising, such as crazy golf, darts or bowling is well established and gyms are commonplace in shopping centres, landlords are getting more creative and adventurous in the type of activity they are offering as they battle lacklustre interest in physical shopping.The activities are varied: Toca Social hosts diners watching and playing football in three shopping malls. US group Five Iron, which blends hi-tech golf simulators and coaching with a bar, has signed up for the first of at least 10 UK sites, at Broadgate in central London

About 1m Ford diesel cars sold in UK with defective emissions controls, court told

About a million Ford diesel cars were sold in the UK with serious defects in components supposed to curb toxic exhaust emissions, the high court has been told.The highly polluting vehicles were produced and sold between 2016 and 2018 after Ford’s engineers became aware of the issues, and many were never formally recalled or fixed, lawyers said.The claims came in evidence submitted in the legal action on behalf of 1.6 million diesel vehicle owners against five car manufacturers, including Ford, for allegedly using “defeat devices” to cheat emissions tests for nitrogen oxides (NOx).Parts of the emissions control systems as calibrated by Ford were discovered to become less effective when “poisoned” by sulphur in fuel during driving, the court heard

Father of teen whose death was linked to social media has ‘lost faith’ in Ofcom

The father of Molly Russell, a British teenager who killed herself after viewing harmful online content, has called for a change in leadership at the UK’s communications watchdog after losing faith in its ability to make the internet safer for children.Ian Russell, whose 14 year-old daughter took her own life in 2017, said Ofcom had “repeatedly” demonstrated that it does not grasp the urgency of keeping under-18s safe online and was failing to implement new digital laws forcefully.“I’ve lost confidence in the current leadership at Ofcom,” he told the Guardian. “They have repeatedly demonstrated that they don’t grasp the urgency of this task and they have shown that they don’t seem to be willing to use their powers to the extent that is required.”Russell’s comments came in the same week the technology secretary, Liz Kendall, wrote to Ofcom saying she was “deeply concerned” about delays in rolling out parts of the Online Safety Act (OSA), a landmark piece of legislation laying down safety rules for social media, search and video platforms

Personal details of Tate galleries job applicants leaked online

Personal details submitted by applicants for a job at Tate art galleries have been leaked online, exposing their addresses, salaries and the phone numbers of their referees, the Guardian has learned.The records, running to hundreds of pages, appeared on a website unrelated to the government-sponsored organisation, which operates the Tate Modern and Tate Britain galleries in London, Tate St Ives in Cornwall and Tate Liverpool.The data includes details of applicants’ current employers and education, and relates to the Tate’s hunt for a website developer in October 2023. Information about 111 individuals is included. They are not named but their referees are, sometimes with mobile numbers and personal email addresses

Ollie Pope cements claim to England’s No 3 slot with bold 90 against Lions

It is hard to know how much of England’s warm-up game will be remotely relevant when their Ashes campaign begins 10km away at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in space or time but light years away in import and atmosphere – but, if it achieved nothing more than boosting Ollie Pope’s confidence, that alone has made the exercise worthwhile.England’s No 3 – his place in the first XI is now surely certain – followed his first-innings century against the Lions by scoring another 90 in the second, and what was impressive was not so much the number of runs but the manner in which they were scored. At times the 27-year-old looked imperious, hitting a dozen fours and a pair of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with devilish intent.It was only a friendly against opponents that used fully 11 bowlers across a match played in front of an audience of dozens in a public park, but it was still hugely impressive. For the record, England, set a target of 202 after the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets after Jamie Smith sped the team across the finish line with an impatient stream of boundaries

Joseph Parker denies taking ‘any prohibited substance’ after failing drugs test

Joseph Parker has denied taking a prohibited substance after he failed a drugs test on the day of his 11th-round stoppage to British heavyweight Fabio Wardley, expressing confidence an investigation would clear his name.Ipswich-born Wardley and New Zealander Parker produced a pulsating encounter in London on 25 October to determine who would become WBO mandatory challenger to undisputed world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.Parker had been next in line to face Usyk after putting together an impressive six-fight winning streak, but put his mandatory challenger status on the line in London and suffered an 11th-round stoppage in what could now prove his last fight for a lengthy period of time.A routine test by Parker given to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (Vada) on the day of the bout returned positive and leaves the 36-year-old with a battle to prove his innocence.Parker’s promotional company Queensberry released a statement on Friday morning, which read: “[Vada] last night informed all required parties that Joseph Parker returned an adverse finding following an anti-doping test conducted on the 25th October in relation to his bout with Fabio Wardley