Blog de Juan Pardo

Rio 2016: Farah retains crown as Phelps signs off with another gold – live!

Mo Farah won gold once again, in remarkable circumstances. Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Images

It’s coming up to 6am in Rio, and you could be forgiven for imagining that the athletes who competed on Saturday are sleeping off their endeavours. Not so Greg Rutherford, who has been up into the wee small hours mulling over his inability to defend his long jump title. Rutherford was inconsolable after Jeff Henderson of the US took gold ahead of the South African Luvo Manyonga, leaving him with “only” a bronze medal to show for his efforts. “I come here to win and when I don’t it’s difficult … It’s a very hard bronze medal to take,” he said in the immediate aftermath of the competition. And eschewing his bed, he’s since been baring his soul further on Twitter. Chin up, Greg.

19m ago09:49

Today’s prize for verbal accuracy goes to Pummeluffpapa, who makes the valuable distinction between “reprisal” and “reprise”. In my defence, it was still early. But if Mo did go in for reprisals, Pummel, I wouldn’t want to be Galen Rupp … training partner or no training partner.

Whatever happens to Justin Rose, Andy Murray and the other Brits in action on day nine, Team GB is assured of at least one gold medal.That’s down to the endeavours of track cyclists Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner, who will contest the final of the Olympic men’s sprint. Over to you, Helen Pidd.

Britain’s track cyclists are assured of yet another gold and silver medal after both Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner reached the final of the individual sprint.

The two friends, who won gold in the team sprint with Philip Hindes on Friday night, will go head-to-head in the Rio velodrome on Sunday at 5.04pm local time. They are sharing a room in the Olympic village, which may make pre-race preparation a little tricky on Sunday morning.

Given that Kenny is the reigning Olympic champion, it was something of a surprise that Skinner was the first to reach the final, after beating Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer in two straight matches. Kenny lost his first semi-final to Denis Dmitriev by some margin, which meant his match went to three agonising races. He won the latter two, however, leaving the Russian to fight it out for bronze with Glaetzer.

Updated at 9.40am BST

39m ago09:30

Toilet fishing and a half wombat, half dog? It looks very much like the latest edition of our Rio diary.

Updated at 9.31am BST

41m ago09:27

Back to today, and there’s an early start too in the women’s marathon final, in which Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba, the reigning world champion, is the gold medal favourite. It promises to be a suitably epic contest, with Dibaba facing stern challenges from the Kenyan duo Jemima Sumgong, the 2016 London marathon winner, and Helah Kiprop, who pushed her all the way in Beijing. The action gets underway at the Sambódromo, traditionally the scene of carnival samba school parades but reappropriated for use as an archery and marathon venue during the Olympics, at 09.30am Rio time.

1h ago09:05

We can’t mention the tennis without pausing for a moment to reflect on the remarkable achievement of the unheralded Monica Puig inwinning the women’s singles against Angelique Kerber on Saturday.Her gold medal, the first of that hue for Puerto Rico in any discipline, was just reward for a typically fearless, free-hitting third-set performance to which Kerber – the Australian Open champion, world No2 and recent Wimbledon finalist, if you please – simply had no answer. She’s a thoroughly likeable character, is Puig, and her breakthrough moment feels long overdue, her best previous showing in a major competition having been a fourth round appearance at Wimbledon three summers ago. That is scant return for such a gifted player, but at 22 she has time on her side. Her Rio victories over major winners Garbiñe Muguruza, Petra Kvitova and Kerber point to a big future in the game.

Monica Puig of Puerto Rico cries after beating Angelique Kerber to win the gold medal in Rio. Photograph: Vadim Ghirda/AP

1h ago08:50

Farah’s win shunted Britain’s gold medal tally up to 10 – Team GB are now third in the overall standings, behind China and the US – and day nine could bring further joy if Andy Murray can chart a course around the 6ft 6in obstacle that is Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro. That won’t be easy, however, because Del Potro – still feeling his way back into the sport after his prolonged struggles with injury, which have included three wrist operations – has played some inspired tennis in Rio. His semi-final win over against Rafael Nadal on Saturday was a sight to behold, with his serve in fine fettle and that extraordinary forehand in full flow in the final stages of a third set steeped in tension and drama. There were no such problems for Murray, whose straight-sets dissection of Kei Nishikori was nothing less than clinical, but he will need to be at his best against the man who conquered world No1 Novak Djokovic in the opening round. Del Potro left the court in tears after beating Nadal and, with his backhand much improved since his tentative return to the circuit earlier this year, he looks intent on riding that wave of emotion all the way to Olympic gold. The men’s singles final, which will be played over five sets, is scheduled for 3.30pm Rio time.

2h ago08:22

While we’re on the theme of the incomparable, how about Mo Farah’s dramatic 10,000m gold? Non-nocturnal Brits may be waking up to the disappointment of learning that Jess Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford fell agonisingly short of the gold standard they set at London 2012, but news of the latest reprise of the Mobot should bring a little cheer to the breakfast tables of the UK. You can relive the highlights of Farah’s victory – and indeed the glittering end to Michael Phelps’ Olympic career – below … although only if you’re in the UK, alas.

Farah retains 10,000m title, Phelps wins 23rd Olympic gold

Updated at 9.50am BST

2h ago08:09

Speaking of the golf, one wonders what thoughts will be going through the minds of Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy et al come the medal ceremony. It’s one thing to talk dismissively about watching “the stuff that matters” at the Olympics rather than golf, as McIlroy did ahead of the Games, but quite another to watch a fellow professional claim a medal that might have been yours had you bothered to turn up and compete. I’d wager there will be the odd pang of regret among some of the sport’s absentees come anthem time, whether they admit it or not.

Rose certainly seems to be enjoying his time in Brazil. “It would mean an awful lot to win, especially when you see what it means to other athletes here,” he said after claiming the lead on day eight. “It would be unbelievable.” And his message to absent friends? “I would just tell them I had a great time, a positive experience and a lot of fun. It’s a unique experience and something you should be able to make room for in your schedule once every four years … You can’t compare it to anything else.” Hear hear.

2h ago07:55

Good morning from London and thanks to Russell for that excellent briefing. So then, day nine. Apparently there are one or two things happening in Rio today, as you’ll have gleaned. Most notably, perhaps, Usain Bolt’s bid for a triple-treble of Olympic golds, which starts in earnest with the men’s 100m sprint semi-finals and – should he make it (it couldn’t happen, could it?) – final. Still, as a grey dawn breaks over London, that seems a very long way off right now. And you know what? It is. It’s just coming up to 4am in Rio, and Usain will no doubt be tucked up in bed dreaming of Justin Gatlin and rear-view mirrors. With the Games’ blue riband event not taking place until late evening, it falls to the golfers to get us underway. Erstwhile Ryder Cup partners Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, respectively placed in the gold and silver medal positions heading into the final round, tee off in just over three hours. They do like their early starts, the golfing fraternity. I’m Les Roopanarine, by the way, and I’ll be guiding you through the day nine build-up until lunchtime UK time.

Updated at 7.57am BST

4h ago06:23

Day nine briefing

Russell Jackson

Welcome back for day nine at Rio, where we’ve witnessed Mo Farahquite literally picking himself up off the ground to take back-to-back golds with a rousing win in the men’s 10,000m final, while Michael Phelps signed off on his Olympic career with his 23rd gold medal – and his fifth at these Games – in the 4x100 medley relay.

The big picture

Day eight quite simply belonged to two phenomenal athletes: Phelps having finished his Olympic career with 23 gold medals in a Rio campaign whose statistical complexity staggers us all anew, while Farah’s brave and brilliant gold medal run to defend his 10,000m title after stumbling onto the track early served as a reminder of how singularly monumental each and every gold medal is at Olympic level.

There was also gold for Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson in the women’s 100m dash, which thwarted her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s attempt at a third successive Olympic crown, though the latter still took home bronze. “There is a big screen back home in my community in Jamaica,” Thompson said afterwards. “I can’t imagine what is happening there right now.” A decent old party, one would suspect.

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Team GB roundup

It was a day dominated by Farah’s remarkable efforts across at the Olympic stadium, but Team GB’s golden run at the velodrome also continued today with Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell-Shand, Katie Archibald and Elinor Baker taking gold in the women’s team pursuit. It was, according to our own Barry Glendenning, a “seamless, perfect performance: poetry in motion on eight wheels”. Becky James was equally impressive rising from her sick bed to claim silver in the keirin.

Mo Farah crosses the line to win gold in the men’s 10,000m final at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: David J. Phillip/AP

In what will surely be her final Olympic campaign, Jessica Ennis-Hillwrung every ounce of energy out of her body to finish with silver in the heptathlon, having entered the final event of the competition – the 800m – with a 142-point deficit to overcome, but brilliant Belgian Nafissatou Thiam cling on for grim death and prevailed. Ennis-Hill couldn’t beat Thiam by the 9.47 second margin she needed at the end, missing out by a couple of seconds.

Great Britain also might be looking at a medal in the golf, whereJustin Rose has moved ahead of Australian Marcus Fraser and SwedeHenrik Stenson for the overall lead with a single round left. The 36-year-old began the day four shots off Fraser’s lead but stormed back to take a one stroke lead by the end of the day. Andy Murray will also be playing for gold in the men’s tennis singles when he takes on Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro. The swimming is now done and dusted, but with silver in the men’s 4x100 medley relay, Team GB has had its best Olympics in the pool since 1908 with one gold and five silvers.

The unhappiest medalist of the day was Team GB’s reigning long jump champion Greg Rutherford, who scraped into the final with his last attempt of the heats and was then beaten into third place by American Jeff Henderson and South African Luvo Manyonga in a dramatic final. But at least he put the disappointment in perspective: “It’s a very hard bronze medal to take. If you’d told me 10 years ago I would be gutted with an Olympic bronze, I’d have told you not to be so stupid,” Rutherford said afterwards.

Team USA roundup

What you are reading now is not template text, it’s just that Michael Phelps keep winning gold medals. There’s only so many ways you can say it, especially once our own Andy Bull had pointed out a few days back that Phelps has now even usurped the greatest ancient Olympians. You might not have heard of Leonidas of Rhodes, who dominated the Games between 164 and 152 BC (I think NBC might be showing his events on a tape delay sometime in the next few days) but we assure you, Phelps is now better than him. His team-mates who took gold in the men’s 4x100 medley relay don’t go too badly either.

Elsewhere Jeff Henderson jumped to gold in the that men’s long jump final, though his winning leap of 8.38 metres really does remind you of how insane Mike Powell’s 1991 world record of 8.95 metres really is. Henderson’s victory was secured with his last jump, which edged out South African Luvo Manyonga by just one centimetre.

Long jumper Jeff Henderson — Team USA’s Jeff Henderson took gold in the men’s long jump. Photograph: Antonio Lacerda/EPA

If you’re still trying to process the sight of Katie Ledecky finishing Friday’s 800m freestyle final without a single opponent in a wide-angle camera frame, you’re not the only one. Her 11.38-second win for gold shaved almost a full two seconds off her own world record in the event. As our own Bryan Armen Graham points out, her only ‘loss’ in 20 races in major international competitions was a relay.

Australia team roundup

Kim Brennan wasn’t all Australia had to crow about on day eight, but the veteran rower broke a considerable drought with her gold medal win in the women’s single sculls – it was Australia’s first rowing gold in eight years and only the country’s second ever women’s triumph. Yet for all of the excitement at the end of the race, the 31-year-old was more concerned by the whereabouts of her dog Ernie, who was waiting with Brennan’s husband Scott. “Scott was very proud of me,” Brennan said after collecting her medal, “but I wanted to see how Ernie was doing, but he wasn’t too interested in watching my race. He wanted the attention to himself.” A new mascot for the Australians?

Rower Kim Brennan — Australia’s Kim Brennan celebrates after winning gold in the single scull rowing competition. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

The other medals of the day went to Anna Meares in the cycling – where bronze in the women’s keirin event made her the most decorated of all Australian Olympic cyclists – while the women’s 4x100 medley relay team grabbed silver in the second-last event of the swimming schedule. In the last, a barnstorming finish by Kyle Chalmers lifted Australia to bronze in the men’s 4x100 medley. Yet aside from the failure of Mack Horton to win a medal in the men’s 1500m, the story of the night was Cate Campbell’s atonement for individual event misfires with a mighty final leg of that medley relay.

“The world got to witness possibly the biggest choke in Olympic history a couple of nights ago, Campbell had said after she and sister Bronte again bombed out in the final of the women’s 50m freestyle. But rather than leaving the Games with steam coming out of her ears, the older sibling got back on the horse and channeled her frustrations into a scything freestyle leg to bring her team home one spot behind Team USA. Fascinatingly, Campbell’s time was 1.07 seconds faster than that she posted in the individual final of that event – and would have won her gold. Maybe it’ll make her feel even worse.

Picture of the day

It has to be Mo Farah, who even got the thumbs up from his vanquished opponents Paul Kipngetich and Tamirat Tola.

Britain’s Mo Farah celebrates his gold medal run in the Olympic 10,000m final in Rio. Photograph: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images

Diary

All times below are local to Rio: here’s the full timetable tweaked for wherever you are. Or add four hours for UK, add 13 hours for eastern Australia; subtract one hour for east-coast US and four for west coast.

All eyes will be on Usain Bolt and the men’s 100m sprint final, which takes place at 22:25 local time in Rio, 25 minutes after the 400m final
Justin Rose and Marcus Fraser will tee off early in the day in the hope of securing gold, with the golf starting at 07:00
American Andrew Thomas Bisek will wrestle for gold against Cuban Rios Hernandez after 10:30
From 14:00 Team USA is in the unusual position of having two entrants in the mixed doubles tennis final as Jack Sock and Bethanie Mattek-Sands take on Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram, while Andy Murray takes on Juan Martin Del Potro in the men’s singles gold medal match at 15:30.
In the evening Australia’s Boomers take on Venezuela in the basketball, while the evening athletics session brings us finals in the women’s triple jump.

Underdog of the day

Goes to women’s singles tennis champion Monica Puig, who became Puerto Rico’s first gold medallist in any sport. In an almost unbearable climax, she saved six break points and had four match points before closing it out for a rousing win.

Tweet of the day

Pity Aleppo as Putin drops his bombs to salvage Russia’s pride. Syria.

Plates bearing portraits of Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin

Afew days after Russia launched its military intervention in Syria in September 2015, Barack Obama said it would “get stuck in a quagmire and it won’t work”. Ten months on, that has yet to come to pass. As Russia helps its ally Bashar al-Assad try to retake Aleppo, the last strategic urban stronghold of the Syrian opposition, there aren’t many signs of the Kremlin’s war machine being either hamstrung or stuck. Indeed Russia seems to have registered more victories than setbacks in Syria. Hardly anyone remembers that, just last March, Vladimir Putin had announced he would begin withdrawing his forces. The withdrawal turned out to be as theoretical as Obama’s quagmire.

Most attempts to explain Putin’s military operation in Syria have focused on the following: 1) allergic to popular uprisings, he wants to prevent regime change in Damascus of the sort that happened in 2011 in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; 2) he wants to secure Russia’s last foothold in the Arab world; 3) he wants to demonstrate Russia will do what it takes to defend an ally; 4) he wishes to divert attention from Ukraine as well as extract western concessions such as the easing of sanctions; 5) he is opportunistic and has capitalised on American unwillingness to get further involved in the Middle East; 6) he believes that by creating chaos, even if there is no clear endgame, Russia shows it can overturn western plans ; 7) it’s all about Russian domestic politics: nationalism and military assertiveness go hand in hand with Putin’s need to safeguard his own power structure.

There is probably truth to all of the above. But as Russia’s bombers hammer Aleppo’s besieged population in what could be the most decisive battle of Syria’s civil war, consider this as another piece to the puzzle of Putin’s mind: Syria is where Russia wants to erase the humiliation of the Soviet Union’s defeat in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

When Obama predicted a quagmire, he meant a repetition of the Soviet quagmire in the Hindu Kush. He was in effect likening Putin to Brezhnev sending his forces into Afghanistan in 1979, a war that ended very badly for the USSR and arguably played a key role in its demise. Tony Blinken, deputy secretary of state and formerly Obama’s national security adviser, told reporters the Russians were “making a terrible strategic mistake” in Syria, and added: “I think they remember Afghanistan.” Well, the Kremlin does remember Afghanistan. Russia’s leadership wants Syria to be the exact opposite of that disaster. Syria is meant to restore Russia’s authority as a military power.

It is Moscow’s first military deployment outside the territory of the former Soviet Union since Afghanistan. Putin joined the KGB in 1975, four years before the invasion started. Even if he never served there, that conflict and its outcome most certainly left an impact on him. Last year’s winner of the Nobel prize for literature, Svetlana Alexievitch, described in one of her books, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from a Forgotten War, the trauma experienced by a whole generation – the stories of war atrocities that fed back into Soviet society, despite the censorship.

The war ended in 1989 after Gorbachev ordered his country’s troops out. There were propaganda images of cheering soldiers sitting on armoured vehicles as they crossed the Amu Darya river back into Soviet territory. But it was a devastating humiliation for a superpower to be defeated by a ragtag army of Afghan mujahideens to which the CIA had given Stinger missiles.

Soviet troops withdraw from Kabul in May 1988. Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

About 15,000 Soviet soldiers died in Afghanistan, and an estimated 1 million Afghan civilians. Months later, the Berlin wall fell and Soviet power unravelled. Afghanistan was to the Soviet Union what Vietnam was to America, only with the added consequence that the USSR literally broke up as a state shortly afterwards.

Putin needn’t publicly frame his Syria gambit as revenge against America for the losses the Soviets suffered decades ago in Afghanistan. But the psychological effect of undoing US strategies in the Middle East amounts much to the same.

Look at the parallels: when the Soviets entered Afghanistan, Americans seemed mired in endless arguments about themselves – first over Vietnam, then over Watergate. Today, Russia is pushing its advantage in Syria at a time when the US is enmeshed in the Trump era of politics and growing isolationism. In 1979, Soviet sympathisers in the west applauded the intervention in Afghanistan (the leader of the French communist party, Georges Marchais, said it was aimed at ending “feudalism”). Today in Europe and the US (and not just among the far right) there are voices expressing admiration for Putin’s policies in Syria.

The comparison is not exact. The Soviet army carried out a massive ground invasion of Afghanistan, which at its peak involved 115,000 soldiers. In Syria, Russia has mostly limited itself to an air war, even if it has “military advisers” on the ground and mans air defences and artillery. In Syria, Russia has a key external ally: Iran. In 1979, by contrast, Iran was seen by Moscow as a foe, because Iranian Islamists who had overthrown the Shah had started destabilising Kabul’s Soviet-supported pro-communist government.

In 1979, Jimmy Carter said the invasion of Afghanistan was “the most serious threat to peace since the second world war”. In 2015, Russia’s move into Syria was almost met with a shrug by Obama, even if Washington was completely caught off-guard. In 1979, the Soviets attacked on Christmas Eve, as if they hoped it would be less noticed. In September 2015, Putin announced the Syria operation in a speech at the UN. In 1979, the USSR was raking in huge profits from high oil prices. In 2015, Russia launched its war in Syria while it entered a recession.There are lessons from the Afghanistan campaign in the 1980s of which Putin may well be mindful. Mission creep is something he will want to avoid in Syria. The recent downing of a Russian military helicopter by Syrian rebels (all five crew members were killed) may have rekindled painful memories. Just as the Soviet army could not “hold” Afghanistan, neither Assad’s forces nor Hezbollah, nor the Iranian forces involved in the fighting, can hope to ever control the whole of Syria.

Still, Russia has so far successfully shored up Assad by intervening – whereas the Soviet Union ultimately failed to save an ally regime in Afghanistan (its then proclaimed objective).

It is impossible to say how sustainable Russia’s gains are today. But Putin surely remembers how the man he has often tried to imitate, Yuri Andropov, a powerful Soviet intelligence chief, said in a politburo meeting in 1979: “We cannot lose Afghanistan.” Putin thinks he cannot lose Syria.

Trotskyist.- Corbyn on entryism: Tom Watson is talking nonsense – and he knows it

Exclusive: Labour’s deputy leader heavily criticised by Corbyn for his claims of Trotskyist entryism as Labour leader sets out policy plan to win general election

Jeremy Corbyn: ‘I just ask Tom to do the maths … are there 300,000 sectarian extremists at large in the country?’ Photograph: Gary Calton for the Observer

Jeremy Corbyn has accused his elected deputy of deliberately deceiving members with claims of Trotskyist entryism – and refused to offer a vote of confidence in Labour’s general secretary, Iain McNicol.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Observer, in which he launches what is being billed as a totemic National Education Service policy, the Labour leader described claims of far-left infiltration of the party by Tom Watson as “nonsense” adding, “and I think he knows it’s nonsense”.

Corbyn also claimed that McNicol, Labour’s most senior employee, has questions to answer over his conduct in “recent months”. On Friday, the court of appeal ruled in favour of McNicol, whose lawyers argued that Labour’s governing body – the national executive committee (NEC) – could bar 130,000 new members from voting in the leadership election.

Corbyn said that he believed the five new members who initially took the NEC to court over its decision to prevent them from voting “will be considering whether or not to take it to the supreme court”. He added that McNicol would now have to answer to the “new NEC” on which six new members who support Corbyn have recently been elected.

Corbyn said: “People joined the Labour party in order to take part in the party and were specifically told that they were able to vote in the leadership election and it was decided by the high court that they could. The appeal court has said they can’t and I would imagine that those who brought the case will be considering whether or not to take it to the supreme court. I have no idea what their decision will be …

“We will receive a report from Iain about the process that has gone on over the last few months. And the NEC will no doubt ask him questions and he will probably give answers on it. But let’s look at that when the new NEC takes over.”

Asked twice if he had full confidence in McNicol, Corbyn repeatedly stated: “I have been happy to work with Iain McNicol since I became leader.”

However, it is Watson – who claims to have sent a dossier of evidence to the Labour leader last week documenting infiltration by the extreme left – who is Corbyn’s main target. The Labour leader said: “I read about his letter to me in the media. And it appeared to be a rehash of a book Michael Crick wrote 20 years ago about alleged entryism into the Labour party at that stage.

“I just ask Tom to do the maths – 300,000 people have joined the Labour party. At no stage in anyone’s most vivid imagination are there 300,000 sectarian extremists at large in the country who have suddenly descended on the Labour party.

“Sorry Tom, it is nonsense – and I think he knows it’s nonsense. Let’s get on with campaigning Tom. Thanks.”

Corbyn said that while he wanted people to join the party “with good motives”, MPs and staff should be pleased that those who supported other parties were now joining Labour.

Peter Taaffe, left, with Derek Hatton — Peter Taaffe, left, with Labour councillor Derek Hatton at the party’s conference In Bournemouth in 1985. Photograph: Associated/Rex/Shutterstock

Watson hit back on Saturday night, claiming the evidence was “incontrovertible”. He said: “The overwhelming majority of new members joined the Labour party because they want to build a fairer and more equal society. But there is clear and incontrovertible evidence that a small group of Trotskyite activists have taken leading roles in the Labour party or are seeking to do so.

“They are also explicitly targeting Young Labour and Labour student clubs with the aim of recruiting new members. That is beyond dispute. We can’t deal with this problem until we acknowledge it exists.”

Last week, Peter Taaffe, the Socialist party’s leader, and founder member of Militant, told the Guardian that hehoped to be readmitted to Labour.

Corbyn said: “I want people to join for good motives. But if they have changed their political views or developed their political views, then surely that is a good thing. We can only win a general election by winning people over from either non-voting or voting for another party. If someone has developed their politics to be members of the Labour party, even though they were once members of the Lib Dems, or Greens or something, fine. Welcome aboard.”

Asked about Taaffe’s comments, he added: “I met Peter Taaffe many, many years ago. I have no idea if he has even applied to join. I have had no conversations with Peter. I look forward to a conversation with Peter at some point but, hey, let’s be happy for what we have got, this vast number of members we have got and let’s get on with campaigning.”

In his extended interview, Corbyn:

• Announced a cradle-to-grave free National Education Service under which there will be free universal childcare, the scrapping of tuition fees, the reintroduction of maintenance grants and renewed funding for adult education.

• Offered backing for the RMT strikers on Southern Rail and Eurostar.

• Predicted a reselection process for every Labour MP when constituency boundaries are redrawn in 2017, and committed to allowing local members to make their choice unimpeded.

• Pledged an active state under his premiership willing to intervene widely in the market.

The Labour leader condemned the booing at the two leadership hustings that have taken place. But he claimed that he received “more abuse than anybody else”. He said: “Unfortunately, there has always been nastiness in politics, there has always been abuse in politics. I regret it and I deplore it. And I deplore it if it has increased. It’s wrong.”

Owen Smith has pledged to remove charitable status for private schools. Photograph: Mark Thomas/Rex/Shutterstock

“I am not sure it has [increased in the last year]. I know I have received more abuse than I ever used to. But then maybe I’m better known these days. But I receive more abuse than anybody else. The best way of dealing with abuse is: ignore it.”

Corbyn also offered his support to Hillary Clinton in the battle to be US president. “Well I can’t be with Trump, can I?” he said. “I can’t be with Trump so obviously with Hillary.”

Meanwhile, Corbyn’s challenger for the leadership, Owen Smith, has pledged to remove charitable status for private schools. Smith writes on guardian.com/observer: “On my watch, there’ll be no cautions or caveats about whether a private school is charitable or not, this wealthfare will end. Scrapping the subsidy for privileged private schools will raise hundreds of millions of pounds.

“And, if I’m the next Labour prime minister, I’ll put every penny of that into Sure Start – one of Labour’s proudest achievements and one of the most powerful antidotes to educational injustice.”

Peru Two drugs mule Michaella McCollum (23) returns home to Ireland five months after being released from jail

Michaella McCollum, 23, has arrived home in Ireland after leaving Peru
Was jailed in 2013 after trying to smuggle £1.5million of cocaine to Spain
Her and accomplice Melissa Reid where then dubbed 'The Peru Two'
She was released from jail in March after being granted parole in Lima
Last night she arrived back in Dublin after being allowed to leave Peru

Convicted drugs mule Michaella McCollum has finally returned home to Ireland five months after being released from jail in Peru.

The 23-year-old touched down in Dublin last night after flying out of Lima via London marking the first time she has been home in three years.

The former dancer, from Dungannon, was arrested at Lima airport in August 2013 along with Scot Melissa Reid as they tried to smuggle £1.5million worth of cocaine in food bags from Peru to Spain.

Peru Two drugs mule Michaella McCollum arrives back in Ireland after touching down in Dublin, five months after being released from prison in Lima

The women, who travelled to Peru after spending the summer working in Ibiza, initially protested their innocence, claiming they had been forced to become drug runners by a gang of armed kidnappers.

The pair - nicknamed the 'Peru Two' - were jailed for six years and eight months after admitting the offence

Reid and McCollum were initially held at Virgen de Fatima prison in Lima but were later moved to Ancon II prison, a modern facility where conditions were moderately better than the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of the previous jail.

However in March, McCollum was released on parole after serving less than half her six-year, eight-month sentence but was required to stay in the South American country.

The former dancer, from Dungannon, was arrested at Lima airport in August 2013 along with Scot Melissa Reid as they tried to smuggle £1.5million worth of cocaine in food bags from Peru to Spain

The pair - nicknamed the 'Peru Two' - were jailed for six years and eight months after admitting the offence

But this week she was granted permission to fly back to her home in Northern Ireland and arrived in Dublin yesterday night.

She was whisked through the airport and did not talk to the waiting press as she dragged two suitcases on wheels behind her.

When McCollum was released from jail in Peru in March, her infamous 'hair donut' do had been replaced with long blonde locks.

She also gave an interview to Irish broadcaster RTE, where she acknowledged the potentially devastating consequences if she had successfully smuggled the drugs back to Europe.

After being released on parole in March, McCollum gave an interview to Irish broadcaster RTE, where she acknowledged the potentially devastating consequences if she had successfully smuggled the drugs back to Europe

When McCollum was released from jail in Peru in March, her infamous 'hair donut' do had been replaced with long blonde locks

'I probably would have had a lot of blood on my hands,' she said.

'I potentially could have filled Europe full of a lot of drugs.

'I could have potentially killed a lot of people, not directly but I could have caused a lot of harm to people.'

'I made a decision in a moment of madness. I'm not a bad person. I want to demonstrate that I'm a good person.'

Meanwhile Reid arrived back to her home in Lenzie, near Glasgow in June after being expelled from the South American country under an early release scheme for deporting first-time drug offenders.

She was was allowed to apply for a return to Britain under a 2014 law designed to reduce Peru's prison population.

Reid arrived back to her home in Lenzie, near Glasgow in June after being expelled from the South American country under an early release scheme for deporting first-time drug offenders

Speaking after returning home to Scotland, the 22-year-old told the Scottish Mail on Sunday how in summer 2013, aged 19, she had flown to Ibiza with a friend to spend the summer on the Spanish island.

But the holiday turned into a spiral of taking hard drugs and clubbing that led her to a British woman acting as a recruitment agent for drug smuggling gangsters.

She was offered 5,000 euro (£4,100) to fly to Argentina, spend a few days sightseeing and return to Europe with a package in her luggage.

"I thought it sounded like a challenge and was blase about it," she told the newspaper.