From a $10m golf cheque to the right to silence: power, in every form

The winning cheque was $10m. That's seven-and-a-half million pounds for eighteen holes of golf, a sum so preposterous it almost felt inevitable. And that's exactly how it went: Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, started Sunday three strokes behind overnight leader Viktor Hovland at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, and then, with metronomic calm, simply took it.

His four-under 66 was the only round in the final three pairings to break par. It was his 22nd career victory)Skip — and his second FedEx Cup title. He now joins an exclusive club that includes Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy as multi-time winners.

"It's a gift to be out here on tour," Scheffler said. "Each and every day I'm going to try to give it my best."

Scheffler isn't the only one chasing greatness this week. Across the Atlantic, at Lord's, another England team was doing what England teams do best: winning. Joe Root, in his second reign as captain, has now won his first two Tests in charge, steamrollering Pakistan by 194 runs to take a 2-0 lead in the series with a match to spare.

The architect was Ollie Robinson — a player having a "sensational comeback summer," as the BBC put it. On Sunday he took 4-24, giving him match figures of 8-35)Skip, expertly exploiting the dramatic movement on offer. A defiant 97 from Saud Shakeel delayed the inevitable, but England won inside four days, their first series triumph since 2024.

Meanwhile, over in French living rooms, the phone finally stopped ringing. As of early August, unsolicited telemarketing calls are illegal in France. Ninety-seven percent of French people say they find these calls annoying — a rare issue that unites the country, according to a 2025 parliamentary report. Consumer group Que Choisir Ensemble called the ban "a small revolution."

"Peace and quiet is a right," the group said. "It cannot be stressed enough that it is time to stop exposing consumers to unwanted solicitations."

It's a reminder that power doesn't only live on leaderboards and cricket pitches — sometimes it's the quiet right to be left alone.

But perhaps the most forward-looking kind of power is the one being built at Caltech, where researchers have used AI to fight — not spread — misinformation. Their tool generates "pre-bunking" messages: accurate information sent before people ever encounter a false claim. In testing, it mitigated a drop in election confidence caused by rumors, an effect still measurable a week later, holding across party lines. As lead author Mitchell Linegar explains: "Pre-bunking gives people accurate information before exposure, making them less likely to believe these claims, potentially stopping their spread before it starts."

And then there are the women redefining what England's sporting glory looks like. Karen Carney, the Lionesses great, won the PFA merit award for 2026 — she was part of the Arsenal side that completed a historic quadruple in 2006-07, scored an extra-time equaliser to win Birmingham the FA Cup, and made 144 appearances for England.

Nico O'Reilly, the 19-year-old Manchester City and England full-back, took the PFA young player honours. "It feels amazing," he said.

From a $10m golf cheque to the right to silence, from a bat swinging at Lord's to an algorithm built for good — this week proves that power takes many forms. But the common thread is this: the people who wield it best are the ones who treat it as a gift, and give back their very best in return.