Daily Answers

6-across – An official language of 7/24 : TSWANA

8-across – Steve __,actor who plays Alan Partridge : COOGAN

9-across – RAF pigeon which delivered the first news of the Normandy Landings on 20 : GUSTAV

10-across – Mendicant monk also known as Siddhartha Gautama : BUDDHA

11-across – Dutch city,home to the International Court of Justice : THEHAGUE

14-across – Adrian __,Sue Townsend’s literary diarist : MOLE

15-across – Abbreviation appearing on the insignia of the Roman Empire : SPQR

17-across – Ian McEwan novel set during the protests against the 2003 invasion of Iraq : SATURDAY

19-across – __ Road,Leeds FC’s home ground : ELLAND

21-across – __ Khrushchev,former leader of the Soviet Union : NIKITA

23-across – Catholic university in Chicago : LOYOLA

24-across – See 7 Down : AFRICA

1-down – The first of the Simpson children? : BART

2-down – Learning from __,classic 1972 architectural text by Robert Venturi,Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour : LASVEGAS

3-down – Fungal disease affecting apples and pears : SCAB

4-down – Nadine __,Nobel prize winner from 7/24 : GORDIMER

5-down – Graça __,former first lady of both Mozambique and 7/24 : MACHEL

7-down – Country which celebrates Women’s Day today,9 August : SOUTH

12-down – See 16 : HERMANOS

13-down – A citizen of Tallinn? : ESTONIAN

16-down – Los __,restaurant chain run by Gus Fring in Breaking Bad : POLLOS

18-down – Empire in what is now Mexico : AZTEC

20-down – 6 June 1944 : DDAY

22-down – __ Marx,author of Capital : KARL

6-across – Wile E. __,animated Looney Tunes character : COYOTE

7-across – Legendary Scottish monster,a frequent subject for the 15/24 : NESSIE

9-across – US band whose hits include Losing My Religion : REM

10-across – Escaped pigs who became a media sensation in 1998 : TAMWORTH

11-across – Band fronted by Debbie Harry : BLONDIE

13-across – What the squirrels of south London were eating,according to what could have been a 2005 15/24 story? : CRACK

15-across – The __,slow news – or no news – days of summer : SILLY

17-across – The capital of Sicily : PALERMO

20-across – Shropshire market town known for its iron age forts : OSWESTRY

21-across – See 10 : TWO

23-across – Carp whose death was a 15/24 story in 2009 : BENSON

24-across – See 15 : SEASON

1-down – See 2 : MOOR

2-down – Area of Cornwall whose eponymous beast is a frequent 15/24 story : BODMIN

3-down – Boris __,Russian president 1991-1999 : YELTSIN

4-down – Japanese hand-drawn and computer-generated animation : ANIME

5-down – Catholic term for holy communion administered as part of the last rites : VIATICUM

8-down – Kent’s second river,after the Medway : STOUR

12-down – Irish province including the counties of Dublin and Wexford : LEINSTER

14-down – Trinidadian music genre : CALYPSO

16-down – A city in Yorkshire – or a castle in Kent? : LEEDS

18-down – Sitcom written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant : EXTRAS

19-down – Emma __,star of La La Land : STONE

22-down – Woodwind instrument : OBOE

1-across – Jedi master played by Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor : OBI

3-across – Prince Andrei Nikolayevich __,protagonist in War and Peace : BOLKONSKY

8-across – Brand name for the antidepressant Fluoxetine : PROZAC

10-across – French city known for its motorsports : LEMANS

11-across – France’s first lady? : BRIGITTE

12-across – __ Ruth,baseball player : BABE

13-across – The Roman goddess of wisdom : MINERVA

17-across – Norman __,author of The Pursuit of the Millennium : COHN

18-across – Forest __,star of The Last King of Scotland : WHITAKER

20-across – Bay of __,sea area between India and Myanmar : BENGAL

21-across – See 11 : MACRON

22-across – See 2 Down : STREISAND

23-across – See 1 : WAN

2-down – Actor who has won an Academy award for best song and for best actress : BARBRA

4-down – Language spoken in south-west France : OCCITAN

5-down – Singer whose hits include I Should Be So Lucky : KYLIE

6-down – Country once known as South West Africa : NAMIBIA

7-down – See 1 Across : KENOBI

9-down – Albania’s king from 1928 to 1939 : ZOG

13-down – See 5 : MINOGUE

14-down – Oscar-winning film starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman : RAINMAN

15-down – The __,body of water between the Isle of Wight and the British mainland : SOLENT

16-down – Italian city whence came two gentlemen in Shakespeare’s play : VERONA

18-down – Jimmy __,internet entrepreneur and founder of Wikipedia : WALES

19-down – South Africa’s ruling party since 1994 : ANC

7-across – Hernando __,Spanish explorer central to the colonisation of the Inca empire : DESOTO

8-across – Margaret __,author of The Handmaid’s Tale : ATWOOD

9-across – See 16 : FOGG

10-across – Seaside town in Tor Bay,Devon : PAIGNTON

11-across – Paul __,England footballer who made more than 700 appearances for Manchester United : SCHOLES

13-across – Flowering plant used for making blue dye : WOAD

15-across – Comic character created by Sacha Baron Cohen : ALIG

16-across – The protagonist in Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days : PHILEAS

18-across – Nickname given to Harold Macmillan : SUPERMAC

20-across – Egyptian port visited by 16/9 : SUEZ

22-across – Polysaccharide found in staples of the human diet : STARCH

23-across – Musical film starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta : GREASE

1-down – Nevada city known as a gambling resort : RENO

2-down – Former British colony in China visited by 16/9 : HONGKONG

3-down – Christian __,Austrian physicist who identified how the frequency of a wave may change in relation to an observer in motion : DOPPLER

4-down – 2024 Olympic host city,visited by 16/9 : PARIS

5-down – __ Lake,ballet by Tchaikovsky : SWAN

6-down – Japanese host city for the 2002 Fifa World Cup final – visited by 16/9 : YOKOHAMA

12-down – Former name of the Indian city on the Hooghly – visited by 16/9 : CALCUTTA

13-down – Dame Emma __,CEO of GSK Plc : WALMSLEY

14-down – A musical film starring Catherine Zeta-Jones – or a city visited by 16/9? : CHICAGO

17-down – Warren Buffet’s home town – visited by 16/9 : OMAHA

19-down – __ Pound,modernist poet who influenced T.S. Eliot : EZRA

21-down – __ Rawlins,fictional detective created by Walter Mosley : EASY

7-across – See 21 : MOUSE

8-across – Miley Stewart’s alter ego in the eponymous Disney teen series : HANNAH

9-across – Maori ceremonial dance often performed at rugby matches : HAKA

10-across – __ Basin,geological feature covering parts of Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia : MCARTHUR

11-across – The Indian men’s test cricket captain : SHUBMAN

13-across – __ Linton,Heathcliff’s rival in Wuthering Heights : EDGAR

15-across – Distinguishing feature of vertebrates : SPINE

16-across – Gold coin used in the late Roman empire : SOLIDUS

18-across – The holding company for Google and YouTube : ALPHABET

19-across – See 11 : GILL

21-across – Disney character,sweetheart of Mickey : MINNIE

22-across – __ Klein,author of The Shock Doctrine : NAOMI

1-down – 2021 US Open women’s tennis champion : EMMA

2-down – Civil rights activist who was the first woman commemorated on a US dollar coin : SUSANBANTHONY

3-down – Geological period,the last of the Paleozoic era : PERMIAN

4-down – Suburb of London bordered by Sutton,Morden and Epsom : CHEAM

5-down – Constitutional monarchy formed in 1801 : UNITEDKINGDOM

6-down – See 1 : RADUCANU

12-down – Medical condition in which one has a reduced sensitivity to pain : HYPALGIA

14-down – See 8 Across : MONTANA

17-down – __ Road,Beatles album : ABBEY

20-down – City in western Ukraine : LVIV