No 14652, Saturday 29 November 2025, Hypatia

 ACROSS
1 Temperature maintained in green home (6) NATIVE {NA{T}IVE}
4 Police respects symbols of authority (8) SCEPTRES*
9 Women competent to pick up river bird's call (6) WARBLE {W}{A{R}BLE}
10 Leaves actor in cast without line (8) CILANTRO {ACTOR IN}* over {L}

11 Try a lie in an imaginary world (7,7) VIRTUAL REALITY {TRY A LIE}* [RA]
13 Impressive hand washing fixture in an emperor's rest room? (5,5) ROYAL FLUSH [D&CD]

14 Traces of Indian dals (lentils) in rice cake (4) IDLI [Acrostic]
16 Report of auditor for 12 months (4) YEAR {~EAR}
18 Railing in support of  labour going West with American business (10) BALUSTRADE {LAB<}{US}{TRADE}

21 Reason for an Inuit to visit an Orthopedic? (6,8) FROZEN SHOULDER [CD]
23 Funny caption entertaining one visionary trader? (8) OPTICIAN {CAPTION}* around {I}
24 Salim Ali certainly showing hostility (6) MALICE [T]
25 Jeopardize outcome with resentment (8) ENDANGER {END}{ANGER}
26 Tough to read without writing (6) STURDY {STU{R}DY}

DOWN
1 Latest time for swimmer (4) NEWT {NEW}{T}

2 Shock from top of thermostat - essentially Air fryer's faulty (7) TERRIFY {Thermostat}{aIr FRYER}*
3 Restless love - it somehow captivates the French (8) VOLATILE {LOVE IT}* around {LA}
5 Artistic image using our chairs displayed in firm (11) CHIAROSCURO {OUR CHAIRS}* in{CO}

6 Layout next to a chiefly residential flat (6) PLANAR {PLAN}{A}{Residential}
7 Again, heard every other true story in Eid (7) RETRIED {tRuE sToRy In EiD} Typo in the on-line version. Eid is written as Eif
8 Second column implicating conservative plot (9) STORY LINE {S}{LINE} around {TORY}
12 Beginning from MacLean’s latest (1,5,5) A CLEAN SLATE [T]
13 Spooner's greeting in multiple threads offering glimpse of optimism (3,2,4) RAY OF HOPE {Spoonerism of Hey of Rope}
15 Rugged saint carrying sword in Delhi (8) STALWART {S{TALWAR}T}
17 Head of ashram spoiling odd pet taken in (7) ADOPTED {Ashram}{ODD PET}*
19 Had story writing workshop for artists (7) ATELIER {ATE}{LIE}{R}

20 Oddly added cocoa in plateau (6) DECCAN {aDdEd CoCoA iN}

22 Refuse dyeing each new yarn, basically(4) DENY [Acrostic]

Reference List

Temperature=T, Women=W, River=R, Line=L, Labour=Lab, American=US, One=1=I, Writing=R (from the 3 basic Rs: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic), Time=T, The French=La, Firm=Company=Co,  Second=S, Saint=St.