Ministers have rolled back central element of digital ID plans, possibly allowing people to use other forms of identification to prove their right to work

Here are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn.

Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when it was first announced.

I remember a leisurely lunch over the summer when a supporter of digital IDs told me how they thought Keir Starmer would reset his premiership. Alongside a reorganisation of his team in Number 10, and maybe a junior ministerial reshuffle, they predicted he would announce in his speech at party conference that his government would be embracing digital IDs. “It will allow him to show he’s willing to do whatever it takes to tackle illegal immigration,” was their rationale.

Sure enough, Starmer announced “phase two” of his government, reshuffled his top team and, on the Friday before Labour party conference, he duly announced his government would make digital IDs mandatory for workers. “We need to know who is in our country,” he said, arguing that the IDs would prevent migrants who “come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally”.

In policy terms, I don’t think you particularly gain anything by making the government’s planned new digital ID compulsory.

One example of that: Kemi Badenoch has both criticised the government’s plans to introduce compulsory ID, while at the same time committing to creating a “British ICE” that would go around deporting large numbers of people living in the UK. In a country with that kind of target and approach, people would be forced to carry their IDs around with them in any case! The Online Safety Act, passed into law by the last Conservative government with cross-party support and implemented by Labour, presupposes some form of ID to work properly.

Here is the political challenge for Downing Street: the climbdowns, dilutions, U- turns, about turns, call them what you will, are mounting up.

In just the last couple of weeks, there has been the issue of business rates on pubs in England and inheritance tax on farmers.

We welcome Starmer’s reported U-turn on making intrusive, expensive and unnecessary digital IDs mandatory. This is a huge success for Big Brother Watch and the millions of Brits who signed petitions to make this happen.

The case for the government now dropping digital IDs entirely is overwhelming. Taxpayers should not be footing a £1.8bn bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless.

US president says Jamie Dimon was wrong to suggest he was undermining independence of central bank

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Donald Trump has hit out at the JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon, saying the Wall Street executive was wrong to suggest he was undermining the independence of the Federal Reserve.

The US president and his administration have come under fire for their attacks against the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, who is facing a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice over alleged “abuse of taxpayer dollars” linked to renovations to the central bank’s headquarters in Washington.

After Guardian writers shared their choices, readers responded with picks from films including Withnail and I, Emily the Criminal and Chopper

The fact that he manages to save a kid’s life while remaining a sweary alcoholic without an ounce of dignity and self-respect … is positively heartwarming. GusCairns

We’d like to hear from young people, parents and teachers about how Elon Musk’s controversial chatbot is affecting you

Degrading images of real women and children with their clothes digitally removed by Elon Musk’s Grok tool continue to be shared online, despite widespread alarm and a pledge by the platform to suspend users who generate them.

While some safeguards have been introduced, the ease with which the AI tool can be abused has raised urgent questions about consent, online safety and the ability of governments worldwide to regulate fast-moving AI technologies. Meanwhile, the misuse of AI to harass, humiliate and sexually exploit people – particularly women and girls – is rapidly escalating.

US owner scraps auction after bids from private equity firms fail to meet its £2bn sale expectations, report says

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Coca-Cola has reportedly abandoned plans to sell its Costa Coffee chain after bids from private equity firms failed to meet its expectations.

The US soft drinks company halted discussions with remaining bidders in December, according to the Financial Times, ending a months-long auction process.

The eccentric, sharp-eyed sitcom was so loved that it was once the fastest-selling DVD ever. A quarter of a century on from its Channel 4 debut, why has it fallen so far off the radar?

There are few British comedy shows that were as popular, yet now completely extinct, as Phoenix Nights. The sitcom – which ran for just two series between 2001-2002 – is set in a fictional working men’s club in Bolton, and was a huge hit of the physical media era. Its second series was once the fastest ever selling UK TV show on DVD, shifting 160,000 copies in its first week of release. However, it is now 25 years since it was first broadcast on Channel 4, and it does not feature, nor has it ever, on any streaming service. Instead, it’s confined to dodgy fan uploads on YouTube and the secondhand DVD market. It is also almost entirely absent from all of the major publications’ best TV of the 21st century listicles.

Nevertheless, it remains a programme like few others. Distinctly northern and working class, it crucially uses neither as the butt of its jokes. In the same way that The Royle Family turned the everyday routine of watching TV, bickering, having a brew and asking each other what they had for tea into a relatably funny yet poignant shared living-room experience, Phoenix Nights invites people through its sparkling tinsel curtains into the familiar yet fading glory of clubland.

Barrister turned novelist Harriet Tyce is playing a blinder in the fourth series of the show. As a thriller writer myself, I recognise the traits that make her such a formidable Faithful

This time last year a rumour swept through the close-knit British crime-writing community, not whispered in a quiet moment in the billiard room but shared on group chats and message boards. The producers of The Traitors were recruiting contestants for 2026, and wanted one of us to take part. Of course they did! The Traitors is a controlled, lower-stakes, stylised version of the golden age country house whodunnit, which is itself a controlled, lower-stakes, stylised version of real-life murder. It is crime writers’ job to examine the dark side of human behaviour. Betrayal of trust and manipulation are all in a day’s work. We often write from multiple perspectives, identifying with victim, perp and detective, giving us a unique kind of empathy. We spent the rest of the year wondering who it would be. (I didn’t get the call.)

Last November, in that howling no man’s land between the finale of Celebrity Traitors and the transmission of series four, I went along with 13 fellow crime novelists to the Traitors Live Experience in Covent Garden. Despite being professional pattern-finders with highly tuned powers of observation, none of us at the replica round table guessed that the Chosen One was among us, and had already completed her stint on the real thing.

Policing inspectorate to say force made series of errors in how it gathered and handled intelligence

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West Midlands police will be criticised in a report about their handling of intelligence used to justify banning Israeli fans from a football game in Birmingham, the Guardian understands.

The inquiry was ordered by the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and carried out by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, the policing inspectorate.

In a might-makes-right world, US allies, not to mention the emerging powers of the global south, would begin to hedge their bets in dangerous ways

What is wrong with resurrecting the prerogative of major powers to claim a sphere of influence in which they dictate and others must follow? That idea informs the “Donroe Doctrine” behind the US invasion of Venezuela to seize Nicolás Maduro. Donald Trump seems to believe that, as the world’s strongest military power, the United States should be allowed to invade other countries at will. Trump’s homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, says “the real world” is “governed by strength”, by “power”, so we should get used to it.

There is a beguiling simplicity to this abandonment of the norms long designed to govern the behavior of states big and small. China has touted it as the reality that its Asian neighbors must live with. Russia, a third-tier power by comparison but still a nuclear-armed regional heavyweight, has periodically treated the boundaries of post-Soviet states as mere suggestions. But do we really want to return to the law of the jungle in which the guy with the biggest stick calls the shots?

The ESPN broadcaster’s comments about the ICE shooting in Minnesota moves him closer to the stance of another media figure he has long attacked

This past weekend there were hundreds of demonstrations across the United States after Renee Good, an American citizen and mother of three, was shot dead by Jonathan Ross, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, in Minnesota.

The anger has permeated throughout the NBA as well. Steve Kerr and Doc Rivers, the head coaches of the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks respectively, described Good’s death as “murder”. Kerr also attacked the Trump administration’s attempts to portray Good as a terrorist.

A January camp for domestic players allows Jesse Marsch to boost a development system that will outlast his tenure

Men have stood broken on her piers. It can be a desolate place, too, especially in winter, which is of course when the lobster boats do the bulk of their fishing. But the weather had improved by the time Canadian men’s national team head coach Jesse Marsch ferried his squad from around the world to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a training camp ahead of last summer’s Gold Cup. It was the first time the men’s national team had visited the province.

But it was not Marsch’s first time in town, having previously kicked off a cross-country coaching clinic – a whirlwind tour meant to share with local soccer communities what he’d done with the national team at Copa América in 2024 – at a local hotel and convention centre. He’d promised, and pitched a vision, to make the national team truly national in a way no coach had before him. And he was delivering, having also made similar coaching stops in Québec City, Saskatoon and Calgary.

This week, Trump’s granddaughter announced she definitely doesn’t want to go into politics. Expect a run for office very soon

Last week Kai Trump, Donald Trump Jr’s daughter and the president’s eldest grandchild, publicly declared she had no plans to run for office. The 18-year-old appeared on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, where she stated that “politics is such a dangerous thing … I think if both sides met in the middle, everyone would be so much more happier.” (Maybe tell that to your grandpa, kid.) “To be honest with you,” she said, “I stay out of politics completely … I don’t want anything to do with politics.”

Look, I know you’re still very young, Kai, so here’s a little advice from an old lady: maybe work just a teeny bit harder at keeping a safe distance from politics. It has not gone unobserved that the influencer and golfer has made a lot of content about life behind the scenes at the White House. She’s also launched an apparel collection, which she’s modelled on the White House lawn. And, notably, she spoke at the 2024 Republican national convention (RNC), where she insisted Trump was “just a normal grandpa”. I don’t know about that; my grandad didn’t invade Venezuela.

Kai, by the way, stressed to Logan Paul that she was the one who decided to speak at the RNC; it was “literally all my idea”. But the nasty media, she noted, spun it otherwise. “[They said] ‘Oh well, that’s like a political plan that was put in place, to like get more voters or anything like that’.” Well, yes, because it was a political convention. They tend to be, you know, political.

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Jonathan Gerlach remains in custody after officials say they found skulls, bones and other remains in his car and home

The Pennsylvania man suspected of stealing more than 100 pieces of human remains from a historic cemetery has allegedly admitted to selling some of them online – while the graveyard solicits donations to upgrade its security.

Jonathan Gerlach’s purported admission, along with the most complete account yet of how he caught the attention of law enforcement, are contained in search warrants obtained by authorities investigating a case one government official called “a horror movie come to life”.

Fraser plays a hapless Tokyo-based actor working for a firm that offers bespoke therapeutic role-play services in director Hikari’s silly and saccharine film

Brendan Fraser is a bland and ingratiating presence in this glib, silly and pointless film from Japanese actor turned director Hikari. It is bafflingly complacent in its sentimentality and its sheer, fatuous implausibility, which makes it valueless and meaningless as drama and comedy.

Fraser plays Phillip, a hapless unemployed actor from the US who a few years previously came to Tokyo to do a goofy TV ad for toothpaste and, having no friends or family back home, simply stayed on. He lucks into a weird new source of income: working for a “rental family”, based on firms in Japan which really do offer bespoke therapeutic role-play services, such as errant spouses, deceased loved ones or unsatisfactory co-workers – people who can be chatted with, or mourned, or yelled at for cathartic purposes.

• Semi-automated offside technology was not available

• High number of bodies in the box prevented its use

The delay in ruling out a Manchester City goal for offside in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup win at Newcastle was extended because semi-automated offside technology could not be used in the incident.

It took more than five minutes for a check to determine that Erling Haaland was offside and had interfered with play by holding the defender Malick Thiaw, with the referee Chris Kavanagh disallowing what would have been a second goal of the night for City’s new signing Antoine Semenyo.

Judiciary chief threatens swift punishment after Trump says US will intervene if Iran begins executing demonstrators

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The Iranian government has signalled that detained protesters are to face speedy trials and executions, defying a threat by the US president, Donald Trump, to intervene if authorities continue their crackdown.

The comments from Iran’s chief justice on Wednesday came as human rights groups warned that executions of protesters could take place soon. A 26-year-old protester, Erfan Soltani, was slated to face execution on Wednesday, the first anti-government demonstrator to be given a death sentence. It was unclear whether the execution had proceeded or not, as authorities typically carry out death penalties at dawn.

For Hannah Thorogood, a first-generation Lincolnshire farmer, grazing her sheep on solar land gave her a leg-up in the industry

On a blustery Lincolnshire morning, Hannah Thorogood paused between two ranks of solar panels. Her sheep nosedived into the grass under their shelter and began to graze.

“When I first started out, 18 acres and 20 sheep was as much as I could afford,” said the first-generation farmer. “Now, because I can graze this land for free, I have 250 acres and over 200 sheep. Solar grazing has given me a massive leg-up.”

Exclusive: Discovery comes amid growing concern over lax regulation and children being put at risk by rogue operators

Circumcision kits have been found on sale on Amazon UK, highlighting lax regulation as concerns grow about deaths and serious harm to baby boys.

In December, a UK coroner issued warnings about insufficient circumcision regulation after the death in 2023 of a six-month-old boy, Mohamed Abdisamad, from a streptococcus infection.

Stats tell us batters have less reason to be anxious in the 90s than common lore suggests, though the pain and fear of falling short is all too real

If you’ve ever been lucky enough to score a century you’ll know how seismic a moment it is when you finally get over the line. Some play the game for a lifetime and never make one, the three-figured kingdom for ever out of reach, a promised land they are destined never to enter. Yet cricket lures you back like a devilish lover. You just can’t quit it. Next time might be your time. It could be you. Why not?

In cricket the century is the hallmark of individual success for a batter, the team sport unique in the way that it lauds personal milestones. The Test Match Special statistician Andy Zaltzman says that a century “carves an immutable notch in a player’s history and, at the highest level, an eternal legacy in the annals of the game”.

Professional mermaids risk hypothermia, seasickness and the cling of skin-tight silicone, but the reward is becoming an ‘ocean ambassador’ – and a bit more colour in the world

Propelled by a shimmering silicon tail, Katrin Gray spins underwater, blowing kisses to the audience as her long, copper hair floats around her face. Her seemingly effortless movement is anything but – a professional mermaid’s free diving and performance skills require training, practice and total concentration.

Mermaiding has become a global cottage industry, with pageants, conventions, retreats and meet-ups, where people gather in “pods” to practise their dolphin kicks. Makers create bespoke tail flukes, bejewelled bras, mermaid hair and even prosthetic gills for professional and hobbyist “seasters”. There is even a Netflix reality series called MerPeople, which documents the occasionally perilous journey of several aspiring professional merfolk. “No dead mermaids” is the motto of one business featured.

Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff
An imaginatively programmed concert featured Anders Hillborg alongside Sibelius and Shostakovich – with Alban Gerhardt the impeccable soloist in the latter’s second cello concerto

Cadavre Exquis was the game – akin to Consequences – in which surrealist artists such as Yves Tanguy and Joan Miró made separate contributions to a single piece of work without sight of what anyone else had done, to see how a picture might evolve, or just for the hell of it. Anders Hillborg took the principle as inspiration for his composition Exquisite Corpse but, where the surrealists hoped for signs of an unconscious collective sensibility, the emerging components of Hillborg’s piece bear his consciously singular imprint while also incorporating references to composers as disparate as Stravinsky, Ligeti and Sibelius.

In the performance given by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under their chief conductor Ryan Bancroft, the unfolding layers of sound were never less than brilliantly alive. Hillborg’s instinct for a remarkable range of instrumental colour – delicate tendrils of harmony, monstrously growling bass registers, insistent conga drumming, shrill piccolos – taunted and teased the ear before finally fading into a gentle haze.

Uefa’s limitations have set hurdles for women keen to take the next step in coaching despite the increasing demand

Mariana Cabral has a coaching CV to be proud of. Born on the small Azores island of São Miguel, she has been in charge of the women’s teams at clubs including Benfica and Sporting, but the 38-year-old is frustrated. “We want more women coaches,” she says. “Who won the Euros? Who won the Champions League? Women – but we are losing so many.”

Cabral has her A Licence but is stuck in limbo. Unable to get on a Pro Licence course that would clear a path to more senior head coach roles in an era when women’s teams are increasingly demanding that qualification, she stepped back to become a No 2 in the US. But after one NWSL season with Utah Royals, she left in December in the hope that expanding her experience at another club would help to open a Pro Licence door.

Jessie Buckley and Timothée Chalamet might be winning all of the awards but as Oscar voting begins, these actors also deserve inclusion

Every January, if not earlier, awards narratives leading up to the Oscars take shape. While the specifics of the Academy Award nominations are never known in advance, and can always be counted on for some surprises when they’re actually unveiled, critics and pundits and fans all enter into that final stretch with a pretty good idea of who won’t be nominated.

Some of this is because of the endless spitballing. But the “won’t” list is also easy to compile because it ultimately houses almost everyone who acted in a movie over the past year. Twenty performances are selected for the Oscars annually, and given the other high-profile awards bodies with additional preferences, category numbers and a never-complete overlap with the Academy, let’s say about 40 are in the broader competition of real possibilities. But there are so many more great performances every year than that, across all sizes, scopes and genres.

While Grok has introduced belated safeguards to prevent sexualised AI imagery, other tools have far fewer limits

“Since discovering Grok AI, regular porn doesn’t do it for me anymore, it just sounds absurd now,” one enthusiast for the Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot wrote on Reddit. Another agreed: “If I want a really specific person, yes.”

If those who have been horrified by the distribution of sexualised imagery on Grok hoped that last week’s belated safeguards could put the genie back in the bottle, there are many such posts on Reddit and elsewhere that tell a different story.