Hannah Spencer’s win was more than protest. It signalled that Labour’s moral language and coalition are up for grabs in its safest terrain
The Greens have every reason to celebrate their victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection. From a standing start in a Manchester constituency, Zack Polanski’s team tripled his party’s vote to capture a seat that had effectively voted Labour in every election but one since 1906 – the year Labour was born. Labour coming third behind Reform UK is not routine midterm turbulence. A 20-point collapse in the party’s vote is extraordinary.
Sir Keir Starmer was abandoned by a coalition of young progressives, working-class former Labour voters and Muslims. May’s Scottish and Welsh parliamentary as well as English council elections will paint the map in many colours. Not a lot of it will be red if this result is anything to go by. Labour’s vaunted ground game can’t save it if the ground has shifted. The party can’t turn out voters who’ve already tuned out.
The president’s cuts have defunded and alienated thousands of American scientists. Europe can benefit, if it makes the right offer
Donald Trump has spent much of his second term at war with science and scientists. He is cutting staff at institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by a third, and has cancelled or frozen up to 8,000 federal research grants. This hasn’t just hurt individual research programmes, it has damaged America’s credibility as a reliable partner in the scientific community. It is not surprising that many researchers – one poll last year by the journal Nature gave the number of 75% – say they are considering leaving the US entirely.
However, it is one thing to express dissatisfaction, and quite another to up sticks and leave. If the UK and EU want to attract elite scientific talent, their approach must be twofold: appealing directly to scientists concerned with political interference in their research, and offering stable, ringfenced money.
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Overturning a 13,000 Labour majority from the general election, Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green councillor, became the party’s fifth MP on Friday. Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin was second, just ahead of the Labour candidate, Angeliki Stogia.
On Thursday night, late-night hosts remarked on the Jeffrey Epstein investigations, the threat of a US attack on Iran and Donald Trump nominating a wellness influencer as the next US surgeon general.
Late flurry of runs from allrounders proves crucial
A game dominated by spin and played on a turning wicket was decided in the space of a few minutes and by a decisive, savage twist. Just as it looked like England’s progress through the World Cup was the only thing that was destined to stay on a familiar, predictable path Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks thrashed 22 runs off the 18th over of the innings and turned the game, and the group, in their team’s favour.
The over, bowled by Glenn Phillips, started with England needing an improbable 43 off 18 and ended with 21 required off 12. Ahmed started the next with a reverse-sweep for four and ended it by smearing over long-off for six and suddenly England needed five off the last over. It took them three balls, with victory in the end secured by four wickets.
Average life satisfaction still below pre-pandemic peak despite improving economic outlook, reports ONS
The proportion of people in the UK who feel dissatisfied with life has failed to improve since the pandemic despite the economic outlook improving, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics said a survey of personal wellbeing in the UK showed average life satisfaction remained below its pre-pandemic peak, despite the rate of gross domestic product per person rising since 2021.
Fintech company Block announced that it would be laying off 4,000 of its 10,000 employees because of gains in AI productivity.
“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Jack Dorsey, Block’s CEO, said in a letter to shareholders on Thursday. “We’re already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better. And intelligence tool capabilities are compounding faster every week.”Block is the parent company for online payment platforms such as Square and Cash App.
Years of singlehood, dating apps and humiliating set-ups left me skeptical. But Calling in the One – surprisingly – worked
In January 2023, a friend recommended I read a dating self-help book with her. “I think we need to read this,” she said. “My friend did it and that’s how she met her husband.”
But when the book arrived, I discovered it wasn’t a recommendation so much as an enlistment.
Brighton’s yoga-mad, teetotal veteran on the secrets to his longevity after 24 seasons in the English top flight
Being teetotal, always asking questions and taking up yoga in his early 30s after a recommendation from Gareth Barry have played their part. But if one thing inspired James Milner to break the Premier League’s appearance mark then it is a trait honed during his formative years in Yorkshire: sheer bloody-mindedness.
“Some things don’t change,” Milner says with a chuckle when asked whether his desire to prove people wrong was as strong as ever after his 40th birthday last month. “There’s people who are always going to doubt you but that’s always something that’s been at my forefront: to prove them wrong.”
Foreign minister says 272 Ghanaians are thought to have been drawn into battle since 2022, after he visited Kyiv
At least 55 Ghanaians have been killed in Russia’s war with Ukraine after being “lured into battle”, Ghana’s foreign minister has said after a visit to Kyiv in which officials raised the issue of Russian recruitment of African people.
Reports of African men being attracted to Russia by promises of jobs and ending up on Ukraine’s frontlines have become more frequent in recent months, creating tensions between Moscow and some of the countries involved.
Of course the Green candidate wore green, though the correct term – the 2026 TikTok one – is “gross green”.
Coined by New York magazine, and seen all over the high street as well as on the cover of Caro Claire Burke’s forthcoming satirical novel Yesteryear, it’s actually chartreuse. But where’s the fun in calling it that? And it’s not so much a colour as a mood.
Parents opposing plans told they can home school their children if they object to sending them to state schools
The court of appeal has rejected the latest challenge to the addition of VAT to private school fees, telling parents they have the option to home school their children if they object to sending them to state schools.
The appeal was launched by families and leaders of four independent Christian faith schools, aiming to overturn a high court ruling last year by arguing that the decision to add 20% to fees would make small faith schools unviable and unaffordable, depriving children of their right to an equivalent education.
Newcastle v Barça; Liverpool get Galatasaray rematch
Spurs take on Atlético Madrid; Arsenal meet Leverkusen
The draw for the Champions League last 16 has produced some intriguing, heavyweight clashes featuring the renewal of old rivalries. If Manchester City’s meeting with Real Madrid arguably ranks foremost among them, Chelsea’s engagement with the holders, Paris Saint-Germain, and Newcastle’s duel with Barcelona are certainly not lacking in glamour.
Or, in the case of Chelsea and PSG in particular, edge. The tie is a repeat of last summer’s Club World Cup final in New Jersey, which Chelsea won 3-0 thanks to two goals from Cole Palmer and with a team under the management of Enzo Maresca.
James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee, said the committee’s list of questions for Bill Clinton grew longer after Hillary Clinton’s deposition yesterday, where she deferred a host of questions to her husband.
“So we already had a big portfolio of questions for him, and that increased yesterday,” Comer said at a press conference outside the building where the closed-door deposition was set to begin shortly.
(Atlantic) Harking back to Oye Como Va, Move On Up and other 20th-century classics, Mars’s homages are beautifully performed but bereft of new ideas
It is 10 years since Bruno Mars last released a solo album. An eternity in pop music, and yet you’d struggle to describe the follow-up to the umpteen-platinum 24K Magic as eagerly awaited: not for reasons of snark, but simply because the world has hardly been starved of Bruno Mars in the intervening decade.
With Anderson .Paak, he co-piloted Silk Sonic’s hit album An Evening with Silk Sonic. He variously collaborated with Cardi B, Gucci Mane, Sexy Redd and Ed Sheeran. Die With a Smile, 2024’s soft rock duet with Lady Gaga went on to become the most streamed song of last year. Meanwhile, he also recorded the most globally successful song released in 2025, the infernally catchy APT., with Blackpink’s Rosé. There have been two world tours, two Las Vegas residencies, the opening of his own Vegas bar, an appearance on online game Fortnite and the 2026 ambassadorship for Record Store Day.
Hungarian artist and teacher whose avant-garde works ranged from painting and photography to performance
Talking to the Art Newspaper in 2019, Dóra Maurer made a surprising claim. Her work, she told the interviewer, benefited “from a lack of market”.
It seemed an odd thing to say. The Hungarian artist, who has died aged 88, was about to have her second show at White Cube in London. If an exhibition at Jay Jopling’s fabled gallery was the stuff of dreams – its stable includes such multimillion-pound giants as Anselm Kiefer and Damien Hirst – this was not, however, reflected in Maurer’s own prices. One of her paintings had been auctioned at Sotheby’s three years earlier for £8,000 – a bargain basement figure for a major contemporary artist.
As Pokémon turns 30, we would like to hear what the franchise means to you
It is 30 years since the game Pocket Monsters was released for the Nintendo Game Boy in Japan. Many more video games, trading cards, toys, an animated series and films followed as the franchise became a worldwide hit. With this in mind, we would like to hear what Pokémon means to you after three decades.
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By refusing to fold in Germany, O’Neill’s side showed the resilience that would serve them well in Sunday’s derby at Ibrox
A European occasion that appeared ominous for Celtic instead provided evidence that it is never wise to write off Martin O’Neill. His side exited the Europa League in Stuttgart but the scale of spirit and togetherness visible during their 1-0, playoff second-leg victory emphasised that tales of their demise may be overstated.
Celtic’s key attribute during a critical week, which begins at Ibrox on Sunday, is course and distance specialism. The shortcomings within, and patched-up nature of, O’Neill’s squad are blindingly obvious. This is, however, a club that has become accustomed to dominating Scottish football over more than a decade. Much earlier, O’Neill had demonstrated he could emerge successful from title scraps. Contrary to giddy analysis, there is nothing miraculous or remarkable about O’Neill’s work during his second short-term stint of the season. It is, though, immediately striking how a 73-year-old can achieve such buy-in from players. Faith in O’Neill within Celtic is absolute.
The supreme court has deferred to executive power for decades. Its decision on tariffs is a long-overdue warning
After two decades of deferring to executive authority and eroding anti-bribery laws, the supreme court has suddenly limited presidential power in a way that could make one ugly form of political influence a bit more difficult to pull off. Last week’s ruling did not merely strip one president of his executive power to unilaterally impose levies across broad swaths of the economy – it makes it harder for any president to transform tariffs from a broad economic policy into a personal political cudgel that muzzles criticism and enforces fealty.
“A Supreme Court otherwise inclined to endlessly expand Trump’s authority just restricted his go-to tool, ruling that U.S. presidents do not have the power to unilaterally deploy tariffs and dole out punishment and favor to specific companies and economic sectors, friends and family, and entire countries,” said Lori Wallach of Rethink Trade.
The Washington Post reported that Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, dumped $1m into Trump’s inauguration, cultivated relationships with Trump officials, and “refrained from publicly criticizing the president or his policies on national television” – just before securing tariff exemptions for his company’s products.
ProPublica reported that the administration approved a tariff exemption for a thermoplastic made by a company “owned by a pair of brothers who have donated millions of dollars to Republican causes”.
A tariff exemption for electronics conveniently benefited Tesla and, by extension, its CEO, Elon Musk, who bankrolled a multimillion-dollar campaign to re-elect Trump.
The sugar behemoth Florida Crystals, which has lobbied on tariff policy, gave $2m to the main pro-Trump Super Pac, Maga Inc, ahead of Trump slappingtariffs on imported sugar. Reynolds American likewise delivered $2m to the same Super Pac while successfully pushing Trump to crack down on imports of Chinese tobacco products.
Trump reduced tariffs on Vietnam and removed that country from the United States’s export controls list after the Hanoi government approved his family business’s $1.5bn golf course and real estate project.
A growing number of parents are letting their young children train with weights. But is it a good – or safe – idea? We ask the experts to weigh in
Most parents remember the first time their baby smiled or when they took their first steps. Eve Stevenson recalls different milestones. “Watching my daughter, Madison, deadlift 35kg at the age of six was pretty cool,” she says, grinning with pride from her living room in south-west London.
As a personal trainer (PT) and former British weightlifting champion, her daughter’s achievements shouldn’t really be that surprising. Still, Stevenson has been on the receiving end of some harsh opinions about her daughter and three-year-old son, Beau, doing resistance training with her. “People tell me it will stunt their growth or that it’s dangerous,” she says. She is also often accused of forcing her children to train, when actually it all started the other way round. “What child doesn’t look at their parents and want to do what they’re doing?” she asks. And although to many people the idea of a small child strength training or competing might feel jarring, Stevenson is among a growing number of parents who see value in helping their children build muscles.
Popped collar worn by Duchess of Sussex and Rama Duwaji is rising in popularity, with searches at John Lewis up 1,000%
Shoppers are avidly searching for jackets that cover half your face – so much that searches are up 1,000% year on year at John Lewis.
The funnel-neck jacket is boxy, generously cut and comes with a permanently popped collar, between 9cm and 14cm high running from clavicle to nose; high enough to cover your mouth, low enough to see out – just.
Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus will all be visible at same time in curved line across sky
Six planets will parade across the sky this weekend in a rare celestial spectacle, experts have said.
For the next few days, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus will all be visible at the same time in the night sky – although binoculars or a telescope will be needed to spot the latter two planets.
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