By using music from SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo in ICE videos, the government is playing a game of rage-bait

Last week, as the Trump administration was engulfed in controversy over its illegal military strikes near Venezuela (among numerous other crises), a Department of Homeland Security employee – I picture the worst sniveling, self-satisfied, hateful loser – got to work on the official X account. The state-employed memelord posted a video depicting Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials arresting people in what appeared to be Chicago, celebrating the humiliation and incarceration of undocumented immigrants as some sort of patriotic achievement. The vile video borrowed, as they often do, from mainstream pop culture; in this case, a viral lyric from Sabrina Carpenter’s song Juno – “Have you ever tried this one?,” referring to sex positions – overlaid clips of agents chasing, tackling and handcuffing people, cheekily nodding to all the methods in ICE’s terror toolbox.

Carpenter, as a pre-eminent pop star, was caught in an impossible position. Say nothing, as her friend and collaborator Taylor Swift did weeks earlier when the White House used her music in a Trump hype video, and risk appearing as if you condone the administration’s use of your art for a domestic terror campaign (the administration hasn’t yet used Swift for an ICE video, but I’m sure it’s coming); engage, even if to honestly express your utter disgust, and risk bringing more attention to objectionable propaganda designed to provoke a response.

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© Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AEG

© Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AEG

© Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AEG

Exclusive: A trio of candidates have been interviewed by the PM, but he could still decide to directly appoint someone else

Keir Starmer is poised to choose a new ambassador to Washington from a shortlist of three as relations with the US are tested over Ukraine and Donald Trump’s attacks on European leaders.

The prime minister held interviews with three finalists for the role this week, the Guardian has learned, with Downing Street preparing to make an appointment before the end of the year.

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© Photograph: Leon Neal/AP

© Photograph: Leon Neal/AP

© Photograph: Leon Neal/AP

As 27 European countries urge changes to laws forged after second world war, human rights chief says politicians are playing into hands of populists

The battle had been brewing for months. But this week it came to a head in a flurry of meetings, calls and one heady statement. Twenty-seven European countries urged a rethink of the human rights laws forged after the second world war, describing them as an impediment when it came to addressing migration.

Amnesty International has called it “a moral retreat”. Europe’s most senior human rights official said the approach risked creating a “hierarchy of people” where some are seen as more deserving of protection than others.

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© Photograph: Santi Palacios/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Santi Palacios/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Santi Palacios/AFP/Getty Images

Nigel Farage’s party is gunning for power – so what is it like in the places where they’ve already got it? We embedded with Lancashire county council to find out what happens when rhetoric meets reality

22 May 2025: a new dawn for Lancashire. Outside Preston’s grand old county hall, 53 brand new Reform UK councillors in turquoise ties – and one petite woman with an enormous turquoise hair bow – are hot-footing it past a gaggle of protesters for their first full council meeting. Most keep their heads down and get into the building as quickly as possible. But Joel Tetlow, a first-time politician who has made a few unfortunate headlines before even taking his seat, is intrigued. He stands in the doorway, vaping, as a demonstrator bellows: “Reform is a far right party and Nigel Farage is a racist and a fascist!”

Tetlow – late 40s with a full head of vertiginous hair, wearing a powder-blue three-piece suit – insists he isn’t bothered. “They don’t know us as people,” he shrugs. “It’s a word that’s slung around now so much, to be a racist. You know, what is it to be a racist? All we want to do is stand for our country, look after the people within it. So we’re not racist. None of us are racist.” (Farage, too, has denied accusations of racism, and Reform dispute that they are a far right party.)

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© Photograph: Duncan Elliott/The Guardian

© Photograph: Duncan Elliott/The Guardian

© Photograph: Duncan Elliott/The Guardian

National Trust looks to halt construction, claiming Trump tore down historic East Wing without needed permission

Donald Trump is facing a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction on his $300m White House ballroom, with historic preservationists accusing the president of violating multiple federal laws by tearing down part of the iconic building without required reviews or congressional approval.

The legal challenge, filed on Friday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the US district court for the District of Columbia, represents the most significant attempt yet to stop Trump’s 90,000-sq-ft addition to the White House complex. The organization is seeking a temporary restraining order to freeze all construction activities until proper federal oversight procedures are completed.

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© Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP

© Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP

© Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP

Ex-Fed governor Kevin Warsh is at top of his list to succeed Powell as central bank’s chair, president says in interview

Donald Trump declared he “should be listened to” by the Federal Reserve, as he weighs candidates to lead the central bank amid an extraordinary campaign by the White House to exert greater control over its decisions.

The US president said on Friday that former Fed governor Kevin Warsh is currently top of his list to chair the central bank.

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© Photograph: Tierney L Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Tierney L Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Tierney L Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images

With the arrival of US hedge funders at Wrexham, there is no pretence any more. This is just another project, as it always was

Tea and cake. Cobble-close streets. Collectivism. Sugar rush. Hollywood fairytales. And also, as of this week, a minority owner with historical links to celebrity paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Wait! Welsh cakes! Welsh tea! Aggregated tourism benefits. The sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. And also, at one remove, historical links to deceased celebrity paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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© Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

© Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

© Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

• Prices 10 times those promised in initial bid

• Fifa not expected to change policy for 2026

The Football Association will pass on England supporters’ concerns about high 2026 World Cup ticket prices to Fifa. However, despite the growing outrage, it is understood none of the international federations expect world football’s governing body to change its policy.

Anger among supporter groups continued on Friday after it emerged that the cheapest tickets will cost 10 times the price promised in the original bid for the United States, Canada and Mexico to host the tournament. For England fans it will mean having to pay at least $220 (£165) for group games – when the bid document’s ticket model stated the cheapest seats should be $21 (£15.70).

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© Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

© Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

© Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

Exclusive: As Labour ministers prepare long awaited strategy, campaigners accuse them of sidelining experts

Leading organisations have criticised the development of the government’s flagship violence against women and girls strategy, calling the process chaotic, haphazard and “worse than under the Tories”.

Ministers are gearing up for a policy announcement blitz before the publication of the long-awaited plan next week.

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© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images

© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images

© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Nigel Farage’s party says it has more than 268,000 members amid reports Labour membership has fallen below 250,000

Reform UK says it is now the largest political party in Britain and has overtaken Labour, which has reportedly seen its membership fall below 250,000.

Nigel Farage’s party says it has more than 268,000 members on the live tracker displayed on its website.

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Nick Moss, Dr Deborah Talbot, Dimitra Blana and Mary Pimm on the prime minister’s plan to ‘protect our borders’ and Donald Trump’s accusations that Europe is ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’

There is something particularly sickening about Keir Starmer’s call for European leaders to “urgently curb joint human rights laws” (Starmer urges Europe’s leaders to curb ECHR to halt rise of far right, 9 December).

It is not just that the human rights lawyer who wrote a key text on the Human Rights Act 1998 has become, as prime minister, an advocate of the act’s undoing, along with all the consequences for migrant families that will flow from that. It is that Starmer shows through this the complete dearth of ideas available to European social democracy.

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© Photograph: Sergei Gapon/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sergei Gapon/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sergei Gapon/AFP/Getty Images

A super flu epidemic is sweeping the country. Let us come together to protect the institution we all love

• Keir Starmer is the British prime minister

I am a Labour prime minister who believes in workers’ right to strike. But let’s be clear about the strikes planned by resident doctors next week. They should not happen. They are reckless. They place the NHS and patients who need it in grave danger.

I remain hopeful they can be averted. A good deal is on the table, and the British Medical Association (BMA) is putting it to members this weekend. My message to the doctors is simple – take it.

Keir Starmer is the prime minister of the United Kingdom

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

Exclusive: PM’s outspoken attack on stoppages planned for 17-22 December risks inflaming tensions with medics

• Keir Starmer: Resident doctors, a fair deal is on the table. Please do not strike at this moment of crisis for the NHS

Keir Starmer has said it is “frankly beyond belief” that resident doctors would strike during the NHS’s worst moment since the pandemic, in remarks that risk inflaming tensions with medical staff.

Writing for the Guardian, the prime minister made an outspoken attack on the strikes planned for 17-22 December for placing “the NHS and patients who need it in grave danger”.

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© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AP

© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AP

© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AP

Fifa’s demand that the most fervent supporters cough up a minimum of £5,000 in advance just for tickets is scandalous

It was not mathematically confirmed until the Latvia game a month later, but as I watched Ezri Konsa turn in the third goal away to Serbia in early September I smiled to myself in the Stadion Rajko Mitic, knowing England were going to the World Cup. But immediately, a key question surfaced: was I? The answer came on Thursday, with the announcement of the ticket prices that the most loyal supporters of international football would have to pay. And that answer, emphatically, was no, as it will be for countless supporters worldwide. If you had asked me as a hypothetical what seeing England in a World Cup final was worth, I might have said: “Priceless.” But $4,185 – £3,130 – just for the match ticket? No, no, no.

As a fan, I have been to 14 tournaments – nine European Championships and five World Cups – dating back to Euro 92. I have the money, or at least could get it by dipping into my pension pot, which I was braced to do for hotels and flights. But, in a sentiment being echoed across England, Scotland and all the other qualifying nations, I’m not spending a minimum of about £5,000 simply on match tickets, the price Fifa has put on watching your team from group stage through to the final (the exact total will vary, depending on where a country’s group matches are).

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© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

Europe must realise its superior economic and military potential has to be mobilised, writes Bill Jones, while Robin Wilson addresses Belgium’s resistance to seizing Russian assets

I wholly support the plea to Europe by Timothy Garton Ash (Only Europe can save Ukraine from Putin and Trump – but will it?, 6 December). One aspect he did not mention was the strategic nuclear balance. Since the late 1940s, responsibility for deterrence has always lain with the Pentagon and has succeeded in keeping the peace, though at times a very fragile version of it.

The recent US statement on defence makes it clear that Europe is no longer seen as a priority by the Trump administration, the danger now being that doubt is crucially being raised as to the credibility of Nato’s deterrent. Without certainty of a reaction in kind, Russia, under its ambitious and risk-taking president, might be tempted to chance its arm in what almost looks like a ceding of Europe by the US into a Russian “sphere of influence”.

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© Photograph: Adrian Dennis/EPA

© Photograph: Adrian Dennis/EPA

© Photograph: Adrian Dennis/EPA

Notable figures in batch of images include Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Woody Allen and Bill Gates

• The latest tranche of Epstein evidence – in pictures

House Democrats have published a new tranche of what they called “disturbing” photographs from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, featuring among others Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and the British former royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The 19 photographs in the initial drop – some of which have been seen before – plus another 70 released later Friday afternoon represent a small number of the almost 100,000 images released to the House oversight committee, which is looking into the conduct and connections of Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by apparent suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 after he was charged with sex-trafficking offenses.

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© Photograph: House Oversight Democrats

© Photograph: House Oversight Democrats

© Photograph: House Oversight Democrats

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© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

The US made it clear this week that it plans to help the parties of the European far right gain power. Keir Starmer and his fellow leaders have to face this new reality

When are we going to get the message? I joked a few months back that, when it comes to Donald Trump, Europe needs to learn from Sex and the City’s Miranda Hobbes and realise that “He’s just not that into you”. After this past week, it’s clear that understates the problem. Trump’s America is not merely indifferent to Europe – it’s positively hostile to it. That has enormous implications for the continent and for Britain, which too many of our leaders still refuse to face.

The depth of US hostility was revealed most explicitly in the new US national security strategy, or NSS, a 29-page document that serves as a formal statement of the foreign policy of the second Trump administration. There is much there to lament, starting with the sceptical quote marks that appear around the sole reference to “climate change”, but the most striking passages are those that take aim at Europe.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Conservative insiders say the party and the public are warming to Kemi Badenoch after a difficult first year

At a Conservative donors event last week, Kemi Badenoch was asked for a selfie by the former Spice Girl Geri Horner. The Tory leader was, her allies say, a little bemused. But they were clear about what the approach meant: cut-through.

Badenoch’s leadership got off to a poor start. Still reeling from the Tories’ worst general election defeat, she took over a diminished and disheartened party, which was languishing in the polls and facing an existential threat in the form of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

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© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The PM’s social media sortie has not been a total embarrassment, which may be a shame for him

The scene opens on the interior of an aeroplane.

A suited man in a luxurious seat looks pensively out the window, his face partially obscured, his chin delicately resting on his hand.

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© Photograph: TikTok

© Photograph: TikTok

© Photograph: TikTok

Lilian Greenwood condemns Conservative ‘mixed messages’ and promises a system that works for everybody

• UK politics live – latest updates

Conservative policies that pitted drivers against cyclists risked making the roads less safe by inflaming tensions, a minister has said, promising that the era of transport culture wars is over.

Lilian Greenwood, whose Department for Transport (DfT) role includes road safety and active travel, said seeking to divide road users into categories was pointless given most people used different transport methods at different times.

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© Photograph: format4/Alamy

© Photograph: format4/Alamy

© Photograph: format4/Alamy

Kim Leadbeater warns 1,150 Lords amendments are ‘unnecessary’ and designed to run down the clock

• UK politics live – latest updates

Members of the House of Lords have proposed “totally unnecessary” and “very cruel” amendments to the assisted dying bill in an attempt to scupper it, the MP leading the campaign has said.

Kim Leadbeater said on Friday she believed that peers opposed to the bill were trying to block it by proposing hundreds of changes, including one that would require terminally ill people to be filmed as they undergo an assisted death.

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© Photograph: House of Commons/PA

© Photograph: House of Commons/PA

© Photograph: House of Commons/PA

GDP fell by 0.1% in October as activity failed to regain momentum after cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover

• Business live – latest updates

Britain’s economy shrank unexpectedly in October as consumers held back on spending before Rachel Reeves’s budget, and car manufacturing struggled to recover from the cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed gross domestic product fell by 0.1%, after a 0.1% drop in output in September. City economists had predicted a 0.1% rise in October.

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© Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs/Getty Images

President spoke at Congressional ball after Senate rejected two competing proposals to address imminent expiration of Obamacare subsidies

US envoy John Coale held talks with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko during a visit to Minsk, a Telegram channel linked to the Belarusian presidential administration said.

Coale has been tasked by president Donald Trump with negotiating the release of political prisoners in Belarus. Trump has urged Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, to free up to 1,400 people that Trump has called “hostages”.

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© Photograph: Shawn Thew/Pool/Shawn Thew - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Shawn Thew/Pool/Shawn Thew - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Shawn Thew/Pool/Shawn Thew - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

Mark Rowley says capital is a safe city, and claims of no-go areas are ‘completely false’

Members of the House of Lords have proposed “totally unnecessary” and “very cruel” amendments to the assisted dying bill in a bid to scupper it, Kim Leadbeater, the MP leading the campaign for the legislation, has said. Kiran Stacey has the story.

I have beefed up the post at 9.08am to include the direct quote from Wes Streeting about not being able to guarantee patient safety in the NHS if the strike by resident doctors in England goes ahead. You may need to refresh the page to get the update to appear.

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© Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Announcement draws anger from Labour MP over refusal to remove tonnes of rubbish dumped near school in Wigan

The Environment Agency is to spend millions of pounds to clear an enormous illegal rubbish dump in Oxfordshire, saying the waste is at risk of catching fire.

But the decision announced on Thursday to clear up the thousands of tonnes of waste illegally dumped outside Kidlington has drawn an angry response from a Labour MP in Greater Manchester whose constituents have been living alongside 25,000 tonnes of toxic rubbish for nearly a year.

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© Photograph: Jacob King/PA

© Photograph: Jacob King/PA

© Photograph: Jacob King/PA

The courts are a clumsy means to negotiate social relationships. Let organisations make up their own minds about inclusion

Towards the end of her life, I was a friend of the writer Jan Morris. I had known her for many years and, much to my regret, had declined an offer to do her “tell all” interview when she transitioned. Jan presented herself as a woman and had undergone an operation. To me she was simply a remarkable woman. She touched, sometimes humorously, on embarrassing incidents in her life. But it never occurred to me that a legal ruling might hover over our restaurant table and block her from going to the ladies.

Last April, the supreme court issued a ruling confirming that the word “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex, not a person’s legal gender. This has a wide-reaching impact on how equality law is applied in practice, particularly in providing sex-based rights such as single-sex spaces. Six months later, a draft code on the ruling’s implementation was sent by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to the equalities minister, Bridget Phillipson. She has been sitting on it ever since, pleading for more time.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Exclusive: Congress members seek answers after Guardian revealed data to be shared for immigration enforcement

More than 20 members of Congress are demanding answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and homeland security officials after the Guardian revealed the VA is compiling a report on all non-US citizens “employed by or affiliated with” the government agency that will then be shared with other federal agencies, including immigration authorities.

The lawmakers, led by Illinois congresswoman Delia Ramirez – along with congressman Mark Takano of California and US senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the top Democrats on the House and Senate veterans affairs committees – have written a group letter to be sent to the VA secretary, Doug Collins, and the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, on Friday.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Health secretary urges resident doctors, who are to strike from 17 December, to accept his offer to end dispute

Wes Streeting has told resident doctors that strikes and a sharp rise in the number of flu cases over the Christmas period could be “the Jenga piece” that forces the NHS to collapse.

The health secretary said the NHS faced a “challenge unlike any it has seen since the pandemic” and urged resident doctors to accept the government’s offer and end their action.

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© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

More trains, faster journeys and better reliability promised – but spectre of great timetable fiasco of 2018 looms large

Billions of pounds of investment, years of engineering works – and now, the moment of truth. On 14 December a revamped railway timetable goes live across Great Britain, with the biggest fanfare and radical changes for the east coast mainline, where passengers are promised more train services, faster journeys and a new era of reliability.

But the spectre of a previous, disastrous timetable change from May 2018 still looms over the railway. So will Sunday’s revamp be a great gift for passengers that the industry expects – or usher in a bleak midwinter ahead?

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Home secretary to order special investigation amid concern inadequate checks during hiring spree may pose criminal risk

The home secretary is to order an independent special inquiry into whether the Metropolitan police allowed hundreds of recruits to join without proper vetting amid fears they may pose a criminal risk.

The Guardian has learned that the inquiry will be carried out by the policing inspectorate, with concerns centred on 300 new officers hired between 2016 and 2023.

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© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Treasury committee will examine agency’s forecasting record and discover where it ‘needs to do better’

MPs have launched an inquiry into the role and performance of the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The all-party Commons Treasury committee will spend until the end of next month investigating the independent agency’s forecasting performance and impartiality. The panel will consider whether reforms are needed 15 years after the OBR was set up by George Osborne when he was Tory chancellor.

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© Photograph: House of Commons/PA

© Photograph: House of Commons/PA

© Photograph: House of Commons/PA

Warwickshire board says maximum 5% tax rise needed for financial viability despite election promise to cut costs

Reform UK council leaders have been accused of making “rash promises” after a local authority led by the party has been told it will have to increase council tax by the maximum amount, despite its election promises to cut costs.

Warwickshire county council has been warned by its executives that anything less than a 5% maximum council tax increase will put its financial viability at risk.

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© Photograph: Colin Underhill/Alamy

© Photograph: Colin Underhill/Alamy

© Photograph: Colin Underhill/Alamy

Six more oil supertankers added to sanctions list, as well as members of Maduro’s extended family, amid rising tensions following tanker seizure

Donald Trump has exerted more pressure on Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, expanding sanctions and issuing fresh threats to strike land targets in Venezuela, as the South American dictator accused the US president of ushering in a new “era of criminal naval piracy” in the Caribbean.

Late on Thursday, the US imposed curbs on three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as six crude oil supertankers and the shipping companies linked to them. The treasury department alleged the vessels “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime”.

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Robert Milne says he fully recognises the ‘seriousness of the behaviours described in the media’

Dulwich college’s headteacher has responded to allegations of teenage racism by Nigel Farage by saying he recognised the “seriousness of the behaviours described in the media”.

Robert Milne, who joined the school as its “master” this summer, said the alleged behaviour was “at odds” with the modern-day school in a letter in which he said he understood why 28 former pupils had felt compelled to speak out.

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© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Hackers include Russia-based actors targeting WhatsApp and Signal accounts, parliamentary authorities warn

MPs are facing rising numbers of phishing attacks and Russia-based actors are actively targeting the WhatsApp and Signal accounts of politicians and officials, UK parliamentary authorities have warned.

MPs, peers and officials are being asked to step up their cybersecurity after a continued rise in attacks that have involved messages pretending to be from the app’s support team, asking a user to enter an access code, click a link or scan a QR code.

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© Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock

It would be absurd to claim the UK has suddenly become a life-sciences leader thanks to the new pricing and tariffs pact

That’s gratitude, eh? It’s not even a fortnight since the government agreed to raise the prices the NHS pays for new medicines and here comes the boss of GSK, Britain’s second largest pharma firm, to extol the virtues of doing business in the US.

The US is “still the leading market in the world in terms of the launches of new drugs and vaccines”, said the chief executive, Emma Walmsley, in a BBC interview, explaining why GSK invests about three times as much over there as it does at home. Alongside China, the US is also “the best market in the world to do business development”.

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© Photograph: Justin Setterfield/CAMERA PRESS

© Photograph: Justin Setterfield/CAMERA PRESS

© Photograph: Justin Setterfield/CAMERA PRESS

Sir Keir Starmer promised to bring meaningful reform to the House of Lords. He is failing to introduce it

In opposition, Sir Keir Starmer called the unelected House of Lords “indefensible”. This week, barely 18 months into his prime ministership, Sir Keir took the total of unelected peers he has appointed since July 2024 to 96. Remarkably, Wednesday’s 34 new life peerages, mainly Labour supporters, take his appointment total above those of each of his four most recent Conservative predecessors. You must go back to David Cameron to find a prime minister who did more to stuff the Lords than Sir Keir.

At the last election, Labour presented itself to the voters as a party of Lords reform. The party manifesto promised to remove the remaining hereditary peers, to reform the appointments process, to impose a peers’ retirement age, and to consult on proposals for replacing the Lords with an alternative second chamber. The House of Lords, the manifesto flatly declared, was “too big”.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

Defying the will of the House of Commons will increase calls for radical reform of the upper house sooner rather than later, say the MPs Nia Griffith, Justin Madders and Debbie Abrahams

• Report: Senior opponents of assisted dying bill urge Lords not to deliberately block it

When visitors come to parliament, it seems incongruous to explain that, in our mother of parliaments, we have a second chamber – the House of Lords – which is unelected. Those who support its existence in its current or similar form justify it on the grounds that it performs a useful revising function which can improve the detail of legislation, and it undoubtedly does good work.

But the fact that it is unelected can only be tolerated in a democracy provided its members accept that it is for the House of Commons to have the last word on what becomes law and what doesn’t in this country.

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© Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

© Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

© Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

Letter says there is danger of Lords losing legitimacy as more than 1,000 amendments tabled, delaying any vote

• What is happening to the assisted dying bill in the Lords?

• Letter: Lords’ block on assisted dying bill is a big risk

Senior opponents of assisted dying legislation have called on peers not to hold up the progress of the bill through parliament, warning there was a serious danger of the Lords losing democratic legitimacy.

Many supporters now admit the bill is in serious danger of running out of time in the Lords before the end of the parliamentary session, meaning it will fail to pass, because of the slow pace of considering more than 1,000 amendments means the bill will probably run out of time for a vote.

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© Photograph: House of Lords/UK Parliament/PA

© Photograph: House of Lords/UK Parliament/PA

© Photograph: House of Lords/UK Parliament/PA

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© Illustration: Ben Jennings/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ben Jennings/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ben Jennings/The Guardian

An official report lays out different scenarios for the cost of transitioning away from fossil fuels to net zero by 2050

Britain’s official energy system operator has attempted to work out what achieving net zero carbon emissions will cost, with its figures showing surging spending in the coming years.

The scale and speed of the shift to a low-carbon economy, and how to fund it, are hotly debated by political parties.

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© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Andy Burnham unveils next step in transport system, allowing contactless travel with fares capped across trains, buses and trams

The first passenger trains in the Bee Network will join by the end of 2026, after Greater Manchester disclosed the next steps in its ambitious transport system.

Unveiling a yellow-branded Northern train, the regional mayor, Andy Burnham, said two lines from central Manchester – to Glossop and Stalybridge – would join the network in a year, allowing contactless travel with fares capped across trains, buses and trams.

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© Photograph: Transport for Greater Manchester

© Photograph: Transport for Greater Manchester

© Photograph: Transport for Greater Manchester

Labour’s £500m national youth strategy has some positives, but real change must start by tackling the root causes of unhappiness

Bonnie Blue, the porn actor who recently made headlines for her antics in Bali – which you probably shouldn’t Google – has come out in support of Nigel Farage.

And in not unconnected news, “rage baiting” – saying deliberately annoying things to get attention – is the Oxford University Press’s word of the year. Bonnie’s most effective way of advertising her X-rated content to the masses now is by generating enough controversy to get her publicly talked about, and she’s very good at making just enough noise (this time in the Spectator, of all places) to drum up a bit of traffic.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Cameron Smith/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cameron Smith/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cameron Smith/Getty Images

You’d think MPs would be lining up to decry the US president’s support for far-right nationalists. Instead, only backbenchers and a few junior ministers bothered to turn up

’Twas the fortnight before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Apart from a few exceptions. The Labour backbencher Matt Western had managed to secure an urgent question on President Trump’s new national security strategy and the Commons itself was remarkable for its absences. A roll-call of dishonour.

Take Nigel Farage. You would have thought he would have had a lot to say on the subject. After all, when Barack Obama had intervened in the Brexit referendum campaign to say the UK would be at the back of the queue for any trade deal with the US, Nige had been outraged. How dare the president try to interfere with the democratic processes of another sovereign country? So now that Donald Trump was threatening to do much the same thing in countries all across Europe, surely this was the time for Nige to make a stand. This was surely a point of principle for him. Were he to have any.

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© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

• Final tickets more than £3,000; five-fold rise on Qatar

• Cheapest England tickets are £165 for two Group L games

Fifa has been accused of a ­“monumental betrayal” by fan ­representatives after it emerged that the cheapest tickets for next summer’s World Cup final will cost more than £3,000.

Football Supporters Europe (FSE), which represents fans across the ­continent, described the prices as “extortionate” and called for an immediate halt to ticket sales after a day when England fans ­discovered that tickets to follow their team through the tournament could cost up to $16,590 (£12,375) in the top categories.

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© Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

© Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

© Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

Some warn proposal will decimate US tourism industry as free speech advocates say it will lead to people self-censoring

Free speech advocates have accused Donald Trump of “shredding civil liberties” and “censorship pure and simple” after the White House said it planned to require visa applicants from dozens of countries to provide social media, phone and email histories for vetting before being allowed into the US.

In a move that some commentators compared to China and others warned would decimate tourism to the US, including the 2026 Fifa World Cup, the Department for Homeland Security said it was planning to apply the rules to visitors from 42 countries, including the UK, Ireland, Australia, France, Germany and Japan, if they want to enter the US on the commonly used Esta visa waiver.

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© Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

© Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

© Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

House of Commons calls on Keir Starmer to condemn Donald Trump’s ‘interference’ in European politics

• Europe live – latest updates

The US is engaging in “extreme rightwing tropes” with echoes of the 1930s and threatening “chilling” interference in European democracies, British MPs warned ministers on Thursday.

The House of Commons rounded on Donald Trump’s national security strategy, which stated that Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” and vowed to help the continent “correct its current trajectory and promote patriotic European parties”.

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© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/UPI/Shutterstock

No more concessions, says minister after legislation was thwarted in upper house despite manifesto climbdown

• UK politics live – latest updates

The government has vowed that there will be no more concessions on the employment rights bill and that it will force the Lords to vote on it again next week, after Conservative and cross-bench peers blocked it on Wednesday night.

Ministers and trade unions expressed fury that the bill was voted down again in the House of Lords by peers protesting against the lifting of the compensation cap for unfair dismissal, calling it “cynical wrecking tactics that risk a constitutional crisis”.

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© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The Trump administration’s recently published national security document is not so much a strategy guiding American foreign policy as it is an imperialist, ham-fisted attack on the rules-based international order and traditional allies of the United States. Read More