Compare his response, or lack of, to three murders over the past decade – Jo Cox, Sarah Everard and Henry Nowak

Which murder victim’s ambulance does the would-be statesman chase? Can you be said to “speak for England” if there are other times you wimp out on speaking at all, either out of self-preservation or moral smallness, or just not actually giving much of a toss? The questions arise after Nigel Farage moved himself into pole position with an explicitly incendiary speech in the wake of the appalling murder of Henry Nowak.

The good news for Nigel is that he has struck political gold: increased numbers of people saying “I don’t like him, but I agree with him on this”. The less good news for the nation he’d like to lead is that, when dealing with murders that rightly horrify and outrage the country, you can’t be sure which Nigel Farage will turn up. If, indeed, he turns up at all. Today, I’d like to look at three murders spread evenly over the past decade – all of which caused national outrage – and how Farage conducted himself in the wake of each.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

The internet is making everything into a ‘relationship gap’ by seizing on any difference between two dating humans

It started with the age gap. Can a 40-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman truly get along? That was once a question answered with a resounding “yes” by creepy English professors or moustached indie film-makers with a questionable grasp on the meaning of Lolita. Then came gen Z.

A cohort raised on the rigid moral boundaries of internet discourse – things are either good or bad, no in-between – decided that May-December relationships were either problematically one-sided or transactional in nature. Growing up in the fractured aftermath of #MeToo, where monstrous men were often much older than the women they victimized, probably contributed to that conclusion.

What we must learn from the murders of Henry Nowak in Southampton and Barnaby Webber in Nottingham is that kneejerk assumptions either way are dangerous

Emma Webber brought one of her son’s old T-shirts to the hearings into how he died. Holding on to Barney’s clothes is comforting, as is sometimes sleeping in his bed. He was only 19, a student walking home at night with his friend Grace O’Malley-Kumar, when both were fatally stabbed by a man with paranoid schizophrenia who had recently been discharged from hospital and who wasn’t taking his medication.

Valdo Calocane went on to kill 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates and gravely injure three others that night before being caught. The T-shirt is still here but Barney is not, as his mother said in a video this week offering her sympathies to the parents of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, the Southampton student who died in handcuffs at the feet of police who failed to realise he was the victim not the aggressor in an attack they had been falsely told was racist.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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Full of handcrafted care and the rootsy soul of her country origins, this gently elated song is a reminder of what fans love about Swift … and the film series

Taylor Swift does not fear a challenge. She’s broken records then broken those records; taken Grammy snubs as a sign she just has to work harder; mounted probably the most physically exhausting tour of all time. But in writing a song for Toy Story’s cowgirl Jessie, she’s set herself a deranged task: how could anyone outdo Randy Newman’s devastating When She Loved Me, Jessie’s song about being abandoned by her owner, Emily, from Toy Story 2?

Newman’s songs for the Disney Pixar series are some of the greatest film soundtrack work of all time, and Swift knows it. In a post about her song, she acknowledged the “incomparable” Newman: “You created the Toy Story musical world, and we are lucky to get to live in it.” Her own ventures into soundtrack work have never had much staying power (beyond Zayn collab I Don’t Wanna Live Forever from Fifty Shades Darker).

With food and medicine already scarce, emergency services, bakeries and water supplies are increasingly being pushed to the brink

Palestinians in Gaza already grappling with limited supplies of food and medicine face new threats to their day-to-day existence: shortages of engine oil, spare parts and gas. The knock-on effects are impacting everything from bread production to water supplies and emergency response efforts, producing one fresh crisis after another.

Over the weekend, the main hospital in central Gaza warned of an imminent health disaster as its electrical generators failed.

In many countries, dating seems to be on the decline, with many young people either dating less, or finding it harder to have meaningful relationships. In 2024, one in five of South Korea's 52 million citizens were living alone. In the third episode of our series, reporter Haeryun Kang is in Seoul on a journey to find out what’s stopping people from coupling up.

Paul Quinn sentenced to 21 years but minimum term of 14 years means he may serve less time than innocent man

A “savage” rapist who evaded justice for nearly two decades could spend less time in prison than the innocent man who was wrongly convicted for his crime.

Paul Quinn, 52, was ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years in prison on Friday over a 2003 rape for which Andrew Malkinson wrongly spent 17 years behind bars.

Crew previously told to enter docked spacecraft and don spacesuits in case an air leak worsened

Astronauts onboard the International Space Station have been told to return to normal duties after previously being on evacuation alert due to a worsening air leak.

The four astronauts of Nasa’s Crew-12 mission on the station – two US astronauts, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut – received orders from Nasa mission control at 9.04am ET (2.04pm BST) on Friday to enter their Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station and don their spacesuits in case the air leak warranted an emergency evacuation, a Nasa official said.

Greater Manchester mayor’s proposals amount to a notable criticism of Keir Starmer’s policy in the area

Andy Burnham has proposed a 20% cut to business rates for pubs with many smaller, family-run enterprises taken out of paying the levy altogether, in his first major policy initiative during the Makerfield byelection.

Burnham’s plans amount to a notable criticism of Keir Starmer’s policy in the area, with the Greater Manchester mayor saying: “Labour have got it wrong on small businesses.”

Request for evidence to support claims of reputational and financial harm from Panorama documentary dismissed as ‘fishing expedition’

Donald Trump’s legal team has rejected a request by the BBC to hand over financial information as part of his $10bn defamation case against the broadcaster.

The US president’s lawyers accused the BBC of a “fishing expedition”, according to court filings, after the broadcaster’s representatives asked for details to get evidence on Trump’s claims he suffered reputational and financial damage because of a Panorama documentary centred on the US Capitol riots.