Rejoining the EU, massive tax reform, scrapping the pension triple lock – a new leader must summon a sense of emergency and deal with the big issues

Labour is in the deepest trouble. A juicy leadership drama ignites all Westminster-watchers, another spellbinding live-action theatre of rising and falling stars, duels, betrayals of trust, new alliances and old ones broken.

Some would pull back from this vortex. Is regicide absolutely necessary when “stability” is what people and markets say they want and vox pops groan, “Not another one!” After less than two years, with worse turmoil ahead from the Trump war, now, really?

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Chinese leader appears to be in the driving seat as the unusually polite US president ignores questions on Taiwan

• Trump in Beijing – latest updates

Why does Donald Trump look so at home in China?

The US president spent day one of his summit in Beijing basking in rigid pageantry, heroically managing not to offend his hosts and offering the verdict: “China is beautiful.”

Filmgoers born after 1997 are reviving cinemas’ hopes of survival. They tell us about the social experience where ‘there’s absolutely no commitment to chat’

People born between 1997 and 2012 are now more frequent cinemagoers than some older age groups, according to a US-based survey by Fandango, with 87% having seen at least one film in a cinema in the last 12 months compared with 58% of baby boomers.

With this in mind we asked young people about why they love the cinema.

There are so many causes here that aren’t up to him, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Rather than trying to change him, change the goal

• Read more Leading questions

I am in a relationship with a lovely man who I first dated when we were 19 and 20 years old respectively. Now in our mid-50s, we have been together for three years. We laugh a lot and enjoy doing lots of things together – his enthusiasm for travel matches mine.

The issue is he sleeps a lot – at least 10 hours a night but could be 12 hours. He could easily stay in bed until 1pm on any day off. This means when we are on one of our frequent trips away, we rarely get to do things together in the morning – a time I love. I’ve addressed it with him and he sometimes makes the effort, but then reverts back. We don’t live together and only see each other one day a week, so time is precious and I often end up waiting around for him to get up.

West Bank home described as ‘ideal for outdoor gatherings’ is among 41 listed rentals in illegal Israeli settlements

Some of Mohammad al-Sbeih’s fondest childhood memories are of his small farm in the hills south of Bethlehem, where three generations of his family grew wheat and barley.

“It was a hard plot to farm as it was on a hillside with terraces, but it was so beautiful,” Sbeih remembers.

A stoppage-time eruption and a crying Manolo González means the Catalan club’s long-awaited victory changes everything

After 143 days and many more sleepless nights Manolo González was liberated, if only for a little while. In the 92nd minute of the 19th game of 2026, something amazing happened: Espanyol won and Espanyol went wild. A goal up against Athletic Club, a late Gorka Guruzeta header had shaken them more than the post it hit, a familiar fatalism refusing to leave, and they were desperately hanging on to what they had now and had lost too many times before, whistling for this suffering to finally end, when at last they could let go. “You have to be strong in life but, bloody hell, we all have limits,” González said, and they had reached theirs but now, on a Wednesday evening in May, they were released.

Ramon Terrats, a boyhood Espanyol, nodded the ball on. Kike García, the only member of the squad born in the 80s and a man with a bit of the 80s about him, a 36-year-old, 6ft 1in, 12-stone striker they call the “labourer of goals”, a sub who had only been out there six minutes, ran on to it. Keeping his head, he guided a shot past Unai Simón so everyone else could lose theirs. The clock said 91.06. The scoreboard said 2-0. The table said: 14th, 42 points, 11 wins. And 29,943 people said: argrhjrfujhkngsafkjhfskljdzrogjdgixjkgjhlkbxcfh. As for González, he broke down and cried.

Greater Manchester mayor would need to win byelection to launch leadership challenge against Starmer

• UK politics live – latest updates

Andy Burnham now has a route back to parliament after the Labour MP for Makerfield announced he would stand down, triggering a byelection, and putting the senior politician in contention to become the party’s next leader.

The Greater Manchester mayor confirmed on Thursday he would be asking Labour’s ruling national executive committee to allow him to stand in the contest, putting a beleaguered Keir Starmer under intense pressure to not try to block him.

We look at Wes Streeting, Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham’s stances on key issues

• UK politics live – latest updates

Wes Streeting’s resignation as health secretary, and the resignation of former minister Josh Simons as an MP to clear a path for Andy Burnham to return to parliament, has brought the prospect of a Labour leadership race one step closer, even if he has not triggered a contest himself.

Almost every critic of Keir Starmer has accused the prime minister of not being sufficiently “bold” in his policy choices. But what would they actually do differently?

A return to Westminster for Andy Burnham is far from guaranteed, while Starmer could fight a leadership challenge and win

While Keir Starmer’s authority as prime minister feels terminally undermined after calls from MPs and departing ministers to step down, he remains inside No 10 – for now. So how, and when, might he be removed? Here are some possible scenarios.

Since his childhood in east London, the MP for Ilford North has shown a keen desire for organisational leadership

• UK politics live – latest updates

Wes Streeting has resigned from government, in a move that could pave the way for a leadership contest.

Suspicions have long been swirling that Streeting has his eyes on the Labour party top spot, but who is the man gunning to be, or to help choose, the next prime minister?