Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman offer experience and political craft, but to reap the benefits, the PM himself will have to change

There comes a time, in the dying days of a relationship, when you start to become irritated merely by the sound of your partner’s breathing. It’s not kind, and it’s not necessarily rational, but it is what it is. Nothing they can do is going to fix it, and nothing they say makes it better – even if they suddenly start promising to do all the things you’ve been begging them to do for years. It all just seems too little, too late. And that is roughly where the parliamentary Labour party now finds itself with Keir Starmer.

His response to the bloodbath of last week’s local elections, in which he brought back Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman as advisers while promising something bigger and bolder than the creeping caution of the 2024 manifesto, was a promise to change aimed squarely at the MPs threatening to oust him and yet somehow it seems only to have deepened the frustration. Most would love nothing better than to get closer to Europe, as he promised; many have been screaming for months that, as he acknowledged, people are crying out for change to come faster. And the back-to-the-future appointments of two more New Labour veterans, to a team already groaning with survivors from the more successful 1997 to 2010 Labour governments, at least shows an understanding of where the plumbing is blocked.

The BYD factory being built in Szeged, Hungary, is facing scrutiny after reports of EU labour laws being violated among the Chinese migrant workforce

Multilingual signs in most airports in the EU opt for English, but in Hungary, there is also Chinese, making it easy for migrant workers flying in to staff China’s first electric car plant in Europe – due to open in 2027.

The third language was introduced in 2019 as the recently ousted leader Viktor Orbán embarked on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with China, positioning himself as its most reliable friend in Europe.

Fresh out of wedlock and in the mood for some fun? Join your newly single sisters in the glow-up to end all glow-ups

‘Sorry babe I’m a divorced mum on a buffet of magnesium glycinate, ashwagandha, peptides, and sertraline, covering a mortgage alone during late stage capitalism, idgaf about your opinion anymore,” wrote Meghan McTavish, an Australian divorce-fluencer, who went viral a couple of years ago because, even after her split, her parents refused to take down her wedding photos.

This might be the core of hot divorcee energy: an unvarnished devil-may-care spirit that seems to have captured the cultural moment this summer. So, of course, you’re wondering how this differs from the brat, last year’s aspirational muse – who also, emphatically, did not care what the world thought (though if you’re still confused about the difference between that and 2024’s hot girl summer, I suggest you go back in time and take last year’s module again).

Aditya Chakrabortty on the Labour leader’s predicament – and if he may be the last prime minister of the two-party system

In these highly polarised times, dunking on the prime minister – and this PM in particular – is the one thing that seems to unite people in fury, disappointment and loathing. So as he rolled his sleeves up to address the nation on Monday morning, after one of the worst election results in Labour’s history, Keir Starmer had quite the job on his hands.

The Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty was watching – and wincing. “There are times when I watch Keir Starmer promising he’s going to change,” he said. “He looks to me like a guy on the verge of divorce, holding flowers from the nearest petrol station and saying: 'Trust me. Honestly, it’s going to be different this time. Honestly, love, stick with me.’” But why does there seem to be such antagonism towards the Labour leader – and can anyone guide the party out of the mess they have found themselves in?

Monday’s ‘make or break’ speech was one of the PM’s best but the signs are that most Labour MPs have already seen enough

• What did Keir Starmer say in ‘last chance’ speech to save his premiership?

Was that it? Reset number … I forget where we’re up to now. Much the same as the last reset. And probably much the same as the next reset. That’s if there is one. The signs are that most Labour MPs think they’ve seen enough. That Keir Starmer has run out of road. He certainly seems to be running out of friends. Down to a few ultra-loyalists. And he can’t even trust those who want him to stay, as they are probably only biding their time until Andy Burnham is in Westminster and can launch a leadership challenge.

There’s a sadness here. Because Monday’s “make or break” speech was one of Starmer’s best. But it was always going to end in heartbreak, because Starmer can’t roll back the last two years. He can’t stop a leadership race that has in effect already started.

The last survivors of the blitz share their stories to mark 85 years since it ended. It is a hugely moving film that is all too relevant today – but what a privilege it is to witness

Over the decades since the second world war, the “blitz spirit” has been in danger of becoming a slightly trite article of national faith. Most recently invoked during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is used to imply a uniquely British pluck; the notion of stoicism as a resource that the UK can always call upon in times of adversity.

Inevitably, the “blitz spirit” is a phrase most commonly used by people who don’t remember the blitz. This is partly because anyone who can remember the blitz is now at least in their late 80s. But it’s also because, as a lived experience, the blitz was clearly not something that lent itself to sentimental homilies. This wonderful, moving film is, for both of those reasons, a hugely important piece of social history. The voices of these witnesses to the Luftwaffe’s “lightning war” are variously lyrical, wistful, resolute and deeply regretful. We see them as they play with grandchildren, visit old haunts, attend yoga classes. Their wartime experiences are clearly a backdrop to their lives but very present all the same. They are offered up not quite as a corrective to national myths, but certainly with a harder edge than is customary; as a sobering reminder that to evoke the blitz is to evoke deep trauma.

Exclusive: Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood believed to be among those telling PM to oversee orderly departure hours after he said he would fight any challenge

Keir Starmer’s grip on power appeared to be slipping away on Monday as cabinet ministers urged him to set out a timetable for his departure and more than 70 Labour MPs publicly called for him to stand down.

The prime minister warned the country would “never forgive” Labour for plunging into the chaos of a leadership election – and that he intended to prove his doubters inside and outside the party wrong.

Exclusive: Spanish health minister says MV Hondius passenger, now in a ‘critical state’, had been suffering flu-like symptoms

A French woman who tested positive for hantavirus after she was evacuated from a cruise ship reported symptoms to doctors onboard but was told it was probably just anxiety, the Spanish health minister has said.

Javier Padilla Bernáldez said the woman, who had been travelling on the ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak, had been suffering flu-like symptoms but they appeared to be getting better and she did not have a fever. The World Health Organization later said the woman was in a “very critical” condition.

Usually joyous song contest ‘a little bit sad’ this year, says one expert, with rows over Israel and costs to the fore

It was meant to be the crowning moment of a seemingly never-ending success story: the 70th anniversary of the world’s biggest and ever-expanding live music event, held in a city steeped in history both dramatic and musical.

But as Vienna gears up to host this year’s Eurovision song contest, which starts on Tuesday and culminates in Saturday’s grand final, euphoria will be hard to come by outside the power ballads performed onstage.

US president says he is considering restarting naval escorts in strait of Hormuz in attempt to end Iranian blockade

Donald Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is on “life support” and that he is considering restarting US navy military escorts of ships through the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to end the Iranian blockade of the vital waterway.

The US president dismissed Iran’s peace proposals as stupid, and denied he was under any domestic pressure to reach a deal.