The 34-year-old plumber last month secured the Green party its first byelection victory and a record fifth concurrent MP. She discusses the problem with career politicians – and being screamed at by voters

Hannah Spencer presents nothing like a politician – open, frank, friendly, wearing hot-pink joggers. I don’t want to say I’ve never encountered these qualities in an MP, but I’ve never encountered them in the same person. Her house tells the story of her recent byelection victory. The path and the hall are filled with mostly empty cardboard boxes that once contained leaflets.

When Spencer, 34, won Gorton and Denton in Greater Manchester for the Greens last month, there was a 26% swing from Labour. She won more than 40% of the vote, up 28 percentage points on the party’s performance in the 2024 general election. It was billed as a shock to the political establishment, a seismic blow to Labour (who were knocked into third place) and a reality check for Reform, who had peacocked their certain victory beforehand yet finished a distant second. But it wasn’t that much of a surprise to the Greens.

The president may not be benefiting directly from betting markets, but he has encouraged a culture that treats politics like a casino floor

Odd things are happening in the markets. Last Monday, 15 minutes before Donald Trump posted an announcement that “productive talks” with Iran had taken place, oil traders placed half a billion dollars’ worth of bets on the future price of oil. Trump’s statement triggered a drop in crude oil prices, and it seems as if some people knew that the announcement was coming, and so a profitable wager was made. Do not be envious; some people are just born lucky.

We do not know if the transactions were made with prior knowledge of political developments, but it’s a hell of a coincidence. It all appears “abnormal for sure”, an oil analyst told the BBC.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

Stefan Golaszewski, the creator of beloved sitcoms Him & Her and Mum, didn’t just draw from his own experience to write about baby loss – he also composed and performed the theme tune

Will Stefan Golaszewski ever tire of watching people unload the dishwasher? “Gosh, you never know – it’s possible,” concedes the creator of beloved BBC sitcoms Him & Her and Mum. For now, however, Golaszewski’s brand of intense social realism remains as meticulous as ever. In his latest series, the quotidian acts that make up a lifetime – replacing the hand soap, leaning on the kitchen counter while folding a slice of ham into your mouth and, of course, unloading said dishwasher – are given just as much screen time as some of the most soul-wrenching experiences imaginable.

Babies (he’s sticking with the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin titles) stars Siobhán Cullen and Paapa Essiedu as mid-30s married couple Lisa and Stephen. We meet them en route to a family function, yet when they arrive Lisa can only face Stephen’s relatives for a few seconds before fleeing the pub. Actually, it’s just one relative: his cousin’s new baby. We soon discover the pair have recently suffered their first miscarriage. Unable to share their grief and disappointment with friends and family, they are forced to rely solely on each other – not ideal considering Stephen’s attempts to comfort Lisa include an offer of a Solero and a trip to feed the ducks. The terror and cruelty of baby loss is all here, but Babies’ portrayal of our collective failure to address it is just as unsettling.

About 6.4 million Nigerian children are expected to be acutely malnourished by the end of the year, putting impossible pressure on scarce treatment centres

Zuwaira Hanafi stood in shock as four doctors rushed past her to enter the ward where her eight-month-old daughter, Hambali, lay semiconscious.

At the entrance to the healthcare facility in Kaita community in Nigeria’s northern Katsina state, medical personnel were using colour-coded tape to measure the diameter of children’s arms and determine their levels of malnutrition. A steady stream of mothers, some as young as 15, filtered through with children, many of them, like Hambali, arriving in a critical state.

Zuwaira Hanafi watches over eight-month-old Hambali as she is treated for acute malnutrition

Emigrating to be with your partner sounds wildly romantic, but what happens when the person is right and the place very much isn’t?

I met my wife in Queensland in 2001. She’s from Bern, but was in Australia to study marine science. She needed help collecting fish for her project, and had heard that I was handy with a spear gun. We hit it off straight away, and began our romance on semi‑deserted islands near the Great Barrier Reef.

We went on to make a life together. My wife liked Australia and eventually got citizenship, but after we had our first son she wanted to be near her family.

US president tells Financial Times his ‘preference would be to take the oil’ but that ‘some stupid people back in the US say: “why are you doing that?”’

• Full report: Iran accuses US of plotting ground assault while publicly seeking talks

• Analysis: what the Houthis’ entry into the Iran war means for the conflict and the wider region

Donald Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds (454kg) of uranium from Iran, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing unnamed US officials.

The mission would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer, the report says.

But the president remains generally open to the idea, according to the officials, because it could help accomplish his central goal of preventing Iran from ever making a nuclear weapon.

The combined effect of both waterways being shut to commercial traffic from countries that neither the Iranians nor Houthis favour would be devastating.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s remark that “the policy of a state lies in its geography” has never seemed more apt.

Five months after a ceasefire was announced in Gaza, airstrikes are still killing civilians and the humanitarian situation remains dire

There is little left that connects Palestinians in Gaza with their prewar existence. The contours of life have become darker and far more brutal, as if the population has been stripped of its past.

“Drones never stop buzzing overhead, gunfire and shelling continue almost daily and naval boats fire towards fishermen,” said 56-year-old Ahmed Baroud, a father of five displaced in Deir al-Balah.

Fresh attacks on Red Sea shipping would be devastating – but the Iranian proxy has reasons to be cautious

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The true significance of the long-awaited entry of Yemen’s Houthis into the Iran war depends on whether the Tehran-backed proxy group is intending to send a few missiles and drones from a distance towards Israel or will instead capitalise on its proximity to the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait to effectively close off the Red Sea to shipping, just as Iran has in effect shut the strait of Hormuz.

The combined effect of both waterways being shut to commercial traffic from countries that neither the Iranians nor Houthis favour would be devastating. Napoleon Bonaparte’s remark that “the policy of a state lies in its geography” has never seemed more apt.

Islamabad is attempting high-wire diplomacy between US and Iran, but Israel could spoil any chance of success

Intensifying Israeli bombing of civilian targets in Iran and an expanding US military force in the Gulf are casting a dark shadow over Pakistan’s hopes of hosting peace talks between Iran and the US.

Pakistan is attempting high-wire diplomacy, using its relative neutrality as a country with good relations with Iran and the US, to provide a venue for negotiations. It is not a player in the Middle East and does not host any American military bases, so it does not bring the baggage of other potential regional mediators.

Pontiff’s unusually pointed comments come after Pete Hegseth’s prayer for violence against enemies ‘who deserve no mercy’

Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war and have “hands full of blood”, in an apparent rebuke to the Trump administration.

The pontiff made the comments on Sunday as thousands of US troops arrived in the Middle East and days after the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, prayed for violence against enemies who deserved “no mercy”.