They just want to help children safely across the road on their way to and from school. Yet lollipop people are having to wear body cameras after an increase in abusive and dangerous drivers. How did things get so out of hand?

There aren’t many jobs that often involve jumping out of the path of speeding cars – but for the lollipop people of Britain today, this is the sad reality. And it doesn’t stop there: aggression, swearing and middle fingers are just a few examples of the intimidation and abuse they face on our roads.

“Oh my God, I mean, abuse of lollipop people? What has the world come to?” says Lynne Gorrara. It’s a crisp, sunny afternoon in Ipswich and the 61-year-old is holding a towering stop sign above her head, clearing a crossing for a stream of schoolchildren. This spot – on a narrow residential road, with a hospital in one direction and shops in the other – is notorious for abusive drivers.

The naturalist is venerated as a cuddly Paddington Bear, but he’s more than that. Don’t let the superficial backslaps obscure the political critique he makes

The excesses the capitalist system has brought us have got to be curbed somehow. Ordinary people worldwide are beginning to realise that greed does not actually lead to joy. Our economic system has been based on the profit principle: you have to come out at the end of the year having made a profit, and the bigger profit you have made, the better it is. In the short term that works, but it ends with disaster.

At this point, I should make a confession. The above sentiments are not mine at all. In fact, they were pilfered, purloined, shoplifted from a far more erudite radical thinker than myself. So, quiz time: which incendiary leftwing firebrand spoke these words? Zack Polanski? Antonio Gramsci? Ash Sarkar? At the very least, you would probably assume that, in the current climate, anyone daring to utter these dangerous fringe sentiments would be cast to the margins of our cultural life, only occasionally being let out for the purposes of getting shouted at on the Jeremy Vine show.

Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist

Low-profile Modella has positioned itself as a key creditor, landlord and brand owner to struggling TG Jones as store closures and job cuts loom

Shoppers at WH Smith were once accustomed to being offered cheap chocolate stacked high at the counter while buying their morning newspaper. Now, the chain’s former high street stores have themselves become the subject of a cut-price deal – as the low-profile investment group that snapped them up appears set to pay less than half of the original cash price.

The paperclips to books chain had notched up 233 years on the British high street when it was bought by Modella Capital last summer.

Court cases in Kenya point to a growing market for ants as exotic pets in Asia and Europe that has implications for conservation and biosecurity

In the biblical text Book of Proverbs, King Solomon describes the harvester ant as a model of wisdom and industriousness: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!”

Almost 3,000 years later, the thriving international parallel market for a distinct species of the ant native to east Africa has been thrust into the global spotlight after a series of convictions in Kenya for ant smuggling.

As an astronomer, I had witnessed many celestial phenomena. But nothing prepared me for those few minutes in 2017 when the world fell silent

I have never driven with more determination than when rushing away from Shelby Park in Nashville. We had reached Davidson Street when my husband shouted: “There! There’s sunlight!” I skidded into a car park of a printing company with barely any time to spare. We jumped out of the car, put on our dark glasses, and looked at the quickly disappearing sun. It was surrounded by clouds, but a tiny sliver of light was still shining. This was 1.27pm on 21 August 2017. We had travelled all the way from London to Tennessee to experience the Great American Eclipse – an astronomical phenomenon I had never seen before.

As an Italian-born astronomer, I had always felt at a bit of a disadvantage. I have a doctorate in astrophysics, focused on collisions between galaxies. I have seen many celestial phenomena – comets, planetary alignments, fireballs, galaxies, northern lights – but not a total solar eclipse.

System in ‘deep crisis’ six months after documentary exposed alleged network used to delay graft convictions

The courtroom was silent but tense, the whir of camera lenses the only sound as dozens of journalists fixed their eyes on the bench. An extraordinary press conference had been called after the airing of a documentary late last year that claimed the top of Romania’s justice system was riddled with corruption.

Seated at the bench at the Bucharest court of appeal was its president, Liana Arsenie, flanked by her two vice-presidents. Behind them, in support, stood about 30 judges.

Sources say health secretary intends to trigger leadership election as early as Thursday

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• Who are the main threats to Starmer’s leadership?

Allies of Wes Streeting have said he is preparing to stand down as health secretary amid deep frustration with Keir Starmer’s leadership, and could mount a formal challenge for the leadership as early as Thursday.

Downing Street insiders had suggested Streeting did not yet have the required support from 81 MPs, which is needed to formally launch a leadership bid, after the prime minister issued a “put up or shut up” ultimatum to his cabinet.

King Charles unveils government agenda for the next year as PM faces leadership threat from within Labour

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Keir Starmer has put long-promised changes to education, health and the courts at the heart of his agenda for the next year, as the embattled prime minister looks to prove he can enact the scale of change being demanded by Labour MPs and voters.

The prime minister unveiled his legislative programme for the next parliamentry session on Wednesday, a moment he hopes will persuade wavering Labour MPs he should remain in office.

Tepid cabinet support and a blunted No 10 operation are making it harder for the prime minister to face down critics

The last time Keir Starmer faced a threat to his leadership, his core team assembled in the cabinet room and persuaded ministers to fire off a succession of supportive tweets in an attempt to keep him in office. This time has been different.

As the number of MPs calling for the prime minister to resign has grown over the last 48 hours, much of the cabinet has remained quiet.

Sussex police say officers are working to identify women and understand what happened to them

The bodies of three women have been recovered from the sea off Brighton, Sussex police said.

The force said emergency services were called to concerns for the welfare of three women in the sea off Brighton at around 5.45am on Wednesday. The women’s bodies were pulled from the water near Madeira Drive, police said.