Nigel Farage’s man in Gorton and Denton has a huge public platform, and a taste for culture war. What happens when he concerns himself with bin collections?

On a bracingly cold February night in Levenshulme, a black Volkswagen people-carrier draws up outside a little parish church, around which a small crowd has begun to gather. From behind the car’s darkened windows steps the Reform candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection, dressed in the trademark gilet that makes him look less like a politician and more like a man who has come straight from a grouse shoot. As he enters the church where the electoral hustings will take place, a leaflet is thrust into his hand, which as he will later discover with a horrified grimace, is a flyer for the local branch of the Communist League, bearing policies such as “amnesty for all immigrants” and “defend Cuba’s socialist revolution”.

But then, when you are trying to attract the attention of someone as elusive as Prof Matt Goodwin, you have to seize your opportunities whenever they arise. Over recent weeks the former academic and rightwing firebrand has been a curiously intangible presence in the constituency whose representation he is seeking: perpetually detectable but not remotely approachable, always visible without ever really being seen.

This is one of those places where I say: use it or lose it

Some hot dining spots seem to expand almost the moment they open, but east London’s Vietnamese stalwart Sông Quê has waited almost 25 years to spawn a little sister, Sông Quê Phở Bar. The new offshoot sits on Commercial Street, a mile or so down the road, and serves a tiny menu focusing on phở, as well as a smattering of the original cafe’s small plates in the form of summer rolls, green papaya salad, grilled lamb chops and savoury banh khot cupcakes.

Quite why Sông Quê, with its regular weekend queues and well-known name, took so long to branch out, however, is unknown. Still, why rush things? After all, the road to restaurant ruin is paved with premature brand roll-outs, and even if managers think they’re superhuman, they cannot be in two – or three or four – sites all at the same time. Plus, the big question with an institution such as the OG Sông Quê is: can you really recreate the magic elsewhere?

The politician was 18 when she and her mum were hauled off to a police station for the killing of the man she’d considered an uncle. What happened next would shape her future. She talks Labour’s woes, making mistakes, and why it’s finally time to share her own traumatic story

• Read an extract from Naz Shah’s memoir here

Naz Shah found it thrilling when she was arrested on suspicion of murder. “I’ll be honest with you, I had fun. It was the most excitement I’d ever had in my flipping life. I’d never been to a police station before. I was 18 and wet behind the ears. I was this really sheltered kid who’d been arrested. And I was like, they’ve got it wrong, so in my head it was all going to be over soon,” the MP for Bradford West says. “They took my clothes and gave me this white suit to wear, and I was saying, ‘Ooh, I look foxy in this, don’t I? Can you imagine taking me on a date in this?’ I was having a right laugh with the police officers. Honestly, I was so naive.”

Shah’s beloved “Uncle” Azam had died unexpectedly in April 1992. An autopsy revealed that he had been poisoned with arsenic. Shah and her mother, Zoora, who spoke little English, had cooked the previous night’s supper. They were arrested and taken to different police stations. Shah was released. Zoora admitted that she had made the dessert that contained the arsenic. After a month-long trial, she was convicted of Azam’s murder in December 1993 and sentenced to 20 years in jail.

After a slow start, when the hosts began to pick up medals in the second week the public’s imagination was captured

With the atmosphere in Rome subdued as the Winter Olympics unfolded across northern Italy, travelling to the Games was not on Amity Neumeister’s radar.

That was until the event entered its second week and, inspired by images of the Dolomites on TV, Italy racking up the medals and friends in Milan describing an energetic vibe, Neumeister, originally from the US, decided she wanted to join the action. “It was a late-night, last-minute crazy decision, completely unplanned,” she said. “I hadn’t even considered going before, but it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Games and celebrate people coming together from around the world.”

Will Paul Thomas Anderson’s ICE age conspiracy thriller sweep the board, or will Sinners and Hamnet share some glory? Our critic places his bets
Full list of Bafta 2026 nominations

Will win One Battle After Another
Should win Hamnet
Shoulda been a contender The Secret Agent

Overdependence on chatbots is a growing problem, and though your boyfriend’s ADHD may be a factor, he needs to find the root of his anxiety

My boyfriend of eight years, who is 44, has ADHD and runs his own business. He’s always struggled with admin and mundane tasks, but AI has revolutionised how he works. Now I’m worried he can’t seem to do anything without AI. He is a heavy ChatGPT user and uses it even when there’s a better non-AI alternative (eg he’ll ask it for train times rather than using Trainline, even though it’s less accurate). He just got his ChatGPT Wrapped and he’s in the top 0.3% of users worldwide.

I worry about his ability to think independently, as well as the environmental impact. I know it’s a useful tool for him at work, but he uses it for everything in life.

CBI and Energy UK report finds 40% of firms have cut investment as electricity costs remain far above pre-Ukraine levels

• ‘It’s a ticking timebomb’: food producers sound alarm on rise in energy charges

The UK is at risk of losing its status as a major manufacturing centre after a sharp rise in energy prices that has forced about 40% of businesses to cut back investment, according to a report by the CBI and Energy UK.

In a stinging message to ministers, the report said British businesses – from chemical producers to pubs and restaurants – were being undermined by a failure to cap prices and upgrade the UK’s ageing gas and electricity networks.

President announced increase from 10% using different authority from mechanism that supreme court struck down on Friday

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would raise a temporary tariff rate on US imports from all countries from 10% to 15%, less than 24 hours after the US supreme court ruled against the legality of his flagship trade policy.

Infuriated by the high court’s ruling on Friday that he had exceeded his authority and should have got congressional approval for the tariffs he introduced last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the US president railed against the justices who struck down his use of tariffs – calling them a “disgrace to the nation” – and ordered an immediate 10% tariff on all imports, in addition to any existing levies, under a separate law.

The government plans to halve the attainment gap in England

Searches are expected to continue today at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s previous home – Royal Lodge, in Windsor – as calls grow for a probe into the former prince’s links with Jeffrey Epstein.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s police and crime correspondent, Vikram Dodd, about what could be next for Andrew here:

If the government bring forward this bill with the support of the King then we will back it. We have to be realistic. Andrew is the eighth in line to the throne, so there’s no chance of him becoming our monarch.

And so parliament really should be focused on things that are of more importance to the public, whether that’s the economy, crime, the health service, immigration. But if the bill does come before parliament, then we’ll support it.

Select committee says ‘late’ decision to overturn exclusion of fans ‘did little more than inflame tensions’

The government’s response to West Midlands police’s ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was “clumsy”, “late” and “did little more than inflame tensions”, a group of MPs has found.

A report by the home affairs select committee, published on Sunday, analysed the original decision to ban away fans from a Europa League fixture with Aston Villa in November, as well as the advice that led to it.