Summer 2025 was marked by a surge in anti-immigrant protests, attacks on mosques and racist graffiti across the UK. The unrest, stoked by far-right agitators such as Tommy Robinson, sought to pit communities against each other. But in Luton, where Tommy Robinson himself grew up, writer and journalist Taj Ali explores how the communities of his home town have resisted this division and fought back against radicalisation; and asks whether today’s economic hardships threaten to unravel that progress

To focus on individuals is misguided: the problem is a tax system hugely skewed in favour of the ultra-wealthy

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It’s been tiresome to see the glee with which Angela Rayner’s been accused of hypocrisy this week, but then anyone who sticks their neck out to call for an end to this engine of wealth inequality gets the same battering. Millionaires who’ve seen first-hand just how completely the system is rigged in their favour, who know how wrong it is and want to change it, get a similar verbal beating on social media and in certain sections of the press. It’s almost as if they protest too much?

Take this week’s political tax stories, one big and one largely ignored. Rayner’s tax behaviour, through lack of proper advice and planning, has created a political nightmare for the government. How could someone on the frontbench of the Labour government have to resign because they didn’t pay enough tax? Also scrutinised, if far less widely reported, have been the tax practices of the leader of Reform UK, who is reported to have channelled some of his earnings into a company to reduce the tax he has to pay on them, having previously criticised people who try to avoid tax as the “common enemy”.

Rebecca Gowland is executive director of Patriotic Millionaires International

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Whether you’re looking for a trim or a total restyle, top hairstylists reveal how to get the best cut for you

Some people love going to the hairdresser while others dread it. How can you make the most of your visit and achieve the best possible look? Stylists share their tips for getting a cut that suits you – and avoiding a hairdo disaster.

Some days it can feel as if climate catastrophe is inevitable. But history is full of cases – such as the banning of whaling and CFCs – that show humanity can come together to avert disaster

Once upon a time, the world was powered by whale. Oil made from whale blubber burns cleanly and well, though it smells strongly of fish. It was, for a while, the perfect fuel. To meet the growing demand, whales were hunted almost to extinction.

And then we discovered that oil could come from the ground. Lamps once lit by rendered blubber were swiftly changed over to run on what Americans call kerosene and the British call paraffin. Later, those lamps were changed to run on electricity, and instead of burning oil in the lamps themselves, we began to burn it in power plants miles away.

Soap-based injuries, bleak festive deaths, Hugh Bonneville vomiting blood: we look back on 15 years of highs and lows as the frothy period drama comes to an end with its final spin-off film

Prepare for stiff upper lips to wobble. Clutch monogrammed hankies for period-appropriate eye-dabbing. After 15 years on our screens, the Downton Abbey saga is about to hop in its vintage Rolls and drive off into the soft-focus sunset. The third and final film spin-off, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, is released this Friday, accompanied by a forelock-tugging farewell ITV documentary.

For six series, Downton bestrode the Sunday night schedules like a Grade II-listed colossus. Writer Julian Fellowes’s upstairs-downstairs creation followed entitled aristos and their salt-of-the-earth servants at a fictional country pile. Sure, the dialogue was clumsy, the plots soapy and the historical exposition clunked like a stately home’s antique radiators. Yet somehow, it didn’t matter.

The crowd that gathers in Amsterdam is exuberant. Pornography use is more common than ever, so earnings for many here are through the roof. But there is trouble afoot, from AI to chronic illness …

Brittany Andrews, a cheerful American porn star, cuts to the chase in her workshop on how to succeed in the adult industry.

“Do you think about how much money you’re going to make before you make a clip? Do you know what stuff sells the best? Or do you just follow your creative spark?” she asks. She points to a young Ukrainian model in a gold sequined bra and denim shorts. “I’m starting with you, girlfriend!”

Foreign Office says extent of US ambassador’s friendship with disgraced financier not disclosed when he was appointed

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Keir Starmer has sacked Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US over his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

The Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs that Lord Mandelson had not disclosed the extent and depth of his friendship with Epstein, a convicted child sex offender, when he was appointed as the ambassador.

‘High-powered bolt action rifle’ found in wooded area and suspect ‘blended in’ and appears to be of ‘college age’, FBI says; Trump to award Kirk Presidential Medal of Freedom

• Police search for suspect amid condemnation of ‘targeted’ killing

• Far-right commentators echo Trump in calling for ‘vengeance’

• What we know so far

A UK offshoot of a US conservative group set up by Charlie Kirk is to hold a vigil in London after he was shot dead, reports the PA news agency.

Turning Point UK has said its activists will gather on Friday evening by the Montgomery statue in Whitehall and called on others to “join us in remembering Charlie”.

It’s absolutely shocking, we’re heartbroken over here in the UK.

My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.

It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.

Political violence has no place in our societies.

Our thoughts and condolences are with his family.

An atrocious murder, a deep wound for democracy and for those who believe in freedom.

My condolences to his family, to his loved ones, and to the American conservative community.

Annual cost of allowance has more than doubled in recent years because of quick turnover of prime ministers

More than £8m of taxpayers’ money has been spent on funding the public lives of former prime ministers over the last three decades, a Guardian analysis has found.

All former PMs are able to claim up to £115,000 a year – until the end of their lives – in a subsidy to enable them to contribute to public life after they have left Downing Street.

Police investigate after images show roof of building destroyed in Washington, Tyne and Wear

A man in his 20s has been arrested by police after a suspected arson attack wrecked the constituency office of the Labour MP Sharon Hodgson.

There is little left of the first floor office in the Concord area of Washington, Tyne and Wear, after a fire that took place when it was unoccupied in the early hours of the morning.