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John Swinney emerges as favourite to become leader of party hit by series of damaging crises

Humza Yousaf has quit as Scotlandas first minister to clear the way for a new leader capable of giving the Scottish National party stability after a series of damaging crises.

During a dramatic day largely orchestrated by party managers, Yousaf announced he would step down as first minister just as a veteran former leader, John Swinney, quickly emerged as the favourite to succeed him.

Prime minister dismisses potential deal with Dublin, increasing prospect of an escalating UK-Irish crisis

Rishi Sunak has said the UK will not accept the return of asylum seekers from Ireland and dismissed the prospect of a deal with Dublin.

The prime minister doubled down on his Rwanda deportation plan and appeared to reject any deal with the Irish government, which is alarmed at asylum seekers entering the republic from Northern Ireland.

US secretary of state says Hamas is the aonly thing standing between people of Gaza and ceasefirea

The US secretary of state has said that athe only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefirea is Hamas, ahead of what are seen as last-chance talks to salvage a diplomatic solution before a threatened Israeli ground invasion in Rafah.

Speaking at a World Economic Forum meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Antony Blinken said: aHamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel.

Quaker and Vida, who were among the animals who got loose, were hurt when they collided with vehicles but have now had surgery

The two military horses who sustained injuries after colliding with vehicles in London are making progress after surgery, the British army has said.

Quaker, a Cavalry black, and a grey horse called Vida were seen galloping through the streets of the capital after being frightened by builders moving rubble last Wednesday. The pair bolted while they were on an extended exercise in Belgravia with five other horses and six soldiers from the Household Cavalry.

Tenants typically asked to pay APS1,291 a month outside London and APS2,633 in capital but pace of growth is slowing, say analysts

Average private rents in Great Britain have risen to record highs, with annual rental growth in hotspot locations such as Reading and Coventry running at almost 20%.

Data from the property website Rightmove shows that the average advertised rent outside London climbed to a record APS1,291 a calendar month in the first quarter of 2024. That is 8.5% higher than a year earlier a a rate of growth well ahead of inflation.

Ministers accused of dragging NHS into aculture wars debatea with proposal for patient rights update

Transgender people will be treated in single rooms in hospitals in England under new government plans to update the NHS constitution.

The proposal follows a pledge last year by the then health secretary Steve Barclay to prevent people who had changed their gender identity from being treated on male-only or female-only wards.

Exclusive: First study of its kind finds prisoners are 28% less likely to receive treatment for cancer

Prisoners diagnosed with cancer are more likely than people in the general population to die of the disease, according to research.

A study has calculated that compared with cancer patients in the general population, patients in English prisons are 28% less likely to receive treatment for cancer, particularly surgery to remove tumours, and have a 9% increased risk of death a half of which is due to treatment differences.

• Boxer and MMA fighter says son awas full of life and joya
• Conor McGregor among those to offer their condolences

Francis Ngannou has confirmed the death of his 15-month-old son Kobe in a social media post.

The boxer and MMA fighter posted on X: aToo soon to leave but yet heas gone. My little boy, my mate, my partner Kobe was full of life and joy. Now, heas laying without life. I shouted his name over and over but heas not responding.

Thomas OaHalloran was stabbed in west London by Lee Byer who had paranoid schizophrenia and had been released five days before

A man has admitted to the manslaughter by diminished responsibility of an 87-year-old mobility scooter rider in a amotivelessa knife attack in west London five days after being released from prison.

Lee Byer, 45, stabbed Thomas OaHalloran in the neck and chest in Greenford in 2022. It can now be reported that Byer had numerous previous convictions and days earlier had been released from Wormwood Scrubs prison in south-west London.

Caitlyn Scott-Lee, 16, is thought to have taken her own life the day before she was due to have her first ever detention

The father of an autistic schoolgirl who is believed to have taken her own life the day before she was due to have her first ever detention has paid tribute to his adaddyas girla at the inquest into her death.

Caitlyn Scott-Lee, 16, was found dead at Wycombe Abbey, a private school in Buckinghamshire where she boarded, on 21 April last year.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Newly deciphered passages outline Greek philosopheras burial place and describe critique of slave musician

Newly deciphered passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on the final hours of Plato, a key figure in the history of western philosophy.

In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl.

Kirklees residents are likely to punish both the Tories and Labour for their stance on Gaza in the 2 May local elections

Of all the issues being discussed and debated among voters in the lead-up to local elections, there is one that has taken precedence for some residents of the West Yorkshire borough of Kirklees: the conflict in Gaza.

This weekas votes are predicted to bring damaging results for Rishi Sunak a whose personal ratings have reached a record low.

Second phase of physical checks could result in price increases in shops, as businesses pass on costs to consumers

After more than three years of delays, Tuesday finally sees the introduction of physical checks on animal and plant imports coming into Britain from the EU.

Importers and trade associations have warned that the new bureaucracy could heap significant costs on to importers, resulting in increases to prices on shop shelves.

Pedro SA!nchez is not alone in EU in facing aharassment through the media and the courtsa aimed at forcing him out of politics

Pedro SA!nchez may have decided to stay on as Spanish prime minister, but what made him hesitate a aharassment and bullyinga of him and his wife by his political opponents a is unlikely to go away anytime soon, in Spain or elsewhere in Europe.

In an ever more polarised political sphere and on a social media battlefield where reality coexists with the wildest fictions, politicians across the continent have to live a or not a with being targets of surreal accusations, alawfarea and increasingly ugly abuse.

As this documentary smugly rehashes the transphobia that made Miriam Riveraas life hell a claiming it would never happen today a it becomes just as tawdry. Has TV learned nothing in the past 20 years?

It was, all in all, a moral quagmire of a TV format. In 2004, Thereas Something About Miriam saw six men vie for the attention of Miriam Rivera, a 21-year-old Mexican model who unbeknown to them had a asecreta: she was transgender. Even before it aired, this British reality-dating show had whipped up a tabloid frenzy, fuelled by the news that the contestants who had wooed Rivera were mounting a legal challenge to stop the show from airing. Lawyers claimed their lack of informed consent equated to a conspiracy to commit sexual assault.

Miriam: Death of a Reality Star retells the story of this queasy moment in pop culture, while also delving into Riveraas traumatic early life and suspicious death. Yet despite looking back disapprovingly, this three-part documentary attempts to have its cake (sanctimonious dismay) and eat it, too (milking exactly the same tawdry titillation as the original did). Thereas Something About Miriamas horrifying denouement a one of the men reacted violently to the news that Rivera was trans a is teased throughout, meaning the documentary is also powered by the promise of that reveal. (While the original series was removed from circulation by Sky, this documentary re-airs so much footage that it doubles as a worst-of clip show.) Later, it stages a superficial investigation into Riveraas death. Reality TV was a and still is a grounded in exploitation.

British Museum, London
Michelangeloas drawings were anything but dull, but this exhibition sucks out all the drama by focusing on his spirituality at the expense of his sexuality

Lord Elgin, you let us down. With all the masterpieces of world art that Britainas rapacious collectors grabbed from hither and yon, couldnat they have got their hands on a single statue by Michelangelo? No, the only original work in marble by the great sculptor, painter, architect and poet in a British collection is a circular relief owned by the Royal Academy. What we have instead are extensive holdings of his drawings in the British Museum and Royal Collection. Unfortunately, the BMas hushed use of these works on paper to try to illuminate his later life shows what poor recompense they are.

The problem is disappointingly obvious from the start. After being moved by a portrait of the elderly, bearded, introspective Michelangelo by his most talented pupil, Daniele da Volterra, youare plunged into his designs for The Last Judgment, painted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel from 1536 to 41. Michelangelo was in his early 60s when he returned to the scene of his earlier triumph on its ceiling to create his cascading, tumbling vision of bodies rising to heaven and falling to hell against a deep blue. Here are his sketches of swarming muscular nudes, struggling and fighting a or embracing? a all desperate to join the ranks of blessed. Yet I couldnat tear my eyes from a projection of the actual fresco, or stop wishing I was there with the real thing, in the Sistine Chapel.

Scotlandas first minister and SNP leaderas demise shows Westminster does not have the monopoly on chaos and ineptitude

It must be contagious. Just when you thought Westminster might have the monopoly on incompetence and chaos, along comes Humza Yousaf, Scotlandas first minister, saying: aHold my Diet Coke.a Anything the Tories can do south of the border, the Scottish National party can manage north of it. We are in a new political era where the life span of politicians is measured in units of Liz Truss. Or lettuces. So Yousaf reaching seven and half Trusses a or approximately 54 lettuces. Which, all things considered, is fairly respectable. If a lot less than he had hoped.

Last Thursday, Yousaf had consciously uncoupled from the Scottish Green party. aYouare dumped,a he had announced, looking rather pleased with himself. It had been meant to be a power play. To ditch the Greens before they ditched him. A show of strength that the SNP could survive as a minority government without their coalition partner.

Itas not just new drug boss Lee causing tensions to rise on the streets of Belfast, as more tangled twosomes get steamy on patrol and Stevie deals with a heartwrenching case

The series reached its midway mark with simmering tension and surprise tragedy. Hereas your sit-rep on the third episode, titled Love Knows a|

The Royal Institute of British Architects has been taking stock of the disturbingly imperial decoration of its palatial home a with a new show telling a larger, more unsettling story

Part Egyptian tomb, part masonic temple, the 1930s headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects has always exuded a cultish air. Sited on Londonas illustrious Portland Place, among embassies, consulates and oligarchsa pieds-A -terre, it is a fittingly regal headquarters for a chartered profession that has long styled itself as an exclusive gentlemenas club.

If you have ever been to an event there, you probably wonat have paid much attention to the dull brown mural at the back of the auditorium. Itas a dirty, poorly lit and badly scuffed screen, which tends to fade into the background of the surrounding art deco pomp. And thereas a good reason that the RIBA hasnat wanted to you look at it too closely.

aItas one of the most racist things Iave ever seen in my life,a says Thandi Loewenson, a Zimbabwe-born architectural designer and researcher. aAnd thatas saying something.a

Take a look, and youall see groups of semi-naked figures from all corners of the British empire, cartoonishly depicted as primitive savages with exaggerated features, huddled in timid submission around the edges of the mural. In the centre, radiating above a map of Britain like some heavenly vision, is the RIBA council, depicted as a professional parliament of identical faceless figures. Floating between the professionals and the natives, in a kind of architectural halo, are the symbolic buildings of empire: the government buildings of Pretoria, the viceroyas palace in New Delhi, the old parliament house of Canberra, and other works authored by the instituteas distinguished members.

Ros and Mark Dowey, whose son Murray took his life after being duped by criminals online, are calling for greater awareness and social media regulation

• Teachers warned to be on lookout for victims of sextortion

It was a relaxed evening at home in Dunblane, near Stirling, a few days before the turn of the year. The Dowey family a Ros, Mark and their three sons a were watching television when talk turned to plans for the new year. Murray, 16 years old and their middle boy, chatted about saving up for a holiday to Marbella he was planning with his friends that summer. At about half past nine, he went up to his bedroom. It was the last time his family saw him alive.

The next morning, Ros was preparing for a visit to friends in Glasgow. aI saw that Murrayas door was ajar with the light on,a she says. aI walked in and said aAre you up?a and found him there.a

TalkTVas shift to online only is a moment of reckoning for the two broadcasting upstarts

In April 2021, the boss of the Murdoch-owned News UK, Rebekah Brooks, wrote in an internal letter that ait was not commercially viablea to launch a traditional news channel. Then, in April 2022, the company launched TalkTV.

As it closes and moves online on Monday, after a reported loss of at least APS90m since it launched, those backing its main rival, GB News, may look on the TV channelas demise with glee. But experts argue that the move marks a moment of reckoning for the broadcasting upstarts a and the future of both hangs in the balance.

The comedianas claim that wokeness is the reason why comedy is no longer as funny is lazy a and inaccurate

Jerry Seinfeld is currently at saturation point, promoting his new Pop Tarts movie Unfrosted. Still a canny operator, however, Seinfeld understands that the last thing anyone in the world wants to hear about is his new Pop Tarts movie. After all, there is realistically only so much available media interest in a streaming period comedy film about a breakfast product. And so Unfrosted has taken something of a backseat to a much more newsworthy proposition: Jerry Seinfeld mouthing off for clicks.

Until now, Seinfeldas targets have included the film industry (the people he worked with adonat have any idea that the movie business is overa) and his disdain for dabblers (aThereas nothing I revile quite as much as a dilettantea), despite being a man who has just directed his first film at the age of 70. True, he has also tried talking about things he actually enjoys, like his love of watching surfing videos on YouTube, but that isnat really what gets the clicks these days. And so, with some inevitability, Jerry Seinfeld has pulled out the big guns and declared that the left is destroying comedy.

The SNP leader badly miscalculated his support. But Londonas meddling in Scottish politics played its part

Youave seen it posted on office walls and Instagram feeds: diamonds are formed under pressure. Well, so are career-ending mistakes. Hopefully Humza Yousaf, who last week collapsed his own governmentas majority by ending the SNPas cooperation agreement with the Scottish Greens and then resigned before a probable no-confidence vote at Holyrood, can find clarity and respite after what must have been a personally horrible year.

Politics is unforgiving at the best of times, but it must not be forgotten that for a sizeable chunk of his time in office some of Yousafas family members were trapped in Gaza. He spoke honestly about the emotional toll, and became one of the few western leaders a out of clear principle, not just personal investment a to openly criticise Israelas relentless assault on the Palestinian people.

Rory Scothorne is a historian and writer based in Edinburgh

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