British love of silliness comes to the fore when politicians stand shoulder to shoulder with satirical rivals

When world leaders are elected, it is usually a solemn moment, but when the Labour party veteran Andy Burnham found out he had won the Makerfield byelection, increasing the likelihood he could become the next prime minister, he was standing next to a man with a bin on his head.

The newest Labour MP was also flanked by a man in a fox costume. Robert Pownall, the founder of the campaign group Protect the Wild, decided to run as a fox in order to demand an end to trail hunting.

The unstoppable Nigel Farage is looking increasingly stoppable in the wake of Makerfield. The actual prime minister, meanwhile, has gone into hiding

You’ll note Keir Starmer is in full bunker mode – and we’ll get to him – but after this Makerfield result, why isn’t Nigel Farage? Why isn’t Nigel ranting madly at his generals and refusing to admit that actually, everything that went wrong for Reform here flowed directly from his personal character, and is going to keep happening in one way or another because people don’t change. Nigel’s gonna Nigel.

Nobody fetishises plain speaking like Farage, so we owe it to him to honour that and observe that Reform really shat the bed. Makerfield is among the party’s top 10 target seats for a general election, and Reform strategists’ decision to field yet another inadequate liability, whose past social media activity they simply couldn’t be arsed checking, seems to have proved something of a turn-off – for example for women, who strangely didn’t feel minded to vote for someone who had said: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.” Rob Kenyon will no doubt be back on his plumbing rounds next week. So, Makerfield ladies, make sure your husband’s home to be consulted as to whether you really want your sink unblocked. It’ll honestly be cheaper to replace it.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

It turned its cast into global stars, triggered fashion crazes and even made an omelette go viral. As The Bear bows out, ‘cousin’ Ebon Moss-Bachrach talks obsessive fans, fork tattoos and why he’s ‘dumbly proud’

Ebon Moss-Bachrach is currently starring in an acclaimed Broadway production of Dog Day Afternoon, but after he takes his bow, there’s only one thing audience members want to talk about. “Every time I leave through the stage door, there’s a couple of hundred people yelling ‘Cousin!’” he laughs.

That’s his catchphrase as cranky maître d’ Richie Jerimovich in The Bear, of course. And now the culinary comedy-drama is back on the menu. One of the decade’s most influential TV shows is about to return for its fifth and final season. It seems the right time to reflect on how this scrappy creation became a surprise smash hit and cultural sensation.

With Declan Rice nursing a knock, his midfield partner is the reliable rock to which team’s fate is inescapably yoked

Elliot Anderson is running. It’s the 88th minute against Croatia, and the game is won, and the game is done, and this is the 60th game of his season and there are deeper challenges to come. But as long as the ball is loose, he’s going to chase it down: first Josip Sutalo and then Josko Gvardiol, a simple recycling of defensive possession rapidly mutating into an unpleasant ordeal. As the ball is worked across defence, Anderson single-handedly follows it all the way across the pitch, over to the far touchline, where he eventually forces a rushed pass and a turnover of possession.

And in an opening win defined by mood swings and tectonic shifts, in a team savouring the wealth of options and contingencies at its disposal, it’s worth dwelling on just how quickly Anderson has become indispensable. Declan Rice is carrying a knock and looks a little short of gas. Harry Kane will almost certainly not have the legs to play eight full games plus extra time. The wingers, the centre-half pairing, the full-backs are not yet set in stone. Beyond Jordan Pickford, virtually every area of this team is operating in a kind of managed flux.

Age verification means that the sector’s biggest players will now have access to information that will only make them richer and more powerful

This week, the UK announced a wide-ranging ban on social media that will soon block users from communicating or accessing information on apps such as X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat unless they prove that they’re over the age of 16.

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, called the policy “a line in the sand”. “Tech giants had their chance and failed,” he said, “but we’re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.” All internet users, especially children, should be protected from exploitative systems online, but this new law will only foster more harm and help the largest and most powerful tech companies consolidate power and influence over everyone’s lives.

Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who writes the newsletter User Mag and is the author of the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet

In his new memoir, the vice-president covers his conversion and politics – at a time when hardline Catholicism is ascendant in the US

When JD Vance became Roman Catholic, he wondered what his dead grandmother would think.

His grandmother Mamaw did not have anything against them, but growing up in Ohio he had sometimes heard that Catholics were servants of the antichrist. And although the people he knew as a child professed personal relationships with Jesus, most rarely went to church. The Church of Rome – with its rituals and costumes, foreign leadership, veneration of Mary and the saints – seemed exotic, even alien, to his family from Appalachia.

Lines closed between Luton and Bedford as emergency services attend scene

One person has died and a number of people have been injured after two trains collided in the Bedford area, with emergency services still at the scene and commuters battling long delays during the evening rush hour.

The two East Midlands railway services involved were the 4.40pm from Corby to St Pancras and the 3.50pm Nottingham to London St Pancras, the rail operator said.

Ministers say PM faces being forced out by party if he does not act, with one calling his departure inevitable

• How quickly could Burnham become PM?

Cabinet ministers loyal to Keir Starmer have told him he faces being forced out of office by his party if he does not set a timetable for his departure by the end of the weekend.

Andy Burnham, who won a compelling majority in the Makerfield byelection overnight, is expected to travel to London on Monday to meet MPs in the expectation of becoming prime minister within weeks. One cabinet minister – who has not previously told the prime minister to go – said his departure was now inevitable.

Thomas, 43, a former military police officer, has whip suspended during investigation into the allegations

A Liberal Democrat MP suspended by the party has been arrested on suspicion of controlling and coercive behaviour and assault, the Guardian understands.

Cameron Thomas, the MP for Tewkesbury, was arrested by Gloucestershire police on Wednesday. The Liberal Democrats said the 43-year-old had had the whip and membership of the party suspended.

Department for Transport analysis suggests tiny economic boost would be outweighed by up to £62.5bn in trade-offs

The economic boost from a Heathrow third runway could be a tiny fraction of previous estimates, government analysis shows, while the overall trade-off from the bigger airport could set the UK back by as much as £62.5bn.

As ministers promised to speed up expansion of the London airport in the name of economic growth, documents prepared by the Department for Transport said the runway was expected to boost GDP by only up to 0.05% – 90% less than the 0.5% previously stated.