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With his government mired in scandal, an operation to dethrone Starmer is now under way

There has been a joke going around Labour MPs over the past week about three envelopes in Soviet Russia. “Whenever you run into trouble, open them in order,” the instructions go. Envelope one says: “Blame your predecessor.” So he does – and it works. The party officials are satisfied. A year later, problems arise again. He opens envelope two. It says: “Restructure the organisation.”

He does a big reshuffle, changes some titles, and again buys himself some time. Finally, another crisis comes. He opens envelope three. It says: “Prepare three envelopes.”

Feminism exposed the ubiquity of child abuse, rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence – and helped fight that culture

I was there. I kept the receipts. I remember how normalized the sexual exploitation of teenage girls and even tweens by adult men was, how it showed up in movies, in the tales of rock stars and “baby groupies”, in counterculture and mainstream culture, how normalized rape, exploitation, grooming, objectification, commodification was.

The last Woody Allen movie I ever saw was Manhattan, in which he cast himself as more or less himself, a dweeb in his mid-40s, dating a high school student played by Mariel Hemingway. She was my age, 17, and I was only too familiar with creeps, and the movie creeped me out, even though it was only long afterward that I read that she said he was at the time pressuring her to get sexually involved with him in real life.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology

He was the young, gay, mixed-race leader labelled a ‘badass’ by Matt Damon who unexpectedly quit. He talks about the ‘likability’ of rightwing populists – and his fears for the future of politics

Leo Varadkar suggests we do the ­interview at his house in Dublin. It’s unusual for ­politicians to invite you into their home, but Ireland is famous for its hospitality. The house looks impressively humble – a tiny, ­unprepossessing terrace. A woman answers. “Hi,” I say. “Does the taoiseach live here? “No,” she says.

I start to panic. Our interview is due to start in two minutes.

In their humane responses to the killing of Charlie Kirk, Democrats are observing the old norms. Things are different now: anger and division rule

• Sign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and more

The killing of Charlie Kirk has left the US and those who care about it on edge. The arrest of a suspect, Tyler Robinson, has hardly settled the nerves, not when the revelation of any supposed political allegiances could touch off a fresh round of recriminations. The fear is that the country is about to descend into a new era of political violence, becoming a place where differences are settled not with words and argument but by guns and blood. After all, it has plumbed those depths before.

The US was born in violence, fought a civil war less than a century after its founding and in living memory seemed to be on the brink of another one – with a spate of assassinations in the 1960s that took the lives of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and John and Bobby Kennedy. That should provide some consolation, the knowledge that the country has been through this before and survived.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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From statement pieces to functional furnishings, 16 experts select accessories that will light up your home without costing a fortune

• The best bedding brands interiors experts use at home, from luxury linen to cool cotton

The best thing about a beautifully decorated room is often not the most expensive. Though interior designers can work with generous budgets, the savvy ones also know how to spot great design in unlikely places (hello, B&Q).

If you don’t have the budget for a full renovation, but still want to add a little design nous to your home, some help is at hand. We asked a range of experts in the interiors world for the pieces they’ve got their eye on – all of them less than £100.

After disastrous week, some MPs predict challenge against PM likely if local and Welsh elections go badly next May

Keir Starmer has been warned that time is running out to repair his faltering leadership, with Labour MPs beginning to ask whether he could be challenged as prime minister.

After a disastrous week in which Angela Rayner resigned and Peter Mandelson was sacked as ambassador to Washington, a number of MPs said a challenge was likely if local and Welsh elections went badly next May. Some said the one thing now protecting Starmer was the lack of an agreed replacement.

In statement Friday, Erika Kirk says ‘evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done’

• Charlie Kirk shooting – latest news updates

• Trump declines to call for unity after Charlie Kirk killing in stunning move

Erika Kirk, the widow of rightwing activist and provocateur Charlie Kirk, said in a statement Friday evening that her late husband’s message and mission will be “stronger, bolder, louder and greater than ever” and that her “cries will echo around the world like a battle cry”.

“I loved knowing one of his mottos was ‘never surrender’,” she said of her late husband. “We’ll never surrender.”

Tommy Robinson, Steve Bannon, Ant Middleton and Joey Mannarino among names to speak at London event

The killing of Charlie Kirk is being used by Tommy Robinson to mobilise support before what is expected to be Britain’s largest far-right rally in decades, which will include speakers from Britain, the US and Europe.

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, is among those listed to appear on stage at the rally in central London, which is expected to draw tens of thousands for an event that Robinson has been heavily attempting to monetise.

Mille Colling and Emma Aalto given go-ahead to compete in qualifier for national championships next month

A British ice dancer and her skating partner are to become Finland’s first same-sex team to take part in a competition after a rule change by the country’s skating federation.

Millie Colling, 20, who was born in Gateshead and moved to Finland at the age of six, and Emma Aalto, 19, will compete in a qualifier for the national championships next month after pressing for an amendment to the rules to allow them to enter as a team.