There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

ISRAEL’S renewed assault on Gaza and the widespread Palestinian resistance it generated has had a profound effect on its standing.
According to last week’s Yougov polling, Israel’s net favourability in Britain is -42, down 27 points since February, in France it is -39 down 22 points, in Sweden -33 down 17 points and even in Germany — where an official pro-Israel public discourse is heavily policed by state, political parties and media — it is at -24 down 14 points.
And in Labour here the balance of opinion is overwhelmingly in support of the national and human rights of the Palestinian people.

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT

There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde sees Trump’s many disruptions as an opportunity to challenge the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ — but greater Euro assertiveness will also mean greater warmongering and militarism, warns NICK WRIGHT