ZACK Polanski, the leader of the Green Party [of England and Wales], has announced his intention to stand as a candidate in Holborn and St Pancras – following Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation.

He had pledged to stand in a by-election if one came up in London and exclusively told the New Journal he was ready to fight this one.

“I have lived and worked in this community over many years, I know it well and I love it,” he said.

“It represents so many of the things that make London so special. I am so excited by the prospect of representing this place in Parliament.”

“Holborn and St Pancras has everything that’s the best of our country and so much potential,” said Mr Polanski.

“But for too long now it’s been held back by governments who have failed to make the changes to improve people’s lives.

“We know that the Greens can win here, and by electing me, voters will have someone who will always fight their corner – never scared of big donors or the party whip. Too often Labour has stood up for corporations and big money. I will stand up for people struggling to pay their bills.”

As he struggles with questions about the millions he has received from the billionaire Christopher Harborne, Nigel Farage has made no secret of his enthusiastic support for the industry that made part of his benefactor’s fortune – cryptocurrency. The Reform UK leader even urged the governor of the Bank of England to drop a crypto policy that may be costly for Harborne.

But another element of Harborne’s business interests could prove still more consequential if it shapes Farage’s positions. There appears to be no precedent for a major UK donor who is so entwined with the military.

The Guardian’s ongoing investigation into the origins of Harborne’s riches and whether his donations inform Farage’s agenda has established the Thailand-based tycoon’s global web of commercial interests in the arms industry and military contracts. Among Harborne’s business collaborators are a striking number of former army officers, air force pilots, military officials and even, it seems, a former MI6 officer.

Jewish Greens are deeply disappointed and angry about The Canary’s decision to publish an attack on our group, written by the Iranian state television co-host David Miller.

He states that Jewish Green Officers coordinated a campaign to filibuster the Zionism is Racism motion. This is simply not true and he provides no evidence for it.

He follows this unfounded allegation with a series of insinuations about our families, our communities and our synagogues. We need to be very clear. Attending a synagogue, or engaging in community activities such as youth work does not mean you hold any particular views on Israel and Palestine or the genocide in Gaza. Implying this is the case is antisemitic.

Many of our group identify as anti-Zionists, and there is no consensus on the motion, as indicated by our updated interim statement, which Miller has ignored. Miller appears to regard it as impossible for someone Jewish to not be a Zionist, regardless of what they say themselves. This is also antisemitic.

He has identified our families, potentially leading to them being targets of abuse or harassment for political stances they have no part in. He has identified the synagogue some of us are members of, also potentially opening it up to the risk of violence, in a year where we have seen several attacks on Jewish institutions and individuals. This is an intolerable invasion of privacy, dangerous, and cannot be justified as being in the public interest.

We remain committed to the values of the Green Party, an end to antisemitism and all forms of racism, and freedom for Palestine and Palestinians.

Bluesky (Skylib)

A "frustrated" teenager drove his car at more than 140mph (225km/h) on his way to the gym before crashing into a taxi.

Max Dangerfield, now 20, was driving in the early hours of 25 January 2025 on the A48 near the Cross Hands roundabout in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, when he ploughed into the back of a taxi that was taking two women home after a night out.

The taxi driver suffered broken ribs, bleeds on the brain, a punctured lung and a lacerated liver in the crash.

Dangerfield, who was uninsured, was banned from driving for 50 months at Swansea Crown Court on 13 August, and must serve 28 months detention in a young offenders institution.

He must pass an extended test before he can get a licence.

According to infrastructure guy Simon Ludlam on a recent podcast, the U.K.’s Greenlink Interconnector was rerouted after “hundreds of calls, I mean, hundreds of calls” from Harry Potter Adults who were angry that the power cable would allegedly disturb the fictional location of the fictional grave of Dobby, the fictional formerly enslaved elf who was offhandedly freed by the fantasy series’ dimwitted but wealthy protagonist as a sort of prank on his private school enemy’s family, and who subsequently suffered both the social rejection of his still-enslaved fellow elves and the continued indifference bordering on contempt of his human idol, Harry Potter, before ultimately being killed while heroically rescuing Potter and several of his fellow human slave owners. […]

It took a random Reddit poster in this week’s r/ukpolitics “weekly Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction megathread” to fact check a story that the British and American press and me and you and everyone we know deeply wanted to believe was true:

First of all, this happened years ago. The consultation was in 2018, the cable was laid starting in 2022, it was tested at the end of 2024, and it's been in use since the start of 2025.

The cable wasn't dug into the top of the beach, it was drilled horizontally underground (point 7 here). This has evidently been the case since at least October 2018, and from what I can tell the route under the beach did not change between then and October 2021 when it was finalised.

Andy Burnham has said he will consider imposing a ban on disposable barbecues amid the risk of further wildfires as extreme heat continues to grip parts of the UK.

The prime minister will chair an emergency Cobra committee later on Wednesday in response to a prolonged spell of exceptionally hot and dry weather.

On a visit to Stevenage earlier, he said single-use grills could be banned to help prevent fires.

”There is obviously a significant problem of wildfires in the south. The New Forest fire is a great concern; we have seen them in northern areas as well as Suffolk recently.”

He added: “This is a message for the public as well, because the wildfires I mentioned, many of them have been created by disposable barbecues.”

It comes as temperatures are forecast to reach 33C today and up to 38C tomorrow.

An investigation by The Telegraph has found a potential link between Bankman-Fried’s money and Mr Streeting’s office.

The American gave a 610,000 dollar (almost £500,000) gift to David Lawrence on June 30 2022, who had founded a group called Labour for the Long Term, according to the newspaper.

On August 22 2022, Labour for the Long Term began funding a policy adviser role for Mr Streeting’s office “at a cost of £2,500 a month, total value £30,000”.

Asked about the money on Friday, Mr Streeting said: “I’m confident that I’ve received no money from Sam Bankman-Fried.

“I’ve never met the guy. I’ve never spoken to him.

“When Labour for the Long Term, which is a Labour supporting group, were willing to donate to support staffing in my office when I was a shadow minister, we did due diligence, not just on the organisation but asked the organisation to provide us a list of the donors who were donating to support that work.

“Those donors did not include Sam Bankman-Fried and, in fact, the only donor that did have a connection to Sam Bankman-Fried has since confirmed that the money he donated was his own money, not Sam Bankman-Fried.

“So, I’m absolutely confident that I’ve received no money from Sam Bankman-Fried.”

The New Statesman can reveal that Banks directed investigators from Precision Risk and Intelligence (a private investigation firm he previously owned, which is now dissolved), to look into Pogrund after the Insight story. Banks did not deny he had launched the probe. “We believe the Sunday Times used hacked information and that was an area of interest. We do have an investigative arm that’s got advanced capabilities,” he told the New Statesman.