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<p>Fireworks explode in the sky to bring in the New Year around the London Eye and the Elizabeth Tower</p>

John Rentoul

Refurbishing the Palace of Westminster would revive ‘can-do’ Britain

Parliament’s buildings are falling down, but our MPs are too timid to commit to a monumental restoration that could cost £39bn and take more than 60 years to complete… and it’s a national shame, says John Rentoul

<p>Many Americans thought it was unthinkable that a US president could be as aggressive as Donald Trump has been</p>

Melissa Allin

As an American, I just want to say sorry

<p>‘It’s not some fad. I am generally worried about my daughters’ nutrient-deficient diet – that fussy eating again – and how it might affect their gut health’</p>

Charlotte Cripps

Help! My children’s supplements are bankrupting me

<p>Any teenager who can endlessly scroll without limits is going to be put into a situation where trouble or harm is more likely</p>

George Deanus

I’m 14 years old – please don’t take my TikTok away

<p>Matthew Goodwin, on the election stump with Reform leader Nigel Farage</p>

Sean O’Grady

Is Matthew Goodwin too rabid even for Reform?

<p>Given the prime minister’s ethics adviser found that Angela Rayner ‘had acted with integrity’, her allies believe that she could, in time, make a Cabinet comeback and win a leadership contest</p>

Sonia Sodha

Is Angela Rayner really ready to march on Starmer’s Westminster?

<p>Government officials are looking to attract more ethnic minorities to live in and visit the British countryside</p>

Mary-Ann Ochota

Is the UK countryside racist? In parts of it... yes

<p>Georgina Fuller and her son Eddie at Legoland Dubai</p>

Georgina Fuller

Why shouldn’t my autistic son ‘skip the queue’ at Alton Towers?

<p>Sir Elton John is appearing alongside his husband David Furnish in a High Court trial against the Daily Mail’s publisher</p>

Victoria Richards

Hopping mad, Sgt Elton John spat bullets in the witness box

<p>‘Keir Starmer’s defence of his part in the Epstein/Mandelson affair was a weak mix of claimed ignorance and realpolitik’ </p>

Emily Sheffield

I’m appalled at how easily powerful men ignore what Epstein did

<p>Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet in Alaska, 2025</p>

Mary Dejevsky

Don’t panic! The end of New Start won’t trigger a new arms race… yet

<p>Morgan McSweeney, here with Keir Starmer, has a lot to answer for – but so does his boss</p>

Paul Holden

If I were Morgan McSweeney, I’d fear being knifed by Starmer

<p>‘Mandelson via Epstein was serving not the UK, but the other side. Not the Russians, the usual foe, but the banks’</p>

Chris Blackhurst

Epstein was in effect a secret member of the British cabinet

<p>There can be few who are undaunted by the prospect of leaving college with debts running into the tens of thousands of pounds</p>

The Independent View

It’s time the student loans system was abolished

<p>‘Only a few hours after the release of the latest damning Epstein files, which shared further unsavoury details of his antics, Andrew was photographed on horseback in Windsor, looking as if he owned the place’</p>

Alexander Larman

Andrew’s exile to Marsh Farm is the punishment he deserves

<p>Christine Keeler, the party girl who played a central role in the Profumo affair, outside Marylebone Court, where in 1963 she was tried for perjury and conspiring to obstruct the course of justice</p>

Anne McElvoy

Epstein will go down as an even bigger scandal than the Profumo affair

An establishment sex scandal involving powerful men, young women and a high-society fixer, which erodes public trust and ultimately brings down a government… the echoes of 1963 should send shivers through this Labour administration, says Anne McElvoy

<p>Prime minister Keir Starmer addresses the Mandelson scandal</p>

John Rentoul

What is keeping Keir Starmer in place is the lack of a successor

<p>Frieda Hughes’ new car</p>

Frieda Hughes

After years of lusting, I can afford my dream car... albeit secondhand

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