In an extract from her posthumous memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre remembers the day an ‘apex predator’ recruited her from Mar-a-Lago, aged just 16; how she was trafficked to a succession of wealthy and powerful men, and how everyone knew what was going on

I can still remember walking on to the manicured grounds of Mar-a-Lago for the first time. It was early morning – my dad’s shift began at 7am, and I’d caught a ride to work with him. Already the air was heavy and moist, and the club’s 20 acres of carefully landscaped greens and lawns seemed to shimmer.

My dad was responsible for maintaining the resort’s in-room air-conditioning units, not to mention its five championship tennis courts, so he knew his way around. I remember he gave me a brief tour before presenting me to the hiring manager, who agreed to take me on. That first day, I was given a uniform – a white polo shirt, emblazoned with the Mar-a-Lago crest, and a short white skirt – and a name tag that said JENNA in all capital letters. (Although I was called Virginia, everyone at home called me Jenna.)

Ignore the bombast: Steve ‘build, baby, build’ Reed’s boast looks likely to end in targets more pathetic than they are now

If the name Steve Reed means little to you, rest assured that is a pothole he is eager to fill. Having replaced Angela Rayner as housing secretary, he bounded around Labour conference last month dishing out Maga-red caps stamped with his credo “Build Baby Build!”. Headgear and slogan have both been filched from that very rightwing guy in the White House – because, like Robert Jenrick, Steve Reed is what happens when self-identified centrists turn populist.

Imagine Donald Trump had, years ago, swerved TV fame to become instead ward councillor for Brixton Hill. Imagine if Trump had no towers, but knew his way round a Travelodge. Most of all, imagine this scene from the conference fringe, recounted by Inside Housing magazine:

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

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Economic insecurity, race riots, incendiary media … Claude McKay was one of the few Black journalists covering a turbulent period that sounds all too familiar to us today

There was no greater vantage point to see America burn than the Pennsylvania railroad. Working in the summer of 1919 as a dining car waiter, Claude McKay was so fearful that he had resorted to travelling with a revolver secreted in his starched white jacket. During this volatile time, which became known as the US’s Red Summer, a wave of racial violence engulfed the country.

In a situation replicated across the western world, hundreds of thousands of first world war veterans had returned home and were now looking for work. Among them were Black troops who had fought for the allied powers and hoped that they would be awarded equal rights in return for their service. It was not to be.

This new realistic, pragmatic approach, with no snags or celebrity bodge-jobs, means that this time could be the one

We’re on our way. We are Tom’s 26. This time, more than any other time, this time. We’re going to find a way. Find a way to get it right. This time. Well, maybe. Next time is also good. And the time after that. You don’t like this time? We have other times. Hey, Spain are pretty good right now aren’t they.

There is an entire multilayered history of Englishness in the basic tone and mood of English World Cup excitement. It is easy to forget that when the 1982 squad, AKA Ron’s 22, released the song This Time, a tortured paean to finally erasing their own ancestral agony, England had actually won the World Cup only 16 years earlier.

Determined to find a solution to the discarded plastic nets, Ian Falconer found a way to convert them into filament for 3D printing, for use in products from motorbikes to sunglasses

Ian Falconer kept thinking about the heaps of discarded plastic fishing nets he saw at Newlyn harbour near his home in Cornwall. “I thought ‘it’s such a waste’,” he says. “There has to be a better solution than it all going into landfill.”

Falconer, 52, who studied environmental and mining geology at university, came up with a plan: shredding and cleaning the worn out nets, melting the plastic down and converting it into filament to be used in 3D printing. He then built a “micro-factory” so that the filament could be made into useful stuff.

Rachel Williams says domestic violence is a ‘national emergency’. After she survived her ex’s final attack, her traumatised teenage son took his own life, and she began campaigning to end the terrible cycle of abuse

It was a sunny Friday in August when Rachel Williams arrived at the hair salon where she worked in Newport, Wales. As she was shuffling clients around, she remembers “looking at the shop door or window and thinking something was obscuring the sunlight”. She quickly recognised her ex-husband Darren’s 6ft 7in frame, and instinctively ran towards him as he pulled a sawn-off shotgun out of his black duffel bag.

She fought him for the gun and was soon on the floor beside a woman in her 90s called Connie, who was shouting: “Go on, get out of here, get out of here.” (“She was in the war, so made of steel.”) Rachel tried to pull a table across herself for protection but Darren kicked it away. Instead, she rolled into the foetal position, pulling her knees up under her chin. “He stood four feet away from me, told me he loved me, and pulled the trigger. My left leg took the first shot and I can remember it wasn’t a pain, it was a force.”

Documents reveal messages between the accused pair warning: ‘You’re in spy territory now’

The Crown Prosecution Service abandoned a case against two Britons accused of spying for China despite being told by the UK’s deputy national security adviser that Beijing’s intelligence agencies “harm the interests and security of the UK”.

Three witness statements were released by Keir Starmer on Wednesday night in an effort to draw a line under a row over why the case was dropped against the two, one of whom also warned the other in a message: “You’re in spy territory now.”

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, including the latest UK growth report

Britain’s trade deficit has widened, partly due to a drop in exports to the European Union and the US.

New trade data shows that UK exports to the United States fell by £700m in August, due to “falls in exports of machinery and transport equipment, chemicals and material manufactures.”

The fall in exports of machinery and transport equipment was because of reduced exports of both aircraft and mechanical power generators (intermediate) to Germany, while the decrease in exports of chemicals was because of reduced exports of medicinal and pharmaceutical products to Germany and Ireland.

The ONS also reported that the total underlying trade deficit widened in August to £5.2bn, up £1.7bn, led by a rise in imports from the EU.

The UK’s favourable trade deal with the US is reaping no identifiable growth benefits as yet for the UK, the ONS reported that exports of goods to the US, including precious metals, was lower by £0.7bn. The trade deficit was down to trade in goods, where the deficit widened by £3bn in the three months to August, the trade in services surplus increased by £1.3bn in the same period.

Exclusive: external consultancy report found discrimination ‘baked into HR systems’ at London force

A review of anti-Black racism within the Metropolitan police has been “buried” by the force, despite finding discrimination “baked into its HR systems”, the Guardian can reveal.

The internal review, commissioned by the Met from the consultancy HR Rewired, concluded that bias, racial stereotyping and inequity were woven through the force’s recruitment, promotion and grievance processes, affecting Black staff specifically.

Esther Njoki says family has seen ‘big change’ under Labour, after long fight for justice over aunt’s 2012 death in Kenya

The niece of Agnes Wanjiru, who was killed in Kenya, said she hopes the former British soldier charged with her aunt’s murder will be extradited while the Labour government is still in power.

On her first trip outside Kenya, Esther Njoki travelled to London, where she was invited to parliament to meet the defence secretary, John Healey, whom she urged not to delay the potentially years-long extradition process.