He’s the Democratic politician with movie-star looks and a picture-perfect family, dogged by accusations of being a smooth‑talking elitist. Can he really unite the American left and win the most powerful office in the world?

When you think of the politician Donald Trump isn’t, when you think of the norm he broke, the archetype he shattered, you might well picture a man who looks a lot like Gavin Newsom. Tall and handsome, hair coiffed just so, with a blond wife and four photogenic kids at his side, Newsom, who has been the governor of California since 2019 and is often described as the frontrunner to be the Democratic nominee for the White House in 2028, looks the way professional politicians, and especially presidential candidates, look in the movies.

It’s dogged Newsom for years, that look of his, perennially suggesting that he is, in the words of one California newspaper, “too ambitious, too slickly handsome, and too patrician-seeming”, especially for a populist age that cherishes the authentic and has no truck with anything either phoney or “elite”. The elite tag especially has hung around Newsom’s neck for decades, thanks to the fact that his ascent to the top of California politics has seemed smooth and unbroken, apparently eased by a childhood spent in the orbit of the Getty family, when that name was a byword for astronomical wealth.

As high rents push more adult children back to the family nest, it is vital to have a conversation about who pays what

When her 27-year- old son and 24-year-old daughter moved back home, Tricia Carter decided to ask them to pay rent. The 63-year-old, who lives in south London, charges them £300 each a month to cover bills including electricity and groceries.

She has a comfortable income, but their contributions help to keep the books balanced. The money is also a way to make her children aware of the financial burden of living somewhere, she says.

Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
His music is still all over the place, lurching from landfill indie to solipsistic ballads, but the youngest Beckham son can certainly play guitar

“Memorabilia,” the person on the door says, passing out a commemorative ticket welcoming fans to Cruz Beckham’s show in “Cardiff, England”. It’s an inauspicious start, particularly in a building that’s a decades-old monument to Welsh-language culture, but once the house lights go down, there’s enough to suggest that, even if he’ll never make it as a geography teacher, he could give this music thing a proper lash.

It would be easy to go in studs-up on Beckham, the youngest son of David and Victoria. He’s already a tabloid fixture, his profile supercharged by the recent intra-family beef that has opened up new seams in the content mines, and his every move might duly be viewed with cynicism. His desire to play clubs, to “do it the right way”? The machinations of a nepo-prince currying favour with the masses.

There is no end in sight to the pollution caused by a ‘broken’ system. Experts say it could even be getting worse

Sarah Lambert took her usual morning swim for 40 minutes off Exmouth town beach before her volunteer shift helping disabled people get access to the water.

A wheelchair user herself, Lambert’s regular sea swims twice a week between the lifeboat station and HeyDays restaurant were the perfect form of exercise for her disability.

Steve Borthwick started the Six Nations with a settled group but the journey to Australia 2027 has suddenly become a lot more complicated

Not so long ago, Steve Borthwick’s squad for the 2027 World Cup was taking shape nicely. He picked a largely predictable 36-man group for the Six Nations and the same can be said of his matchday 23 to face Wales in England’s championship opener. Borthwick is a loyal coach who relies heavily on depth charts and the exodus of so many players to France after the last World Cup made a number of difficult decisions for him much easier. Just how tailored his squad is to the 2027 tournament is demonstrated by his refusal to pick the Bordeaux-bound Tom Willis on the basis he will not be available despite being awarded an enhanced contract last summer.

Suddenly, on the back of two heavy defeats and shocking performances, things are not nearly as settled. Comparisons have been made with the 2018 Six Nations in which England also bombed. Eddie Jones reacted by deciding that a clutch of senior players such as Chris Robshaw, James Haskell, Mike Brown and Dylan Hartley would not keep going to the 2019 World Cup. There are also similarities with the 2023 World Cup warm-up matches when a number of players played their way out of Borthwick’s thinking. Here we take a look at which stalwarts are now under pressure, those in the maybe pile, who has advanced their case and who may emerge from left field.

In the past he has been urged to follow strategies that don’t really match his core beliefs. That’s changing, as it must, because he knows the clock is ticking

• Tom Baldwin is the author of Keir Starmer, The Biography

In a crowded and overheated bar towards the end of the evening a few months ago, I received some strange parenting advice from one of those “Labour strategist” types.

We were discussing – maybe arguing – over the government’s position on Gaza. Eventually I asked if he could provide me with a decent explanation to give my son who had shown me stuff on his phone a couple of days earlier about how Israeli army officers were still being trained by Britain’s military. “Here’s what you say to your son,” began his reply, followed by a portentous pause that made me lean in closer. “You should tell him to fuck off.”

Tom Baldwin is the author of Keir Starmer, The Biography

Iran has launched retaliatory strikes against US military bases and Israel

• Full report: US and Israel attack Iran

• Analysis from Guardian diplomatic editor

• What we know so far

Blasts have been heard in several cities, including the capital, Tehran, and Isfahan in central Iran.

Reuters reports there are long queues at petrol stations in the capital, as many people try to leave. An unnamed Iranian official who spoke to the news agency said several ministries in southern Tehran had been targeted.

US president calls on Iranian people to ‘take over your government’, as explosions heard across central Tehran

• US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates

• US and Israel strikes on Iran – what we know so far

Israel and the US have launched a war on Iran, with Donald Trump declaring the start of “major combat operations” and calling on Iranians to rise up against their government.

The US president’s comments came soon after explosions were heard across central Tehran. One apparent strike hit near the offices of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran is preparing a “crushing retaliation”, an Iranian official told Reuters.

Second Israeli-US attack during nuclear negotiations may finally jettison any chance of agreement

• US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates

• US and Israel strikes on Iran – what we know so far

The attack mounted jointly by Israel and the US on Iran had been planned for months, but the timing, in the midst of negotiations between Iran and the US, will again raise questions about whether Washington was ever serious about striking a deal with Tehran.

In June last year, Israel, with the US later in tow, launched a 10-day attack on Iran just three days before Iran and the US were due to meet for a sixth set of talks.

The US and Israel have attacked Iran, with Trump calling the US operation ‘massive and ongoing’. This is what we know so far

• Israel and US attack Iran – latest updates

• Full report

The US has launched “major combat operations” in Iran, designed to eliminate “imminent threats” from the country’s regime, Donald Trump announced on Saturday.

The operation is “massive and ongoing”, the US president said in a video on social media, pledging to use “overwhelming strength and devastating force” to destroy Iranian missiles and ensure it cannot develop a nuclear weapon.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the attacks aimed to “remove the existential threat” posed by the Iranian regime, as he urged the people of Iran to topple the government.

Shortly beforehand, Israel said it had launched “preventative” strikes on Iran.

The Israel Defense Forces said Iran had fired back a “barrage of missiles” and they were working to intercept them. Israel has closed its airspace.

Explosions were heard in Tehran, the Iranian capital, where smoke could be seen rising on the skyline, and several other cities. Iran has closed its airspace.

“The hour of your freedom is at hand,” Trump told Iranian citizens, urging them to “take over your government” once the operation was over.

Talks between the US and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear programme ended inconclusively on Friday, with a suggestion that further discussions would be held next week. Trump had said he was “not happy” with the progress of the discussions.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is not in Tehran, and has been transferred to a secure location, an official told Reuters on Saturday.