From “problematic” to “a couple of kinks in that Slinky” to “a bit of a stretch”, reaction from Republicans who weighed in on Donald Trump’s proposal to “own” Gaza was mixed on Wednesday, while some senior party leaders gave their blessing. Some of the strongest criticism came from Rand Paul, the Kentucky senator who posted…

A former member of the top US labor watchdog has sued Donald Trump over her firing last week, describing it as an “unprecedented and illegal” attempt to strip the agency of its independence. Gwynne Wilcox said her removal from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was a “blatant violation” of the National Labor Relations Act…

The Southbank Centre was once voted Britain’s ugliest building, but fresh interest in its architecture after the success of The Brutalist has prompted a renewed call to get it listed. For 34 years successive governments have resisted proposals to list the centre – a set of concrete buildings that include the Hayward Gallery, the Purcell…

A voice coach employed by Keir Starmer during Covid was part of a small team preparing him to give Labour’s formal response to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, and needed to be there in person, Downing Street has said. The Conservatives have called for a police investigation into whether lockdown rules were breached by having Leonie…

Workers at the US Department of Labor are organizing a protest ahead of the scheduled meeting of Elon Musk’s staff at the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) with the management at Frances Perkins Building in Washington DC at 4pm on Wednesday. “Lower-level IT supervisors were basically asked to plan to stay late after the 4pm…

Local elections in nine councils across England are to be postponed for a year as part of devolution measures that will reorganise local government in those areas, Angela Rayner has announced. The communities secretary, who is also the deputy prime minister, said her department had agreed to delay elections in half the areas that were…

Keir Starmer has decided not to travel to Paris for next week’s international summit on artificial intelligence, despite the attendance of other world leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi and JD Vance. Sources have told the Guardian that the prime minister will not attend the summit, the latest in a series of international AI conferences…

Researchers have peered inside an ancient scroll that was burned to a crisp in the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago. The scroll is one of hundreds found in the library of a Roman mansion in Herculaneum, a town on the west coast of Italy that was wiped out when Mount Vesuvius…

Private sector companies added more jobs than expected in January, furthering the case for a stable labor market that allows the Federal Reserve time as it contemplates its next policy move, ADP reported Wednesday. The payrolls processing firm said companies created a net 183,000 jobs on the month, slightly more than the 176,000 in December,…

A group of major publishers in the US are suing the state of Idaho over a book-banning law. HB 710, enacted last July, forbids anyone under the age of 18 from accessing books deemed “harmful to minors”, including those depicting “sexual conduct”, in school or public libraries. The ban extends to classics and bestsellers, including…