Andy Burnham is to become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade, having secured the Labour leadership with the landslide support of his party’s MPs.
The former Manchester mayor is now set to replace Starmer as Labour leader on Friday before walking through the doors of No 10 and becoming prime minister next Monday.
For our big story this week, Daniel Boffey looks at how Burnham charted the route from school politics to No 10, while Jessica Elgot runs through the bulging in-tray awaiting him when he steps into the new role. And Gaby Hinsliff examines how the PM-in-waiting might fare on the global stage, asking whether, unlike Keir Starmer, he has the skills to deal with Donald Trump.
Another big UK political story has dominated headlines over the past week, thanks to agenda-setting Guardian reporting. With Nigel Farage and Reform UK coming under increasing scrutiny over donations to individuals and the party’s funding, Farage announced he was resigning his seat in parliament – and then standing in the resulting byelection. Guardian City editor Anna Isaac sets out the questions facing Reform.
And we also have a profile of Count Binface, the main challenger in the battle for the Clacton constituency – dubbed “a people versus the establishment byelection” by Farage.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Spotlight | A revolution in ruins
Discontent with Venezuela’s Trump-backed government is mounting as Chávez heirs struggle to respond to the earthquake disaster, writes Tom Phillips
Science | We’re going on a water bear hunt
Scientists hope DNA sequencing tardigrades – tiny yet virtually indestructible creatures – could help us understand the secrets of their superpowers. Patrick Barkham reports
Feature | The battle of the Bell hotel
Tim Burrows visits the town of Epping in Essex to hear from local people about the impact of last year’s far-right protests that centred on a hotel housing asylum seekers
Opinion | The real source of Trump’s power exposed
The Nato summit showed the US president’s willingness to violate all norms, rules and laws – and leave everyone else to pick up the pieces, argues Robert Reich
Culture | Never-ending story
With Christopher Nolan’s take on the Odyssey set to break box office records, Charlotte Higgins asks why a poem from 600BC holds a vice-like grip on pop culture
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What else we’ve been reading
• I was never sure about the spate of TV shows that encouraged viewers to gawp at dirty and cluttered homes. But Bea Elton, who has more than 6 million followers on social media, invited Emily Retter to shadow her as she tackled an extreme clean. Elton is revealed to be someone who goes about her work with incredible wisdom and compassion. Clare Horton, deputy editor
• As the football World Cup reaches its climax in the United States this weekend, this visual history of great World Cup shootouts over the years is a timely reminder of the supporter’s fear of the penalty. Graham Snowdon, editor
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | ‘Navigating the unknown together’: me and my idiot AI boyfriend
• Video | Undercover in Laos: how Chinese tourism fuels animal trafficking
• Gallery | We have survived! Forty years of Aboriginal protest posters
• Interactive | ‘The trash does not stop’: life among the garbage mountains of the world’s biggest city
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