No way back to government for Mandelson after Epstein scandal, PM says

Keir Starmer has ruled out any future government role for Lord Mandelson, weeks after he sacked him over his relationship with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The prime minister fired the Labour peer after the publication of emails which showed Lord Mandelson sent supportive messages to Epstein even as he faced jail for sex offences.

No 10 said the emails revealed “materially different” information from what was known when he was appointed to the key role of the UK’s ambassador to the US earlier this year.

The Labour grandee left the government less than a week after Sir Keir lost his deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who resigned over a failure to pay enough tax on her new home.

Last week he suggested that she could return to government and predicted that she would remain a “major voice” in British politics for years to come.

But he made clear that there was no route back for Lord Mandelson.

He was asked by journalists travelling with him on a two-day trade mission to India if he could see a future in frontline politics for Lord Mandelson and if he would let him have the Labour whip in the Lords.

He replied: “Not in a government role, in terms of future appointments.”

He added: “And I think Peter is also on a leave of absence from the Lords in any event, so the issue of the whip doesn’t arise.”

Sir Keir sacked Lord Mandelson a day after he told the Commons he had “confidence” in his ambassador, a situation even Labour MPs described as “embarrassing”.

It followed the publication of the emails which showed Lord Mandelson sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.

No 10 and the Foreign Office said the emails showed “the depth and extent” of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different from that known at the time of his appointment”.

The emails included passages in which Lord Mandelson told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

He is also reported to have told Epstein, “I think the world of you” the day before the disgraced financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.

Sir Keir was accused by the Tories of an “extraordinary error of judgement” in appointing the peer to the crucial role, a key link between the UK and Donald Trump’s White House, as his long-standing relationship with Epstein was well-known.

His sacking came a day after Britain’s then ambassador to Washington said he was “very embarrassed” to read a birthday message he wrote to Epstein in which he described him as his “best pal”.

The message, part of a 50th birthday book compiled for Epstein by convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, also saw Lord Mandelson express “love” for the financier and joke about entertaining his “interesting” friends.

Last week Sir Keir hinted that Ms Rayner could return to government just weeks after she resigned from the cabinet.

The PM hailed Ms Rayner as a “great story for social mobility”, adding that she will be a “major voice” in British politics for years to come.

The health secretary Wes Streeting also told Labour’s annual party conference that the government “needs” her back, following her work on the Employment Rights Bill.

Sir Keir said: “I was personally very sad to see her go…. Of you talk about social mobility, there is no greater story than Angela Rayner coming from very difficult circumstances to become deputy prime minister.”

He added: “She’s paid a heavy price indeed and I’ve always thought that she will be a major voice again in the labour movement and I think that is a good thing. “I’ve been really struck since she did step down by the number of people from different political walks of life who say to me they do want to see Angela Rayner have that voice again at some stage.”

Kemi Badenoch has a brilliant idea – will Rachel Reeves steal it?

It is what they call fox hunting season in Westminster, when parties race to steal their opponents’ best policies. To “shoot the fox” is to spoil the hunters’ fun. It is a brutal and ruthless sport – and so far, Kemi Badenoch is winning. Her “fox” – her pledge to abolish stamp duty – was a theatrical coup that sent Conservatives home from their conference happier than they had any right to be.

And it makes a difficult Budget for Rachel Reeves even harder. When we describe this Budget as “difficult”, we are using the word in its high mandarin sense, by which a senior civil servant might advise a minister that the government may soon be entering a terminal crisis.

Reeves is going to have to raise taxes substantially, having said last year that she wouldn’t, and cut spending plans – if there is anything that Labour MPs will let her cut.

Now Badenoch offers a tax cut which is even more popular than most, paid for by stopping the growth in welfare spending, which is also popular, except with Labour MPs.

It does not alter the arithmetic facing the chancellor, but it shifts the politics further against her. The taxation of housing can move the political market. George Osborne spooked Gordon Brown in 2007, proposing in his Tory conference speech to raise the threshold for inheritance tax on the family home. Alistair Darling had to respond with a smaller tax cut in his Budget, but Brown was put off an early election – a decision that he handled so badly that he never really recovered.

Badenoch’s policy will also give her something to say when she replies to the Budget, a task that traditionally falls to the leader of the opposition, and which is one of the most testing duties that the “worst job in politics” demands.

It will dismay and divide the Labour side of the Commons. Labour MPs would love to abolish stamp duty. Even hard-headed Labourites, who realise that taxes have to go up, and that more borrowing is a Truss-like fantasy that would be a V-sign to the bond markets – even they would rather raise taxes on almost anything else.

They know, because Paul Johnson, recently of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, devoted a great deal of his time there to explaining it, that stamp duty is a terrible tax. It gums up the housing market, trapping people in houses that are too big or too small, restricting labour mobility and suppressing economic activity. “Movers, builders, decorators. Flat pack furniture and DIY. Trips to Next, John Lewis and IKEA,” as Badenoch put it.

So how can Reeves respond? She could do something like Darling did 18 years ago. She could cut stamp duty as a step towards abolishing it altogether at some date in the distant future. Unfortunately for her, she would have to replace it with another tax on property, because there is no way that she can cut spending enough to avoid having to put taxes up overall. (The Tories’ “£47bn a year” of spending cuts is mostly fiction, only slightly more credible than Nigel Farage’s plans, which are not just fiction but fantasy fiction.)

I assume that one of Reeves’s options is a mansion tax, an annual levy on more expensive properties that would be like a council tax surcharge. Badenoch’s plan may tempt Reeves to increase such a tax and lower the house price at which it starts – in order to pay for a stamp duty cut.

If so, it would be an improvement in the tax system and a useful contribution to social justice. An annual charge on the value of people’s homes is a much more efficient way of raising money than a tax on moving house. At the moment, council tax is a bad one, based on out-of-date valuations and unfairly hitting cheap homes more heavily than expensive ones.

Badenoch’s clever policy may have rescued her leadership for the moment, although it may not save her or the Tory party in the end. But if she forces Reeves to steal part of the policy, Badenoch will have set the government’s agenda and delivered a better tax system for the country.

If the Tories truly believe in country before party, they should be proud of her.

Saka highlights Tuchel’s key change in England thrashing of Wales

The ball fizzed off the instep of Bukayo Saka and curled viciously into the top corner. England were three goals clear of Wales and a grin from the Arsenal man captured the ever-changing mood when it comes to representing Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions: Joy.

No longer a burden, or a feeling of being peeled away from club duty, Tuchel appears to have inspired an urgency and delight at the opportunity to represent the national team as he counts down the days to the 2026 World Cup. Inflicting a 3-0 defeat on their old enemy further emphasised a developing meritocracy, too, with club status no longer enough to seize a shirt. There was no starter from Chelsea, Liverpool or Man United for the first time since 1992.

Tuchel has lauded the New England Patriots in the build-up to this friendly, underlining his desire to replicate the iconic NFL franchise’s reluctance “to collect the most talented players” and instead “build a team”. Craig Bellamy might scoff at the second part and its difficulty when you can still showcase a team bursting with talent, despite the controversial absence of Jude Bellingham, with Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Jack Grealish, Reece James and the skipper Harry Kane, among others, also absent.

A game posing a deeper question beyond the result, could England bring the intensity and cutting edge in the final without their record goalscorer? The roar and passion from the red visiting corner suggested England would be made to work for their victory tonight against an inspired away side. But Bellamy’s team, with just two defeats in 12 under his leadership, were effectively down in the first round, snoozing at a corner and within three minutes Marc Guehi’s lunge was enough to redirect John Stones’ knockdown to Morgan Rogers. And the Aston Villa star’s precise finish nestled into the bottom corner to secure a perfect start for Thomas Tuchel’s side.

Rice, captain for the night in place of Kane, who was sitting this one out as a precaution, was queuing up at the back post, only for Rogers to pinch possession from his own unmarked position. A shambolic Wales then allowed Guehi, inside the six-yard box, to flick the ball to the back post, where Ollie Watkins had time to sweep home with his second touch.

Kane, with 16 goals already for Bayern Munich this season, grinned on the bench, inspecting his nails and perhaps wondering how many more goals he had surrendered to his deputy tonight.

England were rampant, and Saka burst through on goal, only for Joe Rodon’s desperate challenge to block a third goal inside 13 minutes.

But if there was a moment to summarise England’s dominance, it was Rogers, dropping into a deeper area and displaying close control, strength and balance to fend off the overmatched Liam Cullen, who nibbled a few times before conceding a foul. Rogers’ increasing prominence now makes Bellingham and Palmer’s presence in the starting line-up a doubt for the foreseeable future, illustrating a rare luxury for Tuchel.

The home cheers soon turned to gasps at the sheer quality on display, this time through Saka and that wand of a left boot. A whipped finish past the despairing Karl Darlow ended the contest at 3-0, with Tuchel spinning around in delight and pumping his arms furiously at his side’s relentless momentum.

Watkins almost had another at the back post before the break, this time inconceivably striking wide of a post from barely a yard after Elliott Anderson flashed the ball across the six-yard box. The Villa forward clattered into the woodwork, grimacing as much over the pain to his knee as his pride from the miss.

A first shot for Wales arrived in the 43rd minute to ironic whistles: Harry Wilson was unable to conjure the same deadly accuracy as Saka, to the glee of the home support.

Wales emerged after the restart still a little sluggish, with Rashford, rejuvenated since his move to Barcelona, sent on for the injured Watkins. But the sensational Rogers continued to cause havoc, thumping the woodwork as Wales unravelled from another corner.

Bellamy’s side did almost have a consolation on the hour mark, Neco Williams’ arching cross allowed David Brooks to connect with a sweetly-struck volley, only for the diligent Jordan Pickford, mostly an observer throughout, to repel the effort with an outstretched knee. The Everton shot-stopper’s poise, amid complete dominance should not be forgotten, either, with his presence likely to become pivotal next summer in knockout ties. A strong hand later denied Chris Mepham’s arrowed header to retain a clean sheet.

Tuchel is a reluctant front-runner, resisting any favourites tag that might float towards the Three Lions. “I don’t see why we should burden ourselves that we are the big favourites,” the German had remarked. This kind of dominance over Wales should not elevate England further in comparison to the world’s elite, but their strength in depth and increased menace on the ball brings a new flavour approaching a tournament. The storyline for the United States, Canada and Mexico now revolves around the competition for places, which could yet be England’s biggest weapon.

Madeleine McCann’s sister ‘always knew stalker wasn’t her’

Madeleine McCann’s sister has told a court she “always knew” that a woman who claimed to be the missing girl was not her sibling.

Amelie McCann received a string of messages from Julia Wandelt in which she insisted she was her missing sister, who vanished without a trace from a holiday resort in Portugal in 2007.

Ms Wandelt, 24, from Lubin in south-west Poland, is accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann, causing serious alarm or distress between June 2022 and February this year.

Giving evidence remotely at Leicester Crown Court, Amelie said it was “creepy” and “distressing” when Ms Wandelt sent her messages detailing apparent flashbacks she had from their childhood.

These included requests for a DNA test and alleged recollections from their childhood such as playing Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses with other children.

Ms Wandelt also sent images of herself which were “clearly altered or edited … to make it look more like her”, the court heard.

“It is quite disturbing that she’s coming up with these supposed memories even though she’s not Madeleine,” Amelie said.

However, she said she did not want Ms Wandelt – who denies stalking – to get a DNA test.

Asked why, Madeleine’s sister continued: “Because I always knew that she wasn’t Madeleine, so I didn’t need to do one and the, not guidance, but the people around me didn’t think it was appropriate either for her to get a DNA test.”

There was a “sound of desperation” in the messages, Amelie said, noting she blocked her on a number of online platforms.

Asked how the messages made her feel, she added: “It makes me feel quite uncomfortable because it is quite creepy she is giving those details and trying to play with my emotions.”

The daughter told jurors the alleged stalking “took a toll” on her mother, who was targeted the most. She said Kate McCann was “stressed and on edge” after Ms Wandelt visited her family home, calling it an “invasion” of their privacy.

“It definitely took a toll on her and her wellbeing because all the time her phone would be going off and it would be Julia,” she added.

“It’s upsetting when someone’s begging you to believe them and playing with your emotions to the point you are questioning yourself and doubting yourself.

“My mum really struggled with that – her saying ‘I’m your daughter’.”

Amelie’s twin brother Sean said he found Ms Wandelt’s claims “hurtful” and “deeply disturbing”.

“I find it disrespectful that she’s making this claim and getting a lot of attention and support for it,” he said in a statement read to the court.

“The fact Julia has no regard for how we feel about her claims is hurtful.”

He added: “I do not believe she is my sister. The fact Julia is doing this has caused me a great deal of stress and I find it deeply disturbing.”

Prosecutors allege Ms Wandelt repeatedly contacted Madeleine’s parents in a string of messages and phone calls and turned up at their address, on one occasion begging “please don’t give up on your daughter”.

She is accused of bombarding the mother with 60 calls and messages in one day, the trial heard.

Kate and Gerry each gave emotional evidence from behind a curtain on Wednesday as they spoke of impact of the “incessant” contact from Ms Wandelt.

The 24-year-old called Kate “mum” when she turned up at their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, in December last year with Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, the court heard.

Wandelt sobbed and shouted “why are you doing this to me?” from the dock as the mother told jurors about the distressing confrontation.

Gerry claimed the alleged stalking had damaged efforts to find his daughter, adding: “It has many effects – we don’t know what happened to Madeleine, there’s no evidence to say she’s dead.

“We really hope, and we know it’s only a glimmer, that Madeleine is alive. When so many people claim to be our missing daughter, it inevitably pulls your heartstrings, but there’s wider effect that is more damaging.”

Opening the crown’s case on Monday, prosecutor Michael Duck KC told jurors that there was “unequivocal scientific evidence” that Ms Wandelt has no familial link to the McCanns.

Ms Wandelt and Ms Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny stalking the parents.

The trial continues.

The shocking truth about the photo of the ‘ordinary’ Nazi

A bespectacled and serious-looking young man is pictured standing, pistol in his right hand, pointing directly at the head of a Jewish man he is about to murder. He is photographed perched on the edge of a pit filled with corpses in the grounds of a fortress in the middle of Ukraine on 28 July 1941. Commonly known as “The Last Jew in Vinnitsa”, the image has become as iconic of the genocide as the entrance to Birkenau, or the piles of bodies being bulldozed at Belsen.

After decades of scholarly research and investigation, we now know the man’s name was Jakobus Onnen. He was a teacher of French and English mainly, as well as physical education. Brought up in a small village near the German border with the Netherlands, his father, also a teacher, had died around the time Jakobus turned 18, in 1924. Had it not been for the war, Onnen, who was bright and studious, would have fitted well into the faculty of the German Colonial School near Kassel in central Germany, where he taught from 1932 to 1939.

What makes the photograph of Onnen so remarkable is not only the seeming impassivity of the young uniformed men as they watch him murder, but also the haunted and eerily calm expression on the hollow face of the man who is seconds away from becoming another corpse. So much of the photograph suggests routine, another day at work. There is nobody screaming, nobody crying, nobody flinching or turning away. The madness is in the sense of stillness. You can almost hear the shot echo around the courtyard of the fortress, and then the quiet thud of the body as it lands in the pit. And then perhaps the word “next”.

Until last week, the name of the murderer – wearing the uniform of a sergeant in the SS – was unknown. But now, thanks to some peerless investigation involving AI facial recognition and Onnen’s family breaking their silence, the German historian Jürgen Matthäus – the head of the research department of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – has revealed not only the identity of the killer, but also his background and fate.

There are no surprises, because there never are. The story of Jakobus Onnen is yet another tale of an “ordinary man”, who thought he was doing the right thing by murdering people he regarded as his enemies. Let’s not forget – the man was a teacher. He wasn’t, to the best of our knowledge, a rapist or a thug or some other type of monster. He was bright. He was married. He was the personification of ordinary. And yet, there he is, captured for eternity participating in an act of murder, probably wearing the same glasses he wore when he was lecturing his students.

It is Onnen’s unexceptionalism that should chill us today, even in modern Britain, or perhaps especially in modern Britain. Damning footage gathered in a seven-month undercover investigation for a Panorama documentary saw one officer, PC Phil Neilson, calling for an immigrant to be shot. A man in a Fred Perry shirt was livestreamed at the Tommy Robinson “day of rage” saying “Keir Starmer needs to be assassinated”. We see ordinary people on marches calling for global uprisings against different groups because of their religion. And when we think of the consequences of living in this febrile atmosphere – as we really, really must – then we end up asking ourselves: Is this how it happens?

It is one of the biggest questions of all, and we should be wary of anybody who thinks they can answer it confidently.

So what makes an ordinary person do something so monstrous as Onnen? In his article for the academic journal Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Dr Matthäus is sensibly cautious about what motivated him and his fellow genocidaires. As he points out, “the social situation within which the murderers operated was too complex, and the sources from which perpetrator motivation can be inferred were too sparse and unreliable”.

However, what we do know about Onnen gives us some clues.

He was born in 1906 in the village of Tichelwarf, which is about as far northwest as you can go in Germany before it becomes the Netherlands. After studying in Göttingen, he took up his position teaching languages and PE near Kassel. However, it appears that Onnen joined the SA – the Brownshirts – in 1931, and then transferred to the SS the following year. For the rest of the 1930s, he taught, but inspired by a new mood of nationalism, he also published articles in various Nazi journals, mainly about the exploitation of German colonies. One small sample passage should suffice: “The most valuable asset of a productive person is their labour. Only those whose bodies are healthy and resistant to disease remain productive.”

Onnen appears to have taken his writing seriously, and when one of his articles attracted some negative feedback, the young teacher challenged the reviewer to a duel with sabres. It required his superiors in the SS to defuse the situation peacefully – an intervention that now seems grimly ironic.

As well as having a bit of a temper, Onnen also had a somewhat tempestuous love-life, and he applied for SS marriage permits for three different women in 1935, 1937, and 1938, a series which Matthäus regards wryly as “rather idiosyncratic”. Ultimately, Onnen never received an SS marriage permit, and married another woman in April 1939.

At this stage it would be easy to regard Onnen as a bad sort, and the seeds of his later behaviour were all too apparently germinating. This would be glib. Plenty of young men and women in their twenties – especially if they are creative – are highly passionate about their work. Besides, challenging someone to a duel was more a cultural norm in Germany in the 1930s than it would be today. And as for having an “idiosyncratic” love-life? This hardly represents a qualification to conduct genocide.

But there is no doubt that Onnen evolved into a committed Nazi. In August 1939, just before the outbreak of war, he joined the SS Death’s Head Unit at Dachau concentration camp. By the beginning of 1940, he was working for the Nazi “Order Police” in occupied Poland. It was in June 1941, shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union, that Onnen would enlist in the unit in which he would be photographed doing his terrible duty – Einsatzgruppe C under SS-Brigadeführer Otto Rasch.

The actions of the Einsatzgruppen are, of course, well-known – mobile paramilitary execution units that slaughtered anybody in the conquered territories who was suspected of being an enemy of the Third Reich; be they a Jew, a communist, a Gypsy, or even an intellectual. Einsatzgruppe C would kill nearly 120,000 people.

So the question still remains – what precisely was Onnen’s motivation? “The attempt to causally link Onnen’s photographically documented act of murder with the rest of his biography must remain speculative in view of the lack of conclusive sources,” Dr Matthäus writes. “That he had already used deadly violence against Jews before his deployment in the Soviet Union – whether out of antisemitism, regime conformity, or career ambition – is neither documented nor deducible from his biography.”

But, if we can be sure of one thing, it is this – that Onnen was undoubtedly radicalised by a nationalistic regime that gave him an enemy and answers. Such radicalisation is all too present in our society today and what makes this process so terrifying, so hard to comprehend, is that by the end of it, such men – and they are usually men – do not regard the people they are killing as being human. This is why the language of nationalism often refers to its targets as being something other than people – they are parasites, cockroaches, bacilli, untermenschen, dogs, waves… You name it, so long as you don’t call them fellow human beings. Stripping your victims of their humanness makes them easier to attack, but it also strips the perpetrators of their humanity, too.

What we can be certain about is Onnen’s fate – he was killed fighting partisans some 100 miles west of Kiev in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine in August 1943. Justice of sorts, but not enough justice for the man kneeling at the edge of that pit – a man whose humanity was stripped from him. A man whose name we still do not know.

Norwegian nature: Enjoy wild, wonderful adventures on a safari-at-sea

Norway’s rugged coast is chock-full of natural beauty, dotted with steep fjords where the mountains meet the sea and teeming with all kinds of curious wildlife, from orcas, humpbacks, and over 80 species of seabirds to red foxes, reindeer, and otters. Norwegians are famous for their deep love of the outdoors, which even has its own word: friluftsliv. It helps that it is home to more than 150,000 lakes and is known for its dramatic fjord-fringed landscapes and shimmering glaciers. It’s also one of the best places to catch the technicolour magic of the Aurora Borealis.

What’s more, if you explore this breathtaking region on a Hurtigruten cruise, you’ll do so alongside the expert local Expedition Team, who have spent years traversing Norway’s rugged coastline. They are always on hand to provide engaging insights into the nature, wildlife, and culture you’ll encounter on every voyage. They go above and beyond to ensure you experience more than just the tourist hot spots. Each team member has their own area of expertise and hosts regular lectures for those who want to delve deeper into a specific interest. They also encourage you to join them on their hand-picked hikes and activities, which are at an additional cost and subject to availability but offer the chance to explore with those who know the area best.

Drawing on over 130 years of travel experience, Original and Signature Hurtigruten Voyages lead passengers along Norway’s dramatic Arctic coastline, showcasing its remarkable natural beauty in all its glory, with options to stop off in various locations along the way. As you sail between destinations, keep your eyes peeled for the abundance of wildlife that frequents the area. The coastline is a popular haunt for mammals like giant humpbacks, frolicking seals and playful porpoises.

During time spent on land, depending on your route, you might also come face-to-face with reindeer in the north or the elusive lynx, not to mention the flora that decorates the landscape in various seasons. Some routes stop at Mehamn, a traditional fishing town with only 800 inhabitants. From here, you can embark on an excursion to learn about the Sámi, an indigenous people from Europe’s northernmost region, known for reindeer herding, traditional handicrafts, and a deep connection to nature. Get to know the family, hear their stories and joik chanting, and try dried reindeer meat around a fire in a lavvo tent.

There are many different journeys you can take, depending on what you want to get out of your cruise. Trace the historic Coastal Express route on one of their Original Voyages, Hurtigruten’s first and most iconic route, established in 1893 and often hailed as the world’s most beautiful voyage. You’ll cover 2,500 nautical miles and visit 34 ports, starting in Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, where you can hop on a funicular to the summit of Mount Fløyen and soak up the incredible views of the city, the nearby fjords, and the surrounding mountains.

The North Cape Line Winter route is another popular cruise for nature lovers. This Signature Voyage adventure starts and finishes in Norway’s Capital, Oslo. The Signature Voyages take things up a notch, offering unmatched views of Norway’s best bits with more time to explore each stop. They’re also a hit with foodies, thanks to the all-inclusive option featuring award-winning restaurants and seasonal produce from Norway’s bountiful coastline.

Åndalsnes is also a favourite stop on the route, home to soaring mountains overlooking the surrounding town. It’s the ultimate hotspot for hikers, climbers and skiers thanks to its abundant accessible natural beauty. The Troll Wall is a highlight for adrenaline seekers here; this 1,000-metre vertical cliff in the Romsdalen valley boasts some of the most epic views from atop, including 360-degree vistas of Romsdalshorn, Åndalsnes town centre, and the Rauma River.

This route also takes you to The City of Northern Lights, Alta, where you can stand at the northernmost point in Europe, Cape Point in Honningsvåg – the perfect vantage point for those trying to catch this incredible natural phenomenon. Hurtigruten is so confident you’ll see the lights that they even offer a ‘Northern Lights Promise’: a free cruise if you don’t see them during the season (valid on 11-day plus voyages from 20th September to 31st March).

Many of the routes stop at Lofoten, an archipelago with immense peaks and fishing villages sandwiched between slopes. It’s not hard to see why this chain of islands is referred to as one of Norway’s most beautiful locations. Hiking opportunities abound here, and most trails lead to spectacular vistas, or if you prefer to stay on the water, you can hop in a kayak and enjoy a leisurely paddle.

Lofoten isn’t the only archipelago you’ll see on specific routes — keep an eye out for the Vega archipelago, a collection of around 6,500 islands, skerries, and islets. On Gardsøy Island, you’ll find a UNESCO World Heritage Centre with dedicated huts for local eider ducks to build their nests.

Journeying south along Norway’s west coast, many of the routes also take you past some of the country’s most famous fjords, including Hardangerfjord, measuring a whopping 179 kilometres in length, making it the second longest fjord in the country and fifth longest in the world. Get your cameras ready, as you’ll be treated to panoramic mountain vistas from every direction, with snow-capped peaks peeking over the fjord reflected on mirror-like water.

Hurtigruten cruises stop at Torsken on the southbound leg of the Svalbard Line, one of their premium, all-inclusive Signature Voyages that sails from Bergen to the Arctic archipelago and back. The secluded fishing village of Torsken is perfect for outdoors enthusiasts, tucked away in Torskenfjorden on the rugged west coast of Senja Island. It’s home to just a handful of houses, workshops, and small piers sprinkled with fishing boats and is the ideal base for exploring Norway’s second-largest island, Senja.

Senja’s stunning coastline has been rightly nicknamed the ‘Caribbean of the North’ thanks to its white-sand beaches and towering mountain peaks. It’s best to take an excursion and explore by small boat to spot white-tailed eagles, seals, seabirds like cormorants, and maybe even a golden eagle. Whether exploring Senja or simply soaking up sea views from onboard, a Hurtigruten cruise offers a chance to connect with nature, wildlife, and Norway’s stunning landscapes, with countless routes to choose from.

Book your Norwegian adventure for less, with up to 30% off, plus 10% off excursions on selected Coastal Express and North Cape Line voyages. For offers, routes and excursion info, visit Hurtigruten.

Trump hosted an ‘Antifa roundtable’… it was worse than you’re imagining

Wake up, babe, new civil liberties infringement propaganda just dropped! Today’s instalment of America’s ongoing descent into farce brings us a White House press release about “Antifa terror” and a presidential roundtable devoted entirely to the group that famously isn’t a real entity.

Around noon, a press release appeared on the official White House website, quoting numerous anonymous Portland residents, including a “man,” a “woman,” and a “business owner,” all of whom absolutely want the National Guard to storm their city. “I kind of support it 110%” is an actual quote.

But that was just the appetizer. At 3 p.m., the televised meeting began. And boy, was there a lot of meat.

Held at the table of “independent journalists” (far-right activists) and moderated by Donald Trump, it opened with a statement by the president that “paid anarchists” want to “destroy our country,” followed by bizarre, conspiracy-laden claims that anti-Trump protesters have signs made of expensive paper “with beautiful wooden handles” that therefore must have been printed in the basements of secretive organizations, and that “we have a lot of records already, a lot of surprises, a lot of bad surprises” in store for the people who align themselves with anti-fascism.

And by the way, he noted, “we got rid of free speech” because flag-burning is bad.

Attorney General Pam Bondi jumped in to underline the message: “We’re not going to stop at just arresting people in the street.” No, they’re going to “take down the organization brick by brick” and “destroy the organization from top to bottom.”

In chimed Kristi Noem, everyone’s favorite puppy killer: Antifa wants to “destroy the American people and their way of life” and is a group that has “infiltrated our entire country,” from “city to city,” cried the Homeland chief. Never mind that the anti-fascist protesters in Portland, Chicago and other Democratic cities are pretty much all homegrown Americans.

No, insisted ICE Barbie — they are invaders. They are traitors. They are “just as dangerous” as MS-13, Isis and Hamas. Her priority is “making sure they never see the light again.” This, by the way, is the woman who grandstanded about “staring down” Antifa when footage showed it was actually a couple of photographers and a guy in a chicken suit.

The quotes came thick and fast from the others around the table. At one point, someone casually addressed an imaginary Antifa member, saying: “You will be crushed by the Constitution.” Just as the Founding Fathers intended, no doubt.

The frenzied energy in the room was palpable even through a screen. Influencer Brandi Kruse did a monologue about how she used to “suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome” and how, since she changed sides, “I’m happier, I’m more healthy, I think I’m even a bit more attractive.”

Not to be outdone, in came Jack Posobiec, one of the right’s weirdest hangers-on, who is perhaps most famous for the time he spread the “Pizzagate” theory and then got removed from the pizzeria in question by police for filming a child’s birthday party. Running with the major theme of the hour — that Antifa is definitely, certainly, really real despite all evidence to the contrary, and that everybody needs to stop saying it’s not real — Posobiec made a startling claim: Antifa is so clearly real that it “has been going on for almost 100 years … going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany.”

And look, yes, it is absolutely true that there were anti-fascist protesters in the Weimar Republic. If you’ll remember, those were the people taking issue with the early versions of the Nazis. But it’s sort of difficult to position yourself as the good guys if you’re aligning yourself with the Nazis in your historical analogy. I’m just saying that, if I was Posobiec’s publicity guy, I might ask him to drop that soundbite from future public appearances.

I think we all know what’s going on here. But let’s begin with the fundamentals: Antifa isn’t real — at least, not in the way one convenes a roundtable. It has no central command structure, no coherent leadership, no membership rolls, no headquarters. It is a loose ideological umbrella — a term that is sometimes used by disparate activists and local groups, but much more frequently by the far right than by the supposed lefties who are part of it.

Obviously, the fact that there’s no proof anyone even really identifies as Antifa didn’t stop the White House from designating the “group” a terrorist organization a couple of weeks ago.

Research shows that genuine political violence remains overwhelmingly driven by far-right actors, not nebulous “Antifa” networks. But this, truly, is where MAGA has arrived at: a place so far removed from observable reality that it now holds official government functions with imaginary enemies. Once, conservatism prided itself on being “the party of realism.” Today’s version treats politics as fan fiction, complete with invented villains and lore.

Such productive unreality takes the energy that could be spent on governing or solving problems and redirects it into myth-making. Instead of talking about wages, housing or climate disasters, we’ll talk about black-clad anarchists who can’t be fact-checked because they’re mostly not real. And then we’ll use their alleged existence to justify sending masked men with rifles into cities that, it just so happens, didn’t vote for us. You could almost admire the absurdity if it wasn’t attached to actual state power.

The constant threats at this roundtable aimed at “people with money” who are supposedly “funding” Antifa are the real point. And, like a lot of the White House’s output at the moment, it is intended to intimidate as many people as possible into silence.

In their little room with their teeny little microphones, a bunch of very important people in heavy makeup entered into a collective delusion today. They’re desperate for everybody else to join them. But there are some facts that just won’t un-fact. And for those of us who fancy ourselves OK with words, let’s remember that, no matter how much you twist it, being anti-anti-fascism means being fascist, even — especially — in the Weimar Republic. That’s just elementary logic.

Man re-arrested over deadly terror attack at Manchester synagogue

A man has been re-arrested in connection with the terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester that left two people dead.

The 30-year-old was arrested on 2 October on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism following the attack in Crumpsall that day, but he was released without charge.

However, Greater Manchester Police said he was rearrested at Manchester Airport on Thursday on suspicion of failing to disclose information about an act of terrorism. He has since been released on bail with conditions.

The investigation into the attack by counter terrorism police remains live, but the force said it does not believe there is any ongoing threat to the public.

Also on Thursday, Jewish people stood in silence outside their synagogue to mark the moment a week ago when two of their community were murdered by an Islamist terrorist.

Dozens of local Jews, some with arms linked or hugging, paid tribute to father-of-three Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, the “quiet hero” who blocked the doors of the Heaton Park Hebrew Synagogue as it came under attack.

Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, rang 999 during his deadly rampage, pledging allegiance to the so-called Islamic State terror group.

He drove his car at Jews gathering for the holy day of Yom Kippur then attacked others with a knife and tried to storm the synagogue, wearing a fake suicide belt, before being shot dead by armed police.

Amid a heavy police presence, families of both the men he murdered were present for a short vigil on the steps outside the synagogue led by Rabbi Daniel Walker, who was present at the time of the attack.

The rabbi told mourners that “evil tried to defile these steps” but that evil will not prevail.