The Labour veteran looked an awkward choice for the court of Trump, but now the president is holding his hand and complimenting his beautiful accent

Peter Mandelson, with his elegant suits, smooth patter and high-end lifestyle, has always had a dark secret: an interest in the minutiae of trade deals, left over from his period as EU trade commissioner, a period when he could bore for Europe on the virtues of the Mercosur trade deal. Alongside his networking skills, and political antennae, it was his knowledge of trade that possibly persuaded Keir Starmer to take the political risk of appointing him ambassador to Washington.

A pro-European social democrat with a full record of insulting remarks about Donald Trump’s racism, Lord Mandelson might not have been the obvious man to open previously closed doors in the US administration.

Finally, a British prime minister has landed a trade agreement with the US. It’s just a shame it’s not a very good one

A huge day in import-export yesterday, as even Rome’s billion-per-cent tariff on American popes was lifted. The much bigger news, though, concerned the partial easing of recently imposed import taxes on British goods in the form of a starter UK-US trade deal, leaving the biggest little country in the world basking in the glow of an achievement our own prime minister seemed to hint had something of VE Day to it. In Britain, we have an old saying about dejection – “you look like you’ve lost a pound and found a sixpence” – but this was an entirely new spin on that scenario, given we were mostly celebrating being back to paying 10% more tariffs than we were subject to a few weeks ago. Yessss! A sixpence! Good times.

Before we get to the specifics of the deal, the theatre. I do find myself increasingly mesmerised by Trump’s Oval Office tableaux, which typically feature him surrounded by a cluster of sniggering mooks (eg the vice-president). Trump is like the boss in a cartoon about a crew of gangster dogs. Like Fat Sam from Bugsy Malone – but a bloodhound-chinese crested cross. Call him The Dogfather. So yes: the big dog was seated at his desk, while the henchdogs stood awkwardly round ready to laugh obsequiously on cue. And, bless them, they hit every single one. On this occasion, the boss dog was basking in their oleaginously indulgent chuckles, but you get the feeling that on a bad day it could go quite the opposite way. “Shaddup, Vance, you idiot. Did I say you could snigger?” “No, boss. Sorry, boss.”

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

The biggest night in telly is back. So will Richard Gadd’s stalker drama come up trumps? Will Katherine Parkinson triumph for her turn in Rivals? And will Ruth Jones finally get a gong for Gavin & Stacey?

Rarely has a Bafta TV awards ceremony taken place against such a background of industry anxiety: plummeting terrestrial ratings, aggressive streamer competition, a precipitous drop in UK production. Even sponsors P&O Cruises will rarely have seen such troublesome seas.

Bafta voters (I am one, but don’t know any final results) will also have brought other external concerns. Jurors may worry that Mr Bates vs the Post Office (premiered January 2024) now feels too old, which could count against Monica Dolan and Toby Jones in the acting categories. (Because of calendar year qualification, Adolescence may have the same problem in 2026.) Also, older voters can be reluctant to see pushy rich streamers thriving: they’ve just about come to terms with Netflix but Disney+ and Apple TV+, who have a strong shortlist presence, may, for some, be the future too far. Here are my preferences and predictions.

From your children to those who have hurt us – these are the discussions we should be having, but aren’t

In polarising times, when technology has too often made us even more isolated, opportunities for meaningful conversation can go unnoticed. But what are we really missing? What do we forgo when we don’t take the chance to talk? And which conversations matter most? Here, experts highlight six conversations we should be having with one other, but aren’t.

As part of a Bafta TV special, the nominated actor on a whirlwind few years, why intimacy coordinators matter, and watching her not-so-guilty pleasure Real Housewives

When Marisa Abela landed the role of Yasmin, Industry’s traumatised heiress, she was still at drama school. Now, she’s a breakout star of the hit BBC/HBO series about the cut-throat world of finance. While the past couple of years have been stratospheric for the 28-year-old – she played Amy Winehouse in Sam Taylor-Johnson’s 2024 biopic Back to Black scoring a Bafta rising star nomination, and was hand-picked by Steven Soderbergh for his recent star-studded thriller Black Bag – she’s excited to be back for the next instalment of the show that made her name. In fact, when we speak she’s sitting in a Pret, all smiles and warmth despite waiting for a severely delayed train from London to Cardiff, where she is filming the fourth series.

What was your reaction when you found out you’d been nominated for a TV Bafta?

Packaged bread, once a household staple, is in ‘inexorable decline’ because of rising costs and competition from other options

Toast and jam, bacon sandwiches and boiled egg with soldiers may be at the heart of traditional British food culture but bread is making up an ever thinner slice of our diet – putting pressure on some famous brands.

While still one of the most ubiquitous items in shopping baskets, the popularity of the packaged sliced loaf has been sliding downhill since the Hovis lad puffed up a cobbled street with his bicycle to the strains of a brass band in the 1973 TV ad.

Pakistan officials confirm counterattack against India has begun under the name Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos, meaning ‘wall of lead’ in Arabic

Pakistan said it had begun retaliation strikes after accusing India of targeting three of its military bases with missiles fired from fighter jets, in a major escalation of the brewing conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

“India, with its naked aggression, has attacked with missiles. Nur Khan base, Murid base and Shorkot base have been targeted,” Pakistan military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a live broadcast aired by state television early on Saturday.

Exclusive: PM says he has ambitious plans for partnership and argues Britons have moved on from Brexit

The UK has “ambitious” plans to secure a closer trading partnership with the EU, Keir Starmer has said, as he argued the British public had moved on from Brexit.

Before a UK-EU summit, the prime minister urged people to “look forward, not back” as the country embarked on a new era of its relationship with the bloc.

Hundreds of leading figures from UK creative industries urge prime minister not to ‘give our work away’

Hundreds of leading figures and organisations in the UK’s creative industries, including Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Ian McKellen and the Royal Shakespeare Company, have urged the prime minister to protect artists’ copyright and not “give our work away” at the behest of big tech.

In an open letter to Keir Starmer, a host of major artists claim creatives’ livelihoods are under threat as wrangling continues over a government plan to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission.

Josep Borrell also criticises EU response to what he calls largest ethnic cleansing operation since second world war

The former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has launched a blistering attack on Israel, accusing its government of committing genocide in Gaza and “carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination”.

Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister who served as the EU’s top diplomat from 2019 to 2024, and president of the European parliament from 2004 to 2007, also criticised the bloc’s failure to use all the means at its disposal to influence Israel, saying expressions of regret were simply not enough.