Keir Starmer expected to award 25 new Labour peerages

Exclusive: Former union bosses and Labour staffers on list as prime minister aims to balance chamber

Keir Starmer is putting the finishing touches to a list of dozens of new peerages aimed at strengthening Labour’s hand in the Lords, with Rachel Reeves’s outgoing chief of staff expected to be among them.

The prime minister is planning to publish his list before Christmas, with a number of other former senior advisers, Labour party staff and former union leaders expected to be on it, the Guardian has been told by multiple sources briefed on the plans.

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Pope Leo urges Trump not to try to overthrow Venezuelan president with military force

Pontiff calls on US president to ‘seek dialogue’ as White House steps up campaign against Nicolás Maduro

Pope Leo has urged Donald Trump not to attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, using military force, and to instead seek dialogue.

Trump’s administration has been considering its options as it steps up its campaign against Maduro, who it accuses of links to the illegal drug trade. The country’s authoritarian leader has denied the accusations.

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What is Honduras ex-president accused of and why has Trump pardoned him?

Juan Orlando Hernández, once called the key figure in a drug trafficking scheme that flooded America with over 400 tonnes of cocaine, walks free after the pardon.

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Zillow deletes climate risk data from listings after complaints it harms sales

Site removes feature after real estate agents and some homeowners say scores appear arbitrary and hurt sales

Zillow, the US’s largest real estate listing site, has removed a feature that allowed people to view a property’s exposure to the climate crisis, following complaints from the industry and some homeowners that it was hurting sales.

In September last year, the online real estate marketplace introduced a tool showing the individual risk of wildfire, flood, extreme heat, wind and poor air quality for one million properties it lists, explaining that “climate risks are now a critical factor in home-buying decisions” for many Americans.

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Andreas Whittam Smith, co-founder of the Independent, dies aged 88

The journalist and editor also led the British Board of Film Classification and served as the senior lay member of the Church of England

Andreas Whittam Smith, the co-founder of the Independent newspaper and a former president of the British Board of Film Classification, has died aged 88.

Whittam Smith was also the first editor of the Independent and served as First Church Estates Commissioner, the senior lay member of the Church of England, from 2002 to 2017.

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Ukraine hits tankers in Black Sea in escalation against Russia

The two ships struck by drones were thought to be used to bypass Western sanctions on Russia.

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Your Party members vote to make name permanent at tense first conference

Liverpool gathering lays bare bitter divisions within new party founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana

The new leftwing party founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana will be called Your Party after a vote by members, but its weekend conference laid bare bitter divisions.

Just over 37% of members voted for the name Your Party, provisionally adopted when it was launched earlier this year, to become permanent. The votes for others on the shortlist were 25.23% to be called For The Many, 25.23% for Popular Alliance and 14.19% for Our Party.

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White House launches website to excoriate media for ‘biased’ stories

Trump administration lists reporting it objects to in latest escalation of attacks on US journalism

The White House rolled out a new section of its official website on Friday that publicly criticizes and catalogs media organizations and journalists it claims have distorted coverage.

At the top of the page, the text reads: “Misleading. Biased. Exposed.” The feature names the Boston Globe, CBS News and the Independent as “media offenders of the week”, accusing them of inaccurately portraying Trump’s remarks about six Democratic lawmakers who released of video encouraging military members to not follow illegal orders.

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‘The City can’t be taken for granted’: how banks won over Rachel Reeves

JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to expand UK presence after sector was spared from higher taxes in budget

Over canapés of beef and stilton pie, bone marrow gravy and mushy peas, the financiers at JP Morgan’s New York headquarters held their champagne flutes aloft for a toast: “His majesty the king.”

Just days before Rachel Reeves’s budget – amid the chancellor’s efforts to soothe business fears and bond market jitters – Jamie Dimon, the Wall Street banking company’s boss, was hosting a birthday celebration for King Charles at its new $3bn (£2.3bn) Manhattan headquarters.

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Hungary's Orban defies EU partners and meets Putin again in Moscow

Russia's leader praised what he called Orban's "balanced position on the situation in Ukraine".

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