It seemed like a fait accompli that Hoyle would deny the application for a Commons vote – but he had other ideas

What the hell has Keir Starmer done to upset the speaker? Was it that row they had after prime minister’s questions a few weeks back, when Keir appeared to have taken objection to Lindsay Hoyle’s ad libbed remarks about not being responsible for Starmer not answering any of the questions? Has Hoyle finally had enough of the government announcing policy decisions in press conferences and media briefings, rather than in statements to the House of Commons?

Or is Lindsay just a bit bored? Perhaps he has decided to liven things up a bit in the dog days of the current parliament. Go out with a bang. Place himself centre stage. Lights. Camera. Action.

Yes, the beachside sexperiment comes with endless hands-on intimacy therapy, which could easily feel shocking, excruciating or just plain dull. Instead, it’s a jolly, wholesome joy

Here are a few things Virgin Island is not. The Channel 4 series, in which 12 adult virgins travel to Croatia to take part in a three-week intimacy retreat, isn’t graphic, explicit, tawdry or tasteless. For reality TV, it doesn’t even feel that exploitative: unlike many other formats, you get the sense that everyone involved is crystal clear about what they are here to do and how it will end up looking on television.

It’s what they are here to do, however, that makes watching Virgin Island a mind-boggling experience. Whatever the reason for remaining a virgin, the remedy is broadly the same. With the help of various sex therapists, the participants are encouraged to tune in to their desires, expose their bodies and experience sensual touch via professional “surrogate partners” – a treatment that can (and, in the first series, did) extend to penetrative sex.

On the runway at Gatwick, the visceral reality of forced removals was laid bare. If only more could see what is done in our name

It’s Gatwick airport, mid-afternoon, and on the runway there is turmoil. Public policy playing out in full view of the public. Voters, citizens, seeing what they don’t normally see.

“Murdaar, murdaaaaar,” screams the bucking, brawling, brawny man as a clutch of male security officials, with solid intent and hi-vis yellow jackets, collectively fight to pin him into a seat at the back of the airliner. “Me caaan go back a Jamaica,” he hollers, the visceral sound reverberating around the 777. “Dem kill me bredda. Dem a go kill me.”

Hugh Muir is executive editor, Opinion

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Arterton power-walks stylishly through Tom Bradby’s slick crime caper that takes itself so seriously even the saucy stuff is solemn. Slow Horses this is not

Another week, another glossy espionage drama in which agitated politicos scour the corridors of power in search of something, anything, to differentiate the thing from its predecessors. But what? ITV’s Secret Service rummages through its faux-leather briefcase for fresh ideas. Not the easiest of tasks, given the number of cliches that swirl around the genre’s cufflinks. But God loves a trier. And Secret Service is nothing if not tenacious.

Might a protagonist who juggles family life with a secret job as an MI6 agent count as a USP, it wonders, nodding at Kate Henderson (Gemma Arterton) and her tousled action-bob. No? How about a plot that divides itself between Whitehall and a more exotic, if no less treacherous, location such as, say, Malta? Or many scenes in which actors in wool-blend car coats stride purposefully past the SIS building while shouting things like: “You’re the bloody home secretary!” and: “Tell that to the prime minister!”

After Donald Trump’s second election, I realised the insidious hold my phone had over my life. So I turned to something I’d loved in childhood to better occupy my attention

After a long day of looking at screens for work, I used to go to bed and stare at my phone until I fell asleep. When not doomscrolling news headlines, I’d crash out to hateful comments on social media or revisit workplace dramas via mobile versions of Teams and Slack. I was always plugged in.

It was a ritual that would start well before bedtime. As the evening wound down, I’d surf algorithms for hours on end, barely paying attention to whatever television programme was on in the background, only half-listening to conversations around me. Whether it was the incessantly dystopian news cycle, toxic opinions on pop culture, or posts railing against obtuse LinkedIn speak, there was always another online scab to pick.

Russian backing for the ruling junta has not stopped rebel fighters striking significant blows in recent days

• Mali in turmoil after insurgents seize towns and kill defence minister

When Assimi Goïta, the leader of Mali’s military junta, sat down with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the Kremlin last summer, it symbolised Moscow’s commanding sway over Mali at the expense of the west.

As the two men spoke, roughly 3,500 miles to the south, about 2,000 Russian troops were propping up the regime in the landlocked desert country, as part of Moscow’s broader push for influence across the Sahel region.

The prime minister faces a standards investigation over Mandelson affair and testimony from Morgan McSweeney

Keir Starmer has told Labour MPs to “stick together and fight together” as ministers launched a massive operation to shore up his fragile position before a critical day for his premiership.

The prime minister faces the double threat of a standards investigation into his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US and potentially damaging testimony from Morgan McSweeney, his former chief of staff.

Complaint filed in federal court on Monday quotes part of Cole Allen’s manifesto, sent to family and friends by email shortly before he tried to charge into event

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Here’s more about the timing of King Charles’s visit today with Donald Trump at the White House.

According to Trump’s official schedule, the president will greet King Charles and Queen Camilla at the White House at 4.15pm ET. Shortly after, they’ll have tea and then tour a beehive at the White House.

Police warn of violent pornography and ‘toxic’ influencers as suicides outstrip homicides for third year running

The first teenage girl has been identified as having been driven to kill herself after domestic violence, as police chiefs blamed violent pornography and “toxic” influencers for being behind a rise in teen abuse.

Suicides after domestic abuse have outstripped homicides for the third year running, according to the Domestic Homicide Project, which records deaths in England and Wales after domestic abuse.

Attack in Adamawa state continues wave of violence across the country, including armed raid on orphanage in Kogi

Gunmen have killed at least 29 people in north-east Nigeria, a state governor said on Monday, with local people saying the attackers targeted young people gathered at a football pitch, the latest bout of deadly unrest in Africa’s most populous nation.

The attack on Sunday occurred in Adamawa state, which borders Cameroon, and is a hotspot for violence by jihadists and criminal gangs. Communal violence over conflict for land is also rife in the state.