In the first of a series on nationalisation, we look at the critical tests ahead for the PM-in-waiting, from choosing a chancellor to the future of Thames Water

As he swept towards victory in the Makerfield byelection, Andy Burnham told voters he wanted to see “the essentials of life being run primarily for the public interest, not for the private interests”.

Citing the Bee Network of buses and trams across Manchester city region, brought together on his watch, Burnham repeatedly highlighted the need for more “public control” over the necessities of life. Water, energy, transport and housing are at the top of his list.

After the England captain announced his international retirement, we look back at the highs and lows of the all-rounder’s incredible career

The hotter it gets, the faster our bodies lose water. Obviously, we need to replace it – but is anything better than plain H₂O? And does timing matter? Here’s what the science says

Hydration is important. In temperatures like those we’re increasingly seeing in much of the world, sweating can be the only way for our bodies to cool down, and our thirst isn’t always the best indicator of how much water we’ve lost or need. The consequences of not being sufficiently hydrated as temperatures creep towards the 40s can be severe, and can kick in much faster than most people realise. The good news is that remembering to drink plenty of water at regular intervals throughout the day will be enough for most people to avoid the worst. But if you’d like to understand why dehydration is so dangerous, whether you really need extra electrolytes, or if a cup of tea really can cool you down, read on.

To start with, it’s helpful to understand that our bodies are producing heat – and therefore losing water – all the time. “All the cells in our body are constantly using fuel for energy for various different processes, whether that’s movement or just staying alive,” says Dr Lewis James, a lecturer in sport, exercise and health sciences at Loughborough University. “About 75 to 80% of the energy that we use appears as heat.” If we didn’t have any way of dissipating this heat, then even lying on the couch would see your body temperature rise about 1.3C in a single hour (already enough to make you noticeably feverish) – but of course, we do. Normally, we lose a decent amount of heat through a combination of convection and radiation: the blood vessels in our skin dilate, allowing the blood to be cooled by the outside air. The problem is that when the external temperature goes up, this process becomes less effective and eventually stops working altogether. At this point, our main way of losing heat is through sweating: our bodies produce tiny droplets of warm water mixed with trace minerals, which (usually) evaporate on contact with the air, drawing heat away from the skin in the process. And as we rely more on sweating, it’s increasingly important to replace the fluids our bodies are losing.

Document appears to have been subject to conflicting interpretations on key issues of Lebanon ceasefire and strait of Hormuz

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

The sudden eruption of fresh hostilities in the Gulf – just 10 days after Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict – threatens to put the two countries back on the path to war.

It appears the deliberately opaque wording in the memorandum has been unable to withstand the pressure of conflicting interpretations, and as a result supporters of the deal inside Tehran are on the back foot. Statements to the effect that Iran’s government should never have agreed to reopen the strait of Hormuz are proliferating – and not just among the country’s hardliners.

The mayor hopes to ‘write a new chapter in the party’s history’ – and recent democratic socialist wins prove he might be able to do it

In the back yard of a Brooklyn bar, beneath strung-up lightbulbs and swaths of fabric that swooped like great sails, an ecstatic crowd greeted Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, and his victorious ally, Brad Lander. These Democrats also had a withering verdict on their own party establishment.

“To me, centrists can go fuck themselves,” said Léa Zimmerman, 34. “They’re fucking useless, they don’t stand for anything, and if they do stand on something, it’s pathetic. I’m done with pathetic, performative people.”

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
The Puerto Rican musician kicks off in a white suit fronting a salsa band in full flow, then switches up with a swaggering, chaotic rave in a replica island home

Midway through the largest British concert ever staged by a Latin-American artist, a giant cartoon toad appears on the big screens and admonishes those in the crowd who can’t speak Spanish: “You’re missing the message,” it warns. The giant cartoon frog has a point. Bad Bunny is given to lengthy between-song chat, delivered in his native tongue, which apparently cover everything from the recent earthquake in Venezuela to what seem to be subtly pointed remarks about the importance of people and places: his current world tour declines to take in the United States on the grounds that it might attract the attention of ICE, a not-unreasonable assumption given the tantrum thrown by Donald Trump over the singer’s headline appearance at the Superbowl half-time show (a tantrum, it’s worth noting, that helped propel Bad Bunny’s albums into the British Top 10 for the first time).

Equally, the cartoon toad needn’t have worried. For one thing, there are so many representatives of the diaspora in the crowd that his Spanish monologues are noticeably more warmly and loudly received than his solitary announcement in English. And, for another, if his show proves anything, it’s that you really don’t need to understand the lyrics to grasp why Bad Bunny has become one of the biggest stars in the world.

Almost £24.4bn of government money went to private equity-run firms in year to April 2025, Guardian analysis shows

• ‘Treating children like cattle’: what happens when private equity takes over a UK care home?

• Nurseries, vets and shops: the sectors where private equity plays a big role

One pound in every £11 of UK government spending on contractors went to private equity-controlled companies last year, research shows, including key services such as transport, waste management and healthcare.

Politicians and economists have raised concerns over the “financial fragility and sharp cost cutting” created by private equity-backed firms, which often have high levels of debt, and the “conflicting interests” in running public services for maximum profit.

Tehran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait amid efforts to open strait of Hormuz without Iran’s direct oversight

• Fresh hostilities in Gulf suggest US-Iran memorandum was too broadly worded

A new round of escalating strikes between Iran and the US has continued, further undermining the fragile interim peace agreement between the two countries, and prompting Donald Trump to threaten violence that would ensure Iran “will no longer exist”.

On Sunday, Tehran launched drone and missile attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait after new US strikes on sites in southern Iran, and threatened a “complete halt” to negotiations to end the war. Trump said that a moment might come soon when he abandoned talks and the US would “militarily finish the job”.

About 31 in every 1,000 facing haemorrhage or severe tears, NHS figures show, in trend described as ‘national crisis’

• How a Romford maternity ward was able to turn the tide after a ‘requires improvement’ rating

Women in England are at their highest risk of suffering a serious injury while giving birth since records began in 2020, NHS figures show.

The rate of women sustaining the most serious type of tear during childbirth rose to 31.1 in every 1,000 in January, February and March – the highest since monitoring began in 2020.

Heat records of over 40C set as extreme weather spreads east, with more than 191m in Europe enduring 35C or above

• After decades of warnings, why is Europe so unprepared?

Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary reached record temperatures of more than 40C on Sunday as a heatwave linked to hundreds of deaths in western Europe spread east.

More than 191 million people in Europe faced temperatures of at least 35C, with extreme heat warnings across the region.