• <a href="Full" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="tp-feedurl" title="" >https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/19/andy-burnham-wins-makerfield-byelection-paving-way-labour-leadership-challenge">Full report: Andy Burnham wins huge majority in Makerfield byelection, paving way for Starmer leadership challenge

• <a href="Burnham" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="tp-feedurl" title="" >https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/18/andy-burnham-top-economists-possible-leadership-run">Burnham brings in top economists before possible leadership run

David Blunkett, the former Labour cabinet minister, has suggested that Keir Starmer should stand down after the Makerfield byelection.

In an interview on the BBC’s Newsnight, Blunkett suggested that Starmer standing aside would be the best option for the party regardless of whether Andy Burnham wins tonight or loses.

This was San Francisco Ballet’s big new commission in 2024, now getting its European premiere at Edinburgh international festival. An ambitious production with some impressive visuals, it’s a show for our times: an AI-themed retelling of the Pandora’s box myth by choreographer Aszure Barton. Music is by British producer Floating Points, who performs live, with an orchestra.
<a href="Edinburgh" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="tp-feedurl" title="" >https://www.eif.co.uk/events/mere-mortals">Edinburgh Playhouse, 28-30 August

Keith Richards has just become a great-grandfather. “This is true! This is true!” he enthuses, video-calling from somewhere in the depths of the Hit Factory, the New York studio first patronised by the Rolling Stones 46 years ago when they were making Emotional Rescue. “It’s been a couple of weeks. It’s a new thing for me. But I’m a fantastic grandad,” he confides. “Great-grandadding is … I try to let them hang with me for as long as humanly possible, then I hand ’em back. I’ve been doing a lot of grandfathering in the last year or so. I’ve got three or four new ones, you know. When I say new, I mean … two or three years old. Or four. Or one, or maybe five.”

Hang on, that seems a little vague. He shrugs and explodes in a wheezy chuckle. “I lose track, you know.”

Getting a TV show made isn’t easy. OK, so you’ve got an interesting idea and some good scripts – but a network or streaming platform will have many further questions. How much will it cost to make, which age/demographic will enjoy it, can it be distilled in a grabby one-line summary, could it recoup investment by running to multiple seasons? Nobody’s going to take a punt on your kooky pet project and risk losing money.

At least that’s the theory, but Apple TV seems happy to commission shows having ticked none of the above boxes. Pound for pound – that is, ignoring the overwhelming volume of Netflix shows – it’s probably the best streamer in the game, having gambled and won on Severance, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, The Studio, For All Mankind and Widow’s Bay. But it also has a stable of oddball charmers that work in a moseying sort of way – Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed and Margo’s Got Money Troubles being two recent ones – and a slew of baffling misfires like Government Cheese and Hello Tomorrow! that have popped up, done a thing nobody understood and disappeared again. You don’t know what you’ll get with a new Apple show, but it’s likely to be something nobody else would green-light, and they’d often be right.