Thoroughly enjoyed @barristersecret.bsky.social’s Cut Throat Trial. Gripping, and manages to convey the reality of court (without tedious days of cell site analysis). The “music from the 2000s that old people like” line was upsetting though.

Final long run before the marathon - c.31km from Ashford to Folkestone. Only mildly blustery down the shoreline as well.

A pretty stark conclusion from Parliament's national security strategy committee - Britain must prepare for a 'worst-case scenario' in which it and Europe cannot rely on US support in a crisis www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Top reporting from inside Dubai www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Also, didn’t we already know this? I swear I saw @watsoncomedian.bsky.social doing stand-up about Banksy’s identity years ago.

Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived at No10, where the PM has told him the UK’s resolve remains “unbreakable” and the focus must stay on Ukraine despite the war in Iran. They’re expected to be joined by NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte shortly.

New remit for the Low Pay Commission is out - talks about giving LPC 'flexibility' on pace and timing of scrapping age bands in the minimum wage for adults and prioritising youth employment prospects. Slight change from 'take account of' youth employment in previous years www.gov.uk/government/p...

Return to Liverpool for the half-marathon and a 1:40:11 finish. About 33 seconds off my PB and, given the hills, a very pleasing result. Six weeks to London. Thanks to @sianelvin.bsky.social for coming, cheering and waving a sign

More from the Gulf, where Yvette Cooper tells me Russia and Iran are trying to “hijack the global economy” as the Strait of Hormuz shows no sign of opening www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Not how I thought I’d be spending my Thursday - with the Foreign Secretary in Riyadh, where she’s been to the embassy to thank the crisis team helping Brits get out of the Gulf - including civil servants scrambled at about 3 hours notice on the first Sunday of the war.

Tell me you’ve never looked at a map without telling me etc etc

Well that was a busy 5 minutes. Starmer says the UK *will* allow the US to use British bases to hit Iran, but only to target Tehran's missile sites in order to defend allies in the Gulf. Britain still won't take part in strikes directly.

Big operation underway at the Foreign Office to help Brits in the Gulf. 76,000 so far registered their presence, mostly in the UAE - unprecedented numbers already. Officials looking at possible evacuation routes, but current advice is follow travel guidance and local authorities.

Just heard someone on Sky say Donald Trump likes to "shoot from the hip". I think, if we've learned anything here, it's that he likes to shoot from the carrier strike group.

UN Security Council currently meeting under UK chairmanship. Sounds like there was some pressure to get this meeting on the agenda today, as tomorrow the chairmanship passes to the United States. Russia still having a moan about UK presidency, though.

I repeat

Latest: PM is chairing Cobra this morning as missiles continue to fly in the Middle East. Understand UK not involved in this morning's US/Israeli attack. Lots of travel advice being changed - FCDO warns against all travel to Israel, Brits in UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait advised to take cover.

Nice quiet weekend shift then.

Unclear whether the criticism here is that the MRLP got 159 votes, or *only* got 159 votes.

Away from the by-election, Rishi Sunak's got a new (unpaid) job advising the Ukrainian government uk.news.yahoo.com/rishi-sunak-...

Update: The plastic sheet has now fully fallen off and is lying on the floor. Very little sign of any activity to either stick it back on or fix the underlying problem.

Your Party latest - Jeremy Corbyn's backers "The Many" have secured control of the party's executive committee, winning 14 of the 24 seats on offer compared to 7 for Zarah Sultana's "Grassroots Left" slate. Both Corbyn and Sultana won seats, but fellow MPs Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan missed out.

36 today, and my annual reminder from Politico's Playbook that I share a birthday with, among others, Recep Erdogan.

Some late breaking news - New Zealand would also back removing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession, a spokesman for PM Christopher Luxon has said. Only 12 other Commonwealth realms to go…

Met Police confirm Peter Mandelson has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

A terrifying vision of the future of war ig.ft.com/ukraine-kill...

UK Government says it's working with the Trump admin to understand what the supreme court decision means for that trade deal Starmer signed last year, but they expect the UK's 'privileged' trading position to continue.

Think this is the fourth or fifth film I’ve now watched off the back of this podcast, and really Rob and Duncan should be getting commission from Virgin Media at this point.

In more orthodox Valentine’s activities, I made some duck for @sianelvin.bsky.social

Top game of rugby league at Oxford, made even better by Cambridge winning with a try in the last minute. What do you mean, “that’s not what Valentine’s Day is for”?

Ten teabags, Jeremy? TEN?

Can we get on with the “restoration and renewal” thing please?

Nice quiet late shift tonight then

Top views of Mt Fuji from the PM’s plane on the final leg of what I’m now calling his east Asia tour - meeting with PM Takaichi to come.

That’s the end of a very busy day of pool reporting from the main action of Starmer’s trip - meetings with Xi and Premier Li, a tour of the Forbidden City and a business forum where it all got a bit philosophical, the PM saying he wanted to “see the whole elephant” of China.

Keir inspects the troops at his ceremonial welcome to China. These lads were *tall*.

Wore my finest cufflinks to the big Xi Jinping meeting. The glamour of work travel.

From inside the big Xi-Starmer meeting at the Great Hall of the People. Xi urged Starmer to “press on with fortitude” in improving relations, noting “twists and turns” in recent years that had not served the interests of either country.

Greetings from Beijing, where Keir Starmer is kicking off the first visit to China by a British PM since 2018, telling business delegates he wants to help them seize the opportunities the country presents. Lots of red flags at the airport, too.

Pre-flight 26km (including some hills). Desperately hoping I sleep on this plane.

Ahead of Starmer's trip to China this week, I spoke to Lord Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, about how the PM should approach the visit. Very clear he needs to raise Jimmy Lai at the start of his meeting with Xi, and speak frankly. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Andy Burnham responds to the NEC decision to block his candidacy in Gorton and Denton:

Predictably, this has split Labour opinion - some MPs are saying the party can now move on from the "psychodrama", another tells me the decision is a "total shitshow" and the party could now lose Gorton and Denton.

It is true - Labour's NEC has blocked Andy Burnham from standing in Gorton and Denton. I'm told there was a very clear majority against allowing him to stand due to concerns about the cost of a mayoral by-election in Greater Manchester.

Today in AI can't count - a list of constituencies with four-letter names in which only one actually has four letters.

The real victim of the trend towards longer and longer constituency names: my intro's wordcount. Can the next by-election be for somewhere shorter?

I am given to understand this message follows a call earlier today in which Keir Starmer raised Trump's comments about NATO troops in Afghanistan directly with the president.

Latest from the Fabians- Sadiq Khan says Andy Burnham should be allowed to stand for election to Westminster if he wants to. Adds he would campaign for his fellow mayor and believes in teams using all the “talent” available to them.

I have infiltrated a meeting of the sinister society secretly running Britain (or whatever it is Twitter thinks the Fabians are).

Gorton and Denton by-election is on - Andrew Gwynne has resigned from the Commons/been appointed to the Manor of Northstead (pick your level of archaism). Not clear when it will happen though. No requirement to call a by-election right away, so could hold off until May 7?