Shadow cabinet secretary Claire Coutinho accepted donation from Lord Bamford while overseeing millions awarded to his family businesses in green grants

A Conservative former cabinet ­minister who took donations from the billionaire boss of the JCB digger dynasty – including a £7,000 trip on his VIP private helicopter – oversaw decisions to award his family’s business empire millions in taxpayer-funded green energy grants.

Claire Coutinho also posed for ­pictures promoting Lord Bamford’s personal £100m hydrogen engine project and accepted a £7,500 donation from JCB to her local election campaign while she was the energy secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government.

Back on his steed and charging again, the manager’s plan – amid all the background turmoil – is not especially complicated

When Tottenham sacked Nuno Espírito Santo at the beginning of November three years ago, it seemed like one of those sad but inevitable decisions that had to be taken. Spurs had just lost 3-0 at home to Manchester United , their fifth defeat in seven league games. As Spurs entered the purgatory of the Antonio Conte years , few gave much thought to Nuno.

With his quiet manner, sad eyes, bald head and long beard, Nuno had the air of a devout but disillusioned knight, his years of campaigning over, ready to retreat to a monastery. Give it up, old man, leave the field to those who understand the modern ways, those who will press recklessly high and believe in dominating possession.

• David Gray under pressure after Hibs’ 2-1 defeat to St Mirren
• Sam Dalby scores in Dundee United’s win over Ross County

Second-half goals from Ante Palaversa, Topi Keskinen, Vincente Besuijen and Kevin Nisbet put Aberdeen top of the Scottish Premiership with a 4-1 win over Dundee at Pittodrie.

After a quiet first half the hosts took a quick-fire two-goal advantage with a wonderful finish from Ante Palaversa, who struck a laser-like shot into the bottom corner leaving goalkeeper Jon McCracken rooted to the spot in the Dundee goal after 53 minutes.

Fema chief calls action ‘reprehensible’ while Florida governor calls it a ‘weaponization of government’

A employee at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has been fired from her job and is being investigated because she told a disaster relief team she was directing in Florida after Hurricane Milton to avoid homes displaying election campaign signs supporting Donald Trump, conduct that the agency head on Saturday called “reprehensible”.

Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the federal agency, posted on X : “More than 22,000 Fema employees every day adhere to Fema’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors.”

Pep Guardiola looked like he didn’t know what had hit him. As Brighton’s players and supporters wildly celebrated Matt O’Riley’s winning goal, the Manchester City manager must have been contemplating an experience he has never had as a manager.

A fourth consecutive defeat for the first time in his career will have been especially hard to stomach given how much his side had dominated Brighton in the first half. But a stunning turnaround sparked by João Pedro, who equalised Erling Haaland’s opener before setting up fellow substitute O’Riley five minutes later.

• Updates from the 8pm GMT start in Bridgetown
• Get in touch! Share your thoughts with James

They called Leonard Cohen ‘The Godfather of Gloom’ and ‘The High Priest of Pathos’. Pithy nicknames but both misnomers, really. Behind the molasses and tobacco baritone and faltering flamenco Cohen was far from a miserabilist, his words often appearing as if drenched in the Hydra sun - warm, fruity, smutty, sensual.

This is about cricket you plank, what are you crapping on about? Well, bear with me for just a line or two more. I’m bringing us on to Jos Buttler.

Four exhibitions in London this autumn remind us that creativity and imagination are the opposite of authoritarianism

There can rarely have been such a meeting of political jeopardy and artistic genius as in Florence in 1504. After the violent overthrow of the Medici family a decade earlier, and the execution of the zealot Savanorola in 1498, the new Florentine government, beset by ongoing wars with Pisa, was desperate for symbols to help stabilise the city’s fragile republic. To that end, Niccolò Machiavelli, the minister whose name has become synonymous with such political scheming, was among those instrumental in bringing the two towering artists of the age, Leonardo da Vinci, then 52, and Michelangelo, 23 years his junior, into direct competition to create those public statements, to help make Florence great again.

That ultimate artistic standoff is the subject of an exhibition entitled Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael now open at the Royal Academy in London. The context echoes down through the centuries. To begin with, Leonardo was invited to help decide the placing of Michelangelo’s statue David , which went on display that year; once together, however, the pair were seduced to produce for the walls of the council chamber rival frescoes of the two great military triumphs of Florentine history: the battles at Cascina and Anghiari. It was the first and last time they worked in the same room.

The chancellor will make the case for free trade as Labour is warned that it must choose between the United States and the European Union

The chancellor Rachel Reeves will use a keynote speech this week to promote free and open trade between nations as a cornerstone of UK economic policy, putting the Labour government on direct collision course with president-elect Donald Trump.

Reeves will use her first speech at the Mansion House – an annual showpiece for the chancellor – to outline a post-budget plan to “go for growth”. But as the UK government scrambles to respond to Trump’s emphatic victory, and the challenges it poses for Britain on vital issues of economic and foreign policy, the chancellor is expected to be clear that she will take the fight to Washington in defence of free trade.

Energy secretary says Britain must work on vital alliances with other countries following victory of climate-denier Trump

The UK must ramp up its efforts on renewable energy to foster national security in an increasingly uncertain world, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has warned, on the eve of a fraught global summit on the climate crisis .

He pledged that the UK would lead efforts at Cop29 to secure the global agreement needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate breakdown, in talks that have been thrown into turmoil by the re-election of Donald Trump as US president.