The unveiling by IBM of two new quantum supercomputers and Denmark’s plans to develop “the world’s most powerful commercial quantum computer” mark just two of the latest developments in quantum technology’s increasingly rapid transition from experimental breakthroughs to practical applications.

There is growing promise of quantum technology’s ability to solve problems that today’s systems struggle to overcome, or cannot even begin to tackle, with implications for industry, national security and everyday life.

So, what exactly is quantum technology? At its core, it harnesses the counter-intuitive laws of quantum mechanics, the branch of physics describing how matter and energy behave at the smallest scales. In this strange realm, particles can exist in several states simultaneously (superposition) and can remain connected across vast distances (entanglement).

Once the stuff of abstract theory, these effects are now being engineered into innovative, cutting-edge systems: computers that process information in entirely new ways, sensors that measure the world with unprecedented precision, and communication networks that are virtually impossible to compromise.

To understand how this emerging field could shape the future, here are five areas where quantum technology may soon have a tangible impact.

1. Discovery for medicine and materials science

A pharmaceutical scientist seeks to design a new medicine for a previously incurable disease. There are thousands of possible molecules, many ways they might interact inside the body and uncertainty about which will work.

In another lab, materials researchers explore thousands of different atomic combinations and ratios to develop better batteries, chemicals and alloys to reduce transport emissions.T raditional supercomputers can narrow the options but eventually meet their limits.

This is where quantum computing could make a decisive difference. They use quantum bits, or qubits – the most basic unit of information in a quantum computer. Qubits do not simply consist of 1s and zeroes, like bits in conventional computers, but can exist in a variety of different quantum “states”.

Indeed, the ability to develop and control qubits is central to advancing quantum computing and other quantum technologies. By using qubits, quantum computers can simulate vast numbers and different possibilities simultaneously, revealing patterns that classical systems cannot reach within useful time-frames.

In healthcare, faster drug discovery could bring quicker response to outbreaks and epidemics, personalised medicine and insight into previously inscrutable biological interactions. Quantum simulation of how materials behave could lead to new high efficiency energy materials, catalysts, alloys and polymers.

Although fully operational, commercial quantum computers are still in development, progress is accelerating, with existing paradigms combining quantum and classic computational approaches already demonstrating the potential to reshape how we discover and design cures.

2. Sensors for navigation, medicine and the environment

A new range of sensors can exploit different quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to detect changes that conventional instruments would miss, with potential uses across many areas of daily life.

In navigation, they could guide ships, submarines and aircrafts without GPS by reading subtle variations in the Earth’s magnetic and gravitational fields.

In medicine, quantum sensors could improve diagnostic capabilities via more sensitive, quicker and noninvasive imaging modes.

In environmental monitoring, these sensors could track delicate shifts beneath the Earth’s surface, offer early warnings of seismic activity, or detect trace pollutants in air and water with exceptional accuracy.

3. Optimisation for logistics and finance

Many of the hardest challenges today concern the optimisation of staggeringly complex systems; the task of choosing the best option among billions of possibilities.

Managing a power grid or investment portfolio, scheduling flights or financial trading, or coordinating global deliveries all feature optimisation problems so complex that even advanced supercomputers struggle to find efficient answers in time.

Quantum computing could change this. Quantum algorithms could be used to solve optimisation problems that are intractable using classical approaches.

By using quantum principles to explore many solutions simultaneously, these systems could identify solutions far faster than traditional methods. A logistics company could adjust delivery routes in real time as traffic, weather and demand shift.

Airlines and rail networks could automatically reconfigure to avoid cascading delays, while energy providers might balance renewable generation, storage and consumption with far greater precision. Banks could use quantum computers to evaluate numerous market scenarios in parallel, informing the management of investment portfolios.

4. Ultra-secure communication

Security is one of the areas where quantum technology could have the most immediate impact. Quantum computers are inching ever closer to being capable of
breaking many of today’s encryption systems (such as RSA encryption which secures data transmission on the internet), posing a major cybersecurity challenge.

At the same time, quantum communication techniques, such as quantum key distribution (QKD), could offer intrinsically secure encrypted communication.

In practical terms, this could secure everything from financial transactions and health records to government and military communications. For national security agencies, quantum-safe encryption is already a strategic priority. For the average person, it could mean stronger digital privacy, more reliable identity systems and reduced risk of cyberattacks.

5. Supercharging progress in AI

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping industries, but is reliant on the immense computing power needed to train and run large models. In the future, quantum computing could boost AI by handling calculations that classical machines find too complex.

While still at an early stage of development, quantum algorithms might accelerate a subset of AI called machine learning (where algorithms improve with experience), help simulate complex systems, or optimise AI architectures more efficiently. That could lead to AI systems that learn faster, understand context better, and process far larger datasets than today’s models allow.

Think of AI assistants that understand you more naturally, medical diagnostic tools that integrate genomic and environmental data in real time, or scientific research that advances through rapid, quantum-boosted simulations.

Why this matters… and what to watch

Quantum technology is no longer just a theoretical pursuit. Optimism is increasing that commercially viable and scalable quantum technologies may become a reality over the next ten years. With billions in global investment and a growing number of prototypes being tested outside the lab, the “quantum era” is starting to take shape.

Governments see it as a strategic priority, and industries see it as a competitive edge. Its ripple effects could touch nearly every sector from healthcare, energy, and finance, to defence and beyond.

That means we should be asking whether our education systems, workforce dynamics, infrastructure and governance mechanisms are effective – and whether they are keeping pace.

Those who invest early and strategically in quantum readiness and who have the patience to sustain this effort will shape how this technology unfolds. When it does arrive, even if we might be a few years away, its impact could reach far beyond the lab into every part of our connected, data-driven world.

An inquest heard the 50-year-old should have been assessed within 10 minutes but instead was not called for two hours by which time he had already left

A suicidal patient walked unnoticed from the emergency department of a Belfast hospital shortly before he died, a coroner has found.

Coroner Anne-Louise Toal said a delay in assessing 50-year-old Stephen Loughead at the Mater Hospital was a “missed opportunity” to potentially prevent his death in March 2024.

The coroner said Mr Loughead from north Belfast should have been assessed by a doctor within 10 minutes, but instead was not called for two hours, by which time he had already left the hospital.

Ms Toal delivered her findings in the inquest at Belfast Coroner’s Court on Tuesday.

She told the court that Mr Loughead had attended Musgrave PSNI station in the early hours of March 15 2024 and was “clearly experiencing deteriorating mental health”.

The coroner said police took him to the emergency department of the Mater Hospital but did not accompany him inside. Ms Toal said this action was “contrary to the joint guidance” between police and hospitals.

However, she said the failure to accompany him to ED did not alter the way in which he was treated. Ms Toal said Mr Loughead waited more than an hour to be triaged, in excess of the target time of 15 minutes.

The coroner said he was correctly triaged as a higher risk category two patient.

She said he was then brought to wait in a chair beside the nursing station, the only area of the hospital available for observation of higher risk patients.

The coroner said: “Due to staffing pressures, it was not possible to closely monitor him as was appropriate and as a result it is unknown what time he left the department, other than it was after he was last seen at 7.30am.”

Ms Toal said that as Mr Loughead was recognised as being “actively suicidal”, he should then have been seen by a doctor within 10 minutes.

She said: “Due to chronic severe pressures existing within the ED, he was not called for another two hours, by which time he had left the emergency department unnoticed.

“I find the environment in the emergency department and the protracted wait in a noisy and busy unit exacerbated his condition and contributed to his leaving the department before being assessed and this represents a missed opportunity to treat the deceased’s suicidal ideation at that time.”

The coroner said it was not possible for her to say if the patient would have been detained at the hospital if he had been assessed earlier.

But she added: “I do find there was a missed opportunity to assess him in a timely manner, which may have prevented his leaving the emergency department on that day and the tragic events that followed.”

The coroner said emergency department staff are in an “unenviable position”.

She said: “It is a stark reality that, as per the evidence heard by this inquest, was the deceased to walk into the Mater ED today, it is unlikely that anything would change in the way that he was dealt with, not due to a lack of want or care, but due to a chronic lack of resources in a milieu of increasing pressures.”

The coroner said Mr Loughead was last seen by nursing staff at the morning handover at 7.30am and at some point in the next hour he left the hospital and travelled towards the city centre.

She said Mr Loughead was later seen in the River Lagan after 9am.

Despite a rescue operation, Mr Loughead died in the Royal Victoria Hospital from hypoxic brain injury caused by cardiac arrest as a result of drowning.

The coroner passed on her condolences to the family before closing the inquest.

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Aswat began riding aged five at St James City Farm – an inner-city stables in Gloucester – before linking up with trainers Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls.

She was hooked by the sport after racing a pony at Cheltenham.

Her win earlier this month came in just her fourth professional ride after taking out her jockey’s license in autumn 2025.

“All the racing community have been very supportive and nothing has held me back,” Aswat said.

“Every time I would go to Cheltenham I wouldn’t see people the same colour as me, so in that sense it was daunting.”

Bailey could see Aswat’s “natural talent” straight away.

“I take photographs of horses schooling the whole time for my owners and I’ve never had a photograph of her being out of place – that’s quite a unique thing,” Bailey told BBC Sport.

“It’s very, very hard for [conditional jockeys] to get going – 90% of the jockeys now are either sons of trainers or sons of owners who put a lot of money into the business.

“I ring up an owner and say ‘I’ve got this really good young black girl who wants to ride. Will you let them ride your horse?’ Well, I mean, frankly, you’re paying the same for her as you would do for [reigning champion jockey] Sean Bowen or anybody else. It’s quite a difficult one.

“She’s got to be strong enough to take all that and I’m pretty confident she will be able to cope with the additional attention, including potential social media abuse.

“She will always be a role model.”

An armed gang in southern Italy posed as police and blew up an armoured van in a bid to carry out a raid, in what local media referred to as a scene out of the “wild west”.

Footage from the incident on a motorway in Italy’s region of Puglia shows the group wearing balaclavas and armed with Kalashnikov rifles during the attack on Monday morning.

The heist took place shortly after dawn on the 613 motorway connecting Lecce and Brindisi, when the armed group arrived on the scene in an Alfa Romeo Stelvio, a Jeep Compass and Kia Sportage – all of which had fake emergency lights on, local media reports.

They then set a vehicle on fire, forcing the armoured van to stop.

The gang then used an explosive on the van, resulting in a huge plume of smoke.

According to some reports, the number of armoured vehicles blocked was actually two and they were carrying millions of euros – but this hasn’t been confirmed.

Video taken by witnesses shows at least six masked people, some of whom appeared to be in white suits.

As they later sought to escape, the armed group opened fire against the Carabinieri – Italy’s national law enforcement agency – which had intervened.

The heist, however, appears to have been unsuccessful.

Two people have reportedly been arrested.

The men’s curling team made history in 2025 as they won four of the five Grand Slams on offer, a feat never before achieved, and begin their Olympic campaign on Wednesday

Honesty is Team Mouat’s secret weapon as they vie for Olympic gold in Milan Cortina.

The men’s curling team made history in 2025 as they won four of the five Grand Slams on offer, a feat never before achieved.

Crucially, they regained their world champions title in that same year and moved their place at the top of the world rankings out of sight of any challengers.

Bobby Lammie, skip Bruce Mouat’s second, is the quietest member of the team and noted a confidence change that has allowed the team to soar.

He said: “I think one key area would be just being open and honest with each other, and always kind of looking for that extra edge and any way we can improve.

“We’re not afraid to tell each other if we think something’s lacking, whether that’s team dynamics or shot-making or technique or anything like that.

“We’re always open to helping each other and always open to feedback also. We are a team that all have our input, and we all try and do everything together.

“So, finding the balance for that and finding the rules for each person and finding how to get the best out of them and what makes them tick, is something that we’ve worked very hard on over the years.”

Losing out on gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics was not the turning point for Team Mouat; it was missing a medal entirely at the 2024 World Championships.

The men’s curling rink led by Mouat were beaten by long-time rivals Team Edin of Sweden in Beijing four years ago, losing by a point in an extra end.

However, it was a semi-final defeat at the 2024 worlds, followed by a loss in the bronze medal match, that forced a rethink and has seen the team become undisputedly the best in the world.

“It wasn’t a bad week,” Grant Hardie, Team Mouat’s vice-skip, said. “Even the semi-final against Canada, we were in a great position in the sixth end, with hammer, and we gave up a steal of three.

“The ice conditions changed quite a lot, and the other team picked up on it a lot quicker than we did, and we let that game kind of get away from us.

“Then, in the bronze medal game again, we were in complete control, we played really well. Well, Bruce played really well; he kind of kept us in the game for most of it.

“And he had a shot to win that he makes nine times out of 10, it was very unlike him to miss that shot.”

How each of the quartet reacted to the defeat speaks to their character. Hardie, an engineering graduate, immediately sought out British Curling’s performance director, Nigel Holl, to talk through how to avoid feeling the disappointment again.

The team’s cheerleader, Hammy McMillan Jr, Hardie’s cousin and son of a two-time Olympian, also called Hammy, was quick to reassure Mouat that he had won the side more games than he had lost them.

After the summer break, the team reconvened at the National Curling Academy in Stirling, prepared to have difficult conversations.

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The National Curling Academy was opened in 2017 in part thanks to UK Sport funding, and sees all members of the performance programme train alongside each other on the ice and in the gym.

The plan paid off and now it is about taking all that they have learnt and earning the one major title missing from their collection in Milan Cortina.

“There’s definitely one thing missing, maybe two if we’re counting both the mixed doubles and the men’s,” said Mouat, who’s journey to the Games has been powered by the National Lottery and as a member of UK Sport’s World Class Programme, has access to cutting-edge performance support.

“But I’m very happy with what I’ve done in my curling career so far. I would love to come away with a couple more medals and hopefully the right colour in Cortina.

“If I don’t, then I’ll move on, but I’m going to be going and working my ass off to try and make sure we do.”

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Two boys, aged 12 and 13, have been stabbed at a school in Brent, northwest London, and officers are searching for a teenage suspect, the Metropolitan Police say.

Officers were called to Kingsbury High School in Bacon Lane at 12.40pm on Tuesday to reports that a 13-year-old boy had been stabbed.

There, they found a 12-year-old boy who had also been stabbed.

They were both taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service, the Metropolitan Police said.

Officers said they had identified a suspect – a teenage boy – and were urgently hunting for him.

Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, who leads policing in northwest London, said: “We recognise that this incident will cause considerable concern within the community.

“We want to reassure local students, parents and local residents that we have deployed significant resources to the area and are doing everything we can to locate the suspect.”

The mums forced to become legal experts for their kids PLUS Noel will ‘have it out’ on the red carpet

Hello,

The minefield of legalese and red tape that meets parents applying for special education needs support is, frankly, unjust.

The countless hours spent scribbling away and researching, the late night form-filling and the stressful waits for a decision pile further pressure on families already struggling with children in need of additional support.

My colleague Ethan Davies has been speaking to mothers whose applications for more help were refused by Manchester Council’s children’s services. They say they were expected to become experts in SEN law while waiting up to a year for an independent tribunal to make a decision.

A group of mums who all protested outside Manchester Town Hall last autumn, claim Manchester council’s children’s services team have:

• Denied an eight-year-old boy an education and health care plan (EHCP) after he was diagnosed with autism, and his school and parents asked for one.
• Refused to assess a nine-year-old girl with autism after she was signed off school for months due to ‘major burnout’.
• Failed to keep a long-standing volunteering placement for a teenage boy, instead offering ‘to take him out for a burger’.
• An eight-year-old girl was out-of-school for 13 months due to delays in sourcing a place – only for new school staff to say ‘they cannot keep her safe’.

Catriona Moore, of the Independent Provider of Special Education Advice, says these examples highlight a national culture within local authorities.

“It’s all in the law, but we have a situation where the law is widely not applied so parents have to become knowledgeable to find out what their children are entitled to,” she says.

“The tribunal appeals have gone up and up. It’s at record levels now, and absurdly high numbers of appeals go in favour of the parents and against local authorities.

“A 12 or 13 month wait has become the norm. The tribunal is absolutely swamped.”

You can read the full details here.

A win for families

Some good news now. A Manchester Evening News campaign to secure funding for homeless children’s travel has been successful.

Mayor Andy Burnham has committed to giving 8,000 homeless children in temporary accommodation free school travel.

Under current government transport rules, youngsters are only eligible for free travel if they live more than two miles from class (three miles for over-8s) and no ‘suitable school’ is nearer. But it’s almost-impossible to be further than two miles from a school in the city.

Fatou Tall’s daughters Bousso and Nabou spend hours on the bus every day, commuting from Royton to Harpurhey via the 409 and 81. They’re often out of the house for more than 12 hours a day, with her ‘oldest always coming back with a headache’, Fatou said in January.

A huge weight has now been lifted from Fatou’s shoulders. “Having extra money to spare will mean a great deal because it will make us more stable. The kids can concentrate and focus on their education,” she says.

Ethan Davies has been leading the campaign and has all the details here.

Hope, fear and flat whites

Sadiq Khan was in Levenshulme yesterday, on the campaign trail with Labour’s Gorton and Denton candidate Angeliki Stogia. The London mayor enjoyed a flat white at Grounded CIC while explaining that this byelection is a choice between “hope and fear”.

Ms Stogia meanwhile, insisted to our man on the ground Stephen Topping that the Peter Mandelson scandal has not come up on the doorstep. Rather, she said, people are worried about the cost of living, the NHS, fly tipping and investment in communities.

One scandal that DID come up, at least in the conversations I’ve been having across the constituency, is the reason we’re having a byelection in the first place.

Certainly in Denton – where retiring MP Andrew Gwynne had his constituency office – the reasons for his departure are well known. And as George Lythgoe explains here, the fallout from the Trigger Me Timbers scandal is ongoing.

How to make millions

Hospitals across England emit pollutants on a mass scale as part of their day-to-day operations. But Manchester’s hospitals are being hailed as groundbreaking examples of change that could stand to make the NHS millions.

Standing on the wind-battered roof of Wythenshawe Hospital this week, surrounded by solar panels, one energy minister said loudly over the noise of an extractor fan: “With things like these solar panels, they can make very short term gains on it.

“With the investments that have been made so far, they’re saving about £250,000 a year. I heard from the trust they have been able to disconnect some parts of the campus in some parts of their estate from gas, and have been able to see real savings.”

Greater Manchester will receive £4.8m as part of a £74m national investment, to clean up their energy usage and cut bills.

Our health reporter Helena Vesty has the story here.

‘We’ll have it out on the red carpet’

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He hasn’t written a song for two years – but Noel Gallagher has been named Songwriter of the Year. Even Noel thinks it’s a bit daft but says he assumes organisers at The BRITs were ‘desperate’ to get a Mancunian on stage during the event at Coop Live in a couple of weeks.

“I’m not sure how I’ve got away with that one but I’ll take it,” he told talkSPORT. “To be honest I think they were just desperate to get someone from Oasis up there because it’s Manchester. Our kid said he’s not going.”

Noel said he understands The Brits is “all based on record sales”. “We sold a million records last year.

“Didn’t even get off the couch and I’m not sure there’s a songwriter that can match that. But you know, if anybody’s got a problem with it, meet me there. We’ll have it out on the red carpet.”

Weather etc

Wednesday: Light rain showers and light winds. 11C.

Roads: A56 Deansgate northbound closed due to new road layout from St Marys Gate to A6 Victoria Bridge Street until November 14, 2026.

When we moved into our house, there was a shed in the garden. Its timbers were rotten, the floor had long since disappeared into the ground, there was no door, the window had fallen out and various creatures had moved in.

I decided to rebuild it out of a material that has been used around the world for hundreds of years, but is less commonly seen in modern buildings: straw bales. A year later, and the “work shed” is now nearly finished.

As sustainability assessment lead at Sheffield University’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, I wanted to make sure my garden office had the lowest possible embodied carbon (a term used to describe the amount of carbon contained, or “embodied” in the materials used to make a product), and low energy use once it was up and running.

That meant the office would need to be very well insulated to avoid using lots of energy to heat it, and made of materials with low carbon content.

Due to its structure, straw is a fantastic insulating material. It’s also cheap, easy to work with, and since the straw absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows, straw buildings act as carbon stores. If we use this in a building, the carbon remains stored for the lifetime of the building, and can even be returned to the soil at the end of life.

My first real involvement with straw building was through the design of a low carbon cold room in Kenya, working with energy efficiency experts from the Energy Saving Trust and Solar Cooling Engineering, and architects from Switzerland and Kenya. A cold room is an easy-to-build and cheap alternative to a large fridge, enabling farmers in developing countries to store produce at a market, improving incomes and reducing food waste.

This cold room is now operating at Homa Bay market on the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya. It has cement-free foundations, solar panels and batteries, water storage, low energy cooling units, a timber structure and straw bale walls. The project showed me that straw bale structures can provide good insulation without the environmental impact of expanded polystyrene.

Natural materials like mud, earth and dung, as well as fibrous materials such as straw were used to build homes for centuries.

Straw bale housing history

Straw in bale form has been used for buildings since the 1800s. After the invention of mechanical baler in the US, straw bales were used to construct homes in places where timber and stone were hard to find.

Some of these early buildings still exist, but most straw bale houses in the US were built since the 1970s. These buildings offer warm comfortable homes and were the inspiration for a new wave of UK straw bale builders in the 1990s.

À lire aussi :
How we can recycle more buildings

Straw works well for single or two-storey buildings, but requires careful design to avoid water leaking into it. Provided the bale buildings are protected from rain splash at the bottom and have an overhanging roof at the top, water isn’t really a problem. Fire requires oxygen and fuel, so a compressed straw bale is fire resistant, and straw bale buildings have met all fire, planning, and building regulations, and even achieved Passivhaus – extremely high standards of insulation, thermal performance and energy use.

My new garden office has 40cm thick walls and double glazed windows, it’s clad on the outside with reclaimed timber (some of which came from the original shed) and the roof, windows, doors and underfloor insulation are all secondhand. The final step is cladding the inside.

Here I’ve adopted another traditional building practice and used cob. Cob is a mixture of clay, water, sand and chopped straw. After digging the clay from our garden and mixing it, I’ve applied the cob by hand, via an incredibly messy but very satisfying process.

I know that the lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of my shed will be about 20 tonnes lower than they would have been if I had used expanded foam insulation and plasterboard.

People who live in straw bale houses talk about how the irregular shape and natural materials of straw bale buildings also have a positive impact on them, and say that buildings like my shed create a connection with the builder particular to the use of natural materials.

This concept, known as biophilic design, is challenging to quantify but I look forward to finding how it feels to sit inside it.

Ukraine is gathering support from European governments to oppose FIFA’s moves to end Russia’s ban from international football.

Ukrainian sports minister Matvii Bidnyi told Sky News that allowing Russia back into World Cups would be legitimising Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

European football leaders are gathering for their annual congress in Brussels today, four years after booting out Russian teams at the start of the all-out war on Ukraine.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is set to attend the UEFA Congress, a week after telling Sky News: “This ban has not achieved anything, it has just created more frustration and hatred.”

Responding to the football boss, Mr Bidnyi said: “It’s a very strange position… nothing changed. This condemnation of all of the world, of the sports community, is very important for international pressure on the aggressor.”

While stopping Russia playing at World Cups is a symbol of the country’s isolation and pariah status, it has not ended the conflict and killing.

“If we start to make our policy softer… what sign do you make for the world?” Mr Bidnyi said.

“The ban, it’s an important part of international efforts to stop the aggressor… it’s a crime and you want to justify, you want to legitimise this crime.”

Mr Bidnyi wants a statement opposing football sanctions on Russia being lifted – as was secured last year from 28 European governments, including the UK, calling on the Paralympics to restore their ban.

‘Irresponsible and infantile’

“I think we are close to it,” he told Sky News. “And I would think it would (have) a big resonance.”

The Ukrainian government would welcome a first visit to the country by Mr Infantino since the war started.

“His actions look irresponsible and infantile,” Mr Bidnyi said, citing children being killed playing football or seriously injured after Russian strikes.

Read more from Sky News:
FIFA: Trump deserves peace prize
Paralympics in dispute with UK

The ban was imposed because European rivals were refusing to play Russian teams or host their matches on neutral integrity – as FIFA and UEFA came under pressure from politicians to apply sporting sanctions.

Within FIFA there is discussion about why they should have to cut ties with Russia when governments advocating for the ban on teams still allow trading with the country with non-sanctioned products.

“It’s wrong, but we can see now it’s become less and less,” Mr Bidnyi said.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy last week criticised the International Olympic Committee and FIFA for moving towards restoring Russian teams, arguing “if anything the situation in Ukraine has got worse” since the original bans were imposed.

LONDON (AP) — Keir Starmer fights another day.

After indirect fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files sparked a dramatic day of crisis that threatened to topple him, the U.K. prime minister was saved by a pugnacious fightback and hesitation among his rivals inside the governing Labour Party about the consequences of a leadership coup.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said Tuesday that Labour lawmakers had “looked over the precipice … and they didn’t like what they saw.”

“And they thought the right thing was to unite behind Keir,” Miliband told the BBC.

He might have added: For now.

Mandelson blowback

Starmer’s authority over his center-left party has been battered by aftershocks from the publication of files related to Epstein — a man he never met and whose sexual misconduct hasn’t implicated him.

But it was Starmer’s decision to appoint veteran Labour politician Peter Mandelson, a friend of Epstein, as U.K. ambassador to Washington in 2024 that has led many to question the leader’s judgment and call for his resignation.

Starmer has apologized, saying Mandelson had lied about the extent of his ties to the convicted sex offender. And he vowed to fight for his job.

“I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country,” Starmer said Tuesday as he visited a community center in southern England. “I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for and I will never walk away from the country that I love.”

Starmer’s risky decision to appoint Mandelson – who brought extensive contacts and trade expertise but a history of questionable ethical judgment – backfired when emails were published in September showing that Mandelson had maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.

Starmer fired Mandelson, but a new trove of Epstein files released last month by the U.S. government contained more revelations. Mandelson is now facing a police investigation for potential misconduct in public office over documents suggesting that he passed sensitive government information to Epstein. He’s not accused of any sexual offenses.

Simmering discontent

The Mandelson scandal may be the final straw that finishes Starmer’s premiership. But it follows discontent that has built since he led Labour to a landslide election victory 19 months ago.

Some of Starmer’s problems stem from a turbulent world and a gloomy economic backdrop. He has won praise for rallying international support for Ukraine and persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a trade deal easing tariffs on U.K. goods. But at home, he has struggled to bring down inflation, boost economic growth and ease the cost of living.

Despite a huge parliamentary majority that should allow the government easily to implement its plans, Starmer has been forced to make multiple U-turns on contentious policies including welfare cuts and mandatory digital ID cards.

Starmer has been through two chiefs of staff, four directors of communications and multiple lower-level staff changes in Downing Street. The prime minister’s powerful chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned Sunday over the decision to appoint Mandelson. Communications director Tim Allan left the next day.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar then held a news conference on Monday and called for Starmer to resign. If other senior party figures had followed, the pressure would have been impossible for Starmer to resist.

But none did. Instead, Starmer’s Cabinet and parliamentary colleagues posted apparently choreographed messages of support. They included former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, considered the two most likely challengers for the top job.

Then, came a highly charged meeting with Labour members of Parliament, where Starmer impressed many with his sense of resolve. Lawmakers in the room said that the mood, initially skeptical, became supportive.

“It was clear he was up for the fight,” said Chris Curtis, one of more than 200 Labour lawmakers elected in the 2024 Starmer landslide.

Temporary reprieve

Starmer appears to have more political lives than Larry the cat, who has outlasted five prime ministers during 15 years as “chief mouser” in Downing Street.

But his respite is likely to be temporary. Many Labour lawmakers remain worried about their reelection chances if the party’s dire opinion poll ratings don’t improve.

Some female party members feel particularly disappointed by Mandelson’s appointment. The Labour leader of Wales, First Minister Eluned Morgan, called revelations about Mandelson “deeply troubling, not least because, once again, the voices of women and girls were ignored.

“That failure must be acknowledged and confronted honestly,” she said, while offering support for Starmer.

Labour faces potential electoral setbacks at a Feb. 26 special election in what was once a party stronghold in northwest England, and in May’s elections for legislatures in Scotland and Wales and local councils in England.

And rivals are still plotting. The Guardian reported that an “Angela for leader” website backing Rayner briefly went live last month by accident. Streeting, whose genial relationship with Mandelson is now a weakness, released messages he’d exchanged with Mandelson before and after the ambassadorial appointment, seemingly in an attempt to show the men weren’t close friends.

The exchanges include implicit criticism of Starmer, with Streeting writing that the government had “No growth strategy at all.”

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said that Starmer had “bought himself some time” and challengers were “keeping their powder dry” for the moment.

“It’s very difficult to image after the shellacking that the party will presumably face in May, him continuing to lead the party much beyond this summer,” Bale said.

Though in British politics, nothing is impossible.

“There are problems with the other candidates,” Bale said. “It’s never an ideal situation for any party to be choosing a prime minister in midterm, and it may be that the Labour Party decides, better the devil you know. I suspect that Keir Starmer will go, but who knows?”