The build-up to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool has been dominated by revelations that the prime minister, chancellor and senior cabinet members have accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of gifts from donors before and after entering government.

Keir Starmer has defended accepting more than £100,000 worth of donated gifts since he became leader of the opposition in 2020 – two and a half times more than any other MP – including football and concert tickets, as well as clothes for him and his wife Victoria.

What can MPs accept?
The ministerial code, which details the conduct expected of government ministers, says that "no Minister should accept gifts, hospitality or services from anyone which would, or might appear to, place him or her under an obligation". It adds that the "same principle applies if gifts etc are offered to a member of their family".

If a gift or invitation is given to a minister "in their Ministerial capacity" then that gift becomes government property and need not be declared in the Register of Members' Interests. A gift up to the value of £140 can be kept by the minister; more expensive gifts should be handed over to their department.

Any gifts received in their capacity as a constituency MP or simply a member of a political party "fall within the rules relating to the Registers of Members' and Lords' Interests".

What do they have to declare?
Members must register any "gifts, benefits or hospitality" with a value of over £300 that they receive from a UK source, within 28 days. They must also register multiple benefits from the same source if these have a value of more than £300 in a calendar year. This also applies to gifts from donors registered outside the UK.

While this applies to all MPs, since 2015 government ministers have not had to register anything they receive "in their ministerial capacity". Such interests are meant to be published in the government's "transparency returns", which include no details, appear roughly every three months and are "often late and incomplete", wrote Labour MP Chris Bryant in The Guardian in 2022. "This is bonkers. It means there is less transparency for ministers than for other MPs."

Should the rules be changed?
There are now "growing calls for reforms to the way MP gift declarations work and for an overhaul of the ministerial code", said The Observer.

The Times said there is a "perception problem" over such gifts, and campaigners warn that MPs risk a "conflict of interest when they take them from individuals, businesses or industry bodies whose interests they may end up voting on".

Anthony Joshua was the "poster boy of British boxing", but his "reputation has become tarnished" after a series of shattering losses, said the BBC.

The latest blow for the two-time world heavyweight champion was a shock defeat to fellow Briton Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. The 34-year-old "never stood a chance" against his younger opponent, who sent him "crashing to the canvas and oblivion" in a fight that clearly proved Joshua's "crown had long gone", said The Times. Dubois, 27, delivered "bomb after bomb", sending "shivers through the boxing world".

'Writing on the wall'
Joshua's "gravest humiliation yet" has come weeks before his 35th birthday, and he is "now, surely, over the hill", said The Telegraph's Oliver Brown. Given he is fast approaching the age at which he "once promised to retire", this would be an appropriate choice for the man who otherwise faces his career "running out of road".

He had already lost to Andy Ruiz Jr and twice to Oleksandr Usyk, but nothing was as "calamitous" as this "horrible beating" by Dubois, said The Guardian's Donald McRae. "Vanquished but still admirable", this should be his "final defeat" before he bows out of the sport for good.

There is no doubt "Joshua's star has not dimmed" among his adoring fans, many of whom were chanting his name at the weekend, said the i news site's Katherine Lucas. But this latest fight proves "the writing is on the wall – even if Joshua is not ready to admit it just yet".

Joshua 'wants to fight on'
The "devastating knockout loss" is not necessarily "career-ending", said ESPN's Nick Parkinson. Joshua is the "second-highest-paid" boxer in the world, according to Forbes, and as long as he "wants to fight on, big offers will continue to come his way".

Perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated events in the sport is a fight between Joshua and Tyson Fury, "two of British boxing's biggest names in recent years", said CNN. A fight between the pair, which "has always failed to materialise", would revitalise interest in Joshua. "I don't think AJ can retire," said his promoter Eddie Hearn. "I don't think Fury can retire, I don't think I can retire either until we get those two in the ring."

"It's official – Japanese whisky has been declared better than Scotch," said Eleanor Dye in the Daily Mail. Industry experts gathered at the Pot Still bar in Glasgow for a "landmark" blind tasting organised by mixer drinks company Fever-Tree. 

In a result that will "horrify any Scot", Japan secured a "shock victory", winning more votes in three categories out of five. Yamazaki Distiller's Reserve beat Scotland's Caol Ila 12 Year Old to scoop the top spot for the best single malt under £100.

The blind tasting, which took place last month, comes at a "precarious time" for the dominance of Scotch whisky, said Jack Rear in The Telegraph. Once largely confined to the domestic market, the Japanese whisky industry has been expanding rapidly, and is forecast to be worth £7.2 billion by 2032.

The tide began to turn in 2001 when the Nikka distillery's Yoichi 10 Year Old was awarded Whisky Magazine's prestigious "Best of the Best" award. From that point, interest in Japanese whisky "exploded", with elusive bottles selling for hundreds of thousands of pounds at auction, and House of Suntory introducing a series of entry-level blends to the market.

Japanese whisky might have taken early inspiration from Scotch, said Jonathan Hatchman in The Independent, but in the last century it's evolved into something entirely "unique". Japan is now known in particular for its blended whiskies that "build subtle layers of flavour", favouring "delicacy and balance" over boldness.

Al Fayed shows how my generation got it wrong
Libby Purves in The Times
Mohamed Al Fayed was "merely the latest in a line of arrogant, selfish, degenerate men of power", writes Libby Purves. I admit some of us older female journalists "rolled our eyes at some #MeToo accusations" and "sighed" at complaints over what we saw as "office party larks". That tolerance rested on an "overarching belief" that most workplace sex pests "wouldn't get far, turn violent, or be protected if they did". But "now we know better".

Trump is getting wilder and wilder, but the White House race remains a toss-up
Stephen Collinson on CNN
"Wild weeks of outlandish rhetoric" from Donald Trump have "revived memories of the cacophony of his four White House years", writes Stephen Collinson, but the electoral needle "has not budged" – this remains a "toss-up contest". Kamala Harris represents a "deeply unpopular administration" and "voter frustrations seem to favour the Republican candidate". But although he enjoys "stunning loyalty among supporters", Trump's "tendency to alienate available voters" remains a major "liability" in this knife-edge race.

I've had it with children in posh restaurants – ban them now
Julie Burchill in The i Paper
Restaurants were "created for adults to take their ease and comfort in, not for children to play in", writes Julie Burchill, but today they echo with "the existential scream" of youthful patrons. "Posher parents seem more likely to take advantage in this way," presumably as they are prone to "seeing those who serve them and their offspring as servants". Show some respect for put-upon waiters by "bringing children only if they can behave properly in public".