The Labour government turns 100 days old tomorrow, following a supposed honeymoon period that has been dominated by far-right riots, winter fuel payment rows, infighting and "Freebie-gate".

But while Keir Starmer's approval ratings have plummeted, his team is quietly getting on with projects including establishing two new public bodies – a National Wealth Fund and Great British Energy – as well as a new planning framework to speed up building of national infrastructure and more homes. The government has also moved to end a series of public sector strikes by agreeing pay deals with unions; introduced House of Lords reform; and started recruiting additional police officers and teachers.

What did the commentators say?
It is hard to think of a British prime minister who has had a "more catastrophic" first 100 days than Starmer, said The Telegraph. The Labour leader has faced an "almost unprecedented catalogue of misfortunes, almost all of them self-inflicted".

Elected on a landslide, Starmer should have been "firing ahead" with his policy plans, said Sky News political editor Beth Rigby, "instead of being embroiled in political infighting, scandal and an overhaul of his No. 10 operation".

Perhaps most worrying for Labour's long-term prospects is the perception that the new government is not all that different from its Conservative predecessor – characterised by corruption, incompetence and hypocrisy.

What next?
Labour has made more "avoidable mistakes" in its first 100 days in power than "any postwar government", said Will Hutton in The Guardian, "but there are signs of a progressive philosophy emerging". The party's aim to "build a strong social floor, ladders of opportunity and a high-investment economy, combining socialism and social liberalism", is a "compelling vision".

By choosing election campaign supremo Morgan McSweeney as his new chief of staff, Starmer has given his administration a more "explicitly political stamp", said George Eaton at The New Statesman. In also reshaping his wider Downing Street team, the Labour leader has sought to "turn a crisis into an opportunity".

"Looking at the first 100 days, this is a prime minister who has probably concluded that things can only get better," said Rigby. "He now needs his team to pull together and prove him right."

Watergate journalist Bob Woodward makes a series of shocking new claims about Donald Trump in his latest book.

"War" will be published on Tuesday, three weeks before the US election, and "resurrects unsettling questions" about the former president's relationship with Vladimir Putin, said Foreign Policy, and about the "largely unresolved mystery" of his "business and financial ties to Russia".

The Putin claims
One of the "modern expectations of the office" of US president is that Woodward will "write at least one book about your administration", said The New York Times. He has penned more than 20 about US politics and "no one can beat" him at "getting the story of the White House from the inside", said Politico. "People tell Woodward things they shouldn't."

In his latest book, Woodward claims that in 2020, when Covid tests were in short supply, then president Trump "secretly" sent Putin "a bunch" of Covid test machines for his personal use. The two men are also said to have spoken by phone as many as seven times since Trump left office in 2021, a period during which the former US leader has pressed Republicans to block military aid to Ukraine to fight Moscow's forces.

Behind the scenes
"War" is a "study in contrasts" and of "just how dysfunctional the US political system has become", said Foreign Policy. Even as Joe Biden was confronting Putin, his White House predecessor was reportedly "secretly talking to him" and blasting the scale of support for Russia's foe.

Trump has "wasted no time" in "lashing out" at Woodward over the "damning revelations", said Raw Story. Trump's campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, said the "trash book" deserved to be "used as toilet tissue".

With all the fuss about the Trump claims, it's easy to forget that the book is largely focused on Joe Biden, said CNN, but it also offers "a remarkable look behind the scenes" of the Democrat's reign.

Woodward's final judgements – that Trump is "unfit to lead the country" and Biden is "an example of steady and purposeful leadership" – are "authoritative", said The New York Times, but also "wishful".

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Cumbria: Pennybrig, Old Hutton
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The left is losing its grip on ethnic minority voters
John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times
"On both sides of the Atlantic," writes John Burn-Murdoch, "one of the oldest patterns in electoral demographics has started to break down." At the general election, Labour "won less than half of the non-white vote for the first time". And in the 2020 US election, Republicans "performed better with non-white voters" than "at any time since 1960". Politicians "would be wise to start listening to what different ethnic minority voters actually want", instead of "relying on increasingly erroneous stereotypes".

Princess Kate has shown why she is so vital to the royal family
Alexander Larman for The Spectator
The news that the Princess of Wales "has been able to return to public-facing duties", starting with her visit to the Southport relatives, is "hugely welcome" and "a reminder that she remains the most dutiful and committed of all the members of the royal family", says Alexander Larman. The royals have "suffered a difficult year" but "as this particular annus horribilis draws to a close", there are "grounds for hope that 2025 will be better".

Has a whole generation lost the ability to read books?
Sarah Manavis in The New Statesman
Reports from the US suggest that "reading a novel cover-to-cover" is "daunting for students", writes Sarah Manavis, and "substantial portions of adult readers" have given up reading books "entirely". As people increasingly form their world views from social media and AI, which priorities "concision above all else", we are losing our grasp of "the bigger picture". But "in only understanding the gist, rather than the greater narrative", we "don't just miss out on vital context: we miss the point".