Mark Jenner, a former undercover Metropolitan Police officer, has begun giving testimony to the Undercover Policing Inquiry. He is one of 139 officers being investigated over their infiltration of thousands of predominantly left-wing groups from 1968 until at least 2010.

What is the inquiry investigating?
The inquiry was commissioned in 2014 by the then home secretary, Theresa May, to look into allegations of serious “historical failings” in the Met Police’s now-disbanded Special Demonstration Squad, with whom Jenner was associated, and National Public Order Intelligence Unit. One of the most high-profile “spy cop” cases was that of Mark Kennedy, who spent seven years undercover having sexual and romantic relationships with “at least 11 women”, said The Guardian. At least 25 officers are believed to have “formed intimate relationships” with women, with four fathering children.

What did Jenner tell the court?
Jenner formed a relationship with a woman, named only as “Alison”, between 1995 and 2000, despite having a wife and children. Alison believed he was a fellow left-wing activist called Mark Cassidy. Yesterday, he told the inquiry that he believed it had been necessary to have sex with women while operating undercover, but said sexual gratification was “definitely not” a perk of the job. After hearing Jenner’s first day of evidence, Alison said she believed Jenner’s direct managers either “knew and covered it up” or “didn’t know and they are entirely incompetent”.

Who else has testified?
Jenner’s ex-wife and mother of his children, identified only as S, said that he and his fellow spy cops “prioritised personal gratification and their careers over the well-being of their families”.

Earlier this month, whistle-blower Peter Francis – who in 2013 revealed his involvement in the surveillance of Stephen Lawrence’s family – told the inquiry that it was “standard practice” to gather names of dead children from graveyards to create cover identities for missions.

What will happen next?
Jenner will be questioned by the inquiry for the next two days. Key questions are expected to centre around the “extent to which his superiors knew about, and approved, his long-term relationship with Alison”, said The Guardian. The Met Police has acknowledged “serious wrongdoing” and “totally unacceptable behaviour” by some undercover officers.

“Bitcoin has proven to be one of the best-performing assets in modern history,” said Al Jazeera. With the value of cryptocurrency increasing “some 1,000 times” over the last decade, it was only a matter of time before governments and banks wanted in.

Bitcoin was widely dismissed as a “speculative asset with no intrinsic value” when it was launched after the 2008 global financial crisis. But it’s now being taken increasingly seriously “by governments, financial institutions and investors alike”, with far-reaching implications for politics, the economy and the way we live.

Growing acceptance
“A number of countries have made big bets” on crypto in the last few years, said Al Jazeera. El Salvador holds more than “$600 million worth of bitcoin reserves”, after becoming the first country in the world to accept the asset “as legal tender” in 2021.

In South Korea’s presidential election this year, both major candidates embraced pro-crypto policies in their campaigns. Nigel Farage is also an open “supporter of cryptocurrency” and has made Reform the first UK party “to accept donations in bitcoin”, said the BBC. A £9 million donation to Reform from Thailand-based British businessman Christopher Harborne, “the largest ever single donation by a living person to a British political party”, has raised questions about the role that cryptocurrency investors may play in future elections.

Ethical quandaries
In Washington, “crypto is ascendant”, said The Economist. Donald Trump’s return to the White House triggered a shift towards US recognition of crypto as a legitimate currency after years of crackdowns on the sector. His regulators are “more permissive” and investors are “piling into it”, while pro-crypto lobbying groups are throwing their weight behind political candidates who support it. In January, the launch of the $TRUMP coin, a cryptocurrency mostly owned by “companies associated with the Trump family”, pointed towards the president’s direct financial interest in crypto. But “clear conflicts of interest” could ultimately do “more harm than good” for the industry.

Ethics watchdogs have warned that embracing crypto could provide a means for corporate and foreign actors to influence the White House. And even industry “cheerleaders” are privately worried that painting crypto as a “vehicle for the president’s influence-peddling will make it impossible for legislators to support favourable legislation”.

A saki monkey and her baby check out a stocking filled with festive treats from the zookeepers at ZSL London Zoo.

Amanda Rose / Alamy Live News

Whether you’re a bookworm or just love beautiful buildings, the UK is packed with glorious libraries to visit. These are our favourites.

John Rylands Library, Manchester
Opened to the public on Deansgate in 1900, this stunning library (pictured above) was founded by Enriqueta Rylands in memory of her late husband, the entrepreneur and philanthropist John Rylands. It became part of Manchester University in 1972, and is home to an array of rare books including the Gutenberg Bible and all four of Shakespeare’s Folios.

The Bodleian, Oxford
“In terms of English libraries, this is the magnum opus,” said The Sunday Times. Founded in 1602 by diplomat and scholar Thomas Bodley, it’s one of the country’s oldest and “feels like the library at Hogwarts: think domed reading rooms, gothic vaulting, stained glass and wooden shelves stuffed with books from floor to ceiling”. Consider booking a guided tour for access to the “normally off-limits” 15th century Duke Humfrey’s Library and the Chancellor’s Court, “where students were tried for misdeeds”.

The Leeds Library
This historic spot has a “special claim to fame: it’s the oldest surviving lending library in the UK”, said The Sunday Times. Founded in 1768 by a “forward-thinking society of northern notables”, it’s a members-only library, but you can book to visit on Thursdays between 5pm and 7pm. “Grade II listed and set around a glass-roofed atrium, framed by wooden balustrades and shelves, it’s a bookworm’s delight.”

Female genital mutilation is abuse. Suggesting otherwise isn’t progressive, it’s racist
Nimco Ali in The Telegraph
“Surely we are not still debating whether cutting girls’ genitals is harmful,” writes female genital mutilation survivor Nimco Ali. A BMJ journal has published a paper arguing that those who condemn it rely on “racialised stereotypes”, and when I began campaigning against FMG, I was “told I was betraying my community”. But this “is not an African issue”; it’s an expression of “power and control over women’s bodies”. It is “abuse” and “medical journals, of all places, should know this”.

Britain’s bargain-basement social care
Jonny Ball on UnHerd
Shared institutions “define a nation”, writes Jonny Ball, and there may be no “more disturbing and accurate symbol of the contemporary British body politic” than our “broken social care system”. In this “threadbare patchwork of public and private dysfunction”, residential care homes have been “hollowed out by parasitic ownership models”. The state that “once promised cradle-to-grave care” has become “powerless in the face” of these “para-state private behemoths”.

British pessimism is stalling growth
David Stevens in City A.M.
“Britain has long prided itself on being” a “dynamic” financial centre but the “uncomfortable truth” is that it’s “become the most risk-averse investment market in the world”, writes David Stevens, CEO of Aquis Exchange. In “one of the biggest obstacles to business growth in the UK”, companies “increasingly find that after strong early-stage support, they are struggling to find scale-up capital at home”. We must “restore confidence in responsible risk-taking” to create a “more future-facing capital market”.