Britain has become the latest country to back a plan to give limited autonomy to the disputed territory of Western Sahara, while keeping it under Moroccan control.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the plan, proposed by Morocco, was "the most credible, viable and pragmatic" way to resolve one of Africa's longest-running and most frustrating regional conflicts.

Who controls Western Sahara?
The dispute over Western Sahara – roughly 100,000 square miles of sparsely populated land to the south of Morocco and Algeria, and to the west of Mauritania – sees the area currently uneasily split between Morocco and and the Algeria-supported, pro-independence Polisario Front, which has declared a "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic". The dispute has become an "intricate" and "multifaceted political, diplomatic, and military contest", said Modern Diplomacy.

What is the Moroccan plan?
In 2007, Morocco submitted its Autonomy Initiative to the UN, proposing that Western Sahara manage its own internal affairs, while Morocco retains control over defence, foreign policy and currency. The plan received little formal backing until 2020, when the US shifted position and recognised Moroccan sovereignty, in a quid pro quo for Morocco normalising relations with Israel. Following the US lead, France declared backing for Morocco's plan last year, ending its "long-standing position of neutrality", said Bloomberg. Spain, Germany, as well as many Gulf States and Egypt have also backed the plan.

Since US recognition of its sovereignty, Morocco has invested heavily in the region, sparking something of a development blitz. "The Western Sahara has gone from a disputed territory that was radioactive to foreign investors to an increasingly normal region that's receiving a growing flow of capital," Riccardo Fabiani, project director for North Africa at the International Crisis Group, told Bloomberg.

Is there an alternative?
Growing international support for Morocco's plan has left Algeria and the Polisario Front "fuming". The group – which some US lawmakers want listed as a terrorist organisation – has vowed to step up resistance and has claimed recent attacks against Moroccan forces near the Algerian border.

But alternative solutions seem unlikely. Last year, according to Reuters, the UN envoy for Western Sahara floated the idea of formally partitioning the territory but both Morocco and the Polisario Front rejected the proposal out of hand.

There might not be a vacancy for Labour leader but, inside the party, "there is always a contest", said The New Statesman's George Eaton. The government's declining approval ratings "means this is even truer than usual" right now.

Others have begun "positioning for a post-Starmer world". That includes Labour's two most prominent devolved leaders: Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

'Unifying the popular left'
Khan has been a long-time ally of Starmer but his recent contradictions of the government line suggest that his "patience with the limits imposed on him by his current role is running out", and that he may be "eyeing up a return to the Commons", said Tom Harris in The Telegraph.

Burnham, meanwhile, "regularly advertised himself as an alternative" in Starmer's "difficult early years" as Labour leader, and is "most clearly" readying himself for the era after Starmer, said Eaton. In a speech to the soft-left group Compass at the weekend, he wasn't explicit about "whether he hopes to lead this movement" of, as he put it, "unifying the popular left" but "he didn't need to" be.

His speech "ultimately resembled a leadership manifesto" and, although he didn't name Starmer, he "repeatedly outflanked the government from the left" and called for a reversal of spending cuts and more radical taxes on wealth.

'Discontent among MPs'
There is a "danger for Starmer" in being "so explicit about seeing Nigel Farage as his main opponent", said John Rentoul in The Independent. It is fuelling "discontent among Labour MPs and members" and empowering the devolved leaders to publicly rebuke the government. Both Burnham and Khan are "ready", if mounting pressures result in "destabilising the prime minister".

Burnham is "one of the more popular figures within Labour" and, "when he criticises the leadership, then that is publicly raising questions about Starmer", said Andrew Fisher in The i Paper. More concerningly for the prime minister, Burnham's appearance at the Compass event alongside some "hard left" Labour figures shows an "emerging dialogue between two wings of the party" that are overcoming a "historic divide" to confront a "Labour government that is abandoning Labour values".

"What It Feels Like for a Girl" is a long way from your "typical female bildungsroman", said Rachel Aroesti in The Guardian. The eight-part series, starring Ellis Howard (pictured above), has been adapted for television from Paris Lees' "excellent" memoir of her life as a working-class teenager called Byron, growing up in a small Nottinghamshire town.

Our protagonist's early gender dysphoria is "angrily dismissed by their macho father", and the idea of one day living openly as a woman feels unfathomable. But Byron's eventual transition isn't what makes this show an "extraordinary and, at times, deeply disturbing account of a partly misspent youth".

Unlike a typical coming-of-age tale that "moves linearly towards success and validation", morality is presented as something that's "murky and fluid, just like sexuality and gender, and equally in thrall to the fickle whims of the heart", said Nick Hilton in The Independent.

Turning a bestselling writer's memoir into television is nothing new, said India Block in London's The Standard. However, Lees' "wilder-than-fiction youth, filled with underage sex work (that Lees now understands as statutory rape), armed robbery, and a stint in prison before she'd even sat her A-levels" takes things to a new level.

Less than 20 minutes into the show, there's a "surreal dream ballet about a teenager sucking off men for crumpled fivers in a public loo": this is "post-watershed TV on steroids". While "What It Feels Like for a Girl" is "definitely not for family viewing", it's certainly a "fearless and compelling" show.

Poland's Election Is A Wake-Up Call to Europe's Centrists
Armida van Rij in Foreign Policy
The election of right-winger Karol Nawrocki as Poland's new president has "important implications" across Europe, writes Armida van Rij, from the Chatham House think tank. Previously, in countries where far-right parties have surged in polls ahead of elections, centrists would "hold their breath" before usually "coming out on top". But now, amid global security threats, "too many pressing policy issues hinge on an election going 'the right way'". With the stakes so high, centrists need to "come up with a better plan".

UK business confidence is rising but it's not party time just yet
David Smith in The Times
Something "rather unexpected is happening", writes David Smith. Two "prominent" business surveys "show that optimism is rising strongly". With Britain having "signed a trade deal with America, as well as a 'reset' deal with the EU and a new deal with India", it seems things are "not so bleak after all". But the US "tariff danger is not yet over" and business confidence is still "below where it was" when Labour came to power.

What my train journey from hell tells us about the state of Britain
Annabel Denham in The Telegraph
Britain's "clapped-out" railways recently "robbed me of three hours of my life", writes Annabel Denham. "Moments" after the 19.36 service departed, "we ground to an ominous halt". At 22.20, "hot, hungry, and fully out of patience", we were "evacuated" from the train, which had only managed to "transport 500 people 150 metres". Data shows such delays are the norm, but no one, "in any party", is listening: they're just hoping it won't be them "in power when the music finally stops".