What should be done about the small proportion of babies born with genitals that are neither typically male nor typically female? Many of those affected believe parents and doctors are often too quick to schedule operations

Small Luk was initially “so happy” to be offered genital reconstruction surgery, aged eight. Doctors had told her she was a boy, but that she had an illness, which was why she couldn’t urinate standing up. “They told me this is a problem,” the 60-year-old from Hong Kong says. “And that in the future, you cannot marry, you cannot have a baby, so you need to have surgeries.”

Having been bullied at school for her ambiguous gender presentation, she found the idea that she could be “modified back to normal” a compelling one. But it wasn’t as simple as the doctors made out: Luk had an undeveloped uterus and vagina in her body as well as underdeveloped male genitals.

Ruling out tax rises in its 2024 manifesto was utterly reckless and will fan the flames of the far right

It’s rare to watch a political calamity advance with such gruesome inevitability. Rachel Reeves’s reported plan to shred Labour’s flagship tax pledge in the upcoming budget is so plainly disastrous that it invites the suspicion that the party leadership has completely lost its senses. But madness would be too generous an alibi for a faction that long ago abandoned any purpose beyond wielding icepicks against its own left.

Labour’s 2024 election campaign offered no story, no clear moral argument, no real sense of direction. That vacuum explains why, even after being handed power, thanks to the most shambolic government in modern British history, Labour mustered only a third of the vote. The tax pledge was one of the few recognisable threads of coherence.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Jelly is back in all its wobbly, Instagram-friendly glory. But does it always taste as impressive as it looks? And why is it so hard to get it to set rather than slump? This could get messy …

Jelly has a dowdy reputation, but it may well be the perfect food for the Instagram age: when it works, it’s incredibly photogenic, so who cares what it tastes like?

There can be no other explanation for recent claims that savoury jellies – the most lurid and off-putting of dishes, reminiscent of the worst culinary efforts of the 1950s – are suddenly fashionable. This resurgence comes, according to the New York Times, “at a time when chefs are feeling pressure to produce viral visuals and molecular gastronomy is old hat”.

Head of F1 Academy explains how close she came to a grand prix debut, her quest to produce female drivers and a frightening knock on her hotel room door by a powerful man in the sport

“There was a deep loneliness to karting, and then definitely in single-seaters, because no one else was going through the same thing as me,” says Susie Wolff as she remembers her long struggle in motorsport, from racing as a teenager against Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to her determined, but unfulfilled, quest to become a Formula One driver.

“After the whole #MeToo movement, we forget what it was like before. But the way I heard boys talking about girls in the paddock made me think I never want to be spoken about in that way. I realised I’d have to be whiter than white to get through it unscathed.”

Naked in a forest, among people of every age, race, gender and physique, I finally shook off the self-doubt that had haunted me since my teens

When I was 15, I grew nine inches in nine months. My bones ached at night. I grew out of my clothes at a rapid clip, exposing skinny ankles beneath the bottom of my blue jeans. I went from being average height to towering over everyone in my class.

I had been uncomfortable in my own skin even before that. I grew up in the US in the late 70s, and my body type was not in fashion. I was curvy in places that were not celebrated, with thighs and a butt that announced themselves in ways I found uncomfortable. I was a teen when I first started dieting, and women’s critiques of their bodies, and the bodies of others, quickly became a constant refrain of my youth.

A declining sense of collective identity is corroding trust in our institutions and undermining democratic politics

Imagine you are given a pile of tokens, representing real money, and invited to donate to a common pot. There are other players but you can’t interact with them. The sum of collective contributions will be trebled, then shared equally among all players. What do you do?

If everyone submits all their money, all get richer. But if everyone except you pays in, you can enjoy the collective payout while retaining your original stash. The flaw in the selfish strategy is that other people might have the same idea. If no one pays in, there is no bounty to share.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Kemi Badenoch probes Starmer over ‘toxic culture’ at Downing Street

The No 10 briefing row is not the only story around this morning. Amy Sedghi is writing a live blog about the ongoing turmoil at the BBC and she has details of Donald Trump saying he has an “obligation” to sue the BBC.

In a related development, Reform UK has pulled out of a BBC documentary about the party amid a row over the broadcaster’s editing of the Trump speech. Robyn Vintner has the story.

Internal party memo says ‘trust has been lost’ as US president reiterates threat of legal action against corporation

• Trump to sue BBC – latest updates

Reform UK has pulled out of a BBC documentary about the party amid a row over the broadcaster’s editing of a Donald Trump speech.

The film, which was due to be called the Rise of Reform and would have been presented by Laura Kuenssberg, was being made by the independent production company October Films.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as UK’s blue-chip share index moves closer to the 10,000 point mark

Southern Water is looking to tap the bond markets for hundreds of millions of pounds, just days after apologising for the catastrophic spill of plastic biobeads that polluted the Sussex coastline.

Bloomberg reports that Southern Water is looking to sell as much as £600m of bonds today.

The firm is sounding out investors for five-year and eight-year sterling denominated notes, both with a spread of around 230 basis points over gilts at initial price thoughts, according to a person familiar with the matter.

At the same time, the company announced a tender offer for £350 million of Sub-Class A4 notes that mature in March 2026 at a purchase price of 100.5. It will conclude on November 19, according to a statement.

Men appear in court accused of more than 40 offences against teenage girls

Seven men have been charged with alleged offences against 11 teenage girls as part of an investigation into what police have called “group-based child sexual exploitation” in Bristol.

The men are accused of more than 40 offences between 2022 and this year. The investigation began in November 2023 after concerns were raised about the sexual exploitation of a teenage girl.

Mohamed Arafe, 19, of Speedwell in Bristol. He has been charged with five counts of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, one of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, one of sexual assault, one of being concerned in the supply of cocaine and a further count of being concerned in the supply of ecstasy.

Sina Omari, 20, of Fishponds in Bristol. He has been charged with two counts of rape, four counts of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, one of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child, one of being concerned in the supply of cocaine and a further count of being concerned in the supply of ecstasy.

Wadie Sharaf, 21, of Redland in Bristol. He has been charged with one count of rape, one of attempted rape, three counts of sexual assault and a further count of sexual activity with a child.

Hussain Bashar, 19, of Southmead in Bristol. He has been charged with one count of rape.

Mohammed Kurdi, 21, of Henbury in Bristol. He has been charged with two counts of rape, two counts of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, one count of supplying ecstasy and a further count of supplying cannabis.

A 19-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with four counts of rape, one of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, one of distributing an indecent photograph of a child, one of being concerned in the supply of cocaine and a further count of being concerned in the supply of ecstasy.

A 26-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with two counts of rape and one of sexual assault.