Thousands of staff at the University of Nottingham have been told to prepare for redundancy as part of swingeing financial cuts that academics say will harm the institution’s future.

The university’s administration sent letters to 2,700 staff on Tuesday, notifying them their role was at risk of redundancy after its leadership said it could run out of money by 2031.

The redundancies are the latest sign of the funding squeeze and slump in international student numbers affecting even highly-ranked institutions such as Nottingham, a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities.

The university wants to cut more than 600 academic and support posts through a combination of voluntary and compulsory redundancies in subjects and departments with low staff-to-student ratios, including physics, medicine and health sciences.

The University and College Union (UCU) opposes the cuts, arguing that Nottingham’s £85m budget deficit last year was the result of an ill-fated expansion campus known as Castle Meadow, which is now being written off, and one-off costs from the previous round of redundancies in which 350 jobs were lost.

Andreas Bieler, a professor of political economy and the UCU branch vice-president, said: “We would argue that there are a lot of homemade problems, including the Castle Meadow campus, but also their financial strategy of always turning surpluses directly into investment into new buildings. That has kept the university on the edge and this is not the first time that we are in a crisis, it’s just the most severe one.”

UCU members have passed a vote of no confidence in the vice-chancellor, Prof Jane Norman, and backed a marking boycott that is likely to cause headaches for the administration in ensuring that students are able to graduate in the summer.

Bieler said: “Management underestimates what we can do collectively. We have started to prepare for a marking boycott this month and we have quite a lot of buy-in by members, so we are cautiously optimistic that we can change course on this level of compulsory redundancies.”

A university spokesperson said: “We know that change of this scale is not easy, and we do not underestimate what it means for many of our colleagues and students. We will be doing everything we can to support our people through the next few months.

“But doing nothing is not an option. Like many universities across the UK and globally, we face significant financial challenges and at Nottingham we are taking action to shape our future rather than have circumstances shape it for us.

“These are really difficult decisions and we have not taken them lightly. It is vital that we respond to the changing sector demands to ensure we are sustainable for future generations and continue to deliver world leading teaching and research and an excellent student experience.”

Lopa Leach, a professor of vascular biology and the UCU branch president, argued that the cuts to high-status departments such as chemistry would be self-defeating.

“They don’t seem to understand that these cuts will impact our global reputation and rankings and recruitment of future students,” she said. “The loss of so many academics and technicians will exacerbate further our research and teaching, let alone the heartbreak colleagues are undergoing.”

Nick Clare, an associate professor of geography and one of the staff who received a warning notice, said: “If you get rid of so many you’ve got no space for growth. You’ve made savings but where can you increase revenue?

“But they seem hell-bent on cutting deeply, so many people so quickly, that we will have a radically reshaped university that can’t then deliver what it should or respond to changing demand.”

The last time Keir Starmer faced a threat to his leadership, his core team assembled in the cabinet room and persuaded ministers to fire off a succession of supportive tweets in an attempt to keep him in office. This time has been different.

As the number of MPs calling for the prime minister to resign has grown over the last 48 hours, much of the cabinet has remained quiet.

And though the prime minister remained in office on Tuesday night, some in government were wondering whether his political operation was as sharp as it once was, especially since the departure of Starmer’s long-term aide Morgan McSweeney.

“How could they not plan for this, it’s mad,” said one MP, frustrated at what they saw as a lack of fightback from Downing Street. Another said there was “literally no guidance or plan. I have no idea what plan it was that they think they were preparing.”

Starmer’s political operation is a very different one from what it was for most of his first 20 months in office, during which the prime minister would decide the broad direction of the government but leave much of the daily politics to McSweeney.

When faced with a scandal, for example, it was often McSweeney who would lead the strategy over how to respond and, if required, make the first phone call to a minister whom the prime minister wanted to resign.

McSweeney resigned as chief of staff in February over his role in recommending Peter Mandelson as ambassador in Washington.

He remains close to Starmer and is understood to have spoken to the prime minister in recent days about his situation. He is not providing advice to No 10 however, even behind the scenes.

Starmer appointed Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson after McSweeney’s resignation, and they led the fightback in February when the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, called for Starmer to resign.

Alongside Amy Richards, the Downing Street political director, and Jonathan Reynolds, the chief whip, they coordinated a response to Sarwar that was so swift it gave any potential rival very little time to act.

This time the same team has once more assembled in the cabinet room, albeit largely without Cuthbertson, who is on maternity leave. While she came in to Downing Street on Monday evening, sources say it was only briefly and she did not get involved in making calls.

“They have really missed Jill, she was the one with the connections across the Labour party,” said one government official.

Stuart Ingham, one of the prime minister’s longest-standing aides, and Sophie Nazemi, his director of communications, have also pitched in.

Downing Street officials say they have tried to use broadly the same tactics as they employed last time to keep him in post, with phone calls across the party and defiant messages in public.

Some have been warning of dire consequences should the prime minister be ousted, such as a spike in bond yields – though they have been careful not to use those arguments too directly with Labour MPs.

“There is a very good chance that we are heading for a Liz Truss moment in the next few months,” said one government figure, referring to the jump in UK borrowing costs that followed the former prime minister’s “mini-budget”.

“We can’t say so in such terms to MPs though, as they get nervous about being made to feel like they are being held hostage.”

To an extent, Starmer’s aides have been helped by the fact that MPs are still in their constituencies after the local elections, and do not return to Westminster until Wednesday.

While their absence has made it more difficult to coordinate the prime minister’s defence, it has also prevented the same level of collaboration among his opponents.

For some MPs, the outreach has worked.

On Tuesday more than 100 Labour MPs, including the former minister Tulip Siddiq, Carolyn Harris and Perran Moon, signed a letter insisting: “This is no time for a leadership contest.”

The letter was coordinated by backbenchers and some parliamentary ministerial aides. Organisers say it did not come from No 10, though MPs said it had been circulated by government whips.

Starmer himself made his message clear at cabinet – it was time to trigger a leadership contest or stand down.

In words that in effect dared the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to move against him, the prime minister said: “The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families.

“The Labour party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered.”

Sources told the Guardian that Starmer did not give cabinet critics time to respond, before moving the conversation on to the Middle East.

They added that he did not have one-on-one meetings before or after cabinet, apart from with his close ally Richard Hermer. One source said Streeting had tried to speak to the prime minister privately after, but had been rebuffed.

While Starmer then headed to a technical college in south London for a planned ministerial visit, his words persuaded some cabinet ministers to issue supportive statements to reporters outside Downing Street as they left the meeting.

Others, however, have remained quiet, in marked contrast to February, when every cabinet minister quickly issued public declarations of support. Streeting himself has remained quiet in public, as have Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, and Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary.

As the dust began to settle on another day of political drama, Starmer’s allies were quietly hopeful they had shored the prime minister up for another day, even if they were wary of predicting any further into the future.

“I don’t know what happens next,” said one. “It might be that Andy or Wes backs down having marched their armies halfway up the hill. Or it might be that one of them succeeds and arrives in Downing Street just as the jet fuel runs out.”

Donald Trump unleashed a late-night social media tirade against his political enemies, attacking predecessors including Barack Obama with false accusations and amplifying calls for his Democratic rivals to be prosecuted.

Just hours before a high-stakes trip to China for talks with Xi Jinping, the US president posted more than 50 times in a three-hour spree from Monday evening into the early hours of Tuesday. Posts included doctored images of himself on the $100 bill and demands that political opponents be arrested.

It comes as millions of Americans face mounting economic pressure tied to the US and Israel’s war with Iran, with living costs rising across much of the country. Trump appeared to acknowledge this pressure earlier on Monday, when he signaled his support for a plan to curb a sharp rise in fuel costs.

After campaigning for years against the US engaging in “endless wars”, Trump has repeatedly drawn out the timeline of the war on Iran, which began with US and Israeli attacks in late February. Earlier this week he described a ceasefire deal with Tehran as “on life support”.

Starting late on Monday evening Trump promoted posts on his Truth Social platform that falsely accused Obama of plotting a coup against Trump, as well as claims calling Obama a “traitor” and “the most demonic force in American politics”. Trump also shared images of Obama, former president Joe Biden and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool. In the altered images, the pool – which Trump has proposed renovating to an “American flag blue” color – appeared filled with sewage beneath the caption: “Dumacrats love sewage”.

The president also attacked the New York Times after the newspaper reported that a $6.9m contract to restore the reflecting pool was hastily handed out to a company that renovated a swimming pool at his Virginia golf course. “This is not just a paint job … it is a deeply complicated work of smart and beautiful construction,” he said.

Other targets of Trump’s late-night screed included Illinois’s governor, JB Pritzker; the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries; and Hillary Clinton, against whom he contested the 2016 presidential election. He also repeated false claims about the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden but continues to insist was stolen from him.

Trump also repeated his disapproval towards several conservative justices whom he previously appointed, including Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, who voted against his tariff agenda earlier this year.

Gorsuch is a “really smart and good man, but he voted against me, and our Country, on Tariffs, a devastating move”, Trump wrote. “How do I reconcile this? So bad, and hurtful to our Country. I have, likewise, always liked and respected Amy Coney Barrett, but the same thing with her. They were appointed by me, and yet have hurt our Country so badly!”

A man arrested for stealing hard drives containing unreleased Beyoncé music has pleaded guilty in an Atlanta court on Tuesday.

Kelvin Evans was arrested by the Atlanta police department in September in connection to a July 2025 car robbery where two suitcases containing Beyoncé music and tour plans were stolen from a rental car.

In an Atlanta court this morning, Evans accepted a five-year sentence of which he will serve two years in custody. Previously he had pleaded not guilty and reportedly declined to take a deal in April, according to Rolling Stone.

Evans was ordered to avoid the location of the theft in Atlanta and refrain from contact with the victim as part of his probation terms.

According to a July police report, Beyoncé choreographer Christopher Grant and dancer Diandre Blue called 911 to report a theft from their rental vehicle, a 2024 Jeep Wagoneer, before Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour dates in Atlanta.

An October indictment stated that Evans entered the car on 8 July “with the intent to commit theft”.

The stolen hard drives contained “watermarked music, some unreleased music, footage plans for the show and past and future set list”, according to a police report. Clothing, designer sunglasses, laptops and AirPods headphones were also stolen, Grant and Blue said.

Local law enforcement searched for the location of one of the stolen laptops and the AirPods to try and locate the property. One police officer wrote in the report: “I conducted a suspicious stop in the area, due to the information that was relayed to me. There were several cars in the area also that the AirPods were pinging to in that area also.

“After further investigation, a silver [redacted], which had traveled into zone 5 was moving at the same time as the tracking on the AirPods.”

Evans was arrested several weeks after Grant and Blue filed a report, and was publicly named as the suspect in September. He was released on a $20,000 bond a month later.

At the time of his arrest, Atlanta police said that the stolen property had not been recovered. It is unclear whether it has since been found.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter was the highest-grossing tour of last year, earning the performer over $407m across 32 shows. She won the 2025 album of the year Grammy for the project, which was praised by the Guardian’s Michael Cragg as “a thrilling 27-track journey through and beyond America’s roots music”.

Earlier this month, Beyoncé co-chaired the Met Gala alongside Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour. She was accompanied by her husband, Jay-Z, and daughter Blue Ivy.

“It feels surreal [to be back] because my daughter’s here,” Beyoncé said on the red carpet. “She looks so beautiful. It’s incredible to be able to share it with her.”

Rumors have been swirling that Beyoncé will drop her new album this summer, speculatively titled Act III and with a possible rock direction.

When asked about the project on the Today show earlier this month, Tina Knowles, Beyoncé’s mother, was tight-lipped: “I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you,” she joked.