British designer’s fashion week show Laptop to Lapdance attracts stars such as Kate Moss and Cameron Diaz

On the second day of Paris fashion week, Stella McCartney took Kate Moss, Cameron Diaz and Brigitte Macron to the fourth floor of a tower block, where she turned an imaginary office space into a full-on 80s glamour assault.

Hemlines were high, but the thigh-tracing boots peeking out from under suits were somehow higher. Pole dancers spun in crystal leotards by photocopiers, and through lace tights we even got a bare bottom. “I wanted to bring the sexy back,” said McCartney backstage. “It’s all legal!”

• Investigation is opened before Cheltenham Festival
• Tote a feature of British betting landscape since 1928

The Gambling Commission, the government’s betting watchdog, is understood to have launched a review of the Tote’s betting activity.

The former state-owned betting operator is under scrutiny over whether it is fulfilling its obligation in its pools to make it “clear to customers in plain language” that they could in effect be betting against the Tote itself when they gamble on small-stake, high-win pools, such as the popular Placepot bet.

The Commission will now assess whether the operator is compliant with the regulator’s rules to ensure that gambling is “conducted in a fair and open way” and to make the extent of the Tote’s involvement in its pools “clear to customers in plain language”.

The Commission’s decision to assess the extent and nature of the Tote’s staking in its own betting markets comes a few weeks after the regulator received a detailed analysis, compiled over two years by a longstanding racing fan and punter, which suggested that the Tote’s own money now accounts for up to 60% of the cash invested in its key daily Placepot bet, which will have a guaranteed minimum pool of £750k on each of the four days of next week’s Cheltenham festival.

Photographer captures 20-minute clash between birds emblematic of Canada and US amid high political tensions

For the second time in weeks, a Canadian icon has emerged as the unlikely victor in an existential battle on the ice.

Mervyn Sequeira, an Ontario photographer, was out with his family on a recent morning when they spotted a bald eagle descending towards a frozen lake.

The chancellor-elect’s proposals for gamechanging spending on defence and infrastructure are the right response to a new era

Three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, created a £100bn special fund to modernise Germany’s armed forces. Vladimir Putin’s aggression, he told a stunned Bundestag in explanation, meant that Europe was living through a Zeitenwende, or turning point.

Mr Scholz was right. But it has taken the return of Donald Trump to the White House to lay bare the full scale of the emerging threat to European values, security and economic interests. For leaders across the continent, the dawning realisation of what Trump 2.0 means for the transatlantic alliance constitutes a second historic moment of jeopardy and decision.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.