“The ego has landed” headlines the Daily Mirror as US President Donald Trump arrives in the UK for his second state visit. Also on its front page, “golden boy and reluctant hero” actor Robert Redford is pictured in a collage as his death is announced. A snap of The Duke of York next to King Charles is also featured on the Mirror’s front, captioned “Andrew… back in the fold?”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will “press Trump on Israel – as UN warns of Gaza genocide” reports the i Paper. It says the PM is on a “collision course” with the US president over the conflict. The paper also features Robert Redford, who it dubs “a true Hollywood legend”.
“Don in… none out” headlines the Metro heralding the US president’s arrival as the UK’s “migrant plan stalls”. The paper says there is “no one on swap deal flights as problems pile up for Starmer” after a court temporarily blocked an Eritrean man’s removal to France.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s comments that “Trump fans the flames of division” lead the Guardian. The paper also calls the Eritrean man’s blocked removal to France a “blow to ‘one in one out'”, and highlights Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City on its front page.
The Daily Mail headlines on “Starmer’s new migrant fiasco”, declaring “human rights fanatic PM” has been “sunk… by human rights!” A teary-eyed Catherine, Princess of Wales also features on its front page as she “leads the grieving royals at Duchess of Kent’s funeral”.
The Sun runs with “Air Farce One” as Trump “jets in” while “migrant plane off to France with none on board”. Robert Redford is bid farewell by the paper with “so long, Sundance”.
The “migrant flight grounded by court” also leads The Daily Telegraph as it says Sir Keir’s “flagship” deal has been “dealt a major blow”. The front page says Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper “appeared to blame Number 10 and the Cabinet Office” for Peter Mandelson’s appointment. It also features Microsoft announcing a £22m investment in the UK.
The Microsoft deal “worth billions is boost for UK” reads the top story of The Times “but Trump stands firm on steel tariffs at start of visit”, it adds. In other front page news, the blocked removal to France has left the “migrant returns policy in chaos” and the productivity forecast “adds to Reeves’s budget woes”.
The Financial Times leads with the warning to Chancellor Rachel Reeves by the financial watchdog about the UK’s productivity, saying “tax fears mount” with the “blow”. Trump’s UK visit “spurs AI infrastructure bonanza” as US tech giants including Nvidia, Goodle and OpenAI have “pledged billions” to the UK.
“4m to pay tax on state pension in 2 years” reports the Daily Express as it says campaigners warn pensioners will be hit by “stealth raid”. Also on its front page, “Hollywood pays tribute to Sundance Kid Robert Redford”, writing “one of the lions has passed”.
A headshot of Robert Redford dominates the front page of the Daily Star that it captions “the lion of Hollywood”. In parallel is a headshot of Trump, that echoes the Mirror’s “the ego has landed”.
The Daily Telegraph describes the blocking of the deportation flight of an Eritrean man to France as a major blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship “one-in one-out” returns scheme.
The Daily Mail also leads with the story, saying Labour’s new policy designed to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats has been “plunged into chaos”. The Sun says the returns deal between the UK and France has descended into a “fresh farce”.
President Trump’s state visit to the UK features on the front of the The Times which focuses on the deal with American tech giants pledging to invest billions in Britain.
The Guardian reports that Trump arrived to a “barrage of criticism” from the London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who accused him of encouraging the far right across the globe.
The heat hits me as soon as I open the door, the single panes of glass in the wall-width window drawing the late afternoon sunlight into my room. The red linoleum floor and minimalist interior do little to soften the impact; I wonder how I’m going to sleep. On the opposite side of the corridor, another member of the group I’m travelling with has a much cooler studio, complete with a small balcony that I immediately recognise from archive black and white photographs.
Unconsciously echoing the building’s past, we start using this as a common room, perching on the tubular steel chairs, browsing the collection of books on the desk and discussing what it must have been like to live here. At night, my room stays warm and noise travels easily through the walls and stairwells; it’s not the best night’s rest I’ve ever had, but it’s worth it for the experience.
I’m in Dessau, Germany, in the accommodation block once inhabited by students and junior masters at the famous Bauhaus school. Also known as the Prellerhaus, the studios are part of a larger asymmetrical complex of connected workshops, classrooms and social spaces – the iconic Bauhaus Building.
A guest room in the student accommodation block at the Bauhaus school in Dessau. Photograph: Tenschert, Yvonne, 2022/Bildnachweis siehe Beschreibung
Designed by German architect and Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius after the school moved here in 1925, and completed in 1926, the revolutionary structure is a mix of glass, steel and concrete. It was a physical expression of the school’s ideas and remains a symbol of European modernism to this day. “It landed here like an alien spaceship,” says Oliver Klimpel, head of the curatorial workshop at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
Founded in Weimar in 1919, the highly influential school rejected the principles of local and traditional architecture and design and pursued those that were simple, rational and functional, using innovative ways of teaching and working. Forced to leave Weimar just six years later, owing to financial and political pressure, the school relocated to Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt – then a rising industrial hub with an entrepreneurial spirit and social democratic government – a century ago this year.
Bauhaus students on a balcony of the Prellerhaus, 1931. Photograph: Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
What followed was a highly successful period for the school and a stronger focus on developing prototypes of furniture, household objects and other items for mass production. Art increasingly merged with industry. “They switched from solid wood to plywood sheets, from upholstery to steel tubes and iron yarn,” our guide, Anke John, explains, standing in Gropius’s old office, where the stench from the triolin floor still lingers. It was in Dessau that Marcel Breuer designed the iconic Wassily Chair, for example.
Bauhaus buildings also sprung up across town, before the rise of National Socialism saw the school move again in 1932, this time to Berlin, for one final year before the Nazis came to power.
“The empty rooms in the workshop wing appear clean and spacious now, but they were packed with different workshops for printing, weaving, woodwork and metalwork, with tools and machines; it was messy and loud, a maker’s space,” explains Klimpel, adding that the common portrayal of a perfectionist modernist practice in an art school can be very misleading.
While regular heatwaves were less of a problem in the 1920s – temperatures were in the high 30s when I visited – the three-storey glass curtain wall, in pursuit of transparency, still created difficult, greenhouse-like conditions in summer. “It was part of the practical research to see what worked and what didn’t; you learned with the building and lived within the experiment,” adds Klimpel.
The structure has undergone changes over time, including repairs to wartime bomb damage, reconstruction of the facade in 1976, and an extensive restoration project based on the original plans, completed in 2006. Today it’s home to a shop, a cafe, exhibition spaces and the offices of the non-profit Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. The students’ studios are open to overnight guests, each one kitted out with Bauhaus-inspired furniture, some in the style of former residents such as Josef Albers (studio 204) and Marianne Brandt (studio 302).
The Masters’ Houses where Kandinsky, Klee and Gropius once lived. Photograph: Tenschert, Yvonne, 2015/Bildnachweis siehe Beschreibung
Visitors can also head to other Bauhaus-related locations in town using a signposted cycle route, taking the number 10 bus (the Bauhauslinie) or by joining a guided tour. I start by walking over to the restored Masters’ Houses, just a short distance away from the Bauhaus Building. Set among towering oaks and pines, these cubic-like white structures with black window frames, plus two abstract rebuilds, are where key figures such as Kandinsky, Klee, Moholy-Nagy and Gropius once lived with their families. It feels sleepy and subdued here now, quiet enough to hear acorns crunching under my feet.
Other spots not to miss include the Kornhaus, a restaurant with a semicircular glazed conservatory on the banks of the Elbe, built in 1929; the Arbeitsamt, the yellow-brick employment office designed by Gropius in 1929; and the Dessau Törten housing estate (1926-28), with its rows of modest two-storey, flat-roofed homes, developed to address the housing shortage. The striking Bauhaus Museum, designed by architects from Barcelona and open since 2019, provides plenty of background information and is home to the second largest collection of Bauhaus-related objects in the world, including teaching notes and drafts from the workshops.
The Kornhaus, a former restaurant designed in 1929 by Bauhaus architect Carl Fieger. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann/Getty Images
To mark the centenary of the school’s move to Dessau, a programme of events and exhibitions – titled An die Substanz/To the Core – will take place throughout 2025 and 2026, focusing on materials of the modern era. Celebrations kick off this month and include modern interpretations of the so-called Material Dances, part of the course Der Mensch (The Human Being), introduced by Bauhaus teacher Oskar Schlemmer in 1928. Other highlights will include Invisible Bauhaus Dessau, a new digital tour covering the early days of the Bauhaus members in Dessau, and five central exhibitions opening in March 2026.
In between the festivities and the Bauhaus sites, it’s impossible not to notice the decline of this city, which has been merged with Roßlau since 2007. Blocks of GDR flats with worn-down facades are easy to spot and the streets feel quiet, almost deserted, at times. Like many places in eastern Germany, reunification has seen the population shrink, and gradually age. In recent years, the rightwing party Alternative für Deutschland has gained increasing support in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, its influence extending to culture and the Bauhaus.
Coming here requires a degree of imagination and reflection. You have to remind yourself that these buildings and ideas were completely new, occasionally provocative, in the 1920s. That the Bauhaus teachers really lived in those white houses. That the workshops were loud and dusty. That students held wild parties and piled out on to those balconies. That Dessau was once a booming place. That this school from a corner of Germany has found its way into everyday design around the world.
The trip was supported by the German tourist board. For more information about the centenary, see bauhaus-dessau.de. A night at the Bauhaus starts from €55. Toilets, showers and kitchenettes are shared, but found on every floor
That hidden speech can tell us a lot about their pair’s relationship and hint at what could be happening behind closed doors.
Forensic lipreader Nicola Hickling has now revealed what the powerful men said when they greeted each other airport.
The world’s eyes were on the moment when Putin walked towards Trump to shake hands.
Putin looked relaxed as he walked down a red carpet towards Trump – giving the US leader a thumbs-up before greeting him with a warm handshake.
Trump begins clapping as Putin approaches and the American says: “Finally,” according to Hickling.
Hickling then said that as the pair shook hands Trump added: “You made it, fantastic to see you and appreciated.”
The pair then appear to begin talking about Ukraine and the bringing the fighting to an end with a ceasefire.
Putin responds in English, saying: “Thank you — and you.”
He also makes a pledge to Trump: “I am here to help you.”
Trump Putin meeting erupts into CHAOS as press bombard Putin with questions
Trump replies: “I’ll help you.”
Pointing towards Trump, Putin says: “All they need is to ask.”
Trump answers simply: “Okay.”
Putin continues: “I will bring it to a rest.”
7
Microphones couldn’t listen into the pair as they spoke at the airport
7
Putin told Trump
Trump responds: “I hope it does.”
Turning towards the vehicle, Hickling said Trump smiles and says: “Come on, let’s get straight into the vehicle. We need to move forward, both giving it attention. I know this is serious, it’s quite long. What a journey it is.”
Trump salutes and says: “Thank you.”
On the podium, Trump says: “Thank you. Let’s shake hands — it gives a good impression.”
Putin nods in agreement, shakes his hand, and says: “Thank you.”
The pair then shared a moment alone in Trump’s presidential limo – known as The Beast – which drove them to the summit venue.
They were then next seen when they posed for photos in front of the press to record the historic moment.
7
Putin shouted at the press when the photocall descended into chaos
7
Vlad said to a reporter that they were ‘ignorant’, according to Hickling
But the photocall descended into chaos when the journalists started shouting at Trump and the tyrant – who doesn’t face that sort of opposition in Russia.
Hickling said that Trump noticed Putin wasn’t happy with a question or remark made.
The American leans in to his aide, according to the lipreader, and whispers: “I’m uncomfortable, we need to move them quickly.”
Putin then makes a face after being on the receiving end of the aggressive questioning.
Hickling said the Russian tells a reporter: “You is ignorant.”
Then, as he cups his hands to his mouth to shout above the chaos, he says again: “You are ignorant.”
After nearly three hours of talks in Alaska, the US president said the pair “agreed on some big points” they said in a brief press conferece.
There was a lot of flattery between the pair as they spoke in front of the world.
Hickling’s analysis of the chumminess between the pair out of range of the microphones suggests that there could possibly be a real relationship between the pair, despite the geopolitical differences.
What was the outcome of the historic peace talks?
Following the historic talks, Donald Trump said there is still disagreement, adding: “There is no deal until there is a deal” and “we didn’t get there” despite progress.
Trump said he would “making some calls” to European leaders and Volodymyr Zelensky soon – and added “we have a very good chance of reaching a deal”.
Vladimir Putin says he is “sincerely interested” in ending the conflict, which he called a “tragedy.”
He insists Russia must eliminate the “primary causes” of the war – a Kremlin talking point he has been saying since the start of the conflict.
Putin invited Trump to hold a next meeting in Moscow.
“We’ll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon,” Trump said.
“Next time in Moscow,” Putin replied.
“That’s an interesting one,” Trump laughed.
“I’ll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening.”