Faced with an escalating crisis and ever-louder calls from his MPs that someone had to take responsibility for the Mandelson scandal, the PM's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, is gone.
Politics latest: Starmer reacts as chief of staff Morgan McSweeney resigns
It will be a bitter blow for Starmer, who had repeatedly said all week he had full confidence in McSweeney.
No 10 was trying to hold on to the PM's right-hand man, who had worked with Starmer from opposition, through the election campaign and into power.
As late as Sunday morning, cabinet minister Pat McFadden was saying that he did not think McSweeney should go over the Mandelson appointment.
Read more: From Svengali to sacked, who is Morgan McSweeney?
That the government changed course reveals the deep peril Starmer is in.
Faced with a chorus of anger from MPs that showed no sign of abating, No 10 offered a scalp.
The hope will be that Mr McSweeney's departure from the heart of the No 10 operation will go some way to satisfying some of his MPs who were demanding a reset.
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Baroness Harman, typically a government loyalist, led the charge on our Electoral Dysfunction podcast when she warned the prime minister that blaming Mandelson for misleading him was not enough.
She argued that to save his premiership, he had to take responsibility by clearing out those who had advised Starmer to appoint Mandelson to Washington, embarking on a genuine programme to clean up politics as he promised in the manifesto and bringing forward action tackling violence against women and girls.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown, backing Starmer as a "man of integrity" on Saturday, said the situation was "serious" and suggested the Labour leader had been "too slow to do the right things" to clean up politics in the wake of the Peter Mandelson row.
This weekend, the PM has clearly heeded some of the unsolicited advice, but make no mistake that the departure of McSweeney comes from a position of acute weakness.
This is about a prime minister sacrificing his closest ally in No 10 in the hope that he can remain in post.
In the longer-term, it might only serve to weaken him further now that his key ally and fixer has gone. He has just lost the backbone of his operation.
There will undoubtedly be more blood-letting, and allies of McSweeney say he was one of a number of people to advise the PM on Mandelson's appointment - he provided advice but was not the one who made the decision.
McSweeney was a powerful force in the party, with a great many allies across the whole of government.
There will be anger from many that the man who masterminded the election win and got Keir Starmer into the Labour leader position and then into No 10 has been cut adrift.
As one former colleague of McSweeney texted me soon after the news broke, "[Morgan] was not just a brilliant colleague but a moral and decent man who supported his staff through thick and thin. The PM should have put this down as a mistake and rejected his resignation".
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Senior Labour sources told me McSweeney had been wrestling with what to do over the weekend and was feeling "very down", but the decision became "inevitable" due to the "gravity of the situation".
McSweeney said in his resignation statement that he took "full responsibility" for advising the PM to appoint Mandelson.
"In public life, responsibility must be owned when it matters most, not just when it is most convenient. In the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside."
There will be some in his party who believe the PM cannot recover from this scandal, that it has gone too far to be repaired with the country and with the Labour Party.
McSweeney's departure will not solve that.
One minister told me after McSweeney's departure that the mood remained "frenetic" with MPs unsure how this would all play out, although the minister also thought it would "help Keir for a bit".
Starmer will attempt this week to enact advice from Baroness Harman and former PM Brown, with one No 10 source saying the PM "recognises the need for government to address the issues highlighted by the Mandelson revelations".
The PM instructed officials to move at pace to deliver on the PM's election pledge to "clean up politics", and will say more next week, starting with an address to his PLP on Monday night.
But one senior figure told me that the reset in No 10 and scale of change will have to be really significant if Starmer wants to hold on: "I don't think they appreciate how big a move will be needed to rebuild and stabilise the party."
What is clearer is that the No 10 operation is now in full-blown survival mode. But past experience shows that when that operation goes into freefall, it's near impossible to stabilise.
The 41-year-old American ruptured her ACL in a crash at a World Cup race in Switzerland on 30 January but was determined to compete at the Olympics nevertheless.
She is in a stable condition, her team confirmed.
Just 13 seconds into her final run in Cortina, northern Italy, on Sunday, Vonn crashed on the piste, having clipped a slalom gate while mid-air.
The Team USA athlete was heard screaming after the crash as she was surrounded by medical personnel for several minutes.
Vonn was then strapped to a gurney and flown to hospital by helicopter.
She broke her left leg and needed surgery to stabilise the injury, according to regional governor Luca Zaia.
People in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched as the skier crashed and was taken away from the course. Vonn's father was also in the stands and stared at the ground while she was being treated.
Vonn's teammate, Breezy Johnson, won the women's downhill, becoming the second American woman to take the Olympic downhill gold. Vonn was the first US woman to accomplish the feat.
Vonn was considered a medal hopeful despite her ruptured ACL and completed two impressive training runs earlier this week.
She had returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years in retirement, having had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee.
As well as the ruptured ACL, she also had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.
Sanae Takaichi's coalition is predicted to win between 302 and 366 of the 465 seats in the chamber, according to national broadcaster NHK.
That is well above the 233 needed for a majority.
In tandem with their coalition partners, her government is actually projected to have a two-thirds majority in the house, the NHK decision desk says.
It comes after Ms Takaichi, 64, called the winter election, seeking to capitalise on her own high approval ratings.
Betting on herself, she pledged to secure a majority or step down.
A former heavy metal drummer, she says immigration and tourism has led to "foreigner fatigue" in Japan, and her nationalist rhetoric has stoked tensions with China.
She's also anti-gay marriage and a vocal defender of traditional gender roles, and sees late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as a role model.
Furthermore, her government plans to step away from Japan's post-war pacifist principles, bolstering the military and lifting a ban on weapons exports.
Ms Takaichi became the nation's first female prime minister in October, pledging to "work, work, work" and nurturing an upbeat image.
She's won support among younger voters and her personal style has been praised by fans, with admirers now facing a nine-month wait to purchase her signature Hamano black bag.
And she's curried favour with Donald Trump; he appeared alongside her during a visit last year, gave her his endorsement, and called her a "winner", before saying they were "very close friends".
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She became prime minister after taking charge of the struggling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), whose fortunes she is credited with transforming.
The party had grown accustomed to power, having governed almost continuously since its foundation in 1955, except for two brief windows - from 1993 to 1996, and from 2009 to 2012.
But it suffered setbacks in recent years, enduring one of its worst electoral performances ever in 2024 amid a backdrop of a financial scandal and economic stagnation, and losing its majority in the lower house.
The lower house, or House of Representatives, is the more powerful of the two chambers that comprise the National Diet - the Japanese equivalent of parliament.
Since last year, Ms Taikichi's LDP has governed in coalition with its junior partner, the Japan Innovation Party, also known as Ishin.
A stronger hand in the lower house will empower her government to make progress on its right-wing agenda, including passing a record-setting 122.3 trillion yen (£571bn) budget.
And with the projected two-thirds majority, she can override the Diet's upper chamber, the House of Councillors, which she does not control.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, reacting to the result on Fox News, called the prime minster "a great ally" and said she had a "great relationship with the president".
Lai Ching-te, president of Taiwan, offered his "heartfelt congratulations" in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
He added: "May your victory bring an even more prosperous and secure future for Japan and its regional partners."
The new yellow warning is for large parts of southern England and South Wales, and lasts from 12pm on Monday to midnight. Up to 30mm of rain is predicted to fall in some places.
Affected areas include Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Southampton and West Sussex.
In southwest England, areas include Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset, with Cardiff, Swansea and Newport among affected areas in Wales.
See the weather forecast in your area
The Met Office said: "Bands of rain and heavy showers will move east across southern parts of England and Wales during Monday afternoon and evening."
It added: "10-15mm of rain is likely fairly widely with 20-30mm in some places exposed to the strong south to southeasterly winds."
The warning forecasts spray and flooding on roads "probably making journey times longer".
Bus and train services will probably be impacted with flooding of a few homes and businesses possible, it added.
There will also be a chance of some interruption to power supplies and other services, it continued.
Meanwhile, the Environment Agency has 89 flood warnings in place, mostly across southwest England and the East and West Midlands.
There are also 218 flood alerts. A flood warning means flooding is expected, and an alert means flooding is possible.
The Met Office said on Thursday that rain had fallen every day of 2026 so far in southwest England and South Wales.
There has been 50% more rainfall than usual in both, the forecaster added.
Both have experienced a far wetter than average January.
Sarah Cook, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, said: "Our thoughts are with all those affected by the ongoing impacts of Storm Chandra, including those whose homes and businesses have sadly been flooded.
"Significant ongoing groundwater flooding impacts remain probable in parts of Dorset and Wiltshire, with minor impacts probable for parts of Hampshire for the next five days, and West Sussex from Saturday.
"Environment Agency teams are out on the ground, to reduce the impact of flooding and support those communities affected. We urge people not to drive through flood water - it is often deeper than it looks and just 30cm of flowing water is enough to float your car."
The Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB secret police, said in a statement that a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was arrested on suspicion of shooting Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev on Friday.
"With the assistance of partners from the United Arab Emirates... [he] was detained in Dubai and handed over to the Russian side," the security service said. Korba has since been flown back to Russia, according to security officials.
Lt Gen Alexeyev was shot three times with a Makarov pistol equipped with a silencer in an apartment block on the Volokolamsk highway in northern Moscow, according to investigators. The perpetrator then fled the scene.
The 64-year-old was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery, Russian media said.
Russian investigators have accused Ukraine of planning the shooting, but Kyiv has denied involvement.
Investigators said Korba, born in the Ternopil region of Soviet Ukraine in 1960, was tasked by Ukrainian intelligence to carry out the shooting.
The FSB said it had identified two accomplices, also Russian citizens.
One, Viktor Vasin, was detained in Moscow, while another, Zinaida Serebritskaya, escaped to Ukraine. Sky News was unable to immediately verify the details of the suspects.
The UAE did not give any details about how Korba was detained.
Vladimir Putin called the UAE leader, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, after the detention of Korba and thanked him for his country's help in the operation, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Meanwhile, Russia launched an attack on several Ukrainian regions overnight.
Ukraine's air force said 101 attack drones were fired towards the country, with the force repelling the majority.
Apartments in the Donetsk region and nearby cars caught fire after a drone strike. One person died, and two others have been injured.
The overnight attack came almost 24 hours after Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
More than 400 drones and 40 missiles were fired in that attack as the harshest winter in the near four-year war grips Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced new sanctions in response to the strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
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"Producing this weaponry would be impossible without critical foreign components, which the Russians continue to obtain by circumventing sanctions," the Ukrainian leader wrote in a social media post.
"We are introducing new sanctions precisely against such companies - component suppliers, as well as missile and drone manufacturers. I have signed the relevant decisions."