Curtain up.

The increasingly surreal political pantomime on both sides of the Atlantic sees two showpiece events set for Wednesday. At noon London time, new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn faces off against Prime Minister David Cameron for their first encounter at PMQs.

• Follow The Guardian’s live blog here.
• Follow the Telegraph live blog here.
• Follow the BBC‘s live blog here.

Corbyn – who has famously called for “less theatre, more facts” in the weekly exchanges and said he won’t take part in every session but will “share them out” among his new front-bench team – had asked Labour supporters for their suggestions on what he should ask today – apparently getting more than 30,000 submissions of varying seriousness – so really, anything could happen.

For Corbyn, it’s a chance to fight back at a swathe of negative headlines this morning after the press jumped all over the avowed republican for not singing the national anthem during yesterday’s Battle of Britain memorial service.

http://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/644027568459542528

Even if that Sun “jester” splash on Tuesday was later pretty much completely discredited, the image – and the suggested impression – helped compound a tricky first week for Corbyn. Today’s PMQs gives him an opportunity to turn the tide. It’s not going to recede anytime soon, though.

But he can at least take some comfort from a new opinion poll showing a rise for Labour since he took over.

Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, the second Republican debate is set to take place tonight at the Ronald Reagan library in California and on CNN, with Donald Trump (haven’t typed those words in a while) still leading in the polls but other “non-politicians” Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina showing strongly as the rest of the field continues to wrestle with how to counter the Trumponaut.

The “kids table” show is at 6ET (11pm London) and the main event starts two hours later.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is upset at the Hillary Clinton campaign after he was attacked for – guess what – congratulating Jeremy Corbyn on his leadership victory. The Guardian reports:

In a war of words that heralds a new phase in the hitherto relatively polite Democratic primary campaign, Sanders was reportedly criticised over his backing of Corbyn – the leftwing socialist who came from nowhere to win a landslide victory in the Labour leadership contest on Saturday – by Correct the Record, a so-called Super Pac that raises unlimited sums from wealthy donors to support Clinton.

According to journalists who received an email from the group, it attacked Sanders for congratulating Corbyn on winning the Labour leadership election and drew attention to the British politician’s “most extreme comments” on foreign policy.

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WORLD

Meanwhile, in real life and death matters, Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Richard Glossip on Wednesday, despite increasing doubts over his guilt.

Sky News reporter Ian Woods, who has been covering the case for months and reporting on the high-profile campaign for a stay of execution, will be one of the witnesses.

The border between Hungary and Serbia remains closed amid a state of emergency, with thousands of refugees massing on the Serbian side and faced with a newly-erected barbed-wire fence. EU ministers have so far been unable to agree an immediate plan to alleviate the situation as more people seek to move across the continent.

Meanwhile, train traffic between the Austrian city of Salzburg and stations in Germany has been temporarily halted due to a bottleneck of refugees.

A new report from the World Wildlife Foundation finds a dramatic decline in marine life in an alarmingly short period, prompting warnings of an “ecological catastrophe.”

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BUSINESS

Britain’s latest employment data shows a 10,000 increase in the number of jobseekers, with the overall unemployment rate staying at 5.5 per cent. Wages showed a 2.9 increase, the biggest growth since 2009.

In the US, Wednesday sees the first day of the Fed meeting, with markets’ eyes on interest rates.

http://twitter.com/EconEconomics/status/644063808466591744

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SPORTS

Manchester United’s England defender Luke Shaw suffered a double leg fracture as his team lost 2-1 at PSV Eindhoven in their opening Champions League group game on Tuesday night. Former PSV star Memphis Depay had given United a first-half lead before the Dutch champions scored twice, including a goal by Hector Moreno, whose tackle earlier had led to Shaw’s injury.

Manchester City also lost as last season’s beaten finalists Juventus came from behind to win 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium. Wednesday night’s games involving English clubs see Chelsea host Maccabi Tel Aviv while Arsenal travel to Dinamo Zagreb.

The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

– Winston Churchill

European ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday in the latest attempt to craft a cohesive continent-wide solution to the ongoing refugee crisis.

• Follow The Guardian‘s live blog here.

The gathering comes as Germany moved to re-introduce border controls – a temporary suspension of the Schengen agreement – in an effort to restrict the wave of asylum-seekers, after more than 13,000 people arrived in Munich over the weekend.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is in Lebanon on Monday visiting a refugee camp, where he again stressed that the current crisis is best tackled via a “middle east solution.” The Financial Times reports:

The prime minister met refugees in a camp in the Bekaa Valley — less than a mile from the border with Syria — including one family who will be resettled by Britain following his pledge earlier this month that the UK will take 20,000 refugees over the next five years from the war-torn nation.

Downing Street also announced that MP Richard Harrington was being appointed as a Home Office minister with responsibility for Syrian refugees.

As a backdrop to the EU talks, in a story that has tragically become all too common recently, a boat capsized off the coast of Greece on Sunday, killing some 30 people including several babies and children.

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WORLD

Australia has a new Prime Minister, its fourth in three years, after Tony Abbott was ousted as Liberal party leader following a challenge by Malcolm Turnbull.

• Here’s how the day’s events unfolded, via ABC Australia‘s live blog.

Security forces in Egypt “mistakenly” killed 12 Mexican tourists when the vehicles they were traveling in came under fire in the western desert near the border with Libya.

A state of emergency is in effect in northern California as wildfires remain largely out of control, with more than a dozen blazes consuming homes as residents evacuate an area ravaged by recent years of drought.

http://twitter.com/WTOP/status/643358539914723328

In Britain, new Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn announced the members of his shadow cabinet but remained quiet amid criticisms of a lack of women in so-called “top” posts, even though for the first time there are more women than men in the shadow cabinet as a whole.

(Interestingly, in the full Sky News broadcast clip, the number of the car Corbyn gets into is not pixelated, the way say, footballers’ license plates are generally pixelated on transfer deadline day.)

Gary Younge at The Guardian writes how Corbyn’s victory has “energized the alienated and alienates the establishment.”

Whatever one thinks of the wisdom of that choice, the transformational nature of it is beyond question. It has revived debates about nationalisation, nuclear deterrence and wealth redistribution and returned the basis of internal Labour party divisions to politics rather than personality. It has energised the alienated and alienated the establishment. The rebels are now the leaders; those who once urged loyalty are now in rebellion. Four months after losing an election, a significant section of Labour’s base is excited about politics for the first time in almost a generation while another is in despair.

Communist newspaper The Morning Star marked Corbyn’s ascent with its first-ever weekend edition.

http://twitter.com/TheNewsGlobe/status/642943305962156032

Meanwhile, as the TUC congress continues, parliament is set to vote on Monday evening on far-reaching legislation governing union power and the ability to instigate strike action, largely in the public sector. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady called the bill the most “severe attack on workers rights for 30 years.”

The right-wing press has a slightly different take:

(Daily Mail/Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

In Northern Ireland, talks are expected to begin on a resolution to the current impasse that has hamstrung the Storming Assembly and threatened the future of devolved power in the province.

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BUSINESS

Stocks rose in London on Monday morning despite Chinese stocks sliding again after disappointing data. But investors remain cautious ahead of this week’s Fed meeting. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan’s own policy meeting is taking place Monday and Tuesday.

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SPORT

FIFA still-for-now President Sepp Blatter is under renewed pressure as authorities are investigating the award of television rights for the 2010 and 2014 tournaments and the connection with former FIFA executive Jack Warner.

In Sunday’s US Open tennis, Novak Djokovic beat fan favorite Roger Federer in an epic mens’ final to claim his 10th grand slam title.

http://twitter.com/SerbianWorld/status/643336349534265344

His brilliant performance came in an arena that was definitely a battleground…

Finally, Yorkshire and England cricket great Brian Close – dubbed the “bravest man to play the game” following his physical battles with West Indies bowlers in the 1970s – died aged 84.

• Follow the BBC‘s live blog here.
• Follow The Guardian‘s live blog here.
• Follow the Labour Party on Twitter here.

If, as appears likely, Britain’s opposition Labour Party announces at lunchtime on Saturday that its new leader is veteran left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn, it will be on the back of the decision to open the electoral process up to so-called “three quid voters” in a bid to broaden the membership base and “widen the debate.”

They certainly did that.

The debate – schism, even – within the party now, however, has been portrayed as being between those who believe in ideological consistency and those who favor a pragmatic approach to political power.

But is the leader-in-waiting really as opposed to compromise as some would like to think?

(The Guardian/Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

And of course, there’s this, from Private Eye:

Fraser Nelson writes in The Telegraph about what a Corbyn leadership means for the Conservatives.

Corbyn is offering fantasy policies for a fantasy world – but it’s not enough for Cameron to hold them up to ridicule. He needs to occupy the political space that is about to be vacated. He must ask: what would a sensible, effective Labour Party leader be saying? And then say it himself. In a way, he should become the opposition to his own government – which is less bizarre than it sounds.

Meanwhile, on Friday Labour announced that its candidate in the upcoming contest for Mayor of London will be another left-winger, Sadiq Khan.

So, does this weekend mark the end of Blairism? Maybe.

Certainly, the past three months, as the fractious leadership campaign has intensified, has represented the beginning of the end.

In an interview with the Observer, Dame Tessa Jowell, a cabinet minister in Blair’s governments and a political soulmate, who is now a frontrunner in the race to be Labour candidate for mayor of London, also criticises the ex-prime minister for attacking Corbyn and urges him and others to engage with Labour’s hundreds of thousands of new members for the long-term good of the party.

“I don’t think there is any point in people who are no longer engaged in frontline politics giving their view from afar. I really don’t. I think it would be great if they all get into the new activism,” Jowell says.

“We have to be patient and have the humility to accept that there is a tidal wave with all sorts of currents and that the general election is five years away, and I want to do everything I can to show Labour how it wins with a different kind of politics, which is engaging people.”

Thursday could be a hugely significant day for domestic politics in the UK.

In Northern Ireland, the local Assembly is in danger of being suspended amid a political crisis sparked by the murder last month of a former member of the Provisional IRA.

But, thank goodness, rational heads appear to be prevailing…

Meanwhile, voting ends on Thursday in the election for the next leader of the Labour Party, with Jeremy Corbyn leading in all recent polls. But nothing, apparently, is a done deal until the results are announced at lunchtime on Saturday.

http://twitter.com/ShabbirBokhari/status/641929752077578240

Taylor Parkes writes in The Last House on the Left:

The fact is, unless a lot of things change deeply and most unexpectedly over the next four years, Jeremy Corbyn is not going to win a general election. This is not to suggest that there’s some kind of objective, immovable “centre ground”, nor that if there were, it would be occupied by the Labour Right – still less the modern Conservative Party. In truth, Corbyn’s domestic policies are not very extreme, and would in many cases prove quite popular. Yes, they’re “radical” in the sense that there’s a chasmal distance out to there from where we are today, but really, Corbynism is just about hauling Britain back towards the social-democratic Centre. There will be no pogroms, no fifteen-hour queues for stale bread. This is not the problem.

and, tying today’s two stories together…

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WORLD

Things continue to get worse for Brazil.

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SPORT

The man who ran against Sepp Blatter in FIFA’s last election for the presidency is to stand again.

http://twitter.com/changeFIFA/status/641950517376217088

The papers are preoccupied with two record breakers today. One representing a Britain that some believe has long gone, the other very much of the present.

Meanwhile

(The Times)

The Note returns, but with a slightly different focus.

It looks like I’m going to be staying in the UK for a while, so I’m going to ease into publishing from here with an eye on the start of the New York day. The roundup content will necessarily be more European and UK-focused (I’ve been here a week and my Facebook timeline is – honestly – the only place I hear the word “Trump”) but I’m guessing if I publish around 6am ET, I can get a relatively coherent jump on the day.

It’s a small world, so let’s give it a spin, shall we?

The Note is taking a short break while I’m traveling. I’ll be back with you in a week or so.

There’ll be plenty to talk about. There always is.

In the meantime, may the roof above you never fall in, and the friends below it never fall out.

(The New York Times)