There are rules and world leaders must insist they be honoured in practice and in spirit. After this atrocity in Iran, a more effective tribunal for crimes against children is essential

The killing of a reported 168 people, primarily schoolgirls, in the bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab in Iran has shaken to its very core the conscience of the world.

The attack, carried out nearly two weeks ago when classes were under way, reduced the school building to rubble. Parents who had sent their daughters to school discovered minutes later that classrooms had become mass graves.

Gordon Brown is the UN’s special envoy for global education and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010

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The abuse of women by figures such as Epstein, and of political power by the likes of Mandelson, must be confronted. As far as I am able, I will play my part

Former prime minister ‘deeply regrets’ bringing Mandelson into his government

In Jeffrey Epstein’s wider circle, women and girls were treated as less than human by powerful men acting far beyond the law. The sexual trafficking plotted by him and his fellow criminals is the most egregious example of a global network of wealthy and powerful men that thinks it can act with impunity. Nothing less than a century-defining rebalancing of power and accountability is equal to this moment and the trauma of the victims. This scandal is primarily about them and their pain.

But as I digest the details of what has emerged, I also find it hard to find words to express my revulsion at what has been uncovered about Epstein and his impact on our politics. During the financial crisis, I wanted every moment of every day to be spent doing everything that could be done to save people’s homes, savings, pensions and jobs. That a member of the cabinet at the time was thinking more of himself and his rich friends is a betrayal of everything we stand for as a country. That the leaks of sensitive information were going to someone we now know was the ringmaster of a cabal of abusers and enablers sickens me.

Gordon Brown is the UN’s special envoy for global education and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010

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The idea that the liberal rules-based order can survive his presidency now seems complacent. This is a historic moment – and a time to act

A European-wide chorus of resistance, led this morning by Keir Starmer, has greeted Donald Trump’s plan to take over Greenland, by force if necessary, and to start a tariff war if any country stands in his way. Have no doubt, this is a moment: if pursued as a non-negotiable demand, Trump’s plan ends any lingering hope that the liberal rules-based order can stumble on through his remaining time in office. The real question now is whether the 2020s will be defined by the complete collapse of the order’s already crumbling pillars and the atrocities accompanying it, or whether an international coalition of the willing can come together to build a new global framework in its place.

For, in quick succession, the US has abandoned its longstanding championing of the rule of law, human rights, democracy and the territorial integrity of nation states. Gone is its erstwhile support for humanitarian aid and environmental stewardship. Gone, too, is the founding principle of the postwar settlement: that countries choose diplomacy and multilateral cooperation over aggression and unilateral action. We cannot doubt any longer that the president meant it when he said he doesn’t “need international law”, and that the only constraint on his exercise of power would be “my own morality, my own mind”.

Gordon Brown is the UN’s special envoy for global education and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010