Militant group said to want stronger guarantees of a permanent end to the war as Israeli prime minister prepares to fly to Washington
Hamas leaders are close to accepting a proposed deal for a ceasefire in Gaza but want stronger guarantees that any pause in hostilities would lead to a permanent end to the 20-month war, sources close to the militant Islamist organisation have said.
Hamas officials met on Thursday in Istanbul to discuss the new ceasefire proposals and later issued a statement confirming they were talking to other “Palestinian factions” before formally announcing a response.
A subtle, intriguing sequel revisits two girls as they grow into adults and question the impact of their unconventional upbringing
Esther Freud’s childhood on the Moroccan hippy trail inspired her 1992 debut Hideous Kinky. That novel was told through a young child’s limited perspective, so daily life was described vividly – almond trees and coloured kaftans – while bigger issues, such as why she didn’t see her father, remained vague and mysterious.
Some 30 years later, Freud has returned to the same narrator, Lucy. But in this accomplished new novel, she explores how Lucy grows up and starts to question the impact of her unconventional upbringing. My Sister and Other Lovers opens with teenage Lucy, her mother and sister once again on the move. It’s the 1970s, her mother has a new son from another failed relationship, and they are on a ferry to Ireland, as they have no money and nowhere else to go.
The brusque, unsmiling American rocket scientist returns with a bigger budget and more action alongside an entertaining turn from Sid James as an inebriated journalist
Here is the 1957 sequel to Hammer’s box office smash The Quatermass Xperiment from 1955; it is enjoyable, though the law of diminishing returns is coming into play. Like the first film, it is based on the original BBC drama (the second series, in fact) and Brian Donleavy is back as Quatermass himself: the brusque, unsmiling American rocket scientist working closely with the British government and permanently exasperated with them.
Once again, Quatermass finds himself at the centre of a deadly alien attempt to take over Planet Earth. While debating whether or not to fire a nuclear powered rocket up into space, Quatermass comes into contact with a woman whose boyfriend has been injured by what appear to be football-sized meteorites, which his white-coated assistants have been already tracking on their radar scopes. It appears that these sinister rocks are marking the skin of those humans unlucky enough to come into contact with them, the victims becoming brainwashed by the aliens.
Between Aberystwyth and Cardigan the quiet coastline is sublime, with incredible sunsets, dizzying and spectacular coastal paths, gorgeous quiet beaches and dolphins. Start in Dylan Thomas’s old stomping ground, New Quay, and follow the coastal path south along cliffs and past Cwmtydu beach before finishing at gorgeous Llangrannog, where you get two beaches for one (perfect Cliborth beach requires a lower tide to access). Kayaking and surfing are great, and the Pentre Arms provides refreshments with a view. Matt Lunt
Proposal is latest in a series of rules and legislation that have cracked down on the city’s pro-democracy movement
A new code of conduct in Hong Kong will require legislators to “sincerely support” Beijing’s jurisdiction on the city and the chief executive, and prohibits anything that might “vilify” the government.
The proposal for the new code, introduced on Wednesday, included tiered penalties for legislators who breach the code, including suspension without payment for the most serious offences.
Japanese negotiators have just days before the end of Trump’s 90-day pause on punishing tariffs to pull off a breakthrough
It all seemed to be going so well. In April, Japan’s chief trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, sat opposite Donald Trump in the Oval Office after “positive and constructive” talks, sporting a Maga baseball cap and giving a thumbs up for the cameras.
Japan’s economic revitalisation minister drew criticism back home for the gesture, forcing him to insist there was “no political significance” behind it. But the backdrop to the offending photo was far more significant than the uncomfortable optics.
The Treasury focuses on numbers when what’s needed is vision. The party and the country are crying out for leadership, but it’s nowhere to be seen
She is not the first chancellor to cry in public, and may not be the last. But Rachel Reeves is the first whose tears have moved markets. No sooner had the realisation dawned that she was silently weeping – over a personal sorrow she won’t be pushed into revealing, she insisted later, not a political one – as she sat beside Keir Starmer at Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, than the pound was dropping and the cost of borrowing rising. The bond traders who forced out Liz Truss’s hapless chancellor still clearly rate her judgment and want her to stay, even if (perhaps especially if) some Labour MPs don’t. Yet it is an extraordinary thing to live with the knowledge that a moment’s uncontrolled emotion can drive up the cost of a nation’s mortgages, just as a misjudged stroke of the budget pen can destroy lives.
The most striking thing about her tears, however, was Starmer’s failure to notice. Intent on the Tory benches opposite, the prime minister simply ploughed on, not realising that his closest political ally was dissolving beside him. Though within hours, a clearly mortified Starmer had thrown a metaphorical arm around her, and Reeves herself was back out talking up her beloved fiscal rules as if nothing had happened. But it’s the kind of image that sticks: her distress and his oblivion, an unfortunately convenient metaphor for all the times he has seemed oddly detached from his own government.
A make-ahead summertime dessert featuring silky panna cotta topped with strawberry jelly. Serve with a ta-daaa!
There’s a certain charm to jelly in summer: its playful wobble, its glassy sheen, its ability to delight adults and children alike. This dessert leans into that charm and the unbeatable pairing of a softly set strawberry jelly with a silky vanilla panna cotta. It’s light and cool, and ideal for long, warm evenings when no one wants anything too heavy: simple but balanced, the berries bright and tangy, the cream smooth and gently sweet. Best of all, everything can be made ahead, so all that’s left to do is unmould and enjoy the wobble.
Winnie Byanyima tells the Guardian she considered resigning when Donald Trump cancelled Pepfar funding
The head of the global agency tackling Aids says she expects HIV rates to soar and deaths to multiply in the next four years as a direct impact of the “seismic” US cuts to aid spending.
Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAids, said that if the funding permanently disappeared, the world faced an additional 6 million HIV infections and 4 million Aids-related deaths by 2029.
Railway infrastructure was also damaged in the attack, the latest in a series of intensifying Russian assaults on the Ukrainian capital
At least 14 people have been injured in an overnight drone attack on Kyiv that also damaged railway infrastructure, and set buildings and cars on fire throughout the city, the mayor has said, while separate explosions were reported in a city near Moscow.
The attack was the latest in a series of Russian airstrikes on Kyiv that have intensified in recent weeks and included some of the deadliest assaults of the war on the city of three million people.
At a rally in Iowa, the president said he ‘hates’ lawmakers who opposed his signature bill, and looked ahead to plans to mark the 250th anniversary of America
Donald Trump has celebrated the passage of his signature tax and spend legislation by declaring “there could be no better birthday present for America” on the eve of the 4 July holiday.
The US president took a victory lap during an event in Des Moines, Iowa, that was officially billed as the start of a year-long celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, in 2026.
Ahead of the first tour date tonight, the former poet laureate explores the ‘brotherhood and chemistry’ that forged the band, repelled the Gallaghers and brought them together again
In retrospect it all seems so obvious. Form a band, plunder the Beatles’ back catalogue for riffs, guitar tabs, chord changes and song structures, then bang it out in a key that a stadium crowd could put their lungs into but which suited the subway busker, too.
The resulting success now looks so inevitable. In 1994, dance music flooded the UK charts but not everyone thought a rave DJ wearing oversized headphones and playing records counted as a gig. Some people – a vast number, it turned out – still yearned for meat-and-two-veg pop-rock with guitars and drums, and for songs played by groups. Throw in some Manc bluster, the death throes of a Tory government that had occupied Downing Street since for ever, and the first glimmers of a cooler Britannia, and hey presto: Oasis.
Support is lowest in France, Spain and Poland, while 21% back authoritarian rule under certain circumstances
Only half of young people in France and Spain believe that democracy is the best form of government, with support even lower among their Polish counterparts, a study has found.
A majority from Europe’s generation Z – 57% – prefer democracy to any other form of government. Rates of support varied significantly, however, reaching just 48% in Poland and only about 51-52% in Spain and France, with Germany highest at 71%.
He bit through my left arm. Bones crunched. I could hear them, feel them
It was a chilly autumnal morning in October 2009 when I woke in my tent in Primorsky Krai, Russia, near the border with North Korea and China. My team of six had been catching wild Siberian tigers with snares and putting radio collars on thembefore releasing them, so we could better understand their behaviour and protect the endangered species.
I’d been working as a tiger biologist for 14 years, and had tagged about 70 tigers with my team. Each morning, we’d travel in pairs to check the snares – they consisted of heavy-duty cables attached to a tree. Each was equipped with a radio transmitter that would alert us to a capture so we could anaesthetise the animal as quickly as possible to minimise their stress, before fitting a collar and releasing it back into the wild.
Chic’s bandleader and the Last Dinner Party are among the curators selecting from the 90,000+ items in the late star’s archive to go on display when the new London venue opens in September
From the Thierry Mugler suit he got married in to his costumes from the Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane era, David Bowie’s most iconic looks will be available for fans to see up close as the V&A museum opens its David Bowie Centre on 13 September.
Part of the V&A’s wider archival project, the V&A East Storehouse, the Bowie archive comprises more than 90,000 items – which won’t all be on display at once. Instead, in details revealed today, visitors will be able to order up items to look at closely, while V&A archivists and star curators will make selections to go on display in a series of rotating showcases. Tickets will be free.
After US jury said it should pay oil pipeline firm $660m, Greenpeace is hoping to reclaim funds via EU anti-Slapp law
The outcome of a court case in the Netherlands could shape the right to protest around the globe for decades to come, campaigners have warned, as figures show a dramatic rise in legal action taken by fossil fuel companies against activists and journalists.
Greenpeace International is using a recently introduced EU directive to try to reclaim costs and damages it incurred when a US jury decided it should pay the oil pipeline corporation Energy Transfer more than $660m in damages earlier this year.
Sell-offs of public housing and the right’s promotion of home ownership has left too many unable to afford accommodation
Csaba Jelinek is an urban sociologist based in Budapest
When I left my family home to study at university in 2007 and moved to downtown Budapest, housing costs were hardly a topic of conversation among my friends. I rented rooms in centrally located flats for £80-£100 per month. Fast forward to 2025 and a similar room in a shared flat would set you back at least £200 – double the price of 15 years ago. Talk to anyone in their 20s in Budapest today, and the deepening housing crisis will inevitably come up as one of the defining struggles of their lives.
The statistics paint an equally grim picture. Between 2010 and 2024, Hungary saw the largest increase of the housing price index among EU member states. While the EU average rose by 55.4%, Hungary’s housing price index rocketed by 234%. Meanwhile, per capita net income only grew by 86% in the 2010s. Budapest, the capital, is the centre of this crisis. According to the Hungarian National Bank, residential property prices are overvalued by 5-19%. This is partly explained with the high proportion of investment-driven purchases: these accounted for 30-50% of all transactions in the last five years in Hungary. Unlike in many other EU capitals, property investors in Budapest are not primarily foreign nationals – who accounted for just 7.3% of transactions between 2016 and 2022 – nor are they institutional players. Instead, they are typically individual Hungarian citizens. As real estate has become an increasingly appealing investment for upper- and middle-class households amid growing economic uncertainty, the result has been a deepening polarisation within Hungarian society.
Ward Sakeik, 22, who came to US aged eight, tells of ‘joy and a little shock’ after more than four months in detention
Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian woman who was detained in February on the way back from her honeymoon, was released from immigration detention after more than four months of confinement.
“I was overfilled with joy and a little shock,” she said at a press conference on Thursday. “I mean, it was my first time seeing a tree in five months.”
Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv hours after presidents’ phone call; US company Techmet to bid in first pilot project of US-Ukraine minerals fund. What we know on day 1,227
The team battled a notoriously strong current and used the stars as their guide to reach an island in an unstable vessel made of Japanese cedar
Dr Yousuke Kaifu was working at an archaeological site on the Japanese islands of Okinawa when a question started to bubble in his mind. The pieces unearthed in the excavation, laid out before him, revealed evidence of humans living there 30,000 years ago, arriving from the north and the south. But how did they get there?
“There are stone tools and archaeological remains at the site but they don’t answer those questions,” Kaifu, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Tokyo, says.
With narrow majorities and intra-party splits, Republicans faced a battle to give Trump his bill to sign – but they did it
Just a few months ago, analysts predicted that Republicans in Congress – with their narrow majorities and fractured internal dynamics – would not be able to pass Donald Trump’s landmark legislation.
On Thursday, the president’s commanding influence over his party was apparent once again: the bill passed just in time for Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
Democratic leader spoke for more than eight hours to rail against Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending bill
The Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries broke the record for the longest House floor speech ever on Thursday after he spoke for more than eight hours to delay a vote on Donald Trump’s signature tax-and-spending bill.
Early on Thursday, after a marathon night of arm-twisting, cajoling and pressure by tweet, House Republicans said they were finally ready to vote on Trump’s $4.5tn tax-and-spending package – a colossal piece of legislation the president wants passed by Friday, the Independence Day holiday.
Costa Rica-based inter-American court of human rights says states have obligation to respond to climate change
There is a human right to a stable climate and states have a duty to protect it, a top court has ruled.
Announcing the publication of a crucial advisory opinion on climate change on Thursday, Nancy Hernández López, president of the inter-American court of human rights (IACHR), said climate change carries “extraordinary risks” that are felt particularly keenly by people who are already vulnerable.
Until 1992, when people heard Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel on the radio, they might smile and nod and sing along to its catchy soft-rock tune and goofy Dylan-esque lyrics. But after 1992, with the release of Quentin Tarantino’s sensationally tense and violent crime movie Reservoir Dogs, the feelgood mood around that song forever darkened. That was down to an unforgettably scary performance by Michael Madsen, who has died at the age of 67.
Stuck in the Middle, with its lyrics about being “so scared in case I fall off my chair”, was to be always associated with the image of Madsen, whom Tarantino made an icon of indie American movies, with his boxy black suit, sinister, ruined handsomeness and powerful physique running to fat, playing tough guy Vic Vega, AKA Mr Blonde. He grooved back and forth across the room, in front of a terrified cop tied to a chair, dancing to that Stealers Wheel number, holding his straight razor, which he had removed from his boot – smirkingly preparing to torture the cop (that is, torture him further) by cutting off his ear.
Court halts ruling that allowed migrants to challenge removal to countries where they could be in danger
The supreme court has allowed the Trump administration to deport the eight men who have been held for weeks at an American military base in Djibouti to war-torn South Sudan, a country where almost none of them have ties.
Most of the men are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan.
An initial £45m bid was rejected by Forest last week
Newcastle look to bolster squad for Champions League
Newcastle United are optimistic of striking a deal to sign the Nottingham Forest forward Anthony Elanga after submitting an improved offer worth about £55m. Last week Newcastle had a £45m bid rejected but have returned with an increased offer.
Newcastle and Eddie Howe are long-term admirers of Elanga, who featured for Forest in every Premier League match last season, scoring six goals and providing 11 assists as Nuno Espírito Santo’s side qualified for the Europa Conference League, returning to European competition for the first time since 1995-96. Newcastle qualified for the Champions League after finishing fifth.
Lobbying effort by independent delegation follows Jamaica’s move to ask King Charles to request legal advice
Global campaigning for slavery reparations gathered pace this week with lobbying in Westminster and Brussels, days after the Jamaican government revealed it will ask King Charles to request legal advice on the issue.
On Tuesday, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Afrikan Reparations, a group of UK MPs and peers calling for an apology and reparative justice for the historical and ongoing impact of slavery and colonialism, hosted an independent delegation of Caribbean researchers and activists who are lobbying for reparations.
The minute’s silence was immaculate, poignant, loaded and ultimately broke into applause. “Rest in peace Diogo Jota,” spelled a series of cards held up behind Inês Pereira’s goal; the air was thick with emotion in those moments before kick-off and one of the first things to say is that Portugal’s players deserve the highest admiration for turning out to compete. They may not have shared a dressing room with Jota or his equally mourned brother, André Silva, but that cannot minimise the fact two members of their nation’s tightly-knit footballing family had been taken away in devastating circumstances.
It took guts and no little honour to show up and keep running, probing, scrapping, hunting for moments to take pride in while their opponents left no doubt that they are runaway favourites for this competition. Spain should be lauded, too, for resisting any temptation to go easy, starting at a rattling pace and completing a thoroughly professional job. In their case that often means administering a sound beating and there is no escaping that they delivered one here.
The US House of Representatives passed Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill on Thursday, handing the president the first major legislative victory of his second term and sending to his desk wide-ranging legislation expected to supercharge immigration enforcement and slash federal safety net programs.
The 218-214 vote came after weeks of wrangling over the measure that Trump demanded be ready for his signature by Friday, the Independence Day holiday. Written by his Republican allies in Congress and unanimously rejected by Democrats, the bill traveled an uncertain road to passage that saw multiple all-night votes in the House and Senate and negotiations that lasted until the final hours before passage. Ultimately, Republicans who had objected to its cost and contents folded, and the bill passed with just two GOP defections: Thomas Massie, a rightwing Kentucky lawmaker, and Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents a Pennsylvania district that voted for Kamala Harris in last year’s election.
An unforgiving pitch and some uninspiring bowling gave Shubman Gill’s tourists an inch … and they took a mile
The sun shone, the wind blew, the grass grew, and India batted. And batted. And batted. They batted on so long that summer’s roses had budded, bloomed and withered again before they were finished. Excited little kids who had taken seats in the family stand first thing in the morning left it as jaded pensioners in the evening.
It was even rumoured that a man who had come up from London to catch the end of the innings was able to use the newly finished HS2. Among all their other achievements India’s batsmen even silenced the Barmy Army, so that by the very end the volume in the Hollies Stand was reduced to the sort of somnolent hum usually heard at Lord’s.
Diogo Jota and Andre Silva: England defender Lucy Bronze expressed her shock at the death of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva and said the Lionesses would be “thinking of them” along with the rest of the footballing and non-footballing world, writes Suzanne Wrack from Switzerland.
“It definitely shocked all the squad when we woke up this morning and the news started to spread, said Bronze. “Obviously we have a lot of Liverpool fans in our team, and football fans, but for people in general, everyone is just thinking of them – him and his brother. They were so young as well. We have seen all the messages on social media and stuff so you can tell what a great guy he has been. It’s just really sad and we were shocked by the news, really.”
Speaking on the day that Portugal play Spain in their opening game of Euro 2025, Bronze, who is half Portuguese, said: “We’ll be watching the games tonight, Portugal play their first game against Spain and I know there will be a minute’s silence held before that game.
Britain’s mens No 1 Draper beaten 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 4-6
Cilic previously reached Wimbledon finals, losing in 2017
The question that sprang into Jack Draper’s mind after this chastening defeat was simple: how did Andy Murray do it? Draper, the new hope of British men’s tennis, had come into these championships with expectations that he would leave his mark. Instead he was taught a grand slam lesson by the veteran Marin Cilic and leaves Wimbledon with fresh lessons to take on board in his burgeoning career.
There has been distinct excitement at Draper’s prospects in SW19 this summer after his heady ascent up the rankings and victory at Indian Wells in the spring. That this was only his fourth Wimbledon appearance and that none of his previous outings had gone beyond the second round was not given much weight. But perhaps a lack of experience told here, at least in how Draper managed the match, while the 36-year-old Cilic, a Wimbledon finalist in 2017, revelled in his own on-court Indian summer.
Italy kicked off their Euro 2025 challenge with a controlled victory in their Group B opener in Sion. Arianna Caruso’s spectacular first-half goal proved the difference in a close encounter against a well-organised Belgium.
With the game evenly matched, it was one that required just a moment of quality. Caruso is Italy’s puppet-master, pulling the strings with ease from the heart of the midfield. Her goal was an example of what Italy can do when they are at their best.
The actor Michael Madsen has died aged 67 at his home in Malibu, according to authorities and his representatives. No foul play is suspected, the sheriff’s department confirmed, after deputies responded to the Los Angeles county home following a call to the emergency services on Thursday morning.
He was pronounced dead at 8.25am. In an email, Madsen’s manager, Ron Smith, confirmed his client had died from cardiac arrest.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has arrested the Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr in California and begun proceedings to deport him, citing cartel affiliations, multiple criminal convictions and an active arrest warrant in Mexico for weapons trafficking and organized crime.
Chávez Jr, 39, the son of the legendary world champion Julio César Chávez Sr, was taken into custody by Ice agents on Tuesday in Studio City, a Los Angeles neighborhood known for celebrity residences. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he had been living in the US unlawfully and posed a significant threat to public safety.
Akash Deep removes both Duckett and Pope for ducks
The last time a visiting skipper in England notched up a double century was Graeme Smith in 2003 and it prompted Nasser Hussain to fall on his sword mid-series. Smith – or “what’s-his-name” as Hussain called him beforehand – was a captain killer on these shores, his South Africa team accounting for Michael Vaughan five years later.
Ben Stokes at least knew Shubman Gill’s name before this series and, in fairness, the England captaincy is unlikely to change hands in the next week. Nevertheless, Gill inflicted one of the toughest days of Stokes’ three years in charge as his chanceless and downright merciless 269 from 387 balls drove India to a position of dominance.
Israel-based study finds that by 2050 average daily milk production could be reduced by 4% as a result of worsening heat stress
Dairy production will be threatened by the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, a study has found.
Drawing on records from more than 130,000 cows over a period of 12 years, the researchers report that extreme heat reduces dairy cows’ ability to produce milk by 10%.
Russell confident of new contract amid Verstappen links
Mayer to stand against Ben Sulayem for FIA presidency
George Russell believes he “won’t be going anywhere” and is likely to have a new contract confirmed with Mercedes as he played down suggestions that he could lose his seat to Max Verstappen.
As he prepared for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Russell, whose contract with Mercedes has yet to be renewed, said he thought the chances of him not being with the team next season were “exceptionally low”. Verstappen, in turn, flatly refused to comment on the matter.
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