32 m. ago Gaza aid still critically scarce, say agencies, as Israel delays convoys

UN urges opening of all crossing points as fewer than half of intended trucks enter strip and WHO warns of ‘spiralling’ diseaseMiddle East crisis – live updatesAid remains critically scarce in Gaza one week into the ceasefire, humanitarian agencies have warned, as Israel delays the entry of food convoys into the territory. The Israeli government and Hamas continue to trade blame over violations of the truce.The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that it had brought about 560 tonnes of food per day on average into Gaza since the ceasefire began, but it was still below what was needed. Continue reading...

Politics

48 m. ago Poundland: stores closing down as budget retailer announces three more shop closures

Shoppers can score up to 40% off homeware, and more before these stores shut 💸

Economics

84 m. ago White House insiders blow the lid on Trump's 'aggressive' plot to take on 'mob boss' Putin... and reveal his lingering worry

A ceasefire in Gaza and hostage will look like a walk in the park when compared to the relentless unpredictability of Vladimir Putin.

Politics

88 m. ago Trump’s peace plan is just about holding together, but may be unravelled by two unresolved issues | Rajan Menon

The withdrawal of Israeli troops and the establishment of an international stabilisation force are key in securing long-term peace, but the plan is dangerously vague on these issuesTwo years of death and destruction in Gaza ended once Israel and Hamas signed off on Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. A ceasefire is in place. Humanitarian trucks have begun to roll in. Hostages and prisoners are being exchanged. Israel has begun a first-phase pullback from the territories it controls, and under Trump’s plan its troops will eventually be deployed in a buffer zone along Gaza’s land border.Given these developments – all part of the opening phase – dismissing the momentous changes in Gaza is to deny reality. There have already been disputes over the return of the bodies of Israeli hostages, but there are unresolved longer-term problems that could derail the ceasefire and imperil the rest of the Trump plan.Rajan Menon is a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College o...

Politics

1 hour ago Gaza latest: Aid delivery ‘extremely challenging’ despite Israel

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said humanitarian groups have a ‘mountain to climb’ to deliver the necessary scale of aid in Gaza

Politics

2 h. ago WNBA icon Angel Reese makes history on Victoria’s Secret catwalk in eye

WNBA star Angel Reese stunned at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York as she became the first professional athlete to walk in the iconic event

Politics

2 h. ago Ofcom sanctions BBC for breaching broadcasting code by not revealing Gaza documentary narrator's Hamas links

Ofcom has sanctioned the BBC for breaching the broadcasting code in its 'Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone' documentary after the corporation failed to disclose a narrator's links to Hamas. 

Politics

2 h. ago BBC sanctioned by Ofcom for Gaza documentary that breached Broadcasting Code

The film was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged the narrator was the son of a man who held a position in the Hamas government.

Politics

2 h. ago BBC sanctioned for Gaza documentary over failure to disclose narrator link to Hamas

The BBC will be ordered to broadcast Ofcom’s findings due to the serious breach of the Broadcasting Code

Events

2 h. ago Maga is painting Saturday’s protests as violent treason. Prove them wrong | Judith Levine

Trump allies would love an excuse to step up their crackdown. Nonviolence, both disciplined and open-hearted, must define the day“They have a ‘Hate America’ rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said on Fox News on Friday. “It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the antifa people. They’re all coming out.”The Republican Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer said the party’s “terrorist wing” was holding the “Hate America” rally. “Democrats want to keep the government shut down to show all those people that are going to come here and express their hatred towards this country that they’re fighting President Trump,” said the House majority leader, Steve Scalise. The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, embellished the story on Fox, referring to the demonstrations’ “paid protesters” and adding: “It begs the question who’s funding it.” Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago ‘One of the oldest urban centres on the planet’: Gaza’s rich history in ruins

The territory’s ancient heritage has too often been ignored. As we mourn incalculable human losses, learning about its past can help us better understand the presentAs a ceasefire brings a measure of peace to the Dresden-like hellscape that Gaza has become, it is time to take stock of all that has been lost. The human cost of what the UN commission of inquiry recognises as a genocide is of course incalculable, but fewer are aware of how much rich history and archaeology has also been destroyed in these horrific months. This is bolstered by the widespread assumption that Gaza was little more than a huge refugee camp built on a recently settled portion of desert. That is quite wrong. In reality Gaza it is one of the oldest urban centres on the planet.Golda Meir famously declared that “there was no such thing as Palestinians”, but the reality is very different. Palestine is actually one of humanity’s oldest toponyms, and records of a people named after it are as old as literacy itself....

Politics

3 h. ago The world's loneliest gorillas? Urban explorers break into Bristol Zoo and find apes still in enclosure three years after it shut

The video shows the apes pressing against the glass of their enclosure, as the visitor claims they were able to 'just walk straight in' with no sign of staff or security on site.

Politics

3 h. ago River Island and New Look shut down full list: Hundreds of fashion retailers close down across UK

A growing trend sees River Island and New Look among numerous fashion brands shutting UK stores in 2025

Politics

3 h. ago Most athletes have chosen to ‘shut up and dribble’ over Gaza | Nathan Kalman

Only a handful of North American athletes have spoken out against Israel’s assault on Gaza, a silence shaped by fear, sponsorship and the policing of speech“I will not just shut up and dribble I get to sit up here and talk about what’s really important.” So proclaimed LeBron James in 2018 when confronted with the question of whether athletes have the right to speak about the political and social justice questions of their time.Yet since 7 October 2023, elite athletes in North America have had startlingly little to say about what most human rights groups in the world, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and the United Nations have characterized as Israel’s genocide in Gaza (a situation currently in flux due to a mutually agreed upon ceasefire and prisoner exchange).Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Derek Silva is Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King’s University College at Western University. They are ...

Politics

7 h. ago Forest Hill fire: Huge blaze rips through shop and flats in south London as locals warned to keep windows shut

The blaze at shops and flats in Forest Hill was finally brought under control around midnight

Events

7 h. ago Hamas’s aim to retain authority in Gaza involves keeping the guns

With no law, order or any alternative administration under the ceasefire, the group is using violence to deter rivalsThroughout Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, aid officials working in the territory avoided naming Hamas in conversations they suspected might be intercepted, instead referring to the militant Islamist group as the “de facto authority”.This careful euphemism for Hamas, which violently seized power in 2007, captured an important truth. Though the group was a less obvious presence in the last months of the conflict, in the absence of any alternative, it remained the closest the increasingly devastated territory had to a ruler. Continue reading...

Culture

8 h. ago Gaza latest: Trump threatens to ‘go in and kill Hamas’ if violence continues amid delays over dead hostages

Families of Israeli hostages demand termination of ceasefire deal if Hamas fails to return the 19 bodies remaining in Gaza

Events

11 h. ago Mamdani and Cuomo spar in New York mayoral debate – US politics live

Candidates debate Trump, Gaza and New York-specific issues, while John Bolton indicted by federal grand juryFormer Trump adviser John Bolton indicted on 18 countsA reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East, as Israel and Hamas continue to carry out various aspects of the US brokered ceasefire deal.This includes the news today that Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza, bringing the total number handed over to 120, according the Gaza health ministry and Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago SNP’s Flynn challenged to oppose Rosebank in ‘solidarity’ with Palestine

The SNP’s Westminster leader has been told an Israeli fuel conglomerate could be in line to benefit if the oil field is developed.

Politics

16 h. ago The Voice of Hind Rajab LFF review: an utterly devastating human story from Gaza’s front line

The tragedy of five-year-old Hind Rajab is retold in one of this year’s only truly essential pieces of film-making

Politics