Israel says it is beginning mission to atake outa Hamas brigades in city, as aid officials say flow of supplies through crossing has halted

• IDF says it has control of Rafah crossing a latest updates

Israeli military forces have taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, Israeli officials have said, in the first stage of what appears to be a wider offensive targeting Hamas in the southernmost parts of Gaza.

aThis is the beginning of our mission to take out the last four Hamas brigades in Rafah. You should be in no doubt about that whatsoever,a an Israeli government spokesperson said.

Adult film actor tells court all she wanted was for Trump encounter story to remain secret as she had not told her boyfriend

• Stormy Daniels takes stand in Trumpas hush-money trial
• Who are the key players in Donald Trumpas hush-money trial?

Trump attorney Susan Necheles reveals that Stormy Daniels is expected to be the prosecutionas second witness for the day.

Sheas fighting to keep details about the alleged sex act between Daniels and Donald Trump under wraps.

Defence secretary makes statement after 270,000 payroll records belonging to members of Britainas armed forces been exposed to hackers

Reeves says Labour has a vision for the country. Stability will be change, she argues.

I know a warm words are not enough. I do not underestimate the challenges we face. But I am so ambitious for our country. I know the huge potential found all across Britain and the constraints that are holding that potential back are not immutable forces.

They require vision, courage, and responsible government. Vision a to pursue a different approach, drawing on new economic thinking shaping governments in Europe, America and around the world a but which this Conservative government resists.

Boy aged five months who was taken to hospital after incident on Thursday died on Sunday

A baby who suffered a cardiac arrest at Legoland Windsor Resort has died, police have said.

The five-month-old was seriously injured on Thursday in what Thames Valley police have called a aneglect incidenta. The child died in hospital on Sunday. A 27-year-old woman from Essex was arrested on suspicion of neglect shortly after the incident.

Meeting on Tuesday evening will debate the issue after new legal analysis of 193-year-old rulebook

The men-only Garrick Club will vote on Tuesday evening on whether female members should be allowed to join, after decades of controversy over the London clubas refusal to admit women.

Members will meet at a Covent Garden venue at 5pm to debate the issue. They will then vote on a resolution inviting them to confirm that a new legal analysis of the Garrickas 193-year-old rulebook suggests there is actually nothing in it preventing women from joining already.

Holly LeGresley, 37, whose username was aThe Immolatora, uploaded images and videos to online group

A British woman has pleaded guilty to being part of a global monkey torture network.

Holly LeGresley, 37, from Kidderminster in Worcestershire, admitted uploading 22 images and 132 videos of monkeys being tortured to an online chat group.

Chinese president hails two countriesa friendship before his arrival, after visiting Pyrenees with Macron

Chinese flags adorned highways as Serbia got ready to give a home-from-home welcome to Xi Jinping, contrasting tensions on the first leg of the Chinese presidentas six-day European tour over a potential trade war with the EU.

Xi prepared for his arrival in Belgrade on Tuesday night by hitting out against Nato for its 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in the Serbian capital, in which three Chinese journalists were killed.

Peter Hebblethwaite appears in front of MPs two years after saying lowest-paid agency worker would earn APS5.15 an hour

The boss of P&O Ferries has been asked if he is aa piratea who appears to be arobbing staff blinda a as he confirmed to MPs that the groupas seafarers had been receiving pay rates even lower than he had previously told parliament.

Peter Hebblethwaite previously appeared in front of a joint transport and business committee in March 2022 to respond to P&O Ferries sacking 786 staff and replacing them with low-paid agency workers.

Dr Hilary Cass defends gender identity services report against asignificant misinformationa at health committee

The Cass review aabsolutelya did not set an unfairly high bar for evidence, its author has said, as she addressed asignificant misinformationa about her assessment of healthcare provision for gender-questioning young people in England and Wales.

Giving evidence to the Scottish parliamentas health committee on Tuesday morning, Dr Hilary Cass said she believed Scotland could benefit from the more holistic approach recommended in her review, commissioned by NHS England.

CEO Bob Iger says company will scale back releases in superhero franchise as it seeks to take on Netflix in streaming market

Disney plans to release fewer movies and afocus more on qualitya in its key franchises, following of a string of high-profile flops at the box office.

The Hollywood giant is cutting back on productions from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which ramped up releases in recent years as Disney embarked upon an expensive bid to take on Netflix.

Miatta Fahnbulleh is running for parliament a and, as a black female economist, hopes to broaden parliamentas outlook on athe rules of the gamea

Miatta Fahnbulleh has been talking about economic transformation for as long as she can remember. After she and her family fled civil war in Liberia as a child, the main topics of conversation around the breakfast table in London were politics and economics.

aWhen other people were talking about EastEnders, we were on about changing the economic settlement,a says the 44-year-old former chief executive of the New Economics Foundation (NEF), who is standing as Labouras candidate in Peckham, south London, at the next election.

Engineer living in Liverpool says he fears being arrested at any moment after receiving deportation notice

Roozbeh*, 34, is a civil engineer from Iran. He fled his country fearing for his life after the government found out he had converted from Islam to Christianity. He arrived in the UK in December 2022, has received a notice of intent to be sent to Rwanda and fears that he could be arrested and detained at any moment.

aWhen I crossed the border from Iran into Turkey I stepped into the unknown. I had never left my country before and I knew the journey was going to be very dangerous. I was put into lorry after lorry and did not know what countries I passed through.

With facilities destroyed and lives cut short, the conflict has brought destruction to a previously thriving sporting scene

Mohammed Abu-Hujair was booked on a flight to Spain last October. A scout from Real Madrid had visited Gaza in August and invited Mohammed, a 17-year-old who plays on the left wing, to join a football academy with the hope that, if he did well, he would stay in Spain. Mohammed also had the promise of a contract with Gaza Sport Club, making him one of the youngest players to sign with the team.

Then came the 7 October attacks on Israel, and the war in Gaza. Mohammed didnat make that flight. aMy life has turned upside down in a blink of an eye,a he says.

From a man with a mullet letting off fireworks to a Slovenian witch, this yearas Eurovision has some of the wildest entries ever. It makes our own entry look rather bland a|

The bookiesa favourite, and you can see why. For one thing, it addresses a hot-button social issue a the lyrics deal with Nemo Mettleras non-binary gender identity a thatas also very Eurovision-friendly. In 1998, Eurovision had a transgender winner, Dana International, 34 years before Kim Petras became the first transgender woman to top the UK and US chart with Unholy. More importantly, itas that rare thing, an original-sounding Eurovision entry thatas charmingly preposterous rather than straight-up daft a its drumanabass-influenced rhythm interrupted by high-drama mock-operatics and a vocal that shifts from rapping to falsetto melodrama. You could imagine it in the UK singles chart, which is something one seldom feels with Eurovision songs.

Possession, contractions, plurals a test your ability to use an apostrophe in our fun and completely pedantic quiz

This week there were reports that residents of North Yorkshire were irked that their road signs were having punctuation removed to make it easier for computer databases. Weall just park for one moment how bad your computer database must be in 2024 if it cannot cope with apostrophes. But it did prompt a question: are you better with apostrophes than a North Yorkshire computer database? Find out with our fun but pedantically accurate quiz a|

They are comedy sparring partners from Green Wing. Can the duo play stricken lovers in The Deep Blue Sea, the eviscerating play Rattigan poured his own heartbreak into? Warning: contains spoilers

On 8 May 1956, Terence Rattigan stood outside the Royal Court theatre in London after the opening night of a revolutionary new drama. This was not one of his own plays but a sally from the upstart generation: John Osborneas Look Back in Anger. Or, as the veteran playwright bitterly renamed it: Look How Unlike Terence Rattigan Iam Being. Refinement was out, the Angry Young Man was in, and the author of Separate Tables and The Winslow Boy had plummeted from favour.

But that all changed in 1993 a with Karel Reiszas revival of The Deep Blue Sea, Rattiganas most penetrating work. Penelope Wilton played Hester Collyer, who is separated from her husband, a primly patriarchal high court judge. She now lives in sin with her younger lover, the carousing ex-RAF pilot Freddie Page. The play begins with Hesteras listless body being discovered by her neighbours. She has tried to gas herself after Freddie failed to return for her birthday. (She would have succeeded had there been enough coins in the meter.) The rest of the day, and the play, is spent raking over the detritus of her life. Freddie bowls in obliviously; her husband tries to coax her back to the marital home; and the enigmatic former doctor, Miller, exhorts her to ago on livinga.

The easy freedom of this medium allowed the artist to range over subjects as diverse as tarot, male nudes at Fire Island and a friendas flat a and offer clues to his more public feature films

Thirty years after his death in February 1994, it is perhaps unexpected that Derek Jarman a multi-faceted artist, activist, film-maker, socialiser a is probably now most widely known as a gardener. The patch of beautifully arranged salt-resistant vegetation he built around a windswept clapboard cottage in Dungeness, in the shadow of the now non-functioning nuclear power station, is the subject of books, exhibitions, and many a magazine picture spread. A number of high-profile keepers of the flame regularly bang the drum a Tilda Swinton, Isaac Julien and Neil Bartlett among them a ensuring the Jarman legend is not likely to slip away any time soon.

The latest move in this perpetuation process takes place with a programme of Jarmanas Super 8 short films at Londonas Institute of Contemporary Arts a appropriately enough, as the radical-chic venue on the Mall was one of Jarmanas own regular screening locations. If you are unfamiliar with these, itas worth acquainting yourself with them on the cinema screen; the scrubby approximations on various corners of the internet donat really do them justice. Itas hard now to understand just how important a film-maker Jarman was in the UK in the 1980s and the early 90s, at a time when there was so little else around that was British-made, and the 70-odd short films he made are foundational to his more accessible feature-film oeuvre.

Star wore two dresses by John Galliano at event cutting across fashion, celebrity and Hollywood

The Met Gala and its red carpet is an annual X-ray of where power lies in fashion and in the adjacent worlds of celebrity, Hollywood and music.

It shows us who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down. It is a heat map showing us the connections between culture and entertainment, between the establishment and new money, between the tech billionaires who have the deep pockets to fund nights like these and the designers whose dresses their wives want to wear. These are the new corridors of soft power, and the Met Gala draws back the veil on the alliances, feuds and fallings-out.

Tiger Stripes, about a girl who turns into a jungle cat when her periods start, was chosen by Malaysia as its Oscar entry. But they wanted cuts. Amanda Nell Eu relives a apainful and comedica experience

The director Amanda Nell Eu has always been a bit of a rebel, she says over video chat from her home in Kuala Lumpur. aWhen I was a teenager, I was sometimes labelled a monster by my parents and teachers. I probably wasnat the most obedient child.a Now Eu has turned the horrors of puberty into an actual horror movie. Tiger Stripes is her feature debut, a funny and political film with a whopping air punch of girl power. Set in a conservative Muslim school, it mixes body horror with Mean Girls energy and a sprinkle of Malaysian folklore.

Eu cast her trio of leading girls during lockdown, putting adverts on Instagram and searching through TikTok profiles: aSchools were shut, everything was shut.a Zafreen Zairizal plays 12-year-old Zaffan, a rebel who is constantly yanking off her headscarf and daringly wears a bra to school. Zaffanas body is changing: hairs sprout and spots erupt. Then, when she becomes the first girl in class to get her period, sheas ostracised by her two best friends. aYouare dirty now,a adds her mother.

More weddings would help Britain tackle its epidemic of loneliness, according to the Centre for Social Justice. And nothing says aromancea like the offer of a cash bonus

Name: Weddings.

Age: The first record of a marriage ceremony between a woman and man (it tended to be in those days) dates from about 2350BC in Mesopotamia (roughly Iraq).

She says I think about sex all the time a but her libido has fallen since our third child and I feel shame at being rejected

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My wife and I have been married for nearly 10 years. We have three children and love each other dearly. We are a good team 99% of the time, but we regularly argue about our differing libido levels. I feel she doesnat instigate sex very much and that when she does itas with messages like: aShall we have a 3pm ameetinga before the kids come home?a I prefer it to be more spontaneous, like after sheas had a few glasses of wine and suddenly becomes more racy. Iave let her know how exciting her racy mode is for me, but I donat want to encourage her to become an alcoholic. She feels that I think about sex all the time and that I am not accepting of her feeling tired or not being in the mood.

After a recent argument, we agreed we have different libido levels. She said she felt hers had gone down, especially after our last child was born. Iam conscious that neither of us need to be afixeda, but equally I struggle with being the instigator most of the time and with the intense shame and rejection I feel when she says no. I donat want her to feel forced into anything; I want her to feel comfortable with me. She says she enjoys sex with me, but doesnat always feel that her body is sexy, something I very much disagree with.

The Israeli PM has rejected the latest deal. Both he and Hamasas leadership must stop playing politics with peopleas lives

The latest twists and turns in negotiations to end the war in Gaza appear labyrinthine and confusing. But itas really not that complicated. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israelas prime minister, must compromise on the outstanding details of the proposed ceasefire deal and Hamasas weekend counter-offer a and immediately halt Israelas criminal bombing of Gaza and reckless military incursions into refugee-populated areas around Rafah.

For its part, Hamas must honour previous understandings about the staged release of Israeli hostages and cease its crude, last-minute haggling, especially about exactly how many Palestinian detainees, and which ones, are freed in return. Its priority should be alleviating the plight of Gazaas civilians, not scoring points. Its demands that Israel agree a apermanenta end to the war at this stage were always unrealistic.

Simon Tisdall is the Observeras foreign affairs commentator

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Roll up for a buffet of baffling outfits, celebs scared stiff of Anna Wintour and an utter refusal to acknowledge the outside world

Tuesday is officially the morning after the Met Gala of the night before, when we civilians get to press our noses up against the glass of our phone screens and pass unsparing judgment on dresses whose trains alone cost more than HS2.

If you havenat sat in mismatched pyjamas huffing toast while remarking what an unacceptable misstep Lana Del Reyas mosquito net was, and how Chanel seems to be going tits up, then you have simply failed to capitalise on the digital banquet spread out for you. These are dark times, and nothing but a| gratitude, I think? a| should be shown for film director Taika Waititias decision to come dressed as a brown pleather three-piece suite, while his wife, Rita Ora, presented as the ribbon curtain tacked over their back door to keep the flies off it.

Trumpas disgraced former attorney somehow frittered away almost $120,000 in January. As a cash-strapped millennial, Iam delighted to share some money-saving tips

aBankruptcya is a surprisingly amorphous term. For poor people, it means not having any money. For corporations and the super-wealthy it means a nifty legal strategy that can shield their riches from lawsuits. And for Rudy Giuliani, the disgraced former mayor of New York City and personal attorney of Donald Trump, it means being forced to try to subsist on a measly $43,000 (APS34,200) a month.

Half a million dollars in spending money a year might seem a princely sum to the common man, but aSira Rudy (recipient of an honorary knighthood) is anything but. Weare talking about a gentleman with elevated tastes here: a bon vivant who, during a legal battle with his estranged third wife, was accused of spending $7,000 on fountain pens and $12,000 on cigars over a five-month period. In that same timeframe, his ex-wifeas lawyer claimed he spent $286,000 on his alleged lover, $165,000 on personal travel and $447,938 afor his own enjoymenta. Thatas a lot of enjoyment.

Heas not the man to lead Scotland to independence, but after a turbulent few years, heas the safe pair of hands the party needs

John Swinneyas accession to the leadership of the Scottish National party has been called a acoronationa. Yet the smooth handover of power that took place yesterday was not a given. That the party avoided another acrimonious battle a like the one last year between his predecessor Humza Yousaf and former finance secretary Kate Forbes a was down to his deft handling of would-be rivals.

After her defeat last year, Forbes, a social conservative who opposes same-sex marriage, became a rallying point for internal disaffection. Had she stood again, as she clearly intended to, the SNPas divisions a between left and right, between opposing views on trans rights a would have become further entrenched. Instead, Swinney persuaded Forbes to throw her weight behind him by promising her a senior cabinet position a a masterstroke that also brought her most vocal backers to heel.

Dani Garavelli is a freelance journalist and columnist for the Herald

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Although chief executive Murray Auchincloss has left himself room to pump more oil and gas, renewables should start generating greater returns

The marketas guessing game at BP is waiting for Murray Auchincloss, the chief executive who has been in post permanently only since January, to blink. That is to say, waiting for him tone down climate targets and decide to pump more oil and gas than currently planned.

Tuesday was not the day. BPas first-quarter numbers were slightly weaker than the market had expected a profits of $2.7bn versus City forecasts of $2.9bn a but there wasnat a twitch on the strategic tiller. Auchincloss trotted out his refrain about going from aIOC to IECa a from international oil company to integrated energy company. The only fresh news was the promise of $2bn of cost savings over the next couple of years, but thatas the sort of thing energy companies announce routinely.

As a patient, itas frustrating to know a solution may be just around the corner but that you probably wonat be there in time to benefit

Iam kneeling on the hard, cold tiles of my bathroom floor retching into the toilet bowl, and Iave been here for some time. The colour has drained from my skin and Iam clammy and delirious from a pain so intense, it is simply indescribable. Something is squeezing me from the inside so ferociously that I can barely catch my breath. All I can do is retch, unproductively, and writhe. aThis must be what labour feels like,a I think, in a surreal, out-of-body way.

Ten years on, and one difficult childbirth later, I can confirm with some authority that this unrelenting, all-consuming pain was so much worse than giving birth. The bathroom floor episode was my first major inkling that something wasnat right in my body. It was so frightening that I couldnat dismiss it (even if A&E staff told me there was nothing wrong when I dragged myself there, and a GP explained it away as probably just a stomach bug). In reality, I had always been in pain to some degree. I had always bled through my PE shorts at school, swelled two dress sizes during my period a didnat everyone? But even when my symptoms were at their worst, no one mentioned endometriosis.