Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli officials criticise ‘very disappointing’ threat from Joe Biden to stop arms supplies

Gilad Erdan says move by Joe Biden stems from political pressure after campus protests and with US election coming soon

At least 34,844 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza and 78,404 Palestinians injured, according to the territory’s health ministry. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Here are some of the latest images from Gaza:

Israel’s national security minister presented himself before the television cameras to make a statement on Sunday, shortly after leaving a meeting with the country’s prime minister.

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Man known as ‘eunuch maker’ who streamed mutilations is jailed for life

Marius Gustavson, 46, was involved in procedures that were ‘little short of human butchery’, UK court heard

The leader of a “grisly and gruesome” extreme body modification network who streamed mutilations on his “eunuch maker” website has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years.

Marius Gustavson, 46, was the “arch manipulator” of vulnerable victims and was said to have been involved in at least 29 procedures, which were “little short of human butchery”, the Old Bailey in London heard.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin accuses ‘arrogant’ west of risking global conflict and says his forces are at ‘combat readiness’

Vladimir Putin marks second world war Victory Day as relations with west spiral towards crisis

South Korea’s position remains it will not supply lethal weapons to any country, president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday, when asked if Seoul was prepared to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.

Yoon also said his government intended to continue managing relations with Moscow to “pursue economic cooperation and mutual benefits” even though the two countries’ ties have become “uncomfortable” since the start of the war in Ukraine.

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Five babies in England reported dead after developing whooping cough

Fears of biggest UK outbreak in two decades as 2,793 cases confirmed in first quarter of 2024

The UK may be experiencing its biggest outbreak of whooping cough in two decades, with five deaths reported among infants who developed the disease in England between January and March.

According to the latest data published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday, cases of whooping cough continue to increase, with 1,319 confirmed in March. This brings the total number of confirmed cases during the first quarter of 2024 to 2,793. The true number of cases is likely to be much higher though, because mild cases are easily confused with other respiratory illnesses in the early stages when the infection can be tested for.

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Ben Houchen says Tory party in state of chaos and ‘ultimately’ Sunak has to take blame – UK politics live

Tees Valley mayor hailed by PM after re-election says route to Tory electoral recovery is ‘getting narrower by the day’

Having seen a fuller version of what Ben Houchen, the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, said on BBC Radio Tees this morning, I have beefed up the post at 10.16am and changed the headline. Houchen did says Rishi Sunak ultimately had to take the blame for the state of “chaos” the Tory party is in.

Victoria Prentis, the attorney general, told the Commons that Britain continues to view its arms sales to Israel as legal a day after US president Joe Biden warned he would pause the delivery of bombs because they had been previously used to kill Palestinian civilians.

I can say that the foreign secretary has reviewed the most recent advice from the IHL cell, and that has informed his decision that there isn’t a clear risk that the items exported from the UK might be used to commit or to facilitate a serious violation of IHL. That leaves our position on export licences unchanged, but that position is kept under review.

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Former US town clerk and her lawyer charged for allegedly accessing 2020 voter data in hunt for fraud

Stephanie Scott and Stefanie Lambert charged for promoting ‘baseless conspiracies’ and showing ‘disregard for voter privacy’

Michigan’s attorney general announced charges against a former township clerk and a lawyer who had supported attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, alleging they accessed voting systems without authorization in a search of fraud.

Stephanie Scott and her attorney, Stefanie Lambert, were charged on Wednesday with multiple felonies, including unauthorized access to a computer and using a computer to commit a crime.

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Trial will link senior civil servants’ pay to performance, says UK minister

Move intended to boost standards and attract recruits from private sector criticised as ‘tinkering’ by FDA union

Senior civil servants are to have their pay linked to their performance in a move criticised as divisive by a leading union.

John Glen, the Cabinet Office minister, announced the trial of performance-related pay for some senior civil servants to come in by the summer, which he said would improve standards.

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Bank of England keeps interest rates at 5.25% but hints at a June cut

Policymakers say they want to see more evidence that price pressures are easing before cutting rates

• Business – live

The Bank of England has signalled it could start cutting interest rates as early as June after inflation was found to be “moving in the right direction”, as it kept borrowing costs on hold at 5.25% for the sixth time in a row.

Alongside the decision to keep rates on hold, the Bank said inflation was already on course to hit its target of 2% and would fall to just 1.6% in two years, opening the door to future cuts in interests.

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Trump hush-money trial: Stormy Daniels to continue testifying – live

Adult film star, whose brief alleged affair with Trump has been subject of much salacious questioning from prosecutors, faces further cross-examination

Trump’s New York criminal case is the first of four such cases to reach a jury, while the other three have been hit by serious delays that could prevent them from starting before November’s presidential election.

Also on Tuesday, the federal judge in the case alleging Trump retained classified documents at this Mar-a-Lago club in Florida indefinitely delayed setting a trial date after ruling the case was nowhere near ready to face a jury.

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Kristen Stewart says Hollywood’s self-congratulation over gender equality ‘feels phony’

The actor said that making movies by a small number of female film-makers was not cause for celebration. ‘You’re like, OK, cool. You’ve chosen four’

Kristen Stewart has chastised Hollywood’s efforts at gender equality, saying that the industry clapping itself on the back for an embrace of female film-makers “feels phony”.

Speaking to Porter magazine for the release of Love Lies Bleeding, a violent romance set in the world of female bodybuilding, Stewart said much of the high-profile greenlighting of female stories was lip service.

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End majority jury verdicts to prevent more justice ‘horror’, says Malkinson

Exclusive: Man who spent 17 years in prison after wrongly being convicted of rape says he will ‘shout from the rooftops’ for UK law reform

Andrew Malkinson says he could have been spared “20 years of darkness and despair” if the jury system had not been changed to allow majority verdicts.

Malkinson was exonerated of rape last summer, two decades after a jury wrongly convicted him by a majority of 10 to 2.

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Boeing supplier regularly shipped parts with defects, whistleblower alleges

Santiago Paredes says he raised concerns over defects on fuselages leaving Spirit AeroSystems factory

A former employee of Boeing’s largest supplier has alleged that key aircraft parts regularly left the factory with serious defects.

Santiago Paredes, who worked for Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas between 2010 and 2022, said he was used to finding “anywhere from 50 to 100, 200” defects on fuselages – the main body of the plane – that were being shipped to Boeing, and he felt threatened for raising his concerns.

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First Thing: ‘I’m not supplying the weapons’ if Israel assaults Rafah, warns Biden

WHO says southern Gaza hospitals are running out of fuel. Plus, Bernie Sanders reveals bill to tackle $220bn in US medical debt

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Good morning.

Joe Biden publicly warned Israel that the US would stop supplying it weapons if Israeli forces launch a major assault on Rafah – the last remaining city in Gaza that has not been razed in the Israeli offensive.

What pressure is the US applying on Israel? US diplomacy appears to have failed to stop a Rafah invasion, so Biden is now speaking publicly. In an analysis, the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, writes that the decision “sends a message to Netanyahu that the US dog is beginning to regain control of its tail”.

What is the humanitarian toll of the war? After Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 200 hostage on 7 October, Israel’s onslaught on Gaza has killed almost 35,000 people – mostly civilians – and displaced about 80% of the 2.3 million population. Northern Gaza is experiencing “full-blown famine”, according to the UN World Food Programme.

Will this really make a difference? The IDF do not need new bombs to invade Rafah. They have more than enough stockpiles to reduce it to rubble. But US officials are talking of this as a hinge point in the US-Israel relationship, Julian Borger reports from DC.

What do prosecutors allege? That the money paid to Daniels was therefore an election expense and was deliberately entered wrongly in Trump’s business documents – with that act being the crime, rather than anything to do with the actual payment of hush money to cover up the alleged affair.

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Anthony Albanese faces internal revolt from inner-city Labor MPs over gas strategy

Resource minister Madeleine King released party’s future gas strategy, which says new sources will be needed ‘to 2050 and beyond’

Anthony Albanese is facing an internal revolt with Labor backbenchers pushing back against the government’s support for new gas production.

Five inner-city MPs have criticised the government’s gas strategy, arguing it will overshadow progress on clean energy.

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Peter Dutton compares ‘river to the sea’ chants at pro-Palestinian protests to Hitler

Opposition leader’s comments ‘a very bad faith’ reading of protestors’ chant, Jewish Council of Australia says

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has compared chants at pro-Palestine university protests to the ideology of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, in comments labelled “deeply offensive” by a prominent Jewish group.

Tensions are brewing over pro-Palestine encampments at universities across Australia, with leading universities writing to the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, for legal advice on whether protesters’ chants were in breach of federal law.

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