Thousands of Israelis line streets for funeral of Bibas family killed in Gaza

National outpouring of grief comes amid reports that deal reached to resume ceasefire with Hamas

Thousands of Israelis have lined the route of a funeral procession for two small children and their mother who were held hostage and died in captivity in Gaza.

The national outpouring of grief for Ariel, Kfir and Shiri Bibas came amid reports that a deal had been reached to resume the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, with the handover of more bodies of hostages in return for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

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Rwanda: UK suspension of aid over DR Congo war is ‘punitive’ – BBC.com

  1. Rwanda: UK suspension of aid over DR Congo war is 'punitive'  BBC.com
  2. Rwanda slams UK sanctions over DR Congo violence  Al Jazeera English
  3. UK Statement on response to the situation in Eastern DRC  GOV.UK
  4. UK suspends aid to Rwanda over support for DRC rebels  The Guardian
  5. UK suspends some financial aid to Rwanda over violence in eastern Congo as rebels dig in  The Associated Press
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Wildfire debris washes up on LA beaches after major rainstorm

Beaches in southern California littered with timber, twisted metals, charred silt and urban runoff from Palisades fire

Los Angeles county beaches are contending with the aftermath of recent wildfires and winter storms as debris from the Palisades fire and urban runoff are carried to the shoreline.

After last week’s major rainstorm, beaches in southern California have been littered with timber, twisted metals, construction materials and charred silt and sediment originating from the Palisades fire in January. That blaze, along with the Eaton fire, killed at least 29 people.

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No 10 talking to ex-Boris Johnson aide Munira Mirza about multiculturalism

Contact could unsettle some in Labour given her past record on the issue including criticism of Lammy report

Downing Street has been holding discussions with Munira Mirza, a longstanding and often controversial aide to Boris Johnson who has repeatedly criticised ideas about structural and institutional racism, it is understood.

Although it is believed that No 10’s contact with Mirza has been limited to a handful of calls at most, and that she is among a range of outside voices Downing Street has spoken to, her involvement in any sort of discussions with the government is likely to spook some Labour MPs.

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Badenoch challenges Starmer over defence spending and Chagos deal ahead of his Trump meeting – UK politics live

PM fields questions on his announcement that the UK will raise defence spending and cut the foreign aid budget

PMQs is about to start.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

The threat from the far right is real, but that leaves me all the more convinced that working together is not only the right choice, but the only choice …

More unites us than divides us. Now is the moment to make that real by uniting behind shared values, shared standards of behaviour and shared political norms, and unite against the rise of the far right.

I want us to work together to agree a common approach to asserting the values of our country, to bringing people together and creating a cohesive society where everyone feels at home …

It is time to come together, to draw a line in the sand, to set out who we are and what we believe in, because a politics of fear is a politics of despair …

I want to work with other political parties to set out clearly and boldly to the public what we can agree on as the norms and the values of our society and how we can protect those because I think they are under threat, I think they’re under very, very vigorous threat, from the politics of Farage.

Farage has been for years leading the argument which has been hostile to migration. And I think it’s based on a fundamentally racist view of the world. I reject that. I think migration is an advantage for Scotland.

There is a very live and active threat to our security from the aggression of Russia, and I think Farage is an accomplice to the Russian agenda and an apologist for the Russian agenda.

So to anybody in this country who thinks that Farage represents a means of protecting this country from the external threats that we face, I would say, have a good close look at what Farage has been connected with and what his MPs are saying about the Russian threat and their trivialisation of the Russian threat.

I’m simply making the point today that it’s important that those of us who are repulsed by the politics of Farage and the far right come together to … stress the importance of the values that we hold dear.

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What will Keir Starmer try to achieve during talks with Donald Trump?

British prime minister heads to Washington as Europe reels from seismic shift in relations with US president

Keir Starmer heads to Washington on Wednesday for a visit that will be brief but watched intensely not just in the UK but in many other European capitals – particularly Kyiv. What will the prime minister hope to get from his talks with Donald Trump on Thursday? And just as importantly, how can he get the US president to listen? These will be the main issues.

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Russia rules out ‘any options’ for European peacekeepers in Ukraine – Reuters

  1. Russia rules out 'any options' for European peacekeepers in Ukraine  Reuters
  2. Trump Says He Is in Talks With Putin About ‘Economic Development’ Deal  The Wall Street Journal
  3. Kremlin contradicts Trump's claim on peacekeeping forces in Ukraine  Axios
  4. Russia reaffirms opposition to European troops in Ukraine  Al Jazeera English
  5. Putin ‘Wanted The Whole Thing’ – Trump Says ‘Can’t Guarantee’ Deal to End War in Ukraine  Kyiv Post
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First Thing: Zelenskyy will visit White House to sign minerals deal, says Trump

US president says of his Ukrainian counterpart, ‘I hear he’s coming on Friday’. Plus, train robbers swipe $2m worth of Nikes

Good morning.

Donald Trump has said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid to defend against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

What’s not in the deal? The deal is more favourable to Ukraine than the original one proposed by Washington. According to the Financial Times, which first reported the deal, the new terms do not include the onerous demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from exploiting the resources, which include rare earth metals and Ukrainian oil and gas resources. It also does not include references to long-term security guarantees that Kyiv wanted to receive.

Where are they looking, and for how long? Details had not yet been negotiated, Loke said, but Marinetraffic.com showed that the Ocean Infinity vessel was in the south Indian ocean as of 23 February.

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US climate research agency braces for ‘efficiency’ cuts: ‘They will gut the work’

Workers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fear crackdown will have global fallout

The Trump administration has set its sights on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency, with significant cuts and a political crackdown on climate science. As Trump takes aim at the agency, the impact is likely to be felt across the US and around the world.

Noaa provides essential resources to the public and has helped make the US a scientific leader internationally. Operating 18 satellites and 15 research and survey ships, the agency’s scientists, engineers and policy experts issue forecasts relied on by aviation, agriculture and fishing industries; ocean floor mapping depended upon for shipping; advises on species protection, and increasingly precise and accurate modeling on what to expect as climate crisis unfolds.

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Doug Ford: rightwing populist becomes Canada’s anti-Trump figurehead

The Ontario premier says he’s ready to stand up to Trump over tariffs – will that yield a third straight election win?

The day Donald Trump won the United States presidential election was a happy one for Doug Ford.

The conservative politician who oversees Canada’s most populous province – and its largest economy – made the admission to caucus and supporters, in off-the-cuff remarks accidentally caught by a nearby microphone.

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Tropical Cyclone Alfred forecast: system yet to intensify as it lingers off Queensland coast

BoM says category 2 tropical cyclone is about 930km north-east of Mackay and path is tracking slowly south through Coral Sea

A slow-moving tropical cyclone off north-east Australia is expected to linger in the Coral Sea for at least the next few days, but forecasters say there remains a risk the system could eventually turn towards the Queensland coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology says category 2 Tropical Cyclone Alfred is about 930km north-east of Mackay, and is tracking slowly south through the Coral Sea.

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