Defence minister issues threat as IDF intensifies offensive with ‘non-stop’ overnight attacks across territory

Israel’s defence minister said on Friday he had instructed the military to “seize more ground” in Gaza and threatened to annex part of the territory unless Hamas released 59 Israeli hostages still held by the Islamist militant group in the devastated territory.

Israel Katz’s warning came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intensified the new offensive launched on Tuesday , when a wave of airstrikes shattered the truce that had brought a fragile and relative calm since mid-January.

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It has been a special day for fans of novelty bookings, reeling as they are from the glorious double-whammy of watching Panama’s Cecilio Waterman get cautioned in the early hours of Britain’s Friday morning for the crime of hugging Thierry Henry, before New Zealand’s Chris Wood pulled off the genuinely special achievement of getting his name in the referee’s notebook for putting his name in other people’s notebooks.

Mohammad Farooq, 29, told a patient – who talked him out of attack – he wanted to ‘kill as many nurses as possible’

A clinical support worker who took a viable pressure cooker bomb in to a hospital intending to “kill as many nurses as possible” has been jailed for at least 37 years.

Mohammad Farooq, 29, of Leeds, also plotted a terrorist attack on RAF Menwith Hill, in North Yorkshire, a top-secret spy base.

Whether it’s sweeping up disgruntled US scientists or rejoining the EU, a bold Starmer must capitalise on Trump’s extremism

Thanks to Donald Trump, a vacancy is opening up in the international jobs market. For decades, if not centuries, and always imperfectly, the US offered itself to the world as the guarantor of democracy and the land of the free. Now that it’s pivoting away from that job description, there’s an opportunity for someone else to step in.

The evidence that the US is moving, even galloping, away from basic notions of democracy and freedom is piling up. Just because the changes have happened so fast doesn’t make them any less fundamental. We now have a US administration that blithely ignores court rulings , whose officials say out loud “I don’t care what the judges think” . In a matter of weeks, it has become an open question whether the US remains a society governed by the rule of law.

On 30 April, join Jonathan Freedland, Kim Darroch, Devika Bhat and Leslie Vinjamuri as they discuss Trump’s presidency on his 100th day in office , live at Conway Hall London, and live streamed globally. You can book tickets here

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

US president makes major concession to ally, whose prime minister is wanted by international court for war crimes

Donald Trump has invited Benjamin Netanyahu to be the first foreign leader to visit the White House, in a major concession to a US ally who is wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes.

The invitation was made in a letter from the US president, which invited the Israeli prime minister to come to the White House on 4 February to “discuss how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries”.

Russian president calls Ukrainian counterpart ‘illegitimate’; Zelenskyy says government will try to replace suspended US aid. What we know on 1,071

We didn’t want our opponents to get a sniff this series and victory at the MCG will ensure they have a clean sweep hanging over their heads in the future

It’s a rare privilege when we get to play a Test. The pinnacle of Australian cricket is putting on your baggy green and this one is even more special and historic as the first day-night Test at the MCG. The opportunity to showcase women’s Test cricket on the big arena will be really important, not only for the game itself but for the group that gets to run out there on Thursday.

It’s always like a carrot dangled in front of us when there’s a Test match to be played because we don’t do it that often. It brings a lot more energy and excitement to the group. The vibe is high at the moment, just around the occasion itself and having all our family and friends coming to watch. Hopefully the public gets right behind us and comes out in droves too.

Local officials say at least 38 people are feared to have died as site in Prayagraj where world’s largest religious gathering is taking place

The Times of India reports that ambulances have rushed to the scene in Prayagraj , home to the sacred confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers.

“Some people have got injured and have been hospitalised after a barrier broke at the Sangam [confluence]. We are yet to have the exact count of those injured,” one official was quoted by the paper as saying.

Audit watchdog finds 58 critical IT systems assessed in 2024 had ‘significant gaps in cyber-resilience’

The threat of potentially devastating cyber-attacks against UK government departments is “severe and advancing quickly”, with dozens of critical IT systems vulnerable to an expected regular pattern of significant strikes, ministers have been warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that 58 critical government IT systems independently assessed in 2024 had “significant gaps in cyber-resilience”, and the government did not know how vulnerable at least 228 ageing and outdated “legacy” IT systems were to cyber-attack. The NAO did not name the systems for fear of helping attackers choose targets.