Gaza border authority confirms presence of Israelas tanks at crossing, sole gateway between Egypt and Gaza for humanitarian aid

• IDF says it has control of Rafah crossing a follow it live

Israeli military forces have taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a key strategic objective and the sole gateway between Egypt and Gaza for humanitarian aid, Israeli military officials have confirmed.

aAt the moment we have operational control of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing and we have special forces scanning the crossing a| That is what is happening in the upcoming hours. The operation is not over a| I canat give a timeline,a a military official said on Tuesday morning.

Chinese embassy calls for an end to what it terms aanti-China political farcea after payroll records 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.

Charities fear aincreasing risks of destitution and exploitationa of refugees as they go missing

The Home Office is dealing with growing fallout from the high-profile roundups of asylum seekers it wants to send to Rwanda, as some have gone into hiding while others have fled across the border to Ireland.

Officials began rounding up asylum seekers to detain them for the Rwanda scheme a week ago, with at least one now on hunger strike and another threatening suicide.

The theme was JG Ballardas 1962 short story, The Garden of Time, which meant references to decay, lots of florals and more than one look that seemed to have nothing to do with anything

Many European diplomats avoid lavish Moscow ceremony and Ukrainian security service says it has caught a network of Russian agents

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other at the global chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague of using banned toxins on the battlefield, the organisation said on Tuesday.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that the accusations were ainsufficiently substantiateda but added that athe situation remains volatile and extremely concerning regarding the possible re-emergence of use of toxic chemicals as weapons.a

Halifax reports a small rise in average house prices last month.. while latest construction PMI shows housebuilding lagging behind

• aTheyare everywherea: Labouras wooing of City goes into overdrive

The small increase in UK house prices in April has left them broadly flat since the turn of the year, says Peter Arnold, EY UK chief economist:

The stabilisation in market conditions reflects the large fall in mortgage rates since last summer, with transactions and prices appearing to have passed their trough.

However, the recent rise in mortgage rates is likely to dampen the recovery in the short-term. And looking ahead, the recovery in prices is unlikely to be rapid given that poor affordability continues to significantly limit the pool of potential buyers and mortgage rates are only likely to fall back slowly.

As the prospect of the first rate cut since March 2020 drifts further into the distance, borrowing costs have edged higher and budgets have been squeezed.

A short-lived burst of positivity in the early weeks of this year led to higher supply, increasing downwards pressure on prices. A wave of homeowners currently rolling off sub-2% mortgages is adding to the financial pressures in the system. As a summer rate cut moves onto the horizon, we expect UK house prices to respond and rise by 3% in 2024.a

aBorrowers have benefited from cheaper mortgage rates since the start of the year, which has boosted market activity and enquiries.

aSince then, higher funding costs have led to higher mortgage rates over the past couple of weeks and there is likely to be some volatility in pricing ahead. Borrowers would be wise to secure a rate they like the look of to protect themselves from further price fluctuations in the short term.

aHouse prices are yo-yoing as buyers and sellers negotiate their way through the uncertain economy, with a small monthly rise in April.

aConsumers are expecting a fall in interest rates at some point this year. But with lenders increasing rates in the last few weeks, buyers have understandable hesitancy over the right price to offer, while sellers are trying to navigate how offers align with their expectations.

It looks like mortgage rates will continue to remain elevated with the Bank of England poised to keep interest rates at 16-year highs of 5.25% this Thursday.

Financial markets have been pushing back their forecasts for the timing of the first rate hike this year, with August currently pencilled into the diary, although that could certainly change depending on the data.a

Two forces apologise to driver saying time has run out for any charges over incident on motorway

A woman who described her terror at being harassed on a motorway by a man posing as a police officer has been told there can be no criminal investigation because forces failed to act in time.

The woman said she was driving on her own on the M1 in March 2023 when a areally angrya man in an unmarked car began shouting at her to pull over, showing what looked like a police ID, the BBC reported.

FAA examining whether employees may have falsified records after firm said it might not have properly carried out checks

• Business live a latest updates

Boeing faces a new investigation after the planemaker told US regulators it might have failed to properly carry out some quality inspections on its 787 Dreamliner planes.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was ainvestigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft recordsa.

Exclusive: Audience had avitriolic reactiona to European tone of musical, forced to close early

Rufus Wainwright has defended his musical Opening Night, which was forced to close early after mixed reviews, saying West End audiences lack acuriositya after Brexit and the British press had turned on the project because it was atoo Europeana.

Opening Night was Wainwrightas first musical and is an adaptation of John Cassavetesa 1977 film about an actor struggling to cope, who is played by Sheridan Smith. Directed by Ivo van Hove, it opened in March at the Gielgud theatre but a month later announced it would be closing two months early.

The Stonemasonas Yard, moved for safekeeping during WW2, is going on display at National Library of Wales

During the second world war, the painting was transported 250 miles from central London to north Wales to be hidden in a slate mine, tucked away from the perils of Nazi invasion and Luftwaffe bombings.

Eighty years on, there has been a sort of homecoming for Canalettoas masterpiece, The Stonemasonas Yard, as it returns to form the centrepiece of a show opening this week at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.

The exhibition runs at The National Library of Wales from 10 May until 7 September 2024.

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.

Prosecutors, witnesses, jurors a all are in the ex-presidentas sights and it could lead to violence, former federal prosecutors and judges say

Donald Trumpas verbal assaults on judges, prosecutors, witnesses, jurors and the broader US justice system, are undermining the rule of law and American democracy while fueling threats and potential violence against individuals involved with the legal cases against him and egging on his extremist allies, former federal prosecutors and judges say.

In his campaign to win the presidency again, and in the midst of various criminal and civil trials, Trump has launched multiple attacks on the American legal system on his Truth Social platform to counter the 88 federal and state criminal charges he faces.

Itas still the magic milestone when senior citizenship begins a| with a host of money-saving offers to take advantage of

The UK state pension age has risen but many companies and organisations still hold on to athe big 6-0a as the point at which senior citizenship begins, and it continues to represent a money-saving milestone as a result.

The daughter of aMamaa Cass Elliot has written a book to explore the tragically short life of her mother, from relentless fat-shaming to a myth about her death

One of the most famous stories ever told about aMamaa Cass Elliot was a complete lie. It didnat help that the singer herself repeated it in scores of interviews. As the spiel goes, Cass became the last singer hired for the Mamas and Papas only after she got smacked on the head by a pipe during a construction project at a local club where they all hung out. aItas true,a she insisted to Rolling Stone in 1968. aI had a concussion and went to the hospital. I had a bad headache for about two weeks and then, all of a sudden, I was singing higher.a

The anewa sound she supposedly produced was what allegedly convinced groupas leader John Phillips to finally bring her into the fold, creating what became one of the most famous four-way harmony groups in pop history. In fact, the real reason Phillips didnat initially want to hire the clearly gifted Cass was simply because he thought she was too overweight to be part of a viable pop group. aThe fact that she felt she had to perpetuate a false story shows the depth of what she felt she had to hide,a said Owen Elliot-Kugell, the singeras daughter who has written a new book titled My Mama, Cass. aThe truth was just too painful.a

One was sentenced to 11 years, another had to flee the country, a third could be arrested at any moment. And what were Manahel, Maryam and Fawzia al-Otaibias acrimesa? A few social media posts that outraged Saudi Arabiaas conservatives

In September 2022, Fawzia al-Otaibi was a week into a trip to her home country of Saudi Arabia, staying with a friend near the Bahrain border, when her phone rang. As soon as she heard the male voice on the other end of the line, she realised that returning had been a terrible mistake.

It was a police officer who, in 2019, had tracked her down and fined her for public indecency after she had posted a video on her Snapchat account, showing her dancing in jeans and a baseball cap at a concert in Riyadh. She and her two sisters, Maryam and Manahel, had become targets in a campaign of arrests, threats and intimidation by the Saudi authorities after they had used their popular social media channels to post about womenas rights. For her, the dancing clip wasnat a political statement; it was just about sharing a happy moment with her followers.

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.

Developer Slavic Magicas feudal simulator is Steamas latest early access sensation, but thereas a seven-year story behind its overnight success

Launched as if from a trebuchet at the end of April, Manor Lords is the latest in a string of explosively successful video games that have been released this year. Indeed, the rise of this unassuming-looking city-builder is arguably more impressive than the enormous launch of Helldivers 2, or the breakout Poker phenomenon Balatro. Developed largely by one person and releasing in an incomplete state, Manor Lords shifted a million copies in its first 24 hours on sale.

The scale of Manor Lordsa success is remarkable, but contrary to appearances, it hasnat emerged from nowhere. Momentum around the game has been building for years, part of a broader surge in popularity for city-building games in general. Thereas also more to Manor Lords than meets the eye, as its mundane medieval exterior hides a richly detailed, tangible simulation of feudal life.

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 cult artist became so fixated with blood tests that he ended up teaching a doctor how to do them. He saw this as a sign and it infused One Blood, a project drawing on intimate moments from his life

Frank Lebon is fascinated by blood. Itas the connecting theme that flows through his first art book, One Blood, a photographic project that takes us through the Covid-19 pandemic, a type 1 diabetes diagnosis, and love, family and friendship.

aIam always collecting some sort of imagery, but very rarely do I feel itas worthy of sharing with the world,a the 30-year-old photographer and film-maker says from his bright and airy studio in south London. aWith One Blood, I felt a real sense of serendipity, where all these connecting things came together to give it value and meaning.a

For the past decade, Lebonas work has observed themes of death, family and the downright banal, subverted through his meticulous editing style: often, a portrait is scribbled over, torn apart and restitched, at times reminiscent of American counterculture figures such as Jim Goldberg, Larry Clark and Harmony Korine. His short films, meanwhile, have documented a crime-scene cleaner, London squats and a dog that had witnessed a murder. His work is often laced with a dark sense of humour, and Lebon has become a cult figure in the London art scene a as well as producing ad campaigns for brands including Gucci and Dior.

One Blood began in early 2020, when Lebonas finger inadvertently covered half the flash of his digital camera while taking a photo of his mum, Camilla, washing the image in a luminous red light. For most, it would be a soon-deleted mishap. aIt reminded me of blood,a Lebon says, moving his finger over the happy accident. aI love how the moon in the background gives the photo context, that I havenat just dialled up the red.a

The messaging service pegs itself as the ahappiest placea online, but Snapas Ronan Harris explain how its post-pandemic struggles has made it focus on being friendlier not just to users but to small businesses, too

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Why are some social networks a success, while others struggle to stay alive? How did Facebook and Twitter go from being peers in the 2000s to barely even rivals 15 years on? Everyone seems to use social media, so everyone seems to have an answer to this sort of question.

But social networks are icebergs: most of what matters lies below the surface. Simply building a good user experience is table stakes for playing in the space. To actually succeed, though, you also need to master the parts most people donat see.

Tories will crow about falling inflation and Britainas waning recession. But the public sees the reality in its shopping basket

Labouras tanks roll relentlessly across Tory lawns, not pausing a heartbeat to celebrate phenomenal local election results in England. It treated the local polls as a military rehearsal for the general election, with ruthless focus on places that will deliver most seats: that includes the south, as well as the north and Midlands, and the party is heading for Scottish turf too.

But the mesmerising ferocity of blue-on-blue abuse is the current news-making drama. Fighting bare-knuckle over post-election ideology, the Tory right are looking forward to an election defeat as long as one of their own isnat at the helm. Besides, they have Sunak in their grip, while the Mail calls Boris Johnson a acoiled mambaa waiting ato save the Tories from total annihilationa. Mournful one-nationers echo the losing West Midlands mayor Andy Streetas dignified call for moderation, unheeded. Sunak can stay or go: Labour relishes either equally.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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

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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.

The PM danced to their tune and the dreadful election results were the outcome. The solution canat be more of the same

• Justine Greening was Conservative MP for Putney from 2005-19

Last weekas local election results may finally have sunk Rishi Sunakas Conservative party. It lost all but one of the 11 mayoralty contests, and while Ben Houchen held on in Tees Valley, it was with a diminished majority. Labour were out of sight in winning the Blackpool South byelection with a 26% swing, and more broadly in local elections across England the Tories lost nearly half the council seats they were defending.

These losses are staggering, but so too is the reaction of would-be Tory rebels, the Reform-lite group. They have suggested they will not challenge Sunak now; as Suella Braverman put it, it is Sunak who should aown this and fix ita. It is the height of political self-unawareness a because it is their political gameplan that Sunakas rudderless No 10 has been attempting to follow. It is as a result of their flawed political judgments that support for the party has plummeted the length and breadth of the country, and across generations of voters a so much so that shockingly, the party only now leads in the over-70s voter age group. The 2024 local election results are their responsibility to aowna, not just the prime ministeras.

Justine Greening was education secretary and minister for women and equalities, 2016-18, and Conservative MP for Putney, 2005-19

After 11 years, the feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake is still making waves. Maybe Labour and the Tories need to release their own adiss tracksa

God knows I donat want to pick sides in the bitter rivalry between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The rappersa feud has been going on for way too long (11 years!) for the casual observer to be able to adjudicate. Iam also mindful that even though rappers, like Aslan, seem to work to some deeper laws than those handed down by humans, I am still a regular mortal and as such covered by the rules of defamation.

But here is the situation as it stands: on Saturday, Lamar released his fourth diss track (a record in which mean things are said) about Drake a his third in 48 hours. The accusations in Not Like Us are many and wild a aOof, heas sailing a little close to the wind,a you might think about lines such as: aSay, Drake, I hear you like aem young / You better not ever go to cell block one.a Has he really thought about the legal ramifications? Because it sounds a tiny bit like heas calling Drake a a| oh, here it is, in the next verse: aCertified lover boy [a reference to Drakeas 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy]? / Certified paedophiles.a

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Inmates cook together, eat together a and sometimes even forage together. It puts Britainas rat-infested facilities to shame

I spent three weeks visiting prisons across Scandinavia to find out how they feed their prisoners. You may ask why any of us should be concerned with what people in prison eat. But research suggests that good nutrition not only improves wellbeing, security and safety in prisons, it may have an effect on rehabilitation and keep people from returning to prison.

So does a region with one of the lowest reoffending rates in the world a only about 30% of Nordic prisoners end up back inside within two years a and a humane approach to incarceration treat prison food differently from countries with higher recidivism and a more punitive culture? As the founder of a charity dedicated to improving prison food in the UK, I wanted to find out.

Lucy Vincent is the founder and chief executive of Food Behind Bars

The Welsh parliament could make wilfully misleading the public a criminal offence. The rest of the UK deserves the same protection

In 2019, I helped prove in court that the then prime minister misled the Queen. Boris Johnson claimed he prorogued parliament for purely administrative reasons. The circumstances, the court concluded, demonstrated that athe true reason for the prorogation is to reduce the time available for parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit at a time when such scrutiny would appear to be a matter of considerable importancea.

Johnson ultimately faced the supreme court over his decision a but many other politicians mislead the public, and parliament, with impunity. According to the factchecking campaign Full Fact, Rishi Sunak has, by my understanding, made 41 false or misleading public statements since becoming prime minister. Keir Starmer made seven in the same period. Jeremy Hunt and Suella Braverman made five each.

Sam Fowles is a barrister, author and broadcaster

Thereas no point us building houses if people sell them off cheaply to no public benefit. Itas like running a bath with no plug

• Andy Burnham is the mayor of Greater Manchester

Last Thursday, people voted for change. There appears to be a settled view now that the country needs a fresh start. And yet anyone who has stood on doorsteps in recent times will know this is not a 1997 moment. The level of despondency with politics is deep. There will be no honeymoon period for any incoming government. People can see things are broken and they are losing faith that any politicians can fix them.

So it is a difficult climate for progressive parties and I worry that the general election which now looms ahead of us will only make the mood worse. A Tory party in a corner is unlikely to go quietly. My gut feeling is that it will opt for a December election, hoping to salvage seats from the toxic combination of a low winter turnout and the fallout from the US election the month before. Channelling the negative energy of the aculture warsa seems to be all the Tories have left.

The surprise defeat of the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, confirmed that the tectonic plates are shifting in British politics

Local elections are not known for producing aPortillo momentsa. But the defeat of the Conservative West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, announced late on Saturday, undoubtedly encapsulated a sense of tectonic plates inexorably shifting in Labouras favour. A locally popular and avowedly non-ideological figure, Mr Street had done his best to distance himself from the Tory brand. But there was to be no escape from the determinedly antiaConservative mood abroad in the nation. As contest after contest last week illustrated, the country simply wants the Tories out.

Where does Rishi Sunak go from here? Although any leadership challenge appears to have been shelved, the usual suspects have been quick to demand the usual fixes. The former home secretary Suella Braverman has led calls for a rightward lurch, including a pledge to withdraw from the European court of human rights. But chasing those voters now defecting to Reform UK will only help Labour and the Liberal Democrats peel off moderate Conservative supporters in even larger numbers, come the general election.

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