US president Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to ‘first phase’ of plan to pause fighting and release some hostages and prisoners

• Full report: ‘First phase’ of deal to end war in Gaza agreed

• What we know so far about the deal

Families of Israelis held hostage in Gaza gathered in what has come to be known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv after the announcement.

“President Trump, thank you very much. We thank him, our children will not have returned home without him,” said Hatan Angrest, whose son Matan is among the hostages.

Yvette Cooper says deal to bring end to assault on Gaza and free hostages should be ‘implemented as swiftly as possible’

Compensation schemes for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal will be improved, with a new appeals process and funded legal advice for post office operators, the government has announced.

Responding to the first part of the findings from a two-year public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal, regarded as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in UK legal history, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, said there would be a new appeals process for people who have accepted fixed-sum offers under the Horizon Shortfall Scheme, one of several compensation schemes. Funded legal advice will also be offered.

The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm
• Nobel prize in literature 2025 live: László Krasznahorkai wins ‘for his compelling and visionary oeuvre’

The Nobel prize in literature for 2025 has been awarded to Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, the Swedish Academy has announced.

The Academy cited the 71-year-old’s “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”.

Move comes as Donald Trump calls for imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor

A group of Republicans in Pennsylvania are relaunching their efforts to unseat Congressman Scott Perry, the fervent Trump ally who represents the state’s 10th congressional district, according to plans first provided to the Guardian.

The “Republicans Against Perry” (Rap) group began in late 2023, backing the congressman’s Democratic opponent, Janelle Stelson, who ended up losing by less than two points in the 2024 election. Now, Rap is restarting their grassroots campaign on Thursday, which includes a slew of electronic billboards throughout the district.

NHTSA reported Teslas driving through red traffic lights and driving against direction of travel during a lane change

US automobile safety regulators have opened an investigation into Tesla vehicles equipped with its full self-driving technology over traffic-safety violations after a series of crashes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the electric carmaker’s self driving assistance system, which requires drivers to pay attention and intervene if needed, had “induced vehicle behaviour that violated traffic safety laws”.

Competition watchdog agrees requests from Anglian, Northumbrian, South East, Southern and Wessex to increase charges

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Water bills for millions of households in England are to increase by even more than expected after the competition regulator gave the green light for five water suppliers to raise charges to customers – but rejected most of the companies’ demands.

An independent group of experts appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided provisionally to let the companies collectively charge customers an extra £556m over the next five years, it said on Thursday. That was only 21% of the £2.7bn the companies had sort.

Ukrainian president accuses Russia of wanting to sow ‘chaos’ with overnight attacks on energy and rail infrastructure, but says Ukrainian long-range strikes have caused gas shortages in Russia

Below is a video published by the Guardian showing Ukrainian firefighters tackling blazes in burning shipping containers after a Russian drone attack injured at least five people in Odesa.

The attack cut power to 30,000 people and damaged the city’s port infrastructure.

Authorities investigate site after shrimp exported to the US found to contain the hazardous isotope Caesium-137

A large industrial zone on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, is grappling with radioactive contamination after a government taskforce found traces of the hazardous isotope Caesium-137 at 22 production facilities at the site, which includes businesses that export frozen seafood.

The discovery, which has prompted emergency decontamination and relocation of residents, follows a contamination scare in the US that was traced back to the Jakarta facilities.

Jamie Dimon, chair of JPMorgan Chase, said he was ‘far more worried than others’ about serious market correction

The chances of the US stock market crashing is far greater than many financiers believe, the head of America’s largest bank has said.

Jamie Dimon, who is the chair and chief executive of the giant Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase, said he was “far more worried than others” about a serious market correction, which he predicted could come in the next six months to two years.

President attacks Chicago mayor and Illinois governor as extra troops at army training site south-west of city

Hundreds of national guard troops remained in the Chicago area as city and Illinois officials awaited a judge’s decision to stop Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the nation’s third-largest city.

It was still unclear where specifically the Trump administration would send the troops who reported to an army training site south-west of Chicago, which was laden with extra fencing and tarps put up to block the public’s view of the facility late on Wednesday evening.

Dominique Sie recommends 12-year jail term after Husamettin Dugan’s ‘refusal to take responsibility’ for assault

The French state prosecutor has called for the jail term of an unemployed builder to be increased after he contested his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot after she had been drugged unconscious by her husband.

Dominique Sie, the lead state prosecutor, told the court of appeal in Nîmes that Husamettin Dogan’s claims of innocence were an example of how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”.

Payout likely to be funded by taxpayers if media mogul wins case against gambling regulator

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The billionaire media mogul Richard Desmond will urge a court to “err on the side of generosity” in assessing a £1.3bn damages claim against the Gambling Commission that would probably have to be funded by taxpayers if he wins.

Companies owned by the former proprietor of the Daily Express, Asian Babes and Readers’ Wives are suing the gambling regulator in a bitter dispute that opens today.

Study shows high-magnitude temblor in north-west could set off another in California, causing unrivaled disaster

Warnings about the looming threat of “the big one” – a catastrophic earthquake that could devastate cities – have stoked fears across the US west coast for decades. But according to a new study, a high-magnitude earthquake in the Pacific north-west could set off a secondary one on California’s San Andreas fault, causing an unrivaled catastrophe.

“The bigger one” would have the potential to wreak havoc up and down the coast at once, researchers say.

Lawyers scramble as Robert Roberson to be first person executed under theory now widely seen as junk science

At 6pm next Thursday, barring a last-minute reprieve, Robert Roberson will become the first person in America to be executed under the theory of “shaken baby syndrome”, a medical diagnosis from the 1970s that is so disputed it is now widely denounced as junk science.

Roberson, 58, will enter the death chamber at the Huntsville unit in Texas, where he will be strapped to a gurney and injected with a cocktail of lethal drugs. He will be put to death having been convicted of shaking to death his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in 2002.

Government spokesperson says it may be ‘last chance’ for politicians to regain credibility and cut risk of far right taking power

Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister by Friday evening, his office has said, hinting at the president’s hopes that a sixth prime minister in less than two years will manage to steer a budget through France’s deeply fragmented parliament.

“This might be the last chance,” the government spokesperson Aurore Bergé told RTL radio on Thursday. “I believe this is the last chance for politicians to regain credibility ... all of this is only strengthening the chances and capabilities of the far right to take power.”

La Fenice’s musicians and staff claim Beatrice Venezi lacks experience and was picked because of government ties

Staff at Venice’s La Fenice opera house have voted to strike over the appointment of a conductor with ties to Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government.

The strike will be held on Friday 17 October, the date of the opera house’s first performance of a run of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, which will close its 2024-25 season.

Dozens of worshippers gather at sombre but defiant vigil a week after attack in which two men were killed

Dozens of worshippers have gathered at the Manchester synagogue that was attacked on Yom Kippur, vowing to show “resolve” and not be “cowed” by terrorism.

Amid heavy security a week after the assault in which two men were killed, Jewish community leaders led prayers and speeches in a sombre but defiant 15-minute vigil.

Labor backbencher is calling for drastic intervention to secure supplies for the east coast

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The Labor backbencher Ed Husic is demanding an intervention to combat Japanese gas companies re-selling Australian exports to other markets, breaking ranks from the government and risking diplomatic blowback from Tokyo.

The former industry minister said the government must send a “powerful signal” to overseas multinationals, in particular in Japan, to stop “playing us off as mugs” by profiting off the resale of Australian gas while households and industry on the east coast face high prices and potential supply shortages.

Study shows clear link between Israeli aid restrictions and malnutrition among children aged between six months and five years

• Gaza ceasefire plan live – latest updates

Almost 55,000 children under the age of six in Gaza are estimated to be acutely malnourished, far more than have so far been identified as victims of the potentially lethal condition, a study published in the Lancet, the respected international medical periodical, has revealed.

The study, published on Wednesday, and led by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), offers a month-by-month breakdown through much of the two-year conflict, and shows for the first time a clear link between Israeli restrictions on supplies entering Gaza and levels of malnutrition among children.

Donald Trump announces all hostages will be released ‘very soon’ and Israel will withdraw troops to an agreed timeline

• Gaza ceasefire plan – live updates

• What we know so far about the deal

Israel and Hamas have agreed to the initial phase of a ceasefire plan in Gaza, pausing hostilities in the devastated territory and bringing the best hope yet of a definitive end to a bloody two-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands, destabilised much of the Middle East and prompted protests around the world.

Donald Trump announced the agreement on his Truth Social network saying all of the hostages held in Gaza would be released soon and Israel would withdraw troops to an agreed line as the first step to a “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace”.

Exclusive: Jacinta Allan’s comments come after a cabinet subcommittee met to address growing concerns about youth crime

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The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has left the door open to sentencing reform, saying the community wants “consequences” for “brazen, shocking behaviour” amid concerns about violent crime.

The comments mark a shift in language and come after a cabinet subcommittee met on Monday to address growing concerns about youth crime in the state and police and union calls for tougher sentences for repeat offenders.

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Will Australia’s east coast get a gas reserve?

There have been growing calls for an east coast gas reserve to help combat sky high gas prices, including a push from the Bluescope steel CEO yesterday.

We will do a careful piece of work here. In the last term of government, we intervened on gas prices following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the impact that had in global energy markets in order to support, of course, households, but also industry.

Gas is absolutely critical for sections of Australian industry … It’s a critical transition fuel to lower Australia’s industrial emissions.

We’re a big exporter of gas, and it’s reasonable that I think for Australian industry and for Australians to say we need to make sure there is sufficient gas for Australian industry.

This is a critical industrial capability for Australia. We have vast reserves of copper ore, and there is global trade imbalances, subsidies in some markets, volatility that is making it an unfair playing field for Australian copper producers in global markets. We need to see that.

Search engine added ‘STI testing’ to list of sensitive topics, censoring important public health campaign, Greens leader says

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Google has blocked ads for a commonwealth-funded STI awareness campaign as “adult content” in a move sexual health organisations say frustrates efforts to share evidence-based public health information online.

The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday that the tech company’s moderation practices had recently undermined the reach and cost-effectiveness of the national campaign, run by Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia (SRHA).

Ibrahim Helmy tells Icac hearing he created fake invoices as part of alleged multimillion-dollar kickback scheme

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A former transport bureaucrat has admitted to being paid with envelopes of cash at an Oporto fast-food restaurant after allegedly asking a contractor to artificially inflate invoices so they could share the difference.

Ibrahim Helmy, 38, appeared before the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Thursday for a second day of evidence on his alleged involvement at the centre of a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme.

Abdallah, 27, and Soha, 31, describe adjusting to their new lives after leaving their war-torn home

The young man emerging from a backstreet accommodation block in a bustling corner of east London looks much like any other student, getting to grips with his studies at the start of a new term. But 27-year-old Abdallah carries more of a burden than most. A qualified doctor, he has recently been evacuated from Gaza to begin his studies at Queen Mary University of London on a fully funded, government-backed Chevening scholarship.

As well as his work in hospitals, he has been striving for months on behalf of the dozens of Palestinian scholars like himself who have been stranded in war-torn Gaza awaiting evacuation by the British government to take up places in UK universities.

In today’s newsletter: A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will see the release of hostages and the withdrawal of most of Israel’s troops

Good morning. After more than two years of devastating war, a ceasefire has finally been announced in Gaza.

US president Donald Trump said Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan to pause fighting and secure the release of hostages and prisoners. Under the deal, Hamas is expected to release 20 surviving hostages over the coming days in exchange for Palestinian detainees, while Israeli forces will begin withdrawing from most of Gaza.

Gaza | Israel and Hamas have agreed to the “first phase” of a peace plan to pause fighting and release some hostages and prisoners held in Gaza, bringing the best hope yet of a definitive end to a bloody two-year conflict that has killed ten of thousands, destabilised much of the Middle East and prompted protests across the world.

Health | Ministers are preparing to raise the amount the NHS pays pharmaceutical firms for medicines by up to 25% after weeks of intensive talks with the Donald Trump administration and drugmakers.

Education | Universities in the UK reassured arms companies they would monitor students’ chat groups and social media accounts after firms raised concerns about campus protests, according to internal emails.

AI | The Bank of England has warned there is a growing risk of a “sudden correction” in global markets as it raised concerns about soaring valuations of leading AI tech companies.

Politics | The Conservatives will scrap stamp duty on sales of primary residences if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has said, in a policy-heavy speech designed to improve her standing as Tory leader and her party’s economic credibility with voters.

Court in Buenos Aires sentences Fernando Sabag Montiel and accomplice over 2022 incident in which gun was pointed at former president but did not go off

A court in Argentina has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of attempting to kill former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The court in Buenos Aires also sentenced the man’s accomplice to eight years in prison, capping a dramatic case that has captivated the country since 2022, when the main defendant, Fernando Sabag Montiel, squeezed through a crowd outside the ex-president’s home, thrust a loaded gun at her face and pulled the trigger.

First vote in Congress on military campaign that White House says has hit four vessels and killed at least 21 people

Senate Republicans voted down legislation Wednesday that would have put a check on Donald Trump’s ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels after Democrats tried to counter the administration’s extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.

The vote fell mostly along party lines, 48-51, with two Republicans, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voting in favor and the Democrat John Fetterman voting against.

Calls for reform to allow people across the Pacific threatened by climate crisis to more easily migrate, particularly to New Zealand

Climate and migration experts are calling for urgent action to create legal pathways for people displaced by the climate crisis, as a new report highlights the scale of the problem across the Pacific.

Research by Amnesty International released on Thursday found current immigration systems are inadequate for Pacific Islanders seeking safety and stability, as rising seas threaten to make their homelands uninhabitable.

Prime minister hopes to learn from success of scheme rolled out to most of country’s 1.4bn citizens

Keir Starmer is to examine India’s digital ID system on his visit to Mumbai as a potential model for the UK, praising the system as a “massive success”.

Speaking on his two-day trip to Mumbai, where he met an expert on India’s digital ID system, Starmer defended the introduction of a similar measure in the UK, saying he believed the rollout of a voluntary system could be expanded to school applications, mortgages and driving licences.

Shootings left six people dead, including a four-year-old, and nine others injured amid suspected gang violence

Authorities in Jamaica have imposed curfews after two recent shootings in which six people, including a four-year-old child, were killed and nine others injured as suspected gang violence rattles the Caribbean island.

The most recent shooting took place on Tuesday night after unidentified gunmen drove past a group of people in the capital, Kingston, and opened fire. Six people, including two nine-year-old children and two teenagers, were shot, according to the Kingston Central police superintendent Beresford Williams.

Armed criminal groups tear down precious rainforest to capitalise on record gold prices, report finds

An illegal gold rush has cleared 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon and is accelerating as foreign, armed groups move into the region to profit from record gold prices, according to a report.

About 540 square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the South American country since 1984, and the environmental destruction is spreading rapidly across the country, Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) and its Peruvian partner organisation, Conservación Amazónica, found.

Dozens more injured by night strike on anti-government demonstration held during national holiday

A Myanmar military operation that used a motorised paraglider to drop bombs on a village this week killed at least 20 people including children and injured dozens more, according to witnesses and local media.

The attack hit Chaung U, in Sagaing region, during a national holiday. Myanmar has been engulfed in armed conflict since the military seized power in 2021 and the village has been a key battleground in the war.

Defense minister says attack on Daniel Noboa’s convoy was ‘clear assassination attempt and an act of terrorism’

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has escaped unharmed after his motorcade was targeted by stone-throwing protesters and what one minister described as an “assassination attempt”.

Noboa was inaugurating a water treatment plant in central Ecuador on Tuesday when his motorcade was set upon by a large group protesting against rising fuel prices.

Campaigners say increase in exports mostly to Malaysia and Indonesia is ‘unethical and irresponsible waste imperialism’

Britain’s exports of plastic waste to developing countries have soared by 84% in the first half of this year compared with last year, according to an analysis of trade data carried out for the Guardian.

Campaigners described the rise in exports, mostly to Malaysia and Indonesia, as “unethical and irresponsible waste imperialism”.

NZ$180bn worth of housing and $26bn of infrastructure at risk of flooding and storm damage, new government report finds

New Zealand’s oceans are warming 34% faster than the global average, with NZ$180bn (US$104bn) worth of housing at risk of flooding, a new report about the nation’s marine environment has revealed.

The ministry of the environment and Stats NZ’s three-yearly update, Our Environment 2025, collates statistics, data and research across five domains – air, atmosphere and climate, freshwater, land, and marine – to paint a picture of the state of New Zealand’s marine environment.

Grief and confusion gripped East Java last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny Islamic school to collapse during afternoon prayers

Indonesian rescuers wrapped up the search on Tuesday for victims trapped under the rubble of a collapsed Islamic boarding school in the province of East Java, after retrieving more than 60 bodies, disaster authorities said.

Grief and confusion gripped the small town of Sidoarjo last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny school to cave in on hundreds of people, mostly teenage boys, while they were at afternoon prayers. Most escaped.

Janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, found guilty over atrocities

The international criminal court has convicted a leader of the Janjaweed militia of playing a leading role in a campaign of atrocities committed in the Sudanese region of Darfur more than 20 years ago.

It was the first time the court had convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur. The court ruled that the atrocities, including mass murders and rapes, were part of a government plan to snuff out a rebellion in the western region of Sudan.

African kingdom receives second group of third-country nationals in what NGOs and lawyers say is violation of human rights

Ten people deported by the US have arrived in Eswatini, its government said, the second group of third-country deportees to be sent to the southern African kingdom by the Trump administration in what lawyers and NGOs have described as violations of their human rights.

A statement by the Eswatini government posted on social media before their arrival on Monday said: “The individuals will be kept in a secured area separate from the public, while arrangements are made for their return to their countries of origin.”

Hundreds of trekkers stranded by blizzard on eastern face of mountain in Tibet already guided to safety by rescuers

Rescue efforts are under way on Mount Everest after a snowstorm trapped nearly 1,000 people in campsites on the eastern side of the mountain, according to Chinese state media.

Hundreds of trekkers stranded by a blizzard near the eastern face of the mountain in Tibet were guided to safety by rescuers on Sunday, as unusually heavy precipitation including rain pummelled the Himalayas.

With Islamist militant group 40km from Mogadishu, a ‘strategic stalemate’ has been reached, but some fear worst is yet to come

One night in early July, Maryan Abdikadir Geedi decided it was finally time to abandon her small shop in the town of Moqokori in the Hiiraan region of Somalia.

Though she had heard of the rapid recent gains made by al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant movement, the 46-year-old had hoped to stay. Since getting married in 2013, Geedi had seen control over Moqokori change hands repeatedly.

Pair had crossed border to support presidential campaign of reggae singer Bobi Wine

Two Kenyan activists have been abducted in Uganda after attending a presidential campaign event for Bobi Wine, the reggae musician turned politician.

Heavily armed security operatives detained Bob Njagi, the chair of Free Kenya, and Nicholas Oyoo, the movement’s secretary general, at a petrol station near Kampala on Wednesday afternoon.

Prime minister praises security response and says government is ready for talks

Morocco’s prime minister, Aziz Akhannouch, has praised the security force reaction to protests over corruption and public spending and said the government was ready for talks, as organisers called for a sixth night of protests.

In a statement, Akhannouch said the death toll in the protests had risen to three.

Activist Jagtar Singh Johal has been held in Indian prison for nearly eight years without full trial

The sisters of the British-Egyptian human rights campaigner Alaa Abd el-Fattah have intervened for the first time since his release from prison in Egypt to call on Keir Starmer to push Narendra Modi to free a British Sikh activist when he meets the Indian prime minister next week.

Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, has been held in an Indian jail for nearly eight years without facing full trial in what his supporters say is an arbitrary and egregious denial of justice by a British ally.

Taliban authorities cut fibre-optic network in nationwide shutdown of communications to prevent ‘vice’

Afghans are living under a near-complete communications blackout after Taliban authorities cut internet and mobile phone services for a second day as part of an unprecedented country-wide crackdown.

The former insurgents, who retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, began gradual restrictions on internet access earlier this month. The measures also affect telephone lines, as they are often routed over the internet.