Israel sending delegation to Cairo for indirect negotiations on truce with Hamas

• Full report: Israel says forces take control of Rafah crossing
• Israeli assault on Gaza city of Rafah: what we know so far

Miller confirmed that Hamas has aissued a responsea, when asked about Hamasas announcement that they accepted a ceasefire deal.

aWe are reviewing that response now and discussing it with our partners in the region,a Miller said.

Judge holds Trump in criminal contempt for the 10th time in response to former presidentas comments on the jury

The judge overseeing Donald Trumpas criminal hush-money trial on Monday held him in criminal contempt for the 10th time and warned he could face jail for continued violations of a gag order.

Juan Merchanas admonition to Trump came in response to the Republican presidential frontrunneras repeated commentary on trial witnesses and jurors, which flouts the judgeas order barring him from speaking about those who are testifying at the high-profile proceedings and panelists weighing his fate.

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

Students link arms around tents on campus and block local thoroughfare as they call for end to killings in Gaza

Pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there, as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests.

Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group had been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza.

Heartbeat International, affiliated with more than 2,000 facilities, aims to convince people to continue their pregnancies

The organization behind an international network of anti-abortion facilities is misleading people with claims that abortions can be areverseda, a lawsuit filed on Monday by Letitia James, the New York attorney general, alleges.

The organization, Heartbeat International, is affiliated with more than 2,000 facilities that aim to convince people to continue their pregnancies. In recent years, many such centers, which are often Christian and sometimes known as crisis pregnancy centers, have started to promote a controversial practice known as aabortion pill reversala, which claims that people can halt a medication abortion midway through.

Countdown halted hours before liftoff in latest delay for long-planned flight, with no word on next attempt

Boeing called off its first astronaut launch because of a valve problem on its rocket on Monday night.

Two Nasa test pilots had just strapped into Boeingas Starliner capsule when the countdown was halted, just two hours before the planned liftoff. A United Launch Alliance engineer, Dillon Rice, said the issue involved an oxygen relief valve on the upper stage of the companyas Atlas rocket.

Officials say Staff Sgt Gordon Black, 34, was stationed in South Korea and was in the process of returning home to Texas

An American soldier has been arrested in Russia and accused of stealing, according to two US officials.

US officials said the soldier, Staff Sgt Gordon Black, 34, was stationed in South Korea and was in the process of returning home to Fort Cavazos in Texas. Instead, officials said, he traveled to Russia.

Lawmakers pass bill to regulate industry after 190 decomposing bodies found in bug-infested facility and another found in hearse

After the discovery of nearly 200 decaying bodies in a Colorado funeral home in October, lawmakers saw the need to tighten the stateas lax funeral home oversight and on Monday passed a bill that a in combination with a second bill that passed last week a would help to regulate the industry.

A series of cases that include sold ashes and fake body parts have devastated hundreds of already grieving families and shed a glaring spotlight on the stateas funeral home regulations, some of the weakest in the US. The bill passed on Monday will head to Governor Jared Polisas desk after the state house considers a minor change by the senate.

Former mogul, whose New York rape conviction was overturned in April, kept away from other detainees in special medical unit

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Harvey Weinstein is being kept in a private room inside Bellevue hospitalas intensive care unit on a floor away from all other detainees, the City has learned.

Advisory firm urges shareholders to reject aexcessivea payout to Lucian Grainge, while Renault may also face backlash

Universal Music Group could become the latest company to face an embarrassing shareholder revolt this AGM season, after an influential advisory firm urged investors to reject an aexcessivea a!139m (APS119m) payout for its chief executive, Lucian Grainge.

Glass Lewis said it had asevere reservationsa about supporting the Dutch-American music companyas pay decisions, which included a a!92m share-based bonus for its British-born CEO that easily made up for a 51% cut in his salary, to a!7.5m.

French-Luxembourgish performance artist Deborah de Robertis says she organised the stunt, after which two people were arrested

Two women have sprayed the words aMeTooa on a 19th-century painting of a womanas vagina by French artist Gustave Courbet in a stunt by a performance artist, a museum and the artist said.

aThe Origin of the Worlda, a nude painted from 1866, was protected by a aglass panea and the police were on site to assess the damage, the Centre Pompidou in the north-eastern city of Metz told AFP on Monday.

Prosecutors pressed witnesses on the alleged falsification of business records to cover up the payments to Stormy Daniels

Donald Trumpas criminal trial in New York entered a new phase on Monday, as prosecutors moved on to the alleged falsification of business records to cover up hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, after previously calling witnesses who described a conspiracy to kill the story.

The prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorneyas office started this week with the former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, the No 2 in the accounts department, who processed the former Trump lawyer Michael Cohenas invoices seeking reimbursement for the hush money.

Making a breakthrough in Tamil Nadu and Kerala is crucial to the BJPas ambitions to gain an even larger parliamentary majority a but it wonat be easy

Under Tamil Naduas scorching midday sun, K Annamalai waved at the crowd gathered around his campaign bus. Some people stretched their babies upwards to be touched by him, others threw flower petals and passed gifts through the window. A sea of mobile phones vied for space as people tried to squeeze the candidate into their selfies.

Here in Coimbatore, an industrial city in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Narendra Modias Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has been working overtime. Over months, thousands of volunteers and party workers have taken to the streets a backed hundreds of locally-targeted WhatsApp groups and a highly-organised social media campaign across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram a whipping up a frenzy around Annamalai, one of the BJPas most talked-about candidates.

Bob Olleyas unsettling vision of clash between miners and police is part of 40th anniversary show in Bishop Auckland

Bob Olley was there 40 years ago at the abattle of Orgreavea. aI saw the violence,a he said, shaking his head. aI thought I was in a foreign country when I saw what the police did. It is hard to believe it happened in this country.a

The brutality he and others witnessed on 18 June 1984 as striking miners met 6,000 police officers on horses or wielding batons on foot will stay in the memory. It was in his head as, some years later, he embarked on his response to one of the worldas greatest artworks, Picassoas Guernica.

The low-budget romcom about Britainas upper middle classes launched the careers of its writer Richard Curtis and Grant. Cast and crew share their stories a from Liz Hurley in that dress to Amber Ruddas role as an aaristocracy coordinatora

Itas been 30 years since audiences first met Hugh Grant as a stuttering serial monogamist who falls hopelessly in love with a glamorous American (Andie MacDowell) in Four Weddings and a Funeral. The low-budget romcom, directed by Mike Newell and scripted by Richard Curtis, came out of nowhere to become a global hit when it was released in 1994.

Based on Curtisas own experiences of being a guest at a seemingly endless merry-go-round of weddings, the film follows Grantas sweary, bumbling Charles and his group of friends a which includes his deaf brother a as they navigate love, loss and grief. From the first afucka uttered by Grant as he wakes up late for a wedding in the opening scene, to Rowan Atkinsonas inept priest who is unable to get anyoneas name right, and Kristin Scott Thomasas chain-smoking, aristocratic stoicism, it is a film that is at once hilarious and devastatingly sad.

Ten men, including a boxer and an ex-marine, make allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour against the star who was once box office dynamite. Then this documentary goes even further

In Kevin Spaceyas written right-of-reply statement at the end of Spacey Unmasked, he reminds the world that every criminal and civil court case accusing him of sexual assault has been resolved in his favour. He has a right to reiterate that fact. Public opinion, however, has long since turned against an actor who was one of the most acclaimed in the world when he won Oscars for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty, but who has been an industry pariah since Netflix fired him from House of Cards in 2017. This new two-part documentary details further allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

Spacey Unmasked is more, though, than a blizzard of marks on one side of an is-he-isnat-he ledger. Viewers who are minded to believe what is alleged in these interviews are given a picture not just of whether an A-list actor came to abuse his position, but how.

With the worldas humanitarian system in crisis, many NGOs now recognise that local charities can deliver much more at far less cost

Before civil war engulfed her Ethiopian home region of Tigray in 2020, Tsega Girma was a prosperous trader who sold stationery and other goods. But when hungry children displaced by the conflict started appearing in the streets, she sold everything and used the proceeds to buy them food.

After that money dried up, Tsega appealed to Tigrayas diaspora for donations. At the height of the war, her Emahoy Tsega Girma Charity Foundation provided meals to 24,000 children a day.

Each time she takes the stage, the Korean choreographer and dancer asks if it will be the last time. She reflects on crushing stereotypes, breaking into theatre and her 100 failed auditions

Sung Im Her was 19 when she took her first dance class. On day one, the teacher told her to lose 20kg in a month and gave her something to bite on while forcing her legs towards the splits. aHarsh, very harsh. Absolutely not recommended,a says the now 47-year-old Korean choreographer and dancer. That punitive beginning would surely have put off many, but Her had become hooked on dance from watching TV and films such as Dirty Dancing and Flashdance. She was hungry a a word she uses many times in our conversation a to discover more.

aSix months later,a she says, aI got on to the contemporary dance course at Hansung University [in Seoul], with top marks. For four years I began at 7am every single day. I then did the two-year masteras degree. But I was still hungry: I wanted more freedom, I wanted to explore.a

Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, and various Trump casinos have all failed a but has the ex-president finally found himself a winning product?

There was a time, not so long ago, that Donald Trump did not seem to be very familiar with the Bible.

When he first ran for the nomination of the very Christian Republican party, Trump was unable to name a single Bible verse. Early in his 2016 presidential campaign he referred to the Eucharist as a alittle crackera. In a subsequent church visit, as he attempted to prove his religious credentials, he put cash in a plate that was meant to hold the communion.

This is it! The Fifteenth Doctor is here a and heas a dazzling, all-singing, all-dancing delight. If only Russell T Davies didnat spend so much time spoon-feeding new fans

Christmas specials donat count. Intermediate trilogies where David Tennant is the Fourteenth-and-a-Half Doctor or whatever donat count. The new era of Doctor Who, with Russell T Davies back as the showrunner and Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, only really begins here, with the new season proper. The first double bill, comprising Space Babies and The Devilas Chord, points to a stellar future for Who as a youthfully chaotic playground of the imagination, far more fancy of foot and light of outlook than it has been for years. It only takes baby steps, for now, towards that new destination, but we can see it.

Gatwa establishes himself as a cracking Doctor immediately. What an obviously perfect piece of casting he is: commandingly hench in his colourful costumes, and naturally able to express the dazzling extremes the Doctor has to embody. He glowers, and the end of the world descends; a nanosecond later, he grins and weare having the most fun in the universe. Heas delightful, but heas also consciously more delighted than some of his predecessors, skipping and dancing and, on a few occasions here, doing a sideways gallop when he enters a room, like Kramer from Seinfeld with springs on his heels.

He has published more than 100 novels, gives his work away, and his surrealist books have a massive cult following. Now Argentinaas favourite rule-breaker is tipped for the Nobel prize

A few years ago when Patti Smith played at a cultural festival in Denmark, she told the crowd that she was happy to be playing in the presence of one of her favourite authors. It was said she had only agreed to play the festival because the author, CA(c)sar Aira, would be in the audience. Aira, although celebrated in his home country, Argentina, was little known outside Latin America until he was discovered in 2002 by the Berlin-based literary agent Michael Gaeb, who was enchanted by his unconventional, surrealist books, which shift atmosphere, and even genre, from one page to another.

At first it proved difficult to sell Airaas novels to a wider audience. aThe fundamental problem when promoting CA(c)saras work is that the editor always asks: aWhat is the novel about?aa Gaeb told me. aAnd in the case of CA(c)sar, itas not easy to answer that question.a

The Last Week Tonight host looks into attacks on public libraries, from slashed funding to harassment to banning certain book titles

John Oliver defended public libraries on Sundayas Last Week Tonight, as the local institutions have abecome another front in the ongoing culture wara with attacks on their funding, their staff and their collections.

The American Library Association documented efforts to censor over 4,240 unique book titles in schools and libraries in 2023, the highest level they have ever recorded, up 92% from the previous year. Library staff have also experienced a huge increase in harassment, with some baselessly accused of pedophilia for allowing certain books to be checked out.

UCLA watched the chaos unfold in the middle of the night and did nothing until it was far too late

Things had been tense at the University of California, Los Angeles, with some ugly jibes and the occasional shove exchanged between students who support Israelas war on Gaza and those who have set up encampments to call for a permanent ceasefire and the universityas divestment from companies that arm and otherwise profit from Israelas occupation and military incursions in the Palestinian territories.

But what happened in the middle of the night last Tuesday was no scuffle. It was not even one more of the outsized, excessively brutal raids that college administrations have invited the police to inflict on their students.

Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept, and the author of five books

I have trespassed in peaceful protest. I have shut down government offices in civil disobedience. I have made the powerful uncomfortable. Thatas the point

aIn America, the student movement has been seriously radicalized wherever police and police brutality intervened in essentially nonviolent demonstrations: occupations of administration buildings, sit-ins, et cetera.a a Hannah Arendt, observing Columbia University protests in 1968.

When youave been in the midst of a demonstration that devolves into chaos and violence, you find out in a hurry if youare able to put aside your own terror to still uphold the needs of the many and to maintain the discipline of your values. This has happened to me more than once. That tension has always been a reminder to me that democracy is a choice and that citizenship is a full-contact sport.

Donald Trumpas would-be running mate has already outraged the US by shooting her own pet. This is no time to double down

When Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor being vetted as a candidate for Donald Trumpas vice-president, admitted in her memoir to having shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy, I have to admit I thought it was a play. She was just testing the waters: how much could she insult human decency without making a dent in her numbers? As the battle rages on, Iam coming to accept that the benighted wire-haired pointer did, for a short time, exist, and was executed for a real crime: chicken killing. It seems a tiny bit unfair, given the two centuries of wire-haired pointer breeding that have gone into creating exactly this fixation with upland (which is to say, non-waterfowl) bird work. But thatas exactly what youad expect a liberal to say. Next Iall be on about the death penalty.

Digging in, Noem has gone on to say that not only was she right to execute her pointer, but also that Joe Biden has been remiss in pardoning Major and Commander, both German shepherds inveterately hostile to secret service agents. Commander, with a charge sheet of 24 biting incidents, should have been put down ages ago, according to Noem. He is no longer at the White House, though history doesnat relate his new address. Major, meanwhile, was sent to live with friends in Delaware after a biting incident involving a National Park employee. No excuses for that a public servants ought to be able to go about their duties bite-free a but to have a thing for guys in parks is less bad, I would contend, than having an aversive fear response to armed secret service agents when youare the dog of the US president. Itas possible, of course, that both dogs have been destroyed a and agone to live with friends in Delawarea is what they say to Joe Biden when they mean agone to live on a farma.

Cosmetic procedures are on the rise among younger people; Iam barely 30. Still this is about more than just clinging to youth

Everyone goes through it: a reckoning with oneas own mortality in the mirror, poking at eye bags and tugging at folds of loose skin. Am I looking a bit rough? Itas part of the human condition to fear ageing, but among millennials and gen Z there seems to be a heightened anxiety around growing older, coupled with an increasingly casual attitude towards getting fillers and Botox compared with previous generations.

Almost half of millennial women polled by the BBC in 2019 said they believed that having a cosmetic procedure was akin to having a haircut. I can say from experience that it is not. Like many, I have fallen victim to negative anti-ageing rhetoric. After months of staring at my tired face on Zoom calls during lockdown, I felt as if my hot years were slipping through my fingers. When the world opened up, I found a doctor to arestorea my hollowed out under-eyes with 1ml of filler. I was barely 28.

Georgina Lawton is the author of Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity and the Truth About Where I Belong

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Our national style is anot too polisheda, apparently, and aa little bit undonea. Can we be a bit more specific?

Chioma Nnadi, who has taken over at British Vogue, says she has settled back in seamlessly after 20 years out of the UK. aI realised just how much growing up in London shaped me,a she told a Vogue Club podcast. aIave been talking a lot with my friends about this idea of British girl energy; itas just an irreverence, kind of a cheekiness, itas not too polished, and itas a little bit undone a|a

British girl energy, eh? I love this: time for us to claim our own style identity, like the French or the Scandinavians; something to be spoken of in vague, reverent generalities. This could be our new Cool Britannia moment, without the Gallagher brothers ruining everything. But what is BGE, beyond Nnadias idea of cheekiness and lack of polish?

Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist

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• Frenchman averaged double-double in 2023-24
• 20-year-old is third winner from San Antonio Spurs

Victor Wembanyama had a year like no rookie in NBA history. Others scored more points, others grabbed more rebounds, others had more blocks, others made more steals. But never had there been a player who, in year one of his career, posted all these averages a at least 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks and 1.2 steals per game.

Until now.

Sebastian Coeas description of the doctoras record-breaking run in 1954 underlines its enduring significance 70 years later

Perhaps it takes one sporting giant to truly appreciate the towering performance of another. Exactly 70 years ago today, Sir Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, a target that existed purely in the realms of the fantastical until, on that blustery Oxford day in 1954, he subverted the possible. How good was it? Well, when I asked Sebastian Coe to put it into a wider context last week, he replied: aOn every metric, I think it is arguably at the top of all sporting achievements in the last 100 years.a

That is high praise indeed from someone who was himself a double Olympic champion and broke multiple world records. And while the fact that Bannisteras time of 3min 59.4sec chopped two seconds off the previous world record is staggering enough, that was only part of Coeas case. aPeople donat appreciate the mental barrier that he also had to break through,a he pointed out. aHe was a doctor. And he would say to me: aI used to read articles in medical journals saying that if anybody tried it, they would probably die in the processa.a