On a visit to Israel, the US vice-president said Washington would not set a deadline for the group to disarm under the US-brokered deal

Australian visa holders in Gaza have the paperwork they need to flee the razed Palestinian territory but remain trapped due to closed borders, prompting refugee advocates to intensify calls for support.

Ahmed Abumarzouq’s two nephews were granted humanitarian visas on 15 October – two days after all living Israeli hostages were returned to Israel under the tentative Gaza ceasefire plan, which has not yet produced a possible border re-opening. For the small number who are eligible for Australian consular assistance – those whose immediate family members are citizens or permanent residents – the pathway to Australia is still complex.

I was hoping that the border will open and I’d be able to get them out,” said Abumarzouq, a chief financial officer with the Western Australian government who lived through multiple wars in Gaza before moving to Perth in 2014.

But, there’s not really anything I can do.

The leader of the Greens wants to focus on battles that unite – such as taxing wealth – without yielding an inch on minority rights

Has the grisly race to the bottom in British politics finally been halted by a Green surge? Since Zack Polanski secured the Green party leadership with an emphatic 85% vote share on an unashamedly leftwing platform, the political consensus has faced its biggest challenge since the defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.

When Polanksi launched his bid in May, the Greens counted 60,000 members. They’ve now hurtled past 130,000, eclipsing the number of Conservative members. One poll already puts them on 15%, more than double last year’s 6.2% and neck-and-neck with Labour. To call that a political phenomenon is not hyperbole.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

There is really nothing to be scared of in this clumsy hodgepodge of found footage, mockumentary and conventional narrative

It might be the year that saw Sinners raise hell over Easter and Weapons target the late summer but this Halloween, the options are scarily poor in comparison, no tricks or treats, just junk. Last week’s Elm Street-cribbing sequel Black Phone 2 was a sign of a franchise already running out of steam while this week, low-budget disappointment Shelby Oaks tries and fails to start a new one, a scrappy attempt to conjure the clammy fear of The Blair Witch Project, a film that has so far proved impossible to replicate (horror fans would be far better served by making the most of the Sinners Imax re-release).

It’s the debut of the YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann, who premiered his Kickstarter-funded feature at last year’s genre-led Fantasia festival, attracting the attention of Neon, a company who had just achieved surprise success with the serial killer horror Longlegs. In an unusual move, they gave Stuckmann extra budget to refine, and reportedly add more gore, before they packaged it up, with another trademark drip-feed marketing campaign, as this year’s must-see film for Halloween. But there is no amount of late-stage patchwork that can hide what still feels awkwardly unfinished, a cheaply cobbled together head-scratcher that really doesn’t feel ready for a wide theatrical release. This weekend, expect refunds …

Annual September rate confounds forecasts of a rise, as pace of food price growth slows for first time since March

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UK inflation was unchanged last month at 3.8%, confounding expectations of a rise, in welcome news for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as she plans for her crucial budget next month.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that inflation measured on the consumer prices index remained at the same level in September as in August and July.

A colourful study of the evolution of extremism in the tumultuous 1970s

No one knew what to call them. For some they were “skyjackers”, for others “air bandits”. Neither name stuck, but by 1970, these figures were fixtures of the western political landscape. It helped that hijacking planes was easy. Bag checks, metal detectors and frisking at airports were proposed, only to be dismissed as overkill.

The result was a lethal carnival of transnational terrorism that peaked in the 70s, when commandeering a plane was as much a rite of passage as backpacking to Kathmandu for some countercultural types. Spanning four continents and drawing on sources in a dozen languages, Jason Burke’s survey of this set combines a flair for period detail – sideburns and aviator shades, berets and Beretta pistols – with impressive digests of Arab and Iranian history.

Standard iPhone levels up to Pro models with big screen upgrade, double the storage and more top features than ever

It may not look as different as the redesigned Pro models this year or be as wafer thin as the new iPhone Air, but the iPhone 17 marks a big year for the standard Apple smartphone.

That’s because Apple has finally brought one of the best features of modern smartphones to its base-model flagship phone: a super-smooth 120Hz screen.

Screen: 6.3in Super Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi)

Processor: Apple A19

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 256 or 512GB

Operating system: iOS 26

Camera: 48MP main + 48MP UW; 18MP front-facing

Connectivity: 5G, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, Thread, USB-C, Satellite, UWB and GNSS

Water resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)

Dimensions: 149.6 x 71.5 x 7.95mm

Weight: 177g

Operator signs €2bn deal with Alstom amid boom in international rail travel from UK

Eurostar is to start running doubledecker trains through the Channel tunnel to meet growing demand for international rail travel from the UK.

The rail operator announced it had signed a €2bn (£1.7bn) deal for at least 30 – and up to 50 – new trains from the manufacturer Alstom.

From retro images altered with AI to a blistering series on the state of women’s prisons, this year’s nominees for the prestigious £30,000 prize showcase their best work

It’s best to prevent their arrival in the first place – but here’s how to deal with unwelcome visitors if they appear

This is the time of year when unwanted visitors start making their way into our invitingly warm homes. We all have different tolerance levels but most of us don’t want rodents and bugs roaming round.

The Pulitzer prize-winner has worked across the developing world, braved war zones and been taken hostage in Libya, but do we really need a tour of her beautiful home?

The tumultuous life and career of Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario is the subject of this National Geographic film, produced and directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (who made the climbing documentary Free Solo and the biopic Nyad with Annette Bening as the endurance swimmer Diana Nyad). Addario’s work is certainly amazing and courageous. She has captured compelling images in Ukraine, where her picture of civilian fatalities helped mobilise western opinion against Putin; in Libya, where she was terrifyingly held captive for days along with three other colleagues from the New York Times; and across the developing world where her images of maternal death have been a spur to charitable work around the globe.

Addario is a smart, candid interviewee – we also get shots of broadcast-journalism A-listers including Christiane Amanpour and Katie Couric – who is alive to the dangers of adrenalin addiction and a world in which journalists are increasingly considered fair game in war zones. She is alive also, I think, to the dangers of producing images that are too artistically beautiful. Hers is a job for tough people only; one US army officer calls her “as hard as woodpecker lips” and I believe him.

I was fed up with discussing the weather, so I started to ask unexpected questions. The conversations that resulted were revelatory

For as long as I can remember, I have found small talk problematic. It was boring at best and stressful at worst. A colleague commenting on the weather, when I could see for myself that it was raining. The postman asking: “How are you today?” An impossibly broad question to answer briefly.

I worked in book publishing for years, where networking was essential. I could discuss authors, print runs or marketing budgets with ease. But asking how a buyer had travelled to the event? Or where a journalist had parked? I didn’t care! So why were these the conversations we were all having? Everyone else seemed at ease, while I felt on edge.

Explosions heard across Ukrainian capital after strikes by at least four ballistic missiles, with further blasts reported in other regions

Russian drones and missiles have pounded the Ukrainian capital and other cities, killing two people in Kyiv and damaging key energy facilities and several high rise residential buildings.

The attacks lasted most of Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning as Kyiv was hit by at least four ballistic missiles. A series of loud detonations could be heard across the city.

There’s little waste but lots of texture in this crispy rice with peanut–chilli crunch, toast loaded with charred broccoli and white bean smash, and a tasty tomato and lentil pasta bake

Cooking with little to no waste isn’t about rules; it’s about rethinking old habits. Take inventory of the food you already have (I like taking a photo of my fridge and pantry before I go shopping), stick to your list and buy only what you need. Make sure you store it properly, too, so it lasts longer, and don’t forget to cook with a bit of curiosity: that bendy carrot, yesterday’s rice, the broccoli stem you’d normally bin – they all have potential. Start small, and trust me: you’ll notice the wins in no time, saving money, time and food from the bin. For me, low-waste cooking isn’t restrictive, it’s liberation. It turns what you already have into something you actually want: a delicious meal that’s good for you and the planet.

It is the right way to go: leaving the EU has been a disaster. But refusing to admit it has cost Labour precious time and credibility

The UK government is trying out a new Brexit stance, not to be mistaken for a change in policy. The shift is tonal.

Previously, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves talked about Britain’s detachment from the rest of Europe as a feature of the natural landscape, awkward to navigate perhaps, but nobody’s fault. Now they are prepared to say it is an affliction.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Campaigners say figures reveal a lack of enforcement with just 24 fines issued by councils for rule violations

Only one prosecution for illegal wood burning has been made in the past year despite 15,195 complaints across England, data shows.

Additionally, just 24 fines were issued by local authorities between September 2024 and August 2025, responses to freedom of information requests by the campaign group Mums for Lungs revealed.

Hourly rate to increase in April by 95p to £14.80 in London and by 85p to £13.45 for the rest of the country

Almost half a million workers are to receive a pay boost after it was announced that the real living wage paid voluntarily by 16,000 UK companies will rise to £13.45 an hour in April.

Distinct from the national living wage, which is a statutory minimum, the real living wage is calculated each year based on the cost of essentials, and is paid by more than half of the companies in the FTSE 100.

As pontiff prepares for visit of King Charles, the contours of his papacy are slowly becoming apparent

When King Charles meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican this week, the two leaders are likely to discuss pressing global issues as well as sharing a historic moment of prayer.

In the face of volatility and rising nationalism, Leo, the first North American chosen to lead the Roman Catholic church, has begun to outline the contours of his papacy after a low-key start to his five-month-old papacy.

Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin star in a thin, thin Amazon thriller. It’s horrifically badly paced, deeply repetitive and tension free – not to mention its deeply unlikely plot

Dame Edna Everage (and if you are too young to know of the housewife superstar that was Barry Humphries’ greatest creation, get yourselves to YouTube and gaze upon her glory, possums) once begged South Bank Show presenter and prolific novelist Melvyn Bragg to stop writing: “Give us all a chance to catch up.”

I feel the same way about Harlan Coben’s TV career. With the possible revision that once we have caught up, if he doesn’t feel refreshed enough to give us something better than Lazarus, he could extend his hiatus until full reinvigoration has been achieved.

Tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker analyses the rise and rise of AI-generated video, and what it will mean for the internet and beyond

Last month, in the same week, two tech giants launched apps based around AI-generated videos.

The tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker analyses OpenAI’s Sora 2 and Meta’s Vibes, the wider rise of this type of video, and its one pervading aesthetic: AI slop.

Declaration means government can send army to patrol streets, restrict freedom of assembly and curtail other rights

Peru’s interim president, Jose Jeri, announced a state of emergency in Lima and the neighbouring port of Callao on Tuesday after weeks of anti-government protests over corruption and organised crime.

“The state of emergency approved by the council of ministers will take effect at midnight on Wednesday and will last for 30 days in metropolitan Lima and Callao,” Jeri said in an address to the nation on state television.

Bleak report finds greenhouse gas emissions are still rising despite ‘exponential’ growth of renewables

Coal use hit a record high around the world last year despite efforts to switch to clean energy, imperilling the world’s attempts to rein in global heating.

The share of coal in electricity generation dropped as renewable energy surged ahead. But the general increase in power demand meant that more coal was used overall, according to the annual State of Climate Action report, published on Wednesday.

Tiptoeing around Israel has cost Europe its credibility. It must exert meaningful pressure to ensure the horrors we have seen never happen again

The first phase of Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza has drawn a collective sigh of relief from European leaders. After two years of slaughter, the ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the Israeli military’s partial withdrawal from Gaza and humanitarian access to the territory offer hope – and unfortunately, an excuse for Europe to continue doing nothing.

When it comes to the war in Gaza, unlike Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European governments have shown their worst colours. They are divided, and their political splits have led to policy paralysis. But worse than sitting on the sidelines hand-wringing, European governments and EU institutions in Brussels can be accused of complicity in Israel’s war crimes. They have been unwilling to exert any pressure on the perpetrators, while continuing economic, political and military cooperation with them. Israel’s violations of international law have triggered mass outrage among European people, but EU governments and institutions have lost touch with their own citizens, especially younger people.

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist

Nobel laureates also sign letter saying ASI technology should be barred until there is consensus that it can be developed ‘safely’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have joined artificial intelligence pioneers and Nobel laureates in calling for a ban on developing superintelligent AI systems.

Harry and Meghan are among the signatories of a statement calling for “a prohibition on the development of superintelligence”. Artificial superintelligence (ASI) is the term for AI systems, yet to be developed, that exceed human levels of intelligence at all cognitive tasks.

Human-wildlife conflict has now overtaken poaching as a cause of fatalities – and is deadly for people too. Some villages are finding new ways to live alongside them

• Photographs by Edwin Ndeke

At nearly 3.5-metres tall and weighing as much as a bus, you could be forgiven for assuming that Goshi – one of an estimated 30 “super-tusker” elephants left in Africa – would be easy to find. The radio tracker picking up his signal beeps encouragingly, indicating the giant bull is within 200 metres. But the dry season has turned the mass of arid acacia scrubland grey, and everything seems to resemble an elephant.

Even when they are invisible, the huge herbivores shape the landscape here. There are 17,000 elephants across the Tsavo region, Kenya’s largest protected area, which is divided in two. Each year, elephants wander huge distances between feeding grounds, following the seasonal rains as they have done for thousands of years.