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Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, spoke on the telephone with the rulers of Qatar and Saudi Arabia about Israel’s war against Hamas. The annual rate of inflation remained at 6.7 per cent. Wages in the period of June to August rose at an annual rate of 7.8 per cent. The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority, which had blocked a previous bid, said its concerns had been addressed over a $69 billion takeover by Microsoft of Activision Blizzard; Microsoft will now control games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. A new set of coins reflecting the King’s interest in nature is being minted, with a dormouse on the 1p, a capercaillie on the 10p and bees on the £1.

Prisons in England and Wales will be allowed to release ‘less serious offenders’ on probation early to relieve overcrowding, Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, said. Signals failed at Euston, stopping all trains for several hours. People were left hanging vertically for half an hour on the Rage rollercoaster at Southend, Essex.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards recommended suspending Peter Bone from the Commons for six weeks after a complaint of his exposing himself to a man working for him more than ten years ago and hitting him with a pencil. The MP was suspended from the Conservative party. Andrew Bridgen MP, formerly a Conservative, complained that the Conservative MP Crispin Blunt had hit him on the back of the head with his hand and said, ‘You’re a bastard’; this he denied. The Guardian sacked its cartoonist Steve Bell because it mistakenly thought his drawing of Benjamin Netanyahu referred to The Merchant of Venice rather than to a celebrated cartoon by David Levine of President Lyndon Johnson.

Abroad

President Joe Biden of the United States visited Israel on the eve of its planned invasion of the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea. He hoped to prevent the war spreading through the region. About 1.1 million people living in Gaza’s north-eastern areas, including Gaza City, were told by Israel to move to the south-western parts. Some water supplies to southern Gaza were turned on again after a week’s blockade of electricity, fuel, water, food and medicine. Hundreds of people were killed in a strike on the Anglican-run Ahli Arab hospital. Bombing of Gaza had already killed more than 3,000 people there and left 423,000 without shelter. A thousand were said to be buried under rubble. ‘The protection of civilians is essential,’ said the secretary-general of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg. ‘There are rules of war.’ The Pope said: ‘It is urgent and necessary to guarantee humanitarian corridors.’ The United States evacuated citizens by air. Through talks with Egypt and Israel, Britain tried to get the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt open for its nationals to leave. ‘If they do not cease their atrocities in Gaza, Iran cannot simply remain an observer,’ said the Iranian foreign minister. Israel had formed a government of national unity to pursue the war against Hamas. The number of Israelis killed by Hamas during its initial attack had risen to 1,400, with 199 hostages taken into Gaza. Hamas made public a video of an Israeli-French woman hostage aged 21.

The Israel Defence Forces attacked Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon. France banned pro-Palestinian rallies, mobilised 7,000 soldiers for security patrols and closed the Louvre. A teacher in Arras was killed with a knife by a man who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’. In Brussels a Tunisian man, thought to be inspired by the Islamic State group, wounded a Swedish man and shot dead two others; he was later shot dead by police.

Ukraine said it had destroyed nine Russian helicopters in air strikes on Berdyansk and Luhansk. Russia bombarded Avdiivka. Russia failed to be re-elected to the UN’s human rights council. President Vladimir Putin visited China. In elections in Poland, the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party won 35.38 per cent of the vote, ahead of Donald Tusk’s opposition Civic Coalition with 30.7 per cent, but Mr Tusk set about forming a coalition; the turnout was high, at 74.38 per cent. Australians decisively voted No in a referendum proposing to amend the constitution to create a body for First Nations people to advise the government. The opposition National party won the New Zealand election, with enough seats to form a moderate right-wing coalition. The US House of Representatives failed to elect a new Speaker.                                    CSH