IDF has killed 235 children in territory since 7 October 2023 with no indictments in what activists say is ‘licence to kill’

On the day he died, Mohammad al-Halaq had been jubilant about a new school bag he had been given in class, printed with the logo of the UN child protection and advocacy agency, Unicef.

“He was extremely happy. It was something out of the ordinary for him to be given a bag,” recalled his mother, Aliyah. “He came knocking on the door to tell me had this new bag to put pencils and pens in.”

The final season of the hit chef show is the most entertaining and purely enjoyable since the first – plus everyone ended up getting what they wanted! What an incredible rollercoaster

No show has ever needed to end like The Bear. The series initially made its name as a vehicle of pure forward momentum, the story of a burned-out high-end chef drafted in to fix up and save his dead brother’s sandwich restaurant. Through eight breathless episodes we saw Carmy get repeatedly pummelled by the stresses of the job – fights, demands, an accidental stabbing – as he sought to rebuild it in his own image.

With the benefit of hindsight, this probably should have been the entire show. Because The Bear was in such an almighty clatter to get where it wanted to go that, when it got there, it didn’t have the first clue how to proceed. Seasons three and four both stalled badly, in a morass of montages and flashback episodes that felt like placeholders. The drop-off was tangible.

Despite disappointments we remain indebted to an all-round talent for transforming the way in which Test cricket is played

Last year I completed a book on England’s cricket captains since Mike Brearley and the final chapter was devoted to Ben Stokes. It began with the observation: “There is jeopardy here”; it ended with the conclusion: “I would be hard pressed to name anyone in the last few decades who has done more than Ben Stokes to keep a format [Test cricket], still beloved by so many, alive.”

Jeopardy and Stokes have often been frequent bedfellows, on the field and off it. My jeopardy came in having to assess Stokes the captain before last winter’s Ashes series given that there is a long tradition of deciding the merit of England captains based upon their results against Australia. We know now it did not go so well; we also have an idea of how much torment it brought him. Yet I’m still content with those pre-Ashes observations. Of course there is always jeopardy with Stokes. We have never known what he would do next (which now includes his sudden decision to retire from international cricket). Moreover despite the recent disappointments, I think he remains one of the best captains England have had – to the amazement of most of us.

Trump, laying siege to freedoms and truth itself, is twisting America’s milestone birthday into a joyless occasion

• Americans: how do you feel about the country’s future after 250 years of independence?

• Tell us: were you born on 4 July?

This is the room where it happened. The assembly room at Independence Hall in Philadelphia where, 250 years ago this week, a group of sweating, treasonous men broke from the most powerful empire since ancient Rome. Amid a summer of trial and error, delegates including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson ratified a flawed but aspirational document to declare their independence from the British crown. The date was 4 July 1776 – but it took nearly a month for all 56 delegates of the Second Continental Congress to formally sign on.

“I don’t blame them,” Maggie Burkett, a park ranger, told a group of about 40 tourists as they gazed at green baize tables adorned with books, letters, pipes and candles one recent afternoon. “These words on this page are treason, just as much as burning the king’s coats of arms was. By signing this document, you are literally risking your life. The 56 men who signed this document were brave. In my opinion, they were heroes.”

Mothers and fathers have healthier, younger-looking brains, according to recent studies. It must be all those years of mental and emotional gymnastics

Good news, fellow parents: our children may have laid waste to our finances, pelvic integrity and circadian rhythms, and mocked our new sandals so devastatingly we can never wear them again, but a series of studies reported in New Scientist suggest parenting “may permanently improve brain health for Mum and Dad”. In one study, mothers with more children showed patterns associated with younger brains; another of nearly 38,000 people found “mothers and fathers have younger-looking brains”.

This is unexpected. I feel as though parenting reduced me to a cognitive husk: the lyrics to Here Comes a Digger – a rare groove from a DVD my elder son briefly enjoyed in 2005 – long ago supplanting the whereabouts of my keys, informed political opinions and the ability to form coherent sentences. I’m only fit for three things now: worrying, laundry and snacks.

Coconuts, watermelon … hot doughnuts? We asked five globetrotting chefs for their most memorable seaside eats

Picture a high-summer day at a far-flung beach: the faint putter of lapping waves, drifting plume of suncream scent, and the approaching call of a food hawker making their way across the molten sand. What would you expect, or want, them to be selling? Though cold drinks, fresh fruit and miraculously unmelted ice-creams feel universal, the street snacks and beachside dishes that we crave vary wildly across countries and cultures.

So what pairs best with open water and a coastal breeze all around the world? What should you be on the lookout for when holidaying this summer? And what should you avoid? Here, from custard doughnuts in Portugal and chilli-spiked Mexican coconut pulp to flash-fried red mullet in Cyprus, five chefs fly the flag for the culturally distinct, freshly prepared beach dishes that they spend the whole year craving.

UK’s likely next PM says Westminster system is ‘broken’ and he will oversee a devolution of power and resources

• UK politics live – latest updates

Andy Burnham will set up No 10 North as the “nerve centre of a rewired Britain” to oversee a devolution of power and resources across the UK that he said would deliver the change the country desperately needed.

The prime minister-in-waiting said the Westminster system was “broken” and that a “more of the same” approach would neither improve living standards or restore people’s faith in how politics worked for them.

Jacob Wulfson, who strangled woman he met online, was allowed to be tried at airbase court martial instead of facing UK justice

• Bizarre questions and an all-male ‘jury’: woman strangled by US pilot in Britain tells of airbase trial

• Explainer: how the US bypasses British courts

A police force in England is facing mounting questions over its decision to allow the US military to prosecute the case of a woman who was strangled by an American fighter pilot in his apartment in Cambridge city centre.

Cambridgeshire police has acknowledged that in the days after the assault in 2023, it allowed the US military to take “investigative primacy” in the case, despite the fact the crime took place within the force’s territory and when the pilot was off duty.

No damage reported in 4.6 magnitude aftershock; At least 1,450 people are known to have died in initial quakes but number is expected to rise

In an update to X, El Salvador’s president has said that after hours of intensive work rescuers have freed Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas, 21, who was trapped under a building in Caraballeda, La Guaira, calling the operation “a miracle”.

“This rescue was made possible thanks to the coordinated effort of the rescue teams from Venezuela, Mexico, and El Salvador, who worked tirelessly to reach Aaron,” Nayib Bukele wrote in a social media post, adding that the 21-year-old is now receiving specialised medical attention.

German police say two people were apprehended after ‘numerous’ shots were fired at a youth care facility in Stade

Meanwhile, Ukraine is bracing to absorb the impact of the heatwave on its energy network, already pummelled by Russian attacks over more than four years of war, AFP reported.

Grid operators in at least five regions – from Ivano-Frankivsk in the west to Zaporizhzhia on the frontline in the south – announced temporary restrictions on energy usage would be in force during parts of Tuesday.