Tit-for-tat attacks have breached taboo of direct strikes on each other’s territory but Tehran has no ‘immediate’ plans to retaliate

• Middle East crisis – live updates

World leaders urged calm on Friday after Israel conducted a pre-dawn drone sortie over Iran following a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks that crossed an important red line that has for decades held the Middle East back from a major regional conflict.

There were tentative hopes late on Friday that the apparent strike attempt against an airbase near the city of Isfahan was sufficiently limited to fend off the threat of a bigger Iranian response and an uncontrolled spiral of violence between a nuclear power and a state with the capacity to develop nuclear weapons quickly.

Tit-for-tat attacks present Sunni monarchies with complicated choices over region’s future

Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel had, by the end of this week, become one of the most interpreted events in recent modern history. Then, in the early hours of Friday, came reports of Israel’s riposte. As in June 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in a moment that ultimately led to the first world war, these shots were heard around the world, even if few can agree conclusively on what they portend.

By one de minimis account, Tehran was merely sending a performative warning shot with its attack last Saturday, almost taking its ballistic missiles out for a weekend test drive. The maximalist version is that this was a state-on-state assault designed to change the rules of the Middle East. By swarming Israel with so many projectiles, such an assessment goes, Iran was prepared to risk turning Israel into a mini-Dresden of 1945 and was only thwarted by Israeli strategic defences and, crucially, extraordinary cooperation between the US, Israel and Sunni Gulf allies.

Israel launched a limited attack on Iranian soil on Friday morning, in the latest tit-for-tat between the two countries

• All our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war

Israel launched an attack on Iranian soil on Friday, in a tit-for-tat battle between the two foes, days after Iran launched an unprecedented strike on Israel with a barrage of drones and missiles, most of which were shot down. The Iranian strike was a response to an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus on 1 April.

The strikes have brought a long shadow war between the two sides into the open and also come against the backdrop of Iran’s support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose assault on Israel on 7 October triggered the invasion of Gaza.

Labour also turns down European Commission’s proposal, which would allow young Britons to live, study and work in EU

Rishi Sunak has rejected an EU offer to strike a post-Brexit deal to allow young Britons to live, study or work in the bloc for up to four years.

The prime minister declined the European Commission’s surprise proposal of a youth mobility scheme for people aged between 18 and 30 on Friday, after Labour knocked back the suggestion on Thursday night – while noting it would “seek to improve the UK’s working relationship with the EU within our red lines”.

Labour leader told PMQs a ‘billionaire peer’ was ‘smearing a working-class woman’ after coverage of Rayner’s tax affairs

The row between Keir Starmer and Michael Ashcroft deepened on Friday after the billionaire Conservative donor demanded an apology from the Labour leader for accusing him of “smearing” Angela Rayner over her tax affairs.

Lord Ashcroft hit back two days after Starmer said at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday: “We have a billionaire prime minister and a billionaire peer, both of whose families have used schemes to avoid millions of pounds of tax, smearing a working-class woman.”

Department under fire for forcing people to repay huge sums as data shows widespread ill health among those caring for relatives

• ‘We’re already vulnerable’: the carers told to repay huge sums by the DWP

Carers have described suffering an “avalanche of utter stress” due to the government’s “abhorrent” approach to clawing back benefits, as official figures revealed the widespread ill health of those caring for loved ones.

The Department for Work and Pensions has been under fire since the Guardian revealed that tens of thousands of unpaid carers are being forced to pay back huge sums – and in some cases prosecuted for fraud – over “honest mistakes” that it could have spotted years earlier.

Images of person in flames shown on television and social media amid ex-president’s hush-money trial

• Trump trial – live updates

A person set themselves on fire on Friday lunchtime outside the lower Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial in a hush-money case.

Pictures of someone in flames were carried live on television and spread on X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter.

Trade bodies say ongoing confusion about when checks will come in is ‘incredibly challenging’

• UK to delay start of health and safety checks on EU imports

Businesses have described Britain’s Brexit border plans as being in “complete disarray” after it emerged the introduction of some checks on EU imports will be delayed.

Post-Brexit border rules, due to come into force on 30 April, will require many meat, dairy and plant products from the EU to be physically checked at government border control posts (BCPs).

Force reviewing available information after claims that Menzies used political donations to pay off ‘bad people’

Allegations that MP Mark Menzies misused campaign funds have been referred to Lancashire police. The force said it was “reviewing the available information” after receiving a letter “detailing concerns around this matter”.

The PA news agency understands that the Labour party chair, Anneliese Dodds, wrote to Lancashire police calling for an investigation into allegations about Menzies.

Charities say high rates of people signed off work are caused by crumbling public services after years of underinvestment

Rishi Sunak has been accused of making mental ill health “another front in the culture wars”, as critics warned his plan to curb benefits for some with anxiety and depression was an assault on disabled people.

In a speech on welfare, the prime minister said he wanted to explore withdrawing a major cash benefit claimed by people living with mental health problems and replacing it with treatment.

Shifting responsibility for issuing fit notes, formerly known as sicknotes, away from GPs to other “work and health professionals” in order to encourage more people to return to work.

Confirming plans to legislate “in the next parliament” to close benefit claims for anyone who has been claiming for 12 months but is not complying with conditions on accepting available work.

Asking more people on universal credit working part-time to look for more work by increasing the earnings threshold from £743 a month to £892 a month, so people paid below this amount have to seek extra hours.

Confirming plans to tighten the work capability assessment to require more people with “less severe conditions” to seek some form of employment.