Latest three-month period to 24 April includes Israeli strike that killed three workers for British World Central Kitchen

UK government ministers have reviewed a further three months of the IDF’s presence in Gaza and found no reason to suspend arms exports to Israel.

The latest review of evidence examined Israel Defense Forces’ behaviour until 24 April, the Foreign Office said in a statement late on Friday.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Marion Maréchal’s Reconquête received nine times more donations than Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, analysis reveals

• Quarter of political donations in EU go to extremist and populist parties, data reveals
• Only seven EU countries require parties to reveal identity of all private donors

Political funding in France has swerved to the right, with private donations to the small nationalist group backed by Marine Le Pen’s niece overtaking those raised by President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party.

Reconquête received €5.5m (£4.7m) from private donors in 2022, the year Macron secured a second term after a final round showdown against Le Pen, analysis by the Guardian of the annual reports of the 15 main French parties shows.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images/AFP/Corbis

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images/AFP/Corbis

New Caledonia needs a new referendum on independence, not more politics from Paris

• How New Caledonia caught fire – podcast

The unrest that has gripped Kanaky-New Caledonia is the direct result of Emmanuel Macron’s partisan and stubborn political manoeuvring to derail the process towards self-determination in my homeland.

The deadly riots that erupted two weeks ago in the capital, Noumea, were sparked by an electoral reform bill voted through in the French National Assembly, in Paris.

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© Photograph: Theo Rouby/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Theo Rouby/AFP/Getty Images

On a state visit to Germany, the French president called for an EU reset to combat the threat of the radical right. He should be listened to

Ahead of the most consequential European elections of recent times, the signs of a significant rightward shift are unmistakable. In France, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National is now polling more than double its nearest rivals and looks set to record a disturbingly decisive victory. In Germany, the far-right AfD is out-polling all three parties in the governing coalition, despite being embroiled in a series of high-profile scandals.

Whether such parties will be capable of forming a cohesive force after the election is another matter. As a Guardian investigation into their funding reveals on Thursday, the financial backing is there. But the pan-European radical right is split into fractious and rivalrous blocs, and internally divided over issues such as the war in Ukraine. The AfD has just been expelled from the Identity and Democracy group, after its former lead candidate, Maximilian Krah, sought to exculpate the actions of some members of the Nazi SS. Nevertheless, the rise of nationalist, populist and Eurosceptic parties across the continent has become a defining phenomenon of the times.

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© Photograph: Lafargue Raphael/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Lafargue Raphael/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

A parliamentary employee’s home and offices raided amid accusations they were ‘paid to promote Russian propaganda’

Ukrainian military shot down 13 drones out of 14 launched by Russia in an overnight attack on three regions, the country’s air force said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.

Drone debris fell on energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s northwestern region of Rivne, governor Oleksandr Koval said on Telegram. The attack triggered a defence mechanism that cut power to some localities, although it has since been restored, Reuters reported.

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© Photograph: Jean-François Badias/AP

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© Photograph: Jean-François Badias/AP

Readers respond to Jonathan Freedland’s call for voters to make this a ‘punishment election’ for the Conservative party

Yes, Jonathan Freedland, the Tories’ cruelty, neglect and lies are appalling, but they didn’t start 14 years ago (Make this the punishment election – damning the Tories for 14 years of cruelty and lies, 24 May). It was between 1979 and 1997, when they last held power, that the Tories began to degrade everything they touched.

Two items Freedland mentions – rivers and seas polluted with sewage, and the lack of affordable housing – can be traced directly to the privatisation of public assets. We should see that as theft. No matter how hard we punish the Tories, even if they never have power again, it’s hard to see how we can regain even the assets given away in the last century, let alone those we are still losing. The long list only starts with libraries, swimming pools and playgrounds. It includes family centres, youth clubs, theatre, art, music, health, heritage, trust, decency – life’s essential services, assets and resources shrivelled, as Freedland says, by deliberate neglect.

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© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

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© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

The bills of fare for dinners with kings, presidents and dictators show how tastes have changed over 150 years

On Friday, 22 May 1896, guests of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle had a lot on their plates. A handwritten menu shows “Her Majesty’s Dinner” offered soup with vermicelli, trout meunière, boudin (black pudding), quails, ducklings and spinach with croutons followed by peaches and cream, then cheese. For those still peckish, hot and cold meats including pork tongue and beef were laid out on a side table.

The finely decorated card is one of 4,600 menus in a unique collection being sold in Paris on Friday, spanning 150 years of high-society dining from the late 19th century.

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© Photograph: ©Millon/Coll Marguin

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© Photograph: ©Millon/Coll Marguin

This week, Rishi Sunak put his foot in it while talking to fans in Wales. He certainly isn’t the first PM to make a mistake when talking about the beautiful game ...

It was a disastrous first day of campaigning for Rishi Sunak: his audience of warehouse workers in Derbyshire was discovered to contain undercover Tory councillors, and his small talk in Barry, south Wales, was decried when he asked everyone whether they were looking forward to “all the football”: Wales did not qualify for the Euros.

Sunak is now probably in a helicopter somewhere, self-soothing with the truism that all prime ministers make football gaffes. It’s so common that it’s almost part of the office; that you be inauthentic in your love of the beautiful game. For sure, all prime ministers do mess something up, but every clanger tells its own story, about the man (or woman), the time, the expectation and the choice of team.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty/Rex/Shutterstock

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty/Rex/Shutterstock

Voters want progress, but there must also be accountability. When you pick up a ballot paper, remember all the waste and incompetence

Elections are a choice about the future, they say. We should look forward, not back, they say. And most of the time, that’s true. But every now and then we should make an exception – and this is one of those times. Because the coming general election must also be about the past. It must be about holding the Conservatives to account for the colossal damage they have done to this country over the past 14 years. It must be a punishment election.

The Tories need to face the consequences of what they have done, starting with the cold fact that they have made people poorer. People are worse off now than they were at the last general election, a feat with little or no precedent. Every day, thousands of Britons pay hundreds or thousands more on their mortgages, thanks to the wrecking ball a smirking Liz Truss aimed at the UK economy.

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© Illustration: Guardian Design; Samir Hussein/WireImage; Peter Nicholls/Getty Images; Roy Rochlin/Getty Images; Leon Neal/Getty Images

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© Illustration: Guardian Design; Samir Hussein/WireImage; Peter Nicholls/Getty Images; Roy Rochlin/Getty Images; Leon Neal/Getty Images

Tories say stick to the plan, Labour wants change and Lib Dems, SNP, Greens and Reform UK fight for attention

• UK politics live – latest updates

The general election machines are lurching into action, albeit with some initial grinding of gears as the parties respond to the unexpected summer election date. So what will they be saying? And how will they be saying it? Here is our guide to the six most prominent parties.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Electoral reform was the spark for unrest, but Indigenous protesters say they are fighting to correct years of widening inequality

“I don’t know why our fate is being discussed by people who don’t even live here.”

The 52-year-old Indigenous Kanak – who gave his name as Mike – spoke from a roadblock just north of New Caledonia’s capital, in the hours before France’s president arrived in the Pacific territory that has been paralysed by violent protests.

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© Photograph: Delphine Mayeur/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Delphine Mayeur/AFP/Getty Images

After David Cameron and austerity came four more PMs, near civil war in the party and, in the end, a sense of nothing working any more

The 14 years of Conservative rule – up to the calling of an election that Labour is widely expected to win – will have seen five prime ministers, seven chancellors, eight foreign secretaries and no fewer than 16 housing ministers.

But the numbers that are most likely to resonate with a bruised electorate are more everyday ones. By some reckonings the average Briton is about £10,000 a year worse off in real terms than in 2010, when the bright-eyed Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition took over from Labour.

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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Visit by president intended to quell serious unrest over plans in Paris to expand voting eligibility to include more French nationals

• Explainer: Why is there unrest in New Caledonia?

French security forces will remain in New Caledonia as long as necessary, Emmanuel Macron has said, after France’s president arrived in the Pacific territory in an urgent attempt to calm tensions after more than a week of riots that have left six dead.

Macron was due on Thursday to hold a day of talks aiming to turn the page on deadly riots, sparked by anger among Indigenous Kanak people over constitutional changes backed by Paris that would give voting rights to tens of thousands of non-Indigenous residents. Local leaders fear the change will dilute the Kanak vote and undermine longstanding efforts to secure independence.

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© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/EPA

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© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/EPA

French leader to leave for archipelago on Tuesday night with intention of restoring ‘calm and order’

• People in New Caledonia: how have you been affected by the riots?
• Why is there unrest in New Caledonia? Everything you need to know

The French president will travel to the Pacific island of New Caledonia on Tuesday, just over a week after riots erupted in the French overseas territory leaving six dead and hundreds injured.

The unrest over plans for an electoral overhaul has resulted in dozens of shops and businesses being looted and burned, with cars torched and road barricades set up. A state of emergency and curfew remain in place, with army reinforcements.

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© Photograph: Agnes Coudurier/AFP TV/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Agnes Coudurier/AFP TV/AFP/Getty Images

French forces launch operation on Sunday to regain access to parts of Nouméa and allow airport to reopen

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called a meeting of his defence and security council to discuss the deadly unrest in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

It is the third such meeting in less than week, the previous two having resulted in the decision to declare a state of emergency in the French territory and then to send reinforcements to help government forces on the ground restore order.

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© Photograph: Delphine Mayeur/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Delphine Mayeur/AFP/Getty Images

Edward Dwight was among the first pilots that the United States was training to send to space in 1961, but he was passed over. On Sunday, he finally made it on a Blue Origin flight.

© Blue Origin, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Criterion Collection, a revered distributor of classic and arthouse cinema, built a vast library of 3,500+ films over the last 40 years. It can be overwhelming, even for cinephiles. Want a savvy friend to guide you? Enter Criterion's Closet Picks, a lo-fi YouTube series which invites top filmmakers, actors, musicians, and other artists into the vault to freely sample while musing about core influences, all-time favorites, and hidden gems. Highlights: Willem Dafoe - Maya + Ethan Hawke - The Daniels (EEAAO) - Richard Ayoade - Comic Patton Oswalt - Yo La Tengo - Cinematographers Roger + James Deakins - Charlie Day - Nathan Lane - John Waters - VG designer Hideo Kojima - Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) - Dan Levy (Schitt's Creek) - Cauleen Smith (Drylongso) - Animator Floyd Norman - Jane Schoenbrun - Paul Giamatti - Marc Maron - Wim Wenders - Cate Blanchett + Todd Field - Hari Nef - Photographer Tyler Mitchell - Molly Ringwald - Peter Sarsgaard - Udo Kier - Gael García Bernal - Pixar's Lee Unkrich - Singer St. Vincent - Critic Elvis Mitchell - Anna Karina - Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) - Flying Lotus - Agnès Varda - Alfonso Cuarón + Paweł Pawlikowski - Mary Harron - Saul Williams + Anisia Uzeyman - Carl Franklin - Roger Corman - Michael K. Williams - SNL's Bill Hader // Watch the full playlist, or see this cool database of picks (info), including the most popular.

Coventry MP, whose antipathy for David Cameron sparked her interest in politics, has largest TikTok following in parliament

When the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, sat in the BBC TV studio last Sunday morning, he clearly had no idea of the identity of the woman sitting on the panel opposite him, simply referring to her as “the Labour MP”.

By contrast, Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, knows everything about Lord Cameron, telling the Guardian that it was her hatred of him as prime minister that first brought her into politics as a young, leftwing, Muslim woman. Her whole political outlook has been shaped by Cameron: the trebling of tuition fees and austerity.

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© Photograph: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty Images

Education secretary Gillian Keegan, Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron oppose move, while university leaders warn of economic and cultural impact

Rishi Sunak is facing a cabinet revolt over plans to scrap a graduate visa scheme that allows overseas students to live and work in the UK for up to two years after graduation.

Under pressure from some on the right of his party to demonstrate that the Tories are tougher on immigration than Labour, Downing Street is considering further restricting or even ending the graduate scheme, which some believe can be used as a backdoor entry route to the UK.

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© Photograph: Reuters

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© Photograph: Reuters

Several lawmakers questioned whether the company had become so large — with tentacles in every aspect of the nation’s medical care — that the effects of the hack were outsize.

© Ting Shen for The New York Times

Modern cars are internet-connected and have hundreds of sensors. Lawmakers and regulators have concerns about what’s happening with all that data.

© Mark Abramson for The New York Times

To lure visitors, residents of Yoshida, famed for its high-quality steel, are inviting tourists to help produce it.