Stormy Daniels – the adult film actress at the heart of Donald Trump’s hush money case has taken the stand in the first ever criminal trial of a former US president. Mr Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records to cover up hush money payments – including one to her. She testified that she had sex with the former president – something he denies – and a warning you may find some of the details distressing ..read more

The Scottish Parliament has voted for John Swinney to be Scotland’s next First Minister – hours after Humza Yousaf officially resigned. Speaking after winning the vote, he accepted he had played a part in creating what he called an “intensely polarised” environment at Holyrood by heckling and shouting putdowns. And as leader of a minority government, he said he would reach out to the other parties to pass future legislation ..read more

As the general election looms, the Labour Party is preparing for government. If it wins, one issue it wants to tackle is sexual harassment in the workplace and better protection for whistleblowers. And who better to help it do that than leading human rights barrister Marina Wheeler KC – who you may remember is Boris Johnson’s former wife. We sat down with her and began by asking her to set out the scale of the problem ..read more

Rishi Sunak says a “malign actor” has broken into the armed forces payroll system, potentially compromising the details of more than a quarter of a million current and recently retired members of the military. Ministers declined to identify the culprit but many MPs blame China for the cyber attack – an accusation Beijing said was absurd. As politicians returned to Westminster after last week’s local elections, the disturbing revelation dragged their attention away from analysing the results of those contests ..read more

We spoke to Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat who has been chief of staff or foreign policy adviser to one Israeli prime minister and four foreign ministers ..read more

For weeks, President Biden and his administration have been urging the Israelis not to launch a full-scale offensive against Rafah. It was a message reiterated by the President in a half-hour phone call to Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday ..read more

We spoke to Dr Ola Saed who works at Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Rafah, and joined us from southern Gaza ..read more

We spoke to Daniel Lifshitz – both his grandparents were taken by Hamas on October 7th. His grandmother was released last year, but his grandfather Oded, who’s in his 80s, is still in captivity ..read more

We attended a protest where the families of some hostages are joining other Israelis to call for Prime Minister Netanyahu to go ..read more

24 hours ago Palestinians were celebrating the news that Hamas had accepted what they thought was Israel’s ceasefire proposal. Now, their situation looks bleak again, after Israeli troops seized the Rafah border crossing – cutting off a vital aid route into Gaza. Yesterday, the Israel Defence Forces ordered people in eastern Rafah to move to what it called an “expanded humanitarian zone” in Al Mawasi, ahead of a limited ground invasion. After striking targets in eastern Rafah overnight, Israel announced that its troops had taken control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing – the only one it ..read more