The PM is to lead recognition of a Palestinian state – a good day for him, the UK and the starving people of Gaza

What a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday, Keir Starmer batted away all invitations to recognise the state of Palestine. It wasn’t happening. Keir was committed to being appalled by the situation in Gaza but not appalled enough to do anything about it.

He then received a letter from more than 250 MPs, including some cabinet ministers, later in the week begging him to recognise the state of Palestine. He still stonewalled. The time was not yet right.

Sweeping dramas set in days of yore are everywhere. But which are some of the finest television ever created? And which are little more than an excuse to show naked backsides?

Inflate thy balloons and unsheathe thy Party Rings, for here is Chief of War (Apple TV+) to remind us of the joy of the scowling historical epic. Here too, almost, is Battle of Hastings belter King & Conqueror (BBC, August). And Spartacus: House of Ashur (Starz, this winter). Also in the period-specific pipeline are second series for Disney+’s brilliant Shogun and Amazon Prime’s terrible House of David.

Historical epics, it would not be unreasonable to say, are everywhere.

The Epstein files may never be released, but it’s increasingly likely that Epstein’s right-hand woman could be. The groundwork is already being done

Roll up! Roll up! The Ghislaine Maxwell Rehabilitation Tour is coming to town. You may think Jeffrey Epstein’s associate and former girlfriend is now behind bars for good reason but, according to some big brains in the Maga-sphere, poor old Maxwell may have suffered a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Maxwell “just might be a victim”, Newsmax anchor Greg Kelly mused on air recently. “She just might be. There was a rush to judgment … All right, granted, she hung out with Jeffrey Epstein, and I know that’s apparently not good, but she’s in jail. For how long now? Twenty years.”

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

A Swiss film about a nurse pushed to her limits one night is being praised for the picture it paints of treacherously underfunded healthcare. The director talks about the ‘heart-pounding’ story that inspired her

The world could face a shortage of 13 million nurses by the end of this decade. For her new film, Swiss director Petra Volpe imagined the consequences of just one missed shift on a busy night at a hospital, and found herself making a disaster movie.

With Late Shift, Volpe aimed to shine a light on the frontlines of the looming healthcare catastrophe through the eyes of the dedicated, exhausted Floria. Played by German actor Leonie Benesch, the young nurse shows an initially acrobatic grace in her workday, whose first half resembles a particularly hectic episode of the restaurant kitchen series The Bear, but with life-and-death stakes.

From gen Z-approved wraparounds to £10 classics, these sunglasses will see you through summer and beyond

• The best summer shoes: 44 sandals, pumps and trainers for everyone

Trying to find the right sunglasses can be overwhelming – after all, they’ll be on your face for the rest of this summer and hopefully several of the next. They take centre-stage, and as such, can be a daunting thing to shop for.

But their main character energy is also part of the fun. Like a headline or a book cover, they set out an intention. More importantly, they also protect your eyes. The right pair will marry practicality with aesthetics.

Developing snorkelling trails is part of my job, but I never tire of the teeming underwater life and seeing some of the least crowded parts of Britain’s coast

People always ask me: isn’t it too cold to snorkel in Scotland? And I reply that while it’s obviously much cooler than it would be in Spain, the sea does warm up from May, when the temperature rises from about 9C to as high as 12-15C by August and September.

I go snorkelling in Scotland all year round. I work for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, developing snorkel trails on the Scottish coast and creating guides to the places you can go to enjoy snorkelling in a particular area. But even so, the Wildlife Trust always recommends wearing a wetsuit.

Cabinet agrees to support Middle East roadmap at emergency meeting called amid humanitarian crisis in Gaza

The UK will formally recognise the state of Palestine this September as a result of the “increasingly intolerable” situation on the ground in Gaza, unless Israel abides by a ceasefire and commits to a two-state solution in the Middle East.

Keir Starmer’s cabinet has agreed a roadmap for peace in the region after coming under intense domestic pressure over the mounting humanitarian crisis in the territory, and calls to follow France in acknowledging statehood.

Victorious players greeted by chants, cheers and tears as they ride open-top bus and then lift the trophy on stage

They came in their tens of thousands, a sea of red and white pouring through Green Park to the Mall. Teenage boys with England flags painted on their faces, little girls in their Saturday morning club kits, veteran fans of the women’s game, new fans who just wanted to savour the moment.

A total of 65,000 jubilant England fans lined the Mall in central London on Tuesday to welcome home the victorious Lionesses after their Euro 2025 victory on Sunday.

Thirty-one high-profile Israelis accuse Tel Aviv of ‘brutal campaign’ and demand permanent ceasefire in letter

A group of high-profile Israeli public figures, including academics, artists and public intellectuals, has called for “crippling sanctions” to be imposed by the international community on Israel, amid mounting horror over its starvation of Gaza.

The 31 signatories of a letter to the Guardian include an Academy award recipient, Yuval Abraham; a former Israeli attorney general, Michael Ben-Yair; Avraham Burg, a former speaker of Israel’s parliament and former head of the Jewish Agency; and a number of recipients of the prestigious Israel prize, Israel’s highest cultural honour.

Three former South Yorkshire police officers arrested in investigation into claims by the women, as young as 12 at the time

Five women who were abused as children by Rotherham grooming gangs were also raped by police officers when they were as young as 12 years old, they have claimed.

In one case a girl who reported the abuse after being put under pressure by the gang to have an illegal abortion was left “destroyed” when an officer who had allegedly raped her turned up to interview her, she told the BBC.