Attempt to ‘decapitate’ state may harden resistance instead of destabilising regime

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• Fighting intensifies between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

Israel’s decision to authorise its military to kill any senior Iranian official on its assassination list has raised significant new questions about its so-called decapitation strategy – and what it is intended to achieve.

Privately, Israeli officials have briefed their US counterparts that in the event of an uprising, Iran’s opposition would be “slaughtered” .

PM said to be wary of opening up new divisions among Labour MPs by giving bill time in next session of parliament

Keir Starmer will not intervene to give the assisted dying bill further time in the next session of parliament as he is wary of opening up new divisions among Labour MPs, senior ministers believe.

The bill, which was passed by the Commons, is now certain to be blocked in the House of Lords without ever reaching a vote because of the sheer number of amendments its opponents have tabled and debated.

Businesses say the chancellor’s response to the problem is too timid and more radical thinking is needed

We’ll have closer trade relations with the EU, be the fastest adopters of AI in the G7, shift some tax revenues to the regions and squash the Nimbys if they stand in the way of growth “corridors”. It’s a plan. Or, at least, it’s a sketch of a plan since the EU will surely have its own ideas on what it wants from trade renegotiations. Still, Rachel Reeves’ big resetting speech this week set a direction.

But then one comes to the elephant in the room: the sky-high cost of energy for UK industry. The fact the UK has some of the highest prices in the developed world would, you’d think, trouble more deeply a chancellor who blames the slowdown in UK productivity since the financial crisis on “anaemic levels of investment”. After all, those globe-trotting AI firms will be scrutinising electricity costs when choosing where to plant their power-hungry datacentres.

After years of scrabbling about for jobs, I’m happy I have the right work/leisure balance: four days on, three days off

I do like Mondays. I never used to – who does? – but just recently I’ve found a way. It’s been quite a journey. School Mondays were bloody awful. I can still feel the abrasion, mental and physical, of the school uniform. It was always freshly laundered on a Monday, something I not only took for granted but also disliked. Urgh, the brutal stiffness of the material after the softness of the weekend. Misery.

For a year of my life, and only a year, I did proper work, for my dad’s scaffolding company. God, the Monday mood was terrible. For me, the edge was taken off by the knowledge that this was but a gap year, not my full-time life. My workmates didn’t have the comfort of this endpoint. Handsworth, midwinter, dark, freezing and wet with a week’s worth of scaffolding to erect and dismantle. Despondence reigned.

PM and Tory leader enter maddening death spiral of dodging respective questions on Peter Mandelson and war in Middle East

There’s something weird going on in Westminster. A mutant pathogen in the water maybe. Whatever it is, Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch appear to have been struck down by it.

Both have had parts of their memory wiped. At times they now sound like the living dead. Keir can’t remember a thing about Peter Mandelson. And Kemi is a total blank when it comes to the Iran war. It’s hard to know which is worse. Keir at least has only forgotten what happened a year ago, so he can more or less have a half-life in the real world. Meanwhile, Kemi has no idea what happened last week. Or even yesterday. She is condemned to live in a permanent present.

• Five years on and little progress made, says judge

• Litigants have until October to choose 28 lead claimants

The judge overseeing the pretrial phase of the two landmark litigation cases about brain injuries in rugby has issued another rebuke to the legal teams on both sides over their lack of progress.

Senior Master Jeremy Cook started the latest round of case management hearings by reminding both the defendants and the claimants that “it won’t have escaped anybody’s notice that some of these claims are now over five years old , and we haven’t made much progress”. Since the cases involve claims of degenerative brain diseases, Cook said, time is at a premium.

Company says it will continue to sell cars with V12 internal combustion engines as there is demand from clients

Rolls-Royce has abandoned its goal to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade.

The luxury car company launched its all-electric Spectre model in 2022 , saying at the time that it would end production of its vehicles with V12 internal combustion engines by the end of 2030.

• Reigning champion reveals elk helped fuel Masters win

• Choosing wines from Augusta stock ‘was a lot of fun’

Elk as the key to Masters success: who had any i-deer? Rory McIlroy will serve starters made from the meat of the North American animal at Augusta National next month in tribute to his food of choice before winning the Masters last year .

The wine McIlroy drank to toast victory, food which conjures memories of his childhood in Belfast and a dish made by his mother, Rosie McIlroy, also feature in the Masters champion’s dinner for 2026. In a nod to the Masters venue’s attention to detail, McIlroy revealed that chefs from Augusta made a special visit to a New York restaurant to replicate his favourite tuna recipe.