WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Gaza pier setback, habitable exoplanets, and the return of Jeff Buckley

 
today's international story

US aid stalls after pier in Gaza breaks apart

What happened 
The supply of emergency humanitarian aid to Gaza has suffered yet another setback after the temporary pier the US military constructed to bring supplies in via the sea broke apart, the Pentagon said.

Who said what
This is the "latest calamity to befall the pier endeavour", said The New York Times. It "punctuates a particularly grim several days in Gaza", just two days after Israel carried out a deadly strike in the southern city of Rafah that killed dozens of people.

Humanitarian operations are "near collapse" in Gaza, the World Food Programme warned last week. Deliveries of aid and fuel to the Palestinian territory have "slowed to a trickle" in the wake of Israel’s growing ground offensive in Rafah, said The Guardian.

Famine had been projected in parts of Gaza this month in a March report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, but a "formal famine declaration" faces the "complications of politics and of confirming how many people have died", said the Associated Press.

More than 70 aid groups, including the Geneva International Centre for Justice, are urging global institutions to formally recognise a famine in the Gaza Strip amid reports of catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation.

What next? 
US army engineers are working to put the temporary aid pier back together. In the meantime Gaza's government media office has urgently appealed to the international community to pressure Israel to allow the entry of aid convoys via land crossings such as Rafah and Kerem Shalom.

 
 
today’s politics story

Abbott readmitted to Labour, but will she stand?

What happened
Diane Abbott has been readmitted as a Labour MP after an investigation into her conduct, but it is "unclear" whether she will stand for the party at the general election, the BBC said.

Who said what
Abbott was suspended from the party last year after writing a letter in The Guardian that suggested Jewish people do not face racism, but rather suffer prejudice similar to "redheads". She apologised, but has sat as an independent while an official investigation was carried out.

Labour is now "adamant" that Abbott will not be endorsed as a candidate, The Times said, citing sources from within the party.

What next?
Labour could select one of three "credible" candidates to stand in Abbott's Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat, said The Guardian: Anntoinette Bramble, the deputy mayor of Hackney council; Sem Moema, the London assembly member for North East; and Mete Coban, a Labour councillor for Stoke Newington.

If Abbott is not endorsed she will be forced into retirement or will have to stand as an independent against the party she represented for three and a half decades.

 
 
Today’s space story

Scientists find potentially habitable exoplanet

What happened
Scientists have discovered a potentially habitable exoplanet just 40 light years away from Earth. Gliese 12 b, roughly the size of Venus, was identified by two international teams of astronomers using data from Nasa's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

It has an estimated surface temperature of 42 degrees, according to the study published last week – lower than most of the 5,000 exoplanets observed so far.

Who said what
"Gliese 12 b could be at the right temperature for liquid water to pool on its surface," said study co-author Shishir Dholakia from the University of Southern Queensland's Centre for Astrophysics.

This is the "nearest, transiting, temperate, Earth-size world located to date", said Masayuki Kuzuhara, professor at the Astrobiology Center in Tokyo.

What next?
Researchers want to get a closer look at the exoplanet with the James Webb Space Telescope to determine whether it has an atmosphere – and would therefore be habitable.

 
 

It's not all bad

Using high-resolution microscopy, scientists at the University of Sheffield and the Central Laser Facility have uncovered the secret of how butterflies' wings become so vibrant. A study found that denser actin bundles, a protein in butterflies' scales, result in more reflective and colourful structures. Researchers say the discovery could inspire innovative technologies in sensing, diagnostics and sustainable paints. By mimicking butterfly scale structures scientists aim to develop long-lasting, UV-resistant colours for applications both in and out of the laboratory.

 
 
under the radar

Are young people falling out of love with music?

For many adults memories of adolescence are inextricably bound up in the music that helped define their teenage identities and form almost tribal allegiances with others who shared their tastes. But for children and young adults today exploring music is a very different experience.

In previous generations the prevalence of physical media like cassette tapes, vinyl records and CDs meant that children could independently develop a relationship with music from an early age. But with most music now consumed via streaming and parents increasingly cautious about untrammelled access to the internet, today's pre-teens have "virtually no musical autonomy", said Oliver Keens in The Guardian.

The risk is that the emerging generations "don't have the type of welded bond to music that only the white heat of youth can forge". And who can blame them if their childhood has been spent in "the walled garden" of parental tastes and "safe, curated playlists such as Spotify Kids"?

The picture that emerges is one of a generation immersed in a fast-moving world of ephemeral aesthetics soundtracked by a limitless landscape of musical genres, to whom the notion of attaching one's identity to a single sound seems quaint.

But a youth culture concocted and consumed online will do little to address "diffuse loneliness and alienation", said Mireille Silcoff for The New York Times magazine. That takes a "real-world cultural community". Today's parents might need to revisit the received wisdom of their own adolescence and conclude that "youths belong at the rave, at the block party, in the mosh pit".

 
 
on this day

29 May 1997

American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley died at the age of 30. The musician was working on his second studio album at the time, three years after his debut "Grace" was released. Almost three decades on Buckley is "more famous than ever", said Rolling Stone magazine, as it reflected on the life and legacy of the artist in its "500 Greatest Songs" podcast last week.

 
 
Today’s newspapers

Rishi Sunak's pledge to scrap "rip-off" degrees leads the Daily Mail. The Daily Express also features the story, saying that the move is among plans to spend £889m on boosting young people's skills. The Mirror reports that the probe into Angela Rayner's home sale has been dropped, in what it describes as a "fresh blow" to Sunak's election hopes. Meanwhile, the former chief of Israel's foreign intelligence agency tried to persuade a chief prosecutor to halt a war crimes investigation, says The Guardian.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Dairy-devils

Thousands of people headed to Gloucester for the annual cheese rolling races on Monday. The event, which is known to have taken place since at least 1826, sees competitors hurl themselves down Cooper's Hill to chase a wheel of cheese, with the first to grab it named the winner. This year the course was particularly slippery due to recent wet weather, said the Associated Press – and local rugby club members assembled at the bottom of the course to catch tumbling participants.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Julia O'Driscoll and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Oren Ziv / AFP via Getty Images; Thabo Jaiyesimi / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images; Courtesy of Nasa.