Iran has signalled that any deal to end the ongoing war must include an end to Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon. But whether the US could get Israel to agree to that, or would be willing to try, is unclear. 

Despite last month’s ceasefire, Israel has continued to pound Lebanon with airstrikes, killing at least 608 people, according to the World Health Organization. Yesterday, in response to a Hezbollah attack on its military posts, Israel launched one of its most intense waves of bombings yet.

What did the commentators say?
“Lebanon is in danger of becoming an overlooked but increasingly deadly sideshow” as both Israel and Hezbollah violate the ceasefire, said Tom Kington in The Times. Israeli troops won’t withdraw from southern Lebanon unless Hezbollah disarms. But the Iran-backed group says it won’t stop attacking Israeli positions until Benjamin Netanyahu’s forces withdraw. “The result has been a stand-off.”

Hezbollah is “waiting for a cue from Iran, which in turn depends on how Iran’s talks with the US go”, said Michael Young of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. “If Iran emerges stronger from its clash with the US, Hezbollah will feel reinvigorated,” he told The Times. Meanwhile, Israel will be trying “to torpedo any deal”.

Hezbollah has “ignored repeated requests to stop firing at Israel”, a US official told Reuters. Israel will never “​passively absorb attacks on its forces and civilians”. But nor will Tehran accept such attacks on its proxy, Middle East expert Danny Citrinowicz told The New Yorker. Hezbollah is “a vital element” of Iran’s “so-called Axis of Resistance”. If Donald Trump wants an agreement with Iran, he will have to “force Netanyahu’s hand on Lebanon”.

What next?
Delegations from Israel and Lebanon will meet for direct talks in the US on Friday, in preparation for further negotiations next Tuesday and Wednesday. But “even if Lebanon is part of a US-Iran peace deal, the Lebanese people will be wary”, said Kington in The Times. April’s Pakistan-brokered ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran supposedly included Lebanon – but Israel “denied this was the case and launched 100 attacks in a few minutes”.

Ferrari’s first foray into electric vehicles has sparked an intense backlash from fans and investors. Created in collaboration with former Apple chief designer Jony Ive, the new Luce model’s futuristic form, silent engine and £475,000 price tag were always going to be “controversial”, said Politico. Ferrari’s former chair Luca di Montezemolo spoke for many “purists in Italy” when he said it “risks destroying the myth” of the legendary cars.

‘Anything but a Ferrari’
“The Luce does not look like a Ferrari,” said Luke Plunkett on Aftermath. “It looks like the concept for a Honda Hydrogen vehicle from 2002”, or “one of the ‘this is what the future will look like from the 90s’ cars from ‘Demolition Man’, only worse”. It looks like “anything but a Ferrari”.

Ferrari’s chief design officer, Flavio Manzoni, admitted that the design was “polarising”, but insisted fans will embrace the new car eventually. Investors, however, were less confident. Ferrari shares fell nearly 8% in Milan on Tuesday, amid fears the Luce launch “could become a repeat of Jaguar Land Rover’s controversial failed rebrand” in 2024, when the British carmaker “tried to shift the marque away from its traditional ‘Jag man’ image towards ultra-wealthy customers”, said The Telegraph.

‘Energy transition challenge’
Development of the Luce kicked off in 2021, when “EVs were riding high and increasing in popularity in the premium, sport and luxury space”, said Car magazine. But since then, carmakers have “retreated from their EV initiatives”, said Forbes. Lamborghini has scrapped its first planned EV, Porsche is opting for hybrid technology and McLaren is steering clear entirely.

 The “initial negative reaction to Ferrari’s new model was not surprising”, said the Financial Times, and underscores the “energy transition challenge for luxury carmakers”. But for the Italian brand’s executives, “whether most current Ferrari customers think the Luce is cool is irrelevant”, said Scott Sherwood, an independent analyst of luxury carmakers. “If it tested well enough with the tech crowd to fill the order book, that’s all they are concerned with.”

Muslims pray at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, to mark the beginning of Eid al-Adha. The festival commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to Allah and is traditionally celebrated with animal sacrifice.

Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP / Getty Images

From dread-filled dystopian tales to hard-hitting family dramas, these twisty young-adult novels will have teens and adults alike staying up late to read one more chapter…

A Million Tiny Miles All At Once by Lucas Maxwell
Maxwell’s remarkable debut begins with 14-year-old Elias entering a competition in a bid to win money to take his family out for pizza. But it develops into a tale of “family pressures, neurodivergence and resilience with heaps of humour and heart”, said Anna Bonet in The i Paper.

Torchfire by Moira Buffini
In this eagerly anticipated follow-up to her debut YA novel “Songlight”, Buffini returns to a dystopian landscape where nations are “bitterly divided by attitudes to telepathy”, said Imogen Russell Williams in The Guardian. The absorbing tale grips readers “more fiercely” with each turn of the page.

Black Star by Kwame Alexander
American poet Alexander uses “sparky verse” to tell the “powerful tale” of 12-year-old Charley, a Black girl living in the segregated American South of the 1920s, who dreams of becoming a professional baseball pitcher. Beautifully written, it’s a “literary adrenaline shot”, said Lucy Bannerman in The Times.

Like a Brother by Nathanael Lessore
Two starkly different estranged cousins are “thrown together” in Lessore’s bold teen comedy, said Fiona Noble in The Observer. As their “bond deepens, so does each boy’s sense of self-worth”, in a huge-hearted, funny story that sheds light on the “messy, unpredictable business of being a teenager”.

I’ve seen what aid can do. The world is making a grave mistake with cuts – and children are paying the price
Tom Hiddleston in The Independent
“For the first time this century, deaths among children under five are expected to rise,” writes actor and Unicef ambassador Tom Hiddleston. “Aid budgets are being cut” just when “conflicts, climate disasters and disease outbreaks are accelerating”, forcing “impossible choices about which children deserve lifesaving treatment”. This Sunday, I’m playing in Soccer Aid, but however generous the public’s response, it “cannot substitute for political will” to “invest in the futures of children around the world”.

Tony Blair’s essay on Labour failings gets full marks for being unhelpful
Peter Walker in The Guardian
Tony Blair’s “opus on where Labour” has “gone wrong” feels timed “to inflict maximum annoyance on his party”, writes Peter Walker. He clearly “worries deeply” that it’s “stuck in a loop of insular political debate”, but his “policy prescriptions” seem “politically impossible”: ditching net zero and workers’ rights would have made Labour MPs revolt “much earlier”. And in backing Donald Trump on Iran, Blair “reinforces the sense” that “in recent years”, he’s “met more US presidents than British voters”.

If Rupert Lowe sets aside his vanity he could be the hero of the hour. If he doesn’t, Britain faces disaster
Stephen Pollard in the Daily Mail
There’s “a clear anti-Labour” majority in Makerfield, writes Stephen Pollard. But “the Restore Britain candidate could split that vote” and “foist Andy Burnham” on us all. Nothing Burnham values “accords with anything” that Rupert Lowe “believes in”, but the Restore leader’s “pride and his vendetta against Nigel Farage” could bring in “the most Left-wing government in our history”. Lowe should “set aside his own ambition” and “be the man” who brings “an end to the ruination of our country”.