The leader of the opposition missed the openest of open goals after Keir Starmer reversed cuts to winter fuel payments

Never change, Kemi, never change. We love you just the way you are. Look on the bright side: it could have been worse. KemiKaze could have used all six of her questions at prime minister’s questions to have re-examined the Tories’ very own rubbish Brexit deal. Just as she had for the previous two days. Mistakenly believing that this time – maybe, this time – she could find the killer line. It would have been too much to expect her to have realised there wasn’t one.

But no. Kemi chose to cut her losses. A triumph of sorts. Only the Tory leader then went on to snatch a humiliating defeat when all she had to do was tap the ball into the emptiest of nets.

It’s all too easy to say something crass or insensitive to someone who is going through IVF – as I discovered when I was. Here’s how to open your mouth without putting your foot in it

It is estimated that one in seven couples in the UK will experience difficulties conceiving, and many will go on to have fertility treatment. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) reports that more than 1.3m IVF cycles have been performed in the UK since 1991. I was 32 when I first underwent treatment, and I didn’t know anyone else who had been through it. Six years on, a quick headcount of IVF-enduring friends almost reaches double figures; we can no longer consider it rare. If you have friends, family or colleagues in their 30s and 40s, it is highly likely that some will be having IVF (that is not to say that no one younger will be – it is just statistically less likely: the average age is now 36).

It can be difficult to know what to say to someone who has shared that this is their path to potential parenthood – the outcome possibly exciting, possibly heartbreaking. From my experience of that challenging time, there are comments that can boost and others that, however well intentioned, can sting.

Condemnation alone won’t change Israel’s trajectory. For that, concrete action on sanctions and Palestinian statehood is required

• Sanam Vakil is director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme

Nineteen months on from the 7 October Hamas attacks and the war in Gaza, Israel is under a new wave of international pressure and increasingly isolated from its partners and allies. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government recently announced its intention to reoccupy Gaza yet again, and called up Israeli reservists. In tandem, the illegal expansion of settlements and violence in the West Bank continues unabated. And as part of a tactic to bring pressure to bear on Hamas to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza, Israel halted the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza for two months, leading to widespread starvation and brutal conditions.

In reaction, the UK, France and Canada issued a joint statement expressing a strong rebuke of Israel’s war effort. The UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, also announced a freeze on trade discussions with Israel, and the imposition of sanctions on settlers and organisations involved in West Bank violence. This reproach followed the Dutch foreign minister’s call to review the EU-Israel association agreement. The move, supported by a large number of EU states, criticised Israel’s conduct of war and could lead to sanctions. Spain’s prime minister went even further, calling Israel a genocidal state. Strikingly, even the staunchly pro-Israeli Trump administration is also taking its distance from Netanyahu’s government, with Donald Trump avoiding a stop in Israel on his Middle East tour. The US vice-president, JD Vance, has also chosen to delay a visit to Israel, suggesting that the administration wants to dissociate itself from the optics of this unending war.

A crisis in post-adoption support in England means parents feel punished rather than helped when things go wrong

• More adoptions likely to fail in England amid funding cuts, warn charities

Victoria Bristow was devastated when she was forced to place her adopted son back into the care of social services in England after years of struggling with little support.

“It broke my heart. But my son’s behaviour was unmanageable. He was violent. He would attack his sister, he would attack me, he attacked his grandmother. He was running away, and I was having to report him as missing – at this point he was only 10 years old,” she said.

As the folk icon celebrates his 84th birthday today, he looks back on falling out with Paul Simon, smashing up pianos with Dylan – and the classic song he’s still not got quite right

Martin Carthy has returned to Scarborough Fair. It’s been 60 years since he first recorded the song on his self-titled debut album, and famously taught it (or tried to teach it) to both Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, when they came to watch the young guitar hero playing in the London folk clubs. Dylan transformed the song into Girl from the North Country, while Simon turned it into Scarborough Fair/Canticle, a hit single for Simon & Garfunkel and the opening track on their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

Carthy’s new version is on Transform Me Then into a Fish, his first solo album in 21 years, released on his 84th birthday today. It now has sitar backing from Sheema Mukherjee, giving it a mysterious, spooky edge. “That’s the kind of a song it is. Try not to be scared of it,” said Carthy, whose sleeve notes when he first recorded the song provided a reminder that parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme were herbs traditionally associated with death. “It finds a home among the weird, oddball songs. I was interested in what Sheema could do with it, and she responded as a wonderful musician will respond …”

Actors including Asa Butterfield, Stephen Mangan and Susan Wokoma share poems as part of ‘Celebration Day’, a new annual moment dedicated to commemorating family and friends

• Helena Bonham Carter performs Don’t Let That Horse by Lawrence Ferlinghetti – video

• Tell us about a poem that reminds you of someone you’ve lost

Helena Bonham Carter, Toby Jones and Asa Butterfield are among actors performing poems in memory of family members and friends who are no longer with us, to mark Celebration Day later this month.

The initiative, conceived in 2022 by high-profile figures including Stephen Fry, Prue Leith, film director Oliver Parker and writer and poetry curator Allie Esiri, sets aside a day in the calendar each year to celebrate the lives of loved ones no longer with us, inspired by celebrations such as Mexico’s Day of the Dead. The first Celebration Day was held on 26 June 2022, and now it runs on the last bank holiday Monday in May, which this year will be 26 May.

US president ambushes Cyril Ramaphosa with videos and papers claiming to support false allegations amid questions over refugee status for white Afrikaners

• Trump ambushes South African president in Oval Office
• Analysis: Trump’s claims ignore reality in South Africa

A federal judge has rejected a bid by the US treasury department to cancel a union contract covering tens of thousands of IRS staff, Reuters reports, in an early blow to Donald Trump’s efforts to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many federal workers.

US district judge Danny Reeves in Lexington, Kentucky, said in a written opinion late on Tuesday that the department lacked legal standing to bring a lawsuit against the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

Shots force delegation representing 31 countries, including Italy, Canada, Egypt and UK, to run for cover

Israeli troops have fired “warning shots” towards a group of 25 diplomats who were visiting Jenin in the Israel-occupied West Bank on an official mission organised by the Palestinian Authority to observe the humanitarian situation there.

The Israeli military said the visit had been approved but the delegation “deviated from the approved route” and Israeli soldiers fired warning shots to distance them from the area.

Sources say improved economic landscape may lead to two-child benefit cap and health and disability cuts being revisited

Keir Starmer has announced a partial U-turn that would make more pensioners eligible for winter fuel payments as government figures opened the door to more tweaks to controversial policies.

After a major backlash against one of the most unpopular measures announced by the Labour government, the prime minister indicated he would look again at the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance.

Plane offer set off a firestorm of bipartisan criticism of Trump and raised questions about Qatar’s motives

• US politics live – latest updates

The Trump administration has accepted the controversial gift of a Boeing 747 jetliner from the government of Qatar, and directed the air force to assess how quickly the plane can be upgraded for possible use as a new Air Force One.

The offer of the jet has set off a firestorm of bipartisan criticism of Trump, particularly following the president’s visit to the country last week to arrange US business deals.