Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah leader vow revenge amid sonic booms and strikes across Lebanon; IDF says two Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah strikes

• Analysis: Attacks were audacious and carefully planned

In our First Edition newsletter today, my colleague Heather Stewart has spoken to our defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh. Here is a snippet:

Targeting Hezbollah directly is not new: Benjamin Netanyahu’s government claimed to have killed a Hezbollah leader in an airstrike on Beirut in July, for example. But the widespread and indiscriminate nature of Tuesday’s blasts represented a significant escalation.

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Exclusive: Unlike the EU, Great Britain has slashed protections for scores of food types

The amount of pesticide residue allowed on scores of food types in England, Wales and Scotland has soared since Brexit, analysis reveals, with some now thousands of times higher.

Changes to regulations in Great Britain mean more than 100 items are now allowed to carry more pesticides when sold to the public, ranging from potatoes to onions, grapes to avocados, and coffee to rice.

Sir Mark Rowley says summer disorder was ‘brutal and difficult time’ and rebuts far-right claim of two-tier policing

The people behind the violence in England this summer were “largely racially motivated criminal thugs”, the Metropolitan police commissioner has said, as he revealed that some of those arrested in London had previous convictions for violent offences.

Sir Mark Rowley said data about those arrested after a supposed protest in Whitehall, in central London, in late July supported his view.

Judges rule parliamentary standards investigation into the then Tory MP was fair in finding ‘egregious’ breach

The European court of human rights has dismissed an appeal by the former MP Owen Paterson against the parliamentary report that preceded his political downfall.

Paterson, a former environment secretary and influential pro-Brexit Conservative, resigned as an MP in 2021 after an investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards established that he had repeatedly engaged in improper lobbying.

No record of Reform UK leader being advised not to hold surgeries on security grounds, report says

A reader asks:

Can you please obtain clarity from a Labour spokesperson, or even an expert in the English language or linguistics, as to the meaning of ‘lean into hope’? Baffling!

Utility struggling with £15bn debts books November high court dates in effort to extend ‘liquidity runway’

• Business live – latest updates

Thames Water is trying to buy time to avoid running out of funds by rewriting loan agreements with its lenders as its future hangs in the balance, it has emerged.

The troubled water company, which is struggling under £15bn of debts, is attempting to extend its “liquidity runway” after admitting it only has enough cash left to run its operations for eight months, sources have said.

Exclusive: Tech company wants Labour to relax laws that prevent AI models being ‘trained’ on copyrighted materials

Google has said that Britain risks being left behind in the global artificial intelligence race unless the government moves quickly to build more datacentres and let tech companies use copyrighted work in their AI models.

The company pointed to research showing that the UK is ranked seventh on a global AI readiness index for data and infrastructure, and called for a number of policy changes.

Meloni government accused of lacking will to confront climate crisis as floods cause havoc in Emilia-Romagna

Two people are missing and about 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes after devastating floods and landslides hit the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, prompting accusations that Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government lacks the will to confront the climate crisis.

The flooding was brought on by Storm Boris, which had earlier wreaked havoc in central and eastern Europe, killing at least 24 people. Several major cities in central Europe were bracing for swollen rivers to peak on Thursday.

Measure one of a number that Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health says will help curb air pollution

Wood burners in urban family homes should be phased out to protect children’s health, leading paediatricians have said.

A new position statement from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) calls for tougher government action to curb air pollution.

Piece dating from 1760s, probably composed when Mozart was in his early teens, uncovered by researchers in Leipzig

A previously unknown piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was probably in his early teens has been uncovered at a library in Germany.

The piece dates to the mid- to late-1760s and consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio lasting about 12 minutes, the Leipzig municipal libraries said in a statement on Thursday.