First Thing: Israelis gather to mark two years since 7 Octob...

Good morning.

Israelis will gather across the country on Tuesday to mark two years since Hamas’s 7 October attack, which killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

A large rally will be held in Tel Aviv to call for the release of the remaining hostages from captivity in Gaza, while unofficial commemorations will be held in the small kibbutzim of southern Israel whose members were killed or kidnapped.

Hopes have been raised that the war in Gaza may finally end, as negotiators from Hamas and Israel arrived in Egypt on Monday to begin talks.

What is the situation on the ground in Gaza? Despite Donald Trump’s demands that Israel stop bombing the territory, strikes on the strip have continued. Gaza’s health ministry said Israel killed at least 19 people in the past 24 hours.

Judge refuses to block Trump’s deployment of national guard to Illinois

National guard troops from Texas are on their way to Illinois after a federal judge refused to immediately bar the Trump administration from deploying them there after a lawsuit from the state.

Texas guard members departed from the Fort Bliss military installation in El Paso on a US military transport plane on Monday evening, while Trump is also seeking to federalize the Illinois national guard. “We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s invasion,” said the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker.

A similar effort to deploy troops to Portland was blocked by a judge in Oregon.

What is Illinois arguing? The Illinois attorney general, Kwame Raoul, maintains that sending in guard troops against a state’s will violates its sovereignty and self-governance and will lead to unrest and harm for residents.

US shutdown enters second week as Senate again rejects rival funding bills

The US government shutdown entered its second week as the Senate again rejected bills to restart funding, and Trump hinted he may consider negotiating with Democrats over the healthcare subsidies on which they have held firm.

A fifth Senate vote to advance a Republican bill that would restart the government failed to secure the 60-vote threshold, coming in at 52-42. The Democrats’ bill was defeated by a vote of 50-45.

Many agencies have told workers to stay home since last Wednesday, after Democrats refused to back any bill that does not include healthcare provisions, including an extension of premium tax credits for people covered by Affordable Care Act health insurance. So far, Republicans have refused to negotiate over these demands until funding is restored.

What did Trump say about this? “We have a negotiation going on right now with the Democrats that could lead to very good things,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “And I’m talking about good things with regard to healthcare.”
How have Democrats responded? They have denied their side has been in talks with Trump. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said: “Trump’s claim isn’t true – but if he’s finally ready to work with Democrats, we’ll be at the table.”

In other news …

The former prime minister of France, Édouard Philippe, has said President Emmanuel Macron should call an early election, given the deepening political crisis.
Republicans have posted about protests in Oregon using fake images that combined old photos from demonstrations in South America.
Rescuers have ended the search for victims in the Indonesia school collapse, with 67 confirmed dead.
Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor and comedian Robin Williams, has condemned AI-generated content using her father’s likeness.

Stat of the day: 80% of new clean energy capacity expected to come from solar power by 2030

Global renewables could more than double by the end of the decade, with 80% of new clean energy capacity expected to come from solar power, a report by the International Energy Agency has found. Wind and solar farms have reached a tipping point this year, having created more electricity than coal plants for the first time, according to research.

Don’t miss this: 10 extraordinary life lessons from Ozzy Osbourne’s new memoir

“Here’s the thing, man,” muses the late Ozzy Osbourne in his memoir, Last Rites. “Why would anyone want life advice from me?” But despite, or perhaps aided by, his checkered history as a criminal, a cheat and an addict, as well as a metal superstar, Osbourne shares more than a few pieces of wisdom in his new book. Including – from the man who became hooked on pink lady apples – that for an addict, anything can become addictive.

Climate check: Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

The failure of carbon offsets to cut planet-heating emissions is a result of entrenched systemic problems that incremental reform will not solve, a review paper has found. Research over 25 years has found that “almost everything up until this point has failed”, with the industry long affected by “junk offsets” that overstate their impact to do good.

Last Thing: Nobel committee unable to reach prize winner who is ‘living his best life’ hiking off grid

The Nobel committee has been unable to reach a winner of this year’s prize for medicine because he is “living his best life” on an off-grid hiking trip in Idaho. Fred Ramsdell, who shared the prize with two colleagues for discoveries related to the functioning of the immune system, is not the first Nobel winner to be unreachable in 2020 – when the committee called in the middle of the night to tell Bob Wilson he had won the economics prize, he unplugged the phone.

Sign up

First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com