First Thing: Gaza hits ‘grim milestone’ of 40,000 people killed in Israeli war

Another 10,000 people believed to remain entombed in collapsed buildings. Plus, five arrests made in death of actor Matthew Perry

Good morning.

Ten months into the war in Gaza, the Palestinian death toll has passed 40,000 people, according to health authorities. Most of the dead are civilians and the total represents nearly 2% of Gaza’s prewar population, or one in every 50 residents.

But even that figure does not tell the full story of Palestinian losses. “This number, 40,000, includes only bodies that were received and buried,” said Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian ministry of health. “New procedures are being tested to include those who are missing or known to be under the rubble on the list of the dead, but they have not yet been approved.”

About 10,000 victims of the Israeli airstrikes were thought to remain entombed in collapsed buildings, Hamas said, because there was little heavy equipment or fuel to dig through steel and concrete ruins looking for them.

The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said the death toll in Gaza passing 40,000 was a “grim milestone”.

• Who has been killed? The overall death toll from Gaza does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but by the middle of August, 32,280 bodies of victims of the conflict had been identified by name. Most were considered civilians because of their age or gender, with 10,627 children, 5,956 women and 2,770 elderly people. Other civilians counted included 168 journalists, 855 medical staff and 79 paramedics.

• What do Israeli forces say? Israel does not estimate civilian casualties in Gaza, but the military says it has killed about 15,000 Hamas fighters. Israel launched the war after cross-border Hamas attacks on 7 October killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 as hostages.

• What’s happening with ceasefire negotiations? Hamas officials did not join Thursday’s talks in Doha, saying Israel’s continuing operations in Gaza were an obstacle to progress on a ceasefire.

Five arrests made in death of actor Matthew Perry, California police say

Five people have been arrested and charged over the death of Matthew Perry, prosecutors said, including the actor’s personal assistant and two doctors.

The doctors supplied the Friends actor, who died at his Los Angeles home in October 2023, with a large amount of ketamine, the attorney Martin Estrada said, and “took advantage of Mr Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves”.

Perry, 54, had publicly discussed his issues with addiction. He had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for anxiety and depression at the time of his death, the Los Angeles medical examiner said in an autopsy report last year, but the examiner found much higher levels of ketamine in the actor’s bloodstream than would be expected from the therapy alone.

• What did prosecutors say? “They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr Perry, but they did it anyways. In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr Perry than caring for his wellbeing.”

Biden and Harris celebrate landmark deal to lower medication prices

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Thursday cast themselves as the champions of older American in a David-and-Goliath fight against big pharmaceutical companies, at an event touting a landmark deal to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

“We finally beat big pharma,” the US president declared, sharing the stage with his vice-president for the first time since he abandoned his re-election bid in late July and Harris replaced him as the Democratic nominee.

The event, which came after a morning announcement about new lower drug prices for beneficiaries of Medicare, a government health insurance plan for older people, was an opportunity to persuade voters that their administration had helped ease costs after years of high inflation.

• What are the details of the deal? The 10 drugs subject to negotiations, including widely used blood thinners and diabetes medications, are expected to save $6bn for Medicare, the administration said, saying seniors should save $1.5bn directly in out-of-pocket costs when the deal takes effect in 2026.

In other news …

• The Kremlin aide Nikolai Patrushev said Nato and the west were directly involved in the planning for Ukraine’s attack on Russia’s Kursk region. The US denied the claims. Ukraine said it had full control over the Russian town of Sudzha, which contains gas infrastructure.

• Sweden confirmed its first case of the more contagious variant of mpox, marking the first time it has been found outside Africa.

• Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been approved as Thailand’s next prime minister. She is the daughter of the billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Stat of the day: Shell oil non-profit donated $544,010 to conservative groups, including anti-climate groups behind Project 2025

A foundation associated with Shell, the Shell USA Company Foundation, donated $544,010 to religious right and conservative organizations, many of which deny that climate change is a crisis, tax records reveal. Fourteen of those groups are on the advisory board of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint proposing radical changes to the federal government, including severely limiting the Environment Protection Agency.

Don’t miss this: Elliot Page on his return to acting on the big screen

Elliot Page stars in the new film Close to You as a trans man navigating his relationship with his family. He and the director, Dominic Savage, explain how it all came together. “I get misgendered all the time,” Page says.

Climate check: Scientists baffled by unexpected pace of heating

In Nature, one of the world’s top climate scientists posited the alarming possibility that global heating may be moving beyond the ability of experts to predict what happens next. “The 2023 temperature anomaly has come out of the blue, revealing an unprecedented knowledge gap,” wrote Gavin Schmidt, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies. More than 99.9% of climatologists agree global heating is caused by human burning of gas, oil, coal and forests – but the sheer pace of warming has been unexpected, Schmidt said.

Last Thing: ‘Should my boyfriend consult me before he gets a haircut?’

In a letter to You Be The Judge’s Georgina Lawton, Becky hates it when Rob cuts off his curls. Rob wishes she would see beyond the barnet. Who’s in the right – should people consult their partners before rocking a new bullet or French bob?

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