Hamas says there is “no point” in further peace talks, after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to occupy all of Gaza indefinitely. Israeli officials say an offensive to capture the strip – for which tens of thousands of reservists were called up over the weekend – would begin after Donald Trump’s visit to the region next week, giving Hamas a “window of opportunity” to make a deal. Germany’s conservative leader has failed to win enough votes in parliament to become Chancellor. Friedrich Merz, who won February’s federal elections, needed 316 votes in the secret ballot but unexpectedly secured only 310, even though his party and its centre-left coalition partners have 328 seats between them. The 69-year-old Christian Democrat will now face further rounds of voting until he or another candidate can secure a majority. The theme for New York’s annual Met Gala last night was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, inspired by a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art focusing on the “black dandy”. As always, interpretations varied (see below).

The Tories’ “do nothing” approach is a gift to Farage

In “time honoured fashion”, says Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph, Labour and the Conservatives have both concluded from their local election drubbing that the public wants them to “carry on as normal”. Keir Starmer talked about going “further, faster”; the Conservatives insisted there would be no “lurch to the right”. You can see the logic for Labour: the economy might yet turn around, and its vote isn’t (yet) too divided. But for the Tories, it’s “utter madness – a tone deaf, do-nothingness that will send them the way of the old Liberal Party and WH Smith”.

Kemi Badenoch’s “conclave-style” approach to leadership – creating a policy platform behind closed doors – is ceding all publicity to Nigel Farage. The Tory leader only appears on television to explain “why she has nothing to say and why it’s rude of journalists to ask”. This doesn’t come naturally – Tory members voted for her last October in part because she’s willing to take the fight to her opponents. But clearly her “handlers”, fearing bad reviews “among the critical voting blocs of Times columnists and Dr Who actors”, decided she needed to soften her image. Really, she and the Tories need to accept that the old Cameronian coalition of economic and social liberals isn’t coming back: Brexit made half the party “rabid nationalists” and the other half “bitter liberals”. They should forget about the wets – let them defect to “Ed Davey’s clown show” – and court Reform UK voters by fully rebranding the party as “populist and patriotic”. The Conservatives have long been successful because they have been willing to shift direction when necessary: Peel, Disraeli and Thatcher all did exactly that. Time to do it again.

🗳️😴 It’s always worth remembering how unrepresentative local elections are, says Paul Goodman in The Times. Just 23 of England’s 317 local authority areas voted on Thursday – “well below 10%” – with just 1,600 of the 17,000 local councillors up for election. Turnout was low across the board: in the West of England’s mayoral contest it was just 30%, meaning Labour’s winning candidate “won with the support of only 7.5% of the electorate”.