Former trade union activist who had Alzheimer's died peacefully at care home, says family

• John Prescott: a life in pictures
• UK politics live – latest updates

John Prescott, the former British deputy prime minister and stalwart of the New Labour movement, has died aged 86.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown led tributes on Thursday to Prescott, who had Alzheimer’s, after his family announced he had died peacefully at a care home.

A Western official has reportedly denied a claim by Ukraine’s air force that the Russian military fired the missile for the first time

Hungary announced overnight it is to install an air defence system in the north-eastern part of the country as the threat of an escalation of the Ukraine-Russia war is “greater than ever”, its defence minister said.

Reuters quotes Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky from a video he posted on Facebook saying:

We still trust that there will be peace as soon as possible, through diplomacy instead of a military solution. However, to prepare for all possibilities, I ordered the recently purchased air control and air defence systems and the capabilities built on them to be installed in the north-east. The threat of the escalation of the Ukraine-Russia war is greater than ever.

This is another frankly provocative step in a series of deeply destabilising actions by the Americans and their allies in the North Atlantic alliance in the strategic sphere.

This leads to undermining strategic stability, increasing strategic risks and, as a result, to an increase in the overall level of nuclear danger.

Watchdog’s highly critical inquiry finds Hannah and Colin Ingram-Moore culpable of ‘serious and repeated’ misconduct

• Captain Tom Foundation inquiry: three key failings

The family of the NHS charities fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore personally benefited from the charity set up in his name through a series of lucrative deals worth more than £1m, the charities watchdog has ruled in a highly critical report.

A Charity Commission inquiry concluded the late Captain Tom’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband, Colin Ingram-Moore, were culpable of “serious and repeated” instances of misconduct, mismanagement and failures of integrity.

Hannah Ingram-Moore “initiated the process to secure her appointment as chief executive” of the charity, suggesting she should be paid a salary of £150,000. The charity proposed paying her £100,000 but this was blocked by the commission and she was eventually hired on £85,000.

Hannah Ingram-Moore received £18,000 from Virgin Media in September 2021 to judge its Local Legends awards when she was chief executive of the foundation. This was unauthorised and a conflict of interest, and there was no evidence it was undertaken, as she claimed, in a personal capacity.

The Ingram-Moores used the charity’s name inappropriately and for their private benefit in a planning application to build a private spa pool in the grounds of their family home. The building was subsequently demolished.

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun bought one of three editions of the viral 2019 work, describing it as ‘a cultural phenomenon’

Maurizio Cattelan’s viral artwork involving a banana duct-taped to a wall has sold at auction for US$5.2m, besting initial estimates of between US$1m and US$1.5m.

One of three editions for the 2019 work, titled Comedian, made its auction debut on Wednesday evening at Sotheby’s New York, as part of its contemporary art auction.

Hancock is answering questions on the impact of the pandemic on the NHS during module 3 of the inquiry

• John Prescott: share your tributes and memories

British prime minister Keir Starmer says he is “deeply saddened” to hear that Prescott has died, and called him a “true giant of Labour”.

In a statement on X, he said, “I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of John Prescott. John was a true giant of the Labour movement. On behalf of the Labour Party, I send my condolences to Pauline and his family, to the city of Hull, and to all those who knew and loved him. May he rest in peace.”

He possessed an inherent ability to connect with people about the issues that mattered to them – a talent that others spend years studying and cultivating, but that was second nature to him.

He fought like hell to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol and was an unwavering champion of climate action for decades to come. I’m forever grateful to John for that commitment to solving the climate crisis and will miss him as a dear friend.”

Israeli attacks have destroyed huge areas of land used for crops, with 90% of cattle killed, analysis shows

More than 90% of cattle have died and about 70% of land for crops in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war in the territory, an analysis of satellite imagery by the UN has found.

More than half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, while more than three-quarters of the territory’s famous orchards have been destroyed or damaged, the survey in September found.

Justice department urges court to force Google to share data with rivals as part of wide-ranging changes to end online giant’s monopoly on web searching

Alphabet’s Google must sell its Chrome browser, share data and search results with competitors and take a range of other measures to end its monopoly on searching the internet, US prosecutors have argued to a judge.

Such changes would essentially result in Google being highly regulated for 10 years, subjecting it to oversight by the same Washington federal court that ruled the company maintained an illegal monopoly in online search and related advertising.

• ‘It just feels really right and I’m really happy with it’
• Brownlees helped make Britain dominant in sport

Double Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee has announced his retirement. The 36-year-old Briton became the first triathlete to successfully defend his Olympic title when he won retained the title in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, four years after triumphing on home soil at London in 2012.

“It’s time to close this chapter … This marks my transition from professional triathlon, a moment approached with both dread and excitement in equal measure,” Brownlee, whose first significant title came in winning the 2006 Junior European Duathlon, wrote on social media.

António Guterres appealed to ministers and officials to ‘navigate a path’ through their differences

My colleague Patrick Greenfield is following the plenary where countries give their formal response to the draft text.

Cop29 president Mukhtar Babayev gets the plenary started. He asks countries to give their thoughts on the latest iterations of text to inform future versions. He says that with collective effort, he believes that the summit can be finished by 6pm tomorrow.

Following a change in eligibility criteria, nominees for the broadcaster’s annual award also include Kneecap, Barry Can’t Swim and Mercury prize winners English Teacher and Ezra Collective

The BBC Sound of 2025 list, the broadcaster’s annual list of rising artists with “the best chance of mainstream success”, has highlighted a number of acts with a great deal of mainstream success already under their belts.

Arguably, the US pop star Chappell Roan has been the sound of 2024. She released her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, in September 2023, and a subsequent non-album single, Good Luck, Babe!, was released in April 2024 and peaked at No 2 in the UK. Viral footage of her high-camp performances has made her one of the year’s defining stars, and she was recently nominated for six Grammys.