Tuesday briefing: How to make sense of the new wave of violence in the Middle East

In today's newsletter: Further attacks over the weekend heightened tensions in an already fraught region

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Good morning.

At least 492 people have been killed after Israeli jets struck more than 1,300 alleged Hezbollah targets across Lebanon yesterday, in the most intense barrage in nearly a year of cross-border clashes. Roads were heavily congested with civilians desperate to flee the assault. Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has accused Israel of seeking to create a wider conflict that Iran does not want to get directly dragged into.

Labour | The Conservatives' violent indifference" to the arts has resulted in communities across the country getting poor access to culture, Lisa Nandy has said ahead of a planned funding review. The culture secretary accused her Tory predecessors of vandalism" as she pledged to get state funding to every community and make sure that private philanthropy reached beyond the major cities.

Housing | Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, is to let first-time buyers borrow up to six times their earnings in what has been labelled a gamechanging" move that ramps up the mortgage price war.

Environment | Rich countries could raise $5tn, five times the money that poor countries are demanding in climate finance, through windfall taxes on fossil fuels, ending harmful subsidies and a wealth tax on billionaires, research by the pressure group Oil Change International has shown.

NHS | Nurses in England have rejected the 5.5% pay rise they were given for this year, in a move that may lead to further strikes in pursuit of higher salaries.

France | A French court has begun hearing the cases against six new defendants as the mass rape trial that has sparked horror in the country entered its fourth week. Dominique Pelicot, who has admitted to the allegations, is accused of enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his drugged wife over nearly a decade.