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In your briefing today:

• Israel and Hamas have agreed the first phase of a Gaza peace deal

• Trust in the Scottish Government has hit a post-devolution low

• Celebrity Traitors debuted last night: TV’s buzziest show didn’t disappoint, with a trio of five-star reviews this morning.

📣 Israel and Hamas have agreed the first phase of a peace deal, paving the way for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of all hostages.

US President Donald Trump also said Israel would also withdraw its troops in the Gaza Strip, sparking celebration in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square and a more cautious welcome from Palestinians in Gaza.

• Donald Trump was hosting a roundtable when, dramatically, he was passed a note by Secretary of State Marco Rubio telling him a deal had been done. An AP photographer caught the note’s detail: “You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first,” it said. (AP)

• “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS”: Read Donald Trump’s Truth Social posting announcing a deal (Truth Social)

• See live coverage: BBC | Guardian | CNN | Al Jazeera

• There was celebration and trepidation in Gaza and Israel following the announcement (🎥see the scenes from Gaza on the BBC). Families of hostages chanted “Nobel prize to Trump” in Tel Aviv in the wake of the news. (🎥 See the scenes from Israel) (AP)

• Reaction to the deal - and what might happen next, below ⬇️

📣 Trust in the Scottish Government has hit a new low, with only 47% of respondents trusting the Scottish Government to act in the country’s best interests, according to the annual Scottish Social Attitudes Survey. The figure was 61% in 2019, and 81% in the first year of devolution. Only 22% of people said they were satisfied with the Scottish NHS. (Mail) (Scotsman)

📣 America’s top banker has warned there is a higher risk of a serious fall in US stocks than is being reflected in the market. In an interview with the BBC, Jamie Dimon - who leads JP Morgan, America’s biggest bank - says he was “far more worried than others” about a serious market correction in the next six months to two years. (BBC)

• Listings of UK homes for sale fell at the fastest pace in two years in September, with rental instructions also hitting a post-pandemic low, with uncertainty over Rachel Reeves’ budget next month hitting sentiment. (FT £)

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AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 First Minister John Swinney said Scotland is “reaching the limits of devolution” as he launched a new paper setting out the case for independence. It claims Scottish households would be £10,000 a year better off if the country was independent. (Scotsman) (Read the paper: A Fresh Start with Independence)

• Alistair Grant: There was little - if any - buzz around the paper’s launch. It felt more like a tick-box exercise. (Scotsman)

📣 Scottish teachers are to vote on strike action over their “crippling workload”. (BBC)

📣 A TikTok creator who posed as a road traffic lawyer has been convicted of killing a pensioner in a crash. Leigh Sutherland was speeding in an ageing Ford Mondeo when he ploughed in to Margaret Allan’s Peugeot at a roundabout: she died of her injuries later, and a young passenger was also hurt. (STV)

📣 The Care Inspectorate has demanded improvements at the care home in Inverness, where horrific conditions were exposed by a BBC investigation. (BBC)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 Pubs, clubs and restaurants in England and Wales could be allowed to open into the early hours as part of Labour’s push for economic growth. The extension of opening hours would, think ministers, boost the “British night out” and help the hospitality sector, which has struggled since Covid. Alcohol charities have criticised the move. (The Guardian has the exclusive)

📣 The new Times Higher Education rankings say Oxford is still the best university in the world… but the UK performance is the worst in a decade, and there are “clear signs of a UK decline,” according to the publication. There are 11 British Universities in the global top 100 - Edinburgh (29) and Glasgow (84) are the only ones from Scotland. (Mail) (See the full rankings)

📣 Former FBI director James Comey has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of lying to congress in a case that has been demanded by President Donald Trump. Comey’s lawyers are trying to have it thrown out entirely. (Independent)

📣 Traitors returned to our screens last night, in its celebrity guise, and reviews are warm: “it’s still the camp and meanacing show we all know and love” says Katie Rosseinsky in the Independent. Lucy Managan, in the Guardian, says “it’s everything you want from the gameshow” and “at one point, it feels like you’re witnessing the last pure moment in history. Beautiful”. Beware spoilers in the reviews. (Independent) (Guardian) (Mail)

📣 Dolly Parton has responded to concerns about her health: “I’m not dying,” she said. (AP)

SPORT

⚽️ Scotland play tonight, with the first of a crucial World Cup qualification double-header, but you could be forgiven for not knowing, such is the domestic fuss over managerless Rangers and faltering Celtic. Scotland manager Steve Clarke has challenged his stars to “blow Celtic and Rangers off the back pages” with a big performance against Greece tonight. (Daily Record)

• Derby County right back Max Johnston has been called up for the home double-header, with Greece visiting on Sunday. (Scotsman)

⚽️ Rangers will hold talks with Steven Gerrard in London today. (Sun)

⚽️ Gerrard isn’t the only name in the frame: Derek McInnes will cost Rangers £500,000 if they want the Hearts boss as their new manager. (Daily Record)

IDEAS
Peace in the Middle East? Joy and trepidation meet early details of a deal between Israel and Hamas

🗣️ Two years and a day after the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, it appears Israel and Hamas have reached a deal that will end the war in Gaza. The news broke overnight, and details are still emerging, but there appears genuine hope that - after talks apparently stalling - there is a chance of peace emerging from three days of talks at Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian Red Sea resort.

Some key details have been reported across live coverage from the BBC, Guardian, CNN, Al Jazeera and AP.

• Donald Trump claimed “ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon”

• The 20 hostages who are still alive will be released this weekend

• The bodies of hostages who have died will be handed over later.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media, “With God’s help we will bring them all home.” He thanked Trump “from the bottom of my heart” for their commitment “to this sacred mission of freeing our hostages”.

• Trump also said Israel will withdraw its troops to “an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace”. That’s expected to see the IDF withdraw from 70% of Gaza.

• The Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt will open - which will allow aid deliveries, and for Paletinians to enter and exit the enclave.

• Hamas said the deal had come after “responsible and serious negotiations”.

But there are a lot of details still to be worked through. The ceasefire agreement says that 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,700 Gazans detained by Israeli forces since the war began will be released. But a list of all those prisoners has yet to be shared by Israel, and who - exactly - is released could be significant.

One name could be Marwan Barghouti, seen by some Palestinians as a potential future president, but whose release was being seen as a “red line” that Israel would not cross. He’s currently serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail, convicted in 2002 for planning attacks that killed five civilians.

It is not clear, reports the BBC, that his release has been specifically agreed to.

The Jerusalem Post has profiled the four prisoners Hamas would most want freed, including Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamed, who is serving 54 consecutive life sentences for 46 murders.

What follows the initial ceasefire and prisoner exchange will be the next focus. A second phase “would create a technocratic government that rebuilds Gaza while excluding Hamas from power,” says The Economist. An oversight board would be created, chaired by Donald Trump and also featuring Sir Tony Blair.

Peace could mean significant change in the Middle East, with the end of war triggering a change of leadership on both sides: Israel must hold an election within 12 months, and polls suggest Benjamin Netanyahu could leave office, the newspaper says.

But, over the last two years of bloody conflict, public opinion across the Middle East has hardened towards options for long-term peace: the prize of regional security that makes Israel safe, and creates an opportunity to rebuild Gaza, might be a great one, but the path to that outcome remains long and rocky.

👍 That’s your Early Line for the day

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