More than 100 aid agencies, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Oxfam, say ‘our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away’

Irish premier Micheál Martin on Tuesday called for the war in Gaza to end, describing the images of starving children as “horrific”. Mr Martin called for a surge in humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza.

In a post on X, he said:

The situation in Gaza is horrific.

The suffering of civilians and the death of innocent children is intolerable.

They wear traditional dress, play ancient melodies on violins and accordions, but the women of this island outpost ensure that it is more than just a living museum

“Welcome to Kihnu. We are not a matriarchy,” says Mare Mätas as she meets me off the ferry. I’ve stepped on to the wild and windswept Kihnu island, which floats in the Gulf of Riga off Estonia’s western coast like a castaway from another time. Just four miles (7km) long and two miles wide, this Baltic outpost is a world unto itself that has long been shielded from the full impact of modernity, a place where motorbikes share the road with horse-drawn carts, and women in bright striped skirts still sing ancient sea songs. But Kihnu is no museum – it’s a living, breathing culture all of its own, proudly cared for by its 650 or so residents.

Mare, a traditional culture specialist and local guide, promptly ushers me into the open back of her truck and takes me on a whistlestop tour of the island, giving me a history quiz as we stop at the museum, the lighthouse, the cemetery and the school.

• All the latest news and reaction from Switzerland

• Top scorers | Player guide | Mail Tom

Now for something completely different: this week’s Knowledge has dropped, looking at long gaps between top-flight derbies, odd trophies, players scoring more for their countries than clubs and more.

Some reactions from within the England camp. Sarina Wiegman has described this run as “like a movie.I feel relieved, happy, it feels a bit surreal making a final again but we’re here, and now we need to recover a bit”. Asked what the secret to her tournament success is, she replied: “I’m the lucky one to work with so many good people, good players, good staff, but I also I think I’m always myself.”

FRC examines whether accounting firm ‘gave sufficient consideration to risk of non-compliance with laws’

The accounting firm Deloitte is under investigation by the sector regulator over eight years of its audits into the FTSE 100 commodities and the mining company Glencore and a UK subsidiary.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it was looking into whether Deloitte’s audits of Glencore and its subsidiary Glencore Energy UK for the financial years ending 2013 to 2020 “gave sufficient consideration to the risk of non-compliance with laws and regulations”.

Plus: Isaac Price’s strange goalscoring record, strange trophies and who remembers Rodrigo Defendi?

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Paris FC’s promotion means that Paris will have its first Ligue 1 derby since 1978-79. Is there any European city that has had a longer gap between top-flight derbies?” queries Steve Whittaker from Frankfurt (which hasn’t had a top-flight derby in the Bundesliga era).

We’ve touched on this before, many years ago, when we found a 44-year gap between the meeting of Hertha Berlin and FC Union and a 48-year wait for FSV v Eintracht in Steve’s home city. However both derbies reconvened in the second tier and don’t count here. So it is well worth us having a drill down into some top-flight derby deserts. The 46-year wait for Paris bragging rights to be earned is indeed a long one, particularly for a capital city.

Valencia had no derby between Valencia and Levante in La Liga between 10 January 1965 and 8 January 2005 (40 years).

Berlin had no Bundesliga derby between 1977 (Hertha Berlin v Tennis Borussia Berlin) until 2019 (Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin – 42 years). There were Berlin derbies in the old East German league, but teams from West Berlin would not have been able to participate in those.

Cologne has no league derby since 1974 (FC Köln v Fortuna Köln) but those two did meet in the 1982 DFB Pokal Cup, but that doesn’t count. So the gap is active at 51 years.

Finally, Naples has never had a Serie A derby at all. To get close to one, you need to venture back to the pre-Serie A days of 1921 when the Italian Championship involved a series of mini-leagues leading to a final round-robin. In the last round before it entered the final phase in 1921, three teams from Naples played each other in a mini league – Bagnolese, Internazionale Napoli, and Naples Foot-Ball Club. Bagnolese have since dissolved, and the other two merged in 1926 to form what is now Napoli. So that could be 105 years and counting.

A sense of menace hangs over a couple’s attempt to make a fresh start in lakeside seclusion, but the tensions too often sputter out

Thomas McMullan’s debut novel, The Last Good Man, was a darkly unsettling post-apocalyptic fable about moral puritanism and the perils of mob rule. Set in an isolated Dartmoor village, it was commended by Margaret Atwood as “a Scarlet Letter for our times” and won the Betty Trask prize. His follow-up, Groundwater, opens in similar style, with its protagonists fleeing a city in favour of rural seclusion, but this time his story is rooted in a more prosaic and recognisable present.

An unexpected inheritance has spurred John and Liz to trade in their rented flat in London for a remote house by a lake. After years of trying unsuccessfully for a baby, their relationship strained, both hope that the change will shift something inside them. Meanwhile, though most of their furniture is yet to arrive, they must prepare the house for Liz’s sister Monica and her family, who have invited themselves to stay.