A United Nations-backed body has confirmed there is now famine in Gaza, with more than half a million people in the strip's largest city facing "starvation, destitution and death". The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed the report as an "outright lie". Also: The government seeks the right to appeal against a court ruling preventing it from becoming involved in a case about a hotel housing asylum seekers. And the former Doctor Who star, Noel Clarke, loses a libel action against the Guardian.