Israel’s parliament has passed a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks, a measure sharply criticised as discriminatory by European nations and rights groups.

The legislation makes the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed acts of terrorism by a military court.

According to the bill, those sentenced to death will be held in a separate facility with no visits except for from authorised personnel, with legal consultations conducted only by video link. Executions will be carried out within 90 days of sentencing.

Israel has rarely used the death penalty, applying it only in exceptional cases, with the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann the last person to be executed, in 1962.

The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the bill’s strongest backers, has repeatedly worn a noose-shaped lapel pin, symbolising executions under the proposal. He described hanging as “one of the options” alongside the electric chair or “euthanasia”, claiming some doctors had offered to assist.

A security committee made some amendments to the bill, which last week passed its first vote. Israel’s public broadcaster KAN reported that executions would be carried out by hanging.

The measure will allow courts to impose the death penalty without a request from prosecutors and without requiring unanimity, instead permitting a simple majority decision. Military courts in the occupied West Bank will also be empowered to hand down death sentences, with the defence minister able to submit an opinion.

For Palestinians under occupation, the bill closes off avenues for appeal or clemency, while prisoners tried inside Israel could see their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

The legislation, initiated by the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by Ben-Gvir, has drawn sharp criticism from opponents who warn it would mark a significant escalation in Israel’s penal policy.

Military officials and ministries have warned the bill could breach international law and expose Israeli personnel to arrest abroad.

Once enacted, the law formally enters into force but it can still be reviewed – and potentially struck down – by Israel’s supreme court.

Last month UN experts called on Israel to withdraw the bill, warning it would violate the right to life and discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied territories. They said the measure removed judicial discretion, preventing courts from weighing individual circumstances or imposing proportionate sentences. They said hanging constituted torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment under international law.

The EU’s diplomatic service also condemned the proposal, saying capital punishment breached the right to life and risked violating the absolute prohibition on torture.

In February, Amnesty International urged Israeli lawmakers to reject the legislation, which it said “would allow Israeli courts to expand their use of death sentences with discriminatory application against Palestinians”.

On Sunday, Britain, France, Germany and Italy expressed “deep concern” over the legislation, which they said risked “undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles”.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that “all roads lead to higher prices and slower growth worldwide” should the conflict in the Middle East continue to throttle the amount of oil, gas and fertiliser making its way out of the Gulf.

In a stark message that countries on all continents will be affected, the Washington-based organisation said a rise in energy and food costs would harm economic growth this year and could leave lasting scars on the global economy.

Coming only hours after Donald Trump threatened to obliterate Iran’s energy infrastructure unless it agreed to a peace deal, the IMF’s analysis is likely to be viewed as a warning to the White House over the war’s lasting consequences for struggling households.

In a blogpost by the IMF’s main department heads, including the chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF said governments with high levels of borrowing will also have limited access to funds that could be used to cushion the worst effects of the crisis.

“Although the war could shape the global economy in different ways, all roads lead to higher prices and slower growth,” it said.

While some countries that are net exporters of oil and gas, such as the US, will gain from higher fossil fuel prices, the rise in bills for petrol, diesel and food will harm living standards, the analysis found. Businesses are also forecast to come under pressure to raise prices, possibly forcing central banks to raise interest rates to combat inflation.

“A short conflict might send oil and gas prices soaring before markets adjust, while a long one could keep energy expensive and strain countries that rely on imports,” the blogpost warned. “Or the world may settle somewhere in between – tensions linger, energy stays costly, and inflation proves hard to tame – with ongoing uncertainty and geopolitical risk.”

“Much depends on how long the conflict lasts, how far it spreads, and how much damage it inflicts on infrastructure and supply chains,” it said, adding: “Historically, sustained oil‑price spikes have tended to push inflation higher and growth lower.

About a third of fertiliser production travels through the strait of Hormuz, pushing up prices. UN Food and Agriculture Organisation projections indicate that global prices could average 15% to 20% higher in the first half of 2026 if the crisis persists.

Natural gas prices have more than doubled in the UK since last December to about £140 a therm, while a barrel of Brent crude that cost about $60 before the conflict hit more than $116 on Monday before falling back to $112.

Forecasts for sharp rises in the cost of gas and electricity in Europe next winter are forcing governments to consider higher subsidies and welfare payments to the worst-affected households.

The IMF added: “In Europe, the shock is reviving the spectre of the 2021–22 gas crisis, with countries such as Italy and the UK especially exposed by their reliance on gas‑fired power, while France and Spain are relatively protected by their greater nuclear and renewables capacity.”

Laura Dern is taking on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, in a new limited series executive produced by Adam McKay based on journalist Julie K Brown’s work busting open the story.

Dern will play Brown, the Miami Herald investigative reporter on the late, disgraced financier’s tail when no one else was, for the first scripted take on the Epstein case. The screenplay will be based on Brown’s 2021 book Perversion of Injustice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story. Sharon Hoffman, a writer on the 2020 limited series Mrs America, will write the project and serve as co-showrunner with Eileen Myers (The Night Agent, Masters of Sex). McKay, the writer-director of Don’t Look Up and executive producer on the HBO juggernaut Succession, among other credits, will serve as executive producer alongside Dern and Brown.

The as-yet untitled series from Sony Pictures TV will provide “an explosive account of an investigative reporter exposing the secret plea deal between Epstein and federal prosecutors”, according to a logline from Sony. “Drawing from Brown’s experience as a groundbreaking reporter for the Miami Herald, the book and the limited series follow her relentless, years-long investigation that identified 80 victims, persuaded key survivors to go on the record, and led to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrests.”

Brown’s reporting was crucial to bringing public attention on Epstein, who was convicted of sex trafficking in Florida in 2008. In November 2018, the Miami Herald published her three-part series detailing the cozy relationship between prosecutors and Epstein’s lawyers, and the many rich and powerful people who allegedly turned a blind eye turned to Epstein’s abuses of women and girls. The series, based on interviews with 60 women who claimed to be victims of abuse, brought Epstein’s crimes back into the public consciousness, leading to sex-trafficking charges.

The series also led to the resignation of Trump’s then labor secretary Alex Acosta. In the mid-2000s, as the US attorney for Florida’s southern district, Acosta signed off on a non-prosecution agreement that blocked any federal charges from Epstein’s first criminal case. Instead, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges.

Fallout from Brown’s work continues to play out spectacularly in the US, where the justice department still faces calls to release all its documents on Epstein – including his formerly close friendship with Trump – and abroad. In February, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose close association with Epstein led to the stripping of the title Prince Andrew, was arrested in England for possible misconduct as trade envoy for the UK. The arrest followed the disclosure of emails exchanged with Epstein.

Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors. He remains a disgraced figure haunting the Trump presidency, though no allegations against Trump have been substantiated.

The series is still seeking a buyer, and is yet to go into production.