Gunshots were fired at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, prompting panic as Secret Service agents leaped on the former US president.

A Secret Service spokesperson said on X that “the former president is safe”, and an investigation was under way.

Trump himself said he was “fine” in a statement and was being checked at a medical facility.

The local district attorney, Richard Goldringer, told NBC News that both the suspected shooter and one spectator were dead Saturday. A third person – a spectator as well – is injured, Goldringer said.

A spokesperson for the former president added that Trump thanked “law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act”.

Video from NBC News captured more than a dozen shots, with later ones apparently coming from agents protecting the president.

A voice could be heard saying: “Get down, get down, get down!” Agents arrived to throw themselves on top of Trump as the gunfire continued and screams were heard from the crowd.

Audio from the network captured agent’s voices saying: “Shooter’s down. Shooter’s down. Are we good to move? We’re clear, we’re clear.”

As agents tried to move Trump off the stage at the rally, he said: “Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes.” Agents can be heard telling the former president: “I got you. Hold on. Your head is bloody. We’ve got to move.”

Trump replied: “Wait, wait.” He then pumped his fist, mouthed the words: “Fight, fight, fight.”

And the crowd at the rally responded with cries of: “USA! USA! USA!”

Armed troops in uniform soon arrived as some spectators shouted abuse at the media.

Agents then whisked Trump away from sight.

Video showed blood on Trump’s ear. There were also snipers on a roof near the stage where Trump was standing, the Reuters news agency reported.

Joe Biden said he was not briefed on the reported shooting. The president spoke to reporters as the he walked out of a church in Delaware.

NBC News, citing two senior law enforcement officials, reported there was growing concern among investigators that the shooting at the Trump rally “may have been a serious attempt on his life”.

One rallygoer who described himself to CBS News as an emergency room physician recounted walking toward a voice saying: “He’s been shot.” The rallygoer, whose shirt was bloodstained, said he saw a man with a bullet wound to the head who had been spun around ended up “jammed between the benches”.

He said he had tried to perform CPR on the wounded man, who at the time was about to be loaded into a medical helicopter.

The scenes from the rally prompted a flood of reactions, including support for Trump from Republican allies such as former president George W Bush as well as US senators Marco Rubio of Florida and JD Vance of Ohio.

Former first lady Laura Bush “and I are grateful that president Trump is safe following the cowardly attack on his life”, Bush said. “And we commend the men and women of the Secret Service for their speedy response.”

Rubio said on X on Saturday: “Praying for president Trump and all those attending the rally in Pennsylvania today.”

And Vance posted on X: “Everyone join me in praying for our president Trump and everyone at that rally. I hope everyone is OK.”

The top Democrat in the US House, Hakeem Jeffries, also offered prayers to Trump.

“I am thankful for the decisive law enforcement response,” Jeffries wrote on X. “America is a democracy. Political violence of any kind is never acceptable.”

Former Democratic president Barack Obama said in a separate statement: “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy. Although we don’t yet know exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former president Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics. Michelle and I are wishing him a quick recovery.”

In a Guardian interview in June, Steve Bannon – a Trump adviser and former White House chief strategist – spoke of his concerns that the Republican nominee would be assassinated before the election in November.

“It’s my number one fear,” Bannon said, speaking before he began a four-month prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena. “Assassination has to be at the top of the list and I believe that the woman that’s running the Secret Service part is not doing her job.”

Referring to the Republican national convention, due to start on Monday, he added: “I’m not comfortable with what’s happening in Milwaukee.” But he added: “His detachment is fantastic.”

Bannon argued that Trump has been portrayed as a new Julius Caesar everywhere from a New York theatre production to an essay by leading scholar Robert Kagan, paving the way for a would-be assassin to feel justified in emulating Brutus. He said Abraham Lincoln received similar treatment after the civil war.

“Remember John Wilkes Booth. In the southern press, and in particular the Richmond papers, Caesar-ism, Lincoln is Caesar, Lincoln is taking your liberties. You fought this war but, even in losing the war, he’s going to take all your liberties and enslave you.”

A shooting occurred at a Donald Trump rally on Saturday, followed by the former president being rushed off the stage with blood around his ear. Here’s what we know about the situation so far.

• Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when loud noises were heard in the crowd around 6.13pm.

• Trump appeared to have been struck by something in the area of his right ear as he was speaking, and videos show him quickly clutching his ear and then ducking down to the ground, as security agents and others leap to his aid.

• Trump stood up with blood on the side of his face and appeared to be saying “fight, fight” while pumping his fist.

• Trump was then quickly escorted from the stage and into his vehicle.

• The rally location is now an active crime scene.

• Trump’s team and the Secret Service confirmed that he was “fine” and being checked at a local medical facility.

• The Butler county district attorney confirmed that the suspected shooter and one rally attendee were dead. Another person at the rally was in serious condition.

Israeli forces say the Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif, the mastermind of the 7 October attack, was the target of a strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, which, according to the territory’s emergency services, has killed 90 people and injured hundreds more.

Deif, 58, who has been on Israel’s most-wanted list since 1995 and escaped multiple Israeli assassination attempts, is believed to be the chief architect of the attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and triggered the Israel-Hamas war.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Rafa Salama, another top Hamas official, was also targeted in the strike. The IDF did not have details on whether the two were killed.

A military official later said they were “still checking and verifying the result of the strike”, and did not deny it took place inside an area the Israeli military had designated as safe for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

“The air force and the southern command attacked, based on accurate intelligence information, in the area where the two top targets of the Hamas terrorist organisation and other terrorists were hiding among civilians,” reads a joint statement released by IDF and Shin Bet intelligence agency. “The area that was attacked is an open and wooded area, with several buildings and sheds.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said: “There is still no conclusive certainty that the two have been foiled, but I want to assure you that one way or another we will reach the top of Hamas.”

Hamas’s deputy leader, Khalil al-Hayya, told Al Jazeera TV that Deif had not been killed in the strikes and, addressing Netanyahu, said: “Deif is listening to you right now and mocking your lies.”

Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that Israel’s strike on a camp for displaced people in Khan Younis killed at least 90 Palestinians and injured 289 others. Residents said they witnessed at least five “big warplanes bombing in the middle of Al Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis”.

Most of the injured were sent to Nasser hospital. However, according to officials and medics, the facility is “no longer able to function” as doctors are “overwhelmed with large numbers of casualties”.

Hamas says that Israeli claims of targeting leaders of the Palestinian militant group are “false” and are aimed at “justifying” the attack.

The Israeli military said its strike on Deif was in a “fenced Hamas area” and that most people there were militants.

Earlier, a senior Hamas official called the Israeli allegations “nonsense”. “All the martyrs are civilians and what happened was a grave escalation of the war of genocide, backed by the American support and world silence,” Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters, adding that the strike showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire deal. He did not confirm whether Deif had been present.

The targeted area of Nus Street contains more than 80,000 displaced people from across Gaza.

Witnesses said ambulances and civil defence crews were targeted after the strike, with a number of hovering Israeli aircraft “shooting and targeting directly at the ambulances and rescue teams upon their arrival”.

The Gaza health ministry said: “The number of the victims is still increasing because bodies are still being recovered beneath the rubble”.

“Rescue teams are still recovering dozens of martyrs and wounded until this moment from the site of bombing and targeting,” reads a statement by the government information office in Gaza. “This massacre comes in conjunction with the lack of hospitals that can receive this large number of martyrs and wounded, and in conjunction with the occupation’s destruction of the health system in the Gaza Strip.”

Not seen in public for years, Deif, known as “guest”, has frequently changed locations to elude Israeli detection. Engaged with Hamas from a young age, the former science student orchestrated a series of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians in the 1990s and then again a decade later.

Speculations suggest that Deif may have been disabled in one of the numerous Israeli attempts on his life, with his spouse and young children having died in a 2014 airstrike.

Referred to by Israeli authorities as “a dead man walking”, Deif’s actual name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri.

On 7 October, Hamas issued a rare voice recording of Deif announcing the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation.

The Saudi channel Al-Hadath reported that Salama, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, was killed in the strike and that Deif was seriously wounded.

The death of Deif could represent a significant victory for Israel and a devastating blow to Hamas. The operation could provide Netanyahu with a potential advantage, as he has made clear his intention to continue the war until Hamas’s military capabilities are destroyed, with Deif’s death being a significant step in that direction.

Saturday’s strikes came as US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators were actively working to narrow the divide between Israel and Hamas in a proposed three-phase ceasefire and hostage release plan.

The talks were halted after three days of intense negotiations failed to produce a viable outcome, two Egyptian security sources said on Saturday, blaming Israel for lacking a genuine intent to reach agreement.

The sources, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the behaviour of the Israeli mediators revealed “internal discord”.

According to the sources, the Israeli delegation would give approvals on several conditions under discussion, but then come back with amendments or introduce new conditions that risked sinking the negotiations.

The sources said the mediators viewed the “contradictions, delays in responses, and the introduction of new terms contrary to what was previously agreed” as signs the Israeli side viewed the talks as a formality aimed at influencing public opinion.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday accused Netanyahu of seeking to block a ceasefire in the Gaza war with “heinous massacres”.

He said Hamas had shown “a positive and responsible response” to new proposals for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange, but “the Israeli position taken by Netanyahu was to place obstacles that prevent reaching an agreement,” Haniyeh said in a statement.

Mohammed Deif is the head of the military wing of Hamas and one of the masterminds of the group’s bloody surprise attack on 7 October which triggered the latest war in Gaza.

Israeli officials said Deif – whose real name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri – was the target of Saturday’s airstrike, which levelled several buildings in Khan Younis and killed 90 people, according to local health authorities.

Experienced, capable and utterly committed to the militant Islamist organisation, Deif has survived at least seven Israeli assassination attempts. The question is whether the 58-year-old has survived an eighth. If Israel has killed such a significant figure, this will be chalked up as a major step towards an increasingly elusive victory.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have so far only said the attack was based on “precise intelligence” and “struck” Deif but not that he is dead.

Deif means “the guest” in Arabic, a nom de guerre he owes to his effort to evade Israeli assassination attempts by moving location almost every night and staying in the homes of supporters of Hamas.

He was born in 1965 in a refugee camp in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza City, one of dozens set up to house some of those Palestinians forced to flee their homes in the wars surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. His family was poor but Deif did sufficiently well at school to study for a degree in sciences from the Islamic University in Gaza, an Islamist stronghold. Deif joined Hamas when it was founded in 1987 in the first months of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

Working closely with Yahya Sinwar, the current leader of Hamas in Gaza, Deif soon showed a talent for military operations and internal security. In 1989, he was arrested by Israel and spent about 16 months in detention. Through the 90s, Deif helped plan and execute suicide bombings in Israel designed to derail the ongoing peace process and avenge assassinations of Hamas leaders.

Deif and Hamas sources say he lost an eye and sustained serious injuries in one leg in one of Israel’s past efforts to kill him. Some say he is confined to a wheelchair; others say this is not true though he has a pronounced limp. His wife, seven-month-old son, and three-year-old daughter were killed by an Israeli airstrike during the war in Gaza of 2014.

In recent years, Deif has overseen Hamas’ efforts both to build more effective rockets in Gaza and the immense tunnel complex across the territory. He is also thought to have been tasked with training the militants who attacked Israel last year, particularly the elite Nukhba forces.

If Hamas’s ability to fire rockets into Israel has been battered during the conflict and many of the Nukhba are dead, the tunnels continue to protect Sinwar and other leaders of the organisation. Israel’s invasion of Gaza has so far killed more than 38,000 according to Palestinian officials and reduced much of the territory to rubble.

Deif is thought to have been directing military operations from the tunnels and, possibly, discreet locations above ground, though he has never been seen.

There are only four known images of Deif: one in his 20s, another of him masked, an image of his shadow, which was used when an audio tape of a speech he made was broadcast on 7 October, and one found by Israel in an intelligence haul of millions of computer files during the invasion.

Israeli security services will now be rushing to confirm Deif’s death. This may take some time, but his passing will be hailed in Israel as a very significant achievement for the Israeli military and will be a welcome boost for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. It would mean two of the three most senior individuals in Hamas in Gaza – described as “dead men walking” by top Israeli officials last year – have now been eliminated. Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’ military wing, was killed in March. Sinwar remains alive.

The fitness instructor Richard Simmons, who rocketed to fame in the 1980s with up-tempo neon-colored exercise videos such as Sweatin’ to the Oldies, has died.

Simmons had just thanked fans on social media for birthday wishes after he turned 76 on Friday. “I never got so many messages about my birthday in my life!” Simmons wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I am sitting here writing emails. Have a most beautiful rest of your Friday.”

ABC News said Simmons’ death was confirmed by his representative on Saturday, following a 911 call made by his housekeeper. It added that Simmons appeared to have died of natural causes, citing police sources.

Born in New Orleans as Milton Teagle Simmons, Simmons rose to fame in the 1970s and captured the zeitgeist in the 1980s through a series of exercise videos, conducted in often lurid outfits. He also opened a number of gyms, promoted a range of products and became an established media presence on TV and radio over the decades.

Having long been the most recognizable face of fitness and healthy living in the US, promoting various weight-loss programs in his often flamboyant style, Simmons also became involved in aspects of political activism, such as his support for non-competitive physical education in public schools.

In the past decade, Simmons had largely retreated from public life. In March, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with skin cancer, underneath his eye. In the same month, he posted on social media that “I am … dying. The truth is we all are dying. Every day we live we are getting closer to our death.”

He later clarified that he was not actually about to die and that he intended to pass on a message for people to embrace life.

Bernie Sanders has offered his backing to Joe Biden, dismissing calls for the man he described as the “most effective president in the modern history of our country” to stand down in the upcoming US presidential election.

Sanders, the totemic progressive US senator, used an opinion piece in the New York Times to endorse Biden, who has come under increasing fire from fellow Democrats over his ability to beat Donald Trump following a disastrous televised debate between the two.

“Despite my disagreements with him on particular issues, he has been the most effective president in the modern history of our country and is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump – a demagogue and pathological liar,” Sanders wrote.

“It’s time to learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite profound political differences, came together this week to soundly defeat rightwing extremism.”

Sanders joins Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another key figure on the left of the Democratic party, in voicing support for Biden, even as upwards of 20 elected Democrats have called for him to step down, citing his apparent frailty during the debate and his tough re-election prospects against Trump.

So far, the only Democratic senator to call for Biden to stand down is Peter Welch who, like Sanders, an independent who largely votes with the Democrats, represents Vermont.

Democrats that have joined a “circular firing squad” need to “stop the bickering and nit-picking” over Biden’s performance, Sanders wrote, and start focusing on Trump’s far greater problems, such as the former president’s felony convictions, him being found liable in a sexual abuse case, his bankruptcies, and what Sanders called “thousands of documented lies and falsehoods”.

“I know: Mr Biden is old, is prone to gaffes, walks stiffly and had a disastrous debate with Mr Trump,” Sanders wrote. “But this I also know: a presidential election is not an entertainment contest.

“Enough! Mr Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate.”

Biden has insisted he will not drop out of November’s presidential election, despite polls showing he is either trailing or level with Trump. Biden said he made a “stupid mistake” of being extremely busy before the debate, including tiring international trips.

“Where’s Trump been?” the president said of his rival. “Riding around on his golf cart? Filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball?”

The speculation over the future of the 81-year-old president’s future has prompted Trump, and his Republican allies, to turn their fire somewhat on Kamala Harris, the vice-president who is considered the most likely replacement for Biden. Trump unveiled a new, derisive nickname for the vice-president, “Laffin’ Kamala”, which he tested at a campaign rally in Florida this week.

In the five months between the end of the Australian Open and the start of Wimbledon, Barbora Krejcikova won just three singles matches. She had fallen into a brutal cycle of illnesses, injuries and pitiful form and, at times, it seemed like there was no way out. She arrived in SW19 with low ­expectations, still just trying to find her feet again.

But things can change so quickly in tennis; just a few key wins can build enough confidence for a player’s game to suddenly flow as if nothing had ever been wrong. That process has played out in full for Krejcikova over the past fortnight and by the time she arrived in her first Wimbledon singles final, she was ready.

After seemingly heading towards being a one-sided rout, the final developed into a tense, brilliant tussle with so much heart before the Czech 31st seed steadied herself and held off a spirited comeback from Jasmine Paolini to close out a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over the No 7 seed.

“I think nobody believes that I got to the final and I think nobody is going to believe that I won Wimbledon,” Krejcikova said. “I still cannot believe it.”

Three years after her shock run to the Roland Garros title, Krejcikova is now a two-time grand slam singles champion. She has already built one of the great doubles – including mixed – résumés of this generation and few active tennis players, male or female, can match her overall grand slam trophy cabinet: Krejcikova is now a 12-time grand slam champion and a three-time Wimbledon champion.

“It’s great that I’m a two-time major champion,” said Krejcikova. “It’s something unbelievable. On the other hand, I’m still the same person. I still love tennis very much. I still want to continue playing tennis well and fight for other tournaments.”

The only other meeting between these finalists had come in the first round of the 2018 Australian Open qualifying tournament, which was won comfortably by Krejcikova although she didn’t reach the main draw. It is a reflection of their late-blooming careers – they are both 28 and were born 17 days apart – that this occasion marked the first time that a grand slam qualifying match had been replicated in a major final.

This time, Krejcikova burst out of the blocks determined to take the first strike immediately and dominate with her forehand while serving brilliantly. Paolini mixed in drop shots, sharp forehand angles and she tried to disrupt Krejcikova’s game but each time she was under pressure, the Czech demonstrated her phenomenal hand skills, resetting countless exchanges with skidding defensive slices before working her way back on top of the point. She eased through the ­opening set.

Instead of crumbling under pressure, Paolini began the second set determined to impose her game on Krejcikova as the Centre Court crowd forcefully cheered her on throughout. She injected more pace into her ground strokes on both wings, found greater depth and began to throw herself into her forehand. The momentum shifted immediately and as the Italian took the initiative, nervous errors flowed from Krejcikova’s racket as a third set beckoned.

With both the momentum and crowd firmly behind her, Paolini opened the third set launching herself into forehands, dominating the neutral rallies and targeting the unravelling Krejcikova backhand. The Czech made up for her tense shot-making by serving immaculately and she built up her confidence by ­breezing through her service games.

By the middle of the third set, Krejcikova had regained enough ­confidence to make her move at 3-3 on Paolini’s vulnerable serve. She finally took back the initiative in the neutral rallies, dominating with her forehand again as she snatched the break.

The brilliant battle ended in a breathless final game as Krejcikova wrestled with her nerves and her backhand, while Paolini fought until the death. After nearly two hours, Krejcikova closed the door on a ­spectacular triumph.

Although Paolini was extremely disappointed, she recognised her undeniable progress. After spending most of her career outside the top 50, this year – which took off with her winning the Dubai 1000 in February – her performances have taken her to heights she could have never ­imagined, with back-to-back major finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. “It’s been an incredible year,” she said. “I’m ­enjoying. I hope to continue like that with this level of tennis. I’m going to try to work to keep this focus, this level.”

This is, of course, a poignant full-circle moment for Krejcikova. She was still hundreds of ranking spots from even competing at Wimbledon in 2014 when she knocked on the door of her compatriot Jana Novotna, the 1998 singles champion, in search of guidance from a home legend.

That meeting would spawn an instant friendship, as Novotna quickly decided to travel and work with her, coaching her until shortly before she died in November 2017. Twenty-six years after Novotna finally won Wimbledon, Krejcikova was tearful as she saw her name engraved on the All England Club’s honours board close to Novotna’s.

“The only thing that was going through my head was that I miss Jana a lot,” she said. “It was just very, very emotional. Very emotional moment to see me on a board right next to her. I think she would be proud. I think she would be really excited that I’m on the same board as she is because Wimbledon was super special for her.”

In the five months between the end of the Australian Open and the start of Wimbledon, Barbora Krejcikova won just three singles matches. She had fallen into a brutal cycle of illnesses, injuries and pitiful form and, at times, it seemed like there was no way out. She arrived in SW19 with low ­expectations, still just trying to find her feet again.

But things can change so quickly in tennis; just a few key wins can build enough confidence for a player’s game to suddenly flow as if nothing had ever been wrong. That process has played out in full for Krejcikova over the past fortnight and by the time she arrived in her first Wimbledon singles final, she was ready.

After seemingly heading towards being a one-sided rout, the final developed into a tense, brilliant tussle with so much heart before the Czech 31st seed steadied herself and held off a spirited comeback from Jasmine Paolini to close out a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over the No 7 seed.

“I think nobody believes that I got to the final and I think nobody is going to believe that I won Wimbledon,” Krejcikova said. “I still cannot believe it.”

Three years after her shock run to the Roland Garros title, Krejcikova is now a two-time grand slam singles champion. She has already built one of the great doubles – including mixed – résumés of this generation and few active tennis players, male or female, can match her overall grand slam trophy cabinet: Krejcikova is now a 12-time grand slam champion and a three-time Wimbledon champion.

“It’s great that I’m a two-time major champion,” said Krejcikova. “It’s something unbelievable. On the other hand, I’m still the same person. I still love tennis very much. I still want to continue playing tennis well and fight for other tournaments.”

The only other meeting between these finalists had come in the first round of the 2018 Australian Open qualifying tournament, which was won comfortably by Krejcikova although she didn’t reach the main draw. It is a reflection of their late-blooming careers – they are both 28 and were born 17 days apart – that this occasion marked the first time that a grand slam qualifying match had been replicated in a major final.

This time, Krejcikova burst out of the blocks determined to take the first strike immediately and dominate with her forehand while serving brilliantly. Paolini mixed in drop shots, sharp forehand angles and she tried to disrupt Krejcikova’s game but each time she was under pressure, the Czech demonstrated her phenomenal hand skills, resetting countless exchanges with skidding defensive slices before working her way back on top of the point. She eased through the ­opening set.

Instead of crumbling under pressure, Paolini began the second set determined to impose her game on Krejcikova as the Centre Court crowd forcefully cheered her on throughout. She injected more pace into her ground strokes on both wings, found greater depth and began to throw herself into her forehand. The momentum shifted immediately and as the Italian took the initiative, nervous errors flowed from Krejcikova’s racket as a third set beckoned.

With both the momentum and crowd firmly behind her, Paolini opened the third set launching herself into forehands, dominating the neutral rallies and targeting the unravelling Krejcikova backhand. The Czech made up for her tense shot-making by serving immaculately and she built up her confidence by ­breezing through her service games.

By the middle of the third set, Krejcikova had regained enough ­confidence to make her move at 3-3 on Paolini’s vulnerable serve. She finally took back the initiative in the neutral rallies, dominating with her forehand again as she snatched the break.

The brilliant battle ended in a breathless final game as Krejcikova wrestled with her nerves and her backhand, while Paolini fought until the death. After nearly two hours, Krejcikova closed the door on a ­spectacular triumph.

Although Paolini was extremely disappointed, she recognised her undeniable progress. After spending most of her career outside the top 50, this year – which took off with her winning the Dubai 1000 in February – her performances have taken her to heights she could have never ­imagined, with back-to-back major finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. “It’s been an incredible year,” she said. “I’m ­enjoying. I hope to continue like that with this level of tennis. I’m going to try to work to keep this focus, this level.”

This is, of course, a poignant full-circle moment for Krejcikova. She was still hundreds of ranking spots from even competing at Wimbledon in 2014 when she knocked on the door of her compatriot Jana Novotna, the 1998 singles champion, in search of guidance from a home legend.

That meeting would spawn an instant friendship, as Novotna quickly decided to travel and work with her, coaching her until shortly before she died in November 2017. Twenty-six years after Novotna finally won Wimbledon, Krejcikova was tearful as she saw her name engraved on the All England Club’s honours board close to Novotna’s.

“The only thing that was going through my head was that I miss Jana a lot,” she said. “It was just very, very emotional. Very emotional moment to see me on a board right next to her. I think she would be proud. I think she would be really excited that I’m on the same board as she is because Wimbledon was super special for her.”

A court in Pakistan has acquitted the former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife on charges of unlawful marriage, just a day after his party won the majority of reserved seats in the supreme court.

Syed Zulfi Bukhari, an adviser to Imran Khan on international affairs and media, said: “The court has not only thrown out the case but the judge has ordered for the immediate release of Imran Khan and his wife.”

Bukhari said there is not a single pending case against Khan to keep him in prison. Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party asked for the immediate release of Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi.

Khan and Bibi were sentenced to seven years days before the general elections in February by a local court in Pakistan, which found them guilty of breaking Islamic law and failing to observe the required interval between Bibi’s divorce and their marriage.

Khan was sentenced in four big cases including the unlawful marriage and another involving allegations of leaking state secrets and has been imprisoned since last August. He has been acquitted in all cases or granted bail.

Khan’s supporters and close aides were celebrating the acquittal of the unlawful marriage allegations, known as the Iddat case, hoping it would pave the way for his release. But minutes after Khan’s acquittal order, local media reported that an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan had issued written orders for the arrest and questioning of Khan in cases related to 9 May violence during his arrest last year.

Soon after his arrest, violence erupted across Pakistan when Khan’s supporters attacked military installations and buildings in protest. Khan has been accused of being the mastermind of the unrest.

Bukhari said: “Now all of sudden we are just hearing that Khan has to be questioned in cases related to 9 May violence and also his wife in a corruption case. It is a mockery of justice but we know these fake cases won’t stand in the court of law.

“The courts are releasing Imran Khan but the administration and military establishment are putting fake cases one after another to put him in prison. Why were these cases not brought before?”

Khan had accused Pakistan’s powerful military and its chief of harbouring a personal grudge against him and ordering his arrest. For decades, Pakistan has been ruled by military dictators, and the powerful military still plays a huge role in politics.

Fawad Chaudhry, the former information minister and a former close aide of Khan, said he is behind bars because of politics not criminal activity.

“[The] arrest of Imran Khan is [a] continuation of [a] political vendetta against Pakistan’s most popular political leader,” Chaudhry said. “The authorities are too scared of freeing Imran Khan hence [a] series of fake criminal cases are put together to keep him in jail.”

Zahid Hussain, a political analyst and author, said Khan’s acquittal in the Iddat case was very much expected as it was frivolous and had no legal standing.

Hussain said: “It was also expected that the military establishment does not want Khan to be out of prison and he will be arrested in another concocted case. But it will not be easy for the military to keep Khan in the prison for quite long now as the judiciary is asserting itself, we have seen yesterday in the major reserved seats case, and the pressure from the military and government is not working.”

Kenyan police said that they had found more bags filled with dismembered female body parts on Saturday, the latest macabre discovery at a rubbish dump that has horrified and angered the country.

Detectives have been scouring the site in the Nairobi slum of Mukuru since the mutilated corpses of at least six women were found on Friday in sacks floating in a sea of garbage.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Saturday said that another five bags had been retrieved from the abandoned quarry, three of them containing female body parts, including severed legs and two torsos.

“We want to assure the public that our investigations will be thorough and shall cover a wide range of areas, including but not limited to the possible activities of cultists and serial killings,” it said in a statement.

Kenya was left reeling last year by the discovery of mass graves in a forest near the Indian Ocean coast containing the bodies of hundreds of followers of a doomsday sect, one of the world’s worst cult-related massacres.

The country’s law enforcement services are also under scrutiny after dozens of people were killed during anti-government demonstrations last month, with rights groups accusing officers of using excessive force and of abducting protesters.

Police on Friday had reported finding bodies of at least six women in Mukuru, while the state-funded police watchdog said nine bodies had been found, seven of them women.

Tensions have been running high at the Mukuru site, with local media reports that police had fired into the air to try to disperse an angry crowd.

The DCI said a team of detectives and forensic experts “were impeded by agitated members of the public from accessing the scene”.

The Independent Police Oversight Authority (Ipoa) on Friday had said that it was investigating whether there was any police involvement in the gruesome saga.

“The bodies, wrapped in bags and secured by nylon ropes, had visible marks of torture and mutilation,” it said, noting that the dumpsite was less than 100 metres from a police station.

The Ipoa also said it was looking into claims of abductions of demonstrators who went missing after the deadly anti-government protests, but did not link those missing to the dumped bodies.

Some people on social media have described them as victims of femicide.

The Kenyan president, William Ruto, on Saturday said there was “no justification” for any Kenyan to lose their life.

“We are a democratic country guided by the rule of law. Those involved in mysterious killings in Nairobi and any other part of the country will be held to account,” he said on X.

Kenya’s feared police force is often accused of extrajudicial killings and other rights abuses, but convictions are rare.

A coalition of civil society and rights groups said the Mukuru discoveries came amid a “troubling surge” in cases of mysterious disappearances and abductions, particularly after the anti-tax protests.

“It represents a grave violation of human rights and raises serious concerns about the rule of law and security in our country,” the coalition said.

National police chief Japhet Koome resigned on Friday after being the target of much public anger over the protest deaths.

Ruto is scrambling to contain the worst crisis of his rule over the deeply unpopular plans for tax hikes, which he has now scrapped.

Crowds that gathered at the dumpsite on Friday chanted “Ruto must go”, the slogan of Gen-Z Kenyans leading the demonstrations that have now morphed into a wider campaign against the president, corruption and alleged police brutality.

On Monday, doomsday cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie went on trial along with 94 co-defendants over the deaths of more than 400 followers he is accused of inciting to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus.

He and his co-accused also face charges of murder, manslaughter and child cruelty in separate cases over what has been dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”.

It has produced one of the most consistent sets of negative results in the history of science. For more than 60 years, researchers have tried to find a single convincing piece of evidence to support the idea that we share the universe with other intelligent beings. Despite these decades of effort, they have failed to make contact of any kind.

But the hunt for alien civilisations may be entering a new era, researchers believe. Scientists with Breakthrough Listen, the world’s largest scientific research programme dedicated to finding alien civilisations, say a host of technological developments are about to transform the search for intelligent life in the cosmos.

These innovations will be outlined at the group’s annual conference, which is to be held in the UK for the first time, in Oxford, this week. Several hundred scientists, from astronomers to zoologists, are expected to attend.

Astronomer Steve Croft, a project scientist with Breakthrough Listen, said: “There are amazing technologies that are under development, such as the construction of huge new telescopes in Chile, Africa and Australia, as well as developments in AI. They are going to transform how we look for alien civilisations.”

Among these new instruments are the Square Kilometre Array, made up of hundreds of radio telescopes now being built in South Africa and Australia, and the Vera Rubin Observatory that is being constructed in Chile. The former will become the world’s most powerful radio astronomy facility while the latter, the world’s largest camera, will be able to image the entire visible sky every three or four nights, and is expected to help discover millions of new galaxies and stars.

Both facilities are set to start observations in the next few years and both will provide data for Breakthrough Listen. Using AI to analyse these vast streams of information for subtle patterns that would reveal evidence of intelligent life will give added power to the search for alien civilisations, added Croft.

“Until now, we have been restricted to looking for signals deliberately sent out by aliens to advertise their existence. The new techniques are going to be so sensitive that, for the first time, we will be able to detect unintentional transmissions as opposed to deliberate ones and will be able to spot alien airport radar, or powerful TV transmitters – things like that.”

The importance of being able to detect civilisations from the signatures of their everyday activities is supported by astrophysicist Prof Adam Frank of the University of Rochester in New York. “By searching for signatures of an alien society’s day-to-day activities – a technosignature – we are building entirely new toolkits to find intelligent, civilisation-building life,” he writes in his new book, The Little Book of Aliens.

All sorts of technosignatures have been suggested as indicators of the presence of alien civilisations, from artificial lighting to atmospheric pollution. Some scientists have even suggested that alien civilisations could be spotted from the solar panels they have built. Solar panels absorb visible light but strongly reflect ultraviolet and infrared radiation, which could be detected using a powerful telescope.

However, this would only be possible to spot if vast tracts of a planet’s surface had been covered in solar farms and hundreds of hours of observing time were committed to such a search, says astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell, writing in the latest edition of the BBC’s Sky at Night magazine.

Other alien efforts to trap solar radiation could be even more elaborate and conspicuous, however. The US physicist Freeman Dyson once proposed that some civilisations might be advanced enough to build vast arrays of solar panels encircling their home stars. These great orbiting edifices – known as Dyson spheres – would be detectable from Earth, and several candidates have been proposed, including Boyajian’s star, in the constellation Cygnus, whose output of light is sporadic and unpredictable. Some suggested this could be being caused by a Dyson sphere, though recent observations have ruled out the possibility.

The hunt for alien civilisations has been a cornerstone of cinematic sci-fi spectaculars from E.T. to Contact, Arrival and District 9. However, extraterrestrial life forms have remained the stuff of fiction, despite efforts which began in earnest in 1960 when astronomer Frank Drake used a 26-metre radio telescope to search for possible signals from the stars Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. None were detected – a state of affairs that has continued despite vast increases in the power and sophistication of modern telescopes.

Whether this stream of negative results continues remains to be seen. Croft remains optimistic that we will soon succeed in making contact. “We know that the conditions for life are everywhere, we know that the ingredients for life are everywhere.

“I think it would be deeply weird if it turned out we were the only inhabited planet in the galaxy or in the universe. But you know, it’s possible.”

Every day for the last two weeks, Johannes-Harm Hovinga has sat at a raised table in Museum Arnhem, using a two-hole page puncher to systematically perforate the 7,705-page sixth assessment report produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

He has printed it out on coloured paper and the result is a vibrant heap piling up at the artist’s feet.

Hovinga remains completely silent during each performance in the Netherlands-based museum. He drinks water, but doesn’t eat, with bathroom breaks his only intermission.

“We are at a crucial turning point in history,” says Hovinga, “where the consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly evident. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and microplastics are just some examples of what our planet faces.”

The artist calls his living piece The Elephant in the Room. It is an artistic protest, meant to illustrate the lack of urgency by policymakers and global leaders. Hovinga believes in the power of creative expression to help raise awareness and persuade people to take a stand.

“The changing political landscape in Europe makes the work more relevant than ever. As humans, we are exhausting the Earth. Our current system of consumption is not sustainable. We need change, especially in our western world.

“For me, art and activism are symbiotic. The performance challenges each of us to confront our role in the climate crisis and encourages a renewed commitment to meaningful change.”

Hovinga’s artistic protest will last 20 days in total. By the end of it, he will have punched holes for 120 hours, at a physical and mental cost. “It’s getting harder to sit in silence concentrating on the same repetitive motion. I didn’t expect it to be so intense. After two days, my back, neck, elbows and wrists all started to hurt. I’ve been taking painkillers daily since the second week.”

Even so, he remains committed, accepting that change often comes with discomfort and sacrifice. For Hovinga, the most rewarding part is seeing the public reaction.

“Visitors have left me notes thanking me,” he says. “One day, two students from the art school next door waited until the museum closed so they could speak with me. I didn’t expect the reaction to be so positive. People see the layers of pain and are touched by it.”

However, Hovinga has had the odd negative response: “I’ve been called a WEF [World Economic Forum] puppet. Online, someone threatened to come and disrupt the performance. But that’s also fine because it still makes people reflect.”

Saskia Bak, the director at Museum Arnhem, says: “It’s crucial to showcase different perspectives on current topics, so we team up with artists not typically seen in museums. We highlight issues that are relevant in society, such as climate change. Johannes-Harm Hovinga’s performance fits perfectly.”

Of the audience reception, she says: “It’s been overwhelmingly positive. Some viewers get quite emotional during the performance, while others have applauded Hovinga for tearing up the nonsense that is the IPCC report.”

The hole-punching part of Hovinga’s art will wrap up on 14 July, after which the confetti installation will remain dispersed for two weeks. “After that, I will come back and clean in silence,” says Hovinga.

Having already staged a pilot version of Elephant in the Room for 11 days in 2022, during which he invited viewers to join him in the hole punching, the artist next plans to recreate the act during Cop29 in November.

In the long run, he hopes to take the performance across Europe, presenting his live art in museums and public spaces.

The legendarily frank sex therapist and cultural icon Dr Ruth Westheimer, known simply as Dr Ruth, has died at the age of 96, according to her publicist.

Westheimer died on Friday at her home in New York City, surrounded by her family.

Her training and expertise and her humorous, accepting manner contrasted with her high-pitched German accent and diminutive frame (she was 4ft 7in), a juxtaposition that helped to catapult her local radio program, Sexually Speaking, into the national spotlight in the early 1980s.

She later parlayed its success into a television career that was even more successful. The Dr Ruth Show attracted more than 2 million viewers a week by 1985. On the show, Westheimer used humor, warmth and occasional seriousness in her attempts to explore sex and to break various taboos, including on contraception and abortion.

She recalled her rise to the public spotlight in a 2016 interview with Harvard Business Review, explaining that simply asking her radio listeners to send in questions was the beginning of the spark.

“After a while we had thousands of letters, and the station gave me two hours, 10 PM to 12 AM every Sunday – and I did that for 10 years.”

“Get some” quickly became Westheimer’s catchphrase. She had a nonjudgmental attitude and advocated safe sexual practices. What she wanted was for audiences to talk about sex, particularly issues that were previously too embarrassing or politically risky to discuss.

“I still hold old-fashioned values and I’m a bit of a square,” she told students at Michigan City high school in 2002. “Sex is a private art and a private matter. But still, it is a subject we must talk about.”

In addition to radio appearances, Westheimer appeared on various talk shows including the Howard Stern Radio Show, Nightline, The Tonight Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Late Night With David Letterman.

In 2019, a Hulu documentary called Ask Dr Ruth aired. The film, which has the same name as Westheimer’s 1987 late-night syndicated TV series, features Westheimer’s reflections on her life and career.

Throughout her life, Westheimer also published more than 40 books, including the bestsellers Sex for Dummies, Dr Ruth’s Encyclopedia of Sex and her memoir, All in a Lifetime.

Speaking to the Guardian in 2012, Westheimer said her introduction to sex was from a book called The Ideal Marriage by Theodor Hendrick van de Velde.

“My parents had hidden it in a bookcase and I knew where the key was. I was short – I’m only 4ft 7in now – so I climbed up and found the book, but at that point I didn’t know that I was going to end up working in family planning or make 450 television programmes talking about sex,” she said.

Born in 1928, Westheimer grew up as a German Jew in Frankfurt. In 1939, Westheimer was separated from her family at 10 years old when Nazis raided her home and took her father away. A few weeks later, Westheimer’s mother sent her to an orphanage in Switzerland.

“I will never know how come my name was on the list for Switzerland because if I had been sent to Holland, Belgium or France I would be one of the statistics of one and half million Jewish children who perished. Instead I was in Switzerland with all of the uncertainties of not knowing where my parents were and what was happening,” Westheimer told the Guardian.

Speaking about her time at the orphanage, Westheimer said: “I was left with a feeling that because I was not killed by the Nazis – because I survived – I had an obligation to make a dent in the world.

“What I didn’t know was that that dent would end up being me talking about sex from morning to night.”

Westheimer was 16 when she went on to join the Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary organization, in Jerusalem. During her training, she said she learned to shoot by imagining Adolf Hitler as her target.

She was wounded in the legs during a bombing and was only able to walk and ski again through the work of a “superb” surgeon, the Associated Press reported.

“I learned to assemble a rifle in the dark and was trained as a sniper so that I could hit the center of the target time after time,” she wrote in a 2010 New York Times op-ed that advocated for women in combat.

In 1950, Westheimer met her first husband and together they moved to Paris, where she studied psychology at Sorbonne University. In 1955, the couple divorced and a year later Westheimer moved to New York with a French man with whom she had a daughter, Miriam.

Following her divorce from her second husband, Westheimer met her third husband, Manfred Westheimer, in 1961. Together, they had a son called Joel and stayed married for 36 years until he died in 1997 from heart failure.

Over the years, Westheimer taught at multiple universities including Lehman College in the Bronx, Columbia University’s Teachers College and Yale University.

At one point, Westheimer worked at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Harlem, where she collected data on 2,000 women’s histories surrounding contraception and abortion, the Wall Street Journal reported. She went on to use the research to write her dissertation at Columbia University in 1970.

Recalling her time at the clinic, Westheimer told the outlet: “I thought these people are crazy … They talk only about sex. They don’t talk about literature, not about the weather, not about philosophy – nothing! But very fast, I said ‘Oops! That’s a very interesting subject matter.’”

“People are not Siamese twins,” she told the Guardian in 2019. “They don’t want to have sex, or the same amount of sex, at the same time. The important thing is that a couple adjusts to it.”