Donald Trump recounted the attempt on his life in dramatic detail as he formally accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday evening in Milwaukee in a speech that began with a call for unity and then turned into meandering attacks on his political rivals.

“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump said to an electrified crowd at the Fiserv Forum. Speaking in a subdued, quiet tone, Trump called his survival a “providential moment” and said: “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.”

“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” he said at the start of his speech, which lasted around 91 minutes. He was interrupted by chants of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” from the audience.

Trump went on to kiss the helmet and embrace the uniform of Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who was killed as he shielded his family as Trump was shot at in Butler Township, Pennsylvania.

But that tone ended shortly after.

Trump went on to attack Democrats over the numerous criminal cases that he faces. “The Democrat party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponents as an enemy of democracy, especially since that is not true,” he said.

“If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch-hunts.”

Improvising and moving away from prepared remarks, he went on to label Nancy Pelosi “crazy”. And he falsely accused Democrats of cheating in the 2020 election – a topic that speakers during the previous week nearly avoided entirely as they looked towards the next election. “The election result we’ll never let that happen again. They used Covid to cheat.”

At one point in his speech Trump declared: “I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.” Trump and allies unsuccessfully sought to overturn legitimate election results in several swing states in 2020 and stop congressional efforts to certify the vote. He faces criminal charges both in Georgia and the federal system for those efforts.

Trump promised to lower inflation and “end every single international crisis”, without mentioning anything specific about how he would do so other than drilling for oil and closing the border.

“If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it. The 10 worst. Added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done,” he said, pledging to only use the president’s name once in his speech.

Much of his convention speech resembled the freewheeling stump speeches Trump has become known for. He pledged “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country” while reciting falsehoods about who was coming into the United States. Claiming that countries were emptying asylums to send people to the US, Trump veered into a bizarre segue about Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal villain from the film Silence of the Lambs.

“Has anyone seen Silence of the Lambs, the late great Hannibal Lecter, he’d love to have you for dinner,” Trump says.

He lied about crime levels – claiming crime was rising when it is actually falling.

Mark Boldger, a Texas delegate, told the Guardian he thought Trump was off his usual rhetorical track. “He was all over the place,” said Boldger. “I think he might’ve put a few people to sleep tonight and I don’t like that. I don’t think he worked the crowd into the fever he normally does.”

The shooting, Boldger speculated, “really shook him up”.

The speech capped off a four-day coronation of his candidacy that showcased the complete control he has over the Republican party. Thursday evening, like the rest of the convention, was an event in which Trump and his campaign tried at every turn to project machismo.

Trump entered the convention hall on Thursday to a thumping rendition of AC/DC’s Back in Black. He was preceded on the stage by the wrestler Hulk Hogan – whose real name is Terry Bollea – who tore open his shirt to reveal a Trump campaign shirt underneath. Dana White, the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, introduced Trump.

Melania Trump, who has rarely been seen or heard from in public, received loud cheers as she entered the convention floor to classical musical. JD Vance, the Ohio senator who Trump tapped to be his running mate, watched the speech in a VIP box with his wife, Usha. Trump thanked several other people who spoke at the convention before acknowledging his new running mate.

At the end of his speech, Trump returned to the teleprompter script, and to the shooting in Butler in which he nearly lost his life. “If the events of last Saturday make anything clear, it is that every single moment we have on earth is a gift from God,” he said.

He ended on a central promise of Trumpism, pledging that it would be easy to improve America quickly.

“No one will ever stop us,” he said. “Quite simply put, we will very quickly make America great again.”

Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chair, said: “President Biden is running on a different vision. He’s running for an America where we defend democracy, not diminish it. Where we restore our rights and protect our freedoms, not take them away. One where we create opportunities for everyone, while making the super wealthy finally pay their fair share. That is the future President Biden believes in and is the future that millions of our fellow Americans believe in too. The stakes have never been higher.”

Alice Herman contributed reporting

As Donald Trump recounted the terrifying moment when a would-be assassin attempted to kill him on Saturday, the adoring audience at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee hung on his every word. Trump then accepted the Republican presidential nomination for the third time with a momentary message of unity, calling on the country to come together in the wake of the violent attack.

“As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny,” Trump said on Thursday night. “We rise together or we fall apart. I am running to be president for all of America.”

Then Trump, as he so often does, stepped on his own message. Often veering away from his prepared remarks displayed on a teleprompter, Trump peppered his speech with interjections about the former Democratic House speaker (“crazy Nancy Pelosi”) or a hated news program (“De-Face the Nation”).

While promising to “make America great once again”, he painted a picture of an American hellscape under Joe Biden’s leadership, torn apart by “a devastating inflation crisis” and “a massive invasion on our southern border”. And even though past convention speakers largely avoided litigating the results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump couldn’t help himself, accusing Democrats of having “used Covid to cheat”.

The speech reflected a pattern that played out again and again over the course of the week in Milwaukee, as Republicans tried to project a message of unity with decidedly mixed success. Trump’s newly minted running mate, the Ohio senator JD Vance, preached a message of economic opportunity for all as convention attendees waved signs reading: “Mass deportation now!” Nikki Haley emphasized the need for Republicans to build a big-tent party based on decency just before Ron DeSantis stepped up to sneer at Biden’s “Weekend at Bernie’s” presidency.

The conflicting messages foreshadowed the weighty task that Republicans face looking ahead to November, even with an edge in the polls; they must reach out to independent voters, many of whom disapprove of both the major presidential candidates, without alienating the hard-right loyalists who elevated Trump to his third nomination.

In an implicit acknowledgment of that dual task, many of Trump’s most controversial opinions received little air time over the first three days of the convention. Mentions of election denialism, pardons for January 6 insurrectionists and Trump’s criminal cases were few and far between – even as the nominee himself could not resist attacking the “fake documents case” and the “partisan witch-hunts”. They also avoided mentions of pressing issues like abortion access, the climate crisis and gun safety, all of which are sure to be a primary focus at the Democratic convention in Chicago next month.

Instead, many speakers attempted to paint a softer picture of Trump. Family members, friends and former colleagues described Trump, who was recently convicted on charges related to paying hush money to his alleged mistress, as a devoted family man. They praised the former president, who infamously boasted about his tendency to “grab ‘em by the pussy,” as a champion of women in the workplace.

The message was clear: forget what those awful Democrats have told you, the speakers said. This benevolent, innocent and powerful man is a paragon of good virtue who absolutely can – and should – be trusted with another four years in the White House, they argued.

The argument relies on a certain amount of amnesia of Trump’s chaotic first term, which often saw the then president firing members of his cabinet by tweet or musing about buying Greenland. But it would seem that a sort of national forgetfulness has already started falling over Trump’s years in office; a growing number of Americans now say that he left the nation better off, even though his presidency ended when the country was still in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic.

Somehow – after four criminal indictments, two impeachments and one failed assassination attempt – Trump is not only still standing but is now the favorite to win the presidential election in November.

The attendees of the Republican convention this week appeared optimistic and even relaxed, a mood that may reflect their confidence heading into the final stretch of election season. As “everyday American” speakers praised Trump’s policies on everything from the economy to foreign policy, convention-goers seemed secure in the knowledge that the man they view as a savior would soon return to the nation’s highest office.

Democrats have spent recent months trying to remind voters of the chaos that defined Trump’s presidency, but that argument has been somewhat undermined by the drama now encircling Biden’s campaign. Since Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month, more than 20 Democratic members of Congress have called on him to withdraw from the presidential race, with the Montana senator Jon Tester joining their ranks just moments before Trump took the stage on Thursday.

As Biden quarantines in his home state of Delaware after testing positive for Covid (again), it remains deeply unclear whether he will be the Democrat facing off against Trump in November. Those questions overshadowed much of the Republican convention this week, and they bolstered Republicans’ efforts to present themselves as the more unified and organized party.

If Republicans can maintain that image through the next four months, they might see an overwhelming victory in November. But if the past week has taught Americans anything, it’s that much can change in just a short time.

For all the claims from his supporters that surviving an assassination attempt had left Donald Trump a “changed” man, one more softened and spiritual, the Trump who accepted his party’s nomination on Thursday night was deeply familiar: same divisive rhetoric, same divisive policies.

But the Republican crowd that surrounded Trump was certainly cheerful and energized. “I have never been to a more fun convention, or a convention with better vibes,” the ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson told them, and his unscripted comments seemed to capture a real mood. Biden and the Democrats are foundering, Trump narrowly survived a terrifying attack, and Republicans appear to believe that Trump has already won the election.

Here are five takeaways from the night:

The first day of the Republican national convention featured an unexpected guest speaker on the schedule: Amber Rose, a model, reality star and former girlfriend of Kanye West.

“The truth is the media has lied to us about Donald Trump,” she said during her five-minute address to the audience. “I believed the leftwing propaganda that Donald Trump was a racist … Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay or straight. It’s all love.”

Hers was a common refrain espoused throughout the past week, with politicians extolling Trump’s virtues and touting conservative ethics. The names and faces used to push this party line, however, are becoming increasingly diverse, with a bevy of Black and brown public figures leading the charge. On the same day as the remarks from Rose, who describes herself as a person of multiracial heritage, the Michigan congressman John James took to a podium in Milwaukee, proclaiming: “If you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you ain’t Black.”

James is part of a roster of Black and brown Republican convention speakers enlisted to help the party prove Trump isn’t a racist. Despite the former president’s history of anti-Black and xenophobic legislation, as well as his recent conviction for 34 felonies, politicians were out in droves in Milwaukee to brand Trump as the vanguard of a diverse, united Republican party who advocates for the working class.

At an event billed as “Republican Lawmakers Honor African American RNC Delegates”, speakers included the South Carolina senator Tim Scott, the Florida congressman Byron Donalds, the Utah congressman Burgess Owens and the Texas congressman Wesley Hunt. Other politicians of color showed their kinship as well: Virginia’s Republican candidate for Senate, Hung Cao, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Nikki Haley. The extensive lineup is the party’s most visibly diverse schedule to date – strategically aiming to rebrand the right as a party of racial unity.

As tensions surrounding the upcoming election reach a fever pitch, Black and brown figures, entertainers and celebrities are being trotted out by the Republican party to push a sensationalist narrative of race-blind coalition building. Just this past May, the Brooklyn drill rappers Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow made appearances at a Trump rally in the Bronx, an effort coordinated by the Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland, who is reportedly helping Trump with outreach to rappers. The St Louis rapper Sexyy Redd has notoriously structured her entire tour aesthetic around the Trump campaign, with imagery and merchandise featuring large red hats and the messaging “Make America Sexyy Again”.

Her bit extends further – in a 2023 interview on Theo Von’s podcast, This Past Weekend, the 26-year-old rapper expressed her affinity for the scandal-plagued Republican nominee. “I like Trump,” Redd said. “Once he started getting Black people out of jail and giving people that free money, aww baby, we love Trump.”

Similar points have been spouted by Black members of the media. Jamil “Mal” Clay, a former co-host of the Joe Budden Podcast and a current co-host of the New Rory & Mal podcast, recently tweeted: “[Trump] was just president and there were no wars and the economy was doing way better than it is now” – a statement that is demonstrably false, but is also a persistent narrative that has proliferated throughout the public.

Rose does not claim to have had her mentality changed by any specific financial incentive – in her speech, she mentions her father, who has long been a devotee of Trump’s movement, being critical in her evolving ideology towards the right. In the time since her public support of the Maga revival, she has publicized her interactions with the embattled former president and his wife Melania, the latest in a series of highly scrutinized appearances from influential celebrities.

Lil Wayne and Waka Flocka Flame have publicly endorsed Trump in recent months. And in January the California legend Snoop Dogg said that he had “nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump” – a stark departure from his comments disavowing the former president just a few years ago.

Beyond a misinterpretation of Trump’s tenure in office, much of the narrative seems predicated on creating a false sense of kinship between Trump’s extensive legal battles and the hyper-criminalization of Black people. During a June trip to Capitol Hill, 50 Cent told reporters that Black men were identifying with Trump “because they got Rico charges [too]”.

It is a strategy that the Trump campaign and Republicans have repeatedly employed as a means to ingratiate themselves with Black voters: taking racist messaging that disavows poor Black people as prone to illegal or dangerous behavior, and suggesting equivalence to Trump’s own criminal charges and convictions. Also in service of its counter-narrative is the GOP’s engagement of everyday citizens such as Madeline Brame, a Black woman who spoke at the convention on Tuesday to blame the New York district attorney, Alvin Bragg, for failing to properly punish her son’s murderers. The tacit implication is that Trump’s tough-on-crime policies will offer relief in Black voters’ daily lives – lives that are assumed to be shrouded in violence – despite reports that over-policing puts Black communities in danger.

Even the recent attempted assassination of Trump is not exempt from such machinations. Not long after the 13 July shooting in Butler county, Pennsylvania, 50 Cent, who famously survived a shooting in which he was hit nine times, placed an edited photo of Trump’s face on the cover of his album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ during a performance that same night. While rumors that 50 Cent planned to appear at the Republican national convention ultimately were proven false, he has continued to use his platform to spread the propaganda of the Trump message.

There are many reasons why Black and brown working-class citizens have felt underserved by the Democratic party – president after president has overpromised and underdelivered on commitments to marginalized communities during each campaign season.

That neglect has created fertile ground for Republicans to traffic in the very identity politics they so often denigrate. The GOP is weaponizing the language and cultural impact of various Black public figures to sell an illusion of investment in Black communities, while neglecting these needs in policy and legislation. It is a clever sleight of hand being executed by Trump’s campaign and a tactic that requires proper cultural ambassadors to make serious inroads. Tragically, the number of Black public figures who are willing to participate in this propaganda seems to be increasing – and voting constituents will need to work harder to separate political reality from such a brazen public rebrand.

Joe Biden has reportedly become more open in recent days to hearing arguments that he should step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate, and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told Democratic colleagues that he could be convinced to leave the race soon.

The Washington Post reported that Pelosi has taken a prominent role in passing messages from House Democrats to the White House, relaying concerns that Biden is incapable of beating Donald Trump in November, and has said she thinks Biden is close to making a decision to end his campaign.

Pelosi has been widely reported as orchestrating the renewed pressure on Biden to give up his re-election bid, which has intensified in recent days after a brief pause following last Saturday’s failed assassination attempt on Trump, to which the president responded with a series of authoritative statements calling for calm.

Though he continues to insist he will be the party’s nominee in November, Biden has reportedly started asking questions about negative polling data and whether the vice-president, Kamala Harris, considered the favourite to replace him if were to withdraw, fares better.

The indications of a possible rethink come after Biden tested positive on Wednesday for Covid-19, forcing him to isolate for several days while curtailing a campaign visit to Nevada that had been part of a drive to show his candidacy was very much alive.

It also coincides with fresh polling data showing that he now trails Trump by two points in Virginia, a state he won by 10 points in 2020, and signals that key Democrats, including Barack Obama, now believe he should stand down.

The Emerson College Polling/Hill survey showed Trump ahead by 45% to 43%, within the margin of error but consistent with a spate of other polls showing that Biden’s support has fallen in swing states since his disastrous showing at last month’s debate in Atlanta.

Biden’s newfound receptivity to at least the possibility of stepping aside represents a shift from the position he adopted at a press conference at last week’s Nato summit in Washington, when he told journalists he would only drop out if polling data showed him “there’s no way you can win”.

“No one’s saying that,” he added.

His willingness to listen to opposing arguments comes after Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, reportedly both told him that it would be in the country’s interest if he stepped aside, ABC reported.

Schumer described the report of his meeting with Biden at the president’s Delaware home last weekend as “idle speculation”, but, tellingly, did not deny its contents.

The Senate leader’s intervention has apparently been influential in delaying a move by the Democratic National Committee to stage an early electronic roll call of delegates that could have started next week and was aimed at locking in the nomination for Biden before next month’s party convention in Chicago. The roll call vote has been pushed by at least a week, giving forces opposed to him running more time to organise.

Pelosi also told Biden in a recent conversation that polls show he cannot beat Trump and that he could wreck the Democrats’ chances of recapturing the chamber in November, according to CNN.

Biden is said to have pushed back during the conversation, insisting – as he has in several Zoom sessions with other Democrats – that he had seen polling data showing he could win.

It is not known if Pelosi had called on the president to stand aside during the talk, which was said to have taken place in the past week.

Adam Schiff, the California congressman who on Tuesday became the latest elected Democrat to urge Biden to stand down, is known to be close to Pelosi.

“The speaker does not want to call on him to resign [as the Democratic nominee], but she will do everything in her power to make sure it happens,” Politico reported one Pelosi ally as saying.

A Washington Post report on Thursday suggested that Obama – for whom Biden served as vice-president – had told allies in recent days that Biden’s path to re-election had greatly diminished and that he needed to reconsider the viability of his campaign.

Obama has spoken to Biden just once since the 27 June debate but he and Pelosi have reportedly shared their concerns privately on the phone. The former president initially tweeted his support for Biden in the immediate aftermath of the debate.

Another key congressman, Jamie Raskin of Maryland – who played a leading role in the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol – added his voice to the pressure with a four-page letter to Biden sent on 6 July comparing him to a tired baseball pitcher and pleading with him to consult with fellow Democrats over whether to continue his campaign, the New York Times reported.

“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics,” wrote Raskin, drawing a comparison with a Boston Red Sox pitcher, Pedro Martinez, whose tired state cost his team a place in the World Series in 2003.

In another ominous sign for Biden, Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the president’s main advisers and a co-chairman of his campaign, has told him that donors have stopped giving money to his campaign.

A Biden adviser told the New York Times that the decision on whether to withdraw from the race boiled down to three factors – polling, money and which states were in play. All three were moving in the wrong direction for Biden, he said.

As renewed speculation about Biden’s thinking intensified on Thursday, his supporters continued to insist that the position was unchanged.

“When it comes to if he’s open or being receptive to any of that, look, the president has said it several times: he’s staying in this race,” Quentin Fulks, the Biden campaign deputy manager, told reporters on the sidelines of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee.

“Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not at the top of the ticket,” he added.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a drone explosion over central Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday that struck buildings, leaving one person dead.

The Israeli military said it believed the drone was Iranian-made and was launched from Yemen.

“An initial inquiry indicates that the explosion in Tel Aviv was caused by the falling of an aerial target, and no sirens were activated. The incident is under thorough review,” the military said in a statement.

It said air patrols had been increased to protect Israeli airspace but it had not ordered new civil defence measures.

The defence minister, Yoav Gallant, vowed to “settle the score” in response to the attack, according to Israeli army radio. His remarks followed a meeting with top military and intelligence officials to assess the incident, which left 10 people wounded.

The Houthis claimed responsibility, saying their “UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] force” attacked “one of the important targets in the occupied Jaffa region, what is now called Israeli Tel Aviv”.

Earlier this month, Israeli forces said they detected a suspected Houthi drone heading towards the Red Sea port of Eilat, which they shot down with a fighter jet.

The Iran-backed group has launched waves of attacks targeting shipping through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, causing major disruption and a precipitous drop in business at the port of Eilat.

The Houthis have said they launched the attacks in response to Israeli attacks on Gaza, which have so far killed more than 38,000 people since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.

The drone attack shook residents of Tel Aviv, undermining a fragile sense of security as Israelis living close to the border with Lebanon increasingly fear incursions by drones or rockets sent by Hezbollah, while communities close to the border with Gaza remain on high alert for sporadic rocket fire.

Footage from the site in Tel Aviv showed broken glass strewn across the pavements as crowds of onlookers gathered near a building bearing blast marks. The site, close to a US embassy annexe, was sealed off by police tape.

Emergency services said the explosion took place at about 3.15am, striking a building in the centre of the city.

“The blast apparently occurred at some altitude,” the Tel Aviv police district commander, Peretz Amar, told the Israeli outlet Haaretz from the scene. “We still do not know what it was. Right now we are clearing the area. There was a lucky escape here.”

Police found a body bearing injuries caused by shrapnel in the building, located on the corner of Ben-Yehuda Avenue and Shalom-Aleichem Street, a spokesperson said.

“The police, along with emergency and rescue forces, discovered a man in his 50s in a nearby building who was found dead in his apartment with shrapnel wounds on his body,” a police statement said.

Residents of central Tel Aviv said they were woken by a loud explosion, while others described suddenly feeling their buildings shake.

“The whole building shook,” a resident named Alon told Haaretz. “My neighbours’ windows shattered so I was sure something had hit the building. It was only when I went outside that I realised that several buildings had been damaged.”

A paramedic with the Magen David Adom emergency services described treating injured people in the street and two in their home. “Shortly afterwards we found the fatality on one of the top floors of an adjacent building. He was in bed and there was shrapnel damage everywhere in his apartment. We had no choice but to pronounce him dead,” he said.

Police and bomb disposal units were deployed to the scene and conducted searches for suspicious objects and additional threats. Police urged residents to “respect safety instructions and not to approach or touch debris or shrapnel that may contain explosives”.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Security services across the Middle East fear the conflict in Gaza will allow Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaida to rebuild across the region, leading to a wave of terrorist plots in coming months and years.

Officials and analysts say there is already evidence of increased Islamic militant extremism in many places, although multiple factors are combining to cause the surge.

In recent months, an IS branch in the Sinai desert has become more lethal, rising attacks by the group in Syria have caused concern, and plots in Jordan have been thwarted.

Turkey made dozens of arrests last month as authorities sought to combat an increased threat from an IS affiliate with a strong presence there, and al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen (al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP) has made a concerted new effort to inspire followers to strike western, Israeli, Jewish and other targets.

Analysts and officials say the new activity is linked to the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas, though widespread economic crisis, instability and continuing civil conflict are also playing an important role.

“Gaza is a source feeding terrorism and radicalisation across the Islamic world. There is a strong emotional reaction,” one informed regional source said. “We are just beginning to feel the heat.”

Tricia Bacon, a terrorism expert at the American University in Washington DC and a former US state department analyst, described the Gaza war as “a seminal cause that will radicalise the next generation of jihadis”.

“We may not see it immediately but we certainly will over the years to come. It has really heightened the terrorism threat,” she said.

The United Nations has published a series of reports drawing attention to efforts by major extremist groups to exploit the war in Gaza to attract new recruits and mobilise existing supporters – despite both al-Qaida and IS repeatedly condemning Hamas as “apostates” for decades.

In February, a UN report, drawing on contributions from intelligence agencies around the world, warned that at least one major al-Qaida affiliate was planning ambitious operations in the Middle East and elsewhere, and had “significantly reinvigorated its media strategy and content, capitalising on international events including … the 7 October attacks to incite lone actors globally”.

Regional officials underlined the effect of months of exposure, 24 hours a day, to images of suffering from Gaza on television and the internet, describing the conflict as a “push factor” encouraging extremist violence across the Middle East and elsewhere.

Mohammad Abu Rumman, an expert in jihadism at the Politics and Society institute in Amman, Jordan, said the region was facing a new wave of radicalisation “because of what is happening in Gaza”.

“This is a huge event and Arab countries are refusing to do anything and there is strong disappointment,” he said.

More than 38,000 people have died in the Israeli offensive launched into Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. About half of those who have been fully identified are women and children. The offensive came after the attacks by Hamas into southern Israel in October in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 250 people.

In Iraq, where ISsis launched its caliphate in 2014, the threat of violent Islamic militancy appears contained but in Syria, it has launched more than 100 attacks on government forces and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) over the past months, with violence peaking in March at levels not seen for several years.

“Daesh [IS] terrorist cells continue in their terrorist operations,” a SDF spokesman, Siamand Ali, said. “They are present on the ground and are working at levels higher than those of previous years.”

In one recent attack, seven Syrian soldiers died after being ambushed by IS in Raqqa province, in northern Syria, with 383 fighters from government forces and their proxy militias now killed since the beginning of the year, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Last month Jordanian security services were alerted to a plot in the country’s capital, Amman, when explosives detonated while being prepared by extremists in a poor neighbourhood of the city. Subsequent raids led to the detention of a network of predominantly young men apparently radicalised by IS propaganda.

Katrina Sammour, an independent analyst in Amman, said Islamic extremist groups were flooding the internet with material, including instructions for bomb-making. “They are capitalising on the anger in Jordan. It is mainly leaderless, but part of an attempt to destabilise the government, the leadership, the state,” she said.

Social and economic conditions in Jordan also play a role. Rumman said: “There is much precarity, a feeling that there is no political hope, very high inflation and a very high rate of youth unemployment. All this is very dangerous.”

The UN report described how “public communications by [IS] … since 7 October” had been focused on “capitalising on the situation in Gaza to mobilise potential lone actors to commit attacks”.

The media strategies followed by IS and al-Qaida differ, underlining continuing disagreement over priorities. IS has remained true to its belief that local regimes should be targeted first, while al-Qaida’s rhetoric still stresses a more global campaign against a “far enemy”, including the US and western powers.

Israel is geographically close and the Palestinian cause – along with the “liberation” of the Islamic holy places in Jerusalem – has long been central to the propaganda of both groups, although not a direct target of their attacks. Both groups have also repeatedly called for violence against Jewish communities around the world.

The UN report warned that that al-Qaida “could exploit the situation [in Gaza] to recover relevance and tap into popular dissent about the extent of civilian casualties, providing direction to those keen to act”.

Al-Qaida has suffered a series of setbacks over recent years, with its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, killed in 2022 and internal divisions over strategy.

Sammour said al-Qaida was targeting young people. One case in Jordan had involved a high achieving 17-year-old from a well-to-do, moderate Muslim family in Amman who was recruited by extremists in just three months; another involved a 13-year-old.

“They are too young to even grow a beard. They are encouraged not to show overt signs of religiosity. It’s like grooming. There is an intent to isolate and control,” she said.

Britain will not help Ukraine hit targets in Russia, the defence secretary has said, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed directly to the cabinet to use British-made weapons more freely.

John Healey did not rule out accepting the Ukrainian president’s request to use British-made missiles against Russian territory, but added that Britain would not be involved in any such attacks.

Healey was speaking hours before Zelenskiy spoke at an extraordinary meeting of the British cabinet on Friday, the first foreign leader to do so in nearly 30 years.

The defence secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re providing weapons to Ukraine for their defence of their sovereign country. And that does not preclude them hitting targets in Russia, but that must be done by the Ukrainians. It must be done within the parameters and the bounds of international humanitarian law.”

Keir Starmer had previously indicated Ukraine would be able to use the Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia, but only for “defensive” purposes. The prime minister said last week: “It is for defensive purposes, but it is for Ukraine to decide how to deploy it for those defensive purposes.”

Zelenskiy will use the cabinet meeting to appeal to ministers to use Storm Shadow missiles against Russian targets. He will also urge ministers to help build up Europe’s defence industrial base, as leaders around the world adjust to the possibility of a second, more isolationist, Trump administration.

The Ukrainian president told the BBC on Thursday night that he thought Starmer would remain as committed to his country’s cause as the previous government had been.

“I don’t think Britain’s position would change,” he said. “But I would like for Prime Minister Starmer to become special – speaking about international politics, about defending world security, about the war in Ukraine.”

Speaking as Donald Trump prepared to give his keynote speech at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, Zelenskiy said dealing with a second Trump administration would be “hard work … But we are hard workers.”

Starmer is expected to promise his Ukrainian counterpart the UK will do more to tackle the growing “phantom fleet” of tankers carrying Russian oil around the world.

The two countries are to sign a defence export support treaty to boost weapons supplies to the battlefield, including a £3.5bn support package for Ukraine’s armed forces.

Healey said: “We’ll also be signing a treaty in Downing Street which makes export finance available to British companies to boost industrial production directed towards Ukraine and also to replenishing our own British stockpiles.

“And that really is a reflection of the fact that this is a war of industrial production, not just a war of forces on the battlefield.”

Starmer and the Irish taoiseach, Simon Harris, have expressed interest in providing bomb shelters for schools after Zelenskiy appealed to European leaders gathered in the UK on Thursday to help protect children returning to school after the summer.

A Russian court is set to announce a verdict and sentence on Evan Gershkovich on Friday afternoon, after an unusually brisk trial that raises hopes of a prisoner swap involving the American journalist.

Earlier on Friday, the prosecution asked for an 18-year jail term for the Wall Street Journal correspondent, on charges of espionage. Gershkovich, 32, has denied the charges. He pleaded not guilty on Friday, according to Russian news agencies.

Gershkovich was arrested while reporting in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg last March, becoming the first US journalist since the cold war to be accused of spying in Russia. He has been held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, but was returned to Yekaterinburg for trial.

Moscow says Gershkovich was collecting secret information about Russia’s military capacities on the orders of the CIA, a claim he, the Wall Street Journal and the US state department have dismissed as ludicrous. He had been granted official accreditation to work as a journalist by the Russian foreign ministry.

“Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan’s immediate release,” the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.

The US embassy in Moscow said: “Regardless of what Russian authorities claim, Evan is a journalist. He did not commit any illegal actions. Russian authorities have been unable to provide evidence that he committed a crime or justification for Evan’s continued detention.”

The trial is being held behind closed doors, which is common in espionage cases. Journalists were allowed briefly into the courtroom when the hearings began last month. Gershkovich, with his head shaved under Russian regulations, smiled and nodded from the defendants’ glass box. The media are expected to be let into the courtroom for the verdict.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claimed on Wednesday that Moscow had “irrefutable evidence” Gershkovich was involved in espionage, but gave no details. Russian authorities have made nothing public that would suggest guilt, and many see the arrest as an attempt to use jailed Americans as bargaining chips in an exchange for Russian intelligence operatives and assassins held in western jails.

The speed of the case, with this week’s hearings brought forward by more than a month and the prosecution racing through witness testimony in one afternoon, may indicate that a long-discussed swap deal is close. Russia usually concludes court proceedings in such instances before a swap.

Vladimir Putin, in an interview in February with the US broadcaster Tucker Carlson, said discussions on a swap were under way. “The special services are in contact with one another. They are talking … I believe an agreement can be reached,” the president said.

He hinted that Russia would like to exchange Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, who is serving time in a German jail for assassinating a Chechen exile in Berlin in 2019.

A Russian court is set to announce a verdict and sentence on Evan Gershkovich on Friday afternoon, after an unusually brisk trial that raises hopes of a prisoner swap involving the American journalist.

Earlier on Friday, the prosecution asked for an 18-year jail term for the Wall Street Journal correspondent, on charges of espionage. Gershkovich, 32, has denied the charges. He pleaded not guilty on Friday, according to Russian news agencies.

Gershkovich was arrested while reporting in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg last March, becoming the first US journalist since the cold war to be accused of spying in Russia. He has been held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, but was returned to Yekaterinburg for trial.

Moscow says Gershkovich was collecting secret information about Russia’s military capacities on the orders of the CIA, a claim he, the Wall Street Journal and the US state department have dismissed as ludicrous. He had been granted official accreditation to work as a journalist by the Russian foreign ministry.

“Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan’s immediate release,” the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.

The US embassy in Moscow said: “Regardless of what Russian authorities claim, Evan is a journalist. He did not commit any illegal actions. Russian authorities have been unable to provide evidence that he committed a crime or justification for Evan’s continued detention.”

The trial is being held behind closed doors, which is common in espionage cases. Journalists were allowed briefly into the courtroom when the hearings began last month. Gershkovich, with his head shaved under Russian regulations, smiled and nodded from the defendants’ glass box. The media are expected to be let into the courtroom for the verdict.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claimed on Wednesday that Moscow had “irrefutable evidence” Gershkovich was involved in espionage, but gave no details. Russian authorities have made nothing public that would suggest guilt, and many see the arrest as an attempt to use jailed Americans as bargaining chips in an exchange for Russian intelligence operatives and assassins held in western jails.

The speed of the case, with this week’s hearings brought forward by more than a month and the prosecution racing through witness testimony in one afternoon, may indicate that a long-discussed swap deal is close. Russia usually concludes court proceedings in such instances before a swap.

Vladimir Putin, in an interview in February with the US broadcaster Tucker Carlson, said discussions on a swap were under way. “The special services are in contact with one another. They are talking … I believe an agreement can be reached,” the president said.

He hinted that Russia would like to exchange Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, who is serving time in a German jail for assassinating a Chechen exile in Berlin in 2019.

The poliovirus has been found in sewage samples from Gaza putting thousands of people living in crowded displaced persons’ camps at risk of contracting the highly infectious disease that can cause deformities and paralysis.

The Gaza ministry said tests carried out with the UN children’s agency, Unicef, “showed the presence of poliovirus” in the territory that has endured a devastating Israeli military offensive since the 7 October Hamas attacks.

The Israeli health ministry said poliovirus type 2 was detected in Gaza sewage samples tested in an Israeli laboratory. It said the World Health Organization had made similar findings.

“The presence of poliovirus in wastewater that collects and flows between displacement camp tents and in inhabited areas because of the destruction of infrastructure marks a new health disaster,” the Gaza ministry said.

It highlighted “severe overcrowding” and “scarce water” that is becoming contaminated with sewage and the accumulation of rubbish. The ministry said Israel’s refusal to let hygiene supplies into Gaza “creates a suitable environment for the spread of different diseases”.

“The detection of poliovirus in wastewater threatens a real health disaster and places thousands of people at risk of contracting polio.”

UN agencies have been campaigning for four decades to eradicate polio, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, but there has been a resurgence in recent years in Afghanistan and Pakistan and some isolated cases in Nigeria.

The ministry called for a halt to the Israeli offensive so that safe water can be brought in and sewage treatment can be restarted.

Authorities in the central Gaza town of Deir el-Balah said this week that wastewater treatment stations had been shut down because of a lack of fuel. They warned that roads “will be flooded by wastewater” and that 700,000 civilians, most of them displaced, would be put at risk of catching sewage-borne diseases.

Israel’s health ministry said the samples “raise concerns about the presence of the virus in this region”. It added that Israeli health authorities were “monitoring and evaluating necessary steps to prevent the risk of disease in Israel”.

Days after being jailed in Florida on counts of possessing child abuse imagery, a Roman Catholic priest with ties to south-east Louisiana and Texas has been charged with two counts of sexual assault.

Police in Waco, Texas, announced the new charges against Anthony Odiong late on Thursday in a statement. It said a total of eight victims had come forward alleging Odiong, 55, tried to use his influence as a priest to pursue sexual contact they either did not welcome or to which they could not consent.

Texas is one of about a dozen states with a law that criminalizes sexual activity between clergymen and adults who emotionally depend on their spiritual advice. Furthermore, Texas deems statutes of limitation – or filing deadlines – irrelevant if a “defendant has committed the same or similar sex offense against five or more victims”, according to officials.

The investigation which led to Odiong’s arrest began after the Guardian published a report in February detailing prior allegations that ranged from sexual coercion and unwelcome touching to financial abuse. That report prompted an unidentified person to walk into the Waco police department and accuse Odiong of sexually assaulting her in 2012.

A judge subsequently granted permission for police to access an email account belonging to Odiong and found messages from another woman who had not come forward, but explicitly detailed sexual encounters with the priest, including one which wounded her colon.

Bradley DeLange, a Waco detective, later spoke with the woman, who allegedly confirmed that Odiong had subjected her to some of the behavior his prior accusers had described.

A judge then permitted police to search Odiong’s iCloud data storage account. DeLange later wrote under oath he “discovered images depicting a clearly prepubescent [disrobed] child”, which had been saved to the account in September 2020.

DeLange said there were two more images of who is believed to be another child with someone who appears to be an adult touching an unclothed body part.

Waco police secured a warrant to arrest Odiong, and authorities captured at his home in Ave Maria, Florida, on Tuesday. That day, DeLange issued a statement through his department asking anyone else “victimized by Anthony Odiong anywhere in the United States” to cooperate with his investigation.

Several new accusers had apparently come forward between Tuesday and Thursday, clearing the way for the new sexual assault charges against Odiong.

Odiong was ordained in the diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, in 1993. He was invited to work within the diocese of Austin, Texas, in 2006 by the then bishop Gregory Aymond. Odiong was then invited to work in Luling, Louisiana, in 2015, about six years after Aymond became the archbishop of nearby New Orleans.

Places to which his assignments brought him over the years included the St Peter Catholic student center on the outskirts of Baylor University’s campus in Waco as well as St Anthony of Padua in Luling.

Odiong was able to build a loyal following in Texas and Louisiana largely by claiming to have a special understanding with the Virgin Mary through prayer. The charismatic clergyman would hold so-called healing masses after which some parishioners reported recovering from major medical ailments, improving church attendance as well as boosting his popularity with both congregants and diocesan officials.

But Odiong came under scrutiny after his various accusers spoke out against him – including a Pennsylvania native who reported him to the sheriff’s office in Luling, which said it could not determine the clergyman had committed a crime.

The Austin diocese decided to prohibit Odiong from being able to minister in its region in 2019. Its counterparts in New Orleans waited until this past December to do the same.

In a statement after Tuesday’s arrest in Ave Maria, the New Orleans archdiocese made it a point to say the charges against Odiong “stemmed from allegations reported in Waco”. But on Thursday, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation told the Guardian that at least one of the new accusers who made possible Thursday’s sexual assault charges against Odiong resided in the community of Luling, about 22 miles from the archdiocese of New Orleans.

Odiong remained in custody in Florida late Thursday, jail records show. He had been ordered held without bail. It was not immediately clear when he may be transferred to Waco.

Attempts to contact an attorney who has previously represented Odiong have been unsuccessful since Tuesday. Before his arrest, Odiong had posted an open letter on social media dismissing the allegations against him as “a false, salacious, one-sided smear campaign”.

It remained to be seen Thursday whether Odiong’s arrest would attract the attention of Louisiana state police troopers who served a search warrant on the archdiocese in April as part of an investigation into whether the church and its local leadership had operated as a child-sex trafficking ring responsible for “widespread sexual abuse of minors dating back decades” that was then “covered up and not reported to law enforcement”.

A communications blackout has been imposed in Bangladesh, with mobile internet access blocked and news broadcasts shut down, as the country continues to be rocked by protests that have killed 39 people this week.

On Thursday night, the government said it was shutting down mobile internet for security reasons amid growing protests led by tens of thousands of students, and access to social media was blocked.

On Friday morning, television news channels remained off air after the state broadcasting headquarters in Dhaka was stormed and set alight by protesters.

The protests began this month on university campuses as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserves 30% of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.

Those protesting have argued that the policy is unfair and discriminatory and particularly benefits members of the ruling Awami League party, which is led by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

The demonstrations have escalated into some of worst unrest seen in a decade as pro-government student groups were accused of attacking the protesters, and police fired teargas and rubber bullets into the crowds.

Clashes between heavily armed riot police and protesters, many armed with batons and bricks, spread across the country, with vehicles set ablaze in the streets and thousands left injured.

The Dhaka Times said one of its reporters, Mehedi Hasan, was killed while covering clashes in the capital.

On Thursday protesters stormed the headquarters of the state broadcaster, Bangladesh Television, and set it on fire. Authorities said the building was safely evacuated.

Access to social media was restricted after the telecommunications minister, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, said it had been “weaponised as a tool to spread rumours, lies and disinformation”.

Hasina, 76, ordered that all universities and colleges be shut indefinitely. In a speech on Wednesday night, she had condemned the “murder” of students killed in the protests and promised justice, telling students to wait until a high court order on the quota system was given, but it did little to quell the unrest.

On Friday morning the sounds of gunfire and stun grenades could be heard coming from areas close to universities in Dhaka.

Witnesses on the ground said the protests had begun to take on a much broader anti-government tone against Hasina and her party, with slogans calling her an “authoritarian dictator”.

Hasina has ruled since 2009 and has overseen a vast and severe crackdown on political opponents and critics. Critical figures are routinely picked up in “enforced disappearances” by paramilitary forces and tens of thousands of political opponents have been jailed. She was brought back to power in January in an election that was widely documented as being heavily rigged.

The prime minister further inflamed the anger of protesters when she appeared to refer to them using the derogatory slur “razakars”, meaning those who betrayed the nation by collaborating with the enemy, Pakistan, during the war of independence.

The quotas that sparked the protests were abolished in 2018 but brought back last month after a court ruling, prompting outrage among students. Youth unemployment is high in Bangladesh and government jobs are seen as one of the few means of secure employment. Young people say the quotas make it very difficult to get the jobs on merit.

Hasina’s party, which was begun by her father who led the independence fight for Bangladesh, is accused of disproportionately benefiting from the system.

Pierre Prakash, the Asia director of the International Crisis Group, said the protests were a reflection of growing frustration on the streets at the lack of democracy and representation of the issues of the people.

“The protests reflect deep political and economic tensions in Bangladesh. For several years Bangladesh’s economy has been struggling and youth unemployment is a serious problem,” he said. “With no real alternative at the ballot box, discontented Bangladeshis have few options besides street protests to make their voices heard.”

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the UN secretary general, said they were following developments in Bangladesh and urged restraint on all sides.

A fierce heatwave is continuing to roll across southern and central Europe, bringing temperatures of up to 44C (111.2F) to parts of Spain, sparking forest fires in Greece and Croatia, and prompting governments to urge people to take special care as the mercury rises.

In Spain, the state meteorological agency, Aemet, said temperatures on Friday could hit 40C across large parts of the country – and even 44C in areas of Andalucía – as the first heatwave of the summer hit. Aemet said the high temperatures, caused by a mass of “very hot, dry and dusty air” from North Africa, were expected to last until Saturday.

“Today is forecast to be the hottest day of this heat episode, with temperatures that could exceed 40C in large areas of the southern half of Spain, in the Ebro valley and in the interior of Mallorca,” said Luis Bañon, a spokesperson for Aemet.

“Today, the skies will remain full of sand from the Sahara, especially in the south-east of the peninsula, in Ceuta, Melilla, the Balearics and the eastern Canaries.”

Spain’s health ministry issued alerts for large parts of the country, calling on people to take all necessary precautions against the high temperatures: “When it comes to the heat: protect yourself; hydrate yourself; refresh yourself, and take care of more vulnerable people.”

Héctor Tejero, the ministry’s head of health and climate change, said people needed to take the heat seriously and change their behaviour accordingly.

“We’re not talking about polar bears and all that stuff, we’re talking about something that affects your health,” he said in an interview with the online newspaper elDiario.es on Friday.

“The heat is killing 3,000 people a year and it’s going to get worse. But while exposure to extreme heat is going to rise, we can also step up our adaptation to it … Although it’s hotter in Spain than it was 20 years ago, fewer people are dying because homes are better adapted, because we have air conditioning, and because people are getting into a culture of dealing with the heat.”

In Greece, the second heatwave of the summer brought hot, dry winds, forest fires and temperatures of up to 43C on Thursday.

Firefighters fought two large blazes on Thursday, one near a village on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, and a brush fire on the island of Kea, near Athens. Emergency services ordered the evacuation of two areas on Kea, while local media said the fire near Thessaloniki had damaged several homes.

“We appeal to the public to be particularly careful as over the next few days there is a very high risk of the outbreak of serious wildfires,” a government spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis, said. “Even one spark can cause a major catastrophe.”

The authorities shut all archaeological sites in Athens for a second consecutive day on Thursday and restricted outdoor work.

Like many countries in Europe, high temperatures have disrupted daily activities repeatedly since June. Hundreds of wildfires, which scientists link to the climate emergency, have broken out following the warmest winter on record.

Faced with what is forecast to be the country’s longest heatwave on record, the government has ordered some businesses not to let their employees perform heavy outdoor duty from midday until 5pm this week as the mercury is expected to reach 42C in parts of the country.

Italy, meanwhile, put 14 cities under the highest level of alert as temperatures were expected to climb past 40C, particularly in central and southern regions. The health ministry said it would further extend the red alert to 17 Italian cities on Friday, as the intense heat was forecast to continue until Sunday.

Dozens of firefighters and three water-bombing planes were tackling a forest fire that broke out late on Thursday near Croatia’s popular coastal resort of Trogir, officials said.

About 70 firefighters prevented the blaze from spreading to houses and a hotel complex, the national firefighting association said.

The fire near Trogir, on the central Adriatic coast, was under control and additional firefighting forces were arriving in the area, it added. “There is no threat to houses and tourists,” the chief fire commander, Slavko Tucakovic, said.

In the village of Seget Donji, the fire engulfed a large forest area by the sea near a tourist camping site, the state-run HRT television reported.

Croatia, like the rest of the Balkans, has been hit by a prolonged heatwave that started earlier this month, with temperatures exceeding 37C. On Tuesday, Serbia’s state power company reported record consumption due to the use of air conditioning.

Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Bob Newhart, the revered US comedian and star of two classic sitcoms known for his deadpan delivery, died on Thursday at the age of 94.

The Chicago native and titular star of game-changing sitcoms The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart in the 1970s and 80s, died at his home in Los Angeles after a period of short illnesses, his publicist Jerry Digney confirmed in a statement.

A former accountant who began moonlighting in comedy venues, Newhart first rose to fame in the 1960s for his observational humor and droll delivery. His breakthrough album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, recorded over several days in Houston before Newhart had any stand-up experience, netted him Grammys for best new artist and album of the year in 1961.

“In 1959, I gave myself a year to make it in comedy; it was back to accounting if comedy didn’t work out,” he once said, according to Digney’s statement. Newhart was 30 years old and years into a career as a Chicago accountant when the album went No 1 on the sales charts, the first comedy album to do so.

The comic went on to dominate the sitcom landscape for nearly two decades with two beloved TV shows, first with The Bob Newhart Show, which aired on CBS from 1972 until 1978. The show, in which Newhart starred as a befuddled psychologist in Chicago, became one of the most popular sitcoms of all time.

The follow-up, Newhart, starred Newhart and Mary Frann as an author and his wife who open a rural inn in Vermont. It ran from 1982 until 1990 and featured one of the more admired finales in TV history, in which Newhart’s character wakes up next to his wife from the Bob Newhart Show, played by Suzanne Pleshette, suggesting the entire second series was a dream.

Newhart was nominated for several Emmys for his TV work, though he didn’t win one until 2013, for guest-starring as Arthur Jeffries on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory. He is also famous to younger audiences as Papa Elf, the adoptive father to Will Ferrell’s Buddy, in the 2003 holiday comedy Elf.

Mayim Bialik, who starred on The Big Bang Theory with Newhart said in a statement : “As a child, the Bob Newhart Show provided countless hours of enjoyment for me – it constituted some of my earliest training in the art of sitcom. When I got to work with alongside him on TBBT, it was absolutely a dream come true. He was effortlessly professional, poised, hilarious and incredibly approachable. Working with Bob was working in the presence of a true comedy legend.”

Born on 5 September 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois, George Robert Newhart ushered in a new style of comedy in the 1960s, breaking from the mold of vaudeville and Borscht Belt routines for bits based in observation and psychology. His performance style incorporated stammering, deadpan delivery and quietly subversive material that appealed widely; his debut was the first comedy album to top the Billboard charts, and his first two albums held the top two spots simultaneously, a feat not accomplished again until Guns N’ Roses in 1991.

In his later years, Newhart took on a number of feature film roles, including In & Out and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. He also continued performing standup into his 70s, giving about 30 shows a year as of 2006.

“Comedy has given me a wonderful life,” he said. “When I first started out in standup, I just remember the sound of laughter. It’s one of the great sounds of the world.”

The comedy great Carol Burnett posted on social media: “I had the great pleasure of working with Bob and being his friend. He was as kind and nice as he was funny. He will be missed.” The two worked together on The Carol Burnett Show.

Among others paying tribute to Newhart were Judd Apatow, Jamie Lee Curtis and Bill Prady. Apatow, who co-directed Bob and Don: A Love Story about the lifelong friendship of Newhart and Don Rickles, posted on social media: “I was so lucky to get to spend that time with my hero. His brilliant comedy and gentle spirit made everyone he encountered so happy.”

Prady reflected on his importance to comedy: “Hard to explain how important Bob Newhart was to every comedian and comedy writer who came after him.”

Curtis wrote in a tribute on her Instagram, “They will be laughing wherever people go when they leave us. God, he was funny! Bob Newhart. You will be missed!”

The comedian was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 1993, and won the second-ever Mark Twain prize for humor, presented by the Kennedy Center, in 2002. In 2007, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was chosen as one of 25 entries for the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.

Newhart’s wife, Ginnie, whom he married in 1963, died last year at the age of 82. He is survived by his four children, Robert, Timothy, Courtney and Jennifer, and 10 grandchildren.