The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been freed from Russian custody as part of a major exchange that also involved the freeing of several other foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners.

In the exchange, which took place at Ankara airport on Thursday afternoon, eight Russians held in the west returned to Russia. Among them was the Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov, who has been held in a German prison since 2019 for the murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin.

Additionally, deep-cover Russian “illegal” spies arrested in Norway and Slovenia were swapped, along with Russians held on criminal charges in US jails. Two minors were also returned to Russia, believed to be the children of the spies jailed in Slovenia.

Hazy video footage showed a Russian government plane landing at the airport in the Turkish capital before the swap. The Turkish presidency said in a statement that 10 prisoners were relocated to Russia, including two minors, while 13 prisoners left to Germany and three to the US.

Among those freed by Russia were Gershkovich, the former US marine Paul Whelan and the Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, the Turkish presidency said.

The Kremlin, commenting on the prisoner exchange, said it hoped those who had left Russian jails, whom it described as “enemies”, would stay away, the state-run Tass reported.

“I believe that all our enemies should stay there [abroad], and all those who are not our enemies should return. That’s my point of view,” the Russian news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

A possible exchange had been mooted for months, with long discussions behind closed doors involving numerous governments, and few details seeping into the public domain. Until the final moment, the governments involved tried to keep the location and details of Thursday’s exchange under wraps, fearful of last-minute hitches.

Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while reporting in the city of Ekaterinburg and was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage last month. He pleaded not guilty and the Wall Street Journal and the US government have dismissed the charges as nonsense.

Many observers have linked the initial Gershkovich arrest to a Russian policy that amounts to hostage-taking, with a view to increasing pressure on western countries to release Russian spies, hackers and assassins.

Putin has long made it clear that Krasikov was his No 1 target, which hampered US efforts to free its own prisoners, as Germany was reluctant to give up a prisoner serving time for murder to facilitate a US deal. Putin became “maniacal” about getting Krasikov back, according to one source with knowledge of Kremlin discussions. “It was a symbol that we don’t abandon our people,” said the source.

Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges in 2020. He has always maintained his innocence, and his family have been pushing for years to have him included in an exchange. Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also freed.

Several Russian political prisoners were freed in the swap, including Yashin, one of Russia’s most prominent opposition leaders, who was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in late 2022 for denouncing Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a dual Russian-British citizen and longstanding opposition voice, who was sentenced to 25 years for high treason, has also been released.

Rico Krieger, a German medic who had been sentenced to death in Belarus after a closed and murky trial on charges of terrorism, was released as part of the deal. Belarus is a staunch ally of Moscow and may have expedited the trial in order to provide another element of the deal. Details of Krieger’s case only became public recently, although he was arrested last year.

There was speculation that the contours of a swap deal had been agreed in February, which could have included Gershkovich and the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, with Krasikov going in the other direction, but the exchange was called off after Navalny’s sudden death – or murder – in prison.

The Biden administration will be pleased to have finally secured the release of Gershkovich, whose case had threatened to become a political football. In a June presidential debate, Donald Trump claimed he would instantly free the journalist if he won the US election. “I will have him out very quickly, as soon as I take office, before I take office,” Trump said.

A funeral procession for the assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been held in the Iranian capital of Tehran amid fears that the fallout from his killing, blamed on Israel, risks escalating into a regional war.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led the prayers over the coffins of Haniyeh and his bodyguard, draped in traditional black and white Palestinian scarves, at the ceremony at the University of Tehran on Thursday.

Iranian state television showed crowds of mourners dressed in black and carrying posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian and Hamas flags. Many people threw flowers on the coffins as they passed by.

Speakers at the ceremony, attended by Khamenei, Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and the Revolutionary Guards chief, Gen Hossein Salami, said Haniyeh’s death would be avenged.

Members of the crowd chanted “death to Israel, death to America” during a speech from Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who said it was the country’s duty to “respond at the right time and in the right place”.

Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s deputy chief in Gaza, vowed that Haniyeh’s work would live on and “we will pursue Israel until it is uprooted from the land of Palestine”.

Haniyeh’s remains are due to be transferred to Qatar, his home, for burial on Friday.

The 62-year-old Hamas leader, who led the Islamist movement’s participation in ceasefire talks in the war in Gaza, was killed by a missile attack on his safe house in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday morning during a visit for Pezeshkian’s inauguration as president. His death is likely to affect progress in the internationally mediated negotiations, which were already faltering.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the killing, although it has a record of international targeted killing operations. Haniyeh’s death came just hours after Israel claimed it had killed Fuad Shukr, the second in command of the powerful Lebanese militia Hezbollah, in a missile strike in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

He had been blamed for a rocket strike last week that killed 12 young people in the Golan Heights, the most serious loss of life in Israeli-controlled territory since Hamas’s 7 October attack that triggered the war in Gaza.

Also on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said it had confirmed an airstrike in Gaza last month had successfully killed its target, Hamas’s military commander, Mohammed Deif. Hamas had no immediate comment on the Israeli announcement.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded tit-for-tat cross-border attacks since the Lebanese militia began firing on Israel in order to aid its Palestinian allies, and the conflict has steadily escalated over the past 10 months.

The dual assassinations are heavy blows to Hamas and Hezbollah, but also raise the stakes for Iran, which backs both groups and has vowed revenge. The New York Times, citing Iranian officials, reported that Khamenei has ordered Iran to strike Israel directly in response, raising fears that the war in Gaza is on the brink of morphing into a broader regional conflict.

The fighting in the Gaza Strip has also drawn in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which have fired drones and missiles at Israel and US assets in the region. Tehran directly attacked Israel for the first time ever in April, after a strike it blamed on Israel killed several senior Revolutionary Guards at the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

The assassinated Hezbollah commander Shukr is due to be buried in Beirut on Thursday afternoon. The group’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, is expected to make a speech which will be closely followed for clues as to Hezbollah’s course of action.

Nasrallah reportedly sent a message to Israel through US mediators last week that strikes on the Lebanese capital would cross a red line, and result in an attack on Tel Aviv.

Chuck Schumer will introduce a bill in the Senate today to declare explicitly that presidents do not have immunity from criminal conduct, overriding last month’s supreme court ruling that Donald Trump has some immunity for his actions as president.

The No Kings Act, which would apply to presidents and vice-presidents, has more than two dozen Democratic co-sponsors.

“Given the dangerous and consequential implications of the court’s ruling, legislation would be the fastest and most efficient method to correcting the grave precedent the Trump ruling presented,” the Senate majority leader said in a statement.

“With this glaring and partisan overreach, Congress has an obligation – and a constitutional authority – to act as a check and balance to the judicial branch.”

The bill would stipulate that Congress, rather than the supreme court, has the authority to determine to whom federal criminal laws are applied.

Last month the supreme court’s conservative majority ruled Trump has broad immunity from criminal prosecution for his actions while in office, drawing sharp criticism over the impact it could have on the justice department’s case against Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Joe Biden responded to the ruling earlier this week by calling for an overhaul of the supreme court and for a constitutional amendment that would limit the power of the executive branch, including a stipulation that presidents do not have immunity from federal criminal acts.

“This nation was founded on the principle there are no kings in America, each of us is equal before the law,” the president said in a statement after the ruling.

He noted Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent, in which she said, “In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law. With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

Biden added: “So should the American people dissent. I dissent.”

Kamala Harris, the vice-president and frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, also backed Biden’s calls for court reform, including enacting term limits and new ethics rules for justices.

Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, has praised the supreme court ruling as a victory for Trump. “Today’s ruling by the court is a victory for former President Trump and all future presidents, and another defeat for President Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice and Jack Smith,” he wrote.

A New York appeals court on Thursday denied Donald Trump’s bid to end a gag order in his hush-money criminal case, rejecting the Republican president’s argument that his May conviction “constitutes a change in circumstances” that warrants lifting the restrictions.

A five-judge panel in the state’s mid-level appellate court ruled that the trial judge, Juan Merchan, was correct in extending parts of the gag order until Trump is sentenced, writing that “the fair administration of justice necessarily includes sentencing”.

Merchan imposed the gag order in March, a few weeks before the trial started, after prosecutors raised concerns about Trump’s habit of attacking people involved in his cases. During the trial, he held Trump in contempt of court and fined him $10,000 for violations, and threatened to jail him if he did it again.

The judge lifted some restrictions in June, freeing Trump to comment about witnesses and jurors but keeping trial prosecutors, court staffers and their families – including his own daughter – off limits until he is sentenced.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, was originally scheduled to be sentenced on 11 July, but Merchan postponed it until 18 September.

Trump has asked to set aside his 34 felony convictions after the US supreme court ruled presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts taken as executive. Trump’s legal team has not argued that his acts were official in the case, but that certain evidence should not have been admitted because it related to presidential acts. The court ruling also said that evidence couldn’t be used if it constituted an official act, even if the crimes alleged are not themselves official.

Prosecutors have argued the ruling does not affect the convictions in this case. “All of the evidence that he complains of either concerned wholly unofficial conduct, or, at most, official conduct for which any presumption of immunity has been rebutted,” prosecutors wrote.

In his legal case pertaining to illegally keeping classified documents, US district judge Aileen Cannon in Florida dismissed the charges because she found the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel was unconstitutional, an idea raised in a concurring opinion by the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.

The Bangladesh authorities have arrested more than 10,000 people and banned a major opposition political party as part of a crackdown on dissent after protests that erupted across the country.

Bangladesh has been in a state of turmoil for weeks after a mass student movement against quotas for government jobs escalated into deadly clashes when protesters were attacked by pro-government groups and hit with teargas, rubber bullets and pellets by police.

According to human rights groups, at least 266 people were killed in the violence and more than 7,000 injured.

The government, led by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has been accused by activists of an authoritarian witch-hunt against student leaders and political opposition groups who it has sought to blame for the deadly violence.

At least 10,372 people, including many political opposition leaders, have been officially arrested since the protests began and the authorities are accused of additionally arbitrarily detaining many without charge.

Families of those detained described how students who had attended peaceful protests or expressed support for the movement on social media were now being rounded up en masse by police from their homes in the middle of the night, with relatives denied any information on their whereabouts. More than 200,000 people have been named in cases filed by police this week.

Asif Nazrul, a Dhaka University professor, said: “Mass arrests through block raids, detaining individuals at night, enforced disappearances and not presenting them in court within 24 hours; these actions are unconstitutional and violate many international conventions. It seems this government has declared war against dissent.”

Hasina, who took office in 2009, has been accused of imposing an increasingly authoritarian and tyrannical rule on Bangladesh, where critics, political opponents and activists are routinely arrested or kidnapped by police units. Successive elections have been widely documented as being rigged in her favour and she has systematically crushed and imprisoned the political opposition.

In a further retaliatory move, on Thursday, Hasina’s government announced it was banning the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, accusing them of stirring up violence.

Jamaat-e-Islami was already barred from contesting elections but the new order extended the prohibition, preventing the party from all activities and gatherings. The party chief, Shafiqur Rahman, called the decision “unconstitutional, undemocratic, and unjust”.

The protests had begun peacefully on university campuses in June against the re-introduction of quotas for all government jobs, which meant that 30% were to be reserved for the descendants of those who fought in the Bangladesh independence war in 1971, a system that students decried as discriminatory and unjust.

But as the protests became more widespread and took on a broader anti-government message, with calls for Hasina to resign, the state responded with increasingly heavy-handed violence.

Groups that supported Hasina’s ruling Awami League party were accused of attacking peaceful protesters with violence and weapons. Police were authorised to use heavy force against demonstrations, and thousands were left injured after teargas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and in some cases live ammunition was fired at protesters.

The protests had briefly quietened last week after the supreme court rolled back the controversial quotas. Student protest groups presented Hasina with a list of demands in the aftermath, including justice for those who were killed in the clashes, stating they would resume their actions if she did not respond.

After Hasina ignored the demands and the state instead began arresting and surveilling student leaders, protests resumed and were hit with teargas and stun grenades by police. In the city of Barisal, at least 10 people were injured as police charged batons against protesters. In the capital, Dhaka, police detained at least seven students near the high court, where lawyers and university teachers had joined the demonstrators.

A protest leader, speaking on condition of anonymity from an undisclosed location, said that they would continue their movement despite the government’s attempts to suppress them.

“We have witnessed incredible support from the masses in this movement against repression, injustices, and a ruler who has failed to provide good governance. There is a wind of change and history tells us that authoritarian leaders resist change. The regime is scared and they’re trying to quell the uprising using unprecedented means and power,” he said.

“This is a people’s movement; they can’t stop us by keeping our leaders confined in custody. If I am picked up, my fellow brothers will take over. We are everywhere. How many of us can they lock up?”

The Bangladesh authorities have arrested more than 10,000 people and banned a major opposition political party as part of a crackdown on dissent after protests that erupted across the country.

Bangladesh has been in a state of turmoil for weeks after a mass student movement against quotas for government jobs escalated into deadly clashes when protesters were attacked by pro-government groups and hit with teargas, rubber bullets and pellets by police.

According to human rights groups, at least 266 people were killed in the violence and more than 7,000 injured.

The government, led by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has been accused by activists of an authoritarian witch-hunt against student leaders and political opposition groups who it has sought to blame for the deadly violence.

At least 10,372 people, including many political opposition leaders, have been officially arrested since the protests began and the authorities are accused of additionally arbitrarily detaining many without charge.

Families of those detained described how students who had attended peaceful protests or expressed support for the movement on social media were now being rounded up en masse by police from their homes in the middle of the night, with relatives denied any information on their whereabouts. More than 200,000 people have been named in cases filed by police this week.

Asif Nazrul, a Dhaka University professor, said: “Mass arrests through block raids, detaining individuals at night, enforced disappearances and not presenting them in court within 24 hours; these actions are unconstitutional and violate many international conventions. It seems this government has declared war against dissent.”

Hasina, who took office in 2009, has been accused of imposing an increasingly authoritarian and tyrannical rule on Bangladesh, where critics, political opponents and activists are routinely arrested or kidnapped by police units. Successive elections have been widely documented as being rigged in her favour and she has systematically crushed and imprisoned the political opposition.

In a further retaliatory move, on Thursday, Hasina’s government announced it was banning the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, accusing them of stirring up violence.

Jamaat-e-Islami was already barred from contesting elections but the new order extended the prohibition, preventing the party from all activities and gatherings. The party chief, Shafiqur Rahman, called the decision “unconstitutional, undemocratic, and unjust”.

The protests had begun peacefully on university campuses in June against the re-introduction of quotas for all government jobs, which meant that 30% were to be reserved for the descendants of those who fought in the Bangladesh independence war in 1971, a system that students decried as discriminatory and unjust.

But as the protests became more widespread and took on a broader anti-government message, with calls for Hasina to resign, the state responded with increasingly heavy-handed violence.

Groups that supported Hasina’s ruling Awami League party were accused of attacking peaceful protesters with violence and weapons. Police were authorised to use heavy force against demonstrations, and thousands were left injured after teargas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and in some cases live ammunition was fired at protesters.

The protests had briefly quietened last week after the supreme court rolled back the controversial quotas. Student protest groups presented Hasina with a list of demands in the aftermath, including justice for those who were killed in the clashes, stating they would resume their actions if she did not respond.

After Hasina ignored the demands and the state instead began arresting and surveilling student leaders, protests resumed and were hit with teargas and stun grenades by police. In the city of Barisal, at least 10 people were injured as police charged batons against protesters. In the capital, Dhaka, police detained at least seven students near the high court, where lawyers and university teachers had joined the demonstrators.

A protest leader, speaking on condition of anonymity from an undisclosed location, said that they would continue their movement despite the government’s attempts to suppress them.

“We have witnessed incredible support from the masses in this movement against repression, injustices, and a ruler who has failed to provide good governance. There is a wind of change and history tells us that authoritarian leaders resist change. The regime is scared and they’re trying to quell the uprising using unprecedented means and power,” he said.

“This is a people’s movement; they can’t stop us by keeping our leaders confined in custody. If I am picked up, my fellow brothers will take over. We are everywhere. How many of us can they lock up?”

A 17-year-old boy accused of murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport can be named as Axel Rudakubana.

Rudakubana is accused of murdering Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, with a kitchen knife on Monday after entering the class on Hart Street in Southport, Merseyside. Eight other children sustained knife wounds – with five of them left in a critical condition – while two adults were also critically hurt.

Lifting the anonymity order at Liverpool crown court, Judge Menary KC said the “idiotic rioting” in parts of the UK after the attack was one reason why it was in the public interest for his name to be released.

Remanding Rudakubana in youth detention, the judge said keeping the defendant’s anonymity in place ran the risk of “allowing others who are up to mischief to continue to spread disinformation in a vacuum”.

The defendant is due to turn 18 on Wednesday, which the judge said could provide an “additional excuse for a fresh round of public disorder”.

Describing the allegations against Rudakubana as “shocking” and that they “could hardly be more serious”, he said there was a “genuine and proper public interest in the identity of the defendant” and that allowing the press to name him would be “assisting to dispel misinformation that exists, especially online”.

The decision came after incorrect identities and false claims, including that a Muslim immigrant had been arrested for murder, were shared online after the attack, and after clashes between the police and far-right rioters. In Southport on Tuesday night, police intervened when activists targeted a mosque, with five arrests made as a result of the disorder, during which missiles were thrown and police sustained minor injuries.

Any anonymity that was previously in place would have automatically expired when the defendant turned 18 next week, allowing him to be named in news reports. Judges have powers to put in place anonymity orders in youth cases, to protect the safety of defendants, under section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. However, Menary said he was satisfied of the safety of Rudakubana in youth detention.

Both the defence and prosecution barristers argued that Rudakubana’s anonymity should be kept until next week to give the police more time to put in place measures to keep safe his parents and 20-year-old older brother. However, Menary said he was aware the family had already been moved for their safety.

The names of the eight injured children, two of whom were released from Alder Hey children’s hospital on Thursday morning, are still protected by an automatic reporting restriction and therefore cannot be published.

Throughout the 55-minute hearing, Rudakubana covered his face, with his sweatshirt pulled up to his hairline. He refused to speak, including to confirm his name, and at times rocked back and forth and side to side. He will next appear at Liverpool crown court, on 25 October, and a provisional trial date, lasting six weeks, was scheduled for 20 January.

Menary told the defendant, who did not acknowledge the judge and continued to keep his head down: “You are remanded to youth detention accommodation until these proceedings have been completed. That position might change when you achieve your [age of] majority in a short while.”

Nicolás Maduro has gone on the offensive after suspicions that he stole last Sunday’s presidential election plunged Venezuela into turmoil and diplomatic isolation, blaming the unrest on a far-right conspiracy being spearheaded by “perverse and macabre” political foes.

Addressing foreign journalists at the presidential palace in Caracas – as international condemnation of the allegedly rigged election grew – Venezuela’s authoritarian leader struck a defiant note.

Maduro castigated Edmundo González Urrutia, the presidential rival he claims to have beaten, and his adversary’s key backer, the conservative opposition leader María Corina Machado.

“We’re now facing perhaps … the most criminal attempt to seize power we have seen,” Maduro claimed, blaming this week’s disturbances on González and Machado. “All of this is being directed by a perverse and macabre duo who must take their responsibility,” said Maduro, who has ordered security forces on to the streets and urged citizens to snitch on protesters using a government app.

González and Machado say their campaign secured a landslide amid widespread anger over Venezuela’s economic collapse during the incumbent’s 11-year rule and a migration crisis that has seen 8 million citizens flee abroad. But Maduro has claimed victory – thus far without providing proof – sparking street protests and a wave of international criticism, including from leading members of the Latin American left.

On Tuesday the Carter Center – a pro-democracy group that Maduro’s administration had invited to witness the election and has previously praised – added its voice the chorus of disapproval, claiming the vote could not “be considered democratic”.

“Venezuela’s electoral process did not meet international standards of electoral integrity at any of its stages and violated numerous provisions of its own national laws,” the group said, condemning the “complete lack of transparency in announcing the results” by the government-controlled electoral council. The council had a demonstrated “a clear bias in favour of the incumbent” during the electoral process, the group claimed.

During a press briefing on Wednesday, White House spokesperson John Kirby said the US had “serious concerns about [the] subversions of democratic norms” and reports of violence and casualties involving protesters. “Our patience and that of the international community is running out,” Kirby said.

Brian Nichols, the US assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, urged Maduro and foreign governments to acknowledge González as the winner, telling a meeting of the Organization of American States that the reason Venezuela’s electoral authority had not yet provided detailed results of the vote was either because it did not want to show Gonzalez’s victory or because it needed time to falsify the results.

Colombia’s leftwing president, who has a good relationship with Maduro, recognised there were “serious doubts” over the result.

Maduro rebuffed such questioning on Wednesday during two encounters with journalists.

Speaking in the cavernous atrium of Venezuela’s brutalist supreme court, where Maduro announced he would share election data with officials, the president lambasted what he called a “criminal attack” designed to topple his administration and spark a civil war.

Later, during an encounter with the foreign press in the heavily guarded Miraflores palace, Maduro said he hoped to see González and Machado imprisoned. “These people must be put behind bars,” he said as hundreds of supporters gathered outside.

“If you ask me … what should happen with the cowardly and criminal González and the fascist from the criminal ultra-right … named Machado, I would say as a head of sate that there must be justice,” Maduro added.

Maduro claimed the attempt to remove him from power was part of a global extreme-right movement involving politicians including Argentina’s president Javier Milei, El Salvador’s president Nayid Bukele, Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, the Spanish party Vox and the billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk.

“We are facing a violent, fascist and criminal counter-revolution,” the handpicked successor of former president Hugo Chávez proclaimed, vowing to resist – by force if necessary.

“Venezuela will not fall into the hands of fascists, criminals and imperialists … We want to continue along the path that Chávez traced … But if North American imperialism and the criminal fascists oblige us I will not hesitate to summon the people to a revolution with other characteristics,” he said.

For all his defiance, observers say Maduro’s position remains precarious and Venezuela’s political future deeply uncertain.

“He’s counting on being able to wait this out and people will get tired of demonstrating,” Cynthia Arnson, a distinguished fellow at the Wilson Center thinktank in Washington, told the Associated Press. “The problem is the country is in a death spiral and there’s no chance the economy will be able to recover without the legitimacy that comes from a fair election.”

The streets of Caracas were eerily quiet on Wednesday with many residents deciding to stay at home for fear of further turbulence or repression. Most shops and businesses around the presidential palace were closed and long columns of security forces on motorcycles could be seen sweeping along the city’s largely traffic-free roads.

According to government figures, more than 1,000 people have been detained during the post-election crackdown. The human rights group Foro Penal says 11 people have been killed and 429 arrests confirmed.

Meanwhile, the South American country is becoming more cut off from the world by the day, as international pressure increases. Flights to and from Panama, the Dominican Republic and Peru have all now been suspended by Venezuelan authorities in response to criticism of the election from the governments of those countries.

On Tuesday, Peru became the first country to officially recognise González as Venezuela’s president-elect. But on Wednesday, Maduro vowed that his rival would “never, ever” be able to take power.

As many as seven people have died, according to reports, after clashes between Nigerian security personnel and citizens on the first day of a weeklong nationwide protest against “bad governance” and a cost living crisis.

The newspaper Daily Trust reported that six people were killed on Thursday during clashes with police during an attempt to dislodge a roadblock protesters had installed in Minna, the capital of Niger state. One person was killed and another critically wounded by stray bullets fired by police in Kano, where another set of protesters breached the seat of government in the city.

In Abuja, the capital, police fired teargas at demonstrators. Elsewhere, hundreds of people came out in force across Kaduna and Katsina in the north, and Lagos and Yenagoa in the south, in the “#EndBadGovernance” protests.

Security personnel and armoured trucks were deployed in many cities and towns. In Lagos, where many businesses were closed for the day, one middle-aged woman carried an empty pot, drumming and chanting as she followed younger marchers.

The catalyst for mass action nationwide was the hike in everyday commodities owing to multiple policy changes, in particular the removal of a popular but controversial fuel subsidy. That has caused hunger for millions and squeezed more people out of Nigeria’s thinning middle class, forcing youth groups to mobilise for mass action.

The protests began a few days before schedule in Niger state, despite being planned for Thursday. Analysts say the change in timing and the fact they began in the north, where for decades protests against socioeconomic conditions have been slower to catch up, indicates the depth of frustration in the country.

Ikemesit Effiong, the head of research at the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, said this was because the “much poorer” region, which was experiencing an acute malnutrition crisis, was “disproportionately impacted by a triple whammy of high insecurity – particularly from jihadists and kidnap rings – elevated levels of political instability and a food-growing crisis which has left many families hungry, frustrated and seething”.

The government has been scrambling for several weeks in the buildup to the protests, fearing a Kenya-type mass action. On Thursday, there were more security personnel than protesters in some cities. Scores of pro-government protesters were also out to counter demonstrations in part of Lagos, but found little resistance.

On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, one commentator said the government’s efforts to stifle the protests had instead triggered a “Streisand effect” – that is, it served to give them even more publicity.

On the eve of the protests, religious figures continued to plead with young people to stay indoors and talk instead, while government officials rushed to secure multiple court orders restricting protesters to certain areas. One such injunction was defied in Abuja on Thursday.

“Today is the hunger day, we all promise you that we are going to be on the streets of Abuja,” one protester told Channels TV in the capital. “Hunger has brought me out.”

Google’s plans to build a datacentre in Uruguay have angered environmentalists, who say the project will release thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide and hazardous waste.

Uruguay’s environmental authorities recently approved the datacentre, which will use air conditioning to cool its servers. The company initially proposed using millions of litres of fresh water to cool its infrastructure, but this caused an outcry in a country that suffered its worst drought since 1950 last year, causing its capital city to run short of drinking water.

However, Daniel Pena, an academic at the University of the Republic in Montevideo and an environmental campaigner, said using air conditioning would be equally damaging to the environment.

Based in Canelones, southern Uruguay, the datacentre is predicted to release 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and generate 86 tonnes of hazardous waste, including “electro-electronic residues”, oils and chemical packaging, according to the government’s environmental assessment report.

It will provide internet services for Google’s users worldwide. However, Pena said: “For Uruguay, it will provide nothing except toxic waste and greenhouse gases.” The datacentre would be in a tax-free zone, he added, the company not pay tax.

Environmentalists are concerned that the datacentre will significantly impact Uruguay’s carbon footprint. According to Pena’s calculations, based on official figures, the country’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy production would increase by 2.7%.

Uruguay’s carbon emissions are very low because it generates more than 90% of its electricity from renewables – one of the highest rates in the world. But during periods of high electricity usage or water scarcity, like last year, the country relies on oil-based power stations.

María Selva Ortiz, from Friends of the Earth in Uruguay, said the datacentre would put added pressure on the country’s energy grid, forcing it to rely on fossil fuels more often. The environmental organisation calculates that the datacentre would require the same amount of energy as 222,898 households in a country with a population of little more than 3 million people.

“We feel that foreign multinationals come to use our natural resources with no benefit to us,” Selva Ortiz said.

In addition, the new project was approved so rapidly, she said, “there has been no time for scrutiny” of the proposals. Environmental groups were not informed when the government approved the datacentre more than a month ago, and the 30-day period for legal appeals has expired.

Ana Filippini, from the Movement for a Sustainable Uruguay (MOVUS), said: “The environmental impact is uncertain as the studies requested by citizens have not been completed. Greenhouse gas emissions will increase, and we do not know how the waste from the plant will be disposed of.”

She added: “Protests by civil society achieved important changes in the Google project, which was initially going to use large quantities of water.” However, the new plan “has been approved under time pressure,” making it hard to assess its impacts.

A Google spokesperson said: “We’ve engaged extensively with local authorities, community members and local leadership to share the project details and follow the regulatory process to secure all the necessary permits.”

The spokesperson added: “Once built, the datacentre will operate within the standards approved by the local authorities, and it will be part of Google’s longstanding commitment to sustainability across areas such as accelerating the transition to a net zero future and innovating to run the most efficient infrastructure.”

The company also argued that Google products were widely used and that the infrastructure generated investment in the country. “Datacentres power products that help billions of people around the world, like search, YouTube and Gmail, and we’re proud to keep investing in infrastructure in Latin America,” the spokesperson said.

Uruguay’s environmental ministry did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. However, its environmental assessment report said there was a management plan to deal with waste from the datacentre and the impact of this waste on the environment was of “low significance”. The Google datacentre would account for just 0.3% of all carbon dioxide emitted by Uruguay’s energy sector, the report said.

Rory Golden, who was onboard the support ship for the Titan submersible that imploded in June 2023 while diving toward the wreck of the Titanic, has spoken about the fear and atmosphere of false hope among the crew during the doomed rescue effort.

“We had this image in our heads of them being down there, running out of oxygen in the freezing cold, getting terribly frightened and scared,” Golden told BBC News.

He was on the Polar Prince support ship to give presentations on the Titanic when the submersible went missing. Golden said there was no initial concern, as communication interruptions on ocean voyages are common, but once the alarm was raised the crew had hope that the missing sub would be found, and were heartened by the US Coast Guard-led search and rescue effort.

The Titan experienced a catastrophic hull failure as it approached the sunken Titanic. Those on board probably died instantly.

“We lived in false hope for four days,” Golden said.

The five people killed were the British explorer Hamish Harding, the British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, the CEO of Oceangate, Stockton Rush, and the French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet.

Golden was a close friend of Nargeolet and was one of the last people to see him alive.

“He left the ship in great spirits, in great form and he was happy. He was going somewhere that he wanted to be,” Golden said.

He noted the Titan sub had made 15 trips to the Titanic before the implosion, and said he himself had travelled in it.

“We all cried when the remains were found of the sub,” Golden said. “A special bond has been formed between all of us who were there on the ship that week. And that’s a bond that will always be there.”

The US Coast Guard plans public hearings for September 2024 on the disaster to go over evidence in what remains an active investigation. “There’s still a lot of questions to be answered,” Golden said.