Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have met Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other freed American prisoners just hours after Washington and Moscow completed their largest prisoner exchange since the cold war.

On a muggy evening at Andrews air force Base near Washington DC, Gershkovich and the other freed prisoners, ex-marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, disembarked a Bombardier Jet from Turkey and were met by their families and the US president and vice-president.

Hundreds of journalists came to the base to catch their first glimpse of the freed detainees who, combined, had spent nearly a decade in Russian captivity. They were among 16 American, Russian dissident and German prisoners freed by Russia, in exchange for eight Russians freed by the US, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland. Those returning to Russia included a number of undercover spies and a convicted FSB assassin whom Vladimir Putin had obsessively sought to free from German prison for years.

Gershkovich, who was detained for just under 500 days on espionage charges in Russia, was met by his mother, Ella, father Mikhail, and his sister Danielle.

Gershkovich’s family said earlier in a statement: “We have waited 491 days for Evan’s release, and it’s hard to describe what today feels like. We can’t wait to give him the biggest hug and see his sweet and brave smile up close. Most important now is taking care of Evan and being together again. No family should have to go through this, and so we share relief and joy today with Paul and Alsu’s families.”

Whelan, who was detained in 2018 on espionage charges and served more than five years in pre-trial detention and then a labor colony, was met by his sister Ellen.

“Paul Whelan is not in a Russian labor colony any longer, but he is not home,” his family wrote in a statement. “While Paul was wrongfully imprisoned in Russia, he lost his home. He lost his job. We are unsure how someone overcomes these losses and rejoins society after being a hostage. We are grateful for everyone’s efforts to help Paul while he was away. We hope you will continue to help him by providing Paul the space and privacy he needs as he rebuilds his life. It is Paul’s story to tell and he will tell it when he is able.”

Kurmasheva, who was arrested on charges of failing to register herself as a foreign agent and then charged with spreading false information about the Russian military, had been sentenced to more than six years in prison. The Radio Free Europe journalist was met by her husband, Pavel Baturin, and her two children, Bibi and Miriam.

Among those returning to Russia was the assassin Vadim Krasikov, who has been held in a German prison since 2019 for the murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin. Additionally, several deep-cover Russian “illegal” spies arrested in Norway and Slovenia were swapped, along with Russians held on criminal charges in US jails.

Putin personally met the Russian prisoners with a red carpet reception at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport along with Kremlin guards in full dress uniform. Putin, who had lobbied personally for Krasikov to be included in the deal, hugged the assassin as he debarked from the plane. He also handed out bouquets of flowers to the family of the alleged GRU spy Pavel Rubtsov, who had posed as a journalist before his arrest in Poland in 2022.

The Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin and several other opposition figures were also freed, including the British-Russian politician Vladimir Kara-Murza and three people who had worked as regional coordinators for the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison earlier this year.

Kira Yarmysh, a spokesperson for Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said on X that Harris had called Navalnaya “to discuss the exchange and express her support”, noting her and her husband’s contributions to the fight for a democratic Russia.

Navalnaya thanked Harris for the US assistance and called on the international community to facilitate the release of other Russian political prisoners, Yarmysh said.

Early on Friday, German chancellor Olaf Scholz met some of the freed detainees, many of whom he said “feared for their health and even their lives”.

Speaking at Cologne airport, Scholz insisted the swap was “the right decision, and if you had any doubts, you will lose them after talking to those who are now free”.

The complex deal had involved months of negotiations between multiple countries and came together in extreme secrecy, with the location and exact makeup of the exchange not made public until the last moment. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters that Navalny was meant to be a part of the deal before his death in February. On the day of his death, Sullivan said, he met Gershkovich’s mother and said he still saw a path forward for the deal.

The US had been working for months to try to free Gershkovich, who 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 linked his 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 he was open to an exchange, but insisted that Krasikov was his No 1 target. 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.

Evan Gershkovich was on a reporting trip deep in the Russian regions when the FSB came for him. The Wall Street Journal reporter was in Yekaterinburg, more than 850 miles from the Russian capital, when agents approached his table at a local bistro. As they frog-marched him out of the restaurant, the officers pulled Gershkovich’s shirt over his head to obscure his identity, witnesses said. The signal was clear: this was no ordinary arrest.

That began a nearly 500-day odyssey in Russia’s notorious prison system for Gershkovich, the first reporter to be arrested and charged with espionage since the cold war. The Russian government said Gershkovich had been recruited by the CIA to collect information about the country’s larger producer of main battle tanks, Uralvagonzavod.

Gershkovich pleaded not guilty, and the Wall Street Journal as well as the Biden administration have strenuously denied the charges, calling Gershkovich a hostage and pawn in a larger geopolitical game. For his part, Vladimir Putin has barely hidden his true aim: to free a man named Vadim Krasikov, who was until today serving a life sentence for the assassination of a Chechen rebel commander in Berlin’s Tiergarten.

In his interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year, Putin described Krasikov as “a person who eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals, due to patriotic sentiments”. But a little digging into his background suggested Krasikov was likely an elite FSB assassin tasked with murdering Putin’s opponents abroad. He was caught red-handed after the attack, having been spotted by passersby.

“Putin had become maniacal about getting Krasikov back; he really, really wanted Krasikov,” a source with knowledge of Kremlin deliberations on the issue told the Guardian earlier this year. “It was a symbol that we don’t abandon our people. He killed someone for us and we want people like that to know that they will be fought for to get them back.”

Krasikov was central to Putin’s demands, and Gershkovich the most significant prisoner for the White House, but the ensuing year of negotiations pulled in hundreds of other people, including Russian political prisoners and Russian spies held abroad, friends and family to provide support, negotiators on both sides, a Russian billionaire reportedly acting as broker in the exchange, as well as the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died amid rumours that the west had presented Putin with a grand deal to free Krasikov and Gershkovich in a three-way trade back in February.

Speaking from the White House on Thursday, national security advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed that Navalny had been supposed to be part of the deal to release Gershkovich. US officials had proposed his freedom as a sweetener in order to convince Germany to release Krasikov. On the day Navalny died, Sullivan said, he spoke with Gershkovich’s family and said he could still see a path to a deal. That came through approaching US allies in Norway, Poland and Slovenia to provide a number of Russian nationals being held abroad, and seeking the return of other US and German citizens, as well as prominent members of the Russian opposition.

The Wall Street Journal also detailed the exceptional efforts of Gershkovich’s mother Ella, who researched past hostage deals, kept Gershkovich’s case in the news and personally lobbied Joe Biden and other US officials, as well as the German chancellor Olaf Scholz to help free her son.

As Gershkovich finally heads back home to the United States, there are still questions about why specifically he was targeted. His employer’s prominence inside the US and his dogged reporting would be a good place to start. The young reporter had begun focusing his efforts as one of a small number of correspondents to continue working in Russia after the country launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.

In one especially penetrating look at Putin, Gershkovich and his colleagues reported that Putin had been in direct contact with frontline commanders and received a daily briefing on the war at 7am when he woke up. “Russian troops were losing the battle for Lyman, a small city in eastern Ukraine, in late September when a call came in for the commanding officer on the front line, over an encrypted line from Moscow,” Gershkovich wrote, along with a team of reporters from the Wall Street Journal. “It was Vladimir Putin, ordering them not to retreat.”

It may never be clear if Gershkovich was targeted for specific reporting, or simply because the Kremlin needed a hostage to further negotiations for a prisoner swap with the west, after numerous arrests of high-profile Russian assets and officers.

Gershkovich was born in New Jersey to Soviet-Jewish exiles who had emigrated to the US in 1979, seeking to escape rising antisemitism and restricted life under communist rule.

After nearly two years as a news assistant at The New York Times, Gershkovich in 2017 moved to Moscow and joined the Moscow Times, a small independent English-language outlet that has a history of fostering talented Russian correspondents.

At the beginning of 2022, he was hired as a Moscow-based correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, a role he described to his friends as his dream job. He reported for the paper until his dramatic arrest in March 2023.

Gershkovich would spend the next 13 months, until the start of his trial, in the notorious tsarist-era Lefortovo prison on the outskirts of Moscow. The prison has a history of housing high-profile inmates, including Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn and former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko.

In Lefortovo, where bright lights buzz day and night, Gershkovich would spend 23 hours a day in a 3-by-4-metre cell which he shared with another prisoner, only allowed one hour to walk in one of the cell-sized courtyards on the roof.

Former inmates describe Lefortovo as a high-security facility designed to sow dread, isolation and despair.

Behind bars, his friend said, Gershkovich remained resilient, maintaining a strict daily routine that included morning exercises, reading numerous books and writing upbeat letters to loved ones.

He also played a slow-moving game of chess with his father through the mail and meticulously kept track of his friend’s birthday events, arranging for flowers to be sent through others.

Gershkovich’s arrest set off alarm bells among the foreign reporters left in Moscow. US and UK broadsheets left the country, although TV and European reporters largely stayed. Russian government handlers cajoled reporters to stay in country, telling them in private that Gershkovich’s case was “unique” and urging them not to pay for information, a charge that Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal have denied.

“He was targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American,” said Joe Biden after Gershkovich was handed down a 16-year sentence earlier this month, following a fast-tracked trial that was designed to speed the way toward a swap. “Journalism is not a crime,” the US president said. “We will continue to stand strong for press freedom in Russia and worldwide, and stand against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists.”

But the road to a deal would be sown with major complications. Relations between the US and Russia are at their worst since the cold war, as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has left the country an international pariah.

The US had already concluded a series of high-profile swaps with Russia for the marine Trevor Reed and basketball star Brittney Griner, freeing several infamous Russian prisoners including the arms smuggler Viktor Bout.

But in each of those deals, US negotiators had not been able to free the former marine Paul Whelan, who was detained in 2018 on espionage charges and had spent more than five years behind bars in Russia. Putin was personally convinced that Paul Whelan was a spy, according to two European diplomats who have spoken with the Russian leader. And US and European officials have both quietly acknowledged that it was seen as politically impossible to conclude a new deal without bringing Whelan home along with Gershkovich. In order to do that, US secretary of state Antony Blinken proposed broadening the number of people in the deal to German officials, an idea that eventually led to the framework of a deal that would also free Navalny, who had undergone medical treatment in Germany after he was poisoned in 2020.

But in February, Navalny died under mysterious circumstances in a prison colony above the Arctic Circle. Days later, his ally Maria Pevchikh released a video titled “Why did Putin kill Navalny now?” The deal that has been struck this week follows similar contours. In place of Navalny, Western negotiators have freed a number of Russian political prisoners, including protest leader Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British-Russian critic of Putin who had been instrumental in lobbying western governments for harsher sanctions against the Putin regime. Whelan was also among the Americans free, as well as Alsu Kurmasheva.

Putin, in turn, has managed to return a number of high-profile Russian spies, including a number of “illegals”, intelligence officers who take on fake foreign personas rather than operating under diplomatic cover. And he has freed Krasikov, whom it is rumoured that he met personally at a shooting range when the hitman served in the highly secretive Vympel unit of Russia’s secret service.

Some in Washington indicated on Thursday that the deal would be the target of significant criticism. Donald Trump has already criticised the deal, writing: “Are we releasing murderers, killers or thugs? Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps.” And a US official briefed on the talks said that they were “happy for the families but we are releasing some very bad people.”

In the days before Navalny’s death, Putin’s insistence that a deal could be struck grew louder. In an interview with Tucker Carlson in February, he described Krasikov as “a man sitting in one country, an ally of the United States, who, for patriotic reasons, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals”.

Putin didn’t mention Krasikov by name, but he did in effect portend the trade that came to fruition this week.

“I do not exclude that the person you mentioned, Mr Gershkovich, may end up in his homeland,” he said. “Why not? It’s pointless to more or less keep him in prison in Russia. But let the colleagues of our intelligence officers on the American side also think about how to solve the problems that our special services face.”

The White House celebrated a “feat of diplomacy” on Thursday after a major prisoner swap between Russia and the west that included the release of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan, among others.

Both are US citizens accused by Russian authorities of espionage, charges they and the US government have denied, and a possible exchange had been mooted for months.

The exchange on Thursday occurred at Ankara airport in Turkey, and involved people held in seven different countries including the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus. The Turkish presidency said 10 prisoners were relocated to Russia, 13 prisoners to Germany and three to the US.

Among the prisoners returning to Russia was the assassin Vadim Krasikov, who had been held in a German prison since 2019 for murdering a Chechen exile in Berlin in broad daylight.

Joe Biden said in a statement immediately following the news that the three American citizens and one American green card holder were “unjustly” imprisoned in Russia – in addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the other two are Alsu Kurmasheva, a US-Russian journalist, and Vladimir Kara-Murza – “was a feat of diplomacy”.

“All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia – including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country. Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”

Biden added he was grateful to the allies of the US who “stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome”.

He said: “This is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world whom you can trust and depend upon. Our alliances make Americans safer.”

Shortly afterward, Biden delivered remarks from the White House, surrounded by family members of the freed prisoners.

“This is a very good afternoon,” the president said, adding that he and the family members had been able to speak to the released prisoners on the phone.

He also asked the room to sing happy birthday to 12-year-old Miriam, daughter of Kurmasheva, who he said is turning 13 on Friday.

The swap is likely to be considered a political coup for Biden in the waning months of his presidency, and a blow to Donald Trump, who has claimed on the 2024 campaign trail that he would free Gershkovich if re-elected.

Trump has frequently voiced admiration for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and said in May on his social media site, Truth Social, that if he won the November election, Gershkovich would be “released almost immediately after the election, but definitely before I assume office”, adding that Putin would “do that for me, but not for anyone else”.

Kamala Harris, the vice-president and frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, echoed Biden’s words on Thursday and added: “I will not stop working until every American who is wrongfully detained or held hostage is brought home.”

On Thursday, White House’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Biden and Harris would welcome the released US citizens at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, and that Gershkovich, Whelan and Kurmasheva were expected to arrive on US soil on Thursday night.

Emma Tucker, the editor of the Wall Street Journal, described the event as a “joyous day” for friends, family and colleagues of Gershkovich, and the “the millions of well-wishers in the US and around the world who stood with Evan and defended the free press”.

Current and former US government officials and press freedom groups similarly rejoiced at the news.

Barack Obama described the exchange as a “tremendous diplomatic achievement” and noted the “skill and persistence” of Biden, Harris and US allies.

Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed the news but said “it does not change the fact that Russia continues to suppress a free press”. Reporters Without Borders said they were “relieved” but said more than 40 other journalists remain detained in Russia.

On Thursday afternoon, Trump criticized the swap on Truth Social, calling it a “bad” deal. “So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia? How many people do we get versus them? Are we also paying them cash?” he asked.

Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said that no money was exchanged. He said no sanctions were loosened to facilitate the deal.

The swap comes a year and a half after the Biden administration secured the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner in late 2022, who had been held in Russian jail for almost 10 months on drug charges and was freed in exchange for the arms dealer Viktor Bout. At the time, Biden expressed regret that the deal did not include Whelan, who had been detained since 2018.

Earlier in 2022, the Biden administration also secured the release of former US marine Trevor Reed, who was arrested in 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station after a night of heavy drinking. Reed was released in exchange for a convicted Russian drug trafficker who was serving a long prison sentence in the US.

The US government has recognised Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election, discrediting the results announced by government-controlled electoral authorities who declared Nicolás Maduro the victor.

“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s 28 July presidential election,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday night.

The country’s electoral council declared Maduro the winner of Sunday’s highly anticipated election, but the president’s main challenger, González, and opposition leader María Corina Machado have said they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed.

They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove that Maduro lost.

The announcement from the US government came amid diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro to release vote tallies from the election and increasing calls for an independent review of the results, according to officials from Brazil and Mexico.

Government officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant communication with Maduro’s administration to convince him that he must show the vote tally sheets from Sunday’s election and allow impartial verification, a Brazilian government official told the Associated Press on Thursday.

The officials have told Venezuela’s government that showing the data is the only way to dispel any doubt in the results, said the Brazilian official, who asked not be identified.

A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the three governments have been discussing the issue with Venezuela but did not provide details. Earlier, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said he planned to speak to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, and that his government believed it was important that the electoral tallies be made public.

Later on Thursday, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela’s electoral authorities “to move forward expeditiously and publicly release” detailed voting data, but they did not confirm any backroom diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro’s government to publish the vote tallies.

“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results,” they said in the statement.

On Monday, after Maduro was declared the winner, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets. The government said it arrested hundreds of protesters and Venezuela-based human rights Organization Foro Penal said 11 people were killed. Dozens more were arrested the following day, including former a opposition candidate, Freddy Superlano.

Opposition leader Machado – who was barred from running for president – and González addressed a huge rally of their supporters in the capital, Caracas, on Tuesday, but they have not been seen in public since.

Later that day, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, called for their arrest, calling them criminals and fascists.

In an op-ed published on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, Machado said she was “hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen”. She reasserted that the opposition has physical evidence that Maduro lost the election and urged the international community to intervene.

“We have voted Mr Maduro out,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.” Machado later posted a video on social media calling on supporters to gather on Saturday morning across the country.

Government repression over the years has pushed opposition leaders into exile. The González campaign had no comment on the op-ed.

On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela’s highest court to conduct an audit of the election, but that request drew almost immediate criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.

It wasn’t clear if Maduro’s first concession to demands for more transparency was the result of the discussions with Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Venezuela’s president confirmed during a news conference on Wednesday that he had spoken to Petro about it.

On Thursday, the court accepted Maduro’s request for an audit and ordered him, González and the eight other candidates who participated in the presidential election to appear before the justices on Friday.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it went into freefall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.

Katie Ledecky became the most decorated female Olympic swimmer of all time but was made to settle for silver as Australia won the 4x200m freestyle relay on Thursday night at La Défense Arena.

One night after the 27-year-old American became the first female swimmer to win gold medals at four different Olympics after retaining her title in the women’s 1500m freestyle, Ledecky added a 13th Olympic medal, one more than countrywomen Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin and Australia’s Emma McKeon.

The Australian team of Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus finished in an Olympic record time of 7min 38.08sec. Jamie Perkins and Shayna Jack, who swam in the preliminary rounds, also took gold.

Ledecky’s strong third leg brough teammates Claire Weinstein, Paige Madden and Erin Gemmell up from third to second but it wasn’t enough to catch their Australian rivals, who touched 2.78sec sooner to clinch gold.

“It’s just amazing to get to be a part of even one-thirteenth of the journey that she’s been on,” Gemmell said. “It’s so much more fun to be on a relay than to be by yourself and we just had a great time out there tonight.”

Earlier Kate Douglass gave the Americans a much-needed boost by claiming her first individual Olympic gold with a win in the 200m breaststroke ahead of South Africa’s Tatjana Smith and Tes Schouten of the Netherlands, who took silver and bronze respectively.

The 22-year-old Douglass, who has blossomed into one of the world’s most versatile swimmers since winning bronze in the 200m individual medley on her Olympic debut three years ago, has been hotly tipped to improve on her medal in that event later this week.

“I feel like it was kind of just a long time coming,” Douglass said. “This whole year I’ve been training and physically preparing for this exact race. Just kind of seeing it all come together and sticking to my race plan, I was just so excited to see that I’d gone first and [broken] an American record too. I feel like it’s a surreal moment. I don’t know if all of the emotions have set in yet.”

Before that Canada’s budding superstar Summer McIntosh claimed her second gold with a dominant showing in the 200m butterfly final, dealing the American Regan Smith the fourth silver medal of a career that is still awaiting a first gold.

“To be honest I don’t want to think about what it means to win gold against silver,” the 22-year-old Smith said. “If you get too wrapped up in your head about that, you are never going to be happy. I want to be proud of myself regardless. It’s a cliche answer but it is true.

“If this had happened three years ago I would have been gutted and it would have affected my mental health for a long time. And it did. I was struggling after Tokyo for a long time.

“But I’m glad, I have a lot more life experience, and I’m in a much better place in my life with swimming. I love it and it is the biggest passion I’ve had in my life but it is not my entire life.

“But I’m going to keep fighting like hell. If I walk away with a gold medal, excellent, if I don’t, I’m still me and I’m just fine.”

Douglass’ gold was the fourth for the United States at these Paris Games to go with 11 silvers and six bronzes.

Simone Biles won her sixth Olympic gold medal, and her second of the Paris Games, on Thursday, seeing off a stiff challenge from Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade to capture the women’s all-around title for a second time.

The 27-year-old returned to the summit of world gymnastics eight years after winning her first Olympic all-around title in Rio, becoming only the third woman in history to earn the sport’s most prestigious title more than once, after Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union (1956 and 1960) and Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia (1964 and 1968).

A once-in-a-lifetime athlete who makes the unthinkable look elementary and the extraordinary look effortless, Biles paced the field of 24 gymnasts with 59.131 points. Andrade finished nearly two points adrift to match her silver medal from Tokyo, while Biles’s US teammate Suni Lee, the defending Olympic all-around champion who spent much of the last two years dealing with multiple kidney diseases, took the bronze.

“I just couldn’t believe that I did it,” Biles said afterward. “I know that I did it, but I don’t think it’s hit me just yet. It will probably hit me whenever I go back to the [Olympic Village]. I’m just ecstatic with my performances tonight. And we still have three finals left for me. Now it’s time to have fun and the hard part is over.”

Biles also became the oldest women’s all-around Olympic champion since the Soviet Union’s Maria Gorokhovskaya, who won the gold in 1952 when she was 30. She becomes the sixth straight American woman to win the title after Sunisa Lee (2021), herself (2016), Gabby Douglas (2012), Nastia Liukin (2008) and Carly Patterson (2004).

The historic gold marked Biles’s 39th career medal between the Olympics and world championships, extending her record as the most decorated gymnast in history. Since winning her first national title in 2013, she has won every all-around competition in every meet she has entered.

Although it was the first all-around final to include multiple former Olympic champions in Biles and Lee, Thursday’s contest was largely framed as a showdown between Biles and Andrade, the runner-up at last year’s world championships whose four-event total in Tuesday’s team final was just 0.366 behind Biles.

Biles started her afternoon on the vault, surging down the platform and launching into a sky-high Yurchenko double pike, the hardest vault currently being performed in competition by a female gymnast. Biles had opted against attempting it in Tuesday’s team final. She earned a score of 15.766 despite a few steps back on the landing, easily good for first place and 0.666 ahead of Andrade, who drilled her Cheng with confidence. The fight was on.

Next was the uneven bars, traditionally Biles’s weakest discipline. Andrade went first in the rotation, hitting a gorgeous routine for 14.666, an improvement on her qualifying score. Biles went second but made a significant error, going too high on her Pak salto transition down to the low bar after her pike Tkatchev, then bending her knees to avoid touching the floor, her 4ft 8in frame probably sparing her an even costlier deduction.

Biles’s score of 13.733, which might have been even lower, drew gasps from the crowd when it flashed on the screen as the American dropped into second, 0.267 points behind Andrade after two rotations – then into third after Algerian bars specialist Kaylia Nemour lit up the crowd with a patient, elegant set for a score of 15.533.

For so many years the biggest events the sport can offer have been more coronations than competitions for the American star. But on Thursday, the greatest gymnast of all time was having the question put to her like rarely seen before.

“I’ve put in so many numbers [of routines] on the bars so it was an unfortunate mistake, but I knew to just keep pushing and to not give up,” Biles said. “And that’s exactly what you saw out there. I think Rebeca pushes me to be my best as well. She’s a phenomenal athlete and gymnast. So I’m excited that she was there to push me.”

Biles led off the third rotation on the beam, attacking a routine packed with difficulty through extraordinary pressure and delivering the gut-check performance of a great champion. Her score of 14.566 set the tone for a group with all of the leaders, setting off a standing ovation from the flag-waving US fans who filled the arena. Afterward Biles beamed and clapped and blew kisses to the crowd, the look of frustration she’d shown after her bars routine a distant memory.

But Andrade answered the call, hitting a clean beam routine, save for a few balance checks, to close the group. Her score of 14.133 brought her within 0.166 points of Biles entering the final rotation. The Olympic all-around gold would be settled on the floor.

Andrade, performing second to last, posted a score of 14.033, setting the American’s mark to win the gold at 13.867. And there Biles stood after climbing the carpeted stairs to the competition podium, the thousands of Swarovski crystals on her blue leotard glimmering in the spotlight that was hers alone, savoring the moment before launching into an immaculate routine. Grinning from ear to ear throughout after sticking her first tumbling pass, Biles gained momentum and brio with each foray down the floor amid roars from the crowd.

“All in all, I’m super proud of my performance and the fight I’ve had for the last three years, mentally and physically, to get back competing on a world stage,” said Biles, who recorded the highest scores on vault, beam and floor exercise. “The Olympic Games is an amazing experience, so I couldn’t be prouder. To see where I’ve grown from Tokyo and even the 19-year-old from Rio is amazing. I’m proud of [myself] for putting in the work and never giving up.”

Biles celebrated her gold wearing a diamond-encrusted goat necklace before an animated, celebrity-flecked audience that included USA basketball stars Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. The margin was the smallest in a major international gymnastics event since Biles captured the third of her record six world championships in 2015. But in the end it was enough.

• The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, has attended in Turkey the launch of the Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi, an anti-submarine warship newly built for Ukraine. Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said: “Corvettes Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi and [previously launched] Hetman Ivan Mazepa, which were built in Turkey due to Russian aggression, are equipped with cutting-edge weapons and will become a significant addition to our fleet … Ukraine has already broken the dominance of the Russian fleet at sea, destroying dozens of ships. We are actively expanding the capabilities of the Ukrainian navy in the Black and Azov seas.” It is unclear when either warship will be able to reach Ukraine, because the Montreux convention generally prohibits warring parties’ battleships from entering or exiting the Black Sea via the Bosphorus, which Turkey controls.

• Russian-occupied Crimea came under attack from missiles and drones on Friday morning, according to reports. The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said debris fell on the city. Explosions were heard in Saki where there is an airbase and in Yevpatoria, according to news sources including Crimean Wind, a Telegram channel that reliably reports on military activities on the peninsula. Kursk oblast inside Russia also came under air attack, said the governor, Alexey Smirnov.

• A mother and her daughter were killed by Russian shelling of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine’s east, its governor said on Thursday. “They hit the city with a dozen shells,” said Serhiy Lysak, adding that private houses, a fire station, a college, a school and buses were damaged.

• The F-16 fighter jets that have started arriving in Ukraine will likely have three core missions, according to analyst Federico Borsari of the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington. They will seek to intercept Russian missiles and drones; suppress Russian air defences; and bomb Russian troops and ammunition depots. “They will be able to affect some of the dynamics [of the war],” Borsari says.

• In the air, the Ukrainian F-16s will be up against Russia’s formidable S-300 and S-400 mobile surface-to-air missile systems that can target multiple aircraft at a time. Russia’s military also has what are estimated to be several hundred operational fighter jets, as well as sophisticated air surveillance radars.

• A Shahed drone attack near Kyiv injured exiled Russian lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, he said on Thursday. Ponomaryov, 48, fled to Ukraine and gained citizenship after opposing Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. “This thing blew in very forcefully, right in front of the threshold of the house, and loads of shrapnel flew into me,” Ponomaryov said. Until this week Ponomaryov headed the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion – ethnic Russians fighting on Ukraine’s side. It announced on Wednesday that it had unilaterally cut ties with Ponomaryov and no longer had a political wing.

• The Estonian government said on Thursday it would introduce full customs controls on its border with Russia to combat circumvention of sanctions. “The goods that allow [Russia] to wage war against Ukraine, undermine Europe’s and Estonia’s security shouldn’t be imported there,” said the Estonian prime minister, Kristen Michal. The finance minister, Jurgen Ligi, said: “Third countries are declared as [a] destination point, but we don’t believe it. And life has shown that these goods don’t reach the destination. This cargo includes really ugly things, both military and dual-use goods, large amounts of cash. It’s obvious that these are being smuggled through us.”

• The Ukrainian economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, arrived in Turkey on Thursday for talks on ratifying their free trade agreement and other economic cooperation. Turkey is among Ukraine’s top five trading partners and the agreement will cancel duties on a significant number of Ukrainian goods. The date of the ratification has not yet been determined by the Ukrainian parliament.

• The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, has attended in Turkey the launch of the Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi, an anti-submarine warship newly built for Ukraine. Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said: “Corvettes Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi and [previously launched] Hetman Ivan Mazepa, which were built in Turkey due to Russian aggression, are equipped with cutting-edge weapons and will become a significant addition to our fleet … Ukraine has already broken the dominance of the Russian fleet at sea, destroying dozens of ships. We are actively expanding the capabilities of the Ukrainian navy in the Black and Azov seas.” It is unclear when either warship will be able to reach Ukraine, because the Montreux convention generally prohibits warring parties’ battleships from entering or exiting the Black Sea via the Bosphorus, which Turkey controls.

• Russian-occupied Crimea came under attack from missiles and drones on Friday morning, according to reports. The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said debris fell on the city. Explosions were heard in Saki where there is an airbase and in Yevpatoria, according to news sources including Crimean Wind, a Telegram channel that reliably reports on military activities on the peninsula. Kursk oblast inside Russia also came under air attack, said the governor, Alexey Smirnov.

• A mother and her daughter were killed by Russian shelling of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine’s east, its governor said on Thursday. “They hit the city with a dozen shells,” said Serhiy Lysak, adding that private houses, a fire station, a college, a school and buses were damaged.

• The F-16 fighter jets that have started arriving in Ukraine will likely have three core missions, according to analyst Federico Borsari of the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington. They will seek to intercept Russian missiles and drones; suppress Russian air defences; and bomb Russian troops and ammunition depots. “They will be able to affect some of the dynamics [of the war],” Borsari says.

• In the air, the Ukrainian F-16s will be up against Russia’s formidable S-300 and S-400 mobile surface-to-air missile systems that can target multiple aircraft at a time. Russia’s military also has what are estimated to be several hundred operational fighter jets, as well as sophisticated air surveillance radars.

• A Shahed drone attack near Kyiv injured exiled Russian lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, he said on Thursday. Ponomaryov, 48, fled to Ukraine and gained citizenship after opposing Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. “This thing blew in very forcefully, right in front of the threshold of the house, and loads of shrapnel flew into me,” Ponomaryov said. Until this week Ponomaryov headed the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion – ethnic Russians fighting on Ukraine’s side. It announced on Wednesday that it had unilaterally cut ties with Ponomaryov and no longer had a political wing.

• The Estonian government said on Thursday it would introduce full customs controls on its border with Russia to combat circumvention of sanctions. “The goods that allow [Russia] to wage war against Ukraine, undermine Europe’s and Estonia’s security shouldn’t be imported there,” said the Estonian prime minister, Kristen Michal. The finance minister, Jurgen Ligi, said: “Third countries are declared as [a] destination point, but we don’t believe it. And life has shown that these goods don’t reach the destination. This cargo includes really ugly things, both military and dual-use goods, large amounts of cash. It’s obvious that these are being smuggled through us.”

• The Ukrainian economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, arrived in Turkey on Thursday for talks on ratifying their free trade agreement and other economic cooperation. Turkey is among Ukraine’s top five trading partners and the agreement will cancel duties on a significant number of Ukrainian goods. The date of the ratification has not yet been determined by the Ukrainian parliament.

Ground temperatures across great swathes of the ice sheets of Antarctica have soared an average of 10C above normal over the past month, in what has been described as a near record heatwave.

While temperatures remain below zero on the polar land mass, which is shrouded in darkness at this time of year, the depths of southern hemisphere winter, temperatures have reportedly reached 28C above expectations on some days.

The globe has experienced 12 months of record warmth, with temperatures consistently exceeding the 1.5C rise above preindustrial levels that has been touted as the limit to avoiding the worst of climate breakdown.

Michael Dukes, the director of forecasting at MetDesk, said that while individual daily high temperatures were surprising, far more significant was the average rise over the month.

Climate scientists’ models have long predicted that the most significant effects of anthropogenic climate change would be on polar regions, “and this is a great example of that”, he said.

“Usually you can’t just look at one month for a climate trend but it is right in line with what models predict,” Dukes added. “In Antarctica generally that kind of warming in the winter and continuing in to summer months can lead to collapsing of the ice sheets.”

Last month was the first in 14 months that temperature records were not broken, but that followed an exceptionally warm July 2023, and it remained 0.3C above any July before that.

Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, said Antarctica’s heatwave had “definitely been one of the bigger drivers in the spike of global temperatures in recent weeks”.

“Antarctica as a whole has warmed along with the world over the past 50 years, and for that matter 150 years, so any heatwave is starting off from that elevated baseline,” he said. “But it’s safe to say that the majority of the spike in the last month was driven by the heatwave.”

The heatwave is the second to hit the region in the past two years, with the last, in March 2022, leading to a spike of 39C and causing a portion of the ice sheet the size of Rome to collapse.

Antarctica’s increased July temperatures follow a particularly strong El Niño, the climate phenomenon that leads to warming around the world, and was likely also a lag effect of that, in combination with the general increase in temperatures caused by climate breakdown, Dukes said.

Scientists said the proximate cause of the heatwave was a weakened polar vortex, a band of cold air and low pressure that spins in the stratosphere around each pole. Interference from atmospheric waves had weakened the vortex and led to rising high-altitude temperatures this year, Amy Butler, an atmospheric scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Washington Post.

Jamin Greenbaum, a geophysicist at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said he was “certainly worried about what’s in store for this region in the years to come”.

“The majority of my field expeditions have been to East Antarctica where I have seen increasing melt through the years,” he said. “Although I’m of course alarmed to see these reports of the weakened polar vortex causing the tremendous heatwave there, I’m also not surprised considering this is sadly an expected outcome of climate change.”

Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, said on X that the heatwave was an “eye-opening sign that climate change is starting to really transform the planet”.

Edward Blanchard, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, told the Post it was a near-record event. “It is likely that having less sea ice and a warmer Southern Ocean around the Antarctic continent ‘loads the dice’ for warmer winter weather over Antarctica,” Blanchard said.

“From this perspective, it might be a bit ‘less surprising’ to see large heatwaves in Antarctica this year compared [with] a ‘normal’ year with average sea ice conditions.”

Jonathan Wille, a researcher studying climate science at ETH Zürich, a public research university in Zürich, Switzerland, said the heatwave was attributable to a weeks-long “southern stratospheric warming event” over the region.

“Those are really rare over Antarctica, so it wasn’t really quite clear how that would affect surface conditions on the continent,” he said. “It’s been interesting to see how widespread the effects have been.”

Though he said there “seem to be more and more frequent heatwaves over the continent”, he said it was not yet clear how much of a factor the climate crisis had been in creating this particular event.

“We’ll have to wait for the attribution studies to find out,” he said. “It’s a ‘wait and see’ scenario.”

The leader of Hezbollah has said that the Lebanese group’s conflict with Israel has entered “a new phase” after the back-to-back assassinations of a senior commander and Hamas’s political chief that risk plunging the Middle East into a regional war.

In a televised address broadcast to about 1,000 mourners at the Beirut funeral of Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Fuad Shukur, Hassan Nasrallah vowed that the powerful Shia militia would seek revenge.

“The enemy, and those who are behind the enemy, must await our inevitable response … You do not know what red lines you crossed,” he said, in reference to Israel and its most important ally, the US.

Similar warnings of retaliation were made earlier in the day in Tehran, at a funeral procession for the Hamas political chief, Ismail Haniyeh. The 62-year-old was killed in the early hours of Wednesday – just hours after the missile attack on Shukur in Beirut – during a visit for the inauguration of Iran’s new president.

The Qatar-based official’s death is likely to affect progress in talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the war in Gaza, which were already faltering.

Details of what happened are still unclear, but the New York Times reported on Thursday an explosive device was planted in the building weeks in advance. The publication, citing Iranian officials, also said the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had since issued an order to attack Israel.

Israel has claimed responsibility for the attack on Shukur, which also killed an Iranian military adviser and at least five civilians: it said he was to blame for a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights last weekend that killed 12 children and young people playing football.

It has not confirmed or denied it was behind Haniyeh’s assassination, but it fits a pattern of previous Israeli targeted killings on Iranian soil. After Hamas’s 7 October attack that triggered the latest war in Gaza, Israel pledged to eliminate all of Hamas’s leaders, wherever they are located.

Also on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said they had confirmed an airstrike in Gaza last month had successfully killed Hamas’s military commander, Mohammed Deif.

Speeches at both funerals were closely followed for clues as to how Hezbollah and Iran will respond. 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.

Iranian state television showed crowds of mourners dressed in black and carrying posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian and Hamas flags and many people throwing flowers on the coffins as they passed by. His remains will be flown to Qatar on Friday and buried there.

Speakers at the ceremony, attended by Khamenei, Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the Revolutionary Guards chief, Gen Hossein Salami, and senior members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, 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”.

In Beirut, Shukur’s coffin was paraded through the streets of southern Beirut, with thousands of people marching behind the casket, many carrying his picture and that of Haniyeh. Women beat their chests to the rhythm of prayers as onlookers peered from balconies, and Palestine was mentioned in the same breath as Lebanon. Officials from Hamas stood next to their Hezbollah peers in the first row of the funeral.

Anger among those gathered was plain: the sound of military trumpets was interrupted by chants of “death to America” and protestations to Nasrallah. “They have to hit back. At the least, they need to hit Tel Aviv. And we’re not afraid of a war, we’ve been through it before,” said Hisham Shahrour, a businessman attending the funeral.

Um Hussein, a 55-year-old mourner, said: “[Nasrallah] will not let the enemy’s operation go unanswered. Hezbollah will respond – but at the right time.”

Nasrallah’s speech, interrupted by the chanting of thousands of supporters in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, was typically fiery but he stopped short of announcing concrete retaliation. He said that the group would mount a real rather than symbolic response.

Hezbollah 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.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Thursday that his country was prepared for any “aggression” after the threats.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded tit-for-tat attacks since the Lebanese militia began firing on Israel the day after 7 October, ostensibly to aid its Palestinian allies. The conflict has steadily escalated over the past 10 months, with tens of thousands of people on both sides displaced from their homes.

In his speech on Thursday Nasrallah de-linked the Lebanese front from Gaza for the first time, saying “the issue has gone beyond the support front”.

Amal Saad, a Cardiff University lecturer and expert on Hezbollah, said Nasrallah’s speech was “very menacing. It’s going to be a huge, and most likely, coordinated response. I think it will force Israel to redraw its red lines but will be short of triggering a war.”

While Nasrallah spoke, Israel continued to carry out strikes in Lebanon’s south, killing a mother and her two children, and wounding others in a missile strike in the town of Shamaa.

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 barrage of 300 missiles and drones was carefully telegraphed in advance, allowing Israel’s allies to mount an efficient air defence response. Iran’s course of action this time is expected to be stronger, possibly taking the form of a joint attack with Hezbollah and the other factions in Tehran’s “axis of resistance”.

International officials have been scrambling to de-escalate the vicious spiral of retaliation before it descends into a broader war.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told reporters during a visit to Mongolia on Thursday that “all parties” in the Middle East must “make the right choices in the days ahead” and said a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza was the only way to break the current cycle of violence and suffering.

The UN security council convened an emergency meeting on Wednesday at Iran’s request to discuss the incidents. A statement from the world body said that the Middle East was at a “precarious point” and called for restraint and diplomacy.

Police have busted the largest illegal pornography ring in Taiwan’s history, arresting hundreds of people connected to internet and Telegram forums sharing child sexual abuse images and footage of women filmed without their knowledge.

At a press conference on Wednesday, investigators said the 449 men arrested so far were suspected of breaching Taiwan’s Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act, money laundering and engaging in organised crime.

Approximately 180 subscribers, who paid in cryptocurrency and network tokens, as well as operational and management staff and video editors were among those arrested, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said. One of the arrested, a man surnamed Chang, is suspected of managing Chuangyi Sifang, Taiwan’s largest illegal pornography platform with a reported 5,000 members. Chang was allegedly running it on behalf of its alleged owner, believed to be in China, the Taipei Times reported.

Chang and three others were “strongly suspected of committing crimes”, prosecutors said, and were detained. Sixteen others were charged and released on bail. Among those arrested were teachers, military personnel, IT workers and a small number of police officers, authorities told local media. More than 100 victims have been identified.

Computers, phones, financial records and about $30,000 (£23,500) in currency from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China were also confiscated during the multiple raids in June and July, by police from 64 agencies and precincts across 17 Taiwanese jurisdictions.

The operation targeted two platforms and two Telegram groups. Authorities said the trafficked content included sexual images of children and teenagers, and footage of women in restaurant bathrooms, bars, and other public places, filmed without their knowledge. Taiwan outlet, the Reporter, said perpetrators placed hidden cameras in restrooms.

Taiwan’s government has been accused of not acting fast enough to address the spread of illegal pornography and child abuse images. Possessing child abuse images was criminalised only in 2023, according to local media. In April, the Women’s Rescue Foundation called for an increase in penalties for those who obtain such images, in line with those who create or supply them.

Rufus Lin, the CIB’s hi-tech crime centre director, told a press conference on Wednesday it had been difficult to shut down the networks because they were run on overseas accounts and domains, even though they were operated and managed from Taiwan.

Lin called for the accused to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and said the investigations were continuing. “Don’t think you can’t be caught,” Lin said.

The problem has been particularly prominent since allegations involving the Taiwanese celebrity Mickey Huang came to light. Huang has been a well-known TV host for more than two decades. As part of Taiwan’s #MeToo movement, Huang was accused of assaulting women, including one who was 17 at the time. A police investigation later discovered Huang allegedly had a 4TB hard drive at home that included hundreds of nude and sexual images of women, seven of whom were underage. Prosecutors said Huang is alleged to have been a Chuangyi Sifang subscriber.

Huang’s trial continues.

Additional research by Chi-hui Lin

Police have busted the largest illegal pornography ring in Taiwan’s history, arresting hundreds of people connected to internet and Telegram forums sharing child sexual abuse images and footage of women filmed without their knowledge.

At a press conference on Wednesday, investigators said the 449 men arrested so far were suspected of breaching Taiwan’s Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act, money laundering and engaging in organised crime.

Approximately 180 subscribers, who paid in cryptocurrency and network tokens, as well as operational and management staff and video editors were among those arrested, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said. One of the arrested, a man surnamed Chang, is suspected of managing Chuangyi Sifang, Taiwan’s largest illegal pornography platform with a reported 5,000 members. Chang was allegedly running it on behalf of its alleged owner, believed to be in China, the Taipei Times reported.

Chang and three others were “strongly suspected of committing crimes”, prosecutors said, and were detained. Sixteen others were charged and released on bail. Among those arrested were teachers, military personnel, IT workers and a small number of police officers, authorities told local media. More than 100 victims have been identified.

Computers, phones, financial records and about $30,000 (£23,500) in currency from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China were also confiscated during the multiple raids in June and July, by police from 64 agencies and precincts across 17 Taiwanese jurisdictions.

The operation targeted two platforms and two Telegram groups. Authorities said the trafficked content included sexual images of children and teenagers, and footage of women in restaurant bathrooms, bars, and other public places, filmed without their knowledge. Taiwan outlet, the Reporter, said perpetrators placed hidden cameras in restrooms.

Taiwan’s government has been accused of not acting fast enough to address the spread of illegal pornography and child abuse images. Possessing child abuse images was criminalised only in 2023, according to local media. In April, the Women’s Rescue Foundation called for an increase in penalties for those who obtain such images, in line with those who create or supply them.

Rufus Lin, the CIB’s hi-tech crime centre director, told a press conference on Wednesday it had been difficult to shut down the networks because they were run on overseas accounts and domains, even though they were operated and managed from Taiwan.

Lin called for the accused to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and said the investigations were continuing. “Don’t think you can’t be caught,” Lin said.

The problem has been particularly prominent since allegations involving the Taiwanese celebrity Mickey Huang came to light. Huang has been a well-known TV host for more than two decades. As part of Taiwan’s #MeToo movement, Huang was accused of assaulting women, including one who was 17 at the time. A police investigation later discovered Huang allegedly had a 4TB hard drive at home that included hundreds of nude and sexual images of women, seven of whom were underage. Prosecutors said Huang is alleged to have been a Chuangyi Sifang subscriber.

Huang’s trial continues.

Additional research by Chi-hui Lin

Police forces have been urged to step up patrols outside mosques and asylum seeker accommodation amid plans for at least 19 far-right rallies across England in coming days.

Violent demonstrations have spread from Southport to London, Hartlepool, Manchester and Aldershot after the stabbing atrocity at a children’s holiday club on Monday.

Community leaders on Thursday said they were increasingly fearful of further unrest after mosques and asylum seeker accommodation were targeted by crowds of “intimidating” agitators.

The riots began after misinformation circulated widely online about the identity and motives of the suspect in the Southport murders, who was named on Thursday as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana. The media had been unable to name the teenager, who was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, because he is under 18.

But a judge, Andrew Menary KC, said his name should be reported on the basis that continued anonymity risked “allowing others who are up to mischief to continue to spread disinformation in a vacuum”.

Rudakubana, is next due to appear in court in October accused of murdering Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, and attempting to murder 10 others.

Mosques in Southport and Hartlepool were attacked by rioters on Tuesday and Wednesday amid unfounded online rumours that the suspect was Muslim, when little if anything is known about his beliefs or motivation.

In Manchester and in Aldershot in Hampshire, asylum seeker accommodation was targeted by demonstrators carrying placards that read “deport them, don’t support them” and “no apartments for illegals”. In central London, demonstrators threw flares and cans while chanting “rule Britannia”, “save our kids” and the mantra of the previous Conservative government: “Stop the boats.”

Mosque Security, a company that advises faith leaders on protection, said it had received inquiries from more than 100 mosques seeking help in recent days. Shaukat Warraich, its director, said the firm’s online security recommendations had been downloaded “in their hundreds” as a result of “the false anti-Muslim narrative being peddled following the Southport murders”.

There were also anecdotal reports of mosques cancelling events this weekend because of security fears.

The Guardian has seen details of at least 19 far-right rallies being planned for the coming days in towns and cities across England. Many of the events are taking place under the banner “enough is enough” and “protect our kids” – the same slogan used by demonstrators outside Downing Street on Wednesday evening. More than 110 people were arrested after protesters clashed with police.

Counter-demonstrations are due to take place in Manchester and Liverpool amid fears that anti-immigration groups are feeling emboldened by the unrest inspired by the Southport murders.

One online group said its membership had “absolutely rocketed in the past few days”. Tell Mama, an organisation that tracks Islamophobia, called for greater police protection for mosques.

Iman Atta, its director, said: “We absolutely need to see the police organise and step up their patrols around mosques and asylum seeker accommodation. It would be good to see neighbourhood teams change their patrol times to provide additional reassurance to the communities.

“Last week has demonstrated how the far right can organise online and promote hate and misinformation towards Muslim communities, refugees and asylum seekers. We ask communities to keep calm, look out for each other and to remain vigilant.”

Nahella Ashraf, of Stand Up to Racism Manchester, said it would be “great” to see more police patrolling far-right activity this weekend but said this would not solve the longer-term problems behind the riots.

“Before the election, with all the attacks on asylum seekers, it’s not surprising we’re seeing this unleashed,” she said. “We’ve had years where people are feeling angry and neglected and the cost of living crisis feeds into it. It’s the climate the politicians have set.”

Mark Webster, the chief constable of Cleveland police, said the unrest in Hartlepool was “mindless thuggery”. Asked what the motivation was for the disorder, he said: “There is an opportunity to go out and damage things, and just exhibit a bit of violence. I don’t think there is a principle at stake, this was not a legitimate protest or demonstration.

“I think there is some mindless thuggery and that’s why we are being really proactive to go out and arrest people. There’s no excuse for last night.”

US investors triggered a major sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday set off by fears that the job market is cooling, manufacturing is slowing and the Federal Reserve has left cutting interests too late to head off a recession.

The Dow Jones fell nearly 500 points (1.2%), while the S&P 500 was also down 1.3%. A series of disappointing results from tech companies have led to sell-offs in big tech.

After a rally on Wednesday following Meta’s second-quarter earnings results, which were better than expected, the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s index was down 2.3%. The bad news continued after markets closed with Intel announcing 15,000 layoffs and Amazon releasing disappointing results.

Two economic data points released on Thursday appeared to spook investors. One measurement of manufacturing activity by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) hit an eight-month low in July, while the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits hit an 11-month high last week, according to data released on Thursday.

“The ISM is really what started the ball rolling today and then selling causes more selling,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.

“We’re still in earnings season and there will be positive surprises that will probably drive the market higher and there may be negative surprises as well … but if you get something negative like ISM, it causes profit-taking.”

Despite Thursday’s stock sell-off, the stock market has still had a relatively strong year, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up 14.3% and 16% this year, respectively. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq registered their biggest daily percentage gains since February in the prior session, boosted by a rally in chip shares after the Fed kept rates steady, as expected.

Thursday’s data came a day after the Federal Reserve announced it would keep rates at a two-decade high until September. Investors expected rates would be held steady, and many expect the first cut to come next month.

But while the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, confirmed that the central bank would be willing to drop rates soon, any cut would only come if inflation over the summer proves to be somewhat stable. Inflation in June was 3%, one of the lowest months since prices started rising in 2021.

“If inflation were to prove stickier, and we were seeing higher rates of inflation and disappointing readings, we would weigh that along with other things,” Powell said on Wednesday, though he added that the Fed was also focused on the labor market, the other half of the Fed’s “dual-mandate”. Unemployment in June hit 4.1% – the highest its been since 2021.

The Fed’s next meeting is 20 September.

Reuters contributed reporting

The serial killer Levi Bellfield has been blocked from having a civil partnership, after a new law came into force stopping the most serious offenders getting married behind bars.

Bellfield is serving two whole-life orders for killing Milly Dowler, Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange, as well as the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy.

It is understood he had recently submitted an application for a civil partnership, which is believed to have spurred the government on to bring the previously announced restriction in from Friday.

Previously, Bellfield had applied to marry his girlfriend and sought legal aid to challenge a decision to block his marriage.

It was reported at the time by the Sun that he had been granted up to £30,000 in legal aid after his lawyers cited the European convention on human rights and the 1983 Marriage Act.

It is understood he withdrew his application to get married but had submitted a new application for a civil partnership in recent months.

The new law, which is part of the Victims and Prisoners Act, aims to “deny the most heinous criminals from enjoying the important life events they callously took from their victims”, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.

It applies to those serving whole-life orders.

Previously such prisoners could make a formal application for marriage or a civil partnership and could only be refused by a prison governor on the grounds of security concerns.

The lord chancellor and justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said: “Victims should not be tormented by seeing those who commit the most depraved crimes enjoy the moments in life that were stolen from their loved ones.

“That is why I have acted as soon as possible to stop these marriages and give victims the support they deserve.”

The lord chancellor will retain the right to permit ceremonies in the most exceptional circumstances, the MoJ said.

Bellfield received a whole-life sentence for the murder of McDonnell, 19, in 2003, Delagrange, 22, and the attempted murder of Sheedy, 18, in 2004.

He was already serving his sentence when he went on trial for killing 13-year-old Milly, who was snatched from the street walking home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002.

Bellfield was found guilty of abducting and killing her at a trial at the Old Bailey in 2011.

In remarks to a Catholic group, JD Vance attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for having “a sociopathic attitude” about families and children.

“One of the politicians that I criticised is AOC,” said Vance in 2021, while campaigning for the US Senate seat in Ohio he would win the following year.

“Maybe AOC hasn’t found the right person, whatever the case may be. AOC has said basically – if you look at her public remarks on this – that it’s immoral to have children because of climate change concerns. Right? This is, let’s just be direct, a sociopathic attitude towards family.”

Popularly known as AOC, Ocasio-Cortez, 34, is a representative from New York and a leading figure among House progressives.

Vance, 39, is the hard-right Senate populist who was picked last month as Donald Trump’s presidential running mate.

Vance has endured a troubled rollout, particularly over comments about family and women’s issues, notably including labeling as “childless cat ladies” opponents including Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Video of Vance’s attack on AOC was reported by Mother Jones.

It pointed out that AOC has not said it is immoral to have children.

In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez did say: “It is basically a scientific consensus that the lives of our children are going to be very difficult [because of climate change] and it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: is it OK to still have children?”

Vance, who now has three children, spoke in 2021 to the Napa Institute, a Catholic group that seeks to “advance the re-evangelisation of the United States”.

“My basic view,” Vance said, “is that if the Republican party, the conservative movement stands for anything … the number one thing we should be is pro-babies and pro-families.”

Claiming “a civilisational crisis” fueled by unhappy families and “healthy intact families … not having any kids”, he said: “So many of the most miserable and unhappy people in our media and in our public life are people without kids.

“And I think that they were trained to chase credentials, to chase degrees, to chase money, when the thing that is ultimately going to give you the most fulfillment in life is your family.”

Vance said he did not want to “criticise every single person who doesn’t have children”. His goal, he said, was to point out “that it’s one thing to have a society where some people don’t have kids. It’s another thing to build an entire political movement that is explicitly anti-child and anti-family. And that’s what the left in this country is. It is anti-child and anti-family.”

After attacking AOC, he said: “What does it say about our civilisation that so many of our leaders don’t have kids? What does it say about the incentives that are built into the Democrats’ entire movement that they reward the young people who don’t have families instead of the young people who do?

“I think it’s just pretty sick … and it suggests something pretty broken.”

Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond. But Mother Jones pointed to a social media post earlier this week, in response to a complaint from the Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy about attacks on Vance and Trump for being “weird” about women, families and children.

“Being obsessed with repressing women is goofy,” AOC said. “Trying to watch what LGBTQ+ people do all the time is abnormal. Punishing people who don’t have biological offspring is creepy … it’s SUPER weird. And people need to know.”