Canada’s “record-shattering” wildfires last year produced nearly as much greenhouse gas emissions in one season as would be expected over a decade of fires in normal circumstances, data has shown.

The fires, in Canada’s “wildest season ever”, were made at least three times more likely by the climate crisis, and produced about 2bn tonnes of CO₂, about a quarter of the total global emissions from wildfires last year, according to data in the State of Wildfires report, published on Wednesday.

The health impacts from last year’s fires will also continue to be felt for decades.

Carbon dioxide from wildfires is a growing source of greenhouse gas emissions globally, reaching about 8.6bn tonnes last year, considerably more than the 4.8bn annual emissions of the US from all sources. However, the net impact of fires is likely to be reduced by the regrowth of vegetation taking up carbon from the atmosphere.

Matthew Jones, a research fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, and lead author of the report, warned that damage from intensifying wildfires would continue to increase unless the world succeeded in bringing down greenhouse gas emissions. Wildfires not only kill people, wildlife and livestock, and devastate trees and other landscapes, but can cause widespread and dangerous air pollution.

They are also an increasingly important contributor to the climate crisis, through their greenhouse gas emissions and destruction of carbon stored in vegetation and soil.

“These fires are something we should all be concerned about,” he said. “The full effects of last year’s fires will not be seen for a long time.”

Canada’s fires, with a burned area that was six times greater than the average year, were some of last year’s worst. Brazil’s Amazonas state also had record highs, owing to a severe drought, while fires in Hawaii and Texas killed more than 100 people. The biggest single fire ever recorded in the EU burned 900 sq km of Greece.

However, lower than usual levels of burning in African savannah meant the greenhouse gas emissions from wildfires last year were only 16% above average – if savannahs had burned at their usual rate, rather than experiencing such relative calm, last year would have set a new record.

Separate data from the World Resources Institute showed that in 2023 nearly 12m hectares were burned by forest fires, an area roughly the size of Nicaragua, which was about a quarter more than the previous record in 2016. Between 2001 and 2023, the area burned has increased by about 5.4% a year, with the result that forest fires now result in nearly 6m more hectares of tree cover loss a year than they did in 2001 – an area roughly the size of Croatia.

Fires require not just high temperatures, but also an abundance of dry vegetation, and some form of ignition – either human or natural – to start and to continue burning fiercely. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions must be the biggest priority to prevent more wildfires in future, the authors said, but better land management and early warning systems could also help.

Banning people from setting fires, creating fire breaks and boundaries, and managing agricultural and forested areas in such a way as to reduce the amount of dry brush that provides fuel for fires, are also important. Providing masks and ventilation can also reduce the air pollution impact.

Early warning systems can be limited, however – in many hot areas there is a high likelihood of fire for most of the summer season.

“Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense as the climate warms, and both society and the environment are suffering from the consequences,” said Jones.

Although wildfires occur naturally in many of the world’s hot regions, the effects of the climate crisis on their frequency and severity are now clear, according to the report. Human-driven changes to the climate made fires three times more likely in Canada, 20 times more likely in western Amazonia, and twice as likely in Greece.

As greenhouse gas emissions continue to mount, bigger fires can be expected. The researchers found that a Canadian born today would be more likely than not to experience another fire of similar magnitude to last year’s inferno within their lifetime, compared with a one in 10 chance of seeing such a fire for someone born in the 1940s.

Even wetlands and moist rainforests are now at high risk of fire, as unprecedented drought has taken hold. Brazil’s Pantanal region was devastated in June by record-breaking fires, which laid waste to globally important wildlife habitats.

Although regrowing forests can absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they develop – creating a “delayed carbon sink” – the shifts to more frequent fires are creating a worrying trend, where vegetation has less chance to recover, Jones added. This is making fires an increasing source of carbon in the atmosphere.

“The real problem begins when you have a shift in the fire regime away from its natural state and towards more frequent and severe burning. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’re seeing in forests, and it’s resulting in an imbalance – immediate emissions from forest fires this decade are increasingly outweighing the delayed sinks from fires in previous decades,” he said.

The State of Wildfires report 2023-24, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, was led by the University of East Anglia, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the Met Office, with the help of a broad network of researchers and institutions around the world. Scientists used global satellite observations, computer models and research from regional experts to compile the data.

Russian authorities are scrambling to bring the situation in Kursk under control, a week after Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack in the region that has left a swathe of Russian territory under Kyiv’s control.

Russia used missiles, drones and airstrikes on Tuesday in an attempt to claw back territory, with one senior commander claiming Kyiv’s advance was over, even as the evacuation of residents from border areas continued.

“The uncontrolled ride of the enemy has already been halted,” said Gen Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Akhmat, a Chechen special forces unit. “The enemy is already aware that the blitzkrieg that it planned did not work out.”

Ukrainian forces were still in control of numerous settlements, however, leaving the Kremlin attempting to play down the significance of the events.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Kyiv had no interest in the long-term occupation of the region. “Unlike Russia, Ukraine does not need other people’s property. Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Heorhii Tykhyi told reporters in Kyiv. He said Russia had launched more than 2,000 strikes on Ukraine from the region over the last month.

Russia has been rushing reinforcements to the region, and Kyiv claimed on Tuesday that some units from the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson sectors of the frontline in southern Ukraine were being redeployed to the Kursk region. Dmytro Lykhoviy, a Ukrainian army spokesperson, made the claim to Politico, though clarified that it was a “relatively small” number of troops involved.

A report on Russian state television featured footage from the Kursk region of destroyed Ukrainian hardware. “There was a big battle here yesterday,” said Yuri Polskoi, head of the village of Giryi, dressed in full body armour. He showed charred remains of cars and houses in the village, deep inside Russia. The television report claimed Ukrainian forces had been hit and repulsed as soon as they approached the village.

Kyiv has not publicly stated the end goal of its surprise drive into Russia, which has been assessed variously as boosting morale after a long period on the back foot in the face of grinding Russian attacks, or as winning a potential bargaining chip to be used in negotiations.

A western intelligence official said Kyiv did not share specific details of the operation with allies until well after it was under way, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, and there has been little criticism of Kyiv from friendly capitals. “Ukraine has every right to wage war in such a way as to paralyse Russia in its aggressive intentions as effectively as possible,” the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Tuesday.

Ukraine has launched raids into Russian territory before, but they have been brief and appeared largely designed to have a psychological effect. This assault, with the sustained seizure of territory, is different. But Vladimir Putin, in his public comments, has been keen to play down the significance of what has been the biggest incursion of foreign troops into Russia since the second world war.

In a televised meeting with defence officials on Monday, the acting head of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, told the Russian president that 28 settlements in the region were under Ukrainian control and that Kyiv’s troops had penetrated up to 12km inside Russia along a 40km stretch of the border.

Putin interrupted the official, telling him to leave such matters to the military. “You can tell us about the socioeconomic situation and about helping people,” he said. Smirnov replied that 120,000 people had already been evacuated from their homes, with another 60,000 waiting for assistance. In neighbouring Belgorod region, a further 11,000 people had been evacuated, local officials said.

The Kremlin’s messaging has at times seemed confusing, simultaneously noting the seriousness of the border incursion while claiming there is nothing to worry about. “On the whole, the situation remains extremely difficult, but under control,” read an article in Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper on Monday, summing up the mood.

Russia has designated its response as an “counter-terrorism operation”, the same designation given to the war in Chechnya in the early 2000s, which allows the involvement of the FSB security services and Rosgvardia national guard, alongside the army. The initial response has appeared slow and poorly coordinated. Ukraine claims to have taken hundreds of Russian prisoners of war, and to have moved into some areas with little resistance.

“This war has left Russia’s borders weak, the army engaged in Ukraine and not immediately available to defend border regions, and FSB border troops not supported,” wrote Dara Massicot, a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on X.

Russian opposition politicians watching from abroad expressed horror at the incursion but blamed it on Putin. “What’s happening in Kursk is terrible. From the first day of the war, I’ve said that Putin will bring death and destruction on to Russian territory, and that our country will be forced to pay a high price for his bloody adventurism, and that’s unfortunately what has happened,” said Ilya Yashin, an opposition politician released from jail earlier this month in a prisoner exchange.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking on Monday evening, compared the disaster in Kursk to the 2000 sinking of the Kursk submarine in the first months of Putin’s rule over Russia. Then, more than 100 Russian sailors died, and Putin’s awkward and inadequate response was roundly criticised. “Twenty-four years ago there was the Kursk catastrophe, the symbolic beginning of his regime, and now it’s the end for him, and it’s Kursk again,” said Zelenskiy.

But with Ukrainian forces stretched thin along the long frontline, the assault on Russia is high risk for Ukraine and may put other areas of the front in danger. Ukraine’s general staff said on Tuesday that Russian forces had launched 52 assaults over the past 24 hours around the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, double the daily average number of attacks a week ago.

• Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region has left Vladimir Putin with a dilemma, the US president, Joe Biden, said on Tuesday. “It’s creating a real dilemma for Putin, and we’ve been in direct contact, constant contact, with the Ukrainians. That’s all I’m going to say about it while it’s active.” Answering questions from reporters in New Orleans, Biden said he had been briefed every four to five hours for the last six to eight days on Ukraine’s action.

• The goal of Ukraine’s Kursk incursion appears to be to force Russia to pull troops out of Ukraine to defend Russian territory against the Ukrainian cross-border assault, a US official said on Tuesday, quoted by the Reuters news agency. A week after Ukrainian forces launched their surprise attack, Russian authorities are scrambling to bring the situation in Kursk under control, Shaun Walker writes. The Biden administration has insisted it had no advance knowledge and no involvement in the operation.

• In an explainer using maps, footage and photos, Peter Beaumont writes that Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, claimed on Monday that Ukraine controlled about 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) of the Kursk region. The claim was largely confirmed on the Russian side. Alexei Smirnov, acting governor of the Kursk region, told the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, via a videoconference on Monday that Ukrainian forces controlled 28 Russian settlements including towns and villages up to 18 miles (30km) inside Russia.

• Dan Sabbagh writes from the border of Ukraine’s Sumy and Russia’s Kursk regions: “The Sudzha crossing is now 5 miles or so from the current frontline inside Russia’s Kursk oblast. For now at least, it remains very much in Ukrainian hands a full week into the border incursion.”

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Kyiv’s forces had rounded up Russian prisoners of war to be used as an “exchange fund” for captured Ukrainian fighters. “Despite difficult and intense battles, our forces continue to advance in the Kursk region, and our state’s ‘exchange fund’ is growing. Seventy-four settlements are under Ukrainian control,” Zelenskiy said.
  Shown speaking by video link, Zelenskiy asked his top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, to develop the next “key steps” in the operation. “Everything is being executed according to the plan,” Syrskyi replied, without elaborating.

• Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Tuesday that Russia needs to be forced to participate in a summit on peace as it would not do so willingly. “Simple calls to Russia do not work, only a set of coercive tools works,” he said, meaning economic and diplomatic pressure as well as the invasion of Kursk. By actions inside Russia, Ukraine was resolving the key issue of its own security. “This is destruction of war infrastructure and formation of so-called sanitary zones so that Russia cannot use there … equipment that strikes deep into the territory of Ukraine.”

• Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy on Tuesday said Kyiv was not interested in “taking over” Russian territory and defended Ukraine’s actions as “absolutely legitimate”. “The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace … the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defence forces into Russia will stop.”

• “They didn’t protect the border,” a Ukrainian serviceman who took part in the offensive and identified himself as Ruzhyk told Agence France-Presse in the Sumy region. “They only had anti-personnel mines scattered around trees at the side of the road and a few mines that they managed to quickly throw along the highways.” A 27-year-old squad leader, who identified himself as Faraon, said: “I saw a lot of death in the first few days. It was terrifying at first but then we got used to it. There have been many deaths,” he repeated, without elaborating. Ukrainian military analyst Mykola Bielieskov told AFP: “Russian complacency prevailed. Russia assumed that since it had initiative elsewhere, Ukraine wouldn’t dare to do things we’ve seen.”

• At the UN security council, Russia attempted to attack Ukraine’s allies over the Kursk invasion but was met with retorts about its own war of aggression against its neighbour. “We will not recognise the aggressor as the victim,” said senior Slovenian diplomat Klemen Ponikvar. “There is no question as to which country has committed numerous well-documented atrocities, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, on Ukraine’s sovereign territory,” said US diplomat Caleb Pine. “That country is Russia.” British diplomat Kate Jones said allies would “never falter in our support for Ukraine” to secure “just and sustainable peace based on the principles of the UN charter and international law”. Diplomats from Syria, Belarus and North Korea spoke in support of Russia.

• Russian shelling killed at least one civilian and injured two more in Ukraine’s Sumy region, said the local administration across the border from Kursk.
  It said 45 Russian attacks on the region had been recorded on Tuesday, including guided bomb strikes, explosions from drones, and shelling. Ukraine’s military on Tuesday restricted the movement of civilians within a 20km (12 mile) zone of the north-eastern border area.

Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has confirmed it was warned by the FBI it had been targeted by a foreign influence campaign, triggering renewed fears over foreign interference in US elections.

The disclosure – reported by NBC – came after Donald Trump’s campaign claimed it had been hacked in an email phishing attempt, suspected to have been carried out by Iran.

The FBI has confirmed in a statement it is investigating foreign hacking attempts against the campaigns.

Harris’s campaign insisted on Tuesday its cybersecurity measures had prevented its systems from being hacked.

“We have robust cybersecurity measures in place, and are not aware of any security breaches of our systems resulting from those efforts,” the campaign told NBC.

But the confirmation of the FBI’s warning evoked memories of the 2016 campaign, when Russia was widely believed to have hacked the Democratic party’s email system in an effort to destabilise Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid and help Trump. The Russian hacking effort involved files being given to WikiLeaks, which subsequently published them.

This time, the bureau said it was investigating efforts to hack the Biden-Harris campaign in the period before Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race – effectively handing the Democratic nomination to Harris, the vice-president – as well as that of Trump, according to the Washington Post.

Three Biden-Harris campaign staff members received spear phishing emails designed to look legitimate in order to give an intruder access to wider email communications, the Post reported.

It is unclear whether the phishing attempt was successful, and the response by the now-renamed Harris campaign suggested that the vice-president’s staff were confident the campaign had not been hacked.

By contrast, the Washington Post and two other US news outlets – Politico and the New York Times – reported last weekend receiving apparently authentic files stolen from the Trump campaign. A spokesperson for the campaign said on Saturday it had been hacked in June. It is unclear whether the stolen campaign files were a result of the apparently successful hacking attempt.

The Trump campaign is understood not to have reported the hack to the FBI, due to its suspicion of the agency.

The phishing attempt is understood to have also targeted Roger Stone, a long-time Trump ally who is now formally linked to his current presidential campaign.

“I was informed by the authorities that a couple of my personal email accounts have been compromised,” Stone told the Washington Post. “I really don’t know more about it. And I’m cooperating. It’s all very strange.”

US intelligence officials said last month that Iran was attempting to sow discord and undermine Trump’s attempts to recapture the White House. Iran has denied the accusations.

The renewed suspicions come amid speculation that the country’s Islamic regime is preparing a strike against Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, in Tehran last week.

The United Auto Workers president, Shawn Fain, called Donald Trump a “scab” on Tuesday as the union filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the former president and Elon Musk on Tuesday over comments the two made during a live stream on X.

“You’re the greatest cutter,” Trump told Musk. “I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump said. “You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.”

The union noted that threatening to fire workers for striking is illegal, given all workers have protected rights to strike under federal labor laws in the US.

“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” said Fain in a press release announcing the charges.

“Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk,” said Fain. “Both Trump and Musk want working-class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal and totally predictable from these two clowns.”

Musk has previously been reprimanded for comments made on X, formerly Twitter. In 2021, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Musk to delete a tweet in which he threatened workers for trying to organize a union, ruling the tweet violated federal labor law. Musk is still appealing the ruling, while in separate cases he has presented arguments against labor law violations that claim the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional.

Trump has a long record of opposing labor unions and scaling back worker rights under his first presidential term.

“It’s trying to expose more than anything politically what Donald Trump is about in terms of workers, and Musk as well,” Wilma Liebman, former NLRB chair under Barack Obama, told Reuters. “Everyone knows the NLRB remedies are toothless to start with, but it’s not so much for the remedy as for sending both a political message and an organizing message.”

Twitter has been ordered to pay a record fine of more than €550,000 (£470,000) to a former senior employee at its European headquarters in Ireland, after it was found to have dismissed him unfairly when he failed to respond to an email from Elon Musk calling on staff to be “extremely hardcore”.

When Musk paid $44bn in October 2022 for the social media platform, which he rebranded the following year as X, Gary Rooney was a director of “source-to-pay”, a procurement role, in Twitter International’s Dublin office.

Within weeks of the takeover, the billionaire sent a message to staff outlining his vision for the business.

“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” the South Africa-born entrepreneur wrote.

“This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing a grade.”

The message was known as the “Fork in the Road”, a phrase Musk deployed again this week in reference to America, during an interview late on Monday with former president Donald Trump, who the Tesla boss said offered a “path to prosperity”.

In the email, Musk wrote: “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” adding that staff who did not would receive three months’ severance pay.

Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the country’s employment tribunal, heard that Rooney did not click “yes”.

Three days later, on 19 November, he received another email from the company “to acknowledge your decision to resign and accept the voluntary separation offer”.

Rooney, who had been with the company since 2013, was told that he was deemed to have resigned on 18 November and that his access to Twitter systems had been deactivated.

A week later, he emailed Twitter to say that “at no time have I indicated to Twitter that I am resigning my position, nor have I seen any separation agreement let alone accepted one”.

In evidence to a hearing in Dublin that lasted five days, Rooney told the WRC that prior to the change of ownership that saw Musk take control of the platform, he loved his job.

Rooney said his first reaction to the “Fork in the Road” email had been disbelief and that he was initially afraid to open it for fear it was spam or malware.

After receiving the email, he wrote to a colleague on the company’s internal messaging system, saying: “I need to step away for my own sake. I’m deeply troubled by whats going on here these days.”

In a message to another colleague, Rooney said: “Twitter 2.0 won’t be for you and me.”

Twitter claimed, unsuccessfully, that Rooney’s failure to click “yes” in response to the email indicated that he had resigned voluntarily.

Its senior director of human resources, Lauren Wegman, told the hearing the email was sent to employees in Ireland who were not among 140 who had already been made redundant after the takeover. She said 235 of 270 staff who received it clicked “yes”.

In relation to the remaining 35 employees, she said: “We accepted their resignations.”

Wegman said the mood among workers at the time was mixed, with some excited about “Twitter 2.0” while others were more negative and wanted to leave.

In his findings, published in a 73-page decision document, WRC adjudicator Michael MacNamee said that 24 hours was not “reasonable notice”.

He said Rooney’s messages to colleagues outlining his reservations about Musk’s takeover “have no relevance to the question as to what brought about the termination of the complainant’s employment”.

The €550,131 total unfair dismissal award, an Irish record, is made up of Rooney’s lost remuneration of €350,131 from January 2023 to May 2024 and estimated lost future remuneration of €200,000.

Barry Kenny, a solicitor for Rooney, said he welcomed “the clear and unambiguous finding that my client did not resign from his employment but was unfairly dismissed from his job, notwithstanding his excellent employment record and contribution to the company over the years”.

He said: “It is not okay for Mr Musk, or indeed any large company to treat employees in such a manner in this country. The record award reflects the seriousness and the gravity of the case.”

An email to Twitter’s press office was met with the response: “Busy now, please check back later.”

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has said he will not run for the presidency of his ruling Liberal Democratic party [LDP] next month – a decision that will see the appointment of a new leader of the world’s fourth-biggest economy.

Kishida, who has been battling low approval ratings and a damaging funding scandal, said he would step down as LDP leader in September, telling reporters on Wednesday that the party needed an “open contest to promote debate”.

His decision brings to an end a three-year term marked by scandal, rising living costs and record defence spending.

“In this presidential election, it is necessary to show the people that the LDP is changing and the party is a new LDP,” Kishida, 67, said at a press conference at the prime minister’s office.

“For this, transparent and open elections and free and vigorous debate are important. The most obvious first step to show that the LDP will change is for me to step aside.”

Kishida’s decision will trigger a contest to replace him as party president, with the winner certain to be approved as prime minister by the LDP-controlled parliament.

His successor will face growing international uncertainty, the election of a new US president and, at home, mounting concern over the cost of living crisis.

Among those named as potential successors are Shigeru Ishiba, a centrist former defence secretary, and Taro Kono, the flamboyant digital minister.

The race for the LDP presidency could also include female candidates, raising the possibility that Japan could have a woman as prime minister for the first time.

The ultra-conservative economic security minister, Sanae Takaichi, and the former internal affairs minister, Seiko Noda, both stood against Kishida in the 2021 party leadership race and could decide to run again, although it is not clear if either will be able to secure the support of at least 20 lawmakers required to enter the race.

The foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, has also been mentioned as a potential candidate.

Media reports said Kishida had come under pressure from figures inside the LDP who believed he would be unable to lead the party to election victories.

The party has struggled to deflect rising criticism over the funding scandal, while rising prices have seen support levels for his cabinet languishing at about 25% this year, sometimes dipping below 20%.

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has said he will not run for the presidency of his ruling Liberal Democratic party [LDP] next month – a decision that will see the appointment of a new leader of the world’s fourth-biggest economy.

Kishida, who has been battling low approval ratings and a damaging funding scandal, said he would step down as LDP leader in September, telling reporters on Wednesday that the party needed an “open contest to promote debate”.

His decision brings to an end a three-year term marked by scandal, rising living costs and record defence spending.

“In this presidential election, it is necessary to show the people that the LDP is changing and the party is a new LDP,” Kishida, 67, said at a press conference at the prime minister’s office.

“For this, transparent and open elections and free and vigorous debate are important. The most obvious first step to show that the LDP will change is for me to step aside.”

Kishida’s decision will trigger a contest to replace him as party president, with the winner certain to be approved as prime minister by the LDP-controlled parliament.

His successor will face growing international uncertainty, the election of a new US president and, at home, mounting concern over the cost of living crisis.

Among those named as potential successors are Shigeru Ishiba, a centrist former defence secretary, and Taro Kono, the flamboyant digital minister.

The race for the LDP presidency could also include female candidates, raising the possibility that Japan could have a woman as prime minister for the first time.

The ultra-conservative economic security minister, Sanae Takaichi, and the former internal affairs minister, Seiko Noda, both stood against Kishida in the 2021 party leadership race and could decide to run again, although it is not clear if either will be able to secure the support of at least 20 lawmakers required to enter the race.

The foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, has also been mentioned as a potential candidate.

Media reports said Kishida had come under pressure from figures inside the LDP who believed he would be unable to lead the party to election victories.

The party has struggled to deflect rising criticism over the funding scandal, while rising prices have seen support levels for his cabinet languishing at about 25% this year, sometimes dipping below 20%.

Thailand’s constitutional court is set to decide the fate of prime minister Srettha Thavisin, in a ruling that could see him dismissed after less than a year in office and plunge the country into deeper political uncertainty.

Srettha, a real estate tycoon with no background in politics, is the subject of a complaint from ex-senators appointed by the former military government, who say he violated the constitution when he gave a cabinet post to a former lawyer who was once jailed.

If Srettha is removed, the 500-seat parliament must convene to choose a new prime minister, with the prospect of more upheaval in a country dogged for two decades by coups and court rulings that have brought down multiple governments and political parties.

The same court last week dissolved the anti-establishment Move Forward Party, the hugely popular opposition, ruling its campaign to reform a law against insulting the crown risked undermining the constitutional monarchy. It regrouped on Friday under a new party.

Srettha denies wrongdoing in appointing to cabinet lawyer Pichit Chuenban, who was briefly imprisoned for contempt of court in 2008 over an alleged attempt to bribe court staff, which was never proven.

“We’ve done our best and have submitted closing statements. I’ve set up plans based on the people’s needs and the care-taking PM can consider them,” Srettha said on the eve of the verdict, which will be delivered at 3pm local time.

The decision comes at a tricky time for Thailand’s economy, which Srettha has struggled to jumpstart. The government has estimated growth of just 2.7% for 2024, lagging regional peers, while Thailand has been Asia’s worst-performing market this year with its main stock index down about 17% year-to-date.

Deputy premier Phumtham Wechayachai would take over as caretaker if Srettha is removed. According to some political experts, it is likely Srettha’s party, Pheu Thai, would still have the clout to lead the next administration, after a period of uncertainty over who will be in charge.

“The government will still have 314 seats – the coalition remains united,” said Olarn Thinbangtieo, deputy dean of Burapha University’s faculty of political science and law.

“There may be some impact on confidence, but that would be in the short term.”

If Srettha is removed, those designated prime ministerial candidates by their parties before the last election can be nominated for premier.

They include Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Pheu Thai leader and daughter of influential billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, former justice minister Chaikasem Nitisiri, interior minister and deputy premier Anutin Charnvirakul, energy minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga and Prawit Wongsuwon, an influential former army chief who was involved in two coups.

Polls opened in the Pacific country of Kiribati on Wednesday, after an election campaign dominated by the cost of living, rising sea levels and questions about the benefit of deeper ties with China.

A nation of 115,000 residents, Kiribati is considered strategic despite being small, because it is relatively close to Hawaii and controls more than 3.5 million sq km (1.4m sq miles) of Pacific Ocean.

Incumbent 63-year-old president Taneti Maamau is seeking to extend his almost-decade-long tenure.

Since coming to power, Maamau has drawn Kiribati ever closer to Beijing, switching ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019.

Ahead of election day, China’s ambassador Zhou Limin offered a warm embrace of Maamau’s government, and its “historic achievements in various areas”.

“In the past year, I have observed an increase in the number of cars on the roads, a wider range of goods in supermarkets, and new entertainment equipment at playgrounds, which are strong proof of the improvement of Kiribati people’s life quality,” he wrote.

In February, Reuters reported that Chinese police had begun working in Kiribati, a sensitive issue for neighbouring US, which signed a 1983 treaty providing for consultation before Kiribati allows third-party military use of its islands.

China’s police force donated riot control gear in July, pledging to “solidify collaboration in law enforcement and policing”, the Kiribati police said in a statement on Facebook.

A US request to establish an embassy has meanwhile stalled.

Some western analysts allege that Chinese activities in Kiribati – from police deployments, to developing a runway on Kanton Island, to extensive marine mapping – are a pretext for establishing a bigger security footprint.

Graeme Smith of the Australian National University said sending police to Kiribati offers Beijing “another intelligence channel into what is happening in the country … another line of reporting in addition to their diplomats.”

Despite China’s largesse, a significant drop in foreign aid – along with a massive pay rise for government workers – means Kiribati’s fiscal deficit is expected to jump to 9.7% of GDP this year, according to Asian Development Bank forecasts.

External debt is forecast to balloon by almost 400% in the coming years, reaching 35% of GDP by 2029.

Inflation-hit voters may decide the time has come for a change in approach.

“If Maamau doesn’t get back in and the opposition faction does, that could completely change the direction in Kiribati,” Jon Fraenkel, a political science professor at Wellington’s Victoria University, told AFP.

Kiribati’s loose political groupings are typical of several Pacific Island nations, where many candidates run as individuals and voters directly elect the president later, from a shortlist chosen by the new lawmakers.

There are 115 candidates contesting for 44 parliamentary seats – 97 males and 18 females. The 45th seat is nominated by the Banaban community, a majority of who live on the island of Rabi in Fiji, according to RNZ.

The general election has up to two rounds of voting, and the process can stretch on for months. Citizens then separately elect a president from a pool of candidates put forward by lawmakers – “that will be what will really decide the future,” Fraenkel added.

Low-lying Kiribati faces a raft of economic and environmental challenges, such as rising sea levels that regularly taint scarce supplies of drinking water.

With outer atolls already under threat from coastal erosion, Tarawa has become one of the world’s most densely populated places.

Encroaching sea waters and the search for higher ground means the capital today has a population density comparable with Tokyo.

Residents are plagued by contagious diseases and other symptoms of overcrowding.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

The African Union’s health watchdog has declared a public health emergency over the growing mpox outbreak on the continent, saying the move is a “clarion call for action”.

The outbreak has swept through several African countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the virus formerly called monkeypox was first discovered in humans in 1970.

“With a heavy heart but with an unyielding commitment to our people, to our African citizens, we declare mpox as public health emergency of continental security,” Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said during an online media briefing.

“Mpox has now crossed borders, affecting thousands across our continent, families have been torn apart and the pain and suffering have touched every corner of our continent,” he said.

According to CDC data, as of 4 August there had been 38,465 cases of mpox and 1,456 deaths in Africa since January 2022.

“This declaration is not merely a formality, it is a clarion call to action. It is a recognition that we can no longer afford to be reactive. We must be proactive and aggressive in our efforts to contain and eliminate this threat,” Kaseya said.

It is the first time the Addis Ababa-headquartered agency has used the continental security power it was given in 2022.

The decision is expected to help to mobilise money and other resources early in any efforts to halt the spread of disease.

Boghuma Titanji, assistant professor in medicine at Emory University in the US, said the CDC declaration was a “crucial step” towards enhancing coordination among African countries and encouraging them to allocate funds to combat the outbreak.

“While there has been substantial criticism of foreign donors for inadequate support, the over-reliance on external aid has highlighted a major flaw in the current response efforts,” Titanji said in a statement.

CDC’s announcement on Tuesday comes before a meeting of the World Health Organization’s emergency committee on 14 August to decide whether to trigger a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) – the highest alarm the WHO can sound.

“What we are declaring today can be complemented by the action WHO can take,” Kaseya said.

The US government said it was in “close coordination” on mpox with the DRC, other affected countries and health bodies.

“We are tracking closely the spread of mpox in central Africa. We are pleased to see international leadership in this area,” state department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

He said the US so far this year has contributed $17m (£13m) beyond already programmed assistance to help African countries prepare and respond to mpox.

In May 2022, mpox infections surged worldwide, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men, due to the Clade IIb strain.

That led the WHO to declare a PHEIC, which lasted from July 2022 to May 2023. The outbreak caused about 140 deaths out of approximately 90,000 cases.

Titanji, a Cameroonian-born doctor, said that declaration did not “lead to significant improved access to diagnostics, therapeutics or vaccines for African countries”.

Renamed from monkeypox in 2022, mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

There are two subtypes of the virus: the more virulent and deadlier Clade I, endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa; and Clade II, endemic in west Africa.

The cases that have been surging in the DRC since September 2023 are due to a different strain: the Clade Ib subclade.

A PHEIC has been declared by the WHO seven times since 2009: over H1N1 swine flu, poliovirus, Ebola, Zika virus, Ebola again, Covid-19 and mpox.

The African Union’s health watchdog has declared a public health emergency over the growing mpox outbreak on the continent, saying the move is a “clarion call for action”.

The outbreak has swept through several African countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the virus formerly called monkeypox was first discovered in humans in 1970.

“With a heavy heart but with an unyielding commitment to our people, to our African citizens, we declare mpox as public health emergency of continental security,” Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said during an online media briefing.

“Mpox has now crossed borders, affecting thousands across our continent, families have been torn apart and the pain and suffering have touched every corner of our continent,” he said.

According to CDC data, as of 4 August there had been 38,465 cases of mpox and 1,456 deaths in Africa since January 2022.

“This declaration is not merely a formality, it is a clarion call to action. It is a recognition that we can no longer afford to be reactive. We must be proactive and aggressive in our efforts to contain and eliminate this threat,” Kaseya said.

It is the first time the Addis Ababa-headquartered agency has used the continental security power it was given in 2022.

The decision is expected to help to mobilise money and other resources early in any efforts to halt the spread of disease.

Boghuma Titanji, assistant professor in medicine at Emory University in the US, said the CDC declaration was a “crucial step” towards enhancing coordination among African countries and encouraging them to allocate funds to combat the outbreak.

“While there has been substantial criticism of foreign donors for inadequate support, the over-reliance on external aid has highlighted a major flaw in the current response efforts,” Titanji said in a statement.

CDC’s announcement on Tuesday comes before a meeting of the World Health Organization’s emergency committee on 14 August to decide whether to trigger a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) – the highest alarm the WHO can sound.

“What we are declaring today can be complemented by the action WHO can take,” Kaseya said.

The US government said it was in “close coordination” on mpox with the DRC, other affected countries and health bodies.

“We are tracking closely the spread of mpox in central Africa. We are pleased to see international leadership in this area,” state department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

He said the US so far this year has contributed $17m (£13m) beyond already programmed assistance to help African countries prepare and respond to mpox.

In May 2022, mpox infections surged worldwide, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men, due to the Clade IIb strain.

That led the WHO to declare a PHEIC, which lasted from July 2022 to May 2023. The outbreak caused about 140 deaths out of approximately 90,000 cases.

Titanji, a Cameroonian-born doctor, said that declaration did not “lead to significant improved access to diagnostics, therapeutics or vaccines for African countries”.

Renamed from monkeypox in 2022, mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

There are two subtypes of the virus: the more virulent and deadlier Clade I, endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa; and Clade II, endemic in west Africa.

The cases that have been surging in the DRC since September 2023 are due to a different strain: the Clade Ib subclade.

A PHEIC has been declared by the WHO seven times since 2009: over H1N1 swine flu, poliovirus, Ebola, Zika virus, Ebola again, Covid-19 and mpox.

Almost half a billion children are growing up in parts of the world where there are at least twice the number of extremely hot days every year compared with six decades ago, analysis by Unicef has found.

The analysis by the UN’s children’s agency examined for the first time data on changes in children’s exposure to extreme heat over the past 60 years.

As the planet continues to warm, people worldwide are facing more frequent and severe climate threats such as extreme heat and heatwaves. Children are more vulnerable to such hazards.

To assess the speed and scale at which extremely hot days – defined as reaching more than 35C (95F) – are increasing, researchers did a comparison between a 1960s and a 2020-to-2024 temperature average.

They found that 466 million children – about one in five children globally – live in areas that experience at least double the number of extremely hot days each year compared to six decades ago.

They also found that children in west and central Africa have the highest exposure to extremely hot days and this area has had the most significant increases over time.

A total of 123 million children, or 39% of children in the region, experience temperatures above 35C over an average of four months every year, the analysis says.

The figures include 212 days in Mali, 202 days in Niger, 198 days in Senegal, and 195 days in Sudan.

David Knaute, a Unicef regional climate specialist in west and central Africa, said: “This new Unicef analysis issues a stark warning about the speed and scale at which extremely hot days are affecting children. It urgently calls on governments to seize the precious opportunity to act and get temperature rises under control.”

Exposure to extreme heat can lead to heat stress, which poses threats to children’s health. Heat stress has been linked to child malnutrition and non-communicable diseases, and it makes children more vulnerable to infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever that spread in high temperatures.

Knaute said children were “uniquely vulnerable” in extreme heat. “Unlike adults, their bodies heat up faster, they sweat less efficiently and they cool down more slowly. When their small bodies are not able to regulate the heat, it leads to heat stress, and they are more likely to suffer from heatstroke or die.”

Last year was the warmest year on record by far, and scientists expect global temperatures to rise further above preindustrial levels, with disastrous results for humanity and the planet.

The Unicef analysis found that children in eight countries, including Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sudan and South Sudan, spend more than half the year in temperatures above 35C. Earlier this year Mali experienced a record heatwave, with temperatures reaching up to 44C.

Knaute said the Sahel, the region south of the Sahara that includes Mali, Niger, Senegal and Sudan, was particularly vulnerable because, as a transitional zone between the arid Sahara and the more fertile belt south of the desert, it creates a natural source of intense heating, and the dust particles from the desert interfere with the climate.

The lack of access to climate-resilient infrastructure, drinking water and appropriate health services worsens the impact of extreme heat on children living there, he said.

Besides physiological effects, extreme heat has other effects on children, including disruption to education.

Shruti Agarwal, a senior adviser on climate change and sustainable economies at Save the Children, said extreme heat was increasingly leading to school closures, affecting academic achievement.

Early this year, South Sudan closed all schools in preparation for a 45C heatwave that was expected to last two weeks. “As the number of hot days increase, we’re going to see children’s learning outcomes being impacted, which in turn then has implications for human capital development,” Agarwal said.

She said there could also be indirect risks to children’s health if extreme heat, for instance, leads to crop failures or food price inflation, thereby causing malnutrition among children.

To minimise the impacts of extreme heat on children, Agarwal said, health and education systems should be equipped to cope, and children should be actively part of planning and implementation.

Unicef recommends that countries deliver climate action that upholds children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment by reducing emissions and fulfilling climate change agreements.

“There is still hope for the future, but we must act now. Later is too late,” Knaute said.

A charity working with homeless people in Auckland, New Zealand unknowingly distributed sweets filled with a potentially lethal dose of methamphetamine in its food parcels, after the items were donated by a member of the public.

Auckland City Mission told reporters on Wednesday that staff had started to contact up to 400 people to track down parcels that could contain the sweets – which were solid blocks of methamphetamine enclosed in lolly wrappers. New Zealand’s police have opened a criminal investigation.

The amount of methamphetamine in each sweet was up to 300 times the level someone would usually take and could be lethal, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation – a drug checking and policy organisation, which first tested the lollies.

Ben Birks Ang, a Foundation spokesperson, said disguising drugs as innocuous goods was a common cross-border smuggling technique and more of the sweets might have been distributed throughout New Zealand.

The sweets had a high street value of NZ$1,000 (US$608) per lolly, which suggested the donation by an unknown member of the public was accidental rather than a deliberate attack, Birks Ang said.

The City Missioner, Helen Robinson, said eight families, including at least one child, had reported consuming the contaminated sweets since Tuesday. No one was hospitalised and Robinson said the “revolting” taste meant most had immediately spat them out.

The charity’s food bank only accepts donations of commercially produced food in sealed packaging, Robinson said. The pineapple sweets, stamped with the label of Malaysian brand Rinda, “appeared as such when they were donated”, arriving in a retail-sized bag, she added.

Auckland City Mission was alerted Tuesday by a food bank client who reported a “funny-tasting” lolly. Staff tasted some of the remaining sweets and immediately contacted the authorities.

They had been donated sometime in the past six weeks, Robinson said. It was not clear how many had been distributed in that time and how many were made of methamphetamine.

Some of those who had received the food parcels were clients of the charity’s addiction service and the news that drugs had been distributed had provoked distress.

“To say that we are devastated is an understatement,” Robinson said.

Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It takes the form of a white, odourless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.

Rinda did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

Peter Dutton has escalated the Coalition’s rhetoric against Palestinians fleeing the Gaza war zone, claiming that none should be allowed to Australia “at the moment” due to an unspecified “national security risk”.

The comments from the opposition leader on Wednesday contradict the assessment by the Asio spy chief, Mike Burgess, that rhetorical support for Hamas should not be an automatic bar to Palestinians receiving visas.

Dutton’s rhetoric was immediately rejected by senior Albanese government figures, who noted security checks are the same as when the Coalition was in power.

The Albanese government is now looking for ways to allow Palestinians who fled to Australia to stay longer, with the new home affairs minister, Tony Burke, declaring that no country should send people back to Gaza right now.

On Tuesday the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, called on Labor to “ensure that no supporters of the listed terrorist organisation, Hamas, or any other terrorist organisation, come to Australia”, including cancelling the visas of any who might already be in Australia.

On Wednesday Dutton went further, telling Sky News: “I don’t think people should be coming in from that war zone at all at the moment. It’s not prudent to do so and I think it puts our national security at risk.”

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, responded by saying Dutton “always seeks to divide”. “We take our advice from the director general of Asio and the security agencies, not from someone always looking for a fight, always looking for division,” he told ABC TV.

The government services minister, Bill Shorten, said that Dutton had “misfired on that”.

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“I think if somehow he’s conflating the idea that every person [who] lives in Gaza is a member of Hamas, I don’t share that view,” Shorten told Radio National. “He hasn’t said that, but he says there’s risk.”

“Well, we currently have a process where Asio vet people, where we have national security checking and, memo to Peter Dutton, we’re using the same process that he used.

“So if he thinks our current process is no good, then what’s he saying about all the time when he was in charge?”

The shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, later clarified the Coalition is seeking to pause all humanitarian visas to those fleeing Gaza until “peace is restored”.

“The one thing you’ll always get with Peter [Dutton] – you don’t have to like him, but guess what? He will almost stand up for Australia, Australians and put the national interest first,” she said.

Cash was asked about whether she thought Dutton’s comments this morning caught her colleagues by surprise. Cash said she disagreed.

The Greens senator, David Shoebridge, said Dutton’s comments were “despicable” and accused him of “persecuting the victims” of the conflict.

The education minister, Jason Clare, called on Israel to end the “occupation” and “starvation”, a further sign that Labor is losing patience with Israel over its military action in Gaza after the 7 October terrorist attacks.

Clare also said that “there’s no one [coming] from Gaza at the moment” because “the Rafah gate’s closed”.

“Anyone that comes from Gaza, like anyone who comes from anywhere around the world, goes through security processing … [of] the same sort that existed when Peter Dutton was in power,” Clare told Radio National. “And he knows that.”

Clare invited Dutton to get a better understanding of the “human catastrophe” in Gaza by visiting his south-west Sydney seat of Blaxland to meet “great people” from Gaza who “had their homes blown up … had their school blown up … had their hospital blown up, who’ve had their kids blown up”.

“I’d like to see the killing end. I’d like to see the suffering end. I’d like to see the starvation end. I’d like to see Israel open the gate, there’s plenty of food and medicine in Israel.

“Put the food and medicine in the trucks and stop kids starving to death. I’d like to see the occupation end. I’d like to see a two-state solution with two people who can live side by side in peace and security rather than what’s happening at the moment.”

Labor MPs, including ministers, are increasingly frustrated at Israel’s conduct. The industry minister, Ed Husic, said earlier in August that Australia “should be open to” levelling sanctions against the Israeli government, including its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Husic told the Sunday Telegraph the Israeli prime minister would “need to be held to account for the conduct of the conflict”.

On Tuesday the foreign minister, Penny Wong, was asked in Labor caucus about the Middle East peace process.

Wong said the region is “particularly risky” with risks of escalation in Lebanon and vis-a-vis Iran. She said the situation in Gaza is “continuing to worsen”.

Australia supports the Joe Biden plan, which was approved by the UN security council, describing it as an “important but narrow” pathway to peace, she said.

Katy Perry is under investigation for possible environmental damage of the protected dunes of S’Espalmador after the release of the Ibiza-set music video for her new single Lifetimes.

The environment department of the Balearic Islands issued a press release on Tuesday claiming that the video’s production company did not secure the proper authorization before filming.

The Stillz-directed video for the track, released on 8 August, sees the 39-year-old singer frolicking on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera, sunning on the beach by day and partying at the islands’ famous clubs by night. It includes shots of the dune system of S’Espalmador, one of the most ecologically rich areas of Formentera.

The department clarified that it was looking into potential damage of the prohibited area, which is marked by rope. According to the statement, the filming does not constitute a “crime against the environment” because video or photographic reports “can be authorized” upon request.

S’Espalmador, an approximately 1.8 mile-long islet to the north of Formentera, has been part of the Ses Salines de Ibiza and Formentera natural park since 1980. The dunes on the small privately owned, uninhabited island make up the best-preserved dune system in the Balearic Islands and are of “great ecological value”, according to the regional government’s tourism website.

Lifetimes, produced by the controversial figure Dr Luke, is the follow-up single to Perry’s comeback vehicle Woman’s World, released in July to largely negative critical reviews – the Guardian’s Laura Snapes called it “regressive”.

The singles precede her upcoming album 143 – code for “I love you” – due out on Capitol Records on 20 September.

It will be Perry’s first album since 2020’s Smile, which peaked at No 5 on the Billboard 200. Her 2010 album Teenage Dream became the second album in history, after Michael Jackson’s Bad, to have five No 1 singles – California Gurls, Teenage Dream, Firework, ET and Last Friday Night (TGIF).