Israel is “flagrantly and regularly” committing war crimes in Gaza, according to a former British diplomat who recently resigned over ministers’ failure to ban arms sales to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Mark Smith, who resigned as a counter-terrorism official at the British embassy in Dublin after raising complaints about the sale of British weapons to Israel, told the BBC on Monday that he believed Israel to be in breach of international law.

Smith told Radio 4’s Today programme: “When you look at what constitutes a war crime, it’s actually quite clear, even from what you see in open source on the TV, that the state of Israel is perpetrating war crimes in plain sight.

“Anybody who has a kind of basic understanding of these things can see that there are war crimes being committed, not once, not twice, not a few times, but quite flagrantly and openly and regularly.”

Smith’s exit became public over the weekend after a resignation email was leaked in which he accused senior members of the Israeli government of “open genocidal intent”. In a message that was sent to hundreds of officials and advisers, Smith said there was “no justification for the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel, yet somehow it continues”.

The resignation came as the British government carries out a review of its export licensing rules for arms to Israel. David Lammy, now the foreign secretary, called in opposition for a “pause” in sales but since taking office has said he is looking at curbs on “offensive weapons in Gaza”.

Lammy’s review has been delayed because of the widening Middle East crisis and because of the legal difficulty in distinguishing between offensive and defensive weapons.

While that review goes on, lawyers have submitted claims to the high court in London of Palestinians being tortured, left untreated in hospital and unable to escape constant bombardment. The lawyers are seeking a court order blocking further arms sales because of what they say is a clear risk that the weapons would be used to commit breaches of international humanitarian law.

Weapons manufacturers seeking export licences to sell to Israel say they have been told that new licences have been suspended pending the review.

Smith, who says he previously led a government assessment of the legality of arms sales to different countries, said on Monday he had raised his concerns with the foreign secretary and at “pretty much every level of the organisation”.

Asked what response he had been given, he replied: “I resigned because of this issue, so you can put the pieces together. But suffice to say that any response was not satisfactory.”

Claims of Palestinians being tortured, left untreated in hospital and unable to escape constant bombardment have been submitted to the high court in London by lawyers seeking an order preventing the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences to British companies selling arms to Israel.

The 14 witness statements covering more than 100 pages come from Palestinian and western medical doctors working in Gaza’s hospitals, as well as from ambulance drivers, civil defence department workers and aid workers.

The graphic evidence is designed to support a request for a court order that the UK government has acted irrationally in refusing to ban the sale of arms, arguing there was not a clear risk the weapons would be used to commit breaches of international humanitarian law. This is the statutory test set for the government to decide whether to grant arms export licences. The Labour government is reviewing the policy.

The signed testimony has been given by witnesses all identified to the court, but only two of them are being named by the Guardian due to the need to protect families in Gaza from potential retribution. The judicial review is due to be held between 8 and 10 October.

The case has been brought by an alliance of NGOs including Al-Haq, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), Amnesty International, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch. It is the first attempt to put such graphic testimony of alleged Israeli war crimes in front of a British judge since Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel on 7 October in which more than 1,100 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage.

The previous Conservative administration defended its decision to continue to grant licences, saying there was insufficient risk that UK weapons were being used in war crimes.

The Israel Defense Forces claims it is acting in self-defence in line with humanitarian law and that allegations of misconduct are investigated independently.

One of the named witnesses, Dr Ben Thomson, a Canadian kidney specialist, said he treated a patient who had been forced to stand for 48 hours, requiring a skin graft on his heel. He said he also treated a 60-year-old man who had been stripped naked by Israeli forces, whose wrists had been bound tightly for three days, and who had been dragged on the floor, causing his wrist to be worn down to the bone.

He said: “Every part of the healthcare system has been targeted and destroyed and is now completely incapable of providing care. So many people are dying from issues that are completely treatable.” He said he had personally treated three children whom he could have saved if he had any access to the appropriate medicines.

He testified that when he visited the tent city in Rafah in March, water was rationed to three litres a day and there was one toilet for every 800 people. He said he was forced to reset bones without pain medication and that on one occasion, such was the overcrowding in a hospital that a man in his care died “on the floor in a pool of his own blood and brain matter”.

In the second named witness statement, Dr Khaled Dawas, a consultant surgeon at University College hospital London, said conditions in hospitals on both his trips “were what he imagined medieval medicine must have been like”. He said many of his patients were victims of sniper fire.

He said: “I understand that Israel justifies its attacks on hospitals by reference to its claim that the hospitals are overrun by militants but in my four weeks in al-Aqsa hospital I personally did not see a single one.” He said he met many patients who had clearly been beaten in detention camps, and one patient who had been dragged along the ground by the external fixator holding his broken limb together.

He added that on his second visit he treated a disabled man who “in detention had been handcuffed, blindfolded and handcuffed to his wheelchair with his wrists tied to the right of his torso for 30 days”.

He said on his second visit he found the morale of staff had deteriorated and by April “there was a sense of fatalism that this would never end”.

Another consultant, based in Britain but not being named, detailed how he and a group of doctors were bombed at a so-called safe house on 18 January. He said that “the episode acted as an impetus for NGOs to stop sending humanitarian workers” and despite assurances given by British diplomats in Cairo that the attack would be taken up at the highest level in the UK, he claims nobody in government in London contacted the medical team.

Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, a barrister acting for GLAN, who has compiled and submitted the evidence, said her only limiting factor in compiling the witness statements was the sheer number of cases of mistreatment and abuse.

Mediators said they were hopeful about brokering a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war after two days of talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, last week, announcing that a “bridging proposal” had been agreed.

However, previous optimism that a deal was close at hand proved to be misplaced. Joe Biden said in February that he believed a ceasefire agreement was “imminent”, while the beginning of Ramadan in March, and intense diplomatic efforts before Israel’s invasion of Rafah in May, were also touted as “last chances”.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said on Monday during a visit to Israel that the latest talks represented “probably the best, maybe the last opportunity” to secure a truce and hostage release deal.

Negotiations are expected to resume in Cairo on Wednesday or Thursday. Hamas is not directly participating; the group is being briefed on developments by mediators Qatar and Egypt.

Why the flurry of diplomacy now?

Blinken has made nine trips to the Middle East since the war broke out, and has come away empty-handed almost every time. Negotiations aimed at brokering a truce in the 10-month-old conflict are now considered to be even more urgent after last month’s back-to-back assassinations of a top Hezbollah commander and the Hamas political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, during a visit to Iran.

It is hoped a ceasefire will reduce tensions in the Middle East and dissuade Iran and Hezbollah from retaliatory action that could cause the war in Gaza to slide into a region-wide conflict. Washington is also keen to broker a deal before its focus inevitably turns towards November’s US elections.

Last month Hamas and Israel agreed in principle to implement a three-phase framework publicly proposed by Biden in May.

Hamas has since said the latest version of the proposal diverges significantly from the initial plan because new Israeli demands have been added, including a permanent Israeli military deployment along the Gaza-Egypt border and the Netzarim corridor, the new Israeli-controlled barrier cutting off Gaza City from the south of the strip.

What is on the table and why are there conflicting messages about the likelihood of a deal?

The plan would involve an initial six-week ceasefire, during which a limited number of Israeli hostages would be freed in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and an increase in the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Unlike the week-long truce that collapsed at the end of November, this ceasefire would be indefinitely extendable while negotiators thrash out details of the next stage, so an impasse would not necessarily trigger a return to hostilities.

In its first official statement on the new round of talks, Hamas said on Sunday night that the bridging proposal under discussion was too close to the Israeli line, negating further agreement on a deal.

What are the sticking points?

There are many, but the most important is that Hamas would consider a ceasefire to be a prelude to ending the war, and Israel has refused to rule out a return to fighting.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the identities and numbers of hostages and prisoners to be exchanged have been in contention. Israel does not want to release senior political leaders such as Marwan Barghouti, or people convicted of violent crimes.

Hamas has claimed at times it does not know the whereabouts or condition of many of the hostages: the November ceasefire broke down after Hamas could not or would not produce any more female captives to swap.

Another major issue is how Israeli troops withdraw, and from where. Israel’s apparent insistence on maintaining a military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border is a red line for both Hamas and Egypt.

Who is negotiating for the parties?

Israel’s delegation usually includes David Barnea, the Mossad chief; Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet, or internal security services; and the reservist Maj Gen Nitzan Alon, the military’s representative for hostage affairs.

Ophir Falk, an aide to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has also attended some of the talks as the prime minister’s “eyes and ears”. In previous rounds, members of the negotiating team have reportedly refused to include Falk in meetings. Netanyahu has been accused by critics at home and abroad of stalling on a deal for personal gain.

Hamas’s team is led by Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s unofficial foreign minister, who is based in Qatar. Hayya was close to the political chief, Haniyeh, who was assassinated last month. The group’s decision to make its embattled leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, the new head of the politburo has little practical effect on the talks, but is indicative of a more hardline position from the group overall.

The talks have been mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt. The director of the CIA, William Burns; Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani; and Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s intelligence chief and right-hand man of the president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, have attended most of the negotiations.

The US Democratic party on Sunday unveiled its platform for November’s presidential race – but nowhere in the 92-page document does it mention an arms embargo on Israel, a key demand by uncommitted delegates at the party’s four-day convention in Chicago and a central demand by Gaza war protesters gathering in the city.

The platform, which was to be voted on on Monday, instead described a wishlist of domestic Democrat objectives, among them growing the economy, combatting inequality and the protection of reproductive rights.

Reportedly, the document was finalized before Joe Biden stepped away from his White House re-election bid. And it contains both a focus on the achievements of the US president’s four years in the Oval Office and the now-discarded plans for a second term, including “healing the soul of America”.

The curbing of arms to Israel is the motivating issue for millions of younger voters whose support Kamala Harris hopes to secure after replacing Biden at the top of the party’s ticket for November. Meanwhile, Harris and the rest of the Democratic party are convening as US diplomats scour the Middle East for an elusive ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has been waging war in retaliation for Hamas’s 7 October attack.

The issue of a ceasefire, which has divided moderate and progressive members of the party, was not formally discussed in committee hearings when the document was being drafted, according to the Washington Post.

The platform “makes a strong statement about the historic work that President Biden and Vice-President Harris have accomplished hand-in-hand, and offers a vision for a progressive agenda that we can build on as a nation and as a party as we head into the next four years”, the Democratic national committee said in a press release.

Gaza protests in Chicago are planned by more than 200 groups, with organizers expecting tens of thousands to join. On Sunday, the city received a possibly early taste of what some fear could be a repeat of the party’s 1968 convention in Chicago that was characterized by a police riot targeting anti-Vietnam protesters.

A rally against the Israel-Hamas war and restrictions on reproductive rights was met by a larger showing of Chicago police when it set off down the city’s Michigan Avenue. A far larger protest focusing exclusively on US-support for Israel is set to begin at noon on Monday at Union Park.

Organizers of Sunday’s protest steered marchers to the Gen John Logan Monument in Grant Park, which was also a focal point for protesters in 1968 and featured in photos of the riots.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Gaza protesters who have promised to deliver a “week of justice” attempted to disturb a delegate party. An organizer identified by the outlet as Jinan said protesters were committed to confronting the party over the war.

“Welcome to hell week,” Jinan added. Another grabbed a microphone at the event to accuse the party of “funding a genocide”.

Nadine Naber, an activist with the UIC Arab American Cultural Center, said Democratic politicians were “hiding” behind women and LGBTQ+ rights as a cover for support of Israel.

“We are here to fight for our bodies and our hearts,” she told the Sun-Times. “Any movement guided by radical collective love is like fire, it’s inextinguishable, so free Palestine and free them all.”

The combative mood is unlikely to be soothed by the absence of the arms issue from the Democrats’ manifesto of pledges. Instead, the party calls on members to recommit to support for Israel in the fight against Hamas.

It also calls for support for a two-state solution that “upholds the right of Palestinians to live in freedom and security in a viable state of their own” that many anti-war protesters view as fig leaf for continued US military aid toward a goal that has shows scant signs of being achieved.

But the document does call for an “immediate and lasting ceasefire deal” that secures the release of all hostages taken by Hamas fighters in the cross-border 7 October raid as well as aims to protect against the additional displacement and death of Gazans.

The four-day convention kicks off on Monday night with Biden and the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, delivering speeches. Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are expected to speak on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

Harris’s running mate and Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, also takes the stage on Wednesday to accept the vice-presidential nomination, and Harris will take the spotlight on Thursday.

The tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is among those missing after a superyacht with 22 people onboard sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, the Guardian understands.

Lynch, 59, known for being the founder of Autonomy Corporation, and his 18 year old daughter are understood to be among four Britons reported missing while his wife, Angela Bacares, has been rescued, a source familiar with the situation said.

Two Americans and a Canadian person are also missing. A spokesperson for Lynch declined to comment.

Fifteen people were rescued from the 56-metre sailing boat Bayesian by coastguard patrol boats and firefighters, including a one-year-old child.

One body was found near the wreck, but six others were unaccounted for, said Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the Italian fire rescue service.

A spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: “We are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Sicily, and stand ready to provide consular support to British nationals affected.”

Lynch co-founded Autonomy, a software firm that became one of the shining lights of the UK tech scene, in the mid-90s.

He was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to enterprise in 2006, and appointed in 2011 to the science and technology council of the then prime minister, David Cameron. He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the Royal Society in 2014.

In June this year, he was cleared of all charges at a trial in the US on 15 counts of fraud he had faced over the $11.1bn purchase of Autonomy by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

The trial began in March in San Francisco after a lengthy battle over his extradition from England to the US. He was first charged in 2018, accused of inflating sales, misleading regulators and duping his eventual buyer.

Upon his acquittal he told reporters: “I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field.”

The Italian coastguard said in a statement: “This morning at about 5.00am, following a violent storm, a 56-metre yacht called Bayesian flying the British flag sank near Porticello.” The boat had a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers, it added.

Rescue divers are trying to reach the hull, which sank to approximately 49 metres. The public prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese is investigating the incident.

Eight of those rescued, including the one-year-old, were transferred to local hospitals and were all in a stable condition.

Doctors from Di Cristina hospital in Palermo reported that the mother of the child “kept her daughter afloat with all my strength, with her arms outstretched upwards to prevent her from drowning.”

“It was all dark,” the woman, a British citizen named Charlotte, told the doctors. “In the water, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was screaming for help, but all I could hear around me were the screams of others.”

The coastguard said the yacht was built by the Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008. The luxury vessel has an aluminium hull, can reach a maximum speed of 15 knots and can carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist yacht sites.

The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of “at anchor”, according to the tracking app Vesselfinder.

Reports in local media said that a waterspout had hit the vessel. A waterspout, which roughly resembles a mini-tornado, is a column that descends from a cloud to form a rotating mixture of wind and water over a body of water.

Some fishers reported spotting a small tornado off the coast at about 3.55am. Shortly after, they witnessed a distress flare allegedly launched from the vessel. The fishers approached but recounted seeing only “scattered remains of the sailboat floating in the water”.

Storms and heavy rainfall have swept through Italy in recent days, with floods and landslides causing major damage in the north of the country after weeks of scorching heat.

Agencies contributed to this report

Mike Lynch, the software millionaire missing after the sinking of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily, is one of the few examples of a UK entrepreneur who has created a global technology company.

That fact has led to seemingly obligatory descriptions of him as “Britain’s Bill Gates” but, in truth, his story differs hugely from that of the Microsoft founder.

Less than three months ago, the 59-year-old was cleared of 15 counts of fraud he had faced in the US over the $11.1bn purchase of his company, Autonomy, by the Silicon Valley giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011, a case he feared would end with him dying in prison because of a lung condition.

“I have various medical things that would have made it very difficult to survive”, Lynch told the Sunday Times last month. “If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of life as I have known it in any sense.”

Born in Ireland, Lynch was raised near Chelmsford in Essex, where his mother was a nurse and his father a firefighter.

He studied physics, mathematics and biochemistry at Cambridge University, eventually specialising in adaptive pattern recognition. His doctoral thesis is reportedly one of the most widely read pieces of research in the university library.

After launching a few early technology startups – including one that specialised in automatic number-plate, fingerprint and facial recognition software for the police – he created Autonomy in 1996.

Its software was used by companies to analyse huge caches of data and partly owed its efficacy to Bayesian inference, a statistical theory devised by the 18th-century statistician, philosopher and Presbyterian minister Thomas Bayes.

The superyacht that sank off Sicily during a violent storm in the early hours of Monday was called Bayesian.

Autonomy was an almost immediate business success. The company floated in Brussels in 1998, and rapid growth coupled with the dotcom boom would lead to a move to the London Stock Exchange, where Autonomy joined the FTSE 100 of top UK-listed companies.

Lynch’s triumphs led to him becoming a science adviser to David Cameron when he was prime minister and a non-executive director of the BBC, as well as receiving an OBE in 2006 for services to enterprise.

However, while Autonomy impressed HP enough to pay more than $11bn for the company in 2011, it only took a year for the US computing giant to take an $8.8bn writedown on its acquisition, saying it had discovered “serious accounting improprieties” at the UK company.

Lynch had effectively been involved in defending his reputation ever since – with the legacy of the claims continuing to have ramifications despite the entrepreneur always denying the allegations of wrongdoing.

Autonomy’s former finance director, Sushovan Hussain, was sentenced to five years in prison in the US after being convicted in 2018 of fraud in relation to the HP deal.

In 2022, Lynch lost a civil fraud case brought by HP in the UK, during which it was said that the businessman exerted control over Hussain and that it was inconceivable that Autonomy’s founder was unaware of the fraudulent practices alleged to have taken place at his company.

Mr Justice Hildyard, the high court judge in the case, had been due to rule on HP’s claim for $4bn in damages and had said the amount he intended to award would be much lower. Lynch had said he intended to appeal against the ruling.

At the companies he ran, Lynch is said to have put his own personal stamp, indulging his penchant for James Bond. Conference rooms were reportedly named after Bond enemies, such as Dr No and Goldfinger, and Autonomy even had a piranha tank in the atrium, in a nod to the 007 caper You Only Live Twice.

This professional portrait of Lynch seems slightly at odds with what is known about him personally: married, with two daughters, he was reported to spend his spare time building model railways and breeding koi carp.

Since being acquitted in the US, he had said he planned to address the imbalance he perceived in the extradition treaty between the UK and the US. “It has to be wrong that a US prosecutor has more power over a British citizen living in England than the UK police do,” he said.

He and his wife, Angela Bacares, who was reported to have been rescued from the Bayesian, were said to be worth £500m in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.

One of Lynch’s daughters, aged 18, is also understood to be among the four Britons missing after the yacht sank. Two Americans and a Canadian person are also missing.

Joe Biden will take centre stage for perhaps the last time on Monday night when he addresses the Democratic national convention in Chicago – as the US president faces a backlash over one of his most complex legacies.

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to converge in the host city to demand that the US end military aid to Israel for its ongoing war in Gaza. Activists have branded Biden “Genocide Joe” and called for the vice-president, Kamala Harris, to change course.

On the conventional stage speakers will range from Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state who backs Biden’s Gaza policy, to congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive star who has criticised the administration and called for a ceasefire.

The speaking line-up also includes Senators Chris Coons of Delaware and Raphael Warnock of Georgia; Representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Jasmine Crockett of Texas; Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky; Shawn Fain, president of the UAW union; and “women that have been subjected to cruel and dangerous abortion bans under Donald Trump”.

Just over a month ago Biden had been expecting to give Thursday’s closing speech as he accepted the Democratic nomination for 2024. But his withdrawal from the race last month, and the party’s consolidation around Harris, means that Biden will speak on opening night and then set off on a holiday.

The president has been reportedly working on his address with his long-time adviser Mike Donilon and chief speechwriter Vinay Reddy. He is expected to return to a familiar theme – the defence of democracy against Donald Trump – and tout Harris as the ideal successor.

“What he’s going to say, in part, is that he picked Kamala Harris to be his running mate because she was brilliant,” Cedric Richmond, a co-chair of the Harris-Walz 2024 campaign, told a press briefing on Monday. “Because she had experience as a prosecutor, experience as an attorney general. She was an effective and forceful US senator. He’s going to make sure that people understand that he picked her because she was great, she was a great partner, and that she’s going to be a great next president of the United States.”

Biden is likely to receive a far more electrifying welcome as an outgoing president than he ever did as a candidate. The convention will honour his half-century career in politics as senator, vice-president and president, with the first lady, Jill Biden, among those paying tribute. Harris is likely to join Biden on stage.

Coons, a close Biden ally, told reporters: “I’m excited that we’re kicking off our campaign by celebrating just how much Joe Biden got done at home and abroad. He’s got a longer record of accomplishment than we could possibly celebrate tonight but I’m grateful to play some small part in doing it.”

It will be a bittersweet moment for the 81-year-old, who is still reportedly irked by the role that the senior Democratic figures Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer played in pressuring him to step aside amid questions about his mental fitness.

Still, the mood among Democrats is buoyant as opinion polls show Harris leading or tied with Trump in crucial swing states. The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, told CNN’s State of the Union programme that the convention would be “like a rock concert”. A-list stars are likely to inject further energy.

Wiley Nickel, a congressman from North Carolina who was with Harris in Raleigh last Friday when she unveiled her economic policy agenda, said in a phone interview: “The feeling is like it was back in 2008 when I worked for President Obama. People are incredibly excited. They’re focused on the issues instead of Joe Biden’s age. When we have a campaign focused on the issues we’re going to win.”

But the party is eager to avoid any repeat of their Chicago convention in 1968, when anti-Vietnam war protests and a police riot led to scenes of chaos that stunned the nation and contributed to the party’s defeat in November.

The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 40,000, according to the health ministry there. The biggest protest group the Coalition to March on the DNC has planned demonstrations on Monday and Thursday to coincide with Biden and Harris’s speeches. Organisers say they expect at least 20,000 activists to demonstrate, including students who protested against the war on college campuses.

The switch at the top of the ticket has given some activists pause but others contend that Harris is part of the Biden administration and so complicit. Her speech on Thursday will be watched closely for signs that she is willing to take a harder line against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Peter Beinart, a professor of journalism and political science at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York, argued that Harris can distinguish herself simply by enforcing an existing law that bars the US from assisting any unit of a foreign security force that commits “gross violations” of human rights.

“The premise of the Leahy law is that all lives, including those of Palestinians, are equally precious,” Beinart wrote in the New York Times. “Kamala Harris can show, finally, that a major-party nominee for president agrees.”

On Sunday, there was a march along Michigan Avenue against the war in Gaza and for abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. The march began in late afternoon and stretched into the night. Police lined the march route and there were no signs of major conflict. At one point, anti-abortion activists staged a small counter-protest.

The convention will draw an estimated 50,000 people to America’s third-biggest city including delegates, activists and journalists. Security will be tight, with street closures around the convention centre, while police have undergone de-escalation training.

On the eve of the convention, Democrats released their party platform, a document of more than 90 pages presenting their policy priorities. The platform was voted on by the convention’s platform committee before Biden’s exit and repeatedly refers to his “second term”.

On Monday, the convention will focus on the Biden administration’s policy accomplishments; Tuesday will contrast Trump’s and Harris’s visions for America; Wednesday will emphasise the importance of protecting individual freedoms; Thursday is entitled “For Our Future”, underlined by Harris’s speech.

Richmond added: “Here in Chicago, we’re united. We’re ready to answer the divisive, backwards vision of Donald Trump with a positive, joyful vision for the future. Now, Vice-President Harris and Tim Walz stand ready to carry the torch forward as we look toward the future and fight against those who would divide us and drag us into the past. This is about tomorrow.”

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, will spend the week counter-programming the Democratic convention with a tour of battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia.

Ukraine has destroyed a third bridge over the Seym River in the Kursk region, as part of an apparent attempt to expand what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has described as a military “buffer zone” inside Russia.

According to Russian officials, the bridge in the village of Karyzh was damaged overnight by targeted Ukrainian “shelling”. It was the last major crossing on this part of the front, following the destruction on Friday and Saturday of two bridges further east over the same river.

Ukraine’s armed forces are now poised to push forward from their existing bridgehead around the Russian town of Sudzha, captured two weeks ago during a surprise offensive. They are seeking to encircle Russian troops – some of them conscripts – who are stuck south of the river in the Korenevsky district.

If the operation succeeds, Ukraine will gain another 700 sq km (270 sq miles) of Russian land. Russia has built pontoon bridges across the river in order to supply its forces, but these are vulnerable to close-range Ukrainian strikes from US-supplied Himars systems, truck-mounted mobile rocket launchers.

On Monday Kyiv captured two more Russian villages, Snagost and Apanasovka. The pace of its advance into Kursk oblast has slowed in recent days, however. The Kremlin has scrambled reserves to try to stop Ukrainian combat units from advancing further.

“The situation is messy there,” a senior Ukrainian official told the Guardian. “The Russians have pulled in extra troops. Some are capable, some are not. The Russians have found it extremely difficult to recapture lost territory.”

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, was waging a “high-speed” campaign, with his troops constantly on the move, the official said. Syrskyi wanted to avoid a dug-in “positional war”, similar to the one taking place in eastern Ukraine, the person said, adding: “It’s risky. But the narrative of the war has changed. Everything is possible.”

While Ukrainian forces have made quick progress around Sudzha, Russian troops have been steadily making gains in the east of Ukraine. On Monday they captured the town of Niu-York, raising the Russian flag and renaming the town Novgorodske, Kremlin military bloggers reported.

For months, Russian forces have also been edging closer to the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, gobbling up surrounding villages. Ukrainian defenders have retreated in the face of airstrikes on their positions, followed by round-the-clock infantry assaults.

On Monday Pokrovsk’s military administrator, Serhii Dobryak, said fighting was likely to engulf the city in less than two weeks. He urged residents to pack up and leave. About 60% had already gone, he said. He added that families with children would soon be forced to evacuate under emergency rules.

In neighbouring Myrnohrad – now just a few kilometres from the frontline – fewer than 16,000 people remained. Banks, pharmacies, shops and markets were closing, together with all organisations and institutions. The city hospital was shutting down as well, with the exception of a few doctors who would treat the wounded.

The imminent Russian attack on Pokrovsk will complicate Ukraine’s attempts to defend its Donbas region, where war has raged since 2014. The Russians are close to capturing a highway that links Pokrovsk to a string of major cities to the north, including the garrison settlements of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

The Kursk raid was conceived in part as a way to relieve pressure on Pokrovsk and the city of Toretsk, also under intense Russian fire. So far, though, the Kremlin has transferred irregular forces from the rear, as well as units based in the occupied south of Ukraine. If anything, it has thrown more resources into the battle for Pokrovsk.

Speaking on Sunday, Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia was carried out to create a permanent buffer zone. It would prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border, he suggested, after a Russian offensive in May against the Ukrainian city of Vovchansk. Fighting there continues.

Previously Zelenskiy said the incursion would protect communities in Ukraine’s bordering Sumy region from constant shelling. “It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region,” he declared.

Zelenskiy urged Ukraine’s international partners to speed up deliveries of weapons. He also called on the US, UK and France to take crucial “decisions” – a plea for restrictions to be lifted on the use of long-range western weapons against strategic airbases and other military targets within Russia.

A spokesperson for Keir Starmer said British backing for Kyiv was unwavering. “The prime minister remains absolutely resolute in his support for Ukraine,” they said, adding that the ban on the use of British Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia remained.

Zelenskiy’s latest comments suggest Ukraine will seek to hold on to its gains in Kursk oblast, ahead of possible negotiations to end the war. On Monday Russia’s presidential aide Yuri Ushakov made clear Moscow was not ready for peace discussions because of what he called Ukraine’s Kursk “adventure”. “We will not talk,” he said.

Ukraine has destroyed a third bridge over the Seym River in the Kursk region, as part of an apparent attempt to expand what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has described as a military “buffer zone” inside Russia.

According to Russian officials, the bridge in the village of Karyzh was damaged overnight by targeted Ukrainian “shelling”. It was the last major crossing on this part of the front, following the destruction on Friday and Saturday of two bridges further east over the same river.

Ukraine’s armed forces are now poised to push forward from their existing bridgehead around the Russian town of Sudzha, captured two weeks ago during a surprise offensive. They are seeking to encircle Russian troops – some of them conscripts – who are stuck south of the river in the Korenevsky district.

If the operation succeeds, Ukraine will gain another 700 sq km (270 sq miles) of Russian land. Russia has built pontoon bridges across the river in order to supply its forces, but these are vulnerable to close-range Ukrainian strikes from US-supplied Himars systems, truck-mounted mobile rocket launchers.

On Monday Kyiv captured two more Russian villages, Snagost and Apanasovka. The pace of its advance into Kursk oblast has slowed in recent days, however. The Kremlin has scrambled reserves to try to stop Ukrainian combat units from advancing further.

“The situation is messy there,” a senior Ukrainian official told the Guardian. “The Russians have pulled in extra troops. Some are capable, some are not. The Russians have found it extremely difficult to recapture lost territory.”

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, was waging a “high-speed” campaign, with his troops constantly on the move, the official said. Syrskyi wanted to avoid a dug-in “positional war”, similar to the one taking place in eastern Ukraine, the person said, adding: “It’s risky. But the narrative of the war has changed. Everything is possible.”

While Ukrainian forces have made quick progress around Sudzha, Russian troops have been steadily making gains in the east of Ukraine. On Monday they captured the town of Niu-York, raising the Russian flag and renaming the town Novgorodske, Kremlin military bloggers reported.

For months, Russian forces have also been edging closer to the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, gobbling up surrounding villages. Ukrainian defenders have retreated in the face of airstrikes on their positions, followed by round-the-clock infantry assaults.

On Monday Pokrovsk’s military administrator, Serhii Dobryak, said fighting was likely to engulf the city in less than two weeks. He urged residents to pack up and leave. About 60% had already gone, he said. He added that families with children would soon be forced to evacuate under emergency rules.

In neighbouring Myrnohrad – now just a few kilometres from the frontline – fewer than 16,000 people remained. Banks, pharmacies, shops and markets were closing, together with all organisations and institutions. The city hospital was shutting down as well, with the exception of a few doctors who would treat the wounded.

The imminent Russian attack on Pokrovsk will complicate Ukraine’s attempts to defend its Donbas region, where war has raged since 2014. The Russians are close to capturing a highway that links Pokrovsk to a string of major cities to the north, including the garrison settlements of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

The Kursk raid was conceived in part as a way to relieve pressure on Pokrovsk and the city of Toretsk, also under intense Russian fire. So far, though, the Kremlin has transferred irregular forces from the rear, as well as units based in the occupied south of Ukraine. If anything, it has thrown more resources into the battle for Pokrovsk.

Speaking on Sunday, Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia was carried out to create a permanent buffer zone. It would prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border, he suggested, after a Russian offensive in May against the Ukrainian city of Vovchansk. Fighting there continues.

Previously Zelenskiy said the incursion would protect communities in Ukraine’s bordering Sumy region from constant shelling. “It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region,” he declared.

Zelenskiy urged Ukraine’s international partners to speed up deliveries of weapons. He also called on the US, UK and France to take crucial “decisions” – a plea for restrictions to be lifted on the use of long-range western weapons against strategic airbases and other military targets within Russia.

A spokesperson for Keir Starmer said British backing for Kyiv was unwavering. “The prime minister remains absolutely resolute in his support for Ukraine,” they said, adding that the ban on the use of British Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia remained.

Zelenskiy’s latest comments suggest Ukraine will seek to hold on to its gains in Kursk oblast, ahead of possible negotiations to end the war. On Monday Russia’s presidential aide Yuri Ushakov made clear Moscow was not ready for peace discussions because of what he called Ukraine’s Kursk “adventure”. “We will not talk,” he said.

Russia has complained to Germany about its investigation into the 2022 sabotage of the multibillion-dollar Nord Stream gas pipelines that run between the two countries, accusing Europe’s top economic power of having little interest in finding those responsible.

The head of a European department at the foreign ministry, Oleg Tyapkin, said Russia had “raised the issue of Germany and other affected countries fulfilling their obligations under the UN anti-terrorist conventions”, RIA news agency reported in remarks cited by Reuters.

“We have officially made corresponding claims on this matter bilaterally, including to Berlin,” Tyapkin said.

The criticism came after it was reported last week that German prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor as a prime suspect.

Polish prosecutors said they had received the warrant against the suspect identified as Volodymyr Z, but that he was able to slip across the Ukrainian border in early July because Germany had failed to include him in a shared wanted persons database.

Volodymyr Z, who lived in Poland, is alleged to have dived 80 metres down to the seabed to place the explosive devices. At the time of the blasts, seven months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the pipelines were not in operation but contained gas.

German media have identified two other suspects, also Ukrainian diving instructors – a man and a woman – but no further arrest warrants have been issued. Prosecutors and the German government have declined to comment on the investigation.

Tyapkin was quoted as saying that Moscow believes German authorities will close the investigation prematurely, before identifying those behind the sabotage operation, which embarrassed Berlin.

A German foreign ministry spokesperson, Sebastian Fischer, dismissed Tyapkin’s claims and said German prosecutors were “in contact with Russian authorities” and that the investigation was still in progress.

“We exchange the information that we can without endangering the investigation,” he told reporters.

The Nord Stream project, which carried natural gas under the Baltic Sea, was made unusable by a series underwater blasts for which no one has claimed responsibility. Western countries have accused Russia for explosions; Russia has blamed the US, Britain and Ukraine.

US media in recent months reported that Ukraine was behind the attack, a charge Kyiv has repeatedly denied.

Berlin’s allies had long criticised Nord Stream for deepening German energy reliance on Russia, even after it annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.

Over the weekend Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, angrily hit back at German allegations that Warsaw may have abetted the sabotage, saying German officials had no standing to point the finger.

“To all the initiators and patrons of Nord Stream 1 and 2. The only thing you should do today about it is apologise and keep quiet.” Tusk wrote on X.

He appeared to be responding to comments by Germany’s former foreign intelligence chief August Hanning, who said that the attack on the pipelines must have had Warsaw’s backing.

Hanning, who served when Gerhard Schröder was chancellor and later became a Gazprom lobbyist and close friend of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, told Die Welt last week that Germany should consider seeking damages from Poland and Ukraine.

Before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, about a quarter of Germany’s energy supply relied on gas, of which half was provided by Russia. Russian gas had later been seen as a key “bridge” in German energy strategy as it halted nuclear power and transitioned to renewables.

Days before Moscow’s attack on its neighbour, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, announced that Berlin was stopping the certification process for Nord Stream 2, which was approved under his predecessor, Angela Merkel.

In the ensuing months, Russia throttled gas supplies via Nord Stream 1, citing necessary repairs, which deepened a German energy crisis, sent inflation soaring and slashed economic growth.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Nord Stream sabotage was carried out by a small Ukrainian team in an operation that was initially approved by Volodymyr Zelenskiy and then called off, but which went ahead anyway.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian president denied the claims.

German police and prosecutors are reportedly focusing their investigation on senior Ukrainian military officials, which would raise awkward questions for Berlin, Europe’s top supplier of arms to Ukraine as it seeks to fend off the Russian invasion.

Senior German officials have continued to advance the theory that the sabotage was a Russian “false flag” operation designed to drive a wedge between the west and Kyiv.

Denmark and Sweden dropped separate criminal inquiries in February without identifying a suspect.

Tropical Storm Ernesto became a hurricane again on Sunday as it churned away from Bermuda and headed further out in the Atlantic, sending powerful swells toward the US east coast, generating rip currents associated with at least one death and prompting many rescues.

The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ernesto’s maximum sustained winds were 75mph (120km/h), just barely category 1 strength.

More strengthening was forecast before Ernesto weakens and becomes a post-tropical cyclone on Tuesday, the hurricane center said. The storm was centered about 520 miles (840km) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was expected to pass near south-eastern Newfoundland late Monday and early Tuesday.

Swells generated by Ernesto were affecting portions of the Bahamas, Bermuda, the US east coast, as well as the Canadian Atlantic coast. Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions were likely in these areas during the next couple of days, the hurricane center said.

The US National Weather Service posted a coastal flood advisory and warned of a high risk for rip currents along the Atlantic coast through Monday evening, saying they “can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water”.

A warning extended from Florida to the Boston area and portions of Maine.

In periods of high risk, rip currents become more likely and potentially more frequent, posing a danger to all levels of swimmers, not just inexperienced ones, said meteorologist Mike Lee in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

“It’s going to be really dangerous out in the water today,” he said.

At Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey, officials said a fisher was washed off the north jetty on Saturday but was quickly rescued by lifeguards. The victim had knee and back injuries and a possible concussion and was taken to a hospital, the lifeguard chief Doug Anderson told NJ Advance Media. And lifeguards rescued at least five other people.

In Ventnor City to the south, Senior Lt Meghan Holland of the city beach patrol said eight people were rescued.

Forecasters, citing local emergency management, said a 41-year-old man drowned on Saturday in a rip current at Surf City, North Carolina.

Two men drowned on Friday in separate cases on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. But it was unclear whether rip currents were involved, the Island Packet of Hilton Head reported, citing a lifeguard services spokesperson.

Separately, heavy rains unrelated to the hurricane caused flooding in parts of western Connecticut on Sunday, closing roads, forcing water rescues and causing a minor mudslide. Flood waters swept two people into the Little River in the town of Oxford – one had been found dead as of Monday morning, and another remained missing, the local news station WTNH reported.

Officials were unable to immediately reach the area where the two people had been swept away because of high waters and the need to respond to other emergency calls, said Oxford’s fire chief, Scott Pelletier. Pelletier did not respond to a message from the Associated Press seeking additional details.

Videos posted on Facebook showed severe flooding in Oxford overtaking roads and homes, with at least one video showing a small building being washed downstream.

The rough surf spawned by Hurricane Ernesto contributed to an unoccupied beach house along the Cape Hatteras national seashore on North Carolina’s Outer Banks collapsing into the water on Friday evening. Seashore officials urged the public on Sunday to avoid beaches in parts of the village of Rodanthe where “substantial damage” to several oceanfront structures occurred. Debris cleanup was expected over the next several days.

Ernesto had weakened to a tropical storm late Saturday after bringing heavy rain and strong winds to Bermuda.

At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Bermuda’s security minister, Michael Weeks, said the tiny British territory made it through the hurricane without any injuries or major incidents. “I want to express my gratitude to everyone for taking this storm seriously,” he said.

Emmanuel Macron is to meet French party and parliamentary leaders this week for negotiations to break the political deadlock over who should form a new government.

France has been led by a caretaker administration since the July general election failed to leave any party with a working majority in the national assembly.

After Macron’s centrist government resigned, the Olympics offered the president a brief window to put domestic politics on hold for what he called a “truce”, but more than a week after the Games closed, critics have accused him of playing for time.

He will hold what presidential aides have described as “a series of exchanges” on Friday to end the stalemate.

“The appointment of a prime minister will follow on from these consultations and their conclusions,” the Élysée Palace said, adding that the French people had “expressed a wish for change and broad unity”. It said the president hoped “to continue to move towards the constitution of the broadest and most stable majority possible in the service of the country”.

The New Popular Front (NFP) centrist and leftwing alliance saw off the threat of the far-right National Rally (RN) in the second round of the July legislative election, which left the lower house of parliament divided into three roughly equal blocks.

NFP has put forward Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist and director of financial affairs at Paris City Hall, as its choice for prime minister. Macron, who as president has the right to appoint a government leader, has agreed she should be present for the discussions but has already ruled her out for the post.

“The question is not a name. The question is what majority can emerge in the assembly,” he said.

NFP, which gained the most seats in the 577-seat assembly, has said any new prime minister should come from its ranks. After Macron’s rejection of Castets, the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) has threatened to impeach Macron, a move that is unlikely to succeed and has been described as a distraction by other parties in the leftwing coalition.

The move was rejected by Olivier Faure, the leader of the Socialist party, LFI’s leading coalition partner, and by the acting interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, who said the attempt at impeachment showed the hard left’s wish to “plunge France into anarchy”.

Manuel Bompard of LFI said impeachment was “a credible possibility”. “But it’s a warning … we would prefer he name Lucie Castets as the head of government,” he added.

Several names have emerged as possible candidates, including the rightwing Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, the former minister Xavier Bertrand, also from the right, and the former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Macron has been counting on riding a feelgood wave following the success of the Paris Games, after a 1 August poll suggested his popularity and that of the caretaker prime minister, Gabriel Attal, had risen by two percentage points.

The French political historian Jean Garrigues said he doubted there would be an Olympic bounce for Macron and that any benefit the president gained would be temporary. “The French tend to credit the success of the Olympic Games more to the athletes and organisers, such as Tony Estanguet, than to the politicians,” Garrigues told France24.

“This is fairly revealing of the rejection to which the president has been subjected in recent months. We’re in a very tense political climate for which many people hold him responsible. As soon as reality sets in, he will once again find himself at the centre of controversy and tension.”

Macron is under pressure to appoint a new prime minister before the opening of the Paralympic Games on 28 August.

Phil Donahue, long-running US talkshow host, has died at the age of 88.

The host of TV’s groundbreaking The Phil Donahue Show, which was later renamed Donahue, died after a long illness according to his family who confirmed the news to the Today Show. He was surrounded by loved ones.

Donahue hosted over 6,000 episodes and covered wide-ranging issues including alcoholism, abortion and incest. Oprah Winfrey paid tribute to him on Instagram: “There wouldn’t have been an Oprah Show without Phil Donahue being the first to prove that daytime talk and women watching should be taken seriously,” she wrote. “He was a pioneer. I’m glad I got to thank him for it.”

“We started locally in Dayton with two cameras and no stars – we could only afford to fly in two guests a week,” Donahue said in an interview with Winfrey. “We had no couches, no announcers, no band and folding chairs, no jokes. I wasn’t saying, ‘Come on down!’ We knew we were visually dull, so we had to go to issues – that’s what made us alive.

The Phil Donahue Show started in 1967 and entered national syndication in 1970 before being retitled Donahue in 1974.

Donahue introduced issues that divided Americans and led them to important conversations. The show once featured a filmed abortion which was the episode that the host claimed was the one that most local stations refused to air.

Politically he was associated with the Democratic candidate Ralph Nader, who became the most frequent guest on the show with Donahue campaigning for him in 2000.

He also spoke out on rights for women, people of colour and the LGBTQ+ community.

“Gayness is not a moral issue, yet no institution on earth has promoted homophobia more than the church,” he said. “That’s what’s so ironic about the scandal in the Catholic church.”

The final episode aired in 1996 and Donahue later hosted a show on MSNBC from 2002 to 2003. After the latter show was cancelled, a leaked internal memo had criticised it for being “a home for the liberal anti-war agenda” as Donahue opposed the US invasion of Iraq.

In 2006, Donahue was also co-director of the documentary Body of War, which followed a disabled Iraq war veteran.

Throughout his career he picked up 20 Emmy awards and was awarded the presidential medal of freedom this year by Joe Biden.

Former talkshow host Sally Jessy Raphael also paid tribute online. “This is a very sad day,” she wrote. “I admired Phil Donahue for so many reasons, and he was one of the finest broadcasters in American television. If there wasn’t a Phil, there would have never been a Sally. My thoughts & prayers go out to Marlo and their family.”

In 2002, Donahue told Winfrey: “I’m an American, just like you, and I am impressed with the Bill of Rights. I believe a woman’s home should be her castle. I believe that the separation of church and state makes both the church and the state stronger. And I believe in the privilege of conversations between attorneys and clients. People can yell at me, they can criticize me, they can call me names. But there’s one thing they can’t do: they can’t take away my flag.”

Phil Donahue, long-running US talkshow host, has died at the age of 88.

The host of TV’s groundbreaking The Phil Donahue Show, which was later renamed Donahue, died after a long illness according to his family who confirmed the news to the Today Show. He was surrounded by loved ones.

Donahue hosted over 6,000 episodes and covered wide-ranging issues including alcoholism, abortion and incest. Oprah Winfrey paid tribute to him on Instagram: “There wouldn’t have been an Oprah Show without Phil Donahue being the first to prove that daytime talk and women watching should be taken seriously,” she wrote. “He was a pioneer. I’m glad I got to thank him for it.”

“We started locally in Dayton with two cameras and no stars – we could only afford to fly in two guests a week,” Donahue said in an interview with Winfrey. “We had no couches, no announcers, no band and folding chairs, no jokes. I wasn’t saying, ‘Come on down!’ We knew we were visually dull, so we had to go to issues – that’s what made us alive.

The Phil Donahue Show started in 1967 and entered national syndication in 1970 before being retitled Donahue in 1974.

Donahue introduced issues that divided Americans and led them to important conversations. The show once featured a filmed abortion which was the episode that the host claimed was the one that most local stations refused to air.

Politically he was associated with the Democratic candidate Ralph Nader, who became the most frequent guest on the show with Donahue campaigning for him in 2000.

He also spoke out on rights for women, people of colour and the LGBTQ+ community.

“Gayness is not a moral issue, yet no institution on earth has promoted homophobia more than the church,” he said. “That’s what’s so ironic about the scandal in the Catholic church.”

The final episode aired in 1996 and Donahue later hosted a show on MSNBC from 2002 to 2003. After the latter show was cancelled, a leaked internal memo had criticised it for being “a home for the liberal anti-war agenda” as Donahue opposed the US invasion of Iraq.

In 2006, Donahue was also co-director of the documentary Body of War, which followed a disabled Iraq war veteran.

Throughout his career he picked up 20 Emmy awards and was awarded the presidential medal of freedom this year by Joe Biden.

Former talkshow host Sally Jessy Raphael also paid tribute online. “This is a very sad day,” she wrote. “I admired Phil Donahue for so many reasons, and he was one of the finest broadcasters in American television. If there wasn’t a Phil, there would have never been a Sally. My thoughts & prayers go out to Marlo and their family.”

In 2002, Donahue told Winfrey: “I’m an American, just like you, and I am impressed with the Bill of Rights. I believe a woman’s home should be her castle. I believe that the separation of church and state makes both the church and the state stronger. And I believe in the privilege of conversations between attorneys and clients. People can yell at me, they can criticize me, they can call me names. But there’s one thing they can’t do: they can’t take away my flag.”

Michaela Coel is set to return to the small screen with a new “very personal” series.

The creator and star of the award-winning drama series I May Destroy You is reuniting with the BBC, HBO and A24 for her follow-up titled First Day on Earth. The series also boasts Succession’s Jesse Armstrong as an executive producer.

Coel will play Henri, a British novelist who finds herself at a personal and professional impasse. After she takes a job working on a film in her parents’ homeland, Ghana, she finds herself on an unexpected journey, dealing with new friendships, family trouble and broken illusions. The logline states that it is “one that might leave her stronger, but could also break her”.

In a statement, Coel writes: “First Day On Earth is another very personal story for me which I hope will engage viewers from all over the world, and I can’t wait for audiences to go on Henri’s journey with her.”

Lindsey Salt, director of BBC drama, has called it “truly original, heartfelt, hilarious, poetic storytelling”. Amy Gravitt, executive vice-president at HBO & Max comedy programming has said that it is “as lyrical as it is visceral in its excavation of the idea of home”.

Filming is scheduled to begin next year.

I May Destroy You, which saw Coel play a writer dealing with the fallout from a sexual assault, became a critical darling in 2020, winning multiple awards. The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan called it “an astonishing, beautiful, thrilling series”.

Coel, who had previously created and starred in the comedy Chewing Gum, has since taken on roles in Mr & Mrs Smith on the small screen and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on the big screen. She also released her first book Misfits: a Personal Manifesto in 2021.

She will next be seen starring alongside Anne Hathaway in Mother Mary, a melodrama about the relationship between a pop star and a fashion designer. The film is written and directed by A Ghost Story’s David Lowery and will feature original music by Charli xcx.

Browsing videos on TikTok or YouTube can be a hit-and-miss affair, with gems lurking amid mediocre efforts. But researchers have found that switching to another video, or skipping forwards and backwards in the same one, actually makes people more bored.

Dr Katy Tam at the University of Toronto Scarborough, the lead author of the research, said boredom was closely linked to attention.

“We feel bored when there’s a gap between how engaged we are and how engaged we want to be,” she said. “When people keep switching through videos, they become less engaged with the videos and they are looking for something more interesting. This can lead to increased feelings of boredom.”

The results appear to chime with other studies: as the team notes, previous research has suggested that while boredom relief is a driver for people to use social media or smartphones, the use of such technology appears to make the feeling worse.

Writing in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Tam and colleagues report how they carried out seven experiments involving a total of more than 1,200 participants.

The first, involving 140 participants, revealed that people tended to switch between videos more when they rated the content more boring, while the second – an online survey involving 231 participants – suggested people thought having the option to skip through a video or switch to another would make viewing a video less boring.

However, the team’s subsequent experiments suggest this is not the case.

Data from a group of 166 undergraduates suggests participants felt more bored when allowed to skip about within a video than when they were not able to, while results from 159 undergraduates revealed they reported higher levels or boredom when given a collection of five-minute videos they could switch between, compared with a single 10-minute video.

The researchers found similar results when the latter experiment was repeated with 174 undergraduates who were allowed to pick their own videos from YouTube – although the size of the effect was smaller.

However, when they looked at the results from 175 participants of a broader age range, they found no difference in reported boredom when the participants were given five-minute videos they could switch between, or a single 10-minute video to watch. What’s more, unlike in the earlier experiments, the order in which participants undertook the viewing tasks had an influence on their levels of reported boredom.

Tam said one explanation for the differences could be demographics, noting the later experiments involved participants with a broader age range and an older mean age than the earlier experiments.

“We speculated that people of different ages may have different habits when it comes to watching videos and switching,” she said. “How people consume videos and how this affects boredom may vary based on age and digital media habits, but further research is needed to explore this.”

Ultimately, said Tam, it could be worth taking your time before hitting the fast-forward or skip buttons, and find ways to stay focused while watching videos.

“Our research shows that while people fast-forward or skip videos to avoid boredom, this behaviour can actually make them feel more bored,” she said. “Just as we pay for an immersive experience in a movie theatre, enjoyment often comes from immersing ourselves in videos rather than swiping through them.”

Artificial intelligence may help experts identify toddlers at risk of autism, researchers have said, after developing a screening system they say has an accuracy of about 80% for children under the age of two.

The researchers say their approach, which is based on a type of AI called machine learning, could bring benefits.

Dr Kristiina Tammimies, a co-author of the study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, said: “Using [the] AI model, it can be possible to use available information and earlier identify individuals with elevated likelihood for autism so that they can get earlier diagnosis and help.”But, she added: “I want to stress that the algorithm cannot diagnose autism as this should [still] be done with gold standard clinical methods ”

It is not the first time researchers have attempted to harness AI to screen for autism: among other studies scientists have previously used such technology together with retinal scans of children.

Writing in the journal Jama Network Open, Tammimies and colleagues report how they harnessed data from a US research initiative called the SPARK study. encompassing information from 15,330 children with a diagnosis of autism and 15,330 without.

The team describe how they focused on 28 measures that could be easily obtained before children are 24 months old, based on parent-reported information from medical and background questionnaires, such as age at first smile.

They then created machine learning models that looked for different patterns in combinations of these features among children with autism and those without.

After using the data to build, tune and test four different models, the team picked the most promising one, and tested it on a further dataset of 11,936 participants for whom data on the same features was available. In total 10,476 of these participants had an autism diagnosis.

The results reveal that, overall, the model correctly identified 9,417 (78.9%) participants with or without autism spectrum disorder, with the accuracy 78.5% for children aged 0-2 years old, 84.2% for those aged 2-4 years, and 79.2% for those aged 4-10 years old.

A further test using another set of data encompassing 2,854 individuals with autism revealed the model correctly identified 68% with such a diagnosis.

Tammimies said: “This data set was another research cohort with having families with only one child with autism and some of the parameters were missing thus the performance was a bit lower showing that we need to do some more development.”

The researchers said the measures that appeared to be most significant in general when it came to the model’s predictions included problems with eating foods, age at first construction of longer sentences, age at achieving potty training, and age at first smile.

The team added that an additional analysis, comparing participants the model correctly identified as having autism and those incorrectly identified as non-autistic, suggested the model tended to identify autism in individuals with more severe symptoms and more general developmental issues.

However some experts urged caution, noting the ability for the model to correctly identify people without autism was only 80%, meaning 20% would have been erroneously flagged as at risk of autism. They also note pushing for an early diagnosis can be problematic.

Prof Ginny Russell of the University of Exeter said that is because it is hard to tell which toddlers may have a very serious impairment and who will “catch up” despite a slow start.

“My recommendation is below [two years] is too early to start applying psychiatric labels based on a few signifiers like eating behaviour,” she said.

An Atlanta couple is suing a local hospital that allegedly lost part of one of their skulls after a brain surgery.

A “bone flap” from Fernando Cluster’s skull – along with several more belonging to other patients – lacked identification because Emory University hospital in Atlanta allegedly failed to keep track or properly label it, according to a lawsuit filed against the facility.

Cluster – who had part of his skull removed in September 2022 to treat an intracerebral hemorrhage, or brain bleed – was meant to have the same missing piece put back in place during a later surgery.

However, hospital staff could not locate the 12-by-15-cm bone flap. And the hospital instead had to delay a second surgery scheduled for Cluster so that it could manufacture a synthetic bone flap, which was surgically implanted on 23 November.

The ordeal prompted Cluster and his wife, Melinda, to sue the hospital in Georgia’s DeKalb county. And their complaint provided an eyebrow-raising account of the mishap, including how Emory had so thoroughly failed to keep track of “several bone flaps with incomplete or missing patient identification” that it could not be certain whether any belonged to Fernando Cluster.

They also could not be sure to exactly whom else the several bone flaps in question – all stored in a freezer – belonged.

Cluster’s synthetic bone flap led to an infection and a longer than planned hospital stay, his and his wife’s complaint said. As a result, he has grappled with “ongoing physical and emotional pain and suffering, and unnecessary medical bills” totaling $146,845.60.

The couple claims Emory charged Cluster for the cost of the synthetic bone flap, the additional time he spent in the hospital, as well as procedures he had to undergo as a result. They also claim Cluster is unable to work and suffers permanent injuries as a result of what the complaint contends was the hospital’s negligence.

A spokesperson for the Emory healthcare told NBC in a statement that the hospital “is committed to providing high-quality, compassionate care for patients and those we serve in our communities”. But the Emory spokesperson declined to comment on the Clusters’ lawsuit, citing a policy against discussing ongoing litigation.