Pacific island nations are in “grave danger” from rising sea levels and the world must “answer the SOS before it is too late”, the UN chief has warned during a visit to Tonga.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, urged the world to “look to the Pacific and listen to the science” as he released two new reports on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s most important annual political gathering.

Sea-surface temperatures in the south-west Pacific have risen three times faster than the global average since 1980, according to a regional report compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and released on Tuesday.

It also found that marine heatwaves in the region had roughly doubled in frequency since 1980 and become more intense and longer-lasting.

The report said 34 mostly storm or flood-related “hydrometeorological hazard events” in the south-west Pacific last year led to more than 200 deaths and affected more than 25 million people.

In a second report published on Tuesday, the UN’s climate action team warned that the climate crisis and sea-level rise were “no longer distant threats”, especially for the Pacific’s small island developing states.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded with high confidence in 2021 that the global mean sea level was rising at rates unprecedented in at least the last 3,000 years as a result of human-induced global warming.

But the new UN report, titled Surging Seas in a Warming World, said: “Since then, emerging research on climate ‘tipping points’ and ice sheet dynamics is raising alarm among scientists that future sea-level rise could be much larger and occur sooner than previously thought.”

Sea-level rise is caused by melting land ice and the expansion of seawater as it warms. Guterres told reporters in Tonga on Tuesday that it had “unparalleled power to cause havoc to coastal cities and ravage coastal economies”. He said Pacific islands were “uniquely exposed” because 90% of people lived within 5km of the coast and about 50% of infrastructure was located within 500 metres of the sea.

If the world heated to 3C above preindustrial levels, which is roughly what is expected under current policies, Pacific islands “can expect at least 15cm of additional sea-level rise by mid-century, and more than 30 days per year of coastal flooding in some places”, Guterres said.

“I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS – Save Our Seas – on rising sea levels,” he said.

“This is a crazy situation. Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making, a crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to take us back to safety. But if we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves.”

Seeking to build momentum for action before the Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan in November, Guterres called on global leaders to drastically slash global emissions and pursue a “fast and fair” phase-out of fossil fuels.

He called for a “massive” increase in finance and support for vulnerable countries, arguing: “We need a surge in funds to deal with surging seas.”

The issue is expected to be one of the key items on the agenda at Cop29 due to the imminent expiry of the previous commitment by wealthy countries to mobilise US$100bn of climate finance a year.

On Tuesday, an alliance of civil-society groups called on Australia to “step up and support our Pacific neighbours on the frontlines of the climate crisis”.

The groups, which include ActionAid Australia and Oxfam Australia, urged Australia to declare its support for a new US$1tn global climate finance goal, arguing this could prompt other wealthy nations to step up.

“Australia and New Zealand’s climate finance contributions are falling short of need,” the organisations said in a new report, Seizing the Moment: A New Climate Finance Goal that Delivers for the Pacific.

The report said Australia had committed to provide $3bn in the five-year period to 2025, but this was “well short of its estimated fair share of the US$100bn goal, which is A$4bn per year”.

Rufino Varea, the regional director of the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, said Pacific communities were “enduring some of the world’s worst climate impacts despite contributing the least to the crisis”.

The executive director of ActionAid Australia, Michelle Higelin, said: “We can’t tinker around the edges when it comes to climate finance. The climate crisis is already pushing Pacific countries into excruciating debt and deepening gender inequality.”

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is due to arrive in Tonga on Tuesday evening for the annual Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting. The regional grouping brings together Australia, New Zealand and 16 other Pacific nations.

Japan has condemned a reported violation of its airspace by a Chinese military aircraft as “utterly unacceptable” and a threat to its security.

The incursion, described by Japanese media as the first of its kind by a Chinese military plane, comes after repeated maritime provocations by Chinese vessels near disputed islands in the East China Sea in an escalation of regional tensions.

The incursion was a “serious violation of sovereignty”, Japan’s chief government spokesperson said on Tuesday. “The violation of our airspace by Chinese military aircraft is not only a serious violation of our sovereignty but also a threat to our security and is totally unacceptable,” Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.

He added: “We understand that this is the first confirmed and announced airspace incursion by a Chinese military aircraft since we started the anti-airspace incursion measures.

“We refrain from giving a definite answer as to the intended purpose of the Chinese aircraft’s action. However, China’s recent military activities near Japan have a tendency to expand and become increasingly active.

“The government will continue to pay close attention to China’s military activities and will take all possible measures to ensure vigilant surveillance and airspace violation measures.”

A Y-9 surveillance aircraft breached Japanese airspace for about two minutes from 11.29am on Monday, Japan’s defence ministry said.

The ministry said the aircraft “violated the territorial airspace off the Danjo islands in Nagasaki prefecture”, prompting Japan to scramble “fighter jets on an emergency basis”.

It said “warnings” and other steps had been issued to the aircraft, but public broadcaster NHK reported that no weapons, such as flare guns, had been used.

The defence ministry released a photograph of what it said was the plane, which reportedly circled above waters southeast of the islands multiple times before and after entering Japan’s airspace, Kyodo news agency said. It headed back towards China at about 1:15 pm.

The deputy foreign minister, Masataka Okano, summoned China’s acting ambassador late on Monday to lodge a “firm protest”, and called for measures against a recurrence, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Chinese diplomat said in response that the matter would be reported to Beijing, the ministry said. There was no immediate official comment from Beijing.

A Japanese defence ministry source told Kyodo that China “might be trying to provoke a reaction from Japan,” while an unnamed government official said the aircraft had “merely grazed” Japan’s airspace, possibly after straying off course.

Two previous incursions were by non-military aircraft, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. A propeller-powered plane and a small drone went into airspace near the disputed Senkaku islands in 2012 and 2017.

Chinese vessels regularly enter waters near the Senkakus, with Japan scrambling self-defence force jets in response. The uninhabited islands, surrounded by rich fishing grounds and potential oil and gas deposits, are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as Diaoyu.

The territories were in the news again recently after the Japanese coastguard rescued a Mexican man who had become stranded on one of the islands after leaving the island of Yonaguni in a canoe in an apparent attempt to cross to Taiwan, 100km away.

Yee Kuang Heng, a professor at the University of Tokyo, said the Y-9 in Monday’s incident “was likely probing Japan’s air defence network, collecting electronic intel such as Japan’s radar signals and coverage”.

China’s growing economic and military clout in the Asia-Pacific region and its assertiveness in territorial disputes – in particular with Taiwan – has alarmed the United States and its allies.

Japan, whose defence forces are constricted by the country’s postwar “pacifist” constitution, has ramped up defence spending with US encouragement, moving to acquire “counterstrike” capabilities and easing rules on arms exports.

Tokyo is also providing funding and equipment such as patrol vessels to countries across the region and agreed in July on a deal with the Philippines allowing troop deployments on each other’s soil.

Japan and South Korea have also moved to put historical tensions behind them. Tokyo is part of the Quad alliance with the US, Australia and India, a grouping seen as a bulwark against Beijing.

The remote Senkaku chain has fuelled diplomatic tensions and been the scene of confrontations between Japanese coastguard vessels and Chinese fishing boats. Tokyo has reported the presence of Chinese coastguard vessels, a naval ship and even a nuclear-powered submarine, in the area.

The Danjo Islands, the site of the latest incident, are a group of small islets also located in the East China Sea off Japan’s southern Nagasaki prefecture.

Beijing also claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety.

The incident with Japan came as the Philippines’ defence minister, Gilberto Teodoro, called China the biggest disruptor of international peace in the region.

Speaking at an annual military conference of the US Indo-Pacific command, Teodoro urged partner nations to call out China’s “illegal actions” in the South China Sea.

China rejects a 2016 ruling by the permanent court of arbitration in The Hague that Beijing’s expansive claims over the South China Sea has no basis under international law.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan is due to visit Beijing for three days from Tuesday and will meet China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in a bid to manage bilateral tensions ahead of the US presidential election in November.

With Agence France-Presse and Reuters

A huge missile and drone attack launched by Russia across Ukrainian territory has left at least seven people dead, including four children, officials have said.

Power cuts and water outages were reported in numerous parts of the country including in some districts of the capital, Kyiv, as a result of the strikes, which targeted mainly civilian energy infrastructure.

In a video address on Telegram, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, described the attack early on Monday as “one of the biggest combined strikes” on Ukraine over the course of the war.

“And like most previous Russian strikes, this one is just as base, targeting critical civilian infrastructure,” he said.

The commander of the Ukrainian air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said Russia launched 127 missiles, of which 102 were intercepted. He added that Russian forces had also launched 109 drones.

In central Kyiv, air defences were audible during morning rush-hour, forcing many people to take shelter in underground metro stations. In the western city of Lutsk, a block of flats was damaged and there were reports of fatalities in five regions.

The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said 15 regions had sustained damage during the strikes, and Zelenskiy said the energy sector had suffered “a lot of damage”.

A senior Ukrainian official said Russia had also targeted a hydropower plant in the Kyiv region. “Today’s Russian attack … targeted Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including Kyiv HPP,” the Ukrainian first deputy foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, said on X.

Russia’s defence ministry in a statement said it had launched a “massive precision-guided weapons strike on critical energy infrastructure facilities”.

Moscow has been targeting this infrastructure for months, leading to blackouts, rationing and a fear of power shortages over the coming winter.

The attack came two days after Ukraine celebrated its Independence Day. The US embassy in the country had warned of an elevated risk of a Russian attack around the date.

Zelenskiy responded to the attack with a familiar call to western allies to provide more by way of air defence support for Kyiv, and to lift restrictions on using western weapons to strike deep into Russian territory.

“We could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbours worked together with our F-16s and together with our air defence,” he said.

In recent weeks, Kyiv’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has changed the mood and dynamic in the conflict, although it remains unclear what Kyiv’s long-term plan for the area of Russian territory it controls is.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that Russia would make “an appropriate response” to the incursion. He also dismissed increasing chatter that some form of negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv may be on the cards in the near future.

“There are a lot of reports about various contacts in the media, and not all of them are correct … ” Peskov said. “The topic of negotiations at the moment has pretty much lost its relevance.”

Ukraine remains on the defensive in the east of the country, where Moscow is rapidly advancing toward the strategically important city of Pokrovsk. After a meeting with his senior commanders on Monday evening, Zelenskiy announced that he has ordered a “further strengthening” of defences in the direction of Pokrovsk.

Ukraine continues to deploy long-range drones to strike military facilities and oil refineries within Russia. Russia’s defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed nine drones over the southern Saratov region, which lies 560 miles (900km) from the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine has made significant investments in drone technology, developing advanced attack drones capable of flying long distances and hitting targets deep inside Russian territory.

On Saturday, Zelenskiy touted a newly developed Ukrainian missile-drone, the Palianytsia, that he said was designed to strike Russian military airfields and “destroy the enemy’s offensive potential”.

• At least one person died and five could still be under the rubble after a missile struck a civilian infrastructure building on Monday night in the city of Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine, regional officials said. Four people were hospitalised. Serhiy Lisak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region where Kryvyi Rih is located, said the building was “wiped out”.

• Ukraine’s air defence systems were activated early on Tuesday to repel further Russian bombardments, officials said. Early on Tuesday morning, witnesses told Reuters there were at least three rounds of explosions in Kyiv, where the military administration said air defences had been activated.

• It comes after Russia fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine earlier on Monday, killing at least seven people and battering the already weakened energy grid.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, responded to Monday’s attack with a familiar call to western allies to provide more by way of air defence support and lift restrictions on using western weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, write Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer. “We could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbours worked together with our F-16s and together with our air defence,” he said.

• “Ukraine cannot be constrained in its long-range capabilities when the terrorists face no such limitations,” Zelenskiy said, adding: “America, Britain, France, and our other partners have the power to help us stop this terror. The time for decisive action is now.” Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said the attack showed that Kyiv needed permission to strike “deep into the territory of Russia with western weapons”.

• The commander of the Ukrainian air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said Russia launched 127 missiles at Ukraine on Monday, of which 102 were intercepted. He added that Russian forces had also launched 109 drones. The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said 15 regions had sustained damage during the strikes, and Zelenskiy said the energy sector had suffered “a lot of damage”.

• Ukraine’s foreign ministry said a hydropower plant in the Kyiv region had been targeted. A video posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed a damaged dam and a fire after an apparent strike at a plant. A separate clip, also verified, showed a missile hitting a water reservoir. Targeting hydroelectric dams and reservoirs is a war crime under the Geneva conventions, even if a military objective is behind the attack. The Russian defence ministry confirmed it hit energy facilities in a statement, claiming that they were being used to aid Ukraine’s “military-production complex” and that “all designated targets were hit”.

• Joe Biden denounced the attack on Ukraine as “outrageous”. “I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s continued war against Ukraine and its efforts to plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness,” said the US president.

• Nato member Poland said it was searching for a Russian drone after its airspace was violated. What was “probably an unmanned aerial vehicle” came around 30km (18 miles) into Polish territory during the barrage against Ukraine. “The object was confirmed by at least three radiolocation stations,” said Gen Maciej Klisz, operational commander of the armed forces. Army command spokesman Jacek Goryszewski said “it is highly likely that it could have been a Shahed-type drone” of Iranian design, used by the Russian army. “But this has to be verified,” he said, adding that it might have flown back out of Polish territory.

• Russia said on Monday it had struck Ukrainian forces at more than a dozen places along the front in the Kursk region of western Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that his forces had advanced up to three kilometres (1.86 miles) in Kursk, taking control of two more settlements.

• In Ukraine’s Donbas region, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the military would “further strengthen” the direction of the eastern strategic hub of Pokrovsk which Russian forces are throwing everything into capturing. Zelenskiy said he was briefed by his army chief on the situation there.

• One person died and six others were injured in a fire at an oil refinery in the Siberian city of Omsk on Monday, said the regional governor, Vitaly Khotsenko. Authorities did not specify the source of the fire. Russian media reported that loud explosions were heard near the refinery, operated by Gazprom and about 2,300km from Ukraine. Ukraine regularly carries out drone attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in Russia, sometimes far from its border.

• Russia stayed away as Switzerland hosted UN security council members in Geneva on Monday to commemorate the Geneva conventions, signed 75 years ago after the second world war to limit the barbarity of war. Russia was the only security council member absent – its UN envoy in New York called the meeting a “waste of time”.

• Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey, a journalist for Reuters, remained in a critical condition after a missile strike on a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the news agency said on Monday. Lyubysh-Kirdey was part of a team of six from Reuters covering the war staying at the Hotel Sapphire when it was hit on Saturday. Ryan Evans, a safety adviser for the agency, was killed. One other Reuters journalist, Daniel Peleschuk, was injured while the other three team members were accounted for, according to the agency.

France has been plunged into further political chaos after Emmanuel Macron refused to name a prime minister from the leftwing coalition that won the most parliamentary seats in the snap election last month.

The president had hoped consultations would break the political deadlock caused by the election that left the Assemblée Nationale divided into three roughly equal blocks – left, centre and far right – none of which has a majority of seats.

After two days of talks with party and parliamentary leaders to break the stalemate and allow him to name a prime minister with cross-party support, Macron’s decision not to choose the New Popular Front’s candidate was met with anger and threats of impeachment.

In a statement released on Monday evening, the Elysée described the discussions on Friday and during the day as “fair, sincere and useful” but said they had failed to result in a workable solution.

A government formed by the leftwing alliance the New Popular Front (NFP) – comprising France Unbowed (LFI), the Socialist party (PS), the Greens (EELV) and the Communist party (PCF) – would lead to an immediate vote of no confidence and a collapse of the government, Macron said explaining his decision.

“Such a government would immediately have a majority of more than 350 MPs against it, effectively preventing it from acting,” Macron added. “In view of the opinions expressed by the political leaders consulted, the institutional stability of our country means that this option should not be pursued.”

Macron announced another round of consultations with party leaders and veteran politicians to start on Tuesday.

“At this unprecedented time in the Fifth Republic, when the expectations of the French people are high, the head of state calls on all political leaders to rise to the occasion by demonstrating a spirit of responsibility,” the statement read.

The president added: “My responsibility is to ensure that the country is neither blocked nor weakened.”

After the announcement, the NFP said it would not take part in further talks unless to discuss it forming a government. The ad hoc leftwing alliance saw off the threat of the far-right National Rally (RN) in the second round of the July legislative election. The coalition gained the most seats in the 577-seat assembly, and has said any new prime minister should come from its ranks.

NFP has put forward Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist and director of financial affairs at Paris City Hall, as its candidate. After Monday’s announcement, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the LFI president, accused Macron of creating an “exceptionally serious situation”.

“The popular and political response must be swift and firm,” Mélenchon said. LFI called for demonstrations urging the president to “respect democracy” and said it would present a motion of impeachment of Macron.

“The president of the republic does not recognise the result of universal suffrage, which placed the New Popular Front at the top of the polls,” it said in a statement.

“He refuses to appoint Lucie Castets as prime minister. Under these conditions, the motion of impeachment will be presented by LFI MPs. Any proposal for a prime minister other than Lucie Castets will be subject to a motion of censure.”

Marine Tondelier, secretary general of the Greens, said the president’s action was “a disgrace” and “dangerous democratic irresponsibility”.

France has been plunged into further political chaos after Emmanuel Macron refused to name a prime minister from the leftwing coalition that won the most parliamentary seats in the snap election last month.

The president had hoped consultations would break the political deadlock caused by the election that left the Assemblée Nationale divided into three roughly equal blocks – left, centre and far right – none of which has a majority of seats.

After two days of talks with party and parliamentary leaders to break the stalemate and allow him to name a prime minister with cross-party support, Macron’s decision not to choose the New Popular Front’s candidate was met with anger and threats of impeachment.

In a statement released on Monday evening, the Elysée described the discussions on Friday and during the day as “fair, sincere and useful” but said they had failed to result in a workable solution.

A government formed by the leftwing alliance the New Popular Front (NFP) – comprising France Unbowed (LFI), the Socialist party (PS), the Greens (EELV) and the Communist party (PCF) – would lead to an immediate vote of no confidence and a collapse of the government, Macron said explaining his decision.

“Such a government would immediately have a majority of more than 350 MPs against it, effectively preventing it from acting,” Macron added. “In view of the opinions expressed by the political leaders consulted, the institutional stability of our country means that this option should not be pursued.”

Macron announced another round of consultations with party leaders and veteran politicians to start on Tuesday.

“At this unprecedented time in the Fifth Republic, when the expectations of the French people are high, the head of state calls on all political leaders to rise to the occasion by demonstrating a spirit of responsibility,” the statement read.

The president added: “My responsibility is to ensure that the country is neither blocked nor weakened.”

After the announcement, the NFP said it would not take part in further talks unless to discuss it forming a government. The ad hoc leftwing alliance saw off the threat of the far-right National Rally (RN) in the second round of the July legislative election. The coalition gained the most seats in the 577-seat assembly, and has said any new prime minister should come from its ranks.

NFP has put forward Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist and director of financial affairs at Paris City Hall, as its candidate. After Monday’s announcement, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the LFI president, accused Macron of creating an “exceptionally serious situation”.

“The popular and political response must be swift and firm,” Mélenchon said. LFI called for demonstrations urging the president to “respect democracy” and said it would present a motion of impeachment of Macron.

“The president of the republic does not recognise the result of universal suffrage, which placed the New Popular Front at the top of the polls,” it said in a statement.

“He refuses to appoint Lucie Castets as prime minister. Under these conditions, the motion of impeachment will be presented by LFI MPs. Any proposal for a prime minister other than Lucie Castets will be subject to a motion of censure.”

Marine Tondelier, secretary general of the Greens, said the president’s action was “a disgrace” and “dangerous democratic irresponsibility”.

Special counsel prosecutors asked a federal appeals court on Monday to reinstate Donald Trump’s criminal case over his retention of classified documents, arguing the trial judge was wrong to toss the charges on grounds that the prosecution team’s appointment violated the US constitution.

The submission of the filing by the special counsel, Jack Smith, marks the start of what is likely to be a protracted legal battle that is likely to reach the US supreme court and with it, the viability of not just the documents case but Trump’s criminal case in Washington.

Over 81 pages, prosecutors argued that the US district judge Aileen Cannon erred in tossing the charges on grounds that the special counsel was illegally appointed, complaining that she ignored prior court rulings and misread at least four statutes that authorized Smith’s appointment.

The filing to the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit merely starts a process that could take months or potentially years to resolve, as prosecutors try to resuscitate their moribund case against Trump that once appeared the most legally perilous for the former president.

Cannon’s stunning decision to dismiss the classified documents case was based on a key distinction – compared to other special counsels – that Smith had been brought in externally and was not a Senate-confirmed justice department official when he was named to lead the Trump cases.

“Because special counsel Smith’s exercise of prosecutorial power has not been authorized by law, the court sees no way forward aside from dismissal of the superseding indictment,” Cannon wrote in ​h​er ruling.

But prosecutors argued in their appeals brief that Cannon was wrong to focus on whether Smith was an existing justice department official or if he had been Senate confirmed, because the attorney general has broad authority to appoint prosecutors under federal law.

“Under the appointments clause,​” prosecutors wrote, “Congress may vest a head of department with the power to appoint an inferior officer. Here, Congress has authorized the ​attorney ​general, by law, to appoint as an inferior officer the ​special ​counsel.​”

Prosecutors also argued that Cannon was wrong to reject four statutes that they had contended allowed Smith to lead the Trump criminal prosecutions.

The dispute over the four statutes, which was litigated during an unusual multi-day hearing in federal district court in Fort Pierce before Cannon dismissed the case, is likely to take center stage in the appeals process that could take months or years.

Prosecutors contended in their filings, for instance, that Section 515 of Title 28 of the US Code allows an officer of the US justice department to run legal proceedings when “specially directed by the attorney general under law”.

Cannon disputed in her ruling that Section 515 allowed the attorney general to appoint whomever they liked, writing that she took “under law” ​to mean only existing officers of the justice department​, named to their posts under statutory law – not just internal special counsel regulations – ​c​ould act as special attorneys.

Prosecutors also contended that Section 533, which says the attorney general may appoint officials to detect ​and prosecute crimes against the United States, gave Merrick Garland the power to name Smith as special counsel for the Trump cases.

Cannon was similarly unconvinced on that score, ruling that Section 533 was related to hiring FBI officials, and prosecutors’ interpretation would allow the attorney general to stand up special prosecutors with the power of US attorneys​ without them having to go through Senate confirmation.

Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire co-founder of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested in France in connection with an investigation into criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement, prosecutors announced on Monday.

Durov, who has French citizenship, was detained at Le Bourget airport, just outside Paris, on Saturday evening after arriving from Azerbaijan on his private jet. His surprise arrest has sparked debate over free speech worldwide and led to an outcry in Moscow.

The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said the investigation concerned crimes related to illicit transactions, child sexual abuse, fraud and the refusal to communicate information to authorities.

Earlier in the day the French president, Emmanuel Macron, gave the first confirmation that Durov had been arrested as part of a judicial inquiry in relation to Telegram.

“In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights,” Macron wrote on X, adding that the arrest was “in no way a political decision”. “It is up to the judiciary, in full independence, to enforce the law,” he said.

A senior official at Ofmin, a French agency set up last year to prevent violence against children, said Durov’s arrest was linked to Telegram’s failure to properly fight crime on the app, including the spread of child sexual abuse material. Ofmin issued the arrest warrant for Durov.

“At the heart of this case is the lack of moderation and cooperation of the platform (which has almost 1 billion users), in particular in the fight against crimes against children,” Jean-Michel Bernigaud, the secretary general of Ofmin, wrote on LinkedIn.

Beccuau said Durov was arrested as part of an investigation “into X” – meaning a person or persons unknown – that was opened on 8 July following a preliminary investigation by officers of the National Jurisdiction for Combating Organised Crime (Junalco).

Specialist cybercrime and fraud detectives are looking into 12 alleged offences linked to organised crime, including complicity in the possession and distribution of images of children of “a pedo-pornographic nature”, drug offences and fraud. It is not clear which, if any, of the alleged offences police are questioning Durov over.

On Sunday the investigating magistrate extended Durov’s detention from 24 to up to 96 hours. By that deadline, the magistrate must either charge him with a crime and continue his detention or set him free.

In a statement on Sunday evening, Telegram said Durov had “nothing to hide”. It said: “Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving. It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

Durov, a self-styled libertarian often cast as “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg”, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with Kremlin demands to shut down opposition groups on the VK social network that he founded when he was 22.

He was forced to sell VK after a dispute with its Kremlin-linked owners and turned his focus to Telegram, the app he founded with his brother Nikolai in 2013. Durov, who lives in Dubai, obtained his French passport in 2021 through a special procedure for high-profile foreigners exempting them from the usual legal requirements, including having lived in the country for at least five years.

Telegram has long been used by pro-democracy activists in countries including Belarus, Hong Kong and Iran. In Russia, the Kremlin was forced to lift a ban on the widely used app after unsuccessfully trying to curtail it for years.

But it has also become a haven for extremists and conspiracy theorists. The app was also widely used by far-right agitators plotting anti-immigration rallies in England and Northern Ireland after the stabbing of three children at a dance class in Southport last month.

Telegram has denied allegations that its platform facilitates illegal activities such as terrorism, fraud and child exploitation.

Although Durov had previously clashed with the Kremlin, his arrest has provoked anger in Moscow and has been portrayed by Russian officials as a case of western hypocrisy regarding free speech.

“The arrest of Pavel Durov confirmed that there has been no European or even global (pro-western) freedom of speech,” said Sergei Mironov, a veteran Russian ultra-nationalist politician and ally of Vladimir Putin.

Maria Butina, a Russian lawmaker who spent 15 months in a US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said Durov “is a political prisoner – a victim of a witch-hunt by the west”.

The Russian embassy in France said it had requested consular access to Durov but his representatives reportedly did not respond, according to Russian state media.

Durov’s arrest has renewed debates about the responsibility of social media tech companies for the content shared on their platforms and whether they should prioritise safety and cooperate with authorities over upholding free speech. Elon Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist”, condemned Durov’s arrest, claiming free speech in Europe was under attack.

Surging waters have burst through a dam in eastern Sudan, wiping out at least 20 villages and leaving at least 30 people dead but probably many more, the UN has said, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.

Torrential rains caused floods that on Sunday overwhelmed the Arbaat dam, which is 25 miles (40km) north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

“The area is unrecognisable,” Omar Eissa Haroun, head of the water authority for Red Sea state, said in a WhatsApp message to staff. “The electricity and water pipes are destroyed.”

One first responder said that between 150 and 200 people were missing. He said he had seen the bodies of goldminers and pieces of their equipment wrecked in the deluge, and likened the disaster to the devastation in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in September last year when storm waters burst dams, swept away buildings and killed thousands.

On the road to Arbaat on Monday a Reuters reporter saw people burying a man and covering his grave with driftwood to try to prevent it from being washed away in mudslides.

The homes of about 50,000 people were affected by the flooding, the UN said, citing local authorities, adding that the number only accounted for the area west of the dam as the area east was inaccessible.

The dam was the main source of water for Port Sudan, which is home to the country’s main Red Sea port and working airport, and receives most of the country’s much-needed aid deliveries.

Officials said the dam had started crumbling and silt had been building during days of heavy rain that had come much earlier than usual. Sudan’s dams, roads and bridges were already in disrepair before the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023.

Both sides have since funnelled the bulk of their resources into the conflict, leaving infrastructure badly neglected.

Some people had fled their flooded homes and headed to the mountains where they were now stranded, the health ministry said.

On Monday, the government’s rainy season taskforce said 132 people had been killed in floods across the country, up from 68 two weeks ago. At least 118,000 people have been displaced by the rains this year, according to UN agencies.

Surging waters have burst through a dam in eastern Sudan, wiping out at least 20 villages and leaving at least 30 people dead but probably many more, the UN has said, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.

Torrential rains caused floods that on Sunday overwhelmed the Arbaat dam, which is 25 miles (40km) north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

“The area is unrecognisable,” Omar Eissa Haroun, head of the water authority for Red Sea state, said in a WhatsApp message to staff. “The electricity and water pipes are destroyed.”

One first responder said that between 150 and 200 people were missing. He said he had seen the bodies of goldminers and pieces of their equipment wrecked in the deluge, and likened the disaster to the devastation in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in September last year when storm waters burst dams, swept away buildings and killed thousands.

On the road to Arbaat on Monday a Reuters reporter saw people burying a man and covering his grave with driftwood to try to prevent it from being washed away in mudslides.

The homes of about 50,000 people were affected by the flooding, the UN said, citing local authorities, adding that the number only accounted for the area west of the dam as the area east was inaccessible.

The dam was the main source of water for Port Sudan, which is home to the country’s main Red Sea port and working airport, and receives most of the country’s much-needed aid deliveries.

Officials said the dam had started crumbling and silt had been building during days of heavy rain that had come much earlier than usual. Sudan’s dams, roads and bridges were already in disrepair before the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023.

Both sides have since funnelled the bulk of their resources into the conflict, leaving infrastructure badly neglected.

Some people had fled their flooded homes and headed to the mountains where they were now stranded, the health ministry said.

On Monday, the government’s rainy season taskforce said 132 people had been killed in floods across the country, up from 68 two weeks ago. At least 118,000 people have been displaced by the rains this year, according to UN agencies.

Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a political backlash in Israel for the limited nature of Sunday’s airstrikes against Hezbollah, amid calls for a broader offensive in Lebanon.

Some of the fiercest criticism came from the far-right wing of the prime minister’s own fractious coalition, which is also increasingly divided over the status of Jerusalem’s holiest site.

Israel’s airstrikes and Hezbollah’s rocket and drone launches that followed soon after was the biggest cross-border engagement since the two sides fought a war in 2006 in terms of the number of aircraft sorties and munitions launched, though not in terms of casualties. Three Hezbollah and allied fighters were killed and one Israeli sailor, killed by fragments of an Israeli interceptor.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, claimed the pre-emptive strikes on Sunday morning prevented Hezbollah from launching up to two-thirds of the rockets it had intended to fire at Israel. Israel also claimed to have shot down almost all the incoming Hezbollah drones.

Netanyahu issued a warning that the airstrikes would not be “the end of the story”, but reports in the Israeli press cited military sources as saying there was no planned follow-up.

The prime minister was widely blamed on Monday, from both the centre and right of the political spectrum, for the limited goal of Sunday’s air raids, which disrupted Hezbollah’s planned aerial assault, but had done nothing, the critics said, to allow up to 80,000 residents of northern border towns, displaced from northern Israel since October, to return home.

Representatives of the displaced population, forced from their homes by bombing by Hezbollah in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, have said they would boycott meetings with government representatives, accusing the coalition of prioritising the defence of central Israel but not the north.

Ben Caspit, a columnist in the centre-right Maariv newspaper, wrote: “For nearly a year, the Galilee has been pulverised, ravaged and set on fire; tens of thousands of Israelis have been torn from their homes; and the entire country, which not long ago was considered to be a regional superpower, has been humiliated.” He said Netanyahu had chosen the most cautious of the military options presented to him by his generals.

“He prevented and disrupted one of Hezbollah’s operational plans, but he didn’t change our strategic situation in the northern theatre,” Caspit added, arguing that a broader aerial campaign would begin “to create the conditions to allow the residents of the Upper Galilee to return to their homes and to allow Israel to restore its sovereignty over swaths of its own territory”.

Benny Gantz, a retired general, former minister in Netanyahu’s coalition and one of his main rivals, described the airstrikes as “too little, too late”.

In a video statement during a visit to northern communities, he said: “We must keep up the advantage of the initiative that was taken and increase the political and military pressure to push Hezbollah away, to return northern residents to their homes safely.”

Netanyahu’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, joined in the criticism.

“Israel must not be content with a single, pre-emptive sortie. We must bring a decisive war against Hezbollah that will remove the threat in the north and allow the residents to return home safely,” Ben-Gvir said.

He singled out Gallant for recrimination. The national security and defence ministers are locked in a bitter public row over government policy, particularly over the status of the holy compound around the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which Jews call the Temple Mount.

Ben-Gvir pressed ahead with his campaign to upend Israel’s policy on the site since it captured East Jerusalem in 1967, that only Muslims would be allowed to pray on the compound, while Jews would pray at the Western Wall.

Ben-Gvir violated that policy when he led Jewish prayers there last month and told army radio on Monday that Jews had equal status with Muslims.

“The policies on the Temple Mount allow prayer, period,” he said. “There is a directive that there should be equal law between Jews and Muslims.”

He added that if it were up to him, there would be an Israeli flag and a synagogue on Temple Mount.

The prime minister’s office issued a statement saying there had been no change in the status quo on the site, and other members of the coalition criticised Ben-Gvir for inflammatory rhetoric, which they warned was liable to trigger a revolt among Palestinians and outrage in the wider Arab world.

“Undermining the status quo on the Temple Mount is an unnecessary and irresponsible act,” Gallant said. “Ben-Gvir’s actions endanger Israel.”

The interior minister, Moshe Arbel, from the ultra-orthodox Shas party, called for Ben-Gvir to be stripped of his authority over the police, warning: “His lack of wisdom could cost lives.”

Contamination of waterways with the antidepressant Prozac is disrupting fish bodies and behaviours in ways that could threaten their long-term survival, new research has found.

As global consumption of pharmaceuticals has increased, residues have entered rivers and streams via wastewater raising concerns about the effects on ecosystems and wildlife.

Research published in the journal of Animal Ecology found low concentrations of fluoxetine – an antidepressant commonly known as Prozac – reduced the body condition and sperm vitality of male guppies over multiple generations.

The study’s co-lead author, Dr Upama Aich from Monash University, said thousands of chemicals were “being dumped into our waterways every day”. The researchers chose to look at fluoxetine as it was “quite ubiquitous”.

Aich said the changes observed in guppies at low concentrations of the drug should be taken as a warning about their ability “to live and survive and thrive in a polluted environment”.

Researchers caught 3,600 wild guppies – an invasive species in Australia – and randomly assigned them to tanks fitted with gravel and aquatic plants.

Over five years they dosed the tanks with different concentrations of fluoxetine – zero, low (31.5 nanograms a litre) and high (316 ng/L), consistent with levels found in the natural environment. Researchers then studied the effects on male fish behaviour, bodies and reproductive traits over multiple generations.

Aich said low exposure reduced the body condition of males in the population as a whole, “which is really important, not only for mating, but also for fighting with other males, and their overall survival”. Exposure to low doses also reduced sperm velocity but increased the length of the gonopodium, a fin-like organ used to fertilise the female, she said.

She said exposure to the drug also reduced variation in activity and risk taking behaviour, which could affect guppies’ ability to respond to changes in the wild.

Dr Minna Saaristo, a principal scientist in ecological risk and emerging contaminants at the Environment Protection Authority Victoria, said medicines were designed to work at low doses, which could explain why there were more profound effects at low concentrations.

Saaristo led EPA research that found 18 common pharmaceuticals in four Victorian rivers and creeks, including upstream and downstream of wastewater treatment plants. Sampling detected common antidepressants, blood pressure, heart and epilepsy medicines, caffeine and antibiotics. “It’s a whole cocktail that we’re dealing with,” Saaristo said.

The EPA also tested for pharmaceuticals in commonly caught fish. The highest concentrations were for antidepressants, including venlafaxine (150 micrograms a kilogram) in redfin perch and sertraline (100 μg/kg) in eel. Saaristo said there was no significant risk to human health but the regulator was monitoring the situation.

She said people should not flush pharmaceuticals down the toilet. Instead they should return unwanted and expired medicines to a pharmacy.

“That will be very helpful for the fish that are swimming in our waterways.”

Mariah Carey’s mother, Patricia, and sister, Alison, both died on the same day, the singer said Monday.

“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend,” the Grammy-winning singer said. “Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day.

“I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed. I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”

Details about their causes of death were not immediately available. People Magazine first reported the news of their deaths and Carey’s statement.

Patricia was an opera singer and was previously married to Alfred Roy Carey, the singer’s father. The parents divorced when the singer was three years old.

Carey detailed her complicated relationship with her mother and her sister in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, in which she wrote that she and her mother often clashed, and she accused her sister of putting her in unsafe situations as a child.

“Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment,” Carey wroter of her mother in the book. “A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother’s.”

Of her sister, she wrote that, for a time, it was “emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact” with her.

Still, Carey maintained contact with her mother and they even recorded a duet of O Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus for the singer’s second Christmas album in 2010.

So-called “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli has been ordered by a federal judge to turn over all copies of the ultra-rare unreleased 2015 Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and is barred from streaming any additional content from the record.

The Wu-Tang Clan spent six years creating Once Upon a Time in Shaolin before putting a single copy of the 31-track double album up for auction in 2015 on the condition that it not be released publicly. The multi-platinum hip-hop group wanted it viewed as a piece of contemporary art.

Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive who rose to infamy after he tried to astronomically raise the price of a life-saving drug, purchased the album for $2m in 2015 – but was forced to forfeit it in the aftermath of his 2021 securities fraud conviction for lying to investors and cheating them out of millions of dollars. The album was then bought by PleasrDAO, a cryptocurrency collective, for $4.75m.

In June, PleasrDAO sued Shkreli and accused him of retaining and disseminating digital copies, in violation of their deal.

Judge Pamela K Chen in Brooklyn wrote that Shkreli must produce all copies of what is sometimes referred to as the world’s rarest album and report the names of anyone he distributed the music to by 30 September, along with any revenues he received from it.

Steven Cooper, an attorney for PleasrDAO, called the ruling “an important victory”, in a statement, adding that the company is pleased that the judge “recognized that immediate relief was necessary to thwart the continuing bad acts of Mr. Shkreli”.

Edward Paltzik, a lawyer for Shkreli, said in an email that the judge’s order maintained “the perceived status quo” of the lawsuit’s progression and has “no bearing whatsoever on the final outcome of the case”.

He also noted that the judge did not make a finding that PleasrDAO was likely to succeed on the merits or that its allegations were true.

In 2022 after Shkreli was released from a seven-year sentence for his fraud conviction, he bragged publicly online that he still had a copy of the album, which he then streamed parts of for some of his social media followers, according to the complaint filed against Shkreli. It wasn’t the first time.

There’s also online footage of him playing the record to celebrate Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election.

The judge’s order prohibits him from “possessing, using, disseminating, or selling any interests in the Album, including its data and files”, in addition to providing a detailed accounting of where the copies are and who has access to them, along with any revenue he’s received.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.