Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians in the West Bank in overnight raids and airstrikes that they said were intended to contain attacks on Israelis using Iranian-supplied arms.

Palestinian health authorities said 10 people were killed in the Jenin and Tubas areas of the West Bank, and gun battles were reported to be continuing on Wednesday morning. Hamas said 10 of its fighters had been killed in the West Bank.

The main spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the escalation of Israeli military operations on the West Bank, at the same time as the war in Gaza, would “lead to dire and dangerous results”.

“The world must take immediate and urgent action to curb this extremist government that poses a threat to the stability of the region and the world as a whole,” Abu Rudeineh said, according to the Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said the operations were intended to “thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructures”. Israel claimed that all those killed were militants.

“Iran is working to establish an eastern terrorist front against Israel in the West Bank, according to the Gaza and Lebanon model, by financing and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan,” Katz said in a post on X.

He suggested that evacuation orders for civilians should be issued for the West Bank, of the sort used to empty districts before IDF operations in Gaza.

Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said he was aware of no such plans, but the Wafa agency reported on Wednesday afternoon that the Israeli army had ordered residents of the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarm, to leave the camp within four hours, and that Israeli soldiers had set up checkpoints to search Palestinians as they left. The agency also reported that the IDF had imposed a curfew in east Jenin.

An Israeli military spokesperson denied that a formal order to leave Nur Shams had been issued, but said residents were being advised to leave because of the increasing danger of the situation as soldiers went searching for militants.

Tariq Shahada, a 35-year-old resident of Nur Shams, said by phone from the camp: “A huge amount of soldiers, equipment and gear and more than 50 armoured personnel carriers are in Tulkarm city, preparing to invade Nur Shams camp.”

A few hours later, early on Wednesday afternoon, Shahada added: “The Israeli soldiers are searching house by house. The situation is really dangerous. They wanted us to leave voluntarily, but no one would dare to leave the camp now without the Red Cross with them. It is too dangerous.”

In the first three weeks of August, according to UN figures, 128 Palestinians, including 26 children, were killed by airstrikes in the West Bank. The Israeli army and police have stepped up security operations significantly this week. The UN said there were 183 search-and-arrest operations across the West Bank including East Jerusalem in the last week, resulting in 113 Palestinians being detained.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had carried out operations in three areas of the West Bank: Jenin, Tulkarm and al-Far’a refugee camp, near Tubas.

In Tulkarm, Shoshani said “three armed terrorists who posed a threat to the security forces were eliminated in a precise aerial attack”.

“In areas of Jenin, the forces eliminated two additional armed terrorists, apprehended five wanted suspects and located and confiscated weapons, including M16s [assault rifles] rifle parts, ammunition and additional military equipment,” Shoshani said.

At al-Far’a camp, the spokesperson said “an aircraft struck and eliminated four armed terrorists that posed a threat to the forces”.

He said there had been no Israeli casualties by mid-morning on Wednesday but added that “real-time exchange of fire with terror groups” was under way in the Jenin and Tulkarm areas.

Shoshani portrayed the raids and airstrikes as pre-emptive operations designed to stop planned attacks against Israelis, comparing them to Sunday’s airstrikes in Lebanon just ahead of a Hezbollah rocket and drone launch against Israel.

The Palestinian governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Roub, said in a radio interview that the IDF had informed him it planned to raid the government hospital in the city, and called for international intervention to prevent it.

Shoshani said Israeli forces were seeking to prevent the hospital from being used as a terrorist stronghold but had no plans to seize it and take it over. He said there had been a rising level of attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians in recent months, coming in particular from Jenin and Tulkarm, which have long been militant strongholds.

“In the past year, over 150 shooting and explosive attacks have originated from these areas alone,” Shoshani said. He pointed to a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on 18 August, the first one in the city for eight years, which he said had been planned in Jenin, and also noted a rise in roadside bombs used in ambushes. Two IDF soldiers were killed by such bombs in recent weeks.

Shoshani said the attacks had been carried out by an array of groups, including local militants with only vague connections to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who both condemned the Israeli raid as an attempt to spread the Gaza war to the West Bank.

The Israeli spokesperson linked the surge in attacks to the smuggling of arms into the West Bank, which the IDF says is being orchestrated by Iran.

“We’ve seen Iranian attempts to actively smuggle weapons and explosives into Judea and Samaria [the official Israeli name for the West Bank] to be used against Israeli civilians for terror purposes – a systematic strategy of Iran to fund, arm and support terrorist groups across the Middle East,” Shoshani said.

Most reports of recent Palestinian bomb attacks have suggested the explosives involved were locally made.

Since the Gaza war began on 7 October last year, 19 Israelis – soldiers and civilians – have been killed in attacks on the West Bank. Over the same period, more than 650 Palestinians – the numbers of militant fighters and civilians within this figure are not clear, but it includes 143 children, according to the UN – have been killed by Israeli security forces as well as by extremist Israeli settlers, whom the Israeli Shin Bet security agency says are using terror to seize Palestinian land.

Keir Starmer has held the door open for some form of youth mobility exchange with EU countries after talks in Germany with Olaf Scholz, who stressed to the British prime minister his wish for closer such ties.

While Starmer said at a press conference with the German chancellor that the UK did not have plans to join the EU’s youth mobility scheme – with No 10 having previously ruled out such a move – speaking to reporters later, he pointedly did not rule out setting up some sort of system for other link-ups, for example student exchanges.

Starmer said after the press conference that nothing of this sort had been discussed during his long bilateral meeting with Scholz at the federal chancellery in Berlin, as the focus was on bilateral ties rather than wider European links.

But he added: “We want a close relationship, of course, and I do think that can extend across defence, security, education and cultural exchange and, of course, trade.”

Asked to explicitly rule out any sort of youth mobility scheme, under which young people from within the EU could live, work and study for a limited period in the UK, with reciprocal rights for young Britons, Starmer did not, pointing to the UK-Germany treaty he and Scholz had discussed.

He said simply that any future talks with the EU over an improved post-Brexit deal would be based on red lines including no return to the free movement of people. Free movement is not the same as time-limited exchanges.

“Look, the treaty is a bilateral treaty, so that’s got nothing to do with youth mobility or anything like that. That’s to do with trade, defence, economy, illegal migration etc,” he said. “In relation to youth mobility, obviously, we’ve been really clear – no single market, no customs union, no free movement, no going back into the EU. So the discussion about a close relationship within the EU or with the EU is in that context and within those frameworks.

“I’m convinced that we can have a close relationship, and I think you heard from the chancellor himself, notwithstanding those clear red lines that we’ve got and we’ve always had.”

In his opening remarks at the press conference, Scholz said he was “happy about the announcement by Keir Starmer to seek a reset in the relations to the European Union. We want to take this hand which is reached out to us.”

The German leader said he had been worried that “the contacts between our societies, between Germans and people in the UK, have declined massively after Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic”.

He added: “We want to change that, because if you know each other well, you understand each other better. We share similar views on this, and this is why we want to intensify the exchanges between Germany and the UK.”

Germany and other EU nations are believed to be keen for some type of youth mobility system to be established as part of a wider deal on post-Brexit relations, and while Labour had ruled this out, the UK would be expected to make some concessions as part of the negotiations.

Asked about the wider talks, Starmer pointed to a series of meetings with European leaders, adding: “I’m not going to set a timetable, or details out, but clearly, establishing a reset is a very important first step down that road.”

After the talks on Wednesday morning, the two governments sent out what was termed a “joint declaration on deepening and enhancing UK-Germany relations”, a precursor to a promised formal deal based on areas including defence and migration, which is scheduled to be agreed in the next six months.

This deal, the declaration said, “will reflect our status as the closest of partners in Europe, with the strongest possible bilateral cooperation on the issues that matter most to our populations”.

Before a whistlestop European tour to Berlin and Paris, Keir Starmer promised to mend “the broken relationships left behind by the previous government” and drive forward UK economic growth.

Changing the tone with European leaders is the easy bit. Changing the substance – especially finding new arrangements to boost growth – is a much taller order.

Starmer, who reiterated in Berlin on Wednesday that growth was “the number one mission of my government”, is not the first prime minister to find economic ambitions crimped by self-imposed red lines on Europe. Labour has ruled out rejoining the EU’s single market and customs union, the steps that would have the biggest impact in improving trade with the EU.

Instead, the Labour manifesto promised to tear down “unnecessary barriers to trade” by negotiating a veterinary agreement with the EU, improving access for touring artists to the continent and striking mutual recognition agreements for professionals. Such policies amount to little more than “tinkering around the edges of the relationship” and would do little to “address the continuing economic impacts of Brexit”, concluded a recent report from the thinktank UK in a Changing Europe (UKice).

Meanwhile, the Office for Budget Responsibility, backed by independent economists, has said its forecast for a 15% reduction in trade as a result of Brexit was “broadly on track”. Academics at UKice expect that the veterinary agreement could boost UK agri-food exports by 22.5%, a lifeline for some small businesses but not decisive for the overall economy.

Labour hopes it can deepen the economic relationship without joining the EU’s structures. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, for instance, has suggested a “bespoke” arrangement for the chemicals industry to avoid £2bn of extra costs mostly associated with duplicating EU requirements.

Talk of bespoke deals raises the ghosts that haunted the Brexit negotiations, namely the UK taking the benefits of the single market free from the EU’s common rules, enforcement or budget payments. “People will soon rediscover there is a reason why there were red lines,” a senior EU official told the Guardian. “What we don’t want is to have the single market cut in pieces. The UK – they are very good negotiators and they always want to cherrypick.”

That said, officials are not expecting the enormous mismatch of expectations that bedevilled the early years of Brexit negotiations under Theresa May. Starmer, a regular visitor to Brussels when he was Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary, is well known in the EU capital. He and his team “are well advised”, the senior official said. “They know what is feasible, what is not feasible.”

One EU diplomat from a large member state expressed concern that the UK government was not being straightforward with British voters about EU demands. “They have to be honest with their public. We are not a shelf you can pick things off,” they said.

The EU has been disappointed by Labour’s dismissive response to a proposed youth mobility scheme that would allow people aged 18-30 to work, live, study or travel for up to four years. Nils Schmid, the foreign affairs spokesperson for Olaf Scholz’s SPD party in the Bundestag, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that a youth mobility scheme was “a major feature of our wishlist”, but “not about immigration in a general sense”.

Yet when answering a parliamentary question about the scheme in July, Starmer framed it in general terms: “We are not returning to freedom of movement.” In Berlin, however, he struck a more nuanced approach that seemed to leave the door open to some kind of youth mobility programme.

The earlier outright rejection dismayed the EU, especially its repeated conflation of a time-limited youth mobility scheme with free movement of people, a lifelong right for EU citizens. The EU diplomat expressed disappointment over Labour “dismissing it right out of hand because it looks like free movement [when] it is not free movement at all”. The person added: “I am personally surprised they think it’s toxic when [the UK has] the same arrangement with others,” referring to a UK-Australia agreement.

Starmer’s government will face other EU demands. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and other coastal states want to ensure post-Brexit fishing rights are extended beyond June 2026 when current arrangements lapse.

Meanwhile, the European Commission insists that the UK must fully implement existing agreements before negotiating new ones, amid concern over the rights of the estimated 3.5 million EU citizens living in the UK. Late last month the commission announced it was moving forward with a legal case begun in 2020 that alleges that the UK government has failed to protect EU citizens in the UK. “We have two big agreements with the UK and we want them to be implemented,” said a second EU diplomat, referring to the Brexit withdrawal agreement and subsequent trade and cooperation agreement.

With Starmer expected to meet the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, soon and a UK-EU summit pencilled in for spring 2025, the government has more to do to repair the broken relationships of the past.

Officials at Arlington national cemetery have filed a report over the behavior of members of Donald Trump’s campaign staff who reportedly shoved and verbally abused an employee during a “crass” photo opportunity for the Republican presidential candidate.

The officials confirmed that a confrontation took place at the Virginia cemetery on Monday after the former president participated in a wreath-laying ceremony for 13 US servicemen and -women killed in a 2021 suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In a statement, Arlington acknowledged one of its representatives became involved in the altercation with two Trump staffers, telling them that only cemetery representatives were allowed to take video and photographs in Section 60, an area where recent US casualties mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.

“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the statement said, adding that “a report was filed” over the incident.

“Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants,” the statement said.

The staffers “verbally abused and pushed the official aside” as the person attempted to prevent them accompanying Trump into the section, according to NPR, which first published the allegation on Tuesday night.

Following the wreath-laying, photographs from his visit showed Trump grinning and flashing a thumbs-up sign as he stood at the graves of several of the fallen military members, imagery that drew swift rebuke.

“The hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery are the final resting place of our American heroes. Trump defiled Arlington National Cemetery by doing a crass campaign stunt over the grave of a dead hero. And his campaign staff acted like bullies,” the Democratic California congressman Ted Lieu posted to X.

Trump was reported in 2018 to have canceled a visit to an American military cemetery outside Paris because he thought the dead soldiers were “suckers” and “losers”, and because he did not want the rain to mess up his hair.

Instead of an apology, the Trump campaign attempted to turn around the narrative of the Arlington incident, with senior officials separately branding the cemetery’s representative “a despicable individual” who was experiencing “a mental health episode”.

“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” the campaign’s communications director, Steven Cheung, said in a statement.

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”

Cheung subsequently posted on X: “We were granted access to have a photographer there.”

The senior Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita, meanwhile, posted a video to X of Trump placing flowers on a grave, and launched a tirade against the Arlington staff member.

“For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” LaCivita, a former marine, said in a statement reported by NBC.

“Whoever this individual is spreading these lies are dishonoring the men and women of our armed forces, and they are disrespecting everyone who paid the price for defending our country.”

Mark Esper, a former defense secretary under Donald Trump, told CNN on Wednesday morning that he hoped the reported altercation was investigated, adding that the grounds should never be used for “partisan political purposes”.

Members of some of the service members’ families also issued a statement, supporting Trump and thanking him for his visit, which he posted to his Truth Social network.

Trump has previously attempted to gain political capital from the haphazard 2021 US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he signed off on during his single term of office and took place during the first year of Joe Biden’s administration.

“Caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump claimed on Monday in a speech at the National Guard Association conference in Michigan commemorating the third anniversary of the Kabul airport attack.

A scathing state department report published earlier this year criticized both Biden and Trump for decisions they made leading to the chaotic evacuation, and the bombing at the airport gate that killed 150 Afghans alongside the 13 Americans.

Donald Trump has blamed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for last month’s failed assassination attempt against him by accusing them of making it difficult for the Secret Service to protect him.

The Republican presidential nominee’s claim – for which he offered no evidence – was made on the television talkshow Dr Phil, hosted by Phil McGraw, on Tuesday. The remarks follow disclosures that several Secret Service agents from the Pittsburgh field office had been placed on administrative leave after the 13 July shooting.

At a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month, Trump was grazed on the ear by a bullet after a 20-year-old gunman opened fire from the roof of a nearby building. One rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two others were seriously wounded. The gunman was shot dead by a Secret Service officer at the scene.

“When this happened, people would ask, whose fault is it?” Trump told McGraw. “I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’s fault. And I’m the opponent. They were weaponising government against me, they brought in the whole DoJ to try and get me, they weren’t too interested in my health and safety.

“They were making it very difficult to have proper staffing in terms of Secret Service.”

The Secret Service admitted in the days after the attempt on Trump’s life that the former president’s security detail had complained about a lack of security and personnel in the previous two years, acknowledging that they denied some requests.

The agency’s protection of Trump has been stepped up since the episode, with agents being diverted from Biden’s previous campaign security detail.

The agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned after a heated Capitol Hill hearing in which Republican members of Congress assailed her for failing to adequately answer questions over possible security failings leading to the attempt against Trump.

However, there has been no evidence that Biden and Harris, who both condemned the attempt, were directly involved in or interfered with the Secret Service’s arrangements.

Biden, who was still the Democratic presidential nominee at the time of the shooting before later withdrawing, made several public statements in its aftermath and called for a cooling down of the political rhetoric.

In his interview on Tuesday, Trump appeared to blame Biden and Harris for that rhetoric and suggested it may have inspired the attempt on his life.

“They’re saying I’m a threat to democracy,” he said. “They would say that, that was standard line, just keep saying it, and you know that can get assassins or potential assassins going. That’s a terrible thing … Maybe that bullet is because of their rhetoric.”

The FBI has said the gunman acted alone and that it has found no evidence that he was driven by ideological motives.

Trump’s comments were his most direct yet about the Biden administration’s supposed responsibility for the episode. He previously wrote on a post in his Truth Social network that it failed in its duty to protect him.

“The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!” he wrote 10 days after the shooting.

Trump previously made unfounded claims that Biden was weaponising the government against him, accusing the president of unleashing the justice department and orchestrating the multiple criminal investigations he has faced since leaving office.

He also accused FBI agents of being “locked and loaded” and ready to kill him in a 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida to retrieve classified documents. The bureau said the raid had been timed to ensure the former president was not present and that its agents had been armed in line with standard operation procedure.

The Harris campaign has been contacted for comment.

A rare bronze age jar – its history stretching back at least 3,500 years – had long graced the entrance of the Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel, offering visitors a closeup look at an intact artefact believed to predate the biblical King David and King Solomon.

That is, until it was accidentally smashed by a four-year-old earlier this week.

“My initial reaction was denial,” Alex, the father of the young child told the Guardian. “I couldn’t believe it was my son who did it.”

His son had been curious to see if there was anything inside of the jar, which was thought to have been used to carry local supplies such as wine and olive oil.

As the museum has a tradition of making its artefacts as accessible as possible, shunning glass displays cases and barriers, the four-year-old was able to grab the jar. He “pulled the jar slightly … that’s how the jar tipped over and fell”, said his father.

The young boy, gripped with fear, began to cry. His parents surveyed the scattered pieces on the floor, scrambling to figure out how best to handle the situation. “At first, I was in shock,” said his father, Alex. “Then I felt a bit angry with him.”

After he and his wife calmed the child down the family approached a security guard to own up to what had happened.

They were not expecting what came next, however. “Instead of imposing fines or punishment, they invited us to visit again,” said Alex.

This time the visit would include an organised tour, in an attempt to “sweeten” the family’s previous experience at the museum, the museum’s director, Inbal Rivlin, said in a statement.

“There are instances where display items are intentionally damaged, and such cases are treated with great severity, including involving the police,” said Rivlin. “In this case, however, this was not the situation. The jar was accidentally damaged by a young child visiting the museum, and the response will be accordingly.”

In recent days the museum had begun working with a conservation specialist to repair the jar, which dates back to the bronze age between 2200 and 1500BC. The artefact was expected to be restored and back in place in time to greet the family when they return this weekend, said Rivlin.

The museum said it was still deciding whether the jar would be put back on display with additional protective elements. The museum, located on the grounds of the University of Haifa, and which is free to enter, has long taken pride in making archaeological discoveries dating back as far as the Chalcolithic period as accessible as possible.

“The museum believes that there is a special charm in experiencing an archaeological find without any obstructions,” said Rivlin. “And despite the rare incident with the jar, the Hecht Museum will continue this tradition.”

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has accused Nicolás Maduro’s regime of “kidnapping” one of her key allies as the country braced for protests marking one month since the allegedly stolen presidential election and a cabinet reshuffle left government opponents fearing an upsurge in repression.

Activists say more than 1,600 people have been detained during the post-election crackdown ordered by Venezuela’s authoritarian president. On Tuesday, one of the opposition’s most important figures, the lawyer and spokesperson Perkins Rocha joined their ranks after being captured on the streets of Caracas, seemingly by Maduro’s secret police.

Machado, who is the driving force behind the recent electoral challenge to Maduro, announced her friend’s alleged abduction on X, calling him “a righteous, brave, intelligent and generous man”.

“They want to vanquish us, distract us and terrify us. We will continue to move forwards, for Perkins, for all the prisoners and those being persecuted, and for the whole of Venezuela,” wrote Machado, who claims the opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González beat Maduro in the 28 July vote.

Maduro insists he won, although Hugo Chávez’s authoritarian heir has yet to provide proof and, without that, even regional friends such as Brazil and Colombia are refusing to recognise the official result.

On Wednesday, the opposition – which has published detailed voting tallies that experts believe confirm a González landslide – has called its supporters back to the streets in an effort to put pressure on Maduro to accept a negotiated transition.

However, the president’s crackdown and a major cabinet reshuffle on the eve of the protest have unnerved many citizens who are increasingly fearful of the consequences of opposing Venezuela’s ever-more autocratic regime.

In the reshuffle, the hardliner Diosdado Cabello was made interior minister, a position that gives the 61-year-old former soldier control of both the Bolivarian national police force and the national intelligence service, Sebin.

Cabello, who fought alongside Chávez during the latter’s failed 1992 coup, has long been considered one the most feared and formidable names in Chavismo, occupying a succession of top ministerial and socialist party posts under the former president and Maduro.

In his book about Chávez, Comandante, the Guardian journalist Rory Carroll described Cabello as a “calculating, pragmatic bruiser” with immense power and influence. “He was nicknamed the octopus: tentacles everywhere,” Carroll wrote of the politician whose name literally means “God-given hair”.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal in 2015, one former military associate of Cabello said: “Diosdado is a kamikaze. He will never surrender.”

For the last decade Cabello has had his own state TV talkshow, Con El Mazo Dando (which roughly translates as Coming Out Swinging), during which he verbally cudgels government critics with incendiary and choleric tirades. Since July’s election he has repeatedly used the programme to harangue Machado and González, calling her a terrorist “witch” and him a cowardly “rat”.

“If the new cabinet is a bellwether of what Maduro intends to do, Cabello’s appointment is an indication of even more repression to come,” Juanita Goebertus, Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, told the Associated Press.

Opposition fears that Cabello’s appointment meant an intensification in the already harsh post-election repression were compounded by a series of power cuts on Tuesday night that added to the tension. Outages were reported in several parts of the country, including Caracas, rekindling grim memories of the widespread power failures that plunged Venezuela into chaos in 2019.

Experts believe Maduro’s control of the military and the continued support of China and Russia means he has a good chance of surviving the latest challenge to his 11-year rule.

However, in an audio message to supporters before Wednesday’s expected protests, Machado said: “The end of this regime of horror is approaching.

“Today I can’t tell you the exact moment at which we will claim [our] victory. But what I can tell you, with absolute conviction, is that the destiny of this struggle is the liberation of Venezuela.”

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has accused Nicolás Maduro’s regime of “kidnapping” one of her key allies as the country braced for protests marking one month since the allegedly stolen presidential election and a cabinet reshuffle left government opponents fearing an upsurge in repression.

Activists say more than 1,600 people have been detained during the post-election crackdown ordered by Venezuela’s authoritarian president. On Tuesday, one of the opposition’s most important figures, the lawyer and spokesperson Perkins Rocha joined their ranks after being captured on the streets of Caracas, seemingly by Maduro’s secret police.

Machado, who is the driving force behind the recent electoral challenge to Maduro, announced her friend’s alleged abduction on X, calling him “a righteous, brave, intelligent and generous man”.

“They want to vanquish us, distract us and terrify us. We will continue to move forwards, for Perkins, for all the prisoners and those being persecuted, and for the whole of Venezuela,” wrote Machado, who claims the opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González beat Maduro in the 28 July vote.

Maduro insists he won, although Hugo Chávez’s authoritarian heir has yet to provide proof and, without that, even regional friends such as Brazil and Colombia are refusing to recognise the official result.

On Wednesday, the opposition – which has published detailed voting tallies that experts believe confirm a González landslide – has called its supporters back to the streets in an effort to put pressure on Maduro to accept a negotiated transition.

However, the president’s crackdown and a major cabinet reshuffle on the eve of the protest have unnerved many citizens who are increasingly fearful of the consequences of opposing Venezuela’s ever-more autocratic regime.

In the reshuffle, the hardliner Diosdado Cabello was made interior minister, a position that gives the 61-year-old former soldier control of both the Bolivarian national police force and the national intelligence service, Sebin.

Cabello, who fought alongside Chávez during the latter’s failed 1992 coup, has long been considered one the most feared and formidable names in Chavismo, occupying a succession of top ministerial and socialist party posts under the former president and Maduro.

In his book about Chávez, Comandante, the Guardian journalist Rory Carroll described Cabello as a “calculating, pragmatic bruiser” with immense power and influence. “He was nicknamed the octopus: tentacles everywhere,” Carroll wrote of the politician whose name literally means “God-given hair”.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal in 2015, one former military associate of Cabello said: “Diosdado is a kamikaze. He will never surrender.”

For the last decade Cabello has had his own state TV talkshow, Con El Mazo Dando (which roughly translates as Coming Out Swinging), during which he verbally cudgels government critics with incendiary and choleric tirades. Since July’s election he has repeatedly used the programme to harangue Machado and González, calling her a terrorist “witch” and him a cowardly “rat”.

“If the new cabinet is a bellwether of what Maduro intends to do, Cabello’s appointment is an indication of even more repression to come,” Juanita Goebertus, Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, told the Associated Press.

Opposition fears that Cabello’s appointment meant an intensification in the already harsh post-election repression were compounded by a series of power cuts on Tuesday night that added to the tension. Outages were reported in several parts of the country, including Caracas, rekindling grim memories of the widespread power failures that plunged Venezuela into chaos in 2019.

Experts believe Maduro’s control of the military and the continued support of China and Russia means he has a good chance of surviving the latest challenge to his 11-year rule.

However, in an audio message to supporters before Wednesday’s expected protests, Machado said: “The end of this regime of horror is approaching.

“Today I can’t tell you the exact moment at which we will claim [our] victory. But what I can tell you, with absolute conviction, is that the destiny of this struggle is the liberation of Venezuela.”

JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate and US senator from Ohio, attacked teachers who do not have children in newly resurfaced remarks from 2021.

In the resurfaced clip, Vance, who was speaking at a forum held by the Center for Christian Virtue, attacks “leaders on the left” and Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, for not having children.

“So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children, that really disorients me and disturbs me,” Vance can be heard saying in the clip.

“Randi Weingarten, who’s the head of the most powerful teachers’ union in the country, she doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”

In a post on X, Weingarten responded to Vance’s resurfaced comments, calling them “gross”, and adding that the remarks are “sad and insulting to millions of modern families, and school teachers including Catholic nuns, none of whom should be targeted for their family decisions”.

Weingarten, whose union endorsed Kamala Harris for president in July, continued: “Teachers who are in back-to-school mode right now help other people’s children every single day. Those who virtuously serve our communities should be lauded, not vilified.”

The remarks resurfaced on social media this week and have already been making the rounds online. Kamala Harris’s campaign also shared the clip of the remarks online on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement sent to NBC News on Tuesday, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said the Ohio senator “will continue to loudly call this crap out to defend our kids”.

“There is no bigger threat to American children than the leftwing indoctrination being peddled in our schools by radicals like Randi Weingarten, with the support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Van Kirk added.

The newly resurfaced comments come just weeks after Vance came under fire after a clip of him in 2021 calling leading Democrats “a bunch of childless cat ladies” resurfaced after he was chosen by the former president Donald Trump to be his running mate in the 2024 election. The comments caused outrage and were quickly denounced by many Democrats, as well as celebrities and some Republicans.

Vance has claimed that the “childless cat ladies” comment was merely a “sarcastic remark”.

In additional resurfaced clips, Vance has said that people without children should pay higher taxes, and that people with children should be given more voting power than those without children.

Italian prosecutors are investigating two more crew members from the British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s yacht, along with its captain, in connection with the vessel’s sinking more than a week ago, a judicial source has said.

Lynch and six other people were killed when the British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre (184ft) yacht, capsized and sank off the coast of Porticello, a fishing village near Palermo in Sicily, in the early hours of 19 August, within minutes of being hit by a pre-dawn storm.

On Monday the boat’s 51-year-old captain, James Cutfield, a New Zealander, was put under investigation for manslaughter and shipwreck.

The ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton and the sailor Matthew Griffith were being investigated, the source said on Wednesday. Being investigated in Italy does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow.

The victims of the Bayesian’s sinking included Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah. Fifteen people survived including Lynch’s wife, whose company owned the Bayesian.

Notices to people under investigation need to be sent out before authorities can carry out autopsies. The autopsies on the seven victims of the sinking would be done at the institute of forensic medicine of the Policlinico hospital in Palermo, sources said.

Cutfield, who was questioned by the prosecutors on Monday, has chosen not to respond. The captain’s legal representatives stated that their client declined to reply to questions from investigators for two main reasons: “Firstly because he is very distressed,” and secondly “because we were appointed yesterday, and to articulate a comprehensive and correct defence strategy we need to acquire a series of data that we currently do not possess.”

Prosecutors in Termini Imerese declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.

The surviving passengers left Sicily on a private jet on Sunday. Members of the yacht’s crew remained on the island and could face further questioning by prosecutors in the coming days.

The prosecutor’s office has been examining videos and photographs taken by local people on the night of the storm, as well as surveillance camera footage. In recent days the coastguard has visited all private homes and public places with surveillance cameras.

Experts are baffled by how the Bayesian sank within 60 seconds. Italian officials said it would be difficult to investigate the sinking fully if the wreck was not recovered.

Officials suggested that the passengers who died were probably asleep, “whereas the others who survived weren’t”.

Alongside Lynch and his daughter, the dead were the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas; Morgan Stanley International’s bank chair, Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy; Chris Morvillo, a Clifford Chance lawyer, and his wife, Neda.

US airlines lobbied against plans to monitor the damage wrought by planet-heating pollutants pumped out of planes in a previously undisclosed meeting with the European Commission, the Guardian can reveal.

Lobbyists from Airlines for America and some of its member companies met representatives of the European Commission’s climate team in May in a meeting that is not logged on the participants’ pages in the EU transparency register. The commission said the meeting took place at a technical level and that it is under no obligation to publish details of meetings at lower levels of its hierarchy.

Minutes of the meeting obtained via freedom of information requests show that Airlines for America argued against including flights to and from destinations outside Europe in draft rules to report aircraft pollution beyond carbon dioxide. The group argued there was uncertainty in the science around contrails – the heat-trapping white lines that can stain the sky behind aircraft – and expressed concerns that the rules could influence pricing.

The group’s lobbying has been “flying under the radar,” said Lucca Ewbank from nonprofit InfluenceMap, which shared the documents with the Guardian. “Non-CO₂ emissions may account for up to two-thirds of the climate impacts of flying, and yet US airlines are trying to dodge accountability for the extra climate warming long-haul flights may cause.”

Aircraft engines spew a host of gases that warp the climate at high altitudes, including nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and water vapour. Scientists know less about their effects on global temperatures than those of CO₂ but agree they will lead to a hotter planet.

The European Commission plans to address the knowledge gap by forcing airlines to monitor, report and verify these effects as part of new rules under its emissions trading system. But in July, a handful of climate scientists warned that the science was too “immature” to capture the climate effects of non-CO₂ gases from aviation, and called instead to focus on better reporting of such emissions.

The commission’s proposal – which would apply to flights within Europe from 2025 and flights outside from 2027 – has divided the aviation industry. Responses to a public consultation last month show that Airlines for America argued against including external flights even after 2027, and said it would “consider all available options” to stop the rules from applying to US airlines. But European budget airlines, who mainly offer short-haul flights, have countered that excluding long-haul flights would be unfair and even unlawful.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) appeared to back the American position. It said it “firmly believes” that expanding the scope to flights outside of Europe would raise “extraterritorial concerns” and questioned whether reporting non-CO₂ emissions will improve scientific understanding.

Ewbank said IATA and Airlines for America were “paradoxically” using the argument of scientific uncertainty to oppose a policy that was designed to reduce it.

“However, this opposition is not unanimous within the aviation industry,” she said. “There is a growing divide between laggard international aviation associations and more supportive EU low-cost carriers.”

Aviation is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise with existing technology and researchers have stressed the importance of curbing the growing demand for flights through measures that affect the price of a ticket. Researchers have proposed putting levies on frequent flyers – a tax that rises with each extra flight a person takes – and ending subsidies to the sector.

By 2028, the draft rules state, the commission should submit a legislative proposal to expand the scope of the EU emissions trading-scheme so non-CO₂ effects are priced in.

Stefan Gössling, a tourism and climate researcher at Lund University in Sweden, said US airlines have a history of opposing environmental action in jurisdictions such as the EU.

“Airlines have a business model that is built on minuscule profit margins and volume growth,” he said. “As airlines refuse to look into different, more profitable approaches to air transport, they need to reject anything that is imposing an additional cost.”

Minutes of the meeting between US airlines and the commission show it was attended by the industry association Airlines for America; Penta, a consultancy acting on its behalf; and US airlines such as United Airlines, FedEx and Delta Airlines.

Delta and Penta did not respond to a request for comment. United and FedEx referred the Guardian to Airlines for America, which said it conducts frequent meetings with its EU counterparts on issues of interest to its members. “Penta and Airlines for America are listed on the EU transparency register and our meetings are in compliance with all regulatory requirements.”

The European Commission said it has held many technical meetings on the topic with stakeholders who represent “different and sometimes diametrically opposed” points of view. “As always, the commission’s final proposals are made in the European interest and based on all relevant information.”

The IATA, which said it was not present at the meeting, said: “The commission essentially regulated this subject matter with the assumption that we know enough to move forward. But on such an important issue, putting the proverbial cart before the horse is not the way to progress.”

Lego plans to make half the plastic in its bricks from renewable or recycled material rather than fossil fuels by 2026, in its latest effort to ensure its toys are more environmentally friendly.

The Danish company last year ditched efforts to make bricks entirely from recycled bottles because of cost and production issues. At the moment, 22% of the material in its colourful bricks is not made from fossil fuels.

In the long term, Lego plans to switch entirely to renewable and recycled plastic by 2032, in a green push that has resulted in the company testing more than 600 alternative materials.

The toymaker hopes gradually to bring down the amount of oil-based plastic it uses by paying up to 70% more for certified renewable resin, the raw plastic used to manufacture the bricks, in an attempt to encourage manufacturers to increase production.

Lego’s plastic producers are replacing virgin fossil fuels with alternatives such as cooking oil or food industry waste fat as well as recycled materials but costs can be two or three times higher because the market is still developing.

Niels Christiansen, the chief executive of Lego, said the shift towards more sustainable materials meant a significant increase in the cost of producing its bricks.

Last year, the group pledged to triple spending on sustainability to 3bn Danish kroner (£340m) a year by 2025, while promising not to pass on higher costs to consumers.

“So far we have decided that we will bear the burden of it, and [the extra cost] comes out of our bottom line. We are not sure consumers are very willing to pay,” Christiansen told the Guardian.

He said Lego was making the investment to “try to push the industry to develop” and “shift the supply chain” by increasing demand and he said it was hoped this would eventually lead to the development of new or cheaper materials that would help Lego meet its 2032 target.

Lego has also expanded its brick takeback programme, Replay – where consumers can donate old bricks to the company through free shipping – into the UK and continued to test similar models in the US and Europe.

On Wednesday, Lego reported a 13% rise in sales to 31bn kroner in the first half of this year as it claimed it had “significantly outpaced the toy industry, gaining market share”.

Operating profit rose 26% to a record 8.1bn kroner as the group launched about 300 new sets within top performers, including its icons sets. The range includes a £259.99 Lamborghini kit and the £554.99 Eiffel Tower, as well as Technics, Star Wars and Harry Potter toys. Christiansen said its botanical collection – of plant-themed kits – had helped increase appeal among adult women who were now bigger advocates for the brand.

“Our portfolio continues to be relevant for all ages and interests, and this is driving significant demand across markets. We used our solid financial foundation to further increase spending on strategic initiatives which will support growth now and in the future to enable us to bring learning through play to even more children,” Christiansen said.

He said the toy market had shrunk by about 7% last year, the worst performance in 15 years. However, he said that sales across the market had been flat in the first half of this year and could return to growth in the second half.

Christiansen said the brand had “good momentum” as it expected to continue to outperform the wider market.

The thrill David Rush felt the first time he beat his brother at something has driven him to more than 180 concurrent Guinness World Records, he revealed.

In an interview with the Washington Post published Monday, Rush, who makes his living giving motivational talks, recounted how he frequently came in second or third when competing against his two older brothers in football, table tennis and swimming while growing up in Boise, Idaho. It was in a swimming race with one of his siblings that he finally turned the tables, igniting in him a competitive streak that he keeps alive these days by staking a claim as the globe’s most prolific Guinness World Record setter.

“I’d grown taller than him, and it was the first time I’d ever beaten him at something,” the 39-year-old told the Post, with regards to that formative day in the water. “I vividly remember being proud of that.”

Rush, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked for several years in the tech industry before embarking on a motivational-speaking career. He resolved to begin breaking at least some of the 40,000 Guinness World Records because he thought it might be a way to promote the importance of science, technology, engineering and math in education.

He clinched his first record in 2015 by juggling blindfolded for six-and-a-half minutes – a mark he has since extended to more than an hour, as the Post noted.

Other marks he has accumulated range from catching 59 marshmallows in his mouth in less than a minute to balancing 101 rolls of toilet paper on his head. Those marks have drawn enthusiastic support from his wife and three children.

The feats have all been certified either in the presence of a Guinness World Records representative or, more commonly, with volunteer timers and witnesses as well as the submission of videos, photos and paperwork.

In early January, Rush smashed 55 vinyl records in 30 seconds to secure his 181st Guinness World Record, which was recently verified. While Guinness does not track the mark for most broken records, Rush told his 50,000 YouTube subscribers that he knew he had become only the third man to hold that distinction by surpassing Italy’s Silvio Sabba.

Sabba held 180 simultaneous Guinness World Records after about 20 records he had set fell to other people.

As Rush told it to the Post, he knows his record tally is under constant threat, a sobering reality for people whose fame results from mastering tasks like folding – or hanging – T-shirts quickly.

The former contestant on America’s Got Talent said in a recent YouTube video that he has nearly walked away from his obsession with Guinness World Records, which takes up significant time and effort.

Yet he told the Post he intends to fiercely defend the unofficial title he says he has taken from Sabba – and is within striking distance of two other people with more than 100 Guinness World Record titles. That is because he views the Guinness World Records he has targeted not as silly tricks but stimulating challenges, he said.

And, as Rush said to his YouTube viewership, his record conquests also offer “a tangible example” of a larger, human truth.

“If you set your mind to a goal, believe in yourself, pursue it with a passion,” he said, “you can accomplish virtually anything.”