Kamala Harris sat for her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Tim Walz, on Thursday, and defended her shifts on certain policy issues over the years and her support for Joe Biden.

In the interview, which was taped from Savannah, Georgia, earlier Thursday, the vice-president said her highest priority upon taking office would be to “support and strengthen the middle class” through policies including increasing the child tax credit, curtailing price gouging on everyday goods and increasing access to affordable housing – all policies that she has announced since she started campaigning for the presidency.

Harris also shared how the president shared with her his decision not to continue running for re-election, a first public retelling of that moment. She said she was making breakfast with her family, including her nieces, and was just sitting down to do a puzzle when the phone rang, she said.

“I asked him, are you sure? And he said yes. And that’s how I learned about it.” As far as whether she asked for his endorsement or he offered it, she said: “He was very clear that he was going to support me.”

“My first thought was not about me, to be honest with you, my first thought was about him,” she said, adding that history will remember Biden’s presidency as transformative.

Harris defended Biden, saying she had no regrets about supporting his re-election before his decision to leave the race, despite concerns over his age and acuity. She said serving as Biden’s vice-president has been “one of the greatest honors” of her career and that Biden has the “intelligence, commitment, judgement and disposition that the American people deserve in their president”, adding that the former president, Donald Trump, “has none of that”.

She also touted the Biden administration’s work to restore the economy after the pandemic, pointing to capped insulin costs, the current inflation rate of under 3% and increases in US manufacturing jobs. “I’ll say that that’s good work,” she said. “There’s more to do, but that’s good work.”

Harris explained her changes in positions on issues such as fracking and immigration by saying her “values had not changed”. On fracking, she said she made clear in the 2020 debate that she no longer supports a ban, and that as president she would not ban fracking. She added that she takes the climate crisis seriously but believes: “We can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”

On immigration, Bash pointed to a moment when Harris raised her hand to indicate she believed the border should be decriminalized, asking if she still believes that. Harris said she thinks laws should be followed and enforced on immigration and noted that she is the only candidate in the race who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations.

She also said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet if she wins, though she didn’t have a specific Republican or position in mind.

“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” she said. “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.”

She quickly cast off a question about Trump’s comments that she “happened to turn Black” in recent years: “Same old, tired playbook,” she said. “Next question, please.”

The interview narrowly met a self-imposed timeline Harris set for a sit-down interview, which she promised would happen by the end of August. It comes less than two weeks before the first scheduled debate between Harris and Trump, planned for 10 September on ABC.

Harris and Walz conducted the interview while on a bus tour around the Savannah, Georgia area as part of a whirlwind tour of the US since they took over the Democratic ticket.

Harris has gotten criticism from across the political spectrum for not doing an on-the-record interview with the media since she started running for president. After the CNN interview was set, Republicans also criticized the joint interview with Walz and that the interview was pre-recorded and not live.

Before the interview, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance posted on Twitter/X: “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview” alongside a clip from the 2007 Miss Teen America pageant where a contestant garbled an answer about Americans not knowing geography, rambling about “like such as South Africa -and the Iraq, everywhere like such as”.

Walz answered a few questions during the joint interview, though Harris largely led the campaign’s responses.

Walz has faced scrutiny over misstatements and exaggerations he has made about his time in the national guard and about the specific fertility treatments his wife used. He didn’t explain in depth why he made these comments, instead saying that he speaks candidly and passionately. In one comment, he claimed he carried weapons of war in war, which he did not (he was not deployed to a war zone). He said that comment came after a school shooting and his grammar wasn’t correct. “I think people know me. They know who I am. They know where my heart is,” he said.

“If it’s not this, it’s an attack on my children for showing love for me, or it’s an attack on my dog,” he said, referring to recent Republican attacks on him. “The one thing I’ll never do is I’ll never demean another service member in any way. I never have and I never will.”

Bash brought up two key moments from the Democratic convention: Walz’s teenage son, Gus, crying and saying “that’s my dad” as his dad took the stage, and an image of one of Harris’s grand-nieces looking on as Harris gave her acceptance speech.

Walz said his son’s reaction was “such a visceral emotional moment” that he was grateful to experience.

Harris, who has not spoken much about how her win could break glass ceilings, said she was “deeply touched” by the photo and found it “very humbling” while saying: “I am running because I believe I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender.”

It’s unclear if Harris will start doing more media interviews as she continues on the campaign trail. As some commentators on CNN noted before the interview aired Thursday, increasing the frequency of interviews makes it less likely that each one becomes the topic of intense scrutiny and fixation like the CNN event became.

Trump reacted to the interview on Truth Social, saying simply: “BORING!!!”

In a primetime spot on CNN Thursday evening, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sat for their first interview together as the Democratic ticket, taking questions from anchor Dana Bash on a range of important issues, including their plans for day 1 if they win the race, the approach to the war in Gaza, and how Joe Biden passed the baton.

With just over two months until voters will head to the polls on 5 November – and even less time before some will mail in their ballots – the Democratic candidates for president and vice-president made good on a promise to speak more candidly about how they will tackle the US’s most pressing problems.

But this interview was about more than just policies and priorities.

For weeks, Republicans and members of the media have called for the nominees to open themselves up to questions, especially the vice-president, who has for the most part sidestepped unscripted moments in the six weeks since the president ended his bid for re-election and endorsed her. Analysts and opponents were watching Thurday’s interview closely for new insights into how a Harris administration would approach the presidency, how the candidates interact with one another, and how she would respond in more candid moments.

Here’s what we learned:

Donald Trump spent Thursday in Michigan raving about bacon, windmills, Al Capone, trans boxers, nuclear war and, of course, his crowd size. Weird! Kamala Harris and Tim Walz gave an interview on CNN that was … radically normal.

Just as she did a week ago at the Democratic national convention, the vice-president was comfortable and composed, solid and unspectacular, doing enough to clear the bar and doing herself no harm. She turned a much hyped first interview as nominee into a soon-to-be-forgotten pit stop along the campaign trail.

Perhaps most important was the personality test. The old saw in presidential campaigns was: which candidate would you rather have a beer with? Harris and Walz came over as the couple you’d be fine sharing cake and coffee with at your kids’ birthday party. The same cannot be said of the former president and his running mate, JD Vance.

Democrats’ bet is that Americans crave such relatability after a decade of Trump’s malignant narcissism and Joe Biden’s struggles with old age. The current president turned every interview into a nerve-wracking high-wire act. Harris was a fresh-faced model of steadiness by comparison.

But as the 27-minute interview unfolded, she was notably more at ease embracing Biden and his legacy than her own historic candidacy as potentially the first Black female president. Democrats may value her loyalty in refusing to disown her boss. Republicans may scent an opportunity to portray her as Biden-lite.

Perhaps Harris’s weakest answer was her first. Wearing grey and sitting in a cafe in Savannah, Georgia, she was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash: “If you are elected, what would you do on day one in the White House?” Harris replied: “Well, there are a number of things. I will tell you, first and foremost, one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class … ”

When Bash pressed: “So, what would you do day one?”, Harris talked about the “opportunity economy”. Political consultant Frank Luntz was unimpressed, tweeting: “Her answer was so vague that it was essentially worthless. Not a good start.”

Then again, when Trump was asked the same question about day one, he said he would be a dictator. So there’s that.

Harris was then asked about her policy reversals on fracking and the Green New Deal. She avoided a gaffe but gave an answer that bordered on a wonky word salad: “I have always believed – and I have worked on it – that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.”

She did better explaining a U-turn on decriminalising illegal border crossings, pointing out that she is the only person in the race who has prosecuted transnational criminal organisations who traffic in guns, drugs and human beings, then pivoting to accuse Trump of sinking border security legislation. “He killed the bill – a border security bill that would have put 1,500 more agents on the border.”

Policy is often a surrogate for values. Harris’s central message on her policy shifts: “My values have not changed.” Translation: you know and I know that some policies have to be tweaked, or made vague, if I want to win swing state voters.

Addressing a national audience, rather than a rally, Harris was also careful not to alienate the type of Republicans who supported Nikki Haley. She said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet if elected, though she did not have a particular name in mind. “I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion.”

When Bash asked her about Trump’s questioning of Harris’s racial identity, she could have unleashed a long and angry tirade about his history of racism. Instead she wisely chose the pithy response: “Same old tired playbook, next question please.”

Bash asked: “That’s it?” Harris confirmed: “That’s it.”

This might offer a clue as to her strategy for next month’s presidential debate: cut Trump down to size with a short sharp line, then move on to her own more optimistic, future-facing agenda. Call it the “Honey, I Shrunk the Trump” approach.

Much was made of the fact that Walz was involved in the interview. In the end, Harris got the lion’s share, with Walz looking down at the ground during the tougher moments. She seemed to watch him with a benign, proud smile.

But when Bash put it to Walz that he once said he carried weapons in war, even though he never deployed in a war zone, Walz parried: “Yeah … in this case, this was after a school shooting … and my wife, the English teacher, told me my grammar is not always correct.” It just felt like a dodge.

The interview ended with Bash asking about a photo of one of Harris’s young grandnieces watching as she delivered her address to the last week’s convention – and the historic nature of candidate. Harris seemed to think cautiously, as if wary of an identity politics trap.

“I am running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender,” she said. “But I did see that photograph, and I was deeply touched by it.”

Just like her convention speech, it was a far cry from the “I’m with her” chants of Hillary Clinton’s effort to smash the glass ceiling eight years ago. Harris is adopting a show, don’t tell approach. That left viewers not entirely clear how a Harris administration would differ from a Biden one. But they may also have no doubt that Harris and Walz would represent a return to the politics of normal.

Donald Trump has reposted a crudely misogynistic comment about Kamala Harris on Truth Social in a move that reprised his past record of sexist behaviour and brazenly flouted pleas from members of his own party to emphasize issues over personal attacks.

With fresh polls showing Harris further improving her standing – and widening the gap with her opponent among women voters – Trump drew online opprobrium by sharing a vulgar post on his social media site implying that the Democratic nominee owed her political rise to sexual favours.

The post – originally posted by another user – featured photos of Harris and Hillary Clinton alongside the comment: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…”

The comment was an oblique reference to innuendo surrounding Harris’s former relationship with Willie Brown, the San Francisco mayor. The mention of Clinton – Trump’s defeated opponent in the 2016 presidential election – alluded to the affair between Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern, and her husband Bill Clinton in the 1990s, which came close to ending his presidency.

It was not the first time Trump had made lewd references to Harris. On 18 August, he shared a video by the Dilley Meme Team, a group of rightwing content creators, to the soundtrack of a parody of the Alanis Morrisette song Ironic that contained the lines, “She spent her whole damn life down on her knees”, as an image of Brown appeared behind a picture of the US vice-president and her husband, Doug Emhoff.

But the latest post appeared among a flurry of other extreme posts on Wednesday that also included tributes to the QAnon conspiracy theory that holds that Trump is waging war against an elite network of Satan-worshipping pedophiles in government, business and the media.

He reposted: “WWG1WGA! RETRUTH IF YOU AGREE.” The acronym is short for the QAnon slogan: “where we go one, we go all.” He similarly reposted another QAnon phrase: “nothing can stop what is coming.”

The FBI has previously identified fringe theories like QAnon – which Trump has stopped short of endorsing while praising its supporters – as likely to fuel domestic terrorism.

In yet another incendiary communication, Trump posted manipulated images of some of his favourite targets – including the entrepreneur Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci, who spearheaded the US vaccine effort against Covid-19, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi – imprisoned and wearing orange jumpsuits.

The Harris campaign made no immediate response to Trump’s latest burst of social media activity, which followed disclosures of an altercation between his campaign team and staff at Arlington national cemetery, the resting place of fallen US military heroes, during a visit on Monday.

However, the CNN host Anderson Cooper – in a lengthy segment – said the posts took Trump’s previous campaigning to a “whole other level”.

“This is the Republican candidate for president and the 45th president of the United States, talking about two women who, no matter what you think of their politics, are two of the most accomplished women in American political history,” Cooper said.

Wednesday’s online outbursts came as a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Harris with a four-point nationwide lead, 45% to 41%, over Trump. Among women, the survey showed the vice-president increasing her lead to 13%, compared with an average of 9% in polls for July.

A separate Fox News survey showed Harris leading or increasing her support in four southern Sun belt states, all considered vital battlegrounds in November.

In a two-way race, Harris was up by one point in Arizona and by two points in Georgia and Nevada, while Trump is ahead by one point in North Carolina, according to the poll.

Beyond the polls, there was irritation among Republicans strategists who had previously urged Trump to desist from attacking Harris personally and focus on issues of concern to voters, such as the economy, inflation and immigration.

“I think people are incredibly frustrated,” Jason Roe, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican party, told the Washington Post.

He said Harris’s campaign and policy stances gave “opportunities for the Trump campaign to talk about issues that actually will matter to swing voters. And rather than doing that, he’s delving into this nonsense.”

Stuart Stevens, a member of the anti-Trump Republican group, the Lincoln Project, and a strategist for Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 presidential bid, challenged widespread predictions of a close election by suggesting that Trump’s approach would eventually alienate voters and enable Harris to win convincingly.

“There’s been a lot of talk – it’s sort of a universal truth – that this election is going to be close,” he told CNN. “I have a different opinion. I think it’ll be close till about October 20th, and then I think it’s going to be like Carter versus Reagan [in 1980, when Reagan won in a landslide], that the bottom is going to start to drop out [of Trump’s campaign].

“I think this is going to be a race that Democrats are going to win by more than Biden did,” he added.

Two journalists from the closed Hong Kong media outlet Stand News have been found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious materials – the first such convictions since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese control – after a trial that was closely observed as a bellwether for the city’s diminishing press freedom.

The former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam were arrested on 29 December 2021 after police raided the outlet’s newsroom.

Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, said the verdicts marked “a dark day for press freedom” in Hong Kong.

The court found 11 articles published by Stand News to be seditious, from the 17 that prosecutors had said sought to promote “illegal ideologies” and to incite hatred against the governments in Hong Kong and China and the 2020 national security law.

The parent company of Stand News, Best Pencil Ltd, was also found guilty. “The line [Stand News] took was to support and promote Hong Kong local autonomy,” the judgment said. “It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities [Beijing] and the [Hong Kong] SAR government.”

The district court judge Kwok Wai-kin said that in making a ruling on seditious intent, the court had considered “the potential danger to national security” and the actual situation at the time.

Stand News, launched in 2014, had been a significant source of news about the 2019 pro-democracy protests and the harsh crackdown by authorities. It became known for its livestreamed reports from the frontline of protests as police clashed with demonstrators.

Patten said: “The baseless allegations and verdict of this trial mark a further sinister turn for media freedom in Hong Kong, as it is clear that political commentary and opinion pieces may violate national security.”

Catherine West, the Foreign Office’s Minister for the Indo-Pacific, said on X: “The UK wants Hong Kong to succeed as a truly international city, with the free exchange of opinions and information. Hong Kong authorities should end politicised prosecutions of journalists”.

Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the US state department, said that the verdict “is a direct attack on media freedom and undermines Hong Kong’s once-proud international reputation for openness.”

Stand News faced criticism from authorities but was seen by the population as one of the most credible Hong Kong outlets in 2019, according to surveys.

As authorities clamped down on the pro-democracy movement, they also targeted outlets seen as supporting it, including Stand News and Apple Daily. In 2020 Beijing imposed the sweeping national security law (NSL), outlawing a swathe of vaguely defined acts of dissent.

In June 2021 police raided the Apple Daily offices and arrested several editors and executives and the paper’s founder, Jimmy Lai. Lai remains in jail on protest-related convictions and is on trial for NSL charges.

Six months later, authorities came for Stand News, raiding the newsroom and the home of its news editor, Ronson Chan, who led the Hong Kong journalists association. After the raid and arrests, the outlet was forced to shut down and remove all of its online content.

The raid on Stand News prompted the independent outlet Citizen News to announce within days that it would cease operations, citing the increasingly risky media environment.

The sedition law dates back to the British colonial era and had been little used until authorities began charging pro-democracy figures with its crimes after the 2019 protests. It was repealed in March after Hong Kong introduced its own domestic national security law.

Sarah Brooks, the China director for Amnesty International, called the verdicts “dismaying”.

Brooks said: “The journalists convicted today have committed no internationally recognised crime and their conviction should be quashed.”

In October 2022, Chung and Lam pleaded not guilty, Chung choosing to testify in court. He spent 36 of the trial’s 57 days in the witness box and defended Stand News and its commitment to press freedom.

“The media should not self-censor but report,” Chung said. “Freedom of speech should not be restricted on the grounds of eradicating dangerous ideas, but rather it should be used to eradicate dangerous ideas.”

The defence said Chung and Lam were legitimate journalists who covered the same stories as other Hong Kong outlets, and accused prosecutors of cherrypicking articles and introducing new evidence during the trial.

Closing arguments were delivered more than a year ago, and the verdict against Chung and Lam had been due in October but faced repeated delays, including courts wishing to wait for the outcome of a separate sedition case.

The pair now face up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about £485/US$640) for a first offence. They have the right to appeal against the ruling. Both men spent more than 300 days in pre-trial custody before being granted bail after the trial began. The judge granted the them bail until their sentencing, scheduled for 26 September.

Beh Lih Yi, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the use of the sedition law to target journalists “makes a mockery of justice”.

“Today’s oppressive ruling shows Hong Kong is descending further into authoritarianism, and that not toeing the official line can land anyone in jail,” Beh said.

In a separate case on Thursday, a Hong Kong jury convicted one person and acquitted six others over an alleged plan to detonate explosives and use firearms against police during a 2019 protest, in a landmark case under the UN anti-terrorism ordinance.

Lai Chun-pong, 30, was the only one found guilty. The prosecution alleged that the accused were members of a group known as the Dragon Slayers. The trial marked the first time the UN anti-terrorism measure was drawn upon in Hong Kong.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said they carried out an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza aimed at “armed assailants” trying to hijack it but the charity that organised the aid said people killed in the strike were employees of the transport company it was working with.

The convoy, organised by the US-based NGO Anera, was carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah on Thursday evening at the time of the attack. Its route had been coordinated in advance with the IDF, under a deconfliction process intended to prevent aid vehicles being bombed.

Anera’s Palestine country director, Sandra Rasheed, said: “This is a shocking incident. The convoy, which was coordinated by Anera and approved by Israeli authorities, included an Anera employee who was fortunately unharmed.

“Tragically, several individuals, all employed by the transportation company we work with, were killed in the attack. They were in the first vehicle of the convoy.”

Unconfirmed reports from Gaza said five people were killed in the airstrike.

An IDF statement confirmed the route had been coordinated, but claimed that “during the convoy’s movement, a number of armed assailants seized control of the vehicle in the front of the convoy (a Jeep) and began to lead it”.

It added: “After the takeover and further verification that a precise strike on the armed assailants’ vehicle can be carried out, a strike was conducted.

“No damage was caused to the other vehicles in the convoy and it reached its destination as planned. The strike on the armed assailants removed the threat of them seizing control over the humanitarian convoy.”

The IDF claimed it had contacted Anera after the incident and that the aid organisation had “verified that all of the convoy’s organisation members and humanitarian aid were safe and reached their destination as planned”.

Anera confirmed that the convoy did reach the hospital, but said only one person travelling in the convoy was an Anera employee. The rest worked for its partner transport company, which was not named.

“We are urgently seeking further details about what happened,” Rasheed said.

The airstrike on the convoy came hours after Israeli soldiers opened fire on a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle clearly marked with UN insignia, travelling in a convoy of two.

The WFP said the vehicle was hit by at least 10 bullets as it approached an IDF checkpoint at Wadi Gaza. The vehicle was armoured with reinforced glass and no one inside was injured, but the agency temporarily suspended movement of its staff around Gaza.

Cindy McCain, the head of the WFP, called the shooting “totally unacceptable”. “As last night’s events show, the current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer,” McCain said.

On 1 April, the IDF killed seven aid workers in a drone attack on a convoy run by the World Central Kitchen charity.

The IDF admitted to “grave errors” by its officers, firing two of them, and conceded that it had been informed of the planned convoy in advance but said the information had not been passed down to operational units.

An IDF investigation also claimed an officer thought he saw a gunman on the roof of a truck being escorted by the charity’s vehicles, while watching grainy surveillance footage. There was no evidence that any gunman was present.

The World Health Organization has announced it has “a preliminary commitment” from Israel and Hamas for humanitarian pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for the vaccination of children against polio, with the first vaccinations to begin as early as Sunday.

The UN is preparing to vaccinate an estimated 640,000 children in Gaza, where the UN’s global health body confirmed on 23 August that at least one baby has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The WHO’s announcement follows earlier indications by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who had suggested there could be a part suspension of military operations in Gaza to allow young children to be vaccinated against the disease.

Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s senior official for the Palestinian territories, said the agreement was for three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for a first round of vaccinations.

The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 6am and 3pm, he said. The campaign would start in central Gaza, then move to southern Gaza, followed by northern Gaza.

Peeperkorn added there was an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed. “From our experience, we know an additional day or two is very often needed to achieve sufficient coverage,” Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told the UN security council on Thursday during a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

A second round of vaccination would be required four weeks after the first round, said Peeperkorn. “At least 90% of coverage is needed during each round of the campaign in order to stop the outbreak and prevent international spread of polio,” Ryan said.

In a statement, Netanyahu’s office denied an Israeli television report that there would be a general truce during the vaccination campaign, which begins at the weekend, but said it had approved the “designation of specific places” in Gaza.

“This has been presented to the security cabinet and has received the support of the relevant professionals,” the statement said.

The terse statement may well have been deliberately vague. Far-right elements of the coalition are adamantly opposed to any form of truce or relief for Gaza’s Palestinian population, but aid agencies have made it clear that the polio outbreak, the first in Gaza for 25 years, would almost certainly spread to Israel if not contained immediately.

The Israeli media report said that a pause in operations was demanded by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, when he visited Israel last week.

More than 25,000 vials of vaccine, enough for more than 1m doses, have arrived in Gaza along with the equipment needed to keep them cool while they are being transported. But health experts have warned that it would be virtually impossible to carry out the vaccination drive successfully under bombardment.

To stop the spread of the disease, aid agencies must reach 90% of the estimated 640,000 children under the age of 10 in Gaza. That is already challenging as Palestinians have been subjected to an increasing number of evacuation orders by the Israeli military, crowding them into ever tighter, more remote spaces.

One possibility suggested by Netanyahu’s statement is that Israeli bombardment would be stopped in different areas of Gaza sequentially, to allow aid workers with the vaccines to move from one area to another.

The uncertainty over humanitarian pauses and evacuation orders made planning extremely difficult, said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN relief agency Unrwa.

“Plans are the bread and butter of any successful humanitarian operation. You have got to know how many people you are going to reach: where are they located? How are you going to reach them?” Touma said. “Planning is such an important element of the success of any operation, but in Gaza planning is almost nonexistent.”

Labour risks a serious rift in the UK’s special relationship with the US if it goes ahead with a ban on arms sales to Israel, Donald Trump’s last national security adviser has warned.

Robert O’Brien, still one of the key security voices in the Trump circle, said the UK was endangering its future role in the F-35 project as well as facing the risk of US congressional counter-embargos. The F-35 fighter jets are made in part by British arms firms and are used by Israel’s air force as part of its bombing of Gaza.

The Labour government has yet to decide whether to suspend licences for arms exports to Israel over concerns that international humanitarian law may have been breached in the war in Gaza.

Speaking to the Policy Exchange thinktank, O’Brien also urged the UK government to do everything it could to shut down the international criminal court’s (ICC) investigation of Israel, accusing the body – which is headed by a British prosecutor, Karim Khan – of being highly selective over which leaders it chose to prosecute.

It is the first public sign of the scale of potential tensions facing a Labour government if it pursues a human rights-based foreign policy with the US under a Trump administration.

O’Brien said if a UK arms embargo was imposed “there is a potential there for a serious rift, whether it is a Harris or Trump administration, between the UK and the US and I would tread very carefully”.

He added: “The F-35 is a joint project and it is going to continue to go to Israel no matter what Turkey, the UK or any other country has to do with it. You would hate to see a situation where the UK is no longer a partner in the F-35 project or other advanced platforms because of a very ill-advised arms embargo on Israel.

“The consequences of an arms embargo on Israel is something the UK really needs to think about at a time when Russia and China are posing a massive threat to the west.”

He added: “A lot of hi-tech on which the UK relies comes directly or indirectly via Israel.”

He said the US would not be imposing an arms embargo on Israel, adding any allies that did would risk real danger and may imperil their own supply chains as well the ability to sell arms products in the US, such as from the British firm BAE Systems. An arms embargo would certainly lead to congressional action to put a counter-embargo on any UK sales in the US.

O’Brien said: “It is an extraordinarily dangerous policy proposal and has the potential to tear open the special relationship and really hurt the western alliance and Nato.”

O’Brien described the ICC as “really an impediment to peace in the region”, condemning the court’s scrutiny of Israeli politicians including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

“For the ICC to go after Israeli leaders is a joke … The UK should take every step necessary to shut it down,” he said.

The UK has so far supported the ICC’s right to seek to prosecute Israeli and Hamas leaders. It has withdrawn its objection to the ICC having any legal status in relation to acts Israel stands accused of in the occupied territories, a move that implicitly accepts the ICC’s right to seek prosecutions.

The US has longstanding objections to the ICC, and has imposed US sanctions on its leaders.

The taekwondo fighter Zakia Khudadadi made history on Thursday at the Paris Paralympics, becoming the first-ever Refugee Paralympic Team medallist.

Khudadadi, who competed for Afghanistan at the Tokyo Games in 2021, won bronze in the women’s -47kg category. She defeated Turkey’s Ekinci Nurcihan in what was effectively a bronze medal match after the next scheduled opponent, Morocco’s Naoual Larrif, withdrew.

When the final buzzer sounded at the Grand Palais, Khudadadi erupted in joy, throwing her helmet and mouthpiece into the air. “It was a surreal moment, my heart started racing when I realised I had won the bronze,” Khudadadi said, her voice shaking with emotion.

“I went through so much to get here,” the 25-year-old added. “This medal is for all the women of Afghanistan and all the refugees of the world. I hope that one day there will be peace in my country.”

Khudadadi, who was born without one forearm, began practicing taekwondo in secret at the age of 11 in a hidden gym in her hometown of Herat, in western Afghanistan.

Originally blocked from competing following the return to power of the Taliban in 2021, she was later evacuated from Afghanistan after making a desperate appeal on video. Khudadadi was allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics for her country following a plea from the international community.

After the competition, she settled in Paris and was later offered the opportunity to compete with the Refugee Team at the 2024 Paralympics, being held in her adopted home city. On Thursday, the Grand Palais crowd cheered her on as if she were one of their own.

Since fleeing Afghanistan, Khudadadi has been training at Insep, France’s national institute of sport, in Paris with her French coach Haby Niare, who is a former taekwondo world champion.

“This medal means everything to me, I will never forget that day,” Khudadadi said. “I won because of the great support I got from the crowd.”

“Zakia has been magical. I don’t know how else to put it,” Niare said, beaming with pride. “The training process has been challenging. She faced a lot of injuries and she had to learn a lot in a couple of years but she never lost sight of her goal.”

Khudadadi received her medal from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and Andrew Parsons, the president of the International Paralympic Committee.

“For the Refugee Paralympic Team, it’s super special, it’s super important,” Parsons said. “Zakia just showed to the world how good she is. It’s an incredible journey, it’s something that we should all learn about.”

Before the Games began this week, Khudadadi spoke of her pride at representing refugees. “I am really happy and ready to represent the refugee team because I am a refugee in France,” she said. “I hope we can all get a medal to show how proud we are.”

“We need to make people understand that refugees have a right to asylum, that they had to flee their countries because of the situation they were in,” she added. “We need to make people understand the reality of what refugees are going through.”

The taekwondo fighter Zakia Khudadadi made history on Thursday at the Paris Paralympics, becoming the first-ever Refugee Paralympic Team medallist.

Khudadadi, who competed for Afghanistan at the Tokyo Games in 2021, won bronze in the women’s -47kg category. She defeated Turkey’s Ekinci Nurcihan in what was effectively a bronze medal match after the next scheduled opponent, Morocco’s Naoual Larrif, withdrew.

When the final buzzer sounded at the Grand Palais, Khudadadi erupted in joy, throwing her helmet and mouthpiece into the air. “It was a surreal moment, my heart started racing when I realised I had won the bronze,” Khudadadi said, her voice shaking with emotion.

“I went through so much to get here,” the 25-year-old added. “This medal is for all the women of Afghanistan and all the refugees of the world. I hope that one day there will be peace in my country.”

Khudadadi, who was born without one forearm, began practicing taekwondo in secret at the age of 11 in a hidden gym in her hometown of Herat, in western Afghanistan.

Originally blocked from competing following the return to power of the Taliban in 2021, she was later evacuated from Afghanistan after making a desperate appeal on video. Khudadadi was allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics for her country following a plea from the international community.

After the competition, she settled in Paris and was later offered the opportunity to compete with the Refugee Team at the 2024 Paralympics, being held in her adopted home city. On Thursday, the Grand Palais crowd cheered her on as if she were one of their own.

Since fleeing Afghanistan, Khudadadi has been training at Insep, France’s national institute of sport, in Paris with her French coach Haby Niare, who is a former taekwondo world champion.

“This medal means everything to me, I will never forget that day,” Khudadadi said. “I won because of the great support I got from the crowd.”

“Zakia has been magical. I don’t know how else to put it,” Niare said, beaming with pride. “The training process has been challenging. She faced a lot of injuries and she had to learn a lot in a couple of years but she never lost sight of her goal.”

Khudadadi received her medal from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and Andrew Parsons, the president of the International Paralympic Committee.

“For the Refugee Paralympic Team, it’s super special, it’s super important,” Parsons said. “Zakia just showed to the world how good she is. It’s an incredible journey, it’s something that we should all learn about.”

Before the Games began this week, Khudadadi spoke of her pride at representing refugees. “I am really happy and ready to represent the refugee team because I am a refugee in France,” she said. “I hope we can all get a medal to show how proud we are.”

“We need to make people understand that refugees have a right to asylum, that they had to flee their countries because of the situation they were in,” she added. “We need to make people understand the reality of what refugees are going through.”

• One of the F-16 warplanes that Ukraine received from its western partners to help fight Russia’s invasion has crashed, killing the pilot, Ukraine’s Army General Staff said on Thursday. The fighter jet went down on Monday during a major Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine, a military statement posted on Facebook said. Four of those Russian missiles were shot down by F-16s, the statement said.

• The crash was the first reported loss of an F-16 in Ukraine, after they arrived at the end of last month. At least six of the warplanes are believed to have been delivered. The defence ministry has opened an investigation into the crash. The Ukrainian air force in a Facebook post identified the pilot as Col. Alexei “Moonfish” Mes, who “saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles, unfortunately, at the cost of your own life.”

• A US defence official told Reuters that Monday’s crash did not appear to be the result of Russian fire, and possible causes from pilot error to mechanical failure were still being investigated.

• The EU’s top diplomat on Thursday ramped up pressure on Ukraine’s international backers to lift restrictions on the use of weapons they provide to allow its armed forces to strike targets inside Russia. “The weaponry that we are providing to Ukraine has to have full use, and the restrictions have to be lifted in order for the Ukrainians to be able to target the places where Russia is bombing them. Otherwise, the weaponry is useless,” Josep Borrell told reporters as the bloc’s foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Thursday he had spent several days on the eastern Pokrovsk front and described fighting there as “exceptionally tough”. Russia has been pressing hard towards the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in recent months, steadily inching forward. “Fights are exceptionally tough. The enemy throws into battle everything that can move and advance, trying to break through our defences,” commander Syrskyi said on Facebook. He said the most intense clashes were taking place in the area of Krasnyi Yar, 10 km (6.2 miles) from the city of Pokrovsk.

• Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it had attacked an artillery depot and two oil storage facilities in Russia, causing a fire on Wednesday at the Atlas oil depot in the southern Rostov region. The military said it had also attacked the Zenit oil facility in Russia’s Kirov region, 1,500 km (930 miles) north-east of the border with Ukraine. A field artillery depot in the Russian region of Voronezh was also attacked, it added in the same message on the Telegram app.

• IAEA director general Rafael Grossi will travel to Ukraine next week to hold high-level talks and assess developments at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the IAEA said on Thursday. The UN’s nuclear watchdog warned earlier this month that the safety situation at the plant was “deteriorating” after a nearby drone strike.

• A military court in Moscow placed Pavel Popov, a former deputy defence minister, in detention on Thursday on suspicion of fraud in the latest of a string of corruption probes of officials tied to ex-defence minister Sergei Shoigu.
  The case against Popov, who has served in his role since 2013, is the third investigation into a senior defence official relating to the construction of a military theme park near Moscow. The court ordered Popov detained until 29 October, Russian media said. He denies guilt, his lawyer told the Ria state news agency.

• At least one person died and six sustained injuries during Russian shelling of the eastern Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka on Thursday, the local governor said. Kostiantynivka, which is miles away from the frontline, is one of the most affected cities in the region, Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. “It comes under enemy fire almost every day,” he said.

• One person has been killed and two injured in strikes on Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, the regional governor said Thursday. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that “the town of Shebekino was targeted by Ukrainian forces” and “unfortunately, one person was killed”.

US army officials issued a strongly worded rebuke of Donald Trump’s campaign on Thursday as they confirmed a worker at Arlington national cemetery was “abruptly pushed aside” during an altercation with members of the former president’s staff.

The statement was the strongest official criticism yet of Trump’s controversial visit in which he gave a thumbs-up over graves as a photo opportunity and there was an alleged physical assault by two of his staffers on the army official. It came as outrage continued to mount from veterans and families of some of the service members buried there.

Adding to pressure on the election campaign of the Republican presidential nominee was the army’s revelation that Trump’s team was explicitly told in advance by a defense department official that taking photographs and video footage at the cemetery breached federal law.

The campaign ignored the warning and filmed anyway, sparking a confrontation, during the visit on Monday that one Democrat called “abhorrent and shameful”. And on Thursday the Trump campaign continued to aggressively insult the unnamed cemetery staff member caught up in the altercation, who was shoved when trying to enforce rules, after learning she had declined to press charges for fear of retribution from Trump’s supporters.

“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and [defense department] policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside,” the army statement said.

“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”

Steven Cheung, the former president’s communication director, said the employee was experiencing something he termed “Trump derangement syndrome”. A day earlier he claimed the person was mentally ill, while Chris LaCivita, Trump’s senior adviser, called the employee “despicable”.

The ramping up of rhetoric by the Trump campaign was widely seen as an effort to deflect from growing condemnation of the candidate’s efforts to seize political capital by staging a photo opportunity at the Virginia cemetery on the third anniversary of a suicide bomb attack outside Kabul airport in Afghanistan that killed 13 US servicemen and women.

According to reports, the Arlington employee was “pushed and verbally abused” by two Trump campaign staffers after trying to prevent them entering the cemetery’s heavily restricted section 60, where recent US casualties, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, are buried.

Federal law “prohibits political campaign or election-related activities” within military cemeteries, Arlington officials said in a statement, noting that a report of the incident was filed with military authorities.

But Trump, who has blamed Joe Biden as well as Kamala Harris, his opponent in November’s election, for the US military’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, posted to social media on Wednesday footage of himself laying a wreath and talking with the family of one of the deceased veterans at his grave.

At a Michigan campaign event on Thursday, Trump defended his visit and accused the media of creating a scandal.

Trump said that he was invited to Arlington by the family of some of the 13 US servicemen and women killed in a suicide bomb attack ahead of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“I spent a lot of time there. And while I was there, those families that asked me to be there … they said, ’Could you take pictures over the grave of my son, my sister, my brother? Would you take pictures with us, sir?’” Trump said. “I did. And then I said, farewell. I said, goodbye, and last night I read that I was using the site to politic, that I used it to politic. This all comes out of Washington.”

“They ask me to have a picture. And they say, I was campaigning. The one thing I get is plenty of publicity. I don’t need that. I don’t need the publicity.”

The fallout from the episode was gathering pace on Thursday after the family of a fallen special forces Green Beret soldier reportedly said footage of his adjacent grave was taken without their permission, and politicians and other military families stepped up to offer condemnation.

“According to our conversation with Arlington national cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant [Darin] Hoover’s gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave,” Michele Marckesano, sister of Master Sgt Andrew Marckesano, who died in 2020, told the New York Times.

“We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly.”

Khizr Khan, father of the 27-year-old army captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 and is buried in section 60, questioned why Trump made the visit.

Khan, who has previously criticized the former president for calling deceased veterans “suckers” and “losers”, told the Daily Beast: “He has proven his disrespect. Somebody needs to ask him, ‘You have shown that contempt multiple times and yet again, you go there.’”

Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democratic congressman, said: “It’s sad but all too expected that Donald Trump would desecrate this hallowed ground and put campaign politics ahead of honoring our heroes.

“His behavior and that of his campaign is abhorrent and shameful. I urge Arlington cemetery to publicly release all that transpired so the American people can ensure the ground in which our nation’s heroes are buried is not being debased by a man who has no concept of service and sacrifice,” he added in a statement.

Cheung said on Wednesday that the campaign had footage of the Arlington altercation that it was willing to release, but by Thursday morning it had not done so.

JD Vance, the Ohio senator and Republican vice-presidential candidate, attempted to defend his running mate on Wednesday during a campaign stop in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Harris, he said during a speech critical of Biden and the vice-president’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, “can go to hell”, insisting falsely that Trump had not “filmed a TV commercial at a grave site”.

• Michael Sainato and the Associated Press contributed reporting

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said its members have given up hope of Nicolás Maduro producing evidence that he won Venezuela’s election and will not accept his legitimacy as president-elect.

Addressing reporters after EU foreign ministers held a video call with Edmundo González, the former diplomat widely believed to have beaten Maduro in the 28 July vote, Borrell announced: “The European Council decided that Maduro has no democratic legitimacy as president.”

Maduro has refused to publish detailed election voting tallies supporting his claim to victory – something that has nearly always been done since Venezuela’s electronic voting system was introduced by his mentor, Hugo Chávez, in 2004.

“As there are no tallies and there is no verification, and we fear that there will never be any, we cannot accept Maduro’s legitimacy as Venezuela’s president-elect,” Borrell told journalists after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

“He will remain president de facto,” Borrell said, “but we deny democratic legitimacy based on the results that cannot be verified.”

The EU’s stance stopped short of recognising González as president-elect or the official winner of the election. But Borrell said he believed voting data published by Venezuela’s opposition showed the opposition candidate “got strong support … much bigger support than the one got by Maduro”.

Tensions continued to rise in Venezuela on Thursday, with González’s main backer, the opposition leader María Corina Machado, claiming she feared González’s home would be raided by security forces in the coming hours.

A prominent opposition politician, Biagio Pilieri, and his son were reportedly seized by secret police after leaving an opposition rally on Wednesday afternoon. The previous day one of Machado’s closest confidants, the lawyer and opposition spokesperson Perkins Rocha, was also allegedly taken.

“Dad, I love you and I hope we see each other again soon … in a free Venezuela,” Rocha’s son, Santiago, said in a video message to his father, whose whereabouts remains unknown.

Pilieri and Rocha are among more than 1,600 people who human rights activists say have been arrested as part of a post-election crackdown designed to extinguish the latest in a series of opposition challenges to Maduro’s 11-year rule.

Borrell said the EU called on Maduro’s government to “put an end to the repression and respect the dignity, freedom and rights of the opposition, starting with Edmundo González, María Corina Machado, all opposition members, civil society and journalists”.

“Political prisoners have to be freed,” he added.

However, many expect the repression to intensify after Maduro made one of his political movement’s most hard-line figures, Diosdado Cabello, interior minister this week. That position gives the 61-year-old former soldier control of the Bolivarian national police force and the national intelligence service, Sebin.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said its members have given up hope of Nicolás Maduro producing evidence that he won Venezuela’s election and will not accept his legitimacy as president-elect.

Addressing reporters after EU foreign ministers held a video call with Edmundo González, the former diplomat widely believed to have beaten Maduro in the 28 July vote, Borrell announced: “The European Council decided that Maduro has no democratic legitimacy as president.”

Maduro has refused to publish detailed election voting tallies supporting his claim to victory – something that has nearly always been done since Venezuela’s electronic voting system was introduced by his mentor, Hugo Chávez, in 2004.

“As there are no tallies and there is no verification, and we fear that there will never be any, we cannot accept Maduro’s legitimacy as Venezuela’s president-elect,” Borrell told journalists after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

“He will remain president de facto,” Borrell said, “but we deny democratic legitimacy based on the results that cannot be verified.”

The EU’s stance stopped short of recognising González as president-elect or the official winner of the election. But Borrell said he believed voting data published by Venezuela’s opposition showed the opposition candidate “got strong support … much bigger support than the one got by Maduro”.

Tensions continued to rise in Venezuela on Thursday, with González’s main backer, the opposition leader María Corina Machado, claiming she feared González’s home would be raided by security forces in the coming hours.

A prominent opposition politician, Biagio Pilieri, and his son were reportedly seized by secret police after leaving an opposition rally on Wednesday afternoon. The previous day one of Machado’s closest confidants, the lawyer and opposition spokesperson Perkins Rocha, was also allegedly taken.

“Dad, I love you and I hope we see each other again soon … in a free Venezuela,” Rocha’s son, Santiago, said in a video message to his father, whose whereabouts remains unknown.

Pilieri and Rocha are among more than 1,600 people who human rights activists say have been arrested as part of a post-election crackdown designed to extinguish the latest in a series of opposition challenges to Maduro’s 11-year rule.

Borrell said the EU called on Maduro’s government to “put an end to the repression and respect the dignity, freedom and rights of the opposition, starting with Edmundo González, María Corina Machado, all opposition members, civil society and journalists”.

“Political prisoners have to be freed,” he added.

However, many expect the repression to intensify after Maduro made one of his political movement’s most hard-line figures, Diosdado Cabello, interior minister this week. That position gives the 61-year-old former soldier control of the Bolivarian national police force and the national intelligence service, Sebin.

Officials in Arizona are investigating the death of a Wells Fargo employee who scanned into her office on a Friday morning and was found dead at her desk four days later.

According to local outlets, authorities said 60-year-old Denise Prudhomme entered her Wells Fargo office building located on the 1100 block of West Washington Street in Tempe, Arizona, at 7am on 16 August.

On 20 August, building security called officials regarding a “subject down”, AZ Family reports. Speaking anonymously to 12News, an employee said that a colleague found Prudhomme dead at her cubicle while walking around the building.

Upon arrival at the scene, officials pronounced Prudhomme dead at 4.55pm, local outlets report, citing Tempe police. 12News reports that Prudhomme’s cubicle was located on the third floor and away from the main aisle.

The employee who spoke to 12News added that multiple people complained of a foul odor but assumed it was due to plumbing problems.

Another employee told the outlet: “It’s really heartbreaking and I’m thinking, ‘What if I were just sitting there? No one would check on me?’” The employee went on to add: “To hear she’s been sitting at the desk like that would make me feel sick … and nobody did anything. That’s how she spent her last moments.”

Meanwhile, in a statement to 12News, a Wells Fargo spokesperson said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague at our Tempe office. Our thoughts and prayers are with their family and loved ones during this difficult time. Counselors, through our employee assistance consulting service, are available to support our employees. We are fully cooperating with the Tempe police department in their investigation and will direct all further questions to them.”

According to police, the initial investigation did not point to any foul play. The Tempe police criminal investigations bureau is currently working alongside the Maricopa county medical examiner to determine Prudhomme’s cause of death.

James Cleverly has been accused of increasing the asylum backlog in the spring of this year by “dithering” over key decisions.

Ministers under the then home secretary refused to give caseworkers permission to tackle outstanding cases covered by the Illegal Migration Act, departmental sources and the UK’s biggest civil service union have told the Guardian.

A leaked email from May indicates that senior staff overseeing asylum caseworkers were waiting for “key decisions to be made in the coming weeks” and diverting staff to other tasks.

The number of asylum decisions fell dramatically in the weeks before the July general election, data released last week showed. Between March and June this year, the Home Office made decisions on 15,965 applications, down from 24,348 in the first three months. Only 1,150 asylum interviews took place in June, down from more than 8,000 last October, according to the data.

Fran Heathcote, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents asylum caseworkers, said: “We’re aware of the slowdown in asylum decisions between March and June but this in no way reflects a lack of effort or performance from our members.

“Instead many of our members were diverted on to other workstreams whilst the Illegal Migration Act prevented decisions being made on asylum claims made since March 2023 and the previous government dithered on making the decisions required to unlock these.

“Our members tell us that processing of claims has started to ramp up again since replacement arrangements were introduced in the king’s speech.”

The Illegal Migration Act was introduced on 7 March 2023 and meant that most asylum claims made by people arriving irregularly after that date could not be processed. The act was supposed to be used in conjunction with plans for mass deportations to Rwanda.

Critics claim that because the Rwanda plan was halted by legal challenges, the act led to a growing “perma-backlog” of people trapped in limbo.

Asylum caseworkers had already had considerable success in clearing the so-called “legacy backlog” of cases from before 28 June 2022, when the Nationality and Borders Act came into force.

Home Office insiders said the department during the spring could have processed many asylum claims that had been made between 7 March and 19 July 2023 using powers under section 30(4) of the Illegal Migration Act to grant temporary leave to remain to those who receive positive decisions. However, ministers did not grant such permission.

A leaked Home Office memo sent in May from a senior asylum and human rights operations civil servant said staff were being diverted to other work while awaiting a decision. “As you know we successfully delivered the legacy backlog clearance in December 2023 and now, building on our track record excellence we have completed NABA [Nationality and Borders Act] 1A delivery,” the senior civil servant wrote.

“In terms of next steps, there are some key decisions to be made in the coming weeks on a range of issues related to our work and as soon as our plans are clear I will share this with you. In the meantime, we are rebalancing some of our asylum resource – and as you know in particular we are focusing our resource on our fee waiver and human rights routes within AHRO [asylum and human rights operations],” the senior civil servant wrote.

Overall, 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on asylum applications in the UK at the end of June, up slightly from the 118,329 in March.

Critics have identified the backlog as one of the biggest problems within the UK’s faltering asylum system. Hotels housing claimants awaiting decisions cost the taxpayer £8m a day, according to the Home Office, and were the focus of far-right protests and arson attacks during this summer’s riots.

About three-quarters of all claimants are eventually recognised as refugees, but cannot work and must claim benefits while they wait for a decision.

Responding to the PCS’s claims, Cleverly said: “The legacy asylum backlog was cleared when I was home secretary. We doubled caseworkers and productivity increased, with four times as many decisions to June 2024 as in the previous year. As a result [the number of] those awaiting an initial decision was cut by over a third and we returned 150 asylum hotels to commercial use.”

A source close to the Conservative leadership candidate dismissed the criticisms, saying: “Conservative ministers were asked to wave 100,000 people into our asylum system by way of an amnesty. They didn’t do it, but Labour did.”

The number of people who have crossed the Channel in small boats has passed 20,000 for the year so far. The Home Office said 614 people were brought ashore in Dover on Wednesday, bringing the annual total for 2024 to 20,433. The figure is up 3% on this time last year, but down 18% on 2022.

The red dwarf honeybee has established a colony in Europe for the first time, scientists have found.

The bee, Apis florea, is native to Asia and its discovery has raised alarm among local beekeepers and conservationists, who fear the potentially devastating impact on native bee populations.

“It is concerning that Apis florea has been found in Malta,” said Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex, who was not involved in the research. “Apis florea is likely to compete for pollen and nectar with our native pollinators, a group of insects that are already in decline. It is also very likely that these bees will be carrying multiple diseases which European bees may have little resistance to.”

Previous reports show the red dwarf species has slowly expanded its territory from Asia to the Middle East and north-east Africa, but until now it had never been reported in Europe.

“If it is in Malta, this is the first occurrence of a honeybee in Europe that is not the western hive bee, Apis mellifera,” Francis Ratnieks, a British entomologist and emeritus professor of apiculture at the University of Sussex, who was not involved in the research, said.

When the colony, consisting of more than 2,000 adult bees, was discovered encircling a tree branch, DNA testing was done to identify the species. As soon as the species was identified as Apis florea it was removed and destroyed. But the researchers, who wrote in the Journal of Apicultural Research, suspect a group of bees had already left the hive to start a new colony.

The proximity of the colony to Birżebbuġa freeport, Malta’s major cargo hub, suggests the bees may have arrived via a commercial vessel.

“This is one of the main (and faster) routes through which different subspecies of Apis mellifera, as well as other bee, wasp and other flying insect species can move from their native ranges to more remote locations,” said Juliana Rangel, a professor of apiculture at Texas A&M University, who was not involved in the research.

Rangel said this new finding was yet another example of increasing temperatures due to the climate crisis driving the spread of species to previously unoccupied territories.

The researchers believe the mild winters in Malta and other southern European countries favour the survival of this invasive species. The red dwarf honeybee is also found in Israel.

“If it can live in Israel, I dare say it can do fine in Malta,” said Ratnieks.

It could be “a matter of just a few years” for this species to spread to another location, Rangel said. “Given the large number of islands in the Mediterranean that are relatively near each other, and the fact that the continental land is also so nearby, it is very plausible that more of these incursions will occur in the future, threatening our biodiversity in ways that we may not even yet understand.

“The only thing that we can do is to be vigilant, report any sightings of specimens or swarms that appear different or new, remove the specimens as soon as they are positively identified, search the vicinity for other specimens, and continue with monitoring efforts, especially in ports of entry where swarms can be travelling on ships.”

New Zealand was in mourning on Friday after Māori King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII died peacefully, aged 69.

Coming months after he issued a rare royal proclamation for Māori to urgently rally in unity against crown policies, the death of Kiingi Tuheitia landed heavily on the hearts of Māori and many New Zealanders, who credit him for reigniting hope in a tumultuous time for indigenous rights.

“The death of Kiingi Tuheitia is a moment of great sadness for followers of Te Kiingitanga, Māoridom and the entire nation,” spokesperson Rahui Papa said on social media. He added the King had been in hospital recovering from heart surgery just days after celebrating the 18th anniversary of his coronation.

Flags around New Zealand flew at half-mast and in the small town of Ngaruawahia – the seat of the Māori king movement – local mourners began to pay their respects as Kiingi Tuheitia’s body arrived in preparation for his five day tangihanga (funeral), expected to be attended by tens of thousands.

At his last public appearance, Kiingi Tuheitia urged all New Zealanders to adopt Māori customs and warned against changing the country’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi.

“Are you listening, Wellington? There is a better way,” he said.

Following the election of New Zealand’s right-wing government in late 2023 and the announcement of proposed policies considered by many to be a rollback of Māori rights, Kiingi Tuheitea called a series of nationwide meetings to protest these and proposed changes to the principles of the Treaty.

“He has been the beacon of hope for Māori around this country as we sought to unite ourselves in the face of an adversarial government,” said the chair of Waikato-Tainui iwi’s executive arm, Tukoroirangi Morgan.

“He was quiet, he was a man of few words but when he spoke it was meaningful, it touched people, disenchanted as we were. It is a hugely despairing day, he’s left a huge vacuum,” Morgan said.

Tributes from local and international leaders highlighted his leadership and said Kiingi Tuheitia brought people together around a common goal: improving Māori lives.

Prime minister Christopher Luxon, in Tonga for the Pacific Islands Forum, told Radio New Zealand Kiingi Tuheitia had left a “fantastic legacy”.

“He had a great sense of humour, and he just had a lightness about him that I think was appreciated … he navigated some challenging times and obviously challenging issues, but he was somebody who tried to pull everyone together – Māori and non-Māori.”

King Charles said in a statement he was “profoundly saddened,” saying he had known Kiingi Tuheitia for decades.

“He was deeply committed to forging a strong future for Māori and Aotearoa New Zealand founded upon culture, traditions and healing, which he carried out with wisdom and compassion.”

Tongan prime minister Hu’akavemeiliku Siaosi Sovaleni told Radio New Zealand he was a “great leader of the Pacific”.

In New Zealand, president of the Māori Party John Tamihere said in a statement: “The Kiingitanga, in our people’s darkest moments, gave our people hope.”

The Kiingitanga was founded in 1858 as a force to resist colonisation and try to preserve Māori culture and land. It has no legal mandate and while the monarch role is largely ceremonial, it is also considered to be the paramount chief of several tribes and is recognised for this power. The new leader will be appointed by heads of tribes associated with the King Movement on the day of Kiingi Tuheitia’s funeral but before he is buried, according to Radio New Zealand.

Described in a Radio New Zealand obituary as “unpretentious,” Kiingi Tuheitia, a former construction worker, ascended to the throne in 2006 with the death of his mother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.He was known as a fierce advocate for Māori wellbeing and rights during his 18-year reign, including working to reduce Māori incarceration rates and towards whale conservation in the Pacific.

In January, in a quote often since repeated on social media and on the airwaves he said: “The best protest we can do right now is: be Māori. Be who we are, live our values, speak our reo, care for our mokopuna [grandchildren], our awa (rivers), our maunga (mountains), just be Māori. We need to be united first, and then we decide our future.”

With agencies