Israel has ordered more evacuations in southern Lebanon and threatened to target ambulances, as a third UN peacekeeper was wounded in Israel’s escalating conflict with Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Israel’s military on Saturday ordered residents of 23 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows from the western Bekaa valley into the Mediterranean.

The order, communicated via a military statement, mentioned villages in southern Lebanon that have been recent targets of Israeli attacks, many of which are already almost empty.

The Israeli military also claimed on Saturday, without providing any evidence, that Hezbollah militants were using ambulances to transport themselves and weapons and called on medical teams to “avoid dealing with Hezbollah operatives and not to cooperate with them”.

In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson threatened that it would target “any vehicle carrying armed men, regardless of its type.”

The Lebanese health ministry said on X on Saturday that five hospitals had sustained damage from the Israeli airstrikes in the eastern city of Baalbek and the Bekaa valley. The Israeli military had no immediate comment, and it was not possible to independently verify the hospital strikes.

The Guardian has previously reported that at least 50 paramedics have been killed since Israel launched its most recent attacks on Lebanon. All have belonged to healthcare services affiliated with either Hezbollah or Amal, another Shia political party – affiliations which rights experts say does not affect their protected status under international law.

The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) last week was forced to close its clinic in a southern suburb of Beirut and temporarily stop its activities in another one in the north, because of heavy airstrikes, the group said in a statement on Thursday.

A UN report last week accused Israel of pursuing a concerted policy of destroying Gaza’s healthcare system in the war in the strip including “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities”, saying this constituted war crimes and extermination as a crime against humanity.

Israel, which accuses the UN of institutional bias against it and claims Hamas hides in healthcare facilities, rejected the findings.

At least 15 people were killed and 37 wounded in Israeli strikes across three different areas in Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said on Saturday. One of the targeted locations was in the town of Deir Billa in northern Lebanon, which had not been struck before.

Nine people were killed and 15 injured in the village of Maaysra, a mostly Christian mountain area north of Beirut, while four were killed and 18 injured in Barja in the Shouf district south of the capital, the ministry said.

In Deir Billa, the ministry reported two dead, four wounded and “body parts” in a Israeli strike on Deir Billa. DNA tests were being carried out to determine the identity of the remains, the statement added.

The official National News Agency (NNA) had said an “Israeli strike” targeted a house in Deir Billa where families from south Lebanon had taken refuge.

The Israeli military meanwhile said Hezbollah had fired nearly 320 projectiles from Lebanon into Israel on Saturday, without giving further details. It declared areas around some towns in north Israel closed to the public.

Another member of Unifil, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, was meanwhile struck by gunfire on Friday, the organisation said on Saturday, adding that the man was stable after undergoing surgery to remove the bullet.

The statement also said Unifil’s position in the southern Lebanese town of Ramyah sustained significant damage due to explosions following nearby shelling, but did not specify who was responsible for either attack.

A total of four UN peacekeepers were injured on Thursday and Friday when the Israeli military fired on the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, drawing condemnations from the global body and various countries. Unifil has accused Israel of deliberately targeting its positions.

A group of 40 countries participating in the Unifil mission issued a joint statement on Saturday condemning the recent attacks on the peacekeepers’ base and calling for all parties to ensure their safety.

“Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated,” said the joint statement, posted on X by the Polish UN mission and signed by nations including leading contributors Indonesia, Italy and India.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, in a call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Saturday, expressed “deep concern” about reports that Israeli forces had fired on UN peacekeeping positions in Lebanon in recent days and urged Israel to ensure safety for them and the Lebanese military, the Pentagon said.

Austin also “reinforced the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway as soon as feasible,” according to the Pentagon statement.

Hezbollah said that it had attacked the outskirts of Tel Aviv with a swarm of drones on Friday, without giving further details. Israel said there were no casualties reported when its military detected and intercepted two drones from Lebanon.

The Israeli military claimed it had hit about 200 targets in Lebanon with artillery and airstrikes and killed about 50 Hezbollah fighters and dismantled dozens of weapons storage sites.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas, at the start of the Gaza war.

It has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa valley, killing many of Hezbollah’s top leaders, and sending ground troops across the border.

Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.

The Israeli campaign has forced approximately 1.2 million people from their homes since 23 September, according to the Lebanese government.

Israel says its Lebanon offensive aims to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people who evacuated northern Israel due to Hezbollah rocket fire.

As of Friday the death toll had reached 2,255 since the beginning of hostilities, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Saturday that more Lebanese have now been displaced than during the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, when approximately 1 million fled their homes.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Russia and China blocked a proposed consensus statement for the East Asia Summit drafted by south-east Asian countries, mainly over objections to language on the contested South China Sea, a US official said on Saturday.

A draft statement arrived at by consensus by the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations was put to the 18-nation East Asia Summit meeting in Laos on Thursday evening, the official said.

“Asean presented this final draft and said that, essentially, this was a take-it-or-leave-it draft,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The United States, Japan, Australia, South Korea and India all said they could support it, the official said, adding: “The Russians and the Chinese said that they could not and would not proceed with a statement.”

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told a news conference in Vientiane on Friday the final declaration had not been adopted because of “persistent attempts by the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to turn it into a purely political statement”.

China’s Washington embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US official said there were a couple of issues of contention, but the key one was how it referred to the UN convention on the law of the sea (Unclos), going further than in the previous 2023 EAS statement.

However, the official said, “there was certainly no language that was getting into the nitty gritty of any particular standoff, no language that was favouring any claimant over any other”.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea and has stepped up pressure on rival claimants, including several Asean countries, notably the Philippines. Asean has spent years negotiating a code of conduct with Beijing for the strategic waterway, with some Asean states insisting it be based on Unclos.

China says it backs a code, but does not recognise a 2016 arbitral ruling that said its claim to most of the South China Sea had no basis under Unclos, to which Beijing is a signatory.

According to a draft seen by Reuters, the proposed EAS statement contained an extra sub-clause over the 2023 approved statement, and this was not agreed to. It noted a 2023 UN resolution saying that Unclos “sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out”.

Another sub-clause not agreed said the international environment, including “in the South China Sea, the Korean Peninsula, Myanmar, Ukraine and the Middle East … present challenges for the region”.

The Chinese premier, Li Qiang, told the summit Beijing was committed to Unclos and striving for an early conclusion of a code of conduct, while stressing its claims have solid historical and legal grounds.

“Relevant countries outside the region should respect and support the joint efforts of China and regional countries to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, and truly play a constructive role for peace and stability in the region,” he said.

Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who led Scotland to the brink of independence, has died at the age of 69.

Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007. He stood down from the role after failing to secure independence in the 2014 referendum, handing over to his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon.

Reports suggested that he collapsed after delivering a speech in North Macedonia on Saturday.

Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney, said he was “deeply shocked and saddened”.

“Alex worked tirelessly and fought fearlessly for the country that he loved and for her independence. He took the Scottish National party from the fringes of Scottish politics into government and led Scotland so close to becoming an independent country.”

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said Salmond had been a “monumental figure” for more than 30 years.

“He leaves behind a lasting legacy,” he said. “As first minister of Scotland he cared deeply about Scotland’s heritage, history and culture, as well as the communities he represented as MP and MSP over many years of service.

“My thoughts are with those who knew him, his family and his loved ones. On behalf of the UK government, I offer them our condolences today.”

Sturgeon said: “I am shocked and sorry to learn of Alex Salmond’s death.

“Obviously, I cannot pretend that the events of the past few years which led to the breakdown of our relationship did not happen, and it would not be right for me to try.

“However, it remains the fact that for many years Alex was an incredibly significant figure in my life. He was my mentor, and for more than a decade we formed one of the most successful partnerships in UK politics.

“Alex modernised the SNP and led us into government for the first time, becoming Scotland’s fourth first minister and paving the way for the 2014 referendum which took Scotland to the brink of independence.

“He will be remembered for all of that. My thoughts are with Moira, his wider family and his friends.”

The former SNP leader and former first minister Humza Yousaf said Salmond had “helped to transform the SNP into the dominant political force it is today.

“Alex and I obviously had our differences in the last few years, but there’s no doubt about the enormous contribution he made to Scottish and UK politics.”

Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour, said the “sad news of Alex Salmond’s passing today will come as a shock to all who knew him in Scotland, across the UK and beyond”.

He described him as “a central figure in politics over three decades” whose “contribution to the Scottish political landscape cannot be overstated”.

Tom Tugendhat, the UK’s shadow security minister, said Salmond was a “towering figure who shaped our politics for a generation”.

Joanna Cherry, the former SNP MP, said: “I am devastated to hear this news. He was one of the most talented politicians of his generation, and by any measure the finest first minister our country has had. He changed the face of Scottish politics.

“Sadly, he was ill-used by many of his former comrades, and I am particularly sorry that he has not lived to see his vindication. Above all, I shall remember him as an inspiration and a loyal friend. My heartfelt condolences go to Moira, his family, and all who loved him.”

Salmond began his second stint as SNP leader in 2004, securing power in Holyrood in 2007. That was followed by a sweeping victory in Scottish parliamentary elections in 2011 – the precursor to the independence vote.

Salmond was a huge but divisive figure, gaining criticism for his appearances on the Russian state channel RT. He quit the channel after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He resigned from the SNP in 2018, after allegations of sexual misconduct during his time as first minister in 2013. After lengthy legal battles, he was arrested in 2019 and charged with 14 offences.

He was acquitted of all charges of sexual assault in 2020, when he was found not guilty of 12 charges of attempted rape, sexual assault and indecent assault after six hours of jury deliberations. The jury reached the uniquely Scottish verdict of “not proven” on one charge of sexual assault with intent to rape. Another charge was dropped.

The subsequent Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of the initial harassment complaints led to huge splits within the SNP, with some senior figures backing Salmond, and accusations that he had been the victim of a witch-hunt within the party.

He went on to form the Alba party in 2021, which challenged the SNP on its failure to deliver a second referendum but failed to make electoral headway.

Salmond was rumoured to be considering a return to frontline politics at Holyrood at the next Scottish parliament elections in 2026, with speculation that he might stand for the regional list in the north-east of Scotland.

Reflecting recently on the referendum result, Salmond said he had started to write his concession speech after the first result was declared on the night of the vote. The yes campaign lost the vote, 45% to 55%.

The first result came from Clackmannanshire, often seen as reflecting national sentiment. Voters there backed staying within the UK by 53.8% to 46.2%. “When I saw that result, I started to write my concession speech,” Salmond said.

“Nobody gave us a chance at the start. I always reckoned if we got to the positive side of the argument, if we claimed the positive side for ‘yes’, which in itself is an affirmation, then once we got into the campaign, I thought we’d pick up ground, and so we did.”

The Scottish DJ and producer Jack Revill, known to many as Jackmaster, has died aged 38, his family has announced.

Revill died in Ibiza on Saturday morning after “complications arising from an accidental head injury”, his family said.

A statement said: “It is with profound sorrow that we confirm the untimely passing of Jack Revill, known to many as Jackmaster.

“Jack tragically died in Ibiza on the morning of October 12, following complications arising from an accidental head injury.

“His family – Kate, Sean and Johnny – are utterly heartbroken.

“While deeply touched by the overwhelming support from friends, colleagues, and fans, the family kindly requests privacy as they navigate the immense grief of this devastating loss.”

Born in Glasgow, Revill worked at the well-known record shop Rubadub in Glasgow, and went on to become the co-founder of the record label Numbers.

He had recently released the single Nitro, featuring Kid Enigma, telling Electronic Groove music magazine: “It was about feeling hyped and inspired in the club.

“Sadly, those moments are rare now. Blame the phones and people who don’t dance.

“I am so grateful for my fans, but I got into music because I love dancing. It’s a lost art form at the moment, I think.”

The electronic duo Disclosure were among those paying tribute, writing on Instagram: “Can’t believe this. Heart broken. Thank you for all the amazing memories & inspiration Jack. This is just awful awful awful.”

A post from the official Instagram account of DU duo CamelPhat on Revill’s Instagram page said: “Can’t believe what I’m reading… in an industry full of Ego you were hands down one of the nicest fellas we ever met along the way. Our thoughts are with family & friends. RIP my friend x”.

Kamala Harris on Saturday released a report on her health and medical history, which found that “she possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency” if voters elect her in November.

A senior aide to Harris, 59, said the vice-president’s advisers viewed the publication of the health report and medical history as an opportunity to call attention to questions about Donald Trump’s physical fitness and mental acuity. The 78-year-old Republican White House nominee would be the oldest president elected if Americans gave him a second term in the Oval Office.

Saturday’s report – in the form of a two-page letter from the vice-president’s physician, Joshua Simmons – described Harris as being in “excellent health” and asserted that her medical history was notable for seasonal allergies and hives. Harris manages those conditions with over-the-counter medications such as Allegra, Atrovent nasal spray and Pataday eye drops, and she has been on allergen immunotherapy for three years, the letter said.

Otherwise, Harris is mildly nearsighted and wears corrective contact lenses as a result, had abdominal surgery when she was three years old and has a maternal history of colon cancer. “She has no personal history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, neurological disorders, cancer or osteoporosis,” said the letter from Simmons, who added that the vice-president’s most recent physical examination in April was “unremarkable”.

The statement on Harris’s health came on Saturday as Trump has become increasingly incoherent at campaign rallies, something the Guardian US reported on earlier in October. He has been slurring, stumbling over his words, hurling expletives – and showing signs of cognitive decline consistent with someone approaching his 80s, according to medical experts.

Recent speeches have seen him rant about topics ranging from his purportedly “beautiful” body to “a million Rambos” in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Harris campaign aides pointed to Trump’s backing out of an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that the vice-president granted and his refusal to debate her again after their 10 September face-off. They argue that the former president is “avoiding public scrutiny” and giving voters “the impression … that he has something to hide and may not be up for the job”.

“Contrast her age and vitality with his,” the senior aide to Harris, 59, said early on Saturday.

Trump has repeatedly declined to release detailed information about his health during his public life. For instance, before winning the White House in 2016, he only offered a four-paragraph letter from his personal doctor that bragged that Trump would be “the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency”, as the New York Times recently reported.

Trump’s first physical as president resulted in perhaps the most detailed overview of his health to date. According to the Times, the physical flagged “worryingly high” cholesterol and a body mass index that left him 0.1 points below the threshold for medical obesity.

Nonetheless, in a statement on Saturday, a Trump campaign spokesperson claimed the former president regularly distributed medical updates and that all “have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be commander in chief”.

“It is said [Harris] does not have the stamina of … Trump,” the campaign spokesperson’s statement also said.

Questions over whether Joe Biden was too enfeebled forced him to halt his bid for re-election to the presidency during the summer. The 81-year-old Democrat dropped out of a rematch with Trump on 21 July and endorsed Harris to succeed him.

Recent national polling averages show Harris with a two-point edge over Trump in the 5 November race for the presidency. But key swing states remain too close to call, and most experts expect a competitive election.

The Republican party chose Trump as their nominee despite his being convicted in May of criminally falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to an adult film actor who claimed an extramarital sexual encounter with him about a decade before his successful run for the presidency in 2016. Among other legal problems, he is grappling with criminal charges that he tried to illicitly overturn his defeat to Biden in the 2020 election.

Trump, for his part, has maintained that Biden “became mentally impaired”. He also said that Harris “was born that way” while struggling to pronounce the vice-president’s name.

At a town hall in Las Vegas for a group of undecided voters on Thursday, Harris said “using language that’s belittling … [is not] healthy for our nation”.

“I don’t admire that,” Harris said. “And in fact, I’m quite critical of it coming from someone who wants to be president of the United States.”

Kamala Harris on Saturday released a report on her health and medical history, which found that “she possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency” if voters elect her in November.

A senior aide to Harris, 59, said the vice-president’s advisers viewed the publication of the health report and medical history as an opportunity to call attention to questions about Donald Trump’s physical fitness and mental acuity. The 78-year-old Republican White House nominee would be the oldest president elected if Americans gave him a second term in the Oval Office.

Saturday’s report – in the form of a two-page letter from the vice-president’s physician, Joshua Simmons – described Harris as being in “excellent health” and asserted that her medical history was notable for seasonal allergies and hives. Harris manages those conditions with over-the-counter medications such as Allegra, Atrovent nasal spray and Pataday eye drops, and she has been on allergen immunotherapy for three years, the letter said.

Otherwise, Harris is mildly nearsighted and wears corrective contact lenses as a result, had abdominal surgery when she was three years old and has a maternal history of colon cancer. “She has no personal history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, neurological disorders, cancer or osteoporosis,” said the letter from Simmons, who added that the vice-president’s most recent physical examination in April was “unremarkable”.

The statement on Harris’s health came on Saturday as Trump has become increasingly incoherent at campaign rallies, something the Guardian US reported on earlier in October. He has been slurring, stumbling over his words, hurling expletives – and showing signs of cognitive decline consistent with someone approaching his 80s, according to medical experts.

Recent speeches have seen him rant about topics ranging from his purportedly “beautiful” body to “a million Rambos” in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Harris campaign aides pointed to Trump’s backing out of an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that the vice-president granted and his refusal to debate her again after their 10 September face-off. They argue that the former president is “avoiding public scrutiny” and giving voters “the impression … that he has something to hide and may not be up for the job”.

“Contrast her age and vitality with his,” the senior aide to Harris, 59, said early on Saturday.

Trump has repeatedly declined to release detailed information about his health during his public life. For instance, before winning the White House in 2016, he only offered a four-paragraph letter from his personal doctor that bragged that Trump would be “the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency”, as the New York Times recently reported.

Trump’s first physical as president resulted in perhaps the most detailed overview of his health to date. According to the Times, the physical flagged “worryingly high” cholesterol and a body mass index that left him 0.1 points below the threshold for medical obesity.

Nonetheless, in a statement on Saturday, a Trump campaign spokesperson claimed the former president regularly distributed medical updates and that all “have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be commander in chief”.

“It is said [Harris] does not have the stamina of … Trump,” the campaign spokesperson’s statement also said.

Questions over whether Joe Biden was too enfeebled forced him to halt his bid for re-election to the presidency during the summer. The 81-year-old Democrat dropped out of a rematch with Trump on 21 July and endorsed Harris to succeed him.

Recent national polling averages show Harris with a two-point edge over Trump in the 5 November race for the presidency. But key swing states remain too close to call, and most experts expect a competitive election.

The Republican party chose Trump as their nominee despite his being convicted in May of criminally falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to an adult film actor who claimed an extramarital sexual encounter with him about a decade before his successful run for the presidency in 2016. Among other legal problems, he is grappling with criminal charges that he tried to illicitly overturn his defeat to Biden in the 2020 election.

Trump, for his part, has maintained that Biden “became mentally impaired”. He also said that Harris “was born that way” while struggling to pronounce the vice-president’s name.

At a town hall in Las Vegas for a group of undecided voters on Thursday, Harris said “using language that’s belittling … [is not] healthy for our nation”.

“I don’t admire that,” Harris said. “And in fact, I’m quite critical of it coming from someone who wants to be president of the United States.”

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russian forces had tried to oust Ukrainian troops from positions in Russia’s Kursk border region, but that Kyiv’s forces were holding their lines. “Russia tried to push back our positions, but we are holding the designated lines,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that its forces had recaptured two villages in the border Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops launched a mass incursion in August. Zelenskyy has acknowledged that the Ukrainian advance into Kursk was intended to draw Russian troops away from frontline positions in eastern Ukraine.

• Prosecutors in Donetsk region on Saturday said two people were killed in Russian strikes on villages near Kurakhove. The general staff of Ukraine’s military, in a late evening report, reported 47 clashes in the area around Kurakhove and 27 more in the Pokrovsk sector to the north-west. It follows Russia’s defence ministry on Friday announcing the capture of Ostrivske, a village on a reservoir near the town of Kurakhove, a key Russian target in its advance through the Donetsk region. Ukraine has not acknowledged the loss of the village, but military bloggers have reported Russian advances in the area.

• Ukrainian military recruitment officers have raided restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv, checking military registration documents and detaining men who are not in compliance. Local media reported Saturday that officers intercepted men leaving a concert by Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy and some were forcibly detained. It is unusual for such raids to take place in the capital, and reflects Ukraine’s dire need for fresh recruits. Raids also reportedly took place in clubs and restaurants in other cities. All Ukrainian men aged 25-60 are eligible for conscription, and men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country.

• The Kremlin said on Saturday that the Democrat party presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s description of Vladimir Putin as a “murderous dictator” exposed how politicians in Washington sought to impose their views on the world. Peskov’s comments appeared to be in response to Harris’s criticism of a report in a newly released book by US journalist Bob Woodward that Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump, while in office, had sent Covid tests to Russia at the height of the pandemic. In a radio interview, she described Putin as a “murderous dictator”.

• Leaders of the group of atomic bomb survivors awarded the Nobel Peace Prize warned on Saturday that the risk of nuclear war was rising, renewing their call to abolish nuclear weapons. “The international situation is getting progressively worse, and now wars are being waged as countries threaten the use of nuclear weapons,” said Shigemitsu Tanaka, a survivor of the 1945 US bombing of Nagasaki and co-head of the Nihon Hidankyo group. Vladimir Putin signalled last month that Moscow would consider responding with nuclear weapons if the US and its allies allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with long-range western missiles.

• Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that it struck a Russian-controlled oil terminal in the partially occupied Luhansk region that provides fuel for Russia’s war effort. Russian state media reported that the terminal close to the city of Rovenky had come under attack from a Ukrainian drone and said there were no casualties and that the fire had been extinguished, but did not comment on the extent of any damage.

• Russian emergency services said they had brought a massive fire under control at the Feodosia oil terminal in Russian-annexed Crimea, which had burned for six days after being struck by Ukraine, state news agency Ria Novosti reported.

• Russia’s defence ministry said 47 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted and destroyed by its air defence systems overnight into Saturday: 17 over the Krasnodar region, 16 over the Sea of ​​Azov, 12 over the Kursk region and two over the Belgorod region, all of which border Ukraine. Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Saturday that one person had been killed and 14 wounded in Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks over the previous 24 hours.

• In Ukraine, the country’s air force said air defences had shot down 24 of 28 drones launched overnight against Ukraine. Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov said two women were wounded on Saturday in Russian attacks on the capital of the southern Ukrainian region, also called Zaporizhzhia.

The engines rev, the guitars thrum and a gruff narrator lays out why the vehicle occupying the driveway is more than just a machine. “A truck is a tool,” he says, “but a Ram – a Ram is life.”

So begins an advert for the Ram 1500, a pickup truck slightly bigger than the Panzer I tanks of Nazi Germany and almost as heavy. It is growing in popularity in Europe, with the number of Rams arriving on the continent up 20% in 2023 from the year before, according to registration data from the European Environment Agency. Road safety and environmental campaigners in the UK and Europe are aghast as the latest, most extreme cases of North American car bloat – giant pickup trucks – are increasingly crossing the Atlantic.

“Europe should ban the Ram,” said Dudley Curtis from the European Transport Safety Council. “This type of vehicle is excessively heavy, tall and powerful, making it lethal in collisions with normal-sized vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.”

For now, the giant vehicles fall foul of EU environmental rules but can be imported through a back-door channel known as an individual vehicle approval (IVA) that subjects them to less scrutiny. Nearly 5,000 Dodge Rams were brought to Europe last year, and about 60% of IVA approvals in the EU, Norway and Iceland are for the Ram – whose manufacturer, Stellantis, did not respond to requests for comment. Other large pickup trucks, such as the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado, are also arriving but in smaller numbers. On Tuesday, the Guardian revealed that one of Europe’s first Tesla Cybertrucks may have been registered incorrectly through the same route.

It is the latest development in the global story of car bloat. Sales of SUVs have been soaring for several years as carmakers have marketed larger cars and consumers have chosen to pay premiums to snap them up. The weighty vehicles, vaunted for off-road abilities that let them conquer rugged terrain, have become common sights on the smooth tarmac of supermarket car parks and the concrete pavements outside school gates.

“People wear their large SUV like an expensive coat,” said Robin Hickman, a transport planner at University College London. “It’s an aspiration for a certain type of lifestyle that people subscribe to.” Increasingly, however, pickup trucks are being marketed as versatile vehicles that urban dwellers can use to meet their daily needs.

Brutal physics reveals a dark side to the big-car boom. At its simplest, a vehicle with more mass will hit a person with more force. But a higher bonnet also makes it harder for the driver to see a child and more likely that their vehicle will strike its head, or an adult’s vital organs. Unlike the victims of regular car crashes, who are often pushed to the side or on to the windscreen, people struck by pickup trucks tend to be pushed forward and mown down.

Researchers have seen such mechanisms play out in crash data. In August, the Vias institute in Belgium found a pedestrian or cyclist hit by a pickup was 90% more likely to face serious injury than one hit by a regular car, and almost 200% more likely to be killed.

In November last year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the US found the risk of death was about 45% greater if a pedestrian were hit by a vehicle with a tall bonnet than one that was low and sloped. In January, a US study found a 10cm increase in bonnet height causes a 22% increase in fatality risk for pedestrians. The increase in risk rose to 31% for over-65s, and to 81% for children.

But few people seem aware of the dangers. Just 40% of British adults agree that SUVs and pickup trucks are dangerous to other people, a YouGov survey found in February, falling to 20% for owners of such vehicles.

Some people justify buying big vehicles because they offer families more comfort. Others say they feel safer in larger cars – even if that security comes at the expense of others.

“People buying the SUVs are either very selfish and do not care about anyone else on the street, or, more likely, they just do not think of those issues,” said Hickman. “It may [one day] be their children walking out of the football pitch or the cricket pitch who get run over by an SUV, and then they would be horrified.”

Researchers suggest the mix of aggressive advertising, status-seeking and poor public awareness make it easy for carmakers to push ever bigger vehicles. A study of UK residents from the campaign group Badvertising in 2021 found a positive correlation between exposure to SUV advertising and the desire to buy one.

Mònica Guillen-Royo, a co-author of the report, said: “The industry’s efforts to expand sales of bigger cars are likely to succeed, due to their alignment with people’s everyday lives, which are shaped by car dependency. On the other hand, society’s efforts to reduce emissions from cars will not be supported by messaging alone.”

European cities such as Paris, Lyon, Grenoble and Tübingen have imposed weight-based fees that make SUV and pickup truck drivers pay more to park. Campaigners have called on the European Commission to tighten safety rules and close the approval loophole that lets big pickups sneak on to European roads.

“It’s the old story of a chain only being as strong as its weakest link,” said James Nix, from the campaign group Transport & Environment. “The EU and UK have built a legal framework to safeguard the public from high levels of air pollution, climate emissions and road safety risks from vehicles. But then, when importers of mass market pickup trucks get them approved as ‘individual’ vehicles, they avoid Europe’s carefully constructed safeguards.”

However, despite the explosive growth, large pickup trucks still only made up less than 1% of new car and van registrations in Europe in 2023. The vehicles are far more polluting than regular cars, but those approved via the IVA loophole do not count toward the EU’s fleet-wide CO₂ targets of 94g/km for cars and 154g/km for vans from 2025.

To meet the targets and compensate the emissions from each large pickup truck, a manufacturer would, in theory, have to put three extra electric vehicles on the road, said Peter Mock, the managing director of the European branch of the International Council on Clean Transportation. “Instead of complaining about regulation, automakers would be better off reconsidering their marketing shift to ever bigger SUVs and pickup trucks.”

King Charles and his family have failed to reveal their official gifts for the past four years, despite previously promising to publish an annual list.

Palace officials have blamed the pandemic, the change of reign, and then planning for last year’s coronation for their inability to publish details of the gifts received by members of the royal family.

The royal family’s reticence follows controversy over a cash-for-honours scandal involving the king’s main charitable foundation, which led to a police investigation that was dropped last year without a full explanation from either Scotland Yard or the Crown Prosecution Service. It also comes after revelations that Charles, when he was Prince of Wales, accepted £2.6m in cash in bags from a Qatari politician for another of his charities, the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund.

The Duke of York also faced allegations that when he was a working royal he used official overseas trips to conduct private business deals.

But unlike MPs, who have to register gifts, donations and hospitality, there is no public register of interests for members of the royal family. Instead, they act on the advice of their private secretaries in deciding what to declare.

Annual gift lists were introduced after media criticism of attempts by the royal household to conceal the origin of lavish jewellery given to Queen Camilla by a Saudi royal in 2006 and worn by her on an official visit to the US in 2007.

The last annual list, detailing official gifts received by all working members of the royal family in 2019, was published in April 2020 but since then there has been nothing, apart from the occasional description of an exchange of presents during a state visit or pictures when they are given gifts during an engagement.

Over the years, the annual list has led to controversy, such as in 2012 when it emerged that the king of Bahrain and his country’s prime minister had given a “suite of jewels” to Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie, while facing criticism over human rights abuses.

But many presents, including sensitive ones, were often concealed, even though official gifts are not the personal property of the royals and are in effect accepted on behalf of the nation.

Saudi Arabia’s controversial crown prince Mohammed bin Salman gave the Duchess of Sussex a £500,000 pair of diamond chandelier earrings as a wedding present in 2018. In October that year Meghan wore them at a state banquet in Fiji only a few days after the crown prince was accused of ordering the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But when journalists asked where she got them, palace officials said they were “borrowed”. She wore them again that November at a Buckingham Palace dinner to celebrate the then Prince Charles’s 70th birthday. It was only in March 2021, shortly before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex gave a controversial television interview to Oprah Winfrey, that their true provenance was leaked.

The Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, chose not to release a list of any gifts they had received at their wedding in 2011. Only a handful of official gifts received by Queen Elizabeth for her platinum jubilee in 2022 were disclosed and it is not clear what, if any, were given to King Charles and Queen Camilla to mark their coronation.

It was all very different back in 1947, when the then Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten. An exhaustive list of gifts to the couple was published and more than 2,500 items went on show to the public.

Charles ordered a formal review of the royal household’s policy on official gifts in 2003, after a scandal over staff selling unwanted presents. It resulted in clearer definitions as to what constitutes an official gift and a personal present.

Official gifts are those received in connection with official duties or from businesses or individuals not personally known to the family member. They include gifts from dignitaries, such as other heads of state or elected representatives, during events and are not the family members’ private property.

Personal gifts are those from people they know privately with no connection to official duties.

Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state to replace the monarch, said: “It is vital that the public knows about any possible conflicts of interest or attempts to curry favour with royals, as they have direct access to the highest levels of government.”

He added: “Charles and senior royals have access to government papers, can have secretive meetings with ministers and the prime minister and they have leverage to pressure government to do favours for them and their friends.

“The royals have form when it comes to blurring the lines between what’s theirs to keep and what’s an official gift. So full disclosure is needed on what’s been received and where those gifts are now. If we demand high standards from politicians, we must demand those same standards from the royals.”

A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said: “The royal gifts lists will be published in due course.”

Body parts found in a freezer that was left behind at a Colorado home that was sold are of a 16-year-old girl who went missing in 2005, authorities have said.

The death of Amanda Leariel Overstreet – the biological daughter of the home’s previous owner – is being investigated as a homicide, according to the sheriff’s office overseeing the case. An investigation into Overstreet’s slaying remains ongoing.

The discovery of Overstreet’s remains was made in January, after the new owner of a house near Grand Junction gave away a freezer left behind by the previous occupant. The person who claimed the freezer found a human head and forearms with hands attached, said the Mesa county sheriff’s office.

Overstreet’s body parts were identified through DNA testing. She had not been seen since April 2005, and “there is no record that Amanda Overstreet was ever reported missing”, a statement from the sheriff read.

An exact cause of death has not yet been determined, and no arrests have been made. The missing girl lived in the Grand Junction and Harris county, Texas, areas, according to the Mesa county coroner’s office.

The new owner of the home was “completely unrelated to the previous case”, said the sheriff’s office. “The house was purchased, fully remodeled, and sold to the current owner.”

According to Colorado Public Radio, records show a home on the street where Overstreet’s remains were discovered belonged to a Bradley David Imer, who died of Covid-19 in 2021. The outlet said Imer’s death certificate lists his spouse as Leanne Overstreet.

Colorado Public Radio noted that it had been unable to determine whether Leanne Overstreet and Amanda Overstreet were related. But the sheriff’s office did confirm to the outlet that Amanda’s biological mother had been a previous owner of the home where the remains were found.

Meanwhile, the Mesa county sheriff’s office provided a statement to the Daily Mail confirming Leanne Overstreet had indeed owned the home where her daughter’s remains were found.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign worked with X to prevent information about JD Vance from being posted on the social media platform, a move that resulted in the journalist who revealed the information being kicked off the site, according to reports.

The former president’s team contacted X, owned by the billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk, about a 271-page document compiled by his campaign to vet his running mate that was linked to by Ken Klippenstein, an independent journalist, the New York Times has reported.

X responded by blocking links to the material, claiming that it contained sensitive personal information such as the Ohio US senator’s social security number, and banned Klippenstein from the platform.

The materials published by Klippenstein on his Substack in September appear to be related to a hack of the Trump campaign earlier this year, which the FBI has linked to Iran. Documents from the hack have been shared with several media outlets, which have chosen to not publish them.

Media outlets did not reach the same decision when they gave significant attention to files from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign that had been hacked and leaked by Russian intelligence before she ultimately lost that election to Trump. At one point, Trump had said he hoped Russia would be “able to find” some of Clinton’s files.

The removal of the material from X has highlighted the increasingly strident support of Musk, the world’s richest person, for Trump’s attempt to return to the White House after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. After buying Twitter in 2022, Musk said that he was an advocate of free speech and the open sharing of information, even if it offended either political party.

Last week, Musk appeared at a Pennsylvania rally alongside the former president, performing an awkward jump on stage before declaring that “I’m not just Maga – I’m dark Maga” while invoking the Republican nominee’s Make America Great Again slogan.

Musk added that “this will be the last election” if Trump doesn’t win in November against Kamala Harris, complaining that she and her fellow Democrats want “to take away your freedom of speech, they want to take away your right to bear arms, they want to take away your right to vote, effectively”.

Klippenstein, whose X account was restored following the New York Times reporting, said in a Substack post on Friday that Musk had purchased political influence and “is wielding that influence in increasingly brazen ways”.

“The real election interference here is that a social media corporation can decree certain information unfit for the American electorate,” he wrote.

“Two of our most sacred rights as Americans are the freedoms of speech and assembly, online or otherwise. It is a national humiliation that these rights can be curtailed by anyone with enough digits in their bank account.”

Musk is set to appear at further Trump rallies – and he may even knock on voters’ doors for the campaign in Pennsylvania in the coming week. He has funded a political action entity called America Pac that has spent around $80m to help Trump reach voters in crucial swing states like Pennsylvania.