Turkey’s interior minister has blamed a “terrorist attack” for an explosion and assault at the headquarters of the country’s national aerospace company, Tusaş, outside Ankara, that killed four people and wounded 14 others.

The large blast happened outside the building at 4pm on Wednesday, amid reports that gunfire was also heard in the vicinity. Habertürk TV said there was an “ongoing hostage situation” without giving further details.

“A terrorist attack was carried out against the Tusaş facilities in Kahramankazan, Ankara. Unfortunately, we have martyrs and injured people,” the interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, posted on X.

Yerlikaya later said that two attackers had been killed amid claims that the assailants included a woman.

The exact circumstances of the explosion and subsequent gunfire remained unclear, with some media reports suggesting it was a suicide attack.

It was not clear who is behind the attack. Kurdish militants, the Islamic State group and leftist extremists have carried out attacks in the country in the past.

The blast occurred as the Turkish president, Recep Tayyp Erdoğan, was in the Russian city of Kazan for the Brics summit of major emerging market nations, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Erdogan will hold talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, later on Wednesday.

According to initial reports, the attack was launched by several gunmen who arrived at the site by taxi, with local television footage appearing to show individuals wearing black and carrying rucksacks in the streets near the building firing at bystanders. TV images also showed a damaged gate and a nearby clash in a car park.

Private NTV television said a group of assailants arrived at an entry to the complex inside a taxi during a changing of the security personnel. At least one of the assailants detonated a bomb, while other attackers managed to enter the complex.

Tusaş is one of Turkey’s most important defence and aviation companies. It produces Kaan, the country’s first national combat aircraft, among other projects.

According to the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, staff in the building were directed to shelters for security reasons.

The blast occurred as an important trade fair for the defence and aerospace industries was taking place in Istanbul, which was visited this week by Ukraine’s top diplomat.

Turkey’s defence sector, which is known for its Bayraktar drones, accounts for nearly 80% of the country’s export revenues, with revenues thought to exceed $10.2bn in 2023.

The attack drew condemnation from the transport minister, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, and the opposition leader, Özgür Özel, who heads the CHP. “I condemn the terrorist attack against TAI facilities in Kahramankazan … I condemn terrorism, no matter who or where it comes from,” Özel wrote on X.

Nato’s head, Mark Rutte, said on Wednesday the military alliance would stand with Turkey, its ally. “Deeply concerning reports of dead and wounded in Ankara. #NATO stands with our Ally #Turkey. We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and are monitoring developments closely,” Rutte posted on X.

The last attack in Turkey took place in January, when a man was shot dead by two gunmen who opened fire inside a Catholic church in Istanbul. That attack was claimed by Islamic State.

Israel’s national security council has warned Israelis to immediately leave popular tourist areas in southern Sri Lanka after threats of a possible terrorist attack.

According to the council, Sri Lankan authorities had informed it of “a terrorist threat focused on tourist areas and beaches” around the popular surfing area of Arugam Bay in the south of the island.

Local police did not specify the nature of the threats or who had issued them but it was made clear they were directed against Israelis living and travelling in Sri Lanka.

In response, Israel’s security council designated the Arugam Bay area as a level four threat and urged any citizens present to take precautions including hiding their Jewish identity and not gathering together in large groups.

“The Israeli security establishment … is in close contact with the security authorities in Sri Lanka and is following the developments,” it said.

The security council urged Israelis in the rest of the country to be careful and refrain from holding large gatherings in public areas.

Sri Lanka’s acting inspector general of police Priyantha Weerasooriya, said they had first received intelligence about possible threats on the 7 October.

“We had some intelligence reports that there could be an attack aimed at some foreign nationals,” he said. “This was discussed at the security council meeting extensively and we were given operational instructions by the council.”

Hundreds of police officers, alongside intelligence officials, were dispatched to the areas, where they set up roadblocks and security posts outside places of worship.

Earlier on Wednesday, the US embassy in Sri Lanka issued a warning of a threat to Israeli travellers. The embassy said it had “received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations” in eastern Arugam Bay. The UK and Australia were also among the countries that updated their Sri Lanka travel advisories on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka, an island in the Indian Ocean, is a popular tourist destination that relies heavily on the income from international travellers. After the Covid crisis, the country has struggled to reboot its tourism industry and tried to attract tourists, particularly from Israel, offering long visas.

However, in areas such as Arugam Bay, tensions had reportedly risen recently after a heavy influx of Israeli tourists and businesses, with Hebrew signage heavily visible on shops and noticeboards.

Anger at Israel’s war in Gaza among parts of the Muslim community also reportedly led to calls for Israeli businesses in the area to be boycotted.

In a strongly worded statement on X, the area’s local MP Rehan Jayawickreme accused local Israeli businesses of operating illegally in Sri Lanka and stoking a “serious security threat that could derail Sri Lanka’s tourism recovery efforts”.

“To those Israelis fuelling this instability, let me make one thing clear: you cannot forcefully and illegally occupy our lands as you have done elsewhere,” he said, calling on Israelis to “respect the laws of this land”.

Sri Lanka has a recent dark history of terrorist attacks targeting tourists. In April 2019, three luxury hotels and several churches were targeted by Islamist suicide bombers, killing 270 people, including 45 foreigners. The case of the Easter attacks has still yet to reach trial and has been marred with allegations of political interference.

A police statement on Wednesday said in view of a growing number of tourists coming to Sri Lanka, they had prepared a special strategy to ensure their safety “taking the war situation in the Middle East and eastern Europe into account”.

Keir Starmer has insisted he can maintain a “good relationship” with Donald Trump after the Republican candidate’s campaign accused Labour of “blatant foreign interference” in the US election.

The Trump campaign filed a legal complaint overnight against Labour officials travelling to US battleground states to volunteer for his Democrat rival Kamala Harris.

The letter, which was sent to the US Federal Election Commission, said that these volunteering efforts and reports of contact between Labour and the Harris campaign amounted to “illegal foreign national contributions”.

A statement on DonaldJTrump.com on Tuesday night claimed that the “far-left” Labour party has “inspired Kamala’s dangerously liberal policies and rhetoric”.

In response Starmer insisted he had a “good relationship” with Trump which would not be jeopardised by the complaint.

The prime minister said that party officials volunteering for Harris ahead of the US presidential election on 5 November were “doing it in their spare time” rather than in their capacity working for Labour.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him to the Commonwealth summit in Samoa, Starmer said: “The Labour party … volunteers, have gone over pretty much every election. They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying I think with other volunteers over there.

“That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, that’s what they’re doing in this election and that’s really straightforward.”

Asked if the complaint risked jeopardising his relationship with Trump if he becomes president again, the prime minister said: “No. I spent time in New York with President Trump, had dinner with him and my purpose in doing that was to make sure that between the two of us we established a good relationship, which we did, and we’re grateful for him for making the time.”

“We had a good, constructive discussion and, of course as prime minister of the United Kingdom I will work with whoever the American people return as their president in their elections which are very close now.”

The complaint cited a now-deleted LinkedIn post by Labour’s head of operations, which said almost 100 current and former party officials were travelling to the US to campaign for the Democrats in swing states including North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The post added that there were 10 spots still available and promised that “we will sort your housing”.

The letter, sent by Trump campaign lawyer Gary Lawkowski, mentioned newspaper reports of contact between senior Labour advisers and the Harris campaign and called for an immediate investigation.

It drew a comparison to a programme in 2016 in which the Australian Labor party (ALP) sent delegates to help Bernie Sanders’ campaign. In that instance the US Federal Election Commission fined the ALP, which paid for its delegates’ flights and gave them daily stipends, and the Sanders campaign $14,500 each.

Labour has said that activists’ trips are not organised or funded by the party and that any officials who campaign in the US election are volunteers who do so in their own time.

Starmer met Trump during a trip to New York in September and visited Trump Tower for talks ahead of the US election. Trump heaped praise on Starmer ahead of their meeting, saying he was a “very nice” man who “ran a great race” in the UK election and was “very popular”.

The Trump campaign’s complaint said: “When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them. This past week marked the 243 anniversary of the surrender of British forces at the Battle of Yorktown, a military victory that ensured that the United States would be politically independent of Great Britian [sic].”

“It appears that the Labour party and the Harris for President campaign have forgotten the message.”

Kamala Harris said that she has no doubt that the US was ready for a female president, insisting that Americans care more about what candidates can do to help them, rather than presidential contenders’ gender.

The vice-president’s statement came during an interview with NBC News’s Hallie Jackson, who asked whether she thought the country was ready for a woman, and a woman of color, to be in the Oval Office. “Absolutely,” Harris said. “Absolutely.”

“In terms of every walk of life of our country,” Harris said, “part of what is important in this election is really, not really turning the page – closing a chapter, on an era that suggests that Americans are divided.

“The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us and what the American people want in their president is a president for all Americans,” she said.

Harris was asked why she hasn’t leaned into the historic nature of her candidacy – that she is a woman of color running for the presidency.

“I’m clearly a woman. I don’t need to point that out to anyone,” Harris said with a laugh. “The point that most people really care about is: can you do the job, and do you have a plan to actually focus on them?”

“That is why I spend the majority of my time listening and then addressing the concerns, the challenges, the dreams, the ambitions and the aspirations of the American people,” Harris continued, saying that Americans deserve a president focused on them, “as opposed to a Donald Trump, who is constantly focused on himself”.

Harris also said she was aware that Donald Trump might potentially try thwarting the presidential election results, noting that her team “will deal with election night and the days after as they come”.

Harris said that she is focused on campaigning over the next two weeks while noting “we have the resources and the expertise and the focus” on any potential threats to election results. Jackson noted that Trump declared victory before all the votes were tallied in 2020.

Trump, who has refused to accept the 2020 election results and claimed the race was stolen, has been stoking fears with unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud in the 2024 cycle. “This is a person, Donald Trump, who tried to undo the free and fair election, who still denies the will of the people who incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol, and 140 law enforcement officers were attacked, some who were killed. This is a serious matter,” Harris told Jackson.

Trump supporters on 6 January 2021 stormed the US Capitol in an effort to prevent certification of Joe Biden’s victory. That day, four people died at the Capitol and a police officer working during the insurrection died several days later; four other police officers posted at the building on 6 January 2021 committed suicide, according to CBS News.

“The American people are, at this point, two weeks out, being presented with a very, very serious decision about what will be the future of our country,” Harris also said.

Jackson also asked about voters’ concerns about the economy, noting that many blame the US president for rising prices.

Harris said her policies “will not be a continuation of the Biden administration” and with inflation, “I bring my own experiences, my own ideas to it.”

Jackson noted that if Harris won, her victory might coincide with Republican control of Congress, which would thwart protecting abortion at the national level.

“What concessions would be on the table?” Jackson asked.

“I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” Harris said.

Harris said she would not “get into those hypotheticals” when asked if a pardon might be on the table for Trump.

“I’m focused on the next 14 days.”

Harris was pressed on the pardon topic, asked if she thought it could help the country move forward together and be less divisive.

“Let me tell you what’s going to help us move on: I get elected to president of the United States.”

Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman who has become a feminist hero for insisting that the rape trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men should be held in public, has told a court in southern France she was driven by her desire to change society and expose rape culture.

“I am a woman who is totally destroyed, and don’t know how I can pick myself up from this,” said the 72-year-old former logistics manager, who was repeatedly unknowingly sedated and raped by her then husband, Dominique Pelicot, 71.

Dominique Pelicot crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and drink and invited men to rape her over a nine-year period from 2011 to 2020 in the village of Mazan, in Provence.

Gisèle Pelicot told the court in Avignon: “It’s true that I hear lots of women, and men, who say you’re very brave. I say it’s not bravery, it’s will and determination to change society.”

She said she wanted to lift the shame felt by rape victims. “I wanted all woman victims of rape – not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels – I want those woman to say: Mrs Pelicot did it, we can do it too. When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them.”

She said: “The profile of a rapist is not someone met in a car park late at night. A rapist can also be in the family, among our friends.”

After hearing wives or girlfriends or friends in court saying the accused did not seem capable of rape, she said: “We have to progress on rape culture in society … People should learn the definition of rape.”

Addressing her ex-husband but saying she refused to turn her head to look at him in the dock, she said: “How can the perfect man have got to this? How could you have betrayed me to this point? How could you have brought these strangers into my bedroom?”

Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges against him and said that for almost a decade he was in contact with men on an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge” where he would organise for strangers to come to the couple’s home in Mazan to rape his wife while she was in a comatose state in her bed.

He has said he administered drugs to her at mealtimes or in bowls of ice-cream he brought to her as she watched TV after dinner. “I am a rapist, like the others in this room,” Pelicot has told the court, saying the other men on trial were aware they were being invited to rape his wife.

Gisèle Pelicot was asked in court if she had noticed moments when he might have drugged her food or drinks. She said she had not noticed falling under sedation and must have passed out very quickly.

She told the court: “He made a lot of meals. I saw that as him being attentive. I know that one night he came to collect me at Avignon station after 10 days with my grandchildren. He had already prepared the meal – mashed potato. Two plates were already in the oven. I put olive oil on my potatoes and he put butter, so it was easy to see which plate was his.”

She said: “We would have a glass of white wine together. I never found anything strange about my potatoes. We finished eating. Often when it’s a football match on TV, I’d let him watch it alone. He brought my ice-cream to my bed, where I was, my favourite flavour, raspberry. And I thought, how lucky I am, he’s a love.”

“I never felt my heart flutter, I didn’t feel anything, I must have gone under very quickly. I would wake up with my pyjamas on. The mornings, I must have been more tired than usual, but I walk a lot and thought it was that.”

Pelicot said she had noticed problems with her health. She feared she was having neurological problems or could have Alzheimer’s, and she had really appreciated her husband apparently standing by her through that.

“He took me to a neurologist, to scanners when I was worried. He also went with me to the gynaecologist. For me, he was someone I trusted entirely.” She said to Dominique Pelicot in court: “So many times, I said to myself how lucky am I to have you at my side.”

She said she had also noticed gynaecological problems, which he had also supported her through. “I consulted three gynaecologists. Several times I had woken up and felt like I had lost my waters – as happens when you give birth.”

She said of the druggings: “In the morning I take my breakfast in the kitchen, it’s basic, orange juice, toast, jam, honey. He could have put it in my orange juice or my coffee. But I didn’t feel that moment where I went under [as sedated].”

She said she once went for a morning hairdressing appointment and her husband insisted on driving her. She had what seemed like a blackout, she said, and did not remember the haircut or styling.

In almost two months of testimony, the court has heard from dozens of accused men. The majority have denied rape. Some said they thought Pelicot was pretending to be asleep or was playing a game, or felt the fact her husband had consented was sufficient.

A total of 50 men were identified by police from films meticulously labelled and stored by Dominique Pelicot. The men on trial alongside him could face sentences of up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

In total, 49 men are accused of rape, one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault. Five others are also accused of possessing child abuse imagery. Aged between 26 and 74, the accused include a nurse, a journalist, a prison officer, a local councillor, a soldier, lorry drivers and farm workers.

The trial is expected to run until 20 December.

At the midway point of the mass rape trial that has shaken France, the woman at its centre, Gisèle Pelicot, 72, has taken to the stand at the court’s invitation to comment on and respond to the evidence and testimony the judges have heard so far.

Pelicot’s former husband, Dominique Pelicot, 71, has admitted drugging his then-wife to render her unconscious in order that he and dozens of strangers he found in online chatrooms could allegedly rape her, between 2011 and 2020.

The majority of the 50 other men on trial, aged between 26 and 74 and all allegedly recruited by Pelicot, have denied rape. Here are some of the key points of Gisèle Pelicot’s testimony this morning in Avignon, southern France.

The US has said for the first time that it has seen evidence of North Korean troops in Russia, and South Korean lawmakers have said about 3,000 soldiers have been sent to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, with more to follow.

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, speaking in Rome, said it would be “very, very serious” if the North Koreans were preparing to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine, as Kyiv has alleged, though he said it remained to be seen what they would be doing there.

“There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia,” Austin told reporters, using North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In Seoul, South Korean lawmakers said North Korea had sent 3,000 troops to Russia and thousands more were expected to follow.

Pyongyang had promised to provide a total of about 10,000 troops, whose deployment was expected to be completed by December, the lawmakers told reporters after being briefed by South Korea’s national intelligence agency.

The figure of 3,000 is twice a previous estimate of numbers of North Korean troops already in Russia.

Park Sun-won, a member of a parliamentary intelligence committee, said after the briefing: “Signs of troops being trained inside North Korea were detected in September and October. It appears that the troops have now been dispersed to multiple training facilities in Russia and are adapting to the local environment.”

Austin said the alleged North Korean deployment could be further evidence that the Russian military was having problems with manpower, after huge numbers of casualties on both sides in what has become a war of attrition.

The Kremlin has previously dismissed Seoul’s claims about the North’s troop deployment as “fake news”, and a North Korean representative to the United Nations called it “groundless rumours” at a meeting in New York on Monday.

Moscow and Pyongyang have also denied weapons transfers, but they have pledged to boost military ties and signed a mutual defence treaty at a summit in June.

Last Friday South Korea’s national intelligence service said the North had sent 1,500 special forces personnel to Russia by ship and they were likely to be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine after training and acclimatisation.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has accused Pyongyang of preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to Russia. On Tuesday he called on his allies to respond to evidence of North Korean involvement in Russia’s war.

Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker on the South Korean committee, said Pyongyang authorities had tried to keep news of the deployment from spreading. “There are also signs of North Korean authorities relocating and isolating those families [of the troops] in a certain place in order to effectively control them and thoroughly crack down on the rumours,” Lee said, citing the spy agency.

Lee also said the agency had confirmed that Russia had recruited a “large number” of interpreters for the North Korean soldiers, while training them in the use of military equipment such as drones.

“Russian instructors are assessing that the North Korean military has excellent physical attributes and morale but lacks understanding of modern warfare such as drone attacks,” he said. “Therefore there could be many casualties if they are deployed to the frontlines.”

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say more than 600,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine.

Austin said the North Korean deployment could point to a shortage of Russian recruits. “This is an indication that he [Vladimir Putin] may be even in more trouble than most people realise,” he said.

On Tuesday the South’s presidential office urged an immediate withdrawal of the North’s troops from Russia, warning that it may consider supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine if military ties between them went too far.

The US has said for the first time that it has seen evidence of North Korean troops in Russia, and South Korean lawmakers have said about 3,000 soldiers have been sent to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, with more to follow.

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, speaking in Rome, said it would be “very, very serious” if the North Koreans were preparing to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine, as Kyiv has alleged, though he said it remained to be seen what they would be doing there.

“There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia,” Austin told reporters, using North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In Seoul, South Korean lawmakers said North Korea had sent 3,000 troops to Russia and thousands more were expected to follow.

Pyongyang had promised to provide a total of about 10,000 troops, whose deployment was expected to be completed by December, the lawmakers told reporters after being briefed by South Korea’s national intelligence agency.

The figure of 3,000 is twice a previous estimate of numbers of North Korean troops already in Russia.

Park Sun-won, a member of a parliamentary intelligence committee, said after the briefing: “Signs of troops being trained inside North Korea were detected in September and October. It appears that the troops have now been dispersed to multiple training facilities in Russia and are adapting to the local environment.”

Austin said the alleged North Korean deployment could be further evidence that the Russian military was having problems with manpower, after huge numbers of casualties on both sides in what has become a war of attrition.

The Kremlin has previously dismissed Seoul’s claims about the North’s troop deployment as “fake news”, and a North Korean representative to the United Nations called it “groundless rumours” at a meeting in New York on Monday.

Moscow and Pyongyang have also denied weapons transfers, but they have pledged to boost military ties and signed a mutual defence treaty at a summit in June.

Last Friday South Korea’s national intelligence service said the North had sent 1,500 special forces personnel to Russia by ship and they were likely to be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine after training and acclimatisation.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has accused Pyongyang of preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to Russia. On Tuesday he called on his allies to respond to evidence of North Korean involvement in Russia’s war.

Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker on the South Korean committee, said Pyongyang authorities had tried to keep news of the deployment from spreading. “There are also signs of North Korean authorities relocating and isolating those families [of the troops] in a certain place in order to effectively control them and thoroughly crack down on the rumours,” Lee said, citing the spy agency.

Lee also said the agency had confirmed that Russia had recruited a “large number” of interpreters for the North Korean soldiers, while training them in the use of military equipment such as drones.

“Russian instructors are assessing that the North Korean military has excellent physical attributes and morale but lacks understanding of modern warfare such as drone attacks,” he said. “Therefore there could be many casualties if they are deployed to the frontlines.”

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say more than 600,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine.

Austin said the North Korean deployment could point to a shortage of Russian recruits. “This is an indication that he [Vladimir Putin] may be even in more trouble than most people realise,” he said.

On Tuesday the South’s presidential office urged an immediate withdrawal of the North’s troops from Russia, warning that it may consider supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine if military ties between them went too far.

An artificial intelligence startup backed by Amazon and Google says it has created an AI agent that can carry out tasks on the computer such as moving a mouse cursor and typing text.

US company Anthropic said its AI model, called Claude, could now perform computing tasks including filling out forms, planning an outing and building a website.

Autonomous AI agents are viewed by tech firms and investors as a potentially lucrative avenue of development for a technology whose capabilities have stunned users but can cost billions of dollars to build and operate.

Anthropic, a competitor to ChatGPT owner OpenAI, is making the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model available to developers but admitted it can be prone to errors.

“At this stage, it is still experimental – at times cumbersome and error-prone,” the company said. “We’re releasing computer use early for feedback from developers, and expect the capability to improve rapidly over time.”

Anthropic has released a demo showing the model using a fictional employee’s computer to fill out a form, having been asked to carry out the task using data from a spreadsheet and open onscreen tabs.

In other demos, seen by the Financial Times and Wired, the AI agent planned and created a calendar appointment for a trip to view the sunrise in San Francisco and built a simple website to promote itself.

The Anthropic announcement came shortly after Microsoft launched a product that allows companies to build their own autonomous AI agents. Early adopters of the Copilot Studio product include the consulting company McKinsey, which is building an agent to process new client inquiries by carrying out tasks such as scheduling follow-up meetings. Other early users include the law firm Clifford Chance and the retailer Pets at Home.

Anthropic and Microsoft both referred to their products reducing “drudge” work such as filling out forms or handling client queries. Microsoft said employees should see such tools as an “enabler” for workers rather than a threat to their jobs.

However, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international research body, has said the occupations at highest risk from AI-driven automation are highly skilled jobs and account for approximately a quarter of employment across its 38 member countries, which include the UK, Japan, Germany, the US and Australia.

Andrew Rogoyski, a director at the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey, said the tech industry was now “teetering on the edge” of enabling large-scale use of autonomous agents.

“At one level there may be an opportunity for users to learn how to do things more efficiently, and to automate repetitive tasks. At another we may be teaching future AIs how to do our jobs,” he said.

Keir Starmer has insisted he wants to “look forward” rather than have “very long endless discussions about reparations on the past” in his first comments on the issue before the Commonwealth summit.

The prime minister is under pressure to discuss reparatory justice with Commonwealth countries, most of which are former UK colonies, in Samoa this week.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him for the summit, Starmer said Commonwealth countries were “facing real challenges on things like climate in the here and now”.

“That’s where I’m going to put my focus, rather than what will end up being very, very long, endless discussions about reparations on the past,” he said. “This is about stance, really, looking forward rather than looking backwards.

“Slavery is abhorrent … there’s no question about that. But I think from my point of view and taking the approach I’ve just taken, I’d rather roll up my sleeves and work with them on the current future-facing challenges than spend a lot of time on the past.”

Caricom, a group of 15 Caribbean countries, has indicated it will push Starmer and the foreign secretary, David Lammy, on the issue at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Samoa.

In 2018 Lammy, then a backbench Labour MP, called for reparations to be paid to Caribbean nations. But in government Labour has ruled out apologising over Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery.

Starmer said the focus of the summit should be “growth and trade” between Commonwealth countries.

The government also announced a new UK trade centre of expertise based in the Foreign Office, which will advise developing countries on competing in global markets and connect them with UK businesses.

The trade centre is intended to boost economic ties with the Commonwealth. Six members – Guyana, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Uganda, India and Mozambique – are projected to be among the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world by 2027. The combined GDP of the Commonwealth is expected to exceed $19.5tn in the next three years.

Starmer’s comments on reparations prompted criticism from historians and campaigners who said they showed a lack of leadership and a fundamental misunderstanding about what leaders in the global south had been calling for.

Eric Phillips, the chair of the Guyana Reparations Committee, said: “I just don’t understand the relevance of the Commonwealth if PM Starmer takes this cruel approach.”

He argued it had been slavery that underpinned, nurtured and rewarded “the rampant capitalism that has today created the climate change crisis”, adding: “Britain … wants to trade with Commonwealth countries now that Brexit has hurt its economy. The trading principles are purely capitalistic and against the interest of former colonies. No reparations, no trade should be the new motto of countries that seek reparations.”

Liliane Umubyeyi, the director of African Futures Lab, said: “Heads of states like the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, have been saying that the demands for reparations don’t concern only what happened in the past, they concern contemporary conditions of inequality.”

Prof Verene A Shepherd, of the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination and director of the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies, described Starmer’s remarks as dismissive. She said they “will not make the campaign go away, and I hope that those who continue to be affected by the legacies of British colonialism will tell him so when they see him at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting”.

The veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott said: “It is disappointing that the PM has been so dismissive of the opportunity to debate reparations … The descendants of slaves live with the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade in the here and now.”

The proportion of women killed in conflicts around the world doubled last year, with women now accounting for 40% of all those killed in war zones, according to a new report by the United Nations.

The report from UN Women, which looks at the security situation for women and girls affected by war, says UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence also rose by 50% in 2023 compared with 2022.

The United Nations recorded at least 33,443 civilian deaths in armed conflicts in 2023. More than 13,377 of them, or four out of every 10 civilians killed in conflicts, were women, while three out of 10 were children.

The world is caught “in a frightening spiral of conflict, instability and violence” with 170 armed conflicts recorded in 2023, according to the report, which paints a bleak picture of the increasingly violent consequences of warfare on women and girls across the world.

“Women continue to pay the price of the wars of men,” said UN Women’s executive director, Sima Bahous. “This is happening in the context of a larger war on women. The deliberate targeting of women’s rights is not unique to conflict-affected countries but is even more lethal in those settings.”

UN Women said the “blatant disregard” of international laws designed to protect women and children during war was leading to women not being able to access healthcare in conflict zones, and that 500 women and girls in conflict-affected countries died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth every day. By the end of last year, 180 women a day were giving birth in Gaza – most without medical care.

In Sudan, where there have been widespread reports of sexual violence, the UN agency said most victims were unable to access medical care in the first 72 hours after being raped, including emergency contraception. It said it had received reports of victims of rape being denied an abortion because it was outside the legal time limit.

Those holding military and political power remain overwhelmingly male, with women constituting less than 10% of negotiators in peace processes in 2023. UN Women said this was despite evidence that peace agreements lasted longer and were more effective when women were involved.

The report comes 24 years after the adoption of UN security council resolution 1325, which called on all parties to conflicts to ensure the safety of women and girls, and for women’s full involvement in peace processes.

“We are witnessing the weaponisation of gender equality on many fronts,” said Bahous. “If we do not stand up and demand change, the consequences will be felt for decades, and peace will remain elusive.”

Harvey Weinstein is due back in court in New York on Wednesday for a hearing ahead of his retrial on sex crimes charges stemming from his landmark #MeToo case.

Among other things, Judge Curtis Farber is expected to address a prosecution request to consolidate that case and a newer charge into a single trial.

The former movie mogul was facing retrial on two sex crime charges after the state’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction earlier this year. Then in September, he was hit with a new charge accusing him of another assault. He has pleaded not guilty.

Weinstein was convicted on charges that he forcibly performed oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006, and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actor in 2013. In the new charge, prosecutors say he forced oral sex on a different woman in a Manhattan hotel in the spring of 2006.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has argued in court filings that holding separate trials would be “extraordinarily inefficient” and waste judicial resources. Prosecutors said the cases have significant overlap as they involve similar criminal statutes, witnesses, expert testimony and documentary evidence.

Weinstein’s lawyers have argued in court filings that the cases should remain separate. They said prosecutors are attempting to “expand the scope” of the court-ordered retrial and transform it into “an entirely new proceeding” by including the new charges.

There’s also the question of when Weinstein’s retrial is expected to actually begin.

Farber had tentatively scheduled Weinstein’s trial to open on 12 November, but both defense lawyers and prosecutors have voiced concerns the date won’t give their side enough time to prepare.

Weinstein has been in custody at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex and has faced numerous health complications while behind bars.

He was also convicted of rape in Los Angeles in 2022, though his lawyers have appealed.

The sexual assault and harassment allegations against Weinstein turbocharged the #MeToo movement in 2017.

The 72-year-old former producer co-founded the film and television production companies Miramax and the Weinstein Company. He produced films including Shakespeare in Love and The Crying Game.

The Council of Europe has come under fire from Italian leaders after the publication of a report accusing the country’s police force of racist and homophobic abuse.

In its latest snapshot of Italy, published on Monday, the ECRI, the council’s independent human rights monitoring body, said that during a visit to Italy its delegation learned about “many accounts of racial profiling by law enforcement officials that impacts especially the Roma community and people of African descent”.

The accounts of “frequent stop and account activities based on ethnicity” were substantiated by reports from civil society organisations and international monitoring bodies, the report added.

Furthermore, the ECRI claimed that Italian authorities “don’t seem to be aware of the relevance of the problem and have not considered the existence of racial profiling as a potential form of institutional racism”.

The report cited a study conducted among immigrants in 2022 in which 45.8% of respondents said that out of all public institutions, they experienced the most discrimination in police stations. Common examples were having their asylum applications rejected without reason, having their documents destroyed, being verbally abused and in some cases violently abused. Police were also accused of verbal and physical abuse during operations in Roma camps.

The ECRI also said “little or no action” had been taken in recent years “to ensure better accountability in cases of any racist or LGBTI-phobic abuse committed by state police officers, carabinieri and other law enforcement officials”.

The report concluded by asking Italy for a complete and independent study on the situation.

But Italian leaders did not welcome the accusations. The prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right government has projected a tough attitude towards law and order since coming to power in October 2022, fervently defended the police force, saying it “deserves respect, not such insults”.

Meloni said in a post on social media: “Our security forces are made up of men and women who every day work with dedication and self-sacrifice to guarantee the security of all citizens, without distinctions.”

The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, expressed his “astonishment” at the report’s accusations during a call with the police chief, Vittorio Pisani, while reiterating his esteem for the police force, Mattarella’s office said.

Antonio Tajani, a deputy prime minister and the foreign affairs minister, said he had instructed Italy’s representative in the Council of Europe, Roberto Martini, to express the government’s “profound disdain” over the report.

“I don’t agree with a word of what was written,” Tajani said. “There is no racism within the Italian police force. We must respect those who serve the country, working day and night for everyone’s safety.”

Matteo Salvini, who along with Tajani is deputy prime minister, said the police force had been “dragged through the mud” by a “useless” organisation.

While the ECRI accusations against the police struck a nerve, the report delivered an unflattering view of Italy in other areas, too. It noted “with serious concern” that “Italian public discourse has become increasingly xenophobic in recent years, and political speech has taken on highly divisive and antagonistic overtones particularly targeting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, as well as Italian citizens with migration backgrounds, Roma and LGBTI persons”.

The report said a number of derogatory and hateful statements had come from “high-profile politicians and public officials, especially during election periods, both online and offline”.

While the report did not mention politicians by name, it referred to examples, such as a councillor in Florence who before the 2022 general election posted a video online of a Roma woman alongside a caption encouraging people to vote for his party in order to “never see her again”.

The report also referred to a book published by an army general in 2023 that contained racist and homophobic comments. The person in question was Roberto Vannacci, who was elected as an MEP in this year’s European elections.