Israel has launched direct airstrikes against Iran in a high-stakes retaliatory attack that brings the Middle East closer to a regional war that could draw in the US.

The Israeli military said it had completed its air attack on Saturday morning, hitting missile manufacturing sites and aerial defences in several areas inside Iran. Israel’s public broadcaster said three waves of strikes had been completed.

Iranian air defences said Israel attacked military targets in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam and that “limited damage” was caused to some locations.

A senior US official described the strikes as “extensive”, “precise” and against military targets across Iran. The US did not participate in the strikes, the official said, but worked with the Israeli government to encourage a low-risk attack with no civilian harm. “The effect was a proportionate self-defence response. The effect is to deter future attacks and to degrade Iran’s abilities to launch future attacks.”

The official stressed that the US considered the operation to be an “end to the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran”.

“This should be the end of the direct military exchange between Israel and Iran – we had a direct exchange in April and that was closed off and now we’ve had this direct exchange again.”

At least seven explosions were reported over the capital, Tehran, and nearby Karaj as well as the eastern city of Mashhad just after 2.30am local time on Saturday, as Israeli jets struck military targets in the country.

Iranian media initially appeared to downplay the airstrikes, noting that Tehran’s airport was operating normally. State TV reported several strong explosions heard around the capital, while the state news agency, IRNA, said there had been no casualties. There was no immediate official comment about the source of explosions, which Iranian news outlets reported were under investigation. Air defence systems were activated around the country.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took the rare step of acknowledging the attack on Iran, in a confirmation that a decades-old shadow war between the enemy states has now firmly moved into the open.

Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster, said dozens of fighter jets were involved in the operation.

“In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the state of Israel – right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran,” the IDF said in a statement posted to X.

The attacks were widely expected as a retaliation to a missile barrage launched by Iran on 1 October that saw an estimated 180 ballistic missiles fired towards Tel Aviv and military bases, in an unprecedented direct altercation between the two regional enemy states.

Tehran said the unprecedented salvo was fired in support of its Lebanese ally Hezbollah after Israel’s ground invasion, as well as in response to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader, in the Iranian capital in July.

While most of the missiles were shot down, dozens managed to strike the Nevatim airbase, demonstrating that Iran could at least partially penetrate Israel’s sophisticated air defence systems at some of the country’s most highly protected sites. One person was killed in the occupied West Bank.

US president Joe Biden had said that Israel should not target Iranian nuclear or oil facilities in an effort to prevent an escalation of the conflict that could lead to a direct war.

Miscalculation could propel Iran and Israel into full-scale hostilities; the US, Israel’s staunch ally and main arms supplier, is wary of being drawn into the fighting and of negative impacts on the global oil industry.

Before Israel launched the airstrikes on Saturday, Iran had repeatedly warned there were “no red lines” for Iran on the issue of defending itself. Last week, the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, also indirectly threatened US forces against operating in Israel after Washington dispatched a Thaad advanced missile defence system battery and 100 troops to aid its ally amid the tensions.

However, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander implicitly stated in remarks on Thursday that Tehran would be unlikely to retaliate further if Israel’s attack was considered “limited” and did not cause casualties.

US news outlet Axios reported on Saturday that US and Israeli officials assess that Iran will respond militarily, but in a limited fashion.

In the statement on Saturday, Israel’s military said the attacks were a retaliation for a number of attacks against Israel, including the 7 October 2023 raid by the Iran-allied Palestinian group Hamasin which 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 abducted.

Israel responded by launching the war in the Gaza Strip, which has devastated the region and killed at least 42,000 Palestinians. Israel has also launched aerial and ground operations against Hezbollah, another powerful militia in Tehran’s “axis of resistance”, in Lebanon, after a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire which displaced hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the border. The fighting in Gaza has draw in other Iranian proxies operating in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil. Like every other sovereign country in the world, the state of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”

Israel is fearful of a costly war of attrition with Iran while it is fighting in Gaza and Lebanon. After Tehran fired its first ever direct salvo at Israel in April in retaliation for the killing of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander in Syria, Israel heeded western calls for restraint, striking an air defence battery at an Iranian airbase.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said this week that enemies would “pay a heavy price” for trying to harm Israel.

The White House was notified shortly before Israel carried out airstrikes on Iran, a spokesperson said. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had said on Wednesday that Israel’s retaliation should not lead to greater escalation.

“We understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defence and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st,” said Sean Savett, the White House national security council spokesperson.

In a possible indication of the scope of Israel’s attack on Saturday, state media in Syria also reported Syrian air defences had intercepted what was described as “hostile targets” and “sounds of explosions” near the capital city, Damascus, without elaborating.

At least 72 people have been killed in Israeli operations across Gaza in the past day, hospital officials in the besieged territory have said, although communication difficulties in the north of the strip mean the final toll could be much higher.

In the central town of Khan Younis, 38 people, including at least 13 children from the same family, were killed in airstrikes early on Friday, hospital records showed. Relatives cradled their bruised and broken bodies in the morgue of the nearby European hospital before they were buried, in some cases several children to a shroud.

Other survivors sifted through the rubble of the strike, which hit the Manara neighbourhood, for belongings such as clothes and documents. Saleh al-Farra, who lost his 17-year-old brother and 15-year-old sister in the attack, said he remembered the family tried to move into the middle of the building for safety before a direct hit collapsed the structure and he passed out.

“I started screaming until my brother and father came, and they started trying to get me out. I didn’t know anything about anyone,” he told the Associated Press.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it had killed Palestinian gunmen in air and ground strikes in the area.

Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, where Israel on 6 October launched a fierce new offensive that critics say is designed to force the remaining population to flee, internet and phone service blackouts mean it is unclear what happened in a reported Israeli airstrike overnight on a block of houses in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

In a statement on Friday, the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said he believed the “darkest moment” of the war was unfolding in northern Gaza, “where the Israeli military is effectively subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation”.

He said of the offensive: “Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day … We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”

In a video posted to social media late on Thursday, Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera journalist from Jabaliya, said a total of 150 people had been killed and wounded in a huge airstrike that flattened 11 buildings, although there has been almost no official account of the strike from health officials owing to Israeli ground forces and communications difficulties.

The civil defence service said on Thursday it had been forced to stop operating in the area due to Israeli targeting of its crews and vehicles, and Jabaliya camp is believed to be under a total siege by Israeli ground forces.

“There is no civil defence, no journalists, no coverage, and nothing but death and destruction … The wounded died without ambulances or hospitals. No one could hear or see them except God,” Sharif wrote.

A civil defence spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal, also said the death toll was believed to be 150. There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.

North Gaza’s three remaining hospitals are struggling to cope due to a near-total Israeli blockade on aid and medical equipment. On Friday, the Israeli military said it had raided Kamal Adwan hospital because of intelligence that Hamas was operating in the area.

It also said it had evacuated some patients and delivered fuel and supplies to the facility, although there were conflicting reports that the delivery had been made by the World Health Organization.

The hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, said in a social media video on Thursday night that several patients had already died due to a lack of supplies and medicine such as antibiotics, and one doctor had been killed by shelling on his way to work on Wednesday.

About 200 patients are estimated to be at the facility, according to the WHO.

“We’re a few hours away from the death of all these people,” Abu Safiya said. “Until when will this continue? Instead of receiving aid, we receive tanks.”

On Friday, the WHO said that it had lost contact with staff at the hospital.

Türk called on world leaders to act on the situation in Gaza, stressing that all states were responsible under the Geneva conventions to ensure respect for international humanitarian law.

“For months, I have pleaded with all parties to the conflict, as well as all states … to act to stop the carnage and destruction, to ensure the prompt and unconditional release of all hostages, and to ensure international humanitarian and international human rights law are respected,” he said. “But still this goes on and on and on.”

International efforts at brokering a ceasefire in the year-long Israel-Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack are expected to resume next week, but observers say a short truce of 12 days is under discussion rather than a lasting ceasefire aimed at bringing the conflict to an end.

Jordan’s foreign minister has called for pressure on Israel to end what he called the “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, as he met the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in London.

Blinken, who is still hoping Gaza peace talks can be revived, stopped over in the UK to brief leaders from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after he had been unable to meet them on his recent tour of the Middle East.

Deploring the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, Jordan’s Ayman Safadi told Blinken: “We do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop.”

He added: “We really stand at the brink of regional war now. The only path to save the region from that is for Israel to stop the aggressions on Gaza, on Lebanon, stop unilateral measures, illegal measures, in the West Bank, that is also pushing the situation to an abyss.”

On 13 October Blinken wrote jointly with the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, to Israel urging it to increase the number of aid trucks entering Gaza to 350 a day within 30 days, but since then on no day has the number of trucks exceeded 114.

Although Blinken claimed to have seen an improvement in the amount of aid during his trip to the Middle East, Arab diplomatic sources said the figures were nowhere near the level the Biden administration previously said in its letter would be requiredif Israel was not to face punishment including the potential stopping of US weapons transfers.

Separately, in talks with Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, Blinken said: “We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN security council resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along the border between Israel and Lebanon.”

Resolution 1701, approved in 2006 after an earlier war, calls for the disarmament of non-state groups in Lebanon – including Hezbollah, which in effect runs its own armed militia – and for a full Israeli withdrawal from the country.

Blinken said it was important so “people at both sides of the border can have the confidence to be able to return to their homes”.

His remarks stopped short of a call for an immediate ceasefire, the position adopted by the French, since the US believes that if Hezbollah can be weakened further the political deadlock that prevents the formation of a full government can be broken.

One precondition for a full implementation of 1701 is strengthening the official Lebanese armed forces. On Thursday at a conference in Paris, the international community promised to pay €200m (£165m) to strengthen the Lebanese army, in particular by recruiting soldiers. A further €800m was raised to help the humanitarian crisis.

Mikati said his government’s priority was reaching “a ceasefire and deterring the Israeli aggression”. He said there were more than 1.4 million people displaced from the areas being attacked by Israel. “Israel is also violating international law by attacking civilians, journalists and medical staff,” he said.

He added: “What is required is a real commitment from Israel to a ceasefire, because the previous experience regarding the American-French call, supported by the Arabs and the international community, for a ceasefire affected everyone’s credibility.”

Mikati was referring to a proposal for an initial 21-day truce agreed at the UN general assembly in the false belief that it had the support of the Israelis.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia was planning to send North Korean troops into battle against his country as early as Sunday, and urged world leaders to pile “tangible pressure” on Pyongyang.

• South Korea urged Russia to stop its “illegal cooperation” with North Korea and voiced “grave concern” on Friday as Moscow moved to ratify its defence treaty with Pyongyang. Seoul has been watching the deployment of North Korea troops to Russia with growing unease.

• Zelenskyy’s chief of staff said on Friday that a full withdrawal of Russian troops, and not just peace talks, were essential to ending the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war. Andriy Yermak addressed an international meeting devoted to implementing a peace plan, saying “Don’t expect this war to end when the warring sides begin to talk to each other … Don’t be deceived. This war will end when the last soldier of the occupying army returns home.”

• G7 leaders have finalised details surrounding a $50bn loan to aid Kyiv, backed by profits from Russian sovereign assets frozen after its invasion of Ukraine, according to a statement released Friday. Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies said they “have reached a consensus on how to deliver” the loans of approximately $50bn, with an aim to start disbursing funds by the end of this year.

• A Russian missile attack hit residences and a medical facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday evening, killing three people and injuring at least nine, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said. Lysak, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said an eight-year-old girl and a teenage boy and were among the injured. News reports from the city said several strikes hit different areas there.

• A Russian drone struck a high-rise residential building in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday, killing a teenage girl and injuring five other people, authorities said. Medics quickly rushed to the scene of the attack, which took place in Kyiv’s western Solomianskyi district, while rescue workers evacuated over 100 people.

Chinese government-linked hackers are believed to have targeted phones used by Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, as part of a larger breach of US telecommunications networks, according to a New York Times report.

The Trump campaign was informed this week that the phone numbers of the Republican presidential and vice-presidential nominee were among those targeted during a breach of the Verizon network, the paper said, citing sources.

Investigators are working to determine what data, if any, was accessed by the “sophisticated” hack, the sources said. Other current and former government officials were also targeted, according to the report.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed an investigation was under way into the “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China”. It did not name the Trump campaign in the statement.

“After the FBI identified specific malicious activity targeting the sector, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) immediately notified affected companies, rendered technical assistance, and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims,” the agency said.

The Trump campaign did not directly address whether the phones used by Trump and Vance had been targeted.

In a statement, a Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, criticized the White House and Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, and sought to blame them for allowing a foreign adversary to target the campaign, the Times reported.

A Wall Street Journal report last month said a cyber-attack linked to the Chinese government had infiltrated multiple US telecommunications firms and may have gained access to systems used by the federal government in court-approved wiretapping efforts.

The hackers accessed at least three telecommunication companies – AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies – in what may have been an attempt to find sensitive information related to national security, according to the report.

The Trump campaign earlier this year revealed it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents.

The US justice department unsealed criminal charges in September against three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps suspected of hacking the Trump campaign.

Justice department officials said hackers were trying to undermine Trump’s campaign and intended to sow discord, exploit divisions within American society and potentially influence the outcome of the 5 November election.

With the election under two weeks away, Trump and Kamala Harris are locked in a tight race. In both national head-to-head polls and surveys in the crucial swing states where the election will be decided, the pair seem almost deadlocked.

There was uproar and outrage among the Washington Post’s current and former staffers and other notable figures in the world of American media after the newspaper’s leaders on Friday chose to not endorse any candidate in the US presidential election.

The newspaper’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced on Friday that for the first time in over 30 years, the paper’s editorial board would not be endorsing a candidate in this year’s presidential election, nor in future presidential elections.

After the news broke, reactions came flooding in, with people criticizing the decision, which, according to some staffers and reporters, was allegedly made by the Post’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Karen Attiah, a columnist for the Washington Post who writes a weekly newsletter, called the decision an “absolute stab in the back”.

“What an insult to those of us who have literally put our careers and lives on the line, to call out threats to human rights and democracy,” she added.

In a statement, the union representing editorial staff and reporters at the Washington Post expressed that they were “deeply concerned” by the decision “especially a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election”.

“The role of an Editorial Board is to do just this: to share opinions on the news impacting our society and culture and endorse candidates to help guide readers,” the statement reads.

It also concerns that “management interfered with the work of our members in Editorial” they said, adding that according to the newspapers reporters and staffers, an endorsement for the vice-president, Kamala Harris, had already been drafted, and the decision to not publish was made by Bezos.

The union added that since the decision was announced, they are “already seeing cancellations from once loyal readers” and Semafor reported that in the 24 hours ending on Friday afternoon, about 2,000 subscribers had already canceled their subscriptions.

In a statement on X, Marty Baron, the former executive editor of the Washington Post, called the paper’s decision “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty”.

Donald Trump, Baron said, would “see this as an invitation to further intimidate the owner” of the Washington Post – Bezos. “Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage”, Baron added.

David Maraniss, a Pulitzer-winning reporter and editor at the Post, added: “The paper I’ve loved working at for 47 years is dying in darkness.”

Another former editor at the paper, Robert McCartney, said: “Given the choice this year, it’s appalling.”

Multiple outlets have also reported that Robert Kagan, the newspaper’s editor at large, has decided to resign from the editorial board following the announcement of the paper not to endorse in the presidential race.

Susan Rice, the former US ambassador to the United Nations and former domestic policy adviser for the Biden administration, called the decision “hypocritical”.

“So much for ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’,” she said, referring to the newspaper’s official slogan, adopted in 2017 under Bezos’s ownership. “This is the most hypocritical, chicken-shit move from a publication that is supposed to hold people in power to account.”

On Friday afternoon, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” and “WaPo” were trending on X, and NPR’s media correspondent, David Folkenflik, was reporting that “the furor” at the Washington Post was so much that its chief tech officer was getting engineers to block questions from readers about its decision to not make an endorsement.

Officials in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, are investigating about 2,500 voter registrations after election workers discovered signs that they may be fraudulent.

The registrations under investigation were dropped off in two batches just before Pennsylvania’s voter-registration deadline on Monday. Election workers contacted the district attorney’s office after they noticed several suspicious applications that contained the same handwriting, signatures for voters that didn’t match what was on file, and inaccurate personal identifier information, including names, addresses, social security and driver’s license numbers, said Heather Adams, the district attorney, during a press conference on Friday.

Investigators also spoke with voters who said they had not requested or filled out the forms that were turned in, she said.

The announcement comes as voting is already under way in Pennsylvania, a must-win battleground state for both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris this election. Lancaster county, known for its Amish population, voted for Trump by nearly 16 points in 2020.

Adams did not say how many applications her office had reviewed so far, but said that 60% of them had been fraudulent. She acknowledged that there were some legitimate applications in the batch and said those registrations would be processed.

The effort appears to be associated with a large-scale canvassing group – she did not identify which one – and said that two other counties in the state are investigating a similar issue. The canvassers were paid, a common practice. Officials did not say whether there was a partisan breakdown in the applications.

“It really shouldn’t matter. If there’s voters on the books that shouldn’t be, it increases the chance that we’re gonna have voter fraud,” Williams said.

The announcement comes days after the county was accused of wrongfully holding up voter-registration applications from students.

The Chinese military is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests.

Analysis by Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island, on the south-west corner of the Paracel archipelago, building what may be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery, as well as the sophisticated radar system.

“By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send a powerful signal to US allies and partners in the region that the US advanced technologies may not be able to stand up to the PLA (People’s Liberation Army),” said Michael Dahm, a senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Similar counter-stealth radars, known as SIAR, or synthetic impulse and aperture radar, have been built to the south, on Subi reef in the Spratly Island chain, and on Hainan Island, to the north. The construction on Triton will close a gap in its coverage. “Triton Island is another brick in the wall,” said Dahm, who added China has for three decades been building technologies to protect against the advanced stealth capabilities of the US.

Triton, a reef about 120ha in size, lies in the farthest south-west corner of the Paracels, an archipelago that has been controlled by China since a violent conflict with Vietnam in 1974. It is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

China claims much of the South China Sea as its own, despite an international tribunal judgment rejecting its arguments. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the strategic waterway.

The US is not a claimant but says the key trade route is crucial to its national interest, and it often conducts freedom of navigation operations through the area. It has a mutual defence treaty with Manila and has pledged to defend the Philippines from an attack in the South China Sea.

Over the past two years China has repeatedly been accused of aggressive behaviour in the waters, with analysts warning such confrontations risk spiraling into conflict.

Earlier this month Vietnam accused Chinese law enforcement personnel of assaulting 10 Vietnamese fishers and seizing about four tonnes of fish catch in an incident near the Paracel Islands. The islands are not only rich fishing grounds, but also contain oil and gas reserves.

Any construction on Triton – which lies 135 nautical miles east of Vietnam’s mainland, and 170 nautical miles south of China’s Hainan – is likely to be of concern to Hanoi.

According to Chatham House’s analysis the intelligence structures on Triton would “significantly diminish [Vietnam’s] capacity to operate undetected in the area”.

“Alongside existing radar on Triton which can detect sea-going vessels, Beijing now has the potential to track Vietnamese air movements and gain forewarning of Hanoi’s manoeuvres in the area, including efforts to access oil and gas deposits,” it said.

The radar may also complicate attempts by the US, British and Australian navies to navigate in the surrounding waters, it added.

Chatham House suggests there are several building projects on Triton. These include a large pad at the end of a road network, which may be used as a launching point for a mobile anti-ship missile battery, while another building, visible on satellite imagery, may be used as a storage facility for missile transport vehicles.

Such construction work marked efforts to shore up the south-western edge of the Paracels, according to Dahm. “Triton Island really represents the weak point in the fortress,” said Dahm, who added China had already build significant capabilities on Woody Island and on other reefs in the north-east of the archipelago.

The Chinese military is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests.

Analysis by Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island, on the south-west corner of the Paracel archipelago, building what may be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery, as well as the sophisticated radar system.

“By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send a powerful signal to US allies and partners in the region that the US advanced technologies may not be able to stand up to the PLA (People’s Liberation Army),” said Michael Dahm, a senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Similar counter-stealth radars, known as SIAR, or synthetic impulse and aperture radar, have been built to the south, on Subi reef in the Spratly Island chain, and on Hainan Island, to the north. The construction on Triton will close a gap in its coverage. “Triton Island is another brick in the wall,” said Dahm, who added China has for three decades been building technologies to protect against the advanced stealth capabilities of the US.

Triton, a reef about 120ha in size, lies in the farthest south-west corner of the Paracels, an archipelago that has been controlled by China since a violent conflict with Vietnam in 1974. It is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

China claims much of the South China Sea as its own, despite an international tribunal judgment rejecting its arguments. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the strategic waterway.

The US is not a claimant but says the key trade route is crucial to its national interest, and it often conducts freedom of navigation operations through the area. It has a mutual defence treaty with Manila and has pledged to defend the Philippines from an attack in the South China Sea.

Over the past two years China has repeatedly been accused of aggressive behaviour in the waters, with analysts warning such confrontations risk spiraling into conflict.

Earlier this month Vietnam accused Chinese law enforcement personnel of assaulting 10 Vietnamese fishers and seizing about four tonnes of fish catch in an incident near the Paracel Islands. The islands are not only rich fishing grounds, but also contain oil and gas reserves.

Any construction on Triton – which lies 135 nautical miles east of Vietnam’s mainland, and 170 nautical miles south of China’s Hainan – is likely to be of concern to Hanoi.

According to Chatham House’s analysis the intelligence structures on Triton would “significantly diminish [Vietnam’s] capacity to operate undetected in the area”.

“Alongside existing radar on Triton which can detect sea-going vessels, Beijing now has the potential to track Vietnamese air movements and gain forewarning of Hanoi’s manoeuvres in the area, including efforts to access oil and gas deposits,” it said.

The radar may also complicate attempts by the US, British and Australian navies to navigate in the surrounding waters, it added.

Chatham House suggests there are several building projects on Triton. These include a large pad at the end of a road network, which may be used as a launching point for a mobile anti-ship missile battery, while another building, visible on satellite imagery, may be used as a storage facility for missile transport vehicles.

Such construction work marked efforts to shore up the south-western edge of the Paracels, according to Dahm. “Triton Island really represents the weak point in the fortress,” said Dahm, who added China had already build significant capabilities on Woody Island and on other reefs in the north-east of the archipelago.

The UK will increase its military and economic presence in the Indo-Pacific to support regional stability, Keir Starmer will announce on Saturday.

In an effort to counter China’s influence, ministers will expand the Royal Navy’s presence in the region and carry out more joint patrols with Pacific island nations.

The prime minister has warned that the UK “cannot turn a blind eye” to challenges its allies face on the other side of the world.

He will announce the plans as he prepares to fly home from Samoa, where he has been attending the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm).

The navy patrols will focus on maritime security, combatting illegal fishing and responding to the natural disasters that blight the South Pacific, one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world.

The UK has two patrol vessels persistently deployed in the Indo-Pacific, including HMS Tamar, which has been supporting Samoa with security at Chogm.

Ministers will also set up a Pacific business club alongside Australia and cooperate on renewable energy projects with New Zealand.

Geopolitical competition for influence in the South Pacific is growing rapidly, sparking concerns about the militarisation of the region.

The Guardian has reported on the proliferation of military and security agreements between Pacific countries and Australia, the US and China, with western powers responding to China’s growing presence.

“My visit to the Pacific this week has only reinforced how important this part of the world is to the United Kingdom’s prosperity and security, and I know across business, trade and defence we play a vital role in supporting the region too,” Starmer said in a statement.

“As responsible international players, we cannot turn a blind eye to the challenges faced by our friends and partners on the other side of the world, so my message today is clear: this is just the beginning of our commitment to the Indo-Pacific.”

After a foreign policy and security review they carried out in 2021, the Conservatives under Boris Johnson announced an “Indo-Pacific tilt” in which the UK would focus on building trade and security ties with the region. There have been questions over whether Labour will embrace the Indo-Pacific tilt in government.

Ministers said the expansion in the Indo-Pacific would also focus on growth, with a Pacific business club aiming to help businesses invest in developing countries in the region.

The purpose of the club will be to act as a launchpad for investors and create links between businesses and regional governments.

The government will also work with New Zealand to develop renewable energy projects in the Pacific by raising private investment and making it easier for businesses to move into the market. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is expected to announce further details with his New Zealand counterpart later this year.

Phil Lesh, the influential bassist of the Grateful Dead who powered many of the jam band’s touring incarnations after the 1995 death of Jerry Garcia, has died. He was 84.

Lesh’s death was announced on his Instagram page. “Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning,” the caption reads. “He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.”

Born on 15 March 1940 in Berkeley, California, Lesh was a student of classical music throughout childhood. A trained trumpet player, he studied with the avant garde composer Luciano Berio and played with minimalist composer Steve Reich. He switched to bass – an instrument he had never played – in 1965 after he was recruited by the Warlocks, a band fronted by his friend Garcia, for a show at a pizzeria in Menlo Park, California.

“I was so excited that I didn’t have to think about it … but I knew something great was happening, something bigger than everybody, bigger than me for sure,” Lesh told the Dead’s publicist and official historian Dennis McNally for the 2002 book A Long Strange Trip, according to Variety.

Lesh’s imprint was crucial on the early sound of the Grateful Dead, often credited alongside Garcia. He co-authored a number of compositions, including St Stephen, The Eleven and Dark Star, that became staples of the jam band’s repertoire. Between 1967 and 1990, Lesh appeared on all 13 of the Grateful Dead’s studio releases and 10 official live albums. Along with Garcia, guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Lesh remained a vital part of the improvisational band’s touring lineup for 30 years.

After Garcia’s death in 1995 at the age of 53, Lesh was a staple of the band’s later touring arrangements, including the Other Ones (1998-1999), the Dead (2003-2004, 2008-2009) and Furthur (2009-2013). He sat out the band’s latest incarnation, Dead & Company, fronted by John Mayer.

Along with the other members of the Grateful Dead, Lesh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He is survived by his wife, Jill, and their sons, Grahame and Brian, both of whom performed with the Terrapin Family Band, Lesh’s late-in-life band formed through his family-operated music hall and restaurant in San Rafael, California.

A major Venezuelan opposition party has said that one of its activists was murdered this week after being detained by security officials in the western state of Apure.

Edwin Santos “was murdered after being abducted by members of the state security forces” on Wednesday, Voluntad Popular (VP) party said, blaming the iron-fisted regime of the leftwing president, Nicolás Maduro.

VP said Santos was found dead on Friday morning on a bridge that had been a focus of his advocacy, after going missing on Wednesday afternoon while traveling in the rural El Pinal district.

“Witnesses in the region confirmed that he was intercepted by state security agents,” the party said in a statement.

It added that it had confirmed on Thursday he was in custody at the headquarters of Venezuela’s military counter-intelligence agency in Guasdualito, a city close to the Colombian border.

Party official Adriana Pichardo told AFP that Santos’s wife had identified his body.

“During the past few months he had fought for his community, denouncing the collapse of the bridge that links Apure with [the neighbouring state of] Tachira,” VP said, adding: “It was on that bridge that he was found dead this morning.”

The bridge collapsed in July following heavy rain.

Writing on social platform X from Spain, where he is in exile, opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia called for justice to be served over Santos’s death.

“Venezuela wants and needs the truth,” said González Urrutia, who on Thursday shared the EU’s top human rights prize with opposition leader María Corina Machado for resisting Maduro’s regime.

Venezuelan opposition activists have been targeted in a sweeping crackdown since the July elections in which Maduro claimed to have won a third term despite the opposition publishing detailed polling results showing González Urrutia winning by a large margin.

A Nasa astronaut who just returned from the International Space Station has been hospitalized for an unspecified medical condition but remains stable, according to the US space agency.

The four-member Crew-8 mission splashed down off the coast of Florida early on Friday after nearly eight months aboard the orbital laboratory.

On its way back to Earth, the SpaceX Dragon executed a normal re-entry and splashdown, and recovery of the crew and spacecraft was without incident, Nasa said in a blog post.

But during routine medical assessments on the recovery ship, an “additional evaluation of the crew members was requested out of an abundance of caution”, it added, without elaborating.

The Nasa astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and the Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were all flown to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola.

Three were subsequently released, while one of the Nasa astronauts remains at the hospital “under observation as a precautionary measure”.

Nasa said it would not disclose specific medical information to protect the crew member’s privacy but would provide updates as available.

A Nasa astronaut who just returned from the International Space Station has been hospitalized for an unspecified medical condition but remains stable, according to the US space agency.

The four-member Crew-8 mission splashed down off the coast of Florida early on Friday after nearly eight months aboard the orbital laboratory.

On its way back to Earth, the SpaceX Dragon executed a normal re-entry and splashdown, and recovery of the crew and spacecraft was without incident, Nasa said in a blog post.

But during routine medical assessments on the recovery ship, an “additional evaluation of the crew members was requested out of an abundance of caution”, it added, without elaborating.

The Nasa astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and the Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were all flown to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola.

Three were subsequently released, while one of the Nasa astronauts remains at the hospital “under observation as a precautionary measure”.

Nasa said it would not disclose specific medical information to protect the crew member’s privacy but would provide updates as available.

The French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been left entirely without power after striking workers seized control of the territory’s power station.

Employees at the power station in the industrial zone of Jarry entered the command room “and caused an emergency shutdown of all the engines”, the Guadeloupe prefecture said in a statement on Friday.

The power cut comes amid a spate of unrest in French overseas territories including the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique and New Caledonia in the Pacific, where inhabitants complain that living standards are well below those of mainland France.

Police intervened and the archipelago’s prefect had “requisitioned” staff to bring the station back up to speed, it said.

Marie-Line Bassette, director of EDF, the company that provides Guadeloupe with power, told France Télévisions that it was “irresponsible to go as far as a blackout to deprive all of Guadeloupe of electricity for demands when there are means to manage this type of situation”.

The French government has mobilised “services and operators” to bring power back as soon as possible, said the energy minister, Olga Givernet.

A labour dispute over pay has pitted the energy branch of the CGT union against the EDF utility since 15 September.

Power outages have affected daily life in Jarry, the economic powerhouse of the French territory of close to 380,000 inhabitants, over the past week.

Leon Prosper Jimmy, an ambulance driver in Pointe-à-Pitre, said that taking charge of patients in apartment buildings had become difficult because of non-functioning lifts.

“We have to carry them,” he said, saying he often called the fire brigade or other services for backup. “We manage as best we can,” said the 41-year old.

The CHUG hospital centre said it had activated backup power generators which would keep “critical operations” going for 72 hours.

In a supermarket near the capital, inhabitants were stacking up with bottled water as the territory’s water supply began to be affected.

Many store shelves were empty as supplies were disrupted.

Guadeloupe looks after its own electricity needs, having no interconnection agreements with other countries.

Its power production is 70% thermal, stemming from burning fuel oil or wood pellets.

In Martinique, protesters defied curfews and clashed with police overnight into Friday morning, officials there said, more than a month since demonstrations erupted over rising living costs.

Clashes broke out as police tried to clear protesters’ roadblocks, the Martinique administration said. Crowds also tried to hijack a truck carrying fuel, it added.

The Martinique administration said one person was arrested overnight and many businesses had warned that the protests were having a “catastrophic” impact on the local economy.

Concerns have been raised about access to a scientific trove containing the genetic data and medical records of more than 500,000 people, after an investigation revealed that “race scientists” appeared to claim to have obtained the data.

A senior scientist has warned that the leadership responsible for the data held by UK Biobank “have to be very careful with ensuring that correct processes are followed” around access to the information in order to maintain public confidence.

Biobank holds the genetic data and medical records of more than 500,000 participants, which it shares in anonymised form with academics and researchers to support new scientific discoveries and medical advances.

Last week the Guardian reported that a group called the Human Diversity Foundation (HDF), which carries out pseudoscientific research purporting to prove fundamental differences between races, had been covertly filmed discussing UK Biobank data.

Mainstream geneticists consider such research to be a racist pseudoscience without supporting evidence. The footage was obtained by an undercover activist from the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate and shared with journalists.

On the day of the Guardian’s publication, Biobank issued a statement criticising the report and dismissing the findings. It said it had concluded what it called a “full” and “extensive” investigation that had found no evidence of misuse of UK Biobank data.

Biobank said it believed the group was discussing access to publicly available statistics that summarise the results of studies, rather than the anonymised data of the volunteers themselves.

However, in correspondence with a senior medic the following day, which has been seen by the Guardian, the Biobank chief executive, Prof Sir Rory Collins, said its inquiries were continuing.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we are pursuing further investigations to confirm whether or not there has been any misuse of UK Biobank data,” he said. “If we discover that participant-level data have been obtained illegitimately or that unapproved analyses have been conducted, we will use all available sanctions available to us (including legal measures).”

The comments appeared at odds with Biobank’s public announcement about the conclusion of its investigation. Asked about the discrepancy, a spokesperson said: “There is no contradiction between our statements. We launched an extensive investigation, including a third-party search of the internet and dark web, and found no evidence of these data being available to unapproved researchers. However, if we were to get new information it would enable us to investigate further.”

Biobank’s initial conclusions were partly based on analysis of a portion of the transcript of the undercover footage released by the Guardian. It said technical details in the transcript, such as file type, cast doubt on the suggestion that participant-level data, which is available only to approved researchers, had been obtained.

However, two senior geneticists and two health data experts who reviewed the same transcript said terms used by the HDF researchers in the undercover footage could refer to them having accessed such sensitive data.

David Curtis, a professor in genetics, evolution and environment at University College London, warned that any suggestion of the group accessing sensitive genetic data could affect public trust not only in Biobank but in science more generally. He questioned whether Biobank had been too quick to dismiss concerns.

“Maybe an appropriate response would be that these allegations are concerning and we’re looking into it, or that we’ve requested that an external person investigate this,” he said. “For them to say we’ve had our data scientist look at it and they think everything’s fine isn’t really good enough.”

Moral and medical questions

Separately, the Hope Not Hate investigation also recorded representatives of a US startup, Heliospect Genomics, describing Biobank data as a “godsend” that had allowed it to develop a system to predict traits such as IQ, sex and height, as well as risk of obesity or mental illness, in human embryos.

The company offers to help couples test their embryos as part of IVF treatment and has worked with more than a dozen families, according to the undercover footage. Experts say such practices would raise a host of moral and medical questions.

Biobank’s position on Heliospect’s use of its data changed over the course of the Guardian’s inquiries and there remains a degree of confusion about Biobank’s access policies.

Its spokespeople told the Guardian that Heliospect did not disclose screening of embryos for IQ as an intended commercial application. “All researchers, whether academic or commercial, applying to UK Biobank are required to make the purpose of their research explicit in their access application and subsequent annual reports,” the spokesperson said.

However, the following day, apparently after receiving new information from Heliospect, Biobank amended its position and issued a new statement. “Heliospect confirmed that its analyses of our data have been used solely for their approved purpose to generate genetic risk scores for particular conditions and characteristics, and are exploring the use of their findings for pre-implantation screening in accordance with relevant regulation in the US where Heliospect is based,” it said.

Heliospect told the Guardian that Biobank did not require companies to disclose the precise commercial applications of research.

Curtis questioned Biobank’s response. “I think they’ve got to have approval processes which are more rigorous,” he said.

Dr Francesca Forzano, the chair of the European Society of Human Genetics policy and ethics committee, called for stronger security processes around such datasets. She said: “We call on those who hold genomic datasets legitimately to ensure that access procedures are governed by robust and transparent processes, including about how decisions are made on whether or not the proposed research is in the public interest. Secondary use of data should be strictly prohibited and the dataset provided only used for the original, approved purpose.”

Lawyers acting for victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster have said they will pursue their claim in the UK despite the announcement of a $31bn (£23.9bn) settlement between the Anglo-Australian mining company at the centre of the scandal and the Brazilian authorities.

After three years of negotiations, Mike Henry, BHP’s chief executive, announced on Friday that a “milestone” deal would ensure compensation for all those affected by the catastrophic collapse of the Fundão dam in 2015.

Nineteen people were killed when the dam, near Mariana in south-east Brazil, collapsed on 5 November 2015, releasing an avalanche of toxic waste that overwhelmed the small community of Bento Rodrigues within minutes. It went on to spill into the neighbouring municipalities of Mariana, Barra Longa, Rio Doce and Santa Cruz do Escalvado.

BHP described Friday’s settlement as “full and final” but lawyers acting for largest group action in English legal history – including 620,000 individuals, 46 Brazilian municipalities, 2,000 businesses and 65 faith-based institutions – said they would continue to seek up to £36bn from BHP in a high court trial that started on Monday.

Tom Goodhead, global managing partner and chief executive at Pogust Goodhead, likened the deal in Brazil, and the company’s past offers of compensation, to the widely criticised response of the Post Office to the Horizon scandal.

He said: “The deal with the Brazilian authorities only serves to highlight exactly why the proceedings in the English courts are so critical.

“The victims have not been consulted on the deal and parts of the reparations will be spread over 20 years. It is therefore simply a first step in an ongoing battle for justice and adequate compensation for Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.

“Our legal case will publicly hold BHP to account and set a precedent; making it more difficult for multinational corporations more broadly to neglect their responsibility to the communities in which they operate.

“We must remember that in the immediate aftermath, BHP made insulting offers as low as $200 to people who had their lives destroyed in the disaster. This approach mirrors that of the Post Office scandal in the UK, where victims were offered negligible amounts of compensation after waiting for many years.”

BHP claimed in its opening submissions in the first week of the 12-week high court trial that the company, a joint shareholder in the dam with the Brazilian mining company Vale, was not liable for the damage and that the municipalities taking their case to the UK high court were not capable of suing in the English courts.

In a statement issued on Friday, the company said it was nevertheless doing “what’s right by the Brazilian people, communities, organisations, and environments affected by the dam failure” by agreeing to the $31bn settlement.

Under the terms of the deal, funds will be paid in instalments over the next two decades to “the public authorities, the relevant municipalities and Indigenous peoples and traditional communities”.

Goodhead said: “BHP must also be upfront with its investors and shareholders of the extent to which its liabilities in this disaster stretch well beyond this deal struck with the Brazilian authorities and of their very real exposure to further significant material and reputational risk.

“The English courts have been clear: the trial in England can proceed regardless of events in Brazil despite BHP’s repeated attempts to deny our claimants this rightful avenue to justice. We remain committed to ensuring that victims receive fair and full compensation for the losses suffered.”

A new temporary bronze installation depicting a pile of feces on Nancy Pelosi’s desk was erected in Washington DC this week across from the US Capitol, appearing to satirically “honor” the people behind the January 6 insurrection.

The scatological statue, which was installed on Thursday, features a swirl somewhat resembling the common “poop” emoji sitting on a desk with Pelosi’s name.

“This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election,” the plaque under the statue reads.

“President Trump celebrates these heroes of January 6th as ‘unbelievable patriots’ and ‘warriors.’ This monument stands as a testament to their daring sacrifice and lasting legacy.”

The statue does not indicate who the artist is or who created it. However, according to the Washington Post, the National Park Service approved a permit request from Julia Jimenez-Pyzik of Civic Crafted LLC to install a statue on the National Mall until 30 October.

The Park Service added that when issuing permits it “does not consider the content of the message being presented”, and that “as federal land and America’s premier civic space, the National Mall serves as a forum where citizens can exercise their Constitutional rights to speech and assembly”.

In the permit, obtained by NBC News, Civic Crafted LLC said the desk “represents the heart of democracy, where decisions are made, voices are heard, and the future is shaped”.

“Here, the power of the people finds its expression through the diligent efforts of those who serve the public good,” it said. “When rioters broke in to destroy these ideals, this desk stands firm, so too must the principles of equality, justice, and freedom that it represents.”

It added that the statue is named The Resolute Desk.

Social media reaction ranged from “tasteless” and a “total embarrassment” to “awesome”. “Welcome to America, where a bronze poop statue honoring the people who tried to break our democracy currently stands on the National Mall,” one user posted.

According to NBC News, the permit indicates that another statue, depicting a hand emerging from a stone base and holding a tiki torch, will be installed next week between the Capitol and the White House.