The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has fired his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, a figure widely considered by Israel’s international allies to be a brake on the far-right elements of the country’s coalition government, prompting protests around Israel.

Netanyahu said in a video statement late on Tuesday that “significant gaps on handling the battle” in Gaza had emerged.

“At the height of a war, complete trust is needed between the prime minister and the defence minister … In recent months, that trust between me and the defence minister was damaged,” he said. The move prompted protests across the country.

Israel Katz, a fellow Likud party member currently serving as foreign minister, will replace Gallant. The leader of the centre-right New Hope, Gideon Saar, who rejoined Netanyahu’s coalition in September, will serve as foreign minister.

Katz posted on X: “We will work together to march the security system to victory against our enemies and to achieve the goals of the war: the return of all the abductees as the most important value mission, the destruction
of Hamas in Gaza, the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the containment of
Iranian aggression and the return of the residents of the north and
south to their homes in safety.”

Within hours, thousands of protesters gathered in central Tel Aviv, pounding drums and blocking the city’s main highway. About 1,000 people demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem, while protests and roadblocks also sprang up in other spots across the country, with some demonstrators reportedly clashing with police.

In Tel Aviv, the demonstrators held up signs with slogans such as “We deserve better leaders” and “Leaving no one behind!”. One protester wore handcuffs and a face mask with Netanyahu’s likeness, while others wore “Bring them home now!” T-shirts in reference to Gaza-held hostages.

“We, the protesters, believe that Gallant … is actually the only normal person in the government,” said teacher Samuel Miller, 54, condemning Netanyahu’s government for opening “new fronts in uncalled-for wars”.

Netanyahu had been at odds with Gallant since his latest coalition entered office at the end of 2022, when the defence minister became the only senior government figure opposed to planned judicial reforms that critics said amounted to democratic backsliding.

His dismissal was long expected. Over 13 months of war in Gaza, and one in Lebanon, disagreements over strategy and how best to bring Israeli hostages home frequently put the two men at loggerheads. The final straw appears to have been Gallant’s renewed efforts this week to enforce military conscription for the Ultra-Orthodox community. The two Ultra-Orthodox parties in the Knesset, Netanyahu’s longstanding allies, are obdurately opposed to the new policy.

In a statement late on Tuesday, Gallant said his dismissal was triggered by disputes over Ultra-Orthodox conscription, Israel’s “moral obligation to return the hostages” and the need for a full inquiry to learn lessons of the 7 October terror attacks.

Gallant had also publicly dismissed Netanyahu’s oft-repeated goal of “total victory” over Hamas, saying that Israel’s military success had created the conditions for a diplomatic deal. “The security of the state of Israel was and will always remain the mission of my life,” he wrote on X on Tuesday night, minutes after Netanyahu’s announcement.

The Hostage Families Forum released a statement in which it expressed deep concern over how the sudden change could affect the fate of the 101 hostages still in Gaza.

“We expect the incoming defence minister to prioritise a hostage deal and work closely with mediators and the international community to secure the immediate release of all hostages,” it said.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X that the move was an “act of madness” in the middle of a war. “Netanyahu is selling Israel’s security and the Israeli army soldiers for a disgraceful political survival,” he said.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, whose largely ceremonial office is meant to help unify the country, called the dismissal “the last thing Israel needs”.

The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, praised Netanyahu for firing Gallant. “With Gallant … absolute victory cannot be achieved – and the prime minister did well to remove him from his position,” Ben-Gvir said on Telegram.

Yair Golan, the head of the Democrats, a newly formed leftwing party, used social media to urge Israelis to take to the streets in protest against Gallant’s firing. Thousands of Israelis took part in spontaneous demonstrations and strikes in March to oppose Netanyahu’s first attempt to fire his defence minister over the judicial overhaul. The unexpected backlash forced the prime minister to reverse his decision and postpone the overhaul until the next Knesset session.

Polls show that Gallant has consistently been the most popular member of Netanyahu’s cabinet. A senior general in the military before entering politics, he was widely viewed at home and abroad as a moderate influence over Netanyahu’s decision making. The prosecutor’s office of the international criminal court is seeking an arrest warrant for both men over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

Benny Gantz, a major Netanyahu rival, former defence minister and leader of the centre-right National Unity party, joined the prime minister’s three-man war cabinet alongside Gallant after the 7 October Hamas attack, but he resigned in June, saying Netanyahu was “preventing us from progressing towards a true victory”.

Gantz described the move as “politics at the expense of national security”.

It is possible that the prime minister could shutter the war cabinet and revert to a former model in which security issues are discussed in a limited forum before being presented at regular cabinet meetings.

A White House spokesperson praised Gallant as an “important partner” and said the US would “continue to work collaboratively with Israel’s next minister of defence”.

However, a senior US official said it had “real questions about the reasons for Gallant’s firing and about what is driving the decision”, the Israeli paper Haaretz reported. It quoted the official as saying Netanyahu’s decision was “surprising” and “concerning, especially in the middle of two wars and as Israel prepares to defend against a potential attack from Iran”.

In Gaza, the World Health Organization said it hoped the biggest medical evacuation from the territory since the war broke out would get under way on Wednesday, with 113 seriously ill and injured patients expected to leave via Israel for treatment in the United Arab Emirates and Romania.

About 14,000 people are in urgent need of medical care outside Gaza, according to WHO data. Around half are suffering from severe injuries caused by the fighting and half from serious conditions such as cancer.

Israel granted permission for about 5,000 people to leave Gaza for medical reasons earlier in the war, but only 282 have been able to do so since Israeli forces seized control of Rafah on the Egyptian border in May. Rafah had served as Gaza’s main lifeline to the outside world since Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on the territory after Hamas took control of it in 2007.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the medical evacuees would be transferred from the northern third of Gaza, which Israel cut off from the rest of the strip at the beginning of the year. Israeli forces have waged a renewed ground and aerial offensive on the area since early October, which it says is necessary to mop up Hamas cells that have regrouped.

Sweeping evacuation orders for the 400,000 people whom the UN estimates still live there, the blockade of aid and food deliveries and the targeting of civilian infrastructure including the three remaining and struggling hospitals have led rights groups to accuse Israel of the war crime of seeking to forcibly displace the remaining population.

Israel has denied it is systematically removing Palestinians from the area or using food as a weapon, both of which are illegal under international law.

At least 30 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Tuesday, including eight women and six children in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. The Israeli military said it had targeted a weapons storage facility.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fire his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, removes one of the harshest critics from his own government and empowers members of the far-right and ultra-Orthodox interests in Israel to key positions in Netanyahu’s cabinet.

By all accounts, the key causes for Gallant’s departure lie in domestic Israeli politics: the two men’s disagreements over a hostage deal with Hamas, Gallant’s opposition to blanket exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews from service in the IDF, and over a leaking scandal involving a close aide to Netanyahu.

But Gallant’s departure also comes at a crucial moment: the day of a US presidential election that will determine the nature of continued US support for Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as leniency toward Israeli policy in the West Bank and a potential escalation with Iran.

In many ways, Gallant’s sacking is the first step to clear the decks for an unclear new relationship with the US – either with a Kamala Harris administration that will probably continue support for Israel in an environment of deep distrust and growing criticism over the deaths of Palestinians, or a highly unpredictable Donald Trump administration that has vowed to back Israel to “finish the job” despite a fraught personal relationship between the two men.

And for the lame duck Biden administration, the firing also erases one of the strongest relationships between Israel and Washington further ensuring that the White House will struggle to restrain Netanyahu or secure a landmark cessation of hostilities before the US presidential inauguration in January.

US officials were surprised by Netanyahu’s decision to fire Gallant, who has been one of the most important conduits to the US government via the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin. The two men are said to speak almost daily, and had helped repair some confidence in the relationship after Israel had surprised the US with the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah.

When Netanyahu previously sought to fire Gallant in 2023, the decision sparked both protests at home and a note of “deep concern” from the White House. And when Netanyahu told Gallant to cancel a trip to the United States last month before Israel’s response to an Iranian ballistic missiles attack, a defence department spokeswoman said she would not discuss the decision to avoid entangling herself in “Israeli politics”.

“They have a good relationship with each other,” Sabrina Singh, the defence spokesperson, said of Gallant and Austin, adding that the two men had spoken to each other a “ballpark” 80 times. “They can pick up the phone at any time, at any hour of the night and speak very candidly to each other.”

The journalist Bob Woodward recently described the deep distrust between the Netanyahu and Biden administrations, saying that Biden had told close aides that “18 of the 19 people who work for Netanyahu are liars”. Israeli media have speculated that Gallant was the sole Israeli official who was still trusted in Washington.

In the run-up to the Israeli response to Iran, the two men were in close contact – Austin had told Gallant the US fully supported Israel in its standoff with Tehran and the men also “discussed the opportunities that now exist to use diplomacy to dial down tensions in the region”.

It is widely understood that US policy with Israel is at a turning point with neither side clear on whether a Trump presidency would continue any of the policies enforced under Biden and his state department.

Austin and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on 13 October sent a letter to Israel that demanded it improve humanitarian conditions within Gaza within 30 days or risk having some US military assistance cut off. The Biden administration has been reluctant to take any firm steps in terms of cutting aid off to Israel, so the letter marked a potential watershed with respect to US policy.

But the deadline comes after the election of the next US president and it is likely that if Trump wins, Netanyahu will simply ignore the ultimatum. And, at the same time, Gallant’s ousting does not suggest that Netanyahu is looking to make concessions to a Biden administration that is soon to be on its way out.

• North Korean troops in Russia have come under Ukrainian fire, a Kyiv official said on Tuesday. “The first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region,” said Andrii Kovalenko, a member of Ukraine’s security council. The Ukrainian defence minister, Rustem Umerov, also said, in an interview with South Korean television, that he understood the first “small engagement” had occurred with the North Koreans. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said the first battles between the Ukrainian military and North Korean troops “open a new page in instability in the world”.

• A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday killed six people, injured 23 and destroyed a critical infrastructure facility, Ukrainian officials said. Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor, said in a statement that a fire broke out as a result of the strike.

• Foreign ministers from the G7 democracies and three key allies said on Tuesday they were gravely concerned by the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia and the possibility they may be used in the war against Ukraine. “The DPRK’s [North Korea] direct support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, besides showing Russia’s desperate efforts to compensate its losses, would mark a dangerous expansion of the conflict,” the ministers said. Besides G7 members the US, Japan, Italy, Britain, Germany, France and Canada, the statement was also signed by South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

• The ministers said they condemned “in the strongest possible terms” increased military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including Russia’s “unlawful procurement” of North Korean ballistic missiles. They said they were deeply concerned about the potential for transfer of nuclear or ballistic missile-related technology to North Korea, and would work with international partners “for a coordinated response to this new development”.

• An engineer at a factory that makes tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine was jailed for 16 years on Tuesday after being convicted of committing state treason by passing military secrets to Kyiv. Weeks ago his wife received a similar sentence. The court in Sverdlovsk region said Danil Mukhametov, 32, who worked at the Uralvagonzavod tank factory, had partially admitted his guilt after being accused of passing unspecified technical military information to Ukraine’s intelligence services. Meanwhile a Russian court in the western Smolensk region jailed a man for 12 years for sabotage of the railways.

A controversial bill that seeks to radically change how New Zealand’s treaty between Māori and the Crown is interpreted in modern times will be introduced to parliament on Thursday, nearly two weeks ahead of its initial schedule.

The Treaty of Waitangi is considered New Zealand’s founding document and is instrumental in upholding Māori rights. The bill will be tabled in parliament by the libertarian Act party, a minor partner in New Zealand’s coalition government, which has regularly called for an end to “division by race”.

The time change has drawn criticism – it was scheduled to be introduced on 18 November, the day before a large protest against the bill was due to march to parliament – though the government rejected suggestions that the move was calculated.

The bill proposes to get rid of a set of well-established principles that guide the relationship between Māori and ruling authorities in favour of its own, redefined principles. Act believes Māori have been afforded different political and legal rights and privileges compared with non-Māori, because of the way the Treaty of Waitangi has been interpreted.

The proposal has sparked widespread criticism from lawyers, academics, politicians and the public who believe the new principles will weaken Māori rights, remove checks on the Crown and drive anti-Māori rhetoric.

The bill has prompted protests, nationwide meetings of Māori leaders, and warnings from ministry officials about its risks to Māori rights. The coalition government’s broader policy direction for Māori – including sweeping rollbacks to policies designed to improve Māori health and wellbeing – has also prompted strident criticism.

The treaty was signed in 1840 between more than 500 Māori chiefs and the Crown, to form a nation state. The principles of the treaty – broadly defined as partnership, protection and participation – have been developed over 50 years by courts, the Waitangi Tribunal (a commission of inquiry that investigates breaches of the treaty) and successive governments, in order to smooth out differences in interpretations of the treaty.

In a report provided to the Guardian on Wednesday, the Waitangi Tribunal said “if this bill were to be enacted, it would be the worst, most comprehensive breach of the Treaty… in modern times”.

“If the bill remained on the statute book for a considerable time or was never repealed, it could mean the end of the Treaty.”

It said the bill’s proposed principles were based on flawed policy rationales, was “novel” in its interpretations and would limit Māori rights.

In a statement, Seymour said the bill provides New Zealanders with the opportunity to have a say on what the treaty means, rather that the courts and the Waitangi Tribunal.

“Did the Treaty give different rights to different groups, or does every citizen have equal rights? I believe all New Zealanders deserve to have a say on that question.”

On Tuesday night, news broke that the date had been brought forward, after local media viewed an internal Waitangi Tribunal memo indicating the change.

The government later confirmed the bill would be introduced on Thursday. Seymour’s office said the bill’s initial timeline was indicative and its introduction depended on cabinet signoff, which occurred this week.

But that has not deterred criticism from politicians who view the sudden time change as calculated.

Speaking to supporters during a livestream on social media, Te Pāti Māori (the Māori party) co-leaders, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, said the government was afraid of the protest march.

“This is not accidental,” Ngarewa-Packer said. “They are fearful that you are coming.”

Posting to social media, the organisers of the hīkoi (protest march) said the change in date would not deter their plans.

“We always knew a shuffle like this would come along, this is not unexpected from this coalition,” said Eru Kapa-Kingi, the hīkoi spokesperson. “Bills come and go, but [the treaty] is infinite and so are we – our plans will not change.”

Seymour’s office said accusations that a change in timing was deliberate was “baseless speculation”.

The introduction of the bill formed part of Act’s coalition agreement with National – the major centre-right part. Both National and the third coalition partner, New Zealand First, have ruled out supporting the bill beyond the first reading and select committee process, meaning it is likely doomed to fail.

But the bill has already been disruptive and damaging, says Carwyn Jones, the head lecturer in Māori law at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, an Indigenous tertiary education provider.

“It is increasing misinformation about the treaty, it is already having an impact on the relationship between Māori and the Crown, and on social cohesion.”

Jones said the bill needed to be viewed within the wider context of the government’s “hostile” policy direction for Māori.

“It is having a real impact on many Māori, in terms of feeling under attack. For lots of younger Māori, this is a really distressing situation.”

Six decades after the bullet train first whisked passengers between Tokyo and Osaka, authorities in Japan are planning to do the same for cargo, with the construction of a “conveyor belt road”.

The automated cargo transport corridor, which will connect the capital with Osaka, 320 miles (515km) away, is seen as part of the solution to soaring demand for delivery services in the world’s fourth-biggest economy.

Planners also hope the road will ease pressure on delivery drivers amid a chronic labour shortage that is affecting everything from catering and retail to haulage and public transport.

The road will also help cut carbon emissions, according to Yuri Endo, a senior official at the transport ministry who is overseeing the project.

“We need to be innovative with the way we approach roads,” Endo told the Associated Press. “The key concept of the auto flow-road is to create dedicated spaces within the road network for logistics, utilising a 24-hour automated and unmanned transportation system.”

A computer-graphic video released by the government last month shows large containers on pallets – each capable of supporting up to a ton of produce – moving three abreast along an “auto flow road” in the middle of a motorway, with vehicles traveling in opposite directions on either side.

Automated forklifts will load items into the containers as part of a network that links airports, railways and ports.

Test runs are due to begin in 2027 or early 2028, with the road going into full operation in the middle of the next decade.

While no official estimates have been released, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said a road linking Tokyo and Osaka could cost up to ¥3.7tn [£18.6bn] given the large number of tunnels that would be needed.

If the project is successful, it could be expanded to include other parts of Japan. But humans will not be out of the picture altogether – they will still have to make door-to-door deliveries until the possible introduction of driverless vehicles.

The ministry estimates logistics motorways could do the work of 25,000 truck drivers per day, the Yomiuri said.

The shortage of truck drivers, who carry about 90% of Japan’s cargo, is expected to accelerate after the introduction this year of a law limiting their overtime in an attempt to address overwork and reduce the number of accidents.

While some have welcomed the change in a sector notorious for its long hours and difficult working conditions, the “2024 problem” will leave a gaping hole in the logistics workforce.

If the trend continues the country’s transport capacity will plunge by 34% by the end of the decade, according to government estimates.

Demand for deliveries soared in Japan during the Covid-19 pandemic, with government data showing users rising from about 40% of households to 60%.

At least 89 people remain missing after deadly floods in eastern Spain, regional judicial authorities in Valencia have confirmed, as the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was earmarking €10.6bn (£8.9bn) to help victims.

The number includes only those who have been reported missing by family members who have also provided personal information and biological samples to allow for their identification, the superior court of justice of the Valencia region said in a statement on Tuesday. It added that there could be more cases of people who have disappeared whose details have not yet been registered.

More than 200 people were confirmed to have died after heavy rains last week caused waterways to overflow, creating flash floods that surged through suburbs south of the city of Valencia, sweeping away cars and bridges, and flooding properties and underground car parks.

“There are still missing persons to be located, homes and businesses destroyed, buried under the mud, and many people suffering severe shortages,” Sánchez said in a press conference in Madrid earlier on Tuesday. “We have to keep working.”

At least 217 people died in Valencia, Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia, but only 133 have been identified so far.

The court said coroners had performed 195 autopsies and that 62 bodies were still pending identification. Spain’s national guard on Tuesday asked relatives of people missing to provide DNA samples to identify bodies.

A research vessel from the national scientific body the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) will reach Valencia on 9 November to help in the search efforts, the science ministry said on Tuesday. The vessel has technology to obtain detailed images of the seafloor and explore hard-to-reach areas, it said. There have been suggestions that some of the missing people could have been swept down rivers and out to sea.

The aid will include €838m in direct cash to small businesses and freelance workers affected by the disaster and €5bn of state-guaranteed loans. The national government will finance 100% of the cleanup costs incurred by local governments and half of the repairs to infrastructure, Sánchez said.

More than 100,000 cars were damaged by the floods, said Sonia Luque, the coordinator of REAC, the network of road assistance companies, while damages to businesses in towns hit by floods could rise to more than €10bn.

In the face of criticism and anger at the slow response to the disaster, Sánchez said the government had deployed nearly 15,000 police and military to help clear flood-affected areas, along with hundreds of forestry officials, forensic scientists, customs agents and heavy machinery to clear roads and rubble.

Defending the government’s response, Sánchez said he had not called a state of emergency, which would have given Madrid control of the crisis, because it would have been less efficient.

He said personnel had been ready to be deployed from the first minute but had required the approval of the regional government run by the conservative People’s Party.

Valencia’s regional leader Carlos Mazón said on Monday the delay in warning people was caused by the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ), which measures the flow of rivers and ravines for the state, cancelling a planned alert three times.

The CHJ fired back that it does not issue flood risk alerts, which are the responsibility of Spain’s regional governments.

At least 89 people remain missing after deadly floods in eastern Spain, regional judicial authorities in Valencia have confirmed, as the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was earmarking €10.6bn (£8.9bn) to help victims.

The number includes only those who have been reported missing by family members who have also provided personal information and biological samples to allow for their identification, the superior court of justice of the Valencia region said in a statement on Tuesday. It added that there could be more cases of people who have disappeared whose details have not yet been registered.

More than 200 people were confirmed to have died after heavy rains last week caused waterways to overflow, creating flash floods that surged through suburbs south of the city of Valencia, sweeping away cars and bridges, and flooding properties and underground car parks.

“There are still missing persons to be located, homes and businesses destroyed, buried under the mud, and many people suffering severe shortages,” Sánchez said in a press conference in Madrid earlier on Tuesday. “We have to keep working.”

At least 217 people died in Valencia, Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia, but only 133 have been identified so far.

The court said coroners had performed 195 autopsies and that 62 bodies were still pending identification. Spain’s national guard on Tuesday asked relatives of people missing to provide DNA samples to identify bodies.

A research vessel from the national scientific body the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) will reach Valencia on 9 November to help in the search efforts, the science ministry said on Tuesday. The vessel has technology to obtain detailed images of the seafloor and explore hard-to-reach areas, it said. There have been suggestions that some of the missing people could have been swept down rivers and out to sea.

The aid will include €838m in direct cash to small businesses and freelance workers affected by the disaster and €5bn of state-guaranteed loans. The national government will finance 100% of the cleanup costs incurred by local governments and half of the repairs to infrastructure, Sánchez said.

More than 100,000 cars were damaged by the floods, said Sonia Luque, the coordinator of REAC, the network of road assistance companies, while damages to businesses in towns hit by floods could rise to more than €10bn.

In the face of criticism and anger at the slow response to the disaster, Sánchez said the government had deployed nearly 15,000 police and military to help clear flood-affected areas, along with hundreds of forestry officials, forensic scientists, customs agents and heavy machinery to clear roads and rubble.

Defending the government’s response, Sánchez said he had not called a state of emergency, which would have given Madrid control of the crisis, because it would have been less efficient.

He said personnel had been ready to be deployed from the first minute but had required the approval of the regional government run by the conservative People’s Party.

Valencia’s regional leader Carlos Mazón said on Monday the delay in warning people was caused by the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ), which measures the flow of rivers and ravines for the state, cancelling a planned alert three times.

The CHJ fired back that it does not issue flood risk alerts, which are the responsibility of Spain’s regional governments.

China is blocking requests to rebuild the British embassy in Beijing while the fate of its controversial mega-embassy in east London is being decided, the Guardian can disclose.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, faces a politically fraught decision over whether to approve plans for a new Chinese embassy at Royal Mint Court.

The Chinese government has resisted UK requests to carry out a major reconstruction of the British embassy in Beijing for at least a year on the basis that its own proposals in east London had been blocked.

Three UK sources with knowledge of the negotiations said the embassy had become a top issue for China in its relations with Britain.

China wants to build a giant complex on 20,000 sq metres of land at Royal Mint Court, a historic site near the Tower of London that it bought six years ago. Tower Hamlets council refused planning permission for the embassy in 2022, citing security concerns and opposition from residents.

By calling in the decision last month, Rayner took it out of the council’s hands, though she has ordered a local inquiry into the matter.

“Until that one gets moving the British embassy in Beijing won’t move,” one source who was involved in the discussions under the Conservatives said. “The grounds for turning it down were pretty spurious … It came about more because they were so angry that [planning permission for the Chinese embassy in London] was just turned down without any support.”

Another source said of the Chinese government’s thinking: “They see it as a reciprocal-type thing where both people want changes, but our system doesn’t really work quite as centrally as theirs does.”

Half a dozen people who have visited or worked in the British embassy in Beijing in the past two years told the Guardian it was in a dire state and in need of major reconstruction. An official who visited the embassy for meetings in the past year said the issue would “come up at every single meeting”.

In a sign that the UK government is hopeful of finding a resolution to the matter, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) submitted a procurement notice in August setting out plans to demolish the embassy in Beijing and rebuild it. The work is estimated to cost about £100m and is subject to local planning permission.

The Chinese government bought the Royal Mint Court site for £255m in 2018 as part of a plan to relocate its embassy from Portland Place near Regent’s Park, where it is housed in a townhouse that has become a target for Uyghur and Tibetan protesters.

After Tower Hamlets declined planning permission and the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, chose not to intervene, China refused to appeal and made it clear to Conservative ministers it wanted them to step in and give assurances they would back a resubmitted application.

Relations between the UK and China were worsening, amid security and hacking concerns, Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong and reports of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

China’s decision to resubmit its application with no significant changes after Labour won the election marks a shift in relations. Rayner called in the proposal days after David Lammy, the foreign secretary, returned from a trip to China. If approved, the new embassy would be China’s biggest in Europe and almost twice the size of its embassy in Washington.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Applications for a new Chinese embassy in Tower Hamlets have been called in for ministers to decide. A final decision will be made in due course.”

A statement on the Chinese’s embassy website in August said: “Six years ago, the Chinese government purchased the Royal Mint Court, London, for the use as the new Chinese embassy premises. The UK government had given its consent to this. Now we are in the process of applying for planning permission.

“Host countries have the international obligation to support and facilitate the building of the premises of diplomatic missions. Both China and the UK have the need to build a new embassy in each other’s capital, and the two sides should provide facilitation to each other.”

Elon Musk was sued in a proposed class action on Tuesday by registered voters who signed his petition to support the constitution for a chance to win his $1m-a-day giveaway, and now claim it was a fraud.

The complaint, filed by the Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty in federal court, said Musk and his America Pac organization falsely induced voters to sign a petition by claiming they would choose winners by chance. In fact, members of the Pac selected the winners, the suit alleges. Musk’s own attorneys said in court that the sweepstakes’ results were not random; they disclosed that the winners were chosen to be spokespeople for the group.

“The $1m recipients are not chosen by chance,” Chris Gober, a lawyer for Musk, said during a hearing in Pennsylvania. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1m recipient today and tomorrow.” Musk, meanwhile, said at a campaign rally that his Pac would be “awarding $1m randomly to people who have signed the petition”.

McAferty also said the defendants had profited from the giveaway by driving traffic and attention to Musk’s X social media platform, and by collecting personal information such as her name, address and phone number that they could sell. A lawyer for Musk and lawyers for McAferty did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint.

McAferty sued a day after a Philadelphia judge denied a request by that city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, to end the giveaway, which Krasner called an illegal lottery. That ruling was largely symbolic because Musk has no plans to give out more money following the US presidential election.

The world’s richest person opened the giveaway to voters in seven battleground states who signed a petition to support free speech and gun rights. Tuesday’s lawsuit seeks at least $5m in damages for everyone who signed.

Musk has supported Donald Trump in the presidential race against Kamala Harris and given upwards of $100m via America Pac.

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Boris Johnson was “fired for banging on about his book” during a guest appearance on Channel 4’s coverage of the US election, according to the programme’s co-host, Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

It was not clear whether Johnson’s exit from the programme had been planned or if he had departed early.

During the show, the former UK prime minister, was told off for holding up his memoir and plugging it just minutes into the live programme titled America Decides: US Presidential Election.

Channel 4 newsreader Guru-Murthy told Johnson to “put it away” and “stop it, enough” as he twice referenced his new book and attempted to hold it up to viewers. Guru-Murthy described the former prime minister’s actions as “so cheap”.

Johnson retorted: “There’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop me … I’m allowed to plug my book.”

Later during the panel discussion, Johnson said he met with former US president and Republican nominee Donald Trump after his attempted assassination in July. “In case I failed to mention this, I am promoting my book Unleashed, and I had a talk with him about Ukraine,” he said.

When asked about following in Trump’s footsteps regarding a political comeback if he was to win the presidential election, Johnson said: “The answer is obviously contained in Unleashed where you’ll find the full discussion of this subject.”

Co-host Emily Maitlis told him: “We are not all going to read your book, so just tell us, do you want to have a political comeback … You can’t actually answer a single question.”

Johnson responded: “By the way Emily I’ve answered all your questions all night. Currently I am blissfully engaged promoting my book Unleashed, available in all good book stores.”

Later in the programme, Johnson was replaced on the Channel 4 panel by Michael Cohen who served as a lawyer to former president Trump. Guru-Murthy told viewers: “Boris Johnson has been fired for banging on about his book.”

A representative for Channel 4 was contacted for comment by PA Media.

The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda has expressed “deep shock and sadness” after the suspected homicide of one of the country’s most prominent MPs.

Asot Michael, 54, was found unresponsive with what appeared to be “multiple puncture wounds about his body” at his home just after 8am, according to police on the Caribbean island. The representative for the country’s St Peter constituency was declared dead at the scene.

Describing Michael’s death as “a profound loss to his family, friends, and constituents”, the prime minister, Gaston Browne, said in a statement: “On behalf of the government and people of Antigua and Barbuda, I extend my sincere condolences to his son, Nigel; his sisters, Marie-Therese and Soriah; his extended family; and the many friends who are grieving his loss.”

The country’s commissioner of police, Atlee Rodney, said his force had launched a homicide investigation.

The death sent shock waves across the Caribbean island where Michael had previously served as tourism, economic development and energy minister under Browne.

Described by local media as a controversial yet influential figure in Antiguan politics, Micheal had left the ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labour party to become an independent candidate.

“Although our relationship became strained for a period and his formal association with the party ended, he maintained his interest in the political life of the country, contesting the 2023 general elections as an independent candidate and was re-elected as the independent member of parliament for St. Peter. Earlier this year, we reconnected, and I welcomed him as a friend and colleague,” Browne said in his statement.

Other members of the Labour party expressed their sorrow and shock and paid tribute to Michael.

Describing his death as a “significant loss to the party”, the party’s chair, EP Chet Greene, said: “It was with profound sadness and great alarm that I received the news of the tragic death of Asot Michael, the elected representative of St Peter, possibly due to foul play.”

The Labour party’s first vice-chair, Samantha Marshall, said Michael would be remembered as someone who “championed the rights of the marginalised and advocated for policies that uplifted the underprivileged”.

Antiguan political commentator Audley Phillip praised Michael’s prolific philanthropy, adding that the minister used his wealth to help people across Antigua and Barbuda.

Others spoke about Micheal’s personal influence, with Tevaughn Harriette, the former captain of Michael’s Arcade Parham football team, crediting the minister for teaching him to “dream big and embrace challenges with courage”.

The news of Michael’s death prompted an outpouring of grief from the local community, with crowds gathering outside his residence. Local authorities have appealed for calm, patience and respect for the MP’s family. The force has set up an anonymous line on which people can assist the police with their investigation.

Former military defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that swept up dozens of US navy officers, federal prosecutors said.

Janis L Sammartino, the US district judge, also ordered Francis to pay $20m in restitution to the navy and a $150,000 fine, according to a statement from the US attorney’s office. He was also ordered to forfeit $35m in “ill-gotten proceeds from his crimes”, the statement said.

Prosecutors said the sentence results from Leonard’s first guilty plea in 2015 concerning bribery and fraud, his extensive cooperation with the government since then, and another guilty plea on Tuesday for failing to appear for his original sentencing hearing in 2022.

Shortly before he was due to be sentenced in September 2022, Leonard cut off a GPS monitor he was wearing while under house arrest and fled the country. He was later arrested in Venezuela and brought back to the US in December 2023.

Sammartino sentenced him to more than 13 1/2 years for the bribery and fraud charges plus 16 months for failing to appear, to be served consecutively.

“Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of US Naval forces,” said Tara McGrath, a US attorney, in Tuesday’s statement. “The impact of his deceit and manipulation will be long felt, but justice has been served today.”

Prosecutors said Francis’s actions led to one of the biggest bribery investigations in US military history, which resulted in the conviction and sentencing of nearly two dozen navy officials, defense contractors and others on various fraud and corruption charges.

An enigmatic figure who was 6ft 3in tall and weighed 350lbs at one time, Francis owned and operated his family’s ship servicing business, Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd, or GDMA, which supplied food, water and fuel to vessels. The Malaysian defense contractor was a key contact for US navy ships at ports across Asia for more than two decades. During that time, Francis wooed naval officers with Kobe beef, expensive cigars, concert tickets and wild sex parties at luxury hotels from Thailand to the Philippines.

In exchange, officers, including the first active-duty admiral to be convicted of a federal crime, concealed the scheme in which Francis would overcharge for supplying ships or charge for fake services at ports he controlled in south-east Asia. The officers passed him classified information and even went so far as redirecting military vessels to ports that were lucrative for his Singapore-based ship servicing company.

In a federal sting, Francis was lured to San Diego on false pretenses and arrested at a hotel in September 2013. He pleaded guilty in 2015, admitting that he had offered more than $500,000 in cash bribes to navy officials, defense contractors and others. Prosecutors say he bilked the navy out of at least $35m. As part of his plea deal, he cooperated with the investigation leading to the navy convictions. He faced up to 25 years in prison.

While awaiting sentencing, Francis was hospitalized and treated for renal cancer and other medical issues. After leaving the hospital, he was allowed to stay out of jail at a rental home, on house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor and security guards.

But three weeks before his scheduled sentencing in September 2022, he snipped off his monitor and made a brazen escape, setting off an international search. Officials said he fled to Mexico, made his way to Cuba and eventually got to Venezuela.

He was arrested more than two weeks after his disappearance – caught before he boarded a flight at the Simon Bolivar International Airport outside Caracas. Venezuelan officials said he had intended to reach Russia.

The cases were handled by the US attorney’s office in an effort to be independent of the military justice system. But they have came under scrutiny.

The felony convictions of four former navy officers were vacated following allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Sammartino agreed to allow them to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 fine each.

Last year, Sammartino ruled that the lead federal prosecutor in the officers’ case committed “flagrant misconduct” by withholding information from defense lawyers, but that it was not enough to dismiss the case.