The US state department said it was “incredibly” concerned about Russia’s campaign of hybrid warfare against the west, amid fears it will escalate following Ukraine’s first use of US-made long-range missiles on targets inside Russia, after the Biden administration lifted restrictions on their use.

Russia has promised an “appropriate” response to the new policy, and has engaged in nuclear sabre-rattling by changing its nuclear doctrine in recent days. However, western officials believe the thrust of the Russian response may come not on the battlefield in Ukraine but elsewhere in the world.

Potential hybrid attacks could span a wide menu of options, including expanding its campaign of sabotage and assassinations in Europe or further arming US adversaries in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific regions, according to people briefed on the discussions about a potential Russian response.

European ministers discussed Russia’s asymmetric warfare during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, where the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom accused Russia in a joint statement of “systematically attacking European security architecture”.

Speaking in Washington, the US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “Generally, we are incredibly concerned about hybrid warfare conducted by Russia both in Europe and around the world, and its something we have been in close coordination with our European allies and other allies and partners around the world.” Referring to the recent sabotage to two under-sea fibre-optic communication cables in the Baltic Sea, Miller added that Russia would be “held accountable” for further such actions.

Russia may choose to delay a further escalation ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump, who has threatened to cut aid to Ukraine and broker a peace deal that is strongly expected to favour Russia.

The first Ukrainian attack with Atacms struck an ammunition warehouse in Bryansk region, the New York Times reported, citing US and Ukrainian officials. The region lies north-west of the Kursk region where a Ukrainian incursion has been under way since early August.

The Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, did not directly confirm the Bryansk attack but said: “We now have Atacms, Ukrainian long-range capabilities, and we will use them.”

Russia’s defence ministry claimed five of the missiles were shot down and another was damaged. The ministry added that debris from the rockets caused a fire at an unnamed military facility. A US official told the Associated Press that just two of the missiles were intercepted.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has promised to give an “appropriate” response to the first use of the US-made missiles, which Vladimir Putin has previously said would be tantamount to Washington and its Nato allies entering direct conflict with Russia.

The reports emerged hours after Vladimir Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons. A spokesperson for the US national security council played down that decision, saying the revision had been planned for weeks and that “observing no changes to Russia’s nuclear posture, we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture or doctrine in response to Russia’s statements today”.

Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, said he would not be deterred by the new doctrine from supporting Ukraine. “There’s irresponsible rhetoric coming from Russia, and that is not going to deter our support for Ukraine,” he told reporters at the G20 summit in Brazil.

Behind the scenes, US and European officials have also discussed the potential for Russia to step up a growing campaign of attacks on US and European infrastructure that has escalated significantly since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In the joint statement, the UK and EU ministers said Russia’s hybrid attacks were “escalating” and “unprecedented in their variety and scale, creating significant security risks”.

“Nato and [the] EU have to do a lot more to protect this critical infrastructure,” the Finnish defense minister, Antti Häkkänen, told Politico. “We know that Russia has [the] capability and willingness to do sabotage in Europe.”

Earlier this month, the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said that Russia was conducting an “intensifying campaign of hybrid attacks” that showed that the “frontline in this war is no longer solely in Ukraine. Increasingly, the frontline is moving beyond borders to the Baltic region, to western Europe, and even to the high north.”

Intelligence agencies are currently investigating recent damage to the cables in the Baltic Sea, severed in rapid succession earlier this week.

Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Tuesday that the damage was presumed to be the result of sabotage. “No one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged. I also don’t want to believe that the ships’ anchors caused the damage by accident,” he said.

If that conclusion is confirmed, it would have to have been prepared some time before the US gave authorisation for Atacms missiles to be used inside Russian borders.

Europe could see an increase in state-sponsored attacks, including attempts at sabotage and arson, assassinations, and attacks on military bases, transport and telecoms infrastructure, a person briefed on the discussion said.

One former senior European defence official described the EU as “totally unprepared” to confront Moscow’s escalating hybrid warfare.

The former official, who recently left their position, said Europe lacked the necessary resources to counter Russian sabotage attacks, which they believe will intensify following Biden’s decision to provide Ukraine with the long-range missiles.

A senior European security official described the recent wave of attacks as “closer to terrorism, with the aim of intimidating the population and influence decision-making, and affect support for Ukraine”.

Earlier this year, US and German intelligence reportedly foiled a Russian plot to assassinate a number of defense industry executives across Europe, including a plan to kill the Rheinmetall CEO, Armin Papperger.

Russia could also increase support to Iran and its proxy allies in the region including the Houthis in Yemen or Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The US, which provides the weaponry and targeting intelligence to Ukraine, has indicated that the decision to allow Atacms strikes was focused on responding to the introduction of more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers into the fight, and would be targeting their capabilities.

In October, the US envoy to the UN, Robert Wood, bluntly warned that Pyongyang’s forces entering Ukraine “will surely return in body bags”.

Neither the US nor Ukraine have confirmed the use of the missiles, but in a statement, Ukraine’s general staff confirmed on Tuesday that it hit a military arsenal of the 1046th logistics centre outside the city of Karachev.

“The destruction of ammunition depots will continue for the army of the Russian occupiers in order to stop the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” it said.

Russian independent media reported that residents of Karachev heard explosions overnight. Several videos circulating online, purportedly from the Karachev district, featured the sound of detonations and visible flashes.

“This is of course a sign that they want to escalate,” Lavrov told reporters in remarks at the G20 summit, adding it would be seen as Russia by a “new phase of war by the west”.

Britain is also expected to supply its own Storm Shadow missiles for use by Ukraine on targets inside Russia, after the US approval.

While Moscow has vowed retaliation, some analysts have suggested that its battlefield options are limited, with the country unlikely to resort to the nuclear option.

“The most predictable and obvious will be an increase in strikes on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure facilities in anticipation of the winter cold,” said the political analyst Anton Barbashin.

He added that the use of western-supplied long-range weapons is unlikely to serve as a definitive red line for Moscow.

“Strikes with long-range Atacms missiles on the territory of Russia … are more likely to fall into the list of red lines that will be crossed and will cease to be red lines,” Barbashin said.

• The US called on Russia to stop its “bellicose” and “irresponsible rhetoric” after Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, formally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons. It followed Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike targets inside Russian territory with US-supplied longer-range weapons. The US had not seen any reason to adjust its nuclear posture, Washington officials said. The US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he was “not surprised” by comments from the Kremlin over the new revised nuclear doctrine.

• The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, said: “There’s irresponsible rhetoric coming from Russia, and that is not going to deter our support for Ukraine.” Issuing a direct message to the Russian president from the G20 summit in Brazil, Starmer added: “On day 1,000 of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, I say again: ‘End the war. Get out of Ukraine’.”

• Ukraine’s western allies criticised the final G20 communique as inadequate for failing to highlight Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in 2022 as the conflict entered its 1,000th day, Jessica Elgot and Leyland Cecco write. It was significantly weaker than that of the previous year, only highlighting humanitarian suffering in Ukraine and the importance of territorial integrity. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accused the G20 of failing to form a “strong strategy”: “Today, G20 countries are sitting in Brazil. Did they say something? Nothing.” Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor – recently criticised for making a phone call to Vladimir Putin – said: “It is too little when the G20 cannot find the words to make it clear Russia is responsible.”

• Ukraine fired US-made long-range missiles into Russia for the first time since the Biden administration lifted restrictions on their use, Pjotr Sauer writes. The target appeared to be an ammunition warehouse. Ukraine’s general staff said it hit a military arsenal of the 1046th logistics centre outside the city of Karachev without confirming the use of the missiles. Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine launched six US-made Atacms missiles targeting the south-western Bryansk region. Zelenskyy did not directly confirm the missile attack targeting Bryansk but said: “We now have Atacms, Ukrainian long-range capabilities, and we will use them.”

• Joe Biden has approved the provision of anti-personnel land mines to Ukraine, a US official told Reuters on Tuesday. The US expected Ukraine to use the mines in its own territory, though it had committed not to use them in areas populated with its own civilians, the official said. The Washington Post first reported the development. The US mines differ from Russia’s as they are “non-persistent”, and become inert after a preset period, the official said. They require a battery to detonate and will not explode once the battery runs out.

• The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, marked the “grim” milestone of 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by saying that it has been “1,000 days too many of senseless pain and suffering.” A statement by Türk’s spokesperson on Tuesday said the OHCHR has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured, it said.

• Zelenskyy said it was time for Germany to support Ukraine’s longer-range strike capabilities against Russia. “I think after statements about nuclear weapons, it is also time for Germany to support corresponding decisions,” the Ukrainian leader said during a briefing in Kyiv with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen. German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who held an hour-long call with Putin last week, has been hesitant to provide long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, fuelling frustration in Kyiv.

• Russia claimed its air defence units destroyed 42 Ukrainian drones in at least eight southern and central regions on Tuesday evening, including 32 in Bryansk region on the border and two in the Moscow regions. In the Belgorod region, opposite north-eastern Ukraine, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said an industrial plant, infrastructure sites and power lines were damaged in the town of Alekseyevka. Video posted on both Russian and Ukrainian military blogs showed explosions and a fire breaking out in Alekseyevka. One Ukrainian site posted a video of blasts in Voronezh region. Russian officials routinely make unconfirmed claims that most or all drones were shot down, and that any damage was caused by falling debris.

• Denmark is making a new donation of about €130m for development of Ukraine’s arms industry, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has announced. “And make no mistake, our support is long-term.” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine and Denmark had created a “special model” to bring in investments from other countries. “All the Nordic nations have already joined, more than one billion dollars have been invested by partners into our industries,” he said, adding that the programme extended to drones, missiles and artillery production. Denmark is among the biggest contributors of military aid to Ukraine, relative to the size of its economy.

• The US state department has approved the potential $100m sale of military equipment and services to Ukraine, the Pentagon said in a statement on Tuesday. Kyiv wants equipment and services for refurbishment of vehicles, technical assistance, training, publications and other related elements of logistics and program support, it said.

Ukraine’s western allies have criticised the final G20 communique as inadequate for failing to highlight Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in 2022 as the conflict enters its 1,000th day.

The final agreed text from the summit in Brazil was significantly weaker than that of the previous year, only highlighting humanitarian suffering in Ukraine and the importance of territorial integrity.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accused G20 leaders of failing to act after his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree easing Moscow’s rules for using nuclear weapons.

“Today, G20 countries are sitting in Brazil. Did they say something? Nothing,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference, accusing the G20 of failing to form a “strong strategy”.

Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, said he was disappointed that the communique did not make any reference to Russia’s role in starting the conflict.

“It is too little when the G20 cannot find the words to make it clear Russia is responsible,” he said at his press conference.

A spokesman for Keir Starmer, the UK’s prime minister, said the shift in language was “disappointing but not surprising”. Starmer himself used a more diplomatic tone, saying it was important to include language on sovereignty but conceding that directly blaming Moscow was difficult while Russia was still part of the discussions.

Putin did not attend the summit in Rio de Janeiro for the third year running, but his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was at the meeting.

The weaker language will be a blow to Starmer, who spoke repeatedly about “doubling down on support for Ukraine” and said ahead of the summit that it was the top item on his agenda.

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, told reporters that G7 nations and “advanced economies” felt a much stronger statement was needed to reflect the “illegal invasion” of Ukraine by Russia. He said the final wording reflected the broader perspective of the G20 has broader perspectives, but said: “It’s not strong enough for me.”

Trudeau, whose government is bracing for a possible shift in relations following the re-election of Donald Trump, said the summit came “at a particularly challenging time in the world, for geopolitics but also for citizens all around the world”, because of inflation, war and climate change.

In such circumstances, finding consensus on the G20 statement at the summit has proved especially challenging.

Communiques are typically issued at the end of a meeting, but Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, came under fire for approving a final text a day early, while leaders of France, Germany and the United States were allegedly not in the room.

“The communique was closed by President Lula. It fell short of the position we could have had,” the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told reporters on Monday night.

“This does not change anything in France’s position: it is a war of aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine, and our priority today is to obtain a lasting peace.”

In London, a No 10 spokesman said the lack of explicit language about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “not unexpected, given the G20 brings together a range of countries who have differing views. Not least it includes representatives of the Russian government in attendance. We would compare it to the G7 statement at the weekend, which reiterated our strong and unwavering support for Ukraine, and I think as that statement said, Russia remains the sole obstacle to a just and lasting peace.”

Starmer said he had used “every opportunity” both in the main sessions and in bilateral meetings during the summit to make clear “what we need to do to double down”.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country could face 100,000 North Korean troops, as he urged European nations to intensify their military aid in a speech marking 1,000 days since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Speaking to the European parliament, the Ukrainian president said Vladimir Putin had brought 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine’s borders and “this contingent may grow to 100,000”.

Zelenskyy did not elaborate further, but his remarks appear to endorse a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources saying that North Korea could deploy 100,000 troops to assist Russia against Ukraine.

Zelenskyy’s short speech, delivered by video link, was a rallying call to EU nations at a critical moment for Ukraine, as Russia continues to make advances, amid fears that the incoming US president, Donald Trump, will cut military aid and force a peace settlement that would require Kyiv to cede large amounts of territory.

Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, said the largest EU countries were ready “to assume the burden of military and financial support for Ukraine in the context of a possible reduction in US involvement”. He was speaking after a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels, which included the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, via video link.

Estonia’s foreign minister said European nations should be ready to send troops to Ukraine to underpin any peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow engineered by Trump. In an interview with the Financial Times, Margus Tsahkna said the best security guarantee for Ukraine was Nato membership, but if the US opposed Kyiv joining the military alliance, then Europe would have to put “boots on the ground”.

Analysts have suggested a coalition of the willing could consist of Poland and the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a defence group that includes the Nordic and Baltic states and the Netherlands.

Zelenskyy urged European countries to ensure Russia was pushed towards a “just peace”.

He also appeared to make a dig at the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who recently triggered snap elections, and has long frustrated Kyiv with Germany’s slow pace of military support and refusal to supply German-made long-range Taurus missiles.

“While some European leaders think about some elections or something like this … Putin is focused on winning this war. He will not stop on his own. The more time he has, the worse the conditions become,” Zelenskyy said.

In a veiled appeal for long-range weapons, Zelenskyy said that without “certain key factors, Russia will lack real motivation to engage in meaningful negotiations”. He outlined those factors as fires in ammunition depots on Russian territory, disrupting military logistics, destroying Russian airbases, lost capabilities to produce missiles and drones, and confiscated assets – a list that largely depends on the ability to strike into Russian territory.

Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use US long-range missiles to fire into Russia’s Kursk region has raised pressure on European allies to follow.

Britain is expected to supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles for use inside Russia after the US president’s move. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the UK recognised it needed to “double down” support for Ukraine.

Scholz, however, continues to rule out the use of Taurus missiles and is not expected to change his mind. The French foreign minister, Jean-Nöel Barrot, on Monday said that allowing the use of its long-range missiles in Russia remained “an option” for France.

Zelenskyy’s speech was book-ended by two standing ovations from MEPs, but some of the parliament’s members were missing. The 25 MEPs who make up the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group were absent because they had scheduled an “external group meeting”, a spokesperson said.

The ESN’s largest contingent is Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland party, which wants to end military aid for Ukraine and whose senior leaders have spoken approvingly of the Russian president.

The Ukrainian leader also appealed for strong sanctions, especially measures to clamp down on “shadow tankers”, the fleet of poorly maintained and underinsured vessels that is keeping Russia’s oil trade afloat. Zelenskyy said oil was “the lifeblood of Putin’s regime” and “as long as these tankers operate, Putin continues to kill”.

MEPs last week passed a non-binding resolution calling on the G7 to better enforce and reduce the oil price cap on Russian seaborne oil, as well as crack down on loopholes that allow Russian oil to be sold at market prices.

Western allies led by the G7 imposed a price cap of $60 a barrel in 2022 to restrict western companies from transporting, servicing or brokering Russian crude oil cargoes in order to undermine Russia’s oil trade. The deal was a compromise as it was feared a full embargo would send oil prices rocketing, but Russia has since invested heavily in a shadow fleet that allows it to sell oil above the price cap.

Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai has taken the stand in Hong Kong, testifying for the first time after being charged with foreign collusion under the city’s punitive national security law.

Speaking in court on Wednesday, he said he started a media business after the Tiananmen Square massacre. “I thought it was a good opportunity for somebody like me, a businessman who has made some money, to participate in delivering information which I think is freedom. To participate in delivering freedom was a very good idea for me at that time … the more information you have, the more you are in the know and the more you are free.”

Lai sounded hoarse as he swore an oath on the bible, but his voice grew stronger as he gave testimony. He sat at the desk, his reading glasses on the table in front of him.

He said Apple Daily, the paper he founded, became popular because it shared the core values of Hong Kong people. “There was never an editorial policy, or orientation for anyone we hire, because we assume anybody given the freedom to express would express the core values of Hong Kong values. Rule of law, freedom, pursuit of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.”

Lai said he regarded advocating for the independence of Hong Kong and Taiwan as a “trap” laid by others and called it “a reality too crazy to think about. That’s why I never allowed any of our staff or the newspaper to mention about this.”

Lai’s case is one of the most prominent under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, with western countries and rights groups demanding his release.

The 76-year-old founder of Apple Daily is accused of colluding with foreign forces, a charge that could carry a sentence of up to life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

His testimony comes with Hong Kong’s political freedoms already under the spotlight, after a court jailed 45 democracy campaigners for subversion in the city’s largest national security trial on Tuesday.

Lai’s case centres on his newspaper’s publications, which supported huge, pro-democracy protests in 2019 and criticised Beijing’s leadership.

Lai has been behind bars since December 2020, and concerns have been raised for his health.

“The case of Jimmy Lai is not an outlier, it’s a symptom of Hong Kong’s democratic decline,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement on Monday.

“Hong Kong’s treatment of Jimmy Lai – and more broadly of independent media and journalists – shows that this administration is no longer interested in even a semblance of democratic norms.”

Hong Kong and Beijing have rejected the criticism, condemning Lai as “a voluntary political tool of foreign forces trying to curb China through Hong Kong”.

The crowd outside the court on Wednesday morning was smaller than for Tuesday’s sentencing of the 45 pro-democracy figures. A heavy police presence patrolled the area.

About 100 people were queued up by 8am, huddled against the driving rain and wind.

William Wong, 64, said he had long followed the case against Apple Daily and its founder, Lai.

“I’m a reader of Apple Daily. It’s been a few years, and Mr Lai is jailed. He’s elderly and his health is not too well, so I want to support him in person.”

At the front of the queue a buoyant group of Lai supporters rallied themselves together, sharing takeaway hot chocolates and warming themselves under space blankets.

“We really want to support him. It’s for us Hongkongers, for Hong Kong, for my Hong Kong,” said CY Chen, a man in his 70s who said he had been jailed on charges for illegal assembly during the 2019 protests.

“People like Jimmy Lai are very few nowadays, people who can speak for us. So we treasure him and we care about him.”

Since the prosecution opened in January, it has alleged that on multiple occasions Lai asked the United States and other countries to impose sanctions “or engage in other hostile activities” against China and Hong Kong.

Lai faces one count of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications” as well as two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion.

The case against him revolves around 161 articles published in Apple Daily, as well as his own interviews and social media postings.

The newspaper was forced to close in 2021 after police raids and the arrests of its senior editors.

The prosecution accused Lai and six Apple Daily senior executives of using the media business as a platform to “stir up opposition to the government … and to collude with foreign countries”.

Dozens of local and foreign politicians and scholars – including former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo – were named by the prosecution as Lai’s “agents”, “intermediaries” or “collaborators”.

Lai is also accused of supporting two young activists in lobbying for foreign sanctions via a protest group called “Stand With Hong Kong”.

The six executives and two activists have pleaded guilty, with five of them testifying against Lai.

Last month, British prime minister Keir Starmer told parliament that Lai, who holds British citizenship, was “a priority” for his Labour government.

Starmer raised the issue in a meeting with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Monday.

With Agence France-Presse

Governments and human rights groups have expressed concern and outrage at the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong after the city’s largest national security trial.

On Tuesday, a court handed down sentences, ranging from four years and two months to 10 years, to activists, former legislators, councillors and academics, who with two people acquitted in May made up a group known as the Hong Kong 47.

The activists had been arrested in 2021 under the city’s national security law (NSL) for their participation in an unofficial primary election that was held in July 2020, weeks after the NSL had been imposed by Beijing in response to months of pro-democracy protests. More than 600,000 people participated in the unofficial vote.

A spokesperson for the US consulate in Hong Kong said that the US “strongly condemns” the sentences, adding that the defendants were “aggressively prosecuted and jailed for peacefully participating in normal political activity”.

Benny Tai, a legal academic and activist who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for his role as an organiser of the primaries. Tai’s is the longest sentence handed out so far under the NSL, which was introduced by Beijing on 30 June 2020.

Tai was accused of being the “mastermind” behind a plan for the city’s pro-democracy camp to win a majority in the upcoming legislative council election, and then block bills and eventually force the dissolution of the legislature and resignation of the chief executive.

Joshua Wong, a student leader of the 2014 umbrella movement who was once the most recognisable face of the pro-democracy camp, was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison. He received a sentence reduction for pleading guilty. The court said he was an “active participant” in the primaries plan, and “not of good character” because of his previous protest-related convictions. The 28-year-old reportedly shouted “I love Hong Kong” as he left the dock on Tuesday.

Western governments, human rights organisations and legal groups have criticised the prosecution since it began, characterising it as a politically motivated attack on the pro-democracy opposition. Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch, said the sentences “reflect just how fast Hong Kong’s civil liberties and judicial independence have nosedived in the past four years”, while Hong Kong’s last British governor, Chris Patten, called them a “sham”.

“The sentencing of 45 of the 47 Hong Kong democrats is not only an affront to the people of Hong Kong, but those who value rights and freedoms around the world,” Patten said. “These brave individuals were an integral part of defining the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, and were peacefully supported by thousands through votes.”

Catherine West, the UK’s minister for the Indo-Pacific, said: “Today’s sentencing is a clear demonstration of the Hong Kong authorities’ use of the NSL to criminalise political dissent. Those sentenced today were exercising their right to freedom of speech, of assembly and of political participation.”

The trial was overseen by three government-picked judges without a jury – one of the many provisions of the NSL that critics have described as punitive and antithetical to the rule of law in Hong Kong.

Anna Kwok, the executive director of the US-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, condemned the sentencing as “a hostile demonstration of determined repression against Hongkongers who dare to stand up and speak out for their rights”.

The Australian-Hong Kong dual-national Gordon Ng, among 16 of the 47 defendants to plead not guilty, was sentenced to more than seven years.

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said her government was “gravely concerned” about Ng’s sentence, and had expressed its “strong objections to the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities on the continuing broad application of national security legislation”.

Jonathan Sumption, a leading British judge who in June quit Hong Kong’s judiciary in protest at the activists’ convictions, said the sentences were “not surprising”.

“The real outrage is their conviction in the first place,” Lord Sumption said. “These people were respectable politicians, journalists, academics and trade unionists, lawfully campaigning for a majority of the elective seats in the legislative council with a view to obtaining faster progress towards universal suffrage, something which is stated in the basic law to be the ultimate aim.” The basic law is Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.

Beijing rejected western criticism, which it said “seriously desecrates and tramples on the spirit of the rule of law”. The Chinese foreign ministry said that it supported Hong Kong, was safeguarding national security and that “no one should be allowed to use democracy as a pretext to escape law and break justice”.

Of the 47, 31 had pleaded guilty, and two were acquitted at trial. Most have spent more than three years in jail already. Those who pleaded not guilty were given harsher sentences.

The former Stand News journalist Gwyneth Ho, who pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to seven years in jail. She ran as a candidate in the 2020 unofficial primary.

Shortly after the sentencing, Ho published a statement on social media, saying she had been prosecuted for participating in “the last free and fair election in Hong Kong”.

She said: “Behind the rhetoric of secession, collusion with foreign forces, etc, our true crime for Beijing is that we were not content with playing along in manipulated elections.”

Ho said the case marked a “turning point” when Hong Kong was seen as a lost cause, but she urged supporters to push back against authoritarianism. “Prove to the world at every possible moment, no matter how small, that democracy is worth fighting for,” she said.

Additional reporting and research by Jason Lu

Donald Trump has nominated Mehmet Oz, best known globally as Dr Oz, to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator.

“Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget,” wrote Trump in his announcement of Oz’s nomination.

“Dr Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country. He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

Trump emphasized that he plans to have Oz work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr, his nominee for health and human services secretary, “to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake”.

Kennedy is an anti-vaccine activist who ran as an independent in the 2024 presidential race and adopted a slogan of “make America healthy again”, an offshoot of Trump’s “make America great again”.

The combination of Kennedy and Oz in leading health policy roles will receive significant pushback from health organizations. Oz’s role does not require Senate confirmation, while Kennedy’s does.

Oz previously praised Kennedy’s appointment, saying: “Americans need better research on healthy lifestyle choices from unbiased scientists, and @RobertKennedyJr can help as HHS secretary.” Oz’s most recent post on X promotes a multivitamin and supplement store.

The move comes after Oz ran for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022, losing to John Fetterman but securing Trump’s endorsement.

Fetterman said of Oz’s nomination: “Well, I’ve been very, very clear if Dr Oz agrees to protect and preserve Medicaid and Medicare, I’m absolutely going to vote for the dude,” according to news outlet Notus.

Before his Senate run, Oz was the eponymous host of the Dr Oz Show and a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show, where he often provided medical advice. He is a cardiothoracic surgeon who co-founded a cardiac care center earlier in his career and taught at Columbia University. Like Trump, he gained national attention through reality television.

His advice has proven so controversial that a 2014 British Medical Journal study declared half of it “baseless or wrong”. A year later, in 2015, a sizable group of doctors wrote to Columbia’s dean of medicine, criticizing the school’s partnership with him and calling it “unacceptable”.

Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Oz promoted malaria drugs including hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus in an appearance on Fox News, calling the discredited treatments a “gamechanger”. His comments on the drug captured Trump’s attention, CNN reported at the time.

Donald Trump has chosen Mehmet Oz, best known for starring in his eponymous daytime talkshow for more than a decade and leaning heavily into Trumpism during his failed 2022 run for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The cardiothoracic surgeon, who faced immense backlash from the medical and scientific communities for pushing misinformation at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, will oversee the agency that operates on a $2.6tn annual budget and provides healthcare to more than 100 million people.

“I am honored to be nominated by [Donald Trump] to lead CMS,” Oz posted on X on Tuesday. “I look forward to serving my country to Make America Healthy Again under the leadership of HHS Secretary [Robert F Kennedy Jr].”

In the announcement of Oz’s selection, Trump said that Oz will “make America healthy again” and described him as “an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades”.

Oz has been on US television screens for nearly 20 years, first appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show in 2004. In that time, he’s talked to his audience about losing weight with fad diets and what it takes to have healthy poops and, toward the end of his run, touting hydroxychloroquine as a potential remedy for Covid-19.

Here’s what to know about the New York University professor and surgeon turned television show host, and now Trump appointee.

Who is Mehmet Oz?

Oz, 64, is a Turkish American Ohio native best known for The Dr Oz Show, which ran from 2009 to 2022. His father was a surgeon in Turkey, and after Oz graduated high school in Delaware, he was admitted into Harvard. He also served in the Turkish military in order to maintain dual citizenship, the Associated Press reports.

Before entering US homes via daytime TV, he had more than 20 years of experience as a cardiothoracic surgeon at Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center in New York. He was also a professor at Columbia University’s medical school.

His bona fides at the prestigious institutions earned him quick credibility with viewers, and his popularity garnered him nine Daytime Emmy awards for outstanding informative talkshow and host.

Though his show ended in 2022, Oz maintains a YouTube channel filled with old episodes of his shows where he interviews guests like Penn Jillette about his weight loss and Robert F Kennedy Jr about his 2014 book about the presence of mercury in vaccines. He also has an Instagram account that boasts more than a million followers, where Oz shares photos of his family and sells products from iHerb, an online health and wellness brand for which he is global adviser.

Oz’s questionable medical advice and time in politics

Throughout his TV tenure, Oz dabbled in the hallmarks of weight loss culture like detoxes, cleanses and diets that promised rapid weight loss. He also faced a grilling by senators in 2014 over claims he made and alleged false advertising on supplements he promoted on his show. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Oz regurgitated misinformation that came from the fringes of the right and medical communities.

These comments continued when he threw his hat into the race to represent Pennsylvania in the US Senate in 2022 against John Fetterman. At the time, the Guardian wrote:

“Oz was dogged by questions about his actual connection to the state during the campaign. Oz lived in New Jersey for decades before he moved to Pennsylvania in October 2020, into a home owned by his wife’s family. He announced his bid to be the state’s US senator just months later.”

Following Fetterman’s stroke, during which he said he “​​almost died”, the Oz campaign launched unsavory attacks against him, with one Oz aide, Rachel Tripp, claiming Fetterman might not have had a stroke if he “had ever eaten a vegetable in his life”.

Oz ultimately lost to Fetterman, who garnered 51% of the vote compared with Oz’s 46%.

What will Oz run?

Oz will succeed Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the current administrator of CMS, to lead programs including Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people aged 65 or older and disabled people, and Medicaid, the state-based health insurance program for lower-income people, which is jointly funded by states and the federal government. The two programs provide health insurance for more than 140 million Americans.

Also in the CMS fold are the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip) and the Health Insurance Marketplace, which was created by the Affordable Care Act under Barack Obama in 2010.

Trump’s economic advisers and congressional Republicans are currently discussing possible cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other government welfare programs to cover the costs of extending the president-elect’s multitrillion-dollar 2017 tax cut.

The governor of the Northern Mariana Islands says an $800m US military upgrade plan which includes a new airfield in the Pacific territory “has to happen” amid concern over China’s recent missile tests in the region.

Tinian, home to about 3,500 people, is one of the three main islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated US territory. During the second world war, the US launched a nuclear bomb against Japan from Tinian, and now a major rehabilitation of a deserted airfield and other military upgrades are under way on the island.

The development is part of a broader strategy by Washington to beef up its Indo-Pacific security presence amid growing tensions in the region.

“The world is changing in the Indo-Pacific and we need to acknowledge that. We need to face reality,” said Arnold Palacios, governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, who added the defence base development on Tinian “has to happen”.

“That needs to happen with the way the situation is,” he told the Guardian.

“Do I wish that we don’t have to have military bases? I think everybody in this world would like to see peace, but the best deterrent is to have a good defense and to be prepared.”

Palacios pointed to concerns over China’s recent missile test over the Pacific Ocean and deployment of forces around the waters of Taiwan.

“That’s the first chain of violence. We’re the second chain of violence. If something happens, we will be impacted,” he said.

It is not yet clear how the incoming Trump administration will adjust Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy, but recent appointments have suggested a hawkish policy towards China. The Indo-Pacific plan, released in 2022, seeks to strengthen the position of the US in the region amid a “changing strategic landscape”, specifically the “mounting challenge” posed by China.

Located about 2,414km (1,500 miles) south of Tokyo, Tinian has an area of 101 sq km (39 sq miles). During the second world war, it served as a base for B-29 Superfortress bombers that took part in the bombing of Tokyo in March 1945 and the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Tinian is known in the region for its pristine beaches, cattle ranches and hot peppers, which grow abundantly throughout the island. It is dotted with historical sites that attract tourists interested in the second world war.

Over the next few years, the US Department of Defense plans to invest close to $800m in Tinian to build up defense operations. Work began in 2022 and the first phase of the project, which includes the updated runway, is due to be completed in 2025.

The US air force is restoring over 1.85m sq metres (20m sq feet) of degraded pavement to create “a rejuvenated runway”, said Lt Cmdr Michelle Tucker, spokesperson for the Joint Task Force-Micronesia. The taskforce is a newly formed command overseeing military operations in the Pacific.

Tucker said air force engineers are conducting “rehabilitation work” on Tinian to allow the US to “rapidly deploy and sustain forces in diverse environments”.

Neighbouring island Guam is at the core of the US military’s Indo-Pacific strategy and home to air force, naval and marine bases. Tucker said the Northern Marianas Islands are part of the US and “critical to US defense and power projection across the region”.

Given Tinian’s strategic location, Tucker said the island is considered a backup site to “meet mission requirements” for the US military to support bases in Guam or other Pacific locations.

“The construction work on Tinian is part of a broader initiative to expand facilities and general port and airport options throughout the Indo-Pacific region,” Tucker said.

The US is leasing two-thirds of the land on Tinian for defense and military development. In addition to the $384m airport rehabilitation project, the defense department has also contracted $409m for operations and training developments including equipment, facilities and other related projects to support the military on the island. The defense department also plans to build a training site for combat skills on Tinian.

Tucker said a proposed military training complex will include multiple ranges, landing zones and base camps to provide service members realistic joint combat training in a tropical environment.

The US is also exploring possibilities for waterfront and wharf improvements at Tinian harbour berths “to accommodate various navy vessels”, Tucker said.

Michael Walsh, visiting researcher at the Lasky Center for Transatlantic Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, said it made sense for the US military to build up its capability on Tinian as part of a “network” across the region.

“What is planned has the potential of being very valuable in terms of strategic signalling and deterrence effect,” he said, while also noting it “could also be easily neutralised by China in the event of the outbreak of a major confrontation”.

Palacios said defense development on Tinian is needed in the current environment.

“We hope that things will get dialled down and everybody finally figures out that we need to all get along in the region. We cannot afford to be afraid.”

Myanmar overtook Syria last year to become the country with the highest number of people killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war, a report has found.

Research released by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines warned of extensive use of landmines across Myanmar following conflict that erupted after the 2021 military coup, with casualties recorded in every state and region except for Naypyidaw, the country’s heavily fortified capital and centre of military power.

Myanmar suffered more casualties last year than Syria, which had ranked worst in the world for the past three years. Ukraine and Afghanistan accounted for the third and fourth highest number of casualties globally.

Landmine use has significantly increased in Myanmar as conflict has spread across the country after the military’s seizure of power in February 2021. After the coup, many civilians took up arms and formed people’s defence forces to fight for the return of democracy and an end to military violence. Older, ethnic armed groups that have long sought greater autonomy have also fought against the junta, sometimes in coordination with newer groups.

The report, Landmine Monitor 2024, said landmines were used by both the military junta and armed groups that are fighting against it.

It cited several incidents where military landmines reportedly caused civilian casualties, including among children, and said there is evidence the military continues to use civilians as “guides” to walk ahead of its soldiers in mine-affected areas, effectively using them as human shields. The research also referenced reports the military has threatened farmers that they must pay for antipersonnel mines detonated by their livestock. In one case, soldiers demanded the owner of a cow injured by antipersonnel mines pay 1.5 million kyats ($714.97).

The report also reviewed cases where people’s defence forces and ethnic armed groups have allegedly used landmines, injuring and killing civilians. Increasingly, explosive devices were being left in military-controlled urban areas, often disguised in black plastic bags, said Dr Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, a researcher for the report.

“They are picked up by either garbage collectors or people salvaging through trash to try and find something to resell,” he said. Such explosives were not planted at military targets, but at civilian sites, apparently to target individuals working at agencies that, after the coup, have fallen under the control of the junta.

Neither Myanmar’s military junta nor the exiled opposition National Unity Government responded to requests for comment.

In total, Landmine Monitor found that there were 1,003 casualties in Myanmar last year, though a lack of formal surveillance nationwide means this could be a significant underestimate. “Could it be more double that? Yes. Could it be triple that? Quite possibly,” said Moser-Puangsuwan.

Syria had the second highest number of people killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war last year (933), followed by Afghanistan and Ukraine, which both had more than 500 recorded casualties in 2023.

Globally, civilians made up 84% (4,335) of all recorded casualties where the military or civilian status was known. Children accounted for 37% (1,498) of civilian casualties where the age group was recorded.

Myanmar overtook Syria last year to become the country with the highest number of people killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war, a report has found.

Research released by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines warned of extensive use of landmines across Myanmar following conflict that erupted after the 2021 military coup, with casualties recorded in every state and region except for Naypyidaw, the country’s heavily fortified capital and centre of military power.

Myanmar suffered more casualties last year than Syria, which had ranked worst in the world for the past three years. Ukraine and Afghanistan accounted for the third and fourth highest number of casualties globally.

Landmine use has significantly increased in Myanmar as conflict has spread across the country after the military’s seizure of power in February 2021. After the coup, many civilians took up arms and formed people’s defence forces to fight for the return of democracy and an end to military violence. Older, ethnic armed groups that have long sought greater autonomy have also fought against the junta, sometimes in coordination with newer groups.

The report, Landmine Monitor 2024, said landmines were used by both the military junta and armed groups that are fighting against it.

It cited several incidents where military landmines reportedly caused civilian casualties, including among children, and said there is evidence the military continues to use civilians as “guides” to walk ahead of its soldiers in mine-affected areas, effectively using them as human shields. The research also referenced reports the military has threatened farmers that they must pay for antipersonnel mines detonated by their livestock. In one case, soldiers demanded the owner of a cow injured by antipersonnel mines pay 1.5 million kyats ($714.97).

The report also reviewed cases where people’s defence forces and ethnic armed groups have allegedly used landmines, injuring and killing civilians. Increasingly, explosive devices were being left in military-controlled urban areas, often disguised in black plastic bags, said Dr Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, a researcher for the report.

“They are picked up by either garbage collectors or people salvaging through trash to try and find something to resell,” he said. Such explosives were not planted at military targets, but at civilian sites, apparently to target individuals working at agencies that, after the coup, have fallen under the control of the junta.

Neither Myanmar’s military junta nor the exiled opposition National Unity Government responded to requests for comment.

In total, Landmine Monitor found that there were 1,003 casualties in Myanmar last year, though a lack of formal surveillance nationwide means this could be a significant underestimate. “Could it be more double that? Yes. Could it be triple that? Quite possibly,” said Moser-Puangsuwan.

Syria had the second highest number of people killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war last year (933), followed by Afghanistan and Ukraine, which both had more than 500 recorded casualties in 2023.

Globally, civilians made up 84% (4,335) of all recorded casualties where the military or civilian status was known. Children accounted for 37% (1,498) of civilian casualties where the age group was recorded.

Donald Trump joined Elon Musk in Texas on Tuesday to watch a successful test launch of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, a demonstration of the unprecedented closeness between the world’s richest man and the newly chosen president of the United States.

Trump tweeted in advance of the launch: “I’m heading to the Great State of Texas to watch the launch of the largest object ever to be elevated, not only to Space, but simply by lifting off the ground. Good luck to @ElonMusk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project!”

Musk, the SpaceX founder and chief executive, said he was “honored” to have Trump present at the launch. The Texas senator Ted Cruz also attended.

After the rocket’s takeoff, it released its first stage booster back to Earth. SpaceX waived the booster’s return to the launch site, as was accomplished following a launch last month in a dramatic recapture, and opted instead for a fiery splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

No reason was immediately given for the booster setback, but Starship’s upper stage achieved the mission’s primary goal of a lengthy suborbital flight to evaluate hardware and software upgrades from earlier flights this year. Video of the landing showed it exploding into a ball of fire as it hit the water. SpaceX will retrieve the stage for evaluation, but regardless of what it discovers, it will not consider its inability to capture the booster as a failure.

The upper stage splashed down in the Indian Ocean 1hr 5min after its 4pm CT lift-off, and appeared to split into two halves. The segments were expected to sink and will not be recovered.

Trump, meanwhile, will soon be tasked with making highly consequential decisions about the future of US spaceflight. SpaceX already benefits from billions of dollars in US government contracts, and it is poised to secure more. The company’s Falcon rockets and Dragon capsules provide Nasa’s only crew-capable craft for flights to the international space station, and the Starship landing system was chosen to return humans to the moon, a mission currently scheduled for 2026.

With Musk almost inseparable from Trump since the election, christening himself the “First Buddy” and reportedly enjoying outsized influence in shaping the Republican’s second term, their joint appearance at SpaceX’s Starbase complex in Boca Chica for the launch of Starship’s sixth test flight was more than just mutual cheerleading.

Trump has yet to decide who he wants to be the next Nasa administrator as the agency approaches a pivotal moment in its history, and with Musk insisting he can get humans to Mars inside four years, government support, and more specifically dollars, will be crucial. Additionally, with speculation mounting that Nasa is considering dropping its own Space Launch System rocket program under a Trump administration, and relying more on the private sector for its return to the lunar surface and future missions to Mars, Musk may emerge with an even stronger hand.

“The founder of this century’s most innovative space company, Elon Musk, successfully used his fortune, time, and energy to help elect Donald Trump to president of the United States,” Ars Technica’s senior space editor, Eric Berger, wrote this month. “It’s entirely possible that the sitting chief executive of SpaceX could be the nation’s most important adviser on space policy, conflicts be damned.”

Trump, meanwhile, has made no secret of his desire for humans to achieve the highly ambitious goal of reaching Mars during his second term of office, and he is reportedly keen to see for himself the progress made on what is the world’s most powerful rocket when fully configured.Tuesday’s launch was Starship’s sixth experimental flight, following closely on the heels of its first fully successful test in June, when it rose to almost 130 miles in altitude and orbited Earth before splashing down intact in the Indian ocean.

A fifth flight last month provided the spectacle of the capture of Starship’s recyclable first stage rocket booster at the Texas launch site in a pair of giant calipers known as chopsticks.

SpaceX was unable to repeat the capture on Tuesday during Flight 6, announcing in a tweet that it was sending the booster instead to a water splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

A ball of fire was visible when it landed, but later video footage showed the booster, or at least a substantial remnant of it, bobbing on the surface. The ethos of the company is to incorporate expendable prototypes on a pathway to longer-term progress and discovery. Changes from the previous flight included removing more than 2,000 heat-shield tiles on the spacecraft’s nosecone and elsewhere to evaluate revised streamlining capabilities. As well as the heat shield experiment, SpaceX sent a successful command for Starship to reignite one of its Raptor engines in space for the first time.

SpaceX intends to launch future Starship test missions almost monthly, including from Florida’s Cape Canaveral possibly from next year. With about 16m lbs of thrust, and a capacity to lift up to 165 tonnes from the Earth’s surface, Starship is almost twice as powerful as the Saturn V rockets that sent 12 astronauts to the moon between 1969 and 1972.

As the Spanish national anthem rang out for what would be the final time in his career, Rafael Nadal could not stop his emotions from flowing. Tears welled up in his eyes and his hands visibly shook by his side. Finally, the last stage of this epic 30-year journey had begun, a moment that he never wanted to arrive but had no choice but to face. Nadal’s audience responded to his outpouring of emotions, clear to see on the big screen, with thunderous chants of “Rafa! Rafa!”

Not even those deafening, constant roars from the crowd could help to push Nadal beyond the limits of his bruised and broken body. Despite fighting for every last point with the diligence and desperation that has defined his entire career, Nadal was comprehensively defeated 6-4, 6-4 by Botic van de Zandschulp in the opening Davis Cup rubber between Spain and the Netherlands, a match that would turn out to be the last of his professional tennis career.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Spain fell 2-1 to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup. Spain had looked to the new leading light of Spanish tennis, Carlos Alcaraz, to find a way back and the 21-year-old Spaniard pulled Spain level with a 7-6 (0), 6-3 win over Tallon Griekspoor. “I did it for Rafa,” he said afterwards.

Alcaraz then returned to the court for the decisive doubles match alongside Marcel Granollers. In an incredibly tense, high-quality battle, Wesley Koolhof and Van de Zandschulp closed out the match with a dramatic 7-6 (4) 7-6 (3), win. As he watched on from courtside in Spain’s team box, cheering and coaching his teammates until the final point, Nadal’s professional tennis career came to an end after midnight.

In the past few days, as the tie neared, speculation raged about exactly what form Nadal’s participation in Málaga would take. Nadal had not played an official match since the Olympic Games nearly four months ago, so the consensus was that he would only take to the court in doubles. After arriving on-site earlier than most players and training diligently, including a set with Alcaraz on Monday night, Nadal was given the green light to compete in singles.

“Things can go well, can go bad,” said Nadal. “Of course putting myself on the field to play the first match was a risk. But that’s the work of the captain, no? At the end of the day, he has to make decisions, and David [Ferrer], I’m sure he make the decision thinking what’s the best for the team, not for myself.”

What followed was an occasion like no other. Nadal composed himself as he warmed up with Van de Zandschulp; the MC opted to slowly, pointedly read out every single significant achievement accrued by each player individually.

For Van de Zandschulp, the world No 80, it was a short and understated lead-in. Nadal’s introduction, however, was practically a PowerPoint presentation. After each of his major titles – 22 grand slam titles, two Olympic gold medals, five Davis Cup victories – were read out, the crowd responded with an exclamation of “Ayy”. It took minutes for the announcer to work through one of the greatest ever resumes a tennis player has compiled.

The spectacle that followed, however, bore little resemblance to those legendary times of old. It quickly became clear that Nadal was severely limited. His movement was poor, particularly towards his backhand wing and his forehand continually dropped short, allowing Van de Zandschulp to overpower him. He struggled badly with his return of serve.

There were still moments that the 11,000-strong audience will never forget; in the second set, he chased down a lob and responded with an overhead skyhook, his back to the net, before sending the fans to their feet by winning the point. Down 4-1 and a double break, Nadal pulled a break back through his sheer force of will. Many times in the past, that scenario would have been the start of an epic comeback. This time, he did not come close.

During his pre-event press conference, Nadal himself had made a point of noting that he was here to play and help the team – not simply to finish his career. In reality, Spain’s best team configuration would have placed Nadal in a doubles-only capacity. But he is one of the greatest players of all time and the sight of him stepping on to the court for one last tussle was more meaningful to the 11,000 crowd than any win.

Food prices have soared in Gaza after the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks amid an already severe food crisis caused by more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.

This weekend’s hijacking of 98 lorries of a 109-strong convoy by armed men – the biggest such attack to date – has aggravated food, medicine and other aid shortages, according to a World Health Organization spokesperson, Margaret Harris. “It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” she said on Tuesday.

The amount of aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory has dropped to an 11-month low, official Israeli data says, despite a US ultimatum last month that more humanitarian supplies must reach Gaza’s desperate population of 2.3 million people, almost all of whom have been displaced from their homes.

So far in November, Israel says it has allowed in an average of 88 trucks a day, a fraction of the 600 a day that aid agencies say are necessary to meet basic needs. In the northern third of Gaza, where Israeli forces are waging a weeks-long offensive that has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands, famine conditions may have already set in, experts say.

Aid agencies operating in the strip have struggled to collect and distribute supplies amid Israeli military activity, blocks on movement, and Israeli attacks that have targeted employees. About one-third of all aid is also believed to be stolen by armed gangs who resell it at extortionate prices, according to the UN.

The market fluctuates, but before the war a sack of flour cost 40 shekels (£8.40) and milk powder cost 30 shekels (£6.30). Now, in the centre and south of the strip, where most of the population has fled, prices have reached 375 shekels (£80) and 300 shekels (£64) respectively – if supplies can be found.

Israel denies deliberately restricting aid to Gaza or turning a blind eye to the proliferation of gangs and organised crime since the Hamas attack of 7 October last year that triggered the war. It also accuses Hamas of diverting aid.

The Palestinian militant group denies that, in turn alleging Israel has tried to foment anarchy by systematically targeting Hamas-employed police guarding aid convoys.

On Tuesday, reports emerged that amid renewed fears of famine, Hamas – whose military and governing capabilities have been severely degraded over 13 months of fighting – had formed a new anti-looting armed force.

“The popular and revolutionary committees”, established earlier this month, are made up of well-equipped Hamas fighters, allied groups and local clans, and have already carried out 15 missions in which looters have been ambushed and killed, according to a Hamas official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

After the hijacking of the UN convoy on Saturday, the Hamas-run interior ministry said late on Monday 20 people had been killed in an operation to reclaim the supplies.

In a statement, Hamas said thefts had “severely affected society and led to signs of famine in southern Gaza”, and warned the operation was the start of a broader campaign to tackle the problem.

Community leaders in central Gaza said local people had fought back against the looters and managed to retrieve some of the stolen trucks, which were then returned to the UN World Food Programme. Witnesses described another firefight over the weekend, when Hamas fighters in two cars chased men suspected of looting who were driving another vehicle, resulting in the death of the suspects.

Shaban, an engineer from Gaza City displaced to Deir al-Balah, told Reuters: “There is a campaign against thieves, we see that. If the campaign continues and aid flows, the prices will go down because the stolen aid appears in the markets at high cost.”

Since a truce collapsed after a week last November, ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza war have repeatedly failed, with the mediator Qatar announcing earlier this month that it was quitting its role until Israel and Hamas show “willingness and seriousness” in the talks.

Meanwhile, hopes of a truce are growing in the two-month war between Israel and the powerful Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

During a visit to Beirut on Tuesday, the Biden administration envoy Amos Hochstein said an agreement was “within our grasp” after “very constructive talks” with Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally mediating on the group’s behalf.

The proposal is believed to focus on the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces from the UN buffer zone that separates the two countries, which will then be policed by thousands of additional UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops. Israel’s demand that it must be able to maintain “freedom of action” to respond to Hezbollah threats is still a condition Lebanon is unlikely to accept.

The US government has recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the “president-elect” of the South American country, months after President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won the July contest.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, recognized González in a post on X in which he also demanded “respect for the will” of Venezuelan voters.

Joe Biden’s administration had previously said González earned the most votes in the disputed 28 July election, but fell short of acknowledging him as president-elect.

“The Venezuelan people spoke resoundingly on July 28 and made [González] the president-elect,” wrote Blinken.

González fled to exile in Spain earlier this month, later telling reporters that he had been coerced into signing a letter recognizing Maduro as the winner of the disputed election as a condition for letting him leave Venezuela.

Venezuela’s national electoral council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, had declared Maduro the election winner hours after polls closed. Unlike previous presidential elections, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts.

But the opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 80% of the nation’s electronic voting machines and posted them online. González and opposition leader María Corina Machado said the voting records showed the former diplomat won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.

Earlier this month, Maduro appeared to extend an olive branch to Donald Trump, calling for a new era of “win-win” relations and prompting speculation of possible rapprochement between the two leaders.’

“In his first government … Trump wasn’t good to us [but] this is a new start,” said Maduro during a live TV broadcast.

Addressing Trump, Maduro said: “Your slogan is ‘Make America Great Again’. And, paraphrasing your slogan, I’d say that our slogan is to make the united Venezuela, Latin America and the Caribbean great.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, who has friendly relations with Maduro, reversed his support for the July elections, calling them a “mistake”.

Petro spoke in an interview with Brazilian news outlet Globo News, which released excerpts online that Petro’s office shared Tuesday on social media.

Petro told the news outlet on Monday while visiting Brazil for the G20 summit that he initially had been in favor of Venezuela holding the elections, but that he later decided that the vote was not “free”.

“I think the elections were a mistake,” Petro said.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press

Gangs have launched a fresh attack on Haiti’s capital, targeting an upscale community in Port-au-Prince where people with guns clashed with residents who fought side by side with police.

The attack on Pétionville was led by the Viv Ansanm group, whose leader, former police officer Jimmy Chérizier, had announced the plan in a video posted on social media.

At least 28 suspected gang members were killed and hundreds of munitions seized, according to Lionel Lazarre, deputy spokesperson for Haiti’s national police.

It was not immediately clear if the police had prepared for the attack or tried to preventively protect Pétionville given that Chérizier, who is also known as Barbecue, had announced plans to attack it. Lazarre did not return a message for comment.

Witnesses said that residents were angered by yet another gang attack on their community. They said some of the suspected gang members were decapitated or had their feet cut off, while bodies were placed in a pile and set on fire.

The pre-dawn attack began when two trucks carrying suspected gang members entered Pétionville. One of the trucks blocked the main entrance to the community.

Chérizier had threatened reprisals against the management and staff of any hotels in the area where politicians or “oligarchs” may have taken refuge.

Gang members with guns also attacked the neighbouring community of Canapé Vert and other areas. Local resident Richard Derosier said he heard gunfire and saw a man running around carrying a large machine gun.

He said: “I asked God, ‘Are you going to let them save my life?’”

The attack came days after gang violence forced Haiti’s main international airport to shut down for the second time this year as the country swore in a new prime minister following political infighting.

On 11 November, attackers opened fire on a Spirit airlines plane as it prepared to land, wounding a flight attendant. The shooting prompted the airport to close and several airlines to temporarily cancel flights to Port-au-Prince.

Gang violence has forced more than 20,000 people to flee Port-au-Prince in recent days, according to the United Nations.

Viv Ansanm is also responsible for a series of coordinated attacks that began in late February targeting key government infrastructure. Gang members attacked police stations, opened fire on the main international airport, forcing it to close for nearly three months, and raided Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

Gangs control 85% of the capital and in recent weeks have launched attacks in previously peaceful communities to try and gain control of even more territory.

The incidents have escalated since police officers from Kenya, who are leading a UN-backed mission to quell violence in Haiti, arrived in late June.

The US government has been pushing for a UN peacekeeping force to replace the Kenyan-led mission because it lacks funds and personnel.