The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees has suspended aid deliveries through the main lifeline for the Gaza Strip after a fresh attack by armed gangs on a convoy, amid a severe food crisis caused by more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

In a statement on Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, said several trucks carrying food supplies were looted the day before on the road from Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel – the main aid crossing point into the besieged Palestinian territory. The route has not been safe for months, he said on X, referring to the unprecedented hijacking of nearly 100 aid trucks last month.

“This difficult decision comes at a time hunger is rapidly deepening … due to the ongoing siege, hurdles from Israeli authorities, political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid, lack of safety on aid routes and targeting of local police. All of the above led to a breakdown in law and order,” he said.

Lazzarini said protecting aid workers and supplies was Israel’s responsibility as the occupying power in the Palestinian territories, calling on the country to “ensure aid flows into Gaza safely” and to “refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers”.

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday in Khan Younis killed three contractors working for World Central Kitchen, Palestinian media reported, leading the US-based charity to also pause operations. The Israeli military said one of the World Central Kitchen employees was a Hamas militant involved in the 7 October attacks that triggered the war. It did not provide evidence to support the claim. The aid organisation lost another seven workers in an Israeli drone strike in April that Israel said was a mistake.

Humanitarian agencies working in Gaza have struggled to collect and distribute supplies amid Israeli military activity, blocks on movement, and Israeli attacks that have targeted employees, suspending operations on several occasions.

As of October, 333 aid workers had been killed since the conflict began, according to the UN. The world body estimates that about one-third of aid is stolen by armed gangs who resell it at extortionate prices.

Israel denies deliberately restricting aid to Gaza or ignoring the proliferation of gangs and organised crime. 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.

At least 32 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave in the past 24 hours, even as Hamas leaders met Egyptian security officials in Cairo on Sunday to discuss reviving ceasefire talks. The Biden administration is seeking to build on the success of last week’s ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, although there is no indication yet from either Hamas or Israel that their terms for a truce have changed.

About 44,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of fighting according to the local health ministry, whose figures are considered by the UN to be accurate, and 90% of the 2.3 million population have been displaced from their homes.

A total of 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 taken captive in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel says 63 of the remaining 101 hostages are still alive.

Meanwhile, the Lebanon ceasefire appeared to be on shaky ground as both sides accused the other of new violations. The Israeli military carried out airstrikes in four areas on the Syria-Lebanon border on Saturday against what it said was military infrastructure and Hezbollah activities that “posed a threat”. The Syrian border is a key weapons supply route for the Iran-allied group.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that an Israeli “strike on a car in Majdal Zoun wounded three people including a seven-year-old child”.

Israeli warplanes also targeted what the military claimed was a rocket storage facility on Thursday, reportedly hitting a location north of the Litani River, which is not included in the 60-day ceasefire and staged withdrawal agreement.

Israeli forces have also aimed gun and tank fire at cars and people returning to areas near the UN-demarcated blue line separating the two countries, which Israel still considers restricted. Thousands of displaced civilians have attempted to return to their homes in southern Lebanon in the past few days amid contradictory instructions from Lebanese and Israeli officials.

Iran’s top diplomat is expected to go to Damascus in a show of support to the Syrian regime as it attempts to repel the strongest challenge to its authority in years, after a sudden advance by Islamist insurgents in which it seized control of Aleppo.

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters he would travel on Sunday to Syria to convey the strength of Tehran’s backing for Bashar al-Assad and his rule. Araghchi is expected in the Turkish capital, Ankara, the following day, as Damascus’s allies and opponents scramble to adapt to Assad’s sudden losses in northern Syria.

“We firmly support the Syrian army and government,” he said, according to the official news agency IRNA. It came as a wave of Syrian and Russian airstrikes hit opposition-controlled areas. Civil defence forces in Idlib, known as the White Helmets, said an airstrike on Idlib city killed four people and injured 54 others.

Assad had remained conspicuously absent from public view for several days amid a sudden offensive spearheaded by Islamist militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who swept through towns and villages across north-western Syria in less than a week before taking control of Aleppo, the country’s second largest city and a former industrial powerhouse.

The embattled Syrian leader reemerged late on Saturday night to conduct a flurry of calls to regional allies in Baghdad and Abu Dhabi, as forces loyal to Damascus appeared to mount a counter-attack. Assad told the Emirati president, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, that the Syrian government “is capable, with the help of its allies and friends”, of repelling the sudden insurgency.

The regime in Damascus has long relied on foreign support, notably during the 2016 battle to retake control of Aleppo, where Russian air power proved decisive. The Syrian government has also relied heavily on Iranian forces on the ground including members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Israel has rapidly scaled up airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria over the past year amid increasing regional confrontations with Tehran and its proxies.

Assad crushed a popular uprising that rose up against him in 2011, before spilling over into a bloody civil war that has fractured his control of the country and left him heavily dependent on backing from Tehran and Moscow. The Syrian leader also employed airstrikes, siege tactics and chemical weapons against his own people during fierce battles to regain control of territory.

The sudden loss of Aleppo to Islamist militants appeared to rattle Assad’s backers overseas. In a telephone call on Saturday between the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and Araghchi, both “expressed utmost concern over the dangerous escalation in Syria”.

Araghchi blamed the sudden territorial gains by Islamist militants in Syria’s north-west on the US and Israel with his Syrian counterpart on Friday, claiming they were behind the advance.

The militants’ sweeping territorial gains prompted questions about the Syrian army’s capacity to mount a response while its backers have deployed resources elsewhere, with Russian forces more focused on the fight in Ukraine.

The advance also sparked a flurry of regional diplomacy, with the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, speaking to his Syrian counterpart to express “Jordan’s concern over the unfolding events” while advocating for a political resolution in Syria.

The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, discussed events in Syria with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, according to Turkish media. Officials in Ankara, which backs select elements of Syria’s armed opposition, had recently offered to normalise relations with Damascus, after regional leaders who once shunned Assad had begun welcoming him back into the fold.

The US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said on Saturday night that Washington was “closely monitoring the situation in Syria and have been in contact over the last 48 hours with regional capitals”.

The Assad regime’s reliance on Russian and Iranian backing created the current instability, he said, “including the collapse of Assad regime lines in north-west Syria”. He added that “the United States has nothing to do with this offensive”, pointing out that HTS was previously designated a terrorist organisation.

Across northern Syria, Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups and Kurdish militias moved to claim territory rapidly evacuated by forces loyal to Damascus, as Syrian government forces retreated from areas they have held for almost a decade.

At the Kuweires airbase, east of Aleppo, video showed Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forces taking control of the base and weaponry there, including an Iranian-made drone.

As insurgents pushed south towards the city of Hama, a concerted counter-attack by the Syrian army appeared to be taking shape. Damascus’s state news agency and pro-government channels shared images purporting to show business as usual inside Hama itself, with civilians crossing streets of traffic and visiting local markets with piles of vegetables on display, as well as a tour by local police forces.

The Syrian defence ministry said it had reinforced defensive lines in the northern Hama countryside to repel a militant advance, after previously promising a counterattack “to recover all regions”, while insurgent forces described fierce battles in the area north of Hama city.

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees has suspended aid deliveries through the main lifeline for the Gaza Strip after a fresh attack by armed gangs on a convoy, amid a severe food crisis caused by more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

In a statement on Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, said several trucks carrying food supplies were looted the day before on the road from Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel – the main aid crossing point into the besieged Palestinian territory. The route has not been safe for months, he said on X, referring to the unprecedented hijacking of nearly 100 aid trucks last month.

“This difficult decision comes at a time hunger is rapidly deepening … due to the ongoing siege, hurdles from Israeli authorities, political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid, lack of safety on aid routes and targeting of local police. All of the above led to a breakdown in law and order,” he said.

Lazzarini said protecting aid workers and supplies was Israel’s responsibility as the occupying power in the Palestinian territories, calling on the country to “ensure aid flows into Gaza safely” and to “refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers”.

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday in Khan Younis killed three contractors working for World Central Kitchen, Palestinian media reported, leading the US-based charity to also pause operations. The Israeli military said one of the World Central Kitchen employees was a Hamas militant involved in the 7 October attacks that triggered the war. It did not provide evidence to support the claim. The aid organisation lost another seven workers in an Israeli drone strike in April that Israel said was a mistake.

Humanitarian agencies working in Gaza have struggled to collect and distribute supplies amid Israeli military activity, blocks on movement, and Israeli attacks that have targeted employees, suspending operations on several occasions.

As of October, 333 aid workers had been killed since the conflict began, according to the UN. The world body estimates that about one-third of aid is stolen by armed gangs who resell it at extortionate prices.

Israel denies deliberately restricting aid to Gaza or ignoring the proliferation of gangs and organised crime. 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.

At least 32 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave in the past 24 hours, even as Hamas leaders met Egyptian security officials in Cairo on Sunday to discuss reviving ceasefire talks. The Biden administration is seeking to build on the success of last week’s ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, although there is no indication yet from either Hamas or Israel that their terms for a truce have changed.

About 44,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of fighting according to the local health ministry, whose figures are considered by the UN to be accurate, and 90% of the 2.3 million population have been displaced from their homes.

A total of 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 taken captive in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel says 63 of the remaining 101 hostages are still alive.

Meanwhile, the Lebanon ceasefire appeared to be on shaky ground as both sides accused the other of new violations. The Israeli military carried out airstrikes in four areas on the Syria-Lebanon border on Saturday against what it said was military infrastructure and Hezbollah activities that “posed a threat”. The Syrian border is a key weapons supply route for the Iran-allied group.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that an Israeli “strike on a car in Majdal Zoun wounded three people including a seven-year-old child”.

Israeli warplanes also targeted what the military claimed was a rocket storage facility on Thursday, reportedly hitting a location north of the Litani River, which is not included in the 60-day ceasefire and staged withdrawal agreement.

Israeli forces have also aimed gun and tank fire at cars and people returning to areas near the UN-demarcated blue line separating the two countries, which Israel still considers restricted. Thousands of displaced civilians have attempted to return to their homes in southern Lebanon in the past few days amid contradictory instructions from Lebanese and Israeli officials.

Iran’s top diplomat is expected to go to Damascus in a show of support to the Syrian regime as it attempts to repel the strongest challenge to its authority in years, after a sudden advance by Islamist insurgents in which it seized control of Aleppo.

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters he would travel on Sunday to Syria to convey the strength of Tehran’s backing for Bashar al-Assad and his rule. Araghchi is expected in the Turkish capital, Ankara, the following day, as Damascus’s allies and opponents scramble to adapt to Assad’s sudden losses in northern Syria.

“We firmly support the Syrian army and government,” he said, according to the official news agency IRNA. It came as a wave of Syrian and Russian airstrikes hit opposition-controlled areas. Civil defence forces in Idlib, known as the White Helmets, said an airstrike on Idlib city killed four people and injured 54 others.

Assad had remained conspicuously absent from public view for several days amid a sudden offensive spearheaded by Islamist militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who swept through towns and villages across north-western Syria in less than a week before taking control of Aleppo, the country’s second largest city and a former industrial powerhouse.

The embattled Syrian leader reemerged late on Saturday night to conduct a flurry of calls to regional allies in Baghdad and Abu Dhabi, as forces loyal to Damascus appeared to mount a counter-attack. Assad told the Emirati president, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, that the Syrian government “is capable, with the help of its allies and friends”, of repelling the sudden insurgency.

The regime in Damascus has long relied on foreign support, notably during the 2016 battle to retake control of Aleppo, where Russian air power proved decisive. The Syrian government has also relied heavily on Iranian forces on the ground including members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Israel has rapidly scaled up airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria over the past year amid increasing regional confrontations with Tehran and its proxies.

Assad crushed a popular uprising that rose up against him in 2011, before spilling over into a bloody civil war that has fractured his control of the country and left him heavily dependent on backing from Tehran and Moscow. The Syrian leader also employed airstrikes, siege tactics and chemical weapons against his own people during fierce battles to regain control of territory.

The sudden loss of Aleppo to Islamist militants appeared to rattle Assad’s backers overseas. In a telephone call on Saturday between the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and Araghchi, both “expressed utmost concern over the dangerous escalation in Syria”.

Araghchi blamed the sudden territorial gains by Islamist militants in Syria’s north-west on the US and Israel with his Syrian counterpart on Friday, claiming they were behind the advance.

The militants’ sweeping territorial gains prompted questions about the Syrian army’s capacity to mount a response while its backers have deployed resources elsewhere, with Russian forces more focused on the fight in Ukraine.

The advance also sparked a flurry of regional diplomacy, with the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, speaking to his Syrian counterpart to express “Jordan’s concern over the unfolding events” while advocating for a political resolution in Syria.

The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, discussed events in Syria with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, according to Turkish media. Officials in Ankara, which backs select elements of Syria’s armed opposition, had recently offered to normalise relations with Damascus, after regional leaders who once shunned Assad had begun welcoming him back into the fold.

The US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said on Saturday night that Washington was “closely monitoring the situation in Syria and have been in contact over the last 48 hours with regional capitals”.

The Assad regime’s reliance on Russian and Iranian backing created the current instability, he said, “including the collapse of Assad regime lines in north-west Syria”. He added that “the United States has nothing to do with this offensive”, pointing out that HTS was previously designated a terrorist organisation.

Across northern Syria, Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups and Kurdish militias moved to claim territory rapidly evacuated by forces loyal to Damascus, as Syrian government forces retreated from areas they have held for almost a decade.

At the Kuweires airbase, east of Aleppo, video showed Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forces taking control of the base and weaponry there, including an Iranian-made drone.

As insurgents pushed south towards the city of Hama, a concerted counter-attack by the Syrian army appeared to be taking shape. Damascus’s state news agency and pro-government channels shared images purporting to show business as usual inside Hama itself, with civilians crossing streets of traffic and visiting local markets with piles of vegetables on display, as well as a tour by local police forces.

The Syrian defence ministry said it had reinforced defensive lines in the northern Hama countryside to repel a militant advance, after previously promising a counterattack “to recover all regions”, while insurgent forces described fierce battles in the area north of Hama city.

When Donald Trump nominated David Weldon, a 71-year-old doctor from Florida who has long questioned the safety of vaccines, to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anti-vaccine activists celebrated.

The move comes as the US faces increased threats from bird flu and mpox as well as resurgences of whooping cough, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

“He is one of us!!” the co-director of the anti-vax group Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights wrote on Facebook. “Since before our movement had momentum. Dream Come True.”

“Every day more good news!” wrote another prominent anti-vaxxer in West Virginia.

“SUCH GREAT NEWS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” announced AutismOne, a group that has platformed the anti-vaxxer who recommended chlorine dioxide, essentially industrial bleach, to “cure” autism. The organization also gave Weldon an award in 2013.

“He’s definitely someone who’s very sympathetic to the anti-vaccine cause,” said Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Law San Francisco.

As a representative to the US House from 1995 to 2009, Weldon was a founding member of the Congressional Autism caucus, and he introduced two bills related to vaccines.

One bill would have limited who can receive vaccines containing thimerosal, even though nearly all vaccines were already made without the preservative by then, despite the evidence that low doses of thimerosal are safe.

Another bill sought to move the CDC’s vaccine safety work to a separate, independent agency, a major change.

When he left the US House of Representatives in 2008, Weldon signaled he was done with politics. Politics, at least, seemed done with him: after failed primaries for the US Senate in 2012 and the US House again in 2024, Weldon returned to practicing medicine privately.

Now, Weldon has been nominated for one of the most politicized agencies in the country.

But Weldon never disappeared from the public spotlight entirely. Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s pick to lead health and human services, has frequently invoked Weldon to claim agencies like the CDC are captured by pharmaceutical interests.

Weldon appeared in the anti-vaccine films Shoot ‘Em Up and Vaxxed, which was directed by the gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, to cast doubt on vaccines.

Weldon said he attempted to slow the CDC’s process of investigating the link between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine – a thoroughly discredited theory advanced by Wakefield based on unethical research.

“It just didn’t seem to me like we were, we were running a system that was credible,” Weldon said in 2016’s Vaxxed. He claimed that the agency tried to “short-circuit important research and draw premature conclusions” in order to “shut the door permanently and completely” on any link between the MMR vaccine and autism, which research has repeatedly debunked.

Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization that was led by RFK Jr until he left to pursue the US presidency last year, said that officials like Weldon would remove the federal law that compensates people for rare complications after vaccines rather than holding vaccine makers liable for each case – which could effectively end the production of key childhood vaccines.

“That would be a real risk,” Reiss said. “If you remove liability protection from routine childhood vaccines, manufacturers may just leave that market, leaving kids without access to these vaccines.”

Such a move would also make it more difficult for people to receive compensation for their very rare side effects, because their claims would need to be adjudicated individually in court.

Kennedy, as HHS secretary, could also replace members of CDC’s independent vaccine advisory committee. As CDC director, Weldon could reject recommendations from the advisers.

The CDC makes evidence-based recommendations for immunizations, including the ones given routinely in childhood. While states aren’t required to follow the recommendations, most do.

Insurance companies are only required to cover vaccines that are recommended through this process, while public health departments could lose funding to administer shots to the uninsured – creating significant access issues.

Weldon could also influence public messaging from the CDC about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

All of the nominees will need to be confirmed by Congress, a process that can take months. But even if they don’t make it through the confirmation process, even being named to positions like these can elevate dangerous and anti-scientific ideas, Reiss said.

“I think it increases their legitimacy. It gives them a microphone … to express their views and promote this information,” Reiss said.

“It sends a message that the Trump administration is willing to work with the anti-vaccine movement. And I think it also sends a message that science-based decisions are not the priority.”

Donald Trump has tapped Kashyap “Kash” Patel to be FBI director, nominating a loyalist and “deep state” critic to lead the federal law enforcement agency that the president-elect has long slammed as corrupt.

Patel, 44, has worked as a federal prosecutor and a public defender but rose to prominence in Trump circles after expressing outrage over the agency’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. He has called for the FBI leadership to be fired as part of a drive to bring federal law enforcement “to heel.”

If confirmed, Patel would replace Christopher Wray, the FBI director who was appointed by Trump in 2017 after the then-president fired James Comey over the FBI’s Russia collusion probe.

Comey later testified to Congress there was no evidence of any collusion but the FBI had a “basis for investigating” the matter.

Patel had ties to former Republican representative Devin Nunes, who led opposition to the Russia probe by special counsel Robert Muller while serving as chair of the House intelligence committee.

In making his nomination for FBI director, Trump said in a statement on Truth Social that Patel “is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”

“Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI,” Trump added.

Trump noted Patel’s service as chief of staff at the department of defense, deputy director of national intelligence, and senior director for counter-terrorism at the national security council during his first term.

Patel, he said, “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”

“This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border”, he said.

If confirmed by the senate – Gina Haspel, CIA director during Trump’s first term, reportedly threatened to resign in 2020 when Trump sought to install Patel as her deputy – Patel will likely prove a loyal agent of Trump’s desire to reform what the president-elect considers Washington’s bureaucratic overreach.

Patel told the Conservative Political Action Conference in July it was necessary to “identify the people in government that are crippling our constitutional republic”.

Trump has called Patel’s 2023 book “Government Gangsters”, in which he argued for firing of government employees who undermine the president’s agenda, a “blueprint to take back the White House”.

The reforms Patel outlined in the book “to defeat the deep state” include moving the FBI headquarters from Washington to “curb FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship” and to reduce the general counsel’s office, which he claimed had taken on “prosecutorial decision-making”.

Voting is under way in parliamentary elections in Romania, with voters still unsure whether the shock result of last week’s presidential first-round ballot will stand amid continuing allegations of electoral fraud and foreign interference.

Far-right parties are forecast to make significant gains in Sunday’s parliamentary vote, with polls showing the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) slightly ahead of the Social Democratic party (PSD), part of the ruling coalition.

The election comes a week after Călin Georgescu, a far-right, Moscow-friendly independent who had previously been polling at barely 5%, finished first in the opening round of the presidential vote, an outcome that upended Romanian politics.

Georgescu’s unexpected success, after a campaign that he said had zero financing and that was based heavily on viral TikTok videos reportedly boosted by bot-like activity, has triggered nightly protests and aroused suspicions of external interference.

Romania’s top court ordered a recount and on Monday it is due to announce its decision on a request by a defeated candidate to annul the vote over allegations of illegal electoral activity on behalf of the second-placed candidate, Elena Lasconi.

As things stand, Georgescu should face Lasconi in a second-round runoff on 8 December but, depending on the court’s decision, both presidential votes could be delayed until later this month, adding to the political uncertainty.

Both elections are seen as critical to the future direction of Romania, hitherto a reliable EU and Nato ally, strategically important for western support for Ukraine, that has largely evaded nationalism since emerging from communism in 1989.

Cristian Pîrvulescu, a political scientist, said, “People who have serenely voted for Georgescu do not realise we are essentially talking about a total trajectory shift.”

Amid widespread voter anger over the cost of living and a long legacy of political corruption, analysts said far-right parties such as the AUR were likely to benefit most from the turmoil, which has further tarnished public trust in state institutions.

Sergiu Mișcoiu, of Babeș-Bolyai University, said: “The net beneficiaries … are Georgescu and the anti-establishment camp, which is now getting additional ammunition: here is how state institutions work, how discretionary they are.”

Voters echoed that view. “What’s going on now doesn’t seem very democratic,” Gina Visan, a 40-year-old nurse, told Agence-France Presse. “They should respect our vote. We’re disappointed, but we’re used to this kind of behaviour.”

Polls late last week put the AUR on about 22%, with the PSD of the outgoing prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, on about 21% – down sharply since the presidential ballot – and Lasconi’s centre-right, pro-EU Save Romania Union (USR) on 17%.

Many observers believe the country’s political landscape is about to shift sharply to the anti-establishment right. Romania has the EU’s biggest share of people at risk of poverty, the bloc’s highest inflation rate and its largest budget deficit.

“The impact of presidential election surprise will be significant – we are going to wake up in a new political reality,” said Cristian Andrei, a political analyst. “Georgescu voters will speak again and reshape how we look at Romania’s political spectrum.”

The outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis, said Sunday’s vote would determine Romania’s future: whether it would “remain a country of freedom and openness, or collapse into toxic isolation and a dark past”.

The centre-left PSD and centre-right National Liberal party (PNL) have dominated Romania’s politics for the past three decades, but most observers foresee a much more fragmented landscape, making it increasingly hard to form a coalition.

The party of Young People (POT), founded in 2023, which has thrown its support behind Georgescu, and the extreme-right SOS Romania, led by the firebrand Diana Șoșoacă, could each reach the 5% threshold to enter parliament.

Romania’s presidential office said last week that officials had detected online efforts to influence voting in the presidential ballot, adding that one candidate – it did not say which – had benefited from “massive exposure due to preferential treatment” by the social media platform TikTok.

TikTok has dismissed the allegations, saying it enforced guidelines against election misinformation. A spokesperson said on Thursday it was “categorically false” to suggest Georgescu’s account was treated differently from those of other candidates.

Georgescu has called for an end to the war in Ukraine, denied the existence of Covid-19, described two second world war-era Romanian fascists as “national heroes” and claimed that in foreign affairs Romania would benefit from “Russian wisdom”.

Romanians are voting to elect lawmakers in the senate, which has 133 seats, and in parliament, which has 323. Polling stations opened on Sunday at 7am and will close at 9pm local time, with exit poll results due soon afterwards.

She has been hailed as a national treasure, the queen of stage and screen, with a damehood to match. But Dame Judi Dench has revealed that her pet parrot has a rather less polite name for her: “Slut.”

The Academy Award-winning actor, who turns 90 next week, said everyone should have a bird like her rescue African grey parrot, Sweetie, despite their indecorous language.

“We had a long chat just now. You shouldn’t ask what she says. She says: ‘You’re a slut’, ‘you’re a slag’,” Dench told the Sunday Times.

“She has said ‘Boris Johnson’ but she didn’t get that from me. She listens to the radio. My god, she’s funny though. She’s very, very funny. Everybody should have a parrot, or a myna bird. Their voices are absolutely incredible.”

Dench has previously revealed how her parrot, who tried and failed to learn Shakespeare, once insulted her housekeeper.

“The parrot was given to me and didn’t speak for a long time,” she said earlier this year. “Then she suddenly said to Barbara, who comes in to me three times a week: ‘You’re a slag.’”

Her grandson’s girlfriend also fell prey to the foul-mouthed bird when she said she was wearing thermal underwear, prompting Sweetie to remark: “Slut.”

“Honest to God, it’s true,” Dench said. “I don’t know where she learned the timing.”

The multi-Olivier-winning actor has said she was given the “charming” parrot for Christmas during the Covid-19 pandemic. She told Louis Theroux she “wouldn’t be without her for the world”, in an interview for his documentary series in 2022.

Dench told the Sunday Times she was not going to dwell on her impending birthday on 9 December. “It’s just that you get a bit nervous when everybody says 90. I don’t want to think of 90 much, I’m going to think about [turning] 29,” she said.

She has been hailed as a national treasure, the queen of stage and screen, with a damehood to match. But Dame Judi Dench has revealed that her pet parrot has a rather less polite name for her: “Slut.”

The Academy Award-winning actor, who turns 90 next week, said everyone should have a bird like her rescue African grey parrot, Sweetie, despite their indecorous language.

“We had a long chat just now. You shouldn’t ask what she says. She says: ‘You’re a slut’, ‘you’re a slag’,” Dench told the Sunday Times.

“She has said ‘Boris Johnson’ but she didn’t get that from me. She listens to the radio. My god, she’s funny though. She’s very, very funny. Everybody should have a parrot, or a myna bird. Their voices are absolutely incredible.”

Dench has previously revealed how her parrot, who tried and failed to learn Shakespeare, once insulted her housekeeper.

“The parrot was given to me and didn’t speak for a long time,” she said earlier this year. “Then she suddenly said to Barbara, who comes in to me three times a week: ‘You’re a slag.’”

Her grandson’s girlfriend also fell prey to the foul-mouthed bird when she said she was wearing thermal underwear, prompting Sweetie to remark: “Slut.”

“Honest to God, it’s true,” Dench said. “I don’t know where she learned the timing.”

The multi-Olivier-winning actor has said she was given the “charming” parrot for Christmas during the Covid-19 pandemic. She told Louis Theroux she “wouldn’t be without her for the world”, in an interview for his documentary series in 2022.

Dench told the Sunday Times she was not going to dwell on her impending birthday on 9 December. “It’s just that you get a bit nervous when everybody says 90. I don’t want to think of 90 much, I’m going to think about [turning] 29,” she said.

Fears of a global trade war have risen after Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries in the Brics group if they create a new currency to rival the US dollar.

Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump declared that he would also act if they supported another currency to replace the dollar.

“We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new Brics currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy,” Trump said.

“They can go find another sucker. There is no chance that the Brics will replace the US dollar in international trade, and any country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” he added.

The warning came less than a week after Trump declared he would impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China once he was inaugurated as president.

The Brics group was originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and has been joined by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Iran.

Some Brics members have shown interest in de-dollarising the world economy. In October, Vladimir Putin called for an alternative international payments system that could prevent the US from using the dollar as a political weapon. Others, though, fear the consequences of severing relations with the US and other western countries by breaking away from the dollar, which underpins world finance.

A 100% tariff at the US border, if implemented, would drive up sharply the cost of goods from Brics members, fuelling US inflation and destabilising global trade flows.

Stephen Innes, a managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said Trump had laid down the gauntlet with a “blistering proposal” of a 100% tariff.

“Trump’s recent electoral triumph was heavily fortified by his promise to impose harsh tariffs on foreign imports to the US, advocating for an aggressive 60% tariff on Chinese goods,” he said.

“This hardline approach on trade reflects Trump’s broader ‘America First’ economic policy, which aims to recalibrate global trade dynamics and reinforce US economic sovereignty. As the world watches, the potential for a global trade upheaval looms, setting the stage for a contentious start to Trump’s administration.”

Belgian sex workers have gained the right to sick days, maternity pay and pension rights under the first law of its kind in the world.

Lawmakers voted in May to give sex workers the same employment protections as any other employee, in an attempt to clamp down on abuse and exploitation.

The law, which went into force on Sunday, ensures that sex workers have employment contracts and legal protection.

It is intended to end a grey zone created in 2022 when sex work was decriminalised in Belgium but without conferring any protections on sex workers, or labour rights such as unemployment benefit or health insurance.

Under the law, sex workers have the right to refuse sexual partners or to perform specific acts and can stop an act at any time. Nor can they be sacked for these refusals.

Employers must be of “good character” with a business residence in Belgium; they must also ensure their premises are equipped with panic buttons, clean linen, showers and condoms.

The protections do not cover home working, or activities such as striptease and pornography.

The Belgian Union of Sex Workers described the law as “a huge step forward, ending legal discrimination against sex workers”.

But it said the rules could “be instrumentalised” to reduce or eliminate sex work. It added: “We already see certain municipalities hiding behind the words ‘safety’ and ‘hygiene’ to promulgate very strict local regulations that make sex work almost impossible on their territory.”

Some feminist organisations have criticised the law. When the bill was published in 2023, the Council of Francophone Women of Belgium said it would be “catastrophic” for young girls and victims of trafficking.

“To assume that prostitution exists and that we must protect workers is to accept this sexist violence and not to fight it,” the head of the organisation told Le Soir.

The Green party in Ireland is facing virtual wipeout in the general election, with its leader admitting it was entering a period of “rebuild” after the electorate removed any prospect of the party reentering government.

The Greens look set to lose all but one of their 12 seats, that of Roderic O’Gorman, who took over as leader in July. That would mean they will not be able to team up again with the two centre-right parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which are poised to take the lion’s shares of seats in the 34th Dáil.

Counting from Friday’s election could continue into into Monday. Ireland has a proportional representation system involving multiple counts and too-close-to-call scraps for the final seats in many constituencies.

By lunchtime on Sunday, it appeared that 10 of the Green party candidates had been eliminated from the race. In the constituency of Dublin West, O’Gorman himself remained on tenterhooks in fifth place and hoping for transfer votes.

He told RTE he was a “tiny bit more confident” than he had been on Saturday that he would retain his seat, but admitted it had been a “difficult weekend” for the party.

As things stand, Fianna Fáil looks set to be the largest party in the next parliament, with more than 40 seats, but with Simon Harris’s Fine Gael and the leftwing Sinn Fêin close behind in the mid- to late-30s. The Social Democrats, a nine-year-old party, is shaping up to be the fourth largest force, almost doubling its seats from six to 11 or 12, according to the outgoing co-leader, Róisín Shortall.

Among the issues that muddied the waters for the Greens was a carbon tax on petrol, aimed at discouraging people from consuming carbon-emitting fuel, which was introduced by the previous government but blamed on the Greens.

Ciarán Cuffe, a member of the party for 40 years, and a former MEP, said the Greens had been “the fall guys” and they had paid the price for being incumbents.

“I think small party incumbency is at the heart of this. In the Irish political context, it is always tough for the junior partner in government to argue about what it has achieving in government, and it seems to be held responsible for every other department including the ones it doesn’t control. That’s what happened to Labour in 2016 it happened to us in 2011 and it seems to have happened to us again now,” he said.

“We were seen as the fall guys. We were being attacked from two sides, from some of our core supporters who felt we weren’t doing enough, and then quite a few loud voices within Fianna Fáll and Fine Gael who were saying that the Greens were destroying the country, so we were stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he said.

Both O’Gorman and Cuffe said the political wilderness was familiar territory as they were also wiped out in 2011 when the Fianna Fáil government was routed due to the financial crash and IMF bail out under the recently retired leader Eamon Ryan.

“In some ways it is similar to 2011 when we had no resources and a handful of councillors, and Eamon Ryan went in every day to an empty office and spread the message that the Green voice was hugely important. And we came back in 2014 with quite a few council seats and seats in the Dáil in 2016.

“It is a lonely place when you’ve been wiped or almost wiped out in national elections. But I think the green issues are much bigger than one election, and having been in the Greens since the get go for 40 years, I believe the Greens will certainly rise again, and the issues are more important than ever,” added Cuffe.

He added that the maths was against them as often voters gave the Greens the second or third choice but they needed the No 1 spot on the ballot paper.

Shorthall said she was delighted the Social Democrats, who she co-founded nine years ago, was “maturing” in the eyes of the public.

“We are a strong force now in the Irish political scene. Lots of people didn’t see that happening … that we could fizzle out, and we haven’t done that, “ she said.

A young British man has died from injuries in a lift shaft while on a family holiday in Turkey.

Tyler Kerry, a 20-year-old labourer from Basildon, Essex, was discovered on Friday morning at the bottom of a lift shaft in a hotel where he was staying in Antalya.

Kerry’s uncle, Alex Price, said his nephew was found at 7am local time and was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I got a phone call from my sister and she just said that Tyler had been found in the lift shaft at the hotel,” Price said. “An ambulance team were attending to him but unfortunately they weren’t able to resuscitate him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.”

A fundraising page set up by Price for the cost of his nephew’s funeral said he was “a young man full of personality, kindness and compassion with his whole life ahead of him. He was completely devoted to his family and girlfriend Molly.”

Price said: “He had a stable girlfriend and they were thinking about moving in together.

“They were very settled. He was quite a mature young man for his age, very compassionate and kind, caring towards his family members and his younger siblings.”

Price said the family was being supported by the British consulate in Antalya and a representative from Tui, which was the tour operator for the holiday.

He said they hoped to have his nephew’s body repatriated to the UK by Tuesday.

Price said the family wanted a full investigation into the circumstances of his nephew’s death. “The details are limited at the moment,” he said.

“The family is still in the dark about what’s happened and are eager for a thorough investigation to find out what’s happened.”

An FCDO spokesperson said: “We are assisting the family of a British man who has died in Turkey.”

The fundraising page has so far raised £4,800 for Kerry’s funeral costs. It said his travel insurance would cover the cost of bringing his body home.

Land degradation is expanding worldwide at the rate of 1m sq km every year, undermining efforts to stabilise the climate, protect nature and ensure sustainable food supplies, a study has highlighted.

The degraded area is already 15m sq km, an area greater than Antarctica, the scientific report says, and it calls for an urgent course correction to avoid land abuse “irretrievably compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing”.

The paper aims to galvanise global efforts to sustainably manage land ahead of a summit of 200 nations this week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the UN convention on combating desertification (UNCCD).

This convention is the least well known of three international meetings, along with the climate and biodiversity Cops, that were established at the 1992 Earth summit to ensure the planet remained habitable. The new report underscores how all these issues are interlinked and contributing to a series of environmental and humanitarian crises.

The UNCCD executive secretary, Ibrahim Thiaw, whose organisation collaborated on the report, said: “If we fail to acknowledge the pivotal role of land and take appropriate action, the consequences will ripple through every aspect of life and extend well into the future, intensifying difficulties for future generations.”

The synthesis study, Stepping Back from the Precipice, was produced at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), which analysed the land use issue in the context of the planetary boundaries framework.

It noted that until recently land ecosystems absorbed nearly one-third of human-caused carbon dioxide pollution, even as those emissions increased by half. But over the last decade the capacity of trees and soil to absorb excess CO₂ has shrunk by 20% due to deforestation and climate change.

The main culprit, according to the report, is unsustainable agricultural practices, which are responsible for 80% of forest loss. These techniques, which include heavy use of chemical inputs, pesticides and water diversion, also erode soil, diminish water supplies and contaminate ecosystems.

In the short term, this intensive extraction can be more profitable, but it soon leads to lower crop yields and poorer nutrition quality of harvests. In a growing number of cases it results in desertification and dust bowls.

The report identifies several degradation hotspots in dry regions such as south Asia, northern China, the High Plains and California in the US, and the Mediterranean. A third of humanity now lives in drylands, which include three-quarters of Africa.

This has dire humanitarian effects because low-income countries and socioeconomic groups are disproportionately affected. Women face increased workloads and health threats, while children are at greater risk of malnutrition and educational setbacks.

Extra pressure comes from climate disruption, which intensifies land degradation through prolonged droughts and intensified floods.

The authors said the report showed the importance of taking an integrated approach to these problems.

“Policymakers should strengthen their focus on land as a cornerstone of global sustainability,” said Claudia Hunecke, a scientist at PIK. “Neglecting land degradation risks pushing humanity beyond its safe operating space, exacerbating resource pressures, poverty, migration and conflict.

“Policymakers must address both the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of land use. The interconnectedness of land use with the Earth system and human livelihoods can act as an important lever to achieve sustainability goals.”