South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has declared martial law in an unannounced late-night televised address, claiming he would eradicate “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces”.

It is the first time since 1980 that martial law was declared in South Korea.

The Yonhap news agency cited the military as saying activities by parliament and political parties would be banned, and that media and publishers would be under the control of the martial law command.

Yoon did not cite any specific threat from the nuclear-armed North, instead focusing on his domestic political opponents.

The surprise move sent shock waves through the country, which had a series of authoritarian leaders early in its history but has been considered democratic since the 1980s. The Korean won was down sharply against the US dollar. A central bank official said it was preparing measures to stabilise the market if needed.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the National Assembly building in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, on Tuesday night chanting “Abolish martial law” and “Oppose martial law”. The entrance to the legislature’s building was blocked.

A White House spokesperson said the US was monitoring the situation closely. Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea to guard against the North. A spokesman for the US military command did not answer repeated phone calls.

Sources in the South Korean and US government said they were completely shocked by the development.

The move drew immediate opposition from politicians, including the leader of his Yoon’s own conservative party, Han Dong-hoon, who called the decision “wrong” and vowed to “stop it with the people”.

Yoon is known for labelling his political opponents as “anti-state forces” and “fake news”. His administration, which took over in May 2022, has massively stepped up the use of defamation lawsuits against press outfits.

In announcing martial law, Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, claiming opposition parties had taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis.

“I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order,” Yoon said.

He did not say in the address what specific measures would be taken.

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition Democratic party, which has a majority in parliament, said in a livestream online: “Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and soldiers with guns and knives will rule the country. The economy of the Republic of Korea will collapse irretrievably. My fellow citizens, please come to the National Assembly.”

A taxi driver in Seoul who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal said: “They’re using exactly the same methods they used in the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan eras … Whenever their regime is in crisis, they use war-mongering and martial law to cover it up.”

Park and Chun were military dictators in South Korea between 1961 and 1988. “I never imagined this would happen again,” the taxi driver said.

The Centre for Military Human Rights, an NGO, said that the declaration of martial law was illegal and called the move “a declaration of war against the people of the Republic of Korea,” using South Korea’s formal name.

The group accused Yoon of staging a coup, and called on the military to refrain from using force against citizens.

Yoon cited a motion by the Democratic party this week to impeach some of the country’s top prosecutors and its rejection of a government budget proposal.

On Monday South Korea’s ministers criticised a Democratic party move last week to cut more than 4tn won (£2.2bn) from the government’s budget proposal. Yoon said that action undermined the essential functioning of government administration.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report

South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has declared martial law in an unannounced late-night televised address, claiming he would eradicate “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces”.

It is the first time since 1980 that martial law was declared in South Korea.

The Yonhap news agency cited the military as saying activities by parliament and political parties would be banned, and that media and publishers would be under the control of the martial law command.

Yoon did not cite any specific threat from the nuclear-armed North, instead focusing on his domestic political opponents.

The surprise move sent shock waves through the country, which had a series of authoritarian leaders early in its history but has been considered democratic since the 1980s. The Korean won was down sharply against the US dollar. A central bank official said it was preparing measures to stabilise the market if needed.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the National Assembly building in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, on Tuesday night chanting “Abolish martial law” and “Oppose martial law”. The entrance to the legislature’s building was blocked.

A White House spokesperson said the US was monitoring the situation closely. Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea to guard against the North. A spokesman for the US military command did not answer repeated phone calls.

Sources in the South Korean and US government said they were completely shocked by the development.

The move drew immediate opposition from politicians, including the leader of his Yoon’s own conservative party, Han Dong-hoon, who called the decision “wrong” and vowed to “stop it with the people”.

Yoon is known for labelling his political opponents as “anti-state forces” and “fake news”. His administration, which took over in May 2022, has massively stepped up the use of defamation lawsuits against press outfits.

In announcing martial law, Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, claiming opposition parties had taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis.

“I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order,” Yoon said.

He did not say in the address what specific measures would be taken.

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition Democratic party, which has a majority in parliament, said in a livestream online: “Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and soldiers with guns and knives will rule the country. The economy of the Republic of Korea will collapse irretrievably. My fellow citizens, please come to the National Assembly.”

A taxi driver in Seoul who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal said: “They’re using exactly the same methods they used in the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan eras … Whenever their regime is in crisis, they use war-mongering and martial law to cover it up.”

Park and Chun were military dictators in South Korea between 1961 and 1988. “I never imagined this would happen again,” the taxi driver said.

The Centre for Military Human Rights, an NGO, said that the declaration of martial law was illegal and called the move “a declaration of war against the people of the Republic of Korea,” using South Korea’s formal name.

The group accused Yoon of staging a coup, and called on the military to refrain from using force against citizens.

Yoon cited a motion by the Democratic party this week to impeach some of the country’s top prosecutors and its rejection of a government budget proposal.

On Monday South Korea’s ministers criticised a Democratic party move last week to cut more than 4tn won (£2.2bn) from the government’s budget proposal. Yoon said that action undermined the essential functioning of government administration.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report

Syrian insurgents fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have launched attacks in the central province of Hama, threatening to cut off government troops from a key route linking the capital, Damascus, with rebel-held Aleppo.

The army was engaging in “violent confrontations” with armed groups in Hama, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported.

Insurgents said they were positioned about 6 miles from Hama city, the country’s fourth largest city, and that their forces had captured the towns of Maardis and Soran just north of the city.

Separately, a longtime independent war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Tuesday morning that rebel factions in the province had managed to seize several towns in the last few hours.

“Syrian and Russian air forces carried out dozens of strikes on the area,” said the Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

After their lightning assault on Aleppo over the past few days, militants led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have advanced south towards Hama. The city sits on a critical road linking Aleppo in the north with major central locations such as Homs city, the coastal ports of Latakia and Tartous, and Damascus in the south.

Hama was a bastion of opposition to the Assad government when pro-democracy protests first erupted during the Arab spring in 2011. A bloody response by security forces to peaceful marches across the country led the opposition to arm itself, and a years-long civil war ensued.

Since retaking Aleppo in 2016, Assad has regained a tight grip over the country, although he has never fully retaken all of Syria’s borders. The sudden insurgent victory in Aleppo is the most serious challenge to the dictator’s control in years. Rebel groups backed by Turkey have also engaged in the fight.

​Several hundred miles to the east of Aleppo, fighters from a US-backed, Kurdish-led coalition battled government forces​ early on Tuesday, opening a new front​ for Assad’s military.

The fighting by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was reported in villages across the Euphrates River from the regional capital, Deir ez-Zur.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, voiced concern on Tuesday about the escalation of hostilities in north-west Syria. Medics have reported intensive aerial attacks by Syrian and Russian jets.

Türk’s office said it had documented “a number of extremely concerning incidents resulting in multiple civilian casualties, including a high number of women and children,” from attacks by HTS and pro-government forces.

The UN says nearly 50,000 people have been displaced by the fighting that has killed hundreds, mostly fighters, since the end of November.

Russia, along with Iran, is a key backer of Assad and entered the Syrian civil war nearly a decade ago in support of his regime. Meanwhile, HTS, a former al-Qaida affiliate, is fighting alongside rebel groups backed by Turkey.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is a main backer of groups opposed to Assad, said on Tuesday that the advance by militants showed that the Syrian president needed to hold talks with the opposition.

The rout of Syrian army forces from Aleppo and reports that their defensive lines have crumbled has undermined Assad’s already fractured control of the country.

While his forces still control Hama, the city has a long history of dissent against dynastic, authoritarian rule. Assad’s late father, Hafez, repressed an anti-government uprising there in 1982.

On Tuesday an AFP journalist in the northern Hama countryside saw dozens of Syrian army tanks and military vehicles abandoned by the side of the road leading to Hama.

Assad has remained a pariah figure in the west although there have been recent attempts to reopen diplomatic channels.

The US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a briefing on Monday that Assad was “a brutal dictator with blood on his hands, the blood of innocent civilians,” and that Washington’s stance on his rule had not changed.

Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Health services are no longer functioning in the Syrian city of Idlib after a series of airstrikes on key hospitals damaged intensive care units and specialised services, doctors said.

At least two intensive care patients have died because of power and oxygen shortages caused by the airstrikes, according to the rescue group White Helmets, and hospitals have had to evacuate patients or move them into basements.

The healthcare services struck in the past few days include the Ibn Sina children’s hospital and the Maternity Children’s hospital run by medical charity Syrian American Medical Society (Sams). The White Helmets said Idlib University hospital, the National hospital and the health directorate were also hit.

Regime attacks on the city have intensified in the past week since rebels launched a surprise offensive that has allowed them to capture the entire Idlib province and the key city of Aleppo.

Dr Muhammad Firas Al-Hamdo, a paediatrician at the Maternity and Children’s hospital, said he could not see or hear after a large explosion shattered the hospital’s windows.

“I felt my way through the emergency exits to the ground floor, I was terrified,” said Hamdo. “[Staff and patients] gathered on the underground floors of the hospital, all of us with blurred vision.”

Hamdo said that the strike on the maternity hospital led to power being cut and the hospital’s equipment malfunctioning.

“This led to the death of two in the intensive care unit as a result of the power outage and oxygen outage,” he said.

Sams said a hospital it operated in Idlib was also hit by an airstrike on Monday, which caused structural damage but no injuries, as staff had been working underground since violence escalated last week.

Sams said it had to abandon all but emergency treatment at the nine facilities it worked at and had evacuated US volunteer medics.

“Hospitals, schools, and civilians are not targets of war. We all must stand up for common decency and prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable, regardless of which side of the frontline they find themselves,” said Sams’ president, Dr Mufaddal Hamadeh.

Dr Sidra Daboul, an anaesthesiologist at al-Shifa hospital, which specialises in treating heart conditions, also said that staff had to be evacuated after a nearby explosion shattered the windows.

“Today, we were put totally out of service. There are only emergency paramedic services to treat airstrike victims and evacuate them from the city,” she said.

Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, the group Physicians for Human Rights has documented at least 604 attacks on healthcare facilities that have killed at least 949 workers. All but 60 were linked to Syrian regime or allied forces.

There were airstrikes across Idlib on Monday, killing at least 18 people, said the White Helmets.

Robert Tait

Questions continued to dog Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, on Monday following reports he was twice ousted from previous organisations he led over financial mismanagement and improper behavior, with reporters asking him directly if he had an alcohol problem.

Hegseth, 44, who was visiting Capitol Hill to drum up support for his troubled nomination, did not respond when a journalist asked “Do you have an alcohol problem?” as he arrived for a meeting with Republican senators.

Later, another reporter, from CBS, buttonholed him in a corridor and asked him: “Were you ever drunk while traveling on the job?”

“I’m not gonna dignify that with a response,” Hegseth, until recently a Fox News host, answered, adding: “I’m talking to all the senators and I look forward to their discussions.”

The New Yorker magazine recently reported whistleblower accusations that Hegseth was forced out of leadership roles in two military veterans organisations following allegations of financial mismanagement, aggressive drunkenness and sexist behaviour.

The disclosures have further complicated Hegseth’s chances of winning over Republican senators at confirmation hearings after an earlier revelation that police in California investigated a sexual assault allegation made against him in 2017. The investigation did not result in criminal charges and Hegseth later reached a financial settlement with the woman who made the complaint.

The magazine reported that Hegseth had to be carried to his room at a Memorial Day veterans event in Virginia Beach in 2014 after getting “totally sloshed”, and on another occasion reportedly had to be restrained from joining female dancers on stage at a Louisiana strip club.

One witness recounted him shouting “Kill all Muslim, kill all Muslims” at a bar in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in 2015. The episode was the subject of a written complaint to the Koch-backed group Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), of which Hegseth was then chief executive officer.

Hegesth was also said to have financially run another veterans outfit, Vets for Freedom, into the ground financially during his tenure as chief executive.

A lawyer for Hegseth has dismissed the allegations. CBS cited a source close to him as saying the claims were false but adding that Hegseth had acknowledged he “drank too much” in the past.

“That’s not the kind of life that Pete lives right now. He certainly has matured a lot in the past decade,” the source told CBS.

Hegseth appeared to win backing among rightwing Republicans he met on Monday accompanied by his wife, Jennifer Rauchet. Rick Scott, a senator for Florida, said Hegseth, an army veteran without previous Pentagon management experience, was “clearly committed to making sure we have a lethal military that scares the crap out of our enemies”.

“A year from now, military recruitment numbers will have skyrocketed under Secretary Hegseth,” added the Texas senator Ted Cruz, who accused Democrats of trying to make “a spectacle” out of the nomination – though the real threat may come from Republicans, some of whom Hegseth is due to meet in further visits to Capitol Hill this week.

Joni Ernst, a GOP senator from Iowa who sits on the Senate’s armed services committee, has stopped short of supporting Hegseth, the Washington Post reported.

“I know there’s a lot of information out there,” she said. “I want the best for the president, right? I want the best for the president, and he deserves a nominee that will work for him and do the absolute best that our country needs.”

Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who will chair the committee when the new Senate is sworn in on 3 January, has been pressing for nominees to undergo standard FBI background checks, which Trump’s transition team has been resisting.

He told reporters that checks could be agreed “in the next few days”, potentially spelling trouble for Hegseth.

“I do think there will be FBI background checks,” Wicker told Politico.

“My preference is that we honor the precedent that has been in place since the Eisenhower administration, and be informed by the agency that does background checks.”

The boss of the Japanese bank Nomura has apologised and taken a voluntary pay cut after a former employee was charged with robbery and attempted murder of a customer.

Kentaro Okuda, who has led Nomura since 2020, will take a 30% pay cut over the next three months, with several other senior managers at the bank taking similar reductions, the bank said.

The decision comes after one of the bank’s former wealth management employees was charged with attempted murder, robbery and arson. The employee allegedly drugged an elderly customer and their spouse in Hiroshima, before stealing cash and setting the house on fire. The employee, who is 29 and worked in its securities arm, was dismissed in August.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Okuda and three other executives bowed in unison. Okuda said: “We would like to deeply apologise to the victims as well as many other people involved for the great inconvenience and concerns caused. We are truly sorry.”

Nomura is Japan’s largest investment bank with 26,000 employees worldwide, with offices in Tokyo, London and New York.

The bank has recently moved to expand its wealth management business to diversify operations amid a volatile trading environment. Staff activities in the division include visiting customers in their homes to advise existing customers.

The company has now promised to change how it operates after the incident, including early detection of misconduct by employees, and strengthening supervision and approval of visits to clients’ homes.

“For the foreseeable future, a manager will accompany employees when they visit clients’ homes or speak to clients over the phone around the time of each visit,” the bank said.

The company will also update recruitment processes, while providing ethics training to staff.

According to the bank, the former employee joined Nomura Securities as a new graduate in April 2018, and from April 2022 provided asset management advice to individual and corporate clients at the Hiroshima branch office.

Nomura has said it has fully cooperated with the police investigation.

The Financial Times reported that sources familiar with the matter said there had been very limited account closures after the incident was made public.

It is the second time Okuda has voluntarily taken a pay cut in recent weeks. He promised to return 20% of his pay for two months after the bank was fined by Japan’s financial regulator for manipulation of government bond futures.

However, the business has still reported strong trading, with a profit of ¥98.4bn (£518m) between July and September, more than double the same period last year.

The two scandals have barely dented the company’s share price , and its stock is trading 54% higher than 12 months ago. The gain has largely been driven by a strong performance in its investment banking and wealth management arms.

Jaguar’s design boss has said the car brand has shown “fearless creativity” as he unveiled a much-hyped electric vehicle that had attracted an online backlash over its unusual marketing campaign.

Gerry McGovern, who is in charge of design for Jaguar’s parent company, told a launch event on Monday in Miami: “Some may love it now, some may love it later and some may never love it. That’s what fearless creativity does.”

The British brand revealed the new concept car, the Type 00 (pronounced “zero zero”), to set the tone for a relaunch that represents a change of strategy.

A production-ready version, a four-door Grand Tourer, is due to be revealed in late 2025, with sales expected to start in 2026.

The rebrand has already attracted far more attention than normal for a car launch after a teaser trailer – which did not feature the car itself – became the subject of polarised and often vitriolic commentary online. Elon Musk, the boss of the rival electric car brand Tesla, asked: “Do you sell cars?”

Jaguar chose the US city of Miami for the launch event during its art week as a symbol of its shift away from the premium market – in which its cars struggled to compete against Germany’s BMW and Mercedes-Benz – towards a more international, moneyed elite. The production car is expected to cost more than £100,000 when it is revealed, nearly double the average price of its previous range.

A DJ set by the British grime artist Skepta also pointed towards Jaguar’s hopes for a younger, city-dwelling audience – even if the long and bulky concept vehicle could struggle on congested city roads.

The concept model was revealed in two colours, Miami pink and London blue, a departure from Jaguar’s traditional racing green. Pictures of the car – which leaked on Monday hours before the official launch – reveal a wraparound windscreen, a long front bonnet and a rear-view video screen instead of a rear window. Wing mirrors are also replaced by cameras, while dials and entertainment screens slide out of the front dashboard.

Other interior features that might not make the final version of the four-seater car include a brass “spine” separating the seats, and travertine stone between seats upholstered in wool and plastic blend.

The car also features the new Jaguar logo – the brand name written out in a sans-serif font – on the front, while a version of the “leaper” cat is only visible etched on to pop-out side cameras. The “growler” big cat badge of previous models does not feature.

Jaguar said the new car, which will be produced in Solihull in the UK, should achieve up to 478 miles of range, with rapid charging adding 200 miles of charge in 15 minutes.

Adrian Mardell, the chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), said he wanted Jaguar to be an “original British luxury brand unmatched in its heritage, artistry and emotional magnetism”.

“That’s the Jaguar we are recapturing and we will create the same sense of awe that surrounded iconic models like the E-type,” he said, referring to the sports car – a symbol of the Swinging 60s – that has long been seen as Jaguar’s design high point.

On unveiling the design, McGovern cited David Bowie, Vivienne Westwood and the architect Richard Rogers as some of his creative heroes. “They were British trailblazers who challenged convention and had no desire to copy the norm,” he said.

Paul Barker, the editor of the car magazine Auto Express, said the Type 00 was a “striking piece of design that justifies Jaguar’s shift to an all-electric future”.

He said: “Us Brits have a peculiar knack for loving our automotive icons but not enough to actually buy them. Clearly, the status quo wasn’t working.

“The bold styling, with its bluff front end, long bonnet, fastback profile and massive 23-inch wheels, is a dramatic statement, while the stripped-back interior, complete with butterfly doors and a 3.2m brass spine, exudes minimalist luxury.”

Yet others expressed outrage. A columnist at the Daily Telegraph newspaper, whose readers include many of the over-55 men who were previously Jaguar’s target market, said he yearned for “deep blues, or serious blacks, along with plenty of walnut and tanned leather” instead of a “Barbie-mobile”.

JLR, owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, has followed two strikingly different paths for the two brands. Its Land Rover vehicles are big earners, and so a new electric version of the Range Rover barely deviates in external design terms from the petrol equivalent.

In contrast, Jaguar sales had long laguished, and so the company has opted for a complete reinvention. The company has been slower than many rivals to embrace electric cars, selling just the lauded but ageing Jaguar I-Pace, but it is investing £18bn to produce battery versions of its lineup alongside petrol cars.

Rawdon Glover, the managing director for the Jaguar brand, said the company wanted to be “true to the DNA of the brand but future facing, relevant and one that really stands out”.

Jaguar’s design boss has said the car brand has shown “fearless creativity” as he unveiled a much-hyped electric vehicle that had attracted an online backlash over its unusual marketing campaign.

Gerry McGovern, who is in charge of design for Jaguar’s parent company, told a launch event on Monday in Miami: “Some may love it now, some may love it later and some may never love it. That’s what fearless creativity does.”

The British brand revealed the new concept car, the Type 00 (pronounced “zero zero”), to set the tone for a relaunch that represents a change of strategy.

A production-ready version, a four-door Grand Tourer, is due to be revealed in late 2025, with sales expected to start in 2026.

The rebrand has already attracted far more attention than normal for a car launch after a teaser trailer – which did not feature the car itself – became the subject of polarised and often vitriolic commentary online. Elon Musk, the boss of the rival electric car brand Tesla, asked: “Do you sell cars?”

Jaguar chose the US city of Miami for the launch event during its art week as a symbol of its shift away from the premium market – in which its cars struggled to compete against Germany’s BMW and Mercedes-Benz – towards a more international, moneyed elite. The production car is expected to cost more than £100,000 when it is revealed, nearly double the average price of its previous range.

A DJ set by the British grime artist Skepta also pointed towards Jaguar’s hopes for a younger, city-dwelling audience – even if the long and bulky concept vehicle could struggle on congested city roads.

The concept model was revealed in two colours, Miami pink and London blue, a departure from Jaguar’s traditional racing green. Pictures of the car – which leaked on Monday hours before the official launch – reveal a wraparound windscreen, a long front bonnet and a rear-view video screen instead of a rear window. Wing mirrors are also replaced by cameras, while dials and entertainment screens slide out of the front dashboard.

Other interior features that might not make the final version of the four-seater car include a brass “spine” separating the seats, and travertine stone between seats upholstered in wool and plastic blend.

The car also features the new Jaguar logo – the brand name written out in a sans-serif font – on the front, while a version of the “leaper” cat is only visible etched on to pop-out side cameras. The “growler” big cat badge of previous models does not feature.

Jaguar said the new car, which will be produced in Solihull in the UK, should achieve up to 478 miles of range, with rapid charging adding 200 miles of charge in 15 minutes.

Adrian Mardell, the chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), said he wanted Jaguar to be an “original British luxury brand unmatched in its heritage, artistry and emotional magnetism”.

“That’s the Jaguar we are recapturing and we will create the same sense of awe that surrounded iconic models like the E-type,” he said, referring to the sports car – a symbol of the Swinging 60s – that has long been seen as Jaguar’s design high point.

On unveiling the design, McGovern cited David Bowie, Vivienne Westwood and the architect Richard Rogers as some of his creative heroes. “They were British trailblazers who challenged convention and had no desire to copy the norm,” he said.

Paul Barker, the editor of the car magazine Auto Express, said the Type 00 was a “striking piece of design that justifies Jaguar’s shift to an all-electric future”.

He said: “Us Brits have a peculiar knack for loving our automotive icons but not enough to actually buy them. Clearly, the status quo wasn’t working.

“The bold styling, with its bluff front end, long bonnet, fastback profile and massive 23-inch wheels, is a dramatic statement, while the stripped-back interior, complete with butterfly doors and a 3.2m brass spine, exudes minimalist luxury.”

Yet others expressed outrage. A columnist at the Daily Telegraph newspaper, whose readers include many of the over-55 men who were previously Jaguar’s target market, said he yearned for “deep blues, or serious blacks, along with plenty of walnut and tanned leather” instead of a “Barbie-mobile”.

JLR, owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, has followed two strikingly different paths for the two brands. Its Land Rover vehicles are big earners, and so a new electric version of the Range Rover barely deviates in external design terms from the petrol equivalent.

In contrast, Jaguar sales had long laguished, and so the company has opted for a complete reinvention. The company has been slower than many rivals to embrace electric cars, selling just the lauded but ageing Jaguar I-Pace, but it is investing £18bn to produce battery versions of its lineup alongside petrol cars.

Rawdon Glover, the managing director for the Jaguar brand, said the company wanted to be “true to the DNA of the brand but future facing, relevant and one that really stands out”.

Meta has intervened to take down about 20 covert influence operations around the world this year, it has emerged – though the tech firm said fears of AI-fuelled fakery warping elections had not materialised in 2024.

Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs at the company that runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said Russia was still the No 1 source of the adversarial online activity but said in a briefing it was “striking” how little AI was used to try to trick voters in the busiest ever year for elections around the world.

The former British deputy prime minister revealed that Meta, which has more than 3 billion users, had to take down just over 500,000 requests to generate images on its own AI tools of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, JD Vance and Joe Biden in the month leading up to US election day.

But the firm’s security experts had to tackle a new operation using fake accounts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal at the rate of more than one every three weeks. The “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” incidents included a Russian network using dozens of Facebook accounts and fictitious news websites to target people in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Another was a Russia-based operation that employed AI to create fake news websites using brands such as Fox News and the Telegraph to try to weaken western support for Ukraine, and used Francophone fake news sites to promote Russia’s role in Africa and to criticise that of France.

“Russia remains the No 1 source of the covert influence operations we’ve disrupted to date – with 39 networks disrupted in total since 2017,” he said. The next most frequent sources of foreign interference detected by Meta are Iran and China.

Giving an evaluation of the effect of AI fakery after a wave of polls in 50 countries including the US, India, Taiwan, France, Germany and the UK, he said: “There were all sorts of warnings about the potential risks of things like widespread deepfakes and AI enabled disinformation campaigns. That’s not what we’ve seen from what we’ve monitored across our services. It seems these risks did not materialise in a significant way, and that any such impact was modest and limited in scope.”

But Clegg warned against complacency and said the relatively low-impact of fakery using generative AI to manipulate video, voices and photos was “very, very likely to change”.

“Clearly these tools are going to become more and more prevalent and we’re going to see more and more synthetic and hybrid content online,” he said.

Meta’s assessment follows conclusions last month from the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security that “deceptive AI-generated content did shape US election discourse by amplifying other forms of disinformation and inflaming political debates”. It said there was a lack of evidence about its impact on Donald Trump’s election win.

It concluded that AI-enabled threats did begin to damage the health of democratic systems in 2024 and warned “complacency must not creep [in]” before the 2025 elections in Australia and Canada.

Sam Stockwell, research associate at the Alan Turing Institute, said AI tools may have shaped election discourses and amplified harmful narratives in subtle ways, particularly in the recent US election.

“This included misleading claims that Kamala Harris’s rally was AI-generated, and baseless rumours that Haitian immigrants were eating pets going viral with the assistance of xenophobic AI-generated memes,” he said.

An unknown disease killed 143 people in a south-west province of Democratic Republic of the Congo in November, local authorities told Reuters.

Infected people had flu-like symptoms including high fever and severe headaches, Remy Saki, the deputy governor of Kwango province, and Apollinaire Yumba, the provincial minister of health, said on Monday.

A medical team has been sent to the Panzi health zone to collect samples and carry out an analysis to identify the disease.

The situation was extremely worrying as the number of infected people continued to rise, said Cephorien Manzanza, a civil society leader.

“Panzi is a rural health zone, so there is a problem with the supply of medicines,” Manzanza said.

Sick people died in their own homes for lack of treatment, Saki and Yumba said.

A local epidemiologist said women and children were the most seriously affected by the disease.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday the UN health agency had been alerted to the presence of the disease last week, and it was working alongside DRC’s public health ministry to make further investigations.

French lawmakers will vote on Wednesday evening on a no-confidence motion that is all but certain to oust the fragile coalition of Michel Barnier, deepening the political crisis in the eurozone’s second-largest economy.

It would be the first French government to be forced out by a no-confidence vote in over 60 years, at a time when the country is struggling to tame a massive budget deficit.

The debate was scheduled to start at 1500 GMT, with voting taking place about three hours later, parliamentary officials said. President Emmanuel Macron, who is on a state visit to Saudi Arabia, is due to return to France that day.

The collapse of the French government would leave a hole at the heart of Europe, with Germany in election mode, weeks before the US president-elect, Donald Trump, re-enters the White House.

After weeks of tension, the political crisis came to a head when Barnier, who has been prime minister for only three months, said he would try to force the social security part of the budget through parliament without a vote, after failing to win support from Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN).

Barnier’s entourage and Le Pen’s camp, who had been propping up the minority coalition, each blamed the other and said they had done all they could to reach a deal to trim spending on benefits and had been open to dialogue.

“Censuring the budget is for us the only way the constitution gives us to protect the French,” Le Pen told reporters as she arrived in parliament on Tuesday.

The left and the far right combined have enough votes to topple Barnier, and Le Pen has confirmed that her party would vote for a leftwing alliance’s no-confidence bill. Not enough lawmakers would back the RN’s own no-confidence motion.

The finance minister, Antoine Armand, told France 2 TV politicians had a responsibility “not to plunge the country into uncertainty”.

Barnier is due to be interviewed on television news programmes at about 1920 GMT on Tuesday. It is not yet known what he will say.

His draft budget had sought to cut the fiscal deficit, which is projected to exceed 6% of national output this year, with €60bn (£50bn) in tax increases and spending cuts. It sought to drag down the deficit to 5% next year, with ratings agencies keeping a close eye on progress.

If the no-confidence vote passes, Barnier would have to tender his resignation but Macron could ask him to stay on in a caretaker role as he seeks a new prime minister, which could take until next year.

If parliament has not adopted the budget by 20 December, the caretaker government could propose special emergency legislation to roll over spending limits and tax provisions from this year. But that would mean that savings measures Barnier had planned would fall by the wayside.

The upheaval is not without risk for Le Pen either, who has for years sought to convince voters that she can offer stability.

An Ipsos survey last month showed a majority of French people did not trust politicians, with the RN faring slightly better than other parties but with voters still unhappy with how it was behaving in parliament.

Fifty per cent of of voters told the survey the RN was dangerous for democracy, albeit 11 points lower than in 2020.

A poll by Odoxa showed that 59% of RN voters prefer Jordan Bardella, who is now party chief, to Le Pen, who is awaiting judgment in a trial over alleged misuse of EU funds, which could possibly lead to her being barred for running for public office for five years. She denies any wrongdoing.

Macron, whose term runs into mid-2027 after he won a second mandate in 2022, cannot be forced out by parliament. He precipitated the current political crisis by calling snap elections in June, which he said should help clarify the political landscape.

There can be no new snap parliamentary election before July.

Smartphones sold in Spain should carry a label warning users about their potential health impacts, experts have told the Spanish government, in a report that calls for doctors to ask about screen time during checkups.

As Spain pushes forward with a draft law to limit children’s exposure to technology, the 50-member committee of experts has also called for minors to have limited exposure to digital devices until they are 13 to mitigate what they see as a public health problem.

The experts’ nearly 250-page report, seen by the newspaper El País, recommends that children under the age of three do not have any exposure to digital devices, while children up to six years old should be allowed to access them only on an exceptional basis.

For children between six and 12, the use of so-called “dumb phones” – which do not have access to the internet and which are limited to calls – should be prioritised, as should offline activities such as sports.

The report called on the government to consider adding a warning label to digital devices sold in Spain, informing consumers of the health risks that some have linked to social media and digital devices, as well as the possible impacts that access to inappropriate content could have on the development of children.

Similar warnings should pop up on screens when certain apps or platforms are accessed, detailing the claims of health risks and the maximum recommended usage time, the report recommended.

It urged the government to name mobile phone addiction as a public health concern, a designation that would facilitate the development of preventive measures and early detection systems.

Questions about screen time and problematic behaviours should be incorporated into health consultations for all age groups, while “screening for depression, anxiety and use of technology” should be carried out regularly during medical checkups for adolescents.

The committee was assembled earlier this year in response to what Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, described as an “authentic epidemic” of online pornography consumption among children.

“The numbers are both very telling and very troubling,” Sánchez said in January. “One in four young people under the age of 12 – and nearly half of those under 15 – has had access, or currently has access, to pornography.”

In the end, though, the report took a wider view of the problem, looking not only at children’s access to pornography but their use of digital devices full stop. Their intervention comes amid a growing global debate over children’s exposure to technology, one that has led schools around the world to crack down on the use of mobiles in classrooms.

In France, a government-commissioned study said in April that children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok and Instagram until they are 18.

In Spain, where statistics suggest that a quarter of children have mobile phones by the age of 10 and nearly half of them by 11, the socialist-led coalition government in June set out draft legislation to protect minors, proposing that parental controls be installed by default on smartphones and that a national education campaign be rolled out to help children and teenagers navigate social media.

The draft bill also set out new data requirements that would, if enforced, raise the minimum age for opening a social media account from 14 to 16, while teachers and healthcare staff would be trained to spot children who are struggling with potential smartphone addictions.

The draft legislation, which is in the public consultation phase, is expected to be further refined by the report, which was compiled with input from organisations such as the European Association for Digital Transition as well as paediatricians and psychiatrists.

The report also hinted at the role of the wider environment in curtailing children’s exposure, calling for training programmes aimed at families, where experts could answer questions on how children can go online safely and how to limit access and exposure, as well as urging schools to remove any educational applications based on immediate gratification.

Kate Winslet has broken down at the memory of being told she was overweight by journalists on the red carpet as a 22-year-old.

Speaking on US talkshow 60 Minutes to promote her new Lee Miller biopic, Winslet recalled her experience at the 1998 Golden Globe awards, which she attended as part of the Titanic team.

In a clip shared during the show, Winslet was seen walking down the carpet in a black and white lace gown, alongside co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. The video then cuts to an interviewer telling Winslet she looked “a little melted and poured” into the dress, before adding that she should have worn one “two sizes larger”.

“It’s absolutely appalling,” said Winslet, rewatching the footage. “What kind of a person must they be to do something like that to a young actress who’s just trying to figure it out?”

Winslet went on to say such attacks were everyday occurrences at the time, and although she has never publicly called out critics for body-shaming comments, she added that she had sought private humiliation for them by raising it.

“I let them have it,” said Winslet. “I said, ‘I hope this haunts you.’ It was a great moment. It was a great moment because it wasn’t just for me,” she added. “It was for all those people who were subjected to that level of harassment. It was horrific, it was really bad.”

Winslet went on to say such personal criticism had long dogged her career, with her acting teacher telling her she’d have to come to terms with being “fat”.

She recalled him advising her: “‘Now, listen, Kate. I’m telling you, darling, if you’re going to look like this, you’ll have to settle for the fat girl parts.’”

Yet, Winslet said, “I was never even fat. It made me think, ‘I’ll just show you – just quietly.’”

The actor, who won an Academy Award for her role as a Nazi guard in 2008 drama The Reader, said in many movies her entire body was perceived to fall short.

“People say, ‘Oh, you were so brave for this role. You didn’t wear any makeup. You had wrinkles,’” she said, flagging the film industry’s double standards.

“Do we say to the men, ‘Oh, you were so brave for this role. You grew a beard?’ No. We don’t. It’s not brave. It’s playing the part,” she said.

In Lee, Winslet plays the model turned war photographer from her mid 20s to her late 60s, and has said that she was encouraged to sit up straighter in one scene, the better to conceal her “belly rolls”.

Speaking to the BBC earlier this year, Winslet said she disregarded the advice, calling it “absolutely bizarre” because Miller’s body wouldn’t have benefited from gym conditioning.

“It was my job to be like Lee,” said Winslet. “She wasn’t lifting weights and doing pilates, she was eating cheese, bread and drinking wine and not making a big deal of it, so of course her body would be soft.”

“But I think we’re so used to perhaps not necessarily seeing that and enjoying it – the instinct, weirdly, is to see it and criticise it or comment on it in some way.

“It’s interesting how much people do like labels for women. And they very much liked them in Lee’s day, and, annoyingly, they sort of still do – we slap these labels on women that we just don’t have for men. It’s absolutely bizarre to me.”

Speaking to CBS, Winslet added that as she approaches her 50th birthday, she has stopped listening to the opinion of others about her body as it has become too “exhausting”.