Syrian insurgents have entered towns north of the country’s third largest city, Homs, sweeping along a highway that eventually leads to the capital, Damascus, in a lightning-fast advance that has shaken the Middle East.

Militants spearheaded by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took control of the city of Hama on Thursday before moving south, swiftly capturing two key towns on the road south of the city before arriving in Al-Dar al-Kabera, a town five miles from the centre of Homs.

The Russian embassy in Damascus instructed Russian nationals to leave Syria, in a rare show of alarm. Moscow has remained a key ally of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, including providing military support.

Video from the opposition-aligned Aleppo Today channel showed airstrikes targeting Talbiseh on the road between Hama and Homs shortly after it was claimed by insurgents. The defence ministry in Damascus said Russian and Syrian military aircraft were responsible for airstrikes on the Hama countryside, while a strike attributed to forces from Moscow destroyed a bridge along the highway leading into Homs.

Speaking to reporters outside a mosque in Istanbul, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, offered a message of support to the insurgency. He had previously offered to “discuss shaping the future of Syria,” together with Assad, he said, “but we received no response”.

“Idlib, Hama, Homs and after that most probably Damascus … we hope this march in Syria will continue without any issues,” he said. The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Russia are expected to meet tomorrow on the sidelines of a forum in Doha for an urgent meeting on Syria.

The city of Homs sits at a key juncture close to the Lebanese border, connecting the road to Damascus with a highway to the coastal communities, Assad’s heartland and a site of Russian naval bases. Homs witnessed some of the fiercest fighting during earlier phases of Syria’s civil war over a decade ago, with rebel forces engaged in years-long street battles the army and allied Syrian militia forces, as well as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Insurgents have called on the people of Homs to rise up against the regime, telling them “your time has come” in a message circulated online, as thousands fled to Damascus or into the province of Latakia.

Forces loyal to Damascus appeared to be in retreat across the country, with Assad increasingly losing his grip on major cities in Syria.

In the eastern provincial capital of Deir ez-Zor, Reuters and the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported that a US-backed coalition of Kurdish and local Arab forces had taken control of the city after Syrian government forces and Iran-backed militias withdrew. Video showed the coalition, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, driving military trucks though the centre of Deir ez-Zor.

The Deir ez-Zor military council, an Arab-majority militia that fights with the SDF, said their fighters had deployed in the city and west of the Euphrates river “in order to protect our people” from Islamic state fighters and Turkish-backed rebel forces active in the area.

Unrest also swept two provinces south of the capital, as bands of local rebel fighters seized a security checkpoint and armed vehicles in the province of Daraa. In neighbouring Suwayda province, local media showed people climbing on top of tanks after Syrian army forces withdrew from a remote area north of the restive provincial capital.

Video from the city of Suwayda, a place where protests against Assad’s rule have increased in recent years, showed people striking a poster with the president’s face on and taking control of a local police station.

Fighting to take Homs is expected to prove pivotal in the insurgents’ efforts to sweep south towards the capital. In little over a week their advance saw them rapidly take control of Aleppo, Syria’s second city, as well as full control of Hama after a rapid retreat by Syrian government forces. The unexpected advance marks the first time that both cities have been fully under opposition control since a popular uprising against Assad in 2011 then spilled over into a bloody civil war.

In a rare late-night address, the Syrian defence minister, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, called his forces withdrawal from Hama a “temporary tactical measure,” and said his forces had “deployed to save lives”.

The battle for Homs drew signs of further intervention from Damascus’s longtime allies, particularly Tehran and its proxy forces. Two senior Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Hezbollah had dispatched a small number of “supervising forces” to prevent the insurgents from seizing Homs.

A senior Iranian official said “it is likely that Tehran will need to send military equipment, missiles and drones to Syria … Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase number of its military advisers in Syria and deploy forces.”

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, was due to hold talks with his Iraqi and Syrian counterparts in Baghdad, as Iraqi ministers feared the fighting in Syria could affect neighbouring Iraq.

The HTS leader known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, issued a message to the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, pledging that the fighting in Syria “will not spill over into Iraq”, and urging al-Sudani’s government to “distance itself from the situation in Syria”.

Speaking to CNN, al-Jolani said the insurgents’ aim remainsedto topple the Assad regime in Damascus.

“When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal,” he said.

The pace of medical evacuations of sick and wounded Palestinians out of Gaza, including several thousand children, is so slow it will take five to 10 years to clear the backlog at the current rate, the World Health Organization has said.

Rik Peeperkorn, the UN global health body’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza, said only 78 of 12,000 patients requiring evacuation had managed to leave recently.

Among the 12,000, according to the UN children’s agency Unicef, are 2,500 children, some of whom have died during an often months-long wait to leave for hospitals outside.

The Israeli military often takes months to respond to medical evacuation requests, and the number of evacuations has plunged in recent months.

Since the war began on 7 October 2023, 5,230 patients have been evacuated, according to Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson.

But that rate has slowed since May, when the southern Rafah border crossing to Egypt was closed, with only 342 patients having been evacuated, she said, an average of fewer than two a day.

In a rare exception in November, 200 seriously injured and ill Palestinians and their carers were evacuated from Gaza, in one of the biggest operations of its kind in months, Israel has said.

In some cases, the military rejects either the patient or, in the case of children, the caregivers accompanying them on vague security grounds or with no explanation.

The Israeli decisions appear to be “arbitrary and are not made on a criteria nor logic”, said Moeen Mahmood, the Jordan country director for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Cogat, the Israeli military agency in charge of humanitarian affairs for Palestinians, said in a statement to the Associated Press that it “makes every effort to approve the departure of children and their families for medical treatments, subject to a security check”.

A military official said Israel’s internal intelligence service reviews whether the patient or their escort have what he called “a connection to terrorism”, and if one is found they are refused. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential procedures.

In August MSF applied to the Israeli military to evacuate 32 children and their caregivers, but only six were allowed to leave.

In November, it applied for eight others, including a two-year-old with leg amputations, but Israeli authorities blocked evacuation, it said.

The military official said five of the eight requests in November were approved but the caregivers trying to travel with the children were rejected on security grounds. The official said MSF would have to resubmit the requests with different escorts. The official did not say why the other three children were not approved.

Additionally, Peeperkorn said one of the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza was hit by an Israeli attack on Friday without any prior warning. “There was no official warning or evacuation order before the bombing of … the hospital, only rumours that spread panic,” he said.

The director of Kamal Adwan hospital said earlier that Israel conducted several attacks on Friday that hit the facility, one of the last functioning health centres in the northern area.

Four hospital staff were among a large number of wounded and dead, Hussam Abu Safia said in a statement. “There was a series of airstrikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire.”

Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 44,612 Palestinians and wounded 104,834 since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian territory’s health ministry said on Friday.

Agencies contributed to this report

The pace of medical evacuations of sick and wounded Palestinians out of Gaza, including several thousand children, is so slow it will take five to 10 years to clear the backlog at the current rate, the World Health Organization has said.

Rik Peeperkorn, the UN global health body’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza, said only 78 of 12,000 patients requiring evacuation had managed to leave recently.

Among the 12,000, according to the UN children’s agency Unicef, are 2,500 children, some of whom have died during an often months-long wait to leave for hospitals outside.

The Israeli military often takes months to respond to medical evacuation requests, and the number of evacuations has plunged in recent months.

Since the war began on 7 October 2023, 5,230 patients have been evacuated, according to Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson.

But that rate has slowed since May, when the southern Rafah border crossing to Egypt was closed, with only 342 patients having been evacuated, she said, an average of fewer than two a day.

In a rare exception in November, 200 seriously injured and ill Palestinians and their carers were evacuated from Gaza, in one of the biggest operations of its kind in months, Israel has said.

In some cases, the military rejects either the patient or, in the case of children, the caregivers accompanying them on vague security grounds or with no explanation.

The Israeli decisions appear to be “arbitrary and are not made on a criteria nor logic”, said Moeen Mahmood, the Jordan country director for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Cogat, the Israeli military agency in charge of humanitarian affairs for Palestinians, said in a statement to the Associated Press that it “makes every effort to approve the departure of children and their families for medical treatments, subject to a security check”.

A military official said Israel’s internal intelligence service reviews whether the patient or their escort have what he called “a connection to terrorism”, and if one is found they are refused. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential procedures.

In August MSF applied to the Israeli military to evacuate 32 children and their caregivers, but only six were allowed to leave.

In November, it applied for eight others, including a two-year-old with leg amputations, but Israeli authorities blocked evacuation, it said.

The military official said five of the eight requests in November were approved but the caregivers trying to travel with the children were rejected on security grounds. The official said MSF would have to resubmit the requests with different escorts. The official did not say why the other three children were not approved.

Additionally, Peeperkorn said one of the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza was hit by an Israeli attack on Friday without any prior warning. “There was no official warning or evacuation order before the bombing of … the hospital, only rumours that spread panic,” he said.

The director of Kamal Adwan hospital said earlier that Israel conducted several attacks on Friday that hit the facility, one of the last functioning health centres in the northern area.

Four hospital staff were among a large number of wounded and dead, Hussam Abu Safia said in a statement. “There was a series of airstrikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire.”

Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 44,612 Palestinians and wounded 104,834 since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian territory’s health ministry said on Friday.

Agencies contributed to this report

A top Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after declassified intelligence alleged Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The momentous move by the court effectively voids the national election, which will have to be re-run.

The constitutional court’s decision – which is final – came on Friday after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence two days earlier that alleged Moscow ran a sprawling drive comprising thousands of social media accounts to promote the pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram.

Despite being an unknown who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner on 24 November, a shock result in the EU and Nato member state bordering Ukraine. He was due to face the pro-European reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union party, in a runoff on Sunday.

Romania was to have held its presidential runoff on Sunday with Georgescu seen as having a significant chance of beating his centrist rival and thus shifting the balance of power in the region. The ballot has now been cancelled with voting already under way in polling stations abroad.

“The electoral process to elect Romania’s president will be fully re-run, and the government will set a new date and … calendar for the necessary steps,” the court said in a statement.

The outgoing prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, welcomed the court’s decision in a post on Facebook. It was, he said “the only correct solution after the declassification of the documents … which show that the result of the Romanians’ vote was blatantly distorted as a result of Russia’s intervention”.

However, Lasconi, the pro-European candidate, condemned the ruling. “The constitutional court’s decision is illegal, amoral and crushes the very essence of democracy, voting,” she said.

The European Commission said on Thursday that it had stepped up its monitoring of TikTok in the context of Romania’s elections.

Georgescu, who calls for ending Romanian support for Ukraine to fend off Russia’s invasion, had polled in the single digits before the first round last month. His astonishing victory raised fundamental questions about how the democratic system of a country embedded in western institutions could produce such a surprise.

Documents declassified by Romania’s top security council on Wednesday indicated the country was a target of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election period.

Far-right parties also performed well in last Sunday’s parliamentary election in Romania, though the ruling Social Democrats emerged as the largest grouping and hope to form a pro-EU coalition government.

The court has not called into question the integrity of the parliamentary vote.

Late on Thursday, thousands of demonstrators had massed in the capital, Bucharest, in support of democracy ahead of the now-cancelled presidential runoff.

Romanian musicians, film directors, actors and civic activists voiced their support for Lasconi at a rally in freezing temperatures, urging voters not to isolate the country from its allies and partners. An estimated 3,000 people chanted “Europe!” and “No Fascism”, carrying banners that said “Democracy is in danger” and “Our children will be free”.

A win by Georgescu, an admirer of Putin and Donald Trump, would pull Romania from its traditional place in the pro-western fold and push it into the group of central and eastern European states including Hungary, Slovakia and Austria with powerful far-right, Russia-friendly politicians.

An opinion poll by AtlasIntel, conducted on 4-5 December and quoted by the news website hotnews.ro, showed Lasconi narrowly ahead of Georgescu by 48.6% to 46.4%, one day after the documents on alleged Russian interference were declassified.

The evidence revealed that Georgescu was massively promoted on TikTok through coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms and paid promotion.

“Reports by Romanian authorities that Russian disinformation is influencing the presidential elections in Romania show: (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to divide us and to undermine the unity within the EU and Nato” Germany’s foreign ministry posted on X.

Russia has denied interfering and TikTok said it did not give Georgescu preferential treatment.

Romanian prosecutors said on Thursday they had opened a criminal investigation against Georgescu on suspicion of money-laundering.

While the president’s post is largely ceremonial, the head-of-state has moral authority and influence on Romania’s foreign policy.

The president also designates the next prime minister – a key role especially since legislative elections last weekend returned a fragmented parliament.

Since the fall of communism in 1989, Romania has never seen such a strong showing by the far right, fuelled by mounting anger over high inflation and fears over the Ukraine war.

Enough billionaires and multimillionaires have been assembled by Donald Trump to fill key roles in his nascent administration to form a soccer team.

In a recruitment process that appears to mock his campaign’s appeal to working-class voters, the president-elect has brazenly tapped a gallery of mega-rich backers for key positions that, in some instances, will give them power to cut spending on public services that are used by the most poor and vulnerable.

At least 11 picks for strategic positions after Trump returns to the White House in January have either achieved billionaire status themselves, have billionaire spouses or are within touching distance of that threshold.

The net result will be the wealthiest administration in US history – worth a total of $340bn at the start of this week, before Trump further boosted its monetary value by trying to appoint at least three more billionaires.

Its collective wealth easily outstrips that of Trump’s first cabinet, formed after his 2016 election victory – which at the time was the richest US cabinet ever formed, containing such super-rich members as Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil, who was appointed secretary of state, and Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, who had become wealthy through restructuring bankrupt companies.

It also throws into stark relief the relative impoverishment of the current cabinet of Joe Biden – collectively worth a relatively paltry $118m despite having been repeatedly derided by Trump as representative of a corrupt governing elite that was cheating ordinary working Americans.

The wealthiest – and most prominent – of Trump’s 2024 class is Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur who is the world’s richest man.

Along with Vivek Ramaswamy, another tech entrepreneur who is said to be worth at least $1bn, Musk has been tapped to spearhead a newly created department of government efficiency, already known by its acronym Doge, whose mission is to cut waste from public spending.

The conspicuously extravagant Musk has pledged to cut $2tn from the national budget. He has not explained how or over what period, although he has warned that it may entail “temporary economic hardships”.

Neither Musk nor Ramaswamy will need Senate confirmation, since Doge is not an official government department or agency.

However, Trump has not shied away from nominating billionaire cabinet members who will have to undergo public Senate hearings at which their wealth may become an issue.

These include Linda McMahon, the nominee for education secretary – and a former World Wrestling Entertainment executive – whose husband, Vince McMahon, is worth an estimated $3bn; the North Dakota governor and former businessman Doug Burgum, designated to be secretary of the interior; Howard Lutnick, the chair and chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, who has been nominated as commerce secretary; and Scott Bessent, a hedge-fund manager and former partner at Soros Investment Management, who has been nominated as treasury secretary.

Their collective worth alone amounts to $10.7bn – $4.5bn more than Trump’s first cabinet.

Others subject to Senate confirmation are Charles Kushner – a property tycoon and father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – the prospective ambassador to Paris; Warren Stephens, head of an investment bank and chosen as ambassador to London; Jared Isaacman, a commercial astronaut and entrepreneur who has been nominated to head the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (Nasa); and Kelly Loeffler, a former GOP senator and joint head of Trump’s inaugural committee, now his choice to head the Small Business Administration.

All fall under the billionaire bracket either individually or through marital or family links, according to Forbes.

So, too, does Steve Witkoff, another property tycoon and golfing partner of Trump, who has chosen him as his Middle East envoy. Witkoff’s net worth has been estimated at $1bn.

Then there is Frank Bisignano, nominated as head of the Social Security Administration, where he would be responsible for managing the pensions and benefits of the country’s retirees. The president of Fiserv Inc, a Wisconsin-based financial technology firm, his current wealth is estimated at around $974m.

The president-elect has reportedly offered the deputy defence secretary slot to yet another billionaire, Stephen Feinberg, a private equity investor and co-chair of Cerberus Capital Management, whose personal worth as of July this year was assessed at $4.8bn. It is not known whether Feinberg has accepted.

The gulf between Trump’s taste for the wealthy and his populist everyman rhetoric has not gone unnoticed.

Analysts have long noted the ability of a politician who proudly flaunts his own self-proclaimed billionaire status to tap into popular resentment over stagnating incomes and living standards – accentuated by his laments over the loss of industrial jobs and trade deals that he says have harmed American workers.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, working-class Americans’ real wages have stagnated or declined since the early 1980s, especially as industries moved jobs overseas,” wrote Matthew King, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund, in a blog post. “This may help explain Trump’s working class appeal.”

Trump, King argued, could exploit working-class anxieties because he “knew that pride in God, family, and country would resonate in a way that the progressive messages of other candidates didn’t”.

David Kass, the executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said the goal of what he called Trump’s “government by the billionaires for the billionaires” was huge tax cuts for the super-rich, which would be achieved at the cost of slashing services such as education, social security and Medicaid, which provides healthcare for those with lower incomes.

“Voters wanted a change,” Kass said. “I think what’s going to happen is that people will say, that’s not actually what I wanted. The rich are rich enough and don’t need more tax cuts. How about helping me? I think there’s going to be a huge mobilisation against this [tax cut].”

But King warned that Trump’s emotional resonance may override envy of the rich.

“I still believe that Trump’s working-class appeal will continue to enable him to exploit the working class successfully while funnelling the rewards to the new oligarchy: big businesses and billionaires like Elon Musk,” he wrote.

Donald Trump’s aides working on Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary have told the Trump transition team they haven’t yet counted three Republican senators as being categorically opposed to his confirmation, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The president-elect’s pick to lead the Pentagon returned to Capitol Hill to meet with senators in an effort to shore up faltering support over allegations that he committed sexual assault, drank to excess, sexually pursued female subordinates and was ousted from two non-profits.

But Hegseth’s nomination team, which has met with senators themselves, have suggested to Trump’s orbit that he may ultimately prevail given that they have not hit the critical threshold of three “no” votes despite the slew of torrid headlines that have clouded the selection.

And while Trump himself has not expended any real political capital by calling holdouts on Hegseth’s behalf, the Trump aides working on his nomination have, both with senators and inside Trumpworld to ensure he has the president-elect’s backing.

Hegseth’s team, which includes aides who are close to the vice president-elect JD Vance and Trump’s eldest son Don Jr, represent a particularly powerful group that has the ability to reach Republican senators and the Trump inner circle.

The trickiest hurdle for Hegseth, the people said, appears for now at least to be convincing Republican senator Joni Ernst to back his nomination or ensuring her resistance does not embolden her close colleagues in the Senate to vote against him.

Ernst, an Iowa Republican and combat veteran who has spoken about being sexually assaulted herself, had a closed-door meeting with Hegseth on Wednesday but did not offer her endorsement when she emerged, as well as in an interview on Fox News the following morning.

“For a number of our senators, they want to make sure that any allegations are cleared, and that’s why we have to have a very thorough vetting process,” Ernst told Fox News, agreeing with the host Bill Hemmer that she had not reached a “yes” on Hegseth.

The continued resistance from Ernst sparked complaints from Trump’s team at Mar-a-Lago, where the transition operation is headquartered, that Ernst was content to sink Hegseth’s nomination because she was interested in the job herself.

Ernst had briefly been in the running for the defense secretary position until she was passed over when Trump instead gravitated to Hegseth, partly because of what he regarded as his telegenic qualities and conversations with him on the campaign trail.

But Ernst has spoken to Trump repeatedly in recent weeks and questioned his choice for Hegseth, the people said, giving rise to accusations that she was trying to position herself for the job.

A spokesperson for Ernst said in a statement that she had no interest in being the defense secretary pick: “She is not seeking the position, full stop.”

Still, that has not quelled the backlash against her inside Trumpworld with aides foreshadowing a war his other sherpa teams if she in effect forced Hegseth to withdraw his nomination for her own personal self-interest, the people said.

Trump has told people close to him that Michael Waltz, the former Florida congressman he chose as his national security adviser, would face an easier path to Senate confirmation for defense secretary, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

But Trump has also said he wants to keep Waltz in the West Wing and his top replacement pick would be Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and his 2024 Republican primary rival.

In Washington, Hegseth launched a public media campaign to bolster support for his nomination. He vowed to continue with his bid as he met with more Republican senators in Congress and said in a high-profile interview that Trump told him that he had his back.

Speaking to Megyn Kelly on Sirius XM, Hegseth dismissed the sexual misconduct and drinking allegations as fiction, comparing them with the similar negative headlines that dogged Brett Kavanaugh during his senate confirmation hearings for the US supreme court.

“It is the classic art of the smear,” Hegseth said. “Take whatever tiny kernels of truth – and there are tiny, tiny ones in there – and blow them up into a masquerade of a narrative about somebody that I am definitely not.”

He later told Kelly that if he ultimately became defense secretary, he would stop drinking altogether, likening it to when he followed the military directive prohibiting alcohol consumption on deployment.

Hegseth was due to speak to Bret Baier on Fox News but swapped it for an appearance on Kelly’s show, with his team betting that speaking with a female journalist who had herself spoken out against sexual harassment in a long-form interview would be more beneficial, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Hegseth team also thought doubling down on Fox News was overkill, the person said, after his mother earlier appeared on the Fox and Friends morning show to quell concerns about a 2018 email she sent her son that accused him of a pattern of abuse towards women.

Penelope Hegseth said she regretted sending the email, in which she said her son “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around”, and urged senators to consider his nomination. “He’s redeemed, forgiven, changed,” she said.

The search for the suspected assassin in the brazen Manhattan killing of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, has entered a third day as police revealed clues to the killer’s identity but many facts about the shocking shooting still remain unknown.

Thompson was fatally shot at about 6.40am ET on Wednesday in front of a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan, just before he was scheduled to speak at the company’s annual investor conference.

The killer, a person dressed in black with a backpack who was “proficient” with firearms, waited for Thompson in front of the hotel, shot him with a pistol apparently fitted with a silencer, and fled through a nearby alleyway to an ebike and then into Central Park.

“From watching the video, it does seem that he’s proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly,” said Joseph Kenny, the NYPD chief of detectives.

A manhunt immediately ensued and continues, with police tapping the city’s enormous network of public and private cameras, and releasing information throughout the week.

On Thursday, police released images believed to be of the suspect at an Upper West Side hostel in the city, where he appeared to flirt with the front desk clerk and reveal his face. He used a fake New Jersey driver’s license to check in, according to reporting by CNN.

Additionally, police said they believed the suspect came to New York on a Greyhound bus that originated in Atlanta, Georgia – though it is unclear where exactly the suspect boarded. At the scene police found a cellphone, water bottle and protein bar wrapper they believe the killer may have discarded.

Although the motive for the killing is yet unknown, Johnson’s death has touched a raw nerve for many Americans about their often dire and exploitative dealings with the US for-profit healthcare industry. Conjecture about the motive for the killing was heightened by words scrawled on shell casings in magic marker: “deny”, “depose” and “defend”.

On social media, Thompson’s death was met by an outpouring of rage at the private health insurance industry he represented, alarming researchers of political violence and putting corporate executives on edge.

“Now the norms of violence are spreading into the commercial sector,” said Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago’s project on security and threats. “That’s what I saw when I saw this.”

Many compared Johnson’s killing to health insurer’s denials of care – with charts about denial rates going viral, and corporate security firms noting a distinct uptick in violence over the past five years. That rise, if accurate, would mirror a rise in violent political threats that researchers found began in the first Trump administration.

“There’s a lot of just pent-up outrage at this company and other companies that are middlemen that are standing between a patient and his or her doctor or hospital,” Wendell Potter, a former Cigna vice-president who has become an industry critic, told the Minnesota Star Tribune.

As Americans shared stories about the stinging treatment at the hands of private insurers, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Connecticut, New York and Missouri announced they would no longer pay for anesthesia if a surgery goes beyond a certain time limit.

Online, the decision was connected to general anger at the insurance industry sparked by Thompson’s death. Amid that reaction and alarm from doctors, the insurer walked the decision back on Thursday, citing “significant widespread misinformation” about the policy change.

The killing has also put corporate executives on edge. It is common for company heads to receive threats, as they are in effect the human face of a business. Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News he had received threats in the past.

Thompson was the CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance division, a highly paid executive who earned $10m in annual compensation. UnitedHealth is one of the largest corporations in the world, with a market capitalization of $533bn, larger than household names such as Mastercard and ExxonMobil.

UnitedHealthcare has been criticized for denying care to vulnerable, chronically ill and elderly patients; using artificial intelligence to systematically and erroneously deny claims; is the subject of federal monopoly and insider trading investigations; and was the subject of a grilling in Congress over severe disruptions caused by a cyber-attack this year.

A 50-year-old licensed accountant who reportedly kept a low public profile, Thompson is survived by two sons and his wife, all of whom live in Maple Grove, Minnesota, where the company is headquartered.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Ireland’s new parliament has the lowest proportion of female parliamentarians in western Europe, an analysis has revealed, suggesting that a country that elected its first female president more than three decades ago has trailed behind when it comes to the inclusion of women in politics.

An analysis of Inter-Parliamentary Union data by Bloomberg, published on Friday, described the Irish parliament as the “worst for gender diversity in western Europe”.

Out of the 174 seats up for grabs in the November election, 44 went to women, amounting to a representation of slightly more than 25% – a stark contrast to the western European average of 37% when it comes to female parliamentarians. Across Europe as a whole, female parliamentarians make up an average of 32% of parliaments.

Ireland adopted gender quotas in 2012, with the requirement boosted to 40% in the most recent election. The result was 246 female candidates – the highest number registered to run in an Irish general election.

Of these candidates, 44 were elected to the Dáil Éireann, or lower house of the Irish parliament. While campaigners noted that this figure marked a slight increase from the previous election, they were swift to add that it was also indicative of the work that remained to be done.

“It’s progress, but it’s slow progress,” said Women for Election, which promotes women’s participation in Irish politics.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland noted that the results meant there was still “no breakthrough for women” in Irish politics.

“The results show that, in isolation, the gender quota will not be enough to achieve equal representation for women,” said Orla O’Connor, the council’s director, in a statement. “There is evidence that many women were added late to the ticket to make up the gender quota. We are calling on all political parties to ensure women candidates are selected as early as possible to ensure they have sufficient time, support and resources for their election campaign.”

The council also called on the new government to prioritise measures to increase the number of women in politics, such as a 40% gender quota in local elections that could allow women from diverse backgrounds to gain a foothold in politics.

In 1990, Ireland elected its first female president, Mary Robinson, but while countries such as Belgium introduced legislation to increase women’s political participation as early as 1994, it would take nearly two decades for Ireland to introduce a gender quota for general elections.

Gender parity in politics remains an unfulfilled goal across Europe, with Iceland coming the closest after a 2021 election that resulted in women holding 47.6% of the seats in its national parliament. On the other end of the spectrum sits Hungary, with 15% female parliamentarians, and Romania, with 19%.

Writing in the Guardian on Friday, Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, noted that at the current pace of progress, it would take parliaments around the world roughly 130 years to achieve gender equality.

“Gender isn’t the only example of the disconnect between politics and people, but it is a particularly stark one,” she wrote. “How can our system of representation neglect half of the people it is meant to represent?”

Ireland’s new parliament has the lowest proportion of female parliamentarians in western Europe, an analysis has revealed, suggesting that a country that elected its first female president more than three decades ago has trailed behind when it comes to the inclusion of women in politics.

An analysis of Inter-Parliamentary Union data by Bloomberg, published on Friday, described the Irish parliament as the “worst for gender diversity in western Europe”.

Out of the 174 seats up for grabs in the November election, 44 went to women, amounting to a representation of slightly more than 25% – a stark contrast to the western European average of 37% when it comes to female parliamentarians. Across Europe as a whole, female parliamentarians make up an average of 32% of parliaments.

Ireland adopted gender quotas in 2012, with the requirement boosted to 40% in the most recent election. The result was 246 female candidates – the highest number registered to run in an Irish general election.

Of these candidates, 44 were elected to the Dáil Éireann, or lower house of the Irish parliament. While campaigners noted that this figure marked a slight increase from the previous election, they were swift to add that it was also indicative of the work that remained to be done.

“It’s progress, but it’s slow progress,” said Women for Election, which promotes women’s participation in Irish politics.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland noted that the results meant there was still “no breakthrough for women” in Irish politics.

“The results show that, in isolation, the gender quota will not be enough to achieve equal representation for women,” said Orla O’Connor, the council’s director, in a statement. “There is evidence that many women were added late to the ticket to make up the gender quota. We are calling on all political parties to ensure women candidates are selected as early as possible to ensure they have sufficient time, support and resources for their election campaign.”

The council also called on the new government to prioritise measures to increase the number of women in politics, such as a 40% gender quota in local elections that could allow women from diverse backgrounds to gain a foothold in politics.

In 1990, Ireland elected its first female president, Mary Robinson, but while countries such as Belgium introduced legislation to increase women’s political participation as early as 1994, it would take nearly two decades for Ireland to introduce a gender quota for general elections.

Gender parity in politics remains an unfulfilled goal across Europe, with Iceland coming the closest after a 2021 election that resulted in women holding 47.6% of the seats in its national parliament. On the other end of the spectrum sits Hungary, with 15% female parliamentarians, and Romania, with 19%.

Writing in the Guardian on Friday, Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, noted that at the current pace of progress, it would take parliaments around the world roughly 130 years to achieve gender equality.

“Gender isn’t the only example of the disconnect between politics and people, but it is a particularly stark one,” she wrote. “How can our system of representation neglect half of the people it is meant to represent?”

The South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, could put citizens in “great danger” if he is not suspended, the head of the ruling party said on Friday, increasing the likelihood that parliament will vote to impeach Yoon over Tuesday’s failed martial law declaration.

“[If] President Yoon continues to hold the office of the presidency, there is a significant risk that extreme actions similar to the martial law declaration could be repeated, which could put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in great danger,” the head of the People Power party, Han Dong-hoon, told an emergency party leadership meeting.

As the atmosphere remained heated, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung meanwhile warned that Yoon may make another attempt to declare martial law before parliament votes on his impeachment on Saturday. Yoon’s office said the reports were untrue.

Yoon shocked the country and his own party on Tuesday when he announced he was imposing martial law in order to root out “anti-state forces” and overcome obstructionist political opponents.

He reversed course about six hours later after parliament, including some members of his party, voted to oppose the decree. He is due to face an impeachment vote on Saturday.

On Friday, the head of South Korean special forces, Commander Kwak Jong-geun, said he had been ordered to “drag out” lawmakers from parliament on the night martial law was declared.

Han said he had confirmed that Yoon had directed the arrest of key political figures during the brief martial law period, relying on high school connections that are widely believed to be part of a larger alleged network of influence.

South Korean prosecutors are investigating the president and other key officials including former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun and interior minister Lee Sang-min over the martial law declaration. Police are conducting a separate parallel investigation.

Phone records released on Friday show that then-defence minister Kim called interior minister Lee hours before the martial law announcement – the only call between the two officials from 1-4 December.

Kim tendered his resignation on Wednesday, saying he considered himself responsible for the crisis that the martial law decree had created.

The main opposition Democratic party has scheduled an impeachment vote for the president on Saturday evening, and the national police have launched an investigation into Yoon after an opposition party and activists filed allegations of insurrection.

On Thursday, the ruling party said it was against impeachment, but Han suggested that stance may be shifting in light of “credible evidence” that Yoon had intended to arrest and detain political leaders at Gwacheon, just south of Seoul.

“I said yesterday that I would try not to pass this impeachment in order to prevent damage to the people and supporters caused by the unprepared chaos, but I believe that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s immediate suspension of office is necessary to protect the Republic of Korea and its people in light of the newly revealed facts,” Han said.

He did not explicitly call for impeachment or respond to reporters when asked for clarification.

“Considering the newly emerging facts, I believe that a swift suspension of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s duties is necessary to safeguard the Republic of Korea and its people,” Han said.

Han said Yoon had not taken any personnel actions against military officials who had “illegally intervened”.

“Furthermore, he does not acknowledge that this illegal martial law is wrong,” he said.

This alleged clique being linked to the martial law declaration has been dubbed the “Choongam faction” because those suspected of involvement all graduated from Choongam high school in Seoul. In South Korea, school connections – particularly relationships between seniors and juniors from the same institution – often remain influential throughout graduates’ careers, and are seen as crucial networks in life.

It has drawn comparisons to South Korea’s notorious Hanahoe group – a military circle formed by graduates of the same military academy that underpinned the dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan in the 1980s.

Alleged key players in this week’s martial law declaration, including Kim and Lee, and defence counterintelligence chief Yeo In-hyeong, are all Choongam graduates.

The existence of an influential Choongam network had been previously denied by Kim during his confirmation hearing in September. When questioned by opposition lawmakers, he also explicitly rejected the possibility of martial law being declared, calling it inappropriate for modern times.

Meanwhile, Lee stated on Thursday that he had never attended any any gatherings of Choongam graduates when questioned about the alleged clique.

Han was previously regarded as a close associate of Yoon as they spent years working together as prosecutors and he served as Yoon’s first justice minister. But after Han entered party politics and became PPP leader, their ties soured badly.

Han leads a minority faction within the ruling party, and 18 lawmakers in his faction voted with opposition lawmakers to overturn Yoon’s martial law decree.

The PPP was holding an enlarged meeting with rank-and-file lawmakers to discuss Yoon’s impeachment.

Cho Kyoung-tae, a senior ruling party lawmaker who supports Yoon’s impeachment, told reporters that each party lawmaker must decide “whether they want to take the people’s side or become collaborators of martial law forces.”

Others however said they did not want a repeat of the 2016 impeachment of then-president Park Geun-hye, which triggered the implosion of the conservative Grand National party and a victory by liberals in presidential and general elections.

Yoon Sang-hyun, a five-time ruling party lawmaker, said he still opposed impeachment.

“We cannot impeach the president tomorrow and hand over the regime to Lee Jae-Myung’s Democratic party. It is not for the sake of protecting President Yoon Suk Yeol, but for the sake of the Republic of Korea’s system and our children’s future. I cannot participate in the impeachment of the president tomorrow,” Yoon told reporters.

Ahn Gwi-ryeong, a spokesperson for the opposition Democratic party, said she believed the people had already psychologically impeached Yoon.

The Democratic party leader, Lee Jae-myung, said the declaration of martial law was a rebellion waged by the president in order to maintain or extend his power.

“It’s an act of insurrection,” he said. “It’s a pro-military coup.”

Fearing another attempt to declare martial law, opposition lawmakers were rotating through parliament’s plenary session hall to block any such attempt, a Democratic party official said.

“While there may still be a few ruling party members supporting Yoon Suk Yeol, it seems that Han’s statements today are significantly influenced by the gravity of the situation, particularly the mobilisation of intelligence agencies to arrest politicians,” Shin Yul, professor of political science at Myongji University, told Agence France-Presse.

“It appears that Han and the party leaders have concluded there is actually a significant possibility that President Yoon may declare a second martial law.”

With Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

Musician and actor Miho Nakayama, best known for her dual role in the successful 1995 feature Love Letter and for her music career in the 1980s and 90s, has died aged 54.

According to a report in the Japan Times, Nakayama was found dead at her home in Tokyo on Friday. The cause of death has not been confirmed, but the Japan Times reported her body was found in the bathtub, and her death was confirmed by medical personnel.

Her management company released a statement saying: “It is with deepest regret that we have to make this sudden announcement to all those who have been involved with [Nakayama’s career] and to the fans who have supported her, but it has happened so suddenly that we are also stunned and saddened by the news. We are still in the process of confirming the cause of death and other details.”

Born in 1970, Nakayama first made her name with a string of successful J-pop singles and albums in the 1980s, including C, Be-Bop High School and Tsuiteru ne Notteru ne; Nakayama then began acting in TV shows and films for which her songs acted as theme tunes, including two entries in the Be-Bop High School series and the romcom Who Do I Choose?

In the 1990s, she continued to release music successfully, modulating to slower-paced and ballad-oriented material such as Midnight Taxi and Sekaijū no Dare Yori Kitto. She also took on more ambitious acting roles with the Shunji Iwai-directed Love Letter, which was released internationally under the title When I Close My Eyes. It was a substantial domestic hit and featured Nakayama in a dual role, playing a woman whose fiance dies in an accident and another, more mysterious character who bears a bizarre resemblance to him. Nakayama followed this up with the lead role in Tokyo Biyori (aka Tokyo Weather), a film based on the life of Yoko Araki, the wife of photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, who documented their life together. Nakayama was nominated for a Japanese Academy Award in 1998 for her startlingly intimate performance.

In 2019, Nakayama released her first studio album in two decades and in the same year appeared in a small role in Iwai’s Last Letter.

TikTok is one step closer to facing a ban in the US. A federal appeals court ruled on Friday to uphold a law that forces the hugely popular social media company to sell its assets to a US company or be barred from the country entirely. The decision is the latest twist in a years-long battle between TikTok, which is owned by Chinese-based ByteDance, and the US government.

“TikTok’s millions of users will need to find alternative media of communication,” said the judge, Douglas Ginsburg. “That burden is attributable to [China’s] hybrid commercial threat to US national security, not to the US government, which engaged with TikTok through a multi-year process in an effort to find an alternative solution.”

TikTok has said that divestiture is “not possible technologically, commercially, or legally”. The case is likely to move up to the US supreme court.

TikTok first brought this lawsuit against the justice department in May. The court’s three-judge panel said that the provisions of the law “survive constitutional scrutiny”.

Ginsburg wrote that the measure “was the culmination of extensive, bipartisan action by the Congress and by successive presidents. It was carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and it was part of a broader effort to counter a well-substantiated national security threat posed by the PRC (People’s Republic of China)”.

TikTok has faced an onslaught of lawsuits, congressional hearings and inquiries on both the federal and state level over the past several years. It reached a peak in April when Joe Biden signed a bill into law requiring ByteDance to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner or be banned this January. In 2023, Montana became the first state to ban TikTok, but a judge blocked the state’s law before it could take effect.

The US government says TikTok is a national security threat because China could use the app to access personal data from millions of Americans. Lawmakers also say they fear China could manipulate what millions of people see on the app and spread propaganda. The government has not disclosed evidence that Beijing or Bytedance has done so.

“The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it is willing to leverage technology to collect data on our children and all US citizens,” said Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, in a statement when the bill was introduced last March. “It’s time we fight back against TikTok’s information invasion against America’s families.”

In May, ByteDance, TikTok and a group of social media influencers sued to block the law. They argue it is unconstitutional, unfairly singles out the social media company, and violates the right to free speech of its millions of users.

TikTok has 170 million US users on its platform, roughly half of the country’s population. Even though its parent company is based in China, TikTok argues it isn’t under Chinese influence because it operates separately and maintains headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles. It says its US user data is handled by Oracle, an American company.

Several civil and digital rights organizations have opposed the ban, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Center for Democracy and Technology. In a letter to Congress last March, they wrote that a privacy law would do more to protect people’s data. They said the bill to ban TikTok “is censorship – plain and simple”.

During oral arguments for the case in September, the three-judge panel on the appeals court listened to arguments from both sides. One of the judges, Sri Srinivasan, said he was concerned with TikTok being owned by a foreign entity that had the ability to access troves of US citizen’s data.

“When it’s a foreign organization, they don’t have a first amendment right to object to a regulation of their curation,” he said. He later argued that ByteDance divesting from TikTok could solve this problem.

The Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, announced has announced new delays in the US space agency’s Artemis programme to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, pushing back the next two planned missions amid potential policy changes under president-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

Nelson told a news conference on Thursday at Nasa headquarters that the next Artemis mission, sending astronauts around the moon and back, has been delayed until April 2026, with the subsequent astronaut landing mission using SpaceX’s Starship planned for the following year.

“Assuming the SpaceX lander is ready, we plan to launch Artemis III in mid-2027,” Nelson said. “That will be well ahead of the Chinese government’s announced intention to land on the lunar surface by 2030,” Nelson added, illustrating the competition between the world’s top two space powers as they race to the moon.

The newly announced delays came after Nasa concluded an examination of the Orion crew capsule, made by Lockheed Martin, and its heat shield, which had cracked and partially eroded during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere on its debut 2022 uncrewed test mission, Artemis I.

The Artemis programme was established by Nasa during Trump’s first administration and represents a flagship American effort to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the US space agency’s Apollo 17 mission. It is estimated that the Artemis programme will cost $93bn (£72.8bn) in 2025.

Unlike the Apollo missions, the Artemis programme also calls for building lunar bases that will help pave the way for the more ambitious future goal of sending astronauts to Mars. The Artemis programme has made noteworthy progress, including Orion’s 2022 uncrewed launch atop Nasa’s giant Space Launch System (SLS), but also has experienced various delays and rising costs.

The SLS’s roughly $2bn for each launch price tag and its heavy cost overruns in development have made advisers to Trump eager to upend the Artemis programme and focus more heavily on Mars using SpaceX’s Starship. Trump takes office on 20 January.

Nasa’s Artemis I mission was a 25-day voyage around the moon that ended when the Orion capsule, carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins, made a splash down in the Pacific. During its blazing atmospheric re-entry, heat became trapped inside the Orion heat shield’s outer layer, causing cracks and raising concerns after the mission about the capsule’s future models.

Nelson said he and other senior Nasa officials unanimously decided at a meeting this week to keep the heat shield design as is for Artemis II, but change the capsule’s return trajectory to prevent the cracking issues.

Orion capsules on missions beyond Artemis II will have an upgraded heat shield. Replacing the Artemis II heat shield would have caused a much longer delay of at least a year, according to Pam Melroy, Nasa’s deputy administrator.

The Artemis II mission, a flight carrying astronauts around the moon in Orion but without a landing, has experienced previous delays as well, including one announced by Nelson in January pushing back its timetable to September 2025.

The Artemis III lunar landing mission involves Orion transferring the astronauts in space on to Starship, which will land them on the surface.

The US and China, an ascending power in space, are both courting partner countries and leaning on private companies for their moon programmes.

The Artemis programme has been Nasa’s top priority under Nelson. Trump’s first Nasa chief, the former US congressman Jim Bridenstine, launched the Artemis programme and persuaded Congress to increase the agency’s budget to fund it.

Trump on Wednesday picked the billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, an associate of the SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, to succeed Nelson as Nasa chief. Nelson said he spoke briefly to Isaacman to congratulate him and that he expects the incoming Trump administration to carry Artemis forward under the current plan.

Keira Knightley has spoken out about the intimidation and intrusion she experienced at the start of her career, when she was “stalked by men” who blamed her for their aggressive interest.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Knightley said that even as a young woman, “I was very clear on it being absolutely shocking. There was an amount of gaslighting to be told by a load of men that ‘you wanted this.’ It was rape speak. You know, ‘This is what you deserve.’ It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere.”

Knightley rose to prominence aged 17 with her role in Bend It Like Beckham, before finding international fame with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and Love Actually.

“It’s very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing,” Knightley said.

“Having said that, I wouldn’t have the financial stability or the career that I do now without that period. I had a five-year period between the age of 17 and 21-ish, and I’m never going to have that kind of success again. It totally set me up for life. Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost.”

The actor said that her “jaw dropped at the time” over how she was treated in public spaces, with the clear implication that “they very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men. Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it – it felt the same to me. It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye.”

Knightley, who has two daughters, said she believes the internet has exacerbated the problem. “Social media has put that in a whole other context, when you look at the damage that’s been done to young women, to teenage girls,” she said. “Ultimately, that’s what fame is – it’s being publicly shamed. A lot of teenage girls don’t survive that.”

In an interview with the Times of London last month, Knightley said that the popularity of the Pirates films put her in a difficult position: financially stable, but emotionally besieged.

“It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time,” Knightley said. “I was seen as shit because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for.

“They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of, and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So they’re a very confused place in my head.”

Six years ago, Knightley told the Hollywood Reporter that such exposure led her to have a breakdown aged 22. She didn’t leave the house for three months and needed hypnotherapy to feel able to walk the Baftas red carpet for Atonement in 2008.

In 2018, Knightley wrote an essay, The Weaker Sex, which addressed how explicit and internalised misogyny silences women. It ended with a broadside against male colleagues:

“Tell me what it is to be a woman. Be nice, be supportive, be pretty but not too pretty, be thin but not too thin, be sexy but not too sexy, be successful but not too successful … But I don’t want to flirt and mother them, flirt and mother, flirt and mother. I don’t want to flirt with you because I don’t want to fuck you, and I don’t want to mother you because I am not your mother … I just want to work, mate. Is that OK? Talk and be heard, be talked to and listen. Male ego. Stop getting in the way.”

Speaking to the Guardian in 2018, Knightley said that she wrote the piece to try to “harness this moment in time and use our voices to keep the conversation going” and hoped that the female experience would be more explored – and therefore more understood – in the future.

“Before motherhood,” she said, “you’re sexy, but if we talk about the whole vagina-splitting thing then that’s terrifying; there’s no sex there, so what we do is go into the virgin-mother retrofit, that’s nice and safe. The problem with those two images is I think very few women actually identify with them. Women are meant to play the flirt or the mother in order to get their voice heard. I can’t. It makes me feel sick.”