Donald Trump has called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, a day after meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Paris, claiming Kyiv “would like to make a deal” to end its war with Russia.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said both sides had suffered enormous losses in the war – which he claimed on the US election campaign trail he would be able to end “in 24 hours” if elected. Trump has already appointed the retired army general Keith Kellogg as his Russia and Ukraine envoy, tasked with ending the war.

“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed,” Trump said on Sunday.

He said Kyiv had “ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians”. He did not specify whether the figure included those wounded. “Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,” he added.

Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Sunday that he had had a “good meeting” with Trump in Paris. The news site Axios reported that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had persuaded Trump to meet Zelenskyy with him, Trump being initially reluctant to meet the Ukrainian leader.

Zelenskyy said on Sunday that 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 370,000 wounded, of whom about half had been able to return to service after treatment.

Russia and Ukraine have both been reluctant to publish figures of those killed or wounded in action. In February, Zelenskyy gave a figure for the first time, putting the number of those killed at 31,000. At the time, western estimates put the real figure closer to 70,000 military fatalities.

How Trump’s policy on Ukraine will look in practice remains something of a mystery. Kellogg has previously talked of putting pressure on Kyiv and Moscow to enter talks, and boosting military aid to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin refused to engage. Others in Trump’s orbit have espoused openly pro-Russian views.

There has been cautious optimism in Kyiv over Trump’s election, as many Ukrainians felt the red lines and “escalation management” of the Biden administration had disastrous consequences on the battlefield.

Ukraine has become increasingly exhausted after nearly three years of full-scale war, and the number of people who say they would consider territorial concessions to stop the conflict is increasing.

“About a third are against any deal, a third want a deal in any circumstances including through concessions to Russia, and a third are not sure. They want the war to end but not at any price,” said the political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko in an interview in Kyiv.

In recent months, Kyiv has been suffering from an acute personnel shortage as its mobilisation drive flounders and the army struggles to replenish ranks. This has led to the US administration making the unusual move of publicly calling on Kyiv to lower the mobilisation age from 25 to 18 years old. Zelenskyy has ruled out the move, which would be deeply unpopular in Ukrainian society.

Among Zelenskyy’s inner circle, there is an increasing awareness that, as the army struggles to hold back Russia on the frontline, some kind of negotiations will be necessary soon. But they fear that without solid security guarantees from the west, a ceasefire would be meaningless.

“I told [Trump] that we need a just and strong peace, which the Russians won’t destroy in a few years as they did before,” Zelenskyy said on Sunday.

Despite Trump’s optimism about a possible deal, it is not clear that Putin has any interest in negotiations at the moment. He has laid out his demands for ending the war, which include Russian control over the Crimean peninsula and four regions Moscow laid claim to in 2022, including parts of Ukraine not currently controlled by Russian troops. Putin also wants a ban on Ukraine joining Nato, as well as its disarmament. Most of these conditions would be absolutely unacceptable for any Ukrainian leader to sign.

In recent weeks, a number of sources close to decision-making circles in Moscow have told the Guardian that they did not see any desire on Putin’s part to make real concessions for the sake of peace. “So far, I’ve seen no indications, either privately or publicly, that Moscow is particularly flexible in its stance. Those signals simply haven’t been there,” said one source in the Russian foreign policy establishment.

In his first sit-down news interview since winning a second presidency in November’s election, Donald Trump renewed promises to pardon his supporters involved in the attack on the US Capitol in early 2021.

He also doubled down on promises of mass deportations and tariffs in the conversation with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker – the latter of which he acknowledged could cause Americans to pay more after riding voters’ complaints about higher prices back to the White House at the expense of Vice-President Kamala Harris.

“I’m going to be acting very quickly. First day,” Trump said in the interview, claiming convicted Capitol attackers had been put through a “very nasty system”.

“I know the system,” said Trump, himself convicted in May by New York state prosecutors of criminally falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. “The system’s a very corrupt system.”

Trump said there may be some exceptions to his pardons over an attack on the Capitol that was meant to keep him in the Oval Office after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden – and which was linked to multiple deaths, including the suicides of traumatized law enforcement officers. He referenced previously debunked claims of anti-Trump law enforcement infiltrating his supporters’ ranks and agitating the attack.

When Trump was asked about Capitol attackers who assaulted police officers he said that “they had no choice”. He also claimed individuals were pressured into accepting guilty pleas.

“Their whole lives have been destroyed,” said Trump, who criticized the outgoing president’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, on convictions of lying on gun ownership application forms as well as tax evasion. “They’ve been destroyed.”

Trump denied he would direct his second administration’s appointees to arrest elected officials involved in the investigation of the attack on the US Capitol, which led to federal criminal charges against him that have been dismissed. But he made it a point to tell Welker: “Honestly, they should go to jail.”

More than 1,250 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. And at least 645 people have been sentenced to serve some time in prison, ranging from a few days to 22 years.

During his sentencing Friday, Philip Sean Grillo of New York City, one of the Capitol attackers, tauntingly told the federal judge presiding over his case, “Trump’s gonna pardon me anyways.” Grillo received a one-year prison sentenced and was ordered to be taken into custody immediately.

Another of the convicted attackers, Edward Kelley of Tennessee, was found guilty at trial in November of conspiracy to murder federal employees. Jurors determined he had developed a list of officials he wanted to kill for investigating him in connection with the Capitol attack.

In other parts of Sunday’s interview, Trump reaffirmed his plans to enact tariffs on imports from some of the US’s biggest trading partners. He said he could not guarantee US families would not pay more as a result of his plan.

He also doubled down on refusing to admit Biden fairly defeated him in the 2020 election, claiming he won in November against Harris because the race “was too big to rig”.

On his plans of mass deportations, Welker asked Trump about families with mixed immigration statuses. Trump suggested immigrants living in the US legally were at risk if they had family members living in the country without permission.

“I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” Trump said.

He did claim to have some support for working with Democrats to protect Dreamers, or people who have lived in the US for years after being brought to the country as undocumented children. But, as he has done before, he promised to work to end birthright citizenship and said he would consider pushing to amend the US constitution to do so.

“We have to end it,” Trump said.

As the search for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer goes on, New York police late Saturday released two additional photos of the suspected shooter that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi.

The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue, medical-style mask.

Retracing the gunman’s steps using surveillance video, police say, it appears he left the city by bus soon after the shooting Wednesday morning outside the New York Hilton Midtown. He was seen on video at an uptown bus station about 45 minutes later, said the New York police’s chief of detectives, Joseph Kenny.

With the high-profile search expanding across state lines, the FBI announced late Friday that it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, adding to a reward of up to $10,000 that the NYPD has offered. Police say they believe the suspect acted alone.

Police don’t know who he is, where he is, or why he did it. But they are confident it was a targeted attack instead of a random act. And New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, insisted Saturday that “the net is tightening”.

Aided by drones, police officers scouring Central Park found a backpack believed to have been discarded by Thompson’s killer during his escape. NBC News, citing two sources, reported that there was fake money from the board game Monopoly inside the backpack.

In addition to the apparent targeted nature of the attack, the words “delay”, “deny” and possibly depose were written on shell casings found in the wake of Thompson’s killing. Such evidence has suggested the possibility that the motive is linked to the healthcare industry’s routine denial of payments for medical services to many Americans.

Healthcare debt has emerged as the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US while for-profit health insurers such as UnitedHealthcare among the country’s wealthiest entities. Thompson, 50, who lived in Minnesota near UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters, commanded a salary of $10m annually before he was shot dead as he prepared to attend a meeting with investors of the company.

Thompson’s survivors include a wife and two sons, now 19 and 16.

• The Associated Press contributed reporting

Ghana’s former president John Dramani Mahama has won a historic comeback election victory after voters appeared to punish the ruling New Patriotic party over its management of an economic crisis.

The NPP’s candidate, the vice-president, Mahamudu Bawumia, on Sunday conceded defeat in the weekend presidential election after failing to shake off widespread frustration over the high cost of living.

Defeat in Saturday’s election ended eight years in power for the NPP under President Nana Akufo-Addo, marked by the west African state’s worst economic turmoil in years, high inflation and a debt default.

For Mahama, the country’s president from 2012 to 2017, it was his third attempt to reclaim the presidency after falling short in 2016 and 2020 elections.

“The people of Ghana have spoken, the people have voted for change at this time and we respect it with all humility,” Bawumia said in a press conference flanked by party officials.

In what was a speedy concession with official vote tallies still coming in, Bawumia said he had called Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), candidate to congratulate him.

Blaring horns, waving flags and cheering, Mahama supporters were already celebrating outside the party campaign headquarters in the capital, Accra.

Mahama has yet to speak publicly since Bawumia’s concession. But on his X account, Mahama confirmed he received Bawumia’s congratulatory call over his “emphatic victory”.

Ghana’s economic woes dominated the election, after the continent’s top gold producer and world’s second-biggest cacao exporter went through a crisis of default and currency devaluation, ending with a $3bn (£2.3bn) IMF bailout.

Earlier, the NDC spokesperson Sammy Gyamfi said the party’s internal review of results showed Mahama had won 56.3% of the vote, against 41.3% for Bawumia.

Political parties had agents at polling stations to observe and tally the initial vote counts before the ballots were sent for official collation by the election commission.

The commission had said official results were expected by Tuesday.

With a history of democratic stability, Ghana’s two main parties, the NPP and NDC, have alternated in power equally since the return to multiparty politics in 1992.

Under the slogan “Break the 8” – a reference to two terms in power – Bawumia had sought to lead the NPP to an unprecedented third term. But he struggled to break away from criticism of Akufo-Addo’s economic record.

Though inflation slowed from more than 50% to about 23%, and other macro-economic indicators are stabilising, economic struggles were still a clear election issue for many.

That frustration opened the way for a comeback challenge from Mahama. But during campaigning, the former president also faced criticism from those who remember his government’s financial problems, especially the massive power cuts that marked his time in office.

Mohamed Al Fayed pretended he had dementia so he could evade prosecution for sexual crimes, his son has said.

Police now believe Fayed may have raped and abused at least 111 women and girls over nearly four decades.

His youngest son, Omar Fayed, 37, compared his father to a Nazi war criminal in an interview with the Mail on Sunday and said that others got his father “off the hook on the grounds he was mentally incapacitated”. He added that “afterwards it was back to business – he was as sharp as a tack”.

Omar Fayed, a tech entrepreneur who was once due to inherit Harrods, said he wished the “investigation had been able to take its course when he was still alive”. Fayed died last year at the age of 94.

Omar Fayed added: “If a Nazi general is found to have been hiding in the Algarve for the last 50 years, then of course he should be tried.”

His comments suggest that police missed an opportunity to bring charges when allegations surfaced in 2017 and 2018, when his father was in his late 80s.

One woman who made a statement to the police in 2018 about sexual abuse by the former Harrods owner was told that he was too old to be prosecuted and that he was not in the right state of mind because of dementia.

A year earlier Fayed had been the subject of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary that accused him of sexually harassing young employees, including a 17-year-old he had recruited. An unsuccessful attempt to prevent broadcast was made on the grounds that Fayed was mentally incapacitated.

Cheska Hill-Wood told the documentary that she was sexually assaulted by Fayed in 1993, when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actor, after he approached her to become a personal assistant.

Hill-Wood said he had asked her to change into a swimming costume before filming her, with the excuse that his film producer son, Dodi, might be able to help with her acting career. She said Fayed kissed her and that when she pushed him away, he said: “If you don’t sleep with me, I can’t help you.”

Hill-Wood told the Mail on Sunday: “Hearing that he faked illness to escape justice is appalling, but totally consistent with the behaviour of this despicable individual who believed he could act with impunity. It is deeply sad for the sake of so many women that he didn’t face justice when alive.”

Commenting on Fayed’s failed attempts to prevent the broadcast of the documentary in 2017, she said: “The legal letter said he had dementia and that we should consider his grandchildren as they’re at school. But I remember thinking at the time that I wasn’t long out of school myself when he did what he did to me.”

The Guardian reported claims that corrupt police officers helped Fayed persecute members of his staff, including a young woman who allegedly rebuffed his sexual advances.

Fayed was arrested in 2013 over a rape allegation, but never charged.

The Metropolitan police would not comment on Omar Fayed’s suggestion that his father had tricked them into believing he had dementia.

Reissuing an earlier statement made on the announcement of a new investigation into those who might have facilitated Fayed’s offending, the Met said: “No criminal charges were brought against Al Fayed while he was alive and we recognise the impact this has had on many victims.

“From the review so far, it is apparent that past investigations were extensive and conducted by specialist teams who sought charging decisions from the CPS on two occasions. However, we know that contact with and support for some victims at the time could have been improved. Only after completing this comprehensive review will we fully understand what could have been done differently.”

Mohamed Al Fayed pretended he had dementia so he could evade prosecution for sexual crimes, his son has said.

Police now believe Fayed may have raped and abused at least 111 women and girls over nearly four decades.

His youngest son, Omar Fayed, 37, compared his father to a Nazi war criminal in an interview with the Mail on Sunday and said that others got his father “off the hook on the grounds he was mentally incapacitated”. He added that “afterwards it was back to business – he was as sharp as a tack”.

Omar Fayed, a tech entrepreneur who was once due to inherit Harrods, said he wished the “investigation had been able to take its course when he was still alive”. Fayed died last year at the age of 94.

Omar Fayed added: “If a Nazi general is found to have been hiding in the Algarve for the last 50 years, then of course he should be tried.”

His comments suggest that police missed an opportunity to bring charges when allegations surfaced in 2017 and 2018, when his father was in his late 80s.

One woman who made a statement to the police in 2018 about sexual abuse by the former Harrods owner was told that he was too old to be prosecuted and that he was not in the right state of mind because of dementia.

A year earlier Fayed had been the subject of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary that accused him of sexually harassing young employees, including a 17-year-old he had recruited. An unsuccessful attempt to prevent broadcast was made on the grounds that Fayed was mentally incapacitated.

Cheska Hill-Wood told the documentary that she was sexually assaulted by Fayed in 1993, when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actor, after he approached her to become a personal assistant.

Hill-Wood said he had asked her to change into a swimming costume before filming her, with the excuse that his film producer son, Dodi, might be able to help with her acting career. She said Fayed kissed her and that when she pushed him away, he said: “If you don’t sleep with me, I can’t help you.”

Hill-Wood told the Mail on Sunday: “Hearing that he faked illness to escape justice is appalling, but totally consistent with the behaviour of this despicable individual who believed he could act with impunity. It is deeply sad for the sake of so many women that he didn’t face justice when alive.”

Commenting on Fayed’s failed attempts to prevent the broadcast of the documentary in 2017, she said: “The legal letter said he had dementia and that we should consider his grandchildren as they’re at school. But I remember thinking at the time that I wasn’t long out of school myself when he did what he did to me.”

The Guardian reported claims that corrupt police officers helped Fayed persecute members of his staff, including a young woman who allegedly rebuffed his sexual advances.

Fayed was arrested in 2013 over a rape allegation, but never charged.

The Metropolitan police would not comment on Omar Fayed’s suggestion that his father had tricked them into believing he had dementia.

Reissuing an earlier statement made on the announcement of a new investigation into those who might have facilitated Fayed’s offending, the Met said: “No criminal charges were brought against Al Fayed while he was alive and we recognise the impact this has had on many victims.

“From the review so far, it is apparent that past investigations were extensive and conducted by specialist teams who sought charging decisions from the CPS on two occasions. However, we know that contact with and support for some victims at the time could have been improved. Only after completing this comprehensive review will we fully understand what could have been done differently.”

South Korean prosecutors have arrested ex-defence minister Kim Yong-hyun over his alleged role in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law on Tuesday, local media has reported.

Kim, who offered his resignation on Wednesday, was seen as a central figure in Tuesday’s brief martial law declaration. A senior military official and filings to impeach Yoon by opposition members said Kim had made the proposal to Yoon.

Yoon survived an impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday, prompted by his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, but the leader of his own party said the president would eventually have to step down.

The prosecution’s special investigative team has questioned Kim, who voluntarily appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office at about 1.30 am on Sunday, the national news wire Yonhap reported. The office was not immediately available for comments.

Three minority opposition parties filed a complaint with the prosecution against Yoon, Kim and martial law commander Park An-su, accusing them of treason.

Kim faces a travel ban as prosecutors investigate, Yonhap said. The news wire later reported that police had also raided Kim’s official residence and office.

Later on Sunday, South Korea’s interior minister resigned, local media reported. Lee Sang-min said he was stepping down “in grave recognition of responsibility for failing to serve the public and the president well”, according to the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper.

Lee and Yoon are among those being investigated for alleged insurrection following the declaration of martial law. The national police are also investigating claims of treason against Yoon and other top ministers.

Yoon shocked the nation on Tuesday night when he gave the military sweeping emergency powers to root out what he called “anti-state forces” and obstructionist political opponents. He rescinded the order six hours later, after parliament defied military and police cordons to vote unanimously against the decree.

Yoon’s martial law declaration plunged South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a key US military ally, into its greatest political crisis in decades, threatening to shatter the country’s reputation as a democratic success story.

Parisians, the French and the world rediscovered the breathtaking beauty of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral on Saturday evening, five years after it was devastated by fire.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, led a guest list of international heads of state and other dignitaries including Donald Trump, the Prince of Wales, politicians and celebrities in lauding what he described as a triumph of the French nation in raising the monument from the ashes and making his country “united and proud”.

“The bells of Notre Dame ring again and the organ will be awoken. They are music of hope to Parisians, France and the world,” Macron told those gathered. “Those bells that have accompanied our history … and yet we might never have heard them again.”

Macron, who is embroiled in a political crisis after his government was toppled by a vote of no confidence last Wednesday, was back in Notre Dame on Sunday. This time republicanism gave way to religion as the Catholic church reclaimed the resurrected cathedral for the first mass since the fire in 2019.

At the centre of the liturgy was the consecration of the cathedral’s new altar by Monsignor Laurent Ulrich, the archbishop of Paris.

“The pain of the 15 April 2019 is effaced … even if the astonishment caused by the fire will endure,” Ulrich told the congregation.

He said the church had required the altar and other new religious furniture in the cathedral to represent a “noble simplicity”.

“The cathedral of Paris has rediscovered its splendour. Believers or not you are welcome to join in the pleasure of those who believe in discovering their mother church.”

Ulrich poured perfumed oil on the bronze structure and rubbed it across the surface with his hand while the organist improvised, before placing burning incense on it to the singing of the cathedral choir.

Macron did not take communion, but the first lady, Brigitte, did. Afterwards the vast cathedral rang with the sound of the choir singing Hallelujah. A second mass open to the public who have reserved free places will be held at 6.30pm (17.30 GMT).

Macron had been expected to give his address on Saturday outside the entrance to Notre Dame to conform with France’s 1905 law on the separation of church and state and the religious neutrality of French heads of state. In the event, gale-force winds and rain forced him to deliver the speech inside the cathedral, the first time a president had done so.

In his speech he praised the firefighters who had saved the cathedral, particularly those who stopped the flames reaching the north bell tower, the destruction of which would almost certainly have brought the 13th-century structure down and destroyed the building.

Macron also mentioned Victor Hugo, whose 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, persuaded the French authorities to restore the then ruined cathedral a first time.

Clément Benelbaz, a public law expert, said he did not believe Macron had broken the law. “His Notre Dame speech was, in my view, a purely political speech. There were no suggestions of a religious nature,” he told France Info.

Saturday’s reopening ceremony was relayed by France 2 and watched by 7.23 million people.

On Monday, Macron will be back at work at the Elysée attempting to name a prime minister who will form a government able to survive another no confidence vote.

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), the founding member of the the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition, which won the most seats in the national assembly, has said it will not accept Macron’s invitation to the Elysée for talks on Monday.

“We are ready to govern with the programme for which we were elected,” said Manuel Bompard, the party’s national coordinator. “No discussion other than the appointment of a New Popular Front government can take place with the head of state. We will therefore not be going to the Elysée Palace on Monday.”

Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist party (PS), and other socialist MPs met Macron on Friday. The PS said it was ready for discussions with centrists and conservative rightwing MPs on the basis of “reciprocal concessions” if it would end the political impasse.

The Greens have been invited to meet Macron on Monday, after which he is expected to announce a new prime minister.

Researchers are preparing to make one of science’s most unusual journeys. They are planning to transport a container of antimatter in a lorry across Europe.

Antimatter is the most expensive material on Earth – it’s estimated it would cost several trillion dollars to make a gram – and it can only be manufactured in particle physics laboratories such as the Cern research centre near Geneva.

It is also extremely tricky to handle. If antimatter makes contact with normal matter, both are annihilated, releasing a powerful burst of electromagnetic radiation. Only by carefully combining sets of powerful electrical and magnetic fields in special devices can antimatter be stored safely.

“That makes moving it around very difficult, though we are now close to making our first journey,” said Prof Stefan Ulmer, a scientist at Cern. “Antimatter has so much to tell us. That is why we are doing this.”

Moving the antimatter will be a scientific first, though it has a fictional precursor. In Dan Brown’s thriller Angels & Demons – made into a film starring Tom Hanks in 2009 – terrorists steal a canister of antimatter from Cern and try to obliterate the Vatican with it.

The prospect of a similar blast happening in real life is remote, scientists insist – the quantities of antimatter carried will be insufficient to make an explosion of any recognisable nature.

Scientists want to study the particles as they believe they may hold the solution to a fundamental mystery. “We believe the big bang produced the same amounts of matter and antimatter,” said Ulmer. “These should have annihilated each other, leaving a universe made of electromagnetic radiation and not much else.”

That the cosmos seems to be filled with galaxies, stars, planets and living beings made of matter shows this notion must be wrong. There is a basic asymmetry that has favoured matter and stopped the universe from becoming a simmering, empty void.

For this reason, physicists want to study the differences between the particles that make up matter and antimatter. These might provide clues about why the former has come to dominate the universe.

As the Cern scientist Barbara Maria Latacz told Nature: “We are trying to understand why we exist.”

Matter is made up of subatomic particles such as protons and electrons, while antimatter consists of particles that include antiprotons and positrons (as antielectrons are also known). A key source of the latter type of particle is based at Cern in a device known as the Antiproton Decelerator, where antiprotons are generated, collected and studied.

The aim is to measure precisely the properties of antiprotons and compare them with protons. Known as the Base experiment, it could reveal tiny hidden differences that would explain why matter has thrived at the expense of antimatter.

Background magnetic fields near the device are limiting this work, and scientists want to transport samples to other labs. “By moving them to a new location, we can make measurements that are 100 times more accurate and get a deeper understanding of antiprotons,” said Ulmer.

To achieve this goal, Cern scientists have built transportable devices containing superconducting magnets, cryogenic cooling systems and vacuum chambers where antiprotons can be trapped, avoiding contact with normal matter, and carried on seven-tonne lorries.

Initially, antiprotons will be transported within Cern. Over the next year, containers will be moved further afield to a dedicated precision lab at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

“In the long term, we want to transport it to any lab in Europe,” said Christian Smorra, leader of the transport project. In this way, scientists hope to find why antimatter all but vanished from the universe. “This could be a gamechanger,” said Ulmer.

Breakdancer Rachael Gunn’s legal team has shut down a Raygun-inspired musical ahead of its Sydney premiere.

The creator of Raygun: The Musical, comedian Steph Broadbridge, confirmed on social media the show had been cancelled after receiving notice from lawyers, adding, “We will be back soon and with a whole new story arc to add.”

“They were worried I was damaging her brand, which I would never do,” she said in a video shared to Instagram.

Gunn, a university lecturer with a PhD in cultural studies, went viral in August for her unconventional moves at the Paris Olympics, which failed to receive a point from the judges and led to her being knocked out at the round-robin stage.

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She announced her retirement from the sport last month due to the scrutiny, saying continuing to compete “seems a really difficult thing for me to do”.

Through the negativity, there were also positives. Singer Adele described Gunn’s performance as her “favourite thing that has happened in the Olympics” midway through a concert in Munich during the Games.

Raygun: The Musical was advertised as a “parody exploration” of the breakdancer’s journey to the Olympics, with musical songs including You May Be a B-girl But You’ll Always Be an A-girl To Me, I’m Breaking Down and I Would Have Won But I Pulled a Muscle.

The show, which was to debut at Kinselas on Sydney’s Oxford Street on Saturday, was donating all proceeds to the Women’s and Girl’s Emergency Centre.

Broadbridge said a $10 refund would be issued to all ticket holders who had been booked to attend the event, assuring theatregoers the show would go on at a later date.

“They were very concerned that people would think that Rachael Gunn was affiliated with the musical,” she said in her video, which amassed thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.

“I want to assure everyone that she will not be part of the show. She’s very welcome to come; I would love for her to see it.”

Broadbridge said the B-girl’s legal team had instructed her against doing the kangaroo dance because Gunn “owns” it.

“That one did puzzle me – I mean, that’s an Olympic-level dance,” she said.

“How would I possibly be able to do that without any formal breakdancing training?

“Anyway, to alleviate the concerns of Raygun’s lawyers, I will be changing the name of the character to Raygun with an I. So I hope that fixes everyone’s concerns.”

In a statement, Gunn’s legal and management team said it was committed to protecting her intellectual property and ensuring that her brand remained strong and respected.

“While we have immense respect for the credible work and effort that has gone into the development of the show, we must take necessary steps to safeguard Rachael’s creative rights and the integrity of her work,” they said.

“This action is not intended to diminish the contributions of others, but rather to ensure her brand is properly represented and protected in all future endeavours.”

They confirmed the trademark application for “Raygun” was currently under examination and anticipated that it would soon be officially registered.

“The use of the ‘Raygun’ name by a comedian without approval has caused confusion among the public, potentially leading them to believe that ‘Raygun The Musical’ had Rachael’s endorsement or approval,” they said.

“This misuse of intellectual property is not only misleading but also jeopardises Rachael’s other commercial ventures, which rely on the integrity of her brand.”

A pair of iconic ruby slippers that were worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and stolen from a museum nearly two decades ago sold for a winning bid of $28m at auction Saturday.

Heritage Auctions had estimated that they would fetch $3m or more, but the fast-paced bidding far outpaced that amount within seconds and tripled it within minutes. A few bidders making offers by phone volleyed back and forth for 15 minutes as the price climbed to the final, eye-popping sum.

Including the Dallas-based auction house’s fee, the unknown buyer will ultimately pay $32.5m.

Online bidding, which opened last month, had stood at $1.55m before live bidding began late Saturday afternoon.

The sparkly red heels were on display at the Judy Garland Museum in the actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2005 when Terry Jon Martin used a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case.

Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018. Martin, now 77, who lives near Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, wasn’t publicly exposed as the thief until he was indicted in May 2023. He pleaded guilty in October 2023. He was in a wheelchair and on supplementary oxygen when he was sentenced last January to time served because of his poor health.

His attorney, Dane DeKrey, explained ahead of sentencing that Martin, who had a long history of burglary and receiving stolen property, was attempting to pull off “one last score” after an old associate with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1m insured value. But a fence – a person who buys stolen goods – later told him the rubies were just glass, DeKrey said. So Martin got rid of the slippers. The attorney didn’t specify how.

The alleged fence, 77-year-old Jerry Hal Saliterman of the Minneapolis suburb of Crystal, was indicted in March. He was also in a wheelchair and on oxygen when he made his first court appearance. He’s scheduled to go on trial in January and hasn’t entered a plea, though his attorney has said he’s not guilty.

The shoes were returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. They were one of several pairs that Garland wore during the filming, but only four pairs are known to have survived. In the movie, to return from Oz to Kansas, Dorothy had to click her heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home.”

As Rhys Thomas, author of The Ruby Slippers of Oz, put it, the sequined shoes from the beloved 1939 musical have seen “more twists and turns than the Yellow Brick Road”.

Over 800 people had been tracking the slippers, and the company’s webpage for the auction had hit nearly 43,000 page views by Thursday, said Robert Wilonsky, a vice-president with the auction house.

Among those bidding to bring the slippers home was the Judy Garland Museum, which posted on Facebook shortly after that it did not place the winning bid. The museum had campaigned for donations to supplement money raised by the city of Grand Rapids at its annual Judy Garland festival and the $100,000 set aside this year by Minnesota lawmakers to help the museum purchase the slippers.

After the slippers sold, the auctioneer told bidders and spectators in the room and watching online that the previous record for a piece of entertainment memorabilia was $5.52m, for the white dress Marilyn Monroe famously wore atop a windy subway grate.

The auction also included other memorabilia from The Wizard of Oz, such as a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who played the original Wicked Witch of the West. That item went for $2.4m, or a total final cost to the buyer of $2.93m.

The Wizard of Oz story has gained new attention in recent weeks with the release of the movie Wicked, an adaptation of the mega-hit Broadway musical, a prequel of sorts that reimagines the character of the Wicked Witch of the West.