South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach the president, Yoon Suk Yeol, almost two weeks after his short-lived declaration of martial law plunged the country into its worst political crisis for decades.

In dramatic scenes at the national assembly in Seoul, 204 lawmakers voted for an opposition motion to impeach Yoon, while an estimated 200,000 protesters outside demanded he be thrown out of office.

Saturday was the second opportunity in a week the assembly’s lawmakers had to begin the process of ousting Yoon, whose approval ratings have plummeted to 11%.

To succeed, the opposition parties, which together control 192 seats, needed at least eight members of Yoon’s People Power party (PPP) to vote in favour to reach the required two-thirds majority of 200 in the 300-seat chamber.

In the end, 12 PPP members were willing to throw their support behind impeachment.

South Korean TV said 85 MPs had voted against, while three ballots were spoilt and eight were ruled invalid. Huge cheers erupted outside the chamber as the results were announced, and MPs left to applause from onlookers.

Yoon, who was immediately suspended, called on South Koreans to support the acting president, Han Duck-soo, but vowed to continue fighting for his political future as the impeachment process enters its next stage.

“Although I am stopping for now, the journey I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years toward the future must never come to a halt. I will never give up,” Yoon said in a televised address.

Han promised to ensure stability after Yoon’s impeachment. “I will give all my strength and efforts to stabilise the government,” he told reporters.

The spotlight will now move to the country’s constitutional court, whose six justices must vote unanimously in favour to uphold parliament’s decision.

Yoon will now be suspended from office while the court deliberates. It has 180 days to rule on Yoon’s future. If it approves the motion, South Koreans must elect a new president within 60 days of its ruling.

On the eve of the vote the opposition Democratic party leader, Lee Jae-myung, implored PPP lawmakers to side with the people “wailing out in the freezing streets”. “History will remember and record your choice,” Lee said.

Crowds braving the bitter cold outside the national assembly building erupted in celebration as the result was announced. Some people – many of them young South Koreans – danced, sang, exchanged hugs and waved K-pop light sticks, which have quickly become a symbol of resistance.

“I’m so happy I have no words,” said a 25-year-old woman who identified herself as Yuri. “I was so worried the People Power party would not vote in favour of the motion. I’m so glad some of them had common sense. But I can’t believe that so many didn’t vote in favour. It’s shameful.”

Park Ka-hyun, 23, said: “I’m so proud of what we have achieved. Look how many people have come. We are just so happy.”

Yoon, a conservative whose two and a half years in office have been blighted by scandal and policy gridlock, shocked the world on 3 December when he imposed martial law after darkness.

The edict would have suspended all political activity, banned protests, suspended the legal process and curtailed press freedoms, while police and troops would have been responsible for enforcing the order.

Yoon, however, was forced to reverse his decision just six hours later after lawmakers voted unanimously to overturn it, in defiance of hundreds of troops who had been sent to the parliament building with orders to prevent MPs from meeting.

Last weekend an initial impeachment motion failed after all but three of Yoon’s People Power party MPs boycotted the vote, leaving the chamber short of the minimum number of votes to pass the motion.

The political fallout from Yoon’s declaration has shaken confidence in South Korean politics, with Saturday’s vote seen inside the country and beyond as a test of its lawmakers’ commitment to protect the democratic gains it has made in the decades since the end of military rule.

Yoon, who this week insisted he would not resign over the debacle, said he was imposing martial law to root out what he condemned, without offering evidence, as “pro-North Korean, anti-state” forces inside parliament that were determined to paralyse the government.

His move drew immediate criticism, including from members of his own party, while the uncertainty of the past 12 days has rattled financial markets and caused concern in the US, the South’s biggest ally, Japan and the UK.

The change of heart among PPP lawmakers was critical to Yoon’s fate. His fellow party members had initially appeared unwilling to impeach him. Analysts believe they were hoping to arrange a more orderly exit instead.

That, though, proved impossible after Yoon, in a televised address this week, vowed to fight attempts to remove him “until the very end” and justified his imposition of martial law as a legitimate “act of governance”.

Opposition parties and many experts have accused Yoon of fomenting rebellion, citing a law clause that categorises as rebellion the staging of a riot against established state authorities to undermine the constitution.

Yoon has been banned from leaving South Korea, as law enforcement authorities investigate whether he and others involved in the martial law declaration committed rebellion, abuse of power and other crimes. If convicted, the leader of a rebellion plot can face the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The vote to impeach South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was a dramatic fall from grace for the conservative leader, who must now suffer the ignominy of being forced from office well before the end of his five-year term.

But the vote on Saturday in the national assembly, where the impeachment motion just exceeded the required two-thirds majority after 12 members of Yoon’s party sided with the opposition, does not mean his presidency has ended.

Attention will now turn to South Korea’s constitutional court, which faces unprecedented challenges in handling Yoon’s impeachment.

The court must decide within 180 days whether to remove Yoon from office or reject the impeachment and restore his powers. If the court removes him or he resigns, a presidential election must be held within 60 days.

The impeachment motion – which passed with the support of 204 of the assembly’s 300 lawmakers, with 85 voting against – is merely the first step in removing Yoon from office. And it could end in failure.

While his presidential powers will immediately be passed on to the prime minister – and now acting president – Han Duck-soo, Yoon’s opponents must wait to learn if they have succeeded in making him only the second South Korean president to be successfully impeached.

The other was Park Geun-hye, who was forced out in 2017 for corruption and abuse of power. Her legal nemesis was, ironically, Yoon Suk Yeol, then South Korea’s prosecutor general.

In 2004, the then president, Roh Moo-hyun, was impeached on charges of failing to maintain political neutrality as required of a high public official. But the constitutional court rejected the motion after two months of deliberation and Roh went on to complete his term in office.

The constitutional court will examine whether Yoon violated the constitution through his martial law declaration and subsequent actions. In addition, he is being investigated over potential insurrection charges – a crime that can carry the death penalty.

For insurrection to be proven, investigating authorities would need to demonstrate both intent to subvert the constitutional order and evidence of actual violent acts. Special forces troops breaking windows to enter parliament and scuffling with parliamentary staff on the night martial law was declared could be examined as potential evidence.

The constitutional and criminal processes will operate independently, but if Yoon is arrested during the impeachment process it could influence the court’s deliberations.

As crowds celebrated Yoon’s impeachment, and applauded MPs as they left the assembly building, uncertainty clouds the next part of the process.

The constitutional court usually has nine justices but currently has just six, as three who left their positions in October have yet to be replaced. To be approved, an impeachment vote must usually receive the support of at least six of the nine justices.

In Yoon’s case, however, all six would have to approve Saturday’s decision in parliamentary. In other words, just one dissenting voice on the bench could give him a reprieve, although his position would be severely – and perhaps fatally – weakened.

The constitutional court typically requires seven justices to deliberate cases, although it recently allowed six-judge deliberations in a separate impeachment case. Legal experts believe the court would be reluctant to make such a momentous decision without a full bench, given the political gravity of removing a president.

The most likely way forward is for the court to ask the national assembly to appoint three new justices before proceeding with Yoon’s impeachment trial.

The vote to impeach South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was a dramatic fall from grace for the conservative leader, who must now suffer the ignominy of being forced from office well before the end of his five-year term.

But the vote on Saturday in the national assembly, where the impeachment motion just exceeded the required two-thirds majority after 12 members of Yoon’s party sided with the opposition, does not mean his presidency has ended.

Attention will now turn to South Korea’s constitutional court, which faces unprecedented challenges in handling Yoon’s impeachment.

The court must decide within 180 days whether to remove Yoon from office or reject the impeachment and restore his powers. If the court removes him or he resigns, a presidential election must be held within 60 days.

The impeachment motion – which passed with the support of 204 of the assembly’s 300 lawmakers, with 85 voting against – is merely the first step in removing Yoon from office. And it could end in failure.

While his presidential powers will immediately be passed on to the prime minister – and now acting president – Han Duck-soo, Yoon’s opponents must wait to learn if they have succeeded in making him only the second South Korean president to be successfully impeached.

The other was Park Geun-hye, who was forced out in 2017 for corruption and abuse of power. Her legal nemesis was, ironically, Yoon Suk Yeol, then South Korea’s prosecutor general.

In 2004, the then president, Roh Moo-hyun, was impeached on charges of failing to maintain political neutrality as required of a high public official. But the constitutional court rejected the motion after two months of deliberation and Roh went on to complete his term in office.

The constitutional court will examine whether Yoon violated the constitution through his martial law declaration and subsequent actions. In addition, he is being investigated over potential insurrection charges – a crime that can carry the death penalty.

For insurrection to be proven, investigating authorities would need to demonstrate both intent to subvert the constitutional order and evidence of actual violent acts. Special forces troops breaking windows to enter parliament and scuffling with parliamentary staff on the night martial law was declared could be examined as potential evidence.

The constitutional and criminal processes will operate independently, but if Yoon is arrested during the impeachment process it could influence the court’s deliberations.

As crowds celebrated Yoon’s impeachment, and applauded MPs as they left the assembly building, uncertainty clouds the next part of the process.

The constitutional court usually has nine justices but currently has just six, as three who left their positions in October have yet to be replaced. To be approved, an impeachment vote must usually receive the support of at least six of the nine justices.

In Yoon’s case, however, all six would have to approve Saturday’s decision in parliamentary. In other words, just one dissenting voice on the bench could give him a reprieve, although his position would be severely – and perhaps fatally – weakened.

The constitutional court typically requires seven justices to deliberate cases, although it recently allowed six-judge deliberations in a separate impeachment case. Legal experts believe the court would be reluctant to make such a momentous decision without a full bench, given the political gravity of removing a president.

The most likely way forward is for the court to ask the national assembly to appoint three new justices before proceeding with Yoon’s impeachment trial.

At least five people have been killed in shootings in and around a migrant camp near the northern French city of Dunkirk.

A 22-year-old man claiming to be the gunman handed himself to the nearby Ghyvelde police station at 5pm local time on Saturday.

The alleged perpetrator told police he killed a person, believed to be 29 years old, in the French town of Wormhout and subsequently took the lives of four others at the Loon-Plage refugee camp.

The four victims at the camp were understood to be two security agents and two people residing there, Reuters reported.

Authorities found three more weapons in the suspect’s car, French media reported.

It was not immediately clear what the motives were for the shootings at Wormhout and Loon-Plage, located about six miles from the Channel.

According to the charity Care4Calais, refugees have been camping in the area for years, predominantly “Kurdish or Afghan and including many families with small children”.

A mammoth rescue operation was launched in Greece on Saturday to locate dozens of migrants reported missing after their boat capsized en route from Libya to Crete.

Nearly 12 hours after combat Aegean Hawk naval helicopters were first dispatched to the site of the shipwreck, 12.5 nautical miles south-west of the tiny isle of Gavdos, at least 39 survivors had been found, according to the Greek coastguard.

But as night fell officials said the death toll – registered at five by mid-afternoon – was also likely to rise. “As the hours pass, hopes fade,” said one. “We’ve had vessels and aircraft scouring the area all day.”

Most of the survivors, all Pakistani men, were transported by ship to the port of Chania in Crete although some were also airlifted by helicopter to the city’s hospital and admitted into intensive care.

A statement released by the Hellenic coastguard earlier on Saturday referred to survivors giving “conflicting accounts … of a bigger number of people aboard the boat which has not yet been confirmed”.

Greek emergency services were alerted shortly after midnight when the wooden boat began to sink as it approached Gavdos, Europe’s southernmost point.

Arrivals on the tiny island from Libya have soared by 400% since the year began, with the vast majority of would-be asylum seekers boarding crammed and often unseaworthy ships in the eastern Libyan port city of Tobruk.

Joining the search at the weekend alongside Hellenic coastguard patrol boats and combat helicopters were merchant vessels, an Italian frigate and aircraft operated by the EU border agency Frontex.

In separate incidents on Saturday that further underscored the popularity of the route, a Maltese–flagged cargo vessel rescued 47 migrants in a boat about 40 nautical miles south of Gavdos, while another 88 people spotted by a British-flagged tanker were also rescued in a second ship in the area.

Coastguard officials have not ruled out the possibility that the boats left Libya together. The three incidents had put coastguard services on “full alert” according to local media with at least 89 survivors from Egypt, Syria, Sudan and Bangladesh being transported by 7pm local time on buses to Heraklion, the Cretan capital.

Women and unaccompanied minors were among them. At least half were expected to be escorted on to a ferry bound for Piraeus, the country’s main port, from where they will be taken to a reception and identification centre near Athens.

As a frontier destination on Europe’s south-eastern border, Greece has seen a marked jump in the number of migrants arriving this year, although the increase still remains far removed from a decade ago when nearly one million people, mostly from Syria, landed on Aegean islands bound for other member states of the EU.

By 8 December, the United Nations Refugee agency, the UNHCR, estimated that 58,226 men, women and children had arrived in the country compared with a total of 48,720 in 2023.

More than 10,000 of the extra arrivals were registered at sea, with the Greek migration ministry reporting a 30% increase in landings in Rhodes and the southeast Aegean.

In recent weeks, a slate of fatal shipwrecks have been reported with eight migrants, including six children, drowning when a boat capsized off the Aegean isle of Samos on 25 November.

Three days later, in a second shipwreck off the island, a further four victims were recorded when two women and two children died.

In a statement prompted by the incidents, the UNHCR’s representative in Greece, Maria Clara Martin, called for the “root causes of flight” to be addressed.

“These repeated tragedies highlight the urgent need for long-term responses and safer and credible alternatives for those fleeing conflict, persecution, violence or gross human rights violations,” she said.

“We need serious efforts towards peace building, conflict resolution and addressing root causes of flight … counting lives lost at sea cannot become a norm.”

Ministers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Prince Andrew, a ­former attorney general has said.

Dominic Grieve, a former Tory MP who chaired the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalise foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws already exist in the US and Australia.

“We remain without an important weapon in our armoury,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” – which accused the government of failing to investigate Russian interference in British politics – “and in my view we badly need it. This reinforces the need to do it.”

On 13 December, court papers revealed that a businessman accused of being a Chinese spy had become “a close ­confidant” of the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. It emerged that Andrew had invited the man to Buckingham Palace.

In 2019, the ISC recommended ministers make it a criminal offence to act as an agent of a foreign power without disclosing that fact. If parliament had adopted the new law, foreign agents could be arrested.

“If you are operating in the US and masquerading as a businessman but in fact you are on the payroll of the Chinese state and you don’t divulge that, then you can prosecute that person for being an undisclosed agent of a foreign power,” Grieve told the Observer.

In February 2023, a man, referred to in court papers as H6, was prevented from flying from Beijing to London and, in March 2023, Suella Braverman, the then home secretary, barred him from the UK because his presence was not conducive to the public good.

H6 appealed to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission which rejected his claim last week. The judgment found that H6 had “attempted to conceal or downplay” his links to the United Front Work Department, which gathers intelligence for the Chinese Communist party.

A 2023 ISC report said that Chinese intelligence services had been collecting vast amounts of information and targeting people in every level of politics and public life, particularly those it saw as being more susceptible because they had lost power or influence.

Prince Andrew stepped back from his royal duties in November 2019 after a public backlash when he attempted to defend his friendship with the paedophile Jeffery Epstein in a BBC Newsnight interview. His only income now is reportedly a £20,000-a-year Royal Navy pension.

This makes him vulnerable to such approaches, according to the author Andrew Lownie, who is writing a biography about Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.

“I fear several royals have been compromised by the Chinese,” Lownie said. “He’s not the only one.”

The Duke of York’s tangle with an alleged Chinese spy comes a month after Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said the UK needs a “strong UK-China relationship” after meeting Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, at the G20 summit.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is due to visit Beijing in January for trade discussions, shortly before Donald Trump becomes US president for a second time and is likely to impose stringent tariffs on Chinese imports.

Prince Andrew, 64, has faced accusations that he used his position and his publicly funded official trips abroad as a cover to make money from private business deals and to promote his Dragons’ Den-style Pitch@Palace project connecting fledgling ­businesses with investors.

When he was UK special representative for international trade and investment between 2001 and 2011, Andrew took the financier David Rowland, with whom he had a commercial relationship, on official trips and pitched the businessman’s ­services to high-ranking contacts.

The Sunday Times has reported the alleged Chinese spy had also met with former prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May, on separate occasions.

Lownie said he has struggled to carry out the research for his new book, even though documents detailing who accompanied Andrew on official trips, for example, should be made available after 20 years under the Public Records Act.

He said: “For too long royal finances have been shrouded in secrecy. It is clear from the various scandals surrounding not just Andrew but other members of the royal family they cannot be trusted to police themselves.

“It is time the exemptions afforded them in the Freedom of Information Act be removed, that royal wills be made public and a register of royal interests be set up.

“We also need some sort of investigation into Andrew’s decade as special representative, his use of Pitch@Palace … and exactly how he has afforded his luxurious lifestyle over the last 20 years if trust in the monarchy is to continue.”

On Friday, Andrew said he had “ceased all contact” with the businessman when concerns were first raised about him. A statement from his office said Andrew met the individual through “official channels”, with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.

A businessman accused of being a Chinese spy was invited to Buckingham Palace and other royal residences by the Duke of York, it has been reported.

The man – who was banned from Britain by the government on national security grounds – visited Buckingham Palace twice, and also entered St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle at the invitation of Andrew, the Times reported.

On Friday, the duke said he had “ceased all contact” with the businessman when concerns were first raised about him. A statement from his office said Andrew met the individual through “official channels”, with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.

Last March, the businessman, only known as H6, brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) after the then home secretary, Suella Braverman, said he should be excluded from the UK in March 2023.

Judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed H6 had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”.

Rana Mitter, the ST Lee professor of US-Asia relations at the Harvard Kennedy School and an expert in Chinese politics, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that part of the Chinese spying strategy was to look for people who might be “influential over time” but are “in a bit of a doldrums”.

He said the situation involving the Duke of York and H6 was “not so much about spying in the sense of trying to find out secrets, it’s about trying to influence”.

“Getting to know the elites of countries like Britain is a useful task, not for immediate knowledge but maybe for long-term development of links in society. It seems that’s what has been going on here,” Mitter said.

“One of the things that quite often will happen is looking out for who may be influential over time, but perhaps is in a bit of a down spot, a bit of a doldrums.

“One of the best examples from a generation ago would have been President Richard Nixon – after he had to resign in disgrace over Watergate he was frequently invited to China.”

Several newspapers have reported that the king has been briefed about his brother’s links to the alleged spy.

The revelations come after the royal family reportedly took further steps over the summer to distance themselves from the disgraced duke, with the king said to have axed his £1m annual “living allowance” and the security Charles had been privately funding for Andrew’s home.

Andrew Lownie, who is writing a biography of the duke and Sarah, Duchess of York, said the latest news involving the king’s younger brother would affect the wider family and the “future of the monarchy” as he called for greater transparency around the royals’ finances.

He said: “The real scandals surrounding him are financial, more than sexual.

“Given he cannot police his own activities and understand where the moral boundaries lie, it is time for proper scrutiny of his finances and a public register of royal interests.

“Judging from online comments to newspaper articles, this episode is highly damaging for the whole of the royal family, whose finances and business activities should now be more transparent.

“Time, too, for the exemption for them in the Freedom of Information Act to be removed and their wills not sealed.

“After recent scandals, I think this is a very serious moment for the future of the monarchy.”

Senior Tories including Braverman have called for H6 to lose his anonymity, as a “deterrent to others taking part in similar activities”.

Tom Tugendhat, a former Tory security minister, said the revelations were “extremely embarrassing”.

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “Our security and intelligence agencies are continually vigilant for any threat to UK national security, whether that be around foreign influence, whether it be around espionage, whether it be around any security threat.

“We won’t hesitate to take action wherever any challenge arises.”

Asked whether the anonymity of H6 should be lifted, she said: “We always respect the decisions of the courts and also don’t comment on individual cases.”

Buckingham Palace and the Duke of York’s office have been approached for comment.

The late Chairman Mao, China’s former supreme leader, once called the United Front Work Department (UFWD) one of the three “magic weapons” of the Chinese Communist party (CCP). That the other two were the People’s Liberation Army and the party’s propaganda arm signals how central the UFWD has been to the CCP’s efforts for nearly a century. The operation involving Andrew must count as one of its more unusual achievements.

The UFWD’s job began as neutralising potentially hostile actors at home. As China has expanded into the world, it has increasingly taken on the international challenge of befriending, bribing or otherwise seducing figures of influence who can be won over to China’s cause. Such elite figures can become both useful sources of information and agents of influence who can be invited to smooth away any hostility or suspicions that might otherwise get in the way of the CCP’s ambition.

The United Front’s prizes may be unaware of having been targeted: they are what Vladimir Lenin is believed to have called “useful idiots”. But even the boldest UFWD operative could hardly have dreamed of such a prominent and needy member of British high society as Andrew.

In 2014, Andrew leveraged his family position to set up a new venture, Pitch@Palace, through which young entrepreneurs were invited to a royal residence to pitch ideas to potential investors. That same year, he launched Pitch@Palace China.

No doubt it seemed like a good opportunity: at the time, there was talk of a “golden era” in the UK’s relations with China. Why should the prince not also ride a mutually profitable wave of ever-warmer relations? The proposition was well received at the highest levels in China. The then Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, attended the global final at Spencer House in 2019 and spoke fondly about the UK’s tech startups, a sector China was keenly interested in.

Back in China, as Pitch@Palace was getting going, the leader, Xi Jinping, had turned his attention to the UFWD, consolidating its power and boosting its budget. In 2015, Xi appeared at UFWD’s national conference – a clear endorsement of its authority – and later gave it control of other strands of CCP work.

Isak Andic, the founder of high street fashion chain Mango, has died after a hiking accident in Spain on Saturday, the company said.

The 71-year-old billionaire slipped and fell from a 150-metre cliff while hiking with relatives in the Montserrat caves near Barcelona, according to local media reports.

El País newspaper said Andic’s son was at the scene of the accident and police were called at about 1pm, with a helicopter and specialised mountain unit dispatched to the scene.

Mango chief executive Toni Ruiz said in a statement: “It is with deep regret that we announce the unexpected death of Isak Andic, our non-executive chairman and founder of Mango, in an accident that occurred this Saturday.

“Isak has been an example for all of us. He dedicated his life to Mango, leaving an indelible mark thanks to his strategic vision, his inspiring leadership and his unwavering commitment to values that he himself imbued in our company.

“His legacy reflects the achievements of a business project marked by success, and also by his human quality, his proximity and the care and affection that he always had and at all times conveyed to the entire organisation.

“His departure leaves a huge void but all of us are, in some way, his legacy and the testimony of his achievements.”

The statement added: “It is up to us, and this is the best tribute we can make to Isak and which we will fulfil, to ensure that Mango continues to be the project that Isak aspired to and of which he would feel proud.

“In these extremely difficult times we share the pain of the family as if it were our own.”

Andic was born in Istanbul and emigrated aged 13 with his family to the north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia from Turkey in the 1960s.

He started selling T-shirts to fellow students at Barcelona’s American high school. The young entrepreneur subsequently progressed to running a wholesale business, selling clothes in Barcelona’s Balmes Street market, but realised there was more money in retail and opened the first Mango store in the city in 1984.

His net worth was $4.5bn (£3.6bn), according to Forbes, and he was non-executive chairman of the company when he died.

Mango had a turnover of €3.1bn (£2.6bn) in 2023 with 33% of its business online and a presence in more than 120 countries.

The brand’s first UK store opened in 1999 and there are now more than 60 branches across the country.

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, paid tribute to Andic on social media, praising his “hard work and business vision that transformed a Spanish brand into a global fashion leader”.

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain said on Saturday that its members were “deeply shocked by the unexpected death of one of the federation’s mainstays”.

A spokesperson said Andic had been “an active pillar of the Jewish community in Barcelona and Spain” and was “a man of the highest human qualities, generous and always willing to help those most in need”.

They added: “His numerous contributions have led to great advances for Spanish Judaism. The void left behind is irreplaceable.”

• Russia has begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces battling to hold territory in Russia’s Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday. “Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them,” Zelenskyy told Ukrainians in his daily wartime address. The North Koreans were being used in combined Russian units and only on the Kursk front for now, he said, adding: “We have information suggesting their use could extend to other parts of the frontline.” North Korean soldiers had so far not entered the fight on Ukrainian soil, but were already taking “noticeable” losses.

• The Ukrainian president said the more active use of the troops was a new escalation and called for a global response, as Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month fuels speculation of a push for peace talks. Zelenskyy issued the fresh appeal to Ukraine’s western allies to strengthen their support for Kyiv, saying that he would discuss it with European partners next week. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side.

• Ukraine’s general staff reported a significant increase in the number of Russian assaults on the Kursk front, along with airstrikes, glide bomb raids and more than 200 artillery attacks. Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine’s national security and defence council, said the North Koreans had taken losses, but he provided no numbers. “The Russians are counting on numbers and are trying to carry out assault operations with the help of the Koreans, when the task of the Koreans is to run under the blows of our forces and occupy certain areas,” Kovalenko wrote on Telegram. Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region in August and has battled to hold the area.

• Ukrainian drones carried out an overnight attack on an oil facility in Russia’s Oryol region that is a crucial source of fuel supplies for Russian troops, Ukraine’s military said on Saturday. Russian authorities said their firefighters were battling a blaze in the western Oryol region caused by a drone attack. Earlier, Russian regional governor Andrei Klychko said on the Telegram messaging app that Ukrainian drones had struck a fuel infrastructure facility, causing a fire but no casualties. He said 11 drones had been shot down over the region. The Oryol region neighbours Russia’s Kursk region. The Ukrainian strikes came a day after Russia fired 93 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 drones at its neighbour, further battering Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

• A former FBI informant accused of falsely claiming that Joe Biden and the president’s son Hunter had accepted Ukrainian bribes has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, according to court papers. As part of the plea deal, Alexander Smirnov will admit he fabricated the story that became central to a Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. He was accused of falsely reporting to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5m each in 2015 or 2016.

• Ukraine’s air defences shot down 58 of 132 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday. It said 72 Russian drones were “lost” due to the use of electronic warfare. There were no immediate reports of major damage. Russia’s military said on Saturday that it had downed 60 drones overnight.

• In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, a drone attack killed a nine-year-old boy and wounded his mother and baby sister, said the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. He posted photos of the family’s home with a hole in the facade and the roof partially torn off. The mother and seven-month-old sister were hospitalised with injuries, Gladkov said.

• Russia has begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces battling to hold territory in Russia’s Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday. “Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them,” Zelenskyy told Ukrainians in his daily wartime address. The North Koreans were being used in combined Russian units and only on the Kursk front for now, he said, adding: “We have information suggesting their use could extend to other parts of the frontline.” North Korean soldiers had so far not entered the fight on Ukrainian soil, but were already taking “noticeable” losses.

• The Ukrainian president said the more active use of the troops was a new escalation and called for a global response, as Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month fuels speculation of a push for peace talks. Zelenskyy issued the fresh appeal to Ukraine’s western allies to strengthen their support for Kyiv, saying that he would discuss it with European partners next week. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side.

• Ukraine’s general staff reported a significant increase in the number of Russian assaults on the Kursk front, along with airstrikes, glide bomb raids and more than 200 artillery attacks. Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine’s national security and defence council, said the North Koreans had taken losses, but he provided no numbers. “The Russians are counting on numbers and are trying to carry out assault operations with the help of the Koreans, when the task of the Koreans is to run under the blows of our forces and occupy certain areas,” Kovalenko wrote on Telegram. Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region in August and has battled to hold the area.

• Ukrainian drones carried out an overnight attack on an oil facility in Russia’s Oryol region that is a crucial source of fuel supplies for Russian troops, Ukraine’s military said on Saturday. Russian authorities said their firefighters were battling a blaze in the western Oryol region caused by a drone attack. Earlier, Russian regional governor Andrei Klychko said on the Telegram messaging app that Ukrainian drones had struck a fuel infrastructure facility, causing a fire but no casualties. He said 11 drones had been shot down over the region. The Oryol region neighbours Russia’s Kursk region. The Ukrainian strikes came a day after Russia fired 93 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 drones at its neighbour, further battering Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

• A former FBI informant accused of falsely claiming that Joe Biden and the president’s son Hunter had accepted Ukrainian bribes has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, according to court papers. As part of the plea deal, Alexander Smirnov will admit he fabricated the story that became central to a Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. He was accused of falsely reporting to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5m each in 2015 or 2016.

• Ukraine’s air defences shot down 58 of 132 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday. It said 72 Russian drones were “lost” due to the use of electronic warfare. There were no immediate reports of major damage. Russia’s military said on Saturday that it had downed 60 drones overnight.

• In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, a drone attack killed a nine-year-old boy and wounded his mother and baby sister, said the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. He posted photos of the family’s home with a hole in the facade and the roof partially torn off. The mother and seven-month-old sister were hospitalised with injuries, Gladkov said.

Eight people have been injured, including one who is in a critical condition, after a doubledecker bus hit a railway bridge on the outskirts of Glasgow, police said.

Five people were being treated in hospital and three were assessed and released after the incident on Saturday in Cook Street.

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “Emergency services attended and five people were taken by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth university hospital for treatment.

“One person is described as being in a critical condition. Three others were assessed at the scene and attended at hospital.”

First Bus said one of its buses on the 4A route in Glasgow was “involved in a bridge strike incident” at about 6pm, “in which a doubledecker bus hit a railway bridge”.

A spokesperson for the company said: “We’re aware of numerous injuries, with one person being taken to hospital in an ambulance.

“We have launched an immediate investigation and are also assisting Police Scotland with their inquiries. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this incident.”

It is not known which direction the bus was travelling, but the 4A route runs between Broomhill and Eaglesham.

Motorists were told to stay away from the area, with a number of roads remaining closed.

Spike Turner, a passenger who was sitting near the front of the bus, told the BBC the driver had taken a wrong turn and crashed “straight into the bridge”.

He added: “I was fine, the lady in front of me might have been concussed. The bridge itself wasn’t high enough to hit anyone’s heads but parts of the bus exterior have swung down.

“The man in the front seat was in a really, really bad state. He’s got a lot of blood and a massive gash on his head.”

The leader of the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, whose chief executive officer was shot to death outside a New York City hotel on 4 December, conceded that the US’s patchwork health system “does not work as well as it should”.

But in a guest essay published by the New York Times, UnitedHealth Group’s CEO, Andrew Witty, maintained the slain Brian Thompson cared about customers and was working to make the system better.

Thompson was ambushed and fatally shot outside a hotel where his company was holding its annual investor conference, a killing that has been viewed as a violent expression of widespread anger at the insurance industry.

Witty said people at the company were struggling to make sense of the killing, as well as the vitriol and threats directed at colleagues. He made it a point to say he understood people’s frustration – yet described Thompson as part of the solution rather than someone deserving scorn.

Thompson never forgot growing up in his family’s farmhouse in Iowa and focused on improving the experiences of consumers, he wrote.

“His dad spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. BT, as we knew him, worked farm jobs as a kid and fished at a gravel pit with his brother. He never forgot where he came from, because it was the needs of people who live in places like Jewell, Iowa, that he considered first in finding ways to improve care,” Witty wrote.

Witty said his company shares some responsibility for lack of understanding of coverage decisions.

“We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it. No one would design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades,” Witty wrote. “Our mission is to help make it work better.”

Nonetheless, he said, it was unfair that the company’s workers had been barraged with threats even while grieving the loss of a colleague.

“No employees – be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes – should have to fear for their and their loved ones’ safety,” he wrote.

Witty’s comments were published after a woman in Lakeland, Florida, was charged with threatening a worker at her own health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, during a phone call on 10 December. Police said she cited words found on shell casings at the scene of the killing and said “you people are next” during the recorded call.

Police say Thompson’s killer approached him from behind and shot him before fleeing on a bicycle.

A suspect, Luigi Mangione, was later arrested in Pennsylvania and is fighting attempts to extradite him to New York so he can face a murder charge in Thompson’s killing.

The day after the slaying, police in San Francisco gave the FBI a potentially valuable tip about the identity of the suspect: he looked like a man who had been reported missing to them in November, Luigi Mangione, as the Associated Press reported.

San Francisco police provided Mangione’s name to the FBI on 5 December, the AP reported, citing a law enforcement official who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and agreed to speak to the outlet on the condition of anonymity.

That was the day the NYPD released surveillance images showing the face of the suspected shooter as he checked into a Manhattan hostel. Mangione was arrested on 9 December.

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

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Demonstrators gathered in London on Saturday to protest against the capital’s “soaring” rents.

Rising rents are destroying communities, said organisers the London Renters Union (LRU).

The group said the event came amid a growing wave of renter-led demonstrations across Europe to highlight the impact of high rents and to demand controls.

LRU said up to 500 people marched through central London on Saturday, on one of the biggest shopping days of the year, to protest “against soaring rents” and “exploitation” of tenants.

Freelance theatre worker Jamie Campbell, 46, said rent rises have made it difficult to cover the cost of living in Lewisham, south-east London.

He said: “My landlord increased our rent year-on-year, going from £1,225 to £1,700 since the pandemic. That’s a nearly 40% increase in just a few years.

“I couldn’t afford this so I was forced to find a new place. House-hunting felt almost impossible, going to dozens of viewings only to get endless rejections.

“It took a huge toll on my mental health, whilst already in the acute midst of a personal life crisis. I found myself at my very lowest.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to simply attain the human right of finding a home in the city where I work. The system needs to change and change now.”

London was the English region with the highest rent inflation in the 12 months to October 2024, at 10.4%, according to recent Office for National Statistics figures.

This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to September 2024, 9.8%, while there was a record-high annual rise of 11.2% in March 2024.

With the average London rent hitting £2,172 a month, according to official figures, many people are being pushed to the brink as they try to cover the cost, the LRU said.

Paula Abdul has settled a lawsuit with the American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe after alleging that he sexually assaulted her while she was a judge on the programme.

The US singer and TV star, 62, filed a notice of settlement of the case in Los Angeles superior court on Thursday, which is yet to be approved by a judge.

The British TV producer Lythgoe, 75, denied the allegations made in the California lawsuit filed almost a year ago.

In a statement to the US publication People on Friday, Abdul said: “I am grateful that this chapter has successfully come to a close and is now something I can now put behind me.

“This has been a long and hard-fought personal battle. I hope my experience can serve to inspire other women facing similar struggles, to overcome their own challenges with dignity and respect, so that they too can turn the page and begin a new chapter of their lives.”

Abdul claims she kept silent “due to fear of speaking out against one of the most well-known producers of television competition shows who could easily break her career as a television personality”, the documents said.

Her lawsuit accused Lythgoe of assault while the pair worked together on hit shows American Idol and the US version of So You Think You Can Dance.

He was an executive producer from the early 2000s of British talent show Pop Idol and its spin-off American Idol, before co-creating and featuring as a judge in the US version of So You Think You Can Dance, which launched in 2005.

After stepping down from the dance show with a “heavy heart” in January, Lythgoe said he was dedicating his time to clearing his name and restoring his reputation.

He was also a producer and judge on pioneering ITV talent show Popstars from 2001, earning the nickname “Nasty Nigel” because of his cutting remarks to the hopefuls.

Originally from Wirral but now based in Los Angeles, Lythgoe started as a dancer before working as a choreographer and moving into TV.

He was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to the performing arts, education and charity.

A representative for Lythgoe has been approached for comment.

Telling young children whether Santa is or is not real is a parental ritual usually handled with painstaking care.

For students at a primary school in Hampshire, however, their childhood wonder was torn to shreds after a vicar told pupils the bearded gift-bearer was invented.

Tearful youngsters, angry parents and claims of a “ruined Christmas” followed Rev Dr Paul Chamberlain’s visit to Lee-on-the-Solent junior school this week.

The Times reported that he was there to speak to a religious education class about the birth of Jesus but the scope of his talk soon broadened.

He told year 6 students, who are aged between 10 and 11, that Father Christmas was not real, prompting pupils to sob. He also said that their parents bought their presents and ate the biscuits left out for Santa.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Portsmouth said: “We understand that the vicar of St Faith’s, Lee-on-the-Solent, the Rev Paul Chamberlain, was leading an RE lesson for 10- and 11-year-olds at Lee-on-Solent junior school.

“After talking about the nativity story from the Bible, he made some comments about the existence of Father Christmas.

“Paul has accepted that this was an error of judgment, and he should not have done so. He apologised unreservedly to the school, to the parents and to the children, and the headteacher immediately wrote to all parents to explain this.

“The school and diocese have worked together to address this issue, and the headteacher has now written to parents a second time, sending them Paul’s apology.”