A least 62 people have died after an airliner carrying 175 passengers and six crew veered off a runway and smashed into a wall at an airport in South Korea.

Footage of the incident showed the Boeing 737-800 skid along the runway on Sunday morning before striking what appeared to be a concrete barrier at high speed and bursting into flames as parts of the fuselage flew into the air.

The accident occurred at around 9am local time, shortly after the plane, Jeju Air flight 7C2216, landed at Muan international airport about 300km south-west of Seoul, at the end of a flight from Bangkok, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising into the sky after the crash. Some photos showed fire engulfing parts of the aircraft.

Early reports quoting a fire official in Muan said two people – a passenger and a crew member – had been found alive inside the wreckage, adding that rescue efforts were continuing. The fire agency said it had mobilised 32 fire engines and scores of firefighters.

Local authorities said they were coordinating with major hospitals in the nearby city of Gwangju to handle casualties.

The plane may have suffered a bird strike that caused the landing gear to fail, according to Yonhap. The flight had reportedly attempted one landing before being forced to “go-around” when the landing gear failed to lower normally.

A Jeju Air spokesperson said it was seeking details of the accident, including its casualties and cause

Rescue workers were attempting to help passengers who had been seated towards the rear of the aircraft, an airport official told Reuters.

Officials said 173 of the passengers were Korean nationals and two were Thai nationals.

The Muan-Bangkok international route was launched just three weeks ago, on 8 December, as part of a broader revival that would see the regional airport operate routes to 18 international destinations across nine countries this winter season, according to Yonhap News.

The national fire agency said the initial fire was brought under control at 9.46am, 43 minutes after the first emergency call was received at 9.03am.

South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, ordered “all available equipment and personnel to be mobilised” for the rescue operation and was heading to the scene of the crash.

The incident is the first major test for Choi, who assumed office on Friday after South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach the previous acting president, Han Duck-soo.

Experts say South Korea’s aviation industry has a solid track record for safety, and this was the first fatal accident Jeju Air, one of South Korea’s largest low-cost carriers, had experienced since it was launched in 2005.

On 12 August 2007, a Bombardier Q400 operated by Jeju Air carrying 74 passengers came off the runway due to strong winds at the southern Busan-Gimhae airport, resulting in a dozen injuries.

Sunday’s crash came almost a year after a Japan Airlines plane struck a coastguard aircraft and burst into flames as it landed at Haneda airport in Tokyo. All 379 passengers and 12 crew managed to exit the aircraft before it was engulfed in flames. Five crew members of the coastguard plane died in the accident.

A least 62 people have died after an airliner carrying 175 passengers and six crew veered off a runway and smashed into a wall at an airport in South Korea.

Footage of the incident showed the Boeing 737-800 skid along the runway on Sunday morning before striking what appeared to be a concrete barrier at high speed and bursting into flames as parts of the fuselage flew into the air.

The accident occurred at around 9am local time, shortly after the plane, Jeju Air flight 7C2216, landed at Muan international airport about 300km south-west of Seoul, at the end of a flight from Bangkok, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising into the sky after the crash. Some photos showed fire engulfing parts of the aircraft.

Early reports quoting a fire official in Muan said two people – a passenger and a crew member – had been found alive inside the wreckage, adding that rescue efforts were continuing. The fire agency said it had mobilised 32 fire engines and scores of firefighters.

Local authorities said they were coordinating with major hospitals in the nearby city of Gwangju to handle casualties.

The plane may have suffered a bird strike that caused the landing gear to fail, according to Yonhap. The flight had reportedly attempted one landing before being forced to “go-around” when the landing gear failed to lower normally.

A Jeju Air spokesperson said it was seeking details of the accident, including its casualties and cause

Rescue workers were attempting to help passengers who had been seated towards the rear of the aircraft, an airport official told Reuters.

Officials said 173 of the passengers were Korean nationals and two were Thai nationals.

The Muan-Bangkok international route was launched just three weeks ago, on 8 December, as part of a broader revival that would see the regional airport operate routes to 18 international destinations across nine countries this winter season, according to Yonhap News.

The national fire agency said the initial fire was brought under control at 9.46am, 43 minutes after the first emergency call was received at 9.03am.

South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, ordered “all available equipment and personnel to be mobilised” for the rescue operation and was heading to the scene of the crash.

The incident is the first major test for Choi, who assumed office on Friday after South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach the previous acting president, Han Duck-soo.

Experts say South Korea’s aviation industry has a solid track record for safety, and this was the first fatal accident Jeju Air, one of South Korea’s largest low-cost carriers, had experienced since it was launched in 2005.

On 12 August 2007, a Bombardier Q400 operated by Jeju Air carrying 74 passengers came off the runway due to strong winds at the southern Busan-Gimhae airport, resulting in a dozen injuries.

Sunday’s crash came almost a year after a Japan Airlines plane struck a coastguard aircraft and burst into flames as it landed at Haneda airport in Tokyo. All 379 passengers and 12 crew managed to exit the aircraft before it was engulfed in flames. Five crew members of the coastguard plane died in the accident.

The tech entrepreneur and close adviser to Donald Trump Elon Musk has taken a stunning new public step in his support for the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), publishing a supportive guest opinion piece for the country’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper that has prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest.

The commentary piece in German was launched online on Saturday before being published on Sunday in the flagship paper of the Axel Springer media group, which also owns the US politics news site Politico.

Musk uses populist and personal language to try to deny AfD’s extremist bent, and the essay expands on his post on his social media platform, X, on which he last week claimed that “only the AfD can save Germany”.

Translated, Musk’s piece said: “The portrayal of the AfD as rightwing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!”

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has classified the AfD at the national level as a suspected extremism case since 2021.

Shortly after the piece was published online, the editor of the opinion section, Eva Marie Kogel, used the US tech mogul’s own platform to post on X that she had submitted her resignation.

“I always enjoyed heading the opinion department at Welt and Wams. Today a text by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. Yesterday I submitted my resignation after printing,” she posted.

She included a link to the Musk commentary article.

The AfD has a strong anti-immigration stance and, like incoming president Donald Trump in relation to the US, is calling for mass deportations from Germany. Earlier in December, Musk not only posted in favor of AfD but the party’s hard line on immigration appeared to resonate with the incoming US vice-president, JD Vance, MSNBC reported.

Senior Welt Group figures weighed in on Saturday.

“Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression. This includes dealing with polarising positions and classifying them journalistically,” the newspaper’s editor-in-chief designate, Jan Philipp Burgard, and Ulf Poschardt, who takes over as publisher on 1 January, told Reuters.

They said discussion about Musk’s piece, which had about 340 comments several hours after it was published, was “very revealing”.

Underneath Musk’s commentary, the newspaper published a response by Burgard.

“Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false,” he wrote, referencing the AfD’s desire to leave the European Union and seek rapprochement with Russia as well as appease China.

Musk and Weidel both later posted a link to the article on X.

The AfD backing from Musk, who also defended his right to weigh in on German politics due to his “significant investments”, comes as Germans are set to vote on 23 February after a coalition government led by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, collapsed late this fall.

The AfD is running second in opinion polls and might be able to thwart either a centre-right or centre-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream, more centrist parties have pledged to shun any support from the AfD at the national level.

Rebel Wilson has married wife, Ramona Agruma, for the second time in Sydney and this time it was legal.

Wilson, the Australian actor and director, revealed the “legal wedding” was officiated by her sister on Sunday via Instagram, in a post accompanied by photos of the couple standing in front of the Sydney Opera House with the Harbour Bridge in the background.

“My sister Liberty officiated our legal wedding in Sydney! It meant my 94 year old grandmother Gar could come which was very special to us to have her included and just felt right to do it in my hometown at this glorious time of the year!” Wilson said.

The second nuptials followed a lavish wedding ceremony and reception in Sardinia, in Italy, in September, where the couple wore matching white bridal dresses from Spanish designer Pronovias, according to Vogue.

The Sydney event appeared to be a simpler affair. The photos shared by Wilson on Instagram show the Australian actor and director in a ruffled, off-the-shoulder peach gown, embracing Agruma, who was wearing a vintage-look floral dress with scalloped sleeves from Australian brand Zimmerman.

Wilson and Agruma were engaged on Valentine’s Day last year, after welcoming a daughter in 2022. They met in late 2021 after bonding over text messages.

The happy news comes at the end of a busy year for Wilson, best known for her roles in Pitch Perfect and Bridemaids, who released a memoir in May. The star is also being sued in California for defamation over social media posts.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has called on Russia to provide a clearer explanation of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash as he expressed condolences to his Azeri counterpart. “The key priority now is a thorough investigation to provide answers to all questions about what really happened. Russia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation,” Zelenskyy said on X after the call with Ilham Aliyev. On Friday, the White House spokesperson John Kirby said the US had seen “early indications” that Russia might have been responsible for the crash that killed 38 people. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday apologised to Azerbaijan’s leader for what the Kremlin called a “tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace”. Although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, it said Russian air defence systems were active at the time, repelling Ukrainian drone attacks.

• A Ukrainian strike on a depot for long-range Shahed drones in Russia’s Oryol region has “significantly reduced” Moscow’s ability to launch mass drone attacks, Kyiv has said. Ukraine military’s general staff said in a statement on Telegram on Saturday its air force carried out the attack on Thursday. “As a result of the strike, a depot for storage, maintenance and repair of Shahed kamikaze drones, made of several protected concrete structures, was destroyed. This military operation has significantly reduced the enemy’s potential in terms of conducting air raids of strike drones on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure,” it said. Ukraine’s air force said earlier on Saturday it had downed 15 out of 16 drones launched by Russia overnight, with the other one disappearing from radars.

• Russia’s Gazprom announced on Saturday it will halt gas supplies to Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova from 1 January over a debt dispute. The cessation of gas will stop supplies to the Kuciurgan power plant in the separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region, a sliver of land between Moldova and Ukraine. The plant powers a significant portion of Moldova proper. The country’s prime minister, Dorin Recean, accused Russia of using “energy as a political weapon”. He said his government does not recognise the debt cited by Gazprom, which has been “invalidated by an international audit”. Earlier this month, Moldova’s parliament voted in favour of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave the country without sufficient energy this winter. Several eastern European countries are bracing for an end to Russian gas supplies, as Kyiv will block the flow of Russian gas via its territory in several days.

• Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it had responded to a new package of EU sanctions by significantly expanding a list of EU and EU member state officials banned from entering Russia. The EU on Monday imposed a 15th package of sanctions against Russia, including tougher measures against Chinese entities and more vessels from Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet. Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement it had responded by adding more unnamed “representatives of security agencies, state and commercial organisations of EU countries, and citizens of EU member states responsible for providing military aid to Kyiv” to its stop list.

• Finnish police on Saturday moved a ship connected to Russia held over suspicions it sabotaged an undersea power cable between Finland and Estonia to help with their investigations. Since Thursday, Finnish authorities have been investigating the Eagle S tanker, which was carrying Russian oil, as part of an investigation into the “aggravated sabotage” of the Estlink 2 submarine cable in the Baltic Sea. That cable’s disconnection on Christmas Day was the latest in a spate of incidents western officials believe are acts of sabotage linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finnish police said the Cook Islands-flagged tanker was moved under escort on Saturday from the coast to an inner anchorage 40km east of Helsinki because “the new location offers a better option for carrying out investigative measures”.

Vladimir Putin has apologised for a “tragic incident” in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on Christmas Day, but stopped short of admitting Russia was responsible.

The Kremlin said in an official statement that Putin had spoken to Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, on Saturday by phone in his first comments since the crash, which killed 38 of the 67 people onboard.

“Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the statement said.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he had expressed condolences to President Aliyev and called on Russia for a clearer explanation of the crash.

“The key priority now is a thorough investigation to provide answers to all questions about what really happened,” he said. “Russia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation.”

On Friday, the White House spokesperson John Kirby said the US had seen “early indications” that Russia might have been responsible for the crash.

There has been speculation that the commercial airliner’s GPS systems may have been affected by electronic jamming and the plane may have been damaged by air defence missiles fired at Ukrainian drones. The head of Russia’s civil aviation agency said the situation in Chechnya was “very complicated” because of Ukrainian drone strikes on the region.

The Kremlin said: “At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks.”

The statement stopped short of admitting Russia was responsible for downing the plane.

The plane, which was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny, in Chechnya, was hundreds of miles off its scheduled route on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. It is not clear why the plane changed course but Russian news agencies initially blamed fog. It crash-landed in Kazakhstan.

Azerbaijan has not blamed Russia but the former Soviet republic’s transport minister claimed on Friday the plane was subjected to “external interference” and that it was damaged before it crashed. “All [the survivors] without exception stated they heard three blast sounds when the aircraft was above Grozny,” said Rashad Nabiyev.

Kirby said the US had offered assistance to investigators; Russia and Azerbaijan are investigating the crash.

The survivors of the crash are being treated in a nearby hospital. One passenger, Subhonkul Rakhimov, told the BBC: “I saw the fuselage shell was slightly damaged and then I got scared. I thought the plane would fall apart. I was very surprised that I was alive.”

Another survivor, Vafa Shabanova, told the broadcaster that about 20 or 30 minutes after takeoff she felt two explosions: “The plane was supposed to land but it didn’t. Something exploded inside twice … we panicked.”

After the crash, Aliyev announced a day of mourning in Azerbaijan. “It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” he wrote on social media.

Donald Trump on Saturday sided with Elon Musk, a key supporter and billionaire tech CEO, in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters.

Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to “war” to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers.

Trump, who moved to limit the visa’s use during his first presidency, told the New York Post on Saturday he was likewise in favor of the visa program.

“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” he was quoted as saying.

Musk, a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric-car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three-year periods, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.

The altercation was set off earlier this week by far-right activists who criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist, to be an adviser on artificial intelligence, saying he would have influence on the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Musk’s tweet was directed at Trump’s supporters and immigration hard-liners who have increasingly pushed for the H-1B visa program to be scrapped amid a heated debate over immigration and the place of skilled immigrants and foreign workers brought into the country on work visas.

On Friday, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidante, critiqued “big tech oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program and cast immigration as a threat to western civilization.

In response, Musk and many other tech billionaires drew a line between what they view as legal immigration and illegal immigration.

Trump has promised to deport all immigrants who are in the US illegally, deploy tariffs to help create more jobs for American citizens and severely restrict immigration.

The visa issue highlights how tech leaders like Musk – who has taken an important role in the presidential transition, advising on key personnel and policy areas – are now drawing scrutiny from his base.

The US tech industry relies on the government’s H-1B visa program to hire foreign skilled workers to help run its companies, a labor force that critics say undercuts wages for American citizens.

Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump get elected in November. He has posted regularly this week about the lack of homegrown talent to fill all the needed positions within American tech companies.

Donald Trump on Saturday sided with Elon Musk, a key supporter and billionaire tech CEO, in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters.

Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to “war” to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers.

Trump, who moved to limit the visa’s use during his first presidency, told the New York Post on Saturday he was likewise in favor of the visa program.

“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” he was quoted as saying.

Musk, a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric-car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three-year periods, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.

The altercation was set off earlier this week by far-right activists who criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist, to be an adviser on artificial intelligence, saying he would have influence on the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Musk’s tweet was directed at Trump’s supporters and immigration hard-liners who have increasingly pushed for the H-1B visa program to be scrapped amid a heated debate over immigration and the place of skilled immigrants and foreign workers brought into the country on work visas.

On Friday, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidante, critiqued “big tech oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program and cast immigration as a threat to western civilization.

In response, Musk and many other tech billionaires drew a line between what they view as legal immigration and illegal immigration.

Trump has promised to deport all immigrants who are in the US illegally, deploy tariffs to help create more jobs for American citizens and severely restrict immigration.

The visa issue highlights how tech leaders like Musk – who has taken an important role in the presidential transition, advising on key personnel and policy areas – are now drawing scrutiny from his base.

The US tech industry relies on the government’s H-1B visa program to hire foreign skilled workers to help run its companies, a labor force that critics say undercuts wages for American citizens.

Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump get elected in November. He has posted regularly this week about the lack of homegrown talent to fill all the needed positions within American tech companies.

Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans flooded central Seoul on Saturday in the latest wave of protests demanding the removal of the country’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, a day after parliament voted to impeach his acting replacement.

Organisers claimed that more than 500,000 people participated in the rally, which took place amid a large police presence.

The demonstrations, which have grown steadily since Yoon’s failed declaration of martial law on 3 December, transformed the historic Gwanghwamun area in a striking display of civic engagement, with citizens including young protesters wielding K-pop light sticks alongside civil society groups.

“Imprison Yoon Suk Yeol,” protesters chanted as they marched from Gyeongbokgung Palace toward the Myeongdong shopping district, many singing to K-pop music blasting from speaker trucks in what has become a characteristic mix of celebration and serious political messaging.

Lawmakers voted on Friday to impeach the acting president, Han Duck-soo, marking a deepening of South Korea’s political and constitutional crisis, stemming from Han’s refusal to appoint three judges to the constitutional court – the very body that must decide Yoon’s fate.

The opposition-controlled parliament viewed this as deliberately stalling Yoon’s impeachment process, while the ruling People Power party warned that removing Han risked triggering a “second financial crisis” and accused the opposition of paralysing state functions.

The finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, who doubles as deputy prime minister, has become the interim leader in an unprecedented arrangement where he holds three top positions.

The constitutional court, now operating with only six of its nine seats filled, requires at least six votes to uphold Yoon’s removal from office, meaning a single dissenting voice could save his presidency.

The court building itself has been barricaded by police buses and heavily guarded. Hundreds of flower wreaths sent by Yoon’s supporters lined the barriers, bearing messages of support for the suspended president.

One kilometre from the main demonstration, a large but vocal counterprotest led by far-right evangelical Christian groups gathered to oppose the impeachment.

Mostly comprising elderly people and hostile in tone, they denounced the parliamentary impeachment votes as invalid and called for Yoon’s reinstatement.

The opposition leader Lee Jae-myung sat on the ground with protesters at the anti-Yoon rally, where the atmosphere remained orderly despite the massive turnout.

In a display of civic spirit, some protesters distributed snacks to police officers, while others cleaned the streets, picking up litter left behind.

The protests have taken on a distinctly youthful character, with students, women’s groups and activists waving flags and addressing the crowd from a central stage.

The use of K-pop light sticks, typically reserved for concerts, has become a symbol of this new generation of protest, contrasting with the candlelight vigils of the Park Geun-hye impeachment protests of 2016-17.

The pop band Leenalchi and the Ambiguous Dance Company together performed their hit Tiger Is Coming, with the band member Ahn Yi-ho drawing cheers when he declared: “Tigers may be tigers, but insurrectionists must be eradicated.”

Recent polls show a majority of South Koreans support Yoon’s removal from office after his attempt to impose martial law earlier this month. That declaration lasted just six hours before being overturned by parliament but has sparked the biggest challenge to South Korean democracy since the 1980s.

As night fell on Saturday and the pro-Yoon protest packed up, the pro-impeachment protesters continued to stream through the city centre, their glittering light sticks illuminating the march in the sub-zero temperatures.

Tourists stopped to watch and photograph the peaceful demonstration, a manifestation of South Korea’s democracy in action, even as it faced one of its biggest tests.

In the wake of the April 2019 fire that devastated Notre Dame, the French president Emmanuel Macron promised that the monument would be rebuilt with a “contemporary gesture”.

There followed all manner of madcap ideas: a glass spire; a 300ft ­carbon-fibre flame; a swimming pool on the roof; a covered garden. In the end, Notre Dame was restored to its original former glory and ceremonially reopened this month. Now, however, the planned “contemporary gesture” has been revealed – and has sparked a bitter row.

The French artist Claire Tabouret has been chosen to design new stained glass windows depicting Pentecostal scenes, to be installed in the chapels on the south side of the medieval church. Tabouret was among 100 artists who took part in a competition to replace the existing six windows installed by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1844 – even though the windows were not damaged in the 2019 fire.

Designs submitted by Tabouret, 43, a figurative artist whose work featured in the Vatican pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year and who now lives in Los Angeles, show scenes of people in prayer in shades of red, turquoise, yellow and pink. She will work with master glassmakers at the Atelier Simon-Marq, a glass workshop founded in Reims in 1640, to recreate the drawings in glass.

The plan to replace the 19th-century chapel windows, which feature geometric designs described as having more historic than aesthetic value, has enraged critics. The 1964 Venice Charter, which codifies guidelines for preserving French buildings, states: “Items of sculpture, painting or decoration which form an integral part of a monument may only be removed if this is the sole means of ensuring their preservation,” and that “the valid contributions of all periods to the building of a monument must be respected”.

In July, the national committee for heritage and architecture at France’s ministry of culture unanimously opposed the plan to remove Viollet-le-Duc’s windows, prompting one artist to withdraw his designs from the competition. The Académie des Beaux-Arts has also opposed the replacing of the windows. In a statement last year, it wrote: “[The members of the academy] are concerned that the announcement of a competition for the creation of contemporary stained glass windows, which they support in principle, involves replacing the non-figurative windows … The fire spared these windows.

“The Académie des Beaux-Arts hopes that other locations, starting with the North Tower, will be considered for this commission for contemporary stained glass.”

However, the plan, expected to cost more than €4m (£3.3m), has the approval of the president, the archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, and the church authorities.

At a press conference after the announcement of her selection, Tabouret, a graduate of Paris’s prestigious École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, said she was “excited” by the challenge but aware of the controversy. “I’ve read about the different opinions of people because I want to understand their arguments and also to take an approach that is open and two-way. I find it a fascinating debate,” she said. She wanted to create stained glass windows that would have “the right presence … without imposing themselves on visitors”.

Didier Rykner, a French journalist, art historian and founder of La Tribune de l’Art, a magazine dedicated to preserving France’s heritage, has described the idea of replacing the windows as “totally ludicrous”. He has launched a petition against the plan that has almost 250,000 signatures.

“The president of the republic has decided on his own, without any regard for the heritage law or Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, to replace the stained glass windows in six out of the seven chapels on the south aisle with contemporary creations, after organising a competition,” it reads.

“The stained glass windows in Notre Dame designed by Viollet-le-Duc were created as a coherent whole. It is a genuine creation that the architect wanted to be faithful to the cathedral’s gothic origins. Who gave the head of state a mandate to alter a cathedral that does not belong to him, but to everyone?

“Emmanuel Macron wants to put the stamp of the 21st century on Notre Dame de Paris. Perhaps a little modesty would be preferable.”

The French heritage association Sites & Monuments has threatened legal action if the plan to remove Viollet-le-Duc’s windows goes ahead.

Rykner told the Observer: “To remove windows that survived the fire undamaged and replace them with others is just absurd. I am not against contemporary windows per se but there is just no reason to replace these windows. Besides, money donated by people to renovate Notre Dame has already been spent on cleaning them.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous. We’ve been told they will put the Viollet-le-Duc windows on display in a museum. They don’t belong in a museum – they belong in Notre Dame. It makes no sense for them to be on display anywhere other than the cathedral. Their only interest is in situ.”

He added: “I don’t see why Macron has such a say over what happens to a heritage building. This is just a vanity project.

“As for the church authorities approving this – we should remember that the greatest vandalism done to French churches and religious buildings in the 60s and 70s was carried out … by the church. They have no taste.”

Stéphane Bern, Macron’s former heritage tsar, voiced his opposition to the plan in an interview with Ouest France newspaper. “I have nothing against Claire Tabouret or contemporary stained glass … But I am in favour of them when the old ones are destroyed or damaged. You can’t remove stained glass windows that are listed as historic monuments,” Bern said.

“Why does the state set itself free from the rules it imposes on others? Just because the president wants it that way?”

Simon-Marq will make the six new windows, which will reach 7m high and cover a total surface area of 121 sq metres, and are expected to be installed in 2026. Tabouret said she would be incorporating motifs from Viollet-le-Duc’s windows in the stained glass.

A youth pastor and school chaplain described as an inspirational leader has been identified as the man who died after being bitten by a shark while on holiday with his family in Queensland.

Emergency services were called to Humpy Island in the Keppel Bay Islands national park, about 18km off the central Queensland coast, on Saturday after reports a man had been attacked.

Luke Walford, 40, was bitten by the shark while fishing with family members in waters off Keppel Islands about 4.30pm, a Queensland police spokesperson said.

Despite efforts by paramedics to save his life, he succumbed to his injuries just before 6pm.

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Walford was a youth pastor for the Cathedral of Praise and school chaplain at Heights College in Rockhampton.

The Queensland member for Rockhampton, Donna Kirkland, said Walford was a “wonderful man” lost in tragic circumstances.

“A family friend, not only to my own family but countless others. He was an inspirational leader as a children’s and youth pastor,” she said in a statement.

“My prayers and heartfelt condolences are with his beautiful family and indeed the many who will be devastated, as I am, at this news.”

Local member Nigel Hutton also sent his well wishes to the family.

“The thoughts and prayers of our community go out to the Walford family,” he said.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

Experts say that as climate change warms water, shark encounters with people are potentially becoming a little bit more common.

There have been at least four other shark-related injuries in Australian waters in 2024, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database.

In early December a man in his 60s was bitten by a shark while spear fishing off Queensland’s Curtis Island. He was treated for lacerations to both arms.

In March a teenage girl was treated for minor injuries from a shark attack at Bargara beach near Bundaberg.

A woman suffered significant injuries to her leg from a shark bite while snorkelling in the ocean off Mackay in October, and another woman in her late 20s was bitten on the right leg by a suspected bull shark in Elizabeth Bay in Sydney Harbour in January.

Hawaii national park rangers have reissued warnings about volcano tourism after a small child wandered off and came within feet of a 400ft cliff near the rim of Kīlauea volcano, whose latest eruption had begun on 23 December.

“The hazards that coincide with an eruption are dangerous, and we have safety measures in place including closed areas, barriers, closure signs and traffic management,” said park superintendent Rhonda Loh in a statement.

“Your safety is our utmost concern, but we rely on everyone to recreate responsibility. National parks showcase nature’s splendor but they are not playgrounds,” Loh added.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian volcano observatory reported that the eruption had entered its second pause and, as it could restart at any time, toxic gas emissions were still high. Glassy volcanic particulates, called tephra, blanketed the closed portion of Crater Rim Drive downwind of the lava fountains that were active over the last few days.

In an advisory, the park service warned that visitors may encounter unstable ground, sharp volcanic rocks and hidden lava tubes that pose risks of injury. It added that volcanos can produce hazardous gases like sulfur dioxide, and that weather conditions can change rapidly.

The child had wandered off from his family “in a split second”, park officials said, as the family stood at the top of a 400ft cliff, admiring the lava glow within Kaluapele – the Kīlauea caldera – at sunset on 23 December. The ongoing eruptions of Kīlauea, now the fifth since 2020, have sent lava fountains as high as 262ft with molten material.

The toddler ran toward the edge of the cliff before his mother snatched him up just feet away from what likely would have been a fatal fall.

Officials at active volcanos often struggle to balance the spectacle of an eruption with safety. They say it pays to know whether the earth’s expulsion is effusive and explosive.

Effusive eruptions involve a relatively gentle flow of lava, often erupting from a fissure with the lava slowly creating a broad, cone-shaped mountain of hardened lava. Under those conditions, the main risks include lava flows and harmful, invisible gases.

Explosive eruptions carry the risks of ash fall, the potential for landslides and rockfalls, as well as pyroclastic flows – fast-moving and lethal clouds of hot gas and volcanic matter that cause severe burns, fatalities and destruction of anything in their path – volcanic blasts and volcanic mudflows.

Travel insurer World Nomads advises researching your volcano destination, familiarizing yourself with the evacuation routes and procedure, and visiting with a licensed guide.