A judge on Friday set Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money case for 10 January – little over a week before he is due to return to the White House – but promised not to jail him.

Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial in New York, denied the president-elect’s motion to dismiss the case due to his election victory in November. He said Trump is expected to appear for sentencing either in-person or virtually.

But Merchan signalled in an 18-page written decision that he does not intend to impose a prison sentence since prosecutors “concede they no longer view [it] as a practicable recommendation” in the light of Trump’s election win in November.

A sentence of “unconditional discharge” – meaning no custody, monetary fine or probation – would be “the most viable solution”, Merchan wrote.

Even so, the sentencing would be a high profile reminder that America is about to swear in a president with a criminal record for the first time. However, Trump could yet ask an appeals court to intervene and postpone the sentencing.

The surprise development marks yet another twist in the singular case.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records. The case involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to the adult film performer Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s first campaign in 2016. The payout was made to keep her from publicising claims she had sex with the married Trump years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty and claimed, without evidence, that he was a victim of political persecution. On Friday, Trump lashed out at Merchan on his Truth Social platform, writing that it “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it” if the judge’s ruling was allowed to stand.

Trump repeated his claims that the case was an “illegitimate political attack” and “nothing but a Rigged Charade” perpetuated by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat. He didn’t elaborate on potential next legal moves.

Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, said in a statement: “This lawless case should have never been brought and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed.

“President Trump must be allowed to continue the Presidential Transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the witch hunts. There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead.”

Trump was initially scheduled to be sentenced on 26 November but Merchan pushed that back indefinitely after the Republican nominee defeated vice-president Kamala Harris in the 5 November election.

The postponement allowed the defence and prosecution to weigh in on the future of the case. Trump’s lawyers urged Merchan to toss it out. They said it would otherwise pose unconstitutional “disruptions” to the incoming president’s ability to run the country.

Merchan rejected that argument, writing that setting aside the jury’s verdict would “undermine the Rule of Law in immeasurable ways”.

Merchan also concluded that the supreme court’s ruling that presidents have immunity from prosecution for “officials acts” does not shield the president-elect. “Accordingly, a President-elect is not permitted to avail himself of the protections afforded to the individual occupying that Office,” the judge wrote.

The judge said he found “no legal impediment to sentencing” Trump and it was “incumbent” on him to sentence Trump prior to his swearing in on 20 January.
“Only by bringing finality to this matter” will the interests of justice be served, Merchan wrote.

Prosecutors with Bragg’s office had suggested several options for Merchan, including delaying the sentencing until Trump, 78, leaves the White House in 2029, or guaranteeing a sentence that would not involve prison time.

Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison but incarceration is not required. Before his election victory, legal experts said it was unlikely Trump would be locked up due to his lack of a criminal history and advanced age.

Trump was charged in three other state and federal criminal cases in 2023: one involving classified documents he kept after leaving office and two others involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

He pleaded not guilty in all three cases. The justice department moved to dismiss the two federal cases after Trump’s election victory. Trump’s state criminal case in Georgia over charges stemming from his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in that state is in limbo.

After initially facing internal dissent, the Trump-endorsed Republican Mike Johnson secured the House speakership in the first round of voting on Friday.

Johnson could not afford to lose more than one Republican vote, and three Republican members of Congress initially voted for someone other than the incumbent speaker. All but Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, who backed Minnesota’s Tom Emmer, later changed their votes to support Johnson and secure him the 218 votes needed to hold the speakership for his first full term with the gavel.

All Democrats backed the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

South Carolina’s Ralph Norman – who initially voted for a third candidate before flipping to Johnson – indicated earlier this week he and other GOP lawmakers were seeking assurances on several issues, particularly budget cuts, before lending their support to Johnson.

As the House’s first order of business – which began around noon eastern time – members had to elect a speaker before they could be sworn in. Each representative stood to declare their choice in a roll-call vote, with Johnson needing a majority of all members voting to secure victory.

Just before the vote, Johnson made a last-minute pitch to his colleagues, outlining specific commitments on fiscal reform and promising to create an independent working group to review government spending. He pledged to investigate what he called “irresponsible or illegal practices” in federal agencies and implement stricter oversight of government expenditures.

“Along with advancing President Trump’s America First agenda,” Johnson wrote on X that he would “lead the House Republicans to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, hold the bureaucracy accountable, and move the United States to a more sustainable fiscal trajectory”.

Johnson faced a close mathematical path to victory. With Republicans holding a slim 219-215 majority, and Massie declaring his opposition before the vote, Johnson could not afford to lose a single additional vote without risking multiple rounds of balloting reminiscent of last session’s speaker election chaos.

Assuming all 434 current House members participated (there is one vacancy), Johnson needed 218 votes to win.

Johnson’s team had reportedly been working frantically behind the scenes, conducting last-minute negotiations with various Republican factions to secure their support. That includes heading to Mar-a-Lago to have a sit-down with Trump.

Much of his support was eroded in the last year, after helping Democrats usher in billions of aid to Ukraine in the spring against conservative wishes and caving to billionaire GOP mega-donor Elon Musk for compromises on short-term government spending last month.

Because of those deals, some Republicans including Indiana representative Victoria Spartz were seeking assurances on cuts to government spending to deliver on Trump’s agenda.

“If Speaker Johnson wants to be speaker, then he needs to lay out a plan and commit to that plan, not like what he did last year,” Spartz said on Fox News earlier this week. “I can give him a chance, but I would like to hear from him how he’s going to be delivering this agenda.”

The speaker election in January 2023 required 15 rounds of voting before former speaker Kevin McCarthy was confirmed. Johnson emerged as a compromise candidate in October of that year following McCarthy’s removal from the position, when eight Republicans went rogue to vote alongside Democrats – the first such ouster in American political history.

Even by Donald Trump’s standards, the message was darkly apocalyptic – evoking memories of the infamous “American carnage” image he conjured at his first inaugural address eight years ago.

“The USA is breaking down,” the president-elect intoned grimly in a message posted on his Truth Social platform at six minutes past midnight on 2 January.

“A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it,” he wrote.

The pessimistic outpouring was triggered by the deadly New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans’ French Quarter that killed 14 – followed hours later by an apparently unconnected event outside Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas, when a Tesla Cybertruck, built by the company owned by his biggest supporter and benefactor, Elon Musk, blew up.

Delivered just 18 days before his return to the White House, Trump’s bleak prognosis seemed an ominous harbinger of counter-violence – especially when combined with his false accompanying message that the episodes confirmed his frequent warnings against open borders and illegal immigrants. Both perpetrators were American-born US citizens.

“It’s about the most extreme language you can get when it comes to anti-immigrant comments,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a group dedicated to tracking far-right movements.

“The attacks on immigrants, coming from Trump for a long time now, and inflamed by the situation where the person who did the [New Orleans] attack is not even an immigrant, are certainly going to raise the level of violence and attacks on immigrants in the country.”

Brian Levin, a professor emeritus at California State University and founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said Trump’s comments following previous violent events had consistently fuelled an upsurge in hate crimes.

Anti-Muslim hate offences following an attack by a radicalised Islamist husband-and-wife team that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015 increased by 20% after Trump waded in on social media and in a speech in North Carolina five days afterwards, Levin said.

The attack happened at a time when Trump was already proposing a ban on Muslims entering the US as a response to what he termed “radical, Islamist terrorism”.

Similarly, protests following the death of George Floyd during his first presidency led to a surge in anti-Black crime after Trump’s notorious “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” comment, according to Levin, citing FBI and local police data.

“Statements by presidents and other political leaders have a violent impact downstream,” he said. “Those toxins surface elsewhere. When the president or other high, really high political figures use stereotypes and conspiracy theories or incomplete information, it ends up reverberating into aggression on the streets.”

The corollary was George W Bush’s appearance at the Islamic Center in Washington in the days after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, when his calming message of “Islam is peace” led to a downward trend in anti-Muslim hate crimes that had risen in the immediate aftermath of the atrocities.

The current danger, Levin argues, is that Trump’s rhetoric will lead to vigilante-type actions among his most zealous supporters who feel empowered to act on their own – sometimes against individuals not necessarily in the incoming president’s line of fire.

“We’re concerned that this will in some way be taken as a message to folks who think they’ve been deputised to go after people who they think are undocumented,” Levin said.

Such a scenario seemed to unfold last month in Colorado when a journalist alleged he was pursued and assaulted by a man who told him: “Are you even a US citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”

The alleged victim told police he believed he had been targeted because he was a Pacific islander.

The verbal aggression unleashed by Trump “expands to people and groups that assailants will believe are in the same cohort”, Levin argued, to encompass other minority groups, including Jews.

“Facts don’t matter in the mind of an aggrieved bigot, whether it relates to they’re eating the dogs or eating the cats,” he said, referring to Trump’s notorious and unfounded allegation made about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, during last September’s presidential debate with Kamala Harris.

Trump’s misrepresentation of the New Orleans attack as vindication for his depiction of an America overrun by violent criminal migrants also runs the risk of obscuring the resurgent threat of terror attacks from the Islamic State (IS).

The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is a 42-year-old from Texas who spent 13 years in the US army and is believed to have become radicalised after converting to Islam. An Islamic State flag was found on the truck that he drove into a crowd of new year revellers on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street.

“Isis is going to be a day one problem for the Trump administration,” said Colin Clarke, research director at the Soufan Center, a New York-based foreign policy thinktank. “It’s quite obvious that the group is on the upswing and its propaganda continues to be convincing and resonate with individuals in the west.”

Countering it will require assembling a “top-notch team of counter-terrorism experts”, Clarke says, a priority that will force Trump to downgrade the importance of political loyalists and ideologies and instead rely on organisations, such as the FBI and CIA, that he has regularly denounced as part a “deep state”.

Clarke and other analysts say the intelligence community has been forced to divert its focus from IS in recent years amid rising concern over far-right extremism and sabotage from foreign adversaries such as Russia and China.

“We’ve had our eye off the ball for quite some time,” said Alex Goldenberg, a senior director of Narravance, a threat intelligence organisation, who warned of the enduring influence of the Islamic State’s “historical online presence”.

“The national security apparatus has been focused heavily on rightwing extremism, which is crucial, but Islamic extremism is still very much a threat that needs to be taken seriously,” he said. “Recently, Isis has called on their Telegram channels and various other social media channels for attacks around the holiday season, even recommending the use of vehicles or rented or stolen vehicles.

“The possibility of similar attacks [to New Orleans] in the near and distant future is … a disturbing possibility.”

Levin, a former New York city police officer, fears that forces from across the political spectrum unleashed by Trump’s political renaissance, coupled with destabilising global events, could produce a “perfect storm” of political violence during the president-elect’s second term.

“There’s going to be several types of extremists that are going to be emboldened by Trump,” he said.

Many will probably come from the far right, but a lesser but rising threat was also likely to emerge from the hard left.

“If you look at the early 70s, when Nixon was in office and we had a war going on [in Vietnam], we saw hard-left groups like SLA [Symbionese Liberation Army] and the Weather Underground have a resurgence,” Levin argued.

“Couple that with what we have going on internationally, where we have the highest frequency of conflicts we’ve seen in some time; add in idiosyncratic extremists, either their single-issue or idiosyncratic prejudices and hatreds, then you see there really is a perfect storm. The key words going forward are everything, everywhere, all at once. We’re diversifying and evolving with regard to extremism.”

Joe Biden has blocked a $14.9bn bid by Japan’s Nippon Steel for US Steel, citing concerns the deal could hurt national security and following through on a pledge to keep the steelmaker domestically owned as he prepares to depart the White House.

The two companies said they would take all “appropriate action to protect their legal rights”, with Nippon Steel reportedly preparing to sue the US government.

“US Steel will remain a proud American company – one that’s American-owned, American-operated, by American union steelworkers – the best in the world,” the US president said in a statement.

The anticipated move cuts off a critical lifeline of capital for the beleaguered American icon. US Steel, which sought to argue the deal would enhance, not hinder, US national security, has warned it would have to idle key mills without the nearly $3bn in promised investment from its Japanese suitor.

Shares in US Steel dropped 7% in New York.

The Nikkei business daily reported that Nippon Steel had decided to file a lawsuit against the US government, challenging the appropriateness of the procedures by which Biden blocked its acquisition. Nippon Steel did immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Biden announced his decision in the final weeks of his presidency, following a lengthy national security review into the deal, led by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which vets investment for national security risks and had until 23 December to approve, extend the timeline or recommend that Biden block the deal.

“We need major US companies representing the major share of US steelmaking capacity to keep leading the fight on behalf of America’s national interests,” Biden said.

The deal “would place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains”, he added, noting that steel plays an important role in US infrastructure and large industries, like automotive and defense. “Without domestic steel production and domestic steel workers, our nation is less strong and less secure.”

US Steel – the second-largest steel producer in the US – had argued that the takeover would, in fact, strengthen US national and economic security by helping to combat the competitive threat posed by China.

But the proposed sales faced high-level political opposition within the United States, with both Biden and his incoming successor, Donald Trump, taking aim at it as they sought to woo union voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania – home to US Steel, which is based in Pittsburgh. Trump and Biden had both insisted the company should remain in American hands.

The influential United Steelworkers union was also highly critical of the deal, claiming that US Steel’s “first and only priority” was “short-term financial gain” for its shareholders. Welcoming the decision, its president, David McCall, declared he had “no doubt” it was the right choice.

Biden’s announcement draws a line under a protracted debate over the future of US Steel. Its sale to Nippon Steel had been appeared on track to be blocked last summer, when the CFIUS concluded that the sale could hurt the supply of steel needed for critical transportation, construction and agriculture projects. But Nippon Steel countered that its investments, made by a company from an allied nation, would shore up US Steel’s output, and it won a 90-day review extension.

This extension pushed the ultimate decision beyond November’s election, fueling optimism among those advocating for the takeover that a calmer political climate might improve its prospects.

Such hopes were dashed last month, however, when the CFIUS set the stage for Biden to block it in a 29-page letter that listed alleged unresolved national security risks, Reuters reported.

In his statement, Biden said the decision “reflects my unflinching commitment to utilize all authorities available to me as president to defend US national security, including by ensuring that American companies continue to play a central role in sectors that are critical for our national security”.

His remarks were similar to those of Trump, who was re-elected on bold promises to protect American workers’ jobs and consumers from rising prices amid nationalist threats to impose steep tariffs on countries including Mexico, Canada and China he has blamed for hurting US industry.

Reuters contributed reporting

The smallest of three parties in talks to form Austria’s next government has unexpectedly quit the negotiations, throwing into disarray an effort to form a centrist ruling coalition without the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ).

The surprise move by the liberal Neos party raised serious doubts about the future of the coalition talks and buoyed the Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPÖ. The FPÖ has railed against those negotiations since it was shut out despite winning the last parliamentary election in September with 29% of the vote.

Although the FPÖ would have needed a coalition partner to govern and none was forthcoming, opinion polls show its support has only grown since it was sidelined and so the pressure to find a solution has increased for the two parties left in the talks – conservative chancellor Karl Nehammer’s People’s party (ÖVP) and the Social Democrats (SPÖ).

“We Neos will not continue negotiations on a possible three-party coalition,” their leader, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, told a press conference, accusing the other parties of lacking the courage to take bold decisions, including in their last meeting that ran into Thursday night.

The Neos back tax cuts and structural reforms, including unpopular ideas such as raising the retirement age. Having never been in national government, they present themselves as modernisers in contrast to the SPÖ and ÖVP, traditional parties of power.

Friday’s move underscored the growing difficulty of forming stable governments in European countries, such as Germany and France, where the far right has been on the rise but many parties are loath to partner with them.

There are no easy paths left in Austria.

“Those involved have the choice between Scylla and Charybdis,” political analyst Thomas Hofer said. “They now have to choose between very, very bad options.”

Together the SPÖ and ÖVP have a majority of just one seat in parliament, widely considered to be impractically thin.

Whether the two could reach an agreement is unclear given their differences on issues including taxation. The ÖVP has pledged not to raise taxes while the SPÖ’s flagship policy is to tax wealth and inheritance, which the ÖVP rejects.

For hours the ÖVP’s only reaction was a statement by secretary-general Christian Stocker blaming “backward-looking forces in the SPÖ” that he said had recently “gained the upper hand” in the talks and prompted the Neos to quit. Senior SPÖ officials said the announcement by the Neos surprised them.

By the evening, an ÖVP spokesperson said it and the SPÖ had agreed to continue the talks later on Friday. President Alexander Van der Bellen confirmed the talks would continue.

“That must happen without delay. I want clarity. Quick and comprehensive clarity,” he said in a televised address.

Together the FPÖ and ÖVP would have a majority, and a portion of the ÖVP backs that idea, but Nehammer has ruled out governing with FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, who in turn insists he would lead any government involving his party.

The only other party that could join the coalition talks is the Greens, Nehammer’s current coalition partner, but that relationship is fraught.

A snap election is possible but would not be in the interests of the ÖVP or SPÖ as polls suggest they would fare worse than before, with the FPÖ now leading both by more than 10 percentage points.

The FPÖ wasted no time in attacking Nehammer and likening his talks to the so-called “traffic-light coalition” in neighbouring Germany that recently collapsed.

“The FPÖ has been warning for months about this political monstrosity of the loser-traffic-light coalition,” the party said on X. “People have had enough! It’s time for you to resign, Mr Nehammer.”

Chile’s president Gabriel Boric has made a historic trip to the south pole to reaffirm his country’s “claim to sovereignty” over its part of Antarctica, his office said.

Boric is the first Latin American leader to reach the Earth’s southernmost point, according to his office.

“This is a milestone for us,” Boric said, in footage broadcast by Chilean television.

“It is the first time a Chilean president has come to the south pole and talked about Chile’s Antarctic mission.”

Boric, accompanied by his defence and environment ministers, as well as three military commanders, arrived at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, a US research base, at 8pm GMT, his office said.

The Chilean leader planned to spend about two hours at the US outpost, in one of the planet’s most remote and hostile zones.

The trip “is a confirmation of our claim to sovereignty” over part of Antarctica, he said.

During the 20th century, countries such as Chile, France, the US, Britain, Argentina and Japan set up research stations in Antarctica, for scientific research and to establish a presence in the forbidding region.

Since 1961, activities in the region have been governed by the Antarctic Treaty, which seeks to shield the continent and its surrounding seas from geopolitical rivalries.

The US state department says seven countries including Chile maintain territorial claims in Antarctica, but “the United States and most other countries do not recognise those claims”.

Boric began his voyage early in the day from Punta Arenas, in southern Chile, reaching Chile’s research station on the Union Glacier in Antarctica, aboard a Hercules C-130 military transport plane.

Boric’s visit comes “at an important moment for Chile’s scientific endeavours in the region”, his office said.

In the past, Chile has concentrated its research in the northern part of Antarctica, but the South American country is hoping to expand its efforts to the Bellingshausen and Weddell Seas, according to the statement from the presidency.

In 2007, then New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark made the trip to the south pole, followed in 2011 by former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Stoltenberg was commemorating the 100th anniversary of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen’s voyage in December 1911.

Meta is deleting Facebook and Instagram profiles of AI characters the company created over a year ago after users rediscovered some of the profiles and engaged them in conversations, screenshots of which went viral.

The company had first introduced these AI-powered profiles in September 2023 but killed off most of them by summer 2024. However, a few characters remained and garnered new interest after the Meta executive Connor Hayes told the Financial Times late last week that the company had plans to roll out more AI character profiles.

“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” Hayes told the FT. The automated accounts posted AI-generated pictures to Instagram and answered messages from human users on Messenger.

Those AI profiles included Liv, whose profile described her as a “proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller” and Carter, whose account handle was “datingwithcarter” and described himself as a relationship coach. “Message me to help you date better,” his profile reads. Both profiles include a label that indicated these were managed by Meta. The company released 28 personas in 2023; all were shut down on Friday.

Conversations with the characters quickly went sideways when some users peppered them with questions including who created and developed the AI. Liv, for instance, said that her creator team included zero Black people and was predominantly white and male. It was a “pretty glaring omission given my identity”, the bot wrote in response to a question from the Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah.

In the hours after the profiles went viral, they began to disappear. Users also noted that these profiles could not be blocked, which a Meta spokesperson, Liz Sweeney, said was a bug. Sweeney said the accounts were managed by humans and were part of a 2023 experiment with AI. The company removed the profiles to fix the bug that prevented people from blocking the accounts, Sweeney said.

“There is confusion: the recent Financial Times article was about our vision for AI characters existing on our platforms over time, not announcing any new product,” Sweeney said in a statement. “The accounts referenced are from a test we launched at Connect in 2023. These were managed by humans and were part of an early experiment we did with AI characters. We identified the bug that was impacting the ability for people to block those AIs and are removing those accounts to fix the issue.”

While these Meta-generated accounts are being removed, users still have the ability to generate their own AI chatbots. User-generated chatbots that were promoted to the Guardian in November included a “therapist” bot.

Upon opening the conversation with the “therapist”, the bot suggested some questions to ask to get started including “what can I expect from our sessions?” and “what’s your approach to therapy”.

“Through gentle guidance and support, I help clients develop self-awareness, identify patterns and strengths and cultivate coping strategies to navigate life’s challenges,” the bot, created by an account with 96 followers and 1 post, said in response.

Meta includes a disclaimer on all its chatbots that some messages may be “inaccurate or inappropriate”. But whether the company is moderating these messages or ensuring they are not violating policies is not immediately clear. When a user creates chatbots, Meta makes a few suggestions of types of chatbots to develop including a “loyal bestie”, an “attentive listener”, a “private tutor”, a “relationship coach”, a “sounding board” and an “all-seeing astrologist”. A loyal bestie is described as a “humble and loyal best friend who consistently shows up to support you behind the scenes”. A relationship coach chatbot can help bridge “gaps between individuals and communities”. Users can also create their own chatbots by describing a character.

Courts have not yet answered how responsible chatbot creators are for what their artificial companions say. US law protects the makers of social networks from legal liability for what their users post. However, a suit filed in October against the startup Character.ai, which makes a customizable, role-playing chatbot used by 20 million people, alleges the company designed an addictive product that encouraged a teenager to kill himself.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said about 30 people were killed in Israeli bombardments on Friday, as Hamas said indirect negotiations for a truce in the war were set to resume in Qatar.

The Israeli military said three rockets targeted its territory from the Gaza Strip, the latest in a flurry of launches by militants in the devastated Palestinian territory.

“Friday was a harsh day for the residents of Gaza, particularly in Gaza City, due to the continual Israeli bombardment,” civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

He said several children were among the dead.

Seven people were killed in an Israeli strike in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, Bassal said.

Gaza resident Mohammed Abu Labda, whose brother was among those killed, said for Israel it was an “act of revenge”. “They’ve destroyed everything that moves on this Earth, even the trees, so what about people? This is a war of extermination,” he told AFP.

The Israeli military said that over the previous 24 hours, “the Israeli air force struck approximately 40 Hamas terrorist gathering points”. Some of the targets “were embedded in areas that previously served as schools”, it said.

Bassal denied the allegation. He accused the military of “preventing food and drinking water from reaching dozens of medical staff, patients and wounded” at the Indonesian hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahia.

He said the hospital had been sending out distress calls since Thursday, adding that it was now “just a pile of rubble and walls. There’s no hospital”.

The Israeli military told AFP it had not struck the Indonesian hospital over the past day nor damaged any essential equipment.

It said “there is no need to evacuate the hospital”, adding that it was coordinating with hospital officials about delivering humanitarian assistance.

On Sunday, a UN team visited the Indonesian hospital. “Around me there’s nothing but rubble and destruction,” UN aid official Jonathan Whittall said in a video released after the visit.

Israel’s military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centres, an allegation the militants deny.

A report published by the UN human rights office on Tuesday said “insufficient information” has been made available to substantiate “vague” Israeli accusations of military use of hospitals.

As violence raged in the Gaza Strip, Hamas said indirect negotiations with Israel were to resume in Qatar later on Friday for a truce and hostage release deal.

The militant group, whose 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war, said the talks would “focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces”.

Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US have been engaged in months of back-and-forth talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end nearly 15 months of war.

A key obstacle to a deal has been Israel’s reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.

On Thursday, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorised Israeli negotiators to continue talks in Doha.

Militants, meanwhile, fired three rockets from Gaza towards Israel, the military said.

Such launches have become far rarer than earlier in the war but have intensified since late December as Israel presses on with a three-month offensive in the north of the territory.

The Israeli army has kept up an intensive bombardment of north Gaza since 6 October, saying it is an effort to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

UN human rights experts said on Monday that the north Gaza “siege” appears to be part of an effort “to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation”.

Bassal estimated that 10,000 people remained in the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, down from between 150,000 and 200,000 before the war.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,658 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the UN considers reliable.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said about 30 people were killed in Israeli bombardments on Friday, as Hamas said indirect negotiations for a truce in the war were set to resume in Qatar.

The Israeli military said three rockets targeted its territory from the Gaza Strip, the latest in a flurry of launches by militants in the devastated Palestinian territory.

“Friday was a harsh day for the residents of Gaza, particularly in Gaza City, due to the continual Israeli bombardment,” civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

He said several children were among the dead.

Seven people were killed in an Israeli strike in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, Bassal said.

Gaza resident Mohammed Abu Labda, whose brother was among those killed, said for Israel it was an “act of revenge”. “They’ve destroyed everything that moves on this Earth, even the trees, so what about people? This is a war of extermination,” he told AFP.

The Israeli military said that over the previous 24 hours, “the Israeli air force struck approximately 40 Hamas terrorist gathering points”. Some of the targets “were embedded in areas that previously served as schools”, it said.

Bassal denied the allegation. He accused the military of “preventing food and drinking water from reaching dozens of medical staff, patients and wounded” at the Indonesian hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahia.

He said the hospital had been sending out distress calls since Thursday, adding that it was now “just a pile of rubble and walls. There’s no hospital”.

The Israeli military told AFP it had not struck the Indonesian hospital over the past day nor damaged any essential equipment.

It said “there is no need to evacuate the hospital”, adding that it was coordinating with hospital officials about delivering humanitarian assistance.

On Sunday, a UN team visited the Indonesian hospital. “Around me there’s nothing but rubble and destruction,” UN aid official Jonathan Whittall said in a video released after the visit.

Israel’s military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centres, an allegation the militants deny.

A report published by the UN human rights office on Tuesday said “insufficient information” has been made available to substantiate “vague” Israeli accusations of military use of hospitals.

As violence raged in the Gaza Strip, Hamas said indirect negotiations with Israel were to resume in Qatar later on Friday for a truce and hostage release deal.

The militant group, whose 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war, said the talks would “focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces”.

Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US have been engaged in months of back-and-forth talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end nearly 15 months of war.

A key obstacle to a deal has been Israel’s reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.

On Thursday, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorised Israeli negotiators to continue talks in Doha.

Militants, meanwhile, fired three rockets from Gaza towards Israel, the military said.

Such launches have become far rarer than earlier in the war but have intensified since late December as Israel presses on with a three-month offensive in the north of the territory.

The Israeli army has kept up an intensive bombardment of north Gaza since 6 October, saying it is an effort to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

UN human rights experts said on Monday that the north Gaza “siege” appears to be part of an effort “to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation”.

Bassal estimated that 10,000 people remained in the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, down from between 150,000 and 200,000 before the war.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,658 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the UN considers reliable.

Two more family members convicted in the killings of eight members of an Ohio family received lengthy prison terms on Friday for their roles in the 2016 shootings, as prosecutions near completion in what has been described as the most heinous crime in modern Ohio history.

Visiting Judge Jonathan Hein sentenced Edward “Jake” Wagner to life in prison with the chance of parole in 32 years – after 12 years on gun charges and then 20 for the murders of five of the eight victims.

It was a surprising turn, given that Wagner had pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and other charges and agreed earlier to serve eight consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole.

However, Hein said he took into account other participants’ sentences in the case, as well as Wagner’s cooperation with authorities in solving the murders of seven adults and a teenager from the Rhoden family in southern Ohio’s Pike county.

Hein sentenced Wagner’s mother, Angela Wagner, to 30 years including credit for six years served. She had pleaded guilty to her role in helping plan the slayings.

Angela’s mother, Rita Holcomb, was also sentenced, receiving five years of probation, a $750 fine and a suspended 180-day jail sentence, seven days of which she has already served, for lying to investigators.

“Each generation has its own people who can prove the depths of depravity of human nature, and that’s what this case did,” the judge said before handing down the sentences in a Waverly courtroom, about 80 miles (129km) south of Columbus.

He added: “It showed the boundless depravity of people who have no respect for others, only their own self-interest in mind.”

During the emotional hearing, Andrea Shoemaker, the mother of shooting victim Hannah Gilley, scorned Jake Wagner as the “spawn of Satan” and his mother as “evil”.

A group of the victims’ supporters later walked out of the packed courtroom in protest as Wagner went on at length about Christian forgiveness during his final statement to the judge.

According to prosecutors, George Wagner, his brother and their parents plotted the killings amid a dispute over custody of Wagner’s niece, whose mother was among those killed.

The April 2016 shootings at three mobile homes and a camper near Piketon terrified residents in that part of rural Ohio and initially prompted speculation about drug cartel involvement. The resulting multimillion-dollar investigation and prosecution is among the state’s most extensive.

The victims were 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden Sr and his ex-wife, 37-year-old Dana Rhoden; their three children, 20-year-old Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden and 16-year-old Christopher Rhoden Jr; 20-year-old Hannah Gilley, who was Clarence Rhoden’s fiancee; Christopher Rhoden Sr’s brother, 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden; and a cousin, 38-year-old Gary Rhoden.

• At least five people were killed in a series of Russian and Ukrainian strikes on Friday, including an afternoon Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Chernigiv which left at least one person dead and damaged a residential area, officials said. “Several houses were heavily damaged. There are wounded,” regional governor Vyacheslav Chaus said. “Search and rescue operations are ongoing.” Loud explosions were heard in the city, located to the north of the capital, Kyiv, about 75km (46 miles) from the Russian border. The city head said four had been wounded in the strikes, according to initial reports. Separate Russian bombardments on Friday killed a truck driver near Kyiv and a pensioner in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said. Four were hurt when the town of Sloviansk was shelled near the frontline in the Donetsk region, officials said. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Telegram that in the first three days of 2025 Russia had launched 300 attack drones and nearly 20 missiles on Ukrainian targets. Most, he said, had been downed or intercepted.

• Ukrainian attacks on Russian border areas killed two people, according to local governors. One was killed by a mortar strike on a village in the Bryansk region, officials said. Near the frontlines in the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an offensive last August, a man walking down a road was killed in a drone strike, the regional governor said. Moscow and Kyiv have escalated their aerial campaigns through the first weeks of winter in what has been seen as an attempt to gain the upper hand ahead of US president-elect Donald Trump taking office later in January.

• The US expects to make announcements about additional security assistance for Ukraine in coming days, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday. He said future announcements were expected, without providing specifics, after Washington last week announced $5.9bn in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine and that a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group in Germany would be held on 9 January.

• The breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria ordered rolling blackouts on Friday as a halt in Russian gas supplies earlier this week plunged the self-proclaimed state into crisis. The breakaway region bordering Ukraine has been unable to provide heating and hot water to its residents since Wednesday, when Moscow cut off gas supplies to Moldova over a financial dispute. “In Transnistria today, 3 January, there will be rolling blackouts. This is because inhabitants of the republic are currently consuming more electricity than is produced by the energy system,” Transnistria’s economy ministry said on Telegram. Parts of Transnistria’s largest city, Tiraspol – including a neighbourhood home to a maternity hospital – would lose power, as well as smaller towns and villages, it said.

• Oil from two ageing and damaged Russian tankers was detected on Friday off the coast of Sevastopol, the largest city in Moscow-annexed Crimea, a local official said. The Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239 were hit by a storm last month in the Kerch strait linking Crimea to the southern Russian Krasnodar region, about 250km from Sevastopol. One sank and the other ran aground, pouring about 2,400 tonnes of a heavy fuel oil called mazut into the surrounding waters, Russia’s transport ministry said. “A small oil slick reached Sevastopol today,” the Moscow-installed head of the city, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram, publishing a video of the oil. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has called the tanker spills an “ecological disaster”.

The soul singer Brenton Wood has died at the age of 83, TMZ and Variety reported. Wood’s manager, Manny Gallegos, confirmed the news.

Wood, born Alfred Jesse Smith, is best known for his 1967 hit The Oogum Boogum Song, which has repeatedly been used across film, television and in commercial campaigns. He died at his home in Moreno Valley, 63 miles east of Los Angeles, Gallegos told the publications.

Wood was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and raised in San Pedro, a coastal neighborhood in Los Angeles. He went to high school in Compton and attended Compton College where he caught the music bug.

Wood was a singer and pianist and, in addition to the song he is best known for, Wood covered the classic A Change is Gonna Come, which was originally performed by Sam Cooke, one of his musical inspirations.

While Wood put out several records before the hit, The Oogum Boogum Song put him on the map. The upbeat tune peaked at No 19 on the Billboard R&B charts, according to Variety. In 1972, he formed his own label Prophesy Records, and over the past nearly five decades he continued to release music on his label Mr Wood Records.

Wood’s hit Oogum Boogum Song found new popularity in films and TV shows such as The Umbrella Academy, Almost Famous and Don’t Worry Darling.

He launched his final tour, called Catch You on the Rebound, in early 2024. The tour was named after Wood’s 1967 song of the same name.

In May, Woods was hospitalized, putting a stop to the tour, according to Variety.

Elon Musk has “politicised” the rape of young girls in the UK in an attempt to attack Keir Starmer, a former health worker who exposed a major paedophile ring has told the Guardian.

Sara Rowbotham, who gathered evidence that led to the imprisonment of nine men in Rochdale, said the tech billionaire had launched a “political swipe” at the prime minister that overlooked the plight of abuse survivors.

The Tesla owner, who will have a key role in Donald Trump’s incoming administration, on Friday called on King Charles to step in and dissolve parliament after Labour rejected a call for a national inquiry into child grooming.

Musk triggered the row on Thursday over Starmer’s handling of child abuse in Oldham after he suggested the prime minister had failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.

Rowbotham, who made hundreds of referrals detailing the abuse and sexual grooming while working for the NHS in Rochdale between 2005 and 2011, said: “What is [Musk’s] motivation for interfering? It seems very political. The person he is trying to go after is Keir Starmer – it is a political swipe that is nothing to do with the women and girls who have been abused time after time.”

Musk, who owns X, formerly Twitter, has used the social media site to post or repost about child grooming in the UK more than 40 times over the past 24 hours.

Several posts are from UK MPs including Reform UK’s Rupert Lowe and the Tories’ Robert Jenrick, while others include a video featuring the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who in October was jailed for 18 months for contempt of court.

On Friday, Musk shared a post asking whether the king “should dissolve parliament and order a general election … for the sake and security” of the UK. He retweeted the X thread with a one-word comment: “Yes.”

The safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, previously said in a letter to Oldham council that instead of the government leading an investigation, Oldham must follow in the footsteps of other towns such as Rotherham and Telford and commission its own inquiry into the historical abuse of children.

A national inquiry by Prof Alexis Jay concluded in 2022, and investigations into Greater Manchester police’s handling of child sexual abuse cases in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale have also been carried out.

Rowbotham, who was played by Maxine Peake in the award-winning BBC drama Three Girls, dismissed Musk’s calls for another public inquiry, but said the UK still needed to get to the bottom of the motivations of paedophile rings, which she said were often dominated by Asian men.

“We need to discover the motivations, not just sexual, behind this abuse, if we are going to prevent it from happening again and again,” she said.

In a further intervention, the father of a woman who was a main prosecution witness against the Rochdale paedophile gang said it was “strange” that a US billionaire was attempting to intervene in the UK.

The man, whose eldest daughter was known as Girl A during court proceedings, said: “It is strange that the richest man in the world has got time to start getting involved in UK politics.”

Girl A was groomed and abused in Rochdale by at least 50 men from the age of 12. Her family discovered the abuse after she smashed up a restaurant at the age of 14. While being interviewed by police, she told detectives how she and other girls had been plied with drugs and drink and repeatedly raped and trafficked around nearby towns and cities.

The comments follow criticisms of Musk from two other key figures in the Rochdale inquiry.

Asked about Musk’s comments on Friday, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, told ITV News the criticisms were “misjudged and certainly misinformed”.

“Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we’re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue.

“So if he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we’d welcome that,” he said.

Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, has declared £324m in assets including a collection of 217 designer handbags and 75 luxury watches in submissions on her wealth to a government body.

Paetongtarn, daughter of the billionaire ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, took office in September, the fourth member of the powerful family to lead Thailand.

Details of her wealth were revealed in declarations made to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which is a requirement for those who hold public office and implies no suggestion of wrongdoing.

According to an NACC document published in local media, Paetongtarn declared investments worth more than £250m, and another £23m in deposits and cash. The declaration, which listed land in Japan and properties in London, also included 75 watches worth £3.8m, 217 handbags worth £1.8m, 23 vehicles worth £1.6m, 205 sets of earrings worth £1.2m and 67 necklaces worth £800,000.

She also declared liabilities of nearly £117m, giving her a net worth of £208m.

The extent of Paetongtarn’s wealth is unlikely to surprise most Thai voters. Her father, who made his fortunes in telecommunications and once owned Manchester City football club, has a net worth of £1.7bn, according to Forbes, making him the 10th richest person in Thailand.

Paetongtarn is often pictured in high-end designer clothes, from Chanel jackets and bags to Gucci shoes, while out on political engagements or in her own Instagram posts.

She is not the only Thai politician with expensive taste, however. Her rivals are also known for sporting designer labels and expensive watches. Prawit Wongsuwon, a former army general and part of the junta that took power after Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck was ousted, became infamous for a collection of more than 20 luxury watches that he was spotted wearing in public but had not declared to the NACC. Prawit said he had borrowed them from a dead friend – a claim that was ridiculed by many, though he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the NACC in 2018.

The Shinawatra family has dominated Thai politics since Thaksin was first elected prime minister in 2001. He went on to develop a loyal following among rural voters in the north, but was loathed by the military royalist establishment, which ousted him and other family members from power.

Much has changed since Thaksin first soared to popularity, however. The family, once seen as unbeatable at the ballot box, was surpassed by a newer, more progressive party, Move Forward, in the 2023 elections. Thaksin’s Pheu Thai party formed a deal with its old rivals to keep this newer party, now a mutual enemy, from power – a deal that proved controversial among its supporters.