The Prince of Wales has said he is shocked and saddened by the death of his former nanny’s stepson in the New Years Day truck attack in New Orleans.

Edward Pettifer, 31, was one of 14 people killed when a pickup truck was driven through a crowd in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

In a statement posted on Instagram, Prince William said: “Catherine and I have been shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Ed Pettifer.

“Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Pettifer family and all those innocent people who have been tragically impacted by this horrific attack.”

It is understood King Charles has been in touch with Pettifer’s family to share personal condolences after being informed of the news through official channels.

Pettifer, from Chelsea, west London, was the stepson of Alexandra Pettifer, formerly known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke and who was the nanny for William and Harry from 1993-99, including during the time of their mother Diana’s death.

The New Orleans coroner gave Pettifer’s preliminary cause of death as “blunt force injuries”.

Pettifer’s family issued a statement through the Metropolitan police, who confirmed his death. They said: “The entire family are devastated at the tragic news of Ed’s death in New Orleans. He was a wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew and a friend to so many.

“We will all miss him terribly. Our thoughts are with the other families who have lost their family members due to this terrible attack. We request that we can grieve the loss of Ed as a family in private. Thank you.”

The Foreign Office said it was supporting the victim’s family and was in contact with US authorities.

Pettifer was the eldest son of Charles Pettifer and Camilla Wyatt, the Telegraph reported. They separated in the mid-1990s, and Pettifer went on to marry Legge-Bourke, the paper said. They had two sons, who are godsons of William and Harry.

The foreign secretary, David Lammy, said on Saturday: “Extremely saddened to hear the tragic news that a British man was among those killed during the attack in New Orleans. We are supporting their family and are united with the US against terror threats.”

Fourteen people died and at least 35 others were injured when the suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, allegedly ploughed a pickup truck through crowds of revellers celebrating the new year.

The 42-year-old Texan allegedly got out of the vehicle and fired a gun before being shot by police.

The FBI said it was investigating the incident as a terror attack. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies were concerned about the potential of a copycat attack.

A bulletin seen by Reuters showed that the FBI, the Department for Homeland Security, and the US National Counterterrorism Center believed they were “likely to remain attractive for aspiring assailants”.

The Met police said family liaison officers were supporting Pettifer’s family and helping them through the process of returning his body to the UK.

The New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell, said at a press conference that the victims and their families “matter” to the entire city. “Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the victim’s families,” she said.

The New Orleans coroner said one of those killed remained unidentified, with the others coming from the US, the youngest aged 18 and the oldest 63.

It is believed the suspect acted alone. The FBI confirmed that an Islamic State flag was found inside the vehicle and explosive devices were found nearby.

Law enforcement officials told the Associated Press news agency bomb-making materials were found at Jabbar’s home when it was searched after the attack. He had booked the rental of the pickup truck on 14 November.

Earlier this week, the US president, Joe Biden, said the attacker posted a video that indicated he was inspired by Islamic State.

Condemnation of the terrorist incident came from countries including Britain, France, Germany and Mexico.

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said on Wednesday: “The shockingly violent attack in New Orleans is horrific. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the emergency responders and the people of the United States at this tragic time.”

The New Orleans coroner’s office released the names of all but one of those killed in the attack.

They are: Drew Dauphin, 26, of Montgomery, Alabama; Kareem Badawi, 18, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Brandon Taylor, 43, of Harvey, Louisiana; Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, of Gretna, Louisiana; Matthew Tenedorio, 25, of Picayune, Mississippi; Nikyra Dedeaux, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi; Nicole Perez, 27, of Metairie, Louisiana; Reggie Hunter, 37, of Prairieville, Louisiana; Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, originally of Lafayette, Louisiana, and a resident of New York City; Terrence Kennedy, 63, of New Orleans; Elliot Wilkinson, 40, of Slidell, Louisiana; William DiMaio, 25, of Holmdel, New Jersey.

The New Orleans coroner’s office has released the identities of most of the 14 people killed in the deadly truck attack aimed at New Year’s Day revelers on the city’s famous Bourbon Street.

More than half of the 12 victims identified after being slain Wednesday by the attacker – a US army veteran who was shot dead by police – were from the New Orleans metropolitan area or other Louisiana communities. Others were residents of Alabama, Mississippi and New Jersey.

All of those whose names were known on Friday were between the ages of 18 and 63. The coroner’s office listed their causes of death as blunt force injuries caused by the attacker’s truck, despite preliminary information from authorities that he might have fatally shot some.

Two people – including a British citizen – remained unidentified by the coroner’s office. London’s Metropolitan police identified the British man as Edward Pettifer, 31, of Chelsea, according to multiple media outlets.

The other unidentified victim was described as a woman.

Those who were confirmed dead were Drew Dauphin, 26, of Montgomery, Alabama; Kareem Badawi, 18, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Brandon Taylor, 43, of Harvey, Louisiana; Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, of Gretna, Louisiana; Matthew Tenedorio, 25, of Picayune, Mississippi; and Nikyra Dedeaux, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi.

Also confirmed dead were Nicole Perez, 27, of Metairie, Louisiana; Reggie Hunter, 37, of Prairieville, Louisiana; Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, originally of Lafayette, Louisiana, and a resident of New York City; Terrence Kennedy, 63, of New Orleans; Elliot Wilkinson, 40, of Slidell; and William DiMaio, 25, of Holmdel, New Jersey.

Details about most of the victims had emerged as family members who were informed of their loved ones’ deaths as of Friday spoke to media outlets. Schools and employers with ties to the victims had released information as well as statements of condolences for the victims, too.

The 15th person to die Wednesday was the attacker: Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Jabbar also injured 35 people, including two police officers whom he shot while wielding a rifle, before authorities killed him to end what they have classified as an act of terrorism. The wounded additionally included citizens of Mexico and Israel.

Investigators believe Jabbar came to New Orleans from Houston and briefly stayed at a short-term rental home about two miles away from Bourbon Street. He then planted homemade, remote-controlled bombs hidden in ice chests about six blocks away from the foot of Bourbon Street before launching the attack, according to investigators, who reached that conclusion in part after reviewing municipal surveillance camera footage.

Jabbar crashed into a construction lift and – despite wearing body armor and a helmet – was killed in a shootout with police about three blocks away from the bombs, which he did not manage to detonate, officials said in statements on Friday.

Before the attack, officials said, Jabbar intentionally lit the short-term rental home where he had stayed on fire. At least one neighbor reported the blaze about two hours after the attack, when it had mostly burned out. Firefighters arrived to extinguish its remnants and spotted a gasoline can, a drill and other tools, prompting them to call police out.

Law enforcement later determined Jabber had used various materials in the home to make bombs.

New Orleans’ city government years earlier had acquired several kinds of barriers meant to prevent an attack like the one on Wednesday on Bourbon or another in December that killed at least five – including a nine-year-old – at a Christmas market near Magdeburg, Germany.

But ones protecting the area where Jabbar’s attack began were either taken down for repairs or otherwise not deployed when he drove around a blockade anchored by a single patrol car with its lights flashing in the middle of Bourbon Street.

Joe Biden was among those to express condolences to the people murdered by Jabbar.

“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” the president said in a statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”

The Islamic State (IS) threat on the US homeland has caused renewed concern as more details emerge about the man allegedly behind what the FBI is calling an “act of terrorism” in New Orleans on New Year’s Day that killed 14 and injured scores more.

US citizen and army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was killed in the attack after driving into partygoers on Bourbon Street and engaging police in a gunfight. Found inside his rental truck was the infamous black flag of IS; it was later revealed he had pledged allegiance to the group in a series of videos posted to Facebook mere hours beforehand.

Though public perceptions of IS suggest it has now suddenly reappeared in the pantheon of terrorist organizations active in the US, top officials and analysts have been warning for months that a stateside attack was imminent.

“The attack was hardly unexpected – there had been flashing warning signs,” said Clara Broekaert, a research fellow at the Soufan Center who tracks the online activities of IS. “In recent months, we’ve witnessed an unrelenting stream of rhetoric calling for violence during the holiday season, along with repeated chatter about low-tech tactics, from knife attacks to vehicle rammings.”

Broekaert continued: “Given this, it’s no shock that an attack like this occurred.”

Both the outgoing FBI director, Christopher Wray, and the attorney general, Merrick Garland, called IS an ongoing and top national security concern in an October press release. In a rare public acknowledgment, the CIA director, Bill Burns, recently described IS as “resurgent”, a description now underscored by political chaos in Syria.

Since the summer, IS propaganda has steadily called for American targets to be “next” as a presidential election campaign rife with unprecedented political violence and assassination attempts bogged down law enforcement and intelligence attention.

On Rocket.Chat, the chosen encrypted communications platform of IS, supporters and recruiters mingled in the lead-up to the holiday season. One user left a YouTube link on carjacking with the message: “For the brothers interested in stealing a car and using it in the next attacks.”

“In 2024 alone, at least five plots linked to the Islamic State – both inspired and directed – have been thwarted within the United States,” said Broekaert, adding that the success of the New Orleans attack, which IS did not yet formally claim responsibility for, has already given an “immense” boost to the group’s efforts online.

Ahead of the November election, there was an uptick in IS activities. It began with a Canada-based Pakistani national who was stopped before allegedly carrying out a plot against a New York Jewish center. Then in October, the FBI arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma who authorities say planned an election day mass shooting in support of IS. Around the same time, a Maryland man was arrested on suspicion of supporting IS and allegedly trying to buy a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Already inside IS chatrooms, supporters were applauding the alleged work of Jabbar, calling it a textbook operation. Manuals and social media posts emanating from IS or its predecessor organization, al-Qaida, have long advised the use of car ramming attacks.

“Die in your rage America,” wrote one IS supporter, while another immediately asked for guidance on how to carry out their own, similar operation.

“Brothers, I need books on [martyrdom] attacks,” they wrote.

As far back as 2010, an al-Qaida magazine called on followers to use trucks, the “ultimate mowing machine”, for targeting Americans. Rental trucks and terrorist attacks notably have a long history. One example: the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh got a U-Haul rental truck to detonate his bomb, rather than using a car registered under his name.

In celebration of the New Orleans attack, an online IS supporter celebrated Jabbar’s alleged skills in following the instructions of a car ramming attack.

“Ramming attack. Shooting attack,” they enthusiastically wrote. “If it’s a brother, he’s a legend.”

It is unclear if Jabbar was a bona fide IS operative or merely a follower who engaged with the terror group’s vast online archive. IS has prioritized inspiring disparate followers via recruitment literature spread in chatrooms or on apps like Telegram, calling on them to commit acts of terrorism that would otherwise risk their operatives and networks in hostile countries.

“Do you wish to participate in the blessed obligation of jihad in the way of Allah, yet lack any connection or endorsement [to IS]?” asked a recent piece of IS propaganda. “Do not despair, for now, you can strike at the enemies of Islam wherever you are and fulfill the blessed duty of jihad!

“Your pledge of allegiance to the Caliphate has been accepted; you are one of us, and we are one with you!”

Likewise, as one supporter on Rocket.Chat referred to Jabbar’s actions, heeding the calls of IS: “The point is to cause widespread fear.”

Now US law enforcement and intelligence officials face the difficult task of wading through the potential onslaught of copycats or would-be IS supporters who might try to replicate the same type of operation.

“IS poses threats in the form of directed operations, guided plots and inspiring followers to mobilize,” said Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism. “The organization and greater movement will look to leverage the attack for propaganda purposes and to build support.”

After the lethal IS attack on a Moscow theatre that killed 145 people in March, Webber said there was a surge in propaganda calling for the US to be next.

“IS, its branches and pro-IS propaganda outlets have continued to heavily focus on the United States as a leading enemy and top priority target,” he said. “Given IS’s evolving online guidance activities, it’s vital for governments to build open-source intelligence capabilities to identify and disrupt plots.”

Before the events in New Orleans, American authorities had been applauded for disrupting an IS plot against a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna and even for providing Russian intelligence officials, major geopolitical adversaries, with warnings about the eventual Moscow attack.

“US law enforcement and intelligence agencies have proven themselves highly effective in neutralizing IS threats both within the United States and abroad,” said Broekaert. “Yet, despite these impressive efforts, the truth remains: [IS] only have to be right once.”

On New Year’s Eve, a federal prosecutor revealed to a court in Virginia an astonishing discovery. She disclosed in a legal document that last month FBI agents acting on an informant’s tip-off searched a property in Isle of Wight, a county named after the island in the English Channel often described as rustic and quaint.

What they found on the 20-acre farm was anything but pleasant. The agents stumbled upon what the prosecutor said was probably “the largest seizure by number of finished explosive devices in FBI history”.

Scattered between the owner, Brad Spafford’s, house and a detached garage was a stockpile of more than 150 improvised pipe bombs, some marked “lethal”. The garage stored an array of tools, homemade fuses and PVC piping, the prosecutor alleged, while a jar of explosive material found in the freezer was so unstable it could have been triggered by the slightest change in temperature.

Inside the main bedroom of the house they discovered a backpack labelled “#NoLivesMatter”, a hashtag popular among advocates of violent extremism that is a twist on the social justice hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. In it was a notebook containing recipes for explosive devices and grenades.

Pages of the notes are made public in the court document. They are covered in Spafford’s small, crabby handwriting. He itemises long lists of chemicals, alongside instructions such as: “Compress powder and crimp case – very important to ensure power is compressed with no airspace in case!”

In any ordinary week such a find might be expected to dominate the news cycle. Spafford, who is currently in custody where he is denying having had any felonious intentions, had allegedly expressed support for political assassinations and had used photos of Joe Biden for target practice at a local shooting range.

But within 24 hours of the prosecutor’s jaw-dropping revelations, the Virginian stockpile of pipe bombs was shunted aside into relative obscurity. As New Year’s Day opened, Americans were given a brutal and distressing introduction to 2025.

At 3.15am that morning a military veteran with a 13-year career in the US army, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, screeched a Ford pickup truck bearing a black Islamic State flag around a police vehicle being used as a temporary barrier into the celebrated French Quarter of New Orleans. Then he barrelled at high speed into new year’s revellers.

By the time his deadly run was over and Jabbar, 42, had been killed by police, he had travelled several blocks of Bourbon Street. At least 14 people were killed. Bodies were strewn along the street in what one eyewitness, whose friend was among the victims, described as “the closest thing I can imagine to a war zone”.

Such an unconscionable start to the new year was not to end there. Less than six hours after the horror of Bourbon Street, Matthew Livelsberger, 37, who also had a military background as an active-duty member of the army’s elite Green Berets, shot himself in the head at the same time as he detonated explosives loaded into the truck in which he was sitting.

The location of the blast – at the front entrance of the Trump International hotel in Las Vegas – as well as the make of the vehicle, a Tesla Cybertruck manufactured by Donald Trump’s side-kick-in-chief, Elon Musk, sent the FBI into a frenzy of investigation into possible political motivations for the suicidal act.

It was not meant to be like this. Just eight weeks ago Americans heaved an enormous collective sigh of relief that the presidential election, whose outcome left millions of voters in despair, had at least passed off peaceably. Fears of armed militias mobilising in droves, of conflict at the polling stations, and of a repeat of the 6 January 2020 insurrection at the US Capitol had been unfounded.

Yet here the country was again, two weeks before Trump brings his toxic cocktail of threatened mass deportations and political vendettas back into the White House, gripped by anxiety about violent threats and incidents. Even for a country well acclimatised to the depressingly routine choreography of gun rampages, school shootings and other displays of public barbarity, the current spate of lurid headlines this week has been gruesome and destabilising.

The spectacular threats keep on coming. Tucked in among the pipe bomb discoveries, explosions and new year’s carnage came the FBI’s announcement on Wednesday that it had thwarted a possible firearms attack in Florida on the pro-Israel group Aipac.

That same day, as if enough devastation had not already been wrought, a man was arrested in Payette, Idaho trying to ignite a pipe bomb on the train tracks. The following day a major interstate highway in South Carolina was closed for hours after the driver of an 18-wheeler truck made a bomb threat.

This all comes on top of a nation that is already traumatised by exposure to high-profile attacks. In 2022, the then House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was the subject of a home invasion that ended with a hammer attack on her husband Paul initially intended for her.

During the election campaign, the two assassination attempts on Trump – at a rally in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, marked a grim debut for millions of younger Americans. For the first time in their lives they were subjected to images of a presidential figure coming under fire.

Even before the current spate, Americans were on tenterhooks. A YouGov poll on the eve of the election found that 75% of US citizens were scared about the way the world is going and 89% concerned about extremism.

This is a storm that has been long in the making. In August 2022 the FBI’s director, Christopher Wray, uttered a heartfelt cry to Congress members when he said: “I feel like every day I’m getting briefed on someone throwing a molotov cocktail at someone for some issue. It’s crazy.”

The latest threat assessment from the Department of Homeland Security warns that the heightened tensions around the presidential election, and the toxic polarisation that it stoked, are likely to endure throughout 2025. Add in the impact of the Gaza war and other international conflicts, and the DHS said that “the terrorism threat environment in the Homeland is expected to remain high over the coming year”.

With ominous prescience, given that the New Orleans attacker is reported to have aligned himself with IS, the report added that foreign terrorist organizations, including IS, “maintain their enduring intent to conduct or inspire attacks in the Homeland”.

A recent investigation by Reuters identified more than 300 cases of political violence in the US since the January 6 insurrection. That amounts to the biggest increase in such threats since the 1970s, that heady decade roiled by the Vietnam war and the dramatic rise of revolutionary groups such as the Weather Underground.

There is one chilling distinction between the troubled 1970s and today, Reuters noted. Back then, the target tended to be government buildings, bricks and mortar.

Today it is people, flesh and blood. In Biden’s words, the Bourbon Street attacker came armed with a high-speed truck, an IS flag, and “a desire to kill”.

Amid so many reports of bloodletting inflicted or narrowly avoided across the states, it is hard to see any silver lining. But it does exist.

Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine at UC Davis who leads a research team looking into violence prevention, told the Guardian that their surveys had found a substantial decline in support for, and willingness to engage in, political violence in 2023. Despite the volatility of the election, last year saw no notable uptick.

The vast majority of Americans are unwilling to participate in violence, the researchers record. Asked last year by Wintemute’s team whether they would be prepared to fight in a civil war, should one break out, only 5% of those surveyed said that was likely.

Wintemute did have a caveat, though. “A small percentage of a large number is still a large number,” he said. “Each 1% of our respondents represents about 2.5 million people.”

John Hollywood, a researcher for the global thinktank the Rand Corporation, said that it was too early in the investigation into the recent incidents to understand the nature of the multiple threats, and their significance. He pointed to the findings of ACLED, Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, which monitors political violence around the world.

ACLED reports that despite fears of increased political violence stirred up by the presidential election, 2024 in fact turned out to be relatively quiet in terms of the mobilization of extremist groups.

“We will need to watch what happens over the coming weeks,” Hollywood said. “But I think at least some of the timing of this spate of attacks may be driven by the new year’s holiday.”

As both Wintemute and Hollywood remind us, this is a good time to remain calm, stick to the facts, and try to take the vitriol and bile out of the moment. Cue Trump and his renaissant, Musk-enabled Twitter feed.

In it, the president-elect responded to the New Orleans attack in characteristically less-than emollient style. “The USA is breaking down,” he posted. “A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it.”

Time will tell. From 20 January, it will all be on his watch.

Rising sea levels driven by the climate crisis will overwhelm many of the world’s biggest oil ports, analysis indicates.

Scientists said the threat was ironic as fossil fuel burning causes global heating. They said reducing emissions by moving to renewable energy would halt global heating and deliver more reliable energy.

Thirteen of the ports with the highest supertanker traffic will be seriously damaged by just 1 metre of sea level rise, the analysis found. The researchers said two low-lying ports in Saudi Arabia – Ras Tanura and Yanbu – were particularly vulnerable. Both are operated by Aramco, the Saudi state oil firm, and 98% of the country’s oil exports leave via these ports.

The oil ports of Houston and Galveston in the US, the world’s biggest oil producer, are also on the list, as are ports in the United Arab Emirates, China, Singapore and the Netherlands.

The latest science published by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) shows 1 metre of sea level rise is now inevitable within a century or so and could come as early as 2070 if ice sheets collapse and emissions are not curbed. An even more catastrophic rise of 3 metres is probably inevitable in the next millennium or two and could arrive as soon as the early 2100s.

Sea level rise is already causing problems around the world even before it overtops coastline developments. The rise to date means storm surges are higher and significantly more likely to cause coastal flooding, while infiltration of saltwater into coastal land can corrode foundations, the researchers note. Cutting emissions sharply would not only slow the rate of sea level rise but also limit the ultimate rise.

Pam Pearson, the ICCI director, said: “It’s ironic these oil tanker ports are below 1 metre of sea level rise and need to have their eyes on these potentially higher rates of sea level rise, which themselves come from continued fossil fuel use.”

Sea level rise is the most profound long-term impact of the climate crisis, redrawing the map of the world and affecting many major cities from New York to Shanghai. But Pearson said government and corporate short-term interests meant it was being overlooked. “Basic information [from scientific assessments of sea level rise] don’t seem to have gotten into the consciousness of governments,” she said.

James Kirkham, the chief science adviser at ICCI, said: “Refusing to turn off the oil taps means keeping the taps on for sea level rise. Accelerated ice melt and ocean expansion has already caused the rate of sea level rise to double in the last 30 years. Unless leaders double down on transitioning away from fossil fuels, the terrible impacts of sea level rise will only increase further – affecting every country with a coastline, including those who continue to obstruct increased decarbonisation efforts.”

Aramco declined to comment.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of obstructionism at a series of recent global summits, including “wrecking ball” tactics at the Cop29 climate assembly, and of blocking progress at negotiations on a plastics treaty and on tackling drought and desertification. The latter talks were held in Riyadh and ended without agreement, with the Saudis refusing to include any reference to climate in the agreement.

The new analysis built on work from May in which researchers found that 12 of the 15 oil ports with the biggest oil tanker traffic were vulnerable to sea level rise. Maps of sea level rise from Climate Central and GoogleMaps were used to show that a 1-metre rise would damage jetties, oil storage facilities, refineries and other infrastructure.

The new analysis added the second Saudi port, Yanbu, which is also at high risk with a 1-metre rise. The team used Bloomberg oil export data to estimate the volume and value of the oil being imported and exported from the ports. Together, Ras Tanura and Yanbu exported $214bn (£171bn) worth of oil in 2023. In total, the 13 ports accounted for about 20% of global oil exports in 2023.

Murray Worthy, of Zero Carbon Analytics, who is part of the team, said: “This analysis shows that relying on fossil fuels in a warming world is a path to disaster, not energy security. Countries face a choice: stick with fossil fuels and risk supply disruptions as rising seas flood ports and terminals, or transition to secure, sustainable domestic renewables.”

Efforts could be made to build flood defences, which would be very costly, but Worthy said: “Ultimately it’s a losing battle. You’ve got to keep building those sea walls higher over time.”

A Japanese woman who was the world’s oldest living person has died at the age of 116.

Tomiko Itooka, who was awarded the Guinness World Record status last year, died on 29 December at a care home in Ashiya, Hyogo prefecture in central Japan.

Itooka, who had previously spoken of her love of bananas and a Japanese yoghurt-flavoured drink called Calpis, was born on 23 May 1908, six years before the outbreak of the first world war, and in the same year as the Ford Model T was launched.

Born in Osaka, she had been a volleyball player in secondary school, and was a keen mountain climber.

Yoshitsugu Nagata, an official in charge of policies for older people, said Itooka had twice climbed the 3,067-metre (10,062ft) Mount Ontake.

She became the planet’s oldest person last year after the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas, according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).

When she was told last year she was at the top of the world supercentenarian rankings, she simply replied: “Thank you.”

Itooka received flowers, a cake and a card from the mayor when she celebrated her birthday in 2024.

She married at 20 and managed the office of her husband’s textile factory during the second world war. Itooka lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.

She is survived by a son, a daughter and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to Nagata.

The world’s oldest person is now 116-year-old Inah Canabarro Lucas, a Brazilian nun who was born 16 days after Itooka, according to the GRG.

Marlon Brando was the original angry young man, winning an Oscar for On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan’s movie about union corruption. But anger got the better of him at the 1954 Italian premiere of the film, when he refused to watch it after discovering that his voice had been dubbed, a new book reveals.

“Why didn’t somebody tell me I was going to see a dubbed version?” he spluttered in fury in the darkened cinema. His embarrassed agent, who had expected the original English-language version, recalled him “staggering up from his seat as if from a heart attack”, frantically whispering: “Get me out of here!”

Brando could not be calmed. “I’ve never seen myself dubbed,” he reportedly said. “I’m an actor, not a ventriloquist’s dummy, for Christ’s sake. Can you imagine what it’s like to hear somebody else’s voice come out of my mouth? You feel like a goddamn freak in a sideshow. Christ, why didn’t somebody prepare me? Didn’t you guys know?”

The incident is among the revelations in a memoir by Hank Kaufman and Gene Lerner, an American couple who, having arrived in Rome from New York in 1953, became agents, friends and confidants to some of the biggest movie stars, including Anita Ekberg, Ava Gardner and Simone Signoret.

Kaufman and Lerner died in 2012 and 2004 respectively. Now their role as unsung movers and shakers of the industry in the 1950s and 1960s is being recognised with the publication of their memoir, Hollywood on the Tiber.

They wrote it in the late 1970s, but it was published only in Italian in 1982. The stars featured in its pages may have objected to revelations that reflect both the highs and lows of celebrity, described by Lerner as “toxins”. It features everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Federico Fellini.

The memoir will be published next week in English for the first time by Sticking Place Books, which specialises in publications that have been neglected. Paul Cronin, its publisher, said: “When I first encountered this book, I thought, ‘This reads like La Dolce Vita meets Call My Agent!’”

He said that, for nearly two decades, Kaufman and Lerner were intimately involved, night and day, with their clients’ ambitions, delusions, hopes and loves, on-screen and off.

In their chapter on Brando’s premiere, they write that when they escorted him to the cinema in a black Cadillac, he was “unprepared for the hysteria” from a “screaming mob” that engulfed him as he emerged from the car. Once inside, he was overwhelmed with nerves on being seated next to a 19-year-old Italian actor, Sophia Loren.

“Brando had made art out of mumble. But in no film had he yet achieved the total inarticulacy which now overcame him, nor a gasping double-take as extraordinary as the one prompted by Loren’s frontal apparatus … Marlon’s efforts not to stare were as farcical as his initial double-take. He was unable to utter a word, and outside of an occasional smile at each other, the two sat in fidgeting silence. Whenever Sophia seemed to be looking elsewhere, Marlon turned with open mouth and bulging eyes to stare at Sophia.”

When Brando tried to leave the cinema over the dubbing, Lerner warned him: “Everybody will write about your leaving. They’ll say you hated it, disowned it, whatever. They’ll write reams and say nothing about the quality of the film.”

Brando was persuaded to visit a nearby bar and sneak back into the cinema five minutes before the end of the film, so nobody would be the wiser, the agents recalled: “As the lights went up in the cinema, there was Brando standing, leaning over the mezzanine railing to acknowledge the wild applause and shouts of bravo.”

In the memoir, the couple also recall finding Ava Gardner in a “hysterical” state because her lover, the Italian actor Walter Chiari, was “hooked” on cocaine. “He sniffs the stuff. He might be on something worse,” she cried, begging them to “do something”.

They also describe the industry’s sleazy side, noting Anita Ekberg’s response to hearing that a director wanted to meet her: “What is he, another of those kind who just wants to make passes at me or ogle my body?”

When she heard Sean Connery had married Diane Cilento, Ekberg was devastated, telling Lerner: “He told me we would get married … Men take advantage. When it comes to real love, I’m always duped.”

The agents remember Shelley Winters becoming “violently jealous” when she discovered her husband, Vittorio Gassman, was playing “hanky-panky” with another actor in his dressing room: “Shelley was overcome by a mirror fetish. She smashed several against Gassman’s dressing-room walls while screaming. Fortunately … the shards of flying glass caused no injury.”

The memoir has a foreword by Sandy Lieberson, who worked alongside Kaufman and Lerner in Rome and went on to produce Nicolas Roeg’s Performance, among other films. He writes: “The myth, the legend, but also the abyss and its squalour, one full of drug addiction, unrealised dreams and sexual favours. Hollywood on the Tiber is all these things together. It is heaven and hell.”

The Washington Post’s Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from her position at the newspaper after its refusal to publish a satirical cartoon depicting the outlet’s owner Jeff Bezos – along with other media and technology barons – kneeling before Donald Trump as he gears up for his second US presidency.

“I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations – and some differences – about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at,” Telnaes wrote on Friday in an online post on the Substack platform detailing her decision to quit. “Until now.”

In a statement reported by the New York Times, the Post’s opinions editor, David Shipley, defended the newspaper’s decision against publishing Telnaes’s cartoon, saying he disagreed with her “interpretation of events” and that “the only bias was against repetition”.

“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” said Shipley, whose statement added that he had spoken with Telnaes and asked her to reconsider leaving. “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column – this one a satire – for publication.”

Telnaes’s Substack post from Friday contained a rough draft of her cartoon. Beside Bezos, who founded Amazon before buying the Post, the cartoon portrayed caricatures of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and Walt Disney Co mascot Mickey Mouse.

“The cartoon … criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with … Trump,” Telnaes said. “While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon.

“To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a gamechanger … and dangerous for a free press.”

Telnaes announced her resignation less than three months after the Post and Bezos faced withering backlash over the outlet’s decision to prevent its editorial team from publishing an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the presidential election of 5 November. Soon-Shiong had also similarly refused to allow the LA Times’ editorial board to publish an endorsement of Harris.

Readers met both outlets with more than 200,000 subscription cancellations combined, the overwhelming majority of those affecting the Post’s larger readership, according to reports. And commentators accused the two newspapers of demonstrating what has been classified as “anticipatory obedience” to Trump after he had repeatedly accused the media of being enemies of the state and promised retribution against many in the industry if he defeated Harris.

Trump then scored a decisive victory against Harris to wrest back the Oval Office, which he had lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

After his victory, Zuckerberg dined with Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort. His company Meta also donated $1m to a fund for Trump’s second inauguration. Observers interpreted those to be conciliatory gestures after Trump during his first presidency had criticized Zuckerberg and his Facebook platform of being “anti-Trump”.

Meanwhile, in December, ABC News – which is owned by Disney – and its anchor George Stephanopoulos agreed to pay $15m to a foundation and museum to be established by Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit the president-elect filed against the network.

Stephanopoulos and his employer also agreed to express regret over on-air statements that he made in March claiming Trump had been found “liable for rape” in a lawsuit pursued against him by the columnist E Jean Carroll.

A jury found Trump “had sexually abused” Carroll under New York law but stopped short of finding that he raped her. Trump subsequently was ordered to pay Carroll $5m. And he was also ordered to pay her $83.3m after being found liable on defamation claims.

Trump’s appeals of both those orders remained pending as of Saturday.

Telnaes won the prestigious Pulitzer for illustrated reporting and commentary in 2001 – coincidentally, while working for the LA Times Syndicate – and was a finalist in the same category for the Post in 2022. She also received the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben award in 2017, becoming the first woman to win both that prize as well as a Pulitzer.

The Washington Post’s Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from her position at the newspaper after its refusal to publish a satirical cartoon depicting the outlet’s owner Jeff Bezos – along with other media and technology barons – kneeling before Donald Trump as he gears up for his second US presidency.

“I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations – and some differences – about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at,” Telnaes wrote on Friday in an online post on the Substack platform detailing her decision to quit. “Until now.”

In a statement reported by the New York Times, the Post’s opinions editor, David Shipley, defended the newspaper’s decision against publishing Telnaes’s cartoon, saying he disagreed with her “interpretation of events” and that “the only bias was against repetition”.

“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” said Shipley, whose statement added that he had spoken with Telnaes and asked her to reconsider leaving. “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column – this one a satire – for publication.”

Telnaes’s Substack post from Friday contained a rough draft of her cartoon. Beside Bezos, who founded Amazon before buying the Post, the cartoon portrayed caricatures of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and Walt Disney Co mascot Mickey Mouse.

“The cartoon … criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with … Trump,” Telnaes said. “While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon.

“To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a gamechanger … and dangerous for a free press.”

Telnaes announced her resignation less than three months after the Post and Bezos faced withering backlash over the outlet’s decision to prevent its editorial team from publishing an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the presidential election of 5 November. Soon-Shiong had also similarly refused to allow the LA Times’ editorial board to publish an endorsement of Harris.

Readers met both outlets with more than 200,000 subscription cancellations combined, the overwhelming majority of those affecting the Post’s larger readership, according to reports. And commentators accused the two newspapers of demonstrating what has been classified as “anticipatory obedience” to Trump after he had repeatedly accused the media of being enemies of the state and promised retribution against many in the industry if he defeated Harris.

Trump then scored a decisive victory against Harris to wrest back the Oval Office, which he had lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

After his victory, Zuckerberg dined with Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort. His company Meta also donated $1m to a fund for Trump’s second inauguration. Observers interpreted those to be conciliatory gestures after Trump during his first presidency had criticized Zuckerberg and his Facebook platform of being “anti-Trump”.

Meanwhile, in December, ABC News – which is owned by Disney – and its anchor George Stephanopoulos agreed to pay $15m to a foundation and museum to be established by Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit the president-elect filed against the network.

Stephanopoulos and his employer also agreed to express regret over on-air statements that he made in March claiming Trump had been found “liable for rape” in a lawsuit pursued against him by the columnist E Jean Carroll.

A jury found Trump “had sexually abused” Carroll under New York law but stopped short of finding that he raped her. Trump subsequently was ordered to pay Carroll $5m. And he was also ordered to pay her $83.3m after being found liable on defamation claims.

Trump’s appeals of both those orders remained pending as of Saturday.

Telnaes won the prestigious Pulitzer for illustrated reporting and commentary in 2001 – coincidentally, while working for the LA Times Syndicate – and was a finalist in the same category for the Post in 2022. She also received the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben award in 2017, becoming the first woman to win both that prize as well as a Pulitzer.

Thousands of rival South Korean protesters have rallied in the capital a day after a failed attempt to arrest the country’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, for imposing a short-lived martial law decree that led to his impeachment.

The country has been plunged into political chaos since last month, with Yoon defiantly holed up in the presidential residence surrounded by hundreds of loyal security officers who have so far resisted efforts by prosecutors to arrest him.

Thousands of protesters for and against Yoon gathered in front of the residence and along major roads in Seoul on Saturday, either demanding his arrest or calling for his impeachment to be declared invalid.

Kim Chul-hong, 60, a supporter of Yoon, said arresting him could undermine South Korea’s security alliance with the US and Japan.

“Protecting President Yoon means safeguarding our country’s security against threats from North Korea,” he said.

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, South Korea’s largest umbrella union, attempted to march to Yoon’s residence to demonstrate against him, but were blocked by police.

It said two of its members were arrested and several others were injured in clashes.

Yoon faces criminal charges of insurrection, one of a few crimes not subject to presidential immunity, meaning he could be sentenced to prison or, at worst, the death penalty.

If the warrant is carried out, Yoon will become the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested.

Investigators have asked the finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, who was installed as acting president a week ago, to back the warrant by ordering the presidential security service to cooperate.

The service said two of its top officials had refused a police request for questioning, citing the “serious nature” of protecting Yoon.

In scenes of high drama on Friday, Yoon’s guards and military personnel shielded him from investigators who eventually called off the arrest attempt, citing safety concerns.

The showdown, which reportedly included shoving but no shots being fired, left the warrant in limbo, with the court order due to expire on Monday.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) could make another attempt to arrest him before then. If the warrant lapses, they may apply for another.

The constitutional court has scheduled the start of Yoon’s impeachment trial for 14 January, which will take place in his absence if he does not attend.

The former presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye did not appear in court during their impeachment proceedings.

Yoon’s lawyers decried Friday’s arrest attempt as “unlawful and invalid” and vowed to take legal action.

Experts said investigators could wait for greater legal justification before making another attempt to arrest the suspended president.

Chae Jin-won, of Humanitas College at Kyung Hee University, said: “It may be challenging to carry out the arrest until the constitutional court rules on the impeachment motion and strips him of the presidential title.”

Yoon told his rightwing supporters this week he would fight “to the very end” for his political survival.

South Korea’s key security ally, the US, called for political leaders to work towards a “stable path” forward.

The outgoing US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is scheduled to hold talks in Seoul on Monday, with one eye on US-South Korea relations and another on nuclear-armed North Korea.

Syria’s main airport in Damascus is to resume international flights after commercial trips were halted following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

“We announce we will start receiving international flights to and from Damascus international airport from [Tuesday],” the state news agency Sana reported, quoting Ashhad al-Salibi, the head of the General Authority of Civil Aviation and Air Transport.

“We reassure Arab and international airlines that we have begun the phase of rehabilitating the Aleppo and Damascus airports with our partners’ help, so that they can welcome flights from all over the world.”

International aid planes and foreign diplomatic delegations have already been landing in Syria. Domestic flights have also resumed.

On Thursday, Qatar Airways announced it would resume flights to the Syrian capital after nearly 13 years, starting with three weekly flights from Tuesday.

A Qatari official told Agence-France Presse last month that Doha had offered the new Syrian authorities help in resuming operations at Damascus airport.

On 18 December, the first flight since Islamist-led rebels ousted Assad 10 days earlier took off from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country’s north, AFP journalists reported.

An Egyptian aid plane touched down at Damascus airport on Saturday carrying Cairo’s first humanitarian delivery since Assad was ousted. The civilian cargo plane loaded with 15 tonnes of supplies was part of “Egypt’s commitment to supporting the brotherly Syrian people”, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The shipment, provided by the Egyptian Red Crescent, was handed to its Syrian counterpart and included tents, blankets, food and medical supplies, the state-linked Al-Qahera News said.

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia launched a humanitarian air bridge to Syria, delivering food, shelter and medical supplies, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Syria is reeling from 13 years of civil war and crippling western sanctions targeting Assad’s regime, which was toppled in a rebel offensive last month. The conflict has displaced millions and left the economy in ruins, with basic infrastructure struggling to function.

Stargazers have been treated to seeing the planet Venus as it made an appearance next to the moon.

The second rock from the sun could be seen on Friday night with the naked eye in areas with clear skies and low light pollution. Some were able to take incredible photographs of the morning star, so named because it is often mistaken for a bright star.

Dr Robert Massey, the deputy director of the UK Royal Astronomical Society, told the BBC that observers hoping to catch a glimpse of the celestial fireworks after sunset would need to get “as far away from light pollution as possible”.

He said: “If you have the time to look out and the weather is good, then do take a look because it’s a perfect new year treat.”

Venus is also often mistaken for unknown flying objects. In December people in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Massachusetts in the US thought they were seeing drones, but astronomy enthusiasts concluded that some of the sightings were misidentifications of stars and Venus. Others were satellites, planes and helicopters.

January is expected to be a great month for stargazing, as numerous celestial happenings will become visible. The Quadrantid meteor shower is at its peak this weekend and will be visible until 12 January.

Venus is getting brighter and setting later as it orbits closer to Earth, which will make it even more prominent.

By mid-January, Mars may make an appearance when the planet moves directly between the Earth and the sun. According to the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London, on 21 January three more planets from our solar system, including Uranus, Jupiter and Saturn, will hone into view after 9pm. All should be visible with the naked eye, except Uranus, which requires a telescope.

Anyone who wants to spot the planets and phenomena popping up in the night sky over January should move to an area with low light pollution and give their eyes at least 15 minutes to adapt to the dark.

A man has been charged with the alleged rape and sexual assault of a Virgin Australia crew member in Fiji in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

The man “will be produced in court on Monday”, after having been taken into custody on Wednesday, acting police commissioner Juki Fong Chew said in an email that confirmed a report by ABC.

Virgin Australia crew members were celebrating New Year’s Eve in Nadi, on the western side of Viti Levu.

The alleged sexual assault, as well as a separate alleged incident of robbery, occurred after the crew members went to a nightclub in the town, which is one of Fiji’s most popular tourist destinations.

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Guardian Australia has contacted the Fiji police for comment.

“These alleged incidents are regrettable,” Fiji’s deputy prime minister, Viliame R Gavoka, said in a statement earlier this week.

“Our thoughts and concerns are with [the alleged victims] and for their health and wellbeing.”

Gavoka said a suspect known to police had been questioned over the alleged sexual assault.

Hosanna Kabakoro, founder of the Indigenous-led South Pacific Foundation which provides clean water access to rural and maritime communities in Fiji, said locals felt awful for the victims of the alleged crimes.

“The general feeling here in Fiji is that everyone feels so bad for the [alleged] victims,” Kabakoro said.

Tourism is one of the largest contributors to Fiji’s wealth, accounting for about 40% of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to the Australian government.

“For a country that’s as small as Fiji, that does rely as heavily on tourism as Fiji does, everyone is worried,” Kabakoro said.

The airline had sent support staff to Fiji amid reports three crew members were allegedly attacked while out clubbing in Nadi in the early hours of 1 January.

The crew members had been expected to return home before the end of the week.

With Australian Associated Press

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.