Mediators are meeting in Doha on Tuesday amid high hopes that Gaza ceasefire negotiations are in their final stages after claims of a breakthrough in overnight talks.

Israeli media and reports from the Qatari capital said the agreement would involve an initial release of 33 Israeli hostages, including children, women, elderly people and the sick, and up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, alongside a partial Israeli troop withdrawal in a first phase lasting 60 days.

After 16 days, talks would begin on a second phase of the agreement which would involve the release of other survivors among the 61 remaining hostages, including military-age men, and the bodies of those who have died. The Israeli military withdrawal would be completed in the course of this second stage.

Envoys representing the Biden White House and the incoming Trump administration are taking part in what was billed as a “final round” of talks, meeting delegates from Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

Optimism over the negotiations has been tempered by past experience after earlier apparent breakthroughs ultimately failed to end the 15-month war in the face of opposition from the coalition government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, or obstruction from Hamas inside Gaza. The militant group is being led by Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former head of Hamas and the mastermind of the 7 October attacks who was killed by Israel last October after a year-long manhunt.

There were reports of a midnight breakthrough in the Doha talks, though the specific details were not clear. On Tuesday, Associated Press cited officials reporting that Hamas had accepted the draft agreement on the table in Doha, and that Qatari officials were at the “closest point” yet to completing a deal. The press agency quoted an Israeli official as saying progress has been made, but the details were yet to be finalised.

Israel’s security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, declared his continued opposition to the agreement in a social media post on Tuesday in which he boasted that he and other far-right members of the coalition had blocked a ceasefire “time after time” in recent months. He appealed to a fellow hardliner, Bezalel Smotrich, to join his party in walking out of the coalition if Netanyahu accepted the deal under discussion.

On Monday, Smotrich, the head of one of the parties in the ruling coalition, denounced the agreement being worked out in Qatar as a “surrender” deal.

“The deal that is taking shape is a catastrophe for the national security of the state of Israel,” Smotrich said.

Writing in the Haaretz newspaper, the military analyst Amos Harel said the weakest point in the blueprint being negotiated in Doha is the transition from the first to second phase.

“Negotiations on the second phase are supposed to begin on the 16th day after it is signed, while the first phase is being implemented. The understandable fear shared by the hostage families is that these talks will collapse, and that the only hostages that will be brought back are those from the first, humanitarian phase, namely women, elderly men, the sick and the wounded. Soldiers and young men will remain captives of Hamas for a long time as an insurance policy on the lives of the organisation’s leaders.”

Joe Biden, in his last week in office, told staff at the US Department of State on Monday: “we’re on the brink of a proposal … finally coming to fruition”. Biden proposed a phased ceasefire plan in May last year, claiming it was an Israeli-approved blueprint, but he was repeatedly frustrated by Netanyahu’s obstruction. Donald Trump has reportedly sent repeated messages to Netanyahu, a close ally, that he wants the fighting to be over before he takes office on 20 January.

The war started in October 2023 with a surprise Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 were taken hostage. In the Israeli military campaign in Gaza that followed, 46,645 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed, according to figures provided the Hamas-run health authorities, which the UN generally accepts as being reliable.

Mediators are meeting in Doha on Tuesday amid high hopes that Gaza ceasefire negotiations are in their final stages after claims of a breakthrough in overnight talks.

Israeli media and reports from the Qatari capital said the agreement would involve an initial release of 33 Israeli hostages, including children, women, elderly people and the sick, and up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, alongside a partial Israeli troop withdrawal in a first phase lasting 60 days.

After 16 days, talks would begin on a second phase of the agreement which would involve the release of other survivors among the 61 remaining hostages, including military-age men, and the bodies of those who have died. The Israeli military withdrawal would be completed in the course of this second stage.

Envoys representing the Biden White House and the incoming Trump administration are taking part in what was billed as a “final round” of talks, meeting delegates from Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

Optimism over the negotiations has been tempered by past experience after earlier apparent breakthroughs ultimately failed to end the 15-month war in the face of opposition from the coalition government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, or obstruction from Hamas inside Gaza. The militant group is being led by Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former head of Hamas and the mastermind of the 7 October attacks who was killed by Israel last October after a year-long manhunt.

There were reports of a midnight breakthrough in the Doha talks, though the specific details were not clear. On Tuesday, Associated Press cited officials reporting that Hamas had accepted the draft agreement on the table in Doha, and that Qatari officials were at the “closest point” yet to completing a deal. The press agency quoted an Israeli official as saying progress has been made, but the details were yet to be finalised.

Israel’s security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, declared his continued opposition to the agreement in a social media post on Tuesday in which he boasted that he and other far-right members of the coalition had blocked a ceasefire “time after time” in recent months. He appealed to a fellow hardliner, Bezalel Smotrich, to join his party in walking out of the coalition if Netanyahu accepted the deal under discussion.

On Monday, Smotrich, the head of one of the parties in the ruling coalition, denounced the agreement being worked out in Qatar as a “surrender” deal.

“The deal that is taking shape is a catastrophe for the national security of the state of Israel,” Smotrich said.

Writing in the Haaretz newspaper, the military analyst Amos Harel said the weakest point in the blueprint being negotiated in Doha is the transition from the first to second phase.

“Negotiations on the second phase are supposed to begin on the 16th day after it is signed, while the first phase is being implemented. The understandable fear shared by the hostage families is that these talks will collapse, and that the only hostages that will be brought back are those from the first, humanitarian phase, namely women, elderly men, the sick and the wounded. Soldiers and young men will remain captives of Hamas for a long time as an insurance policy on the lives of the organisation’s leaders.”

Joe Biden, in his last week in office, told staff at the US Department of State on Monday: “we’re on the brink of a proposal … finally coming to fruition”. Biden proposed a phased ceasefire plan in May last year, claiming it was an Israeli-approved blueprint, but he was repeatedly frustrated by Netanyahu’s obstruction. Donald Trump has reportedly sent repeated messages to Netanyahu, a close ally, that he wants the fighting to be over before he takes office on 20 January.

The war started in October 2023 with a surprise Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 were taken hostage. In the Israeli military campaign in Gaza that followed, 46,645 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed, according to figures provided the Hamas-run health authorities, which the UN generally accepts as being reliable.

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for US secretary of defense, appeared at a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, as the military veteran and Fox News host weathers intense scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault, excessive alcohol use and financial mismanagement.

Hegseth can only afford to lose the votes of three Senate Republicans, assuming every Democratic senator opposes his nomination, and several Republican members have voiced concerns about Hegseth’s personal history and his views on women in the military.

The Republican chair of the Senate armed services committee, Roger Wicker, acknowledged the criticism of Hegseth in his opening remarks at the hearing. Describing Hegseth as an “unconventional” nominee, Wicker praised him as an “excellent choice to improve this unacceptable status quo”.

“Mr Hegseth has admitted to falling short, as we all do from time to time,” Wicker said. “It is noteworthy that the vast majority of the accusations leveled at Mr Hegseth have come from anonymous sources. Contrast these anonymous accusations with the many public letters of support and commendation.”

In 2017, Hegseth was accused of sexually assaulting a woman who said he took her cellphone and blocked the door of a hotel room to prevent her from leaving, according to a police report. Hegseth has denied the accusation, although his lawyer acknowledged that the woman was paid a settlement.

An explosive report from the New Yorker also outlined claims that Hegseth frequently became so intoxicated at work events as to require colleagues’ assistance in getting home. One whistleblower further accused Hegseth of using official funds for the non-profit that he previously led, Concerned Veterans for America, as a “personal expense account”.

Hegseth has made more problems for himself by suggesting that women should not serve in combat roles and attacking the inclusion of gay troops in the military as part of a “Marxist agenda”, although he has somewhat backtracked on those comments in recent weeks.

Hegseth pushed back against the criticism in his opening statement, pitching himself as a “change agent” with military experience who would lead the Pentagon into a new era.

“It is true, and has been acknowledged, that I don’t have a similar biography to defense secretaries of the last 30 years. But, as President Trump also told me, we’ve repeatedly placed people atop the Pentagon with supposedly the right credentials – whether they are retired generals, academics or defense contractor executives – and where has it gotten us?” Hegseth asked. “He believes, and I humbly agree, that it’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm.”

As Hegseth attempted to deliver his opening statement, protesters repeatedly interrupted his remarks, with one attacking Hegseth as a “Christian Zionist” who supports the war in Gaza. Authorities swiftly escorted the protesters out of the hearing room.

Despite the numerous controversies sparked by Hegseth’s nomination, Trump’s Republican allies in the Senate have voiced confidence about his chances of confirmation. Republican John Thune, the Senate majority leader, has reportedly told Trump that Hegseth will have the votes to be confirmed.

“The meetings have gone very well. Things are heading in the right direction,” John Barrasso, the Senate majority whip, told CBS News on Sunday. “People will listen and make their own decision.”

But Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, indicated that his meeting with Hegseth last week failed to convince him of the nominee’s qualifications to lead the country’s largest government agency.

“Mr Hegseth, I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job,” Reed said in his opening remarks at the hearing. “Indeed, the totality of your own writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any service member from holding any leadership position in the military, much less being confirmed as the secretary of defense.”

Before the hearing, Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic member of the Senate armed services committee, sent Hegseth a 33-page letter with 72 questions about his personal history and views on the military, probably foreshadowing a contentious hearing on Tuesday.

“I am deeply concerned by the many ways in which your past behavior and rhetoric indicates that you are unfit to lead the Department of Defense,” Warren wrote. “Your confirmation as secretary of defense would be detrimental to our national security and disrespect a diverse array of servicemembers who are willing to sacrifice for our country.”

More broadly, Democrats have expressed outrage over Republicans’ handling of confirmation hearings, accusing them of trying to “rush” proceedings to clear the way for Trump’s cabinet nominees.

“The American people have a right to know if President-elect Trump’s cabinet nominees are going to fight for them,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said in a floor speech last week. “It’s hard not to wonder: what are the Republicans trying to hide about these nominees from the American people?”

Several of Trump’s cabinet nominees will appear at Senate confirmation hearings in the coming days, before the president-elect takes the oath of office on Monday.

As officials warn that strong winds could worsen wildfire conditions in Los Angeles, residents and business owners have sued the city’s largest electricity provider, arguing that some of the utility’s equipment started the Eaton blaze in the area.

Officials have also announced the arrests of several people who are suspected of looting evacuated homes in the neighborhoods of the Palisades and Eaton fires, including one from which an Emmy award was taken.

Los Angeles is under a critical fire warning through Wednesday, with officials warning of “significant risk of rapid fire spread” due to the Santa Ana winds – which have gusts of up to 75mph (120km/h) – and low humidity.

As of Tuesday morning, the Palisades fire was 14% contained with 23,700 acres burned, and the Eaton fire was 33% contained with 14,100 acres burned. The smaller Hurst fire has almost been completely extinguished, with 97% and nearly 800 acres burned.

At least 24 people have died from the fires and over 12,000 structures have been destroyed. Estimates put the cost of damage at about $250bn, which could make it the costliest fire in American history.

With firefighters continuing to battle the huge blazes, Pasadena area residents and business owners had started filing lawsuits against the power company Southern California Edison. The plaintiffs alleged that some of the utility company’s equipment ignited the Eaton fire.

Their lawsuits cite multiple eyewitness accounts saying that the base of a Southern California Edison transmission tower had caught on fire before the wildfires started to spread.

In a 12 January statement, the company said that data from the tower showed “no interruptions or operational/electrical anomalies in the 12 hours prior to the fire’s reported start time” and noted that it received evidence preservation notices from insurance companies.

The company noted it found a downed conductor in the area of the Hurst fire – but said any connection to the fire was unclear.

Pedro Pizarro, the chief executive officer of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, said that the company has been trying to investigate its equipment. But “we have not been able to get close to the lines yet”, he told CNBC Monday.

Officials have said investigating the cause of the wildfires is difficult as the fires continue to scorch the area. The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is heading the investigation into what precisely started the fires.

Furthermore, officials on Monday also announced the arrests of nine people who faces accusations of looting evacuated homes in neighborhoods affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

A group of three men are accused of stealing $200,000 worth of items from a single home in the Palisades – and another group stole valuables, including an Emmy award, from homes evacuated for the Eaton fire.

“These crimes are appalling and represent a direct attack on our community during a time of unprecedented loss and vulnerability,” the Los Angeles county district attorney, Nathan Hochman, said in a statement. “Let me be clear: if you exploit this tragedy to prey on victims of these deadly fires, we will find you and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

Fifteen bodies have been brought out of an illegal goldmine in South Africa and 44 people have been taken out alive since Monday, after police blocked supplies of food, water and medicine to the workers underground in October in an attempt to force them out.

On Thursday, a letter brought up to the surface claimed there were 109 dead bodies underground. A video circulated by the NGO Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) appeared to show more than 50 wrapped bodies laid out in a tunnel.

Another video showed emaciated men begging to be sent food and rescued. Macua claimed there were between 400 and 800 people still alive and trapped underground at the Buffelsfontein mine near Stilfontein, about 100 miles south-west of Johannesburg.

Police launched Operation Vala Umgodi (plug the hole) in late 2023 in an effort to stamp out illegal mining. In early November, they said their prevention of essential supplies being sent down the mineshafts around Stilfontein had forced hundreds of miners to the surface since mid-October “as a result of starvation and dehydration”. Later in November and December, they allowed some supplies to be sent down.

South African authorities have repeatedly argued the miners were free to resurface and that those who remained underground were trying to avoid arrest, pointing to more than 1,500 people who have emerged from another mineshaft in the area. Activists claimed the two mines were not connected underground.

“I am happy, but at the very same time scared, because I don’t know what to expect,” Zinzi Tom, whose brother Ayanda was still reported to be underground on Tuesday morning, told the local TV station eNCA on Monday.

“[The government] said they would ‘smoke them out’, indeed they smoked them out … So I’m not OK, but I’m hoping for the best,” said Tom, who launched an urgent court case last week in response to the letter claiming 109 had died.

The authorities then launched the rescue operation, which they have said could take up to 16 days.

Illegal mining has flourished across South Africa’s north-eastern mining belt in recent years, as industrial mines have been exhausted and abandoned. There are about 30,000 zama zama miners, according to expert estimates, producing 10% of South Africa’s gold output in 6,000 abandoned mineshafts, often controlled by violent criminal syndicates.

A private company, Mines Rescue Services, is operating a crane-winched cage that can bring six people an hour to the surface. However, only local volunteers have been going down the 1.2-mile shaft at Buffelsfontein.

“It’s too risky for private or state workers to go down with the cage because it’s known that some of the zama zamas are armed to the teeth, and some of those who emerged have given statements that they were held against their will,” said Makhosonke Buthelezi, a spokesperson for the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

The miners are either being arrested or taken to hospital, where they will recover before being detained, he said.

German police have launched an investigation after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party distributed flyers designed to resemble plane tickets for deportation that were addressed to “illegal immigrants” as part of an increasingly provocative campaign for next month’s general election.

People from immigrant communities in the south-western city of Karlsruhe found the flyers in their letterboxes, although it was not immediately clear if they had been directly targeted.

The criminal police force in Karlsruhe said in a statement on Tuesday it had opened an investigation into “persons unknown on suspicion of incitement of racial hatred”.

A police spokesperson said a complaint had been filed referring to a social media post about the flyer, which had an AfD logo, a QR code linking to the website of the party’s local chapter and the purported destination of a “safe country of origin”. Below that was the tagline: “Only remigration can still save Germany.”

The flyers strongly resemble the fake plane tickets distributed by the neo-Nazi NPD party in 2013 in a racist bid to discourage immigrant candidates from standing for parliament. Both campaigns recalled chilling Nazi-era appeals to Jews to leave Germany offering “free tickets to Jerusalem … never to return” with a design that also mimicked actual travel documents.

The Greens politician Beate Hoeft from Ettlingen, south of Karlsruhe, posted about the flyer on her Instagram account with the caption: “People from a migrant background in the Karlsruhe region found this in their letterboxes,” adding hashtags reading “No AfD”, “Protect democracy” and “Beware the beginnings”. She said she was in contact with one affected family.

The mayor of Karlsruhe, Frank Mentrup of the Social Democrats, accused the AfD of fomenting “fear” among communities that already felt anxious about far-right sentiment spreading in Germany.

The AfD MP Marc Bernhard, from Karlsruhe, told the public broadcaster SWR that 30,000 of the flyers had been printed and that they had been distributed at election campaign stands as well as dropped in residential mailboxes. He denied those with “foreign-sounding names” had been targeted, as well as any connection with the decade-old NPD campaign.

Markus Frohnmaier, the co-chair of the AfD’s Baden-Württemberg state association, said he supported “the creative action by local chapters”. It was the party’s goal to see the nearly 1 million Syrians in Germany returned home after the fall of the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, he said, calling it “enforcement of existing law”.

One year after tens of thousands of Germans took to the streets in protest against reported secret AfD plans for mass “remigration”, the party openly embraced the term at its congress last weekend before the 23 February election.

The AfD, which authorities class as suspected rightwing extremist, is polling in second place with about 21% support behind the centre-right Christian Democrats, meaning it is highly unlikely to win an outright majority. All the mainstream democratic parties have ruled out forming a governing coalition with the hard right.

German police have launched an investigation after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party distributed flyers designed to resemble plane tickets for deportation that were addressed to “illegal immigrants” as part of an increasingly provocative campaign for next month’s general election.

People from immigrant communities in the south-western city of Karlsruhe found the flyers in their letterboxes, although it was not immediately clear if they had been directly targeted.

The criminal police force in Karlsruhe said in a statement on Tuesday it had opened an investigation into “persons unknown on suspicion of incitement of racial hatred”.

A police spokesperson said a complaint had been filed referring to a social media post about the flyer, which had an AfD logo, a QR code linking to the website of the party’s local chapter and the purported destination of a “safe country of origin”. Below that was the tagline: “Only remigration can still save Germany.”

The flyers strongly resemble the fake plane tickets distributed by the neo-Nazi NPD party in 2013 in a racist bid to discourage immigrant candidates from standing for parliament. Both campaigns recalled chilling Nazi-era appeals to Jews to leave Germany offering “free tickets to Jerusalem … never to return” with a design that also mimicked actual travel documents.

The Greens politician Beate Hoeft from Ettlingen, south of Karlsruhe, posted about the flyer on her Instagram account with the caption: “People from a migrant background in the Karlsruhe region found this in their letterboxes,” adding hashtags reading “No AfD”, “Protect democracy” and “Beware the beginnings”. She said she was in contact with one affected family.

The mayor of Karlsruhe, Frank Mentrup of the Social Democrats, accused the AfD of fomenting “fear” among communities that already felt anxious about far-right sentiment spreading in Germany.

The AfD MP Marc Bernhard, from Karlsruhe, told the public broadcaster SWR that 30,000 of the flyers had been printed and that they had been distributed at election campaign stands as well as dropped in residential mailboxes. He denied those with “foreign-sounding names” had been targeted, as well as any connection with the decade-old NPD campaign.

Markus Frohnmaier, the co-chair of the AfD’s Baden-Württemberg state association, said he supported “the creative action by local chapters”. It was the party’s goal to see the nearly 1 million Syrians in Germany returned home after the fall of the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, he said, calling it “enforcement of existing law”.

One year after tens of thousands of Germans took to the streets in protest against reported secret AfD plans for mass “remigration”, the party openly embraced the term at its congress last weekend before the 23 February election.

The AfD, which authorities class as suspected rightwing extremist, is polling in second place with about 21% support behind the centre-right Christian Democrats, meaning it is highly unlikely to win an outright majority. All the mainstream democratic parties have ruled out forming a governing coalition with the hard right.

A Greenlandic government minister has said she views Donald Trump’s interest in the territory as positive, saying it has acted as a “wake-up call to Copenhagen” after years of failing to adequately respond to its demands for action on minerals and alleged abuses by the Danish state.

Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for housing, infrastructure, minerals, justice and gender equality, said the government had been trying to drum up interest in collaboration with both the EU and the US for “many years”, but it was only now that it was getting the attention it had been seeking.

Her comments came after the prime minister, Múte Egede, on Monday said Greenland had started a dialogue with the US and was seeking to cooperate with the Trump administration. He said his country was open to closer ties with the US and had its “doors open in terms of mining”.

Egede did not, however, say he would be open to a US takeover of the autonomous territory after the US president-elect raised alarm bells last week when he refused to rule out military intervention to gain control of Greenland.

Nathanielsen told the Guardian: “We have been trying to get more involvement from both the EU and the United States for many years now, so I think this is to some extent, I would say with some hesitance, the kind of attention we have been seeking.”

Usually, she said, the Danish media showed little interest in speaking to her about either minerals or the forced contraceptive scandal, in which at least 4,500 girls and women are believed to have been forcibly fitted with the contraceptive coil without their consent or knowledge at the hands of Danish doctors between 1966 and 1970 alone in an attempt to reduce the population of the former Danish colony.

But having spent the last week in Denmark for meetings that were planned before Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland became a point of global interest and alarm in some quarters, Nathanielsen said she was suddenly inundated with interest.

“In my everyday life as a minister for natural resources in Greenland I get a lot of attention from foreign press … I hardly ever speak to Danish press,” she said.

“The IUD scandal is another example. I get a lot of attention from outside media but from the Danish perspective they’re just not that interested. So I think this has been a wake-up call to Copenhagen.”

She added that it was also true of Danish interest in the parenting test scandal which has resulted in the separation of Greenlandic parents from children.

Amid growing calls for independence from Denmark, Greenland will leverage US interest to demand justice from Denmark, she said.

“I expect that from our side we will use this renewed interest in our relationship [with Denmark] to underscore the importance that they do not stop here. They have to look at the IUD scandal, they have to look at the adoptions and they have to claim responsibility and make sure these cases are settled and to make sure that we can give peace to the people who have been involved. I will definitely continue the pressure.”

Greenland and the US are already collaborating on minerals as a result of a 2019 agreement made during the first Trump administration, but that agreement is coming to an end. Nathanielsen said Greenland was hoping for a new agreement.

So far, the US and Greenland’s collaboration on minerals has included mapping, analysis, field work and direct marketing, she said. Now she hopes it will lead to financing to help get projects under way.

A “nervous flyer” whose unruly behaviour caused his transatlantic flight to be diverted to Dublin has been handed a two-month suspended sentence.

Dublin district court heard that the 34-year-old American had mixed the tranquiliser Xanax with alcohol to combat his anxiety before becoming disruptive on the United Airlines flight on Monday.

Justice Finan suspended the jail sentence for two years on Tuesday, describing the man’s behaviour as “appalling”. However, she said she had noted his written apology and his compliance with an order to pay €10,000 (£8,435) for damages he caused.

The man, Zachary Greear, was “horrified and embarrassed” by his behaviour and had offered a “most sincere apology”, said his solicitor, Eoghan O’Sullivan.

After being arrested in Dublin airport, the climate research analyst pleaded guilty to three offences under Ireland’s Air Navigation and Transport Act – intoxication, threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, and causing annoyance onboard an aircraft.

The court heard that the flight to New York had taken off from Amsterdam in the morning and that during the flight Greear had become “unruly”. He was highly intoxicated and urinated in his seat and in the aisle, an Irish police officer said.

The plane had been airborne for two hours and was cruising over Donegal when the captain made the decision to divert, dumping €30,000 worth of fuel before landing.

The Garda said on arrest Greear “couldn’t understand where he was” due to his level of intoxication but had since apologised. He had no previous convictions.

During the hearing on Monday, O’Sullivan said his client accepted the disruption he had caused and would pay whatever was necessary to cover the cost of the diversion, offering $5,000 (£4,105).

The judge said the offer “doesn’t even touch the damage that this man has caused” and told Greear to return to court on Tuesday with “double that”.

“Can you imagine the fear and trauma he caused to a pilot who is trying to manage people safely on his aircraft, to passengers, to employees of the airline who have to dump fuel and turn around a flight and land in a jurisdiction they never expected to be in?” the judge said.

On Monday Ryanair released details of a €15,000 claim it has launched in Dublin’s courts against a passenger who allegedly caused a flight to Lanzarote to be diverted to Porto last April.

A global study has identified 300 previously unknown genetic risk factors for depression because it included a much wider population sample.

According to the World Health Organization, 3.8% of the population has depression at any one time, affecting about 280 million people.

While a range of factors including adverse life events, physical ill health and stress can increase the risk of developing depression, it also has a genetic component.

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Edinburgh and King’s College London, studied anonymised genetic data from more than 5 million people in 29 countries, with one in four from non-European ancestries.

Previous research into the genetics of depression has primarily involved white, richer populations, neglecting most of the world. But by including a more diverse sample, the authors were able to identify new risk factors.

The study, published in the journal Cell, found 700 variations in the genetic code of individuals linked to the development of depression, almost half of which had never been associated with the condition before.

These small changes in DNA were linked to neurons in multiple brain regions, including areas that control emotion.

In all, 100 of the previously unknown genetic differences were specifically identified because people of African, east Asian, Hispanic and south Asian descent were included in the study.

While each genetic risk factor for depression is very small, the cumulative impact for individuals with multiple DNA variants, can increase their risk, the study found.

The authors believe the findings will allow scientists to predict the risk of depression more accurately, regardless of ethnicity, and to develop more diverse treatment options, helping to reduce health inequalities.

The study calculated that 308 genes were associated with higher risk of depression. The researchers then examined more than 1,600 medications to see if they had an impact on those genes. In addition to antidepressants, the study identified that Pregabalin, used for chronic pain, and Modafinil, used for narcolepsy, also had an effect on these genes and could therefore potentially be used to treat depression. Further studies and clinical trials would be needed to explore the potential of these drugs in patients with depression, the authors said.

Prof Andrew McIntosh, who is one of the lead authors on the study and from the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, said: “There are huge gaps in our understanding of clinical depression that limit opportunities to improve outcomes for those affected.

“Larger and more globally representative studies are vital to provide the insights needed to develop new and better therapies, and prevent illness in those at higher risk of developing the condition.”

Responding to the findings, Dr David Crepaz-Keay, the head of research and applied learning at the Mental Health Foundation, said that the study’s diverse gene pool was “a significant step forward” but that genetic risk factors should not be used as a definitive guide to treatment.

“While research like this can help shape measures for those at higher genetic risk, the prevention of depression must focus on addressing the broader issues in society that impact mental health to a much greater extent, such as experiences of poverty or racism,” he added.

The criminal charges against Hunter Biden “were the culmination of thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics”, the prosecutor who led the inquiries said in a report that sharply criticized Joe Biden for having maligned the US justice department when the president pardoned his son.

“Other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations,” said Monday’s report from special counsel David Weiss, whose team filed gun and tax charges against the younger Biden that resulted in felony convictions that were subsequently wiped away by a presidential pardon from his father.

The report is the culmination of years-long investigations that predated the arrival of Merrick Garland as attorney general but became among the most politically explosive inquiries of his entire tenure, capturing Republican fascination on Capitol Hill and ultimately producing a fissure between the justice department and the White House over the treatment of the president’s son.

The document, as is customary for reports prepared by justice department special counsels, provides a recap of the investigative findings. But it is most notable for its steadfast defense of the team’s work and for its open criticism of the president over a written statement he issued when pardoning Hunter Biden in December.

Biden had repeatedly pledged that he would not pardon his son but reversed course on 1 December, saying that such an action was warranted because of what he called a “miscarriage of justice” and a selective prosecution. He said he believed that his son had been treated “differently” on account of his last name and that “raw politics” had infected the decision making of the justice department.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” Biden said.

Weiss, who served as US attorney for Delaware during the Donald Trump’s first presidency and was kept in his position by Garland before being named to the role of special counsel in 2023, took exception to those comments and noted that judges had rejected that assessment as well.

“The president’s characterizations are incorrect based on the facts in this case, and, on a more fundamental level, they are wrong,” Weiss wrote. Such remarks undermined the public’s confidence in the justice system, Weiss said.

Calling judges’ rulings “into question and injecting partisanship into the independent administration of the law undermines the very foundation of what makes America’s justice system fair and equitable”, Weiss wrote. “It erodes public confidence in an institution that is essential to preserving the rule of law.”

Hunter Biden’s lawyer criticized the report, saying Weiss failed to explain why prosecutors “pursued wild – and debunked – conspiracies” about the president’s son that prolonged the investigation.

“What is clear from this report is that the investigation into Hunter Biden is a cautionary tale of the abuse of prosecutorial power,” defense attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement.

The investigations, which Hunter Biden himself revealed in 2020 when he disclosed that prosecutors were examining his taxes, took a tortured path toward resolution across justice department leaders of both political parties.

Hunter Biden was supposed to plead guilty in 2023 to misdemeanor tax charges, but the deal fell apart in spectacular fashion among a last-minute disagreement between his lawyers and federal prosecutors. He was convicted at trial in Delaware in June of three federal felonies that accused him of having lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.

Describing the younger Biden as a “Yale-educated lawyer and businessperson”, Weiss said the president’s son understood that he was lying when he filled out the federal form when he bought his gun in 2018 and marked that he wasn’t a drug user.

“But he did it anyway, because he wanted to own a gun, even though he was actively using crack cocaine,” Weiss wrote.

Hunter Biden subsequently entered a surprise guilty plea in September to federal tax charges, averting a trial that would have showcased potentially lurid evidence on top of the salacious and unflattering details about his personal life aired during his earlier trial in Delaware.

Weiss said Hunter “consciously and willfully chose” not to pay at least $1.4m in taxes over four years.

The president’s claims that Hunter Biden was mistreated by the criminal justice system echoed in some ways arguments from the younger Biden’s legal team, who had asserted that prosecutors bowed to political pressure to indict Hunter. Before that, Trump – whose second presidency begins on 20 January – and his fellow Republicans called Hunter Biden’s plea deal a “sweetheart” one.

Not so, said Weiss.

“Far from selective, these prosecutions were the embodiment of the equal application of justice – no matter who you are, or what your last name is, you are subject to the same laws as everyone else in the United States,” Weiss said.

Starbucks has said that people using its coffee shops in North America need to buy something, U-turning on a policy that allowed anyone to use its toilets even if they had not made a purchase.

The world’s biggest coffee chain this week published a new code of conduct to be displayed in every US and Canadian shop saying “Starbucks spaces are for use by our partners and customers – this includes our cafes, patios and restrooms”.

Starbucks said it was making the changes because “we want everyone to feel welcome and comfortable in our stores”.

The policy of allowing people to use Starbucks toilets without making a purchase was introduced in 2018 after the arrest of two black men in a branch in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Starbucks was accused by the city’s mayor of actions that appeared to “exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018”. The company temporarily closed all of its stores to conduct racial sensitivity training.

The new policy is being introduced as Brian Niccol, the chief executive since September, tries to turn around its performance. The company, which has 36,000 outlets in 84 countries, in October reported falling global sales and profits, and promised to cut down its “overly complex menu” to try to attract customers back with more affordable drinks.

Staff will receive three hours of training before the policy takes effect from 27 January at its more than 11,000 North American stores.

Customers may also use the toilets or log on to Starbucks internet before making their purchase. The Wall Street Journal first reported the change in the rules, which does not affect UK coffee shops.

Howard Schulz, the former chief executive who built Starbucks into a global brand, had argued in 2022 that having open toilets was presenting safety issues.

The new code of conduct also said that there should be “no misuse or disruption of our spaces”, no harassment or threatening language, no consumption of alcohol brought from elsewhere, and no smoking, vaping or begging.

Starbucks’ change of heart around free access to toilets for non-customers is likely to be seen as a blow for disabled people and others such as pregnant women, who often have to rely on toilets provided by private businesses when shopping.

However, Niccol said in October that he wanted to create “that community house experience where people want to be in Starbucks, spend time in Starbucks”, as part of its growth plans.

The company is about to extend free refills of hot or iced coffee to all customers who buy a drink. Customers tend to buy more if they stay longer.

Growing sales will be crucial for Niccol in justifying his appointment as chief executivewith one of the largest welcome pay packages in corporate history. His pay could be worth up to $113m (£93m), after he agreed to leave his job as chief executive of the restaurant chain Chipotle.

Niccol also fuelled controversy by agreeing a deal to commute from his home in Newport Beach, California, to its headquarters in Seattle on a private jet, with significant associated carbon emissions, instead of relocating. Starbucks has said it wants to halve its carbon emissions by 2030, compared with 2019.

The company under Niccol is negotiating with workers who are trying to gain recognition for a union. Starbucks is strongly resisting the workers’ demands, and talks have broken down, with Niccol’s pay a central issue.

A Starbucks spokesperson said: “Implementing a coffeehouse code of conduct is something most retailers already have and is a practical step that helps us prioritise our paying customers who want to sit and enjoy our cafes or need to use the restroom during their visit. This means our cafes, patios, and restrooms are for customers and partners.

“By setting clear expectations for behaviour and use of our spaces, we can create a better environment for everyone. These updates are part of a broader set of changes we are making to enhance the cafe experience as we work to get back to Starbucks.”