South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested and is to undergo questioning over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month, anti-corruption investigators said on Wednesday, bringing to an end an early-morning standoff outside his official residence in Seoul.

Yoon remained defiant, however, saying he had agreed to cooperate with anti-corruption authorities to “avoid bloodshed” after the latest chapter in a saga that has rocked South Korean politics and triggered concern among its allies. Yoon said the rule of law had “completely collapsed” after his detention.

“President Yoon has decided to personally appear at the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) today,” his lawyer Seok Dong-hyeon said on Facebook, adding that the impeached leader would also make a speech. But investigators announced shortly after that Yoon had been arrested.

Reports said a convoy of vehicles, one of which was presumably carrying Yoon, had left the presidential residence and later arrived at the offices of the anti-corruption agency heading the probe. His detention makes him the first sitting president in the nation’s history to be arrested.

Investigators had entered Yoon’s residence early on Wednesday in a fresh attempt to execute a warrant for his arrest over allegations that his declaration of martial law amounted to insurrection – a crime that can come with life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

Yoon has been holed up inside his residence protected by an armed security detail since his impeachment in mid-December.

Earlier there were fears that the latest attempt to arrest Yoon could end in a repeat of a tense standoff earlier this month, when investigators were blocked from detaining the suspended president by the presidential security service.

In a morning of high drama, an unarmed team of investigators from the CIO and police officers had tried to enter the residential compound but were blocked by unidentified personnel at the entrance gate, according to eyewitness accounts. Investigators were involved in clashes with those defending the residence.

TV footage then showed about 20 personnel believed to be investigators climbing ladders into Yoon’s residential compound. Images showed scores of officers with “police” and “CIO” marked on their backs inside the compound.

Police denied a report by the news agency Yonhap that they had arrested the acting head of the presidential guard.

Earlier video footage showed investigating officers from the CIO trying to push through a crowd of Yoon’s supporters gathered outside his hillside villa in Seoul

“The execution of the presidential arrest warrant has begun,” acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement early on Wednesday. “This situation is a crucial moment for maintaining order and the rule of law in South Korea.”

The investigating officials said they would detain anyone who tried to block their bid to execute a new warrant, Yonhap news agency reported.

Investigators were also attempting to enter the residence via an alternative mountain hiking trail, according to Yonhap News TV.

Yoon’s lawyer wrote on Facebook that negotiations were under way for the president to voluntarily appear because of the “risk of a serious situation” between the rival forces.

At least one person was injured during the standoff. They were transported away from the scene by fire authorities.

Streets around the compound were sealed off with police buses and thousands of officers were present.

But crowds of Yoon supporters, most of them elderly, were gathered near the residence gates and around makeshift stages hosting speeches describing the arrest warrant “fake” and calling for the arrest of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung.

Braving the freezing early morning, many held up red light sticks, US flags and banners in both Korean and English, including “Stop the steal” and “CCP out”, embracing unfounded claims of electoral manipulation and alleged Chinese interference – despite the fact that no major election observers or courts have raised concerns about last April’s parliamentary vote that saw the opposition secure a decisive victory.

Nearby, a smaller group of pro-impeachment protesters, kept apart from Yoon’s supporters by a police cordon, was chanting “Enter! Enter! Arrest him!”

Activists on both sides had set up tea stations and were distributing heat packs.

Han Chang-min, a lawmaker of the minor opposition Social Democratic party came to monitor the situation on the ground and prevent any physical clashes. He told the Guardian he believed the arrest would be executed successfully today “without physical confrontation” as police had made sufficient preparations.

“While it’s unclear how the hardliners in the security service are building their final defensive line, the security staff aren’t responding as aggressively as the public feared. The police are proceeding with the execution while trying to get maximum cooperation.”

Yoon’s short-lived power grab left him facing arrest, imprisonment or, at worst, the death penalty.

He plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades after sending soldiers to storm parliament, shaking the vibrant east Asian democracy and briefly lurching it back to the dark days of military rule.

If the court-ordered warrant is successfully executed, Yoon would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.

But a first attempt to arrest Yoon on 3 January failed after a tense hours-long standoff with his presidential guards, who refused to budge when investigators tried to execute their warrant.

A joint team of the CIO and police have since secured a new warrant and massed as many as 1,000 personnel for Wednesday’s attempt to detain Yoon, according to local media reports.

Preston Martin figured the retro blue Volkswagen van he slept in for a year during college was a goner, given that he had parked it in a Malibu neighborhood just before the Palisades fire ripped through, reducing homes and cars to rubble and charred metal.

So the surfboard maker was stunned to find that the vehicle had survived. Not only that, a photo of the vibrant bus taken by an Associated Press photographer was circulating widely on television and online, giving viewers a measure of joy.

“There is magic in that van,” Martin, 24, said Tuesday in an interview with AP. “It makes no sense why this happened. It should have been toasted, but here we are.”

Martin purchased the 1977 Volkswagen Type 2 somewhat on a whim sometime around his junior year studying mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

His mother, Tracey Martin, of Irvine, yelled at him for blowing his money, Martin said, but he told her he’d save on rent by fixing up the inside and living in it his senior year, which he did. She came to love the bus, and sewed curtains for the windows.

Last summer, he sold the van to his friend and business partner, Megan Krystle Weinraub, 29, who designs surf- and skateboards under the Vibrant Boards brand. Martin makes carbon fiber surfboards under Starlite.

On 5 January, the friends went surfing with the van, which Weinraub calls Azul, Spanish for “blue”. Afterward, Martin parked it on a flat spot up the hill from her apartment by the Getty Villa, as she was still learning to drive the manual transmission.

Two days later, the Palisades fire erupted, and Weinraub fled with her dog, Bodi, and some dog food in her primary car. She felt sad about Azul, she said, but felt it was minor compared with those who had lost homes or even loved ones.

On Thursday, a neighbor sent her a photo. In the background was the bus, still blue and white and not at all damaged.

“I freaked out,” she said. “I was in the bathroom, and I screamed.”

She called Martin, who also freaked out. He called his mom, who was ecstatic. “I’ve never cried for a car before,” Tracey Martin texted her son.

They were even more surprised when the AP photo aired on television and popped up online.

“We made the news,” Martin said in a reel on her Instagram page, and Weinraub contacted the photographer.

Weinraub, whose home survived, has not been able to visit Azul because the area remains closed to the public. The two are thrilled that the van’s survival has touched so many people.

“It’s so cool that it’s become this, like, beacon of hope,” Martin said. “Everything around it was toasted, just destroyed. And then here’s this bright blue shiny van, sitting right there.”

Negotiators met in Doha on Tuesday in an effort to hammer out the final details of a ceasefire in Gaza, as the warring sides were reported to be closing in on a deal and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the negotiations were “right on the brink”.

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.

The US president-elect, Donald Trump, said negotiators were “very close” to finalising a deal that could halt the fighting which has claimed at least 45,000 Palestinian lives and left Gaza’s 2.3 million residents facing catastrophic conditions.

“I understand that there has been a handshake and they are getting it finished – maybe by the end of the week,” Trump told Newsmax on Monday night, as his envoy Steve Witkoff participated in the negotiations in Doha.

“The truth of the matter is that this ceasefire and peace deal is being driven by Trump’s team,” one Pentagon official told the Guardian. “And Biden, Blinken and the whole administration secured its legacy as enablers.”

Blinken said on Tuesday that the negotiations were “right on the brink” but a deal had not been concluded yet.

“It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” he said during a speech at the Atlantic Council. “But, right now, as we sit here, we await final word from Hamas on its acceptance, and until we get that word, we’ll remain on the brink.”

Blinken on Tuesday indicated that Israel had agreed to a deal and that mediators were now waiting for a response from Hamas. The Associated Press on Tuesday evening reported that Hamas had accepted the draft agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, citing two anonymous sources involved in the talks. That information has not been confirmed by the group publicly and an Israeli official told the news agency that details of the agreement were still being finalized.

In the speech, Blinken also outlined a vision for a postwar settlement under which Israel would accept a united leadership of Gaza and the West Bank territories under a reformed Palestinian Authority, and criticised the expansion of both official and illegal settlements. Israel has so far rejected those conditions.

Blinken’s plan envisions significant involvement from the international community and Arab countries, including the possibility of deploying troops to stabilise security and facilitate humanitarian aid delivery. He also assessed that Hamas had “recruited almost as many new militants as it’s lost”.

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.

Despite the talks, fighting in Gaza has continued. Late on Monday night, two Israeli airstrikes in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed two women and their four children, aged between 1 month and nine years old. Another 12 people were killed in two strikes on the southern city of Khan Younis.

Separately, at least six Palestinians were killed and several were injured late on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on Jenin in the West Bank.

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,” he said.

Writing in the Haaretz newspaper, the military analyst Amos Harel said the weakest point in the blueprint being negotiated in Doha was 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,” Harel wrote. “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.”

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. Trump has reportedly sent repeated messages to Netanyahu that he wants the fighting to be over before he takes office on 20 January.

On Tuesday, representatives from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum met Netanyahu, who told them that talks were advancing and he was “doing everything he can to bring about the release of all hostages”, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

“There are radical members such as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich who are obstructing the deal,’’ Moshe Emilio Lavi, the brother-in-law of one of the hostages held by Hamas, told the Guardian. “They are exploiting the hostage deal because they have other interests, like re-establishing settlements in northern Gaza. I just hope the government is not going to make an unwise decision this time.’’

The families of Israeli hostages held captive for 15 months in the Gaza Strip have voiced cautious optimism their loved ones may soon be free as talks to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continued in Qatar.

“The reports suggesting a potential deal to secure the release of our loved ones offer a glimmer of hope, though we remain cautious,” a statement from the families released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters said on Tuesday. “Our hearts are filled with both hope and apprehension as we await concrete developments. In these sensitive times, it is our shared responsibility to exercise care and consideration.”

The hopes of the families have been raised and dashed numerous times since the 7 October 2023 attack when their relatives were captured by Hamas in the attack that triggered the conflict. During the temporary ceasefire of November 2023, 81 Israelis held in Gaza were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians in Israeli jails.

“Every day you fear the worst,” Moshe Emilio Lavi – whose brother-in-law, Omri Miran, is among the hostages – told the Guardian. “Time ran out a long time ago. The international community completely failed. Our government failed by not prioritising their release enough.”

The forum – the representative of the families – said it remained “hopeful that any deal, even a limited one, represents an important first step toward a comprehensive agreement […] to bringing everyone home”.

Of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas, 94 people are believed to be held in Gaza. However, Israeli and western intelligence services estimate that at least one-third of them have died.

Families gathered outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, forming a human chain to send a powerful message: no hostage should be left behind.

Representatives then met the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who told them that talks were advancing and “he is doing everything he can to bring about the release of all hostages”, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

Gil Dickmann, the cousin of Carmel Gat, who the Israeli military said was murdered by her captors, told reporters outside the Knesset: “From what we understand, at this stage, only the first phase of the deal has been agreed upon completely […] We are deeply concerned that, 465 days after 7 October, there is still no agreement promising the return of all hostages. We don’t want to leave anyone behind or hear about more hostages being murdered in captivity.”

He added: “Living hostages could die, and deceased hostages might remain there with their fates unknown. Time is not on their side. All of them are humanitarian cases, and every family deserves to have their loved ones returned. We are grateful for every life saved and hoping to see all hostages home soon.’’

Israeli media 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 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, 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.

The families of the hostages have been protesting against the Israeli government for months, but fear a deal may still be hindered by the far-right parties of Netanyahu’s coalition that refuse to accept an agreement until Hamas is completely defeated.

The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, the head of one of the hardline nationalist religious parties in the ruling coalition, on Monday denounced the agreement being worked out in Qatar as a “surrender” deal.

“They are exploiting the hostage deal because they have other interests, like re-establishing settlements in northern Gaza,” Lavi said. “I just hope the government is not going to make an unwise decision this time.”

The ambulance pulls up on a narrow street at the Balata Palestinian refugee camp in Nablus in the West Bank, seemingly no different from one of the many emergency vehicles that drive in the area every day. But then five armed Israeli soldiers emerge from the vehicle, going on to take part in a raid that results in the death of two civilians, including an 80-year-old woman, in an incident that Israel’s army admitted constituted “a serious offence … [and] violation of existing orders and procedures”.

The Guardian has reviewed video captured by a surveillance camera, spoken with witnesses and a survivor of the military operation, conducted by the IDF on 19 December 2024 using a hospital vehicle with Palestinian licence plates. It was described by rights groups as a “flagrant violation” of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the use of medical vehicles to carry out military attacks that result in injury or death of people.

“Israel is no longer trying to hide its war crimes and is acting as though the norms and rules of international law do not apply,’’ said the prominent Israeli rights group B’Tselem, which investigated the incident.

Security footage from a shop on Al-Suq Road shows Israeli soldiers disembarking from at least two vehicles. Five servicemen descend from an ambulance while at least five others emerge from what appears to be a civilian white van. Shots appear to be fired and pedestrians run for their lives.

An elderly woman, who was talking at the roadside with a neighbour, falls to the ground, wounded. She attempts to raise her hand in a plea for help, but it is said that within seconds, she is fatally shot with two more rounds from an assault weapon by the soldiers. Her name was Halimah Saleh Hassan Abu Leil, 80.

“I was holding a bag of bread to take home as Halimah stopped me in the street,” said Rashida Abu Al Reesh, 73, who can be seen in the clip standing next to the victim. “She was about to invite me to her house. Suddenly there was a car of men who held their rifles up. They started shooting. Poor Halimah fell down instantly, and I ran to hide anywhere until I escaped down the street.”

It remains unclear if the Israeli special forces, who emerged from the ambulance, fired one of the final shots that killed the woman. According to some witnesses, they opened fire on civilians, wounding at least six. Military sources suggest that the operation aimed to arrest or eliminate six members of the Balata local militia linked to Fatah fighters. However, the mission apparently failed, with none of the targets captured or killed. Nevertheless, two Palestinian residents, Halimah, and Ahmad Qusai ‘Issa Sarouji, 25, died in the attack.

The Israeli army admitted that “during the operation in Nablus, an ambulance-like vehicle was used for operational purposes, without authorisation and without the relevant commanders’ approval”.

“Reports were received about harm to civilians during the exchanges of fire and the circumstances of the incident are being examined,” the IDF said in the statement. “The use of the ambulance-like vehicle during the operation was a serious offence, exceeding authority, and a violation of existing orders and procedures. The use of civilian and medical means for military purposes is prohibited, and any deviation from this does not reflect the conduct of the IDF.”

As a result of the investigation, the IDF said “the commander of the ‘Duvdevan’ Unit was reprimanded by the commanding officer of the central command, while a disciplinary response was issued to the commander of the platoon by the commander of the 98th division.”

“This is a specific incident that does not reflect the nature of the unit or its many achievements over the years, and in particular during the war,” the IDF added.

According to friends and relatives of Ahmad Qusai, he was not a member of the local militia but a hairdresser. Witnesses state that he was killed by one of the Israeli snipers who had climbed to the roof of a building in the camp during the operation.

“We woke up in the morning to the sound of gunfire,” said Jamila Sarouji, 65, the mother of Ahmad Qusai, in tears. “We were still having breakfast. His aunt was shouting at him: ‘Be careful Qusai! Don’t look outside!’ And while she was still alerting him we saw his blood flowing. We tried to call the ambulance but in vain”

“He was only 25 years old, said his brother Mohammed, 35. “He did not have any connection to any resistance group, he was just a simple civilian. This was a crime. Israeli soldiers do not differentiate between civilians and armed people.”

During the raid, the Israelis severely wounded another resident, Hussein Jamal Abu Leil, 25, a nephew of Halimah. Due to his injuries, Hussein underwent a critical surgery in which a kidney and spleen were removed.

“I went down and stood at the entrance of the neighbourhood and as soon as I stopped, I felt like I got shot,” says Hussein. “I crawled and went into our neighbour’s shop. I went inside and sat down and then they started shooting from outside at the glass. I felt like I was going to die. Then the Israeli military entered the shop – one of them had a pistol. I tried to cover my head and he came closer and shot me twice in the stomach. They put me inside the Jeep with them, covered my face with a kitchen apron and tried to strangle me. Then they started beating me, and on the road, when I asked for water they forced me to open my mouth and they spit in it. Then I remember I was taken by the ambulance before I fainted and lost consciousness.”

Hussein was taken by the army to a hospital in Tel Aviv and after two days he was released and moved back to Nablus, where he spent about 16 days in a health facility.

A witness, Mohammed Himmo, 35, told the Guardian that soldiers began firing indiscriminately at passersby.

“I was working by the door of the bakery cooling the bread till this ambulance passed just behind us,” Mohammed says. “We were shocked and couldn’t realise if this was a movie scene or reality until I saw the old lady shot and Hussein shot. In a very few seconds, they started shooting at people nearby without caring about the women, the children or anyone.”

Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer and legal adviser for B’Tselem, says that the most fundamental principle of international laws of warfare is the principle of distinction, which requires combatants at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants.

“That means, among other things, an obligation to on the part of combatants to distinguishing themselves from civilians, says Sfard. “A military force disguised as a medical crew is a violation of the principle of distinction, thus a violation of international law.’’

“In certain circumstances the use of a vehicle that looks like a civilian ambulance by combatants may amount to a war crime, like killing or wounding treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army,” he added.

Violence in the West Bank has surged in tandem with the war in Gaza. More than 14,300 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures. According to the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha), between 7 October 2023 and 21 October 2024, 732 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

It was about 3pm on 9 October when a small group of Al Jazeera journalists arrived at the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The team say they were reporting on the displacement of Palestinian families after Israel launched its third offensive on the area, turning it into an unrecognisable wasteland of rubble.

Among them was the cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi, who moved ahead and began recording as his team set up their equipment. “At the time, none of us were aware that the IDF was close by,” says the 25-year-old from his bed at al-Helou hospital in Gaza. “But suddenly, the sound of gunfire surrounded us.”

As the journalists ran for cover, they say an Israeli drone hovered above and began to follow them. Wahidi does not remember what happened next but video footage from the day shows him lying face down on the ground, sprawled along a pavement in a blue press vest, as his colleagues – unable to reach him – desperately call his name.

The Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif was present during the attack and recalls the harrowing moment Wahidi was hit. “We were in the al-Saftawi area when the drone began firing at us,” he says. “We sprinted, trying to escape it but it followed us relentlessly and with precision. Then suddenly Fadi collapsed – we thought he had been killed.”

Wahidi was wounded only half a kilometre from Jabaliya’s al-Awda hospital but due to Israel’s siege of the health centre, his colleagues were forced to transport him to a hospital farther away. “There were no ambulances available, so we had to drive him quickly in our broadcast vehicle while he bled,” says Sharif.

Wahidi later awoke in critical condition and learned he had been shot in the neck, causing severe damage to his vertebrae and spinal cord; resulting in serious physical, neurological and respiratory injuries. Doctors at the hospital said they did not have the expertise or equipment to treat him and were only able to stop the bleeding. A few days later, he slipped into a coma for two weeks.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), more than 145 journalists have been killed by the IDF in Gaza since the start of the war, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths. In a new report, it describes Israel’s killing of reporters in Gaza as an “unprecedented bloodbath”.

Since October, the hospital has made repeated pleas for Wahidi to be allowed to leave Gaza to receive medical treatment abroad as resources on-site are insufficient to treat his injuries.

In October, the RSF, along with other press freedom organisations, demanded that Israel allow the medical evacuation of Wahidi and other injured journalists trapped in Gaza.

UN human rights experts have also called for Wahidi’s urgent medical evacuation, stating that the denial of medical evacuation or delays in approving requests seemed to be part of the “pattern of persecution” by Israel on journalists in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Almost three months on, Wahidi’s condition has deteriorated. Doctors have been unable to prevent paralysis and there have been further complications due to his shattered bones and damage to his arteries and veins. He also suffers acute hypotension, which could lead to another coma or sudden cardiac arrest.

“Fadi is now fighting for his life. New issues keep arising and his pain grows worse,” says a nurse, Anas al-Shembari. “He is unable to move and needs medications that are not available here in Gaza.”

Sitting beside his hospital bed, his mother, Hiba al-Wahidi, weeps as she tends to her son. “Fadi is my first-born and the most gentle of all my children,” she says. “Even while reporting in a war zone, he was always checking in to see if we were OK. But now my poor boy is slowly dying and there is nothing we can do for him.”

Dr Mosab Nasser, chief executive of FAJR Scientific, a medical non-profit organisation in the US, has been trying to evacuate Wahidi but his requests have so far been denied without explanation. “Despite these endeavours, the possibility of evacuating Fadi remains on hold due to a lack of Israeli authorisation for his safe passage,” he says. “The life of this young journalist is at imminent risk and swift action is urgently needed to prevent further tragedy.”

Cogat, the Israeli military body in Gaza responsible for issuing permits to travel abroad, and the Israel Defense Forces did not respond to requests for comment.

“It has been almost three months that I’ve been confined to this deathbed, unable to move or leave,” says Wahidi. “I just lie here all day staring up at the ceiling.

“How I wish I could see the sun or sky – even just for a brief moment. But I can’t even sit up or hold a phone when I want to look at something on it – the pain is too overwhelming.”

A US financial regulator has sued Elon Musk for allegedly failing to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock and later acquiring shares in the company at “artificially low prices”, stiffing other shareholders.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against Musk late on Tuesday in federal court in Washington DC for alleged securities violations. According to the suit, Musk did not disclose that he had acquired a 5% stake in the company in a timely manner, which allowed him “to underpay by at least $150m for shares he purchased after his financial beneficial ownership report was due”.

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44bn and later renamed it X. Before the purchase, Musk bought the 5% stake in the company, which typically requires a public disclosure. The SEC alleges that it wasn’t until 11 days after the report was due that Musk disclosed his ownership in Twitter.

Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk, said in an emailed statement that the SEC’s case amounted to “an admission” that the agency had no case. Musk, Spiro said, “has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is”.

It is not the first time the SEC has looked into Musk’s purchase of Twitter. The agency launched an investigation into Musk and his brother, Kimbal Musk, in 2021 over alleged securities fraud and violations of insider trading rules after they sold tens of thousands of shares in Tesla. Musk is the CEO of Tesla and his brother sits on the board of directors.

Spiro said the SEC lawsuit was the result of an alleged administrative failure to “file a single form”. He added that “the SEC’s multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky-tack complaint against Mr Musk”.

Over the past several months, Musk has forged a tight relationship with Donald Trump. Musk donated millions to his re-election effort and campaigned with him. Trump has since named Musk head of an advisory group, which Trump claims he will create, called the “department of government efficiency”, meant to oversee government regulations and spending.

In its lawsuit, the SEC said that before Musk’s delayed disclosure of his ownership in Twitter, he allegedly spent more than $500m purchasing additional shares in the company and was able to buy the stock from the “unsuspecting public at artificially low prices”.

When Musk eventually disclosed his ownership to the SEC 11 days later, he said he had acquired more than 9% of Twitter’s stock. The SEC wrote in its lawsuit: “That day, Twitter’s stock price increased more than 27% over its previous day’s closing price.”

A US financial regulator has sued Elon Musk for allegedly failing to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock and later acquiring shares in the company at “artificially low prices”, stiffing other shareholders.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against Musk late on Tuesday in federal court in Washington DC for alleged securities violations. According to the suit, Musk did not disclose that he had acquired a 5% stake in the company in a timely manner, which allowed him “to underpay by at least $150m for shares he purchased after his financial beneficial ownership report was due”.

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44bn and later renamed it X. Before the purchase, Musk bought the 5% stake in the company, which typically requires a public disclosure. The SEC alleges that it wasn’t until 11 days after the report was due that Musk disclosed his ownership in Twitter.

Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk, said in an emailed statement that the SEC’s case amounted to “an admission” that the agency had no case. Musk, Spiro said, “has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is”.

It is not the first time the SEC has looked into Musk’s purchase of Twitter. The agency launched an investigation into Musk and his brother, Kimbal Musk, in 2021 over alleged securities fraud and violations of insider trading rules after they sold tens of thousands of shares in Tesla. Musk is the CEO of Tesla and his brother sits on the board of directors.

Spiro said the SEC lawsuit was the result of an alleged administrative failure to “file a single form”. He added that “the SEC’s multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky-tack complaint against Mr Musk”.

Over the past several months, Musk has forged a tight relationship with Donald Trump. Musk donated millions to his re-election effort and campaigned with him. Trump has since named Musk head of an advisory group, which Trump claims he will create, called the “department of government efficiency”, meant to oversee government regulations and spending.

In its lawsuit, the SEC said that before Musk’s delayed disclosure of his ownership in Twitter, he allegedly spent more than $500m purchasing additional shares in the company and was able to buy the stock from the “unsuspecting public at artificially low prices”.

When Musk eventually disclosed his ownership to the SEC 11 days later, he said he had acquired more than 9% of Twitter’s stock. The SEC wrote in its lawsuit: “That day, Twitter’s stock price increased more than 27% over its previous day’s closing price.”

European anxiety about Donald Trump’s return to the White House is not shared in much of the world, a poll has shown, with more people in non-western powers such as China, Russia, India and Brazil welcoming his second term than not.

The 24-country poll, which also included Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey, found that Switzerland, the UK, 11 EU nations surveyed and South Korea were alone in feeling Trump 2.0 would be bad for their country and for peace in the world.

“In short, Trump’s return is lamented by America’s longtime allies but almost nobody else,” stated the report by the European Council on Foreign Relations thinktank, adding that his re-election left Europe in particular “at a crossroads” in its relations with the US.

The report also found that many people outside Europe believed the incoming president was committed to ending wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and saw a Trump-led US as just one leading power among several – including the EU.

“Europeans need to recognise the advent of a more transactional world. Rather than attempt to lead a global liberal opposition to Trump, they should understand their own strengths and deal with the world as they find it,” the report said.

Respondents fell into five groups, ranging from “Trump welcomers”, most common in India (75%), Russia (38%), South Africa (35%), China (34%) and Brazil (33%), to “never Trumpers”, prevalent in the UK (50%), Switzerland and the EU (28%).

Optimism about Trump’s second term was especially pronounced in India – where 82% saw it as a good thing for peace in the world, 84% as good for their country, and 85% as a good thing for US citizens – and Saudi Arabia (57%, 61% and 69% respectively).

Among long-term US allies, responses were very different: 22% in the 11 EU countries surveyed, 15% in the UK and 11% in South Korea said they thought Trump would be good for their country, while only slightly more felt he would be good for peace.

Large proportions in several countries also felt Trump’s return would make peace more likely in Ukraine and the Middle East specifically, including India (65% and 62%), Saudi Arabia (62% and 54%), Russia (61% and 41%) and China (60% and 48%).

Ukrainians were much more reserved, with 39% believing Trump would help bring peace to their country and 35% saying this was less likely, while in Europe and South Korea there was widespread scepticism that Trump 2.0 would make any difference.

Only 24% in the UK, 31% in South Korea and 34% in the 11 EU countries said Trump’s return would make peace in Ukraine more likely, while even fewer (16% in the UK, 25% in the 11 EU countries and 19% in South Korea) felt it would have that effect in the Middle East.

The report’s authors argued that their findings confirmed a general “weakening of the west” and the emergence of a far more transactional, à la carte world, pointing to a strong acceptance in many countries of Russia as an ally or a necessary partner.

Despite Moscow’s brutal war on Ukraine, the survey found that the number of Indian and Chinese people who considered Russia to be their country’s ally had actually grown marginally in the past year, while average US opinion of Russia had also improved.

By contrast, faced with Trump’s return, just one in five Europeans (22%) said they viewed the US as an ally, which is significantly fewer than the 31% who did so two years ago, and half the relatively unchanged proportion of Americans who considered the EU an ally.

Most people in countries including Brazil, Indonesia, China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey expect Russia’s global influence to grow, but majorities in all those countries plus the EU and UK think China will be the strongest power in 20 years.

US influence is expected to increase, but few believe “Make America Great Again” (Maga) will lead to global dominance. “US geopolitical exceptionalism is beginning to recede,” the authors said, with the US expected to act in future as a “normal” large power.

People around the world also saw the EU as a major global power, with majorities in most countries considering it capable of dealing on equal terms with the US and China. (Ironically, those least likely to share that view were Europeans.)

Majorities in India (62%), South Africa (60%), Brazil (58%) and Saudi Arabia (51%), and pluralities in Ukraine (49%), Turkey (48%), China (44%), Indonesia (42%) and the US (38%), believed the EU would wield “more influence” globally in the next decade.

Moreover, the bloc was widely seen as an “ally” or “necessary partner”, including in countries such as Brazil, India and South Africa. The recent EU-Mercosur trade agreement “shows the kind of deals” a more united EU could make, the report said.

The authors stressed, however, that the west was clearly divided as Trump returns, not just between the US and Europe (and other allies such as South Korea), but also within the EU: some member states were far more welcoming of Maga than others.

“What the EU must do to be taken seriously by Trump’s White House resembles what it must do to make friends and influence people globally,” the report’s authors, foreign policy experts Mark Leonard, Ivan Krastev and Timothy Garton Ash, wrote.

Rather than trying to shape liberal resistance to Trump and “posing as a moral arbiter of everyone else’s behaviour”, Europe should “build its domestic strength and seek new bilateral partnerships to defend its own values and interests”, they said.

• The report surveyed 16 European countries (Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK), and eight non-European countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and the US).

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for US secretary of defense, defended his record in a contentious Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, acknowledging he was “not a perfect person” as Democratic lawmakers grilled the military veteran and Fox News host on 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, but none appeared ready to break ranks despite some having previously voiced concerns about Hegseth’s personal history and his views on women in the military.

After the four-hour session, Joni Ernst, a Republican of Iowa and the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate, pledged her support – a decision that all-but assures Hegseth will have enough votes to win confirmation.

“Our next commander in chief selected Pete Hegseth to serve in this role, and after our conversations, hearing from Iowans, and doing my job as a United States Senator, I will support President Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense,” she said in a statement.

Ernst, a survivor of sexual assault who has pushed for changes to how the military handles sexual assault cases, had initially expressed skepticism of his selection and was seen as a potential holdout. But she softened her opposition after Trump allies waged a pressure campaign against her, threatening to recruit a primary challenge in conservative Iowa if she opposed Hegseth’s nomination.

During the hearing, Hegseth pushed back against the criticism as he answered senators’ questions, dismissing the controversies as a “coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media,” and pitched himself as a “change agent” who would lead the Pentagon into a new era.

“From story after story in the media, leftwing media, we saw anonymous source after anonymous source based on second- or third-hand accounts,” Hegseth said. “I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real, and God forged me in ways that I know I’m prepared for, and I’m honored by the people standing and sitting behind me and look forward to leading this Pentagon on behalf of the war fighters.”

Republicans on the committee rushed to Hegseth’s defense, lobbing softball questions and echoing his concerns about anonymous sources attacking his character. Describing Hegseth as an “unconventional” nominee, Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the committee, 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.”

But Democratic members of the committee hammered Hegseth on the numerous accusations against him, including a claim of sexual assault. 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”.

Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, told Hegseth that he lacked “the character and composure and competence” 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 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.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a background check on Hegseth, but Reed bemoaned the report as “insufficient”, arguing that the bureau failed to speak to crucial witnesses. Reed requested that Wicker make the report available to all members of the committee, but Wicker said he would follow recent precedent by restricting the report’s access to the chair and the ranking member.

Multiple Democrats on the committee, including Tim Kaine of Virginia, reminded Hegseth that the allegations against him extended beyond anonymous accounts. His mother, Penelope Hegseth, once described him as “an abuser of women”, a characterization she has since rejected.

“You claim that this was all anonymous. We have seen records with names attached to all of these, including the name of your own mother,” Kaine said. “So don’t make this into some anonymous press thing. We have seen multiple names of colleagues consistently throughout your career that have talked about your abusive actions.”

Other Democrats grilled Hegseth on his previous comments 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”.

“Please explain these types of statements because they’re brutal and they’re mean and they disrespect men and women who are willing to die for this country,” Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat of New York, said.

Hegseth attempted to soften his earlier comments, telling Ernst that women would have access to ground combat roles “given the standards remain high” to qualify for such roles.

Unconvinced by Hegseth’s assurances, Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat of Illinois and another female veteran, framed his nomination as an insult to “women who’ve earned their place in their units”. Duckworth, who received the Purple Heart after losing her legs in an attack on her helicopter in 2004, quoted the Soldier’s Creed as she excoriated Hegseth’s nomination as “a no-go at this station”.

“How can we ask these warriors to train and perform at the absolute highest standards when you are asking us to lower the standards to make you the secretary of defense, simply because you are buddies with our president-elect?” Duckworth asked Hegseth. “You have not earned your place as secretary of defense.”

While Democrats expressed serious concerns about Hegseth’s leadership, several Republicans on the committee filled their allotted time with irrelevant questions like what he loved about his wife and how many push-ups he could do.

Underscoring the tension surrounding Hegseth’s nomination, protesters repeatedly interrupted his opening statement, with one attacking the nominee 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. During the hearing, Ernst, who has not yet publicly committed to supporting Hegseth, lauded the “many productive conversations” she has had with him in recent weeks. The 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.”

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

New users have piled in to the Chinese social media app RedNote just days before a proposed US ban on the popular social media app TikTok, as the lesser-known company rushes to capitalize on the sudden influx while walking a delicate line of moderating English-language content.

In a live chat dubbed “TikTok Refugees” on RedNote on Monday, more than 50,000 US and Chinese users joined the room. Veteran Chinese users, with some sense of bewilderment, welcomed their American counterparts and swapped notes with them on topics such as food and youth unemployment. Occasionally, however, the Americans veered into riskier territory.

“Is it OK to ask about how laws are different in China versus Hong Kong?” one American user asked. A Chinese user responded: “We prefer not to talk about that here.”

Such impromptu cultural exchanges were taking place all across RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, as the app surged to the top of US download rankings this week. Its popularity was driven by US social media users casting about for an alternative to ByteDance-owned TikTok days in advance of its looming ban.

RedNote, a venture capital-backed startup with a most recent valuation of $17bn, allows users to curate photos, videos and text documenting their lives. It has been viewed as a possible IPO candidate in China. In recent years, it has become a de facto search engine for its 300 million-plus users looking for travel tips, anti-ageing creams and restaurant recommendations.

In only two days, more than 700,000 new users joined Xiaohongshu, a person close to the company said. Xiaohongshu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. US downloads of RedNote were up more than 200% year-over-year this week, and 194% from the week before, according to estimates from app data research firm Sensor Tower.

The second-most popular free app on Apple’s App Store list on Tuesday, Lemon8, another social media app owned by ByteDance, experienced a similar surge last month, with downloads jumping by 190% in December to about 3.4m. The app saw a similar rise in Google’s Play Store.

The influx appeared to catch RedNote by surprise, with two sources familiar with the company saying they were scrambling to find ways to moderate English-language content and build English-Chinese translation tools. TikTok users posted videos of themselves speaking in basic Mandarin so as to interact more fully with RedNote users.

RedNote maintains only one version of its app, rather than splitting it into overseas and domestic apps – a rarity among Chinese social apps that are subject to domestic moderation rules. ByteDance publishes two versions of its short-form video app: Duoyin in China and TikTok in the remainder of the world.

RedNote is keen to mine the sudden rush of attention, as executives see it as a potential path to achieve global popularity similar to TikTok’s. The share prices of some China-listed companies that conduct businesses with RedNote, such as Hangzhou Onechance Tech Corp, surged as much as 20% on Tuesday, hitting the daily limit.

The spike in US users comes before a 19 January deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in the US on national security grounds. TikTok is currently used by about 170 million Americans, roughly half of the country’s population, and is overwhelmingly popular with young people and the advertisers looking to reach them.

“Americans using Rednote feels like a cheeky middle finger to the US government for its overreach into businesses and privacy concerns,” said Stella Kittrell, 29, a content creator based in Baltimore, Maryland. She said she joined RedNote in hopes of further collaborations with Chinese companies which she found helpful. Some users said they joined the platform to seek alternatives to Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, and to Elon Musk’s X. Some expressed doubt that they could rebuild their TikTok follower base on those apps.

“It’s not the same: Instagram, X or any other app,” said Brian Atabansi, 29, a business analyst and content creator based in San Diego, California. “Mainly because of how organic it is to build community on TikTok,” he said.

• Australia’s government summoned the Russian ambassador over reports a Melbourne man had been killed after being captured by Russia while fighting for Ukraine. Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, said: “We’ll await the facts to come out. But if there has been any harm caused to Oscar Jenkins, that’s absolutely reprehensible and the Australian government will take the strongest action possible.” Albanese did not rule out the possibility of expelling the Russian ambassador or recalling its envoy in Moscow. Jenkins, a teacher from Melbourne, was captured by Russia last year as a prisoner of war, Australian media reported. A video taken at the time showed him dressed in combat uniform being asked if he was a mercenary.

• Russia’s military on Tuesday said it would retaliate against Ukraine after Kyiv attacked Russian regions by firing six US-made Atacms ballistic missiles, six UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles and launching one of the biggest drone attacks to date. The Ukrainian general staff said it struck as deep as 1,100km (680 miles) inside Russia, targeting oil storage, refining, chemical and ammunition plants in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula and Tatarstan regions. Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had shot down all of the western missiles fired by Ukraine at the Bryansk region, as well as 146 drones outside the war zone. It said two more Storm Shadows had been shot down over the Black Sea. There was no independent verification.

• Russia’s foreign minister said Moscow was open for talks with the US president-elect, Donald Trump, and praised him for pointing to Nato’s plan to embrace Ukraine as a root cause of the war. Sergei Lavrov said at his annual news conference that any prospective peace talks should involve broader arrangements for security in Europe, and Moscow was open to discussing security guarantees for Kyiv. Trump said a week ago that Russia regarded it as “written in stone” that Ukraine’s membership in Nato should never be allowed, but the Biden administration had sought to expand the military alliance to Russia’s doorstep. Trump echoed Moscow’s rhetoric justifying its “special military operation” in Ukraine launched in February 2022. Lavrov claimed that Nato had “expanded to our borders” in violation of agreements. Nato leaders insist no such agreements have ever been made or put on record. Since 2004, the only Russia-bordering states to join Nato have been Finland and Sweden – both in response to Russia invading Ukraine.

• Russia’s defence ministry claimed its troops took control of two settlements in the Donetsk region on Tuesday: Terny, near the town of Siversk, one of the focal points of Russia’s campaign, and Neskuchne further south. Ukraine’s general staff said nothing about Terny changing hands but mentioned it as one of eight villages that came under attack, and identified Neskuchne as one of five villages where Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks. Reports could not be independently verified. Ukraine’s popular DeepState blog, which uses open-source material to pinpoint the position of Kyiv’s troops, said Russian forces had made gains around Neskuchne.

• A coalmine at the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk halted operations and evacuated staff, the operator said on Tuesday, with advancing Russian troops a few kilometres from its facilities. The mine and the city are at risk of being captured by Russian forces, who are pressing hard to try to seize the strategically important city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. “Metinvest announces the suspension of operations at Pokrovske Coal due to the evolving frontline conditions, power supply shortages and the deteriorating security situation,” the mine’s owner, steelmaker Metinvest, said in a statement. The site is Ukraine’s last producer of coking coal used to make steel.

• The European Commission intends to propose a ban on imports of Russian primary aluminium in its 16th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, EU diplomats said on Tuesday. The commission held informal meetings with EU countries on Tuesday to discuss details of the forthcoming package, Reuters reported. One source added that the ban would be phased in. In a letter late last year, 10 EU countries proposed further sanctions on Russian trade, including its output of metals such as aluminium. So far the bloc has banned aluminium products including wire, tubes and foil. The United States and Britain banned the import of metals produced in Russia in 2024, but the EU declined to follow suit owing to opposition from some member states.

• The leader of breakaway Moldovan region Transnistria has visited Moscow for talks on resolving its energy crisis, local media reported on Tuesday. Moscow cut off gas to Moldova on 1 January. Transnistria’s main TV channel did not say when Vadim Krasnoselsky visited or give details on who he talked to, but some Moldovan media outlets reported he travelled to Russia on Friday and returned on Tuesday. Transnistria’s de facto government – which has no international recognition from fully fledged states – said last Friday that it was “counting” on Russia to help it overcome the crisis, claiming it had not received concrete offers of support from Moldova or the EU.

• Australia’s government summoned the Russian ambassador over reports a Melbourne man had been killed after being captured by Russia while fighting for Ukraine. Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, said: “We’ll await the facts to come out. But if there has been any harm caused to Oscar Jenkins, that’s absolutely reprehensible and the Australian government will take the strongest action possible.” Albanese did not rule out the possibility of expelling the Russian ambassador or recalling its envoy in Moscow. Jenkins, a teacher from Melbourne, was captured by Russia last year as a prisoner of war, Australian media reported. A video taken at the time showed him dressed in combat uniform being asked if he was a mercenary.

• Russia’s military on Tuesday said it would retaliate against Ukraine after Kyiv attacked Russian regions by firing six US-made Atacms ballistic missiles, six UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles and launching one of the biggest drone attacks to date. The Ukrainian general staff said it struck as deep as 1,100km (680 miles) inside Russia, targeting oil storage, refining, chemical and ammunition plants in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula and Tatarstan regions. Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had shot down all of the western missiles fired by Ukraine at the Bryansk region, as well as 146 drones outside the war zone. It said two more Storm Shadows had been shot down over the Black Sea. There was no independent verification.

• Russia’s foreign minister said Moscow was open for talks with the US president-elect, Donald Trump, and praised him for pointing to Nato’s plan to embrace Ukraine as a root cause of the war. Sergei Lavrov said at his annual news conference that any prospective peace talks should involve broader arrangements for security in Europe, and Moscow was open to discussing security guarantees for Kyiv. Trump said a week ago that Russia regarded it as “written in stone” that Ukraine’s membership in Nato should never be allowed, but the Biden administration had sought to expand the military alliance to Russia’s doorstep. Trump echoed Moscow’s rhetoric justifying its “special military operation” in Ukraine launched in February 2022. Lavrov claimed that Nato had “expanded to our borders” in violation of agreements. Nato leaders insist no such agreements have ever been made or put on record. Since 2004, the only Russia-bordering states to join Nato have been Finland and Sweden – both in response to Russia invading Ukraine.

• Russia’s defence ministry claimed its troops took control of two settlements in the Donetsk region on Tuesday: Terny, near the town of Siversk, one of the focal points of Russia’s campaign, and Neskuchne further south. Ukraine’s general staff said nothing about Terny changing hands but mentioned it as one of eight villages that came under attack, and identified Neskuchne as one of five villages where Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks. Reports could not be independently verified. Ukraine’s popular DeepState blog, which uses open-source material to pinpoint the position of Kyiv’s troops, said Russian forces had made gains around Neskuchne.

• A coalmine at the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk halted operations and evacuated staff, the operator said on Tuesday, with advancing Russian troops a few kilometres from its facilities. The mine and the city are at risk of being captured by Russian forces, who are pressing hard to try to seize the strategically important city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. “Metinvest announces the suspension of operations at Pokrovske Coal due to the evolving frontline conditions, power supply shortages and the deteriorating security situation,” the mine’s owner, steelmaker Metinvest, said in a statement. The site is Ukraine’s last producer of coking coal used to make steel.

• The European Commission intends to propose a ban on imports of Russian primary aluminium in its 16th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, EU diplomats said on Tuesday. The commission held informal meetings with EU countries on Tuesday to discuss details of the forthcoming package, Reuters reported. One source added that the ban would be phased in. In a letter late last year, 10 EU countries proposed further sanctions on Russian trade, including its output of metals such as aluminium. So far the bloc has banned aluminium products including wire, tubes and foil. The United States and Britain banned the import of metals produced in Russia in 2024, but the EU declined to follow suit owing to opposition from some member states.

• The leader of breakaway Moldovan region Transnistria has visited Moscow for talks on resolving its energy crisis, local media reported on Tuesday. Moscow cut off gas to Moldova on 1 January. Transnistria’s main TV channel did not say when Vadim Krasnoselsky visited or give details on who he talked to, but some Moldovan media outlets reported he travelled to Russia on Friday and returned on Tuesday. Transnistria’s de facto government – which has no international recognition from fully fledged states – said last Friday that it was “counting” on Russia to help it overcome the crisis, claiming it had not received concrete offers of support from Moldova or the EU.

Bangladeshi police killed or injured at least 20 unarmed protesters in two previously undocumented incidents during the demonstrations that engulfed the country last year, according to newly examined video footage.

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), a rights group that documents alleged abuses, has analysed video footage of two incidents in Dhaka on 5 August – the day that Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country – and found evidence that officers deliberately targeted peaceful civilians.

The findings add to growing evidence of police brutality in the final days of Hasina’s regime as officers tried to violently crush the protests, killing more than 1,000 civilians, which eventually cost her her premiership.

Callum Macrae, the film-maker who analysed the videos, called them “extraordinary, chilling” and “grotesque”. He added: “It is quite clear from the footage that the police were under no threat and did not believe they were under any threat. They had absolutely no justification in law for using lethal violence against any of the protesters.

“The film makes clear how important it is that there is an independent judicial truth and justice process which can have the confidence of the Bangladeshi people,” he said.

Yasmin Sooka, the executive director of the ITJP and a former member of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said: “Considering that the protesters were unarmed and that there were a number of civilians besides the students it is absolutely shocking that the police used live ammunition against the students and the protesters. It’s horrific when you see the brutality of the violence.”

Sooka welcomed the news that Tulip Siddiq, Hasina’s neice, had stood down from her role in the British government on Tuesday afternoon after the outcome of a review by the UK adviser on ministerial standards Laurie Magnus, even though it found she had not breached ministerial standards. Siddiq, who was the City and anti-corruption minister, stepped aside after an investigation by Magnusinto her use of properties given to herself and family by allies of the regime of Sheikh Hasina.

“At no time have I ever heard any statement from her distancing herself from her aunt, or indicating any kind of remorse or sorrow for the atrocities committed in Bangladesh by her aunt’s regime against protesters and civilians,” she said.

Over her 15 years in power, Hasina’s authoritarian regime was widely accused of corruption, tyranny and widespread human rights abuses. When protests began to emerge across the country in July last year, Hasina responded by unleashing a wave of police brutality against peaceful protesters, who were hit with batons, rubber bullets and live ammunition, killing more than a thousand people and leaving hundreds blinded. An investigation by Amnesty International in July confirmed the unlawful use of lethal weapons against protesters by police.

In response, the protests swelled into an all-out revolution. By 5 August, as hundreds of thousands of people began to march towards her residence and the army refused to fire on civilians en masse, Hasina boarded a helicopter and fled the country.

As part of the ITJP investigation, Macrae and his team analysed footage of two incidents on 5 August, where Bangladeshi police were accused of opening fire and killing unarmed civilian protesters.

The first incident took place at about 2pm outside the Jatrabari police station in the south of the Bangladeshi capital. Smartphone videos show dozens of students amassing outside the police station and being met with gunfire from the officers they encountered.

Several officers fire 12-gauge pump-action shotguns towards the crowd, according to weapons experts who have reviewed the footage. One said subsequent images of injuries were consistent with the use of lethal cartridges, loaded with lead pellets.

Armed forces then appear and usher the police back into their station. But separate footage taken several minutes later then shows an officer apparently throwing a grenade into the crowd, after which the police surge forward and open fire.

As demonstrators flee, officers chase them while still firing. One injured man is hit repeatedly with a rifle butt and wooden batons while on the ground. Another is shot several times at close range while trying to hide behind a concrete pillar.

The film-makers counted at least 19 dead or injured people in the footage they were able to analyse.

The second video shows a 20-year-old man called Mohammed Riddoy being surrounded by police, apparently having been captured during the protests. As the police officers circle Riddoy, one approaches him from behind and shoots him in the back at point-blank range.

Riddoy falls to the ground, and the officers leave, before three of them return to pick up his body – potentially still alive – and drag it past the nearby hospital in the direction of the police station.

Riddoy has not been seen since. His family say they have pleaded for the return of his body, but the police deny all knowledge of its whereabouts. Jasmine Akhter, his sister, said: “I want him to be recognised as a martyr. We are a very poor family and I hope the government will take care of my parents.”

Baharul Alam, the inspector general of the Bangladeshi police, told the Guardian: “We have been conducting a thorough investigation into the role of police officers killing demonstrators in the July and August upsurge. At least 30 officers have already been arrested. We are cooperating with others who have evidence, including, for example, the international judicial organisation that has produced this short documentary.”

Speaking about the footage of Riddoy in particular, Alam said his office had verified his the veracity of the footage but were still looking for Riddoy’s body. He added that two police officers had been arrested for his killing.

The videos are being published alongside a new report by the ITJP and the Tech Global Institute, which focuses on another day of the protests – 19 July.

The groups found that on just one day at least 148 people were killed – three times more than initially reported – 40 of whom were 18 or under. The report’s authors said the findings added to evidence that the death toll from the violence might be far higher than previously thought.

Since her downfall, Hasina, her senior ministers and police officials have been named in a mounting number of cases in Bangladesh, with charges including crimes against humanity, mass murder and corruption. An arrest warrant and extradition request was recently issued for Hasina, who is living in exile in India and has denied the allegations.

Neil Gaiman has denied all allegations against him after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct in a New York Magazine article, writing in a lengthy statement: “I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.”

In July, a podcast investigation by Tortoise media reported allegations by two women of sexual assault against Gaiman. One of the women alleged that Gaiman had performed sexual acts on her without her consent when she was 22 and working as a nanny for the author’s family in New Zealand. Gaiman strongly denied any wrongdoing at the time, saying all of his sexual relationships were consensual.

After the podcast was released, a woman who had worked as Gaiman’s caretaker in upstate New York alleged that he had put pressure on her to have sex with him in return for letting her live at his property, then made her sign a non-disclosure agreement in return for a $275,000 payment. Gaiman said at the time that his relationship with her had been entirely consensual.

New York Magazine reported this week that more women had made accusations against Gaiman, including claims of sexual assault, sexual misconduct and coercion. The magazine interviewed to eight women, six on the record, including four women who participated in the Tortoise podcast series.

All of the women who spoke to New York Magazine on the record said they had been in a consensual sexual relationship with the author at points but claimed he preferred rough sex and BDSM activities that they had not always consented to beforehand. The two women who had worked for him said they felt coerced within the relationship as they worked for Gaiman and lived on his property.

In the full statement published on his website on Tuesday, Gaiman said he had refrained from speaking publicly about the allegations “out of respect for the people who were sharing their stories and out of a desire not to draw even more attention to a lot of misinformation” but added: “I’ve now reached the point where I feel that I should say something.”

While he acknowledged “there are moments I half-recognise and moments I don’t” in the New York Magazine article, he denied committing sexual assault, writing: “I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.”

While he still believed his relationships with all of the women were “entirely consensual sexual relationships” based on their communications with him at the time, he said he had spent months reflecting on how he had conducted himself in relationships.

“I was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been,” he wrote.

“At the same time, as I reflect on my past – and as I re-review everything that actually happened as opposed to what is being alleged – I don’t accept there was any abuse. To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.”

He said some of the “horrible” allegations “simply never happened” and that others “have been so distorted from what actually took place that they bear no relationship to reality”.

“I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. I’m not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can’t accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn’t do.”

Gaiman’s representatives previously told Tortoise that “sexual degradation, bondage, domination, sadism and masochism may not be to everyone’s taste, but between consenting adults, BDSM is lawful”.

A complaint accusing Gaiman of a sexual assault was made to New Zealand police in January 2023 but the investigation was eventually dropped.

Since the allegations came to light, three screen adaptations of Gaiman’s works have been cancelled or had their production paused, including Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives, the third and final season of the Amazon drama Good Omens, and a Disney adaptation of The Graveyard Book, which was in development. None of the streaming services has confirmed that these decisions were taken because of the allegations but Deadline reported that Gaiman had stepped back from his involvement in Good Omens due to the allegations.

Doctors are proposing a “radical overhaul” of how obesity is diagnosed worldwide amid concerns that a reliance on body mass index may be causing millions of people to be misdiagnosed.

More than 1 billion people are thought to be living with the condition that for decades has been diagnosed by measuring a person’s BMI (their ratio of height to weight) to estimate the amount of excess body fat they have.

However, there are fears BMI on its own is not a “reliable measure” of an individual’s health and may be resulting in both under- and over-diagnosis of obesity, with “negative consequences” for those affected and wider society.

Dozens of the world’s leading experts across a broad range of medical specialisms – including endocrinology, internal medicine, surgery, biology, nutrition and public health – are now calling for a “reframing” of the condition that is causing major harm on every continent and costing countries billions.

Relying only on BMI is “ineffective” because it is not a direct measure of fat, fails to reflect fat distribution around the body, and does not provide information about a person’s health, according to a report published by the experts in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal.

The proposed shake-up, endorsed by more than 75 medical organisations around the world, puts forward new ways to diagnose obesity based on other measures of excess body fat in addition to BMI, such as waist-to-hip ratio or waist-to-height ratio, as well as objective signs and symptoms of ill health.

At the moment, some people with excess body fat do not have a BMI that indicates they are living with obesity, meaning potentially serious health problems are going unnoticed and untreated. At the same time, others with a high BMI may be diagnosed with obesity despite maintaining normal organ and bodily functions, with no signs or symptoms of ongoing illness.

Prof Francesco Rubino, the chair of the Lancet commission which produced the report, said the changes would provide an opportunity for health systems globally to adopt a universal, clinically relevant definition of obesity and a more accurate method for its diagnosis.

He said: “The question of whether obesity is a disease is flawed because it presumes an implausible all-or-nothing scenario where obesity is either always a disease or never a disease. Evidence, however, shows a more nuanced reality. Some individuals with obesity can maintain normal organs’ function and overall health, even long term, whereas others display signs and symptoms of severe illness here and now.

“Considering obesity only as a risk factor, and never a disease, can unfairly deny access to time-sensitive care among people who are experiencing ill health due to obesity alone. On the other hand, a blanket definition of obesity as a disease can result in overdiagnosis and unwarranted use of medications and surgical procedures, with potential harm to the individual and staggering costs for society.”

The experts recommended two new categories of obesity: clinical obesity and pre-clinical obesity.

Clinical obesity would be defined as obesity associated with objective signs and/or symptoms of reduced organ function, or significantly reduced ability to conduct standard day-to-day activities such as bathing, dressing or eating, as a direct result of excess body fat. Patients with clinical obesity should be considered as having an ongoing chronic disease and receive appropriate management and treatments, such as weight-loss drugs, the experts said.

Pre-clinical obesity would be defined as obesity with normal organ function. People living with pre-clinical obesity therefore do not have ongoing illness, although they have a variable but generally increased risk of developing clinical obesity and other diseases in the future, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer and mental illness. People in this category should be supported to reduce the risk of potential disease, the experts said.

“Our reframing acknowledges the nuanced reality of obesity and allows for personalised care,” said Rubino, the chair of metabolic and bariatric surgery at King’s College London.

The Royal College of Physicians welcomed the report. Dr Kath McCullough, a special adviser on obesity, said: “For too long, we’ve relied on BMI as a simple measure of obesity, which has often misrepresented the condition and fails to fully reflect how excess body fat impacts a person’s health.

“The commission’s distinction between pre-clinical and clinical obesity represents a vital step forward, highlighting the need to identify and intervene early while providing appropriate care to those already experiencing severe health impacts.”

However, Katharine Jenner, the director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said the priority should be supporting those living with excess weight, “rather than focusing solely on how it is measured”.

A French woman who believed she was in a long-term romantic relationship with Brad Pitt and was scammed into paying €830,000 (£700,000) to help him with medical treatment faced such a wave of online mockery that a TV programme about her has been withdrawn.

The interior designer, named as Anne, 53, has been targeted on social media and even a satirical sketch on France’s biggest radio breakfast show after giving an interview about the case to the Seven to Eight programme on the TF1 channel on Sunday.

Speaking about what she had believed to be an online relationship with Pitt lasting more than a year, Anne said she had thought they were in love. When she was told the actor needed financial help for cancer treatment because his accounts had been frozen during divorce proceedings with Angelina Jolie, she transferred the money.

It was only when the Hollywood star was pictured in the media this summer with his partner, Inés de Ramon, that she realised she had fallen for an elaborate scam, Anne said.

“I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this,” she told TF1. “I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell.”

The TV programme went viral and resulted in a wave of online gags about credulity, causing the channel to withdraw the programme from its replay services on its websites on Tuesday.

TF1 said at the time of its broadcast that Anne had experienced mental health difficulties, had also had severe depression and been hospitalised for treatment. The TF1 presenter Harry Roselmack wrote on social media on Tuesday: “For the protection of victims, we have decided to withdraw [the segment] from our platforms.”

Among the social media accounts to have mocked Anne’s gullibility was Toulouse Football Club, which wrote on X: “Brad told us that he would be at the stadium on Wednesday,” for the team’s next match, before withdrawing the message and posting an apology.

Netflix France also posted on social media promoting “four films to see with Brad Pitt (really) for free”.

The scam dated back to February 2023, when Anne, who had been married to a wealthy entrepreneur, joined Instagram in order to share pictures of a skiing holiday in the French Alps.

On her return, she was contacted on the social network by someone posing as Jane Pitt, the actor’s mother, who began chatting to her and said she would be a good match for her son. Then another account got in touch claiming to be the actor himself. His mother had told him all about her, the person said. “I’d like to know more about you,” read one message to Anne. “But I’d like to know whether you work in the media as I’m protective of my private life.”

Anne, who said she did not have much understanding about social media, spent a year and a half communicating with the person she thought was Pitt. That person used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send her what appeared to be selfies and other messages, including poems and songs and an apparent copy of Pitt’s passport. She said he was really interested in her work and they communicated every day. “I was in love with the man I was chatting to,” she said. “He knew how to speak to a woman.”

Among the things Anne discussed with the person claiming to be Pitt was her large divorce settlement payment. She then received AI-generated pictures of the actor apparently in hospital, with requests to her to pay for his kidney treatment. She transferred hundreds of thousands of euros for supposed medical costs.

The TF1 programme makers said Anne had filed a police complaint over the scam.