Israel’s security cabinet has ratified a ceasefire deal to exchange dozens of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails and pause the 15-month war in Gaza for an initial six weeks.

The approval came after an unexpected delay that sparked fears that last-minute disagreements between Israel and Hamas might scuttle the agreement. Far-right members of the coalition government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also threatened to derail months of work to end the conflict.

The deal will now go to the full cabinet for the final signoff so that the agreement can be implemented on Sunday with the release of the first hostages and prisoners.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, welcomed the decision of the security cabinet to approve the deal and said he expected “the government to do so as well soon”. “This is a vital step on the path to upholding the basic commitment a nation has to its citizens,” he said.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s hardline national security minister, who on Thursday announced that he would quit the government if it ratified the ceasefire deal, issued a last-minute plea for other members of the government to vote against the agreement. “Everyone knows that these terrorists will try to harm again, try to kill again,” he said in a video statement.

According to Israeli media, Ben-Gvir and the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, voted against deal, while the other ministers voted in favour.

The Israeli high court is still scheduled to hear petitions against elements of the agreement, but is widely expected not to intervene.

Under the first phase of the deal, which is to last 42 days, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women, including female soldiers, and men aged over 50. In exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other female hostages.

Israel has stated that the names of the hostages will be made public only after they had been handed over to the IDF. A list containing the names of those who will be released over the next six weeks has been circulating on the main Israeli news sites since the early hours of Friday morning.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said that the French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages to be freed.

The releases will be staggered. On Sunday, three Israeli hostages are expected to be released, followed by four more on the seventh day, and again at the end of each week of the ceasefire.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the list of Palestinian prisoners to be freed will be published on the justice ministry’s website, “along with the offences for which they were convicted”, immediately after the cabinet approves the agreement.

According to a copy of the agreement seen by the Guardian, nine ill and wounded Israelis will be released in exchange for 110 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli jails. Men over 50 on the list of 33 hostages will be released in return for prisoners serving life sentences at a ratio of 1:3, and 1:27 for other sentences.

Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, two mentally ill Israeli men who entered Gaza a decade ago and have since been held hostage by Hamas, will be released in exchange for 30 prisoners. A further 47 prisoners rearrested after being freed as part of a 2011 deal that brought home the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Gaza will also be released.

The deal will also allow in the first phase Palestinians displaced from their homes to be allowed to move freely around the Gaza Strip, which Israel has cut into two halves with a military corridor. Wounded people are supposed to be evacuated for treatment abroad, and aid to the territory should increase to 600 trucks a day, above the 500 minimum that aid agencies say is needed to contain Gaza’s devastating humanitarian crisis.

In the second phase, the remaining living hostages would be sent back and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners would be freed, and Israel would completely withdraw from the territory. The specifics are subject to further negotiations, which are due to start 16 days into the first phase.

The third phase would address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza would be launched. Arrangements for future governance of the strip remain hazy. The Biden administration and much of the international community have advocated for the semi-autonomous West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which lost control of Gaza to Hamas in a brief civil war in 2007, to return to the strip. Israel, however, has repeatedly rejected the suggestion.

Dozens of relatives of hostages signed a letter calling on Netanyahu to commit that “all stages of the deal will be carried out until the return of the last hostage”.

G7 leaders welcomed the approval, describing it as a significant development.

“With a ceasefire soon to take hold, it is also crucial that we seize this opportunity to put an end to the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza,” a statement said. “We reaffirm our support for a credible pathway towards peace leading to a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians live side-by-side in peace, dignity, and security.”

Israeli negotiators are due to arrive in Cairo on Friday evening to discuss the logistical coordination of the agreement.

Israeli warplanes kept up intense strikes in Gaza until Thursday night. Palestinian authorities said that at least 86 people had been killed in the day after the truce was announced. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said late on Thursday that they had attacked approximately 50 targets throughout the Gaza Strip in 24 hours.

In more than 15 months of war, more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed. The international court of justice is studying claims that Israel has committed genocide.

About 1,200 people in Israel were killed and another 250 taken hostage in the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 that triggered the war. One hundred of the hostages were freed in exchange for 240 women and children held in Israeli jails as the result of a ceasefire deal struck in November 2023 that collapsed after a week.

Amid continuing airstrikes, bitter cold and news of delays, millions in Gaza were waiting anxiously on Thursday for confirmation that the ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Hamas and Israel was going ahead.

Many spoke of their fear that hopes of a new beginning after a 15-month conflict might be dashed. The war has killed many tens of thousands in the territory and reduced swathes of it to ruins.

“So far, the news is tense about the deal … so we follow the news 24 hours a day. The deal’s failure is possible, because the Israelis do not want Gaza and its people to rest and breathe,” said Muhammad al-Hebbil, 37, who was displaced early in the war from his home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya to Gaza City.

The agreement announced by Qatar on Wednesday followed months of fruitless negotiations and, if finalised, would pause hostilities one day before the inauguration of the US president-elect, Donald Trump, on Monday.

Reports that Israel had accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the deal, and that the Israeli cabinet had not yet met to ratify the agreement increased concerns on Thursday.

“Now everyone wishes to go to sleep and wake up on Sunday, when the fighting has stopped. The waiting is very difficult,” Hebbil said.

Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy Israeli bombardment. In previous conflicts in the territory, both sides have stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires as a way to project strength and inflict last-minute losses on their enemy.

Hebbil, who is living in a tent inside the Yarmouk sports stadium in Gaza City, said he had witnessed the aftermath of one attack, describing “a very difficult and painful sight”.

“Since the deal was agreed, the bombing has not stopped around us,” Hebbil said. “I saw a young man with the body of his brother who died yesterday evening. He was screaming and saying to him, ‘Why did you go now? I was coming to tell you that the war is over.’”

Officials in Gaza said nearly 80 had been killed since the truce was announced on Wednesday, bringing the overall total in the Israeli offensive to more than 46,700, mostly civilians.

“Yesterday [Wednesday] was a bloody day, and today is bloodier,” said Zaher al-Wahedi, the head of the health ministry’s registration department.

The war was triggered by the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 that the Israeli military says are dead.

Saeed Alloush, who lives in north Gaza, said he and his loved ones were “waiting for the truce and were happy”, until overnight strikes killed his relatives. “It was the happiest night since October 7,” he said, until “we received the news of the martyrdom of 40 people from the Alloush family”.

Recent low night temperatures and a lack of shelter have combined to deepen the sense of foreboding. Few in Gaza have gas, electricity or even firewood to warm themselves.

Ashraf Ahmed Fuaad, 49, said he was sitting in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza with his family “in the bitter cold”.

“We are waiting for news of the official ceasefire as if we are waiting for the moon to rise, dispelling the darkness of the night, where there is no electricity or life,” the father of three said. “I hope the ceasefire will finally come true, and that peace will prevail not only in Gaza but across the Middle East as well.”

Humanitarian agencies are calling for a “flood of aid” after a ceasefire. There are acute shortages of medicine, fuel, food and other basic necessities throughout Gaza.

The conflict has displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of whom are at risk of famine. Tented camps now stretch across what were once beaches and fields. Almost all of the territory’s infrastructure – power cables, sewers, water pipes – has been destroyed, along with much of its healthcare system. Aid workers describe some former busy cities as “moonscapes”.

“We are waiting for the opening of the crossings [from Egypt and Israel into Gaza] and the entry of essentials for life. Finally, the fear, anxiety and terror that we have been living through will come to an end,” Fuaad said.

It is still unclear who will run Gaza after the end of the war, and who might pay for the reconstruction. Just clearing Gaza’s rubble would take a fleet of 100 lorries 15 years to clear Gaza and cost between $500m (£394m) and $600m, a UN assessment earlier this year found. Experts say full reconstruction could take 30 or more years.

Many in Gaza fear that Israel will resume hostilities when the first of the three phases of the ceasefire ends.

“I am still not optimistic, and I feel that we will be betrayed and the ceasefire will be cancelled, even after signing the deal,” said Eman, a 19-year-old medical student from the Jabaliya neighbourhood, which has seen a blockade and fierce bombardment over recent months.

“I am very scared that after Israel got their prisoners, the war would return. I am afraid that it will fail. I hope with all my heart, pray to Allah sincerely that it will succeed.”

Joe Biden, who leaves office next week, announced on Friday he was commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offences, saying he had now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any predecessor.

The US president said in a statement that those benefiting from Friday’s action were “serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy and practice”.

The move provides clemency relief to individuals who were sentenced based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, and outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes, according to the statement issued by the White House.

The unprecedented wave of commutations reflects a last-minute push by the Biden administration to remedy what critics have long described as systemic inequities in federal drug sentencing.

“Too often, our criminal justice reforms only apply to the law going forward, leaving behind the very people and injustices that moved us to change,” the FWD.us executive director, Zoë Towns, said in a statement.

It also marks one of the most significant mass clemency actions in US history, addressing the controversial crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity that disproportionately affected communities of color – a policy partly shaped by Biden’s own 1994 crime bill and long criticized by reform advocates.

In December, Biden commuted the sentences for 37 of 40 federal inmates on death row, converting them to life in prison without parole, before Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office on 20 January.

He also announced in the same month that he was pardoning 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes, and commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 others who were serving long prison terms.

Biden has faced criticism for pardoning his son Hunter, who had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.

Defence attorneys and civil rights groups had ramped up efforts to highlight compelling cases and launched campaigns to help those they believed were wrongly convicted or were serving excessive terms for nonviolent offences.

Presidents typically order a round of pardons toward the end of their time in office.

Trump has promised to grant clemency to at least some of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in a failed attempt to block Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Reuters contributed reporting

The US supreme court has issued a ruling upholding a nationwide ban on TikTok unless it sells to an owner in the US. The nine justices voted unanimously in a decision on Friday that sides with the majority of US Congress and the US Department of Justice that the hugely popular social media app is a threat to US national security.

“We conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” the justices wrote. “The judgment of the United States court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is affirmed.” In December, a Washington DC appeals court upheld the ban.

This means TikTok, which is used by 170 million people in the US, will no longer be available for download in app stores starting on Sunday 19 January.

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the ruling reads.

The lawmakers who pushed for the ban say that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has the potential to be used as a weapon by the Chinese Communist party. They say China could use the app to manipulate and control Americans by spreading propaganda and misinformation. The supreme court ultimately agreed.

In their ruling, supreme court justices wrote that the app’s connection to Beijing was sufficient rationale for the ban, “Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”

The ban has caused a huge outcry by creators, first amendment advocates and civil liberties groups. They say banning the app is tantamount to censorship and sets a dangerous precedent in the US.

TikTok has the option to divest or sell its assets to a non-Chinese company. But it has said in legal filings that divestiture “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally”.

The supreme court heard oral arguments in the case last week. The justices spent far more time questioning TikTok about why it believes it should have first amendment rights than asking government lawyers about national security concerns. Noel Francisco, TikTok’s lawyer, argued that the ban was not about China and safety issues, but instead, “the government’s real target, rather, is the speech itself”.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor took issue with that idea. She said the government should be able to say when there is a threat and block it. “We have a right to say ‘you can’t do that, you can’t speak,’” she said.

Donald Trump has promised to “save TikTok” and even filed an amicus brief, or “friend of the court” brief, to the supreme court. He said he has the “consummate dealmaking expertise” to strike an agreement between TikTok and US lawmakers.

Trump told CNN on Friday: “It ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do. Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision.”

Once sworn into office on 20 January, one day after the ban goes into effect, Trump will have the option to direct the justice department to not enforce the law.

Joe Biden’s press secretary said in a statement about the ban: “Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his concurring opinion that “what might happen next to TikTok remains unclear”, alluding to the possibility that Trump might not enforce the ban.

Gorsuch expressed reservations with the law, though he voted to uphold it.

“Whether this law will succeed in achieving its ends, I do not know. A determined foreign adversary may just seek to replace one lost surveillance application with another,” he wrote. “But the question we face today is not the law’s wisdom, only its constitutionality. Given just a handful of days after oral argument to issue an opinion, I cannot profess the kind of certainty I would like to have about the arguments and record before us.”

The International Monetary Fund has upgraded its forecast for UK growth this year in an update to its biannual assessment of the global economy, while taking a swipe at plans by Donald Trump’s incoming US administration for the potentially destabilising effect of large-scale tax cuts, import tariffs and weaker regulations.

In a fillip to the Labour government, the Washington-based organisation said it expected the UK economy to grow by 1.6% in 2025, up from an earlier forecast of 1.5%.

The IMF judged that Labour’s increase in investment spending, improved household finances and a series of interest rate cuts by the Bank of England would give the UK economy a lift, after growing by 0.9% in 2024 according to the fund’s expectations.

The UK upgrade was in contrast to the eurozone, where the IMF revised down its forecasts for growth in 2025 in Germany, France and Italy.

Analysts at the IMF said they believed the Bank of England would cut interest rates four times this year, reducing the headline rate from 4.75% to 3.75%.

Until last week, financial markets were betting on only two rate cuts, though a fall in inflation to 2.5% and figures showing weak retail sales before Christmas have increased the odds of at least three reductions this year.

A spokesperson for the IMF said Labour’s budget rules showed the government was committed to bringing down the UK debt over the longer term.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said: “The UK is forecast to be the fastest growing major European economy over the next two years and the only G7 economy, apart from the US, to have its growth forecast upgraded for this year.

She added: “I will go further and faster in my mission for growth through intelligent investment and relentless reform, and deliver on our promise to improve living standards in every part of the UK through the plan for change.”

Germany was expected to recover from a two-year period of contraction with a 0.8% growth rate in 2025, but the forecast was downgraded in the latest assessment to just 0.3%. France is predicted to grow by 0.8% after a 0.3 percentage point downgrade.

Next year, the UK is on course to grow by 1.6%, topping France, Germany and Italy for a second successive year.

The IMF’s World Economic Outlook predicted global growth would remain weaker than its pre-pandemic level, but said there was the prospect of a steady rate of expansion this year and next of 3.3%.

Basing his assessment on current policies, the IMF chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, said a period of stability would “draw to a close the global disruptions of recent years, including the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which precipitated the largest inflation surge in four decades”.

However, there was an explicit warning to Trump and his economic advisers to resist dramatic policy shifts that would endanger the stability of the US and global economy.

While, the IMF’s health check shows US will maintain its status as the fastest growing G7 economy, with a 2.7% rate of expansion this year and 2.1% next year, this judgment is based on policies adopted by the Biden administration.

Gourinchas said steep tax cuts could stimulate growth but at the risk of forcing the US Federal Reserve to prevent an inflationary spiral by raising interest rates. Washington would also need to borrow to fund the tax cuts, increasing US debt and potentially undermining the status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

Extending the warning to plans for import tariffs and regulation cuts, Gourinchas said: “An intensification of protectionist policies, for instance, in the form of a new wave of tariffs, could exacerbate trade tensions, lower investment, reduce market efficiency, distort trade flows and again disrupt supply chains. Growth could suffer in both the near and medium term, but at varying degrees across economies.”

He added: “An excessive rollback of regulations designed to put limits on risk-taking and debt accumulation may generate boom-bust dynamics for the US in the longer term, with repercussions for the rest of the world.”

The risk of inflation returning – forcing central banks to raise interest rates again – was one of several issues the IMF said could threaten its assessment.

“The risk of renewed inflationary pressures could prompt central banks to raise policy rates and intensify monetary policy divergence. Higher-for-even-longer interest rates could worsen fiscal, financial, and external risks,” it said.

Donald Trump’s aides have signaled that Monday’s inauguration speech will strike a noticeably more upbeat tone than his equivalent address eight years ago, when he talked darkly about “American carnage” and depicted the US as a country riddled by violent crime, drugs and economic degradation.

The news website Axios cited Trump associates as saying “light” and “unity” would be the guiding themes – exemplified by a “one America, one light” prayer service for donors.

“Light signifies hope, it signifies a new beginning, it signifies a pathway forward. It’s really something that has been a theme for the inaugural … but also a guiding principle for our team over the past couple months,” one person familiar with the preparations told Axios.

However, any light tone is likely to be superseded darker substance once Trump returns to the White House. He previously promised to be a “dictator” for day one of his term – meaning immediate action within hours of taking office.

Trump and his staff issue have promised to issue a flurry of executive orders that are expected to heavily feature a crackdown on immigration, new tariffs on foreign imports and a raft of other campaign promises that have become staples of the president-elect’s rightwing Maga (Make America Great Again) agenda.

During his election campaign Trump ran on an extremist platform of remaking American government and the US economy, involving rolling back many of Joe Biden’s actions, especially on the environment, and slashing government spending and the federal workforce.

Earlier this week the Trump ally and former top strategist Steve Bannon predicted a hectic and extreme start to the second Trump presidency. He told Politico that the administration would act quickly to push through its agenda.

“‘Days of thunder,’ I think are gonna be the concepts starting next Monday,” Bannon told the outlet “And I think these days of thunder starting next week are going to be incredibly, incredibly intense.”

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, will skip Trump’s presidential inauguration on Monday in an apparent snub that continues a long-running vendetta between the pair.

No explanation has been provided for the decision, which was confirmed by a spokesperson for Pelosi. It contrasts with other senior Democrats, including Biden, who have said they will attend in the interests of observing America’s time-honoured tradition of peaceful transfers of power, although Michelle Obama, the former first lady, has decided against attending.

Trump avoided Biden’s inauguration after his defeat four years ago, baselessly claiming that the 2020 election had been stolen.

When a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, several of his supporters invaded and defiled Pelosi’s office, with one being photographed in her chair with his booted foot on her desk. Trump has vowed to pardon many of those convicted of the Capitol insurrection as one of his first acts in office.

Pelosi’s decision to avoid the ceremony appears all the more pointed given that she has been turning up at Congress to participate in House votes even though she is recovering from a broken hip sustained after she fell on an official trip to Luxembourg last month.

Bad blood between between Trump and Pelosi stems from the incoming president’s first term, during which Pelosi became House speaker for the second time, before clashing with him over government funding and his spearheading his first impeachment.

After the two crossed swords, Trump refused to shake her hand before the 2020 State of the Union address, after which Pelosi – seated behind the president – theatrically tore up his speech as his Republican supporters gave a standing ovation.

Trump has belittled Pelosi with the title “crazy Nancy” and mocked a violent attack on her husband, Paul, by an intruder at the couple’s San Francisco home, repeating conspiracy theories that the incident was staged.

Donald Trump’s aides have signaled that Monday’s inauguration speech will strike a noticeably more upbeat tone than his equivalent address eight years ago, when he talked darkly about “American carnage” and depicted the US as a country riddled by violent crime, drugs and economic degradation.

The news website Axios cited Trump associates as saying “light” and “unity” would be the guiding themes – exemplified by a “one America, one light” prayer service for donors.

“Light signifies hope, it signifies a new beginning, it signifies a pathway forward. It’s really something that has been a theme for the inaugural … but also a guiding principle for our team over the past couple months,” one person familiar with the preparations told Axios.

However, any light tone is likely to be superseded darker substance once Trump returns to the White House. He previously promised to be a “dictator” for day one of his term – meaning immediate action within hours of taking office.

Trump and his staff issue have promised to issue a flurry of executive orders that are expected to heavily feature a crackdown on immigration, new tariffs on foreign imports and a raft of other campaign promises that have become staples of the president-elect’s rightwing Maga (Make America Great Again) agenda.

During his election campaign Trump ran on an extremist platform of remaking American government and the US economy, involving rolling back many of Joe Biden’s actions, especially on the environment, and slashing government spending and the federal workforce.

Earlier this week the Trump ally and former top strategist Steve Bannon predicted a hectic and extreme start to the second Trump presidency. He told Politico that the administration would act quickly to push through its agenda.

“‘Days of thunder,’ I think are gonna be the concepts starting next Monday,” Bannon told the outlet “And I think these days of thunder starting next week are going to be incredibly, incredibly intense.”

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, will skip Trump’s presidential inauguration on Monday in an apparent snub that continues a long-running vendetta between the pair.

No explanation has been provided for the decision, which was confirmed by a spokesperson for Pelosi. It contrasts with other senior Democrats, including Biden, who have said they will attend in the interests of observing America’s time-honoured tradition of peaceful transfers of power, although Michelle Obama, the former first lady, has decided against attending.

Trump avoided Biden’s inauguration after his defeat four years ago, baselessly claiming that the 2020 election had been stolen.

When a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, several of his supporters invaded and defiled Pelosi’s office, with one being photographed in her chair with his booted foot on her desk. Trump has vowed to pardon many of those convicted of the Capitol insurrection as one of his first acts in office.

Pelosi’s decision to avoid the ceremony appears all the more pointed given that she has been turning up at Congress to participate in House votes even though she is recovering from a broken hip sustained after she fell on an official trip to Luxembourg last month.

Bad blood between between Trump and Pelosi stems from the incoming president’s first term, during which Pelosi became House speaker for the second time, before clashing with him over government funding and his spearheading his first impeachment.

After the two crossed swords, Trump refused to shake her hand before the 2020 State of the Union address, after which Pelosi – seated behind the president – theatrically tore up his speech as his Republican supporters gave a standing ovation.

Trump has belittled Pelosi with the title “crazy Nancy” and mocked a violent attack on her husband, Paul, by an intruder at the couple’s San Francisco home, repeating conspiracy theories that the incident was staged.

A former journalist turned senior government minister – who was dubbed a “nasty woman” by Donald Trump after bruising trade negotiations with the US – has announced that she will run for leadership of Canada’s ailing Liberal party.

Chrystia Freeland declared her intention to become the next Liberal leader – and the country’s next prime minister – on Friday with a post on social media, with plans for a formal campaign launch in Toronto on Sunday.

“I’m running to fight for Canada,” she wrote.

Freeland triggered the current leadership race by resigning as the country’s finance minister last month after clashing with the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, over how to handle the looming threat of US tariffs. Her stern rebuke of the prime minister came amid mounting calls for him to step aside. Weeks later, he resigned.

But as Canada gears up for a trade war with the United States, it is unclear how Freeland’s relationship with the incoming US president might help – or harm – her candidacy in Canada, where political leaders of all stripes have called for unity and a strong national response.

In a Friday column published in the Toronto Star, Freeland laid out her plan to push back against Trump.

“Being strong means being clear with our American neighbours: we love our country just as much as you love yours. If you hit us, we will hit back. We will not escalate, but we will never back down,” she wrote, adding the Canadian response to tariffs would be “precisely and painfully” targeted.

“Florida orange growers, Michigan dishwasher manufacturers and Wisconsin dairy farmers: brace yourselves. Canada is America’s largest export market – bigger than China, Japan, the U.K., and France combined. If pushed, our response will be the single largest trade blow the U.S. economy has ever endured.”

During the re-negotiation of the North American free trade pact in 2018, Freeland sparred with American negotiators, prompting Trump to tell reporters: “We’re very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada – we don’t like their representative very much.”

The US president-elect greeted her resignation last month by posting: “Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”

In geography-obsessed Canada, where politicians attribute cultural – and even moral – values from their home towns, Freeland has positioned herself is the “proud daughter” of Peace River, a small Alberta farming community in the conservative heartland.

Freeland, 56, a graduate of both Harvard and Oxford, spent her early career as a globe-trotting journalist reporting largely on the collapse of the Soviet Union – work that later saw her banned from entering Russia.

She hails from the Ukrainian diaspora that settled, and has farmed, much of the Canadian prairies for generations and emerged as a fierce supporter of Kyiv after Russia’s full invasion. As prime minister, Freeland would likely continue Canada’s support for Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

After leaving Moscow, she eventually returned to North America, by way of Toronto and New York, with senior editorial positions at the Globe and Mail, the FT and Thomson Reuters.

In 2013, Trudeau, then the newly minted Liberal party leader, pursued Freeland, pleading with her to leave media and enter politics.

After winning a seat in Toronto, Freeland was quickly elevated to vaunted ministerial roles in the Trudeau government. She served as minister of foreign affairs before she was promoted to finance minister, also filling the role of deputy prime minister and minister of intergovernmental affairs.

Long seen as one Justin Trudeau’s closest allies, Freeland broke with Trudeau in December over his plans to oust her as finance minister and his response to Trump’s threat of protectionist trade tariffs. Freeland dismissed Trudeau’s promise to temporarily halt certain taxes and to mail cheques to citizens as “costly political gimmicks” and implied that he did not understand the “gravity of the moment”.

If Freeland emerges victorious on 9 March, when the party announces the winner of the leadership race, she will be the second Canadian ever, after Jean Chrétien, to move from deputy to prime minister. She would also be then second female prime minister in the country’s history.

Seen as highly perceptive and blunt, she is known for her tendency to write notes on her hand, with reporters and officials routinely attempting to decipher the scrawl.

Recent polls have her narrowly as the favourite to win the leadership race and a survey by Angus Reid Institute found Freeland “the most appealing candidate” for voters who haven’t ruled out voting Liberal in an upcoming election. Abacus Data found she was by far the most recognizable candidate to Canadians: 51% could identify from a photograph.

Her main challenge in a general election, would be to portray herself as different from Trudeau, given how closely they worked together.

Despite Trump’s frustration with Freeland, inside Canada she has forged strong relationships across party and ideological lines.

“I absolutely love Chrystia Freeland. She’s amazing. I’ll have her back,” conservative Ontario premier Doug Ford said when she was appointed finance minister in 2020.

Even Robert Lighthizer, her US opposite number in the trade negotations, described her as a “good friend”.

More than a dozen Liberals in parliament say they support her. One lawmaker, Randy Boissonnault, told the Globe and Mail there were no “no training wheels needed” for Freeland to engage with Trump in the coming months.

Kevin Lamoureux, a member of parliament from Winnipeg, said in a video posted on Instagram said her savviness as a negotiator made her the best choice.

“I ultimately believe that there’s no one in the House of Commons today … that understands the importance of trade and that has negotiated as many deals as she has.”

Russian state-linked hackers have targeted the WhatsApp accounts of government ministers and officials around the world with emails inviting them to join user groups on the messaging app.

The WhatsApp tactic marks a new approach by a hacking unit called Star Blizzard. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has linked Star Blizzard to Russia’s domestic spy agency, the FSB, and has accused it of seeking to “undermine trust in politics in the UK and likeminded states”.

According to a blogpost by Microsoft, victims receive an email from an attacker impersonating a US government official, enticing the recipient to click on a QR code that gives the attacker access to their WhatsApp account. The code, instead of giving access to a WhatsApp group, connects an account to a linked device or the WhatsApp Web portal.

“The threat actor can gain access to the messages in their WhatsApp account and have the capability to exfiltrate this data,” said Microsoft.

Microsoft did not state whether data had been stolen successfully from targeted WhatsApp accounts.

It said the fake email was an invitation to join a WhatsApp group on “the latest non-governmental initiatives aimed at supporting Ukraine NGOs”. As well as targeting ministers and officials in unnamed countries, the campaign has attempted to snare people involved in diplomacy, defence policy and international relations research related to Russia, as well as work related to helping Ukraine in its war with Russia.

In 2023, the NCSC said Star Blizzard had targeted British MPs, universities and journalists among others, in efforts to “interfere with UK politics and democracy”. It described Star Blizzard as being “almost certainly subordinate” to the FSB’s Centre 18 unit. As part of the 2023 announcement, the UK imposed sanctions on two Star Blizzard members including an officer in the FSB.

Microsoft said the WhatsApp campaign appeared to have been wound down in November but the shift in tactics by Star Blizzard underlined the unit’s tenacity in using spear phishing – the term for targeting specific individuals or groups with malicious emails – to try to access sensitive information. The increasingly popular practice of using QR codes by cybercriminals is called “quishing” among the cybersecurity community.

Microsoft recommended that email users belonging to sectors targeted by Star Blizzard should “always remain vigilant” when dealing with emails, particularly messages containing external links.

“When in doubt, contact the person you think is sending the email using a known and previously used email address to verify that the email was indeed sent by them,” it said.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is an end-to-end encrypted app, meaning that only the sender and recipient of a message can see it, unless the user is tricked into handing over access to their account.

A WhatsApp spokesperson said: “If you want to link your WhatsApp account to a companion device, you should only do so by going to WhatsApp’s officially supported services – and not through third-party websites. And no matter which service you’re on, you should only click on links from people you know and trust.”

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will not attend Donald Trump’s inauguration, but he is sending his vice-president, Han Zheng, as his special representative.

The decision, announced on Friday in China by the foreign ministry, came more than a month after Trump extended the unusual invitation to Xi, a break from tradition since no heads of state have previously made an official visit to the US for the inauguration.

“We stand ready to work with the new US government to enhance dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly pursue a stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relations and find the right way for the two countries to get along with each other,” the ministry’s spokesperson said when announcing the decision.

Other foreign leaders have spoken about being invited to Trump’s inauguration, including the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. The offices of the Ecuadorean president, Daniel Noboa, and the Paraguayan president, Santiago Peña, have also said they were invited and were planning to attend.

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based thinktank Stimson Center, said the move by Xi meant “China is willing to forego protocol and cater to what Trump wants.”

“It indicates that China is willing to talk, negotiate and make efforts to reach deals,” Sun wrote.

Danny Russel, vice-president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Beijing was hedging by sending Han instead of Xi.

“Zero chance that Xi Jinping would allow himself to be potted plant at Donald Trump’s triumphal coronation. At the same time, ensuring that China extends enough courtesy to avoid bruising Trump’s ego,” Russel wrote. Han’s mission, the former American diplomat said, was “symbolic, not substantive”.

The dispatch of Han comes as the US-China rivalry is set to intensify. Several of Trump’s nominees for key cabinet positions are known China hawks, including senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has been nominated as secretary of state.

Rubio called China “the most potent, dangerous and near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted” during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, when members of the Senate foreign relations committee urged Rubio to make countering China a top priority.

Beijing prefers leader-level talks, which it believes could help guide the bilateral relations, while Trump likes to deal with world leaders directly.

As president, Xi has traveled abroad for state visits and summits. But he did not attend the coronation of King Charles III, nor did he go to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II or the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.

A group of Greenlanders who attended a lunch hosted by Donald Trump Jr wearing Make America Great Again caps were not dedicated supporters of the US president-elect but homeless people enticed by the prospect of free food, it has been claimed.

Trump Jr visited the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, last week, shortly after his father declared it was an “absolute necessity” for the US to take control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.

During his visit, Trump Jr went to the Hotel Hans Egede for lunch with a group of people wearing Maga hats and put his father on speakerphone. The president-elect told them: “We’re going to treat you well.”

But Jørgen Bay-Kastrup, the hotel’s chief executive, said many of his guests were not Trump supporters but people his team had met on the street who found out only later who Trump Jr was.

Describing many of the group as homeless people, he said Trump Jr “had just met them in the street and invited them for lunch, or his staff did. But I don’t think they knew who they were inviting”.

“That of course was a little bit strange to us because we saw guests that we have never seen in our hotel before – and will probably never see again because it’s out of their economical means.”

The group of about 15 people ate a traditional Greenlandic lunch including fish and caribou. They were not, Bay-Kastrup added, Trump supporters. “They were just, ‘hey, somebody invited us for lunch, let’s go and join him’. I think they found out later who it was.”

A spokesperson for Trump Jr denied the claims, describing them as “beyond the pale ridiculous”.

Trump Jr’s visit came as his father refused to rule out using military or economic action to acquire the world’s largest island.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have published a draft bill called the Make Greenland Great Again Act, which would allow the Trump administration, which takes office on Monday, to hold talks to attempt to purchase the territory.

Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly said that the island, whose foreign and security policy are controlled by Denmark, a Nato member, is not for sale. The Greenlandic prime minister has, however, said that his government is interested in deepening collaboration with the US and has its “doors open in terms of mining”.

Asked about Trump’s interest in Greenland, Bay-Kastrup, who is Danish, said: “We are not a trade, we are not something for sale. We would like to cooperate, but we are not for sale.”

Since Trump Jr’s visit, people dressed in Maga caps and American flags have reportedly been distributing $100 bills and filming it outside the supermarket opposite.

One man, Jacob Nordstrøm, was quoted in the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq as saying his son, 11, had come home with a $100 bill. He told the paper, which described those handing out the money as Canadian-American influencers: “It’s really borderline shocking to find out that my 11-year-old son has received money from an adult he doesn’t know.”

Bay-Kastrup, who has witnessed the scenes from his office, said he thought most people probably found the stunt amusing, but that he had seen one person take a Maga cap and stamp on it.

In response to the Guardian’s request for comment about Trump Jr’s lunch guests, Arthur Schwartz, a political operative and friend of the president-elect’s son, said: “Do you think Donald Trump Jr was wandering around Greenland inviting homeless people … to lunch, or do you realise that the suggestion sounds so beyond the pale ridiculous that you should feel stupid even asking the question?

“There were cameras following him around from the second he got there to the second he left. Did they miss him recruiting homeless people … to his homeless person … lunch?”