Hamas has published the names of four Israeli women being held captive in Gaza who it plans to release this weekend as part of the continuing ceasefire agreement between the armed group and Israel.

The group are all female IDF observation troops who were abducted by Hamas from their base in Nahal Oz during the group’s surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 when their base was overrun.

The four women , who have been held by Hamas in Gaza for 15 months, were named as Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag.

Not on the list, however, was Arbel Yehoud the last female civilian hostage being held in Gaza, who Israeli officials briefed earlier this week that they expected to be released this weekend.

While the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed Hamas had supplied the names of those to be released to mediators, there was no immediate confirmation of the names.

According to the deal, Israel will next publish a list of which Palestinians being held in Israeli jails it will release this weekend. The first exchange took place Sunday with the release of three Israeli civilian hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners.

Dozens of Israelis and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are set to be freed, while more humanitarian aid flows into Gaza.

Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Israeli troops will not comply with a Sunday deadline for them to withdraw from southern Lebanon, throwing the ceasefire with Hezbollah into crisis.

Confirming that Israel would not meet the 26 January deadline, the prime minister’s office said in a statement: “The IDF’s withdrawal process is conditional on the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani [River].”

It said Israel regarded the ceasefire as “not yet fully enforced” and that “the phased withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the United States”.

While Israel has accused Lebanon of failing to meet its side of the deal, not least the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces south of the Litani River – about 18 miles north of the border – Lebanon has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire.

The decision to delay the withdrawal, made at an Israeli cabinet meeting on Thursday evening, follows several weeks of briefings suggesting Israel intended to remain in at least five outposts in Lebanon.

Under the agreed ceasefire, which brought an end to the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli forces are supposed to have completed their withdrawal within 60 days, or by 26 January.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, explained the reasoning in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio earlier this week, saying more time was required from the Lebanese army to deploy south of the Litani River, suggesting the deal was not unchangeable.

“The agreement included a 60-day target for completing the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take its place, but it isn’t set in stone and was phrased with some flexibility,” Herzog said.

“We are in discussions with the Trump administration to extend the time needed to enable the Lebanese army to truly deploy and fulfil its role under the agreement. These discussions are ongoing.”

Despite a request for a delay it was unclear whether the Trump administration had agreed to the request.

Israel’s reluctance to leave Lebanon comes at a fraught juncture in the first phase of the week-old fragile ceasefire in Gaza, with a large-scale Israeli operation under way in the occupied West Bank, and a profound lack of clarity over what Trump’s policies in the Middle East will look like.

Herzog’s comments follow an earlier briefing by unnamed Israeli government sources to the national broadcaster Channel 13, suggesting the country is pushing to keep a military presence in Lebanon.

This week a Hezbollah MP said any failure to comply with the deadline would cause the ceasefire to collapse.

“We in Hezbollah are waiting for the date of January 26, the day on which the ceasefire requires a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory,” Ali Fayyad said. “If the Israeli enemy does not comply with this, it will mean the collapse of the [ceasefire deal].”

Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, accused Israel of hundreds of ceasefire violations. “We have been patient with the violations to give a chance to the Lebanese state responsible for this agreement, along with the international sponsors, but I call on you not to test our patience,” he said last weekend.

Despite its recent rhetoric, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah suffered heavy losses of personnel and materiel during the conflict, which Israel said killed its longtime general secretary, Hassan Nasrallah.

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December also closed a key Iranian weapons supply route for Hezbollah.

Full-scale conflict broke out in September, after almost a year of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, displacing tens of thousands of civilians on both sides.

Israeli forces are still operating in the buffer zone in neighbouring Syria, which Israeli forces entered after the fall of Assad despite international calls to pull back.

Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Israeli troops will not comply with a Sunday deadline for them to withdraw from southern Lebanon, throwing the ceasefire with Hezbollah into crisis.

Confirming that Israel would not meet the 26 January deadline, the prime minister’s office said in a statement: “The IDF’s withdrawal process is conditional on the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani [River].”

It said Israel regarded the ceasefire as “not yet fully enforced” and that “the phased withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the United States”.

While Israel has accused Lebanon of failing to meet its side of the deal, not least the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces south of the Litani River – about 18 miles north of the border – Lebanon has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire.

The decision to delay the withdrawal, made at an Israeli cabinet meeting on Thursday evening, follows several weeks of briefings suggesting Israel intended to remain in at least five outposts in Lebanon.

Under the agreed ceasefire, which brought an end to the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli forces are supposed to have completed their withdrawal within 60 days, or by 26 January.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, explained the reasoning in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio earlier this week, saying more time was required from the Lebanese army to deploy south of the Litani River, suggesting the deal was not unchangeable.

“The agreement included a 60-day target for completing the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take its place, but it isn’t set in stone and was phrased with some flexibility,” Herzog said.

“We are in discussions with the Trump administration to extend the time needed to enable the Lebanese army to truly deploy and fulfil its role under the agreement. These discussions are ongoing.”

Despite a request for a delay it was unclear whether the Trump administration had agreed to the request.

Israel’s reluctance to leave Lebanon comes at a fraught juncture in the first phase of the week-old fragile ceasefire in Gaza, with a large-scale Israeli operation under way in the occupied West Bank, and a profound lack of clarity over what Trump’s policies in the Middle East will look like.

Herzog’s comments follow an earlier briefing by unnamed Israeli government sources to the national broadcaster Channel 13, suggesting the country is pushing to keep a military presence in Lebanon.

This week a Hezbollah MP said any failure to comply with the deadline would cause the ceasefire to collapse.

“We in Hezbollah are waiting for the date of January 26, the day on which the ceasefire requires a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory,” Ali Fayyad said. “If the Israeli enemy does not comply with this, it will mean the collapse of the [ceasefire deal].”

Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, accused Israel of hundreds of ceasefire violations. “We have been patient with the violations to give a chance to the Lebanese state responsible for this agreement, along with the international sponsors, but I call on you not to test our patience,” he said last weekend.

Despite its recent rhetoric, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah suffered heavy losses of personnel and materiel during the conflict, which Israel said killed its longtime general secretary, Hassan Nasrallah.

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December also closed a key Iranian weapons supply route for Hezbollah.

Full-scale conflict broke out in September, after almost a year of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, displacing tens of thousands of civilians on both sides.

Israeli forces are still operating in the buffer zone in neighbouring Syria, which Israeli forces entered after the fall of Assad despite international calls to pull back.

In his first interview after his release from prison, Enrique Tarrio thanked Donald Trump for pardoning him for his role in planning the January 6 riot, saying he “literally gave me my life back”.

Now that he is out, the Proud Boys leader wants revenge, he told Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist host of Info Wars.

“The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted,” Tarrio said.

“Success is going to be retribution,” he added. “We gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next 100 years.”

In the days since the leaders of far-right militia groups were freed from prison, they and their organizations are regrouping and figuring out how to build back momentum now that Trump is back in office. They are emboldened by the mass pardons for the insurrectionists and are planning their next moves.

Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, showed up at the US Capitol this week, dining at a Dunkin inside the Longworth House office building. The Associated Press reported that Rhodes “met with at least one lawmaker during his visit and chatted with others” while on Capitol Hill.

He gave interviews outside the DC jail, where he said he wanted prosecutors to be tried for their “crimes”. Rhodes was not pardoned – his sentence was commuted, and he was released early. He wants a full pardon.

Rhodes suggested January 6 should be remembered in history as “patriots day”. He has not expressed regret for his role in the riots, saying his members were entrapped and their responses to police force were understandable. “We were there to protect Trump supporters from Antifa,” he said in a video after his release.

When Rhodes was sentenced in 2023, the judge in his case said: “You are smart, you are charismatic and compelling and frankly that’s what makes you dangerous. The moment you are released, whenever that may be, you will be ready to take up arms against your government.”

Tarrio and Rhodes had some of the longest sentences given to January 6 defendants, at 22 years and 18 years, respectively. Both were charged with seditious conspiracy for their roles helping plan the attack. Members of both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers infiltrated the Capitol on January 6, and some of them engaged in violence. The Oath Keepers “plotted for months to violently disrupt the peaceful transfer of power” and the Proud Boys “played a central role in setting the January 6 attack on our Capitol into motion”, attorneys for the government said during the cases against group members.

At the time of Tarrio’s sentencing, federal prosecutors said: “No organization put more boots on the ground at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 than the Proud Boys, and they were at the forefront of every major breach of the Capitol’s defenses, leading the on-the-ground efforts to storm the seat of government.”

The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism has tracked Proud Boys’ channels online since Trump’s pardons and seen the group “fantasizing about being ‘deputized as ICE under Trump’s second term’ to aid in Trump’s mass deportation plan” and encouraging members to report people who could be in the country illegally.

Tarrio, often referred to in the media as a “former” or “ex” leader of the Proud Boys, recently said that characterizing him as a former member was not accurate.

“We’ve made the decision four years ago not to tell the media what our structure is, but I suggest that the media should stop calling me ex-Proud Boy leader,” he told CBS News.

A procession of Proud Boys marched in Washington on inauguration day, carrying a banner that congratulated Trump on his victory, a visible representation of the welcome the far right is receiving from the new administration. They chanted “fuck Joe Biden” and “fuck Antifa” in their return to the national stage, and called for Trump to “free our boys”.

The rewriting of January 6 – and attempts to seek revenge on the people involved in initially investigating and prosecuting it – will continue during Trump’s second term. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, announced on Wednesday that a new select subcommittee will be formed to investigate “all events leading up to and after January 6” in order to “uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people”.

A webpage previously set up for the FBI’s most wanted list of the January 6 attack now redirects to the main FBI page. Trump directed the justice department to cease its ongoing cases related to the riot.

Police officers who were at the Capitol on January 6 have spoken out against Trump’s decision to pardon or commute sentences for all involved in the Capitol attack, especially those who were convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers. Some of the officers, including those who testified in January 6 cases, have said they fear for their safety now that the insurrectionists have been released.

Michael Fanone, a retired officer who was beaten on January 6, put his message to Rhodes more bluntly in a live CNN interview: “This is what I say to Stewart Rhodes – go fuck yourself.”

North Korea is preparing to send more soldiers to fight in the Ukraine war, military officials in South Korea have said, despite reports of heavy casualties among troops from the communist state who have already been sent to the battlefield.

The claim that Pyongyang could be planning to increase its support for the Kremlin came as Donald Trump suggested he would attempt to rekindle his relationship with Kim Jong-un, describing the North Korean leader as a “smart guy” in an interview with Fox News.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement on Friday that four months after the North sent an estimated 11,000 troops to the Ukraine conflict – a significant number of whom have been killed or wounded – the regime “is suspected of accelerating follow-up measures and preparation for an additional dispatch of troops”.

The JCS did not give details of what follow-up measures Pyongyang might be considering.

North Korea began sending troops to the Ukraine war last autumn, months after Kim and Vladimir Putin agreed a mutual defence pact designed to strengthen their alliance against what the leaders called a US-led “western hegemony”.

In return for providing boots on the ground, as well as weapons and ammunition, North Korea is thought to be hoping to gain access to sophisticated Russian missile and satellite technology.

In an interview on Thursday, Trump said he planned to resurrect attempts to engage Kim, whom he met three times during his first term in the White House.

When asked if he would “reach out” to Kim again, Trump replied: “I will, yeah. He liked me.”

Trump added that Barack Obama had referred to North Korea as the “biggest threat” when they met during the presidential transition in late 2016. “[Obama] said North Korea is the biggest threat and I solved that problem,” Trump said, according to an account of the interview by the Yonhap news agency. “And I got along with him. He’s not a religious zealot. He happens to be a smart guy. Kim Jong-un is a smart guy.”

During their first summit, in Singapore in June 2018, the first between a US and North Korean leader, Trump and Kim signed an agreement committing to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, with Trump hailing the meeting a success.

But their second summit, in Hanoi in February 2019, ended in failure when the two disagreed on what the US should offer North Korea in terms of sanctions relief in return for dismantling its nuclear arsenal.

They met again at the demilitarised zone – the heavily armed border separating North and South Korea – in June 2019, and agreed to set up working-level talks. But nuclear negotiations between the US and North Korea have not been held since late 2019, and Pyongyang has gone on to conduct numerous ballistic missile tests. It has not, however, tested a nuclear weapon since 2017.

North Korea’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict is widely considered to have been a disaster. Its troops lack combat experience and are fighting in unfamiliar territory. And earlier this month, Ukrainian forces captured two North Korean soldiers, one of whom said he had not been told he was being sent to fight in the war, believing instead he was going on a training exercise.

Ukrainian government officials claim that North Korea has deployed about 11,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk region. Intelligence officials in South Korea say 270 of them have been killed and about 2,700 injured.

North Korea has not publicly acknowledged its role in the war, but in October Putin did not deny that North Korean forces were in Russia, while the North’s vice-foreign minister, Kim Jong-gyu, said any such deployment would be in line with international law.

António Guterres has voiced alarm over the M23 rebel group’s advance towards eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s largest city, in a renewed insurgency that has displaced more than 178,000 people in the past two weeks.

In a statement, the UN secretary general said M23’s advance had had a devastating toll on the civilian population and heightened the risk of a broader regional war. “The secretary general calls on the M23 to immediately cease its offensive,” the statement said.

M23 has been advancing rapidly in eastern DRC in the past few weeks, surrounding Goma as it battles the Congolese army and tries to seize the city, the provincial capital of North Kivu province.

Earlier this month, the rebels captured Minova, Katale and Masisi towns. On Tuesday, they took control of Minova town, a vital trade hub for Goma about 30 miles from the city. Two days later, they captured Sake town, about 15 miles from Goma.

The advance has caused panic in eastern DRC, with bombs being heard going off in Goma’s outskirts and hundreds of wounded civilians brought in to the main hospital from the area of the fighting on Thursday.

Thousands of displaced people reached the outskirts of Goma as they fled the rebel advance.

Congolese helicopter gunships swooped low over the plains to fire volleys of rockets, and troops trucked towards the frontline to halt the rebels. Trucks loaded with soldiers and pulling cannon passed by, followed by an old spluttering Soviet tank.

Many Sake residents fled the M23 advance. Thousands of people escaped the fighting by boat on Wednesday, making their way north across Lake Kivu and spilling out of packed wooden boats in Goma, some with bundles of their belongings on their heads.

Neema Matondo said she had fled Sake during the night, when the first explosions started. She recounted seeing people around her torn to pieces and killed. “We escaped, but unfortunately others did not,” Matondo said.

Mariam Nasibu, who fled Sake with her three children, was in tears – one of her children lost a leg, blown off by shelling. “As I continued to flee, another bomb fell in front of me, hitting my child,” she said.

Decades-long fighting among regional armies and rebels in DRC has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with about 6 million people killed since 1998 and more than 7 million displaced internally.

Delphin Ntanyoma, visiting researcher in peace and conflict studies at the University of Leeds, said the fighting around Goma had worsened the humanitarian situation. “Local populations are caught in the crossfire. There is no safe place to flee,” he said.

M23, which is made up of Tutsis who left the Congolese army more than 10 years ago, is one of more than a hundred armed groups fighting against Congolese forces in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. The group has more than 8,000 fighters, according to the UN.

It controls Rubaya, a key coltan-mining region that brings it $800,000 (£644,800) monthly in taxes for production and trade of the mineral, the UN says.

DRC, the US and the UN all accuse neighbouring Rwanda of backing M23. Rwanda’s government had long denied this, but last year said it had troops and missile systems in eastern DRC to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border.

In July, UN experts said in a report that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan government forces operated with M23 in eastern DRC. The Rwandan forces’ “de facto control and direction over M23 operations also renders Rwanda liable for the actions of M23”, the experts said.

M23 took over Goma for 10 days in 2012 but withdrew after international donors stopped aid to Rwanda over its support for the rebel group.

Guterres called on parties involved in the conflict to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC and “put an end to all forms of support to armed groups, whether Congolese or foreign”.

Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Lead, pesticides and potentially harmful bacteria were among the contaminants found during an investigation into cannabis sold in semi-legal “coffee shops” in the Netherlands.

The research, which aimed to establish a “baseline” level of typical contamination , was carried out by the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute). It will be used to inform a trial starting in April in which shops in 10 municipalities will sell cannabis that is produced by licensed growers and subject to limits on contaminants.

The researchers tested 50 cannabis samples, both resin and weed, bought from randomly selected sellers. One in five of the samples contained “microbiological transgressions” such as Staphylococcus aureus bacteria or fungal residue, and pesticide traces were found in about one-third. One hashish sample contained almost six times the amount of lead (28.5mg/kg) that will be allowed in the cannabis sold during the trial.

“Yes, there are contaminants in the cannabis,” said Pieter Oomen, an analytical chemist and researcher on the Dutch drug market. “We found multiple pesticides, multiple instances of microbiological contamination and one sample that contains lead.”

Although tourists flock to the Netherlands under the impression that cannabis is fully legal, since 1976 a tolerance policy has simply meant the sale of hash and marijuana is permitted in regulated “coffee shops”. However, since growing more than five plants is illegal, shops must buy from illegal suppliers, raising concerns about encouraging criminality.

The regulated cannabis trial aims to cut out the criminal circuit and reduce contamination. Ten growers have gone through criminal checks and will be licensed to supply cannabis to the coffee shops taking part in the trial; four are now ready to supply. Their produce will be tested to make sure it does not exceed limits for contaminants including heavy metals, micro-organisms, pesticides and harmful aflatoxins produced by fungi.

In the research, potentially harmful Staphylococcus aureus bacteria were an indication of inadequate hygiene levels at any stage of growing, trimming, packaging or selling cannabis.

Oomen said the small study was “exploratory” and did not mean all cannabis in the Netherlands was contaminated. The study concluded that the harm was likely to be relatively minimal compared with the health impact of smoking a joint in the first place, especially when combined with tobacco.

“It’s hard to interpret any of the microbiological contaminants we found, because the impact very much depends on the immune system of the person consuming the cannabis,” he said.

“We do not expect that the contaminants that we found will add significantly to the risks that somebody runs already, just from using the cannabis itself. The acute effects can range from anxiety and panic, issues with attention that can potentially lead to accidents in traffic, to addiction, basically … Cannabis is a drug. If you don’t want to run any risks regarding your health, don’t use drugs.”

Lead, pesticides and potentially harmful bacteria were among the contaminants found during an investigation into cannabis sold in semi-legal “coffee shops” in the Netherlands.

The research, which aimed to establish a “baseline” level of typical contamination , was carried out by the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute). It will be used to inform a trial starting in April in which shops in 10 municipalities will sell cannabis that is produced by licensed growers and subject to limits on contaminants.

The researchers tested 50 cannabis samples, both resin and weed, bought from randomly selected sellers. One in five of the samples contained “microbiological transgressions” such as Staphylococcus aureus bacteria or fungal residue, and pesticide traces were found in about one-third. One hashish sample contained almost six times the amount of lead (28.5mg/kg) that will be allowed in the cannabis sold during the trial.

“Yes, there are contaminants in the cannabis,” said Pieter Oomen, an analytical chemist and researcher on the Dutch drug market. “We found multiple pesticides, multiple instances of microbiological contamination and one sample that contains lead.”

Although tourists flock to the Netherlands under the impression that cannabis is fully legal, since 1976 a tolerance policy has simply meant the sale of hash and marijuana is permitted in regulated “coffee shops”. However, since growing more than five plants is illegal, shops must buy from illegal suppliers, raising concerns about encouraging criminality.

The regulated cannabis trial aims to cut out the criminal circuit and reduce contamination. Ten growers have gone through criminal checks and will be licensed to supply cannabis to the coffee shops taking part in the trial; four are now ready to supply. Their produce will be tested to make sure it does not exceed limits for contaminants including heavy metals, micro-organisms, pesticides and harmful aflatoxins produced by fungi.

In the research, potentially harmful Staphylococcus aureus bacteria were an indication of inadequate hygiene levels at any stage of growing, trimming, packaging or selling cannabis.

Oomen said the small study was “exploratory” and did not mean all cannabis in the Netherlands was contaminated. The study concluded that the harm was likely to be relatively minimal compared with the health impact of smoking a joint in the first place, especially when combined with tobacco.

“It’s hard to interpret any of the microbiological contaminants we found, because the impact very much depends on the immune system of the person consuming the cannabis,” he said.

“We do not expect that the contaminants that we found will add significantly to the risks that somebody runs already, just from using the cannabis itself. The acute effects can range from anxiety and panic, issues with attention that can potentially lead to accidents in traffic, to addiction, basically … Cannabis is a drug. If you don’t want to run any risks regarding your health, don’t use drugs.”

The European Commission is fundamentally overhauling how it makes payments to Tunisia after a Guardian investigation exposed myriad abuses by EU-funded security forces, including widespread sexual violence against migrants.

Officials are drawing up “concrete” conditions to ensure that future European payments to Tunis can go ahead only if human rights have not been violated.

The conditions will affect payments worth tens of millions of pounds over the next three years.

Last year, the Guardian detailed allegations that Tunisia’s national guard had raped hundreds of migrants, beaten children and colluded with people smugglers.

Critics will view Europe’s shift in position towards Tunisia as an admission that a controversial Tunisia-EU deal in 2023 prioritised lowering migration to the bloc over human rights.

Until now, the EU has rejected accusations of wrongdoing in its dealings with Tunisia, arguing that it has one of the most sophisticated systems for monitoring human rights violations.

Officials, however, now confirm that new arrangements are being prepared for its relationship with the increasingly authoritarian north African state over “the coming years”.

A commission spokesperson described the reset as a “re-dynamisation” of the relationship, adding that a series of subcommittees would be formed over the next three months to ensure human rights were central to its dealings with the country from now until 2027.

“Human rights and democratic principles are at the centre of EU relations with partner countries,” the spokesperson said.

Emily O’Reilly, the EU ombudsman whose recent report concluded that the commission was not transparent about the human rights information it held on Tunisia, said: “There have been highly worrying reports about the human rights situation in Tunisia.”

O’Reilly said that during a recent inquiry into abuse allegations surrounding the EU’s deal with Tunisia – which included about €100m (£85m) to strengthen its borders as part of a larger deal – she had urged the introduction of conditions to reclaim EU funds in cases of abuse violations.

“I asked the European Commission to set out clear criteria for the suspension of EU funds due to human rights violations,” she said.

Last September’s Guardian report prompted calls by the EU for Tunis to investigate the allegations, though nothing has since been made public. Instead, the commission has taken matters into its own hands to ensure its dealings with Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, are not linked to abuse.

Reports indicate that Tunisia has become increasingly repressive since Saied secured a second term last October, prompting a crackdown on activists campaigning for migrant rights, as well as on parts of the media.

Human rights groups believe that the EU’s tougher stance towards Saied could precipitate similar measures towards other countries where it has struck deals to reduce migration into Europe.

Concerns have already been raised about human rights assessments on EU deals with Egypt and Mauritania, and over plans to provide more funding to others such as Morocco.

O’Reilly, who leaves her post at the watchdog next month, said: “The apparent normalisation of the outsourcing of migration to non-EU countries must not obscure the fact that the EU institutions’ fundamental rights obligations remain the same.

“These obligations should not be sacrificed for expediency or to meet geopolitical concerns.”

Relatives of Uyghurs detained in Thailand for more than a decade have begged the Thai authorities not to deport the 48 men back to China, after the detainees suggested their return appeared imminent.

A UN panel of experts this week urged Thailand to “immediately halt the possible transfer”, warning the men were at “real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment if they are returned”.

There are also concerns for the men’ s health after some of them went on hunger strike on 10 January after they said they were asked and refused to sign “voluntary return” documents.

Thai authorities have denied they are planning to deport the Uyghurs, while China’s foreign ministry has declined to comment on the case. China has said it opposes “any act of condoning or even supporting illegal immigration”.

China’s embassy in Thailand said reports about the Uyghurs detained in Thailand were “spreading false narratives”.

Bilal Ablet, whose elder brother Shakir Hamid is being held in an immigration detention centre in Bangkok, said the men had been “forgotten by the world”.

“The Chinese government doesn’t want the world to hear their stories,” said Ablet, who left China in 2016. “The Chinese government is always paranoid about Uyghurs going to a safe country in large numbers and living together. They always believe that’s a threat … that is the reason why the Chinese government wants them back.”

The men fled China in late 2013 and early 2014, as part of an exodus of hundreds of Uyghurs who travelled through south-east Asia with the help of people smugglers. Many had been told that if they could make it as far as Malaysia they could be resettled to Turkey.

Thai authorities arrested 220 Uyghur men, women and children near the border with Malaysia in March 2014 as rescue teams searched for the disappeared MH370 plane. They were charged with immigration violations and transferred to a holding facility in Bangkok. Dozens of other Uyghurs were arrested in Thailand during the same period, according to Human Rights Watch.

In 2015, about 170 of the women and children were released to Turkey. But more than 100 men were returned to China, prompting an international outcry.

Of the 48 Uyghurs, 43 are in legal limbo in immigration detention and five are serving prison sentences for crimes related to a 2019 escape attempt. Five Uyghurs detained since 2014 have died in detention, including a newborn and a three-year-old.

Hamid, who turns 40 this year, is a “very kind-hearted person”, Ablet said. The brothers come from Yarkant county in southern Xinjiang, a region of China that is home to more than 11 million Uyghurs. The minority has faced severe repression from the Chinese government in recent years. Ablet said his brother, a chef and businessman, “was very serious about his own identity as a Uyghur, he embraced culture and religion”.

China has strenuously denied charges by human rights groups and western lawmakers of a cultural genocide in Xinjiang, which the UN says may amount to crimes against humanity.

China justifies its policies towards the Uyghurs, including the detention of about 1 million people in re-education camps, on the grounds that it is combating Islamic extremism and promoting ethnic harmony. It says the camps are vocational training centres.

Ablet said his brother experienced surveillance and interrogations because of his interest in religion. The atmosphere in Yarkant was “suffocating”, he said, which was why Hamid decided to flee.

Marco Rubio, the new US secretary of state and a China hawk, said in his confirmation hearing last week that he would prevent Thailand, a US ally, from deporting the Uyghurs.

Thailand and China have forged closer ties in recent years and this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Erkin (not his real name), whose father is among the detained men, fears the Uyghurs are being used “as a pawn in Thailand’s bid to extract some kind of help or service or something from China”.

Erkin, who lives in Turkey, has not seen his father in nearly 12 years and fears for his parent’s health. The cells in the detention centre are overcrowded, his father’s immune system is weak and he does not get proper food, he said.

“My father is a farmer, a very simple man who would never hurt anyone. He was always very eager to help people in the village and has never done anything to anyone,” Erkin said.

Relatives and advocates also fear what could happen to the Uyghurs if they are returned to China. Photographs of the men deported in 2015 showed them hooded and handcuffed and many have not been heard from since or they received long prison sentences.

Thai media has called the government’s handling of the case a “black stain on the nation’s human rights record”.

Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that sending the Uyghurs to China would violate the principle of non-refoulement, which states that no one should be returned to a country where they would face persecution.

Thailand is not a party to the 1951 refugee convention that codifies this principle but legal experts say it is still a cornerstone of international law that Thailand should abide by. “Uyghurs considered to have left China illegally, if returned, are viewed with intense suspicion and subject to detention, interrogation, torture” and other violations, Uluyol said.

Part of the predicament is the lack of a clear answer about where the Uyghurs could go if they are not sent back to China. Although Turkey previously offered to resettle some of the detained people, it is not clear if that offer still stands.

“My father couldn’t be at my wedding,” Erkin said. “My father has never met his own grandchildren. Just like any other people in the world have the right to live with their family and in freedom, so too do Uyghurs.”

Air pollution in Thailand’s capital forced the closure of more than 350 schools on Friday, city authorities said, the highest number in five years.

Bangkok officials announced free public transport for a week in a bid to reduce traffic in a city notorious for noxious exhaust fumes.

Seasonal air pollution has long afflicted Thailand, like many countries in the region, but this week’s hazy conditions have shuttered the most schools since 2020.

“Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has closed 352 schools across 31 districts due to air pollution,” the authority said.

On Thursday, more than 250 schools in Bangkok were closed due to pollution, as officials urged people to work from home and restricted heavy vehicles in the city.

Air pollution hits the south-east Asian nation seasonally, as colder, stagnant winter air combines with smoke from crop stubble burning and car fumes.

On Friday morning, the level of PM2.5 pollutants – cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs – hit 108 micrograms a cubic metre, according to IQAir. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 24-hour average exposures should not be more than 15 for most days of the year.

The reading makes the Thai capital the world’s seventh-most polluted major city at present.

By Friday morning, 352 of the 437 schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority had shut their doors, affecting thousands of students.

Interior minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Thursday ordered a ban on stubble burning – intentionally burning leftover crops to clear fields – with those responsible risking prosecution.

In another bid to curb pollution, a government minister said on Friday that public transport in Bangkok would be free for a week. The capital’s Skytrain, metro, light rail system and bus services will be free to users from Saturday, transport minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit told reporters. “We hope this policy will help reduce pollution.”

Prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, called for tougher measures to tackle pollution on Thursday, including limiting construction in the capital and seeking cooperation from nearby countries.

Cities in neighbouring Vietnam and Cambodia also ranked high on IQAir’s most-polluted list on Friday, with Ho Chi Minh second and Phnom Penh fifth.

Cambodia’s environment ministry confirmed on Friday that the air quality in Phnom Penh and three other provinces had reached a “red level”, meaning highly polluted.

The ministry said in a statement that the air pollution was caused by climate change, waste incineration and forest fires, and urged the public to monitor their health and avoid outdoor activities.

Air pollution has closed schools across other parts of Asia recently – specifically Pakistan and India. Nearly two million students in and around New Delhi were told to stay home in November after authorities ordered schools to shut because of worsening air pollution.

Pakistan’s most populated province of Punjab in November closed schools in smog-hit major cities for two weeks, with thousands hospitalised as air pollutants hit 30 times the level deemed acceptable by the WHO.

Bangkok’s school closures come as Unicef said in a report that the schooling of 242 million children was affected by climate shocks in 2024.

Climate change can worsen the problem of air pollution which is considered a “secondary impact of climate-induced hazards”, according to the report published on Friday.

The number of women in the Irish cabinet has fallen from four to three, dealing a further blow to the country’s reputation on gender equality in politics.

“There are now as many men named James in the cabinet as there are women,” the Social Democrat TD (MP) Jennifer Whitmore said, after the 15-member cabinet was announced by the new taoiseach (prime minister), Micheál Martin, on Thursday.

The cabinet has been drawn from a parliament with the lowest proportion of female parliamentarians in western Europe. Of the 174 seats available in November’s election, 44 went to women, amounting to a representation of slightly more than 25%, compared with the western European average of 37% and a figure of 32% for the continent as a whole.

Whitmore said: “Instead of working to address that [imbalance] by promoting talented women from within their own ranks, the government parties have reverted to type – creating a cosy boys’ club.”

Martin, who leads the Fianna Fáil party, was formally appointed on Thursday for his second stint as taoiseach, having served in the role between 2020 and 2022. After the election, the party agreed to re-enter a coalition with Fine Gael, led by the outgoing prime minister, Simon Harris.

The appointment was delayed by a row over speaking rights for the independent MPs who will prop up the coalition after the collapse in voters’ support for the Green party, the coalition’s junior partner in the previous parliament.

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael pay lip service to increasing women’s representation in politics. They just don’t believe in promoting them when they get elected,” Whitmore said.

Sinn Féin condemned the make-up of the new cabinet. Mairéad Farrell, the TD for Galway West, said: “I am flabbergasted that the new taoiseach has consigned women to play a secondary role in government.”

Sinn Féin also criticised the lack of representation for the west of the country and border regions. “There is once again a lack of regional balance. Of the 15 senior ministers, 11 are from Dublin and Leinster [the southern province of Ireland], just one from Connacht/Ulster and none from the border region,” Farrell said.

“Politics should strive to reflect and mirror the communities we represent. Micheál Martin’s new government has failed its first test.”

A far-right politician in Portugal has been accused of stealing suitcases at several airports and kicked out of his political party as a result, the party has said.

According to several news outlets, police questioned Miguel Arruda on Tuesday at Lisbon airport and charged him with luggage theft after some of the missing suitcases were allegedly found at his home.

The 40-year-old denied any wrongdoing, telling the broadcaster TVI on Thursday: “I am being crucified on the public square … but until proven otherwise, I am innocent.”

Arruda, who decided to remain in the assembly as an independent, asked for his parliamentary immunity to be lifted.

Members from his former party Chega booed Arruda during Friday’s parliamentary session. The assembly president, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, told Arruda to sit at the back of the chamber, where unaffiliated lawmakers are typically seated.

Local media reported that police had camera footage allegedly showing the politician taking his suitcase and a second, smaller one off the baggage carousel and then allegedly putting the second one into his own.

Arruda defended himself by saying the video surveillance footage could have been generated by artificial intelligence.

Prosecutors “confirm only that steps have been taken as part of an investigation … relating to facts that have nothing to do with his official duties”, a spokesperson for the prosecutor general’s office told Agence France-Presse on Friday.

The president of Chega, André Ventura, said on Thursday after a meeting with Arruda: “Faced with these circumstances … I can’t allow him to remain in the parliamentary group.”

Some media outlets alleged that Arruda had sold the contents of the suitcases online.