No survivors are expected to be found following a mid-air collision of an American Airlines jet and a military Black Hawk helicopter near Washington DC, authorities have said. The bodies of 28 people have already been retrieved by search and rescue teams from the Potomac River.

The collision occurred at about 9pm on Wednesday as the jet was on approach to land at Reagan National airport from Wichita, Kansas. Operated by the regional carrier PSA Airlines as American Eagle flight 5342, the plane was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, and collided with a US army helicopter with three soldiers onboard, sending both into the river.

It was the first fatal commercial airline crash in the US since 2009, according to Sean Duffy, the newly confirmed transportation secretary who was sworn into office the day before the crash. He added that he believed the incident was “preventable”.

The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the helicopter involved carried “a fairly experienced crew” based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia that was conducting a “required annual night evaluation”.

“They did have night vision goggles,” Hegseth said, adding that an investigative team had already been deployed to the crash site and that it would determine whether the aircraft was in the corridor and at the right altitude at the time of the incident.

“It’s a tragedy, a horrible loss of life,” he said.

Donald Trump said on Thursday morning he had been “fully briefed” on the incident, after implying in the hours after the crash that the helicopter crew or air traffic control tower was responsible for the collision.

“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

More than 300 emergency workers, including divers, deployed to the Potomac, where they faced packed ice and high winds. John Donnelly, Washington DC’s fire chief, said the operation’s objective had shifted from rescue to recovery.

“We don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident,” he told a press conference on Thursday morning.

Donnelly said that the wreckage from the aircraft had been spread out by the wind but that recovery efforts continued and he was confident rescuers could recover all the bodies. Of those found so far, 27 were from the plane and one from the helicopter.

“We will continue to work to find all the bodies to reunite them with their loved ones,” Donnelly said. “I’m confident that we will do that. It will take us a little bit of time. It may involve some more equipment.”

Several of the victims were in Wichita for a development camp hosted by US figure skating, according to the Skating Club of Boston, which released the names of its six skaters, coaches and family members who were onboard the jet.

“Our sport and this club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,” the CEO and executive director, Doug Zeghibe, said on Instagram. “We are devastated and completely at a loss for words.”

Citing Russia’s state-run Tass news agency, Reuters reported that two world champion figure skaters from the country were onboard the plane.

The Bombardier CRJ-700 jet broke into three parts and was in waist-deep water in the Potomac, Duffy said. Both the helicopter and the passenger plane were flying in a “standard flight pattern” on a clear night before the crash and that investigators would work to ascertain how the accident occurred, he added.

Duffy noted that it was not uncommon for military aircraft to be seen in the skies over the nation’s capital, including near Reagan National, which is located across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia.

“Safety is our expectation, everyone who flies in American skies expects we fly safely,” Duffy said. “That didn’t happen last night. We will not rest until we have answers for the families and the flying public. You should be assured when you fly, you are safe.”

Muriel Bowser, Washington’s mayor, said that the passengers of the plane included “families from our region, Kansas and across the country. We share a profound sense of grief.”

Reagan National airport was closed immediately after the incident, but was scheduled to reopen on Thursday morning. A helpline for family and friends of those potentially affected has been set up by American Airlines – 800 679 8215.

“This is devastating,” said Robert Isom, chief executive of American Airlines. “We are all hurting, incredibly.”

• No survivors are expected after a regional passenger jet with 64 people onboard collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River while approaching Ronald Reagan National airport on Wednesday night, officials have said.

• Twenty-seven bodies have been recovered from the plane and one from the helicopter by first responders working in what the Washington DC fire and emergency medical services chief, John A Donnelly, called “extremely frigid conditions”. Donnelly said he is confident they will ultimately be able to recover all of the bodies from the crash.

• The American Airlines flight, operated by PSA Airlines as American Eagle Flight 5342, had flown from Wichita, Kansas, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members when it collided with a Black Hawk helicopter that was on a training flight.

• The helicopter was believed to be carrying three soldiers, with no senior army officials onboard. The Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

• The US figure skating governing body said that athletes, coaches and family members were on the crashed plane. They were returning home from the national development camp held in conjunction with the US figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas.

• The Kremlin has also confirmed that the figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were onboard. The pair, who were married, won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994 and lived in the US.

• Temperatures in the area were below freezing, and any length of time spent in the water would be extremely dangerous for anyone who survived the initial incident, with hypothermia setting in quickly.

• Inflatable boats and dive teams searched the site, with helicopters circling above, and large floodlights illuminating the scene from the shore. The operations were made more difficult by strong gusts of wind as well as the cold.

• Donnelly, the DC fire and EMS chief, said: “The challenges are access … there is wind, there [are] pieces of ice out there, so it’s just dangerous and hard to work in.”

• The helicopter was on a training exercise in some of the most tightly controlled airspace in the world. The weather in DC was clear. There was no immediate indication of any deliberate or terrorist cause.

• The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said on Thursday that there was not a breakdown in communication between the plane, the military helicopter, and air traffic control. “Everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash,” he said, adding that military helicopters use those flight paths every single day.

• The airport will reopen at 11am ET, officials said.

• Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the “terrible accident” and praised the “incredible work” done by emergency services. He later said on social media that the crash “should have been prevented”.

• Pete Hegseth, sworn in days ago as Trump’s defense secretary, posted on social media that an investigation had been launched by the army and the defense department

• Ari Schulman, a witness who was driving home when the incident happened, described a “stream of sparks” overhead. “Initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land,” he told CNN. “Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right … I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it. It looked like a Roman candle.”

• American Airlines has set up a phone line for relatives who believe they may have lost ones one onboard.

Three Israelis and five Thai citizens held in Gaza have been freed, as Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy met hostages’ relatives, reportedly telling them he was optimistic the ceasefire would hold to allow the return of all the living and the dead.

The handover on Thursday of seven hostages in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, was delayed by a chaotic crowd surging towards the group, despite an escort of heavily armed militants, jostling and blocking their passage to waiting Red Cross vehicles.

Israel’s military confirmed that the Israelis Gadi Moses, 80, Arbel Yehoud, 29, and five Thai hostages – Thenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakham, Sriaoun Watchara, Seathao Bannawat and Rumnao Surasak – had all been handed over at about 1pm local time.

Agam Berger, 20, the last female soldier held in Gaza, had been released earlier, from northern Gaza.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, attacked the “shocking scenes” in Khan Younis and suspended the planned release of Palestinian prisoners “until the mediators guarantee the safe exit of the hostages” in future.

Buses carrying Palestinian prisoners due to be freed were sent back to Israeli jails in the early afternoon, before a new release time of 5pm was announced.

It was not the first crisis in a ceasefire deal that is not yet two weeks old. Yehoud had originally been listed for release on Saturday. When four female soldiers were handed over instead, Israel accused Hamas of violating the deal and suspended plans to allow Palestinian civilians to return to northern Gaza.

After last-minute negotiations, Hamas confirmed Yehoud would be freed on Thursday with two other hostages and Israel opened checkpoints to northern Gaza on Monday.

Shortly after the Thursday handover of the seven hostages in southern Gaza, Trump’s envoy for the region, Steven Witkoff, made a brief visit to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.

Many people, when they realised Witkoff was there, raced to pay personal tribute to him for brokering the ceasefire agreement. “Thank you for freeing the hostages, thank you to Mr Trump,” one shouted.

He met families of hostages briefly in a public library beside the square. He assured them he was optimistic the deal would hold, Israeli media reported, and said he was committed to bringing home the living held in Gaza and the dead.

The first stage of the ceasefire is due to last 42 days and covers the release of 33 Israeli hostages, mostly women and older men. Of the 23 still to be released as part of the first phase, Hamas says eight are dead. Under the agreement, Israel will free about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and increase aid into Gaza.

Witkoff was visiting Israel before negotiations on the second phase of the deal are to start on Monday and went from Hostage Square to hold talks with Netanyahu. The Israeli leader faces heavy pressure from far-right members of his coalition to restart the war rather than extend the ceasefire.

Trump’s envoy also visited Gaza with the Israeli military and met the four female soldiers freed on Saturday at the Israeli hospital where they were being treated.

Among those in the crowd grateful to Trump was Dani Miran, whose son Omri Miran, 47, is a hostage in Gaza. “Only one person made this happen. I want to thank Trump,” he said. His hopes of seeing his son again rested entirely on the new US leader, he added.

He said that for one day he had put his own worries aside to celebrate, because after 15 months of intense campaigning, everyone held in Gaza feels like family. “I think all the time about [Omri’s return], but today I concentrate on the joy.”

Miran was part of the crowd waiting in Hostages Square to watch the releases in real time, beside a clock broadcasting a countdown of the days, hours and minutes of the hostages’ captivity.

Schoolchildren and parents pushing babies in prams mixed with adults who had taken the day off to be there for a “historic moment”, most veterans of the long campaign for a ceasefire deal.

They cheered and wept when the first footage streamed from Gaza showed Berger walking unaided. Like the four other women soldiers freed last weekend, she was dressed in military-style fatigues and put on stage for a ceremony that served as a show of the militants’ power after 15 months of war.

“She made it,” said Yahel Oren, 31, who served a decade ago at the Nahal Oz base where Berger had been captured by Hamas, and watched the video in tears. “It’s hard to think of her alone there, but at least we can count the minutes she has left.”

Oren was part of a group campaigning for the freedom of the female “spotter” troops held in Gaza and was wearing a T-shirt saying “once a spotter always a spotter”.

Attention then shifted to the south where seven hostages were due to be freed. Shlomo Zidkiahv, 83, waved a Thai flag in solidarity with a group of Thais taken hostage while working on one of the kibbutzim that was attacked.

He carried photos of all 10 still in Gaza, as neither Hamas nor Israel had initially identified the five who would be freed before their release. They were later named as Pongsak, Suwannakham, Watchara, Bannawat and Surasak.

The release of Moses, the first man freed in this exchange, was taken by many in the crowd as a tacit acknowledgment that the last living women held in Gaza had been released.

International staff working for the UN’s main agency serving Palestinians have been forced to leave after Israel’s ban on the agency came into effect.

As the UN flag was still flying above the headquarters building in Jerusalem, Palestinian staff were not present at the site over security concerns amid a planned “celebration” by Israeli rightwing groups outside the compound.

While Unrwa said on Thursday that it would continue working in Gaza and the West Bank for as long as possible, it added it had received no communications from Israel on how the ban would be implemented – most crucially over the delivery of aid to Gaza.

The implementation of the Israeli law banning Unrwa came on the same day that the Norwegian government said it would contribute $24m (£19.25m) to the agency.

“Gaza is in ruins, and Unrwa’s help is more necessary than ever,” the Norwegian foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, said in a statement. “It is extremely dramatic for Palestine that Israeli laws come into force that in practice can prevent Unrwa from working.”

The move was also condemned by the Spanish government. “The government rejects the entry into force of the Knesset laws that prevent Unrwa operations in the occupied Palestinian territories, and calls for their application to be suspended,” it said. “Spain expresses its deepest concern about the impact that this decision will have on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, jeopardising the ceasefire.”

The Israeli ban went ahead on Thursday after the country’s supreme court rejected a petition by the Palestinian human rights group Adalah contesting the new law.

The court did note that the legislation “prohibits Unrwa activity only on the sovereign territory of the state of Israel”, but did not prohibit such activity in Gaza and the West Bank. The ban does apply, however, to the Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, where Unrwa has a field headquarters for its operations in the West Bank.

About 25 international staff left on Wednesday after Israel refused to issue visas or extend existing ones. International staff make up about 2% of the agency’s workforce. “The headquarters is still there, and flag is still up,” said Juliette Touma, an Unrwa spokesperson.

“It’s a UN compound which means it must be protected. We don’t have plans to close our operations,” she said, adding that its work in the West Bank and Gaza was continuing. “But we are in the dark. We have not received any instructions from Israel how the ban will be enforced beyond being told to vacate.”

The most serious feared impact is on the delivery of aid to Gaza, where Unrwa is the largest agency delivering aid and whose trucks cross into Gaza from Israel requiring coordination with the Israeli authorities.

Touma said: “If [the ban means] no contact at an operational level then the fate of the ceasefire is in serious jeopardy because we are the most serious player and biggest deliverer of aid.”

Officially Unrwa is now banned from operating on Israeli soil and contact between it and Israeli officials is also forbidden, although it is unclear what this might mean in practical terms.

Set up in 1949 under a mandate from the UN general assembly, the agency has provided support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East for over 70 years, but has long faced attacks from Israeli officials. Its offices and staff in Israel play a major role in the provision of healthcare and education to Palestinians, including those living in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by the war between Israel and Hamas.

The agency’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said Unrwa’s capacity to distribute aid “far exceeds that of any other entity”, describing Israel’s actions as a “relentless assault … harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory”.

Israel has long campaigned against Unrwa, claiming its existence has prolonged the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The hostility intensified after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, with accusations that some Unrwa employees participated in the assault.

Despite repeated claims by Israel that Unrwa had been infiltrated by Hamas on a large scale, a series of investigations, including one led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at Unrwa but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.

Donald Trump is still historically unpopular compared with other new US presidents, a new poll showed.

“At 47%, President Donald Trump’s initial job approval rating for his second term is similar to the inaugural 45% reading during his first term, again placing him below all other elected presidents dating back to 1953,” wrote Megan Brenan, a senior editor for Gallup, which carried out the poll.

“Trump remains the only elected president with sub-50% initial approval ratings, and his latest disapproval rating (48%) is three percentage points higher than in 2017.”

John F Kennedy remains the most popular modern president at the start of his term, according to Gallup polling. In the first month of his presidency, in 1961, the Democrat enjoyed 72% approval and just 6% disapproval.

Dwight Eisenhower (1953) and Barack Obama (2009) enjoyed the next-highest approval ratings, at 68%. Jimmy Carter, who died last month aged 100, scored 66% approval in February 1977, at the start of his single term in office.

“Most presidents have experienced a ‘honeymoon period’, with strong job approval ratings in the initial months of their presidencies that then fade as time passes,” Brenan wrote.

Not Trump, though other polling has shown him with slightly higher approval ratings.

In 2017, Trump arrived in office having beaten Hillary Clinton in the electoral college but having lost the popular vote. This year, Trump is back in power despite having been impeached twice and being the only convicted felon ever elected president; still, he beat Kamala Harris by a convincing margin in the electoral college and by more than 2m ballots in the popular vote.

Claiming a strong mandate for radical policies including mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and sweeping attacks on federal government agencies and employees, Trump has begun his second term with a blizzard of executive orders.

Democrats accuse Trump of breaking the law with such moves as firing government inspectors general and ordering a federal funding freeze, from which he was forced to retreat.

Trump has also made a string of controversial picks for cabinet positions. Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host with far-right views facing accusations of serious personal misconduct, which he denied, was confirmed as secretary of defense.

Nominees now in the confirmation process include Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine conspiracy theorist named for health secretary; Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman picked for director of national intelligence; and Kash Patel, a hardline Trump ally and election denier nominated to lead the FBI.

Gallup reported that Americans were “divided in their views of Trump’s pace in addressing the major problems facing the country today, with 40% saying it is ‘about right,’ 37% saying it is ‘too fast’ and 14% saying it is ‘not fast enough’”.

Approval and disapproval for Trump was sharply split on partisan lines. Other polling has shown negative results for many of Trump’s policies and orders, though policies including reducing the size of the federal government enjoy majority support.

For Gallup, Brenan noted that Trump’s approval rating was not much lower than those for Ronald Reagan, a modern Republican saint, and his successor, George HW Bush, at the starts of their stints in office, in 1981 and 1989. But, Brenan wrote, “initial evaluations of Trump differ in that Americans are much more likely to disapprove of his performance rather than have no opinion, as was the case for the elder Bush and Reagan”.

Four years ago, Joe Biden had a 57% approval rating and 37% disapproval rating, nine and 11 points better than Trump now.

Trump still repeats the lie that his loss to Biden in 2020 was the result of electoral fraud – the lie that fueled the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Last week, on his first day back in office, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 people convicted in relation to a riot linked to nine deaths, law enforcement suicides among them. The most serious crimes committed by those pardoned ranged from violence against police to seditious conspiracy.

According to Gallup, Trump is the only modern president never to have received an approval rating of 50% or higher.

Patti Smith collapsed during a performance in Brazil after experiencing a severe migraine for several days. Smith, 78, was performing with the Berlin group Soundwalk Collective, in which she recites her writing to a musical backing.

Associated Press reported that the newspaper Folha de S Paulo said that Smith passed out about 30 minutes into the event while reading a piece about the climate crisis. After falling, she was taken backstage in a wheelchair.

Smith returned to the stage to apologise for having to cut the performance short. “Unfortunately, I got sick, and the doctor said I can’t finish,” she told the crowd from the wheelchair. “So we will have to figure something out. And I feel very badly.”

The crowd responded: “Don’t be, we love you.”

Posting on Instagram, the collective said that despite her migraine, Smith “still wanted to be there for all of us and you and perform today” – Wednesday, the final date of a run of South American tour dates.

“She is now being cared for by the best doctors in the most loving way and will be back on stage tomorrow night [Thursday],” the collective said.

Smith also signed the statement, which continued: “Patti says that she is tremendously grateful for your patience and forgiveness and she sends her love to all who attended.”

In March, artists including Michael Stipe, Kim Gordon, Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Chrissie Hynde and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles will perform at a tribute concert marking 50 years of Smith’s canonical punk album Horses.

They asked fans to “refrain from posing [footage] at this sensitive moment”. Nevertheless, videos posted online showed Smith lying on the ground at the Cultura Artística theatre.

Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective have collaborated on several albums since 2016, the most recent of which, The Perfect Vision: Reworkings, was released in 2022. Smith’s last solo album was Banga, released in 2012. In the meantime, she has written several acclaimed books, including M Train and Year of the Monkey.

In December 2023, she was briefly hospitalised in Italy for a “sudden illness”. In 2020, she told the Guardian that she had struggled during the pandemic owing to a lifelong bronchial condition that kept her indoors. “To be in limbo almost 10 months, for a person like me who doesn’t like sitting in the same place, it’s been very challenging,” she said. “I feel like I’m part-wolf, roaming from room to room.”

The government and HM Revenue and Customs should urgently examine whether Roman Abramovich owes British tax authorities up to £1bn, more than 40 MPs and peers have said, after an investigation by the Guardian and media partners found that his companies may have failed to pay tax on profits from an elaborate offshore investment scheme.

The intervention, from both Conservative and Labour MPs, comes after leaked papers and court filings shed new light on how the income from a $6bn (£4.8bn) cash pile amassed by the former Chelsea FC owner was managed.

Analysis, which was reviewed by experts, suggests his overseas investment companies failed to pay corporation tax and could be liable for up to £1bn including interest and late payment penalties.

If HMRC determined that such a sum were due, it would outstrip the record £652m paid by the former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone to settle a tax case in October 2023.

On Thursday, 43 MPs and peers who are members of a all-party parliamentary group examining responsible tax wrote to HMRC, calling on the tax authority to review the investigation’s findings and determine whether it could “reclaim any funds potentially owed by Roman Abramovich to the UK tax authorities”.

They also called for an update on the status of Abramovich’s UK assets, after he was placed under sanctions by the government in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In its sanctions notice, the Foreign Office said the former Chelsea FC owner was “involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the government of Russia”.

“It has also been reported that Abramovich has at least £3.2bn of UK assets frozen,” wrote the APPG’s chair, Joe Powell MP. “I would like to ask whether the department has made any considerations as to whether such assets could be used against any potential money owed.

“When Abramovich was forced to sell the Chelsea Football Club, approximately £2.5bn was pledged to humanitarian programmes for victims of the Ukraine war. However, to date, not a single penny of that money has been spent.

“In light of these concerns, it is critical that we understand what measures HMRC is taking to investigate this matter and ensure that any unpaid taxes are recovered. Given the scale of the sums involved, ensuring that any unpaid taxes are recovered is a matter of public interest – particularly at a time when funds are urgently needed for public services and to manage the national debt.”

A spokesperson for HMRC said: “We’re continuing to lead international efforts to improve global transparency and are committed to ensuring everyone pays the right tax under the law, regardless of wealth or status.”

Powell, who is Labour’s MP for Kensington & Bayswater, also raised the issue during questions to the leader of the house, Lucy Powell, on Thursday, asking the government to “scrutinise whether HMRC have all the resources they need to pursue this case and recover as much money as possible for the Treasury”.

Lucy Powell said: “He’s absolutely right to raise matters of tax evasion, tax avoidance and in some cases … industrial scale tax avoidance like the one he’s raised. Obviously, I’m not going to get into individual cases but the gap is still too wide and it was a staggering £36bn just a few years ago.”

She said the government was recruiting 5,000 new compliance officers to close a £36bn gap between duty that is owed and what is actually paid.

In a separate, written question to the Treasury, the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith asked if Rachel Reeves would “take steps to ensure that funds potentially owed by Roman Abramovich to HMRC are (a) investigated and (b) reclaimed”.

The Guardian has asked the Treasury for comment.

Another APPG member, Phil Brickell, is expected to table a question to the Foreign Office about whether it has discussed the case with counterparts in Cyprus, the Guardian understands.

A joint investigation by the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC revealed that Abramovich invested in more than 200 hedge funds, using a circuitous structure routed through Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands.

Investments appear to have been controlled from the UK by Abramovich’s “right-hand man”, Eugene Shvidler, the files suggest. Experts said this raised questions about whether corporation tax should have been paid in Britain.

Details of Roman Abramovich’s hedge fund investments emerged as part of the Cyprus Confidential series, based on the largest ever leak of financial information from the Mediterranean tax haven, which the Guardian and its reporting partners have been examining since 2022.

On Tuesday, the investigation also revealed details of a scheme that suggest tens of millions in VAT was avoided on the cost of running Abramovich’s fleet of superyachts, in Italy, Cyprus and a number of other EU countries.

Earlier this week, the Cypriot MP Alexandra Attalides asked the her government whether Blue Ocean Yacht Management, the company at the centre of the scheme, had paid any debts that might be due to the state and, if not, what steps the authorities had taken.

The government and HM Revenue and Customs should urgently examine whether Roman Abramovich owes British tax authorities up to £1bn, more than 40 MPs and peers have said, after an investigation by the Guardian and media partners found that his companies may have failed to pay tax on profits from an elaborate offshore investment scheme.

The intervention, from both Conservative and Labour MPs, comes after leaked papers and court filings shed new light on how the income from a $6bn (£4.8bn) cash pile amassed by the former Chelsea FC owner was managed.

Analysis, which was reviewed by experts, suggests his overseas investment companies failed to pay corporation tax and could be liable for up to £1bn including interest and late payment penalties.

If HMRC determined that such a sum were due, it would outstrip the record £652m paid by the former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone to settle a tax case in October 2023.

On Thursday, 43 MPs and peers who are members of a all-party parliamentary group examining responsible tax wrote to HMRC, calling on the tax authority to review the investigation’s findings and determine whether it could “reclaim any funds potentially owed by Roman Abramovich to the UK tax authorities”.

They also called for an update on the status of Abramovich’s UK assets, after he was placed under sanctions by the government in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In its sanctions notice, the Foreign Office said the former Chelsea FC owner was “involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the government of Russia”.

“It has also been reported that Abramovich has at least £3.2bn of UK assets frozen,” wrote the APPG’s chair, Joe Powell MP. “I would like to ask whether the department has made any considerations as to whether such assets could be used against any potential money owed.

“When Abramovich was forced to sell the Chelsea Football Club, approximately £2.5bn was pledged to humanitarian programmes for victims of the Ukraine war. However, to date, not a single penny of that money has been spent.

“In light of these concerns, it is critical that we understand what measures HMRC is taking to investigate this matter and ensure that any unpaid taxes are recovered. Given the scale of the sums involved, ensuring that any unpaid taxes are recovered is a matter of public interest – particularly at a time when funds are urgently needed for public services and to manage the national debt.”

A spokesperson for HMRC said: “We’re continuing to lead international efforts to improve global transparency and are committed to ensuring everyone pays the right tax under the law, regardless of wealth or status.”

Powell, who is Labour’s MP for Kensington & Bayswater, also raised the issue during questions to the leader of the house, Lucy Powell, on Thursday, asking the government to “scrutinise whether HMRC have all the resources they need to pursue this case and recover as much money as possible for the Treasury”.

Lucy Powell said: “He’s absolutely right to raise matters of tax evasion, tax avoidance and in some cases … industrial scale tax avoidance like the one he’s raised. Obviously, I’m not going to get into individual cases but the gap is still too wide and it was a staggering £36bn just a few years ago.”

She said the government was recruiting 5,000 new compliance officers to close a £36bn gap between duty that is owed and what is actually paid.

In a separate, written question to the Treasury, the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith asked if Rachel Reeves would “take steps to ensure that funds potentially owed by Roman Abramovich to HMRC are (a) investigated and (b) reclaimed”.

The Guardian has asked the Treasury for comment.

Another APPG member, Phil Brickell, is expected to table a question to the Foreign Office about whether it has discussed the case with counterparts in Cyprus, the Guardian understands.

A joint investigation by the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC revealed that Abramovich invested in more than 200 hedge funds, using a circuitous structure routed through Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands.

Investments appear to have been controlled from the UK by Abramovich’s “right-hand man”, Eugene Shvidler, the files suggest. Experts said this raised questions about whether corporation tax should have been paid in Britain.

Details of Roman Abramovich’s hedge fund investments emerged as part of the Cyprus Confidential series, based on the largest ever leak of financial information from the Mediterranean tax haven, which the Guardian and its reporting partners have been examining since 2022.

On Tuesday, the investigation also revealed details of a scheme that suggest tens of millions in VAT was avoided on the cost of running Abramovich’s fleet of superyachts, in Italy, Cyprus and a number of other EU countries.

Earlier this week, the Cypriot MP Alexandra Attalides asked the her government whether Blue Ocean Yacht Management, the company at the centre of the scheme, had paid any debts that might be due to the state and, if not, what steps the authorities had taken.

Five people have been arrested after an Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam campaigner was shot dead in Sweden hours before a court verdict was due in his trial over burning the Qur’an, police said.

In an attack that the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said could be linked to “a foreign power”, Salwan Momika, 38, was shot late on Wednesday in a house in the town of Södertälje, near Stockholm. In 2023 Momika outraged many people in Sweden and around the world by burning copies of the Qur’an in public demonstrations.

A Stockholm court had been due pass judgment on Momika and another man on Thursday in a criminal trial over “offences of agitation against an ethnic or national group”, but said the verdict had been postponed.

A police spokesperson confirmed that a man had been shot dead in Södertälje, but gave no other details. Police did not say whether the suspected shooter was among those detained.

The other defendant in the court case posted a message on X saying: “I’m next.”

On Thursday, Kristersson told reporters there were fears the killing could have been linked to another country. “I can assure you that the security services are deeply involved because there is obviously a risk that there is a connection to a foreign power,” he said.

The security service said police were leading the investigation but “we are following the development of events closely to see what impact this may have on Swedish security”.

Swedish media reported Momika was streaming live on TikTok when he was shot. A video seen by Reuters showed police picking up a phone and ending a livestream that appeared to be from his TikTok account.

In 2023 Sweden raised its terrorism alert to the second highest level and warned of threats against Swedes at home and abroad after Qur’an burnings, many of them by Momika, angered many Muslims and prompted threats from jihadists.

While the Swedish government condemned the wave of burnings, it was initially regarded as a protected form of free speech.

Sweden’s migration agency wanted to deport Momika for giving false information on his residency application but could not as it was deemed he could face torture and inhumane treatment in Iraq.

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised Friedrich Merz, her successor as leader of the country’s conservatives, for pushing through proposals on migration and asylum with the backing of the far-right AfD.

In a rare intervention in public affairs since stepping down from politics in December 2021, Merkel said that Merz, who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor, had in effect performed a U-turn.

On her website, she wrote that Merz, head of the centre-right CDU/CSU alliance, had said in a speech last November that he was against passing policies with the support of the generally shunned AfD, even it was by “accident”.

She said she stood by the longstanding conviction that there should never be any association between the mainstream parties and the AfD.

“I think it is wrong to no longer feel bound to this proposal, thereby allowing a majority with the votes of the AfD in a vote in the German Bundestag for the first time on 29 January 2025,” she added.

Wednesday’s vote was unprecedented. For the first time the AfD, second in polls ahead of the election on 23 February, was instrumental in helping a mainstream party towards a parliamentary majority. The pro-business FDP also contributed to the motion’s success.

According to the plan, some migrants and asylum seekers could be turned away at the German border, as well as more easily deported from Germany.

Merz, who became leader of the CDU in December 2021, has always been outspoken in his opposition to Merkel’s so-called open door policy under which around a million migrants entered Germany in 2015, saying it “should not be allowed to happen again”.

In her recently published memoirs, Merkel, who had previously blocked Merz’s rise to power within the CDU, said she “did not begrudge” her old rival the position of chancellor, saying she recognised in him the “unconditional desire to have power”, which was necessary to take on the role.

Merkel was praised for her comments published on Thursday, including by Saskia Esken, co-leader of the Social Democrats. “She clearly has the impression that she has to remind Friedrich Merz of his political responsibility,” she told Die Zeit. “I’m very grateful to her.”

Merz had said prior to the vote that he was reluctantly open to the notion that his proposal would only succeed if it received AfD support. After the vote he continued to assert that he had no intention of working with the AfD. But he faced widespread criticism for what some said was his breaking of a “firewall”, according to which the mainstream parties have pledged not to cooperate or coalesce with the AfD.

Speaking at the ballot box after the vote he said: “I want to repeat … that I’m not looking for any other majority other than in the democratic centre of our parliament.”

He said he “regretted” that such a majority had not been possible, which drew derisive laughter and heckles from the benches of the SPD, Greens and the far-left Die Linke.

Merz has faced criticism from the SPD and the Greens, the constituent parts of Olaf Scholz’s minority government, for failing to try to reach a compromise with them after they put proposals for migration reform on the table that they say have been largely ignored by the opposition.

The AfD meanwhile, which has called the “firewall” undemocratic, and which seeks a coalition with the CDU/CSU, has been celebrating what it sees as a victory and a sign that it can no longer be ignored.

The most quoted response in German media from the AfD since the vote was that of MP Bernd Baumann, who said: “This is truly a historic moment … Mr Merz, you helped bring it about and now you stand here with shaking knees, trembling and apologising,” he said, before declaring: “Here and now a new epoch begins.”

A 100 metre-wide asteroid has triggered global planetary defence procedures for the first time after telescope observations revealed it has a chance of colliding with Earth in 2032.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 was spotted by an automated telescope in Chile on 27 December last year but has since risen to the top of impact risk lists maintained by the US and European space agencies.

Based on measurements gathered so far, the asteroid has a 1.3% chance of smashing into Earth on 22 December 2032, or put another way, a nearly 99% probability of barrelling past without incident.

“Most likely this one will pass by harmlessly,” said Colin Snodgrass, a professor of planetary astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. “It just deserves a little more attention with telescopes until we can confirm that. The longer we follow its orbit, the more accurate our future predictions of its trajectory become.”

The asteroid ranks as a three on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, indicating a close encounter that merits attention from astronomers because there is a 1% or greater chance of a collision in the next decade that would inflict “localised destruction”. The Torino scale ranges from zero, when there is no risk, to 10 when a collision is certain and poses a threat to the future of civilisation as we know it.

The only asteroid ever to receive a higher rating is Apophis which made headlines in 2004. Apophis was initially rated a four on the Torino scale but was later downgraded as observations showed that it posed no threat for at least a century.

Gareth Collins, professor of planetary science at Imperial College London, said that an increase in monitoring of near Earth objects will make detections like asteroid 2024 YR4 much more common. “At this stage, the best thing to do is to continue tracking the asteroid for as long as possible so that we can predict its trajectory with more confidence,” he said.

A space rock the size of asteroid 2024 YR4 would not unleash a mass extinction event as happened 66m years ago: the asteroid that triggered the demise of the dinosaurs was 10 to 15km wide. But 100 metre-wide space rocks, which impact Earth on average every few thousand years, still have the potential to cause catastrophic damage on the city scale.

The detection of the asteroid has activated two UN-endorsed global asteroid response groups. The International Asteroid Warning Network has swung into action to make further observations of the asteroid and narrow down uncertainties in its orbit. The Space Mission Planning Advisory Group has also been alerted. They would propose any plan to intervene, perhaps by deflecting the asteroid with an intercepting spacecraft, a technique tested in Nasa’s Dart mission.

The asteroid is now hurtling away from Earth in almost a straight line making it hard for astronomers to determine its orbit with high accuracy. Astronomers aim to make more detailed observations over the coming months before the rock fades from view. If those measurements do not rule out an impact in 2032, the asteroid will probably remain on space agencies’ risk lists until it comes back into view in 2028.

“The first step in the planetary defence response is to trigger further observations,” Snodgrass said. “If these observations don’t rule out an impact, the next steps will be more detailed characterisation measurements using telescopes, and discussion of what space agencies could do in terms of more detailed reconnaissance and eventually mitigation missions. This asteroid is of the scale that a mission like Dart could be effective, if required, so we have the technology and it has been tested.”

The mayor of a popular Italian ski resort is clamping down on day-trippers after the town was suddenly overwhelmed by 260 buses bringing more than 10,000 visitors from Naples and the surrounding Campania region, lured by a TikTok star and cheap tickets.

The onslaught on Sunday severely clogged the road leading up to Roccaraso, nestled in the mountains of Abruzzo, and overcrowded its ski slopes. Residents were furious after the crowds, many of whom brought picnics, left the resort strewn with rubbish.

The day-trippers were influenced by a Naples-born TikToker, Rita De Crescenzo, who posted a live video and several photos from the resort to her 1.7 million followers, as well as by travel agencies offering return bus trips, some leaving at 6am for the two-hour trip, for €20-€30 with breakfast thrown in.

Francesco Di Donato, the mayor of Roccaraso, said the resort had had especially busy days in the past but it had never experienced an influx akin to last Sunday’s.

He hinted at calling in the army to deal with the issue, but for now he has limited the number of tourist buses that can enter the town on Saturdays and Sundays to 100. What’s more, bus companies will need to pre-book online.

Ordinarily, on average 20,000 skiers venture to Roccaraso on weekends in January and February, on top of 15,000 who go simply for a visit.

“Then we have hundreds of unauthorised buses arriving,” Di Donato told the news agency, Adnkronos. “On Sunday 260 came, especially from Campania, bringing another 10,000-12,000 people. This was a real assault and the situation became unmanageable.”

Di Donato rejected accusations on social media of discrimination towards Neapolitans, who are often stereotyped as being uncouth, arguing that the town needed to be protected and that hosting too many people posed a safety risk.

“Racism towards Neapolitans? Not really,” Di Donato told Corriere della Sera. “Roccaraso welcomes and wants to welcome more tourists, but we want civilised skiers. With €30 you cannot even ski, as a ski pass costs €60. Roccaraso is not able to withstand the kind of assault we had on Sunday – for example, we cannot put 1,000 portable toilets in a ski resort.”

De Crescenzo, who along with her TikTok fame has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram, denied responsibility for the overcrowding and pledged to return to the resort on Sunday – this time with even more people.

“All I said was that Roccaraso is a beautiful place,” she told Il Messaggero. “People are free to move as they want and I cannot be responsible for the behaviour of others. I published content that reached a huge audience, which makes me proud. I’m convinced that Roccaraso will continue to be a highly attractive destination. I will be back on Sunday and you will see that, thanks to my videos, even more people will come than last weekend.”

The overtourism debate is usually reserved for the summer period and for famous Italian cities such Venice, Florence and Rome, but the Roccaraso case has further exposed how social media influencers can contribute to the phenomenon.

“[Overtourism] no longer happens only in the most renowned destination,” wrote Carlotta Sisti in Elle magazine. “But it also happens, and unexpectedly, in less renowned destinations which are not accustomed to huge flows of visitors, just like Roccaraso.”

Emilio Borelli, a councillor for the Campania region, said: “Behind this extraordinary influx lies a digital phenomenon linked to TikTok,” while noting how local travel agencies prominent on social media attracted customers with cheap deals.

TikTokers have prompted visitor booms at other lesser-known sites, including a church in Rome that has a mirror popular with selfie-takers.

A group of First Nations in Canada is turning to the courts in the hope of securing billions of dollars in compensation, after accusing the government of failing to engage in “meaningful negotiations” for money owed under a 175-year-old treaty.

“The governments’ refusal to come to grips with their treaty obligations has continued 175 years of broken promises, lies and neglect,” Wilfred King, chief of Gull Bay First Nation, said in a statement announcing plans to seek compensation that is “just, liberal, generous and honourable”.

The closely watched case – which could see billions awarded to the 12 nations – centres on a treaty signed in 1850 between the British crown and a group of Anishinaabe nations on the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior.

Known as the Robinson treaties, the agreements, covering 35,700 sq miles (92,400 sq km) of land, included a rare “augmentation clause” that promised to increase annual payments “from time to time” as the land generated more wealth – “if and when” that payment could be made without the crown incurring a loss.

Over the next 174 years, the lands and waters covered by the deal generated immense profits for private companies, and substantial revenues for the province of Ontario. But in 1874, the annuities were capped at $4 a person and never increased.

In July, a scathing and unanimous decision released by Canada’s top court criticized the federal and Ontario governments for their “dishonourable” conduct around the treaty, which left First Nations people to struggle in poverty while surrounding communities, industry and government exploited the abundant natural resources to enrich themselves.

“Today, in what can only be described as a mockery of the crown’s treaty promise to the Anishinaabe of the upper Great Lakes, the annuities are distributed to individual treaty beneficiaries by giving them $4 each,” the court wrote, singling out the “shocking” figure paid to beneficiaries. “The crown has severely undermined both the spirit and substance of the Robinson treaties.”

Twenty-one signatories of the Robinson Huron treaty, a separate agreement also signed in 1850, settled out of court for C$10bn, but the Superior group pushed further through the courts to determine how much the federal and provincial governments owe.

In July, the supreme court ordered Ontario and the federal government to wrap negotiations with the Anishnaabe nations within six months. The deadline for an offer was 26 January.

In a press release, the nations said they had only been offered C$3.6bn, a figure that “ignored the economic evidence about how much wealth Canada and Ontario took from our lands”, said King, the chief of Gull Bay First Nation.

“The [crown] consigned our communities to intergenerational poverty while they appropriated tremendous benefits for themselves. They continue to deny to our communities what we have lost as a result of their breaches,” he said. “Their decision today does not make up for 175 years of refusing to share the wealth of our lands.”

In previous testimony, the Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the amount due to the nations could approach C$126bn.

“If you’ve owed somebody something, year after year after year, for 170 years, it’s a lot of money,” he told the court in February 2023.

Signatories of the treaty plan say they will ask Patricia Hennessy of the Ontario superior court of justice to determine the amount they are rightfully owed.

Chief Patricia Tangie of Michipicoten First Nation said the fight was about both previous losses and future generations.

“Just as our ancestors in 1850 sought to secure benefits for their descendants, we today also take our role seriously for our next seven generations. We are carrying on with this struggle so that our children and grandchildren do not have to suffer like so many of our people have for more than a century and a half,” she said.

“That suffering continues to include poverty, poor health and shortened life expectancy.”