Keir Starmer has urged Donald Trump to provide a US “backstop” to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine, saying it is the only way to deter Russia from attacking the country again.

The UK prime minister’s appeal to Trump came after an emergency summit in Paris that heard widespread calls by European leaders for a large boost in defence spending.

Some leaders at the summit – especially the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who is one week from an election – wanted to block off any discussion on a European force to help enforce a ceasefire in Ukraine.

But Starmer, after committing on Sunday to the principle of sending British troops, pressed ahead with the issue – and went further by insisting such a force was only feasible with US support.

Speaking after the three-hour summit, he said: “Europe must play its role, and I’m prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others, if there is a lasting peace agreement, but there must be a US backstop, because a US security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again.”

His remarks amount to a call for Trump to recognise he cannot wash America’s hands of Ukraine without also damaging European security.

The emergency summit was convened by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at 48 hours’ notice amid growing fears in European capitals that Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, are trying to negotiate the future of the continent’s security over the heads of European leaders.

Macron said after the summit he had spoken to both Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and that “we will work on this together with all Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians – this is the key”.

“We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine. To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians,” Macron said on X.

“Otherwise, there is a risk that this ceasefire will end up like the Minsk agreements,” he said, referring to the pacts that sought to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015.

Starmer insisted that the US is not poised to leave Nato, but said the issue of burden-sharing within the alliance had become pressing. “In this moment we have to realise the new era we are now in and not cling hopelessly to the comforts of the past and to take responsibility for our security and our continent,” he said.

UK defence officials say that even if a 30,000-strong European force is deployed away from the frontline in a reassurance role, it will need the protections, including air cover and logistics, that only Nato – specifically the US – can provide.

Scholz agreed with Starmer that such a force was inconceivable without US backing, but criticised the conversation about troops as “completely premature and the completely wrong time to have this discussion now”. He was “even a little irritated” by the debate. “We are not yet at peace, but in the middle of a war waged brutally by Russia, which is being pushed forward without consideration,” he said.

In a summit that was never intended to reach a decision, the clearest consensus was around increasing defence spending.

The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said: “We will not be able to effectively help Ukraine if we do not immediately take concrete steps regarding our own defence capabilities. If Europe, and this is the case today, is not able to counter Russia’s military potential, then we must immediately catch up.”

Scholz too said he wanted a focus on how Europe could remove defence spending increases from fiscal debt rules. “It is quite clear that our continued and necessary support for Ukraine is only possible if we can decide to finance it separately,” he said. He added the German debt brake should not apply to defence spending above 2% and that the country could mobilise an additional €30bn annually.

Criticising Trump’s decision to rush into peace talks with Russia, he said it was “highly inappropriate” that a debate had started about the outcome of talks that had not yet taken place, and were being conducted without the involvement of Ukraine. He said “it is very clear to us: we must continue to support Ukraine – and it must and can rely on us”.

Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said all European nations should boost their support for Ukraine and defence spending at home to protect themselves against Moscow. “Russia is threatening all of Europe now, unfortunately,” she said.

European leaders are increasingly concerned that Trump is rushing to strike an immediate ceasefire with Russia that Ukraine and Europe will only be able shape at the margin.

Reflecting those concerns, Tusk said: “Everyone at this meeting is aware that transatlantic relations, the Nato alliance and our friendship with the United States have entered a new phase. We all see that.”

Meanwhile, senior Russian and American diplomats are due to meet in Riyadh on Wednesday to follow up on the surprise phone call to Putin initiated by Trump last week.

Trump’s special Ukraine envoy, Gen Keith Kellogg, stressed Trump wanted a quick deal: “We are now at Trump time, which means I get an assignment today and tomorrow at noon he asks me why it hasn’t been done yet.”

Scholz argued there must be “no division of security and responsibility between Europe and the USA”, effectively ruling out German participation in a reassurance force in the context of a ceasefire if the US does not agree to participate militarily in the peacekeeping mission.

So far the US has refused to commit to providing any help to a putative European force.

“Nato is based on the fact that we always act together and take risks together, thereby ensuring our security. This must not be called into question,” Scholz said.

Poland has long said it will not deploy troops in Ukraine, arguing its role as defending central Europe. Italy and Spain are also opposed to sending troops without greater clarity about the US role.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who arrived nearly an hour late for the summit, said the option “that involves the deployment of European soldiers in Ukraine seems to me to be the most complex and perhaps the least effective”.

“Other avenues should be explored that also include the involvement of the United States, because it is in the Euro-Atlantic context that European and American security is founded,” she said.

France’s twin purpose in calling the meeting had been to conjure a vivid, unified display of European solidarity with Ukraine, and to forge a strategy to persuade Trump that Europe, with its own security and resources at stake in the Ukraine talks, has an unimpeachable right to a seat at the table.

Macron, a lifelong exponent of a stronger European security dimension, also wanted the summit to open discussions on the level of contributions the big European powers could assemble for a reassurance force.

With trust between Washington and Europe at a low ebb, there is also increasing concern among European diplomats that Trump may decide, as a goodwill gesture, to unilaterally lift key sanctions on Russia, relieving the growing pressure on its economy.

Moscow is angling for sanctions to be lifted as part of the package that reopens diplomatic relations between Russia and the US. Russia is hoping the US will also signal a withdrawal of American troops from the continent.

US officials, both in public and private, have put different emphases on aspects of the deal, including how Ukraine will be consulted, leading many European diplomats to believe the US does not yet have a single coherent plan.

The US has sent mixed messages about Ukrainian and European involvement in the talks, with Michael Kellog saying it was “not reasonable to have everyone sitting at the table for a Ukraine peace deal”.

In a bid to shore up Trump’s exclusion of Europe from the process, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said: “I do not know what Europe would do at the negotiating table. Given the attitude of European states to the war, he is not sure what contribution they would make if they were invited. If Europe wants to continue the war in Ukraine, why should it be invited to negotiations.”

• The US is trying to “please” Vladimir Putin as it aims for a “quick win” by rushing towards a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast on Monday. “The US is now saying things that are very favourable to Putin … because they want to please him. They want to meet quickly and have a quick win. But what they want – just a ceasefire – is not a win,” said Ukraine’s president, according to a translation provided by broadcaster ARD. “We [Ukraine] will not sign just anything in order to be applauded … the fate of our state for generations to come [is at stake].”

• Zelenskyy warned that Europe was in a weak position if it could not rely on US security assistance. While “readiness has increased” in recent years, “in terms of troop strength, the number of combat troops, the fleet, the air force, the drones … I honestly think that Europe is weak today”, he said. Zelenskyy said Ukraine had grown more resilient over the past three years and that “Putin wouldn’t be able to occupy us the way he wanted to”. Even so, he warned that “there will definitely not be a Ukrainian victory without US support”.

• Zelenskyy said he and Trump had spoken about deploying foreign troops to police a future ceasefire. “I told him the Americans should be a part of this, because otherwise we might lose our unity.” At a meeting of Kyiv’s backers in Brussels last week, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, flatly rejected the possibility of a US troop deployment to Ukraine.

• Zelenskyy has hardened his language since the US announced one-on-one talks with Russia, excluding Ukraine and Europe. On Monday he said that Kyiv “did not know anything about” the talks in Saudi Arabia this week and “cannot recognise any things or any agreements about us without us. And we will not recognise such agreements”.

• Speaking after emergency talks between European leaders in Paris, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, also warned the US against attempts to agree a “fast” ceasefire, which would give Russia the chance “to mobilise again, attack Ukraine or another country in Europe”. Russia was “threatening all Europe now”, she said. The war was about Russia’s “imperial dreams, about building a stronger and a bigger Russia, and I don’t think they’re going to stop in Ukraine”.

• After Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, said he would consider putting troops in Ukraine to enforce a peace deal, the prime ministers of Sweden and the Netherlands indicated they would consider it if the peacekeeping force had a strong and clear mandate. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said Poland did not plan to do so. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said: “We in Germany are prepared to contribute soldiers to a security guarantee for Ukraine if necessary.” However, he was “irritated”, adding: “It is completely premature and completely the wrong time to have this discussion now … I want to say that quite frankly, people are talking over Ukraine’s head, about the outcome of peace talks that have not taken place and to which Ukraine has not said yes.”

• Keith Kellogg, officially Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, on Monday denied that Washington would impose a peace deal “on an elected leader of a sovereign nation”, meaning Zelenskyy. Kellogg, however, does not appear to be involved in the Russia-US talks taking place in Saudi Arabia this week. Asked if the US would put a security guarantee behind other countries sending troops to enforce a ceasefire, Kellogg said: “I’ve been with President Trump, and the policy has always been: you take no options off the table. Before any type of discussion and security guarantees is finalised, of course those discussions are going to take place. Answers to those questions will be determined as you come up with the final process.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not recognise any peace agreements made without its participation, as top Russian and US officials prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia for high-stakes talks on the war in Ukraine.

“Ukraine regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result, and we cannot recognise … any agreements about us without us,” Zelenskyy said on Monday. His comments came as Russian and American officials travelled to Riyadh before Tuesday’s talks aimed at ending Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine, with Kyiv and Europe excluded from the negotiations.

Zelenskyy confirmed Ukraine would not take part in the talks. “Ukraine did not know anything about it,” he said.

The swift push to organise the US-Russia talks came after last week’s call between Trump and Vladimir Putin, where the two leaders discussed opening negotiations on the war. The meeting in Riyadh will mark the first in-person discussions between top officials from both countries in years, after a sharp downturn in relations after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Both sides are dispatching high-level delegations, underscoring the importance they place on the talks, which could lay the groundwork for a Trump-Putin summit as early as this month.

The US delegation will feature some of Trump’s most senior aides, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, as well as Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz.

Moscow announced that Putin had tasked his most senior foreign policy envoy, Yuri Ushakov, along with his longtime foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to travel to Saudi Arabia.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the meeting “will be devoted to the preparation of possible negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement and the organisation of a meeting between the two presidents”.

In comments cited by Tass news agency on Monday morning, Lavrov said Russia had no intention of making territorial concessions to Ukraine during the peace talks.

In September 2022, Russia declared the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in Ukraine, including areas that remained outside its control.

Lavrov said Moscow would hear out “its US colleagues” but added that Europe “has no place at the negotiating table”.

Also present in Riyadh for Russia will be Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a financier subject to US sanctions, who is also reportedly a close friend of Putin’s daughter.

“A heavyweight Russia delegation is departing for Riyadh … All are loyal and trusted insiders,” the liberal commentator Alexei Venediktov wrote on his telegram channel.

Zelenskyy said in a video briefing from the United Arab Emirates on Monday, where he was on a state visit, that he would travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, though he stressed his visit was not linked to the Russian-US peace talks.

“So, once again, my visits have nothing in common with those talks. Although when I arrive in Saudi Arabia I will ask his majesty what he knows about the topics of the talks,” Zelenskyy added.

He also announced on Monday that Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, would visit Kyiv on Thursday. Zelenskyy said he wanted to take Kellogg on a joint trip to the frontline, where they would meet Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi.

He stressed that Europe had to be at the table for negotiations, and should be represented by a person respected in the continent. He did not rule out China’s participation but said only those who gave security guarantees stopping Russian aggression should be involved.

Kellogg, viewed as Trump’s most pro-Ukraine adviser, though with declining influence, confirmed plans to visit Ukraine. Speaking at Nato headquarters in Brussels on Monday, he underscored that no peace deal would be imposed on Kyiv.

On Sunday, Trump stated that Zelenskyy would take part in the discussions but did not specify at what stage or whether Ukrainian officials would be present in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has played a central role in early contacts between the Trump administration and Moscow, helping to secure a prisoner swap last week. Peskov said the location was chosen because it suited both countries.

The blistering speed of talks has added to further anxieties in Europe, which has been left out of the talks.

During the Munich security conference over the weekend, Kellogg told European officials that while Europe would be consulted, it would ultimately be excluded from the negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the US.

Responding to the fast-moving negotiations taking place without them, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, convened an emergency meeting in Paris with European leaders.

“We feel like we’re constantly left in the dark,” a senior European official told the Guardian, commenting on this week’s talks. “At the moment, we’re running behind the news. Our goal now is to show what we can bring to the table.”

Despite the flurry of diplomacy, little is known about Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine or Russia’s willingness to engage.

Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, on Monday sought to downplay expectations for the talks, noting that Moscow and Washington had yet to establish a framework for Ukraine peace negotiations, as Washington had not yet appointed a chief negotiator to engage with Russia.

He added that the discussions in Riyadh would centre on “agreeing on how to initiate negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian conflict”.

The US has repeatedly said it wants European peacekeeping troops to enter Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal – an idea under discussion among European leaders.

Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, on Sunday said he was prepared to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine if there was a deal to end the war with Russia.

While Russia has repeatedly rejected the possibility of European forces in Ukraine, Moscow appeared to tone down its rhetoric on Monday, with the Kremlin spokesperson, Peskov, calling it a “complex issue”.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has rebuffed an initial attempt by the US to corner his country’s critical minerals as a downpayment for continued military and economic aid for its war with Russia.

Three sources told the Reuters news agency that the US had proposed taking ownership of 50% of Ukraine’s critical minerals. Zelenskyy did not dismiss the offer out of hand, but said it did not yet contain the security provisions Kyiv needed.

A plane carrying 80 people crash landed at Toronto Pearson airport yesterday, flipping upside down and leaving at least 18 people injured.

Video from the scene showed a Delta Air Lines plane belly-up on snow-covered tarmac and people walking away.

Two people in a critical condition were airlifted to a nearby trauma centre and one child was taken by ambulance to a hospital in downtown Toronto. Twelve others sustained minor injuries.

Flight 4819 – operated by the Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air – crashed while landing in Toronto about 2.45pm local time, having flown from Minneapolis in the US state of Minnesota.

The US Federal Aviation Authority said all 80 people onboard had been evacuated.

Video footage posted on Instagram showed passengers being helped by cabin crew to leave the upturned plane, with firefighters hosing the fuselage.

A Facebook user who said he was a passenger on the flight, John Nelson, posted a video showing the crashed plane and wrote: “Our plane crashed. It’s upside down. Most people appear to be OK. We’re all getting off.”

Nelson later told CNN there was no indication of anything unusual before landing. “We hit the ground, and we were sideways, and then we were upside down.

“I was able to just unbuckle and sort of fall and push myself to the ground. And then some people were kind of hanging and needed some help being helped down, and others were able to get down on their own.”

Todd Aitken, the airport’s fire chief, said: “It’s very early on. It’s really important that we do not speculate. What we can say is the runway was dry and there was no crosswind conditions.”

Deborah Flint, Toronto airport authority chief executive, said the crash did not involve any other planes.

The Ontario premier, Doug Ford, said he was “relieved there are no casualties”.

All departures and arrivals at the airport resumed at 5pm local time, having been paused minutes after the crash.

A massive snowstorm hit eastern Canada on Sunday, and strong winds and bone-chilling temperatures could still be felt in Toronto yesterday. Before the crash, dozens of departures and arrivals had been delayed.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said it was “deploying a team to investigate” the accident, which came weeks after two fatal crashes in the US. The US National Transportation Safety Board said a team of investigators would assist Canada’s TSB.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Reuters

The apparent leader of a cultlike group known as the Zizians has been arrested in Maryland along with another member of the group, Maryland state police have said.

Jack LaSota, 34, was arrested on Sunday along with Michelle Zajko, 33, of Media, Pennsylvania. They face multiple charges including trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in the vehicle, police said on Monday.

A bail hearing for the two is scheduled for 11am on Tuesday at Allegany district court.

The Zizians have been tied to the killing of US border patrol agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California.

Maland, 44, was killed in a 20 January shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles (32km) from the Canadian border.

Officials have offered few details of the cross-country investigation, which broke open after Maland’s death. Associated Press interviews and a review of court records and online postings tell the story of how a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, met online, shared anarchist beliefs, and became increasingly violent.

Their goals aren’t clear, but online writings span topics from radical veganism and gender identity to artificial intelligence.

At the middle of it all is “Ziz”, who appears to be the leader of the strange group members who called themselves “Zizians”. She has been seen near multiple crime scenes and has connections to various suspects.

LaSota published a dark and sometimes violent blog under the name Ziz and, in one section, described her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other”.

LaSota, who used she/her pronouns, and in her writings says she is a transgender woman, railed against perceived enemies, including so-called rationalist groups, which operate mostly online and seek to understand human cognition through reason and knowledge. Some are concerned with the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

LaSota, 34, has not responded to multiple Associated Press emails in recent weeks, and her attorney Daniel McGarrigle declined to comment when asked whether she is connected to any of the deaths. Before her weekend arrest, she missed court appearances in two states, and bench warrants have been issued for her arrest.

Reached on Monday, McGarrigle would confirm only that he has represented LaSota and wouldn’t confirm her arrest or any details of the latest case.

Novak Djokovic has claimed the majority of players believe Jannik Sinner was shown “favouritism” with his three-month doping ban.

Sinner reached a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) over two positive drug tests in March last year. Sinner’s explanation that he was inadvertently contaminated with the banned substance clostebol by his physio was accepted by Wada, but the agency added that “the athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence”.

The world No 1 is therefore suspended from 9 February until 4 May, meaning he will be eligible to play at the French Open, which starts on 19 May. Speaking at the Qatar Open, Djokovic said: “There’s a majority of the players that I’ve talked to in the locker room, not just in the last few days, but also last few months, that are not happy with the way this whole process has been handled.

“A majority of the players don’t feel it’s fair. A majority of the players feel like there is favouritism happening. It appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers.”

Sinner’s was the first of two high-profile cases in tennis in quick succession, with the women’s world No 2, Iga Swiatek, handed a one-month suspension in November after a positive test for the angina medication trimetazidine. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted it was caused by contamination of a medicine Swiatek was taking to help combat jet lag.

By contrast, the former world No 1 Simona Halep was given a four-year ban by the ITIA in 2022 after a positive test, although it was later reduced to nine months. Meanwhile, Britain’s Tara Moore, a far less well-known player, was suspended in May 2022 while an investigation lasted 18 months before an independent tribunal determined that contaminated meat was the source of the prohibited substances for which she tested positive.

“Simona Halep and Tara Moore and some other players that are maybe less known that have been struggling to resolve their cases for years, or have got the ban for years … there is so much inconsistencies between the cases,” said Djokovic. “Sinner has got a suspension for three months because of mistakes and negligence of his team members, who are working on the tour. This is also something that I personally and many other players find strange.

“Now it’s a ripe time for us to really address the system, because the system and the structure obviously doesn’t work, anti-doping, it’s obvious. I hope that in the near future the governing bodies are going to come together and try to find a more effective way to deal with these processes. It’s inconsistent, and it appears to be very unfair.”

Moore, 32, wrote on X on Monday: “I don’t think any of this was Sinner’s fault. I’m simply asking that everyone get the same treatment. I hope his case will further improve the conditions in which players are treated and will be a precedent for future cases’ timelines.”

Britain’s Liam Broady suggested the timing of Sinner’s ban was convenient for the 23-year-old. “I do think a lot has been put into when the ban would take place, to impact Jannik’s career as little as possible,” Broady told BBC Sport.

“The ban ends the day before the Rome Masters, which is the biggest tournament in his home country and the perfect preparation for him to then go and play the French Open. I don’t think he loses any points or his No 1 spot either, so it’s an interesting ban.”

The British No 1, Jack Draper, told Sky Sports: “I’m sure he wouldn’t have done anything intentional but we have to be accountable for what goes in our bodies. Obviously he’s got a ban for a few months and I don’t think that’s good for tennis.”

Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that he is “committed” to Donald Trump’s plan to take over and develop the Gaza Strip, amid uncertainty over whether Israel will send a delegation to Qatar to discuss the second stage of the fragile ceasefire in the war with Hamas.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli prime minister said: “Just as I have committed to, on the day after the war in Gaza, there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. I am committed to US president Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza.”

The remarks come after a report by Sky News Arabia on Sunday night that Hamas was prepared to hand over control of Gaza to its West Bank-based rival, the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority (PA), following pressure from mediator Egypt.

The broadcaster said, citing Egyptian sources, that the Palestinian militant group had agreed to the establishment of a temporary committee to oversee the reconstruction of the territory, which has been levelled by Israeli airstrikes over 16 months of war.

Netanyahu’s latest comments will weigh heavily over the future of the month-old truce after it almost collapsed last week following news of Trump’s surprise plan for the US to “take over” Gaza and “relocate” its 2.3 million people to countries such as Egypt and Jordan. International humanitarian law experts say the proposal amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Netanyahu’s defence minister, Israel Katz, announced the establishment of a new agency late on Monday to oversee the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians from Gaza.

A three-month-old ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah is also in doubt ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for Israel to withdraw remaining troops from its northern neighbour.

In a briefing on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, told reporters that Israeli forces would remain in five “strategic locations” over the border in order to protect nearby Israeli towns and villages, an announcement met with frustration by Lebanese officials.

Israel’s security cabinet is set to decide on Monday evening whether to send a delegation to the Qatari capital, Doha, to discuss the difficult second stage of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. The second phase is scheduled to begin in early March, and would involve the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, effectively ending the war. The third phase is supposed to address the exchange of bodies, a reconstruction plan for Gaza, and future governance.

According to Israeli media, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party, which was opposed to the ceasefire, is still threatening to collapse Netanyahu’s coalition if Israel does not return to fighting when the first stage of the truce expires.

It is widely believed at home and abroad that Netanyahu, afraid that losing office will leave him more vulnerable to corruption charges, has prioritised the survival of his government over a hostage deal.

While Israeli public opinion is unlikely to sway government decision making on the war, protests were held across the country on Monday to mark 500 days since Israeli hostages were kidnapped and taken to Gaza in the Hamas attack of October 2023 that triggered the conflict. In Jerusalem, dozens of demonstrators marched to Netanyahu’s residence, chanting slogans and carrying banners that read “Home Now”, before meeting lawmakers at the Knesset.

Captives have been released in batches of three or four in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees on a weekly basis since 19 January, but about 45 more Israelis and foreign nationals are not eligible for release until the second stage of the agreement.

Israel is preparing to receive the bodies of four hostages from Gaza on Thursday and is working on bringing back six living hostages in the next scheduled release on Saturday, an Israeli security official said on Monday. If the handovers are successful, the timeline for the start of the second stage of the truce will be moved up by a week.

Netanyahu has repeatedly publicly embraced Trump’s plan for the US to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop the coastal strip as a resort, telling reporters on Sunday during a visit to Israel by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, that the government was “working closely” alongside Washington to implement the Trump proposal.

The US president’s vision for Gaza has been flatly rejected by the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, which is now scrambling to come up with alternatives.

Saudi Arabia is hosting a summit for delegations from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Friday, and the Arab League will convene to discuss the reconstruction of Gaza and governance options on 27 February.

Reuters reported on Monday that the EU is planning to tell Israel next week that Palestinians displaced from their homes in Gaza should be ensured a dignified return and that Europe will contribute to rebuilding the shattered territory.

In Lebanon, the IDF said the decision to maintain five positions in the country was a temporary measure that was approved by the US-led body monitoring the truce. The ceasefire was extended for another three weeks after the first deadline at the end of January.

Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, said in a statement that Lebanese officials were working diplomatically to achieve the Israeli withdrawal, and that he “will not accept that a single Israeli remains on Lebanese territory”. Under the agreement, the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers are supposed to patrol a buffer zone after the Israeli pullout.

Also on Monday, the Israeli military said it had killed Muhammad Shaheen, a Hamas leader, in an airstrike in Sidon in southern Lebanon. The attack was the deepest Israeli strike on Lebanese territory since the ceasefire went into effect in November, freezing a two-month-old Israeli ground operation. Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel began trading cross-border fire on 8 October 2023, a day after the Hamas attack that began the war in Gaza.

Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that he is “committed” to Donald Trump’s plan to take over and develop the Gaza Strip, amid uncertainty over whether Israel will send a delegation to Qatar to discuss the second stage of the fragile ceasefire in the war with Hamas.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli prime minister said: “Just as I have committed to, on the day after the war in Gaza, there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. I am committed to US president Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza.”

The remarks come after a report by Sky News Arabia on Sunday night that Hamas was prepared to hand over control of Gaza to its West Bank-based rival, the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority (PA), following pressure from mediator Egypt.

The broadcaster said, citing Egyptian sources, that the Palestinian militant group had agreed to the establishment of a temporary committee to oversee the reconstruction of the territory, which has been levelled by Israeli airstrikes over 16 months of war.

Netanyahu’s latest comments will weigh heavily over the future of the month-old truce after it almost collapsed last week following news of Trump’s surprise plan for the US to “take over” Gaza and “relocate” its 2.3 million people to countries such as Egypt and Jordan. International humanitarian law experts say the proposal amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Netanyahu’s defence minister, Israel Katz, announced the establishment of a new agency late on Monday to oversee the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians from Gaza.

A three-month-old ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah is also in doubt ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for Israel to withdraw remaining troops from its northern neighbour.

In a briefing on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, told reporters that Israeli forces would remain in five “strategic locations” over the border in order to protect nearby Israeli towns and villages, an announcement met with frustration by Lebanese officials.

Israel’s security cabinet is set to decide on Monday evening whether to send a delegation to the Qatari capital, Doha, to discuss the difficult second stage of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. The second phase is scheduled to begin in early March, and would involve the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, effectively ending the war. The third phase is supposed to address the exchange of bodies, a reconstruction plan for Gaza, and future governance.

According to Israeli media, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party, which was opposed to the ceasefire, is still threatening to collapse Netanyahu’s coalition if Israel does not return to fighting when the first stage of the truce expires.

It is widely believed at home and abroad that Netanyahu, afraid that losing office will leave him more vulnerable to corruption charges, has prioritised the survival of his government over a hostage deal.

While Israeli public opinion is unlikely to sway government decision making on the war, protests were held across the country on Monday to mark 500 days since Israeli hostages were kidnapped and taken to Gaza in the Hamas attack of October 2023 that triggered the conflict. In Jerusalem, dozens of demonstrators marched to Netanyahu’s residence, chanting slogans and carrying banners that read “Home Now”, before meeting lawmakers at the Knesset.

Captives have been released in batches of three or four in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees on a weekly basis since 19 January, but about 45 more Israelis and foreign nationals are not eligible for release until the second stage of the agreement.

Israel is preparing to receive the bodies of four hostages from Gaza on Thursday and is working on bringing back six living hostages in the next scheduled release on Saturday, an Israeli security official said on Monday. If the handovers are successful, the timeline for the start of the second stage of the truce will be moved up by a week.

Netanyahu has repeatedly publicly embraced Trump’s plan for the US to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop the coastal strip as a resort, telling reporters on Sunday during a visit to Israel by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, that the government was “working closely” alongside Washington to implement the Trump proposal.

The US president’s vision for Gaza has been flatly rejected by the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, which is now scrambling to come up with alternatives.

Saudi Arabia is hosting a summit for delegations from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Friday, and the Arab League will convene to discuss the reconstruction of Gaza and governance options on 27 February.

Reuters reported on Monday that the EU is planning to tell Israel next week that Palestinians displaced from their homes in Gaza should be ensured a dignified return and that Europe will contribute to rebuilding the shattered territory.

In Lebanon, the IDF said the decision to maintain five positions in the country was a temporary measure that was approved by the US-led body monitoring the truce. The ceasefire was extended for another three weeks after the first deadline at the end of January.

Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, said in a statement that Lebanese officials were working diplomatically to achieve the Israeli withdrawal, and that he “will not accept that a single Israeli remains on Lebanese territory”. Under the agreement, the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers are supposed to patrol a buffer zone after the Israeli pullout.

Also on Monday, the Israeli military said it had killed Muhammad Shaheen, a Hamas leader, in an airstrike in Sidon in southern Lebanon. The attack was the deepest Israeli strike on Lebanese territory since the ceasefire went into effect in November, freezing a two-month-old Israeli ground operation. Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel began trading cross-border fire on 8 October 2023, a day after the Hamas attack that began the war in Gaza.

Hundreds of protesters have marched on Cook Islands’ parliament to oppose prime minister Mark Brown’s recent decisions, including a failure to properly consult its closest partner New Zealand over a deal to deepen ties with China.

Roughly 400 protesters – led by opposition parties – gathered outside the capital city of Avarua on Tuesday, RNZ reported, with some holding signs reading “Stay connected with New Zealand”. Others waved placards showing the New Zealand passport in opposition to Brown’s now-abandoned controversial proposal to introduce a separate Cook Islands passport, which New Zealand warned would require holders to renounce their New Zealand one.

“We have no problem with our government going and seeking assistance,” opposition leader Tina Browne said. “We do have a problem when it is risking our sovereignty, risking our relationship with New Zealand.”

Last week, the prime minister signed an “action plan for the comprehensive strategic partnership” with Chinese premier Li Qiang in the northern city of Harbin during a five-day state visit to China. Brown said the accord set a framework for engagement in areas including trade, investment, ocean science, infrastructure and transport.

After returning home on Monday from China, Brown told reporters he would release the full details of the agreement soon, and said China will provide the Pacific nation of 17,000 people with a one-time grant of about $4m.

“Our ministries will be looking carefully at where they would look to allocate that funding as part of projects or initiatives that we might want to promote. And at this stage, it’s looking like primarily in the area of renewable energies,” Brown told Cook Islands News.

The self-governing Cook Islands has a “free association” relationship with New Zealand, which provides budgetary assistance as well as helping on foreign affairs and defence. Its citizens hold New Zealand citizenship.

New Zealand expressed “significant concern” about a lack of transparency over the trip, amid growing concerns over China’s push for influence in the region, and alarm that Brown failed to properly consult New Zealand officials over the deal, which is an obligation within the special constitutional arrangement between the two nations.

Brown said Wellington should not have any concerns after it reviews the deal. The details will be “out online very shortly, people can see for themselves,” he told reporters.

China and Cook Islands last week signed several bilateral cooperation documents over economy, environment, culture and other sectors, in Harbin, China’s foreign ministry said on Monday.

Cook Islands officials say they also discussed seabed minerals research with Chinese institutes during the visit, as the Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt.

China is vying for diplomatic, economic and military influence in the strategically important Pacific, challenging the influence of Australia, New Zealand and the United States in the region.

China’s state news agency Xinhua earlier quoted Li as saying the agreement would “deepen political mutual trust and expand practical cooperation with the Cook Islands”.

A woman treated with a pioneering type of immunotherapy for a solid tumour has been in remission for more than 18 years with no further treatments, experts have revealed.

The therapy involves taking T-cells, a type of white blood cell, from a patient and genetically engineering them to target and kill cancer cells. These modified T-cells are grown in a laboratory and then infused back into the patient.

Known as CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy, the approach has proved particularly successful in treating certain types of blood cancers. Next-generation forms of the therapy have been approved for such cancers in countries including the US and UK.

However, response rates have been less encouraging in solid tumours, with long-term outcomes unclear.

Now researchers have reported the longest known survival after CAR T-cell therapy for an active cancer, revealing a woman who was treated as a child 18 years ago has remained cancer free. Crucially, the therapy was given for a type of solid tumour called neuroblastoma, a rare cancer of the nerve tissue that develops in children.

Prof Helen Heslop, co-author of the research from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, says the trial was one of the earliest to use CAR T-cell therapy for cancer.

“It’s nice to have such long-term follow-up and to see that even if it was a very early CAR T-cell – and there’s been a lot of work to make them better – we were still able to see a clinical remission that’s been sustained for this long, so that she’s grown up and is leading a normal life,” Heslop says.

Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, Heslop and colleagues report how they recruited 19 children to take part in a phase 1 clinical trial of CAR T-cell therapy for neuroblastoma between 2004 and 2009.

Over seven years that followed the therapy, 12 patients died due to relapsed neuroblastoma. Among the seven that survived beyond this point, five were cancer-free when given the CAR T-cell therapy but had previously been treated for neuroblastoma using other approaches and were at high risk of relapse. All five were disease-free at their last follow-up, between 10 and 15 years after the CAR T-cell therapy, although the team note they may already have been cured when the therapy was administered.

The other two surviving patients had cancer that was actively growing or spreading when they received CAR T-cell therapy, but subsequently went into complete remission. One of these patients stopped participating in follow-up sessions eight years after treatment, but the other continued and has remained cancer-free more than 18 years.

“She has never required any other therapy and is likely the longest-surviving patient with cancer who received CAR-T therapy,” the team write. “Encouragingly, she has subsequently had two full-term pregnancies with normal infants.”

The team add the modified T-cells were still detectable in some patients after more than five years. Heslop says that, while it is not known for sure, it could be that CAR T-cells that persist are able to tackle the cancer should it return.

Heslop adds that newer forms of CAR T-cell therapy have shown a greater response in recent trials for neuroblastoma, and may also help tackle some types of brain tumour in children.

Karin Straathof, the associate professor in tumour immunology at UCL’s Cancer Institute, who was not involved in the new study, says the results are beyond encouraging.

“This is really a solid demonstration that in solid cancers you can achieve complete responses, but also what we want really – and particularly for children’s cancers – long-lasting complete responses,” she says.

But Straathof says further work is needed, adding: “What we now are trying to focus on is understanding why does it work in some patients and why [it] doesn’t work in others, and what we can learn from that to make better designs of these chimeric antigen receptors.”

A paedophile priest, convicted of abusing more than 70 children over three decades, has died, but advocate groups for survivors of sex abuse says it “doesn’t erase the misery” and the “immense suffering” he caused.

Gerald Ridsdale died on Tuesday morning in prison where he had been held since 1994. He was 90.

Ridsdale’s history of child abuse began in 1961 – the year he was ordained as a priest.

He spent the next three decades abusing dozens of children across regional Victoria, often using his privileged status as a priest to earn the trust of his victims and their families.

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He was also accused of abusing children in New South Wales and the US, where he underwent church-connected sex offender treatment.

He was later charged with other offences stemming from Sano taskforce investigations, established by Victoria police to investigate historical and new allegations of child sexual abuse involving religious and nongovernment organisations.

Those charges and court appearances garnered him the moniker of Australia’s worst paedophile priest.

The late cardinal George Pell lived with Ridsdale for a time in the 1970s, accompanied him to court in 1993, and offered to provide character evidence for him.

The child abuse royal commission investigated what Pell knew of Ridsdale’s offending while Pell worked in the Ballarat diocese – the centre of Australia’s abuse scandal in the 1970s and 1980s.

It found that, as early as 1973, well before any police investigation, then Father Pell had “turned his mind to the prudence of Ridsdale taking boys on overnight camps”.

“The most likely reason for this, as Cardinal Pell acknowledged, was the possibility that if priests were one-on-one with a child then they could sexually abuse a child or at least provoke gossip about such a prospect,” the commission found. “By this time, child sexual abuse was on his radar, in relation to … Ridsdale.”

The commission heard that, almost a decade later, Pell was involved in a meeting of the College of Consultors about whether to move Ridsdale from the Mortlake parish in Ballarat to Sydney. The meeting included senior Catholic officials, including then bishop Ronald Mulkearns.

Pell claimed he was deceived at the meeting about the true reasons for moving Ridsdale, something rejected by the royal commission.

“It is implausible given the matters set out above that Bishop Mulkearns did not inform those at the meeting of at least complaints of sexual abuse of children having been made,” the royal commission found.

Leonie Sheedy is a co-founder of the Care Leavers Australia Network, which supports abuse victims from foster care, orphanages and other state-run institutions.

She said Ridsdale’s death “doesn’t erase the misery he caused”.

“There are many Catholic enablers who should hang their heads in shame for ignoring the children’s cries,” she told the Guardian.

Other survivor advocates had a similar reaction.

Alison Geale, chief executive of child protection group Bravehearts, said:

“Gerald Ridsdale’s death does not erase the immense suffering he inflicted on innocent children and their families. While some may see his passing as the end of a dark chapter, for survivors, the trauma and its impacts remain.”

Beyond Abuse chief executive Steve Fisher told the Guardian few people would shed a tear for Ridsdale.

“When vicious career paedophiles die, survivors and friends are only sad about one thing – that they did not get to see him suffer more as he made his victims suffer for the rest of their lives,” he said.

At Ridsdale’s 1994 plea hearing, witnesses told how he was moved from one parish to another when claims of abuse were raised.

The 2017 royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse found those claims were true, and confirmed that those high up in the church had made decisions to shift Ridsdale to other parishes after allegations of child abuse to avoid scandal.

It found that the Diocese of Ballarat had known of Ridsdale’s offending since the 1960s – and there was no question that by 1982 Mulkearns knew of Ridsdale’s offending.

He admitted to another eight sexual assault charges against children as recently as August last year.

Ridsdale, who was born in Ballarat, appeared frail during his last court appearance and had been excused from attending his most recent mentions.

During the last hearing he attended, the court was told Ridsdale was in chronic pain and was likely to go into palliative care.

He was not asked to speak during the hearing except for his plea, to which he replied “I’m guilty”.

He had been too unwell to attend previous hearings for offences in the regional Victorian towns of Inglewood, Ballarat, Apollo Bay, Horsham and Mortlake, between 1973 and 1981.

Ridsdale was serving a maximum of 40 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to sexually abusing at least 72 children during the 1970s and 1980s while working as a Catholic priest at multiple schools and churches across Victoria.

He had a fall in November 2022 and was bedridden, suffering chronic pain, muscle wasting and weak limbs.

• In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

A Syrian migrant living in Austria has been hailed as a hero after he rammed his car into an attacker, bringing down a radicalised assailant who had killed one teenager and left five others injured.

The stabbing, described by Austria’s interior minister as having been carried out by a Syrian man who was legally living in the country and who had become radicalised by the Islamic State group, happened on Saturday in the southern Austrian city of Villach.

As the country mourned, many hailed the bravery of Alaaeddin al-Halabi, a food delivery driver who left Syria in 2015 and who had been driving past the area on Saturday when he noticed a commotion. He slowed down, he told Reuters, “because there were many people, some running, some scared, and some were shouting for help”.

It was then that he noticed that one of the people at the scene had a knife. “I immediately understood what was happening – there were people on the ground bleeding, and this person was waving the knife in a threatening manner.”

Al-Halabi sprang into action. “I immediately drove toward him and hit him with my car. The good thing is that the impact wasn’t too strong, thank God,” he said. “I mean, the goal of hitting him with the car was just to neutralise him or stop what he was doing. The goal wasn’t to harm anyone.”

In the confusion that followed, al-Halabi said he was shocked to see some in the crowd turn on him, telling the newspaper Kleinen Zeitung that he locked himself into his car as some people began to hit his vehicle. Speaking to Reuters, he said: “People attacked me after the incident – people on the street thought I was carrying out an attack like what happened in Germany.”

The attack came days after a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a trade union demonstration in neighbouring Germany, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother as well as injuring 37 others. It was the fifth high-profile attack involving migrants to Germany in the past nine months, leading politicians to seize on migration as a talking point before snap elections on 23 February.

Saturday’s attack in Austria killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded five others, all of whom were believed to have been targeted randomly.

Speaking to reporters, the police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio later said al-Halabi’s actions had played a role in halting the attack. “It was probably a heroic act, yes. It prevented something worse from happening,” he said.

The sentiment was echoed by the mayor of Villach, Günther Albel. “We are very grateful to the man who intervened selflessly, courageously and decisively and thus prevented something even worse from happening, as well as to the rapid deployment of the police,” he said in a statement.

The state governor, Peter Kaiser, also thanked al-Halabi, saying that his intervention “shows how closely terrorist evil but also human good can be united in one and the same nationality”.

As media across Austria described al-Halabi as a hero, the 42-year-old brushed off the label. “People look at me as a hero, but I don’t see it that way,” he said. “I say to people: ‘Please, if something like this happens again, you have to do something. You can’t just stand there, take photos and film videos.’”

As Austria reeled from the stabbing, rightwing politicians sought to reinforce their hardline views on migration. Late last year, Austria was among the dozen European countries that suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrians after the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus. Officials in Austria said they were preparing a “repatriation and deportation” programme to the country.

The attack was the country’s second deadly extremist attack in recent years. In November 2020, a man who had previously attempted to join the Islamic State group carried out a rampage in Vienna, armed with an automatic rifle and a fake explosive vest, killing four people before he was fatally shot by police.

In August, authorities foiled plans for an attack on a Taylor Swift concert that was inspired by the Islamic State group.

In the wake of Saturday’s attack, those who weighed in included the Free Syrian Community of Austria, a support group for Syrians, who expressed its deepest condolences to the victims’ families and sought to distance the suspect from the tens of thousands of Syrians who live in the country peacefully.

“We all had to flee Syria, our home country, because we were no longer safe there – no one left their country voluntarily. We are grateful to have found asylum and protection in Austria,” it said on social media. “We would like to emphasise: anyone who causes strife and disturbs the peace of society does not represent the Syrians who have sought and received protection here.”

Julianne Moore has said it is a “great shock” to learn that one of her books had been “banned by the Trump Administration” from schools serving the children of US military personnel and civilian defence employees.

The Boogie Nights and Mary & George star wrote that she was “truly saddened” by the news in an Instagram post on Sunday.

Last Monday, the Department of Defense circulated a memo stating that it is examining library books “potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics”. After access to all library books was suspended for a week for a review, a “small number of items” were identified and have been kept for “further review”, it said.

Moore’s Freckleface Strawberry, a story about a girl who dislikes her freckles but learns to live with them, is among the books caught up in the blanket review, according to a list obtained by the Guardian. However, it is not known whether the title was selected for further review or for withdrawal.

“It is a book I wrote for my children and for other kids to remind them that we all struggle, but are united by our humanity and our community,” said Moore.

The review of library books is part of an examination of all “instructional resources”, according to the Defense Department, to check that its schools are aligned with Trump’s recent executive orders Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling and Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism.

Moore, who won an Oscar in 2015 for Still Alice, said that she is “particularly stunned” by the news because she is a “proud graduate” of the now-closed Frankfurt American high school, operated by the Defense Department, adding that her father is a Vietnam veteran and spent his career in the US army.

“I could not be prouder of him and his service to our country. It is galling for me to realise that kids like me, growing up with a parent in the service and attending a [Defense Department] school, will not have access to a book written by someone whose life experience is so similar to their own. And I can’t help but wonder what is so controversial about this picture book that has caused it to be banned by the US government.”

Other books that are part of the “compliance review” include No Truth Without Ruth by Kathleen Krull, about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to sit on the US supreme court. Books removed from library shelves have been relocated to “the professional collection for evaluation with access limited to professional staff”.

“I am truly saddened and never thought I would see this in a country where freedom of speech and expression is a constitutional right,” added Moore.