Russia has named a secretive former FSB chief who played a key role in planning Vladimir Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine to lead next week’s peace talks with the US in Saudi Arabia.

Moscow announced that Sergei Beseda, the former head of the FSB spy agency’s fifth directorate – who oversaw intelligence operations in Ukraine and orchestrated the recruitment of collaborators before the invasion – will travel to Riyadh for Monday’s talks with the US.

Both sides said the talks in Saudi Arabia are aimed at finalising a limited ceasefire deal agreed this week and initiating negotiations on a maritime ceasefire.

Before Russia’s early failures in the invasion, reports surfaced that Beseda had briefly fallen out of favour with Putin owing to flawed intelligence in the lead-up to the war.

Beseda will be joined by Grigory Karasin, the chair of the senate’s committee on international affairs, for a new round of talks with US officials.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of making “unnecessary demands” that will drag out the war, and said Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have not stopped despite Putin’s claims about readiness to halt them.

Moscow on Thursday doubled down on their insistence that a requirement for serious peace talks would be the complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence to Kyiv.

Trump, speaking on Fox News, earlier denied that arms supplies were discussed during his call with Putin, despite a Kremlin readout explicitly stating Putin had demanded a “complete cessation of foreign military aid to Ukraine” as a condition for long-term peace.

There also remains uncertainty over the timing and terms of a limited US-brokered ceasefire agreed this week, with both countries exchanging aerial assaults overnight.

Zelenskyy, who travelled to Oslo on Thursday, said Russia had launched nearly 200 Iranian Shahed drones overnight, wounding at least 10 people, including four children, and damaging “residential buildings, a church, and infrastructure”.

“Russia’s strikes on Ukraine continue despite its propagandistic statements … With each launch, the Russians show the world their true attitude toward peace,” Zelenskyy said in a morning statement on Telegram.

Russian forces also struck a village in the Sumy region and carried out a series of airstrikes on a town near the city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine launched its own mass drone attack on Russia, appearing to hit an airfield near a key airbase about 435 miles (700 km) from the frontlines.

The airbase in the Russian city of Engels hosts the Tupolev Tu-160 nuclear-capable heavy strategic bombers that have frequently been involved in strikes against Ukrainian cities.

“Engels today suffered the most massive UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] attack of all time,” Roman Busargin, the governor of Russia’s Saratov region, wrote on Telegram.

Busargin said the attack had left an airfield on fire and that people living nearby had been evacuated. He did not specifically mention the Engels base, but it is the main airfield in the area.

Images shared by Russian Telegram channels showed thick smoke rising from an area west of the airfield, with reports suggesting that an ammunition depot cruise missile exploded. Regional officials said 10 people were injured in the strike.

Zelenskyy on Wednesday said he had signed up to a partial ceasefire that Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin a day earlier after what the Ukrainian leader had described as a “positive, very substantive and frank” call with the US president.

But there was confusion over what exactly Trump and Putin had agreed after Moscow and Washington gave very different readouts in the aftermath.

Trump, in an initial post on Truth Social, said the partial ceasefire would apply to “energy and infrastructure”, giving the impression that it would extend to all civilian infrastructure. Zelenskyy, after his call with Trump, spoke about “ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure”.

However, Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Wednesday the ceasefire would apply only to the energy sector, and a White House statement on Wednesday also referred only to energy.

In a Zoom call with journalists late on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he had “received signals” from the US that the ceasefire would include energy facilities as well as civilian infrastructure.

Zelenskyy said his team would draw up a list of the kind of facilities they felt could be included and would present them to the Americans at upcoming negotiations.

The Ukrainian leader on Thursday also said he had not discussed with Trump any potential US ownership of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, that is now in Russian occupied areas of Ukraine.

According to a readout of Zelenskyy’s call with Trump provided by US officials, Trump and Zelenskyy “discussed Ukraine’s electricity supply and nuclear power plants”.

“The United States could significantly assist in managing these facilities, given its expertise in electricity and utility operations,” the summary continued, adding that US ownership would provide “the best protection” for Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Zelenskyy on Thursday pushed back on the suggestion the plant could change ownership, repeatedly saying he discussed with Trump “how to find the solution from the situation and … take the station from the Russians, with options for the US to be involved in modernising or developing it further”. He added that “the issue of property, we did not discuss”.

Russia has named a secretive former FSB chief who played a key role in planning Vladimir Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine to lead next week’s peace talks with the US in Saudi Arabia.

Moscow announced that Sergei Beseda, the former head of the FSB spy agency’s fifth directorate – who oversaw intelligence operations in Ukraine and orchestrated the recruitment of collaborators before the invasion – will travel to Riyadh for Monday’s talks with the US.

Both sides said the talks in Saudi Arabia are aimed at finalising a limited ceasefire deal agreed this week and initiating negotiations on a maritime ceasefire.

Before Russia’s early failures in the invasion, reports surfaced that Beseda had briefly fallen out of favour with Putin owing to flawed intelligence in the lead-up to the war.

Beseda will be joined by Grigory Karasin, the chair of the senate’s committee on international affairs, for a new round of talks with US officials.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of making “unnecessary demands” that will drag out the war, and said Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have not stopped despite Putin’s claims about readiness to halt them.

Moscow on Thursday doubled down on their insistence that a requirement for serious peace talks would be the complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence to Kyiv.

Trump, speaking on Fox News, earlier denied that arms supplies were discussed during his call with Putin, despite a Kremlin readout explicitly stating Putin had demanded a “complete cessation of foreign military aid to Ukraine” as a condition for long-term peace.

There also remains uncertainty over the timing and terms of a limited US-brokered ceasefire agreed this week, with both countries exchanging aerial assaults overnight.

Zelenskyy, who travelled to Oslo on Thursday, said Russia had launched nearly 200 Iranian Shahed drones overnight, wounding at least 10 people, including four children, and damaging “residential buildings, a church, and infrastructure”.

“Russia’s strikes on Ukraine continue despite its propagandistic statements … With each launch, the Russians show the world their true attitude toward peace,” Zelenskyy said in a morning statement on Telegram.

Russian forces also struck a village in the Sumy region and carried out a series of airstrikes on a town near the city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine launched its own mass drone attack on Russia, appearing to hit an airfield near a key airbase about 435 miles (700 km) from the frontlines.

The airbase in the Russian city of Engels hosts the Tupolev Tu-160 nuclear-capable heavy strategic bombers that have frequently been involved in strikes against Ukrainian cities.

“Engels today suffered the most massive UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] attack of all time,” Roman Busargin, the governor of Russia’s Saratov region, wrote on Telegram.

Busargin said the attack had left an airfield on fire and that people living nearby had been evacuated. He did not specifically mention the Engels base, but it is the main airfield in the area.

Images shared by Russian Telegram channels showed thick smoke rising from an area west of the airfield, with reports suggesting that an ammunition depot cruise missile exploded. Regional officials said 10 people were injured in the strike.

Zelenskyy on Wednesday said he had signed up to a partial ceasefire that Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin a day earlier after what the Ukrainian leader had described as a “positive, very substantive and frank” call with the US president.

But there was confusion over what exactly Trump and Putin had agreed after Moscow and Washington gave very different readouts in the aftermath.

Trump, in an initial post on Truth Social, said the partial ceasefire would apply to “energy and infrastructure”, giving the impression that it would extend to all civilian infrastructure. Zelenskyy, after his call with Trump, spoke about “ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure”.

However, Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Wednesday the ceasefire would apply only to the energy sector, and a White House statement on Wednesday also referred only to energy.

In a Zoom call with journalists late on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he had “received signals” from the US that the ceasefire would include energy facilities as well as civilian infrastructure.

Zelenskyy said his team would draw up a list of the kind of facilities they felt could be included and would present them to the Americans at upcoming negotiations.

The Ukrainian leader on Thursday also said he had not discussed with Trump any potential US ownership of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, that is now in Russian occupied areas of Ukraine.

According to a readout of Zelenskyy’s call with Trump provided by US officials, Trump and Zelenskyy “discussed Ukraine’s electricity supply and nuclear power plants”.

“The United States could significantly assist in managing these facilities, given its expertise in electricity and utility operations,” the summary continued, adding that US ownership would provide “the best protection” for Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Zelenskyy on Thursday pushed back on the suggestion the plant could change ownership, repeatedly saying he discussed with Trump “how to find the solution from the situation and … take the station from the Russians, with options for the US to be involved in modernising or developing it further”. He added that “the issue of property, we did not discuss”.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for a new ceasefire in Gaza and to protest against what they say is an attack on the country’s democracy by the rightwing governing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Key highways have been blocked and police have made at least 12 arrests amid heated scenes in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. More protests were expected in the coming days as the campaign “gathers momentum and energy”, campaigners said.

The immediate trigger for the anger was Netanyahu’s attempt to dismiss Ronen Bar, the head of the internal security agency, but the prime minister’s decision to shatter a two-month-old truce in Gaza with waves of lethal airstrikes has fuelled the demonstrations.

Protesters accuse the government of continuing the war for political reasons and ignoring the plight of the 59 hostages – about 24 of whom are believed to be alive – still held by Hamas in the devastated Palestinian territory.

“This government has now also started a war, once again, to protect itself, to divert the discourse from the things that bother the public in Israel. The government has lost all legitimacy on every possible level … They are failing,” said Eitan Herzel, chief executive of the Brothers in Arms protest movement.

On Wednesday thousands packed streets close to Netanyahu’s official residence in central Jerusalem. Many carried Israeli flags and placards with slogans in support of hostages still held in Gaza. Others beat drums and chanted “hostages deal now” as they marched in from other parts of Israel.

Ora Nakash Peled, a former senior naval officer and an organiser of the protests, had come from her home on a kibbutz near the northern city of Haifa. She had spent the night with other protesters in a tented camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem before walking into the city along a major highway.

“I think we have made our point … We need to be organised, we need to be persistent, we need to be focused. [The protest] cannot be violent [but] it doesn’t have to be polite.”

Protesters chanted: “Israel is not Turkey, Israel is not Iran,” and pointed to a series of recent moves by Netanyahu they call “red flags” for Israeli democracy.

One is the unprecedented effort to dismiss Bar. Another is a bid by the prime minister and his allies to oust the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, who has argued that removing Bar from his post might be unlawful.

“The government has the authority to fire Bar but still has to comply with administrative law,” said Dr Amir Fuchs, a legal expert at the Israel Democracy Institute. “So, for example, if there is seen to be a conflict of interests, it could be stopped by the supreme court.”

Experts point out that Shin Bet, which has wide-ranging powers, is investigating Netanyahu’s close aides for alleged breaches of national security, including leaking classified documents to foreign media and taking money from Qatar, which is know to have given significant financial aid to Hamas. New suspects in the “Qatargate” affair were interviewed by Israeli police on Wednesday, local media reported.

Netanyahu is also facing a potential jail sentence at the conclusion of an ongoing corruption trial. The 75-year-old politician, who took power in Israel for the first time in 1996 and has served 17 years as prime minister, is giving evidence twice weekly.

Other concerns for protesters include reforms that would introduce more political appointees to committees that select judges.

A series of high-ranking officials seen as responsible for the mistakes and misjudgements that led to the Hamas attack in October 2023 have resigned. Netanyahu himself has not accepted any responsibility for Israel’s worst ever security disaster, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and has resisted calls for a powerful commission of inquiry.

Fuchs said: “Netanyahu is doing this because he has a problem he wants to solve by centralising as much power as possible and getting rid of all the gatekeepers and professionals … but this does not align with the interests of the state of Israel, only with those of the prime minister and his government.”

Netanyahu claimed there was a “leftist deep state” working against him in a social media post on Wednesday.

“In America and in Israel, when a strong rightwing leader wins an election, the leftist deep state weaponises the justice system to thwart the people’s will. They won’t win in either place!” the post said.

Observers pointed to a strong echo in the current movement of the huge protests that erupted in 2023 when Netanyahu attempted to sack the then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over his opposition to a planned judicial overhaul.

Opinion polls suggest Netanyahu would lose an election if one were held now, but he is likely to defy the protests, which are smaller than those two years ago, and ignore calls for new polls. A crucial budget vote before the end of the month now looks likely to go in the government’s favour.

The return of Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extreme rightwing politician, to the government after he walked out over the ceasefire deal signed in January has underlined the continuing and vital support for Netanyahu from the nationalist-religious camp in Israel.

Analysts said previously fragmented opposition groups had been brought together in recent days, though there are still no political leaders who look likely to threaten Netanyahu.

“It’s a very strong homogeneous [governing] coalition. It has a solid base and it is hard to see it falling apart. There is still no alternative or vision to Netanyahu being put forward,” said Mairav Zonszein, an expert on Israeli society and politics at the International Crisis Group.

Though protesters say they back a ceasefire now to ensure the return of the hostages, most reflect broader Israeli public opinion and believe the war in Gaza is necessary to eliminate any threat from Hamas.

Zonszein said the demonstrations could not be described as “anti-war”.

“It is not about what is happening in Gaza at all. It is not about civilian casualties there … It is focused on the hostages and the lack of trust in the government.”

At least 58 Palestinians have been killed and many more injured in a third successive night of Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to medical officials at hospitals in the strip.

The death toll is expected to rise as further casualties are dug from rubble in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis and the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

The timing of the strikes in the new Israeli offensive, which began on Tuesday, appears to have increased the proportion of women and children among the victims, with many sleeping when the missiles struck.

A first wave of airstrikes on Tuesday shattered a two-month pause in hostilities and killed more than 400, according to the health ministry in Gaza, in what may have been the single bloodiest day of the 18-month conflict. The dead included 183 children and 94 women, Palestinian officials said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the most recent overnight strikes. Israeli media have reported that the new air offensive is aimed at senior political and military Hamas officials, and have identified some killed.

Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that Israel had attacked “dozens of terror targets and terrorists in Gaza, including Hamas commanders, to weaken their military and governmental capabilities and remove threats to Israel”.

Israel has also issued new warnings to Palestinians to evacuate areas in the north and east of Gaza to avoid being trapped by fighting and has reoccupied theNetzarim corridor, a key strip of land that divides Gaza into northern and southern halves.

As part of the ceasefire deal signed in January after more than a year of indirect negotiations, Israel had withdrawn from the corridor, where it had demolished almost all existing buildings, widened a road and built a series of strongpoints.

The new Israeli evacuation orders suggest ground assaults could be imminent, although Israeli forces appear to be relying on air power for now.

A strike on Thursday on a family home in Abasan al-Kabira, a village near Khan Younis close to the border with Israel, killed at least 16 people, mostly women and children, according to the nearby European hospital, which received the dead. Those killed included a father and his seven children, as well as the parents and brother of a month-old baby who survived along with her grandparents.

The home was within an area covered by a recent evacuation order.

“Another tough night,” said Hani Awad, who was helping rescuers search for more survivors in the rubble. “The house collapsed over the people’s heads.”

The European hospital in the southern city of Rafah said it had received 26 bodies after the overnight strikes, mostly women and children. The Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies of seven people killed in an attack on a home. In northern Gaza, the Indonesian hospital said it had received the bodies of seven people killed in a strike on a home in Beit Lahiya, a town near the border.

Israel and Hamas blame each other for the collapse of the ceasefire, which had largely held since coming into effect in mid-January and had brought some respite for Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants.

Hamas, which still holds 59 of about 250 hostages it seized in the October 2023 attack into southern Israel that triggered the conflict, says it wants to conclude the three-phase ceasefire deal agreed after more than a year of indirect talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US. More than half of the hostages are thought to be dead.

The group said on Thursday that talks with mediators to halt the Israeli offensive were continuing, and called again for Israel to abide by the earlier agreement.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and other Israel officials said the decision to renew attacks in Gaza came after Hamas had rejected proposals for a 30-60-day extension of the first phase of the three-phase ceasefire. They consulted the Trump administration before the strikes.

Hamas does not appear to have responded militarily to the new Israeli offensive, but sirens sounded across much of Israel at 4am on Thursday to warn of an incoming missile launched by the Yemen-based Houthi militia. The missile was intercepted by Israel’s air defence system.

The Hamas surprise attack in 2023 killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 49,000 Palestinians, also mostly civilians.

Critics in Israel have accused Netanyahu of resuming the offensive to reinforce his coalition government before a crucial budget vote in parliament, to rally support for the war in the face of popular backing for a ceasefire to return the hostages, and to head off widespread public anger over his attempt to fire the head of the internal security service, the Shin Bet.

Underlining the deep divisions in Israel, tens of thousands of people protested against the renewed offensive and Netanyahu’s government on Wednesday. More demonstrations were planned on Thursday.

With Reuters

Tesla and Elon Musk are embroiled in a “brand tornado crisis moment” and the electric carmaker’s chief executive needs to cut back on his work for Donald Trump to stem the damage, one of the company’s biggest supporters has said.

The warning came as Tesla announced a recall of 46,000 Cybertrucks in the US on Thursday to fix an exterior panel that could detach while driving.

It came as protesters announced on Wednesday they were planning what they described as their biggest day of action yet against the EV maker, with 500 demonstrations expected at Tesla showrooms around the world on 29 March.

It also emerged that the Vancouver International Auto Show has removed Tesla from its event hours, citing security concerns.

Tesla shares have lost a third of their value over the past month because of a number of investor concerns including the impact on sales from Musk’s high-profile involvement with the Trump administration, including gutting some federal agencies through his “department of government efficiency” (Doge).

Dan Ives, the managing director at the US financial firm Wedbush and a self-described Tesla “core bull”, said Musk’s role leading Doge was damaging the multibillionaire’s personal reputation and the business he runs.

“The brand damage started off as limited in our view based on our initial survey work … but now has spread globally over the last few weeks into what we would characterise as a brand tornado crisis moment for Musk and Tesla,” Ives wrote in a note to investors.

Musk has axed jobs and spending in his role, although a US judge ruled on Tuesday that Musk and Doge were likely to have violated the US constitution by shutting down the US Agency for International Development.

Ives cited protests at Tesla showrooms, cars being vandalised and demonstrations sprouting around the world as evidence of a “massive overhang for Tesla’s stock”. He said Musk faced a “moment of truth” and needed to act.

“Tesla and Musk are facing a defining chapter in their future and how Musk handles this next few months will be pivotal to the long term growth trajectory of Tesla in our view. Tesla is Musk and Musk is Tesla … they are synonymous and attached together and cannot be separated,” he wrote.

Ives said Musk had to do two things to stop the crisis snowballing into a “much more black swan event” – a reference to an unforeseen event with wide-ranging consequences.

Ives said Musk needed to formally announce he was going to balance running Doge with being Tesla’s chief executive. Doing so would “dissipate” the heat around Tesla and ensure there wa not permanent brand damage, although there would still be a “scar”, he said.

“Investors need to see Musk take a step back and balance his Doge and Tesla CEO roles,” Ives said.

He also called on Musk to set out a roadmap and timing for the release of new, lower-cost vehicles along with the rollout of fully self-driving vehicles in Austin, Texas, in June. “There is one person Tesla investors need to hear from … Musk,” Ives said.

The Vancouver Auto Show announced it was removing Tesla hours before the show got under way on Wednesday in western Canada, with organisers telling reporters that the decision had not been made lightly.

“The Vancouver International Auto Show has removed Tesla as a participant in this week’s event, after the automaker was provided multiple opportunities to voluntarily withdraw,” said Eric Nicholl, the show’s executive director, in a statement.

“The Vancouver Auto Show’s primary concern is the safety of attendees, exhibitors and staff. This decision will ensure all attendees can be solely focused on enjoying the many positive elements of the event.”

Last year, nearly 130,000 people attended the show. Organisers said they were expecting a similar turnout for this year’s lineup of 200 or so vehicles.

For months Musk has faced a backlash in Canada over his backing of Trump, which has intensified in recent weeks after the president plunged Canada into a bitter trade war and repeatedly mused about the country becoming the 51st state of the US.

More than 375,000 people in Canada have signed a petition, launched in late February, to strip Musk of his Canadian citizenship.

Meanwhile Tesla Takedown, which organises protests against Tesla and Musk, announced a “day of action” including protests at every showroom in the US and at a total of 500 sites around the world. In a post on social media the group urged protesters to “turn out in numbers to fight Elon Musk’s illegal coup”.

In an interview this week Musk called Tesla protesters “deranged” and blamed the protests on his involvement with Doge. “They basically want to kill me because I’m stopping their fraud, and they want to hurt Tesla because we’re stopping this terrible waste and corruption in the government,” Musk told Fox News.

The Tesla recall issued on Thursday was related to a part called a cant rail – a stainless-steel exterior trim panel – delaminating and detaching from the vehicle, the company said. As a remedy, Tesla will replace the rail assembly free of charge.

A detached panel can become a road hazard and increase the risk of a crash, according to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s notice on the recalls.

Tesla was approached for comment.

Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk’s eldest child, has spoken out publicly about her father, saying that Musk “definitely [did] a Nazi salute” at two rallies in January and that he is part of a White House that’s “cartoonishly evil”.

In a new interview with Teen Vogue, her second interview with the media since she publicly denounced her father last year, Wilson, 20, said that the things her father has been doing in the federal government were “fucking cringe”.

“The Nazi salute shit was insane. Honey, we’re going to call a fig a fig, and we’re going to call a Nazi salute what it was,” Wilson said. ‘That shit was definitely a Nazi salute.”

Wilson entered the public eye last year after Musk spoke about her in a podcast, saying that he had been “tricked” into signing documents so that Wilson, who was 16 at the time, could receive gender-affirming medical treatment.

“I lost my son, essentially. They call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason. The reason they call it ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead.” he said. Musk added that the experience made him vow “to destroy the woke mind virus after that, and we’re making some progress”.

In an interview with NBC News last year, Wilson said that Musk had been largely absent in her life and that he was often cruel to her for showing feminine traits when she was growing up. She went to California court in 2022 to officially remove “Musk” from her name, saying in court filings she “no longer live[s] with or wish[es] to be related to my biological father in any way shape or form”.

“He was cold,” she told NBC News. “He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.”

By law, Wilson had to get her father, whom she had not spoken to for months at that point, to sign off on her receiving gender-affirming medical treatment, since she was a minor at the time.

“I was constantly having mental breakdowns in the middle of class. I could not get through days. I didn’t want to wake up, I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to rot, pretty much. It was like, I cannot do this,” she said. “If I stay in the closet anymore, this is going to take me down a very destructive path.”

Wilson, who is currently a student in Tokyo, said that she felt obligated to talk about trans issues as someone who transitioned as a minor.

“There’s so much villainization of that, and I would really like to raise awareness of the fact that trans care for minors, especially puberty blockers, is really important,” she said. “Maybe stop demonizing these literal children or the people around these children who are just trying to help them feel comfortable in their own skin.”

Over the last several years, conservatives have targeted the transgender community through legislation. Since coming into office, Trump has signed executive orders banning transgender people from the military and from participating in women’s sports. On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked Trump’s ban on trans people serving in the military.

“As a trans woman, I am terrified of losing access to guaranteed medical care. If I didn’t medically transition at the age I did, I don’t know what would’ve happened,” Wilson said.

Wilson said that her mother, Justine Musk, Musk’s first wife, had been supportive of her and that she “doesn’t keep up with [Musk’s] side of the family”. Musk, an outspoken pronatalist, has 14 children with four different women.

When asked whether she is on good terms with her siblings, Wilson responded: “I will say I do not actually know how many siblings I have, if you include half-siblings.”

Though her father is a billionaire who is playing a major role in the Trump administration, Wilson said Musk doesn’t loom large in her life.

“People thrive off of fear. I’m not giving anyone that space in my mind,” she said. “The only thing that gets to live free in my mind are drag queens.

A US man who was abducted more than two years ago while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist has been released by the Taliban in a deal brokered by Donald Trump’s hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, and Qatari negotiators.

George Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, is the third American detainee to be released by the Taliban since January. He was seized by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 and was designated by the US government as wrongfully detained the following year.

He was being accompanied back to the US, through Qatar’s capital, Doha, by Boehler, who has been handling hostage issues for the Trump administration. Qatar has hosted negotiations between the US and the Taliban over the years.

The release of Glezmann is part of what the Taliban has previously described as the “normalization” of ties between the US. and Afghanistan following the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Most countries still do not recognize the Taliban’s rule.

Glezmann’s release follows a separate deal, arranged in the final days of the Biden administration and also mediated by the Qataris, that secured the releases of Ryan Corbett and William McKenty. The Taliban’s foreign ministry in Kabul said at the time that those two US citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two life terms in 2008 after being convicted under US narco-terrorism laws.

Unlike in that arrangement, the US did not give up any prisoner to secure Glezmann’s release, which was seen as a goodwill gesture, according to an official briefed on the matter who insisted on anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The Taliban disclosed earlier on Thursday that Boehler had been meeting on hostage issues with a delegation that included the Afghan foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi.

Joe Biden contemplated before he left office an earlier proposal that would have involved the release of Glezmann and other Americans for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But Biden told families during a call in January that he would not support trading Rahim unless the Taliban released the Afghan-American businessman Mahmood Habibi.

US officials believe the Taliban is holding Habibi, but the Taliban has denied it.

The verdict against the environmental group Greenpeace finding it liable for huge damages to a pipeline company over protests has been described by advocacy groups as a “weaponization of the legal system” and an “assault” on free speech and protest rights.

A North Dakota jury decided on Wednesday that Greenpeace will have to pay at least $660m to the pipeline company Energy Transfer and is liable for defamation and other claims over protests in the state in 2016-2017.

Rebecca Brown, the president and CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) issued a statement highlighting the threat the decision poses to free speech and the right to protest. She says the verdict is “a calculated attack on the sovereign rights of the Standing Rock Sioux and all indigenous peoples defending their land and water. This case is a textbook example of corporate weaponization of the legal system to silence protest and intimidate communities.”

ClientEarth, a non-profit and partner to Greenpeace, said that the verdict highlighted the growing trend of big polluters using the legal system to intimidate and silence critics and that corporations want to send the message that “no organization that challenges the polluting industries is safe” in a statement on social media.

Energy Transfer was “frivolously alleging defamation and seeking money damages, designed to shut down all voice supporting Standing Rock”, Janet Alkire, the tribal chair for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in a statement.

“The case is an attempt to silence our Tribe about the truth of what happened at Standing Rock, and the threat posed by DAPL to our land, our water and our people. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will not be silenced,” the statement said.

Energy Transfer’s counsel during the case, Trey Cox, said that the verdict showed that Greenpeace’s actions had been unlawful. “It is also a day of celebration for the constitution, the state of North Dakota and Energy Transfer,” he said following the decision.

Kevin Cramer, a Republican senator for North Dakota, also celebrated the verdict on social media, writing: “Today, justice has been done with Greenpeace and its radical environmentalist buddies who encouraged this destructive behavior during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests with their defamatory and false claims about the pipeline” in a post on X.

But experts and non-profit groups expressed alarm over the verdict and what it means for constitutional rights in the US.

EarthRights, another non-governmental, non-profit group, says that the Dakota Access pipeline protests were “overwhelmingly peaceful” and that the organization “proudly joins Greenpeace USA in speaking up against brazen legal attacks and ensuring that the environmental movement only continues to grow stronger, despite the appalling result in North Dakota”.

The case is being described by legal experts as a classic example of a Slapp – a form of civil litigation increasingly deployed by corporations, politicians and wealthy individuals to deliberately wear down and silence critics including journalists, activists and watchdog groups. These cases often result in significant legal costs for the defendants, which is viewed as “a win” for the suing entity even if they don’t win the lawsuit.

The international environmental organization 350.org called the verdict against Greenpeace a “devastating legal ruling”.

“This ruling is a blatant attempt to silence dissent and crush the power of grassroots activism,” the group said in a statement. “It sends a dangerous message: that fossil fuel giants can weaponize the courts to silence those who challenge the destruction of our planet.”

They also warn that the fossil fuel industry is increasingly turning to “lawfare” – the use of courts and legal action as weapons of intimidation.

Brice Böhmer, the climate and environment lead at Transparency International, said: “In the face of a climate emergency, it is unconscionable that organisations committed to protecting our planet from the devastating consequences of fossil fuel extraction should be prosecuted in this manner.

“As the world struggles under the weight of an existential climate crisis, it cannot be right that environmental defenders are being silenced by a weaponised legal system.”

Greenpeace says it plans to appeal the verdict, and some legal experts say they have a good case to do so. The appeal would go straight to the state supreme court, as North Dakota does not have an appellate level court.

Kelcy Warren, Energy Transfer’s billionaire founder, is a major donor to Donald Trump.

A single researcher with a desktop computer will be able to deliver accurate weather forecasts using a new AI weather prediction approach that is tens of times faster and uses thousands of times less computing power than conventional systems.

Weather forecasts are currently generated through a complex set of stages, each taking several hours to run on bespoke supercomputers, requiring large teams of experts to develop, maintain and deploy them.

Aardvark Weather provides a blueprint to replace the entire process by training an AI on raw data from weather stations, satellites, weather balloons, ships and planes from around the world to enable it to make predictions.

This offers the potential for vast improvements in forecast speed, accuracy and cost, according to research published on Thursday in Nature from the University of Cambridge, the Alan Turing Institute, Microsoft Research and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

Richard Turner, a professor of machine learning at the University of Cambridge, said the approach could be used to quickly provide bespoke forecasts for specific industries or locations, for example predicting temperatures for African agriculture or wind speeds for a renewable energy company in Europe.

This contrasts to traditional weather prediction systems where creating a customised system takes years of work by large teams of researchers, while supercomputers take hours to process measurements from the real world in order to build forecasting models.

“This is a completely different approach to what people have done before. The writing’s on the wall that this is going to transform things, it’s going to be the new way of doing forecasting,” Turner said. He said the model would eventually be able to produce accurate eight-day forecasts, compared with five-day forecast at present, as well as hyper-localised predictions.

Dr Scott Hosking, the director of science and innovation for environment and sustainability at the Alan Turing Institute, said the breakthrough could “democratise forecasting” by making powerful technologies available to developing nations around the world, as well as assisting policymakers, emergency planners and industries that rely on accurate weather forecasts.

Dr Anna Allen, the lead author of the paper, from the University of Cambridge, noted that the findings paved the way for better forecasts of natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes, as well as other climatic issues such as air quality, ocean dynamics and sea ice predictions.

Aardvark builds on recent research by Huawei, Google, and Microsoft demonstrating that one step of the weather prediction process known as the numerical solver, which calculates how weather evolves over time, can be replaced with AI to produce faster and more accurate predictions. This approach is already being deployed by the ECMWF.

The researchers said that using just 10% of the input data that existing systems required, Aardvark could already outperform the US national GFS forecasting system in certain respects, and was competitive with United States Weather Service forecasts.

Exiled Russian journalists are being left “high and dry” and at risk of being stranded overseas without any legal status after the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw funding from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The Guardian understands that some Russian journalists working for RFE/RL, which was founded during the cold war and broadcasts to countries including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, will face imminent problems over their legal status should the broadcaster shut down.

Many of RFE/RL’s Russian journalists operate from Prague, Riga and Vilnius, with their work visas often tied to their employment. Terminating the broadcaster’s funding would trigger visa expirations, leaving them without legal status within months.

Deportation to Russia for any of them would expose them to criminal prosecution. Alsu Kurmasheva, a longtime journalist for RFE/RL, was detained in Russia in 2023 and released last year as part of a prisoner swap.

“This lays out very starkly the kind of risks faced by Russian journalists who might be stranded without employment, left high and dry if they lose their livelihoods and the legal status that’s linked to their employment outside Russia,” said a person familiar with the situation, who wished to remain anonymous because of the risk of retaliation.

“This could have a very serious impact. There is no free media inside Russia. The media landscape would be all the more bleak.”

RFE/RL was set up with the aim of bringing unbiased local news to audiences behind the iron curtain, and has continued to cover subjects that are either ignored or downplayed by state media.

The media group suspended its operations in Russia in 2022 after it was pursued by local tax authorities, and police pressure on its journalists intensified. Its reporters are regarded as “foreign agents”, making them the target for arrest should they return to Russia. Last year, RFE/RL was designated an “undesirable organisation” by the Russian authorities, effectively banning it from working inside the country.

The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) announced over the weekend that it planned to stop grants to RFE/RL, as part of the Trump administration’s drive to slash government spending. Elon Musk, the tech billionaire empowered by President Trump to cut back the US federal government, previously described the media group as “just radical left crazy people talking to themselves”.

RFE/RL reaches about 10 million Russians every week, despite censorship by the state and bans on social media. Sources said that since the invasion of Ukraine, average monthly YouTube views of RFE’s Russian-language news content had increased from 20m to 77.6m, with a peak of more than 400m views when the invasion began. Its overall budget last year was $142m (£110m).

“If it can’t find funding soon, the company won’t be able to pay its staff and the consequence would potentially put a very large number of journalists who are exiled from authoritarian regimes at grave risk,” said a source.

“If funding is terminated, visas expire, and then journalists could be left without legal status, essentially being stranded. For Russians, it is even difficult to go to their embassies when their passports expire. Even seeking these basic consular services can be problematic and bring some risk. This could affect hundreds of journalists and their families.

“RFE/RL journalists are reaching a massive Russian-language audience. Without it, there would be that much less information available, and few alternatives to state-controlled media.”

The use of the media as an instrument of soft power by the west is in retreat more broadly. The Trump administration has also cut funding to Voice of America, which broadcasts news, information and cultural programming in nearly 50 languages to a global audience. Its journalists have been placed on “administrative leave with full pay and benefits until otherwise notified”. An internal memo stated that this was “not being done for any disciplinary purpose”.

Meanwhile, the BBC World Service has also been in retreat amid funding cuts, with concerns inside the corporation that further cuts could be made as part of a review of public spending to be unveiled in June. BBC bosses believe the current push by Russian and Chinese state media to reach global audiences means there is a stronger case than ever for an increase in public funding.

RFE/RL is now suing the USAGM in an attempt to block the termination of its funding. It is arguing that only Congress has power over federal spending. Its president, Stephen Capus, said this was “not the time to cede terrain to the propaganda and censorship of America’s adversaries”.

There is now a scramble within the European Union to put together alternative funding for the broadcaster, though senior figures have already doubted whether they can find the money to support its full operations. The Czech Republic is leading a push for an EU support package.

The former Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry has become the first woman to lead the International Olympic Committee in its 131-year history, after winning a shock first round win over a seven-strong field that included Britain’s Sebastian Coe.

The 41-year-old Coventry won 49 of the 97 votes of the IOC membership, giving her an immediate majority and also making her the first African to become IOC president and the most powerful woman in global sport.

But it was a crushing day for Coe, who was widely accepted to have the best CV, having won two Olympic gold medals, run the London 2012 Games and having been World Athletics president since 2015. He only secured eight votes, putting him in third place behind the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch, who picked up 28 votes.

“The young girl who first started swimming in Zimbabwe all those years ago could never have dreamt of this moment,” said Coventry after her victory was confirmed by outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach.

“I am particularly proud to be the first female IOC President, and also the first from Africa. I hope that this vote will be an inspiration to many people. Glass ceilings have been shattered today, and I am fully aware of my responsibilities as a role model.”

“Sport has an unmatched power to unite, inspire and create opportunities for all, and I am committed to making sure we harness that power to its fullest,” she added. “The future of the Olympic Movement is bright, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Coe had positioned himself as the change candidate and protector of women’s sport, and had urged the IOC to be more open in its decision-making. However his chances were hindered by becoming an impeccable enemy of Bach when World Athletics banned all Russian athletes from the Rio 2016 Olympics for state sponsored doping.

Coventry’s victory came despite a manifesto that was widely seen as bland, and a campaign that started slowly. However in the final few days before the secret ballot on Thursday, strong lobbying from Bach and other senior IOC members appears to have been crucial.

But while her victory is hugely significant, her election victory will be seen as controversial in some quarters. Coventry is the sports minister of a Zimbabwean government that is subject to sanctions from Britain, which are “aimed at encouraging the Government of Zimbabwe to: respect democratic principles and institutions and the rule of law”.

Others also see her as Continuity Bach, and with the German being made honorary president, some wonder how much democracy and reform she will implement.

Coventry will take over when Bach formally leaves office on Olympic Day, 23 June, having reached the maximum 12 years in office.

M23 rebels have captured a strategic mining hub in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, defying calls from the presidents of Rwanda and the DRC for an immediate ceasefire.

A Congolese army spokesperson said M23 was in control of the town of Walikale. An officer separately told Agence France-Presse its forces were about 20 miles (30km) away in the town of Mubi.

Walikale, in North Kivu province, is the farthest west that M23 has reached during its lightning advance that started in January.

The town has large deposits of tin and many significant goldmines. Tin is widely used as a protective coating for other metals and in industries including food packaging and electronics.

In taking control of Walikale, the rebels also seized a road linking four provinces in the east of the country, cutting off the army’s positions. It also puts them within 250 miles of Kisangani, the country’s fourth-largest city.

Gunfire rang out from near Nyabangi neighbourhood on Wednesday, according to Janvier Kabutwa, who lives in Walikale. An army source said the rebels were battling soldiers and pro-government militias after overrunning an army position outside the town in a surprise attack.

“The information is confirmed. The rebels are visible at the monument and at the Bakusu group office,” said Prince Kihangi, a former provincial official for Walikale, referring to locations in the town centre.

Heavy artillery fire was heard throughout Wednesday but stopped in the evening, giving way to sporadic gunfire, said Fiston Misona, a civil society activist in Walikale. “Our Congolese army is no longer fighting,” he said. “It’s as if we were being sacrificed.”

M23 captured Goma, the largest city in North Kivu, in late January. It then started moving south towards Bukavu, the second-largest city in the region.

More than 7,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands uprooted from their homes since January in the latest escalation in the conflict, which has lasted for decades and has its roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It is the worst escalation in more than a decade.

M23, which is backed by Rwanda, is one of dozens of armed groups fighting Congolese forces to make territorial gains in the DRC’s mineral-rich eastern provinces. It says its objective is to safeguard the interests of the Congolese Tutsi and other minorities, including protecting them from Hutu rebel groups that escaped to the DRC after taking part in the genocide. The DRC, the US and other countries say Rwanda is backing M23 in order to exploit the region’s mineral resources.

The fall of Walikale came a day after DRC’s president, Félix Tshisekedi, and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, met in Qatar for their first direct talks since January and called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

The DRC and M23 had been expected to have their first direct talks on Tuesday in Angola after Tshisekedi’s government went back on its longstanding refusal to speak to the rebels, but M23 pulled out of the talks on Monday, citing EU sanctions against some of its leaders and Rwandan officials.

AFP, Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report