The European Union has a “strong plan” to retaliate against tariffs imposed by Donald Trump but would prefer to negotiate, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said.

Trump, who has upended eight decades of certainties about the transatlantic relationship since taking office, has threatened tariffs on goods from around the world from Wednesday. His administration in March put tariffs on imported steel and aluminium and said higher duties on cars would come into effect on Thursday.

Von der Leyen, speaking to the European parliament on Tuesday, said the next sectors facing tariffs would be semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and timber.

She said many Europeans felt “utterly disheartened” by the US announcements. “Europe has not started this confrontation. We do not necessarily want to retaliate, but if it is necessary we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it,” she said.

After the announcement of the steel and aluminium tariffs in March, the commission said it would impose countermeasures on up to €26bn of US goods. These include the reimposition of tariffs on $4.5bn of US goods, such as jeans and Harley-Davidson motorbikes, which were suspended during the presidency of Joe Biden. The measures are due to be implemented in mid April, after the EU executive chose to delay the initial 1 April date in order to align them with other steps and fine-tune the EU position among the 27 member states.

The EU executive is consulting member states over a second tranche of tariffs, worth around €18bn, covering steel, aluminium, poultry, beef, seafood and nuts.

However, it is facing pressure from European capitals to protect national interests. France, for example, is concerned about the impact on French wines and spirits if the commission targets American bourbon. Its prime minister, François Bayrou, described proposed EU tariffs on Kentucky bourbon as a misstep, after meetings with the French cognac industry.

Under the EU-US trade relationship, worth €1.6tn in 2023, the European bloc exports more goods across the Atlantic than the US does, led by cars, medicines and pharmaceutical products, which could give it leverage.

EU officials have not ruled out retaliatory measures on US services, such as suspending intellectual property rights. In theory, retaliation could target US tech companies, banks and financial service providers.

Without giving away details, von der Leyen said “all instruments” – all countermeasures – were on the table. “Europe holds a lot of cards. From trade to technology to the size of our market,” she said. “But this strength is also built on our readiness to take firm countermeasures if necessary.”

A large majority of western Europeans support retaliatory tariffs against the US, a survey has suggested, if Donald Trump introduces sweeping import duties for major trading partners as expected this week.

The US president appears likely to unleash a range of tariffs, varying from country to country, on Wednesday, which he has called Liberation Day. He also said last week that a 25% levy on cars shipped to the US would come into force the next day.

Many European firms are likely to be hit hard. Some, including Germany’s car manufacturers and France’s luxury goods firms and wine, champagne and spirits makers, rely on exports to the US for up to 20% of their income.

The EU has already pledged a “timely, robust and calibrated” response to Washington’s plans, which experts predict are likely to depress output, drive up prices and fuel a trade war. Global markets and the dollar fell on Monday after Trump crushed hopes that what he calls “reciprocal tariffs” – arguing that trading partners are cheating the US – would only target countries with the largest trade imbalances.

A YouGov survey carried out in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK found that if the US tariffs went ahead, large majorities – ranging from 79% of respondents in Denmark to 56% in Italy – favoured retaliatory levies on US imports.

In both Germany, where carmakers such as Porsche, BMW and Mercedes face a significant blow to their profits, and France, where US sales of wines and spirits are worth nearly €4bn (£3.4bn) a year, 68% of respondents backed retaliation.

Respondents in all seven countries favoured a tit-for-tat response despite the damage they expected US tariffs to do to their national economies, with 75% of Germans saying they expected “a lot” or “a fair amount” of impact.

That assessment was shared by 71% of respondents in Spain, 70% in France and Italy, 62% in Sweden, 60% in the UK and half of Danes questioned in the survey, which was carried out in the second and third weeks of March.

Of the six EU countries polled, majorities of between 60% in Denmark and 76% in Spain thought US tariffs would have a significant impact on the bloc’s wider economy. That was the sentiment of 74% of German and 68% of French respondents.

Trump, who was elected partly on a promise to restore US industry, has repeatedly complained that the EU has been “very unfair to us” when it comes to trade. He also said in February that the 27-nation bloc had been “formed to screw the United States”.

Pluralities or majorities in all six EU countries surveyed, ranging from 67% in Denmark and 53% in Germany to 41% in France and 40% in Italy, said they did not agree with him, compared with only 7% to 18% who thought he was correct.

A large majority of western Europeans support retaliatory tariffs against the US, a survey has suggested, if Donald Trump introduces sweeping import duties for major trading partners as expected this week.

The US president appears likely to unleash a range of tariffs, varying from country to country, on Wednesday, which he has called Liberation Day. He also said last week that a 25% levy on cars shipped to the US would come into force the next day.

Many European firms are likely to be hit hard. Some, including Germany’s car manufacturers and France’s luxury goods firms and wine, champagne and spirits makers, rely on exports to the US for up to 20% of their income.

The EU has already pledged a “timely, robust and calibrated” response to Washington’s plans, which experts predict are likely to depress output, drive up prices and fuel a trade war. Global markets and the dollar fell on Monday after Trump crushed hopes that what he calls “reciprocal tariffs” – arguing that trading partners are cheating the US – would only target countries with the largest trade imbalances.

A YouGov survey carried out in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK found that if the US tariffs went ahead, large majorities – ranging from 79% of respondents in Denmark to 56% in Italy – favoured retaliatory levies on US imports.

In both Germany, where carmakers such as Porsche, BMW and Mercedes face a significant blow to their profits, and France, where US sales of wines and spirits are worth nearly €4bn (£3.4bn) a year, 68% of respondents backed retaliation.

Respondents in all seven countries favoured a tit-for-tat response despite the damage they expected US tariffs to do to their national economies, with 75% of Germans saying they expected “a lot” or “a fair amount” of impact.

That assessment was shared by 71% of respondents in Spain, 70% in France and Italy, 62% in Sweden, 60% in the UK and half of Danes questioned in the survey, which was carried out in the second and third weeks of March.

Of the six EU countries polled, majorities of between 60% in Denmark and 76% in Spain thought US tariffs would have a significant impact on the bloc’s wider economy. That was the sentiment of 74% of German and 68% of French respondents.

Trump, who was elected partly on a promise to restore US industry, has repeatedly complained that the EU has been “very unfair to us” when it comes to trade. He also said in February that the 27-nation bloc had been “formed to screw the United States”.

Pluralities or majorities in all six EU countries surveyed, ranging from 67% in Denmark and 53% in Germany to 41% in France and 40% in Italy, said they did not agree with him, compared with only 7% to 18% who thought he was correct.

Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the man accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Tuesday.

Bondi said she ordered prosecutors to seek execution for Luigi Mangione, 26, because – as she put it – he carried out “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”.

According to prosecutors, Mangione had a spiral notebook in which he expressed hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives. UnitedHealthcare is the largest health insurer in the US, though the company has said Mangione was never a client.

Among the entries, the complaint said, was one from August 2024 that said “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance company CEO.

Mangione is facing both state and federal charges in connection with Thompson’s killing. He has pleaded not guilty to the state charges and has not entered a plea to the federal ones.

The maximum punishment on the state charges is life in prison.

Mangione and his attorneys have said they plan to avail themselves of about $775,000 in money raised on the GiveSendGo platform to aid his legal defense. The campaign was organized by a group named the December 4th Legal Committee.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Myanmar’s military is facing criticism over continued airstrikes and claims it is blocking aid to earthquake survivors, as international agencies urged “unfettered access” to humanitarian aid in the conflict-riven nation.

The 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit central Myanmar on Friday has caused widespread destruction, killing more than 2,700 people and leaving affected areas in dire need of basic necessities such as food and water.

Two Australia-based doctors helping coordinate the emergency response at the epicentre in Mandalay and Sagaing have accused the junta of blocking supplies of emergency aid.

“Some of the supplies of aid, well most of it, was not given to the people who need it. In some areas in Mandalay the aid did not arrive. The aid was confiscated by the military junta,” said Dr Nang Win.

Since the earthquake hit, Nang has been communicating with colleagues in Mandalay, where she says aid has been scarce and makeshift clinics are being set up in lieu of a proper emergency response system.

She said one medical colleague in the city had signed paperwork to receive $1,000 in aid but received only about $100 of it, claiming the skimmed supplies would probably end up in a disaster black market. “Then there is a market that happens and they have to go around and buy their own,” she said.

Since Myanmar’s military seized power in a February 2021 coup, an armed resistance movement – comprising various groups that formed to oppose the junta, as well as older, ethnic armed groups – has been locked in a chaotic and deadly civil war with the junta. Over the past year the junta has been consistently losing ground, controlling less than 30% of the country’s territory, though it retains control of the biggest cities.

In areas where the military does not have full control, the military had been blocking aid and preventing teams of rescuers from entering, said Dr Nang. “If a group of rescuers comes and say we want to enter, especially in Sagaing, they will not let you, they will say you need a permit and once you get a permit it is too late,” she said.

A spokesperson for the junta did not immediately respond to the claims.

Dr Tun Aung Shwe, a medical doctor and Australian representative of Myanmar’s exiled opposition National Unity Government (NUG), said the military was leveraging control of checkpoints to block medicine flowing to areas controlled by the NUG and ethnic resistance groups.

“Outside of the major cities, the military already checks and then tries to block the flow of aid,” he said, adding that local communities were forced to seek alternative routes. “They’re finding other ways. So it’s getting there, but it’s taking longer.”

Emergency aid had been being blocked to areas such as Sagaing as well as Mogwe, he said.

A member of a rescue team in Sagaing said they faced restrictions and blockades. “When we try to transport supplies from Mandalay, the military council doesn’t permit it. Even yesterday, when food supplies were being transported from Mandalay, they confiscated half of everything,” they said.

The military inspects the rescue teams, they said, suspicious of weapons being brought into the areas under the guise of aid supplies. “They scrutinise even the helping teams thoroughly, prioritising only their [own] security. They don’t prioritise rescuing civilians. They also investigate food distribution teams, asking where they’re from and checking everything. If supplies are transported across the river from other cities, food supplies are confiscated and don’t reach their destination adequately,” the rescue worker said.

On Tuesday, a major rebel alliance declared a unilateral ceasefire to support the humanitarian response to the earthquake. The Three Brotherhood Alliance, which comprises the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, said it would not initiate offensive operations for one month to allow the rescue effort, and would engage in combat only in self-defence. The NUG previously announced that groups affiliated with it would observe a two-week ceasefire in earthquake-affected areas, with an exception for defensive actions.

The junta also faces criticism for conducting airstrikes on villages. The Karen National Union, one of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armies, said in a statement the junta “continues to carry out airstrikes targeting civilian areas, even as the population suffers tremendously from the earthquake”.

Tom Andrews, the UN’s special rapporteur on Myanmar, said confirming what was happening on the ground was challenging due to communication outages but that there were “consistent reports of aid being blocked” and that airstrikes were continuing.

“Instead of focusing every ounce of energy, attention and resources on saving lives the junta is taking lives. That’s the first thing. Secondly, yesterday there have been consistent reports of aid being blocked, of aid workers being denied access at checkpoints,” he said.

These reports were emerging from areas that were under opposition control or contested, he said, adding that the military should “stop killing people and focus on saving people”.

On Monday night, airstrikes were reported in Singu township, Mandalay region, and Nawnghkio township, Shan state. Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Myanmar’s military junta still invokes fear, even in the wake of a horrific natural disaster that killed and injured thousands. The junta needs to break from its appalling past practice and ensure that humanitarian aid quickly reaches those whose lives are at risk in earthquake-affected areas.”

Scot Marciel, a retired US diplomat and ambassador to Myanmar from 2016 to 2020, said the military had a bad track record when it came to providing assistance to its citizens in need.

“Myanmar has very poor infrastructure, and where the military government, where to the extent it controls things, [it] is not really going to lift much of a finger to help,” he said, “It’s a really bad place for it to happen.”

During the Covid pandemic, he said, the military heavily restricted aid, providing oxygen mostly only to its supporters. During cyclone Nargis in 2008, a disaster that claimed almost 140,000 lives, the military leaders initially rejected all international aid.

“Their history shows that they basically are willing to stand by and let lots of suffering and even death happen, if not inflicting it themselves, rather than do anything that might risk their power position,” Marciel said.

Aid agencies warn of an urgent need for clean water and food in affected areas, and say there is a lack of sanitation systems.

Kanni Wignaraja, the UN assistant secretary general and regional director for Asia and the Pacific at UNDP, said the magnitude of the devastation was unimaginable.

“If you look at basic infrastructure … we’re already seeing that more than 80% of Sagaing town’s infrastructure is either destroyed or unsafe,” Wignaraja said.

“A lot of these urban centres are going to have to be razed.

“[It is] really important that the UN disaster assessment and response teams that are ready in Bangkok are allowed in fast,” she said, adding that a total ceasefire was needed so that relief work could be conducted.

Myanmar’s junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, said in a televised address that the death toll was expected to surpass 3,000, having reached 2,719 on Tuesday, with 441 missing.

In neighbouring Thailand, teams continued to search the site of a tower block that collapsed while under construction, trapping dozens of workers. The death toll in Thailand rose to 20.

Moscow has described the latest US peace proposals as unacceptable to the Kremlin, highlighting the limited progress Donald Trump has made on his promise to end the war in Ukraine since taking office in January.

Sergei Ryabkov, a foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin, said some of Russia’s key demands were being addressed by the US proposals to end the war, in comments that marked a rare acknowledgment from the Russian side that talks with the US over Ukraine had stalled in recent weeks.

“We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can’t accept it all in its current form,” Ryabkov was quoted by state media as telling the Russian magazine International Affairs in an interview released on Tuesday.

“All we have today is an attempt to find some kind of framework that would first allow for a ceasefire – at least as envisioned by the Americans,” he said.

“As far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict.”

Putin has repeatedly referred to what he claimed were the “root causes” of the conflict to justify his hardline position on any prospective deal to end the war in Ukraine.

As preconditions for a ceasefire, the Russian leader has demanded that Kyiv recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea and four partially occupied regions in the south-east, withdraw its forces from those areas, pledge never to join Nato, and agree to demilitarisation.

Moscow’s terms would, in effect, dismantle Ukraine as an independent, functioning state – pulling it firmly into Russia’s sphere of influence.

In recent weeks the Russian president has been openly pushing for regime change in Ukraine, claiming that Volodymyr Zelenskyy lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal and suggesting that Ukraine needs external governance.

Trump appears to be growing increasingly impatient with his lack of progress in a war that he promised to end in 24 hours, expressing frustration with Russian and Ukrainian leaders as he struggles to forge a truce.

Over the weekend, the US president said he was “pissed off” with Putin over the Russian leader’s approach to a potential ceasefire in Ukraine, threatening to impose tariffs on Moscow’s oil exports if a truce is not reached within a month.

The remark was a noticeable shift in tone from a leader who had previously expressed admiration for Putin. However, Trump later dialled back his rhetoric and by Monday he had adopted a more conciliatory stance toward Moscow, instead accusing Ukraine of trying to renegotiate an economic deal with the US.

Despite a flurry of US-brokered meetings and parallel talks with Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia that produced – on paper – a 30-day energy ceasefire, both sides have continued to strike each other’s energy infrastructure.

The Trump administration also attempted to broker a ceasefire in the Black Sea, but Moscow sought to attach several conditions to the deal, including the easing of European sanctions, a demand swiftly rejected by Brussels.

Grigory Karasin, who represented Russia at the talks with the US in Saudi Arabia, last week admitted that the sides failed to make significant progress and that negotiations may drag into next year.

But Trump’s team has said it remains committed to halting the war, with the US leader telling NBC he and Putin planned to speak again this week.

The Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, who spent time with Trump over the weekend, said he proposed setting a deadline of 20 April for Putin to comply with a full ceasefire.

However, those close to the Kremlin believe Moscow is unlikely to accept a full ceasefire without securing some of its demands, which include the cessation of all arms and intelligence supplies to Ukraine from the US and other allies.

“We’re prepared to keep fighting for some time,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, a prominent Russian foreign policy analyst who heads a council that advises the Kremlin. “The continuation of the war, which we are slowly but surely winning, is in our interest. Especially considering that the main sponsor [the US] seems to be backing out … Why should we rush in a situation like this?”

A 17-year-old boy from the West Bank who was held without charge for six months in an Israeli prison died after he collapsed in unclear circumstances, Palestinian officials have said.

According to his family, Walid Ahmad was “a healthy high schooler” at the time of his arrest last September for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.

The family believes Walid contracted amoebic dysentery from the poor conditions in the prison, an infection that causes diarrhoea, vomiting and dizziness – and can be fatal if left untreated.

“He was a lively teen who enjoyed playing soccer before he was taken from his home,” his father, Khalid Ahmad, told the Associated Press. Ahmad said he noticed during Walid’s four court appearances – conducted over video link – that his son appeared to be in poor health.

“His body was weakened due to malnutrition in the prisons in general,” Ahmad said. He said Walid had told him at one point he was suffering from scabies, a contagious skin rash caused by mites. “Don’t worry about me,” his father recalls him saying.

Walid’s lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities had denied his requests to visit his client in prison. He told AP three prisoners held alongside Walid said he had dysentery and that it was widespread among young Palestinians at the facility.

Thaer Shriteh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s detainee commission, told AP that Walid had collapsed and hit his head on a metal rod, losing consciousness. “The prison administration did not respond to the prisoners’ requests for urgent care to save his life,” he said, citing witnesses who spoke to the commission.

The Israeli prison service said in a statement that an investigation was under way: “A 17-year-old security detainee from Megiddo prison, from the West Bank area, passed away yesterday in the prison, with his medical condition being under privacy protection,” it said. “An investigation is still ongoing.”

More than 14,000 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since the Hamas attack in Israel in October 2023, according to Palestinian figures. Most are held in administrative detention, which allows for the pre-emptive arrest of individuals based on undisclosed evidence.

Israel says those detained are suspected of either militancy or aggression towards soldiers.

Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities but prison authorities deny any systemic abuse and say they investigate accusations of wrongdoing by staff. The Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges conditions inside detention facilities have been reduced to the minimum level allowed under Israeli law.

Walid is the 63rd Palestinian prisoner from the West Bank or Gaza to die in Israeli custody since the start of the war and the first Palestinian teenager to die in Israeli detention, according to the Palestinian Authority.

Oneg Ben Dror of the Jaffa-based NGO Physicians for Human Rights Israel called for an independent investigation into the death of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and military camps. “We urge the international community to hold Israel accountable for these deaths,” he said.

Palestinians have long alleged that imprisonment is a key element of Israel’s 57-year occupation: estimates suggest up to 40% of Palestinian men have been arrested at least once.

A 17-year-old boy from the West Bank who was held without charge for six months in an Israeli prison died after he collapsed in unclear circumstances, Palestinian officials have said.

According to his family, Walid Ahmad was “a healthy high schooler” at the time of his arrest last September for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.

The family believes Walid contracted amoebic dysentery from the poor conditions in the prison, an infection that causes diarrhoea, vomiting and dizziness – and can be fatal if left untreated.

“He was a lively teen who enjoyed playing soccer before he was taken from his home,” his father, Khalid Ahmad, told the Associated Press. Ahmad said he noticed during Walid’s four court appearances – conducted over video link – that his son appeared to be in poor health.

“His body was weakened due to malnutrition in the prisons in general,” Ahmad said. He said Walid had told him at one point he was suffering from scabies, a contagious skin rash caused by mites. “Don’t worry about me,” his father recalls him saying.

Walid’s lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities had denied his requests to visit his client in prison. He told AP three prisoners held alongside Walid said he had dysentery and that it was widespread among young Palestinians at the facility.

Thaer Shriteh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s detainee commission, told AP that Walid had collapsed and hit his head on a metal rod, losing consciousness. “The prison administration did not respond to the prisoners’ requests for urgent care to save his life,” he said, citing witnesses who spoke to the commission.

The Israeli prison service said in a statement that an investigation was under way: “A 17-year-old security detainee from Megiddo prison, from the West Bank area, passed away yesterday in the prison, with his medical condition being under privacy protection,” it said. “An investigation is still ongoing.”

More than 14,000 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since the Hamas attack in Israel in October 2023, according to Palestinian figures. Most are held in administrative detention, which allows for the pre-emptive arrest of individuals based on undisclosed evidence.

Israel says those detained are suspected of either militancy or aggression towards soldiers.

Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities but prison authorities deny any systemic abuse and say they investigate accusations of wrongdoing by staff. The Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges conditions inside detention facilities have been reduced to the minimum level allowed under Israeli law.

Walid is the 63rd Palestinian prisoner from the West Bank or Gaza to die in Israeli custody since the start of the war and the first Palestinian teenager to die in Israeli detention, according to the Palestinian Authority.

Oneg Ben Dror of the Jaffa-based NGO Physicians for Human Rights Israel called for an independent investigation into the death of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and military camps. “We urge the international community to hold Israel accountable for these deaths,” he said.

Palestinians have long alleged that imprisonment is a key element of Israel’s 57-year occupation: estimates suggest up to 40% of Palestinian men have been arrested at least once.

French ministers have condemned threats against the judges who convicted the far-right leader Marine Le Pen and banned her from public office for five years – threatening her 2027 presidential bid – and rejected accusations the verdict was “political and partisan”.

France’s prime minister, François Bayrou, told the Assemblée nationale the trial judges had his “unconditional support” after they found Le Pen guilty of embezzlement charges, throwing France into political chaos.

Rémy Heitz, public prosecutor at the court of cassation, France’s highest court, said the “highly personalised” attacks were “unacceptable” and that any threats may be subject to criminal prosecution.

“Justice is not political; this decision is not a political decision but a legal one rendered by three independent, impartial judges, in accordance with the law” Heitz said.

Virulent threats and insults against the president of the court, Bénédicte de Perthuis, one of three trial judges, began on social media almost immediately the verdict was announced on Monday. Menacing posts giving their full names, photographs and a part of de Perthuis’ address were immediately condemned by French legal bodies.

Gérald Darmanin, the justice minister, said: “In a democracy, it is unacceptable for people to physically threaten judges. When we call for the rule of law it includes all free and independent magistrates in this country.” He called on far-right MPs to support the threatened magistrates.

Darmanin said he hoped if Le Pen appealed against her conviction – as she has said she will – a new trial “can be organised within as reasonable a timeframe as possible”, but added it was up to the courts to fix a date.

Jordan Bardella, 29, the RN president, also called on supporters not to threaten or insult the judges. “This is unacceptable and we condemn it,” he said.

Hours after the verdict, RN officials went on the offensive, giving interviews, press conferences, planning a leafleting campaign and setting up a petition that crashed the party’s website.

The RN is reported to be planning a major rally in support of Le Pen in Paris either this weekend on the next and is calling for nationwide demonstrations against the court’s decision to ban her from public officeseemingly wrecking her hopes of succeeding Emmanuel Macron as president .

Le Pen and 24 others from RN, including party officials, employees, MEPs and assistants, were convicted of embezzling millions in European parliament funds as part of a fake jobs scam. The trial last November heard how the party took money for EU parliamentary assistants but spent it on paying staff in France. None of the accused benefited personally from the embezzlement and all denied the charges.

Le Pen, 56, was also given a four-year prison term, two years suspended and two to be served wearing an electronic bracelet. The sentence will be postponed until the appeal process is exhausted, but the five-year ban on standing for public office takes immediate effect.

Le Pen went on television to denounce what she said was the court’s “political decision” and vowed to “pursue all legal avenues” to be able to stand in 2027. An appeal by Le Pen will lead to a new trial that she hopes will overturn the conviction and public office ban in time to campaign for the presidency.

Bardella said French people “must be outraged” after what he called a “disproportionate, political and partisan” judgment that would rob them of a voice in the election. He said the ban would deprive millions of French voters of their democratic right to put Le Pen in the Elysée Palace and called for “peaceful, democratic protests” across France as part of a “people’s mobilisation”.

Bardella,who is seen as the RN’s plan B if Le Pen fails, said he refused to consider stepping into her shoes as a presidential candidate and pledged his loyalty to her.

“Marine Le Pen has given me everything in politics,” he said. “The least I can do is to fight with her to the end. We work together, hand in hand and in total confidence. I have total loyalty. Those who think they have killed off the RN and put us out of the game will not succeed.”

“If you are in politics, you are not above the law, but neither are you below it,” he said.

Bardella added that he hoped the appeal court hearing could be held in time to “correct the error” of the lower court so that Le Pen could stand in 2027, and said RN voters were being ignored as “second-class” citizens.

“We are not fashos, racists or far right. We are reasonable people who are patriotic, who love our country and we are fighting for the French people. We are fighting to get into power, not to remain in opposition.”

A Cyprus court’s acquittal of five men accused of abducting and raping a British woman in the resort of Ayia Napa has been met with outrage as calls mount for the verdict to be challenged.

Dismissing the charges on Monday, the three-member district court in Paralimni ruled the testimony of the 20-year-old had not been credible because it “lacked coherence and contained numerous substantial contradictions”. The defendants, Israelis aged between 19 and 20, claimed sexual contact with the woman had been consensual.

But her lawyer, Michael Polak, described the assertion as absurd. “The young lady in this case is gay, any suggestion that she voluntarily agreed to group sex with men she had never met before, who were speaking in a different language, is ridiculous,” he told the Guardian. “She has been left completely distraught by the court’s verdict today. It was one of the hardest phone calls I have ever had to make.”

All five accused had been remanded in custody since the alleged incident on 3 September 2023. On Monday, they were allowed to walk free with lawyer Nir Yaslovitzh, who represented two of the men, telling Israel’s Channel 12: “It is a brave decision that completely rejected the complainant’s version and completely accepts our clients’ version.”

Polak, who directs the London-based legal aid group Justice Abroad, said the case was further proof of a sexist attitude in Cyprus’s “patriarchal” justice system. “Recently, the European court of human rights ruled that there is no effective protection for women subject to sexual offences in the Republic of Cyprus,” he added.

“Unfortunately, nothing I have seen shows that there have been any improvements in this area.”

He did not rule out the case being taken to the European court of human rights.

In February, another British woman who also claimed she had been gang-raped in Ayia Napa by more than a dozen Israeli men in July 2019 won a “monumental victory” over Cypriot authorities after the Strasbourg-based tribunal ruled they had “failed in their obligation to effectively investigate the applicant’s complaint of rape”.

Judge Michalis Papathanasiou, sitting in Paralimni on Monday, had been the judge on the district court who had overseen the earlier case. Last year, the island’s supreme court not only overturned his decision but, in an unusual rebuke, criticised the way he had conducted proceedings, agreeing with the defendant’s lawyers that the trial process had been “manifestly unfair” and his “interruptions and interventions unjustified and inadmissible”.

The Briton, who cannot be legally identified, had been described as “highly distressed” when, giving testimony to police, she recounted how she had been “taken by force” during a party around the pool area of the defendants’ hotel to a room and sexually assaulted.

Women’s groups and campaigners voiced outrage as they reacted to the ruling, with some raising the prospect of the close diplomatic ties between Cyprus and Israel influencing Monday’s judgment.

“What this shows is that Cypriot courts haven’t reflected at all on their past mistakes,” said Susana Pavlou, who heads the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies in Nicosia, the island’s capital. “We are shocked and appalled.”

Pavlou said she had been particularly angered by the court’s argument that, although the woman had taken class A drugs and consumed a “significant amount” of alcohol, neither were enough to remove “her ability to consent”.

“That was particularly shocking,” she said. “It is clear, more than ever, that judicial authorities in Cyprus continue to be influenced by stereotypical attitudes and beliefs in relation to victims of sexual violence and rape.” Research, she said, had shown that victims of sexual violence were “often considered unreliable witnesses” because of the lack of psychological and legal support navigating the judicial process.

Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has embarked on a marathon overnight speech on the Senate floor to warn of what he called the “grave and urgent” danger that Donald Trump’s presidential administration poses to democracy and the American people.

Booker began his speech at 7pm on Monday night and passed the 12-hour mark with barely a break in speaking at 7am Tuesday.

“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker said near the start of his speech. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our nation is in crisis.”

Booker said that he has heard endless stories of “pain and fear” from constituents who are both Democrats and Republicans due to the Trump administration’s policies.

“Institutions that are special in America, that are unique in our country are being recklessly – and I would say unconstitutionally – affected, attacked and even shattered,” Booker said.

“In just 71 days the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy and even our aspirations as a people for, from our highest offices, a sense of common decency.

“These are not normal times in America and they should not be treated as such. I can’t allow this body to continue without doing something. The threats to America’s democracy are grave and urgent.”

Booker’s speech is not technically a filibuster as he is not trying to run down the Senate’s time to prevent a piece of legislation from passing.

Instead, he has used his speaking slot to decry the Trump administration’s spending cuts, its attempt to abolish the Department of Education, the president’s attempts to bypass the judicial system and the removal of people from the US who speak out against the administration.

Booker’s speech has been supported with reams of quotes from speeches by the late American politicians John McCain and John Lewis, as well as excerpts from newspaper articles.

Some of the senator’s fellow Democrats have helped support him during his monologues, with several asking questions that have allowed Booker to have a break without yielding the floor.

The Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, was the first to pose a question to his New Jersey colleague, and he praised Booker for his “strength and conviction”.

“You’re taking the floor tonight to bring up all these inequities that will hurt people, that will so hurt the middle class, that will so hurt poor people, that will hurt America, hurt our fiscal conditions, as you document,” Schumer said in his own question to Booker.

“Just give us a little inkling of the strength – give us a little feeling for the strength and conviction that drive you to do this unusual taking of the floor for a long time to let the people know how bad these things are going to be.”

At one point, Booker spoke about the need for bipartisanship and mentioned a recent dinner he had with Ted Cruz, the arch-conservative Republican senator from Texas. Cruz is no stranger to marathon speeches, having spoken for more than 21 hours in 2013 in an attempt to filibuster an expansion of Medicaid eligibility. At one point, Cruz read from Green Eggs and Ham, the Dr Seuss children’s book.

Booker has a long way to go to beat the all-time Senate record, however. In 1957, Strom Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of the same year.

The Icelandic town of Grindavík and the nearby Blue Lagoon tourist attraction have been evacuated after the area was hit by another volcanic eruption.

The eruption is the 11th since 2021, when the Reykjanes peninsula, a region south-west of Reykjavík, started its new eruption period.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said an “earthquake swarm” started at about 6.30am on the Sundhnúkur crater row in a similar place to previous eruptions, before erupting at 9.45am local time just north of the protective barrier near Grindavík.

The orange-red fissure, expelling lava and smoke, quickly spread southward and by 10am local time it had already reached through the defence walls north of Grindavík. Warning sirens went off around the town. By 12.35pm local time it was estimated to be 1,200 metres long.

A second fissure has also opened between Grindavík’s protective barriers and the town.

Dramatic video footage showed magma spewing up on the Grindavík side of the defence barrier. “The fissure continues to grow, and it cannot be ruled out that it may continue to open further south,” the IMO said.

The IMO later said it had received a report of a broken hot water pipeline in northern Grindavík, which it said “confirms that significant fault movements have occurred within the town”.

Later in the afternoon it said that while volcanic activity appeared to have significantly decreased, seismic activity was “ongoing”.

The fishing town, about an hour’s drive from the capital, has been largely uninhabited since 10 November 2023, when an eruption resulted in the town cracking open with fissures reaching a depth of 20 metres. Although some of the town’s 3,800 residents and some of its businesses returned, most dispersed to other parts of the country after the state bought up most of its buildings because they were uninhabitable.

Regional police said they had completed the evacuation of Grindavík, with the exception of a small number of residents who refused to leave. The Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions, said it had successfully evacuated the thermal spa.

Ch Supt Runólfur Þórhallsson, Iceland’s director of civil protection, urged those who had chosen not to leave the town to evacuate, saying the eruption could be much larger than recent ones because the magma tunnel is longer and a lot of magma has accumulated.

The Blue Lagoon said it was temporarily closed due to the volcanic eruption and that it would provide more information as it became available.

Earlier in the day, the IMO said the signals it was picking up were stronger than those recently on Sundhnúkur crater row, indicating that “a considerable amount of magma is currently on the move”.

“Emergency responders in Grindavík have reported that earthquakes can be felt in the town, and signs of deformation are also visible there, suggesting that fault movements could occur within the town itself,” it added.

The Icelandic tourist board said there was “no threat to the population” and that flights were operating as usual at Keflavík airport.

Snorri Valsson, a spokesperson for the tourist board, said: “The area has been closed off and is completely closed until further notice. Gas pollution might form in isolated areas around the eruption depending on wind direction and is closely monitored.”

Valsson added: “The eruption is still developing and we will publish further information when gathered.”

Although there was an initial effect on tourist numbers after the November 2023 eruption – which the tourism board in part blamed on international reporting – numbers have since slightly increased.

The number of foreign nationals coming through Keflavík airport rose by 2% to 2,261,391 in 2023-24 compared with the same period the year before, according to Statistics Iceland. The 383,963 overnight hotel stays recorded in November 2024 were also up compared with the number in November 2023.