Nicolás Maduro’s apparent re-election as Venezuela’s president has been met with scepticism, suspicion and calls for a transparent and detailed breakdown of the vote in Sunday’s controversial poll.

Although the results, released by the government-controlled electoral authority, were immediately hailed by Maduro’s allies in Latin America, they drew a guarded and often accusatory response from others in the region and farther afield.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Washington had “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people”.

He said the international community was watching the vote “very closely” and would react accordingly.

“It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes,” said Blinken.

Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, also called on the electoral authority to release voting information in the interests of “respecting the democratic will” of the Venezuelan people.

“The people of Venezuela yesterday voted democratically and in very large numbers,” Albares told Spain’s Cadena Ser radio on Monday morning. “We want total transparency and that’s why we’re asking for the results to be published, polling station by polling station. We don’t have a candidate – we just want a guarantee of transparency. The publication of polling station information is key so that the results can be verified.”

Albares also urged “calm and civic responsibility” as the results were properly examined.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s most senior diplomat and also a former Spanish foreign minister, said the will of the Venezuelan people had to be respected, adding: “Ensuring full transparency in the electoral process, including detailed counting of votes and access to voting records at polling stations, is vital.”

The UK Foreign Office said Britain was “concerned by allegations of serious irregularities in the counting and declared results of Sunday’s presidential election in Venezuela. We call for the swift and transparent publication of full, detailed results to ensure that the outcome reflects the votes of the Venezuelan people.”

Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said he had “many doubts” about Maduro’s apparent re-election. “We ask for verifiable results and access to documents,” he said on X. “Does the result announcing Maduro’s victory really reflect the will of the people?”

Many Latin American leaders, including Chile’s leftist president, Gabriel Boric, were far blunter in their assessment of Sunday’s vote.

“Maduro’s regime must understand that the results are hard to believe,” Boric wrote on X. “The international community and, above all, the Venezuelan people – including the millions of Venezuelans in exile – demand total transparency.” Chile, he added, “will not recognise any result that is not verifiable”.

An even more direct response came from Luis Lacalle Pou, the president of Uruguay.

“Not like that! It was an open secret that they were going to ‘win’ whatever the real results were,” he said on X. “The process, right up to the day of the election and the count itself, was clearly corrupt. You can’t recognise a win if you can’t trust the forms and mechanisms used to bring it about.”

Daniel Noboa, the president of Ecuador, accused Maduro of trying to cling to power and “snatching away the hope of millions of Venezuelans”. He also called for the permanent council of the Organization of American States to meet to discuss the situation in Venezuela.

Bernardo Arévalo, Guatemala’s centrist president, said Venezuela deserved “transparent, accurate results” in accordance with the will of the people.

“We receive the results announced by the electoral authority with many doubts,” he said. “This is why electoral observation mission reports are essential, and today more than ever, must defend Venezuelans’ votes.”

Peru’s foreign minister, Javier González-Olaechea, expressed his “utter condemnation of the totality of the fraud-driven irregularities by the Venezuelan government. Peru, he added, would not stand for the “violation of the popular will of the Venezuelan people”.

Argentina’s populist, firebrand president, Javier Milei, was characteristically insistent.

“GET OUT, MADURO, YOU DICTATOR!!!” he wrote on X. “Venezuelans chose to put an end to Nicolás Maduro’s communist dictatorship. The data shows a crushing opposition victory and the world is waiting for the defeat of years of socialism, misery, decadence and death to be recognised.”

Milei said Argentina would not recognise “another fraud” and said he hoped Venezuela’s armed forces would “defend democracy and the will of the people”.

The government of Costa Rica described the proclamation of Maduro’s victory as “fraudulent”, adding that it would work with others to ensure “the sacred will of the Venezuelan people is respected”.

Not all Latin American leaders were troubled by the result – some were delighted at the seeming triumph of the regime established by the late Hugo Chávez.

“Nicolás Maduro, my brother, your victory – which is the victory of the Bolivarian and chavista people – has cleanly and unequivocally vanquished the pro-imperialist opposition,” said Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel.

“And it has also defeated the meddling, Monroeist regional right. The people spoke and the revolution won.”

Luis Arce, Bolivia’s leftwing president, congratulated Maduro on his victory, adding that it was a “magnificent way to commemorate Comandante Hugo Chávez”, who would have turned 70 on Sunday.

“We have closely followed this democratic festival and we salute the fact that the will of the Venezuelan people has been respected at the ballot box,” Arce added.

Xiomara Castro, the president of Honduras, also congratulated Maduro, sending her government’s “special congratulations and democratic, socialist and revolutionary greetings” to him and to the Venezuelan people on their “uncontested triumph, which reaffirms their sovereignty and the historic legacy of Comandante Hugo Chávez”.

Maduro’s re-election was also welcomed by Vladimir Putin, who offered his personal congratulations.

“I am confident that your activities at the head of state will continue to contribute to their progressive development in all directions,” the Russian president said, according to a Kremlin statement on Monday morning.

“This fully meets the interests of our friendly peoples and is in line with building a more just and democratic world order … Remember that you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil.”

Israeli drones struck a remote road in southern Lebanon, underscoring tensions as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised a “harsh” response to the rocket strike on the occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children.

“The state of Israel will not and cannot let this pass. Our response will come, and it will be harsh,” he said during a visit to the remote town of Majdal Shams, a majority Druze village in a region annexed by Israel from Syria in 1981.

Video footage showed a crowd of Druze residents gathering in objection to Netanyahu’s visit, some shouting in dissent.

Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have risen in recent days after Saturday’s rocket strike on the town, which killed 12 children as they played football.

Netanyahu and the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited Majdal Shams as a funeral was held on Monday for the twelfth child killed in the rocket attack.

“Hezbollah will pay a price … the actions will speak for themselves,” Gallant told grieving families.

Earlier in the day, two Israeli drone strikes killed two people, according to Lebanon’s state news agency, as well as wounding three others on the roads between the towns of Chaqra and Meiss El Jabal, close to the de-facto border between Israel and Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia later named both men killed, and said they were fighters from southern Lebanon who died “on the road to Jerusalem”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it shot down a drone sent from Lebanese territory in the early hours of the morning, intercepting the aircraft after it crossed into Israeli territory. Sirens sounded again across the northern Galilee region later in the day over a further suspected drone infiltration.

Israeli and US officials blamed Hezbollah for the missile strike, which the Lebanese militant group has denied. The IDF shared analysis of shrapnel the day after the strike that it said showed the drone was Iranian-made.

Netanyahu flew back early from a trip to the US and spent Sunday in discussion with military security officials. He later convened his security cabinet for several hours to discuss how to respond to the strike on Majdal Shams, amid pressure from the US and France to avoid a large-scale attack that risks sparking a regional war.

Netanyahu’s office said after the meeting that ministers had authorised him along with Gallant, “to decide on the manner and timing” of Israel’s response to the strike.

“The prime minister has made clear that Israel will not allow this terror. Hezbollah will pay a heavy price that it has not paid thus far,” David Mencer, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, told reporters.

“One way or another, whether through diplomacy or other means our north will be secured,” he added.

A senior Israeli defence official told Reuters that Israel wanted to hurt Hezbollah, but did not wish to drag the region into an all-out war. Two other officials said the country was preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting.

The US news website Axios, citing one Israeli official and one US official, said the White House had cautioned Israel that should it choose to hit areas of the Lebanese capital, Beirut,“the situation would likely spiral out of control”.

Danny Citrinowicz, an analyst with Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said: “We are as close as we have ever been to another war between Israel and Hezbollah. What they did, murdering young boys and girls in Majdal Shams, requires a different response. But the question is what will be different”.

The Israeli calculation that it could conduct a large volume of strikes deeper into Lebanese territory, strike targets in Beirut or even hit facilities belonging to the Lebanese state rather than the militant group could prove to be high risk strategies, he added.

“What will determine the level [of] escalation is Hezbollah’s response. There are people saying this will be a back and forth for a couple of days, but it takes two to tango, each side wants to raise the bar, but we don’t have an off-ramp for this,” he said.

“Hezbollah will have to retaliate, and then what will Israel do … yes, the US administration is pressuring both Israel and the Lebanese intently, but it’s hard to see how it can contain the level of escalation.”

The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said he spoke with both the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, and the Lebanese foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, “to avoid a new war. Interrupting the spiral of violence is possible.”

The German foreign office repeated a demand for its citizens to leave Lebanon “urgently” amid fears of a further escalation across Lebanon that could also include a halt to air travel. US officials also reiterated an instruction for its citizens to leave while commercial air travel remains viable.

The demand followed similar calls from France, Norway and Belgium after the rocket strike. Widespread disruption and cancellation of flights was reported at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri airport, as multiple airlines suspended flights over security concerns.

Security analysts at the New York-based Soufan Group said the strike in Majdal Shams “constituted the type of incident that many experts have long assessed might tip the balance from relatively limited Israel-Hezbollah cross-border exchanges to devastating all-out conflict”.

Hezbollah, it added, probably denied responsibility for the strike on Majdal Shams because of the high casualties, the location in an area internationally recognised to be Syrian land occupied by Israel, and the Druze Arab identity of the victims. The Druze are a sect who live in the Golan Heights, parts of southern Syria and into Lebanon.

The security analysts added: “The most pressing task for US. officials appeared to be delaying any Israeli retaliation to allow time for diplomacy to achieve de-escalation.”

France’s interior minister has suggested that far-left activists were behind the attacks on the high-speed rail system on the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony, as a fresh wave of vandalism targeted internet cables.

Four days after the attacks, Gérald Darmanin said the investigation into the arson attacks had “identified a certain number of profiles who could have committed it”.

He suggested those on the extreme left may have been encouraged to target the transport system by unnamed others, describing the attack as “very precise, extremely well targeted”.

He did not provide any evidence for his claim about the identity of the perpetrators.

Darmanin told the TV channel France 2: “This is the traditional mode of action of the far left. We must be careful, the question is whether they were manipulated or is it for their own benefit. There are people who can approach this movement.”

The minister confirmed on Monday the arrest of “around 50 people” who had “clearly, with others – estimated at 150 – wanted to carry out either sabotage or radical protests in Paris during the first events of the Olympic Games”.

There were isolated outages on France’s telecoms network in six regions after telephone operators were targeted by vandals between 1am and 3am on Monday.

The attack appeared to have hit France’s long-distance fibre-optic network, affecting the internet speed for about 11,000 people. Orange, the provider for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, was not affected.

Marina Ferrari, a minister for digital affairs, said: “I condemn in the strongest terms these cowardly and irresponsible acts. Thank you to the teams mobilised this morning to carry out repairs and restore damaged sites to service.”

“It’s vandalism,” said Nicolas Chatin, a spokesperson for SFR, one of France’s four biggest operators whose infrastructure is rented by other telecom groups to transmit their data. “Large sections of cables were cut. You would have to use an axe or a grinder.”

In the early hours of Friday, arsonists had burned through fibre-optic cables at installations along the high-speed TGV lines connecting Paris with the west, north and east.

It led to severe disruption throughout the country and the cancellation of Eurostar services, although the transport secretary, Patrice Vergriete, said all trains on the French high-speed rail network were running normally on Monday.

Vergriete said the cost of the attacks would “very probably” amount to millions of euros and that considerable resources had been put in place to strengthen the surveillance of the 5,000 miles (8,000km) of TGV network.

About 1,000 maintenance agents from the national rail operator SNCF and 250 rail security agents had been mobilised until further notice along with 50 drones and there would be regular helicopter overflights by the gendarmerie, he added.

The investigation into the sabotage is being led by Paris’s chief prosecutor, Laure Beccuau.

There has been no public claim of responsibility but several media outlets received messages in support of the attacks on Saturday. Darmanin said he was aware of these communications and that it was “something that resembles a claim”, but that it could also be opportunism by people seeking publicity.

Le Parisien newspaper reported on Monday that a far-left activist had been arrested on Sunday at an SNCF site in Oissel, Normandy.

The suspect was said to have had keys to SNCF premises, cutting pliers and a set of universal keys in his vehicle, as well as “literature related to the far left”.

A controversial tableau in the Olympics opening ceremony denounced by Christian and conservative critics as an offensive parody of The Last Supper was in fact inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting of the Greek Olympian gods, art historians have said.

“Does this painting remind you of something?” the Magnin Museum in the French city of Dijon asked (with a wink) on X, inviting people to “come and admire” The Feast of the Gods, painted by the artist Jan van Bijlert between 1635 and 1640.

The Paris 2024 organising committee on Sunday apologised to Catholics and other Christian groups if they had been offended by the scene, which featured drag queens, a transgender model and a semi-naked singer sitting in a fruit bowl.

French bishops regretted the “excesses and provocation” of the tableau, which they said amounted to “a mockery of Christianity”. Far-right French politicians and conservative Christians in the US and elsewhere have been more vituperative.

Leonardo da Vinci’s much-parodied The Last Supper portrays the final meal Jesus is said to have taken with his apostles. However, the creative director of the opening ceremony, Thomas Jolly, denied the scene, titled “Festivity”, was based on the painting.

“That wasn’t my inspiration,” he told BFM TV. “I think it was pretty clear. There’s Dionysus who arrives at the table … Why is he there? Because he’s the god of feasting, of wine, and the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine.”

In Friday’s ceremony, which was watched by 23 million people in France and, according to a Harris poll, rated a success by 86%, Dionysus was played by the singer-songwriter Philippe Katerine. Sequana was in a later scene embodied by Floriane Issert, a non-commissioned officer in the Gendarmerie nationale, riding a metal horse along the river.

The idea, Jolly said, was “more to have a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus, Olympian, Olympianism … You’ll never find in me any kind of wish to mock, to denigrate anything at all. I wanted a ceremony that repairs and reconciles.”

Jolly did not name the painting that inspired the tableau, but art historians in France and the Netherlands have pointed to van Bijlert’s work, a portrayal of the ancient Greek deities gathered for a feast on Mount Olympus.

The Dutch art historian Walther Schoonenberg was in no doubt. “The tableau vivant or ‘living painting’ in the opening ceremony of Paris 2024 was of The Feast of the Gods, by Jan van Bijlert from 1635,” Schoonenberg said on X.

Apollo, god of the sun, was recognisable by his halo, Schoonenberg said, Dionysus by the grapes, Poseidon, god of the sea, by his trident, Artemis by the moon and Venus by Cupid. Minerva, goddess of wisdom, and Mars, god of war, were also present.

“So there is no question in this tableau of an insult to Christians,” the historian said. “We’re talking about the Olympic gods in a representation of van Bijlert’s work. The Greek gods came together on Olympus – where the ancient Games took place.”

The Magnin Museum did, however, acknowledge similarities between the work and The Last Supper, which was painted more than a century earlier before the Protestant Reformation, which rejected Catholic art and even destroyed many works.

That may go some way to explaining the confusion. “In the context of the Reformation … the artist found a strategy for painting a Christ-related Last Supper under cover of a mythological subject matter,” the museum said.

Katerine told Le Parisien newspaper he was “proud of the performance”, adding that nudity was “really the very origin of the Games” and that he had been “very happy” to be a part of the ceremony.

Hugo Bardin, whose drag queen character Paloma took part in the tableau, was disappointed Paris 2024 had apologised. “An apology means recognising a mistake, recognising you deliberately did something to harm, which was not the case,” he said.

Democrats have expressed outrage after Donald Trump told a group of Christian supporters on Friday that if he wins the presidency in November, they would never need to vote again.

“Christians, get out and vote, just this time,” the former president and current presidential nominee told the crowd at at Turning Point Action’s Believers’ Summit on Friday. “You won’t have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.”

“You got to get out and vote,” Trump continued. “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign told the Washington Post that Trump “was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt”.

But Trump’s comments spread quickly across media, causing outrage and alarm among many Democrats and others, who called the remarks “terrifying”, authoritarian and anti-democratic.

The Kamala Harris 2024 campaign said in a statement responding to Trump’s remarks, that the upcoming election was about freedom, adding that democracy was “under assault” by Trump.

“After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results,” the statement reads. “This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America.”

The representative Adam Schiff echoed that democracy was on the ballot in November, adding that “if we are to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism.”

Trump’s remark, he said, “helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again”.

The congressman Daniel Goldman, who represents New York, also chimed in, stating: “the only way ‘you won’t have to vote anymore’ is if Donald Trump becomes a dictator”, and the representative Pramila Jayapal called the remarks “terrifying” on social media.

The constitutional and civil rights attorney Andrew Seidel replied to video of Trump’s comments on Friday by writing: “This is not subtle Christian nationalism. He’s talking about ending our democracy and installing a Christian nation.”

Caty Payette, the communications director for the Democratic US senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, added in a separate X post: “When we say Trump is a threat to democracy, this is exactly what we’re talking about.”

Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, pointed to past comments Trump has made, where he said he would be a dictator on “day one” if he wins the presidency.

During that December town hall on Fox News, the host Sean Hannity asked the former president: “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”

“Except for day one,” Trump responded, adding: “I wanna close the border and I wanna drill drill drill.”

Last month, the former president made similar suggestions in front of a different Christian audience, according to the Washington Post.

“You gotta get out and vote, just this time,” Trump said at that time. “In four years you don’t have to vote, ok? In four years don’t vote, I don’t care. But we’ll have it all straightened out, so it’ll be much different.”

Trump has also flirted with the idea of being president for three terms.

“You know, FDR 16 years – almost 16 years – he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” Trump said in May to the annual convention of National Rifle Association in Dallas, prompting some in the crowd to yell “three!” Politico reported.

Democrats have expressed outrage after Donald Trump told a group of Christian supporters on Friday that if he wins the presidency in November, they would never need to vote again.

“Christians, get out and vote, just this time,” the former president and current presidential nominee told the crowd at at Turning Point Action’s Believers’ Summit on Friday. “You won’t have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.”

“You got to get out and vote,” Trump continued. “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign told the Washington Post that Trump “was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt”.

But Trump’s comments spread quickly across media, causing outrage and alarm among many Democrats and others, who called the remarks “terrifying”, authoritarian and anti-democratic.

The Kamala Harris 2024 campaign said in a statement responding to Trump’s remarks, that the upcoming election was about freedom, adding that democracy was “under assault” by Trump.

“After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results,” the statement reads. “This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America.”

The representative Adam Schiff echoed that democracy was on the ballot in November, adding that “if we are to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism.”

Trump’s remark, he said, “helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again”.

The congressman Daniel Goldman, who represents New York, also chimed in, stating: “the only way ‘you won’t have to vote anymore’ is if Donald Trump becomes a dictator”, and the representative Pramila Jayapal called the remarks “terrifying” on social media.

The constitutional and civil rights attorney Andrew Seidel replied to video of Trump’s comments on Friday by writing: “This is not subtle Christian nationalism. He’s talking about ending our democracy and installing a Christian nation.”

Caty Payette, the communications director for the Democratic US senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, added in a separate X post: “When we say Trump is a threat to democracy, this is exactly what we’re talking about.”

Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, pointed to past comments Trump has made, where he said he would be a dictator on “day one” if he wins the presidency.

During that December town hall on Fox News, the host Sean Hannity asked the former president: “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”

“Except for day one,” Trump responded, adding: “I wanna close the border and I wanna drill drill drill.”

Last month, the former president made similar suggestions in front of a different Christian audience, according to the Washington Post.

“You gotta get out and vote, just this time,” Trump said at that time. “In four years you don’t have to vote, ok? In four years don’t vote, I don’t care. But we’ll have it all straightened out, so it’ll be much different.”

Trump has also flirted with the idea of being president for three terms.

“You know, FDR 16 years – almost 16 years – he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” Trump said in May to the annual convention of National Rifle Association in Dallas, prompting some in the crowd to yell “three!” Politico reported.

Questions continued to mount about the political transformation of Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, after the release of emails from a former friend in which Vance called Trump a “morally reprehensible human being” and said: “I hate the police.”

The messages between Vance and Sofia Nelson, who sent them to the New York Times, were largely dated between 2014 and 2017. In one, Vance sent Nelson a section of Hillbilly Elegy, his bestseller about his Appalachian boyhood.

“Here’s an excerpt from my book. I send this to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if you read it you’ll notice reference to ‘an extremely progressive lesbian’,” Vance wrote.

“I recognise now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I am really sorry. I hope you’re not offended, but if you are, I’m sorry! Love you, JD.”

Nelson answered: “If you had written gender queer radical pragmatist, nobody would know what you mean.”

Nelson told the Times that after his transition-related surgery, Vance brought baked goods and expressed support.

“The content of the conversation was, ‘I don’t understand what you’re doing, but I support you,’” he explained. “And that meant a lot to me at the time, because I think that was the foundation of our friendship.”

Vance last year introduced a bill, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, to ban minors from accessing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and other transition-related medical care.

His remarks to Nelson about Trump seem to follow a similar pattern of support for positions he has since come to reject totally, an issue that has dogged Vance since his introduction as Trump’s running mate at the Republican convention this month.

He has previously called Trump “America’s Hitler” and “cultural heroin”. And in one of the emails from 2016, Vance told Nelson: “The more white people feel like voting for Trump, the more Black people will suffer. I really believe that.”

He also called Trump “a disaster” and “a bad man”. Later, after Trump beat Hillary Clinton, Vance told Nelson he was “deeply pessimistic”.

Bad polling, awkward speeches and Democrats seizing on Vance’s misogynistic remarks about women without children, whom he called “cat ladies”, have spurred some reports that high-profile Republicans view Trump’s pick as a mistake.

A spokesperson said: “Senator Vance … has been open about the fact that some of his views from a decade ago began to change after becoming a dad and starting a family, and he has thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Senator Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very best.”

But Nelson’s emails showed Vance voicing other opinions starkly at odds with Trumpist views.

In 2014, after the killing of Michael Brown, a young Black man from Ferguson, Missouri, Vance wrote: “I hate the police. Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a Black guy goes through.”

Vance and Nelson also discussed reparations and the flying of Confederate flags.

“I think you’re my only liberal friend with whom I talk openly about politics on a deeper sense,” Vance wrote.

In 2015, as Trump homed in on the Republican nomination, Vance discussed the real estate magnate and reality TV star’s appeal.

“If you look at the polling, the issue where Trump gets the most support is on the economy,” Vance said. “If the response of the media, and the elites of both right and left, are to just say, ‘Look at those dumb racists supporting Trump,’ then they’re never going to learn the most important lesson of Trump’s candidacy.

“… If he would just tone down the racism, I would literally be his biggest supporter.”

Vance also said he was “outraged at Trump’s rhetoric, and I worry most of all about how welcome Muslim citizens feel in their own country. And there have always been demagogues willing to exploit the people who believe crazy shit. What seems different to me is that the Republican party offers nothing that’s as attractive as the demagogue.”

By 2021, though, Vance was exploring an entry into Republican politics. The messages reveal that he and Nelson disagreed about transgender issues, particularly relating to children.

Nelson wrote: “I know I can’t change your mind but the political voice you have become seems so far from the man I got to know in law school.”

“I will always love you, but I really do think the left’s cultural progressivism is making it harder for normal people to live their lives,” Vance replied.

The lawyer for the family at the centre of the Manchester airport brawl has said he is stepping aside as investigations into the incident gather pace.

Akhmed Yakoob became the focus of criticism after claiming 19-year-old Muhammed Fahir was the victim of an “attempted assassination” that had left him “fighting for his life”.

In footage that emerged at the weekend, Fahir could be seen throwing punches at police officers before being incapacitated with a Taser. An armed officer was then filmed kicking the teenager in the face and stamping on his head.

The officer has been suspended and is facing criminal charges of assault as part of an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). He is expected to be interviewed under caution in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Greater Manchester police (GMP) have stepped up their investigation into Fahir and three others who were arrested at the scene for affray and assault on emergency service workers.

Yakoob, a director at the Birmingham-based firm Maurice Andrews Solicitors, said the media had tried to “sabotage” him since he started representing Fahir’s family last week.

Addressing the camera from the back of a car on Sunday night, he said: “You may have seen the various media reports about me in the last couple of days.

“The media have tried to sabotage me. It’s not the first time they’ve done this though, but they’ve made this whole situation about me rather than police brutality and police misconduct, which is unfair on Greater Manchester police and the family.

“So after consulting with the family I have decided for now to step aside and I have recommended the family to a lawyer. But I will be keeping a close eye on this.”

He added: “I’d like to say that I am not for violence, whether it’s from police officers, whether it’s from civilians. Always remember that.”

The 36-year-old, who has 200,000 followers on TikTok and has been posting frequent updates about Fahir’s case, came under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority this year after he used social media to promote a false claim of racism against a young teacher.

He stood as an independent candidate in Birmingham Ladywood in the general election after coming third in the vote for West Midlands mayor in May. He apologised in June after being criticised for saying on a podcast that “70% of hell is going to be women”, and for failing to condemn a guest saying he would give his wife a “backhander” if she made money dancing on TikTok.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, appealed for calm at the weekend after the Manchester Evening News published footage that showed officers being punched by two men, one of whom was then kicked by the armed officer under investigation.

GMP have appealed for witness to provide information and any video footage about three incidents prior to the one involving the suspended officer.

The first was an altercation between passengers from Qatar Airways flight QR023, which arrived at 7.20pm on Tuesday 23 July. The force said the altercation may have taken place during the flight or afterwards in the terminal two baggage hall.

The second incident was a “violent altercation” involving people in a Starbucks at terminal two about an hour later, police said.

The third was the assault of three police officers which occurred in the terminal two car park pay point area at 8.28pm. This resulted in the three officers receiving head injuries, including a broken nose, the force said.

A GMP spokesperson has also responded to reports that armed officers were refusing to carry weapons following the incident. “Following last week’s incident at Manchester airport, officers on duty were offered the choice to temporarily step back from their firearms roles for welfare reasons,” the spokesperson said.

“While some chose to do so, their shifts were covered by other officers and our operational capabilities remained the same. We have not had reports of officers refusing to carry weapons following the incident.”

Kamala Harris’s election campaign has accused Elon Musk of spreading “manipulated lies” after the Tesla chief executive posted a doctored video featuring the vice-president on his X account.

Musk reposted a manipulated Harris campaign video on Friday evening in which a fake Harris voiceover says: “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire,” and that anyone who criticises her is “both sexist and racist”.

The video has been viewed 128m times on Musk’s account after the world’s richest man posted it with the words “this is amazing” followed by a laughing emoji. Musk owns X, which he rebranded from Twitter last year.

Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat senator, accused Musk of violating the platform’s guidelines. According to X’s synthetic and manipulated media policy, users are barred from sharing “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm” although allowances are made for satire provided it does not “cause significant confusion about the authenticity of the media”.

A spokesperson for Harris’s presidential campaign said: “The American people want the real freedom, opportunity and security Vice-President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”

The “diversity hire” attack line used by some Republicans has been criticised on both sides of the political fence, with the Republican former house speaker Kevin McCarthy calling the attacks “stupid” and the Democratic senator Raphael Warnock describing them as “beneath the rhetoric the American people deserve at this time”.

The fake Harris video was posted originally by the @MrReaganUSA account, which is linked to the conservative YouTuber podcaster Chris Kohls, on X and is labelled a parody.

However, Musk, who has endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy, did not flag the video as a parody when he posted it.

The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, posted on X on Sunday evening that the manipulated Harris video should be “illegal” and that he would soon sign a bill banning such media, in apparent reference to a proposal supported by California lawmakers to ban “materially deceptive” election deepfakes.

Musk responded on X that “parody is legal in America”, including the original @MrReaganUSA video below it.

One deepfake expert said the Harris video showed the power of generative AI and deepfakes.

“The AI-generated voice is very good,” said Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “Even though most people won’t believe it is VP Harris’s voice, the video is that much more powerful when the words are in her voice, and I’m not sure that an AI-generated label would have had much impact on blunting this effect. This example shows the broad power of generative AI and deepfakes.”

Farid added that given Harris’s status as the presumptive Democrat nominee for the presidential election, he expected the US “will be seeing more and more of this type of nonsense”.

X has been contacted for comment.

The mayor of Oslo has warned that drug smugglers are increasingly targeting the Norwegian capital as a gateway to Europe as authorities tighten controls on major ports such as Antwerp.

Oslo’s mayor, Anne Lindboe, said drugs worth up to £570m have been smuggled through Norway’s largest port, which receives 50-70 ships and 243,000 containers every week.

“It seems that the port of Oslo is becoming a preferred port in Europe for criminal, hardened gangs,” Lindboe told the broadcaster NRK. Oslo port, she added, was “slightly too poorly guarded”.

Earlier this month, customs officials in Antwerp, the European capital of drug smuggling, said cocaine seizures in the Belgian port were down by half as criminal gangs switched routes to evade detection after an increase in policing.

In Oslo, however, there are concerns that security is not tight enough. The Norwegian customs union says it has only one mobile scanner at Oslo, which is shared with two other ports. When it is not available, customs officers have to check containers with handheld scanners, which they say are not as effective.

Calling for action, the union leader Karin Tanderø Schaug said the situation in terms of cocaine and organised crime was “critical” and that it was essential to “reinforce the customs in Norway”.

“This fight [across Europe] is so important. We cannot afford to underestimate the importance of control at the borders,” she added.

Among young adults, Norway has the third highest cocaine consumption in Europe. Last year, the Norwegian customs service made 1,847 drug seizures – more than in the previous 10 years combined – including record quantities of cocaine.

The amount of cocaine in Oslo is “alarming and increasing”, said Tanderø Schaug, urging the Norwegian government to act. “When Antwerp [has] more control and police, the criminals will change routes. And Norway can easily become a transit country as well. Same for Sweden.”

The Norwegian government has proposed increasing funding for the customs service to strengthen its efforts against drug trafficking.

The finance minister, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, said: “Drug trafficking and organised crime is a threat to our society. To stop the gangs, we must confiscate their money and stop the flow of drugs into Norway. We are aware that Oslo is one of the ports used for importing illegal drugs, which is why there is a scanner that can be used at both ports in Oslo as needed, according to the customs agency’s threat assessments.”

The mayor of Oslo has warned that drug smugglers are increasingly targeting the Norwegian capital as a gateway to Europe as authorities tighten controls on major ports such as Antwerp.

Oslo’s mayor, Anne Lindboe, said drugs worth up to £570m have been smuggled through Norway’s largest port, which receives 50-70 ships and 243,000 containers every week.

“It seems that the port of Oslo is becoming a preferred port in Europe for criminal, hardened gangs,” Lindboe told the broadcaster NRK. Oslo port, she added, was “slightly too poorly guarded”.

Earlier this month, customs officials in Antwerp, the European capital of drug smuggling, said cocaine seizures in the Belgian port were down by half as criminal gangs switched routes to evade detection after an increase in policing.

In Oslo, however, there are concerns that security is not tight enough. The Norwegian customs union says it has only one mobile scanner at Oslo, which is shared with two other ports. When it is not available, customs officers have to check containers with handheld scanners, which they say are not as effective.

Calling for action, the union leader Karin Tanderø Schaug said the situation in terms of cocaine and organised crime was “critical” and that it was essential to “reinforce the customs in Norway”.

“This fight [across Europe] is so important. We cannot afford to underestimate the importance of control at the borders,” she added.

Among young adults, Norway has the third highest cocaine consumption in Europe. Last year, the Norwegian customs service made 1,847 drug seizures – more than in the previous 10 years combined – including record quantities of cocaine.

The amount of cocaine in Oslo is “alarming and increasing”, said Tanderø Schaug, urging the Norwegian government to act. “When Antwerp [has] more control and police, the criminals will change routes. And Norway can easily become a transit country as well. Same for Sweden.”

The Norwegian government has proposed increasing funding for the customs service to strengthen its efforts against drug trafficking.

The finance minister, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, said: “Drug trafficking and organised crime is a threat to our society. To stop the gangs, we must confiscate their money and stop the flow of drugs into Norway. We are aware that Oslo is one of the ports used for importing illegal drugs, which is why there is a scanner that can be used at both ports in Oslo as needed, according to the customs agency’s threat assessments.”

The former BBC presenter, Huw Edwards, has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children.

Edwards, who left the BBC in April, will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday on charges relating to images shared on a WhatsApp chat.

He spent 40 years at the corporation where he was its highest paid newsreader at the time of his resignation, being paid a salary of £435,000-£439,999 in the year 2022-23.

Edwards, 62, who lives in Southwark, in London, was charged last month after an investigation by the Met police, the force said.

A Met spokesperson said: “The offences, which are alleged to have taken place between December 2020 and April 2022, relate to images shared on a WhatsApp chat.

“Edwards was arrested on 8 November 2023. He was charged on Wednesday 26 June following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service.

“He has been bailed to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday 31 July.

“Media and the public are strongly reminded that this is an active case. Nothing should be published, including on social media, which could prejudice future court proceedings.”

Edwards, who was born in Bridgend, south Wales, in 1961, is married to the TV producer Vicky Flind. He was a reporter for the local radio station Swansea Sound before joining the BBC as a news trainee in 1984.

Two years later he became a parliamentary correspondent for BBC Wales and he began presenting the national Six O’Clock News in 1994.

Edwards went on to become a fixture in the corporation’s coverage of major political and royal events. He announced Queen Elizabeth II’s death on the BBC on 8 September 2022 and presented coverage of her funeral later that month. He also anchored the broadcast of King Charles III’s coronation last year.

He was a Westminster correspondent for 13 years, and played a key role in the BBC’s political reporting during his time there, taking over election coverage from the long-serving David Dimbleby in 2019.

After he took over from Dimbleby, he told the Radio Times: “I’m going to let you in on a secret: the first time a senior BBC manager dangled this carrot in front of me was in 1992. So it’s been at the back of my mind since then.”

Fire crews made progress in the battle against major wildfires that have left a trail of damage in the western United States, but thousands of firefighters continue to tackle the flames.

In northern California, the so-called Park fire, grew at ferocious speeds to become one of the largest wildfires in the state this year. In southern California, a blaze swept through the historic mining town of Havilah. And in Oregon and Idaho, authorities were assessing the damage caused by several large wildfires raging there.

The fires are some of more than 100 blazes burning in the US at the moment. Some were lit, but many were sparked by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the western US endures blistering heat and bone-dry conditions.

As of Monday, the Park fire had scorched an area greater than the city of Los Angeles, darkening the sky with smoke and engaging thousands of firefighters. The blaze spanned more than 562 sq miles (1,455 sq km) near the university town of Chico.

The fire started Wednesday, when authorities say a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. A man accused of setting the fire is due in court Monday.

Officials did not expect the fire to move farther into Chico, and over the next three days, crews plan to extinguish hot spots and remove hazards, said Jeremy Pierce, Cal Fire operations section chief, on Sunday.

The fire over the weekend encroached on Paradise, the town that in 2018 lost 85 people to a ferocious wildfire. Paradise and several other Butte county communities were under an evacuation warning Sunday. Yet the fire’s southernmost front, which is closest to Paradise, was “looking really good”, Pierce said.

Winds and temperatures were expected to increase slightly amid a drop in humidity, officials said in an update early Monday.

Nearly 4,000 firefighters are battling the fire, aided by numerous helicopters and air tankers. Reinforcements are expected to give much-needed rest to local firefighters, some of whom have been working nonstop since Wednesday, said Jay Tracy, a Park fire headquarters spokesperson.

“This fire is surprising a lot of people with its explosive growth,” he said. “It is kind of unparalleled.”

In southern California, about 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate because of a fire sweeping through the Sequoia national forest. The wind-driven blaze was fed by dried, dead plants and moved fast, eating up more than 60 sq miles (155 sq km) in four days, Andrew Freeborn of the Kern county fire department said.

No fatalities have been reported in the Park and Borel fires, but some people were increasing the danger for everyone by disregarding evacuation orders, Freeborn said.

“When people are trying to ignore the orders and later call for rescue, that takes firefighters away from the task of fighting the fires,” he said. “This fire is moving at a pace and with such intensity that individuals should not be thinking they can wait until the last minute. They need to get out of the way.”

The historic mining town of Havilah and several other communities were “heavily impacted” by the fires, but it was too soon to count the burned homes, Freeborn said.

Although cooler-than-average temperatures are expected through the middle of this week, that doesn’t mean existing fires will disappear, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s weather prediction center in College Park, Maryland.

The National Weather Service issued “red flag” warnings Monday for wide swaths of Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, in addition to parts of California, meaning dry fuels and stronger winds were increasing the fire danger, the weather service said.

Fires burned across eastern Oregon and eastern Idaho, where officials were assessing damage from a group of blazes called the Gwen fire, which was estimated at 43 sq miles (111 sq km) as of Sunday.

The stress of bereavement may accelerate the ageing process, according to researchers who found evidence that losing a loved one early in life had an impact long before people reach middle age.

Scientists spotted biological markers of faster ageing in people who had lost a parent, partner, sibling or child, but the signs were absent in others who had not experienced the death of someone close to them.

The finding suggests bereavement and grief take their toll on the body’s tissues and potentially increase the risk of future health problems. But it also raises the prospect that counselling and effective social support could help in the aftermath of a death.

Allison Aiello, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York, said losing someone close was a “significant stressor” and a life experience consistently linked to poorer mental health, cognitive impairment, heart and metabolic problems and an earlier death.

“Our research reveals a significant association between experiencing losses from childhood through adulthood and biological signs of ageing,” Aiello said. The decline in tissue and organ function brought on by accelerated ageing might explain in part why bereavement can have such an impact on health.

The researchers drew on data from the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which followed participants from their teenage years into adulthood. In particular, they looked at people who were bereaved before the age of 18, and from 19 to 43 years old.

Biological ageing was assessed by analysing people’s DNA for chemical changes that build up over the years. These epigenetic clocks can reveal whether a person’s biological age is older or younger than their chronological age, which has a bearing on disease risk in later life, Aiello said.

Among 3,963 people studied, nearly 40% had lost a loved one by adulthood. Those who experienced more bereavements had significantly older biological ages than those who had not lost people close to them.

Given the results, published in Jama Network Open, Aiello said research should now focus on whether helping the bereaved with counselling and coping strategies reduces the ageing effect. “These insights could inform clinical and public health approaches to improving health outcomes following a loss,” she said.

The study appears alongside separate work on the impacts of a healthy diet and added sugar on biological age. According to the research, women in the US who followed a vitamin- and mineral-rich diet had a younger biological age than those on poorer diets. But even for the women who ate healthily, each gram of added sugar was linked to a rise in biological age.

“It’s the first demonstration of the effect of added sugars on our epigenetic ageing,” said Elissa Epel, an author on the paper and professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.

The researchers analysed food records from 342 Black and white women from northern California and compared them with healthy eating habits, such as the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds.

Women who ate more healthily had a lower biological age, according to their epigenetic clocks, but the scientists saw faster biological ageing in those who consumed foods with added sugar. The women in the study ate between 2.7g and 316g of added sugar a day.

“It appears … that both having a diet high in nutrients and low in added sugars matters,” said Barbara Laraia, a senior author on the study and professor of community health sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dorothy Chiu, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco, and first author on the paper, said she would expect similar effects in men.

Under UK guidelines, free sugars – those added to food and drinks, and found naturally in products such as honey and smoothies – should not make up more than 5% of daily calories, with adults having no more than 30g, equivalent to seven sugar cubes daily.