A highly anticipated ceasefire aimed at ending the 14-month-old war between Israel and Hezbollah officially came into effect early on Wednesday morning, hours after Joe Biden hailed the “historic” moment.

The ceasefire officially began at 0200 GMT – 4am in Lebanon – after the heaviest day of raids on Beirut, including a series of strikes in the city’s centre, since Israel stepped up its air campaign in Lebanon in late September before sending in ground troops.

By 7am in Lebanon there were no immediate reports of alleged violations of the truce. Some celebratory gunshots could be heard in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli army warned soon after the ceasefire began that residents of south Lebanon should not approach Israel Defense Forces positions and villages its forces had ordered to be evacuated.

“With the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement and based on its provisions, the IDF remains deployed in its positions inside southern Lebanon,” army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

“You are prohibited from heading towards the villages that the IDF has ordered to be evacuated or towards IDF forces in the area.”

However, the roads leading from Beirut to south Lebanon were filled with traffic.

Hezbollah and the Amal political movement issued guidelines for residents who wanted to return to their villages, south of the Litani river – though the Lebanese army told residents of border villages not to return yet, as Israeli forces had not withdrawn from the villages.

The army said on Wednesday morning that it was deploying in south Lebanon in accordance with UN resolution 1701 – which formed the basis of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire. The resolution calls for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters north of the Litani river – about 18 miles from the Lebanon-Israel border – and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon.

Doubts over whether the ceasefire would hold were widespread, as the smell of the overnight bombing hung over the southern suburbs of Beirut and an Israeli drone buzzed overhead, despite the ceasefire.

Nonetheless, residents had already started returning to south Lebanon, whooping and cheering as they drove into Tyre, the second largest city in the south.

The highway leading back to south Lebanon was choked with cars filled with families and mattresses strapped to their roofs. Groups lined the roads near Saida, waving and cheering as cars passed by.

“Now we’re returning! We’re just waiting for authorisation from the army and we’ll go straight to the village — even though there are no houses left,” said Rita Darwish, a displaced resident of Dheira.

Ahmad Husseini said returning to southern Lebanon was an “indescribable feeling” and praised speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, who led Lebanon’s negotiations with Washington. “He made us and everyone proud.”

Husseini, who earlier fled a town near the coastal city, spoke to The Associated Press while in his car with family members.

Iran on Wednesday welcomed the end of Israel’s “aggression” in Lebanon. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement, stressed Iran’s “firm support for the Lebanese government, nation and resistance”.

On Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had endorsed the deal after his full cabinet approved it, despite opposition from his far-right allies.

In televised remarks after the Israeli security cabinet met to vote on the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, Netanyahu said he was ready to implement the deal, but added that Israel would retain “complete military freedom of action” in the event of an infringement by Hezbollah.

“We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. Together, we will continue until victory,” Netanyahu said.

Under the deal’s terms, Israel will withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah will move its heavy weaponry north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the border.

In remarks from the White House Rose Garden, Biden said: “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities. What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations will not be allowed, I emphasise, will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again,” he said.

“Today’s announcement is a critical step … and so I applaud the courageous decision made by the leaders of Lebanon and Israel to end the violence,” he continued. “It reminds us that peace is possible. Say that again, peace is possible.”

The deal is a rare boost for Biden as he prepares to leave the White House and hand over to president-elect Donald Trump on 20 January.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the deal, which he said was “the culmination of efforts undertaken for many months with the Israeli and Lebanese authorities, in close collaboration with the United States”.

In a statement posted online, Macron said the deal should “turn the page for Lebanon” but cautioned: “We must not forget that war continues to plague Gaza, where France will continue its efforts for an end of hostilities, the liberation of hostages and massive delivery of humanitarian aid.”

He added: “This accord should also open the way for a ceasefire which has taken too long to arrive in the face of the immeasurable suffering of the people of Gaza.”

Leaders around the world echoed his sentiments. Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, said it would provide some measure of relief to civilian populations in Lebanon and northern Israel and urged progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza. The EU chief, Ursula von der Leyen, hailed the “very encouraging news”, saying the deal would increase Lebanon’s “internal security and stability”.

Even as the deal was set to be announced, Israel stepped up its campaign of airstrikes against the Lebanese capital of Beirut and other areas of the country, killing 18 people according to the country’s health authorities.

The signing of a ceasefire comes with less than two months left in the Biden administration.

A senior White House administration official confirmed that Trump’s national security team had been briefed on the plans for the ceasefire and said that the president-elect’s administration was expected to maintain support for it.

“They seem to be support it,” the administration official said. “And for the obvious reason that I think they agreed this is good for Israel, as prime minister Netanyahu just said, it is good for Lebanon, as their government has said, and it is good for the national security of the United States. And most important, doing it now versus later, we’ll save countless lives on both sides.”

Hezbollah did not participate directly in the talks for the truce, with Berri mediating on its behalf.

The deal will not have any direct effect on the fighting in Gaza, where US efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have not led to a deal. The negotiations over Tuesday’s ceasefire were reportedly facilitated by a decision to decouple them from the Gaza talks, where the conflict remains intractable.

But asked about whether a Gaza ceasefire deal may follow, Biden said: “I think so. I hope so. I’m praying.”

Thousands of people displaced from war-torn southern Lebanon have begun returning home after a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday, amid fears on both sides of the border about whether the truce would hold.

Israel heavily bombed the capital, Beirut, and the south of the country throughout Tuesday, killing 42 people, until the truce began at 4am local time, while Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, triggering air raid sirens.

On Wednesday, Lebanon’s motorways were thronged with packed vehicles carrying families and their belongings returning south despite warnings from the Israeli military that they should stay away while its forces remained in the area. The Lebanese army asked displaced people to avoid frontline villages and towns near the UN-drawn “blue line” that separates the two countries.

In a sign of how volatile the situation remains, Israeli forces opened fire on a number of cars that attempted to enter what it said was a restricted area on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties in the incident. In televised remarks on Tuesday night, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the country would “respond forcefully to any violation”.

The US-brokered ceasefire, the most significant development in the effort to calm regional tensions that have rocked the Middle East since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, has largely been welcomed by the war-weary Lebanese and Israelis.

Hezbollah began firing on Israel a day after its ally’s surprise assault, and the sides traded fire for a year before Israel stepped up its air campaign in late September and sent in ground troops. The deal is not linked to a ceasefire in Gaza – a previous Hezbollah demand.

The 60-day staged withdrawal, in which Israel will pull out of southern Lebanon and Hezbollah will move its fighters and heavy weaponry north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the frontier, is designed to broker a permanent end to 14 months of fighting. It will be monitored by a US-led supervisory mechanism that will mediate on infringements.

Predictably, both Hezbollah and Israel are seeking to portray themselves as the victorious side as the violence ends. The Lebanese group has suffered its worst losses since the group was formed to fight Israel’s occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s: much of its leadership has been wiped out and its communication networks and security protocols are compromised.

It is unclear how much heavy weaponry and military infrastructure has been destroyed, but the group’s inability to cause significant damage with rocket strikes on Israeli cities suggests its military capabilities are severely degraded.

Hezbollah, which participates in Lebanon’s political system but is considered a terrorist organisation by many western states, participated in the talks for the truce via mediators but has not formally commented on the ceasefire.

To its supporters, however, the group’s survival is a win in itself. Street celebrations where people waved the its yellow and green flag and honked car horns were held across southern Beirut on Wednesday, and celebratory gunfire rang out in some neighbourhoods.

Iran, Hezbollah’s ally, welcomed the end of Israel’s “aggression” in Lebanon on Wednesday morning. In a statement, the foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei stressed Iran’s “firm support for the Lebanese government, nation and resistance”.

In Israel, the ceasefire has met a more mixed reaction. On Tuesday night, Netanyahu said he had endorsed the deal after his cabinet approved it, despite opposition from his far-right allies. The country’s army relies heavily on reservists, units that are tired after over a year of fighting in Gaza and Lebanon and will welcome the break.

But rightwingers and residents of Israel’s north – where about 60,000 were displaced from their homes at the beginning of the conflict – have criticised the agreement, which relies on the western-backed Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping troops to ensure Hezbollah does not redeploy to the border buffer zone. Dozens of people gathered outside the Israeli army’s headquarters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night to protest against the ceasefire, blocking traffic on a motorway.

It is unclear how many displaced Israelis are now planning to go home. Gabby Neeman, the mayor of the northern town of Shlomi, told Israel’s army radio station that no residents were planning to return, and that he believed that the fighting would restart eventually.

“Everything we were shown testifies to the fact that the next round is ahead of us, whether in a month, two months or 10 years,” he said.

The Lebanon deal will not have any direct impact on the fighting in Gaza, where US efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly failed. Overnight on Wednesday, Israeli strikes on two schools turned shelters in Gaza City killed 11 people, including four children, according to hospital officials. Israel said one of the strikes targeted a Hamas sniper and the other targeted militants hiding among civilians.

Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, announced earlier this month it was quitting its role until both parties showed “willingness and seriousness” in the talks.

Announcing the Lebanon ceasefire on Tuesday night, the US president, Joe Biden, said his administration would now push to renew ceasefire talks in Gaza, but the delinking of the two fronts is likely to strengthen Israel’s hand in the Palestinian territory.

A ceasefire to end 14 months of fighting between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah has come into effect, with Lebanese civilians already returning to the devastated south of the country.

Donald Trump’s selection of the far-right commentator Sebastian Gorka for a senior national security post has prompted outrage and ridicule over a pick that seems extreme even amid a stream of nominations of conspiracy theorists, alleged sex traffickers, TV hosts and repeaters of Russian state propaganda.

Last week, Trump named Gorka deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counter-terrorism. Unlike top national security picks – Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense – the position is not subject to Senate confirmation.

Trump said Gorka was a “legal immigrant” with “more than 30 years of national security experience”, including chairs and fellowships at major institutions.

But John Bolton, the former UN ambassador who was Trump’s third national security adviser in his first term, told CNN that Gorka was “a conman” who should not be “in any US government” and whose selection does not “bode well for counter-terrorism efforts”.

Bolton’s predecessor as national security adviser, former army general HR McMaster, told CBS Gorka was not a good pick and added: “I think that the president, others who are working with him, will probably determine that pretty quickly, soon after he gets into that job.”

Current Trump advisers were reportedly horrified. An unnamed “person close to [Trump’s] national security team” told the Washington Post: “Almost universally, the entire team considers Gorka a clown. They are dreading working with him.”

Michael Anton, a conservative writer who served in the first Trump administration, reportedly removed himself from consideration for deputy national security adviser, in protest at Gorka’s selection.

Observers predicted Gorka’s stay in the second Trump White House would prove as brief as his stay in the first. Then, Gorka lasted seven months as a national security strategist before being shown the door by then chief of staff John Kelly, amid reports that Gorka failed to gain security clearance. His exit followed that of his far-right ally and mentor Steve Bannon, for whom he once worked at Breitbart News.

Even in so short a stay, Gorka attracted controversy aplenty. Backing extreme policies including banning people from predominantly Islamic nations entering the US, Gorka told the Washington Post he “completely jettison[ed]” traditional, “nuanced and complicated” approaches to combating terrorist threats.

“Anybody who downplays the role of religious ideology … they are deleting reality to fit their own world,” Gorka said.

Cindy Storer, a former CIA analyst “who developed the agency models that trace the path from religious zealotry to violence”, told the Post that Gorka “thinks the government and intelligence agencies don’t know anything about radicalization, but the government knows a lot and thinks he’s nuts”.

Gorka has spoken of his own religion in militaristic terms, including saying he and fellow Christian rightwingers are “not the lambs of the Bible; that is Jesus, our savior. We turn over the tables of the moneylenders. We are there when he calls, ‘Sell everything you own and buy a sword.’”

Last year, when Hamas attacked Israel, Gorka offered Israel advice: “Kill every single one of them. God bless Israel. God bless Judeo-Christian civilization.”

Gorka has also attracted attention with flamboyant behavior. On 20 January 2017, he attended Trump’s inaugural celebrations wearing a military tunic and a medal bestowed by Vitézi Rend, a Hungarian nationalist group.

Boasting to Fox News that “the alpha males are back”, he said he wore the medal in tribute to his father, who fled Hungary for London in the 1950s, escaping the communist takeover. Critics pointed to the group’s ties to the Nazis during the second world war. Gorka denied accusations of antisemitism, as did modern-day members of Vitézi Rend.

Out of office, Gorka contributed to Fox News and Newsmax and hosted a radio show for Salem. In 2019, as Trump sought revenge for the investigation of Russian election interference, Gorka posted a video in which he announced, to much mockery, “the kraken has been unleashed”. In 2021, he was banned from YouTube for championing Trump’s election fraud lie.

Gorka also attracted ridicule by recording a video ad for Relief Factor, a fish oil supplement he claimed made him “pain free” after lower-back problems. The ad billed him as Dr Sebastian Gorka. Critics pointed out Gorka is not a medical doctor. His subject is political science. The value of his PhD, from Corvinus University in Budapest, is widely questioned.

Nonetheless, Gorka has retained a place in the rightwing firmament, even through legal troubles including a 2016 misdemeanor charge for taking a pistol through security at a Washington airport, and the news that while he was in the first Trump White House, a gun-related warrant for his arrest remained open in Hungary.

Gorka denied wrongdoing. Both cases were dropped.

A regular at events like CPAC, the annual Maryland gathering of the rightwing clans, Gorka returned to Trump world before the 2020 election, as a member of the National Security Education Board. This year, he helped with debate preparation. His wife, Katharine Gorka, also worked for Trump, as an adviser in the Department of Homeland Security.

News of Gorka’s new White House job prompted continuing alarm.

Charles P Pierce, a columnist for Esquire, wrote: “Out of what seems to be the endless parade of whackadoos, smackbrains, rockheads, fanatics, lunatics, and general shit-for-brains that has been following El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago [Trump] ever since he rode down the escalator [at Trump Tower in 2015] and sent the American idea of self-government on an express escalator to hell, none have been more ridiculous than ‘Doctor’ Sebastian Gorka.”

Alex Floyd, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, called Gorka “a far-right extremist who is as dangerous as he is unqualified to lead America’s counter-terrorism strategy”.

Bolton said: “Obviously, everybody is now focusing on the top jobs. But the questions of who are the deputy secretaries, who are the undersecretaries, and so on, is also going to tell us a lot about who’s actually running the government.”

An attempt to force the ouster of Boris Epshteyn, a top adviser to Donald Trump, over accusations that he asked potential administration nominees to pay monthly consulting fees in exchange for lobbying for them appeared to have failed as the president-elect came to his defense.

Trump told aides at the Mar-a-Lago club, from where he is running the presidential transition, that he was irritated by what he viewed as an attempt to undercut “my people”, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The remarks underscored Epshteyn’s staying power and the trust he has engendered from Trump after he guided him and his legal team through repeated legal peril from his federal criminal cases during the 2024 campaign.

It also showed how trying to kneecap advisers with negative press coverage no longer persuades Trump as reliably it once did and may even have the opposite effect. The president-elect has increasingly taken issue with what he perceives to be a media pile-on, comparing it to how he felt hounded by prosecutors.

Epshteyn was the target of a disputed internal review conducted by the Trump 2024 campaign’s general counsel, David Warrington, that alleged Epshteyn had sought financial retainers from potential nominees, including Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick for treasury secretary, according to a person familiar with the findings.

The review relied on statements from other potential nominees, including the former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, who alleged that his interactions with Epshteyn gave him the impression that he had to engage in business dealings before he would advocate on his behalf.

Epshteyn denied the accusations and spent Tuesday evening with Trump, who was still riding high on the news that prosecutors had dismissed the two federal criminal cases against him – a victory he credited to Epshteyn – and annoyed with the ouster attempt, several of his allies said.

The reset happened as Epshteyn’s allies continued to portray the internal review as an attempt by Warrington to remove Epshteyn after he successfully pushed for Bill McGinley to be the White House counsel, rather than Warrington, who had also been in contention for the role.

His allies also took aim at Tim Parlatore, the attorney for Greitens who was once also on the Trump legal team until he fell out with Epshteyn, over his suggestion that the alleged pay-to-play scheme violated federal law.

“A personal lawyer for any powerful person, who is then getting consulting fees on the side to influence their own client, I think that is illegal,” Parlatore said on the Highly Conflicted podcast.

“It certainly is a violation of the ethical rules. I think there is an honest services fraud argument to be made here,” Parlatore said, referring to the federal criminal statute that prohibits the non-disclosure of conflicts of interest that could defraud the wider public.

The likelihood of a prosecution is highly doubtful. Last year, the US supreme court, in a rare move, unanimously overturned the conviction of an aide to the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo for an alleged kickback scheme and narrowed the use of the statute against private individuals.

Russia’s rouble has plunged to its lowest rate against the dollar since the early weeks of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the wake of new western sanctions and growing geopolitical tensions.

The rouble on Wednesday hit 110 against the dollar for the first time since 16 March 2022. Before launching its war on Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian currency traded at around 75-80 against the US dollar.

The latest drop came just days after the US introduced sanctions against Gazprombank, Russia’s third-largest bank, which played a key role in processing payments for the remaining Russian natural gas exports to Europe.

Earlier rounds of sanctions had spared Russian gas because Europe’s economy was so dependent on it, but it is now far less reliant on Russian supplies. The Gazprombank sanctions raise the prospect of a further decrease in gas revenues and foreign currency for Moscow.

The rouble’s weakening threatens to erode Russians’ purchasing power by increasing the cost of imported goods and could further increase inflation.

The country is already contending with runaway inflation, which could climb to 8.5% this year – twice the Central Bank’s target.

The borscht index, an online cost of living tracker monitoring the prices of four ingredients needed to make the traditional soup, reports a 20% rise compared with 2023.

The rising inflation prompted the Central Bank last month to raise interest rates to 21% — their highest level in more than 20 years — and a further hike is expected in December.

The weak rouble will, however, also help the Kremlin prop up its budget – much of which comes from energy exports – in order to pay for its war in Ukraine and maintain public spending.

While Europe has significantly reduced its reliance on Russian energy, Moscow has successfully redirected much of its oil exports to markets in China and India.

In a rare official comment on the exchange rate, Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, hinted that Moscow was content letting the rouble slide, saying that Russia’s weak rouble was benefiting exporting companies, offsetting the negative impact of the Central Bank’s high benchmark interest rate.

“I am not saying whether the exchange rate is good or bad. I am just saying that today the exchange rate is very, very favourable for exporters,” Siluanov told a financial conference in Moscow.

Russia’s economy has proven more resilient to international sanctions and the pressures of war than many western officials anticipated. However, surging military expenditures and a deepening labour shortage as working-age men go to the front or flee are sparking growing concerns in Moscow about the strain on the economy and the long-term viability of sustaining a costly conflict.

Nearly a third of Russia’s 2024 budget has been allocated to military spending, the highest level since the cold war.

Analysts have said that the country’s economy was starting to show signs of stagflation – a combination of low growth and high inflation.

In a report published earlier this month, economists from the Institute of Economic Forecasting at Russia’s Academy of Sciences said that “slowing economic activity and deterioration of financial indicators are becoming increasingly evident in a number of sectors”.

The Russian economists Alexander Kolyandr and Alexandra Prokopenko contend that the country’s militarisation has stifled growth in other sectors of the economy.

“The only place growth is still noticeable is in sectors linked to the military. Everywhere else in the economy growth is absent, or, at best, anaemic,” they wrote in a recent report.

In a town of fewer than 1,000 people, it can be hard to keep a secret. And yet no one in McBride, a mountain community in British Columbia, can figure out how a local deer came to be wearing a zipped-up high-visibility jacket – or why the day-glo-clad cervid has been so hard to track down.

The mystery began on Sunday, when Andrea Arnold was driving along the snowy outskirts of McBride on Sunday and witnessed a sight so baffling she slowed her vehicle to a crawl.

“I did more than a double take, to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing,” said Arnold, a reporter for the local newspaper, the Rocky Mountain Goat.

Standing nonchalantly on the roadside was a mule deer clad in a high-visibility work jacket, its legs fitted neatly through the arm holes and the zip firmly closed.

She took two pictures before the deer disappeared into the forest, later posting the images on social media, where they drew a mixed response: some suggested that the reflective jacket might keep the deer safe along the highway, but others worried it could get snagged, possibly causing the animal to panic or injure itself.

As Arnold put it, most of the comments boiled down to three questions: “How did it get on the deer and who is responsible? And why would someone do it?”

In the days since the deer was spotted, speculation has produced few leads – or culprits.

Sgt Eamon McArthur of the BC conservation officer service told CTV News he did not want to speculate on how the jacket ended up on the cervid, although he noted: “Deer are not predisposed to wearing clothes.”

McArthur allowed that it was probable that a resident was involved, but he cautioned: “Even if you can get close enough to the wildlife to put it in a sweater or a jacket or boots or what have you, we recommend highly against that.”

Under the province’s wildlife act, it is illegal to “worry, exhaust, fatigue, annoy, plague, pester, tease or torment” an animal – a provision that would almost certainly apply to wrangling a deer into a jacket.

Conservation staff have so far been unable to locate the deer despite its distinct and unfortunate appearance, and have appealed to the public for tips.

If they eventually locate it and the animal appears in distress, McArthur says the team will remove the jacket.

But sedating an animal, especially deer, comes with its own risks. A phenomenon known as capture myopathy, which is common in deer after they are sedated, can prove fatal.

McArthur said officers are hoping the jacket falls off naturally.

“It’s astonishing [to] me that someone was able to get it on the deer without serious injury to either party,” said Arnold. “I hope the jacket comes off either on its own or with help from conservation officers before it becomes a problem for the deer.

“Treating wild animals in a domestic manner … especially putting clothes on them, is not advisable.”

Pakistan’s army and police have been accused of firing on civilians, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries to hundreds of protesters who had stormed Islamabad on Tuesday to demand the release of the former prime minister Imran Khan from prison.

As tens of thousands of Khan’s supporters stormed the capital on Tuesday in defiance of government orders, the army and paramilitary forces were deployed in huge numbers and issued with shoot-to-kill orders to try to stop the crowds reaching the heart of Islamabad’s sensitive Red Zone, which houses the parliament, supreme court and prime minister’s residence.

The centre of the city, known as D-Chowk, was the scene of violent clashes as protesters who had travelled from across the country came up against security forces. Protesters set shipping containers ablaze while riot police and army officers fired teargas and rubber bullets and were also accused of using live ammunition.

By late at night, a power blackout had been imposed on the area, shutting down all the lights, and a major crackdown began. Army and paramilitary officers eventually succeeded in pushing Khan’s supporters out of the capital. Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, who recently emerged as a political figurehead of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) and had led the protest convoy into Islamabad, also fled the scene.

On Wednesday, Islamabad remained clear of all protesters and PTI said it was suspending the protest “in view of the government’s brutality and the government’s plan to turn the capital into a slaughterhouse”.

PTI leaders said dozens of those involved in the protests had been killed in live firing by police and the army, and released names of eight they said had been killed. The Guardian could not verify PTI’s figures of the dead.

The minister for information and broadcasting, Attaullah Tarar, said there had been no firing on PTI protesters and no fatalities. The interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, said in a statement that officers had “bravely repulsed the protesters”.

However, official sources told the Guardian there had been 17 civilian fatalities from army and paramilitary gunfire and hundreds more had been injured.

Doctors at hospitals in Islamabad said they had received multiple patients with gunshot wounds. The Guardian witnessed at least five patients with bullet wounds in one hospital, which was surrounded by police.

A doctor who was on duty in the emergency ward on Tuesday night said he had treated more than 40 injured patients, several of whom had been shot. “At least seven have died and four are in critical condition in the hospital,” he said. “Eight more have been admitted to the hospital with bullet wounds.”

The doctor, who requested anonymity for his safety, said there had been an attempt to cover up any fatalities. “All records of dead and injured have been confiscated by authorities. We are not allowed to talk. Senior government officials are visiting the hospital to hide the records,” he said.

Among those in the hospital was Bismillah Kaleem*, who had travelled in the protest convoy with Khan’s wife from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Kaleem said he had been on a bus entering the Red Zone when bullets rained down on their vehicle.

“The bullet hit me in the chest,” said Kaleem, who struggled for breath. “I don’t know how many people have been killed. At least more than 100 have been injured.” The relatives of others who had been hit with bullets said they were too scared to speak.

According to Ali Amin Gandapur, the PTI chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, almost 1,000 people who had taken part in the protest had been arrested by Wednesday evening.

Khan has been in jail for more than a year facing more than 100 charges that he says are trumped up by his political opponents. His government was toppled in 2022 after he fell out with the military, but he remains Pakistan’s most popular leader and his support has continued to swell as he remains behind bars.

He had issued a “final call” for his supporters to gather in Islamabad at the weekend to demand his release. He has claimed that the election that took place in February, which brought the coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif to power, was widely rigged against PTI, and the party has held several protests calling for free and fair polls.

The violence of Tuesday’s protest drew criticism from human rights groups. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called on PTI and the Sharif government to enter into a dialogue. “It is high time they agree on a peaceful way forward instead of inciting their supporters and bringing the country to a standstill,” a statement said.

*Name changed for security reasons.

Pakistan’s army and police have been accused of firing on civilians, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries to hundreds of protesters who had stormed Islamabad on Tuesday to demand the release of the former prime minister Imran Khan from prison.

As tens of thousands of Khan’s supporters stormed the capital on Tuesday in defiance of government orders, the army and paramilitary forces were deployed in huge numbers and issued with shoot-to-kill orders to try to stop the crowds reaching the heart of Islamabad’s sensitive Red Zone, which houses the parliament, supreme court and prime minister’s residence.

The centre of the city, known as D-Chowk, was the scene of violent clashes as protesters who had travelled from across the country came up against security forces. Protesters set shipping containers ablaze while riot police and army officers fired teargas and rubber bullets and were also accused of using live ammunition.

By late at night, a power blackout had been imposed on the area, shutting down all the lights, and a major crackdown began. Army and paramilitary officers eventually succeeded in pushing Khan’s supporters out of the capital. Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, who recently emerged as a political figurehead of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) and had led the protest convoy into Islamabad, also fled the scene.

On Wednesday, Islamabad remained clear of all protesters and PTI said it was suspending the protest “in view of the government’s brutality and the government’s plan to turn the capital into a slaughterhouse”.

PTI leaders said dozens of those involved in the protests had been killed in live firing by police and the army, and released names of eight they said had been killed. The Guardian could not verify PTI’s figures of the dead.

The minister for information and broadcasting, Attaullah Tarar, said there had been no firing on PTI protesters and no fatalities. The interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, said in a statement that officers had “bravely repulsed the protesters”.

However, official sources told the Guardian there had been 17 civilian fatalities from army and paramilitary gunfire and hundreds more had been injured.

Doctors at hospitals in Islamabad said they had received multiple patients with gunshot wounds. The Guardian witnessed at least five patients with bullet wounds in one hospital, which was surrounded by police.

A doctor who was on duty in the emergency ward on Tuesday night said he had treated more than 40 injured patients, several of whom had been shot. “At least seven have died and four are in critical condition in the hospital,” he said. “Eight more have been admitted to the hospital with bullet wounds.”

The doctor, who requested anonymity for his safety, said there had been an attempt to cover up any fatalities. “All records of dead and injured have been confiscated by authorities. We are not allowed to talk. Senior government officials are visiting the hospital to hide the records,” he said.

Among those in the hospital was Bismillah Kaleem*, who had travelled in the protest convoy with Khan’s wife from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Kaleem said he had been on a bus entering the Red Zone when bullets rained down on their vehicle.

“The bullet hit me in the chest,” said Kaleem, who struggled for breath. “I don’t know how many people have been killed. At least more than 100 have been injured.” The relatives of others who had been hit with bullets said they were too scared to speak.

According to Ali Amin Gandapur, the PTI chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, almost 1,000 people who had taken part in the protest had been arrested by Wednesday evening.

Khan has been in jail for more than a year facing more than 100 charges that he says are trumped up by his political opponents. His government was toppled in 2022 after he fell out with the military, but he remains Pakistan’s most popular leader and his support has continued to swell as he remains behind bars.

He had issued a “final call” for his supporters to gather in Islamabad at the weekend to demand his release. He has claimed that the election that took place in February, which brought the coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif to power, was widely rigged against PTI, and the party has held several protests calling for free and fair polls.

The violence of Tuesday’s protest drew criticism from human rights groups. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called on PTI and the Sharif government to enter into a dialogue. “It is high time they agree on a peaceful way forward instead of inciting their supporters and bringing the country to a standstill,” a statement said.

*Name changed for security reasons.

The head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for more defence spending in Europe over the next five years, as her top team was voted in by a wafer-thin majority of MEPs.

The European parliament’s endorsement of the new EU executive by the narrowest-ever margin clears the way for von der Leyen and her chosen 26 European commissioners to start a five-year term on Sunday.

The EU faces acute challenges, including the war in Ukraine, the return of Donald Trump and the climate crisis, all against a backdrop of deepening fears of economic decline as Von der Leyen starts her second term.

She told MEPs in the run-up to the vote that there was “something wrong in [the] equation” where Russia was spending up to 9% of GDP on defence while the European average was 1.9%.

“War is raging at Europe’s borders and we must be ready for what lies ahead, working hand in hand with Nato,” she told MEPs. “Our defence spending must increase,” she added, calling for efforts to boost the European defence industry and common defence projects.

Von der Leyen said Europe faced difficult choices that required “massive investments in our security and our prosperity”.

MEPs voted by 370 to 282 to confirm the officials proposed by Ursula von der Leyen in September – the most right-leaning in the EU’s modern history – after a political deal between leaders of the centre-right European People’s party, the Socialists and the centrist liberals. It was the narrowest margin since the European parliament gained the power to approve the EU executive in the 1990s, and split political groups across the spectrum of the European parliament.

The vote was equal to 51.3% of the total number of 720 MEPS, or 53.7% of those present in the chamber.

Fifteen of the 27 new commissioners, including von der Leyen, are members of or allied to the centre-right European People’s party (EPP), with two more commissioners on the nationalist and far-right side. The outgoing commission had 10 EPP commissioners and one allied to an anti-EU nationalist party.

The vote draws a line under a ferocious row that had threatened the prospects of Spain’s deputy prime minister, Teresa Ribera, and Italy’s Europe minister, Raffaele Fitto, who will now become European Commission vice-presidents.

Ribera’s appointment was held up by a bitter partisan dispute over the deadly floods in Valencia. Spain’s centre-right Popular party voted against the commission, while Socialists and other left-leaning MEPs opposed Fitto, a former Christian Democrat, because he is now a member of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.

The nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists, the fourth largest group, with 78 MEPs was split, with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Belgium’s Flemish separatist party voting for the commission, while Poland’s Law and Justice party voted against.

The Green group, which has 53 MEPs, was also divided but its co-leaders chose to back von der Leyen’s commission. Their support was cemented on Monday when von der Leyen said the Greens were “part of the pro-European majority in the European parliament”, while announcing the appointment of the former Green MEP Philippe Lamberts to an advisory role on the EU’s climate targets.

The appointment of Lamberts, an outspoken former IBM executive, was already known and Green leaders insisted it was von der Leyen’s extension of an open hand to their group, rather than the appointment, that swayed them. The Green co-leader Bas Eickhout said it was “a lie” that Lamberts’ appointment had determined their decision, saying the important factor had von der Leyen’s language, which made it “very clear where she stands politically”.

Von der Leyen told MEPs on Wednesday that she would always “work from the centre” and vowed to “stay the course” on the European green deal, the EU’s flagship policy to tackle the climate crisis. But her speech put more emphasis on strengthening Europe’s economy and defence, with no mention of the climate or the escalating crisis European nature is facing. During her last mandate, the EU scrapped plans to curb pesticides after large protests by farmer and scaled back plans to cut pollution and protect habitats.

In response to a report published earlier this month by the former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, which starkly warned that Europe risked an “slow and agonising decline”, von der Leyen pledged “a competitiveness compass” that aimed to close the innovation gap with the US and China; boost Europe’s decarbonisation and competitiveness; and increase security, including ensuring supply of critical raw materials.

Amid growing alarm about the European car industry, von der Leyen announced she would lead “a strategic dialogue” on the future of Europe’s carmakers. Many in the EPP and critics on the right have denounced EU targets to phase out the internal combustion engine by 2035, as European carmakers fall behind Chinese competitors in the race to develop electric vehicles.

All 26 commissioners underwent three-hour hearings at the European parliament in November but, for the first time in more than 20 years, none were rejected over their competence or their European commitment.

The lengthy process underscored how the hearings had morphed into a political battle in an increasingly fragmented, right-leaning parliament, rather than a true assessment of the officials.

Roberta Metsola, the president of the European parliament, said Wednesday’s vote for the commission showed “the centre held”. The parliament, she said, would require “different types of majorities for different types of legislation, but without the centre, you cannot work”.

Record numbers of plastic industry lobbyists are attending global talks that are the last chance to hammer out a treaty to cut plastic pollution around the world.

The key issue at the conference will be whether caps on global plastic production will be included in the final UN treaty. Lobbyists and leading national producers are furiously arguing against any attempt to restrain the amount that can be produced, leaving the talks on a knife-edge.

New analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) shows 220 fossil fuel and chemical industry representatives – more plastic producers than ever – are represented at the UN talks in Busan, South Korea.

Taken as a group, they would be the biggest delegation at the talks, with more plastic industry lobbyists than representatives from the EU and each of its member states, (191) or the host country, South Korea (140), according to the Centre for International Environmental Law. Their numbers overwhelm the 89 delegates from the Pacific small island developing states (PSIDs), countries that are among those suffering the most from plastic pollution.

Sixteen lobbyists from the plastics industry are at the talks as part of country delegations. China, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, Iran, Kazakhstan and Malaysia all have industry vested interests within their delegations, the analysis shows.

The plastic producer representatives outnumber delegates from the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty by three to one.

Approximately 460m tonnes of plastics are produced annually, and production is set to triple by 2060 under business-as-usual growth rates.

More than 900 independent scientists have signed a declaration calling UN negotiators to agree on a comprehensive and ambitious global plastics treaty, based on robust scientific evidence, to end plastic pollution by 2040.

According to the Scientists’ Declaration, the harm caused by plastic pollution cannot be prevented by improvements in waste management alone.

But the world’s plastic producers have lobbied repeatedly against caps. Countries with large fossil fuel industries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran, called the “like-minded” group, have eschewed production cuts and emphasised waste management as the main solution to the crisis.

Delphine Levi Alvares, the global petrochemical campaign coordinator at CIEL, said: “From the moment the gavel came down … to now, we have watched industry lobbyists surrounding the negotiations with sadly well-known tactics of obstruction, distraction, intimidation and misinformation.

“Their strategy – lifted straight from the climate negotiations playbook – is designed to preserve the financial interests of countries and companies who are putting their fossil-fuelled profits above human health, human rights, and the future of the planet.”

She said the mandate for the treaty was clear: to end plastic pollution. “Ever-growing evidence from independent scientists, frontline communities, and Indigenous peoples clearly shows that this won’t be achieved without reducing plastic production. The choice is clear: our lives or their bottom line.”

Graham Forbes, the head of Greenpeace’s delegation, said: “The analysis exposes a desperate industry willing to sacrifice our planet and poison our children to protect its profits. Fossil fuel and petrochemical lobbyists, aided by a handful of member states, must not dictate the outcome of these critical negotiations.

“The moral, economic, and scientific imperatives are clear: by the end of the week, member states must deliver a global plastics treaty that prioritises human health and a livable planet over CEO payouts.”

Plastic waste has more than doubled from 156m tonnes in 2000 to 353m tonnes in 2019, and only 9% was ultimately recycled, according to an OECD report.

The Guardian and Unearthed revealed last week that five fossil fuel and chemical companies who formed a voluntary alliance to end plastic waste have produced 1,000 times more new plastic than the waste they have cleared in five years.

Two of those five companies, Dow and Exxon Mobil, some of the world’s biggest producers of plastic, are among the best represented plastic industry lobbyists at the Busan talks, with five and four delegates respectively.

The former chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda has said she was subjected to “thug-style tactics”, threats and intimidation while in office.

Bensouda, who held the post between 2012 and 2021, said that when she was working on some the court’s most politically sensitive cases she experienced “direct threats to my person and family”.

The former prosecutor was speaking at an event in London on Tuesday evening where she made rare public remarks about hostile actions taken against her and the court during her tenure.

Although Bensouda did not make this link, a Guardian investigation revealed in May how an Israeli spy chief allegedly threatened her in an attempt to prevent an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories.

According to the investigation, the head of the Israeli intelligence agency the Mossad ran a covert operation against Bensouda as part of a broader campaign of surveillance and espionage by Israel against the ICC.

Responding to the allegations at the time, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office said: “The questions forwarded to us are replete with many false and unfounded allegations meant to hurt the state of Israel.” A military spokesperson added: “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] did not and does not conduct surveillance or other intelligence operations against the ICC.”

Bensouda was of intense interest to Israel’s intelligence agencies after she opened a preliminary inquiry in 2015 into allegations of crimes committed by Israel’s armed forces and Palestinian militants.

She said that it was in the context of the Palestine case, as well as a separate investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, including by US military personnel, that the ICC faced “unprecedented pressures”.

The former prosecutor insisted the threats against her and some of her closest advisers did not hinder their work. “The unacceptable thug-style tactics, threats, intimidation and even sanctions did not result in me or my office failing to fulfil our obligations,” she said.

Bensouda, who is now the Gambia’s high commissioner to the UK, made the remarks in a lecture on international rule of law organised by the Bar Council of England and Wales, during which she also commented on recent developments in the ICC’s Palestine case.

Shortly before leaving office in 2021, Bensouda upgraded the case to a formal criminal investigation. Her successor, Karim Khan, inherited the inquiry and later accelerated it after the Hamas-led 7 October attacks and Israel’s ensuing bombardment of Gaza.

Last week, a panel of ICC judges approved applications filed by Khan for arrest warrants against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif.

However, Bensouda noted in her lecture that the warrants “did not include the lines of inquiry that formed the basis of the opening of the investigation”, including illegal settlements in the West Bank and the “transfer of populations into or out of occupied territory”.

She added: “It will be important to ensure the full extent of criminality in the context of this devastating conflict is fully investigated.”

Since the arrest warrants were issued on Thursday, the ICC has come under fire from political leaders around the world. Court officials are understood to be preparing for a second US administration led by Donald Trump, who as president targeted Bensouda in 2020 with sanctions in connection to the ICC’s Afghanistan and Palestine cases.

Bensouda mounted a spirited defence of the court and its mission in her lecture, insisting that it “must continue to do its jobs without political interference”.

She warned the court itself that it “must not allow political calculations to factor into its decision making” and said support from the ICC’s member states was “crucial to insulate the court from pressure and political manipulation of any kind”.

A grave south of the Northern Ireland border has been exhumed by experts searching for the body of a former monk more than 50 years after he was killed and “disappeared” by the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Joe Lynskey, a former Cistercian monk from Belfast who later joined the IRA, was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972, one of 17 victims who disappeared without trace decades ago.

All the victims were male, except Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10 who is the subject of a new TV series based on the bestselling book Say Nothing.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) said a formal process would be undertaken to establish the identity of all the remains found in the grave in the village of Annyalla in County Monaghan.

The commission’s lead investigator, John Hill, said it had received information related to “suspicious historic activity” during the 1970s at a grave in Annyalla cemetery which supported some information the organisation has already received. He said the exhumation was a “very big step” and not something that was “done lightly”.

In a statement the commission said: “Both the timeframe and the location coincide with the disappearance of Joe Lynskey in 1972.”

The ICLVR did not become aware that Lynskey was one of the disappeared until 2010. A number of searches since then failed to locate his remains. The commission said the process of establishing the identity of the remains found in the grave “may take some time”.

The commission was set up by the UK and Irish governments during the peace process to investigate the locations of the victims’ remains.

McConville’s disappearance has been the subject of several books and a documentary, I, Dolours, in which the deceased IRA member Dolours Price detailed how she and two other IRA members were directly involved in her murder at a beach in County Louth in 1972.

A new Disney series on her disappearance was condemned as cruel by her son last week.

As well as Lynskey, the commission also has the task of finding three other disappeared victims: the County Tyrone teenager Columba McVeigh, the British army captain Robert Nairac, and Seamus Maguire, who was in his mid-20s and from near Lurgan, County Armagh.

Gibson, the maker of famous electric guitars, has issued a cease and desist order to the company behind a range of “Trump Guitars” endorsed by the US president-elect.

Gibson told Guitar World, which first reported the story, it took action because the design of the instruments being sold as Trump Guitars “infringes upon Gibson’s exclusive trademarks, particularly the iconic Les Paul body shape”.

Named for the American musician whom the Guardian once said “basically invented the electric guitar”, Gibson Les Pauls have been sold since 1952 and played by countless rock legends, among them The Edge of U2, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Slash of Guns n’ Roses.

Trump Guitars were announced last week, as the latest in a line of merchandise including Bibles, sneakers, watches and even digital trading cards.

Multiple outlets reported that though Trump has been shown to own CIC Ventures, a company which has offered endorsed products, he does not appear to own or have a stake in 16 Creative, the company behind the guitars.

Nonetheless, last week Trump posted to his social media platform a picture of him holding a guitar emblazoned with a US flag and a bald eagle, with the message: “Coming Soon! The Limited Edition ‘45’ Guitar. Only 1,300 of each Acoustic and Electric Guitars MADE — Some personally signed!”

Trump was the 45th president of the US, between 2017 and 2021. On 20 January 2025 he will become the 47th president, as the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, failed to take the election this month. The only president previously to serve two non-consecutive terms was Grover Cleveland, a Democrat who served from 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897.

On Wednesday, a website for Trump Guitars featured a picture of the president-elect signing an instrument. Two models were marked sold out: American Eagle electric guitars (priced $1,500) and autographed American Eagle electric guitars ($11,500).

Unsigned ($1,250) and signed ($10,250) acoustic guitars were also offered, each featuring Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again”, on its fretboard. The website also offered a Presidential Series guitar, in the Les Paul shape and with Trump’s name on the fretboard, and God Bless the USA acoustic guitars displaying that message, the title of a song by the country singer Lee Greenwood that is also affixed to Trump’s endorsed Bible.

Trump did not immediately comment, whether through his transition team or the Trump Organization, his New York-based, much-penalized commercial company.

Trump is not known to play guitar, though his series of digital trading cards does include an image of him dressed in the style of Elvis Presley, playing a guitar in the distinctive Gibson shape.

As Guitar World pointed out, Gibson has not shown any tendency to tread softly when it comes to protecting its rights and products. A long-running dispute with Dean Guitars, over the Flying V and Explorer shapes Gibson also introduced in the 1950s, is heading for a retrial.