Joe Biden has issued “a full and unconditional” pardon to his son Hunter Biden covering convictions on federal gun and tax charges, the US president said in a statement released by the White House on Sunday.

The decision marks a reversal for the president, who had repeatedly said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence.

Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced for his conviction on federal gun charges on 12 December. He was scheduled to be sentenced in the tax case four days later.

In the statement, Joe Biden said that he had long maintained that he would “not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted”.

But, he argued, “it is clear that Hunter was treated differently”, adding that the charges in the case “came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election”.

Hunter Biden was found guilty in Delaware in June on three felony counts relating to his purchase of a handgun in 2018. He had written on his gun-purchase form, falsely, that he was not a user of illicit drugs.

He pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges in Los Angeles in September, opting for an “open” plea, where a defendant pleads guilty to the charges and leaves his sentencing fate in the hands of the judge.

The tax charges carried up to 17 years behind bars and the gun charges were punishable by up to 25 years, though federal sentencing guidelines were expected to call for far less time and it was possible the president’s son would have avoided prison time entirely.

The pardon covers all “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted”.

Joe Biden said on Sunday evening that his son had been prosecuted when “without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form”.

He noted in the statement that “those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions”.

Biden accused his political opponents of singling out his 54-year-old son.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” he said.

“There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Speculation had been mounting that the president would issue a pardon since Hunter was seen with his father in Nantucket over the Thanksgiving break.

Donald Trump had said in October that he would not be surprised if Hunter Biden were to receive a pardon.

“I wouldn’t take it off the books,” Trump said. “See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously … And Hunter’s a bad boy.”

On Sunday, Trump reacted with outrage, writing on his social network: “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Just one day earlier, though, Trump had reminded Americans that he himself had previously used the pardon power to wipe away convictions of those close to him. In his final weeks in office, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. On Saturday, Trump announced plans to nominate the elder Kushner to be the US ambassador to France.

Republicans have long zeroed in on Hunter Biden’s difficulties – questions around lucrative foreign consultancies, broken relationships and a crack cocaine addiction – in an effort to politically damage his father.

A laptop Hunter Biden left in a Delaware repair shop that made its way into Republican hands formed a scandal in the closing days of the 2020 election. Republicans claimed that the so-called “laptop from hell”, which featured images of Hunter posing with guns, sex workers and crack cocaine, was suppressed by media favorable to Democrats.

Hunter Biden later published a book, Beautiful Things: a Memoir, that detailed his struggles as a drug addict. The Biden family denied more serious accusations that Hunter’s profitable financial arrangements with businesspeople in Ukraine and China amounted to graft using the family name.

James Comer, one of the Republicans leading congressional investigations into Biden’s family, denounced the pardon. “The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg in the blatant corruption that President Biden and the Biden Crime Family have lied about to the American people,” Comer wrote on X. “It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.”

Hunter Biden said in a statement to the Associated Press that he would never take for granted the relief granted to him and vowed to devote the life he has rebuilt “to helping those who are still sick and suffering … I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.”

Hunter Biden’s legal team filed Sunday night in both Los Angeles and Delaware asking the judges handling his gun and tax cases to immediately dismiss them, citing the pardon.

In the statement announcing the pardon, Joe Biden said that for his “entire career” he had followed a simple principle: to tell the truth to the American people.

“Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.”

Associated Press contributed to this report.

Joe Biden has issued a pardon for his son Hunter. Here is his statement in full:

Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.

The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.

No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.

For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.

*****

This is the full text of the pardon itself:

Executive Grant of Clemency
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States of America

Done at the City of Washington this 1st day of December in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-four and of the Independence of the United States the Two Hundred and Forty-ninth.

Joe Biden has issued a pardon for his son Hunter. Here is his statement in full:

Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.

The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.

No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.

For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.

*****

This is the full text of the pardon itself:

Executive Grant of Clemency
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States of America

Done at the City of Washington this 1st day of December in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-four and of the Independence of the United States the Two Hundred and Forty-ninth.

Protesters rallied in Georgia’s capital for a fourth consecutive night on Sunday and there were signs that opposition was spreading to the government’s decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union.

For months, tensions have been rising between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opponents who accuse it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-western and pro-Russian policies.

The crisis has deepened since Thursday’s announcement that the government would freeze EU talks for four years, when thousands of pro-EU demonstrators faced off against police armed with teargas and water cannon.

Georgia’s pro-western president, Salome Zourabichvili, called for pressure to be brought on the constitutional court to annul October’s elections won by Georgian Dream. Both the opposition and Zourabichvili say the poll was rigged.

Protesters gathered again in Tbilisi on Sunday night on the central Rustaveli Avenue. Beyond the capital, demonstrators blocked an access road into the country’s main commercial port in the Black Sea city of Poti, the Georgian news agency Interpress said.

Georgian media reported protests in at least eight cities and towns. The opposition TV channel Formula showed footage of people in Khashuri, a town of 20,000 in central Georgia, throwing eggs at the local Georgian Dream office and tearing down the party’s flag.

The interior minister said on Sunday that 44 people had been taken to hospital after Saturday’s protests, including 27 protesters, 16 police officers and one media worker.

An effigy of the founder of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, was burned in front of the legislature.

The prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, said at a briefing: “Any violation of the law will be met with the full rigour of the law. Neither will those politicians who hide in their offices and sacrifice members of their violent groups to severe punishment escape responsibility.”

He said it was not true that Georgia’s European integration had been halted. “The only thing we have rejected is the shameful and offensive blackmail, which was in fact a significant obstacle to our country’s European integration,” he said.

The government’s announcement came hours after the European parliament adopted a resolution saying the general election in Georgia was not free or fair.

The EU’s new foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and the enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, said in a joint statement on Sunday: “We note that this announcement marks a shift from the policies of all previous Georgian governments and the European aspirations of the vast majority of the Georgian people, as enshrined in the constitution of Georgia.”

They reiterated the EU’s “serious concerns about the continuous democratic backsliding of the country” and urged Georgian authorities to “respect the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, and refrain from using force against peaceful protesters, politicians and media representatives.”

Georgian Dream’s disputed victory in the parliamentary election on 26 October, which was widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s aspirations to join the EU, has sparked demonstrations and led to an opposition boycott of parliament.

The opposition said the vote was rigged with the help of Russia, Georgia’s former imperial master, as Moscow hopes to keep Tbilisi in its orbit.

Zourabichvili said on Saturday that her country was becoming a “quasi-Russian” state and that Georgian Dream controlled the major institutions.

“We are not demanding a revolution. We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again,” Zourabichvili said.

The EU granted Georgia candidate member status in December 2023 on condition that it met the bloc’s recommendations, but put its accession on hold and cut financial support this year after the passage of a “foreign influence” law that was widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report.

Syrian and Russian airstrikes have pummelled areas of northern Syria as Iran’s top diplomat arrived in Damascus in a show of support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime after Islamist insurgents made a sudden advance and seized control of Aleppo.

As the regime attempted to repel the strongest challenge to its authority in years, state media in Damascus shared images of airstrikes across opposition-controlled areas, claiming they were targeting enemy command centres and positions. Syria’s military said they struck close to a stadium in Aleppo in a joint operation with Russia.

An earlier airstrike killed 12 people when it hit a site close to a hospital in central Aleppo, Syria’s second city and a former industrial powerhouse that was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the country’s bloody civil war. Civil defence forces in Idlib, known as the White Helmets, said an airstrike on Idlib city had killed four people and injured 54 others.

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters in Iran the purpose of his visit was to convey the strength of Tehran’s backing for Assad and his rule. Araghchi met Assad for talks in Damascus on Sunday evening, with the Syrian president pictured grinning next to the Iranian diplomat.

Assad told Araghchi that confronting the sudden insurgency “does not serve Syria alone as much as it serves the stability of the entire region”, according to a statement from the Syrian presidency.

Araghchi later said Assad remained in “admirable spirits”, despite difficult circumstances according to Tehran’s ISNA news agency. Insurgents believed they were on the rise, “but they will be dealt with”, he said.

Araghchi is expected in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday, as Damascus’s allies and opponents scramble to adapt to Assad’s sudden losses in northern Syria. “We firmly support the Syrian army and government,” Araghchi said, according to the official news agency IRNA.

Assad had remained conspicuously absent from public view for several days during the offensive spearheaded by Islamist militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who swept through towns and villages across north-west Syria in less than a week before taking control of Aleppo.

The embattled Syrian leader re-emerged late on Saturday night to conduct a flurry of calls to regional allies in Baghdad and Abu Dhabi, as forces loyal to Damascus appeared to mount a counterattack. Assad told the Emirati president, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, that the Syrian government was “capable, with the help of its allies and friends”, of repelling the sudden insurgency.

As insurgents pushed south from Aleppo towards the city of Hama, a concerted counterattack by the Syrian army appeared to be taking shape. Damascus’s state news agency and pro-government channels shared images purporting to show business as usual inside Hama itself, with civilians crossing streets of traffic and visiting local markets with piles of vegetables on display, as well as a tour by local police forces.

The Syrian defence ministry said it had reinforced defensive lines and sent heavy weaponry to the northern countryside of Hama province to repel a militant advance, after previously promising a counterattack “to recover all regions”, while insurgent forces described fierce battles in the area north of Hama city.

The regime in Damascus has long relied on foreign support, notably during the 2016 battle to retake control of Aleppo, in which Russian air power proved decisive. The Syrian government has also relied heavily on Iranian forces on the ground including members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Israel has rapidly scaled up airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria over the past year amid increasing regional confrontations with Tehran and its proxies.

Assad crushed a popular uprising that rose up against him in 2011, before the conflict spilled over into a bloody civil war that has fractured his control of the country and left him heavily dependent on backing from Tehran and Moscow. The Syrian leader also employed airstrikes, siege tactics and chemical weapons against his own people during fierce battles to regain control of territory.

The sudden loss of Aleppo to Islamist militants appeared to rattle Assad’s backers overseas. In a telephone call on Saturday between the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and Araghchi, both “expressed utmost concern over the dangerous escalation in Syria”.

The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, that “Iran is ready for any cooperation” to quash the insurgency in Syria, while Sudani reportedly expressed concern about instability, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

Araghchi, in a call with his Syrian counterpart on Friday, blamed the sudden territorial gains by Islamist militants in north-west Syria on the US and Israel, claiming they were behind the advance.

The militants’ sweeping territorial gains prompted questions about the Syrian army’s capacity to mount a response while its backers have deployed resources elsewhere, with Russian forces more focused on the fight in Ukraine.

The advance also sparked a flurry of regional diplomacy, with the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, speaking to his Syrian counterpart to express “Jordan’s concern over the unfolding events” while advocating for a political resolution in Syria.

The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said: “I have repeatedly warned of the risks of escalation in Syria, of the dangers of mere conflict management rather than conflict resolution, and the reality that no Syrian party or existing grouping of actors can resolve the Syrian conflict via military means.”

The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, discussed events in Syria with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, according to Turkish media. Fidan also told the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that Ankara “opposes developments that would increase instability in the region”.

Officials in Ankara, which backs select elements of Syria’s armed opposition, had recently offered to normalise relations with Damascus, after regional leaders who once shunned Assad had begun welcoming him back into the fold.

The US national security council spokesperson Sean Savett said on Saturday night that Washington was “closely monitoring the situation in Syria” and had been “in contact over the last 48 hours with regional capitals”.

The Assad regime’s reliance on Russian and Iranian backing created the current instability, he said, “including the collapse of Assad regime lines in north-west Syria”. He added that “the United States has nothing to do with this offensive”, pointing out that HTS was previously designated a terrorist organisation.

Across northern Syria, Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups and Kurdish militias moved to claim territory rapidly evacuated by forces loyal to Damascus, as Syrian government forces retreated from areas they had held for almost a decade.

At the Kuweires airbase, east of Aleppo, video showed Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forces taking control of the base and weaponry there, including an Iranian-made drone. The same group said it had seized control of the town of Tel Rifaat, north of Aleppo, in an attempt to oust Kurdish militants from the area.

It was 2am on Saturday when Nasma’s husband told her there were uniformed fighters in their neighbourhood of western Aleppo – but they were not from the Syrian army. He stood on their balcony to get a better view, before the men told him to go back indoors.

News of the militias’ advance in the countryside around Aleppo had spread fast, although Nasma – who requested a pseudonym for her safety – didn’t believe that change was coming until she saw displaced people arriving in the city from surrounding villages.

“We had lost hope of something like this ever happening, so we refused to believe it at first, and the main reason for our disbelief was fear,” she said. “It felt like a distant dream.”

Then the militants crossed into Aleppo city. “At that moment we realised this time was different,” Nasma said. A new kind of fear took over, that of the unknown. “We felt completely lost,” she said.

In the darkness of the early hours on Saturday, the streets of Syria’s second city were empty apart from uniformed fighters largely from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who roamed Aleppo’s sweeping plazas and gathered under its ancient citadel. They rapidly seized control of much of the city with little resistance from government forces.

Within hours, the second largest city in Syria was suddenly under the control of militant Islamists, as shocked residents reeled from the rapid withdrawal of government troops loyal to Damascus. They remained unsure what life would be like under the militants’ newfound rule.

Fearing reprisals by Damascus, Nasma and her family frantically packed their bags and readied themselves to flee. She was proud of never having left Aleppo, not after the popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 spilled into a bloody civil war; not after her home town was gripped by fierce street battles in which rebel fighters pushed for control of every inch of territory while Russian airstrikes pummelled the city.

They had opted to stay after Assad regained control of Aleppo in 2016. This moment threatened to be different. Getting out of the city, however, was looking difficult.

The road south to Homs, which remains under Syrian regime control, appeared too dangerous for them as the fighting moved south. Instead, Nasma passed the time at the weekend frantically searching for information on social media and reading messages from some of her family elsewhere in Aleppo.

Uniformed and armed fighters knocked on residents’ doors and used loudspeakers normally used for broadcasting the call to prayer from the city’s stone minarets to tell people to stay at home, trying to reassure them their families and property would be safe, she said.

“People said these soldiers were behaving well, and even reassuring them that they came to protect them and wouldn’t harm anyone,” Nasma said.

Fears of reprisal airstrikes by Damascus and allied forces continued to grip the residents as the weekend wore on, worsened by a strike in the centre of the city close to the entrance of Aleppo university hospital. Humanitarian groups on the ground said they believed the strike was carried out by Russian forces, recalling those that destroyed swaths of the eastern part of the city a decade ago.

Yemn Sayed Issa, working with the humanitarian organisation Violet whose ambulances sustained damage in the airstrike, said: “The airstrike targeted the middle of Aleppo … We believe 12 were killed and more injured. The hospital there is not working and there are no medics working there.

“Most people there are afraid and are staying at home. Aleppo lacks so many things to be honest, there’s a need for bread, food and water. I think in 24 hours there’s probably going to be a curfew enforced, to keep people off the streets,” he said in a voice message sent to the organisation ActionAid.

What life could be like under HTS remained unclear. The group, designated as a terrorist organisation by Washington in 2013, has ruled neighbouring Idlib province for years under the leadership of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who has a $10m (£7.6m) bounty on his head.

While Jolani has attempted to demonstrate the group’s ability to govern Idlib, setting up institutions and encouraging a flow of international aid that sustains millions of people sheltering there, the group has also been accused of repressing challenges to its rule.

Karam Shaar, an analyst at the New Lines Institute, long exiled from his home town, said many Aleppans, millions of whom have been displaced within Syria and overseas, were cautiously optimistic about the change of rule.

“Those who are happy, and I think they are the majority, are happy as they can now go back to their homes. People who are abroad can go back to Syria and visit Aleppo again – I am in that camp,” he said.

“But I also think many are scared because of what’s going to come next,” he added, fearing more airstrikes by the regime in Damascus and their allies in Moscow. He was also concerned about how HTS would run a major city.

“They have proven to be much more competent than other de-facto authorities in the country, meaning providing public services, but they are radical Islamists,” he said, pointing to the group’s efforts to distance itself from its past affiliation with al-Qaida.

“I still think they should be considered too extreme to the average Aleppan,” he said. They had never expressed any desire to rule territory through democratic means, he added.

Late on Saturday night, Jolani released a message to his foot soldiers intended to show that things could be different with his newly expanded rule of Aleppo.

“Islam has taught us kindness and mercy,” he said. “Your bravery in battle does not mean cruelty and injustice towards civilians.” He told fighters they should be role models “of tolerance and forgiveness … Beware of excessive killing.”

Despite Jolani’s recent overtures to Christian and Druze leaders around Idlib in a display of potential tolerance, Aleppo’s Christian communities were fearful. Archbishop Afram Maalouli, of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese in the city, told those who wished to remain in the city to “avoid wandering”, but he reassured his flock that prayers in their churches would remain ongoing “subject to circumstance”.

Nasma, who works in civil society, said she and her family were yet to see signs of intolerance towards minority groups, confident about life under new rulers and fearful about the response from Damascus.

“I believe that it is the people of Aleppo who force the system of governance to adapt to this city’s way of life, and not the other way around,” she said defiantly. “This city is a diverse commercial one with many different sects, and its identity will dictate the future situation, not the other way around.”

Ranim Ahmed contributed reporting.

“Brain rot” has been announced as the Oxford word of the year for 2024, amid concerns over endless social media scrolling and mind-numbing content.

More than 37,000 people voted to help choose the winner from a shortlist of six words drawn up by Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Its annual award, whose previous winners have included “rizz” and “climate emergency”, aims to reflect the moods and trends of the year.

Brain rot is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging”.

Oxford University Press said the term “gained new prominence in 2024 as a term used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media”.

Despite its recent rise to prominence, its first recorded use was in Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden in 1854.

Casper Grathwohl, Oxford Languages president, said: “Brain rot speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time. It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. It’s not surprising that so many voters embraced the term, endorsing it as our choice this year.

“I also find it fascinating that the word brain rot has been adopted by gen Z and gen Alpha, those communities largely responsible for the use and creation of the digital content the term refers to.”

The five unsuccessful shortlisted words included “demure”, which rose to prominence following a social media trend during the summer that refers to reserved or responsible behaviour; “dynamic pricing”, where the price of a product or service varies to reflect demand; “lore”, a body of facts and background information related to someone or something; “romantasy”, a fiction genre combining romance and fantasy; and “slop”, low-quality content online generated using artificial intelligence.

The shortlist was decided by a panel of four experts, chaired by lexicographer Susie Dent, best known for her appearances on Channel 4’s Countdown.

Oxford University Press took the public vote into account as it chose the winner, as well as public commentary and other analysis before announcing it on Sunday evening.

Recent winners of the Oxford prize include “rizz”, an abbreviation of the word charisma, which took the title last year. “Goblin mode” took the crown in 2022 and the pandemic-era “vax” won in 2021.

Across the Oxbridge divide, Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year was announced last month as “manifest”, which is a wellness trend to imagine achieving a goal in the hope it will make it more likely to happen.

The word had been searched 130,000 times on the Cambridge Dictionary website.

Social media trends were also linked to “demure” being awarded as Dictionary.com’s winner, linked to a TikTok movement during the summer advising people to be reserved and mindful in their behaviour.

Another summer craze led Collins Dictionary to make “brat” its word of the year, after Charli xcx’s hit album of the same name released in June.

“Brain rot” has been announced as the Oxford word of the year for 2024, amid concerns over endless social media scrolling and mind-numbing content.

More than 37,000 people voted to help choose the winner from a shortlist of six words drawn up by Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Its annual award, whose previous winners have included “rizz” and “climate emergency”, aims to reflect the moods and trends of the year.

Brain rot is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging”.

Oxford University Press said the term “gained new prominence in 2024 as a term used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media”.

Despite its recent rise to prominence, its first recorded use was in Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden in 1854.

Casper Grathwohl, Oxford Languages president, said: “Brain rot speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time. It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. It’s not surprising that so many voters embraced the term, endorsing it as our choice this year.

“I also find it fascinating that the word brain rot has been adopted by gen Z and gen Alpha, those communities largely responsible for the use and creation of the digital content the term refers to.”

The five unsuccessful shortlisted words included “demure”, which rose to prominence following a social media trend during the summer that refers to reserved or responsible behaviour; “dynamic pricing”, where the price of a product or service varies to reflect demand; “lore”, a body of facts and background information related to someone or something; “romantasy”, a fiction genre combining romance and fantasy; and “slop”, low-quality content online generated using artificial intelligence.

The shortlist was decided by a panel of four experts, chaired by lexicographer Susie Dent, best known for her appearances on Channel 4’s Countdown.

Oxford University Press took the public vote into account as it chose the winner, as well as public commentary and other analysis before announcing it on Sunday evening.

Recent winners of the Oxford prize include “rizz”, an abbreviation of the word charisma, which took the title last year. “Goblin mode” took the crown in 2022 and the pandemic-era “vax” won in 2021.

Across the Oxbridge divide, Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year was announced last month as “manifest”, which is a wellness trend to imagine achieving a goal in the hope it will make it more likely to happen.

The word had been searched 130,000 times on the Cambridge Dictionary website.

Social media trends were also linked to “demure” being awarded as Dictionary.com’s winner, linked to a TikTok movement during the summer advising people to be reserved and mindful in their behaviour.

Another summer craze led Collins Dictionary to make “brat” its word of the year, after Charli xcx’s hit album of the same name released in June.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is due to begin hearings in a landmark climate change case on Monday, examining what countries worldwide are legally required to do to combat climate change and help vulnerable nations fight its devastating impact.

After years of lobbying by island nations, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ last year for an opinion on “the obligations of States in respect of climate change.”

Lawyers and representatives from more than 100 countries and organisations will make submissions before the ICJ in The Hague.

The unprecedented hearings are aimed at finding a blueprint for how countries should protect the environment from damaging greenhouse gases, and what the consequences are if they do not. While the advisory opinions of the ICJ are non-binding, they are legally and politically significant.

Vanuatu will be the first to present arguments in the hearings, which run until 13 December. The opinion will be delivered in 2025. The campaign began in classrooms in the Pacific in 2019, when a group of students pushed to bring the climate issue to the ICJ.

“Climate change for us is not a distant threat,” said Vishal Prasad, director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change group, which was instrumental in bringing the action to the ICJ.

“It is reshaping our lives right now. Our islands are at risk. Our communities face disruptive change at a rate and scale that generations before us have not known,” Prasad told journalists a few days before the hearings.

The hearings begin a week after Pacific and other developing nations denounced as woefully inadequate an agreement reached at the Cop29 summit for countries to provide $300bn in annual climate finance by 2035 to help poorer nations cope with climate change.

Pacific climate activists who represent their communities say that time and time again, the outcomes at Cop summits fail to meet the scale of the crisis. This year, Papua New Guinea took the rare step of withdrawing from high-level talks at Cop29, describing the gatherings as a “total waste of time”.

Dylan Kava, regional facilitator at the Pacific Island Climate Action network, described the climate finance plan delivered at Cop29 as an “empty gesture” that failed to address the extent of the impact of climate harm on Pacific nations.

“We represent communities where every fraction of a degree of warming translates to real losses: homes swallowed by the sea, crops destroyed by salinity, and cultures at risk of extinction,” Kava said.

“Pacific nations are left grappling with escalating costs of adaptation and recovery, often relying on meagre resources and the resilience of our people,” he said.

Papua New Guinea is among the Pacific nations taking part in the ICJ hearings, and will present its submission on 6 December. Attorney general and minister of justice, Pila Niningi said that Papua New Guinea will give voice to the challenges faced by Pacific island nations facing the direct impact of rising sea levels and shifting weather patterns.

“The ICJ’s advisory opinion will help clarify the legal responsibilities of states in combating climate change, offering guidance and on their obligations under international law, including human rights and environmental treaties,” he said in a statement.

Associated Press, Reuters and AFP contributed to this report

When Donald Trump nominated David Weldon, a 71-year-old doctor from Florida who has long questioned the safety of vaccines, to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anti-vaccine activists celebrated.

The move comes as the US faces increased threats from bird flu and mpox as well as resurgences of whooping cough, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

“He is one of us!!” the co-director of the anti-vax group Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights wrote on Facebook. “Since before our movement had momentum. Dream Come True.”

“Every day more good news!” wrote another prominent anti-vaxxer in West Virginia.

“SUCH GREAT NEWS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” announced AutismOne, a group that has platformed the anti-vaxxer who recommended chlorine dioxide, essentially industrial bleach, to “cure” autism. The organization also gave Weldon an award in 2013.

“He’s definitely someone who’s very sympathetic to the anti-vaccine cause,” said Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Law San Francisco.

As a representative to the US House from 1995 to 2009, Weldon was a founding member of the Congressional Autism caucus, and he introduced two bills related to vaccines.

One bill would have limited who can receive vaccines containing thimerosal, even though nearly all vaccines were already made without the preservative by then, despite the evidence that low doses of thimerosal are safe.

Another bill sought to move the CDC’s vaccine safety work to a separate, independent agency, a major change.

When he left the US House of Representatives in 2008, Weldon signaled he was done with politics. Politics, at least, seemed done with him: after failed primaries for the US Senate in 2012 and the US House again in 2024, Weldon returned to practicing medicine privately.

Now, Weldon has been nominated for one of the most politicized agencies in the country.

But Weldon never disappeared from the public spotlight entirely. Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s pick to lead health and human services, has frequently invoked Weldon to claim agencies like the CDC are captured by pharmaceutical interests.

Weldon appeared in the anti-vaccine films Shoot ‘Em Up and Vaxxed, which was directed by the gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, to cast doubt on vaccines.

Weldon said he attempted to slow the CDC’s process of investigating the link between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine – a thoroughly discredited theory advanced by Wakefield based on unethical research.

“It just didn’t seem to me like we were, we were running a system that was credible,” Weldon said in 2016’s Vaxxed. He claimed that the agency tried to “short-circuit important research and draw premature conclusions” in order to “shut the door permanently and completely” on any link between the MMR vaccine and autism, which research has repeatedly debunked.

Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization that was led by RFK Jr until he left to pursue the US presidency last year, said that officials like Weldon would remove the federal law that compensates people for rare complications after vaccines rather than holding vaccine makers liable for each case – which could effectively end the production of key childhood vaccines.

“That would be a real risk,” Reiss said. “If you remove liability protection from routine childhood vaccines, manufacturers may just leave that market, leaving kids without access to these vaccines.”

Such a move would also make it more difficult for people to receive compensation for their very rare side effects, because their claims would need to be adjudicated individually in court.

Kennedy, as HHS secretary, could also replace members of CDC’s independent vaccine advisory committee. As CDC director, Weldon could reject recommendations from the advisers.

The CDC makes evidence-based recommendations for immunizations, including the ones given routinely in childhood. While states aren’t required to follow the recommendations, most do.

Insurance companies are only required to cover vaccines that are recommended through this process, while public health departments could lose funding to administer shots to the uninsured – creating significant access issues.

Weldon could also influence public messaging from the CDC about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

All of the nominees will need to be confirmed by Congress, a process that can take months. But even if they don’t make it through the confirmation process, even being named to positions like these can elevate dangerous and anti-scientific ideas, Reiss said.

“I think it increases their legitimacy. It gives them a microphone … to express their views and promote this information,” Reiss said.

“It sends a message that the Trump administration is willing to work with the anti-vaccine movement. And I think it also sends a message that science-based decisions are not the priority.”

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday there was still time to convince “sceptics” that Ukraine should be invited to join Nato. “An invitation for Ukraine to join Nato is a necessary thing for our survival,” Zelenskyy said. On Friday, Zelenskyy said that Nato protection for the free part of Ukraine could end the “hot war”, leaving Kyiv to regain the Russian-occupied areas through diplomatic means.

• Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his country needed security guarantees from Nato and more weapons to defend itself before any talks with Russia. He called for “steps forward with Nato” and a “good number” of long-distance weapons for Ukraine to defend itself. “Only when we have all these items and we are strong, after that, we have to make the very important … agenda of meeting with one or another of the killers,” he said, adding that the EU and Nato should be involved in any negotiations. Zelenskyy made the comments after meeting the EU’s new top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, and the EU council chief, Antonio Costa, who were visiting Kyiv as a show of support on their first day in office.

• Kallas said before their meeting that for Kyiv “the strongest security guarantee is Nato membership … We need to definitely discuss this – if Ukraine decides to draw the line somewhere, then how can we secure peace so that Putin doesn’t go any further.” Kallas said the EU “shouldn’t really rule out anything” in terms of the question of sending European troops to help enforce any ceasefire. “We should have this strategic ambiguity around this,” she said.

• Jennifer Rankin writes from Brussels that it is no surprise Kallas went to Ukraine on her first day as the EU’s chief diplomat. “My message is clear: the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war,” said Kallas, who stood down as Estonia’s prime minister to take the job.

• At least three people were killed in a Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the regional governor said on Sunday. Seven more people were wounded in the morning attack on public transportation, Oleksandr Prokudin said. Russian forces withdrew from Kherson city in late 2022 but have regularly attacked with artillery and drones from the other side of the Dnipro river.

• Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, has written about Syrian rebels’ stunning takeover of Aleppo amid deteriorating Russian military support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad. “It was not Kyiv that fell in three days, but Aleppo … Russia is not the force it was in Syria in the last decade, because Moscow has shifted its military focus and resources to its invasion of Ukraine.”

• Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has accused China of providing Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine and threatening peace in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. “Instead of taking responsibility for peace and security in the world as a permanent member of the UN security council, China is opposing our core European interests with its economic and weapons aid to Russia,” said Baerbock, who will travel to China next week to meet with her counterpart, Wang Yi, and discuss issues including the war in Ukraine.

• “Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine is a direct threat to our peace,” Baerbock said. “I will also speak in Beijing about the fact that we cannot simply ignore this in our relations with China.” The war in Ukraine showed how security in Europe was inextricably linked with that in Asia, Baerbock said. “If North Korea sends soldiers and weapons against Ukraine, while Russia supports Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, then this jeopardises peace both here and in the Indo-Pacific,” Baerbock said.

• The US is not considering restoring to Ukraine the nuclear weapons capability it gave up after the Soviet Union collapsed, the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday. It follows a New York Times article that said some unidentified western officials had suggested Joe Biden could do so. “That is not under consideration, no. What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not nuclear capability,” Sullivan told US network ABC.

• The world’s 100 biggest defence equipment makers increased their arms sales by 4.2% in 2023 to US$632bn, fuelled by wars and regional tensions, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said on Monday. US groups on Sipri’s list grew sales by 2.5% in total compared with the year before to $317bn. Market leaders Lockheed Martin and RTX however saw slightly lower arms sales. European companies on the list – excluding Russian – had roughly unchanged combined sales in 2023 at $133bn but order intake surged and some groups saw a surge in demand linked to the war in Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday there was still time to convince “sceptics” that Ukraine should be invited to join Nato. “An invitation for Ukraine to join Nato is a necessary thing for our survival,” Zelenskyy said. On Friday, Zelenskyy said that Nato protection for the free part of Ukraine could end the “hot war”, leaving Kyiv to regain the Russian-occupied areas through diplomatic means.

• Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his country needed security guarantees from Nato and more weapons to defend itself before any talks with Russia. He called for “steps forward with Nato” and a “good number” of long-distance weapons for Ukraine to defend itself. “Only when we have all these items and we are strong, after that, we have to make the very important … agenda of meeting with one or another of the killers,” he said, adding that the EU and Nato should be involved in any negotiations. Zelenskyy made the comments after meeting the EU’s new top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, and the EU council chief, Antonio Costa, who were visiting Kyiv as a show of support on their first day in office.

• Kallas said before their meeting that for Kyiv “the strongest security guarantee is Nato membership … We need to definitely discuss this – if Ukraine decides to draw the line somewhere, then how can we secure peace so that Putin doesn’t go any further.” Kallas said the EU “shouldn’t really rule out anything” in terms of the question of sending European troops to help enforce any ceasefire. “We should have this strategic ambiguity around this,” she said.

• Jennifer Rankin writes from Brussels that it is no surprise Kallas went to Ukraine on her first day as the EU’s chief diplomat. “My message is clear: the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war,” said Kallas, who stood down as Estonia’s prime minister to take the job.

• At least three people were killed in a Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the regional governor said on Sunday. Seven more people were wounded in the morning attack on public transportation, Oleksandr Prokudin said. Russian forces withdrew from Kherson city in late 2022 but have regularly attacked with artillery and drones from the other side of the Dnipro river.

• Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, has written about Syrian rebels’ stunning takeover of Aleppo amid deteriorating Russian military support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad. “It was not Kyiv that fell in three days, but Aleppo … Russia is not the force it was in Syria in the last decade, because Moscow has shifted its military focus and resources to its invasion of Ukraine.”

• Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has accused China of providing Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine and threatening peace in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. “Instead of taking responsibility for peace and security in the world as a permanent member of the UN security council, China is opposing our core European interests with its economic and weapons aid to Russia,” said Baerbock, who will travel to China next week to meet with her counterpart, Wang Yi, and discuss issues including the war in Ukraine.

• “Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine is a direct threat to our peace,” Baerbock said. “I will also speak in Beijing about the fact that we cannot simply ignore this in our relations with China.” The war in Ukraine showed how security in Europe was inextricably linked with that in Asia, Baerbock said. “If North Korea sends soldiers and weapons against Ukraine, while Russia supports Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, then this jeopardises peace both here and in the Indo-Pacific,” Baerbock said.

• The US is not considering restoring to Ukraine the nuclear weapons capability it gave up after the Soviet Union collapsed, the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday. It follows a New York Times article that said some unidentified western officials had suggested Joe Biden could do so. “That is not under consideration, no. What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not nuclear capability,” Sullivan told US network ABC.

• The world’s 100 biggest defence equipment makers increased their arms sales by 4.2% in 2023 to US$632bn, fuelled by wars and regional tensions, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said on Monday. US groups on Sipri’s list grew sales by 2.5% in total compared with the year before to $317bn. Market leaders Lockheed Martin and RTX however saw slightly lower arms sales. European companies on the list – excluding Russian – had roughly unchanged combined sales in 2023 at $133bn but order intake surged and some groups saw a surge in demand linked to the war in Ukraine.

Romania’s main centre-left party was on track to finish first in parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results, seemingly beating an advancing far right boosted by the shock victory of an ultranationalist in last week’s presidential first-round ballot.

With 90% of votes counted, the ruling Social Democratic party (PSD) won 23.9% of the vote, ahead of the far-right nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) on 17.9%, while the National Liberal party (PNL) had 14.6% and centre-right Save Romania Union (USR) 11.1%.

The vote was the second of three successive ballots and came a week after Călin Georgescu, a little-known far-right, Moscow-friendly independent, plunged the country into turmoil by finishing first in the opening round of the presidential vote.

Georgescu’s success, after a campaign that he said had no financing and that was based heavily on viral TikTok videos boosted by bot-like activity, raised suspicions of foreign interference and caused fears Romania would veer to the far right.

Romania’s top court ordered a recount and on Monday is due to rule on a request by a defeated candidate to annul the vote altogether over allegations of illegal electoral activity on behalf of the runner-up, Elena Lasconi of the pro-EU USR.

The elections are seen as critical to the future direction of Romania, hitherto a reliable EU and Nato ally that is strategically important for western support for Ukraine. It has largely evaded nationalism since emerging from communism in 1989.

Amid widespread voter anger over the cost of living and a legacy of corruption among its mainstream parties, observers had said the far right, led by the AUR, was likely to benefit most from the confusion, which has further dented trust in state institutions.

Romania has the EU’s biggest share of people at risk of poverty, the bloc’s highest inflation rate and its largest budget deficit.

Far-right parties have used Romania’s strong backing of Ukraine to stoke fears that the war could spill over the border unless the country halts its support, as well as foster resentment over alleged preferential treatment for refugees from Ukraine.

The outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis, said Sunday’s vote would in effect decide whether Romania remained “a country of freedom and openness, or collapses into toxic isolation and a dark past”.

The centre-left PSD and centre-right PNL, both members of the outgoing government, have dominated Romania’s politics for three decades, but the exit polls suggested the new legislature would be far more fragmented, making it hard to form a new coalition.

The AUR more than doubled its result of 8.5% in the previous elections. Along with the party of Young People (POT), which has backed Georgescu, and the extreme-right SOS Romania, both of which were on course to clear the 5% threshold to enter parliament, far-right parties could hold about 30% of seats in the new assembly.

If the exit polls prove accurate, a pro-west mainstream coalition led by the PSD could in principle have enough MPs to form a government, but analysts said negotiations would be difficult and could take weeks.

“The Social Democrats will take a few days and wait to be courted,” the political commentator Radu Magdin told Reuters. “A coalition with centrist parties is more likely than with the extremists. And much depends on who becomes president.”

As things stand, Georgescu should face Lasconi in a runoff on 8 December – although depending on the court’s decision, both presidential votes could be delayed until later this month, adding to the political uncertainty.

The presidential office said last week officials had detected online efforts to influence voting in the presidential ballot, with one candidate benefiting from “massive exposure due to preferential treatment” on the social media platform TikTok.

TikTok has dismissed the allegations, saying it enforced all guidelines against election misinformation.

Georgescu has called for an end to the war in Ukraine, denied the existence of Covid-19, described two second world war-era Romanian fascists as “national heroes” and claimed that in foreign affairs Romania would benefit from “Russian wisdom”.

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees has suspended aid deliveries through the main lifeline for the Gaza Strip after a fresh attack by armed gangs on a humanitarian convoy, amid a severe food crisis caused by more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

In a statement on Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, said several trucks carrying food supplies were looted the day before on the road from Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel, now the main aid crossing point into the besieged Palestinian territory. The route had not been safe for months, he said on X, referring to the unprecedented hijacking of nearly 100 aid trucks last month.

“This difficult decision comes at a time hunger is rapidly deepening … due to the ongoing siege, hurdles from Israeli authorities, political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid, lack of safety on aid routes and targeting of local police. All of the above led to a breakdown in law and order,” he said.

Lazzarini said protecting aid workers and supplies was Israel’s responsibility as the occupying power in the Palestinian territories, and he called on the country to “ensure aid flows into Gaza safely” and to “refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers”.

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday in Khan Younis killed three contractors working for World Central Kitchen, Palestinian media reported, leading the US-based charity to pause operations. The Israeli military said one of the World Central Kitchen employees was a Hamas militant involved in the 7 October attacks that triggered the war. It did not provide evidence to support the claim.

The aid organisation lost seven workers in an Israeli drone strike in April that Israel said was a mistake.

Humanitarian agencies working in Gaza have struggled to collect and distribute supplies amid Israeli military activity, blocks on movement and Israeli attacks that have targeted employees, suspending operations on several occasions. According to Unrwa, only 65 aid trucks a day entered Gaza in November, compared with a prewar average of 500.

As of October, 333 aid workers had been killed since the conflict began, according to the UN. The world body estimates that about one-third of aid is stolen by armed gangs who resell it at extortionate prices.

Israel denies deliberately restricting aid to Gaza or ignoring the proliferation of gangs and organised crime. It also accuses Hamas of diverting aid.

The Palestinian militant group denies that, in turn alleging that Israel has tried to foment anarchy by systematically targeting Hamas-employed police guarding aid convoys.

At least 32 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave in the past 24 hours, while Hamas leaders met Egyptian security officials in Cairo on Sunday to discuss reviving ceasefire talks. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the attacks.

The Biden administration wants to build on the success of last week’s ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, although there is no indication yet from Hamas or Israel that their terms for a truce have changed.

The White House is working on a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza but is “not there yet”, Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, told NBC on Sunday.

About 44,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of fighting, according to the local health ministry, whose figures are considered by the UN to be accurate, and 90% of the 2.3 million population have been displaced from their homes.

A total of 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken captive in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel says 63 of the remaining 101 hostages are still alive.

Meanwhile, the Lebanon ceasefire appeared to be on shaky ground as both sides accused the other of new violations. The Israeli military carried out airstrikes in four areas on the Syria-Lebanon border on Saturday against what it said was military infrastructure and Hezbollah activities that “posed a threat”. The Syrian border is a key weapons supply route for the Iran-allied group.

Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike on a car in Majdal Zoun wounded three people including a seven-year-old child.

Israeli warplanes targeted what the military claimed was a rocket storage facility on Thursday, reportedly hitting a location north of the Litani River, which is not included in the 60-day ceasefire and staged withdrawal agreement.

Israeli forces have aimed gun and tank fire at cars and people returning to areas near the UN-demarcated blue line separating the two countries, which Israel still considers restricted. Thousands of displaced civilians have attempted to return to their homes in southern Lebanon in the past few days amid contradictory instructions from Lebanese and Israeli officials.

The Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek announced he is selling memorabilia to help cover the “expensive” treatment costs for his recent colorectal cancer diagnosis.

Van Der Beek, also known for the film Varsity Blues, made the announcement on Instagram last week, nearly three weeks after revealing his illness in an interview with People.

The Connecticut actor shared photos on Instagram wearing a Varsity Blues jersey while holding a football, introducing newly released merch to raise funds.

“100% of my net proceeds will go to families recovering from the financial burden of cancer (including my own 😇),” he wrote on Instagram.

The signed jerseys feature the name of his character, quarterback Jonathan “Mox” Moxon, from the 1999 film. Unsigned jerseys are priced at $40, while autographed shirts are available for $80.

Early last month, Van Der Beek told People, “I have colorectal cancer. I’ve been privately dealing with this diagnosis and have been taking steps to resolve it with the support of my incredible family. There’s reason for optimism, and I’m feeling good.”

Van Der Beek is best known for his role as Dawson Leery in the US teen drama series from 1998 to 2003 and for playing a fictional version of himself in Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, in CSI: Cyber as the FBI agent Elijah Mundo, and as Matt Bromley in the first season of the FX drama Pose.

Despite his diagnosis, the 47-year-old has continued working, recently appearing in an episode of Walker (the reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger) and will star in the upcoming film Sidelined: The QB and Me.

Van Der Beek’s need to sell memorabilia to afford cancer treatment highlights the extreme costs of the US healthcare system. Despite spending almost twice as much on healthcare per person than peer countries, Americans struggle to afford medications, and uninsured people often delay care and risk worsening their conditions.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health law popularly known as Obamacare, helps cover essential health benefits, including cancer treatment and follow-up care, but coverage for cancer treatments varies based on private health plans.

Bowel cancer develops in the large intestine and can spread to other parts of the body. Rates of colorectal cancer are rising rapidly among people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, while incidence is declining in people over the age of 65, according to a report published by the American Cancer Society in January.

Vladimir Putin may have ordered the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal because the former Russian spy harboured secret information about the Russian president’s “criminal embezzlement” of profits from metals production, the UK government believes.

A leading intelligence official on Russia has said he took “at face value” Skripal’s assertions that secrets he knew about how Putin may have made money led to the nerve agent attack on him in Salisbury.

An inquiry into the poisonings has heard that Foreign Office experts concluded Putin personally ordered the attack as it was inconceivable that such an audacious action would have been carried out without his say-so. A central remaining question has been why Russian agents were sent to Salisbury to kill Skripal.

In his witness statement, Skripal said that when he worked for the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency, he had access to “secret information” and “was aware of allegations that Putin had been involved in illegal activity to do with the disposal of rare metals”.

When Skripal was interviewed by British police after the nerve agent attack in March 2018, he talked about Putin “embezzling” the proceeds of aluminium sales.

Asked by counsel to the inquiry, Andrew O’Connor, whether knowledge of Putin’s “criminal embezzlement” could have been the motive for the attack at the inquiry, Jonathan Allen, the director general of defence and intelligence at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said he took Skripal’s claim at face value.

He said: “It makes sense that if he [Skripal] was working as a senior member of the GRU he would have access to secret information. On the allegations regarding President Putin, it is very difficult to know exactly what happens in Russia. The civil society is pretty nonexistent, the independent media has been shut down, the judicial system operates to protect the government and President Putin.

“There have been numerous open-source works which link senior figures in the government including the president to control of natural resources, to control of the sources of Russian wealth and suggestions they profited from those. Certainly President Putin is at the top of a state that is highly corrupt and which ensures loyalty through patronage and fear. I would say they could be motives.”

Since October, an inquiry in the UK has been looking at the circumstances surrounding the death of Dawn Sturgess, who was poisoned with novichok in June 2018, three months after the attack on Skripal.

On the final day of evidence last week, Allen was asked about an email chain produced at the inquiry involving Foreign Office and UK Cabinet officials in which they reported remarks Putin had made about Skripal and Sturgess, who died after spraying herself with nerve agent from a fake perfume bottle found by her partner Charlie Rowley.

The officials said Putin had described Skripal as a “traitor” and suggested he may have worked with the UK after he came to England after a spy swap. Putin is reported to have said: “He left and continued cooperating and he consulted some special services.” Allen said he could not comment on this claim.

Of Sturgess and Rowley, Putin reportedly said: “Do you want to say we have also poisoned some homeless person? Some guys come and begin poisoning homeless people there. Nonsense. What, do they work for some kind of cleansing department?”

Allen said the comments were “rather callous”. He said: “They are offensive in the extreme, and again rather indicative perhaps of his rather dismissive attitude to what’s happened.”

On the final day of the inquiry on Monday, Sturgess’s legal team will argue that more could have been done to protect the British people from the Russian threat.