The French president Emmanuel Macron has held meetings with parliament and senate leaders before a speech to the nation on Thursday evening, as pressure grows for him to swiftly appoint a new prime minister in the wake of the French government’s historic collapse.

The rightwing prime minister, Michel Barnier, met Macron for just over an hour in order to hand in his resignation letter, a day after his minority coalition became the first to be toppled by a no-confidence vote in more than 60 years and only three months after it took office.

As France enters a period of political turmoil, the Elysée issued a statement to say Barnier’s resignation had been accepted. Barnier’s government would deal with current day-to-day issues until a new government is appointed, the Elysée said.

Macron had lunch with François Bayrou, a close ally and veteran centrist politician, amid speculation over who could replace Barnier to take on the difficult task of leading a minority government in a deeply divided parliament.

Macron will address the nation in a televised speech at 8pm on Thursday evening, the Elysée Palace said.

Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the national assembly and a member of Macron’s centrist party, met Macron on Thursday and urged him to move quickly.

“There must not be any political hesitation,” Braun-Pivet told France Inter radio. She said a new prime minister must be appointed swiftly. “We need a leader who can speak to everyone and work to pass a new budget bill.”

Barnier said in his final speech that the no-confidence motion in his government would “make everything more serious and more difficult”.

Barnier’s forced exit comes after snap parliamentary elections this summer, which resulted in a hung parliament with no party having an overall majority and the far right holding the key to the government’s survival.

Macron’s term in office runs until spring 2027. Some – though not all – of his opponents have called on him to resign. He has brushed aside any talk of resigning. The fragmented parliament will remain unchanged as no new legislative elections can be held until at least July.

The no-confidence motion, brought by a left alliance in the national assembly, came amid a standoff over next year’s budget, after the prime minister on Monday forced through a social security financing bill without a vote.

With the crucial support of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, a majority of 331 MPs in the 577-member chamber voted to oust the government.

Speaking on TF1 television after the vote, the National Rally leader, Marine Le Pen, said “we had a choice to make, and our choice is to protect the French” from a “toxic” budget. Le Pen also accused Macron of being “largely responsible for the current situation”, adding that “the pressure on the president of the Republic will get stronger and stronger”.

It was the first successful no-confidence vote since a defeat for Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.

“We are now calling on Macron to go,” Mathilde Panot, the head of the parliamentary faction of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters, urging “early presidential elections” to solve the deepening political crisis.

Taking care not to crow over the government’s fall, Le Pen said in a television interview that her party – once a new prime minister was appointed – “would let them work” and help create a “budget that is acceptable for everyone”.

In an editorial, Le Monde said Le Pen had risked upsetting her own supporters, such as retirees and business leaders, by toppling the government. “In the space of a few minutes, she shattered the strategy of normalisation she had consistently pursued,” the daily said.

Laurent Wauquiez, the head of rightwing deputies in parliament, said the far right and hard left bore the responsibility for a no-confidence vote that will “plunge the country into instability”.

Candidates for the post of prime minister are few, but the loyalist defence minister Sebastien Lecornu and Macron’s centrist ally Francois Bayrou are possible contenders.

On the left, Macron could turn to the former Socialist PM and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, a contender in September.

Barnier was the fifth prime minister since Macron came to power in 2017, with each serving a successively shorter period. Given the turbulence, the new nominee risks an even shorter term than Barnier, whose tenure was the shortest of any administration since the Fifth Republic began in 1958.

Macron may appoint the new prime minister rapidly, several sources told AFP. A source close to Macron said the president, who has taken time with appointments in the past, had “no choice” but to do so within 24 hours.

Macron has rejected calls to resign.

With markets nervous and France bracing for public-sector strikes against the threat of cuts, action that will shut schools and hit air and rail traffic, there is a growing sense of crisis. Unions have called for civil servants, including teachers and air-traffic controllers, to strike on Thursday over separate cost-cutting measures.

“His failure” was leftwing daily Liberation’s front-page headline, with a picture of Macron, whose term runs until 2027.

Meanwhile, the president is due to host a major international event on Saturday with the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire, with guests including Donald Trump on his first foreign trip since he was re-elected.

Agence France-Presse ands Associated Press contributed to this report

The French prime minister, Michel Barnier, resigned on Thursday morning, after far-right and leftist lawmakers joined forces to topple his government only three months after it took office.

Barnier and his government will stay on in a caretaker capacity, taking care of day-to-day business until the appointment of a new government, the Élysée said in a statement on Thursday.

The end of Barnier’s government – the first to fall from a no-confidence vote in France in more than 60 years – has plunged the country into political crisis and turned Barnier, a veteran politician who was formerly the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, into the shortest serving prime minister in modern French history.

The country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to address the nation on Thursday evening. Here’s a brief guide to what happened – and what may come next.

As French president Emmanuel Macron attempts to find a new prime minister to replace Michel Barnier, who lost a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, his choices will be guided by whether he can secure approval for his choice from the national assembly, the lower house of the French parliament.

The incoming prime minister would need the support of 288 deputies to survive another no-confidence vote, but could govern on simple majorities for individual bills.

Below we look at the president’s options.

The French prime minister, Michel Barnier, resigned on Thursday morning, after far-right and leftist lawmakers joined forces to topple his government only three months after it took office.

Barnier and his government will stay on in a caretaker capacity, taking care of day-to-day business until the appointment of a new government, the Élysée said in a statement on Thursday.

The end of Barnier’s government – the first to fall from a no-confidence vote in France in more than 60 years – has plunged the country into political crisis and turned Barnier, a veteran politician who was formerly the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, into the shortest serving prime minister in modern French history.

The country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to address the nation on Thursday evening. Here’s a brief guide to what happened – and what may come next.

As French president Emmanuel Macron attempts to find a new prime minister to replace Michel Barnier, who lost a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, his choices will be guided by whether he can secure approval for his choice from the national assembly, the lower house of the French parliament.

The incoming prime minister would need the support of 288 deputies to survive another no-confidence vote, but could govern on simple majorities for individual bills.

Below we look at the president’s options.

An urgent manhunt continued on Thursday in New York City as police combed through a vast network of private and public surveillance cameras and pursued leads in search of the person who shot and killed the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, the previous morning.

Investigators deployed drones and dogs as well as sifting through data related to public-use electric bikes from the company Citi Bike, as the suspect remained at large after what police chiefs said was a targeted killing.

On Thursday morning ABC News reported that police were closing in on a suspect, citing police sources.

Among clues were a cell phone, footage of the suspect in the Upper West Side neighborhood, and shell casings from bullets found at the scene with the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose”, according to unnamed sources who also spoke with ABC News.

Police searched a hostel in that uptown neighborhood where the suspect is believed to have stayed, CNN reported, also reporting that police found a fingerprint while investigating objects connected to the man, including a cellphone and a water bottle, and that evidence was being examined in hopes it could pin down an identity.

“This does not appear to be a random act of violence,” Jessica Tisch, New York City police commissioner, told reporters. “Every indication is that this was a premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack.”

Thompson was killed by a man in black carrying a gray backpack and with his face covered up to the nose around 6.40am ET Wednesday. The police have been using the word “he” when referring to the suspect.

The man in questions had leveled a handgun fitted with a silencer at Thompson’s back and shot the executive at least once in the back and the calf, just as he was about to enter a midtown Manhattan Hilton hotel for an annual investor conference.

As Thompson collapsed on the sidewalk, the gun jammed, the man – “proficient” in firearms according to police – quickly cleared it and resumed shooting.

The suspect then fled on an e-bike into nearby Central Park. As of Thursday, there have been no arrests in the case, and police offered a $10,000 reward for information.

Since Wednesday, police have also uncovered footage of the man near the Frederick Douglass public housing project on Manhattan’s Upper West Side around 5am ET, ABC News reported.

The suspect’s motives remain unknown. Thompson’s widow said her husband had received threats. However, such incidents are not uncommon in controversial sectors.

“There had been some threats,” Paulette Thompson told NBC News. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”

UnitedHealthcare is a branch of UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest companies in the United States. The branch insures tens of millions of people with private health coverage.

The need for private-sector health insurance is a fact of life in the US, but frequently a thorn in American’s side, and insurers are often accused of unfairly denying coverage. The company was also the subject of an insider trader investigation and inquiry into unfair trade practices, Fox Business News reported.

Thompson’s killing quickly sent shockwaves through the corporate world, with corporate security heads gathering in a conference call to Wednesday.

“Many of my colleagues today are sitting down with their executive protection team leaders, their security leadership teams, and re-evaluating what they are doing and not doing,” Dave Komendat, president of Seattle-based Komendat Risk Management Services told the New York Times.

Another security executive, CEO Michael Julian of MPS Security & Protection, told Axios: “I’m just shocked the guy didn’t have a protective detail.”

Thompson is survived by his wife Paulette and two sons.

The Associated Press contributed to reporting

The hunt for the suspect in the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, has entered a second day – with New York police using facial recognition technology and a discarded cellphone to try to find the shooter.

Thompson, who ran one of the the US’s largest health insurers, was fatally shot on Wednesday in midtown Manhattan by an unidentified man. Shell casings found at the scene reportedly had the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose” written on them.

Here’s what we know about Thompson, the shooting and the suspect so far:

A South Korean party spokesperson seen grappling with a rifle-wielding soldier in a video that went viral as a symbol of defiance against martial law has insisted that she was not especially brave.

President Yoon Suk Yeol was forced to abandon his declaration of martial law this week after 190 lawmakers defied a contingent of soldiers in helmets and body armour and voted unanimously to reject it.

Footage of the lawmakers’ aides tussling with the troops to prevent them entering the main hall has become a symbol of public rejection of the attempt to impose military rule.

Images went viral showing Ahn Gwi-ryeong, 35, a former TV anchor who serves as spokesperson for the opposition Democratic party, grappling with a soldier and grabbing hold of his gun. One video was viewed more than 1.2m times on YouTube as of Thursday evening.

“My only thought was that I just needed to stop them. I pushed them away, shook them off, and did everything I could,” she told Reuters.

“A lot of people were fighting against martial law troops so I just thought I also had to stop them.”

As lawmakers were gathered on Tuesday, their aides blocked entrances with furniture, formed human chains and sprayed troops with fire extinguishers. Two and a half hours after the president declared martial law, 190 lawmakers had made their way to the parliament and unanimously voted to block it.

Ahn can be seen shouting at the soldier in the clip: “Let go! Don’t you feel the shame?” After she grabs his rifle, the soldier steps back.

Asked if she knew it would gain that much attention, Ahn said: “There were many people braver than me who stood up to the martial law troops. There were people who even managed to stop armoured vehicles outside. So, I don’t think my actions were particularly special.”

The commander of the martial law troops said on Thursday he had no intention to use firearms against the public. The country’s vice defence minister said no live ammunition was provided to the troops.

South Korean opposition lawmakers plan to vote this weekend to impeach the president.

Ahn said: “I think that the people have already psychologically impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol. Who could trust a president declaring martial law almost like a child playing games or entrust the nation to such leadership?”

South Korea’s ruling party says it will block a move by the opposition to impeach the beleaguered president, Yoon Suk Yeol, as police said they were investigating Yoon for alleged insurrection over his botched attempt to impose martial law.

The floor leader of the People Power party vowed on Thursday that its lawmakers would “unite” to defeat the opposition-led motion to impeach the deeply unpopular leader.

“All 108 lawmakers of the People Power party will stay united to reject the president’s impeachment,” Choo Kyung-ho told a livestreamed party meeting.

Opposition lawmakers need eight ruling party lawmakers to vote with them for the impeachment bill to pass. The opposition says the vote is expected on Saturday.

Yoon now faces multiple investigations, after South Korea’s prosecutor general on Thursday ordered prosecutors to directly investigate the president and other key officials for alleged insurrection over the martial law declaration. Police are conducting a separate parallel investigation.

Both agencies will investigate Yoon, former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun, and martial law commander Park An-su, among others. Prosecutors have already imposed a travel ban on Kim, who resigned as defence minister over his involvement in Tuesday’s martial law order. South Korean presidents do not have immunity from the crime of insurrection, which can carry the death penalty.

Separately, prosecutors have imposed a travel ban on Kim Yong-hyun, who resigned as defence minister over his involvement in Tuesday’s martial law order. Opposition lawmakers have accused Kim of attempting to flee the country, a claim that Kim reportedly dismissed as “political agitation”.

Both the prosecutors’ office and the high-ranking corruption investigation office are reviewing whether they have authority to directly investigate the insurrection allegations or must transfer the cases to police.

It remained unclear on Thursday, though, whether enough members of Yoon’s party would give him the backing needed to avoid impeachment proceedings, as the embattled president sought to deflect criticism of his actions.Yoon plunged the country into political turmoil on Tuesday evening after he declared martial law in a surprise, late-night televised address, saying it was needed to safeguard the country’s from “anti-state forces” and “threats posed by North Korea”. He did not provide details of the threats.

Within hours he was forced to rescind the order when parliamentarians defied an attempted military blockade and assembled to vote it down.

On Thursday, his health minister, Cho Kyoo-hong, said he disagreed with Yoon’s declaration, although he had taken part in a cabinet meeting shortly before the president’s shock announcement.

Cho told a parliamentary session the declaration had been illegal and unconstitutional, but claimed he could not recall if ministers had opposed Yoon at the cabinet meeting. “I was so surprised and flustered,” he said, according to the Yonhap news agency. “To be frank, I do not remember who said what.”

On Thursday morning, Yoon accepted the resignation of his defence minister Kim Yong-hyun and nominated his ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Choi Byung-hyuk, as the new defence minister.

As Yoon has attempted to contain the fallout, more details have emerged of the confusion leading up to one of the most dramatic episodes in the modern history of South Korea, which is Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a key US ally.

Following the declaration, which attempted to ban political activity and censor the media in South Korea, armed troops attempted to force their way into the National Assembly building in Seoul, only to stand back when parliamentary aides sprayed them with fire extinguishers.

Details emerged that high-profile critic and former radio host Kim Ou-joon was forced into hiding after troops were deployed to his YouTube studio in central Seoul.

Around 10 soldiers blocked access to his broadcasting studio shortly after martial law was declared, while another military unit reportedly visited his home with an arrest warrant, prompting his escape to an undisclosed location.

The vice-defence minister, Kim Seon-ho, claimed he had not been told in advance about plans, adding the decision to send troops to the national assembly building had come from the now departed defence minister.

Kim Seon-ho said he had opposed the troop deployment and disagreed with Yoon’s description, made during his televised address, of the assembly as a “den of criminals”.

The US deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, said Yoon had “badly misjudged” the martial law decision, which took the White House by surprise.

He said South Korea would be “in a challenging place” in the next few months and the US goal would be to make clear its alliance with Seoul is “absolutely rock solid.”

Opposition parties need a two-thirds majority to pass the impeachment bill. If it passes, South Korea’s constitutional court will then decide whether to uphold the motion – a process that could take up to 180 days fraught with potential complications due to the court currently having only six justices instead of its full nine-member bench.

“The people and the aides who protected parliament protected us with their bodies. The people won, and it’s now time for us to protect the people,” said Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won.

“We need to immediately suspend the authority of President Yoon. He has committed an indelible, historic crime against the people, whose anxiety needs to be soothed so that they can return to their daily lives.”

If Yoon were to be suspended from exercising power, prime minister Han Duck-soo would fill in as leader.

If the embattled president resigned or was removed from office, a new election would be held within 60 days.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea to the drama in the South.

Yoon had been embraced by leaders in the west as a partner in the US-led effort to unify democracies against growing authoritarianism in China, Russia and elsewhere.

But he caused unease among South Koreans by branding his critics as “communist totalitarian and anti-state forces”. In November, he denied wrongdoing in response to influence-peddling allegations against him and his wife, and he has taken a hard line against labour unions.

Reuters contributed to this report

South Korea’s opposition parties have initiated impeachment proceedings against the president, Yoon Suk Yeol, after his shock declaration of martial law on Tuesday night that was withdrawn within six hours after united opposition from parliament.

The dramatic events, which saw military troops entering the National Assembly before martial law was repealed, marked the most serious challenge to South Korean democracy since the 1980s. Now, with public opinion firmly behind them, opposition lawmakers are moving swiftly towards an impeachment vote.

A poll shows 73.6% of South Koreans support impeaching Yoon, with 69.5% believing his actions amount to insurrection. Support for his removal crosses all traditional political divides, with majorities favouring impeachment even in some conservative strongholds.

The parliamentary process began when opposition parties filed their motion on 4 December citing constitutional violations. After being reported to the National Assembly in the early hours of Thursday, the vote is expected on Saturday. To pass, the motion requires a two-thirds majority – at least 200 votes in the 300-seat parliament.

The opposition coalition holds 192 seats, meaning they need at least eight ruling conservative People Power party members to break ranks. That party’s leader, Han Dong-hoon, has set his party line against impeachment, though some members have previously shown willingness to break with Yoon on other issues.

If the National Assembly passes the motion, Yoon would be immediately suspended from duties, with the prime minister, Han Duck-soo, serving as acting president while the constitutional court deliberates.

However, procedural challenges remain. The court, which currently has only six justices’ positions filled out of nine, requires seven justices to review cases – though it has shown some flexibility in recent months.

For the final judgment, at least six justices must vote in favour of impeachment, though they might be reluctant to begin such a politically sensitive case without a full bench, particularly given the gravity of the decision. Should the court take the case, it has up to six months to rule, though periods when seven justices cannot be present do not count towards this deadline.

South Korea has seen two previous presidential impeachment cases since democratisation: Park Geun-hye was removed from office in 2017 over corruption charges, while Roh Moo-hyun was reinstated in 2004 after the court overturned his impeachment.

Should this first impeachment attempt fail, opposition parties are likely to repeat the process, given that Yoon’s removal had been their goal even before the martial law drama.

If Yoon is ultimately removed or chooses to resign, South Korea would need to hold a presidential election within 60 days.

Islamist insurgents entered the Syrian city of Hama in a battle to seize a vital location on the road to Damascus, marking the latest challenge to Bashar al-Assad’s control of the country.

Militants led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the city from the east on Thursday after surrounding it during five days of fighting with forces loyal to Assad.

Video circulating online suggested that the insurgents had captured a military airport outside Hama, and released prisoners held in a fearsome state detention facility.

As night fell, militant representatives said they had “fully established control over the city of Hama,” and called on police and militias in the city to defect.

“This victory will be without revenge and merciful,” said the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, in a message to the people of Hama.

The Syrian defence ministry initially denied that insurgents had enteredHama, calling its defensive lines “impregnable”. But as fighting intensified and drew closer to the city centre, the Syrian army said it had withdrawn, redeploying its forces “to preserve the lives of civilians and not to involve the people of Hama city in these battles”.

Positioned on a highway that runs down the western side of Syria towards the capital, Damascus, Hama was the site of mass uprisings against Assad in 2011, and then fierce battles when opposition forces attempted and failed to take control of the city in the ensuing civil war.

Hama is also the site of a notorious 1982 massacre, when forces loyal to former president Hafez al-Assad besieged the town to prevent an uprising led by Sunni Muslim opponents of his rule.

The sweeping offensive led by HTS has resulted in Assad losing control of Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, as well as swaths of the northwest of the country. The UN’s World Food Programme said the escalation has displaced more than 280,000 people, “adding to years of suffering.”

The sudden losses appear to have unsettled Assad’s longtime backers in Moscow and Tehran, with Russian forces consumed with their invasion of Ukraine and Iran concerned about its forces being targeted by Israeli airstrikes on Syrian territory, which have increased in the last year.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that Moscow was “closely monitoring”, events in Syria. “Depending on the assessment of the situation, we will be able to talk about the degree of assistance that is needed by the Syrian authorities to cope with the militants and eliminate this threat,” he said.

Gregory Waters, an analyst of the Syrian army with the Middle East Institute, said a combination of low morale, low pay, corruption and dysfunction within the chain of command had contributed to the sudden rout of government forces from areas they had controlled for years.

The Syrian army, he said, was “completely unprepared”, for the insurgent offensive.

Amid reports of rising desertions from the Syrian army or fighters fleeing their positions, Assad issued a decree raising salaries for military personnel by 50% earlier this week. The Syrian president appeared to be seeking to muster a counter-offensive as the fighting drew closer to the capital.

Military support from Iran and Russia has been limited when compared with previous iterations of the conflict in Syria, said Waters.

“I think it’s hard to see a scenario where forces loyal to the regime in Damascus can regain momentum,” he said. “Even if the Russians and Iranian or Iranian-backed forces get more involved, they’re still limited by their own wars. It feels unlikely to reach the level of support we’ve seen previously.”

Islamist insurgents entered the Syrian city of Hama in a battle to seize a vital location on the road to Damascus, marking the latest challenge to Bashar al-Assad’s control of the country.

Militants led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the city from the east on Thursday after surrounding it during five days of fighting with forces loyal to Assad.

Video circulating online suggested that the insurgents had captured a military airport outside Hama, and released prisoners held in a fearsome state detention facility.

As night fell, militant representatives said they had “fully established control over the city of Hama,” and called on police and militias in the city to defect.

“This victory will be without revenge and merciful,” said the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, in a message to the people of Hama.

The Syrian defence ministry initially denied that insurgents had enteredHama, calling its defensive lines “impregnable”. But as fighting intensified and drew closer to the city centre, the Syrian army said it had withdrawn, redeploying its forces “to preserve the lives of civilians and not to involve the people of Hama city in these battles”.

Positioned on a highway that runs down the western side of Syria towards the capital, Damascus, Hama was the site of mass uprisings against Assad in 2011, and then fierce battles when opposition forces attempted and failed to take control of the city in the ensuing civil war.

Hama is also the site of a notorious 1982 massacre, when forces loyal to former president Hafez al-Assad besieged the town to prevent an uprising led by Sunni Muslim opponents of his rule.

The sweeping offensive led by HTS has resulted in Assad losing control of Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, as well as swaths of the northwest of the country. The UN’s World Food Programme said the escalation has displaced more than 280,000 people, “adding to years of suffering.”

The sudden losses appear to have unsettled Assad’s longtime backers in Moscow and Tehran, with Russian forces consumed with their invasion of Ukraine and Iran concerned about its forces being targeted by Israeli airstrikes on Syrian territory, which have increased in the last year.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that Moscow was “closely monitoring”, events in Syria. “Depending on the assessment of the situation, we will be able to talk about the degree of assistance that is needed by the Syrian authorities to cope with the militants and eliminate this threat,” he said.

Gregory Waters, an analyst of the Syrian army with the Middle East Institute, said a combination of low morale, low pay, corruption and dysfunction within the chain of command had contributed to the sudden rout of government forces from areas they had controlled for years.

The Syrian army, he said, was “completely unprepared”, for the insurgent offensive.

Amid reports of rising desertions from the Syrian army or fighters fleeing their positions, Assad issued a decree raising salaries for military personnel by 50% earlier this week. The Syrian president appeared to be seeking to muster a counter-offensive as the fighting drew closer to the capital.

Military support from Iran and Russia has been limited when compared with previous iterations of the conflict in Syria, said Waters.

“I think it’s hard to see a scenario where forces loyal to the regime in Damascus can regain momentum,” he said. “Even if the Russians and Iranian or Iranian-backed forces get more involved, they’re still limited by their own wars. It feels unlikely to reach the level of support we’ve seen previously.”

The mother of the last remaining British hostage in Gaza has said she wants “solutions, not sympathy” as she appealed to the government to help keep her daughter alive.

Mandy Damari gave her first news conference on a visit to London, where she met with senior politicians, pleading for help to bring her daughter and the other 100 remaining hostages home.

Emily Damari, a British Israeli, was kidnapped on 7 October last year and has been a hostage for 426 days. At this time of year, the 28-year-old would normally visit London with her mother to see the festive lights going up.

Mandy Damari described being in the capital as a “painful reminder” of what she has lost, but she hoped that next Christmas they could return to London together. Since her daughter’s ordeal began, the 63-year-old has spent her time in Israel campaigning for a ceasefire deal that secures the hostages’ release and brings an end to the war and “everyone’s suffering”.

“But this week I came to Britain with a different message,” she said.

“And my message is this: A hostage deal may be weeks, months or even further away. Meanwhile, their condition deteriorates every single hour. Much more needs to be done, and much more can be done, to keep Emily and the other hostages alive while they remain in captivity.”

Damari painted a picture of the stark reality facing the hostages, saying they were all at risk of suffering the “most painful and tragic deaths imaginable in the tunnels”.

”Many already have, and words alone will not save those who still remain,” she said.

It is understood that Hamas has “consistently” blocked the hostages from accessing the humanitarian aid coming into Gaza and Damari stressed that some of that aid “must finally reach my daughter and the other hostages”.

“The hostages are fighting tooth and nail to stay alive, they cannot survive a second winter with only our thoughts and prayers,” she added.

Damari has spent the last few days meeting politicians from across the political spectrum on her trip to the UK, and gave special thanks to the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, who told her he would talk to the US president-elect, Donald Trump, about Emily and the other hostages.

However, there was no such praise for the UK government, with Damari expressing disappointment over the actions of the foreign secretary, David Lammy, who she said did not acknowledge her daughter’s individual case in a recent statement published by his office on the need for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza for the winter.

She told the media that she addressed about 100 Labour MPs, including Lammy, at the annual Labour Friends of Israel event on Monday, during which she “specifically and repeatedly asked for action on the hostage aid situation”.

“I appreciate the foreign secretary’s warmth in our personal meetings, but as I have said, I came for solutions, not sympathy. I hope that he is willing to adopt the cause of working to keep Emily alive while we wait for her eventual release,” she added.

Damari grew up in Beckenham, south-east London, and travelled to Israel in her 20s where she raised her family on the Kfar Aza kibbutz. Emily was taken from the same kibbutz last year when she was allegedly shot in the hand, blindfolded and bundled into the back of her own car, before being driven to Gaza.

Although Damari has not had any official confirmation of her daughter being alive for eight months, she believes “she is still with us today”.

“Her situation is dire, and she desperately needs to be released along with every other remaining hostage,” she said. “From what we do know, the hostages have been hidden down in Hamas’s terror tunnel in the network and are being held in shocking conditions without any shred of compassion or mercy.

“Any number of causes could kill Emily – disease, starvation, dehydration, torture, execution or even friendly fire … as I have said before, every day is a new death sentence for her in Gaza,” she added.

A report from Amnesty International alleges that Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip constitutes the crime of genocide under international law, the first such determination by a major human rights organisation in the 14-month-old conflict.

The 296-page report examining events in Gaza between October 2023 to July 2024, published on Thursday, found that Israel had “brazenly, continuously and with total impunity … unleashed hell” on the strip’s 2.3 million population, noting that the “atrocity crimes” against Israelis by Hamas on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war, “do not justify genocide”.

Israel has “committed prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction” with the “specific intent to destroy Palestinians” in the territory, the report said.

It marks the first time Amnesty has alleged the crime of genocide during an ongoing conflict, and builds on a March report by the UN special rapporteur for Palestine that concluded “there are reasonable grounds to believe” Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians.

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call: this is genocide and it must stop now,” Agnès Callamard, the group’s secretary general, said in a news conference on Wednesday.

Amnesty cited the deliberate obstruction of aid and power supplies together with “massive damage, destruction and displacement”, leading to the collapse of water, sanitation, food and healthcare systems, in what it called a “pattern of conduct” within the context of the occupation and blockade of Gaza.

“We did not necessarily start out thinking we would come to this conclusion. We knew there was a risk of genocide, as the international court of justice said,” Budour Hassan, Amnesty’s Israel and occupied Palestinian territories researcher, told the Guardian. “When you join the dots together, the totality of the evidence, it is not just violations of international law. This is something deeper.”

The main allegations in the report are:

• The unprecedented scale and magnitude of the military offensive, which has caused death and destruction at a speed and level unmatched in any other 21st-century conflict;

• Intent to destroy, after considering and discounting arguments such as Israeli recklessness and callous disregard for civilian life in the pursuit of Hamas;

• Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm in repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, or deliberately indiscriminate attacks; and

• Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, such as destroying medical infrastructure, the obstruction of aid, and repeated use of arbitrary and sweeping “evacuation orders” for 90% of the population to unsuitable areas.

As an occupying power, Israel is legally obliged to provide for the needs of the occupied population, Kristine Beckerle, an adviser to Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa team, said on Wednesday. She described Israel’s May offensive on Rafah, until then the last place of relative safety in the strip, as a major turning point when it came to establishing intent.

“[Israel] had made Rafah the main aid point, and it knew civilians would go there. The ICJ ordered them to stop and they went ahead anyway,” she said. “Rafah was key.”

At least 47 people including four children were killed in air strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, according to health officials in the territory, including at least 21 who were sheltering in tent camp housing displaced people near the city of Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas militants.

Amnesty has called on the UN to enforce a ceasefire, impose targeted sanctions on Israeli and top Hamas officials, and for western governments such as the US, the UK and Germany to stop providing security assistance and selling arms to Israel.

The rights group has also urged the international criminal court, which last month issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant, to add genocide to the list of war crimes it is investigating.

Finally, it called for the unconditional release of civilian hostages and for “Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups responsible for the crimes committed on 7 October to be held to account”.

The report, You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, is likely to be met with outrage in Israel and generate accusations of antisemitism. Several legal experts and genocide studies scholars contend that the 7 October attack was also genocidal.

The Holocaust led to the creation of the Jewish state and the Geneva conventions, which codified and outlawed genocide as a punishable crime. Both initiatives were the international community’s “never again” response to the horrors inflicted on European Jews by the Nazis in world war two.

In its conclusion, the report says that Amnesty “recognises that there is resistance and hesitancy among many in finding genocidal intent when it comes to Israel’s conduct in Gaza”, which has “impeded justice and accountability”.

“Amnesty International concedes that identifying genocide in armed conflict is complex and challenging, because of the multiple objectives that may exist simultaneously. Nonetheless, it is critical to recognise genocide, and to insist that war can never excuse it,” it states.

Amnesty said the report was based on fieldwork, interviews with 212 people, including victims, witnesses and healthcare workers in Gaza, analysis of extensive visual and digital evidence, and more than 100 statements from Israeli government and military actors it said amounted to “dehumanising discourse”. It also used video and photo evidence of soldiers committing or celebrating war crimes.

Israel’s acts in Gaza were examined “in their totality, taking into account their recurrence and simultaneous occurrence, and both their immediate impact and their cumulative and mutually reinforcing consequences”, it said. Findings were shared “extensively” on multiple occasions with Israeli authorities, the group added, but were not met with responses.

Thursday’s publication builds on the London-based rights group’s previous bold positions on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. In 2022, Amnesty joined Human Rights Watch and the respected Israeli NGO B’Tselem in issuing a major report accusing Israel of apartheid, as part of a growing movement to redefine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a struggle for equal rights rather than a territorial dispute. Israeli politicians called for the report to be withdrawn, alleging antisemitism.

A nun was among 25 people arrested in Italy on suspicion of being part of a criminal gang with links to the country’s most powerful mafia network, the ’Ndrangheta.

The nun is alleged to have been the conduit between the gang and its associates in prison, prosecutors in Brescia, northern Italy, said on Thursday.

A former councillor with Brothers of Italy, the party led by the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and a former politician with the League, a ruling coalition partner, were also arrested and more than €1.8m in illicit earnings seized by police in the dawn raids across several towns in the Lombardy and Veneto regions, as well as Calabria in the south.

The suspects are accused of crimes including extortion, arms and drugs trafficking, receiving stolen goods, usury, tax crimes, money-laundering and, in the case of the League politician, vote-buying. The Brothers of Italy politician is alleged to have made himself available to the gang “during the execution of crimes”.

Francesco Prete, chief prosecutor in Brescia, told a press conference that the suspects “exploited the criminal fame of the original [‘Ndrangheta] organisation” while adapting it to northern Italy, where they “dealt with fiscal matters”.

Teodoro Catananti, deputy prosecutor, said the gang deployed the “typical violence” used by the ‘Ndrangheta, but “demonstrated a chameleon-like ability to keep up with the times”.

The nun was named in the Italian press as Anna Donelli, 57. According to Rai news, she has been a volunteer at San Vittore prison in Milan since 2010 and has also worked in prisons in Pavia and Rome. In February she was one of the recipients of the “Golden Panettone”, an annual Milanese civic award.

Catananti said she is accused “of external complicity in a mafia association” and served to “convey information” from prison to the criminal group.

Investigators said her “spiritual role” ensured connection with the prisoners and allowed her to have “free access to the penitentiary facilities”.

’Ndrangheta, which originated in Calabria, is one of the world’s richest organised crime groups. It has exploited its vast cocaine revenues to extend its reach across Italy, the rest of Europe and beyond. Earlier this year, more than 130 people were detained in coordinated raids in half a dozen European countries as part of a crackdown against the organisation.

Hundreds of people have been detained in Northern Ireland trying to get into Great Britain by crossing the border from Ireland in an operation aimed at cracking down on people smugglers.

Criminal gangs are charging up to €8,000 for the illegal travel package they present as a safer route to crossing the Channel on small boats , say immigration officials.

The interceptions in Northern Ireland have flowed from a UK Home Office campaign called Operation Comby launched last April as an intensification of the routine immigration intelligence-led Operation Gull, a longstanding joint effort with the Garda Siochána in the Irish republic to stamp out abuse of the common travel area (CTA).

The border security minister, Angela Eagle, said the UK government was taking the fight against people smugglers to “every border”.

“Driven by greed, these gangs have no regard for human life or safety, charging outrageous fees, preying on those desperate to escape hardship, and forcing them into illegal and dangerous situations,” she said.

The CTA allows British and Irish citizens only to travel without passports between the islands of Ireland, Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands but it has become the subject of controversy in Ireland over allegations that irregular migrants are using Belfast as a backdoor to the republic.

A three-day Comby operation focusing on travel in the other direction this week led to 35 arrests and the seizure of £5,000 criminal cash, a car and two sets of forged documents, the Home Office said.

Let by the UK’s immigration enforcement criminal and financial investigations team, in partnership with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Garda, it involved officers in the ports and airports of Northern Ireland, Manchester, Liverpool, Holyhead and Cairnryan.

On Tuesday, Home Office officials detained four individuals trying to board ferries or planes in Belfast. One was an Iranian who appeared to have travelled from Barcelona to Dublin posing as a Ukrainian.

He was stopped by two immigration enforcement officials as he approached the boarding card turnstiles at Belfast airport.

Within minutes, the officers suspected his Ukrainian passport was counterfeit and he admitted to being Iranian.

Officers said the detention could be “low hanging fruit” that led to a potential smuggling gang in Dublin or elsewhere in Europe using the common travel area as a back door to Great Britain.

Jonathan Evans, the inspector at the criminal and financial investigations unit in immigration enforcement in Belfast, said the numerous stamps in the man’s passport were designed to make it look like he was well-travelled.

This suggested the document had been prepared by a criminal gang “to make it look like he has gone through multiple border controls previously” with immigration stamps from other countries.

He added: “We will now run his fingerprints through our databases and talk to Europol,” the officer said. “We will also probably put out a national alert to see if there have been any other Ukrainian counterfeit passports been used and this could lead us to a new method used by organised criminals.”

The surge in the number of asylum seekers going the other direction from Britain to Belfast and then Dublin was the centre of a political row in Ireland earlier this year after the justice minister, Helen McEntee, said there was anecdotal evidence the sharp rise in the number of those seeking international protection were entering the country via Northern Ireland.

Maintaining the invisible border between Northern Ireland and the republic was a political red line during the Brexit negotiations. Ireland and the EU faced down Brexiters who wanted a hard border.

Asylum applications in Ireland have jumped from just under 5,000 in 2019 to more than 17,536 so far this year, according to Irish government data.

Evans say there is evidence that people-smuggling gangs are now also targeting Dublin as a backdoor to the UK as a VIP alternative to small boats across the channel.

Two previous Comby exercises this year resulted in 59 arrests, 12 people detained as part of criminal investigations into suspected people-smuggling, the seizure of forged passports and €430,000 in cash.

Among the nationalities that have used Ireland as a “backdoor” are Syrians and Bedoonis, a stateless Arab minority in Kuwait, and other European nationals who have had what Evans calls “adverse” immigration decisions in Great Britain.

“They are exploiting the common travel area in a way they didn’t before. So what is happening now is that we are using this kind of overt approach of Comby to raise public awareness. This is all about pushing out the gangs,” said Evans.

Debriefing from people desperate enough to pay the gangs to get to Belfast from Dublin show they charge “between €5,000 and €8,000 for the flight from Europe, counterfeit documents, the trip to Belfast and for the ticket to wherever their destination is in the UK”.

“It might cost the gangs €1,000 all in. It is a lucrative business,” Evans said.

Senior Democrats are reportedly considering withholding contributions to Joe Biden’s future presidential library amid a mounting backlash over his decision grant a blanket pardon to his son Hunter.

The threat has emerged as simmering anger among congressional Democrats – already building over the president’s insistence on seeking a second term before belatedly stepping aside as the party nominee in favour of Kamala Harris – has burst into the open over Sunday’s pardon, which Biden had previously vowed not to give.

Axios reported that party grandees were considering taking out their “rage” on Biden’s library project. Planning for the library, in the president’s home state of Delaware, is being spearheaded by the White House deputy chief of staff, Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to Jill Biden, the first lady.

“If they had their shit together, they would have been doing the work on this over the summer – right after he announced he was stepping aside,” the site quoted one unnamed Democrat as saying. “Now, it’s just too late. Hopefully they are rightsizing their expectations and budget!”

Presidential libraries – a tradition begun by Franklin D Roosevelt – are generally funded by a combination of private donors, state and local governments, and university partners. Maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, they are used to house presidents’ papers and documents after they leave office.

A source familiar with Biden’s project played down the possibility of donations being withheld, telling Axios: “That sentiment hasn’t come up in a single donor conversation, and work is well under way.”

However, the fact that it is being publicly mooted is a sign of the internal party disenchantment following the pardoning of Hunter Biden, 54, who was convicted of lying on gun ownership application forms and separate charges of tax evasion. He had been due to be sentenced on both convictions this month. The act of clemency came less than a month after a demoralising election defeat that many privately blame Biden for.

Biden, in his statement, said his son “was treated differently” than other people who had been late paying taxes because they were undergoing addiction problems. Biden pardoned his son for all possible offences committed between 2013 and 2024 – foreclosing the possibility of the incoming Trump administration reopening a case against the younger Biden that might be driven by the president-elect’s often-repeated desire for “retribution” against his political enemies.

The judge in the tax case, Mark Scarsi, accused the president of “rewriting history” in a ruling penned after the pardon. He added that Hunter Biden’s tax offences had been committed after the period of his drug and alcohol addiction.

A procession of Democratic senators and congressmembers have publicly accused Biden of putting his feelings for his son above the national interest and handing Donald Trump an excuse to abuse the presidential clemency powers.

Even Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate and normally a loyal ally of the president, damned him with uncharacteristic reticence this week, telling reporters “I’ve got nothing for you on that” when asked his view.

But party insiders say the outrage is a lightning rod for lingering resentment over Biden’s refusal to drop his bid for a second term until it was too late for Harris or other presidential contenders to be stress-tested in primaries and launch a well-prepared presidential campaign.

“The pardon is simply a resentment delivery vehicle, like dressing on lettuce,” Philippe Reines, a veteran strategist who helped prepare Harris for September’s debate against Trump – which she was widely viewed to have won – told the New York Times.

David Axelrod, a former adviser to Barack Obama, said the pardon gave “a free throw for people who think they can gain political advantage” from separating themselves from an unpopular, outgoing president.

“But,” he added, “there’s also genuine concern and anger about the way the last year went down.”

Senior Democrats are reportedly considering withholding contributions to Joe Biden’s future presidential library amid a mounting backlash over his decision grant a blanket pardon to his son Hunter.

The threat has emerged as simmering anger among congressional Democrats – already building over the president’s insistence on seeking a second term before belatedly stepping aside as the party nominee in favour of Kamala Harris – has burst into the open over Sunday’s pardon, which Biden had previously vowed not to give.

Axios reported that party grandees were considering taking out their “rage” on Biden’s library project. Planning for the library, in the president’s home state of Delaware, is being spearheaded by the White House deputy chief of staff, Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to Jill Biden, the first lady.

“If they had their shit together, they would have been doing the work on this over the summer – right after he announced he was stepping aside,” the site quoted one unnamed Democrat as saying. “Now, it’s just too late. Hopefully they are rightsizing their expectations and budget!”

Presidential libraries – a tradition begun by Franklin D Roosevelt – are generally funded by a combination of private donors, state and local governments, and university partners. Maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, they are used to house presidents’ papers and documents after they leave office.

A source familiar with Biden’s project played down the possibility of donations being withheld, telling Axios: “That sentiment hasn’t come up in a single donor conversation, and work is well under way.”

However, the fact that it is being publicly mooted is a sign of the internal party disenchantment following the pardoning of Hunter Biden, 54, who was convicted of lying on gun ownership application forms and separate charges of tax evasion. He had been due to be sentenced on both convictions this month. The act of clemency came less than a month after a demoralising election defeat that many privately blame Biden for.

Biden, in his statement, said his son “was treated differently” than other people who had been late paying taxes because they were undergoing addiction problems. Biden pardoned his son for all possible offences committed between 2013 and 2024 – foreclosing the possibility of the incoming Trump administration reopening a case against the younger Biden that might be driven by the president-elect’s often-repeated desire for “retribution” against his political enemies.

The judge in the tax case, Mark Scarsi, accused the president of “rewriting history” in a ruling penned after the pardon. He added that Hunter Biden’s tax offences had been committed after the period of his drug and alcohol addiction.

A procession of Democratic senators and congressmembers have publicly accused Biden of putting his feelings for his son above the national interest and handing Donald Trump an excuse to abuse the presidential clemency powers.

Even Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate and normally a loyal ally of the president, damned him with uncharacteristic reticence this week, telling reporters “I’ve got nothing for you on that” when asked his view.

But party insiders say the outrage is a lightning rod for lingering resentment over Biden’s refusal to drop his bid for a second term until it was too late for Harris or other presidential contenders to be stress-tested in primaries and launch a well-prepared presidential campaign.

“The pardon is simply a resentment delivery vehicle, like dressing on lettuce,” Philippe Reines, a veteran strategist who helped prepare Harris for September’s debate against Trump – which she was widely viewed to have won – told the New York Times.

David Axelrod, a former adviser to Barack Obama, said the pardon gave “a free throw for people who think they can gain political advantage” from separating themselves from an unpopular, outgoing president.

“But,” he added, “there’s also genuine concern and anger about the way the last year went down.”

Eating a few pieces of dark chocolate five times a week while avoiding milk chocolate has been linked to a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

The connection between chocolate consumption and type 2 diabetes risk is “controversial”, according to researchers, although they highlight that most previous studies did not explore the difference between types of chocolate.

These subtypes – dark, milk and white – have varying levels of cocoa, sugar and milk, which “may influence the association with risk of type 2 diabetes”, they added.

For the study, the team used data from three long-term studies of nurses and healthcare workers in the US.

The analysis of food frequency questionnaires taken every four years examined the link between type 2 diabetes and total chocolate consumption in 192,028 people, and chocolate type – dark or milk – in 111,654 people.

The average monitoring period was 25 years.

In the group whose total chocolate intake was analysed, 18,862 people developed type 2 diabetes, which happens when the body does not use insulin properly, resulting in high blood sugar.

Researchers found those who were eating a one ounce serving, or 28.3 grams, at least five times a week, were 10% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared with those who never or rarely ate chocolate.

In the group, analysed by chocolate type, 4,771 people developed type 2 diabetes.

The risk of type 2 diabetes among the people who ate one serving of dark chocolate five times a week was 21% lower, the study found. However, an increased intake of milk chocolate, but not dark, was associated with long-term weight gain.

Researchers said further trials were needed to confirm the findings, which have been published in the BMJ.

Diabetes UK estimates that about 4.4 million people in the UK are living with a diabetes diagnosis, with an additional 1.2 million people possibly having undiagnosed type 2 diabetes.

The number of people under 40 diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK has risen 39% in six years, fuelled by rising obesity and cheap junk food.

Britain has one of the highest obesity rates in Europe. Two in three adults are overweight or obese and the NHS spends £6bn a year treating obesity-related ill-health. That is forecast to rise to £10bn a year by 2050.

As of 2022, about 830 million people globally have diabetes, according to the World Health Organization.

Sake is perhaps more Japanese than the world-famous sushi. It’s brewed in centuries-old mountaintop warehouses, savoured in the country’s pub-like izakayas, poured during weddings and served slightly chilled for special toasts.

Now, the smooth rice wine that plays a crucial role in Japan’s culinary traditions – and is a favoured tipple of celebrities such as Cate Blanchett – has been enshrined by Unesco, which has put it on its list of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity”.

At a meeting in Luque, Paraguay, members of Unesco’s committee for safeguarding humanity’s cultural heritage voted to recognise 45 cultural practices and products around the world, including Brazilian white cheese, Caribbean cassava bread and Palestinian olive oil soap.

Unlike Unesco’s World Heritage List, which includes sites considered important to humanity, such as the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Intangible Cultural Heritage designation names products and practices of different cultures that are deserving of recognition.

A Japanese delegation welcomed the announcement in Luque.

“Sake is considered a divine gift and is essential for social and cultural events in Japan,” Takehiro Kano, the Japanese ambassador to Unesco, told the Associated Press.

The Japanese have been drinking it since around the eighth century, originally believing that it warded off evil spirits.

The basic ingredients of sake are few: rice, water, yeast and koji, a rice mould, which breaks down the starches into fermentable sugars like malting does in beer production. The whole two-month-long process of steaming, stirring, fermenting and pressing can be gruelling.

The rice – which wields tremendous marketing power as part of Japan’s broader cultural identity – is key to the alcoholic brew.

For a product to be categorised Japanese sake, the rice must be Japanese.

The Unesco recognition, the delegation said, captured more than the craft knowledge of making high-quality sake. It also honoured a tradition dating back some 1,000 years – sake makes a cameo in Japan’s famous 11th century novel The Tale of Genji as the drink of choice in the refined Heian court.

Now, officials hope to restore sake’s image as Japan’s premier alcoholic drink even as the younger drinkers in the country switch to imported wine or domestic beer and whiskey.

“It means a lot to Japan and to the Japanese,” Kano said of the Unesco designation. “This will help to renew interest in traditional sake elaboration.”

In Tokyo, the Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, in a statement, said he was “delighted” by the inscription of traditional sake-making. Ishiba congratulated those who are dedicated to preserving and promoting the tradition.

Japanese breweries have also expressed hope that the listing could give a little lift to the country’s export economy as the popularity of sake booms around the world amid heightened interest in Japanese cuisine.

Sake exports, mostly to the US and China, account for more than $265m a year, according to the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, a trade group.

Japan’s delegation appeared ready to celebrate on Wednesday – in classic Japanese style. After the announcement, Kano raised a cypress box full of sake to toast the alcoholic brew and cultural rite.

Galaxies crashing together 12bn years ago could have caused the universe’s biggest galaxies to form, according to research.

A study by astronomers at the University of Southampton is hoping to solve what they are calling an “intergalactic mystery” of how elliptical galaxies were created.

How these galaxies, which look similar to bulging footballs compared with the flat disc of the Milky Way, emerged, has been at the centre of research for decades.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, Dr Annagrazia Puglisi said the team were close to coming to an answer.

“Two disc galaxies smashing together caused gas, the fuel from which stars are formed, to sink towards their centre, generating trillions of new stars,” she wrote.

“These cosmic collisions happened some eight to 12bn years ago, when the universe was in a much more active phase of its evolution. Our findings take us closer to solving a long-standing mystery in astronomy that will redefine our understanding of how galaxies were created in the early universe.”

Working with the Purple Mountain Observatory in China and the Chinese Academy of Science, the team has analysed more than 100 star-forming galaxies in the distant universe using the world’s largest radio telescope, known as Alma, in Chile’s Atacama desert.

Study lead Dr Qing-Hua Tan, from the Purple Mountain Observatory, said the research used a new technique that looked at the distribution of light emitted by distant and highly luminous galaxies.

She said: “This is the first real evidence that spheroids form directly through intense episodes of star formation located in the cores of distant galaxies. Astrophysicists have sought to understand this process for decades.

“These galaxies form quickly – gas is sucked inwards to feed black holes and triggers bursts of stars, which are created at rates 10 to 100 times faster than our Milky Way.”

The scientists will combine their findings with data taken from telescopes onboard the James Webb and Euclid satellites, and the Chinese Space Station, to map the stellar components of galaxies.

Puglisi said: “This will give us a more complete picture of early galaxy formation and deepen our understanding of how the universe has evolved since the beginning of time.”

If you thought that YMCA by Village People was a gay anthem, think again. According to Victor Willis, who wrote the lyrics, the famous song is entirely heterosexual – and anyone suggesting something to the contrary should “get their minds out of the gutter”.

“Come January 2025,” Willis added on Facebook, “my wife will start suing each and every news organisation that falsely refers to YMCA, either in their headlines or alluded to in the base of the story, that YMCA is somehow a gay anthem because such notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics alluding to elicit [sic] activity for which it does not.”

YMCA appeared on Village People’s third album, Cruisin’. It was an international smash hit, getting to No 1 in 17 countries on its release in October 1978. A much-loved staple at sports events, wedding receptions and student discos, it has sold 12m copies. In 2020 it was preserved for posterity by the National Recording Registry of the US Library of Congress as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”, and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

That same year, Donald Trump started playing it at rallies, and has done so consistently ever since, often dancing to it and another Village People hit, Macho Man. While most musicians have reacted with horror to Trump using their songs, Willis says that YMCA has “greatly benefited”.

Willis said on Facebook: “The financial benefits have been great … YMCA is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song. Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect’s continued use of YMCA. And I thank him for choosing to use my song.”

It had previously been assumed that the lyrics of YMCA advised young men who were new to a big city to head to the eponymous men’s hostel and gym, where they might find likeminded friends in the communal showers. However, Willis wrote that the line “You can hang out with all the boys” is “simply 1970s Black slang for Black guys hanging out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.”

It is, however, undeniable that the Village People were put together in order to appeal to the burgeoning gay market as disco swept America in the late 70s. Their name comes from Greenwich Village, at that point New York’s most vibrant gay neighbourhood. In 1977, the French disco songwriter Jacques Morali made an album called Village People, on which Willis was the singer.

When it was a hit, Morali, who died of Aids in 1991, recruited the band in New York gay clubs and via an ad which read: “Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance And Have A Moustache.” He dressed them as fantasy gay male archetypes including a cowboy, leather man, cop, Native American and construction worker.

However, they rapidly crossed over to a mainstream audience. In 1979, the US Navy considered using their song In the Navy for a TV recruitment drive, and to this day another tune, Go West, is sung by Arsenal fans, the lyrics changed to “one nil to the Arsenal”.

Perhaps all three Village People hits have returned to their heterosexual roots – although Willis added: “I don’t mind that gays think of YMCA as their anthem.”