Syrian insurgents have entered towns north of the country’s third largest city, Homs, sweeping along a highway that eventually leads to the capital, Damascus, in a lightning-fast advance that has shaken the Middle East.

Militants spearheaded by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took control of the city of Hama on Thursday before moving south, swiftly capturing two key towns on the road south of the city before arriving in Al-Dar al-Kabera, a town five miles from the centre of Homs.

The Syrian government also lost control of the symbolic southern city of Deraa and most of the eponymous province, which was the cradle of the country’s 2011 uprising, according to rebel sources and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

Rebel fighters advanced into Deraa after reaching a deal to give army officials safe passage to the capital Damascus for the army’s orderly withdrawal.

The Russian embassy in Damascus instructed Russian nationals to leave Syria, in a rare show of alarm. Moscow has remained a key ally of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, including providing military support.

Video from the opposition-aligned Aleppo Today channel showed airstrikes targeting Talbiseh on the road between Hama and Homs shortly after it was claimed by insurgents. The defence ministry in Damascus said Russian and Syrian military aircraft were responsible for airstrikes on the Hama countryside, while a strike attributed to forces from Moscow destroyed a bridge along the highway leading into Homs.

Speaking to reporters outside a mosque in Istanbul, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, offered a message of support to the insurgency. He had previously offered to “discuss shaping the future of Syria”, together with Assad, he said, “but we received no response”.

“Idlib, Hama, Homs and after that most probably Damascus … we hope this march in Syria will continue without any issues,” he said. The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Russia are expected to meet tomorrow on the sidelines of a forum in Doha for an urgent meeting on Syria.

The city of Homs sits at a key juncture close to the Lebanese border, connecting the road to Damascus with a highway to the coastal communities, Assad’s heartland and a site of Russian naval bases. Homs witnessed some of the fiercest fighting during earlier phases of Syria’s civil war over a decade ago, with rebel forces engaged in years-long street battles the army and allied Syrian militia forces, as well as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Insurgents have called for the people of Homs to rise up against the regime, telling them “your time has come” in a message circulated online, as thousands fled south to Damascus or west to the coastal province of Latakia. Lebanese officials said they had closed all but one of their border crossings into Syria, while Jordan also closed its one crossing for passengers and people into Syrian territory.

Forces loyal to Damascus appeared to be in retreat across the country, with Assad increasingly losing his grip on major cities in Syria.

In the eastern provincial capital of Deir ez-Zor, Reuters and the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported that a US-backed coalition of Kurdish and local Arab forces had taken control of the city after Syrian government forces and Iran-backed militias withdrew. Video showed the coalition, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, driving military trucks through the centre of Deir ez-Zor.

The Deir ez-Zor military council, an Arab-majority militia that fights with the SDF, said their fighters had deployed in the city and west of the Euphrates river “in order to protect our people” from Islamic state fighters and Turkish-backed rebel forces active in the area.

Unrest also swept Suwayda province, which neighbours Deraa, with local media showing people climbing on top of tanks after Syrian army forces withdrew from a remote area north of the restive provincial capital.

Video from the city of Suwayda, a place where protests against Assad’s rule have increased in recent years, showed people striking a poster with the president’s face and taking control of a local police station.

Fighting to take Homs is expected to prove pivotal in the insurgents’ efforts to sweep south towards the capital. In little over a week their advance saw them rapidly take control of Aleppo, Syria’s second city, as well as full control of Hama after a rapid retreat by Syrian government forces. The unexpected advance marks the first time that both cities have been fully under opposition control since a popular uprising against Assad in 2011 then spilled over into a bloody civil war.

In a rare late-night address, the Syrian defence minister, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, called his forces withdrawal from Hama a “temporary tactical measure”, and said his forces had “deployed to save lives”.

The battle for Homs drew signs of further intervention from Damascus’s longtime allies, particularly Tehran and its proxy forces. Two senior Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Hezbollah had dispatched a small number of “supervising forces” to prevent the insurgents from seizing Homs. Israel said its forces stuck a border crossing between Lebanon and Syria on Friday, targeting what it said was a site used to transfer weapons to Hezbollah.

A senior Iranian official said “it is likely that Tehran will need to send military equipment, missiles and drones to Syria … Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase number of its military advisers in Syria and deploy forces”.

Tehran, which has been focussed on tensions with arch-foe Israel since the Gaza war began last year, began to evacuate its military officials and personnel from Syria on Friday, a sign of Iran’s inability to keep Assad in power, the New York Times reported, citing regional officials and three Iranian officials.

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, held talks with his Iraqi and Syrian counterparts in Baghdad, as Iraqi ministers feared the fighting in Syria could affect their country. While Iraq’s foreign minister promised aid and increased diplomatic efforts, and Araghchi expressed Iran’s “message of support for the Syrian government and people” in facing the insurgency, the ministers offered little beyond statements of support to Damascus.

The HTS leader known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, issued a message to the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, pledging that the fighting in Syria “will not spill over into Iraq”, and urging al-Sudani’s government to “distance itself from the situation in Syria”.

Speaking to CNN, al-Jolani said the insurgents’ aim remains to topple the Assad regime in Damascus.

“When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal,” he said.

So far the rebel advance in Syria appears unstoppable. On Friday, the columns of pickup trucks and motorbikes of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies were reported to have reached the outskirts of the city of Homs, only 100 miles (160km) from Damascus, the capital.

The extraordinarily rapid advance made by the coalition of rebel groups has stunned not only observers and regional powers but also, it appears, the regime of Bashar al-Assad. HTS swept first from its north-western stronghold into Aleppo, the country’s second biggest city, and then Hama, another major city 80 miles further south down the strategic M5 highway.

Assad’s military forces have offered negligible resistance. Poorly trained police officers have been pressed into service, with predictable results. Shortly before the rebels arrived outside Hama, Syria’s defence ministry called its defensive lines “impregnable”. The Syrian army then said it had withdrawn “to preserve the lives of civilians”.

Few are fooled by such claims, particularly from a regime responsible for such vast numbers of civilian casualties over 13 years of civil conflict. Analysts describe Assad’s military as “hollowed out” by poor morale, defections and corruption. Its retreat has left rows of armoured personnel carriers, tanks, even sophisticated Russian-supplied missile launchers and warplanes in rebel hands.

“The question is whether they can continue the momentum and go to Damascus. It looks like a huge groundswell of support for what’s happening and that reveals the brittle nature of the regime,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at London’s Chatham House.

HTS, a former branch of al-Qaida, has made efforts to soften its sectarian image and, possibly, ideology. H A Hellyer, a senior associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, said careful management of relations with diverse communities was one reason for the successes of the last week, pointing to the negotiated entry of the rebels into Ismaili Shia villages as an example. “If they could pull off that kind of approach with Alawite communities then it is all over,” Hellyer said, referring to the heterodox Shia minority of which Assad is a member and from which he draws much of his most loyal support.

There is evidence too of close coordination between rebel forces – the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army sent a convoy to support HTS when it needed reinforcements – which may allay concerns about the unity of the rebels.

This weekend may see the most significant gains yet. Homs province is Syria’s largest in size and borders Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. Homs city, parts of which were controlled by insurgents until a bloody siege in 2014, is a gateway to Damascus, as well as Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, both bastions of regime loyalists.

But anyone hoping for a decisive outcome in the coming days or even weeks may be disappointed. The rebels may not even have thought they could seize Aleppo so swiftly when they launched their offensive last week, and have come a long way very quickly. It is not clear that they will be able to use the heavy weapons or other equipment they have seized, and success could expose the deep divisions between their various factions.

At the same time, the regime’s forces may rally as the initial shock subsides. Assad is already withdrawing forces from Syria’s east to reinforce those around Damascus, ceding key cities such as Deir ez-Zor to Kurdish opposition factions.

“There is a clear level of desperation and they are concentrating defence around strongholds. The big question now is what Iran and Russia do,” said Broderick McDonald, an associate fellow at King’s College London.

Moscow, a key backer that provided much of the firepower that turned the tide of the civil war in Assad’s favour, is distracted by Ukraine but is unlikely to abandon its investment in Syria outright. Tehran too, though weakened by the conflict with Israel, will do what it can after decades of support for the Assad family. Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, fought for the regime in the civil war, and may still be able to offer some assistance despite recent losses in its war with Israel. Hundreds of fighters from Iran-backed militia in Iraq are poised to cross into Syria to fight the rebels.

Then there are Gulf powers who are more likely to back the devil they know than the one they do not, particularly when the main contender is a proscribed jihadi extremist.

This weekend two annual conferences in Bahrain and Qatar will bring together many of the foreign ministers of the region, allowing unofficial discussions and possibly the formulation of a plan to roll back the rebel advance.

“This brings the whole Syrian uprising full circle,” Vakil said. “Assad survived through external support, but this is giving people another shot at the Arab spring … We are in the fog of it but for ordinary civilians this is a real moment, dangerous and uncertain but an opportunity, definitely.”

Israel has sought to enlist Elon Musk’s help in reviving hostage negotiations with Hamas, according to reports in US media.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, called the billionaire tech entrepreneur earlier this week to ask for his help in convincing Donald Trump to pursue a deal, according to CNN.

Trump earlier this week demanded that Hamas release all of the hostages before his inauguration on 20 January or there would be “ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East”.

Nearly 100 hostages, both dead and alive, are believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza since the 7 October 2023 raid by the group.

Musk was Trump’s largest single backer in the election, investing more than $260m into his campaign, according to new financial filings. He has become a key conduit to Trump, sitting in on job interviews, heading up the proposed cost-cutting “Department of Government Efficiency” and serving as an informal envoy to foreign countries.

A source close to the Israeli hostage families, who spoke with Herzog and is familiar with the conversation, told CNN: “There was a chat between [Herzog] and a few hostage families, where one of the subjects discussed was influence on Trump, and Elon Musk’s name came up as someone of influence on Trump. Therefore, keeping an open channel with him is important.”

It was unclear whether Musk agreed to speak with Trump. But earlier this week, the president-elect demanded that a deal be made before he enters office: “Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire world, in the Middle East – but it’s all talk, and no action!”

“If the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity,” he wrote.

Earlier this month, Musk sat down with Iran’s ambassador to the UN for a more-than-hourlong discussion on how to defuse tensions between Washington and Tehran. The meeting, which was held at a secret location according to the New York Times, was described by Iranian sources as “positive” and “good news”.

Musk also joined a phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The tech billionaire has spoken skeptically of US military aid for Ukraine, and Trump has suggested that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia as part of a peace deal, a condition that Ukraine has rejected. Musk has also provided access to his Starlink satellite network to Ukraine, aiding the country’s use of drones and communications equipment.

Musk attended Netanyahu’s controversial speech before a joint session of Congress earlier this year. He previously met with Netanyahu during a visit to Israel last year, as the tech leader sought to quell accusations of antisemitism after personally endorsing a post on his social network X, formerly Twitter, that claimed Jews hate white people.

Musk’s visit also appears to have helped pave the way for SpaceX to provide its Starlink satellite internet to Gaza, which he announced on Tuesday was now in service at a hospital. The single location, which was supported by Israel and the United Arab Emirates, also reflects the tight controls that Israel has put on communications technology in the area.

The pace of medical evacuations of sick and wounded Palestinians out of Gaza, including several thousand children, is so slow it will take five to 10 years to clear the backlog at the current rate, the World Health Organization has said.

Rik Peeperkorn, the UN global health body’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza, said only 78 of 12,000 patients requiring evacuation had managed to leave recently.

Among the 12,000, according to the UN children’s agency Unicef, are 2,500 children, some of whom have died during an often months-long wait to leave for hospitals outside.

The Israeli military often takes months to respond to medical evacuation requests, and the number of evacuations has plunged in recent months.

Since the war began on 7 October 2023, 5,230 patients have been evacuated, according to Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson.

But that rate has slowed since May, when the southern Rafah border crossing to Egypt was closed, with only 342 patients having been evacuated, she said, an average of fewer than two a day.

In a rare exception in November, 200 seriously injured and ill Palestinians and their carers were evacuated from Gaza, in one of the biggest operations of its kind in months, Israel has said.

In some cases, the military rejects either the patient or, in the case of children, the caregivers accompanying them on vague security grounds or with no explanation.

The Israeli decisions appear to be “arbitrary and are not made on a criteria nor logic”, said Moeen Mahmood, the Jordan country director for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Cogat, the Israeli military agency in charge of humanitarian affairs for Palestinians, said in a statement to the Associated Press that it “makes every effort to approve the departure of children and their families for medical treatments, subject to a security check”.

A military official said Israel’s internal intelligence service reviews whether the patient or their escort have what he called “a connection to terrorism”, and if one is found they are refused. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential procedures.

In August MSF applied to the Israeli military to evacuate 32 children and their caregivers, but only six were allowed to leave.

In November, it applied for eight others, including a two-year-old with leg amputations, but Israeli authorities blocked evacuation, it said.

The military official said five of the eight requests in November were approved but the caregivers trying to travel with the children were rejected on security grounds. The official said MSF would have to resubmit the requests with different escorts. The official did not say why the other three children were not approved.

Additionally, Peeperkorn said one of the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza was hit by an Israeli attack on Friday without any prior warning. “There was no official warning or evacuation order before the bombing of … the hospital, only rumours that spread panic,” he said.

The director of Kamal Adwan hospital said earlier that Israel conducted several attacks on Friday that hit the facility, one of the last functioning health centres in the northern area.

Four hospital staff were among a large number of wounded and dead, Hussam Abu Safia said in a statement. “There was a series of airstrikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire.”

Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 44,612 Palestinians and wounded 104,834 since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian territory’s health ministry said on Friday.

Agencies contributed to this report

Elon Musk has emerged as the sole financial architect behind a provocative political action committee that appropriated the name of late US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to bolster Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to federal campaign finance reports released on Thursday.

The RBG Pac, funded entirely by the world’s richest man with a $20.5m donation in the final two weeks of the campaign, ran advertisements and mailers suggesting an ideological alignment between Trump and Ginsburg on abortion.

That’s a narrative that Clara Spera, the justice’s granddaughter, denounced as fundamentally misleading.

“The use of her name and image to support Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, and specifically to suggest that she would approve of his position on abortion, is nothing short of appalling,” she told the New York Times in October.

​​The RBG Pac’s strategic advertising push arrived at a critical political moment, following months of Democratic attacks on Trump’s abortion stance. Its website featured a photo of Trump and Ginsburg with the caption “Great Minds Think Alike” – a claim that directly contradicts Ginsburg’s well-documented judicial philosophy and her personal opposition to Trump.

“Why did Ruth Bader Ginsburg agree with Donald Trump’s position on abortion?” the website asked. “Because RBG believed that the federal government shouldn’t dictate our abortion laws.”

The Pac claimed that Trump doesn’t support a federal abortion ban – something Trump himself said on the campaign trail – although he will face pressure from Republicans and opponents of abortion to enact one once he takes office anyway.

Spera has shared in the past that Ginsburg’s dying wish in September 2020 had been that she was not replaced on the court until a new president was sworn in. That request was ignored by Trump when he appointed Amy Coney Barrett, who would later be part of the conservative majority overturning Roe v Wade.

Musk’s political spending far exceeded this single Pac, ballooning to more than $260m in the 2024 election cycle. His primary vehicle was America Pac, which raised about $252m, with Musk making high-profile campaign appearances and conducting voter outreach initiatives that included controversial $1m giveaways in swing states.

The billionaire’s political donations also extended to a $3m contribution to a Super Pac linked to Robert F Kennedy Jr and nearly $1m directly to Trump’s campaign committee.

Now with the Trump win, Musk is positioned to play a significant role in the incoming administration. He’s set to co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” alongside biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, pledging to dramatically reduce federal bureaucracy.

Enough billionaires and multimillionaires have been assembled by Donald Trump to fill key roles in his nascent administration to form a soccer team.

In a recruitment process that appears to mock his campaign’s appeal to working-class voters, the president-elect has brazenly tapped a gallery of mega-rich backers for key positions that, in some instances, will give them power to cut spending on public services that are used by the most poor and vulnerable.

At least 11 picks for strategic positions after Trump returns to the White House in January have either achieved billionaire status themselves, have billionaire spouses or are within touching distance of that threshold.

The net result will be the wealthiest administration in US history – worth a total of $340bn at the start of this week, before Trump further boosted its monetary value by trying to appoint at least three more billionaires.

Its collective wealth easily outstrips that of Trump’s first cabinet, formed after his 2016 election victory – which at the time was the richest US cabinet ever formed, containing such super-rich members as Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil, who was appointed secretary of state, and Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, who had become wealthy through restructuring bankrupt companies.

It also throws into stark relief the relative impoverishment of the current cabinet of Joe Biden – collectively worth a relatively paltry $118m despite having been repeatedly derided by Trump as representative of a corrupt governing elite that was cheating ordinary working Americans.

The wealthiest – and most prominent – of Trump’s 2024 class is Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur who is the world’s richest man.

Along with Vivek Ramaswamy, another tech entrepreneur who is said to be worth at least $1bn, Musk has been tapped to spearhead a newly created department of government efficiency, already known by its acronym Doge, whose mission is to cut waste from public spending.

The conspicuously extravagant Musk has pledged to cut $2tn from the national budget. He has not explained how or over what period, although he has warned that it may entail “temporary economic hardships”.

Neither Musk nor Ramaswamy will need Senate confirmation, since Doge is not an official government department or agency.

However, Trump has not shied away from nominating billionaire cabinet members who will have to undergo public Senate hearings at which their wealth may become an issue.

These include Linda McMahon, the nominee for education secretary – and a former World Wrestling Entertainment executive – whose husband, Vince McMahon, is worth an estimated $3bn; the North Dakota governor and former businessman Doug Burgum, designated to be secretary of the interior; Howard Lutnick, the chair and chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, who has been nominated as commerce secretary; and Scott Bessent, a hedge-fund manager and former partner at Soros Investment Management, who has been nominated as treasury secretary.

Their collective worth alone amounts to $10.7bn – $4.5bn more than Trump’s first cabinet.

Others subject to Senate confirmation are Charles Kushner – a property tycoon and father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – the prospective ambassador to Paris; Warren Stephens, head of an investment bank and chosen as ambassador to London; Jared Isaacman, a commercial astronaut and entrepreneur who has been nominated to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa); and Kelly Loeffler, a former GOP senator and joint head of Trump’s inaugural committee, now his choice to head the Small Business Administration.

All fall under the billionaire bracket either individually or through marital or family links, according to Forbes.

So, too, does Steve Witkoff, another property tycoon and golfing partner of Trump, who has chosen him as his Middle East envoy. Witkoff’s net worth has been estimated at $1bn.

Then there is Frank Bisignano, nominated as head of the Social Security Administration, where he would be responsible for managing the pensions and benefits of the country’s retirees. The president of Fiserv Inc, a Wisconsin-based financial technology firm, his current wealth is estimated at around $974m.

The president-elect has reportedly offered the deputy defence secretary slot to yet another billionaire, Stephen Feinberg, a private equity investor and co-chair of Cerberus Capital Management, whose personal worth as of July this year was assessed at $4.8bn. It is not known whether Feinberg has accepted.

The gulf between Trump’s taste for the wealthy and his populist everyman rhetoric has not gone unnoticed.

Analysts have long noted the ability of a politician who proudly flaunts his own self-proclaimed billionaire status to tap into popular resentment over stagnating incomes and living standards – accentuated by his laments over the loss of industrial jobs and trade deals that he says have harmed American workers.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, working-class Americans’ real wages have stagnated or declined since the early 1980s, especially as industries moved jobs overseas,” wrote Matthew King, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund, in a blog post. “This may help explain Trump’s working class appeal.”

Trump, King argued, could exploit working-class anxieties because he “knew that pride in God, family, and country would resonate in a way that the progressive messages of other candidates didn’t”.

David Kass, the executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said the goal of what he called Trump’s “government by the billionaires for the billionaires” was huge tax cuts for the super-rich, which would be achieved at the cost of slashing services such as education, social security and Medicaid, which provides healthcare for those with lower incomes.

“Voters wanted a change,” Kass said. “I think what’s going to happen is that people will say, that’s not actually what I wanted. The rich are rich enough and don’t need more tax cuts. How about helping me? I think there’s going to be a huge mobilisation against this [tax cut].”

But King warned that Trump’s emotional resonance may override envy of the rich.

“I still believe that Trump’s working-class appeal will continue to enable him to exploit the working class successfully while funnelling the rewards to the new oligarchy: big businesses and billionaires like Elon Musk,” he wrote.

The South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has apologised for his short-lived attempt to impose martial law this week, promising to face any legal or political consequences hours before parliament is due to vote on his impeachment.

In a two-minute televised address to the nation, his first public appearance since he rescinded the martial law order on Wednesday, Yoon said he was “very sorry” for the decision, which he said was born of desperation, and promised not to attempt to impose martial law a second time.

“I am very sorry and would like to sincerely apologise to the people who were shocked,” Yoon said and bowed. “I leave it up to my party to take steps to stabilise the political situation in the future, including the issue of my term in office.”

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic party, dismissed Yoon’s apology as “very disappointing” and said it had only increased public anger and betrayal.

“The president’s very existence is the biggest risk to South Korea right now,” Lee said, maintaining that there was “no other solution” than his immediate resignation or removal through impeachment.

The leader of Yoon’s own People Power party (PPP), Han Dong-hun, also said that the president’s early resignation was unavoidable and that he was no longer in a position to fulfil his duty, according to the national news wire Yonhap.

On Friday, Han had said Yoon was a danger to the country and needed to be removed from power, increasing the pressure on Yoon to quit even though PPP members later reaffirmed a formal opposition to his impeachment.

It was not clear whether the motion submitted by opposition lawmakers would get the two-thirds majority required for Yoon to be impeached. But it appeared more likely after Han on Friday called for suspending his constitutional powers, describing him as unfit to hold the office and capable of taking more extreme action, including renewed attempts to impose martial law.

Impeaching Yoon would require support from 200 of the National Assembly’s 300 members. The opposition parties that jointly brought the impeachment motion have 192 seats combined.

That means they would need at least eight votes from Yoon’s PPP. On Wednesday, 18 of its members joined a vote that unanimously cancelled martial law 190-0, less than three hours after Yoon declared the measure on television, calling the opposition-controlled parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs. The vote took place as hundreds of heavily armed troops encircled the National Assembly in an attempt to disrupt the vote and possibly to detain key politicians.

The turmoil resulting from Yoon’s bizarre and poorly-thought-out stunt has paralysed South Korean politics and sparked alarm among key diplomatic partners, including neighbouring Japan and Seoul’s top ally, the United States, as one of the strongest democracies in Asia faces a political crisis that could unseat its leader.

Opposition lawmakers claim that Yoon’s martial law declaration amounted to a self-coup and drafted the impeachment motion around rebellion charges.

The Democratic party lawmaker Soyoung Lee sought to reassure the international community on Friday night, saying that her country was open for business.

“If President Yoon is impeached today or tomorrow, there is no need to be alarmed; the international community can continue to invest with confidence in Korea’s strong democracy and resilience,” she said.

The PPP decided to oppose impeachment at a lawmakers’ meeting, despite pleas by Han, who isn’t a lawmaker and has no vote.

But they face a difficult choice ahead of the vote. A recent poll showed 73.6% of South Koreans support impeachment, with majority support even in traditional conservative strongholds.

The Daegu mayor, Hong Joon-pyo, also a PPP member, warned that if Yoon becomes the second president to be impeached following that of former president Park Geun-hye in 2017, “the party will have no reason to exist and will disappear”.

The crisis has also exposed tensions in South Korea’s traditionally rigid political landscape, where voters typically remain loyal to their ideological camp regardless of individual candidates.

Han on Friday said he had received intelligence that during the brief period of martial law, Yoon ordered the country’s defence counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities”.

Hong Jang-won, the first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, later told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Yoon called after imposing martial law and ordered him to help the defence counterintelligence unit to detain key politicians.

The targeted politicians included Han, Lee Jae-myung and the National Assembly speaker Woo Won Shik, according to Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.

While Yoon’s presidency has been plagued by policy missteps, economic woes and controversial personnel appointments, it has also been overwhelmed by scandals involving his wife Kim Keon Hee, who has proved to be his greatest political liability.

These include allegations of stock price manipulation, unlawful involvement in party candidate nominations, and accepting a 3m won (£1,675) Dior bag as a gift from a pastor.

Yoon has vetoed three separate bills seeking to establish a special counsel to investigate his wife, leading opposition lawmakers to include the alleged attempts to shield his family from investigation among their reasons for impeachment.

Parliament is expected to vote on a fourth attempt to establish a special counsel to investigate Kim right before the impeachment motion. The strategy appears designed to ensure ruling party lawmakers attend both votes, rather than boycotting the crucial impeachment decision through absence.

Large-scale protests took place across the country on Friday night, with more demonstrations planned for Saturday.

Labour unions and civic groups announced a major candlelight march near the national assembly, while Korean communities worldwide are staging their own protests, with demonstrations taking place in London, Paris and Berlin calling for Yoon to step down.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report

After the United Healthcare chief executive Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel on Wednesday morning in a “brazen targeted attack”, clue after clue swiftly emerged.

Surveillance video seems to show the shooter leaving a nearby subway station at 6.15am and buying two energy bars, as well as a bottle of water, at a nearby Starbucks, CNN reported.

Moments later, the suspect, sporting a brown jacket, face mask and grey backpack, is recorded meandering near a deli and, about 6.30am, appears to be using the phone, video surveillance seemingly shows. About a half-hour after leaving the subway, video shows him walking to the hotel where Thompson was headed for United’s yearly investor conference, and waiting outside.

The suspect approached Thompson from behind and opened fire, then approached him and kept shooting, continuing on his rampage even after pausing to fix a gun jam. The gunman crossed the street, slipped through an alley, and hopped on an ebike. He then headed north towards Central Park.

As police scoured the scene and expanded search efforts, the plethora of evidence grew. Police sources told the New York Post that bullets used in Thompson’s death appeared to be adorned with the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend”.

As these words are similar to the 2010 book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It, they have prompted questions whether this shooting relates to criticism of the health insurance industry.

Police reportedly discovered a water bottle and cellphone in the alley through which the shooter fled. The best clue might have emerged at an Upper West Side hostel, in surveillance video. He lowered his mask, in what CNN described as a “flirtatious moment”, and flashed a broad smile at a female employee.

Despite the ample surveillance footage, adorned bullets and physical evidence, the shooter remains unidentified and at large for a crime committed in one of this nation’s most policed cities. In fact, police said on Friday that investigators believed the gunman had fled New York City, according to the Associated Press.

His motive remains unknown and speculation has run rampant: was the shooting a professional hit, or was the killer just disgruntled with an unpopular health insurer? Or are there other reasons as yet unknown?

Other high-profile killings offer lessons in not leaping to conclusions after they spawned incorrect theories about motive. Cash App founder Bob Lee’s 2023 killing in San Francisco spawned theories about homeless killers and commentary on violent urban crime. But the accused killer, Nima Momeni, was a consultant whom prosecutors said was avenging an attack on his sister by Lee’s alleged drug dealer, to whom he believed the tech guru introduced her. Jurors are deliberating in that case.

In New York City, Anthony Comello was charged with the 2019 killing of Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, a purported leader in the Gambino mob family. Before Comello was arrested, the death had sparked concerns about the possibility of a mob war. As it turned out, the suspect believed he was helping Donald Trump and believed Cali to be part of the “deep state”.

Vernon J Geberth, a retired NYPD lieutenant-commander who wrote Practical Homicide Investigation, widely considered to be the seminal textbook on murder inquiries, does not believe that the suspect is a professional killer.

“It’s too personal, from my perspective,” said Geberth, who is not involved in the investigation but offering his view based on his years of experience. “Just leaving some of those clues, it’s like somebody making a statement.

“Professional people don’t make statements – they just do the job.”

While there is a lot of evidence, Geberth said, that does not necessarily make for immediate capture of a suspect. Police could glean fingerprints and DNA from the water bottle or cellphone, for example, but that doesn’t lead to a suspect if this information isn’t in a database to which law enforcement has access.

“This person could be someone who never committed a crime before in his life,” Geberth said. “If you’re not in the system, you’re not in the system.”

Geberth said he thinks the killer will be caught as footage of the suspect’s face is now available to the public across America and the world.

“His face is all over the TV right now, there’s a $10,000 reward,” Geberth said. “Somebody, somewhere is going to know him because this case is being covered internationally.”

Mary Ellen O’Toole, who worked as an FBI profiler integral to capturing the Unabomber killer, said the killer exhibited dedicated behavior, but made some mistakes.

Looking at the initial set of facts, “it tells me that the shooter did some homework – quite a bit of planning”. O’Toole noted that the shooting unfolded outside a large hotel, with multiple entrances, but still knew how to make contact with the victim.

“Where did he get that information? We don’t know.”

O’Toole also noted that the gun had a suppressor on it, which is placed on the barrel of a gun to make firing less audible.

“The shooter appears to have planned for an outdoor shooting. Unless you subdued the sound, it could draw attention to you,” O’Toole said “At the same time, having a suppressor on a gun in this shooter’s mind could have just been a cool thing, so it doesn’t just have to be one way or the other.”

Among the most interesting aspects for O’Toole: the shooter kept his cool when his gun jammed, which can be difficult even for trained law enforcement professionals.

“When you’re at the range, sometimes, when people’s guns jam, it can be aggravating, it can be stressful, it can make you angry,” O’Toole said. “If you watch the video of the shooter, there was none of that.

“There was no conversation between the shooter and the victim. He came there not to have a conversation – he came there to kill a CEO.”

As for the trail of evidence left behind, O’Toole believes investigators are keeping an open mind about the fact the suspect left behind casings and bullets, as well as a water bottle nearby.

“They are considering, I’m sure, that those were left there as a ruse or he let his guard down,” O’Toole said. “A good analyst or a good investigator is not going to get locked into one theory.” New York City mayor Eric Adams, who is under indictment for alleged bribery and campaign contribution offenses, said on Friday police were working quickly to catch the killer.

“When you look at the number of hours from the shooting of a fully masked individual and having to bring him to justice, you realize how fast the New York City police department is moving,” Adams said on the 1010 WINS Morning Drive radio show.

“Clearly, this was not a random act. Our preliminary investigation sees this as a targeted shooting, but we are moving closer to apprehending him and taking this dangerous person off the streets of our country.”

Associated Press contributed reporting

The CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Witty, told employees he would increase security, including “perimeter protection”, at the company’s sites following the killing of one of their colleagues, CEO of the company’s health insurance branch Brian Thompson.

In comments shared with the Guardian, Witty said the company would make “permanent” changes that would make campuses less “welcoming”, but they were necessary in the country’s current “climate”.

“We guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe or unnecessary care to be delivered, in a way that makes the whole system too complex and ultimately unsustainable,” Witty said, according to comments shared with the Guardian.

“I have never been more proud of what this company and our colleagues do on behalf of the people in this country. I urge you to tune out the negative messaging you hear on social media,” Witty said.

Witty made the comments in the face of online vitriol in response to the killing of Thompson, a 50-year-old CEO of United HealthCare, who is survived by two sons and his wife, Paulette.

Thompson was killed early Wednesday morning in midtown Manhattan, just outside the site of the company’s annual investor meeting, by an unknown assailant who shot the executive at least twice and then fled on an ebike.

Police are still searching for the suspect, and released photos and information about items found at the scene, including shell casings scrawled with the words, “deny,” “depose” and “defend”. The motive for the killing is unknown.

The killing has been strongly condemned by lawmakers such as Amy Klobuchar, Democratic US Senator of Minnesota, who on social media described Thompson’s death as a “horrifying and shocking act of violence”.

In response to questions about the webcast and comments, a spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group referred the Guardian to a published statement: “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring of kindness and support in the hours since this horrific crime took place.

So many patients, consumers, healthcare professionals, associations, government officials and other caring people have taken time out of their day to reach out. We are thankful, even as we grieve.

Our priorities are, first and foremost, supporting Brian’s family; ensuring the safety of our employees; and working with law enforcement to bring the perpetrator to justice.

We, at UnitedHealth Group, will continue to be there for those who depend upon us for their health care.

We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn the loss of their husband, father, brother and friend.”

In a webcast to employees shared with the Guardian, Witty said that the company would, “provide as much support as we could possibly do to Brian’s family” and “for as long as the family need us”.

Witty then turned to security of the company’s sites: “We’ve also been working hard to make sure that people who feel concerned about security, individually, but more importantly perhaps for our sites, continues to be reviewed and strengthened and to make sure we have put in place all of the appropriate mechanisms to keep our organization and our people safe.”

The CEO also said the company would strengthen the “perimeter protection” of UHC campuses as time goes on.

“We will see permanent changes that will make our sites less welcoming, especially for guests and visitors, but it’s a necessary change to make in the changing climate in this country,” Witty said.

The comments come as corporate CEOs are on edge following Thompson’s death, and as political violence researchers warn that the online reaction to the killing is evidence of the growing acceptability of violence as a means to resolve conflict in the US.

In another part of what appears to be the same webcast, Witty also lambasted the media coverage of Thompson’s death.

“I’d like to give you a little bit of advice around the media,” said Witty in video obtained by reporter Ken Klippenstein and republished by the Daily Beast. “My strong advice and request to everybody is just don’t engage with the media. If you’re approached, I would recommend not responding and, if necessary, simply refer them to our own media organization.”

• The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is confident he and the US president-elect, Donald Trump, will be able to develop a “joint strategy” for Ukraine after speaking to him on the phone, he said in an interview published on Saturday. “I am confident that we can develop a joint strategy for Ukraine. My guiding principle remains that nothing can be decided without giving the Ukrainian people a say,” Scholz told the Funke media group. He added he had spoken with the future US president “in detail” and that his team was in a direct exchange with Trump’s security advisers. “What is important is that the killing ends soon and that Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty are guaranteed,” he said.

• Scholz, however, again ruled out sending long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, which are made in Germany and sought after by Kyiv. The weapons, which could be used to hit targets in Russia, risked an escalation that “must be avoided”, Scholz, who is facing a snap election in February, said in the interview. Friedrich Merz, the conservative opposition leader who is on course to unseat Scholz, has said Germany should send Taurus cruise missiles.

• Russian attacks on the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih in south-eastern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 40, regional officials said. A strike on a car repair shop in Zaporizhzhia turned the facility into a giant fireball and killed 10 people, the regional governor said. Media quoted a local official as saying 24 people were injured, including two children. In Kryvyi Rih, a missile strike on an administrative building killed two people. At least 19 others, including a child, were injured, emergency services said, adding that residential houses were also damaged.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy slammed Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, over the two attacks. “Thousands of such strikes carried out by Russia during this war make it absolutely clear that Putin does not need real peace,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. “Only by force can we resist this. And only through force can real peace be established.”

• The Ukrainian president could use his trip to Paris on Saturday to hold talks with Trump, diplomatic sources have told Reuters. There were efforts to arrange the meeting between Zelenskyy and the incoming US president, who will both be attending the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. The plans would probably not come together until the last minute and any talks would be discreet, the sources added. A Ukrainian delegation met in Washington on Wednesday with Trump’s choice for White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg.

• The European Union needs a “big bang” of spending and policy changes to ramp up its defences in the face of the threat posed by Russia, the bloc’s new defence chief, Andrius Kubilius, has said. “We need to move from what some people are calling incremental improvement of our defence capabilities to some kind of big bang approach,” the former Lithuanian prime minister said, reiterating that Europe needs to invest an additional €500bn ($530bn) on defence over the next decade.

• Kubilius insisted that the real reason Europe needed to step up was the menace of Putin, not the incoming US president. Trump has threatened Washington’s commitment to help protect its allies in Europe and cast doubt on maintaining US support for Ukraine. But Kubilius said that Europe’s industry needed to be able to sustain a “long-term war”.

• Russia could deploy its new Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile in Belarus in the second half of next year, Putin has said after the Russian president signed a mutual defence pact with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, at a summit in Minsk. “I think this will become possible in the second half of next year, as serial production of these systems in Russia increases and as these missile systems enter service with the Russian strategic forces,” Putin said. Russia fired the Oreshnik at a Ukrainian city last month in what Putin described as a first test of the weapon in combat conditions.

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

• The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is confident he and the US president-elect, Donald Trump, will be able to develop a “joint strategy” for Ukraine after speaking to him on the phone, he said in an interview published on Saturday. “I am confident that we can develop a joint strategy for Ukraine. My guiding principle remains that nothing can be decided without giving the Ukrainian people a say,” Scholz told the Funke media group. He added he had spoken with the future US president “in detail” and that his team was in a direct exchange with Trump’s security advisers. “What is important is that the killing ends soon and that Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty are guaranteed,” he said.

• Scholz, however, again ruled out sending long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, which are made in Germany and sought after by Kyiv. The weapons, which could be used to hit targets in Russia, risked an escalation that “must be avoided”, Scholz, who is facing a snap election in February, said in the interview. Friedrich Merz, the conservative opposition leader who is on course to unseat Scholz, has said Germany should send Taurus cruise missiles.

• Russian attacks on the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih in south-eastern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 40, regional officials said. A strike on a car repair shop in Zaporizhzhia turned the facility into a giant fireball and killed 10 people, the regional governor said. Media quoted a local official as saying 24 people were injured, including two children. In Kryvyi Rih, a missile strike on an administrative building killed two people. At least 19 others, including a child, were injured, emergency services said, adding that residential houses were also damaged.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy slammed Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, over the two attacks. “Thousands of such strikes carried out by Russia during this war make it absolutely clear that Putin does not need real peace,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. “Only by force can we resist this. And only through force can real peace be established.”

• The Ukrainian president could use his trip to Paris on Saturday to hold talks with Trump, diplomatic sources have told Reuters. There were efforts to arrange the meeting between Zelenskyy and the incoming US president, who will both be attending the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. The plans would probably not come together until the last minute and any talks would be discreet, the sources added. A Ukrainian delegation met in Washington on Wednesday with Trump’s choice for White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg.

• The European Union needs a “big bang” of spending and policy changes to ramp up its defences in the face of the threat posed by Russia, the bloc’s new defence chief, Andrius Kubilius, has said. “We need to move from what some people are calling incremental improvement of our defence capabilities to some kind of big bang approach,” the former Lithuanian prime minister said, reiterating that Europe needs to invest an additional €500bn ($530bn) on defence over the next decade.

• Kubilius insisted that the real reason Europe needed to step up was the menace of Putin, not the incoming US president. Trump has threatened Washington’s commitment to help protect its allies in Europe and cast doubt on maintaining US support for Ukraine. But Kubilius said that Europe’s industry needed to be able to sustain a “long-term war”.

• Russia could deploy its new Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile in Belarus in the second half of next year, Putin has said after the Russian president signed a mutual defence pact with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, at a summit in Minsk. “I think this will become possible in the second half of next year, as serial production of these systems in Russia increases and as these missile systems enter service with the Russian strategic forces,” Putin said. Russia fired the Oreshnik at a Ukrainian city last month in what Putin described as a first test of the weapon in combat conditions.

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers are afraid he will die during his incarceration at Rikers Island, where he has been since a 2020 rape conviction in New York was overturned on appeal, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

According to Weinstein’s legal team, the disgraced movie producer has faced egregious conditions while jailed, including being left to fester in blood-spattered clothes, wearing the same underwear for weeks and exposure to freezing temperatures. They also allege that he was denied basic medicine for cancer treatment.

Lawyers for Weinstein say that his mistreatment has been so horrific that they suspect it is deliberate by the prison and that their client’s death is the “inevitable outcome”.

Last week, Weinstein’s lawyers filed a legal claim against New York City seeking $5m in damages. They allege that Weinstein is a victim of negligent medical care and is being forced to live in “gulag”-like conditions.

In October, it was reported that Weinstein was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. He was eventually taken to the prison ward at lower Manhattan’s Bellevue hospital after a blood test showed dangerously low levels of white cells, raising his risk of serious infection.

During the lengthy legal proceedings, Weinstein’s legal team had been pushing for him to be allowed to stay full-time in a unit at Bellevue hospital. During his many court appearances, he would often be brought in by wheelchair.

Weinstein’s attorney, Imran H Ansari, told the Hollywood Reporter that his visits to Rikers made him “question whether I was in a prison facility that is supposed to be managed in accordance with our constitution, or a gulag where the prisoners are treated like animals”.

“I don’t want to be speculative, but he is certainly not just another inmate number,” said Ansari. “I’m sure everyone knows this is Harvey Weinstein. This was the guy who was living in the lap of luxury and was at the top of his game in Hollywood, and here he is now.”

Weinstein’s retrial in the rape case at the center of his overturned conviction is scheduled for 2025. Rikers Island is supposed to be closed in 2027, but New York City has postponed closure deadlines.

The Taliban’s ban on Afghan women attending nursing and midwife courses has been condemned as “an outrageous act of ignorance” by human rights organisations.

The official decree detailing the ban has not been shared publicly, but several media reports confirmed that the order was announced at a meeting of the Taliban public health ministry on Monday and communicated to training institutes soon after.

Nursing students and medical trainers from Kabul and the provinces confirmed to the Guardian that they had been informed by their institutes that their courses had been suspended.

“I was preparing for a test on Monday night when I received a message from my teacher about the closure of the institute,” said Sahar*, a 22-year-old nursing student.

“I couldn’t stop crying,” she said. “This was my last hope.”

A group of female students in Herat province gathered at the governor’s office in Herat on Thursday to protest at the closure of health science institutes, chanting “We will not give up our rights” and “Education is our right.”

Another medical student and activist from Kabul said: “A society without female doctors or medical workers is doomed.”

International agencies and human rights organisations joined Afghan women in criticising the ban and raised concerns about women’s rights to education and the impact on women’s access to healthcare.

Samira Hamidi, an Afghan activist and campaigner for Amnesty International, said: “This is an outrageous act of ignorance by the Taliban, who continue to lead a war against women and girls in Afghanistan. This draconian action will have a devastating long-term impact on the lives of millions of Afghans, especially women and girls.

“In a country like Afghanistan, where people are bound to traditional and cultural practices, women in most parts of the country are not allowed to be checked or treated by a male doctor.

“With this ban, it will mean there will be no more midwives, nurses, female lab and medical personnel to serve female patients,” she said.

Heather Barr, at Human Rights Watch, said: “If you ban women from being treated by male healthcare professionals, and then you ban women from training to become healthcare professionals, the consequences are clear: women will not have access to healthcare and will die as a result.”

Maternal healthcare in Afghanistan was precarious even before the Taliban takeover, and the country ranked among the lowest for maternal safety, with 620 women dying for every 100,000 live births in 2020, compared with just 10 in the UK, according to the World Health Organization.

According to data from UNFPA, the United Nations’ reproductive health agency, Afghanistan needs an additional 18,000 skilled midwives for Afghan women to get adequate care.

Canada will boost its military and diplomatic presence in the Arctic to counter what it calls threats from Russia and others seeking a foothold in the far north, as part of a new doctrine unveiled on Friday.

The government envisions the deployment of new patrol ships and navy destroyers, ice breakers and submarines capable of operating beneath ice sheets, as well as more aircraft and drones.

Along with the United States it is modernizing continental defences including surveillance of northern approaches with new maritime sensors and satellites.

The foreign policy document notes that Ottawa for years has sought to manage the Arctic cooperatively with other states and keep it free from military competition.

“However, guardrails that prevent conflicts are increasingly under immense strain,” foreign minister Mélanie Joly told a news conference.

“The Arctic is no longer a low-tension region,” she said, blaming Russian designs on the Arctic and deepening geopolitical rivalries.

The minister said Russia was also teaming up in the far north with China, which is itself seeking greater influence in the governance of the region.

The Arctic is warming on average four times faster than the rest of the world. That is opening up new opportunities for shipping and exploration of resources such as oil, gas and minerals.

The growing access is heightening security challenges, defense minister Bill Blair warned.

Canada’s revised doctrine, he said, calls for strengthening military capabilities to “conduct and sustain operations in the Arctic” where biting cold and unpredictable storms, long periods of darkness, and drifting sea ice pose severe hazards.

Ottawa will also seek deeper collaboration – including more joint military drills – with allied Nordic nations, of which five are now also Nato members with the recent additions of Finland and Sweden.

The report outlining Canada’s shift highlighted recent increased Russian activity along the edges of North American airspace.

It also called “deeply troubling” Russian weapons testing and deployment of missile systems in the Arctic capable of striking North America and Europe.

Canada accused China of regularly deploying in the north vessels equipped with dual-use military-research capabilities to collect data.

In response, Canada will now apply a national security lens to foreign research in its Arctic region, while Ottawa explores ways to deepen Arctic cooperation with Japan and South Korea, similar to the allies’ Indo-Pacific partnership.

It will also create a new Arctic ambassador post and open consulates in Alaska and Greenland, as it seeks to settle a boundary dispute with the United States in the Beaufort Sea and finalize a deal with Denmark to split Hans Island.

In 2022, Canada and Denmark agreed to in effect create the first land border between Canada and Europe on the tiny, barren and uninhabited outcrop in the Arctic.

The judge in Daniel Penny’s subway chokehold death trial agreed on Friday to dismiss the manslaughter charge against him, leaving jurors only to consider the lesser count of criminally negligent homicide.

Judge Maxwell Wiley’s decision stemmed from prosecutors’ request to dismiss Penny’s second-degree manslaughter charge after jurors deadlocked twice on that count. Jurors were not able to consider the criminally negligent homicide count until reaching a verdict on second-degree manslaughter.

By agreeing to dismiss this top charge, jurors will be able to continue deliberating the case. Wiley has instructed them to return to court on Monday, according to CNN.

“Judge Wiley is letting the DA withdraw the manslaughter charge. He’ll let the jury consider just criminally negligent homicide now. That’s big for precedent. That also means Penny is now off the hook for manslaughter, though,” Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker said on X.

Penny had been tried on second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, whom Penny held in a chokehold for about six minutes on a New York City subway car in 2023.

The panelists sent Wiley a note on Friday morning stating they were unable to agree on a verdict on the manslaughter charge.

Wiley then read them what is known as an Allen charge – an instruction urging them to make every possible effort to reach a verdict.

As he pressed the jurors to continue, Wiley commended them for being “very conscientious in your deliberations”, noting that it was not uncommon to have difficulties in reaching a verdict.

But he warned that if they cannot, a new trial will have to be scheduled with a different jury and there was no reason to think any other jury would be more fair or hard-working than them.

He said two and a half days of deliberations may seem like a long time, but “given the factual complexity of the case, I don’t think it’s too long”.

They reportedly sent another note to Wiley on Friday afternoon saying once again that they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the manslaughter count. Manhattan prosecutors then successfully requested a dismissal of that count in particular.

Criminally negligent homicide involves engaging in serious “blameworthy conduct” while not perceiving such a risk. Manslaughter, meanwhile, requires proving that a defendant recklessly caused another person’s death.

Penny’s lawyers say he was protecting himself and other subway riders from a volatile, mentally ill man who was making alarming remarks and gestures. Prosecutors say Penny reacted far too forcefully to someone he perceived as a peril, not a person.

Neely, a 30-year-old street artist and Michael Jackson impersonator, entered a New York City subway car in May 2023. Witnesses say he began yelling at passengers that he was hungry and thirsty and that he did not care whether he died.

Penny then grabbed Neely from behind and restrained him on the train floor in a chokehold that reportedly lasted for several minutes. Neely lost consciousness during the struggle and later died in the hospital. The incident was captured on video by other subway riders.

Penny later told police that he “just wanted to keep him from getting to people”, and described Neely as “a crackhead” who was “acting like a lunatic”.

Prosecutors argued in court that Penny’s actions were reckless and that he consciously disregarded the substantial risk of putting Neely in the chokehold for such a long period of time. They argued that Penny’s use of lethal force should be considered unjustifiable.

Defense attorneys countered by telling the jury that Penny’s actions were only motivated by a desire to protect the subway passengers. They added that Penny never intended to kill Neely, while prosecutors said that an intention to kill was not necessary for a conviction in this case.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

The remains of a Pennsylvania woman who fell into a sinkhole were recovered Friday, four days after she went missing while searching for her cat, a state police spokesperson said.

Trooper Steve Limani said the body of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard was sent to the coroner’s office of Westmoreland county near Pittsburgh for an autopsy after rescuers used machinery to bring her to the surface.

Limani told reporters that Pollard’s body was found at about 11am approximately 30ft (nine meters) underground, some 12ft (four meters) from the opening of the sinkhole. Limani said Pollard apparently fell onto a cone-shaped pile of debris created by the crumbling mine, then rolled or otherwise moved toward the south-west to where her body was recovered.

The autopsy may help determine whether Pollard was killed by the fall, Limani said.

Pollard was last seen four days earlier near the sinkhole, above a shuttered coal mine. The sinkhole was reported to have opened directly above the abandoned mine.

The search for Pollard began on Monday after her family reported she went missing while searching for Pepper, her lost cat. Searchers quickly focused on the sinkhole that may have only recently opened up in the village of Marguerite. The sinkhole was reported to have a manhole-sized surface gap.

“The sinkhole, it appears that it was most likely created during the time while, unfortunately, Miss Pollard was walking around,” the Pennsylvania state trooper Steve Limani told ABC affiliate WTAE-TV. “There is no evidence of any time where that hole would have been here prior to her deciding to walk around looking for her cat.”

A challenging excavation has been ongoing at the site of the 70-year-old abandoned coal mine.

Shortly after Pollard went missing, authorities were able to locate her five-year-old granddaughter in her parked car near the sinkhole. Despite being in freezing temperatures for about 12 hours, the girl was unharmed.

Axel Hayes, Pollard’s son, said a state trooper told him and other family members that her body had been found.

“I was hoping for the best, I really was,” Hayes said in a phone interview with the Associated Press. “I was hoping she was still alive, maybe in a coma or something. I wasn’t expecting all of this.”

Mike O’Barto, the chairperson of the Unity Township board of supervisors, said the tragedy was deeply felt among his friends and neighbors.

“Unity Township is a tight-knit community. We are made of several coal mining towns. And of course, Marguerite’s one of them,” O’Barto said. “And when people suffer, we all suffer. The people of Unity Township are sad today.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting