South Korean police have raided the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol over his role in declaring martial law last week – a move that plunged Asia’s fourth-biggest economy into crisis and caused alarm among its allies.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the search on Wednesday was part of an attempt by law enforcement agencies to establish whether Yoon’s actions, supported by other senior figures in his administration, amounted to insurrection – a crime that does not carry presidential immunity and can carry the death penalty.

A special investigation unit confirmed it raided the presidential office and other agencies. “The special investigation team has conducted a raid on the presidential office, the National Police Agency, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, and the National Assembly Security Service,” the unit said in a message sent to Agence France-Presse.

News of the raid came as officials said that Yoon’s former defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, had attempted suicide while in custody at a detention centre in Seoul, where he had been held since Sunday.

Kim, who was formally arrested earlier Wednesday after a court approved a warrant for him on allegations he played a key role in a rebellion and abuse of power, was in a stable condition, Shin Yong-hae, commissioner-general of the Korea Correctional Service, told lawmakers.

Kim became the first person arrested over the 3 December martial law decree and now faces charges including “engaging in critical duties during an insurrection” and “abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights”.

A spokesperson for the Seoul Central District Court told AFP that the formal arrest of Kim came amid concerns that evidence might be destroyed.

Two top police officials were also taken into custody in the early hours of Wednesday, as the investigation into the political turmoil caused by the martial law declaration gathered pace.

At least several hundred protesters rallied late on Tuesday outside the National Assembly, waving glow sticks and holding signs that read, “Impeach Yoon Suk Yeol, the insurrection criminal.”

The offices of ruling party lawmakers were being vandalised, local media reported on Tuesday, with one image showing a door covered in what appeared to be ketchup, and eggs and flour scattered on the floor.

Protesters also were sending condolence flowers to the offices, typically reserved for funerals, to express their opposition to the boycott, with signs reading “insurrection accomplices”.

Local police in Seoul’s Dobong district told AFP that an unspecified “weapon” was found in front of PPP lawmaker Kim Jae-sub’s residence, and he has requested additional security.

Yoon suspended civilian rule a week ago and sent special forces and helicopters to parliament, before lawmakers forced him to rescind the decree in a country assumed to be a stable democracy.

Kim was contrite on Tuesday, saying through his lawyers that “all responsibility for this situation lies solely with me”.

He “deeply apologised” to the South Korean people and said that his subordinates were “merely following my orders and fulfilling their assigned duties”.

Earlier on Tuesday, Army Special Warfare Command chief Kwak Jong-geun told lawmakers that Yoon had ordered him to stop enough MPs from gathering at parliament to vote down the martial law decree.

“The president called me directly through a secret line. He mentioned that it appears the quorum has not yet been met and instructed me to quickly break down the door and drag out the people [lawmakers] inside,” Kwak said.

Lawmakers passed a motion on Tuesday to appoint a special counsel to investigate the martial law case.

Yoon’s ruling party said it is forging a “resignation roadmap” that reportedly could see him step down in February or March before fresh elections, while the opposition plans to organise an impeachment vote every Saturday.

A day after Yoon was barred from travelling abroad, authorities banned more top officials from leaving the country, including Cho Ji-ho, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, police told AFP.

Cho and Kim Bong-sik, the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, were arrested early on Wednesday without warrant, Yonhap news agency reported. They can be held for up to 48 hours for questioning before a formal arrest.

Already under a travel ban are the former defence and interior ministers and martial law commander General Park An-su, who along with other top brass was grilled by lawmakers on Tuesday.

Yoon narrowly survived an impeachment effort in parliament on Saturday as tens of thousands braved freezing temperatures to call for his ouster. The motion failed after members of Yoon’s ruling People Power party (PPP) boycotted the vote, depriving the legislature of the necessary two-thirds majority.

The PPP says that Yoon, 63, has agreed to hand power to the prime minister and party chief, prompting the opposition to accuse it of a “second coup”.

A party task force was reportedly reviewing two options for a way forward, including for Yoon to resign in February with an April election, or to step down in March with a vote in May.

With the opposition holding 192 seats in the 300-strong parliament, only eight PPP members need to vote in favour of a new impeachment motion for it to pass.

Last week, two PPP lawmakers – Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Yea-ji – voted in favour, and two more said Tuesday they would support the motion this time.

With Agence France-Presse

Syria’s leading rebel group has named a new prime minister to head the country’s transitional government as outside powers move to shore up their interests in the wake of the Assad regime’s collapse.

The new prime minister, Mohammad al-Bashir, previously ran an administration in Idlib under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the strongest of the rebel groups which have moved into Damascus and other cities.

Bashir said in a brief address on state television that he had been meeting members of the transitional government and the ousted regime, and that he would stay in his post until 1 March.

“Now it is time for this people to enjoy stability and calm,” Bashir said in a separate interview with Al Jazeera.

Israel stated its intention on Tuesday to create a “sterile defensive zone” inside Syria’s southern border, after a bombing campaign aimed at the Syrian navy, alleged chemical weapons sites and other military assets left behind by the regime.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later said that it carried out more than 480 strikes over the previous 48 hours, hitting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in Syria to stop them from falling into the hands of extremists.

In northern Syria, Turkish forces bombed Kurdish targets, and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army clashed with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are backed by the US. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said at least 218 people had been killed in three days of fighting between the two forces in Manbij, north-east of Damascus.

The Turkish attacks on the SDF put into question the viability of the small US military presence in northern Syria as well as in SDF-run prison camps where Islamic State (IS) fighters and their families have been held. US troops there operate in partnership with the SDF.

Early on Wednesday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said the SDF and the Turkey-backed rebels had reached a ceasefire agreement in Manbij through US mediation.

Charles Lister, the director of the Syria programme at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said: “The SDF have always made it clear that, if its existence was in danger, the prisons would not be the priority.

“US troops can only stay on the ground if their SDF partners are viable.”

The Biden administration, with less than six weeks left to run, has been cautious in its response to events. As a transitional government was named in Damascus, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, called for an “inclusive” political process and said US recognition would depend on Syria’s new masters meeting those standards.

“The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria. All nations should pledge to support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from external interference,” Blinken said in a statement.

“The United States will recognise and fully support a future Syria government that results from this process.”

The early signs from Damascus were that the HTS was trying to maintain exclusive control of the transition process.

“It’s not a good sign that the transition in Damascus is being led only by this one group,” Lister said, pointing to HTS’s past “dictatorial practices” in Idlib.

Representatives of neighbouring states and Gulf Arab nations have reportedly held meetings with HTS officials and were widely expected to recognise the transitional government in the coming days.

Western countries have generally maintained their distance. The US, UK and UN had previously designated HTS as a terrorist group from its past affiliation with al-Qaida, and European countries had largely followed suit.

Western capitals have indicated they are ready to rethink that designation depending on HTS’s behaviour, and US officials are reported to have had unofficial contacts with HTS.

HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, sought to allay fears over how Syria would be ruled, telling Sky News on Tuesday that the country was “exhausted” from war and would not be heading back into one.

“Syria will be rebuilt,” he said. “The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It’s going towards stability.”

The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, was expected to convene an international conference on the situation later this week in Geneva, as events on the ground continue to unfold at high speed.

The future of Russian military sites in Syria, such as the naval base at Tartus, the Khmeimim airfield near Latakia, and other military outposts, remained in the balance on Tuesday.

Under the leadership of Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the HTS has so far refrained from attacking Russian military assets. Russian state media reported that the Syrian opposition had “guaranteed” the security of its facilities, while Moscow said it was ready to talk to Syria’s new rulers.

Ryan Crocker, a former US ambassador to Syria said: “Both Russia and the HTS recognise that neither needs a new struggle right now.”

However, it was unclear whether the rebels would allow Russian forces to continue to operate at their Syrian bases in the longer term, given Moscow’s role, until a few days ago, of providing the Assad regime with air power and relentlessly bombing civilian targets in opposition-held territory.

Agence France-Presse reported that new satellite images of Tartus showed there were no Russian ships in port as of Monday, but the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, denied Moscow had abandoned the base.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: “For Putin and the Iranian regime, the fall of Assad is a huge blow for both.” Speaking to an European parliamentary committee on Tuesday, Kallas added there were legitimate concerns about the risks of sectarian violence and a resurgence of extremism in Syria.

The dissolution of Kurdish-run prisons holding IS fighters could supercharge a recent resurgence in IS attacks in Syria and possibly beyond, posing an early dilemma for Donald Trump.

Over the weekend, the president-elect posted on social media to emphasise his opposition to any US involvement in Syria.

“The United States should have nothing to do with it. This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved!” he wrote.

The US has an estimated 900 troops in northern Syria as part of a counter-IS mission in partnership with the SDF. On Sunday, US forces carried out dozens of airstrikes on 75 IS targets. The head of US central command, Gen Erik Kurilla, said: “There should be no doubt – we will not allow [Islamic State] to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria.”

Crocker said: “Trump said we should stay out of conflict, but we are already in it. However, our ability to stay there and contain [IS] is very much in question.”

Israeli warplanes have intensified an air offensive in Syria, striking hundreds of military targets and destroying entire squadrons of fighters, radar and missile systems, missile stores and much of the small Syrian navy.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said late on Tuesday that it carried out more than 350 strikes over the previous 48 hours, hitting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in Syria to stop them from falling into the hands of extremists.

The strikes came as Israeli troops consolidated their hold on a demilitarised zone in Syria east of the occupied Golan Heights and seized a strip of mountainous territory extending northwards.

Images from the Mediterranean port of Latakia posted on social media and broadcast by local TV networks showed the charred wreckage of at least six warships sunk or badly damaged.

The Israeli airstrikes began in the hours after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last weekend and have also targeted what Israel says are suspected chemical weapons and long-range rockets.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said during a visit to a naval base in Haifa: “The IDF has been operating in Syria in recent days to strike and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the state of Israel. The navy operated … to destroy the Syrian fleet with great success.”

He said Israeli troops had been deployed to Syria to create a “sterile defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats”.

On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were moving to control a roughly 155 sq mile (400 sq km) buffer zone in Syrian territory. Hours later, Israeli media reported that Israeli troops had established positions along the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, to the north of the Golan Heights.

An Israeli military official admitted on Tuesday that Israel had advanced beyond the buffer zone, saying its troops had seized “some other points”, but he denied reports of Israeli troops heading deeper into Syria.

“IDF forces are not advancing towards Damascus. This is not something we are doing or pursuing in any way,” Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson, said at a briefing. The Syrian capital is 25 miles from Israeli troops’ positions.

“We are not involved in what’s happening in Syria internally, we are not a side in this conflict and we do not have any interest other than protecting our borders and the security of our citizens,” Shoshani said.

Israeli troops also now control a long stretch on the Syrian side facing Lebanon’s Rashaya region, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Syria. The new Israeli positions on the Syrian side of the 2,814-metre (9,000ft) Mount Hermon offer a prized vantage point.

Israel occupied much of the Golan Heights during the 1967 war. The buffer zone was established in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, which started when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel.

The Times of Israel reported that Israeli officials now considered void the agreement establishing the buffer zone, and that Israeli soldiers may end up holding their new positions inside Syria “for a long time, depending on the developments in the country”.

Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned Israel’s incursion, accusing it of exploiting the disarray in Syria and violating international law.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “We strongly condemn Israel’s violation of the 1974 separation of forces agreement, its entry into the separation zone between Israel and Syria and its advance into Syrian territory.”

The ministry accused Israel of “displaying a mentality of an occupier” at a time when the possibility of peace and stability had emerged in Syria. The statement also reiterated Turkey’s support for Syria’s “sovereignty, political unity and territorial integrity”.

The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, told Israel that its airstrikes and ground invasion into Syrian territory had to stop and said its actions were in violation of the 1974 agreement.

A spokesperson for the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said: “We’re against these types of attacks. I think this is a turning point for Syria. It should not be used by its neighbours to encroach on the territory of Syria.”

The fall of the Assad regime has prompted a scramble for power, influence or other strategic advantages among regional powers hoping to exploit the chaos or seeking to head off potential dangers.

The White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday that US officials were in close contact with Israeli officials and Syrian opposition groups. He said Joe Biden was staying fully briefed by his national security team and that his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was travelling to Israel on Wednesday.

Kirby said the US was not involved in any Israeli operations in Syria, and Israel had made clear these were “temporary measures to ensure their own security”. He said the US wanted to ensure that the Syrian people were able to determine their future and that there was a Syrian-led evolution toward “better and more representative governance”.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 six-day war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognised by the international community, except for the US.

The rest of the world views the strategically important plateau as occupied Syrian territory.

Israel had an uneasy but stable relationship with the Assad regime, with security officials broadly convinced that the authoritarian Syrian ruler had been deterred from any attacks on Israel.

A key objective of Israel is to deny Iran the opportunity to rebuild its influence in Syria after the fall of its key ally and to prevent any supplies sent by Tehran from reaching Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist militant movement in Lebanon.

The suspect in the shooting death of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, shouted: “This is completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people” on Tuesday before he fought being extradited from Pennsylvania to face murder charges in New York.

During the hearing, Luigi Mangione was denied bail, meaning he will return to custody at Pennsylvania’s Huntingdon state correctional institution while navigating the process to contest extradition, which could take days – if not a month or more, as the New York Times noted.

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, said in a statement that she will sign the Manhattan district attorney’s request for a governor’s warrant to force an extradition “to ensure this individual is tried and held accountable”.

Mangione, 26, appeared for the proceeding in handcuffs and an orange prison jumpsuit, and video showed him yelling as police led him into the courthouse. Not all of what he shouted was immediately intelligible.

Defense attorney Thomas Dickey, who is representing Mangione, said outside the courthouse that he would be challenging his client’s imprisonment by filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, according to the New York Times. The judge gave him 14 days to challenge the detention.

In an interview with CNN following Mangione’s extradition hearing, Dickey added his client will be pleading not guilty to the charges he faces in Pennsylvania.

Mangione was arrested on Monday at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in connection with Thompson’s killing outside a Manhattan hotel hosting a meeting of investors in the CEO’s company.

The authorities in Pennsylvania detained him after he was recognized by a local person from photographs released by New York police investigating the murder.

Police found Mangione with a firearm suppressor, a mask like the gunman’s, a fake New Jersey ID matching the one the police say the gunman used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, and a handwritten document, according to New York authorities.

On Monday night, Mangione was charged with second-degree murder, forgery and three gun charges by prosecutors in New York, following his arraignment at the Blair county courthouse in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he faces separate charges of carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities and possessing “instruments of crime”.

During the arraignment hearing on Monday, the judge asked Mangione if he understood the charges against him, and he said he did. No plea was entered and he was denied bail.

As detectives begin piecing together Mangione’s history, one area of focus has been the chronic back problems that he appears to have suffered since childhood.

Investigators could explore whether Mangione was denied insurance coverage for his condition.

He also appears to have withdrawn from social connections months earlier, prompting one to write on social media: “I don’t know if you are ok or just in a super isolated place … but I haven’t heard from you in months.”

The Mangione family released a statement on Monday evening, stating that the family was “shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest”.

“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson, and we ask people to pray for all involved,” they added.

Among other things, Mangione is entitled to an evidentiary hearing in Pennsylvania after his decision to fight extradition. Prosecutors will also have to summon at least one witness, which could give the public a closer look at the case that it otherwise may not receive.

As also noted by the New York Times, the office of the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, will be required to submit what is known as a governor’s warrant to her Pennsylvania counterpart Josh Shapiro to formally request extradition before the process begins in earnest.

Peter Weeks, the district attorney in Blair county, Pennsylvania, said that his office would be prepared for when a judge schedules a hearing “to do what’s necessary” to get Mangione to New York, according to CNN.

“We do not intend to delay this defendant’s extradition to New York and we certainly – we’ve indicated to New York, their prosecution should take precedence, and then ours will follow,” Weeks told reporters after the extradition hearing on Tuesday.

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, appears to have suffered from a rare back condition called spondylolisthesis, according to posts linked to him on the social media site Reddit.

While not confirmed, archived Reddit posts under the username “Mister_Cactus” and elements of Mangione’s other social media accounts, as well as an account by a friend, seem to confirm that he suffered from a back condition that caused him chronic pain.

“Fwiw I’m 25 years old with a L5/S1 fusion. It’s clear to me that the day my spondy went bad to the point where I felt it every day, I had crossed the threshold into surgery though it took me a year to realize this,” he commented in April this year, according to the archived posts.

Spondylolisthesis is a fracture or weakness in the vertebrae of the spine, sometimes caused by playing certain sports as a child, which can cause the vertebra to shift or slip, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. If the slip is classified as high-grade, it can cause “significant pain and nerve injury and to need surgery to relieve their symptoms and prevent further deterioration”.

Surgical treatment can involve spinal treatment and “stabilization with rods and screws”. Mangione’s banner image on X included an X-ray image that appears to show rods and screws inserted into a the lower spine.

In one Reddit post, from July 2023, Mangione complained of pain that had grown more extreme after a surfing accident and a slip, writing: “Yea when I went surfing 1.5 years ago, I experienced sciatica for the first time. Basically the extension movement destabilized my spondy. A few weeks later I slipped on a piece of paper and my right glute locked and right leg shut down for a week.”

RJ Martin, a friend and former roommate of Mangione’s told CNN on Monday that soon after Mangione moved to Hawaii, he was “in bed for about a week” with back pain after a surfing lesson.

“It was really traumatic and difficult, you know, when you’re in your early 20s and you can’t, you know, do some basic things,” Martin said.

Mangione encouraged other Reddit users to get surgery. “To be honest, once the pain becomes low-grade but all the time, it could be time for surgery,” he wrote in April this year.

“I mean the situation sucks for sure, but the solution isn’t to retreat into a bubble.”

Amazon has removed merchandise featuring the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose”, which were reportedly written on bullet casings found at the site of the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.

Since last Wednesday’s fatal shooting, items such as T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, caps, pint glasses and more bearing the words “deny, defend, depose” have been available for purchase on online retail stores including eBay, Amazon, Etsy and other sites.

Reports citing law enforcement purport that the words “deny, defend, depose” were found written on the bullet casings at the site of the Thompson’s killing on 4 December in midtown Manhattan and may be a reference to the tactics critics say health insurance companies use to avoid paying claims. A New York Times report asserted the words on the bullet casings were “deny” and “delay”, calling to mind Delay, Defend, Deny: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It, a 2010 book that was critical of the rapacious, largely privatized US healthcare system.

Whatever the case, Amazon on Monday told the Washington Post that it had removed merchandise with that phrase from its website after the newspaper contacted the online retailer for comment.

In a statement to the newspaper, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the retail company said that the products violated their guidelines. The statement stopped short of specifying which guidelines those were.

As of Tuesday morning, a search for the three-word phrase on Amazon now yields Delay, Defend, Deny by author and law professor Jay Feinman. It appeared to be sold out.

There are also several songs titled Deny, Defend, Depose available for purchase.

It is unclear how much of the Deny, Defend, Depose merchandise was bought on Amazon before the items were removed.

And while the items have been pulled from Amazon’s platform, lots of items featuring the phrase and words are still available on many other websites and online marketplaces, including eBay, Etsy, and TikTok as of Tuesday morning. Shoppers can buy a variety of items sporting the phrase, including clothing, water bottles, Christmas ornaments, bedsheets and more.

A spokesperson for eBay told the Washington Post that its policies do not ban the sale of items featuring the phrase Deny, Defend, Depose but “items that glorify or incite violence, including those that celebrate the recent murder of … Thompson, are prohibited”.

Etsy and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO on 4 December generated widespread anger online among those frustrated with the US healthcare system, leading some to voice their support for the shooter and even view him as a folk hero.

A recent report by the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University – which monitors online threats – found that six of the top 10 most-engaged posts on the social media platform X regarding Thompson’s murder either “expressed explicit or implicit support for the killing” or “denigrated the victim”.

The suspect, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, had not yet been identified when the Deny, Defend, Depose merchandise first began circulating online shortly after Thompson’s murder. Other merchandise featuring stills from the surveillance footage was also being sold online – and a jacket similar to the one the shooter was wearing in surveillance video quickly sold out.

After Mangione was arrested and identified as the prime suspect in the case, his social media accounts quickly gained hundreds of thousands of followers.

Mangione was arrested on Monday in Pennsylvania and was arraigned later that evening on charges of five crimes in the state of Pennsylvania, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities and possessing instruments of crime.

Later Monday night, he was charged with murder by prosecutors in New York.

Representatives of more than 80 Māori tribes have issued a rare plea to King Charles III requesting his intervention in New Zealand politics, amid growing tension over the government’s policies for Māori and a souring of the relationship between Indigenous people and ruling authorities.

The National Iwi Chairs Forum – a collective of tribal leaders – has sent an open letter to the King asking him “to ensure that the [New Zealand] government does not diminish the crown’s honour” over what they believe to be ongoing breaches of the crown’s promises made to Māori in the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of New Zealand.

Since it took office last year, New Zealand’s rightwing coalition government’s policy direction for Māori has sparked the biggest ever protest over Māori rights, mass meetings of Māori leaders and condemnation from the Waitangi Tribunal, an institution that investigates breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty is an agreement signed in 1840 between more than 500 Māori chiefs and the British Crown and is instrumental in upholding Māori rights.

The forum has provided the Guardian with first access to the letter, which is signed by more than 500 people, including tribal leaders, representatives of Māori organisations and others.

The chair of Ngāti Wai tribe and chair of one of the forum’s groups, Aperahama Edwards, told the Guardian that Māori are tired of their concerns going unheard.

“We’ve had 184 years of pandering to the decency and goodwill of the government and it is not reciprocated, so the thinking here is to bring [these issues] to the attention of King Charles with the hope he can intervene.”

The rationale behind many of the government’s proposals is to end “race-based” policies, tackle crime and reduce bureaucracy. The coalition has said it is committed to improving outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders.

But critics fear its policies, including rollbacks of the use of Māori language in public services, the dismantling of an institution designed to remedy inequities in health, and the introduction of a controversial bill that seeks to radically alter the way the treaty is interpreted are undermining Māori rights, igniting anti-Māori rhetoric and eroding the Māori relationship with the crown.

Māori make up 20% of New Zealand’s population and face disproportionally negative outcomes in health, housing ownership, employment rates, education and prison numbers.

Margaret Mutu, a forum chair and professor at the University of Auckland who helped write the letter, said she was concerned the coalition’s policies were a serious violation of the treaty. She hoped the King would remind the government of its treaty obligations.

The two-page letter begins with an acknowledgment of the King’s relationship to the late Māori King Tuheitia and a hope the relationship will continue to thrive under the new Māori Queen, Nga wai hono i te po.

It references Queen Victoria’s negotiations with Māori chiefs to establish the treaty in 1840 and the crown’s breaches of those promises in the years since. It says in recent years the relationship between Māori and the crown had been developing well but that had changed under the new government.

The letter claims the new coalition government “has promised to attack” the treaty and the rights of Māori.

The letter lists legislative changes that are causing the greatest concern, including putting up barriers to revitalise the Māori language, policies that could further disconnect Māori children from their ancestry if they are taken into state care, reducing the function of the Waitangi Tribunal, putting the land and sea at risk of mining and more.

The letter points to a speech the King made at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in 2022 where he discussed a need to “forge a common future that benefits all our citizens” and “find new ways to acknowledge our past” and appealed to the King for help.

“As a constitutional monarch of the crown and a descendant of Queen Victoria, we seek your intervention to ensure that the government does not diminish the crown’s honour,” it said, adding the signatories are united in their “grave concerns about what these actions will do to our whānau [families]”.

Edwards said the obligation to honour the promises of the treaty rests not only in the descendants of the chiefs that signed it, but in the descendants of Queen Victoria: King Charles III.

“We believe that his environmental and social justice concerns and influence can play a crucial role in reminding the government of the importance of upholding the sacred agreements of [the treaty],” Edwards said.

When asked to respond to the letter’s claims, New Zealand’s minister for Māori Crown Relations, Tama Potaka, told the Guardian: “While we don’t always agree on everything, the Government remains committed to working with iwi and Māori to help achieve shared interests”.

Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.

Edwards said the forum had yet to hear back from the palace, but he hoped the King would read the letter and offer some support because the wellbeing of Māori and the treaty relationship was at stake.

“We’re turning to some of the saddest times experienced in our country … we will not sit by and be complacent.”

Representatives of more than 80 Māori tribes have issued a rare plea to King Charles III requesting his intervention in New Zealand politics, amid growing tension over the government’s policies for Māori and a souring of the relationship between Indigenous people and ruling authorities.

The National Iwi Chairs Forum – a collective of tribal leaders – has sent an open letter to the King asking him “to ensure that the [New Zealand] government does not diminish the crown’s honour” over what they believe to be ongoing breaches of the crown’s promises made to Māori in the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of New Zealand.

Since it took office last year, New Zealand’s rightwing coalition government’s policy direction for Māori has sparked the biggest ever protest over Māori rights, mass meetings of Māori leaders and condemnation from the Waitangi Tribunal, an institution that investigates breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty is an agreement signed in 1840 between more than 500 Māori chiefs and the British Crown and is instrumental in upholding Māori rights.

The forum has provided the Guardian with first access to the letter, which is signed by more than 500 people, including tribal leaders, representatives of Māori organisations and others.

The chair of Ngāti Wai tribe and chair of one of the forum’s groups, Aperahama Edwards, told the Guardian that Māori are tired of their concerns going unheard.

“We’ve had 184 years of pandering to the decency and goodwill of the government and it is not reciprocated, so the thinking here is to bring [these issues] to the attention of King Charles with the hope he can intervene.”

The rationale behind many of the government’s proposals is to end “race-based” policies, tackle crime and reduce bureaucracy. The coalition has said it is committed to improving outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders.

But critics fear its policies, including rollbacks of the use of Māori language in public services, the dismantling of an institution designed to remedy inequities in health, and the introduction of a controversial bill that seeks to radically alter the way the treaty is interpreted are undermining Māori rights, igniting anti-Māori rhetoric and eroding the Māori relationship with the crown.

Māori make up 20% of New Zealand’s population and face disproportionally negative outcomes in health, housing ownership, employment rates, education and prison numbers.

Margaret Mutu, a forum chair and professor at the University of Auckland who helped write the letter, said she was concerned the coalition’s policies were a serious violation of the treaty. She hoped the King would remind the government of its treaty obligations.

The two-page letter begins with an acknowledgment of the King’s relationship to the late Māori King Tuheitia and a hope the relationship will continue to thrive under the new Māori Queen, Nga wai hono i te po.

It references Queen Victoria’s negotiations with Māori chiefs to establish the treaty in 1840 and the crown’s breaches of those promises in the years since. It says in recent years the relationship between Māori and the crown had been developing well but that had changed under the new government.

The letter claims the new coalition government “has promised to attack” the treaty and the rights of Māori.

The letter lists legislative changes that are causing the greatest concern, including putting up barriers to revitalise the Māori language, policies that could further disconnect Māori children from their ancestry if they are taken into state care, reducing the function of the Waitangi Tribunal, putting the land and sea at risk of mining and more.

The letter points to a speech the King made at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in 2022 where he discussed a need to “forge a common future that benefits all our citizens” and “find new ways to acknowledge our past” and appealed to the King for help.

“As a constitutional monarch of the crown and a descendant of Queen Victoria, we seek your intervention to ensure that the government does not diminish the crown’s honour,” it said, adding the signatories are united in their “grave concerns about what these actions will do to our whānau [families]”.

Edwards said the obligation to honour the promises of the treaty rests not only in the descendants of the chiefs that signed it, but in the descendants of Queen Victoria: King Charles III.

“We believe that his environmental and social justice concerns and influence can play a crucial role in reminding the government of the importance of upholding the sacred agreements of [the treaty],” Edwards said.

When asked to respond to the letter’s claims, New Zealand’s minister for Māori Crown Relations, Tama Potaka, told the Guardian: “While we don’t always agree on everything, the Government remains committed to working with iwi and Māori to help achieve shared interests”.

Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.

Edwards said the forum had yet to hear back from the palace, but he hoped the King would read the letter and offer some support because the wellbeing of Māori and the treaty relationship was at stake.

“We’re turning to some of the saddest times experienced in our country … we will not sit by and be complacent.”

Mohammed bin Salman personally lobbied David Cameron earlier this year to intervene in the legal case of a London-based dissident who is suing the Saudi government, amid threats by its officials that the issue “could have implications” for £100bn of investment in the UK.

UK government documents obtained by the Guardian show that Cameron asked senior Foreign Office (FCDO) officials to propose options after the extraordinary intervention by the Saudi crown prince over the case brought by Ghanem Al-Masarir, a prominent critic of the Saudi royal family who is living under asylum protection in the UK.

At the centre of Masarir’s case are allegations that Saudi Arabia ordered the hacking of his phone and that he was physically assaulted by agents of the kingdom in London in 2018.

The targeting and hacking of Masarir’s phone by a network probably linked to Saudi Arabia was confirmed by researchers at The Citizen Lab, the University of Toronto, who are considered among the world’s leading experts in tracking digital surveillance of dissidents, journalists and other members of civil society.

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia brought up the court case with Cameron, the then foreign secretary, on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting held in Riyadh in late April.

Prince Mohammed’s lobbying followed earlier pressure from senior Saudi ministers, acting at his behest, who warned the issue could have “implications for existing and future Saudi investment in the UK which we are told is more than £100bn”, according to a summary prepared by British officials.

The Guardian obtained the records through a freedom of information request. It is a summary drawn up by civil servants in a briefing pack for a subsequent ministerial visit to Saudi Arabia by Kemi Badenoch, the current Conservative leader but the then trade secretary, in May 2024. Details emerged as Keir Starmer concludes a visit to the Middle East, including talks with the crown prince.

In January, the court of appeal struck out a claim by Saudi Arabia’s lawyers intended to prevent the case going ahead. The high court had ruled in 2022 it could proceed despite Saudi claims of state immunity, after the kingdom failed to pay £210,000 as security for Masarir’s costs.

Masarir said it was “shocking and unacceptable that [the crown prince] believes he can manipulate the UK government to intervene in my legal case … His recent request to the UK to take action against my case underscores his belief that judicial systems worldwide can be treated like Saudi Arabia’s – where courts have never been independent and serve only to advance his personal agenda.”

Masarir added that Prince Mohammed was “trying to strong-arm the UK into undermining its legal system. This blatant attempt to weaponise Saudi wealth is not just an attack on justice for me but on the UK’s judicial independence”.

British officials, who were not named in the public records, characterised the 2022 high court ruling as containing a “somewhat novel legal opinion” in the judge’s finding that only part of the alleged harm needed to have occurred in the UK. They noted: “We are exploring whether there is any possibility that [the UK government] could seek to challenge this interpretation in court.”

The summary said that Prince Mohammed’s intervention “comes off the back of the Saudi deputy foreign minister, a senior adviser to the royal court and the Saudi national security adviser raising the matter previously at [Prince Mohammed’s] behest”.

It added: “The Saudis are concerned that a prejudicial ruling in this case could cut across the principle of sovereign immunity, which in turn could have implications for state assets.

“The issue is exacerbated by the debate in the UK (and elsewhere) around the use of seized Russian assets to financially support Ukraine, which has also been raised by Saudi ministers (including of finance, commerce and investment) on multiple occasions over the last two years.”

Any intervention would now pose a challenge for the UK government’s chief legal officer, Richard Hermer KC. Before his appointment as attorney general in Starmer’s government, Hermer acted for Masarir as his lead barrister in his high court claim.

The revelation is the latest example of Prince Mohammed seeking to exploit legal protections that are granted to sovereign leaders in courts around the world to escape legal accountability for alleged acts of transnational repression carried out by the Saudi state.

Two years ago, a US judge dismissed a lawsuit against the crown prince that claimed he had conspired to kill the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In his ruling, the judge said the crown prince was entitled to sovereign immunity despite “credible allegations” that he was involved in the murder.

Judge John Bates, a US district court judge acknowledged “uneasiness” at the time in the decision, but said his hands were in effect tied by the Biden administration’s recommendation that Prince Mohammed be given immunity.

The decision to grant immunity came shortly after the crown prince was suddenly promoted to the role of prime minister, a move that human rights defenders said was a ruse to escape accountability.

According to a summary of their talks issued by Downing Street, Starmer invited the crown prince to the UK and expressed hope the two leaders could watch a football game between meetings.

The British government declined to say if it was still considering its options.

Donald Trump’s vow to carry out the largest deportation campaign in American history would separate families and hurt the economy, witnesses testified during a Tuesday Senate hearing, as a top Republican on the committee warned that undocumented people living in the country should “get ready to leave”.

The president-elect has outlined an aggressive second-term immigration agenda that includes plans to declare a national emergency and deploy the US military to round up and expel millions of people living in the country without documentation. Trump has also vowed to end humanitarian protections for millions of people who fled violence, conflict or other disasters in their home countries.

The hearing, convened by Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, set out to explore the economic and human toll of a large-scale deportation operation. But the session also revealed the ideological tensions that have for decades thwarted legislative attempts at immigration reform.

“If you’re here illegally, get ready to leave. If you’re a criminal, we’re coming after you,” said Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate judiciary committee. When Republicans assume the Senate majority next year, Graham promised, his party would bring forward a “transformational border security bill” that would expand capacity at detention centers, boost the number of immigration officers and “finish the wall”.

Many of Trump’s most controversial immigration policies, including family separation, proved deeply unpopular during his first term in office. But a post-pandemic rise in global migration led to a surge of asylum claims at the US-Mexico border during the early years of the Biden administration. Americans strongly disapproved of Biden’s handling of the issue, and ranked immigration as a top election issue.

The November election was a “referendum on the federal border policies for the Biden-Harris administration”, the senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and the ranking member on the judiciary committee’s immigration subcommittee, declared during the hearing.

The Democratic senators insisted that there were areas of common ground between the parties – repeatedly stating their support for the removal of immigrants with criminal records and the need for better controls at the border. And they emphasized the broad support for protecting Dreamers, people brought to the country as children.

“Instead of mass deportations, [let’s have] mass accountability,” said the senator Dick Durbin, the committee’s Democratic chair. “Let’s fix our broken immigration system in a way that protects our country and honors our heritage as a nation of immigrants.”

Democrats turned to their witnesses – an immigration expert, a retired army major general and an undocumented prosecutor – to make the case that mass deportations would do far more harm than good.

“The president-elect’s mass deportation plans would crash the American economy, break up families and take a hammer to the foundations of our society by deporting nearly 4% of the entire US population,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan American Immigration Council, testified to the committee.

An analysis by his group estimates that it would cost nearly $1tn to carry out Trump’s mass deportation plan and slash the annual GDP by between 4.2% and 6.8% – a level on par with the recession of 2008. Asked how Trump’s plans could affect Americans financially, Reichlin-Melnick said it would exacerbate inflation and cause food prices to rise.

“A single worksite raid in 2018 under the Trump administration at a beef plant in Tennessee led to ground beef prices rising by 25 cents for the year that the plant was out of operation following the raid,” he said.

Randy Manner, a retired US army major general and anti-Trump Republican, cautioned against using US troops to assist with a politically decisive domestic mission that he warned could undermine military readiness and erode public trust in the institution.

“The US military is the best trained in the world for its war fighting mission, but it is neither trained or equipped for immigration enforcement,” he said.

Among the witnesses invited to testify was Foday Turay, an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia who fled Sierra Leone as a child and testified that he did not know he was undocumented until he went to apply for a driver’s license. He is shielded from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

As a father, a husband, an immigrant and a prosecutor, Turay said the threat of mass deportations would affect him “on a personal level, on a community level and on a societal level.

“If I were to be deported, my wife and our son would be left without money to pay the mortgage. My son would also be without a father,” he said. He also warned that the widespread deployment of immigration agents could chill the ability of law enforcement to pursue criminals.

“As a prosecutor, I know how delicate the ties between law enforcement and immigrants can be if immigrants are afraid to cooperate with the police or prosecutors like myself because they’re afraid of deportation,” he added. “Mass deportation hurts all of us, our families, our community and our society.”

Republicans invited Patty Morin, the mother of 37-year-old Rachel Morin, who was beaten, raped and killed in August 2023 during a hiking trip. Officials say the suspect in her death was in the US illegally after killing a woman in his native El Salvador. Trump, with the support of the Morin family, has cited the murder as part of his appeal for stricter border controls.

“The American people should not feel afraid to live in their own homes,” Patty Morin told the committee. “We need to follow the laws that are already on the books, we need to close our borders. We need to protect American families.”

Seeking common ground, the Democratic senator Peter Welch of Vermont asked Morin if she would support a deportation policy that targeted undocumented people with a criminal record while pursuing a legal remedy for those who have lived and worked in the US with no criminal record.

“Are we saying it’s ok to come to America in an unlawful way?” Morin replied. “There has to be some kind of a line, a precedent, of what is lawful and what isn’t lawful.”

The senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who has been sharply critical of Trump’s immigration proposals, accused his Republican colleagues of distorting data and conflating fentanyl deaths with immigration. Citing federal statistics, he said the vast majority – more than 80% – of people prosecuted for trafficking the drug into the country were US citizens.

“If that’s a concern, then let’s address the heart of the concern and not just use it as a sound bite to further attack immigrants,” he said.

Ahead of the hearing, Padilla was among a group of Democratic senators who sent a letter to the president urging Biden to extend humanitarian protections to certain groups and to expedite the processing of applicants for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which shields from deportation undocumented people brought into the US as children.

“We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the president-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families,” the letter said.

Earlier this week, the White House released a memo outlining Biden’s priorities for his final days in office that did not include any reference to immigration-related actions.

The Duke of Sussex is attempting to turn his case against the publishers of the Sun into a “public inquiry” to seek accountability for others who have already settled claims, the high court has heard.

Prince Harry faces up to four days of “very extensive” questioning in the witness box in the legal action he and Tom Watson, a former Labour deputy prime minister, brought against News Group Newspapers (NGN) over allegations of unlawful information gathering. NGN denies the allegations.

The court heard at a pre-trial hearing that there were nearly 60 proposed witnesses on behalf of the claimants and 65 on behalf of the defendants. The judge, Justice Fancourt, said that “simply does not work” in the eight-week timeframe for the trial, which is scheduled to start in January.

Anthony Hudson KC, for NGN, accused the claimants of trying to call irrelevant witnesses over “generic issues” relating to their allegations.

Referring to a transcript of an interview Harry gave at a New York Times event last week, he said the duke had claimed people were forced to settle claims for financial reasons. He quoted him saying there was “no justice for any of these claimants, which now stands at about 1,300 claimants”.

He said Harry had added: “They’ve settled because they’ve had to settle. So, therefore, one of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I am that last person that can actually achieve that, and also closure for those 1,300 people and families.”

Hudson told the judge: “We say what this is clearly about is almost by definition a public inquiry. That is what the duke is seeking. That’s what he’s trying to achieve through this litigation.

“Civil litigation must not be turned into a public inquiry”.

The duke’s case and the witnesses called should focus on the 30 articles and 20 episodes at issue in the trial, and not include previously settled cases which the duke now sought to “re-litigate”, Hudson said.

David Sherborne, for the claimants, said the defendants had “restricted what they say is relevant in order to suit their position because they don’t want generic findings made”.

In written argument, he said NGN “seeks to limit the number of journalists to just 23 [appearing to exclude without explanation almost all editorial/executive staff and desk executives]”.

Fancourt said both sides needed to focus on the essential issues in the timeframe set. “It is not a public inquiry, and there are time constraints,” he said.

Harry alleges he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for NGN, which also published the now defunct News of the World. Watson claims he was a target for NGN’s “unlawful activities” as a member of the culture, media and sport select committee which was investigating media malpractice.

The publisher has previously denied unlawful activity took place at the Sun. The hearing is expected to conclude on Wednesday afternoon.

The Duke of Sussex is attempting to turn his case against the publishers of the Sun into a “public inquiry” to seek accountability for others who have already settled claims, the high court has heard.

Prince Harry faces up to four days of “very extensive” questioning in the witness box in the legal action he and Tom Watson, a former Labour deputy prime minister, brought against News Group Newspapers (NGN) over allegations of unlawful information gathering. NGN denies the allegations.

The court heard at a pre-trial hearing that there were nearly 60 proposed witnesses on behalf of the claimants and 65 on behalf of the defendants. The judge, Justice Fancourt, said that “simply does not work” in the eight-week timeframe for the trial, which is scheduled to start in January.

Anthony Hudson KC, for NGN, accused the claimants of trying to call irrelevant witnesses over “generic issues” relating to their allegations.

Referring to a transcript of an interview Harry gave at a New York Times event last week, he said the duke had claimed people were forced to settle claims for financial reasons. He quoted him saying there was “no justice for any of these claimants, which now stands at about 1,300 claimants”.

He said Harry had added: “They’ve settled because they’ve had to settle. So, therefore, one of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I am that last person that can actually achieve that, and also closure for those 1,300 people and families.”

Hudson told the judge: “We say what this is clearly about is almost by definition a public inquiry. That is what the duke is seeking. That’s what he’s trying to achieve through this litigation.

“Civil litigation must not be turned into a public inquiry”.

The duke’s case and the witnesses called should focus on the 30 articles and 20 episodes at issue in the trial, and not include previously settled cases which the duke now sought to “re-litigate”, Hudson said.

David Sherborne, for the claimants, said the defendants had “restricted what they say is relevant in order to suit their position because they don’t want generic findings made”.

In written argument, he said NGN “seeks to limit the number of journalists to just 23 [appearing to exclude without explanation almost all editorial/executive staff and desk executives]”.

Fancourt said both sides needed to focus on the essential issues in the timeframe set. “It is not a public inquiry, and there are time constraints,” he said.

Harry alleges he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for NGN, which also published the now defunct News of the World. Watson claims he was a target for NGN’s “unlawful activities” as a member of the culture, media and sport select committee which was investigating media malpractice.

The publisher has previously denied unlawful activity took place at the Sun. The hearing is expected to conclude on Wednesday afternoon.

Ten patients suffering from a mystery disease that has broken out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have tested positive for malaria, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

However, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the patients could have more than one disease simultaneously.

“Of the 12 initial samples collected, 10 tested positive for malaria, although it’s possible that more than one disease is involved. Further samples will be collected and tested to determine the exact cause or causes,” a WHO spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Cases of unidentified illness in a remote part of the DRC have caused alarm, with specialist teams from the WHO and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention sent to investigate. Those investigations are continuing.

The DRC’s health minister said last week that the disease had killed 79 people in the Panzi health zone since 24 October, with 376 cases identified. Most were children under five.

The main symptoms are similar to flu, with patients experiencing headaches, coughing, difficulty breathing and anaemia.

At a briefing on 5 December, Dieudonne Mwamba, the head of the DRC’s National Institute for Public Health, said the symptoms pointed to a respiratory illness, but without a clear diagnosis it was hard to know the cause, and whether it was a virus or bacteria.

He said the affected area was “fragile”, with 40% of people there experiencing malnutrition. The DRC is also dealing with an mpox outbreak and seasonal flu.

There is little testing capacity, and samples from patients have been transported to a regional laboratory in Kikwit, 300 miles away, as well as the national reference laboratory in Kinshasa, more than 400 miles away, a journey of two days by road.

Amid speculation that the outbreak could represent “Disease X” – a term used to describe a previously unknown pathogen with the potential to cause a pandemic – the WHO emphasised it was “an undiagnosed disease rather than an unknown” one.

Officials said a respiratory pathogen such as flu or Covid-19 was being investigated as a possible cause, as well as malaria, measles and others.

In an update on Sunday, the WHO said the affected area “experienced deterioration in food insecurity in recent months, has low vaccination coverage and very limited access to diagnostics and quality case management”.

It said there was also a shortage of health staff, supplies and transportation, with “very limited” malaria control measures.

Three suspected Islamist extremists have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of preparing a “serious act of violence”, with an assault rifle and knives also seized, authorities said on Tuesday.

Police swooped on the homes of two German-Lebanese brothers aged 15 and 20 in the city of Mannheim, and a 22-year-old German-Turkish man from the Hochtaunus district of Hessen state on Sunday.

German media reports said they were planning to attack Christmas markets in either Frankfurt or Mannheim.

Local prosecutors and police said in a statement that the act they were planning could have “endangered the state”, without disclosing further details.

Germany has faced a string of attacks and plots by suspected Islamists in recent years and has been on high alert since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

The brothers detained in Mannheim, who had a “strong religious ideology and profound sympathy” for the Islamic State (IS) group, had made concrete preparations for an attack, authorities said.

The assault rifle, along with ammunition, was found during a search of the 22-year-old German-Turkish man’s home, they said. Several knives, a balaclava and mobile phones were also turned up during searches.

But officials stressed that “at no point was there any concrete danger to the public”. The suspects are in pre-trial detention.

Roman Poseck, Hessen state interior minister, praised law enforcement officials for making the arrests in “good time, before any acts could be carried out”.

Poseck added: “At the same time, it is once again clear that the security situation is tense.”

Germany has in recent times seen a series of allegedly Islamist-motivated knife attacks.

Three people were killed and eight wounded in a stabbing spree at a street festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Police arrested a Syrian suspect over the attack that was claimed by IS.

In June, a police officer was killed in a knife attack in Mannheim, with an Afghan national held as the main suspect.

The fall of Bashar al-Assad has stoked fears that IS could be revived in Syria.

But the international community has so far reacted cautiously to the prospect of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the rebel groups that ousted Assad, taking control in the country.

A new attempt to give the Caribbean island of Tobago more self-governance has been defeated in what local politicians described as a major setback in a decades-long battle for more political and economic independence.

One of the Caribbean’s top tourist destinations, Tobago is part of the twin-island state of Trinidad and Tobago, whose economy is mainly based on oil and gas production.

The two islands are governed by a central system, but Tobago, which has its own house of assembly, has been pushing for a larger share of the national budget and greater autonomy – including the ability to pass its own laws.

On Monday, a bill to widen the powers of the Tobago house of assembly was brought to parliament after years of political wrangling, but was blocked by opposition members who said they shared concerns raised by Farley Augustine, the head of the Tobagonian government and leader of Tobago’s People’s party.

Augustine, who has been pushing for a “federal type” arrangement, described the government’s proposed amendments to the bill as “inconsequential nonsense”.

Accusing the government of “majoring in minors” by focusing on changes to the titles of leaders in Tobago rather than what he considered to be more important aspects of the bill, he said in a Facebook post: “Today they went back to 2020 and spent time on the most basic and really unimportant change while refusing to treat with important matters such as: creating a real federal type system; defining and delineating the boundaries of the island of Tobago; creating equality of status between the two main islands; and enshrining the rights of Tobago to pass laws over all the matters that affect the lives of the people of Tobago among others.”

Augustine has now reportedly pledged to take his fight for Tobago’s self-governance to the international community with a letter of complaint to the United Nations.

But Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister and leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM), Keith Rowley, said he was shocked at the opposition to the bill, which was the result of years of consultation with all sides.

Senator Ancil Dennis, Tobago council political leader for PNM, said that the proposals in the bill reflected the will of Tobagonians, adding that they had been made after dozens of consultations with the people of Trinidad and Tobago and a range of experts, including legal and maritime specialists, and scrutiny by joint select committees with representation from the ruling and opposition parties.

The bill would have boosted Tobago’s annual share of the national budget from a minimum of 4.03% to a minimum of 6.8% – an increase of approximately $1.5bn (just under US$221m), Dennis said. He added that it would have removed the requirement for Tobago legislation to pass through central government scrutiny and approval.

“This bill that failed would have put us in a position where Tobago would have had our own legislature, with our members in that legislature being able to debate and pass the bill. And the next step was simply for the president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to give us assent … similar to what the king does in the UK – just a formality,” Dennis said.

“It’s extremely disappointing, having been on the cusp of history – having been on the cusp of significant improvements to our 28-year-old arrangement, which is woefully inadequate, which falls woefully short of the expectations of the people of Tobago – that we have failed to get that improvement,” he said.

A French prosecutor has demanded film-maker Christophe Ruggia be put under house arrest for two years over the alleged sexual assault of actor Adèle Haenel when she was a child, after she walked out of the landmark trial after his denial of any abuse.

Haenel, 35, has accused film-maker Ruggia, 59, of assaulting her in the early 2000s when she was between 12 and 14 and he was in his late 30s, allegations he has called “pure lies”.

The trial comes as France’s film industry is rocked by allegations of sexual abuse.

Haenel, who starred in the 2019 drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire before quitting cinema, was the first prominent actor to accuse the French film industry of turning a blind eye to the abuse.

The prosecutor on Tuesday requested two years detention with an electronic bracelet plus a three-year suspended sentence against the director.

Ruggia directed Haenel in the 2002 movie The Devils, a tale of an incestuous relationship between a boy and his autistic sister. It was her first film role.

The film contains sex scenes between the children and closeups of Haenel’s naked body.

Investigators said before the trial that members of the film crew had told them of their “unease” with Ruggia’s behaviour on set.

Between 2001 and 2004, after shooting the film, the teenager went to see Ruggia nearly every Saturday.

She has accused him of caressing her thighs and touching her genitals and breasts during these visits.

“He chose to sexually assault her. He had his whole conscience as a man – as an adult – to behave otherwise,” prosecutor Camille Poch said.

She asked that Ruggia also be listed as a sex offender.

Ruggia has denied the allegations.

He told the court earlier on Tuesday that he had in fact sought to protect Haenel from mockery in school over the sex scenes in The Devils.

This caused her to be outraged. “Would you just shut up?” she shouted, banging her hands on the table in front of her.

Haenel marched out and only returned half an hour later with her lawyer, refusing to look at Ruggia.

Haenel went public about the alleged assaults in 2019, stunning the French film industry, which had been slower than Hollywood to react to the #MeToo movement.

Haenel on Tuesday described “normality that shifted by degrees” into abuse.

“Who was there to say, ‘It’s not your fault. It’s grooming. It’s violence’?” she said.

“You can’t abuse children like that. There are consequences. No one helped that child,” she said, speaking of her younger self.

Ruggia’s former partner Mona Achache, 43, told the court about the film-maker confessing to a single “unfortunate gesture” on one of the Saturday visits.

She said Ruggia told her he had been “madly in love” with the young actor.

“He told me they were watching a film on the sofa, she had rested her head on his lap, and his hand moved on to her breast,” she said.

“It was a version of the story that highlighted his virtue in removing his hand.”

The film-maker had also said something to his sister.

“I got the impression he felt guilty,” Véronique Ruggia said.

In 2020, Haenel left the industry’s César award ceremony in protest against a prize awarded to veteran director Roman Polanski, who is wanted in the US for statutory rape.

Last year, she quit cinema over what she called the French film industry turning a blind eye towards sexual abusers.

The trial continues.

Several other allegations have rocked the film sector over the past few years.

French actor Gérard Depardieu, 75, is to stand trial in March accused of sexually assaulting two women. He denies the accusations.

Actor Judith Godrèche said this year two French directors – Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon – had both sexually abused her when she was a teenager. Both deny the accusations.