The former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has said he had no plans to flee Syria before being evacuated by the Russian army after its base in western Syria came under attack.

In his first comments since the fall of his brutal regime, Assad said he had planned to keep fighting rebel forces.

“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught,” he said in a statement published on the Telegram channel belonging to the Syrian presidency and dated 16 December.

In the statement, Assad said he left Damascus on 8 December as opposition fighters closed in, moving to the Russian-controlled Khmeimim airbase in his stronghold in the Latakia province “to oversee combat operations”.

“Upon arrival at the airbase that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen,” he added.

Assad claimed he was evacuated to Russia after the airbase had “itself come under intensified attack by drone strikes”.

“With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December,” the statement said.

Assad appeared to dismiss media reports alleging that his aides and relatives were misled and kept unaware of his plans to flee to Moscow. “First, my departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed,” he said.

In his statement, Assad also sought to dismiss the widespread reports and footage documenting his family’s vast corruption, which has come to light in greater detail since he fled Syria.

“I reaffirm that the person who, from the very first day of the war, refused to barter the salvation of his nation for personal gain, or to compromise his people in exchange for numerous offers and enticements is the same person who stood alongside the officers and soldiers of the army on the front lines, just metres from terrorists in the most dangerous and intense battlefields,” he said.

Assad’s exact whereabouts in Russia remain uncertain, and he has yet to be photographed in the country. His family has longstanding ties with Moscow, with relatives having transferred millions of dollars into Russia over the years.

Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the fall of his close ally, with the fate of the two key Russian military bases in Syria unclear.

Video footage over the weekend showed a column of nearly 100 military vehicles leaving the Damascus area including armoured vehicles. However, it remains unclear whether this represents a full or partial evacuation.

“There are no final decisions on this,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday. “We are in contact with representatives of the forces that now control the situation in the country.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations envoy to Syria was visiting Damascus on Monday, where he told the Islamist militants who toppled Assad that they need to oversee a “credible and inclusive” transition.

Geir Pedersen, a Norwegian diplomat, met the Syrian rebel leader. Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and the interim prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir.

A statement released by Pedersen’s office said the envoy had offered UN support and stressed “the need for a credible and inclusive Syrian-owned and led political transition”.

Diplomats have been scrambling for influence over whatever government replaces the Assad regime.

The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she had instructed the bloc’s top diplomat for Syria to go to Damascus on Monday to make contact with the new government.

Iran and Russia, which backed Assad in Syria’s bloody 13-year civil war, will have lost leverage while Turkey and some Gulf states will be seeking to build on their active support for anti-Assad rebels. Western countries largely backed the opposition early in the civil war but dithered as Islamist groups, such as the now dominant Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), became prominent.

Neighbouring Israel has also sought to exploit the power vacuum to weaken any future Syrian administration, conducting hundreds of strikes on strategic weapons and equipment stockpiles. Israeli troops have seized land on the frontier.

On Monday, a UK-based Syria monitor claimed Israeli airstrikes hit missile warehouses in what it said were the “most violent strikes in the Syrian coast region” in more than a decade.

Sharaa has said he is not interested in conflict with Israel. “There are no excuses for any foreign intervention in Syria now after the Iranians have left. We are not in the process of engaging in a conflict with Israel,” he told Syrian state media.

Pedersen flew to Damascus directly after an international meeting in Aqaba, Jordan, where top diplomats from the Arab states, the US, Turkey, France, Germany and the UK met on Saturday to agree on what they said would be a “more hopeful, secure and peaceful future” for Syrians.

The statement from the envoy’s office on Monday said the “transitional political process” must “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government”.

Syria’s new rulers have sought to reassure the country’s minorities they will be protected and included. Still, there are concerns that the interim administration run by HTS, which is composed largely of fighters from Syria’s Sunni majority, may sideline large minority populations, which include Shia Muslims, Druze, Alawites and Christians.

To help Syria’s economy, Pedersen has called for the US, UK and EU to end sanctions imposed on the country when Assad was in power. To do this, they would need to remove HTS, which emerged as an al-Qaida offshoot but softened its politics, from their lists of “terrorist” organisations.

Turkey has denounced Israel’s plan to double the population living in the occupied Golan Heights at the south-western edge of Syria as an attempt to “expand its borders”, as international concern grows over Israel’s actions in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime.

Israel captured about two-thirds of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 six-day war. Last week, it moved troops and armour into a supposedly demilitarised buffer zone beyond the land it already occupies.

Israel has said the new positions Israeli forces have taken in Syria are a “temporary measure”, but recent statements appear to have undercut that assertion.

Last week, Israel indicated that Israeli troops would remain in their new positions through the winter, while on Sunday the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced he had approved a plan to double Israeli settlement in the occupied Golan Heights.

“Strengthening the Golan Heights is strengthening the state of Israel,” said Netanyahu in a statement on Sunday evening, “and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish and settle it.”

In a statement condemning the move, the Turkish foreign ministry said: “This decision is a new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation. This step by Israel is a source of grave concern, taken together with Israel’s entry into the area of separation, in violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement, its advance into adjacent areas and airstrikes in Syria.”

The move would “seriously undermine” efforts to bring stability to Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s fall, the ministry added.

Israel declared in 1981 that it had annexed the territory. Most countries do not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the land, though the Trump administration recognised the annexation in 2019. About 50,000 people live in the occupied land, half of them Jews and half Druze, an Arabic-speaking ethno-religious minority.

A ceasefire in 1974 that ended the 1973 Yom Kippur war established the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Israel and Syria to keep the forces apart, an agreement Netanyahu claims collapsed with the fall of Assad.

Israel’s plan to double the population of the main part of the occupied Golan Heights was also condemned on Monday by Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe, which called on Israel to “abandon” the plan.

Christian Wagner, a German foreign ministry spokesperson, said it was “perfectly clear under international law that this area controlled by Israel belongs to Syria and that Israel is therefore an occupying power”.

As Islamist-led rebel forces swept Assad from power last week, Netanyahu ordered troops to seize the demilitarised zone on the Golan Heights. Israel has also launched hundreds of strikes on Syria targeting strategic military sites and weapons, including chemical weapons.

Wagner said it was “absolutely crucial now, in this phase of political upheaval in Syria, that all actors in the region take into account the territorial integrity of Syria and do not call it into question”.

Speaking at a regular press conference, he added that the situation was “complex” and that Israel had an interest to ensure that the Assad regime’s weapons did not fall into the wrong hands.

But he stressed that Germany was “now calling on all actors in the region to exercise restraint” and that war-ravaged “Syria has been a plaything of foreign powers for far too long”.

Egypt also expressed its categorical rejection of Israeli government’s decision to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Height, considering the move a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Syria’s territories.

The Turkish accusation came as Israel continued to pound former regime military assets in Syria. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel had hit missile warehouses and other former Syrian army sites along Syria’s coast in the “most violent strikes in the Syrian coast region since the beginning of the [Israeli] strikes in 2012”.

Turkey has denounced Israel’s plan to double the population living in the occupied Golan Heights at the south-western edge of Syria as an attempt to “expand its borders”, as international concern grows over Israel’s actions in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime.

Israel captured about two-thirds of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 six-day war. Last week, it moved troops and armour into a supposedly demilitarised buffer zone beyond the land it already occupies.

Israel has said the new positions Israeli forces have taken in Syria are a “temporary measure”, but recent statements appear to have undercut that assertion.

Last week, Israel indicated that Israeli troops would remain in their new positions through the winter, while on Sunday the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced he had approved a plan to double Israeli settlement in the occupied Golan Heights.

“Strengthening the Golan Heights is strengthening the state of Israel,” said Netanyahu in a statement on Sunday evening, “and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish and settle it.”

In a statement condemning the move, the Turkish foreign ministry said: “This decision is a new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation. This step by Israel is a source of grave concern, taken together with Israel’s entry into the area of separation, in violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement, its advance into adjacent areas and airstrikes in Syria.”

The move would “seriously undermine” efforts to bring stability to Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s fall, the ministry added.

Israel declared in 1981 that it had annexed the territory. Most countries do not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the land, though the Trump administration recognised the annexation in 2019. About 50,000 people live in the occupied land, half of them Jews and half Druze, an Arabic-speaking ethno-religious minority.

A ceasefire in 1974 that ended the 1973 Yom Kippur war established the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Israel and Syria to keep the forces apart, an agreement Netanyahu claims collapsed with the fall of Assad.

Israel’s plan to double the population of the main part of the occupied Golan Heights was also condemned on Monday by Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe, which called on Israel to “abandon” the plan.

Christian Wagner, a German foreign ministry spokesperson, said it was “perfectly clear under international law that this area controlled by Israel belongs to Syria and that Israel is therefore an occupying power”.

As Islamist-led rebel forces swept Assad from power last week, Netanyahu ordered troops to seize the demilitarised zone on the Golan Heights. Israel has also launched hundreds of strikes on Syria targeting strategic military sites and weapons, including chemical weapons.

Wagner said it was “absolutely crucial now, in this phase of political upheaval in Syria, that all actors in the region take into account the territorial integrity of Syria and do not call it into question”.

Speaking at a regular press conference, he added that the situation was “complex” and that Israel had an interest to ensure that the Assad regime’s weapons did not fall into the wrong hands.

But he stressed that Germany was “now calling on all actors in the region to exercise restraint” and that war-ravaged “Syria has been a plaything of foreign powers for far too long”.

Egypt also expressed its categorical rejection of Israeli government’s decision to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Height, considering the move a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Syria’s territories.

The Turkish accusation came as Israel continued to pound former regime military assets in Syria. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel had hit missile warehouses and other former Syrian army sites along Syria’s coast in the “most violent strikes in the Syrian coast region since the beginning of the [Israeli] strikes in 2012”.

Canada’s deputy prime minister and minister of finance has resigned amid growing tensions with the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, over the looming threat posed by Donald Trump’s “America First” economic nationalism.

Chrystia Freeland stood down on Monday, just hours before she was due to release the country’s first economic plan ahead of the change of administration in Washington.

The move stunned the country, left Trudeau without a key cabinet ally, and raised fresh doubts over the prime minister’s political survival. Political observers were closely reading the resignation letter by Freeland, who has previously served as foreign affairs minister and was once a journalist, and is seen as a ready replacement for Trudeau.

Relations between Canada and the US have been upended by Trump’s pledge to slap a 25% levy on all Canadian goods and services.

“For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” said Freeland in a letter to the prime minister.

“Our country today faces a grave challenge. The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25% tariffs.

“We need to take that threat extremely seriously.”

Freeland wrote that Canada needs to keep its “fiscal powder dry today” so they have the reserves for a “coming tariff war”.

She warned Trudeau that “costly political gimmicks” need to be done away with as they can make Canadians doubt whether the government understands the “gravity of the moment”.

“That means pushing back against ‘America First’ economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital and investment and the jobs they bring. That means working in good faith and humility with the Premiers of the provinces and territories of our great and diverse country, and building a true Team Canada response.”

Earlier this month, Trudeau met the president-elect and posted a smiling photo of the two of them at dinner in Florida. He told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation he promised Trump that Canada would shore up border security in surveillance.

Freeland had been set to announce the government’s delayed fall economic statement on Monday, which was anticipated to include details of increased enforcement at the US-Canada border. She had also said that the plan would outline policies to incentivize and keep business development and investment in Canada.

When the statement will be delivered, and who will deliver it, is now unclear.

Éric Grenier, a political analyst at the Writ, said Freeland’s resignation was a “clear rebuke of the prime minister”.

“Freeland was one of Trudeau’s first recruits when he became leader back in in 2013. She’s always seemed to be a pretty loyal member of cabinet,” he said.

“[The resignation] is pretty surprising and pretty important. You don’t often see this in Canadian politics,” he said. “It definitely shows there are lots of problems right now with the government.”

The resignation also appeared to catch other government officials off-guard.

“This news has hit me really hard, and I’ll reserve further comment until I have time to process it,” said transport minister Anita Anand.

Freeland and Trudeau have reportedly disagreed over proposals for temporary tax breaks and other spending measures, which were meant to shore up political support, but risked forcing Freeland to miss her spending goals.

The letter comes amid continuing uncertainty in Canada over the potential impact of US tariffs, which Trump said would be imposed on Canada, Mexico and China, unless they take action against drug and human smuggling.

Trudeau has held a string of meetings with regional premiers and political rivals in an attempt to maintain a united front, but has been accused of failing to anticipate Trump’s protectionist impulses.

On Friday, Freeland said at a press conference that a Trump presidency actively aimed to create economic uncertainty for other nations to prevent investment “anywhere other than the United States”.

In her resignation letter, she said: “Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end. But how we deal with the threat our country currently faces will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer.”

Freeland’s sudden resignation and repudiation of Trudeau’s approach to Trump comes as the prime minister’s popularity has all but evaporated.

At the end of October, close to two dozen backbench Liberal MPs signed a letter calling on Trudeau to step down as the party fears a seismic electoral defeat in the federal election scheduled for next year.

After Freeland’s resignation, several Liberal MPs made fresh calls for Trudeau to stand down, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre repeated his calls for an immediate election, saying: “The government of Canada is itself spiraling out of control.”

Monday’s byelection in the electoral district of Cloverdale–Langley City in British Columbia will be a litmus test for the popularity of Trudeau’s government – one he is expected to fail.

Analysts say any contender would probably fare better than Trudeau.

Freeland has established herself as a reliable and longstanding member of Trudeau’s cabinet since he became PM in 2015. She is known for deftly renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with the first Trump administration, which secured Canadian access to the US market despite Trump’s politics.

Since Trump won his second term last month, Freeland has been mobilizing a team of government officials to prepare for the new president.

But relations between Freeland and Trudeau were also understood to have deteriorated amid allegations he wanted to replace her with Mark Carney, the former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor.

In her letter, she said Trudeau had asked her to take up another post in cabinet, which she has now refused.

Freeland will continue to work as a Liberal MP and will run for her seat again in the next election.

A Filipino migrant worker who has spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia is expected to arrive home on Wednesday after a deal was struck between Manila and Jakarta.

Mary Jane Veloso, 39, was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of drug trafficking in 2010, but has always maintained her innocence, saying she had been duped into carrying a suitcase containing drugs as she travelled to a new job abroad.

She has described the decision to allow her to return home as “a miracle”.

“For almost 15 years I was separated from my children and parents, and I could not see my children grow up,” she told Associated Press. “I wish to be given an opportunity to take care of my children and to be close to my parents.”

Her case drew widespread sympathy in the Philippines and Indonesia, where many identified with the plight of a single mother who had gone abroad seeking better opportunities to provide for her two children. Many people in both countries have relatives who work abroad, where they are vulnerable to exploitation by abusive recruiters and bosses.

Veloso was moved from a prison in Yogyakarta city to a female-only jail in the capital, Jakarta, on Sunday. She will fly to Manila after midnight on Tuesday and is expected to arrive at about 5.40am local time (2140 GMT) on Wednesday, according to her lawyer, Edre Olalia, the chairperson attorney of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers.

Her family was overjoyed and elated, he said, and would travel to meet her at Manila airport on Wednesday.

In a statement, NUPL called for the family to have “full and unhindered access” to meet with her upon her arrival.

Olalia told the Guardian it was unclear what would happen to Veloso’s case once she arrived back in the Philippines. “Both governments have been, understandably, very discreet in release of the operational details,” he said.

Indonesia’s senior minister for law and human rights affairs, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, earlier told media it had agreed the Philippines would respect the Indonesian court’s sentencing of Veloso and her status as a prisoner in Indonesia. Indonesia would also respect any decision made by the Philippines, including if she was given clemency.

“There’s a range of possibilities. [One] is that she will be transported straight to a facility for women prisoners and processed there. Or … that she be granted clemency through absolute pardon right away at the get-go.”

An absolute pardon could be granted by President Ferdinand Marcos as soon as she arrives, he added.

Veloso’s family and supporters have undergone a long and gruelling journey to secure her return, including drawn-out legal battles, diplomatic efforts, an online petition and even visits by the Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao.

Veloso was almost executed by firing squad in 2015 but was granted a temporary reprieve at the last minute after the late former Philippine president, Benigno Aquino, appealed to the Indonesian government, saying Veloso was required as a witness in a separate legal case.

This appeal came after a woman who was accused of recruiting Veloso for a job abroad and of planting drugs on her handed herself in to the police in Manila. Aquino said Veloso would be needed to testify in the case against her.

Only Veloso was granted the reprieve at the time. Eight others – including two Australians who were part of the “Bali Nine” heroin-smuggling ring, four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian – were shot dead.

Born to an impoverished family in the northern city of Cabanatuan, Veloso married at 17 but later separated from her husband with whom she has two sons. She moved to Dubai in 2009 to work as a domestic helper but said she was forced to flee after she was the victim of an attempted rape.

After returning home, Veloso said Maria Kristina Sergio, the daughter of one of her godparents, offered her a different role as a domestic worker and told her to fly to Indonesia. Veloso alleges that the woman provided her with new clothes and a bag, which had 2.6kg (5.73lb) of heroin sewn into it. Sergio has disputed this account.

Veloso’s legal team had previously launched two appeals in Indonesia, arguing she did not have a competent translator, and that she was scammed, but both failed.

Indonesia on Sunday allowed five remaining members of the Bali Nine to return to their home country. The men have since had the rest of their life sentences commuted on humanitarian grounds on the condition that they continue rehabilitation in Australia.

Indonesia said its agreement with the Philippines was “reciprocal” and that if Indonesia in the future asked for its citizens jailed in the Philippines to be repatriated, this would have to be considered.

Veloso will be banned from returning to Indonesia.

A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said, initially sparking a tsunami warning that has now been lifted.

The quake struck 30km west of the capital at a depth of 57.1km, the USGS said, and was followed by a magnitude 5.5 aftershock nearby.

The US Tsunami Warning System cancelled the tsunami warning for the archipelagic nation, which is comprised of 80 islands that are home to about 330,000 people.

Authorities in neighbouring New Zealand and Australia said there was no tsunami threat to their countries, Reuters reported.

Footage posted on social media showed buckled windows and collapsed concrete pillars on a building hosting foreign missions in the capital, including the US, British, French and New Zealand embassies. Reuters was able to confirm the location from the colour of the building, window panels and tree line that matched file imagery.

One witness reported a landslide on a coastal road near Port Vila.

There were no initial reports of injuries or deaths.

Vanuatu government websites were offline in the aftermath of the quake and phone numbers for the police and other public agencies did not connect.

Australia’s bureau of meteorology ruled out a tsunami threat on its coastlines. Australian authorities advised travellers: “If you’re in the affected area, move to higher ground. Monitor local media for updates and follow the advice of local authorities.”

New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency also ruled out a tsunami threat.

This is a breaking news story, please check back for updates

A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said, initially sparking a tsunami warning that has now been lifted.

The quake struck 30km west of the capital at a depth of 57.1km, the USGS said, and was followed by a magnitude 5.5 aftershock nearby.

The US Tsunami Warning System cancelled the tsunami warning for the archipelagic nation, which is comprised of 80 islands that are home to about 330,000 people.

Authorities in neighbouring New Zealand and Australia said there was no tsunami threat to their countries, Reuters reported.

Footage posted on social media showed buckled windows and collapsed concrete pillars on a building hosting foreign missions in the capital, including the US, British, French and New Zealand embassies. Reuters was able to confirm the location from the colour of the building, window panels and tree line that matched file imagery.

One witness reported a landslide on a coastal road near Port Vila.

There were no initial reports of injuries or deaths.

Vanuatu government websites were offline in the aftermath of the quake and phone numbers for the police and other public agencies did not connect.

Australia’s bureau of meteorology ruled out a tsunami threat on its coastlines. Australian authorities advised travellers: “If you’re in the affected area, move to higher ground. Monitor local media for updates and follow the advice of local authorities.”

New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency also ruled out a tsunami threat.

This is a breaking news story, please check back for updates

North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon.

The deaths are the first reported since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war.

The news came as the White House said it now believes North Korean troops are on the “front lines” of Russia’s war and are “actively engaged in combat operations” against Ukraine.

National security spokesman John Kirby confirmed the assessment on Monday after Ukraine’s government said North Korean troops had moved from support roles into direct fighting on behalf of Russia. Kirby said North Korean troops were taking casualties in the fighting and promised a strong US and allied sanctions response to North Korea.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said about 30 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded during battle with the Ukrainian army over the weekend.

The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a Ukrainian incursion, the agency, known by its acronym GUR, said in a public post on the Telegram messaging app.

At least three North Korean servicemen went missing around another Kursk village, GUR said.

On Monday, Pentagon press secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder said some North Korean troops have died in combat in Kursk, but he did not have a specific number of those killed or wounded. Those troops have primarily been used in an infantry role and started fighting in combat operations about a week ago, Ryder said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referred questions to the Russian defence ministry, which did not immediately comment.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has pledged unwavering support for Russia’s invasion of its neighbour under a mutual defence pact.

The alliance gave a jolt to international relations, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Monday that the planned deployment of US intermediate-range missiles to Europe and Asia had brought new threats.

“In view of rising geopolitical tensions, we must take additional measures to ensure the security of Russia and our allies,” Putin told a meeting with top military brass. “We are doing it accurately and in a balanced way to avoid being drawn into a full-scale arms race.”

However, military analysts say the language barrier has bedevilled combat coordination between Russian and North Korean troops.

“The poor integration and ongoing communication problems between Russian and North Korean forces will likely continue to cause friction in Russian military operations in Kursk … in the near term,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington thinktank, said on Sunday.

On 5 November, Ukrainian officials said their forces had for the first time engaged with North Korean units.

Ukraine seized land in Russia’s Kursk border region last August in the first occupation of Russian territory since the second world war. The operation embarrassed the Kremlin, and aimed to counter unceasingly bad news from the frontline.

The incursion has not significantly changed the war’s dynamics. Over the past year, Russia has been on the front foot, with the exception of Kursk, and has been grinding deeper into eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, despite heavy losses.

Russian defence minister Andrei Belousov said the military had been making steady gains in Ukraine, claiming they had accelerated recently, with Russian forces capturing about 30 sq km (11.5 sq miles) of territory a day.

A judge on Monday ruled that Donald Trump’s conviction for falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal should stand, rejecting the president-elect’s argument that it should be dismissed because of the US supreme court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity, a court filing showed.

Manhattan judge Juan Merchan’s decision eliminates one potential off-ramp from the case ahead of Trump’s return to office next month. His lawyers have raised other arguments for dismissal, however.

In a 41-page decision Merchan said Trump’s “decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch”.

Trump’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors have said there should be some accommodation for his upcoming presidency, but they insist the conviction should stand.

A jury convicted Trump in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payment was for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.

It was the first time a US president – former or sitting – had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offense.

The allegations involved a scheme to hide the payout to Daniels during the final days of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to keep her from publicizing – and keep voters from hearing – her claim of a sexual encounter. He says nothing sexual happened between them.

Trump pleaded not guilty and called the case an attempt by Bragg, a Democrat, to harm his 2024 campaign.

A month after the verdict, the supreme court ruled that ex-presidents can’t be prosecuted for official acts – things they did in the course of running the country – and that prosecutors cannot cite those actions to bolster a case centered on purely personal, unofficial conduct.

Trump’s lawyers then cited the supreme court opinion to argue that the hush money jury got some improper evidence, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form, testimony from some White House aides and social media posts made while he was in office.

In his ruling, Merchan denied the bulk of Trump’s claims that some of prosecutors’ evidence related to official acts and implicated immunity protections.

The judge said that even if he found that some evidence related to official conduct, he’d still find that prosecutors’ decision to use “these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch”.

Even if prosecutors had erroneously introduced evidence that could be challenged under an immunity claim, Merchan continued, “such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt”.

Prosecutors had said the evidence in question was only “a sliver” of their case.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, called Merchan’s decision a “direct violation of the supreme court’s decision on immunity, and other longstanding jurisprudence”.

“This lawless case should have never been brought, and the constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed,” Cheung said in a statement.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment.

Trump takes office 20 January 2025.

Thousands of workers at Amazon are threatening to strike at the company after giving the company a deadline of 15 December to agree to begin negotiating a first contract with the union representing employees.

The strike threats, which started in New York, have now spread to Chicago and Atlanta. They come during Amazon’s peak holiday season and after the company experienced record sales during its 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday events.

The workers at the company’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island became the first Amazon warehouse in the US to win a union election in March 2022. But the company has yet to begin negotiating a first contract with Amazon Labor Union (ALU-IBT Local 1). Workers are pushing for improvements to pay, safety and job security.

Amazon workers at another New York City site, the delivery station DBK4 in Queens, also voted to strike in solidarity with the contract fight and their push for union recognition from the company.

The Teamsters have been organizing workers at 10 Amazon facilities around the US in California, Illinois, Georgia and New York.

Workers at two Amazon facilities near Atlanta, Georgia, and a delivery facility in Skokie, Illinois, outside of Chicago, also voted to authorize strikes and walked out on strike along with New York City workers.

“Driving for Amazon is tough,” said Luc Rene, a worker at DBK4, in a statement. “What’s even tougher is fighting a mega-corporation that constantly breaks the law and games the system. But we won’t give up.”

The strike comes in the wake of the US Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee report released on 16 December into high injury rates at Amazon. According to the report senior Amazon executives rejected internal recommendations that would have relaxed productivity quotas because of concerns about how it would impact the company’s performance.

The report also backed up union-sponsored research that claimed injury rates at Amazon were far higher than those of its peers.

“It’s beyond unacceptable that Amazon, the 2nd largest corporation in America, owned by Jeff Bezos, the 2nd wealthiest person on Earth, continues to put their huge profits ahead of the health & safety of their workers,” Senator Bernie Sanders, the Help committee chair, wrote on X.

Amazon disputed the report’s findings, calling it “fundamentally flawed”.

Thousands of workers at Amazon are threatening to strike at the company after giving the company a deadline of 15 December to agree to begin negotiating a first contract with the union representing employees.

The strike threats, which started in New York, have now spread to Chicago and Atlanta. They come during Amazon’s peak holiday season and after the company experienced record sales during its 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday events.

The workers at the company’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island became the first Amazon warehouse in the US to win a union election in March 2022. But the company has yet to begin negotiating a first contract with Amazon Labor Union (ALU-IBT Local 1). Workers are pushing for improvements to pay, safety and job security.

Amazon workers at another New York City site, the delivery station DBK4 in Queens, also voted to strike in solidarity with the contract fight and their push for union recognition from the company.

The Teamsters have been organizing workers at 10 Amazon facilities around the US in California, Illinois, Georgia and New York.

Workers at two Amazon facilities near Atlanta, Georgia, and a delivery facility in Skokie, Illinois, outside of Chicago, also voted to authorize strikes and walked out on strike along with New York City workers.

“Driving for Amazon is tough,” said Luc Rene, a worker at DBK4, in a statement. “What’s even tougher is fighting a mega-corporation that constantly breaks the law and games the system. But we won’t give up.”

The strike comes in the wake of the US Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee report released on 16 December into high injury rates at Amazon. According to the report senior Amazon executives rejected internal recommendations that would have relaxed productivity quotas because of concerns about how it would impact the company’s performance.

The report also backed up union-sponsored research that claimed injury rates at Amazon were far higher than those of its peers.

“It’s beyond unacceptable that Amazon, the 2nd largest corporation in America, owned by Jeff Bezos, the 2nd wealthiest person on Earth, continues to put their huge profits ahead of the health & safety of their workers,” Senator Bernie Sanders, the Help committee chair, wrote on X.

Amazon disputed the report’s findings, calling it “fundamentally flawed”.

The Duke of York is to stay away from the royal family’s traditional Christmas gathering at Sandringham this year amid the controversy surrounding his links to an alleged Chinese spy.

Andrew, 64, will miss the festivities at the private Norfolk estate of his brother, King Charles, where 45 members of their family had been expected to spend Christmas Day.

Last week, a high court hearing revealed that the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who was banned from the UK, was said to have been a “close” confidant of Andrew.

Yang, a businessman whose identity was previously protected by an anonymity order, was named after a judge lifted the ban on Monday.

In a statement, Yang denied suggestions he was involved in espionage and said he had “done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded”.

The businessman had visited the UK regularly, attending events at a series of royal residences, including Andrew’s birthday party at his home.

According to court documents, Yang was so close to the duke that he was authorised to act on his behalf in an international financial initiative with potential partners and investors in China.

Andrew’s office said last week he had stopped all contact with the man, whom he had met through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.

The prince’s ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, will also miss Christmas at Sandringham, in what will be seen as a show of solidarity for her former husband.

The pair are said to be preparing to spend the day together at Royal Lodge, the home they share in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire.

It is not yet known whether Andrew will attend Charles’s traditional pre-Christmas lunch for the extended family at Buckingham Palace on Thursday.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who have young families, had already planned to spend Christmas with their respective in-laws this year for the first time, sources said.

• President-elect Donald Trump on Monday suggested he may reverse Joe Biden’s recent decision to allow Ukrainian forces to use American long-range weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory. Trump called the decision by Biden “stupid”. Asked if he would consider reversing the decision, Trump responded: “I might. I think it was a very stupid thing to do.” The White House pushed back, noting that the decision was made after months of deliberations that started before last month’s election. The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said: “All I can assure you is that in the conversations we’ve had with them since the election, and we’ve had at various levels, we have articulated to them the logic behind it, the thinking behind it, why we were doing it.”

• North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon. The deaths are the first reported since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. The news came as the White House said it now believed North Korean troops were on the “front lines” of Russia’s war and were “actively engaged in combat operations” against Ukraine.

• The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Monday his country would likely play a role in securing a future ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine but that it was far too early to tell what a peacekeeping force might look like. “If there is a ceasefire, then of course the western community, Nato partners, potentially the United Nations and the European Union will have to discuss how such a peace, such a ceasefire can be secured,” he said. “And it is obvious that Germany, as Europe’s biggest economy, would play a role there.” He underlined it also needed to be clear that both Ukraine and Russia accepted such a mandate but “there are far more questions than answers right now”.

• A Russian military court on Monday sentenced 23-year-old Vasily Zharkov to 19 years in prison after finding him guilty of treason, attempted sabotage on strategic infrastructure as well as joining a terrorist group, Russian media reported. Prosecutors said Zharkov, arrested in November 2023, spoke to a representative of a banned unit of Russians fighting for Ukraine, the Freedom of Russia Legion, and had acted on its orders, entering a military base outside Moscow with plans to start a fire but instead being arrested.

• Ukraine has called on the international community to take action against Russia’s sanctions-busting oil fleet, after an ageing tanker sank in the Black Sea, causing an environmental disaster. Luke Harding writes that the Russian cargo ship, Volgoneft-212, broke in half during a heavy storm off the coast of occupied Crimea on Sunday. A second tanker, Volgoneft-239, got into difficulties in the same area. It eventually ran aground near the port of Taman at the south end of the Kerch strait.

• Keir Starmer is to visit British troops serving on Russia’s border after saying that Ukraine will require more funding and capability. The prime minister was speaking at the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) conference in Estonia, where he met leaders of other Baltic states, writes Nadeem Badshah. Asked what else could be done to support Ukraine, Starmer said: “There is an ever-increasing demand for more capability. That is understandable, and Ukraine needs all the capability that it can get, so I think all of us have put in more capability into Ukraine by way of equipment.”

• A senior Russian military commander has claimed Russia is boosting its ballistic arsenal with new strategic missile systems, plans maximum-range launches and may increase testing in response to growing external threats. “In terms of range, there is no place where our missiles cannot reach,” Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Sergei Karakayev as telling a Russian defence ministry newspaper. He claimed Russia was developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Osina. Vladimir Putin has said Russia will soon start mass-producing the Oreshnik ballistic missile – apparently backtracking from his earlier suggestions that it was already in production and could be fired again at a time of Russia’s choosing. Russia struck Ukraine in November with an Oreshnik.

• A former FBI informant on Monday admitted to making up a story that Joe Biden and his son Hunter had taken $5m in bribes from a Ukrainian energy firm. Alexander Smirnov, 44, pleaded guilty to creating a false record in a federal investigation, as well as three counts of tax evasion for failing to pay taxes and penalties on $2.1m in income for 2020 to 2022. Russian-born Smirnov, a dual US-Israeli citizen, faces up to six years in prison under a plea deal. He is due to be sentenced on 8 January.

Three people are dead after a shooting on Monday at a private Christian school in Wisconsin – including the teenage shooter – and six others were wounded, according to local police.

The shooter was a 15-year-old female student, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.

There was as yet no known motive for the violence, which authorities said took place in one space inside the school. The shooter’s family was cooperating with the investigation, police said.

The shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, who also went by the name Samantha, was dead by apparent suicide when officers arrived, Barnes said. Barnes declined to give details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.

Police initially said five people were dead after the shooting at Abundant Life Christian school in Madison, the state capital, but they later revised the death toll. According to the Associated Press, the teenager killed a teacher and another teenage student.

Citing a law enforcement official, the Associated Press reported that investigators believed the shooter carried out the attack at the school with a 9mm pistol.

“It’s a sad day for the community and for the country,” the Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said at a briefing. “We have to do a little bit better.”

Barnes said Monday night that the shooting, which occurred in study hall, was reported to police by a second-grader, who would generally be 7 or 8 years old. A 911 call shortly before 11am reported an active shooter situation, Barnes said. Police arrived three minutes after the initial call and went into the building immediately.

Barnes said police officers who responded did not fire their weapons. The shooter probably died by suicide, Barnes said.

Barnes later appealed for compassion for the shooter’s family, saying they were “still someone’s child”. The family is said to be cooperating with authorities.

The White House said in a statement that Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting and officials were in touch with local authorities to provide support. The Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, also has been briefed on the situation.

In a statement, Biden said the shooting was “shocking and unconscionable”, and he called on Congress to pass gun new control measures.

“We cannot continue to accept it as normal. Every child deserves to feel safe in their class room. Students across our country should be learning how to read and write – not having to learn how to duck and cover,” Biden said.

“Congress must pass commonsense gun safety laws: universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” he added.

The Abundant Life school has about 390 students, from kindergarten through high school, according to its website. It sits on a 28-acre campus that hosts students from about 200 families in the Dane county area.

Local TV footage of the scene outside the school showed dozens of police cars, ambulances and fire service vehicles pulling up in the streets outside the school.

“We are praying for the kids, educators, and entire Abundant Life school community as we await more information and are grateful for the first responders who are working quickly to respond,” Evers said in a statement.

A school shooting carried out by a girl remains a rarity, with only about 3% of all US mass shootings perpetrated by females, studies show.

The US has long had an epidemic of school shootings, on a scale unlike any other country in the world but has struggled with any meaningful efforts to curb the phenomenon, especially when it comes to limiting access to powerful firearms.

Monday’s shooting at Abundant Life Christian was among nearly 490 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are slain or wounded.

Among those cases was the 4 September shooting at Apalachee high school in Winder, Georgia, where four people – two students and two teachers – were killed and seven were injured. A 14-year-old former student was charged in connection with the murders. And so was his father, who was accused by authorities of giving the shooter access to a high-powered rifle and ammunition for it “after receiving sufficient warning that [the teen] would endanger the bodily safety of another”.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

A Brazilian judge has ordered a song by British pop superstar Adele, Million Years Ago, be pulled worldwide – including on streaming services – over a continuing plagiarism claim by a Brazilian composer.

The injunction threatens the Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony and Universal, Adele’s labels, with a fine of $8,000 “per act of non-compliance”.

The music companies, however, can still appeal the decision.

The injunction was made by judge Victor Torres on Friday, in Rio de Janeiro’s sixth commercial court, pending further activity in the continuing plagiarism case.

His preliminary injunction, obtained on Monday by AFP, orders Sony and Universal to stop “immediately and globally, from using, reproducing, editing, distributing or commercializing the song Million Years Ago, by any modality, means, physical or digital support, streaming or sharing platform”.

“It is a landmark for Brazilian music, which … has often been copied to compose successful international hits,” Fredimio Trotta, the lawyer for Brazilian composer Toninho Geraes, who brought the plagiarism complaint, told AFP.

Trotta said his firm this week would work to ensure that radio and television broadcasters, and streaming services around the world, are alerted to the Brazilian ruling.

His client Geraes claims Adele’s 2015 song plagiarized the music of his samba classic Mulheres (Women), recorded by Brazilian singer Martinho da Vila on a 1995 hit album.

Geraes is suing for lost royalties, $160,000 in moral damages, plus songwriting credit on Adele’s track.

Sony Brazil said it did “not have a statement at this time”, while Universal Music Brazil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trotta said the injunction should have a chilling effect on foreign singers and labels looking to rip off Brazilian tunes.

“International producers and artists who … have Brazilian music ‘on their radar’ for possible parasitic use will think twice, given this decision,” the lawyer said.

Adele was also accused by Turkish music fans of plagiarism in Million Years Ago in 2015. They claimed its tune was similar to one in a 1985 song by a Kurdish singer, Ahmet Kaya, called Acilara Tutunmak (Clinging to Pain).

Kaya died in exile in France in 2000, and his widow said it was unlikely a global star like Adele would do such a thing.

Brazil is a signatory to the 1886 Berne convention that agrees international protection for copyrighted works.