A fast-moving wildfire erupted in Los Angeles county on Tuesday, quickly consuming nearly 3,000 acres and destroying homes in an affluent community along the Pacific Ocean.

Whipped by unusually strong winds, the fire prompted frenzied evacuations through winding roads in the Pacific Palisades, an area north of Santa Monica, with residents fleeing on foot as flames approached.

A “life-threatening” windstorm is impacting a large swath of southern California, fanning the destructive fire and complicating early containment efforts. The region could be seeing the strongest winds in more than a decade, bringing extreme fire risk to areas that have been without significant rain for months.

Videos shared online from residents, including from the actor James Woods, show flames licking homes through the canyons, thrashing trees blowing in the winds and plumes of black smoke billowing into a cloudless sky. As the fire rapidly spread, severe gridlock on narrow streets led many to leave their cars, some which were subsequently engulfed in flames. With ditched vehicles blocking first responders, authorities were forced to use bulldozers to move cars.

The fire broke out around 10.30am and by 6.30pm had burned more than 2,900 acres, with the city of LA and the California governor, Gavin Newsom, declaring a state of emergency. More than 30,000 people were under evacuation orders, with 13,000 structures threatened.

The blazes also reached the grounds of the Getty Villa, an art museum by the Malibu coast. Some vegetation on the property burned, but museum officials said no structures had been impacted and that the galleries and staff were protected by a range of prevention measures.

The blazes also hit the grounds of the Palisades Charter high school, including its baseball field, and approached the beach in Malibu near the Pacific Coast Highway.

Southern California Edison shut off power to more than 20,000 customers as of early Tuesday evening, with more than 430,000 under consideration for outages, according to the utility’s website. The shutoffs are meant to target areas where the conditions could lead to fires started by equipment.

The Los Angeles school district was also forced to relocate students from three campuses, Joe Biden had to reschedule plans for an event announcing two national monuments and movie premieres in Hollywood were canceled.

Actor Eugene Levy, the honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, evacuated earlier on Tuesday, telling the Los Angeles Times while stuck in traffic, “The smoke looked pretty black and intense.” Other evacuees described harrowing escapes, one woman recounting to ABC7 how she abandoned her vehicle and fled with her cat in her arms: “I’m getting hit with palm leaves on fire … It’s terrifying. It feels like a horror movie. I’m screaming and crying walking down the street.”

Strong winds began hitting Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Tuesday and were likely to peak in the early hours of Wednesday, when gusts could reach 80mph (129km/h), the National Weather Service (NWS) said Monday. Isolated gusts could top 100mph in mountains and foothills. The NWS called the extreme event a “particularly dangerous situation”, a rarely issued type of red flag warning, saying it was “as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather”.

“The worst and most severe part of this wind event is yet to come,” said LA city council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson at a briefing around 4 pm.

A large area of southern California, home to millions of people, is under what officials have described as “extreme risk” from the destructive storm. The weather service warned of downed trees and knocked over big rigs, trailers, and motorhomes, and advised residents to stay indoors and away from windows.

Jeff Monford, a utility spokesperson, said it wasn’t always possible to give advanced notice to customers, telling the Los Angeles Times: “This is a phenomenon of the increasing effects of climate change on weather. We have more weather extremes that can change more quickly than we might be accustomed to.”

The winds will act as an “atmospheric blow-dryer” for vegetation, bringing a long period of fire risk that could extend into the more populated lower hills and valleys, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“We really haven’t seen a season as dry as this one follow a season as wet as the previous one,” Swain said during a Monday livestream, explaining that the abundant growth of vegetation combined with a severe wind event creates an elevated risk.

Newsom announced on Monday that his office would deploy resources around the region to respond to the storm, including moving fire crews and equipment from the north, where the fire season has come to an end, to southern California. He also secured assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We are no strangers to winter-time wildfire threats, so I ask all Californians to pay attention to local authorities and be prepared to evacuate if told to go,” the governor said in a statement.

The region has been experiencing warmer-than-average temperatures, in part due to recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas.

Southern California has not seen more than 0.1in (0.25cm) of rain since early May. Much of the region has fallen into moderate drought conditions, according to the US Drought Monitor. Meanwhile, up north, there have been multiple drenching storms.

The fire risks are particularly extreme in the charred area left behind by the wind-driven Franklin fire in December, which damaged or destroyed nearly 50 homes in the Malibu area.

The blaze was one of nearly 8,000 wildfires that together impacted more than 1,560 sq miles (more than 4,040 sq km) in California in 2024.

The last wind event of this magnitude occurred in November 2011, according to the NWS, during which more than 400,000 customers throughout LA county lost power for days, and there was significant damage in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

A rapidly spreading wildfire in southern California reached the grounds of the Getty Villa museum north of Santa Monica on Tuesday, but officials said no structures had burned and the collection was safe.

The Pacific Palisades fire, fueled by a major windstorm and prompting mass evacuations in Los Angeles county, burned some trees and vegetation on site at the Getty Villa, but museum leaders said the galleries and archives were protected.

The Villa is located along the Pacific Coast Highway and is roughly 10 miles away from the affiliated Getty Center, the site of the main museum of the world-famous art institution.

The Getty Villa had “made extensive efforts to clear brush from the surrounding area as part of its fire mitigation efforts throughout the year”, Katherine E Fleming, president and CEO of the J Paul Getty Trust, said in a statement early Tuesday evening. While the blazes reached some of the vegetation on the property, “staff and the collection remain safe”, she said.

Fire prevention measures at the Villa include water storage on-site, with irrigation immediately deployed throughout the grounds on Tuesday morning, Fleming said, adding: “Museum galleries and library archives were sealed off from smoke by state-of-the-art air handling systems. The double-walled construction of the galleries also provides significant protection for the collections.”

Footage spread on social media showing some greenery ablaze near a Getty Villa sign, but the video appeared to be of the driveway entrance and a nearby building that is separate from the Villa.

After the Palisades fire broke out around 10.30am and had burned nearly 3,000 acres by evening. An unusual and ferocious windstorm was spreading the fire, burning homes and forcing thousands to flee the Pacific Palisades, an affluent community along the ocean.

The Villa is a free museum that houses in Greek and Roman antiquities in a recreated Roman country home. It quickly closed to non-emergency staff on Tuesday morning and will remain closed to the public through at least next Monday.

The Getty Center, which houses a museum and research institutes, has also previously been threatened by nearby fires, but has extensive prevention plans in place to shield its vast collection.

Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to ditch factcheckers on Facebook and “prioritise free speech” weeks before Donald Trump returns to power was condemned on Tuesday as a “major step back” for public discourse.

The Meta founder announced multiple changes to his platforms including Facebook and Instagram in an attempt to “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship”.

In a statement on Tuesday he said that, starting in the US, independent factcheckers would be replaced in the US by a system of “community notes” similar to that used on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, which relies on users to add caveats and context to contentious posts.

Content moderation teams would also be moved from California to Texas “where there is less concern about the bias of our teams”, said Zuckerberg in a five-minute video statement that Nina Jankowicz, a former US government official tasked with fighting disinformation, described as “a full bending of the knee to Trump”.

Changes to the way Meta filtered content would also mean “we’re going to catch less bad stuff” while still taking seriously “a lot of legitimately bad stuff out there, drugs, terrorism, child exploitation”, Zuckerberg said.

He said factcheckers were “too politically biased” – an allegation strongly denied by factchecking organisations – and said Meta would “get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse”.

The 40-year-old billionaire said the shift was in response to the US presidential elections, which he labelled “a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising speech”.

Trump and Zuckerberg have had a rollercoaster relationship, with Trump threatening to jail the tech boss if he interfered in the election and then a November rapprochement with dinner at Mar-a-Lago and Zuckerberg donating $1m.

Trump said on Tuesday that the changes were “probably” in response to his warnings and added: “I think they’ve come a long way, Meta, Facebook.”

Last week it was announced that the former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg was stepping down as Meta’s president of global affairs to be replaced by the prominent Republican Joel Kaplan. Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a prominent Trump supporter, was also appointed to the Meta board as the tech company prepares for Trump’s second term, which is set to have a major influence over technology companies through investment, subsidies and regulation, particularly of artificial intelligence.

But campaigners against harms caused via social media to women, children and ethnic minorities, as well as scientists, reacted to the news with dismay.

Global Witness, a human rights group, said: “Zuckerberg’s announcement is a blatant attempt to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration – with harmful implications. These changes will make it more dangerous for women, LGBT+ people, people of colour, scientists and activists to speak out online, where they already face disproportionate harassment and attacks.”

The Centre for Information Resilience, an organisation whose activities include tracking online hate speech and disinformation based on people’s gender, ethnicity and sexuality, warned it was a “major step back for content moderation at a time when disinformation and harmful content are evolving faster than ever”.

Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, 14, who took her life after viewing thousands of images promoting suicide and self-harm on social media, including Instagram, said the moves “could have dire consequences for many children and young adults”.

He said he was “dismayed that the company intends to stop proactive moderation of many forms of harmful content and to only act if and when a user complaint is received”.

Meta said content about suicide, self-injury and eating disorders would still be considered “high-severity violations” and it “will continue to use our automated systems to scan for that high-severity content”.

The UK TV host Piers Morgan reflected a seam of support for Meta’s move when he welcomed it as “a complete U-turn on all woke censorship & cancel culture bullsh*t”.

The co-chairs of Meta’s oversight board, including the former prime minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said in a statement: “We look forward to working with Meta in the coming weeks to understand the changes in greater detail, ensuring its new approach can be as effective and speech-friendly as possible.”

They added: “It is essential that decisions on content are taken with maximum input from voices outside of Meta, including of the people who use its platforms every day.”

In London a spokesperson for the prime minister, Keir Starmer, declined to be drawn on Zuckerberg’s remarks but stressed the UK had its own protections in the new Online Safety Act.

“Our relationship with the US across a number of areas is a very important one,” they said, adding: “Our online safety provisions coming in March are among the strongest on offer.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said: “We are looking closely at Meta’s announcement impacting its US platform. The UK’s Online Safety Act will oblige them to remove illegal content and content harmful to children here in the UK, and we continue to urge social media companies to counter the spread of misinformation and disinformation hosted on their platforms.”

Angie Drobnic Holan, the director of the International Fact-Checking Network which certified the factcheckers used by Meta, denied factcheckers had been biased and said: “That attack line comes from those who feel they should be able to exaggerate and lie without rebuttal or contradiction.”

Chris Morris, the chief executive of the UK factchecking organisation Full Fact, which has been funded by Meta to check Facebook content, called the announcement “a backwards step that risks a chilling effect around the world”. He said his organisation’s factcheckers assessed claims “from all political stripes with equal rigour, and hold those in power to account through our commitment to truth”.

“Locking factcheckers out of the conversation won’t help society to turn the tide on rapidly rising misinformation,” he said.

Zuckerberg said removing some restrictions on content on topics such as gender and immigration would “make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms” and said the focus of filters that scanned posts for policy violations would be shifted to only tackling illegal and high-severity violations.

“By dialling them back, we’re going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms,” he said. “We’re also going to tune our content filters to require much higher confidence before taking down content. The reality is that this is a tradeoff. It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.”

He said Meta would “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.

He cited Europe as a place with “an ever-increasing number of laws institutionalising censorship and making it difficult to build anything innovative” and said: “Latin American countries have secret courts that can order companies to quietly take things down.”

Justin Trudeau has rejected threats from Donald Trump that the US could use “economic force” to annex its closest ally, saying: “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.

“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner,” Canada’s prime minister wrote on social media.

Trump’s musings on Tuesday came as he doubled down on threats to impose protectionist tariffs on one of the US’s biggest trading partners.

“Canada and the United States: that would be really something,” he said from Florida, but warned his incoming administration was getting frustrated over what the president-elected called “subsidies” for Canada.

“We’ve been good neighbours, but we can’t do it forever, and it’s a tremendous amount of money,” he said.

Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, also pushed back, writing on social media that Trump’s comments showed a “complete lack of understanding of what makes Canada a strong country”. She said Canada “will never back down in the face of threats”.

The remarks are likely to further fuel political turmoil in Canada after the resignation of its prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the suspension of parliament until late March.

The US president-elect made his comments in a meandering press conference in which he also refused to rule out using military force to retake the Panama Canal and seize Greenland, and promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.

He once again mulled a union between Canada and the US, describing their shared border, established more than 230 years ago, as an “artificially drawn line”.

Asked if he would use military force, Trump said: “No, economic force.” He repeated his baseless claim that the US “subsidizes” Canada and said the country spends too much to defend its neighbour.

Trudeau announced on Monday he would step down after nearly 10 years in power as soon as his ruling Liberal party chooses a new leader.

Hours later, Trump revived his running jibe on social media about persuading Canada to seek US statehood.

“Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat,” the incoming president wrote.

In a stark contrast to Trump’s trolling, Joe Biden expressed his appreciation for Trudeau in a phone call late on Monday.

“Over the last decade, Prime Minister Trudeau has led with commitment, optimism, and strategic vision. The US-Canada alliance is stronger because of him. The American and Canadian people are safer because of him. And the world is better off because of him,” Biden said in a statement on Tuesday.

But the latest developments are likely to further deepen worries that a suspended parliament, a lame-duck prime minister, a Liberal leadership race and a federal election will all unfold at a time when Canada’s largest trading partner is at its most unpredictable.

Trudeau’s decision to resign has thrown open the doors to a fierce party race before a general election later this year.

Late on Monday, the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney announced that he was considering entering the race to replace Trudeau.

Carney, a climate-focused economist who became the first non-Briton to run the Bank of England, said in a statement that he would be “considering this decision closely with my family over the coming days”. A longtime and prominent member of the Liberal party, Carney said he was “encouraged” by the support of Liberal lawmakers and people “who want us to move forward with positive change and a winning economic plan”.

Speculation that Carney, who ran the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, could be seeking high office has grown over the past few months as Trudeau’s popularity plummeted amid record inflation, an acute housing crisis, high food prices and voter fatigue.

It has been more than a decade since the party last ran a federal leadership contest, with Trudeau securing a dominant win in 2013 and rebuilding the party in the years since.

The Liberal caucus will meet on Wednesday to discuss the procedure for selecting Trudeau’s replacement. The party’s constitution has a process for selecting a leader that typically takes months but there are now fewer than 80 days until parliament returns. Party brass are hopeful for a new leader by the end of January.

“It’s unfathomable to me that we can’t choose a leader of the Liberal party in a 30- to 60-day period, whereas we can choose the prime minister of Canada or the leader of the country according to the Elections Act in a 30- to 60-day period,” the immigration minister, Marc Miller, told CBC News.

Still, there are unanswered questions about who may be casting a ballot for the new leader. Trudeau’s 2013 win came after the party allowed people who had not paid for memberships to vote.

The Liberal party is in a tough position, with the opposition Conservatives expected to win a majority government under current polling. The Conservative party leader, Pierre Poilievre, has dismissed the former central banker as “Carbon Tax Carney”, a reference to a levy on consumer fuel Trudeau brought in. The Conservatives are also weighing using the tagline “Just like Justin” as an attack on the next Liberal leader in the hopes of tying any successor to the unpopularity of the prime minister.

Last week, Trudeau’s close friend and former principal secretary Gerald Butts wrote in a Substack post that allowing “a handful of apparatchiks [to] choose their prime minister” would harm the party.

“Competitions create better competitors. In politics, leadership campaigns make for better general election campaign teams. They train people, test ideas, build resilience,” he wrote.

Butts said the party’s future was at risk if it held a limited race bound by tight rules. “If Liberals arrogate that right to a few hundred people in Ottawa, I hope they’re alert to the risk that they could be selecting the party’s last leader.”

A poll by the Angus Reid Institute on Friday, before Trudeau’s announcement, found Carney was in second place among candidates likely to replace Trudeau as Liberal leader. The former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, whose resignation last month increased calls for Trudeau to go, was top.

If he were to win the leadership race, Carney would be in the unusual situation of becoming prime minister without holding a seat in the House of Commons. Party leaders are not required to be members of parliament when they win, but convention requires they run for a seat as quickly as possible. It took Jagmeet Singh 16 months to become an MP after winning the leadership of the New Democratic party.

With a spring election widely expected, the new Liberal leader will only hold the post of prime minister for a handful of months before the country votes.

Donald Trump is refusing to rule out using American military force to retake control of the Panama Canal and seize Greenland, citing economic security as a driving factor.

Speaking at a Tuesday press conference at Mar-a-Lago, the incoming US president explicitly declined to give assurances against using military or economic coercion when pressed about his plans regarding Panama and Greenland.

“I can’t assure you on either of those two,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question. “But I can say this, we need them for economic security.”

The remarks came during a rambling session with journalists at his Florida resort home and will probably set off diplomatic alarm bells around the world as Trump prepares to return to the White House later this month with an agenda of muscular American nationalism.

Trump claimed the Panama Canal, which was transferred to Panamanian control in 1999 under a 1977 treaty, was being “operated by China”, an assertion that comes amid his repeated calls for the strategic waterway to be returned to US control.

“The Panama Canal was built for our military,” Trump said. “Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China. China! And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama, we didn’t give it to China.”

When it came to Greenland, Trump threatened economic retaliation against Denmark, noting that if that country resisted his territorial ambitions he “would tariff Denmark at a very high level”.

His tough talk also extended due north, as he reiterated his interest in using “economic force” to make Canada into a US state and criticized US military support for one of its closest allies.

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, rejected Trump’s comments, saying: “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.

Trump was speaking as his son, Donald Trump Jr, touched down in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, where he reportedly distributed “Make Greenland Great Again” hats despite claiming to be visiting purely as a tourist.

Video footage showed the former US president addressing a group over lunch during a call to his son’s phone, saying, “We’re going to treat you well.”

The dual focus on Panama and Greenland represents a cryptic attempt to expand US territorial control in the name of national and economic security. While the Panama Canal was previously under US control, Greenland remains an autonomous territory of Denmark that has repeatedly rejected American overtures.

Trump’s comments follow a series of increasingly confrontational statements about the canal, including a recent threat that the US would “demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America – in full, quickly and without question”.

Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, rejected Trump’s demands, declaring that “every square metre” of the canal would remain under Panamanian sovereignty.

The exchange marks a dramatic escalation in rhetoric over the crucial maritime passage, which the US originally built in 1914 and operated for most of the 20th century. The confrontational stance echoes the tensions that led to the 1989 US invasion of Panama.

His comments are sparking particular concern given the United States’ history of military intervention in Panama.

In December 1989, the US launched Operation Just Cause, deploying 9,000 troops to join 12,000 US military personnel already in the country to overthrow the Panamanian military dictator Manuel Noriega. The invasion, which resulted in the deaths of 23 US service members and an estimated 500 Panamanian civilians, was condemned by the Organization of American States and the European Parliament as a violation of international law.

It also resulted in the removal of Noriega, who would later be sentenced on drug-trafficking charges to 40 years in US prison.

Trump has simultaneously ramped up pressure on other territories, suggesting Canada could become “the 51st state” and mockingly referring to the exiting prime minister, Justin Trudeau, as “governor”.

In an X post on Tuesday afternoon, Trudeau pushed back strongly on Trump’s suggestion, saying: “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States. Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”

Trump Jr’s Greenland visit included appearances at controversial colonial landmarks and meetings with local residents, though officials declined to specify the purpose of these encounters. There was no apparent official meeting with anyone from the Greenland government.

Trump posted on social media about his son’s trip.

“Don Jr and my Reps landing in Greenland,” Trump wrote. “The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!” Supporters later posted video of Trump speaking by phone to locals.

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said on Tuesday that the future of Greenland would be decided by its people. “Greenland is not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

At a time when most people have probably polished off their holiday leftovers, Belgium’s food agency has issued a surprising seasonal health warning: don’t eat your Christmas tree.

The message on Tuesday came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s northern Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table.

Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town website suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried – for use in making flavoured butter, for instance.

Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply from Belgium’s federal agency for food chain security, AFSCA, was a resounding “No.”

“Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain,” it said in a statement.

“There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe – either for people or animals,” it said, citing the likely presence of pesticides on most trees cultivated for the season.

“What’s more, there is no easy way for consumers to tell if Christmas trees have been treated with flame retardant – and not knowing that could have serious, even fatal consequences,” the agency warned.

“In short, there are many reasons not to promote nor encourage the re-use of Christmas trees in the food chain,” it said.

Seemingly taking the warning on board, the city tweaked its post – changing its headline from “Eat your Christmas tree” to read instead: “Scandinavians eat their Christmas trees.”

At a time when most people have probably polished off their holiday leftovers, Belgium’s food agency has issued a surprising seasonal health warning: don’t eat your Christmas tree.

The message on Tuesday came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s northern Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table.

Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town website suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried – for use in making flavoured butter, for instance.

Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply from Belgium’s federal agency for food chain security, AFSCA, was a resounding “No.”

“Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain,” it said in a statement.

“There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe – either for people or animals,” it said, citing the likely presence of pesticides on most trees cultivated for the season.

“What’s more, there is no easy way for consumers to tell if Christmas trees have been treated with flame retardant – and not knowing that could have serious, even fatal consequences,” the agency warned.

“In short, there are many reasons not to promote nor encourage the re-use of Christmas trees in the food chain,” it said.

Seemingly taking the warning on board, the city tweaked its post – changing its headline from “Eat your Christmas tree” to read instead: “Scandinavians eat their Christmas trees.”

International flights resumed at Damascus airport on Tuesday for the first time since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, including the first direct flight from Doha in 13 years, which was met by a party atmosphere in the arrivals hall.

One woman propped up a speaker playing a patriotic song, while two others set off green smoke flares as crowds clapped, chanted and sang.

“This is the first time I came through this airport since 2005 and felt proud to be Syrian,” said one passenger, Bashar al-Hussein, originally from the Syrian city of Daraa, who said he had travelled from his current home in Dubai to Doha in order to be on the first direct flight into Damascus.

Qatar, a strong opponent of Assad, had halted flights 13 years previously after the uprising against his rule.

The airport reopening was about more than travel, he said. Arriving at the airport under a new government, where passengers no longer felt under surveillance and staff refused to take bribes, was a new experience.

“From the airport to the last door, you’d end up paying about $200,” he said. “Even people who had done nothing wrong had to pay.”

In a reminder of life under Assad’s security state, he added, some passengers on his flight had learned only at passport control that the previous regime had brought charges against them.

Many of the ground staff, airline workers and cabin crew for Syria’s Cham Wings and SyrianAir had returned to work, although at least one mentioned they were yet to be paid.

Security forces in all-black suits or camouflage gear milled around the airport entrance, while others aligned to the new government, led by the Islamist group HTS, staffed immigration points and airport security. A muezzin sang the call to prayer from a balcony, while members of Syria’s civil defence, known as the White Helmets, looked on.

Ali Reda, a SyrianAir pilot, was cheerful after his return to work. The bullet holes in the air traffic control tower had been fixed, he said, as well as a few other repairs needed when the airport was looted during a 12-hour period when it was abandoned by forces loyal to Assad after the dictator fled. Many of those now in control of the airport had never done this kind of work before, he said.

“The security apparatus changed, but the civil aviation staff and ground staff who were working day to day have just gone back to doing their jobs,” he added.

Reda had come to work on his day off to help with the first flights from Damascus. He praised the new security measures at the airport as “in line with international standards”.

A passenger who gave her name only as Basma, said she was full of nervous excitement before boarding her first flight to Doha, where she would transit to visit her daughter in Brisbane. She had booked only a few days ago, she said, avoiding a two-hour car journey to Beirut airport, which previously was the only way to access most international airlines.

“It’s so much better to travel through Damascus airport than dealing with the Lebanese border guards. They would always humiliate us when we crossed,” she said. “Syrians in general are happy to have Damascus airport back.”

Staff from SyrianAir and Cham Wings, both of which are still under US Treasury sanctions for transporting mercenaries and weapons, and for other forms of trafficking under Assad, were optimistic that new flight routes could soon open up.

The airlines currently fly regularly to the Emirates, and Cham Wings staff said they were restarting flights to Baghdad, Erbil and Kuwait, while Turkish and other international airlines were expected to restart direct flights to Damascus.

The US Treasury paused select sanctions with Syrian government institutions earlier this week, saying that would allow the provision of public services and humanitarian assistance. Reda was hopeful that a new government in Syria meant the sanctions on SyrianAir could soon be lifted, allowing it to restore the fleet.

“Being on the sanctions list had destroyed our fleet as we couldn’t get spare parts for the planes – our fleet is down to two planes from the 18 we had before,” he said.

Lifting sanctions could also mean resuming direct flights to Europe for the first time in years, he hoped – “I miss my layovers in Europe – in Manchester.”

A former Cambodian opposition MP and French citizen was shot dead by a gunman on a motorcycle in Bangkok on Tuesday, according to Thai media.

“Lim Kimya… died at the scene. Officers with the Metropolitan Police Bureau have launched a manhunt for the assassin,” the Bangkok Post reported, adding that the deceased was a dual Cambodian-French national.

Thai police confirmed the death of a Cambodian man without identifying him as Lim Kimya, telling Agence France-Presse: “we are currently investigating the motives and will provide more information at a later time”.

Multiple Thai media outlets reported that a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire on Lim Kimya as he arrived in the Thai capital from the Cambodian city of Siem Reap by bus, accompanied by his French wife and a Cambodian uncle.

An AFP photojournalist saw blood at the scene near Bangkok’s popular Khao San Road area.

“The French government must aggressively pursue justice for their citizen, Lim Kimya, and leave no stone unturned in pressing the Thai government to effectively and thoroughly investigate this assassination, no matter where the path leads,” said Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights Labour Advocates.

A spokesperson for the Cambodian government did not immediately respond to request for comment from the Guardian.

Lim Kimya, 74, was elected as an opposition member of Cambodia’s parliament after a general poll in 2013 in which the ruling party under former leader Hun Sen almost lost to its then-rival, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

The CNRP, which was founded in 2012 by opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha and once considered the sole viable opponent to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), was dissolved by court order in 2017.

Scores of opposition politicians and MPs, including Lim Kimya, were banned from political activities after the party’s dissolution.

Rights groups have accused Hun Sen – who ruled Cambodia for nearly four decades before stepping down in 2023 and handing power to his eldest son, Hun Manet – of using the legal system to crush any opposition to his rule.

Scores of opposition politicians and activists were convicted and jailed during his time in power, with challengers forced to flee and freedom of expression stifled.

The Cambodian government has always denied that charges against political and environmental activists have been politically motivated.

Kem Sokha was arrested and was sentenced in 2023 to 27 years in prison for treason – a charge he has repeatedly denied – and was immediately placed under house arrest.

Sam Rainsy lives in exile in France.

Despite holding French citizenship, Lim Kimya did not join the dozens of lawmakers who fled abroad after Kem Sokha was detained.

Lim Kimya told AFP at the time in Phnom Penh: “I will never give up politics”.

The 2024 “winners” of the annual Shkreli awards, given each year to perpetrators of the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction within the healthcare industry, have been released from the Lown Institute, an independent healthcare thinktank.

The recipients are chosen by a panel made up of health policy experts, clinicians, journalists and advocates. The awards are named after Martin Shkreli, the infamous “pharma bro” who rose to international notoriety after increasing the price of lifesaving anti-parasitic drug Daraprim 50-fold.

“All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation. In 2024, healthcare practices were put in the spotlight,” Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, said during the ceremony.

“But doing these awards every year shows us that this is nothing new. We’re hoping that these stories illuminate what changes are needed.”

The No 10 spot this year went to the University of North Texas health science center in Fort Worth for allegedly neglecting to notify next of kin before selling body parts of deceased people.

An NBC News investigation uncovered that the school did not properly receive consent from the deceased or their family members before dissecting and distributing unclaimed bodies, despite the network finding that said family members were fairly easy to identify and contact.

The ninth spot was given to the outdated practice of baby tongue-tie cutting, which continues to be falsely touted as a cure for several ailments, from sleep apnea to nursing trouble, according to the New York Times.

Shady billing practices from Zynex Medical, a company specializing in nerve-stimulation devices used for pain management, took the No 8 slot. Patients received Zynex devices understanding the expense would be covered by insurance, according to a report from Stat News. Users then got unsolicited supplies of items like batteries and electrode pads delivered to them (often excessive quantities), which they ultimately got charged for. The report states that almost 70% of Zynex’s $184m in revenue in 2023 came from batteries and electrode pads.

“This is just classic over-billing. It’s fraud,” Patricia Kelmar, a senior director at the research group US Pirg and judge on the panel, said. “The patients feel that they owe the money because they already received the supplies. We see a lot of this kind of abuse within the pain-management field.”

The seventh spot was given to Sara England and her infant son, Amari Vaca. After the three-month-old experienced severe respiratory distress two months after open-heart surgery, doctors at Natividad medical center in Salinas, California, chose to have him transferred via air ambulance to a medical center in San Francisco. He recovered and Cigna later deemed the service “not medically necessary”. The family was given a $97,599 bill.

“This is happening everywhere,” Kelmar said. “The insurance denial here is that it should have been a ground ambulance instead of air, but how is the patient supposed to know that? This is a mother taking medical advice from the doctors.”

At No 6 was Medicare’s mass billing for urinary catheters. As many as 450,000 beneficiaries had bills for catheters submitted on their behalf in 2023, representing an 800% increase over previous years. Just seven suppliers were responsible for $2bn of these suspicious charges.

Taking the No 5 spot was Memorial medical center (a former non-profit turned for-profit) in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for allegations of refusing cancer treatment to patients or demanding upfront payments, even from those with insurance.

ProPublica’s uncovering of a once-celebrated oncologist’s pattern of malpractice and trails of suspicious deaths came in at No 4. Dr Thomas C Weiner of Helena, Montana, reportedly subjected one patient to unnecessary cancer treatments for more than a decade, amid a myriad of other shocking revelations.

Lumakras, a cancer drug from Amgen that was granted accelerated FDA approval at a daily dose of 960mg, despite findings that a 240mg dose offered similar efficacy with reduced toxicity and risk of side effects, grabbed the third spot.

“Pharma companies have that same incentive to get a return on profits,” said Kelmar. “The healthcare industry is a business, and businesses will try to get the highest profits possible.”

At No 2 was the behemoth that is UnitedHealth and how it’s become the fourth-largest business in the nation. Doctors for United have reported pressure to reduce time spent with patients, and make patients seem as sick as possible through aggressive medical coding tactics.

In a highly competitive year, the top spot went to Steward Health Care, whose CEO, Ralph de la Torre, is accused of prioritizing private-equity profits over patient care. His financial scheming led to bankruptcy, leaving hospitals in shambles, employees laid off and communities with less healthcare access.

“I want to say that this is our backyard,” said Saini.

“What was going on here was on the grapevine for many years. And if we knew about it, then we have to ask: ‘Where are the regulators? Where are the people who should’ve known better?”

The 2024 “winners” of the annual Shkreli awards, given each year to perpetrators of the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction within the healthcare industry, have been released from the Lown Institute, an independent healthcare thinktank.

The recipients are chosen by a panel made up of health policy experts, clinicians, journalists and advocates. The awards are named after Martin Shkreli, the infamous “pharma bro” who rose to international notoriety after increasing the price of lifesaving anti-parasitic drug Daraprim 50-fold.

“All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation. In 2024, healthcare practices were put in the spotlight,” Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, said during the ceremony.

“But doing these awards every year shows us that this is nothing new. We’re hoping that these stories illuminate what changes are needed.”

The No 10 spot this year went to the University of North Texas health science center in Fort Worth for allegedly neglecting to notify next of kin before selling body parts of deceased people.

An NBC News investigation uncovered that the school did not properly receive consent from the deceased or their family members before dissecting and distributing unclaimed bodies, despite the network finding that said family members were fairly easy to identify and contact.

The ninth spot was given to the outdated practice of baby tongue-tie cutting, which continues to be falsely touted as a cure for several ailments, from sleep apnea to nursing trouble, according to the New York Times.

Shady billing practices from Zynex Medical, a company specializing in nerve-stimulation devices used for pain management, took the No 8 slot. Patients received Zynex devices understanding the expense would be covered by insurance, according to a report from Stat News. Users then got unsolicited supplies of items like batteries and electrode pads delivered to them (often excessive quantities), which they ultimately got charged for. The report states that almost 70% of Zynex’s $184m in revenue in 2023 came from batteries and electrode pads.

“This is just classic over-billing. It’s fraud,” Patricia Kelmar, a senior director at the research group US Pirg and judge on the panel, said. “The patients feel that they owe the money because they already received the supplies. We see a lot of this kind of abuse within the pain-management field.”

The seventh spot was given to Sara England and her infant son, Amari Vaca. After the three-month-old experienced severe respiratory distress two months after open-heart surgery, doctors at Natividad medical center in Salinas, California, chose to have him transferred via air ambulance to a medical center in San Francisco. He recovered and Cigna later deemed the service “not medically necessary”. The family was given a $97,599 bill.

“This is happening everywhere,” Kelmar said. “The insurance denial here is that it should have been a ground ambulance instead of air, but how is the patient supposed to know that? This is a mother taking medical advice from the doctors.”

At No 6 was Medicare’s mass billing for urinary catheters. As many as 450,000 beneficiaries had bills for catheters submitted on their behalf in 2023, representing an 800% increase over previous years. Just seven suppliers were responsible for $2bn of these suspicious charges.

Taking the No 5 spot was Memorial medical center (a former non-profit turned for-profit) in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for allegations of refusing cancer treatment to patients or demanding upfront payments, even from those with insurance.

ProPublica’s uncovering of a once-celebrated oncologist’s pattern of malpractice and trails of suspicious deaths came in at No 4. Dr Thomas C Weiner of Helena, Montana, reportedly subjected one patient to unnecessary cancer treatments for more than a decade, amid a myriad of other shocking revelations.

Lumakras, a cancer drug from Amgen that was granted accelerated FDA approval at a daily dose of 960mg, despite findings that a 240mg dose offered similar efficacy with reduced toxicity and risk of side effects, grabbed the third spot.

“Pharma companies have that same incentive to get a return on profits,” said Kelmar. “The healthcare industry is a business, and businesses will try to get the highest profits possible.”

At No 2 was the behemoth that is UnitedHealth and how it’s become the fourth-largest business in the nation. Doctors for United have reported pressure to reduce time spent with patients, and make patients seem as sick as possible through aggressive medical coding tactics.

In a highly competitive year, the top spot went to Steward Health Care, whose CEO, Ralph de la Torre, is accused of prioritizing private-equity profits over patient care. His financial scheming led to bankruptcy, leaving hospitals in shambles, employees laid off and communities with less healthcare access.

“I want to say that this is our backyard,” said Saini.

“What was going on here was on the grapevine for many years. And if we knew about it, then we have to ask: ‘Where are the regulators? Where are the people who should’ve known better?”

Three people have died after a seaplane crashed near Western Australia’s popular tourist destination Rottnest Island with seven people on board.

The privately owned Cessna 208 Caravan 675 seaplane is believed to have struck a small limestone outcrop called Phillip Rock while taking off from Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth, at about 4pm local time on Tuesday.

It plunged into the water near Thomson Bay with seven on board, including the pilot. The operator, Swan River Seaplanes, has ceased all operations following the crash, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said on Wednesday afternoon.

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Four survivors were pulled from the water on Tuesday. A 63-year-old Swiss man, a 63-year-old WA man and a 65-year-old WA woman were airlifted to Fiona Stanley hospital with varying levels of injury, WA police said on Wednesday. A 58-year-old Danish woman was also airlifted to Royal Perth hospital for medical treatment.

The WA police commissioner, Col Blanch, said on Wednesday the injuries ranged from minor injuries to a “very serious hand injury”.

Rescue efforts led by police and emergency services crews, and involving civilian vessels, took place on Tuesday evening.

The bodies of the three deceased were recovered from the wreckage by water police divers on Tuesday night, the premier, Roger Cook, confirmed on Wednesday morning local time.

The victims include the pilot, who was a 34-year-old man who lived in Perth, a 65-year-old woman believed to be a Swiss tourist and a 60-year-old-man believed to be a tourist from Denmark.

Blanch said it had been a “difficult and dangerous operation” for the police divers, who had descended about 8 metres deep to recover the bodies.

The seven passengers on board included three couples.

Rottnest Island is about 20km off the coast from the WA capital, Perth. The island is a popular holiday spot, attracting thousands of visitors, and is home to the world-famous native quokkas.

“My thoughts go out to the families and friends of the victims. This is no doubt very difficult for everyone involved,” Cook said.

“The tragedy unfolded in front of many tourists, including families with children who are on the island enjoying the summer holidays, and may have been distressing for those who witnessed the event,” he said.

“For something so tragic to happen in front of so many people, at a place that provides so much joy, especially at this time of year, is deeply upsetting.”

The seaplane crashed near Thomson Bay, where Rottnest’s ferry port is located.

Cook said early reports that the seaplane had hit Phillip Rock at the entrance of Thomson Bay are “not yet confirmed” and will form part of the investigation.

“What caused the crash remains unknown,” he said. WA police are assisting the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in their investigation.

Large parts of the aircraft are still submerged, Blanch said. A 200-metre exclusion zone is in place as the wreckage is removed from the water.

Police received several 000 calls from the public at 4pm on Tuesday in relation to the seaplane crash, Blanch said.

A multi-agency response was executed, including water police, the Rottnest Island Nursing Post, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and St John Ambulance.

“Importantly, members of the public were already present, immediately jumped into action [to] save lives,” Blanch said.

“I do want to personally, on behalf of WA police and emergency services, thank those who were present for helping fellow [Western Australians] and others in need.”

The Cessna plane had been recently acquired by operator Swan River Seaplanes, which runs scenic flights around Perth and Rottnest Island.

The operator has an air operator’s certificate issued by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

CASA are working with them to gather information, CASA said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.

“Our deepest condolences go out to all involved in this tragic accident and we stand ready to assist the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in its investigation,” CASA said.

Flight records show it has undergone a number of flights around the region since it was brought to Perth.

Greg Quin, who witnessed the plane go down, told ABC radio in Perth the plane crashed moments after taking off from the bay, reaching only about 3 metres above the water before suddenly descending.

“We were watching the seaplane take off and just as it was beginning to get off the water, it just tipped over and it crashed,” he said.

“A lot of people in the water on their boats rushed to the scene and I think got there really, really quickly which was just amazing.

“But it very quickly got caught up in the wind and the current and began drifting [it] away.”

On Wednesday morning Anthony Albanese said the crash was “terrible news”.

“My heart goes out to all those involved,” the prime minister said.

• Donald Trump has said he sympathises with the Russian position that Ukraine should not be part of Nato, and lamented that he will not be able to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin before his inauguration. Though Nato members and the Biden administration have expressed support for its eventual membership, Ukraine has never been extended an invitation. Kyiv says joining Nato will deter further Russian aggression. Conversely, Trump and his allies claim Ukraine’s membership will unnecessarily provoke Moscow and drag the alliance into a war. “A big part of the problem is, Russia – for many, many years, long before Putin – said, ‘You could never have Nato involved with Ukraine.’ Now, they’ve said that. That’s been, like, written in stone,” Trump said. “And somewhere along the line Biden said, ‘No. They should be able to join Nato.’ Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that.”

• The Biden administration will announce a “substantial” final weapons package for Ukraine, the Associated Press reports. Defence secretary Lloyd Austin will announce the package on a visit to Germany to meet with representatives from about 50 countries who have assisted Ukraine. While the exact value of the package was not provided by defence officials to the Associated Press, they said it would not include all of the roughly $4bn left in the remaining funding for Ukraine. The package follows a $1.25bn aid package in December and a series of aid announcements as it hurried to provide military assistance before President Joe Biden leaves office. The officials said roughly 80-90% of all stockpile equipment promised has already been provided to Ukraine.

• An upcoming visit to Kyiv by Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia will be rescheduled, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said. He said he was confident the meeting between Keith Kellogg and Ukrainian officials would “take place in its own time” and that the two countries are in contact to “ensure that the meeting is meaningful as possible”.

• Ukraine’s general staff announced 94 clashes in the Russian Kursk region on Tuesday, double the number from the day before. A Russian defence ministry statement listed six locations where its troops had defeated Ukrainian brigades, and a further seven where it said it had initiated strikes on Ukrainian troops and equipment. Reports on both sides were not able to be verified by Reuters. Ukraine launched a new offensive in the region on Sunday, but has not provided details of the operation or what the objectives are.

• The Ukrainian army says fighting in Kurakhove, which Russia claimed to have seized, is still ongoing. Victor Tregubov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Khortytsia army unit said on national TV that Ukrainian troops are holding on the western outskirts of the town, while accusing Russia of using scorched earth tactics to “completely destroy” the town. “They’re actually trying to dismantle the town brick by brick”, he said, adding that Ukraine was “inflicting losses on them so that they do not advance further”.

• EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has accused Russia of using “gas as a weapon” after Russia’s Gazprom cut off heating and hot water in the region of Transnistria in Moldova over a financial dispute. On the same day, a gas transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine, was not renewed, leaving people reliant on burning wood and plug-in electric heaters. Writing on social media platform X, she said she had reaffirmed the EU’s “unwavering solidarity” with Moldova in a call with its prime minister, Dorin Recean..

Venezuela’s Edmundo González Urrutia, who the opposition says won a July presidential election against incumbent Nicolás Maduro, has said that his son-in-law was seized by “hooded men” in Caracas.

“This morning my son-in-law Rafael Tudares was kidnapped,” said González on Tuesday.

Writing on the social network X, González said his son-in-law Rafael Tudares was “intercepted by hooded men, dressed in black” while taking his children to school and driven away in a gold-colored van.

The incident came a day after the US president, Joe Biden, hosted the exiled González for talks at the White House, infuriating Maduro’s government, which has put a bounty on the 75-year-old’s head.

It also comes amid tensions in the capital Caracas, three days before Maduro is due to be sworn in for a third term – defying calls from the United States and other world powers for him to step aside in favor of González.

The 62-year-old has ruled the oil-rich country for over a decade, retaining an iron grip on power with the help of police, paramilitaries and the armed forces.

Backed by state institutions loyal to him, Maduro claimed victory in the July polls, with the National Electoral Council (CNE) failing to publicly release results data.

The opposition claimed its polling station-level data showed that González had won the election by a landslide.

More than 20 people were killed and nearly 200 were wounded in the rioting that followed Maduro’s claim of election victory in July.

Another 2,400 people were arrested in the crackdown, with authorities saying this week that about 1,500 had since been freed. Rights groups have cast doubt on that figure.

González, 75, fled in exile to Spain in September and has pledged to return to his country to be sworn in.

He has toured capitals in the Americas in recent days to try to isolate Maduro, whose re-election has been recognized by only a handful of countries, including longtime ally Russia.

The opposition has called for major demonstrations on Thursday, the eve of Maduro’s inauguration.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who backed González for president after being barred from running herself, urged supporters to turn out in “millions”, and said she would be there herself.

But it is unclear whether Venezuelans, wearied by decades of economic crisis and fearful of government vengeance, can be persuaded to demonstrate in large numbers once again.

Years of protests and US sanctions imposed over previous elections tainted by fraud allegations have failed to dislodge Maduro.

A parallel government set up by the opposition in 2019 with the support of over 50 countries also failed to hasten an end to his rule.

The Maduro government has vowed to deal harshly with future protests and threatened to jail González if he makes good on a promise to return to Venezuela. Last week authorities offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to his capture.

Afghans who were killed by members of the SAS in Afghanistan were described dismissively as having been “flat packed” according to revealing testimony given by a former member of the elite force’s sister unit to a public inquiry.

The soldier, known only as N1799, said he had been party to a conversation with a member of the SAS in 2011 who had served in Afghanistan, in which he had been “shocked by the age and methods” used to kill Afghans.

N1799 told his superiors at the time that he believed the SAS had a policy in Afghanistan to “kill all males on target whether they posed a threat or not” – but in his evidence to the inquiry he said what he had heard in person was “more graphic”.

Asked to explain what he meant by Oliver Glasgow, the counsel to the inquiry, the soldier said that “words that have been used about killing were like ‘flat packing’, ‘flat packing them’” because the conversation was informal, among colleagues.

At another point the SAS member – known only as N1201 – told N1799, while on a training course, that “a pillow had been put over the head of someone before they had been killed with a pistol” during operations in Afghanistan.

N1799 was one of seven commanders and soldiers who have recently given evidence to an inquiry into the deaths of up to 80 Afghan civilians during an SAS deployment in Helmand province between 2010 and 2013.

Members of the SAS and Special Boat Service (SBS) are embroiled in a growing number of official investigations relating to the conduct of elite soldiers on undercover missions in Libya and Syria as well as Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, it emerged that four members of the SBS are under investigation by military police after a car chase in Libya approximately two years ago that led to the death of a suspected terrorist. The Daily Mail reported that the elite soldiers had eventually surrounded the vehicle, firing shots and killing its occupant.

Five serving SAS soldiers are also facing possible murder charges over the death of a suspected jihadi in Syria. They have been accused of using excessive force, when the target should have been arrested, and the inquiry is continuing.

N1799’s testimony was initially given in secret to protect national security, but summaries and redacted transcripts have been released on Wednesday in an effort to be transparent about the work of the inquiry.

The presiding judge, Charles Haddon-Cave, also ruled that the identity of N1799 and the others giving evidence must remain undisclosed. N1799 was an officer in the sister unit SBS at the time he heard N1201’s account of how the SAS operated in Afghanistan.

SAS and SBS operations are conducted in secret and while the chief of the units, the director of special forces, is part of the military chain of command, they also report directly to the prime minister.

N1799 also told the inquiry he still feared for his personal safety and wellbeing if his name were to be linked to allegations that the SAS had been murdering Afghan civilians on deployment, and told the inquiry that he believed he had broken “a code of silence”. Past and present members of the SAS would regard him as a traitor, he added.

The Ministry of Defence said it did not comment on the activities of special forces or an ongoing public inquiry.