About 90 Palestinian prisoners have been released in exchange for three Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas to Israel, as part of the ceasefire deal aimed at ending 15 months of war.

The prisoners, most of whom were freed in the early hours of Monday from Ofer prison in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, were welcomed by thousands of people celebrating, waving the flags of Palestine and Hamas.

Mothers, fathers, siblings and friends had waited for hours in the cold to embrace their loved ones as part of the agreement.

Among those released was Shatha Jarabaa, 24, who was arrested over a social media post criticising the “brutality” of Israel’s campaign in Gaza. “I’m very happy! Thank God I’m outside. They treated me very bad in prison. It was horrible,” she told the Guardian

She was greeted by her father, Nawaf Jarabaa, 63, who said earlier: “I’m happy, but not too happy … My daughter was arrested simply for expressing her ideas … The thing that bothers me the most is that people think that the Israelis have only behaved this way towards us since 7 October, but the truth is that it has always been like this.’’

His anticipation was also tempered by the fact that two other children were not included in the deal.

Another prisoner released was Ahmad Khsha, 18, who was arrested in January 2024 in Jenin. “They arrested me because my brother died during a shootout in Jenin. After he died, they arrested me. They raided our cells on Saturday before releasing us and threw teargas at us. They tortured us in the cell, every day. They also tortured and mistreated the women.”

A spokesperson for the Israeli prison service said it was not aware of the claims but prisoners and detainees had the right to file a complaint that would be examined. It said all prisoners were detained according to the law.

Osama Shadeh, who was waiting to be reunited with his 17-year-old daughter Aseel, said: “It’s hard to describe the emotion we’re feeling at this moment.

“My daughter was arrested on 7 November 2024 when she was protesting against the killing of Palestinian children in Gaza. She was waving a Palestinian flag. Israeli soldiers shot her in the foot and handcuffed her. They accused her of trying to stab the soldiers. The fact that she is being released now means that Israel knew that my daughter had done nothing wrong. Yet they kept a minor in jail for over a year.”

Khawlaha Mahfouz, 53, whose daughter Ayat, 33, from Hebron, was arrested in June 2024 for an attempted stabbing attack also expressed mixed feelings. “I’m happy, [but] at the same time, my heart is sad and I don’t feel ready to celebrate with all that is happening in Gaza.”

A “double feeling” is how the most prominent detainee freed, Khalida Jarrar, 62, described it. Jarrar is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular leftist faction that was involved in attacks against Israel in the 1970s but later scaled back militant activities. Since her arrest in late 2023, she was held under indefinitely renewable administrative detention – a widely criticised practice that Israel uses against Palestinians.

“There’s this double feeling we’re living in. On the one hand, this feeling of freedom, that we thank everyone for, and on the other hand, this pain, of losing so many Palestinian martyrs,” she told the Associated Press.

In Al Fawakeh square in Ramallah, hundreds of people chanted: “The people want the Al-Qassam Brigades,” referring to Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza. In the Palestinian Territories, the release of prisoners and the ceasefire was perceived as a victory for Hamas over Israel.

In East Jerusalem, the homes of at least four prisoners in East Jerusalem were reportedly raided by Israeli security forces who seized flags and symbols associated with Palestine with soldiers explicitly warning relatives against speaking to the media. The Israel Prison Service said on Friday that it would take measures to prevent any “public displays of joy” by families of Palestinian prisoners released in the deal.

On Sunday, three women held hostage by Hamas in tunnels beneath Gaza, Damari, 28, Romi Gonen, 24 and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were released and reunited with their mothers. Videos showed them in apparent good health though they are expected to spend a few days in hospital.

In one video, Damari, who lost two fingers when she was shot the day she was abducted, smiled and hugged her mother as she held up a bandaged hand.

The first phase of the truce took effect following a three-hour delay during which Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the Gaza Strip.

The last-minute blitz killed 13 people, Palestinian health authorities said. Israel claimed it had struck terrorists although Al Jazeera reported that at least two missiles hit a family travelling on a donkey cart as they tried to return home. The attack killed Ahmed al-Qidra and two of his seven children, the broadcaster reported.

Minutes after the truce began, the United Nations said the first trucks carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid had entered the Palestinian territory.

An Egyptian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “260 trucks of aid and 16 of fuel” had moved into the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza and the Nitzana crossing between Egypt and Israel before entering Gaza.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians also set off across the landscape to return home. In the northern area of Jabaliya, hundreds streamed down a sandy path, heading to an apocalyptic landscape piled with rubble and destroyed buildings.

Under the first phase of the deal reached between Israel and Hamas, which is to last 42 days, the militant group has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women (including female soldiers) and men aged over 50, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

In the second phase of the ceasefire deal, the remaining living hostages are due to be sent back and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners will be freed, and Israel will completely withdraw from the territory. The specifics are subject to further negotiations, which are due to start 16 days into the first phase.

The third phase will address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza will be launched. Arrangements for future governance of the strip remain hazy.

About 100 of the Palestinian prisoners slated for release are serving life sentences for violent attacks on Israelis; others were jailed for lesser offences, including social media posts, or held in administrative detention, which allows for the pre-emptive arrest of individuals based on undisclosed evidence.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Three women held hostage by Hamas in tunnels beneath Gaza during 15 months of devastating conflict, including the joint British national Emily Damari, have been released and reunited with their mothers in the first act of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the conflict.

Damari, 28, Romi Gonen, 24 and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were handed over to the International Committee for the Red Cross in Gaza on Sunday afternoon, ending a protracted ordeal that began with their violent abduction by Hamas on 7 October 2023.

On Sunday evening the Israeli military said the three had been reunited with their mothers at a meeting point inside Israel, close to the kibbutz and nearby music festival where they had been abducted from.

In pictures released by the Damari family of Emily’s reunion with her mother, Mandy, Damari can be seen embracing her mother as she talks to her brother on the phone. In a second image she can be seen gesturing happily to a crying family member with a bandaged hand, with two fingers missing from the hand in which she was shot during her abduction.

Earlier, live television footage of the handover broadcast from the scene by Al Jazeera showed a white minivan arriving in a square in the Rimal district of Gaza City with the three women inside.

A few moments later the women exited the vehicles accompanied by Hamas fighters in green headbands and balaclavas and closely pressed by crowds who took pictures with cellphones and chanted support for Hamas.

The handover was confirmed by Israeli, Hamas and Red Cross officials to media not long after 5pm local time (1500 GMT), with the women described as “in good health” by the Red Cross to an Israeli official.

“The three women hostages were officially handed over to the Red Cross at al-Saraya Square in the al-Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City,” a senior Hamas official told the Agence France-Presse news agency. “This occurred after a member of the Red Cross team met with them and ensured their wellbeing.”

The handover to Israeli forces was confirmed in a joint statement just over half an hour later by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet domestic security agency.

“The three returns have now been transferred to the IDF and Shin Bet forces in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

“The three returnees are now accompanied by an elite unit of the IDF and the Shin Bet force on their way back to Israel, back to Israeli territory, where they will undergo an initial medical evaluation.

“The commanders of the IDF and its soldiers salute and hug the returnees on their way to Israel.”

On Sunday night, the three women were described as being in a “stable condition” by officials at Sheba Medical Center.

The three hostages, two of whom were injured during their abduction, are the first of 33 hostages – in the so-called humanitarian category including women, children, the ill and elderly people – listed for release during the first part of a complex three-phase hostage deal.

Others from the 33 will be released in small groups on subsequent Sundays as the ceasefire progresses.

Earlier video footage showed a convoy of four white Red Cross vehicles travelling to the centre of Gaza City to collect the three hostages.

Later footage showed the parked SUVs at what appeared to be an agreed rendezvous point, where they were surrounded by crowds held back by armed members of Hamas’s al-Qassam brigades.

From there, the released hostages were delivered first to the Israeli military and then to waiting helicopters to fly them to hospital in Israel.

The release took place as Israel said it was preparing to release 90 Palestinian prisoners to the West Bank later on Sunday as part of the ceasefire agreement.

Once the first three hostages are returned on Sunday, Israel is expected to release the first Palestinian detainees under the deal. According to Hamas, the 90 Palestinians to be freed on Sunday will include 69 women and 21 teenage boys.

There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after the war, much less rebuild it. Any return of Hamas to control in Gaza will test the commitment to the truce of Israel, which has said it will resume the war unless the militant group that has run the territory since 2007 is fully dismantled.

Joe Biden has issued pre-emptive pardons for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, using the extraordinary powers of his office in his final hours to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration.

The pardons included two leading Republicans who have been critical of Trump, former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and who could face reprisals from the incoming president.

“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”

While it is usual for presidents to grant clemency at the end of their terms, Biden’s decision extends the presidential pardons to those who have not been investigated. It also sets up a future political and judicial crisis, if Trump seeks to go after them.

“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said in the statement. “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong – and in fact have done the right thing – and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”

The decision by Biden comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.

Fauci, who helped coordinate the nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, raised the ire of Trump when he refused to back Trump’s unfounded claims. He has become a target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringed on their rights, even as tens of thousands of Americans were dying.

Mark Milley is the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump’s conduct around the Capitol insurrection.

In a statement, Milley said he was “deeply grateful” for Biden’s action. “After 43 years of faithful service in uniform to our nation, protecting and defending the constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights,” he said.

Biden also extended pardons to staff of the January 6 committee that investigated the attack, as well as the US Capitol and DC Metropolitan police officers who testified before the House committee about their experiences that day, when the Capitol was overrun by an angry, violent mob of Trump supporters.

The committee spent 18 months investigating Trump and the insurrection.

Former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn, who became an outspoken critic of Trump, told CBS News: “I wish this pardon weren’t necessary, but unfortunately, the political climate we are in now has made the need for one somewhat of a reality. I, like all other public servants, was just doing my job and upholding my oath. I will always honor that.”

Biden has set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued. He announced on Friday he would commute the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

Axel Rudakubana has pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls and attempting to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, in the worst targeted attack on children in Britain since the Dunblane massacre.

Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the stabbings in Southport last summer, also pleaded guilty to possessing terrorist material and producing the toxin ricin.

He appeared in the dock at Liverpool crown court on the day his trial was due to begin.

Wearing a blue Covid-style face mask, Rudakubana had refused to confirm his identity or to stand when asked by the judge before his barrister, Stanley Reiz KC, asked to approach the dock.

After a short discussion between the defendant and his barrister, Reiz asked for the indictment to be put to Rudakubana again. He then pleaded guilty to all the charges in a barely audible voice.

The judge, Mr Justice Goose, said he intended to sentence the 18-year-old on Thursday when he would be given a life term.

After entering the guilty pleas, Rudakubana sat hunched forward with his head bowed. He was flanked in the dock by four security officers and an intermediary, who confirmed that he could hear proceedings.

The dramatic events stunned the assembled barristers, police officers, detectives and prosecutors in the small courtroom.

Rudakubana killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. He also admitted the attempted murders of a further eight children and two adults.

The teenager took a taxi on 29 July to the Hart Space, a community centre in Southport about 5 miles from his home. He launched a frenzied knife attack at the dance class that was taking place during the first week of the school holidays.

The attack left families and the local community devastated, and led to riots that broke out across the country in the aftermath.

After Rudakubana had entered his pleas, Goose said: “I am conscious of the fact the families are not here today. You have now pleaded guilty to this indictment and to each of the charges upon it.

“You will understand it is inevitable the sentence to be imposed upon you will mean a life sentence equivalent will be imposed upon you. I will have to complete the sentencing process on that occasion.”

Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, confirmed the families had not attended court on Monday because it had been assumed the trial would open on Tuesday.

The judge said he extended his apologies to the families that they had not been able to hear Rudakubana enter his pleas.

Originally protected by an anonymity order because he was a minor at the time of the attack, a judge ruled that Rudakubana could be identified shortly before his 18th birthday.

Announcing the further charges after a “lengthy and complex” investigation, Merseyside police said ricin had been discovered at Rudakubana’s home in the village of Banks, near Southport, days after the attack.

Rudakubana, born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, was also found to have a pdf file titled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The al-Qaida Training Manual. He was charged with possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

The chief constable Serena Kennedy said no evidence of the poison was found at Hart Space, and that counter-terrorism police had “not declared the events of 29 July as a terrorist incident”.

Ursula Doyle, the deputy chief crown prosecutor for Merseyside, said Rudakubana had a “sickening and sustained interest in death and violence and shown no sign of remorse … This was an unspeakable attack – one which left an enduring mark on our community and the nation for its savagery and senselessness.

“At the start of the school holidays, a day which should have been one of carefree innocence; of children enjoying a dance workshop and making friendship bracelets, became a scene of the darkest horror as Axel Rudakubana carried out his meticulously planned rampage.”

After the killings, the victims’ families paid tribute to the three girls. Alice’s parents, Sergio and Alexandra, said she was “our perfect dream child”.

They said in a tribute at her funeral service. “A good girl, with strong values and kind nature. A lover of animals and an environmentalist in the making. You moved our world with your confidence and empathy. Playful, energetic, friendly and always so respectful.”

Lauren and Ben King said Bebe had been “taken from us in an unimaginable act of violence that has left our hearts broken beyond repair.

“Our beloved Bebe, only six years old, was full of joy, light and love, and she will always remain in our hearts as the sweet, kind and spirited girl we adore.”

Their older daughter Genie saw the attack but managed to escape. “She has shown such incredible strength and courage, and we are so proud of her,” her parents said.

Elsie’s parents, Jenni and David, said their daughter was a “devoted Swiftie” who “brought light, love and joy to so many lives”.

“Elsie spent every day just simply enjoying life with determination, persistence, love and kindness,” they said. “Elsie was an amazing little girl. She had the ability to light up any room that she entered, she was truly unforgettable.”

The other children injured in the attack cannot be named for legal reasons.

Axel Rudakubana seemed, on the face of it, an unthreatening figure: a quiet boy from a God-fearing family, slightly built and small for his age. He showed passion for acting – once even playing Doctor Who in a BBC Children in Need advert, wearing spectacles and an oversized trenchcoat – but friends said he lacked the confidence for the big stage.

He was on the books of a talent agency at the age of 11. But by the end of his schooling this summer he was a virtual recluse.

How this shy son of evangelical Christians was able to carry out a stabbing of such cruelty will be the subject of intense scrutiny after he pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering three young girls and trying to kill 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport on 29 July.

Despite months of investigation, combing Rudakubana’s digital devices as well as every inch of his family home, detectives are unable to say why he carried out the worst targeted attack on children in Britain since the Dunblane massacre.

Some will be convinced the attack was terrorism even though the authorities remain unable to prove a specific motive.

What is not in doubt, however, is that the nature of the offences – including his attempt to make the deadly poison, ricin, and possessing an al-Qaida handbook – raises questions about what was known about Rudakubana and whether he could have been stopped sooner.

It can now be revealed that Rudakubana, 18, did briefly come to the attention of counter-terrorism officials but was assessed as not posing a risk of supporting terrorism or carrying out acts of violence in support of any cause.

Yet the Guardian has learned that the Cardiff-born teenager, whose Rwandan parents moved to Britain in 2002, had developed a deep and dark interest in extreme violence, spending hours researching genocide and watching graphic videos of murder.

“He was absolutely obsessed with genocides,” said one senior official. “He could name every genocide in history and how many people were killed – Rwanda, Genghis Khan, Hitler. It’s all he wanted to talk about.”

Rudakubana had a closer connection to genocide than most other British youths: his father, Alphonse, is thought to have fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), an armed force that battled the Hutu-dominated regime in Rwanda and eventually brought an end to the mass ethnic killings of 1994.

Alphonse, now 49, is reportedto have been an RPA officer, possibly relatively senior, based in neighbouring Uganda, where his family are thought to have fled well before the genocide. One source said Alphonse had acquired significant military experience.

Rudakubana’s family background was a mystery to the vast majority of those who knew him in Southport.

But by 29 July, the day of his attack, local authorities knew enough to view him as a concern.

One official said the teenager, who is autistic, was under the supervision of social services, and local authority workers would insist on a police officer being present at their meetings with him. Neighbours said they saw police cars outside the family’s smart semi-detached home in the village of Banks “half a dozen” times in the weeks before he attacked the Hart Space centre, 5 miles away.

Social workers knew that he had recently left mainstream education after taking a knife into school and, in a separate incident described by sources, threatened teachers and pupils with a hockey stick on which Rudakubana had written their names.

One former schoolfriend described him, simply, as “a ticking timebomb”.

Neighbours on the secluded cul-de-sac where the Rudakubana family lived rarely saw Axel. Some only realised he existed when the world’s media descended on Old School Close in Southport after the attack on 29 July.

Others, however, thought something strange was afoot earlier that day. One neighbour saw the then 17-year-old “mooching around” at 6am. It was memorable because he was rarely seen out alone – and never that early. “I’ve never, ever seen him walking about the estate,” he said. “He never had any friends around.”

“He was a recluse, he wasn’t somebody that would play football on the street or anything like that,” another said. “He just seemed a bit of a loner.” The neighbour had seen Rudakubana outside his house before he left to carry out the attack, but said: “I’ve lived here a long time, and that’s probably only the second time I’ve seen him.”

“It was unusual, very unusual,” he said. “He was pacing up and down.”

Another said the only time he had noticed Rudakubana was when his father would drive him to and from school. “He was quiet. He used to just stand there kicking stones waiting for his dad to come out,” he said.

Shortly before 11am that sunny day, an hour before the stabbings, Rudakubana was caught on doorbell cameras walking up the street, a green hood pulled over his head with his face partially covered by a Covid-style mask.

He moved purposefully towards a nearby social club, which was due to host a children’s drama club later that day. A short walk away, a skate park was filled with youngsters enjoying the start of the school summer holidays.

Rudakubana returned home five minutes later, his left hand hidden inside his green hoodie and his face still concealed behind the mask.

Half an hour later, at 11.23am, he re-emerged from his home. Within minutes, he would be in a taxi, armed with a knife, on the 15-minute drive to the Hart Space, where parents were arriving to pick up their children.

Born in Cardiff, Wales, four years after his parents moved to Britain from Rwanda in the hope of a better life, Rudakubana appears to have enjoyed a happy boisterous childhood along with his older brother – a talented musician and high-achieving mathematician.

“Mum was a stay-at-home mum, dad went to work in a small car like a Fiesta or Polo,” said a former neighbour, who knew the family when they lived in a rental property in Thornhill, in the north of the Welsh capital. “They were a normal family.

“I knew they came from Rwanda, I knew there was a history there but I wasn’t going to pry. They kept themselves to themselves. We chatted over the garden fence at times. I remember their cooking, they brought the smells and tastes of home obviously.”

The neighbour said Axel was quieter than his older brother, who she said was “full of mischief”. The two of them would “run their mum ragged as little boys do”.

“The younger one was quite clingy, clung to mum quite a bit. So initially I thought they were talking about the older one as he was very mischievous. It was a terrible shock. My heart goes out to the parents. They were normal parents,” she said.

“People have asked me was there signs of any violence? No there was not. Was there any sign of arguments? No there was not. Any sings of unhappiness? No there was not. My heart goes out to them.”

By the time he began secondary school, the family of four had moved 200 miles north, to the seaside town of Southport, telling neighbours that Rudakubana’s father had got a job in Liverpool.

Where they might once have found comfort in the Welsh capital’s Rwandan community, there was less familiarity in the windswept holiday resort on the north-west coast.

While others his age were experimenting in the usual teenage ways, with drink and young romance, Rudakubana became a recluse, retreating to his bedroom and developing a dark interest in some of history’s bloodiest episodes.

He was due to start studying for his GCSEs when schools were closed during the Covid pandemic. When they returned in March 2021, the teenager was beginning to live in a self-imposed form of lockdown.

One senior official said he would talk constantly to professionals about genocides, spanning from the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan to more recent atrocities.

One of his particular fascinations was a conflict closer to home: the Rwanda genocide. The United Nations estimates that as many as 1 million people died in just over 100 days of violence that tore apart the east African nation in 1994.

The Tutsi ethnic group made up about 14% of Rwanda’s population at the time but made up the vast majority of the dead.

Rudakubana’s parents – Alphonse and Laetitia Muzayire, 52 – were among the millions of young Rwandans who fled the country after seeing it divided along ethnic lines.

Both of Rudakubana’s parents are Tutsi and well connected to the current ruling party in Rwanda, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), sources among exiles in the UK and western Europe say.

Reports differ about Rudakubana’s paternal grandfather, Dr Rudakubana, who some say was a high-ranking official in the administration of President Juvénal Habyarimana, the Hutu president whose death in 1994 when his plane was shot out of the sky triggered the genocide. Others insist that Dr Rudakubana was one of the founder members of the RPF.

The grandfather’s family were from Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, but Rudakubana fled with his family to neighbouring Uganda before the genocide. Spurred by successive rounds of communal violence and growing Hutu extremism in Rwanda, many better-off and better-educated Tutsis did the same.

Alphonse is widely thought to have played a role in fighting Rwandan government forces from its bases in Uganda.

Led by Paul Kagame, the current Rwandan president, the RPF eventually launched a successful military campaign that ended the genocide and allowed it to take power. Alphonse arrived in Britain two years after Kagame became president in 2000, starting what he hoped would be a better – more peaceful – life for his future family.

Rudakubana’s mother is said to have close links to the current Rwandan regime too. Several sources have claimed that Muzayire is related to the RPF’s general secretary, Wellars Gasamagera, one of the regime’s most powerful officials, though this remains unconfirmed.

When they lived in Cardiff, Muzayire had a clerical role at the university’s school of dentistry but she is not believed to have found work in Southport, where they moved in around 2013.

Alphonse worked as a taxi driver while trying to make a success of his fledgling online retail business, selling everything from bags to floor mats, clothes, laptop stands and jewellery.

The family may well have turned to their Christian faith for solace in recent months. Contrary to the online disinformation, fanned by rightwing figures, that Rudakubana was an Islamist extremist, his background is in fact tied to the church.

Although the majority of Rwandans are Catholic, his mother has in recent years found comfort in evangelical Christianism.

She is a fan of the popular US evangelist David Turner, who claims to be able to “heal” chronic illnesses and disabilities “through the power of Christ” and four years ago asked online for his support.

Rudakubana, when on the brink of his teenage years, is believed to have been diagnosed with a form of autism after displaying behavioural issues at school.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when he took his wrong turn but by summer 2024, he had travelled down a very dark path. As he approached his 18th birthday, he hatched plans to inflict harm on a wide scale.

In a sealed container hidden away in his bedroom, police found he had attempted to make the deadly poison ricin. It is not known how much of the toxin he managed to make but even tiny quantities – as little as 0.5mg – can be fatal when inhaled by adults.

Detectives do not believe he had used ricin on 29 July, or at any time before, suggesting he was at the experimental stage of his plans.

But his interest in carrying out some kind of attack was clear: on his computer, police found a pdf document entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The al-Qaeda Training Manual”.

The possession of this material elevated Rudakubana’s case to terrorism – warranting a charge under the Terrorism Act 2000 – although no other prohibited extremist material has been found on his devices since. This partly explains why the attack itself has not been declared a terrorist incident, as detectives are unable to point to a clear motive.

One former school friend, who did not want to be named, said he had been shocked by Rudakubana’s “horrific” crimes but felt he was a “ticking timebomb”.

He said: “People know he’s mentally ill. The system know he’s mentally ill. A normal person doesn’t bring a [hockey stick] into school. He’s not a well lad – we know that. If it was my guess, the system know that and he’s a ticking timebomb.”

Shortly after midday on 29 July, a bloodied Rudakubana was arrested by officers armed with stun guns who found him in the Hart Space, a perinatal yoga studio, which by now was surrounded by screaming and terrified parents.

A convoy of armed police arrived at speed on Old School Close barely an hour later.

The Guardian has been told that in the frantic hours that followed, officials were briefed that Rudakubana was “known to police, went in there with a kitchen knife, and had been looking at beheading videos”.

One of those involved in emergency meetings said the teenager was described as “well known for looking at grotesque images and went [to the Hart Space] with the intent to kill a child”.

Nearly six months after a killing rampage that left three young girls dead and countless more scarred, ministers will now be pressed to uncover precisely what was known about Rudakubana at the time and – crucially – if he could have been stopped.

Alaska is set to resume the aerial gunning of bears and wolves as a population control measure aimed at boosting caribou and moose herd numbers, even as the state’s own evaluation of the practice cast doubt on its effectiveness.

The renewed program would allow hunters to eliminate up to 80% of the animals on 20,000 acres of state land. Environmental groups opposed to what they label a “barbaric” practice of shooting wildlife from helicopters is more about sport than scientific practice in part because hunters want caribou populations to increase because they are trophy animals.

“Alaska’s practice of indiscriminately strafing predators is both inhumane and inane,” said Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska-Fairbanks ecologist now with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), which opposes the practice. “There is no scientific evidence that this carnage will boost populations of moose and caribou, and there is a growing body of evidence that it disrupts a healthy predator/prey balance in the wild.”

The report comes after the Biden administration effectively upheld Trump era rules that allowed for other inhumane hunting practices on federal lands in Alaska, like killing cubs in dens.

Alaska’s “intensive management” allows Alaskan game agents to kill any brown bear, black bear or wolf on some state lands. Nearly 100 bears, including 20 cubs, were killed by helicopter in 2023.

The latest program would allow aerial hunters to kill 80% of wolves (until the population is reduced to 35), 80% of black bears (until the population is reduced to 700) and 60% brown bears (until the population is reduced to 375).

Though the practice’s supporters say eliminating the predators helps boost sagging caribou populations, an October state report that examined predator kill practices came to a different conclusion.

“The goal of the project was to increase caribou calf survival by removing all bears and wolves from the calving grounds,” the report reads. “Data does not exist to evaluate whether the goal was achieved.”

The largest factors in caribou herd decline were “disease, nutrition, and winter severity”, the report states. About 65% died from starvation or dehydration.

Critics say the state also notes that it doesn’t know the practices’ full impact on bear populations because it did not estimate brown bear numbers before allowing the kills. More than half of the brown bears killed in 2024 were adult females, raising further questions about the population’s ability to rebound.

Meanwhile, the state refuses to allow photographs of the slaughter, independent observers to be present, or to subject the program to scientific review by the federal government.

The practice has had other consequences: The National Park Service has ended a more than 20-year study of wolf behavior in the nearby Yukon-Charley National Preserve because the resident wolf population has fallen so low.

Meanwhile, it has reduced tourism in the area because the ability of visitors to view intact wolf packs inside adjacent Denali National Park, one of the state’s major tourist draws, has plummeted. The state has said the hunting program raises revenue from hunters, but critics called it the “epitome of pound foolish”.

“The amount of tourist dollars from people seeking to view these predators in the wild dwarfs any incremental increase in hunting fee revenue the state hopes to realize,” said Peer executive director Tim Whitehouse.

Fierce and gusty winds and a heightened risk of wildfire outbreaks are set to return to southern California, and especially the devastated city of Los Angeles, as the region continues to deal with deadly blazes that have already killed at least 27 people and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes.

Windy weather and single-digit humidity that have created dangerous bone dry conditions across the region are expected to linger through Thursday, said Rich Thompson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

The region hasn’t seen rain since April, creating a tinder box-like set of conditions that has millions of residents on edge.

The NWS issued a warning of a “ particularly dangerous situation” for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties from Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning due to low humidity and damaging Santa Ana winds. Gusts could peak at 70 mph (113 kph) along the coast and 100 mph (160 kph) in the mountains and foothills.

A windblown dust and ash advisory was also issued, as high winds could disperse ash from existing fire zones across southern California.

Critical fire weather with wind gusts up to 60 mph (97 kph) was also forecast for southern California communities stretching to San Diego on Monday and Tuesday, with residents urged to take steps to get ready to evacuate such as creating an emergency kit and keeping cars filled with at least a half tank of gas.

The warnings come as firefighters continue to battle two major blazes in the Los Angeles area, the Palisades and Eaton fires, which have destroyed more than 14,000 structures since they broke out during fierce winds on 7 January.

The Palisades fire was 52% contained on Sunday and the Eaton fire 81% contained, according to fire officials.

Firefighters have made progress on the perimeter of the Palisades fire, which has blackened more than 37 sq miles (96 sq km) near the Pacific coast, but there are areas in the interior that continue to burn, said Dan Collins, a spokesperson for the Palisades fire incident.

“There is always a possibility in a red flag warning something hot, or some type of burning material from the interior, could be perhaps whipped up and blown across the containment lines,” Collins said.

While firefighters are fairly confident the Eaton fire further inland will remain contained, there are concerns a new fire could break out with vegetation especially dry for this time of year, said Carlos Herrera, an Eaton fire spokesperson.

Fire engines, water-dropping aircraft and fire-fighting crews have been placed across the region to enable a quick response should a new fire break out. “This proactive approach has proven to be a critical component of California’s wildfire response strategy, reducing response times and containing fires before they escalate,” said the office of the governor, Gavin Newsom.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Fierce and gusty winds and a heightened risk of wildfire outbreaks are set to return to southern California, and especially the devastated city of Los Angeles, as the region continues to deal with deadly blazes that have already killed at least 27 people and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes.

Windy weather and single-digit humidity that have created dangerous bone dry conditions across the region are expected to linger through Thursday, said Rich Thompson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

The region hasn’t seen rain since April, creating a tinder box-like set of conditions that has millions of residents on edge.

The NWS issued a warning of a “ particularly dangerous situation” for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties from Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning due to low humidity and damaging Santa Ana winds. Gusts could peak at 70 mph (113 kph) along the coast and 100 mph (160 kph) in the mountains and foothills.

A windblown dust and ash advisory was also issued, as high winds could disperse ash from existing fire zones across southern California.

Critical fire weather with wind gusts up to 60 mph (97 kph) was also forecast for southern California communities stretching to San Diego on Monday and Tuesday, with residents urged to take steps to get ready to evacuate such as creating an emergency kit and keeping cars filled with at least a half tank of gas.

The warnings come as firefighters continue to battle two major blazes in the Los Angeles area, the Palisades and Eaton fires, which have destroyed more than 14,000 structures since they broke out during fierce winds on 7 January.

The Palisades fire was 52% contained on Sunday and the Eaton fire 81% contained, according to fire officials.

Firefighters have made progress on the perimeter of the Palisades fire, which has blackened more than 37 sq miles (96 sq km) near the Pacific coast, but there are areas in the interior that continue to burn, said Dan Collins, a spokesperson for the Palisades fire incident.

“There is always a possibility in a red flag warning something hot, or some type of burning material from the interior, could be perhaps whipped up and blown across the containment lines,” Collins said.

While firefighters are fairly confident the Eaton fire further inland will remain contained, there are concerns a new fire could break out with vegetation especially dry for this time of year, said Carlos Herrera, an Eaton fire spokesperson.

Fire engines, water-dropping aircraft and fire-fighting crews have been placed across the region to enable a quick response should a new fire break out. “This proactive approach has proven to be a critical component of California’s wildfire response strategy, reducing response times and containing fires before they escalate,” said the office of the governor, Gavin Newsom.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Donald Trump’s presidency will boost rightwing political forces across Europe, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said, as he announced an offensive “to occupy Brussels”.

Hungary’s long-serving prime minister and Trump ally was speaking as European far-right and nationalist politicians flocked to Washington to welcome the returning US president at Monday’s inauguration.

Orbán, who has a record of inflammatory statements about the EU, cited Trump and the far-right Patriots for Europe group in the European parliament, saying: “So the great attack can start. Hereby I launch the second phase of the offensive that aims to occupy Brussels.”

The return of Trump has unsettled democratic leaders. The French prime minister, François Bayrou, warned on Monday that France and Europe would be “crushed” and “marginalised” if they failed to stand up for their interests.

“The United States has decided to embark upon an extremely domineering form of politics, via the dollar, via its industrial policy, via the fact that it can capture the world’s investments and the world’s research,” Bayrou said. “And if we don’t do anything, our fate is very simple – we will be dominated. We will be crushed. We will be marginalised.”

In an address hours before Trump was due to take the oath of office, with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg looking on, Spain’s leftwing prime minister urged Europe to resist a big tech “class” trying to influence western governments and public debate through its “absolute power over social media”.

Pedro Sánchez told a conference on artificial intelligence: “Faced with this we have to fight back and we must put forward alternatives … Europe must stand up to this threat and defend democracy.”

The invitation list to the inauguration is a revealing snapshot of Trump’s political preferences, with far-right figures, even minor politicians and fringe commentators, in favour, while mainstream leaders are overlooked.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is expected to be the most senior European leader to attend the inauguration, having made a short visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida this month, during which Trump described her as “a fantastic woman” who is “really taking Europe by storm”.

Manlio Messina, an MP from Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party, said her attendance “reiterated Italy’s role in strengthening relations between Europe and the US”.

Notable absentees include the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who invited Trump to the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last month, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

Von der Leyen and her top team had close ties to the Biden administration, working together on sanctions against Russia and attempting to find compromises on US industrial policy. Those ties could make it harder for von der Leyen, a German Christian Democrat and the first woman to lead the commission, to build bridges with the incoming administration.

At the inauguration, the EU will be represented by its ambassador to the US, the Lithuanian diplomat Jovita Neliupšienė. The commission’s chief spokesperson said there was no meeting scheduled between von der Leyen and Trump, “so there are attempts to establish such a meeting as soon as possible”.

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, will also be absent, although the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, said he was confident the UK leader would meet Trump “within the next few weeks”. British sources have been briefing that the UK does not expect to be the first foreign leader to meet the US president.

While leaders from Europe’s traditional centre-right and centre-left will be absent, the far-right will be out in force. Those expected to attend include Éric Zemmour, a former French presidential candidate who has convictions for hate speech and is an exponent of the far-right “great replacement” theory, Tom Van Grieken of Belgium’s far-right Vlaams Belang party, and Mateusz Morawiecki, a former Polish prime minister for the national-conservative Law and Justice party. At least three officials from Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland are attending, including its co-leader Tino Chrupalla.

Chrupalla told ZDF public television from Washington it was important to show the incoming US president “respect” but that his nationalist party would push back against any attempts by Trump to impose tariffs that would hit German industry hard.

France’s far-right National Rally (RN) is also wary of the impact of Trump’s threatened tariffs on European goods. Explaining his decision not to go to Washington, the RN party president told France 2 that he had to think of French farmers and wine-makers who could be affected by potential US tariffs.

“We can appreciate the patriotism of Trump without necessarily wanting France to be a vassal to the US,” Jordan Bardella told the TV station. “I wanted to maintain a balanced position.”

Some British Trump supporters have sounded more exultant. “We are so back,” tweeted the Reform UK party leader, Nigel Farage, who is in Washington to celebrate the inauguration.

Also in the US capital is the former UK home secretary Suella Braverman, who was filmed by Channel 4 News arriving at the airport wearing a Make America Great Again baseball cap, alongside the actor and polemicist Laurence Fox. Braverman posted a video of herself saying Trump stood for “strong and secure borders”, tax cuts and “an end to this woke nonsense”.

Although invited, Orbán will not be present. But from the other side of the Atlantic, Orbán took credit for his role in the global movement that again has Trump as its figurehead.

Orbán claimed Hungary’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency “was the start of the new era” with Trump and the Patriots group co-founded by Orbán “driving the transformation of the western world”.

While Hungary’s EU presidency had little practical consequence – beyond rows over Orbán’s freelance diplomacy – Hungary’s government, long criticised for undermining democratic institutions, is seen as a source of inspiration for the returning US president.

Takeaway delivery apps are facing pressure to crack open the black-box algorithms that govern the work of more than 100,000 couriers in the UK and reveal more about how decisions are made on pay and access to jobs.

A coalition including the TUC, Amnesty International, couriers’ unions and the campaign group Privacy International claim the opaque use of algorithms is “automating exploitation”. They say withholding vital information from couriers about their work is “creating precarity, stress, and misery”.

The call for greater openness targets UberEats, Deliveroo and JustEat – the UK and Ireland’s three dominant platforms in takeaway delivery with a combined annual turnover of almost £9bn. Just Eat’s 88,000 couriers deliver about 4.7m meals and grocery orders a week. It echoes growing pressure on the UK government to increase transparency about AI systems in the public sector such as the welfare system.

In a letter seen by the Guardian, the workers’ group accuse the companies of “leveraging black-box algorithms to make decisions about deactivation, work allocation and pay without sufficient explanation, stripping workers of the ability to understand and challenge those decisions”.

The coalition includes the App Drivers and Couriers Union and the Worker Info Exchange, which both represent gig economy workers in the UK. The group said: “We believe the foundation of respect is transparency. Yet current systems withhold vital information from workers.”

The companies say they do provide information to their couriers, but Jonah Mendelsohn, a legal officer at Privacy International, said workers should not be expected to “play a game that they don’t know the rules for”.

“Too often workers are left in the dark about the reasons why they have been fired, underpaid, or that they’ve been discriminated against as more and more decisions impacting them are made by algorithms,” he said. “At a time when AI governance is under global scrutiny, from new EU legislation to the UK’s commitment for public authorities to publish details about their algorithms, it’s time that these gig economy platforms catch up and deliver answers.”

The US state of Colorado recently passed laws that require ride-sharing companies to spell out the exact circumstances that would lead to a driver being deactivated or suspended, and to communicate more clearly to drivers and customers about how fares are calculated and what the expected costs will be. Uber has mounted a legal challenge to the legislation, claiming it violates first amendment rights to free speech and could cause accidents because drivers would have to deal with more information on their phone screens.

The call for greater transparency comes as AI systems play an ever increasing role in working lives. New polling, shared exclusively with the Guardian, shows that 62% of people are worried about risks associated with AI tools.

The biggest concerns relate to the threat of cyber-attacks, job losses, misinformation and accidents caused by unreliable AI systems replacing humans, according to the research, which conducted by Public First for the Centre for Long-Term Resilience.

Keir Starmer shifted the UK government’s position last week from a focus on the existential risks posed by AI towards an embrace of its potential for economic growth and improvement of public services. More and more employers are integrating AI into their processes meaning workers are likely want to know more about how they are affected by them.

Deliveroo calls its algorithm Frank and describes it as “made up of machine-learning technology, which predicts the timings of every order” and says it is designed to “help riders make more deliveries and therefore make more money” .

A spokesperson for the company said its website carried information for riders about how the algorithm offers orders and calculates fees, receives information when they sign up and can raise questions with support staff who can escalate them to data protection officers.

The termination of riders’ accounts as a result of suspicious activity was subject to review by a human and was not automated, they said.

“We take our legal obligations regarding transparency and data protection very seriously, and see this as a core part of treating riders with dignity and respect,” the spokesperson said. “We understand that effective communication about this, and the systems that support Deliveroo’s business operations, are an important element of our relationship with riders.”

Just Eat said its couriers earned more than the London living wage “for the time they are on an order”. A spokesperson said: “We maintain an open dialogue with our courier partners through regular communications, including face-to-face events across the country called StreetMeets, where we invite and share feedback on issues that are important to them.”

Uber was approached for comment.

An Indian police volunteer has been sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in Kolkata, a crime that sparked nationwide protests and widespread hospital strikes last year.

The court rejected demands for the death penalty, saying it was not a “rarest-of-rare” crime.

The woman’s body was found in a classroom at the state-run RG Kar medical college and hospital on 9 August. Other doctors stayed off work for weeks to demand justice for her and better security at public hospitals.

Sanjay Roy, the police volunteer, was convicted by judge Anirban Das on Saturday, who said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against him. Roy had claimed he was innocent and that he had been framed, and sought clemency.

The federal police, who investigated the case, said the crime belonged to the “rarest-of-rare” category and Roy, therefore, deserved the death penalty.

“I do not consider it as a rarest-of-rare crime,” Das said as he sentenced Roy to life in jail on both the counts of rape and murder on Monday. “Life imprisonment, meaning imprisonment until death.”

The judge said he had come to the conclusion it was not a rarest-of-rare crime after considering all the evidence and the circumstances linked to it. He said Roy could appeal to a higher court.

The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom on Monday as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings. The fast-tracked trial had not been open to the public.

The parents of the junior doctor were among those in court on Monday. Security was stepped up with dozens of police personnel deployed at the court complex.

The parents had said earlier they were not satisfied with the investigation and suspected more people were involved in the crime. Their lawyer, Amartya Dey, told Reuters on Monday that they had sought the death penalty for Roy and also demanded that those involved in what they called the “larger conspiracy” be brought to justice.

Protesting doctors had said that demonstrations would continue until justice was done.

India’s federal police cited 128 witnesses in its investigation, of whom 51 were examined during the fast-tracked trial that began in November.

Police have also charged the officer heading the local police station and the head of the college at the time of the crime with destruction of the crime scene and tampering with evidence.

The international criminal court is bracing itself for Donald Trump to launch aggressive economic sanctions against it this week, amid fears such a move could paralyse its work and pose an existential threat.

ICC officials are preparing for Trump’s new US administration to act quickly once in office to impose draconian financial and travel restrictions against the court and senior staff, including its chief prosecutor and judges.

The threat of US sanctions has loomed over the ICC since it issued arrest warrants in November against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

In response to the warrants, the US House of Representatives voted earlier this month to impose sanctions on the ICC, advancing legislation that Republican leaders have said will soon be voted on in the Senate.

However, multiple ICC sources said the court’s leadership fears Trump will not wait for the legislation but launch a swift assault by issuing an executive order creating the legal basis for multiple rounds of sanctions.

According to interviews with officials and diplomats familiar with the ICC’s preparations, the court is planning for a “worst case scenario” in which the US imposes sanctions against the institution in addition to measures targeting individuals.

ICC sources said that sanctions against senior court figures would be difficult but manageable, whereas institution-wide sanctions would pose an existential threat to the court as they would block its access to services it depends on to function.

“The concern is the sanctions will be used to shut the court down, to destroy it rather than just tie its hands,” one ICC officials said.

Core services that would be jeopardised by institutional sanctions include the ICC’s access to banking and payment systems, IT infrastructure and insurance providers. Such measures would prevent US-based companies from conducting business or transactions with the court.

One key concern to have emerged in recent months is the ICC’s reliance on Microsoft which has deepened in recent years after chief prosecutor Karim Khan formed a partnership with the company to overhaul the court’s systems.

Multiple sources in the prosecutor’s office said Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform is critical to its operations and suspending access would paralyse its investigations. “We essentially store all of our evidence in the cloud,” one said.

Court authorities are understood to have been rapidly reviewing the ICC’s suppliers and have ended some commercial relationships in an effort to reduce its exposure. Some staff have been advised to consider closing any US bank accounts they hold.

Working with some of its member states, the court is also understood to have explored using legal mechanisms in the EU and UK that prevent residents and companies from complying with certain foreign sanctions regimes.

“It’s not a silver bullet,” a European diplomat said, but the hope among ICC officials is that the so-called blocking statutes could protect companies that want to continue dealing with the court despite the sanctions.

The ICC previously dealt with US sanctions in 2020 when the first Trump administration imposed travel bans and asset freezes against former prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and one of her top officials.

Although the measures – launched in response to decisions made by Bensouda in war crimes investigations in Afghanistan and the occupied Palestinian territories – were aggressive and highly unusual, they were relatively narrow.

The latest round of US sanctions is expected to affect a wider group of ICC officials and will come at the beginning of a new Trump administration, raising fears among court staff that the sanctions will evolve and escalate over time.

Päivi Kaukoranta, president of the ICC’s governing body, said sanctions risked severely hampering the court’s investigations and could “affect the safety of victims, witnesses and sanctioned individuals”. She said the court’s work must be allowed to “proceed without interference”.

Disrupting the ICC’s operations, however, appears to be part of an explicit effort to force the court to withdraw the arrest warrants issued against Netanyahu and Gallant.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahranoth reported last week the US sanctions would be used to “exert unprecedented pressure” to achieve this goal. It quoted a senior Israeli official as saying: “We will bring the court to its knees and then negotiate the closure of the case.”

With the return of Trump to the White House, ICC officials believe Israel will be in a stronger position to persuade the US to use powerful tools at its disposal to damage the court and, in particular, target chief prosecutor Khan.

Under the previous Trump administration, the Guardian reported last year, Israeli and US officials coordinated efforts to place public and private pressure on Bensouda, his predecessor, which involved what sources described as a diplomatic “smear campaign”.

Multiple sources in the prosecutor’s office said they believed the court was now more vulnerable to US and Israeli attacks and smears after allegations of sexual misconduct against Khan had emerged in October. Khan has denied the allegations and said he will cooperate with an external inquiry into the claims.

A court in Spain has ruled that a single mother is entitled to the parental leave that would have been due her partner – if she had one – on the grounds that all babies should be treated the same, regardless of the composition of their families.

The woman, a part-time worker known by the initials SPM, gave birth to a daughter in the south-eastern region of Murcia in January 2022. SPM requested additional parental leave, arguing that her daughter was entitled to the same amount of parental care as any other newborn. After her request was turned down by social services and the courts, she appealed to the regional high court.

In a ruling last week, Murcia’s high court found in her favour and decided she was due a total of 32 weeks of parental leave and support: 16 weeks for her, and 16 additional weeks that would have been available to her partner were she to have had one.

In its judgment, the court referred to a decision by Spain’s constitutional court, which ruled last November that children born into single-parent families should not be discriminated against or treated differently to children born into two-parent families.

“It’s obvious that the duration and intensity of the need to care for a newborn are the same, regardless of the family model into which he or she was born,” the regional high court said.

SPM told El País that she had brought the case because she didn’t want her daughter to be treated differently to other babies.

“I understood that my daughter should have the same rights she would have had if she had been born into a family with a mother and a father,” she said. “But those rights hadn’t been recognised when she was born. For me, my daughter was being discriminated against.” SPM added she was honoured to have fought the case and to have shown that “the children of single-parent families are the same as other children”.

Her lawyer, Miguel Ángel Fructuoso, said it remained to be seen how the court would implement its decision, given that SPM gave birth three years ago. He told the paper he thought she could be compensated for the leave she had previously been denied.

SPM said she would never get back all the weeks she and her daughter had lost.

“All that time when my daughter needed the care to which she is was entitled has gone, and the ruling can’t give it back,” she said. “I’m very happy that her rights have been recognised, but, at the same time, it’s really sad that she didn’t have those rights when it mattered.”