The British family of an Israeli hostage freed from Gaza on Saturday have described their “bittersweet” emotions, expressing joy and relief at his release but concern over his “sunken” appearance.

Eli Sharabi, 52, was released from Gaza on Saturday, along with two other hostages, in exchange for 183 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Sharabi’s brother-in-law, Stephen Brisley, who lives in Bridgend, Wales, told the Guardian that he was feeling a “kaleidoscope of emotions” after Sharabi’s release.

Brisley described his joy and relief at seeing Sharabi alive “because, up until yesterday afternoon, we didn’t even know whether he was alive or dead”. He said this was “very much tempered by the distress of seeing the state that he’s in”.

“You can see the clothes are hanging off of him. You can see his face was gone. The spark and the light has gone from his eyes. His cheeks are sunken.

“It’s a bittersweet day because we don’t know, other than the fact that he’s alive, exactly what state he’s in physically and mentally,” said Brisley. “But it’s the moment we’ve been we’ve been waiting for. I’m just trying to focus on the joy of that and leave the more distressing elements for another time while we help him to recover.”

Sharabi was at his home in Be’eri kibbutz with his British-born wife and their two teenage daughters when Hamas militants entered it on 7 October 2023.

The armed men shot their dog before locking Lianne, Sharabi’s wife, and their two daughters in their safe room and setting it on fire. Their bodies were later identified and Sharabi was taken to Gaza along with his brother, Yossi.

“His family is everything to him,” said Brisley. “I think that’s going to be the biggest obstacle for him, going back to find that the family he’s built his whole life around is no longer there. I don’t know how he recovers from that.”

The Israeli military said early last year that Yossi was killed in Gaza. “We don’t know whether Eli knows that Yossi is dead,” Brisley said.

Brisley said Sharabi was a “very clever, very funny man” before being taken hostage. “Eli is a Man United fan unfortunately. I’m a Liverpool fan, so we have a lot of football-related ribbing and banter. He’s all about making sure that everybody has got everything that they need and looking after everyone,” said Brisley.

Brisley is flying out to Israel on Sunday. “Whether or not I see him remains to be seen, because my focus is doing whatever Eli needs to start his recovery journey,” he said. “I’m conscious that I’m going to be a reminder of Lianne and the girls and that might be a trigger for him.

“When he’s ready to see me, I want to put my arms around him and welcome him back and let him know that the British side of his family are still here for him. Lianne and the girls’ deaths, that was the end of three lives. It wasn’t the end of our relationship with Eli and the Israeli side of our family.”

The British family of an Israeli hostage freed from Gaza on Saturday have described their “bittersweet” emotions, expressing joy and relief at his release but concern over his “sunken” appearance.

Eli Sharabi, 52, was released from Gaza on Saturday, along with two other hostages, in exchange for 183 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Sharabi’s brother-in-law, Stephen Brisley, who lives in Bridgend, Wales, told the Guardian that he was feeling a “kaleidoscope of emotions” after Sharabi’s release.

Brisley described his joy and relief at seeing Sharabi alive “because, up until yesterday afternoon, we didn’t even know whether he was alive or dead”. He said this was “very much tempered by the distress of seeing the state that he’s in”.

“You can see the clothes are hanging off of him. You can see his face was gone. The spark and the light has gone from his eyes. His cheeks are sunken.

“It’s a bittersweet day because we don’t know, other than the fact that he’s alive, exactly what state he’s in physically and mentally,” said Brisley. “But it’s the moment we’ve been we’ve been waiting for. I’m just trying to focus on the joy of that and leave the more distressing elements for another time while we help him to recover.”

Sharabi was at his home in Be’eri kibbutz with his British-born wife and their two teenage daughters when Hamas militants entered it on 7 October 2023.

The armed men shot their dog before locking Lianne, Sharabi’s wife, and their two daughters in their safe room and setting it on fire. Their bodies were later identified and Sharabi was taken to Gaza along with his brother, Yossi.

“His family is everything to him,” said Brisley. “I think that’s going to be the biggest obstacle for him, going back to find that the family he’s built his whole life around is no longer there. I don’t know how he recovers from that.”

The Israeli military said early last year that Yossi was killed in Gaza. “We don’t know whether Eli knows that Yossi is dead,” Brisley said.

Brisley said Sharabi was a “very clever, very funny man” before being taken hostage. “Eli is a Man United fan unfortunately. I’m a Liverpool fan, so we have a lot of football-related ribbing and banter. He’s all about making sure that everybody has got everything that they need and looking after everyone,” said Brisley.

Brisley is flying out to Israel on Sunday. “Whether or not I see him remains to be seen, because my focus is doing whatever Eli needs to start his recovery journey,” he said. “I’m conscious that I’m going to be a reminder of Lianne and the girls and that might be a trigger for him.

“When he’s ready to see me, I want to put my arms around him and welcome him back and let him know that the British side of his family are still here for him. Lianne and the girls’ deaths, that was the end of three lives. It wasn’t the end of our relationship with Eli and the Israeli side of our family.”

Just hours after finding 10 people dead in western Alaska from one of the deadliest plane crashes in the state in 25 years, authorities raced to recover their remains and the wreckage of the small commuter plane from unstable sea ice before expected high winds and snow.

“The conditions out there are dynamic, so we’ve got to do it safely in the fastest way we can,” Jim West, chief of the Nome volunteer fire department, said on Friday.

The Bering Air single-engine turboprop plane was traveling from Unalakleet to the hub community of Nome when it disappeared on Thursday afternoon. It was found the next day after an extensive search with all nine passengers and the pilot dead.

As the community tried to process the deadly event, crews worked swiftly on unstable, slushy sea ice to recover the bodies and the wreckage with less than a day before bad weather was expected. Officials said a Black Hawk helicopter would be used to move the aircraft once the bodies were removed.

Among those killed in the crash were Rhone Baumgartner and Kameron Hartvigson. They had traveled to Unalakleet to service a heat recovery system vital to the community’s water plant, according to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

“These two members of our team lost their lives serving others,” David Beveridge, vice-president of environmental health and engineering for the organization, said in a statement. “The loss of these two incredible individuals and everyone else on board the plane will be felt all over Alaska.”

The other people’s names have not been released.

All 10 people on board the plane were adults, and the flight was a regularly scheduled commuter trip, according to Lt Ben Endres of the Alaska state troopers.

A photo provided by the US Coast Guard showed the plane’s splintered body and debris lying on the sea ice. Two people in brightly colored emergency gear circled the wreckage.

“It’s hard to accept the reality of our loss,” Senator Lisa Murkowski said during an evening news conference.

Nome’s mayor, John Handeland, choked up as he discussed the deaths and the response effort.

“Nome is a strong community, and in challenging times we come together and support each other. I expect the outpouring of support to continue in the coming days as we all work to recover from this tragic incident,” Handeland said.

The Cessna Caravan aircraft left Unalakleet at 2.37pm on Thursday, and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later, according to David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air. There was light snow and fog, with a temperature of 17F (-8.3C), according to the National Weather Service.

The US Coast Guard said the aircraft went missing about 30 miles (48km) south-east of Nome.

Radar forensic data provided by the US Civil Air Patrol indicated that at about 3.18pm, the plane had “some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed”, coast guard Lt Cmdr Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said. “What that event is, I can’t speculate to.”

McIntyre-Coble said he was unaware of any distress signals from the aircraft. Planes carry an emergency locating transmitter. If exposed to seawater, the device sends a signal to a satellite, which then relays that message back to the coast guard to indicate an aircraft may be in distress. No such messages were received by the coast guard, he said.

Rescuers were searching the aircraft’s last known location by helicopter when the wreckage was spotted, said Mike Salerno, a spokesperson for the US Coast Guard. Two rescue swimmers were lowered to investigate.

Local, state and federal agencies had assisted in the search effort, combing stretches of ice-dotted waters and scouring miles of frozen tundra.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending nine people to the scene from various states.

Flying is an essential mode of transportation in Alaska due to the vastness of the landscape and limited infrastructure. Most communities are not connected to the developed road system that serves the state’s most populous region, and it is common to travel by small plane.

Some high school teams fly to sporting events against rival high schools, and goods are brought to many communities by barge or by air.

The plane’s crash marks the third major US aviation mishap in eight days. A commercial jetliner and an army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on 29 January, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on 31 January, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground.

Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska from hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet. Most destinations receive twice-daily scheduled flights Monday through Saturday.

Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people about 150 miles (about 240km) south-east of Nome and 395 miles (about 640km) north-west of Anchorage. The village is on the Iditarod trail, the route of the world’s most famous dogsled race, during which mushers and their teams must cross the frozen Norton Sound.

Nome, a Gold Rush town, is just south of the Arctic Circle and is known as the ending point of the 1,000-mile (1,610km) Iditarod. The city said prayer vigils would be held on Friday for those onboard the plane, friends and family, and those involved in search efforts.

The US president, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order to cut financial assistance to South Africa, accusing the country’s government of “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners and offering them asylum in the US.

The order criticised a law signed by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, last month that allows for land to be expropriated with “nil compensation” in limited circumstances.

South Africa was ruled by white Afrikaner leaders during apartheid, which violently repressed the country’s black majority, including forcing them to live in segregated townships and rural “homelands”. Afrikaners are descended mainly from the Dutch, who began colonising South Africa in 1652, as well as French Huguenot refugees sponsored by the Dutch.

More than three decades after white minority rule ended, South Africa remains hugely unequal, with land and wealth still largely concentrated among white people, who make up 7% of the population, about half native Afrikaans speakers, while black people are 81%.

However, some white South Africans claim they are discriminated against, often citing the country’s affirmative action laws.

Trump’s executive order, signed on Friday, said there were “countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fuelling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners”.

It added: “In addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the international court of justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.”

Elon Musk, the South African-born billionaire leading Trump’s efforts to slash the size of US government, including foreign aid spending, has criticised South Africa on his social media platform, X, for what he claimed were “openly racist policies”.

South Africa’s foreign ministry said in a statement that there seemed to be a “campaign of misinformation and propaganda”.

“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship,” it said. “We reiterate that South Africa remains committed to finding diplomatic solutions to any misunderstandings or disputes.”

Conservative Afrikaner pressure groups said they were concerned about US aid to South Africa being cut and that South Africa would be excluded from the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The act is US legislation that needs to be renewed by the US Congress this year, which allows South African exporters, including farmers, to sell thousands of products to the US tariff-free.

“This is indeed a crisis,” said Kallie Kriel, the CEO of Afriforum, which describes itself as a civil rights group for Afrikaners, but has been accused of racism. “If somebody is to blame it is the president and senior ANC [African National Congress party] leaders.”

“We want to also show appreciation to President Trump … for recognising and identifying the discrimination that Afrikaners are experiencing through racial legislation … through threats to property rights,” Kriel told a press conference, adding: “We became a people here, we are Indigenous people in this country and we are going nowhere.”

Donald Trump has said that he will reverse Joe Biden’s plan to phase out plastic straws across the US government, complaining that paper alternatives don’t work and that a move is needed to go “BACK TO PLASTIC!”

Trump said in a Truth Social post that he will sign an executive order next week “ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!” The US president added in a separate post that Biden’s “mandate” for paper straws was now dead. “Enjoy your next drink without a straw that disgustingly dissolves in your mouth!!!”

Trump appears to be taking aim at an effort by the Biden administration plan, unveiled last year, to phase out all single-use plastics across the federal government by 2035. At the time, the White House said it was the first time it was “formally acknowledging the severity of the plastic pollution crisis and the scale of the response that will be required to effectively confront it”.

Biden’s attempt to reduce throwaway plastics, such as straws and sachets, from the US government, which is one of the world’s largest single consumers of goods, was aimed at tackling a growing tide of plastic pollution. Other countries have already put bans in place – the European Union has barred single-use plastic items such as plates, cutlery and straws, and will further extend this to plastic bags, toiletries and other items by 2030.

But Trump, such a fan of drinking Diet Coke that he has installed a button in the Oval Office in order to summon staff to deliver the drink, has long railed against any restrictions upon plastic straws.

When attempting to gain re-election in 2020, his campaign sold reusable straws on its website claiming that “liberal paper straws don’t work”. On his first day back as president after returning to the White House in January, Trump rescinded a Biden order to phase out single-use plastics on federal lands, including US national parks, by 2032.

The world is undergoing a glut of new plastic production and a summit between countries last year failed to come to a deal to address this despite growing recognition of the harm caused by waste that takes hundreds of years to break down. Global annual plastic production doubled in the two decades since 2000 to around 460m tonnes and is expected to quadruple again by 2050.

Less than 10% of this plastic waste is now being recycled. The rest invariably ends up in the environment, with the equivalent of one truck filled with plastic dumping its contents into the ocean every minute, according to experts’ estimates. Much of this trash is composed of single-use plastics, such as straws, which make up about 40% of plastic production.

The result of this boom has been a world riddled with plastics, with large or microscopic fragments of the material found in every corner of the planet, even in the air. Plastics choke and throttle marine creatures and birds and microplastics have been found deep within the bodies of animals, including humans. Research has found plastics present in people’s brains, testicles, blood and even placentas.

Plastics are a product of fossil fuels and an increase in production will also add to the planet-heating emissions that are causing the climate crisis. By the middle of the century, global emissions from plastic production could triple and account for one-fifth of the Earth’s remaining carbon budget, an analysis last year found.

Green groups said that Trump’s embrace of plastics will only worsen this environmental crisis. “Instead of doing what is necessary to protect Americans’ health, communities and coasts from pervasive plastic pollution, President Trump is announcing executive orders that are more about messaging than finding solutions,” said Christy Leavitt, plastics campaign director at Oceana.

“President Trump should be making the US a global leader in addressing the plastics crisis at the source by reducing the production and use of single-use plastics and moving to reuse and refill systems.”

A federal judge early on Saturday blocked Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) from accessing treasury department records that contain sensitive personal data such as social security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans.

US district judge Paul A Engelmayer issued the preliminary injunction after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued Donald Trump. The case, filed in federal court in New York city, alleges the Trump administration allowed Musk’s team access to the treasury department’s central payment system in violation of federal law.

The payment system handles tax refunds, social security benefits, veterans’ benefits and much more, sending out trillions of dollars every year while containing an expansive network of Americans’ personal and financial data.

Engelmayer, who was appointed by Barack Obama, also said anyone prohibited from having access to the sensitive information since 20 January must immediately destroy all copies of material downloaded from treasury department systems.

He set a hearing for 14 February.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit being filed.

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, whose office filed the lawsuit, said Doge’s access to the treasury department’s data raised security problems and the possibility of an illegal freeze in federal funds.

“This unelected group, led by the world’s richest man, is not authorized to have this information, and they explicitly sought this unauthorized access to illegally block payments that millions of Americans rely on, payments for health care, childcare and other essential programs,” James said in a video message released by her office on Friday.

James, a Democrat who has been one of Trump’s chief antagonists, said the president does not have the power to give away Americans’ private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress.

Musk’s Doge was created to discover and eliminate what the Trump administration has deemed to be wasteful government spending. Doge’s access to treasury records, as well as its inspection of various government agencies, has ignited widespread concern among critics over the increasing power of Musk, while supporters have cheered at the idea of reining in bloated government finances.

Musk has made fun of criticism of Doge on his X social media platform while claiming it is saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

States also included in the lawsuit are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

The suit alleges that Doge’s access to the treasury records could interfere with funding already appropriated by Congress, which would exceed the treasury department’s statutory authority. The case also argues that the Doge access violates federal administrative law and the US constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.

It also accuses the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, of changing the department’s longstanding policy for protecting sensitive personally identifiable information and financial information to allow Musk’s Doge team access to its payment systems.

“This decision failed to account for legal obligations to protect such data and ignored the privacy expectations of federal fund recipients,” including states, veterans, retirees and taxpayers, the lawsuit says.

Connecticut’s attorney general, William Tong, said it was not clear what Doge was doing with the information in the treasury systems.

“This is the largest data breach in American history,” Tong said in a statement on Friday. “Doge is an unlawfully constituted band of renegade tech bros combing through confidential records, sensitive data and critical payment systems. What could go wrong?”

The treasury department has said the review was about assessing the integrity of the system and that no changes were being made. According to two people familiar with the process, Musk’s team began its inquiry looking for ways to suspend payments made by USAid, the US Agency for International Development, which Trump and Musk are attempting to dismantle. The two people spoke with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Separately, Democratic lawmakers are seeking a treasury department investigation of Doge’s access to the government’s payment system.

Also, labor unions and advocacy groups have sued to block the payments system review over concerns about its legality. A judge in Washington on Thursday temporarily restricted access to two employees with “read only” privileges.

The three Baltic states have disconnected their electricity systems from Russia’s power grid as part of a plan designed to integrate the countries more closely with the EU and boost security.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania disconnected from the IPS/UPS joint network on Saturday. Subject to last-minute tests, they will synchronise with the EU’s grid at 12.00 GMT on Sunday after operating on their own in the interim.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will speak at a ceremony on Sunday to mark the switch to the EU system.

“We’ve reached the goal we strived for, for so long. We are now in control,” the Lithuanian energy minister, Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, told a press conference.

Immediately after disconnecting, Latvian workers used a crane to reach the high-voltage wires in Vilaka, close to the Russian border, and cut them. They handed out chopped wire as keepsakes to cheering onlookers.

“We will never use it again. We are moving on,” Latvia’s energy minister, Kaspars Melnis, said.

Plans for the Baltics to decouple from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord, which have been debated for decades, gained momentum after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The grid was the only remaining link to Russia for the three countries, which re-emerged as independent nations in the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, and joined the EU and Nato in 2004.

The three staunch supporters of Kyiv stopped buying power from Russia after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but have relied on the Russian grid to control frequencies and stabilise networks to avoid outages.

“By ending the energy dependence of the Baltic states on Russia, we are leaving the aggressor without the option of using energy as a weapon against us,” the Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, said.

An army truck was seen at the Rezekne power substation near the Latvia-Russia border, and officers with guns were patrolling the vicinity and in the nearby town, indicative of Baltic worries of attempted sabotage to the switch.

The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after power cable, telecom links and gas pipeline outages to Sweden or Finland. All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.

“The system is stable, the process is happening smoothly, no one is noticing that something changed,” Melnis said.

Maintaining a constant power supply requires a stable grid frequency, which can more easily be obtained over time in a large synchronised area such as Russia or continental Europe, compared with what the Baltics can do on their own, analysts say.

Lithuania’s energy ministry said it has drawn up contingency plans whereby some heavy energy users, such as factories, could be temporarily disconnected from the grid in the event of power shortages to maintain essential supplies.

For Russia, the decoupling means its Kaliningrad exclave, located between Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea, is cut off from Russia’s main grid, leaving it to maintain its power system alone.

The Baltic countries have spent nearly €1.6bn since 2018 to upgrade grids to prepare for the switch, while Russia has spent 100bn roubles ($1bn), including on the building of several gas-fired power plants in Kaliningrad.

A regional summit has called for an immediate ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, and the president of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, joined a summit in Tanzania on Saturday, where African leaders said they were deeply concerned by the crisis.

The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.

The group took the strategic city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, last week and is pushing into neighbouring South Kivu in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in the region.

On Saturday fighting was ongoing about 40 miles (60km) from South Kivu’s provincial capital, Bakuvu, local and security sources told Agence-France Presse.

Regional leaders gathered for the summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam that brought together the eight countries of the East African Community (EAC) and the 16-member Southern African Development Community.

Kagame attended in person, while Tshisekedi joined via video call.

“We call on all parties to actualise the ceasefire, and specifically on the M23 to halt further advancement and the armed forces of DRC to cease all retaliatory measures,” said the Kenyan president, William Ruto, the current chair of the EAC, in opening remarks.

Since the M23 re-emerged in 2021, peace talks have failed and multiple ceasefires have collapsed. Rwanda denies military support for the M23.

But a UN report said last year Rwanda had about 4,000 troops in the DRC and profited from smuggling out of the country vast amounts of gold and coltan – a mineral vital for phones and laptops.

Rwanda has accused the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The summit comes amid reports the M23 is closing in on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.

There have also been reports of panic in the provincial capital Bukavu as residents have boarded up shops and sought to escape.

“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they said.

The UN rights chief, Volker Türk, said: “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come for the people of the eastern DRC but also beyond the country’s borders.”

Türk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 wounded since M23 entered Goma on 26 January, and final tolls were likely to be much higher. He also said his team was “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang-rape and sexual slavery”.

M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma. The group plans to infiltrate the national capital, Kinshasa, situated about 1,000 miles away.

The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats. The M23 offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.

A regional summit has called for an immediate ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, and the president of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, joined a summit in Tanzania on Saturday, where African leaders said they were deeply concerned by the crisis.

The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.

The group took the strategic city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, last week and is pushing into neighbouring South Kivu in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in the region.

On Saturday fighting was ongoing about 40 miles (60km) from South Kivu’s provincial capital, Bakuvu, local and security sources told Agence-France Presse.

Regional leaders gathered for the summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam that brought together the eight countries of the East African Community (EAC) and the 16-member Southern African Development Community.

Kagame attended in person, while Tshisekedi joined via video call.

“We call on all parties to actualise the ceasefire, and specifically on the M23 to halt further advancement and the armed forces of DRC to cease all retaliatory measures,” said the Kenyan president, William Ruto, the current chair of the EAC, in opening remarks.

Since the M23 re-emerged in 2021, peace talks have failed and multiple ceasefires have collapsed. Rwanda denies military support for the M23.

But a UN report said last year Rwanda had about 4,000 troops in the DRC and profited from smuggling out of the country vast amounts of gold and coltan – a mineral vital for phones and laptops.

Rwanda has accused the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The summit comes amid reports the M23 is closing in on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.

There have also been reports of panic in the provincial capital Bukavu as residents have boarded up shops and sought to escape.

“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they said.

The UN rights chief, Volker Türk, said: “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come for the people of the eastern DRC but also beyond the country’s borders.”

Türk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 wounded since M23 entered Goma on 26 January, and final tolls were likely to be much higher. He also said his team was “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang-rape and sexual slavery”.

M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma. The group plans to infiltrate the national capital, Kinshasa, situated about 1,000 miles away.

The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats. The M23 offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.

A couple whose dog was stolen more than seven years ago have said it was a “dream come true” when the RSPCA reunited them.

Rita and Philip Potter, from Norfolk, said they “never gave up hope on her being found one day” after thieves stole their labrador Daisy from their garden in November 2017.

The theft inspired online appeals, and 100,000 people petitioned the government to increase efforts to prevent pet theft. In 2024 the previous government passed the Pet Abduction Act, which included a maximum five-year prison sentence for offenders.

Kim Walters, an RSPCA inspector, found Daisy, now 13 years old, with untreated mammary masses more than 200 miles away during routine investigations in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on 2 February.

After taking Daisy to a vet, the inspector discovered the labrador’s microchip, where she found contact details for the Potters. The couple could barely contain their emotion when Daisy was returned to her home in Old Buckenham on Thursday.

Rita Potter, 80, said she and her husband were “so, so grateful” to the RSCPA for reuniting them with Daisy, adding their pet would be given “lots of love and attention”.

“We kept a photograph on the mantlepiece and would look at it every day, thinking of her and where she might be. So it is an absolute dream come true that the RSPCA found her and have returned her to us – where she belongs – we are so, so grateful,” she said.

Walters, the inspector who found Daisy, said she was “a bit choked” after reuniting the dog with her owners and urged anyone with information about the theft to contact the RSPCA or the police.

“I was a bit choked from listening to them and clearly how much they loved her, so it was great telling them that we could get her back home soon once we had made sure she was fit enough to travel and we had arrangements in place for the four-hour journey to take place,” she said.

Witnesses said they saw Daisy being bundled into a truck near the Potters’ house by suspected backyard breeders. Backyard breeding is described by the RSPCA as “the irresponsible breeding of animals in inadequate conditions with insufficient care”.

The couple reported the incident to the police, but the number plate could not be traced.

The theft of Daisy was reported far and wide and even gained the attention of Hollywood actor Tom Hardy after he shared the couple’s social media posts.

“We know she is elderly now and has health issues, but whatever time she has left, she will now be surrounded by lots of love and attention,” Rita Potter said.

“The whole family was so excited to hear the news that my grandchildren went to buy her toys and treats – she also now has not just one – but two comfy beds.”

More than 6,000 Syrians in Britain are stuck in limbo because of an ongoing freeze on their asylum claims, two months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The Home Office announced a “pause” on Syrian asylum seekers’ claims on 9 December, the day after rebels swept into Damascus, saying that it needed to “assess the current situation”.

The situation remains deeply uncertain. Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, was recently named president, but his forces are still declared a terrorist group by the UK and other countries.

At least 6,600 Syrian asylum applications, each of which can include more than one person, are frozen in the UK system pending an initial decision and more claims are expected from those arriving on small boats, according to analysis by the Observer of official figures. Leading charities and lawyers have called for the government to resolve the situation.

Many of the claims that have been put on hold are thought to be from Syrians who fled Assad’s regime. In the House of Lords last month, the Home Office minister, Lord Hanson, said there was a “strong case” that the majority of Syrians who arrived before the fall of Assad “were fleeing the Assad regime”.

However, several different groups have been accused of persecution and war crimes, and have controlled different territories since the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011.

Hassan*, a former colonel in the Syrian Arab Army who defected and believes he remains at risk from people on all sides of the conflict, is among those affected.

Hassan arrived in Britain on a small boat about two years ago and was granted asylum last year before the decision was withdrawn by the Home Office because of a spelling mistake. It was not corrected and reissued before the Assad regime fell and the pause on claims took effect.

“People who arrived months after me have got residency and the right to reunite with their families, but I am still waiting,” Hassan said.

“My wife and children are living in Turkey. I have not seen them for years and they are waiting for me to find them a safe country, a new life and a better future.”

Hassan called the pause on decisions “arbitrary”, saying that al-Sharaa’s rebel faction remained a designated terrorist group and should not be recognised as a “legitimate authority ruling Syria”.

He said that while he knew some Syrians who were planning to return to the country following the regime change, as a former colonel in Assad’s army, he fears being arrested and killed. “Me and my family, we do not have any possibility of returning to Syria,” he added.

“I was never a supporter of the former regime and I lost everything, but I do not accept living in a country ruled by extremists and knowing that my fate will be death.”

Al-Sharaa, who was named president for what state media called a “transitional period” on 29 January, has vowed to pursue people he called “criminals who shed Syrian blood”.

While committing to holding elections and drawing up a new constitution, he has suggested to local media that the process could take years.

A Home Office official, speaking on condition of anonymity, accused the British government of “putting people’s lives on hold for political reasons” amid internal indecision about how to treat Al-Sharaa’s new regime.

“They are basically holding asylum applicants captive until the Foreign Office figures out what the international stance is,” they added. “It’s not needed, as they could grant asylum and then revoke it once they ascertain that the refugee no longer runs the risk of being persecuted in their home country.”

The civil servant said that because those now in limbo cannot legally work, and the government has a legal duty to house and support them until a decision is made, the pause was driving up accommodation costs. It cannot lift the freeze until new guidance is drawn up for asylum applications. But the Home Office website shows all documents related to Syria as “withdrawn”.

Hanson confirmed last month, answering questions in the House of Lords, that asylum interviews had been paused and that a timeline had not been set for resuming processing.

“This was and remains a necessary step which several other European countries have also taken,” Hanson added. “The pause is under constant review. When there is a clear basis on which to make decisions, we will resume.”

The freeze also applies to Syrians who have already been granted refugee status, but are nearing the end of an initial five-year grant of leave to remain in the UK and must make a new application to stay.

“Everything is paused at the moment for the simple reason that we do not yet understand what has happened in Syria on a permanent basis or know how stable Syria is as a whole,” Hanson said.

“There is an assessment to be made of whether individuals wish to return to Syria or to seek asylum, and for those individuals who may seek asylum, what their status is. It is a very complex, moving situation.”

The Refugee Council is urging the government to find an alternative way of processing claims, such as focusing on claims that are not reliant on persecution by the Assad regime or granting a form of humanitarian protection. Jon Featonby, the charity’s chief policy analyst, said the ongoing “limbo” was distressing for those affected and costly for the system.

“We recognise that the situation has changed quite significantly but many people have already been stuck in the asylum system for a long time, and are now caught up in this uncertainty,” he added. “There doesn’t seem to be any clarity on how long the pause will be for. We recognise the Home Office needs to take a bit of time to ascertain what’s going on, but it could be some time before they get any clarity. It’s in everybody’s best interest for there to be a way of moving forward quite quickly.”

Featonby said that Syrian refugees with existing rights, but who are approaching deadlines to apply for indefinite leave to remain, face “serious ramifications” because if their legal right to remain expires, they will lose eligibility for housing, employment and study.

“It is understandably starting to cause worry and disrupt their lives, even if they’ve been in the UK for years and started to rebuild their lives,” Featonby added. “It doesn’t seem realistic that the situation in Syria is going to resolve itself any time soon and leaving people in limbo isn’t in anybody’s best interests.”

Steve Smith, the chief executive of the Care4Calais charity, also called for the UK government to lift the pause. “The decision to pause the asylum claims of Syrian refugees is essentially an admission from the government that they cannot guarantee Syria is safe under the new political regime,” he said.

“Those locked in limbo as a result of the pause sought safety in the UK and many have waited years for a decision on their asylum claim. We have a moral obligation to give them a decision so they can start to rebuild their lives.”

Hassan voiced concern that the current fragile peace could give way to fresh conflict between the competing groups who still control different parts of Syria.

“There is the possibility of escalation and civil war at any time, and the presence of many sleeper cells and extremist groups that are still carrying out attacks in different areas,” he said. “The path towards comprehensive security and stability will take a long time, and there need to be exceptions to the suspension of asylum decisions for Syrians.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Office has temporarily paused decisions on Syrian asylum claims while we assess the current situation. We are committed to delivering an asylum system that is responsive to all forms of persecution and which facilitates fair and sustainable asylum decisions.”

* The name has been changed to protect anonymity

More Americans than ever are expected to place bets on Sunday’s Super Bowl, with a record $1.39bn of estimated wagers to be placed, amid concerns over the rise of gambling addiction.

Since the supreme court overturned a federal law that made sports betting illegal in 2018, the industry has boomed, with 38 states opting to legalize. Gambling revenue hit $99.4bn in 2022, according to the American Gaming Association (AGA), the industry lobby group.

Super Bowl Sunday – the biggest sports event of the year – will be no exception. Even as TV networks have struggled to maintain audience numbers, with more people tuning in to video content online, the Super Bowl has continued to grow in viewership. In 2024, a record 123 million viewers tuned into the game, making it the most-watched telecast in history.

The AGA estimated that $1.39bn worth of legal bets will be placed for Super Bowl LIX. This is the first year the trade association reported estimated bets solely from legal channels. In previous years, AGA relied on surveys that included all betting, including those placed illegally and casually among friends. Last year, research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming estimated $1.25bn of legal bets were placed for the Super Bowl last year.

“No single event unites sports fans like the Super Bowl, and that excitement extends to sports betting, with this year’s record legal handle reflecting its widespread appeal,” said Bill Miller, the AGA president and CEO, in a statement.

But as more Americans have wagered bets, and placing bets has become easier than ever, addiction experts and prevention advocates have warned about rising rates of gambling addiction.

There are an estimated 2.5 million adults in the US who meet the criteria for having a severe gambling problem, meaning their gambling behavior is damaging their life, relationships and career, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. Another 5 to 8 million Americans have mild to moderate gambling problems. Multiple problem gambling groups have reported an uptick in calls to gambling addiction hotlines after states legalized sports betting.

Big game days such as the Super Bowl are especially concerning for those who may be susceptible to problem gambling because the stakes are often higher.

“For a person who has a gambling problem … they’ve been betting on games all season long, and they may have lost a lot of money, and the Super Bowl becomes kind of the ‘this is it, I’m going to make it or I’m going to break it’,” Rose Blocinski, executive director of Wisconsin Council of Problem Gambling, told local news state WJFW.

For Dr Tim Fong, a clinical professor of psychology and co-director of the Gambling Studies Program at the University of California at Los Angeles who studies gambling addiction, events including the Super Bowl can exacerbate potential addiction for those who are only in the early stages of problems.

“By the time you see guys like me, things are really, really severe. What I’m worried about after this weekend: someone takes a bad loss, it hurts them financially. What are they going to do next weekend, after the Super Bowl?” Fong said. “Are they going to say, ‘You know what, I’m not going to do this again’, then just live their life? Or are they going to chase their losses and now bet on the NBA? And then bet on Major League Baseball in a month or so?

“We can reduce the number of problems if we did more at an earlier stage,” Fong added.

Betting companies have also become more aggressive at advertising. Last year, BetMGM, the sports betting arm of MGM Resorts, aired a star-studded commercial promoting its platform during the Super Bowl. Fong said that it has all contributed to a normalizing of sports betting in American culture.

Kids are seeing that “in America, this is just a part of what we do. There’s no questioning that this is harmful, this is dangerous, there’s a dark side to this. For the vast majority of people that bet on sports, it’s fun, it’s entertainment, it’s not damaging in any way,” Fong said. “But for the 1-2% that have this addiction, it’s really devastating.”

The Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and the US president, Donald Trump, struck a warm tone at their first meeting on Friday, with Tokyo avoiding tariffs that Trump has slapped on other allies – for now.

Heaping praise on each other at the White House, the two leaders pledged to stand together against Chinese “aggression” and said they found a solution for a blocked deal for troubled US Steel.

Trump, however, pressed Ishiba to cut the US trade deficit with Japan to zero, and warned that Tokyo could still face tariffs on exported goods if it failed to do so.

Ishiba, an avowed “geek” and model warship fan, has been under pressure to replicate Trump’s close relationship with former premier and golf buddy Shinzo Abe.

Both leaders insisted they had struck up a rapport during what was only the second visit by a foreign leader of Trump’s new term.

“I was so excited to see such a celebrity on television in person,” Ishiba told their joint press conference, while saying he was not trying to “suck up”.

“On television he is frightening and has a very strong personality. But when I met with him actually he was very sincere and very powerful.”

As they exchanged photographs, Trump praised the 68-year-old Japanese premier as “good looking” – typically one of the former reality TV star’s highest orders of praise.

And the US president laughed and said “that’s a very good answer” when Ishiba said he could not respond to a “theoretical question” about whether he would retaliate to any US tariffs.

Trump, meanwhile, said that Japan’s Nippon Steel would make a major investment in US Steel but not take over the troubled company as previously negotiated.

“They’ll be looking at an investment rather than a purchase,” Trump said. His predecessor, Joe Biden, had blocked the deal.

The two leaders also doubled down on decades-old US ties in security and trade – despite fears that Trump could turn on Tokyo as he has with other US allies.

– Trump said they had agreed to fight “Chinese economic aggression” and in a joint statement they condemned Beijing for “provocative activities” in the contested South China Sea.

They also called for a denuclearised North Korea, although Trump – who met its leader, Kim Jong-un, during his first term – said he wanted to have “relations” with Pyongyang.

Behind Trump’s expressions of support were Japan’s promises of a $1tn investment in the US and to boost Japanese purchases of US defence equipment.

Ishiba said his country was the biggest investor in the US and would step up its spending.

The soft-spoken, cigarette-smoking Ishiba had rushed to Washington hoping to blunt the edge of Trump’s “America first” policies.

Under Abe, Japan was shielded from some of Trump’s more punishing tendencies, such as sudden trade wars and pressure to increase financial contributions towards hosting US soldiers.

Days after Trump’s first election victory, Abe hurried to deliver him a gold-plated golf club. Trump also hosted Abe’s widow, Akie, for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in December.

So far the US president has slapped tariffs on China and ordered them on Mexico and Canada before halting them for a month.

He has also pledged tariffs on the European Union and said on Friday that he would announce unspecified “reciprocal tariffs” next week.

The PlayStation Network (PSN) is down, depriving online gamers around the world from accessing weekend events.

The PSN is the service that Sony’s PlayStation console owners use to access its online gaming network. It allows players to connect with other gamers around the world.

The outage began in the UK at about midnight on Friday.

About 71,000 gamers reported the outage to PlayStation’s website. Many users can no longer access online gaming lobbies, the PlayStation Store or their online accounts.

The PSN runs a model that costs £13.49 a month, £39.99 for three months or £119.99 for 12 months for its premium subscription. Many gamers have pointed to these costs when complaining to Sony.

The weekend is when certain games host special tournaments and online events. FC 25, Electronic Arts’ popular football simulator, hosts Championship matches, known colloquially as “weekend league”, on its Ultimate Team platform. Gamers spend hundreds of hours and often hundreds of pounds investing in their Ultimate Team squads.

The outage also means Call of Duty fans will be unable to play during its promotional weekend and will not benefit from double XP (experience points) in Black Ops 6 and Warzone.

Thousands of angry PlayStation users have expressed their frustration with the outage on social media in memes, jokes and rants.

“Let’s be real; everyone deserves this month’s PS Plus for free. Paying monthly for the network to be down on a weekend is belligerent. Did someone fall asleep during their night shift? Heading into hour 5,” one X user wrote.

“I work a 9 to 5 and come home just to see the PlayStation servers are down on a Friday,” another posted.

“PlayStation network down, time to get to know my wife of 5 years,” joked another.

Sony responded to confirm the problems with its digital service. On its support webpage, PlayStation said it was aware of the issue and that it was working to resolve it as soon as possible.

The Guardian has contacted PlayStation, FC25 developer Electronic Arts, and Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard for comment.