Hamas freed three hostages from Gaza and Israel released 183 prisoners and detainees on Saturday, the fifth exchange under a fragile, three-week-old ceasefire deal.

The gaunt appearance of the three Israeli men shocked the country, sparking anger and dismay that could increase pressure on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to extend the agreement to a second stage, bringing home the remaining Israeli captives.

The Israeli leader may face a choice between keeping his government or sealing a second stage of the ceasefire, which under a framework plan would see all hostages freed and Israeli forces pulling out of Gaza.

The far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich opposed the ceasefire and has threatened to quit the coalition if the war does not resume, which would probably bring it down.

On Saturday evening he hit out at Israelis who had compared the freed hostages to emaciated victims of Nazi concentration camps, saying it was “grave mistake” that showed “contempt” for the Holocaust.

The three men appeared more frail than 13 Israelis and five Thai citizens who had previously been released.

Smotrich suggested those calling to extend the ceasefire because of fears about the condition of dozens of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza want to “surrender to Hamas”.

Many Palestinian prisoners released to Ramallah hours after the Israelis were freed also looked extremely thin, and seven out of 43 needed hospitalisation, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said.

Rights groups and whistleblowers have described a policy of “institutionalised abuse” in Israeli jails and detention centres. Severely reduced rations have led to prisoners emerging emaciated, in some cases having lost dozens of kilograms.

Some of those released were serving multiple life sentences for violent offences. But also freed on Saturday were 111 detainees from Gaza, arrested after 7 October 2023 and never charged before their release.

Netanyahu, who is in Washington for meetings with Donald Trump and other US allies, has repeatedly indicated that he is prepared to resume the war, insisting that only a “complete” military victory can keep Israel safe.

“We will eliminate Hamas, and we will return our hostages,” he said in a statement celebrating the releases, and attacking the way the hostages were treated.

The Israeli leader has ordered a delegation to Qatar to discuss “technical matters”, but no substantial talks will start until after a security cabinet meeting on Monday, Israeli media reported.

Israel’s hostage coordinator, Brig Gen Gal Hirsch, said he viewed the condition of those freed with great concern.

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker is in Gaza and not due for release under the first stage of the deal, accused Netanyahu of “sitting in a hotel in Washington, trying to sabotage” a deal that would save her son.

“Tell them to shorten the first stage, close [the deal] on the second stage, and this time, bring them all home at once,” she said in a statement quoted by Israeli media.

A Hamas political bureau member, Basem Naim, warned Israel’s “lack of commitment” is putting the Gaza ceasefire in danger of collapse. He told AFP the group did not want to return to war, but was ready to fight if the ceasefire collapsed.

The next round of negotiations was officially started at the beginning of the week, when Netanyahu met Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, but Naim said talks were not yet under way.

Netanyahu has ordered a delegation to Qatar to discuss “technical matters”, but no substantial talks will start until after he returns from Washington for a security cabinet meeting on Monday, Israeli media reported.

A third stage would see the reconstruction of Gaza, but the process has been thrown into turmoil by Trump’s shock suggestion that the US should take over the territory and Palestinians be resettled elsewhere, prompting the UN secretary general to warn of ethnic cleansing.

Israelis were also angered by a Hamas ceremony that saw the frail-looking men forced to make statements on a stage in Gaza before they were taken to waiting buses.

Israel made prisoners due for release watch a film about the destruction of the Gaza Strip in the war, some of those released said, and was criticised last week for releasing prisoners wearing bracelets with pro-Israeli messages.

The Red Cross said it was “increasingly concerned” about the releases, in a statement that urged all parties including mediators “to ensure that future releases are dignified and private”.

Two of the Israeli hostages were emerging from captivity to news of painful losses.
Eli Sharabi, taken hostage from Be’eri kibbutz, was not told during his entire captivity that his wife and daughters had been killed on 7 October 2023, Israeli media reported.

Or Levy, who was abducted from the Nova music festival, suspected his wife was dead, but did not have the news confirmed. He was reunited with his now three-year-old son, who was staying with grandparents on the morning of the attack.

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.”

The remains of all 10 people killed when their small plane crashed into ice on the Bering Sea have been recovered, authorities said.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department made the announcement on its Facebook page Saturday afternoon. Recovery crews had been racing to recover the bodies before a winter storm was expected to hit the region.

“All 10 individuals aboard the Bering Air plane have been officially brought home,” the fire department wrote in the social media post at about 3pm.

Crews were still working on recovering the aircraft, the fire department said.

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 had been 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,” the 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 had been 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.”

The Trump administration is cutting billions of dollars in medical research funding for universities, hospitals and other scientific institutions by reducing the amount they get in associated costs to support such research.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that it was reducing the amount of “indirect” medical research funding going to institutions, which will cut spending by $4bn a year.

A limit of 15% of grants awarded to institutions will be allowed for associated costs such as buildings, equipment and support staff. This is a major reduction on what was previously allowed under the NIH grant system.

“The United States should have the best medical research in the world,” the NIH said in a statement on Friday. “It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead.”

In the financial year of 2023, $9bn out of $35bn in awarded grants went to cover overheads, the NIH said, adding that the new rate will be more in line with requirements of private foundations.

The move has been hailed by supporters of Trump’s attempts to slash government spending. The “department of government efficiency”, headed by billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk, welcomed the funding cut, tweeting that it was an “amazing job” by the NIH.

However, researchers warned that the cut will imperil vital medical research. “This is a surefire way to cripple lifesaving research and innovation,” said Matt Owens, president of the Council on Government Relations, which represents universities and academic medical centers. “Reimbursement of facilities and administrative expenditures are part and parcel of the total costs of conducting world-class research.

“America’s competitors will relish this self-inflicted wound. We urge NIH leaders to rescind this dangerous policy before its harms are felt by Americans.”

Democrats also criticized the decision, which follows a broader freeze on some research grants imposed by the Trump administration.

The impact of the funding cut will “be nothing short of catastrophic for so much of the lifesaving research patients and families are counting on”, said Patty Murray, a Democratic senator.

“Sick kids may not get the treatment they need. Clinical trials may be shut down abruptly with dangerous consequences. Just because Elon Musk doesn’t understand indirect costs doesn’t mean Americans should have to pay the price with their lives.”

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 had already put bans in place – the European Union 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 among 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.

Narco-musical Emilia Pérez has won best European film at Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars amid the fallout from its star’s past racist and Islamophobic social media posts.

Karla Sofía Gascón – the star of the film and the first transgender woman to be nominated for a best actress Oscar – did not attend the ceremony after old social media posts emerged in which she denigrates Islam, China and African American George Floyd, unleashing a scandal that has harmed her reputation and the film.

Gascón – who has apologised for the comments – has been dropped by her publisher, criticised by prominent politicians and is already understood to have been removed from the film’s campaigning materials by its studio, Netflix.

Voting for the Goya awards closed on 24 January, days before the posts were uncovered.

The mostly Spanish-language musical tells the story of a Mexican drug cartel boss who transitions to life as a woman and turns her back on crime.

Her comments have been described as “absolutely hateful” by the movie’s director, Jacques Audiard, while Gascón’s co-star, Zoe Saldana, has said the views expressed had saddened and disappointed her.

Before the scandal broke, the film earned 13 Oscar nods, picked up four Golden Globes in January and won multiple prizes at last year’s Cannes film festival.

Gascón lives near the Spanish capital, Madrid, but did not attend the Goya awards ceremony in Granada.

Although the social media posts are thought to have destroyed her Oscar hopes, some have questioned the scale and ferocity of the backlash the actor faces.

In a column in El País on Wednesday, the writer and journalist Sergio del Molino argued that Gascón the actor, and Gascón the person ought to be considered separately, and that she shouldn’t be penalised come Oscar night.

“If the people at the Academy were convinced that Karla Sofía Gascón deserved an Oscar for her work on Emilia Pérez, there’s no reason why they should feel differently today,” he wrote. “No matter how idiotic, racist, insulting or in bad taste her tweets from years ago were, they were not part of her performance. And if they deemed that performance prize-worthy a week ago, they still should, because the film hasn’t changed.”

Another writer and journalist, Manuel Jabois, told Cadena Ser that “anyone who doesn’t feel a bit sorry for her has a problem”, while acknowledging that there was a debate to be had about how to separate Gascón’s “artistic talent from her disgusting and racist” opinions.

“And there’s another debate about how far the rejection, or cancellation – by Netflix, by colleagues, by the government of this country – can go,” said Jabois. “No matter how gross I find her 10-year-old opinions, I condemn the absurd cruelty and the absurd solitude to which she’s been condemned.”

With Agence France-Presse

Narco-musical Emilia Pérez has won best European film at Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars amid the fallout from its star’s past racist and Islamophobic social media posts.

Karla Sofía Gascón – the star of the film and the first transgender woman to be nominated for a best actress Oscar – did not attend the ceremony after old social media posts emerged in which she denigrates Islam, China and African American George Floyd, unleashing a scandal that has harmed her reputation and the film.

Gascón – who has apologised for the comments – has been dropped by her publisher, criticised by prominent politicians and is already understood to have been removed from the film’s campaigning materials by its studio, Netflix.

Voting for the Goya awards closed on 24 January, days before the posts were uncovered.

The mostly Spanish-language musical tells the story of a Mexican drug cartel boss who transitions to life as a woman and turns her back on crime.

Her comments have been described as “absolutely hateful” by the movie’s director, Jacques Audiard, while Gascón’s co-star, Zoe Saldana, has said the views expressed had saddened and disappointed her.

Before the scandal broke, the film earned 13 Oscar nods, picked up four Golden Globes in January and won multiple prizes at last year’s Cannes film festival.

Gascón lives near the Spanish capital, Madrid, but did not attend the Goya awards ceremony in Granada.

Although the social media posts are thought to have destroyed her Oscar hopes, some have questioned the scale and ferocity of the backlash the actor faces.

In a column in El País on Wednesday, the writer and journalist Sergio del Molino argued that Gascón the actor, and Gascón the person ought to be considered separately, and that she shouldn’t be penalised come Oscar night.

“If the people at the Academy were convinced that Karla Sofía Gascón deserved an Oscar for her work on Emilia Pérez, there’s no reason why they should feel differently today,” he wrote. “No matter how idiotic, racist, insulting or in bad taste her tweets from years ago were, they were not part of her performance. And if they deemed that performance prize-worthy a week ago, they still should, because the film hasn’t changed.”

Another writer and journalist, Manuel Jabois, told Cadena Ser that “anyone who doesn’t feel a bit sorry for her has a problem”, while acknowledging that there was a debate to be had about how to separate Gascón’s “artistic talent from her disgusting and racist” opinions.

“And there’s another debate about how far the rejection, or cancellation – by Netflix, by colleagues, by the government of this country – can go,” said Jabois. “No matter how gross I find her 10-year-old opinions, I condemn the absurd cruelty and the absurd solitude to which she’s been condemned.”

With Agence France-Presse

• North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged his ongoing support of Russia’s “just cause” in its war with Ukraine. Kim said the army and people of North Korea “will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity”. In response to the trilateral military cooperation among the US, Japan and South Korea, Kim reiterated the country’s “unshakable policy of more highly developing the nuclear forces”. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed this week that North Korean troops have returned to the frontline in Russia’s Kursk region, after reports Moscow had withdrawn them due to heavy losses. Last month, South Korea said it suspected North Korea of preparing to send more troops to Russia, in addition to about 11,000 soldiers who had been sent to bolster Moscow’s forces in the near-three-year war.

• UK foreign secretary David Lammy has said there would be no imminent end to fighting in Ukraine despite Donald Trump’s promises to broker a swift end to the conflict. “I am not sure we are weeks away from peace talks. And I say that because our assessment, which I’m quite sure the US shares, is that [Vladimir] Putin shows absolutely no appetite for negotiation and to bring this war to an end,” Lammy said after meeting Zelenskyy and senior Ukrainian officials in Kyiv. British prime minister Keir Starmer, who has said the UK will “play a full part” in any future security guarantees, has not ruled out sending British troops into Ukraine to act as peacekeepers in the event of a ceasefire with Russia. But Lammy said discussions with European and G7 allies over what type of guarantees might be necessary would “run for some months yet” and it was “premature” to anticipate what role the UK would play.

• Russia says it sees no positive steps from the new US administration on disarmament, RIA state news agency reports. Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, said in an interview Russia was “ready to maintain smooth relations of cooperation with any American administration”. “We would be ready to do this within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament … So far, we do not see any positive progress in this regard in Geneva,” Gatilov said.

• Zelenskyy says he has met the chair of Nato’s military committee to review the capacities of Ukraine’s long-range weaponry, in a post on X. During a visit with Giuseppe Cavo Dragone to a defence industry enterprise, Zelenskyy confirmed key topics of discussion included continued military assistance from Nato member states and direct investments in domestic production of long-range drones.

• A Russian telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea was damaged by an “external impact”, Russian state media news agency Tass reported. The country’s state-owned Rostelecom company said restoration work was under way but did not provide further details and it was unclear when the damage occurred. The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert after a string of outages affecting power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland, leading to increased surveillance operations by Nato members. All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.

Gambling companies are covertly tracking visitors to their websites and sending their data to Facebook’s parent company without consent in an apparent breach of data protection laws.

The information is then being used by Facebook’s owner, Meta, to profile people as gamblers and flood them with ads for casinos and betting sites, the Observer can reveal. A hidden tracking tool embedded in dozens of UK gambling websites has been extracting visitors’ data – including details of the webpages they view and the buttons they click – and sharing it with the social media company.

By law, data should only be used and shared for marketing purposes, with explicit permission obtained from users on the websites in which the tools are embedded. But testing by the Observer of 150 gambling sites – including virtual casinos, sports betting sites and online bingo – found widespread breaches of the rules.

This weekend, Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative chair of the all-party parliamentary group on gambling reform, called for an “immediate intervention”. He said: “The use of tools such as Meta Pixel without explicit consent seems wholly in breach of the law and should be immediately stopped. The gambling industry’s marketing practices are now out of control, and our regulatory structure and codes of practice are repeatedly shown to be inadequate. This cannot go on.”

Wolfie Christl, a data privacy expert who has investigated the ad tech industry, said: “Sharing data with Meta is highly problematic, even with consent, but doing so without explicit informed consent shows a blatant disregard for the law.

“Meta is complicit and must be held accountable. It benefits from facilitating problematic and unlawful data practices for its clients and systematically looks the other way, using its terms and conditions as a shield rather than seriously enforcing them.”

Of 150 websites tested by the Observer, 52 shared data automatically via the Meta Pixel tracking tool without explicit consent, according to analysis of network traffic. The sites found to have transmitted data to Facebook without permission included Hollywoodbets, Sporting Index, Bwin, Lottoland, 10Bet and Bet442.

The data transfer happened automatically on loading the webpage, before the person clicked to agree or decline marketing. At no point during the testing did the reporter agree to the use of their data for marketing.

In the days afterwards, they were bombarded with Facebook ads for gambling websites, indicating that they had been profiled by Meta as someone interested in gambling as a result of the unlawful data sharing.

In a single browsing session, they were shown gambling ads from 49 brands – not just websites that had shared their data unlawfully, but others too. This included betting companies that were unaware of the unlawful data sharing and whose own use of Meta Pixel was within the rules – among them, Ladbrokes, Sky Bet, BetVictor, Tombola and Bet365 – as well as dozens of smaller brands.

The offers included free bets, a “new players offer” with a 200% bonus and a “gold blitz” with the chance to “win up to 5,000 times your bet”.

Details of the data sharing and profiling come amid calls for a wider investigation into targeting of gamblers. In September, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a reprimand to Bonne Terre Ltd, trading as Sky Betting & Gaming, for unlawfully processing people’s data through advertising cookies without their consent. The brand said at the time it regretted a “technical error”, which had been rectified.

As the Observer reported last week, in a separate case, Sky Betting & Gaming collected hundreds of thousands of pieces of data about a problem gambler who was sent more than 1,300 marketing emails. The high court found the data use unlawful, ruling that the compulsive nature of the man’s gambling meant his ability to give consent was impaired. The company said it had made significant changes since the claimant’s experience in 2017-19 but “fundamentally disagrees” with the ruling and is considering an appeal.

The Gambling Commission has announced measures to prohibit cross-selling, where companies target existing customers with ads for other parts of their business. But there is nothing to prevent brands relying on profiling by third parties such as Meta to try to recruit new customers.

Meta did not comment on the Observer’s findings but pointed to its terms and conditions, which stipulate that companies should obtain consent before sending it data. “We educate advertisers on properly setting up business tools,” a spokesperson said.

The Liberal Democrat peer Don Foster, chair of Peers for Gambling Reform, said: “It is critical that gambling companies and online platforms act lawfully, and it is concerning to see evidence of continued unlawful practices.” Prof Heather Wardle, a gambling research specialist at Glasgow University, said: “This kind of untamed marketing is hugely risky. If you are already experiencing difficulties from gambling, it is likely to make you gamble more.”

The Observer has previously reported on the misuse of Meta Pixel in other sectors, including by NHS trusts that were inadvertently sharing sensitive health data. The ICO said last year that it was conducting a “wide-ranging review” of tracking pixels, which must be used “fairly, lawfully and transparently”, and that it would “not hesitate” to take enforcement action if needed, which can include fines of up to £500,000. “Too often, there is a lack of accountability for how these tools collect and use people’s personal information, with poor transparency and deceptive design,” a spokesperson said.

After being contacted by the Observer, several gambling operators updated their websites to prevent automatic data sharing – or removed the Meta Pixel tool altogether.

One betting brand, Bwin, a previous sponsor of Real Madrid and the Uefa Europa League, shared data on people visiting a promotional page for a £20 free bet. The data sharing happened automatically on loading the website, without the person being asked for consent.

A Bwin spokesperson said: “Due to an internal error, the promotional page was not fully aligned with other group sites. We are deeply committed to ensuring that personal data is handled appropriately and have taken immediate action to rectify the issue.”

Twenty-six websites operating under the licence of gambling group AG Communications appeared to be sharing data with Meta automatically and without explicit consent, including Bet442, King Casino, 666 Casino and 24Spin. A representative said it took compliance with its obligations extremely seriously.

Another company, Hollywoodbets, which sponsors Premier League club Brentford, showed website visitors a consent banner telling them that it shared data with its “social media, advertising and analytics partners” – and giving them the option to “allow all”.

But the Observer’s testing found that even if the person did not click accept, data was shared with Meta, including details of which pages they viewed and the buttons they clicked.

The person was subsequently shown Facebook ads for Hollywoodbets, and Meta’s activity logs showed that data had been received from the website. A representative of Hollywoodbets said it complied with all regulatory requirements but declined to comment further.

Lottoland, which says it has 20 million customers, declined to comment. Its website includes a banner that appears to give people the option to “accept all” or “reject nonessential” tracking. But the Observer’s testing found that it sent data to Meta before the website visitor had indicated their choice.

Sporting Index and 10Bet did not respond to comment requests.

The Betting and Gaming Council, which represents the industry, said: “Advertising must comply with strict guidelines, and safer gambling messaging is regularly and prominently displayed. The previous government stated that research did not establish a causal link between exposure to advertising and the development of problem gambling.”

The Gambling Commission, which regulates betting companies, said: “Operators may only collect and use data to attract custom in ways that are lawful and in compliance with data protection legislation, and their focus should be on preventing gambling harm. Questions around data protection are a matter for the ICO.”

Flutter, which owns several brands that served ads on Facebook but did not share data with Meta unlawfully, said it had “acted appropriately and gained consent at all times”.

Bet365 declined to comment but is understood to deny setting up marketing campaigns that specifically target users of other gambling websites. The other advertisers did not comment.

The Irish boxer John Cooney has died, his promoter Mark Dunlop has announced, a week after he was injured in a fight in Belfast.

A statement on Monday said that the 28-year-old was in intensive care following his defeat to the Welshman Nathan Howells at the Ulster Hall last Saturday. The bout was stopped in the ninth round and Cooney had subsequently undergone surgery after it was discovered he had an intracranial haemorrhage. The bout was his first defence of the Celtic super-featherweight title.

A further statement was posted on Saturday night by Dunlop on behalf of the Cooney family, confirming that the boxer had died after a “week of battling for his life”.

It read: “It is with complete devastation that we have to announce that after a week of battling for his life John Cooney has sadly passed away. Mr and Mrs Cooney and his fiancee Emmaleen would like to thank the staff at Belfast’s Royal Victoria hospital who have worked tirelessly to save John’s life and for everyone who has sent messages of support and prayers.

“He was a much loved son, brother and partner and it will take us all a lifetime to forget how special he was. RIP John ‘the Kid’ Cooney.”

Cooney won the title with a win over Liam Gaynor in Dublin in November 2023 but spent a year out of the ring with a hand injury. He returned in October with a victory over Tampela Maharusi.

The Irish boxer John Cooney has died, his promoter Mark Dunlop has announced, a week after he was injured in a fight in Belfast.

A statement on Monday said that the 28-year-old was in intensive care following his defeat to the Welshman Nathan Howells at the Ulster Hall last Saturday. The bout was stopped in the ninth round and Cooney had subsequently undergone surgery after it was discovered he had an intracranial haemorrhage. The bout was his first defence of the Celtic super-featherweight title.

A further statement was posted on Saturday night by Dunlop on behalf of the Cooney family, confirming that the boxer had died after a “week of battling for his life”.

It read: “It is with complete devastation that we have to announce that after a week of battling for his life John Cooney has sadly passed away. Mr and Mrs Cooney and his fiancee Emmaleen would like to thank the staff at Belfast’s Royal Victoria hospital who have worked tirelessly to save John’s life and for everyone who has sent messages of support and prayers.

“He was a much loved son, brother and partner and it will take us all a lifetime to forget how special he was. RIP John ‘the Kid’ Cooney.”

Cooney won the title with a win over Liam Gaynor in Dublin in November 2023 but spent a year out of the ring with a hand injury. He returned in October with a victory over Tampela Maharusi.

A millionaire businessman charged with the 2017 murder of the Maltese anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been released on bail with no date set for his trial.

Yorgen Fenech, the heir to a casino and hotels group, was arrested and charged with complicity to kill Caruana Galizia in November 2019. However, delays in bringing the case before a jury have allowed his lawyers to successfully argue for bail.

The delays were condemned by Caruana Galizia’s family, who claimed the state and the justice system were “failing the victims”.

Fenech and his family have pledged over €50m in cash and shares as security for his release.

Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb which was detonated as she was leaving her home in Bidnija, Malta. The case embroiled the governing party in scandal and accusations of a cover-up, while the spectacle of a violent assassination within an EU member state raised concerns over attacks on journalists within Europe.

Fenech walked out of Corradino Correctional Facility on Thursday evening, five years after he was first charged. In a navy zip-up jumper and jeans, clutching paperwork and accompanied by his defence lawyer, Fenech climbed into a van with blacked-out windows as film crews pressed towards him. He declined to comment, saying only “thank you” before the van moved away.

Fenech is one of seven men who have either admitted to or been charged in connection with the killing. He denies the charges and is pleading not guilty.

To date, none of the accused have been put on trial. Two brothers pleaded guilty to planting the bomb and were sentenced to 40 years in prison. Their accomplice was given a reduced sentence after admitting his guilt and providing evidence for the prosecution. Two of the men accused of supplying the bomb are in custody awaiting trial.

Melvin Theuma, a taxi driver who claims he acted as middleman, secured a presidential pardon in exchange for giving evidence and is living under police protection.

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, set up by her family, said after Fenech’s release: “The bomb blast that killed her was a warning: the justice system is failing the victims.”

“While no one can be kept in prison without trial indefinitely, trials could and should be completed before bail becomes a concern. Defendants, prosecutors, and the courts should not be allowed to extend proceedings for years.”

Judge Edwina Grima originally agreed to bail on Friday 24 January, but negotiations over the complex arrangements for the financial guarantees took two weeks to complete, delaying Fenech’s release.

His aunt has pledged her shares in the family’s property business, Tumas Group, as collateral. The stake was reportedly valued at over €50m (£42m). Fenech has also paid an €80,000 (£67,000) deposit and is bound by a €120,000 guarantee, both of which will be forfeited should he breach his bail conditions.

He is barred from going within 50 metres of the coast or airport, and from contacting witnesses in the case against him, including Theuma.

He will have to sign a bail book at a police station every day and stay indoors between 5pm and 11am. He must only live at an address agreed with the court, and a police officer will be stationed outside his nominated residence 24 hours a day.

Fenech’s passport and identification documents will be held by the court.

The delays in bringing a trial have been criticised by Roberta Metsola, the president of the European parliament and an MEP for Malta, who wrote in a post on Facebook: “A system that forces those accused of the most heinous crimes to be allowed out of jail on bail because their trial by jury took more than half a decade to get under way, is a system that is broken. It is a system that cannot deliver justice.”

The attorney general, who is leading the prosecution, argued against the release, citing flight risk and the possibility of witness interference. However, Maltese law allows defendants to leave prison if a 30-month period elapses without trial after their initial bill of indictment.

Malta’s prime minister, Robert Abela, said he understood the family’s pain but rejected suggestions the government could have done more. Speaking last weekend he said the delay was due to constitutional cases and preliminary hearings brought by Fenech, and requests from the prosecution and family, such as anonymity for Caruana Galizia’s sources.

“If you ask me whether the government could have done anything differently in this case, I would say it couldn’t,” Abela said.

A newspaper columnist and magazine publisher whose political blog was widely read, Caruana Galizia was almost as well known in her home country as those she exposed in her scoops. She took aim at Malta’s then Labour prime minister, Joseph Muscat, and his ministers in her reporting.

The journalist was associated closely with the opposition Nationalist party, and the struggle to bring her killers to justice has been hamstrung by political conflict.

Muscat was forced to resign in 2019 amid the crisis. However, his party went on to win the 2022 general election, and remains in power today.

A former Hollyoaks actor has said he is “grieving the tragic loss” of his mother after she was found dead alongside her husband in France.

The bodies of Andrew Searle, a retired fraud investigator, and his wife, Dawn, a project manager, were discovered at about 12.30pm on Thursday at their home in the village of Les Pesquiès, south of Villefranche-de-Rouergue. The couple had moved to south-west France from Scotland about 10 years ago.

Scottish-born actor Callum Kerr, 30, who played PC George Kiss in the Channel 4 soap, shared a statement on Instagram. It said: “At this time, Callum Kerr, Amanda Kerr, Tom Searle & Ella Searle are grieving the tragic loss of their mother and father, Dawn and Andrew Searle. No family member is available for media interviews or comments.

“We kindly request that their privacy be respected during this difficult period. We will provide updates as appropriate.”

Kerr has appeared in Netflix’s Virgin River and has released a number of country songs.

Kerr walked his mother down the aisle when she married Searle at a ceremony in France. On social media, he said: “Not many people can say they walked their own mother down the aisle. What a pleasure. I love you, mum.”

According to local media, Dawn was found outside the property with a serious head injury and jewellery around her. She was reportedly found by a neighbour, who thought she was unconscious and called emergency services.

When police, accompanied by a helicopter, a drone, criminal investigation technicians and a forensic doctor, arrived at the property, they discovered Andrew Searle dead. Police say they have reached no conclusion and are keeping an open mind about the deaths.

“Both died violent deaths, but I cannot establish that either was a homicide. All hypotheses remain open,” the public prosecutor, Nicolas Rigot-Muller, said on Friday. Rigot-Muller told the BBC autopsies will begin on Monday.

A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British couple who died in France and are liaising with the local authorities.”

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 them at their 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, 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 vehicle’s 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, who 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.”