Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will resume fighting in Gaza if Hamas does not release more hostages by noon on Saturday, endorsing a threat by Donald Trump that could shatter the three-week-old ceasefire between the two sides.

Netanyahu’s ultimatum was delivered during a video address posted to social media account on Tuesday. “If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon – the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” he said.

It came a day after Trump told reporters: “If all the Gaza hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12pm, I would say cancel the ceasefire. Let all hell break loose.”

Netanyahu’s threat came as Trump hosted King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House on Tuesday for a tense meeting, where the two were to discuss the ceasefire and Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza and expel the region’s more than 2 million Palestinians. Trump has said that he could withhold aide from Jordan and Egypt, two US allies, unless they agree to his plan.

In a quick back-and-forth with reporters before a closed-door meeting with Abdullah, Trump in effect endorsed an Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank and said there was “no reason to buy Gaza” because “we’re going to take it”.

Asked whether Saturday remained his deadline for Hamas to deliver all the hostages, Trump replied: “Yes.”

It was not clear whether Netanyahu is also demanding that all 76 captives still held in Gaza be released, or just the three hostages scheduled for release on Saturday under the ceasefire. The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

But the shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after more than 15 months of fighting that has killed just under 47,000 Palestinians and more than 1,700 Israelis is close to collapse.

Since the deal was agreed, there have been persistent concerns over Netanyahu’s willingness to transition from the first to the second phase of the agreement: the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has said he will quit Netanyahu’s coalition if the war does not restart after the first phase, which could force the prime minister to choose between his government and the deal.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the cabinet agreed that if three hostages were released on Saturday, as planned, then Israel would continue to commit to the ceasefire.

But in a sign that Israeli authorities may be preparing for hostilities to resume, Netanyahu also said on Tuesday evening that he had directed the Israeli army to increase reinforcements in the Gaza area “in preparation for various scenarios”.

“In light of Hamas’s announcement of its decision to violate the agreement and not release our hostages, last night I ordered the IDF to amass forces inside and around the Gaza Strip,” said Netanyahu. “This operation is being carried out at this time. It will be completed in the very near future.”

Hamas on Monday said it would delay the release of Israeli hostages indefinitely over “violations” of the ceasefire deal, prompting Israel’s defence minister to put the country’s military on alert with orders to prepare for “any scenario in Gaza”.

On Tuesday, Hamas had softened its stance, deriding Trump’s ultimatum and reiterating its commitment to a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said: “Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the [Israeli] prisoners. The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters.”

In a statement late on Tuesday, Hamas reiterated that it was committed to the ceasefire deal, and claiming that Israel would be “responsible for any complications or delays.”

The Israeli security cabinet meeting to discuss negotiations on the second phase of the deal was brought forward on Tuesday and lasted more than four hours.

Smotrich, who voted against the ceasefire deal, appeared to support Trump’s comments. He wrote on X on Tuesday: “Everyone now.”

A day earlier, the army cancelled all leave for soldiers in the Gaza division, a move suggesting it has become more likely that hostilities could resume.

In Tel Aviv, protesters blocked roads on Monday night and Tuesday, demanding the return of all hostages, as some relatives accused the government of sabotaging the deal.

Replying to reporters’ questions in the West Wing, Trump overturned decades of US policy on Israel by in effect endorsing the annexation of the West Bank. “I think that’s going to work out very well,” he said, adding that it would “work out automatically”. “It’s in good shape. We discussed it, other people are going to discuss it with me. West Bank is going to work out very well.”

He also discussed his putative plan to “take over” Gaza and expel the Palestinians to neighbouring Jordan and Egypt.

Reversing previous statements, Trump said that he was not prepared to buy Gaza, but that “we’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it.”

Trump announced the Gaza plan late last week to the apparent surprise of Netanyahu and to his closest aides. Neither the Pentagon, nor the state department had made plans for a US military campaign or rebuilding effort in the Gaza Strip before Trump’s announcement.

But the plan has angered Arab states, who have said that the decision would effectively scuttle another of Trump’s key goals: establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Abdullah, who was sitting next to Trump, did not respond to questions about Trump’s plan to “take” Gaza. That would be discussed behind closed doors, he said, but said both sides should also “wait until the Egyptians can present ideas”.

Later on Tuesday, Abdullah said that his country would take in 2,000 sick children from war-torn Gaza but pushed back against Trump’s plan to take over the territory.

“I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” he said.

Hamas has said it will not release the next batch of Israeli hostages this weekend as planned, citing alleged Israeli violations of the ceasefire, a development that could derail an already fragile three-week-old truce agreement.

Donald Trump further inflamed the situation by threatening that “hell is going to break out” unless Hamas releases all of the Israeli hostages it is holding on Saturday – an intervention that, along with his proposal for the US to take over and “develop” the Gaza Strip, appears to nullify the next stages of the truce.

Donald Trump has pressed Jordan’s King Abdullah to take in Palestinians who would be permanently displaced under the US president’s idea for the US to take over the Gaza Strip – even as the king said his country was firmly opposed to the move.

Speaking alongside the Arab country’s ruler in the White House, Trump signaled he would not budge on his idea that involves moving the Gaza Strip’s shell-shocked residents and transforming the war-ravaged territory into what he billed a “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Trump has infuriated the Arab world by saying that Palestinians would not be able to return to their homes under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, which has been devastated by an Israeli offensive.

The arbitrary and permanent forcible transfer of populations is considered a crime under the Geneva conventions.

“We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it. We’re going to get it going eventually, where a lot of jobs are going to be created for the people in the Middle East,” Trump said in the Oval Office, saying his plan would “bring peace” to the region.

King Abdullah said later that he had reiterated Jordan’s “steadfast position” against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, as well as in the occupied West Bank that borders his country.

“This is the unified Arab position,” he said in a post on Twitter/X. “Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all.“

Despite the views of his Jordanian counterpart, Trump said Jordan, as well as Egypt, would ultimately agree to house displaced residents of Gaza. Both countries rely on Washington for economic and military aid.

“I believe we’ll have a parcel of land in Jordan. I believe we’ll have a parcel of land in Egypt,” said Trump. “We may have someplace else, but I think when we finish our talks, we’ll have a place where they’re going to live very happily and very safely.“

Trump, who has suggested he could consider withholding aid to Jordan, said he was not using support as a threat.

“We contribute a lot of money to Jordan, and to Egypt by the way – a lot to both. But I don’t have to threaten that. I think we’re above that,” Trump said.

King Abdullah has previously said he rejects any moves to annex land and displace Palestinians. He is the first Arab leader to meet Trump since the Gaza plan was floated.

While the two leaders were cordial with each other, Trump’s comments about Gaza put King Abdullah in an awkward position, given the sensitivity in Jordan of the Palestinians’ claim of a right to return to the lands that many fled during the war that surrounded the creation of Israel in 1948.

Trump at one point appeared to prompt King Abdullah to say he would take in Palestinians from Gaza. The king said he would do what is best for his country, but said Jordan would take in 2,000 sick children from Gaza for treatment, an offer that Trump praised.

“The point is how to make this work in a way that is good for everybody,” he said, appearing uncomfortable, without explicitly supporting or opposing Trump’s plan.

Late on Tuesday, Egypt’s foreign ministry said it planned to “present a comprehensive vision for the reconstruction” of the Gaza Strip that ensures Palestinians remain on their land.

Egypt “hopes to cooperate” with Trump’s administration on the matter, with the goal of “reaching a fair settlement of the Palestinian cause”, the ministry said.

It said its plan would provide for the reconstruction of Gaza “in a clear and decisive manner that ensures the Palestinian people stay on their land, and in line with the legitimate and legal rights of this people”.

Jordan is already home to more than 2 million Palestinian refugees in its population of 11 million, their status and number long providing a source of anxiety for the country’s leadership.

Of the many factors that will determine the fate of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, one of the most difficult to quantify and predict is the level of popular support for Hamas.

On Monday, Hamas threatened to delay the release of further Israeli hostages, accusing Israel of breaches of the ceasefire deal. The uncertainty, just over halfway into the ceasefire’s six-week first phase, complicates talks on the far more difficult second phase. It also jeopardises the pause in the devastating fighting and the increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza that the truce has made possible.

Some analysts believe that Hamas initially made the concessions that helped bring about the ceasefire in part because it is sensitive to public opinion among Palestinians in Gaza, and recognised that to continue the conflict could cause it lasting damage.

The same holds true during the fragile ceasefire, with Hamas keen to get credit for continued calm and avoid blame in the event of a return to hostilities.

That Hamas still has a powerful presence in Gaza despite massive damage done in Israel’s offensive seems clear. Successive handovers of Israeli hostages have been carefully choreographed to showcase the militant group’s military power, but Hamas has also deployed hundreds of officials from the municipal authorities it still controls to clear rubble, rehabilitate clinics, reopen schools and monitor markets.

Aid workers in Gaza report that many of their prewar contacts in the local administration are back in their posts.

“Hamas are pretty visible on the streets. Police are back on the beat and patrolling main junctions. Ministries are also reopening. It’s like the war never happened in some ways,” said one senior UN official last week.

But experts point out that the widespread presence of Hamas does not imply extensive support.

“The level of control is not a measure of popularity,” said Hugh Lovatt, a specialist in Palestinian politics at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “We have polling data over the years and, though there are always caveats, there is still a consistent historical trend and that is that support for Hamas tends to hover around the mid-30s in percentage terms.”

An unpublished survey conducted just before the ceasefire last month revealed an apparent decline in levels of support for Hamas, though it remains the most popular party in Gaza.

The new survey, carried out by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), asked people in the territory if they supported “very extreme actions” to protect and defend Palestine.

“This was on a continuous scale and roughly 25% were above the midpoint in support of extreme violence, so a minority,” said Scott Atran, the anthropologist who oversaw the research.

When asked what would be a “realistic and acceptable” ending to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, just under half of the population said some division of territory between Israel and Palestine, either along the pre-1967 borders or those suggested by the UN in 1947, while slightly more than half preferred a dissolution of Israel, with a single Palestinian state under Islamic law the most preferred solution of all. The least preferred was a single democratic state with equal rights for Arabs and Jews.

The survey also showed that a significant proportion feel that rule by Islamic law – a key part of the ideology of Hamas – is important and that around half believe that a military solution is more likely than a diplomatic solution. For most in Gaza too, the Palestinian-Israel conflict is primarily religious rather than political, the survey suggested.

Atran said: “Hamas has only the support of a fifth of the population – a steep decline from a March 2024 PCPSR poll that showed majority support for Hamas in Gaza. In fact, the most frequent response on leadership was that no one truly represents the Palestinian people … So there is an evident leadership gap.

“Yet, the survey also indicates that Gazans – women as much as men, old and young – are willing to sacrifice for their land and sovereignty, including to fight and die, even at the cost of their own family safety and security … or the promise of a better life elsewhere.”

A significant problem for researchers is that few in Gaza are prepared to openly criticise Hamas. The movement, which seized control of Gaza violently in 2007 after winning an election, has a long history of ruthless repression of dissidents.

A poll by PCPSR released in September shows 39% in Gaza supported the attacks by Hamas into Israel in October 2023 that triggered the conflict, 32 percentage points lower than six months earlier. Hamas killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 250 in the attack, while the ensuing Israeli offensive cost the lives of more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and devastated swaths of the territory.

“It is important to note that support for [the 2023 attack] does not necessarily mean support for Hamas and does not mean support for any killings or atrocities committed against civilians,” the PCPSR said, pointing out that up to 90% of respondents “believe that Hamas … did not commit the atrocities depicted in videos taken on that day”.

Instead, the pollsters said, support for the 2023 attack was motivated by how the attack had focused regional and global attention on Palestinian grievances.

The poll also found that 36% in Gaza chose “armed struggle” as the most effective way to end Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state, the lowest level since September 2022. Hamas was the preferred political party of 35% of respondents, down slightly.

In the immediate aftermath of the ceasefire last month, some residents expressed pride that Hamas had survived the onslaught.

“Name me one country that could withstand Israel’s war machine for 15 months,” said Salah Abu Rezik, a 58-year-old factory worker. He praised Hamas for helping to distribute aid to hungry people in Gaza during the conflict and trying to enforce a measure of security, describing Hamas as “an idea” that could not be killed.

But others voiced anger that Hamas’s attack had brought destruction to Gaza.

“We had homes and hotels and restaurants. We had a life. Today we have nothing, so what kind of a victory is this? When the war stops, Hamas must not rule Gaza alone,” said Ameen, 30, a Gaza City civil engineer, who was living in Khan Younis.

To prevent such views spreading further, Hamas will need to divert blame if the ceasefire collapses.

One accusation made by Hamas on Monday was that Israel was deliberately hindering the entry of stipulated amounts of aid, such as 60,000 mobile houses and 200,000 tents, as well as heavy machinery to remove rubble, and fuel. Help with the humanitarian crisis and reconstruction is a priority for most in Gaza. Israel denies the charge.

Lovatt said successive polls among Palestinians showed that “there would always be space for a conservative, Islamist-leaning party” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank too.

“So even if you get rid of Hamas or it moderates further then there is potentially a segment of this Islamist support base which will look for a new political home,” he said.

“If you exile or kill the leadership, you are not addressing the challenge of this limited if substantial conservative Islamist base. If you want a credible political track you need to integrate that constituency.”

Donald Trump handed Elon Musk even more control over the federal government by preparing an executive order requiring agencies to cooperate with Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), a team Trump has assembled, when told to cut their workforces and limit the hiring of replacements.

The White House order, titled Implementing The President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative, said the goal is to “restore accountability to the American public” and that “this order commences a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy. By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my Administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself.”

The order notes that agency heads “will undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law”.

It also said that agencies should “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service” and “shall not fill any vacancies for career appointments that the DOGE Team Lead assesses should not be filled, unless the Agency Head determines the positions should be filled”.

Exceptions are planned for military personnel and agencies dealing in immigration, law enforcement and public safety.

Trump and Musk are encouraging federal workers to resign in return for financial incentives, though a judge is currently reviewing the legality of the orders. Administration officials said more than 65,000 workers have opted to take the buyout option.

Musk, the world’s richest man, took questions from reporters for the first time since he joined the Trump administration as a “special” government employee.

The X owner reportedly said that there are some good people in the federal bureaucracy, but that they need to be held accountable, and referred to Doge as an “unelected” fourth branch.

“The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get,” he said. “That’s what democracy is all about.”

Musk also described himself as an open book despite criticism towards his lack of transparency in reshaping the federal government. He joked that the scrutiny was like a “daily proctology exam”.

“Your tax dollars need to be spent wisely, on things that matter,” Musk said, in defense of Doge. Earlier this week, the Trump administration tried to cut billions of dollars in medical research funding, before being blocked by a judge a few days later.

On Tuesday, hundreds of people rallied outside the US Capitol to protest the orders and support federal workers. Similar protests have been going on across the country on a nearly daily basis since Trump took office.

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Elon Musk and the Trump administration’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has terminated nearly $1bn in US Department of Education contracts, in effect eliminating a research office that tracks US students’ progress.

After announcing $101m would be slashed from 29 DEI training grants on Monday, the Doge account on Twitter/X said that Musk’s team terminated 89 contracts worth a total of $881m on Tuesday.

The huge budget cuts have essentially wiped out the federal agency’s research and statistics office – one of the country’s largest funders of education research – the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). IES gathers and disseminates data and research on a variety of subjects, including but not limited to the state of US student achievement, school crime and safety, and high school science course completion; their research is used widely by educators, state and local departments of education, school districts, colleges and other researchers.

An NPR report noted that there is already a program that will be cut short because of the withdrawal of these contracts. The study, which has been reportedly rolled out in multiple states, gave US students “high quality, adaptive digital tools” to help them improve in math; now, that study will be cut short and those tools could be removed from classrooms imminently, according to a source with extensive knowledge of many of these canceled education department contracts, who would not speak publicly for fear of retribution.

The US senator Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate’s education committee and is a former preschool teacher, called Musk in a statement an “unelected billionaire” who is “bulldozing the research arm of the Department of Education – taking a wrecking ball to high-quality research and basic data we need to improve our public schools. Cutting off these investments after the contract has already been inked is the definition of wasteful.”

Murray continued: “Elon Musk doesn’t care if working class kids in America get a good education, so whittling down the Department of Education means nothing to him. Make no mistake, this is just the first step Donald Trump and Musk are taking to abolish the Department of Education, leaving our public schools with fewer resources and support to pay for massive tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations.”

It does appear that some IES programs were spared, including the Obama-era college scorecard tool that helps students compare colleges, the National Assessment of Education Progress, and the “Nation’s Report Card”, a nationwide assessment that measures the academic performance of students across the country against national standards in various subjects such as math, reading, science and writing.

Felice Levine, the director of American Educational Research Association, which frequently collaborates with the education department, confirmed 169 IES contracts had been terminated.

“Limiting the important work that NCES does by terminating these contracts will have ramifications for the accuracy of national-level data on the condition and progress of education, from early childhood through postsecondary to adult workforce,” Levine said in a statement. “Without such research, student learning and development will be harmed.

The move to eliminate these contracts comes after the US House representative Maxwell Frost shared a video last week in which he and other lawmakers are physically locked out of the education department’s building. Musk responded to the video by saying: “What is this ‘Department of Education’ you keep talking about? I just checked and it doesn’t exist.”

Musk’s rhetoric and actions follow a long-held promise by Trump to dismantle the department, which would require an act of Congress. The president is reportedly finalizing an executive order to do just that, though it remains unclear what the exactly the order will do or if it can be legally enacted.

More than a decade after the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Japan is again turning to nuclear power as it struggles to reach its emissions targets and bolster its energy security.

In a draft strategic energy plan due to be approved by the cabinet this month, the trade and industry ministry signalled it was ditching attempts to lessen Japan’s reliance on nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster – the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chornobyl 25 years earlier.

The document dropped a reference to “reducing reliance” on nuclear energy that had appeared in the three previous plans, and instead called for a “maximisation” of nuclear power, which will account for about 20% of total energy output in 2040, based on the assumption that 30 reactors will be in full operation by then.

The plan envisages a share of between 40% and 50% for renewable energy – compared with just under a third in 2023 – and a reduction in coal-fired power from the current 70% to 30-40%.

The push to restart reactors idled since the plant was struck by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake has been condemned by climate campaigners as costly and dangerous.

“Nuclear plants are not where the Japanese government should be investing its money,” says Aileen Smith, executive director of the Kyoto-based group Green Action. “Many nuclear plants are old, and the technology they use is even older. The costs of retrofitting are high, so even operating existing plants is no longer commercially viable.”

Ageing reactors – those at least 40 years old – make up 40% of those in operation around the world, but only 20% in Japan, according to a recent study by the Yomiuri Shimbun. In the US, by contrast, 64 of the country’s 94 reactors – 68% of the total – will have been operating for at least 40 years by the end of the year, the newspaper added.

But unlike many other countries that use nuclear power, Japan is vulnerable to powerful earthquakes and tsunami of the kind that wrecked Fukushima Daiichi.

“Earthquakes are the biggest danger, and they could strike old or new reactors,” Smith says. “The more reactors you have in operation, the greater the risk. It’s as simple as that. Retrofitting would mean spending huge sums of money on all those old reactors when the government could instead be putting its money into renewables.”

Officials say reactors will need to be restarted if Japan is to meet an expected increase in demand for power, partly driven by AI-related data processing centres and semiconductor factories, as well as achieving net zero by the middle of the century.

But campaigners say government plans to persist with ageing reactors would leave Japan vulnerable to another major accident. “Ageing in nuclear power plants is a highly complex subject that has the potential to fundamentally challenge the safety and integrity of a nuclear reactor,” says Hisayo Takada at Greenpeace Japan.

“As reactors operate, they are subject to enormous pressures and temperatures, all of which contribute to major stresses. The prospect of Japan operating ever more reactors to 60 years and beyond is evidence of a major experiment being conducted on the country. It has the potential to be catastrophic.”

Instead, Takada adds, the government should do more to promote renewables.

“The climate crisis demands the rapid decarbonisation of society, with energy and the production of electricity a priority,” she says. “The only technologies that exist today that can deliver on the short timescale we face with the climate crisis are improved energy efficiency and expanding renewable energy.”

The triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi shook Japan’s confidence in nuclear power. Before the disaster, 54 reactors were in operation, supplying about 30% of the country’s electric power. Just 14 reactors have been restarted, while others are being decommissioned or awaiting permission to go back into service.

The accident caused a radiation leak, forcing more than 160,000 people living nearby to flee their homes and turning entire communities into ghost towns. Decommissioning the plant is expected to cost trillions of yen and take four decades.

The post-Fukushima closures of reactors forced Japan to rely more heavily on imported fossil fuels; it is now the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied natural gas after China and the third-largest importer of coal.

In the 14 years since, utilities have restarted 14 reactors, including one in the region destroyed by the 2011 tsunami, despite opposition from local residents. From June this year, nuclear plants can remain in operation beyond the previous limit of 60 years provided they undergo safety upgrades.

Last year the No 1 reactor at Takahama nuclear plant in central Japan became the first to receive approval to operate beyond 50 years. Four reactors have already been operating for more than 40 years, with three more due to reach the milestone this year.

Sections of the media have reacted with horror at the prospect of a significantly bigger role for nuclear, and accused politicians of hypocrisy.

Noting that the prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, had promised to try to bring nuclear-power generation “to as close to zero as possible” during his campaign for the leadership of the ruling party last autumn, the Asahi Shimbun said: “If the government’s abrupt and irresponsible about-face in the draft plan isn’t an act of betrayal against the public, what is?”

Since returning to the presidency last month, Donald Trump has called for Canada to become the 51st US state, suggested he might take over the Panama Canal, floated US ownership of Gaza – and tried to buy Greenland.

Now, Denmark – which owns Greenland – is clapping back.

More than 200,000 Danes have signed a satirical petition to buy California from the US.

“Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates.’ Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” the petition reads. “Let’s buy California from Donald Trump!”

Across the top of the petition’s website, a slogan calls to “Måke Califørnia Great Ægain” and supposed supporters like Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings fame offer their reasons for making California “New Denmark”.

“We’ll bring hygge to Hollywood, bike lanes to Beverly Hills and organic smørrebrød to every street corner. Rule of law, universal healthcare and fact-based politics might apply,” the petition continues.

“Let’s be honest – Trump isn’t exactly California’s biggest fan. He’s called it ‘the most ruined state in the union’ and has feuded with its leaders for years. We’re pretty sure he’d be willing to part with it for the right price.”

Trump and California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, have been locked in tense relations since the president retook office – with Newsom recently directing $50m to fight the Trump administration and its deportation efforts and Trump threatening to condition federal disaster aid to the state in wake of the Los Angeles wildfires.

The petition aims to crowdfund $1tn (“give or take a few billion”) and receive 500,000 signatures.

Trump began floating the idea of purchasing Greenland in 2019, saying the US needs to control the autonomous territory “for economic security”. The Arctic island is believed to be rich in oil and gas, and other raw materials essential to green technology – that are becoming available as massive ice sheets and glaciers melt as a result of the climate crisis. The same melting ice is also opening up new shipping routes.

Speaking on Danish television in January, Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister, said Greenland was “not for sale”, adding: “Seen through the eyes of the Danish government, Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”

Similarly, following a visit from Donald Trump Jr earlier this year, Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, said: “We are Greenlanders. We don’t want to be Americans. We don’t want to be Danish either. Greenland’s future will be decided by Greenland.”

Although the Danish petition to purchase California may be a joke, the US’s bid to purchase Greenland appears quite serious. Buddy Carter, a Republican representative of Georgia, announced that he had introduced a bill to authorize the purchase of Greenland and rename it “Red, White and Blueland”.

Since returning to the presidency last month, Donald Trump has called for Canada to become the 51st US state, suggested he might take over the Panama Canal, floated US ownership of Gaza – and tried to buy Greenland.

Now, Denmark – which owns Greenland – is clapping back.

More than 200,000 Danes have signed a satirical petition to buy California from the US.

“Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates.’ Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” the petition reads. “Let’s buy California from Donald Trump!”

Across the top of the petition’s website, a slogan calls to “Måke Califørnia Great Ægain” and supposed supporters like Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings fame offer their reasons for making California “New Denmark”.

“We’ll bring hygge to Hollywood, bike lanes to Beverly Hills and organic smørrebrød to every street corner. Rule of law, universal healthcare and fact-based politics might apply,” the petition continues.

“Let’s be honest – Trump isn’t exactly California’s biggest fan. He’s called it ‘the most ruined state in the union’ and has feuded with its leaders for years. We’re pretty sure he’d be willing to part with it for the right price.”

Trump and California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, have been locked in tense relations since the president retook office – with Newsom recently directing $50m to fight the Trump administration and its deportation efforts and Trump threatening to condition federal disaster aid to the state in wake of the Los Angeles wildfires.

The petition aims to crowdfund $1tn (“give or take a few billion”) and receive 500,000 signatures.

Trump began floating the idea of purchasing Greenland in 2019, saying the US needs to control the autonomous territory “for economic security”. The Arctic island is believed to be rich in oil and gas, and other raw materials essential to green technology – that are becoming available as massive ice sheets and glaciers melt as a result of the climate crisis. The same melting ice is also opening up new shipping routes.

Speaking on Danish television in January, Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister, said Greenland was “not for sale”, adding: “Seen through the eyes of the Danish government, Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”

Similarly, following a visit from Donald Trump Jr earlier this year, Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, said: “We are Greenlanders. We don’t want to be Americans. We don’t want to be Danish either. Greenland’s future will be decided by Greenland.”

Although the Danish petition to purchase California may be a joke, the US’s bid to purchase Greenland appears quite serious. Buddy Carter, a Republican representative of Georgia, announced that he had introduced a bill to authorize the purchase of Greenland and rename it “Red, White and Blueland”.

Two New South Wales hospital workers who appeared in a social media video appearing to threaten to refuse to treat and to kill Israeli patients have been identified as nurses at a Sydney hospital and have been “stood down immediately”, the state’s health minister says.

The video has attracted widespread political condemnation, with the prime minister quickly labelling the footage “sickening and shameful.”

Health minister Ryan Park launched an investigation after a video was published by an Israeli content creator depicting an online conversation he had with two people in a NSW hospital on a video chat platform similar to Chatroulette.

Max Veifer uses the platform, which allows users to have random video chats with other users around the world, to ask the people he speaks to about Israel.

In the video, Veifer begins a conversation with a man wearing scrubs with a NSW Health insignia who identifies himself as a doctor.

When Veifer identifies himself as from Israel, the man says “I’m going to be really honest with you… I’m so upset you’re Israeli. Eventually you’re going to get killed and go to Jahannam [hell].”

Veifer then asks the man and a woman sitting next to him what they would do if an Israeli were to come to their hospital, and the woman responds: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”

The man says “you have no idea how many [Israelis] came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jahannam. I literally sent them to Jahannam.”

Park called the behaviour in the video, “vile, disgusting and appalling.”

“The whole video, from start to finish, is a concern to me … the fact that they chose to do this in uniform, that they chose to do this while they should have been caring for patients,” Park said.

He said the pair, identified as nurses from Bankstown hospital, had been stood down and, subject to the investigation, will never work in a NSW hospital again.

“Obviously, investigative process now takes place. I don’t want to leave a sliver, a sliver of light to allow any of them to be able to think that they will ever work for New South Wales Health again,” Park said.

Park apologised to Jewish community and said he wanted to assure them “the care that you get in our hospitals will continue to be first class.”

“There is no place in our hospital and health system for this sort of view to ever, ever take place,” Park said.

“There is no place for this sort of perspective in our society, but hospitals are different in the fact that every single Australian and every single resident of this state should be able to go to their local hospital when they need care and attention and get high quality care that is safe and effective .”

Park said NSW police and NSW Healthcare Complaints Commission would both be investigating the incident.

Asked about what possible crimes they have referred to police, Park said “nurses have a board and a clinical standard that they are registered to. So firstly, that is obviously being completely breached.”

He added “issues around hate speech, vile offensive behaviour towards people based on their particular faith, and obviously through the investigation, there could be a range of other issues around their individual responsibilities as New South Wales Health employees.”

The NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce, who was close to tears during parts of Wednesday’s press conference, said: “never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be standing here with two staff of the New South Wales health system having said such horrendous feelings about our community, and particularly to our Jewish community, I offer my sincere apologies.”

Asked about claims they made in the video about their treatment of Israeli patients, Park said there was no evidence of that based on a rapid examination of patient incidents and patient safety issues over the last 12 months at the hospital.

“What we will now do through those agencies… conduct that thorough investigation to make sure, there are no adverse outcomes as a result of their behaviour,” he said.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called the footage “sickening and shameful.”

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, and the minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, released a joint statement condemning the video they call “as chilling as it is vile.”

The shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, and shadow home affairs minister, James Patterson, also issued a joint statement that “NSW healthcare workers displaying vile antisemitic behaviour, is utterly disgraceful and deeply disturbing.”

Donald Trump reportedly fired the federal watchdog responsible for overseeing the US Agency for International Development (USAid) on Tuesday, one day after the independent inspector general issued a damning report detailing the impact of the president’s sudden dismantling of the agency.

Paul Martin, who was appointed by Joe Biden in December 2023, was dismissed in an email from Trent Morse, deputy director of the White House office of presidential personnel, seen by the Washington Post.

Martin found that “widespread staffing reductions across the agency … coupled with uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible communications with implementers, has degraded USAid’s ability to distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance”.

Reuters and the Associated Press also confirmed the news. A USAid official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Martin had been “removed from his position”. A US official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity added that the White House have given no reason for the firing.

The shuttering of USAid was one of the first steps taken by Elon Musk and the newly founded so-called “department of government efficiency”, a team within the White House created by Trump. USAid employs about 10,000 staff, with approximately two-thirds posted at the agency’s more than 60 missions overseas across multiple countries. Trump had called for nearly all of the agency’s employees to be put on administrative leave, and had placed 500 on leave last week, before a judge blocked the move Friday.

Among the effects of the sudden halt in the agency’s work Martin documented are more than $489m of food assistance at ports, in transit and in warehouses being at risk of spoilage or loss. He also noted that the agency had lost almost all ability to track $8.2bn in unspent humanitarian aid – affecting its ability to ensure none of it falls into the hands of violent extremist groups or goes astray in conflict zones.

The agency requires that programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria the West Bank and Gaza be vetted to ensure safe usage of US taxpayer funds. However, a lack of workers to vet the programs could lead to funding unintentionally being funneled into terrorist groups, according to the report.

Martin’s firing comes two weeks after Donald Trump fired 18 inspectors general, violating a law that requires the administration to alert Congress 30 days before taking such an action.

On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies to cooperate with the Musk-led team at “Doge” as it cuts federal staffing. Trump called USAid “incompetent and corrupt” as he tasked the Doge team with scaling down the agency.

The order notes that agency heads “will undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law”.

USAid is the world’s largest donor of aid, supporting maternal health in conflict zones, clean water access, HIV/Aids treatments and more around the world. While its budget accounted for 42% of the humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024, it takes up less than 1% of the US federal budget.

Marina Dunbar and Robert Mackey contributed to this report

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The companies allegedly responsible for the one of the worst environmental disasters in Solomon Islands’ history are being sued over the catastrophic oil spill that caused harm to an ecologically sensitive island.

The claim over the 2019 Rennell Island disaster was filed in the Solomons high court last week, just days before the statute of limitations expired.

In February 2019, MV Solomon Trader ran aground on a coral reef in the east of Rennell Island, spilling more than 300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, damaging the reef, a nearby lagoon, and contaminating water supplies.

The ship had been loading bauxite from a nearby mine when a cyclone pushed it aground on the reef, in Kangava Bay.

“Our way of life changed on the day that ship wrecked on our reef,” Tony Kagovai, local chief of Lughu Ward in Kangava Bay, and one of the complainants in the case, said.

“For six years we have not known whether the fish we are eating are safe to eat or whether our lands and waters are free of poison. Our community deserves justice for everything we have suffered.”

The people of Rennell Island have never received any compensation.

East Rennell is a site of environmental and historical value. It was placed on Unesco’s World Heritage List in 1998 and is one of the largest raised coral atolls in the world. The oil spill occurred just outside the world heritage area, but devastated the lives of local communities.

Following the spill, Rennell Islanders said freshwater sources on the island were left undrinkable. In nearby Avatai village, it was reported every chicken died a week after the spill and children suffered skin and eye infections.

An independent report into the disaster found spilled oil polluted water and damaged the reef up to three kilometres from the grounded vessel. The report said the site could take up to 130 years to recover.

In the aftermath, the bulk carrier’s Hong Kong owner, King Trader Ltd, and the vessel’s South Korean insurer, issued a “sincere apology” over the disaster, but stopped short of accepting liability.

The companies said that although matters of liability were yet to be determined, they “expressed deep remorse” at the “totally unacceptable” situation.

The customary landowners of Rennell Island directly affected by the spill, along with the government of Solomon Islands, are co-claimants pursuing a group of international companies for environmental and other damages.

The claim identifies five companies as liable for the damage caused by the spill: Hong Kong-based King Trader Ltd, which owned the stricken vessel; the protection and indemnity insurer Korea P&I, a state-owned South Korean company; miner Bintan Mining Corporation and its subsidiary Bintan Mining (SI) Ltd; and MS Amlin Marine MV, a Dutch provider of charterer’s liability.

Korea P&I said it had not yet been served with any legal action in relation to Rennell. MS Amlin said it could not comment on an ongoing legal matter. Other companies were either uncontactable or did not reply.

William Kadi, from Primo Afeau Legal Services, said the communities of Rennell Island had had their traditional lands and waterways “irreversibly damaged” by the disaster.

“Today we start the process of helping the community heal by seeking justice and accountability for the mess left behind,” he said last week.

Harj Narulla, from London’s Doughty Street Chambers, which is acting for the claimants, said the island’s landowners lived daily with the impacts of the oil spill.

“This case is one of the worst environmental disasters in Pacific history. The customary landowners and Solomon Islands government are owed millions of dollars in compensation for the catastrophic harm they have suffered from the Rennell Island oil spill.

“By filing [this] landmark case we will ensure that justice delayed is not justice denied.”

The companies allegedly responsible for the one of the worst environmental disasters in Solomon Islands’ history are being sued over the catastrophic oil spill that caused harm to an ecologically sensitive island.

The claim over the 2019 Rennell Island disaster was filed in the Solomons high court last week, just days before the statute of limitations expired.

In February 2019, MV Solomon Trader ran aground on a coral reef in the east of Rennell Island, spilling more than 300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, damaging the reef, a nearby lagoon, and contaminating water supplies.

The ship had been loading bauxite from a nearby mine when a cyclone pushed it aground on the reef, in Kangava Bay.

“Our way of life changed on the day that ship wrecked on our reef,” Tony Kagovai, local chief of Lughu Ward in Kangava Bay, and one of the complainants in the case, said.

“For six years we have not known whether the fish we are eating are safe to eat or whether our lands and waters are free of poison. Our community deserves justice for everything we have suffered.”

The people of Rennell Island have never received any compensation.

East Rennell is a site of environmental and historical value. It was placed on Unesco’s World Heritage List in 1998 and is one of the largest raised coral atolls in the world. The oil spill occurred just outside the world heritage area, but devastated the lives of local communities.

Following the spill, Rennell Islanders said freshwater sources on the island were left undrinkable. In nearby Avatai village, it was reported every chicken died a week after the spill and children suffered skin and eye infections.

An independent report into the disaster found spilled oil polluted water and damaged the reef up to three kilometres from the grounded vessel. The report said the site could take up to 130 years to recover.

In the aftermath, the bulk carrier’s Hong Kong owner, King Trader Ltd, and the vessel’s South Korean insurer, issued a “sincere apology” over the disaster, but stopped short of accepting liability.

The companies said that although matters of liability were yet to be determined, they “expressed deep remorse” at the “totally unacceptable” situation.

The customary landowners of Rennell Island directly affected by the spill, along with the government of Solomon Islands, are co-claimants pursuing a group of international companies for environmental and other damages.

The claim identifies five companies as liable for the damage caused by the spill: Hong Kong-based King Trader Ltd, which owned the stricken vessel; the protection and indemnity insurer Korea P&I, a state-owned South Korean company; miner Bintan Mining Corporation and its subsidiary Bintan Mining (SI) Ltd; and MS Amlin Marine MV, a Dutch provider of charterer’s liability.

Korea P&I said it had not yet been served with any legal action in relation to Rennell. MS Amlin said it could not comment on an ongoing legal matter. Other companies were either uncontactable or did not reply.

William Kadi, from Primo Afeau Legal Services, said the communities of Rennell Island had had their traditional lands and waterways “irreversibly damaged” by the disaster.

“Today we start the process of helping the community heal by seeking justice and accountability for the mess left behind,” he said last week.

Harj Narulla, from London’s Doughty Street Chambers, which is acting for the claimants, said the island’s landowners lived daily with the impacts of the oil spill.

“This case is one of the worst environmental disasters in Pacific history. The customary landowners and Solomon Islands government are owed millions of dollars in compensation for the catastrophic harm they have suffered from the Rennell Island oil spill.

“By filing [this] landmark case we will ensure that justice delayed is not justice denied.”

The Associated Press said it was barred from sending a reporter to Tuesday’s Oval Office executive order signing in an effort to “punish” the agency for its style guidance on upholding the use of the name of the Gulf of Mexico, in lieu of Donald Trump’s preferred name for the geographic landmark as the Gulf of America.

AP’s executive editor, Julie Pace, said in a statement: “As a global news organization, The Associated Press informs billions of people around the world every day with factual, nonpartisan journalism.”

“Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office. This afternoon AP’s reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing.”

Pace continued: “It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism. Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

Aaron Terr, of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire), called the move “an alarming attack on press freedom”.

“The role of our free press is to hold those in power accountable, not to act as their mouthpiece. Any government efforts to erode this fundamental freedom deserve condemnation,” Terr said.

The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) protested the decision in a statement posted on social media.

“The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions,” said Eugene Daniels, WHCA president. “The move by the administration to bar a reporter from the Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable.”

The order signing in the Oval Office ultimately became a question-and-answer session with the president and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man tasked by Trump with overhauling the US government. When asked about those who have called Musk’s anti-government efforts a “hostile takeover” of the executive branch, Musk said: “The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get.”

Shortly after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order to rename both the Gulf of Mexico and Denali, the highest peak in North America. Per his order, the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America, and Denali will revert to Mount McKinley – the name it was called before Barack Obama changed it in 2015.

At the time, the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, jokingly suggested that North America, including the United States, should be renamed Mexican America as it had been in the 17th century.

A few days later, the AP rolled out their style guidance on Trump’s order, noting that the organisation “will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen”. The AP said that’s because the gulf has carried the Gulf of Mexico name for “more than 400 years” and that other countries and international bodies do not have to recognize the name change.

That’s not the case for Mount McKinley, whose name Trump changed from its former name of Denali. Because the area of the Alaskan mountain “lies solely in the United States” and Trump has full authority to change the name, the AP said, it will use the name Mount McKinley.

The AP’s style is not only used by the agency, but by thousands of journalists and writers globally.

Most news organizations, including Reuters, call it the Gulf of Mexico although, where relevant, Reuters style is to include the context about Trump’s executive order.

The AP’s move was a stark departure from other major organisations, including Google, which has since confirmed and renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the US.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the statements by the WHCA and the AP. Mexico’s foreign ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The FBI on Tuesday said it had discovered 2,400 new records related to the assassination of former president John F Kennedy as federal agencies work to comply with Donald Trump’s executive order last month to release thousands of files.

The FBI said it’s working to transfer the records to the National Archives and Records Administration to be included in the declassification process.

The federal government in the early 1990s mandated that all documents related to the 22 November 1963 assassination be housed in a single collection at the National Archives. And while the vast majority of the collection – over 5m records – has been made public, researchers estimate that 3,000 files haven’t been released, either in whole or in part.

The FBI did not say in its statement what kind of information the newly discovered files contain. The FBI in 2020 opened a central records complex and began a years long effort to ship, electronically inventory and store closed case files from field offices across the country. The agency said a more comprehensive records inventory along with technological advances allowed it to quickly search and locate records.

Jefferson Morley, vice-president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository for files related to the assassination, called the FBI’s disclosure of the files “refreshingly candid”.

“It shows that the FBI is serious about being transparent,” said Morley, who is also editor of the JFK Facts blog.

Morley said it sets a precedent for other agencies to come forward with documents that haven’t yet been turned over to the National Archives.

Trump’s order last month directed the national intelligence director and attorney general to develop a plan to release classified records related to Kennedy’s assassination. A spokesperson for the office of the director of national intelligence said that as required by the order, a release plan has been submitted, but offered no details about the plan or a timeline for when records may be made available to the public.

The collection was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president. In his first term, Trump said he would allow the release of all of the remaining records but ended up holding some back due to potential harm to national security. And while files continued to be released under former president Joe Biden, some remain unseen.

The assassination fueled conspiracy theories for decades. Kennedy was fatally shot in downtown Dallas as his motorcade passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository building, where 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days after Kennedy was killed, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.

The Warren commission, established by then president Lyndon B Johnson to investigate the assassination, found that Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that conclusion never quelled a web of alternative theories over the decades.

Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK which concludes that Oswald acted alone, said it’s possible that the newly discovered files are repeats of documents that are already in the National Archives’ collection or they could be documents the review board for the collection had previously said it didn’t want.

“If they are really new assassination documents, then it raises a whole bunch of questions about how they were missed for all of these years,” Posner said.

He said the “wow” would be if they are related to Oswald or the investigation.

The documents released over the past several years from the collection have offered details on the way intelligence services operated at the time, and include CIA cables and memos discussing visits by Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.

Morley said the CIA’s surveillance of Oswald has been the “emerging story over the last five to 10 years”. He said there could be information on that in the new files.

Google’s online and mobile calendars are no longer including references to Black History Month, Women’s History Month and LGBTQ+ holidays, among other events.

The world’s biggest search engine previously marked the beginning of Black History Month in February and Pride Month in June, but the events do not appear for 2025.

The removal of the holidays was first reported by the Verge last week.

A Google spokesperson, Madison Cushman Veld, provided the Guardian with a statement that said the listed holidays were not “sustainable” for their model.

“Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world. We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing – and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” the statement said.

“So in mid-2024 we returned to showing only public holidays and national observances from timeanddate.com globally, while allowing users to manually add other important moments.”

The decision to no longer acknowledge Black, LGBTQ+ and women’s holidays is another move on the growing list of changes that Google has made following the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency.

The tech behemoth recently announced that it would be rolling back its previous commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in its employment policies following the US president’s orders to curb DEI in federal agencies in one of his first moves as president.

Google also revealed in late January that users in the US would see the name of the Gulf of Mexico changed to the “Gulf of America” and that the company would start using the name “Mount McKinley” for the mountain in Alaska currently called Denali after executive orders from Trump signed during his first day in office. The company enacted the Gulf name change for US users on Monday.

Many users on social media have expressed disappointment and frustration with Google’s latest decision. Following the changes, users who wish to track events such as Pride Month, Black History Month and Indigenous Peoples’ Month must now manually add them to their calendars.

Google clarified via email to the Guardian that these changes to Calendar will not have an impact on future Google Doodles, which usually celebrate these events with digital artwork on the website’s homepage. The company stated: “Google continues to actively celebrate and promote cultural moments as a company in our products,” such as YouTube Music still offering a Black History Month playlist.

Beavers have saved Czech taxpayers $1.2m (£1m) by flooding a protected former army training site where a long-stalled dam was planned.

Officials had hoped to build a barrier to shield the Klabava River and its population of critically endangered crayfish from sediment and acidic water spilling over from two nearby ponds. As a bonus it would turn a part of this protected area south of the capital, Prague, into a nature-rich wetland.

First drafted in 2018, the project had a building permit but was delayed by negotiations over the land, long used by the military as training grounds. Yet before the excavators got the green light to begin digging, the herbivorous rodents set to work building a dam of their own.

Bohumil Fišer from the Czech Nature Conservation Agency told AFP: “They built a wetland with pools and canals. The area is roughly twice larger than planned.”

The beaver family then moved on to a gulley encircling the ponds, in which the conservationists wanted to build little dams to allow overspill that would help flood the area.

Among nature’s great engineers, beavers have long been championed by environmentalists for their ability to protect against flooding, improve water quality and boost wildlife.

So far the beavers have built at least four dams in the gulley and are working on more.

Fišer, who manages the area, said: “We were only discussing [building the dams in the gulleys] with the water company and the forest company which owns the land.”

He said the estimated savings to the Czech purse reached 30m Czech koruna (£1m).

Fišer said: “It’s full service: beavers are absolutely fantastic and when they are in an area where they can’t cause damage, they do a brilliant job.”

Despite the good beavers do to the land around them, the rodents have their critics, with farmers and others complaining of the destruction they cause by felling trees. But any farmers whose land could be at risk are located far from the site, which was declared a protected area in 2016.

Fišer said: “We don’t expect any conflict with the beaver in the next 10 years.”