The sudden transatlantic chasm over Ukraine will be laid bare on Monday when US officials start preliminary talks in Riyadh with Russian counterparts about a ceasefire, just as Emmanuel Macron hosts a Paris summit of European defence powers to demand the US ends the lockout of Europe and Kyiv from the process.

The US and Russia talks precede a planned meeting this week between the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the first such meeting between the two countries in over two years. There are fears in Europe that Russia via the US talks will relaunch its plan for imposed Ukrainian neutrality and a joint US-Russia carve-up with agreed spheres of influence.

The Paris meeting will aim to outline a European action plan after days of chaotic briefing by the Trump administration. The summit will also need to decide how to respond to a request by the US to spell out whether leaders are prepared to commit troops to a stabilisation force in the event of a ceasefire.

Keir Starmer will attend, as well as Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk. France is determined that the UK is closely involved in all future discussions on Ukraine.

Downing Street said it believed Starmer could play a central role in securing Ukraine’s future by conveying Europe’s warnings against a potential US-Russian carve-up of the country directly to Trump when the prime minister visits Washington DC next week. He will then report back to other European leaders. “It’s not a role we necessarily looked for, but it’s one the PM wants to step into,” a source said.

On Sunday night, Starmer told the Telegraph he was prepared to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine to safeguard peace.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in an interview from the Munich Security Conference, said he was doubtful that Vladimir Putin was prepared to make concessions and repeated his claim that Russia was planning an attack on Nato countries next year. Ukraine and many of its closest European allies believe Putin wants a recasting of the postwar order as his precondition for a ceasefire.

Confirming the Paris meeting, France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told France Inter radio on Sunday: “The president will bring together the main European countries tomorrow for discussions on European security.” He said there was a wind of unity blowing through.

European diplomatic sources said the Monday afternoon summit would also include Italy and Denmark – representing the Baltic and Scandinavian countries – as well as the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

It will discuss what defence capabilities Europe could provide to give Ukraine credible security guarantees, including a plan for Ukraine to be given automatic Nato membership in the event of a clear ceasefire breach by Russia. The US has said there must be devastating consequences for any side that breaches a ceasefire agreement, an element missing from previous Ukraine ceasefires since 2014.

“Only the Ukrainians can decide to stop fighting,” Barrot said. The Ukrainians “will never stop as long as they are not sure the peace suggested to them will be long-lasting”.

An offer of Nato membership conditional on a Russian ceasefire breach – probably requiring the US to remain a backstop guarantor for Ukraine – has been promoted by some US senators and now has the backing of senior European leaders, including Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president. He insisted the door should not be open for a Russian fantasy about spheres of influence.

Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy on Ukraine, briefed European leaders in Munich on the US negotiating strategy, which the Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, described as unorthodox.

Neither Ukraine nor European states have been invited to the talks in Riyadh. Kellogg argued their views would be taken into account, and claimed earlier peace talks had foundered due to the large negotiating table.

It became evident over the weekend that there were contrasting approaches within the Trump administration towards future talks over Ukraine. Rubio insisted on Sunday that any peace agreement in Ukraine would have to be enduring, fair, and respect Ukrainian sovereignty. He also said Ukraine and Europe would have to be involved in any meaningful talks.

“The president expressed his desire to see an end to this conflict in a way that was enduring, and that protected Ukrainian sovereignty, and that was an enduring peace, not that we’re going to have another invasion in three or four years,” Rubio told the CBS programme Face the Nation while on a visit to Israel.

Trump last week surprised Ukraine and America’s allies by announcing he had discussed Ukraine’s future in a phone call with Putin on Wednesday. The president said nothing about Ukrainian sovereignty and even suggested that Ukrainians might “be Russian some day”.

On Sunday night, Trump told reporters he was working hard to achieve peace and that he believed he would meet Putin “very soon”.

Macron has said he is not shocked or surprised by the speed with which Trump is acting to push through a ceasefire bargain, but European officials fear Russia is seeking not only Ukraine’s neutrality through capping the size of its army and the ousting of Zelenskyy, but also a spheres of influence agreement akin to the Yalta agreement signed over the heads of many nations in 1945 by the US, Britain and the Soviet Union.

That would put some western countries within “a sphere of coercion in which nations lives in fear”, one official said.

European leaders are divided in their response to Trump’s initiatives, with some predicting the opening of a fundamental rupture between Washington and Europe, and others arguing that if Europe can fulfil the US demand to improve its security offer then the transatlantic relationship can be repaired and Europe will find a place at the table on the future of Ukraine.

Downing Street said Starmer’s meetings with European leaders and Trump in successive weeks were in part an accident of scheduling, but also reflected the government’s desire to be a bridge to the US. It said Starmer was expected to try to lower the temperature.

“Our whole approach is to not be alarmed by anything, but to try and be a calm partner for the US, and to play the role we can, which is to be a bridge,” the No 10 source said. “That’s why we can’t get distracted by things like JD Vance’s speech. Whatever your view on that, there are much bigger things to focus on.”

The EU leaders are also expected to discuss the outlines of a major boost to defence spending triggered by budget increases, and a relaxation of EU debt rules applying to defence investment.

“We will launch a large package that has never been seen in this dimension before,” said the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock. “Similar to the euro or the corona crisis, there is now a financial package for security in Europe. That will come in the near future.”

It is likely to be launched after the German elections next weekend.

The phrasing of a call to arms issued to Europe by Zelenskyy in Munich on Saturday was regarded as unhelpful because he couched it in terms of a unified European army, anathema to many voters, but Macron has long argued that a distinctive European force is required. He was also the first nearly a year ago to suggest European forces enter Ukraine on an initial training mission.

Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, said: “If the US wants us to step up in defence, it should have a national component, a Nato component, but I also believe a European EU component, EU subsidies for the defence industry to build up our capacity to produce, but also an EU force worthy of its name.”

He reiterated that having Polish troops on the ground in Ukraine was “not a consideration, because Poland’s duty to Nato is to protect the eastern flank, ie, its own territory.”

Keir Starmer has said he is prepared to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine if there is a deal to end the war with Russia – acknowledging it could put UK forces “in harm’s way” if Vladimir Putin launches another attack.

It is understood to be the first time the prime minister has explicitly stated he is considering deploying British peacekeepers to Ukraine. The comments came just before emergency talks with European leaders in Paris on Monday.

The leaders will aim to devise a strategy in response to Donald Trump’s push for a deal with the Russian president and to fears the US will reduce its defence commitments inEurope.

Starmer said the crisis was a “once in a generation moment” and an “existential” question for Europe.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said the UK was “ready to play a leading role” in Ukraine’s defence and security, including the commitment of £3bn a year until 2030. Starmer said that along with military aid, “it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary”.

“I do not say that lightly. I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way,” Starmer said.

“But any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country.

“The end of this war, when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again.”

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, UK prime ministers have refused to publicly consider sending British soldiers.

Military chiefs believe the UK cannot meet its existing military commitments – even before any involvement in any Ukraine peacekeeping force – within the existing defence budget of £64bn which amounts to 2.33% of GDP. But insiders have said Britain is willing to provide troops to a multinational peacekeeping force if that is what emerges from diplomatic efforts.

Labour has promised to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP but has not set a date as to when, while Trump is calling for all European countries to increase it to 5%. Reports suggest British military chiefs are pushing for an increase over time to 2.65%

Starmer had previously suggested that British troops could be involved in safeguarding Ukraine after a ceasefire. The UK’s prime minister, who is due to visit Trump in Washington later this month, said: “While European nations must step up in this moment – and we will – US support will remain critical and a US security guarantee is essential for a lasting peace, because only the US can deter Putin from attacking again.”

Representatives of the US administration and Russian counterparts are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia for talks following Trump’s phone conversation with Putin last Wednesday.

But Ukrainian officials are not expected to be at the table at this stage and other European leaders might not be involved in the process at all.

Starmer added: “We must be clear that peace cannot come at any cost. Ukraine must be at the table in these negotiations because anything less would accept Putin’s position that Ukraine is not a real nation.”

He also warned of a repeat of the chaos after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 under Joe Biden, which followed a deal struck with the Taliban under Trump.

“We cannot have another situation like Afghanistan, where the US negotiated directly with the Taliban and cut out the Afghan government,” Starmer said.

“I feel sure that President Trump will want to avoid this too.”

Any stepped-up UK military involvement would add to cost pressures, and the heads of the armed forces met Starmer individually on Friday to discuss the state of the military at a time when the army is struggling for numbers and is at its smallest size in over 200 years.

A defence source said the chiefs were not seeking to lobby the PM explicitly over defence spending but rather to “build up the PM’s knowledge of the armed forces” as a defence review led by the former Nato chief George Robertson heads towards its conclusion.

The service heads believe that despite Treasury concerns over additional spending, it is impossible for the UK to maintain existing political commitments to Nato, the Aukus nuclear submarine programme and next-generation fighter jets within existing budgets.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to rebuff Donald Trump’s first attempt at cornering Ukraine’s critical mineral deposits to pay back the US billions spent fighting Russia. The Ukrainian president said that a draft deal – presented in Kyiv last week by the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent – did not yet contain the security provisions Kyiv needed. In a Meet the Press interview, Zelenskyy explained his terms: “Help us defend this, and we will make money on this together. And here it’s very important that in this document shall be a term to protect it. And that is the security guarantees. If we are not given the security guarantees from the United States, I believe that the economic treaty will not work. It must all be fair.”

• The minerals in Ukraine include so-called rare earth varieties as well as titanium, uranium, lithium and others. Three sources told the Reuters news agency that the US had proposed taking ownership of 50% of Ukraine’s critical minerals. Zelenskyy also pointed out that there are deposits in areas belonging to Ukraine but captured by Russia. “The second part that is not discussed yet but it must be, that is what Putin captured … It seems to me important to understand what we will do with those rare earths that now cost billions, hundreds of billions, that Putin occupied. Is it to give to him? … This is what I want to discuss.”

• On Monday, US officials led by Marco Rubio are due to start preliminary talks in Saudi Arabia with Russian counterparts over a ceasefire. Partly in answer to that, Emmanuel Macron will host a Paris summit of European defence powers to address the US lockout of Europe and Kyiv from the process. This week the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and Rubio, the US secretary of state, are due to hold the first meeting at their level between the US and Russia in over two years. The French president’s Paris meeting will aim to outline a European action plan after days of chaotic briefing by the Trump administration, write Patrick Wintour, Jon Henley, Julian Borger and Peter Walker.

• Zelenskyy has also headed to the Middle East. On Sunday, he arrived in the United Arab Emirates to discuss Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchanges. A Ukrainian delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia, reportedly to prepare for a possible visit by Zelenskyy. However, there was no confirmation that he would attend the US-Russia talks in Riyadh, with the Saudi Arabia visit said to be about other matters such as investment.

• Rubio on Sunday tried to ease US-Europe tensions, telling CBS the continent would be part of any “real negotiations” to end Moscow’s war and signalling that US talks with Russia were a chance to see how serious Vladimir Putin is about peace. “Ultimately … Ukraine will have to be involved because they’re the ones that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well,” Rubio said. “We’re just not there yet.”

• The frenzied political developments came as Ukrainian forces recaptured the village of Pischane, south-west of the city of Pokrovsk on the frontline in the country’s east, amid signs Russia’s advance may be slowing down. Russian units had made rapid gains in the area in December and January, but since early this month, their progress has stalled, Luke Harding writes from Kyiv. Russian bloggers say Ukrainian drones dominate the skies and have been methodically destroying armoured vehicles. Russian troops have to walk 10km on foot, with many not arriving alive, they say.

• Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel an overnight Russian drone attack on Kyiv, officials said early on Monday. “Please, stay safe,” said the military administration chief, Timur Tkachenko.

• Two drones violated Moldovan airspace late on Sunday near the border with Ukraine, the government said, three days after the Russian ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry in connection with an earlier incident.

• Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its air defence units had destroyed six Ukrainian drones within an hour over the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine and three more in Russia’s southern region of Krasnodar.

Ukrainian forces have recaptured a village on the frontline in the country’s east, amid signs Russia’s advance may be slowing down and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his call for the fighting to end “with a just and lasting peace”.

On Sunday, Ukrainian forces took back the village of Pischane, south-west of the city of Pokrovsk, military officials said. Russian units had made rapid gains in the area in December and January, seizing a string of settlements and threatening to cut off Pokrovsk.

Since early this month, the Russians’ progress has stalled. Russian bloggers say Ukrainian drones dominate the skies and have been methodically destroying armoured vehicles. Russian troops have to walk 10km on foot, with many not arriving alive, they say.

The high rate of Russian casualties has had a demoralising effect on forward combat units. Snowy conditions and a lack of tree cover has made it easier for Ukrainian defenders to pick off infantry soldiers before they reached the contact line, they add.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy confirmed that the situation in the Pokrovsk direction had recently improved. The village’s recapture bolsters Kyiv’s argument that Moscow’s victory is not inevitable and that with sufficient western support it can claw back territory. Ukrainian platoons have also counterattacked around the neighbouring village of Kotlyne.

Russian advances have been made at a vast human cost. According to Maj Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s ground forces in the east, 7,000 Russian soldiers died in January in the battle for Pokrovsk, and 15,000 are wounded or missing.

Zelenskyy said in Munich that the Kremlin was ready to expand its war in Ukraine and to attack Nato. In an interview with the broadcaster NBC, he said Vladimir Putin would take advantage of a weakened alliance should the US pull its military out of Europe.

“We believe that Putin will wage war against Nato,” Zelenskyy predicted. He said the Russian president should not be trusted under any circumstances, but emphasised that Donald Trump still had leverage to push him into negotiations.

Zelenskyy suggested Putin did not want a genuine peace deal and instead required war “to keep his grip on power”. He said over the previous week Russia had hit Ukraine with nearly 1,220 aerial bombs and more than 850 attack drones, as well as 40 other missiles.

“Ukraine is defending … but we need more air defence systems to protect Ukrainians’ lives. Europe and the world must be better protected from such evil and prepared to confront it,” he wrote on social media on Sunday.

He added: “This requires a strong, united foreign policy and pressure on Putin, who started this war and is now expanding it globally. Together with Europe, the US and all our partners, we can end this war with a just and lasting peace.”

Officials in Kyiv, meanwhile, confirmed Zelenskyy’s statement during the weekend that Ukraine had been kept in the dark over negotiations about a summit between Putin and Trump. “I saw that someone said that there would be a meeting in Saudi Arabia. I do not know what it is,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

Russia and the US are due to send high-level delegations for talks this week in Saudi Arabia. European countries will meet on Monday in Paris to discuss Trump’s apparent plan to carve up Ukraine, with Russia keeping its battlefield gains, in an emergency summit hosted by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Zelenskyy’s office, said Ukraine would not take part in the US-Russia meeting in Riyadh. “There is nothing on the negotiating table that would be worth discussing,” he told Ukrainian TV, stressing: “Russia is not ready for negotiations.”

On Sunday, Zelenskyy arrived in the United Arab Emirates, saying his top priority was to ensure “that still more of our people are able to return home from captivity”. He also said investment would be discussed.

The UAE has played a key role in overseeing the return home of Ukrainians deported to Russia during the nearly three-year-old war, many of them children.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, continued its winter bombing campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Late on Saturday several Shahed drones smashed into a thermal power plant in the southern city of Mykolaiv. The attack followed a Russian strike on the Chornobyl nuclear power station’s concrete shelter.

According to Mykolaiv’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych, the plant was badly damaged. “This was done deliberately to leave people without heat at sub-zero temperatures and create a humanitarian catastrophe,” he wrote on Telegram. More than 100,000 people are without heating.

An alternative to Donald Trump’s plan to turn the Gaza Strip into a US-owned “Riviera of the Middle East” is being prepared by Egypt in conjunction with the World Bank, under which Hamas would be formally excluded from governance and control of the territory’s reconstruction.

The process would be handed over on an interim basis to the control of a social or community support committee. No member of Hamas would sit on the committee. But the future military status of Hamas within Gaza is unresolved, which is likely to be a barrier to Israeli endorsement of the plan.

Arab states – principally the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – are preparing to make financial offers to fund reconstruction, but on the basis that Palestinians are given the right to remain in Gaza and are not forced to seek temporary or permanent refuge in Egypt or Jordan. Reconstruction would take three to five years, with 65% of the property in Gaza having been destroyed.

European sources admit the issue of providing security guarantees to Israel for Gaza remains unresolved since no Arab country is willing to offer troops in the absence of Israel offering a clear political horizon to a Palestinian state.

An Arab summit is due to be held in Riyadh on 27 February at which an alternative to the Trump plan for Gaza is due to be discussed and parts of it revealed.

So far Saudi Arabia has not explicitly called for Hamas to be excluded from the reconstruction process or governance of Gaza, but Anwar Gargash, a UAE senior diplomatic adviser, praised a recent call from Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary general of the Arab League, for Hamas to step down from the administration of Gaza as “appropriate and rational”.

Aboul Gheit said: “The interests of the Palestinian people must come before the interests of the movement [Hamas], especially in light of the calls to displace Palestinians from Gaza, and the resulting war that destroyed the Gaza Strip and tore apart its human and social fabric as a result of its decisions.”

He also told the World Governments Summit last week that Trump’s proposal to move the roughly 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza would push the region into a cycle of crises with a damaging effect on peace and stability. “It’s unacceptable for the Arab world, which has fought this idea for 100 years,” he said.

It is expected that the committee proposed in the Arab plan would include independent technocrats and representatives of civil society and unions, to ensure that no single faction dominates.

Even moderate Arab diplomats say the Trump plan is neither practical nor morally right, but one said: “We have to engage with it and if possible divert people away from it.” A second Arab source said: “A lot of it sounds far-fetched, such as converting Hamas tunnels into a metro network. The idea came out of the blue.”

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs the West Bank, has not endorsed the committee plan, fearing it could presage a permanent division between the West Bank and Gaza through two separate administrative systems.

Jibril Rajoub, of Fatah, which dominates the PA, said the group refused to discuss the idea of the committee, describing it as “a prelude to consecrating division”, and he stressed adherence to what he called “the unity of the government and the regime”.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has not ruled out an alternative to the Trump plan but said: “Any plan that leaves Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be a problem, because Israel will not tolerate that,” and thus would be a return to square one.

Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government is working closely with the US to implement Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, which involves US ownership of the coastal strip, the removal of more than 2 million Palestinians and the redevelopment of the occupied territory as a resort.

The Israeli prime minister was speaking after a meeting in Jerusalem with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who defended the Trump plan as bold and visionary. Rubio and Netanyahu blamed Iran for the violence in the Middle East and insisted Tehran would be stopped from developing nuclear weapons.

Trump’s shock proposal earlier this month for a “Riviera of the Middle East” has been condemned around the world as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing, but Rubio and Netanyahu insisted it would proceed.

“We discussed Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality,” Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting, which overran by an hour. “We have a common strategy, and we can’t always share the details of this strategy with the public”.

He did say, however, that it included opening “the gates of hell” on Gaza, a phrased used by Trump, if all the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups were not released.

Rubio promoted the Trump plan as a breakthrough. “It may have shocked and surprised many,” he said. “But what cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place.”

Neither Rubio nor Netanyahu answered questions at their press event in Jerusalem. Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Saturday night that he hoped the mass transfer of Palestinians from Gaza endorsed by Trump could begin soon. He said he expected Palestinians would be forced to leave by a resumption of bombing.

“It’s a process I hope will begin in the coming weeks,” he told Israel’s Channel 12. “Even if it’s slow at first, it will gradually pick up pace and intensify. There won’t be anything for the Gazans in Gaza for the next 10 to 15 years. After we go back to fighting, and all of Gaza looks like Jabaliya, there definitely will be nothing for them there.”

Smotrich was referring to Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, which was flattened by blanket bombing during 15 months of conflict.

He said that ultimately the vast majority of Palestinians would want to leave, and that the challenges for Israel would be finding countries willing and able to take 2 million Palestinians, coupled with “the huge logistical operation to get such vast numbers of people out of here”.

The planned removal of Palestinians from Gaza is a potential crime against humanity. The international court of justice is already examining allegations of genocide against Israel, and the international criminal court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Netanyahu denounced both courts for what he called “lawfare”, thanked the Trump administration for placing sanctions on the ICC, and suggested more joint action against international judicial institutions was being planned.

“The secretary and I discussed working together to formulate a common strategy to deal with the threat of lawfare and neutralise this threat once and for all,” he said.

Neither Netanyahu nor Rubio addressed the terms of the Gaza ceasefire, other than to demand the return of all hostages. The Israeli prime minister depends on Smotrich’s party for his governing coalition to survive, and the latter restated his opposition to the current deal and his desire to see it collapse.

“The current deal is bad but I very much hope it is temporary,” Smotrich said in his Saturday night interview.

The Israeli government is reportedly seeking to change the terms of the agreement with Washington’s backing. It is calling for the six surviving hostages who remain in Gaza scheduled to be released in the first phase of the agreement to be freed all at once next Saturday, rather than in two groups of three over the final two weeks of the first phase, which ends on 1 March.

Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday he had told US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, that Israel’s security cabinet would convene on Monday to discuss the second phase. The agreement had envisaged the talks would start in the first week of February, but he had so far prevented negotiators from discussing the issue.

Israeli political analysts say he fears that the implementation of the second phase could trigger the collapse of his coalition, leading to new elections and increasing his legal jeopardy in his trial on corruption charges.

In an embodiment of the Trump administration’s unconditional support for Israel, a shipment of US-made heavy bombs arrived in the port of Ashdod on Saturday night.

The Biden administration had suspended delivery of the 2,000lb (907kg) MK-84 bombs on the grounds that they were too indiscriminate and could cause too many civilian casualties in a densely populated area such as Gaza. Trump immediately lifted the ban when he assumed office.

The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement on Sunday morning: “The munitions shipment that arrived in Israel tonight, released by the Trump administration, represents a significant asset for the air force and the IDF, and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States.”

At Sunday’s press statement in Jerusalem, Netanyahu and Rubio began their presentations on Iran, which they said was primarily responsible for all the instability and violence in the region. Netanyahu said they agreed that Tehran could never have nuclear weapons and that “Iran’s aggression in the region has to be rolled back”.

“There can never be a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Iran that could then hold itself immune from pressure and from action. That can never happen,” Rubio said. “Behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilising activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people who call this region home, is Iran.”

During Trump’s first administration, Netanyahu failed to convince him to participate in joint strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme, but the heightened rhetoric of the new administration has raised questions about whether the Israeli prime minister might succeed this time.

Conclave, Edward Berger’s Vatican-set thriller starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal overseeing the election of a new pope, went into this year’s Bafta ceremony with a dozen nominations – the most of any contender. It ended up with four awards: for best picture, outstanding British film, adapted screenplay and editing.

Accepting the second of those, Berger – who swept the board at the awards two years ago with his remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, which won seven prizes – said: “We live in a time of a crisis of democracy. Institutions used to bringing us together are used to pull us apart. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith, and that’s why we make movies.”

Berger, whose film depicts a battle between liberals and traditionalists that threatens to destroy the Catholic church from within, ended his speech by quoting Leonard Cohen: “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

The Brutalist, Brady Corbet’s epic drama about a Hungarian modernist architect working in post-war America, went home with best director, leading actor, cinematography and score.

In his speech, star Adrien Brody, who recently appeared on the West End stage in The Fear of 13, thanked the British public for “embracing me and my creative endeavours”, saying “England has felt quite a lot like home lately”.

He then went on to thank his partner, designer Georgina Chapman (who is also the ex-wife of Harvey Weinstein), calling her an “angel” and adding: “If it wasn’t for you and for my wonderful parents I wouldn’t be here.”

Brody fought off competition from Timothée Chalamet, the star of Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown – which went home empty-handed – and from seven-time Bafta nominee (and one-time winner) Fiennes.

But there was a surprise in the best actress category, as Anora’s Mikey Madison – who was also beaten by David Jonsson to the rising star award on Sunday – took the prize over frontrunner Demi Moore for The Substance and much-loved Hard Truths star Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

In Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner, which also won best casting, Madison plays an exotic dancer who begins a romance with the son of a Russian oligarch. On the podium she gave a shout-out to the “sex worker community”, saying: “I see you, you deserve respect and human decency. I will always be a friend and an ally and I implore others to do the same.”

Meanwhile, Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard’s musical about a Mexican cartel leader who transitions while escaping the mob, took two awards (from 11 nominations) despite the ongoing fallout from offensive unearthed social media posts from its star, Karla Sofía Gascón.

Gascón has taken a vow of media silence since tweets surfaced three weeks ago in which she aired Islamophobic and racist views. She apologised repeatedly, including on a tearful hour-long interview on Spanish TV, but was shunned by many of her colleagues on the film, including her director, who 10 days ago said: “I haven’t spoken to her, and I don’t want to.”

Yet Audiard, whose film is up for a record-breaking 13 awards at the Oscars, appeared on Sunday to extend an olive branch to Gascón in his acceptance speech for best film not in the English language, dedicating it to the “wonderful artists” from the film who were present in the room, before adding “also you, my dear Karla Sofía, who I kiss”.

Accepting the supporting actress award for the film, Zoe Saldaña echoed Audiard, crediting Gascón in her speech, before going on to tearfully thank her mother “for being such a selfless person” and her husband: “you are God’s favourite and I hate it – you are so beautiful.”

Saldaña has won all the supporting actress awards so far handed out this season and is now considered a lock for the Oscars in a fortnight. Likewise A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin solidified his status as the inevitable winner of the supporting actor Oscar with a Bafta win for his performance as Jesse Eisenberg’s erratic cousin on a tour of Jewish history in Poland in A Real Pain.

Eisenberg picked up the prize on Culkin’s absence – it was, he said, the fifth such award he’d collected for his co-star, “which just confirms my theory that we have a similar life but his is about 27% better than mine”.

The Succession star wasn’t present, Eisenberg said, because he wanted to be with a family member who is “quite sick” – an impulse to be with his family no matter what that, continued Eisenberg, had meant Culkin tried to drop out of A Real Pain two weeks before the shoot.

“It’s real and it’s beautiful and it’s admirable,” he said. “Kieran is one of these lovely people who’s brilliantly talented but by some random luck of the cosmos has his priorities in order.”

Eisenberg also wrote and directed the film, and appeared to be the person in the room most surprised by his victory in the original screenplay category, saying he didn’t expect to win, nor – apparently – did the person who assigned him his seat in the auditorium.

He dedicated the award to his wife, “who didn’t come because she didn’t think I’d win”. Describing himself as an “idiot”, he said his wife, who he met in 2001, had, “dragged me around the world reluctantly” and used “strict Marxist Leninist principles” to teach him that his “grief is unexceptional” compared to the rest of the world.

“Anna, you put every worthwhile thought into my head over the last 20 years and I love you so much.”

Another double winner was Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, which beat the likes of Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot to the animation award, as well as proving a popular winner of the inaugural family film award.

Rich Peppiatt converted just one of his six nominations for uproarious semi-fictionalised rap biopic Kneecap into an award, for outstanding debut by a British director. In his speech, Peppiatt said he had met his wife 15 years ago to the day; they moved to Ireland a decade ago and he met the hip-hop trio who became the subject of the film within a week.

Kneecap, who hail from west Belfast and whose lyrics mix Irish and English and contain republican rhetoric are, he said “a movement. It’s about how everyone should have their language respected, their culture respected and have their homeland respected. This award is dedicated to everyone out there who’s fighting that fight.”

Meanwhile, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story , about the late actor’s career before and after his devastating accident and the impact of it on his children, took best documentary. The film is not nominated for an Oscar, where the frontrunner is No Other Land, about the destruction of Masafer Yatta, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective.

The evening’s most emotional speech was delivered by Warwick Davis, veteran of the Star Wars and Harry Potter films, who received the Bafta fellowship and said it was “probably the best thing that’s happened to me”. He thanked his mother and then paid tribute to his late wife, Sammy, who died almost a year before in what the actor has described as “medical negligence”.

His voice cracking, Davis thanked cinema for giving him hope, and “helping me to laugh and to love again”.

The ceremony was hosted by returning emcee David Tennant, who landed a few gentle blows on President Donald Trump – some of which were cut by the BBC in their broadcast – and who opened proceedings with a rousing version of I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), accompanied by Hollywood stars in assorted states of familiarity with The Proclaimers

The Baftas are the final significant film awards ceremony before the Academy Awards in two weeks and many regard them as a last-gasp audition for the Oscars. There is considerable overlap between the 8,000-odd voting members of the British Academy and their 10,000 US counterparts – many of whom wait to complete their ballots, which are due on Tuesday, until they’ve seen how the Baftas unfold.

However, although last year’s choices were in almost total lockstep, with Oppenheimer dominating proceedings, the Baftas have become a less reliable Oscars bellwether since they introduced a raft of radical backstage measures in the wake of the #BaftasSoWhite controversy five years ago, when all of the 20 acting nominees were white.

Quotas at longlist stage, strict inclusivity criteria for contention in certain categories and a compulsory menu of randomised viewing for each voter has led to a striking diversity among their choices.

A New Zealand tourism campaign targeting Australian visitors has been ridiculed for sounding like a clearance sale slogan and for being tone-deaf amid widespread public service job cuts and record numbers of New Zealanders moving overseas.

The government launched its “Everyone must go!” campaign on Sunday, in a bid to encourage Australian holiday-makers to visit New Zealand. The NZD$500,000 campaign will run on radios and social media in Australia between February and March.

“What this Tourism New Zealand campaign says to our Aussie mates is that we’re open for business, there are some great deals on, and we’d love to see you soon,” said Louise Upston, the tourism minister.

But the tagline – set against photographs of people sightseeing – quickly became the subject of derision inside New Zealand, with opposition politicians and social media users likening it to a clearance sale advertisement, a marketing campaign for the apocalypse, or a desperate plea for access to the lavatory.

The Green Party’s tourism spokesperson, Celia Wade-Brown, told national broadcaster RNZ the tagline “might refer to the need for toilets in some of our high-tourist spots. I mean, the queues are ridiculous”.

Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for the minister told the Guardian that Upston was “very pleased” with the campaign and said it had attracted positive feedback from tourism operators and a marketing expert.

The tourism campaign is the latest in the government’s attempt to attract tourists, digital nomads and overseas investors to New Zealand to boost the economy. Prior to the pandemic, tourism was New Zealand’s largest export industry and delivered $40.9bn to the country. The most recent figures show those numbers are creeping back up, with tourism bringing in $37.7bn in 2023.

Australia is New Zealand’s largest tourism market, making up roughly 44% of international visitors a year. Visitor numbers are sitting at roughly 88% of pre-pandemic rates.

“The number of Australian arrivals in New Zealand increased by more than 90,000, up from 1.27 million to 1.36 million over the past year, but we know there’s more room to grow,” Upston said in a release.

New Zealand’s overseas tourism campaigns have a long history of attracting both praise and criticism. The award-winning 100% Pure New Zealand promotion – now one of the world’s longest-running tourism campaigns – is lauded for its catchiness but often scrutinised against New Zealand’s inconsistent environmental credentials.

Labour’s tourism spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel told RNZ while she broadly supported growing tourism, the latest tourism tagline was tone-deaf at a time when the coalition government is disestablishing thousands of roles across the public sector in a major cost-cutting drive.

“The irony of that messaging is: that’s how Aotearoa New Zealanders are feeling right now – there have been so many cuts,” Tangaere-Manuel said.

Some critics said the tagline was tactless for sounding like a directive to New Zealanders to leave the country amid record high departure rates.

“If I was in a [government] seeing record emigration I simply would not pick “everyone must go” as a slogan,” said one social media user.

Others took the opportunity to turn the campaign back on the government.

“The upside of the gormless “everyone must go” slogan is that by rights it should be easy to invert for election posters and protest signs …. Done. Dusted. And their own fault,” wrote a BlueSky user.

A New Zealand tourism campaign targeting Australian visitors has been ridiculed for sounding like a clearance sale slogan and for being tone-deaf amid widespread public service job cuts and record numbers of New Zealanders moving overseas.

The government launched its “Everyone must go!” campaign on Sunday, in a bid to encourage Australian holiday-makers to visit New Zealand. The NZD$500,000 campaign will run on radios and social media in Australia between February and March.

“What this Tourism New Zealand campaign says to our Aussie mates is that we’re open for business, there are some great deals on, and we’d love to see you soon,” said Louise Upston, the tourism minister.

But the tagline – set against photographs of people sightseeing – quickly became the subject of derision inside New Zealand, with opposition politicians and social media users likening it to a clearance sale advertisement, a marketing campaign for the apocalypse, or a desperate plea for access to the lavatory.

The Green Party’s tourism spokesperson, Celia Wade-Brown, told national broadcaster RNZ the tagline “might refer to the need for toilets in some of our high-tourist spots. I mean, the queues are ridiculous”.

Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for the minister told the Guardian that Upston was “very pleased” with the campaign and said it had attracted positive feedback from tourism operators and a marketing expert.

The tourism campaign is the latest in the government’s attempt to attract tourists, digital nomads and overseas investors to New Zealand to boost the economy. Prior to the pandemic, tourism was New Zealand’s largest export industry and delivered $40.9bn to the country. The most recent figures show those numbers are creeping back up, with tourism bringing in $37.7bn in 2023.

Australia is New Zealand’s largest tourism market, making up roughly 44% of international visitors a year. Visitor numbers are sitting at roughly 88% of pre-pandemic rates.

“The number of Australian arrivals in New Zealand increased by more than 90,000, up from 1.27 million to 1.36 million over the past year, but we know there’s more room to grow,” Upston said in a release.

New Zealand’s overseas tourism campaigns have a long history of attracting both praise and criticism. The award-winning 100% Pure New Zealand promotion – now one of the world’s longest-running tourism campaigns – is lauded for its catchiness but often scrutinised against New Zealand’s inconsistent environmental credentials.

Labour’s tourism spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel told RNZ while she broadly supported growing tourism, the latest tourism tagline was tone-deaf at a time when the coalition government is disestablishing thousands of roles across the public sector in a major cost-cutting drive.

“The irony of that messaging is: that’s how Aotearoa New Zealanders are feeling right now – there have been so many cuts,” Tangaere-Manuel said.

Some critics said the tagline was tactless for sounding like a directive to New Zealanders to leave the country amid record high departure rates.

“If I was in a [government] seeing record emigration I simply would not pick “everyone must go” as a slogan,” said one social media user.

Others took the opportunity to turn the campaign back on the government.

“The upside of the gormless “everyone must go” slogan is that by rights it should be easy to invert for election posters and protest signs …. Done. Dusted. And their own fault,” wrote a BlueSky user.

Critics rounded on Donald Trump on Sunday for likening himself to Napoleon in a “dictatorial” social media post echoing the French emperor’s assertion that “he who saves his country does not violate any laws”.

The post came at the end of another tumultuous week early in Trump’s second presidency, during which acolytes questioned the legitimacy of judges making a succession of rulings to stall his administration’s aggressive seizure or dismantling of federal institutions and budgets.

His defiance of some of those orders, including one ordering a restoration of funding to bodies such as the National Institutes of Health, has led to several of the president’s opponents declaring a constitutional crisis.

“He is the most lawless president in US history,” Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, wrote on Wednesday in the Guardian.

“This is bonkers. In our system of government, it’s up to the courts to determine whether the president is using his power ‘legitimately’, not the president.”

Trump laid out his position in the tweet posted on Saturday afternoon, after a round of golf at his Florida resort. The quote, as internet sleuths soon discovered, is a version of a phrase attributed to Napoleon “Celui qui sauve sa patrie ne viole aucune loi,” translated as: “who saves his country violates no law”.

Another version appeared in the 1970 movie Waterloo, starring Rod Steiger as the dictator who rode roughshod over the French constitution to declare himself emperor and pursue world domination before his comeuppance at the pivotal 1815 battle from which the film’s title is derived.

Senior Democrats led the criticism of Trump. The Virginia US senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election that Trump won, told Fox News Sunday that occupation of the White House was not a mandate to ignore the courts.

“The president has authority, but the president also has to follow the law,” he said.

“There’s this law that, you know, the Empowerment Act, that says once Congress has appropriated dollars for a particular purpose the president is not allowed to say: ‘Yeah, I don’t like that. I’m going to spend this money, but not that money.’

“That’s why, so far, there’s a whole lot of lawsuits that have been successful. They’ll go through appeals courts, but a lot of the president’s extreme executive actions that hurt folks are being challenged in court right now.”

According to the Associated Press, the administration is facing at least 70 lawsuits nationwide covering actions from the attempted elimination of birthright citizenship to the freezing of federal grants and funds – and the accessing of sensitive computer systems and data by unofficial entities.

Trump’s wrecking ball approach since his 20 January inauguration continued this week with deeper infiltration by Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) into federal institutions – and the latest firings of vast numbers of employees.

On Sunday, Bloomberg reported a wave of new dismissals at health department agencies including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other agencies where the workforce has, or will be, slashed include the homeland security department, the Food and Drug Administration, US Forest Service and National Park Service, the US Agency for International Development (USAid), and the Department of Education.

Critics believe that a hollowing out of many essential taxpayer-funded services, especially in healthcare, support for veterans, and military and defense expenditure, will come with a lucrative corresponding financial windfall for private companies, including those owned by Musk.

Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump acolyte, who has been awarded the status of “special government employee”, has called on the administration to “delete entire agencies”, which it could not legally do without the sanction of Congress that created them.

“I don’t like the fact that Donald Trump is shutting the government down as we speak,” Kaine told Fox.

“He says he wants to shut down the Department of Education, shrink USAid staff down to 250 people. That is a shutdown unauthorized by Congress, against the law.

“My outrage is about who they’re hurting. I don’t like unelected officials, those Doge guys, posting classified information on their website. You shouldn’t let people run rampage through offices that have classified information.”

More turmoil came with the administration’s decision to ban Associated Press journalists from the Oval Office and Air Force One for refusing to comply with Trump’s executive order attempting to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.

The White House sought to justify the punitive move by insisting that it was “a lawful geographic name change”. The AP pointed out that the agency served an international audience, and while it recognized Trump’s order, it would continue referring to the body of water by its globally accepted name.

In a statement, Axios said the right of news organizations to report how they saw fit was “a bedrock of a free press and durable democracy”. Nonetheless, it also said it would use the name Gulf of America because “our audience is mostly US-based compared to other publishers with international audiences”.

The Atlantic’s view was that it was a spat the AP should have avoided. “To cave now would be to surrender on the constitutional issue. But this is a fight that Trump is clearly happy to have, especially to the extent that it draws attention away from his more egregious affronts to the public interest and the rule of law,” it said.

Meanwhile, economic headwinds continue to mount for the fledgling Trump administration as it prepares to impose new tariffs on trading partners that analysts predict will lead to an international trade war and job losses. Inflation rose to 3% in January, according to government figures, despite Trump promising during election campaigning that prices “will come down, and they’ll come down fast”.

By Thursday, the message had changed. “Prices could go up somewhat short-term,” Trump said as he laid out his tariffs plan, before promising they would go down again at some point.

Shakira cancelled her concert in the Peruvian capital on Sunday after being hospitalised with abdominal pain, a setback that comes days after she launched her first worldwide tour in seven years.

The 48-year-old Colombian star posted on her social media accounts that she had gone to the emergency room on Saturday night and remained in hospital.

“The doctors whose care I am currently under have communicated that I am not in good enough condition to perform this evening,” she said.

“I am very sad to not be able to take the stage today. I’ve been looking forward to reuniting with my incredible fans here in Peru,” she added, expressing hope that she would be released from the hospital on Monday to resume the tour.

The singer-songwriter kicked off her tour in Rio de Janeiro just a few days after she received a Grammy for best Latin pop album, which she dedicated to migrants in the United States who are facing deportation under President Donald Trump.

Shakira, who is one of the most popular Latin artists of all time, is set to perform nearly 50 dates in Latin America by the end of June, followed by more in the US and Canada.

She performed at the Grammys earlier this month.

The UK’s elections system needs a fundamental overhaul including weekend voting and a cut in the number of polling stations, the group representing electoral officials has said.

Years of changes in everything from postal voting to mandatory ID, with more reforms planned, has involved “bolting 21st century voter expectations on to 19th century infrastructure”, the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) said.

In a report on how to modernise the system, called New Blueprint for a Modern Electoral Landscape, the group makes dozens of recommendations on everything from postal votes to election timetables, saying the system as it currently exists is increasingly unsustainable.

A particular issue is the difficulty in finding enough staff for the 38,000-plus polling stations used in a general election, which are open for 15 hours, especially given new complexities such as the need to check ID.

Currently, every polling district has to have its own polling station. The report suggests a smaller number of voting hubs, some located in populated areas such as shopping centres.

These could have shorter hours, but people could vote at any centre in their local council area. The report also suggests moving from holding elections on a Thursday to weekends, as happens in most other European countries. This would also mean schools used as polling stations would not need to close.

Another problem highlighted in the report is the growth of postal voting, which the AEA says is “the biggest threat to the safe and secure delivery of any election”.

Before last July’s general election, there were about 1.3m new postal vote applications, it said, which “overwhelmed many electoral registration officers and their teams” who were also trying to manage new voter registrations.

The organisation has called for the deadline to apply for a postal vote to be extended from 11 working days before the poll to 16.

On voter ID, the report suggests expanding the narrow list of eligible documents – something the government is looking at – and consider allowing digital forms of ID.

More widely, it called for a royal commission or a similar process to examine how election processes could be improved.

Peter Stanyon, the AEA’s chief executive, said: “Constant electoral change without fundamental reform has made elections harder than ever to deliver to the standard voters rightly expect.

“With votes from [age] 16 coming to England and UK polls and changes in devolved nations, we can’t continue bolting 21st century voter expectations on to 19th century infrastructure. The risk of failure increases with every change made.”

The UK’s elections system needs a fundamental overhaul including weekend voting and a cut in the number of polling stations, the group representing electoral officials has said.

Years of changes in everything from postal voting to mandatory ID, with more reforms planned, has involved “bolting 21st century voter expectations on to 19th century infrastructure”, the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) said.

In a report on how to modernise the system, called New Blueprint for a Modern Electoral Landscape, the group makes dozens of recommendations on everything from postal votes to election timetables, saying the system as it currently exists is increasingly unsustainable.

A particular issue is the difficulty in finding enough staff for the 38,000-plus polling stations used in a general election, which are open for 15 hours, especially given new complexities such as the need to check ID.

Currently, every polling district has to have its own polling station. The report suggests a smaller number of voting hubs, some located in populated areas such as shopping centres.

These could have shorter hours, but people could vote at any centre in their local council area. The report also suggests moving from holding elections on a Thursday to weekends, as happens in most other European countries. This would also mean schools used as polling stations would not need to close.

Another problem highlighted in the report is the growth of postal voting, which the AEA says is “the biggest threat to the safe and secure delivery of any election”.

Before last July’s general election, there were about 1.3m new postal vote applications, it said, which “overwhelmed many electoral registration officers and their teams” who were also trying to manage new voter registrations.

The organisation has called for the deadline to apply for a postal vote to be extended from 11 working days before the poll to 16.

On voter ID, the report suggests expanding the narrow list of eligible documents – something the government is looking at – and consider allowing digital forms of ID.

More widely, it called for a royal commission or a similar process to examine how election processes could be improved.

Peter Stanyon, the AEA’s chief executive, said: “Constant electoral change without fundamental reform has made elections harder than ever to deliver to the standard voters rightly expect.

“With votes from [age] 16 coming to England and UK polls and changes in devolved nations, we can’t continue bolting 21st century voter expectations on to 19th century infrastructure. The risk of failure increases with every change made.”

A stabbing that left a teenager dead and five others injured in southern Austria was an Islamist attack, Austria’s interior minister has said.

“It is an Islamist attack with IS connections,” Gerhard Karner told reporters on Sunday in the southern city of Villach, where Saturday’s attack took place, referring to the Islamic State group.

He said the suspect, a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker, had been radicalised online “in a short space of time”.

In the city centre attack a man targeted passersby with a folding knife, police said. The man was arrested just after the attack, which was stopped when a fellow Syrian, a food delivery driver, rammed a car into the suspected assailant.

A 14-year-old boy died and five other males were hurt, two of them seriously. Among the wounded are two 15-year-old teenagers, police said.

The suspect is an asylum seeker with a valid residence permit and no criminal record, according to police.

On Sunday, people placed candles in front of shops in the street where the attack took place in the centre of Villach, a city in Carinthia province.

Tanja Planinschek, a local person, said: “I am afraid for my children. I am afraid for those around me. I fear for the future. I fear where this will lead. I am endlessly sad.

“Not only I, but all of us have been afraid for a long time that something bigger will happen,” she said, adding that the country “should open our eyes and see who we let in, who we help, who we leave with all kinds of freedoms. If nothing is done, it will get even worse.”

The food delivery driver who rammed his car into the attacker was slightly hurt, police said.

The Krone tabloid quoted the driver, Alaaeddin Alhalabi, 42, as saying: “I saw a person lying on the ground, a man was attacking other passersby – I didn’t think twice and drove at him.

“He wanted to go towards the city centre, there were children on the street – I couldn’t let that happen,” he said, adding that he regretted he could not save the 14-year-old.

The Carinthia governor, Peter Kaiser of the Social Democrats, called for the “harshest consequences” for this “unbelievable atrocity”.

The far-right leader Herbert Kickl, whose party topped September’s national elections for the first time, said he was “appalled” by the attack and called for “a rigorous clampdown on asylum”.

Kickl’s Freedom party this week failed in talks to form a government with the runner-up and incumbent conservatives because of disagreements including over who would hold sensitive cabinet posts dealing with security.

Austria has a large Syrian refugee population of almost 100,000 people. After Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power in Syria in December, Austria and several European countries froze pending asylum requests from Syrians to reassess the situation.

Austria has also stopped family reunifications and sent at least 2,400 letters to revoke refugee status. The interior ministry has said it is preparing “an orderly repatriation and deportation programme to Syria”.

Austria has previously had one jihadist attack, in 2020, when a convicted IS sympathiser went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four.

On Thursday in Munich, Germany, a man rammed a car into people, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and wounding 37 other people.

A 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving the car into a trade union march. German police said he may have had Islamist extremist motives.

European leaders have condemned the Kremlin’s “ultimate responsibility” in the death of Alexei Navalny, as supporters of Russia’s best-known opposition politician held remembrance events a year after he died in an Arctic penal colony.

A steady queue of people braved freezing temperatures and possible arrest in Moscow to visit Navalny’s grave in Borisovskoye cemetery, while his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, was due to address a memorial ceremony in Berlin, where she is living in exile.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, paid tribute to Navalny on Sunday, saying Vladimir Putin’s most significant challenger to date had died “because he fought for democracy and freedom in Russia”.

Putin “brutally combats freedom and its defenders. Navalny’s work was all the more brave,” Scholz said in a social media post. “His courage made a difference and reaches far beyond his death.”

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said Putin bore “ultimate responsibility” for Navalny’s death. Navalny “gave his life for a free and democratic Russia”, she said, calling for the release of all political prisoners in the country.

“As Russia intensifies its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, it also continues its internal repression, targeting those who stand for democracy,” Kallas said, adding that Navalny’s lawyers and “hundreds of others … remain unjustly imprisoned”.

In a video released on Sunday, Navalnaya said opposition supporters “know why we are fighting: for a future Russia free, peaceful and beautiful. The one Alexei dreamed of is possible; do everything to make his dream come true.”

Navalnaya, a leading figure in Russia’s weakened and fractured opposition, most of whose members are now in exile, accused Putin of trying to “erase our memory of Alexei’s name, of hiding the truth about his murder and forcing us to give up”.

She said: “Everyone can do something: protest, write to political prisoners, change the minds of those close to you, support each other. Alexei inspires people … who understand that our country is not just about war, corruption and oppression.”

Navalny died aged 47 on 16 February last year in the Polar Wolf penal colony in Kharp, to where he had been transferred in 2023. He was arrested in 2021 after returning to Russia from medical treatment in Germany for novichok nerve agent poisoning.

He was declared an “extremist” by Russian authorities, meaning anyone who mentions his name or that of his Anti-Corruption Foundation without also saying they are “extremist” can be fined or, for repeat offences, jailed for up to four years.

Participation in an organisation designated as “extremist” is punishable by up to six years in prison, and even public displays of “symbols” of an extremist organisation – including photos of Navalny or his name – risk a fine or stint in a police cell.

Despite posts on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels warning of “Big Brother and his ever-watchful eye” and including a photo of a security camera sign at the cemetery, several hundred people gathered at Borisovskoye on Sunday, an Agence France-Presse reporter said.

Russia has never fully explained Navalny’s death, which came less than a month before a presidential election that extended Putin’s more than two-decade rule, saying only that it happened as he was walking in the prison yard.

The opposition figurehead had continued to call for Russians to oppose the Kremlin and denounced Moscow’s Ukraine offensive, even from behind bars. “I took the decision not to be afraid,” he wrote in his autobiography published after his death.

Five people in New York have been charged with subjecting a transgender man from Minnesota to “repeated acts of violence and torture” before murdering him, according to police.

The allegations come after the discovery of human remains believed to be those of Sam Nordquist, 24, in a field near Canandaigua in upstate New York on 13 February.

Police on Friday identified Precious Arzuaga, 38; Jennifer Quijano, 30; Kyle Sage, 33; Patrick Goodwin, 30; and Emily Motyka, 19, as suspects in Nordquist’s slaying. They are all charged with second-degree murder with depraved indifference, police said.

“Our investigation has revealed a deeply disturbing pattern of abuse that ultimately resulted in Sam’s tragic death,” police captain Kelly Swift said during a press conference on Friday.

“Based on evidence and witness statements, we have determined that Sam endured prolonged physical and psychological abuse at the hands of multiple individuals.

“Our investigation has confirmed that from early December 2024 to February 2025 Sam was subjected to repeated acts of violence and torture in a manner that ultimately led to his death.”

Police had launched a missing person investigation on 9 February after Nordquist’s family asked them to carry out a welfare check.

Evidence that Nordquist was subjected to ongoing physical abuse was discovered after police searched several locations, including Patty’s Lodge, a roadside motel where he was last known to be staying.

They believe his body was taken to the field where the remains were discovered in an attempt to “conceal the crime” that killed Nordquist, Swift said.

A fundraiser has been launched on GoFundMe to help his family which as of Sunday had received more than $47,000 from about 1,300 donors.

Originally from Oakdale, Minnesota, Nordquist had travelled to New York in September to meet his “online girlfriend”, according to the fundraising page.

It states that he had purchased a round-trip plane ticket and was supposed to return home by mid-October.

Nordquist’s family had not heard from him since January – and the last time he was seen was in early February.

In an interview with Minnesota’s KARE television news station, Nordquist’s mother, Linda, recalled: “The last thing Sam said is, ‘I love you, and I’ll call you tomorrow.’ Tomorrow came, and I never heard a word.”

Linda Norquist said Sam “sounded sad, really sad”, during that conversation, which was on New Year’s Day.

“And Sam is an outgoing person,” Linda Norquist said. “He had a heart of gold and wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

All five suspects have been arraigned and remanded to the jail in Ontario county, which includes Canandaigua.

“We understand that the details of this case are deeply unsettling, and we want to assure the public that we are committed to seeking justice for Sam and his family,” Swift said.

She added: “In my 20-year law enforcement career this is one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated.”

An autopsy will be carried out by the medical examiner’s office in Monroe county, New York, to confirm Nordquist’s exact cause and manner of death, though authorities’ actions indicate he was the victim of a homicide.

The LGBTQ+ rights organization The New Pride Agenda said in a post on social media: “We are devastated and enraged by the horrific murder of Sam Nordquist … whose life was brutally taken in the Finger Lakes region after enduring weeks of torture.

The group based in New York added: “While arrests have been made, we know that this is not an isolated incident; it is a tragic consequence of the rising culture of hate in our society.”

Linda Norquist told KARE that Sam’s death was “devastating” to her family.

“Sam did not deserve this,” Linda Norquist said. Nobody deserves this type of torment that he had to endure.

“These people that did this to Sam are pure evil. They’re not even human. We will get justice for you, Sam. Even if it takes the last breath out of me – you will have justice.”

Agence France-Presse contributed reporting

A contraception debate is gripping one of Argentina’s most notable luxury neighbourhoods – not for its wealthy residents, but for its original occupants, the capybaras.

In recent years, the lovable rodents have been accused of overrunning the Nordelta, a meticulously landscaped and manicured suburb north of Buenos Aires.

Now, in a bid to quell reproduction – some accounts suggest the number of capybaras has tripled to more than 1,000 in the past three years – the Buenos Aires government has approved wildlife population control plans, involving selective sterilisation and contraceptives.

Marcelo Cantón, a resident and spokesperson for the Nordelta Neighborhood Association, says that while capybaras themselves are not a problem, the “excessive growth” of their populations is, adding that it is causing the creatures to “fight among themselves, fight with dogs in private gardens”, leading to traffic accidents.

“Capybaras have more than 500 hectares of lakes and public parks here, with no predators, no hunters to catch them for slaughter,” he says. “There are none of the limits to population growth that exist elsewhere.”

According to El País, the new plans would see two doses of contraceptives injected into 250 of the rodents, known locally as carpinchos, which authorities hope will stem reproduction for up to a year.

But not all neighbours are in agreement. The Nordelta sits within the Paraná Delta, an environmentally important wetland home to dense flora, an abundance of birds and dozens of species of mammals.

Silvia Soto and a group of neighbours known as “Nordelta Capybaras – We Are Your Voice” say the plans should be halted, dispute that there is an overpopulation problem and criticise property developers for ignoring proposals to create biological corridors and protected areas.

“For years, we have been asking for different, linked green areas that function as natural reserves connected by biological corridors, to protect the capybaras and preserve their survival and coexistence in their own natural space,” Soto said, adding that the group’s surveys had “not been taken into account”.

Environmentalists are also now weighing in and calling on the government to protect the capybaras, which are the world’s largest rodent, and the wetlands.