Joe Biden has announced that Nato countries will provide Ukraine with five new strategic air defense systems as leaders began a summit in Washington where the alliance was expected to declare Ukraine’s path toward Nato to be “irreversible”.

The promise of weapons deliveries, including anti-air defenses sought after by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, came just a day after a deadly missile strike against a paediatric cancer hospital and other civilian targets in Ukraine that Biden called a “horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality”.

“All told, Ukraine will receive hundreds of additional interceptors over the next year, helping protect Ukrainian cities against Russian missiles and Ukrainian troops facing their attacks on the frontlines,” said Biden.

The headline speech was a critical step to convincing foreign leaders that Biden, 81, remains up to the task of leading the 32-member military alliance. It was also a key test in saving his presidential campaign following a disastrous debate against Donald Trump that led many in his own party to question his mental acuity.

In forceful tones, Biden said: “Before this war, Putin thought Nato would break. Today, Nato is stronger than it’s ever been in its history. When this senseless war began, Ukraine was a free country. Today it’s still a free country and the war will end with Ukraine remaining a free and independent country.”

“Russia will not prevail,” he said to rising applause. “Ukraine will prevail.”

In a speech later in the night, Zelenskiy urged US political leaders not to wait for the outcome of November’s presidential election to move forcefully to aid his country.

“Everyone is waiting for November. Americans are waiting for November, in Europe, Middle East, in the Pacific, the whole world is looking towards November and, truly speaking, Putin awaits November too.

“It is time to step out of the shadows, to make strong decisions … to act and not to wait for November or any other month,” Zelenskiy said.

It was announced on Tuesday that the US and its European allies would act to bolster Ukraine’s air defences at a time when the country is under constant heavy bombardment from Russia.

The US, Germany and Romania would send additional batteries of the Patriot air defence system while Patriot components donated by the Netherlands would enable another battery to operate, according to a statement by the leaders of the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Romania.

The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, approved the donation of a Italian-French-made equivalent of the Patriot interceptor, the SAMP/T air defence system.

“These five strategic air defence systems will help to protect Ukrainian cities, civilians, and soldiers, and we are coordinating closely with the Ukrainian government so that these systems can be utilised rapidly,” the statement said. “We are working on a further announcement this year of additional strategic air defence systems for Ukraine.”

As well the medium range Patriot and SAMP/T systems, the US and its allies said they would provide Ukraine with dozens of shorter-range tactical systems, including the US-Norwegian made NASAMS, US-made Hawks, Iris systems made by a European consortium and German Gepard missiles.

Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Zelenskiy, were among those arriving at the US capital amid a warning that Russia could step up missile strikes on Ukraine this week, repeating a barrage that killed at least 38 on Monday.

Diplomats said that a final communique would probably declare Ukraine’s path to Nato to be “irreversible” and to move control of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the main conduit for delivering military aid and training to Ukraine, under Nato control.

Those steps are widely seen as an attempt to “Trump-proof” Nato policies from the potential for a new Republican administration to cut aid to Ukraine, or possibly to make it contingent on holding direct negotiations with Russia.

Despite the communique, there will be no meaningful progress on Ukraine joining Nato in Washington, although alliance members will seek to dress up the latest package of support as part of what is described as “a bridge to membership”.

Holdouts including the US, Hungary, Germany and Italy are concerned that allowing Ukraine to join Nato while the war with Russia continues would be considered an escalation that could bring the alliance into direct conflict with Moscow. Even a more limited form of what could be considered direct military intervention in support of Kyiv attracts similar concerns.

On Tuesday, Zelenskiy said he hoped Trump would not quit Nato and would keep supporting Ukraine, if he won in November, but he could not predict the former president’s actions.

“I can’t tell you what he will do, if he will be the president of the United States. I don’t know,” he said.

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s outgoing secretary general, speaking immediately before Biden, sought to justify continued US and western support for Ukraine by arguing that “the biggest cost and the greatest risk will be if Russia wins in Ukraine”. Authoritarian leaders in China, North Korea and Iran would all feel emboldened if Russia conquered its neighbour, he added, describing the war as a struggle over values.

“They all support Russia’s brutal war. They all want Nato to fail. So the outcome of this war will shape global security for decades to come. The time to stand for freedom and democracy is now the place is Ukraine,” the Nato chief added. Biden subsequently awarded Stoltenberg, the presidential medal of freedom, the highest civilian honour in the US.

In remarks to the Guardian, Ruslan Stefanchuk, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, said that the strike on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital should be a “turning point” in the war and lead to great supplies of anti-air weapons to Ukraine.

“I believe that what happened today must be a turning point to change everyone’s attitude to what is happening in Ukraine, and I believe that without the F-16 fighter jets, without the new air defence systems, without the ammunition for those systems, we won’t be able to cover the skies to defend Ukraine,” he said.

Elsewhere at the summit, several high-ranking European officials have met with a top foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump.

Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who served as the chief of staff to Trump’s national security council, told Reuters he had met several European officials in recent days, including foreign ministers, but did not disclose their identities.

Kellogg, who is in regular contact with Trump, has emphasised that he does not speak for the former president nor his campaign.

The White House clarified on Monday that Joe Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physicals, following a heated exchange between the president’s press secretary and journalists seeking an explanation for why a Parkinson’s disease specialist visited the White House eight times in as many months.

In an evening letter the White House physician, Kevin O’Connor, said the specialist, Kevin Cannard, has been a neurology consultant to the White House medical unit since 2012. He said Cannard had visited multiple times a year since then, and that the neurologist was chosen for his breadth of experience and expertise.

“Seeing patients at the White House is something that Dr Cannard has been doing for a dozen years,” O’Connor wrote. “Dr Cannard was chosen for this responsibility not because he is a movement disorder specialist, but because he is a highly trained and highly regarded neurologist here at Walter Reed and across the Military Health System, with a very wide expertise which makes him flexible to see a variety of patients and problems.”

He added that Cannard was the neurologist who had examined Biden for his three annual physicals since becoming president.

Biden’s last medical examination in February had not shown “any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis, nor are there any signs of cervical myelopathy”, O’Connor wrote.

The letter, which O’Connor said he was releasing with the permission of both Biden and Cannard, followed intense speculation about the president’s cognitive powers following last month’s stumbling performance in a debate with Donald Trump in Atlanta, in which he repeatedly appeared confused and lost his train of thought.

It was released after Karine Jean-Pierre, the president’s press secretary, sparred with reporters in the White House briefing room in an exchange during which she asked them for “respect” and declined to confirm Cannard’s name, even though it had already been reported in multiple media outlets.

“There are thousands of military personnel that come to the White House and they are under the care of the medical unit,” she said.

“The president has seen a neurologist three times,” she added, and continued that there were “no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorders such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis”.

She said Biden was not being treated or taking medication for Parkinson’s disease.

O’Connor’s letter may not be enough to quell the suspicions over Biden’s health and fitness to serve, amid revelations that he is a former business associate and longtime friend of the president’s family. Politico reported that he introduced Biden’s brother, Jim Biden, to a military-focused medical team in 2017, at a time when he was pursuing a business venture aimed at securing veterans’ affairs contracts, and the president’s sister-in-law, Sara Biden, has also described O’Connor as a friend who has dispensed medical advice to the family.

Jacob Appel, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, told Politico that presidential doctors could not necessarily be relied on to disclose the truth about their distinguished patients.

“Presidents’ doctors have deceived the public going back to the early 19th century,” said Appel, who has studied the medical dilemmas of multiple doctors acting for US presidents. “There are plenty of ways of saying something that are factually accurate that don’t convey the full sense of what’s going on.”

Speculation about matters relating to Biden that might not previously have been scrutinized before his poor debate showing has grown, such as the recent disclosure that his staff prepares memos, complete with large print and photos, mapping out his path to the podium for public engagements, though the campaign emphasised that such materials are prepared for all presidents.

Rescuers have continued to dig through the rubble of a children’s hospital in Kyiv after a wave of devastating Russian missile strikes across the country on Monday that killed 38 people, including four children.

On the eve of a Nato summit in Washington, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, renewed his call for more air defences and said the world had the “necessary strength” to stop what he called “Russian terror”. The US president, Joe Biden, who is expected to meet Zelenskiy, described the strike as a “horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality”.

Ukraine’s SBU security service said missile fragments recovered from the scene, as well as flight path data, showed Moscow had targeted Okhmatdyt children’s hospital with a Kh-101 cruise missile. It ploughed into a two-storey building, killing a 30-year-old doctor named Svitlana Lukianchuk, a paediatric nephrologist, and the mother of a patient.

The SBU’s chief, Vasyl Maliuk, promised “maximum retribution” against the Russians involved in planning and executing the attacks, which took place in the capital in the middle of the morning, and in the cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih. “A terrorist state is not an abstract concept. There are specific names of murderers. Nothing will save them from justice,” he said.

On Tuesday, volunteers, the fire brigade, police and soldiers continued to sift through a sea of masonry. One wing, home to the hospital’s dialysis unit, was entirely obliterated. Furniture, cuddly toys and desks were piled up on a pavement. Windows in the main building were blown out. The heads of 32 diplomatic missions in Kyiv toured the dust-covered ruins, amid widespread international outrage.

Donations to rebuild the shattered complex have reached £5.7m, Ukrainian media reported.

“We were in the middle of an operation. Our patient was a two-year-old girl,” said Iryna Filimonova, head nurse on the hospital’s urology ward. “There was a huge explosion. We looked at each other and carried on.” Her colleague Liudmyla Puzko said she had sheltered in the corridor, adding: “This was an act of incredible baseness. Children are not guilty of anything.”

The hospital was no longer able to function, Filimonova said. Its 2,000 staff treated children from across Ukraine, with a six-month waiting list for appointments and surgery, she said. On Tuesday, Zelenskiy said all patients had been transferred to other medical institutions. They included children who were being treated for cancer, who took cover in a basement. A maternity hospital nearby was also hit.

Zelenskiy said 190 people had been injured and 64 hospitalised as a result of Monday’s country-wide attacks. “I am grateful to everyone who is rescuing and caring for our people, to everyone involved, and to everyone who is helping,” he wrote on social media, adding: “We continue our work to increase the protection of our cities and communities from Russian terror.”

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, said rescuers on Tuesday found the bodies of two woman buried under the rubble of a residential house. Other local victims were named as 10-year-old Maksym Symaniuk, his nine-year-old younger sister Nastia, and their mother, Zoriana. Makysym was keen on karate, friends said. The family was killed at home in their apartment, the mayor added.

Zelenskiy and other senior Ukrainian officials have expressed frustration at restrictions imposed by the Biden administration on the use of US-supplied weapons at targets inside Russia. The White House in May allowed Kyiv for the first time to attack enemy troops and weapons systems in locations just across the border, in Russia’s Belgorod region, that were used as a staging post for raids into Kharkiv oblast but Ukraine cannot use long-range artillery to take out the Russian military airfields, which took part in Monday’s and other attacks.

Anton Geraschenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, said Putin had ordered the strikes to send a message to western leaders. It told them they were “weak” and said the Nato summit would “not change anything”. It also reinforced the idea Ukraine should capitulate since “nobody will protect you,” he suggested.

Russia’s state media largely ignored the attack on the children’s hospital. There was criticism by Zelenskiy of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who met Putin on Monday. Modi appeared to offer a rebuke of sorts, saying that the death of innocent children was painful and terrifying. But he stopped short of criticising Moscow, or blaming it directly.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, claimed a Ukrainian interceptor missile was responsible for the hospital strike, even though video footage clearly shows a Russian Kh-101 missile moments before impact. Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, said Ukraine was staging “a PR operation steeped in blood” ahead of the Nato summit.

• Joe Biden has welcomed Nato member states to a Washington summit warning that “[Vladimir] Putin wants nothing less, nothing less, than Ukraine’s total subjugation … and to wipe Ukraine off the map. Ukraine can and will stop Putin.”

• Biden announced Nato will provide Ukraine with five new strategic air defence systems, the promise coming just a day after a deadly missile strike against a paediatric cancer hospital and other civilian targets. “All told, Ukraine will receive hundreds of additional interceptors over the next year, helping protect Ukrainian cities against Russian missiles and Ukrainian troops facing their attacks on the frontlines,” said Biden.

• The US, Germany and Romania will send additional Patriot air defence systems, while Patriot parts donated by the Netherlands will enable another battery to operate, according to a statement by the leaders of the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Romania. The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, approved the donation of an Italian-French SAMP/T air defence system.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, arrived in Washington on Tuesday and said he would “fight” for Nato to strengthen Ukrainian air defences and furnish it with more F-16 fighter jets. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Nato would announce a new military command in Germany for training and equipping Ukrainian troops and appoint a senior representative in Kyiv.

• The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told defence industry leaders in Washington that the leaders would pledge to enable arms makers across Europe and North America to produce more. He said Nato had placed an order for Stinger anti-aircraft missiles worth almost $700m in the name of several member states.

• Russia lacks the munitions and troops to start a major offensive in Ukraine and to do so would need to secure significantly more ammunition from its suppliers like Iran and North Korea, reporters were told at a Nato briefing on Tuesday. Russia was suffering “very high” losses over small territorial gains, ordering “undermanned, inexperienced units to move into areas to achieve unrealistic objectives”.

• India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, told Vladimir Putin that the death of innocent children was painful and terrifying, a day after the lethal strike on the children’s hospital in Kyiv. “Whether it is war, conflict or a terrorist attack, any person who believes in humanity, is pained when there is loss of lives,” Modi said. “But even in that, when innocent children are killed, the heart bleeds and that pain is very terrifying.” The deadly hospital strike was likely caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile, said Danielle Bell, UN human rights monitoring head of mission for Ukraine.

• India’s relationship with Russia gives it an ability to urge Vladimir Putin to end the war with Ukraine, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said in response to Modi’s meeting Putin and his remarks.

• After rescue operations stretched into a second day at the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, officials said at least 42 people throughout Ukraine were killed in Monday’s attacks. Zelenskiy said 64 people were hospitalised in the capital, in addition to 28 in Kryvyi Rih and six in Dnipro – both in central Ukraine. It was Russia’s heaviest bombardment of Kyiv in almost four months.

• The UN nuclear watchdog will hold a special meeting after Ukraine accused Russia of undermining atomic safety by shattering the radiation-equipped children’s hospital, according to a confidential document seen by AFP. Children with cancer are treated at the hospital.

• Russia has been obliged to chair a UN security council meeting where it was condemned over the hospital strike. France and Ecuador asked for the session, which Russia led as the current holder of the council’s rotating presidency, putting its ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, on the receiving end of the criticism.

• The US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told colleagues that they were there “because Russia, a permanent member of the security council, current rotational president of the security council, attacked a children’s hospital … Even uttering that phrase sends a chill down my spine.” The British ambassador, Barbara Woodward, called it “cowardly depravity”. Ecuador’s envoy, José De La Gasca, described it as “particularly intolerable”. Nebenzia dismissed that and other criticisms as “verbal gymnastics” and repeated Russian denials of responsibility for the attack.

• Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian oil refinery, military airfield, and electricity substation in a joint operation by Kyiv’s security and military intelligence agencies, a security source told Reuters. The source said the attacks hit the Akhtubinsk airfield in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region, an oil refinery in the Volgograd region and an electricity substation in the Rostov region.

• Russia claimed to have captured the village of Yasnobrodivka in eastern Ukraine near the Russian-held city of Donetsk, according to its defence ministry.

A US military pier, built two months ago as a way to bring sea-borne humanitarian aid into Gaza, is to be permanently dismantled within a few days, according to a new report.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that the pier, which has had to be moved repeatedly to avoid bad weather, would be reconnected to the Gaza coastline on Wednesday but would operate for just the next few days before being disassembled by the US army and navy.

The AP quoted unnamed officials as saying that the pier would be put back in place only long enough to move humanitarian supplies which have accumulated in Cyprus and on a floating dock offshore since the pier went out of action on 28 June as a result of weather conditions.

The chief Pentagon spokesperson, Maj Gen Pat Ryder, said on Tuesday that the pier was currently at the Israeli port of Ashdod, the haven used during bad weather, but added: “My understanding is that CENTCOM [US Central Command] intends to tentatively re-anchor the pier this week.”

Ryder did not comment on the longer term prospects for the pier. Aid workers familiar with the project had been predicting for weeks that the pier would not survive beyond July.

The pier scheme, first unveiled by Joe Biden in his State of the Union address in March, was always intended to be a temporary measure to complement the meagre amount of aid being allowed across land crossings by Israel, but US officials told Reuters in June it would last until August or September.

The eastern Mediterranean off the Gaza coast had been choppier in the summer months than had been expected with stormy weather making it necessary to move the pier in and out of position repeatedly.

Since it was first manoeuvred into position on 17 May, the pier has been operational for fewer than 20 days, and for most of those days, aid deliveries were simply unloaded on the beach without being distributed around Gaza because of security concerns.

The World Food Programme (WFP) suspended distribution convoys on 9 June, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted a hostage rescue operation that saved four Israeli hostages but killed 274 Palestinians. Apart from a day’s operations to clear the backlog of humanitarian assistance on the beach, the WFP has continued to suspend its convoys pending a full security review.

Over its two months in operation, about 8,800 metric tons of aid has been unloaded off the pier, about 500 truckloads, equivalent to a single day of deliveries before the war began.

Critics of the scheme warned that the spectacular $230m project would divert attention from the international effort to pressure Israel to open the land crossings into Gaza, the most efficient means of delivering assistance to the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza, more than a quarter of whom are in imminent danger of famine.

Land deliveries have dwindled dramatically since Israel launched an offensive on the southern border city of Rafah in May. According to UN figures, the number of trucks entering Gaza through two remaining open crossings, Keren Shalom and Erez West, fell from 840 in May, to 756 in June to only 18 so far in July.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) referred questions about the pier’s future to the defence department but a spokesperson added: “What we continue to focus on is getting urgently needed aid to people in need across Gaza through all available mechanisms.”

“Ashdod port is open for humanitarian deliveries and we expect humanitarians will increasingly use this route,” the spokesperson said.

“Erez West and Kerem Shalom are also open, though insecurity and kinetic operations are constraining onward distributions within Gaza. The United States is actively involved in discussions with Israel, the UN, and other humanitarian organizations to determine ways to overcome these constraints and allow assistance to reach people in desperate need.”

Gareth Southgate has conceded that England will need a “step up” in performance against the Netherlands if his team are to secure their place in a first major tournament final away from Wembley.

Speaking before the European championship semi-final tie with the Dutch in Dortmund in west Germany, the England manager said that his team could not expect to win on Wednesday night on current form.

A series of poor performances in the group stage, and a near-death experience against Slovakia in the round of 16 followed by a win on penalties against Switzerland, has provoked heavy criticism of Southgate’s tactics, with even Dutch players describing England’s approach as “defensive”.

Southgate, who was joined by the England captain Harry Kane at a pre-match press conference, said he recognised the frustrations of the fans and pundits but insisted his team was “prepared for anything”.

He said: “We need another step from what we showed in the last game, it’s a step up in quality of opponents and we are ready for that.”

England are looking to achieve back-to-back European finals after losing to Italy at Wembley at Euro 2020. The men’s national team, who won the World Cup at home in 1966, have never appeared in a major tournament final outside England.

Asked how the players were coping with the pressure of the moment, Kane said each player was dealing with the situation in his own way. The Bayern Munich striker said: “I don’t think we speak about it in the dressing room. The ones who have had more experience know what it’s like to play for England in major tournaments. As we’ve been getting better the expectation gets higher and that’s been no different.

“Some will use it in different ways, some will use it as motivation, some will just block it out and focus on what they need to do. Everyone’s different. From a team point of view we know what we need to achieve. We have a really important game, a really tough game we need to be ready for. We’ve prepared for that.”

With up to 75,000 Dutch supporters expected in Dortmund on Wednesday night, England fans are likely to be outnumbered by four to one although the number of fans in the stadium are expected to be similar. In the stands of the Westfalenstadion, the Dutch presence will be most obvious in the famous south terrace which is known as the “Yellow Wall” during Borussia Dortmund games but will become orange on Wednesday night.

Southgate said: “I think our players are used to it. The atmosphere in the stadiums has been great this tournament and it’s added a different feel and intensity to the games. I’m sure our fans will make themselves heard and it will be a colourful occasion. These occasions are why we’re involved in football and we’re looking forward to stepping up.”

The Netherlands will be by far the highest-ranked team – seventh in the world – England have faced after group games with Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia, followed by knockout matches against Slovakia and Switzerland.

The referee for the game, Felix Zwayer, served a six-month ban for his role in a match-fixing scandal in 2006. He has always denied wrongdoing. The England midfielder Jude Bellingham hit out at Zwayer while playing for Dortmund in 2021 after a defeat against Bayern Munich describing him as “a referee that has match-fixed before”. Bellingham was fined €40,000 (£33,800) for his unproven allegation.

Asked about the choice of referee, Southgate would not be drawn into criticising Uefa. He said: “I think everybody knows how I deal with refs, with complete respect for every referee. I know the two guys at Uefa who have been running the refs programme and I think they appreciate the respect we have shown as a team to officials over eight years.

“I think there’s a right way to conduct yourself towards officials and I think that’s very important for the game. So no, I’m not concerned about who the ref is. He will be at a very high standard because that’s the way Uefa make those decisions and the way they monitor games during the tournament. So, for me, it’s not even a consideration.”

After weeks of dismal weather in the west of Germany, the sun was out in Dortmund as fans of England and the Netherlands filled the bars around in the centre of Dortmund. Martin Sauer, head of the organising team for the Euro games in the city, said he was concerned that the sheer number of Dutch fans could overcrowd the fan zones but not by the threat of violence between supporters.

He said: “We are expecting 75,000 Dutch fans. We think there are 16,000 English fans with tickets for the stadium and a small number of English fans without tickets, but not as big as the Dutch number. I think the ticket holder numbers are really equal between those two but non-ticket holders will be the majority from the Netherlands.

“We know that everything is really [tight]. That’s good for a really special atmosphere but it’s also complicated for public transport and for the public viewing and for everybody to find a space where you can where they can watch the game.”

Sauer said there would be a heavy police presence but there were no major security concerns. He said: “Always in every fan group there will be somebody who makes trouble but we are not concerned especially for English fans. We have English fans from club level here regularly in the championship games, and usually it’s no problem.

“They’re very welcome. And we think that the English fans will like the city and will like our bars. The public transport isn’t as big as maybe Berlin or Hamburg or bigger cities in Germany. If you like to use your own feet, it’s really easy to go through the city. If you need public transport, you maybe have to wait some minutes.”

Harvey Brown, 19, a student at Cardiff Metropolitan university, said: “I think it will be well organised here. They are used to Borussia Dortmund Champions League games. They are talking about 75,000 Dutch fans but we hear they will be walking to the stadium from 3.30pm so there hopefully won’t be any problems, especially given how well England fans have behaved so far.”

The new culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, will be at the game as part of a “fact-finding mission” ahead of the staging of Euro 2028 in UK and Ireland.

New Zealand’s sea temperatures have hit record highs, outstripping global averages threefold in one region, and prompting alarm over the health of the country’s marine life and ecosystems.

New data from Stats NZ shows since 1982, oceanic sea-surface temperatures have increased on average between 0.16 – 0.26C a decade, and between 0.19–0.34C a decade, in coastal waters.

Each oceanic and coastal region experienced their hottest years ever recorded in either 2022 or 2023.

When comparing data from the previous 20 years, the rate of ocean surface warming around New Zealand has outstripped the global per decade average of 0.18C twofold, with one region – the Chatham Rise – three times warmer than the global average, said Matt Pinkerton, a principal scientist at the National Institute for Water and Atmospherics.

New Zealand may be experiencing higher temperatures due to its geographical position and the way the global ocean currents move and carry heat, he said.

“New Zealand sits sandwiched between the Pacific, the Tasman Sea and the Southern Oceans – there’s a lot of warming associated in all three of those areas, so we are getting the heat from all directions.”

Pinkerton said New Zealand’s high temperatures dispel the notion that the island nation is protected from extreme temperatures.

“Because we are surrounded by so much ocean, we [thought] we were protected a bit by warming effects, this [data] is saying that’s not true.”

Marine heatwaves – prolonged periods of unusual seawater warmth – also reached new levels. The Western North Island experienced heatwave conditions for 89% of 2022 – the highest among coastal regions – while the Tasman Sea spent 61% of the year in a heatwave, the highest among oceanic regions.

“Even small rises in temperature can disrupt marine ecosystems, cause some species to relocate, and increase disease risks,” said Stuart Jones, the environmental and agricultural statistics manager at Stats NZ.

Previous intense marine heatwaves have already been linked to mass sea sponge bleaching in New Zealand, die-offs of southern bull kelp, large scale fish strandings and penguin deaths.

“Intense marine heatwaves can cause large scale ecological change by killing habitat-forming species such as kelp,” said Dr Christopher Cornwall, a marine biology lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington.

“It is highly likely that both the background warming and more frequent, intense, and longer marine heatwaves are already working to permanently alter these marine ecosystems within Aotearoa.”

Both Cornwall and Pinkerton add that the extent to which warmer oceans will disrupt ecosystems is still poorly understood, and long-term monitoring is needed to anticipate and plan for changes, particularly when assessing fishing quotas.

A separate Stats NZ dataset, released on Wednesday, showed phytoplankton – microscopic algae that form the base of marine food-webs – is tending to decrease in New Zealand’s warmer northern waters. The data suggests there is a correlation between the decrease in phytoplankton and rising sea-surface temperatures.

Meanwhile, New Zealanders will also feel the effects of warming seas, with the ocean dictating much of the island nation’s weather, said Dr Georgia Grant, a climate scientist at GNS Science.

The world’s oceans have been absorbing about 90% of the extra heat created from human-caused climate change.

“Increasing ocean temperatures are one of the factors as to why storms like Cyclone Gabrielle are expected to increase in severity under climate warming.”

New Zealand’s sea temperatures have hit record highs, outstripping global averages threefold in one region, and prompting alarm over the health of the country’s marine life and ecosystems.

New data from Stats NZ shows since 1982, oceanic sea-surface temperatures have increased on average between 0.16 – 0.26C a decade, and between 0.19–0.34C a decade, in coastal waters.

Each oceanic and coastal region experienced their hottest years ever recorded in either 2022 or 2023.

When comparing data from the previous 20 years, the rate of ocean surface warming around New Zealand has outstripped the global per decade average of 0.18C twofold, with one region – the Chatham Rise – three times warmer than the global average, said Matt Pinkerton, a principal scientist at the National Institute for Water and Atmospherics.

New Zealand may be experiencing higher temperatures due to its geographical position and the way the global ocean currents move and carry heat, he said.

“New Zealand sits sandwiched between the Pacific, the Tasman Sea and the Southern Oceans – there’s a lot of warming associated in all three of those areas, so we are getting the heat from all directions.”

Pinkerton said New Zealand’s high temperatures dispel the notion that the island nation is protected from extreme temperatures.

“Because we are surrounded by so much ocean, we [thought] we were protected a bit by warming effects, this [data] is saying that’s not true.”

Marine heatwaves – prolonged periods of unusual seawater warmth – also reached new levels. The Western North Island experienced heatwave conditions for 89% of 2022 – the highest among coastal regions – while the Tasman Sea spent 61% of the year in a heatwave, the highest among oceanic regions.

“Even small rises in temperature can disrupt marine ecosystems, cause some species to relocate, and increase disease risks,” said Stuart Jones, the environmental and agricultural statistics manager at Stats NZ.

Previous intense marine heatwaves have already been linked to mass sea sponge bleaching in New Zealand, die-offs of southern bull kelp, large scale fish strandings and penguin deaths.

“Intense marine heatwaves can cause large scale ecological change by killing habitat-forming species such as kelp,” said Dr Christopher Cornwall, a marine biology lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington.

“It is highly likely that both the background warming and more frequent, intense, and longer marine heatwaves are already working to permanently alter these marine ecosystems within Aotearoa.”

Both Cornwall and Pinkerton add that the extent to which warmer oceans will disrupt ecosystems is still poorly understood, and long-term monitoring is needed to anticipate and plan for changes, particularly when assessing fishing quotas.

A separate Stats NZ dataset, released on Wednesday, showed phytoplankton – microscopic algae that form the base of marine food-webs – is tending to decrease in New Zealand’s warmer northern waters. The data suggests there is a correlation between the decrease in phytoplankton and rising sea-surface temperatures.

Meanwhile, New Zealanders will also feel the effects of warming seas, with the ocean dictating much of the island nation’s weather, said Dr Georgia Grant, a climate scientist at GNS Science.

The world’s oceans have been absorbing about 90% of the extra heat created from human-caused climate change.

“Increasing ocean temperatures are one of the factors as to why storms like Cyclone Gabrielle are expected to increase in severity under climate warming.”

Northern and central Gaza were hit by a second day of heavy Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, attacks Hamas said threatened to derail new international efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Residents of Gaza City reported helicopter strikes, explosions and gun battles as Israel expanded its two-week-old offensive in Shuja’iya, an eastern neighbourhood, moving tanks into areas of the city where Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters have regrouped.

More than 50 people had been killed in airstrikes on Gaza City and the central town of Deir al-Balah and surrounding refugee camps in the preceding 24 hours, medics said. A third round of leaflets dropped on several neighbourhoods told residents to evacuate to southern Gaza, leading to a new wave of displacement of people who were unable or unwilling to leave their homes when Israeli troops first entered the city at the end of October. In a statement, the Palestinian Red Crescent said all of its medical clinics in Gaza City had been forced offline.

In Nuseirat camp, near Deir al-Balah, an Israeli airstrike in the early hours of Tuesday on a multistorey building killed 17 people, including 14 children, the Hamas media office said. Neighbours rushed to help medics and emergency workers recover bodies and search for survivors under the rubble.

“They were displaced during the night after Al-Nuseirat camp school was hit … They said they would sleep in the house, fearing for the children, and there was a massacre in the house. They are not safe in the schools nor the houses,” Yasser Abu Hamada, a local resident, told Reuters.

Witnesses said first responders had been unable to reach scores of bodies lying on the streets in Gaza City because of the ongoing fighting. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its forces were engaged in “close-quarter combat” in Gaza City and had killed more than 150 militants and destroyed tunnels and explosives in the past week.

The last few days of airstrikes on the blockaded Palestinian territory are some of the fiercest since the war broke out after Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October. Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, described the fighting as “the most intense in months”.

The new fighting has unfolded as international mediators make headway in ceasefire negotiations after a major concession from Hamas last week, when the group dropped its insistence on a “complete” ceasefire as a prerequisite for talks.

Mediation efforts led by Egypt, Qatar and the US have since accelerated, with Egyptian media reporting that talks are due to continue in Doha and Cairo this week, attended by the CIA director, William Burns, and Israel’s Mossad chief, David Barnea. “There is an agreement over many points,” a senior source told al-Qahera news on Tuesday.

But speaking on Monday night, the group’s Qatar-based political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, said that the “catastrophic consequences” of the latest battles on the ground in Gaza could “reset the negotiation process to square one”. The group has also accused Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of deliberately trying to thwart the truce talks.

The former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is treating his bankruptcy case as a “joke”, lawyers for the Donald Trump ally’s creditors said in a new filing, alleging the former president’s sometime attorney was attempting to avoid accountability by “hiding behind the facade of an elderly, doddering man”.

“Since day one,” attorneys said, “Giuliani has regarded this case and the bankruptcy process as a joke, hiding behind the facade of an elderly, doddering man who cannot even remember the address for his second multimillion-dollar home and claims impending homelessness if he must sell that second multimillion-dollar home.

“In reality, Giuliani has treated this court, the bankruptcy process and the committee … with utter disrespect and without accountability.”

Giuliani, 80, led New York through the 9/11 terrorist attacks, made millions once out of office and ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. But he has suffered a precipitous fall.

The former mayor faces legal and financial jeopardy on multiple fronts, mostly arising from his central role in Trump’s attempt to overturn his conclusive defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Indicted on charges related to attempted election subversion in Arizona and Georgia, Giuliani has pleaded not guilty.

He filed for bankruptcy protection last December after two Georgia election workers won a $148m defamation verdict against him.

The new filing in US bankruptcy court in the southern district of New York was made by attorneys acting for Giuliani creditors, including one of those election workers, Shaye Moss.

Attorneys also filed on behalf of Noelle Dunphy – a former associate suing Giuliani for $10m, alleging sexual assault and harassment – and Dominion Voting Systems, which reached a $787.5m settlement with Fox News over its broadcast of Trump’s election lies and also sued Giuliani.

The filing formally opposed Giuliani’s attempt to change his chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings – shielding him from creditors while he ostensibly reorganizes his financial books – into a chapter seven liquidation of assets.

Attorneys for his creditors said Giuliani was “playing the delay game”.

“He played games with the DC district court [in the defamation case] in continually agreeing to comply with court orders and then failing to do so, and he has been doing the same thing in this chapter 11 case,” the creditors’ attorneys said. “Giuliani’s goal is to continue to avoid responsibility for his malfeasance.”

Giuliani was recently disbarred from practicing law in New York. Disbarment proceedings are ongoing in Washington DC.

In their New York filing, his creditors’ attorneys said: “The New York supreme court’s decision on Giuliani’s disbarment just as easily could have been written about Giuliani and this bankruptcy case. This chicanery is what he does and who he is.”

A spokesperson for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a Guardian request for comment.

But the spokesperson, Ted Goodman, told Law & Crime that in seeking to change the contours of his bankruptcy case, Giuliani was “simply following available options to combat an entirely partisan and politically motivated proceeding”.

French investigators have opened an inquiry into the campaign finances of the far-right leader Marine Le Pen during her failed 2022 presidential election bid against Emmanuel Macron, as politicians on the left continue to discuss how a new government could be formed in France.

The Paris prosecutors’ office announced on Tuesday that an investigation had been opened last week to examine allegations over Le Pen’s campaigning funding, which include embezzlement, forgery, fraud, and a further allegation that a candidate on an electoral campaign accepted a loan. No further details were given.

Le Pen and her party have previously denied wrongdoing in connection with campaign financing.

The preliminary investigation was opened after a national commission in charge of scrutinising campaign finances, the CNCCFP, had alerted the prosecutor’s office last year.

The 2022 election was the second time Le Pen, who was then head of the anti-immigration, far-right National Rally (RN) party, faced Macron in the runoff and lost to him.

In December 2022, the commission had objected to expenses linked to putting up and taking down campaigning material on 12 buses, describing them as “irregular”. Le Pen had appealed but then dropped the case.

French politicians continue to ponder how to form a government after Le Pen’s far right was held back by tactical voting in the final round of a snap election on Sunday night, but no grouping has won an absolute majority.

The leftwing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP) – a coalition which runs from the firmly leftwing La France Insoumise to the Greens, Communists and more centre-left Socialists – is still debating who to put forward as a potential prime minister and whether it could be open to working in a broader coalition.

But although the left was slightly ahead of Macron’s centrist grouping and Le Pen’s far-right RN, it remains about 100 seats short of an absolute majority. Parliament is now divided between three closely balanced political forces: the left, centrists and the far right.

Whoever governs would need some form of coalition. It is not certain that a prime minister from the left would survive a confidence vote in parliament.

Any left-leaning government would need “broader support in the National Assembly”, the Socialist MP Boris Vallaud told France Inter.

“None of the three leading blocs can govern alone,” Stéphane Séjourné, head of Macron’s Renaissance party, wrote in Le Monde. He suggested the centrist bloc could now try to form its own coalition and join with some parts of the centre left while refusing to work with others who are further left.

“The centrist bloc is ready to talk to all the members of the republican spectrum,” he added, saying any coalition members must support the EU and Ukraine and maintain business-friendly policies. These requirements, he said, would “necessarily exclude” La France Insoumise and its firebrand founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

After a meeting of the centrist group, the Renaissance lawmaker Pierre Cazeneuve told Reuters: “We have reaffirmed our red lines: No deal with La France Insoumise and no deal with the National Rally.”

Gabriel Attal is staying on as prime minister while the country remains without a new government, but discussions on how to form some kind of coalition could take weeks.

Macron called the snap election last month after his centrists were trounced by the far right in European elections. He said at the time that the nation needed “clarity”. But the political uncertainty could drag on over the summer.

Mélenchon on Tuesday accused Macron of deliberately “blocking the situation to keep power for as long as possible”.

The Socialist leader Olivier Faure said he would be prepared for his name to be put forward for prime minister, but added: “That would be decided in dialogue with our partners. I don’t agree with anyone imposing their point of view on others.”

Yaël Braun-Pivet, the centrist former leader of parliament, told France Inter radio: “Mathematically, democratically, no one can govern alone today.” She said a coalition of different parties should agree on a handful of priority projects for the next year.

French investigators have opened an inquiry into the campaign finances of the far-right leader Marine Le Pen during her failed 2022 presidential election bid against Emmanuel Macron, as politicians on the left continue to discuss how a new government could be formed in France.

The Paris prosecutors’ office announced on Tuesday that an investigation had been opened last week to examine allegations over Le Pen’s campaigning funding, which include embezzlement, forgery, fraud, and a further allegation that a candidate on an electoral campaign accepted a loan. No further details were given.

Le Pen and her party have previously denied wrongdoing in connection with campaign financing.

The preliminary investigation was opened after a national commission in charge of scrutinising campaign finances, the CNCCFP, had alerted the prosecutor’s office last year.

The 2022 election was the second time Le Pen, who was then head of the anti-immigration, far-right National Rally (RN) party, faced Macron in the runoff and lost to him.

In December 2022, the commission had objected to expenses linked to putting up and taking down campaigning material on 12 buses, describing them as “irregular”. Le Pen had appealed but then dropped the case.

French politicians continue to ponder how to form a government after Le Pen’s far right was held back by tactical voting in the final round of a snap election on Sunday night, but no grouping has won an absolute majority.

The leftwing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP) – a coalition which runs from the firmly leftwing La France Insoumise to the Greens, Communists and more centre-left Socialists – is still debating who to put forward as a potential prime minister and whether it could be open to working in a broader coalition.

But although the left was slightly ahead of Macron’s centrist grouping and Le Pen’s far-right RN, it remains about 100 seats short of an absolute majority. Parliament is now divided between three closely balanced political forces: the left, centrists and the far right.

Whoever governs would need some form of coalition. It is not certain that a prime minister from the left would survive a confidence vote in parliament.

Any left-leaning government would need “broader support in the National Assembly”, the Socialist MP Boris Vallaud told France Inter.

“None of the three leading blocs can govern alone,” Stéphane Séjourné, head of Macron’s Renaissance party, wrote in Le Monde. He suggested the centrist bloc could now try to form its own coalition and join with some parts of the centre left while refusing to work with others who are further left.

“The centrist bloc is ready to talk to all the members of the republican spectrum,” he added, saying any coalition members must support the EU and Ukraine and maintain business-friendly policies. These requirements, he said, would “necessarily exclude” La France Insoumise and its firebrand founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

After a meeting of the centrist group, the Renaissance lawmaker Pierre Cazeneuve told Reuters: “We have reaffirmed our red lines: No deal with La France Insoumise and no deal with the National Rally.”

Gabriel Attal is staying on as prime minister while the country remains without a new government, but discussions on how to form some kind of coalition could take weeks.

Macron called the snap election last month after his centrists were trounced by the far right in European elections. He said at the time that the nation needed “clarity”. But the political uncertainty could drag on over the summer.

Mélenchon on Tuesday accused Macron of deliberately “blocking the situation to keep power for as long as possible”.

The Socialist leader Olivier Faure said he would be prepared for his name to be put forward for prime minister, but added: “That would be decided in dialogue with our partners. I don’t agree with anyone imposing their point of view on others.”

Yaël Braun-Pivet, the centrist former leader of parliament, told France Inter radio: “Mathematically, democratically, no one can govern alone today.” She said a coalition of different parties should agree on a handful of priority projects for the next year.

Russia has issued an arrest warrant for Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny and a leading dissident living in exile, imposing a two-month detention order on grounds that she participated in an “extremist” group.

The warrant was issued in absentia by a Moscow court on Tuesday, five months after Navalny died in a Russian Arctic penal colony. Navalnaya held the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, responsible for her husband’s death.

In Russia, the label “extremist” is routinely applied to dissident or independent civic groups by courts, which typically carry out the wishes of the Kremlin in political cases.

Since Navalny’s death, Navalnaya has lived in an undisclosed location outside Russia with the couple’s two children. Writing on the X social media platform on Tuesday she told her supporters not to be distracted by the court order against her, but to focus on the broader campaign against Putin.

“When you write about this, please don’t forget to write the main thing: Vladimir Putin is a murderer and a war criminal,” Navalnaya wrote.

“His place is in prison, and not somewhere in The Hague, in a cosy cell with a TV, but in Russia – in the same (penal) colony and the same 2 by 3 metre cell in which he killed Alexei.”

Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence in the Russian Arctic for his leading role in opposition to Putin. In August 2020 he fell violently ill on a Russian internal flight, as a result of poisoning with the nerve agent novichok. He was evacuated to Germany for emergency medical care and recovered. On 17 January 2021, Navalny returned to Russia by plane from Germany and was detained on landing in Moscow.

Three days after Navalny’s death in custody, the 47-year-old Navalnaya took on his mantle of leadership, broadcasting a nine-minute video message vowing to continue his resistance to Putin’s dictatorial rule.

“I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work … I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” she said in the video. “I call on you to stand with me. To share not only grief and endless pain … I ask you to share with me the rage. The fury, anger, hatred for those who dare to kill our future.”

Navalnaya, an economist, accused the Russian state of poisoning her husband with the nerve agent novichok and hiding his body, blocking access until traces of the poison wore away.

Since taking up the opposition leadership in February, Navalnaya has met a succession of world leaders, including Joe Biden. Last week, a US-based advocacy group, the Human Rights Foundation, named her as its chair, and she said she would use the position to step up the struggle with Putin.

During Russian elections in March this year, Navalnaya called for mass protests against Putin by forming long queues at midday, overwhelming polling stations in a campaign that came to be known as “noon against Putin”.

Navalnaya was a close confidante to her husband and regularly consulted him on his political campaigns and opposition movement. But she is a reluctant public figure and the relentless pressure on the opposition has made it difficult for Navalny’s movement to regain momentum after his death.

Also on Tuesday, the family of Vladimir Kara-Murza, another top critic of Putin, said that he had disappeared in a Russian prison. Supporters said that Kara-Murza, who suffers from complications of poisoning, had last been seen by his lawyers on 2 July. He was reported transferred to a prison hospital on 4 July and has since been held incommunicado. “In the wake of the murder of Alexei Navalny in detention, there are now growing fears that Kara-Murza’s life is in danger,” wrote the Free Russia foundation.

Kara-Murza is serving a 25-year prison sentence for treason and other charges that he has said were motivated by his criticism of Putin. Days after Navalny’s death, Russian journalists warned that Kara-Murza could die if he was held in a Russian prison.

A 28-year-old woman from Ireland has been charged with “attempting suicide” by a court in Dubai, with politicians and campaigners calling for her release.

Tori Towey, who works in the United Arab Emirates as an airline cabin crew member, was allegedly attacked and left with severe bruising and other injuries in a violent incident.

Towey, from Boyle in County Roscommon, was taken to a police station where she was told she was being charged with attempted suicide and abusing alcohol.

The Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald, who has been supporting her, told the parliament in Ireland on Tuesday that Towey’s passport was blocked and she cannot return to Ireland.

Simon Harris, the taoiseach, told the Dáil he is ready to “intervene” in the case. Harris said he was not aware of the case but noted that her plight had been raised with the minister for foreign affairs by Sinn Féin.

The taoiseach, who was responding to a question from McDonald, said: “Thank you, deputy McDonald, for bringing the case of Tori to my attention,” RTÉ reported.

“I’m not directly apprised of the situation, but I’m very happy to be directly apprised of it now,” he added.

Harris added he would work with the deputy “to intervene and see how we can support an Irish citizen in what sounds to be – based on what you tell me – the most appalling circumstances”.

Ireland’s department of foreign affairs told Sky News it is “aware of the case and is providing consular assistance”.

It added: “As with all consular cases, the department does not comment on the details of individual cases.”

McDonald told parliament: “She’s under incredible stress.

“Tori is a Roscommon woman, and she wants to come home.”

Towey, who moved to Dubai in April 2023, is staying in a rented property with her mother, Caroline, who travelled to be with her daughter.

The case against the cabin crew employee will be heard in court on 18 July.

Radha Stirling, CEO of the Detained in Dubai advocacy group, which is supporting the family, said it is calling on the country’s authorities to drop the charges, remove the travel ban and let Towey fly home with her mother.

She added: “She has been charged with attempted suicide and alcohol consumption.

“Strangely, the UAE has gone to great public relations efforts to promote alcohol as legal in the country. In reality, people are still regularly charged with alcohol consumption and possession.

“Tori’s experience is nothing short of tragic and quite frankly, she is lucky to be alive.”

Stirling wrote on X that Michael Fitzmaurice, Teachta Dála of Ireland, told her that he has made representations to the UAE’s ambassador to Ireland and the department of foreign affairs.

The UAE government has been approached for comment.

Seven reporters have been killed in Pakistan in the first six months of 2024, a record annual number with half a year still to go.

The most recent victim was Khalil Jibran, a former president of a local press club in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. He died in June when the car he was driving was ambushed by two men who dragged him out and shot him multiple times.

Adil Jawad, who works for an organisation that investigates journalist killings, said at least four of the seven cases – which involved traditional journalists and citizen reporters – were likely to have been work-related.

Most of the deaths have taken place in smaller towns and cities, where the role of social media in amplifying the profile of professional journalists and giving a platform to citizen reporters has been most keenly felt.

Jawad said the attacks were taking place in the context of “widespread impunity” for perpetrators.

The Freedom Network, which advocates for press freedoms, said 53 journalists were killed because of their work between 2012 and 2022, and that over the same time frame only two cases resulted in culprits being punished.

Citizen journalism has grown significantly in Pakistan in recent years, fuelled by the rise of social media and curbs on the mainstream press. Laypeople have taken it upon themselves to cover the worsening law and order situation and corruption in the ruling elite.

In late May, Nasrullah Gadani, a journalist known for holding local politicians, land owners and feudal lords to account in his reporting, was killed in the Badin district of Sindh province, setting off a wave of protests. His brother Yaqoob Gadani alleged that Khalid Lund, a local member of parliament, masterminded the killing. Lund has denied the allegations.

Just three days before Gadani’s death, another journalist, Kamran Dawar, was killed in the North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Responding to those deaths, Anthony Bellanger, the general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, said at the time: “Journalists and media workers in Pakistan have a constitutional right to freedom of expression, however this is undermined by targeted attacks, assaults, and killings. Authorities must ensure that the media is free to work without fear of retribution and ensure that these killings are subject to an immediate, thorough, and transparent investigation.”

Pakistan dropped two places in this year’s World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders, to 152 out of 180 countries. The index said Pakistan was “one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished”.

Shrek 5 is officially in development, with the franchise’s core voice cast – Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz – all confirmed to return.

DreamWorks Animation, the production company behind all six films in the Shrek franchise, confirmed the news on Wednesday, announcing it would be released on 1 July 2026.

The rambunctious ogre franchise began in 2001 with the first Shrek film, which became a critical and box office mega-phenomenon. When it premiered at Cannes, it became the first animated film to compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or in more than five decades, and went on to become the first winner of the Oscar’s animated feature category.

Making $487m at worldwide cinemas, Shrek’s first outing turned DreamWorks – which had produced a steady series of modest hits at that point, including Chicken Run and Antz – into a bona fide powerhouse. In 2020, Shrek was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, reserved for films of historical, cultural or aesthetic significance.

Shrek spawned three more direct sequels: Shrek 2, which also premiered at Cannes and became the franchise’s highest-grossing film with almost a billion-dollar global box office, as well as Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After.

Later in the franchise came 2011’s Puss in Boots – a spin-off centred around Antonio Banderas’s fiendish feline – and 2022 sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

It is unconfirmed as yet whether Banderas has signed on for Shrek 5, now the seventh feature film in the franchise.

In an interview last month, Murphy – who voices Donkey – hinted at forthcoming Shrek instalments, including a Donkey spin-off.

“We started doing [Shrek 5] months ago,” he told Collider. “I did this. I recorded the first act, and we’ll be doing it this year.”

News of the Shrek sequel has swirled since at least 2018, when reports emerged that Universal, DreamWorks’ parent company, had approached Chris Meledandri – the animation executive behind Despicable Me – to find a new way into the franchise.

“When you look back on those vocal performances they’re awesome … I find myself responding to my own nostalgic feelings of wanting to go back to those characterisations,” Meledandri said at the time. “The challenge for us has been to find something that really does feel like it’s not simply yet another film in a series of sequels.