A former top environment official has said the EU’s credibility on its climate commitments has been damaged by plans for a one-year delay to a law to combat deforestation that followed intense lobbying from companies and governments around the world.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, a Lithuanian MEP who was the environment commissioner until mid-July, said postponing the deforestation regulation would be “a step backward in the fight against climate change”.

In a sharp rebuke to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, Sinkevičius, who drafted the legislation that was agreed in 2023, said the 12-month delay would put 80,000 acres (32,375 hectares) of forest at risk each day, fuel 15% of global carbon emissions, break trust with the EU’s global partners and damage its credibility on its climate commitments.

On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed a 12-month delay to the law, which has been hailed by its advocates as the most ambitious in the world to combat deforestation. The law will ban the sale in the EU of commodities linked to deforestation such as cocoa, coffee, soya, palm oil and rubber, as well as products including chocolate, leather and furniture. Companies are required to use satellite monitoring and other checks to ensure their products have not been produced on land deforested or degraded after 31 December 2020.

The delay must be approved by the EU ministers and the European parliament to take effect.

If approved, the law would come into force on 30 December 2025 for large companies and 30 June 2026 for micro and small enterprises.

The call for a delay followed intense lobbying from governments and companies around the world, which argued that the law unfairly penalised exports to Europe and would harm small farmers and businesses.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the commission said a 12-month delay “to phase in the system” was a balanced solution that would support operators around the world in “securing a smooth implementation from the start”.

Countries including Brazil and Australia had pushed for a delay, arguing that EU officials were using the wrong data to measure forests, while Indonesia and Ivory Coast have said it could penalise small farmers and harm their exports.

“Global partners have repeatedly expressed concerns about their state of preparedness,” most recently during the United Nations general assembly in New York last week, the commission said.

“The extension proposal in no way puts into question the objectives or the substance of the law,” it added.

The law was adopted by a large majority of MEPs and member states in April 2023, but since then there has been a growing backlash about the costs of environmental legislation that has led the commission, for example, to scrap plans for pesticides regulation.

Environmental campaigners said Von der Leyen, who is soon to begin a second five-year term as commission president, was undermining one of the key achievements of her term, the European green deal.

Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, a senior forest policy officer at WWF, said: “President Von der Leyen is effectively giving her green light for deforestation to continue for another 12 months at a time when urgent action is needed to stop it. By undermining one of the key achievements of the European green deal, this decision casts serious doubt on the commission president’s commitment to delivering on the EU’s environmental promises.”

Nicole Polsterer at the campaign group Fern said: “Ursula von der Leyen has bowed to constant pressure from companies and countries who knew the regulation was coming for years but haven’t prepared properly for it. This is unacceptable, especially when so many other companies have invested time and money to be ready.”

Von der Leyen also faced lobbying to postpone the law from her own centre-right European People’s party , which argued that the legislation created a “substantial” administrative burden for businesses and public authorities.

Peter Liese, a German MEP who speaks for the EPP on environmental policy, said he welcomed the proposed delay and was sure the European parliament would approve it. “The regulation entering into force on 30 December 2024 would have plunged us into irresponsible chaos. Many of the conditions for application are not clear and many third countries are rightly complaining,” he said.

Deforestation, Liese added, “is a disaster for the global climate as for other things, but we have to do it the right way and get those affected by the law more involved”.

The VDMA, which represents Europe’s mechanical engineering industry, described the law as “a prime example of well-intentioned but badly done regulation” that was likely to make all affected products scarcer and more expensive.

“Obtaining the required geolocation data may be easy for cattle and products made from them. For other rubber products covered by the regulation, the reality is much more complex. The consequences here would be major supply difficulties,” it said.

The revelation on Wednesday evening that Melania Trump’s forthcoming memoir includes a full-throated defense of abortion rights, an issue her husband Donald Trump has repeatedly flip-flopped on during his presidential campaign, left people on both sides of the issue less than impressed.

“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” Melania Trump wrote in her memoir. “I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”

Melania Trump also defended the right to abortion later on in pregnancy – a procedure that her husband has repeatedly demonized. (Less than 1% of abortions occur at or past 21 weeks of gestation.)

“Sadly for the women across America, Mrs. Trump’s husband firmly disagrees with her and is the reason that more than one in three American women live under a Trump abortion ban that threatens their health, their freedom and their lives,” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in an email. “Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear: If he wins in November, he will ban abortion nationwide, punish women and restrict women’s access to reproductive health care.”

Melania Trump’s remarks also took anti-abortion activists by surprise.

“It’s hard to follow the logic of putting out the former First Lady’s book right before the election undercutting President Trump’s message to pro-life voters,” Kristan Hawkins, president of the powerful Students for Life of America, posted on Twitter/X on Wednesday night. “What a waste of momentum.”

Over the last several weeks, anti-abortion activists have grown increasingly fed up with the former president, who has struggled, alongside the rest of the Republican party, to redefine his messaging on abortion rights amid outrage over the overturning of Roe v Wade.

Earlier in his campaign, Trump bragged about appointing three of the US supreme court justices who voted to overturn Roe, branded himself the “most pro-life president ever”. After Kamala Harris became the presidential nominee, however, Trump has pledged that his administration “will be great for women and their reproductive rights” as well as vowed not to sign a national abortion ban – just weeks after refusing to say that he would veto one.

Melania Trump’s comments may feel like a further insult to the anti-abortion voters who feel abandoned by Trump, said Republican campaign strategist Liz Mair, adding anti-abortion advocates run potent get-out-the-vote operations. Those advocates were key to Trump’s 2016 victory.

“This might be just another thing that piles on to make pro-lifers think: ‘I just can’t with this guy.’ A lot of them were single-issue voters anyway,” Mair said. “He’s not really giving them much of an incentive to show up and do anything to his benefit.”

When Tresa Undem, a pollster who has surveyed people about abortion for more than two decades, heard the comments, she immediately thought: “Wow”. Then she thought: “It’s a campaign move.”

However, Undem is not sure who, exactly, the move is for – especially given the Trumps’ sometimes frosty relationship in public. Melania Trump has rarely aired her political views and has largely vanished from Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.

The odds of Melania Trump’s comments comforting moderate or conservative voters who support abortion rights are “fairly slim”, Undem said.

“These strong feelings – they did not suddenly appear this year, right? So she clearly has had no influence on him when it comes to policy related to abortion,” Undem said. “I don’t think she’s ever been positioned, or voters ever think of her, as having any kind of policy position or weight or influence on Trump.”

As returns to the biggest club stage go, Aston Villa’s went rather swimmingly, the substitute Jhon Durán nonchalantly putting Bayern Munich to bed with a stunning, off-the-cuff lob. This was a night that guaranteed a sense of mystique regardless of result and as the Champions League anthem filled the Villa Park air for the first time, the ground fell almost silent, the home supporters opening their ears in unison to drink it all in.

Despite well-documented prices this was the hottest ticket in town and the joyous scenes at the final whistle showed why. Emiliano Martínez, a couple of minutes after preventing Harry Kane from heading in a stoppage-time equaliser, thumped the ground with his gloves and as the first beats of Hi Ho Silver Lining kicked in, a beaming Unai Emery hotfooted it down the touchline applauding the supporters who worship him.

It was all in stark contrast to Bayern’s players who trudged off in long cream coats akin to sleeping bags and were at the mercy of another compelling Durán moment. He is building quite the showreel. Durán has now scored five goals off the bench this season – four winners – but given his screamer here against Everton his latest strike may have to settle for a podium finish. Pau Torres had a first-half goal disallowed for offside but Durán again stepped off the bench to earn Villa victory, prompting Prince William on to his feet from the swankier seats, and maintain their 100% start to this competition. After 41 years away, they seem intent on making up for lost time.

This was the second meeting between these sides, the first a notable one – of the same scoreline – in the 1982 European Cup final. Fittingly, pre-match the stadium speakers blared the Beautiful South’s Rotterdam, a not-so-subtle nod to Villa’s triumph, remembered so fondly in these parts. Monchi, Villa’s president of football operations, and Damian Vidagany, the director of football, spent Tuesday evening rolling back the years with many of the squad from ‘82. To christen Villa’s return to the European top table a new mural featuring Peter Withe, the late Gary Shaw, Emery, Martínez and Ollie Watkins was painted on an end-of-terrace house off Holte Road, which flanks the Trinity Road Stand.

This always promised to be an occasion that would evoke emotions and memories. Commentary of Withe’s winner was immortalised on a banner that until being moved directly opposite the dugouts this season as part of the Villa Park close-season upgrade had been part of the furniture in the Holte End. The locals gave those who travelled from Bavaria a warm Brummie welcome before Michael Olise took kick-off. “Who the fucking ‘ell are you?” they sang by way of an introduction.

Bayern, of course, are six-time winners, imperious opposition and a European superpower. Kane was deemed fit enough to lead the line after shaking off an ankle problem sustained against Bayer Leverkusen but cut a frustrated figure throughout, none more so than when Serge Gnabry blasted a wayward shot over from a tight angle rather than unselfishly squaring the ball, and he was fortunate to avoid a booking for a bump on Morgan Rogers approaching the half-time interval. Villa’s supporters roared with relief when Kane fired a free-kick wide in the 95th minute and then moments later he sent a header goalwards, only for a panicked Martínez to push the ball to safety.

With 22 minutes played the England captain was among the sullen visiting players marching back towards halfway. Villa’s supporters had gone berserk at Torres prodding past Manuel Neuer after picking up Jaden Philogene’s majestic killer touch from a recycled free-kick, only for Jacob Ramsey, forced off through injury a few minutes later, to be ruled offside by VAR. The free-kick itself, awarded for Dayot Upamecano upending Watkins, was emblematic of one of the themes of a lively first half. Upamecano looked deeply uncomfortable against Watkins.

It was Joshua Kimmich who fashioned Bayern’s first opening, floating a wonderful cross towards the back post for Gnabry, who on that occasion failed to release Kane. Olise triggered a fine save from Martínez after curling a shot at goal from 20 yards and for Villa, Rogers and Watkins had their moments. At one point Rogers collected the ball on the half-turn and steamrolled clear of three black Bayern shirts, before freeing Watkins to his left. Watkins squared the ball but Alphonso Davies intervened, clearing as far Amadou Onana, whose shot bobbled towards Neuer.

The half-time introduction of Jamal Musiala in place of the ineffective Kingsley Coman earned Bayern more control. More touches, more probing and Bayern’s first tangible opening of the second half on 65 minutes. Musiala powered clear of three claret and blue shirts and played a neat one-two with Kane before his snatched shot was blocked by Torres.

Emery, meanwhile, took the unusual step of substituting the substitute, Ian Maatsen replacing Leon Bailey. Then a more typical Villa change followed on 70 minutes, Durán replacing Watkins as Emery sought another timely intervention from his super sub. Of course, it arrived, and so effortlessly, too.

Torres zipped a pass towards the 20-year-old, who got close enough to Upamecano just to get his bearings before thumping a bouncing ball over an exposed Neuer. Durán’s record now reads six goals from nine matches this season. Just like Withe’s in ‘82, Villa supporters will not forget this unerring strike in a hurry.

JD Vance took a self-proclaimed victory lap after his vice-presidential debate against the Democrat Tim Walz, appearing on Wednesday at a campaign rally in the crucial battleground state of Michigan.

Vance told supporters in Auburn Hills that he thought the debate went “pretty well” on Tuesday, as snap polls showed viewers considered it to be a tie between the two vice-presidential candidates.

Departing from the generally civil tone of the debate, Vance mocked Walz over his biggest gaffe of the night, in which the Democratic governor said he was friends with school shooters. (Walz seemingly meant to say he was friends with victims of school shootings.)

“That was probably only the third or fourth dumbest comment Tim Walz made that night,” Vance said. “I’ve got to be honest, I feel a little bad for Governor Walz. And the reason I feel bad for him is because he has to defend the indefensible, and that is the record of Kamala Harris.”

In his prepared remarks, Vance did not touch on his weakest moment in the debate, when he refused to acknowledge Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential race. But when Vance took questions from the media after his speech, a reporter did ask him about the exchange, and he again sidestepped the question.

“The media is obsessed with talking about the election of four years ago. I’m focused on the election of 33 days from now because I want to throw Kamala Harris out of office and get back to commonsense economic policies,” Vance said.

Vance then pivoted to discussing the issue of non-citizen voting, which has become a rallying cry among Trump and his supporters. Research has uncovered little evidence to substantiate Republicans’ concerns, as voting in a federal election is already illegal for non-citizens.

“We’re going to talk about election integrity because I believe that every vote ought to count, but only the legally cast votes, and that’s why we fight for election integrity,” Vance said in Michigan.

Vance focused most of his remarks on attacking Harris over her economic policy proposals, blaming her for the high inflation seen earlier in Joe Biden’s presidency and accusing her of avoiding tough questions about her record. Echoing comments he made during the debate, Vance referenced his background growing up in a low-income family in Ohio to relate to Americans struggling to pay their bills.

“She’s afraid of interviews, so she doesn’t talk to people, and she doesn’t realize that her economic policies are making it harder on American families,” Vance said. “If you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to afford a good life for your family, and that’s what Donald Trump and I are going to fight for every single day for the next four years.”

Vance then linked Trump’s economic policies to his proposals on immigration, as the former president has called for the mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. An analysis released on Wednesday by the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group, concluded that Trump’s mass deportation program could cost the federal government as much as $88bn a year on average.

“The American media – and especially Kamala Harris and Tim Walz – they don’t want to talk about how this illegal immigration crisis is a theft of the American dream from American citizens,” Vance said. “Here’s the Donald Trump plan, and here’s the Donald Trump message to illegal aliens in this country: in six months, pack your bags because you’re going home.”

Despite rehashing some of Trump’s most divisive talking points, Vance made a point to reach out to Democrats who may still be undecided in the election. Trump will probably need some of those voters’ support to carry Michigan, a state that Biden won by 3 points in 2020.

“As a person who was raised by a couple of working-class, blue-collar Democrats, I want to say to every Democrat who’s watching at home [and] every Democrat who’s in this room: you are more than welcome in Donald Trump’s Republican party,” Vance said. “We’re the party of common sense. We’ve got a big tent, and you’re welcome in our movement.”

And yet, when asked by a reporter how he and Trump would work to unite Americans in the face of political division if they win the election in November, Vance again lashed out against Harris.

“Why do we have so much division, and why do we have so much rancor in this country’s political debate? It’s because Kamala Harris and her allies are trying to silence the American people rather than engage with them,” Vance said. “When you try to censor your fellow citizens, when you try to shut them up, you breed division and hatred.”

Given Trump’s tendency to deploy personal insults and degrading nicknames against his political opponents, that explanation may not sit well with voters. Trump now has just one month left to convince Americans that he deserves another four years in the White House.

Donald Trump “resorted to crimes” in a failed bid to cling to power after losing the 2020 election, federal prosecutors said in a newly unsealed court filing that argues that the former US president is not entitled to immunity from prosecution.

The filing was unsealed Wednesday. It was submitted by special counsel Jack Smith’s team following a supreme court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents and narrowed the scope of the prosecution.

Trump’s legal team have employed a delaying strategy in all the numerous legal cases that Trump faces that has mostly been successful.

The 165-page filing is probably the last opportunity for prosecutors to detail their case against Trump before the 5 November election given there will not be a trial before Trump faces the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Prosecutors laid out details including an allegation that a White House staffer heard Trump tell family members that it did not matter if he won or lost the election, “you still have to fight like hell”.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges accusing him of a conspiracy to obstruct the congressional certification of the election, defraud the US out of accurate results and interfere with Americans’ voting rights.

Prosecutors working with Smith divulged their evidence to make the case that the remaining allegations against Trump survive the US supreme court’s ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions taken as president.

Prosecutors have said the filing will discuss new evidence, including transcripts of witness interviews and grand jury testimony, but much of that material will not be made public until a trial.

Senior officials in Trump’s administration including former vice-president Mike Pence and White House chief-of-staff Mark Meadows appeared before the grand jury during the investigation.

Prosecutors submitted the court filing on Thursday, but US district judge Tanya Chutkan had to approve proposed redactions before it was made public.

Trump’s lawyers opposed allowing Smith to issue a sweeping court filing laying out their evidence, arguing it would be inappropriate to do so weeks before the election. They have argued the entire case should be tossed out based on the supreme court’s ruling.

The US presidential election is a neck-and-neck contest with Harris establishing a slight but solid lead over Trump in most national voting surveys. The picture in the all-important swing states is more complex, however, as tight races in key contests will decide the election.

If Trump wins the election, he is likely to direct the justice department to drop the charges.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting

Thousands gathered for New York City’s annual Climate Week last week to promote climate solutions, from the phaseout of fossil-fuel subsidies to nuclear energy to corporate-led schemes like carbon credits. Others touted a more offbeat potential salve to the crisis: psychedelics.

Under the banner of Psychedelic Climate Week, a group of academics, marketers and advocates gathered for a film on pairing magic mushrooms with music, a discussion on funding ketamine-assisted therapy and a panel on “Balancing Investing & Impact with Climate & Psychedelic Capital”.

Many attendees shared the belief that psychedelic experiences may spark “consciousness shifts”, which can inspire climate-friendly behaviors, said Marissa Feinberg, the founder of Psychedelics for Climate Action, which convened the event series.

The promotion of psychedelics was one of several features of Climate Week that diverged from the usual lineup of platitude-heavy panel talks. Other events included a series of climate-themed discussions and a performance by a “drag wrestling collective” in a pop-up boxing ring, as well as events filled with dancing, meditation and imbibing cacao.

Such themes of wellness and personal improvement come amid growing public anxiety about the climate crisis, to the extent that many younger people do not see themselves having children, and frustration over the faltering progress to move away from fossil fuels.

There is a sense of anger among many people that “fossil-fuel companies are using the power of their wallet and their political reach to intimidate anyone who wants to move forward”, said Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat who was previously the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change.

“I don’t know about drugs, but many people in the climate and biodiversity community are certainly beyond despondent,” said Figueres. “When you feel angry and despondent, there’s a lot of energy there and you have to take that and turn it into agency for good.”

There is surging interest in the potential for hallucinogens – including psychedelics like LSD, empathogens like MDMA, and dissociatives like ketamine – to serve as healing aids for depression, addiction and other mental health problems.

Psychedelic drug use, under the right circumstances, can “relieve your personal stress” and promote “mindfulness”, said Feinberg in an interview from a midtown Manhattan coffee shop. Someone who is tense and seeking convenience might buy a plastic water bottle, but those who take psychedelics – and internalize the feeling of connectedness they inspire – may behave with more intention, she said.

“You take that moment of peace and calm, and you plan your day, and you bring that water bottle with you, and you have that more intentional start to your day,” she said. Gesturing toward her own cup of water, she said: “I opted for the paper cup.”

It’s not only consumers who can benefit from psychedelic experiences, said Feinberg. They may also help C-suite executives “think outside the box” when it comes to social issues and climate, she said. Amazon’s anti-worker policies and sky-high carbon emissions may be related to Jeff Bezos’s feelings of unworthiness, Feinberg suggested.

If Bezos experienced “healing”, he might shift from solely focusing on amassing wealth to incorporating compassion and sustainability, she argued. The same may be true of some politicians, she said, adding that one sponsor of Psychedelic Climate Week offered free treatments of ibogaine – a psychedelic and dissociative drug – to politicians out of a Cancún clinic.

Another one of Feinberg’s collaborators, the University of Maryland business school professor Bennet Zelner, is researching psychedelic experiences for organizational leaders, examining whether they spur more compassionate decision-making.

“His work is very compelling to our group,” said Feinberg, who is also the founder of a communications firm and does public relations for Nushama, a Manhattan clinic offering ketamine treatment for mental health.

Some research does suggest psychedelic experiences are associated with “pro-environmental” behavior or feeling “nature-connectedness”. But the evidence is limited, subjective and full of potentially confounding factors, said Nicolas Langlitz, a historian of science at the New School who studies psychedelics. A 2017 study found those who reported hallucinogen use were also more likely to report that they recycled and saved water, but its participants, who were recruited from Amazon’s crowdsourcing platform, were younger, more educated and more experienced with psychedelics than the average US citizen.

“Generally, the milieu around psychedelics – and especially the parts of that milieu that these studies tap into – just tends to be a lot more liberal, a lot more environmentally conscious,” said Langlitz.

Though research shows those who have partaken in Indigenous-led ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon rainforest feel more “nature-relatedness”, it does not interrogate the willingness of foreigners to take carbon-intensive flights to the rainforest from far-flung western countries.

Such studies also generally focus on individual changes in feelings and behavior amid a longstanding heated debate about whether such shifts translate into carbon reductions, and whether they should command environmentalists’ attention.

“I’m generally skeptical about any individualized solution,” said Langlitz. “I think, at the end of the day, it’s policy decisions that make a difference.”

Feinberg, for her part, said individual and system-wide solutions were both needed. “Systems are created … for individuals to participate in,” she said, adding that systems and individuals “inform each other”.

“We all have power. We all influence each other. Someone can only make a product that someone’s going to buy, and I’m only going to buy something that’s on the shelf,” she said. “So it all plays hand in hand.”

Other studies indicate a correlation between using the substances and pro-social behavior or anti-authoritarian sentiment. Yet counter-examples abound, said Langlitz. Neo-Nazi figures have said psychedelics have inspired them. Albert Hofmann, who invented LSD in 1938, was close friends with Ernst Jünger, who railed against democracy, and Armin Mohler, the far-right political philosopher, Langlitz said.

“Jünger and Hofmann tripped together,” said Langlitz. “There are pockets of psychedelic countercultures that are rightwing and authoritarian.”

Psychedelics have also gained prominence among business leaders. Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO, has reportedly used ketamine both therapeutically and recreationally and has still been widely criticized for mistreating workers and mishandling hazardous products. (Feinberg declined to comment on Musk specifically, but said that “psychedelic healing does not happen overnight and it’s not at all a silver bullet”, and that “psychedelics do not work for everyone in a positive way”.)

In the absence of robust climate policy, however, interest in inward-focused climate action is likely to abound. Figueres said she had started to lead spiritual retreats in locations around the world to help people “turn inside and understand what is going on and how they can compost those feelings and emotions in order to strengthen their agency”.

“This is an issue very close to my heart,” she said.

At least 166 people have died from Hurricane Helene, many are still missing and more than 1 million people remained without power as rescue and recovery efforts continued from the devastating storm.

Hundreds of people were missing in Buncombe county, home to Asheville, earlier this week, and 85 people were missing in Tennessee, CNN reported.

Joe Biden will travel to both North and South Carolina on Wednesday to survey the storm damage. The vice-president, Kamala Harris, will travel to Georgia to do the same. Donald Trump traveled to Georgia earlier in the week.

Nearly 1.3 million people were without power in several south-eastern states as of 7.30am ET, according to the site poweroutage.us, which tracks outages. That total includes more than 373,000 people in Georgia, nearly 494,000 in South Carolina, and more than 347,000 in North Carolina. More than 40,000 people were still without power in Florida and Virginia, as well as an additional 10,000 people in West Virginia.

Several areas affected by the storm are also struggling to find drinking water. In Asheville, North Carolina, around 100,000 people were without running water, according to the Washington Post. Residents are boiling water and washing themselves and dishes in creeks, the Post reported. Fema delivered a cargo plane of food, water and emergency supplies on Tuesday, CNN reported.

Residents in Augusta, Georgia, also have not had running water for three days and several are under a boil water advisory.

Biden and some lawmakers from affected states, including Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, suggested earlier this week he would call on Congress, which is on recess, to pass additional disaster relief funding. But that does not seem likely.

A stopgap funding measure Congress passed earlier this month allows Fema to more quickly use $20bn in disaster relief funds. About $6bn of those funds, however, were expected to be used to address relief for previous disasters, including Vermont flooding and Hawaii wildfires, according to Roll Call.

“Congress has previously provided the funds it needs to respond, so we will make sure that those resources are appropriately allocated,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said on Tuesday.

A US bomb from the second world war that had been buried at a Japanese airport has exploded, causing a large crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights but no injuries, Japanese officials said.

Land and transport ministry officials said there were no aircraft nearby when the bomb exploded at Miyazaki airport in south-western Japan on Wednesday.

Officials said an investigation by the self-defence forces and police confirmed that the explosion was caused by a 500-pound US bomb and there was no further danger. They were determining what caused its sudden detonation.

A video recorded by a nearby aviation school showed the blast spewing pieces of asphalt into the air like a fountain. Videos broadcast on Japanese television showed a crater in the taxiway reportedly about 7 metres in diameter and 1 metre deep.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said more than 80 flights had been cancelled at the airport, which hopes to resume operations on Thursday morning.

Miyazaki airport was built in 1943 as a former imperial Japanese navy flight training field from which some kamikaze pilots took off on suicide attack missions.

A number of unexploded bombs dropped by the US military during the second world war had been unearthed in the area, defence ministry officials said.

Hundreds of tons of unexploded bombs from the war remain buried around Japan and are sometimes dug up at construction sites.

What did Iran fire?

Tehran deployed ballistic missiles, which use trajectories outside or near the limits of Earth’s atmosphere, in the attack. It used similar weapons against Israel earlier this year.

This time, it said it had also deployed hypersonic missiles that have an estimated maximum speed of 10,000mph.

Why did Iran attack?

While details of the timings and nature of the attack were not known in advance, it was not a surprise.

World powers have for months predicted a “regional escalation” from Israel’s war on Gaza, in which it has killed 40,000 Palestinians. That followed an attack by Hamas militants on 7 October 2023 that killed about 1,200 Israelis. Israel is now fighting allegations of genocide at the world’s highest court.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have now expanded the war to Lebanon, which they are bombing heavily.

Lebanon is home to Iran’s key regional ally, Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into northern Israel in response to the bloodshed in Gaza.

Last week, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkie radios belonging to members of Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon, killing scores and wounding thousands of others, including civilians. On Friday, Israel assassinated the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. In July, the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in the Iranian capital – an attack attributed to Israel.

Israeli attacks have devastated the southern suburbs of Beirut, the capital, as well as villages in the country’s south. At least 1 million people in Lebanon – a fifth of the population – are now displaced.

The US has warned of an escalation but at the same time supported Israel’s attacks both diplomatically – by arguing its case at international institutions such as the UN – and materially, by sending it the bombs and weapons it has used to kill thousands.

What damage did the Iranian missiles cause?

The impact of the damage is being assessed. The IDF said on Wednesday some of its airbases were hit. Images posted by Israelis showed craters in central and southern parts of the country.

No injuries have been reported in Israel, but one person was killed in the occupied West Bank, authorities there said.

Iran said the attack targeted military installations but at least one rocket had hit an Israeli school.

The US president, Joe Biden, described Iran’s attack as “ineffective”.

What will happen now?

Iran said its attacks were over, although it has more missiles ready to be fired if Israel responds.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Tehran had made a “big mistake” and vowed that “it will pay for it”.

In hindsight, the quiff was probably a bad idea. It was the morning of my final audition to play Harry Potter in 2000. I should have been rehearsing the scene I’d be performing later that day at Leavesden Studios, in front of a panel that included director Chris Columbus. Instead, I spent half an hour papier-macheing my fringe with fistfuls of wet-look hair gel, intent on giving these Hollywood bigwigs some of the old razzle dazzle.

Needless to say, securing the lead role in one of the biggest film franchises of all time requires more than a hairstyle. Mid-audition, as I anxiously fumbled through my lines, I locked eyes with one of the producers. He gave me a smile that I’m sure was meant to be encouraging, but it was clear he’d already made up his mind.

The journey to this point started on Christmas Day, 1998. What I had really wanted that year was the latest novel in the Goal Kings series, which followed a team of teenage football players. Instead, I got a book about a child with a lightning-bolt scar. But like the other 120 million people who bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, I quickly came around to the young wizard and his outcast mates.

The following year, an unusual announcement was made during one of my school assemblies: auditions for the Harry Potter film adaptation had begun, and they were open to any would-be wizards in my age range.

The film-makers were determined to cast children who were British and relatively unknown to the film industry, so had flung the net surprisingly wide. I was a relatively unknown British child living in rural West Sussex, but outside a few school productions I’d not done any acting, so I have no idea what compelled me to believe I stood a chance. Either way, I excitedly told my mum the second I got home, and she signed me up for the casting call at a nearby school in Brighton.

My main recollection of that day is queueing for a really long time. About 300 kids reportedly auditioned for the role of Harry, and it felt as if they were all standing in front of me that drizzly afternoon.

After I finally did my bit, one of the casting directors took my mum aside. “He’s rather good,” she whispered. This inspired some optimism on the drive home. But as the weeks rolled on and we heard nothing, the hope faded and I got back to more important stuff, like watching WWF.

Months later, the house phone rang. I’d been invited to audition for Harry, at Leavesden, where the films were going to be shot. It didn’t seem real, but before long confirmation came in the form of the scenes I’d need to learn: a conversation about dementors, and the poignant moment in which Harry’s late parents are revealed to him in the magical Mirror of Erised, which as far as I remember mostly boiled down to me pulling a variety of concerned facial expressions.

Having spent a few weeks practising looking a bit worried, then a bit sad, then a bit shocked, and then ultimately quite happy, it was go-time. I got my hair looking just how I wanted it (objectively bad) and hopped in the car with my dad.

I remember getting a brief tour of the studio and seeing the early sketches for the Golden Snitch, the most important ball in a game of Quidditch, which was an incredibly exciting moment for an 11-year-old Potterhead. I also recall sitting opposite a pair of gangly, red-headed brothers in the waiting area. I found out years later that they were James and Oliver Phelps, who would play the Weasley twins.

What I remember least is the audition itself, which isn’t some kind of minor trauma response, because the experience wasn’t at all traumatic. The casting team – made up of Columbus, producers David Heyman and Mark Radcliffe, and casting directors Janet Hirshenson and Karen Lindsay-Stewart – were all incredibly kind, gentle and welcoming.

Really, I think I just left as little of a mark on myself as I did on that panel. I felt shy, froze up and didn’t deliver my lines with as much gusto as I had while practising them at home. (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently revealed on social media that I’d subsequently been considered for boy-villain Draco Malfoy, which is somehow worse than not being cast as Harry. Learning that you’d make a good match for one of literature’s most unlikable characters is a truly humbling experience.)

Leaving the room, I knew I hadn’t got the part. Even as an 11-year-old amateur, it was clear I’d missed the mark. On the drive home, I experienced two emotions more starkly than I ever had before: disappointment that my life wasn’t about to be transformed, and regret at my half-hearted performance. Worse still, I was dreading the embarrassment of updating everyone at school, having proudly told them all about the casting director’s “rather good” remark.

Relative to what some 11-year-olds are being forced to endure, not becoming a multimillionaire actor isn’t exactly history’s biggest boo-hoo moment. But that three-pronged poker of dismay, remorse and shame was fairly crushing as a kid, and took a while for me to shake.

That said, it also forced me to confront and process those emotions, which was helpful training for a lifetime studded with just as much disappointment and embarrassment as is customary. And while Daniel Radcliffe’s (estimated) £95m fortune would be nice, I honestly wouldn’t want to swap his younger years for mine. After all, you only get one shot at being an awkward, clumsy teenager, more concerned with your hairstyle than your life prospects, and I’m glad I was able to experience all those highs and lows in complete and utter anonymity.