The mother of a teenager who killed himself after becoming obsessed with an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot now accuses its maker of complicity in his death.

Megan Garcia filed a civil suit against Character.ai, which makes a customizable chatbot for role-playing, in Florida federal court on Wednesday, alleging negligence, wrongful death and deceptive trade practices. Her son Sewell Setzer III, 14, died in Orlando, Florida, in February. In the months leading up to his death, Setzer used the chatbot day and night, according to Garcia.

“A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life,” Garcia said in a press release. “Our family has been devastated by this tragedy, but I’m speaking out to warn families of the dangers of deceptive, addictive AI technology and demand accountability from Character.AI, its founders, and Google.”

In a tweet, Character.ai responded: “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users and want to express our deepest condolences to the family. As a company, we take the safety of our users very seriously.” It has denied the suit’s allegations.

Setzer had become enthralled with a chatbot built by Character.ai that he nicknamed Daenerys Targaryen, a character in Game of Thrones. He texted the bot dozens of times a day from his phone and spent hours alone in his room talking to it, according to Garcia’s complaint.

Garcia accuses Character.ai of creating a product that exacerbated her son’s depression, which she says was already the result of overuse of the startup’s product. “Daenerys” at one point asked Setzer if he had devised a plan for killing himself, according to the lawsuit. Setzer admitted that he had but that he did not know if it would succeed or cause him great pain, the complaint alleges. The chatbot allegedly told him: “That’s not a reason not to go through with it.”

Garcia attorneys wrote in a press release that Character.ai “knowingly designed, operated, and marketed a predatory AI chatbot to children, causing the death of a young person”. The suit also names Google as a defendant and as Character.ai’s parent company. The tech giant said in a statement that it had only made a licensing agreement with Character.ai and did not own the startup or maintain an ownership stake.

Tech companies developing AI chatbots can’t be trusted to regulate themselves and must be held fully accountable when they fail to limit harms, says Rick Claypool, a research director at consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen.

“Where existing laws and regulations already apply, they must be rigorously enforced,” he said in a statement. “Where there are gaps, Congress must act to put an end to businesses that exploit young and vulnerable users with addictive and abusive chatbots.”

• In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email [email protected], and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Requirements for gardens and the planting of trees must be included in Labour’s planned new rules for housebuilders, green groups have said.

The government is drawing up its future homes standard for new developments and it is not yet clear what requirements there will be for green space.

Developers are currently subject to biodiversity net gain rules that mean they have to ensure there are more spaces for nature after a development is built than before construction commenced.

Gardening groups including the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) are now asking for rights to green spaces to be enshrined in the plans to boost housebuilding. Prof Alistair Griffiths, the RHS director of science, pointed to a study based on UK Biobank data that showed people with gardens tend to have lower mortality risks, lead healthier lives and be less stressed.

“If you have more green space or a garden, you will do more physical exercise and be more likely to meet NHS guidelines for physical exercise. One of the greatest challenges the government faces in terms of the health service is levels of obesity, so this is significant,” he said.

Clare Matterson, the RHS director general, said that including gardens with the 1.5m homes that the government has pledged to build could save the NHS money.

“Let’s completely flip back around and make sure the outside space is actually thought about as much as the inside space. It has so many benefits, cost-saving benefits, particularly to the NHS,” she said.

She added that homes on the market should have a garden performance certificate, like they have for insulation, to indicate the quality of the soil, the amount of water it stores, and the biodiversity.

“When you buy a house you get an energy performance certificate, you have ratings for all the white goods in the kitchen. How about having a garden performance certificate?

“Let’s allow people to make some really important choices and give an incentive for people who are selling homes to create really good gardens.”

Developers often plan to include gardens and green space but overspend on the construction of the homes and put concrete where plants should be. Wayne Grills, the chief executive of the British Association of Landscape Industries, urged Labour to include gardens in its plans.

“We can actually be in there advising the contractors that are there at the same time that construction is going on, rather than being allowed to come back and dig up that same piece of environment,” he said.

“And the second thing for me [is] making sure that the budget is there. So we certainly see some really good, specified schemes, but very often the building is overspent over time and then landscaping that goes around it is cut back in many cases.”

Griffiths said that in the medium-term future, the UK would have a climate much like that of Barcelona now, and would need more planting.

“If you look at car parks and if you look at housing estates and developments in this country, there are no trees and there is no shade. This is not the case in France, Barcelona [north-eastern Spain] and other countries, they have spaces designed for urban cooling,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The government recognises the importance of building high-quality housing, and our planning reforms set clear expectations to ensure new developments meet the standards required.

“This includes taking into account the national model design code, which makes clear that open spaces, including private outdoor spaces, contribute to the quality of a place and to people’s quality of life.”

Turkey’s interior minister has blamed a “terrorist attack” for an explosion and assault at the headquarters of the national aerospace company, Tusaş, outside Ankara that has killed four people and wounded 14 others.

The large blast happened outside the building at 4pm on Wednesday, and there were reports that gunfire was also heard in the vicinity.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said: “We have four martyrs. We have 14 wounded. I condemn this heinous terrorist attack and wish mercy on our martyrs.”

The interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said: “A terrorist attack was carried out against the Tusaş facilities in Kahramankazan, Ankara. Unfortunately, we have martyrs and injured people.”

He said two attackers – a woman and a man – had been “neutralised” and work was under way to determine their identities. Yerlikaya did not say whether there were any other attackers still at large, amid conflicting reports of whether the situation was ongoing.

Media outlets that had been showing live footage from the scene were forced to halt their broadcasts after Turkey’s media watchdog ordered a blackout of images from the site. Habertürk TV said earlier there was an ongoing “hostage situation”, without giving further details.

The exact circumstances of the explosion and subsequent gunfire remained unclear, with some media reports suggesting it was a suicide attack.

It was not clear who was behind the attack. Kurdish militants, Islamic State and leftist extremists have carried out attacks in the country in the past.

Erdoğan was in the Russian city of Kazan for a Brics summit of major emerging market nations, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, where he held talks with Vladimir Putin.

According to initial reports, the attack was launched by several gunmen who arrived at the site by taxi. Local television footage appeared to show individuals wearing black and carrying rucksacks in the streets near the building firing at bystanders. TV images also showed a damaged gate and a clash in a car park.

The TV channel NTV said a group of assailants arrived at an entrance to the complex in a taxi during a changing of the security personnel. At least one of the assailants detonated a bomb, while other attackers managed to enter the complex, it said.

Tusaş is one of Turkey’s most important defence and aviation companies. It produces Kaan, the country’s first national combat aircraft, among other projects.

According to the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, staff in the building were directed to shelters for security reasons.

The blast occurred as an important trade fair for the defence and aerospace industries was taking place in Istanbul, which was visited this week by Ukraine’s top diplomat.

Turkey’s defence sector, which is known for making Bayraktar drones, accounts for nearly 80% of the country’s export revenues, with revenues thought to exceed $10.2bn in 2023.

The attack drew condemnation from the transport minister, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, and the opposition leader, Özgür Özel, who heads the Republican People’s party (CHP). “I condemn the terrorist attack against TAI facilities in Kahramankazan … I condemn terrorism, no matter who or where it comes from,” Özel wrote on X.

The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said the military alliance would stand with Turkey. He posted on X: “Deeply concerning reports of dead and wounded in Ankara. #NATO stands with our Ally #Turkey. We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and are monitoring developments closely.”

In January two gunmen opened fire inside a Catholic church in Istanbul, killing a man, with Islamic State claiming responsibility.

The dangers of a collapse of the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, known as Amoc, have been “greatly underestimated” and would have devastating and irreversible impacts, according to an open letter released at the weekend by 44 experts from 15 countries. One of the signatories, Stefan Rahmstorf, an oceanographer and climatologist who heads the Earth system analysis department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, explains here why he has recently upgraded his risk assessment of an Amoc breakdown as a result of global heating – and what that means for Britain, Europe and the wider world.

What is Amoc?

Amoc, or the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, is a system of ocean currents that brings heat into the northern Atlantic. Warm surface water from the tropics flows north and releases its heat in the subpolar Atlantic, south of Greenland and west of Britain and Ireland. Then it cools and sinks to a depth of between 2,000m to 3,000 metres before returning south as a cold current. Amoc is one of our planet’s largest heat transport systems, moving the equivalent of 50 times the human energy use, and it has a particularly strong impact on the climate in Europe, affects the ocean’s CO₂ uptake and oxygen supply, as well as rainfall patterns in the tropics.

How is Amoc different to the Gulf Stream?

They are connected because the northwards flow of Amoc goes via the Gulf Stream, which is a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, then flows through the Florida straits, up the coast of the US and then across towards Europe. Amoc contributes just 20% to the Gulf Stream water flow but most of the heat transport, since Amoc’s deep return flow is very cold. It works like a central heating system.

What is happening to Amoc?

There are indications that Amoc has been slowing down for the last 60 or 70 years due to global heating. The most ominous sign is the cold blob over the northern Atlantic. The region is the only place in the world that has cooled in the past 20 years or so, while everywhere else on the planet has warmed – a sign of reduced heat transport into that region, exactly what climate computer models have predicted in response to Amoc slowing as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.

Are there other indications that Amoc is weakening?

Yes. There is a region of excessive heating along the east coast of North America, which is predicted by climate models and oceanographic theory as a result of a slowing Amoc, which pushes the Gulf Stream closer to the shore.

Another indicator is a reduction in the salt content of seawater. In the cold blob region, salinity is at its lowest level since measurements began 120 years ago. This is probably linked to Amoc slowing down and bringing less salty water and heat from the subtropics.

Why is the salt content significant?

When the water is less salty, it is less dense, which makes it harder to sink down. That is important because the sinking process is what drives Amoc. The fresher the water, the slower it gets.

What is driving the change in salinity?

Firstly, salinity is directly affected by global heating, which enhances the water cycle so there is more evaporation in the subtropics and more precipitation in the subpolar oceans. This leads to a freshening of the subpolar ocean. Then there are additional contributions from the melting of sea ice and the loss of continental ice from the Greenland ice sheet, which is freshwater that flows into the ocean.

It is an amplifying feedback: as Amoc gets weaker, the subpolar oceans gets less salty, and as the oceans gets less salty then Amoc gets weaker. At a certain point this becomes a vicious circle which continues by itself until Amoc has died, even if we stop pushing the system with further emissions.

When might Amoc weakening reach a point of no return?

The big unknown here – the billion-dollar question – is how far away this tipping point is. It is very difficult to answer because the process is non-linear and would be triggered by subtle differences in salinity, which in turn depend on amounts of rainfall and cloud cover over the ocean as well as Greenland melting rates. These are hard to model accurately in computers so there is a big uncertainty relating to when the tipping point will be reached.

What is the range of forecasts?

Until a few years ago, the general thinking in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was that the probability of crossing the tipping point this century was less than 10%. Since then, there have been a number of studies suggesting a collapse would probably be triggered this century, possibly in the next few decades. So my risk assessment has really changed. I am now very concerned that we may push Amoc over this tipping point in the next decades. If you ask me my gut feeling, I would say the risk that we cross the tipping point this century is about 50/50.

Is there any possibility it has already happened?

I wouldn’t rule it out completely, because it would be very hard to tell from observations. Nothing dramatic happens at the tipping point. That just means Amoc is then doomed and it will slowly die, but that process could take 50 to 100 years. Because the Amoc is already weakening we can’t be entirely sure whether we already passed a tipping point, but I would say this is most likely not the case, so it is not too late to prevent this.

What would be the warning signs of Amoc collapse?

We need to keep monitoring the flow of water in the Atlantic, which is being done with the Rapid project. We should also monitor deep winter mixing in the northern Atlantic and Nordic seas. If the deep mixing starts to decline a lot, that could be an early indicator that we are approaching a tipping point. There are some signs of this, but we don’t have enough data yet to be sure.

What would be the consequences of Amoc breakdown?

This has happened repeatedly in Earth’s history, most recently during the last ice age, when big ice masses slid into the ocean – so-called Heinrich events – adding meltwater that diluted the salinity of the north Atlantic. These are among the most massive upheavals of climate conditions in Earth’s history.

The effects include a cooling of the northern hemisphere, particularly northwestern Europe. There would also be a shift of the tropical rainfall belt to the south, which is bad because the rains will move away from the rainforests to regions that are not used to so much rainfall. So this will mean droughts in some regions and floods in others.

Amoc collapse would also have a major impact on the northern Atlantic sea level, which would rise by half a metre or so, in addition to the rise caused by global heating. It would also reduce the CO₂ uptake of the ocean because Amoc sinking in the northern Atlantic takes a lot of CO₂ down into the deep oceans where it is safely locked away from the atmosphere.

Amoc collapse would also change the nutrient supply and reduce the oxygen of the deep oceans. This would have a massive effect on marine biology and the entire ecosystem of the northern Atlantic.

Many of these things are happening already, aren’t they?

Yes, to some extent. This is partly because Amoc is weakening and so is its counterpart in the southern hemisphere, the Antarctic bottom water formation, according to research by Australian colleagues.

Could the cooling effect of Amoc collapse offset the heating caused by human emissions?

I can’t think of anywhere that will be better off. If it were just a case of averages, then somewhere like Germany might see a balance. But weather is not a climate average; it is seasonal and highly variable. Within the average you can get warm air from the south or cold polar air outbreaks from the north. These contrasts will be more pronounced if Scandinavia and Britain cool while Spain and Italy warm. This will drive much greater variability in the weather, which is bad for agriculture, and it will cause more storms. I would expect major extreme weather events that we have not seen in the past.

The key thing about climate change is that both the ecosystem of the Earth as well as human settlements and infrastructures are highly adapted to what the climate was like in previous centuries. So any change – whether global heating or global cooling – will always be bad because it will lead to maladaptation. Think of the tremendous flooding we have seen somewhere in the world almost every week in the last months. If it had been like that for centuries, then river and sewer systems would be adapted to take up that water. But because we are not used to that, there are disasters. That is the problem of climate change.

How certain is the science about Amoc collapse?

It is well established that Amoc is weakening and that a tipping point exists. The uncertainty is about when we will cross that threshold. We also have very few studies about what the combined effect of Amoc collapse and global heating would exactly look like.

It is a question of risk assessment. I compare it to being told that there is a 10% chance of an airplane crashing. Would you get on that plane? I wouldn’t. The disastrous consequences are unacceptable.

Why haven’t the IPCC made more of Amoc risks?

They have not done enough risk assessment because they tend to focus on the most probable scenarios for future climate change. Some colleagues say we shouldn’t talk about extreme possibilities like an Amoc collapse because it sounds alarmist and might distract people from more certain impacts of global heating, which are bad enough. But I think those extreme risks are part of the whole picture that we need to consider, to make responsible and rational decisions.

How long would an Amoc collapse last and how survivable would it be?

The last time, it took about 1,000 years to recover, though the past is not a direct analogue because there is also massive CO₂ forcing this time – CO₂ is already higher than any time in 15m years. There are physical reasons why some form of deep overturning circulation will eventually come back.

One thing is for sure: humanity will not die out. But for some countries that will be in the midst of this, like Norway, and Scotland, the risks will be existential and raise the question whether people can continue to live there or whether most of them would rather move.

How does the Amoc threat compare to other climate tipping points?

That is hard to tell. It is a trade-off between more distant futures and things that are already happening.

We have already crossed the tipping point of many coral reefs, which are now in middle of global die-off. This is very depressing because it is already too late to do anything about it, though marine biologists have warned about the risks for a long time. The Amazon rainforest is also dangerously close to a tipping point. As we speak, it is going through the worst drought on record.

Then in the very long run, we have the ice sheet tipping points in Greenland and west Antarctica. From Greenland alone, this will lead to a seven-metre global sea level rise that will wipe all major coastal cities off the map. But that will occur over many centuries because ice sheet melt is a slow process.

Amoc is on an intermediate timescale because it unfolds over decades to 100 years.

I am worried about all of these things to be honest. And the conclusion for all of them is the same: this is all driven mainly by fossil fuel emissions and also deforestation, so both must be stopped. We must stick to the Paris agreement and limit global heating as close to 1.5C as possible. I don’t think it is my job to talk about my feelings, but I do have two children and I am very worried about what future they will live in. I sometimes joke that physicists don’t have feelings. But even physicists care about their kids.

On a misty winter morning, farmer Mohit Chutia sits on the ground outside his home rocking his grandson in his lap. He sings about the hoolock gibbons, the only ape species in India. High in the tree canopy above, the gibbons leap gracefully from branch to branch. Below, Chutia and his family watch.

It is a picture of the coexistence that has endured for generations between the endangered gibbons and villagers in Barekuri in Assam, in the remote east of the country.

“They are like my own children,” says Chutia. His close bond with the gibbons has prompted other villagers to call him bandar – monkey.

The hoolock gibbon is found only in a few places in the world and estimates of total numbers are uncertain. It was once thought India had about 12,000, but in 2017 experts revised this down to between 5,000 and 10,000.

In Barekuri, a tiny pocket of about 19 gibbons is left – and only four are females, placing the group at the edge of viable survival. Close up, the gibbons are a vision of tight, respectful coexistence with humans – but looming in the background are the wider threats of pollution, extractive industries and deforestation driven by human activity.

A new Guardian documentary – Guardians of the Gibbons – looks at how Chutia’s community has created an unusually close bond with their ape neighbours.

On the drive towards Chutia’s home, in a remaining patch of jungle, the vast and famous tea estates of Assam stretch out across the horizon on both sides of the road. Turning off the road for Barekuri, the landscape suddenly changes to thick forest and dense undergrowth.

The canopy used to be so thick that villagers would hear the hoolocks’ calls – a collection of whoops and hoots – but only caught glimpses of them. However, deforestation, mining for oil and gas, expansion of villages and roads, and the growth of monoculture crops such as tea have all fragmented the forest cover.

“For the gibbons, who are almost totally arboreal, it means they are cut off from areas of the forest, unable to cross the open areas created by the road and rail line. Their access to the fruit they depend on has been reduced,” says Ragini Nath, who made the documentary with fellow film-maker Chinmoy Sonowal.

Inside his brick-and-bamboo home, Chutia talks about his favourite gibbon, Twik, who nearly died from electrocution from a low-hanging wire. Within minutes of Chutia calling, Twik emerges from the tree canopy, his mother watching protectively from a few feet away.

It is not clear yet whether Twik is female – hoolock gibbons take years to develop the golden brown fur that marks a female of the species. If Twik is female, her ability to grow the species’ numbers could help this small population survive.

The tree canopy looks lush and thick but Chutia says there are not enough fruit trees. “The day I saw them eating leaves years ago, I realised they weren’t getting enough fruit. If they had had enough fruit, they would never have taken the bananas I offered them,” he says.

The story of humans and gibbons is not only one of peaceful coexistence, but also looming threats. As you drive through the forest, oil and gas rigs loom into view, flares burning.

The extraction business is booming in this region. Assam is a leading oil and gas producer: the state accounts for 14% of India’s crude oil production and 10% of its fossil gas. The state government estimates that 1.3bn tonnes of crude oil lies under the ground, more than half of which is unexplored.

Chutia has vivid memories of 2020, when a gas blow-out just over a mile away caused a fire that raged for months. It led to the deaths of three people and almost 26,000 animals, including two gibbons. “It felt like we were breathing oil,” says Chutia.

Ishika Ramakrishna, a researcher from Bengaluru who is studying gibbons for her doctorate at the Centre for Wildlife Studies, says: “It’s not just the trees that are felled for the mining but the fact that roads have to be widened to allow for large vehicles. Any disruption to the canopy, even minor, can severely affect the gibbons’ movement and survival.”

In a recent radio broadcast, prime minister Narendra Modi praised Barekuri’s coexistence with its hoolock gibbon population, which he said had “made their home in this village”. But the Assam state government, ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party, is considering a new oil and gas exploration project in Hollongapar gibbon sanctuary in Jorhat, just 110 miles from Barekuri.

To preserve the remaining gibbons, Ramakrishna wants the Assam government to stop all further mining activity in and around Barekuri, start planting trees to restore habitat and food resources, and explore “canopy bridges” as a solution to the breaks in the tree canopy.

At present, gibbons are either unable to cross wide open areas to reach another section of forest – or they do so using electrical lines, which can result in electric shocks, some of which are fatal.

“What we’re trying to do is consult the villagers to see what design would work best for the bridges, which would be made of bamboo. It would compensate for the break in canopy cover and allow the gibbons more access to the fruits they need to survive,” says Ramakrishna.

Azerbaijan, the host of the Cop29 global climate summit, will see a large expansion of fossil gas production in the next decade, a new report has revealed. The authors said that the crucial negotiations should not be overseen by “those with a vested interest in keeping the world hooked on fossil fuels”.

Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, and its partners are set to raise the country’s annual gas production from 37bn cubic metres (bcm) today to 49bcm by 2033. Socar also recently agreed to increase gas exports to the European Union by 17% by 2026.

The Cop29 summit, starting on 11 November, comes as scientists say that continued record carbon dioxide emissions means “the future of humanity hangs in the balance”. The International Energy Agency said in 2021 that no new fossil fuel exploitation should take place if CO₂ emissions were to fall to zero by 2050.

But in 2023 Socar pushed 97% of its capital expenditure into oil and gas projects, the report found. The company launched a “green energy division” a few weeks after Azerbaijan was appointed as Cop29 host, promising investments in wind, solar and carbon capture technologies. But according to the report, Socar’s renewable operations remain insignificant.

Azerbaijan’s climate action plan was rated “critically insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker (CAT) in September. “Azerbaijan is among a tiny group of countries that has weakened its climate target [and] the country is doubling down on fossil fuel extraction,” said the CAT analysts.

Azerbaijan and Socar had also been accused of human rights violations, the report said. The authors said defeating the climate crisis required civil society to have freedom of speech and protected human rights.

“Given Socar’s pivotal role in Azerbaijan’s economy and its close ties to the country’s political elite, its influence will surely be felt throughout the climate negotiations in Baku,” said Regine Richter at the German NGO Urgewald, lead author of the report. “As we prepare for Cop29, we cannot but ask ourselves: did we put the fox in charge of the henhouse?”

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, told a climate conference in April: “Having oil and gas deposits is not our fault. It’s a gift from God.” Aliyez appoints Socar’s management board and was vice-president of Socar until he succeeded his father as the country’s president in 2003. Azerbaijan’s ecology and natural resources minister, Mukhtar Babayev, will run Cop29. He previously worked for Socar for 26 years until 2018. Rovshan Najaf, the president of Socar, is part of the Cop29 organising committee.

A Cop29 spokesperson, responding in relation to Azerbaijan’s gas production and energy transition, said: “Azerbaijan is investing in gas capacity in response to a European request to increase supplies following the disruption of supplies from Russia. This is in line with the [UN’s] global stocktake, which agreed on the need to ensure that the energy transition is just and orderly.” The global stocktake concluded the world was not on track to stop global heating and that “urgent and deep greenhouse gas emissions reductions” were needed.

The Cop29 spokesperson added: “Azerbaijan is intensively developing its abundant solar and wind resources as part of its commitment to becoming a leading supplier of green energy.” Neither Socar nor Azerbaijan’s foreign affairs ministry responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment.

The new report, produced by Urgewald and CEE Bankwatch, found Azerbaijan was set to increase its gas production by a third in the next decade, with fossil fuel companies forecast to spend $41.4bn (£31.9bn) on the country’s gas fields. Socar alone spent almost $300m on exploration for new oil and gas between 2022 and 2024, according to the report.

The analysis is based on data from Rystad Energy, the industry’s leading provider. It includes current gas production, new resources approved for development, and other known resources. Burning of the expected gas production would produce about 780m tonnes of CO₂, more than double the annual emissions of the UK. Rather than discovering more reserves, scientists concluded in 2021 that most existing gas reserves needed to remain in the ground to limit global heating to 1.5C.

Socar works with some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies, including BP, TotalEnergies, the Russian oil giant Tatneft and the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company Adnoc. The CEO of Adnoc, Sultan Al Jaber, was president of Cop28 in Dubai, where nations failed to agree to “phase out” fossil fuels, as many wanted, instead choosing the weaker ambition of “transitioning away from fossil fuels”.

Socar also receives substantial financial backing from major international institutions, totalling $6.8bn in loans and underwriting between 2021 and 2023, according to research by the Banking on Climate Chaos coalition.

Azerbaijan’s economy is heavily dependent on fossil fuel income, which makes up 90% of export revenues and 60% of state revenues, according to the IEA. Azerbaijan’s gas production was similar to that of the UK in 2022. Its oil production has declined since 2010.

“It is crucial that those who host the [Cop29] negotiations are true climate leaders, not those with a vested interest in keeping the world hooked on fossil fuels,” the report said.

The report also highlighted accusations of human rights abuses and corruption in Azerbaijan. The European court of human rights found the country had violated the European convention on human rights 263 times since 2001, including three instances of torture and 30 cases of inhuman and degrading treatment.

Freedom House ranks Azerbaijan among the least free countries in the world in relation to political rights, independent media and civil liberties, below Russia and Belarus. Transparency International rated Azerbaijan as the second-worst nation for public sector corruption in eastern Europe and central Asia in 2022.

Socar has also been accused of human rights violations by the Azerbaijan-based Organization for the Protection of Oil Workers’ Rights, which has cited health and safety violations and environmental pollution.

Manana Kochladze at CEE Bankwatch said: “Where other governments partner with civil society to tackle the climate crisis, the Aliyev regime systematically threatens environmental and human rights defenders. This does not inspire confidence in the upcoming negotiations in Baku.”

Doctors have treated a man for scurvy in Perth, warning what was once considered “a disease of the past” is re-emerging due to the rising cost of living.

The condition, caused by severe vitamin C deficiency, was common during the 18th century among sailors who spent months at sea without fresh food. But Australian doctors have described their surprise at seeing it in the present day in an article published on Wednesday in BMJ Case Reports.

A 51-year-old man presented to Sir Charles Gairdner hospital with tiny, painful red-brown pinpoints resembling a rash on his legs.

Doctors conducted extensive investigations, including blood tests, skin biopsies and a CT scan, but they provided no explanation for the underlying cause of the inflammation of his blood vessels and the rash continued to spread while he was in hospital.

The doctors discovered the patient – who was unemployed and lived alone – had financial constraints which meant he mostly ate processed food, lacking in vegetables or fruit. The patient sometimes skipped meals, something which had occurred more frequently in recent weeks.

The patient had undergone bariatric surgery eight years prior to this incident, reducing the size of the stomach. He had stopped taking the vitamin and mineral supplements prescribed for him after surgery because he was unable to afford them.

Dr Andrew Dermawan, a senior registrar at the hospital, ordered blood tests to assess his nutritional status which came back indicating no detectable levels of vitamin C and very low levels of other key nutrients.

The diagnosis of scurvy came as a surprise, Dermawan, the lead author of the article, told Guardian Australia. “It’s not something that I expected to come up in today’s time.”

The body needs vitamin C to produce collagen, the tissue that makes up skin and connects muscle and bone. Severe deficiency can weaken the collagen’s triple-helix structures as well as blood capillaries, resulting in blood spots in the skin, as well as microscopic bleeding in urine.

The patient’s symptoms resolved after the doctors prescribed him 1,000mg of vitamin C daily, as well as a vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, and a multivitamin, in addition to a meal plan created by a dietitian. Of his own initiative, “he also started eating a lemon daily”.

This disease is easily reversible with vitamin C supplements, with a dramatic response seen within 24 hours, but scurvy is often overlooked because it is considered a disease of the past, Dermawan said.

The article includes a “learning point” for other doctors, noting “scurvy is a re-emerging disease with the rising cost of living”. It points to the rising cost of food in Australia, making families more reliant on lower-cost foods, which tend to be poorer in nutritional value.

The article also highlighted that the patient’s obesity, previous bariatric surgery and low-income status were also among his risk factors for developing scurvy.

Dermawan explained that because the stomach produces enzymes to break down nutritional components, people who have had part of their stomach removed through bariatric surgery can have trouble absorbing nutrients, making it a risk factor for scurvy alongside alcoholism, gastrointestinal disorders and being on dialysis.

In 2016, diabetic patients at Westmead hospital in western Sydney were found to have symptoms of scurvy and reported they ate few vegetables, or overcooked them, destroying vitamin C.

Dr Tim Senior, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ specific interest group on poverty and health, said it was an important case report as the man could be a “canary in the coalmine”.

“What they’re describing in terms of cost-of-living pressures and the inability to afford good food, I think we are seeing more of that, definitely, and that will result in probably a whole range of micronutrient deficiencies, such as scurvy.”

While scurvy was the most notable diagnosis, Senior noted the man also had other nutrient deficiencies.

Senior, who works for Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation’s medical service in western Sydney, said he had seen patients losing weight because they couldn’t afford to eat.

Senior said poorer communities who are already known to be more likely to be in the unhealthy weight range are often more greatly affected by the problem of excess calories without nutrition. That in turn can result in conditions like obesity, which the authors identified as a risk factor for scurvy.

“Financial resources affect people’s health quite clearly … The way around that is understanding that’s happening, acting on the cost-of-living crisis, so that everyone should be able to afford the food that keeps them well,” Senior said.

Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning film director who fled the US decades ago after admitting to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old, will no longer face trial over an alleged sexual assault of another minor after reaching a settlement.

The latest case against the now 91-year-old director, which concerned an alleged sexual attack in 1973, had been due in civil court in Los Angeles next August.

The civil suit, filed last year, claimed Polanski took a then-teenager – named anonymously in filings as Jane Doe – to dinner at a restaurant in Los Angeles in 1973.

The lawsuit alleged that he gave her tequila, and when she began to feel dizzy, drove her to his home, where she alleged he sexually assaulted her.

“She told him: ‘Please don’t do this,’” the plaintiff’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, told reporters in March, saying the alleged assault caused the plaintiff “tremendous physical, emotional pain and suffering”.

But the case was “settled in the summer to the parties’ mutual satisfaction and has now been formally dismissed,” Polanski’s lawyer, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.

Allred confirmed this to the Guardian, saying a settlement of claims was agreed “to their mutual satisfaction”.

The lawsuit, which sought unspecified damages, was filed in June 2023, just before the expiration of a California law that allowed for an extended window for claims against the alleged perpetrators of sexual crimes.

Court papers filed in California in July said a “conditional” accord had been reached.

Polanski is a divisive figure.

He admitted to the statutory rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a plea bargain in 1977 to avoid a trial on more serious charges.

But he fled to France the following year, after serving 42 days in jail, when it appeared a judge was reconsidering his release. He has been a fugitive from the US ever since.

Geimer has subsequently defended Polanski, and was photographed with him last year.

Four women came forward between 2017 and 2019 accusing Polanski of abusing them in the 1970s – three of them were allegedly minors at the time – including artist Marianne Barnard, who said Polanski sexually assaulted her when she was 10. Charlotte Lewis, a British actor, in 2010 accused Polanski of sexually assaulting her in 1983 when she was 16. Polanski has denied all of the allegations.

In May, a French court acquitted Polanski of defaming Lewis after he denied raping her when she was a teenager.

– Agence France Press contributed to this report.

• In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

First King George III. Now Sir Keir Starmer.

Citing the American revolution while misspelling “Britian”, Donald Trump’s campaign has filed an extraordinary complaint against the UK’s Labour party for what it claims is “interference” in the US presidential election.

The Trump campaign alleged that in recent weeks, Labour recruited and sent party members to campaign for his opponent, Kamala Harris, in critical battleground states in a bid to influence the 5 November election.

“When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them,” says a letter from Trump’s legal team to the Federal Election Commission in Washington.

“This past week marked the 243 anniversary of the surrender of British forces at the Battle of Yorktown, a military victory that ensured that the United States would be politically independent of Great Britian” – an incorrect rendering of “Britain”.

It is understood that volunteers are campaigning in the US in their own personal time, rather in their capacity working for the the Labour party.

The letter goes on to request an immediate investigation into “blatant foreign interference” in the election in the form of “apparent illegal foreign national contributions made by the Labour Party of the United Kingdom” and accepted by Harris’s campaign committee.

It also refers to a report in the Washington Post that claims advice has been offered between Labour and the Harris campaign, and other reports regarding meetings between senior Labour staff and the Democratic campaign.

Those referenced in the letter include Matthew Doyle, Downing Street director of communications, and Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s chief of staff.

The complaint references a social media post, which appears to have been deleted, in which Sofia Patel, head of operations at Labour, posted on LinkedIn last week that 100 current and former party staffers were headed to the US to campaign for Harris.

The letter refers to a “volunteer exemption” in US elections which means foreign nationals can volunteer, but the letter states “they may not be compensated, foreign nationals may not make expenditures, and they may not direct or control activities of US campaigns”.

Last week’s post received a swift backlash from Republicans, with far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene writing on X that “foreign nationals are not allowed to be involved in anyway in US elections”.

And Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur backing Trump, wrote on X, the social media platform he owns: “This is illegal” – only to delete the post after a community note pointed out there is no law preventing foreigners from participating in unpaid door-knocking.

The Trump campaign followed up on Tuesday with its legal complaint. Susie Wiles, co-manager of the campaign, said: “In two weeks, Americans will once again reject the oppression of big government that we rejected in 1776. The flailing Harris-Walz campaign is seeking foreign influence to boost its radical message – because they know they can’t win the American people.

“President Trump will return strength to the White House and put America, and our people, first. The Harris campaign’s acceptance and use of this illegal foreign assistance is just another feeble attempt in a long line of anti-American election interference.”

Starmer, the British prime minister, met Trump, the former US president, during a trip to New York last month. Starmer visited Trump Tower, saying he wanted to meet Trump face to face because “I’m a great believer in personal relationships on the world stage”.