Tom Phillips case: New Zealand to hold public inquiry into disappearance of fugitive father and children

A public inquiry will be held into the authorities’ handling of the disappearance of fugitive father Tom Phillips with his three children, who hid in New Zealand’s wilderness for nearly four years, the government has announced. Phillips disappeared into the rugged North Island wilderness with his children just before Christmas in 2021, following a dispute with their mother. He did not have legal custody of his children. In August, he was killed in an exchange of fire with police after reports of a burglary in the remote town of Piopio, in the central North Island. A police officer was shot and required surgery. Two of Phillips’ children were found at a campsite in Waitomo later that day, and it is understood the third child was with Phillips at the time of the shooting. The children are now in the custody of Oranga Tamariki, the country’s child protection agency. The attorney general, Judith Collins, said on Thursday the decision to establish a public inquiry was due to the significant public interest in the case, and concern with the children’s welfare. “The inquiry will look into whether government agencies took all practicable steps to protect the safety and welfare of the Phillips children,” Collins said in a statement. “It is important that we establish the facts and determine whether agencies could take steps to prevent or resolve similar situations more quickly and effectively in the future.” The terms of reference cited the “exceptional, if not unique” facts of the case and said the inquiry would investigate agencies’ engagement with Phillips before and after he disappeared. Justice Simon Moore KC has been appointed the sole member of the inquiry, which will be conducted in private to ensure the children’s safety. A report is due back in July 2026. The vast Waikato region where Phillips hid is made up of long sweeping coastline to the west, forested terrain and farmland in the centre, limestone cave networks to the north and a smattering of small rural towns and settlements throughout. The terrain frustrated police attempts to find him and prompted multiple searches, offers of rewards, and pleas for information from family members and the police. New Zealand struggled to understand how, in a country of close-knit communities, Phillips could have evaded detection but police believe Phillips received outside help and inquiries into identifying those who aided him are under way.

Death toll in Hong Kong tower block fire rises to 44 with hundreds still missing

The death toll from a huge fire that engulfed several residential tower blocks in Hong Kong has risen to 44, with 45 in critical condition and hundreds reported missing. A taskforce has been set up to investigate the cause of the fire, which broke out on Wednesday afternoon at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po, in the northern New Territories. The complex is made up of eight 31-storey towers containing about 2,000 flats, which house about 4,800 people. Authorities said early on Thursday that three men aged between 52 and 68 had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter connected to the fire. The city’s leader, John Lee, said in the early hours of Thursday morning that the fire was “coming under control”. Authorities declared the incident a five-alarm fire, the highest emergency rating, and at least 128 fire engines and almost 800 firefighters were dispatched to the scene. Roads including major highways near the towers have been closed. “The priority is to extinguish the fire and rescue the residents who are trapped,” Lee said. “The second is to support the injured. The third is to support and recover. Then, we’ll launch a thorough investigation.” Shortly after the fire broke out, Derek Armstrong Chan, the deputy director of Hong Kong’s fire services operations, said: “The temperature inside the buildings concerned is very high. It’s difficult for us to enter the building and go upstairs to conduct firefighting and rescue operations.” At least one firefighter, named as Ho Wai-ho, 37, was among the dead. Videos from the scene show flames spread across the towers and visible on every floor, flaring out of windows. Dozens of shocked residents, many sobbing, watched from nearby pavements as smoke funnelled up from the complex. “There’s nothing that can be done about the property. We can only hope that everyone, no matter old or young, can return safely,” a Tai Po resident who gave their surname as So told Agence France-Presse near the scene of the fire. “It’s heartbreaking. We’re worried there are people trapped inside.” Harry Cheung, 66, who has lived at Block 2 in one of the complexes for more than 40 years, said he heard a loud noise about 2.45pm (6.45am UK time) and saw fire erupt in a nearby block. “I immediately went back to pack up my things,” he told Reuters. “I don’t even know how I feel right now. I’m just thinking about where I’m going to sleep tonight because I probably won’t be able to go back home.” A resident who gave his surname as Wong, 71, broke down in tears, saying his wife was trapped inside one of the buildings. The Wang Fuk Court towers are among the tallest in Tai Po, which, like much of Hong Kong, is among the most densely populated areas in the world. Many residents are elderly, according to 2021 census data reported by CNN. The Hong Kong government said all departments were coordinating to assist the response effort and affected residents. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, expressed his condolences for the victims, China’s state broadcaster said late on Wednesday. Officials were reported as saying the fire had started in some of the external bamboo and mesh scaffolding that encased the towers before spreading inside them, but the exact cause is unknown. Building standards in Hong Kong are relatively high and vastly improved in recent decades, but the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, a local advocacy group, expressed deep concern about fires associated with scaffolding, noting similar incidents in April, May and October. Hong Kong’s high property prices have long been a source of social discontent in the city and the fire could stoke resentment towards authorities ahead of a city-wide legislative election in early December. Bamboo scaffolding is a ubiquitous sight across Hong Kong’s construction and renovation sites, though the government has said it was being phased out for safety reasons. The Tai Po district authorities have opened shelters in local community halls, at least one of which local media reported was full by Wednesday night, and police have set up a casualty hotline. Several forums and campaign events related to the 7 December elections that had been scheduled for the coming days have been cancelled. The fire is the most deadly in Hong Kong in years. In November 1996, 41 people died in a commercial building in Kowloon in a level five fire that lasted for about 20 hours.

Bamboo scaffolding may be to blame for spread of Hong Kong tower block fire

A deadly fire in an apartment complex in Hong Kong appears to have spread in part because the buildings were sheathed in bamboo scaffolding, a traditional building material that the authorities have been phasing out for safety reasons. Dozens of people died on Wednesday in Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The blaze tore through the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po, in the northern New Territories. The complex is made up of eight 31-storey towers containing about 2,000 flats that house about 4,800 people. The exact cause of the fire is unknown but the bamboo scaffolding and green construction mesh may have helped it to spread quickly across the apartments. Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where bamboo is widely used for construction. The intricate lattices of poles bound together by zip ties and wrapped around gleaming sky-scrapers are a ubiquitous sight across the city. Bamboo is valued for being lighter and cheaper than metal alternatives. Its use in construction is also seen as an art form in its own right, with bamboo towers being depicted in Han dynasty scroll paintings from 2,000 years ago. The plant is abundant in southern China, although most building sites in the mainland now use metal scaffolds as standard. In March the government said it would start phasing out the use of bamboo in favour of fire-resistant steel because of safety concerns. It said 50% of public construction works would be required to use metal frames. As well as being fire-resistant, metal withstands Hong Kong’s humid weather better than bamboo. Industrial accidents involving bamboo scaffolds have killed 23 people since 2018, according to official figures. But the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union has previously said it opposes the retirement of bamboo. The natural variation in the size and shape of the poles means that binding them together into a scaffold requires the skilled eye of bamboo masters, who fear their livelihoods may be at risk if Hong Kong transitions to steel frames.

Putin trying to negotiate an end to Ukraine war as he cannot win it on battlefield, says EU’s Kallas – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap! The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has cautioned that “Putin cannot achieve his goals on the battlefield so he will try to negotiate his way there,” as she called for further support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia after a meeting of EU foreign ministers (14:17, 14:23, 14:26) Earlier, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has also warned against “the unilateral carving up of a sovereign European nation”, as Europe scrambles to assert influence over a US effort to end the war in Ukraine (9:24, 9:24, 9:24, 9:26, 9:29, 9:33, 13:14). The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said that Germans “have to get used to the idea again that peace and freedom do not come for free,” as he spoke about the country’s 2026 budget, and said that “Putin must realize that he has no chance of winning this war at the expense of the European order of freedom and peace.” (9:54). At the same time, Russia welcomed some “aspects” of the new US plan to end the war, while saying it still required further analysis (13:53), and rejecting Europe’s “meddling” in the talks (10:56). Meanwhile, speculations were swirling over where the leaked conversations involving US peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin’s senior aide Kirill Dmitriev, published by Bloomberg, may have leaked from (11:02, 15:55). In other news, Moldova displayed a Russian drone that fell on its soil outside its foreign ministry as it summoned Moscow’s envoy over the crash, in an overt criticism of Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine (17:09). The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been convicted of illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 re-election bid, after the country’s highest court rejected his final appeal (14:44). Poland said it was expecting 44bn from the European Union’s SAFE programme to spend on defence projects, including drones, space defence, AI, cyber and cryptosecurity, and equipment for its army and border guards, becoming the largest beneficiary of the scheme (12:40).

Guinea-Bissau military takes ‘total control’ amid election chaos

Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau have announced they are taking “total control” of the west African country, three days after elections that both the two main presidential contenders claim to have won. Military officers said they were suspending Guinea-Bissau’s electoral process and closing its borders, in a statement read out at the army’s headquarters in the capital Bissau and broadcast on state TV. They said they had formed “the high military command for the restoration of order”, which would rule the country until further notice. Earlier on Wednesday, shots were heard near the election commission headquarters, presidential palace and interior ministry, although it was not clear who was responsible. The military takeover is the latest in a string of coups and attempted coups in Guinea-Bissau since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974. The average yearly income in the country of 2.2 million people was just $963 (£728) in 2024, according to the World Bank. The UN labelled Guinea-Bissau a “narco state” in 2008 because of its role as a hub for the global cocaine trade. Situated between Senegal and Guinea, its coastline features numerous river deltas and the 88 islands of the Bijagós archipelago, which experts said had provided the natural, discrete drop-off points used by Colombian drug cartels. The incumbent president, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, had been vying to become the first president to win a second term in power in three decades. Both he and his main rival, Fernando Dias, claimed they won in the first round of elections, held on Sunday. Earlier on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Embaló claimed the shots were being fired by gunmen affiliated to Dias. But a Dias ally blamed Embaló for trying to simulate a coup attempt so that he could declare an emergency and retain power. Neither provided any evidence for their claims. The election commission was due to announce provisional results in the presidential and parliamentary elections on Thursday. There have been at least nine coups in Guinea-Bissau between independence and Embaló taking office in 2020, according to Reuters. Embaló claimed to have survived three coup attempts during his first term in office, the most recent in October. However, critics claimed Embaló had fabricated the putsch attempts, using them as an excuse to repress opposition. In December 2023, gunfire was heard for hours in Bissau, which Embaló said was an attempted coup. He dissolved parliament and Guinea-Bissau has not had a properly functioning legislature since. Agence France Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

Von der Leyen warns against ‘carving up’ of Ukraine amid crunch US-led talks

The European Commission president has warned against “the unilateral carving up of a sovereign European nation” as Europe scrambles to assert influence over the US’s attempt to end the war in Ukraine. Speaking to European lawmakers in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen said Russia showed “no signs of true willingness to end the conflict” and continued to operate in a mindset unchanged since the days of Yalta – the much-criticised and misunderstood 1945 summit to settle the postwar order. “So we need to be clear that there cannot be unilateral carving up of a sovereign European nation, and that borders cannot be changed by force. If today we legitimise and formalise the undermining of borders, we open the doors for more wars tomorrow, and we cannot let this happen.” The US continues to push for an end to the conflict. Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff – who was exposed for coaching the Kremlin on the best way to win the US leader’s favour – is expected to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow early next week, while the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, will meet the Ukrainian side. Von der Leyen welcomed Trump’s efforts to find peace, describing them as “a starting point”, but made clear that Europe had many concerns about the details outlined in the original 28-point US-Russian plan. Some of the maximalist Russia-friendly demands have since been removed, Ukraine has said, and the US president has rowed back on his Thursday deadline tied to the US holiday of Thanksgiving amid little sign of progress on key sticking points. Describing the situation as volatile and dangerous, von der Leyen said she saw “an opportunity here to make real progress”, adding: “So far we have seen no signs from Russia of true willingness to end this conflict. So we have to keep up the pressure on Russia.” In a hastily arranged video call on Wednesday, EU foreign ministers “reaffirmed our shared principles”, according to Europe’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, referring to sovereignty, independence, territorial independence and “Ukraine’s inherent right to self-defence”. Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, said everyone welcomed the US push for peace, before setting out an analysis of the conflict that vastly differed from the worldview informing the 28-point plan. “Right now we see zero indication that Russia is ready for a ceasefire,” she said. “We still need to get from a situation where Russia pretends to negotiate to a situation where they need to negotiate. We are getting there.” Kallas referred to the “failed” Russian summer offensive and the impact of western sanctions on Russia’s economy. “The notion that Ukraine is losing is also flat out false. If Russia could conquer Ukraine militarily, it would have already done so by now. Putin cannot achieve its goals on the battlefield, so he will try to negotiate his way there.” She said that in the last century Russia had attacked more than 19 countries, some three or four times. “So in any peace agreement, we have to put the focus on how to get concessions from the Russian side that they stop the aggression for good and do not try to change borders by force.” EU officials also argue against limits on Ukraine’s armed forces. Such a restriction would “leave the country vulnerable to future attacks”, von der Leyen said, adding that Ukraine also needed “robust, credible and long-term security guarantees”. In a leaked recording, Witkoff told a senior Kremlin official last month that achieving peace in Ukraine would require Russia gaining control of Donetsk and potentially a separate territorial exchange. The original 28-point plan called on Ukraine to cede the entire Donetsk region to Russia, including areas under Ukrainian control. According to a Reuters report citing three sources, the US 28-point plan was drawn from a Russian report submitted to the White House in October. A senior Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov, told state TV that Moscow had seen the latest version of the US plan, saying: “Some aspects can be viewed positively, but many require special discussions among experts.” The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Wednesday that it was premature to speak about striking a peace deal in the near future, Reuters reported. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had thanked von der Leyen for her messages of support. “We see eye to eye: as long as Russia continues to rebuff all peace efforts, sanctions against it must be tightened and defence and financial assistance for Ukraine must continue.” Von der Leyen also promised that the European Commission would present a draft legal proposal on using Russia’s frozen assets to fund Ukraine in 2026 and 2027. EU leaders failed to endorse the idea last month because of legal doubts from Belgium, which hosts about €183bn of assets, most of Russia’s sovereign wealth in the EU and two-thirds of the worldwide total. Trump’s proposal for the US to take 50% profits on a US-led venture to “rebuild and invest in Ukraine” based on $100bn from the Russian frozen assets is adding to pressure on European leaders to resolve the issue. The US also wants Europe to contribute $100bn to the reconstruction investment fund. Von der Leyen reiterated her support for the frozen assets plan – an EU loan to Ukraine secured on the assets and the idea that Russia would pay reparations to Kyiv – saying: “I cannot see any scenario in which the European taxpayers alone will pay the bill.” EU leaders will discuss the frozen assets question next month as they try to nail down a 2026-27 funding deal for Kyiv, which is expected to run out of money next spring. Von der Leyen said another European priority was the return of Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia. She said: “There are tens of thousands of boys and girls whose fate is unknown, trapped in Russia by Russia. We will not forget them.” Ukraine’s government has identified nearly 20,000 children who have been unlawfully deported or forcibly transferred to Russia since the full-scale invasion in 2022. A Ukrainian organisation working on the issue, Bring Kids Back, has said 1,835 children have returned from deportation, forced transfers and occupied Ukraine. Putin is wanted for alleged war crimes by the international criminal court over the abductions. The original 28-point plan proposed a full amnesty for the actions of all parties involved in the conflict.

As France prepares military expansion, how is Europe beefing up its armies?

France will this week become the latest EU country to set out plans to expand its army, with Emmanuel Macron expected to announce on Thursday that military service will be restored – albeit on a voluntary basis – nearly 30 years after the end of conscription. In the face of Russia’s military threat and uncertainty over the US’s commitment to defending its transatlantic allies, Europe is rushing to bolster its defence industry and its deployment capability after radically cutting them back since the cold war. Despite significant losses in its war on Ukraine, Russia is perceived by European militaries as a potential direct threat within two to five years. Meanwhile, Washington has made it clear that it expects its EU allies to take care of much more of their own defence. But if the issue of defence industry investment is chiefly economic, the question of how to significantly expand the number of full-time armed services members is also very much societal – and is leading to heated debates across several countries. Fabien Mandon, France’s top general and chief of staff of the armed forces, prompted media and political uproar last week by saying the country must be ready “to lose its children” since Russia was “preparing for a confrontation with our countries by 2030”. The International Institute for Strategic Studies thinktank wrote in a recent report: “Most European armies struggle to meet their recruitment targets and retain trained personnel, as well as to generate a sufficient reserve.” Sophia Besch, a defence specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said “growing military personnel shortfalls” were forcing more and more western European countries to explore various kinds of conscription models. “Training cycles will also need to be intensified for reservists, which some countries need to reactivate in large numbers,” Besch wrote in a report this summer. “For countries without a tradition of military preparedness, all this poses a politically and socially sensitive challenge.” Several EU countries have some form of conscription, led by the Nordics and Baltics where “total defence” underpins military thinking and draft intakes are widening. Finland has one of the world’s largest reserves, based on universal male conscription. Sweden reintroduced selective conscription – with mandatory registration for men and women, but a strict selection process that takes into account several factors including physical fitness and youths’ “willingness to serve” – in 2018. Denmark’s conscription system was extended to women and lengthened to 11 months from four in June. Estonia has universal male conscription, while Latvia and Lithuania, like Denmark, select conscripts by lottery if there are not enough volunteers. Elsewhere, Croatia, which abolished mandatory military service 18 years ago, recently restored conscription, while Poland is working on a plan to prepare large-scale military training for every adult male in an effort to double the size of its army. While recent polls have found that majorities in several European countries, including Germany, France and Poland, support some form of mandatory military service, other countries have so far steered clear of conscription. Germany’s government this month decided against a system of compulsory military service after a bitter debate, opting for a voluntary model instead – but if that fails to find the numbers, it will reconsider a compulsory nationwide call-up. France’s proposed scheme is unlikely to include reintroducing the mandatory military service abolished in 1997. Several countries offer perks such as cash bonuses, preferential access to public sector jobs and higher education places to military service volunteers. Army leaders generally say that volunteers are more professional and motivated than conscripts, but volunteer armies are expensive. Conscripts not only make up the numbers of active service personnel, but provide a large pool of potential reservists. Compulsory military service, however, is no panacea and can be counterproductive. “In countries where there is domestic resistance, mandatory conscription could even undermine public resolve to shore up the national defences,” Besch argued. “Most successful European conscription models now rely on a strong degree of volunteerism – but instilling a willingness to serve in a population that does not have a recent history of military service takes time and sustained domestic debate.”