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Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court, has died at the age of 93.

She was appointed by Republican ex-president Ronald Reagan in 1981 and retired from America’s highest court in 2006.

Ms O’Connor died in Phoenix of complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness, the court said.

Her nomination and subsequent confirmation by the US Senate ended 191 years of male exclusivity on the bench.

Chief Justice John Roberts said Ms O’Connor “blazed a historic trail as our nation’s first female justice”.

“She met that challenge with undaunted determination, indisputable ability, and engaging candor,” he said.

“We at the Supreme Court mourn the loss of a beloved colleague, a fiercely independent defender of the rule of law, and an eloquent advocate for civics education.”

At a White House ceremony in 2009, Democrat former president Barack Obama presented her with the medal of freedom, the highest civilian award a president can give.

A native of Arizona who grew up on her family’s sprawling ranch, Ms O’Connor wasted little time building a reputation as a hard worker who wielded considerable political clout on the nine-member court.

She was known as an unwavering voice of moderate conservatism on America’s top legal body.

Her influence and legal thinking as a Supreme Court justice were most closely scrutinised when it came to the court’s rulings on abortion, arguably the most divisive issue it has faced.

Ms O’Connor baulked at letting states outlaw most abortions, refusing in 1989 to join four other justices who were ready to reverse the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision that said women have a constitutional right to abortion.

Then, in 1992, she helped forge and lead a five-justice majority that reaffirmed the core holding of the 1973 ruling.

“Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality, but that can’t control our decision,” Ms O’Connor said in court during the ruling in Planned Parenthood v Casey.

“Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.”

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In 2022, some 30 years after its landmark decision, a more conservative Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade in a highly-divisive ruling.

The granddaughter of a pioneer who travelled west from Vermont and founded the family ranch three decades before Arizona became a state, Ms O’Connor grew up in the remote outback and learned to ride horses and round up cattle.

“I didn’t do all the things the boys did,” she said in a 1981 Time magazine interview, “but I fixed windmills and repaired fences”.

The key to solving the mystery of a man whose remains were found in a disused barn in the English countryside likely lies in France, according to detectives, who have launched a new appeal after his bones were analysed by experts.

The man’s body and belongings were found in a disused outbuilding in Micheldever, Hampshire, on 1 December 2017.

It’s believed he died from natural causes but, so far, Hampshire Constabulary have been unable to identify the individual.

Officers have now launched a joint effort with Locate International, a charity which looks into cold cases of missing people and unidentified remains, to investigate the man’s possible connections to France.

Recent analysis of the man’s teeth and bone samples – conducted at the University of Reading – suggests the man likely grew up in either the south of France, western Switzerland or Corsica.

The analysis also revealed pollutants indicating that the man spent his early life in a sizeable town or city and had a fish-rich diet.

A reconstructed image of what the man may have looked like has also been released.

What police learned from witnesses

After a public appeal in 2019, witnesses shared with officers that they met a man in the summer of 2012, who asked to camp overnight in their garden in Itchen Stoke, seven miles from where his body was found.

The witnesses described the man as having a French accent and said he was white with brown hair, aged between 35 to 50, and five foot eight inches tall.

He told them he was travelling through England to go to Ireland or Canada and said he previously served in the French military, according to the witness account given to officers.

It is also possible that he was deaf or hard of hearing in one ear, police say.

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‘Likely’ remains ‘lay undiscovered for five years’

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary’s Doug Utting, from the serious case review team, said in a statement: “It seems very likely that this man died very shortly after interacting with the witnesses we have now identified and lay undiscovered for five years.

“Our enquiries have led us to believe that he grew up in southern or southeastern France, Corsica or western Switzerland.

“Through this new appeal, I hope we can hear from people in those areas that recognise the man described as someone they may know and who they have not seen or heard from since 2012.”

Dave Grimstead, Locate International’s chief executive, also said: “The key to us solving this mystery seems to lie in France.

“He died alone, but we want to make sure he is not forgotten after his death.

“Even just one small piece of information you have can help us identify him.”

Israel knew about plans for a Hamas attack on its soil more than a year before the 7 October assault that killed more than a thousand people, according to the New York Times.

The paper said officials in Israel had a 40-page battle plan, which they called “Jericho Wall”, which set out a hypothetical attack by Hamas on communities in southern Israel.

On 7 October, 1,200 people were killed and 240 more were abducted and taken into Gaza. More than 75 have now been released as part of a now-expired ceasefire.

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It is not clear how Israel obtained the document, but it had been translated, suggesting it could have originally been written in Arabic and come from Hamas.

The New York Times said the report had been seen by military and intelligence officials, but did not know if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been shown it.

It said Hamas could pummel Israel with rockets and use drones to disable security systems at the border wall, so it could take control of southern communities and military bases.

An earlier memo obtained by the New York Times from 2016, said Hamas would take hostages back into Gaza.

Despite having Jericho Wall in their possession, the New York Times said Israeli officials brushed off the Hamas plans, deeming them “aspirational” rather than something that could actually happen.

The report in the New York Times comes amid criticism of Mr Netanyahu, with some claiming he failed to prevent an attack, despite there being warning signs.

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Video showed Hamas fighters preparing for an attack

A month before the attack, Hamas posted a video on social media which appeared to show its fighters using explosives on a mocked-up border gate, then move through a reconstruction of an Israeli town with vehicles and weapons.

The video also showed fighters destroying what appeared to be mock-ups of the border wall and communications aerial – just as they did on 7 October.

When asked about the report, the Israeli military declined to comment, and instead said it was “currently focused on eliminating the threat from terrorist organisation Hamas.”

It added: “Questions of this kind will be looked into at a later stage.”

Away from the Times report, there is frustration in Israel after local media said military officials dismissed warnings from women border spotters, who said they saw Hamas preparations for the attack.

Local press reported a young woman had said she saw militants using drones and trying to knock out border cameras in the build up to the attack.

Mr Netanyahu has said blame over the attack can be determined once the war is over.

Republican congressman George Santos has been expelled from the US House of Representatives after a report found “overwhelming evidence” he misused campaign donations.

Mr Santos was ousted 311-114 in a bipartisan vote – only the sixth time a member has been kicked out of the House since it was founded in 1789.

Two-thirds of members must support the move – but a damning report by the House ethics committee that accused him of breaking federal law appeared to seal his fate.

The 35-year-old led his own defence on the floor of the House and said he would “not stand by quietly”.

Speaking the evening before the vote, he said: “The people of the Third District of New York sent me here. If they want me out, you’re going to have to go silence those people and go take the hard vote.”

Mr Santos argued it would set a precedent that would make expulsions more common.

Three previous cases involved disloyalty to the Union during the American Civil War, the remaining two were after politicians were convicted of federal crimes.

A congressional investigation found he charged his campaign account nearly $4,000 (£3,151) for spa treatments, including Botox.

He also spent more than $4,000 at designer store Hermes and made “smaller purchases” from the OnlyFans site – best known for sexual content.

As the outcome of Friday’s vote became clear, Mr Santos put his coat over his shoulders, shook hands with some members who voted against his expulsion and exited the chamber.

The House Speaker Mike Johnson solemnly instructed a clerk to inform New York’s governor his seat was now vacant.

Mr Santos was in his first term and had been previously feted as an exciting prospect after he flipped a district from the Democrats in November 2022.

But the committee launched a probe in March after reports he lied about having Jewish ancestry and his grandparents fleeing the Nazis, working at investment bank Goldman Sachs, and his college degree.

It lasted eight months and found “overwhelming evidence” of law-breaking – and Mr Santos has now admitted making up much of his biography.

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The US attorney’s office indicted him in May, accusing him of cheating donors, laundering campaign funds for his own personal use, and lying to Congress.

It alleged he stole donors’ identities and used their credit cards to make tens of thousands in authorised charges.

Mr Santos has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and his trial is scheduled for September 2024.

“Mr Santos is not a victim. He is a perpetrator of a massive fraud on his constituents and the American people,” said Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the ethics committee.

The last person to be kicked out of the House was Democrat James Traficant over a criminal corruption conviction in 2002.

New York state governor Kathy Hochul now has 10 days to call a special election for Mr Santos’s seat.