City & Guilds is facing potential legal and industrial action over claims it has been “dishonest” over plans to shed about 400 UK staff.

Officials at the Unite union allege the owner of the training and qualifications body has been “unlawfully withholding key information during transfer consultations”, while also “advertising for new recruits when it is legally required to give staff at risk of redundancy first refusal”.

The row represents yet another crisis at the embattled former vocational charity, whose business was acquired by the private company PeopleCert last autumn in a controversial deal that went on to trigger a statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission in January, as well as PeopleCert commissioning its own internal investigation.

The investigations are understood to be considering Guardian revelations concerning a pair of City & Guilds executives receiving million-pound bonuses and sizeable salary increases after the sale.

Unite regional officer Peter Storey said: “PeopleCert has been dishonest [about its staffing plans] from the moment it took over City & Guilds. Without significant movement from the company, this dispute will continue to escalate, including through potential legal and industrial action.”

The union predicted that the round of about 75 redundancies will only be the first wave of job losses and that PeopleCert is ultimately planning to shed about one-third of its 1,300 strong UK workforce.

PeopleCert said in January that: “There are no plans for compulsory redundancies in the UK.”

The City & Guilds business, which was founded in 1878 by the City of London and a group of 16 livery companies to develop a national system of technical education, charges fees for its accreditations to private training businesses and has about 60% of its income “underpinned by stable government funding schemes”.

Having maintained a fairly modest profile for much of its 148-year history, last year’s sale of the business to PeopleCert put City & Guilds in the spotlight.

In December, the Guardian revealed how a presentation prepared for PeopleCert investors set out plans for the now-private City & Guilds to shrink its UK workforce as part of a £22m cost-cutting drive. PeopleCert informed its backers of £13m of “personnel cost synergies” that would largely be achieved by replacing departing UK staff with cheaper overseas hires.

In a letter sent by Unite to PeopleCert last month, which has been seen by the Guardian, the union added: “The alignment between those previously reported measures [in the investor presentation] and the current proposals gives rise to a legitimate concern that key aspects of the outcome were decided in advance.”

PeopleCert said, since preparing the investor presentation setting out how UK job losses could be achieved via “attrition”, a subsequent review identified the possibility of 75 compulsory job cuts.

“The proposals currently under consultation are the result of a subsequent review of the organisation’s structure, operating model and future requirements, which took place earlier this year and is separate to previous discussions on the workforce,” the company said in a statement.

It added: “No outcomes have been predetermined. The purpose of consultation is to seek feedback on the proposals, explore ways to avoid, reduce and mitigate proposed redundancies where possible, and consider alternative approaches. That process remains ongoing.”

Three hospitals in southern Lebanon have been attacked by Israel in under a week, wounding more than 150 people and killing nine, according to Lebanon’s ministry of health.

Israel carried out an attack in the immediate vicinity of the public hospital in Tebnine on Wednesday, just days after strikes next to the Hiram and Jabal Amel hospitals in Tyre. The attack next to Jabal Amel on Monday killed four people and injured 127 – most of whom were medical staff.

“It was an ordinary day at the hospital and then suddenly for no reason, they targeted the hospital. It was a catastrophe,” said Wael Mroueh, the director of Jabal Amel. The strike hit the building directly in front of the hospital, levelling it.

The force of the blast knocked out the hospital’s electricity, destroyed much of the first floor and forced medical staff to evacuate patients who were hooked up to machines in the intensive care unit, which was also damaged.

Mroueh said: “I never expected something like this to happen. We prepared ourselves psychologically that maybe some of our medical staff could be targeted, but a huge strike like this, in this way. We didn’t expect it.”

The World Health Organization said the attacks deprived the most vulnerable patients of medical care. Access to essential services was already “critically constrained”, said the UN agency’s representative in Lebanon, Abdinasir Abubakar, who called for the attacks to stop

The hospitals are among the few remaining functional healthcare facilities in south Lebanon, an area which has been subject to mass displacement. The third hospital in Tyre had escaped damage but was overwhelmed and dealing with an influx of injured patients, according to Abubakar.

Tyre, one of the largest cities in south Lebanon, is hosting displaced people from surrounding villages, many of whom have limited access to medical care.

At least 130 medical workers have been killed by Israel and 162 ambulances and healthcare facilities have been struck since the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started on 2 March, according to the Lebanese ministry of health. It said two emergency responders were killed and a third critically wounded by an Israeli strike on an ambulance on Wednesday.

The Israeli military said it had struck “Hezbollah infrastructure in the area of Tyre” and acknowledged the hospital was “affected incidentally” but was not a target of the strike. It accused Hezbollah of “taking over” one of the hospitals it struck, in Tebnine, and said medics had treated wounded fighters.

The Lebanese ministry of health called the accusation a “fabrication” and said: “This threat is yet another episode in the escalating series of Israeli attacks on health institutions.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross, the Lebanese Red Cross and the Lebanese army all have a medical presence in Tebnine’s hospital.

Analysts and human rights experts have said the attacks on healthcare facilities were aimed at degrading the conditions for life in south Lebanon. Targeting medical facilities and healthcare workers is a war crime.

Despite the damage to Jabal Amel, Mroueh said the hospital was again receiving patients. “On the day the strike happened, we performed two childbirth deliveries. We’re continuing to receive victims of airstrikes,” he said. “None of the doctors or nurses left. They said they wanted to continue working.”

The fighting started on 2 March when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. A ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel was signed on 17 April but fighting has not stopped outside Beirut.

More than 3,468 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since 2 March, while at least 21 Israeli soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah along with two civilians inside Israel.

Luigi Mangione’s New York state case in the killing of the healthcare executive Brian Thompson descended into secrecy on Wednesday when Judge Gregory Carro held sealed proceedings despite press objections.

Mangione’s state trial for allegedly shooting dead Thompson on a Manhattan Street in late 2024 is scheduled for 8 September. Mangione also faces a federal trial in relation to Thompson’s killing. The murder triggered an intense manhunt but also prompted an outpouring of public rage against the practices of the for-profit US healthcare industry.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty in both cases. Mangione’s team and prosecutors were scheduled to appear for a 3 June virtual conference. Carro scheduled Wednesday’s conference publicly at Mangione’s last court proceeding.

While parties do not appear for virtual conferences, these proceedings are routinely accessible to press and public in courtrooms via video display. There is a presumption of public and press access to court proceedings – be they in-person or virtual – in New York and US courts.

However, as media outlets earlier this week asked logistics questions about access to the virtual proceeding, New York state courts administrators announced that this proceeding would be sealed. This notification came at 1.18pm on Tuesday, less than 24 hours before the proceeding’s scheduled start time, giving the media and their legal representatives little time to fight the sealing.

Attorneys for various media organizations and at least one reporter filed letters requesting an opportunity to address the sealing issue before this hearing.

While the press and public’s right to attend court proceedings has limited exceptions, judges are barred from restricting access unless there is a specific legal reason for doing so. Multiple court rulings mandate that the press and public have a right to address the court with objections over sealing.

Despite the fact that several media organizations objected to this sealing and requested an opportunity to be heard – requests which are common, accepted practice in state and federal courts – Carro did not provide them with one.

Instead, the virtual conference started without Carro hearing objections. The proceeding started at about 9.30 and Carro took the bench at approximately 10.30.

“Just so the record is clear, we did have a virtual proceeding in the people versus Luigi Mangione case,” Carro said.

“Defendant was present. His attorneys were present. The people were present,” Carro said. “At the request of the defense, that proceeding is sealed at the moment and we have adjourned the case to June 16 and it’s a physical appearance and you’re all invited to be here.”

Carro did not explain why the proceeding was sealed. He also did not allow the press an opportunity to address the court after his comments. When several members of the press stood in the hopes of addressing the court – which happens frequently when time–sensitive access issues come up – Carro had already moved on to the next proceeding.