The suspect in the second apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump in as many months was charged in federal court on Monday morning with two gun-related crimes, as urgent investigations began into how he was able to get so close to the former US president.

As the US continued to react in shock to the latest apparent attempt on Trump’s life, the Republican presidential nominee added to the already tense atmosphere around the US election campaign by making highly inflammatory remarks, explicitly blaming Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for inciting the attack and calling them “the enemy within”.

Ryan Wesley Routh wore dark-blue prison scrubs in the courthouse and shackles on his hands and feet. He sat quietly for about five minutes with no visible signs of nerves before marshals led him back out to await his hearing. He was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and with having a gun with an obliterated serial number – probably just preliminary charges to allow authorities to keep him in custody while additional charges are brought.

Cellphone records showed Routh camped out near the golf course for about 12 hours, with food, before being confronted by a Secret Service agent. The Associated Press reported that in court documents unsealed on Monday, officials said Routh’s phone was shown near the tree line at Trump’s golf course from 1.59am until 1.31pm on Sunday, around which point a Secret Service agent shot at him after seeing his rifle through the foliage.

Later, Ronald Rowe Jr, the US Secret Service acting director, said Routh did not fire any shots. Rowe said that once an agent detected Routh armed with a rifle, the agent discharged their firearm before the 58-year-old fled.

“He did not fire or get off any shots at our agent,” Rowe said. “With reports of gunfire, the former president’s close protection detail immediately evacuated the president to a safe location.”

Rowe also told reporters that Trump was “out of sight of the gunman” during his unscheduled visit to the golf club.

“The protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective yesterday,” Rowe added.

Routh then fled in an SUV before being arrested by local law enforcement officers in a neighboring county.

Trump, meanwhile, announced that he blamed the president and vice-president for the shooting, because they have criticized him as a threat to democracy following his attempt to overturn the 2020 election result.

“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country and they are the ones that are destroying the country – both from the inside and out,” Trump told Fox News Digital.

“These are people that want to destroy our country,” he added. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”

Donald Trump’s team said the former president would hit the trail this week as previously scheduled.

JD Vance, Trump’s vice-presidential pick, echoed his sentiments in a tweet, urging his followers to “reject censorship” amid what he considers a lack of coverage from media and discouragement from expressing “an opinion on the public affairs of your nation”.

“The logic of censorship leads directly to one place, for there is only one way to permanently silence a human being: put a bullet in his brain,” reads his 1,200-word post.

As more details about the alleged would-be assassin continued to surface, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, said the state was launching an investigation. “The people deserve the truth about the would-be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee,” DeSantis said on social media. The investigation will be led jointly by the Florida department of law enforcement and the Florida highway patrol, the governor’s office said.

Two members of a congressional taskforce investigating the earlier assassination attempt in July, the Republican Mike Kelly and the Democrat Jason Crow, also said they had requested a briefing from the Secret Service.

Joe Biden told reporters on Monday that he did not yet have a full report of the Sunday incident at Trump’s Florida golf course, and was thankful Trump was “OK”.

“The Secret Service needs more help,” the president added.

He said: “There is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country, and I have directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former president’s continued safety.”

The House speaker, Mike Johnson, posted on social media that he and his wife, Kelly, had spent a few hours with Trump on Sunday after the incident. They were “thanking God for protecting him today – once again,” he said. “No leader in American history has endured more attacks and remained so strong and resilient.”

Vance, Trump’s running mate, said he was “glad” Trump was safe and said Trump “was, amazingly, in good spirits”. Senator Lindsey Graham described him as “one of the strongest people I’ve ever known”.

Trump thanked his security detail and local law enforcement for intervening before the gunman was able to take a shot. “The job done was absolutely outstanding,” Trump wrote in a post on social media.

Earlier, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, responded, saying: “Again folks!”

The suspect was reported to be a registered Democrat in North Carolina, but also said on social media that he voted for Trump in 2016 and that he supported a hypothetical Republican presidential ticket of Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna blamed the “radical left” for describing Republicans as “threats to democracy” following Trump’s attempt to overthrow the democratic will of the American people in 2020, which Biden frequently invoked when he was the Democratic candidate.

For the most part, however, politicians from both major parties denounced political violence.

Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, said: “Violence has no place in our country. It’s not who we are as a nation.”

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, who prosecuted the Trump organization in New York over false property valuations, said: “Political violence, in any form, cannot be accepted or normalized in this country.”

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said: “There is no place in this country for political violence of any kind,” a sentiment also expressed by the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

Members of Trump’s inner circle said he was maintaining an upbeat perspective.

“He told me he was always glad to hear from me but he was glad he didn’t need my services today,” said Ronny Jackson, a Texas congressman and Trump’s former White House doctor, who said he spoke to Trump two hours after the incident.

The White House has condemned Elon Musk for tweeting “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” in response to an X user asking “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”

The president’s office issued a statement Monday criticizing the “irresponsible” post, which was accompanied by an emoji face with a raised eyebrow. The White House said: “Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible.” The statement added that there should be “no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country”.

The Secret Service also said on Monday it was aware of a post by the billionaire on the X social network. Musk, who owns the platform, formerly known as Twitter, made the post after a man suspected of planning to assassinate Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach was arrested on Sunday.

Musk, himself a Trump supporter, was quickly criticized by X users from the left and right, who said they were concerned his words to his nearly 200m X followers could incite violence against Biden and Harris.

The tech billionaire deleted the post but not before the Secret Service, tasked with protecting current and former presidents, vice-presidents and other notable officials, took notice.

“The Secret Service is aware of the social media post made by Elon Musk and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence,” a spokesperson said in an email. “We can say, however, that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees.”

The spokesperson declined to specify whether the agency had reached out to Musk, who seemed to suggest in follow-up posts that he had been making a joke.

“Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X,” he later wrote. “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”

Harris, a Democrat running against the Republican nominee Trump in the 2024 election, and Biden both issued statements on Sunday night expressing relief that Trump had not been harmed.

• This article was amended on 16 September 2024. An earlier version stated that Elon Musk had tweeted “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” It was later corrected to make clear he was replying to that tweet.

The FBI is investigating what it has described as an attempted assassination of Donald Trump after Secret Service agents spotted the muzzle of a rifle poking through a fence close to where the former US president was playing golf at his club in Florida. A suspect has been arrested and an assault rifle was recovered at the course.

The incident occurred at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

At about 1.30pm local time (18.30 BST) on Sunday, Secret Service agents spotted a gun barrel and opened fire at the suspect, who fled and escaped in a car up the Interstate 95 (I95) highway.

A few hundred metres away, Trump and his golf partner, Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor, were on the fifth hole and about to putt when they heard the “pop, pop, pop, pop” of gunfire, according to Sean Hannity, a Fox News host and Trump’s friend.

Secret Service agents immediately used their bodies to shield Trump and moved him to the golf course’s clubhouse, where he remained until he went back to his Mar-a-Lago resort home about 15 minutes away.

An “AK-47-style” rifle with a scope, two backpacks containing “ceramic tiles” and a GoPro camera were found at the scene and were believed to have been left by the alleged shooter, police said.

A witness saw the alleged gunman leaving the scene and managed to take photos of his car, a black Nissan, including the licence plate.

In a press conference, the Palm Beach county sheriff, Ric Bradshaw, said a male suspect was later stopped on the I95 and detained by authorities. According to Bradshaw, the suspect was relatively calm.

Overnight, images emerged of Secret Service and homeland security agents searching the suspect’s former home in Greensboro, North Carolina, almost 800 miles (1,300km) north of the Florida golf club.

Law enforcement officials have not officially named a suspect or given any immediate indication of a motive.

However, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation told the Guardian that the man is Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who has previously travelled to Ukraine and sought to recruit overseas fighters to support Kyiv in its war.

Routh appeared in court on Monday and was charged with two gun-related crimes – possessing a firearm despite being a convicted felon, and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number – in what is likely to be an initial move to allow authorities to keep him detained while they work on the case.

In an email to supporters after the incident, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!”. He added: “Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, said he spoke to Trump after the shooting and that the former president was in good spirits.

Trump was previously injured in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on 13 July, which killed a spectator. The shooter in that attempt was killed by security agents.

The Miami Heat have issued a statement defending the Haitian community amid rumours and threats from the far right in the US.

The NBA team posted a message of support on social media on Monday amid false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio have eaten pets and wildlife.

“The Miami HEAT staff, like Miami itself, is a diverse and brilliant mix of vibrant cultures, including members of our Haitian community,” the team wrote in the statement. “The false narrative around them is hurtful and offensive and has sadly made innocent people targets of hateful speech and physical threats. Our Haitian employees, fans and friends deserve better.”

The Heat ended the statement by writing: “ansanm nou kanpé fò”, or “together we stand strong” in Haitian creole.

Miami has a large Haitian community, many of them based in the neighbourhood of Little Haiti.

The widely debunked lies around the Haitian community in Ohio were amplified when they were repeated by Donald Trump during his television debate with Kamal Harris last week.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” said Trump. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

David Muir, one of ABC’s moderators for the debate, quickly corrected the former president.

“You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there,” said Muir. “He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

The city of Springfield believes the rumours may also have arisen from a case in Canton, Ohio, where an American with no known connection to Haiti was arrested in August for allegedly stomping a cat to death and eating the animal.

Hospitals and government buildings in Springfield have been the subject of bomb threats linked to the rumours in recent days.

Facebook owner Meta said on Monday it was banning RT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media networks, alleging the outlets used deceptive tactics to carry out influence operations while evading detection on the social media company’s platforms.

“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” the company said in a written statement.

Enforcement of the ban would roll out over the coming days, it said. In addition to Facebook, Meta’s apps include Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.

The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The ban marks a sharp escalation in actions by the world’s biggest social media company against Russian state media, after it spent years taking more limited steps such as blocking the outlets from running ads and reducing the reach of their posts.

It came after the US filed money-laundering charges earlier this month against two RT employees for what officials said was a scheme to hire a US company to produce online content to influence the 2024 election.

On Friday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against the Russian state-backed media company, formerly known as Russia Today, after new information gleaned from the outfit’s employees showed it was “functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus”.

“Today, we’re exposing how Russia deploys similar tactics around the world,” Blinken said. “Russian weaponization of disinformation to subvert and polarize free and open societies extends to every part of the world.”

The Russian government in 2023 established a new unit in RT with “cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence”, Blinken claimed, with the goal of spreading Russian influence in countries around the world through information operations, covert influence and military procurement.

Blinken said the US treasury would sanction three entities and two individuals tied to Rossiya Segodnya, the Russian state media company. The decision came after the announcement earlier this month that RT had funneled nearly $10m to conservative US influencers through a local company to produce videos meant to influence the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

Speaking to reporters from the state department on Friday, Blinken accused RT of crowdfunding weapons and equipment for Russian soldiers in Ukraine, including sniper rifles, weapon sights, body armor, night-vision equipment, drones, radio equipment and diesel generators. Some of the equipment, including the recon drones, could be sourced from China, he said.

Blinken also detailed how the organisation had targeted countries in Europe, Africa and North and South America. In particular, he said that RT leadership had coordinated directly with the Kremlin to target the October 2024 elections in Moldova, a former Soviet state in Europe where Russia has been accused of waging a hybrid war to exert greater influence. In particular, he said, RT’s leadership had “attempted to foment unrest in Moldova, likely with the specific aim of causing protests to turn violent”.

“RT is aware of and prepared to assist Russia’s plans to incite protests should the election not result in a Russia-preferred candidate winning the presidency,” Blinken said.

Andrew Roth contributed reporting

• Russia said on Monday that its forces had retaken control of two villages in its western Kursk region from Ukraine, continuing what Moscow says is a significant counter-offensive there. Russian forces have been battling Ukrainian troops in Kursk region since 6 August, when Kyiv surprised Moscow with the biggest foreign attack on Russian soil since the second world war and subsequently seized 100 villages over an area of more than 1,300 sq km. The Russian claim could not be independently verified on Monday.

• Russia also ordered the evacuation of more villages close to the Ukrainian border in the Kursk region on Monday. The reason for the border evacuations was unclear, but came days after Moscow launched its counteroffensive. Authorities have decided to order the “obligatory evacuation of settlements in the Rylsky and Khomutovsky districts that are within a 15km (nine-mile) zone adjacent to the border with Ukraine,” Kursk region governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram. There are dozens of villages and towns within this radius.

• Ukraine on Monday said it had asked the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to verify the situation in areas of Kursk it has seized. “I instructed the Ukrainian foreign ministry to officially invite the UN and ICRC to join humanitarian efforts in the Kursk region,” foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media. The UN said on Monday that it stood ready to assess and verify the situation in the Kursk region but only with Moscow’s blessing.

• The outgoing head of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Monday he welcomed talks on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike inside Russian territory, but any decision on the issue would have to be made by individual allies. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with allies for months to let Ukraine fire western missiles including long-range US Atacms and British Storm Shadows deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks. British prime minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden held talks in Washington on Friday on whether to allow Kyiv to use the long-range missiles against targets in Russia but no decision was publicly announced.

• The Finnish government is happy for Sweden to lead the establishment of Nato land forces in Finland to boost defences against neighbouring Russia, the two Nordic countries said on Monday. Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked a historic policy U-turn in previously militarily non-aligned Finland and Sweden, which joined Nato in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

• Ukraine added the director of a controversial war documentary to a national security blacklist on Monday, saying it spread “Russian propaganda” about Moscow’s invasion. Russians at War, directed by Russian-Canadian film-maker Anastasia Trofimova, features interviews with troops fighting on the frontline in Ukraine. Since its debut at Venice earlier this month, it has sparked controversy with some denouncing the film as an attempt to whitewash and justify Moscow’s invasion.

• The trial of a French citizen arrested in Russia on charges of unlawfully collecting information on military issues started on Monday but was quickly adjourned for a month. Laurent Vinatier, arrested in Moscow in June, had earlier pleaded guilty, setting the stage for a fast-track trial without a detailed examination of evidence. Russia has previously used “foreign agent” charges to target Russian citizens and domestic critics of the Kremlin including activists, campaigners and independent journalists. Vinatier is an adviser with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organisation. The NGO in June said it was doing “everything possible to assist” him. Human rights activists have criticised the law and other recent legislation as part of a Kremlin crackdown on independent media and political activists intended to stifle criticism of its actions in Ukraine. Soon after the trial opened on Monday, the judge adjourned the hearing until 14 October when prosecutors will declare the sentence they will seek. Vinatier’s lawyer, Aleksey Sinitsyn, said the trial was adjourned because the prosecution needed more time to prepare for final arguments. If convicted, Vinatier could face up to five years in prison.

• Kyiv on Monday denied links to a man accused of trying to assassinate former US president Donald Trump, after it emerged that the suspect was a supporter of Ukraine who had said he wanted to recruit foreign volunteers to fight there. Media interviews and social media posts showed that the reported suspect, Ryan Routh, 58, was a staunch supporter of Ukraine who had travelled there after Russia’s 2022 invasion. Ukrainian officials said they had nothing to do with him, and accused Moscow of seizing on the link for propaganda purposes. The Kremlin, for its part, implied there was a link between the assassination attempt and US support for Kyiv, saying “playing with fire has its consequences”.

With just 10 days to go before Japan’s governing party elects a new leader – who will automatically become prime minister – the contest is still too close to call.

Among the frontrunners are Shigeru Ishiba, a model aircraft enthusiast and security policy wonk about to embark on his “final battle”, and Shinjiro Koizumi, the youthful, photogenic son of a former prime minister who once insisted the fight against climate change could be “sexy” and “fun”. The race has been complicated by a new poll in which ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) supporters named Sanae Takaichi, the ultra-conservative economic security minister, as their preferred choice.

The current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, blew open the race to lead the LDP – a conservative political powerhouse that has governed almost unchallenged for seven decades – with his surprise decision not to run in the leadership race on 27 September.

Citing the need for new blood after damaging political and financial scandals, and stubbornly low personal approval ratings, Kishida warned that his successor must lead a “new LDP”.

Under Japan’s parliamentary system, the party’s new president, who will be chosen from a record nine candidates, will automatically become prime minister when he – or she – is approved by the LDP-dominated Diet.

On Monday, a poll by the Kyodo news agency showed that 63-year-old Takaichi – who played drums in a rock band as a teenager – was viewed by 27.7% of LDP supporters as most suitable to be Japan’s next prime minister, although doubts remain over her ability to garner votes among her lawmaker colleagues.

The poll, in which Ishiba received 23.7% support and Koizumi 19.1%, indicates that the leadership vote will have to go to a decisive second round.

Koizumi has struggled to convert his popularity with voters into a credible bid to become leader of the world’s fourth-biggest economy. Recent polls suggest this attempt, too, could end in failure at the hands of Ishiba, 67, who is attempting to become LDP head at the fifth – and, he says, final – time of asking.

An earlier poll by Nikkei financial newspaper and broadcaster TV Tokyo put support for Ishiba at 26%, followed by the 43-year-old Koizumi at 20%, with Takaichi, at 16%.

Each of the LDP’s 367 lawmakers will cast a vote in the first round, while an equal number of votes will be distributed based on the preferences of just over 1 million grassroots members who must cast their votes by 26 September.

In the unlikely event that one candidate secures a simple majority in the first round, he or she will become party leader. But in the absence of a runaway favourite, the two candidates with the most votes will compete in a second round, with each LDP lawmaker getting one vote and membership’s share dropping to 47 votes, one for each of Japan’s prefectures.

The old guard v the new

Despite his lack of success in four previous leadership races, Ishiba is seen as a safe pair of hands able to steer the LDP out of stormy waters, although some analysts believe only victory for Koizumi would prove to voters that the LDP is serious about addressing the fallout from a damaging fundraising scandal.

Koizumi, a keen surfer who graduated with a Master’s degree in political science from Columbia University, can offer “a nebulous promise of generational change and modernisation of the ruling LDP,” said James Brady, vice-president of the political risk advisory firm Teneo.

While Ishiba could outperform his rival among rank-and-file members, “Koizumi is likely to receive significantly more support from parliamentary colleagues, giving him a real chance of coming top in the first round”, Brady added.

What the softly spoken Ishiba, a member of Japan’s tiny Christian population, lacks in charisma, he makes up for in experience. A strong backer of Taiwanese democracy, he has served as defence minister and supports the creation of an Asian “Nato” to counter security threats from China and North Korea.

In some ways, though, Koizumi’s candidacy is a continuation of the status quo. As one of a glut of “hereditary politicians” in Japan’s parliament, much of his public profile rests on the legacy of his father, the silver-haired, Elvis-impersonating Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister from 2001-6.

The younger Koizumi rose steadily through the LDP ranks, serving as environment minister a decade after he inherited his father’s constituency in Kanagawa prefecture in 2009 – the fourth-generation member of a political dynasty whose involvement in Japanese public life stretches back more than a century.

Koizumi immediately made waves, telling a UN summit in that in “tackling a big-scale issue like climate change, it’s got to be fun, it’s got to be cool, and it’s got to be sexy, too” – a choice of words some described as frivolous.

After his marriage to the TV presenter Christel Takigawa, he became the first Japanese cabinet minister to take paternity leave – albeit a measly two weeks – after the birth of their first child in 2020.

Koizumi has displayed similarly “modern” instincts elsewhere. He supports legislation to permit married couples to use separate surnames and to allow women to become reigning empresses, a move also backed by Ishiba.

While his immediate future will be decided by party colleagues and members, Koizumi, who would become Japan’s youngest prime minister since the war, has said he will immediately seek a popular mandate by calling a snap election. “After the money scandal, we won’t get anywhere with our policies unless we face the people’s judgment first,” he said.

Agencies contributed reporting.

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been arrested in Manhattan and faces federal charges, the music mogul’s attorney has told US media outlets.

The New York Times reported the arrest came after a grand jury indicted him, citing a person familiar with the indictment who was not authorised to speak publicly.

Details of the charges weren’t immediately announced by prosecutors, but Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, issued a statement saying: “We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr Combs by the US Attorney’s Office.”

He added that Combs had gone to New York last week in anticipation of the charges being brought.

“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said.

The federal investigation into Combs was revealed when Homeland Security Investigations agents served simultaneous search warrants and raided Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on 25 March.

The day after the raids his defence attorney Aaron Dyer called them “a gross use of military-level force”, said the allegations were “meritless” and that Combs was “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his name.

Since then, his career has been plagued with sexual assault lawsuits and a federal investigation.

Combs was once one of the most successful rappers in the US, with a string of hit tracks including US No 1 singles Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down, I’ll Be Missing You and Shake Ya Tailfeather. His label Bad Boy Records was home to popular artists including Notorious BIG and Mase, and he had success with other business ventures such as clothing brand Sean John and vodka brand Cîroc.

But his reputation has been damaged since the allegations, which he has denied. In recent weeks New York mayor Eric Adams has demanded Combs return the ceremonial key to the city he was awarded in September 2023, while Howard University rescinded Combs’ honorary degree, discontinued a scholarship programme in his name and returned a $1m donation.

Last November, his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, became the first of several people to sue him for sexual abuse.

In her November lawsuit, Cassie alleged years of abuse, including beatings and rape. Her suit also alleged Combs engaged in sex trafficking by “requiring her to engage in forced sexual acts in multiple jurisdictions” and by engaging in “harboring and transportation of Plaintiff for purposes of sex induced by force, fraud, or coercion”. It also said he compelled her to help him traffic male sex workers Combs would force Cassie to have sex with while he filmed.

The suit was settled the following day, but its reverberations would last far longer. In May, CNN aired a leaked video of him punching Cassie, kicking her and throwing her on the floor in a hotel hallway.

Combs posted a video apologising, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.” Cassie’s lawsuit was followed by at least a half-dozen others in the ensuing months.

In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and put pressure on him to have sex with them. Another of Combs’ accusers was a woman who said the rap producer raped her two decades ago when she was 17.

Combs and his attorneys denied the allegations.

While authorities did not publicly say the lawsuits set off the criminal investigation, Dyer said when the warrants were served the case was based on “meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits”.

Last week a man who accused Combs of sexually assaulting him won a $100m judgment after the music producer failed to contest the allegations in a civil courthouse in Michigan.

An attorney for Combs issued a statement denying his client knew the plaintiff, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith. The lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Cardello-Smith had committed “fraud on the court” and that Combs “looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed”.

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been arrested in Manhattan and faces federal charges, the music mogul’s attorney has told US media outlets.

The New York Times reported the arrest came after a grand jury indicted him, citing a person familiar with the indictment who was not authorised to speak publicly.

Details of the charges weren’t immediately announced by prosecutors, but Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, issued a statement saying: “We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr Combs by the US Attorney’s Office.”

He added that Combs had gone to New York last week in anticipation of the charges being brought.

“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said.

The federal investigation into Combs was revealed when Homeland Security Investigations agents served simultaneous search warrants and raided Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on 25 March.

The day after the raids his defence attorney Aaron Dyer called them “a gross use of military-level force”, said the allegations were “meritless” and that Combs was “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his name.

Since then, his career has been plagued with sexual assault lawsuits and a federal investigation.

Combs was once one of the most successful rappers in the US, with a string of hit tracks including US No 1 singles Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down, I’ll Be Missing You and Shake Ya Tailfeather. His label Bad Boy Records was home to popular artists including Notorious BIG and Mase, and he had success with other business ventures such as clothing brand Sean John and vodka brand Cîroc.

But his reputation has been damaged since the allegations, which he has denied. In recent weeks New York mayor Eric Adams has demanded Combs return the ceremonial key to the city he was awarded in September 2023, while Howard University rescinded Combs’ honorary degree, discontinued a scholarship programme in his name and returned a $1m donation.

Last November, his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, became the first of several people to sue him for sexual abuse.

In her November lawsuit, Cassie alleged years of abuse, including beatings and rape. Her suit also alleged Combs engaged in sex trafficking by “requiring her to engage in forced sexual acts in multiple jurisdictions” and by engaging in “harboring and transportation of Plaintiff for purposes of sex induced by force, fraud, or coercion”. It also said he compelled her to help him traffic male sex workers Combs would force Cassie to have sex with while he filmed.

The suit was settled the following day, but its reverberations would last far longer. In May, CNN aired a leaked video of him punching Cassie, kicking her and throwing her on the floor in a hotel hallway.

Combs posted a video apologising, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.” Cassie’s lawsuit was followed by at least a half-dozen others in the ensuing months.

In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and put pressure on him to have sex with them. Another of Combs’ accusers was a woman who said the rap producer raped her two decades ago when she was 17.

Combs and his attorneys denied the allegations.

While authorities did not publicly say the lawsuits set off the criminal investigation, Dyer said when the warrants were served the case was based on “meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits”.

Last week a man who accused Combs of sexually assaulting him won a $100m judgment after the music producer failed to contest the allegations in a civil courthouse in Michigan.

An attorney for Combs issued a statement denying his client knew the plaintiff, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith. The lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Cardello-Smith had committed “fraud on the court” and that Combs “looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed”.

Israel will expand its war goals to include the return of northern residents who were evacuated due to attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The decision was approved during an overnight meeting of the security cabinet, Netanyahu’s office said. Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily strikes with Hezbollah since Hamas’s 7 October attack sparked the war in the Gaza.

Tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated from towns along the northern frontier that have been badly damaged by rocket fire and they have yet to return.

Earlier on Monday, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said that the “possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas, and refuses to end the conflict. Therefore, the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action.”

Hezbollah officials have said in the past that the group would stand down if a Gaza ceasefire was reached, while Israel insists it cannot allow militants to remain in the border area in Lebanon’s south.

The violence has killed hundreds – mostly fighters – in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side. The fighting has also forced tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee their homes.

Gallant on Monday met visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein to discuss military operations against Hezbollah and the plight of Israelis displaced by the cross-border strikes, the defence ministry said in a statement. Earlier in the day, the defence minster spoke to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin and said time was “running out” for an agreement that would end the conflict.

While repeated rounds of talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have sought a truce in Gaza, there have been no signs of progress in diplomacy aimed at halting the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt on Tuesday for his 10th trip to the Middle East since the war began nearly a year ago. Blinken has no public plans to go to Israel to meet Netanyahu on this trip.

After months in which President Joe Biden and his officials publicly talked up an agreement to end the war in Gaza as being just within reach, the White House says it is now working with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar to come up with a revised final proposal to try to at least get Israel and Hamas into a six-week ceasefire.

Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said on Monday that the Palestinian group had the resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies.

Sinwar said in a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies, the Houthis, that “we have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition” and along with other Iran-aligned would “break the enemy’s political will” after more than 11 months of war.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

Among the last words heard from the crew of an experimental submersible headed for the wreck of the Titanic were “all good here”, according to a visual re-creation of the journey of the Titan before it imploded, killing all five on board.

The US Coast Guard presented the animation on Monday on the first day of what is expected to be a two-week hearing on the causes of the implosion. Crew aboard the Titan were communicating via text messages with staff aboard the support ship Polar Prince, according to the presentation.

The crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the submersible’s depth and weight as it descended. The Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display. One of Titan’s final responses, which became spotty as it descended, was “all good here”.

The Titan imploded on 18 June 2023, setting off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

The submersible was left exposed to the elements while in storage for seven months in 2022 and 2023, Coast Guard representatives said in their initial remarks. The hull was also never reviewed by any third parties as is standard procedure, they said. That and its unconventional design subjected the Titan to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

The hearing’s first witness, Tony Nissen, former engineering director for the company that owned the Titan, testified that he felt rushed to start operations during his time with the company. When asked if there was pressure to get the Titan into the water, he responded: “100%”.

The marine board also asked Nissen if he felt that the pressure from Stockton Rush, OceanGate co-founder, compromised safety decisions and testing. After a long pause, he responded: “No … that’s a difficult question to answer, because given infinite time and infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”

Nissen also said that the Titan was struck by lightning during a test mission in 2018, and that might have compromised its hull. He said he was fired in 2019, the same year he would not let the submersible go to the Titanic. He said he also told Rush the Titan was “not working like we thought it would”.

The former engineering director said the submersible later went through other tests and adjustments before its subsequent dives to the Titanic. However, he said he did not trust the operations staff and testified that when Stockton asked him to pilot the submersible, he replied: “I’m not getting in it.”

Rush could be difficult to work for and was often very concerned with costs and project schedules, among other issues, Nissen testified. He said Rush would fight for what he wanted, which often changed day to day. He added that he tried to keep his clashes with Rush behind closed doors so that others in the company would not be aware.

“Most people would eventually just back down to Stockton,” he said.

The ongoing marine board of investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. When the hearing concludes, recommendations will be submitted to the service branch’s commandant. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.

“There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this tragic incident,” said Jason Neubauer of the Coast Guard office of investigations, who led the hearing. “But we hope that this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevent anything like this from happening again.”

OceanGate suspended operations after the implosion. Also scheduled to speak were the company’s former finance director, Bonnie Carl, and former contractor Tym Catterson.

Some key OceanGate representatives are not scheduled to testify. They include Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, who was the company’s communications director.

The Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons for not calling specific individuals to a particular hearing during ongoing investigations, said Melissa Leake, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard. She said it was common for a marine board of investigation to “hold multiple hearing sessions or conduct additional witness depositions for complex cases”.

Scheduled to appear later in the hearing are the OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein; its former operations director, David Lochridge; and its former scientific director, Steve Ross, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard. Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry officials are also expected to testify. The Coast Guard subpoenaed witnesses who were not government employees, Leake said.

OceanGate has no full-time employees at this time but will be represented by an attorney during the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board investigations since they began, the statement said.

The implosion also killed the veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood; and the British adventurer Hamish Harding.

The Titan lost contact with its support vessel about two hours after it made its final dive later. When it was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700km) south of St John’s, Newfoundland.

The search for the submersible attracted worldwide attention, as it became increasingly unlikely that anyone could have survived the implosion. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300m) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.

The time frame for the investigation was initially a year, but the inquiry has taken longer. The Coast Guard said in July that the hearing would delve into “all aspects of the loss of the Titan”, including both mechanical considerations as well as compliance with regulations and crewmember qualifications.

The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

Amazon said on Monday it would require employees to return to the office five days a week, effective 2 January.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID. When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Andy Jassy, the CEO, said in a note to employees.

The e-commerce giant’s previous office attendance requirement for its workers was three days a week. Amazon workers can claim “extenuating circumstances” or request exceptions from senior leadership, according to Jassy’s memo.

“If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits.” He cited improved collaboration and connection between teams as reasons for the new requirement as well as the ability to “strengthen our culture”.

As part of an organizational restructuring, Amazon is looking to reduce the number of managers in its organization and boost the number of individual contributors by the end of the first quarter of 2025 to reduce bureaucracy. Like other technology companies, Amazon grew rapidly at the start of the coronavirus pandemic then laid off wide swaths of its staff.

“We are also going to bring back assigned desk arrangements in locations that were previously organized that way, including the US headquarters locations (Puget Sound and Arlington),” Jassy said.

Since Covid lockdowns first forced workers home four years ago, employers and employees have clashed over how many days of the work week must be spent in the office. In May last year, employees at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters staged a walkout protesting against changes to the e-commerce giant’s climate policy, layoffs and a return-to-office mandate.

“Before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward,” Jassy wrote. “Our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances.”

Amazon said on Monday it would require employees to return to the office five days a week, effective 2 January.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID. When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Andy Jassy, the CEO, said in a note to employees.

The e-commerce giant’s previous office attendance requirement for its workers was three days a week. Amazon workers can claim “extenuating circumstances” or request exceptions from senior leadership, according to Jassy’s memo.

“If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits.” He cited improved collaboration and connection between teams as reasons for the new requirement as well as the ability to “strengthen our culture”.

As part of an organizational restructuring, Amazon is looking to reduce the number of managers in its organization and boost the number of individual contributors by the end of the first quarter of 2025 to reduce bureaucracy. Like other technology companies, Amazon grew rapidly at the start of the coronavirus pandemic then laid off wide swaths of its staff.

“We are also going to bring back assigned desk arrangements in locations that were previously organized that way, including the US headquarters locations (Puget Sound and Arlington),” Jassy said.

Since Covid lockdowns first forced workers home four years ago, employers and employees have clashed over how many days of the work week must be spent in the office. In May last year, employees at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters staged a walkout protesting against changes to the e-commerce giant’s climate policy, layoffs and a return-to-office mandate.

“Before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward,” Jassy wrote. “Our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances.”

At least 16 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across central Gaza on Sunday night and Monday morning, including five women and four children, Palestinian health officials have said.

Rescuers said an airstrike early on Monday destroyed a residential building in the densely populated Nuseirat refugee camp in the heart of central Gaza, killing at least 10 people, including four women and two children.

The al-Awda hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the deaths and said another 13 people were wounded. Hospital records quoted by local media show that the dead included a mother, her child and her five siblings.

In a separate strike targeting a building in Gaza City, six people died. A woman and two children were among the dead, according to the civil defence, a team of emergency responders working under the governance of Hamas.

Israel says its military operations exclusively target combatants and claims Hamas and other armed factions place civilians at risk by operating within residential areas.

Eleven months into the Gaza war, the death toll among Palestinians has passed 41,000, according to health authorities in the territory. Most of the dead are civilians and the total is nearly 2% of Gaza’s prewar population, or equal to one in every 50 people. The conflict was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people died and about 250 were taken hostage.

On Sunday evening, a senior Hamas official told Agence France-Presse that new generations of fighters had been recruited since the 7 October attacks, less than a week after the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told journalists that Hamas “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza.

During an interview in Istanbul, Osama Hamdan claimed that the militant group “has a high ability to continue”.

He added: “There were martyrs and there were sacrifices … but in return there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.”

The Hamas chief, Yahya Sinwar, congratulated the Yemeni Houthi group for reaching central Israel with a surface-to-surface missile for the first time on Sunday, causing a fire near Kfar Daniel.

“I congratulate you on your success in reaching the depth of the enemy entity,” Sinwar said in a letter to the Houthi leader, Abdulmalik al-Houthi. “I assure you that the resistance is fine. We have prepared ourselves to fight a long battle of attrition,” he said.

This is reportedly Sinwar’s third public message in the last week, after he congratulated the Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, on winning the “renewed trust” of his people in the election on 9 September, and showed gratitude for Hezbollah’s continuing fight against Israel on Friday.

Before then Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding underground in Gaza, had made only one other official statement since the war began, in late October, when he offered the immediate release of Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of all Palestinian prisoners. Israel is conducting an extensive manhunt in Gaza for the man responsible for the 7 October massacre.

The Israeli military is investigating whether the fire near Kfar Daniel was the result of falling fragments caused by interceptor missiles launched at the projectile, or if the missile successfully penetrated its air defences, as the Houthis have claimed.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Houthis would pay a “heavy price”, while the Houthi leader warned of bigger attacks to come.

On Monday, the Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said the group downed a US MQ-9 drone in Yemen’s Dhamar province.

In a separate development on Monday, Gallant told the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, that time was running out for an agreement with Hezbollah to halt the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border, where on Sunday the Israeli military reported that approximately 40 projectiles had been launched, with the majority being intercepted or landing in uninhabited regions.

“The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas,” Gallant said, “The trajectory is clear.’’

Hezbollah said it would halt its attacks if there was a ceasefire in Gaza, but months of talks brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled.

Gallant told Austin that “in any possible scenario, Israel’s defence establishment will continue to operate with the aim of dismantling Hamas and ensuring the return of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza – by any means”.

Meanwhile, media reports in Israel suggested Gallant’s position could be under threat, with sources in the prime minister’s office saying Netanyahu was considering appointing the New Hope chair, Gideon Sa’ar, as Gallant’s replacement.

After the report, the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on X: “The time has come to [fire Gallant] immediately.”

Rumours that Netanyahu would replace Gallant have been circulating for months. The already strained relationship between the two has been tumultuous since Netanyahu’s sudden decision to dismiss Gallant in March 2023 because of his vocal disapproval of the government’s judicial changes. However, the prime minister’s move was later rescinded after public outcry.

Some in Netanyahu’s administration have called for Gallant’s removal, citing a range of grievances including his stance against a government-supported ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill and his public disagreement with the prime minister on matters such as a hostage negotiation and Israel’s presence in the Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.

A probate court in Nevada is set to begin reviewing evidence behind closed doors in a case that could determine who will control Rupert Murdoch’s media empire after his death.

Murdoch, 93, arrived at court on Monday for the hearing. Last year, he moved to change the terms of his irrevocable family trust in an effort to ensure that his eldest son, Lachlan, remains in charge of his cadre of newspapers and television networks, including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News Channel, according to reporting by the New York Times based on a sealed court document.

Evidentiary hearings in the case are scheduled to run through Tuesday of next week. The court has kept the hearings closed to the public and most documents sealed, largely rejecting requests for access by news organizations including the Associated Press.

The trust was originally set up to give equal control over Rupert Murdoch’s businesses to his four oldest children upon his death, according to the Times.

Murdoch stepped down as leader of Fox News’s parent company and his News Corp media holdings last autumn. He is arguing that to preserve the commercial value of his businesses for all his heirs, the trust must be changed so Lachlan can ensure his newspapers and TV networks continue to have a conservative editorial outlook, the New York Times reported.

Lachlan succeeded his father as chairman of News Corp in November. He is also executive officer at Fox Corp, home to the conservative news network Fox News, the Fox broadcast and sports networks, and local TV stations. The media empire spans continents and helped to shape modern American politics.

Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change the trust has pitted him against his other three children named as beneficiaries: James, Elisabeth and Prudence, and they have united to stop their father from revising the trust, according to the New York Times.

Irrevocable trusts are typically used to limit estate taxes, among other reasons, and cannot be changed without permission from the beneficiaries or via a court order.

The Nevada probate commissioner Edmund J Gorman of the second judicial district court in Reno ruled this summer that Rupert Murdoch could amend the trust if he can show that he is acting in good faith and for the sole benefit of his heirs, the newspaper reported.

The court’s ruling notes that Murdoch sought to give Lachlan permanent and exclusive control over his companies because the mogul was worried that a lack of consensus among his children could affect the strategic direction at his companies, including potentially leading to a change in editorial policy and content.

Insecure work can often be a trap, rather than a stepping stone to a better life, according to new research that tracked the employment of 10,000 people across four years.

As debate rages over Labour’s plans to improve workers’ rights, a study from the Work Foundation thinktank found that 44% of people in precarious work were in the same situation four years later, while another 9% had fallen out of work altogether.

That compared with 39% of those in insecure work who had progressed into a more secure job. Older workers, aged 45-54, were almost twice as likely to remain in insecure work throughout the four-year period than their younger counterparts, aged 16-24.

Ben Harrison, the director of the Work Foundation, said: “Often insecure work is seen as a stepping stone to better employment, but this evidence tells us many end up stuck in long-term insecure work.

“The very nature of insecure work makes it more difficult for individuals to transition to secure jobs. Juggling unpredictable pay and hours can make it hard to plan, upskill or find new opportunities.”

Separate research by the Work Foundation suggests that workers in insecure jobs earn on average £3,200 a year less than their counterparts in secure work – and that almost 7 million people were doing insecure work in 2023.

The new report suggests that long-term insecure work is especially prevalent in some sectors, including social care and retail, as well as outsourced services such as cleaning and security.

Workers without a secure job were almost three times more likely to have moved sectors over the four-year period in search of a better role, than those who started in secure employment (28%, compared with just under 10%).

The Work Foundation, which is based at Lancaster University, is calling on the government to press ahead with implementing its new deal for working people. Measures described in Labour’s policy pledge included banning fire and rehire and giving workers the right to “a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work”.

Labour has also said it will ensure employment rights, such as parental leave and protection from unfair dismissal, will apply from day one of a job – though this may be subject to a probation period.

Unions will also be given stronger rights to access and organise in workplaces, in the hope of improving low-paid workers’ bargaining power. Final details of the plans will be thrashed out between ministers in the coming weeks.

The deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, who has worked closely with trade unions on the workers’ rights plans, promised to table an employment bill within 100 days of Labour coming to power in July.

Harrison said: “It is vital the government does not step back from delivering a new deal for working people in full,” adding: “Insecure work can negatively impact people’s physical and mental health, financial wellbeing and overall quality of life.”

Business groups have criticised some aspects of the proposals, however. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned last weekend that businesses might choose to recruit fewer staff as a result.

Reporting the results of a survey of employers, the CBI’s work and skills director, Matthew Percival, said many were concerned that it would become more difficult to lay off new staff who were not performing well.

“While the government has said that businesses can use probation periods, the possibility of decisions at the end of probation being challenged at employment tribunal has 75% of respondents saying they’d be more cautious about taking on new staff,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation has launched a “temp work works” campaign, hailing the benefits of flexible jobs for workers.

The Work Foundation researchers defined “insecure” work as meeting at least two of three conditions: “contractual insecurity” without guaranteed future hours or future work; “financial insecurity”, meaning low pay; and a lack of rights and protection.

They used data from a UK-wide survey called Understanding Society, to monitor the progression of workers over the period from 2017-18 to 2021-22.

Responding to the Work Foundation report, Rayner said: “Tackling insecure work and ending one-sided flexibility is at the very heart of our plan to make work pay, a promise to millions of working people who deserve security and predictability in their jobs.

“We are banning exploitative zero-hours contracts and giving workers a right to a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, along with reasonable notice of any changes to shifts and compensation for lost pay.”

Labour has also asked the independent Low Pay Commission to take into account the cost of living when it recommends increases in the minimum wage – though with inflation expected to remain close to the government’s 2% target over the next year it is unclear how much difference that will make in the short term.

Superbugs will kill more than 39 million people before 2050 with older people particularly at risk, according to a new global analysis.

While deaths linked to drug resistance are declining among very young children, driven by improvements in vaccination and hygiene, the study found the opposite trend for their grandparents.

By the middle of the century, 1.91 million people a year are forecast to die worldwide directly because of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – in which bacteria evolve so that the drugs usually used to fight them no longer work – up from 1.14 million in 2021. AMR will play some role in 8.2 million deaths annually, up from 4.71 million.

The study, published in the Lancet was conducted by the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (Gram) Project and is the first global analysis of AMR trends over time.

Researchers used data from 204 countries and territories to produce estimates of deaths from 1990 to 2021, and forecasts running through to 2050.

They also found millions of deaths worldwide could be averted via better prevention of infections and improved access to healthcare, as well as the creation of new antibiotics.

The study’s author, Dr Mohsen Naghavi, at the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics (IHME), said: “Antimicrobial medicines are one of the cornerstones of modern healthcare, and increasing resistance to them is a major cause for concern.

“These findings highlight that AMR has been a significant global health threat for decades and that this threat is growing,” he said.

Global leaders will meet in New York this month to discuss antimicrobial resistance, during the UN’s general assembly. They are expected to reaffirm a political declaration on stepping up action against antimicrobial resistance, which campaigners hope will include a target to reduce AMR deaths by 10% by 2030.

The study, which involved more than 500 researchers from institutions around the world, found a “remarkable” decline in AMR deaths among children under 5 – from 488,000 to 193,000 – between 1990 and 2022. They are set to halve again by 2050.

However, while deaths due to infection in young children are fewer in number, they are increasingly likely to be caused by drug-resistant bacteria.

And death tolls are rising in all other age groups, with AMR fatalities among the over-70s already up 80% in three decades and expected to rise 146% by 2050, from 512,353 to 1.3 million.

Dr Tomislav Meštrović, assistant professor at University North in Croatia and an affiliate associate professor at the IHME, said the trend reflected rapidly ageing populations, with older people more vulnerable to infection.

“Approximately three-quarters of AMR infections are linked – for example, to hospital infections – and a rapidly ageing population also necessitates more hospital care,” he said. Older people have more chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

“For example, you put in an IV [intravenous] line, it gets infected, you get bacteria in the blood, that bacteria is likely to be more resistant,” he said.

Vaccination was often less effective in older people because the immune system deteriorated with age, he added, and older people were more prone to have reactions to antibiotics.

AMR deaths in 2021 were lower than in 2019, but the researchers said this was likely to only be a temporary reduction due to fewer infections because of Covid-19 control measures.

The study projected the highest numbers of future deaths would occur in South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as other parts of southern and eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

They are among areas that have already seen the highest growth in AMR, and could also see some of the greatest benefits from improving overall infection care and widening access to antibiotics.