Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to carry out long-range strikes inside Russia with US-supplied weapons, and to earn “a place in history” by “strengthening Ukraine” before he leaves office.

Speaking before a crucial trip next week to Washington, where he will meet Biden and the US vice-president and presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, and address the UN, Zelenskyy said he would present a “victory plan” to end the war.

His vision for a “just peace” has not been made public. But in a media briefing with the Observer in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said it involved carrying out deep strikes with western missiles inside Russia – something London and Washington have so far refused.

The UK has indicated it is willing to allow Ukraine to use British Storm Shadow cruise missiles. But the White House remains sceptical. The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, failed to resolve the issue when he held private talks last week with Biden in Washington.

Zelenskyy confirmed no green light had been given, despite months of high-level lobbying. “Neither the US nor UK has allowed us to use these weapons on the territory of Russia, against any targets and at any distance,” he said.

Storm Shadows, the French equivalent, Scalp, and the US Atacms system have “not been provided in the numbers we need”, Zelenskyy added. He suggested the reluctance of international partners could be explained by fear of “escalation” with Moscow – an analysis Kyiv does not share.

Asked how he might persuade Biden when they meet on Thursday, Zelenskyy cited the fact that the outgoing president had in the past “changed his opinions” after “difficult discussions”. Some US members of his entourage supported strikes, he said – which was “already an achievement”.

Zelenskyy added: “Biden can strengthen Ukraine and make important decisions for Ukraine to become stronger and to protect its independence while he is US president. I think it is a historical mission after all.”

As well as meeting Harris, Zelenskyy said he would “most likely” have a meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday or Friday. “Our teams are in contact. The main thing is to have time [together]. I won’t look into the future, but I think it will be important for both of us,” Zelenskyy said.

Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has said a future Republican administration envisages a Moscow-friendly deal that would see Russia hang on to the territory it currently occupies. Ukraine would be forbidden from joining Nato, with the war frozen along a demarcation line.

Zelenskyy described Ukraine’s incursion last month into Russia’s Kursk oblast as a success, hinting that it could become part of future negotiations. He said the operation prevented Moscow from launching its own attack on Ukraine’s northern Sumy province. The “enemy” had been forced to redeploy 42,000 troops from other parts of the frontline, he said.

He acknowledged the situation in eastern Ukraine remained difficult. He said Kyiv needed long-range weapons to counter Russian attacks using airdropped guided bombs. These “destroyed everything”, he said. Russia “finished off” with artillery and then sent in infantry to capture Ukrainian positions.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, had already moved planes to other, more remote airfields, in anticipation that the White House would sign off on Atacms strikes. “We cannot simply talk about Atacms. Why? Because it’s too late,” Zelenskyy said, saying “serious decisions” were needed.

Zelenskyy made his remarks before a six-day trip to the US and a speech to the UN general assembly in New York. During his trip he will meet representatives from Congress and discuss his victory plan with Harris.

The proposal, ahead of a global peace summit in November organised by Ukraine, envisages further security guarantees. Zelenskyy said the “Kursk operation” also featured. He declined to give details. Other elements include more weapons and economic support.

In a tweet on Thursday, Biden described Zelenskyy warmly as “my friend”. “During his visit, I’ll reaffirm America’s commitment to supporting Ukraine as it defends its freedom and independence,” Biden wrote.

Last week, Vladimir Putin said missile strikes against Russia with US weapons would be tantamount to Nato joining the war. He threatened severe consequences. Ukrainian officials have dismissed his comments as the latest in a series of meaningless bluffs.

The Atacms system has a 190-mile (300km) range. Its ballistic missiles can carry cluster munitions. They are likely to be highly effective in destroying Russian bases and military runways, from where airstrikes are launched against Ukrainian towns and cities, defence experts say.

Storm Shadow missiles were developed together with France and rely on US guidance systems. They include Italian components. All four countries have to sign off on any change to the conditions attached to their use, even if they are not the direct suppliers themselves.

Ukraine’s own long-range drones have proved increasingly effective against Russian military targets. On Saturday, they hit an ammunition depot in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region, causing a massive explosion. Another attack two days ago set fire to a weapons dump in the town of Toropets, in the Tver region.

Ukraine said it hit two Russian munition depots overnight, in attacks that illustrated its growing capability to strike targets deep inside Russia.

A statement by Ukraine’s military general staff said the munitions depots were at Tikhoretsk in southern Russia and Oktyabrsky in the western region of Tver.

“The [Tikhoretsk] facility is in the top three largest munitions storages of the occupiers, and is one of the key points in the Russian military logistical system,” the general staff wrote in a statement on Telegram.

It said Ukraine had information that a train carrying 2,000 tonnes of munitions, including from North Korea, had been on the territory of the depot at the time of the strike.

Reuters was unable to verify the report independently. Russia did not immediately comment.

A Ukrainian security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said drones were used in the attacks.

The source said Ukraine’s domestic SBU intelligence service hit the deport in Tikhoretsk in a joint operation with the Ukrainian military, while the SBU hit the target in Oktyabrsky on its own.

The SBU has conducted regular drone attacks deep inside Russia over the past year of the war.

Ukraine has used long-range drones as a means of closing the armament gap with Russia, which has a vast arsenal of long-range missiles. Kyiv is also seeking permission from its western allies to use long-range missiles they have provided Ukraine with to strike deep inside Russia.

The source added that SBU drones had also hit unspecified infrastructure at the Shaikovka military airfield in Russia.

An overnight Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed a 12-year-old boy and two elderly women, the regional governor said. Russia said it had struck Ukrainian energy facilities overnight using high-precision weapons and drones, Russian news agencies reported.

Ukraine said it hit two Russian munition depots overnight, in attacks that illustrated its growing capability to strike targets deep inside Russia.

A statement by Ukraine’s military general staff said the munitions depots were at Tikhoretsk in southern Russia and Oktyabrsky in the western region of Tver.

“The [Tikhoretsk] facility is in the top three largest munitions storages of the occupiers, and is one of the key points in the Russian military logistical system,” the general staff wrote in a statement on Telegram.

It said Ukraine had information that a train carrying 2,000 tonnes of munitions, including from North Korea, had been on the territory of the depot at the time of the strike.

Reuters was unable to verify the report independently. Russia did not immediately comment.

A Ukrainian security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said drones were used in the attacks.

The source said Ukraine’s domestic SBU intelligence service hit the deport in Tikhoretsk in a joint operation with the Ukrainian military, while the SBU hit the target in Oktyabrsky on its own.

The SBU has conducted regular drone attacks deep inside Russia over the past year of the war.

Ukraine has used long-range drones as a means of closing the armament gap with Russia, which has a vast arsenal of long-range missiles. Kyiv is also seeking permission from its western allies to use long-range missiles they have provided Ukraine with to strike deep inside Russia.

The source added that SBU drones had also hit unspecified infrastructure at the Shaikovka military airfield in Russia.

An overnight Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed a 12-year-old boy and two elderly women, the regional governor said. Russia said it had struck Ukrainian energy facilities overnight using high-precision weapons and drones, Russian news agencies reported.

Three children and seven women were among 37 people killed by an Israeli strike on Beirut that targeted a top Hezbollah leader in a densely populated neighbourhood, Lebanese authorities have said, as US and UN officials warned against further escalation.

On Saturday, Israel closed its northern airspace as it awaited Hezbollah retaliation for the assassination of Ibrahim Aqil, a veteran commander of the elite Radwan unit, along with more than a dozen other militants. On Saturday afternoon, fires broke out after a barrage of rockets from Lebanon.

Airlines including Air France, Turkish Airlines, and Aegean cancelled flights to Beirut, reflecting fears that a tumultuous week had pushed the region closer to full-blown war.

The strike on Aqil destroyed an underground bunker and brought down the building on top of it during rush hour, when the streets were filled with people returning from home and school. On Saturday, workers were still digging through the rubble, the Associated Press reported.

Last week, Israel said it was expanding its strategic aims for the Gaza war to include returning 60,0000 evacuated residents of northern Israel to their homes, which are regularly targeted by Hezbollah, then unleashed a series of unprecedented attacks on the group.

First thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated, killing and maiming their owners but also hitting civilian bystanders, including children. The next day, walkie-talkies exploded, then Israel unleashed an intense bombing campaign on southern Lebanon before hitting Aquil.

It was a spectacular show of military and intelligence strength, and long-term planning, embarrassing for the Hezbollah leadership and devastating in immediate military terms, decimating the top leadership and the rank and file.

But many inside and outside Israel warned that the strategic implications of the week-long assault are far less clear than its immediate tactical impact.

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah is thought to want further escalation, but “the margin is very, very narrow now” for avoiding it, as Hezbollah contemplates how to respond, the former head of Israel’s national security council said.

“I don’t think [Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah] is interested in total war, but at the same time he cannot avoid a response,” said the retired major general Giora Eiland. “The question is: can he find something creative enough that … it will not drag both sides to total war.”

Hezbollah’s arsenal and military experience mean that, for Israel, such a conflict would be “probably the most painful we ever had”, he added.

Late on Friday, the UN political affairs chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, also warned of the fallout of a broader conflict. “We risk seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far,” she said, calling for urgent diplomatic efforts “to avoid such folly”.

“I strongly urge member states with influence over the parties to leverage it now,” she told a meeting of the UN security council convened to discuss the Israeli attacks.

In the US, President Joe Biden’s top adviser on the Middle East, Brett McGurk, warned that despite fully backing Israel’s defence against Hezbollah, Washington does not think military actions will restore life to northern Israel.

“We do not think a war in Lebanon is the way to achieve the objective to return people to their homes,” he told the Israeli-American Council’s national summit, Haaretz newspaper reported.

“We have disagreements with the Israelis on tactics and how you measure escalation risk,” he said. “It’s something we speak with them about every single day. It is a very concerning situation.”

The US has insisted for months that the path to peace in the north lies through Gaza, as Biden pushed for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. McGurk said the US focus was also on “a diplomatic settlement to the north”.

On Friday, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said the military would continue to target Hezbollah. “The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” he said in a post on X.

Hezbollah began launching attacks in support of its ally Hamas after 7 October, and has indicated it will stop targeting Israel when the Gaza Strip offensive stops, unless Israel continues shelling Lebanon.

Months of missile, rocket and drone hits have killed at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians, and in effect turned Israel’s border regions near Lebanon into a strategic buffer zone, too dangerous for ordinary life.

Inside Lebanon, more than 500 people have been killed by Israeli strikes, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and other armed groups, but also more than 100 civilians.

Israel’s foreign intelligence service, usually known as the Mossad, has scored many spectacular victories in almost 80 years of undercover operations, earning a unique reputation for audacious espionage and ruthless violence.

But even former agents admit the service’s history is “chequered” with many failures that have embarrassed Israel, dismayed allies and led to accusations of systematic disregard for international law.

Israel has not formally commented on this week’s simultaneous explosion of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon that killed 37 people and injured about 3,000 others. The consensus among experts is that the Mossad, an abbreviation of the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations in Hebrew, was responsible.

Other recent operations will also almost certainly have involved the service. The Mossad may have provided the intelligence allowing the assassinations in July of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader killed by a bomb in a bedroom in a government guesthouse in Tehran, and Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah founder member and in effect chief of staff, who died in Beirut after receiving a message summoning him to a flat that was then hit by a missile.

Though the most audacious operations get attention, much of the Mossad’s work is never known outside tightly restricted circles.

For decades, few had even heard of the Mossad, which was formally established in 1949. Former agents were ordered not to tell even their family or their previous employment and the service never admitted its involvement in any operation.

“Everything the Mossad did was quiet, no one knew. It was a totally different era. The Mossad was just not mentioned. When I joined, you had to know someone to be brought in. Now, there is a website,” said Yossi Alpher, who took part in some of the service’s best-known operations in the 1970s.

A second former agent said much of the Mossad’s work has always been the mundane, painstaking work of intelligence collection that is of little interest to anyone beyond the intel community.

“A lot of it is pretty boring, to be honest. You’re looking through a lot of dirt to find the gold,” he said.

The Mossad’s senior officials have long been more likely to be spending their time on sensitive diplomatic missions, briefing senior Israeli decision-makers on regional political dynamics or building relationships abroad than recruiting spies or running operations such as that targeting Hezbollah last week.

For decades, the Mossad oversaw years-long clandestine efforts to build up “enemies of Israel’s enemies”, such as Kurds, and Christians in what is now South Sudan. As with many of its efforts, this met with mixed success.

“These are now people who are either sovereign and independent, or have a firm and well-defended autonomy now and the Mossad made a huge contribution here,” said Alpher.

However, support for Maronite Christian militia in Lebanon ended less well. The Mossad is blamed by some for ignoring warnings about its chosen proxies’ reputation for brutality and ethnic hatred, and encouraging Israel’s disastrous invasion of Lebanon in 1982, in which thousands of civilians were killed.

Alpher said the mythic reputation of the Mossad, bolstered by a series of films and TV series, could be helpful to Israel as a deterrent but that the effect could be exaggerated.

“When the Palestinians look at Israel, they are looking at Shin Bet [the internal intelligence service] not the Mossad. The Shin Bet has the Palestinian file and so is far more present in the Palestinian conflict … and, for the region, its the Israel Defense Forces that are ultimately fighting the wars and whose deterrence is stronger or weaker at a strategic level than the Mossad, despite all the razzmatazz in Hollywood,” Alpher said.

Still, screenwriters are attracted to some of the Mossad’s most spectacular exploits.

One of the most famous is the 1960 capture in Argentina of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi officer who was a key organiser of the Holocaust. Others include stealing whole warships from the French navy in 1969, warning of impending attack by Egypt and Syria in 1973 and providing key intelligence for the famous raid on Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976 that freed Jewish and Israeli passengers hijacked by Palestinian and German extremists.

In 1980, the service set up and ran an entire diving resort on Sudan’s Red Sea coast as a cover for the clandestine transport of thousands of members of Ethiopia’s Jewish community to Israel. The Mossad spies lived among tourists before finally being forced to close down the operation after five years.

In recent years, there have been a series of assassinations attributed to the Mossad, such as the 2008 killing of Imad Mugniyeh, a Hezbollah mastermind of dozens of attacks against Israel and the US. A series of scientists connected to Iran’s nuclear programme have died violently, with one killed in 2020 by 15 shots from a pre-positioned machine gun controlled from thousands of miles away.

While such attacks have been precise, others have been less discriminate.

After a deadly attack by Palestinian extremists on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, the Mossad led a campaign to disrupt the networks and groups responsible. Many of those killed by Israeli assassins had little connection to the original attack and some had no connection with violence at all. The campaign ended when a Mossad team shot dead a Moroccan waiter in Norway in the belief he was a Palestinian Liberation Organisation security official, and then made a series of further errors leading to their arrest and trial by local authorities.

This week children, ordinary civilians and medical staff were among those killed or injured by exploding pagers, leading UN human rights experts to condemn “terrifying” violations of international law.

In 1997, an effort to kill Khaled Meshaal, a powerful Hamas leader, went badly wrong when the Mossad team was caught in Amman by local security forces. Israel was forced to hand over an antidote and relations with Jordan were badly damaged.

Then there is the failure to learn anything that might have warned of the Hamas raids into southern Israel on 7 October that killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. The attack prompted the Israeli offensive in Gaza, and the current round of hostilities with Hezbollah.

“There’s no question that Israeli military, security agencies all have a lot to make up for after October 7, and not just in the eyes of allies and adversaries but also their own [Israeli] people. One failure does not signal that Israeli intelligence services are not what they once were, but they still need to rebuild the aura,” said Matthew Levitt, a US former intelligence official and expert at the Washington Institute, a pro-Israeli American thinktank.

“But that’s not the main reason [for the pager and walkie-talkie operation in Lebanon] … They are doing it because they are fighting on [multiple] fronts and now is the time to do what has to be done.”

A former Harrods worker has criticised Harrods for the way it handled the alleged misconduct of the store’s former owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

Five women have alleged they were raped by Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94, and a number of others have alleged sexual misconduct.

The former Harrods worker, who wished to remain anonymous, criticised Harrods for saying that Fayed’s actions were the actions of an individual. “There were people at Harrods at the time who were enablers and they are as guilty as Al Fayed, because they were not just passive onlookers. They were actually helping to send girl after girl into a total nightmare.”

The woman, who said she worked at Harrods in a junior role, said she was called up to Fayed’s office. “We went into a little room at the back, just him and me, and he said to me: ‘Come work in my office – one year here and you could be a buyer.’”

When she politely explained that she was happy where she was, she said he held her hand and asked if she had a boyfriend. “This was something that I’ve then heard he asked lots of people who’ve been interviewed over the last couple of days.”

He then informed her that he was her boyfriend, kissed her on the forehead and handed her £300 in cash. He told her to think about the job offer and come back the following week. She later returned the cash to his office in an envelope, along with a polite letter declining the job.

The former Harrods employee said after describing the encounter to her male line manager, he “brushed it off” and told her: “That’s just what he’s like.”

When she resigned shortly afterwards to pursue a different role, she said she was called to Fayed’s office to explain why she was leaving, which she found “a pretty extreme reaction, given how junior and replaceable she was”.

She said her experience “feels like absolutely nothing” compared with some of the harrowing testimony women have come forward with over the past few days. “But I think it’s important as part of building up that evidence of a pattern of behaviour.”

In its statement on the BBC documentary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, which aired on Thursday, Harrods said it was “a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010”.

The store added that “since new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved”.

The former manager of Fulham women’s team has said female players were “protected” from the club’s late owner, after staff became “aware” the billionaire had a predilection for “young, blond girls”.

Five women have alleged in recent days that they were raped by Fayed, and a number of others have alleged sexual misconduct took place while they worked at Harrods, the luxury department store that was previously owned by Fayed.

Gaute Haugenes, who managed Fulham’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC the allegations did not come as “the biggest surprise”. Referring to members of staff at Fulham, he said: “We were aware he liked young, blond girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur. We protected the players.”

Since this revelation, Fulham has been trying to establish whether “anyone at the club is or has been affected”.

The club is urging individuals who had experiences or information about any alleged misconduct at Fulham to contact the club or the police.

A Fulham spokesperson said: “We are deeply troubled and concerned to learn of the disturbing reports after yesterday’s documentary. We have sincere empathy for the women who have shared their experiences.

“We are in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected. Should any person wish to share information or experiences relating to these allegations, we encourage them to contact the club or the police.”

In a BBC documentary, Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, which aired on Thursday night, more than 20 women who had worked at Harrods came forward with allegations of assault and physical violence by Fayed at properties in London and Paris.

After selling Harrods in 2010, Fayed died last year at the age of 94. He bought Fulham in 1997 and the Ritz in Paris in 1979.

The culture, media and sport secretary, Lisa Nandy, told the BBC she was pleased that Fulham was carrying out an investigation. “Too often, what we see in these cases is, institutions try and withdraw and protect themselves rather than be open and transparent,” she said.

She said the case highlighted the need to protect people in their workplace from abuse by powerful individuals.

At a news conference on Friday, lawyers representing Fayed’s accusers said they suspected there were more victims from other places where Fayed worked. “Wherever he went, there will be victims,” barrister Maria Mulla said.

On Saturday, Bruce Drummond, part of the legal team that represents 37 alleged victims, said more women had come forward since the BBC investigation aired. He told BBC Radio 4 there had been 150 “new inquiries”and described it as probably “the worst case of corporate sexual exploitation of young women that … the world has ever seen”.

He said it was not just British women coming forward, but women in the US, Canada, Malaysia, Dubai and France.

He said it seemed to him “a huge conflict of interest” that Harrods was urging victims to approach the company for a settlement.

“We’re still investigating and looking at all the new inquiries that come through and deciding what’s the best format to move forward with those,” he said.

In a statement, Harrods has said it is “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse, emphasising that “these were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power” and that “the Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010”.

“We also acknowledge that during this time as a business we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise,” it said.

The company added that since new information “came to light” last year about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Fayed, “it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved. This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.”

Heavy rain pounded Japan’s north-central Noto region, triggering landslides and floods and leaving one person dead and several missing, officials have said.

The deluges caused swollen rivers to overflow, flooding homes and leaving some people stranded in a region still recovering from the deadly 1 January earthquake.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued the highest level of alert for heavy rain across several cities in the Ishikawa prefecture, including the hard-hit cities Suzu and Wajima on the northern coast of the Noto peninsula.

In Suzu, one person died and another was missing after being swept in flood waters. One other went missing in the nearby town of Noto, according to the prefecture.

In Wajima, four people were missing after a landslide at a construction site. They were among 60 construction workers repairing a tunnel damaged by January’s quake, the broadcaster NHK said, adding that one other was missing due to floods at a different location in the city.

NHK footage from a coastal area of Wajima showed a wooden house torn and tilted after it was apparently hit by a landslide from a steep hill, with muddy water still flowing down. No injuries were reported from the site.

In Noto town, two people were seriously injured when a landslide struck them while they were visiting their quake-damaged home.

At least 16 rivers in Ishikawa breached their banks as of Saturday afternoon, according to the land and infrastructure ministry. Residents were urged to use maximum caution against possible mudslides and building damage.

By late afternoon on Saturday, about 1,350 people were taking shelter at designated community centres, school gymnasiums and other town facilities, authorities said.

Up to 20cm (7.8in) of rainfall is predicted in the region within the next 24 hours through Sunday noon, due to the rain bands that cause torrential rain above the Hokuriku region, JMA said.

“Heavy rain is hitting the region that had been badly damaged by the Noto earthquake, and I believe many people are feeling very uneasy,” said the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi.

Hayashi said the government “puts people’s lives first” and its priority was search and rescue operations. He also called on people to pay close attention to the latest weather and evacuation advice and to take precautions early, adding that self-defence forces troops had been dispatched to Ishikawa to join rescue efforts.

A number of roads were also blocked by muddy water. Hokuriku Electric Power Co said about 6,500 homes were without power. Traffic lights were out in the affected areas. Many homes were also without water.

Heavy rain also fell in nearby northern prefectures of Niigata and Yamagata, raising the danger of flooding and other damage, officials said.

A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the region on 1 January, killing more than 370 people and damaging roads and other key infrastructure. Its aftermath still affects people’s daily lives and the local industry and economy.

They call them stumbling stones – little brass plaques in the pavement marking addresses where Holocaust victims once lived.

As the Netherlands marks 80 years of liberation, a row has sprung up about placing Stolpersteine for 45 Dutch political prisoners – Jewish activists, communists, critical Christians – who were “experimentally” gassed by the Nazis at the Bernburg psychiatric clinic in Germany in 1942.

While around 102,000 Jewish people, Roma and Sinti from the Netherlands were deported and murdered, there is increasing attention on the collusion of the Dutch state in turning over lists of political “undesirables”.

For the past year, Jan Boxem and Steven Brandsma, related through their partners, have been campaigning for stumbling stones across the Netherlands to mark the stories of the 45 Bernburg men. But they say they have hit their own stumbling block of cash, bureaucracy and conflicting ideas.

“Last year Jan and I went to Germany to pay our debts to history,” said Brandsma. “Jan’s uncle was gassed there, something he only found out when he started to research him. Although his uncle was in Neuengamme camp and his cause of death was reported as serious illness, he was actually gassed in Bernburg … burned in an oven and his ashes dumped in a river in east Germany.”

The uncle, Hendrik Visscher, a communist from the city of Enschede, was one of several thousand whose dossiers were passed by Dutch police to the Gestapo. “This is hardly recognised,” said Brandsma. “It is a huge scandal.”

But he said their requests have encountered bureaucratic and ­financial resistance, particularly in Haarlem, where the volunteer-run Struikelstenen Haarlem foundation only has a municipal mandate to place stones for 733 Jewish, Sinti and Roma Holocaust victims – a 10-year process.

“In Haarlem, a decision has been made to place stumbling stones specifically for Jewish people who were deported in the second world war,” said Marieke Geerts, spokesperson for mayor Jos Wienen. “That’s what the foundation is busy doing. So if someone wants a stumbling stone but [the victim] does not fall into this group, then we look at whether there is another way to remember or bring attention to them. This was offered to the applicants in this case – but they want a struikelsteen [Dutch for stumbling stone] or nothing.”

Others view things differently. In Maastricht, there is a stumbling stone for resistance fighter Lambert Kraft, and the Bèr Kraftstraat road is named after him. In Utrecht, a request to place stones for two victims was agreed – and funded – in an afternoon.

Meanwhile in The Hague, leader of local VVD party Lotte van Basten Batenburg fundraised for seven stones with Christian Union-SGP party colleagues in an afternoon. “The Jewish victims are very important to commemorate, but these political victims have a special place as the government was prosecuting them for a longer period of time,” she said. “We should not ever allow that to happen again.”

Dr Samuël Kruizinga, historian of 19th and 20th century war and violence at Amsterdam University, said the sticky question appears to be whether the bill is the state’s responsibility. “One thing that definitely happened is that Dutch security services kept lists of suspect populations – radical trade unionists, communists – and the lists were supposedly burned when the Germans invaded in May 1940,” he said.

“But copies were sent to local police stations, and the German security service in the occupied Netherlands put together the pieces of the puzzle. The Dutch security services had particular hang-ups about leftists, whom they considered a more acute and imminent danger to Dutch democracy and society. A lot of these people were horrifically tortured for information and then sent to die. This history is complicated by the perhaps overzealous activities of the Dutch security services and the active assistance of Dutch police.”

These stumbling stones – proliferating across Dutch streets – are both metaphors and memories. Van Basten Batenburg added: “Whenever my niece, who just turned four, sees one, she gets on her knees and wipes it free of dirt or leaves. They are a bit of light in the sidewalk which catches the soul of the people who are commemorated.”

They call them stumbling stones – little brass plaques in the pavement marking addresses where Holocaust victims once lived.

As the Netherlands marks 80 years of liberation, a row has sprung up about placing Stolpersteine for 45 Dutch political prisoners – Jewish activists, communists, critical Christians – who were “experimentally” gassed by the Nazis at the Bernburg psychiatric clinic in Germany in 1942.

While around 102,000 Jewish people, Roma and Sinti from the Netherlands were deported and murdered, there is increasing attention on the collusion of the Dutch state in turning over lists of political “undesirables”.

For the past year, Jan Boxem and Steven Brandsma, related through their partners, have been campaigning for stumbling stones across the Netherlands to mark the stories of the 45 Bernburg men. But they say they have hit their own stumbling block of cash, bureaucracy and conflicting ideas.

“Last year Jan and I went to Germany to pay our debts to history,” said Brandsma. “Jan’s uncle was gassed there, something he only found out when he started to research him. Although his uncle was in Neuengamme camp and his cause of death was reported as serious illness, he was actually gassed in Bernburg … burned in an oven and his ashes dumped in a river in east Germany.”

The uncle, Hendrik Visscher, a communist from the city of Enschede, was one of several thousand whose dossiers were passed by Dutch police to the Gestapo. “This is hardly recognised,” said Brandsma. “It is a huge scandal.”

But he said their requests have encountered bureaucratic and ­financial resistance, particularly in Haarlem, where the volunteer-run Struikelstenen Haarlem foundation only has a municipal mandate to place stones for 733 Jewish, Sinti and Roma Holocaust victims – a 10-year process.

“In Haarlem, a decision has been made to place stumbling stones specifically for Jewish people who were deported in the second world war,” said Marieke Geerts, spokesperson for mayor Jos Wienen. “That’s what the foundation is busy doing. So if someone wants a stumbling stone but [the victim] does not fall into this group, then we look at whether there is another way to remember or bring attention to them. This was offered to the applicants in this case – but they want a struikelsteen [Dutch for stumbling stone] or nothing.”

Others view things differently. In Maastricht, there is a stumbling stone for resistance fighter Lambert Kraft, and the Bèr Kraftstraat road is named after him. In Utrecht, a request to place stones for two victims was agreed – and funded – in an afternoon.

Meanwhile in The Hague, leader of local VVD party Lotte van Basten Batenburg fundraised for seven stones with Christian Union-SGP party colleagues in an afternoon. “The Jewish victims are very important to commemorate, but these political victims have a special place as the government was prosecuting them for a longer period of time,” she said. “We should not ever allow that to happen again.”

Dr Samuël Kruizinga, historian of 19th and 20th century war and violence at Amsterdam University, said the sticky question appears to be whether the bill is the state’s responsibility. “One thing that definitely happened is that Dutch security services kept lists of suspect populations – radical trade unionists, communists – and the lists were supposedly burned when the Germans invaded in May 1940,” he said.

“But copies were sent to local police stations, and the German security service in the occupied Netherlands put together the pieces of the puzzle. The Dutch security services had particular hang-ups about leftists, whom they considered a more acute and imminent danger to Dutch democracy and society. A lot of these people were horrifically tortured for information and then sent to die. This history is complicated by the perhaps overzealous activities of the Dutch security services and the active assistance of Dutch police.”

These stumbling stones – proliferating across Dutch streets – are both metaphors and memories. Van Basten Batenburg added: “Whenever my niece, who just turned four, sees one, she gets on her knees and wipes it free of dirt or leaves. They are a bit of light in the sidewalk which catches the soul of the people who are commemorated.”

New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens said he was looking forward to being reunited with his family after being freed after more than one-and-a-half years in captivity in Indonesia’s West Papua region.

His release follows an offer of terms made this week by rebels in the region.

Speaking at a press conference, Mehrtens said: “Today I have been freed. I am very happy that shortly I will be able to go home and meet my family. Thank you for everybody who helped me today, so I can get out safely in a healthy condition.” Mehrtens was flown to Jakarta in an air force plane after his release.

Indonesia’s Metro TV had earlier showed Mehrtens speaking tearfully to his family by phone.

Mehrtens did not appear to be suffering post-traumatic stress although he had lost a lot of weight, said Bambang Trisnohadi, a lieutenant general with the Indonesian military, at the press conference.

New Zealand’s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said on X he was grateful Mehrtens had been released.

“My appreciation to all those in Indonesia and New Zealand who have supported this positive outcome for Phillip and his family,” Luxon said.

Mehrtens, a former Jetstar pilot, was taken hostage by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) in February 2023 as a bargaining chip for its push for independence from Indonesia. It came after he landed a small commercial passenger plane at Paro airport in Nduga, the centre of the growing Papuan insurgency.

On Tuesday, the TPNPB released a statement outlining the terms of his release, detailing a number of conditions to be followed by the Indonesian government, including allowing “open access” for media to be involved in the release process.

It also called for the Indonesian government to suspend military operations during Mehrten’s release, and for the New Zealand government to “provide space” for Mehrtens to convey “what he felt” during his year and seven months with the TPNPB.

In August gunmen from the rebels allegedly shot dead New Zealand helicopter pilot Glen Malcolm Conning.

Earlier this week it was revealed the rebels had proposed termsafter promising in February Mehrten would be released.

Peters said he was “pleased and relieved” to confirm Mehrtens was “safe and well and has been able to talk with his family”.

“This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones,” he said.

In comments reported by Radio NZ, Peters said he had not yet spoken to Mehrtens but negotiations had been nerve-racking.

“It was always a concern of ours that we might not succeed. The hardest thing in an environment with no trust is to establish trust,” he said.

“It’s one of the better stories I’ve had in my career, I have to say.”

Government agencies had been working with Indonesian authorities for 19 months to secure the release, he said.

“The case has taken a toll on the Mehrtens family, who have asked for privacy. We ask media outlets to respect their wishes and therefore we have no further comment at this stage.”

Mehrtens’ kidnapping renewed attention on the long-running and deadly conflict that has raged in West Papua, which makes up the western half of the island of New Guinea, since Indonesia took control of the former Dutch colony in 1969.

The TPNPB is the armed wing of the Free West Papua Movement, which has continued to demand a fair vote on self-determination.

Peaceful acts of civil disobedience by Indigenous West Papuans, such as raising the banned “Morning Star” flag, are met with police and military brutality and long jail sentences.

In 2022, UN human rights experts called for urgent and unrestricted humanitarian access to the region because of serious concerns about “shocking abuses against Indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.

The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, will try to persuade world leaders to extend their horizons beyond current wars by adopting a pact that he hopes will set a path for a new system of global governance that can prevent similar crises in the future.

Global leaders will gather in New York next week for the UN Summit of the Future, the centrepiece of this year’s launch of the annual United Nations general assembly.

Guterres had outlined an ambitious agenda covering artificial intelligence, groundbreaking UN security council reform, outer space, peace operations, climate change and financing development, but critics say that outline has not so much shrunk as become ever-less specific.

The toll of grinding negotiations and the need for consensus have underlined the divisions that have immobilised the UN for a decade, leading to a watered-down document called “pact for the future” due to be announced at a summit. Talks about the final draft, its five chapters and 58 actions must end on Saturday.

For more than a year Guterres had hoped that by confronting world leaders with the scale of the future challenges they collectively face, they could be persuaded to set aside some of those divisions about the present.

Guy Ryder, the UN undersecretary for policy who is at the helm of the process, insists the pact “can render the UN and the multilateral system more effective, participatory and networked”, but at briefings he struggled to convince reporters this was not another UN mission statement that will gather dust similar to the 2015 sustainable development goals summit or the Nelson Mandela peace summit in 2018.

At a press conference Guterres called for the current generation of peacebuilders to address challenges not visible when the UN was invented as a much smaller body 80 years ago.

“International challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them. We see out-of-control geopolitical divisions and runaway conflicts – not least in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and beyond. Runaway climate change. Runaway inequalities and debt. Runaway development of new technologies like artificial intelligence – without guidance or guardrails. And our institutions simply can’t keep up,” he said.

“Crises are interacting and feeding off each other – for example, as digital technologies spread climate disinformation that deepens distrust and fuels polarisation. Global institutions and frameworks are today totally inadequate to deal with these complex and even existential challenges.

“It is no great surprise. Those institutions were born in a bygone era for a bygone world.”

Few disagree with his analysis, but many question whether the pact provides new solutions, as opposed to aspirations.

Guterres insisted it represented progress, saying it offers “the strongest language on security council reform in a generation – and the most concrete step towards council enlargement since 1963. The first set of governance measures for new technologies, including artificial intelligence, in all their applications – with the UN at its centre. A major advance in reform of the international financial architecture with the most significant language yet strengthening the role of developing countries. A step change in financing the sustainable development goals and a commitment to advance our [sustainable development goals] stimulus, multiplying the resources available to developing countries.”

David Miliband, the chief executive of International Rescue Committee, said the pact did include practical proposals, such as an emergency platform allowing the UN to use its convening power to address global shocks such as pandemics. He said his test for the pact was “not novelty but strength, commitment and follow-through in a world where the nature of global risk has changed”.

But the negotiators have confronted familiar problems including cold war standoffs, shortage of cash and entrenched western reluctance to cede power to emerging powers – at the security council and in financial institutions. Seeking consensus among 193 countries has been no easy task for the two facilitators, Germany and Namibia. Nor has the backdrop of wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan helped the atmosphere.

Various critics have said the UN pact is not the right place to settle specific differences. Russia has opposed overspecific references to nuclear disarmament. Others have said the Cop conferences are the only place to address the climate crisis.

Richard Gowan, the UN specialist at the International Crisis Group, said there was a western reluctance to address the imbalances in the multilateral financial bodies. In a paper for Chatham House thinktank he observed: “The US and its allies argue that the UN is not the right space to negotiate complex financial issues. They say the World Bank and [International Monetary Fund] – where western powers still hold decisive shares of the votes – have a mandate to address these topics. A lot of diplomats from poorer states will be happy if world leaders make political commitments to sort out debt and development issues at the summit. But some hardliners, such as Pakistan, have argued that is not enough, and have even suggested cancelling the summit.”

There are some signs of movement on security council reform where three of the five permanent members on the 15-strong council are France, the UK and the US. The US has suggested creating two new permanent seats for African countries without veto power. But India and Brazil’s claims are also pressing. On the theme of expansion of the security council, an answer may eventually be found.

Ingenious solutions to reduce the veto of the permanent members abound, only to be crushed on the rock of objections from Russia, US and China, and a slow migration is visible to greater use of the larger general assembly where the veto does not apply. But the speed of reform does not match the speed with which the world – its technology and power dynamics – is changing.

At best Gowan argues the pact can provide a hook or staging post for UN reform, and for new issues such as AI to proceed at future summits.

Miliband said the UN system could only be as good as its members. He said: “Fragmentation of political power around the world is producing gridlock at the apex of the international system: the UN security council.”

The US presidential election remains on a knife-edge 45 days before voters go to the polls, despite Kamala Harris enjoying one of her most encouraging spells of opinion polling since becoming the Democrats’ nominee nearly two months ago.

During yet another momentous week that began with a suspected second assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the latest Guardian 10-day polling averages survey shows Harris increasing her lead to 2.6 points, 48.5% to 45.9%.

While still within error margins, that is an improvement of the 0.9% edge Harris held last week and a significant shift from the statistical dead heat of a fortnight ago before the candidates held their only scheduled televised debate in Philadelphia on 10 September.

Polling suggests voters, by large majorities, believe Harris won that encounter – when Trump, the Republican nominee and former president, effectively self-sabotaged by going on off-topic digressions about crowd sizes at his rallies and making universally debunked claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets.

A New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena nationwide poll on Thursday showed the candidates tied at 47% – actually a slight improvement for Harris on the same survey taken before the debate, when Trump recorded a one-point lead.

Other national polling has been more positive for Harris. A Morning Consult poll – based on more than 11,000 respondents – gave her a six-point advantage, 51% to 45%, the biggest she had established since replacing Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.

There are other underlying trends giving Harris reasons to be cheerful, albeit cautiously.

One is her buoyant performance in battleground states, the key arenas in determining the result of the 5 November election under America’s electoral college system.

The same New York Times/Siena poll that had the two candidates deadlocked nationally showed Harris with a four-point advantage, 50%-46%, in Pennsylvania, a swing state that many commentators identify as the most important of all in reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the White House.

The survey is supported by a separate poll from Quinnipiac, which shows Harris with a six-point lead in the state, 51% to 45%

Moreover, the Quinnipiac poll gives Harris leads in two neighbouring battlegrounds, Michigan and Wisconsin, 5% and 1% respectively.

Capturing all three states – sometimes termed the “blue wall” by Democrats – would be enough to secure Harris a tiny electoral college victory without her needing to win any of the four southern Sun belt states (North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona), where the two candidates are statistically tied.

Yet amid the optimism, there is a note of caution for the vice-president; Trump significantly over-performed pollsters’ predictions in the blue wall states in the last two elections, capturing all three in 2016 and losing each by around a single percentage point in 2020, when polls had put Biden much further ahead.

Nevertheless, pollsters detect a change from previous elections that is working in Harris’s favour – and which is whittling away the Republicans’ assumed advantage in the electoral college, where Trump won in 2016 despite receiving 2.7m fewer votes nationwide than Hillary Clinton, his opponent.

Nate Cohn, the New York Times’s chief polling analyst, called Harris’s lead in Pennsylvania while tying with Trump nationwide “a puzzle” but said it was consistent with most other surveys.

“Over the last month, a lot of these polls show Ms Harris doing relatively poorly nationwide, but doing well in the Northern battleground states,” he wrote.

“What’s clear is that recent results from higher-quality polls are very different from those of the last presidential election. If true, it would suggest that Mr Trump’s advantage in the Electoral College, relative to the popular vote, has declined significantly since 2020.”

Harris has one other apparent reason for self-congratulation; the deficit with Trump over which candidate is trusted on the economy has been closed.

The economy remains the single biggest issue in the eyes of most voters, surveys show – recalling the mantra “it’s the economy, stupid” coined by James Carville, the Democratic operative who helped chart Bill Clinton’s 1992 election victory.

Yet the large lead Trump held over Biden – amid persistent concerns over inflation and rising living costs – seems to have eroded since Harris was nominated, separate surveys show.

An Associated Press-Norc poll published on Friday showed 41% of voters trusted Harris as a steward of the economy, while 43% gave Trump the nod – a nominal gap given the ex-president’s attempts to tar his opponent with Biden’s unpopular economic record.

The results bore out an earlier Morning Consult study, which tied the candidates at 46% on economic trust, while an FT-Michigan Ross survey conducted after the debate even gave Harris a small lead.

Sofia Baig, an economist and author of Morning Consult’s study, said Harris had successfully evaded blame for Biden’s policies while winning over voters with her pledges to crack down on price gouging and prescription drug costs.

“While many voters are unsatisfied with the current economy, they say Vice President Kamala Harris is less responsible than President Biden,” she wrote. “Throughout this election cycle, voters consistently said they trusted former President Trump over Biden to handle the economy, but Harris has closed that gap.”

A man has been arrested in Italy over the 1977 murders of two women, Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett, who were found dead in their Melbourne home on Easey Street, Collingwood.

A 65-year-old man, a Greek-Australian dual citizen, was arrested at a Rome airport on Thursday evening, Australian eastern time.

Victoria police will seek an extradition order for his return to Melbourne.

Armstrong and Bartlett were killed in January 1977 in their rented Collingwood terrace house while Armstrong’s 16-month-old toddler slept in another room.

The women’s bodies were found in the house on 13 January, three days after they had last been seen alive, with the child distressed and dehydrated but otherwise unhurt.

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Both Armstrong, 27, and Susan, 28, had been stabbed multiple times, police said.

The Easey Street murders, as they became known, was one of Melbourne’s most high-profile cold cases, remaining unsolved for decades.

The case was the subject of a number of books and podcasts.

In 2017, a $1m reward was offered for anyone who had new information that might lead to the arrest and conviction of people responsible.

The chief commissioner, Shane Patton, on Saturday described the case as “an absolutely gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide”.

Police had been looking for years for the arrested man, having identified him as a person of interest, Patton said.

Due to Greece’s 20-year statute bar on initiation of murder charges and the time that had elapsed before there was sufficient evidence to bring them, the man could not be charged while he was in Greece.

An Interpol red notice was issued for him instead, and Italian authorities acted on that when taking him into custody at Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in Rome.

While the investigation is ongoing, Patton said that the arrest of the man was “an important breakthrough”.

“For over 47 years, detectives from the homicide squad have worked tirelessly to determine who was responsible for the deaths of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett,” Patton said.

“An enormous amount of work has been done by many, many people to bring us to the position we are in today … This was a crime that struck at the heart of our community – two women in their own home, where they should have felt their safest.”

Patton also recognised “the enduring resilience of both the Armstrong and Bartlett families, who have grieved for over four decades and no doubt this will be a very emotional time for them”.

Patton said the timeline for extradition would depend on the Italian authorities, but that he expected it would be at least a month before police would travel to Italy to give evidence to justify the extradition.

The families of Armstrong and Bartlett requested privacy in a joint statement on Saturday afternoon.

“For two quiet families from country Victoria it has always been impossible to comprehend the needless and violent manner in which Suzanne and Susan died. The gravity of the circumstances surrounding their deaths changed our lives irrevocably,” the statement said.

“We will be forever grateful for the support and understanding shown to us by our friends and family over the past 47 years. It is difficult to sufficiently express our appreciation to Victoria police and the many investigators who have tirelessly pursued answers and justice for us over such a long period of time.

“The perseverance and dedication required to achieve the result today is something to truly behold. For always giving us hope and never giving up, we simply say, thank you.”

Lando Norris claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix for McLaren, delivering under immense pressure at the Marina Bay circuit. With an inch-perfect lap of the challenging street circuit he beat Max Verstappen into second, with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in third, his teammate, George Russell, in fourth and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in fifth.

Norris was pleased with the pole but for Verstappen this was a huge result at a circuit where he and Red Bull expected to struggle and drop a hatful of points to his title rival Norris. Instead, he wrestled the maximum from his car and in claiming second has a shot at a win in the only race on the calendar he has yet to take victory but more importantly, at potentially minimising how much Norris eats into his 59-point lead in the world championship.

At the opening of Q3 there was little to choose between the front three teams – McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari – and Verstappen in the Red Bull as Piastri opened the running for the final hot laps. The Australian made a good run but was swiftly eclipsed by Verstappen, however Carlos Sainz went off at the final corner, spinning into the barriers just as he was starting his lap, losing the rear on what appeared to be cold tyres.

The session was stopped and Verstappen’s lap time deleted because he completed it under waved double yellow flags. Norris had been on a superb lap at the time but had to give it up.

With eight minutes left on the clock when the track went live again, the teams had opted to not try to force two hot laps, making for a decisive one-lap sudden-death run for the nine remaining drivers in the final minutes. As the tension ratcheted up, with four minutes left the cars began to emerge, Piastri and Norris heading out first, a bold move with the track still evolving in adding grip.

Piastri improved his time but Norris was quicker through the middle and final sectors with a superb lap of 1min 29.525sec. Verstappen followed with a fine run to claim second but was still two-tenths down. Hamilton delivered a huge lap to take third just in front of Russell, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had his lap deleted going wide at turn two to finish in ninth.

This is Norris’s fifth pole this season and his fourth from six races, while McLaren have not taken pole or won in Singapore since Hamilton claimed both in 2009.

It is the sixth of his career and his first in Singapore. For McLaren after their recent form, including taking the lead of the constructors’ championship by 20 points from Red Bull, it was once more indicative of how strong their car now is at a range of tracks.

Nico Hülkenberg was sixth for Haas, Fernando Alonso seventh for Aston Martin, Yuki Tsunoda eighth for RB, while Sainz was 10^th after his crash.

Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto were in 11th and 12th for Williams, Sergio Pérez 13th for Red Bull, Kevin Magnussen 14th for Haas and Esteban Ocon 15th for Alpine. Daniel Ricciardo was 16th for RB, Lance Stroll 17th for Aston Martin, Pierre Gasly 18th for Alpine, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu 19th and 20th for Sauber.