Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel “will not stop” its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon despite calls from the US, France and other allies for an immediate three-week ceasefire aimed at containing the spread of a conflict that is beginning to engulf Lebanon.

The calls for an immediate ceasefire were backed on Thursday night by Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bouhabib, who told the UN general assembly his country was enduring a crisis that “threatens its very existence”.

Bouhabib welcomed the US/French initiative, saying “Diplomacy is not always easy, but diplomacy is the only way to save innocent lives … Lebanon views the US-French initiative as an opportunity to generate momentum, to take steps towards ending this crisis.”

Bouhabib said peace was incumbent on Israel’s government, and that there can be no lasting peace without a “two-state solution”.

Israeli airstrikes continued in Lebanon on Thursday, killing 92 people including the head of Hezbollah’s drone force, Mohammad Surur, and at least 150 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.

The Israeli prime minister told reporters that his government’s policy was clear as he landed in New York, where he is due to address the UN general assembly on Friday.

“We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force, and we will not stop until we reach all our goals – chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes,” Netanyahu said.

His office had earlier distanced the Israeli government from the ceasefire plan, which it described as “an American-French proposal that the prime minister has not even responded to”.

The prime minister’s office said Netanyahu had “directed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to continue fighting with full force, according to the plan that was presented to him. The fighting in Gaza will also continue until all the objectives of the war have been achieved.”

Those war goals include the safe return home of more than 60,000 Israelis forced to abandon their homes in northern Israel by Hezbollah bombing, which began on 8 October last year, the day after the start of the Gaza war.

US officials hope to persuade Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire proposal by the time he addresses the UN general assembly on Friday. They argue that a pause in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could also provide a breathing space in which to revive long-stalled negotiations with Israel and Hamas over the release of Israeli hostages in return for a truce in Gaza.

On Thursday, the White House said the Biden administration had believed that Israel was “on board” with the proposal.

John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesperson, said “we had every reason to believe that in the drafting of it and in the delivery of it, that the Israelis were fully informed and fully aware of every word in it. We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t believe that it would be received with the seriousness with which it was composed.”

Kirby said it was unclear why Netanyahu appeared to dismiss the idea.

The US, France and some of their allies had on Wednesday called for an urgent cessation of hostilities, which they said presented “an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation”.

“We call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy,” a joint statement said. “We call on all parties, including the governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary ceasefire immediately.”

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday that it would be “a mistake” for Netanyahu to refuse a ceasefire in Lebanon, which he warned could not become “another Gaza”.

Hezbollah has yet to respond to the call for a truce, although it and its backer, Iran, have previously insisted it would halt its strikes only if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, while the Israeli response has been overwhelmingly negative. After Netanyahu’s remarks, the defence minister said he had met the country’s top generals to discuss further military operations on the Israel’s northern front.

“We are continuing our sequence of operations – eliminating Hezbollah terrorists, dismantling Hezbollah’s offensive infrastructure and destroying rockets and missiles,” Yoav Gallant said.

“We have additional missions to complete in order to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes. We will continue throwing Hezbollah off balance and deepening their loss.”

US officials have urged Israel to accept a ceasefire on the grounds that it could lead to a negotiated withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from the border area, from where they have been firing rockets and missiles at Israel. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has argued that diplomacy is the best way to create conditions to allow residents to return to their homes.

“Getting into a full-scale war is not the way to achieve that objective,” he told the US TV channel MSNBC. “There’s no way in that situation that people are going to be able to go back.”

But western diplomats gathered in New York for the UN general assembly expressed doubt that Netanyahu would agree to such a deal, despite his long history of juggling contrary demands from the US and the extreme right in his cabinet.

Meanwhile, efforts by the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and foreign secretary, David Lammy, to secure a New York meeting with either Netanyahu or his strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, did not bear fruit, possibly reflecting Israel’s unhappiness over the UK’s limited ban on arms exports.

The families of the Gaza hostages have also said they are pushing for any Lebanon ceasefire deal to include clauses on Gaza, focused on securing the release of the roughly 70 hostages thought to still be alive and the bodies of about 30 others.

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Thursday hit a school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians, killing at least 11 people and wounding 22, including women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The Israeli military confirmed it had struck the school, in the Jabalia refugee camp, but claimed the attack had been aimed at Hamas militants hiding there.

Hezbollah has said that it will continue fighting Israel as long as the IDF keeps up its military operations in Gaza, but the ranks of the Iran-backed Shia militia have been shattered over the past nine days by a coordinated attack using booby-trapped communications devices, followed by a withering aerial bombing campaign.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 19 Syrian refugees and a Lebanese citizen had been killed in one strike in north-east Lebanon on Thursday, bringing the death toll from several days of Israeli bombardment to about 700 people, about a quarter of whom the ministry said were women or children.

The UK was one of the allies that backed the US-French call for a 21-day ceasefire. “I urge President Netanyahu and the Lebanese Hezbollah leaders to pay heed to the combined voices at the United Nations to do just that,” the British defence secretary said after a meeting with his US and Australian counterparts in London. John Healey said 700 British troops had been sent to Cyprus to help a potential emergency evacuation of civilians from Lebanon should a full-scale war break out.

The domestic political repercussions of a ceasefire for Netanyahu were made clear when his national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told the prime minister that his party, Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), would not vote with the coalition if the government agreed a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

“We will not abandon the residents of the north. Every day that this ceasefire is in effect and Israel does not fight in the north, Otzma Yehudit is not committed to the coalition,” Ben-Gvir said at a party meeting.

The leader of the opposition Democrats party, Yair Golan, also argued against committing to a three-week ceasefire, saying Israel should initially agree to a truce of a few days, and see how well it was enforced.

Israel has said it is prepared to launch a ground incursion into Lebanon alongside its aerial bombing, and on Thursday the IDF announced its troops had completed training drills near the northern border, simulating combat in Lebanon.

The IDF called up two reserve brigades at short notice on Wednesday to deploy to the northern border, where they will join Israel’s 98th Paratrooper Division, which was put under the control of the northern command last week. However, Haaretz described this as “a relatively limited reserve call-up”. The Israeli newspaper said that after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, in the run-up to the ground invasion of Gaza, “hundreds of thousands of reservists were called up, as were several divisions”.

Haaretz’s military correspondent, Amos Harel, argued that an Israeli invasion of Lebanon “is still not a done deal”.

Police in Norway have put out an international search warrant for a Norwegian Indian man in connection with the sale of pagers to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that exploded last week, killing dozens of people.

Rinson Jose, 39, the founder of a Bulgarian company that is alleged to be part of the pager supply chain, went missing during a work trip to the US last week.

On Thursday, Oslo police said: “Yesterday, the Oslo police district received a missing person report in connection with the pager case. A missing persons case has been opened and we have sent out an international warrant for the person.”

Jose declined to comment on the pagers when he was contacted by Reuters on 18 September and hung up after being asked about the Bulgarian business. He then failed to respond to multiple calls and messages.

His employer, DN Media Group, said Jose, who works in the Norwegian media company’s sales department, departed for a conference in Boston on 17 September and since the following day the company had been unable to contact him.

According to Bulgaria’s corporate registry, Jose founded Norta Global Ltd, based in the capital, Sofia, in 2022.

Bulgarian authorities have investigated the company’s role in supplying the pagers but did not find evidence that they were made in or exported from Bulgaria.

Jose is a Norwegian citizen and was born in another country, the broadcaster NRK reported.

The unprecedented pager attacks, which have been blamed on Israel, led to the death of 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others.

The following day, 25 people were killed and more than 450 wounded when walkie-talkies exploded in Lebanese supermarkets, at funerals and on streets.

As the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in New York on Thursday ahead of his address to the United Nations general assembly, scheduled for Friday morning, protesters opposed to the war in Gaza gathered near UN headquarters.

One group of people who waved Israeli flags and campaign banners described themselves as an informal coalition of Jewish and Israeli-led organizations taking an anti-occupation and anti-war stance in relation to the Palestinian territories. They assembled close to the UN building in Manhattan to protest against Netanyahu’s arrival after he flew in from Israel overnight.

As it began to drizzle, a speaker addressed the crowd of about 50 people, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and telling those gathered that “Netanyahu will lie to the world” on Friday, just “like he lies to us Israelis”.

“Stop killing children, end the war, sign the deal, bring the hostages home,” the speaker continued. “There is no military solution.”

More protests are planned for Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday.

People carried signs reading “bring the hostages home” and “end the war”, and when Netanyahu’s name was mentioned in a speech, the crowd chanted “shame, shame, shame”.

Phylisa Wisdom, the executive director of the New York Jewish Agenda, one of the groups organizing the protest, said the coalition was coming together to call on Netanyahu to reach a deal to end the war in Gaza, and bring out the remaining Israeli hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October last year.

“There is no solution but a diplomatic solution, and we’re making sure that this message cuts through and gets to Netanyahu, to our government, and to all allies of peace who care about Israeli and Palestinian lives,” Wisdom said. She added that the groups were also planning on protesting outside Netanyahu’s hotel.

Although attention has turned this week to Israel’s military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, with international leaders calling on Israel to negotiate a ceasefire on both fronts, protests against Netanyahu have focused principally on the war in Gaza that has gone on for almost a year.

Among those in the crowd was Zahiro Shahar Mor, whose 79-year-old uncle was kidnapped from Israel by militants on 7 October and held hostage in Gaza until August, when his body was recovered by the Israeli military.

Shahar Mor told the Guardian that he flew to New York from Israel on Tuesday to coincide with Netanyahu’s visit, and expressed his frustration that Netanyahu was in New York, instead of in Israel, where Shahar Mor said “his responsibility actually lies”.

“I think it’s ludicrous that the world as a whole is applauding and accepting this,” Shahar Mor said, referring to Netanyahu’s address to the UN.

Shahar Mor said he believed the conflict was being drawn out because Netanyahu’s government just “want to keep power”, adding that Netanyahu was “waging psychological war against” him and the other hostages’ families, as well as those in Gaza.

Shahar Mor said he wished America would put more pressure on Netanyahu.

“First and foremost, I wouldn’t allow him to come to the US at all,” he said.

“The situation in Israel is messed up, it’s beyond repair without external help, [and] we need your help,” he said, referring to the US and the international community.

Another person in the crowd on Thursday was the New York-based rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum.

“It’s outrageous that Netanyahu is here on this world stage,” Kleinbaum said. “He has been an obstacle to ending this war, bringing the hostages home.”

“This isn’t a sports game,” Kleinbaum added. “There isn’t a winner and a loser, and people who imagine there’s going to be one side wins if the other side loses … that’s not where I stand at all. I believe in a shared future, and I want to protest the dehumanization of either side, and both peoples have terrible leaders.”

An hour or so later, just a few blocks away, a group of more than 300 pro-Palestinian protesters, many holding Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs, gathered outside the New York public library on Fifth Avenue before heading a few blocks east to the imposing UN building, also in protest against Netanyahu’s visit.

People held signs reading “free Palestine”, and signs accusing the Israeli prime minister of being a war criminal, and asking the US to end military aid to Israel.

Myra Shallan, 35, said she wanted Netanyahu to know how many feel about his visit.

“What I would love to come across is just how displeased we are,” Shallan said.

Other protest signs read “end all US aid to Israel” and “stop the war machine”, “bring the hostages home” and “send Netanyahu to The Hague”.

That last slogan refers to the international criminal court (ICC), based in the Netherlands. In May, the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested the court issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

A panel of judges is still considering the request which, if granted, would oblige countries that are signatories to the ICC to detain Netanyahu if he were to visit. The US, however, is not a signatory to the ICC and is not bound by its decisions.

Israel last week challenged Khan’s request.

Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, has indirectly denounced the Trump campaign’s policy on ending Russia’s war against Ukraine as “proposals of surrender” as the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Washington to present his own “victory plan”.

Addressing Zelenskyy at the White House, Harris said that “some in my country” would pressure Ukraine to accept a peace deal in which it surrendered its sovereign territory and neutrality in order to make peace with Vladimir Putin.

“These proposals are the same as those of Putin, and let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace,” she said. “Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.”

While she did not mention Donald Trump or JD Vance by name, those terms for peace closely resemble ones laid out by the Republican vice-presidential nominee in an interview earlier this month.

Zelenskyy had publicly denounced Vance as “too radical” after those remarks, sparking a conflict with Trump allies that has culminated with accusations of election interference and Republican calls for Ukraine to fire its ambassador to Washington.

In an apparent U-turn late on Thursday, Trump told reporters he would meet Zelenskyy at Trump Tower in New York on Friday morning.

At a press conference he rejected Harris’ criticisms and insisted that he only wants to stop the “horror show that’s gone on”.

When asked if Ukraine should give up territory, Trump was non-committal, saying: “Let’s get some peace … We need peace. We need to stop the death and destruction.”

Before announcing the meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump posted on social media a purported message from the Ukrainian president asking to see him. The message, which was not confirmed by Ukrainian officials, said “we have to strive to understand each other.” The decision to publicly disclose what appeared to be private communications was a reminder of the tension that has been brewing between Trump and Zelenskyy.

Harris’s remarks came after Zelenskyy met Joe Biden at the White House for the formal presentation of Zelenskyy’s high-stakes proposal, which he has said can end the war with Russia with additional American aid.

The White House issued a short statement after the meeting, saying that the “two leaders discussed the diplomatic, economic, and military aspects of President Zelenskyy’s plan and tasked their teams to engage in intensive consultations regarding next steps”.

“President Biden is determined to provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win,” the statement said.

Zelenskyy has kept the details of the plan secret, but US officials have said it includes additional American aid to prevent a Ukrainian rout on the battlefield and “provide the [Ukrainian] people with the assurance that their future is part of the west”.

Zelenskyy faces an uphill battle in securing support for the plan, because of caution among senior officials in the Biden administration about providing Russia with a pretext to escalate the conflict further, and the looming November presidential elections that could lead to a re-election of Donald Trump.

Before the meeting, Biden announced more than $8bn in military assistance to Kyiv, calling it a “surge in security assistance for Ukraine and a series of additional actions to help Ukraine win this war”.

The aid includes the provision of a medium-range “glide bomb” munition fired from fighter jets that would allow Ukrainian forces to strike Russian troops and supply lines at safer distances.

The allocation included $5.5bn from the Ukraine security assistance initiative fund by the end of the year, as well as an additional $2.4bn in security assistance via the Department of Defense.

The package includes additional Patriot air defense batteries and missiles, unmanned aerial systems, and measures to strengthen Ukraine’s defense industrial base, Biden said. The US will also expand training for additional F-16 fighter pilots, with an extra 18 pilots to be trained next year.

But Biden was not expected to grant a key Ukrainian request that has been supported by the UK – permission to use arms such as long-range Atacms ballistic missiles to strike targets deeper inside Russia – due to fears of escalating the conflict with Russia.

“There is no announcement that I would expect [on that],” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters before the meeting.

Zelenskyy said in a social media post: “We will use this assistance in the most effective and transparent way possible to achieve our main common goal: a victorious Ukraine, a just and lasting peace, and transatlantic security.”

Biden also announced that he would convene a high-level meeting of the Ukraine defense contact group to coordinate aid to Ukraine among more than 50 allies as he enters the lame-duck period of his final three months in office.

US media have reported that the Biden administration and European allies have been skeptical of Zelenskyy’s plan to achieve victory, which is understood to need to secure maximal support from the west before potential negotiations with Russia.

“I’m unimpressed. There’s not much new there,” a senior official told the Wall Street Journal.

Zelenskyy had said the plan included decisions that can be taken “solely” by the United States and “is based on decisions that should take place from October through December” – meaning the end of Biden’s term in office.

The meeting came amid rising tensions between Zelenskyy and Trump, who has attacked the Ukrainian leader for “making little nasty aspersions toward your favourite president: me”.

Zelenskyy, in an interview with the New Yorker published this week, said he believed Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war” and criticised Vance for describing a vision for peace that included Ukraine ceding territories currently occupied by Russia.

Before the meetings, Zelenskyy met members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Republican, accused Zelenskyy of election interference and demanded he fire his ambassador to Washington over a visit to an ammunitions factory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Johnson claimed the Ukrainian ambassador had failed to invite any Republicans to the event and called it a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats”.

Zelenskyy sought to reduce tensions on Thursday as he thanked the US for the new arms package and praised political leaders’ “strong bipartisan support” in “Ukraine’s just cause of defeating Russian aggression”.

Nonetheless, US and European officials have noted with varying levels of alarm the potential for a Trump administration to sharply reduce US aid to Ukraine in order to force Zelenskyy to accept terms for a ceasefire.

Asked whether the Democrats wanted to “Trump-proof” aid to Ukraine before a potential Trump presidency, a senior state department official said: “I don’t ever talk in those terms” but that the primary goal was to make sure Ukraine “has all the equipment it needs to keep fighting and manpower and other things”.

“At the end of the year, regardless of who wins our election in December, as at the end of this fighting season, Zelenskyy and Putin need to look at the battlefield and say, here’s what we think next year will look like,” the official said.

“And the primary factor there is, do I think the other side has all the equipment it needs to keep fighting and manpower and other things?”

• In an apparent U-turn late on Thursday, Donald Trump told reporters that he would meet Zelenskyy at Trump Tower in New York on Friday morning. The move comes after Kamala Harris described the Trump campaign’s policy on ending Russia’s war as “proposals of surrender”. “These proposals are the same as those of Putin, and let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace,” she said. “Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.” Trump rejected Harris’ criticisms and insisted that he only wants to stop the “horror show that’s gone on”. When asked if Ukraine should give up territory, Trump was non-committal, saying: “Let’s get some peace … We need peace. We need to stop the death and destruction.” His running mate, JD Vance, had earlier suggested Russia could retain the Ukrainian land it has occupied and establish a demilitarised zone with a heavily fortified frontline to prevent another Russian invasion.

• Before announcing the meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump posted on social media a purported message from the Ukrainian president asking to see him. The message, which was not confirmed by Ukrainian officials, said “we have to strive to understand each other.” The decision to publicly disclose what appeared to be private communications was a reminder of the tension that has been brewing between Trump and Zelenskyy.

• Zelenskyy met Joe Biden at the White House for the formal presentation of the Ukraine president’s high-stakes proposal, which he has said can end the war with Russia with additional American aid. The White House issued a short statement after the meeting, saying that the “two leaders discussed the diplomatic, economic, and military aspects of President Zelenskyy’s plan and tasked their teams to engage in intensive consultations regarding next steps”. Zelenskyy has kept the details of the plan secret, but US officials have said it includes additional American aid to prevent a Ukrainian rout on the battlefield and “provide the [Ukrainian] people with the assurance that their future is part of the west”.

• Biden announced more than $8bn in military assistance to Kyiv, calling it a “surge in security assistance for Ukraine and a series of additional actions to help Ukraine win this war”. The aid includes the provision of a medium-range “glide bomb” munition fired from fighter jets that would allow Ukrainian forces to strike Russian troops and supply lines at safer distances. The package includes additional Patriot air defense battery and missiles, unmanned aerial systems, and measures to strengthen Ukraine’s defense industrial base, Biden said. The US will also expand training for additional F-16 fighter pilots, with an extra 18 pilots to be trained next year. But Biden was not expected to grant a key Ukrainian request that has been supported by the UK – permission to use arms such as long-range Atacms ballistic missiles to strike targets deeper inside Russia – due to fears of escalating the conflict with Russia.

• Russian forces repeatedly shelled a settlement west of the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson on Thursday, killing one person and wounding another, the region’s governor said. Vyacheslav Prokudin, governor of Kherson region, still partly held by Russian forces, said on Telegram that the woman died when Russian forces hit the village of Tomyna Balka six times.
  Outside Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, a strike by Russian multiple rocket launchers triggered a fire engulfing at least six homes in the town of Slatyne, local official Vyacheslav Zadorenko said.
  Zadorenko said emergency services were tackling the blaze and trying to establish whether any residents were trapped under rubble. Kharkiv, located 30 km (18 miles) from the border, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks.
  Reuters could not verify the reports independently.

Hurricane Helene made landfall along the Florida coast on Thursday night as a powerful and potentially disastrous category 4 storm, bringing chaos to a wide swathe of the Gulf coast and threatening high winds, storm surges and drenching rainfall.

Helene was located about 70km east-southeast of Tallahassee, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 225 kph, the Miami-based UA National Hurricane Center said late on Thursday.

The huge storm formed rapidly this week and strengthened as it careened across the warm waters of the Gulf gathering speed.

Helene’s storm surge – the wall of seawater pushed on land by hurricane-force winds – could rise to as much as 20ft (6.1 meters) in some spots.

“This is not a survivable event for those in coastal or low-lying areas,” said Jared Miller, the sheriff of Wakulla county on the Florida coast. “Please heed the evacuation orders in place as time is running out to do so.”

States of emergency have been declared in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and Alabama.

Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis had urged north Florida residents to flee before time runs out, warning of flooding, road closures and power outages. Though the storm is expected to weaken once it makes landfall, it is moving fast and could continue to spread.

“You’re going to have hurricane force winds for probably 50 miles outside the eye of the storm, and then you’re going to continue to see surge, particularly in that Big Bend area,” DeSantis said at a news briefing on Thursday evening, held at the state’s emergency operation center in Tallahassee.

John Dailey, the mayor of Tallahassee, Florida’s capital city that is in the direct path of Helene, said the hurricane could be the strongest storm to ever make a direct hit on his city. Helene could produce “unprecedented damage like nothing we have ever experienced before as a community,” Dailey told reporters on Wednesday.

Climate scientists have warned that global heating is increasing the numbers and strengths of powerful hurricanes. While no individual storm is down to climate change, the new pattern of more and stronger hurricanes is powered by the planet’s warning oceans and seas. Much of Helen’s power came from the strength it gathered over the Gulf of Mexico, which has reached unprecedented high temperatures in recent years.

Helene is forecast to be one of the largest storms in years to hit the region, Phil Klotzbach, a Colorado State University hurricane researcher, told the Associated Press. He said since 1988, only three Gulf hurricanes were bigger than Helene’s predicted size: 2017’s Irma, 2005’s Wilma and 1995’s Opal.

Parts of Florida were already feeling the storm’s impact before it made landfall. In communities like Fort Myers Beach, Florida, the water was already 2ft above normal earlier on Thursday. Cities such as Tampa and St Petersburg saw storm surges of 5ft by Thursday evening.

The hurricane is expected to travel up the south-eastern coast once it makes landfall, moving from Florida up to North Carolina. At least 50 million people are under hurricane and tropical storm warnings.

As night fell in the North Carolina mountains, emergency officials asked residents to seek safety on higher ground as Hurricane Helene neared land. The area has already been hit by heavy rain from another storm and forecasters predicted an additional 9in to 14in of rain could fall as what remains of Helene moves across the area on Thursday night and into Friday.

“A storm like this, we’re seeing flooding where we have never seen it before,” said Jimmy Brissie, the emergency services director for Henderson county south of Asheville.

Helene knocked out power in western Cuba as it brushed past the island, affecting about 160,000 customers in the province of Artemisa and another 70,000 in the neighboring province of Pinar del Río. The hurricane also forced about 800 people in the region to evacuate flood-prone zones, according to Guerrillero, a local newspaper.

The storm swamped parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, flooding streets and toppling trees as it passed offshore and brushed the resort city of Cancún.

Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began in June. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Life-threatening storm surges as high as 20ft (6 meters) are expected on Florida’s coast when Hurricane Helene makes landfall late on Thursday.

The governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have declared emergencies in their states.

In Florida, the huge storm surges from the initial landfall have been prominent in the warnings from officials, who described Helene as an unusually large storm with a wind field extending 275 miles (440km) from its center.

“A catastrophic and deadly storm surge is likely along portions of the Florida Big Bend coast, where inundation could reach as high as 20ft above ground level, along with destructive waves,” the National Weather Service warned on Wednesday evening.

“Preparations to protect life and property should be completed by early Thursday before tropical storm conditions arrive.”

Hurricane John has strengthened once again, hurling rain at Mexico’s south-western coast dotted with ports and tourist hotspots, an area already soaked by the slow-moving storm system over the past several days.

John has churned menacingly near the stretch of coastline since Monday, weakening and strengthening again as it affected major cargo ports, temporarily shutting local airports as well as claiming at least five lives, mostly due to mudslides.

AccuWeather meteorologist Jesse Ferrell referred to John as a “zombie” storm – a term that refers to systems that dissipate before strengthening back into a storm, first coined by the US National Weather Service in 2020 when the remnants of Hurricane Paulette regenerated near the Azores after striking Bermuda.

In 2004, Hurricane Ivan, which lasted close to an entire month, smashed the Caribbean before dissipating and coming back to life to strike the United States. Ivan caused some $26bn in damages for that year.

Christopher Rozoff, atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said John was slow-moving and had no large-scale steering forces moving it elsewhere.

This, Rozoff said, made it “prone to take a disastrous path back over sea to reintensify and further torment the Mexican coast with extreme rainfall”.

John was hurling rain across the Mexican state of Guerrero on Thursday, after already hitting the state earlier in the week in a strike that uprooted trees, knocked out power to tens of thousands and triggered deadly landslides that crushed houses.

The governor of Guerrero state, Evelyn Salgado Pineda, on Thursday morning urged residents to take all precautions a day after a rising tide battered beachfront restaurants in Acapulco, one of the state’s top resort areas, and rains flooded nearby roads.

Acapulco is still recovering from major destruction caused by Hurricane Otis last year.

After crawling north-west, John was stationary 55 miles (89km) south-west of the major cargo port of Lázaro Cárdenas, packing maximum sustained winds of 75mph (120km/h), according to the US National Hurricane Center.

The Miami-based center expects the hurricane to skirt Mexico’s south-west coast, along Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca states, further drenching the area through at least Saturday.

“This heavy rainfall will likely cause significant and catastrophic life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides,” it warned.

Human-caused climate breakdown has increased the occurrence of the most intense and destructive tropical cyclones (though the overall number per year has not changed globally). This is because warming oceans provide more energy, producing stronger storms.

Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather lead hurricane expert, said that both John and Otis had strengthened rapidly due to the warm sea temperatures, with some areas where John developed nearing 32C (90F), providing storms with more fuel.

Rowan University meteorologist Andra Garner said the warm waters had likely helped John reform after its first landfall.

Moving into the future, added DaSilva, it is “very likely” we will see warmer sea surface temperatures, which “could lead to more episodes of rapid intensification as we look ahead”.

China’s efforts to achieve maritime military parity with the US have suffered a serious blow after its newest state-of-the-art nuclear submarine sank in a dock, American officials have confirmed.

The incident happened last May or June at the Wuchang shipyard near Wuhan – the same city where the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have originated – and came to light, thanks to satellite imagery, despite efforts by the country’s communist authorities to stage a cover-up.

A US defence official told Reuters that the Zhou-class vessel – first of a new kind of Chinese submarines and distinctive for its X-shaped stern that aids manoeuvrability – is believed to have been next to a pier when it sank.

It is not known if there were any casualties – or if the submarine had any nuclear fuel onboard at the time, although experts have deemed that likely, according to the Wall Street Journal, which initially broke the story. The submarine was eventually salvaged but it is believed that it will take many months before it can be put to sea.

American officials say they have no indication that Chinese authorities have checked the water or nearby environment for radiation.

There has been no acknowledgment of the incident from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the official name for the Chinese armed forces.

The Journal reported that the first indication that something unusual had occurred came in the summer when Thomas Shugart, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former US submarine officer, noted irregular activity of floating cranes – which he had seen on satellite images – on social media.

Shugart suggested that there may have been an accident involving a submarine but did not know that it was nuclear-powered.

“Can you imagine a US nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it? I mean, holy cow!” Shugart said.

The unnamed US defence official told Reuters that the incident and the wall of silence shrouding it raised serious questions about the Chinese military’s competence and accountability.

“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defence industry – which has long been plagued by corruption,” he said. “It’s not surprising that the PLA navy would try to conceal.”

A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington said they had no information to provide. “We are not familiar with the situation you mentioned and currently have no information to provide,” the official told Reuters.

As of 2022, China had six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines, according to a Pentagon report on China’s military. That submarine force is expected to grow to 65 by 2025 and 80 by 2035, the US defence department has said.

The Pentagon report said the goal of developing the new submarines, along with surface ships and naval aircraft, is to counteract US moves to come to Taiwan’s aid in a conflict and establish “maritime superiority” in a string of islands stretching from the Japanese archipelago to the South China Sea.

“The sinking of a new nuclear sub that was produced at a new yard will slow China’s plans to grow its nuclear submarine fleet,” Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation thinktank, told the Journal. “This is significant.”

China’s efforts to achieve maritime military parity with the US have suffered a serious blow after its newest state-of-the-art nuclear submarine sank in a dock, American officials have confirmed.

The incident happened last May or June at the Wuchang shipyard near Wuhan – the same city where the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have originated – and came to light, thanks to satellite imagery, despite efforts by the country’s communist authorities to stage a cover-up.

A US defence official told Reuters that the Zhou-class vessel – first of a new kind of Chinese submarines and distinctive for its X-shaped stern that aids manoeuvrability – is believed to have been next to a pier when it sank.

It is not known if there were any casualties – or if the submarine had any nuclear fuel onboard at the time, although experts have deemed that likely, according to the Wall Street Journal, which initially broke the story. The submarine was eventually salvaged but it is believed that it will take many months before it can be put to sea.

American officials say they have no indication that Chinese authorities have checked the water or nearby environment for radiation.

There has been no acknowledgment of the incident from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the official name for the Chinese armed forces.

The Journal reported that the first indication that something unusual had occurred came in the summer when Thomas Shugart, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former US submarine officer, noted irregular activity of floating cranes – which he had seen on satellite images – on social media.

Shugart suggested that there may have been an accident involving a submarine but did not know that it was nuclear-powered.

“Can you imagine a US nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it? I mean, holy cow!” Shugart said.

The unnamed US defence official told Reuters that the incident and the wall of silence shrouding it raised serious questions about the Chinese military’s competence and accountability.

“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defence industry – which has long been plagued by corruption,” he said. “It’s not surprising that the PLA navy would try to conceal.”

A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington said they had no information to provide. “We are not familiar with the situation you mentioned and currently have no information to provide,” the official told Reuters.

As of 2022, China had six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines, according to a Pentagon report on China’s military. That submarine force is expected to grow to 65 by 2025 and 80 by 2035, the US defence department has said.

The Pentagon report said the goal of developing the new submarines, along with surface ships and naval aircraft, is to counteract US moves to come to Taiwan’s aid in a conflict and establish “maritime superiority” in a string of islands stretching from the Japanese archipelago to the South China Sea.

“The sinking of a new nuclear sub that was produced at a new yard will slow China’s plans to grow its nuclear submarine fleet,” Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation thinktank, told the Journal. “This is significant.”

At least 46 people have drowned, most of them children, while bathing in rivers and ponds swollen by recent floods, during the observance of a Hindu religious festival celebrated by millions in India.

The dead include 37 children and seven women who drowned in the eastern state of Bihar in scattered incidents across 15 districts, authorities said on Thursday.

Devotees were celebrating the annual festival of Jivitputrika Vrat, during which women fast for 24 hours and offer prayers for the wellbeing of their children. They also travel to rivers and ponds in their neighbourhood to bathe, sometimes accompanied by their children.

The Bihar state government announced compensation of 400,000 rupees (US$4,784) for the families of each of the deceased.

Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites. Last year local media reported 22 people drowned during a 24-hour period in Bihar, most while marking the same festival.

At least 116 people were crushed to death in July at an overcrowded Hindu religious gathering in Uttar Pradesh state, the worst such tragedy in more than a decade.

India is hit by torrential rains and flash floods each year during the June-September monsoon season. The monsoon is vital for agriculture, and therefore for the livelihoods of millions of farmers. But it is also responsible for widespread destruction each year in the form of landslides and floods that kill hundreds of people across South Asia.

More than 200 people were killed in the southern Indian state of Kerala in July when torrential monsoon downpours caused landslides that buried tea plantations under tonnes of rock and soil.

India’s monsoon rains started retreating from the north-west of the country earlier this week, nearly a week later than normal, the state-run India Meteorological Department said.

Experts say climate change is increasing the number of extreme weather events around the world, with damming, deforestation and development projects in India exacerbating the human toll.

The former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong’s Stand News has been sentenced to jail on sedition charges for the publication of news reports and other articles that prosecutors said tried to promote “illegal ideologies”.

Chung Pui-kuen, 55, the former editor-in-chief and the former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, 36, were found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious materials in late August after almost a year of delays. The parent company of the now-defunct Stand News, Best Pencil Ltd, was also convicted.

The pair have been on bail since the conviction but both spent almost a year in jail since they were arrested.

On Thursday, the district court sentenced Chung to 21 months in prison, meaning he will have to serve another 10 months. Lam was released after the judge said he had factored in his poor health and other mitigating factors, including his short time in the role overseeing the outlet. Lam’s defence team had told the court earlier that a deteriorating kidney condition meant “any mistakes or delay in treatment could endanger his life”, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.

The judge, who was more than two hours late to proceedings, ordered Lam to be released immediately.

Chung and Lam were first arrested on 29 December 2021 after police raided the outlet’s newsroom. In October 2022, they pleaded not guilty. Chung chose to testify in court and spent 36 of the trial’s 57 days in the witness box and defended Stand News and its commitment to press freedom.

“The media should not self-censor but report,” Chung said. “Freedom of speech should not be restricted on the grounds of eradicating dangerous ideas, but rather it should be used to eradicate dangerous ideas.”

However, the court had found 11 articles – mostly opinion pieces – published by Stand News to be seditious. The 11 were drawn from 17 that prosecutors had said sought to promote “illegal ideologies” and to incite hatred against the governments in Hong Kong and China and the 2020 national security law. The judge found Chung responsible for publishing 10 of the offending pieces, and Lam one.

The Stand News case has been seen as a bellwether for Hong Kong’s diminishing media freedoms, and the increasing risk for journalists continuing to operate in the city. The sentencing comes a week after revelations that dozens of journalists had been harassed in a “systemic and organised attack” that included death threats and threatening letters sent to their employers, families, and landlords.

Stand News was raided six months after authorities raided and shut down the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, and arrested its founder, the media mogul and activist Jimmy Lai, as well as several executives and editors including his son. In the wake of the raids on Stand News, which also targeted the home of its news editor, Ronson Chan, the outlet removed its content from online and shut down.

The raid on Stand News prompted the independent outlet Citizen News to announce within days that it would cease operations, citing the increasingly risky media environment.

Launched in 2014, Stand News had been a significant source of news about the 2019 pro-democracy protests and the harsh crackdown by authorities, and was seen by Hongkongers as one of the city’s most credible outlets, according to surveys. Its reporters had been on the frontline of reporting protests including those that turned violent.

Its then-reporter Gwyneth Ho livestreamed her reporting from Yuen Long station as gangs attacked protesters and commuters and then the reporter herself. In 2020 Ho announced herself as a candidate for Hong Kong’s legislative elections but was later disqualified. In 2021 she was jailed for taking part in an “unofficial assembly” at a Tiananmen Square massacre vigil, and this year was convicted as one of the “Hong Kong 47” for running unofficial pre-election primaries in 2020.

A profile of Ho as an election candidate was among the 11 articles deemed seditious by the court. Others included a feature on student protests, three commentaries by the self-exiled former legislator and pro-democracy campaigner Nathan Law, and four others by veteran journalist and journalism teacher Allan Au. Au’s subjects included a piece on “new words in 2020” relating to the national security crackdown, and criticisms of the national security law and a related trial. Another article by Au accusing authorities of using the sedition law – under which the Stand News editors were convicted – as “lawfare”.

The sedition law dates back to the British colonial era and had been little used until authorities began charging pro-democracy figures with its crimes after the 2019 protests. It was repealed in March after Hong Kong introduced its own domestic national security law.

Keir Starmer has met Donald Trump for a two-hour dinner in New York, as he sought to establish a good relationship with the Republican presidential candidate.

The prime minister was accompanied by his foreign secretary David Lammy, who described Trump as a neo-Nazi sympathiser in 2018 but has since said he would work with him in office.

Starmer and Trump are understood to have discussed the longstanding friendship and partnership between the UK and US. Downing Street would not be drawn on further topics of conversation.

The prime minister, who is in New York to attend to the UN general assembly, did not manage to schedule a meeting with the Democratic hopeful, Kamala Harris, who is in Washington.

Prior to the meeting, Starmer told reporters: “I’ve said a number of times, I want to meet both candidates. We’ve now got the opportunity to meet Trump, which is good. Obviously, I still want to speak to Harris as well. But you know, the usual diary challenges, but it’s good that this one now has been fixed. It’ll be really to establish a relationship between the two of us.

“I’m a great believer in personal relations on the international stage. I think it really matters that you know who your counterpart is in any given country, and know them, you know, personally, get to know them face to face.”

Starmer’s meeting came just a few hours after the former US president gave a lengthy press conference warning there was an “mass invasion” and “sudden, suffocating inundation” of millions of illegal immigrants into the US caused by his rival, Harris, who earlier met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the White House. At the meeting, Harris suggested Trump’s approach to Russia’s war amounted to surrender.

Trump said of Starmer: “I am going to see him in about an hour so I have to be nice. I actually think he is very nice. He ran a great race, he did very well. It’s very early but he is popular. It’s very early but I will send your regards.”

Asked about Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, Trump said: “I think Nigel is great, I’ve known him for a long time. He had a great election too, picked up a lot of seats, more seats than he was allowed to have actually. They acknowledged that he won but for some reason you have a strange system over there, you might win them but you don’t get them. Nigel is a fantastic person.”

Before the meeting, the prime minister gave a speech at the UN general assembly where he told world leaders that Britain will approach international relations with less “paternalism” than before while listening more and speaking less.

He also pleaded with Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink of a wider war “that no one can control”.

“I call on Israel and Hezbollah: stop the violence, step back from the brink. We need to see an immediate ceasefire to provide space for a diplomatic settlement and we are working with all partners to that end,” he said.

Starmer declined to say what he would discuss with Trump and whether support for Ukraine would be brought up, given the Republican candidate is sceptical about US financial support for Kyiv.

Pressed on whether a Trump presidency would leave the UK more isolated on the global stage, Starmer said the “special relationship” with the US “sits above whoever holds the particular office”.

“It is really important,” he said. “I think it’s probably as strong now as it’s ever been, in relation to the Middle East and Ukraine … The US people will decide who they want as their president, and we will work with whoever is president, as you would expect. I’m not going to speculate on what any particular issues may be the other side of the election.”

The meeting comes after Angela Eagle, a Home Office minister, risked undermining No 10’s diplomatic efforts with Trump by saying at a fringe event at the Labour party conference that his rhetoric had emboldened racists.

Eagle said Trump had helped to create “vitriol” against migrants through social media. She also said rightwing Tories had used language that had given a “yellow flashing light” to racists, using a “toxic discourse” as they fought off the challenge from Reform UK.

Asked about Eagle’s words on Tuesday, a Trump spokesperson reacted dismissively, saying: “Nobody knows who this random person is or cares what comes out of her mouth. Who is she and what does she do?”

Starmer did not back Eagle when asked on Tuesday whether her words were correct.

At his UN speech, Starmer called for permanent African representation on the UN security council after saying earlier in the week that Russia – one of five permanent members – should be ashamed to show itself in the building after its invasion of Ukraine.

Starmer also said there should be seats for Brazil, India, Japan and Germany as permanent members and more seats for elected members as well.

He also issued a warning about levels of conflict unprecedented in the history of the UN.

“In Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen and beyond,” he said, “the vast majority of humanitarian need in the world today … is driven by conflict.”

The prime minister said that after 20 years of gains in tackling poverty, disease and ill-health, war is one of the major reasons that progress has now stalled, describing it as a “catastrophe made by human hands”.

Keir Starmer has met Donald Trump for a two-hour dinner in New York, as he sought to establish a good relationship with the Republican presidential candidate.

The prime minister was accompanied by his foreign secretary David Lammy, who described Trump as a neo-Nazi sympathiser in 2018 but has since said he would work with him in office.

Starmer and Trump are understood to have discussed the longstanding friendship and partnership between the UK and US. Downing Street would not be drawn on further topics of conversation.

The prime minister, who is in New York to attend to the UN general assembly, did not manage to schedule a meeting with the Democratic hopeful, Kamala Harris, who is in Washington.

Prior to the meeting, Starmer told reporters: “I’ve said a number of times, I want to meet both candidates. We’ve now got the opportunity to meet Trump, which is good. Obviously, I still want to speak to Harris as well. But you know, the usual diary challenges, but it’s good that this one now has been fixed. It’ll be really to establish a relationship between the two of us.

“I’m a great believer in personal relations on the international stage. I think it really matters that you know who your counterpart is in any given country, and know them, you know, personally, get to know them face to face.”

Starmer’s meeting came just a few hours after the former US president gave a lengthy press conference warning there was an “mass invasion” and “sudden, suffocating inundation” of millions of illegal immigrants into the US caused by his rival, Harris, who earlier met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the White House. At the meeting, Harris suggested Trump’s approach to Russia’s war amounted to surrender.

Trump said of Starmer: “I am going to see him in about an hour so I have to be nice. I actually think he is very nice. He ran a great race, he did very well. It’s very early but he is popular. It’s very early but I will send your regards.”

Asked about Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, Trump said: “I think Nigel is great, I’ve known him for a long time. He had a great election too, picked up a lot of seats, more seats than he was allowed to have actually. They acknowledged that he won but for some reason you have a strange system over there, you might win them but you don’t get them. Nigel is a fantastic person.”

Before the meeting, the prime minister gave a speech at the UN general assembly where he told world leaders that Britain will approach international relations with less “paternalism” than before while listening more and speaking less.

He also pleaded with Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink of a wider war “that no one can control”.

“I call on Israel and Hezbollah: stop the violence, step back from the brink. We need to see an immediate ceasefire to provide space for a diplomatic settlement and we are working with all partners to that end,” he said.

Starmer declined to say what he would discuss with Trump and whether support for Ukraine would be brought up, given the Republican candidate is sceptical about US financial support for Kyiv.

Pressed on whether a Trump presidency would leave the UK more isolated on the global stage, Starmer said the “special relationship” with the US “sits above whoever holds the particular office”.

“It is really important,” he said. “I think it’s probably as strong now as it’s ever been, in relation to the Middle East and Ukraine … The US people will decide who they want as their president, and we will work with whoever is president, as you would expect. I’m not going to speculate on what any particular issues may be the other side of the election.”

The meeting comes after Angela Eagle, a Home Office minister, risked undermining No 10’s diplomatic efforts with Trump by saying at a fringe event at the Labour party conference that his rhetoric had emboldened racists.

Eagle said Trump had helped to create “vitriol” against migrants through social media. She also said rightwing Tories had used language that had given a “yellow flashing light” to racists, using a “toxic discourse” as they fought off the challenge from Reform UK.

Asked about Eagle’s words on Tuesday, a Trump spokesperson reacted dismissively, saying: “Nobody knows who this random person is or cares what comes out of her mouth. Who is she and what does she do?”

Starmer did not back Eagle when asked on Tuesday whether her words were correct.

At his UN speech, Starmer called for permanent African representation on the UN security council after saying earlier in the week that Russia – one of five permanent members – should be ashamed to show itself in the building after its invasion of Ukraine.

Starmer also said there should be seats for Brazil, India, Japan and Germany as permanent members and more seats for elected members as well.

He also issued a warning about levels of conflict unprecedented in the history of the UN.

“In Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen and beyond,” he said, “the vast majority of humanitarian need in the world today … is driven by conflict.”

The prime minister said that after 20 years of gains in tackling poverty, disease and ill-health, war is one of the major reasons that progress has now stalled, describing it as a “catastrophe made by human hands”.

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, has been charged with accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources after an indictment was filed against the leader of one of the world’s biggest cities.

In a five-count criminal indictment, US prosecutors allege that before and during his terms as mayor, Adams “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him”.

The criminal counts against Adams include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals, wire fraud, and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national.

Adams’s arraignment was scheduled for noon on Friday before magistrate judge Katharine Parker.

The complaint focuses on trips Adams and his partner took to Turkey, India and Ghana on Turkish airlines, sometimes staying in luxury hotels, that as an elected official he should have disclosed to the government, and campaign contributions made by Turkish officials through a system of “straw” donors.

Adams “did not disclose the travel benefits he had obtained in annual financial disclosures he was required to file as a New York City employee”, the government alleges. “Sometimes, Adams agreed to pay a nominal fee to create the appearance of having paid for travel that was in fact heavily discounted.”

Prosecutors allege that Adams “created and instructed others to create fake paper trails, falsely suggesting that he had paid, or planned to pay, for travel benefits that were free”.

In September 2021, two months before he was elected New York mayor, prosecutors allege, Turkish officials called in their debt, telling Adams “it was his turn to repay the Turkish official, by pressuring the New York City fire department (‘FDNY’) to facilitate the opening of a new Turkish consular building – a 36-story skyscraper without a fire inspection – in time for a high-profile visit by Turkey’s president”.

The indictment notes that at the time, the building close to the UN would have failed an FDNY inspection. “In exchange for free travel and other travel related bribes in 2021 and 2022 arranged by the Turkish official, Adams did as instructed,” the indictment says.

Shortly before prosecutors held a press conference to announce the charges, Adams held his own, surrounded by clergy and family as well as protesters calling for his resignation.

Adams insisted he was innocent. “I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defence,” he said, and added: “Everyone who knows me knows that I follow the campaign rules and I follow the law.” But at the end of the press conference, Adams walked away to chants of “Resign! Resign! Resign!” from some protesters.

The US attorney Damian Williams said Adams had committed “a grave breach of public trust” by accepting more than $100,000 in luxury travel benefits without disclosing them, seeking illegal campaign contributions from Turkish officials as recently as last year and taking “corrupt official action” over the approval of Turkey’s consulate.

The mayor, Williams said, crossed “bright red lines” again and again.

“Public office is a privilege and we allege Mayor Adams abused that privilege and broke the law – laws that are designed to ensure that officials like him serve the people, not the highest bidder, not a foreign bidder and certainly not a foreign power,” Williams added.

“This investigation continues,” he said, promising to hold more people accountable.

If convicted, Adams could face five years for conspiracy, five years for seeking foreign campaign donations and 20 years for wire fraud. Prosecutors contend that by him concealing illegal contributions, his 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10m in matching public funds.

“These are very serious charges and if the facts are as the government says, it’s going to be very hard for the mayor to prevail,” said Columbia Law School’s Richard Briffault.

The US attorney also took steps to quell claims that the charges had been brought by the justice department because Adams opposed the Biden administration’s southern border policy, which he has called a “disaster” and claimed had flooded New York with immigrants.

“We are not focused on the right and the left,” Williams said. “We are only focused on right and wrong.”

The moment is a deep crisis for the former police officer, who was elected with a tough-on-crime agenda but who has courted controversy throughout his political career and has been a polarising figure on the left.

Adams is the first sitting New York City mayor to be criminally charged.

Many local politicians in the city have called for his resignation, including the leftist Bronx Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is a powerful influence in the city and the national Democratic party.

Ocasio-Cortez said that after the indictment news and the previous resignation of several city officials, including the police commissioner, “I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City.

“For the good of the city, he should resign.”

When the news broke of the indictment late on Wednesday night, Adams released a defiant video statement. “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target – and a target I became,” Adams said. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”

He also vowed to stay in office.

“I have been facing these lies for months … yet the city has continued to improve,” Adams said. “Make no mistake. You elected me to lead this city and lead it I will.”

The indictment followed months of scrutiny after some of his closest aides and allies came under federal investigation as prosecutors began examining his inner circle. Less than a month ago, federal agents raided the homes of high-ranking officials within Adams’s administration and seized electronic devices from the home of the New York police department commissioner.

Sexual assault allegations have been made relating to Mohamed Al Fayed’s 16 years of ownership of Fulham FC, lawyers representing accusers have said.

More than 200 women have come forward with allegations since a BBC documentary last week reported claims that Fayed raped five women who worked at Harrods.

The new allegations include several relating to Fayed’s time at Fulham, according to a spokesperson for Justice for Harrods Survivors, a group of barristers representing the alleged victims.

The billionaire Egyptian owned the club between 1997 and 2013, during which time he invested about £200m to help get the team into the top flight.

A spokesperson for Fulham said the club “remain in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected by the reports concerning Mr Al Fayed”.

The Football Association said it was “aware of the reports and will remain in contact with Fulham FC to monitor the matter”.

During Fayed’s time at the club it established its first professional women’s team. Gaute Haugenes, who managed Fulham’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC last week that the allegations had 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.”

On Thursday, Dr Ann Coxon, who worked for Al Fayed, denied carrying out sexual health tests on Harrods staff, a claim made by multiple women who worked at the department store.

Asked by the BBC on a London street whether she had conducted such tests, she replied “no”, an answer she repeated when asked whether she regretted having worked for Al Fayed.

The Metropolitan police said they were investigating a number of new allegations against Fayed in addition to 19 allegations made between 2005 and his death in 2023 at the age of 94.

The force said it would carry out “full reviews of all existing allegations” of incidents said to have taken place between 1979 and 2013 to ensure there were “no new lines of inquiry based on new information which has emerged”.

Police said that although it was not possible to bring criminal proceedings against someone who had died, “we must ensure we fully explore whether any other individuals could be pursued for any criminal offences”.

The Met said officers were making contact with lawyers representing alleged victims to “ensure they have the opportunity to speak with us and report any offences”.

Commander Stephen Clayman said: “We recognise the significance of the allegations made against Mohamed Al Fayed and the impact this has had on those affected. We have specialist teams to ensure all those victims who make contact with us are supported in the best way possible.

“I understand that for many years many people have sought answers in relation to this case. We will do everything possible to update on our progress when we can, but it is crucial we do this thoroughly and we do it right.”

The Met said complaints made by 19 women were reported to the force between 2005 and 2023, including three allegations of rape, 15 sexual assault complaints and one related to trafficking.

Police approached the Crown Prosecution Service five times, including two occasions where a full file of evidence was passed on, in 2009 and 2015. No further action was taken against Fayed in respect of the original complaints.

A Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York, announced a new bankruptcy settlement on Thursday that would pay more than $323m to about 530 sex abuse survivors who alleged they were abused by priests when they were children.

The diocese of Rockville Centre, which serves about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said earlier this year that it did not think a bankruptcy settlement would be possible after abuse survivors rejected the diocese’s previous $200m settlement offer.

US bankruptcy judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan, who is overseeing the case, said the deal represented “enormous progress” after the bankruptcy came “within a hair’s breadth” of failure.

Rockville Centre will contribute $234.8m to a settlement fund, with four insurers contributing $85.3m. The settlement will also receive funding from another insurer that is being liquidated in a separate insolvency proceeding and from attorneys representing abuse survivors.

Diocese spokesperson Eric Fasano said the settlement would ensure “the equitable compensation of survivors of abuse while allowing the church to continue her essential mission”.

The diocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York in October 2020, citing the cost of lawsuits filed by childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse.

More than two dozen Catholic dioceses have filed for bankruptcy in recent years, after New York and other states enacted laws that temporarily enabled victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits over decades-old crimes.

Thursday’s settlement could provide a new path forward for dozens of Catholic dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy to address sex abuse claims.

For instance, the archdiocese of New Orleans recently proposed that it and its affiliates settle the bankruptcy it filed in May 2020 for just $62.5m, with its insurers contributing nothing. About 500 abuse claimants in that case have counter-proposed that the church and its affiliates settle for about $217m, with insurers then contributing roughly another $800m.

Dioceses had previously relied on bankruptcy courts’ ability to grant sweeping legal protections to non-bankrupt entities that contributed to settlement funds, a practice that the US supreme court shot down this year.

That ruling, in the bankruptcy of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, forced the bankrupt dioceses to come up with new ways to incentivize settlement contributions from insurers and parishes, which in previous Catholic bankruptcies had contributed funds to dioceses’ settlement plans to end their exposure to sex abuse lawsuits.

Rockville Centre solved that problem by first agreeing to have all of its parishes file for bankruptcy, where they could gain legal protections in exchange for subjecting their assets and liabilities to court oversight, the diocese’s attorney Corinne Ball said in court. The insurers then agreed to buy back their policies from the diocese and parishes, which ends their responsibility for covering the sex abuse claims.

Guardian staff contributed reporting

Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) has won an appeal in the state’s supreme court in a bid to continue barring men from entering an installation known as the Ladies Lounge.

The installation was closed in April after Tasmania’s civil and administrative tribunal ordered the museum to start admitting men to the female-only space, upholding a Sydney man’s complaint that the museum had discriminated against him on the basis of gender.

But on Friday, the supreme court found the Ladies Lounge qualified for an exemption from the state’s anti-discrimination act under a section that allows discrimination if the intention behind the action is to promote equal opportunity for a group of people who are disadvantaged or have a special need.

“The Ladies Lounge can be seen as an arrangement to promote equal opportunity by highlighting the lack of equal opportunity, which generally prevails in society, by providing women with a rare glimpse of what it is like to be advantaged rather than disadvantaged by the refusal of entry to the Ladies Lounge by men,” Justice Shane Marshall said in his decision.

The tribunal had made several errors of fact and law, including the mischaracterisation of what the Ladies Lounge was designed to promote and how that was intended to be achieved, he said, quashing the 9 April decision and sending the case back to the tribunal to be reconsidered.

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A museum spokesperson said Mona would not be reopening the Ladies Lounge until it received further instruction from the tribunal.

The artist behind the installation, Kirsha Kaechele, described Friday’s decision as a “day of triumph” for women and the museum.

“The patriarchy [has been] smashed and the verdict demonstrates a simple truth: women are better than men,” she said outside the supreme court.

“The judge sided with the facts presented by our all-female team. He agrees, the Ladies Lounge is exceptional.”

Mona’s lawyer, Catherine Scott, successfully argued during the 17 September hearing in Hobart that the Ladies Lounge was an artwork that existed to “highlight, and challenge, inequality that exists for women in all spaces today – by providing a flipped universe where women experience advantage”.

Greg Barnes, the lawyer representing Jason Lau, who lodged the complaint of discrimination in the tribunal, argued during the appeal that the artwork’s purpose was solely to reflect on historical disadvantage, and as such it could not be classified as an example of positive discrimination to promote equal opportunity in contemporary society.

But Justice Marshall said on Friday that Mona’s lawyers had provided the court with ample evidence that women continue to be disadvantaged today, including the government’s 2024 Status of Women report, which found that about one in three Australians hold a negative bias about women’s ability to participate economically, politically or in education.

The judge said he was satisfied the Ladies Lounge sought to highlight current and historical disadvantage and, by excluding men, had provided a space “for the reversal of the commonly prevailing power imbalance between the sexes in Australia”.

He accepted Mona’s argument that as a participatory artwork, the process of being admitted or refused admission to the Ladies Lounge was “part of the art itself”.

In a written statement, Kaechele said she was “grateful to the men who brought us on this journey”, including Lau, because the case – which made international headlines – had “invited people all over the world to think about the experience of women and the social structures we inhabit”.

“Now more than ever it is important for us to challenge our perspectives with open interest, and refine our understanding,” Kaechele said.

“I have enjoyed every minute of this process.”

Barnes was contacted for comment.