A New York author and journalist has released audio tapes that appear to detail how Donald Trump had a close social relationship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that he has long denied.

The tapes, released as part of the Fire and Fury podcast series by Michael Wolff, author of three books about Trump’s first term and 2020 bid for a second, and James Truman, former NME journalist and Condé Nast editorial director, include Epstein’s thoughts about the inner workings of the former US president’s inner circle.

Wolff says the recordings were made during a 2017 discussion with Epstein about writing his biography. Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges two years later. Despite his crimes, the wealthy financier was at the heart of a social circle of the rich and powerful in the US and overseas that contained many famous names.

Wolff claims the excerpt tape is a mere fraction of some “100 hours of Epstein talking about the inner workings of the Trump White House and about his longstanding, deep relationship with Donald Trump”.

Trump once praised Epstein in conversation with New York magazine in 2002, calling him “a terrific guy” and hinted at his interest in women “on the young side”. But he claimed the pair had fallen out 15 years before Epstein was convicted on a prostitution solicitation charge in Florida in 2008.

“I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you,” the president said after Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019.

The Fire and Fury tapes reveal Epstein recalling how then president Trump played his circle off against each other. “His people fight each other and then he poisons the well outside,” he says.

The author names Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway as being among the acolytes and officials Trump played off each other like courtiers in a competitive court.

“He will tell 10 people ‘Bannon’s a scumbag’ and ‘Priebus is not doing a good job’ and ‘Kellyanne has a big mouth – what do you think?’

“‘[JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon says that you’re a problem and I shouldn’t keep you. And I spoke to [financier] Carl Icahn. And Carl thinks I need a new spokesperson.’”

Epstein continues his exposition of Trump’s approach to management: “So Kelly[anne] – even though I hired Kellyanne’s husband – Kellyanne is just too much of a wildcard. And then he tells Bannon: ‘You know I really want to keep you but Kellyanne hates you.’”

In response to the podcast, Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, said, “Wolff is a disgraced writer who routinely fabricates lies in order to sell fiction books because he clearly has no morals or ethics” and accused the author of making “outlandish false smears” and engaging in “blatant election interference on behalf of Kamala Harris”.

Wolffs claims on the podcast that he became an “outlet” for Epstein “to express his incredulity about someone whose sins he knew so well, and then this person actually being elected president. Epstein was utterly preoccupied with Trump, and I think, frankly, afraid of him.”

In the broadest strokes, Wolff’s intention is to paint a picture of two wealthy men of the 1980s whose shared interests lie in money, women and status. He describes how they socialized together in New York.

The Guardian recently revealed that in 1993 Epstein had taken Stacey Williams, a Sports Illustrated model and his girlfriend of two months, to Trump’s Fifth Avenue penthouse and allowed or perhaps encouraged the former US president to grope her in what she described as a “twisted game”.

Speaking on the podcast, Wolff said: “Here are these two guys both driven by a need to do anything they wanted with women: dominance and submission and entertainment. And one of them ends up in the darkest prison in the country and the other in the White House.”

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris battled to woo voters in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin on Friday, as the presidential campaign enters its final stretch.

Harris made several appearances in Wisconsin on Friday, including one that featured the musician Cardi B, while Trump visited both Michigan and Wisconsin.

At his rally in Warren, Michigan, on Friday afternoon, Trump tried to energize his voters, delivering an address replete with his characteristic fear-mongering about immigrants and tangents including musings about his hair.

He repeated his aggressive attack on Liz Cheney, one day after he first said the former Republican US representative should be under fire with rifles “shooting at her”.

Harris meanwhile sought to draw a contrast, emphasizing at a rally in Wisconsin in the afternoon that she is looking to be a political consensus builder.

“Here is my pledge to you. Here is my pledge to you as president. I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face,” Harris said. “I pledge to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make. I will listen to experts. I will listen to the people who disagree with me. Because, you see, unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.”

“He wants to put them in jail,” Harris said, repeating a line she’s has frequently invoked of late. “I’ll give them a seat at the table.”

During his appearance in Warren in the afternoon and in Milwaukee in the evening, Trump repeatedly stoked fears about immigrants. In Warren, he said: “every state is a border state” and falsely claim immigrants were being flown into the south-west.

He repeated some of his most racist tropes, saying: “All of our jobs are are being taken by the migrants that come into our country illegally and many of those migrants happen to be criminals, and some of them happen to be murderers.”

The former president tried to tie Harris to the most recent jobs report, which showed the US added just 12,000 jobs in October.

And he again attacked Cheney, one day after he called her a “radical war hawk” in a conversation with Tucker Carlson and said she should face being under fire with rifles “shooting at her”.

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face,” he said.

On Friday, Trump’s comments were similar.

“She’s tough one. But if you gave Liz Cheney a gun, put her into battle facing the other side with guns pointing at her. she wouldn’t have the courage or the strength or the stamina to even look the enemy in the eye,” Trump said.

“That’s why I broke up with her,” Trump commented, prompting some laughs.

There was time for reflection, too. “We’re gonna miss these rallies, aren’t we?” Trump asked the crowd at one juncture.

At another point, he remarked: “I’m studying my hair. It looks not so good today … not a good hair day for me, ay ay ay.”

At a rally for Harris in the evening, Cardi B said the vice-president had inspired her to vote. “I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life”, the artist said.

“I’m not giving Donald Trump a second chance,” Cardi B said. “I am not taking any chances with my future, and I damn sure ain’t taking no chances with the future of my children.

“I’m with Kamala.”

Harris praised Wisconsin’s motto, forward, and, addressed young voters at the rally: “Here’s what I love about you guys. You are rightly impatient for change. You are determined to live free from gun violence. You are going to take on the climate crisis. You are going to shape the world you inherit. I know that. I know that,” she said.

She added: “And here’s the thing about our young leaders. None of this is theoretical for them. None of this is political for them. It’s their lived experience. It’s your lived experience, and I see your power, I see your power, and I am so proud of you.”

Trump and Harris are neck-and-neck in swing state polling, and in Michigan, a Detroit Free Press survey shows her having a three-point lead.

Republicans and Democrats, as well as their unofficial boosters, have pounced on the tight split. Harris’s camp is pushing hard to convince young voters, who overwhelmingly support the Democrats, to go out and vote.

With mere days to go before the 5 November election, some Democrats in Michigan described being “freaked out” by the prospect of another Trump victory in this state. Biden won Michigan in 2020, but Trump defeated Hillary Clinton here in 2016. Relying on polls showing her far ahead, the Clinton campaign had prioritized campaigning in other states, neglecting key Democratic segments such as Black communities and auto workers in the state.

Harris has spent more time on the ground in Michigan than in any other state with the exception of Pennsylvania. Harris and her running-mate, Tim Walz, have bounced around the state in an effort to attract Black voters, white suburban women, college students and factory workers.

Last week, Barack Obama rapped with hip-hop legend Eminem at a rally in Detroit. Bernie Sanders, beloved by the Democratic left, tried to reassure young voters in the state that Harris is not just another corporate-minded Democrat.

Trump, too, has upped his efforts to woo Michigan voters. On Friday, the former president stopped in Dearborn to court Arab-American voters, many of whom have been left deeply disappointed by Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Many of the city’s Muslim leaders declined to meet with Trump, including Dearborn’s mayor, Abdullah H Hammoud.

“The architect of the Muslim Ban is making a campaign stop in Dearborn. People in this community know what Trump stands for – we suffered through it for years,” Hammoud, a Democrat, said on X. “I’ve refused a sit down with him although the requests keep pouring in. Trump will never be my president.”

Hammoud, who is neither supporting Harris nor Trump in the race for president, also called fellow members of his party. “To the Dems – your unwillingness to stop funding & enabling a genocide created the space for Trump to infiltrate our communities. Remember that.”

Meanwhile, Michigan residents have for months been bombarded by campaign ads, many of which feature exaggerated or blatantly false claims. With the state seeing $759m in political ad spending, Michigan ranks among the top for such disbursements in this election, per NPR.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump held duelling rallies within miles of each other in swing state Wisconsin’s largest city, Milwaukee, on Friday night. Milwaukee is home to the most Democratic votes in Wisconsin, but its conservative Republican suburbs are a critical area for Trump as he tries to reclaim the state he narrowly won in 2016 but lost in 2020.

Earlier, Trump continued to attack Liz Cheney at a rally in Warren, Michigan, where he also lamented the state of his hair. “It looks not so good today … not a good hair day for me, ay ay ay.” After his campaign rhetoric earlier tipped over from hateful to violent – when he suggested Cheney should be shot at with “nine barrels” and the guns “trained on her face” – the attorney general’s office in Arizona, where Trump made the remark, opened a “death threat investigation”.

In Pennsylvania, a neck-and-neck race is hurtling toward the finish line of the 2024 election with no clear frontrunner. The victor of Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes, the most of any battleground state, will probably win the electoral college and determine the trajectory of the country for the next four years.

Here’s what else happened on Friday:

Kamala Harris election news and updates

• Harris told her crowd at the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center that with four days to go, there was still work to do, but “we like hard work”. Minutes beforehand, during a raucous warmup, the rapper Cardi B referred to Trump as “Donnie Dunk” and told the crowd: “Trump says he’s going to protect women whether they like it or not. Well, if his definition of protection is not the freedom of choice, if his definition of protection is making sure our daughters have fewer rights than our mothers, then I don’t want it! I don’t want it! I don’t want it!”

• Earlier, Harris said Trump’s violent rhetoric about Cheney “must be disqualifying” as far as his suitability for the presidency is concerned. “Representative Cheney is a true patriot who has shown extraordinary courage in putting country above party.” Cheney for her part warned the public against dictatorship and a presidential candidate who “wants to be a tyrant”.

• Republicans’ latest offensive and misogynistic comments have boosted Democratic hopes of turning out women on election day in a contest where the rights of women have been a central issue for the Harris campaign.

Donald Trump election news and updates

• At his Milwaukee rally on Friday, Trump called Harris a “low-IQ person” and vowed to save the economy “from total obliteration” in a 1.5-hour-long meandering speech that touched on the economy and foreign policy but also featured threats to curb press freedoms and a lengthy discussion of his own rhetorical style. “I will stop the criminal invasion of this country,” said Trump, promising to usher in a new “golden age”. “Can you imagine if Kamala won? You would go down to a 1929-style depression.”

• Trump’s supporters are laying the ground for rejecting the result of the election if he loses, according to warnings from Democrats as well as anti-Maga Republicans. As well as baseless and/or failed lawsuits, suspicions have been voiced over partisan polls run by groups with Republican links in battleground states that mainly show Trump leading – the idea being that if Trump loses, the polls can be proferred as “evidence” that he was cheated out of the win.

• The New York author and journalist Michael Wolff has released audio tapes that appear to detail how Trump had a close social relationship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that he has long denied. Wolff says the recordings were made during a 2017 discussion with Epstein about writing his biography. Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges two years later. Trump’s campaign said the claims, made on Wolff’s podcast Fire and Fury, amounted to “outlandish false smears”.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail

• A federal judge rejected an attempt by Elon Musk’s America Pac to have charges of running an illegal lottery heard in federal court, instead of the courts of Pennsylvania, where Musk is running the sweepstakes to help Trump get re-elected. The case has been sent back to the Pennsylvania state court for a further hearing on Monday.

• Racism and misogyny; a firing squad death threat to a former congresswoman; the Republican candidate for president dressing up as a sanitation worker in the cab of a garbage truck. Donald Trump’s final full week on the campaign trail was as unedifying as it was bizarre – Richard Luscombe sums it up.

• A valuable Republican voting bloc in Arizona is seeing a shift of its members towards Harris in numbers that Democrats believe could make the difference for them in an election where the latest polls have Trump slightly ahead. That bloc is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – the Mormons.

Read more about the 2024 US election:

• Presidential poll tracker

• Harris and Trump policies

• What to know about early voting

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has ordered the country’s largest peacetime military deployment, announcing that another 5,000 troops will be drafted in to help deal with the aftermath of this week’s devastating floods, which have killed at least 211 people in eastern, southern and central regions.

Speaking after chairing a meeting of the flood crisis committee, Sánchez said the government was mobilising all the resources at its disposal to deal with the “terrible tragedy”, which stuck hardest in the eastern region of Valencia. He also acknowledged that much of the help still wasn’t getting through and called for unity and an end to political bickering and blame games.

“There are still dozens of people looking for their loved ones and hundreds of households mourning the loss of a relative, a friend or a neighbour,” he said in a televised address on Saturday morning. “I want to express our deepest love to them and assure them that the government of Spain and the entire state, at all its different administrative levels, is with all of them.”

Describing the torrential rains and floods as “the worst natural disaster in our country’s recent history” and the second deadliest European floods of the century, the prime minister announced a huge increase in the numbers of army and police personnel taking part in the relief effort.

In the first 48 hours of the crisis, he said, Spain had witnessed “the largest deployment of armed forces and police personnel that’s ever been seen in our country during peacetime. It has so far carried out 4,800 rescues and helped more than 30,000 people in their homes, on the roads, and in flooded industrial estates.”

However, he said much of the help was taking too long to reach blocked and flooded houses and garages and isolated villages.

“That is why the Spanish government is today sending 4,000 more personnel from the military emergencies unit to Valencia province,” said Sánchez. “Tomorrow, another 1,000 military personnel will arrive … I’ve also ordered the deployment of an amphibious navy boat that has operating theatres, helicopters and a fleet of vehicles that will arrive at Valencia port in the coming hours.”

The prime minister also said 5,000 more national police and civil guard officers would be sent to the region, taking total police numbers to 10,000.

“Our second priority is identifying and recovering the bodies of the dead and we need to do it quickly but with all the dignity and guarantees that the victims and their families deserve,” he said. “Over the past 48 hours, military and security personnel have inspected thousands of garages, riverbeds and roads, and recovered the bodies of 211 mortal victims.”

Specialist forensic personnel and mobile morgues were already in the disaster zone, he added, and would work “day and night; night and day for as long as it takes until all the victims have been located”.

Sanchez’s address came as thousands of volunteers turned up to Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences centre, which has been transformed into the nerve centre of the clean-up operation. On Friday, the spontaneous mass arrival of volunteers complicated access for emergency workers to some areas, prompting authorities to devise a deployment plan.

The prime minister said power had been restored to 94% of affected homes, while phone lines were scheduled to be repaired over the weekend.

Sánchez also acknowledged the deep public anger over the handling of the emergency – many have questioned why the Valencian government did not send out an emergency alert until after 8pm on Tuesday – but called for unity.

“The situation we’re experiencing is tragic and dramatic,” he said. “We’re almost certainly talking about the worst flood our continent has seen so far this century. I’m aware that the response we’re mounting isn’t enough. I know that. And I know there are severe problems and shortages and that there are still collapsed services and towns buried by the mud where people are desperately looking for their relatives, and people who can’t get into their homes, and houses that have been buried or destroyed by mud. I know we have to do better and give it our all.”

He said there would be time later to look into what had gone wrong and to learn lessons “about the importance of our public services and how to reinforce them in the situations we’re living through as a consequence of climate change … But now we need to focus all our efforts on the colossal task we face and to forget our differences and put ideologies and disagreements to one side and act together.”

This week’s flash floods, caused by torrential rains that scientists have linked to the climate emergency, have inundated cities, towns and villages, sweeping away bridges, cars, trees and streetlights. The number of missing people remains unknown. Thousands more have no access to water or reliable food, while parts of the heaviest-hit areas remain inaccessible. The piles of vehicles and debris have trapped some residents in their homes while others are without electricity or stable phone service.

An orange weather warning remained in place on Saturday for Castellón, a province in Valencia, and for a stretch of coast in Tarragona, a province in Catalonia.

Silvio Jeremias was on his way home from his job at a petrol station on the night of 25 October, in Mozambique’s capital Maputo, when he and his friends happened upon a group of protesters demonstrating against that day’s election results.

The ruling Frelimo party’s presidential candidate Daniel Chapo secured 70.7% of the vote, according to official results, ensuring the party that has ruled Mozambique since independence in 1975 remained in power, but there were widespread allegations of rigging.

At the protest, one of many across the country, the police fired live bullets and Jeremias, who had a two-year-old daughter, was shot dead.

“This situation was a total shock for us. He was still very young,” his friend Carmelita Chissico said. Jeremias is one of at least 11 people killed by security forces during protests against the election results across the country on 24 and 25 October, while 50 received serious gunshot wounds, according to Human Rights Watch.

Police said they only shot live bullets in the air to disperse crowds. Angela Uaela, a police spokesperson, said that one woman was killed and five people injured by “stray bullets”, when police tried to prevent supporters of opposition party Podemos from snatching a gun from them.

Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest countries and its young population – the average age is less than 18 – is turning against Frelimo, which has governed for almost five decades.

Its main opponent in last month’s election was Venâncio Mondlane, a former forestry engineer and banker who captured the imaginations of many younger voters.

Podemos claimed it won 53% of the vote and 138 seats in parliament. It has submitted 300 kg worth of documents in support of a 100-page legal challenge to the election results. The official election commission, however, said Frelimo had increased its representation in the 250-seat parliament by 11 MPs to 195, while Podemos won 31.

Before the vote, civil society groups had accused Frelimo of registering almost 900,000 fake voters, out of an electorate of 17 million. Mozambique’s Catholic bishops alleged there had been ballot stuffing, while EU election observers said there were “irregularities during counting and unjustified alteration of election results”.

On 19 October, as allegations of vote rigging were already swirling, lawyer Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, a filmmaker and Podemos official, were shot dead by unknown gunmen.

Human rights researchers have said that the shootings fit a pattern of opposition politicians, journalists, activists and lawyers being killed and no one being brought to justice.

“It’s premature to say whether or not there are any clues [as to who the killers are],” said Hilário Lole, spokesperson for the National Criminal Investigation Service, which is investigating the case.

António Niquice, a member of Frelimo’s central committee, said he was shocked by the shootings and called on the judiciary to hold the killers accountable.

Plain clothes policemen also allegedly shot at Mondlane as he held a press conference on 21October at the site where Dias and Guambe were killed.

“They started firing real bullets directly at… Venâncio,” said Amade Ali, a 30-year-old who was acting as one of Mondlane’s bodyguards.

“We started running to the car [and I] suddenly got hit by a real bullet, not a rubber one,” he said, indicating that a bullet had hit his right cheekbone.For those mourning Jeremias, their grief has merged with calls for political change. Last Tuesday, as mourners wept over his coffin, wearing white t-shirts bearing his face and holding up his photo. They shouted out, calling for justice and democracy.

In footage broadcast by STV, a local TV station, two young women held up paper signs in Portuguese that read: “You can kill me but don’t kill democracy.”

Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 52 people and wounded scores more, the Lebanese health ministry said, while rockets fired from Lebanon fell on Israel on Saturday.

Israeli police said 19 people were injured before dawn on Saturday in the central town of Tira. Three projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon, Israel’s military said, and some were intercepted.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said two of those injured were in moderate condition from the attack, and the others had lesser injuries. A photo the service released showed damage to what appeared to be an apartment building.

In Lebanon’s north-eastern Bekaa valley, rescuers searched for survivors after airstrikes killed nine people and brought down a building that had housed 20 people in the town of Younine. Further Israeli strikes killed 12 people in the town of Amhaz and 31 others across at least a dozen villages, bringing the total death toll to 52, the health ministry said. The bombardment left 72 people wounded, the ministry added. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strikes.

The latest violence comes against the backdrop of a renewed diplomatic push by Joe Biden’s administration, days before the US presidential election, to reach temporary ceasefire deals.

In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began on Thursday, hospital officials said.

Israel has stepped up its offensive against remaining Hamas fighters in Gaza, bombarding areas in the north and raising fears of worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians still there.

In Lebanon, Israel has broadened its strikes in recent weeks to bigger urban hubs, like the town of Baalbek, home to 80,000 people, after initially targeting smaller border villages in the south, where Hezbollah conducts operations.

Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles from Lebanon into Israel in solidarity with Hamas immediately after the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. The year-long cross-border fighting boiled over to full-blown war on 1 October, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

In Lebanon’s capital, Israeli planes pounded Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight and early Friday for the first time in four days. The Israeli military, which warned residents to evacuate at least nine locations in Dahiyeh, said it hit Hezbollah weapons manufacturing sites and command centres.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, more than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 wounded in Lebanon, the health ministry said, not including Friday’s toll.

Overall, UN agencies estimate that Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people. About 60,000 residents of Israel’s northern communities near Lebanon have also been displaced for more than a year.

Hezbollah has continued firing rockets into northern Israel, with projectiles launched from Lebanon on Thursday crashing into agricultural areas and killing seven people, including four Thai farm workers.

Israel on Friday also pressed on with its bombardment of Gaza, where a barrage of airstrikes hit central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp and killed at least 21 Palestinians – including an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister – according to health officials at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.

Israeli strikes also hit a motorcycle in Zuwaida and a house in Deir al-Balah, killing four more people, hospital officials said, bringing Friday’s overall death toll in Gaza to 25.

Israel said it targeted Hamas infrastructure and a militant operating near the Nuseirat refugee camp, but did not comment on the strikes outside the camp. It said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating. In a separate announcement, the army said an airstrike on a vehicle in Gaza’s southern town of Khan Younis killed a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, Izz al-Din Kassab, and his assistant, Ayman Ayesh.

Hamas confirmed the death of Kassab. Israel alleged he was a coordinator between militant groups in Gaza.

As American diplomats left the region after a flurry of meetings with Israeli officials, there were no signs of a breakthrough on a ceasefire in either Lebanon or Gaza.

On Friday, Hamas doubled down on its longstanding demands for a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, saying Israel offered only a temporary pause in the war and an increase in aid shipments in the latest negotiations. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s Gaza war since 7 October 2023 when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Kemi Badenoch is the new Conservative party leader after defeating Robert Jenrick in a members’ vote, becoming the first Black leader of a major UK party and the fourth woman to lead the Tories.

Badenoch took just over 56% of the 95,000 votes, in a poll that had a 73% turnout of eligible members. This amounts to the narrowest win of the four since the party changed its rules to allow party members the final say in contested leadership elections.

Speaking after the announcement in central London, Badenoch, an MP since 2017, who was shadow housing secretary, said the Conservatives needed to face up to hard truths if they wanted to win back the support of voters after July’s catastrophic election result which cut their number of MPs to 121.

“Our party is critical to the success of our country, but to be heard, we have to be honest,” she said. “Honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip. The time has come to tell the truth.”

She praised Jenrick despite a sometimes bruising campaign, saying: “You and I know that we don’t actually disagree on very much, and I have no doubt that you have a key role to play in our party for many years to come.”

Her words seemed to indicate Badenoch would be happy for her leadership rival to serve in her shadow cabinet, though she will be without James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, who was eliminated in the final round of voting among Tory MPs, and Hunt, the shadow chancellor. Both have said they want to go to the backbenches.

Badenoch added: “The task that stands before us is tough but simple. Our first responsibility as his majesty’s loyal opposition is to hold this Labour government to account.

“Our second is no less important. It is to prepare, over the course of the next few years, for government to ensure that by the time of the next election, we have not just a clear set of Conservative pledges that appeal to the British people, but a clear plan for how to implement them, a clear plan to change this country by changing the way that government works.”

Victoria Atkins, the shadow health secretary and a prominent supporter of Jenrick, told Sky News that while she was disappointed, “we as a Conservative family really want this to work”.

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, congratulated Badenoch on her victory, saying her achievement in becoming the first Black leader of a party in Westminster was a “proud moment for our country”.

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, also sent his congratulations, adding that his party would “continue to offer the best opposition to the government”.

Badenoch, who was born in the UK to Nigerian parents and grew up in Nigeria and the US, was congratulated by David Lammy, the foreign secretary. He tweeted: “Your election as the first Black leader of a Westminster party is an important moment not only for Brits from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds, but for our whole country.”

Another Labour MP, Florence Eshalomi, sent her congratulations “from one British Nigerian MP to another British Nigerian MP”, adding: “Eku ori ire. Your dad would be proud.”

The contest revealed Conservative party membership appears to have fallen by almost a quarter over the past two years with the 95,000 people who voted in this year’s contest a record low.

In 2022, when Liz Truss defeated Rishi Sunak, 141,725 members out of about 172,000 voted. However, by Saturday there were only 131,680 Tory members eligible to vote for the next leader, a drop of 23%.

The contest began in early September with an initial six candidates having secured the required 10 nominations from Tory MPs in order to stand: Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, Cleverly, and Badenoch and Jenrick.

Successive rounds of voting by MPs knocked out Patel and Stride, with the other four remaining in the race for the Conservative conference in early October, given the chance to present their cases direct to party members.

Cleverly was generally seen as having performed best, with Badenoch mainly winning headlines for calling maternity pay “excessive” and suggesting that up to 10% of civil servants were so bad they should be in prison.

In the third round of MP voting shortly afterwards, Tugendhat was removed and Cleverly topped the poll, making him the favourite. But a day later Cleverly was sensationally eliminated himself, seemingly after efforts by his supporters to engineer a runoff with Jenrick and not Badenoch backfired.

The final runoff, in which Tory members chose between Badenoch and Jenrick, involved no head-to-head debates and just one TV event, where the pair were questioned by party members. Jenrick’s camp blamed Badenoch for avoiding debates.

Kemi Badenoch is the new Conservative party leader after defeating Robert Jenrick in a members’ vote, becoming the first Black leader of a major UK party and the fourth woman to lead the Tories.

Badenoch took just over 56% of the 95,000 votes, in a poll that had a 73% turnout of eligible members. This amounts to the narrowest win of the four since the party changed its rules to allow party members the final say in contested leadership elections.

Speaking after the announcement in central London, Badenoch, an MP since 2017, who was shadow housing secretary, said the Conservatives needed to face up to hard truths if they wanted to win back the support of voters after July’s catastrophic election result which cut their number of MPs to 121.

“Our party is critical to the success of our country, but to be heard, we have to be honest,” she said. “Honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip. The time has come to tell the truth.”

She praised Jenrick despite a sometimes bruising campaign, saying: “You and I know that we don’t actually disagree on very much, and I have no doubt that you have a key role to play in our party for many years to come.”

Her words seemed to indicate Badenoch would be happy for her leadership rival to serve in her shadow cabinet, though she will be without James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, who was eliminated in the final round of voting among Tory MPs, and Hunt, the shadow chancellor. Both have said they want to go to the backbenches.

Badenoch added: “The task that stands before us is tough but simple. Our first responsibility as his majesty’s loyal opposition is to hold this Labour government to account.

“Our second is no less important. It is to prepare, over the course of the next few years, for government to ensure that by the time of the next election, we have not just a clear set of Conservative pledges that appeal to the British people, but a clear plan for how to implement them, a clear plan to change this country by changing the way that government works.”

Victoria Atkins, the shadow health secretary and a prominent supporter of Jenrick, told Sky News that while she was disappointed, “we as a Conservative family really want this to work”.

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, congratulated Badenoch on her victory, saying her achievement in becoming the first Black leader of a party in Westminster was a “proud moment for our country”.

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, also sent his congratulations, adding that his party would “continue to offer the best opposition to the government”.

Badenoch, who was born in the UK to Nigerian parents and grew up in Nigeria and the US, was congratulated by David Lammy, the foreign secretary. He tweeted: “Your election as the first Black leader of a Westminster party is an important moment not only for Brits from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds, but for our whole country.”

Another Labour MP, Florence Eshalomi, sent her congratulations “from one British Nigerian MP to another British Nigerian MP”, adding: “Eku ori ire. Your dad would be proud.”

The contest revealed Conservative party membership appears to have fallen by almost a quarter over the past two years with the 95,000 people who voted in this year’s contest a record low.

In 2022, when Liz Truss defeated Rishi Sunak, 141,725 members out of about 172,000 voted. However, by Saturday there were only 131,680 Tory members eligible to vote for the next leader, a drop of 23%.

The contest began in early September with an initial six candidates having secured the required 10 nominations from Tory MPs in order to stand: Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, Cleverly, and Badenoch and Jenrick.

Successive rounds of voting by MPs knocked out Patel and Stride, with the other four remaining in the race for the Conservative conference in early October, given the chance to present their cases direct to party members.

Cleverly was generally seen as having performed best, with Badenoch mainly winning headlines for calling maternity pay “excessive” and suggesting that up to 10% of civil servants were so bad they should be in prison.

In the third round of MP voting shortly afterwards, Tugendhat was removed and Cleverly topped the poll, making him the favourite. But a day later Cleverly was sensationally eliminated himself, seemingly after efforts by his supporters to engineer a runoff with Jenrick and not Badenoch backfired.

The final runoff, in which Tory members chose between Badenoch and Jenrick, involved no head-to-head debates and just one TV event, where the pair were questioned by party members. Jenrick’s camp blamed Badenoch for avoiding debates.

A neo-Nazi terrorist who was found guilty last month of the attempted murder of an asylum seeker is a prolific online stalker who had previously been jailed and referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism scheme, the Observer can reveal.

Callum Parslow was convicted on 25 October of attempted murder after stabbing an asylum seeker at a hotel in April. It can now be revealed he was jailed in 2018 for targeting 10 women and girls with messages describing sexually motivated murder, torture and rape, and then changed his name after his release.

Callum Blake-O’Brien, as he was formerly known, was referred to the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme in 2019 but no further action was taken. He was then arrested again last year for targeting another woman with sexual and racist messages.

Two of Parslow’s victims said they asked police whether he posed a physical threat, but were assured he was a “loner” and a “saddo” who was only a risk online. They feel their concerns were not taken seriously enough by police.

On 2 April, Parslow launched a stabbing attack on an asylum seeker at the Pear Tree Inn, near Worcester, and police found multiple weapons including knives and an axe at his home.

At the time, the 32-year-old was on bail and awaiting trial for his most recent offences against women, which followed a similar pattern to the abuse he was jailed for in 2018.

Parslow was targeting Mercy Muroki, a policy researcher and former GB News presenter, from multiple accounts under fake names on Facebook, Instagram and X.

Among the messages sent in July and August 2023 were videos of himself performing sexual acts and footage of a black woman being flogged.

“The message he sent was about him fantasising that this would ­happen to me,” said Muroki, who has chosen to waive her anonymity.

As well as reporting the direct messages from Parslow to police, she sent investigators screengrabs of his wider violent and white supremacist posts on social media.

Muroki, 29, said she raised concerns about whether Parslow could pose a physical threat to her, but was told that it was “unlikely”, partly because he lived in a different county and did not have a car.

Officers said that in interviews he had admitted his online activity reflected his true beliefs but said he had only messaged Muroki because “he found it difficult to speak to women he fancies”.

Speaking to the Observer, Muroki said: “I said to the police: ‘This is clearly a very deranged person who is fixated on the far-right stuff and on me – do I need to be worried that he might escalate it to something in person?’

“They were kind of like: ‘Oh no, don’t worry.’ They said he seems like a bit of a loner, a bit of a saddo. That’s how they characterised him – just a sad person on a computer – whereas actually I feel that the content he had posted demonstrated it was way past some keyboard warrior stuff.”

When police searched Parslow’s flat in Worcester on 13 December 2023, they found a stockpile of Nazi memorabilia, two copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and numerous other far-right books, and seized Parslow’s phone and laptop.

But he was only charged with offences related to his messages to Muroki, and evidence presented to Leicester crown court suggested he started preparations in earnest for a terror attack soon after being released on bail.

Muroki said the material at Parslow’s flat “demonstrated he was a far-right lunatic but, had he not then gone on to stab somebody, I don’t know the extent to which they would have taken any of that stuff seriously”.

She added: “I didn’t feel like the fact he was clearly a far-right risk was something they would have followed up on.”

Parslow was arrested shortly after fleeing the scene of the hotel stabbing on 2 April, having been found by police while trying to post a terrorist manifesto on X.

As well as focusing on his white supremacist beliefs and calls for further attacks, the document was peppered with misogynist references.

He called white women “alcoholic sluts” who “have as many abortions as possible” and claimed there was a conspiracy to “demonise masculinity”.

Research commissioned by counter-terrorism policing in 2021 showed a “striking prevalence” of domestic abuse in the lives of people referred to the Prevent programme.

Muroki said: “I felt like the police were a bit dismissive about my concerns that he might actually do something after I reported him.

“When I saw [news of the attack], I felt [like] my concerns were well founded – he was someone willing to do something like that. I think they should have taken the fact he was a risk a lot more seriously.”

Muroki said she was shocked that Parslow had been able to legally change his name after his release from prison in 2020.

As Blake-O’Brien, he had been given a 30-month prison sentence in February 2018 for stalking and harassing 10 women and girls online.

Parslow was initially released from jail in 2019 but was recalled for breaching his licence conditions and served his full term in custody, which meant he was freed without a period of probation supervision and the only restrictions remaining were restraining orders issued to protect his victims.

One of the women who brought the original case against Parslow, who was just 17 years old when his crimes against her began, said that her initial attempts to report him to police were rebuffed.

“They said he wasn’t a real threat,” she recalled. “I was turned down by the police multiple times before being taken seriously. He never stopped harassing women … this is just the proof of it now.”

The woman said that finding out that Parslow had been able to commit further offences against Muroki and then a terror attack made her feel as if “fighting for justice against him was a waste of my time”.

She added: “It took me a long time to trust people and heal from everything he said. I thought I would never have to hear his name again in my life, but hearing about him committing these types of crimes, and new violent crimes, makes me feel sick.”

Parslow, originally from Hereford, studied physics at Swansea University but dropped out without completing his degree.

At the time he committed the terror attack in April, he was living in Worcester and working as a computer programmer for a local manufacturer.

Parslow’s attempted murder trial was subject to reporting restrictions after he denied three offences against Muroki, because he was due to face a separate trial later this month and his defence team argued the jury would be prejudiced by media coverage.

But after being found guilty of attempted murder, he immediately pleaded guilty to two counts of malicious communications and one of online exposure. Parslow will be sentenced for both cases at Woolwich crown court in London in January.

A spokesperson for West Mercia police said that Parslow was identified for offences against Muroki after his social media accounts were linked to an IP address at his Worcester home.

“He was released on bail, with bail conditions appropriate to the nature of the offences,” a statement added. “The investigation progressed at pace and remained ongoing at the time he carried out the attack at the Pear Tree Inn.”

A shark bit a Maui surfer on Friday and severed his leg, authorities said.

The man, 61, was surfing off Waiehu Beach Park on Friday morning when a shark bit him. Police officers who arrived to the scene first tried to control the bleeding with tourniquets. His right leg was “completely severed just below the knee,” Maui county said in a news release.

The man was alert while being treated on shore and then taken to Maui Memorial medical center in critical condition.

The man said he did not see the shark approach, authorities reported.

The incident prompted officials to close the beach park. Officials warned people to stay out of the water in the area. The public warning to stay out of the water for a mile in each direction of the incident will be in effect until at least noon on Saturday. The warning will be extended if there is a shark sighting in the area.

Maui fire and ocean safety officials were patrolling the waters using rescue watercraft and a drone. State officials provided shark warning signs and helped with cordoning off the area.

There were no details provided on what kind of shark was involved.

In June, well-known surfer Tamayo Perry was killed in a shark attack while surfing off Oahu’s North Shore.

However, shark attacks are relatively rare across the world but attract a disproportionate amount of news media attention. In many areas of the world shark populations have been decimated by human activities, including being hunted for food.

A piece of the radioactive fuel left from the meltdown of Japan’s tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been retrieved from the site using a remote-controlled robot.

Investigators used the robot’s fishing-rod-like arm to clip and collect a tiny piece of radioactive material from one of the plant’s three damaged reactors – the first time such a feat has been achieved. Should it prove suitable for testing, scientists hope the sample will yield information that will help determine how to decommission the plant.

The plant’s manager, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco), has said the sample was collected from the surface of a mound of molten debris that sits at the bottom of the Unit 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel.

The “telesco” robot, with its frontal tongs still holding the sample, returned to its enclosed container for safe storage after workers in full hazmat gear pulled it out of the containment vessel on Saturday. But the mission is not over until it is certain the sample’s radioactivity is below a set standard and it is safely contained.

If the radioactivity exceeds the safety limit then the robot must return to find another piece, but Tepco officials have said they expect the sample will prove to be small enough.

The mission started in September and was supposed to last two weeks, but had to be suspended twice.

A procedural mistake held up work for nearly three weeks. Then the robot’s two cameras, designed to transmit views of the target areas for its operators in the remote control room, failed. That required the robot to be pulled out entirely for replacement before the mission resumed on Monday.

Fukushima Daiichi lost its cooling systems during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, causing meltdowns in three of its reactors. An estimated 880 tons of fuel remains in them, and Tepco has carried out several robotic operations.

Tepco said that on Wednesday the robot successfully clipped a piece estimated to weigh about 3 grams from the area underneath the Unit 2 reactor core, from which large amounts of melted fuel fell during the meltdown 13 years ago.

The plant’s chief, Akira Ono, said only the tiny sample can provide crucial data to help plan a decommissioning strategy, develop necessary technology and robots and retroactively establish exactly how the accident had developed.

The Japanese government and Tepco have set a target of between 30 and 40 years for the cleanup, which experts say is optimistic. No specific plan for the full removal of the fuel debris or its final disposal has been decided.

It has been nearly 70 years since Francis Thomas Bacon developed a source of clean green energy that would help power the first moon landing and change the course of history.

Yet, few are aware of the Essex-born, Cambridge-based engineer whose invention of the first working hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell helped send Apollo 11 to the moon. His pioneering work is still a source of inspiration for scientists working on renewable energy solutions today.

Now, the charity Cambridge Past, Present & Future is seeking to shine a light on Bacon’s remarkable achievements by honouring him with a blue plaque at his former home in Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire.

Bacon’s fuel cells – nicknamed “Bacon Cells” by Nasa in his honour – provided secondary power for the Apollo missions, producing electricity for the communications, air conditioning and lights, as well as water for the astronauts.

“Normally, in the course of time, a battery runs down and you’ve got to recharge it,” Bacon told BBC Radio 4, shortly before the moon landings in 1969. “Now, [with] this device, as long as you go on feeding hydrogen and oxygen into it, and you remove the water formed, it will go on generating power indefinitely – and the astronauts drink the water.”

The efficiency and high energy density of the fuel cells played such an integral role in the success of the Apollo missions that President Richard Nixon told Bacon: “Without you, Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon.”

Sam Stranks, professor of energy materials and optoelectronics at Cambridge University, said: “He was a pioneer. Fuel cell technology was extremely important to the space programme, because as long as you can continuously supply the gases, you can keep producing electricity.” This is vital in a remote location like outer space. “Obviously, there’s no easy means to get electricity there.”

Bacon’s legacy is still inspiring scientists working on new technologies for solar power, hydrogen generation and battery storage today, Stranks said, and fuel cells remain “very relevant” as a potential way of providing green electricity and emergency power, particularly in remote places. They could also power the electric engines of long-haul trucks and ships in the future, avoiding the need for impossibly large and heavy rechargeable batteries and fulfilling a dream Bacon shared in his BBC radio interview. “I always hoped it would be used for driving vehicles about,” he said, before predicting: “In a modified form, it is going to come.”

Stranks said: “I see him very much as a visionary and an unsung hero. The fuel cell is a sustainable power solution that foreshadows today’s clean energy efforts and was decades ahead of its time.”

A direct descendent of the Elizabethan philosopher and empiricist Francis Bacon, he began researching fuel cells while working for an engineering firm in 1932, a few years after graduating from Cambridge with a third-class degree in mechanical sciences.

Nearly a century earlier, the physicist William Grove had demonstrated the theoretical concept of fuel cells in 1839, but failed to generate much electricity. Excited by the huge potential, Bacon secretly started conducting experiments with the highly flammable gases, on his employer’s premises.

Told to either stop or leave, he quit his job and devoted his life to engineering a solution to this complex problem, working first at Cambridge University, then Marshalls, a local manufacturer.

He later revealed in his BBC interview that it was unclear for decades what the practical use of his invention would be, and he struggled to fund his research as a result. Then, in 1962, Nasa decided to develop his alkaline fuel cell for the Apollo programme and a US company invested $100m in the project.

“British engineers have some of the most brilliant ideas, but turning those ideas into commercial successes is what then often fails, and Bacon faced this,” said Cambridge professor Clemens Kaminski, head of the chemical engineering and biotechnology department where Bacon once worked. “Yet he persevered.”

After they returned to Earth, astronauts Neil Armstong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins met Bacon at Downing Street and presented him with a signed photograph of Armstrong’s famous first “small step” on the moon.

Outside the scientific community, however, Bacon, who died in 1992, is not very well known, Kaminski said. “He was an incredibly modest and quiet man. His delight was solving problems and coming up with real solutions for the benefit of society.”

He thinks Bacon was so far ahead of his time that it may be 20 or 30 years before his legacy is fully understood. “If we can crack the problem of generating and storing hydrogen sustainably and efficiently, then the fuel cell could make an enormous impact on everyday life.”

Two Microsoft employees who were fired last week after organizing a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza say the company retaliated against them for their pro-Palestinian activism.

The two, Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist, and Hossam Nasr, a software engineer, organized the event outside Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on 24 October. They were fired later that evening.

“Microsoft really crumbled under pressure, internally and externally, to fire me and to shut down and retaliate against our event, not because of policy violations, simply because we were daring to humanize Palestinians, and simply because we were daring to say that Microsoft should not be complicit with an army that is plausibly accused of genocide,” said Nasr, who has been criticized on social media and in internal Microsoft employee communication groups over his support for Palestine.

Both employees were members of No Azure for Apartheid, a group of Microsoft workers protesting the company’s sale of its cloud computing technology to Israel.

The group demands Microsoft sever all Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government, disclose all ties with Israel, call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza, and protect and uphold the free speech of employees.

Microsoft denied that the two, who are originally from Egypt, were fired for their activism. “We remain dedicated to maintaining a professional and respectful work environment and provide many avenues for all voices to be heard. But, importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not disrupt business operations and be aligned to our company policies and behavior expectations,” a spokesperson said.

“We do not permit employees to use devices like bullhorns and speakers in public areas to disrupt the work of their colleagues. We were clear about our policies in advance with the event organizers and instructed that this gathering take place on public property. The organizers chose to disregard this guidance and were terminated.”

But Mohamed and Nasr reject allegations that the vigil was disruptive and claim it was in accordance with Microsoft policies. They say that the event, which sought to raise money for humanitarian efforts in Gaza, followed the same procedures as other employee charity events regularly held by other employee groups. The vigil was set up outdoors during lunchtime on the Microsoft headquarters campus, with a microphone for speakers and some chairs and signs set up for attenders.

According to No Azure for Apartheid, more than 200 employees attended the vigil in person and virtually.

Nasr and Mohamed both claimed they were in communications with Microsoft ahead of time, and addressed any concerns that were brought up before the lunchtime event, the purpose of which they said was to honor Palestinian lives lost in the conflict and call attention to Microsoft’s ties to Israel. They said police were called to the event but only observed it, and that only a microphone for speakers was used.

“They never at any point said that termination was on the table or even the disciplinary consequences were on the table,” Nasr told the Guardian.

They both questioned how it happened that Nasr’s dismissal was publicized by the group Stop Antisemitism before they themselves were notified they had been fired. Nasr provided a call log showing he received a call from Microsoft at 9pm on 24 October, while the group posted on social media that Nasr was “no longer with Microsoft” an hour and a half earlier.

Nasr also alleged a double standard at the company, arguing that he had experienced repeated internal investigations and reprimands for comments about Gaza that he had posted on Microsoft internal employee groups, while posts he flagged internally for racism or personal attacks against him did not result in any disciplinary actions.

He pointed to posts insinuating he and another employee are “members of Hamas or just supporters”. As far has he knows, these never resulted in reprimands. He also said HR opened an investigation into a post of his that said: “With or without your sympathy, Palestinians will attain the dignity, the freedom, the respect, and the liberation that they deserve, everywhere from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” However, he reported, the company did not act when another employee wrote: “From the river to the sea, Israel will forever be.”

A Microsoft representative declined to comment on the specific examples.

The No Azure for Apartheid group characterized the firings as retaliatory and alleged Microsoft has engaged in intimidation toward Palestinian voices. The group disputed Microsoft’s claims of policy violations by the employees and is calling for their reinstatement and an explanation for the leak of their termination before the employees were themselves notified.

A Palestinian employee at Microsoft who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation told the Guardian that Microsoft’s internal message board has been full of messages in recent days expressing anger at the firings. They also accused Microsoft of double standards when it comes to enforcing harassment and behavior policies toward Palestinian voices.

“It was unjust and very intentional as a message to the community to silence the loudest voice in our community,” said another Palestinian worker at Microsoft who requested to remain anonymous.

A spokesperson for Microsoft did not comment on the ‘No Azure for Apartheid’ campaign, its demands, or allegations of bias.

The spokesperson added the company was investigating the allegation that a social media post about the terminations was published by Stop Antisemitism before the employees were informed.

A report by the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine reported that the Israeli military has increased the purchase of services from Microsoft Azure since October 2023 and for years it had been the main cloud service provider for Israel. The company has also funded several Israeli startups that provide services to the military.

“Microsoft is refusing to hear its worker demands,” said Mohamed. “This is what’s happening within Microsoft. People are calling them out, and they’re even refusing to engage and look at serious concerns that come with the use of these technologies.”

US tech firms who do business with Israel have faced rising unrest internally in the last year. In April, Google fired more than 50 workers in response to a protest over the company’s military ties to the country.