It is “virtually certain” that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, the European Union’s space programme has found.

The prognosis comes the week before diplomats meet at the Cop29 climate summit and a day after a majority of voters in the US, the biggest historical polluter of planet-heating gas, chose to make Donald Trump president.

Trump has described climate change as a “hoax” and promised to roll back policies to clean up the economy.

The report found 2024 is likely to be the first year more than 1.5C (2.7F) hotter than before the Industrial Revolution, a level of warming that has alarmed scientists.

“This marks a new milestone in global temperature records and should serve as a catalyst to raise ambition for the upcoming climate change conference,” said Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The scientists found global temperatures for the past 12 months were 1.62C greater than the 1850-1900 average, when humanity started to burn vast volumes of coal, oil and gas.

In their monthly climate bulletin, they said October 2024 was the second-warmest October on record, behind only October 2023, with temperatures 1.65C greater than preindustrial levels. It was the 15th month in the past 16 to be higher than the 1.5C mark.

World leaders promised to stop the planet from heating 1.5C by the end of the century but are on track to heat it by roughly double that.

Scientists say a single year above the threshold does not mean they have missed the target, as temperature rise is measured over decades rather than years, but warn that it will force more people and ecosystems to the brink of survival.

“Our civilisation never had to cope with a climate as warm as the current one,” said Carlo Buontempo, the director of Copernicus. “This inevitably pushes our ability to respond to extreme events – and adapt to a warmer world – to the absolute limit.”

The Copernicus findings are based on billions of weather measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations. The temperature analyses in the ERA5 dataset on which the bulletin relies differ slightly from other prominent datasets used by climate scientists in the US and Japan.

The scientists also found that Arctic sea ice had reached its fourth-lowest monthly level for October, at 19% below average, while Antarctic sea ice extent hit its second-lowest for October, at 8% below average.

They pointed to heavier-than-normal rains that hit large parts of Europe, including Spain, where flash floods killed more than 200 people as they ripped through villages and swamped homes with mud.

Last week, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) found the concentration of planet-heating pollutants clogging the atmosphere had hit record levels in 2023. It found carbon dioxide was accumulating faster than at any time in human history, with concentrations having risen by more than 10% in just two decades, heating the planet and making extreme weather more violent.

“The most effective solution to address the climate challenges is a global commitment on emissions,” said Buontempo.

The German government was left on the brink of collapse after the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, unexpectedly sacked his finance minister, plunging Europe’s largest economy into political disarray.

Christian Lindner was thrown out of the three-way coalition during a meeting of high-level government members on Wednesday evening, after months of bitter infighting that has contributed to the administration’s growing unpopularity.

Government insiders had suggested Donald Trump’s electoral victory would focus minds in Berlin and force leaders of the Social Democrats, Greens and the FDP to recognise the need for unity. But the discord and rancour in Berlin appeared to show no signs of subsiding.

Hours after Lindner’s sacking, the FDP withdrew the rest of its ministers from the cabinet, spelling the end of the beleaguered and unpopular three-way coalition.

In a televised address to the nation, Scholz said that he will seek a vote of confidence in January that would pave the way for early elections by March.

Scholz said he had offered Lindner a plan to bring down energy costs, boost investment and maintain support for Ukraine.

But Lindner had shown “no willingness” to accept it, Scholz said.

“The situation is serious,” Scholz added. “There is war in Europe, tensions are increasing in the Middle East. At the same time, our economy is stagnating.”

He said: “We need to invest considerably more in our defence and in the Bundeswehr, especially now, after the outcome of the US elections.”

Scholz made little effort to hide his frustration, accusing Lindner of egotism, refusing to compromise and using “small-minded, party political tactics” at a time of growing insecurity.

The chancellor apologised to the German people, saying he “would have liked to have spared you this difficult decision, especially in times like these when uncertainty is growing”, a direct reference to the US presidential election.

Lindner, 45, is the head of the pro-business FDP, which on Friday delivered a controversial 18-page ultimatum calling on the government to radically redraw its budget plans for next year.

He had repeatedly warned of “an autumn of decisions” as difficult budget talks have loomed.

His sacking is likely to lead to snap elections in March, six months ahead of schedule. Scholz announced his intention to hold a vote of confidence in the Bundestag in mid-January, and suggested that – depending on the outcome of that –elections could be held in March.

After Scholz’s announcement, a clearly fuming Lindner accused the chancellor of having “long failed to recognise that our country needs a new economic awakening” and of “trivialising the economic concerns of citizens”.

His party currently stands at about 4% in the polls – below the threshold needed to gain a place in parliament – but he made little secret of his plans to campaign for a place in a new government. “We remain ready to take responsibility for this country and we will fight to do the same in another government next year,” he said.

The FDP is traditionally the government partner of the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, which is riding high in the polls compared with the coalition parties.

The economics minister, Robert Habeck of the Greens, tried to put a positive spin on the removal of Lindner, urging people who had been “afraid and worried” by the outcome of the US election to view it as “the beginning of a new impulse”.

A leading economist, Clemens Fuest of the Ifo Institut, cautiously welcomed the news, saying at a time when Germany was “in an economically difficult situation” it “without question needs a new government that is capable of acting as soon as possible”.

The fallout is expected to plunge Germany into a prolonged period of uncertainty at a time when European leaders have been trying to pull together in the face of challenges including a possible trade war with the US.

As the second biggest backer of Ukraine after the US, Germany also faces concerns that it will be left to take on a far bigger share of the war effort if Trump carries out his threat to reduce support for Kyiv.

In a poll by Forsa published on Wednesday 82% of Germans said they had no faith that the government would fix Germany’s economic crisis before the federal election, which had been scheduled for next September.

Israeli ground forces are getting closer to “the complete evacuation” of northern Gaza and residents will not be allowed to return home, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said, in what appears to be the first official acknowledgment from Israel it is systematically removing Palestinians from the area.

In a media briefing on Tuesday night, the IDF Brig Gen Itzik Cohen told Israeli reporters that since troops had been forced to enter some areas twice, such as Jabaliya camp, “there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes”.

He added that humanitarian aid would be allowed to “regularly” enter the south of the territory but not the north, since there are “no more civilians left”.

International humanitarian law experts have said that such actions would amount to the war crimes of forcible transfer and the use of food as a weapon.

The Israeli army and government have repeatedly denied trying to force the remaining population of northern Gaza to flee to the relative safety of the south during a month-long renewed offensive and tightened siege. Residents still clinging on in the north have said the new operation has created the worst conditions of the war to date. Israel said the push is necessary to combat regrouped Hamas cells.

Rights groups and aid agencies have alleged that despite the denials, Israel appears to be carrying out a version of the so-called “generals’ plan”, which proposes giving civilians a deadline to leave and then treating anyone who remains as a combatant.

It is unclear how many people remain in northern Gaza; last month, the UN estimated there were about 400,000 civilians unable or unwilling to follow Israeli evacuation orders. On Wednesday social media footage showed waves of several dozen displaced people carrying children and rucksacks and walking south through flattened areas of Gaza City.

Many had not eaten in days, Huda Abu Laila told the Associated Press. “We came barefoot. We have no sandals, no clothes, nothing. We have no money. There is no food or drink,” she said.

At least 15 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the northern town of Beit Lahiya on Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported, but communication difficulties meant there was no official account of the strike from the Gaza health ministry. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Beit Lahiya’s struggling Kamal Adwan hospital, posted a video of patients fleeing from the top floors of the building as it was hit by artillery fire.

Israel cut the territory in two earlier this year by creating what it calls the Netzarim corridor, separating what was once the densely populated Gaza City from the rest of the strip. In Tuesday’s briefing, Cohen also confirmed that northern Gaza has now been split again, to divide Gaza City from the more rural north.

Resettling or permanently reoccupying Gaza is not official Israeli policy, but senior Israeli defence officials recently told the Israeli daily Haaretz that with no other alternatives on the table, the government is aiming to annex large parts of the territory.

Israel’s new war with the powerful Shia Lebanese group Hezbollah, now in its second month, also shows no sign of slowing or stopping. At least 30 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Barja, near Beirut, on Tuesday night, with rescue efforts continuing into Wednesday. Many of those killed were women and children, according to Mahmoud Seif al-Dine, a local municipality employee.

“This was a civilian building in a civilian neighbourhood, there were no indications of anything to do with Hezbollah or weapons. We don’t know why they struck, what we saw were women, children and civilians that were killed,” Seif al-Dine said.

Tuesday’s strike was the second hit on Barja, a Sunni town that is hosting about 27,000 people who have been displaced by Israeli bombing in south Lebanon over the past year. The attack was making residents fearful of welcoming displaced people, said Barja’s mayor, Hassan Saad.

Hezbollah shot a volley of rockets at Tel Aviv and other areas in central Israel on Wednesday afternoon, with at least one rocket falling in the Ben Gurion car park without causing injuries. Videos from the scene showed a car impaled by the remains of a Hezbollah rocket.

The new secretary-general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said in a speech on Wednesday that the group had “tens of thousands” of fighters at the ready and that nowhere in Israel was “off limits” for its attacks. He added that Hezbollah is now in a “defensive state” in south Lebanon, indicating that Hezbollah fighters were dug in their positions and that the group was prepared for a war of attrition of Israel.

“We believe that only one thing can stop this aggressive war, which is the battlefield – both on the border and inside Israel,” Qassem said. The group has said it is open to a ceasefire, but that has its own conditions to stop fighting.

Many Israelis have been left reeling by Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to dismiss his popular defence minister in the midst of a multifront war, accusing him of carrying out the move for his own political gain.

In a surprise announcement late on Tuesday, the prime minister said that he had fired Yoav Gallant over what he described a “crisis of trust” in the past few months. Gallant, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and a senior general, has been replaced by the foreign minister, Likud lawmaker and loyalist Israel Katz, who has little military background.

Gallant’s dismissal sparked protests across the country on Tuesday evening, including outside Netanyahu’s house in Jerusalem. Thousands of people carrying Israeli flags and banging drums blocked roads in central Tel Aviv, calling for the prime minister’s removal and a deal to return the 101 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Scuffles with police broke out several times, and officers used “skunk” water to disperse demonstrators in Tel Aviv.

While it has been rumoured for months that Netanyahu was looking for an opportunity to fire Gallant, his harshest critic inside the government, the timing of the announcement still came as a shock to many.

The prime minister appears to have finally made his move after Gallant renewed efforts this week to draft members of the ultra-Orthodox community into the army, angering Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition allies. Gallant, whom Washington saw as a moderating influence on Netanyahu and an important conduit thanks to good relationships with his counterpart, Lloyd Austin, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was also fired the same day as the US election.

The decision has sparked fears that more dismissals may be forthcoming. Israeli media reported on Wednesday that the army chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, who has sparred with Netanyahu over strategy in the war in Gaza, is next.

The jobs of Shin Bet director, Ronen Bar, and the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara – at odds with the prime minister over a hostage deal and his government’s judicial overhaul, respectively – are also reported to be at risk.

Netanyahu may be feeling bolder about ousting critics. His once-fragile coalition majority has been shored up by the addition of the centre-right New Hope party led by Gideon Saar, who replaces Katz as foreign minister, and Likud’s polls have improved. Pressure from Israel’s most important ally, the US, may also abate with the re-election of Donald Trump.

No Israeli defence minister has ever been fired during wartime before, and the country is facing unprecedented challenges: wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and threats from Iran and its allies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Gallant’s removal was widely criticised by Netanyahu’s opposition as “politics at the expense of national security”.

The chair of the conservative Yisrael Beitenu party, Avigdor Lieberman, described the decision as that of a “banana republic”.

“Instead of putting the welfare of citizens and soldiers first, the prime minister decided to fire the minister of defence and start a new round of appointments during the fighting, all in order to meet shameful political needs,” he said in a statement.

“If a defence minister can be replaced in the middle of a war, it is also possible to replace a prime minister who has failed in his duties.”

Former army chief of staff and centrist politician Gadi Eisenkot, whose son was killed in action in Gaza, called the move “unprecedentedly irresponsible”, and said it “weakens the public’s trust in state institutions and harms the ability to win the war and achieve its goals”.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, whose ceremonial office is meant to be politically neutral, said the dismissal was “the last thing Israel needs”.

Netanyahu had been at odds with Gallant since his latest coalition entered office at the end of 2022, when the defence minister was the only senior government figure opposed to planned judicial reforms that critics said amounted to democratic backsliding.

The pair put on a united front in the aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October attack last year, but as the war in Gaza has dragged on, sticking points have emerged. Netanyahu has insisted on continued military pressure on Hamas, while Gallant has pushed for a ceasefire and hostage release deal and is opposed to a permanent military reoccupation of the Palestinian territory.

Ultra-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been clear about his movement’s desire to resettle the Gaza Strip, was one of the first to congratulate Netanyahu for the sacking.

In a statement late on Tuesday, Gallant said his dismissal was triggered by disputes over ultra-Orthodox conscription, Israel’s “moral obligation to return the hostages” and the need for a full inquiry into 7 October.

Netanyahu has been accused of stalling on a ceasefire and hostage deal to appease his far-right coalition partners, who have threatened to collapse his government. Staying in office is the best way for him to avoid prosecution for longstanding corruption charges, which he denies. A state inquiry into intelligence and security failures on 7 October is unlikely while Israel is still at war.

After his appointment, Katz, the new defence minister, vowed “victory over our enemies”, including “the destruction of Hamas, the defeat of Hezbollah” and the return of hostages.

In Washington, a spokesperson for the White House’s national security council said Gallant had been an important partner and that it would continue working collaboratively with his replacement.

Breaker Rachael Gunn has retired from competitive breaking due to the scrutiny she received following her performance at the Paris Olympics.

The 37-year-old became one of the defining athletes of the 2024 Games and her performance in the new discipline was a viral sensation, triggering some support but wider ridicule.

The sport has been dropped from the Olympics programme for Los Angeles Games in 2028, but Gunn said she will also step away from local competition.

“I was going to keep competing, for sure, but that seems a really difficult thing for me to do now, to approach a battle,” she said on 2DayFm on Wednesday. “I still dance and I still break but that’s like, in my living room with my partner.”

Although Gunn failed to progress past the first round of competition in Paris, her routines – which included a kangaroo hop and the sprinkler – became social media fodder.

The Australian’s profile exploded, and conspiracy theories emerged about how she qualified for the Olympics. She said the response was “really upsetting”.

“It’s still impossible to process, the conspiracy theories were totally wild, and it was really upsetting because I felt like I just didn’t have any control over how people saw me or who I was, who my partner was, my story.”

Through the negativity, there were also positives. Her performance was described by singer Adele midway through a concert in Munich during the Games as her “favourite thing that has happened in the Olympics”.

Gunn also met Sir Richard Branson, has featured in glossy magazines since her return to Australia and is currently featuring in an online promotion for a comparison website.

But while her profile has grown, she now feels she can’t compete within the burgeoning competitive Australian breaking scene.

“The level of scrutiny that’s going to be there and people will be filming it and it will go online, and it’s just not going to mean the same thing, it’s not going to be the same experience because of everything that’s at stake,” she said.

Gunn qualified for the Games by winning the 2023 Oceania Championships in Sydney, and due to a quirk in the calculation of rankings was even named the top-ranked female athlete in the sport in September.

That news came soon after Games, and prompted another wave of online vitriol. Gunn said she has tried to stay upbeat, and keeps a folder of positive messages.

“That’s what gets me through, the people that are like, ‘you have inspired me to go out there and do something that I’ve been too shy to do, you’ve brought joy, you brought laughter, we’re so proud of you’,” she said. “And just really frickin’ lovely things that people have written and that’s what I hold on to.”

Fast-moving fires erupted across California on Wednesday as the state was lashed by powerful winds that complicated firefighting efforts, necessitated power shutoffs and raised the danger for more ignitions.

Just hours after igniting in Ventura county, the Mountain fire rapidly swept through more than 10,000 acres as flames jumped into rural and residential communities tucked close to the burning hillsides, leaving devastation in its wake.

“It has hopscotched over several ridgelines and is now burning structure to structure in neighborhoods,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an online broadcast, calling the event a “suburban fire storm” that could rank among the most destructive in California this year. “And the fire is still spreading.”

Fueled by gusts of up to 80mph, the fire spewed flames and embers up to 2.5 miles out, making it difficult and dangerous to fight. Every firefighting resource in the area has been thrown at the fire, according to Ventura county fire chief Dustin Gardner, who added that is is “still moving at a dangerous rate of spread”. By Wednesday evening, the fire remained at 0% containment.

Strong autumn winds are common in the state, but paired with low humidity, and parched hillsides coated in dead and dying vegetation that was cooked in summer heatwaves, this region was primed to burn.

Although officials have yet to confirm the total number of homes and other buildings destroyed by the fire, aerial footage showed rows of charred destruction where neighborhoods once stood and initial estimates are in the dozens.

Throughout the day, emergency response officials raced through neighborhoods to ensure homes that lay in the fires path were evacuated and aiding those who had yet to leave. Footage posted on social media shows officers rushing to push wheelchair-bound seniors from their homes under a darkened sky during a frenzied escape.

Ablaze buildings could also be seen, along with howling winds and large plumes of smoke, as cars and trucks carrying large horse trailers fled under orange skies. Along with residents and businesses who rushed to evacuate, the National Weather Service office that serves the Los Angeles area was forced to leave its Oxnard office as the fire surged closer.

Officials said that several individuals had already been injured and transported to local hospitals, and that ambulances were called to the scene for firefighters, but no details were shared.

“Firefighters were, right off the bat, engaged in pulling people out of their houses and saving lives,” said Ventura county fire department captain Trevor Johnson during a Wednesday afternoon news conference. Crews were grappling with poor visibility from smoke, navigating downed power lines and gas lines on fire along with erratic flames fanned by furious winds.

“This is as intense as it gets. The hair on the back of the firefighters’ neck, I’m sure, was standing up,” Johnson said.

Officials warned this week that conditions were particularly dangerous, especially in southern California where the landscapes were dry.

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned of “extremely critical” fire conditions unfolding throughout the day and extended warnings through Thursday morning for parts of LA and Ventura counties. “Damaging wind gusts of 60mph combining with humidities around 10%+critically dry fuels!!” the agency added in a post on X, urging residents to be prepared and to use extreme caution with potential ignition sources.

With predicted gusts between 50 and 100mph (80 and 161km/h) and humidity levels as low as 8%, parts of southern California could experience conditions ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior into Thursday, the weather service said.

Officials in several counties urged residents – especially those in coastal, valley and mountain areas – to be on watch for fast-spreading blazes, power outages and downed trees amid the latest round of notorious Santa Ana winds.

Meanwhile, Pacific Gas and Electric Company cut the power to tens of thousands of accounts across the state in an attempt to limit possible ignitions during the dangerous conditions.

Roughly 63,370 customers could also be affected across several counties, including in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara, by planned shutoffs issued by Southern California Edison to mitigate wildfire risks. The company reported that another 228,000 more were at risk of losing power through Thursday, due to the dangerous conditions.

Forecasters have also issued red flag warnings until Thursday from California’s central coast through the San Francisco Bay Area and into counties to the north.

Sustained winds of 30mph are expected in many areas, with possible gusts topping 55mph along mountaintops, according to the weather service office in San Francisco.

Two additional fires ignited in California on Wednesday, including one in Malibu that forced evacuations and reportedly burned at least one structure.

As risks for spread and new ignitions remain high into Thursday and for some areas through the end of the week, the disasters still unfolding in the state showcased the state’s year-round fire season.

“This is a classic Santa Ana wind event,” Gardner said, noting that these dangerous conditions were expected and prepared for. “Our firefighters and law enforcement agencies are doing everything they can,” he added, urging residents to take heed and follow orders given by those trying to protect them. With fires like these, moments make an enormous difference.

“When you get an evacuation order from the sheriff leave” he said. “Your homes can be replaced – your lives can’t.”

The Associated Press contributed to reporting

Fast-moving fires erupted across California on Wednesday as the state was lashed by powerful winds that complicated firefighting efforts, necessitated power shutoffs and raised the danger for more ignitions.

Just hours after igniting in Ventura county, the Mountain fire rapidly swept through more than 10,000 acres as flames jumped into rural and residential communities tucked close to the burning hillsides, leaving devastation in its wake.

“It has hopscotched over several ridgelines and is now burning structure to structure in neighborhoods,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an online broadcast, calling the event a “suburban fire storm” that could rank among the most destructive in California this year. “And the fire is still spreading.”

Fueled by gusts of up to 80mph, the fire spewed flames and embers up to 2.5 miles out, making it difficult and dangerous to fight. Every firefighting resource in the area has been thrown at the fire, according to Ventura county fire chief Dustin Gardner, who added that is is “still moving at a dangerous rate of spread”. By Wednesday evening, the fire remained at 0% containment.

Strong autumn winds are common in the state, but paired with low humidity, and parched hillsides coated in dead and dying vegetation that was cooked in summer heatwaves, this region was primed to burn.

Although officials have yet to confirm the total number of homes and other buildings destroyed by the fire, aerial footage showed rows of charred destruction where neighborhoods once stood and initial estimates are in the dozens.

Throughout the day, emergency response officials raced through neighborhoods to ensure homes that lay in the fires path were evacuated and aiding those who had yet to leave. Footage posted on social media shows officers rushing to push wheelchair-bound seniors from their homes under a darkened sky during a frenzied escape.

Ablaze buildings could also be seen, along with howling winds and large plumes of smoke, as cars and trucks carrying large horse trailers fled under orange skies. Along with residents and businesses who rushed to evacuate, the National Weather Service office that serves the Los Angeles area was forced to leave its Oxnard office as the fire surged closer.

Officials said that several individuals had already been injured and transported to local hospitals, and that ambulances were called to the scene for firefighters, but no details were shared.

“Firefighters were, right off the bat, engaged in pulling people out of their houses and saving lives,” said Ventura county fire department captain Trevor Johnson during a Wednesday afternoon news conference. Crews were grappling with poor visibility from smoke, navigating downed power lines and gas lines on fire along with erratic flames fanned by furious winds.

“This is as intense as it gets. The hair on the back of the firefighters’ neck, I’m sure, was standing up,” Johnson said.

Officials warned this week that conditions were particularly dangerous, especially in southern California where the landscapes were dry.

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned of “extremely critical” fire conditions unfolding throughout the day and extended warnings through Thursday morning for parts of LA and Ventura counties. “Damaging wind gusts of 60mph combining with humidities around 10%+critically dry fuels!!” the agency added in a post on X, urging residents to be prepared and to use extreme caution with potential ignition sources.

With predicted gusts between 50 and 100mph (80 and 161km/h) and humidity levels as low as 8%, parts of southern California could experience conditions ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior into Thursday, the weather service said.

Officials in several counties urged residents – especially those in coastal, valley and mountain areas – to be on watch for fast-spreading blazes, power outages and downed trees amid the latest round of notorious Santa Ana winds.

Meanwhile, Pacific Gas and Electric Company cut the power to tens of thousands of accounts across the state in an attempt to limit possible ignitions during the dangerous conditions.

Roughly 63,370 customers could also be affected across several counties, including in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara, by planned shutoffs issued by Southern California Edison to mitigate wildfire risks. The company reported that another 228,000 more were at risk of losing power through Thursday, due to the dangerous conditions.

Forecasters have also issued red flag warnings until Thursday from California’s central coast through the San Francisco Bay Area and into counties to the north.

Sustained winds of 30mph are expected in many areas, with possible gusts topping 55mph along mountaintops, according to the weather service office in San Francisco.

Two additional fires ignited in California on Wednesday, including one in Malibu that forced evacuations and reportedly burned at least one structure.

As risks for spread and new ignitions remain high into Thursday and for some areas through the end of the week, the disasters still unfolding in the state showcased the state’s year-round fire season.

“This is a classic Santa Ana wind event,” Gardner said, noting that these dangerous conditions were expected and prepared for. “Our firefighters and law enforcement agencies are doing everything they can,” he added, urging residents to take heed and follow orders given by those trying to protect them. With fires like these, moments make an enormous difference.

“When you get an evacuation order from the sheriff leave” he said. “Your homes can be replaced – your lives can’t.”

The Associated Press contributed to reporting

Cuba’s national power grid has suffered a country-wide blackout as Hurricane Rafael made landfall on the island’s south-west coast as a powerful category 3 hurricane.

In a brief statement on Wednesday, the country’s national power company, Union Eléctrica, said: “Strong winds caused by the powerful Hurricane Rafael have caused the disconnection of the national electrical system. Contingency protocols have been applied.”

The energy and mines ministry had earlier said that a “controlled disconnection of power circuits” would be carried out to avoid accidents and power cuts.

The power cut came shortly before the US National Hurricane Center said the storm made landfall in Cuba’s western province of Artemisa, bringing with it a “life-threatening storm surge, damaging hurricane-force winds, and flash flooding”.

Wednesday’s power cut and storm came three weeks after the island was lashed by Hurricane Oscar amid a four-day nationwide blackout caused by the failure of the island’s biggest power plant and a fuel shortage. Sporadic outages have continued since then.

The outage prompted expressions of fury in online forums, with many pointing out that Cuba’s power grid had survived bigger hurricanes in the past, such as the 2017 category 5 storm Irma. Others complained that power had already been out in much of the country for much of the past week.

“This [announcement] is obviously for Havana, because the rest of the provinces haven’t had power for days anyway,” commented one.

Nine provinces in west and central Cuba, including the capital, Havana, have been placed on cyclone alert. More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, mostly in Guantánamo in the east, where eight people were killed by Hurricane Oscar last month.

The storm appeared set to pass between Soroa, a small mountain village, and Las Terrazas, a settlement founded as an ideal community shortly after the revolution and is designated as an Unesco biosphere reserve.

“I think no one expected to get category 3,” said one farmer who lives in the path of the hurricane. “I don’t think everyone was really ready.”

In Havana, the storm lashed a city in a state of disrepair, to the sound of howling wind, heavy rain and the crash of falling masonry. Gusts of 115km/h (71.6mph) were measured in the neighbourhood of Casablanca on the edge of Havana Bay.

The office of the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, reported on Tuesday that it was mobilising the national defense council, consisting of military personnel, due to the storm. “We have activated the national defense council to provide the maximum attention to the passage of Hurricane Rafael,” Díaz-Canel said on X.

“Measures have been taken in each place to protect our people and material resources,” he added. “As we have always done since the Revolution, we will overcome this situation.”

In the village of Alquizar, about 30 miles (48km) south-west of Havana, Liset Herrera, 57, said she had been unable to follow the news about Rafael “because there is no electricity”.

The US state department urged citizens to reconsider any travel to Cuba.

On Tuesday, the storm knocked out power in parts of Jamaica and unleashed flooding and landslides. Power outages were also reported across the Cayman Islands after a direct hit late Tuesday, and schools remained closed on Wednesday.

“While conditions have improved on Grand Cayman, residents are advised to exercise extreme caution on the roads and near coastlines as rough seas and residual flooding risks may persist,” the government said in a statement.

Forecasters were expecting Rafael to weaken as it moved north toward the US Gulf coast, though it was still predicted to bring heavy rains into Florida and nearby areas of the south-east US by the late part of the week.

The National Hurricane Center predicted storm surges in Florida could reach 1-3ft in Dry Tortugas – and 1-2ft in the lower Florida Keys.

Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman who has become a feminist hero after insisting that the rape trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men should be held in public, has said she was honoured to wear a scarf to court each day that was sent to her by an Australian organisation working to raise awareness of sexual assaults on older women.

“I’m very honoured to wear it,” Pelicot said on leaving the court in Avignon, which has heard how her then husband, Dominique Pelicot, crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and invited dozens of men to rape her over a nine-year period from 2011 to 2020 in the village of Mazan in Provence.

Stéphane Babonneau, Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, said: “She was very touched to receive the scarf and see that on the issue of violence against women, even in Australia on the other side of the world, women feel the same way, and that there is a connection that unites women across the world in standing up against violence against women, and particularly sexual violence.”

Yumi Lee of the Australian Older Women’s Network told the Guardian she had sent the scarf in solidarity. “If we could be there, we would hold up placards with ‘We believe you, Gisèle’ and ‘You are our champion’ – that’s what we would write,” she said.

In court on Wednesday, Gisèle Pelicot reached for the scarf and clutched it during testimony by Romain V, a 63-year-old former forklift truck-driver who is accused of raping her on six occasions over six months between 2019 and 2020 while she was unconscious on her bed.

Romain V denied rape, saying that “her husband invited me in” and a husband’s consent was enough. He denied knowing she was drugged despite video evidence showing him smiling as she snored loudly. He said he went to the Pelicots’ home at the time of the first alleged rape because: “I felt lonely. Christmas was approaching and I was going to be on my own again. I was looking for friendship.”

Romain V told the court he had known he was HIV positive at the time of the alleged rapes and had not worn a condom. The court heard that because he was on HIV treatment since his diagnosis in 2004, he had an undetectable viral load, which was regularly tested, and he could not transmit the virus. “I knew I wasn’t contagious,” he said. His lawyer said medical documents confirmed this.

Romain V told the court that later, in 2023, he found out he had syphilis after he was tested as part of the police investigation. During the decade of abuse, Gisèle Pelicot contracted several sexually transmitted diseases which will have a lifelong impact, but not HIV.

The court heard that Romain V had been subjected to extreme physical violence and abuse by his parents and was raped by a priest as a child.

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, a former logistics manager, has told the court she insisted on a public trial because: “I wanted all woman victims of rape … to say: ‘Mrs Pelicot did it, we can do it too.’ When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them.”

She had received testimony from women across the world, including in Europe, the US, the UK and Brazil, her lawyer said. “It’s something that has really touched her and shows this connection that unites all women.”

Lee said she and the other members of the Australian Older Women’s Network collected donations among themselves to send the silk scarf, crafted by First Nations women, to Pelicot. “We hope that when she wears it, she knows that she has the backing and solidarity of women who are thousands of kilometres from the courtroom,” said Lee, who said the world was watching as Gisèle Pelicot recast concepts such as shame, sexual violence and consent. “What she has done is help us to take a big step to change the status quo.”

Lee added: “She’s a champion. We hope that once the trial is over, she will be able to feel the sun on her skin and know that she is treasured by many, many women around the world.”

The Australian government has pledged to legislate an age limit of 16 years for social media access, with penalties for online platforms that don’t comply.

But the Labor government has not spelled out how it expects Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others to actually enforce that age limit.

Anthony Albanese and the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, did not rule out the potential for social media users to have their faces subject to biometric scanning, for online platforms to verify users’ ages using a government database, or for all social media users – regardless of age – being subject to age checks, only saying it would be up to tech companies to set their own processes.

The prime minister confirmed the age limit at a press conference on Thursday, in the latest step of the government’s increasing scrutiny on major tech platforms, with plans to introduce legislation into parliament this month. His government had announced its plan to legislate an age limit but had been deliberating on where to set that threshold, with expectations it would be between 14 and 16.

But questions have been raised, and remain unanswered, about how it could be effectively enforced.

The onus would be on social media platforms to “demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access” for young people, Albanese said. There would be no penalties for users who managed to access social media under the age of 16, or their parents, but Rowland said there would be penalties for platforms that did not heed the new laws.

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“The eSafety commissioner will have responsibility for enforcement and there needs to be enhanced penalties to ensure compliance,” she said, saying current penalties below $1m in existing legislation were not sufficient.

Albanese raised concern about the effect of social media on young people, including the potential for content related to misogyny or body image, as his reasoning for the new laws. He said he had spoken to “thousands” of parents and other adults about the issue.

“They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online,” he said. “I want Australian parents and families to know that government has your back. I want parents to be able to say, ‘Sorry, mate, that’s against the law.’”

Rowland said platforms would “need to take reasonable steps” to assure themselves of a user’s age. The government is still conducting a trial, funded in the May budget, of potential age-assurance technology options.

The UK, which has implemented age-assurance legislation, outlined potential options including allowing banks or mobile providers to confirm a user is over 18, credit checks, use of facial estimation technology and asking users to upload a photo to the site that is then matched with photo ID.

Advice provided to the Australian government stated that “no countries have implemented an age verification mandate without issue”.

A roadmap for age verification, released last year by the eSafety commissioner – to be tasked with enforcing the new age limit – recommended a “double-blind tokenised approach” where a third-party provider would transfer information between sites and age-assurance providers to protect user privacy. The roadmap found the age-assurance market was “immature but developing”.

Albanese and Rowland did not answer directly when asked if Australians should prepare for having their faces scanned or their identity documents verified to access social media.

Rowland said such questions would be answered by the age-assurance trial but added: “These platforms know their users better than anyone.”

Albanese cited the example of some young people managing to access alcohol, despite an age limit of 18, in conceding that the laws wouldn’t stop all social media access.

“What we are wanting to state upfront, from the very beginning, is we don’t pretend that you can get a 100% outcome here,” he said.

“We don’t argue that the changes that we will be legislating will fix everything immediately … But those laws set what the parameters are for our society and they assist in ensuring the right outcomes.”

Asked if all social media users, regardless of age, would need to verify they were over 18, Rowland said that would be up to the tech companies.

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, said it would comply with the legislation if required, but questioned whether the technology was ready.

“The idea that somehow you can sort of force the industry to be in a technological place that it isn’t, is probably a bit misunderstood in terms of where the industry is,” Meta’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, told reporters on Thursday.

Meta has argued that app stores such as those run by Apple and Google should bear the burden of enforcement, pointing out teens can use up to 40 different apps which would all require age checks.

Davis said requiring age assurance for each app would be complicated, time-consuming and presented a privacy risk.

“The current state of age-assurance technology … requires a level of personally identified information to be shared,” she said.

“It’s usually in the form of an ID or document ID, documentation or biometric type data, facial feature data for young people, and if it’s parental consent, the data that will be involved there to verify the parent is just another additional layer of data to establish.”

Snapchat and Google were also approached for comment. TikTok declined to comment.

Australian movie star Chris Hemsworth has been criticised for starring in a slick advertisement promoting Abu Dhabi as a tourism destination in partnership with the United Arab Emirates government, the latest celebrity to use their influence to promote the gulf state.

Hemsworth features in the minute-long ad with his actor and model wife, Elsa Pataky, which they posted on their Instagram accounts on Wednesday. The ad was also shared by the Experience Abu Dhabi Instagram account.

The international non-governmental advocacy organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the UAE “invests in a strategy to paint the country as progressive, tolerant, and rights-respecting while carrying out repression against dissent”.

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Hemsworth’s campaign video to entice tourists to the UAE capital begins by depicting him and Pataky pretending to film an intense action movie.

Hanging from the side of a building in between takes, sweat dripping down his brow, Hemsworth tells Pataky he “could really use a vacation right now”. “Yeah, me too,” she replies.

The ad flicks back and forth between the fake movie set and a montage of clips of Hemsworth and Pataky enjoying various tourist attractions in Abu Dhabi with their young children, including kayaking, riding horses in the desert and surfing.

The ad was released on the same day the Albanese government announced it had finalised its free trade deal with the UAE, eliminating tariffs on virtually all Australian exports to the gulf state despite concerns about its treatment of migrant workers.

After resisting calls from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) to call off the agreement, the trade minister, Don Farrell, said on Wednesday the deal would result in about $678m worth of additional Australian exports to the UAE.

The ACTU had said the UAE would be “one of the most repressive countries any Australian government has ever done a bilateral trade agreement with”.

The peak body for unions said the UAE was “notorious for serious human rights and labour rights violations including modern slavery” and 90% of its workforce were migrants.

Fans criticised Hemsworth – who starred in the Thor blockbusters and has been a Tourism Australia global ambassador – for participating in a campaign to promote the UAE without mentioning any human rights concerns.

Prof Justine Nolan, the director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of New South Wales, said the advertisement was a “very deliberate strategy” to promote an image that was different from the “reality on the ground”.

“They’re trying to move on and improve their image,” she said. “They’ve come under fire for their treatment of dissent, protest, women, LGBTI+ communities [and] migrant workers.”

She did not believe the timing of the campaign and the free trade agreement was coincidental.

“It’s definitely true there has been some progress in the UAE but there are still many people because of their gender or race or sexual orientation are second-class citizens,” she said.

“[Australia] is saying, ‘We’re open for business here but we’re going to close our eyes to those aspects’.”

A spokesperson for Amnesty International said it was concerned about human rights abuses across the United Arab Emirates, “particularly the government’s suppression of free speech, peaceful protest and dissent through practices of arbitrary arrest, detention and in some cases torture of political prisoners”.

Hemsworth and Pataky aren’t the first local celebrities to stir controversy for taking promoting tourism in the gulf region of the Middle East.

Last year, actor Rebel Wilson was criticised after reportedly attending the grand opening of Atlantis The Royal Dubai hotel in the UAE’s most populous city with her girlfriend, and promoting their trip on social media.

In 2019, after the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia used social media influencers, including some Australians, to try to repair its damaged image.

The UAE is Australia’s largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East, with more than $9.9bn in two-way trade and $20.7bn in two-way investment in 2023.

Guardian Australia attempted to contact Hemsworth for comment through his talent agency, Australian Talent & Media Specialists, as well as Centr, the fitness app he co-founded.