Israel has launched some of the heaviest airstrikes to date on Beirut, the Lebanese capital, before an expected ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah.

The Israeli military began attacking areas of Beirut dominated by the Lebanese militia early on Tuesday before issuing a flurry of 20 evacuation calls – its widest warning to civilians since hostilities escalated into full-blown war in late September.

At least 20 strikes had hit Beirut by Tuesday afternoon, as well as 30 sites across southern Lebanon. At least three people were killed and 26 wounded in southern Beirut, the Lebanese health ministry said, with the toll expected to rise.

The Israeli army said it was carrying out “a widespread attack” on Hezbollah targets, including an aerial defence unit centre, an intelligence centre, rocket launching sites and weapons storage facilities.

A statement said there were also army raids in the Litani River region – the deepest ground push into Lebanon so far – as Israel appeared to try and shore up its military gains in the conflict before a truce, which may be implemented as early as Wednesday.

Hezbollah barrages of rockets and drones into northern Israel on Tuesday seriously injured two civilians and one soldier. Restrictions were tightened in response to increase in fighting, barring large gatherings and closing schools in several areas.

Israel’s security cabinet is scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon to vote on the proposal, which is expected to pass despite opposition from far-right allies of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Unconfirmed reports said that the US president, Joe Biden, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, were expected to announce the deal on either Tuesday night or Wednesday.

Israel appears to have come to the table after suffering US weapons shortages, as well as warnings from the Biden administration that a failure to agree a ceasefire under US auspices would lead Washington not to use its veto to block a UN security council resolution ordering a ceasefire. A UN-mandated truce would be unlikely to be as amenable to Israel’s demands.

However, the country has vowed that it will act forcefully in the event of any Hezbollah infraction of the deal. “We will act against any threat, anytime and anywhere,” Israel’s newly appointed defence minister, Israel Katz, told the UN’s special envoy for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, according to a statement from his office.

Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, has reportedly approved the ceasefire deal under discussion, eager to avoid further damage to its most important deterrent force against Israel. Importantly for Israel, Hezbollah dropped its demand that a ceasefire in Lebanon is contingent on ending the fighting in Gaza.

The current deal is based on UN security council resolution 1701, which ended the 36-day Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006, but was never fully implemented.

Under its terms, Israel will withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah would move its heavy weaponry north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the border. During a 60-day transition phase, the Lebanese army would deploy to the buffer border zone alongside the existing UN peacekeeping force. Longstanding border disputes will be discussed after the 60-day withdrawal period.

The process will be monitored by a US-led supervisory mechanism that would act as a referee on infringements. A letter of assurance that is not formally part of the deal reportedly guarantees US support for Israeli freedom of action if Hezbollah attacks Israel again or moves its forces or weaponry south of the Litani.

Biden, wary of regional escalation that could draw in Iran, has been trying to broker a truce between Israel and Hezbollah for months. The conflict began 13 months ago when the powerful Lebanese militia began firing rockets and shells at Israel a day after the Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel, triggering the Gaza war.

The conflict escalated in late September, when hundreds of Hezbollah pagers exploded in an attack attributed to Israel. Israel then killed much of Hezbollah’s leadership in airstrikes, and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

A ceasefire to pause the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah is expected to be announced as early as Tuesday evening by the US president, Joe Biden, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and come into effect sometime on Wednesday.

The Biden administration, wary of regional escalation that could draw in Hezbollah’s major ally, Iran, has been trying to broker a truce for months. The conflict began 13 months ago when the powerful Lebanese militia began firing rockets and shells at Israel a day after the Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel, triggering the Gaza war.

Israel’s security cabinet is scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon to vote on the proposal, which is expected to pass despite opposition from Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right allies.

Campaigners trying to block UK sales of F-35 jet engine parts to Israel will apply for an emergency high court injunction in light of the international criminal court issuing arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Campaigners at Global Legal Action Network (Glan) and Al-Haq say it is unconscionable British manufacturers are still selling parts that can be used to bomb Palestinians in Gaza. The government has until Friday to file a defence.

At a high court hearing on 18 November, the UK government admitted potential damage to the UK/US relationship was a factor in deciding to continue allowing some exports.

In other previous hearings the court ordered ministers to disclose the rationale for continuing to sell F-35s, at a time when they admitted Israel was breaching international law. The court was not due to hear the case again until January when an extended hearing date was due to be set.

Ministers say F-35 parts go into a general pool and it is not possible to determine which parts will be sold to the Israelis for use in Gaza. The Labour government reversed a Conservative decision to allow some arms export licences to Israel to continue. Labour found that there was a risk the arms would be used to cause serious breach of international humanitarian law.

Last week the international criminal court issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war. Netanyahu’s office denounced the court’s decision as “antisemitic”.

Glan lawyer Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe said: “It is unconscionable that the UK continues to allow British-made components for F-35s to be used in Israel’s extermination campaign against Palestinians. As of Thursday, the UK is now arming suspected war criminals who have been indicted by the world’s pre-eminent criminal court. For 13 months, Glan and Al-Haq have argued that weapons sales to Israel are unlawful. When will it be enough? Does the UK government have any red lines?”

Al-Haq spokesperson Zainah El-Haroun said: “The latest arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity add to the insurmountable evidence that British weapons, particularly F-35 components, are being used to commit international crimes, including genocide.”

The move by the two groups, supported by other human rights groups, is the first practical impact of the ICC arrest warrants. It also comes as Conservatives claim that UK laws would prevent the arrest of Netanyahu if he visits the UK as Israel is not a signatory to the Rome statute, the treaty on which the ICC is based.

The foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said the UK will follow due process, suggesting debate is continuing about the legal immunities provided to elected leaders.

In the Commons the foreign office minister, Anneliese Dodds, accepted that Israel was not doing enough to secure humanitarian aid into Gaza, a position that contrasts with the US that claims there has been a substantial improvement in the flow of aid since the US threatened more than a month ago to to withhold arms shipments.

The US last week dropped the threat to withhold arms and also vetoed a UN security council resolution that called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as well as the release of Israeli hostages.

Dodds told MPs “we’re seeing a very disturbing impact from those restrictions, we’ve seen it in the famine assessment, in the levels of malnutrition and ill-health now prevalent in Gaza. Winter of course is now upon us, making that situation even worse, those restrictions on aid are unacceptable, they must be lifted immediately.”

Russia launched its biggest ever drone attack on Ukraine on Monday night and Tuesday morning, sending a reported 188 drones into the country against various targets, resulting in power cuts in part of western Ukraine and damage to residential buildings outside Kyiv.

Russian forces are pushing hard along the frontline in the east of the country, amid uncertainty as to how the dynamics of the war might change once Donald Trump takes office in January. Russia also vowed “retaliatory actions” for fresh Ukrainian strikes on military targets inside Russia that used long-range missiles sent by the US.

Ukraine’s air force said 76 of the drones had been shot down overnight, as air defences struggled to cope with the massed attacks that have become common in recent weeks. “Unfortunately, there were hits to critical infrastructure facilities, and private and apartment buildings were damaged in several regions due to the massive drone attack,” the air force said in a statement.

The governor of the western Ternopil region, Vyacheslav Nehoda, said on television that about 70% of the region was without power. “The consequences are bad because the facility was significantly affected and this will have impact on the power supply of the entire region for a long time,” he said. Several buildings were damaged around Kyiv, but there were no casualties reported.

Also on Tuesday, a court in the Russian city of Kursk confirmed that a British citizen had been captured and arrested by Russian authorities, the first official confirmation of news that broke over the weekend when interrogation videos appeared on Russian Telegram channels.

The court ordered that James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, be held in custody on allegations he had “participated in armed hostilities on the territory of Kursk region”. It did not specify the exact charges, noting only that he was accused of “committing a set of particularly serious offences that post a danger to society”.

Russian military bloggers said Anderson was captured near the village of Plekhovo, taking part in Ukraine’s military offensive inside Russia, which was launched in late summer. Russian forces are now on the offensive in Kursk region, attempting to win back control of the lost territory.

In a video that surfaced over the weekend, a man in military fatigues, with his hands tied, gave his name as Anderson and said he had served in the British army between 2019 and 2023, before he was dismissed and then decided to travel to Ukraine and volunteer.

The foreign secretary, David Lammy, said on Monday he was aware of the arrest and that authorities would “offer this UK national all the support we can”.

Earlier this month, the US gave Ukraine permission to strike military targets deep in Russia using American-supplied Atacms missiles, in support of its Kursk offensive. Britain followed suit, allowing the use of Storm Shadow missiles in Russia.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Britain had sent “dozens” of Storm Shadows to Ukraine recently, the first delivery since Keir Starmer took over as prime minister in July. A Ministry of Defence spokesperson declined to comment on the report. “We do not comment on operational detail, to do so would only benefit Putin,” said the spokesperson, adding that Britain’s support for Ukraine is “ironclad”.

Moscow has reacted furiously to the decision to allow strikes on targets inside Russia, with the president, Vladimir Putin, saying it amounted to a declaration of war on Russia and gave Moscow the right to strike targets in the countries that provided the weapons.

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had launched further strikes using Atacms on targets include an airbase in the Kursk region and an air defence battery, causing an unspecified number of casualties and damage to equipment. It was a rare admission by Moscow of Ukrainian strikes successfully hitting their targets.

“Retaliatory actions are being prepared,” the ministry said in a post on Telegram, without giving further detail. The first strike using Atacms led to Russia using an experimental ballistic missile against the city of Dnipro last week, and a response from Putin that hinted at nuclear options being on the table.

Both sides are seeking to position themselves before the return of Trump, who has claimed he will be able to bring a resolution to the conflict in “24 hours”, while giving few details of how he would go about it.

Allies of Ukraine are also in heated discussions about how best to keep supporting Kyiv amid a possible change in US policy. The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, who met Trump in Florida over the weekend, said on Tuesday that Nato allies needed to do more to help Kyiv. “Our support for Ukraine has kept them in the fight, but we need to go further to change the trajectory of the conflict,” he said during a visit to Athens.

Highlighting the importance of strengthening the bloc’s “deterrence and defence”, Rutte said it was also critical that investment and production in the arms industry was boosted.

“In pursuing its illegal war in Ukraine, Russia makes use of North Korean weapons and troops, Iranian drones and Chinese dual-use goods for its defence industry. This is a dangerous expansion of the war and a challenge to global peace and security,” he said.

Russia said it was expelling a British diplomat for alleged spying as tensions between London and Moscow rose after Ukraine’s recent use of British weapons to strike deeper into Russia.

The FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, announced on Tuesday that it had acted on documents accusing a British diplomat of engaging in “reconnaissance and subversive activities that threaten the country’s security”.

The FSB claimed that the British diplomat “intentionally provided false information when applying for entry into Russia, thereby violating Russian law”. Russian media reported that the diplomat had been given a two-week deadline to leave the country.

According to the FSB, the British diplomat, whose photo was splashed across Russian TV news bulletins, was a replacement for one of six UK diplomats expelled in August, also over accusations of espionage. The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said at the time that the accusations were baseless.

The Russian foreign ministry said that it had summoned the British ambassador in Moscow, Nigel Casey. There was no immediate comment from the FCDO.

Relations between Britain and Russia plunged to a new low last week after Britain agreed to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles on targets inside Russia. The green light came days after Joe Biden, the US president, agreed to do the same for the similar American long-range Atacms weapon.

The decision to approve the strikes was made in response to the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine, which UK and US officials warned was a significant escalation of the near three-year conflict.

Kyiv has since used Storm Shadow missiles to strike a command headquarters in the village of Maryno in the Kursk region. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Britain had sent dozens more of the missiles to Ukraine several weeks ago.

Last week, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, intensified the already fraught standoff with the west by launching an experimental ballistic missile at a military target in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. He also said that Moscow “had the right” to strike western countries that provided Kyiv with weapons used against Russian targets.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK and Russia have periodically engaged in tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats, reflecting strained relations. In May, Britain expelled a senior Russian defence attache, accusing them of operating as an undeclared military intelligence officer. In retaliation, Moscow ordered the British defence attache to leave Russia.

Donald Trump’s transition team is planning for all cabinet picks to receive sweeping security clearances from the president-elect and only face FBI background checks after the incoming administration takes over the bureau and its own officials are installed in key positions, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move appears to mean that Trump’s team will continue to skirt FBI vetting and may not receive classified briefings until Trump is sworn in on 20 January and unilaterally grant sweeping security clearances across the administration.

Trump’s team has regarded the FBI background check process with contempt for months, a product of their deep distrust of the bureau ever since officials turned over transition records to the Russia investigation during the first Trump presidency, the people said.

But delaying FBI vetting could also bring ancillary PR benefits for the Trump team if some political appointees run into problems during a background check, which could upend their Senate confirmation process, or if they struggle to obtain security clearances once in the White House.

The putative process for obtaining a clearance in the first Trump administration involved the White House’s personnel security office relying on an FBI background check to decide whether to grant one. The background check initially looked for untrustworthiness or red flags that could be exploited by adversaries.

If the initial checks against law enforcement databases uncovered no issues, applicants were granted an interim clearance while deeper investigations continued until it was advanced to a permanent clearance. The current Trump plan appears set to bypass that initial stage.

“The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act. We will update you once a decision is made,” Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement.

Trump’s team have long viewed the process with suspicion, arguing that it was pointless to have government employees have the ability to recommend against granting a security clearance given Trump has the power, as president, to ultimately give clearances to whomever he likes.

Trump himself has repeatedly railed against the FBI of being part of the “deep state” conspiracy to undermine his agenda.

During the first Trump presidency, multiple advisers faced delays and hurdles in obtaining top level clearances, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and the controversial former Trump White House national security aide Sebastian Gorka.

Kushner, who played a number of roles in the first administration and was involved in drawing up a Middle East peace plan, received his clearance only after Trump personally intervened and ordered it, according to a memo written by then White House chief of staff John Kelly.

In Kushner’s case, officials in the White House personnel security office were reportedly divided about whether to grant him a top-secret clearance based on the results of his FBI background check.

In 2018, after the matter had dragged on for more than a year, the then White House counsel Don McGahn recommended to Trump that Kushner should not be granted a security clearance at that level. But Trump ordered Kelly to disregard that advice and grant it to Kushner anyway.

The precise details of the concerns about Kushner are not known, although it was reported at the time that it resulted in part from concerns at the FBI and the CIA about Kushner’s foreign and business contacts, including with Israel, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

In 2019, a manager in the personnel security office told a House committee that 25 people, including two senior Trump White House officials, had been denied clearances by career employees for “disqualifying issues”. The New York Times reported that Kushner appeared to be among that group.

Epshteyn left the Trump White House before he received a permanent clearance. While the Trump team has said his situation was “resolved”, it remains unclear what the resolution of his background check was. Epshteyn has been floated for a senior role in the incoming administration.

Gorka failed to obtain a national security council clearance when he was part of the first Trump administration in 2017, after he was charged with carrying a gun at Ronald Reagan Washington national airport, according to the AP. Gorka was named on Friday as a deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counter-terrorism.

Keir Starmer’s national security adviser is to travel to Washington as the UK government tries to persuade Donald Trump not to rip up the Chagos Islands agreement, the Guardian has learned.

Jonathan Powell, who negotiated the Chagos deal earlier this autumn, is drawing up plans to visit the US capital in the coming days, four government sources said.

Powell, who worked for a decade as Downing Street chief of staff for the then prime minister, Tony Blair, is seeking early meetings with Trump’s team ahead of the president-elect’s inauguration on 20 January.

One senior source said the trip, which may involve other government figures, would not be narrowly focused on the Chagos Islands but serve as an opportunity to introduce Starmer’s government to the incoming Trump administration.

UK ministers are concerned that Trump will block the deal to cede control of the Chagos Islands, where the US and UK have a joint military base, to Mauritius. Diego Garcia, the island where the base is located, will remain under UK control for at least the next 99 years.

The agreement was struck by Powell last month after two years of negotiations, which had been initiated by Rishi Sunak’s government.

The US election result has thrown the handover into question, however. Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, warned in October that the agreement posed “a serious threat” to US national security by ceding the islands to a country allied with China.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said this month that Trump’s team viewed the deal with “outright hostility” and would try to challenge it. “Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump adviser as the most important island on the planet as far as America was concerned,” Farage told the Commons.

Powell, who is about to take up the national security adviser role, has been in Mauritius this week where the government he negotiated with has suffered a landslide defeat amid a wiretapping scandal.

In Washington, he will seek to persuade Trump’s advisers that the planned handover secures the future of the Diego Garcia base.

UK ministers have insisted that uncertainty over the islands’ legal status threatened the base’s operation and that the deal had support from across the US security system. Joe Biden’s administration has offered its public backing to it.

Stephen Doughty, the minister for North America, said this month that Trump’s administration would be briefed on the full details of the deal to “allay any concerns”.

Although 11 rounds of negotiations for it were held under the previous government, several leading Conservatives have been critical of the agreement.

Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, has said it would “give away a key strategic asset” in the Indian Ocean. Tom Tugendhat, the shadow security minister, has claimed it could lead to China establishing its own military base in the Chagos Islands.

Mauritius has long argued it was forced to give the Chagos Islands away in return for independence from Britain in 1968. About 2,000 people were forcibly displaced from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s in what has been described as a crime against humanity and one of the most shameful episodes of postwar colonialism.

Five years ago the international court of justice issued an advisory opinion condemning the UK’s continued control over the Chagos Islands. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has argued that without a deal a binding judgment against the UK seemed inevitable, jeopardising the future of the base.

Egyptian naval forces recovered four bodies and rescued five more people from the Red Sea a day after a large tourist boat sank in rough waters, officials have said. Seven people are still missing.

The Red Sea governor, Amr Hanafi, said the yacht, called Sea Story, had been struck by high waves on Monday and sank in less than 7 minutes.

The 34-metre boat was carrying 30 tourists from several countries and 14 crew when it sent a distress signal at 5.30am local time (3.30am GMT) on Monday, according to the governorate’s Facebook page.

No information has been released about the nationalities of the people whose bodies were recovered. Officials previously said the missing people included Egyptians and foreigners. The BBC reported two of the missing were from the UK, although the British government has not confirmed that report.

Statements from rescued crew members and tourists indicated the boat capsized after being hit by fast-moving waves, the governorate’s statement said. Some of the passengers were inside the cabins when the waves hit the four-decked, wooden-hulled motorised yacht, according to the statement.

Weather forecasters had previously released warnings of rough waters and high winds.

Of the 44 people onboard, 13 were Egyptians, including some crew, and 31 were foreign nationals from the US, Germany, UK, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, China, Slovakia, Spain and Ireland.

More than two dozen people were rescued on Monday from the vessel south of the coastal town of Marsa Alam, some of them being airlifted to receive medical treatment. Two of those rescued were from the UK, according to the BBC. The UK Foreign Office confirmed it was providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families after the incident.

A further five people – two Belgians, an Egyptian, a Swiss citizen and a Finnish national – were rescued on Tuesday, the Red Sea governorate said.

The German foreign ministry said three of its citizens were missing, and three others had been rescued. Poland also confirmed two of its nationals, a man and a woman, were missing.

Ireland’s government confirmed on Tuesday that an Irish citizen who was onboard was safe. “My understanding is that the Irish citizen is OK and receiving consular assistance,” the foreign affairs minister, Micheál Martin, told reporters in Dublin.

Spain’s foreign ministry has said five Spanish nationals were rescued and were out of danger.

Renowned for its coral reefs, the Red Sea is a major hub for Egypt’s tourism industry.

The governorate’s Facebook page showed photos on Monday of what appeared to be rescued tourists speaking to the governor.

The Sea Story was built in 2022 and can hold 36 passengers. The boat had no technical problems, obtained all required permits prior to the trip, and was last checked for naval safety in March, according to officials. It had left Marsa Alam for a five-day journey.

Egypt’s meteorological authority on Saturday warned about turbulence and high waves on the Red Sea and advised against maritime activity for Sunday and Monday.

The Egyptian military was coordinating rescue operations with the governorate.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Egyptian naval forces recovered four bodies and rescued five more people from the Red Sea a day after a large tourist boat sank in rough waters, officials have said. Seven people are still missing.

The Red Sea governor, Amr Hanafi, said the yacht, called Sea Story, had been struck by high waves on Monday and sank in less than 7 minutes.

The 34-metre boat was carrying 30 tourists from several countries and 14 crew when it sent a distress signal at 5.30am local time (3.30am GMT) on Monday, according to the governorate’s Facebook page.

No information has been released about the nationalities of the people whose bodies were recovered. Officials previously said the missing people included Egyptians and foreigners. The BBC reported two of the missing were from the UK, although the British government has not confirmed that report.

Statements from rescued crew members and tourists indicated the boat capsized after being hit by fast-moving waves, the governorate’s statement said. Some of the passengers were inside the cabins when the waves hit the four-decked, wooden-hulled motorised yacht, according to the statement.

Weather forecasters had previously released warnings of rough waters and high winds.

Of the 44 people onboard, 13 were Egyptians, including some crew, and 31 were foreign nationals from the US, Germany, UK, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, China, Slovakia, Spain and Ireland.

More than two dozen people were rescued on Monday from the vessel south of the coastal town of Marsa Alam, some of them being airlifted to receive medical treatment. Two of those rescued were from the UK, according to the BBC. The UK Foreign Office confirmed it was providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families after the incident.

A further five people – two Belgians, an Egyptian, a Swiss citizen and a Finnish national – were rescued on Tuesday, the Red Sea governorate said.

The German foreign ministry said three of its citizens were missing, and three others had been rescued. Poland also confirmed two of its nationals, a man and a woman, were missing.

Ireland’s government confirmed on Tuesday that an Irish citizen who was onboard was safe. “My understanding is that the Irish citizen is OK and receiving consular assistance,” the foreign affairs minister, Micheál Martin, told reporters in Dublin.

Spain’s foreign ministry has said five Spanish nationals were rescued and were out of danger.

Renowned for its coral reefs, the Red Sea is a major hub for Egypt’s tourism industry.

The governorate’s Facebook page showed photos on Monday of what appeared to be rescued tourists speaking to the governor.

The Sea Story was built in 2022 and can hold 36 passengers. The boat had no technical problems, obtained all required permits prior to the trip, and was last checked for naval safety in March, according to officials. It had left Marsa Alam for a five-day journey.

Egypt’s meteorological authority on Saturday warned about turbulence and high waves on the Red Sea and advised against maritime activity for Sunday and Monday.

The Egyptian military was coordinating rescue operations with the governorate.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Ireland’s three main parties are almost neck and neck in the polls ahead of Friday’s general election, as the taoiseach, Simon Harris, struggles to contain the damage inflicted on his campaign by a disastrous interaction with an angry care worker.

In what has been called the “Simon slump”, Fine Gael, the centre-right party which Harris leads, and which seemed almost certain to top the polls, is now under pressure. An Irish Times poll on Monday showed FG had lost its commanding lead of two weeks ago and was down six points.

With the three largest parties all now within two percentage points of one another, a three-way TV debate on Tuesday night between Harris, Micheál Martin, the leader of his government partner Fianna Fáil, and Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin leader, is seen as critical.

Emblematic of a campaign which has been brief but, critics say, full of missteps, Harris’s testy handling of concerns raised by Charlotte Fallon in Kanturk, County Cork, last week has come to dominate recent days’ coverage.

In footage that went viral after being filmed on Friday, Fallon, a disability care worker, accused Harris of doing “nothing” for her sector in the budget, adding she was “not confident” that real changes would be made if he were returned to power.

Harris appeared to dismiss her words, saying “that’s not true” several times before shaking her hand and walking off abruptly. Since then, he has been forced to apologise repeatedly.

On Monday, he admitted he had handled the exchange badly. “I got it completely wrong. I was wrong, simple as,” he said, adding that he had spoken to Fallon and apologised for falling short.

In the same interview with RTÉ, he said: “I didn’t meet my own standards, let alone anybody else’s.” He was particularly annoyed with himself, he added, because he had a brother with additional needs.

“I have been that 16-year-old teenager who’s watched my own mother cry with frustration at being a mother of a child with special educational needs,” he said. “I know what it’s like.

“I know what it’s like to be in a family where you feel isolated, where you feel let down, where you fight for services. And, on that issue, of all issues, I am so passionate about it.”

In an interview with Cork Today radio, Fallon said it was “beyond time” that the government rectified a difference in pay between disability workers like her and those employed elsewhere in the Irish health service.

Fallon said she couldn’t understand why people were congratulating the taoiseach as he walked around the supermarket and that was why she buttonholed him.

With just two days to the election, Harris is struggling to shake the incident off.

The Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll showed that the momentum has drained from Fine Gael, which is predicted to get around 19% of the vote, with Sinn Féin ahead by one point on 20% of the vote, and Fianna Fáil two points ahead at 21%.

Police in Laos have detained the manager and seven staff of a backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng following the deaths of six tourists from suspected methanol poisoning, state media reported on Tuesday.

Two Danish citizens, an American, a Briton and two Australians died after what media said was a night out in the town on 12 November.

Police have detained the 34-year-old manager of the Nana backpacker hostel and seven other employees for interrogation, the Laos Post said on Tuesday.

Local media reported that all those detained were Vietnamese nationals.

Vang Vieng has been a fixture on the south-east Asia backpacker trail since Laos’ secretive communist rulers opened the country to tourism decades ago.

The town was once synonymous with alcohol and drug-fuelled jungle parties for backpackers but has since re-branded as an eco-tourism destination.

Alcohol tainted with methanol is suspected to be the cause of the deaths.

Methanol is a toxic alcohol that can be added to liquor to increase its potency but can cause blindness, liver damage and death.

On their travel advice websites, UK and Australian authorities have warned their citizens to beware of methanol poisoning while consuming alcohol in Laos.

On Saturday the Laos government expressed “sincere sympathy and deepest condolences to the families of the deceased”, adding an investigation was under way to find the cause of the incident.

Social media influencers need “urgent” help to check their facts before they broadcast to their followers, in order to reduce the spread of misinformation online, Unesco has warned.

According to a report by the UN’s educational, scientific and cultural organisation, two-thirds of content creators fail to check the accuracy of their material, making them and their followers vulnerable to misinformation.

Unesco said its findings, which come from a survey of influencers, underlined the need for media and literacy teaching to help shape their work.

“The low prevalence of factchecking highlights their vulnerability to misinformation, which can have far-reaching consequences for public discourse and trust in media,” the report said.

Six out of 10 creators said they had not verified the accuracy of their information before sharing it with the audience, while the research found that creators generally didn’t use official sources such as government documents and websites.

The most common source was “personal experience/encounter” followed by creators’ own research or talking to people knowledgable about the subject, with mainstream and non-mainstream news sources joint third.

Unesco’s research found that four out of 10 creators cited the “popularity” of an online source – measured by the number of likes and views – as a key indicator of whether it was credible or not.

“The prevalent lack of rigorous critical evaluation of information highlights an urgent need to enhance creators’ media information literacy skills,” the report said.

Unesco has teamed up with the US-based Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas – part of the University of Texas – to offer an online course in “how to be a trusted voice online”, which includes modules on factchecking and creating content about elections or crises. Unesco said 9,000 influencers had already registered for the free, month-long course.

Adeline Hulin, a specialist in media literacy at Unesco, said some influencers were surprised that their work could be viewed as news journalism. “They don’t really put themselves in that category,” she said.

Salomé Saqué, a French journalist and popular “news influencer”, said many creators were not familiar with journalistic practice and needed to have a better understanding of the impact that their work could have. More professional journalists should use social media to disseminate their work, she added.

Nearly half the creators contacted by Unesco said they had a “partial” knowledge of the laws related to freedom of expression, defamation and copyright in their country, but would not consider themselves as knowledgable.

More than a quarter of the creators were not aware of regulations covering their work in the country where they operated. Only half of the creators surveyed clearly disclosed sponsors, donors or funding sources to their audiences. In the US and UK, influencers are required to tell users if their post is sponsored.

Unesco based its findings on a survey of 500 content creators from 45 countries and territories, with the majority from Europe and Asia. It said most of the respondents were under 35 years old and “nano-influencers”, with up to 10,000 followers whose main platforms of choice are Instagram and Facebook. About a quarter had up to 100,000 followers.

The glass ceiling for women in top roles at FTSE 250 companies is still “stubbornly in place” according to the latest research, which found the number of women in executive director roles fell more than 10% in the past two years.

While gender diversity overall is improving in boardrooms, as more women are appointed to nonexecutive director (NED) roles, progress in the appointments of women at the top, executive-board level is in reverse, according to the research from Cranfield University and EY.

The academics behind the Female FTSE Board Report identified maternity bias, childcare policies and the male-dominated nature of the executive environment as factors that prevent women from securing the top jobs at listed companies.

The number of women holding executive positions at FTSE 250 firms fell from 47 in 2022 to 42 in 2024, the report found, a decline of 11%.

Women hold 42% of overall directorships on FTSE 250 boards, an increase of 3% from 2022. In addition, 174 FTSE 250 companies now have at least 40% female representation on their board, meaning that 70% of the firms have now met the target set by the government-backed annual FTSE Women Leaders Review.

However, the headline figures do not tell the full story, according to the academics behind the 25th annual edition of the Cranfield report.

“With the percentage of women in director roles meeting the Women Leaders Review targets, the headlines look great – but the persistent reality remains that the glass ceiling for women in executive level positions is still stubbornly in place,” said Sue Vinnicombe, a professor of women and leadership at Cranfield School of Management, who has overseen the Female FTSE Board Report since its first publication in 1999. “An ‘executive gender paradox’ across FTSE 250 boards has emerged, as the gap between the number of women in NED roles and executive roles grows.”

While 793 women held directorships on FTSE 250 boards in 2024, just 10 of them are chief executives, a 17% decline from 2022, and only 23 are chief financial officers, a 12% decline from 2022, and the number of chairs has remained constant at 35.

However, 125 of these women are senior independent directors, which is an increase of 50% since 2022, meaning that the increase in female representation among directors in FTSE 250 boardrooms was solely driven by women securing NED roles.

Just over a third (36%) of companies in the FTSE 100 have women in executive director roles, even though almost three-quarters (74%) of firms have met the target of having 40% of women on their boards.

“Through their own tenacity, drive and experiences some women do make it to the top positions, but once they get to the C-Suite [the highest-ranking executive level] they often find themselves unsupported and in a hostile, macho environment,” said Vinnicombe, adding that issues needed to be addressed to bring “significant and meaningful changes in the numbers of women executive directors”.

There isn’t a galaxy far, far away enough where women can escape sexist online trolls.

Emily Calandrelli became the 100th woman to go to space when she joined a group of six space tourists in a launch led by Blue Origin, the aerospace company owned by the billionaire Jeff Bezos.

“We got to weightlessness, I immediately turned upside down and looked at the planet and then there was so much blackness. There was so much space,” Calandrelli said in a video posted to social media that showed her reacting with awe to seeing Earth from space.

She added: “I didn’t expect to see so much space, and I kept saying that’s our planet! That’s our planet! It was the same feeling I got when my kids were born, and I was like, ‘That’s my baby!’”

But it was not long before the comments beneath the video were flooded with hateful, objectifying remarks.

The astronaut and MIT engineer said some sexualized her reaction to viewing the planet from space. The incident led to Blue Origin taking down the original video from its social media accounts.

Calandrelli, who also hosts a television show on Netflix called Emily’s Wonder Lab, where she’s known as “Space Gal”, said the reactions made her sad and angry, but she doubled down on her joy. In an Instagram post, she wrote she refuses “to give much time to the small men on the internet.

“I feel experiences in my soul. It’s a trait I got from my father,” she said. “We feel every emotion deeply and what a beautiful way that is to experience life. This joy is tattooed on my heart.

“I will not apologize or feel weird about my reaction. It’s wholly mine and I love it.”

Calandrelli said in an interview with CNN that the beauty of sending more women into space is that they “get to describe it in a way that moms can understand, that women can understand”.

Blue Origin did not respond to a request for comment.