Israeli forces say they intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi militants in Yemen targeting the southern city of Eilat, in retaliation for a series of strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.

The Houthi military spokesperson, Brig Gen Yahya Saree, said the militants fired multiple ballistic missiles towards Eilat and targeted an American ship in the Red Sea with missiles and drones, calling both attempts “successful”.

The group had promised a “huge” response to Israeli attacks, amid fears of increasing regional conflict. Gaza’s civil defence reported heavy fighting in the southern city of Rafah as well as dozens of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in the central part of the territory.

The Houthis’ “response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge,” said Saree.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its long-range Arrow 3 missile defence system intercepted the missiles directed at Eilat early on Sunday morning outside Israeli airspace, but sirens sounded as a warning to local people about possible falling shrapnel.

The attempted strikes on the port city follow a barrage of Israeli airstrikes targeting oil facilities and a power station near Hodeidah, which Saree said killed three people, wounded 87 and left columns of smoke and fire towering over the port facilities.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel selected the targets in Hodeidah as the port was used for “military purposes”.

“They used this weapon to attack Israel, to attack the countries of the region, to attack an international shipping lane, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world,” he said after the strikes.

The targeting of Hodeidah’s port facilities sparked fears for the provision of international aid into Yemen, where millions are facing starvation and an estimated 18.2 million people are in need of humanitarian relief according to the EU.

The UN development programme has previously described Hodeidah port as “critical to the delivery of food and humanitarian assistance”.

Saudi Arabian authorities said after the strikes the country had no involvement in the attack, and declined to allow its airspace to be used for the attacks despite a continuing conflict with Houthi militants.

Israeli forces struck Hodeidah in response to a rare drone attack on Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday morning, which killed one man and injured 10 others. While the Houthis hailed the assault as a success due to their developing drone capacity, Israeli authorities blamed “human error” for leaving a gap in air defences.

The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks as long as the Israeli assault on Gaza continues. Israeli strikes on the territory have killed more than 38,000 people in almost 10 months of war, the longest in the country’s history.

The group’s attacks on global shipping routes in the Red Sea have also caused serious disruptions to trade, forcing ships to take alternative routes away from Eilat and collapsing business in the port.

Netanyahu remains under increasing pressure at home, including from the Israeli public and his own military top brass, to agree a ceasefire deal that would release some of the estimated 116 hostages still held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and a pause in fighting.

The Israeli prime minister reportedly met negotiators before he was due to fly to Washington where he is expected to meet Joe Biden and address Congress this week. Netanyahu is now due to depart for the US on Monday morning and meet with Biden on Tuesday, his office said, without giving a reason for the delay.

Observers hope Netanyahu’s US trip will also provide a pathway to cool tensions in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, where the IDF is battling Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, and avert a regional war.

Hezbollah said it fired a barrage of rockets towards a kibbutz in northern Israel on Saturday, in response to an Israeli strike in Lebanon that hit an arms depot and wounded several people including children. Hamas militants based in Lebanon also fired on an Israeli army base, and a drone strike wounded two Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan heights.

Despite Washington’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, asserting that a ceasefire deal is near “the goal line”, observers fear that major gaps remain.

Those with close knowledge of the negotiations have said that US efforts to prevent a war between Israel and Lebanon have proven more successful than efforts to secure peace in Gaza. The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said this month that the group would halt attacks on Israel if a ceasefire in Gaza is secured.

About 200,000 people are estimated to be displaced on both sides of the “blue line” that marks the border.

Indonesian workers who paid thousands of pounds to travel to Britain and pick fruit at a farm supplying most big supermarkets have been sent home within weeks for not picking fast enough.

One of the workers said he had sold his family’s land, as well as his and his parents’ motorbikes, to cover the more than £2,000 cost of coming to Britain in May and was distressed to find himself unemployed with few possessions.

The labour exploitation watchdog is investigating allegations that he was one of several workers charged illegal fees of up to £1,100 by an Indonesian organisation claiming it would get them to the UK faster.

In Indonesia the worker earned about £100 a month selling food and said his parents were “very disappointed” as he had sold everything for a shot at helping his family. He said: “I feel confused and mad and angry about this situation. I have no job in Indonesia [and] I’ve spent all my money to come to the UK.”

The Guardian has spoken to four of the dismissed workers and in three cases seen evidence of apparent fee payments to a third party in addition to the more than £1,000 transferred for flights and visas to the licensed recruiters.

The allegations of illegal fees being paid in Indonesia raise questions about the risk of exploitation in the seasonal worker scheme, which allows workers from foreign countries a six-month visa to work on farms but makes them bear all the financial risk.

The Guardian understands the new immigration minister, Seema Malhotra, will look into exploitation in the work visa system to clamp down on exploitative practices. The Migration Advisory Committee recommended on Monday that seasonal visas should continue to “ensure food security” but that they should include more protections, such as guaranteeing at least two months of work.

Haygrove, a farm in Hereford that supplies soft fruit to British supermarkets, gave the man and four other workers warning letters about the speed of their picking before dismissing them between five and six weeks after they started work. They were booked on a flight home by their recruiters the next day.

The workers said the targets at the farm in Ledbury included picking 20kg of cherries an hour. Another of the sacked pickers said: “It was very hard to meet the target because day by day there was less fruit.”

He said he borrowed money from “the bank, friends and family” and that he was still more than £1,100 in debt. “Why have I ended up like this? Now I’m in Indonesia with no job … It’s not fair for me because I’ve sacrificed so much.”

Beverly Dixon, the managing director of farming at Haygrove, said the farm had consistently had to make up the men’s wages because of poor performance and had supported them to try to improve. She said targets were “set based on achievable standards with the majority of pickers sometimes achieving more than double that speed”.

The five men only arrived in Britain in mid-May and were all dismissed from Haygrove on 24 June, having earned between £2,555 and £3,874. Once the cost of coming to Britain – as well as living costs – were taken from this, several said they were left with significant debts.

Two of the men ran away to London and refused to board flights home booked for 25 June. They have now been given new jobs in a packhouse after an intervention by a migrant welfare activist.

Andy Hall, the migrant labour rights specialist who intervened on behalf of the men, said: “This scandal shows once again that the entire burden of shouldering the multiple risks associated with the seasonal workers scheme in the UK is placed not on supermarkets, farms, scheme operators or other supply chain actors but on vulnerable workers from overseas.”

A Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority investigation was opened last month. It is understood to be focused on allegations over the illegal charging of fees in Indonesia.

Dixon said Haygrove was “deeply concerned” to hear of the “alleged financial challenge faced by the Indonesian workers, particularly if one or more paid an illegal recruiter in Indonesia” and the farm was fully supporting the GLAA investigation.

The Guardian revealed that Indonesians were coming to Britain with debts of up to £5,000 to unlicensed foreign brokers in 2022. The debts were to third parties, and AG, the British agency that officially recruited them, lost its licence as a seasonal worker sponsor.

Since then, Indonesia had been considered a risky country to recruit from, but the route was reopened this year by a new UK recruiter, Agri-HR. It worked in partnership with the Indonesian agent PT Mardel Anugerah, which also secured a licence to recruit to Britain, and was being supported by the Indonesian embassy.

However, workers allege a third party in Indonesia, Forkom, which appears to be a communication hub for Indonesians trying to work abroad, recruited workers and charged fees, saying it could get them to Britain faster. It is illegal to recruit without a licence under UK and Indonesian law.

Agri-HR said: “On hearing these allegations, Agri-HR immediately contacted the GLAA with the request to investigate these claims. The GLAA interviewed some workers that same day and are continuing with their investigations and further worker interviews have taken place and are scheduled.”

Workers told the Guardian that Forkom was encouraging its members to put pressure on the families of the dismissed pickers who ran away, with one saying his family in Indonesia was visited at home at 3am.

In messages to a Forkom WhatsApp group of recruited workers, its chair, Agus Hariyono, encouraged those still in Indonesia to put pressure on the men who had run away in Britain by going to their family homes. In a follow-up video call to members, he then allegedly asked workers to delete records of any money paid to Forkom.

Hariyono said his organisation was a social forum set up for Indonesians with seasonal worker visas after some did not return from the 2022 season, meaning the visa route was closed down. He said one worker “entrusted funds” to Forkom but that “this was intended as a deposit” and the funds were returned to his account to pay PT Mardel Anugerah directly.

Hariyono said it conveyed messages to families to encourage those who were dismissed to return to Indonesia and prevent a repeat of the 2022 season where one in five overstayed their visa.

Delif Subeki, of PT Mardel Anugerah, said his recruitment agency was introduced to Forkom by the Indonesian ministry of manpower and made a commitment to “give priority” to members. Subeki said it “clearly informed” applicants that it was not using any third parties for recruitment and that no fees should be paid.

Bangladesh’s top court has scaled back the quotas on government jobs that led to widespread student-led protests and violent clashes that killed more than 100 people.

According to reports in local media, on Sunday afternoon the supreme court overturned a ruling that had reintroduced quotas for all civil service jobs, meaning that 30% were reserved for veterans and relatives of those who fought in the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.

The supreme court ruling, which was brought forward in light of the protests, stipulated that only 5% of jobs would now be reserved for veterans’ descendants and another 2% for those from ethnic minorities or with disabilities, with the rest open to candidates based on merit.

The return of the quotas, which had been scrapped in 2018, sparked anger among students, who argued they were unjust at a time of economic decline and unfairly benefited those in the ruling Awami League party, which was founded by those who fought in the independence war.

Peaceful demonstrations initially broke out on university campuses across the country as students mobilised through social media to demand an end to the quotas. However, the unrest turned violent last week as pro-government groups were accused of attacking the protesters with weapons and police used rubber bullets and teargas to break up protests.

Violent clashes between pro-government forces and protesters have left thousands injured and killed about 150, though the government has refused to release official data on the death toll. Witnesses have alleged that police violence is responsible for a large number of the fatalities.

The government has also imposed a communications blackout, with the internet shut down and phone lines widely jammed. At least 70 leaders of the political opposition and several student leaders and activists have also been arrested, accused of stirring up unrest.

As the court ruling was given, the country remained under an indefinite strict curfew, with people banned from leaving their homes and gathering in any capacity. Police have been granted “shoot on sight” orders for those who violate the curfew.

Student organisers said the supreme court ruling did not mean the end of the protests, which have taken on a broader anti-government tone after the police crackdown, with many calling for the resignation of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

Mahfuzul Hasan, a protest coordinator from Jahangirnagar University, said they still had several demands that the government must meet before they would call off the demonstrations.

“Now we want justice for the lives lost of our brothers. The prime minister has to apologise and those who are guilty have to be tried,” he said. Hasan said student groups were also calling for the removal of vice-chancellors of universities where protesters faced violence, and politicians who spread inflammatory remarks about the protesters.

He said he was among many student protest leaders who now feared for their safety and were concerned about being “abducted” by law enforcement agencies, as has often happened to critics of Hasina’s government.

Another protest leader said they would not stop demonstrating until the supreme court ruling on quotas was passed as a bill in parliament.

Donald Trump launched a full-throated attack on Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday as he returned to the campaign trail a week after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In his first rally since the shocking shooting, and his first with new running mate Ohio senator JD Vance, Trump appeared on stage with the conspicuous white ear bandage he wore during the Republican national convention replaced by a smaller covering. He referred to the assassination attempt as a “horrific event” and said he stood before supporters “by the grace of God. I shouldn’t be here, but let’s face it, something very special happened.”

Trump said “he owed his life to immigration”, because he’d turned his head to the right toward a chart about border crossings fractionally before the bullet whizzed past his head, grazing his ear. “I hope I never have to go through that again,” Trump added. He said his opponents call him “a threat to democracy” but countered that he “took a bullet for democracy”.

Trump also referred to leadership chaos within the Democratic party, which has been consumed with a debate over whether Joe Biden should step down from his re-election bid amid concerns about his age and mental acuity. “They have no idea who their candidate is, and neither do we,” Trump jibed. He called Biden a “feeble old guy”.

Trump, appearing jocular and in good spirits during a lengthy speech, said he would rather be in Michigan than sitting “on some boring beach watching the waves coming in” – another dig at Biden, who is currently recovering from Covid at his Delaware beach home.

As Trump campaigned on Saturday, his team put out an official update on his injuries. Texas Representative Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House physician, said that the bullet fired from Crooks’ gun came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear” and produced a “2cm wide wound”.

Jackson said the wound is healing but that the former president is still experiencing some bleeding, requiring an ear dressing. “Given the broad and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required,” he wrote.

At the Michigan arena, the former US president went on to predict a landslide election, asking the crowd whether they preferred he run against Vice-President Kamala Harris, to loud boos, or Biden, to cheers. But he said he would also also be happy to run against Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer who, he said, has done “a terrible job”.

Trump hit his usual themes, attacking electric vehicles, China and trade and promising a massive effort on deportation. He talked in his usual extreme rhetoric, especially when it came to immigration, where he talked in dire terms of crimes committed by immigrants that echo rightwing conspiracy theories.

But Trump also pushed back on accusations that a second Trump presidency would be influenced by the extremist manifesto Project 2025 from the conservative Heritage Foundation and including scores of people close to Trump and his campaign.

The document, he said, had been produced by the “severe right – very, very conservative and the opposite of the radical left. I don’t know anything about it, and I don’t want to know anything about it.”

Trump was preceded on the stage by Vance, who received a warm reception, despite the sports rivalry between his home state of Ohio and Michigan.

Vance criticized both Republicans and Democrats in his speech for previously failing to protect manufacturing jobs in Michigan and the US. “Both parties were broken in very profound ways until Trump came along,” he said.

Crowds numbering in the thousands waited outside the 12,000-capacity Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to greet the former president amid what was expected to be improved security after the Secret Service and local police allowed 20-year-old would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to get on a roof with sightline of the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fire several shots at the former president.

Grand Rapids law enforcement declined to say whether it had deployed extra officers, referring questions to the presidential security agency. But, unlike the open county fair fairgrounds last week, Trump’s rally on Saturday was in an enclosed arena where security would be easier to secure and without, as in Butler, outer areas that were assigned to local police.

“I think what you’re going to see is just a visual increase of additional agents and certainly some pretty unprecedented level of police officers just because it’s the first event after the previous Saturday,” former Secret Service agent Jason Russell told Michigan Live.

Eric Winstrom, the Grand Rapids police chief, said his department had worked closely with federal partners on planning for the event “with solid operational planning, effective resource deployment, and an unwavering commitment to the safety of the community we serve”.

John Schaut, chair of the Republican party chapter in Kent, Michigan, told Michigan Live the shooting hadn’t deterred Trump fans and predicted “a blowout event”.

Michigan is one of a handful of must-win states for Trump and Biden. Recent polling averages place Trump with a 4% lead over Biden, at 46% to 42%. That tallies with the pattern in other key battleground states, especially in the wake of the disastrous debate performance by Biden three weeks ago that triggered a wave of panic in the party about this electability. On a national level, Trump has opened a lead against Biden in head-to-head surveys.

According to local news reports, supporters began arriving for the rally as early as Friday afternoon, and by midday Saturday, lines to get in to see Trump stretched six blocks.

“I think it’s amazing. It just shows how strong he is and we’re so very proud of him, not that we would expect anybody, if they weren’t up to it, to be here like this,” supporter Julie Bryant of Marshall, Michigan, told Michigan Live. “We’re just here to support, especially after what he’s just been through.”

Supporter Adam Salton said he’d been in line since 6am: “Screw the right and the left, this is about Trump, this is about us. He could be on a golf course right now, he could be with his family, but he’s out here doing this for us so I’ll stand out here for eight hours for him, because it’s for us.”

Barcelona’s mayor plans to raise the tourist tax for cruise passengers who visit the city for less than 12 hours as part of his continuing efforts to “tackle the consequences of mass tourism” in the Catalan capital.

Jaume Collboni, a member of the Catalan Socialist party, has announced a series of measures designed to reduce overtourism and improve the city’s housing situation since taking office last year.

Four weeks ago, Collboni said he would end apartment rentals to tourists by 2028 by scrapping the licences of the 10,101 apartments currently approved as short-term rentals. There have been huge protests across Spain against the damaging effect that the booming tourist industry is having on people’s daily lives.

In an interview with El País on Sunday, the mayor said he would seek to raise the tax paid by cruise passengers, which is now €7 (£6) a day, to ensure the city profited properly from their brief visits.

“Barcelona is a city that’s open to visitors and tourism is an important sector of its economy,” Collboni told the newspaper. “That said, I’m determined to tackle the consequences that mass tourism is having for the city. That means going all the way with the ban on tourist flats in 2028. But we’re also going to … substantially raise the tax for people on cruise stopovers.”

He said tourist flat rentals and short cruise stopovers were causing problems for the city and for its pursuit of quality tourism.

“When it comes to a choice between tourists using housing and the right to housing, we’ve decided to put the right to housing in Barcelona first,” Collboni said. “When it comes to stopover cruise passengers – less than 12 hours – you get an intensive use of public space without any benefit to the city and you get a feeling of occupation and saturation. We want a tourism that respects its destination.”

The mayor did not say by how much he was planning to raise the tax, saying only that studies had already been commissioned. Collboni added that the idea of the rise was not to deter cruise visitors but to ensure they paid their way and generated revenue that could be invested in projects such as installing air conditioning in schools.

He said his ban on tourist flats would not put off visitors and that the city and the surrounding area had sufficient hotel capacity to keep hosting large annual events such as the Mobile World Congress.

Last year Spain, which has a population of 47 million people, received a record 85.1 million international tourists, up 19% on 2022.

Growing anger and frustration over the unchecked growth of tourism has prompted a number of protests in recent months on the mainland and in the Balearic Islands and the Canaries.

At the heart of protesters’ grievances is the massively distorting effect that tourism has had on the housing market and on local people’s quality of life in the past few years.

“Over the past five years – but mainly since the pandemic – people have been feeling that everything’s oversaturated, that there are more and more tourists, and that leads to roads and public services becoming overloaded,” Rafael Giménez, of Prou Eivissa (Enough Ibiza), a group that is campaigning for limits on the number of visitors and vehicles on the island, told the Observer in May.

“Ibiza’s an island, so housing is limited by definition. The law of supply and demand has totally broken down.”

In April, Víctor Martín, a spokesperson for the collective Canarias se Agota (The Canaries Have Had Enough), said the problem was not tourists themselves but their numbers and the outdated tourist model that lured them to the archipelago.

“We’ve reached the point where the balance between the use of resources and the welfare of the population here has broken down, especially over the past year,” he said.

Another large demonstration is due to be held in Mallorca on Sunday evening. The protest in the capital, Palma, has been called by the Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) platform, under the slogan “Let’s change path, let’s put limits on tourism”.

Barcelona’s mayor plans to raise the tourist tax for cruise passengers who visit the city for less than 12 hours as part of his continuing efforts to “tackle the consequences of mass tourism” in the Catalan capital.

Jaume Collboni, a member of the Catalan Socialist party, has announced a series of measures designed to reduce overtourism and improve the city’s housing situation since taking office last year.

Four weeks ago, Collboni said he would end apartment rentals to tourists by 2028 by scrapping the licences of the 10,101 apartments currently approved as short-term rentals. There have been huge protests across Spain against the damaging effect that the booming tourist industry is having on people’s daily lives.

In an interview with El País on Sunday, the mayor said he would seek to raise the tax paid by cruise passengers, which is now €7 (£6) a day, to ensure the city profited properly from their brief visits.

“Barcelona is a city that’s open to visitors and tourism is an important sector of its economy,” Collboni told the newspaper. “That said, I’m determined to tackle the consequences that mass tourism is having for the city. That means going all the way with the ban on tourist flats in 2028. But we’re also going to … substantially raise the tax for people on cruise stopovers.”

He said tourist flat rentals and short cruise stopovers were causing problems for the city and for its pursuit of quality tourism.

“When it comes to a choice between tourists using housing and the right to housing, we’ve decided to put the right to housing in Barcelona first,” Collboni said. “When it comes to stopover cruise passengers – less than 12 hours – you get an intensive use of public space without any benefit to the city and you get a feeling of occupation and saturation. We want a tourism that respects its destination.”

The mayor did not say by how much he was planning to raise the tax, saying only that studies had already been commissioned. Collboni added that the idea of the rise was not to deter cruise visitors but to ensure they paid their way and generated revenue that could be invested in projects such as installing air conditioning in schools.

He said his ban on tourist flats would not put off visitors and that the city and the surrounding area had sufficient hotel capacity to keep hosting large annual events such as the Mobile World Congress.

Last year Spain, which has a population of 47 million people, received a record 85.1 million international tourists, up 19% on 2022.

Growing anger and frustration over the unchecked growth of tourism has prompted a number of protests in recent months on the mainland and in the Balearic Islands and the Canaries.

At the heart of protesters’ grievances is the massively distorting effect that tourism has had on the housing market and on local people’s quality of life in the past few years.

“Over the past five years – but mainly since the pandemic – people have been feeling that everything’s oversaturated, that there are more and more tourists, and that leads to roads and public services becoming overloaded,” Rafael Giménez, of Prou Eivissa (Enough Ibiza), a group that is campaigning for limits on the number of visitors and vehicles on the island, told the Observer in May.

“Ibiza’s an island, so housing is limited by definition. The law of supply and demand has totally broken down.”

In April, Víctor Martín, a spokesperson for the collective Canarias se Agota (The Canaries Have Had Enough), said the problem was not tourists themselves but their numbers and the outdated tourist model that lured them to the archipelago.

“We’ve reached the point where the balance between the use of resources and the welfare of the population here has broken down, especially over the past year,” he said.

Another large demonstration is due to be held in Mallorca on Sunday evening. The protest in the capital, Palma, has been called by the Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) platform, under the slogan “Let’s change path, let’s put limits on tourism”.

The first “multibank” in London, distributing everything from basic foods to baby products and toiletries, will be officially launched this week, amid continued concerns about levels of poverty as the school summer holidays begin.

The opening of Felix’s Multibank, which has the backing of former prime minister Gordon Brown and London mayor Sadiq Khan, is the latest in a growing network of multibanks.

Brown said the new project was opening at a time when the country’s approach to the problem of destitution would change. There have been continued calls from within Labour for Keir Starmer to take stronger action on child poverty.

Brown said: “The London Felix Multibank is the fourth of six that will be opened by the end of this year across Britain. It is opening at a time of transition from a Britain where child poverty has risen dramatically to one where we wish to see child poverty falling.

“As a new anti-poverty plan is being prepared, the multibanks still need to secure more supplies and more funds from generous donors so that, working with food banks, we can provide poverty relief.”

While the concept was pioneered in Fife, Scotland, there are already multibanks operating in Greater Manchester and Swansea. Thousands of families are set to be helped by the new scheme in west London, overseen by the Felix Project, which sources surplus from the food industry that would otherwise go to waste.

Supplies donated by businesses, with Amazon the biggest contributor, will be distributed directly to teachers, social workers and other groups working directly with those struggling to afford basic necessities.

Some public funding has also been supplied for the London site’s running costs, while Amazon is also helping to run the logistics of the operation.New research this month revealed the scale of concern among teaching staff about the health of children this summer, when those in need will not have access to free school meals and other help provided in term time.

More than two-thirds of teachers in England recently said they were worried that at least one child in their class will experience hunger during the summer holidays because their parents or carers cannot afford to feed them, according to a survey by the Teacher Tapp group.

In London, a survey of 1,118 teachers also found that 68% of teachers believed at least one child in their class will experience hunger because parents and carers cannot afford to feed them during the holidays. Nearly half were worried about between one and three pupils.

Advocates of the multibank model say that it can be a powerful addition to fighting local poverty by redistributing stock that cannot be sold and taking donations from the corporate world.

However, there continues to be concern among charities about the degree to which food banks and related projects have now become a permanent fixture in relieving hardship as a result of cuts to the welfare state.

Khan said it was “appalling that so many families are going without essentials and having to turn to others for help due to the cost of living crisis”.

He added: “That’s why I pledged to support the introduction of multibanks in the capital as part of my work to help Londoners who are struggling to make ends meet.

“Multibanks do incredible work with charities and community organisations to get supplies to those who need them the most. I’m proud to be supporting the Felix Project to bring this multibank to London, as we build a fairer London for everyone.”

John Boumphrey, country manager for Amazon’s business across the UK and Ireland, said: “I am delighted we’re working with the Felix Project to launch Felix’s Multibank in London this week – the fourth multibank we’ve opened across the UK since we first launched in Scotland two years ago.

“When we work hand in hand with local charities, community groups and other businesses to provide donations and support, we know we can make a huge difference for families in need.”

Conservation groups across England are seeing more malnourished bats, as wildlife experts warn the washout summer is driving down the insects, butterflies and moths they feed on.

Groups across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Worcestershire, Essex and South Lancashire said they are seeing an increase in the number of “starving” or “underweight” bats, often juveniles, who need to be rescued and cared for by volunteers. In some places, they are seeing fewer bats than they usually do in the summer.

There has been a decline in UK insect populations for decades, linked to the climate emergency and widespread use of pesticides. Some believe it has been exacerbated by this year’s record wet weather.

“Any decline in insects can have a serious negative impact for all of the UK’s 17 breeding bat species since they all feed on insects,” said Dr Joe Nunez-Mino, spokesperson for the Bat Conservation Trust, which runs the National Bat Helpline and refers serious rescue cases to local volunteers.

Last year, the trust found that the UK populations of two species – the brown long-eared bat and the horseshoe bat – had declined by more than 10% over the past five years. It is running a long-term study to understand the impact of the climate emergency on bat species.

Bats in the UK are threatened by habitat destruction, increasing use of artificial light and building developments. Nunez-Mino said all these factors affect bats and the insects they feed on.

People can help the charity track bat populations through its annual National Bat Monitoring Project this summer.

The charity Butterfly Conservation is reporting a “noticeable lack” of butterflies and moths this year. Dr Dan Hoare, director of conservation said: “This is likely to be because of the wet spring and now the colder than normal temperatures. Butterflies and moths need some warmth and dry conditions to be able to fly around and mate – if the weather doesn’t allow them to do this, there will be fewer opportunities to breed.”

The charity is urging everyone to participate in its annual Big Butterfly Count before 4 August, another leading citizen science project that helps ascertain the health of the UK populations. As indicator species, the presence – or absence – of butterflies and moths shows how healthy the wider environment and ecosystem are.

In the east of England, experts have been called on to rescue malnourished bats from across Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Essex and Suffolk this summer.

“Some of our carers are looking after 20 bats,” said Jonathan Durward, ecologist and treasurer of Cambridgeshire Bat Group, adding that most are juveniles and pups who are “incredibly” underweight: “They’re all starving.”

He thinks many bats, particularly juveniles, are travelling farther and flying for longer to find food. As furry mammals, bats must warm up after getting cold and wet, expending vital energy that – in June and July – lactating mothers would normally use to suckle their pups.

“It’s been extremely wet, cold and windy around here this summer,” said Durward. “But if they don’t go out in the cold and the rain, they’re losing a night’s food.”

Many of the juvenile bats they are rescuing weigh 50% of what ecologists would expect to see, Durward said.

“They are a lot thinner and lighter than they have been in previous years. Almost all are in poor condition, not just underweight.” He added that the less bats eat, the less healthy and more susceptible they may become to parasitic infections.

At East Winch Wildlife Hospital in Norfolk, vets have been caring for almost twice as many bats as usual. “We’ve had a high number of juveniles, compared to last year. It does make you wonder whether the adults are struggling to find food and therefore struggling to produce milk for the babies,” said the deputy centre manager, Alice Puchalka.

Twenty miles away, in Pensthorpe natural park, reserve manager Richard Spowage said wardens have observed noticeably fewer bats this summer than usual.

“Anecdotally, we’re seeing fewer bats in the evening – but also, similarly, we’re not seeing the butterflies and moths that we would expect. They’ve not been emerging in the numbers they should be and they’ve only got a limited time to breed and lay eggs.”

Fewer insects reproducing this year is likely to mean fewer insects next year, Spowage said. “It’s a downward spiral.”

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, says the company at the centre of the world’s largest ever IT outage has told the federal government it is close to an automatic fix which would allow systems to return online.

The global outage on Friday afternoon occurred after the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike updated a widely used cloud-based software product called Falcon.

The update to the Falcon software, which interacts with other parts of computer systems and software like Microsoft’s Windows products, caused a malfunction that essentially disabled those systems globally.

Microsoft, in a blog post update from its vice-president of operating systems security, David Weston, said it estimated 8.5m Windows devices had been affected around the world.

O’Neil posted on social media on Sunday afternoon that a meeting of federal and state governments and the private sector had been told by Crowdstrike that “that they are now close to rolling out an automatic fix to the issue with their update, as is Microsoft”.

The meeting occurred as part of the national coordination mechanism, which was established during the Covid-19 pandemic to draw federal, state and territory governments and agencies together along with the private sector.

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It is the third meeting of the mechanism since the outage.

“This should increase the speed at which systems across the economy are back online,” O’Neil posted on X.

“There has been a huge amount of work over this weekend to get the economy back up and running.

“However, it will take time until all affected sectors are completely back online. In some cases we may see teething issues for one or two weeks.”

On Sunday Crowdstrike said the “issue has been identified and isolated, and a fix has been deployed”, and reiterated that it had not been a cyberattack. It advised customers to check the company’s support portal for software updates.

“We understand the gravity of this situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption,” it said.

O’Neil said there had been no impact to critical infrastructure or government services caused by the outage.

She said supermarkets, like many other sectors, were still experiencing issues, but said the sector stressed during the meeting that there were no food shortages and no need to stockpile.

O’Neil also warned again about scammers trying to exploit the outage.

“Examples that have been reported include people posed as airlines offering to resolve issues with delayed flights and criminals posing as technical support offering to fix affected technology.

“It is very important that Australians are extremely cautious of any unexpected texts, calls or emails claiming to be assistance with this issue.

“You can help by making sure vulnerable people, including elderly relatives, are being extra cautious at this time.”

Australia’s largest business organisation said it could be days before some businesses returned to trading.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO, Andrew McKellar, said smaller businesses may have to wait until Monday to get IT support.

“Its timing couldn’t have been worse on a Friday, and in particular, impacting on a Friday afternoon,” he said.

“That’s meant for many businesses, they’re going to have to wait until early next week to put in place the fixes that they need to do.”

McKellar said it was difficult to say how much the IT outage has cost businesses.

He said it would be unlikely businesses would be able to receive compensation for their losses, but that it may depend on their contractual arrangements.

“Across the board there’s been a wide impact, that’s cost a lot of businesses time, money, lost sales … it’s very hard to put a dollar figure on that,” he said.

“[The losses] are material, they are significant, we have to hope most businesses can weather that sort of impact.”

A committee chartered to find ways to stop ambulances from sending patients exorbitant bills is set to tell Congress that patients should pay no more than $100 or 10% of a bill, depending on which is less.

The recommendation, which still relies on the convoluted private insurance industry, comes as nearly half of all ambulance rides in the US result in a “surprise bill” of often hundreds of dollars.

“America has decided to use an insurance system to spread the risk among many,” said Patricia Kelmar, senior director of healthcare campaigns at US Pirg, a consumer advocacy group.

“But when it comes to ambulances, without a surprise billing protection, that risk isn’t spread – the person who needs the ambulance is paying a lot more than anyone else who has that insurance.”

Kelmar was the lone consumer spokesperson on the committee formally known as the Advisory Committee on Ground Ambulance and Patient Billing. Other committee members included emergency service providers, ambulance companies, insurance industry insiders and representatives of federal agencies.

The committee was chartered when the former president Donald Trump signed the No Surprises Act in 2020 – a bipartisan bill to stop patients from receiving “surprise bills”. Although the legislation stops an estimated 10m surprise bills a year from reaching patients, ground ambulances are conspicuously excluded.

Surprise bills are in effect a dispute between insurance companies and healthcare providers. When a person takes an ambulance that is not directly contracted with an insurance company, they can bill insurance any amount they please. The remainder of the bill is then the patient’s responsibility. Hence, surprise bills are often called “balance bills”. And they can cost thousands.

For instance, Theo is a Washington state infant who arrived earlier than expected and needed to be transferred between hospitals for specialized care. The hospital ordered the ambulance, and the family was grateful for the good care.

Then the family received a $7,000 bill.

Insurance paid only a small portion – $1,000. The family tried to negotiate with both the ambulance and insurance companies, but were rebuffed. Now, they are now on a 30-month payment plan. Theo will be nearly three years old by the time the balance is satisfied.

“The hospital arranged the transportation, we didn’t have a say,” the parents said, in a presentation by Pirg. “We are grateful for the care, but surprised that even though we have good insurance we owe so much because the ambulance was out-of-network.”

Part of the reason Congress has found it difficult to regulate ground ambulances is because there are so many parties to please. Ambulances were once considered a public good and were funded by the federal government. But in 1981, the Reagan administration transformed funding for emergency medical transportation into limited block grants which states could then spend as they wish.

With federal funding diminished and states facing varying political and budget pressures, localities closed some public facilities, contracted with private companies and both began to seek payment from health insurance companies.

Now, a hodge-podge of private and public entities provide emergency medical transport, and stick patients with surprise bills as much as half of the time, according to Pirg. Privately insured Americans paid an average of $129m in surprise ambulance bills between 2013 and 2017, according to an article examining the problem in the journal Health Affairs.

Private equity has also prospered. Two of the three largest ground and air ambulance companies are now owned by private equity, which in some places has resulted in aggressive billing and collections.

“There was no discussion of whether or not we were going to ban balance billing,” said Dr Ritu Sahni, an emergency medicine doctor and a committee member at a panel discussion on their findings. “Balance billing created a barrier to good healthcare. But it was the ‘yes and’ component – how do we ensure the safety and survival of our community by making sure the future of the EMS service was secure?”

The committee coalesced around a set of recommendations to Congress that continue to rely on private insurance. They said patients with private insurance should be covered when they call 911 or are transferred between hospitals, like Theo’s family. A patient should pay no more than the lesser of 10% of a bill or $100. And, insurance should pay ambulances in a timely manner.

Although the committee published its top-line findings, the full report will not be available until it is sent to Congress, which is expected in the coming weeks. Whether Congress will act on the recommendations is unclear. Eighteen states offer some kind of consumer protection from surprise ambulance bills.

“In many ways we’re locked into the system we have and we’re trying to solve for the system we have,” said Kelmar. “But it’s a really important public policy question to know: should we keep this system? Is this the way we want to pay for emergency transportation service? Do we want private equity running ambulance services in communities?”

Britain’s cultural sector is in a critical condition, with levels of investment and development far lower than in many other European countries, says a major arts report to be unveiled on Monday evening.

Analysis shared exclusively with the Observer shows that while Britain has cut back its total culture budget by 6% since 2010, Germany, France and Finland have each increased their spending by up to 70%.

The findings of the academic “crisis” report, produced from research conducted by the University of Warwick and the Campaign for the Arts pressure group, will be announced in the House of Lords to a group of arts leaders and politicians, including the new minister for culture, media and sport (DCMS), Chris Bryant, with the support of Melvyn Bragg and musician and lecturer Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason.

By looking at support and investment levels between two comparative periods of recent history, 2009-10 and 2022-23, the State of the Arts report has uncovered big drops in spending per person in real terms.

Local government revenue funding of culture and related services has decreased by 39% in Scotland, 40% in Wales and 48% in England, partly due to the rising costs and demand for statutory services like social care. Core funding for the DCMS’s support of cultural organisations has decreased by 18% to only 0.17% of total public spending per person. And the core funding going out from arts councils has decreased by 18% in England, 22% in Scotland, 25% in Wales and 66% in Northern Ireland.

The research also identifies a big problem for arts education, with “reduced funding and a marginalisation of the arts in English state schools”, producing what the report describes as “catastrophic declines in participation and enrolment”. The report highlights a slump in arts education and employment, with GCSE and A-level entries in arts subjects plummeting by 47% and 29% respectively since 2010.

In a summary of this growing academic deficit, the report claims: “Arts education faces critical challenges, from unequal opportunities in early years to course closures in universities nationwide.”

Heidi Ashton, lead researcher at the University of Warwick, told the Observer: “The decade-long declines presented in the report represent a lack of support in all areas, from funding to education to employment, so what is required is a fundamental shift in our thinking about the role of the arts in society. This report has provided a benchmark and information to inform decisions for a more equitable future.”

The report also investigated the earnings of arts professionals in the cultural sector and found them to be consistently below the UK median, with clear regional and gender pay gaps. These were most evident when it comes to craft skills, where men earn 70% more than women.

Speaking ahead of the report’s release Jack Gamble, director of Campaign for the Arts, said: “It’s no secret that it’s been a tough few years for the arts, but the State of the Arts report reveals that things are even worse than we feared. The UK now has one of the lowest levels of public funding for the arts and culture among European nations. Local government investment and arts subject entries at GCSE have both almost halved since 2010. Our new government inherits a huge challenge to turn this around and break down barriers to opportunity in the arts.”