The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has laid out details of his “victory plan” in a speech to parliament that acknowledged increasing pressure from allies to negotiate an end to the conflict.

An “unconditional invite” to join Nato is at the heart of the plan he had pitched in private meetings in Washington DC and on a tour of European capitals before unveiling it publicly in Kyiv on Wednesday.

“We heard the word ‘negotiations’ from partners, and the word ‘justice’ much less often,” he admitted to lawmakers. His project was a response to that, he said, offering a chance of “decent peace” for the country.

A commitment to allow Ukraine into Nato would show the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, that his geopolitical plans were “headed for defeat”, Zelenskyy said.

Later on Wednesday, Zelenskiy spoke to Joe Biden, who announced a new $425m (£327m) military aid package, including air defence capability, air-to-ground munitions, armoured vehicles and critical munitions, the White House said in a statement.

Ukraine’s allies have been wary of the conflict expanding since Putin launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022 and began threatening to use nuclear weapons soon after.

The Nato chief, Mark Rutte, gave a muted response to Zelenskyy’s plans, saying that he and allies “take note” of it.

“The plan has many aspects and many political and military issues we really need to hammer out with the Ukrainians to understand what is behind it, to see what we can do, what we cannot do,” Rutte said.

Moscow rapidly denounced Zelenskyy’s proposal as an escalation. “He is pushing Nato into direct conflict with our country,” the foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, told reporters.

Zelenskyy also ruled out conceding territory to Russia, although analysts have said allowing Moscow effective control of some territory seized over nearly three years of war would be needed to halt fighting.

Overall, the vision laid out by Zelenskyy was as much an attempt to shift the global narrative around Ukraine’s future prospects as a strategic military project.

As the full-scale war heads towards its fourth year, Russia has been throwing soldiers and weapons into a slow but consistent advance on the eastern front.

The crisis in the Middle East has diverted funds and diplomatic attention from Ukraine, and if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election next month then Zelenskyy could soon be making his case to a hostile administration in Washington.

Zelenskyy described a Ukraine that could achieve a “just peace” if allies gave it better defence capabilities and a strategic non-nuclear deterrent, and that could then reward those who stood by it with investment opportunities.

Key to Ukraine’s economic potential are strategic mineral deposits that he said were worth trillions of dollars, including uranium, titanium, lithium and graphite, and the country’s rich soil, which produces a significant portion of the world’s wheat.

These were “strategically valuable resources and they will strengthen either Russia and its allies or Ukraine and the democratic world”, Zelenskyy said.

When the war with Russia ended, Ukraine would also have ranks of battle-hardened troops who could strengthen Nato forces in Europe and worldwide, he added.

Zelenskyy also argued that supporting Ukraine was as much self-defence as solidarity, describing a war that was already metastasising beyond Europe, with North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russians troops for a state deploying Iranian weapons and cheered on by China.

“Russia and its allies want more wars. And that’s a fact. They are learning, and the more time they have to learn … the more the world will have to pay, unfortunately and inevitably, for the right to life, for the right to peace,” he said.

Artem Mazhulin contributed reporting

Florida officials have arrested the man who left his dog tied to a post in floodwaters ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall.

Florida state troopers found the dog last week, abandoned on the side of Interstate-75 in Tampa with flood waters up to his chest. The Florida highway patrol shared a video at the time of the bodycam footage and a caption: “Do NOT do this to your pets please … ”

On Monday the former owner, Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23, of Ruskin, Florida, was arrested for aggravated animal cruelty.

The dog has been renamed from Jumbo to Trooper, the department of highway safety and motor vehicles said. At a news conference on Tuesday, Ron DeSantis said Trooper was currently in Tallahassee and will be adopted.

“The dog was very rattled from that experience,” the Florida governor said. “We said at the time, you don’t just tie up a dog and have them out there for a storm, totally unacceptable, and we’re gonna hold you accountable.”

According to online jail records reviewed by the Guardian, Aldama Garcia was released on a $2,500 cash bond on Tuesday after his Monday arrest. It is unclear when he is due in court for a hearing.

The office of Suzy Lopez, the state attorney who serves the 13th judicial circuit in Tampa and is overseeing this case, said in a news release that Aldama Garcia told investigators he was driving to Georgia to escape the hurricane but left his dog on the side of the road because he couldn’t find anyone to take him.

The dog was eventually rescued after a state trooper, Orlando Morales, got a tip from a driver. By the time he found the dog, the water had risen to the animal’s neck.

According to ABC News, two days later Aldama Garcia went to a local animal shelter to retrieve the dog, bringing pictures as proof of ownership, but the dog turned out to be in a different shelter. Aldama Garcia told them that he’d surrender ownership “if the current foster will take good care and love the dog”, and filled out the required paperwork to give up the dog, according to the affidavit seen by ABC News.

“In Hillsborough county, we take animal cruelty very seriously” Lopez said. “This defendant is charged with a felony and could face up to five years in prison for his actions. Quite frankly, I don’t think that is enough. Hopefully, lawmakers take a look at this case and discuss changing the law to allow for harsher penalties for people who abandon their animals during a state of emergency.”

Lopez also thanked Morales: “He’s an animal lover and father to a rescue dog himself. Thank you for your dedication to all of our residents – including the four-legged ones.”

More than 1,400 vehicles have been seized from drivers who have persistently ignored fines relating to London’s Ulez clean air zone, Transport for London has revealed, with more than £25m being recouped by bailiffs.

Bailiffs working on TfL’s behalf seized 1,429 vehicles in the last year from drivers who had repeatedly ignored penalty charge notices, with £710,000 being raised from the sale of nearly 800 of these cars.

The figures, which cover the 12 months up to the end of July, come a year after the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, extended the Ulez to cover all 32 London boroughs from a previous zone that covered the area between the capital’s north and south circular roads.

Vehicles that do not meet certain emissions standards and are caught using roads in the zone must pay a £12.50 daily charge, or a fine of up to £180 for non-payment.

If drivers do not pay this penalty it is registered as an unpaid debt and an order is made for recovery. If it remains unpaid, a warrant is issued which allows bailiffs to recover the outstanding debt.

TfL said that in the past 12 months bailiffs had recouped £25.6m from those who refused to pay penalty charge notices. This included one driver who was forced to settle a balance of £16,000 after 45 warrants were issued against them. In another case, a driver saw their vehicle seized to pay off an outstanding balance after ignoring 10 warrants.

TfL has hailed the Ulez expansion as a success, pointing to research showing that it has reduced levels of harmful air pollutants significantly since its introduction, as well as helping with the climate emergency by cutting London’s emissions.

However, the scheme has also faced a strong backlash from some quarters, including owners of non-compliant vehicles refusing to pay fines and others vandalising the cameras that police the zone.

TfL said a significant amount of debt remained outstanding and it was now tripling the number of staff in its investigations to help enforcement agencies target repeat offenders.

While the compliance of a vehicle is based on declared emissions rather than its age, a rule of thumb is that it affects diesels made before 2015 and petrol cars before 2006.

Last month, TfL was forced to refund drivers in Chingford, east London, after its camera had become misaligned and incorrectly charged vehicles outside the Ulez boundary.

In January, the Guardian revealed that hundreds of thousands of EU citizens could have been wrongly fined for driving in the Ulez zone, with five EU countries accusing TfL of illegally obtaining names and addresses of citizens in order to issue fines.

Alex Williams, TfL’s chief customer and strategy officer, said: “The most recent data shows that on average, over 96% of vehicles seen driving in the Ulez are compliant.

“We want to send a clear message to vehicle owners that if you receive a penalty charge for driving in the zone, you should not ignore it. Your penalty will progress to enforcement agents to recover the fines that you owe, and there is a risk that your vehicle and other items of property will be removed.”

The first day of early voting in the battleground state of Georgia saw a record turnout, with 328,000 people casting a vote in person or by mail – more than doubling the previous record of 136,000 in 2020. In that year, Joe Biden became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992 to win the state – after scraping through with fewer than 12,000 votes.

Winning the state and its 16 electoral college votes gives either candidate a high chance of winning the election overall, according to polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight. The Guardian’s poll tracker as of 10 October has Trump ahead in the state by a point.

The record turnout came as a judge temporarily halted a new rule that requires Election Day ballots to be counted by hand after the close of voting. The hand-count rule was passed by a pro-Trump conservative majority of Georgia’s election board, who said they were attempting to make the election more secure and transparent. Democrats had said the change would sow chaos and delay results.

Here’s what else happened on Tuesday:

• Donald Trump held a campaign event in Atlanta where, after arriving 90 minutes late, he repeatedly mentioned Elon Musk’s support and the products made by his companies including Space X and Tesla. Elon Musk gave around $75m to his pro-Donald Trump spending group in the span of three months, federal disclosures showed on Tuesday, underscoring how the billionaire has become crucial to the Republican candidate’s efforts to win the election.

• Trump defended his protectionist trade policies and other fiscal proposals, dismissing suggestions that they could drive up the federal debt, antagonise allies and harm the US economy in an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariffs’,” Trump said in an often-combative conversation with John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News.

• Kamala Harris defended her record as a prosecutor, pledged to decriminalise marijuana and push for police reform as she aimed to shore up support among Black men in an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God on Tuesday.

• The Harris Victory Fund, the Democratic candidate’s ‘big-dollar fundraising committee’, raised $633m in the three months from 1 July to 30 September, over a third higher than the amount raised by Biden in the same period in 2020, the New York Times reported

• Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, on Tuesday unveiled his ticket’s plans to improve the lives of rural voters, as the Harris campaign looked to cut into Trump’s support. The Harris-Walz plan includes a focus on improving rural health care, such as plans to recruit 10,000 new health care professionals in rural and tribal areas through scholarships, loan forgiveness and new grant programs, as well as economic and agricultural policy priorities.

• Robert F Kennedy Jr has suggested he will have significant influence on American agriculture policy if Trump is elected president, the latest in a series of roles he has envisioned for himself in a second Trump administration.

• A judge has rejected a request to require Arizona’s 15 counties to verify the citizenship of 42,000 voters registered only to vote in federal elections in the presidential battleground state, concluding those who sought the checks made their request too close to the election and didn’t have legal standing.

• President Joe Biden said Harris would “cut her own path” once she wins the 2024 election, as he hit the campaign trail to help win over sceptical voters three weeks before Election Day. “Kamala will take the country in her own direction, and that’s one of the most important differences in this election,” he said. “Kamala’s perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective old and failed and quite frankly, thoroughly totally dishonest.”

• Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic Representative Colin Allred met for their only debate, trading attacks over abortion and immigration in a closely watched race that could help determine which party wins control of the US Senate. Allred addressed the 6 January storming of the Capitol, at which he was present, saying “when that mob came” Cruz, who had said he would object to the certification of the results, “was hiding in a supply closet.”

• The estate of Leonard Cohen issued a cease and desist order to Trump, after a recording of Rufus Wainwright singing Cohen’s song Hallelujah was played at a bizarre campaign event. Wainwright also condemned Trump’s use of the song at the town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania. The song was one of a number Trump played during a Q&A session, in which numerous audience members needed medical attention amid high temperatures.

Fossil fuels could soon become significantly cheaper and more abundant as governments accelerate the transition to clean energy towards the end of the decade, according to the International Energy Agency.

The world’s energy watchdog has signalled a new energy era in which countries have access to more oil, gas and coal than needed to fuel their economic growth, leading to lower prices for households and businesses.

The Paris-based agency’s influential annual outlook report found that energy consumers could expect some “breathing space” from recent spikes in global oil and gas prices triggered by geopolitical upheavals because investment in new fossil fuel projects has outpaced the world’s demand.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, said the report confirms its prediction that the world’s fossil fuel consumption will peak before 2030 and fall into permanent decline as climate policies take effect. But continuing investment in fossil fuel projects will spell falling market prices for oil and gas, the IEA added.

“I can’t say whether or not we will see [oil prices of] $100 a barrel again, but what I can say is that despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East we are still seeing oil prices in the $70s,” he said.

Oil prices dipped below $74 on Tuesday amid growing concern about weak Chinese demand.

The IEA acknowledged that the potential for near-term disruption to oil and gas supply remains, due to conflict in the Middle East, which risks disrupting exports of crude and gas from the region. But its long-term view shows an “easing in underlying market balances” and “lower prices on the horizon”, it said.

By the end of the decade, global oil prices could plateau at $75 to $80 a barrel, according to the IEA’s central forecast, compared with an average price of just over $100 a barrel in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The price of gas imported into the EU is also expected to plunge from a record average high of over $70 (£54) per million British thermal units (MBtu) in 2022 to $6.50 (£5) by the end of the decade, following a boom in planned gas projects in recent years, according to the IEA.

Investment in exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) via ships boomed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which drastically cut pipeline imports of Russian gas into Europe. The IEA estimates that the world’s LNG capacity will grow by almost 50% by 2030, greater than the world’s forecast demand in all three of the agency’s modelled scenarios.

The world’s rising production of crude oil from new oil projects in the US, Canada and South America could mean that future supplies will outstrip global oil demand growth because China, the world’s biggest oil importer, is “wrong-footing” major oil producers by shifting rapidly towards electric vehicles, the IEA said.

“China has been the engine of oil market growth in recent decades, but that engine is now switching over to electricity,” the IEA said.

Electric vehicles currently have a share of about 20% of all new car sales worldwide, which could rise to 50% by 2030 under the IEA’s central forecast scenario, a level already achieved in China this year. This would erode the world’s demand for oil by about 6m barrels of oil a day, according to the IEA.

The “new world” for energy consumers will be more comfortable economically, Birol said, but he warned that the shift will require green alternatives, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, to become cheaper too if they hope to compete against more affordable fossil fuels.

The IEA has predicted that the surge in demand for clean electricity sources will accelerate further in the years ahead, adding the equivalent of Japan’s power demand to the world’s total electricity use each year in a scenario based on today’s policy settings. This demand would rise even more quickly if governments set new policies that align with the global goal of achieving net zero emissions, the IEA said.

Ministers must take steps now to ensure that all homes are built to the most efficient low-carbon standards, or risk locking households into higher bills and greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come, a group of MPs and experts have urged.

The government is mulling changes to the building regulations in England to bring in a “future homes standard” that would require all new homes to be built with low-carbon equipment such as heat pumps and solar panels.

But key elements of the standard face stiff opposition from the housebuilding industry. The Guardian has learned that lobbyists from the industry are telling ministers that it will be impossible to meet the government’s flagship target of building 1.5m new homes in this parliament if they are required to meet stringent low-carbon standards.

Low-carbon building experts disagree. A recent study from the MCS Foundation found that equipping homes with heat pumps, solar panels and battery storage would save households living in a typical three-bedroom house more than £46,600 on energy bills over the course of a 25-year mortgage.

Experts have also said that installing such equipment is straightforward, and that the building industry could easily invest in the skills needed for its workforce. Retrofitting would cost up to five times as much, and the cost would fall on the householder rather than the builder.

As plans for the 1.5m new homes get under way, concerns over the future homes standard are mounting. It was consulted on under the Conservative government, which scrapped the previous draft version of the regulations, then known as the zero carbon homes standard, in 2015.

In a letter sent to the housing and planning minister, Matthew Pennycook, on Wednesday and seen by the Guardian, a group of MPs from most of the main parties, low-carbon industry experts and civil society groups call on the government to hold fast to the necessary low-carbon standards and publish the new future homes standard without delay.

The signatories – 28 MPs, three peers and 12 industry bodies and civil society organisations – write: “The future of buildings standards in England could have a huge impact on household energy bills, UK carbon emissions and the domestic renewable energy sector. With the government promising to build 1.5m new homes by 2029, it is essential that these homes are built to standards that ensure low bills and minimal carbon emissions.

“We should not be building houses in the next five years that will have to be retrofitted, at much greater cost, five or 10 years later. The UK’s existing housing stock already contributes 17% of total carbon emissions, and new homes should help to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Moving away from fossil fuels would also be a crucial step towards ensuring long-term energy security.”

David Cowdrey, the acting chief executive of the MCS Foundation, which coordinated the letter, said: “Mandating developers to put solar panels and heat pumps in all new build homes will not only save households thousands of pounds, it will also massively boost the domestic renewables workforce at no cost to the Treasury.”

Failing to make the regulations as stringent as possible would be a mistake, he said: “Years of delay and uncertainty has held back the shift to clean energy and heating. We should not be building homes next year and the year after that will have to be retrofitted in ten years’ time, and so the government must now introduce the long-awaited future homes standard, with a mandate for renewable technology, without delay.”

The Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, Max Wilkinson, is also bringing forward a private members’ bill that would require the installation of solar photovoltaic generation equipment on new homes and set minimum standards so developers are not able to skimp on panels.

Wilkinson said: This “‘sunshine bill’ is a vital step in creating a brighter future, tackling the climate crisis while also saving British households money on their bills. It is madness that new homes are being built without solar panels, when we know solar helps to bring down energy costs and reduce emissions. It’s a win-win.”

The British photojournalist Paul Lowe has been fatally stabbed on a hiking trail in California and his teenage son arrested for murder, according to police.

Lowe, who covered conflicts including the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, was found dead on 12 October in the San Gabriel mountains.

The 60-year-old had been stabbed in the neck, records at the Los Angeles medical examiner’s office said.

Lowe’s 19-year-old son Emir was charged with one count of murder and was due to appear on Wednesday at the West Covina courthouse, the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office told the PA news agency.

The Los Angeles county sheriff’s department told PA: “The homicide bureau presented the case to the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office for filing considerations today.

“The district attorney’s office filed one count of murder on suspect Emir Lowe for the murder of his father Christian Paul Lowe. There is no additional information at this time.”

According to police, the incident happened at about 3.28pm at Mount Baldy Road, near Stoddard Canyon Falls. A statement from the sheriff’s department said officers responding to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon found a “white male adult suffering trauma to his upper torso”.

“San Bernardino fire department personnel responded and pronounced the victim dead at the scene.

“A white male adult was seen driving away from the scene and was subsequently involved in a solo traffic collision a few miles away. The male was detained pending further investigation.

“The investigation is ongoing and there is no additional information at this time.”

King’s College London, where Lowe was a visiting professor in war studies, said the award-winning photojournalist would be “deeply missed”.

A statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, read: “It is with deep sadness that we received the news of Professor Paul Lowe’s passing.

“Paul was a visiting professor in the department of war studies, a professor of photojournalism at the University of the Arts London, and an award-winning photojournalist with VII Academy. A friend, colleague and collaborator whose work had a huge impact in shining a spotlight on the siege of Sarajevo and addressing its legacy, we were privileged to work with him on several projects related to art and reconciliation.

“His boundless energy, warmth, creativity, initiative and enthusiasm were contagious and uniquely inspiring. He will be deeply missed. We send our deepest condolences to his family at this difficult time.”

Lowe in August 2022 discussed his work in besieged Sarajevo for the Guardian photography series My best shot: “There was a sense of incredulity that this could be happening in a European capital city.”

With the Press Association

What if reducing your energy bill and cutting your home’s climate impact was as simple as using a different appliance?

More than a quarter of Victorian households with both gas ducted heating and reverse-cycle air conditioners could start saving money immediately by using their split systems for heating instead of gas.

The scenario – saving between $999 to $2,215 a year – was one of four cost-effective options for shifting from gas to electric heating modelled by not-for-profit organisations Renew and Environment Victoria.

Kat Lucas-Healey, Environment Victoria’s senior climate and energy advisor, said many people didn’t realise reverse-cycle systems could heat as well as cool and were a “much more efficient technology, that will save people a lot of money and add extra comfort”.

Decommissioning the gas system – removing the furnace and ducts, and blocking outlets – was an extra step, costing about $800. The energy savings would recoup that in five to 10 months, the report said, depending on the age of the house and its location.

Nearly half (44%) of Victorian households had ducted gas heating but no air conditioning. The added cost of replacing those gas heaters (at end-of-life) with three new reverse-cycle split systems would be recouped in three to five months, according to the report.

The annual savings in this scenario – between $969 to $1,927 – also covered cooling in summer, which Lucas-Healey said was a “win-win” for comfort and cost of living.

“When homes go electric, they’re not just heating more efficiently, they’re getting the ability to cool as well,” she said.

Household gas use – mostly for heating – comprised half of Victoria’s overall gas demand. The report calculated costs and savings of going electric for typical households in five different climate zones was based on research about appliances installed in Victorian homes and how they were used.

The small proportion (7%) of homes still reliant on gas space heaters could switch to a split system and save between 27% to 56% on their energy bills, while gaining the ability to cool in the warmer months, the groups said.

Chris Barnes, a household expert at consumer advocacy group Choice who was not involved in the modelling, said heating and cooling comprised “a large chunk” of Australian energy bills.

Many people heated with gas out of habit, he said, even though the running costs were generally higher than reverse-cycle systems.

“Once people take stock of it and realise what the price of gas is these days and what the running costs of an air conditioner actually are, there’s hopefully a pleasant surprise waiting for a few people,” he said.

Replacing a worn-out appliance or renovating was a good opportunity to consider getting off gas altogether, Barnes said. “Then you can disconnect gas from your home, so you’re not paying the standing fee for having a gas connection.”

Rory Sackville recently renovated his family home in Melbourne’s south-east, replacing the ducted gas with reverse-cycle heating, supplementing three existing units with three more.

Sustainability, cost and comfort, as well as the installation of new solar panels, drove the switch. “We were going to be generating our own electricity. So why not electrify the things that we had in our house?” he said.

“I wouldn’t call us off-grid eco warriors,” Sackville said. “We’re just a normal, typical family.”

Two boys recently died at separate Halloween-themed haunted hayride attractions in tractor accidents, authorities said.

The first boy died about 10.45 pm on 11 October at the Haunted Hilltop Halloween event in Hamilton county, Tennessee. A group of children at the event were playing near a path through which hay ride tractors drove, the Hamilton county sheriff’s department said.

A chaperone for the group told sheriff’s deputies that the children were “behind some bushes trying to scare some hay riders”. One of them appeared to have tried jumping on the trailer but slipped, falling under the tractor’s wheels.

“Apparently a young kid hid in the bushes and crossed over a barrier and when the hayride trailer went by he jumped out and attempted to get on the side of the trailer and was ran over by the trailer,” the attraction said on Facebook, imploring the community to give the boy’s family time to grieve.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press identified the victim as Samuel Jessen, 12. A GoFundMe was organized to help the Jessens with funeral costs.

A similar tragedy unfolded just before 8pm on 12 October at the Harvest of Horror Haunted Hayride attraction in St Augusta, Minnesota. Alexander Mick, 13, appears to have been run over by a wagon that was pulled by a tractor, the Stearns county sheriff’s office said in a statement.

While attendees and first responders tried to save the boy’s life, he died at the scene. His mother, Teri Mick, reportedly described her late child as “an amazingly unique child who loved Jesus with all his heart”.

“He was full of life, a junior black belt in taekwondo, played drums for the worship team, he was in band, sang in choir, in robotics and soccer and almost was an Eagle Scout,” she told CBS News.

The attraction said in a statement on its website that they’re “cooperating fully with the authorities and are grateful for their support”.

“We are deeply shaken by this event and are asking for thoughts, prayers and support for the family and friends of the individual involved and all those affected by this tragedy,” they said.

Out of respect to the family involved, the organizers made the decision to cancel the remaining nights of the 2024 Harvest of Horror.

Hayrides grew popular in the late 19th century with urban families increasingly partaking in leisure travel, according to the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Tourists decamping cities for the countryside had read “idealized accounts of hayrides in children’s books” and countryside farmers acted on this, pitching authentic hayrides, per the publication.

These rides, which involved spreading hay in a wagon, were a popular pick for farmers. There was more money to be made offering rides to “summer people” compared to selling the hay outright.

While there are voluntary safety standards for hayride operators, meaningful regulation remains scant, the Tribune notes. White Hutchinson, a company that consults in agritourism, said in 2023 that US hayride accidents have caused a minimum of 24 deaths and 204 injuries since 2000.

A 17-year-old girl died at a haunted hayride in Maine 10 years ago after it slipped down a hill and struck a tree, for example. More than 20 others were injured in the incident, per the Associated Press.