House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries does not believe that the New York mayor, Eric Adams, should resign from his post, despite the city leader’s recent indictment on bribery and fraud charges.

“My view is that Mayor Adams, like every other New Yorker and every other American, is entitled to the presumption of innocence and entitled to a trial by a jury of his peers who will ultimately determine his fate within the legal system,” Jeffries told NBC News last night.

“At the same time, it’s important for Mayor Adams to articulate to New Yorkers in a compelling way a plan and a path forward to ensure that the city is continuing to function and run in a manner that meets the needs of everyday New Yorkers and in a manner that New York City, which we believe is the greatest city in the world, deserves.”

A number of prominent New York Democrats, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have called on Adams to resign given the charges against him, but the mayor has refused to do so.

“This is a great moment to step up and show all New Yorkers, who are going through complexities in their lives, how you remained focused on your agenda and that’s what I’m going to do,” Adams said on Sunday after a visit to a church in the Bronx.

He added: “I’m going to step up. I’m not going to resign – I’m going to reign.”

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hard-right congresswoman of Georgia, is once again facing criticism for peddling a baseless – and just plan bizarre – claim about the weather.

“Yes they can control the weather,” Greene said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

The eyebrow-raising comment came as the death toll from Hurricane Helene rose to 215, after the storm tore through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee last week. Greene had previously shared a map of the hurricane’s devastation overlaid with an electoral map to seemingly draw a (very questionable) connection between the two.

Greene did not specify who “they” were in her tweet, but she has a controversial history when it comes to weather claims. In 2018, Greene suggested California wildfires were caused by a laser beam from space that was connected to the Rothschild family, which has frequently been the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat of Hawaii, said of Greene’s tweet: “[House Democratic leader] Hakeem Jeffries should be the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Enjoy your weekend campaigning everybody.”

For context, Republicans are trying to hold onto a narrow majority in the House this November.

Joe Biden welcomed the tentative deal to end the east coast port strike and called it a “critical” step towards a “strong contract” for dock workers who had kept US ports open and supply chains running during the Covid pandemic.

In a statement released by the White House, the president said:

I want to applaud the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance for coming together to reopen the East Coast and Gulf ports.

Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract. I congratulate the dockworkers from the ILA, who deserve a strong contract after sacrificing so much to keep our ports open during the pandemic. And I applaud the port operators and carriers who are members of the US Maritime Alliance for working hard and putting a strong offer on the table.

I want to thank the union workers, the carriers, and the port operators for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding. Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.

Kamala Harris released a statement, saying she wants “to applaud all involved for their efforts”.

The vice-president added that this “represents the power of collective bargaining. As I have said, this is about fairness – and our economy works best when workers share in record profits. Dockworkers deserve a fair share for their hard work getting essential goods out to communities across America.”

Dock workers announced late on Thursday that they had agreed a deal with port operators to end a three-day strike that threatened to cause crippling disruption to supply chains.

In welcome news for the Harris-Walz campaign, the International Longshoremen’s Association announced that the union agreed to a tentative deal with the United States Maritime Alliance on wages and will extend the contract through January 2025. Work would resume immediately, the union said.

The tentative agreement is for a wage hike of around 62%, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Both sides said in a statement that they would return to the bargaining table to negotiate all outstanding issues in January.

The strike had threatened to disrupt trade just weeks ahead of the election – and at a time when Democrats need good news on the economy.

As the Guardian’s David Smith wrote earlier this week, the first dockworkers’ strike since 1977 could have snarled supply chains and caused shortages and higher prices if it had stretched on for more than a few weeks. That would have been a political gift to Trump, whose polling lead on the economy has been eroded by Harris. Both are vying for trade union support.

Before the strike deal was announced, Trump tried to make hay of the stoppage, claiming at a rally in Saginaw, Michigan, that there would be no strikes if he is re-elected president.

A local elections official who became a hero to election deniers was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday for leading a voting system data-breach scheme inspired by the rampant false claims that fraud altered the 2020 presidential outcome.

Tina Peters allowed a man affiliated with the pillow salesman and election-lie trafficker Mike Lindell to misuse a security card to access the Mesa county election system.

Jurors found Peters guilty in August, convicting her of seven counts related to misconduct, conspiracy and impersonation, four of which were felony charges.

Donald Trump pledged to bring back drilling in the Alaska arctic wildlife refuge if he becomes president.

Trump said:

We would have supplied the entire Asian continent. We would have supplied Asia. We would have supplied everybody. But we’ll have it redone very quickly … I actually got it approved in Congress as part of … the biggest tax cuts in history for this country. I got that approved in Congress. We got ANWR [Alaska national wildlife refuge] so they didn’t kill it in Congress, and I don’t think they ever could. So we’ll get it back very quickly. It’s going to be back very fast.

Trump added:

And it would have been great for Alaska but it would have also … been great for our country but we’ll have it approved very quickly.

In 2021, Trump’s administration auctioned off portions of the ANWR to oil drillers but failed to attract many bidders.

Melissa Hellmann

In a final push to engage Muslim voters ahead of the election, Tim Walz joined Muslim advocacy group Emgage Action’s Million Muslim Votes: A Way Forward summit the day after the vice-presidential debate.

The Guardian’s Melissa Hellman reported from the event:

“As-salaam alaikum (peace be unto you) everyone and good evening,” the vice-presidential candidate greeted Muslim voters in Arabic during a virtual event Thursday evening.

“Here in Minnesota, I’ve got the privilege to represent an incredible and vibrant Muslim community,” Walz said as light streamed through a large window behind him. He shared that he and his wife, Gwen, held the first iftar, the fast-breaking evening meal during Ramadan, at the Minnesota governor’s residence in 2019. And last year, Walz also passed interest-free down payment assistance for first-generation homebuyers to increase home ownership among Muslim Americans.

During his speech, Walz also acknowledged a collective pain among Muslim and Arab American communities due to Israel’s war on Gaza, where more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October. “Our hearts are broken,” Walz said. “The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is staggering and devastating. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed, families fleeing for safety over and over again.”

“We all know on here, this war must end and it must end now. The vice-president’s working every day to ensure that, to make sure Israel is secure, the hostages are home, the suffering in Gaza ends now. And the Palestinian people realize the right to dignity, freedom, and self determination.”

The virtual event came shortly after Emgage Action endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as president and vice-president.

Good morning US politics readers.

Former US president Barack Obama will crisscross the battleground states for Kamala Harris, with a kickoff in all-important Pennsylvania next week.

According to a senior Harris campaign official, Obama will hold his first event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania next Thursday, the beginning of blitz across the handful of rust belt and Sun belt states that will likely decide the 2024 election.

Obama remains one of the Democrats’ most powerful surrogates, second perhaps only to his wife, Michelle Obama. His return to the campaign trail follows a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, where he cast Harris as a forward-looking figure and a natural heir to his diverse, youth-powered political coalition. Harris was one of Obama’s earliest supporters of what seemed like a long-shot presidential bid against Hillary Clinton. She knocked doors for him ahead of the Iowa caucuses in 2008. More than 15 years later, he will return the favor.

With just 32 days away to the election, here’s what else is happening today:

• Kamala Harris will hold a rally in Flint, Michigan, this evening – one of the swing states critical to her winning the presidency. Her event comes a day after Donald Trump promised to make Michigan the “car capital of the world again”.

• Trump and Georgia governor Brian Kemp will visit Evans, Georgia, to receive a briefing on the devastation of Hurricane Helene. They’ll give a press conference at 3.45pm ET.

• JD Vance is in Lindale, Georgia, and will deliver remarks at 1 pm.

• Trump hosts a town hall in Fayetteville, North Carolina, at 7 pm.