With only two months left until Donald Trump returns to the White House, the president-elect and convicted felon has been waging lawfare by a flurry of lawsuits against media companies and publishers that have been critical of him.

The lawsuits come amid growing fears of what a second Trump term would mean for press freedom as Trump intensifies his longstanding hostility against the media – which he called “the enemy camp” in his victory speech last week.

On Thursday, Columbia Journalism Review revealed that just days before the presidential election, Trump’s lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik issued a letter to the New York Times and Penguin Random House that demanded $10bn in damages over articles critical of Trump.

The letter joins a series of frivolous lawsuits against other media companies that Trump has accused of politically targeting him.

The letter, which CJR reviewed, accused the articles’ authors Peter Baker, Michael S Schmidt, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner for “false and defamatory statements” about Trump, adding that the New York Times is a “a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic party” that wages “industrial-scale libel against political opponents”.

According to CJR, the letter pointed to two specific stories by Buettner and Craig that relate to their latest book, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. The letter also pointed to a 20 October article by Baker titled “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment,” as well as a 22 October article by Schmidt titled “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator,” CJR reported.

Addressing the New York Times, the letter accused the outlet of harboring “every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States”.

In response to the letter, the newspaper referred Paltzik to Penguin Random House over its accusations about Buettner and Craig’s book and said that it stood by their reporting, a person familiar with the matter told CJR.

CJR further reports that on 5 November, lawyers for Trump’s campaign co-chief Chris LaCivita issued a letter to the Daily Beast, demanding the outlet correct its articles that stated LaCivita raised $22m to help Trump’s re-election.

In response to the letter, the Daily Beast added an editor’s note to its articles, stating: “Based on a further review of FEC records, the correct total is $19.2m. The Beast regrets the error. The article has also been updated to make clear that payments were to LaCivita’s LLC not to LaCivita personally.”

Yet, the note was insufficient to Trump’s campaign. A follow-up legal letter to the outlet said the note “does not remedy the overall messaging of the story – which depicts Mr LaCivita as deceptively pocketing campaign money for his own personal gain and that he was and is on the verge of being ‘fired’ because of it”.

“This entire narrative is completely false and a result of malicious and irresponsible reporting by the Daily Beast,” the letter added.

In addition to the New York Times, Penguin Random House and the Daily Beast, Trump and his campaign lawyers have sued CBS News, alleging in a lawsuit last month that its 7 October interview with Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes was edited and was hence “election interference”.

The 19-page brief sought $10bn in damages and accused CBS of going “into overdrive to get Kamala elected”. It also accused the outlet of “partisan and unlawful acts of voter interference through malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion”.

In response, CBS called the lawsuit “completely without merit”, denied that the interview was edited and vowed to “vigorously defend” against the lawsuit.

Around the same time, Trump complained to the Federal Election Commission about the Washington Post, accusing it of making illegal in-kind contributions to Harris’s campaign. The Washington Post, which refused to endorse a political candidate this year at the direction of its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos – who later called Trump’s re-election an “extraordinary political comeback” – said the allegations were “improper” and “without merit”.

In response to Trump’s re-election victory and his repeated attacks against journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called Trump’s threats against the press a “clear and direct danger to media freedom”.

“The hostile media climate fostered during Donald Trump’s first presidency – expected to continue in his forthcoming second term – poses great risks to media inside and outside the country,” CPJ added.

Echoing CPJ, Reporters Without Borders issued a similar statement following Trump’s win, saying: “Attacking the press is really an attack on American citizens’ right to know. Trump’s new administration can and must change its tune with the media and take concrete steps to protect journalists and develop a climate conducive to a robust and pluralistic news media.”

Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr as US secretary of health and human services has prompted widespread criticisms towards Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist who has embraced a slew of other debunked health-related conspiracy theories.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump claimed that Americans have been “crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies” and that Kennedy “will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again”!

In response to Kennedy’s nomination, Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit organization focusing on consumer advocacy, said: “Robert F Kennedy Jr is a clear and present danger to the nation’s health. He shouldn’t be allowed in the building at the department of health and human services (HHS), let alone be placed in charge of the nation’s public health agency.

“Donald Trump’s bungling of public health policy during the Covid pandemic cost hundreds of thousands of lives. By appointing Kennedy as his secretary of HHS, Trump is courting another, policy-driven public health catastrophe,” the organization added.

Apurva Akkad, an infectious disease physician at the University of Southern California, called the announcement a “scary day for public health.

“I’m saying this over and over – but it will be of the utmost importance to ONLY make public health decisions or changes based on robust evidence. I hope we have at least learned this much from Covid,” Akkad added on X.

The conservative pundit and lawyer George Conway also commented on Kennedy’s nomination, along with that of Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz.

“Very little of what Trump does these days amazes me. Any one of the last three of Trump’s Cabinet-level picks (Gabbard as DNI, Gaetz as AG, RFK Jr for HHS), standing alone, would arguably have been the worst in American history. The fact that Trump made all three in a span of roughly 24 hours is astonishing,” Conway wrote.

Robert Garcia, Democratic representative from California, called the nomination “fucking insane”, writing on X: “He’s a vaccine denier and a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist. He will destroy our public health infrastructure and our vaccine distribution systems. This is going to cost lives.”

Alastair McAlpine, a pediatric physician at British Columbia’s children’s hospital, wrote: “It is hard to overstate what a terrible decision this is. RFK Jr has no medical training. He is a hardcore anti-vaccine and misinformation peddler. The last time he meddled in a state’s medical affairs (Samoa), 83 children died of measles.”

According to FactCheck.org, in 2018, two infants in Samoa died when nurses accidentally prepared the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine with an expired muscle relaxant instead of water. Following the infants’ deaths, the Samoan government temporarily suspended the vaccination program.

The temporary suspension prompted Kennedy and his anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense to reportedly spread various falsehoods about vaccinations across the island, in turn resulting in a drastic decline in vaccination rates.

A year later, a measles outbreak on the island caused by a sick traveler ended up infecting more than 57,000 people and killing 83, including children.

In an interview for a documentary, Shot in the Arm, Kennedy said he bears no responsibility for the outcome.

On another health issue, Kennedy has said that Trump would push to eliminate fluoride from drinking water, a mineral that strengthens teeth and reduces cavities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Throughout his own independent campaign trail, Kennedy has also touted the effectiveness of raw milk and ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug that has been disproved as a Covid cure. In addition to health-related conspiracies, Kennedy has admitted to decapitating a beached whale and collecting its head, and to dumping a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago because he did not have time to skin it and eat it later.

Kennedy has also said that he had a worm in his brain which “ate a portion of it and then died” and vowed “to eat five more brain worms and still beat” Trump and Joe Biden in a staged debate earlier this year.

Israel has intensified its air offensives on three fronts, launching dozens of new strikes in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria as negotiations for a ceasefire on its northern border reach a critical point.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said about 30 targets had been struck in the southern suburbs of Beirut in 48 hours and described continuing efforts to “dismantle and degrade” the military capabilities of the militant Islamist organisation.

Analysts said the wave of raids could also be aimed at increasing pressure on Hezbollah as indirect talks continued.

Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister, told Reuters an arrangement to end fighting with Hezbollah was drawing closer but insisted that Israel must retain freedom to act inside Lebanon should any deal be violated. “We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel. That’s how we will be, and so that is certainly how we will act,” he said.

A senior Lebanese official indicated on Wednesday that Hezbollah was ready to pull its forces away from the Lebanese-Israeli border in any ceasefire but rejected Israel’s demand to be allowed to intervene at will to enforce a deal.

Tens of thousands of Israelis with homes along the contested border are still displaced by the threat of Hezbollah attacks, and the costs of the war in Lebanon for Israel are mounting. Six Israeli soldiers were killed in combat with Hezbollah on Wednesday.

According to Lebanon’s health ministry, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,365 people and wounded 14,344 across Lebanon since 7 October last year. Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and Israeli troops in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon over the past year, according to Israel.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has increased such raids since the October attack by Hamas that killed 1,200, mostly civilians, and triggered the Gaza war.

Thursday’s strike targeted two residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday and killed more than a dozen people, the Syrian state news agency SANA said. One building was in the suburb of Mazzeh, and the other in Qudsaya, west of the capital.

Commanders in Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards based in Syria, have been known to live in Mazzeh, according to residents, and the authorities have used the area’s high-rise blocks in the past to house leaders of Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

In Gaza, fighting has continued in Jabaliya, in the north, where Israeli forces are clashing with Hamas militants and four Israeli soldiers were killed earlier this week.

Israel says the siege it has imposed on Jabaliya allows for necessary operations against militants who have regrouped there, but many Palestinians fear the offensive is aimed at permanently displacing tens or even hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes.

“They have torched schools and other shelters where people took refuge before ordering families to head south toward Gaza City. What do you call that, if not ethnic cleansing?” asked Said Abdel-Hadi, a resident from Beit Lahiya, now displaced in Gaza City.

“Many families who at the beginning were against leaving were forced to do so after they ran out of water and food. Large areas have become empty, under the control of the occupation. Those areas have become off-limits.”

Dr Hossam Abu Safia, Kamal Adwan hospital director in Beit Lahiya, in the north of Gaza, said medical supplies were running out, there was not enough food for patients, and there were no working ambulances. “Every hour, we lose patients due to these severe conditions,” Abu Safia said.

Israeli airstrikes have intensified in recent days across the whole of Gaza, with more than 40 people killed on Monday alone.

The IDF denied an explosion in a cafe near Khan Younis on Monday evening was caused by an airstrike. Eleven people were reported to have died in the blast, including two children. The Tophub café opened two weeks ago in a makeshift shelter of corrugated iron. It was popular with students and football fans drawn by its internet connection, low prices, electricity and big screen.

“I heard a huge blast like a strong earthquake. I ran towards the cafe. I began shaking when I saw the casualties being brought out, and I went inside to find my friend soaked in his own blood and already lifeless. I carried his body to the ambulance. I lost my best companion,” said Jihad Badriya, 20.

The IDF said it was not aware of any Israeli attack on Monday at the location of the cafe.

Palestinian health ministry officials on Thursday said Israel’s latest strikes killed at least 15 people across Gaza, including four at Gaza City’s Salahudeen school, which shelters displaced families. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

More than 43,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli offensive there, with 2 million people displaced and much of the strip reduced to rubble.

Israeli military officials accuse Hamas of deliberately positioning military equipment, infrastructure and personnel among civilians. The militant Islamist organisation denies the charge.

Future UN climate summits should be held only in countries that can show clear support for climate action and have stricter rules on fossil fuel lobbying, according to a group of influential climate policy experts.

The group includes former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and the prominent climate scientist Johan Rockström.

They have written to the UN demanding the current complex process of annual “conferences of the parties” under the UN framework convention on climate change – the Paris agreement’s parent treaty – be streamlined, and meetings held more frequently, with more of a voice given to developing countries.

“It is now clear that the Cop is no longer fit for purpose. We need a shift from negotiation to implementation,” they wrote.

This year’s talks, known as Cop29, are nearing their halfway mark in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.

Azerbaijan is a controversial host for the conference, as it is a major fossil fuel producer, with oil and gas making up half of its exports. Last year’s conference was also held in a petrostate, the United Arab Emirates, and the president of that edition, Sultan Al Jaber, kept his main job of heading the country’s national oil company, Adnoc.

Before Cop29 opened, one of the key members of the Azerbaijan government’s organising team was filmed appearing to offer help striking fossil fuel deals. Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, also remarked at the opening ceremony that his country’s oil and gas were “a gift of God”.

“We need strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the phase-out/transition away from fossil energy. Host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris agreement,” the group wrote.

Figueres said: “At the last Cop, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered representatives of scientific institutions, Indigenous communities and vulnerable nations. We cannot hope to achieve a just transition without significant reforms to the Cop process that ensure fair representation of those most affected.”

At least 1,773 coal, oil and gas lobbyists have been granted access to Cop29, according to data analysed by the Kick Big Polluters Out activist coalition. That is more than all but three countries (Azerbaijan, Brazil and Turkey), and considerably more than the 10 nations most vulnerable to the climate crisis, who have a combined 1,033 delegates.

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, also took aim at fossil fuel influence at the conference, particularly from Azerbaijan.

Gore said: “There’s an old country song from Nashville called Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places. For a long time, lots of people bought the line that as the fossil fuel industry caused [the climate crisis] they would solve it for us. But they are not going to solve it for us. The global community has to organise a far more effective way to run these Cops [than to host them in petrostates]. The UN secretary general ought to have a role in who’s going to be host.”

The focus of Cop29 is how to supply enough cash to poor countries to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate-driven extreme weather.

Poor countries will need about $1tn a year by 2030 to fulfil the aims of the Paris agreement and limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above preindustrial levels. Close to a third of that should come from developed countries, either through development banks such as the World Bank, or through direct funding, according to a report by leading economists, while most of the rest should come from the private sector.

But there is still little agreement from developed countries on how much they are willing to provide and on what terms, or over which other countries – including petrostates and major emerging economies such as China – should be asked to contribute to such funding.

Campaigners who took over the outside areas of the Cop venue – the Olympic Stadium in Baku – were in no doubt who should provide the money. “Make polluters pay” read the giant banner unfurled over the conference, as campaigners chanted the slogan.

The core talks on a new climate finance settlement – called the “new collective quantified goal” – moved slowly on Thursday, with a new draft text called “unworkable” by some countries. Negotiations will continue throughout next week, and are scheduled to finish next Friday evening.

Outside the negotiating rooms, some countries are looking for new sources of finance to plug the gaps. A report by a taskforce led by Laurence Tubiana, a former French diplomat and the current chief of the European Climate Foundation, found that new “global solidarity levies” could raise large sums towards the climate finance needed for the poor world.

Levying a charge on cryptocurrencies – which are energy-intensive to create – could be one option, the report found. Charging just $0.045 per kWh for the energy would produce $5bn, it said.

A plastics production levy, charged on producing plastics from polymers rather than from recycled material, could yield $25bn-$35bn a year if set at $60 to $90 a tonne. Even more effective would be a 2% wealth tax, an idea championed by Brazil, which could yield $200bn-$250bn a year.

Taxing frequent flyers and business class airline tickets could generate up to $164bn a year, depending on the design of the scheme.

Tubiana said: “One of the founding pillars of the Paris agreement is financial solidarity between developed and developing countries. Such solidarity makes it possible for all countries to gradually raise their national ambitions to achieve the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5C. However, there can be no climate justice without fiscal justice, as all countries are facing the same challenge: how to fund the transition while ensuring that those with the greatest means and the highest emissions pay their fair share.”

She will present the final report of the taskforce, led by the governments of France, Barbados and Kenya, before next year’s Cop.

The Football Association and the Football Supporters’ Association have launched investigations after England supporters complained of being treated like animals by police before the Nations League match in Greece on Thursday night.

Lee Carsley’s team were supported by 3,500 travelling fans but the atmosphere darkened outside the away end before kick-off. Supporters spoke of an inadequate turnstile operation and said riot police used shields and teargas to rearrange the queue. Images have been circulated of officers wearing gas masks.

“It’s been mental,” Jack Loftus, who travelled to the game from Telford, told PA Media. “They went to adjust the queue at the front to make it narrower and longer and just did it with force. They were pushing the crowd amongst the fence. They ultimately treat us like animals, then they’ll act the victim if there’s retaliation.”

The FSA’s Free Lions embassy posted on X: “Unfortunately, once again, we are having to ask England supporters to send in their witness accounts to ourselves regarding the situation outside of the Athens Olympic Stadium.

“Despite being told how things would operate in advance, to see the exact opposite occur in some cases, and to see the treatment of our fans by local police using shields and teargas to do something as simple as rearrange a queue, is so incredibly frustrating. On a night where we had a great result on the pitch, there is still clearly so much needed to do off it to ensure our supporters aren’t put in unjustifiably dangerous situations.”

A Free Lions representative called the situation unnecessary and added that it initially heated up as fans queued at the first ticket check point, with police using shields to rearrange the line. Hundreds of fans missed kick-off.

The FA is gathering information. “We are aware that some of our fans had a difficult experience outside the ground and are obtaining more information on exactly what happened,” an FA spokesperson said.

Uefa is awaiting further reports before deciding whether to take action. England moved top of Nations League Group B2 after a 3-0 win. They host the Republic of Ireland on Sunday.

A skirmish involving Israel fans broke out in the stands of the Stade de France during a tense match between Israel and France’s men’s football teams, but a heavy police presence ensured a repeat of the serious violence in Amsterdam was avoided.

The game had been designated as “high risk” after the hooliganism and antisemitism witnessed in the Netherlands before and after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv last week.

The Israeli national anthem was booed by some in the crowd before kick-off and, within 10 minutes of the game starting, a small number of fans clashed on a high stand in the stadium.

The clash was quickly dealt with by the security guards, with riot police seen at the edge of the stands ready to intervene. The authorities in Paris had been on high alert.

Emmanuel Macron, who attended the game with his interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, and the prime minister, Michel Barnier, in an act of solidarity with the victims of antisemitism, said France would not accept discrimination. Former presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy were also in the stands to watch the goalless draw.

Macron told the French TV channel BFMTV: “We will not give in to antisemitism anywhere and violence, including in the French Republic, will never prevail, nor will intimidation.”

There were fewer than 20,000 people in the Stade de France at the Uefa Nations League match, making it the lowest attendance recorded in the 80,000-capacity stadium.

Patrick Bensimon, a co-founder of the NGO Diaspora Defense Forces, said he had organised for 600 Israel fans to be transported to the stadium in chartered buses under police escort.

He said: “80% of the people who are here did not want to go to the Stade de France. Some were afraid, especially following the events in Amsterdam.”

One Israel fan draped in the Israeli flag told reporters outside the stadium before the game: “We want to show that we are not afraid of anyone, except God.”

His friend said “we shouldn’t mix sport and politics” and that they hoped “there won’t be any scuffles outside the stadium”.

Despite the low attendance, about 4,000 police officers were on the streets around the stadium along with 1,600 security personnel.

Israel’s government had instructed its nationals to avoid the game amid heightened tensions.

A pro-Palestinian demonstration around 2km from the stadium outside the Front Populaire Métro station in St-Denis attracted a few hundred protesters. They marched in the direction of the stadium but were turned around by riot police.

Éric Coquerel, an MP for Seine-Saint-Denis and a member of the leftwing France Unbowed party, said: “We are living in a schizophrenic moment. On the one hand, international institutions recognise the existence of a genocide in Gaza. On the other, we have a French government that reluctantly agrees to call for a ceasefire.

“This match, which everyone knows is second rate, is attended by President Macron, the prime minister, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande. How do you expect Benjamin Netanyahu to hear any message other than: ‘You can continue to raze Gaza’? France is looking the other way.

“This is purely a scandal. Let’s imagine a France-Russia match. Would Emmanuel Macron have honoured this encounter with his presence? Obviously not. While in both cases there are two aggressor countries.”

The French police chief Laurent Nuñez said his officers had learned from the scenes in the Netherlands. “What we learned is that we need to be present in the public space, including far away from the stadium,” he said.

Ticket sales ended at 11am on Thursday and fans had been warned they would not be allowed to bring any bags into the stadium. A wide security perimeter was enforced around the venue.

Only the French and Israeli national flags were allowed into the ground and fans were thoroughly searched as they went through checkpoints outside the stadium.

Concerns had been raised after riot police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday night outside a gala event in Paris where funds were being raised for the Israeli military. Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, had been due to speak but subsequently cancelled.

Police pushed against dozens of protesters waving Palestinian flags and lighting flares near St-Lazare station, and reports suggested teargas had been deployed as officers struggled to contain the crowds.

Amid international condemnation of the violence in Amsterdam last week, a report published by the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, suggested the cause had been a “toxic cocktail of antisemitism, football hooliganism and anger over the war in Palestine and Israel and other parts of the Middle East”.

Pakistan’s military has no intention of entering into negotiations or cutting a deal with incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, senior military sources told the Guardian, after Khan said he would be willing to engage with the army leadership from his jail cell.

Khan, who is being held in Pakistan’s Adiala jail, is banned from meeting journalists but the Guardian was able to submit questions through his legal team.

In his responses, Khan said he has had “no personal engagement with the military” since he was arrested and imprisoned in August last year.

However, he said he would not rule out doing a deal with Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, despite previously accusing them of bringing down his government and being behind his incarceration.

“With regards to doing a deal with the military, any engagement would be based on principles and in the interest of the people, not personal gain or compromises that undermine Pakistan’s democratic values,” Khan told the Guardian.

He added that he would “rather live the rest of my life in prison than compromise on my principles.”

It is widely acknowledged that Khan, a former superstar cricketer, was helped into power in 2018 with the backing of the military, long seen as the kingmakers of Pakistani politics and whose interference has often been an obstacle to the country’s fraught path to democracy.

It was after Khan’s relationship with the army’s leadership fell apart in 2022 that he was toppled from power. Khan then began to vocally criticise the military establishment, accusing them of a role in an assassination attempt on his life and for orchestrating his arrest.

Khan now faces upwards of a hundred cases he claims are trumped up by the military and political opponents who form the current coalition government. In June, the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention declared that Khan’s detention was unlawful.

Nonetheless, as his time in jail has dragged on and the cases against him have mounted, the former prime minister’s rhetoric towards the current military establishment has taken a more conciliatory tone. In July, Khan publicly offered to hold “conditional” talks with the military, if they agreed to hold “clean and transparent” elections. Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have alleged that the elections held in February were undemocratic and marred by widespread allegations of rigging, and argue that PTI in fact won the election through the popular vote.

Behind the scenes, senior military leadership said that for the past few months Khan has been applying pressure for discussions with the military and had offered “unconditional” talks as he sought a deal to ensure his release.

However, senior military figures are said to be resolute in refusing to enter into any negotiations with Khan. “Khan has to face the court cases against him, and can’t expect any deals from the military. Khan wants everyone to follow the rule of law, but he does not want this rule of law for himself,” said one military source.

The current government, which is a coalition led by prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) party, is said to have the backing of the military. Over the past month, they have recently pushed through amendments to extend the term of the army chief to five years, and to give the government greater control over the supreme court, which PTI has alleged is to serve the military’s agenda and prevent Khan from being released.

In response to the constitutional amendments and the allegedly rigged election, this week Khan issued a “final call” for a PTI protest due to be held in the capital Islamabad on 24 November. The party has been facing an ongoing crackdown since Khan was arrested, with most of the party’s leadership either in jail or exile.

The government has still yet to confirm if they intend to try Khan in a military rather than civilian court, for some of his alleged crimes which include everything from bribery to terrorism. He denies all charges.

“How can any civilian ever be tried in a military court, let alone a former prime minister?” said Khan. “It’s ludicrous. The only reason to try a civilian in military court is simply because no other court of justice would convict me. The very idea of it is alarming.”

Concerns have also been raised at the conditions that Khan is being kept in while in jail. Last month, his ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith alleged he was being kept in solitary confinement and was not being allowed to make calls to his sons. The government hit back, alleging he was being kept in a luxurious “presidential suite” with his own cook.

Khan denied any privileged treatment and said he had been “held in conditions designed to intimidate, isolate, and break my resolve. For 15 days, I was denied any human contact, no electricity in cell and kept in lockup for 24 hours a day without access to exercise or basic freedoms.”

He emphasised that the ban on journalists being able to visit him or freely cover his trials “speaks volumes about the transparency – or lack thereof – surrounding my predicament”.

Nonetheless, Khan said he remained confident that he would get justice eventually and he still believed he would “have the opportunity to serve as prime minister again if that is the will of the people”.

Pakistan’s military has no intention of entering into negotiations or cutting a deal with incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, senior military sources told the Guardian, after Khan said he would be willing to engage with the army leadership from his jail cell.

Khan, who is being held in Pakistan’s Adiala jail, is banned from meeting journalists but the Guardian was able to submit questions through his legal team.

In his responses, Khan said he has had “no personal engagement with the military” since he was arrested and imprisoned in August last year.

However, he said he would not rule out doing a deal with Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, despite previously accusing them of bringing down his government and being behind his incarceration.

“With regards to doing a deal with the military, any engagement would be based on principles and in the interest of the people, not personal gain or compromises that undermine Pakistan’s democratic values,” Khan told the Guardian.

He added that he would “rather live the rest of my life in prison than compromise on my principles.”

It is widely acknowledged that Khan, a former superstar cricketer, was helped into power in 2018 with the backing of the military, long seen as the kingmakers of Pakistani politics and whose interference has often been an obstacle to the country’s fraught path to democracy.

It was after Khan’s relationship with the army’s leadership fell apart in 2022 that he was toppled from power. Khan then began to vocally criticise the military establishment, accusing them of a role in an assassination attempt on his life and for orchestrating his arrest.

Khan now faces upwards of a hundred cases he claims are trumped up by the military and political opponents who form the current coalition government. In June, the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention declared that Khan’s detention was unlawful.

Nonetheless, as his time in jail has dragged on and the cases against him have mounted, the former prime minister’s rhetoric towards the current military establishment has taken a more conciliatory tone. In July, Khan publicly offered to hold “conditional” talks with the military, if they agreed to hold “clean and transparent” elections. Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have alleged that the elections held in February were undemocratic and marred by widespread allegations of rigging, and argue that PTI in fact won the election through the popular vote.

Behind the scenes, senior military leadership said that for the past few months Khan has been applying pressure for discussions with the military and had offered “unconditional” talks as he sought a deal to ensure his release.

However, senior military figures are said to be resolute in refusing to enter into any negotiations with Khan. “Khan has to face the court cases against him, and can’t expect any deals from the military. Khan wants everyone to follow the rule of law, but he does not want this rule of law for himself,” said one military source.

The current government, which is a coalition led by prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) party, is said to have the backing of the military. Over the past month, they have recently pushed through amendments to extend the term of the army chief to five years, and to give the government greater control over the supreme court, which PTI has alleged is to serve the military’s agenda and prevent Khan from being released.

In response to the constitutional amendments and the allegedly rigged election, this week Khan issued a “final call” for a PTI protest due to be held in the capital Islamabad on 24 November. The party has been facing an ongoing crackdown since Khan was arrested, with most of the party’s leadership either in jail or exile.

The government has still yet to confirm if they intend to try Khan in a military rather than civilian court, for some of his alleged crimes which include everything from bribery to terrorism. He denies all charges.

“How can any civilian ever be tried in a military court, let alone a former prime minister?” said Khan. “It’s ludicrous. The only reason to try a civilian in military court is simply because no other court of justice would convict me. The very idea of it is alarming.”

Concerns have also been raised at the conditions that Khan is being kept in while in jail. Last month, his ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith alleged he was being kept in solitary confinement and was not being allowed to make calls to his sons. The government hit back, alleging he was being kept in a luxurious “presidential suite” with his own cook.

Khan denied any privileged treatment and said he had been “held in conditions designed to intimidate, isolate, and break my resolve. For 15 days, I was denied any human contact, no electricity in cell and kept in lockup for 24 hours a day without access to exercise or basic freedoms.”

He emphasised that the ban on journalists being able to visit him or freely cover his trials “speaks volumes about the transparency – or lack thereof – surrounding my predicament”.

Nonetheless, Khan said he remained confident that he would get justice eventually and he still believed he would “have the opportunity to serve as prime minister again if that is the will of the people”.

A rare and pristine example of gladiator memorabilia found in the River Tyne is to go on display, shining light on a 2,000-year-old culture of celebrity and sex appeal.

English Heritage said the copper alloy figurine would have been a decorative handle on a folding knife. Found near Corbridge, Northumberland, it provides proof that the superstar status of gladiators extended to the far edges of the Roman empire.

“It is amazing, it’s absolutely pristine,” said Frances McIntosh, English Heritage’s collections curator for Hadrian’s Wall. It is rare to find any example of gladiator memorabilia in Britain but “to find such a well-preserved and interesting piece is remarkable”.

“This beautifully made knife handle is a testament to how pervasive this celebrity culture was, reaching all the way to Hadrian’s Wall at the very edge of the Roman empire.”

McIntosh said successful gladiators became celebrities and had sex appeal. “There are lots of rumours that you see of high society women falling in love with gladiators,” she said. “Often a slur on somebody was that they had been fathered by a gladiator, that they were the son of a gladiator because their mother was … you know.”

The handle will go on display in 2025. The news coincides with the release this week of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, 24 years after the original, starring Russell Crowe.

The new film, starring Paul Mescal, has divided critics, with the Guardian calling it “thrilling” and the Times calling it “dreary”.

For some Roman history experts, however, it is a question of accuracy, with some bridling at scenes such as a gladiator riding a rhino – “suicidal” – and the Colosseum being filled with water and sharks. “The Romans were not at all familiar with the shark as a beast,” the classics academic Kathleen Coleman told the BBC.

Nor would they always fight to the death, said McIntosh. “Training a gladiator is a huge investment. They can’t be dying every time.”

The Tyne knife handle depicts a gladiator known as a secutor, a muscular fighter who carried heavy equipment including a large shield, a heavy helmet with limited visibility, and a sword.

A secutor was trained to fight a gladiator called a retiarius, a more nimble and unencumbered fighter who carried a net, a trident and a dagger. A retiarius fought without his face covered, which meant the best-looking men were often chosen for the role.

The gladiator fighting would usually complete a day of entertainment which began with animal hunts and was followed by prisoner executions.

The Tyne object shows someone who is left-handed, which is unusual as it was regarded as bad luck.

“It could be that it is a very specific gladiator because gladiators were celebrity culture in the Roman world,” said McIntosh. “Gladiators were big and individual gladiators, if they won multiple bouts, then they become better known.”

How the souvenir ended up in the river is a mystery. “You always wonder,” said McIntosh. “Did it fall out of someone’s pocket? Did someone throw it in? This is probably a one-off commission and you would be pretty annoyed if you lost it.”

English Heritage said it planned to display the souvenir at Corbridge Roman Town in 2025 along with other finds from the Tyne.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are asking Americans who are “high-IQ small-government revolutionaries” and willing to work over 80 hours a week to join their new Department of Government Efficiency – at zero pay.

In a new X post on Thursday that doubled as a job announcement and another one of Musk’s trolling attempts, the account for the newly formed Doge wrote: “We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”

The name of the department, which is not part of the federal government, harkens back to a meme of an expressive shiba inu dog.

“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants,” the statement added.

In a separate post, Musk chimed in on the callout, saying: “Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero.”

“What a great deal!” Musk, the richest man in the world, wrote with a laughing emoji. He has promised to reduce federal bureaucracy by a third and cut $2tn from US government spending, an endeavor he said “necessarily involves some temporary hardship”.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced the appointment of Musk and Ramaswamy to Doge, saying: “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies – essential to the ‘Save America’ movement.”

Trump went on to describe the newly formed department as the “‘Manhattan Project’ of our time,” referring to the US-led research program during the second world war that sought to create the nuclear bomb, which killed an estimated 214,000 people in Japan in 1945.

Since the first assassination attempt against Trump in July, Musk has emerged as one of his staunchest allies, at one point proclaiming himself to be “dark Maga” during the campaign. He donated $120m to the president-elect’s campaign, held rallies for him in the swing state of Pennsylvania and promoted Trump’s message relentlessly on X.

Following Trump’s re-election victory, Musk posted an edited photo of him carrying a sink in the Oval Office, writing on X: “Let that sink in.”

The image harks back to Musk’s publicity stunt from October 2022, shortly after he closed his $44bn deal of buying X, previously known as Twitter. Musk walked into the company’s headquarters carrying a sink. According to a new Fidelity estimate, X is worth nearly 80% less than when Musk purchased it two years ago.

A judge has intervened and ordered a hearing to review the purchase of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s InfoWars site by the satirical news site the Onion.

On Thursday morning, it was announced that the Onion had bought InfoWars at Jones’s bankruptcy auction.

But later that day, the judge overseeing Jones’s bankruptcy case held an emergency hearing, during which lawyers representing Jones and a company affiliated with him expressed concerns about the auction process. The judge has ordered an evidentiary hearing for next week to determine if the auction was conducted fairly, which could delay the process.

“We’re all going to an evidentiary hearing and I’m going to figure out exactly what happened,” the judge, Christopher Lopez, said in an emergency hearing on Thursday afternoon. “No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction.”

The only other bidder was First United American Companies, a company that is affiliated with one of Jones’s product-selling websites.

At the emergency hearing on Thursday, a lawyer for First United American Companies took issue with the auction process, noting that no bidding round was held on Wednesday for rival parties, and that only sealed bids submitted the previous week were considered.

But the trustee who oversaw the auction said he followed the judge’s rules laid out in a September order, which made the overbidding round optional.

The exact bid amount offered by the Onion for InfoWars remains unknown, but it has been reported it was lower than First United American’s bid of $3.5m. The Onion’s offer was seen as a better deal because some of the related Sandy Hook families agreed to forgo a portion of the sale proceeds to help pay off Jones’s other creditors.

It was reported on Thursday that the Onion’s purchase of Infowars received support from families of Sandy Hook shooting victims, to whom Jones owes $1.4bn in defamation judgments after he falsely claimed the 2012 school massacre was a hoax.

If the sale goes through, the Onion has said that it plans to rebuild the Infowars website to feature internet humor writers and content creators.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

The French have a certain reputation when it comes to the vie d’amour. But the latest national study on the country’s sexual behaviour may offer a reason to rethink.

According to findings from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, the age at which French people are having sex for the first time is increasing.

The median age of first sexual intercourse, defined as the age at which half the population lost their virginity, was 17.3 in 2010.

The latest study of 31,518 people found that as of 2023, the median age at which French women lost their virginity was 18.2, and 17.7 for men.

The trend appears to be a reversal of the increasingly laissez-faire approach of French society in the second half of the last century.

The age at which women lost their virginity decreased by almost three years between the early 1960s and the mid-2000s (20.1 years compared with 17.3 years) and by a year and a half for men (18.8 years compared with 17.3 years).

The study suggests all is not lost for the reputation of the French lover, memorably burnished by the likes of the singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and the erotic literature of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, author of Les Liaisons dangereuses. The number of sexual partners over a lifetime is on the increase in France.

The average number of partners among women aged 18-69 who have had sex was 3.4 in 1992 but rose to 4.5 in 2006 and 7.9 in 2023.

For men, these figures were stable between 1992 and 2006 (11.2 and 11.9 respectively) but increased significantly to an average of 16.4 partners in 2023.

But, peel back the figures, and the trend around actual sexual activity is distinctly downwards: in 1992, 86.4% of women aged 18-69 said they had had sexual intercourse in the past year. That figure dipped to 82.9% in 2006 and it stood at 77.2% in 2023. Among men, the figure dropped from 92.1% in 1992 to 89.1% in 2006 and 81.6% in 2023.

The study’s authors said the trends showed a “contemporary paradox of sexuality” characterised by “greater diversity at the same time as a lower intensity”.

“The reasons for these trends are multiple. First of all, it should be noted that women and men under 69 in France are less likely to be in a relationship today than in previous decades,” they said.

“Periods without a stable partner are therefore more numerous in 2023 than in the past. The development of sexuality in digital spaces also contributes, particularly among the youngest, to transforming the experience of sexuality, which is no longer experienced solely in physical space but also in digital space.”

They added: “Finally, other studies show that the Covid-19 pandemic, and in particular the periods of confinement, have contributed to altering the mental health of the youngest in the long term, which may have changed their expectations regarding sexuality.”

The study suggests this trend has also been observed in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the US.

The first study of French sexuality in the series was conducted in 1970 and the latest report was five years in the making and covers mainland France and the overseas territories of Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Réunion.

There have been no similar mass studies in the UK, but a survey published in the Journal of Sex Research last year suggested the number of British teenagers having their first sexual experience by the age of 15 had declined by up to a third in the past decade. The study found 23.6% of British girls reported having had sex by the age of 15, compared with 22.8% of boys.

The West Side Story and Snow White actor Rachel Zegler has apologised after criticising Donald Trump and his supporters.

The 23-year-old, currently starring in Broadway’s re-imagined Romeo + Juliet, had posted a lengthy response to the re-election of Trump and the “four years of hatred” he would bring about in America.

She wrote about a “deep, deep sickness” in the US and said she was terrified to see how many people still support someone who “threatens our democracy”. She also echoed a recent statement made by the singer Ethel Cain, writing: “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.”

Zegler ended the statement, writing: “Fuck Donald Trump.”

After backlash within conservative corners of the internet, with rightwing pundit Megyn Kelly calling her “a pig”, Zegler released a new statement, writing that she wanted to “sincerely apologise” for what had been said.

“Hatred and anger have caused us to move further and further away from peace and understanding, and I am sorry I contributed to the negative discourse,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “This week has been emotional for so many of us, but I firmly believe that everyone has the right to their opinion, even when it differs from my own. I am committed to contributing positively towards a better tomorrow.”

Zegler is the lead of Disney’s $200m-budgeted live-action take on Snow White starring opposite Gal Gadot, co-written by Greta Gerwig.

The actor, who also led last year’s Hunger Games prequel, previously angered conservatives online by criticising the animated original. In a red carpet interview with Extra, she joked that the original had a “weird” dynamic and was about “a guy who literally stalks” Snow White.

“People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it’s like, yeah, it is – because it needed that,” she also said in a Vanity Fair interview. She said the new film would be less about “dreaming about true love” and more about becoming a leader.

In an interview with the Telegraph, David Hand, whose father was one of the directors of the 1937 version, called the new “woke” take “a disgrace” and “insulting”.

After experiencing delays due to the pandemic and the 2023 actors strike, it is now set to be released in March 2025.

Zegler is one of many celebrities who has expressed dismay with the re-election of Trump. Cardi B said she was “really sad” over the result, while John Cusack wrote that “voting in a convicted felon rapist and Nazi is a sign of deep nihilism”.