Weather forecasters in Los Angeles were expecting fast, dry winds to return towards the end of the weekend, threatening to fuel wildfires that have already destroyed 10,000 structures and killed 11 people.

Urgent “red flag” alerts – meaning critical fire weather conditions – announced by the US National Weather Service (NWS) said moderate to strong wind and low humidity would continue on Friday morning, as five fires raged across the metropolis.

Barbara Bruderlin, head of the Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, described the impact of the fires as “total devastation and loss”.

“There are areas where everything is gone. There isn’t even a stick of wood left. It’s just dirt,” Bruderlin said.

Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has come under intense criticism for her absence from the city during the first 24 hours of the crisis, when she was in Ghana, as part of an official White House delegation for the inauguration of that country’s president. She was assailed by political rivals on the right, including Rick Caruso, who ran against Bass in the 2022 mayoral election, but also faced criticism from left, which accused the mayor of cutting the budget for firefighting to pay for increased policing.

“The consistent defunding of other city programs in order to give the LAPD billions a year has consequences,” Ricci Sergienko, a lawyer and organizer with People’s City Council LA, told the Intercept. “The city is unprepared to handle this fire, and Los Angeles shouldn’t be in that position.”

In an interview with Fox LA, Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley said that a cut of $17m in funding for her department, and problems with the water supply to hydrants in the Palisades, had undercut firefighters’ abilities to respond to the fires.

“My message is the fire department needs to be properly funded,” Crowley said. “It’s not.” Fox LA reporter Gigi Graciette then asked Crowley three times: “Did the city of Los Angeles fail you?” After the third time, Crowley responded simply: “Yes.”

One public official who has chosen not to criticize Bass during the crisis is Los Angeles city controller Kenneth Mejia, whose office drew attention to cuts to the firefighting budget in October in a widely circulated chart showing a massive increase in spending on the police department and cuts to other public services including the fire department.

As his work was being cited by critics of the mayor, Mejia, an activist accountant, wrote in a social media post: “As the City’s Accountant, we enact the budget, account for your taxes, & know the details of the City’s finances. We will gladly break down any questions about how all this works. BUT for now, we must focus on ensuring we can get through these catastrophic fires.”

Officials estimate the Palisades fire wiped away at least 5,000 structures, including many homes in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where mansions lining the yellow beaches were hollowed out and homes in the neighborhoods’ canyons reduced to dust.

Further east near Altadena, the streets, too, were littered with fallen branches while entire blocks of homes are simply gone. In some areas, the destruction appeared almost random, one resident said, with one house leveled while a neighboring still stood.

The dead include four men who were unable to leave or had stayed behind to defend their homes in Altadena, a community near Pasadena that is home to working- and middle-class families, including many Black residents living there for generations. Two of them were Anthony Mitchell, a 67-year-old amputee, and his son, Justin, who had cerebral palsy. They were waiting for an ambulance to come when the flames roared through, Mitchell’s daughter, Hajime White, told the Washington Post.

“He was not going to leave his son behind. No matter what,” White said. White – who lives in Warren, Arkansas, and is Justin’s step-sister – said her father called her on Wednesday morning and said they had to evacuate from approaching flames. “Then he said: ‘I’ve got to go – the fire’s in the yard,’” she said.

In another incident, Shari Shaw told the local media outlet KTLA that she tried to get her 66-year-old brother, Victor Shaw, to evacuate but he wanted to stay and fight the fire. His body was found with a garden hose in his hand.

Rodney Nickerson died in his bed in his Altadena home. The 82-year-old had lived through numerous fires and felt that he would be OK waiting it out at home, his daughter, Kimiko Nickerson, told KTLA.

Briana Navarro, who lived in Altadena with her grandmother, Erliene Kelley, told NBC News that Kelley had died there after deciding not to evacuate the home she had lived in for more than 40 years with the rest of the family. “We made the choice to evacuate on Tuesday night, however my grandmother decided she wanted to stay”, Navarro wrote in a GoFundMe post. “After we left, I asked my dad to go to the house to check on her … and again, she said she was going to stay at home. She said ‘It’s in God’s hands.’”

CNN reported that Annette Rossilli, who was 85, died in the Palisades fire after refusing to leave her home and pets, according to Luxe Homecare, a company that provided in-home care to her three times a week.

Officials have said they expect the death toll to rise.

Winds were likely to diminish on Friday afternoon, the NWS said, but warned that an “extended period of elevated to potentially critical fire weather conditions are in the forecast for Sunday through Wednesday”.

While the cause of the fires has yet to be determined, the New York Times reported that power lines near the Eaton and Palisades fires had not been turned off before those blazes started, “which energy experts said was concerning because electrical equipment has often ignited infernos during periods of high wind in California and elsewhere”.

Officials said on Friday afternoon that they had some success in battling the Kenneth fire, which ignited on Thursday and grew to 1,000 acres. About 400 firefighters remained at the location overnight to guard against the fire spreading, and it was about 50% contained by Friday.

Firefighting efforts in such tough conditions, with effectively no rain for months and none forecast in the days ahead, have stretched crews and left the country’s second-largest city reeling.

The largest of the fires burning in the LA area, the Palisades fire, obliterated neighbourhoods in the scenic hilltops. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website, that blaze has burned over 21,300 acres and been only 8% “contained”.

Containment, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association, refers to a “control line” around a portion of the fire that flames should not be able to cross. So if a wildfire is described as 25% contained, then firefighters have created control lines – usually wide trenches – around 25% of the fire’s perimeter. Once a fire is 100% contained, firefighters can begin extinguishing it.

To the east, the Eaton fire near Pasadena has burned more than 5,000 structures – a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles – across nearly 14,000 acres, and is just 3% contained.

The Hurst fire in the hills above Sylmar, which threatened the San Fernando Valley, was about 37% contained on Friday morning and firefighters reported that they had “successfully contained the fire north of the I-210 Foothill Freeway, establishing control lines”.

The Los Angeles fire department lifted an evacuation order in Granada Hills, north-west of downtown Los Angeles, on Friday afternoon, after “firefighters combined with the aggressive attack by LAFD air ops” swiftly brought the Archer fire, which broke out on Friday morning, under control before any structures were damaged.

Human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather across the world, including wildfires. In California, the fire season now begins earlier and ends later.

More than 150,000 people remained under evacuation orders, and the fires have consumed about 57 sq miles, an area larger than the city of San Francisco.

At least 20 arrests have been made for looting. Officials have imposed a mandatory curfew in evacuation zones as well as in the city of Santa Monica, which is next to Pacific Palisades.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

At least 11 people have died in the wildfires surging across the Los Angeles area. As local law enforcement scramble to identify victims and inform their families, details are emerging about six of the Los Angeles residents killed in some of the worst wildfires to hit the western city in its history.

On Friday, officials attributed five deaths to the Palisades fire and six to the Eaton fire.

Annette Rossilli, 85, died in the Palisades fire, the home health company caring for her told CNN.

A caregiver as well as neighbors urged Rossilli to evacuate, but she wanted to stay with her pets, including a dog, canary, two parrots and a turtle, Fay Vahdani, president of Luxe Homecare, told the news outlet. On Wednesday, firefighters discovered Rossilli’s body in her car.

Rossilli ran a long-standing plumbing business in Pacific Palisades and was well liked by neighbors, the company said. She is survived by a daughter and son.

The others who were publicly identified were all killed in the Eaton fire, a 13,690-acre blaze that ravaged the neighborhood of Altadena – a diverse residential community near Pasadena that is home to working- and middle-class families, including many Black residents who have lived there for generations.

Victor Shaw, 66, was the first of the fatalities to be named, after he died in the Eaton fire raging to the north-east of LA while attempting to extinguish flames at his home of 55 years in Altadena.

His younger sister Shari Shaw reportedly tried to get him to evacuate as the Eaton fire spread through their neighborhood, but she was forced to leave him behind when he refused to come with her. She fled just as the blaze engulfed their home.

“When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back, and I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm – I had to save myself,” she told the local TV station KTLA.

Victor’s badly burned body was discovered by a family friend the next day lying on the road next to his home, still clutching a garden hose in his hand. “It looks like he was trying to save the home that his parents had for almost 55 years,” the friend, Al Tanner, told KTLA.

When his sister Shari heard the news, she said, “I fell to the ground, and I didn’t know – I didn’t want to look at him. They just told me that he was lying on the ground and that he looked serene, as if he was at peace,” she told KTLA.

“I’ll miss talking to him, joking about, traveling with him and I’ll just miss him to death,” she added, to CBS. “I just hate that he had to go out like that.”

The death toll rose to 11 on Friday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles county medical examiner’s department, after the first fire in a series across LA county erupted on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles.

The agency said that identifying the victims might take weeks because the huge Eaton and Palisades blazes are still raging and there are extreme safety concerns. The department added that traditional means of identification such as fingerprinting or visual identification may not be available.

Anthony Mitchell, 67, who was an amputee, and his son Justin, who had cerebral palsy, were identified as two of the wildfire victims in Altadena. They died as they were waiting for an ambulance, according to Mitchell’s daughter, Hajime White.

“They didn’t make it out,” said White, the Associated Press reported.

“He was not going to leave his son behind. No matter what,” added White, who lives in Arkansas.

She said authorities told the family Mitchell was found by the side of his son’s bed. The Washington Post reported the family believes Mitchell was trying to save his son, who was in his early 20s.

Another son, also in his 20s, lived with the pair but was in the hospital, and no caregivers were on hand, White said, adding: “It’s very hard. It’s like a ton of bricks just fell on me.” Mitchell was a father of four, grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of 10.

Rodney Nickerson, 82, also of Altadena, died in his home, according to his daughter, Kimiko Nickerson, who said he thought he would be OK waiting the fire out in his house after living through several fires in his 57 years in the home.

“He was gathering some things, packing up his car a bit and he said that he was going to gather up his stuff, but he said he was going to stay here too … he said that he felt this was going to pass over and that he would be here,” Kimiko told KTLA.

Kimiko said her father purchased the house with a $5 downpayment in 1968. The last thing her father said to her was “I’ll be here tomorrow”, she told CBS. She confirmed to the outlet that she had found her father’s body in the wreckage.

Erliene Kelley, a retired pharmacy technician in Altadena who lived very close to Shaw and Nickerson, also died at home in the Eaton fire, the New York Times reported, citing relatives.

Rita and Terry Pyburn, who lived on the same block as Kelley, described her to the newspaper as an angel, saying the longtime resident in the close community had been “so, so, so sweet”.

Terry Pyburn said he had often had brief chats with Kelley about gardening and local news, and often left small Christmas gifts for her and other neighbors in the tight-knit community.

They described a frenzy as residents thought they had dodged the fire until it suddenly descended on the neighborhood and people fled under possibly belated emergency alerts and evacuation orders, without a chance to check on others.

As it appeared Kelley might be among the dead, her granddaughter Briana Navarro told the Los Angeles Times Kelley had been “adamant” she did not want to evacuate. Kelley and her late husband had purchased their home in the late 1960s and fires had never reached it before.

The Palisades fire has been described as the worst in the city’s history, beginning a catastrophe that is one of the most destructive ever witnessed in southern California as several other huge and fierce wildfires ignited across LA county, the most populous county in the US, fanned by hurricane-strength dry winds.

With evacuation orders in place for about 180,000 people across the region, about 10,000 homes and buildings gutted by fire so far and emergency services stretched to the limit, the names of those who have died will be slow to emerge.

The largest fires are burning about 25 miles west and north of downtown Los Angeles, plunging the second-largest city in the US into shock and fear.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

At least 11 people have been killed, thousands of structures have been burned to the ground and nearly 180,000 people have been evacuated as wildfires continue to blaze in Los Angeles.

The Palisades fire is the largest, with more than 20,000 acres (8,090 hectares) burning, then Eaton at nearly 14,000 acres. Officials are reporting some progress with the Hurst fire, which was 37% contained as of Friday morning, and the Lidia fire in Acton, which was 75% contained. The Kenneth fire is nearly 1,000 acres and 35% contained.

People in Los Angeles shared their experiences of near escapes, , evacuations, the destruction of neighborhoods and the smothering impact of air pollution across the city.

‘All that was left standing was the chimney. My brain couldn’t compute it’

Me and my wife Shawna had been following this weather pattern for a while and knew the winds were coming, so we prepared by getting everything into the car on Tuesday evening, just in case. Then we saw the Palisades fire hit and thought: “Those poor people! I hope nothing happens here.”

We hadn’t had rain in 10 months. It was dry – southern California was a tinderbox. Tuesday evening, the smoke started to come in. When I was packing the car, I looked over the left shoulder, and what is normally the pitch-black silhouette of a mountain was this bright, orange tower of flame that was maybe a mile away. That night we left around 8.30pm – not from an evacuation alert, but we just told neighbors: “It’s time.” We drove to a friend’s house in Long Beach.

We kept in touch with our community through a group chat. That night, fire was spreading on our street. At around 3am on Wednesday morning, a neighbor who was trying to contain the flames said he was leaving. Shawna asked him: “What do you mean?” He said: “Shawna, it’s over. The block will be gone tomorrow.”

The next day someone sent us a picture of our home. All that was left standing was the chimney. It was like when I was in New York during 9/11 – my brain just couldn’t compute it.

We drove back on Wednesday to see what was left. It was like the house and area had collapsed in on itself. I walked around to where our kitchen was and thought: “Oh look, the Le Creuset cookware survived.” It was surreal. I went to my office and games room and thought: “I don’t remember that piece of machinery?” It was twisted metal from our central air system that fell down from the loft. I walked around to our bedroom; there was nothing there.

On top of everything, I have stage four prostate cancer. The stress hasn’t been good, and the smoke inhalation has made my chest hurt. It was better when we got to Long Beach but now the air quality is bad here and I’m wheezing again. It’s just devastating – that house was like another child to us. We filled it with love, it was everything we wanted. The fact was, I was planning on dying in that house. That was our plan. I didn’t want to go to a hospital or hospice when the time comes, I just wanted to die in the house that I shared with my wife. Now that’s all gone.

Worst of all, our community is gone. We used to see our neighbors every day, and now we’ve been scattered to the far winds. The fact is, Altadena died on Wednesday morning, and it’s not coming back. Marcus Beer, 54, video games consultant, Altadena

‘It’s hard to imagine life there again’

My wife Sophie and I, with our eight-week-old daughter and cat, Luna, live streets away from Eaton Canyon in Altadena, where one of the fires began. We go for walks down that canyon most mornings. It’s a beautiful place.

On Tuesday we were driving home – we’d gone to try and get our newborn to sleep – when we noticed this bright yellow and orange glow towards the canyon. It was a light you don’t see from an artificial source. And there was smoke.

We rushed home, fighting intense winds and keeping our baby safe. Once we were in, I ran next door to warn our neighbor. He said: “We need to get out of here quickly.” So I ran to tell my wife and we started packing. The power was out, but we had battery-powered tea lights. I grabbed passports, cash, documents, baby stuff like blankets and diapers. I got Luna into her carrier quickly, which she doesn’t like. We evacuated in under five minutes. I didn’t think about how we wouldn’t be back for a long time.

We managed to drive to family in Santa Barbara. The highway was insane, with trees and debris. Going to sleep that night around midnight, we mentally prepared ourselves for losing our home.

Miraculously, despite most of the houses on our street having burned down, we saw from a neighbor’s video that ours remains standing, with only damage to the landscaping (like the fences). It’s as if the flames stopped right at our house. A neighbor, who stayed during the fire, helped protect our home from the flames and saved all the houses beyond it, too.

We got insanely lucky, but we don’t feel lucky at all. We moved to the area to give my daughter the best start in life, near a really good school, in a great neighborhood. Now the school’s burned down and the area is almost totally gone. It’s really hard to imagine life there again.

We can’t get back home; the national guard has closed off the streets. Looters in the area are the new challenge. The neighbor who stayed behind has been patrolling for other fires and looters and caught two in the area already. He’s a hero. Matt Sadie, 41, artist manager in the music business, Altadena

‘The air is so bad I wear a mask inside’

I think I speak for a lot of Los Angelenos when I say, while I’m not in the path of a fire, this has been the most impactful firestorm I can remember. Probably a dozen of my friends, colleagues and neighbors have needed to evacuate. I know at least one person who has lost their home, several more whose possessions and housing are threatened.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Watch Duty [an app that shares real-time updates of wildfires] to see where the wind is blowing. Yesterday the closest fire to me was the Sunset fire, which was about 5 miles north [and has now been contained]. I couldn’t see the fire but I could see the smoke coming south.

The air quality in the city is devastatingly bad. I’m recovering from Covid and wearing a mask inside my house because the smoke irritates my throat. I’ve also noticed a persistent headache for most of the day.

Most of LA is under a red flag warning, which means the area is dry and anything can spark a fire. As someone who lives in the city it’s really unsettling to think you’re surrounded by things that can go up in flames. It’s a tinderbox.

I’ve lived here for about 27 years and there have been all kinds of natural disasters. But this one feels like the largest impact on day-to-day life. I don’t recall a situation where so many people I know have been directly affected.

I know the fires are not an immediate threat to me, but it’s been really difficult to sleep. I’m feeling climate anxiety quite intensely right now. Denise, 52, program manager in the tech industry, West Adams

‘A palpable sense of loss and suffering’

I watched in a mixture of disbelief, awe and horror on Tuesday to see large smoke clouds first emerge to the west (Palisades) and then to the east (Eaton and Altadena). When the Sunset fire broke out on Wednesday night, much closer to me in the north, I had this sense of being surrounded by flames and smoke.

Luckily the Sunset fire emerged on a day when the winds had died down and water airdrops were possible. But it was very claustrophobic. There was a palpable sense of loss and suffering.

I just have this sense of doom. It feels apocalyptic – I know it’s an overused term, but it’s what comes to mind. My neighbors and I watched the aircraft do their magic [dropping water] above the visible flames. I felt fortunate in those moments, to have a little community of safety.

It’s horrible that so much history has been lost, and so much natural beauty.

Silvia Fernandez, 59, federal government contractor, Hancock Park

‘Seeing the community really come together has been heartwarming’

I live in Venice, pretty close to Santa Monica. We haven’t had any actual fires or evacuation orders here, but it’s still been very stressful with all the uncertainty. I’m born and raised in LA, so watching my home town be partly destroyed has been really difficult.

We’ve seen giant clouds of smoke. On Wednesday evening, we were up on my friend’s balcony in Mar Vista and my mom saw this bright orange glow – she thought it was a reflection at first. Then we watched as it just expanded so rapidly on the hills in the distance. Later we realized we’d watched the Sunset fire spreading.

I write for a local news site called the Westside Current. On Tuesday, I felt paralyzed and was asking myself: “What can I do to help?” Then I realized people were posting links online of restaurants that were offering free meals to first responders and evacuees, or were opening their doors to the community – for shelter, WiFi, bathrooms, anything. I realized I could be helpful by putting together a list, and keep it updated, so people could find support.

Seeing the community really come together right now – to be there for the people who may need their services, supplies – has been heartwarming. We’ve seen reports of people taking advantage of this horrible situation by looting, but the people rallying together to help each other in the community far outnumber them. To see these little pockets of light is really important.

Sleeping is not easy right now. It’s all so tense. I saw a childhood friend posting online that their home in Palisades – which I used to visit as a child, where I had so many memories – has burned down. And hundreds of thousands are displaced. This has been a real wake-up call for disaster preparedness. Now we’re just gearing up for the next thing that happens. Lila Victor, 22, freelance journalist, Venice

Research published in the Lancet medical journal estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was about 40% higher than numbers recorded by the Palestinian territory’s health ministry.

The peer-reviewed statistical analysis was conducted by academics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions, using a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis.

The researchers sought to assess the death toll from Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024, estimating 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury during this period. The study said 59.1% were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not provide an estimate of Palestinian combatants among the dead.

Up to 30 June last year, the health ministry in Gaza reported a death toll of 37,877 in the war, which began on 7 October 2023 after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostages.

According to Palestinian health officials, a total of more than 46,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war, from a prewar population of about 2.3 million.

It has not been possible for international media to independently verify the death toll in Gaza as Israel does not allow foreign journalists into the territory.

A senior Israeli official, commenting on the study published on Friday, said Israel’s armed forces went to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. “No other army in the world has ever taken such wide-ranging measures,” the official said.

“These include providing advance warning to civilians to evacuate, safe zones and taking any and all measures to prevent harm to civilians. The figures provided in this report do not reflect the situation on the ground.”

The Lancet study said the Palestinian health ministry’s capacity for maintaining electronic death records had previously proven reliable, but deteriorated under Israel’s military campaign, which has included raids on hospitals and other healthcare facilities and disruptions to digital communications.

Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its operations, which the militant group denies.

The study used death toll data from the health ministry, an online survey launched by the ministry for Palestinians to report relatives’ deaths, and social media obituaries to estimate that there were between 55,298 and 78,525 deaths from traumatic injuries in Gaza up to 30 June 2024.

The study’s best estimate was 64,260 dead, which would mean the health ministry had under-reported the number of deaths to that point by 41%. The estimate represented 2.9% of Gaza’s prewar population, “or approximately one in 35 inhabitants”, the study said.

The figure is only for deaths from traumatic injuries and does not include deaths from a lack of healthcare or food, or the thousands believed to be buried under rubble.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) estimates that, on top of the official death toll from the health ministry, another 11,000 Palestinians are missing and presumed dead.

The researchers scoured the three lists, searching for duplicates. “We only kept in the analysis those who were confirmed dead by their relatives or confirmed dead by the morgues and the hospital,” said Zeina Jamaluddine, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the lead author of the study.

“Then we looked at the overlaps between the three lists, and based on the overlaps, you can come up with a total estimation of the population that was killed,” Jamaluddine told Agence France-Presse.

However, the researchers cautioned that the hospital lists did not always provide the cause of death, so it was possible that people with non-traumatic deaths could have been included, potentially leading to an overestimate.

Patrick Ball, a statistician at the US-based Human Rights Data Analysis Group not involved in the research, has used capture-recapture methods to estimate death tolls for conflicts in Guatemala, Kosovo, Peru and Colombia.

Ball told AFP the well-tested technique had been used for centuries and that the researchers had reached “a good estimate” for Gaza.

Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at Britain’s Open University, said there was “inevitably a lot of uncertainty” when making estimates from incomplete data, but it was “admirable” that the researchers had used three other approaches to check their estimates.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

Two Israeli military members on leave were critically wounded in the New Year’s Day truck attack on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street and remain hospitalized, according to a diplomatic official from Israel.

Adi Levin and a fellow reservist in the Israel Defense Forces came to New Orleans as part of a six-week trip to the US meant to finish in Florida, said Elad Shoshan, the Israeli consul in Houston.

Levin suffered severe head trauma and both legs were shattered after a US army veteran drove a pickup truck displaying the Islamic State (IS) terror group’s flag into revelers along the first three blocks of Bourbon Street. Levin’s colleague – who asked to not be publicly identified – suffered limb injuries. Both underwent “life-saving procedures” at a local hospital, where they remained Friday, Shoshan said.

At one point, it was unclear whether Levin would survive the attack that killed 14 others and injured more than 30, Shoshan said.

By Friday, Levin was considered stable and no longer in “a life-threatening situation”, Shoshan said. The 23-year-old, who was more seriously wounded than his colleague, “is facing a very long process of recovery”, according to Shoshan.

Shoshan said Levin and his colleague had served in Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon that have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing more than 1,100 people.

Levin’s father, Hagai Levin, told ynetnews.com that months of surgeries and rehabilitation lay ahead, although the New Orleans hospital treating his son “operates at an incredible standard”.

Also on Friday, New Orleans police identified the officers who shot at the Bourbon Street attacker – 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar – as Nigel Daggs, Christian Beyer and Jacobie Jordan.

Jordan and another officer, Joseph Rodrigue, who did not fire, each were wounded in their thighs before Jabbar was shot dead. Rodrigue also fractured his shoulder.

Video from officers’ body cameras show how Jabbar fired at police from inside his truck after crashing it and before he was fatally shot.

Anne Kirkpatrick, the New Orleans police superintendent, called the officers who confronted Jabbar “national heroes”.

“They killed the terrorist,” Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick declined to address questions about whether friendly fire had hit any officers or bystanders. Citing various pending investigations, she also said she would not comment on different types of barriers that are designed to prevent intentional ramming attacks like the one carried out by Jabbar – but that officials either had removed or failed to deploy.

At least six victims who were injured and the father of a man who was killed in the attack sued New Orleans’ city government Thursday, alleging that it had failed to protect New Year’s Day revelers.

• The Associated Press contributed reporting

Donald Trump will avoid jail time for his felony conviction in the New York hush-money case, a judge determined on Friday, marking both a dramatic and anti-climactic development in the historic criminal proceedings weeks before he returns to the White House.

The judge who presided over Trump’s criminal trial, Juan Merchan, issued a sentence of “unconditional discharge”, meaning the president-elect will be released without fine, imprisonment or probation supervision for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. While the sentence makes Trump a convicted felon, he will face no penalty other than this legal designation.

Trump, whose presidential inauguration is scheduled for 20 January, is the first US president – former or sitting – to face a criminal trial, let alone a guilty verdict and subsequent sentencing.

Addressing the court via video shortly before receiving his sentence, Trump called the case “a very terrible experience”, an “injustice” and a “political witch-hunt”.

“This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback for New York, the New York court system,” he said, appearing next to his lawyer, Todd Blanche. “I get indicted for business records? Everybody should be so accurate. It’s been a political witch hunt … to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election. Obviously that didn’t work.”

After the sentencing hearing concluded, Trump continued his screed on social media, writing on Truth Social, “The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History.”

But as he delivered the sentenced, Merchan emphasized that Trump’s victory in the presidential race did not “reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way”, even though it had to be taken into account.

“The protections [of the presidency] are, however, a legal mandate which, pursuant to the rule of law, this court must respect and follow. However, despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict,” Merchan said.

“It was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that once again you should have the benefits of those protections which include, among other things, the supremacy clause and presidential immunity. It is through that lens and that reality that this court must determine a lawful sentence.”

Merchan, who was subject to intense criticism and threats as he oversaw Trump’s case, then told the president-elect: “Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”

Trump was found guilty on 30 May 2024 of falsifying business records with the intent to commit a second crime.

The office of Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, argued that Trump falsely recorded reimbursements he made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen for paying $130,000 to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, so she would keep quiet about an alleged sexual liaison with the then candidate. Trump marked these repayments to Cohen as “legal expenses” on financial documents.

State prosecutors contended at trial that these falsifications were intended to hide Trump’s violation of New York election law, which forbids promoting any person to office through unlawful means. They said that the unlawful means were the payoff to Daniels, as they cast it as an illegal campaign contribution.

Outside the courthouse at 100 Centre Street in Manhattan, Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters gathered to offer their thoughts on the proceedings. Some protesters held signs reading “Trump is guilty”, “fraud” and “34 felony convictions” while supporters displayed a banner reading “stop partisan conspiracy; stop political witch hunt”.

One of the anti-Trump protesters, Paul Rabin, told the Guardian before the sentencing hearing: “It’s been proven in a court of law that he’s broken the law, and yet he’s been able to evade justice, and unfortunately, in our society, he has money, wealth, status and power, and that’s what gets you justice – or the opposite of justice.”

As Trump’s trial progressed, he repeatedly railed against the proceedings, casting himself as the victim of a politicized witch-hunt. Trump’s invectives repeatedly violated Merchan’s gag order that barred him from speaking about witnesses and jurors.

While Trump was fined and held in contempt for these violations, Merchan’s failure to impose meaningful punishment, such as jail, foreshadowed the many post-trial developments that fell in his favor.

Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced on 11 July. Then came the 1 July US supreme court ruling that imbued presidents with broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

Merchan agreed to postpone sentencing until 18 September so he could weigh whether this decision affected the guilty verdict. The jurist subsequently pushed back sentencing until 26 November “to avoid any appearance – however unwarranted – that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate”. He also postponed issuing his immunity decision.

Trump’s appeal-and-delay legal strategy worked. Following Trump’s win, his team intensified their attempt to thwart the case on presidential immunity grounds, saying this protection applied to the president-elect and that sentencing would impede the smooth transition of power.

Merchan on 3 January ultimately decided not to toss Trump’s case, saying there was “no legal impediment” to sentencing. Merchan scheduled Trump’s sentencing for 10 January.

“It is this Court’s firm belief that only by bringing finality to this matter will all three interests be served,” Merchan wrote in this ruling. “A jury heard evidence for nearly seven weeks and pronounced its verdict; Defendant and the People were given every opportunity to address intervening decisions, to exhaust every possible motion in support of and in opposition to, their respective positions in what is an unprecedented, and likely never to be repeated legal scenario.”

In his decision, however, Merchan all but said that jail was off the table. Merchan said that in weighing all the factors and concerns about presidential immunity, a sentence of “unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution”.

Additional reporting by Anna Betts

At his campaign rallies last year, Donald Trump would sometimes gaze up at the heavens and wonder what his late mother and father would have thought of their son standing trial as an accused criminal.

Given that Trump’s father, Fred, was a ruthless businessman who told his sons “you are a killer” and “you are a king”, the old man was probably looking down on Friday gratified that Donald had essentially got away with it – again.

A judge in New York sentenced the US president-elect to an unconditional discharge for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush-money payment to an adult film performer during the 2016 election.

“This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land is an unconditional discharge,” Judge Juan Merchan explained.

Legal experts hailed the decision as a victory for the rule of law. It cemented the fact that Trump will enter office 10 days from now as the first US president convicted of a crime. The 78-year-old must carry that stigma for the rest of his life.

But in the eyes of the average voter, Trump got off scot-free. No fine. No jail time. In soccer terms, Friday’s sentencing was like a consolation goal in the final minutes when most fans have left the stadium and Trump’s name is already being inscribed on the trophy.

While prison would have been rare for a first-time offender in such a case, so too is an unconditional discharge. Most people in Trump’s shoes would, if not pay a fine, at least be expected to regularly check in with a probation officer and submit to drug and alcohol testing.

But Trump received special treatment throughout. He had been a badly behaved defendant who hurled insults at the judge and judicial system throughout the process but went unpunished.

Merchan had indicated in advance that Trump would not face jail time because it was not “practicable” given his imminent return to the White House. The supreme court said this “stated intent” was crucial in its 5-4 decision on Thursday to allow the sentencing to go ahead.

Even then, Trump was allowed to appear virtually from his Florida home – “the fact is I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” he protested – rather than face the symbolic humiliation of one last day in court. He also intends to appeal.

Step back and consider the big picture. A year ago Trump faced four criminal cases. He was convicted in only one of them, widely seen as the least consequential, and received a no-penalty sentence, a slap on the wrist. He is about to be sworn in as the most powerful man in the world. Merchan concluded the hearing by telling him: “Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”

A portion of the blame lies with the man he will replace, Joe Biden. The current president’s decision to appoint Merrick Garland as attorney general proved a fatal mistake. Garland was far too cautious in prosecuting Trump over his role in the January 6 2021 insurrection and mishandling of classified documents.

Charlie Sykes, an author and broadcaster, wrote on the Atlantic’s website that Biden “misread the trajectory of Trumpism. Like so many others, he thought that the problem of Trump had taken care of itself and that his election meant a return to normalcy. So he chose as his attorney general Merrick Garland, who seems to have seen his role as restoring the Department of Justice rather than pursuing accountability for the man who’d tried to overturn the election.”

After Hamlet-like procrastination, Garland appointed the special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the cases in November 2022 – almost the midway point of the Biden presidency. Smith duly brought indictments but it was too little too late and two federal cases have been dropped.

Imagine if the roles had been reversed. Trump would have appointed a firebrand special counsel to aggressively pursue the cases from day one. Not for the first time, Democrats played by a quaint set of rules even as Republicans were tearing up the rulebook.

Trump understood during last year’s election campaign that the White House would be his get-out-of-jail card. Most parents like to instruct their children that honesty is the best policy and crime does not pay. Trump, however, continues to act with impunity in his own inverted fairytale.

Following a week in which Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta was getting rid of factchecking, as of Friday the company is also terminating its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, effective immediately.

An internal memo from Meta acknowledged that “the legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing”, while pointing to recent supreme court decisions and the “charged” view some have of DEI as a concept. Axios and Business Insider first reported the memo. While Meta confirmed to the Guardian the company is ending its DEI practices, the company did not respond to a request for a comment about how the decision aligns with its overarching goals.

In the memo, Janelle Gale, vice-president of human resources, wrote that the company would be ending several programs that targeted minority groups, including the Diverse Slate Approach, which she said “is currently being challenged” and representation goals, both of which have been used to promote diverse hiring practices.

Silicon Valley’s lack of race and gender diversity has long been acknowledged. According to the company’s most recent diversity report, under previous efforts, Meta doubled the number of Black and Hispanic employees in the US two years ahead of its goal, increasing from 3.8% and 5.2% to 4.9% and 6.7%, respectively. Per the new announcement, Meta will no longer enact specific diverse hiring practices.

The company is ending its equity and inclusion training programs and totally disbanding a team that was focused on DEI.

In addition to ending internal equity measures, the memo announced that the company would be terminating their supplier diversity efforts.

“This effort focused on sourcing from diverse-owned businesses; going forward, we will focus our efforts on supporting small and medium sized businesses that power much of our economy,” the memo reads. “Opportunities will continue to be available to all qualified suppliers, including those who were part of the supplier diversity program.”

The decision to end diversity efforts came even as Meta’s own AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles noted the company’s need for a more representative team.

“My creators’ team is predominately White, cisgender and male – a total of 12 people: 10 White men, 1 white woman and 1 Asian man. Zero Black creators – a pretty glaring omission given my identity!” Liv, a Black AI profile, wrote to journalist Karen Attiah. AI bots can “hallucinate”, or respond with false information, so Liv’s assessment of her development team may not be fully accurate. However, Meta’s four person AI advisory board is made up of four white men.

“A team without Black creators designing a Black character like me is trying to draw a map without walking the land – inaccurate and disrespectful.”

The move comes after Zuckerberg has joined other Silicon Valley leaders in cozying up to Donald Trump. Meta pledged a $1m donation to the president-elect’s 20 January inauguration. Earlier this week, UFC president and CEO Dana White, a Trump ally, was added to the company’s board.

Meta is one of several companies ending DEI efforts, including McDonald’s, Walmart, Ford and Lowe’s. Many of those companies have voluntarily walked back their diversity initiatives, while others were specifically targeted by far-right groups.

Mark Zuckerberg craves one metric more than any other: engagement, the statistic that tracks how long social media users spend scrolling, clicking, commenting, and viewing ads. More engagement, more profit. The Meta CEO will do almost anything to keep users online for an extra two minutes – even, it seems, surrender his websites to a flood of fake news.

On Tuesday, Zuckerberg announced that his company plans to fire its US factcheckers and weaken its ability to moderate disinformation on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. This new policy is meant to curry favor with the coming Trump administration. It’s also a desperate attempt to boost engagement across all Meta’s social networks.

Studies show that false social media posts spread up to 20 times faster than true ones, especially if the posts feature radical, outrageous content, like government conspiracy theories, racist grievances, and calls to violence. That’s 2000% times more engagement, and 2000% times the ad revenue. And the more “novel” a post is – oftentimes, the more detached from reality – the better.

As factchecking attempts end, it’s a guarantee that Meta’s platforms, much like X before them, will become a wasteland of fake news and misinformation. Zuckerberg said explicitly that he was following Elon Musk’s example.

We can already see this happening. Misinformation about the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles is spreading as fast as the blazes themselves. Meta fired its factchecking team because slapping a disclaimer on a post discourages people from interacting with it, and that’s exactly the opposite of what Zuckerberg wants.

“Absent the moderating force of factchecking, we’ll see more content that’s hyper-partisan, vitriolic, and hostile,” said Dr Cody Buntain, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland who studies social media disinformation. The people that are already potentially more extreme, they’ll be more engaged in the platform. There’ll be more content that caters to their interests.”

Extreme and misleading content is designed to inflame emotions. There would be no point to posting it otherwise. It’s meant to make you angry, to bypass the logical parts of your brain and force you to react, either positively or negatively. Yet, whether that reaction involves liking the post, sharing it, or even leaving a comment to correct the record, the result is the same: you’ve engaged, dropping a few more cents into Meta’s coffers. Meta’s algorithm does not register the conscientious objection of your “angry face” reaction, only the fact that you reacted, which boosts the original post.

Meta has always believed that juicing engagement is worth any cost. In 2016, Meta vice-president Andrew Bosworth argued in an email that inciting suicides and terrorist attacks was an acceptable price to pay for the “de facto” benefits of connecting users. When the email leaked in 2018, Zuckerberg said he disagreed – but it’s clearly still the prevailing philosophy at Meta. Bosworth was promoted to chief technology officer in 2022.

For the same reason, Meta continues to aggressively market its products towards children and teens, despite years of criticism. We know that excessive social media use can lead to anxiety and depression in teens. But as Facebook’s user base grows older, Meta knows that its survival depends on children, who are dependent on their phones more than any other age group, polling shows.

Whether a user is 12 or 62, ad revenue is ad revenue. And whether you’re sharing fake news to praise it, laugh at it, or rage at it, engagement is engagement.

Two years ago, the end of factchecking might have forced Zuckerberg to endure another another congressional hearing. But with the second reign of Donald Trump looming, Meta finally has permission to abandon its ethics and chase the dragon of engagement wherever it leads – even if it leads to the death of truth on the internet.

The Panama Canal will remain in Panamanian hands, and open to commerce from all countries, according to the administrator of the waterway, who rejected claims by president-elect Donald Trump that the US should take it over.

Ricaurte Vásquez denied Trump’s claims that China was controlling the canal’s operations, and said making exceptions to current rules concerning its operation would lead to “chaos”.

He said Chinese companies operating in the ports on either end of the canal were part of a Hong Kong consortium that won a bidding process in 1997. He added that US and Taiwanese companies are operating other ports along the canal as well.

Trump has gone so far as to suggest the US should take back control of the canal and he would not rule out using military might to do so.

“It might be that you’ll have to do something,” Trump said on Tuesday. “The Panama Canal is vital to our country.” Trump has characterised the fees for transiting the canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as “ridiculous”.

Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, has said unequivocally that the canal will remain in Panamanian hands.

Vásquez stressed that the Panama Canal was open to the commerce of all countries.

The canal cannot give special treatment to US-flagged ships because of a neutrality treaty, Vásquez added. “The most sensible and efficient way to do this is to maintain the established rules.”

Requests for exceptions are routinely rejected, because the process is clear and there must not be arbitrary variations, he said. The only exception in the neutrality treaty is for American warships, which receive expedited passage.

About 70% of the sea traffic that crosses the Panama Canal leaves or goes to USports.

The US built the canal in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on 31 December1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.

Last month, Trump told supporters “we’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal”. He claimed that the US “foolishly gave it away”.

Regarding the fees for using the canal, Vasquez said a planned series of increases had concluded with one this month. Any additional increases would be considered in the first half of the year to give clients certainty in their planning and would go through a public comment process, he said.

“There’s no discrimination in the fees,” he said. “The price rules are uniform for absolutely all those who transit the canal and clearly defined.”

The canal depends on reservoirs to operate its locks and was heavily affected by drought during the past two years that forced it to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for crossing ships. With fewer ships using the canal each day, administrators increased the fees that are charged all shippers for reserving a slot.

The canal bisects Panama, running 51 miles end to end. It allows ships to avoid the longer and costlier trip around Cape Horn at the tip of South America.

“It is an enormous responsibility,” Vásquez said of Panama’s control of the canal. “Take the case of Covid: when it arrived, the canal took the necessary measures to protect the labour force, but while keeping the canal open, because the international commitment is to keep it open.”

Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, has been​ accused of a shameless and fraudulent power-grab after swearing himself in for a third term, despite domestic outrage and a chorus of international condemnation at his alleged theft of last year’s election.

“This is a great victory for Venezuelan democracy,” the 62-year-old autocrat boasted during a sparsely attended oath-taking ceremony in Caracas that was boycotted by the leaders of democratic nations.

​As Maduro extended his 12-year rule, the US announced a $65m bounty for his arrest and those of two close allies on international drug-trafficking charges and rejected Maduro’s claim to the presidency.

Maduro, who has led Venezuela in an increasingly repressive direction since being democratically elected in 2013, has failed to produce any proof that he won the 28 July vote. His opponents have published detailed evidence that their candidate, Edmundo González, was the actual winner thanks to widespread public anger at Venezuela’s economic collapse.

But on Friday morning, it was Maduro – who has refused to relinquish power and been backed by military and security chiefs – who had Venezuela’s yellow, blue and red presidential sash draped over his shoulders at the national assembly.

Among those who skipped the event in protest were the leftwing presidents of Brazil and Colombia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro, longstanding regional allies who have refused to recognize Maduro’s claim to victory.

The authoritarian presidents of Cuba and Nicaragua, Miguel Díaz-Canel and Daniel Ortega, occupied front row seats, and the authoritarian leaders of China and Russia, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, also sent envoys.

In a rambling but defiant 90-minute speech, Maduro claimed he was spearheading “a democratizing revolution” in Venezuela and cast himself as the fearless anti-imperialist leader of an “eminently democratic project” inspired by Latin America’s independence heroes.

He lambasted his political foes as violent and “putrid” fascists and oligarchs, calling Argentina’s rightwing president, Javier Milei, a far-right “Zionist Nazi” and “social sadist”.

“I wasn’t made president by the US government or the pro-imperialist governments of the Latin American right,” Maduro declared. “I come from the people. I am of the people – and my power emanates from history and from the people!”

Maduro’s swearing-in prompted a fresh outburst of international condemnation, including from members of the political left, which the Venezuelan strongman purports to represent.

“I am someone from the left and from the political left I tell you: Nicolás Maduro’s government is a dictatorship,” said Chile’s progressive president, Gabriel Boric.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said: “The Venezuelan people and world know that Nicolás Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency today. We stand ready to support a return to democracy in Venezuela.”

The UK’s foreign secretary, the Labour party MP David Lammy, said: “Nicolás Maduro’s claim to power is fraudulent. The outcome of July’s elections was neither free nor fair and his regime does not represent the will of the Venezuelan people.”

Lammy, as fresh sanctions were announced in coordination with the EU, targeting 15 individuals linked to Maduro’s regime, added: “The UK will not stand by as Maduro continues to oppress, undermine democracy, and commit appalling human rights violations.”

Kaja Kallas​, the EU​’s foreign policy​ chief, ​said: ​”Maduro lacks all democratic legitimacy.​”

Mélanie Joly, the minister of foreign affairs for Canada, which on Thursday formally recognized González as Venezuela’s president-elect, said: “Maduro’s shameless actions demonstrate that democracy and the rule of law cannot be taken for granted. We will not tolerate the erosion of the democratic process or the repression of citizens seeking to express their rights.”

The US announced it was increasing its reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro and his interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, for alleged drug trafficking offences, to $25m, and created a reward of $15m for information leading to the capture of Maduro’s longstanding defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López.

Brazil’s president Lula shunned the inauguration with close ally, the senator, Jaques Wagner, telling local media: “The relationship with Venezuela has soured”.

González, a retired diplomat who only entered politics last year, had vowed to travel back to Venezuela from exile for an inauguration of his own. But on Friday afternoon his most important backer, the opposition leader María Corina Machado, announced that they had decided he would no longer come.

“Edmundo will come to Venezuela to be sworn in as Venezuela’s president at the right time when the conditions are suitable,” Machado said in a video message recorded at a secret location. She blamed the decision on Maduro’s decision to activate Venezuela’s air-defense systems as a result of what she called his “delusional paranoia”.

Earlier in the day, Gen Domingo Hernández Lárez, a top army commander, posted a video on social media of a Russian surface-to-air missile system being deployed in what was seen as a threat to shoot González’s plane down if he attempted to fly back to Venezuela.

Machado insisted, however, that Maduro’s days were numbered and that a democratic transition was “very close”.

“Have no doubt, this is over,” she claimed, calling on Venezuelans to protest. “Maduro has consolidated his coup and the violation of our constitution. It is time to do whatever is necessary to restore it.”

A coroner has issued a warning about the effects of antidepressants prescribed by a Buckingham Palace doctor to the son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent before his suicide.

Thomas Kingston, 45, whose marriage to Lady Gabriella at Windsor Castle in 2019 was attended by the late Queen, killed himself last February after “suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed”, an inquest found last month.

On Friday the coroner, Katy Skerrett, warned the medication used could lead to more deaths without a change in guidance and labelling about the risks.

The inquest at Gloucestershire coroner’s court heard that after complaining of poor sleep and stress at work as a financier, Kingston had initially been given the antidepressant sertraline and zopiclone, a sleeping tablet, by a GP at the Royal Mews surgery, a practice at Buckingham Palace used by royal household staff.

Kingston returned to the surgery saying they were not making him feel better and his doctor moved him from sertraline to citalopram, a similar drug in a type known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

In the days leading up to his death, Kingston had stopped taking medication and toxicology tests showed caffeine and small amounts of zopiclone in his system.

In a prevention of future deaths report, Skerrett questioned whether there was adequate communication of the risks of suicide associated with such medication.

She also raised concerns about whether the current guidance to persist with SSRI medications, or switch to an alternative SSRI medication, was appropriate when no benefit had been achieved.

Skerrett said this was especially concerning when “adverse side effects are being experienced”.

The report was sent to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the Royal College of General Practitioners, who have 56 days to respond.

The coroner’s concerns echo those of Kingston’s widow, Lady Gabriella, who warned about the effects of the drugs during the inquest. In a statement read out by Skerrett, she said: “I believe anyone taking pills such as these needs to be made more aware of the side effects to prevent any future deaths.

“If this could happen to Tom, this could happen to anyone.”

Recording a narrative conclusion, Skerrett said Kingston took his own life while “suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed”.

The inquest heard that the antidepressants prescribed to Kingston by his doctor were in accordance with Nice guidelines.

Giving evidence to the inquest, Dr David Healy, a psychiatric medical expert, said zopiclone could also cause anxiety while sertraline and citalopram were both SSRIs, and essentially the same.

Healy said Kingston’s complaints that sertraline was continuing to make him anxious was a sign SSRIs “did not suit him” and he should not have been prescribed the same thing again.

He said the guidelines and labels for SSRIs were not clear enough about the risks of going on the drugs in the first place or what the effect could be when moving from one to another.

“We need a much more explicit statement saying that these drugs can cause people to commit suicide who wouldn’t have otherwise,” he said.

Nice recommends a staged withdrawal of antidepressants, known as tapering, to reduce withdrawal effects and long-term dependence on the medication.

A spokesperson for Nice said: “Nice can confirm we have received the coroner’s prevention of future deaths report in relation to Thomas Kingston. We will consider the issues raised by the report and respond to the coroner directly.

“We follow an established process when making sure our published guidelines are current and accurate and take a proactive approach to responding to events (with an assessment of priority) that may impact on our recommendations.”

A male has died after an apparent late-night knife fight in Melbourne’s west.

Police were called to reports of a group of young people fighting in a park on Haines Drive, Wyndham Vale, about 11.30pm on Friday.

One male, who is yet to be formally identified, was located with a stab wound.

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

He received medical treatment but died at the scene.

Two other males were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Four males were arrested nearby and are assisting police with their inquiries.

Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court on Friday for continuing to spread lies about two former Georgia election workers after a jury awarded the women a $148m defamation judgment.

Federal judge Beryl Howell in Washington DC is the second federal judge in a matter of days to find the former New York City mayor in contempt of court.

Howell found that Giuliani violated court orders barring him from defaming Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. She ordered him to review trial testimony and other materials from the case and warned him that future violations could result in possible jail time.

A statement from Giuliani’s attorney, Ted Goodman, said: “The public should know that mayor Rudy Giuliani never had the opportunity to defend himself on the facts in the defamation case.

“This is an important point that many Americans still don’t realize due to biased coverage and a campaign to silence Mayor Giuliani. This contempt ruling is designed to prevent Mayor Giuliani from exercising his constitutional rights.”

Moss and Freeman sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation for falsely accusing them of committing election fraud in connection with the 2020 election. They said his lies upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.

A jury sided with the mother and daughter, who are Black, in December 2023 and awarded them $75m in punitive damages plus roughly $73m in other damages.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs asked Howell to impose civil contempt sanctions against Giuliani after they said he continued to falsely accuse Moss and Freeman of committing election fraud in connection with the 2020 election.

Shortly before Friday’s hearing began, Giuliani slammed the judge in a social media post, calling her “bloodthirsty” and biased against him and the proceeding a “hypocritical waste of time”.

On Monday in New York, Judge Lewis Liman found Giuliani in contempt of court for related claims that he failed to turn over evidence to help the judge decide whether he can keep a Palm Beach, Florida, condominium.

Giuliani, who testified in Liman’s Manhattan courtroom on 3 January, said he didn’t turn over everything because he believed the requests were overly broad, inappropriate or even a “trap” set by the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Giuliani, 80, said in a court filing that before Friday’s hearing that he was having travel-related concerns about his health and safety. He said he gets death threats and has been told to be careful about traveling.

“I had hoped the Court would understand and accommodate my needs. However, it appears I was mistaken,” he said in the filing.

On the witness stand during Giuliani’s trial, Moss and Freeman described fearing for their lives after becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory that Giuliani and other Republicans spread as they tried to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump, for whom Giuliani has previously worked as an attorney, won November’s White House election against the vice-president, Kamala Harris, and will be sworn in for a second Oval Office term on 20 January.

Moss told jurors she tried to change her appearance, seldom leaves her home and suffers from panic attacks.

“Money will never solve all my problems,” Freeman told reporters after the jury’s verdict. “I can never move back into the house that I call home. I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with. I miss my home. I miss my neighbors and I miss my name.”