Claudia Sheinbaum has said her “very kind” phone conversation with Donald Trump, in which they discussed immigration and fentanyl, means “there will not be a potential tariff war” between the US and Mexico.

The president of Mexico spoke to reporters on Thursday following Trump’s threat earlier in the week to apply a 25% tariff against Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff against China, when he takes office in January if the countries did not stop all illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling into the US.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, claimed that during the phone call with Sheinbaum she had “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border”.

During her Thursday address Sheinbaum clarified she did not agree to shut down the border.

“Each person has their own way of communicating,” Sheinbaum said. “But I can assure you, I guarantee you, that we never – additionally, we would be incapable of doing so – proposed that we would close the border in the north [of Mexico], or in the south of the United States. It has never been our idea and, of course, we are not in agreement with that.”

She added that the two did not discuss tariffs, but that the conversation with Trump had reassured her that no tit-for-tat tariff battle would be needed in future.

On Monday this week, Trump threatened to impose a 25% percent tariff on Mexico until drugs, including fentanyl, and undocumented immigrants “stop this Invasion of our Country”. He declared that Mexico and Canada should use their power to address drug trafficking and migration and, until they do, “it is time for them to pay a very big price!”

The following day, Sheinbaum suggested Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own.

On Wednesday, however, the conversation between Sheinbaum and Trump was “very kind”, the Mexican president said. She said she told Trump of the various migration initiatives her government has undertaken, including providing resources and support to central American countries and to migrants arriving in Mexico. Potential immigrants “will not reach the northern border, because Mexico has a strategy”, Sheinbaum said.

Trump “recognized this effort” by the Mexican government, Sheinbaum added.

She also said Trump expressed interest in the government-driven programs to address fentanyl addiction and overdoses in Mexico. And she raised the problem of American-made weapons entering Mexico from the US to be used by drug cartels.

Sheinbaum further added that she encouraged Trump to stop the blockades against Cuba and Venezuela, since “people suffer and it leads to the phenomenon of migration”.

Asked by a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine that quoted anonymous Trump-aligned sources discussing a “soft invasion” of Mexico by deploying the US military inside the country against drug trafficking groups, Sheinbaum dismissed the idea, calling it “entirely a movie”.

“What I base myself on is the conversation – the two conversations – that I had with President Trump, and then, at the moment, the communication we will have with his work team and when he takes office,” Sheinbaum said. “We will always defend our sovereignty. Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country – and that is above everything else.”

Towns in south-west France roasted in “completely extreme” heat in the early hours of Tuesday, with overnight temperatures hitting 26.9C (80.42F).

“It’s very exceptional temperatures – even for the summer, let alone late November,” said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Météo France.

Climate scientists across the country described the night-time heat as “staggering” and “phenomenal” for reaching such highs so late in the year. Météo France could not confirm if it was the highest temperature recorded on a November night because its hourly data only stretched back to about 1990, said Sorel. “But still, it’s huge,” he added.

“From what we can remember, [we have] never seen such temperatures during the night for this time of year.”

Violently hot nights are felt on the French side of the Pyrenees when warm air from north Africa and the Mediterranean comes down the mountains and compresses, heating up even more. The natural phenomenon, known as the Föhn effect, adds to the impact of fossil fuel pollution, which has trapped sunlight and heated the planet 1.3C since preindustrial times.

In Europe, which has warmed about twice as fast as the global average, the shift has melted glaciers and dried out reservoirs. It has forced people to suffer through deadly heatwaves that reach catastrophic highs in the day and provide little respite at night.

Temperatures near Pau reached 26.9C at 4am on Tuesday, according to Météo France, and in Biarritz and Tarbes it hit 24C.

The weather agency said it was an exceptional temperature for the end of November, and was higher than the 26.2C recorded on 27 November 1970. It did not break records for the highest minimum temperature, which is measured over a 24-hour period, because a later shift in winds brought cold air from the oceans that pulled temperatures back down.

“What we can see is [that] with climate change, we have way higher temperatures than before for the same meteorological events,” said Sorel.

Media reports suggested that Denmark had experienced its warmest November night on Monday but the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) said no records had been broken.

“However, it was a very warm night,” said Herdis Preil Damberg from the DMI. “As a meteorologist, I would explain it by the deep storm low called Bert, located near the UK, which has been generating a strong wind.”

The North Atlantic was also warmer than normal, he added.

Hot nights stress the body and stop people from sleeping. The number of tropical nights with temperatures above 20C – which can prove deadly for older people and those fighting off illness – has doubled or even tripled in most parts of southern Europe.

The European Environment Agency estimates the region may experience up to 100 tropical nights a year by the end of the century under the most extreme global heating scenarios.

Footballers face a “very high risk of experiencing extreme heat stress” at 10 of the 16 stadiums that will host the next World Cup, researchers have warned, as they urge sports authorities to rethink the timing of sports events.

Hot weather and heavy exercise could force footballers to endure scorching temperatures that feel higher than 49.5C (121.1F) when they play in three North American countries in summer 2026, according to the study. It found they are most at risk of “unacceptable thermal stress” in the stadiums in Arlington and Houston, in the US, and in Monterrey, in Mexico.

The co-author Marek Konefał, from Wrocław University of Health and Sport Sciences in Poland, said World Cups would increasingly be played in conditions of strong heat stress as the climate got hotter. “It is worth rethinking the calendar of sporting events now.”

Football’s governing body, Fifa, recommends matches include cooling breaks if the “wet bulb” temperature exceeds 32C. But scientists are concerned that the metric underestimates the stress athletes experience on the pitch because it considers only external heat and humidity.

“During intense physical activity, huge amounts of heat is produced by the work of the player’s muscles,” said Katarzyna Lindner-Cendrowska, a climate scientist at the Polish Academy of Sciences and lead author of the study. “[This] will increase the overall heat load on the athlete’s body.”

To overcome this, the researchers simulated temperatures that account for the players’ speed and activity levels, as well as their clothing. They were only partly able to include the effects of exercise in the heat index.

The highest “work rate” that can be integrated into the heat index is roughly half that sustained by professional players during a competitive football match, said Julien Périard, the deputy director of the University of Canberra Research Institute for Sport and Exercise, who was not involved in the study. “Although the approach used in the study is a step forward, the results likely underestimate the risk of experiencing extreme heat stress conditions.”

The scientists found the greatest stress would strike between 2pm and 5pm at all but one of the stadiums. In Arlington and Houston, temperatures would rise above 50C during the mid to late afternoon and place a “heavy burden on the body” that could lead to heat exhaustion and even heatstroke, they found.

Heatwaves have grown hotter, longer and more common as fossil fuel pollution has warmed the Earth’s climate. The 2026 Fifa Men’s World Cup is sponsored by Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, and the 2034 World Cup may even be hosted by its owner, Saudi Arabia.

Last year, a report by the Climate Social Science Network found Saudi Arabia had played an outsized role in undermining progress at climate negotiations. “The fossil fuel giant has a 30-year record of obstruction and delay, protecting its national oil and gas sector and seeking to ensure UN climate talks achieve as little as possible, as slowly as possible,” the authors wrote.

Saudi Aramco and Fifa did not respond to requests for comment. In April, the president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, said he was “delighted” to welcome Aramco to Fifa’s family of global partners.

To keep people safe from heat scientists recommend cutting fossil fuel pollution and adapting to a hotter planet. The research did not model the effects of air-conditioning, which was used outdoors in the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar to keep players cool.

Périard, who has published research funded by Fifa on preventing heat stress, said the new study could help tournament organisers optimise the scheduling of matches but added that Fifa needed to “take action” on their current policy of using the wet bulb index to decide on cooling and hydration breaks.

He called for a football-specific heat stress policy that accounted for factors such as sweat and included actions such as extending half-time breaks and postponing matches.

Thessa Beck, a climate and health researcher at ISGlobal, who was not involved in the study, said it was also “essential” to keep fans safe. “Even though fans may not be as physically active as players, many are older adults, young children or individuals with pre-existing conditions.”

Australia’s parliament has passed a law that will aim to do what no other government has, and many parents have tried to: stop children from using social media. The new law was drafted in response to what the Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says is a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians.”

On Thursday, parliament’s upper house, the Senate, passed a bill by 34 votes to 19 banning children under 16 from social media platforms.

But academics, politicians and advocacy groups have warned that the ban – as envisioned by the government – could backfire, driving teenagers to the dark web, or making them feel more isolated. There are questions about how it will work in practice. Many worry that the process has been too rushed, and that, if users are asked to prove their age, it could lead to social media companies being handed valuable personal data. Even Elon Musk has weighed in.

The online safety amendment (social media minimum age) bill bans social media platforms from allowing users under 16 to access their services, threatening companies with fines of up to AU$50m (US$32m) if they fail to comply. However, it contains no details about how it will work, only that the companies will be expected to take reasonable steps to ensure users are aged 16 or over. The detail will come later, through the completion of a trial of age-assurance technology in mid-2025. The bill won’t come into force for another 12 months.

The bill also does not specify to which companies the legislation would apply, though communications minister Michelle Rowland has said that Snapchat, TikTok, X, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook are likely to be part of the ban. YouTube will not be included because of its “significant” educational purpose, she said.

The bill was introduced to parliament last week, with just three sitting days left on the parliamentary calendar. It received 15,000 submissions in a day. Among these was one from Amnesty International recommending that the bill not be passed because a “ban that isolates young people will not meet the government’s objective of improving young people’s lives”.

The number of responses increased dramatically, the Australian broadcaster ABC reported, after X owner Musk reposted a tweet by Albanese announcing that the bill would be introduced that day, writing, “Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians.” Most of the submissions were a form response, the ABC reported, with fewer than 100 submissions made by interest groups.

Musk has clashed repeatedly with the Australian government this year over requests to remove graphic content and separate legislation aimed at tackling deliberate lies spread on social media platforms.

On Tuesday this week, the Senate’s environment and communications legislation Committee supported the bill but added the condition that social media platforms not force users to submit personal data, including passport information. It is unclear what methods social media companies would use to enforce age restrictions,

A YouGov survey released on Tuesday this week showed 77% of Australians backed the ban, up from 61% in an August survey. Each of Australia’s eight state and territory leaders supports the ban, though Tasmania’s leader suggested it end at 14. The federal opposition supports the bill, claiming it would have done it sooner – it has promised to have a ban in place within 100 days if it wins next year’s election.

But 140 experts have signed an open letter expressing their concern that the bill is “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively”. Among their concerns are that it “creates even more risks for children who may still use platforms” and that bans “affect rights to access and participation”. Australia’s human rights commission has “serious reservations” about the ban, “given the potential for these laws to significantly interfere with the rights of children and young people”.

One of the authors of a UK study of 17,400 young people cited by the government in support of the ban said that the Australian government had “misunderstood the purpose and findings” of the research, Crikey reported.

“The voices of children and young people have been conspicuously missing from most of the debate and commentary,” Independent MP Andrew Wilkie wrote, in a piece for Guardian Australia explaining why he changed his mind, from supporting the ban to disagreeing with it.

Christopher Stone, the executive director of Suicide Prevention Australia, said in a statement: “The government is running blindfolded into a brick wall.

“Complex issues like this require careful consultation and consideration, not shortcuts. We urge the government to slow down and engage with stakeholders to ensure we get this right for young people.”

He returned as a ghostly apparition on a forestry road in western Canada, moving slowly and unsteadily with the help of a walking stick in each frostbitten hand. A cut-up sleeping bag was wrapped around his legs, shielding them from the bitter cold.

The two oil and gas workers, who had spent the previous week surveying the trail, stared dumbfounded. When they took the sticks from his hands to help him into their truck, he nearly collapsed.

The harrowing details are a coda to the “unbelievable miracle” of a hiker who survived 50 days lost in the Canadian wilderness – and to the sustained and desperate search by his family and friends.

On Wednesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed that Sam Benastick, 20, was being treated at the hospital in Fort Nelson, British Columbia, more than seven weeks after he was last seen heading into the wild. He was suffering from frostbite and smoke inhalation caused when his makeshift shelter burned down.

Benastick set out on 7 October, on what was supposed to be a 10-day camping trip; he was reported missing by his family after he failed to return home on 17 October.

An avid outdoorsman, Benastick was destined for Redfern-Keily provincial park – 80,000 hectare swathe of “lush alpine meadows, forested valley bottoms, serrated peaks, glaciers, waterfalls and large valley lakes” in the northern reaches of the Rocky mountains.

Access is challenging: the park is 50 miles (80km) from the closest road. And its website warns the remote backcountry landscape can be unforgiving. “Be prepared for any weather conditions while visiting the park: you are in an isolated area and weather can change rapidly,” it says.

In recent days, temperatures have dipped to below -20C and snow has blanketed the ground.

For Benatstick’s family, news he had survived against the odds was vindication for the the sliver of hope they had long clung to.

On 23 October – more than a month before Benastick was eventually found – his aunt Karen Crocker Essex posted on Facebook that “tomorrow is a big day for our family with helicopters and a larger crew” to support this search. “Winter is setting in and we need to bring Sam home!”

More than 50 people, and search dogs, scoured the region for any hint that Benastick had avoided.

But a week later, his mother, Sandra Crocker, thanked the “endless volunteers” who had been unable to find a trace of her son. The official search had ended, but family refused to accept that Benastick had succumbed to the worsening conditions.

Family and friends speculated he might have run into trouble 19 miles into the hike, turning around to sleep in his car, possibly to a different location. They also scoured his online searches of hiking locations, and scouted the nearby Sikanni Chief River with no luck.

In the end, Benastick was found close to where the initial search had begun.

The oil rig workers piled a cold, fatigued and dehydrated Benastick into their truck and fed him their sandwiches. When they got him back into the range of mobile phone service, he called his father. His voice was weak.

Later that day fatigued Benastick told police he had stayed in his car and then walked to a creek, where he camped for nearly 15 days. He later built camp in a dried-out creek bed, before finding the road and flagging down the two oil workers.

The Central Okanagan Search and Rescue, which was involved in the search along crews from four other regions, called the discovery an “unbelievable miracle”.

Mike Reid, the general manager of the Buffalo Inn in Pink Mountain, BC, said he first received a message from the hotel owner that “Rob” had been found alive. For 24 days, Sam’s parents had stayed at the Buffalo Inn while formal search efforts intensified, ebbed and were eventually called off.

“I didn’t know who Rob was, but I had a flash of hope. So I texted Sam’s dad to check in on how they were doing. I didn’t want to get their hopes up. Within a minute, he called me back and said ‘they found him,’” said Reid.

After seeing the family through a string of low points, Reid said the news is “unbelievably good”.

During the search, Reid forwarded a newspaper clipping from 1969 to Benastick’s mother: it told the story of two survivors of a plane crash in the area, who lasted 49 days in the bitter cold before they were eventually found alive.

“I sent it to Sam’s mom and told her this could happen to your son,” he said. “And when I spoke with her yesterday, I said, ‘Hey, remember that clipping about the plane crash? And she said, ‘I’ve been thinking about it all day.’ Sam loves the outdoors. That’s why he was out here. And that’s how he survived.”

News of Benastick’s survival was bittersweet for the region, after hunter Jim Barnes and his dog Murphy were reported missing 18 October after leaving for a grouse hunting trip, less than 140 miles from where Benastick was last spotted.

Search teams found his truck as well as his keys, wallet, backpack and rifle. Neither Barnes and Murphy were found near the vehicle. The search was suspended on 25 October, but a day later a frozen boot print and dog print were spotted along a river bank.

The federal court has ordered the Environmental Defenders Office to pay $9m in costs to Santos after a failed legal challenge to the company’s Barossa offshore gas project.

The case, brought by the EDO on behalf of three Tiwi Island traditional owners, was dismissed in January when Justice Natalie Charlesworth delivered a scathing judgment that made adverse findings against the legal firm.

On Thursday the court ordered the EDO to pay $9,042,093.05 to Santos on an indemnity basis, after lengthy costs proceedings throughout the year.

Santos said the EDO had volunteered to pay the sum, which represented 100% of the legal costs it had incurred throughout the proceedings.

The company said it had not sought costs from the Aboriginal and Tiwi Islander applicants but had sought information relating to the funding of the proceedings from the EDO and other third parties opposed to project, some of whom were involved in the “Stop Barossa Gas” campaign.

The EDO’s chief executive, David Morris, said: “After careful consultation with our insurer and with deep consideration of the best interests of our clients, staff, and the organisation, EDO has agreed to resolve the claim.

“Throughout this matter, EDO has diligently adhered to client instructions. We have also treated the court’s findings with the utmost seriousness.”

The traditional owners, led by Simon Munkara, a member of the Jikilaruwu clan, challenged the construction of an export pipeline from the Barossa field off the Northern Territory to the existing Bayu-Undan pipeline, which connects to Darwin.

The proceedings were launched in late October 2023, shortly before Santos planned to start work on the pipeline.

The case argued Santos had not properly assessed submerged cultural heritage and sought an injunction on the pipeline works until the company submitted a new environmental plan and it was assessed by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.

In a judgment in January, Charlesworth made adverse findings against the EDO, ruling that one of its lawyers and a cultural heritage consultant had engaged in a form of “subtle coaching” in a meeting with Tiwi islanders. She also found that evidence from one expert witness involved “confection”.

Charlesworth found that evidence from witnesses for the three applicants asserting that the pipeline posed a risk to intangible underwater heritage, including Crocodile Man songlines and an area of significance for the rainbow serpent Ampiji, was not “broadly representative” of the beliefs of Tiwi people who would be affected by the pipeline.

The judge dismissed evidence provided in an expert report about potential impacts to underwater archaeological sites, finding there was a “negligible chance” of a significant impact to tangible cultural heritage.

In her judgment, Charlesworth found a cultural mapping exercise undertaken by an expert witness for the applicants and “the related opinions expressed about it are so lacking in integrity that no weight can be placed on them”.

Santos said on Thursday that the cultural mapping exercise had led to “an adapted account” which was said to involve a “reinterpretation” of traditional cultural beliefs “through a Western scientific lens”.

The company said the judgment had also found the EDO “was an active participant in the ‘Stop Barossa Gas’ campaign”.

“The clear, advertised objective of the ‘Stop Barossa Gas’ campaign was to disrupt, delay and potentially shut down the Barossa gas project, thereby causing economic harm to the Barossa [joint venture] partners and to participants in the Darwin LNG JV,” it said.

Morris said the EDO “has been providing crucial public interest legal services for nearly 40 years, with a formidable track-record of success for clients”.

“We look forward to continuing to provide public interest legal support to communities fighting to keep the climate safe, defend cultural heritage and protect the species and places they love,” he said. “Our role has never been more critical.”

The federal government sought a review of the EDO’s funding arrangements this year after the court judgment in January.

The review found the EDO had not breached the conditions of its $8.2m in federal funding.

Two companies have cut ties with Conor McGregor after a civil court jury in Ireland ruled last week that he must pay nearly €250,000 ($257,000) to a woman who accused the mixed martial arts fighter of raping her.

Proximo Spirits, the owner of Irish whiskey brand Proper No 12, will no longer feature McGregor’s name or image on the drink.

“Going forward, we do not plan to use Mr McGregor’s name and likeness in the marketing of the brand,” the company told the Irish Independent newspaper.

Video game developer IO Interactive also ended its collaboration with McGregor, who had played the role of a fighter in the game Hitman.

“In light of the recent court ruling regarding Conor McGregor, IO Interactive has made the decision to cease its collaboration with the athlete, effective immediately,” the company said in a statement on X. “We take this matter very seriously and cannot ignore its implications. Consequently, we will begin removing all content featuring Mr. McGregor from our storefronts starting today.”

It follows the ruling last Friday in a civil case where Nikita Hand claimed McGregor “brutally raped and battered” her in a Dublin hotel penthouse in 2018.

Hand said the alleged assault after a night of partying left her heavily bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The 36-year-old McGregor testified that he never forced the woman to do anything against her will and said she fabricated the allegations after the two had consensual sex.

The jury of eight women and four men found him liable for assault after deliberating about six hours in the High Court in Dublin.