On the eve of his return to the White House, President-elect Donald Trump promised to sign a blitz of executive orders on his first day as president, telling supporters that he would move with “historic speed and strength” in the hours after taking the oath of office.

Addressing a racuous crowd of thousands in a Washington DC arena for a “Victory Rally”, Trump offered a preview of the next four years and celebrated his November election victory over the Democrats.

The Republican promised to act unilaterally on a wide array of issues, using his presidential powers to launch mass deportation operations, slash environmental regulations and end diversity programmes.

“We put America first and it all starts tomorrow,” he told the crowd at the campaign-style event, adding: “You’re going to have a lot of fun watching television tomorrow.”

Trump is expected to sign more than 200 executive actions on Monday. This would include executive orders, which are legally-binding, and other presidential directives like proclamations, which are usually not.

“Every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take the oath of office,” the incoming president said.

Trump promised executive order that would ramp up artificial intelligence programmes, form the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), make records available related to the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963, direct the military to create an Iron Dome missile defence shield and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies from the military.

He also told supporters he would stop transgender women from competing in female sports categories and hand back control of education to America’s states.

“You’re going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy,” he told the crowd. “We have to set our country on the proper course.”

Presidents usually take executive action when they enter office but the volume of day one orders from Trump could dwarf his predecessors and many are expected to be challenged in court.

He promised that his executive blitz on Monday would target illegal immigration – an issue at the heart of the Republican’s winning campaign for the presidency.

But experts say his promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants will face enormous logistical hurdles, and potentially cost tens or hundreds of billions of dollars.

Trump is also expected to issue pardons for people convicted of taking part in the January 6 riots at the US Capitol in 2021 led by his supporters.

He referred to January 6 rioters as “hostages” and promised that everyone would be “very happy” with his decision on Monday.

Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in prison over a corruption case, in the latest of a series of charges laid against him.

It is the longest valid prison sentence the cricket star-turned-politician, who has been detained since August 2023, has received.

He has faced charges in over 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts – all of which he decried as politically motivated.

The latest case has been described by Pakistani authorities as the largest the country has seen – though the country has seen huge financial scandals in the past, some of which involved former leaders.

Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were accused of receiving a parcel of land as a bribe from a real estate tycoon through the Al-Qadir Trust, which the couple had set up while he was in office.

In exchange, investigators said, Khan used £190m ($232m) repatriated by the UK’s National Crime Agency to pay the tycoon’s court fines.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party argued that the land was donated to the trust for a spiritual education centre and was not used for Khan’s personal gain.

In a post on X, PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan said that the former prime minister “has done no wrong” and that this was a “politically motivated unfair trial”.

“But [Imran Khan] will not give in, he will not give up, he will not break,” he wrote.

Friday’s verdict comes after multiple delays as Khan’s party held talks with the government.

After his conviction on Friday, Khan told reporters in the courtroom that he would “neither make any deal nor seek any relief.”

Khan’s prison sentence of 14 years is the maximum that could be given in the case. He has also been fined more than £4,000.

His wife has been sentenced to seven years and fined more than £2,000. Bibi, who has been out on bail since last October, was taken into custody in court after her sentence was announced.

In 2023, Khan was sentenced to three years in prison for not declaring money earned from selling gifts he had received while in office.

Last year, Khan received a 14-year jail sentence over the selling of state gifts, and another 10 years for leaking state secrets. Both those sentences were suspended months later.

Despite being in jail and barred from holding public office, Khan still looms large over Pakistan’s political scene. Last year’s election saw candidates backed by Imran Khan winning the most number of seats out of all the parties.

Khan’s prosecution has triggered large-scale protests by his supporters – which have been met with a crackdown from authorities. Thousands of protesters have been arrested and many injured in clashes with the police.

[BBC]