A former senior UK Special Forces officer has told a public inquiry into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan that the SAS had a “golden pass allowing them to get away with murder”.

The accusation was published by the Afghanistan Inquiry on Wednesday as part of a release of material summarising seven closed hearings with members of UK Special Forces.

The officer, a former operations chief of staff for the Special Boat Service (SBS) – the UK’s naval special forces – was one of several senior officers who registered concerns back in 2011 that the SAS appeared to be carrying out executions and covering them up.

The inquiry, which is examining night raids by UKSF between 2010 and 2013, follows years of reporting by BBC Panorama into allegations of murder and cover up by the SAS.

In one email from the time, the officer wrote that the SAS and murder were “regular bedfellows” and described the regiment’s official descriptions of operational killings as “quite incredible”.

Asked by the inquiry during the closed hearings whether he stood by his assertion that the SAS’s actions amounted to murder, the officer replied: “Indeed.”

Pressed by the inquiry counsel about his decision not to report his concerns further up the chain of command in 2011, he said he regretted his lack of action at the time. He agreed that there had been a “massive failure of leadership” by UK Special Forces.

The former SBS operations chief of staff was one of several senior officers from the Royal Navy’s special forces regiment who gave evidence to the inquiry behind closed doors in 2024.

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Only the inquiry team and representatives from the Ministry of Defence have been allowed to attend the closed hearings. The public, members of the media, and lawyers for the bereaved families are not allowed to be present.

The material released on Wednesday summarises the testimony from these hearings. Taken together, the documents – totalling hundreds of pages – paint a picture of the SAS’s arrival in Afghanistan in 2009 and the way in which it took over hunting the Taliban from the SBS.

Senior SBS officers told the inquiry of deep concerns that the SAS, fresh from aggressive, high-tempo operations in Iraq, was being driven by kill counts – the number of dead they could achieve in each operation.

Another senior SBS officer who gave evidence was asked whether he stood by his concerns in 2011 that the SAS was carrying out extra-judicial killings.

“I thought and think that on at least some operations [the SAS] was carrying out murders,” he said.

A junior SBS officer who also gave evidence to the inquiry behind closed doors described a conversation in which a member of the SAS who had recently returned from Afghanistan told him about a pillow being put over the head of someone before they were killed with a pistol.

“I suppose what shocked me most wasn’t the execution of potential members of the Taliban, which was of course wrong and illegal, but it was more the age and the methods and, you know, the details of things like pillows,” the junior officer said.

He clarified that some of those killed by the SAS had been children, according to the conversation he relayed. Asked by the inquiry counsel if he meant some of those killed would be as young as 16, he replied: “Or younger 100%”.

The junior officer told the inquiry that he feared for his safety should his name be linked to testimony that the SAS had been allegedly murdering civilians.

These SBS officers were part of a small group that was privately raising doubts back in 2011 about the veracity of SAS operational reports coming back from Afghanistan.

In one email, one of the senior officers, who held a post at the SBS headquarters in Poole at the time, wrote to a senior colleague: “If we don’t believe this, then no one else will and when the next WikiLeaks occurs then we will be dragged down with them.”

The two senior officers were in a position to interpret the language in the regiment’s reports, having served with SBS operational units in Afghanistan prior to the arrival of the SAS, when the naval unit was forced to take what it saw as a back seat, pursuing anti-narcotics operations rather than hunting the Taliban.

As well as believing that the SAS may have committed murders, they described in their emails what they viewed as a cover-up in Afghanistan. The second officer told the inquiry chair: “Basically, there appears to be a culture there of ‘shut up, don’t question’.”

At the time, support staff in Afghanistan were sceptical about the SAS’s accounts of their operations, judging them not credible.

But rather than taking the concerns seriously, a reprimand had been issued “to ensure that the staff officers support the guys on the ground”, another senior SBS officer wrote.

He told the inquiry that in the eyes of the Special Forces’ commanding officer in Afghanistan, the SAS could do no wrong, and described the lack of accountability for the regiment as “astonishing”.

The documents released on Wednesday also reveal new details about an explosive meeting in Afghanistan in February 2011, during which the Afghan special forces that partnered the SAS angrily withdrew their support.

The meeting followed a growing rift between the SAS and the Afghan special forces over what the Afghans saw as unlawful killings by members of the SAS.

One Afghan officer present at the meeting was so incensed that he reportedly reached for his pistol.

Describing the meeting in a newly released email, the SBS officer wrote: “I’ve never had such a hostile meeting before – genuine shouting, arm waving and with me staring down a 9mm barrel at one stage – all pretty unpleasant.”

After intervention from senior members of UKSF, the Afghan units agreed to continue to working alongside the SAS. But it would not be the last time they withdrew their support in protest.

“This is all very damaging,” the SBS officer concluded his email.

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More than 14,000 rescue workers have arrived in Tibet to continue the search for survivors after a strong earthquake killed at least 126 people in a remote part of western China.

More than 400 people have been rescued, Chinese state media says, since the quake struck on Tuesday, some 50 miles from the base of Mount Everest, destroying thousands of homes.

Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing arrived on Wednesday to oversee the operation, which is being hampered by winter temperatures that dropped to -16C overnight.

Earthquakes are common in the region, which lies on a major geological fault line, but Tuesday’s was one of China’s deadliest in recent years.

The magnitude 7.1 quake, which struck at a depth of 10 km (six miles), according to data from the US Geological Survey, was also felt in Nepal and parts of India, which neighbour Tibet.

Internet access is restricted in Tibet, which is tightly controlled by Beijing, and reporters cannot travel there without government permission. So much of what we know about the quake and its aftermath is from Chinese state media.

The air force has been deployed and drones dispatched to help rescuers, as President Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to minimise casualties and resettle affected residents.

State-owned People’s Daily says more than 30,000 people have been relocated in the region. Electricity and mobile phone service in Tingri county, near the epicentre, were restored by Wednesday morning, according to state media.

Officials estimate that more than 3,600 buildings had collapsed, potentially leaving thousands without shelter.

Videos published by China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed houses destroyed and and buildings brought down in Tibet’s holy Shigatse city, with rescue workers wading through debris and handing out thick blankets to locals.

Sangji Dangzhi – whose supermarket was damaged in the earthquake – told news agency AFP by phone that the destruction of homes had been extensive.

“Here the houses are made from dirt so when the earthquake came… lots of houses collapsed,” the 34-year-old said, adding that ambulances had been taking people to hospital throughout the day.

A hotel resident in Shigatse told Chinese media outlet Fengmian News he had been jolted awake by a wave of shaking. He said he had grabbed his socks and rushed out on to the street, where he saw helicopters circling above.

“It felt like even the bed was being lifted,” he said, adding that he immediately knew it was an earthquake because Tibet recently experienced multiple smaller quakes.

There were more than 40 aftershocks in the first few hours following the quake.

Jiang Haikun, a researcher at the China Earthquake Networks Center, told CCTV that while another earthquake of around magnitude 5 might still occur, “the likelihood of a larger earthquake is low”.

Sitting at the foot of Mount Everest, which separates Nepal and China, Tingri county is a popular base for climbers preparing to ascend the world’s tallest peak.

Everest sightseeing tours in the area have been cancelled, a tourism staff member told local media, adding that the area had been closed. There were three visitors who had all been moved to an outdoor area for safety, they said.

Shigatse region, home to 800,000 people, is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, a key figure of Tibetan Buddhism whose spiritual authority is second only to the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan Gedhun Choekyi Niyima who was identified as the reincarnated Panchen Lama was disappeared by China in 1995 when he was six years old. China then chose its own Panchen Lama.

“I offer my prayers for those who have lost their lives and extend my wishes for a swift recovery to all who have been injured,” the current Dalai Lama said in a statement.

He fled Tibet to India in 1959 after China annexed the region, and has since been seen as an alternative source of power for Tibetans who resent Beijing’s control – which extends to local media and internet access.

While strong tremors were felt in Nepal, no major damage or casualties were reported, an official from the National Emergency Operations Centre told BBC Newsday – only “minor damages and cracks on houses”.

The tremors on Tuesday morning, which sent many Kathmandu residents running out of their houses, brought back memories of the deadly 2015 quake. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit near Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people and injuring more than 20,000.

“In 2015, when the earthquake hit, I could not even move,” Manju Neupane, a shop owner in Kathmandu, told BBC Nepali. “Today the situation was not scary like that. But, I am scared that another major earthquake may hit us and we will be trapped between tall buildings.”

A well-known high school in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles has reportedly fallen victim to a wildfire raging in the US city.

Parts of Palisades Charter High School – which counts celebrities including Will.i.am and Forest Whitaker among its alumni and has itself been a Hollywood filming location – have caught fire, local media say. The extent of the damage is unclear.

As well as the Palisades Fire – which has quickly spread to cover nearly 3,000 acres – other blazes have ignited nearby. Thousands of people have been evacuated.

The school’s website says it has closed – and urged pupils and their families to avoid the area. The BBC has asked for further comment.

The school, which educates children aged 14-18, says its students come from a broad area of western Los Angeles. Its buildings are known as a location for films including Carrie, Teen Wolf and Freaky Friday.

Los Angeles is in a state of emergency, and an interactive map managed by fire officials confirms that the fast-moving fires have affected a swathe of land on which the school is located.

The map notes that the Palisades Fire – like the two other blazes – is totally uncontained. About 30,000 people have been told to leave their homes.

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The new school term had yet to begin on Tuesday, although a small number of students and staff were on site, according to the LA Times. They were rapidly evacuated, and no injuries have been reported.

The newspaper said the school’s sporting facilities had been damaged, but that the extent to which buildings had been impacted was unclear. Firefighters were on the scene, the newspaper added.

A reporter for the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, confirmed that flames could be seen coming from the premises – but said it was not clear what was burning. An evacuee speaking at the scene described the fires as “armageddon”.

The separate Palisades Charter Elementary School nearby has also reportedly been caught up in the blaze.

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The wider Pacific Palisades neighbourhood is known as an upscale celebrity haunt. Schitt’s Creek actor Eugene Levy is among those who have been forced to leave their homes – and others, including Tom Hanks and Jennifer Aniston, have reportedly had to do the same.

More than 1,400 firefighters have been deployed to combat the “unprecedented” blazes currently raging around Los Angeles, California Governor Gavin Newsom said earlier.

Fire ecologist Chad Hanson predicted “a rough night” for fire crews, with the most extreme conditions expected from 02:00-06:00 local time (10:00-14:00 GMT).

Mr Hanson said January was still considered to be wildfire season in this part of California, and that the biggest influence were the Santa Ana winds.

“These winds are unique to southern California,” he said, explaining that they result in” extreme, sustained wind events with pretty dramatic gusts.”

France has said the European Union will not allow other nations to attack its “sovereign borders”, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out using military force to seize Greenland.

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his desire to acquire the autonomous Danish territory, saying it was “critical” for national and economic security.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told French radio “there is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are”.

Barrot said he did not believe the US was going to invade the vast Arctic island, but he was clear the EU should not let itself be intimidated.

It is difficult to imagine how the European Union might prevent any potential attack. The EU has no defensive capabilities of its own and most of its 27 member states are part of the US-led Nato alliance.

Trump has repeatedly expressed an interest in buying Greenland, having mooted the idea during his first term as president.

Denmark, a long-time US ally, has made clear that Greenland is not for sale and that it belongs to its inhabitants.

Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, is pushing for independence and has also made clear the territory is not for sale. He was visiting Copenhagen on Wednesday.

Trump made the remarks at a free-wheeling news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, less than two weeks before he is sworn in for his second term as president on 20 January.

Asked if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal, Trump said: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two.

“But I can say this, we need them for economic security.”

• Panama Canal will stay in our hands, minister tells Trump

Greenland has been home to a US radar base since the Cold War and has long been strategically important for Washington.

Trump suggested the island was crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are “all over the place”.

“I’m talking about protecting the free world,” he told reporters.

Speaking to France Inter radio, Barrot said: “If you’re asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no.

“Have we entered into an era that sees the return of the survival of the fittest? Then the answer is yes.

“So, should we allow ourselves to be intimidated and overcome with worry, clearly not. We must wake up, build up our strength.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV on Tuesday that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” and that only the local population could determine its future.

However, she stressed Denmark needed close co-operation with the US, a Nato ally.

Greenland MP Kuno Fencker told the BBC that the population had been preparing for “some bold statements” from Trump, but that the island’s “sovereignty and self-determination are non-negotiable”.

Fencker, whose Siumut party is part of Greenland’s governing coalition, said local authorities would welcome “constructive dialogue and mutually beneficial partnership with the United States and other nations”.

He did not rule out a free association including both Denmark and the US, but said “this is a decision that Greenlandic people must take, it’s not one politician’s decision”.

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Greenland has a population of just 57,000 and wide-ranging autonomy, although its economy is largely dependent on subsidies from Copenhagen and it remains part of the kingdom of Denmark.

It also has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.

Danish Broadcasting Corporation senior international correspondent Steffen Kretz, who has been reporting in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, said most of the people he had spoken to were “shocked” by Trump’s suggestion he could use military force to take control of the territory.

While a majority of people in Greenland hoped for independence in the future, he said there was widespread acknowledgment that it needed a partner who could provide public services, defence and an economic foundation, as Denmark did now.

“I have yet to meet a person in Greenland who is dreaming of the island becoming a colony for another outside power like the USA.”

Kretz told the BBC that while the Danish government had sought to “downplay” any confrontation with Trump, “behind the scenes I sense the awareness that this conflict has the potential to be the biggest international crisis for Denmark in modern history”.

The president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr, paid a brief visit to Greenland on Tuesday, in what he described as a “personal day trip” to talk to people.

He then posted a photo with a group of Greenlanders in a bar wearing pro-Trump caps.

An Italian journalist detained in Iran last month has been freed and is on a flight back to Rome, the Italian government says.

Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on 19 December, three days after an Iranian engineer was detained by Italian authorities in Milan on suspicion of supplying drone technology that led to the deaths of US soldiers.

Reports said she had been held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

It is unclear what led to Sala’s release, however the news was broken by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s officials who cited “intense work through diplomatic and intelligence channels”.

In the Italian statement, Meloni thanked “all those who contributed to to making Cecilia’s return possible”.

She had personally told Sala’s parents of her release, it added. Sala’s plane had already left Tehran and was due to arrive in Rome at 15:30 (14:30 GMT) on Wednesday, according to Ansa news agency.

Her partner, fellow journalist Daniele Raineri, told Ansa: “I spoke to her and she told me ‘I’ll see you soon’, she was emotional and overjoyed.”

Cecilia Sala’s detention in prison in Tehran outraged Italians and has dominated headlines since her employer, podcast company Chora Media, broke the news of her arrest on 27 December.

Meloni is understood to have taken personal charge of her case and met US president-elect Donald Trump at the weekend, when the journalist’s detention is thought to have been discussed.

Outgoing president Joe Biden is due to visit Rome later this week.

Iran said initially it had detained Sala for “violation of the Islamic Republic’s laws”, however US state department officials said it could be linked to the arrest of Iranian national Mohammad Abedini at Malpensa airport in Milan on 16 December.

He was arrested on a US warrant and one official told Italian media that Sala was being used as “political leverage”.

Mohammad Abedini is due to go before a court in Milan on 15 January, and Tehran has in recent days played down any connection between the two cases.

The head of Italy’s foreign intelligence service, Giovanni Caravelli, is said to have travelled to Tehran personally to bring Sala back to Italy.

Her father Renato Sala told Ansa news agency he was proud of her and praised the government for an “exceptional job”.

He said he had had the impression that the situation had turned into a “game of chess, but with more than two players”.

The co-chair of the independent body that reviews Facebook and Instagram content has said she is “very concerned” about how parent company Meta’s decision to ditch fact-checkers will affect minority groups.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, from Meta’s oversight board, told the BBC she welcomed aspects of the shake-up, which will see users decide about the accuracy of posts via X-style “community notes”.

However, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said there were “huge problems” with what had been announced, including the potential impact on the LGBTQ+ community, as well as gender and trans rights.

“We are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully,” she added.

In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on Tuesday, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the decision was motivated by “getting back to our roots around free expression”.

He said third-party fact-checkers currently used by the firm were “too politically biased”, meaning too many users were being “censored”.

However, the journalist Maria Ressa – who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 – said the suggestion the change would promote free speech was “completely wrong”, telling the AFP news agency the decision meant there were “extremely dangerous times ahead” for social media users and democracy.

“Only if you’re profit driven can you claim that; only if you want power and money can you claim that”, said Ms Ressa, who co-founded the Rappler news site in the Philippines.

The decision has prompted questions about the survival of the oversight board Ms Thorning-Schmidt co-chairs.

It is funded by Meta and was created by then president of global affairs, Sir Nick Clegg, who announced he was leaving the company less than a week ago.

Ms Thorning-Schmidt – a former prime minister of Denmark – insisted it was needed more than ever.

“That’s why it is good we have an oversight board that can discuss this in a transparent way with Meta”, she said.

Some have suggested Sir Nick’s departure – and the fact checking changes – are an attempt to get closer to the incoming Trump administration, and catch up with the access and influence enjoyed by another tech titan, Elon Musk.

The tech journalist and author Kara Swisher told the BBC it was “the most cynical move” she had seen Mr Zuckerberg make in the “many years” she had been reporting on him.

“Facebook does whatever is in its self-interest”, she said.

“He wants to kiss up to Donald Trump, and catch up with Elon Musk in that act.”

While campaigners against hate speech online reacted with dismay to the change, some advocates of free speech have welcomed the news.

The US free speech group Fire said: “Meta’s announcement shows the marketplace of ideas in action. Its users want a social media platform that doesn’t suppress political content or use top-down fact-checkers.

“These changes will hopefully result in less arbitrary moderation decisions and freer speech on Meta’s platforms.”

Speaking after the changes were announced, Trump told a news conference he was impressed by Mr Zuckerberg’s decision and that Meta had “come a long way”.

Asked whether Mr Zuckerberg was “directly responding” to threats Trump had made to him in the past, the incoming US president responded: “Probably.”

Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged on Tuesday there was some risk for the company in the change of strategy.

“It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down,” he said in his video message.

X’s move to a more hands-off approach to moderating content has contributed to a major fall-out with advertisers.

Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at Insider Intelligence, said that was a risk for Meta too.

“Meta’s massive size and powerhouse ad platform insulate it somewhat from an X-like user and advertiser exodus,” she told the BBC.

“But brand safety remains a key factor in determining where advertisers spend their budgets – any major drop in engagement could hurt Meta’s ad business, given the intense competition for users and ad dollars.”

The gruesome murder of Indian journalist Mukesh Chandrakar has shone a spotlight on the dangers of reporting from some of the country’s most volatile regions.

Chandrakar’s body was found last week in a septic tank in a compound owned by a contractor he had implicated in a story about corruption in Chhattisgarh state. Police have arrested the contractor and two others in connection with the 33-year-old’s murder.

Chhattisgarh, a mineral-rich state, has witnessed an armed conflict for more than three decades and attacks by Maoist rebels on security forces are common. The Maoists, who are active in several Indian states, say they are fighting for communist rule and greater rights for tribal people and the rural poor.

Chandrakar’s killing was condemned by Indian media watchdogs. People who knew him commended his bravery and resilience, with many saying he cared deeply about people and would go to great lengths to report on an important story.

His death also sparked discussions about the challenges faced by independent reporters, often working as stringers or freelancers, in states like Chhattisgarh, where employment opportunities are few and the balance of power is constantly shifting between the state, insurgent groups and powerful mining corporations.

Chandrakar was born in Basaguda, a remote village in the state, and dabbled in odd jobs before he pivoted to journalism in his 20s.

His childhood was difficult; he lost his father when he was still a child and was raised by his mother, who worked hard to make ends meet. He also grew up in the shadow of violence as militia and rebel groups fought for power in the state.

To help support his family, he initially collected mahua flowers, which are used to make a liquor popular among tribespeople, and later worked in a garage.

His friend Ganesh Mishra told the BBC that Chandrakar discovered journalism through conversations with friends and began working as one in 2013. He learnt on the job, gleaning tips from fellow journalists, and gradually developed a passion for reporting.

He worked as a reporter with mainstream media outlets before launching his own YouTube channel, Bastar Junction. At the time of his death, the channel had around 165,000 subscribers, a number that has since grown by about 10,000.

Bastar is a hilly district in Chhattisgarh which is full of dense forests and is part of India’s ‘red corridor’, a nickname for the regions most affected by the Maoist insurgency.

Watching the videos, Chandrakar’s journalism comes across as slightly melodramatic and sometimes straying from the rigours of traditional reporting, such as not always giving all parties a right of reply. However, his videos highlighted stories frequently overlooked by mainstream media – reports of innocent villagers killed in crossfire between Maoist rebels and soldiers, or tribal men wrongfully accused of being insurgents and imprisoned by the police.

His channel captured the hardships faced by locals in Bastar’s remote villages, where even basic necessities are scarce.

One video showed villagers swimming across a river with groceries in tow due to the lack of a bridge; another documented a key road mined with explosives, allegedly planted by Maoists to target security forces. His stories gave locals a platform to voice their grievances and hold public officials accountable.

Chandrakar used to also work as a “stringer” for news organisations, where his job involved providing outstation journalists with information about a story or sometimes, even chaperoning them through Maoist strongholds.

Most media outlets pay such freelance reporters poorly, and despite doing much of the ground work, they often don’t receive proper recognition or a byline.

A journalist who Chandrakar helped cover a particularly sensitive story told the BBC about how he had helped him cross Maoists camps and police check-posts to access regions deep inside forests.

“It would have been impossible to access the terrain without him,” the person, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.

He described Chandrakar as a person who was passionate about new experiences, loved the chase and felt proud when his actions led to change.

“He was also a deeply aspirational person. He didn’t want to be defined by his difficult life; he wanted to rise above that,” he said.

It’s perhaps this trait of Chandrakar’s that has led to some speculation about the actual cause of his death. Police say that two of the people arrested for his murder are related to him, one of whom is a contractor.

There are whispers about Chandrakar’s lifestyle, which some colleagues found puzzling given the poor salaries of local journalists. In a tribute, his close friend and fellow journalist, Dipankar Ghose, acknowledged the complexities of working in a profession where survival often meant navigating difficult choices.

“For me, Mukesh was the personification of bravery. I’m not going to pretend that in a universe where media organisations he [Chandrakar] worked for didn’t even pay for his petrol let alone a stable salary, sustenance wasn’t a problem, and therefore some wires weren’t crossed. But Mukesh loved journalism with a passion,” he wrote as part of a lengthy post praising Chandrakar on X.

Manisha Pande, managing editor at Newslaundry, an independent news platform, speaks about the challenges facing journalists in many small towns and cities across the country.

“There are many passionate and even fearless young journalists who are the first to uncover and report stories from their regions. But as a profession, we haven’t figured out how to make journalism financially sustainable for them,” she says.

Chandrakar’s murder is still under investigation, and more details about his death are expected to emerge in the coming days. However, his work continues to serve as an inspiration to many.

“I have lost a friend who was like a family member and Bastar has lost a good journalist,” Mr Mishra says. “His journalism impacted many and so his loss is deeply felt deeply by all”.

Thai police have charged a mahout after an elephant in his care killed a Spanish tourist last week.

Theerayut Inthaphudkij, 38, was charged with negligence causing death, local authorities said Monday.

The tourist – 22-year-old Blanca Ojanguren García – sustained a head injury after being shoved by the elephant while she was bathing the animal. She later died in the hospital.

Her death has renewed concerns over Thailand’s booming elephant tourism industry, which animal rights groups have long criticised as unethical and dangerous.

Activists say that elephant bathing is disruptive to natural grooming behaviours and could injure the animals, exposing them to unnecessary stress.

After the attack, experts weighed in to say that the elephant might have been stressed because of the interaction with tourists.

García was hurt by a female elephant, 45-year-old female Phang Somboon, at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre in southern Thailand. Her boyfriend, who had been travelling with her, was also at the centre during the incident.

There are nearly 3,000 elephants held in tourist attractions across Thailand, according to an estimate by international charity World Animal Protection.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) told the BBC in a statement that “such incidents highlight the dangers to both humans and animals alike.”

“Any ‘sanctuary’ that allows humans to touch, feed, bathe, or closely interact with elephants in any way is no place of refuge for elephants and puts the lives of tourists and animals in critical danger,” said Peta senior vice president Jason Baker.

Similar charges of negligence have previously been pressed against mahouts whose elephants killed tourists.

In 2017, an elephant camp owner and a mahout were charged with recklessness causing death and injuries after an elephant killed a Chinese tour guide and injured two tourists in the Thai beach town, Pattaya. In 2013, a 27-year-old elephant had its tusks cut after it attacked and killed a woman.

García, a law and international relations student at Spain’s University of Navarra, was living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange programme. She and her boyfriend arrived in Thailand on 26 December 2024.

Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said the Spanish consulate in Bangkok was assisting García’s family.

A hiker who went missing for nearly two weeks in New South Wales, Australia has been found alive, having survived on foraged berries and two muesli bars.

Medical student Hadi Nazari went missing on Boxing Day after he wandered off to take photos during a hike with his friends in Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains region.

Hundreds of people, including Mr Nazari’s friends and family, joined search efforts to locate the 23-year-old.

He was found by other hikers around 15:15 local time (04:15 GMT) on Wednesday.

Mr Nazari had called out to the hikers and “told them that he’d been lost in the bush and was thirsty”, Superintendent Andrew Spliet told reporters.

After the hikers contacted emergency services, Mr Nazari was winched over to the search command post by a helicopter. He was assessed by paramedics at the scene and conveyed to a hospital.

Mr Spliet said that Mr Nazari was found in good health – alert, able to speak and had no significant injuries.

The two muesli bars, which Mr Nazari had found in a hut in the mountains, was “pretty much all that he’s had to consume over the last two weeks”, said Mr Spliet, adding that the hiker had also found water from creeks and foraged for berries.

Mr Nazari’s family, who were seen hugging him at the search base camp on Wednesday, later confirmed to local media that he was fine. “It is the happiest day of our lives,” they told 9News.

Mr Nazari was found near Blue Lake, around 10km (6 miles) away from the campground where he was supposed to meet his friends on 26 December.

“He’s covered a lot of ground in that time,” said Spliet, adding that police would “catch up with him” after he is checked out of hospital.

The time of day you drink a cup of coffee may lower the risk of an early death, new research suggests.

The study found that people who drank coffee in the morning had a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and had a lower mortality risk than all-day coffee consumers – but the research could not prove whether coffee was the sole cause.

Dr Lu Qi, lead researcher and director of Tulane University Obesity Research Center, said while the study does not show why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk, one explanation could be that consumption later in the day may disrupt a person’s internal body clock.

The study was published on Wednesday in the European Heart Journal.

Dr Qi said further studies are needed to see if their findings could also be observed in other populations, adding: “We need clinical trials to test the potential impact of changing the time of day when people drink coffee.”

“This study doesn’t tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease,” he explained.

“A possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt circadian rhythms [our bodies 24-hour cycle of physical, mental and behavioural changes] and levels of hormones such as melatonin.

“This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure.”

The researchers from Tulane University in New Orleans, looked at 40,725 adults who had taken part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the US between 1999 and 2018.

They were asked about their daily food and drink consumption, and whether they drank coffee, how much and when.

“Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health,” explained Dr Qi.

While past research has found moderate coffee drinking can have health benefits, this was the “first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes”, he added.

According to the research, 36% of those taking part were morning coffee drinkers, and 14% were all-day drinkers.

Dr Qi and his team tracked the participants for nearly a decade, looking at their information records and causes of death during that time period.

During the follow-up after almost 10 years, 4,295 people died, including 1,268 cardiovascular disease- related deaths.

The researchers found that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to have died compared to those who did not drink coffee, and 31% less likely to have died from heart disease.

They also saw no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared to non-coffee drinkers.

“Drinking coffee in the morning may be more strongly associated with a lower risk of mortality than drinking coffee later in the day,” they wrote in the research paper.

The researchers said higher coffee intake amounts were “significantly” associated with a lower risk of death, but only among people who drank coffee in the morning compared with those who drank coffee all day.

In an accompanying editorial, Prof Thomas F Luscher from Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London, asked: “Why would time of the day matter?

“In the morning hours there is commonly a marked increase in sympathetic activity [activity that puts your body systems on alert] as we wake up and get out of bed, an effect that fades away during the day and reaches its lowest level during sleep.”

Prof Luscher said that – like the researchers suggest – it is “possible” that coffee drinking later in the day could disrupt out bodies internal clock at a time we should be resting.

“Indeed, many all-day drinkers suffer from sleep disturbances,” he explained, adding that “in this context, it is of interest that coffee seems to suppress melatonin, an important sleep-inducing mediator in the brain.”

The study also suggested that among coffee drinkers, participants who consumed it in the morning were more likely to consume tea and caffeinated soda but consume less coffee – both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee – compared with those who drank coffee all day.

A survivor of a coal mine disaster in India has shared a harrowing account of the moments after the tunnel was suddenly engulfed by water.

Ravi Rai was working in the mine in the north-eastern state of Assam on Monday morning when water entered the pit.

“We were holding on to a rope in 50-60ft (15-18m) deep water for at least 50 minutes before being pulled out,” he said.

Rescuers are racing to save the miners trapped in the flooded mine in a remote area in Assam. Officials say one body has been recovered and according to reports, two more are feared dead. Six others are believed to still be trapped in the mine.

Mr Rai, who is from Nepal, says he was working inside a so-called “rat-hole” mine – a narrow hole dug manually to extract coal – when water suddenly started flooding in.

Such pits are narrow, often dug just wide enough for one person to extract coal. Miners climb down narrow shafts, sometimes using ropes or ladders, leading to horizontal tunnels where coal is extracted.

“We were working inside the mine and water entered suddenly. We don’t know from where [the water came]… We ran to save our lives. We were then hanging by a rope in some 50-60 ft deep water,” he said.

For almost an hour, he and some others were hanging by a rope attached to a crane, and Mr Rai says there were moments when he feared they wouldn’t survive.

“We [slipped] back into the water again, but we managed to escape,” he says.

Local media reports say more than a dozen miners managed to escape from the tunnel but no official figure has been given yet.

Despite his injuries, Mr Rai is relieved to be safe. However, his colleague, also from Nepal, remains among the trapped.

“My family has still not come [to the site] – I don’t think they’ve been informed yet,” he said.

The accident occurred on Monday, when nine men were trapped inside the mine in the hilly Dima Hasao district after water from a nearby unused mine suddenly gushed in, according to reports.

The navy has deployed deep-sea divers and teams to rescue the trapped miners and pump out water from the mine, while the army has sent helicopters, engineers and divers to assist in the rescue, ANI news agency reported.

Officials say high water levels in the mine have posed significant challenges to the rescue and recovery operation.

HPS Kandhari, a senior official in the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), said it was difficult to estimate the duration of the operation.

“It is very difficult to get inside the water, there’s hardly anything visible and we don’t know what is inside,” he said.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the flooded mine appears to be illegal.

The police is investigating the case and a person has been arrested, he said.

India banned so-called rat-hole mining in 2014, but despite this, small illegal mines continue to operate in Assam and other northern and north-eastern states. Accidents are not uncommon here.

Six workers were killed in January 2024 after a fire broke out in a rat-hole coal mine in Nagaland state.

In 2018, at least 15 men were trapped in an illegal mine in Meghalaya after water from a nearby river flooded it.

Five miners managed to escape, but rescue efforts for the others continued until March of the following year. Only two bodies were recovered.

In recent weeks, scenes of hospitals in China overrun with masked people have made their rounds on social media, sparking worries of another pandemic.

Beijing has since acknowledged a surge in cases of the flu-like human metapneumovirus (HMPV), especially among children, and it attributed this to a seasonal spike.

But HMPV is not like Covid-19, public health experts have said, noting that the virus has been around for decades, with almost every child being infected by their fifth birthday.

However, in some very young children and people with weakened immune systems, it can cause more serious illness. Here is what you need to know.

HMPV is a virus that will lead to a mild upper respiratory tract infection – practically indistinguishable from flu – for most people.

First identified in the Netherlands in 2001, the virus spreads through direct contact between people or when someone touches surfaces contaminated with it.

Symptoms for most people include cough, fever and nasal congestion.

The very young, including children under two, are most vulnerable to the virus, along with those with weakened immune systems, including the elderly and those with advanced cancer, says Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases physician in Singapore.

If infected, a “small but significant proportion” among the immunocompromised will develop more severe disease where the lungs are affected, with wheezing, breathlessness and symptoms of croup.

“Many will require hospital care, with a smaller proportion at risk of dying from the infection,” Dr Hsu said.

Like many respiratory infections, HMPV is most active during late winter and spring – some experts say this is because the viruses survive better in the cold and they pass more easily from one person to another as people stay indoors more often.

In northern China, the current HMPV spike coincides with low temperatures that are expected to last until March.

In fact many countries in the northern hemisphere, including but not limited to China, are experiencing an increased prevalence of HMPV, said Jacqueline Stephens, an epidemiologist at Flinders University in Australia.

“While this is concerning, the increased prevalence is likely the normal seasonal increase seen in winter,” she said.

Data from health authorities in the US and UK shows that these countries, too, have been experiencing a spike in HMPV cases since October last year.

Fears of a Covid-19 style pandemic are overblown, the experts said, noting that pandemics are typically caused by novel pathogens, which is not the case for HMPV.

HMPV is globally present and has been around for decades. This means people across the world have “some degree of existing immunity due to previous exposure”, Dr Hsu said.

“Almost every child will have at least one infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday and we can expect to go onto to have multiple reinfections throughout life,” says Paul Hunter, a medical professor at University of East Anglia in England.

“So overall, I don’t think there is currently any signs of a more serious global issue.”

Still, Dr Hsu advises standard general precautions such as wearing a mask in crowded places, avoiding crowds where possible if one is at higher risk of more severe illness from respiratory virus infections, practising good hand hygiene, and getting the flu vaccine.

Immigration has long been a polarising issue in the West but Canada mostly avoided it – until now. With protests and campaign groups springing up in certain quarters, some argue that this – together with housing shortages and rising rents – contributed to Justin Trudeau’s resignation. But could Donald Trump’s arrival inflame it further?

At first glance, the single bedroom for rent in Brampton, Ontario looks like a bargain. True, there’s barely any floor space, but the asking price is only C$550 (£300) a month in a Toronto suburb where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom flat is C$2,261. Inspect it more closely, however, and this is actually a small bathroom converted into sleeping quarters. A mattress is jammed up next to the sink, the toilet is nearby.

The ad, originally posted on Facebook Marketplace, has generated hundreds of comments online. “Disgusting,” wrote one Reddit user. “Hey 20-somethings, you’re looking at your future,” says another.

But there are other listings like it – one room for rent, also in Brampton, shows a bed squashed near a staircase in what appears to be a laundry area. Another rental in Scarborough, a district in Ontario, offers a double bed in the corner of a kitchen.

While Canada might have a lot of space, there aren’t enough homes and in the past three years, rents across the country have increased by almost 20%, according to property consultancy Urbanation.

In all, some 2.4 million Canadian families are crammed into homes that are too small, in urgent need of major repairs or are seriously unaffordable, a government watchdog report released in December has suggested.

This accommodation shortage has come to a head at the same time that inflation is hitting Canadians hard – and these issues have, in turn, moved another issue high up the agenda in the country: immigration.

For the first time a majority of Canadians, who have long been welcoming to newcomers, are questioning how their cities can manage.

Politics in other Western countries has long been wrapped up in polarised debates surrounding immigration but until recently Canada had mostly avoided that issue, perhaps because of its geography. Now, however, there appears to be a profound shift in attitude.

In 2022, 27% of Canadians said there were too many immigrants coming into the country, according to a survey by data and research firm Environics. By 2024, that number had increased to 58%.

Campaign groups have sprung up too and there have been marches protesting against immigration in Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary, and elsewhere around the country.

“I would say it was very much taboo, like no one would really talk about it,” explains Peter Kratzar, a software engineer and the founder of Cost of Living Canada, a protest group that was formed in 2024. “[But] things have really unfrozen.”

Stories like that of the bathroom for rent in Brampton have fuelled this, he suggests: “People might say, like, this is all anecdotal evidence. But the evidence keeps popping up. You see it over and over again.”

“People became concerned about how the immigration system was being managed,” adds Keith Neuman, executive director at Environics. “And we believe it’s the first time the public really thought about the management of the system.”

• Who might replace Trudeau as Liberal Party leader?
• Why the Trudeau era has come to an end now
• What happens next for Canada?

Once the golden boy of Canadian politics, prime minister Justin Trudeau, resigned on 6 January during a crucial election year, amid this widespread discontent over immigration levels.

His approval levels before his resignation were just 22% – a far cry from the first year of his premiership, when 65% of voters said they approved of him.

Though immigration is not the main reason for his low approval levels nor his resignation – he cited “having to fight internal battles” – he was accused of acting too late when dealing with rising anxiety over inflation and housing that many blamed, in part, on immigration.

“While immigration may not have been the immediate cause of the resignation, it may have been the icing on the cake,” says Professor Jonathan Rose, head of the department of political studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Under Trudeau’s administration, the Canadian government deliberately chose to radically boost the numbers of people coming to the country after the pandemic, believing that boosting quotas for foreign students and temporary workers, in addition to skilled immigrants, would jumpstart the economy.

The population, which was 35 million 10 years ago, now tops 40 million.

Immigration was responsible for the vast majority of that increase – figures from Canada’s national statistics agency show that in 2024, more than 90% of population growth came from immigration.

As well as overall migration levels, the number of refugees has risen too. In 2013, there were 10,365 refugee applicants in Canada – by 2023, that number had increased to 143,770.

Voter dissatisfaction with immigration was “more a symptom than a cause” of Trudeau’s downfall, argues Prof Rose. “It reflects his perceived inability to read the room in terms of public opinion.”

It’s unclear who might replace Trudeau from within his own Liberal Party but ahead of the forthcoming election, polls currently favour the Conservative Party, whose leader Pierre Poilievre advocates keeping the number of new arrivals below the number of new homes being built.

Since Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November, Poilievre “has been speaking much more about immigration”, claims Prof Rose – “so much that it has become primed in the minds of voters”.

Certainly Trump’s arrival for a second term is set to pour oil on an already inflamed issue in Canada, regardless of who the new prime minister is.

He won the US election in part on a pledge to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants – and since his victory, he has said that he will enlist the military and declare a national emergency to follow through on his promise.

He also announced plans to employ 25% tariffs on Canadian goods unless border security is tightened.

Canada and the US share the world’s longest undefended border. Stretching almost 9,000km (5,592 miles), much of it crosses heavily forested wilderness and is demarcated by “The Slash,” a six-metre wide land clearing.

Unlike America’s southern border, there are no walls. This has long been a point of pride between Ottawa and Washington – a sign of their close ties.

After Trump first entered office in 2017, the number of asylum claims skyrocketed, with thousands walking across the border to Canada. The number of claims went from just under 24,000 in 2016 to 55,000 a year by 2018, according to the Canadian government. Almost all crossed from New York state into the Canadian province of Quebec.

In 2023, Canada and the US agreed to a tightened border deal that stopped most migrants from crossing the land border from one country to another. Under the agreement, migrants that come into contact with the authorities within 14 days of crossing any part of the border into either the US or Canada must return to whichever country they entered first — in order to declare asylum there.

The deal, reworked by Trudeau and Joe Biden, is based on the idea that both the US and Canada are safe countries for asylum seekers.

This time around, Canada’s national police force – the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) – says it began preparing a contingency plan for increased migrant crossings at the border well ahead of Trump being sworn in.

This includes a raft of new technology, from drones and night vision goggles, to surveillance cameras hidden in the forest.

“Worst-case scenario would be people crossing in large numbers everywhere on the territory,” RCMP spokesperson Charles Poirier warned in November. “Let’s say we had 100 people per day entering across the border, then it’s going to be hard because our officers will basically have to cover huge distances in order to arrest everyone.”

Now, the national government has committed a further C$1.3bn (£555m) to its border security plan.

Not everyone blames the housing crisis on the recent rise in immigration. It was “30 years in the making” because politicians have failed to build affordable units, argues Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.

Certainly the country has a long history of welcoming newcomers. “Close to 50% of the population of Canada is first or second generation,” explains Mr Neuman. “That means either they came from another country, or one or both of their parents came from another country. In Toronto, Vancouver, that’s over 80%.”

This makes Canada “a very different place than a place that has a homogeneous population,” he argues.

He has been involved in a survey examining attitudes towards newcomers for 40 years. “If you ask Canadians: what’s the most important or distinctive thing about Canada, or what makes the country unique? The number one response is ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘diversity’,” he says.

Nonetheless, he says the shift in public opinion – and the rise in concerns about immigration – has been “dramatic”.

“Now there is not only broader public concern, but much more open discussion,” he says. “There are more questions being asked about how is the system working? How come it isn’t working?”

At one of the protests in Toronto, a crowd turned out with hand-painted signs, some proclaiming: “We want our future back!” and “End Mass Immigration”.

“We do need to put a moratorium on immigration,” argues Mr Kratzar, whose group has taken part in some of them. “We need to delay that so wages can catch up on the cost of rents.”

Accusations against newcomers are spreading on social media too. Last summer, Natasha White, who describes herself as a resident of Wasaga Beach in Ontario, claimed on TikTok that some newcomers had been digging holes on the beach and defecating in them.

The post generated hundreds of thousands of views and a torrent of anti-foreigner hatred, with many arguing that newcomers should “go home”.

People I interviewed who work closely with asylum seekers in Canada say that the heightened concerns around the need for more border security is making asylum seekers feel unsettled and afraid.

Abdulla Daoud, executive director at the Refugee Center in Montreal, believes that the vulnerable asylum seekers he works with feel singled out by the focus on migrant numbers since the US election. “They’re definitely more anxious,” he says. “I think they’re coming in and they’re feeling, ‘Okay, am I going to be welcomed here? Am I in the right place or not?'”

Those hoping to stay in Canada as refugees can’t access official immigration settlement services until it has been decided they truly need asylum. This process once took two weeks but it can now take as long as three years.

Tent cities to house newly-arrived refugees and food banks with empty shelves have sprung up in Toronto. The city’s homeless shelters are often reported to be full. Last winter, two refugee applicants froze to death after sleeping on Toronto’s streets.

Toronto mayor Olivia Chow, an immigrant herself having moved to Canada from Hong Kong at age 13, says: “People are seeing that, even with working two jobs or three jobs, they can’t have enough money to pay the rent and feed the kids.

“I understand the hardship of having a life that is not affordable, and the fear of being evicted, absolutely, I get it. But to blame that on the immigration system is unfair.”

With frustrations growing, Trudeau announced a major change in October: a 20% reduction in immigration targets over three years. “As we emerged from the pandemic, between addressing labour needs and maintaining population growth, we didn’t get the balance quite right,” he conceded.

He added that he wanted to give all levels of government time to catch up – to accommodate more people. But, given that he has since resigned, is it enough? And does the Trump presidency and the increasing anti-immigrant sentiment on that side of the border risk spilling further into Canada?

Mr Daoud has his own view. “Unfortunately, I think the Trump presidency had its impact on Canadian politics,” he says. “I think a lot of politicians are using this as a way to fear-monger.”

Others are less convinced that it will have much of an impact. “Canadians are better than that,” says Olivia Chow. “We remember that successive waves of refugees helped create Toronto and Canada.”

Politicians wading into the debate around population growth ahead of the next election will be conscious of the fact that half of Canadians are first and second-generation immigrants themselves. “If the Conservatives win the next election, we can expect a reduction in immigration,” says Prof Jonathan Rose. But he adds that Poilievre will have to walk “a bit of fine line”.

Prof Rose says: “Since immigrant-heavy ridings [constituencies] in Toronto and Vancouver will be important to any electoral victory, he can’t be seen as anti-immigration, merely recalibrating it to suit economic and housing policy.”

And there are a large number of Canadians, including business leaders and academics, who believe that the country must continue to pursue an assertive growth policy to combat Canada’s falling birth rate.

“I really have high hopes for Canadians,” adds Lisa Lalande of the Century Initiative, which advocates for policies that would see Canada’s population increase to 100 million by 2100. “I actually think we will rise above where we are now.

“I think we’re just really concerned about affordability [and] cost of living – not about immigrants themselves. We recognise they’re too important to our culture.”

More Vietnamese attempted small-boat Channel crossings in the first half of 2024 than any other nationality. Yet they are coming from one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Why, then, are so many risking their lives to reach Britain?

Phuong looked at the small inflatable boat and wondered whether she should step in. There were 70 people packed in, and it was sitting low in the water. She recalls the fear, exhaustion and desperation on their faces. There weren’t enough lifejackets to go around.

But Phuong was desperate. She says she had been stuck in France for two months, after travelling there from Vietnam via Hungary, sleeping in tents in a scrubby forest.

Already she had refused to travel on one boat because it seemed dangerously overcrowded, and previously had been turned back in the middle of the Channel three times by bad weather or engine failure.

Her sister, Hien, lives in London, and recalls that Phuong used to phone her from France in tears. “She was torn between fear and a drive to keep going.

“But she had borrowed so much – around £25,000 – to fund this trip. Turning back wasn’t an option.” So, she climbed on board.

Today Phuong lives in London with her sister, without any legal status. She was too nervous to speak to us directly, and Phuong is not her real name. She left it to her sister, who is now a UK citizen, to describe her experiences.

In the six months to June, Vietnamese made up the largest number of recorded small boat arrivals with 2,248 landing in the UK, ahead of people from countries with well-documented human rights problems, including Afghanistan and Iran.

The extraordinary efforts made by Vietnamese migrants to get to Britain is well documented, and in 2024 the BBC reported on how Vietnamese syndicates are running successful people-smuggling operations.

It is not without significant risks. Some Vietnamese migrants end up being trafficked into sex work or illegal marijuana farms. They make up more than one-tenth of those in the UK filing official claims that they are victims of modern slavery.

And yet Vietnam is a fast-growing economy, acclaimed as a “mini-China” for its manufacturing prowess. Per capita income is eight times higher than it was 20 years ago. Add to that the tropical beaches, scenery and affordability, which have made it a magnet for tourists.

So what is it that makes so many people desperate to leave?

Vietnam, a one-party Communist state, sits near the bottom of most human rights and freedom indexes. No political opposition is permitted. The few dissidents who raise their voices are harassed and jailed.

Yet most Vietnamese have learned to live with the ruling party, which leans for legitimacy on its record of delivering growth. Very few who go to Britain are fleeing repression.

Nor are the migrants generally fleeing poverty. The World Bank has singled Vietnam out for its almost unrivalled record of poverty reduction among its 100 million people.

Rather, they are trying to escape what some call “relative deprivation”.

Despite its impressive economic record, Vietnam started far behind most of its Asian neighbours, with growth only taking off well after the end of the Cold War in 1989. As a result, average wages, at around £230 a month, are much lower than in nearby countries like Thailand, and three-quarters of the 55-million-strong workforce are in informal jobs, with no security or social protection.

“There is a huge disparity between big cities like Hanoi and rural areas,” says Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnamese academic at the Institute of South East Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “For a majority of workers with limited skills, there is a glass ceiling. Even if you work 14 hours a day you cannot save enough to build a house or start a family.”

This was what Phuong felt, despite coming from Haiphong, Vietnam’s third-largest city.

Her sister Hien had made it to Britain nine years earlier, smuggled inside a shipping container. It had cost her around £22,000 but she was able to pay that back in two years, working long hours in kitchens and nail salons. Hien married a Vietnamese man who already had British citizenship, and they had a daughter; all three are now UK citizens.

In Haiphong, jobs were scarce after the pandemic and at 38 years old, Phuong wanted what her sister had in London: the ability to save money and start a family.

“She could survive in Vietnam, but she wanted a home, a better life, with more security,” explains Hien.

Lan Anh Hoang, a professor in development studies at Melbourne University, has spent years studying migration patterns. “Twenty to thirty years ago, the urge to migrate overseas was not as strong, because everyone was poor,” she says. “People were happy with one buffalo, one motorbike and three meals a day.

“Suddenly a few people successfully migrated to countries like Germany or the UK, to work on cannabis farms or open nail salons. They started to send a lot of money home. Even though the economic conditions of those left behind have not changed, they feel poor relative to all these families with migrants working in Europe.”

This tradition of seeking better lives overseas goes back to the 1970s and 80s, when Vietnam was allied to the Soviet Union following the defeat of US forces in the south.

The state-led economy had hit rock bottom. Millions were destitute; some areas suffered food shortages. Tens of thousands left to work in eastern bloc countries like Poland, East Germany and Hungary.

This was also a time when 800,000 mainly ethnic Chinese boat people fled the communist party’s repressive actions, making perilous sea journeys across the South China Sea, eventually resettling in the USA, Australia or Europe.

The economic hardships of that time threatened the legitimacy of the communist party, and in 1986 it made an abrupt turn, abandoning the attempt to build a socialist system and throwing the doors open to global markets. The new theme of Vietnam’s national story was to catch up, and get rich, any way possible. For many Vietnamese, that meant going abroad.

“Money is God in Vietnam,” says Lan Anh Hoang. “The meaning of ‘the good life’ is primarily anchored in your ability to accumulate wealth. There is also a strong obligation to help your family, especially in central Vietnam.

“That is why the whole extended family pools resources to finance the migration of one young person because they believe they can send back large sums of money, and facilitate the migration of other people.”

Drive through the flat rice fields of Nghe An, one of Vietnam’s poorer provinces lying south of Hanoi, and where there were once smaller concrete houses, you will now find large, new houses with gilded gates. More are under construction, thanks, in part, to money earned in the West.

The new houses are prominent symbols of success for returnees who have done well overseas.

Vietnam is now enjoying substantial inflows of foreign investment, as it is considered an alternative to China for companies wanting to diversify their supply chains. This investment is even beginning to reach places like Nghe An, too.

Foxconn, a corporate giant that manufactures iPhones, is one of several foreign businesses building factories in Nghe An, offering thousands of new jobs.

But monthly salaries for unskilled workers only reach around £300, even with overtime. That is not enough to rival the enticing stories of the money to be made in the UK, as told by the people smugglers.

The business of organising the travel for those wishing to leave the province is now a very profitable one. Publicly, companies present themselves as either travel agents or brokers for officially approved overseas labour contracts, but in practice many also offer to smuggle people to the UK via other European countries. They usually paint a rosy picture of life in Britain, and say little about the risks and hardships they will face.

“Brokers” typically charge between £15,000 and £35,000 for the trip to the UK. Hungary is a popular route into the EU because it offers guest-worker visas to Vietnamese passport holders. The higher the price, the easier and faster the journey.

The communist authorities in Vietnam have been urged by the US, the UK and UN agencies to do more to control the smuggling business.

Remittances from abroad earn Vietnam around £13bn a year, and the government has a policy of promoting migration for work, although only through legal channels, mostly to richer Asian countries.

More than 130,000 Vietnamese workers left in 2024 under the official scheme. But the fees for these contracts can be high, and the wages are much lower than they can earn in Britain.

The huge risks of the illicit routes used to reach the UK were brought home in 2019, when 39 Vietnamese people were found dead in Essex, having suffocated while being transported inside a sealed container across the Channel.

Yet this has not noticeably reduced demand for the smugglers’ services. The increased scrutiny of container traffic has, however, pushed them to find alternative Channel crossings, which helps explain the sharp rise in Vietnamese people using small boats.

“The tragedy of the 39 deaths in 2019 is almost forgotten,” says the cousin of one of the victims, Le Van Ha. He left behind a wife, two young children and a large debt from the cost of the journey. His cousin, who does not want to be named, says attitudes in their community have not changed.

“People hardly care anymore. It’s a sad reality, but it is the truth.

“I see the trend of leaving continuing to grow, not diminish. For people here, the success stories still outweigh the risks.”

Three of the victims came from the agricultural province of Quang Binh. The headteacher of a secondary school in the region, who also asked not to be named, says that 80% of his students who graduate soon plan to go overseas.

“Most parents here come from low-income backgrounds,” he explains. “The idea of [encouraging their child to] broaden their knowledge and develop their skills is not the priority.

“For them, sending a child abroad is largely about earning money quickly, and getting it sent back home to improve the family’s living standards.”

In March the UK Home Office started a social media campaign to deter Vietnamese people from illegal migration. Some efforts were also made by the Vietnamese government to alert people to the risks of using people-smugglers. But until there are more appealing economic opportunities in those provinces, it is likely the campaigns will have little impact.

“They cannot run these campaigns just once,” argues Diep Vuong, co-founder of Pacific Links, an anti-trafficking organisation. “It’s a constant investment in education that’s needed.”

She has first-hand experience, leaving Vietnam to the US in 1980 as part of the exodus of Vietnamese boat people.

“In Vietnam, people believe they have to work hard, to do everything for their families. That is like a shackle which they cannot easily escape. But with enough good information put out over the years, they might start to change this attitude.”

But the campaigns are up against a powerful narrative. Those who go overseas and fail – and many do – are often ashamed, and keep quiet about what went wrong. Those who succeed come back to places like Nghe An and flaunt their new-found wealth. As for the tragedy of the 39 people who died in a shipping container, the prevailing view in Nghe An is still that they were just unlucky.

The gruesome murder of Indian journalist Mukesh Chandrakar has shone a spotlight on the dangers of reporting from some of the country’s most volatile regions.

Chandrakar’s body was found last week in a septic tank in a compound owned by a contractor he had implicated in a story about corruption in Chhattisgarh state. Police have arrested the contractor and two others in connection with the 33-year-old’s murder.

Chhattisgarh, a mineral-rich state, has witnessed an armed conflict for more than three decades and attacks by Maoist rebels on security forces are common. The Maoists, who are active in several Indian states, say they are fighting for communist rule and greater rights for tribal people and the rural poor.

Chandrakar’s killing was condemned by Indian media watchdogs. People who knew him commended his bravery and resilience, with many saying he cared deeply about people and would go to great lengths to report on an important story.

His death also sparked discussions about the challenges faced by independent reporters, often working as stringers or freelancers, in states like Chhattisgarh, where employment opportunities are few and the balance of power is constantly shifting between the state, insurgent groups and powerful mining corporations.

Chandrakar was born in Basaguda, a remote village in the state, and dabbled in odd jobs before he pivoted to journalism in his 20s.

His childhood was difficult; he lost his father when he was still a child and was raised by his mother, who worked hard to make ends meet. He also grew up in the shadow of violence as militia and rebel groups fought for power in the state.

To help support his family, he initially collected mahua flowers, which are used to make a liquor popular among tribespeople, and later worked in a garage.

His friend Ganesh Mishra told the BBC that Chandrakar discovered journalism through conversations with friends and began working as one in 2013. He learnt on the job, gleaning tips from fellow journalists, and gradually developed a passion for reporting.

He worked as a reporter with mainstream media outlets before launching his own YouTube channel, Bastar Junction. At the time of his death, the channel had around 165,000 subscribers, a number that has since grown by about 10,000.

Bastar is a hilly district in Chhattisgarh which is full of dense forests and is part of India’s ‘red corridor’, a nickname for the regions most affected by the Maoist insurgency.

Watching the videos, Chandrakar’s journalism comes across as slightly melodramatic and sometimes straying from the rigours of traditional reporting, such as not always giving all parties a right of reply. However, his videos highlighted stories frequently overlooked by mainstream media – reports of innocent villagers killed in crossfire between Maoist rebels and soldiers, or tribal men wrongfully accused of being insurgents and imprisoned by the police.

His channel captured the hardships faced by locals in Bastar’s remote villages, where even basic necessities are scarce.

One video showed villagers swimming across a river with groceries in tow due to the lack of a bridge; another documented a key road mined with explosives, allegedly planted by Maoists to target security forces. His stories gave locals a platform to voice their grievances and hold public officials accountable.

Chandrakar used to also work as a “stringer” for news organisations, where his job involved providing outstation journalists with information about a story or sometimes, even chaperoning them through Maoist strongholds.

Most media outlets pay such freelance reporters poorly, and despite doing much of the ground work, they often don’t receive proper recognition or a byline.

A journalist who Chandrakar helped cover a particularly sensitive story told the BBC about how he had helped him cross Maoists camps and police check-posts to access regions deep inside forests.

“It would have been impossible to access the terrain without him,” the person, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.

He described Chandrakar as a person who was passionate about new experiences, loved the chase and felt proud when his actions led to change.

“He was also a deeply aspirational person. He didn’t want to be defined by his difficult life; he wanted to rise above that,” he said.

It’s perhaps this trait of Chandrakar’s that has led to some speculation about the actual cause of his death. Police say that two of the people arrested for his murder are related to him, one of whom is a contractor.

There are whispers about Chandrakar’s lifestyle, which some colleagues found puzzling given the poor salaries of local journalists. In a tribute, his close friend and fellow journalist, Dipankar Ghose, acknowledged the complexities of working in a profession where survival often meant navigating difficult choices.

“For me, Mukesh was the personification of bravery. I’m not going to pretend that in a universe where media organisations he [Chandrakar] worked for didn’t even pay for his petrol let alone a stable salary, sustenance wasn’t a problem, and therefore some wires weren’t crossed. But Mukesh loved journalism with a passion,” he wrote as part of a lengthy post praising Chandrakar on X.

Manisha Pande, managing editor at Newslaundry, an independent news platform, speaks about the challenges facing journalists in many small towns and cities across the country.

“There are many passionate and even fearless young journalists who are the first to uncover and report stories from their regions. But as a profession, we haven’t figured out how to make journalism financially sustainable for them,” she says.

Chandrakar’s murder is still under investigation, and more details about his death are expected to emerge in the coming days. However, his work continues to serve as an inspiration to many.

“I have lost a friend who was like a family member and Bastar has lost a good journalist,” Mr Mishra says. “His journalism impacted many and so his loss is deeply felt deeply by all”.

Although Babatunde Fashola, affectionately known as Baba, is 22 years old, he is less than 70cm (2ft 4in) tall.

He has cerebral palsy and requires lifelong care. He can neither speak nor walk and is fed via a tube attached to his stomach.

As a baby, he was abandoned by his parents but 10 years ago, he found a home at the Cerebral Palsy Centre in the Nigerian city of Lagos.

“Baba weighs about 12kg [26lb]. He is doing well,” the facility’s founder, Nonye Nweke, tells me when I visit.

Ms Nweke and her staff work around the clock to support him and other youngsters living with permanent brain damage.

Although there is a lack of official data, cerebral palsy is believed to be one of the most common neurological disorders in Nigeria. In 2017, a medical professor from the University of Lagos said 700,000 people had the condition.

For many of those living with cerebral palsy in the country, their condition was caused by a common phenomenon among newborns – neonatal jaundice.

This is caused by a build-up of bilirubin, a yellow substance, in the blood, meaning the babies’ skins have a yellow tinge.

Professor Chinyere Ezeaka, a paediatrician at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, tells the BBC that more than 60% of all babies suffer from jaundice.

Most babies recover within days. More severe cases need further medical intervention – and even then the condition is easily treatable.

Children are basically exposed to ultra-violet light to dissolve the excess bilirubin in their red blood cells. The treatment lasts a few days depending on the severity.

However, in Nigeria this treatment is often not immediately available, which is why the country is among the five with the most neurological disorders caused by untreated jaundice in the world, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Any treatment for neonatal jaundice “must occur within the first 10 days of life, else [the condition] could cause permanent brain damage and severe cerebral palsy”, says Prof Ezeaka.

To make matters worse, the West African country lacks facilities to care for those with neurological disorders. There are just three cerebral palsy centres, all privately run, in Nigeria, which has a population of more than 200 million.

Ms Nweke – a single mother – set up the Cerebral Palsy Centre after struggling to find support for her own daughter, Zimuzo.

“When I took her to a day-care [centre], they asked me to take her back because other mothers would withdraw their children. As a mum, I must say it was quite devastating,” Ms Nweke tells the BBC.

Zimuzo is now 17, and Ms Nweke’s Cerebral Palsy Centre provides full-time support for others with similar experiences.

On the day I visit, colourful playtime mats and toys are neatly arranged on the floor. Mickey Mouse and his friends converse on a wide-screen television in the lounge.

Twelve youngsters, some as young as five, gaze at the TV, their bright environment ignored for a moment. They are all immobile and non-speaking.

At lunchtime, caregivers help the youngsters eat. Some take in liquified food through tubes attached to their stomachs.

Carefully and slowly, the carers support their heads with pillows and push the contents of their syringes into the tubes.

The youngsters are fed every two hours and require regular muscular massages to prevent stiffness.

But they are the lucky 12 receiving free care from the Cerebral Palsy Centre, which is funded exclusively by donors.

The facility has a long waiting list – Ms Nweke has received more than 100 applications.

But taking on more youngsters would require extra financial support. The cost of caring for someone at the centre is at least $1,000 (£790) a month – a huge amount in a country where the national minimum wage is about $540 a year.

“As a mum, I must say it’s quite overwhelming. You have moments of depression, it gives you heartaches and it is quite expensive – in fact it’s the most expensive congenital disorder to manage,” Ms Nweke says.

“And then of course, it keeps you away from people because you don’t discuss the same things. They are talking of their babies, walking, enjoying those baby moments. You are not doing that. You are sad,” she adds.

Ms Nweke explains that she adopted Zimuzo from an orphanage.

A few months after taking her new daughter home, Ms Nweke realised Zimuzo was not developing in the same way as the children around her were. She was assessed at a hospital and diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Ms Nweke was told she could take Zimuzo, who was then just a few months old, back to the orphanage and adopt another baby instead, but she refused.

“I decided to keep her and I began researching what the disorder was about, the treatment and type of care my child would need – she’s my life.

“I was also told by the doctors she won’t live beyond two years. Well here we are – 17 years later,” says a smiling Ms Nweke.

A lack of awareness and adequate medical support hinders the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice in Nigeria.

Ms Nweke also says the common local belief that children with congenital disorders are spiritually damaged or bewitched leads to stigmatisation.

Some children with neurological disorders – mostly in Nigeria’s rural areas – are labelled witches. In some cases, they are abandoned in prayer houses or cast out of their families.

Ms Nweke is not alone in her mission to dispel myths and improve care.

The Oscar Project – a charity aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice – recently began operating in Lagos.

The project is named after Vietnamese-born British disability advocate, Oscar Anderson, whose untreated jaundice caused his cerebral palsy.

“We’re equipping health facilities at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels with the equipment to treat jaundice, primarily light boxes, but also detection and screening equipment,” Toyin Saraki, who oversaw the launch, tells the BBC.

Project Oscar, backed by consumer health firm Reckitt, is training 300 health workers in Lagos. The hope over the first year is to reach 10,000 mothers, screen 9,000 children and introduce new protocols to try and prevent babies with jaundice from developing cerebral palsy.

In a country where the public health system is overstretched, the government has little to say about the disorder, although it lauded the Oscar project’s goals.

Treatment for neonatal jaundice is significantly cheaper than the cost of lifelong care, doctors say.

First launched in Vietnam in 2019, Project Oscar has helped about 150,000 children in the Asian country.

Mr Anderson, 22, says he wants to prevent other children experiencing what he has been through.

“People with disabilities are not to be underestimated,” he tells the BBC.

He is working to ensure screening for every newborn infant for neonatal jaundice, and, with the support and courage of mums, midwives and medical professionals, ensure there is better understanding and quicker treatment.

However, achieving this is a hugely ambitious goal in Africa’s most-populous country, where thousands of babies are born each year with neonatal jaundice.

Regardless, Mr Anderson is determined to defy the odds.

“The work doesn’t stop until every baby is protected against neonatal jaundice,” he says.

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A 70-year-old farmer leader in India has been on hunger strike for more than 40 days in a bid to push the federal government to accept demands of protesting farmers.

Doctors say that Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s health has deteriorated and that he is “unable to speak”, but he and his supporters have refused medical aid so far.

Last month, India’s Supreme Court had ordered the government of Punjab state – where Dallewal is from – to shift him to a hospital. The court has been hearing a clutch of petitions related to the issue.

Dallewal’s hunger strike is part of a protest that began in February last year when thousands of farmers gathered at the border between Punjab and Haryana states. Their demands include assured prices on certain crops, loan waivers and compensation for the families of farmers who died during earlier protests.

Since then, they have made some attempts to march to the capital Delhi but have been stopped at the border by security forces.

This isn’t the first time India’s farmers have held a massive protest to highlight their issues.

In 2020, they protested for months at Delhi’s borders demanding the repeal of three farm laws introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

The government claimed that the laws would reform the sale of agricultural produce and benefit the community, but farmers argued that they would be opened up to exploitation.

The laws were eventually repealed but protesting farmers have said that the government has not fulfilled the rest of their demands made in 2020.

Dallewal is from Punjab, which relies massively on agriculture for employment but has been seeing a steady decline in farm incomes, leading to debt, suicides and migration.

He is the leader of a farmers’ group that is loosely allied with Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a coalition of dozens of unions that co-ordinated the protests in 2020.

He earlier led protests against land acquisition in Punjab and demanded compensation for farmers who died by suicide. In 2018, he led a convoy of tractors towards Delhi to demand the implementation of the recommendations of a 2004 government panel which had suggested remunerative prices for farmers’ produce and a farm debt waiver.

In November, before Dallewal started his current hunger strike, he was taken to a hospital by the state police for a check-up. But he returned to the protest site within days, claiming he was detained at the hospital.

In a letter to Modi, he has written that he is prepared to “sacrifice his life” to stop the deaths of farmers.

In terms of demands, not much has changed from earlier protests. The farmers are pushing for their unfulfilled demands to be met, including a legal guarantee for the minimum support prices, a loan debt waiver, pensions for both farmers and agricultural labourers, no increase in electricity tariffs, the reinstatement of a land acquisition law, and compensation for families of farmers who died during previous protests.

But analysts say there seems to be a change in the way Modi’s government is responding to this round of protests.

During the protests in 2020, the federal government had held multiple rounds of talks with the farmers. Top officials, including India’s then agriculture and food ministers, were part of the negotiations.

Last February, when the farmers announced their intention to march to Delhi, key federal ministers held two rounds of talks with their leaders but failed to achieve a breakthrough.

But since then, the federal government seems to have distanced itself from the protests. Last week, when Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was asked by reporters if he would invite protesting farmers for talks, he said the government would follow any directives given by the top court.

Experts believe that the government is being cautious this time around to prevent a repeat of what happened in 2020. In October that year, a key meeting between the then agriculture secretary and farmers’ unions backfired badly, and catalysed the year-long protest that followed.

In September, the Supreme Court ordered that a committee be set up to look into the farmers’ demands.

The committee submitted an interim report in November, which documented the acute crisis faced by India’s farmers. Among other things, the report noted the abysmally low wages farmers earn and the massive debts they are reeling under.

It also said that more than 400,000 farmers and farm workers had died by suicide since 1995, when India’s National Crime Record Bureau began collecting the data.

The committee also put forward solutions including offering farmers direct income support.

The panel is reportedly in the process of reviewing solutions to boost farm income. It was scheduled to hold talks with various farmers’ unions in January.

But some groups have refused to meet them, claiming that the negotiations were not helping them and that the committee should work on providing a safe space to hold protests.

At least 19 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza overnight, local health officials say.

A mother and her four children were reportedly killed when a tent camp for displaced people in al-Mawasi was hit, while another a couple and their children died in the nearby city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said it conducted several strikes targeting Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Deadly strikes were also reported in central and northern Gaza, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying a total of 51 people had been killed across the territory in the past 24 hours.

In the north, the bodies of at least six people, including a baby, were recovered from two houses in Gaza City which were hit, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.

Meanwhile, three people were killed in a strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah, while another infant was killed in the nearby, urban Bureij refugee camp, medics said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on those strikes.

Gaza’s health ministry also issued an urgent appeal for fuel to operate the generators of hospitals in the south. It warned that the generators would stop functioning within hours, putting the lives of hundreds of patients at risk.

It came as indirect talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal continued in Qatar, where US President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy said “a lot of progress” had been made.

Stephen Witkoff told a news conference in Florida on Tuesday that he would soon travel to Doha to join the negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egyptian and US officials.

“I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural, we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,” he added.

Trump meanwhile repeated his threat that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the 100 hostages it is still holding before he takes office on 20 January.

Hamas and Israel have accused each other of obstructing progress towards a deal.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 45,930 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

South African actress and singer Winnie Khumalo has died at the age 51 after a short illness, her family has announced.

The Afropop singer was known for her long musical career which began in the 1980s, and also appeared in popular South African TV series.

She is best known for her hit song Live My Life and has collaborated with prominent South African artists including the late Brenda Fassie.

Her sister Tshepi Akeepile said the singer died on Tuesday on the way to hospital.

“My sister was sick. She did have a short illness and we really thought she was recovering. But this morning it turned out she hadn’t fully recovered from her illness. She was quickly rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately, she was pronounced dead,” Ms Rakeepile told SABC TV.

It is not clear what she was suffering from.

Khumalo leaves a rich music and television legacy and was a household name for her powerful voice and versatile performances.

She released numerous solo albums, as well as being the back-up singer to Brenda Fassie.

She is survived by her daughter, Rethabile Khumalo, who is also a singer and her son, Thabo Khumalo.

Fans and fellow celebrities have taken to social media with tributes, expressing shock and sadness.

The Kalawa Jazmee Records, the record label that Khumalo worked with, described her as a “true icon” for inspiring many with her powerful voice and “unforgettable performances”.

“Her passion, talent, and dedication to her craft have left an indelible mark on the industry and in the hearts of her fans,” the label said in a statement.

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Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce will expand its Goodwood factory and global headquarters to meet the growing demand for bespoke models.

It will invest more than £300 million so it can build more highly-customised versions of its cars for its super-rich clientele.

Although UK petrol and diesel car sales are due to be phased out by 2030, the boss of Rolls-Royce declined to say whether the firm would stop selling cars with combustion engines to clients abroad.

Rolls-Royce sold 5,712 cars in 2024, down from its record of 6,032 in 2023, but the total value of its sales was higher due to it selling more bespoke builds.

While those numbers may seem tiny compared with the millions of cars delivered each year by mainstream manufacturers, Rolls-Royce operates in a highly rarefied market.

The brand said it “does not disclose prices” but it is understood its cheapest model, the Ghost saloon, sells from about £250,000 upwards. Its Cullinan sports utility vehicle and electric Spectre models are thought to start at around £340,000.

As a luxury carmaker focused on export markets, Rolls-Royce is insulated from many of the challenges currently facing the wider European motor industry. However, it has been affected by a fall in demand in China, one of its most important markets.

Earlier this year, Brownridge said rising demand for personalised vehicles was helping to offset that decline.

The 120-year old British brand came under full control of German carmaker BMW in 2003 and officially opened its Goodwood site in West Sussex the same year. Rolls-Royce says this expansion secures its future in the UK.

For some customers, simply owning a Rolls-Royce isn’t exclusive enough. In recent years, the company has increasingly focused on building highly-customised versions of its cars, which can then be sold at even higher prices. Its rivals also do this.

This has included cars with holographic paint, containing one-off artworks, or featuring intricate hand-stitched embroidery. One model, designed as a homage to the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, includes features made out of solid 18-carat gold.

That is generating “more complicated commissions” and “driving the need” to expand Goodwood to have more space, Rolls-Royce chief executive Chris Brownridge told Radio 4’s Today Programme.

But making individually tailored cars, while profitable, is a labour-intensive process that requires time and space.

At the same time, like other manufacturers, the company is preparing for a future in which conventional cars will be phased out and replaced by electric models.

In the UK, the Labour government has committed to phasing out sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and is consulting car manufacturers on how that will work.

Brownridge declined to tell the BBC whether the firm would still be building cars with combustion engines for clients abroad in 2030, but said the firm had a “very clear roadmap” and that electric cars were the “right direction for Rolls-Royce”.

A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said under current plans and legislation, Rolls-Royce would still have the capability to build combustion engine cars in 2030, if that is what clients want.

However, he said that five years “is a long time”, and legislation may change, adding that by then it may not be feasible for the firm to build such cars.

Rolls-Royce said the extension of its factory would “create additional space” for building bespoke cars.

It added that the plan would “also ready the manufacturing facility for the marque’s transition to an all-battery electric vehicle future”.

The carmaker has already been granted planning permission for the expansion of the Goodwood plant, which was built in 2003 and initially housed 300 workers. There are currently more than 2,500 people working on the site, with a further 7,500 in the UK supply chain.

Brownridge said the Goodwood investment confirms the company has “a very secure business for the long term”, so those jobs “are very much safe”.

“Our business will potentially grow in terms of those more sophisticated commissions [and] in terms of the number of people that we need,” he added.

In the US, president elect Donald Trump has threatened much higher tariffs on vehicle imports.

Brownridge said the US is “a very important market”, but Rolls-Royce clients have more “price elasticity” than mass market customers, and the firm is not reliant on the US.

Rolls-Royce’s factory expansion announcement on Wednesday comes weeks after another famous British brand generated controversy while setting out its own plans for the future.

Jaguar – a part of Jaguar Land Rover – is to be relaunched as an all-electric marque and moved sharply upmarket as part of a major restructuring at the company.

In December, it unveiled a dramatically styled concept car, which together with a new logo and a divisive online advert sparked a social media storm – and generated plenty of column inches.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer he risks fuelling accusations of “a cover up” by refusing to hold a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

She also accused the PM of not wanting questions asked “of Labour politicians who may be complicit”.

Sir Keir argued that several inquires had already been held into abuse carried out by gangs of men, predominantly of Pakistani heritage, and that a new probe would only delay the action the victims wanted.

And he said he would “call out” anyone who prevented victims of sexual abuse from coming forward.

The Conservatives have tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which calls for a national inquiry.

In the unlikely event the amendment is approved the bill, which includes measures aimed at protecting children and tougher rules around home-schooling, as well as changes to academies, would be scuppered.

Sir Keir said it was “shocking” Conservative MPs would try to block a bill aimed at helping vulnerable children by voting for the Tory amendment and accused Badenoch of “weak leadership”.

He said “reasonable people could agree or disagree” on whether there should be a fresh probe and acknowledged that there were mixed views among victims and survivors.

However, he accused Badenoch of only recently taking an interest in the subject and said she had failed to take action when she was in government.

“I can’t recall her once raising this issue in the House, once calling for a national inquiry,” he said.

Making her argument for a fresh inquiry during Prime Minister’s Questions, Badenoch said “no one has joined the dots, no one has the total picture”.

She noted that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which lasted for seven years and concluded in 2022, had not had a specific focus on grooming gangs.

“We don’t need to repeat the work that has already been done. Let’s look at new areas.”

She said a new inquiry could explore “if there was a racial and cultural motivation to some of these crimes”.

“Be a leader, not a lawyer,” she urged the prime minister – a reference to his job before coming into politics.

The current row over the subject was triggered after GB News reported that the government had refused Oldham Council’s request for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation.

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, has made numerous incendiary interventions on the subject including accusing Sir Keir of being “complicit in the rape of Britain”.

Following Prime Minister’s Questions, he posted a message on social media urging MPs to back an inquiry adding “hundreds of thousands of little girls in Britain who were, and are still are, being systematically, horrifically gang-raped deserve some justice in this world”.

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who turned down the request, has argued that in her experience locally-led inquiries, such as the one held in Telford, were more effective at implementing change.

However, speaking to Sky News she said “nothing is off the table” adding: “If the victims come forward to me in this victims panel and they say, ‘actually, we think there needs to be a national inquiry into this’, I’ll listen to them.”

Following Prime Minister’s Question, a Downing Street spokesman said that “significant” engagement with victims groups had shown “they do not want to see a national inquiry, they want action taken to deliver justice”.

“But as the prime minister said on Monday we will always remain open-minded. We will always listen to local authorities who want to take forward inquiries, or indeed further allegations that need to be followed up.”

MPs are currently debating the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and will vote on the Conservatives’ amendment in the evening.

The Liberal Democrats have said they will abstain on the amendment. The party’s education spokesperson Munira Wilson said it would “kill crucial child protection measures” and accused the Conservatives of “using the victims of this scandal as a political football”.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said his party would back the amendment but said the Conservatives’ interest in the subject was “insincere”.

He added that if the government would not call an inquiry, Reform would raise money to appoint “independent arbiters” to examine the subject.

The bill would require all councils to hold a register of children who are not in school.

It would also prevent parents from having having an automatic right to take their children out of school for home education if the young person is subject to a child protection investigation or suspected of being at risk of significant harm.

Conservatives have been critical of sections of the bill which states that all teachers should be part of the same core pay and conditions framework whether they work in a local authority-run school or an academy.

Academies – which are independent of local authorities – currently have the freedom to set their own pay and conditions for staff, and some academies exceed the national pay scales for teachers.

Conservative shadow education secretary Laura Trott called the move “educational vandalism” arguing that academies would lose freedoms that can help to recruit teachers and improve pupil outcomes in challenging areas.

Bangladesh’s anti-money laundering agency has asked the country’s banks for details of accounts and transactions linked to Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq.

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) is also seeking details related to Siddiq’s sister, brother, mother as well as her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the country’s former prime minister.

It comes after Siddiq was named last month in an investigation into claims Sheikh Hasina and her family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.

A spokesperson for Tulip Siddiq said: “No evidence has been presented for these allegations. Tulip has not been contacted by anyone on the matter and totally refutes the claims.”

Allies of Siddiq insist she has no bank accounts outside the UK, and has not been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities.

The investigation in Bangladesh is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Hasina, who fled Bangladesh last August amid deadly protests against her government.

A source close to Siddiq has previously described the allegations as “trumped up” and designed to damage her aunt.

A senior official at the BFIU told the BBC: “BFIU has issued directives to all banks and financial institutions of Bangladesh to send the information and transaction details of Sheikh Hasina, Sheikh Rehana, Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed Putul, Rehana’s daughters Tulip Siddiq and Azmina Siddiq and Rehana’s son Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby and their business enterprises.”

On Monday, Siddiq referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser after controversy over her links to her aunt’s political movement.

Siddiq had faced growing calls for an investigation after reports in recent days she had lived in London properties linked to allies of her aunt.

In her letter to Sir Laurie Magnus, who polices standards among government ministers, she said: “I am clear that I have done nothing wrong.”

Downing Street confirmed Sir Laurie would now conduct a “fact-finding” exercise to determine if “further action” was needed, including a further investigation.

A spokesman for PM Sir Keir Starmer said the results would be made public, but did not specify a timescale for the process to conclude.

Sir Keir has said he has confidence in Siddiq, who as Economic Secretary to the Treasury is responsible for tackling economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance.

A hiker who went missing for nearly two weeks in New South Wales, Australia has been found alive, having survived on foraged berries and two muesli bars.

Medical student Hadi Nazari went missing on Boxing Day after he wandered off to take photos during a hike with his friends in Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains region.

Hundreds of people, including Mr Nazari’s friends and family, joined search efforts to locate the 23-year-old.

He was found by other hikers around 15:15 local time (04:15 GMT) on Wednesday.

Mr Nazari had called out to the hikers and “told them that he’d been lost in the bush and was thirsty”, Superintendent Andrew Spliet told reporters.

After the hikers contacted emergency services, Mr Nazari was winched over to the search command post by a helicopter. He was assessed by paramedics at the scene and conveyed to a hospital.

Mr Spliet said that Mr Nazari was found in good health – alert, able to speak and had no significant injuries.

The two muesli bars, which Mr Nazari had found in a hut in the mountains, was “pretty much all that he’s had to consume over the last two weeks”, said Mr Spliet, adding that the hiker had also found water from creeks and foraged for berries.

Mr Nazari’s family, who were seen hugging him at the search base camp on Wednesday, later confirmed to local media that he was fine. “It is the happiest day of our lives,” they told 9News.

Mr Nazari was found near Blue Lake, around 10km (6 miles) away from the campground where he was supposed to meet his friends on 26 December.

“He’s covered a lot of ground in that time,” said Spliet, adding that police would “catch up with him” after he is checked out of hospital.

France has said the European Union will not allow other nations to attack its “sovereign borders”, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out using military force to seize Greenland.

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his desire to acquire the autonomous Danish territory, saying it was “critical” for national and economic security.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told French radio “there is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are”.

Barrot said he did not believe the US was going to invade the vast Arctic island, but he was clear the EU should not let itself be intimidated.

It is difficult to imagine how the European Union might prevent any potential attack. The EU has no defensive capabilities of its own and most of its 27 member states are part of the US-led Nato alliance.

Trump has repeatedly expressed an interest in buying Greenland, having mooted the idea during his first term as president.

Denmark, a long-time US ally, has made clear that Greenland is not for sale and that it belongs to its inhabitants.

Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, is pushing for independence and has also made clear the territory is not for sale. He was visiting Copenhagen on Wednesday.

Trump made the remarks at a free-wheeling news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, less than two weeks before he is sworn in for his second term as president on 20 January.

Asked if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal, Trump said: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two.

“But I can say this, we need them for economic security.”

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Greenland has been home to a US radar base since the Cold War and has long been strategically important for Washington.

Trump suggested the island was crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are “all over the place”.

“I’m talking about protecting the free world,” he told reporters.

Speaking to France Inter radio, Barrot said: “If you’re asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no.

“Have we entered into an era that sees the return of the survival of the fittest? Then the answer is yes.

“So, should we allow ourselves to be intimidated and overcome with worry, clearly not. We must wake up, build up our strength.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV on Tuesday that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” and that only the local population could determine its future.

However, she stressed Denmark needed close co-operation with the US, a Nato ally.

Greenland MP Kuno Fencker told the BBC that the population had been preparing for “some bold statements” from Trump, but that the island’s “sovereignty and self-determination are non-negotiable”.

Fencker, whose Siumut party is part of Greenland’s governing coalition, said local authorities would welcome “constructive dialogue and mutually beneficial partnership with the United States and other nations”.

He did not rule out a free association including both Denmark and the US, but said “this is a decision that Greenlandic people must take, it’s not one politician’s decision”.

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Greenland has a population of just 57,000 and wide-ranging autonomy, although its economy is largely dependent on subsidies from Copenhagen and it remains part of the kingdom of Denmark.

It also has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.

Danish Broadcasting Corporation senior international correspondent Steffen Kretz, who has been reporting in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, said most of the people he had spoken to were “shocked” by Trump’s suggestion he could use military force to take control of the territory.

While a majority of people in Greenland hoped for independence in the future, he said there was widespread acknowledgment that it needed a partner who could provide public services, defence and an economic foundation, as Denmark did now.

“I have yet to meet a person in Greenland who is dreaming of the island becoming a colony for another outside power like the USA.”

Kretz told the BBC that while the Danish government had sought to “downplay” any confrontation with Trump, “behind the scenes I sense the awareness that this conflict has the potential to be the biggest international crisis for Denmark in modern history”.

The president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr, paid a brief visit to Greenland on Tuesday, in what he described as a “personal day trip” to talk to people.

He then posted a photo with a group of Greenlanders in a bar wearing pro-Trump caps.

In recent weeks, scenes of hospitals in China overrun with masked people have made their rounds on social media, sparking worries of another pandemic.

Beijing has since acknowledged a surge in cases of the flu-like human metapneumovirus (HMPV), especially among children, and it attributed this to a seasonal spike.

But HMPV is not like Covid-19, public health experts have said, noting that the virus has been around for decades, with almost every child being infected by their fifth birthday.

However, in some very young children and people with weakened immune systems, it can cause more serious illness. Here is what you need to know.

HMPV is a virus that will lead to a mild upper respiratory tract infection – practically indistinguishable from flu – for most people.

First identified in the Netherlands in 2001, the virus spreads through direct contact between people or when someone touches surfaces contaminated with it.

Symptoms for most people include cough, fever and nasal congestion.

The very young, including children under two, are most vulnerable to the virus, along with those with weakened immune systems, including the elderly and those with advanced cancer, says Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases physician in Singapore.

If infected, a “small but significant proportion” among the immunocompromised will develop more severe disease where the lungs are affected, with wheezing, breathlessness and symptoms of croup.

“Many will require hospital care, with a smaller proportion at risk of dying from the infection,” Dr Hsu said.

Like many respiratory infections, HMPV is most active during late winter and spring – some experts say this is because the viruses survive better in the cold and they pass more easily from one person to another as people stay indoors more often.

In northern China, the current HMPV spike coincides with low temperatures that are expected to last until March.

In fact many countries in the northern hemisphere, including but not limited to China, are experiencing an increased prevalence of HMPV, said Jacqueline Stephens, an epidemiologist at Flinders University in Australia.

“While this is concerning, the increased prevalence is likely the normal seasonal increase seen in winter,” she said.

Data from health authorities in the US and UK shows that these countries, too, have been experiencing a spike in HMPV cases since October last year.

Fears of a Covid-19 style pandemic are overblown, the experts said, noting that pandemics are typically caused by novel pathogens, which is not the case for HMPV.

HMPV is globally present and has been around for decades. This means people across the world have “some degree of existing immunity due to previous exposure”, Dr Hsu said.

“Almost every child will have at least one infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday and we can expect to go onto to have multiple reinfections throughout life,” says Paul Hunter, a medical professor at University of East Anglia in England.

“So overall, I don’t think there is currently any signs of a more serious global issue.”

Still, Dr Hsu advises standard general precautions such as wearing a mask in crowded places, avoiding crowds where possible if one is at higher risk of more severe illness from respiratory virus infections, practising good hand hygiene, and getting the flu vaccine.

Wintry weather is tightening its grip in many parts of the UK, with sub-zero temperatures expected to plunge even lower overnight and more snow forecast in some places.

Forecasters predict the coldest nights of the year over the next two days, and temperatures are expected to fall as low as -20C in some places that endured heavy snowfall at the weekend.

A fresh amber warning for snow has come into force in the South West, with yellow snow and ice warnings also in place for other parts of the UK into Thursday.

There are also 75 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, and 148 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, in place across England.

One flood warning and four flood alerts are in force in Wales.

There are no severe flood warnings in place, which indicate a danger to life or significant disruption.

Looking ahead, the flooding and warnings are expected to reduce with no significant rain predicted in the areas experiencing flooding.

An amber cold health alert – the second-highest level – covering all regions of England is in place until midday on Sunday.

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The alert, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), warns the freezing conditions are likely to result in a rise in deaths, particularly among older and vulnerable people, and an increase in demand for health services.

They are different to weather warnings and provide early warning to healthcare providers, and suggest actions such as actively monitoring individuals at a high risk.

Dr Agostinho Sousa from the UKHSA said it was vital to check in on vulnerable people who could be “more at risk of heart attacks, stroke and chest infections as a result of cold temperatures”.

Some people are entitled to cold weather payments to help with fuel bills. Eleven thousand people in England are estimated to have received the top-up since November – you can check if you are eligible here.

An amber warning for snow covering Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset is set to last until 21:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Isolated yellow snow and ice warnings spanning Wednesday and Thursday are in place across the UK, including parts of Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, although their coverage is not as wide as in recent days.

Yellow warnings have also been issued for Wales and other parts of South West England from 03:00 GMT until 12:00 GMT on Thursday.

Rain will spread across the far south of England but there will be some snow over Exmoor and Dartmoor, perhaps as much as 10cm (4in) on Wednesday.

Snow may also fall over mainly higher ground later on Wednesday in south-east England.

The focus will switch to how far temperatures are likely to fall, particularly during the night.

Temperatures on Tuesday night widely fell below freezing, with most of the UK waking up on Wednesday to a frost.

The lowest temperature overnight was in Scotland with -7C at Tulloch Bridge. But with -6.9C in Katesbridge, it was Northern Ireland’s coldest night of the winter so far.

Across England, the temperature fell to -8.4C in Shap, Cumbria, but even in southern England it was -6.1C at Benson, Oxfordshire.

In Wales, the lowest temperature was -3.8C in Bala, Gwynedd.

The wintry conditions have caused significant disruption across the UK since snow swept many parts of the country at the weekend.

Hundreds of schools were closed in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including schools in Yorkshire, Merseyside, the Midlands and Aberdeenshire.

Extensive flooding caused some local roads to remain shut on Wednesday in Lincolnshire, while Northern Rail also confirmed no services would stop at Gathurst station near Wigan.

Most flights are running again after they were temporarily halted at airports in Liverpool, Bristol, Aberdeen and Manchester – but operators have warned some delays are still likely.

Bitter cold is expected in many parts of the UK in the coming days, with the likelihood of sharp overnight frosts.

Temperatures are expected to drop well below freezing on Wednesday and Thursday night, with forecasters expecting many parts of the UK to experience a hard frost and lows of between -3C and -10C.

In places that are still experiencing snow cover, it could be as cold as -14C to -16C on Wednesday night, and on Thursday the Pennines and snow fields of Scotland could register temperatures as low as -16C to -20C.

That would actually be far colder than was experienced at the weekend when a low of -13.3 C was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch in the Highlands.

It is also significantly lower than anything seen last winter when a particularly bitter night in Dalwhinnie in the Highlands saw a mark of -14C being recorded.

The last time the UK had any temperature below -20C was in February 2021 when Braemar in Aberdeenshire was measured at -23C.

The time of day you drink a cup of coffee may lower the risk of an early death, new research suggests.

The study found that people who drank coffee in the morning had a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and had a lower mortality risk than all-day coffee consumers – but the research could not prove whether coffee was the sole cause.

Dr Lu Qi, lead researcher and director of Tulane University Obesity Research Center, said while the study does not show why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk, one explanation could be that consumption later in the day may disrupt a person’s internal body clock.

The study was published on Wednesday in the European Heart Journal.

Dr Qi said further studies are needed to see if their findings could also be observed in other populations, adding: “We need clinical trials to test the potential impact of changing the time of day when people drink coffee.”

“This study doesn’t tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease,” he explained.

“A possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt circadian rhythms [our bodies 24-hour cycle of physical, mental and behavioural changes] and levels of hormones such as melatonin.

“This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure.”

The researchers from Tulane University in New Orleans, looked at 40,725 adults who had taken part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the US between 1999 and 2018.

They were asked about their daily food and drink consumption, and whether they drank coffee, how much and when.

“Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health,” explained Dr Qi.

While past research has found moderate coffee drinking can have health benefits, this was the “first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes”, he added.

According to the research, 36% of those taking part were morning coffee drinkers, and 14% were all-day drinkers.

Dr Qi and his team tracked the participants for nearly a decade, looking at their information records and causes of death during that time period.

During the follow-up after almost 10 years, 4,295 people died, including 1,268 cardiovascular disease- related deaths.

The researchers found that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to have died compared to those who did not drink coffee, and 31% less likely to have died from heart disease.

They also saw no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared to non-coffee drinkers.

“Drinking coffee in the morning may be more strongly associated with a lower risk of mortality than drinking coffee later in the day,” they wrote in the research paper.

The researchers said higher coffee intake amounts were “significantly” associated with a lower risk of death, but only among people who drank coffee in the morning compared with those who drank coffee all day.

In an accompanying editorial, Prof Thomas F Luscher from Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London, asked: “Why would time of the day matter?

“In the morning hours there is commonly a marked increase in sympathetic activity [activity that puts your body systems on alert] as we wake up and get out of bed, an effect that fades away during the day and reaches its lowest level during sleep.”

Prof Luscher said that – like the researchers suggest – it is “possible” that coffee drinking later in the day could disrupt out bodies internal clock at a time we should be resting.

“Indeed, many all-day drinkers suffer from sleep disturbances,” he explained, adding that “in this context, it is of interest that coffee seems to suppress melatonin, an important sleep-inducing mediator in the brain.”

The study also suggested that among coffee drinkers, participants who consumed it in the morning were more likely to consume tea and caffeinated soda but consume less coffee – both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee – compared with those who drank coffee all day.

Under growing pressure from his own party, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he will step down and end his nine-year stretch as leader.

Trudeau said he would stay on in office until his Liberal Party can choose a new leader, and that parliament would be prorogued – or suspended – until 24 March.

“This country deserves a real choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election,” he said during a press conference Monday.

Trudeau’s personal unpopularity with Canadians had become an increasing drag on his party’s fortunes in advance of federal elections later this year.

“Last night, over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I’m sharing with you today,” he told the news conference in Ottawa.

“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process,” he said.

The president of the Liberal Party, Sachit Mehra, said a meeting of the party’s board of directors would be held this week to begin the process of selecting a new leader.

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In a statement, he added: “Liberals across the country are immensely grateful to Justin Trudeau for more than a decade of leadership to our Party and the country.”

“As Prime Minister, his vision delivered transformational progress for Canadians,” he said, citing programmes his government has implemented like the Canada Child Benefit and the establishment of dental care and pharmacare coverage for some medication.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said “nothing has changed” following Trudeau’s resignation.

“Every Liberal MP and Leadership contender supported EVERYTHING Trudeau did for 9 years, and now they want to trick voters by swapping in another Liberal face to keep ripping off Canadians for another 4 years, just like Justin,” Poilievre wrote on X.

Trudeau, 53, had faced growing calls to quit from inside his Liberal Party, which ramped up in December when deputy prime minister and long-time ally Chrystia Freeland abruptly resigned.

In a public resignation letter, Freeland cited US President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs on Canadian goods, and accused Trudeau of not doing enough to address the “grave challenge” posed by Trump’s proposals.

Trump has promised to impose a tax of 25% on imported Canadian goods – which economists have warned would significantly hurt Canada’s economy – unless the country takes steps to increase security on its shared border.

Trudeau said Monday that he had hoped Freeland would have continued as deputy prime minister, “but she chose otherwise”.

Canada has since announced that it will implement sweeping new security measures along the country’s US border in response to the threat.

In an online post, Trump claimed that pressure over tariffs led to Trudeau’s resignation and repeated his jibe that Canada should become “the 51st State”.

“If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them,” he wrote.

Since 2019, the Liberal Party has governed as a minority party.

Following Freeland’s resignation, Trudeau lost the backing of parties that had previously helped keep the Liberals in power – the left-leaning New Democrats, who had a support agreement with the Liberals, and the Quebec nationalist party, Bloc Quebecois.

The largest opposition party, the Conservatives, have maintained a significant two-digit lead over the Liberals in polls for months – suggesting that if a general election were held today, the Liberals could be in for a significant defeat.

Liberals will now choose a new leader to take the party into the next election, which must be held on or before 20 October.

A senior government official told the BBC that the race is an open contest, and that the Prime Minister’s Office will fully stay out of the process, leaving it to Liberal Party members to decide their future.

Speaking to reporters, the Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet suggested that an early election be called once the Liberals choose their new leader.

Trudeau is the son of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who dominated the country’s politics in the 1970s and ’80s.

The younger Trudeau became prime minister after the Liberal Party won a sweeping majority in 2015 amid a promise to usher in a new, progressive era of “Sunny Ways”.

His record includes a commitment to gender equality in his cabinet, which continues to be 50% women; progress on reconciliation with Indigenous people in Canada; bringing in a national carbon tax; implementing a tax-free child benefit for families; and legalising recreational cannabis.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak praised Trudeau’s track record on indigenous issues following his resignation, saying in a statement that he “has taken meaningful steps to address issues that matter to First Nations”.

“While much work remains, these actions have laid a foundation for future governments to build upon.”

Clouds began to hang over Trudeau’s government in recent years, which weathered a series of often self-inflicted scandals, including a controversy over a deal with a Canadian firm facing corruption charges and photos that emerged of the prime minister wearing brownface makeup prior to his time in politics.

Vaccine mandates and other restrictions were also met with fierce backlash by some Canadians, leading to the Freedom Convoy truck protests in early 2022. Trudeau eventually used unprecedented emergency powers to remove the protesters.

As Canada began to emerge from the pandemic, housing and food prices skyrocketed, and his government pulled back on ambitious immigration targets as public services began to show strain.

By late 2024, Trudeau’s approval rating was at its lowest – just 22% of Canadians saying they thought he was doing a good job, according to one polling tracker.

In Ottawa, a small group of protestors danced outside Parliament Hill in celebration of his resignation.

One passer-by, however, said he thinks things were fine under Trudeau’s watch.

“I’m a carpenter,” Hames Gamarra, who is from British Columbia, told the BBC. “I mind my own business, I get my wages, I pay the bills. It’s been OK.”

Another Canadian, Marise Cassivi, said it feels like the end of an era. Asked if she feels any hints of sadness, she replied: “No.”

“It’s the right thing.”

As firefighters in California battle three different blazes in and around Los Angeles, residents in the affluent suburb of Palisades have told the BBC how they fled the approaching flames.

Pacific Palisades resident David Latt said he and his wife had just 10 minutes to grab important documents and family photographs before being stuck in a traffic jam for two hours as they tried to escape.

Speaking to the Radio 4 Today programme Mr Latt said he had been unaware of the fires until a neighbour warned him.

“I didn’t know what he was even talking about until I went outside and I saw, about four blocks away up a hill, a very large plume of black smoke. And then I realised; ‘oh, we need to get out of here!'”

Mr Latt said most people are aware of the need to pack a “grab-and-go bag” containing important documents like passports and other essential items. He wanted to make sure he had “all the receipts we needed to file our taxes… and we gathered more family photographs, albums, artwork, that we could get into our two cars”.

After collecting their most important belongings, he took a moment to film the wildfires from his roof and check the direction of the wind. When he realised it was blowing in his direction, he knew it was time to move – just minutes after getting the warning.

With access to and from his area limited to just one road, Mr Latt said they were stuck in a traffic jam for two hours as they attempted to flee.

Bordering Malibu, Pacific Palisades is a haven of hillside streets and winding roads nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and extending down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean.

Mr Latt is unsure of what has happened to his home, and does not believe they will know much more for at least a day; extremely high winds are forecast later on Wednesday night and into Thursday which could fan the flames to whip up more fires across Los Angeles.

“What we know from experience is that even though the firefighters are doing a remarkable job in putting out areas of fire, but some sparks remain… the wind picks it up, carries the embers which can go across the street or a mile away… That’s what the concern is in LA tonight,” Mr Latt said.

The speed of which he saw firefighting aircraft in the skies gave him some confidence in a “frightening situation”, he added.

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In Palisades, firefighters told people to get out of their cars as the blaze approached, fanned by gusts of winds sometimes topping 100mph (160km/h).

“The fire was right up against the cars,” resident Marsha Horowitz told the BBC.

Celebrities were also among those fleeing.

Schitt’s Creek actor Eugene Levy lives in the area and told local media he was forced to evacuate his home. “The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon. I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

Mr Latt and his wife made it to safety, but unease has gripped residents in the city as the three wildfires rage on its northern and western outskirts.

Whipped up by strong winds, the fires have destroyed homes, clogged roads and forced more than 30,000 people to flee.

With at least 50,000 homes without power, other people in affected neighbourhoods have been driving until they get a signal to try and make calls or connect to the internet, unsure what to do.

If they go to sleep, they worry they will not know when to evacuate. Many can see flames from their homes, but are unsure if they are close enough to leave.

Many people have have children and pets, and are unsure of where to go.

Journalist Amrita Khalid lives in coastal city of Santa Monica, which is also being evacuated.

She told the BBC World Service’s Newsday radio programme that the day began like any other.

“I can’t stress to you how normal this morning was in Santa Monica. It just seemed like another nice winter morning. But then, I was walking home from the gym and I just noticed big black billowing clouds of smoke.”

She then decided to leave her home for a safer location and says a photo of her neighbourhood that was shared with her affirmed her decision to leave.

“It looks like Mars, it looks bright red,” she said. “So I’m kind of glad I left. I think better be safe than sorry.”

The co-chair of the independent body that reviews Facebook and Instagram content has said she is “very concerned” about how parent company Meta’s decision to ditch fact-checkers will affect minority groups.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, from Meta’s oversight board, told the BBC she welcomed aspects of the shake-up, which will see users decide about the accuracy of posts via X-style “community notes”.

However, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said there were “huge problems” with what had been announced, including the potential impact on the LGBTQ+ community, as well as gender and trans rights.

“We are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully,” she added.

In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on Tuesday, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the decision was motivated by “getting back to our roots around free expression”.

He said third-party fact-checkers currently used by the firm were “too politically biased”, meaning too many users were being “censored”.

However, the journalist Maria Ressa – who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 – said the suggestion the change would promote free speech was “completely wrong”, telling the AFP news agency the decision meant there were “extremely dangerous times ahead” for social media users and democracy.

“Only if you’re profit driven can you claim that; only if you want power and money can you claim that”, said Ms Ressa, who co-founded the Rappler news site in the Philippines.

The decision has prompted questions about the survival of the oversight board Ms Thorning-Schmidt co-chairs.

It is funded by Meta and was created by then president of global affairs, Sir Nick Clegg, who announced he was leaving the company less than a week ago.

Ms Thorning-Schmidt – a former prime minister of Denmark – insisted it was needed more than ever.

“That’s why it is good we have an oversight board that can discuss this in a transparent way with Meta”, she said.

Some have suggested Sir Nick’s departure – and the fact checking changes – are an attempt to get closer to the incoming Trump administration, and catch up with the access and influence enjoyed by another tech titan, Elon Musk.

The tech journalist and author Kara Swisher told the BBC it was “the most cynical move” she had seen Mr Zuckerberg make in the “many years” she had been reporting on him.

“Facebook does whatever is in its self-interest”, she said.

“He wants to kiss up to Donald Trump, and catch up with Elon Musk in that act.”

While campaigners against hate speech online reacted with dismay to the change, some advocates of free speech have welcomed the news.

The US free speech group Fire said: “Meta’s announcement shows the marketplace of ideas in action. Its users want a social media platform that doesn’t suppress political content or use top-down fact-checkers.

“These changes will hopefully result in less arbitrary moderation decisions and freer speech on Meta’s platforms.”

Speaking after the changes were announced, Trump told a news conference he was impressed by Mr Zuckerberg’s decision and that Meta had “come a long way”.

Asked whether Mr Zuckerberg was “directly responding” to threats Trump had made to him in the past, the incoming US president responded: “Probably.”

Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged on Tuesday there was some risk for the company in the change of strategy.

“It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down,” he said in his video message.

X’s move to a more hands-off approach to moderating content has contributed to a major fall-out with advertisers.

Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at Insider Intelligence, said that was a risk for Meta too.

“Meta’s massive size and powerhouse ad platform insulate it somewhat from an X-like user and advertiser exodus,” she told the BBC.

“But brand safety remains a key factor in determining where advertisers spend their budgets – any major drop in engagement could hurt Meta’s ad business, given the intense competition for users and ad dollars.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has hit back at Donald Trump’s threat to use “economic force” to absorb Canada into the US saying there isn’t “a snowball’s chance in hell” to join the two.

President-elect Trump has in recent weeks repeatedly needled Canada about it becoming the 51st US state.

“You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security,” Trump said at a press conference at his Florida Mar-a Lago home on Tuesday.

“Canada and the United States, that would really be something.”

Trump reiterated his threat to bring in a “substantial” tariff on Canadian goods unless the country took steps to increase security on the shared US border.

The ongoing tariff threat comes at a politically challenging time for Canada.

On Monday, an embattled Trudeau announced he was resigning, though he will stay on as prime minister until the governing Liberals elect a new leader, expected sometime by late March.

Canada’s parliament has been prorogued – or suspended – until 24 March to allow time for the leadership race.

Economists warn that if Trump follows through on imposing the tariffs after he is inaugurated on 20 January, it would significantly hurt Canada’s economy.

Almost C$3.6bn ($2.5bn) worth of goods and services crossed the border daily in 2023, according to Canadian government figures.

The Trudeau government has said it is considering imposing counter-tariffs if Trump follows through on the threat.

The prime minister also said on X on Tuesday that: “Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”

During his lengthy Mar-a-Lago press conference, Trump reiterated his concerns he has expressed about drugs crossing the borders of Mexico and Canada into the US.

Like Canada, Mexico faces a 25% tariff threat.

The amount of fentanyl seized at the US-Canada border is significantly lower than at the southern border, according to US data.

Canada has promised to implement a set of sweeping new security measures along the border, including strengthened surveillance and adding a joint “strike force” to target transnational organised crime.

Trump said on Tuesday he was not considering using military force to make Canada part of the United States, but raised concerns about its neighbour’s military spending.

“They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It’s all fine, but, you know, they got to pay for that. It’s very unfair,” he said.

Canada has been under pressure to increase its military spending as it continues to fall short of the target set out for Nato members.

Its defence budget currently stands at C$27bn ($19.8bn, £15.5bn), though the Trudeau government has promised that it will boost spending to almost C$50bn by 2030.

British Columbia Premier David Eby told a news conference on Tuesday that a number of Canadian provincial premiers will soon be travelling to Washington DC to lobby against the possible tariffs.

On Monday, Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most populous province Ontario, said Trudeau must spend his remaining weeks in office working with the provinces to address Trump’s threat.

“The premiers are leading the country right now,” he told BBC News in an interview.

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Ontario has a deep reliance on trade with the US. The province is at the heart of the highly integrated auto industry in Canada, and trade between Ontario and the US totalled more than C$493bn ($350bn) in 2023.

“My message is let’s work together, let’s build a stronger trade relationship – not weaken it,” Ford said.

The premier warned “we will retaliate hard” if the Trump administration follows through, and highlighted the close economic ties between the two nations, including on energy.

The US relies “on Ontario for their electricity. We keep the lights on to a million and a half homes and businesses in the US”, he said.

At a press conference early this week, Ford also pushed back on Trump’s 51st state comments.

“I’ll make him a counter-offer. How about if we buy Alaska and we throw in Minneapolis and Minnesota at the same time?” Ford said.

A 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death on a bus in south-east London loved music and cared about the people around him, his mother said in a tearful tribute.

Kelyan Bokassa was also kind and good at football, his mother Mary Bokassa told the BBC.

He died shortly after being attacked on a 472 double-decker bus on Woolwich Church Street at about 14:30 GMT on Tuesday.

No arrests have been made, but detectives say they are working “at pace” to find those responsible.

Speaking to the BBC from her flat in Greenwich, Ms Bokassa said her son was “caring, very caring”.

“He cares about the people around him. He loved to have his friends around and when they were round he would want to cook for them,” she said.

“He was very articulate.

“He knows what he likes and knows how to express it.

“He was good in music. Anything he loves… he was doing to his best ability. He was good at football… and he was was extremely good at drawing.”

Kelyan attended Newhaven School, a pupil referral unit and specialist school in Eltham.

Head teacher Jon Kelly said: “We are devastated at the tragic death of this funny, kind and ambitious young man.

“It comes at a time when he was working incredibly hard at school to build on the successes he had already achieved since joining us.”

Mr Kelly said his thoughts were with Kelyan’s family and friends at “this unimaginably difficult time”.

St Columba’s Catholic Boys’ School in Bexleyheath confirmed Kelyan attended the school in 2022.

Paul Drake, the chief operating officer of the academy trust that runs the school, said staff and pupils were “saddened” by his death.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this difficult time,” he said.

“Our schools will provide support to any of the students who may be affected by this senseless violence.”

St Mary Magdalene Church in Woolwich plans to hold a vigil in Kelyan’s memory this evening.

Police, paramedics and the London Air Ambulance were called to the scene on Tuesday afternoon after the alert was raised by an officer on patrol.

Medics tried to treat the boy’s injuries, but he died soon afterwards.

A crime scene remains in place around the area as investigations continue.

Kelyan’s death comes just three months after another teenage boy lost his life to knife crime in Woolwich.

Daejaun Campbell, 15, was stabbed to death in Eglinton Road on 22 September last year, less than a mile-and-a-half away from Tuesday’s stabbing.

He was among 11 teenage boys who lost their lives to homicide in London in 2024.

Immigration has long been a polarising issue in the West but Canada mostly avoided it – until now. With protests and campaign groups springing up in certain quarters, some argue that this – together with housing shortages and rising rents – contributed to Justin Trudeau’s resignation. But could Donald Trump’s arrival inflame it further?

At first glance, the single bedroom for rent in Brampton, Ontario looks like a bargain. True, there’s barely any floor space, but the asking price is only C$550 (£300) a month in a Toronto suburb where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom flat is C$2,261. Inspect it more closely, however, and this is actually a small bathroom converted into sleeping quarters. A mattress is jammed up next to the sink, the toilet is nearby.

The ad, originally posted on Facebook Marketplace, has generated hundreds of comments online. “Disgusting,” wrote one Reddit user. “Hey 20-somethings, you’re looking at your future,” says another.

But there are other listings like it – one room for rent, also in Brampton, shows a bed squashed near a staircase in what appears to be a laundry area. Another rental in Scarborough, a district in Ontario, offers a double bed in the corner of a kitchen.

While Canada might have a lot of space, there aren’t enough homes and in the past three years, rents across the country have increased by almost 20%, according to property consultancy Urbanation.

In all, some 2.4 million Canadian families are crammed into homes that are too small, in urgent need of major repairs or are seriously unaffordable, a government watchdog report released in December has suggested.

This accommodation shortage has come to a head at the same time that inflation is hitting Canadians hard – and these issues have, in turn, moved another issue high up the agenda in the country: immigration.

For the first time a majority of Canadians, who have long been welcoming to newcomers, are questioning how their cities can manage.

Politics in other Western countries has long been wrapped up in polarised debates surrounding immigration but until recently Canada had mostly avoided that issue, perhaps because of its geography. Now, however, there appears to be a profound shift in attitude.

In 2022, 27% of Canadians said there were too many immigrants coming into the country, according to a survey by data and research firm Environics. By 2024, that number had increased to 58%.

Campaign groups have sprung up too and there have been marches protesting against immigration in Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary, and elsewhere around the country.

“I would say it was very much taboo, like no one would really talk about it,” explains Peter Kratzar, a software engineer and the founder of Cost of Living Canada, a protest group that was formed in 2024. “[But] things have really unfrozen.”

Stories like that of the bathroom for rent in Brampton have fuelled this, he suggests: “People might say, like, this is all anecdotal evidence. But the evidence keeps popping up. You see it over and over again.”

“People became concerned about how the immigration system was being managed,” adds Keith Neuman, executive director at Environics. “And we believe it’s the first time the public really thought about the management of the system.”

• Who might replace Trudeau as Liberal Party leader?
• Why the Trudeau era has come to an end now
• What happens next for Canada?

Once the golden boy of Canadian politics, prime minister Justin Trudeau, resigned on 6 January during a crucial election year, amid this widespread discontent over immigration levels.

His approval levels before his resignation were just 22% – a far cry from the first year of his premiership, when 65% of voters said they approved of him.

Though immigration is not the main reason for his low approval levels nor his resignation – he cited “having to fight internal battles” – he was accused of acting too late when dealing with rising anxiety over inflation and housing that many blamed, in part, on immigration.

“While immigration may not have been the immediate cause of the resignation, it may have been the icing on the cake,” says Professor Jonathan Rose, head of the department of political studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Under Trudeau’s administration, the Canadian government deliberately chose to radically boost the numbers of people coming to the country after the pandemic, believing that boosting quotas for foreign students and temporary workers, in addition to skilled immigrants, would jumpstart the economy.

The population, which was 35 million 10 years ago, now tops 40 million.

Immigration was responsible for the vast majority of that increase – figures from Canada’s national statistics agency show that in 2024, more than 90% of population growth came from immigration.

As well as overall migration levels, the number of refugees has risen too. In 2013, there were 10,365 refugee applicants in Canada – by 2023, that number had increased to 143,770.

Voter dissatisfaction with immigration was “more a symptom than a cause” of Trudeau’s downfall, argues Prof Rose. “It reflects his perceived inability to read the room in terms of public opinion.”

It’s unclear who might replace Trudeau from within his own Liberal Party but ahead of the forthcoming election, polls currently favour the Conservative Party, whose leader Pierre Poilievre advocates keeping the number of new arrivals below the number of new homes being built.

Since Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November, Poilievre “has been speaking much more about immigration”, claims Prof Rose – “so much that it has become primed in the minds of voters”.

Certainly Trump’s arrival for a second term is set to pour oil on an already inflamed issue in Canada, regardless of who the new prime minister is.

He won the US election in part on a pledge to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants – and since his victory, he has said that he will enlist the military and declare a national emergency to follow through on his promise.

He also announced plans to employ 25% tariffs on Canadian goods unless border security is tightened.

Canada and the US share the world’s longest undefended border. Stretching almost 9,000km (5,592 miles), much of it crosses heavily forested wilderness and is demarcated by “The Slash,” a six-metre wide land clearing.

Unlike America’s southern border, there are no walls. This has long been a point of pride between Ottawa and Washington – a sign of their close ties.

After Trump first entered office in 2017, the number of asylum claims skyrocketed, with thousands walking across the border to Canada. The number of claims went from just under 24,000 in 2016 to 55,000 a year by 2018, according to the Canadian government. Almost all crossed from New York state into the Canadian province of Quebec.

In 2023, Canada and the US agreed to a tightened border deal that stopped most migrants from crossing the land border from one country to another. Under the agreement, migrants that come into contact with the authorities within 14 days of crossing any part of the border into either the US or Canada must return to whichever country they entered first — in order to declare asylum there.

The deal, reworked by Trudeau and Joe Biden, is based on the idea that both the US and Canada are safe countries for asylum seekers.

This time around, Canada’s national police force – the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) – says it began preparing a contingency plan for increased migrant crossings at the border well ahead of Trump being sworn in.

This includes a raft of new technology, from drones and night vision goggles, to surveillance cameras hidden in the forest.

“Worst-case scenario would be people crossing in large numbers everywhere on the territory,” RCMP spokesperson Charles Poirier warned in November. “Let’s say we had 100 people per day entering across the border, then it’s going to be hard because our officers will basically have to cover huge distances in order to arrest everyone.”

Now, the national government has committed a further C$1.3bn (£555m) to its border security plan.

Not everyone blames the housing crisis on the recent rise in immigration. It was “30 years in the making” because politicians have failed to build affordable units, argues Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.

Certainly the country has a long history of welcoming newcomers. “Close to 50% of the population of Canada is first or second generation,” explains Mr Neuman. “That means either they came from another country, or one or both of their parents came from another country. In Toronto, Vancouver, that’s over 80%.”

This makes Canada “a very different place than a place that has a homogeneous population,” he argues.

He has been involved in a survey examining attitudes towards newcomers for 40 years. “If you ask Canadians: what’s the most important or distinctive thing about Canada, or what makes the country unique? The number one response is ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘diversity’,” he says.

Nonetheless, he says the shift in public opinion – and the rise in concerns about immigration – has been “dramatic”.

“Now there is not only broader public concern, but much more open discussion,” he says. “There are more questions being asked about how is the system working? How come it isn’t working?”

At one of the protests in Toronto, a crowd turned out with hand-painted signs, some proclaiming: “We want our future back!” and “End Mass Immigration”.

“We do need to put a moratorium on immigration,” argues Mr Kratzar, whose group has taken part in some of them. “We need to delay that so wages can catch up on the cost of rents.”

Accusations against newcomers are spreading on social media too. Last summer, Natasha White, who describes herself as a resident of Wasaga Beach in Ontario, claimed on TikTok that some newcomers had been digging holes on the beach and defecating in them.

The post generated hundreds of thousands of views and a torrent of anti-foreigner hatred, with many arguing that newcomers should “go home”.

People I interviewed who work closely with asylum seekers in Canada say that the heightened concerns around the need for more border security is making asylum seekers feel unsettled and afraid.

Abdulla Daoud, executive director at the Refugee Center in Montreal, believes that the vulnerable asylum seekers he works with feel singled out by the focus on migrant numbers since the US election. “They’re definitely more anxious,” he says. “I think they’re coming in and they’re feeling, ‘Okay, am I going to be welcomed here? Am I in the right place or not?'”

Those hoping to stay in Canada as refugees can’t access official immigration settlement services until it has been decided they truly need asylum. This process once took two weeks but it can now take as long as three years.

Tent cities to house newly-arrived refugees and food banks with empty shelves have sprung up in Toronto. The city’s homeless shelters are often reported to be full. Last winter, two refugee applicants froze to death after sleeping on Toronto’s streets.

Toronto mayor Olivia Chow, an immigrant herself having moved to Canada from Hong Kong at age 13, says: “People are seeing that, even with working two jobs or three jobs, they can’t have enough money to pay the rent and feed the kids.

“I understand the hardship of having a life that is not affordable, and the fear of being evicted, absolutely, I get it. But to blame that on the immigration system is unfair.”

With frustrations growing, Trudeau announced a major change in October: a 20% reduction in immigration targets over three years. “As we emerged from the pandemic, between addressing labour needs and maintaining population growth, we didn’t get the balance quite right,” he conceded.

He added that he wanted to give all levels of government time to catch up – to accommodate more people. But, given that he has since resigned, is it enough? And does the Trump presidency and the increasing anti-immigrant sentiment on that side of the border risk spilling further into Canada?

Mr Daoud has his own view. “Unfortunately, I think the Trump presidency had its impact on Canadian politics,” he says. “I think a lot of politicians are using this as a way to fear-monger.”

Others are less convinced that it will have much of an impact. “Canadians are better than that,” says Olivia Chow. “We remember that successive waves of refugees helped create Toronto and Canada.”

Politicians wading into the debate around population growth ahead of the next election will be conscious of the fact that half of Canadians are first and second-generation immigrants themselves. “If the Conservatives win the next election, we can expect a reduction in immigration,” says Prof Jonathan Rose. But he adds that Poilievre will have to walk “a bit of fine line”.

Prof Rose says: “Since immigrant-heavy ridings [constituencies] in Toronto and Vancouver will be important to any electoral victory, he can’t be seen as anti-immigration, merely recalibrating it to suit economic and housing policy.”

And there are a large number of Canadians, including business leaders and academics, who believe that the country must continue to pursue an assertive growth policy to combat Canada’s falling birth rate.

“I really have high hopes for Canadians,” adds Lisa Lalande of the Century Initiative, which advocates for policies that would see Canada’s population increase to 100 million by 2100. “I actually think we will rise above where we are now.

“I think we’re just really concerned about affordability [and] cost of living – not about immigrants themselves. We recognise they’re too important to our culture.”