Three Americans and two Russians made up the two teams at the talks in Saudi Araba that have underscored an end to Western isolation of Moscow.

The men described the meeting as preparing the groundwork for broader “high-level” talks and agreed to reset their countries’ diplomatic relations.

Who are they and what significance will they play in the rapprochement between the two powers?

As US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio faced his veteran Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The pair had already spoken over the phone three days earlier.

Rubio has long sought an end to the war in Ukraine and voted against a $6bn US military aid package in 2024. He sees China as America’s biggest adversary and believes Beijing is happy for the US to be “bogged down in Europe”.

He has cautioned that “one meeting is not going to solve [the war]”, describing the Saudi talks as a first step towards negotiations. And he has made clear that both Ukraine and Europe will have to be involved too.

National security adviser Mike Waltz believes the US deserves “some type of payback” for the billions it has paid out to Ukraine during three years of full-scale war.

Not only does he believe that Europeans have to “own this conflict” in terms of future security guarantees. He also thinks Ukraine should share its mineral wealth in partnership with the US “in terms of their rare earths, their natural resources, and their oil and gas”.

Steve Witkoff is more of an unknown quantity. Although these are the first official talks between Russia and the US for almost two years, Witkoff was the man Donald Trump chose to send to Moscow only last week for talks with Vladimir Putin.

Ostensibly, he’s Trump’s Middle East envoy, but clearly the president’s former golf partner is far more significant than that and he is being seen as the president’s loyal and favoured dealmaker.

He was part of talks on forging Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas but was then sent to Russia to help with the exchange of US prisoner Marc Fogel for a Russian, Alexander Vinnik, in jail in America.

Russia chose two top diplomats for this initial exchange of views.

Both are veterans and know the US well: Putin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister since 2004.

They have also helped Putin steer his foreign policy during three years of war.

As former ambassador to the US, 77-year-old Yuri Ushakov has a good idea of how to talk to Washington. Within days of Donald Trump’s return to the White House he made clear Russia was ready for talks if the US sent “relevant signals”.

Days before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he accused the Biden administration of peak “hysteria” in suggesting Russian troops were preparing to go to war.

As Russia’s standing with the West plummeted in 2022, it fell to Sergei Lavrov to promote his country on the international stage. He took part in doomed ceasefire talks with Ukraine shortly after the full-scale war began and even denied there had been an invasion.

A third Russian was not in the room, but Kirill Dmitriev’s presence in the delegation is a mark of just how important Vladimir Putin sees the economic potential of the Saudi talks.

Dmitriev, 49, is head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and told reporters he would focus on future economic relations with the US: “We also need to make joint projects, including, for example, in the Arctic Region, and in other areas.”

Significantly, Dmitriev played a key role in working with Steve Witkoff in the prisoner exchange that preceded Trump’s phone-call with Putin last week, along with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman.

Dmitriev has close connections to Putin’s family – his wife is close to one of Putin’s daughters.

And few Russians know America’s finance and business sector better than Dmitriev, as a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and a graduate of Harvard Business School.

Although he is adamant Russia’s economy is doing well, 43% of the budget is going on the war and internal security, inflation is just under 10% and interest rates have hit 21%.

The two Saudi hosts chaired the start of the meeting but did not stay in the room.

Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has played an active role as top Saudi diplomat this year, visiting Lebanon and Europe and hosting an international meeting aimed at lifting sanctions on Syria.

Saudi national security adviser Musaed al-Aiban has also played a prominent part in promoting Saudi ties with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Although Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman takes the lead on foreign policy, these two men are regularly by his side.

South Korea has accused Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of sharing user data with the owner of TikTok in China.

“We confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance,” the South Korean data protection regulator told Yonhap News Agency.

The country had already removed DeepSeek from app stores over the weekend over data protection concerns.

The Chinese app caused shockwaves in the AI world in January, wiping billions off global stock markets over claims its new model was trained at a much lower cost than US rivals such as ChatGPT.

Since then, multiple countries have warned that user data may not be properly protected, and in February a US cybersecurity company alleged potential data sharing between DeepSeek and ByteDance.

DeepSeek’s apparent overnight impact saw it shoot to the top of App Store charts in the UK, US and many other countries around the world – although it now sits far below ChatGPT in UK rankings.

In South Korea, it had been downloaded over a million times before being pulled from Apple and Google’s App Stores on Saturday evening.

Existing users can still access the app and use it on a web browser.

The data regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency that despite finding a link between DeepSeek and ByteDance, it was “yet to confirm what data was transferred and to what extent”.

Critics of the Chinese state have long argued its National Intelligence Law allows the government to access any data it wants from Chinese companies.

However, ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing, is owned by a number of global investors – and others say the same law allows for the protection of private companies and personal data.

Fears over user data being sent to China was one of the reasons the US Supreme Court upheld a ban on TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance.

The US ban is on hold until 5 April as President Donald Trump attempts to broker a resolution.

• DeepSeek: The Chinese AI app that has the world talking
• What does Trump’s executive order mean for TikTok and who might buy it?

Cybersecurity company Security Scorecard published a blog on DeepSeek on 10 February which suggested “multiple direct references to ByteDance-owned” services.

“These references suggest deep integration with ByteDance’s analytics and performance monitoring infrastructure,” it said in its review of DeepSeek’s Android app.

Security Scorecard expressed concern that along with privacy risks, DeepSeek “user behaviour and device metadata [are] likely sent to ByteDance servers”.

It also found data “being transmitted to domains linked to Chinese state-owned entities”.

On Monday, South Korea’s PIPC said it “found out traffic generated by third-party data transfers and insufficient transparency in DeepSeek’s privacy policy”.

It said DeepSeek was cooperating with the regulator, and acknowledged it had failed to to take into account South Korean privacy laws.

But the regulator advised users “exercise caution and avoid entering personal information into the chatbot”.

South Korea has already followed a number of countries such as Australia and Taiwan in banning DeepSeek from government devices.

The BBC has contacted the PIPC, ByteDance and DeepSeek’s parent company, High Flyer, for a response.

Passengers have described their amazement after most of them escaped unscathed from a plane that crash landed in Toronto on Monday afternoon.

The Delta flight skidded along the runway in flames before flipping over and coming to a dramatic halt upside down, losing its tail and an entire wing in the process.

Some of the 80 people on board were then left hanging upside down while still strapped to their seats, before they scrambled over luggage to escape onto the snowy runway.

No deaths have been reported after the incident, which is under investigation.

Analysts have suggested the harsh winter weather may be to blame, or that the plane may have hit something. They have also credited the plane’s safety features with saving lives.

The incident took place shortly after 14:00 local time on Monday (19:00 GMT).

It involved a model CRJ-900 plane, operating as Delta Air Lines flight DL4819.

The aircraft arrived at Toronto from the US city of Minneapolis and was carrying 76 passengers and four crew members.

As it landed, the plane appears to have struck the runway, slid for some distance and then flipped over, observed Dan Ronan, a journalist and pilot licensed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who spoke to BBC News.

Footage obtained by TMZ showed part of the aircraft bursting into flames as the landing happened. Firefighters rushed to put these out.

Passenger Pete Carlson told broadcaster CBC it was “a very forceful event”, recalling the sound of “concrete and metal” at the moment of impact.

He and others on board were suspended upside down in their seats, and had to release themselves onto the cabin ceiling before leaving the inverted aircraft.

All 80 people on board survived. On Tuesday morning, Delta said 21 injured passengers were initially transported to local hospitals – with 19 later released.

Delta has promised to give more updates.

• All passengers survive crash landing in Toronto
• Witnesses recount lucky escape
• Did you witness the plane crash? Contact us

The right wing may have struck the runway or an item on it, such as a light, Mr Ronan suggested.

The weather may also have been significant. The airport fire chief stated that the runway was dry at the time of the incident.

Airport authorities had said earlier that although recent heavy snow had stopped, “frigid temperatures and high winds [were] moving in”.

As the plane came in to land, air traffic controllers told the pilots of 38mph (61km/h) gusts and the possibility of a “slight bump in the glide path”, CNN reported.

The pilots appear to have attempted what is known as a crab manoeuvre, Mr Ronan said. This involves turning a plane into the wind, and then directly onto the runway at the last moment.

Marco Chan, a former pilot and a senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University in the UK, agreed that the aircraft was banking to the right, and appeared to have made a hard landing – meaning a high rate of descent.

It seems to have touched down with one wheel first, Mr Chan told the BBC, which might have caused the landing gear to collapse on impact. This could have lead to the right wing hitting the runway and in turn causing the plane to roll.

BBC Verify has analysed recordings of communications between the plane and air traffic control.

At no point in discussions was there anything to suggest trouble was anticipated with the landing.

This was confirmed by Mr Chan, and a plane crash investigator Ismo Aaltonen, who also listened to the audio recording.

“The sheer survivability of this is really amazing,” Mr Ronan told the BBC, pointing out that the aeroplane’s fuselage (body) had stayed intact.

He also highlighted the importance of the plane’s high-impact 16G seats, which he said were “designed to absorb a great deal of punishment”.

Other commentators also hailed the craft’s safety features. CNN analyst and former FAA inspector David Soucie said the plane had broken apart as it had meant to, with the detachment the wings stopping the fuselage ripping apart.

Graham Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at the UK’s Cranfield University, said planes were also designed so that air passengers involved in an accident did not hit things likely to cause injury.

“Even the design of the seat back or the tray table is all part of how we consider making that survivable space,” he told the BBC. “And the seatbelt that people have is so important – that is the ultimate thing that stops people being thrown around the cabin like this,” he added.

The flight attendants have also been praised for getting everyone off the flipped aeroplane quickly. Emergency crews on the ground were labelled “heroic” by the airport chief after reaching the crash site in a matter of minutes.

Mr Carlson said the passengers themselves had worked together very effectively. “What I saw was everyone on that plane suddenly became very close in terms of how to help one another, how to console one another,” he said.

This marks the fourth major air crash in North America in less than a month, and other recent incidents remain under investigation.

• All 67 people on board a passenger aeroplane and military helicopter died after the two aircraft collided in mid-air near Washington DC on 29 January
• Seven people were killed on 1 February when a medical transportation plane carrying six people crashed in Philadelphia. Another person was killed on the ground
• All 10 people were killed when a small plane came down in Alaska on 6 February

Those incidents followed another high-profile crash in South Korea in December, in which 179 people were killed.

Despite these, experts say air travel remains overwhelmingly safe – and increasingly so.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says there were 257 fatal accidents in the US in 2024, compared with 362 in 2014.

A couple in north-east Pakistan has been detained on suspicion of murdering a 13-year-old girl who worked for them as a maid, for allegedly stealing chocolates.

The girl who goes only by one name, Iqra, succumbed to multiple injuries in hospital last Wednesday. A preliminary police investigation said she had been tortured.

The case in Rawalpindi has sparked widespread outrage and posts with the hashtag #JusticeforIqra having garnered tens of thousands of views, and reignited a debate over child labour and the mistreatment of domestic workers.

Laws pertaining to child labour can vary across the country, but children under the age of 15 cannot be employed as domestic workers in the province of Punjab.

“I felt completely shattered inside when she died,” Iqra’s father, Sana Ullah, told the BBC.

He said that he had received a call from the police about Iqra last Wednesday. When he rushed to the hospital, he saw Iqra lying on a bed, unconscious. She died minutes later.

Iqra began working as a maid from the age of eight. Her father, a 45-year-old farmer, said he had sent her to work because he was in debt.

After working for a few employers, she went to work for the couple two years ago, who have eight children of their own. She was earning about £23 ($28) per month.

Police said Iqra had been accused of stealing chocolates from her employers, adding that a preliminary investigation showed that Iqra had been tortured.

Police also say there was evidence of frequent abuse. Pictures and videos obtained by the BBC showed multiple fractures in her legs and arms, as well as a serious injury to her head.

An autopsy is being conducted to assess the full extent of her injuries, and the police has told the BBC that they were still awaiting the final medical report.

“My heart cries tears of blood. How many… are subjected to violence in their homes every day for a trivial job of a few thousand?” activist Shehr Bano wrote on X. “How long will the poor continue to lower their daughters into graves in this way?”

Others have pointed out that her murder was allegedly triggered by something so minor.

“She died over chocolate?” asked one Pakistani user on X.

“This is not just a crime, it’s a reflection of [a] system that enables [the] rich to treat [the] poor as disposable,” another said.

Iqra’s employers, Rashid Shafiq and his wife Sana, have been arrested, along with a Quran teacher, who worked for the family. The teacher had brought Iqra to the hospital and left after telling hospital staff that the girl’s father had died and her mother was not around.

Police told the BBC it was unclear if she believed this to be the truth.

Iqra’s father says he wants to see “those responsible for my daughter’s death punished”.

Despite the public outrage such cases usually garner, they are typically settled out of court and it’s rare for suspects to be successfully prosecuted.

In 2018, a judge and his wife were sentenced to three years in jail for torturing their then 10-year-old maid in what had been a highly publicised case that sparked outrage across the country. But they later had their sentences reduced to one year.

Tayyaba was found with severe injuries, which the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science said included burns to her hands and feet. Pictures of the girl also showed cuts and bruising to her face, along with a swollen left eye. She told prosecutors she was beaten for losing a broom.

Under Pakistani law, victims or their families have the right to forgive suspects in a number of serious crimes. To do so, they have to state in court that they forgive a suspect “in the name of God”.

In reality, legal observers say that the primary motive for that “forgiveness” is normally financial, and paying victims is not illegal.

About 3.3 million children in Pakistan are engaged in child labour, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). Moreover, women and young girls make up the vast majority of Pakistan’s 8.5 million domestic workers, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Japan says it will increase its reliance on nuclear energy in a major policy shift as it seeks to meet growing demand from power-hungry sectors like AI and semiconductors.

An energy plan approved by the cabinet on Tuesday called for “maximising the use of nuclear energy” and dropped reference to “reducing reliance on nuclear energy”.

The energy plan, written by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry says that by 2040, nuclear energy should account for 20% of Japan’s grid supply in 2040, more than double the 8.5% share in 2023.

It comes as the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster from 14 years ago continues to hang over the country, conjuring painful memories.

In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake near Japan’s north-east coast spawned a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people, wiping out entire towns and flooding the reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Japan now operates 14 commercial nuclear reactors, compared to 54 before the Fukushima disaster when 30% of the country’s energy was from nuclear sources.

The plan still needs approval by parliament, where it will be discussed in the coming months.

The country, which imports 90% of its fuel, needs to look to nuclear sources as part of its plan to cut back on carbon and be self-reliant on energy, said Daishiro Yamagiwa, an MP who was part of a government advisory committee on the energy plan.

“Because of the conflict in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, even fossil fuels have become difficult to buy,” he told the BBC. “Japan is a country without energy resources, so we must use whatever is available in a balanced way.”

Yamagiwa added that energy burdens are growing because of demand from AI data processing centres and semiconductor factories around the country.

But experts say increasing reliance on nuclear energy will be both risky and costly.

Japan will need to import uranium, which is expensive and will make the country reliant on other countries, said Professor Kenichi Oshima at the faculty of policy science at Ryukoku University.

Prof Oshima told the BBC the main concern is that increasing the number of nuclear power plants also raises the risk of potentially disastrous accidents.

He cited the 2024 New Year’s Day earthquake in the Noto peninsula, where two decades ago, a plan to build a nuclear plant was scrapped because locals opposed it.

“If there had been a nuclear power plant there, it is quite clear that it would have caused a major accident,” he said.

In Japan, any mention of nuclear energy inevitably brings back difficult memories of the nuclear meltdown at the Daiichi power plant.

“We all had such a terrible experience at the time of the Fukushima quake,” Tokyo resident Yuko Maruyama told the BBC.

“How could I support it [the nuclear energy plan]? I want the government to rely on other sources of energy,” she added.

“As a mother I think of the children, of their safety. I cannot help but think about what would happen in the future.”

The meltdown at Fukushima is considered the world’s worst since that of Chernobyl in 1986.

It stirred fresh controversy in 2023, when Japan started releasing treated water from the site of the Fukushima plant. This drew protests from Japan’s neighbours, including China, over safety concerns.

The United Nations atomic energy regulator IAEA said the waste water was safe and would have a “negligible” impact on people and the environment.

In response to the new energy plan announced this week, Greenpeace said promoting nuclear energy is “outrageous” when the fallout from Fukushima is still ongoing.

“There is no justification for continuing to rely on nuclear energy, which remains toxic for tens of thousands of years, produces radioactive waste that requires long-term management, and carries risks like earthquakes and terrorism,” the group said.

To meet the government’s goal, experts say 33 reactors must be put back online, but the current pace of safety checks as well as residents’ objections in some areas will make this difficult.

Many of these nuclear plants are old and will need to be refitted with new technology for them to function safely.

“That most difficult problem is that each nuclear power plant is in a different location and will need its own safety protocol and infrastructure,” Yamagiwa said.

“We must check each of them carefully. It still takes time.”

In recent months, regulators have given several old reactors approval to keep operating.

In October 2024 Japan’s oldest reactor, Takahama nuclear power plant, was given the go-ahead to continue operations, making it the first reactor in the country to get approval to operate beyond 50 years.

Depending on how you read it, New Zealand’s latest tourism tagline can be a well-meaning plea for people to visit – or a threat to kick Kiwis out.

“Everyone Must Go!” reads a slogan printed across posters of people in New Zealand’s majestic landscapes – part of a NZ$500,000 ($285,000; £227,000) campaign unveiled on Sunday.

But what was meant as a catchy call to action aimed at Australian tourists has been accused of being tone-deaf, as New Zealand deals with record emigration rates and unemployment.

The government has defended the campaign, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying he “[appreciates] there’s lots of chat about whether everyone loves the slogan or not”.

“The fact that we’re talking about it is a good thing. It’s a great thing,” he added.

Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, tourism spokesperson for the opposition Labour Party, told local news outlet Radio New Zealand (RNZ) that the new slogan “makes New Zealand sound like we’re in a clearance bin at a sale”.

“The irony of that messaging is, that’s how Aotearoa New Zealanders are feeling right now,” she said, pointing to the “many cuts” that residents have experienced.

Job cuts to the public sector over the past year, as part of the government’s austerity push, have affected thousands of people.

Meanwhile, people are moving out of the country in record numbers. Official figures show that there were nearly 130,000 departures last year – though that was offset by the arrival of nearly 160,000 immigrants.

“New Zealanders are voting with their feet, leaving in record high numbers,” Labour MP Barbara Edmonds wrote on X on Monday. “Is their real tourism plan ‘Everyone Must Go’ – for Kiwis?”

Others associated the slogan with demand for lavatories.

“I think ‘Everyone Must Go’ might refer to the need for toilets in some of our high-tourist spots. I mean, the queues are ridiculous,” Green Party MP Celia Wade-Brown told RNZ.

“They don’t go kayaking, they don’t go diving, but, my goodness, they queue at the toilets.”

Tourism minister Louise Upston said in a statement on Sunday that “the campaign tagline of ‘Everyone must go’ lets Australia know that New Zealand is a ‘must visit’ destination, and that we’re ready and waiting to welcome them now”.

New Zealand’s tourism numbers have yet to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, and authorities are channelling efforts into attracting visitors from neighbouring Australia, its largest source of tourists.

Last year, New Zealand welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors from Australia. But Upston said visitors numbers were only 88% of that in 2019.

Luxon said he hoped the latest campaign would boost Australian visitor numbers by 5%.

“It would be totally and utterly tragic if those Australians don’t get here before they do die,” he said.

The month-long tourism campaign is set to start on Thursday.

Hamas says it will hand over the bodies of four hostages on Thursday, including the two youngest people held by the Palestinian armed group.

The group’s negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said the bodies to be released would include those of the Bibas family – Shiri and her young children Kfir and Ariel, who were aged nine months and four years when Hamas kidnapped them during the 7 October 2023 attack.

Their father Yarden was released by Hamas earlier this month.

Al-Hayya said Hamas would also release six living hostages on Saturday – double the number originally planned to be released.

In exchange, Israel will free all women and those under the age of 19 arrested since last October and is allowing some rubble-clearing equipment into Gaza through the border with Egypt.

In a statement, al-Hayya said the group agreed “handing over four bodies of the occupation prisoners on Thursday 20 February, including the bodies of the Bibas family.”

Hamas claimed in November 2023 they had been killed in an Israeli air strike, without providing evidence. The Israeli military has not confirmed the report. Israeli officials have said only that they are gravely concerned for their lives.

An Israeli official told Reuters that deceased hostages would undergo identification in Israel before being named.

Hamas has also named two of the six Israelis to be released on Saturday.

They are Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who were seized in 2014 and 2015 respectively after they crossed into Gaza on their own. The Israeli government has said both suffered from mental health issues at the time.

Under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages. In exchange, Israel agreed to release about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.

Talks on progressing to the second phase of the deal – under which the remaining living hostages would be released and the war would end permanently – were due to start earlier this month but have not yet begun.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the talks would begin “this week”.

He said Israel would “not accept the continued presence of Hamas or any other terrorist organisation in Gaza,” but said that Israel could prolong the ceasefire if discussions were productive.

“If we will see there is a constructive dialogue with a possible horizon of getting to an agreement (then) we will make this time-frame work longer,” Saar said.

A total of 73 hostages are currently being held in Gaza – a mixture of Israeli soldiers and civilians both dead and alive. This also includes Thai and Nepalese nationals.

Some 251 hostages were taken by Hamas when it attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people.

Israel responded with a 15-month military offensive that killed 47,460 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, and devastated the coastal enclave.

Zeeshan Ali has been a drag artist for 10 years and has taken his show all over India.

Central to his performance is a collection of around 45 wigs.

“It’s an alter of identity, helping me transition from my everyday self into exaggerated, glamorous or whimsical characters. The right wig makes me feel more authentic and empowers me to command the stage,” says Ali, who is based in Mumbai.

But getting that look right wasn’t easy in the early days.

“When I started my career the accessibility of the wigs was extremely difficult in India. Most of them were to be sourced from abroad or I used to make wigs sourced from whatever was available to me like wool, fabric,” he says.

But things are different now.

“The trend is changing. Wigs are no longer just meant for drag or movie artists, but many straight women wear wigs to look different. It’s no longer just a hair accessory but a style statement.”

Indian hair has always been in demand for wig-making. The nation is the world’s biggest exporter of human hair, supplying 85% of global demand.

Kolachi Venkatesh, based in Avadi, Chennai, has been collecting hair for 20 years. He started at the bottom of the industry as a picker – collecting hair from households and rescuing it from the rubbish.

“My parents were hair pickers and then I started doing the same,” he says.

Hair collected by pickers from homes, salons and barbershops is called non-Remy hair.

It requires more processing than Remy hair, which is carefully shaved straight from the scalp. Nevertheless, it has value.

“It’s just thrown away but it’s gold,” says Mr Venkatesh.

Those pickers typically sell hair to local traders like Mr Venkatesh for between 10 cents and $1 (£0.80) per kilogram, depending on the quality and length of the hair.

Shorter or damaged hair fetches less, while longer strands bring higher prices.

For the individual picker, there’s not much money in it.

“A diligent collector might gather 1–5 kilograms of hair in a day, earning anywhere from 59 cents to $6 per day. This income level is often below minimum wage standards, particularly in rural areas,” says Mr Venkatesh, who has 50 pickers working for him.

“While our work contributes to a billion-dollar global market our earnings remain meagre. Intermediaries control prices.”

Most of the Indian hair collected by traders like Mr Venkatesh is exported to China where it is made into wigs.

“China has a huge wigmaking industry which is worth five to six billion dollars,” says Benjamin Cherian from Plexconcil, the hair industry body that promotes the Indian industry and liaises with the government.

If India wants a slice of the lucrative wig market, he says, then it has a lot of catching up to do.

“When we look at China there are hundreds of factories spread across the country which add value to the hair industry, whereas in India the value addition still needs to be picked up,” Mr Cherian says.

He says the government needs to help promote investment in the hair industry.

“It needs automated sorting systems, sophisticated hair treatment procedures for the hair collected, innovative production techniques for manufacturing of wigs which will make India stand out.”

Instead of exporting hair for hundreds of dollars, India should be selling wigs worth thousands of dollars says Mr Cherian.

“We have started working on it but it’s a long way to go. We need to have research and training centres,” he says.

One Indian business trying to make inroads is Delhi-based Diva Divine Hair, co-founded by Krishan Jalani in 2019.

It is currently managed by chief executive and co-founder Nidhi Tiwari.

The idea was to create high-quality hair extensions and wigs that would appeal to a broader range of customers.

“There is a growing need for these solutions due to rising issues of hair loss and thinning among women in India,” says Ms Tiwari.

The company has been helped by a shift in attitude.

“Once considered a niche or taboo topic, wigs and extensions are now openly discussed, thanks to evolving social norms and a shift toward acceptance,” she says.

Wigs have also seen a lot of development making them more attractive and comfortable.

“Technologies such as 3D-printed wigs and digital colour-matching tools offer highly personalised options. Lightweight, breathable wig caps and improved adhesives have given customers to wear it for long time without discomfort,” says Ms Tiwari.

At the top end of the hair market is Temple or Remy hair.

Much of the supply comes from Hindu temples in the south of the country where hair is shaved off in an act of veneration and faith.

Raj Hair International is one of the biggest traders in the Temple hair business.

Craftsmen at the company’s Chennai factory sort and grade the hair according to colour, texture and length.

“Remy hair has aligned cuticles, hair flows uniformly in one direction, which leads to less tangling and a silkier texture. This is high-value hair,” says George Cherion, the company’s chief executive.

The firm tries to waste as little of the hair as possible. To help with that it developed a machine to untangle the hair. It’s allowed them to work faster with fewer staff.

“Our mission is to constantly upgrade the technology,” says Mr Cherion.

Business is booming.

“Indian human is in demand globally due to its high quality, natural look, and thinness. The demand is skyrocketing,” he says.

Back in Mumbai Zeeshan Ali wants to see more Indian wigs on the market.

As well as making them more affordable, he has a design suggestion: “A wig that can create a wow factor.”

Detained Britons Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged in Iran with espionage, the country’s judiciary news agency has said.

Mr and Mrs Foreman were arrested in January but news of their detention, on unspecified security charges, emerged last week.

Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said that the couple, both aged 52, had “entered Iran under the guise of tourists” and “gathered information in multiple provinces of the country”.

The pair moved from East Sussex to start a new life in Andalucia, Spain, in 2019 and had appeared on an episode of Channel 4’s A New Life in the Sun in 2022 to showcase their lives as expats.

The couple had been on a motorbike trip around the world and had planned to stay in Iran for five days before they were charged with espionage, or spying, by Iranian authorities.

Mr and Mrs Foreman were heading for Australia on their journey across the globe and had crossed into Iran from Armenia on 30 December and were planning to be in Pakistan by 4 January.

In a series of social media posts before they were detained, the couple described their joy at being in Iran.

Lindsay Foreman, a life coach with a doctorate in psychology, said she was “having an amazing time”.

Her husband Craig, who is a carpenter, spoke of the “lovely people” of a “lovely country”.

Announcing the charges, Mr Jahangir said that the couple had been under surveillance by provincial intelligence agencies and were “subsequently arrested as part of a coordinated intelligence operation”.

He added: “These individuals were co-operating with front organisations linked to the intelligence services of hostile and Western countries under the pretence of research and investigative activities.”

The chief justice of Kerman province, Hojatoleslam wal-Muslimeen Hamidi, said: “According to intelligence and security agency monitoring, the connection of these individuals with several institutions affiliated with intelligence services has been confirmed, and further investigations are ongoing.”

Alison Smith, a former neighbour of the couple, described them as “just normal family people”.

Ms Smith told the BBC she was a “bit surprised” by the couple’s decision to travel to Iran, but said they probably “thought they were going to be going on an adventure”.

They had been on “loads of adventures” in the past, Ms Smith said.

“They went all over the place,” she said, describing the pair as “very sporty, very adventurous”.

The Foreign Office’s official advice is against all travel to Iran, saying British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at “significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention”.

Having a British passport or connections to the UK “can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you”, it adds.

In recent years, Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency, mostly on spying and national security charges. At least 15 have had links to the UK.

Human rights groups say they are often held as leverage, released only when Iran receives something in return.

Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years, said Foreign Office travel advice would be “clearer” if it reflected the “risks of hostage-taking” in the country.

More than 200 unarmed civilians have been killed in a cluster of villages in Sudan over three days by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that is involved in a brutal conflict with the military, a local rights group has said.

The Emergency Lawyers network said the attacks happened in al-Kadaris and al-Khelwat towards the north of White Nile state – areas where the military had no presence.

RSF fighters were guilty of “executions, kidnappings, enforced disappearances and property looting”, the network added.

The RSF, which was allied to the military before the civil war broke out in April 2023, has not commented on the allegations.

The two had come to power together in a coup – but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule.

Some senior RSF leaders are currently in Kenya where they are expected to announce plans to form their own government in areas under their control.

Analysts warn the move could deepen divisions in Sudan.

• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening
• BBC hears of horror and hunger in rare visit to Darfur massacre town
• Last surgeons standing in Darfur city’s only hospital

Humanitarians have been sounding the alarm over Sudan, where the conflict has forced about 12 million people from their homes.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, with both the RSF and army accused of committing atrocities.

At the heart of this conflict is a falling out between Sudan’s de facto ruler and army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, who leads the RSF.

The RSF was recently dealt a significant blow when the army regained control of parts of the capital, Khartoum – including its military headquarters.

Beyond the capital, the army has also won near total control of the crucial state of Gezira.

Following the setbacks, the RSF has rebounded with plans to launch a rival government in areas still under its control, which are mainly in Darfur and parts of Kordofan state.

The RSF is meeting allied groups in Nairobi to finalise the adoption of what it calls a “political charter for the Government of Peace and Unity”.

Gen Burhan has rejected the move, and has vowed to reclaim the whole of Khartoum.

He is currently based in Port Sudan, having been forced to leave Khartoum months after the civil war broke out when the RSF seized the military headquarters and the presidential palace.

• ‘I miss my school’: BBC launches programme for children in war zones
• ‘No obstacles’ to Russian Red Sea base – Sudan
• Sudan army makes huge gains as it seeks to recapture war-torn capital
• ‘They ransacked my home and left my town in ruins’

“I was crying,” says Alya, when she saw news of last week’s Munich attack that left a toddler and her mother dead.

“Why should someone do something like that? Why? I can’t understand it.”

An Afghan man’s in custody after what was the latest in a series of attacks in German cities where the suspect has been an asylum seeker.

Last Thursday it was a mother and daughter in Munich; last month another child and an adult were killed in Aschaffenburg.

Alya came here a decade ago from Syria with her baby son. Now 10, he and his mother welcome me into their home.

They were among a record 1.2 million people who applied for asylum in Germany from 2015-16, many of them from Syria but also from countries including Afghanistan and Iraq.

The attacks have put security and migration front and centre of an election campaign, days before Germans vote on their next government on 23 February.

Alya despairs of those who commit violence in a country that, she says, has “given us everything”.

The BBC first heard their story a decade earlier when they were filmed at a refugee centre in the city of Oberhausen.

Rami looks at a photo of himself from 2015. He’s tiny, enveloped in a life jacket from when his mother fled war-torn Syria.

“How could I go with him in that boat?” she asks herself, remembering how they crossed the Aegean Sea with 60 others, packed in a small boat.

“I didn’t know I’d gone through that,” says Rami. It scares him to see it now.

Ten years on, Alya has trained in elderly care and re-married. She is looking for work, while Rami goes to a local school and is a passionate football fan.

They both speak German: Rami has grown up with the language and Alya has studied it.

They’re grateful to their adopted country and plan to stay; Rami has dreams of becoming a doctor, policeman or footballer.

Mother and child have, unsurprisingly, changed in the past 10 years.

So has Germany.

Back in 2015, there were scenes of sweets being handed out to refugees arriving at Munich train station, as an unparalleled number of people fled to Europe due to conflict, instability or poverty.

German or Welcoming Culture, was encapsulated when the then chancellor, Angela Merkel, declared: “We can manage this.”

For her supporters, it was a pragmatic and compassionate reaction; for her critics, one of her most unforgivable mistakes.

A decade later and anyone I have spoken to agrees that attitudes have hardened, in society and politically.

Alya says she has “lots of German friends” but has detected the broader change in mood in Germany and mentions hearing the phrase – foreigners out.

However she is “very sad” about refugees and migrants who don’t learn German or, in her view, have failed to properly integrate.

“The key to this country is the language,” she says, while adding: “There’s also a positive side that a lot of people have learned the language and they’ve started to work.”

Near Oberhausen’s main park, Georg, 66, says he gets on with people from all backgrounds but worries about cases of “radicalisation.”

He has lived in the city most of his life and used to work as a car mechanic and tiler. He mourns what he sees a general decline in Oberhausen, pointing to because of ageing infrastructure and a lack of investment.

Many in Germany also talk of a wish for greater public safety and a disillusionment with the parties that have governed the country since reunification.

Germany’s outgoing government has reimposed border controls as it tries to bring down the number of asylum seekers, and opposition parties want to go further.

Georg says it’s a difficult issue but believes there needs to be security: “No matter who’s in charge. Not like it is right now. It has to change.”

Before Europe’s migration crisis, Oberhausen was already a multicultural city.

Local government figures show that in 2010, 22% of people in Oberhausen were either not born as German citizens or had one immigrant parent.

By 2016, that figure had risen to 28% while the latest figure, from 2023, was up to 37%.

Walking through the centre, the strained nature of Germany’s migration debate becomes quickly evident.

Around one corner, there’s a demonstration against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party which has embraced the concept of “remigration”; a phrase widely understood to mean mass deportations.

On the main street, an AfD party stand has been put up, but it soon attracts shouts of “Nazis.”

Two men of colour end up in a heated argument with party activists which we are openly filming.

We hear one of the AfD campaigners, who we’d been speaking to earlier, say: “Go back to your (homeland) if you don’t like this here.”

When I challenge this man, Jörg Lange, afterwards, he denies the remark was racist.

A city councillor, he tells me voters will have their say and voices scepticism that one of the men grew up here, despite their fluency in the language.

“Would you have said the same thing to a white person?” I ask.

“No, of course not,” Mr Lange replies – but again denies it’s racist.

“He personally attacked me,” says Mr Lange. “He said ‘you’re a Nazi’. And then of course you have to say that if something doesn’t suit you here in Germany then you can go back. Then leave us alone here.”

Police arrive, during which time I talk with the two men involved in the argument, Kwame and Prathep, who are both in their thirties.

“He told us to go back!” says Kwame while Prathep says going “back” would mean going about, “Three streets away from here.”

“We went to school over here, we grew up over here… we have kids here,” they tell me. “We pay taxes, we pay a lot of taxes!”

I ask the pair about whether their role in the altercation is adding to the rising temperature of political debate.

Kwame, who used the term “Nazis” in the argument, says the “derogatory” language he hears about people of colour “triggers” him. “We feel like, wow, are we still in the same place right now?”

A dance choreographer, he tells me he came to Germany from Ghana aged 13 while Prathep describes how he was born in the city.

“I’m a German,” says Prathep. “I’m proud of this city,” chimes in Kwame. “Wherever I go in the world [I say] I’m from Oberhausen.”

Both think their community has become “drastically” more divided in recent years.

The political climate, which includes consistently strong polling for the AfD, has led to a toughening of language by some of Germany’s main political parties.

The conservative Christian Democrats who lead the polls have called for a “border ban” on anyone entering Germany without the right papers, even if they’re seeking protection.

The Social Democrats have pledged to speed up asylum procedures and boost deportations.

The AfD want to close Germany’s borders and leave the common European asylum policy.

Alya hopes that Germany will keep its doors open to refugees: “There’s still war everywhere. And the people need this… maybe there are very good people running away from war.”

The future of Germany’s migration policy will depend on which parties form a coalition after this election, and what they can agree on.

But a rightward shift is already underway, in reality and rhetoric.

This could prove a defining week for the war in Ukraine, with two sets of hastily arranged talks taking place in Paris and Riyadh.

European leaders are meeting in France as they scramble for a response to Donald Trump’s plan to open negotiations with Vladimir Putin for an end to the conflict.

On Tuesday Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are due to meet in the Saudi capital.

Ukraine is not attending either set of talks.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently controls more than a fifth of its territory, mainly in the south and east.

BBC correspondents analyse what key powers hope to gain from two days of intense diplomacy.

The UK

Sir Keir Starmer is hoping to be a bridge between European leaders and Trump’s White House berating them about their defence spending.

Starmer’s offer to put UK troops on the ground in Ukraine is part of that role he wants to play.

The government used to say the terms of any peace deal was up to Ukraine. That has shifted with the new US administration signalling that a return to 2014 borders was “unrealistic”.

Instead Sir Keir will be hoping more European nations in Paris join him in offering their forces to secure a deal – and prevent Russia invading again.

But while the prime minister is in Paris, in Westminster the debate goes on about how much the country should spend on defence.

Labour has promised to “set out a path” to increase defence spending from 2.3% of GDP now to 2.5%. Defence sources say that would be a significant rise.

But there is no date for when that would happen – and many argue it is now urgent.

Germany

It is a sign of how rattled German leaders are by Trump’s approach to Ukraine that just days before a national election Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also in Paris.

All mainstream parties have condemned American suggestions that a peace deal be brokered without Ukraine or the EU. Far-right and populist-left politicians welcome talks with Putin and want to stop arming Kyiv. But they will not get into power.

So, whatever the next German government looks like, Berlin’s support for Ukraine will remain strong. That is because Berlin’s political elite recognises that a bad deal – one that undermines Ukrainian sovereignty – would be disastrous for Germany.

But with Germany’s war-torn 20th century in mind, voters here are wary of militarisation.

Over the past three years the country has successfully pivoted away from Russian energy and massively upped defence spending. But this has hit the German economy hard and the subsequent budget rows sparked the collapse of the German government.

So politicians are trying to avoid public discussions of difficult issues, like higher Nato spending targets or German peacekeeping troops in Ukraine — at least until after the election.

Poland

Poland has been a key supporter of Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion and it is the key logistics hub for military and humanitarian aid entering the country.

It is also a loud voice arguing that Russia cannot be allowed to win the war it launched – because the whole of Europe’s security is at stake. So there is consternation that the US looks like it is conceding to Moscow’s key demands, even before talks begin, when Poland very clearly sees Russia as the aggressor and as dangerous.

Russia is why Poland spends big on its own military – up to almost 5% of GDP now – and agrees with the US that the rest of Europe should do the same.

On his way to the talks in Paris, Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X: “If we, Europeans, fail to spend big on defence now, we will be forced to spend 10 times more if we don’t prevent a wider war.”

On the question of whether to send Polish troops to Ukraine – to help enforce any eventual ceasefire – government officials have been cautious, ruling it out for now.

The Nordic and Baltic countries

Denmark will be the only Nordic nation at Monday’s meeting. But European diplomats say it will also be representing the interests of its Baltic neighbours to the east – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – all of whom border Russia and feel particularly vulnerable to any future Putin attack.

The shockwaves generated by the second Trump term have already been reverberating around Denmark.

Trump’s renewed desire to take over Greenland – an autonomous Danish dependent territory – propelled Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on a whistle-stop tour of European allies last month to shore up support.

On Monday in Paris, Frederiksen finds herself once again in a hastily-convened meeting to respond to Trump’s reshaping of the transatlantic security landscape.

Frederiksen has not yet followed in Starmer’s footsteps of pledging peacekeeping boots on the ground in Ukraine.

Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has been quoted by Danish media as saying he is not ruling it out – but that it is too early to talk about.

France

French President Emmanuel Macron called Monday’s informal meeting – not a “summit,” his officials insisted – to help Europe coordinate a response both to Washington’s increasingly unsympathetic posture towards the continent, and to whatever emerges from the White House’s fast-paced negotiations with the Kremlin.

“The Europeans, as we speak, are not coordinated, but that may be the whole point of (this) summit in Paris, and that is the beginning of coordination… Are we ready? The answer is no. Can we get ready? The answer is yes,” said Francois Heisbourg, a veteran French military expert, commenting on the need for Europe to work together to prepare a possible peacekeeping force for Ukraine.

“There is a wind of unity blowing across Europe such as has not been seen since Covid,” said Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s most senior diplomat.

The mood in France – a nation always wary of American geopolitical manoeuvring – is particularly edgy right now, with newspaper headlines warning of a new “Trump-Putin axis” that will sideline or “abandon” Europe over the war in Ukraine.

“We should be in a Europe-wide state of emergency,” warned the former Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin at a recent news briefing, accusing an “arrogant” Trump of attempting to “rule the world without principles or respect.”

Russia

Since the summer, Putin has stated that his main conditions for starting negotiations to end the war are the recognition of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, the lifting of sanctions on Russia, and denial of Ukraine’s request to join Nato.

Most European countries categorically reject these demands. The US has been very cautious in discussing what concessions Russia might have to make, though both the White House and the Pentagon have said they expect compromises from “both sides”.

Moscow’s priority is clearly the meeting in Saudi Arabia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he would “first and foremost like to listen” to the American proposals on ending the conflict in Ukraine.

As for Europe, Moscow sees no point in inviting it to the negotiating table.

It is no secret that for many years Putin has sought dialogue specifically with the US – a country he both blames for starting the war in Ukraine and considers the only power equal to Russia.

Moscow may take note of Starmer’s statements about being ready to send peacekeepers to the Ukraine – for the first time in a week, the discussion is about potential Russian, rather than Ukrainian, concessions.

But whether Russia is ready for any compromises remains an open question.

The US

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff will be the public face of the US team negotiating in Riyadh – but perhaps the main voice at the table is more than 7,400 miles (11,900km) away, in Palm Beach, Florida.

Despite Trump’s public engagements in recent days, it is clear that the negotiations with Russia over the fate of Ukraine have been his focus behind the scenes.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters he had been kept abreast of the latest developments and the talks are “moving along”.

His short-term goal is to stop the fighting in Ukraine. Longer term, he appears to want less American involvement, given that the US has sent tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Kyiv.

Trump has also pushed for access to rare minerals in Ukraine in return for aid, or even as compensation for the support the US has already provided.

But he has not yet said what a post-war Ukraine would look like, setting off alarm bells in Europe.

He also notably said that he expects Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to be a part of the “conversation”, but not the talks in Riyadh. Rubio has said the talks in Saudi Arabia are only the start of a longer process that will “obviously” include Europe and Ukraine.

Those remarks are likely to provide little comfort for US allies who have been listening to Trump’s remarks over the last several days.

In response to a BBC question on Wednesday, Trump said he believes he is inclined to agree with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s assessment that a return to pre-2014 borders is unrealistic for Ukraine, although he expects Ukraine might get “some” of that land back.

So far, it appears that solution is not one that is palatable for Zelensky and the rest of Ukraine’s leadership.

• Can Europe and UK persuade Trump they’re relevant to Ukraine’s future?
• Ukraine war talks start now, Trump says after Putin call
• What is Nato, why isn’t Ukraine a member and what has Trump said?
• PM ‘ready’ to put troops on ground in Ukraine to protect peace

The Ukrainian people feel their future is as uncertain as it was back in February 2022.

Ukrainians want peace – so as not to wake up to the sounds of sirens and not lose loved ones on the battlefield and in frontline cities.

Russia occupies almost 25% of Ukraine’s territory. Ukraine’s defence has cost tens of thousands of lives of its citizens.

The country has in the past insisted that any peace deal include the full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. That includes not only areas Russia has seized in its full-scale offensive, but also the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russia has backed separatists in fighting, also in 2014.

Ukrainians are scared of a peace agreement like the one in 2014 or 2015 – heavy fighting was stopped, but crossfire on the border continued to bring losses.

With no security guarantees, it would also mean a possibility of a new wave of war in a decade or so.

“Ukraine regards any talks about Ukraine without Ukraine as such that have no result, and we cannot recognise… agreements about us without us,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said about the US-Russia meeting.

Whatever form any peace talks take, Ukrainians want agency over their own future.

Many see previous peace arrangements with Russia as having simply paved the way for its full-scale invasion. So the Ukrainian fear is that any deal agreed over its head could lead to a third round of war.

The choice by the Trump administration of Saudi Arabia as the location for key talks on Ukraine underscores how far the Kingdom has come diplomatically from the near pariah state it became after the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

The shadow that cast over the country and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in particular, appears to have lifted, although there are still concerns occasionally raised at international forums over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

On many fronts – in entertainment and sport in particular – the country has spent huge amounts of money to further its ambitions to be a major player on the world stage.

Diplomatically, the Saudi leadership has also been enhancing its role. During the Biden years, the Kingdom increased its pivot away from reliance on the US as its key international ally.

The Saudis made clear that they would follow what they perceive as their interests first and foremost – striking up closer relationships with countries viewed as key rivals to the US, such as Russia and China.

The return of Donald Trump to the White House will have been welcomed by the Saudis.

His first foreign visit in his first term was to Saudi Arabia – and the transactional nature of his foreign policy is more conducive to the current Saudi leadership.

One of the possible achievements that Mr Trump would most like to chalk up on his record would be a peace deal between the Saudis and Israel – which would be the culmination of the Abraham Accords that he initiated in his first term.

But the war in Gaza has subsequently got in the way and may well raise the price that Saudi Arabia will demand for a peace agreement.

The Saudis were very quick to announce their definitive rejection of Mr Trump’s plan for Gaza – to remove all the Palestinians and rebuild it as a resort.

It has spurred the Kingdom to try to come up with a workable alternative plan with other Arab states – which would see Gazans remain in place as the enclave is rebuilt and would lead to a two state solution of the conflict.

The Trump administration’s current thinking would seem to be at odds with this – in its policy towards both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

How this will be resolved will be key to the dynamics in the evolving relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US.

What is clear is that the Saudis have no intention of reining in their ambition of becoming an essential player in global diplomacy.

When US President Donald Trump wanted someone to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to open negotiations for a potential deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, he didn’t dispatch his secretary of state.

The man he sent to the Kremlin to handle a titanic geopolitical challenge does not even have a diplomatic background.

Instead Trump picked his personal friend, golf buddy and billionaire real estate developer Steve Witkoff.

The president has made Witkoff his Middle East envoy. But last week the Bronx-born businessman found himself in discussions about ending a conflict in Eastern Europe – having been “with [Putin] for a very extended period, like about three hours”, in Trump’s words.

Witkoff was in Moscow to help facilitate a deal that saw the US and Russia swap prisoners, which was seen as signalling a possible thaw in relations between the two countries.

Witkoff also played a part in brokering the current ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, for which both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden took credit.

Though he was not yet officially in his post, Witkoff flew to Tel Aviv to meet Netanyahu before the deal was brokered in Qatar. He then spent time with Biden’s envoy Brett McGurk in Doha, who later praised their cooperation, calling it a “very close partnership, even friendship”, according to the Washington Post.

Witkoff is now returning to the region, specifically Saudi Arabia, for the first US-Russian face-to-face talks over the war in Ukraine after Trump had his own call with Putin. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz are also attending.

But the bold moves made by Trump’s team are stirring concern among Western allies, who fear a new world order in which key players are shut out of discussions. Ukraine and other European nations were not invited to the Saudi meeting.

• Rubio and Witkoff to meet Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia
• Ukraine says it was not invited to US-Russia talks
• Trump welcomes freed schoolteacher back to US from Russia
• Trump team’s messaging on foreign policy leaves world guessing

So, who is Witkoff – dubbed by US media as “the man in the room”, taking centre stage as more potentially consequential international talks take place?

He was one of Trump’s first picks for his top team after his presidential election win in November. Trump wrote: “Steve will be an unrelenting voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”

“The president sees Steve as one of the world’s great dealmakers,” a White House official told Axios. Witkoff’s preferred negotiating tactic was to use charm, according to another associate, but he could also turn up the pressure.

The 67-year-old was raised in Long Island, New York and trained as a real estate developer in one of America’s most cut-throat markets.

As a long-time Republican donor, he has known Trump for decades, and, like the president, made his fortune in real estate in both New York and Florida.

Addressing last year’s Republican National Convention, during which he recalled speaking to Trump in the aftermath of an assassination attempt, Witkoff called the other man his “true and dear friend… in good times and bad times”.

The two men are also long-time golfing companions, US Senator Lindsey Graham told NBC News. “Steve and I would be the two guys who would play Trump and somebody else, and lose,” Graham said.

It was during a shared golfing session in Florida last September that another alleged would-be Trump attacker was foiled by the Secret Service. Trump said he and Witkoff were bundled into golf carts as agents moved to counter a suspect in the bushes.

Graham also said that Witkoff first mentioned his interest in becoming Middle East envoy to Trump during a lunchtime conversation. “That stunned me, because I didn’t know he was interested in the Mideast,” Graham said.

Witkoff’s remit as Middle East envoy is also reported to include diplomacy with Iran. People familiar with the matter told the Financial Times he had been chosen to spearhead a nuclear deal with Tehran as part of a broader plan to “stop the wars” in the region.

Witkoff’s deal-making skills were on display during Trump’s 2024 campaign. He helped to ease tension between Trump and his defeated Republican presidential primary rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Witkoff also reportedly met Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to smooth things over, after Kemp drew Trump’s scorn for refusing to support his unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 election which Trump lost to Biden.

He currently serves as chairman of the University of Miami’s business school real estate advisory board, and was appointed by Trump during his first term to the board of trustees of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

French President Emmanuel Macron got straight on the phone to Donald Trump and, separately, to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday night, after fellow leaders of Europe’s biggest military powers left the glittering Élysée Palace in Paris.

What achievements could the French president boast? Was his emergency security summit a success?

What frustrates Europe’s detractors is there’s rarely a clear answer. Different European nations speak with different voices, though they share many values and goals.

But in the current climate of black-and-white thinking prevalent in Washington and Moscow, where the world is divided into the powerful and the weak, European nuance can count as weakness.

Under that unforgiving spotlight, Monday’s meeting failed.

Leaders had raised expectations. The summit dominated headlines as soon as it was called.

The head of the West’s defence alliance Nato, European Union chiefs and leaders of Europe’s most influential military nations scrambled together at speed.

They wanted to hijack Donald Trump’s attention. To impress him. To elbow themselves a seat at the negotiating table at the peace talks he plans with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to discuss the future of Ukraine.

Europe was – it still is – smarting at being sidelined.

Ukraine is a European nation. Its fate will impact the whole continent.

Depending how bullish President Vladimir Putin emerges from any peace talks, Europe’s security services fear he could turn his attention to upending the sovereignty of other nations.

The Baltic states that neighbour Russia feel particularly exposed.

But leaders didn’t help their case on Monday.

Yes, they say they’ll spend more on their own defence, as Donald Trump demands. Despite domestic concerns about limited government budgets and a cost of living crisis.

The Paris meeting even discussed the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine to oversee an eventual ceasefire – unthinkable even a few weeks ago for Europe.

That’s what the US president wants.

But ultimately those leaders in Paris failed to deliver a strong, united, sum-it-up-in-a-line-tweet response, that might have made the impatient businessman-cum-US president sit up and really take notice.

The reasons for this are many, despite the sense of urgency in Europe about Ukraine and European security more broadly.

A number of Europe’s leaders are furious at feeling they have to dance to Donald Trump’s tune.

The frustration that poured out of the mouth of the normally phlegmatic German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was palpable when he left the Paris meeting.

“It is completely premature and a completely wrong time to have this discussion [on sending European troops to Ukraine] now. I’m even a little irritated by these debates.”

He insisted that there must be equal division between the US and Europe on responsibilities in Ukraine.

Scholz is likely to be out of a job soon. There are elections in Germany on Sunday, which he is widely expected to lose.

He’s had a couple of uncharacteristically emotional outbursts at home too of late, presumably under the strain.

Still, it’s important to note that he is far from alone amongst European leaders, who suspect Donald Trump is in a hurry to wash his hands of Ukraine and pivot his attention elsewhere. Perhaps China?

They worry too that the US president not only intends to deplete the defence umbrella his country has offered its European allies since the end of World War Two, but that Europe may now need to defend itself against him and his policies.

The tone the UK prime minister struck after the Paris meeting was in stark contrast to these darker European broodings.

He is openly keen to use the “special relationship” the UK hopes it still has with Washington as a bridge between Europe and the US.

One that Sir Keir Starmer is determined not to burn, telling voters at home that European security was in their national interest .

He appeared determinedly unfazed at Russia’s face-to-face preparation talks with the US in Saudi Arabia.

No date for that big-ticket summit between Trump and Putin has yet been set.

Sir Keir hopes to grab a window of opportunity to press Europe’s case when he heads to Washington for a meeting of his own with the US president next week.

The US must stay by its allies’ side, the Prime Minister has declared.

If it doesn’t, Europe’s leaders will have to keep meeting till they can agree a way forward for Ukraine and their common security.

Should they fail again, long shadows over the stability of this continent will grow.

In Japan, there’s a word to describe a shelf full of books you’ve bought but never read – .

Video gaming has its own version of this.

The backlog.

Most console or PC owners probably have one – an ever-growing collection of unfinished or even unplayed titles.

There are websites allowing players to catalogue their digital cabinets of shame, and Reddit support groups sharing tips on how to shrink them.

It’s a thing. And a symptom of a potentially bigger problem.

More games are being released than ever before, and blockbuster releases in particular have been getting longer.

Some estimates suggest that as few as 10% of those who buy a game make it to the end.

But are things starting to change?

Of the top 10 best-reviewed games since 2020, according to review aggregator Metacritic, five are estimated to take at least 60 hours to complete.

Analyst Rhys Elliott, from Midia Research says the trend towards longer games has been “an insidious creep over time”.

“Games got bigger each year, and then, over the span of 10 years it’s been an insane jump in game length.”

Rhys uses the popular Assassin’s Creed series as an example.

Earlier sequels would take about 25 to 30 hours to finish. But 2020 release Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, could take anything from 60 to 100-plus hours.

On paper, more game for your money sounds like a great deal.

But Rhys says games take longer and cost more than ever to make while the price players are charged for them hasn’t gone up as much.

Based on public data from major console makers and on PC store Steam, Rhys found that the longer a game is, the lower the number of players who finish it.

“And this suggests that the growing development timelines and budgets that are fuelling these longer games have reached a point of diminishing returns,” he says.

Rhys has previously published research arguing that companies would be better off making shorter games.

“If game developers cut the length of a game like Assassin’s Creed by 20%, most players would never notice.”

There is another option – give players a choice.

Carrie Patel is the game director of Avowed – released on Xbox and PC this week – at developer Obsidian.

The Microsoft-owned studio has a long history in the role-playing game (RPG) genre, and has been behind hits including The Outer Worlds and Fallout: New Vegas.

RPGs generally take dozens of hours to finish, but Carrie says the studio has tried to design Avowed to accommodate players who might want a shorter game.

“I’ve definitely heard a sentiment on many of our teams, and from our player base, of: ‘Oh, good! A game I can actually finish’,” she says.

Reviewers have suggested a quick playthrough of Avowed will take about 15 hours, and completing all its extra optional content will take 40 or more.

That’s in line with some of the studio’s previous titles, but with Avowed the developers have been keen to point out it’s a game that “respects player’s time”.

“We know everybody has plenty of options, plenty of things to do with their time,” says Carrie.

“So we want everything that they find in our games to feel worth their time.”

Games don’t have to contain hundreds of hours of content for them to be big hits.

Some fans complained when they learned that 2023 PS5 title Spider-Man 2 – a full-priced release – could be fully completed in just under 30 hours.

But the game reviewed well and broke a sales record for Sony – a case of quality over-riding quantity.

It’s an approach that chimes with Carrie.

“I don’t think most people are looking for something just to kill a few hours,” she says.

“They want a really immersive, valuable experience.”

Analyst Rhys says this is a “smart” approach.

“If you just want to blast through it, you can go for it, and you still get the full experience.

“And I think we’ll probably see a little bit more of this kind of experimentation going forward.”

Which begs the question – why do companies make them so long in the first place?

Even with a game like Avowed, a good number of players will see only a fraction of what the game has to offer.

Carrie admits: “There’s always this little voice in the back of your head that says: ‘But what about the players who are going to skip this?’

“And so you always want to make sure that you have those exit ramps for people who are less interested in getting into the weeds.

“But I can make sure that the people who are going to look for it, who are going to engage with it are going to have the best possible time with it.”

Zeeshan Ali has been a drag artist for 10 years and has taken his show all over India.

Central to his performance is a collection of around 45 wigs.

“It’s an alter of identity, helping me transition from my everyday self into exaggerated, glamorous or whimsical characters. The right wig makes me feel more authentic and empowers me to command the stage,” says Ali, who is based in Mumbai.

But getting that look right wasn’t easy in the early days.

“When I started my career the accessibility of the wigs was extremely difficult in India. Most of them were to be sourced from abroad or I used to make wigs sourced from whatever was available to me like wool, fabric,” he says.

But things are different now.

“The trend is changing. Wigs are no longer just meant for drag or movie artists, but many straight women wear wigs to look different. It’s no longer just a hair accessory but a style statement.”

Indian hair has always been in demand for wig-making. The nation is the world’s biggest exporter of human hair, supplying 85% of global demand.

Kolachi Venkatesh, based in Avadi, Chennai, has been collecting hair for 20 years. He started at the bottom of the industry as a picker – collecting hair from households and rescuing it from the rubbish.

“My parents were hair pickers and then I started doing the same,” he says.

Hair collected by pickers from homes, salons and barbershops is called non-Remy hair.

It requires more processing than Remy hair, which is carefully shaved straight from the scalp. Nevertheless, it has value.

“It’s just thrown away but it’s gold,” says Mr Venkatesh.

Those pickers typically sell hair to local traders like Mr Venkatesh for between 10 cents and $1 (£0.80) per kilogram, depending on the quality and length of the hair.

Shorter or damaged hair fetches less, while longer strands bring higher prices.

For the individual picker, there’s not much money in it.

“A diligent collector might gather 1–5 kilograms of hair in a day, earning anywhere from 59 cents to $6 per day. This income level is often below minimum wage standards, particularly in rural areas,” says Mr Venkatesh, who has 50 pickers working for him.

“While our work contributes to a billion-dollar global market our earnings remain meagre. Intermediaries control prices.”

Most of the Indian hair collected by traders like Mr Venkatesh is exported to China where it is made into wigs.

“China has a huge wigmaking industry which is worth five to six billion dollars,” says Benjamin Cherian from Plexconcil, the hair industry body that promotes the Indian industry and liaises with the government.

If India wants a slice of the lucrative wig market, he says, then it has a lot of catching up to do.

“When we look at China there are hundreds of factories spread across the country which add value to the hair industry, whereas in India the value addition still needs to be picked up,” Mr Cherian says.

He says the government needs to help promote investment in the hair industry.

“It needs automated sorting systems, sophisticated hair treatment procedures for the hair collected, innovative production techniques for manufacturing of wigs which will make India stand out.”

Instead of exporting hair for hundreds of dollars, India should be selling wigs worth thousands of dollars says Mr Cherian.

“We have started working on it but it’s a long way to go. We need to have research and training centres,” he says.

One Indian business trying to make inroads is Delhi-based Diva Divine Hair, co-founded by Krishan Jalani in 2019.

It is currently managed by chief executive and co-founder Nidhi Tiwari.

The idea was to create high-quality hair extensions and wigs that would appeal to a broader range of customers.

“There is a growing need for these solutions due to rising issues of hair loss and thinning among women in India,” says Ms Tiwari.

The company has been helped by a shift in attitude.

“Once considered a niche or taboo topic, wigs and extensions are now openly discussed, thanks to evolving social norms and a shift toward acceptance,” she says.

Wigs have also seen a lot of development making them more attractive and comfortable.

“Technologies such as 3D-printed wigs and digital colour-matching tools offer highly personalised options. Lightweight, breathable wig caps and improved adhesives have given customers to wear it for long time without discomfort,” says Ms Tiwari.

At the top end of the hair market is Temple or Remy hair.

Much of the supply comes from Hindu temples in the south of the country where hair is shaved off in an act of veneration and faith.

Raj Hair International is one of the biggest traders in the Temple hair business.

Craftsmen at the company’s Chennai factory sort and grade the hair according to colour, texture and length.

“Remy hair has aligned cuticles, hair flows uniformly in one direction, which leads to less tangling and a silkier texture. This is high-value hair,” says George Cherion, the company’s chief executive.

The firm tries to waste as little of the hair as possible. To help with that it developed a machine to untangle the hair. It’s allowed them to work faster with fewer staff.

“Our mission is to constantly upgrade the technology,” says Mr Cherion.

Business is booming.

“Indian human is in demand globally due to its high quality, natural look, and thinness. The demand is skyrocketing,” he says.

Back in Mumbai Zeeshan Ali wants to see more Indian wigs on the market.

As well as making them more affordable, he has a design suggestion: “A wig that can create a wow factor.”

A top 10 single, Grammy award and a breathing exercise that’s gone viral.

The last few weeks for American rapper Doechii have been quite something.

Or, in her words: “It’s like now my dreams aren’t dreams anymore. They’re reality.

“I just feel like I’m walking on the ceiling right now,” she tells Radio 1’s New Music Show.

The 26-year-old won this year’s best rap album Grammy for Alligator Bites Never Heal – only the third female artist to do so.

And the infectious “breathin’ exercise” outro from her hit single Denial is a River has got millions of people trying to emulate the “Uh-uh-ooh, uh-uh-ah, uh, uh, uh, ah…” lyric.

After all that, you could forgive her for wanting to take a step back and reflect, but she insists that’s not her style.

She says her first thought when she woke up, post-Grammy win, was that she “wants to work and get in the studio”.

Doechii considers making music like “working a muscle” in the gym.

“Some days you have days where you hit the gym and you’re sore and then you have those days where you’re really on fire.

“That’s what art is and that’s what pushing the pin is for me,” she says.

The Florida-born artist rose to prominence with the viral 2021 hit Yucky Blucky Fruitcake, after which she toured with SZA and Doja Cat.

And she says “at the front of everything” is thinking “a song a day”.

“It doesn’t need to be a good song, it just needs to be a song.

“And eventually, things will come out and I can make a project out of that.”

She adds taking “small risks” is important.

“And you try things little by little, and then eventually those risks get bigger and bigger and bigger.

“And you trust yourself, you build a confidence and that’s kind of how you establish who you are,” Doechii says.

When Doechii does have a block in making music, she says it’s because “I’m criticising myself”.

“I’m critiquing the work. And it’s like, don’t critique the work. Just get the work done and move on.”

Dealing with criticism, whether it’s from herself or outside, is something she’s aware of.

Her speech after winning her Grammy was recognised for its message to black women.

“Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you,” she told the audience.

“To tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark, or that you’re not smart enough, or that you’re too dramatic, or you’re too loud. You are exactly who you need to be, to be right where you are, and I am a testimony right now.”

Speaking to 1Xtra’s Remi Burgz, she adds the intention was to tell people to trust “your inner voice”.

“And not allowing what other people say… to stunt your growth.”

While it has been a joyous past few months, there is a focus on the future.

There will be an album, Doechii says, but also dreams of a Super Bowl performance “inspired” by Kendrick Lamar.

She says his “story and messaging” was on another level and is “in awe of his ability to create a performance that has a story and message”.

“But it’s still digestible for people. He’s a master at that and I’m always inspired.”

But when she thinks back to a year ago and where she was in her career, she recalls the words of American rapper ScHoolboy Q as advice for anyone in a similar position.

“You’ll know an album is done when you have nothing left to say. You’ve bared everything.

“And I think that’s a powerful message, because you keep writing until you’ve gotten it all out,” she says.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.

Passengers have described their amazement after most of them escaped unscathed from a plane that crash landed in Toronto on Monday afternoon.

The Delta flight skidded along the runway in flames before flipping over and coming to a dramatic halt upside down, losing its tail and an entire wing in the process.

Some of the 80 people on board were then left hanging upside down while still strapped to their seats, before they scrambled over luggage to escape onto the snowy runway.

No deaths have been reported after the incident, which is under investigation.

Analysts have suggested the harsh winter weather may be to blame, or that the plane may have hit something. They have also credited the plane’s safety features with saving lives.

The incident took place shortly after 14:00 local time on Monday (19:00 GMT).

It involved a model CRJ-900 plane, operating as Delta Air Lines flight DL4819.

The aircraft arrived at Toronto from the US city of Minneapolis and was carrying 76 passengers and four crew members.

As it landed, the plane appears to have struck the runway, slid for some distance and then flipped over, observed Dan Ronan, a journalist and pilot licensed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who spoke to BBC News.

Footage obtained by TMZ showed part of the aircraft bursting into flames as the landing happened. Firefighters rushed to put these out.

Passenger Pete Carlson told broadcaster CBC it was “a very forceful event”, recalling the sound of “concrete and metal” at the moment of impact.

He and others on board were suspended upside down in their seats, and had to release themselves onto the cabin ceiling before leaving the inverted aircraft.

All 80 people on board survived. On Tuesday morning, Delta said 21 injured passengers were initially transported to local hospitals – with 19 later released.

Delta has promised to give more updates.

• All passengers survive crash landing in Toronto
• Witnesses recount lucky escape
• Did you witness the plane crash? Contact us

The right wing may have struck the runway or an item on it, such as a light, Mr Ronan suggested.

The weather may also have been significant. The airport fire chief stated that the runway was dry at the time of the incident.

Airport authorities had said earlier that although recent heavy snow had stopped, “frigid temperatures and high winds [were] moving in”.

As the plane came in to land, air traffic controllers told the pilots of 38mph (61km/h) gusts and the possibility of a “slight bump in the glide path”, CNN reported.

The pilots appear to have attempted what is known as a crab manoeuvre, Mr Ronan said. This involves turning a plane into the wind, and then directly onto the runway at the last moment.

Marco Chan, a former pilot and a senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University in the UK, agreed that the aircraft was banking to the right, and appeared to have made a hard landing – meaning a high rate of descent.

It seems to have touched down with one wheel first, Mr Chan told the BBC, which might have caused the landing gear to collapse on impact. This could have lead to the right wing hitting the runway and in turn causing the plane to roll.

BBC Verify has analysed recordings of communications between the plane and air traffic control.

At no point in discussions was there anything to suggest trouble was anticipated with the landing.

This was confirmed by Mr Chan, and a plane crash investigator Ismo Aaltonen, who also listened to the audio recording.

“The sheer survivability of this is really amazing,” Mr Ronan told the BBC, pointing out that the aeroplane’s fuselage (body) had stayed intact.

He also highlighted the importance of the plane’s high-impact 16G seats, which he said were “designed to absorb a great deal of punishment”.

Other commentators also hailed the craft’s safety features. CNN analyst and former FAA inspector David Soucie said the plane had broken apart as it had meant to, with the detachment the wings stopping the fuselage ripping apart.

Graham Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at the UK’s Cranfield University, said planes were also designed so that air passengers involved in an accident did not hit things likely to cause injury.

“Even the design of the seat back or the tray table is all part of how we consider making that survivable space,” he told the BBC. “And the seatbelt that people have is so important – that is the ultimate thing that stops people being thrown around the cabin like this,” he added.

The flight attendants have also been praised for getting everyone off the flipped aeroplane quickly. Emergency crews on the ground were labelled “heroic” by the airport chief after reaching the crash site in a matter of minutes.

Mr Carlson said the passengers themselves had worked together very effectively. “What I saw was everyone on that plane suddenly became very close in terms of how to help one another, how to console one another,” he said.

This marks the fourth major air crash in North America in less than a month, and other recent incidents remain under investigation.

• All 67 people on board a passenger aeroplane and military helicopter died after the two aircraft collided in mid-air near Washington DC on 29 January
• Seven people were killed on 1 February when a medical transportation plane carrying six people crashed in Philadelphia. Another person was killed on the ground
• All 10 people were killed when a small plane came down in Alaska on 6 February

Those incidents followed another high-profile crash in South Korea in December, in which 179 people were killed.

Despite these, experts say air travel remains overwhelmingly safe – and increasingly so.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says there were 257 fatal accidents in the US in 2024, compared with 362 in 2014.

Depending on how you read it, New Zealand’s latest tourism tagline can be a well-meaning plea for people to visit – or a threat to kick Kiwis out.

“Everyone Must Go!” reads a slogan printed across posters of people in New Zealand’s majestic landscapes – part of a NZ$500,000 ($285,000; £227,000) campaign unveiled on Sunday.

But what was meant as a catchy call to action aimed at Australian tourists has been accused of being tone-deaf, as New Zealand deals with record emigration rates and unemployment.

The government has defended the campaign, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying he “[appreciates] there’s lots of chat about whether everyone loves the slogan or not”.

“The fact that we’re talking about it is a good thing. It’s a great thing,” he added.

Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, tourism spokesperson for the opposition Labour Party, told local news outlet Radio New Zealand (RNZ) that the new slogan “makes New Zealand sound like we’re in a clearance bin at a sale”.

“The irony of that messaging is, that’s how Aotearoa New Zealanders are feeling right now,” she said, pointing to the “many cuts” that residents have experienced.

Job cuts to the public sector over the past year, as part of the government’s austerity push, have affected thousands of people.

Meanwhile, people are moving out of the country in record numbers. Official figures show that there were nearly 130,000 departures last year – though that was offset by the arrival of nearly 160,000 immigrants.

“New Zealanders are voting with their feet, leaving in record high numbers,” Labour MP Barbara Edmonds wrote on X on Monday. “Is their real tourism plan ‘Everyone Must Go’ – for Kiwis?”

Others associated the slogan with demand for lavatories.

“I think ‘Everyone Must Go’ might refer to the need for toilets in some of our high-tourist spots. I mean, the queues are ridiculous,” Green Party MP Celia Wade-Brown told RNZ.

“They don’t go kayaking, they don’t go diving, but, my goodness, they queue at the toilets.”

Tourism minister Louise Upston said in a statement on Sunday that “the campaign tagline of ‘Everyone must go’ lets Australia know that New Zealand is a ‘must visit’ destination, and that we’re ready and waiting to welcome them now”.

New Zealand’s tourism numbers have yet to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, and authorities are channelling efforts into attracting visitors from neighbouring Australia, its largest source of tourists.

Last year, New Zealand welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors from Australia. But Upston said visitors numbers were only 88% of that in 2019.

Luxon said he hoped the latest campaign would boost Australian visitor numbers by 5%.

“It would be totally and utterly tragic if those Australians don’t get here before they do die,” he said.

The month-long tourism campaign is set to start on Thursday.

A couple in north-east Pakistan has been detained on suspicion of murdering a 13-year-old girl who worked for them as a maid, for allegedly stealing chocolates.

The girl who goes only by one name, Iqra, succumbed to multiple injuries in hospital last Wednesday. A preliminary police investigation said she had been tortured.

The case in Rawalpindi has sparked widespread outrage and posts with the hashtag #JusticeforIqra having garnered tens of thousands of views, and reignited a debate over child labour and the mistreatment of domestic workers.

Laws pertaining to child labour can vary across the country, but children under the age of 15 cannot be employed as domestic workers in the province of Punjab.

“I felt completely shattered inside when she died,” Iqra’s father, Sana Ullah, told the BBC.

He said that he had received a call from the police about Iqra last Wednesday. When he rushed to the hospital, he saw Iqra lying on a bed, unconscious. She died minutes later.

Iqra began working as a maid from the age of eight. Her father, a 45-year-old farmer, said he had sent her to work because he was in debt.

After working for a few employers, she went to work for the couple two years ago, who have eight children of their own. She was earning about £23 ($28) per month.

Police said Iqra had been accused of stealing chocolates from her employers, adding that a preliminary investigation showed that Iqra had been tortured.

Police also say there was evidence of frequent abuse. Pictures and videos obtained by the BBC showed multiple fractures in her legs and arms, as well as a serious injury to her head.

An autopsy is being conducted to assess the full extent of her injuries, and the police has told the BBC that they were still awaiting the final medical report.

“My heart cries tears of blood. How many… are subjected to violence in their homes every day for a trivial job of a few thousand?” activist Shehr Bano wrote on X. “How long will the poor continue to lower their daughters into graves in this way?”

Others have pointed out that her murder was allegedly triggered by something so minor.

“She died over chocolate?” asked one Pakistani user on X.

“This is not just a crime, it’s a reflection of [a] system that enables [the] rich to treat [the] poor as disposable,” another said.

Iqra’s employers, Rashid Shafiq and his wife Sana, have been arrested, along with a Quran teacher, who worked for the family. The teacher had brought Iqra to the hospital and left after telling hospital staff that the girl’s father had died and her mother was not around.

Police told the BBC it was unclear if she believed this to be the truth.

Iqra’s father says he wants to see “those responsible for my daughter’s death punished”.

Despite the public outrage such cases usually garner, they are typically settled out of court and it’s rare for suspects to be successfully prosecuted.

In 2018, a judge and his wife were sentenced to three years in jail for torturing their then 10-year-old maid in what had been a highly publicised case that sparked outrage across the country. But they later had their sentences reduced to one year.

Tayyaba was found with severe injuries, which the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science said included burns to her hands and feet. Pictures of the girl also showed cuts and bruising to her face, along with a swollen left eye. She told prosecutors she was beaten for losing a broom.

Under Pakistani law, victims or their families have the right to forgive suspects in a number of serious crimes. To do so, they have to state in court that they forgive a suspect “in the name of God”.

In reality, legal observers say that the primary motive for that “forgiveness” is normally financial, and paying victims is not illegal.

About 3.3 million children in Pakistan are engaged in child labour, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). Moreover, women and young girls make up the vast majority of Pakistan’s 8.5 million domestic workers, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Detained Britons Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged in Iran with espionage, the country’s judiciary news agency has said.

Mr and Mrs Foreman were arrested in January but news of their detention, on unspecified security charges, emerged last week.

Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said that the couple, both aged 52, had “entered Iran under the guise of tourists” and “gathered information in multiple provinces of the country”.

The pair moved from East Sussex to start a new life in Andalucia, Spain, in 2019 and had appeared on an episode of Channel 4’s A New Life in the Sun in 2022 to showcase their lives as expats.

The couple had been on a motorbike trip around the world and had planned to stay in Iran for five days before they were charged with espionage, or spying, by Iranian authorities.

Mr and Mrs Foreman were heading for Australia on their journey across the globe and had crossed into Iran from Armenia on 30 December and were planning to be in Pakistan by 4 January.

In a series of social media posts before they were detained, the couple described their joy at being in Iran.

Lindsay Foreman, a life coach with a doctorate in psychology, said she was “having an amazing time”.

Her husband Craig, who is a carpenter, spoke of the “lovely people” of a “lovely country”.

Announcing the charges, Mr Jahangir said that the couple had been under surveillance by provincial intelligence agencies and were “subsequently arrested as part of a coordinated intelligence operation”.

He added: “These individuals were co-operating with front organisations linked to the intelligence services of hostile and Western countries under the pretence of research and investigative activities.”

The chief justice of Kerman province, Hojatoleslam wal-Muslimeen Hamidi, said: “According to intelligence and security agency monitoring, the connection of these individuals with several institutions affiliated with intelligence services has been confirmed, and further investigations are ongoing.”

Alison Smith, a former neighbour of the couple, described them as “just normal family people”.

Ms Smith told the BBC she was a “bit surprised” by the couple’s decision to travel to Iran, but said they probably “thought they were going to be going on an adventure”.

They had been on “loads of adventures” in the past, Ms Smith said.

“They went all over the place,” she said, describing the pair as “very sporty, very adventurous”.

The Foreign Office’s official advice is against all travel to Iran, saying British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at “significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention”.

Having a British passport or connections to the UK “can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you”, it adds.

In recent years, Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency, mostly on spying and national security charges. At least 15 have had links to the UK.

Human rights groups say they are often held as leverage, released only when Iran receives something in return.

Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years, said Foreign Office travel advice would be “clearer” if it reflected the “risks of hostage-taking” in the country.

All 80 people on board a plane which crashed and overturned while landing in Toronto have survived, officials said.

The Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis skidded along the runway with flames visible and it came to a halt upside down as firefighters came to the rescue.

Survivors said they were suspended upside down in their seats and had to release themselves, dropping on to the ceiling before clambering out on to the snow-covered tarmac.

Eighteen people were injured but only a small number are thought to be seriously hurt, and investigators are looking into what caused the crash.

There were 76 passengers and four crew on board the 16-year-old CRJ900 aircraft, made by Canada’s Bombardier company.

In an evening briefing, Deborah Flint of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority called the response by emergency personnel “textbook” and credited them with helping ensure no loss of life.

• Why did the plane crash in Toronto, and how did everyone survive?
• ‘I’ve been in a plane crash’ – survivors tell their stories
• Did you witness the plane crash? Contact us

The US Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was operated by Delta’s subsidiary Endeavor Air.

Delta said the incident happened at about 14:15 ET (19:15 GMT) on Monday.

Twenty-two passengers were Canadian nationals and the rest were “multinational”, Ms Flint said.

The airport was closed after the incident, but flights into and out of Toronto Pearson resumed at about 17:00 local time.

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said it was working to “gather information and assess the occurrence”.

Two runways will remain closed for several days for investigation and passengers have been told to expect some delays.

Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken said “the runway was dry and there was no cross-wind conditions”.

That contradicted earlier reports of wind gusts of more than 64km/h (40mph) and a crosswind.

Video footage shared on social media shows people clambering out of the overturned aircraft, with fire crews spraying it with foam.

Passenger John Nelson told CNN that there was no indication of anything unusual before landing.

“We skidded on our side, then flipped over on our back,” he said, adding that “there was a big fire ball out the left side of the plane”.

Like Mr Nelson, Ashley Zook took immediately to social media to express her disbelief, filming herself saying: “I was just in a plane crash. Oh my God.”

Of the eighteen people taken to hospital, a child, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 40s suffered the worst injuries, said Ontario air ambulance service Ornge.

After the crash, the airport’s arrival and departure boards showed scores of delays and cancellations to flights. Some passengers told the BBC that they were now stuck in Toronto for days.

James and Andrea Turner were in customs – located right before the departure gates – when they were suddenly told to evacuate.

“They got rid of everybody from customs to security, and then put everybody back to the general area,” James said, adding that the departures hall was packed as a result.

Toronto Pearson Airport had been experiencing weather-related delays over the last few days, with heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures battering parts of Ontario.

Two storms – one on Wednesday and one on Sunday – covered the city with a total of 30-50cm (11.8-19.6 inches) of snow.

The BBC’s US partner CBS reports that there was light snow falling at the time of the crash.

Earlier on Monday, the airport warned that “frigid temperatures and high winds were moving in”.

It said a “busy day” was expected, with airlines “catching up after this weekend’s snowstorm”.

The crash is at least the fourth major aviation incident in North America in the past month.

The worst was a deadly in-air collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter near Washington DC which killed all 67 people on board.

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has announced a new identity for her lifestyle brand, which will be called As Ever.

Despite the social media teasers showing celebrities with pots of jam from Meghan, the previous brand name American Riviera Orchard seems to have reached a sticky end.

On a social media post, Meghan said the newly-named product range would be a joint project with Netflix, which is showing her cooking and lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan next month.

“‘As ever’ means ‘as it’s always been’ or some even say ‘in the same way as always,'” said Meghan’s post.

The recorded message, delivered in close-up by Meghan, emphasises the continuity with her former, pre-royal, lifestyle blog, the Tig.

She said that the new venture would be “beautifully weaving together everything I cherish – food, gardening, entertaining, thoughtful living, and finding joy in the everyday”.

Prince Harry, who has been at the Invictus Games in Canada, is heard briefly off-camera in the background of the recording of the Instagram posting. Their three-year-old daughter Lilibet is also seen in the distance, against a sunny Pacific sky, on the accompanying As Ever website.

The previous name American Riviera Orchard had been a reference to the part of California where she lives with Prince Harry – and Meghan said it “limited me to things which were manufactured and grown in this area”.

That name had been promoted since April 2024, when celebrities published pictures on Instagram of jars of strawberry jam, in a launch that tried to preserve a sense of mystery.

But there had also been reports of delays because of trademark problems with the original title.

If this latest announcement means the lid is going to come off a new jam war, the Californian contender will be up against Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle Strawberry Preserve, both at £7 and Highgrove Organic Preserve at £6.95.

The new As Ever brand will be a partnership with Netflix, with reports that the TV company is going to open shopping outlets which will sell merchandising connected to its shows.

“Of course there will be fruit preserves, I think we’re all clear at this point that jam is my jam,” said Meghan.

“But there’s so many more products that I just love that I use in my home and now it’s time to share it with you, so I can’t wait for you to see it.”

The launch of Meghan’s TV show was delayed by the wildfires in California, with the US state the backdrop for the series, which is expected to be a mix of cooking, hosting tips and celebrity friends and is due to run on Netflix from 4 March.

It is five years since Meghan and Prince Harry stepped down as working royals, becoming financially independent in the United States. Meghan says in her social media post, she has “poured my heart into” this forthcoming product range.

Meghan divides public opinion, with strong reactions on social media from supporters and opponents. Her fans have saluted her independence and creativity, while her opponents have already labelled the brand as “whatever”.

Appropriately, she signed off her own post: “As ever, Meghan.”

Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis straight to your inbox every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Three Americans and two Russians made up the two teams at the talks in Saudi Araba that have underscored an end to Western isolation of Moscow.

The men described the meeting as preparing the groundwork for broader “high-level” talks and agreed to reset their countries’ diplomatic relations.

Who are they and what significance will they play in the rapprochement between the two powers?

As US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio faced his veteran Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The pair had already spoken over the phone three days earlier.

Rubio has long sought an end to the war in Ukraine and voted against a $6bn US military aid package in 2024. He sees China as America’s biggest adversary and believes Beijing is happy for the US to be “bogged down in Europe”.

He has cautioned that “one meeting is not going to solve [the war]”, describing the Saudi talks as a first step towards negotiations. And he has made clear that both Ukraine and Europe will have to be involved too.

National security adviser Mike Waltz believes the US deserves “some type of payback” for the billions it has paid out to Ukraine during three years of full-scale war.

Not only does he believe that Europeans have to “own this conflict” in terms of future security guarantees. He also thinks Ukraine should share its mineral wealth in partnership with the US “in terms of their rare earths, their natural resources, and their oil and gas”.

Steve Witkoff is more of an unknown quantity. Although these are the first official talks between Russia and the US for almost two years, Witkoff was the man Donald Trump chose to send to Moscow only last week for talks with Vladimir Putin.

Ostensibly, he’s Trump’s Middle East envoy, but clearly the president’s former golf partner is far more significant than that and he is being seen as the president’s loyal and favoured dealmaker.

He was part of talks on forging Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas but was then sent to Russia to help with the exchange of US prisoner Marc Fogel for a Russian, Alexander Vinnik, in jail in America.

Russia chose two top diplomats for this initial exchange of views.

Both are veterans and know the US well: Putin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister since 2004.

They have also helped Putin steer his foreign policy during three years of war.

As former ambassador to the US, 77-year-old Yuri Ushakov has a good idea of how to talk to Washington. Within days of Donald Trump’s return to the White House he made clear Russia was ready for talks if the US sent “relevant signals”.

Days before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he accused the Biden administration of peak “hysteria” in suggesting Russian troops were preparing to go to war.

As Russia’s standing with the West plummeted in 2022, it fell to Sergei Lavrov to promote his country on the international stage. He took part in doomed ceasefire talks with Ukraine shortly after the full-scale war began and even denied there had been an invasion.

A third Russian was not in the room, but Kirill Dmitriev’s presence in the delegation is a mark of just how important Vladimir Putin sees the economic potential of the Saudi talks.

Dmitriev, 49, is head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and told reporters he would focus on future economic relations with the US: “We also need to make joint projects, including, for example, in the Arctic Region, and in other areas.”

Significantly, Dmitriev played a key role in working with Steve Witkoff in the prisoner exchange that preceded Trump’s phone-call with Putin last week, along with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman.

Dmitriev has close connections to Putin’s family – his wife is close to one of Putin’s daughters.

And few Russians know America’s finance and business sector better than Dmitriev, as a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and a graduate of Harvard Business School.

Although he is adamant Russia’s economy is doing well, 43% of the budget is going on the war and internal security, inflation is just under 10% and interest rates have hit 21%.

The two Saudi hosts chaired the start of the meeting but did not stay in the room.

Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has played an active role as top Saudi diplomat this year, visiting Lebanon and Europe and hosting an international meeting aimed at lifting sanctions on Syria.

Saudi national security adviser Musaed al-Aiban has also played a prominent part in promoting Saudi ties with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Although Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman takes the lead on foreign policy, these two men are regularly by his side.

Sir Keir Starmer has said any Ukraine peace deal would require a “US backstop” to deter Russia from attacking its neighbour again.

Speaking after a hastily convened meeting with European leaders in Paris, he said a “US security guarantee was the only way to effectively deter Russia”, and vowed to discuss the “key elements” of a peace deal with US President Donald Trump in Washington next week.

The prime minister repeated that he would consider deploying UK troops to Ukraine in the event of a lasting peace agreement.

But Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a key Nato ally, said for his part, discussing sending troops to Ukraine at present was “completely premature”.

• Follow updates as US and Russia talk in Saudi Arabia
• Can Europe and UK persuade Trump they’re relevant?
• Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia
• What each side wants from a peace deal

Sir Keir said Europe would “have to do more” to defend the continent in the face of the “generational” security challenge Russia posed.

He avoided explaining exactly what he meant by a “backstop” – but his allies suggest this could involve air support, logistics and intelligence capabilities.

The talks at the Élysée Palace were held to discuss concerns over the Trump administration’s decision to initiate peace talks with Russia – due to start in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday – alone.

Sir Keir was joined by the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, the presidents of the European Council and European Commission, and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv did not know about talks in Saudi Arabia and would not recognise any agreement made without its involvement.

US officials have suggested European nations would be consulted on peace talks with Russia, but not directly involved in them.

French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X in the early hours of Tuesday that he had “just spoken” with Trump and Zelensky.

“We will work on this together with all Europeans, Americans, and Ukrainians. This is the key,” he said, adding that he “will continue these discussions in the coming days”.

Prior to the meeting, the European leaders had also expressed concern after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said it was “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine would return to its borders before 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

Hegseth downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining Nato – something Sir Keir had said it was on an “irreversible” path towards – and said Europe would have to be primarily responsible for guaranteeing its own security going forward.

Sir Keir said the US was “not going to leave Nato” but that it was “time to take responsibility for our security, our continent”.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said transatlantic relations were in a “new stage”, and that the meeting had confirmed the time had come for “a much greater ability for Europe to defend itself”.

Sir Keir has indicated any troop contributions from the UK would be part of a multinational force to police the border between Ukrainian-held and Russian-held territory.

But experts say to do so effectively would be a massive undertaking that would require a large increase in defence spending.

Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute, said that, unlike UN peacekeeping forces there to observe, if the force being proposed was intended to deter Russian attacks, it would be a “whole different matter altogether”.

“You need credible, well-armed forces – and you not only need frontline forces, you need back-up forces, and air forces, and so on,” he told the BBC. “That’s a much bigger ask.”

General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, a former Nato commander, said: “This cannot be a token force, it cannot be something that observes bad behaviour and stands on the sideline.”

The former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt, previously estimated such a force would need around 100,000 troops – with the UK contributing about two-fifths.

“We just haven’t got that number available,” he said on Saturday, adding that getting the military into shape to perform this role would come at a considerable cost.

The UK currently spends around 2.3% of its total economic output on defence. The government has committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5%, but has not said when this will be achieved.

Sir Keir earlier told reporters that the government would set out a path to meeting the 2.5% commitment once it finishes its strategic defence review.

“Part of my message to our European allies is that we’ve all got to step up on both capability and on spending and funding,” he said.

“That includes the UK, which is why I’ve made that commitment to spend more.”

Some European figures have signalled their agreement with this.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Europe had to “step up” defence spending and support for Ukraine, as “Russia is threatening all of Europe now, unfortunately”, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for a “surge” in defence spending.

No 10 confirmed Sir Keir’s trip to Washington earlier on Monday, after a minister said the UK could serve as a “bridge” between the US and Europe.

The BBC understands the PM offered to host a follow-up meeting of European leaders following the Washington trip.

Poland’s Tusk has already indicated his nation would not send troops into Ukraine, but would continue to support it with military, financial and humanitarian aid.

UK government sources argue it is “no surprise” there was a difference of opinion between leaders, and that not every nation is willing to show their hand quite yet.

British diplomats do not believe every nation would need to commit to contributing troops – but some would. And whatever Europe’s eventual role, US involvement would still be required.

Prof Chalmers said: “Having significant numbers of Nato troops on Ukrainian soil after a ceasefire would be a failure for Russia, so it’s hard for me at this point to see Russia accepting such a presence as a part of the deal.”

Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey called on Sir Keir to recall Parliament to discuss plans to defend Ukraine.

Parliament is currently in recess and is due to reconvene on 24 February.

Sir Keir’s spokesperson said Parliament would be consulted “as appropriate” but this was “getting ahead of discussions” with other world leaders.

Fighting on the ground in Ukraine continued over the weekend, with at least three civilians killed in Russian strikes on Sunday, according to local authorities.

Several areas of Ukraine are under an emergency blackout following attacks on energy infrastructure, while Russia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones on Sunday night.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments.

It’ll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

South Korea has accused Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of sharing user data with the owner of TikTok in China.

“We confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance,” the South Korean data protection regulator told Yonhap News Agency.

The country had already removed DeepSeek from app stores over the weekend over data protection concerns.

The Chinese app caused shockwaves in the AI world in January, wiping billions off global stock markets over claims its new model was trained at a much lower cost than US rivals such as ChatGPT.

Since then, multiple countries have warned that user data may not be properly protected, and in February a US cybersecurity company alleged potential data sharing between DeepSeek and ByteDance.

DeepSeek’s apparent overnight impact saw it shoot to the top of App Store charts in the UK, US and many other countries around the world – although it now sits far below ChatGPT in UK rankings.

In South Korea, it had been downloaded over a million times before being pulled from Apple and Google’s App Stores on Saturday evening.

Existing users can still access the app and use it on a web browser.

The data regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency that despite finding a link between DeepSeek and ByteDance, it was “yet to confirm what data was transferred and to what extent”.

Critics of the Chinese state have long argued its National Intelligence Law allows the government to access any data it wants from Chinese companies.

However, ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing, is owned by a number of global investors – and others say the same law allows for the protection of private companies and personal data.

Fears over user data being sent to China was one of the reasons the US Supreme Court upheld a ban on TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance.

The US ban is on hold until 5 April as President Donald Trump attempts to broker a resolution.

• DeepSeek: The Chinese AI app that has the world talking
• What does Trump’s executive order mean for TikTok and who might buy it?

Cybersecurity company Security Scorecard published a blog on DeepSeek on 10 February which suggested “multiple direct references to ByteDance-owned” services.

“These references suggest deep integration with ByteDance’s analytics and performance monitoring infrastructure,” it said in its review of DeepSeek’s Android app.

Security Scorecard expressed concern that along with privacy risks, DeepSeek “user behaviour and device metadata [are] likely sent to ByteDance servers”.

It also found data “being transmitted to domains linked to Chinese state-owned entities”.

On Monday, South Korea’s PIPC said it “found out traffic generated by third-party data transfers and insufficient transparency in DeepSeek’s privacy policy”.

It said DeepSeek was cooperating with the regulator, and acknowledged it had failed to to take into account South Korean privacy laws.

But the regulator advised users “exercise caution and avoid entering personal information into the chatbot”.

South Korea has already followed a number of countries such as Australia and Taiwan in banning DeepSeek from government devices.

The BBC has contacted the PIPC, ByteDance and DeepSeek’s parent company, High Flyer, for a response.

A review of a controversial school sex survey which was first requested almost three years ago is to be published in the next month, the Scottish government has said.

It comes after the boss of the UK’s Office of Statistics Regulation (OSR) wrote to them demanding that the long-awaited review be published within 30 days.

The Scottish government’s Health and Wellbeing census first hit the headlines in 2021 after asking pupils as young as 14 about their sexual experiences.

The OSR wrote to the Scottish government in 2022 warning that they had “underestimated the significance” the survey would have for parents and calling for a review of how the questions were designed and the way it was tested.

In a strongly-worded letter seen by BBC Scotland News, the director of the OSR, Ed Humpherson, has now demanded that the government publish the review within 30 days.

He said it was key to providing users with important methodological information that would support transparency and trust in the Scottish government.

In response, the Scottish government said it would publish the review within the 30-day deadline.

It also said the chief statistician for Scotland – Alastair McAlpine – would reply to Mr Humpherson’s letter shortly.

In the letter, the UK stats watchdog boss told Mr McAlpine that the Code of Practice for Statistics set out a requirement for his role to show “independent decision-making and leadership”.

The code says that the chief statistician should have “sole authority” for deciding on methods, standards and procedures of official statistics.

Mr Humpherson asked Mr McAlpine to provide “assurance on the processes and governance within the Scottish government that allow you to carry out this role effectively”.

The Health and Wellbeing census was organised and promoted by the Scottish government but half of Scotland’s 32 councils pulled out following concerns about a lack of informed consent and worries over the anonymity of pupils.

In the end, about 130,000 pupils answered the questions online in classrooms and were told that their answers would not be shared.

The questions that were asked varied for different age groups but those in S4 (ages 14 and 15) were asked about their sexual relationships and contraception.

One question asks: “People have varying degrees of sexual experience. How much, if any, sexual experience have you had?”

The multiple choice answers include “oral sex” and “vaginal or anal sex”.

At the time of the survey, campaigners warned that it must protect children’s right to privacy and give informed consent.

However, consent was done on an “opt-out” basis, meaning parents or pupils had to specifically refuse to take part.

Parents said they were not told the nature of the questions in advance and were not asked to agree that their children’s private information could be shared.

Gavin Yates, the executive director of parents’ organisation Connect, said it was really disappointing that years later there still was not “full transparency” about the survey.

“Finding out what young people think is really important but data must be collected in an ethical, open way with proper opt-in consent,” he said.

“It’s clear that it’s time for the full review to be published so we can establish what happened and how protocols will need be changed to put things right.

“If the parents that initially raised this issue were listened to at the time then these matters could have been properly dealt with years ago.”

Tory MSP Jeremy Balfour wrote to UK Statistics Authority chairman Sir Robert Chote raising his concerns about data protection and sharing in the census.

Sir Robert said the procedures were the remit of the OSR but he noted that the Scottish government had been asked to review the approach it took to question development including the “legal and ethical governance arrangements that are in place for asking questions of each age range”.

He said it was “regrettable” the outcomes of the review had not yet been made public.

The intervention by the OSR comes two weeks after BBC Scotland News revealed that data from the survey was being advertised to external researchers.

The Scottish government later withdrew access to the data.

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has announced a new identity for her lifestyle brand, which will be called As Ever.

Despite the social media teasers showing celebrities with pots of jam from Meghan, the previous brand name American Riviera Orchard seems to have reached a sticky end.

On a social media post, Meghan said the newly-named product range would be a joint project with Netflix, which is showing her cooking and lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan next month.

“‘As ever’ means ‘as it’s always been’ or some even say ‘in the same way as always,'” said Meghan’s post.

The recorded message, delivered in close-up by Meghan, emphasises the continuity with her former, pre-royal, lifestyle blog, the Tig.

She said that the new venture would be “beautifully weaving together everything I cherish – food, gardening, entertaining, thoughtful living, and finding joy in the everyday”.

Prince Harry, who has been at the Invictus Games in Canada, is heard briefly off-camera in the background of the recording of the Instagram posting. Their three-year-old daughter Lilibet is also seen in the distance, against a sunny Pacific sky, on the accompanying As Ever website.

The previous name American Riviera Orchard had been a reference to the part of California where she lives with Prince Harry – and Meghan said it “limited me to things which were manufactured and grown in this area”.

That name had been promoted since April 2024, when celebrities published pictures on Instagram of jars of strawberry jam, in a launch that tried to preserve a sense of mystery.

But there had also been reports of delays because of trademark problems with the original title.

If this latest announcement means the lid is going to come off a new jam war, the Californian contender will be up against Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle Strawberry Preserve, both at £7 and Highgrove Organic Preserve at £6.95.

The new As Ever brand will be a partnership with Netflix, with reports that the TV company is going to open shopping outlets which will sell merchandising connected to its shows.

“Of course there will be fruit preserves, I think we’re all clear at this point that jam is my jam,” said Meghan.

“But there’s so many more products that I just love that I use in my home and now it’s time to share it with you, so I can’t wait for you to see it.”

The launch of Meghan’s TV show was delayed by the wildfires in California, with the US state the backdrop for the series, which is expected to be a mix of cooking, hosting tips and celebrity friends and is due to run on Netflix from 4 March.

It is five years since Meghan and Prince Harry stepped down as working royals, becoming financially independent in the United States. Meghan says in her social media post, she has “poured my heart into” this forthcoming product range.

Meghan divides public opinion, with strong reactions on social media from supporters and opponents. Her fans have saluted her independence and creativity, while her opponents have already labelled the brand as “whatever”.

Appropriately, she signed off her own post: “As ever, Meghan.”

Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis straight to your inbox every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

A British conductor has apologised for likening singers at one of Italy’s leading opera houses to warring Mafia families.

Edward Gardner, who is principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, was threatened with a defamation action for his comments about chorus members at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

Speaking to the Times last month about a recent appearance at the venue, Gardner said: “The chorus is made up of two rival Mafia families – who after one performance put each other in A&E.”

In a statement issued by the opera house, he said he wanted to “sincerely apologise to the members of the chorus of the San Carlo Opera House”.

Gardner explained: “Shortly before my arrival in Naples I was informed that two members of the chorus had a public fight just outside the theatre resulting in one person being hospitalised. I was very surprised by this.

“However I did not intend to suggest that the choir were members of the Mafia, and I am more than happy to retract that allegation.”

Gardner said he had “deep respect and appreciation for the choir and its members”, and his appearance in Naples last summer was “a meaningful experience that highlighted the talent, dedication, and hard work of this group”.

“I regret that anything I said may have suggested otherwise because I have experienced firsthand the professionalism and excellence of this choir and I want to make it clear how much I value and respect everyone involved,” he continued.

His original comments angered the mayor of Naples, who said they were “very serious allegations that are completely unfounded”.

The US State Department has dropped a statement from its website which stated that Washington does not support Taiwan’s independence – a move which has sparked anger in China.

China said the revision “sends a wrong… signal to separatist forces advocating for Taiwan independence”, and asked the US to “correct its mistakes”.

The department’s fact sheet on Taiwan-US relations earlier included the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” – this was removed last week as part of what it said was a “routine” update.

A US spokesperson was quoted as saying that it remains committed to the “One China” policy, it said, where US recognises and has formal ties with China rather than Taiwan.

China sees self-governed Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be part of the country, and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve this.

But many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation, although most are in favour of maintaining the status quo where Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it.

As well as dropping the phrase, the factsheet, which was updated last Thursday, also says the US will support Taiwan’s membership in international organisations “where applicable”.

Commenting on the changes, a spokesperson at the American Institute in Taiwan – the US’ de facto embassy on the island – told local media that the fact sheet had been “updated to inform the general public about [the US’] unofficial relationship with Taiwan”.

“We have long stated that we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side.”

On Sunday, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung thanked the US for what he called “positive, Taiwan-friendly wordings”.

But in their regular press conference on Monday, Beijing’s foreign ministry slammed the move, calling the revision a “serious regression” in the US’ stance on Taiwan.

“This sends a wrong and serious signal to separatist forces advocating for Taiwan independence and is another example of the U.S. stubbornly persisting with its wrong policy of using Taiwan to contain China,” said Chinese spokesperson Guo Jiakun.

“We urge the US to immediately correct its mistakes [and] earnestly adhere to the One China principle.”

The most senior judge in England and Wales has said she is “deeply troubled” by comments made during a clash between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch over the role of a judge in an immigration case.

Badenoch raised the case of a Palestinian family who were given the right to live in the UK after they originally applied through a scheme designed for Ukrainians, saying it was “completely wrong”.

Sir Keir said he agreed, adding “it should be Parliament that makes the rules on immigration”.

But Lady Chief Justice Baroness Sue Carr said the remarks were “unacceptable” and conflicted with the duty of politicians to uphold the rule of law and respect the independent role of judges.

Speaking at her annual press conference, Baroness Carr also said that judges’ concerns about their personal security were at an “all-time high” thanks to attacks on social media driven by wider misreporting of their work.

The clash between Sir Keir and Badenoch came during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) last week, after Badenoch criticised how she said an immigration judge had handled the application of a Palestinian family who applied to live in the UK under a scheme designed for Ukrainians fleeing the war – a case that has been widely misreported and misunderstood.

Badenoch said: “A judge has now ruled in their favour. That is not what the scheme was designed to do.

“This decision is completely wrong, and cannot be allowed to stand. Are the government planning to appeal on any points of law, and, if so, which ones?”

The full reading of the judgement reveals that the family of six had sought permission to live with a British relative who proved he was able to house and financially support them. Part of their case had been that they were political opponents of Hamas, which is banned in the UK under terrorism laws.

Their initial application had been incorrectly made using a form reserved to help Ukrainian families reunite. They eventually won permission to stay under entirely separate general human rights considerations. These allow families from any background to make a case to reunite if there are compelling reasons to do so outside of standard immigration schemes.

This detail, including the specific risks the family say they faced, was not spelled out at PMQs, with Sir Keir saying the case had been one that had been dealt with under the Conservatives.

Replying to Badenoch, Sir Keir said: “Let me be clear: I do not agree with the decision. The leader of the opposition is right that it is the wrong decision.

“She has not quite done her homework, however, because the decision in question was taken under the last government, according to their legal framework.”

He went on: “It should be Parliament that makes the rules on immigration; it should be the government who make the policy. That is the principle. The home secretary is already looking at the legal loophole that we need to close in this particular case.”

The two Upper Tribunal judges, who granted the family permission to reunite in the UK, underlined however that their decision was was not creating a Palestinian settlement scheme but dealing with a complex and exceptional case. They had not been presented with any evidence from the government that this family’s unusual case would open “floodgates”.

Reflecting on the clash, Baroness Carr said on Monday that “both the question and the answer were unacceptable”.

“It is for the government visibly to respect and protect the independence of the judiciary,” she said. “Where parties, including the government, disagree with their findings, they should do so through the appellate process.”

She also said MPs, “just like the governing body, have a duty to respect the rule of law” – and that she had “written to the prime minister and the lord chancellor”.

The UK currently has schemes for some Afghans, Ukrainians and people from Hong Kong to come to the UK, but no route for Palestinians.

Making a wider point about the safety of judges, Baroness Carr said concerns about their personal security were at an “all-time high” thanks to misinformation and misreporting – often on social media.

“It is not acceptable for judges to be the subject of personal attacks for doing no more than their jobs,” she told reporters. “Their job is to find the facts on the evidence before them and apply the law as it stands to those facts.”

She continued: “If they get it wrong, the protection is a challenge on appeal. If the legislation is wrong, it is Parliament’s prerogative to legislate.”

“It is really dangerous to make any criticism of a judgment without a full understanding of the facts and the law,” the lady chief justice said – adding that judges are “public servants acting independently” and that, “frankly, judges deserve better”.

South Korea has accused Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of sharing user data with the owner of TikTok in China.

“We confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance,” the South Korean data protection regulator told Yonhap News Agency.

The country had already removed DeepSeek from app stores over the weekend over data protection concerns.

The Chinese app caused shockwaves in the AI world in January, wiping billions off global stock markets over claims its new model was trained at a much lower cost than US rivals such as ChatGPT.

Since then, multiple countries have warned that user data may not be properly protected, and in February a US cybersecurity company alleged potential data sharing between DeepSeek and ByteDance.

DeepSeek’s apparent overnight impact saw it shoot to the top of App Store charts in the UK, US and many other countries around the world – although it now sits far below ChatGPT in UK rankings.

In South Korea, it had been downloaded over a million times before being pulled from Apple and Google’s App Stores on Saturday evening.

Existing users can still access the app and use it on a web browser.

The data regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency that despite finding a link between DeepSeek and ByteDance, it was “yet to confirm what data was transferred and to what extent”.

Critics of the Chinese state have long argued its National Intelligence Law allows the government to access any data it wants from Chinese companies.

However, ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing, is owned by a number of global investors – and others say the same law allows for the protection of private companies and personal data.

Fears over user data being sent to China was one of the reasons the US Supreme Court upheld a ban on TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance.

The US ban is on hold until 5 April as President Donald Trump attempts to broker a resolution.

• DeepSeek: The Chinese AI app that has the world talking
• What does Trump’s executive order mean for TikTok and who might buy it?

Cybersecurity company Security Scorecard published a blog on DeepSeek on 10 February which suggested “multiple direct references to ByteDance-owned” services.

“These references suggest deep integration with ByteDance’s analytics and performance monitoring infrastructure,” it said in its review of DeepSeek’s Android app.

Security Scorecard expressed concern that along with privacy risks, DeepSeek “user behaviour and device metadata [are] likely sent to ByteDance servers”.

It also found data “being transmitted to domains linked to Chinese state-owned entities”.

On Monday, South Korea’s PIPC said it “found out traffic generated by third-party data transfers and insufficient transparency in DeepSeek’s privacy policy”.

It said DeepSeek was cooperating with the regulator, and acknowledged it had failed to to take into account South Korean privacy laws.

But the regulator advised users “exercise caution and avoid entering personal information into the chatbot”.

South Korea has already followed a number of countries such as Australia and Taiwan in banning DeepSeek from government devices.

The BBC has contacted the PIPC, ByteDance and DeepSeek’s parent company, High Flyer, for a response.

More than 30 people have been killed in a bus crash on a mountain road in Bolivia, police say.

The vehicle plunged almost 800m (2625 ft) into a ravine in the southwestern district of Yocalla, an officer said.

Fourteen people were also injured, including four children, an official from a local hospital said in a video.

Bolivia has notoriously dangerous roads, particularly in mountainous areas.

The accident happened between the cities of Potosí and Oruro, police said.

Officials believe that the crash could have been caused by speeding, with the driver “unable” to control the bus, police colonel Victor Benavides told the AFP news agency.

This is believed to be the most serious road accident reported in the South American country so far this year.

Local news outlet Unitel reported that several of those injured were in a serious condition.

Deadly road accidents are common in Bolivia.

Last month, 19 people were killed when another bus came off a road, also near Potosí.

Road accidents kill an average of 1,400 people every year in the country of about 12 million inhabitants, according to government data.

South Korea has banned new downloads of China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, according to the country’s personal data protection watchdog.

The government agency said the AI model will become available again to South Korean users when “improvements and remedies” are made to ensure it complies with the country’s personal data protection laws.

In the week after it made global headlines, DeepSeek became hugely popular in South Korea leaping to the top of app stores with over a million weekly users.

But its rise in popularity also attracted scrutiny from countries around the world which have imposed restrictions on the app over privacy and national security concerns.

South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission said the DeepSeek app became unavailable on Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening.

It came after several South Korean government agencies banned their employees from downloading the chatbot to their work devices.

South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok has described Deepseek as a “shock”, that could impact the country’s industries, beyond AI.

Despite the suspension of new downloads, people who already have it on their phones will be able to continue using it or they may just access it via DeepSeek’s website.

China’s DeepSeek rocked the technology industry, the markets and America’s confidence in its AI leadership, when it released its latest app at the end of last month.

Its rapid rise as one of the world’s favourite AI chatbots sparked concerns in different jurisdictions.

Aside from South Korea, Taiwan and Australia have also banned it from all government devices.

The Australian government has insisted its ban is not due to the app’s Chinese origins, but because of the “unacceptable risk” it says it poses to national security.

Italy’s regulator, which briefly banned ChatGPT in 2023, has done the same with DeepSeek.

The company has been asked to address concerns over its privacy policy before it becomes available again on app stores.

Data protection authorities in France and Ireland have also posed questions to DeepSeek about how it handles citizens’ personal information – including whether it is stored on servers in China, as its privacy policy suggests.

It also says that, like other generative AI tools, it may collect information such as email addresses and dates of birth, and use input prompts to improve their product.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the US have proposed a bill banning DeepSeek from federal devices, citing surveillance concerns.

At the state-government level, Texas, Virginia and New York, have already introduced such rules for their employees.

DeepSeek’s “large language model” (LLM) has reasoning capabilities that are comparable to US models such as OpenAI’s o1, but reportedly requires a fraction of the cost to train and run.

That has raised questions about the billions of dollars being invested into AI infrastructure in the US and elsewhere.