One of four bodies returned from Gaza to Israel on Thursday is not hostage Shiri Bibas, as claimed by Hamas, the Israeli military said.

The news that Shiri Bibas, 33, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who would now be aged five and two, were dead triggered an outpouring of grief in Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has informed the Bibas family that the bodies of her sons have been identified after their remains were given to Israel by Hamas on Thursday.

But the third body was not that of their mother, the IDF says.

It demanded the return of her body along with the other remaining hostages. Hamas has not yet commented on Israel’s claim.

“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” the IDF posted on X.

“This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”

The IDF said that the two children “were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023”, according to intelligence and forensic findings. Hamas had said the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli bombing.

Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were aged 32, four and nine months when they were kidnapped during the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The children’s father Yarden Bibas, 34, was released by Hamas on 1 February.

Israel has confirmed that the fourth body returned on Thursday was that of veteran peace activist, Oded Lifshitz.

The release of hostages’ bodies was agreed as part of the ceasefire deal which came into effect on 19 January, and Israel has confirmed it expects eight bodies will be handed over.

The two sides agreed to exchange 33 hostages for about 1,900 prisoners by the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire.

Talks on progressing to the next 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.

Twenty-eight hostages and more than 1,000 prisoners have so far been exchanged.

Sixty-six hostages taken on 7 October are still being held in Gaza. Three other hostages, taken more than a decade ago, are also being held. About half of all the hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.

About 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military campaign against Hamas in response, which has killed at least 48,297 Palestinians – mainly civilians – according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Also on Thursday, three buses exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, in what Israeli police said is a suspected terror attack.

Devices in two other buses failed to explode, they said, adding that “large police forces are at the scenes, searching for suspects”. No casualties have been reported.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced he had ordered the IDF to carry out an “intensive operation against centers of terrorism” in the West Bank.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to return to the negotiating table and strike a deal on US access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz has said.

On Wednesday, Zelensky rejected US demands for a share of its rare earth minerals – a “deal” Trump said would reflect the amount of aid the US had provided to Ukraine during its war with Russia.

The comments, made at a White House briefing on Thursday, overshadowed a meeting in Kyiv between Zelensky and Keith Kellogg, the US chief envoy to Ukraine.

Waltz said the White House was “very frustrated” with Zelensky after he levelled “unacceptable” insults at US President Donald Trump earlier this week.

Ukraine holds huge deposits of critical elements and minerals, including lithium and titanium, as well as sizeable coal, gas, oil and uranium deposits – a supply worth billions of dollars.

Earlier on Thursday, Waltz suggested US access to rare minerals in Ukraine could be exchanged in return for aid – or even as compensation for the support the US has already provided.

“We presented the Ukrainians really an incredible, and a historic opportunity,” the adviser said, adding that it would be “sustainable” and “the best” security guarantee Ukraine could hope for.

But Zelensky had refused the offer, saying: “I can’t sell our state.”

Waltz’s comments in the White House news briefing came shortly after the conclusion of Zelensky’s meeting with Kellogg in Kyiv, after which the Ukrainian leader announced he was ready to make an “investment and security agreement” with the US to end the war in Ukraine.

The meeting was hailed as “productive” by Zelensky – but it more closely resembled an awkward political date.

As the senior members of Donald Trump’s team continued to engage directly with Moscow, the retired general had said he was in Kyiv to “listen”.

But it soon became apparent he wouldn’t speak, publicly that is, after a news conference was cancelled at the last minute.

The BBC understands it was a US decision, with Ukrainian sources claiming they believed Kellogg had been “sidelined” by the White House.

The meeting with Kellogg had been of huge importance to Kyiv, given that officials are relying on the special envoy to relay its needs to Washington.

In a post shared on X, the Ukrainian president said he and the US special envoy had “a detailed conversation about the battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war, and effective security guarantees”.

He added: “Ukraine is ready for a strong, effective investment and security agreement with the president of the United States.”

Later on Thursday, Zelensky said he had spoken to the leaders of Canada, Finland, Norway and South Africa. “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he wrote in one post on X.

The possible reasons for Kellogg not wanting to face questions are mounting.

Kellogg’s meeting comes in the context of a war of words between his boss Donald Trump and Ukraine’s leader, which culminated in the US president referring to Zelensky as a “dictator without elections”.

Trump also blamed him for starting Russia’s invasion.

Now there are reports that the US is refusing to recognise a UN resolution which labels Moscow as the aggressor while recognising Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Earlier this week, Zelensky was excluded from talks between senior Russian and American officials who met in Saudi Arabia to discuss the possibility of ending the conflict.

The war began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, following its earlier annexation of Ukrainian territory.

Trump, who has been in office for one month, believes US involvement in the war is not in America’s interest – and in a radical reversal of previous US foreign policy, he has chosen to negotiate directly with Russia to secure a quick end to the conflict.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emerged after more than four hours of talks with Russian diplomats in Riyadh to declare that the first steps towards negotiations had been agreed, with teams to be formed on both sides.

After the meeting in the Middle East, Trump suggested Zelensky had “started” the war with Russia – claims which led Zelensky to describe the US president as “living in this disinformation space” governed by Moscow.

Trump hit back with his “dictator” attack and claimed Zelensky had low popularity ratings among the Ukrainian electorate.

Looking forward, Ukraine will be concerned by the prospect of Russia-US talks continuing without the direct involvement of Ukraine.

“Nothing is off the negotiating table,” claimed US Vice-President JD Vance.

The problem for Ukraine is that it isn’t even sitting at it.

Beloved Australian soap drama Neighbours has been cancelled again, two years after it was saved by Amazon MGM Studios.

Without specifying a reason, Amazon confirmed the series will finish at the end of 2025 – 40 years and more than 9,000 episodes after its television debut.

It was first cancelled by Channel 5 in 2022, but revived by Amazon for its streaming platforms just four months after a star-studded farewell episode watched by millions.

The soap – which helped launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie – has long been a huge hit with Australian and UK audiences, and last year received its first Emmy nomination.

A statement on the show’s social media said the soap would be “resting” from December.

“Audiences all around the world have loved and embraced Neighbours for four decades and we are very proud of the huge success over the last two years,” executive producer Jason Herbison wrote.

“We value how much the fans love Neighbours and we believe there are more stories of the residents of Ramsay Street to tell in the future,” Mr Hebrison added, hinting that the producers will again hunt for a new backer.

New episodes will continue to air on Amazon Prime Video and Australia’s Channel Ten four times a week until the end of 2025.

In a statement, Amazon MGM Studios said it was “proud” to have played “a small part” in Neighbours history.

“Forty years is an incredible milestone,” a spokesperson said.

Set and filmed in Melbourne, Neighbours was first broadcast in Australia in 1985 and launched on BBC One a year later.

The show has lately featured more diverse characters and storylines, amid questions over how well it reflected modern Australia. It featured the first same-sex marriage on Australian TV.

It also had its controversies, however. A number of actors recently came forward with racism allegations, prompting production company Fremantle Media to promise a review.

News of the show’s cancellation comes after actor Ian Smith – who plays Ramsay Street stalwart Harold Bishop – last year announced he would leave the show, revealing he has terminal cancer.

An Indian pharmaceutical company is manufacturing unlicensed, highly addictive opioids and exporting them illegally to West Africa where they are driving a major public health crisis in countries including Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote D’Ivoire, a BBC Eye investigation has revealed.

Aveo Pharmaceuticals, based in Mumbai, makes a range of pills that go under different brand names and are packaged to look like legitimate medicines. But all contain the same harmful mix of ingredients: tapentadol, a powerful opioid, and carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant so addictive it’s banned in Europe.

This combination of drugs is not licensed for use anywhere in the world and can cause breathing difficulties and seizures. An overdose can kill. Despite the risks, these opioids are popular as street drugs in many West African countries, because they are so cheap and widely available.

The BBC World Service found packets of them, branded with the Aveo logo, for sale on the streets of Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Ivoirian towns and cities.

Having traced the drugs back to Aveo’s factory in India, the BBC sent an undercover operative inside the factory, posing as an African businessman looking to supply opioids to Nigeria. Using a hidden camera, the BBC filmed one of Aveo’s directors, Vinod Sharma, showing off the same dangerous products the BBC found for sale across West Africa.

In the secretly recorded footage, the operative tells Sharma that his plan is to sell the pills to teenagers in Nigeria “who all love this product”. Sharma doesn’t flinch. “OK,” he replies, before explaining that if users take two or three pills at once, they can “relax” and agrees they can get “high”. Towards the end of the meeting, Sharma says: “This is very harmful for the health,” adding “nowadays, this is business.”

It is a business that is damaging the health and destroying the potential of millions of young people across West Africa.

In the city of Tamale, in northern Ghana, so many young people are taking illegal opioids that one of the city’s chiefs, Alhassan Maham, has created a voluntary task force of about 100 local citizens whose mission is to raid drug dealers and take these pills off the streets.

“The drugs consume the sanity of those who abuse them,” says Maham, “like a fire burns when kerosene is poured on it.” One addict in Tamale put it even more simply. The drugs, he said, have “wasted our lives”.

The BBC team followed the task force as they jumped on to motorbikes and, following a tip off about a drug deal, launched a raid in one of Tamale’s poorest neighbourhoods. On the way they passed a young man slumped in a stupor who, according to locals, had taken these drugs.

When the dealer was caught, he was carrying a plastic bag filled with green pills labelled Tafrodol. The packets were stamped with the distinctive logo of Aveo Pharmaceuticals.

It’s not just in Tamale that Aveo’s pills are causing misery. The BBC found similar products, made by Aveo, have been seized by police elsewhere in Ghana.

We also found evidence that Aveo’s pills are for sale on the streets of Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire, where teenagers dissolve them in an alcoholic energy drink to increase the high.

Publicly-available export data show that Aveo Pharmaceuticals, along with a sister company called Westfin International, is shipping millions of these tablets to Ghana and other West African countries.

Nigeria, with a population of 225 million people, provides the biggest market for these pills. It has been estimated that about four million Nigerians abuse some form of opioid, according to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics.

The Chairman of Nigeria’s Drug and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa, told the BBC, opioids are “devastating our youths, our families, it’s in every community in Nigeria”.

In 2018, following a BBC Africa Eye investigation into the sale of opioids as street drugs, Nigerian authorities tried to get a grip on a widely abused opioid painkiller called tramadol.

The government banned the sale of tramadol without prescription, imposed strict limits on the maximum dose, and cracked down on imports of illegal pills. At the same time, Indian authorities tightened export regulations on tramadol.

Not long after this crackdown, Aveo Pharmaceuticals began to export a new pill based on tapentadol, an even stronger opioid, mixed with the muscle-relaxant carisoprodol.

West African officials are warning that opioid exporters appear to be using these new combination pills as a substitute for tramadol and to evade the crackdown.

In the Aveo factory there were cartons of the combination drugs stacked on top of each other, almost ceiling-high. On his desk, Vinod Sharma laid out packet after packet of the tapentadol-carisoprodol cocktail pills that the company markets under a range of names including Tafrodol, the most popular, as well as TimaKing and Super Royal-225.

He told the BBC’s undercover team that “scientists” working in his factory could combine different drugs to “make a new product”.

Watch India’s Opioid Kings from BBC Eye Investigations on iPlayer or, if you are outside the UK, watch on YouTube.

Aveo’s new product is even more dangerous than the tramadol it has replaced. According to Dr Lekhansh Shukla, assistant professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bengaluru, India, tapentadol “gives the effects of an opioid” including very deep sleep.

“It could be deep enough that people don’t breathe, and that leads to drug overdose,” he explained. “And along with that, you are giving another agent, carisoprodol, which also gives very deep sleep, relaxation. It sounds like a very dangerous combination.”

Carisoprodol has been banned in Europe because it is addictive. It is approved for use in the US but only for short periods of up to three weeks. Withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, insomnia, and hallucinations.

When mixed with tapentadol the withdrawal is even “more severe” compared to regular opioids, said Dr Shukla. “It’s a fairly painful experience.”

He said he knew of no clinical trials on the efficacy of this combination. Unlike tramadol, which is legal for use in limited doses, the tapentadol-carisoprodol cocktail “does not sound like a rational combination”, he said. “This is not something that is licensed to be used in our country.”

In India, pharmaceutical companies cannot legally manufacture and export unlicensed drugs unless these drugs meet the standards of the importing country. Aveo ships Tafrodol and similar products to Ghana, where this combination of tapentadol and carisoprodol is, according to Ghana’s national Drug Enforcement Agency, unlicensed and illegal. By shipping Tafrodol to Ghana, Aveo is breaking Indian law.

We put these allegations to Vinod Sharma and Aveo Pharmaceuticals. They did not respond.

The Indian drugs regulator, the CDSCO, told us the Indian government recognises its responsibility towards global public health and is committed to ensuring India has a responsible and strong pharmaceutical regulatory system.

It added that exports from India to other countries are closely monitored and that recently tightened regulation is strictly enforced. It also called importing countries to support India’s efforts by ensuring they had similarly strong regulatory systems.

The CDSCO stated it has taken up the matter with other countries, including those in West Africa, and is committed to working with them to prevent wrongdoing. The regulator said it will take immediate action against any pharmaceutical firm involved in malpractice.

Aveo is not the only Indian company making and exporting unlicensed opioids. Publicly available export data suggest other pharma companies manufacture similar products, and drugs with different branding are widely available across West Africa.

These manufacturers are damaging the reputation of India’s fast-growing pharmaceutical industry, which makes high-quality generic medicines upon which millions of people worldwide depend and manufactures vaccines which have saved millions of lives. The industry’s exports are worth at least $28bn (£22bn) a year.

Speaking about his meeting with Sharma, the BBC’s undercover operative, whose identity must remain concealed for his safety, says: “Nigerian journalists have been reporting on this opioid crisis for more than 20 years but finally, I was face to face… with one of the men at the root of Africa’s opioid crisis, one of the men who actually makes this product and ships it into our countries by the container load. He knew the harm it was doing but he didn’t seem to care… describing it simply as business.”

Back in Tamale, Ghana, the BBC team followed the local task force on one final raid that turned up even more of Aveo’s Tafrodol. That evening they gathered in a local park to burn the drugs they had seized.

“We are burning it in an open glare for everybody to see,” said Zickay, one of the leaders, as the packets were doused in petrol and set ablaze, “so it sends a signal to the sellers and the suppliers: if they get you, they’ll burn your drugs”.

But even as the flames destroyed a few hundred packets of Tafrodol, the “sellers and suppliers” at the top of this chain, thousands of miles away in India, were churning out millions more – and getting rich on the profits of misery.

It looked small at first, in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Yet as we approached the USS Carl Vinson it filled the view out of the back of the Osprey tilt-rotor which was carrying us there, its deck packed with state-of-the-art warplanes. At nearly 90,000 tonnes, and more than 300 meters in length, the nuclear-powered Carl Vinson is one of the largest warships ever built.

Watching its FA18 and F35 fighter jets being hurled into the air every minute or two by the carrier’s steam catapults is a spine-tingling experience, a procedure managed with impressive composure by the crew on the crowded deck.

An untimely Pacific squall which drenched us and everything else did not slow them at all.

Even after years of rapid advances in Chinese military capabilities, the United States is still unrivalled in its capacity to project force anywhere around the world with its fleet of 11 super-carriers.

But does a $13bn (£10bn) aircraft carrier which the latest Chinese missiles could sink in a matter of minutes make sense anymore – particularly in the age of Donald Trump?

We had been invited onto the Carl Vinson to see another side of US carrier strategy, one which emphasises American friendliness, and willingness to work with allies – something you don’t hear much in Washington these days.

The Carl Vinson was taking part in an exercise with two other aircraft carriers and their escorting destroyers from France and Japan, about 200km east of the Philippines. In the absence of wars to fight, US carrier groups spend much of their time doing this, learning how to operate together with allied navies. Last year they held one exercise that brought together ships from 18 navies.

This one was smaller, but was the first in the Pacific involving a French carrier for more than 40 years.

Down in the massive hangar, below the noisy flight deck, Rear Adm Michael Wosje, commander of the Carl Vinson’s strike force, was sitting with his French colleague, Rear Adm Jacques Mallard of the carrier Charles de Gaulle, and his Japanese colleague Rear Adm Natsui Takashi of the Kaga, which is in the process of being converted to Japan’s first aircraft carrier since the Second World War.

The Charles de Gaulle is the only warship in the world which matches some of the capabilities of the US super-carriers, but even then is only half their size.

All three admirals were brimming with bonhomie.

The fraught scenes in Europe, where President Trump’s men were ripping up the rule book which underscored the international order for the past 80 years, and telling one-time allies they were now on their own, seemed a world away.

“Our network of strong alliances and partnerships, such as those that we share with France and Japan, is a key advantage of our nations as we confront our collective security challenges,” said Adm Wosje. In impeccable English Adm Mallard concurred: “This exercise is the expression of a will to better understand each other, and to work for the defence of compliance in international law.”

No one mentioned the radical new views emanating from Washington, nor did they mention an increasingly assertive China, although Adm Natsui might have had both in mind when he said Japan now found itself in “the most severe and complex security environment. No country can now protect her own security alone.”

Down in the warren of steel corridors which make up the living quarters of the 5,000 men and women on the Carl Vinson, the official portraits of the new president and vice-president were already hanging, the one of Trump with its now familiar pugilistic glower. We were not permitted to interview the crew, and politics would have been off-limits anyway, but some of those on board were curious what I thought of the new administration.

Internet access on board is spotty, but they do keep in touch with home. We were told they even get Amazon deliveries while at sea, picked up from designated collection points.

It is a fair bet then that there is plenty of discussion of what President Trump has in store for these giants of the navy. Elon Musk has already vowed to bring his cost-cutting wrecking ball to the Pentagon and its $900bn budget, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has welcomed that, although, he stressed, the Pentagon is not USAID which President Trump has vowed to shut down completely.

In the hangar we watched the crew maintaining the aircraft, surrounded by packing cases and spare parts. We were warned not to film any exposed parts of these technological marvels, for fear of revealing classified information. We could not even risk touching the F35 fighters, which have a prohibitively expensive special coating to help conceal them from radar.

They showed us the “Jet Shop” where they repair and test the engines, a technician who identified himself as ‘082 Madeiro’ explained that they needed to carry enough spare parts to keep the planes flying on long deployments, and that after a certain number of hours the engines had to be completely replaced, whether or not they were faulty. There was a brand new engine in its enormous packaging next to him. Cost, around $15m.

Running the Carl Vinson costs around $700m a year.

So will the Trump administration take a knife to the Pentagon budget? Hegseth has said he believes there are significant efficiencies to be found. He has also openly mused about the value of aircraft carriers. “If our whole power projection platform is aircraft carriers, and if 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our ten aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of conflict, what does that look like?”, he said in an interview last November.

The debate about the utility of aircraft carriers is not new. It goes right back to when they first appeared a century ago. Critics today argue that they are too vulnerable to the latest generation of Chinese ballistic and hypersonic missiles, forcing them to stay at a distance from the Chinese coast which would put their aircraft out of range. The money, they say, would be better spent on newer technology.

There is something archaic about these massive, welded hunks of steel, that seemed to have their heyday in the Pacific War of the 1940s. Yet in the vast expanse of the ocean, with few airfields, it has proved difficult to do without them. Supporters argue that, with their escorts of guided-missile destroyers, the super carriers can defend themselves quite well, and that they are still hard to sink. Downsize these carriers, to carry only helicopters or planes which can land and take off vertically as many countries have done, and you end up with vessels which are even more vulnerable.

It is worth noting that China too believes in the value of aircraft carriers; it has already built three. And as floating symbols of US prestige, they may appeal to President Trump, a man known for his love of flamboyant structures, whatever the economic arguments for and against them.

At his Senate confirmation hearing Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration would prioritise increased ship-building, although he did not say how this can be achieved. The US has only four naval shipyards left; China has, by some estimates, more than 200 times the ship-building capacity of the US. He also told his counterparts in Japan and South Korea that he wanted to deepen defence co-operation with them. Europe may be on its own, but it seems Asian allies will get the attention of this White House as it focuses on the strategic challenge posed by China.

Three new Ford-class nuclear carriers, the next generation after the Carl Vinson, are currently under construction, although two will not be in service until the next decade. The plan is to complete ten of this new class of carrier, and so far there have been no indications that the Trump administration wants to change that. For all its many critics, the US super-carrier is probably here to stay.

Three buses have exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, in what Israeli police say is a suspected terror attack.

Devices in two other buses failed to explode, they said, adding that “large police forces are at the scenes, searching for suspects”.

Transport Minister Miri Regev paused all buses, trains and light rail trains in the country so that checks for explosive devices could be carried out, Israeli media reports said.

Footage on social media shows at least one bus on fire in a parking lot, with a large plume of smoke rising above.

There have been no reports of casualties at this stage, police said.

Police spokesperson Aryeh Doron said the “event is ongoing”, with officers still trying to locate more bombs in Tel Aviv.

“Our forces are still scouring the area,” Doron told Channel 12, adding that the public must be on alert for “every suspected bag or object”.

“We may be lucky if indeed the terrorists set these timers to the wrong hour. But it’s too early to determine,” he said.

According to local media, one of the unexploded devices, weighing 5kg, carried a message saying “Revenge from Tulkarem” – referring to a recent Israeli military counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank.

In response to the incidents in Bat Yam, Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to “increase the intensity” of activity in refugee camps in the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was being updated on the situation, his office said in a statement.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that Transport Minister Miri Regev has cut short her trip to Morocco and will return to Israel.

A meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and some of the country’s foremost business leaders this week has fuelled excitement and speculation, after Alibaba founder Jack Ma was pictured at the event.

The charismatic and colourful Mr Ma, who was one of China’s most prominent businessmen, had withdrawn from public life after criticising China’s financial sector in 2020.

His reappearance at Monday’s event has sparked a wave of discussion, with experts and analysts wondering what it means for him, China’s tech sector and the economy in general.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive – tech stocks, including those of Alibaba, rallied soon after the event.

On Thursday, the e-commerce giant reported financial results that beat expectations, with shares ending the trading day in New York more than 8% higher. The company’s shares are up 60% since the beginning of the year.

So what are analysts reading into Mr Ma’s appearance at the event alongside other high-profile guests – including DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng?

Analysts began looking for clues about the significance of the meeting as soon as Chinese state media started releasing pictures of the event.

“Jack Ma’s attendance, his seating in the front row, even though he did not speak, and his handshake with Xi are clear signs he has been rehabilitated,” China analyst Bill Bishop wrote.

Social media was abuzz with users praising Mr Ma for his return to the public spotlight.

“Congratulations [Jack] Ma for the safe landing,” said one user on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

“The comeback of [Jack] Ma is a shot in the arm to the current Chinese economy,” said another.

It is unsurprising that observers have attached so much significance to an appearance by Mr Ma.

Before his disappearance from public life in 2020 – following comments at a financial conference that China’s state-owned banks had a “pawn-shop mentality” – Mr Ma was the poster boy for China’s tech industry.

An English teacher with no background in computing, Mr Ma co-founded Alibaba in his apartment more than two decades ago after convincing a group of friends to invest in his online marketplace.

He went on to build one of China’s largest tech conglomerates and become one of the country’s richest men.

That was before his “pawn shop” comment, when he also lamented the “lack of innovation” in the country’s banks.

It led to the cancellation of his $34.5bn (£27.4bn) stock market flotation of Ant Group, his financial technology giant.

This was seen at the time as an attempt by Beijing to humble a company that had become too powerful, and a leader who had become too outspoken.

Analysts agree that the fact he’s back in the spotlight, at a symposium where Xi Jinping himself presided, is a very good sign for Mr Ma.

Some caution, however, that the fact he was not among the speakers may show that he has not fully returned to the exalted status he once enjoyed.

Also, the lack of coverage his attendance received in Chinese media outlets seems to confirm he has not been completely rehabilitated.

Xi Jinping told participants at the symposium that their companies needed to innovate, grow and remain confident despite China’s economic challenges, which he described as “temporary” and “localised”.

He also said it was the “right time for private enterprises and private entrepreneurs to fully display their talents”.

This has been widely interpreted as the government telling private tech firms that they too are back in good graces.

Mr Ma’s downfall had preceded a broader crackdown on China’s tech industry.

Companies came to face much tighter enforcement of data security and competition rules, as well as state control over important digital assets.

Other companies across the private sector, ranging from education to real estate, also ended up being targeted in what came to be known as the “common prosperity” campaign.

The measures put in place by the common prosperity policies were seen by some as a way to rein in the billionaire owners of some of China’s biggest companies, to instead give customers and workers more of a say in how firms operate and distribute their earnings.

But as Beijing imposed tough new regulations, billions of dollars were wiped off the value of some of these companies – many of them tech firms – rattling international investors.

This, along with a worsening global economy that was affected by the pandemic as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has contributed to considerable changes in China’s economic situation.

Growth has slowed, jobs for the country’s youth have become more scarce and, amid a property sector downturn, people are not spending enough.

As rumours that Mr Ma would attend Monday’s meeting began to spread, so did a glimmer of hope. Richard Windsor, director of technology at research firm Counterpoint, said Mr Ma’s presence would be a sign that China’s leadership “had enough of stagnation and could be prepared to let the private sector have a much freer hand”.

Aside from Mr Ma and Mr Liang, the list of guests also included key figures from companies such as telecommunications and smartphone firm Huawei, electric-vehicle (EV) giant BYD, and many others from across the tech and industrial sectors.

“The [guest] list showcased the importance of internet/tech/AI/EV sectors given their representation of innovation and achievement,” said a note from market analysts at Citi.

“[It] likely indicates the importance of technology… and the contribution of private enterprises to the development and growth of China’s economy.”

Those present at the meeting seemed to share that sentiment. Lei Jun, the chief executive of consumer electronics giant Xiaomi, told state media that he senses the president’s “care and support” for businesses.

The symposium took place after the country experienced what some observers have described as a “Sputnik moment”: the arrival of DeepSeek’s disruptive R1 artificial intelligence (AI) model at the end of last month.

Soon after its release, the Chinese-made AI chatbot rose through the ranks to become one of the most downloaded in the world. It also triggered a sudden sell-off of major US tech stocks, as fears mounted over America’s leadership in the sector.

Back in China, the app’s global success has sparked a wave of national pride that has quickly spread to financial markets. Investment has been pouring into Chinese stocks – particularly those of tech companies – listed in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has also upgraded its outlook for Chinese stocks, saying rapid AI adoption could boost companies’ revenues and attract as much as $200bn of investment.

But the biggest significance of this innovation was that it came as a result of DeepSeek having to innovate due to a ban on the export of advanced chips and technology to China.

Now, with Trump back in the White House and his fondness of trade tariffs, Mr Xi may have found it necessary to recalibrate his approach to China’s entrepreneurs.

Instead of a return to an era of unregulated growth, some analysts believe Monday’s meeting signalled an attempt to steer investors and businesses toward Mr Xi’s national priorities.

The Chinese president has been increasingly emphasising policies that the government has referred to as “high-quality development” and “new productive forces”.

Such ideas have been used to reflect a switch from what were previously fast drivers of growth, such as property and infrastructure investment, towards high-end industries such as semiconductors, clean energy and AI.

The goal is to achieve “socialist modernisation” by 2035 – higher living standards for everyone, and an economy driven by advanced manufacturing and less reliant on imports of foreign technology.

Mr Xi knows that to get there he will need the private sector fully on board.

“Rather than marking the end of tech sector scrutiny, [Jack Ma’s] reappearance suggests that Beijing is pivoting from crackdowns to controlled engagement,” an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, Marina Zhang told the BBC.

“While the private sector remains a critical pillar of China’s economic ambitions, it must align with national priorities – including self-reliance in key technologies and strategic industries.”

A political tidal wave is crashing across Germany. That’s what the hard-right nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party firmly believes.

It is labelled “radical”, “racist” and “anti-democratic” by opponents. Germany’s domestic intelligence service says the party is “anti-constitutional”.

But if polls are right, the AfD will become Germany’s second largest political force after elections this Sunday.

That would be a huge shift in tectonic plates, not just at home but across Europe.

Why is the AfD such a big deal, you might ask? Parties on the populist right have grown in support across much of Europe.

The AfD points to Donald Trump as well. They share his “anti-woke”, tough-on-migration, pro-fossil-fuel message. They too are keen to stop sending weapons to Ukraine, and to de-escalate tensions with Russia.

The Trump administration supports them right back – publicly, to the outrage of many Germans.

The thing is, Germany isn’t just any other country.

It is Europe’s largest economy, one of its most influential nations. It still carries the weight of its Nazi past. Alongside the UK and France, it’s one of the Big Three that helped shape and secure Europe’s liberal order and defence structures following both World War Two and the Cold War.

Never before in post-war Germany has a hard-right party been so successful, while on the cusp of being identified as a threat to the Federal Republic and its liberal constitution.

France’s influential opposition leader, Marine Le Pen, whose party is also considered far-right, has distanced herself from the AfD on the European stage, apparently judging its positions and ethno-nationalist reputation too radical.

The long-held assumption among the mainstream at home and abroad had been that Germany’s dark past immunised it against any serious flirtations with the extreme right.

But there’s a lot about this election that’s making observers shift their view of Germany. And I will come back to the AfD, which vigorously denies its “extremist” label.

Germans have suffered a kick in the gut – in terms of self-image and their country’s international reputation.

For years, they got used to being admired – and envied – as the economic powerhouse of Europe.

, roughly translating as “progress through technology”, was an advertising slogan for Audi cars in the 1980s. For decades it encapsulated Germany’s reputation in the international imagination.

The country was seen as modern, dynamic and technologically advanced. And the automobile industry was one of the main arteries pumping wealth into Germany’s economic heart.

But fundamental flaws have now been exposed in the German economic model.

It is widely viewed as (broken) – relying too heavily on energy-intensive, old-fashioned industries like combustion-engine cars and the chemical industry.

Critics question Germany’s lack of foresight, or ability to move with the times. Where was the serious investment in R&D? In big tech? In AI?

To make matters worse, during Angela Merkel’s 16 years as chancellor – she stepped down in 2021 – Germany became increasingly dependent on:

• exports to China
• cheap gas from Russia
• a US defence umbrella.

All this left Germany very exposed.

Donald Trump now says Europe can no longer rely on US security support and guarantees.

China has made rapid advances in the automobile industry and dominates electric car technology. So far less need for German imports.

And Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine left Germany scrambling for alternative energy sources. Buying liquid natural gas, from the US and others, is expensive, leading to financial strain on many energy-intensive German businesses.

The result: Germany’s economy is sluggish and sticky. As the biggest member of the eurozone currency, that has an impact way beyond its borders. European allies are frustrated.

Germany’s military is also a source of irritation (that’s putting it politely) among European neighbours. Berlin is a key power in the defence alliance, Nato. Donald Trump’s return to the White House means Europeans need to provide more of their own capabilities.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged a – a turning point – for his country’s depleted military, after Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.

Yet Germany’s military remains in a debilitated state – less battle-ready, we are told, than three years ago.

Partly due to its donations to Ukraine.

Germany, after the US, has been the biggest donor of military aid to Ukraine and most political parties in Germany are in favour of continuing to support Kyiv.

The AfD takes a very different stance. “Peace” is one of the most frequent signs you see at their rallies.

They want a rapprochement with Russia, to immediately stop sending weapons to Ukraine, and to use resources instead to build up Germany’s armed forces for protection at home.

More than 4,000 bridges in Germany are broken or in a dubious state. I could hardly believe my ears when I first heard that. But it is the reported figure in a country whose infrastructure has been quietly crumbling for years due to chronic under-investment – public and private.

Train punctuality in Germany is appalling – worse than in the UK, which will astound weary British commuters.

Digitisation is lamentable too. Mobile phone reception is patchy outside cities and people are still known to use faxes!

But even if recent German governments had wanted to invest more, they faced legal limits on spending.

A debt brake was written into the German constitution following the financial crisis of 2008/9, with a constraint on new debt of no more than 0.35% of GDP, except in times of national emergency.

Germans didn’t trust their politicians any more.

They had seen government spending spiral at home and abroad. The euro currency, which Germany depends on, almost collapsed.

But what seemed to voters an anchor of financial stability then, now appears to many, a block to economic growth.

Rows about reforming the debt brake were the final straw leading to the collapse of Germany’s outgoing coalition, and the snap election this Sunday.

But, new German government beware: breaking the debt brake will be no mean feat. You need a two-thirds majority in parliament to change the German constitution.

Migration is a huge issue in Germany. And a big vote winner for the AfD.

It is far from the only country worrying about migration levels in Europe, but Germany alone took in over a million asylum seekers, mainly from Syria and Afghanistan, during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015/16.

The country has also opened its doors to 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees.

Many Germans were proud of what they called their “welcome culture”.

But a spate of attacks by asylum seekers from the Middle East and Afghanistan has re-ignited a debate about how open Germany’s borders should be.

There have been stabbings, a machete assault, a car ramming into civilians at a Christmas market and again at a recent trade union demonstration in Munich, where yet another small child was killed.

The AfD insists it is not racist or anti-migration, and that anyone is welcome in Germany if they arrive by legal means, get a job, contribute to society and respect local norms and culture.

The party says it would immediately deport all immigrants who commit a crime, and anyone who arrives here illegally.

That stance was applauded by numerous AfD supporters I spoke to at rallies in the lead-up to Sunday’s election – including young women who told me they no longer felt safe on the streets.

It’s also worth noting that in May, a German court found that “at least a significant part of the AfD” believed that anyone with a migrant heritage was not “properly German” – even if they held German citizenship. It concluded that the AfD aimed to “grant German citizens with a migration background only a legally devalued status”. This goes against the German constitution.

Worried they could lose voters to the AfD over the question of migration and borders, Germany’s centre left and centre right have moved to the right in their rhetoric. This is a victory for the AfD, whatever the outcome of the election.

Even if it becomes the second largest force in parliament, as predicted, it is very, very unlikely to make it into Germany’s next government.

The post-World War Two political system in Germany is designed so that no single party can dominate parliament as the Nazis did after they were first voted in, in 1933.

Coalition-building is the name of the game. And there has been a so-called firewall in place since the end of World War Two – a cross-party consensus to keep the extreme right out of government.

The AfD insists it is conservative and libertarian, not a radical, right-wing force.

It points to its growing support base, in west as well as east Germany and among younger voters too. It accuses opponents of trying to shut it up, shut it down and keep it out of power. That, it says, is anti-democratic.

Elon Musk grabbed headlines Europe-wide when he proclaimed in December that only the AfD can save Germany.

The majority here still insists their country needs to be saved from AfD.

A passenger train derailed after striking a herd of elephants near a wildlife reserve in central Sri Lanka in the early hours of Thursday.

While no injuries were reported among passengers, six elephants died from the accident in Habarana, east of the capital Colombo.

Two injured elephants were being treated, police said, noting that it was the worst such wildlife accident the country had seen, AFP reported.

It is not uncommon for trains to run into herds of elephants in Sri Lanka, where casualties on both sides of human-elephant encounters are among the highest in the world.

Last year, more than 170 people and nearly 500 elephants were killed in human-elephant encounters overall – and around 20 elephants are killed by trains annually, according to local media.

Elephants, whose natural habitats are affected by deforestation and shrinking resources, have increasingly strayed into places of human activity.

Some have urged train drivers to slow down and sound the train horns to warn animals ahead on railway tracks.

In 2018, a pregnant elephant and its two calves similarly died in Habarana after being struck by a train. The three had been part of a larger herd crossing the train tracks at dawn.

Last October, another train ran into a herd in Minneriya, about 25km (15 miles) away from Habarana, killing two elephants and injuring one.

There are an estimated 7,000 wild elephants in Sri Lanka, where the animals, revered by its Buddhist majority, are protected by law. Killing an elephant is a crime punishable by imprisonment or a fine.

Rescuers have ended a 44-day search operation after they found the bodies of five men who were trapped inside a flooded coal mine in India’s north-eastern state of Assam.

DNA tests will be conducted to identify the men as the bodies are in a decomposed state, a state official told the BBC.

On 6 January, nine miners were trapped after water flooded the so-called “rat-hole” mine, which is a narrow hole dug manually to extract coal.

Four bodies were recovered within the first week, and search operations had continued until Wednesday, when the remaining bodies were found.

“The process to identify the remains has been initiated,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on the social media platform X.

The families of the miners have also been called to identify the bodies. They will be given compensation by the state government, said Riki Phukan, an official from Assam’s District Disaster Management Authority.

The search operations – at the Umrangso coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district – were jointly conducted by special disaster forces alongside the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the state police and the district disaster authority.

Divers and helicopters were also deployed but the remote, hilly terrain of the mine had posed severe challenges.

Earlier, one of the men rescued from the mine had shared with the BBC a harrowing account of the moments after the tunnel was suddenly engulfed by water.

Ravi Rai, a worker from Nepal, said that he was working inside the mine when water entered the pit.

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

Despite a ban on “rat-hole” mining in India since 2014, small illegal mines continue to be operational in Assam and other north-eastern states.

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

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

After the recent accident, police in Assam have said they are investigating illegal mining activities in the state.

A chorus of praise is being sung around Ne Zha 2, the Chinese film about a mythical boy who battles demons, which has been newly crowned the world’s highest-grossing animated film.

The box office triumph of the film – which has raked in 12.3bn yuan ($1.7bn; £1.4bn) – triggered a huge swell of national pride across the country.

But as patriotic Ne Zha 2 fans set their sights on further success, they are also keeping a close eye on critics of the movie, accusing them of being clout-chasing, paid “haters”.

Also in the crosshairs of this nationalism is Captain America: Brave New World, the fourth movie of the superhero franchise, now seen as Ne Zha 2’s rival.

“I don’t care if Ne Zha 2 can survive overseas, but Captain America 4 must die in China,” reads a popular slogan that has been repeated on multiple posts on social media.

In Chinese news outlets and social media, people are gloating over the lacklustre performance of the American blockbuster at China’s box office. Of the $92m the film has made outside the US, only $10.6m has come from China, Hollywood’s largest overseas market.

“It’s not Captain America that’s dying, but America that’s dying,” reads the title of an essay on an online forum analysing the movie’s lack of appeal in China.

The author goes on to argue: “In reality, the US does not have superheroes and the US is not a peace-loving, peace-defending beacon for humanity.”

One cinema in Sichuan province reportedly decided to hold off screenings of Captain America 4 in its theatres “in order to support Ne Zha 2”.

Meanwhile, some are critical that Ne Zha 2, which premiered outside China this month, did not get enough screenings in North American cinemas. They have also accused American cinemas of showing other movies rather than the Chinese film.

Ne Zha 2 hit the screens in China on 29 January, among a string of high-profile movies designed to capture an annual surge of cinemagoers during the Lunar New Year holiday.

It quickly towered over the competition, crossing the $1bn milestone in less than two weeks – even more impressive considering China’s sluggish economy.

Ne Zha 2 is being hailed as a symbol of progress in Chinese film and a sign that domestic productions can rival Hollywood blockbusters at the box office.

Previous domestic box office hits have tended to be patriotic, action films such as The Battle of Lake Changjin, a 2021 propaganda film about the 1950s Korean War, which held the record for China’s highest-grossing film until Ne Zha 2 broke it.

While Hollywood films usually see their revenues spread across different regions, more than 99% of Ne Zha 2’s box office earnings are coming from China – where the animation has become a litmus test for patriotism.

On social media, people say they have bought tickets to watch Ne Zha 2 multiple times. And those who have not watched the movie say they have to deal with snide remarks.

“A friend told me I was not patriotic, just because I did not watch Ne Zha 2,” a social media user posted on Douyin, China’s TikTok.

As cinemagoers took to social media to share their reviews of the movie, criticisms – from the lack of plot continuity to its awkward humour and anti-feminist undertones – were met with a barrage of dismissive comments.

“People like that are either clout-chasing, or are being paid,” read one comment on Xiaohongshu, China’s Instagram-like app.

Insults of this nature are not new, a Chinese social media user who has posted criticisms of Ne Zha 2 and experienced such backlash first-hand, tells the BBC. But the defensiveness surrounding the film is more pronounced because of its meteoric success, which has turned it into a proxy for the Chinese film industry.

In the eyes of these fans, who only see things in black and white, to criticise the movie is to side with Hollywood, they say.

“Everyone beware, there’s currently a wave of haters swarming Ne Zha 2 with criticism online,” another Xiaohongshu user commented, adding that the “premeditated” criticisms came from jealous individuals in either foreign or domestic film industries.

“With such a great movie, people are using their feet to vote. So they are turning to panic and slander. How despicable!” they wrote.

Ne Zha 2’s huge success is helping introduce characters from Chinese mythology to new audiences around the world, and it’s been praised for its script, special effects and the quality of animation. But the fact it has become a focal point for nationalist sentiment has led to some in China raising concerns about the growing political significance the film has taken on.

“Ne Zha 2 has become a cultural phenomenon, but I don’t think this is entirely a good thing,” reads a Xiaohongshu post reflecting on the sharpening debate over the movie.

“Criticising the plot flaws is equated to being unpatriotic; unreservedly condemning other films released in the same period; replacing deep discussion with a war between fans and haters … This is definitely not a good cultural environment.”

“Dirty.” “Perverted mind.” “Disgusting.”

These were the words India’s Supreme Court used on Tuesday while granting interim protection from arrest to a popular YouTuber who has been in the eye of a storm in the country over the past week.

The furore began after Ranveer Allahbadia – whose YouTube channel BeerBiceps has eight million followers – asked a contestant the question: “Would you rather watch your parents have sex every day for the rest of your life or join in once and stop it forever?”

The comments, made on the show India’s Got Latent on 9 February, sparked massive outrage, police cases and even death threats. YouTube quickly removed the episode, but that didn’t stall the tide of anger directed at Allahbadia and the show.

In fact, the amount of attention the incident has received is mind-boggling: it has made national headlines, been covered on primetime TV and some of India’s most prominent news sites have even run live pages.

Not surprising, considering the star status of Allahbadia. He has interviewed federal ministers, top Bollywood celebrities, cricketers and Hollywood actors. And last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed him a “National Creators Awards” trophy.

Since the controversy erupted, Allahbadia and the show’s creator, Samay Raina, have apologised for the comments and Raina has taken down all previous episodes of the show. The Supreme Court in its recent order has even banned Allahbadia from posting content on social media.

But the incident continues to make news.

“It feels like the state is trying to make an example out of Allahbadia,” says Apar Gupta, founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation. Saket Gokhale, an opposition lawmaker, also condemned the targeting of Allahbadia and the show.

“Crass content can be criticised if it offends you. However, you cannot have the state persecute and lock up people for offending your ‘moral sentiments’,” he wrote in a post on X.

Popular comedian Vir Das also weighed in on the controversy and criticised news channels for their one-dimensional coverage of the incident and for taking a disparaging view of all digital content.

Allahbadia’s remarks and the subsequent backlash have triggered debates around free speech and India’s obscenity laws; it has also sparked conversations around the thirst for viral content and the consequences its makers face when their content crosses lines upheld by the very people who watch it.

Raina’s show, which debuted in June, has been popular from the start, with each episode being viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube. And it hasn’t shied away from kickstarting controversies either.

The show has platformed some bizarre performances and judges and contestants have been seen making crass and crude comments more than a few times. Critics have accused the show of spewing misogynistic views and for body-shaming guests.

A popular fashion influencer once walked out of the show after a male contestant compared her to a former adult film actress while another asked her about her “body count” (a slang term for the number of sexual partners a person has had).

But that seems to have been the appeal of the show too.

Fans of the show have hailed it for championing “raw talent and unfiltered jokes”. Some have said that they liked the roasts – a form of insult comedy – which was popular on the show.

Experts have underscored how, with the entertainment landscape exploding, digital content creators often feel compelled to push the envelope – even if it means resorting to the risqué and lewd – just to gain views and virality.

It’s safe to say the show pushed the envelope and the buttons of many. But then, it backfired.

“A lot of comedy, especially of a certain masculine kind, is cruel and punches down on people. It has a violent undercurrent. So if you contribute to that culture, it’s not a shock if it comes back to bite you some day,” filmmaker Paromita Vohra says.

She adds that successful comedy calls for a fine-tuned awareness of the audience it is being performed for and what boundaries it can push.

Interestingly, Allahbadia’s question, which sparked the furore, was almost identical to the question asked by the host of an Australian comedy show called OG Crew’s Truth or Drink. While the question didn’t spark outrage in Australia, it has in India.

“The internet has made it possible for content to reach spaces and people it was not organically playing to. Unthinkingly appropriating content can have unexpected consequences,” she says.

But she also says that there’s a need to guard against making such issues a question of morality.

“When such controversies erupt, there is always the risk of morality being weaponised to punish people who have gone against what’s accepted by society,” she says and adds that morality is increasingly being beaten into the legal framework of the country, which can have a divisive effect.

Some critics have also accused the authorities of using the controversy as a smoke screen to divert attention from other pressing problems – like unemployment and pollution. Some fear that it will be used by the federal government as a reason to justify further regulating content creation.

After the controversy, a report by NDTV news channel stated that a parliamentary panel was considering making laws around digital content stricter. The Supreme Court too has pushed for more regulations around online content.

Mr Gupta says the state already has a “tremendous amount of power” to prosecute people accused of flouting various data and content laws and that while the state exercises its powers without restraint, content creators don’t have as many legal safeguards to protect them.

“Instead of tighter laws, we need more reform; existing legal standards need to be more tolerant of free expression,” he says.

“Other systems, like education and digital learning should be strengthened so that young people know to get their education from the classroom, and turn to the internet only for entertainment.”

US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky have entered a war of words after the US leader initiated talks with Russia about ending the conflict, but did not include Ukraine.

After Zelensky said Trump was in a “disinformation space”, Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” – a remark condemned by Kyiv’s allies.

The two have traded barbs in the past, but Zelensky has usually tried to toe a diplomatic line with Trump.

Here is a look back at what the two have said to, and about, one another, and how their public relationship has developed over the years.

21 April 2019: On the day Zelensky is elected president of Ukraine, Trump, still in his first term, calls Zelensky to congratulate him. Trump says it was an “incredible election” and adds that “you will do a great job”.

2019: Allies of Trump begin stoking allegations that Joe Biden, then Democratic frontrunner for president, lobbied Ukraine to dismiss its top prosecutor to stymie an investigation into energy firm Burisma, of which his son, Hunter, sat on the board. The allegations were later found to be fabricated, and the prosecutor was removed from office for corruption.

25 July 2019: In a phone conversation that would become the basis for Trump’s first impeachment, Trump asks Zelensky to “get to the bottom” of the allegations. Zelensky says the evidence would reviewed later that year.

29 September 2020: In the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden, Trump alludes to the allegations, saying: “Once you became vice-president, [Hunter] made a fortune in Ukraine and China and Moscow and various other places.”

24 February 2022: Russia begins its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Trump describes as “appalling”. He adds that Zelensky is “brave” for remaining in Kyiv, and claims the invasion “would never have happened” if he had been elected in 2020.

5 March 2023: “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, I will have the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine settled,” Trump tells a conservative conference. “And it will take me no longer than one day.”

May 2024: Zelensky’s term expires but he remains in office, as scheduled elections in Ukraine do not go ahead because the nation remains under martial law. He previously said that “now is not the time for elections”.

22 September 2024: Zelensky tells the New Yorker magazine: “My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even if he might think he knows how.” He adds that “many” leaders have thought they could, but have been unable to.

25 September 2024: On the campaign trail, Trump accuses Zelensky of “making little nasty aspersions toward your favourite president, me”, adding: “Any deal, even the worst deal, would have been better than what we have right now.”

27 September 2024: Zelensky and Trump meet in New York. Zelensky says they have a “common view that the war has to be stopped and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can’t win”, while Trump says he will resolve the war “very quickly”.

6 November 2024: Trump is re-elected US president. Zelensky is among the first world leaders to call to congratulate him, writing shortly after that he looked forward to a “strong” US under Trump’s “decisive leadership”.

22 January 2025: “It’s time to MAKE A DEAL,” Trump writes on Truth Social. “We can do it the easy way or the hard way.” He adds that without a deal, he will be forced to place further economic restrictions on Russia.

23 January 2025: Trump tells the World Economic Forum that Zelensky “wants to make a deal” but Putin “might not”.

15 February 2025: Zelensky writes that he has begun working with Trump’s team, adding: “The world is looking up to America as the power that has the ability to not only stop the war but also help ensure the reliability of peace afterward.”

18 February 2025: US-Russia talks about ending the war begin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Zelensky tells reporters that the talks took place “behind Ukraine’s back”, adding: “Once again, decisions about Ukraine are being made without Ukraine.”

18 February 2025: After the talks, Trump says he was “disappointed” by Ukraine’s reaction and appeared to blame Ukraine for starting the war, adding that the country “could have made a deal” earlier.

19 February 2025: Zelensky says the US president is caught in a Russian “disinformation space”. He adds: “We are standing strong on our own two feet. I am counting on… the unity of Europe and the pragmatism of America.”

19 February 2025: Trump accuses Zelensky of talking the US into spending $350bn (£277bn), and of claiming that half of that money was now missing. Trump calls Zelensky a “dictator” who has “done a terrible job”.

The UK and Europe may need to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia, regardless of US support, the former head of the British armed forces has said on a BBC One Question Time special.

Retired General Sir Nick Carter said he believed it was for Ukraine to decide what a “fair settlement” meant, but that the UK and European countries needed to “step up to the plate” to guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty “if the Americans are not prepared to do that”.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said a “US security guarantee was the only way to effectively deter Russia”.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said the UK is “ready to listen” to Russia – if it is serious about peace and “rejects Tsarist imperialism”.

The rift between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump has appeared to deepen in recent days, with America announcing it will soon begin direct negotiations with Russia.

Sir Keir said the UK was willing to provide peacekeeping troops if necessary, but a US “backstop” would be needed to keep the peace and stop Russia attacking again.

He did not explain what he meant by this but others have suggested it could involve air support, logistics and intelligence capabilities.

Trump said earlier this week that he “would not object” to Europe sending in peacekeeping troops, but the US “won’t have to put any over there, because, you know, we’re very far away”.

The prime minister is due to visit Washington next week for talks with the US president at which he is expected to maintain his support for Zelensky and Ukraine’s government while seeking to gain Trump’s ear over talks with Russia.

According to the White House, Sir Keir will visit on Thursday, following a separate visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to see Trump on Monday. There was no confirmation from Downing Street of the date of Sir Keir’s visit.

Macron is seeking to co-ordinate a European response and said he had spoken to Zelensky to discuss the diplomatic situation ahead of his trip.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also spoke to Zelensky, repeating Canada’s support and stressing that Kyiv must be involved in any negotiations to end the war.

China has come out in support of Trump’s plan to negotiate with Russia, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying it supports “all efforts conducive to peace” including the US-Russia talks.

“China has noted that calls for peace talks have been rising recently, and a window for peace is opening,” Wang was quoted as saying at the G20 meeting in South Africa by AFP news agency.

The US president has called Zelensky a “dictator” and suggested Ukraine was responsible for the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, saying a peace deal could have been struck earlier.

The Ukrainian leader said the US president was “living in a disinformation space” created by Moscow.

Washington has also suggested Europe needs to take greater responsibility for its own defence.

Sir Nick, who was chief of the UK’s defence staff between 2018 and 2021, said he thought the UK and other European allies had “got to state a position”.

“I think that fundamentally there has got to be some form of guarantee of Ukraine’s sovereignty in the future,” he said.

He warned the UK armed forces were “remarkably hollow” after a “process of neglect over a 30-year period”.

“I think we also need to be clear about how vulnerable our country is,” he said, describing how much of the UK’s critical infrastructure was dependent on undersea cables or not “not properly protected by cyber defences”.

He said: “We are in a position I think where we are massively vulnerable at the moment. And whether we like it or not that means we’re going to have to start protecting ourselves.

“And the sort of onslaught that Ukraine has suffered from the air via drones and missiles over the course of the last three years is unsustainable as far as the UK’s concerned.

“We might be able to park a destroyer in the Thames to protect parts of London but nothing more than that.”

The G20 – or Group of Twenty – is a club of countries that meets to discuss global economic and political issues.

Attending the talks in Johannesburg, Lammy appeared sceptical of whether Moscow was serious about peace, after listening to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov’s speech.

“We’ve not got anywhere near a negotiated settlement, and I have to say when I listened to what the Russians and what Lavrov has just said in the chamber this afternoon, I don’t see an appetite to really get to that peace,” Lammy said.

Lammy and Lavrov both gave speeches behind closed doors at the summit.

It is understood Lavrov boycotted Lammy’s speech, in which he said the UK was “ready to listen” to Russia but they expeced to hear more than Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “tired fabrications”.

Thursday’s Question Time panel included Sir Nick; Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko, a member of the liberal, pro-European opposition Holos party; Jan Halper-Hayes, who has served as a campaign adviser to Trump; Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds; and Conservative former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace.

Ukrainian refugees among the audience spoke about the trauma of seeing their country torn apart by war.

On a bleak late winter’s day, under leaden skies and occasional driving rain, this was the moment all Israelis had been dreading.

The return of the dead.

It began, as all the handovers so far have begun, with a politically charged display by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups involved in holding Israeli hostages for over 500 days.

Once again, there was a stage, flanked by huge posters highlighting the catastrophic consequences of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the Palestinian determination to stay put.

But instead of haunted, sometimes emaciated, survivors, there were four black coffins, each bearing a photograph and a name – Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir – accompanied by the image of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Missile casings bore the slogan: “They were killed by US bombs”. Hamas has long argued that all four were killed by Israeli air raids on Gaza, something which has not been verified.

As previously, Red Cross officials were on hand to oversee the process. In a rare public statement on the matter, they had urged Hamas to conduct the handover in a private, dignified fashion.

Their efforts had clearly been in vain, but they attempted to screen the coffins from public scrutiny, draping each one in a white sheet before driving them away.

The watching crowd was smaller than usual, perhaps because of the heavy rain.

After Thursday morning’s handover, at a military ceremony on the edge of the Gaza Strip, the coffins carrying the hostages were draped with Israeli flags and prayers offered by the army’s chief rabbi.

A convoy of vehicles then made its way north towards the Abu Kabir forensic institute, in Jaffa, where formal identification of the bodies is taking place.

Along the route, small groups of Israelis stood silently in the rain, carrying Israeli flags and yellow banners – the colour associated with the hostages and their supporters.

In Karmei Gat, where displaced members of kibbutz Nir Oz are living, waiting to go home, the vigil was particularly sombre.

All four of Thursday’s released hostages were seized from Nir Oz on 7 October 2023.

Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square was a study in grief, with people crying or sitting on the ground, heads in hands.

The faces of the red-headed Bibas boys – Ariel and Kfir – are plastered on walls, road signs and in windows up and down the country. Fearing the worst, Israelis have nevertheless clung to the hope that the brothers might have survived, along with their mother, Shiri.

“We were devastated by the news,” Orly Marron said, outside Abu Kabir.

“I have red-headed grandchildren and seeing the photographs is really very heartbreaking.”

Oded Lifschitz’s son, Yizhar, meanwhile told Israel Radio that he had always feared for his father’s health, since his violent abduction in October 2023.

Oded was 84 years old at the time. He and his wife, Yocheved, were both taken to Khan Younis in Gaza, where they were separated, never to see each other again.

Yocheved was released by Hamas two weeks after the attack.

“We need to close this wound and move forward,” Yizhar said, adding that his father, a noted journalist and peace activist, had long had a vision about how to resolve the conflicts of the Middle East.

“It’s sad that we went through this whole cycle and didn’t solve it,” Yizhar said. “We left it as something simmering, and look where we are now.”

Meanwhile, back in Gaza, some Palestinians expressed their anger that Israeli bodies had been handed over, while an unknown number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s military campaign remain buried in the apocalyptic wreckage of the Gaza Strip.

In addition, as many as 665 bodies are being held by Israel in numbered cemeteries, according to a Palestinian protest group, The National Campaign to Recover the Bodies of the Martyrs. It says some have been held for decades.

“I don’t like this agreement at all,” Ikram Abu Salout said in Khan Younis. “They didn’t remove the rubble and we don’t even know where our children and families are.”

As she was speaking, bulldozers flying Egyptian flags were finally arriving in northern Gaza. Israel allowed the equipment to enter, in exchange for Thursday’s handover and the release of six more living hostages this coming Saturday.

From her house in east London, British-Israeli Sharone Lifschitz never gave up hope that her 84-year-old father Oded would return from the horror of Hamas captivity, after more than 500 days.

He was a man of peace, a campaigner for, and a friend of, Palestinians.

He was dragged from his home by Palestinian gunmen on 7 October and killed in captivity after being taken to Gaza alive.

The return of his body on Thursday was devastating news for Ms Lifschitz and her family, particularly her mother Yocheved who was also a hostage but returned alive and now will not be able to reunite with her husband of 63 years.

After identifying Oded’s body, the head of Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine said he had been killed in captivity more than a year ago. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said he “was murdered in captivity by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.”

The BBC were with Sharone, a filmmaker and academic, at her home when the ceasefire was announced last month.

She shed tears of joy and hope as at last she saw an opportunity where she would discover what had happened to her father. After more than a year of him being held hostage, she didn’t know if he was alive or dead.

Sharone Lifschitz admitted then that at his age the hopes for his survival were slim, but she also believed “miracles can happen”.

Ms Lifschitz has been an eloquent and dignified voice for the release of her father and the other hostages, and shed light on the trauma the hostage families have faced since their ordeal began.

“One way or another, we will know. We will know if he’s still with us, if we can look after him. We will know who we are grieving for… My father didn’t deserve this.

But she recognised there were “more graves to come.”

And now, one will be for her father.

Oded Lifshitz was a journalist and veteran campaigner for peace who drove sick Palestinians to hospitals in Israel for treatment. In his campaign for Palestinian rights he met Yasser Arafat, then head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

He helped to found Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he lived and was taken hostage from. It was a place where he was well-known for the cacti that he grew, the piano he played and the grandchildren he adored.

In a tribute, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “deeply saddened” by Oded’s death, and sent his “heartfelt condolences” to his family.

“When I met Sharone in Downing Street, she showed remarkable strength in the face of the most difficult circumstances,” Sir Keir said.

“The news of her father’s death is a tragedy. It is my hope that the peace he worked to see in the region through his charity work and activism will be achieved.”

About 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed in the 7 October attacks and 251 others, including Oded and Yocheved, taken back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military campaign against Hamas in response, which has killed at least 48,297 Palestinians – mainly civilians – according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

As well as Oded, three other bodies were released by Hamas on Thursday – who Hamas said were Shiri Bibas, 33, and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir.

But on Thursday night, Israel’s military accused Hamas of handing over the body of an unidentified person instead of that of Ms Bibas.

“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

Oded’s wife Yocheved, who was freed as a hostage by Hamas in 2023, met then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar while held in the tunnels under Gaza – and told him he should be ashamed of himself.

The British lawyers supporting the family said “Yocheved must be the only person to have met Sinwar, Netanyahu and the Pope, and given them all a piece of her mind. That is the kind of extraordinary person she is.”

On Wednesday, as she received a peace award for her campaigning for the hostages, she said: “Oded was a great fighter for peace. He had very good relations with Palestinians and the thing that hurts the most is they betrayed him.”

His family said they could now mourn for a husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather, but after “503 agonising days of uncertainty”, they had “hoped and prayed for a different outcome”.

Capturing water from fog – on a large scale – could provide some of the driest cities in the world with drinking water.

This is what researchers in Chile have concluded after studying the potential of fog harvesting in the desert city of Alto Hospicio in the north of the country.

Average rainfall in the region is less than 0.19in (5mm) per year.

“Like a lot of cities, Alto Hospicio has its social problems,” said lead researcher Dr Virginia Carter Gamberini, from Universidad Mayor. “There is a lot of poverty”, she explained, and many people there have no direct access to the networks that supply clean water.

Many who live in the city’s poorest communities rely on drinking water that is delivered by truck.

However, clouds of fog that regularly gather over the mountain city are an untapped source, researchers say.

Capturing fog water is remarkably simple – a mesh is hung between poles, and when the moisture-laden clouds pass through that fine mesh, droplets form. The water is then channelled into pipes and storage tanks.

It has been used at a small scale for several decades, mainly in rural South and Central America – in places with the right foggy conditions. One of the biggest fog water harvesting systems is in Morocco, on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

However, Dr Carter says a “new era” of much larger-scale fog harvesting could provide a more secure and sustainable supply of water in urban environments where it is most needed.

She and her colleagues carried out assessments of how much water can be produced by fog harvesting, and combined that information with studies of cloud formation in satellite images and with weather forecasts.

From this, they concluded that the clouds that regularly form over the Pacific – and are blown across the coastal mountain city – could provide the people of Alto Hospicio’s slums with a sustainable source of drinking water. They published their findings in a paper in the journal Frontiers of Environmental Science.

• BBC Future: The ethereal art of capturing fog
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• Concerns UK’s AI ambitions could lead to water shortages

Alto Hospicio’s fog forms over the Pacific Ocean – when warm, moist air flows over cold water – and is then blown over the mountains. The reliably foggy conditions here allowed Dr Carter and her colleagues to pinpoint areas where the largest volumes of water could be harvested regularly from the clouds.

Based on an annual average water collection rate of 2.5 litres per square metre of mesh per day, the researchers worked out:

• 17,000 sq m of mesh could produce enough water to meet the weekly water demand of 300,000 litres that is currently delivered by truck to urban slums
• 110 sq m could meet the annual demand for the irrigation of the city’s green spaces
• Fog water could be used for soil-free (hydroponic) agriculture, with yields of 33 to 44lb (15 to 20kg) of green vegetables in a month

Alto Hospicio is on the edge of the Atacama Desert – one of the driest places on Earth. With little to no precipitation, the main water source of cities in the region are underground aquifers – rock layers that contain water-filled spaces – that were last refilled thousands of years ago.

With urban populations growing, and demand on those water supplies from mining and industry, the scientists say there is an urgent need for other sustainable sources of clean water.

Dr Gamberini explained that Chile is “very special” for its sea fog, “because we have the ocean along the whole country and we have the mountains”.

Her team is currently working on a “fog harvesting map” of the whole country.

“Water from the clouds”, as Dr Carter describes it, could, she said, “enhance our cities’ resilience to climate change, while improving access to clean water”.

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This week saw the US president appear to blame Ukraine for starting its war with Russia, a Liverpool fan scoring the first goal at Everton’s new stadium and the discovery of a pharaoh’s tomb for the first time in more than a century.

But how much attention did you pay to what else has been going on in the world over the past seven days?

Quiz compiled by George Sandeman and Grace Dean.

Fancy some more? Try last week’s quiz or have a go at something from the archives.

Delta Air Lines is offering US$30,000 (£23,792) to each person on board a plane that crash-landed in Toronto on Monday – all of whom survived.

As it landed in the Canadian city, the plane skidded along the runway in flames before flipping over and coming to a halt upside down. Passengers described their amazement as most of them walked away without injuries.

It remains unclear what caused the incident, which is under investigation.

There were 76 passengers and four crew on the flight, which had travelled from the US city of Minneapolis before making its crash-landing in Canada.

A spokesperson for Delta said the money offer had no strings attached and did not affect customers’ rights.

• Why did a plane crash in Toronto, and how did everyone survive?
• Witnesses recount escape from flipped plane

Toronto law firm Rochon Genova says it has been retained by certain passengers and their families over the crash-landing.

Lawyer Vincent Genova said the group expected a “timely and fair resolution”, highlighting that his clients “suffered personal injuries of a serious nature that required hospital attention”.

In an email to the BBC, Mr Genova said the $30,000 compensation is an “advance” payment meant to assist plane crash victims with short-term financial challenges, and the airline will seek to deduct it from any later settled claims.

There is precedent to these types of payments, like in 2013, when Asiana Airlines offered passengers of a San Francisco plane crash $10,000 in initial compensation.

Last year, Alaska Airlines offered a $1,500 cash payment to passengers after mid-air door-plug blowout on a flight from Portland.

Following this week’s incident in Toronto, the plane crew and emergency responders were praised for their quick work in removing people from the wrecked vehicle. The plane’s various safety features have also been credited for ensuring no loss of life.

All of the 21 passengers who were taken to hospital had been released by Thursday morning, the airline said.

Delta’s chief told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the flight crew were experienced and trained for any condition.

The airline’s head Ed Bastian told CBS the plane crew had “performed heroically, but also as expected”, given that “safety is embedded into our system”. He said Delta was continuing to support those affected.

Several theories about what caused the crash have been suggested to the BBC by experts who reviewed footage, including that harsh winter weather and a rapid rate of descent played a role.

One passenger recalled “a very forceful event”, and the sound of “concrete and metal” at the moment of impact. Another said passengers were left hanging upside down in their seats “like bats”.

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been recovered from the wreckage. The investigation is being led by Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB), supported by US officials.

On Wednesday evening, the wreckage was removed from the airport runway.

The accident was the fourth major air incident in North America in a space of three weeks – and was followed on Wednesday by a crash in Arizona in which two people lost their lives when their small planes collided.

Experts continue to insist that air travel is overwhelmingly safe – more so than other forms of transport, in fact.

That message was emphasised by US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who told CBS on Wednesday there was no pattern behind the incidents, each of which he said was “very unique”.

One of four bodies returned from Gaza to Israel on Thursday is not hostage Shiri Bibas, as claimed by Hamas, the Israeli military said.

The news that Shiri Bibas, 33, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who would now be aged five and two, were dead triggered an outpouring of grief in Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has informed the Bibas family that the bodies of her sons have been identified after their remains were given to Israel by Hamas on Thursday.

But the third body was not that of their mother, the IDF says.

It demanded the return of her body along with the other remaining hostages. Hamas has not yet commented on Israel’s claim.

“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” the IDF posted on X.

“This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”

The IDF said that the two children “were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023”, according to intelligence and forensic findings. Hamas had said the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli bombing.

Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were aged 32, four and nine months when they were kidnapped during the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The children’s father Yarden Bibas, 34, was released by Hamas on 1 February.

Israel has confirmed that the fourth body returned on Thursday was that of veteran peace activist, Oded Lifshitz.

The release of hostages’ bodies was agreed as part of the ceasefire deal which came into effect on 19 January, and Israel has confirmed it expects eight bodies will be handed over.

The two sides agreed to exchange 33 hostages for about 1,900 prisoners by the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire.

Talks on progressing to the next 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.

Twenty-eight hostages and more than 1,000 prisoners have so far been exchanged.

Sixty-six hostages taken on 7 October are still being held in Gaza. Three other hostages, taken more than a decade ago, are also being held. About half of all the hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.

About 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military campaign against Hamas in response, which has killed at least 48,297 Palestinians – mainly civilians – according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Also on Thursday, three buses exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, in what Israeli police said is a suspected terror attack.

Devices in two other buses failed to explode, they said, adding that “large police forces are at the scenes, searching for suspects”. No casualties have been reported.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced he had ordered the IDF to carry out an “intensive operation against centers of terrorism” in the West Bank.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to return to the negotiating table and strike a deal on US access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz has said.

On Wednesday, Zelensky rejected US demands for a share of its rare earth minerals – a “deal” Trump said would reflect the amount of aid the US had provided to Ukraine during its war with Russia.

The comments, made at a White House briefing on Thursday, overshadowed a meeting in Kyiv between Zelensky and Keith Kellogg, the US chief envoy to Ukraine.

Waltz said the White House was “very frustrated” with Zelensky after he levelled “unacceptable” insults at US President Donald Trump earlier this week.

Ukraine holds huge deposits of critical elements and minerals, including lithium and titanium, as well as sizeable coal, gas, oil and uranium deposits – a supply worth billions of dollars.

Earlier on Thursday, Waltz suggested US access to rare minerals in Ukraine could be exchanged in return for aid – or even as compensation for the support the US has already provided.

“We presented the Ukrainians really an incredible, and a historic opportunity,” the adviser said, adding that it would be “sustainable” and “the best” security guarantee Ukraine could hope for.

But Zelensky had refused the offer, saying: “I can’t sell our state.”

Waltz’s comments in the White House news briefing came shortly after the conclusion of Zelensky’s meeting with Kellogg in Kyiv, after which the Ukrainian leader announced he was ready to make an “investment and security agreement” with the US to end the war in Ukraine.

The meeting was hailed as “productive” by Zelensky – but it more closely resembled an awkward political date.

As the senior members of Donald Trump’s team continued to engage directly with Moscow, the retired general had said he was in Kyiv to “listen”.

But it soon became apparent he wouldn’t speak, publicly that is, after a news conference was cancelled at the last minute.

The BBC understands it was a US decision, with Ukrainian sources claiming they believed Kellogg had been “sidelined” by the White House.

The meeting with Kellogg had been of huge importance to Kyiv, given that officials are relying on the special envoy to relay its needs to Washington.

In a post shared on X, the Ukrainian president said he and the US special envoy had “a detailed conversation about the battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war, and effective security guarantees”.

He added: “Ukraine is ready for a strong, effective investment and security agreement with the president of the United States.”

Later on Thursday, Zelensky said he had spoken to the leaders of Canada, Finland, Norway and South Africa. “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he wrote in one post on X.

The possible reasons for Kellogg not wanting to face questions are mounting.

Kellogg’s meeting comes in the context of a war of words between his boss Donald Trump and Ukraine’s leader, which culminated in the US president referring to Zelensky as a “dictator without elections”.

Trump also blamed him for starting Russia’s invasion.

Now there are reports that the US is refusing to recognise a UN resolution which labels Moscow as the aggressor while recognising Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Earlier this week, Zelensky was excluded from talks between senior Russian and American officials who met in Saudi Arabia to discuss the possibility of ending the conflict.

The war began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, following its earlier annexation of Ukrainian territory.

Trump, who has been in office for one month, believes US involvement in the war is not in America’s interest – and in a radical reversal of previous US foreign policy, he has chosen to negotiate directly with Russia to secure a quick end to the conflict.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emerged after more than four hours of talks with Russian diplomats in Riyadh to declare that the first steps towards negotiations had been agreed, with teams to be formed on both sides.

After the meeting in the Middle East, Trump suggested Zelensky had “started” the war with Russia – claims which led Zelensky to describe the US president as “living in this disinformation space” governed by Moscow.

Trump hit back with his “dictator” attack and claimed Zelensky had low popularity ratings among the Ukrainian electorate.

Looking forward, Ukraine will be concerned by the prospect of Russia-US talks continuing without the direct involvement of Ukraine.

“Nothing is off the negotiating table,” claimed US Vice-President JD Vance.

The problem for Ukraine is that it isn’t even sitting at it.

Three buses have exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, in what Israeli police say is a suspected terror attack.

Devices in two other buses failed to explode, they said, adding that “large police forces are at the scenes, searching for suspects”.

Transport Minister Miri Regev paused all buses, trains and light rail trains in the country so that checks for explosive devices could be carried out, Israeli media reports said.

Footage on social media shows at least one bus on fire in a parking lot, with a large plume of smoke rising above.

There have been no reports of casualties at this stage, police said.

Police spokesperson Aryeh Doron said the “event is ongoing”, with officers still trying to locate more bombs in Tel Aviv.

“Our forces are still scouring the area,” Doron told Channel 12, adding that the public must be on alert for “every suspected bag or object”.

“We may be lucky if indeed the terrorists set these timers to the wrong hour. But it’s too early to determine,” he said.

According to local media, one of the unexploded devices, weighing 5kg, carried a message saying “Revenge from Tulkarem” – referring to a recent Israeli military counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank.

In response to the incidents in Bat Yam, Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to “increase the intensity” of activity in refugee camps in the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was being updated on the situation, his office said in a statement.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that Transport Minister Miri Regev has cut short her trip to Morocco and will return to Israel.

A meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and some of the country’s foremost business leaders this week has fuelled excitement and speculation, after Alibaba founder Jack Ma was pictured at the event.

The charismatic and colourful Mr Ma, who was one of China’s most prominent businessmen, had withdrawn from public life after criticising China’s financial sector in 2020.

His reappearance at Monday’s event has sparked a wave of discussion, with experts and analysts wondering what it means for him, China’s tech sector and the economy in general.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive – tech stocks, including those of Alibaba, rallied soon after the event.

On Thursday, the e-commerce giant reported financial results that beat expectations, with shares ending the trading day in New York more than 8% higher. The company’s shares are up 60% since the beginning of the year.

So what are analysts reading into Mr Ma’s appearance at the event alongside other high-profile guests – including DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng?

Analysts began looking for clues about the significance of the meeting as soon as Chinese state media started releasing pictures of the event.

“Jack Ma’s attendance, his seating in the front row, even though he did not speak, and his handshake with Xi are clear signs he has been rehabilitated,” China analyst Bill Bishop wrote.

Social media was abuzz with users praising Mr Ma for his return to the public spotlight.

“Congratulations [Jack] Ma for the safe landing,” said one user on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

“The comeback of [Jack] Ma is a shot in the arm to the current Chinese economy,” said another.

It is unsurprising that observers have attached so much significance to an appearance by Mr Ma.

Before his disappearance from public life in 2020 – following comments at a financial conference that China’s state-owned banks had a “pawn-shop mentality” – Mr Ma was the poster boy for China’s tech industry.

An English teacher with no background in computing, Mr Ma co-founded Alibaba in his apartment more than two decades ago after convincing a group of friends to invest in his online marketplace.

He went on to build one of China’s largest tech conglomerates and become one of the country’s richest men.

That was before his “pawn shop” comment, when he also lamented the “lack of innovation” in the country’s banks.

It led to the cancellation of his $34.5bn (£27.4bn) stock market flotation of Ant Group, his financial technology giant.

This was seen at the time as an attempt by Beijing to humble a company that had become too powerful, and a leader who had become too outspoken.

Analysts agree that the fact he’s back in the spotlight, at a symposium where Xi Jinping himself presided, is a very good sign for Mr Ma.

Some caution, however, that the fact he was not among the speakers may show that he has not fully returned to the exalted status he once enjoyed.

Also, the lack of coverage his attendance received in Chinese media outlets seems to confirm he has not been completely rehabilitated.

Xi Jinping told participants at the symposium that their companies needed to innovate, grow and remain confident despite China’s economic challenges, which he described as “temporary” and “localised”.

He also said it was the “right time for private enterprises and private entrepreneurs to fully display their talents”.

This has been widely interpreted as the government telling private tech firms that they too are back in good graces.

Mr Ma’s downfall had preceded a broader crackdown on China’s tech industry.

Companies came to face much tighter enforcement of data security and competition rules, as well as state control over important digital assets.

Other companies across the private sector, ranging from education to real estate, also ended up being targeted in what came to be known as the “common prosperity” campaign.

The measures put in place by the common prosperity policies were seen by some as a way to rein in the billionaire owners of some of China’s biggest companies, to instead give customers and workers more of a say in how firms operate and distribute their earnings.

But as Beijing imposed tough new regulations, billions of dollars were wiped off the value of some of these companies – many of them tech firms – rattling international investors.

This, along with a worsening global economy that was affected by the pandemic as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has contributed to considerable changes in China’s economic situation.

Growth has slowed, jobs for the country’s youth have become more scarce and, amid a property sector downturn, people are not spending enough.

As rumours that Mr Ma would attend Monday’s meeting began to spread, so did a glimmer of hope. Richard Windsor, director of technology at research firm Counterpoint, said Mr Ma’s presence would be a sign that China’s leadership “had enough of stagnation and could be prepared to let the private sector have a much freer hand”.

Aside from Mr Ma and Mr Liang, the list of guests also included key figures from companies such as telecommunications and smartphone firm Huawei, electric-vehicle (EV) giant BYD, and many others from across the tech and industrial sectors.

“The [guest] list showcased the importance of internet/tech/AI/EV sectors given their representation of innovation and achievement,” said a note from market analysts at Citi.

“[It] likely indicates the importance of technology… and the contribution of private enterprises to the development and growth of China’s economy.”

Those present at the meeting seemed to share that sentiment. Lei Jun, the chief executive of consumer electronics giant Xiaomi, told state media that he senses the president’s “care and support” for businesses.

The symposium took place after the country experienced what some observers have described as a “Sputnik moment”: the arrival of DeepSeek’s disruptive R1 artificial intelligence (AI) model at the end of last month.

Soon after its release, the Chinese-made AI chatbot rose through the ranks to become one of the most downloaded in the world. It also triggered a sudden sell-off of major US tech stocks, as fears mounted over America’s leadership in the sector.

Back in China, the app’s global success has sparked a wave of national pride that has quickly spread to financial markets. Investment has been pouring into Chinese stocks – particularly those of tech companies – listed in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has also upgraded its outlook for Chinese stocks, saying rapid AI adoption could boost companies’ revenues and attract as much as $200bn of investment.

But the biggest significance of this innovation was that it came as a result of DeepSeek having to innovate due to a ban on the export of advanced chips and technology to China.

Now, with Trump back in the White House and his fondness of trade tariffs, Mr Xi may have found it necessary to recalibrate his approach to China’s entrepreneurs.

Instead of a return to an era of unregulated growth, some analysts believe Monday’s meeting signalled an attempt to steer investors and businesses toward Mr Xi’s national priorities.

The Chinese president has been increasingly emphasising policies that the government has referred to as “high-quality development” and “new productive forces”.

Such ideas have been used to reflect a switch from what were previously fast drivers of growth, such as property and infrastructure investment, towards high-end industries such as semiconductors, clean energy and AI.

The goal is to achieve “socialist modernisation” by 2035 – higher living standards for everyone, and an economy driven by advanced manufacturing and less reliant on imports of foreign technology.

Mr Xi knows that to get there he will need the private sector fully on board.

“Rather than marking the end of tech sector scrutiny, [Jack Ma’s] reappearance suggests that Beijing is pivoting from crackdowns to controlled engagement,” an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, Marina Zhang told the BBC.

“While the private sector remains a critical pillar of China’s economic ambitions, it must align with national priorities – including self-reliance in key technologies and strategic industries.”

It looked small at first, in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Yet as we approached the USS Carl Vinson it filled the view out of the back of the Osprey tilt-rotor which was carrying us there, its deck packed with state-of-the-art warplanes. At nearly 90,000 tonnes, and more than 300 meters in length, the nuclear-powered Carl Vinson is one of the largest warships ever built.

Watching its FA18 and F35 fighter jets being hurled into the air every minute or two by the carrier’s steam catapults is a spine-tingling experience, a procedure managed with impressive composure by the crew on the crowded deck.

An untimely Pacific squall which drenched us and everything else did not slow them at all.

Even after years of rapid advances in Chinese military capabilities, the United States is still unrivalled in its capacity to project force anywhere around the world with its fleet of 11 super-carriers.

But does a $13bn (£10bn) aircraft carrier which the latest Chinese missiles could sink in a matter of minutes make sense anymore – particularly in the age of Donald Trump?

We had been invited onto the Carl Vinson to see another side of US carrier strategy, one which emphasises American friendliness, and willingness to work with allies – something you don’t hear much in Washington these days.

The Carl Vinson was taking part in an exercise with two other aircraft carriers and their escorting destroyers from France and Japan, about 200km east of the Philippines. In the absence of wars to fight, US carrier groups spend much of their time doing this, learning how to operate together with allied navies. Last year they held one exercise that brought together ships from 18 navies.

This one was smaller, but was the first in the Pacific involving a French carrier for more than 40 years.

Down in the massive hangar, below the noisy flight deck, Rear Adm Michael Wosje, commander of the Carl Vinson’s strike force, was sitting with his French colleague, Rear Adm Jacques Mallard of the carrier Charles de Gaulle, and his Japanese colleague Rear Adm Natsui Takashi of the Kaga, which is in the process of being converted to Japan’s first aircraft carrier since the Second World War.

The Charles de Gaulle is the only warship in the world which matches some of the capabilities of the US super-carriers, but even then is only half their size.

All three admirals were brimming with bonhomie.

The fraught scenes in Europe, where President Trump’s men were ripping up the rule book which underscored the international order for the past 80 years, and telling one-time allies they were now on their own, seemed a world away.

“Our network of strong alliances and partnerships, such as those that we share with France and Japan, is a key advantage of our nations as we confront our collective security challenges,” said Adm Wosje. In impeccable English Adm Mallard concurred: “This exercise is the expression of a will to better understand each other, and to work for the defence of compliance in international law.”

No one mentioned the radical new views emanating from Washington, nor did they mention an increasingly assertive China, although Adm Natsui might have had both in mind when he said Japan now found itself in “the most severe and complex security environment. No country can now protect her own security alone.”

Down in the warren of steel corridors which make up the living quarters of the 5,000 men and women on the Carl Vinson, the official portraits of the new president and vice-president were already hanging, the one of Trump with its now familiar pugilistic glower. We were not permitted to interview the crew, and politics would have been off-limits anyway, but some of those on board were curious what I thought of the new administration.

Internet access on board is spotty, but they do keep in touch with home. We were told they even get Amazon deliveries while at sea, picked up from designated collection points.

It is a fair bet then that there is plenty of discussion of what President Trump has in store for these giants of the navy. Elon Musk has already vowed to bring his cost-cutting wrecking ball to the Pentagon and its $900bn budget, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has welcomed that, although, he stressed, the Pentagon is not USAID which President Trump has vowed to shut down completely.

In the hangar we watched the crew maintaining the aircraft, surrounded by packing cases and spare parts. We were warned not to film any exposed parts of these technological marvels, for fear of revealing classified information. We could not even risk touching the F35 fighters, which have a prohibitively expensive special coating to help conceal them from radar.

They showed us the “Jet Shop” where they repair and test the engines, a technician who identified himself as ‘082 Madeiro’ explained that they needed to carry enough spare parts to keep the planes flying on long deployments, and that after a certain number of hours the engines had to be completely replaced, whether or not they were faulty. There was a brand new engine in its enormous packaging next to him. Cost, around $15m.

Running the Carl Vinson costs around $700m a year.

So will the Trump administration take a knife to the Pentagon budget? Hegseth has said he believes there are significant efficiencies to be found. He has also openly mused about the value of aircraft carriers. “If our whole power projection platform is aircraft carriers, and if 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our ten aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of conflict, what does that look like?”, he said in an interview last November.

The debate about the utility of aircraft carriers is not new. It goes right back to when they first appeared a century ago. Critics today argue that they are too vulnerable to the latest generation of Chinese ballistic and hypersonic missiles, forcing them to stay at a distance from the Chinese coast which would put their aircraft out of range. The money, they say, would be better spent on newer technology.

There is something archaic about these massive, welded hunks of steel, that seemed to have their heyday in the Pacific War of the 1940s. Yet in the vast expanse of the ocean, with few airfields, it has proved difficult to do without them. Supporters argue that, with their escorts of guided-missile destroyers, the super carriers can defend themselves quite well, and that they are still hard to sink. Downsize these carriers, to carry only helicopters or planes which can land and take off vertically as many countries have done, and you end up with vessels which are even more vulnerable.

It is worth noting that China too believes in the value of aircraft carriers; it has already built three. And as floating symbols of US prestige, they may appeal to President Trump, a man known for his love of flamboyant structures, whatever the economic arguments for and against them.

At his Senate confirmation hearing Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration would prioritise increased ship-building, although he did not say how this can be achieved. The US has only four naval shipyards left; China has, by some estimates, more than 200 times the ship-building capacity of the US. He also told his counterparts in Japan and South Korea that he wanted to deepen defence co-operation with them. Europe may be on its own, but it seems Asian allies will get the attention of this White House as it focuses on the strategic challenge posed by China.

Three new Ford-class nuclear carriers, the next generation after the Carl Vinson, are currently under construction, although two will not be in service until the next decade. The plan is to complete ten of this new class of carrier, and so far there have been no indications that the Trump administration wants to change that. For all its many critics, the US super-carrier is probably here to stay.

A cult-like US group known as Zizians has been linked to a string of murders, sparking several arrests – who are the people behind this group and what do they believe?

Jack Lasota, 34, who allegedly leads a group of a few dozen followers known as Zizians, was arrested on Sunday alongside Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, on charges including trespassing and obstruction.

Authorities say they are investigating at least six killings across the US that are allegedly connected to members of the group, including a double homicide in Pennsylvania, a knife attack in California, and the shooting of a US border guard in January.

Four other alleged members of the group have already been charged with murder.

Lasota, a transgender woman, is allegedly the leader of the group.

She earned a degree in computer science from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in 2013 and, according to her blog, moved to the San Francisco area three years later.

There, she wrote that she applied for a series of jobs at tech companies and startups – including a brief internship with Nasa – and began to associate with people involved in the rationalist movement, an intellectual trend popular in Silicon Valley that emphasises the power of the human mind to see clear truth, eliminate bias and bad thinking, and improve individuals and society.

Lasota began blogging using the alias “Ziz”, but soon fell out with mainstream rationalists as her writings spun off in bizarre directions.

The blog included posts of thousands of words, blending Lasota’s personal experiences, theories about technology and philosophy, and esoteric comments about pop culture, computer coding and dozens of other subjects.

At one point, during a long diatribe about the TV series The Office, artificial intelligence and other subjects, she wrote: “I realized that I was no longer able to stand people. Not even rationalists anymore. And I would live the rest of my life completely alone, hiding my reaction to anyone it was useful to interact with. I had given up my ability to see beauty so I could see evil.”

Other themes included veganism – total avoidance of any animal food or products – and anarchism.

In 2019 Lasota and three others were arrested while holding a protest outside an event held by a rationalist organisation. The last posts on her blog date from around this time.

Over the next few years, Lasota and others would move around the US, according to reports, at one point living on a boat, and later staying on property owned by others in California and North Carolina.

In 2022, a warrant was issued when Lasota failed to show up for a court hearing, related to the protest outside the rationalist organisation meeting. But her lawyer at the time stated she was “now deceased after a boating accident in the San Francisco Bay area”.

An obituary – noting that Lasota loved “adventure, friends and family, music, blueberries, biking, computer games and animals” – even appeared in an Alaska newspaper.

But the story was wrong: Lasota was still alive.

Jessica Taylor, an artificial intelligence researcher who says she knew several of the group members, told the Associated Press that Lasota and the Zizians stretched their rationalist beliefs to justify breaking laws.

“Stuff like thinking it’s reasonable to avoid paying rent and defend oneself from being evicted,” Taylor said.

Poulomi Saha, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies cults, says that while there is no strict legal definition of such a group, several of the Zizians’ attributes align with the popular cultural conception of the term.

“This is a group of individuals that seem to share some unorthodox viewpoints,” she said. “That in and of itself wouldn’t open up them up to the cult label… but then there is this leadership figure ‘Ziz.'”

Saha noted, however, that there is still significant uncertainty about the relationships between group members and about what may have motivated alleged acts of violence in recent years.

Not long after the obituary was published, Lasota resurfaced along with other members of the group in Vallejo, California, which is north of San Francisco. Several members were living in vans and trucks on land owned by a man named Curtis Lind.

At some point the Zizians allegedly stopped paying rent, and Lind sued to evict them.

But the dispute escalated and in November 2022, Lind was attacked, stabbed 50 times and blinded in one eye. In an act of what police would later say is self-defence, he fired a gun, which killed Emma Borhanian, a former Google employee who was one of the Zizians and who had previously been arrested at the rationalist protest.

Two other members, Suri Dao and Somni Logencia, were arrested and charged with attempting to murder Lind. They remain in prison awaiting trial. Lasota was also at the scene of the attack, but was not charged with a crime.

The following month, two parents of a Zizian member were killed in a small Pennsylvania town.

Richard Zajko, 71, and his wife, Rita, 69, were found shot in the head in their home.

The Zajkos were the parents of Zizian member Michelle Zajko, who was briefly held by police but not charged with a crime.

Lasota was arrested and charged with obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct in connection with the incident.

Despite the links to those two attacks, the group mostly flew under the radar without receiving much wider public attention until earlier this year.

On 17 January, Lind, the California landlord who had allegedly been attacked by members of the group, was killed.

Vallejo Police Department say he was stabbed to death by an assailant wearing a mask and black beanie.

Police later charged Maximilian Snyder with murder, and alleged that Snyder killed Lind in order to stop him from testifying during the attempted murder trial.

That was followed just a few days later by the killing of a US border patrol agent on the other side of the country.

Two Zizians, Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, were pulled over by US Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in Vermont.

A firefight ensured. Bauckholt, a German citizen who also went by the name Ophelia, was killed in the shootout along with Maland.

Youngblut – who was previously known as Milo – was wounded and later arrested on firearms charges.

The shooting led to a wider hunt for members of the group after police said the gun used to kill Maland was bought by Michelle Zajko.

After the Vermont shootout, police in Pennsylvania said they had uncovered new evidence about the shooting of Zajko’s parents, and Lasota was wanted for failing to appear at several court hearings.

The whereabouts of the pair were unknown until Sunday, when they were arrested with fellow group member Daniel Blank in Maryland.

A police report said a resident of Frostburg, about 160 miles (260km) north-west of Washington DC, had called police saying he wanted three “suspicious” people off his property after they asked to camp on his land for a month.

Maryland State Police said that the trio were charged with trespassing and obstruction, and that Lasota and Zajko were additionally charged with weapons violations. All three were denied bail.

A lawyer for Lasota, Daniel McGarrigle, declined to comment on the arrest but instead sent the BBC a statement he had previously issued about his client, saying: “I urge members of the press and the public to refrain from speculation and premature conclusions.”

An Indian pharmaceutical company is manufacturing unlicensed, highly addictive opioids and exporting them illegally to West Africa where they are driving a major public health crisis in countries including Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote D’Ivoire, a BBC Eye investigation has revealed.

Aveo Pharmaceuticals, based in Mumbai, makes a range of pills that go under different brand names and are packaged to look like legitimate medicines. But all contain the same harmful mix of ingredients: tapentadol, a powerful opioid, and carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant so addictive it’s banned in Europe.

This combination of drugs is not licensed for use anywhere in the world and can cause breathing difficulties and seizures. An overdose can kill. Despite the risks, these opioids are popular as street drugs in many West African countries, because they are so cheap and widely available.

The BBC World Service found packets of them, branded with the Aveo logo, for sale on the streets of Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Ivoirian towns and cities.

Having traced the drugs back to Aveo’s factory in India, the BBC sent an undercover operative inside the factory, posing as an African businessman looking to supply opioids to Nigeria. Using a hidden camera, the BBC filmed one of Aveo’s directors, Vinod Sharma, showing off the same dangerous products the BBC found for sale across West Africa.

In the secretly recorded footage, the operative tells Sharma that his plan is to sell the pills to teenagers in Nigeria “who all love this product”. Sharma doesn’t flinch. “OK,” he replies, before explaining that if users take two or three pills at once, they can “relax” and agrees they can get “high”. Towards the end of the meeting, Sharma says: “This is very harmful for the health,” adding “nowadays, this is business.”

It is a business that is damaging the health and destroying the potential of millions of young people across West Africa.

In the city of Tamale, in northern Ghana, so many young people are taking illegal opioids that one of the city’s chiefs, Alhassan Maham, has created a voluntary task force of about 100 local citizens whose mission is to raid drug dealers and take these pills off the streets.

“The drugs consume the sanity of those who abuse them,” says Maham, “like a fire burns when kerosene is poured on it.” One addict in Tamale put it even more simply. The drugs, he said, have “wasted our lives”.

The BBC team followed the task force as they jumped on to motorbikes and, following a tip off about a drug deal, launched a raid in one of Tamale’s poorest neighbourhoods. On the way they passed a young man slumped in a stupor who, according to locals, had taken these drugs.

When the dealer was caught, he was carrying a plastic bag filled with green pills labelled Tafrodol. The packets were stamped with the distinctive logo of Aveo Pharmaceuticals.

It’s not just in Tamale that Aveo’s pills are causing misery. The BBC found similar products, made by Aveo, have been seized by police elsewhere in Ghana.

We also found evidence that Aveo’s pills are for sale on the streets of Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire, where teenagers dissolve them in an alcoholic energy drink to increase the high.

Publicly-available export data show that Aveo Pharmaceuticals, along with a sister company called Westfin International, is shipping millions of these tablets to Ghana and other West African countries.

Nigeria, with a population of 225 million people, provides the biggest market for these pills. It has been estimated that about four million Nigerians abuse some form of opioid, according to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics.

The Chairman of Nigeria’s Drug and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa, told the BBC, opioids are “devastating our youths, our families, it’s in every community in Nigeria”.

In 2018, following a BBC Africa Eye investigation into the sale of opioids as street drugs, Nigerian authorities tried to get a grip on a widely abused opioid painkiller called tramadol.

The government banned the sale of tramadol without prescription, imposed strict limits on the maximum dose, and cracked down on imports of illegal pills. At the same time, Indian authorities tightened export regulations on tramadol.

Not long after this crackdown, Aveo Pharmaceuticals began to export a new pill based on tapentadol, an even stronger opioid, mixed with the muscle-relaxant carisoprodol.

West African officials are warning that opioid exporters appear to be using these new combination pills as a substitute for tramadol and to evade the crackdown.

In the Aveo factory there were cartons of the combination drugs stacked on top of each other, almost ceiling-high. On his desk, Vinod Sharma laid out packet after packet of the tapentadol-carisoprodol cocktail pills that the company markets under a range of names including Tafrodol, the most popular, as well as TimaKing and Super Royal-225.

He told the BBC’s undercover team that “scientists” working in his factory could combine different drugs to “make a new product”.

Watch India’s Opioid Kings from BBC Eye Investigations on iPlayer or, if you are outside the UK, watch on YouTube.

Aveo’s new product is even more dangerous than the tramadol it has replaced. According to Dr Lekhansh Shukla, assistant professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bengaluru, India, tapentadol “gives the effects of an opioid” including very deep sleep.

“It could be deep enough that people don’t breathe, and that leads to drug overdose,” he explained. “And along with that, you are giving another agent, carisoprodol, which also gives very deep sleep, relaxation. It sounds like a very dangerous combination.”

Carisoprodol has been banned in Europe because it is addictive. It is approved for use in the US but only for short periods of up to three weeks. Withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, insomnia, and hallucinations.

When mixed with tapentadol the withdrawal is even “more severe” compared to regular opioids, said Dr Shukla. “It’s a fairly painful experience.”

He said he knew of no clinical trials on the efficacy of this combination. Unlike tramadol, which is legal for use in limited doses, the tapentadol-carisoprodol cocktail “does not sound like a rational combination”, he said. “This is not something that is licensed to be used in our country.”

In India, pharmaceutical companies cannot legally manufacture and export unlicensed drugs unless these drugs meet the standards of the importing country. Aveo ships Tafrodol and similar products to Ghana, where this combination of tapentadol and carisoprodol is, according to Ghana’s national Drug Enforcement Agency, unlicensed and illegal. By shipping Tafrodol to Ghana, Aveo is breaking Indian law.

We put these allegations to Vinod Sharma and Aveo Pharmaceuticals. They did not respond.

The Indian drugs regulator, the CDSCO, told us the Indian government recognises its responsibility towards global public health and is committed to ensuring India has a responsible and strong pharmaceutical regulatory system.

It added that exports from India to other countries are closely monitored and that recently tightened regulation is strictly enforced. It also called importing countries to support India’s efforts by ensuring they had similarly strong regulatory systems.

The CDSCO stated it has taken up the matter with other countries, including those in West Africa, and is committed to working with them to prevent wrongdoing. The regulator said it will take immediate action against any pharmaceutical firm involved in malpractice.

Aveo is not the only Indian company making and exporting unlicensed opioids. Publicly available export data suggest other pharma companies manufacture similar products, and drugs with different branding are widely available across West Africa.

These manufacturers are damaging the reputation of India’s fast-growing pharmaceutical industry, which makes high-quality generic medicines upon which millions of people worldwide depend and manufactures vaccines which have saved millions of lives. The industry’s exports are worth at least $28bn (£22bn) a year.

Speaking about his meeting with Sharma, the BBC’s undercover operative, whose identity must remain concealed for his safety, says: “Nigerian journalists have been reporting on this opioid crisis for more than 20 years but finally, I was face to face… with one of the men at the root of Africa’s opioid crisis, one of the men who actually makes this product and ships it into our countries by the container load. He knew the harm it was doing but he didn’t seem to care… describing it simply as business.”

Back in Tamale, Ghana, the BBC team followed the local task force on one final raid that turned up even more of Aveo’s Tafrodol. That evening they gathered in a local park to burn the drugs they had seized.

“We are burning it in an open glare for everybody to see,” said Zickay, one of the leaders, as the packets were doused in petrol and set ablaze, “so it sends a signal to the sellers and the suppliers: if they get you, they’ll burn your drugs”.

But even as the flames destroyed a few hundred packets of Tafrodol, the “sellers and suppliers” at the top of this chain, thousands of miles away in India, were churning out millions more – and getting rich on the profits of misery.

The UK and Europe may need to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia, regardless of US support, the former head of the British armed forces has said on a BBC One Question Time special.

Retired General Sir Nick Carter said he believed it was for Ukraine to decide what a “fair settlement” meant, but that the UK and European countries needed to “step up to the plate” to guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty “if the Americans are not prepared to do that”.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said a “US security guarantee was the only way to effectively deter Russia”.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said the UK is “ready to listen” to Russia – if it is serious about peace and “rejects Tsarist imperialism”.

The rift between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump has appeared to deepen in recent days, with America announcing it will soon begin direct negotiations with Russia.

Sir Keir said the UK was willing to provide peacekeeping troops if necessary, but a US “backstop” would be needed to keep the peace and stop Russia attacking again.

He did not explain what he meant by this but others have suggested it could involve air support, logistics and intelligence capabilities.

Trump said earlier this week that he “would not object” to Europe sending in peacekeeping troops, but the US “won’t have to put any over there, because, you know, we’re very far away”.

The prime minister is due to visit Washington next week for talks with the US president at which he is expected to maintain his support for Zelensky and Ukraine’s government while seeking to gain Trump’s ear over talks with Russia.

According to the White House, Sir Keir will visit on Thursday, following a separate visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to see Trump on Monday. There was no confirmation from Downing Street of the date of Sir Keir’s visit.

Macron is seeking to co-ordinate a European response and said he had spoken to Zelensky to discuss the diplomatic situation ahead of his trip.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also spoke to Zelensky, repeating Canada’s support and stressing that Kyiv must be involved in any negotiations to end the war.

China has come out in support of Trump’s plan to negotiate with Russia, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying it supports “all efforts conducive to peace” including the US-Russia talks.

“China has noted that calls for peace talks have been rising recently, and a window for peace is opening,” Wang was quoted as saying at the G20 meeting in South Africa by AFP news agency.

The US president has called Zelensky a “dictator” and suggested Ukraine was responsible for the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, saying a peace deal could have been struck earlier.

The Ukrainian leader said the US president was “living in a disinformation space” created by Moscow.

Washington has also suggested Europe needs to take greater responsibility for its own defence.

Sir Nick, who was chief of the UK’s defence staff between 2018 and 2021, said he thought the UK and other European allies had “got to state a position”.

“I think that fundamentally there has got to be some form of guarantee of Ukraine’s sovereignty in the future,” he said.

He warned the UK armed forces were “remarkably hollow” after a “process of neglect over a 30-year period”.

“I think we also need to be clear about how vulnerable our country is,” he said, describing how much of the UK’s critical infrastructure was dependent on undersea cables or not “not properly protected by cyber defences”.

He said: “We are in a position I think where we are massively vulnerable at the moment. And whether we like it or not that means we’re going to have to start protecting ourselves.

“And the sort of onslaught that Ukraine has suffered from the air via drones and missiles over the course of the last three years is unsustainable as far as the UK’s concerned.

“We might be able to park a destroyer in the Thames to protect parts of London but nothing more than that.”

The G20 – or Group of Twenty – is a club of countries that meets to discuss global economic and political issues.

Attending the talks in Johannesburg, Lammy appeared sceptical of whether Moscow was serious about peace, after listening to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov’s speech.

“We’ve not got anywhere near a negotiated settlement, and I have to say when I listened to what the Russians and what Lavrov has just said in the chamber this afternoon, I don’t see an appetite to really get to that peace,” Lammy said.

Lammy and Lavrov both gave speeches behind closed doors at the summit.

It is understood Lavrov boycotted Lammy’s speech, in which he said the UK was “ready to listen” to Russia but they expeced to hear more than Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “tired fabrications”.

Thursday’s Question Time panel included Sir Nick; Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko, a member of the liberal, pro-European opposition Holos party; Jan Halper-Hayes, who has served as a campaign adviser to Trump; Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds; and Conservative former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace.

Ukrainian refugees among the audience spoke about the trauma of seeing their country torn apart by war.

Beloved Australian soap drama Neighbours has been cancelled again, two years after it was saved by Amazon MGM Studios.

Without specifying a reason, Amazon confirmed the series will finish at the end of 2025 – 40 years and more than 9,000 episodes after its television debut.

It was first cancelled by Channel 5 in 2022, but revived by Amazon for its streaming platforms just four months after a star-studded farewell episode watched by millions.

The soap – which helped launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie – has long been a huge hit with Australian and UK audiences, and last year received its first Emmy nomination.

A statement on the show’s social media said the soap would be “resting” from December.

“Audiences all around the world have loved and embraced Neighbours for four decades and we are very proud of the huge success over the last two years,” executive producer Jason Herbison wrote.

“We value how much the fans love Neighbours and we believe there are more stories of the residents of Ramsay Street to tell in the future,” Mr Hebrison added, hinting that the producers will again hunt for a new backer.

New episodes will continue to air on Amazon Prime Video and Australia’s Channel Ten four times a week until the end of 2025.

In a statement, Amazon MGM Studios said it was “proud” to have played “a small part” in Neighbours history.

“Forty years is an incredible milestone,” a spokesperson said.

Set and filmed in Melbourne, Neighbours was first broadcast in Australia in 1985 and launched on BBC One a year later.

The show has lately featured more diverse characters and storylines, amid questions over how well it reflected modern Australia. It featured the first same-sex marriage on Australian TV.

It also had its controversies, however. A number of actors recently came forward with racism allegations, prompting production company Fremantle Media to promise a review.

News of the show’s cancellation comes after actor Ian Smith – who plays Ramsay Street stalwart Harold Bishop – last year announced he would leave the show, revealing he has terminal cancer.

The closing credits of 2021’s No Time To Die, the most recent film in the 007 series, ended with a familiar message: “James Bond will return.”

But for the last few years, fans haven’t been so sure.

A year after the release of Daniel Craig’s final film in the franchise, Amazon bought the series’ parent company MGM. Since then, very little has happened.

That finally changed on Thursday, when Amazon announced a new deal that would see long-term Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson step back, and Jeff Bezos’s company take full creative control.

In the intervening years, it’s been widely reported that there was tension between Amazon, who understandably wanted a return on their investment, and Wilson and Broccoli, whose top priority remained protecting the Bond brand.

The news of the deal has been met with mixed reaction from 007 fans.

“I’m in two minds,” says David Zaritsky, creator of The Bond Experience fan channel on YouTube and Instagram.

“The nostalgic part of my mind feels a little bit of sadness. Broccoli and Wilson have been the custodians for all these years, so it feels like a bit of royal blood in lineage has been severed.

“That being said, nobody likes inactivity. And there’s been a lot of inactivity around the James Bond franchise for many years, and I know that Amazon as a company will not have patience for inactivity.

“So I’m very hopeful, and dare I say even a little bit excited, that they’re going to do something with the franchise that will be interesting nonetheless.”

Other franchises which have drastically expanded perhaps offer some clues about what we can expect from the forthcoming Amazon era of Bond.

Lancelot Narayan, a James Bond historian, journalist and filmmaker, told BBC Radio 5 Live a good comparison is George Lucas selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, giving the company control of the Star Wars brand.

“They went off and made that sequel trilogy, and whether you like it or not, it got made rather quickly,” he notes. “There wasn’t a three-year wait between films.”

However, despite the explosion in productivity, there is a feeling that both Marvel and Star Wars have overstretched themselves with their spin-off products.

Narayan says he believes Star Wars has become “creatively redundant” since the explosion in productivity.

“The Star Wars TV series have been very hit and miss – Andor is fantastic, The Mandalorian is OK, I haven’t seen Skeleton Crew… but there are very disparate creative voices going on there,” he notes. “So this is the worry, you need the correct creative people to run the show.”

Similarly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe built on the films by launching a string of Disney+ TV shows.

The subsequent decline in Marvel’s popularity arguably owes much to fan fatigue, something which won’t have been helped by the huge number of story strands they had to keep up with.

Both cases, Marvel and Star Wars, highlight the risks of brand expansion, which can cause long-term damage for short-term financial gain.

Fans will be hoping any Bond extensions will be better than 2023’s dubious game show 007: Road to a Million, hosted by Succession’s Brian Cox, which was poorly received.

The James Bond franchise, and particularly the subject of which actor will take over from Craig, is of such fascination to the public that it’s the focus of a new show currently playing in Cirencester, called A Role To Die For.

“There are a lot of people who have grown up with it, for whom James Bond has been part of their culture their entire lives,” says the appropriately named Derek Bond, who directs the show.

“As time has gone on, being able to reinvent that character and have him perhaps change with the times, has been the secret to his longevity.

“But I wonder if we’re now in a situation where the times have changed so much, that James Bond now feels as if he belongs in a different era, and it needs something really radical to keep him relevant today.”

One area the company will almost certainly be looking at now they’re in creative control is the potential for character origin stories, in a similar vein to other famous and beloved film characters who have received their own spin-off films.

Cruella, an extension of the 101 Dalmatians villain, and Wonka, of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, have both been hugely successful film spin-offs in their own right in the last five years, with Emma Stone and Timothée Chalamet respectively bringing the characters and worlds to a whole new audience.

It’s not hard to imagine the popularity of a similar film or show based on famous Bond villains such as Jaws, Oddjob, Blofeld, Goldfinger or May Day – all big brands in their own right.

“I mean, why has nobody made Moneypenny?!” laughs Derek Bond. “There’s a great series to made about her and her journey.

“Also M, I’d love to know how Judi Dench’s M ended up in that role. And the villains especially, it’s a very rich universe, and it’s easy to imagine the Marvelisation of it, where you have a kind of spin-off for every character that James Bond ever passed in a corridor.”

But Zaritsky notes: “I think Amazon will stop short of doing it ad nauseum, to the point where they’re having spin-offs about the MI6 janitor that sleeps in the corner. If they do have spin-offs, I think it’s going to be prime characters.”

Not everyone is a fan of the idea. “This is quite possibly the WORST thing to happen to this franchise,” tweeted Griffin Schiller of Film Speak after Amazon’s announcement.

“James Bond was more than your average franchise. It had class, prestige, they were indie films made as blockbusters… now? It’ll be milked dry. It’s truly the end.”

Broccoli has been seen as a steward of the brand throughout her tenure; a safe pair of hands who protected the traditions of the original character.

That may not necessarily have been compatible with Amazon, who were presumably looking to buy a brand rather than only a film franchise, in an effort to maximise profit.

“It does tend to be a slightly older generation that it skews to, and there’s a whole generation of people who have not experienced a James Bond film, and now, I wonder if they will,” Bond says.

In her own tenure, Broccoli has made efforts to keep attracting young audiences in other ways, however, such as selecting popular young artists such as Billie Eilish to sing the theme songs.

A repositioning of of the brand could see Amazon try to take the franchise in a direction that appeals more to a younger audience as well as an American market, which is culturally slightly cooler on the Bond brand than the UK.

“I think it’s quite bad news for the franchise, and British film as a whole,” movie journalist Hannah Strong told Radio 4’s PM following Amazon’s announcement.

“It’s the premier British film property, and I think the control reverting to an American company, not least one that hasn’t shown that much commitment to great cinema, is probably quite a worrying sign.”

That said, Amazon will be aware that Bond makes a huge amount of money as it currently is – and that altering the core product itself in a way that appeals more to an American audience would be a huge risk.

Strong added: “When Amazon bought MGM, Barbara Broccoli was quite outspoken about the fact she was finding it difficult to come to a middle ground with Amazon. I suspect the middle ground involves an awful lot of money.”

The biggest decision remains who will replace Craig in the leading role.

Broccoli previously said James Bond could be any race, but that he would remain male. That guarantee may no longer stand now she is has handed over the reins, although her approach was widely regarded as sensible and Amazon are unlikely to rock the boat too much.

How long could it be until we see the first new Bond product? Zaritsky suggests Amazon won’t wait around, although the first thing to launch may not be a film.

“It could be with merchandise, or in the form of fan outreach,” he says. “Whatever it is, I think we might see something extremely fast.”

The mother of a teenage soldier who took her own life following relentless harassment says no apology from the Army “will ever bring our daughter back”.

Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck was found hanged in her barracks at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire on 15 December 2021, following a work Christmas party.

Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg ruled the Army’s failure to take action after Gunner Beck was harassed by her line manager contributed to her death.

She had also been sexually assaulted by another senior colleague, and the Army’s failure to take appropriate action “more than minimally” contributed to her death.

At the inquest’s conclusion on Thursday, Mr Rheinberg determined Gunner Beck had intended to take her own life as a result of these “frightening” incidents.

He concluded: “I find there was a failure on behalf of army to take action over the harassment she was suffering from her line manager.

“And there was a failure on behalf of the army to take action against the senior officer at whose hands she’d suffered a sexual assault.”

He ruled the complaint “should have been reported to police and the failure to do so breached Army policy”.

“It was a sexual assault carried out on a 19-year-old Gunner by a middle-aged man of senior rank, and was recorded merely as inappropriate behaviour unbecoming of a warrant officer,” he added.

Brigadier Melissa Emmett, head of the Army personnel services group, formally accepted failures were made and apologised to Gunner Beck’s grieving family.

Following the coroner’s conclusion, she said “significant changes” have been made within the Army, including the “introduction of clear and unequivocal policies to state that there will be zero tolerance to unacceptable sexual behaviours”.

She added: “There is more work to do.

“It is my hope that such change will give service personnel the confidence they need to report sexual offences and inappropriate behaviours, knowing that they will be listened to.”

However, Gunner Beck’s mother Leighann McCready said “true accountability” could only be achieved with independent scrutiny.

“Things need to change. The Army cannot be allowed to investigate itself anymore when it comes to cases of sexual harassment, assault, bullying and abuse,” she said.

“The Army has admitted that it let Jaysley down, and has apologised for its failings – but no apology will ever bring our daughter back.

“Too often service women, and men, don’t feel able to speak up out of fear of being victimised, and even when they do, the Army is left to investigate itself.

“This cannot continue. Jaysley should still be here, we will not stop fighting until immediate action is taken.”

Mr Rheinberg said he would not prepare a report to prevent future deaths as he had been “reassured” by the Army, including from Brigadier Emmett’s evidence, that “matters are currently under review and revision”.

Public speaker Gemma Morgan, who served in the military from 1996 to 2002, said she recognised the torment endured by Gunner Beck.

She told BBC Radio 4 she had just returned from an operational tour and was experiencing a “severe trauma response” as she grappled with the harrowing scenes she had witnessed.

Following a night of social drinking, Ms Morgan was raped by one of her colleagues.

“It made me quite vulnerable in an environment that to be honest I’d gotten used to, but really it was very predatory,” she said.

“When I asked for help in the medical centre the next day, no help was given. It was absolutely devastating.”

Ms Morgan described in her book Pink Camouflage how her “promising career” and mental health “completely spiralled” as a result.

“It’s taken me 25 years to speak out about the relentless sexual harassment and abuse that I and other women experienced,” she said.

“My view is that [military] defence have a deeply ingrained cultural problem where harassment and abuse is commonplace.

“We need to do better, we have to go beyond words and take real, measurable action.

“That starts with defence accepting they have a problem, and having the humility to work with the experts to create much needed change.”

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has told G20 foreign ministers that a commitment to multilateralism and international law is vital to solving global crises.

His comments follow growing concern about the Trump administration’s “America First” policy, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio boycotting the meeting and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying he will not attend next week’s gathering of G20 finance ministers.

Rubio said he would not “coddle anti-Americanism”, while Bessent said he had other commitments in Washington.

South Africa is the first African state to lead the G20, hoping to advance the interests of developing nations in talks with the world’s richest states.

The G20 consists of 19 countries, along with the African Union (AU) and European Union (EU), and makes up more than 80% of the global economy and two-thirds of the world population.

The foreign ministers of China, Russia, France and the UK are among those attending the meeting in Johannesburg, while the US is represented by the deputy chief of mission at its South African embassy.

In his opening address, Ramaphosa said that an “already fragile global coexistence” was threatened by rising intolerance, conflicts and climate change.

“Yet there is a lack of consensus among major powers, including in the G20, on how to respond to these issues of global significance,” the South African president said.

“It is critical that the principles of the UN Charter, multilateralism and international law should remain at the centre of all our endeavour,” he added.

South Africa holds the G20 presidency until November 2025, when it is expected to hand it over to the US.

• Is it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats?
• Trump signs order freezing aid to South Africa over land law

Relations between the two countries have become increasingly strained since President Donald Trump took office in January, raising questions about how much South Africa can achieve during its presidency.

Trump has cut aid to the country, accusing it of “unjust and immoral practices” against the white minority Afrikaner community and by filing a genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023.

His decision was followed by Rubio saying he would not attend the meeting of foreign ministers because South Africa was “doing very bad things”, using the G20 “to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words: DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and climate change”.

In a post on X, he added: “My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”

• Why Trump is on the warpath in Somalia
• Trade, aid, security: What does Trump’s win mean for Africa?

The Azerbaijani government has ordered the suspension of BBC News’ Azerbaijani operation in the capital city, Baku.

The BBC said in a statement on Thursday that it had made the “reluctant decision” to close its office in the country after receiving a verbal instruction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The corporation added that it “deeply” regrets “this restrictive move against press freedom”.

State-controlled media has reported that the government wanted to reduce the number of BBC staff working in the country to one.

The BBC says its team of journalists in Baku have suspended their journalistic activities, while it seeks clarification on the instruction, but that it remains committed to continuing to report in the Azerbaijani language.

“We deeply regret this restrictive move against press freedom, which will hinder our ability to report to and from Azerbaijan for our audiences inside and outside the country,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement.

The BBC has received nothing in writing from the Azerbaijani government and has sought clarification via a number of channels.

Azerbaijan’s ministry of foreign affairs has also not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

BBC News Azerbaijani reaches on average one million people every week and its audience has been increasing.

It has operated in Azerbaijan since 1994, providing impartial news and information, initially via radio broadcasts and later across a range of digital platforms.

Birkenstocks may be cool enough for Barbie but the sandals do not qualify as works of art, a German court has ruled.

The company had claimed its footwear could be classified as art and so was protected by copyright laws in a case it put forward to stop rivals selling copycat versions of the cork-soled sandals.

But a judge dismissed the claim, saying the shoes were practical design items – a decision Birkenstock called a “missed opportunity for the protection of intellectual property”.

The firm’s shoes were once deemed uncool but in recent years have become hugely popular, and gained more attention after actress Margot Robbie wore a pink pair in the final scene of the 2023 hit Barbie movie.

The sandals, which feature a moulded footbed, have been praised for being comfortable and sturdy, and many colour options and strap styles have evolved since the original leather-strapped version in the 1960s.

Even though it was initially rejected from the catwalks, it soon became a fashionable item, scoring a seal of approval from supermodel Kate Moss in the 1990s, and even appeared on celebrity feet at the Academy Awards.

The company eventually listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2023 and was valued at about $8.6bn (£7.08bn) – double its worth in 2021.

Birkenstocks’ popularity means rivals often sell knock-off versions, prompting the firm to make the claim to protect what it called its “iconic design”.

In this case, Birkenstock took three manufacturers and retailers to court, seeking to protect four of its sandal designs.

German law distinguishes between design and art when it comes to a product. Design serves a practical purpose, whereas works of art need to show a certain amount of individual creativity.

Art is covered by copyright protection, which lasts for 70 years after the creator’s death, whereas design protection lasts for 25 years from when the filing was made.

Shoemaker Karl Birkenstock, born in the 1930s, is still alive. Since some of his sandals no longer enjoy design protection, the firm attempted to gain copyright protection by seeking to classify its footwear as art.

But the claim was “unfounded”, presiding judge Thomas Koch said.

His ruling added that for copyright protection, “a degree of design must be achieved that shows individuality”.

Birkenstock said in a statement that it “continues its fight against copycats with undiminished vigour” by exhausting “all legal means to defend itself against imitations”.

This ruling by the Federal Court of Justice, Germany’s top civil court, is the final judgement which comes after two lower courts had heard the case and disagreed on the issue.

The first ruled in favour of Birkenstock, while the second overturned that decision.

It was a trial that could have dismantled the future for one of hip-hop’s hottest stars.

The felony assault trial of A$AP Rocky – in which he was found not guilty of firing a gun at a former friend – captured global headlines. There were outbursts during the proceedings and surprise visits in court by his longtime partner, singer Rihanna.

Jurors in Los Angeles heard three weeks of testimony chronicling the bitter falling-out of childhood friends and the fight that led to the rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, being charged on accusations he opened fire in the middle of a Hollywood street.

After the rapper was acquitted, he left freely with singer Rihanna, who was seated behind him as the verdict was read.

Here are five big things we learned while inside the courtroom.

As the not guilty verdict was read in court, the rapper immediately jumped from the defence table and leapt over a wooden barrier to hug Rihanna, who was seated behind him in between his mother and sister.

The couple embraced tightly, both breaking into tears as the courtroom erupted in cheers.

Rihanna, a Grammy award-winning artist, was in court multiple days during the trial, including on Valentine’s Day.

On one of the days in court, she brought the couple’s two young children, who were both dressed in suits with pacifiers in their mouths. You could hear them cooing inside the courtroom as they flipped through children’s books.

Joe Tacopina, the rapper’s defence attorney, said Mr Mayers tried to shield Rihanna and their family from the criminal proceedings, but said that “wild horses couldn’t keep her away” from the trial.

Though she was often stoic and staring straight ahead while in court, she never flinched or showed emotion when prosecutors made negative comments about her partner.

Following his acquittal, Rihanna expressed her gratitude on social media, stating, “The glory belongs to God and God alone! Thankful, humbled by his mercy!”

The A$AP Mob is a hip-hop collective founded in 2006 in Harlem by a group of high school friends in New York.

They adopted the “A$AP” title, which means “Always Strive and Prosper”.

The group, which has had more than 20 members over the years, have presented themselves as a family, but they’ve been plagued by jealousy, rivalries and disagreements since the death of its founder, A$AP Yams.

Though there have been fallouts and issues between some members, this trial is the most notable instance of a complete dismantling of a relationship between members.

A$AP Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron, was once a close friend and member of the Mob, accused Mr Mayers, known as A$AP Rocky, of shooting him during an altercation in 2021.

During the trial, his defence team argued that Mr Ephron harboured resentment toward his former friend, feeling sidelined as A$AP Rocky’s fame grew and saw mainstream musical success. They argued Mr Ephron was after money.

Several members of the A$AP Mob testified during the trial in favour of Mr Mayers.

A$AP Twelvyy challenged Mr Ephron’s account of the events and suggested that he was the aggressor during the altercation, not Mr Mayers.

A$AP Lou also took the stand, telling jurors that a Glock 43 magazine found during a search of Mr Mayers’s home belonged to him, not the rapper.

None of the A$AP members publicly testified for Relli.

Do you know what AWGE stands for? If you know, I think both me and the jury would love to still know.

During the trial, AWGE came up when A$AP Twelvyy was on the stand. He was asked by prosecutors about its meaning. But before he could answer, A$AP Rocky – who was seated with his attorneys – cut in and shouted, “Don’t say!”

Twelvvy abided and responded, “I just know it’s AWGE”.

It was an astonishing moment. Criminal defendants don’t typically say much during trials – let alone halt a witness from answering a question during their criminal trial.

When asked about this exchange after the trial, A$AP Rocky’s attorney Joe Tacopina explained what happened.

He said it was an “acronym for his company that had to do with his family. I’m gonna leave it at that.” Mr Tacopina went on to explain it was a private thing that the rapper didn’t want revealed publicly to millions, especially in a criminal court case.

But the answer really led to more questions. What does it mean and why is it so secretive?

Here’s what we do know: AWGE is the name of A$AP Rocky’s mysterious creative collective and record label, and it’s long been the subject of intrigue.

Founded in 2014, the group operates across music, fashion and art, collaborating with brands like Mercedes-Benz and PacSun. Members include artists, designers and directors, and everyone remains loyal to one rule: no one publicly reveals what “AWGE” actually stands for.

On the company’s website there are two rules listed: “#1 Never reveal what AWGE means. #2 When in doubt always refer to rule #1.”

A$AP Rocky’s fans do have some guesses though:

• “A$AP Worldwide Global Enterprises” – A possible nod to the A$AP Mob’s broader brand and business ambitions.
• “Ain’t Wanna Go Explicit” – This suggests that AWGE represents an inside joke or personal mantra within Rocky’s circle.
• “All We Got is Everything” – A phrase that aligns with Rocky’s philosophy of creativity and collaboration.
• “A$AP Worldwide Genius Elite” – Another theory that frames AWGE as a highly curated group of artists and visionaries.

Despite the guesses, the rapper and his team have never officially confirmed any meaning.

Instead, they’ve leaned into the secrecy, with members often responding to questions about AWGE with the phrase, “If you know, you know.”

A$AP Rocky’s trial unfolded at a pivotal moment in his career, with the rapper riding a wave of creative and commercial success.

The rapper is set to release his first solo album in nearly a decade and is scheduled to co-headline Los Angeles’ Rolling Loud festival in March 2025.

Additionally, he is starring in a summer blockbuster alongside Denzel Washington. Director Spike Lee’s upcoming film “Highest 2 Lowest” is slated for a summer release.

But his influence extends beyond music—his AWGE collective has been collaborating with brands like Mercedes-Benz and Puma. He’s been celebrated for his fashion sense, too, and is known as being one of music’s best-dressed men.

In May, he is set to co-chair the 2025 Met Gala – one of fashion’s biggest nights – alongside big names like Anna Wintour, British race car driver Lewis Hamilton, singer Pharrell Williams and basketball superstar LeBron James.

His relationship with Rihanna, one of the most famous singers, has further cemented his cultural relevance.

The couple welcomed their second child, Riot Rose, in August 2023, and their growing family had become a symbol of hip-hop royalty.

The trial wasn’t just a battleground for the rapper’s freedom—it also saw intense clashes between legal teams.

Celebrity defence attorney Joe Tacopina, known for his aggressive courtroom style, relentlessly challenged the credibility of the prosecution’s key witness, A$AP Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron.

He painted Mr Ephron as an opportunist seeking financial gain and called the prosecution’s case flimsy due to a lack of physical evidence. Mr Ephron got so fed up with the rapper’s attorney during questioning that he called Mr Tacopina “annoying”.

Meanwhile, prosecutors pushed back, accusing Mr Tacopina of attempting to intimidate witnesses and dismiss key testimonies.

Both sides were very liberal with their use of objections in court, and it sometimes felt as though both sides were trying to throw the other off their game, rather than being based on legal guidelines.

It also got personal between the two sides.

At one point during closing arguments, Mr Tacopina and prosecutor John Lewin traded misconduct allegations, with Mr Lewin accusing Mr Tacopina of using steroids and Mr Tacopina firing back by calling Lewin a “hunchback”.

After a short break, the judge attempted to lighten the mood by theatrically introducing the attorneys like boxers before resuming the trial.

Nearly 500 cat figurines have been stolen from a new Gordon Ramsay restaurant in one week at an estimated cost of more than £2,000, the TV chef has said.

The restaurateur recently launched Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay, in Bishopsgate in central London, featuring the beckoning Japanese cat models called maneki-neko.

The 58-year-old told ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show: “The cats are getting stolen. There were 477 stolen last week – they cost £4.50 each.”

The City Of London Police said it has not received any reports of theft from the restaurant.

The number of cat figurines stolen would amount to a loss of £2,146.50.

The maneki-neko figurines are believed by some within Japanese culture to bring good luck and have been a feature in the Lucky Cat restaurants, which serve “Asian inspired” cuisine.

Ramsay, known for his Hell’s Kitchen and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares reality TV programmes, also said that he had issues with couples entering the toilets together.

The restaurant opened earlier this month on the 60th floor of skyscraper 22 Bishopsgate, one of London’s tallest buildings.

Reflecting on his more than 80 restaurants globally, Ramsay said: “It does get a bit scary, in terms of how big it is and the global impact.”

Ramsay also spoke about the upcoming nuptials of his daughter Holly Ramsay and Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty – and said they were planning a “Christmas wedding”.

He said that Peaty, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, did not seek his permission but did talk to him about the engagement.

Ramsay said: “He’s (Adam) so down to earth and so focused and disciplined. He sat us down in Cornwall.

“He said ‘Holly is just the perfect woman. I’d like to get your blessing – from you and Tana for her hand in marriage’. It was that sort of amazing moment. Everything went quiet. As a future son-in-law, we couldn’t ask for anyone better.”

YouTuber Holly and Peaty announced their engagement in September, shortly after Peaty returned to competing for the Paris Olympics.

It looked small at first, in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Yet as we approached the USS Carl Vinson it filled the view out of the back of the Osprey tilt-rotor which was carrying us there, its deck packed with state-of-the-art warplanes. At nearly 90,000 tonnes, and more than 300 meters in length, the nuclear-powered Carl Vinson is one of the largest warships ever built.

Watching its FA18 and F35 fighter jets being hurled into the air every minute or two by the carrier’s steam catapults is a spine-tingling experience, a procedure managed with impressive composure by the crew on the crowded deck.

An untimely Pacific squall which drenched us and everything else did not slow them at all.

Even after years of rapid advances in Chinese military capabilities, the United States is still unrivalled in its capacity to project force anywhere around the world with its fleet of 11 super-carriers.

But does a $13bn (£10bn) aircraft carrier which the latest Chinese missiles could sink in a matter of minutes make sense anymore – particularly in the age of Donald Trump?

We had been invited onto the Carl Vinson to see another side of US carrier strategy, one which emphasises American friendliness, and willingness to work with allies – something you don’t hear much in Washington these days.

The Carl Vinson was taking part in an exercise with two other aircraft carriers and their escorting destroyers from France and Japan, about 200km east of the Philippines. In the absence of wars to fight, US carrier groups spend much of their time doing this, learning how to operate together with allied navies. Last year they held one exercise that brought together ships from 18 navies.

This one was smaller, but was the first in the Pacific involving a French carrier for more than 40 years.

Down in the massive hangar, below the noisy flight deck, Rear Adm Michael Wosje, commander of the Carl Vinson’s strike force, was sitting with his French colleague, Rear Adm Jacques Mallard of the carrier Charles de Gaulle, and his Japanese colleague Rear Adm Natsui Takashi of the Kaga, which is in the process of being converted to Japan’s first aircraft carrier since the Second World War.

The Charles de Gaulle is the only warship in the world which matches some of the capabilities of the US super-carriers, but even then is only half their size.

All three admirals were brimming with bonhomie.

The fraught scenes in Europe, where President Trump’s men were ripping up the rule book which underscored the international order for the past 80 years, and telling one-time allies they were now on their own, seemed a world away.

“Our network of strong alliances and partnerships, such as those that we share with France and Japan, is a key advantage of our nations as we confront our collective security challenges,” said Adm Wosje. In impeccable English Adm Mallard concurred: “This exercise is the expression of a will to better understand each other, and to work for the defence of compliance in international law.”

No one mentioned the radical new views emanating from Washington, nor did they mention an increasingly assertive China, although Adm Natsui might have had both in mind when he said Japan now found itself in “the most severe and complex security environment. No country can now protect her own security alone.”

Down in the warren of steel corridors which make up the living quarters of the 5,000 men and women on the Carl Vinson, the official portraits of the new president and vice-president were already hanging, the one of Trump with its now familiar pugilistic glower. We were not permitted to interview the crew, and politics would have been off-limits anyway, but some of those on board were curious what I thought of the new administration.

Internet access on board is spotty, but they do keep in touch with home. We were told they even get Amazon deliveries while at sea, picked up from designated collection points.

It is a fair bet then that there is plenty of discussion of what President Trump has in store for these giants of the navy. Elon Musk has already vowed to bring his cost-cutting wrecking ball to the Pentagon and its $900bn budget, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has welcomed that, although, he stressed, the Pentagon is not USAID which President Trump has vowed to shut down completely.

In the hangar we watched the crew maintaining the aircraft, surrounded by packing cases and spare parts. We were warned not to film any exposed parts of these technological marvels, for fear of revealing classified information. We could not even risk touching the F35 fighters, which have a prohibitively expensive special coating to help conceal them from radar.

They showed us the “Jet Shop” where they repair and test the engines, a technician who identified himself as ‘082 Madeiro’ explained that they needed to carry enough spare parts to keep the planes flying on long deployments, and that after a certain number of hours the engines had to be completely replaced, whether or not they were faulty. There was a brand new engine in its enormous packaging next to him. Cost, around $15m.

Running the Carl Vinson costs around $700m a year.

So will the Trump administration take a knife to the Pentagon budget? Hegseth has said he believes there are significant efficiencies to be found. He has also openly mused about the value of aircraft carriers. “If our whole power projection platform is aircraft carriers, and if 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our ten aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of conflict, what does that look like?”, he said in an interview last November.

The debate about the utility of aircraft carriers is not new. It goes right back to when they first appeared a century ago. Critics today argue that they are too vulnerable to the latest generation of Chinese ballistic and hypersonic missiles, forcing them to stay at a distance from the Chinese coast which would put their aircraft out of range. The money, they say, would be better spent on newer technology.

There is something archaic about these massive, welded hunks of steel, that seemed to have their heyday in the Pacific War of the 1940s. Yet in the vast expanse of the ocean, with few airfields, it has proved difficult to do without them. Supporters argue that, with their escorts of guided-missile destroyers, the super carriers can defend themselves quite well, and that they are still hard to sink. Downsize these carriers, to carry only helicopters or planes which can land and take off vertically as many countries have done, and you end up with vessels which are even more vulnerable.

It is worth noting that China too believes in the value of aircraft carriers; it has already built three. And as floating symbols of US prestige, they may appeal to President Trump, a man known for his love of flamboyant structures, whatever the economic arguments for and against them.

At his Senate confirmation hearing Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration would prioritise increased ship-building, although he did not say how this can be achieved. The US has only four naval shipyards left; China has, by some estimates, more than 200 times the ship-building capacity of the US. He also told his counterparts in Japan and South Korea that he wanted to deepen defence co-operation with them. Europe may be on its own, but it seems Asian allies will get the attention of this White House as it focuses on the strategic challenge posed by China.

Three new Ford-class nuclear carriers, the next generation after the Carl Vinson, are currently under construction, although two will not be in service until the next decade. The plan is to complete ten of this new class of carrier, and so far there have been no indications that the Trump administration wants to change that. For all its many critics, the US super-carrier is probably here to stay.