The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned that Russian aggression “knows no borders”, will not stop at Ukraine and is a direct threat to France and Europe which must prepare in case the US steps away from its side.

“I want to believe the US will stay by our side,” Macron said in a televised address late on Wednesday. “But we have to be ready if that isn’t the case,” he said.

Macron sought to calm what his office called voter anxiety on the Ukraine crisis, European security and the threat of a transatlantic trade war after Trump paused US support to Ukraine and also threatened to slap tariffs on goods from the EU, following on from levies imposed on China, Mexico and Canada.

Macron said to the French public in a prime-time TV speech: “I’m speaking to you tonight because of the international situation and its consequences for Europe … I know you are legitimately worried faced with the historic events that are shaking the world order.

“The war in Ukraine, which has left almost one million dead and injured, continues with the same intensity. The US, our ally, has changed its position on this war, supporting Ukraine less and allowing doubt to linger on what will come next.”

He said the increasingly “brutal” world was entering “a new era” and “it would be madness to stay a spectator in this world of danger”.

Macron said France and Europe must keep helping Ukraine “to resist until Ukraine can negotiate a peace with Russia that is solid for themselves and for all of us”. He said no path to peace could happen through “abandoning Ukraine”.

In an implicit reference to Trump’s attempts to force Ukraine into peace talks with Russia, he added: “Peace cannot be concluded at any price.”

He said: “Who can believe today that Russia would stop at Ukraine?”

Macron said any European forces deployed would not fight today or at the frontline, but would be there to guarantee any peace in Ukraine once it had been signed.

He also said he would discuss with European partners extending French nuclear deterrence to other countries on the continent, but that the decision and control would always remain in the hands of the French president.

Macron said: “Europe’s future should not be decided in Washington or Moscow, and yes the threat from the east is returning. And the innocence of these 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall is over.”

He said France and Europe must also prepare for tariffs on European goods, calling that decision “incomprehensible, as much for the American economy as ours”. He said France and Europe would respond but he hoped to be able to dissuade Donald Trump.

On Thursday, a Brussels defence summit will see the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, join the 27 EU leaders in person.

European leaders are stepping up diplomatic efforts after Trump ordered a pause on all critical US military aid for Ukraine against Russia, three years into the invasion, after an explosive public confrontation in the Oval Office last week with Zelenskyy.

After his speech on Wednesday, Macron welcomed the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for a working-dinner at the Élysée Palace amid intense preparations for Thursday’s EU summit on defence and support for Ukraine.

EU leaders are contemplating the stark prospect of the US withdrawing longer-term support from Kyiv and more broadly from its European allies. The summit will discuss a massive boost in European defence spending to make up for the expected dwindling of transatlantic support under Trump. Alongside the Ukraine crisis, EU leaders will discuss a proposal by the European Commission to borrow up to €150bn to lend to member states under a rearmament plan.

Consensus on all these issues is not straightforward. Orbán is an admirer not only of Trump but also Putin, and has repeatedly broken a united EU front on Ukraine. The Hungarian leader – one of Trump’s and Moscow’s closest allies in the EU – said earlier this week that a “transatlantic rift” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had become apparent over recent days.

He told a briefing: “There is a clear strategic difference, which the US presidential election has made unbridgeable … Some want war and some want peace. This is the challenge we will have to face on Thursday.” He said he would have to face that challenge as early as Wednesday, in an apparent reference to his planned dinner with Macron.

He accused European leaders, who met in London over the weekend to support Kyiv, of having decided “that the war in Ukraine must continue”.

An Élysée official said France was “inclusive” and “speaking to everyone” and viewed Thursday’s summit as “a new moment in the consolidation of European unity”.

The official said France would press “the necessity that Ukraine is fully associated with any discussion on its future. That is obvious, but it has to be remembered, respected and fully taken into account.”

Macron, whose popularity had dropped during a domestic political crisis prompted by him calling snap elections, appears to be experiencing a slight increase in support among voters, amid Ukraine diplomacy and the first steps of the Trump administration. One poll, after Macron’s recent visit to Washington, showed an improvement in his confidence ratings among French voters.

But the push to increase French defence spending is coinciding with government struggles to reduce the budget deficit.

• A Russian missile struck a hotel in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih late on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring 28, the regional governor said. Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram that a child was among the injured. Several people were seriously hurt, he said.

• Ukraine’s Emergency Services said 14 people had been rescued from rubble at the hotel which suffered heavy damage. Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s military administration, said rescue operations proceeded through the night.

• The US has paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, CIA director John Ratcliffe confirmed on Wednesday, piling pressure on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cooperate with Trump in convening peace talks. The suspension could cost lives by hurting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russian missile strikes. Ukrainian officials suggested it would also hinder Ukraine’s ability to carry out effective long-range drone strikes on Russia. However, he expressed confidence that the pause on the intelligence and military front was temporary and would “go away”. He told Fox Business Network. “I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that’s there, but to put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward.”

• Several Democrats criticised the intelligence-sharing suspension. Senator Mark Warner, the vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said the “ill-advised decision” showed that Trump had given American power to Russia. “Let me be clear: Cutting off intelligence support to our Ukrainian partners will cost [Ukrainian] lives,” the Virginia Democrat said in a statement.

• European leaders aim to endorse bold measures to ramp up defence spending and pledge support for Ukraine on Thursday at a summit in Brussels, where leaders of the EU’s 27 countries will be joined by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hungary has however refused to endorse a statement backing Kyiv. The European Commission – the EU’s executive body – has unveiled proposals that it said could mobilise up to €800bn ($862.9bn) for European defence, including a plan to borrow up to €150bn ($161.8bn) to lend to EU governments. On Tuesday, the parties aiming to form Germany’s next government agreed to loosen borrowing limits to allow billions of euros of extra defence spending.

• “I want to believe that the United States will stand by us. But we have to be ready if that is not the case,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the French nation on the eve of the summit. In a sign of the gravity of the moment, Macron said France was open to discussing extending the protection offered by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners and said European forces could be deployed after a peace deal was agreed.

• UK prime minister Keir Starmer welcomed Trump’s comments about the prospect of a peace deal, a spokesperson said. Asked whether the UK government welcomed what Zelenskyy said in his letter to Trump, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “President Zelensky said that the United States has done a huge amount to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence, and we’ve all said that we share President Trump’s desire for a secure and durable peace in Ukraine, and the prime minister believes a way forward can be found and welcomes President Trump’s comments overnight in that regard.”

• Zelenskyy said on Wednesday there had been “positive movement” on talks with the US and that officials from the two countries could meet again soon. The White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said Donald Trump would consider restoring aid to Ukraine if peace talks were arranged and confidence-building measures taken. The White House said talks between the two countries over a minerals deal were ongoing. A senior administration official said on Wednesday that the signing was expected to happen soon and to be the first step in a longer negotiation between Ukraine, Washington and Russia on ending the war.

• Russia questioned how Ukraine could attend potential talks when a 2022 Ukrainian decree rules out negotiations with Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy “is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said during a daily call with reporters. But he said the Kremlin was “generally positive” about the prospect of peace talks.

• A Russian court said a British man captured fighting for Ukraine was sentenced to 19 years in prison. The court press service for the city of Kursk said James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was found guilty of a “terrorist act” and acting as a mercenary, after he was captured while fighting in the region in November 2024. Britain strongly condemned the sentencing, said a spokesperson for the Foreign Office, who called on Russia to respect its obligations towards “prisoners of war”.

• French President Emmanuel Macron is considering travelling again to Washington along with Zelenskyy and Starmer to meet Trump, government spokesperson Sophie Primas said on Wednesday. Primas was speaking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the French cabinet.

The US has stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine after Donald Trump’s suspension of military aid on Monday, in another serious blow to Kyiv in the war with Russia.

White House officials indicated that both bans could be lifted if peace talks make progress.

Ukrainian officials suggested the US would no longer provide information about targets inside Russia, hindering Ukraine’s ability to carry out effective long-range drone strikes.

This would also leave Ukraine in the dark over the movements of Russian strategic bomber aircraft and the launches of ballistic missiles.

There were conflicting reports about whether the shut-off covered the activities of Russia’s army in occupied areas of Ukraine.

One source told the Guardian that the US had “completely stopped” providing intelligence, including to Ukraine’s military and domestic security agencies. They said this would have a “very bad impact” on the fight against Russia.

The White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said Trump would consider restoring aid to Ukraine if peace talks were arranged and confidence-building measures taken. Discussions were ongoing with Ukraine over a date and place for talks, he told Fox News.

Speaking on Wednesday in his nightly address Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there had been “positive movement” in cooperation with the US. Results were expected next week involving a future meeting between the two sides, he added. On Thursday, Zelenskyy will join 27 EU leaders as they hold emergency talks in Brussels to agree ways to quickly increase their military budgets.

Ukraine’s president is seeking to repair relations with the US after his acrimonious meeting on Friday with Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, during which Trump publicly berated Zelenskyy and accused him of not wanting a deal with Russia.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy wrote a conciliatory letter. It said he was committed to negotiations and ready to work with America under Trump’s “strong leadership”.

In a speech to Congress on Tuesday night, Trump called the letter “important” and said: “I appreciate that he sent this letter … Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”

Waltz described the message on Wednesday as a “good, positive first step”. He said: “We’re already talking about confidence-building measures that we’ll then take to the Russians and test that side.” If the negotiations were “nailed down”, Trump would “take a hard look at lifting this pause”, Waltz said.

Ukrainian commentators expressed scepticism that a deal could be easily and swiftly reached. They pointed out that the White House had so far asked no concessions of Russia and appeared willing to accept Vladimir Putin’s demands undiluted.

Putin has called on Ukraine to give up territory, reduce the size of its military and accept “neutrality” under a new government. Last week Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed security guarantees before it could sign a deal – something an infuriated Trump categorically ruled out.

Speaking to Fox, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, confirmed the intelligence freeze. He expressed confidence that the “pause” on the “intelligence and military front” was temporary and would “go away”. He added: “I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have, to push back on the aggression that’s there.”

Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said they could not comment on intelligence matters. They said the UK had been clear it would do everything it could to put Ukraine in the strongest position.

Experts said the impact of US restrictions on intelligence sharing would depend partly on what precisely had been stopped, and they emphasised that Kyiv was already more capable than Washington appreciated.

One western expert familiar with Ukraine’s conduct of the war said Kyiv already made heavy use of open-source and human intelligence to identify Russian targets and was not particularly dependent on the US for targeting information.

Giving an example, the person said “oil refineries don’t move”, citing a frequent target of Ukrainian long range-drone attacks. “Donald Trump might be surprised to find that when he pulls the levers they have little impact,” they added.

The restrictions would not prevent the UK and other countries from carrying on as before. Wider restrictions on intelligence sharing, such as refusing to share intercepts that provide clues as to Russian strategic intentions or military plans, would have a greater effect.

In February 2022, US intelligence told Ukraine that Russia was trying to seizure Hostomel airport north-west of Kyiv. The location’s defences were reinforced. Russia was never able to securely capture the airstrip, which it had intended to use to fly in large numbers of troops to take control of the Ukrainian capital.

A Ukrainian defence official acknowledged that a cut-off would be damaging. “We need satellite data to carry out deep strikes. It enables us to identify [Russian] targets and to guide our drones,” he said.

As part of his attempt to move on from the Oval Office row, Zelenskyy has offered to sign a minerals deal with the US. Trump has described the agreement as an economic backstop. The presence of US workers on the ground in Ukraine would deter Russia from attack, he argues.

A senior official in Kyiv said Ukraine was aware of its precarious position and doing everything it could to fix relations with the US. However, some Ukrainian observers believe Ukrainian concessions will not work and think Washington has definitively swapped sides in the war and is actively helping the Kremlin.

The journalist Kristina Berdynskykh wrote that Trump’s team was humiliating and threatening Ukraine while not applying any pressure to Putin. “Now every day there is some bad news for Ukraine from the US. And so far, there is no bad news for Russia, but the opposite,” she said.

Since US and Russian negotiators began peace talks in Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid and civilian infrastructure. It sent a record 267 drones on the third anniversary last month of its full-scale invasion. Another 181 were launched on Wednesday, together with three missiles. A 73-year-old man was killed in the Odesa region and 20 private houses were damaged.

Something seismic has changed in the US-British relationship that will require the UK to look elsewhere for allies and accept that deals such as cooperation over the British nuclear deterrent are now in question, a former British ambassador to Washington has said.

Sir David Manning told a Lords select committee on international relations that something fundamental was happening to the special relationship and the change was not a blip.

Speaking alongside three other former UK ambassadors to Washington, he added that a divergence in values as much as policy was driving the two countries apart.

All four warned that future intelligence sharing with the top level of the Trump administration, once the bedrock of the relationship, was likely to become more difficult.

Manning, the ambassador between 2003 and 2007, said the issue was not policies but a worldview, adding: “What worries me about what is now happening is that the basis of the special relationship so-called has been about trust and shared values. I think in the future, can we expect that to continue?

“It’s much more difficult to be confident about that. It seems to me there has been a seismic change. We seem to have a president who is willing to bully, cajole the Ukrainian forces into doing things they don’t feel is in their interests.

“This is not a blip in the relationship, something fundamental is going on, and we need to look very closely about what we now do about Europe.”

He said it was even possible that Trump would end the nuclear cooperation deal with the UK or that the US commitment became so equivocal that Nato’s article 5 mutual defence clause no longer looked plausible.

He said such thoughts had been inconceivable until six weeks ago. “I think we now have to conceive of them and address them because they are on the table.”

Nigel Sheinwald, the ambassador from 2007 to 2012, said: “America is genuinely changing and the American leadership has changed.”

He added: “It’s difficult to find either a conceptual area in international relations or a particular geographical area where our interests are really converging at the moment.

“It’s more divergence than convergence. The President [William] McKinley worldview of land grabs … might is right, and all that, that isn’t our view. It won’t be our view, whatever government we have here, given that we are a middle power that uses international institutions for our own advancement as well as because that is morally right.

“So at the macro level, there is a huge divergence. On more or less any big foreign policy issue that we’re dealing with today, we don’t agree with the United States and have more alignment with our European partners – whether that is the Middle East, whether it’s Iran, whether it’s climate change, China, but above all on Europe itself.”

Sir Peter Westmacott, the UK ambassador from 2012 to 2016, said respectable voices were warning that the US was giving up on Europe in favour of Russia. He said: “That’s pretty alarming. We haven’t had that for decades, and we have to deal with that current reality, and that is the biggest strategic problem.”

He said: “Even if we are now back in the business of trying to find a way forward with a combination of a ceasefire plan and security guarantees that Ukraine needs, we still have got that fundamental problem of a very different approach to Russia.”

He added that it was unclear if the US had a grand strategy to split off Russia from China, or if instead it was seeking to divide up the world into three big beasts in the jungle – China, Russia and America – with the rest to be told to go hang.

Donald Trump has posted a fresh ultimatum to Hamas, telling the group to “release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you”.

“‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye,” he wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, in an apparent reference to the beginning of direct talks with the group.

The post came just hours after the White House confirmed that the US had entered direct negotiations with Hamas, potentially to bypass Israel in securing the release of the remaining US hostages.

It also followed a White House meeting between the US president and a group of hostages who had been released recently under the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Fifty-nine hostages are still held by Hamas, though Israeli intelligence believes that only 22 are still alive.

Five Americans are believed to still be held by Hamas, one of whom, 21-year-old Edan Alexander, is believed to still be alive.

Trump reinforced his support for Israel and referred to a recent decision to provide billions more in support for Israeli arms sales.

“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” Trump wrote.

“This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance,” he wrote. “Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”

Trump also made clear there could be repercussions for Gaza as a whole, where virtually the entire population has been displaced by Israel’s relentless offensive response to the Hamas 7 October 2023 attacks.

“To the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”

Trump’s comments came hours after Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that officials had held “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials amid a shaky ceasefire deal.

Leavitt told reporters that Israel had been consulted on the talks and that the US special envoy Adam Boehler “does have the authority to talk to anyone” when “American lives are at stake”.

Hamas members confirmed the talks, saying there had been two direct meetings between US officials and Hamas in Doha, the Qatari capital, in recent days.

“Several communications took place between Hamas and various American communication channels, the latest being with a US envoy and discussed the issue of Israeli prisoners who hold American citizenship, both the living and the deceased,” a Hamas official told AFP.

Israel said it had conveyed its position on direct talks with Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late on Wednesday, offering no further details.

“Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas,” the statement from the prime minister’s office said.

“Dialogue and talking to people around the world to do the best interests of the American people is something that the president has proven, is what he believes is good-faith effort to do what’s right for the American people,” Leavitt said.

Axios first reported the “secret talks” with Hamas, citing two sources with direct knowledge of meetings held in Doha, Qatar, in recent weeks.

The outlet called the talks “unprecedented”, noting that the US had never before engaged with Hamas and that it had declared the group a terrorist organisation in 1997.

Under the terms of the hostages-for-ceasefire deal, which went into effect on 19 January, Hamas was expected to release hostages weekly in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

After six weeks, Israel and Hamas were expected to enter a second stage of the negotiations, which would make the ceasefire permanent and secure the release of the remaining hostages.

But those talks have not progressed and the White House’s decision to engage directly with Hamas appears to be targeted to meet Trump’s goals of securing the release of all hostages held in Gaza.

Trump has previously warned that unless they are released, there will be “hell to pay” in the region, in what appeared to be a threat directed specifically at Hamas.

But Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has also pressured Netanyahu to push forward with the negotiations, and was crucial in convincing the Israeli prime minister to sign the original ceasefire deal that went into effect in January.

Boehler is tasked with securing the release of Americans who have been “wrongfully detained” by governments or other groups around the world. But it remains unclear whether he is discussing the release of these hostages as part of a longer-term truce, which would mark a significant increase in his authority and indicate that the US could be going around Israel to negotiate an end to the war.

Witkoff, the Trump envoy who negotiated the earlier ceasefire and has now been tasked with negotiations with Russia as well, was set to travel to Doha earlier this week to meet the Qatari prime minister about the ceasefire negotiations but “canceled the trip on Tuesday night after he saw there was no progress from Hamas’ side”, a US official told Axios.

Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, has said Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies were among the underlying causes of the 7 October 2023 attack in which Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 Israelis.

In its report on the 7 October attack, Shin Bet acknowledged its own responsibility, admitting it was aware of warning signs that Hamas was planning an operation, but the agency, also known as the General Security Service (GSS), did not grasp the scale, timing and location of the planned attack.

However, the report also argued that a string of Israeli government policies helped pave the way for the Hamas assault.

Among the main reasons for a Hamas military build-up before the attacks, an eight-page public summary of the report listed an Israeli “policy of quiet” towards the group, apparently referring to a policy of restraint in the use of force to keep Hamas’s military capability in check. It also listed Netanyahu’s acquiescence in the flow of funds from Qatar to Gaza, a policy designed to divide Palestinians by boosting Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian state.

The Shin Bet report also pointed to the daily Jewish prayers that have been taking place in recent years in the compound around Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. The prayers violate a 58-year-old understanding with Jordan that only Muslims should be allowed to pray at the al-Aqsa and the esplanade around it, but they were championed by the governing coalition’s former national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“The cumulative weight of violations on the Temple Mount, the treatment of [Palestinian] prisoners and the perception that Israeli society had been weakened because of the damage to social cohesion” were all contributory factors to Israel’s vulnerability to attack, the report said.

Shin Bet argued that it had not underestimated Hamas and its desire to mount a major attack from Gaza by overwhelming Israeli fortifications around the coastal strip. The security agency said it even gave the plan the code name of Walls of Jericho, but it did not lead to heightened security.

“The plans were not viewed as a relatable threat, and the series of weak indicative signs that began in the summer of 2023 were not attributed to that threat,” the report said, adding that a Hamas insurgency in the West Bank was seen as more likely at the time.

“That led to the mortal flaw in the decision-making on the night between 6 and 7 October,” the report said.

The night before the massacre, Shin Bet raised an alert over the activation of 45 Israeli sim cards by Hamas militants. The agency labelled the sim activation as unusual and a possible pointer to an impending attack, if other indicative signs emerged. The fact that no defensive preparations were taken, the Shin Bet report blamed in part on lack of cooperation with army intelligence.

In response to the report, sources described as close to Netanyahu briefed Israeli reporters against the head of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, whom the prime minister has been trying to remove.

Bar, the Netanyahu associates were quoted as saying, “failed completely” in dealing with the Hamas threat and had been a “slave to preconceptions” about the militant group.

Netanyahu recently removed Bar and the Mossad chief, David Barnea, from Israel’s delegation to ceasefire talks in Doha and Cairo, in what was widely seen by Israeli political observers as a reflection of the rift between the prime minister and the security agencies over the conduct of the war, and whether it should proceed with a second phase of the ceasefire.

The internal friction comes amid a regional struggle to define Gaza’s postwar future, which was heightened by Donald Trump’s shock declaration last month that the US would take on ownership of the occupied territory, which would be emptied of its 2.2 million Palestinian residents and turned into a “Riviera of the Middle East”.

At a summit in Cairo on Tuesday, the Arab League endorsed an Egyptian-drafted alternative plan, in which the reconstruction of Gaza would take place under a technocratic committee of Palestinians, in place of Hamas.

An Arab diplomat on Wednesday said the initial feedback from Washington to the plan had been “disappointingly negative”. “They still prefer Trump’s plan,” the diplomat said, noting that the administration has so far not presented a blueprint for how Trump’s vision of US control of Gaza and the construction of luxury resorts would be implemented.

A delegation of Arab foreign ministers is planning to go to Washington later this month to lobby Trump officials in favour of the Egyptian postwar plan.

The Trump administration has separately reported to have been conducting secret talks with Hamas on the possibility of releasing US hostages being held in Gaza.

Reports from the Reuters news agency and Axios said the US special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, had been holding the direct talks with Hamas in recent weeks in Doha. A source said the talks had focused on gaining the release of US nationals still held hostage in Gaza, but also included discussions about a broader deal to release all remaining hostages and how to reach a long-term truce.

The US state department designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organisation in 1997.

The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boehler’s office declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Donald Trump has temporarily spared carmakers from sweeping US tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, one day after an economic strike on the US’s two biggest trading partners sparked warnings of widespread price increases and disruption.

The US president extended his aggressive trade strategy at midnight on Tuesday by targeting the country’s two closest neighbors with duties of 25%.

US retail giants predicted that prices were “highly likely” to start rising on store shelves almost immediately, raising questions about Trump’s promises to “make America affordable again” after years of heightened inflation.

After a call with top executives at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, however, Trump approved a one-month exemption from tariffs on “any autos coming through” the US, Mexico and Canada, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, announced on Wednesday.

The exemption has been granted “at the request of the companies”, Leavitt told reporters, “so they are not at an economic disadvantage”.

While Trump has claimed tariffs will embolden US industry by forcing global firms to build factories in the US, Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, publicly cautioned last month that imposing steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico could “blow a hole” in the country’s auto industry.

Shares in large carmakers rose sharply, with GM up 7.2%, Ford up 5.8% and Stellantis up 9% in New York. The benchmark S&P 500 increased 1.1% on Wall Street.

A separate call between Trump and Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, did not lead to any larger breakthrough, however. Trudeau “largely caused the problems we have with them because of his Weak Border Policies”, Trump declared on his Truth Social platform after they spoke. “These Policies are responsible for the death of many people!”

Trudeau insisted there had been improvements at the border, the US president claimed, adding that he told him this was “not good enough”.

After the US imposed tariffs this week Trump, Trudeau told Trump publicly: “Even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.”

During Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday evening, he acknowledged that tariffs would cause disruption. There will be “a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that”, he said.

He blamed cost of living challenges on his predecessor, Joe Biden, from whom he claimed to have inherited “an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare”.

The US economy has, in fact, remained resilient in recent years, and inflation has fallen dramatically from its peak – at the highest level in a generation – three years ago.

“Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families,” said Trump. “As president, I am fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again.”

Trump had initially pledged to target Canada and Mexico with tariffs on his first day back in office. Upon his return, however, he said he was considering imposing the tariffs at the start of February. Last month, he offered Canada and Mexico a one-month delay at the 11th hour.

Trump and his allies claim that higher tariffs on US imports from across the world will help “Make America great again”, by enabling it to obtain political and economic concessions from allies and rivals on the global stage.

But businesses, both inside the US and worldwide, have warned of widespread disruption if the Trump administration pushes ahead with this strategy.

Since winning November’s presidential election, the president has focused on China, Canada and Mexico, threatening the three markets with steep duties on their exports unless they reduced the “unacceptable” levels of illegal drugs crossing into the US.

Donald Trump posted a fresh ultimatum to Hamas, telling the group to “release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you”.

“‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye,” he wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, in an apparent reference to the beginning of direct talks with the group.

The post came just hours after the White House confirmed that the US had entered direct negotiations with Hamas, potentially to bypass Israel in securing the release of the remaining US hostages.

No sooner had historic 25% tariffs on imports to the US from Canada and Mexico come into force on Tuesday than the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, suggested the policy might be softened. Hours later, Donald Trump told Congress that the tariffs were “protecting the soul of our country”.

They say it’s the hope that kills you, but for investors trying to make sense of the Trump administration’s economic policies, it’s the uncertainty.

The president is promising a new “golden age”, but more sceptical analysts are starting to warn instead about the risks of a “Trumpcession”.

Not only has the president embarked on an extraordinary trade clash with neighbours, prompting retaliatory tariffs from Canada and warnings of sharp price rises from US retailers on everything from avocados to cars, but this confrontation is taking place against a background of corrosive instability.

The tariffs have been on, off and on again – with measures against the EU still in the works – at the same time that Trump’s right-hand man Elon Musk has been working to dismantle the federal bureaucracy.

The direct impact of the layoffs made so far by Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) appear to be relatively small, but its move-fast-and-break-things approach, which appears to include tearing up contracts and pushing the boundaries of employment law, underlines a sense of chaos.

As the US journalist Mike Masnick, who has followed the use of similar tactics in the tech industry, put it in his Techdirt blog on Wednesday, investors who hoped Trump policies would be pro-business are “learning a very expensive lesson about the difference between creative destruction and just plain destruction”.

It is also unclear to what extent Trump will try to pressure the independent Federal Reserve as he presses for lower interest rates.

These and other concerns – including questions about how the president will fund his jumbo tax cut plans – appear to have spooked US equity markets in recent days.

The US is a huge and not very open economy (trade was worth 24% of its GDP in 2023, according to World Bank data, against 64% for the UK, for example), so the direct hit to growth of the disruption created by tariffs may be limited – and less than for Mexico or Canada.

But if companies become more cautious about investing, and consumers about spending, because of the prevailing climate of uncertainty, that could have a wider impact.

In the latest Institute for Supply Management report on manufacturing, for example, respondents repeatedly referred to the lack of clarity surrounding tariffs. As one transport company put it, “customers are pausing on new orders as a result of uncertainty regarding tariffs. There is no clear direction from the administration on how they will be implemented, so it’s harder to project how they will affect business.”

Amid headlines about tariffs leading to price rises, US consumer confidence last month recorded its sharpest monthly decline since August 2021, according to the long-running Conference Board index.

In the UK, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said Britain’s economy will be hurt by a G7 trade war even if Trump exempts the UK from tariffs.

The swirling fears about a potential US downturn also appears to be weighing on the dollar. Economists would usually expect the currency to strengthen when tariffs are imposed, dampening the rising cost of imports. And global volatility usually favours the safe-haven currency.

But the greenback has been declining on foreign exchanges despite the tariffs and the fear factor in markets. That has caused economists to ask what seemed – until recently – to be an unthinkable question: could the US currency be losing its status as the world’s reserve currency?

Trump may yet pull back from the brink on tariffs, in exchange for concessions from Mexico and Canada, and could quietly shelve plans to punish the EU. But his whole modus operandi is unsettling markets.

Until recently, many investors were committed to an upbeat narrative of “US exceptionalism” and hoped the president’s plans for tax cuts and deregulation would extend the US’s tech-powered boom. The exceptionalism Trump has delivered, however, is not the kind they were looking for.

The Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s CEO Lawson Whiting said on Wednesday Canadian provinces taking US liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration.

Several Canadian provinces have taken US liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“I mean, that’s worse than a tariff, because it’s literally taking your sales away, [and] completely removing our products from the shelves,” Whiting said on a post-earnings call.

Canada on Tuesday also imposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from the US, including wine, spirits and beer.

Whiting, however, said that Canada accounted for only 1% of their total sales and that the company could withstand the hit.

He added the company would watch out for what happens in Mexico, which according to its annual report, made up 7% of its 2024 sales.

Shares of the company were up about 8% after the liquor maker reaffirmed its annual forecasts which accounted for the impact of tariffs.

While Whiting warned of “continued uncertainty and headwinds in the external environment”, he said that he was confident of the company’s trajectory.

Brown-Forman has been reeling from a slowdown in demand so far this year, led by the US, Canada and Europe, which offset benefits from stronger sales in emerging markets such as Mexico and Poland.

The company has undertaken cost-cutting measures, including workforce reduction. Analysts have said this is a response to a more challenging environment both for the company and the broader spirits industry.

For the second time in weeks, a Canadian icon has emerged as the unlikely victor in an existential battle on the ice.

Mervyn Sequeira, an Ontario photographer, was out with his family on a recent morning when they spotted a bald eagle descending towards a frozen lake.

Sensing a looming attack on unsuspecting prey, Sequeira scanned the landscape and saw a Canada goose, alone and vulnerable.

For the next 20 minutes, lens trained on the battle, Sequeira watched what he expected would be a lopsided fight with a grim coda.

Through bursts of his shutter, however, he captured a defiant goose fending off death.

“I’ve seen bald eagles take a lot of things, from ducks to muskrats. But this is the first time I’ve seen a bald eagle go in for something as big as a goose,” he said.

Despite multiple attacks by the eagle, the goose remained unbowed. The raptor, defeated, flew off.

At a time when Canada’s sovereignty has come under unprecedented threat from Donald Trump’s US, the battle between the two birds closely associated with each country has emerged as the latest symbol of tensions between the two countries.

This week, Trump put a 25% tax on most Canadian goods and has further aggravated his northern neighbour, derisively calling it the 51st state and pledging to annex the world’s second largest country.

Three days earlier, Canada’s national hockey team had stepped on to the ice in Boston for a match heralded as a showdown between the sport’s most powerful nations.

An overtime Canadian goal, heavily laden with symbolism, finished the game and both electrified and soothed an anxious nation.

“You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game,” the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, posted on social media.

For Canadians, such encounters have been impossible to untangle from a trade war brought on by the country’s closest ally and largest trading partner.

“We’ve been in tough spots before … but we have not only survived, we have emerged stronger than ever, because when it comes to defending our great nation, there is no price we all aren’t willing to pay, and today is no different,” Trudeau told Canadians.

Sequeira, a retired airline pilot and avid bird photographer, is hesitant to impress symbolism on to the pictures.

“It’s quite a coincidence that it should have happened at this time. And I’m not entirely surprised. I like to look at things from the naturalist point of view and from the wildlife photographer’s point of view and not put a spin on it. But it’s quite natural for people to look at it in the context of what’s happening,” he said.

Certainly others see the fight as representing Canada’s scrappy nature and its unwillingness to back away when threatened.

“Nature has its way of taking out the weak and the not so well and the injured. The eagle likely thought it would be able to take it out quite easily,” Sequeira said. “But, it wasn’t.”

For the second time in weeks, a Canadian icon has emerged as the unlikely victor in an existential battle on the ice.

Mervyn Sequeira, an Ontario photographer, was out with his family on a recent morning when they spotted a bald eagle descending towards a frozen lake.

Sensing a looming attack on unsuspecting prey, Sequeira scanned the landscape and saw a Canada goose, alone and vulnerable.

For the next 20 minutes, lens trained on the battle, Sequeira watched what he expected would be a lopsided fight with a grim coda.

Through bursts of his shutter, however, he captured a defiant goose fending off death.

“I’ve seen bald eagles take a lot of things, from ducks to muskrats. But this is the first time I’ve seen a bald eagle go in for something as big as a goose,” he said.

Despite multiple attacks by the eagle, the goose remained unbowed. The raptor, defeated, flew off.

At a time when Canada’s sovereignty has come under unprecedented threat from Donald Trump’s US, the battle between the two birds closely associated with each country has emerged as the latest symbol of tensions between the two countries.

This week, Trump put a 25% tax on most Canadian goods and has further aggravated his northern neighbour, derisively calling it the 51st state and pledging to annex the world’s second largest country.

Three days earlier, Canada’s national hockey team had stepped on to the ice in Boston for a match heralded as a showdown between the sport’s most powerful nations.

An overtime Canadian goal, heavily laden with symbolism, finished the game and both electrified and soothed an anxious nation.

“You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game,” the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, posted on social media.

For Canadians, such encounters have been impossible to untangle from a trade war brought on by the country’s closest ally and largest trading partner.

“We’ve been in tough spots before … but we have not only survived, we have emerged stronger than ever, because when it comes to defending our great nation, there is no price we all aren’t willing to pay, and today is no different,” Trudeau told Canadians.

Sequeira, a retired airline pilot and avid bird photographer, is hesitant to impress symbolism on to the pictures.

“It’s quite a coincidence that it should have happened at this time. And I’m not entirely surprised. I like to look at things from the naturalist point of view and from the wildlife photographer’s point of view and not put a spin on it. But it’s quite natural for people to look at it in the context of what’s happening,” he said.

Certainly others see the fight as representing Canada’s scrappy nature and its unwillingness to back away when threatened.

“Nature has its way of taking out the weak and the not so well and the injured. The eagle likely thought it would be able to take it out quite easily,” Sequeira said. “But, it wasn’t.”

New Zealand’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom has been removed from his role after publicly questioning US President Donald Trump’s grasp of history – remarks that have rendered his position “untenable” in the eyes of New Zealand’s government.

At a public Chatham House event in London this week, high commissioner Phil Goff asked a question of Finnish foreign affairs minister Elina Valtonen, who was speaking on how to keep the peace with Russia, with which Finland shares a border.

Goff said he had been re-reading Winston Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons in 1938 after the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, which allowed Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia. “He turned to [prime minister Neville] Chamberlain, he said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war’,” Goff said.

“President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?” Goff asked, which garnered laughs from the audience.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters said it was “seriously regrettable” that he had been forced to act over Goff’s remarks and would have done so had he made them about any other nation’s leader. Peters said Goff’s comments were “disappointing” and made the envoy’s position “untenable.”

“When you’re in that position, you represent the views of the government and the policies of the day – you’re not able to free-think, you are the face of New Zealand,” he said.

The secretary of foreign affairs and trade, Bede Corry, would now work through with Goff “the upcoming leadership transition” Peter’s office said.

The move comes as New Zealand attempts to keep its relationship with the US – one of its largest export markets – on track against a wider backdrop of unease over the Trump administration’s treatment of its allies.

This week, prime minister Christopher Luxon told media he trusted Trump, but would continue to “act in our own national interests”.

Goff, a former Labour party leader and former Auckland mayor, was appointed to the role in 2022, during Jacinda Ardern’s administration. His term was due to finish towards the end of 2025 but that date has now been brought forward.

In a post to social media, former prime minister Helen Clark said it was “a very thin excuse for sacking a highly respected former [New Zealand] foreign minister.”

It is not the first faux-pas Goff has made during his time in the role. During an event for a delegation of New Zealanders attending the coronation of King Charles in May 2023, Goff offended the Māori King, Kīngi Tūheitia, who was present, by saying no one in the room had experienced a coronation before.

The Guardian attempted to reach Goff through the ministry of foreign affairs. In a statement the ministry said it was in discussion with Goff about his return to New Zealand and had no further comments.

Hundreds of diplomats at the state department and US Agency for International Development have written to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, protesting against the dismantling of USAid, saying it undermines US leadership and security and leaves power vacuums for China and Russia to fill.

In a cable expected to be filed with the department’s internal “dissent channel”, which allows diplomats to raise concerns about policy anonymously, the diplomats said the Trump administration’s 20 January freeze on almost all foreign aid also endangers American diplomats and forces overseas while putting at risk the lives of millions abroad that depend on US assistance.

More than 700 people have signed on to the letter, a US official speaking on the condition of anonymity said.

“The decision to freeze and terminate foreign aid contracts and assistance awards without any meaningful review jeopardizes our partnerships with key allies, erodes trust, and creates openings for adversaries to expand their influence,” said the cable, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

The Republican president, pursuing what he has called an “America first” agenda, ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on his 20 January return to office. The order halted USAid operations around the world, jeopardizing delivery of life-saving food and medical aid, and throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.

“The freeze on life-saving aid has already caused irreparable harm and suffering to millions of people around the world,” the letter said, adding that despite statements on waivers being issued for life-saving programs, the funding remained shut.

The president tasked billionaire and adviser Elon Musk with dismantling USAid as part of an unprecedented push to shrink the federal government over what both say is wasteful spending and abuse of funds.

“Foreign assistance is not charity. Instead, it is a strategic tool that stabilizes regions, prevents conflict, and advances US interests,” the letter said.

A state department spokesperson, when asked about the cable, said: “We do not comment on leaked internal communication.”

In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed $72bn of aid worldwide, on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work.

Upon evaluating 6,200 multiyear awards, the administration decided to eliminate nearly 5,800 of them worth $54bn in value, a 92% reduction, according to a state department spokesperson. USAid fired or put on administrative leave thousands of staff and contractors.

The cable said the government’s failure to pay outstanding invoices to contractors and implementing partners has severe economic repercussions.

“The resulting financial strain not only undermines confidence in the US government as a reliable partner, it also weakens domestic economic growth at a time of mounting global competition,” the cable said.

Organizations and companies that contract with USAid last month sued the administration, calling the dismantling of the agency unlawful and saying funding had been cut off for existing contracts, including hundreds of millions of dollars for work that was already done.

The US supreme court declined on Wednesday to let the administration withhold payments to foreign aid organizations for work they had already performed for the government, upholding a district judge’s order that called on the administration to promptly release payments to contractors.

Hundreds of diplomats at the state department and US Agency for International Development have written to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, protesting against the dismantling of USAid, saying it undermines US leadership and security and leaves power vacuums for China and Russia to fill.

In a cable expected to be filed with the department’s internal “dissent channel”, which allows diplomats to raise concerns about policy anonymously, the diplomats said the Trump administration’s 20 January freeze on almost all foreign aid also endangers American diplomats and forces overseas while putting at risk the lives of millions abroad that depend on US assistance.

More than 700 people have signed on to the letter, a US official speaking on the condition of anonymity said.

“The decision to freeze and terminate foreign aid contracts and assistance awards without any meaningful review jeopardizes our partnerships with key allies, erodes trust, and creates openings for adversaries to expand their influence,” said the cable, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

The Republican president, pursuing what he has called an “America first” agenda, ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on his 20 January return to office. The order halted USAid operations around the world, jeopardizing delivery of life-saving food and medical aid, and throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.

“The freeze on life-saving aid has already caused irreparable harm and suffering to millions of people around the world,” the letter said, adding that despite statements on waivers being issued for life-saving programs, the funding remained shut.

The president tasked billionaire and adviser Elon Musk with dismantling USAid as part of an unprecedented push to shrink the federal government over what both say is wasteful spending and abuse of funds.

“Foreign assistance is not charity. Instead, it is a strategic tool that stabilizes regions, prevents conflict, and advances US interests,” the letter said.

A state department spokesperson, when asked about the cable, said: “We do not comment on leaked internal communication.”

In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed $72bn of aid worldwide, on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work.

Upon evaluating 6,200 multiyear awards, the administration decided to eliminate nearly 5,800 of them worth $54bn in value, a 92% reduction, according to a state department spokesperson. USAid fired or put on administrative leave thousands of staff and contractors.

The cable said the government’s failure to pay outstanding invoices to contractors and implementing partners has severe economic repercussions.

“The resulting financial strain not only undermines confidence in the US government as a reliable partner, it also weakens domestic economic growth at a time of mounting global competition,” the cable said.

Organizations and companies that contract with USAid last month sued the administration, calling the dismantling of the agency unlawful and saying funding had been cut off for existing contracts, including hundreds of millions of dollars for work that was already done.

The US supreme court declined on Wednesday to let the administration withhold payments to foreign aid organizations for work they had already performed for the government, upholding a district judge’s order that called on the administration to promptly release payments to contractors.

Mehdi Yarrahi, a well-known Iranian protest singer who spoke out against the country’s strict dress code for women, has been given 74 lashes as part of an agreement to end a criminal case against him.

Yarrahi was initially convicted in January 2024 of acting unlawfully by releasing a protest song in September 2023 entitled Your Headscarf (Roo Sarito) on the first anniversary of the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising.

He had also composed songs during the uprising, and has more than 1 million followers on Instagram.

Yarrahi’s one-year prison sentence was later converted to electronic ankle monitoring, which ended in December, leading to his release. However, the return of his 15bn toman bail, paid by a third party, was dependent on his flogging, which was carried out this week.

At the time, Yarrahi wrote on X: “I am ready to receive the sentence of 74 lashes, and while I condemn this inhuman torture, I make no request to cancel it.”

The news of the lashes was shared on Wednesday by Zahra Minouei, the singer’s lawyer.

Minouei wrote on X on Wednesday that the last part of the sentences issued by the Tehran revolutionary court had been administered.

Yarahi wrote on Instagram: “You have brought glass to break our stone. Thank you for your constant support, dear ones, and the sincere companionship of the respected lawyers Mustafa Nili and Zahra Minoui. He who is not willing to pay the price of freedom does not deserve freedom. Wishing you freedom.”

News of the medieval-style flogging caused widespread outrage on Iranian social media.

Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi wrote on Instagram: “The execution of Mehdi Yarrahi’s flogging sentence is revenge for his support for the women of Iran. The flogging on Mehdi’s body is a whip on the proud, resistant women of Iran and the flourishing and powerful soul of the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement.”

Masih Alinejad, a well-known US-based human rights campaigner, said: “For every lash they strike, more women will take off their scarves. More voices will rise. And nothing will stop this revolution. To the west: negotiating human rights with barbarians won’t save you. This regime is a virus, it will spread if you let it.”

In 2024 at least 131 individuals were sentenced to a combined 9,957 lashes by the Iranian judiciary, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, an Iranian NGO.

Lesotho was taken aback by US President Donald Trump’s mockery of the southern African nation, its foreign minister has said, vowing that the country was “not taking this matter lightly”.

Trump called Lesotho a country “nobody has ever heard of” as he defended his sweeping cuts in aid during an address to Congress on Tuesday. He singled out a past US aid project of “eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho”.

“Which nobody has ever heard of,” he added, as Republican lawmakers laughed.

On Wednesday the Lesotho government was “shocked and embarrassed” by the comments, the foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, told AFP.

“We did not expect a head of state to refer to another sovereign nation in such a manner,” he said.

The US has an embassy in the capital Maseru, and American volunteers serve in the popular Peace Corps programme.

“We are not taking this matter lightly,” Mpotjoane said, adding that they would send an official protest letter to Washington.

The country’s main LGBTQ rights organisation denied receiving funds from Washington, and which exact programme Trump was referring to remained unclear on Wednesday.

“We are literally not receiving grants from the US,” People’s Matrix spokesperson Tampose Mothopeng said.

“We have no idea of the allocation of eight million [dollars]” he said. The US government foreign assistance website did not list any financial support for LGBTQ rights in Lesotho, a nation of 2.3 million people. Instead, it indicated that about $120m had been spent on “health and population” programmes in the country in 2024, including $43.5m to tackle HIV/Aids.

The small mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa has the second-highest level of HIV infection of the world, with almost one in four adults HIV-positive. The US has committed more than $630m since 2006 to anti-HIV/Aids efforts in Lesotho, according to the US embassy there. More than 30 non-governmental organisations warned in mid-February that the country’s HIV programmes were at risk of collapse after the loss of US foreign aid.

When Trump halted virtually all US foreign aid at the beginning of February, volunteers in Lesotho were instructed to stop any HIV-related prevention programming, according to emails reviewed by the Guardian at the time.

On Wednesday morning, Lesotho residents woke up confused at Trump’s comment.

“Ever heard of Kingdom in the Sky? Guess not, too busy golfing to notice,” journalist and activist Kananelo Boloetse posted on social media platform X.

“Lesotho’s the only country in the world entirely above 1,000 metres elevation, higher than your approval ratings ever got,” he posted, adding: “We’re here, we’re proud, and we’re not your punchline.”

A man in California has been charged with nabbing about $25,000 of Lego in two state counties, according to officials.

Michael Ivory Fletcher, 32, is accused of stealing the Lego products from Target stores in Walnut Creek and San Ramon between 15 August 2024 and 15 February 2025, according to the Contra Costa district attorney’s office. He faces multiple charges of commercial burglary and grand theft.

Fletcher is alleged to have used the same method in each theft: he would enter the store alone, load his cart with Lego items and leave quickly, all within a matter of minutes.

He then supposedly placed the stolen toys in a vehicle parked in a designated accessible parking spot. According to the district attorney’s office, Fletcher carried out this scheme at least seven times. It’s unclear whether he targeted specific Lego sets.

Fletcher is also suspected of thefts in several other counties, including Solano, Alameda, San Joaquin, Sonoma and Santa Clara.

Besides the charges in Contra Costa county, Fletcher has been charged by the Alameda county district attorney for stealing $1,881 worth of Star Wars Lego sets in Fremont, according to KTVU.

Fletcher was arrested at a Target store in Walnut Creek and is currently being held at the Martinez detention facility on nearly $500,000 bail. If convicted on all charges, he could face up to nine years and four months in county jail.

Lego products have become a popular target for theft in the Bay Area. Last year, a man led police on an 11-mile chase after allegedly stealing $900 worth of Lego sets in Solano county. Additionally, in June 2023, four people were arrested for stealing more than $3,500 worth of Lego bricks from a San Mateo store.

Lego sets, which range in price from $100 to $1,000, are easy to resell, with used sets in decent shape going for 50% of the original price.

Bacterial vaginosis can be passed to women by male sexual partners, researchers have said, challenging the longstanding view that it is not a sexually transmitted infection.

Experts say the study offers a new way to reduce the risk of the infection returning in women, with another scientist saying it showed up the UK’s NHS website as “outdated and misleading”.

BV is thought to affect up to a third of reproductive-aged women and is caused by an overgrowth of harmful bacteria in the vagina and a reduction in “good” bacteria.

While some people experience no symptoms, BV can cause unusual, unpleasant-smelling discharge and can increase the chance of miscarriage and premature birth in pregnant women. It has also been associated with an increased risk of infertility.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers in Australia report how they studied two groups of monogamous, heterosexual couples in which the women had BV. In one group of 81 couples, the women and their male partners were given oral and topical antimicrobial treatment. In the other group of 83 couples, only women received the tablets and cream. The results were stark.

“The trial was stopped by the data and safety monitoring board after 150 couples had completed the 12-week follow-up period because treatment of the woman only was inferior to treatment of both the woman and her male partner,” the researchers write.

Overall, 24 of 69 women (35%) in the group where both partners were treated had BV return, compared with 43 of the 68 women in the group where only women were treated. In addition, the team found the average time until an infection returned was longer when both partners were treated.

While sex has long been known to be a trigger for BV, experts previously thought it did not meet the criteria for a sexually transmitted infection, partly because earlier research found no improvement in cure rates in women with BV when male partners were given oral antimicrobials alone.

Dr Janet Wilson, a consultant in sexual health at Leeds teaching hospitals NHS trust who was not involved with the work, said the study, while small, supported the view BV was an STI. But she added that many people with BV became “celibate” and found the condition could still be difficult to clear – meaning treating partners did not provide a full solution for preventing infections recurring.

“This is a great paper and it will change how we manage BV in those in long-term monogamous relationships,” she said, adding it was a “big step forward”.

Of the NHS website’s current page on BV, she said: “Much of the information is outdated and misleading. It should be updated in line with current evidence.”