Gurpreet Singh was handcuffed, his legs shackled and a chain tied around his waist. He was led on to the tarmac in Texas by US Border Patrol, towards a waiting C-17 military transport aircraft.

It was 3 February and, after a months-long journey, he realised his dream of living in America was over. He was being deported back to India. “It felt like the ground was slipping away from underneath my feet,” he said.

Gurpreet, 39, was one of thousands of Indians in recent years to have spent their life savings and crossed continents to enter the US illegally through its southern border, as they sought to escape an unemployment crisis back home.

There are about 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, the third largest group behind Mexicans and El Salvadoreans, according to the most recent figures from Pew Research in 2022.

Now Gurpreet has become one of the first undocumented Indians to be sent home since President Donald Trump took office, with a promise to make mass deportations a priority.

Gurpreet intended to make an asylum claim based on threats he said he had received in India, but – in line with an executive order from Trump to turn people away without granting them asylum hearings – he said he was removed without his case ever being considered.

About 3,700 Indians were sent back on charter and commercial flights during President Biden’s tenure, but recent images of detainees in chains under the Trump administration have sparked outrage in India.

US Border Patrol released the images in an online video with a bombastic choral soundtrack and the warning: “If you cross illegally, you will be removed.”

“We sat in handcuffs and shackles for more than 40 hours. Even women were bound the same way. Only the children were free,” Gurpreet told the BBC back in India. “We weren’t allowed to stand up. If we wanted to use the toilet, we were escorted by US forces, and just one of our handcuffs was taken off.”

Opposition parties protested in parliament, saying Indian deportees were given “inhuman and degrading treatment”. “There’s a lot of talk about how Prime Minister Modi and Mr Trump are good friends. Then why did Mr Modi allow this?” said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a key opposition leader.

Gurpreet said: “The Indian government should have said something on our behalf. They should have told the US to carry out the deportation the way it’s been done before, without the handcuffs and chains.”

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the government had raised these concerns with the US, and that as a result, on subsequent flights, women deportees were not handcuffed and shackled.

But on the ground, the intimidating images and President Trump’s rhetoric seem to be having the desired effect, at least in the immediate aftermath.

“No-one will try going to the US now through this illegal ‘donkey’ route while Trump is in power,” said Gurpreet.

In the longer term, this could depend on whether there are continued deportations, but for now many of the Indian people-smugglers, locally called “agents”, have gone into hiding, fearing raids against them by Indian police.

Gurpreet said Indian authorities demanded the number of the agent he had used when he landed back home, but the smuggler could no longer be reached.

“I don’t blame them, though. We were thirsty and went to the well. They didn’t come to us,” said Gurpreet.

While the official headline figure puts the unemployment rate at only 3.2%, it conceals a more precarious picture for many Indians. Only 22% of workers have regular salaries, the majority are self-employed and nearly a fifth are “unpaid helpers”, including women working in family businesses.

“We leave India only because we are compelled to. If I got a job which paid me even 30,000 rupees (£270/$340) a month, my family would get by. I would never have thought of leaving,” said Gurpreet, who has a wife, a mother and an 18-month-old baby to look after.

“You can say whatever you want about the economy on paper, but you need to see the reality on the ground. There are no opportunities here for us to work or run a business.”

Gupreet’s trucking company was among the cash-dependent small businesses that were badly hit when the Indian government withdrew 86% of the currency in circulation with four hours notice. He said he didn’t get paid by his clients, and had no money to keep the business afloat. Another small business he set up, managing logistics for other companies, also failed because of the Covid lockdown, he said.

He said he tried to get visas to go to Canada and the UK, but his applications were rejected.

Then he took all his savings, sold a plot of land he owned, and borrowed money from relatives to put together 4 million rupees ($45,000/£36,000) to pay a smuggler to organise his journey, Gurpreet told us.

On 28 August 2024, he flew from India to Guyana in South America to start an arduous journey to the US.

Gurpreet pointed out all the stops he made on a map on his phone. From Guyana he travelled through Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, mostly by buses and cars, partly by boat, and briefly on a plane – handed from one people-smuggler to another, detained and released by authorities a few times along the way.

From Colombia, smugglers tried to get him a flight to Mexico, so he could avoid crossing the dreaded Darién Gap. But Colombian immigration didn’t allow him to board the flight, so he had to make a dangerous trek through the jungle.

A dense expanse of rainforest between Colombia and Panama, the Darién Gap can only be crossed on foot, risking accidents, disease and attacks by criminal gangs. Last year, 50 people died making the crossing.

“I was not scared. I’ve been a sportsman so I thought I would be OK. But it was the toughest section,” said Gurpreet. “We walked for five days through jungles and rivers. In many parts, while wading through the river, the water came up to my chest.”

Each group was accompanied by a smuggler – or a “donker” as Gurpreet and other migrants refer to them, a word seemingly derived from the term “donkey route” used for illegal migration journeys.

At night they would pitch tents in the jungle, eat a bit of food they were carrying and try to rest.

“It was raining all the days we were there. We were drenched to our bones,” he said. They were guided over three mountains in their first two days. After that, he said they had to follow a route marked out in blue plastic bags tied to trees by the smugglers.

“My feet had begun to feel like lead. My toenails were cracked, and the palms of my hands were peeled off and had thorns in them. Still, we were lucky we didn’t encounter any robbers.”

When they reached Panama, Gurpreet said he and about 150 others were detained by border officials in a cramped jail-like centre. After 20 days, they were released, he said, and from there it took him more than a month to reach Mexico, passing through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.

Gurpreet said they waited for nearly a month in Mexico until there was an opportunity to cross the border into the US near San Diego.

“We didn’t scale a wall. There is a mountain near it which we climbed over. And there’s a razor wire which the donker cut through,” he said.

Gurpreet entered the US on 15 January, five days before President Trump took office – believing that he had made it just in time, before the borders became impenetrable and rules became tighter.

Once in San Diego, he surrendered to US Border Patrol, and was then detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

During the Biden administration, illegal or undocumented migrants would appear before an immigration officer who would do a preliminary interview to determine if each person had a case for asylum. While a majority of Indians migrated out of economic necessity, some also left fearing persecution because of their religious or social backgrounds, or their sexual orientation.

If they cleared the interview, they were released, pending a decision on granting asylum from an immigration judge. The process would often take years, but they were allowed to remain in the US in the meantime.

This is what Gurpreet thought would happen to him. He had planned to find work at a grocery store and then to get into trucking, a business he is familiar with.

Instead, less than three weeks after he entered the US, he found himself being led towards that C-17 plane and going back to where he started.

In their small house in Sultanpur Lodhi, a city in the northern state of Punjab, Gurpreet is now trying to find work to repay the money he owes, and fend for his family.

When Branneisha Cooper was overweight, she felt both invisible and like she stood out.

Her friends would get attention when they were out together, while she was overlooked. But she also had a sense that everyone was staring at her, scrutinising her.

Everyday scenarios were daunting: fairground rides (would she fit in the seat?), working out (would it hurt?), clothes shopping (would she find attractive clothing in her size?).

At the end of 2022, Branneisha, now 28 and working in Texas for a major retailer, began using weight-loss injection Mounjaro. She’s lost about six stone (38kg).

Things changed quickly. Suddenly, she could exercise without her body getting sore, colleagues made more small talk with her and she felt comfortable going on adventurous dates with her boyfriend. She was go-karting, dancing and going to arcades – activities that previously made her feel self-conscious.

But despite feeling like she had a “second chance at life”, weight loss was bittersweet.

“It was almost like I had stepped into a different world overnight,” Branneisha recalls. “People were suddenly more friendly, more attentive, and I was given opportunities and respect that didn’t exist before.”

“That rapid shift was jarring and really opened my eyes to just how deeply size bias is ingrained in our culture,” she continues. “Psychologically, it was a lot to process because while I was the same person, the way I was perceived had completely changed.”

Weight-loss transformations are nothing new. In the 90s and 00s, they filled the pages of tabloid newspapers, sold celebrity diet regimes and inspired popular TV series like The Biggest Loser, You Are What You Eat and Celebrity Fit Club.

But in the 2020s, the advent of weight-loss injections like semaglutide and tirzepatide (marketed under brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro) has meant people can lose huge amounts of weight rapidly, without undergoing invasive surgery. The jabs suppress people’s appetites, causing them to feel fuller sooner.

Wegovy has been available on the NHS in England, Wales and Scotland since September 2023 with strict eligibility criteria, but weight-loss drugs are expected to become more accessible when Mounjaro becomes available through NHS England later this year.

The jabs, which are not suitable for everyone and can have severe side effects, are also available from pharmacies in the UK for people who can’t get them prescribed by their GPs.

So other than the physical difference, how does the way you’re perceived change when you lose weight quickly and look different to the world?

People who have used the injections have told BBC News that rapid weight loss has caused a massive shift in the way they are treated – by both strangers and loved ones – as well as a change in how they approach their lives.

Branneisha’s feeling of sticking out and being overlooked at the same time while overweight is one others can relate to.

When you’re overweight, people either avoid eye contact or “really stare and glare at you”, says Jess Phillips, 29, a primary school teacher from Sittingbourne, Kent.

She previously felt uncomfortable taking flights, travelling on public transport and eating at restaurants. Finding suitable seating worried her, as well as the feeling she was “taking other people’s space”.

People had even shouted “fat” at her from cars and at a festival.

A trip in 2023 to Sorrento, on the Italian coast, was a major catalyst for starting weight-loss injections last June.

“Everyone was staring at me the whole time,” she says. “They’re just not used to people being that big out there.”

Since losing weight, Jess has noticed a big difference in how she’s treated in public.

“Strangers seem to be a lot more chatty with me than they ever were before,” she explains.

She feels “more invisible in a nice way”, she continues. “I don’t feel like people are looking at me when I go to different places. I feel nicely anonymous… I’m not standing out in any particular way.”

This is something that Jeannine A Gailey, sociology professor at Texas Christian University, explored in her 2014 book The Hyper(in)visible Fat Woman.

“My argument is that those who are marginalised, including fat people, become hyper-visible and hyper-invisible”, meaning they’re sometimes ignored and sometimes made into a “spectacle”, she tells the BBC.

Amy Toon, 34, a content creator from Solihull, felt this way. Before starting on the drugs, she shopped online “because of the overwhelming fear of people looking at me”, she says. “I just didn’t want to leave the house.”

Since losing weight, “people are a lot more smiley and just make eye contact,” she says. “I never had that before. It’s really strange and it’s also really sad at the same time.”

Society has preconceptions about how overweight people are expected to behave, and treats them accordingly, says Caleb Luna, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara specialising in fat studies.

“Fat people are expected to hide and shrink ourselves and not be proud,” says Prof Luna.

Weight isn’t a protected characteristic in the UK or in most other parts of the world, meaning it isn’t illegal to discriminate based on size, except if the person’s weight is classed as a disability.

Academics say that anti-fat bias can have significant implications, from how people are perceived in job interviews to how doctors interact with them. People make “all kinds of personality assumptions” about other people based on their body size, according to Prof Luna.

“I don’t understand why there’s this rage that some people seem to feel upon looking at someone who’s overweight,” says Alix Harvey, a 35-year-old marine biologist from Plymouth who’s lost around three stone (20kg) after starting weight-loss injections last year. “It’s socially acceptable to hate fat people.”

Weight-loss drugs have helped people like Branneisha, Jess, Amy and Alix lose weight – but they’re not right for everyone. Some in the healthcare industry have concerns about the wrong people getting hold of the jabs – including those who are already a healthy weight or have a history of eating disorders.

Common side effects of semaglutide and tirzepatide include diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). Rarer side effects include acute gallstone disease and pancreatitis, and the NHS warns that there is also a risk of hypoglycaemia, which happens when your blood sugar level drops too low.

Jonathan Pinkney, professor of endocrinology and diabetes at the University of Plymouth, says while there are “great expectations and hope around the drugs”, trials show people “do tend to relapse” after they stop taking them, meaning the weight loss isn’t sustained.

Alix says this worries her. “Am I going to be treated differently again? Because I like the way I’m currently being treated.”

Some people who take the medication say there’s stigma attached to using the drugs to lose weight, too, which Alix says puts some people off taking the injections.

“I didn’t expect the hatred,” she says, noting that some people see the use of weight-loss injections as “cheating” and a “socially unacceptable” way to lose weight.

“A lot of people see it as the lazy way out,” Amy says, referring to comments about weight-loss drugs left on her social media videos.

For sustained weight loss, the injections need to be used as part of a healthy lifestyle, including a balanced diet and regular exercise.

“People think that it’s a magic wand then it’s not,” Amy says. “It doesn’t just melt the fat away.”

“Even if you injected yourself once a week and a pound a week just evaporated from your body, what would that matter?” Alix says. “Why is that cheating?”

“You basically can’t win,” she says, referring to the stigma attached to both being overweight and using injections to lose weight.

People who’ve lost weight using the jabs tell the BBC their self-confidence has massively improved. Many say they feel much happier to take trains and planes. Some say they now wear brighter colours and tighter clothes. Others say they’re more vocal sharing their opinions at work.

Amy says she now feels comfortable taking her children swimming, while Jess says she’s been able to book her first-ever ski trip, something she’d never thought was possible before.

“I actually think it must be annoying how confident I am at the moment,” Jess laughs.

But many of the women we spoke to were left feeling sad for their previous selves, or frustrated at the unfairness of their past treatment.

“It’s so sad that your weight can define you,” Amy says. “I haven’t changed at all as a person. The only thing that has changed my appearance.”

Branneisha echoes these thoughts.

“It makes me sad when I have experiences that are different now because the larger me deserved that same attention and love,” Branneisha says. “Being smaller now makes me sad for my former self because people looked at me differently.”

Hundreds of thousands of people remain without power in Australia after a cyclone brought wild weather to the east coast.

Communities in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales (NSW) were beginning the clean-up on Sunday after the storm caused widespread flooding and knocked down power lines and trees.

A 61-year-old man’s body was recovered from floodwaters on Saturday, while in a separate incident, 12 soldiers were taken to hospital after their convoy crashed en route to rescue operations.

The storm had weakened by the time it made landfall near Brisbane on Saturday night, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday warned locals of the continued wild weather and risks from flooding.

“The situation in Queensland and northern New South Wales remains very serious due to flash flooding and heavy winds,” Albanese said.

“Heavy rainfall, damaging wind gusts and coastal surf impacts are expected to continue over coming days.”

Cyclone Alfred had hovered for days off the country’s east coast as a category two cyclone before weakening into a tropical depression on Saturday.

By Sunday evening, emergency services had conducted over a dozen rescues in Queensland and NSW – most involving people trapped by rising waters in their cars or homes. The NSW State Emergency Service reported receiving more than 6,000 calls for help.

Almost 290,000 properties in the affected regions remain without power, and energy companies have warned residents the blackouts could persist for days.

Police said on Saturday they had discovered a body in the search for a 61-year-old man who went missing on Friday after his car was caught in floodwaters in Dorrigo, northern NSW.

Emergency responders witnessed the man escaping his car and climbing onto a tree near the riverbank, but rescuers were not able to reach him before he was swept away.

In a separate incident on Saturday, 12 soldiers were injured in a convoy crash in Lismore, about 200km south of Brisbane, as they were on their way to rescue and recovery efforts.

The soldiers were still in hospital on Sunday, two of them in a serious condition, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told a news conference.

“We wish a speedy recovery for all of those young soldiers,” he said.

Queensland’s police authorities said they had not recorded any fatalities or missing people in the state so far as a result of the weather event.

If you had asked Canadians a few months ago who would win the country’s next general election, most would have predicted a decisive victory for the Conservative Party.

That outcome does not look so certain now.

In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has surged in the polls, shrinking the double-digit lead their Conservative rivals had held steadily since mid-2023.

The dramatic change in the country’s political landscape reflects how Trump’s tariffs and his repeated calls to make Canada “the 51st state” have fundamentally altered Canadian voters’ priorities.

Trump’s rhetoric has “pushed away all of the other issues” that were top of mind for Canadians before his inauguration on 20 January, notes Luc Turgeon, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa.

It has even managed to revive the once deeply unpopular Trudeau, whose approval rating has climbed by 12 points since December. The prime minister, of course, will not be in power for much longer, having announced his resignation at the start of the year.

On Sunday, his Liberals will declare the results of the leadership contest to determine who takes over a party running a precarious minority government. The new leader will have two immediate decisions to make: how to respond to Trump’s threats, and when to call a general election. The answer to the first dilemma will surely influence the second.

Who is in the running to replace Trudeau as Liberal Party leader?

A federal election must be held on or before 20 October, but could be called as early as this week.

Polls indicate that many Canadians still want a change at the top. But what that change would look like – a Liberal government under new leadership, or a complete shift to the Conservatives – is now anyone’s guess, says Greg Lyle, president of the Toronto-based Innovative Research Group, which has been polling Canadians on their shifting attitudes.

“Up until now, it was a blowout for the Conservatives,” he tells the BBC.

That is because the centre-right party led by Pierre Poilievre, has been effective in its messaging on issues that have occupied the Canadian psyche for the last few years: the rising cost of living, housing unaffordability, crime and a strained healthcare system.

Poilievre successfully tied these societal problems to what he labelled Trudeau’s “disastrous” policies, and promised a return to “common sense politics”.

But with Trudeau’s resignation, and Trump’s threats to Canada’s economic security and even its sovereignty, that messaging has become stale, Mr Lyle says. His polling suggests the majority of the country is now most afraid of Trump’s presidency and the impact it will have on Canada.

Trump’s 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports to the US, some of which have been paused until 2 April, could be devastating for Canada’s economy, which sends three-quarters of all its products to the US. Officials have predicted up to a million job losses as a result, and Canada could head into a recession if the tax on goods persists.

Trudeau left no doubt how seriously he is taking the threat, when he told reporters this week that Trump’s stated reason for the US tariffs – the flow of fentanyl across the border – was bogus and unjustified.

“What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” the prime minister warned.

“In many ways, it’s an all encompassing, fundamental issue about the survival of the country,” Prof Turgeon tells the BBC. Who is best placed to stand up for Canada against Trump has therefore become the key question in the forthcoming election.

The Conservatives are still ahead in the polls, with the latest averages suggesting 40% of voters back them. The Liberals’ fortunes, meanwhile, have been revived, with their support climbing to slightly over 30% – up 10 points from January.

Liberals have attempted to highlight similarities between the Conservative leader and Republican president. At last week’s leadership debate, candidates referred to Poilievre as “our little version of Trump here at home” and said he was looking to “imitate” the US president. A Liberal Party attack ad juxtaposed clips of the two using similar phrases such as “fake news” and “radical left”.

There are clear differences, however, between the two politicians, in terms of style and substance. And Trump himself has downplayed any parallels, telling British magazine The Spectator in a recent interview that Poilievre is “not Maga enough”.

Still, polls suggest a slipping of Conservative support. A recent poll by national pollster Angus Reid indicates Canadians believe Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney is better equipped to deal with Trump on issues of tariffs and trade than Poilievre.

The former central banker for both Canada and England is touting his experience dealing with economic crises, including the 2008 financial crash and Brexit.

And the shift in the political mood has forced Conservatives to recalculate their messaging.

If the election is called soon, the campaign will take place at a moment when Trump’s threats have inspired a fierce patriotism among Canadians. Many are boycotting American goods at their local grocery stores or even cancelling trips to the US.

Prof Turgeon says this “rallying around the flag” has become a key theme of Canadian politics.

The Conservatives have shifted away from their “Canada is Broken” slogan, which Mr Lyle says risked coming across as “anti-patriotic”, to “Canada First”.

Conservatives have also redirected their attacks towards Carney. Before Trump’s tariffs, they ran ads saying he is “just like Justin” in an attempt to tie him to Trudeau. But in recent weeks, the Conservatives have started digging into Carney’s loyalty to Canada.

Specifically, they have questioned whether he had a role in moving the headquarters of Brookfield Asset Management – a Canadian investment company – from Toronto to New York when he served as its chair.

Carney has responded that he had left the firm by the time that decision was made, but company documents reported on by public broadcaster CBC show the board approved the move in October 2024, when Carney was still at Brookfield.

The move, and Carney’s equivocation of his involvement with it, was criticised by the editorial board of Canada’s national newspaper the Globe and Mail, which wrote on Thursday that Carney must be transparent with Canadians.

More broadly, the paper wrote: “Every party leader must understand that Canada is entering a years-long period of uncertainty. The next prime minister will have to call on the trust of Canadians to lead the country where it needs to head but may not want to go.”

Given the anxiety reverberating among Canadians, Mr Lyle says that any ambiguity about Carney’s loyalty to the country could yet be damaging for him and the Liberals.

Whenever the election comes, and whoever wins, one thing is certain: Trump will continue to influence and reshape Canadian politics just as he has in the United States.

Iran’s Supreme leader has criticised “bullying” countries in an apparent response to Donald Trump’s letter demanding negotiations over its nuclear programme.

Trump said on Friday he had warned Tehran in a letter it could face military action unless it agreed to talks for a nuclear deal.

In a furious response on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not negotiate with “bullying governments” insisting on talks.

His regime has rapidly advanced its nuclear programme in recent years, the UN’s monitor says.

Trump has said he wants to strike a new deal with Iran to prevent it from developing its nuclear programme further.

On Friday he said he had offered Iran a chance to negotiate or risk its nuclear programme being targeted.

“I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” Trump told Fox Business on Friday.

“There are two ways Iran can be handled – militarily, or you make a deal,” Trump said. “I would prefer to make a deal, because I am not looking to hurt Iran.”

Iran’s Ayatollah appeared to respond to Trump’s statements in a Ramadan meeting with officials on Saturday, reported by local media.

Khamenei did not name the US but said “some bully governments insist on negotiations.”

“Their negotiations are not aimed at solving problems, they aim at domination,” he said according to Iranian media.

“The issue is not just the nuclear issue.They are setting new expectations that these new expectations will definitely not be met on the part of Iran.”

In December, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran’s decision to begin producing significantly more highly enriched uranium was “very worrisome”.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran was increasing its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, just below the level of purity needed for a nuclear weapon.

Tehran has denied accusation it is building nuclear weapons, emphasising instead that its programme has peaceful aims.

Iran had previously agreed to limits on its nuclear programme under the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, an agreement signed with the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany in return for sanctions relief.

But during his first term in office, Trump withdrew the US from the deal and reinstated US sanctions on Iran.

In the years since the collapse of the deal, Iran has accelerated its nuclear programme, accelerating its enrichment of uranium. It now has stocks that are near weapons grade, analysts say.

The conflicts in the Middle East this past year have also heightened nuclear tensions.

President Trump has said he would give Israel the the green light to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, after Israel and Iran exchanged attacks last year linked to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Iran’s air defence systems – which protect its nuclear facilities – were damaged in Israeli strikes on military targets.

Iran’s government is also under economic pressure from Western sanctions and has seen nationwide protests during the past few years over both social and economic grievances.

Iran is due to hold annual joint naval drills with Russia and China on Monday, in the Iranian port of Chabahar.

About 15 years ago, an Indian rapper of humble origins broke onto the country’s then-infertile hip-hop music scene and transformed it forever.

He teased, cajoled and vexed his listeners, daring them to explore the “devilish” contours of his mind, as he sang rash rhymes about parties, drugs and “seducing” women. His songs played in clubs and weddings, blaring from stereos at big parties and roadside tea stalls alike.

Then, at the peak of his career, he vanished. Seven years later, Yo Yo Honey Singh is back – with a new album and an ongoing music tour, claiming to be a changed man after a prolonged battle with drug abuse and mental health struggles.

The 41-year-old singer and producer was once one of India’s biggest music stars, a figure who “moved the cultural gravity of hip-hop music”, says music journalist Bhanuj Kappal in Famous, a recent Netflix documentary on Singh.

But he was also deeply controversial – and, by his own admission, an “aggressive and reckless man”, routinely accused of promoting vulgarity, debauchery and violence through his music.

Many criticised Singh’s lyrics for depicting violence against women and rape, an image that gained further traction in the press after his former wife and childhood sweetheart accused him of domestic violence in her divorce filing. Singh has denied the charge.

Seven years later, the singer is no longer the defiant hitmaker who once ruled the charts with his provocative, foot-tapping anthems.

A lot has changed in the intervening years, including Indian hip-hop, which has evolved into a thriving, dynamic space. Artists once inspired by his sound have now surpassed him as the genre’s leading voices.

Singh also seems different. From someone who described himself as “the all-knowing master of the universe”, he now identifies as a God-fearing man who believes in good energies, the cyclic nature of life and “scientific astrologers”.

He claims his music is now more conscious, moving beyond drugs to something deeper. But loyal fans say it’s lost its edge and his latest tracks haven’t left a mark.

“He has a core audience that will stick with him forever… but his vision is old now. It’s outdated,” Kappal says.

But Singh is not ready to be written off, yet.

Instead of trying to conceal or defend his personal struggles with fame and drugs, he has made it the centrepiece of his comeback.

Since his return, Singh has candidly admitted his struggles with addiction and mental health. “Drugs destroyed me completely,” he told Lallantop, a digital news platform. “I lost myself to fame, money and women. I was like a devil, completely satanic.”

In interviews, he is witty and relaxed, speaking with the clarity of a tormented artist who, after battling his inner demons, seems to have unlocked a spiritual truth

“What goes around comes around, I really believe that,” he said recently. “It took a lot of time for me to get out from where I was stuck. But I am back now.”

Born Hridesh Singh in Punjab state, he grew up in a cramped Delhi neighbourhood. Those tough early years shaped his music and still echo in his work today.

“This ghetto was my home, my hood, always will be,” he’s often heard saying.

Singh always knew he wanted a career in music. He started as a college DJ, later moving into production full-time. “I wanted to make beats and produce music, not sing or write,” he says.

But after years as a small-time producer in Punjab, he realised it wouldn’t be enough. “My sounds were too urban for the place. People didn’t understand it. For that, I had to go beyond the state.”

So he went solo. In 2011, Singh released The International Villager, his breakout album. Blending Punjabi folk – its dhol beats and string melodies – with global hip-hop, he created something entirely new.

For three months, it seemed the formula had failed. Then everything changed. Overnight, the songs went viral, topped charts, won awards – and catapulted Singh into Bollywood.

Brown Rang, a song about a brown man’s global ambition, became YouTube’s most-watched video in 2012. Shot in Dubai on a million-dollar budget, it introduced many Indians to the bling of hip-hop – fast cars, baggy clothes, gem-studded watches and gold chains – set to slick, thumping beats.

Despite mounting criticism over his misogynistic lyrics, Singh packed stadiums and churned out hits, breaking into Bollywood with songs for stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar.

“A lot of times, my lyrics were trash, even I knew that. But people were still listening to it because the sound was so good and fresh,” he told Lallantop.

But Singh’s ascent to fame coincided with his personal downfall.

“I was drowning in drugs and alcohol, smoking 12-15 joints and downing bottles. I abandoned my family, lost control. This one time, I got so high I bit a friend on his stomach eight times,” he told Lallantop.

In 2017, Singh broke down mid-tour – a moment that shook him. He quit music and substances, returned to Delhi and began recovery with a global team of doctors and therapists. “I told my family I was mentally unwell. I can’t do anything till I get better.”

Singh says he’s been sober for seven years, except for the occasional beer.

“I have been to hell and back,” he says in Famous. “Even now, I wake up hazy because of the medicines.”

Fans, however, appreciate Singh’s raw honesty about his self-destructive tendencies – and his effort to overcome them.

“No-one’s perfect. But at least Singh tries to be better. He may have left the scene briefly but his music never stopped playing,” says Nandini Gupta, a Delhi-based student.

Others see his transformation as performative, noting his new music remains problematic. “Though toned down, he is still objectifying women and talking only about money and fame,” says listener Bushra Neyazi.

No matter how you see it, Singh’s redemption feels like another challenge to his audience – pushing them to accept his complicated past and give his music another chance.

“I was away for seven years, but I will drive everyone mad again in the next seven,” he said recently.

“I am back and I want the same love I received seven years ago.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo government has offered a reward of $5m (£4m) for help arresting three leaders of a rebel group which has seized much of the east of the country this year.

Corneille Nangaa, a former head of DR Congo’s electoral commission, now leads the Congo River Alliance, which includes the M23 rebel group. He has addressed large rallies in the cities under the group’s control.

The bounty is also on offer for M23 leaders Sultani Makenga and Bertrand Bisimwa.

Last year the three men were prosecuted in absentia by a military court and given death sentences for treason.

A reward of $4m (£3) was also offered for the arrest of two journalists living in exile, and others the government describes as accomplices.

But the chances of anyone being arrested appear slim.

In recent weeks the army has been no match for the Rwandan-backed rebels who have captured large parts of the mineral-rich eastern DR Congo, including the region’s two largest cities – Goma and Bukavu.

So President Félix Tshisekedi has instead focused on trying to build international pressure for Rwanda to face sanctions for backing the rebels.

Last year, a report by UN experts said up to 4,000 Rwanda troops were working with the M23 in DR Congo.

Thousands of people have been killed during the fighting and hundreds of thousands left without shelter after fleeing their homes.

The Congolese government is also seeking US support in exchange for access to its minerals.

DR Congo accuses Rwanda of trying to take control of its minerals, which include gold and coltan, used in consumers electronics such as mobile phones and computers.

In response to the reports that DR Congo was offering access to the minerals in exchange for military help fighting the M23 rebels, presidential spokeswoman Tina Salama said on X last month that President Tshisekedi was inviting the US “whose companies source strategic raw materials from Rwanda, materials that are looted from the DRC and smuggled to Rwanda” to instead buy them from the Congolese – the “rightful owners”.

Rwanda denies looting minerals from DR Congo.

It no longer denies backing the M23 but says it is trying to prevent the conflict in DR Congo from spilling over into its own territory.

Rwanda also accuses the Congolese government of working with a different armed group in DR Congo, which is linked to those responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis were massacred.

Both the M23 and Rwanda’s government are led by Tutsis.

The Congolese government denies working with the FDLR group accused by Rwanda of being a “genocidal militia”.

Two women were gang-raped and a man was killed in an attack near a popular Unesco World Heritage site in southern India, according to police.

The two women – an Israeli tourist and an Indian homestay operator – were stargazing with three male tourists near a lake in the city of Hampi, Karnataka, when they were attacked by a group of men on Thursday night, police superintendent Ram Arasiddi told Reuters.

Arasiddi said the assailants pushed the men into the Tungabhadra River canal before raping the women.

Two of the men, one of them American, survived, and the third man’s body was recovered on Saturday morning, he said.

“Five people – two women and three men – were attacked near Sanapur,” Arasiddi said.

“Two of them are foreigners, an American [man], and another a woman from Israel.”

Police have arrested two of the men accused of the attack and an investigation is ongoing, Arasiddi said. Police believe the men followed the group.

The US State Department said it was “aware of reports that a US citizen was among a group of victims of violent crime” near Hampi.

According to witness testimony from one of the women, the group was stargazing near a temple in Sanapur when three men arrived on a motorcycle and asked them where they could get petrol.

As one member of the group gave them directions, one of the three men demanded 100 rupees ($1.29) from the tourists.

“Since the homestay operator did not know them, she told them they had no money,” police said.

“When the men repeatedly insisted, one of the male tourists gave them 20 rupees.

“After that, the three men allegedly started arguing.”

The body of one of the male tourists was later found in the Tungabhadra canal in Karnataka’s Koppal district.

A case has been registered at Gangavathi Rural Police Station under sections related to extortion, robbery, gang rape and attempted murder.

The victims are receiving medical treatment at a government hospital, the police said.

Hampi, an ancient village in the south Indian state of Karnataka, is home to numerous ruins and temples from the Vijayanagara Empire. It was declared as a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1986.

In a post on X, Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah wrote: “The attack and rape of an Israeli citizen and homestay owner is a most heinous act.

“As soon as the incident was reported, I obtained information from the relevant police, conducted a thorough investigation, and instructed them to quickly identify the culprits.

“The police have arrested two accused in connection with the case and are continuing the investigation.”

Attacks on women in India gained international attention last year after the brutal rape-homicide of a junior doctor at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

The attack sparked national outrage and protests over a lack of safety for women.

The US Secret Service shot a man outside the White House early on Sunday after an “armed confrontation”, the service said in a statement.

It had earlier received a tip-off from local police about a “suicidal individual who may be travelling to Washington DC from Indiana”, it said.

Its officers approached a man matching that description, “who brandished a firearm”, adding that shots were fired. The man is now in hospital in an “unknown” condition, it said.

President Donald Trump was not in the White House at the time, as he is spending the weekend at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.

“As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel,” the statement said.

The incident is now under investigation by Washington’s Metropolitan Police, which investigates all law-enforcement shootings in the District of Columbia.

Actor Pierce Brosnan has said it is a “given” that the next James Bond should be British.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the former Bond also said he thought it was the “right decision” for the franchise’s long-standing producers to hand creative control to Amazon.

“It takes great courage for them to let go,” said Brosnan, who is Irish.

“I hope that [Amazon] handles the work and the character with dignity and imagination and respect.”

The choice of Daniel Craig’s successor will be a decision for Amazon MGM Studios.

James Norton, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James – who are all English – are among the bookmakers’ favourites to fill Craig’s shoes.

Bond has been played by two non-British actors in the past – Australian George Lazenby as well as Irishman Brosnan – but 007 has never been an American, and among the names mooted for the role is California-born Austin Butler.

Other non-British names that have been suggested include Irish stars Paul Mescal, Cillian Murphy and Aidan Turner, or Australian Jacob Elordi.

American Clint Eastwood once reportedly turned down the role, with the Hollywood legend previously claiming he was approached to take over after Sean Connery in 1967 but said: “It didn’t feel right for me to be doing it”.

According to author Ian Fleming’s novels, Bond had a Scottish father and Swiss mother.

Under the deal announced last month, Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson will remain co-owners of the franchise but Amazon MGM Studios “will gain creative control”.

Brosnan, 71, told the Telegraph: “History has been passed on and I’m very proud to have been part of the history and the legacy of Bond and the movies I made with Barbara and Michael.”

It is not clear when the next Bond will be announced – and there is still no timescale for when the next film will be made.

The last film in the franchise, No Time To Die in 2021, was Craig’s last.

But given how much time it takes to make a blockbuster movie, the gap between No Time To Die and the next film could break the six-year record for the longest period between Bond releases.

Brosnan starred in four Bond films from 1995’s GoldenEye until 2002’s Die Another Day.

A man has been arrested after scaling Big Ben’s Elizabeth Tower at the Palace of Westminster in central London.

Emergency services were called at 07:24 GMT on Saturday to reports of a protester who had climbed up the tower holding a Palestinian flag.

The barefoot man reached a ledge several metres up the tower and refused to leave.

Emergency crews went up in a crane to negotiate with him, and he eventually came down in a cherry picker as Big Ben struck midnight, after more than 16 hours.

Westminster Police said the man had been arrested once he reached the ground.

“This has been a protracted incident due to the specifics of where the man was located and the need to ensure the safety of our officers, the individual and the wider public,” they added.

“We worked with other agencies including the London Fire Brigade and deployed specialist officers to bring this incident to a close as quickly as possible whilst minimising risk to life.”

Following the arrest, the man was taken to St Thomas’ Hospital for treatment. He had been pictured on the tower with cut feet.

The Met said that a small group of protesters also attended the hospital on Sunday morning.

“They were ejected after causing a disturbance at the venue,” the force said.

“One of the group, a 26-year-old male, was arrested on suspicion of assault on an emergency worker after a nurse was injured in an attempt to reach the detained individual.”

The incident on Elizabeth Tower led to the closure of Westminster Bridge, one of the exits at Westminster Underground Station and Bridge Street.

Tours of the Parliamentary Estate were also cancelled in response.

A parliamentary spokesperson said: “This incident is being reviewed and lessons will be learned from it.”

Three emergency personnel were lifted several metres up on a fire brigade aerial ladder platform at around 10:00 GMT, with one person using a megaphone to speak to the man on the ledge.

Negotiations then continued throughout the day and into the night.

In a video posted on Instagram on Saturday evening, the protester could be heard telling negotiators he would come down on his “own terms”.

The man was heard saying: “If you come towards me you are putting me in danger and I will climb higher.”

Photographs throughout the day showed him sitting on the ledge with the flag and wrapped a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf around the decorative stonework on the tower.

“Shouts of “Free Palestine” and “You Are A Hero” could be heard from a small group of supporters who were pinned behind the police cordon at Victoria Embankment.

Officers imposed a condition on protest activity near Parliament Square to prevent serious disruption, the Met said.

It meant the pro-Palestinian protesters were ordered to move to a nearby street.

Six months ago, a viral TikTok trend made us obsessed with being very demure and very mindful – but now, modesty has taken a back seat among celebrities who have made see-through outfits all the rage on red carpets and catwalks.

At the Brit Awards last week, big winner Charli XCX went full brat as she wore a sheer black dress, prompting hundreds of complaints to media watchdog Ofcom.

She used one of her acceptance speeches to address the controversy of her outfit. “I heard that ITV were complaining about my nipples,” she said. “I feel like we’re in the era of ‘free the nipple’ though, right?”

The nearly naked look has been a talking point at other award ceremonies – including last Sunday’s Oscars and the Grammys in February, when Kanye West’s girlfriend Bianca Censori dropped her coat on the red carpet to reveal an almost entirely invisible dress.

The love for transparent textiles has continued at London and Paris fashion weeks, with many of the celebrities watching on also getting the memo.

At Stella McCartney’s Paris show, US actress and Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson wore a translucent black off-the-shoulder maxi dress with only a nude-coloured thong underneath.

Rapper Ice Spice sported a black lace catsuit with a feathered coat at the show.

Naked dressing was a key trend in some designers’ spring/summer collections, and the theme has continued in autumn/winter looks too.

As Vogue wrote in January: “For a period of time, sheerness was few and far between, but nowadays, ‘naked dressing’ is commonplace every season.”

Dior’s latest collection embraced see-through material and presented it in an ethereal way, with intricate detailing and gender-fluid silhouettes.

Creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri described her collection as “demonstrating how clothing is a receptacle that affirms cultural, aesthetic and social codes”.

The trend divides opinion but is certainly part of a wider movement – last summer Charli XCX’s definition of being a brat included wearing “a strappy white top with no bra”.

Sheer dressing is a nod to the minimalist looks of the 1990s – think transparent blouses and Kate Moss wearing a thin slip dress – and with our love for nostalgia fashion, it’s no wonder it is taking off again.

The trend also had a resurgence a decade ago. The “free the nipple” movement was everywhere in the early 2010s, with Rihanna stirring up headlines with her sheer crystal-embellished dress at the CFDA awards in 2014.

Charli XCX’s Brits outfit was praised by some on social media. “Stop policing women’s bodies,” one person wrote, while another said she looked comfortable in her outfit so “why is society judging?”

But many found it too risque for prime-time TV. Ofcom received 825 complaints about the Brits ceremony, the majority relating to Charli’s outfit and Sabrina Carpenter’s eye-opening pre-watershed performance.

“Maybe think about putting this on at a time when kids ain’t gonna be watching,” one person wrote on social media.

Fashion stylist and CEO of clothing brand Mermaid Way, Julia Pukhalskaia, calls the choice to wear revealing dresses a “provocative statement”, but says it’s a “way to reclaim the right to govern one’s body”.

The controversy around it feeds into a wider dialogue about women’s rights and double standards when it comes to dress codes, she adds.

Abhi Madan, creative director of fashion brand Amarra, believes the trend “is about embracing freedom and boldness in fashion”.

The idea of freeing the nipple “isn’t just about exposure – it’s a movement towards body positivity and challenging conventional fashion norms”, she argues.

“Designers are now integrating sheer elements not just for shock value but to create a refined and elegant silhouette that empowers wearers.”

It seems many Hollywood stars this year were feeling empowered as chiffon, lace and tulle were in plentiful supply at the Oscars.

Shock value is surely a factor for some, too, though.

At Vanity Fair’s Oscars afterparty, Julia Fox wore a mesh dress with only long wavy hair to cover some of her modesty.

There were other interpretations of the naked dress – Megan Thee Stallion wore a green dress with strategically placed foliage and nipple coverings, while Zoe Kravitz opted to cover up the front but expose the back as a beaded mesh panel revealed her buttocks in her Saint Laurent dress.

“This year, naked dressing seemed to particularly thrive at the event,” the New York Times noted.

However, not everyone is on board. The Times fashion director Anna Murphy wrote that she’s over the trend because “it’s only women who do this”.

“It is not an equal opportunities endeavour. It is, rather, a manifestation of the kind of thing that keeps this world unequal. That women’s bodies are for public consumption and men’s, usually, aren’t,” she wrote.

Some men have been embracing the nearly naked trend, though. In 2022, Timothée Chalamet wore striking a backless red top at Venice Film Festival, and at the 2023 Grammys Harry Styles freed the nipple in a plunge harlequin jumpsuit.

It’s the women who will continue to cause more of a stir on runways and red carpets – and society will still be split on whether it’s redefining conventional notions of modesty in fashion, a product of misogyny, or simply seeking attention.

Canadians are voting to decide who will take over from Justin Trudeau as the leader of the country’s governing Liberal Party, in a crucial vote that will change the face of Canadian politics.

About 140,000 of the party’s members have been voting for their preferred candidate, with results expected to be announced by Sunday evening (the BBC will have live coverage).

The new leader will become the country’s prime minister. But because the Liberals are a minority government, holding onto the top job will require winning a general election, which could be called in the coming weeks.

Whoever replaces Trudeau will have to grapple with US President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada, which include an escalating trade war and repeated calls to make the country the US’s “51st state”.

The issue has dominated the campaigns of all four candidates vying for the top job. Here’s what to know about them.

Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney has pitched himself as a strong fiscal manager who can help countries navigate challenging times, including his own.

“I’ve helped manage multiple crises, and I’ve helped save two economies,” he said in his campaign launch speech.

Widely seen as the frontrunner for the job, he’s sought to position himself as the man who can steer the country through the fallout caused by Trump’s tariffs.

“In a situation like this, you need experience in terms of crisis management, you need negotiating skills,” he said during a leadership debate last month.

• Britain’s former top banker eyes Trudeau’s job
• How Trump threats brought Canada’s Liberals back from the dead

The 59-year-old was born in Canada’s Northwest Territories and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta.

He has sought to highlight his Canadian roots and paint himself as a political outsider.

He has served in recent months as a special economics adviser to Trudeau, and has long been considered a contender for the top job, though the Harvard graduate has never held public office.

Trudeau himself admitted that he had long been trying to recruit Carney to his team.

Carney tried to distance himself from the unpopular PM, saying he is “not the only Liberal in Canada who believes that the prime minister and his team let their attention wander from the economy too often”. Trudeau’s approval ratings have however improved since Trump’s return to office.

Carney brings with him expertise on environmental matters through his role as the United Nations special envoy on climate action, recently calling the goal of net zero “the greatest commercial opportunity of our time”.

He is a champion of some Liberal policies that have been unpopular, like the federal carbon tax, the party’s signature climate policy that critics argue is a financial burden for Canadians.

He has recently back away from the policy, saying in May that it had “served a purpose up until now”.

He has received a number of cabinet endorsements, including Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly.

The Toronto member of parliament became one of the most well-known members of Trudeau’s team.

While she had long been seen as a trusted senior official in his inner circle, a rift with the prime minister’s office led to her recent abrupt resignation in December.

That was a blow to Trudeau’s already-shaky hold on power, helping to usher in his own resignation.

The two disagreed on how to address President Trump’s threat of tariffs, among other financial policies as Canada faced a C$60bn deficit ($42bn; £33bn).

Born to a Ukrainian mother in the western province of Alberta, the 56-year-old was a journalist before entering politics.

She entered the House of Commons in 2013 and two years later joined Trudeau’s cabinet with a trade brief after he swept the party to power.

As Minister of Foreign Affairs she helped Canada renegotiate a free trade deal with the US and Mexico.

She was later named deputy prime minister and minister of finance and oversaw Canada’s financial response to the Covid pandemic.

A 2019 Globe and Mail profile said depending who you asked, Freeland is either a last, best hope for the liberal world order or an out-of-touch idealist.

Her steadfast support of Ukraine earned praise in some quarters but the Harvard-educated MP has had her share of critics, including Trump who recently called her “toxic”.

In her launch – walking onto the stage to the 1982 song, Maneater – she leaned into her time renegotiating a trade deal under the first Trump administration, and said she would take on the president again.

“I will lead a true Canadian response to the threat we now face. We will be united, we will be strong, we will be smart and that’s why we will win,” she told the crowd of supporters.

She has received the backing of Health Minister Mark Holland and Justice Minister Arif Virani, among other MPs.

Karina Gould, a former trade and investment specialist, has thrown her hat in the ring, declaring she would represent a “new generation” if elected.

She was first elected in 2015 and has served a number of roles in Trudeau’s cabinet – the youngest woman to serve as a minister in Canada.

The 37-year-old was families minister, international development minister and later Minister of Democratic Institutions, before taking on her current role as House Leader, where she oversees the government’s legislative agenda.

Gould launched her bid by saying “Canadians have lost trust in our party”.

She has taken aim at the US when trying to convince voters to choose her as leader, telling CNBC “trust has been broken” between Canada and its southern neighbour.

She said fentanyl, one of Trump’s justifications for imposing tariffs, comes from Canada in “miniscule amounts.”

“But if that’s what he cares about,” she said, referring to the US president, “well then let’s put together an inspection team at the border to inspect every truck that goes south for fentanyl and every truck that comes north for illegal guns”.

Frank Baylis, a former Liberal member of parliament, was the first out of the gate to announce he is seeking the leadership of the party.

He has said he will bring his experience from the world of business to address the affordability and cost-of-living challenges facing Canadians.

Baylis is the executive chairman of a medical device company that was founded by his mother and where he later served as president. It was sold to a US firm in 2021. He is an engineer by training.

Baylis served in parliament from 2015-2019 and was a founding member of the Parliamentary Black Caucus.

He has been heavily critical of Trudeau’s approach to Trump’s tariff threats and has claimed he would deal with Trump better than his opponents, casting his outsider experience as a businessman as a strength.

“Whether we like it or not, the Americans have put as a president a highly aggressive bully of a man, who’s a businessman,” he told The Canadian Press. “And people coming from a genteel world of bureaucrats or banking, they’re not going to know how to deal with this character,” he said, taking aim at his opponents.

Many prominent cabinet ministers chose not to run in this race, including Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who all said they need to focus on their current duties.

Jaime Battiste, a member of parliament (MP) from the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, dropped out earlier in the race.

Another hopeful, former Toronto area MP Ruby Dhalla, was kicked out of the race over “extremely serious” violations, the party said. Those include allegations of inaccuracies in her campaign’s financial reporting. Ms Dhalla has appealed the decision.

It’s been another turbulent week in global politics.

The world digested the extraordinary exchange between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian leader visited European allies, who have sprung into action to beef up their defences. Russian bombs hit Ukraine.

But what are these major players thinking ahead of fresh US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia next week?

Five BBC correspondents have analysed the week’s events.

After Donald Trump and JD Vance’s humiliating attack on Zelensky, the US president on Monday suspended military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine.

Over time, this will have a fundamental impact on Ukraine’s ability to defend itself – and Trump’s Democratic opponents say it’s now beyond question that he is aligned with Russia.

The administration has been plain that it sees the move as pressure on Zelensky to sign the president’s minerals deal and cede to a quick ceasefire.

Trump’s envoy Gen Keith Kellogg characterised the withdrawal of US military support as “like hitting a mule in the face with a [plank of wood]… You got their attention and it’s very significant… and it’s then up to them to do [what the president wants].”

After all the arm-twisting, the week ends with a more conciliatory tone from some of Trump’s top foreign policy team who will meet with the Ukrainians next week in Saudi Arabia.

There was a rare moment of criticism for Moscow by Trump on Friday as he threatened sanctions, even though it is already heavily sanctioned, to try to deter its intensifying bombardment of Ukraine.

But other than that this is an administration that has repeatedly reprimanded its supposed ally but refrained from any such criticism of its adversary.

On Thursday I asked the US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce for her reaction to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ruling out the presence of European peacekeepers in Ukraine. He had called it a “hostile aim” by the West over which there was “no room for compromise”.

Ms Bruce declined to respond, saying it wasn’t for her to comment on the remarks of foreign leaders or ministers, even though she had just repeated Trump’s label of Zelensky as “not ready for peace”.

Until Trump’s sanctions threat, this was another week when all the pressure seemed to be on Kyiv, giving Russia little reason to tame its appetite.

The suspension of American military aid and intelligence is one of the worst setbacks for Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, and a huge boost to Russia’s chances.

The deadly attacks across Ukraine which have followed suggest that Moscow is happy to continue with business as usual in the war.

It still insists that the original objectives of the “special military operation” must be achieved and more Ukrainian land captured.

It has also rejected efforts by Ukraine supporters to relieve this pressure on Kyiv, through a truce or a peacekeeping force.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks this week that Trump’s America may no longer be “on our side” are music to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ears, too.

It’s a situation in which Putin can sit back and enjoy the spectacle of cracks appearing in the Western alliance. It’s a situation that he’s been working to achieve for years, if not decades.

And he has achieved it not because of shots fired on the battlefield, but because of a breathtaking U-turn by Ukraine’s biggest ally.

Next Tuesday, Ukrainian and US representatives are sitting down for talks in Saudi Arabia. Russia will be watching closely, but feeling confident.

It’s been a bruising, emotional, and relentless week for the embattled Ukrainian president, as he fought to keep Western military support intact while reiterating his commitment to peace.

The fallout from his spectacular Oval Office clash with Trump was compounded in Kyiv after the US suspended military aid and intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.

“There’s a scent of betrayal in the air,” one source close to the Ukrainian government said. “The whole country feels it – including the president and his team.”

Zelensky refused Trump’s demand for an “explicit public apology”, instead penning a letter to the US president and calling their White House showdown “regrettable”.

To counter the damage, Zelensky was on the road again, seeking to shore up European support in Brussels. But while he secured public displays of solidarity, he didn’t get the firm military commitments he was hoping for.

Meanwhile, Zelensky urged EU leaders to support a limited truce at sea and in the air – an idea backed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Ukrainian and US delegations will hold talks in Saudi Arabia next week, but the path to peace remains uncertain.

Despite the setbacks, a source close to the president’s team insisted he remains defiant: “Three years ago, he could have been killed, but he decided to stay in Kyiv. The more pressure he’s under, the tougher he gets.”

There have been so many European summits it has been hard to keep up. And more are to come.

Europe’s leaders have suddenly realised the security umbrella they have relied on since World War Two may no longer be there, and proposals are flashing by at warp speed in European terms.

There is a broad consensus Europe needs to help Ukraine. France and the UK are offering “a coalition of the willing” on the ground if a peace deal can be found.

Russia hates the idea but Macron will bring together army chiefs on Tuesday to work on a plan.

But far bigger questions are now being asked about how Europe protects itself from what EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen calls a “clear and present danger”.

“We have to be ready” if the US is not there to help, says Macron. The EU is now talking about a multi-billion euro plan for beefing up defences.

And Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, has raised the possibility of France and the UK extending their nuclear deterrent across Europe.

Macron has been receptive to that, although France’s nuclear umbrella would stretch only so far and final decisions would be made in Paris.

That goes to the heart of Europe’s defence problem.

Without the US, can individual European countries pool their resources and rely on each other?

For smaller states such as Lithuania there is no choice.

But the debate has begun, and Poland’s Donald Tusk says clearly it would be safer “if we have our own nuclear arsenal”.

“Trump may be the best thing to happen to Starmer,” says a diplomat, suggesting the brash property tycoon busy upending the world order might be just what the strait-laced prime minister – who’s been dragging in the polls – needs.

One of Labour’s business backers calls it “the PM’s finest hour” – a Remainer leader putting Britain at the heart of international action as Trump rattles the Western world’s cage.

Sir Keir Starmer has certainly been incredibly visible – in the White House, leading a European summit at Lancaster House last weekend, hugging Zelensky, plotting a peacekeeping path with Macron.

It’s hard for the Conservatives and other opponents to compete with the prime minister’s international moves dominating the news.

Moments of crisis like the one we’re living through are often when the public tunes into politics and looks to their leaders. With a shaky global situation, does No 10 look more solid than before?

Some of his colleagues are certain. One government source tells me all the international activity is “almost Blair-esque”, or even a moment like Thatcher and the Falklands which enabled the 80s Conservative prime minister to burnish her reputation and win successive election victories.

Another minister suggests other leaders “get their knickers in a twist” publicly reacting to Trump’s unpredictable comments and actions – “but Keir has spent his whole career dealing with extreme circumstances. What he is able to do is get people to focus on the things that really matter.”

But impressive-looking diplomacy doesn’t mean the UK is getting what it wants – missiles are still falling, overnight again in Donetsk and Kharkhiv. Donald Trump’s commitment to guaranteeing Ukraine’s security, even NATO’s future, is shaky too.

So let’s take a calm look. Polling suggests there has been a nudge upwards for Sir Keir’s personal ratings and for Labour, after a dreadful start in office and a steep, fast drop in the polls.

His government would not be the first to be swept away by the intensity and glamour of global diplomacy which, however difficult or worthy, doesn’t necessarily translate into significant brownie points at home.

Perhaps in these wild times, we’re seeing the prime minister carve out a role as “reassurer in chief”. In political circles it’s long been common to find criticisms of Sir Keir Starmer for, frankly, being a bit dull, and not willing to play the minute-by-minute political game. But with Trump in the White House stoking drama the PM’s colleagues believe his steadiness has become an asset.

And he’s shown willingness to take action – increasing defence spending, albeit after months of pressure, getting European leaders together and drawing up military plans for after a peace deal. A senior government source says: “The global crisis means people looking at us again, and the government has been making an argument that people are responding to: that we have got their backs.”

But aligning yourself with an American president doesn’t always work out. Tony Blair’s chinos weren’t the only thing that became uncomfortable about his relationship with George W Bush.

So while there’s evidence the public are looking at Sir Keir a touch more favourably since his White House trip, as one union leader warns, “for it to count he has to show the same mojo at home”.

Take the row over sentencing this week. Or forthcoming arguments over cutting welfare, which ministers have been falling over themselves to soften the ground for.

But overshadowing everything, priority number one: the grisly state of the economy and getting it to grow.

In around a fortnight Rachel Reeves will be on her feet in Parliament, probably announcing cuts to public spending running to billions. Government sources point to some better statistics on wages, and cuts to interest rates, but Reeves is under enormous pressure to explain how the economy is going to escape the doldrums it has been stuck in for ages.

All the Kodak moments, and grip and grins with international leaders in the world won’t change that. The PM “can walk and talk at the same” time, one ally says. But there are, they acknowledge, “only so many hours in the day”.

Helping Ukraine against Putin’s Russia has a clear moral story the prime minister finds easy to tell, and compelling to try to shape. In contrast, “how do you bring prosperity to the regions? That’s a real puzzle.”

In the next few days, starting with the PM’s right-hand man Pat McFadden in the studio tomorrow, you will see the government try to kick up the pace of what is happening at home. First up – perhaps not a box-office hit – they’ll be looking at making the Whitehall machine work better, including making it easier to get rid of civil servants.

Ministers tell me Downing Street is being run more effectively than before Christmas and has a clearer sense of direction, after early embarrassment over being far less prepared than promised.

Sir Keir chairs regular meetings with individual cabinet ministers in charge of the government’s “missions”. I’m told he “cross-examines” them and their officials – and if their answers aren’t up to snuff, they get called in for another meeting. “He is a very nice man, but he is a hard man too,” one of them confides.

As well as slimming down parts of the civil service, there’ll be more on the government’s plans to cut billions off the welfare bill. Labour will argue it’s for good reason, to help people stuck on benefits – while critics will say it’s a way for the government to save money off the backs of some of the most vulnerable people in the country.

On Thursday, the prime minister is expected to make his own speech in an attempt to weave it all together into a grand narrative about safety abroad and at home. One government source said the last few weeks had galvanised Sir Keir’s thinking on this: when things are uncertain on the international stage, “everything feels a bit wobbly” and domestic security is amplified: you look around and feel your job isn’t secure, your street isn’t safe.

This thinking has been a long time coming. “Security” was a word and concept used by Reeves and Sir Keir in opposition – but recently he’s been making a more ideological argument than those close to him are used to hearing.

As well as making the case that what happens around the world is inextricably linked to what happens at home, he holds that the old international consensus among Western leaders has failed for millions of voters.

That argument was crystallised into a long memo he sent to his cabinet ministers and political team in the middle of February. In it he wrote: “The government’s challenge was to shape this new era. Not to defend institutions that are broken or old ideas that have failed, but to be the voice of working people who more than anything want security in their lives, and a country that is on the up again.”

He wrote that politicians were wrong to think markets had solutions for almost everything. “We were cowed by the market – we came to act as if it always knew best and the state should sit it out.”

He also said governments had failed on immigration, failed to understand the public’s concerns and also – to tell the truth. “We ended up treating all immigration as an untrammelled good. Somehow, politics ended up being too scared to say what is obvious – that some people are genuine refugees and some aren’t; that people coming here to work can be a positive, but that an island nation needs to control its borders.”

Some extracts from the letter have been revealed before. But what is notable, reading the whole document, is the prime minister closes his letter to colleagues with a call to provide “security” for the country, alongside renewing public services. He writes: “Now is our moment to be bigger and bolder – to put pedal on metal on wholescale reform and change our politics and our country. Security and renewal are our twin tasks – we must now deliver them.”

You’ll hear more of that argument from ministers in the coming days – we had a glimpse of it in the studio last Sunday morning too.

The profound uncertainty Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House has given the prime minister a moment to step into the spotlight on the world stage.

And his government is now much more overtly weaving an argument that working to establish security round the world is fundamentally connected to sorting out security at home.

There is a reason why, fresh from all the diplomatic handshakes, Sir Keir was back in the more familiar hi-vis and hard hat announcing defence jobs in Belfast.

No 10 wants you to see and believe that crisis abroad can mean opportunity at home. This spasm in global security has given a prime minister sometimes accused of being a blank page a clearer story to tell.

But in the end, for any prime minister, it is what happens on home turf, not foreign adventures that matter the most. A sceptical public will take a lot of convincing to believe government can improve their situation – make it easier to manage the bills, buy a house, or for their kids to find a decent job.

As as a senior figure in the Labour movement concludes, “he likes the statesman role but the bottom line is, change in people’s lives will be the decider.”

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Fighting back the tears, 22-year-old rubbish collector Okuku Prince recalls the moment his best friend’s lifeless body was found at a massive rubbish dump in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

The landslide at the Kiteezi dump last August killed 30 people, including his friend Sanya Kezia.

“I think some people are still underneath the garbage,” he tells the BBC.

Many of them eked out a living by washing and selling whatever discarded items they found that still had value – anything from fishing nets to plastic bottles, glass jars and the components of old electronic devices.

A blame-game erupted after the fatal collapse, with Kampala’s city council and central government accusing each other of negligence, while some of the dead still languished under tonnes of rubbish without the dignity of a burial.

When government tractors did eventually dig up Kezia’s body, there were injuries to the 21-year-old’s face.

It was horrifying for his friend to see him enveloped by stinking, rotting waste.

“We’re not safe here. Unless they [repair] it, maybe level it. Otherwise, people are not safe,” says Mr Prince, who before becoming a rubbish-picker had been studying law at the Islamic University of Uganda.

Unable to afford tuition fees after his family became financially unstable, his daily routine is now a far cry from libraries and lecture halls.

Youth unemployment is at crisis levels in Uganda, and there are many like Mr Prince who often risk their health and abandon their dreams just to make a living.

“I come here to the dump in the morning, collect polythene bags, take them for washing and sell them,” says Mr Prince. “I make 10,000 shillings [equivalent to $2.70 or £2.10] a day.”

The collapse has left him in further financial distress as he used to live by the side of the dump – but has had to move because of safety concerns.

The houses of others were also destroyed during rescue operations.

Compensation money has been paid to the families of those who died, but not to around 200 people who lost their homes, local authorities have admitted to the BBC.

Officials are “waiting for the valuation and budget allocation”, says Dr Sarah Karen Zalwango, the new head of public health and the environment at the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

Some argue that the Kiteezi collapse was inevitable because basic common sense was ignored.

“You can’t take four million people, get all that waste, mingled – degradable and non-degradable – and take it to one dumping site. No, that’s not how we [ought to] do it. But we’ve been doing it for over 20 years,” Frank Muramuzi, a Kampala-based urban planner, tells the BBC.

The Kiteezi landfill was built in 1996, with financing from the World Bank, to provide a single, major depository for solid waste generated by Kampala.

As Kampala has grown, so too has its biggest rubbish dump.

On the northern edge of the city, it now covers 15 hectares (37 acres) – an area the size of more than 22 football pitches – with its stench spreading further still.

Birds of prey can be seen flying overhead.

The city’s residents and businesses generate an estimated 2,500 tonnes of waste every day, half of which ends up in dumping sites across the city – the biggest being Kiteezi.

But the problem is that Kiteezi lacks the on-site recycling, sorting and incineration facilities that landfills are supposed to have.

“With each layer of trash piled up, the bottom layers become weaker, especially as the decay and decomposition of organic waste increases the temperature,” Mr Muramuzi explains.

“Without vents, methane and other gases remain trapped at the bottom, further multiplying the fragility of the loosely held structure.”

Yet this can easily be fixed, he adds, so long as the government commits to periodic monitoring and audits which factor in environmental, social and economic needs.

Had that already been in place, “the havoc that happened in Kiteezi would have been avoided”, he says.

So, if the solution is this simple, why is it not already happening?

The answer seems to be a combination of power struggles and financial mismanagement.

Ultimate responsibility for keeping Kampala “clean, habitable, and sustainable environment” lies with the KCCA, but Mayor Erias Lukwago, from the opposition Forum for Democratic Change party, says his office lacks the necessary power to enact the changes.

The KCCA says it has repeatedly proposed plans to decommission Kiteezi but says the funds needed to do so – $9.7m – exceed the city’s budget and have not been made available by central government.

“All the support we have been getting is courtesy of development partners and donors like Bill and Melinda Gates, GIZ, and WaterAid… but their capacity is very limited,” the Kampala mayor said recently.

“If we were getting adequate funding from the central government, we would be very far right now.”

There is no word from the government on whether it will allocate funds for Kampala’s biggest dump.

It did pay $1,350 to each of the families of the deceased, saying any further money would only be forthcoming if government agencies were “found to be responsible”.

A month later, a report furnished by the country’s police and crime investigation department led to President Yoweri Museveni – a noted political opponent of Kampala’s mayor – sacking three senior KCCA officials, including the authority’s executive and public health directors.

James Bond Kunobere, Kampala’s solid waste management officer, admits that last year’s deadly collapse was a much-needed wake-up call.

At present, the authorities in the Ugandan capital are drafting plans to turn organic waste into compost and reduce “unnecessary waste” coming into the city.

But they want the public to take some responsibility too. At the moment people pay one of the seven private waste firms operating in Kampala to collect their rubbish, which is all bundled together with little thought given to recycling.

“We haven’t changed the mindset of residents to sort waste,” Mr Kunobere tells the BBC.

“If you sort, waste has different destinations. If you mix, it all goes to one – the landfill.”

Experts say such initiatives are important but do not address the bigger structural inadequacies at Kiteezi.

And for people whose lives have been shattered by recent events there, it is too little too late.

“They promised us compensation, but I haven’t received anything – almost everyone is complaining too,” Mr Prince tells the BBC.

“We lost our friend. All that transpired in the process was sorrow.”

• Why Uganda’s iconic crested crane faces extinction
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A man drawn into the world of having sex while high on illegal drugs has described how he became a “zombie” whose life was slowly deteriorating.

Chris – whose name has been changed – told the BBC he started to take part in chemsex, short for chemical sex, which helped mask the “the shame and guilt” he said he felt growing up gay.

The Londoner said after becoming addicted to chemsex – which typically involves men who have sex with men using the drugs crystal meth, methedrone and GHB/GBL to enhance their sexual experience – he faced a “wall of silence” from helplines and others within the community.

Campaigners say support is “patchy” due to gay sex stigma and has called for this to change. The government says it is aware of the harm caused by chemsex and has issued guidance to local authorities on managing the issue.

Chris was initially offered drugs at a party, but it was not until a few months later that he then began to actively seek it out more and find people who were taking drugs.

He said at first it took away “a lot of the shame and guilt you have about growing up being gay. It’s kind of quite liberating”.

However, that quickly changed.

“No-one really speaks about it. Everyone is slightly ashamed about it. It’s all behind closed doors. It doesn’t really spill out into the real world. It’s very secretive,” he said.

Chris said his friends told him he was almost like a “zombie”.

“Slowly, your life starts to deteriorate because you are missing work on a Monday. And then your work is obviously not up to standard.

“You can’t do much until Wednesday. And then it all starts again on a Friday,” he said.

“You have to eat, you have to sleep, you have to get on with your life but all you’re really doing is looking forward to the next time you can take drugs,” he added.

“Which is to escape the horror that is your life, the misery that is your life which you’ve created but, in a way, you don’t seem to see that because all you want to do is take drugs.”

Campaigners have said chemsex among some gay men has a stigma attached that meant many were not seeking the help they needed.

Ignacio Labayen De Inza, chief executive of the London-based charity Controlling Chemsex, is calling for people to start a conversation around chemsex to help change that stigma.

He said: “Chemsex is very available but not everyone has access to reliable information.

“Not just the government but no-one is doing very much. People think there is nothing we can do because it’s going to carry on happening, but people could make sure that they set boundaries and to keep safe.”

He said there was a stigma attached to it because “we are talking about sex, we are talking about gay sex, we are talking about drugs”.

Philip Hurd, a specialist adviser at Controlling Chemsex, was involved in chemsex 12 years ago and said it took a near-death overdose for him to realise he needed to stop.

He said: “You get close to the criminal justice system, and you start doing things that are dangerous.

“And then I had a near-death overdose. The doctors said I was very lucky to survive, and I had to get my parents down from the country in their early eighties. That was the point I thought I can’t do this; I’m going to die.”

Mr Hurd, who lives in London and now volunteers at Controlling Chemsex, uses his personal experience to help others.

“I think it’s possible for a person with good psychology, sociology skills to support somebody coming out of chemsex but nothing can replace having been there knowing,” he said.

An Opinium Research poll of 2,000 people for the charity found that 76% of those surveyed were not familiar with chemsex.

Just over a third of those who identified as gay/lesbian were not familiar with the risks of chemsex, the study also found.

Veronika Carruthers, a lecturer at Portsmouth University, has been looking into the current support available across the south of England and found it was still “pretty limited” and “patchy”.

“We consider this to be a bit of a postcode lottery,” she said.

She explained that some people did not know the right services to turn to.

“Particularly if we look at it from a divide of drug counselling services and sexual health clinics, while sexual health clinics are preferred there is still an element of staff not having the appropriate knowledge of what chemsex actually is and in turn not being able to provide the most effect support,” she said.

“In regards to drug counselling services, quite often we have recovery workers who have never actually heard of chemsex and therefore they’re not able to provide any form of support and individuals often don’t feel that is the most appropriate place for them.

“As a result people don’t want to call for help or support from particular organisations over others.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said in addition to issuing guidance to local authorities, it had boosted the Public Health Grant by almost £200m.

“Local authorities can use this to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery interventions, including for people involved in chemsex,” the spokesperson said.

“We continue to work with substance misuse commissioners and sexual health commissioners to improve access to support services for those who use drugs in this context.”

About 15 years ago, an Indian rapper of humble origins broke onto the country’s then-infertile hip-hop music scene and transformed it forever.

He teased, cajoled and vexed his listeners, daring them to explore the “devilish” contours of his mind, as he sang rash rhymes about parties, drugs and “seducing” women. His songs played in clubs and weddings, blaring from stereos at big parties and roadside tea stalls alike.

Then, at the peak of his career, he vanished. Seven years later, Yo Yo Honey Singh is back – with a new album and an ongoing music tour, claiming to be a changed man after a prolonged battle with drug abuse and mental health struggles.

The 41-year-old singer and producer was once one of India’s biggest music stars, a figure who “moved the cultural gravity of hip-hop music”, says music journalist Bhanuj Kappal in Famous, a recent Netflix documentary on Singh.

But he was also deeply controversial – and, by his own admission, an “aggressive and reckless man”, routinely accused of promoting vulgarity, debauchery and violence through his music.

Many criticised Singh’s lyrics for depicting violence against women and rape, an image that gained further traction in the press after his former wife and childhood sweetheart accused him of domestic violence in her divorce filing. Singh has denied the charge.

Seven years later, the singer is no longer the defiant hitmaker who once ruled the charts with his provocative, foot-tapping anthems.

A lot has changed in the intervening years, including Indian hip-hop, which has evolved into a thriving, dynamic space. Artists once inspired by his sound have now surpassed him as the genre’s leading voices.

Singh also seems different. From someone who described himself as “the all-knowing master of the universe”, he now identifies as a God-fearing man who believes in good energies, the cyclic nature of life and “scientific astrologers”.

He claims his music is now more conscious, moving beyond drugs to something deeper. But loyal fans say it’s lost its edge and his latest tracks haven’t left a mark.

“He has a core audience that will stick with him forever… but his vision is old now. It’s outdated,” Kappal says.

But Singh is not ready to be written off, yet.

Instead of trying to conceal or defend his personal struggles with fame and drugs, he has made it the centrepiece of his comeback.

Since his return, Singh has candidly admitted his struggles with addiction and mental health. “Drugs destroyed me completely,” he told Lallantop, a digital news platform. “I lost myself to fame, money and women. I was like a devil, completely satanic.”

In interviews, he is witty and relaxed, speaking with the clarity of a tormented artist who, after battling his inner demons, seems to have unlocked a spiritual truth

“What goes around comes around, I really believe that,” he said recently. “It took a lot of time for me to get out from where I was stuck. But I am back now.”

Born Hridesh Singh in Punjab state, he grew up in a cramped Delhi neighbourhood. Those tough early years shaped his music and still echo in his work today.

“This ghetto was my home, my hood, always will be,” he’s often heard saying.

Singh always knew he wanted a career in music. He started as a college DJ, later moving into production full-time. “I wanted to make beats and produce music, not sing or write,” he says.

But after years as a small-time producer in Punjab, he realised it wouldn’t be enough. “My sounds were too urban for the place. People didn’t understand it. For that, I had to go beyond the state.”

So he went solo. In 2011, Singh released The International Villager, his breakout album. Blending Punjabi folk – its dhol beats and string melodies – with global hip-hop, he created something entirely new.

For three months, it seemed the formula had failed. Then everything changed. Overnight, the songs went viral, topped charts, won awards – and catapulted Singh into Bollywood.

Brown Rang, a song about a brown man’s global ambition, became YouTube’s most-watched video in 2012. Shot in Dubai on a million-dollar budget, it introduced many Indians to the bling of hip-hop – fast cars, baggy clothes, gem-studded watches and gold chains – set to slick, thumping beats.

Despite mounting criticism over his misogynistic lyrics, Singh packed stadiums and churned out hits, breaking into Bollywood with songs for stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar.

“A lot of times, my lyrics were trash, even I knew that. But people were still listening to it because the sound was so good and fresh,” he told Lallantop.

But Singh’s ascent to fame coincided with his personal downfall.

“I was drowning in drugs and alcohol, smoking 12-15 joints and downing bottles. I abandoned my family, lost control. This one time, I got so high I bit a friend on his stomach eight times,” he told Lallantop.

In 2017, Singh broke down mid-tour – a moment that shook him. He quit music and substances, returned to Delhi and began recovery with a global team of doctors and therapists. “I told my family I was mentally unwell. I can’t do anything till I get better.”

Singh says he’s been sober for seven years, except for the occasional beer.

“I have been to hell and back,” he says in Famous. “Even now, I wake up hazy because of the medicines.”

Fans, however, appreciate Singh’s raw honesty about his self-destructive tendencies – and his effort to overcome them.

“No-one’s perfect. But at least Singh tries to be better. He may have left the scene briefly but his music never stopped playing,” says Nandini Gupta, a Delhi-based student.

Others see his transformation as performative, noting his new music remains problematic. “Though toned down, he is still objectifying women and talking only about money and fame,” says listener Bushra Neyazi.

No matter how you see it, Singh’s redemption feels like another challenge to his audience – pushing them to accept his complicated past and give his music another chance.

“I was away for seven years, but I will drive everyone mad again in the next seven,” he said recently.

“I am back and I want the same love I received seven years ago.”

We asked our readers to send in their best pictures on the theme of “monochrome”. Here is a selection of the photographs we received from around the world.

The next theme is “my best photo” and the deadline for entries is 18 March.

The pictures will be published later that week and you will be able to find them, along with other galleries, on the In Pictures section of the BBC News website.

You can upload your entries directly here or email them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk.

Terms and conditions apply.

Further details and themes are at: We set the theme, you take the pictures.

All photographs subject to copyright.

King Charles is to call for unity and building bridges in what he describes as “these uncertain times” of international tension, in a message to mark Commonwealth Day next week.

In the annual message to mark the day on Monday, the King will emphasise the value of nations coming together in a “spirit of support, and crucially, friendship”.

The King has become involved in the diplomatic negotiations involving the UK, the US and Ukraine – with the monarch warmly welcoming President Volodymyr Zelensky after the Ukrainian leader’s disastrous meeting with US President Donald Trump and with a state visit planned for Trump.

A Commonwealth country, Canada, also faces its own tensions with Trump’s administration, as he has called for Canada to become the US 51st state.

Commonwealth Day is traditionally marked with a service at Westminster Abbey and this year the King and Queen will attend alongside the Prince and Princess of Wales.

In his written message, which will be published in full on Monday, the King will say: “In these uncertain times, where it is all too easy to believe that our differences are problems instead of a source of strength and an opportunity for learning, the Commonwealth’s remarkable collection of nations and peoples come together in the spirit of support and, crucially, friendship.”

It is a message that he has made before – that the diversity of peoples and cultures is a strength and not a weakness.

But it is a message now against a backdrop of global tensions, as the US pushes for an end to the war that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As well as a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian President Zelensky, the King this week held a meeting with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, a Commonwealth leader who has faced pressure from the US.

King Charles is Canada’s head of state and ahead of the meeting Trudeau said: “Nothing seems more important to Canadians right now than standing up for our sovereignty and our independence as a nation.”

The King used the Commonwealth, with its 56-member nations, as an example of co-operation between countries.

“The Commonwealth’s ability to bring together people from all over the world has stood the test of time and remains as ever-important today,” says the King’s message.

The service at Westminster Abbey on Monday will emphasise the multicultural diversity of the Commonwealth, with the royal guests being met by a pipe band from a Hindu eco-temple in north-west London.

There will be music from an African arts group, the Masai Cultural Arts team.

And singer Joan Armatrading will perform a version of her song, Love and Affection.

An innovation for this year’s Commonwealth Day has been that the King has prepared his own personal playlist of favourite music tracks, by artists including Bob Marley, Kylie Minogue and Raye.

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

At least 13 people have died in floods in the Argentine port city of Bahía Blanca.

Torrential rain forced more than 1,200 residents to leave their homes and large parts of the city have been left without electricity.

Roads and bridges were destroyed and footage shows cars piled up after being swept up by the floodwater.

On Friday more than 400mm (15.7 inches) of rain fell on Bahía Blanca, which is a third of the average total rainfall every year.

A man has been charged in connection with the death of a Louisiana college student who collapsed after being repeatedly punched in the chest during a hazing ritual, police said.

Officials said Caleb McCray, 23, a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, allegedly punched Caleb Wilson multiple times during the off-campus initiation ceremony. He was charged with criminal hazing and manslaughter.

Mr Wilson was a 20-year-old college band member and mechanical engineering student at Southern University and A&M, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The suspect’s lawyer said in a statement his client deserved due process and asked the public “to withhold rushing to judgment until all the evidence is heard”.

Hazing, which is illegal in most US states, is a tradition where people pledge their loyalty by doing something painful, humiliating or dangerous.

Speaking at a news conference, Baton Rouge Police Chief Thomas Morse Jr stated that Mr Wilson’s death on 27 February was a “direct result” of the hazing incident.

According to police, a group of individuals dropped Mr Wilson off at a hospital and allegedly lied to the staff, saying he had collapsed while playing basketball. They left before authorities arrived.

But detectives later determined that information to be inaccurate.

A police arrest report reviewed by US media outlets states that Mr Wilson and eight others pledging the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity were struck by Mr McCray and at least two others wearing boxing gloves.

Mr McCray allegedly hit Mr Wilson four times in the chest, after which he collapsed, suffered a seizure, and lost control of his bodily functions, the arrest warrant affidavit said.

No-one present attempted to call for emergency assistance, police said. Mr Wilson was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

An autopsy found no significant trauma to his body, aside from a small bruise on the right side of his chest, according to the affidavit.

It also noted that investigators found no indication that Mr McCray intended to “cause death or great bodily harm to any of the pledges”.

Mr McCray, a member of Omega Psi Phi and reportedly a Louisiana Army National Guard member, is said to have graduated from Southern University in December 2024, according to ABC News.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said two additional people, who have not been publicly identified, will be charged with misdemeanour hazing.

The investigation is ongoing and remains active.

Southern University System President Dennis Shields expressed deep sorrow over Mr Wilson’s death.

“Words cannot express how deeply saddened we are by the loss of our student, Caleb Wilson,” he said.

Mr Shields said the campus chapter of Omega Psi Phi has been ordered to suspend all activities. Students involved in the incident could face expulsion.

Additionally, all Greek organisations at the university – a historically black college – have been barred from accepting new members for the remainder of the academic year.

Mr Wilson’s passing has sparked widespread grief.

The Human Jukebox Marching Band, which recently performed at the Super Bowl, honoured him in a Facebook post.

“A talented trumpet player, a dedicated student, and a bright soul, Caleb was a mechanical engineering major who poured his passion into both his studies and his time with the Human Jukebox. His energy, spirit, and impact on those around him will never be forgotten.”

Hundreds of people gathered for a vigil outside Southern University’s Smith-Brown Student Union.

One friend, speaking of Mr Wilson, told local media outlet WAFB: “His light does not die with himself. It dies with all of us. We have to make sure his light lives within all of us and make sure you stand up tall like he’s on your shoulders reaching for the sky.”

The Omega Psi Phi Fraternity released a statement offering condolences and supporting law enforcement’s efforts “to seek the truth”.

Under Louisiana state law, if a person dies or is seriously injured during a hazing ritual, it can be prosecuted as a criminal offence under the Max Gruver Act.

Max Gruver was a Louisiana State University student who died of alcohol poisoning after hazing in 2018.

Those prosecuted can face up to a $10,000 (£7,745) fine and five years in prison. Organisations and educational institutions can also face penalties under the act.

Leading European nations have said they support an Arab-backed plan for the reconstruction of Gaza that would cost $53 billion (£41 billion) and avoid displacing Palestinians from the territory.

The plan, drawn up by Egypt and endorsed by Arab leaders, has been rejected by Israel and by US President Donald Trump, who presented his own vision to turn the Gaza Strip into a “Middle East Riviera”.

On Saturday the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Britain welcomed the plan, which calls for Gaza to be rebuilt over five years, as “realistic”.

In a statement, they said the proposal promised “swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions” for the people of Gaza.

The plan calls for Gaza to be governed temporarily by a committee of independent experts and for international peacekeepers to be deployed to the territory.

The committee would be responsible for overseeing humanitarian aid and temporarily managing Gaza’s affairs under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority.

The proposal was drawn up amid growing concern that Gaza’s fragile ceasefire deal could collapse after the six-week first phase expired on 1 March.

Israel has blocked aid from entering the territory to pressure Hamas to accept a new US proposal for a temporary extension of the truce, during which more hostages held in Gaza would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

But Hamas has insisted that the second phase of the ceasefire, which would see the full withdrawal of Israeli troops, should begin as agreed.

Israel will send a negotiating team to Qatar on Monday to take part in talks on extending the ceasefire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

It remains unclear if or when the second phase of the ceasefire agreement will be implemented. But a Hamas spokesman, Abdel Latif al-Qanoua, spoke of “positive indicators” for next week’s talks.

The Arab-backed plan for Gaza’s future is an alternative to Trump’s idea for the US to take over the territory and resettle its population.

Egypt presented the plan at an emergency Arab League summit on Tuesday and it was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

But both the White House and Israeli foreign ministry said it failed to address realities in Gaza.

“Residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance,” Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for Trump’s National Security Council, said late on Tuesday.

“President Trump stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas,” the statement added.

The statement issued by the four European countries on Saturday said they were “committed to working with the Arab initiative” and they appreciated the “important signal” the Arab states had sent by developing it.

The statement said Hamas “must neither govern Gaza nor be a threat to Israel any more” and that the four countries “support the central role for the Palestinian Authority and the implementation of its reform agenda”.

Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have had to leave their homes since the start of hostilities. Israel began military operations after Hamas’s October 2023 attack which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 more taken hostage.

Gaza has suffered vast destruction with a huge humanitarian impact. More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s military action, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and much infrastructure across the strip has been levelled by air strikes.

In January visa changes which prevented Ukrainians from bringing their children to join them in the UK were reversed, giving hundreds of families hope they could finally be reunited.

Ivan Vitsyn and his wife Olesia Aladko had been preparing for months for their children to join them in the UK.

The family are from the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border, and had left their seven-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter with Ivan’s parents while they found a suitable home for them to live.

The parents – who came to the UK in May 2023 as strawberry pickers on seasonal worker visas – had planned to act as sponsors for their children under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which allows people in the UK to host those fleeing the war.

Originally living in a caravan, it was several months before they found a family home to rent.

But in February last year – without warning – the previous Conservative government changed eligibility rules so only British or Irish citizens or those with the right to live in the UK permanently could act as sponsors.

“We worked so hard to prepare to reunite with the kids and then overnight we were not able to,” says Ivan, speaking through a translator.

“The dream was shattered to pieces, we didn’t know what to do.”

Meanwhile, their children were stuck in Ukraine, living alongside the sounds of explosions, just 50km (31 miles) from the battlefield.

The pair tried desperately without success to find a British sponsor for their children.

Instead they were faced with scammers asking for thousands of pounds in exchange for their help.

Eventually they were put in touch with the charity Settled, which provides help to Ukrainians with the visa process.

The charity advised applying for a visa naming themselves as sponsors, despite the new rules, in the hope the Home Office would make an exception.

But their application was left in limbo, with no decision, so it could not be challenged.

“Every day we checked our email,” Ivan says, describing the wait as “painful”.

Then in January, the government announced it was reversing the changes brought in under the Conservatives, so Ukrainians could once again sponsor their children to join them in the UK.

When Ivan and Olesia received an email confirming their children’s visas had been approved they were overjoyed.

“I cannot explain that feeling,” says Ivan. “It was the best feeling in the world.”

Settled has supported a number of Ukrainian families like Ivan and Olesia, who are now starting to get their applications approved.

But others hoping to bring relatives such as siblings or parents remain separated.

Although Ukraine has signalled its willingness to enter peace negotiations, with the US pushing for an end to the war, the UK has given Ukrainians the right to apply to stay in the country for a further 18 months.

While Ivan hopes his family can return to Ukraine one day, he adds: “Even if the war stopped tomorrow there is no certainty for our region.”

For Olesia, having her children with her means she can now start to rebuild their lives in the UK.

“There is probably no other feeling like having your children beside you. You don’t worry; you don’t start your day by reading the news about what happened in Ukraine, where there were attacks,” she says.

“You fall asleep peacefully and wake up peacefully because your children are next to you, and nothing else is needed.”

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Pope Francis has issued a statement from his hospital bed thanking medical workers caring for him and others who are unwell.

“While I am here, I think of the many people who are.. close to the sick,” he said, describing them as “bringing a little light into the night of pain”.

The pontiff has been battling pneumonia and bronchitis for more than three weeks in hospital, but has shown a slight improvement in recent days says the Vatican.

The Vatican said on Saturday the Pope had shown a “good response” to his treatment at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

“The clinical condition of the Holy Father in recent days has remained stable and, consequently, indicates a good response to the treatment,” the Vatican said.

“There is therefore a gradual, slight improvement”, it added.

For the fourth consecutive Sunday, the Argentine Pontiff was not present for his weekly blessing, but the Vatican shared the text he had prepared.

Francis spoke of his “prolonged hospitalisation” during which he had experienced “thoughtfulness of service and the tenderness of care, in particular from the doctors and health care workers, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart.”

“I think of the many people who in various ways are close to the sick, and who are for them a sign of the Lord’s presence.

“We need this, the ‘miracle of tenderness’ which accompanies those who are in adversity, bringing a little light into the night of pain.”

On Saturday morning the 88-year-old prayed in the chapel of the papal suite at Gemelli Hospital where he is being treated, the Vatican said.

The pope has not been seen in public since entering the hospital on 14 February, his longest stretch away from the public eye since his papacy began 12 years ago.

He was admitted to hospital on 14 February after experiencing breathing difficulties – and first treated for bronchitis before being diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs.

He is particularly vulnerable to pneumonia, an infection of the lungs that can be caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi, after he contracted pleurisy – an inflammation of the lungs – as a young man and had a partial lung removal.

The Pope’s doctors believe he is likely to face a long road to recovery, due to his age and medical history.

The US Secret Service shot a man outside the White House early on Sunday after an “armed confrontation”, the service said in a statement.

It had earlier received a tip-off from local police about a “suicidal individual who may be travelling to Washington DC from Indiana”, it said.

Its officers approached a man matching that description, “who brandished a firearm”, adding that shots were fired. The man is now in hospital in an “unknown” condition, it said.

President Donald Trump was not in the White House at the time, as he is spending the weekend at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.

“As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel,” the statement said.

The incident is now under investigation by Washington’s Metropolitan Police, which investigates all law-enforcement shootings in the District of Columbia.

If you had asked Canadians a few months ago who would win the country’s next general election, most would have predicted a decisive victory for the Conservative Party.

That outcome does not look so certain now.

In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has surged in the polls, shrinking the double-digit lead their Conservative rivals had held steadily since mid-2023.

The dramatic change in the country’s political landscape reflects how Trump’s tariffs and his repeated calls to make Canada “the 51st state” have fundamentally altered Canadian voters’ priorities.

Trump’s rhetoric has “pushed away all of the other issues” that were top of mind for Canadians before his inauguration on 20 January, notes Luc Turgeon, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa.

It has even managed to revive the once deeply unpopular Trudeau, whose approval rating has climbed by 12 points since December. The prime minister, of course, will not be in power for much longer, having announced his resignation at the start of the year.

On Sunday, his Liberals will declare the results of the leadership contest to determine who takes over a party running a precarious minority government. The new leader will have two immediate decisions to make: how to respond to Trump’s threats, and when to call a general election. The answer to the first dilemma will surely influence the second.

Who is in the running to replace Trudeau as Liberal Party leader?

A federal election must be held on or before 20 October, but could be called as early as this week.

Polls indicate that many Canadians still want a change at the top. But what that change would look like – a Liberal government under new leadership, or a complete shift to the Conservatives – is now anyone’s guess, says Greg Lyle, president of the Toronto-based Innovative Research Group, which has been polling Canadians on their shifting attitudes.

“Up until now, it was a blowout for the Conservatives,” he tells the BBC.

That is because the centre-right party led by Pierre Poilievre, has been effective in its messaging on issues that have occupied the Canadian psyche for the last few years: the rising cost of living, housing unaffordability, crime and a strained healthcare system.

Poilievre successfully tied these societal problems to what he labelled Trudeau’s “disastrous” policies, and promised a return to “common sense politics”.

But with Trudeau’s resignation, and Trump’s threats to Canada’s economic security and even its sovereignty, that messaging has become stale, Mr Lyle says. His polling suggests the majority of the country is now most afraid of Trump’s presidency and the impact it will have on Canada.

Trump’s 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports to the US, some of which have been paused until 2 April, could be devastating for Canada’s economy, which sends three-quarters of all its products to the US. Officials have predicted up to a million job losses as a result, and Canada could head into a recession if the tax on goods persists.

Trudeau left no doubt how seriously he is taking the threat, when he told reporters this week that Trump’s stated reason for the US tariffs – the flow of fentanyl across the border – was bogus and unjustified.

“What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” the prime minister warned.

“In many ways, it’s an all encompassing, fundamental issue about the survival of the country,” Prof Turgeon tells the BBC. Who is best placed to stand up for Canada against Trump has therefore become the key question in the forthcoming election.

The Conservatives are still ahead in the polls, with the latest averages suggesting 40% of voters back them. The Liberals’ fortunes, meanwhile, have been revived, with their support climbing to slightly over 30% – up 10 points from January.

Liberals have attempted to highlight similarities between the Conservative leader and Republican president. At last week’s leadership debate, candidates referred to Poilievre as “our little version of Trump here at home” and said he was looking to “imitate” the US president. A Liberal Party attack ad juxtaposed clips of the two using similar phrases such as “fake news” and “radical left”.

There are clear differences, however, between the two politicians, in terms of style and substance. And Trump himself has downplayed any parallels, telling British magazine The Spectator in a recent interview that Poilievre is “not Maga enough”.

Still, polls suggest a slipping of Conservative support. A recent poll by national pollster Angus Reid indicates Canadians believe Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney is better equipped to deal with Trump on issues of tariffs and trade than Poilievre.

The former central banker for both Canada and England is touting his experience dealing with economic crises, including the 2008 financial crash and Brexit.

And the shift in the political mood has forced Conservatives to recalculate their messaging.

If the election is called soon, the campaign will take place at a moment when Trump’s threats have inspired a fierce patriotism among Canadians. Many are boycotting American goods at their local grocery stores or even cancelling trips to the US.

Prof Turgeon says this “rallying around the flag” has become a key theme of Canadian politics.

The Conservatives have shifted away from their “Canada is Broken” slogan, which Mr Lyle says risked coming across as “anti-patriotic”, to “Canada First”.

Conservatives have also redirected their attacks towards Carney. Before Trump’s tariffs, they ran ads saying he is “just like Justin” in an attempt to tie him to Trudeau. But in recent weeks, the Conservatives have started digging into Carney’s loyalty to Canada.

Specifically, they have questioned whether he had a role in moving the headquarters of Brookfield Asset Management – a Canadian investment company – from Toronto to New York when he served as its chair.

Carney has responded that he had left the firm by the time that decision was made, but company documents reported on by public broadcaster CBC show the board approved the move in October 2024, when Carney was still at Brookfield.

The move, and Carney’s equivocation of his involvement with it, was criticised by the editorial board of Canada’s national newspaper the Globe and Mail, which wrote on Thursday that Carney must be transparent with Canadians.

More broadly, the paper wrote: “Every party leader must understand that Canada is entering a years-long period of uncertainty. The next prime minister will have to call on the trust of Canadians to lead the country where it needs to head but may not want to go.”

Given the anxiety reverberating among Canadians, Mr Lyle says that any ambiguity about Carney’s loyalty to the country could yet be damaging for him and the Liberals.

Whenever the election comes, and whoever wins, one thing is certain: Trump will continue to influence and reshape Canadian politics just as he has in the United States.

Six months ago, a viral TikTok trend made us obsessed with being very demure and very mindful – but now, modesty has taken a back seat among celebrities who have made see-through outfits all the rage on red carpets and catwalks.

At the Brit Awards last week, big winner Charli XCX went full brat as she wore a sheer black dress, prompting hundreds of complaints to media watchdog Ofcom.

She used one of her acceptance speeches to address the controversy of her outfit. “I heard that ITV were complaining about my nipples,” she said. “I feel like we’re in the era of ‘free the nipple’ though, right?”

The nearly naked look has been a talking point at other award ceremonies – including last Sunday’s Oscars and the Grammys in February, when Kanye West’s girlfriend Bianca Censori dropped her coat on the red carpet to reveal an almost entirely invisible dress.

The love for transparent textiles has continued at London and Paris fashion weeks, with many of the celebrities watching on also getting the memo.

At Stella McCartney’s Paris show, US actress and Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson wore a translucent black off-the-shoulder maxi dress with only a nude-coloured thong underneath.

Rapper Ice Spice sported a black lace catsuit with a feathered coat at the show.

Naked dressing was a key trend in some designers’ spring/summer collections, and the theme has continued in autumn/winter looks too.

As Vogue wrote in January: “For a period of time, sheerness was few and far between, but nowadays, ‘naked dressing’ is commonplace every season.”

Dior’s latest collection embraced see-through material and presented it in an ethereal way, with intricate detailing and gender-fluid silhouettes.

Creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri described her collection as “demonstrating how clothing is a receptacle that affirms cultural, aesthetic and social codes”.

The trend divides opinion but is certainly part of a wider movement – last summer Charli XCX’s definition of being a brat included wearing “a strappy white top with no bra”.

Sheer dressing is a nod to the minimalist looks of the 1990s – think transparent blouses and Kate Moss wearing a thin slip dress – and with our love for nostalgia fashion, it’s no wonder it is taking off again.

The trend also had a resurgence a decade ago. The “free the nipple” movement was everywhere in the early 2010s, with Rihanna stirring up headlines with her sheer crystal-embellished dress at the CFDA awards in 2014.

Charli XCX’s Brits outfit was praised by some on social media. “Stop policing women’s bodies,” one person wrote, while another said she looked comfortable in her outfit so “why is society judging?”

But many found it too risque for prime-time TV. Ofcom received 825 complaints about the Brits ceremony, the majority relating to Charli’s outfit and Sabrina Carpenter’s eye-opening pre-watershed performance.

“Maybe think about putting this on at a time when kids ain’t gonna be watching,” one person wrote on social media.

Fashion stylist and CEO of clothing brand Mermaid Way, Julia Pukhalskaia, calls the choice to wear revealing dresses a “provocative statement”, but says it’s a “way to reclaim the right to govern one’s body”.

The controversy around it feeds into a wider dialogue about women’s rights and double standards when it comes to dress codes, she adds.

Abhi Madan, creative director of fashion brand Amarra, believes the trend “is about embracing freedom and boldness in fashion”.

The idea of freeing the nipple “isn’t just about exposure – it’s a movement towards body positivity and challenging conventional fashion norms”, she argues.

“Designers are now integrating sheer elements not just for shock value but to create a refined and elegant silhouette that empowers wearers.”

It seems many Hollywood stars this year were feeling empowered as chiffon, lace and tulle were in plentiful supply at the Oscars.

Shock value is surely a factor for some, too, though.

At Vanity Fair’s Oscars afterparty, Julia Fox wore a mesh dress with only long wavy hair to cover some of her modesty.

There were other interpretations of the naked dress – Megan Thee Stallion wore a green dress with strategically placed foliage and nipple coverings, while Zoe Kravitz opted to cover up the front but expose the back as a beaded mesh panel revealed her buttocks in her Saint Laurent dress.

“This year, naked dressing seemed to particularly thrive at the event,” the New York Times noted.

However, not everyone is on board. The Times fashion director Anna Murphy wrote that she’s over the trend because “it’s only women who do this”.

“It is not an equal opportunities endeavour. It is, rather, a manifestation of the kind of thing that keeps this world unequal. That women’s bodies are for public consumption and men’s, usually, aren’t,” she wrote.

Some men have been embracing the nearly naked trend, though. In 2022, Timothée Chalamet wore striking a backless red top at Venice Film Festival, and at the 2023 Grammys Harry Styles freed the nipple in a plunge harlequin jumpsuit.

It’s the women who will continue to cause more of a stir on runways and red carpets – and society will still be split on whether it’s redefining conventional notions of modesty in fashion, a product of misogyny, or simply seeking attention.

Gurpreet Singh was handcuffed, his legs shackled and a chain tied around his waist. He was led on to the tarmac in Texas by US Border Patrol, towards a waiting C-17 military transport aircraft.

It was 3 February and, after a months-long journey, he realised his dream of living in America was over. He was being deported back to India. “It felt like the ground was slipping away from underneath my feet,” he said.

Gurpreet, 39, was one of thousands of Indians in recent years to have spent their life savings and crossed continents to enter the US illegally through its southern border, as they sought to escape an unemployment crisis back home.

There are about 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, the third largest group behind Mexicans and El Salvadoreans, according to the most recent figures from Pew Research in 2022.

Now Gurpreet has become one of the first undocumented Indians to be sent home since President Donald Trump took office, with a promise to make mass deportations a priority.

Gurpreet intended to make an asylum claim based on threats he said he had received in India, but – in line with an executive order from Trump to turn people away without granting them asylum hearings – he said he was removed without his case ever being considered.

About 3,700 Indians were sent back on charter and commercial flights during President Biden’s tenure, but recent images of detainees in chains under the Trump administration have sparked outrage in India.

US Border Patrol released the images in an online video with a bombastic choral soundtrack and the warning: “If you cross illegally, you will be removed.”

“We sat in handcuffs and shackles for more than 40 hours. Even women were bound the same way. Only the children were free,” Gurpreet told the BBC back in India. “We weren’t allowed to stand up. If we wanted to use the toilet, we were escorted by US forces, and just one of our handcuffs was taken off.”

Opposition parties protested in parliament, saying Indian deportees were given “inhuman and degrading treatment”. “There’s a lot of talk about how Prime Minister Modi and Mr Trump are good friends. Then why did Mr Modi allow this?” said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a key opposition leader.

Gurpreet said: “The Indian government should have said something on our behalf. They should have told the US to carry out the deportation the way it’s been done before, without the handcuffs and chains.”

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the government had raised these concerns with the US, and that as a result, on subsequent flights, women deportees were not handcuffed and shackled.

But on the ground, the intimidating images and President Trump’s rhetoric seem to be having the desired effect, at least in the immediate aftermath.

“No-one will try going to the US now through this illegal ‘donkey’ route while Trump is in power,” said Gurpreet.

In the longer term, this could depend on whether there are continued deportations, but for now many of the Indian people-smugglers, locally called “agents”, have gone into hiding, fearing raids against them by Indian police.

Gurpreet said Indian authorities demanded the number of the agent he had used when he landed back home, but the smuggler could no longer be reached.

“I don’t blame them, though. We were thirsty and went to the well. They didn’t come to us,” said Gurpreet.

While the official headline figure puts the unemployment rate at only 3.2%, it conceals a more precarious picture for many Indians. Only 22% of workers have regular salaries, the majority are self-employed and nearly a fifth are “unpaid helpers”, including women working in family businesses.

“We leave India only because we are compelled to. If I got a job which paid me even 30,000 rupees (£270/$340) a month, my family would get by. I would never have thought of leaving,” said Gurpreet, who has a wife, a mother and an 18-month-old baby to look after.

“You can say whatever you want about the economy on paper, but you need to see the reality on the ground. There are no opportunities here for us to work or run a business.”

Gupreet’s trucking company was among the cash-dependent small businesses that were badly hit when the Indian government withdrew 86% of the currency in circulation with four hours notice. He said he didn’t get paid by his clients, and had no money to keep the business afloat. Another small business he set up, managing logistics for other companies, also failed because of the Covid lockdown, he said.

He said he tried to get visas to go to Canada and the UK, but his applications were rejected.

Then he took all his savings, sold a plot of land he owned, and borrowed money from relatives to put together 4 million rupees ($45,000/£36,000) to pay a smuggler to organise his journey, Gurpreet told us.

On 28 August 2024, he flew from India to Guyana in South America to start an arduous journey to the US.

Gurpreet pointed out all the stops he made on a map on his phone. From Guyana he travelled through Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, mostly by buses and cars, partly by boat, and briefly on a plane – handed from one people-smuggler to another, detained and released by authorities a few times along the way.

From Colombia, smugglers tried to get him a flight to Mexico, so he could avoid crossing the dreaded Darién Gap. But Colombian immigration didn’t allow him to board the flight, so he had to make a dangerous trek through the jungle.

A dense expanse of rainforest between Colombia and Panama, the Darién Gap can only be crossed on foot, risking accidents, disease and attacks by criminal gangs. Last year, 50 people died making the crossing.

“I was not scared. I’ve been a sportsman so I thought I would be OK. But it was the toughest section,” said Gurpreet. “We walked for five days through jungles and rivers. In many parts, while wading through the river, the water came up to my chest.”

Each group was accompanied by a smuggler – or a “donker” as Gurpreet and other migrants refer to them, a word seemingly derived from the term “donkey route” used for illegal migration journeys.

At night they would pitch tents in the jungle, eat a bit of food they were carrying and try to rest.

“It was raining all the days we were there. We were drenched to our bones,” he said. They were guided over three mountains in their first two days. After that, he said they had to follow a route marked out in blue plastic bags tied to trees by the smugglers.

“My feet had begun to feel like lead. My toenails were cracked, and the palms of my hands were peeled off and had thorns in them. Still, we were lucky we didn’t encounter any robbers.”

When they reached Panama, Gurpreet said he and about 150 others were detained by border officials in a cramped jail-like centre. After 20 days, they were released, he said, and from there it took him more than a month to reach Mexico, passing through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.

Gurpreet said they waited for nearly a month in Mexico until there was an opportunity to cross the border into the US near San Diego.

“We didn’t scale a wall. There is a mountain near it which we climbed over. And there’s a razor wire which the donker cut through,” he said.

Gurpreet entered the US on 15 January, five days before President Trump took office – believing that he had made it just in time, before the borders became impenetrable and rules became tighter.

Once in San Diego, he surrendered to US Border Patrol, and was then detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

During the Biden administration, illegal or undocumented migrants would appear before an immigration officer who would do a preliminary interview to determine if each person had a case for asylum. While a majority of Indians migrated out of economic necessity, some also left fearing persecution because of their religious or social backgrounds, or their sexual orientation.

If they cleared the interview, they were released, pending a decision on granting asylum from an immigration judge. The process would often take years, but they were allowed to remain in the US in the meantime.

This is what Gurpreet thought would happen to him. He had planned to find work at a grocery store and then to get into trucking, a business he is familiar with.

Instead, less than three weeks after he entered the US, he found himself being led towards that C-17 plane and going back to where he started.

In their small house in Sultanpur Lodhi, a city in the northern state of Punjab, Gurpreet is now trying to find work to repay the money he owes, and fend for his family.

Two women were gang-raped and a man was killed in an attack near a popular Unesco World Heritage site in southern India, according to police.

The two women – an Israeli tourist and an Indian homestay operator – were stargazing with three male tourists near a lake in the city of Hampi, Karnataka, when they were attacked by a group of men on Thursday night, police superintendent Ram Arasiddi told Reuters.

Arasiddi said the assailants pushed the men into the Tungabhadra River canal before raping the women.

Two of the men, one of them American, survived, and the third man’s body was recovered on Saturday morning, he said.

“Five people – two women and three men – were attacked near Sanapur,” Arasiddi said.

“Two of them are foreigners, an American [man], and another a woman from Israel.”

Police have arrested two of the men accused of the attack and an investigation is ongoing, Arasiddi said. Police believe the men followed the group.

The US State Department said it was “aware of reports that a US citizen was among a group of victims of violent crime” near Hampi.

According to witness testimony from one of the women, the group was stargazing near a temple in Sanapur when three men arrived on a motorcycle and asked them where they could get petrol.

As one member of the group gave them directions, one of the three men demanded 100 rupees ($1.29) from the tourists.

“Since the homestay operator did not know them, she told them they had no money,” police said.

“When the men repeatedly insisted, one of the male tourists gave them 20 rupees.

“After that, the three men allegedly started arguing.”

The body of one of the male tourists was later found in the Tungabhadra canal in Karnataka’s Koppal district.

A case has been registered at Gangavathi Rural Police Station under sections related to extortion, robbery, gang rape and attempted murder.

The victims are receiving medical treatment at a government hospital, the police said.

Hampi, an ancient village in the south Indian state of Karnataka, is home to numerous ruins and temples from the Vijayanagara Empire. It was declared as a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1986.

In a post on X, Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah wrote: “The attack and rape of an Israeli citizen and homestay owner is a most heinous act.

“As soon as the incident was reported, I obtained information from the relevant police, conducted a thorough investigation, and instructed them to quickly identify the culprits.

“The police have arrested two accused in connection with the case and are continuing the investigation.”

Attacks on women in India gained international attention last year after the brutal rape-homicide of a junior doctor at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

The attack sparked national outrage and protests over a lack of safety for women.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain without power in Australia after a cyclone brought wild weather to the east coast.

Communities in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales (NSW) were beginning the clean-up on Sunday after the storm caused widespread flooding and knocked down power lines and trees.

A 61-year-old man’s body was recovered from floodwaters on Saturday, while in a separate incident, 12 soldiers were taken to hospital after their convoy crashed en route to rescue operations.

The storm had weakened by the time it made landfall near Brisbane on Saturday night, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday warned locals of the continued wild weather and risks from flooding.

“The situation in Queensland and northern New South Wales remains very serious due to flash flooding and heavy winds,” Albanese said.

“Heavy rainfall, damaging wind gusts and coastal surf impacts are expected to continue over coming days.”

Cyclone Alfred had hovered for days off the country’s east coast as a category two cyclone before weakening into a tropical depression on Saturday.

By Sunday evening, emergency services had conducted over a dozen rescues in Queensland and NSW – most involving people trapped by rising waters in their cars or homes. The NSW State Emergency Service reported receiving more than 6,000 calls for help.

Almost 290,000 properties in the affected regions remain without power, and energy companies have warned residents the blackouts could persist for days.

Police said on Saturday they had discovered a body in the search for a 61-year-old man who went missing on Friday after his car was caught in floodwaters in Dorrigo, northern NSW.

Emergency responders witnessed the man escaping his car and climbing onto a tree near the riverbank, but rescuers were not able to reach him before he was swept away.

In a separate incident on Saturday, 12 soldiers were injured in a convoy crash in Lismore, about 200km south of Brisbane, as they were on their way to rescue and recovery efforts.

The soldiers were still in hospital on Sunday, two of them in a serious condition, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told a news conference.

“We wish a speedy recovery for all of those young soldiers,” he said.

Queensland’s police authorities said they had not recorded any fatalities or missing people in the state so far as a result of the weather event.

Iran’s Supreme leader has criticised “bullying” countries in an apparent response to Donald Trump’s letter demanding negotiations over its nuclear programme.

Trump said on Friday he had warned Tehran in a letter it could face military action unless it agreed to talks for a nuclear deal.

In a furious response on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not negotiate with “bullying governments” insisting on talks.

His regime has rapidly advanced its nuclear programme in recent years, the UN’s monitor says.

Trump has said he wants to strike a new deal with Iran to prevent it from developing its nuclear programme further.

On Friday he said he had offered Iran a chance to negotiate or risk its nuclear programme being targeted.

“I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” Trump told Fox Business on Friday.

“There are two ways Iran can be handled – militarily, or you make a deal,” Trump said. “I would prefer to make a deal, because I am not looking to hurt Iran.”

Iran’s Ayatollah appeared to respond to Trump’s statements in a Ramadan meeting with officials on Saturday, reported by local media.

Khamenei did not name the US but said “some bully governments insist on negotiations.”

“Their negotiations are not aimed at solving problems, they aim at domination,” he said according to Iranian media.

“The issue is not just the nuclear issue.They are setting new expectations that these new expectations will definitely not be met on the part of Iran.”

In December, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran’s decision to begin producing significantly more highly enriched uranium was “very worrisome”.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran was increasing its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, just below the level of purity needed for a nuclear weapon.

Tehran has denied accusation it is building nuclear weapons, emphasising instead that its programme has peaceful aims.

Iran had previously agreed to limits on its nuclear programme under the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, an agreement signed with the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany in return for sanctions relief.

But during his first term in office, Trump withdrew the US from the deal and reinstated US sanctions on Iran.

In the years since the collapse of the deal, Iran has accelerated its nuclear programme, accelerating its enrichment of uranium. It now has stocks that are near weapons grade, analysts say.

The conflicts in the Middle East this past year have also heightened nuclear tensions.

President Trump has said he would give Israel the the green light to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, after Israel and Iran exchanged attacks last year linked to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Iran’s air defence systems – which protect its nuclear facilities – were damaged in Israeli strikes on military targets.

Iran’s government is also under economic pressure from Western sanctions and has seen nationwide protests during the past few years over both social and economic grievances.

Iran is due to hold annual joint naval drills with Russia and China on Monday, in the Iranian port of Chabahar.

Actor Pierce Brosnan has said it is a “given” that the next James Bond should be British.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the former Bond also said he thought it was the “right decision” for the franchise’s long-standing producers to hand creative control to Amazon.

“It takes great courage for them to let go,” said Brosnan, who is Irish.

“I hope that [Amazon] handles the work and the character with dignity and imagination and respect.”

The choice of Daniel Craig’s successor will be a decision for Amazon MGM Studios.

James Norton, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James – who are all English – are among the bookmakers’ favourites to fill Craig’s shoes.

Bond has been played by two non-British actors in the past – Australian George Lazenby as well as Irishman Brosnan – but 007 has never been an American, and among the names mooted for the role is California-born Austin Butler.

Other non-British names that have been suggested include Irish stars Paul Mescal, Cillian Murphy and Aidan Turner, or Australian Jacob Elordi.

American Clint Eastwood once reportedly turned down the role, with the Hollywood legend previously claiming he was approached to take over after Sean Connery in 1967 but said: “It didn’t feel right for me to be doing it”.

According to author Ian Fleming’s novels, Bond had a Scottish father and Swiss mother.

Under the deal announced last month, Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson will remain co-owners of the franchise but Amazon MGM Studios “will gain creative control”.

Brosnan, 71, told the Telegraph: “History has been passed on and I’m very proud to have been part of the history and the legacy of Bond and the movies I made with Barbara and Michael.”

It is not clear when the next Bond will be announced – and there is still no timescale for when the next film will be made.

The last film in the franchise, No Time To Die in 2021, was Craig’s last.

But given how much time it takes to make a blockbuster movie, the gap between No Time To Die and the next film could break the six-year record for the longest period between Bond releases.

Brosnan starred in four Bond films from 1995’s GoldenEye until 2002’s Die Another Day.

A 13-year-old has become the youngest player to get a deal in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest cricket tournament.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi from the eastern state of Bihar was bought by Rajasthan Royals (RR) for 11m rupees ($130,500; £103,789) in the recently-concluded auctions in Saudi Arabia.

The left-handed batter has represented his state in national championships, such as Ranji and Mushtaq Ali trophies, and India in the Under-19 internationals.

Delhi Capitals and RR bid for him starting from 3m rupees but RR, where he had trained previously, managed to seal the deal.

Indian cricket was traditionally dominated by urban centres such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru but IPL has managed to attract a wider pool of cricketers from far-off villages and small towns of India.

Suryavanshi, who is in Dubai to play India Under-19 Asia Cup, made his Ranji debut at the age of 12 in January with Bihar against Mumbai.

In his five Ranji matches, he has scored a highest of 41. But the highlight of his career has been his 58-ball century as an opener in an Under-19 unofficial Test against Australia a few weeks ago – which also made him the youngest to score a century in youth cricket.

He has also made an unbeaten 332 in an Under-19 tournament in Bihar.

RR saw raw potential in the youngster as he impressed their coaching staff during a training session.

“He’s an incredible talent and, of course, you got to have the confidence so he can step up to the IPL level,” the team’s CEO Jake Lush McCrum told ESPN Cricinfo after the auction ended.

He said that Suryavanshi’s development would require work, but “he is a hell of a talent and we’re really excited to have him as part of the franchise”.

Though Indian laws ban child labour below 14, experts say no such guidelines exist for sports, where players below 14 regularly compete in national and international events.

But to play an international match organised by International Cricket Council (ICC), Suryavanshi may have to wait until he is 15 since that’s the minimum age limit set by cricket’s governing body.

The news of Suryavanshi’s auction and the size of his contract has brought a lot of joy to his family who had to sell their land to finance his cricketing dreams.

His father Sanjiv Suryavanshi told PTI news agency that “he is not just my son now but is Bihar’s son”.

Mr Suryavanshi, a farmer from Bihar who had migrated to Mumbai for employment, worked as a bouncer in a nightclub and at a public toilet, he told Indian Express newspaper.

His biggest concern now is to ensure that his son remains grounded. “I will talk to him and make sure that this IPL auction doesn’t go to his head. He still has a long way to go,” he said.

Syria’s leader Ahmed Sharaa has called for peace after days of clashes where Syrian security forces allegedly killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) – which monitors fighting in Syria – said about 745 civilians were killed in 30 “massacres” targeting Alawites on the west coast on Friday and Saturday.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the death toll of the escalating violence, believed to be the worst since the fall of the Assad regime.

President Sharaa said: “We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country.”

The number of fighters killed in the past four days brings the total death toll to more than 1,000 people, says the Syrian Observatory. This included about 125 fighters linked to the new Islamist-led government and 148 pro-Assad fighters.

Reuters news agency reported sources in the new Syrian government saying at least 200 of the fighters had been killed.

Speaking from a mosque in Damascus on Sunday, the interim president said: “What is currently happening in Syria is within the expected challenges.”

He also announced in a statement that he had launched an investigation into the violence which would “identify those responsible” and refer the perpetrators to court.

He did not comment directly on accusations that atrocities were being committed by his supporters in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus.

On Sunday, Syrian media reported that fighting between government forces and Assad loyalists had also broken at a gas power plant in Banias, a city about halfway between Latakia and Tartus.

The violence of recent days has been sparked after ambushes on government forces on Thursday. A Syrian defence ministry spokesman described it to the Sana state news agency as “treacherous attacks” against security personnel.

It has since escalated into a wave of clashes between Assad loyalists and government forces.

Amid the fighting, hundreds of civilians living along the Mediterranean coast have fled their homes. The provinces of Latakia and Tartus were former heartlands of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, who also belongs to the Alawite minority.

Alawites, whose sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam, make up around 10% of Syria’s population, which is majority Sunni Muslim.

The violence has left the Alawite community in “a state of horror”, an activist in Latakia told the BBC on Friday.

Large crowds sought refuge at a Russian military base at Hmeimim in Latakia, according to the Reuters news agency.

Video footage shared by Reuters showed dozens of people chanting “people want Russian protection” outside the base.

Meanwhile, local media reported dozens of families had also fled to neighbouring Lebanon.

The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said he was “deeply alarmed” by “very troubling reports of civilian casualties” in Syria’s coastal areas.

He called on all sides to refrain from actions which could “destabilise” the country and jeopardise a “credible and inclusive political transition”.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, described the killings of Alawites in Latakia and Tartous as “systematic” and “extremely dangerous”, and accused Syria’s interim government of failing to control the crisis.

“It was expected that after the fall of the Assad government, Syria would face a difficult transition,” Amani said. “But the scale of violence now unfolding is unprecedented and deeply troubling.”

Iran’s government was aligned with Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, which was toppled last December. Assad was ousted after decades of repressive and brutal rule by his family and an almost 14-year-long civil war.