Mehboob Hussain was riding the train home on Tuesday when the tracks under the front car exploded.

In the depths of central Pakistan’s Bolan Pass, a pocket of wilderness so remote that there is no internet or mobile network coverage, the nine-coach Jaffar Express ground to a halt. Then the bullets started flying.

“I was a passenger on the train that was attacked,” Mr Hussain told BBC Urdu.

He, along with some 440 others, had been travelling from Quetta to Peshawar through the heart of the restive Balochistan province when a group of armed militants struck – they bombed the tracks, fired on the train and then stormed the carriages.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) quickly claimed responsibility for the siege, and threatened to kill many of those on board if Pakistani authorities did not release Baloch political prisoners within 48 hours.

The group, which many countries have designated a terrorist organisation, has waged a decades-long insurgency to gain independence for Balochistan, accusing Islamabad of exploiting the province’s rich mineral resources while also neglecting it.

BLA militants have a long history of attacking military camps, railway stations and trains in the region.

But this was the first time they had hijacked one.

The siege lasted over 30 hours. According to authorities, 300 passengers have now been freed, and 33 BLA militants, 21 civilian hostages and four military personnel were killed. But conflicting figures suggest many passengers remain unaccounted for.

Information relating to the attack and the subsequent rescue operation has been tightly controlled throughout.

But the BBC was able to speak to multiple eyewitnesseses who described the “doomsday scenes” on board the train as the attack unfolded.

As Ishaq Noor told BBC Urdu of those first few moments: “We held our breath throughout the firing, not knowing what would happen next.”

A railway police officer who was on board the train told BBC Urdu that, contrary to initial reports from Pakistani authorities, the train was “not in a tunnel but in an open area” when it was hit.

The BLA has also released an alleged video of the moment the train was struck by the blast. It shows an open section of track that runs along the base of a large rocky slope.

Atop that slope, according to the video, is a cluster of BLA fighters.

The officer described to the BBC how he initially “fought together with other police officers” to try and hold off the militants until “the ammunition ran out”.

“They [the BLA] were moving in front of us on the mountain and they were much more numerous than us, in the hundreds,” the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recalled. He noted that he was accompanied by four railway police and two members of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC).

At least 100 of those on the train were members of the security forces, according to Pakistani officials.

“I told my companion to give me the G-3 rifle because it is a better weapon,” the officer explained. “When I got the rifle and the rounds, we also started firing back. I used to fire one shot at a time at them so that they could not come near us and the train… [But] in an hour-and-half, our rounds were over… We were helpless.”

When the gunfire from those on board the Jaffar Express ceased, the militants came down from the surrounding mountains and started taking passengers off the train, the officer said.

“They started checking cards and telling people to go this way, this way,” he said, explaining that the hostages were separated into groups alongside the train, according to their ethnicity.

The militants were speaking in the Balochi language, he added, and declared, “We have made demands to the government and if they are not met, we will not spare anyone; we will set the vehicle on fire”.

The officer claimed the militants were receiving orders: “They would get orders to kill, and they would pick up people from the group and kill them. They killed many people – both army personnel and civilians.”

Some passengers, however, were allowed to leave unharmed – including women, children, the elderly and those who lived in Balochistan, according to Mr Noor.

Among those released was Noor Muhammad. He said that when the initial volleys of gunfire stopped after an hour, armed men forced open the door to the train and entered, saying “get out or we will shoot you”.

Mr Muhammad said he was escorted off the train, and when he told the militants his wife was still in the back of the car, they brought her out too. Then they “told us to go straight and not look back”.

The couple walked through the wilderness, he said, and with “great difficulty” reached Panir Railway Station at about 1900, where they rested.

His wife recalled the moment the Pakistan military arrived to meet them.

“They told me, ‘ma’am, come inside with us, we will take you home safely,'” she said. The soldiers took the couple to the town of Machh, she added, “and then we reached Quetta to our children, who were waiting for us”.

Some passengers who managed to leave the train late on Tuesday evening said they walked for nearly four hours to reach the next railway station. They included Muhammad Ashraf, who had been riding the train to Lahore to visit his family.

“We reached the station with great difficulty,” he told BBC Urdu, “because we were tired and there were children and women with us.”

As night descended over the Jaffar Express, scores of BLA militants began to depart, according to the police official who did not wish to named.

“Many of them hugged each other and 70, 80 people left while 20, 25 stayed behind,” he said.

At about 10pm, he recalled, violence erupted again.

“Some people tried to run away, they [the BLA] saw them and opened fire, then everyone fell to the ground,” the official said.

Mr Mehboob similarly recalled gunfire throughout the night – and said that at one point, a person close to him, who had five daughters, was shot.

“When someone is killed in front of your eyes, you don’t know what to do,” he said.

Another passenger, Allahditta, said his cousin was killed in front of him by the BLA. He said his cousin was pleading to the militants to not kill him as he had young daughters but “his life was not spared”.

The BBC on Wednesday saw dozens of wooden coffins being loaded at Quetta railway station. A railway official said they were empty and being transported to collect casualties.

It was during the time of morning prayer on Wednesday that rescuers from the FC started firing on the BLA militants, Mr Allahditta said.

Amid the sudden chaos, he and others broke free.

“When the FC opened fire at the time of the Fajr call to prayer, we escaped from the militants,” Mr Allahdita said.

The police official similarly recalled the moment when the FC moved in, briefly diverting the BLA militants’ focus away from the hostages.

“When the FC arrived in the morning, the attention of these people turned to this direction,” the official said. “I told my companion, ‘Let’s try to run away.'”

Militants fired on the escapees as they fled, and the official said his companion was hit from behind.

“He told me to let go of him. I said no, I’ll carry you on my shoulder. Then another person also joined hands and we went down the hills and out of firing range.”

Mr Mehboob, Mr Allahdita, the police official and his companion all managed to escape the Jaffar Express alive as the FC attacked the militants.

Military and paramilitary troops and helicopters had surrounded the stranded train since Tuesday. On Wednesday, they killed the hostage-takers and cleared the site, according to a military spokesperson.

Authorities said there were 440 passengers on the train – and 300 of them have been freed. But it’s still unclear what happened to the remaining 140. Reuters and AFP quoted an unnamed security official who said some miliants had left, taking an unknown number of passengers with them.

The military says it is still working to find passengers who escaped and fled into the surrounding area, and insists that any others involved in the hijacking would be brought to justice.

Mr Noor, who is now distributing alms and charity in his hometown along with his wife, is just grateful to have escaped the situation with his life.

“Thank God,” Mr Noor said. “He saved us.”

Outside the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) detention centre, where former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has been taken, his supporters gathered on Wednesday night, waving national flags and shouting, “Bring him back!” as a vehicle thought to be carrying him was driven through the imposing iron gates at speed.

Shortly before he landed in the Netherlands, the 79-year-old unapologetically defended his bloody “war on drugs” for which the ICC says there are “reasonable grounds” to charge him with murder as a crime against humanity.

Small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial on his watch as mayor and, later, as president.

The official toll stands at 6,000, though activists believe the real figure could run into the tens of thousands.

Duterte said he cracked down on drug dealers to rid the country of street crimes.

However, rights groups allege that the campaign was rife with police abuse, targeting young men from the urban poor.

Duterte is the first Asian former head of state to be indicted by the ICC – and the first suspect to be flown to The Hague in three years.

And his arrival comes at a pivotal moment for the International Criminal Court.

Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and deportation on Monday was the result of an unprecedented chain of events.

His supporters allege that the ICC is being used as a political tool by the country’s current president Ferdinand Marcos who has publicly fallen out with the powerful Duterte family.

The ICC is a court of last resort designed to hold the most powerful to account when domestic courts are unable or unwilling to do so. But this case is a reminder of the extent to which it depends on state co-operation in order to fulfil its mandate – it effectively has no power to arrest people without the co-operation of the countries they are in, which is most often refused.

In the case of Duterte, chances that he would ever be prosecuted by the ICC seemed unthinkable even in 2022, when his daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte, allied with Marcos to create the powerful “uniteam” that swept presidential elections.

Up until a few months ago, Marcos had dismissed the idea of co-operating with the ICC.

But the pace at which Duterte was served an arrest warrant and extradited shows that when political winds shift, those once considered untouchable can find themselves touching down in The Hague.

The whole process of his extradition – from his detention in Manila to his arrival in The Hague – has been documented on social media by his daughter Kitty and Duterte himself through his aide. His plane was the most tracked on flight radar.

“I am the one who led our law enforcement and military. I said that I will protect you and I will be responsible for all of this,” he said on a Facebook video, one of many that was shared over more than 24 hours during his journey from Manila to The Hague.

It provided rare insight into what is usually an opaque process, and the world was able to follow, sometimes in real time, every step of it right down to the meals Duterte was served on board his chartered jet.

Duterte’s arrest now sends a strong signal that even powerful individuals may be held accountable for their actions, potentially deterring future abuses.

His case has also reignited debate about the ICC’s role in relation to national sovereignty, a concern often raised by non-member states like the United States, Russia, and China.

The court depends on its 128 members to fund and be the operational arm of this judicial body.

So Duterte’s headline-making arrival, followed by his first night in custody at The Hague, offer the court a much-needed win.

After serving two high-profile arrest warrants – one for the Russian president Vladimir Putin, and another for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza – which are unlikely to be enforced, the arrival of Duterte will be put forth as proof the court is capable of bringing those accused of the gravest atrocities to face justice.

It is a litmus test for the ICC’s ability to function effectively in an increasingly polarised climate.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan was recently sanctioned by Donald Trump over the arrest warrant issued for Benjamin Netanyahu.

The detention of Duterte provides him with a powerful response.

“Many say international law is not strong,” Karim Khan acknowledged. “But international law is not as weak as some may think. When we come together, when we build partnerships, the rule of law can prevail.”

The former Philippines president will now mark his 80th birthday this month in the ICC’s detention facility, located in the dunes of The Hague.

The facility, once a Nazi prison complex, provides each detainee with a private cell, access to computers, a library, and sports facilities.

If he isn’t satisfied with the meals provided, Duterte has the option to prepare his own food using a shopping list in the detention center’s kitchen. He will also have access to medical care, lawyers, and visitors.

He is expected to make his initial court appearance in the coming days, where he will confirm his identity, choose the language he wishes to follow proceedings in, and acknowledge the charges against him.

Following this public appearance, a confirmation of charges hearing will follow, during which the judges will decide whether the prosecution has presented a sufficient amount of evidence to proceed to trial.

If the charges are confirmed, it could be many months before he eventually goes on trial, and years before a final judgment.

China’s biggest hotpot chain Haidilao has offered to compensate more than 4,000 diners who visited one of its Shanghai branches, where two teens urinated into their hotpot broth.

A video of the boys peeing into their broth pot while dining in a private room was widely shared online last month. It is not clear who might have filmed the incident.

Police said the 17-year-olds, who were drunk at the time, were detained soon after the incident.

There is no suggestion anyone consumed the affected broth. Haidilao has apologised to customers, saying it has replaced all hotpot equipment and dining utensils, as well as disinfecting other crockery and utensils.

The incident happened late in February, though the company’s management only found out about it days later, after videos circulated on social media.

Haidilao said the staff on duty at the time had failed to stop the teens.

It took another week to find out which outlet it was, the company said, as it has dozens of outlets in the city.

Diners in Haidilao use their own personal hotpot equipment to cook their food, and broths are not re-used again for other customers. However, it is unclear in this case if the hotpot in question was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before it was used by the next customer.

“We fully understand that the distress caused to our customers by this incident cannot be fully compensated for by any means, but we will do our utmost to take responsibility,” the company said in a statement.

Haidilao said customers who dined at the outlet between 24 February and 8 March will receive a full refund, followed by cash compensation that is 10 times the amount they were billed.

The company has expanded quickly since it opened its first restaurant in Jianyang in Sichuan province. It now operates more than 1,000 restaurants across the world.

Haidilao is known for its customer service and family-friendly atmosphere, where ladies can receive manicures and kids are treated to candy floss while waiting for a table.

Authorities in India have arrested a cryptocurrency exchange administrator wanted by the US for allegedly helping cybercriminals launder money and violate sanctions.

Aleksej Besciokov, a Lithuanian citizen and Russian resident, was arrested in the southern state of Kerala on Tuesday, India’s top investigative agency said.

According to the US Justice Department (DOJ), he was one of the administrators of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange, and was responsible for reviewing and approving its transactions.

Besciokov is in custody and has not yet made a statement. Garantex could not immediately be reached for comment.

Besciokov was “residing in Russia”, according to DOJ’s recently-released indictment, and it is unclear when and why he came to India.

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said in a statement that it issued a provisional arrest warrant against him at Washington’s request.

Besciokov will now be produced in a court in Delhi, it said. It is not clear when he will be extradited to the US.

The United States, in coordination with Germany and Finland, had taken down the online infrastructure used by Garantex, the DOJ said last week.

It added that Garantex processed at least $96bn (£74.10bn) in cryptocurrency transactions since 2019 and that it allegedly received hundreds of millions in criminal proceeds, which were then used to “facilitate several crimes”, including hacking, ransomware, terrorism and drug trafficking.

The DOJ also accused the Lithuanian national of violating sanctions and operating an “unlicensed money transmitting business”.

Last week, US officials charged Besciokov along with the exchange’s Russian co-founder Aleksandr Mira Serda with money laundering.

Garantex was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2022.

But soon after, Besciokov and other administrators “redesigned” its operations to “evade sanctions” and induce American businesses into working with them, DOJ said.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is the latest to criticise a US influencer whose video of her taking a wild baby wombat away from its distressed mother has angered conservationists.

Albanese suggested that the woman, Sam Jones, tries doing so with animals that “can actually fight back”: “Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.”

Ms Jones, who calls herself an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter”, was filmed picking up the joey by the road and running across it to a car, while its mother ran after them.

The man filming can be heard laughing: “Look at the mother, it’s chasing after her!” The video, which was filmed in Australia, has since been deleted.

Immigration officials are reviewing Ms Jones’s visa, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the BBC, following calls for her to be deported.

An online petition supporting Ms Jones’s deportation has received 10,500 signatures so far.

“Given the level of scrutiny that will happen if she ever applies for a visa again, I’ll be surprised if she even bothers,” Burke said in a statement.

Ms Jones’s “appalling” behaviour could have caused severe harm to the wombats, conservationists say.

The Wombat Protection Society said it was shocked to see the “mishandling of a wombat joey in an apparent snatch for ‘social media likes'”.

“[She] then placed the vulnerable baby back onto a country road – potentially putting it at risk of becoming roadkill,” it noted in its statement, adding that it remains unclear if the joey reunited with its mother.

“I caught a baby wombat,” Ms Jones exclaimed in the video, while the joey could be heard hissing and struggling in her grip.

Her caption in the now-deleted post read: “My dream of holding a wombat has been realised! Baby and mom slowly waddled back off together into the bush.”

“The baby was carefully held for one minute in total and then released back to mom,” she wrote in the comments, responding to criticism.

“They wandered back off into the bush together completely unharmed. I don’t ever capture wildlife that will be harmed by my doing so.”

Following the backlash, Ms Jones, who has more than 92,000 followers on Instagram, made her account private. But several media outlets had already shared the video – as well as earlier posts, said to be taken in Australia, which show her holding an echidna and a “little shark”.

Wombats, which are native to Australia, are a legally protected species across the country. Baby wombats share a strong bond with their mothers, and any separation can be distressing and harmful, conservationists say.

“Wombats are not a photo prop or plaything,” said Suzanne Milthorpe, Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection Australia, in a statement online.

“It’s just unacceptable, and we’re glad she’s being called to account. Snatching a screaming baby wombat from their mother is not just appalling, it’s very possibly illegal under state or national laws,” Ms Milthrope said.

Some experts believe Ms Jones broke the law because Australia prohibits people from harming or taking native wildlife.

It is only allowed if the joey is in need of help because its mother has died, wildlife veterinarian Tania Bishop told ABC News.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong also weighed in on the “dreadful” video.

“I think everyone who would have seen that would have thought, leave the baby wombat alone. Leave it with its mum,” she told 7News.

With Donald Trump’s tit-for-tat tariffs on India looming next month, millions of Americans may have to brace for steeper medical bills.

Last week, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal made an unscheduled trip to the US for discussions with officials, hoping to strike a trade deal.

It followed Trump’s announcement that he would impose tariffs – which are government taxes on foreign imports – on India by 2 April, in retaliation to India’s tariffs on American goods.

Goyal wants to stave off tax increases on India’s critical export industries like medicinal drugs.

Nearly half of all generic medicines taken in the US come from India alone. Generic drugs – which are cheaper versions of brand-name medications – imported from countries like India make up nine out of 10 prescriptions in the US.

This saves Washington billions in healthcare costs. In 2022 alone, the savings from Indian generics amounted to a staggering $219bn (£169bn), according to a study by consulting firm IQVIA.

Without a trade deal, Trump’s tariffs could make some Indian generics unviable, forcing companies to exit part of the market and exacerbating existing drug shortages, experts say.

Tariffs could “worsen the demand-supply imbalances” and the uninsured and poor will be left counting the costs, says Dr Melissa Barber, a drug costing expert from Yale University.

The effects could be felt across people suffering from a range of health conditions.

Over 60% of prescriptions for hypertension and mental health ailments in the US were filled with Indian-made drugs, according to the IQVIA study funded by the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).

Sertraline, the most prescribed antidepressant in the US, is a prominent example of how dependent Americans are on Indian supplies for essential drugs.

Many of them cost half as much as those from non-Indian companies.

“We are worried about this,” says Peter Maybarduk, a lawyer at Public Citizens, a consumer advocacy group fighting for access to medicines. One in four American patients fail to take medicines due to their costs, he adds.

Trump is already reportedly facing pressure from US hospitals and generic drugmakers because of his tariffs on Chinese imports.

The raw materials for 87% of the drugs sold in the US are located outside the country and primarily concentrated in China which fulfils around 40% of global supply.

With tariffs on Chinese imports rising 20% since Trump took office, the cost of raw materials for drugs has already gone up.

Trump wants companies to shift manufacturing to the US to avoid his tariffs.

Big pharma giants like Pfizer and Eli Lily, that sell brand name and patented drugs, have said they are committing to move some manufacturing there.

But the economics for low-value drugs do not add up.

Dilip Shanghvi, chairman of India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharma, told an industry gathering last week that his company sells pills for between $1 and $5 per bottle in the US and tariffs “do not justify relocating our manufacturing to the US”.

“Manufacturing in India is at least three to four times cheaper than in the US,” says Sudarshan Jain of the IPA.

Any quick relocation will be next to impossible. Building a new manufacturing facility can cost up to $2bn and take five to 10 years before it is operational, according to lobby group PhRMA.

For local pharma players in India, the tariff blow could be brutal too.

The pharmaceutical sector is India’s largest industrial export according to GTRI, a trade research agency.

India exports some $12.7bn worth of drugs to the US annually, paying virtually no tax. US drugs coming into India, however, pay 10.91% in duties.

This leaves a “trade differential” of 10.9%. Any reciprocal tariffs by the US would increase the costs for both generic medicines and specialty drugs, according to GTRI.

It flags up pharmaceuticals as one of the sectors that is most vulnerable to price increases in the US market.

Indian firms which largely sell generic drugs already work on thin margins and won’t be able to afford a steep tax outgo.

They sell at much lower prices compared to competing peers, and have steadily gained dominance across cardiovascular, mental health, dermatology and women’s health drugs in the world’s largest pharma market.

“We can offset single-digit tariff hikes with cost cuts, but anything higher will have to be passed down to consumers,” the finance head of a top Indian drugmaker who didn’t want to be identified, told the BBC.

North America is their biggest revenue source, contributing a third of the earnings and profitability of most companies.

“It is the fastest growing market and most crucial. Even if we increase exposure to other markets, it will not adjust for any loss in the US market,” the finance head said.

Umang Vohra, CEO of India’s third-largest drug firm Cipla, said at a public gathering recently that tariffs should not ultimately dictate what businesses do, “because there is a risk that four years later, those tariffs may go away”.

But four years is a long time, and could make or break the fortunes of several companies.

To avoid any of this, “India should just drop its tariffs on pharma goods”, Ajay Bagga, a veteran market expert told the BBC. “US drug exports into India are barely half a billion dollars, so the impact will be negligible.”

The IPA, which consists of India’s largest drug makers, has also recommended zero duty on US drug exports so that India isn’t negatively impacted by reciprocal levies.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government recently added 36 life-saving drugs to the list of medicines fully exempted from a basic customs duty in the budget, and President Trump dropped a hint last week that India could be yielding to his pressure.

India has agreed to cut tariffs “way down”, he said, because “somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done”.

Delhi has not responded yet, but pharma players in both countries are nervously waiting to see the specifics of a trade deal that could have a bearing on lives and livelihoods.

“In the short term, there may be some pain through new tariffs, but I think they’ll make significant progress by the fall of this year for a first tranche [trade] agreement,” Mark Linscott, Senior Advisor at US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, told the BBC, adding that neither country could afford a breakdown in pharma supply chains.

A Taiwanese actor who was earlier arrested for allegedly dodging mandatory military duties has now begun his conscription service.

Darren Wang, who shot to fame for his breakout role in the 2015 teen rom-com Our Times, allegedly used forged medical documents to try to get a military service exemption, according to local news outlets.

All men in Taiwan have to undergo compulsory military service for one year. The government raised this from four months in 2022, citing growing threats from mainland China.

Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, but China sees the self-ruled island as a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing’s control.

News of the 33-year-old Wang’s alleged military evasion had earlier sparked debate on Chinese social media with some Taiwanese netizens accusing him of evading his duties, and others asking him to “become a citizen [of the People’s Republic of China]”.

Wang is popular in the Chinese mainland, and has previously referred to it as the “motherland”.

Wang was arrested at his home on 18 February and taken for questioning by police before being released on bail.

Local news reports said he was under investigation for the alleged forgery of a medical document, with Taiwan’s Central News Agency saying that “relevant evidence” had been seized from his home.

He was released on bail, but was later investigated again for his suspected involvement in an attempted murder case after police reportedly discovered incriminating messages on his phone.

Wang was taken into custody again in March for this, and was later released on bail.

He is still under investigation for both charges.

On Thursday, Wang joined more than 1,000 other recruits at the Chenggong Ling military camp in Taichung city.

They will undergo weeks of basic training before being transferred to a specialised unit.

All men over the age of 18 in Taiwan are required to serve in the army – though deferments can be granted in certain cases. However, all men are required to serve in the military by the time they turn 36.

In the 1990s, men were required to serve in the military for up to three years, this was over the next few decades gradually shortened, before being reduced to four months.

However, then president Tsai Ing-wen had in 2022 said this would be extended to a year amid growing tensions with China.

Taiwan is on the frontline of authoritarian expansion,” she had then said, adding that conscripts will also undergo more intense training, borrowing some elements from the US and other advanced militaries.

Donatella Versace is to step down from her creative director role at fashion house Versace, after nearly 30 years.

She has held the position since 1997 and took over after the murder of her brother Gianni.

Versace has overseen hundreds of fashion campaigns for the Italian brand, also designing hotels and cars.

The 69-year-old will be replaced by Dario Vitale, who is a former design director for Miu Miu, and take on a new brand ambassador role.

It comes amid speculation that the Prada Group is interested in buying Versace from the Capri Holdings group, who paid €2bn (£1.67m) for the fashion house in 2018.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Capri Holdings said Versace would now “dedicate herself to the support of Versace’s philanthropic and charitable endeavours and will remain an advocate for the brand globally”.

It added that the announcements were part of “a thoughtful succession plan” and credited Vitale as a “strong design leader” whose “talent and vision will be instrumental in Versace’s growth”.

The company statement also thanked Versace for everything she had done for the brand and for playing “an integral role in the company’s global success”.

Versace also posted her own statement on Instagram to her 12 million followers, saying it was “the greatest honour of my life to carry on my brother Gianni’s legacy”.

“Versace is in my DNA and always in my heart,” she said.

“Championing the next generation of designers has always been important to me. I am thrilled that Dario Vitale will be joining us, and excited to see Versace through new eyes.”

Donatella Versace has dressed some of the world’s biggest stars – including Madonna, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.

She famously designed the green jungle dress for Jennifer Lopez in 2000 and Michelle Obama’s dress for her 2016 final state dinner.

Versace is also an embodiment of the fashion house she has built – always seen in brightly coloured prints that are synonymous with the brand and platinum blonde hair that means she always stands out.

Versace, which was first founded in Milan in 1978 by Donatella and her brothers Santo and Gianni, was sold to the Michael Kors group in 2018, which was then folded in to Capri Holdings in 2019.

The Italian atelier represented 20% of Capri’s 2024 €5.2bn (£4.3bn) revenue.

A plane carrying former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has arrived in the Netherlands where he is to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his deadly “war on drugs”.

Duterte was arrested at Manila airport on Tuesday and within hours was on a chartered jet which flew via Dubai to The Hague, where the ICC sits.

The 79-year-old could become the first Asian former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.

Duterte, who contested his extradition, led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022 and presided over a violent “war on drugs” that saw thousands of small-time drug dealers, users and others killed without trial.

The Gulfstream G550 landed in Dubai for a stopover early on Wednesday and its expected departure was delayed for several hours while Duterte received medical checks, Reuters news agency reports.

Once the plane had landed in Rotterdam, the ICC confirmed that Duterte was in its custody to face charges “of murder as a crime against humanity”.

“A hearing will be scheduled in due course for Mr Duterte’s initial appearance before the Court.”

Meanwhile the former leaders’ supporters gathered outside The Hague Penitentiary Institution protesting his arrest. Many of them waved the Philippine flag, while others mimicked Duterte’s signature fist-pumping gesture.

“We stand with Duterte,” read a banner held up by supporters.

Duterte’s main political rival, current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, was instrumental in handing him over. Minutes after Duterte left Philippines airspace, Marcos gave a televised address saying the country was fulfilling its legal obligation.

“This is what the international community expects of us,” Marcos said.

The Duterte and Marcos families are the Philippines’ most powerful political dynasties. They joined forces to sweep the country’s last national election in 2022, but have fallen out in recent months as they pursued separate agendas.

Duterte being handed to the ICC is the latest twist in a political feud that has unfolded spectacularly in the public view.

The Duterte and Marcos families formed a formidable alliance in the 2022 elections. Against the elder Duterte’s wishes, his daughter Sara ran as Marcos Jr’s vice-president instead of seeking her father’s post.

Marcos initially refused to co-operate with the ICC investigation, but as his relationship with the Duterte family deteriorated, he changed his stance.

Vice-President Duterte said her father’s arrest amounted to “kidnapping”, claiming it violated Philippine sovereignty. She left Manila for the Netherlands on Wednesday, according to her office.

Rodrigo Duterte previously insisted that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, since he pulled the country out of the tribunal in 2019, three years after it took note of the drug war’s rising death toll.

But according to the Rome Statute that is the basis for the ICC, the court maintains jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed before a nation leaves the tribunal.

The ICC investigation covers 2011-2019, which includes the period when Duterte was mayor of Davao, a sprawling metropolis in the country’s south, where his family has held power for decades.

Complaints filed against Duterte at the ICC allege that he kept a “death squad” of bounty hunters to go after drug suspects in Davao, and later replicated this model on a national scale when he was elected president.

Human Rights Watch called Duterte’s arrest a “critical step for accountability in the Philippines”.

Duterte built a reputation for Davao as one of the Philippines’ safest cities, and cultivated the image of a tough-talking, anti-establishment man of the masses to pull off a dark horse win in the 2016 presidential elections.

Polls show he is the most popular Philippines president since the restoration of democracy in 1986.

His supporters have threatened to hold large rallies to protest against his arrest. They had asked the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order against the ICC warrant – but the court did not act before the former president was flown out on Tuesday.

On social media, where the Dutertes maintain a strong following, the reaction was mixed.

Many praised the ICC for delivering justice for those who died in the drug war, while others defended Duterte’s legacy, with some calling for widespread rallies.

“Justice served,” read a top-liked comment on TikTok.

“Philippines was safe during Duterte’s time,” another TikTok user wrote, saying the former leader built bridges, roads and other infrastructure. “He was the best president.”

Deena Ghazarian had only been in business for a year when the trade policies of President Donald Trump’s first term of office sent her company into a tailspin.

It was 2019 and her California-based firm, Austere, had just agreed to supply several big US retailers with its high-end audio and video accessories that are largely manufactured in China.

Then Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on China, and overnight Deena found herself paying a 25% surcharge on every cable and component she imported – up from zero previously.

She was forced to absorb the costs and for a while thought she would go bust.

“I literally thought I am going to start and end a business in less than a year,” she says. “I had spent all this time, money and effort, and to have something like this blindside you was shocking.”

The firm pulled through, but like numerous other US businesses it now finds itself in a strikingly similar situation.

Since returning to office in January, Mr Trump has raised tariffs on all goods imported from China by 20%, and put taxes of 25% on Canadian and Mexican products, only to delay some of them until April.

The president says he wants to force these countries to do more to stop flows of illegal drugs and migrants into America, to bring more manufacturing back to the US, and to address what he sees as unfair trade imbalances.

But the duties are much broader in scope than last time, when they were phased in gradually and many products were granted exemptions.

Goods like smartphones, desktop computers and tablets are now incurring tariffs for the first time, while taxes on others have climbed higher.

“US importers have to pay these taxes not the exporters,” says Ed Brzytwa, vice president of international trade at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), a North American trade body that represents more than 1,200 tech firms.

“It’s American businesses and consumers who will suffer.”

Businesses like Ms Ghazarian’s are particularly exposed. China is still the number one supplier of electronic products to the US, with imports totalling $146bn (£112bn) in 2023, according to official data.

Meanwhile, 87% of US video game console imports came from China that year, 78% of smartphones, 79% of laptops and tablets, and two-thirds of monitors, says the CTA.

While many American companies like Austere have diversified their supply chains away from China since Mr Trump’s first term, countries such as Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam still do not offer the same manufacturing capabilities and expertise.

At the same time, the US president is now targeting Mexico – another major electronics supplier. And while domestic manufacturing in the US has increased, partly due to tariffs, it is still limited by higher costs and stricter regulations.

“Yes, Apple now makes some iPhones in India and [the Taiwanese chipmaker] TSMC has been diversifying to Arizona,” says Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute in Washington DC.

“But China is still a massive part of the supply chain. Relationships with new suppliers take time to develop, they are costly to develop.”

Research suggests that companies pass on a large proportion of the costs of tariffs by putting up prices. Earlier this month Corie Barry, boss of US electronics retailer Best Buy, said that the “the vast majority” of the new tariffs will “probably be passed on to the consumer” because vendors in the industry have such small margins.

In February, Taiwanese firm Acer said the price of its laptops would likely rise by 10% based on the 10% duties in place on China at the time, while US group HP has warned its profits would be lower because of the tariffs.

Ms Ghazarian says she may have to raise her prices this year, but worries it could backfire. “There is a price point where the customer is satisfied with the value of goods provided.

“The moment I shift above that I start to lose customers. High inflation has squeezed Americans.”

During Mr Trump’s first term, companies such as Apple successfully secured exemptions for products, and we may yet see carve-outs.

Insiders have also suggested Mr Trump views tariffs as a negotiating tactic and could ease them if he wins concessions, as he did when China agreed to buy more American goods in a deal reached in 2020.

Fears of a US economic slowdown could also make him change course.

For the time being, though, tensions look likely to escalate. China, Mexico and Canada have vowed to retaliate against any US duties imposed on them, and this week Mr Trump threatened to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium only to row back at the last minute.

He plans to impose “reciprocal tariffs” on the rest of the world soon, and threatened tariff increases of up to 60% on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.

There is a risk this could drive up the price of tech goods around the world if China is forced to relocate manufacturing to countries where labour costs are higher. Moreover, countries may hit back with tariffs on imported US technology.

Ms Ghazarian says she is worried but at least she’s prepared this time. Like many other US business-owners she bulk-ordered extra inventory before Mr Trump took office, and is storing it in her east coast warehouse.

She hopes that will get the company through the next year until it can “pivot” again.

“That might mean finding a more cost-effective way to produce the product or doing something completely different. It’s frustrating I have to focus on survival rather than growing my business.”

Ineos Automotive, the car maker owned by Manchester United co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has recalled more than 7,000 of its sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in the US.

The firm said “in a small number of cases” Grenadier SUV doors are opening while cars are being driven “increasing the risk of injury to passengers inside the vehicle”.

“Due to insufficient application of grease, an exterior door release button may remain in the depressed position, preventing the door from closing securely”, a spokesperson told the BBC.

To fix the problem, Ineos said it will replace all door button assemblies on the affected vehicles, free of charge.

The recall affects Ineos’ Grenadier SUVs produced between 6 July 2023 and 19 April 2024.

The door button mechanism on affected vehicles may have been assembled without enough grease in them, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) filing.

“This may allow the exterior door buttons to remain in the depressed position and prevent the door from fully latching,” the document said.

A company spokesperson said: “We are undertaking a campaign to replace the door lock mechanisms on all affected vehicles as quickly as possible. Owners of all impacted vehicles are being contacted directly.”

The recall is the latest issue faced by the car company, which last year had to temporarily pause manufacturing after one of its parts suppliers became insolvent.

Launched in 2022, the Grenadier was the first vehicle produced by Ineos Automotive. It is inspired by the iconic Land Rover Defender.

Sir Jim’s decision to start the car company was motivated by his disappointment over Jaguar Land Rover’s decision to stop making the Defender.

In 2020, the entrepreneur, who had campaigned for Leave in the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum, announced that the vehicle would be assembled in France, putting an end to hopes that it would be made at a plant in Wales.

According to the company, there are currently about 20,000 Grenadiers on the road in 50 countries around the world.

Ineos Automotive lost more than 1.4 billion euros (£1.1bn, $1.5bn) before tax in 2023, according to a filing with the UK registry Companies House.

Sir Jim, who is one of the UK’s richest people, owns a 27.7% stake in Manchester United.

Meta has won an emergency ruling in the US to temporarily stop a former director of Facebook from promoting or further distributing copies of her memoir.

The book, Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, who used to be the company’s global public policy director, includes a series of critical claims about what she witnessed during her seven years working at Facebook.

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, says the ruling – which orders her to stop promotions “to the extent within her control” – affirms that “the false and defamatory book should never have been published”.

The UK publisher Macmillan says it is “committed to upholding freedom of speech” and Ms Wynn-Williams’ “right to tell her story”.

It told the BBC that she had been due to do “extensive media” in the UK and internationally and “has been prevented from doing so”.

At a hearing on Wednesday at the American Arbitration Association – a neutral third party which resolves disputes out of court – Ms Wynn-Williams was told she must refrain from engaging in or “amplifying any further disparaging, crucial or otherwise detrimental comments”.

All previous disparaging comments “to the extent within her control” must also be retracted, the ruling also said.

The book is former New Zealand diplomat Ms Wynn-Williams’ account of joining Facebook in 2011 and watching it grow from a “front row seat”.

Her allegations include that executives had worked “hand in glove” with the Chinese government on potential ways of allowing Beijing to censor and control content in exchange for access to the lucrative market.

Meta disputes the allegations contained in the book. Regarding China, it says it is “no secret we were once interested” in operating services there. “We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we’d explored.”

Ms Wynn-Williams has also filed a whistleblower complaint with the US markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleging Meta misled investors – which Meta also denies. The BBC has reviewed the complaint.

During the emergency hearing the arbitrator, Nicholas Gowen, found Meta had provided enough evidence that Ms Wynn-Williams had potentially violated her severance contract. She did not personally attend Thursday’s hearing.

In his ruling, Mr Gowan said Meta would suffer “immediate and irreparable loss” in the absence of a temporary ruling in the case.

He did not order the book’s publisher, Flatiron Books, or its parent company, Macmillan, to take any action.

The ruling will remain in effect unless it is modified or lifted following a full hearing.

Following the decision, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on X: “This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn-Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published.”

Careless People was released in the US, where it is number six on the Amazon chart, on Tuesday. It was published in the UK on Thursday.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Macmillan said: “As publishers, we are committed to upholding freedom of speech and her right to tell her story. Due to legal process instituted by Meta, the author has been prevented from continuing to participate in the book’s publicity.”

Outside the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) detention centre, where former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has been taken, his supporters gathered on Wednesday night, waving national flags and shouting, “Bring him back!” as a vehicle thought to be carrying him was driven through the imposing iron gates at speed.

Shortly before he landed in the Netherlands, the 79-year-old unapologetically defended his bloody “war on drugs” for which the ICC says there are “reasonable grounds” to charge him with murder as a crime against humanity.

Small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial on his watch as mayor and, later, as president.

The official toll stands at 6,000, though activists believe the real figure could run into the tens of thousands.

Duterte said he cracked down on drug dealers to rid the country of street crimes.

However, rights groups allege that the campaign was rife with police abuse, targeting young men from the urban poor.

Duterte is the first Asian former head of state to be indicted by the ICC – and the first suspect to be flown to The Hague in three years.

And his arrival comes at a pivotal moment for the International Criminal Court.

Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and deportation on Monday was the result of an unprecedented chain of events.

His supporters allege that the ICC is being used as a political tool by the country’s current president Ferdinand Marcos who has publicly fallen out with the powerful Duterte family.

The ICC is a court of last resort designed to hold the most powerful to account when domestic courts are unable or unwilling to do so. But this case is a reminder of the extent to which it depends on state co-operation in order to fulfil its mandate – it effectively has no power to arrest people without the co-operation of the countries they are in, which is most often refused.

In the case of Duterte, chances that he would ever be prosecuted by the ICC seemed unthinkable even in 2022, when his daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte, allied with Marcos to create the powerful “uniteam” that swept presidential elections.

Up until a few months ago, Marcos had dismissed the idea of co-operating with the ICC.

But the pace at which Duterte was served an arrest warrant and extradited shows that when political winds shift, those once considered untouchable can find themselves touching down in The Hague.

The whole process of his extradition – from his detention in Manila to his arrival in The Hague – has been documented on social media by his daughter Kitty and Duterte himself through his aide. His plane was the most tracked on flight radar.

“I am the one who led our law enforcement and military. I said that I will protect you and I will be responsible for all of this,” he said on a Facebook video, one of many that was shared over more than 24 hours during his journey from Manila to The Hague.

It provided rare insight into what is usually an opaque process, and the world was able to follow, sometimes in real time, every step of it right down to the meals Duterte was served on board his chartered jet.

Duterte’s arrest now sends a strong signal that even powerful individuals may be held accountable for their actions, potentially deterring future abuses.

His case has also reignited debate about the ICC’s role in relation to national sovereignty, a concern often raised by non-member states like the United States, Russia, and China.

The court depends on its 128 members to fund and be the operational arm of this judicial body.

So Duterte’s headline-making arrival, followed by his first night in custody at The Hague, offer the court a much-needed win.

After serving two high-profile arrest warrants – one for the Russian president Vladimir Putin, and another for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza – which are unlikely to be enforced, the arrival of Duterte will be put forth as proof the court is capable of bringing those accused of the gravest atrocities to face justice.

It is a litmus test for the ICC’s ability to function effectively in an increasingly polarised climate.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan was recently sanctioned by Donald Trump over the arrest warrant issued for Benjamin Netanyahu.

The detention of Duterte provides him with a powerful response.

“Many say international law is not strong,” Karim Khan acknowledged. “But international law is not as weak as some may think. When we come together, when we build partnerships, the rule of law can prevail.”

The former Philippines president will now mark his 80th birthday this month in the ICC’s detention facility, located in the dunes of The Hague.

The facility, once a Nazi prison complex, provides each detainee with a private cell, access to computers, a library, and sports facilities.

If he isn’t satisfied with the meals provided, Duterte has the option to prepare his own food using a shopping list in the detention center’s kitchen. He will also have access to medical care, lawyers, and visitors.

He is expected to make his initial court appearance in the coming days, where he will confirm his identity, choose the language he wishes to follow proceedings in, and acknowledge the charges against him.

Following this public appearance, a confirmation of charges hearing will follow, during which the judges will decide whether the prosecution has presented a sufficient amount of evidence to proceed to trial.

If the charges are confirmed, it could be many months before he eventually goes on trial, and years before a final judgment.

Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White is set to be released in UK cinemas next week, marking the latest efforts by the film studio to revive a beloved old classic.

But the film, which stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, has faced several issues throughout its production.

The movie is being released amid a debate about how the seven dwarfs are represented on screen, while Zegler has made headlines for critical comments about the original 1937 film.

The European premiere was held on Wednesday at a castle in Northern Spain, instead of a more traditional and high-profile location such as London’s Leicester Square.

The debate around the film began making headlines in January 2022, when Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, an actor with Dwarfism, described the decision to retell the story of “seven dwarfs living in a cave” as “backward”.

Disney has used computer-generated dwarfs in the remake and said it would “avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film”.

But this week, other actors with Dwarfism have said they would have liked the opportunity to play the roles.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, performer Choon Tan said the decision to use CGI was “absolutely absurd and discriminating in a sense”.

“There really is nothing wrong casting someone with dwarfism as a dwarf in any given opportunity,” he said.

“As long as we are treated equally and with respect, we’re usually more than happy to take on any acting roles that are suitable for us,” he added.

Another performer, Blake Johnston, told the newspaper that “we have plenty of dwarf actors out there who are dying for roles like this”.

He said he also said he believed Disney had “succumb to peer pressure on political correctness, which has now given top dwarf actors less work”.

Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, criticised the film in 2022 during an interview with podcaster Marc Maron.

“I was a little taken aback by [the fact] they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White,” he said, referring to Colombian-American actress Zegler.

“You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”

The actor had previously spoken about the representation of dwarfism, saying it was “bad writing” to make it a “dominant character trait”.

In a statement released after Dinklage’s comments, Disney said they were “taking a different approach with these seven characters” and had made their decision to use CGI after “consulting with members of the dwarf community”.

The film’s European premiere took place on Wednesday at a remote castle in Spain, which was the inspiration behind the castle in the 1937 original animated film.

Zegler performed a rendition of original song Waiting On a Wish at the event on Wednesday evening in Segrovia, north-West of Madrid.

Most media outlets were not invited to the medieval castle, and Zegler instead performed to a relatively small crowd.

The Los Angeles premiere, meanwhile, will be reportedly smaller than usual for a film of this magnitude, with the stars only expected to pose for photographs and speak to Disney’s in-house crews.

News journalists have not been invited to attend the red carpet and therefore have not had the opportunity to interview the film’s cast and creatives.

However, the cast are taking part in a few select sit-down interviews with some outlets as part of a press junket which is taking place this week.

The debate about the seven dwarfs is not the only controversy which has surrounded the film, which has reportedly cost £217m to make.

Early in the film’s production, there was controversy around Disney’s decision to cast Zegler, a Latina actress, in the role of a character deemed to have skin “as white as snow”.

It was part of a drive by Disney to cast a more diverse range of actors to play updated versions of some classic characters.

Halle Bailey, a black actress, was cast in another recent Disney live-action movie, The Little Mermaid. Both actresses faced abuse online after their casting was announced.

Zegler also made headlines after she made critical comments about some elements of the previous animated film.

“The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so,” Zegler said in 2022. “There’s a big focus [in the original] on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! So we didn’t do that this time.”

Zegler also called the original film “extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power,” adding: “People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it’s like, yeah, it is – because it needed that.”

Elsewhere, fans have speculated that there may have been a behind-the-scenes rift between Zegler and Gadot, who plays the wicked stepmother, because the actresses have opposing views on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Zegler has publicly taken a pro-Palestine stance, whilst Gadot is Israeli and served in the country’s army for two years.

However, others have said rumours of a rift are misguided, noting Gadot and Zegler have appeared publicly together on several occasions, including when they jointly presented an award at last week’s Oscars.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the latest in a long line of classic animated Disney stories which have been remade as live-action films.

Other recent live-action remakes the studio has produced include Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Dumbo and The Jungle Book.

Catholics around the world are marking the 12th anniversary of Pope Francis’s election as pontiff by praying for his recovery.

Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, has been in Rome’s Gemelli hospital for almost a month. He is being treated for double pneumonia and other infections, and has suffered several respiratory crises, which raised concerns about his survival.

The latest bulletins from the Vatican have said the 88-year-old is stable after a chest X-ray confirmed “improvements” in his condition in recent days.

But they said his condition was still complex and that he required further hospital treatment. It is not clear when he will be allowed to leave.

“The clinical condition of the Holy Father has remained stable in the context of an overall complex medical picture,” according to a statement published by Vatican News.

“The chest X-ray performed [on Tuesday] has radiologically confirmed the improvements observed in the previous days,” it said.

The Pope has not been seen in public since his admission to hospital and no photographs have been released.

But earlier this month, an audio recording of him speaking in his native Spanish was played in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

His voice, as he thanked the faithful for their rosary prayers for his health, was breathless and weak.

In recent days, the Pope has joined spiritual exercises of prayers and meditation held at the Vatican via video link, without being seen.

In a break with tradition, the Holy See has provided daily updates at Francis’s own request.

He has been receiving non-invasive oxygen therapy, administered by nasal tubes during the day and via a mask at night.

His illness has changed the tenor of the way Catholics are celebrating his anniversary.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official known to be close to Francis, called the occasion “a reason for gratitude”.

“This year, his illness makes us especially grateful to God… redoubling our prayers for his full recovery,” the Cardinal said.

Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is the first pope from the Americas.

In his native Argentina, churches across the country will hold masses of thanksgiving to mark the anniversary. The services will also include prayers for his health.

Father Claudio, who was visiting St Peter’s Square from Angola, said: “The situation that we find the Holy Father in, that he is so ill, truly it is a very great worry at this moment.”

He added: “We’re praying for the Holy Father that he is returned to full health.”

Arianna, a student from Piacenza in Italy, said she was “really happy” that the Pope was getting better.

“I was really upset when I heard he was ill, because he’s a very important figure for everyone. I was really concerned about him.”

The Pope, who has been known to work himself to exhaustion, is likely to face a long road to recovery.

There has been speculation that he could choose to follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign the papacy. But his friends and biographers have insisted he has no plans to step down.

2025 is a Catholic Holy Year, with 32 million pilgrims expected to come to Rome.

Francis has also been planning at least one foreign trip to Turkey for the celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of a major Christian council of bishops in ancient Nicaea.

Despite his fragile health, he has continued his work from hospital.

“Happy anniversary, Pope Francis,” the Italian Catholic writer Andrea Tornielli wrote on Vatican News.

“We look with affection and hope at the windows of the 10th floor of Gemelli Hospital,” he said.

He thanked Pope Francis for “that still feeble voice of his that has joined the Rosary in St Peter’s Square in recent days – a fragile voice that continues to implore peace and not war, dialogue and not oppression, compassion and not indifference.”

“We still need your voice so much,” he said.

As leaders around the world try to figure out how best to deal with the new Trump administration, one Canadian official has come out swinging.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a regular on major US networks where he has addressed Americans directly, was among the first in Canada to pull US alcohol off the shelves as a trade war between the two neighbours ramped up.

Ford has also ripped up a multi-million dollar contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink, and has been unafraid to use energy exports to the US as a bargaining chip – all in a bid to get Trump to withdraw his tariff threats against Canada.

The right-wing, plain-spoken politician admitted he was initially delighted Donald Trump won re-election and viewed him as an ally.

But then, Ford said, using an expletive, the US president pulled a knife and “yanked it into us”.

This week, it appeared that Ford’s unusual tactics had grabbed Trump’s attention.

Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn on Tuesday, the US president described Ford as a “very strong man” as he addressed Ontario’s threat to slap a 25% surcharge on US-bound electricity.

Ford has since shelved that plan pending further discussions with the Trump administration. But his threat to hike the price of electricity on Americans seems to have earned him a grudging nod of respect from Trump, who later backed off from doubling tariffs on aluminium and steel to 50%.

It also helped Ford score a meeting with US officials in Washington to discuss the future of the Canada-US trade relationship.

Ford is expected to sit at the negotiating table on Thursday with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The meeting will also be attended by Canada’s Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

It is unclear whether Ford’s defiant stance will earn Canada more favours from Trump. It is also an approach that is not unanimously agreed on, with Premier Danielle Smith of the oil-rich Alberta vehemently refusing to withhold any of her province’s energy exports to the US.

Trump’s recent willingness to turn down the heat, however, signals that Ford may be succeeding in grabbing the attention of the US, said Shakir Chambers, a Canadian Conservative strategist at the Toronto-based Oyster Group.

“That’s how you deal with Trump, through a position of strength,” Mr Chambers told the BBC. “Ford understands the language of Trump’s people and inner circle.”

It at least earned him a rare compliment from the US president, who for several months has berated Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeatedly by calling him “governor,” while expressing his desire to absorb Canada and make it “the 51st state”.

Also rare is seeing the Oval Office pay attention to the premier of a Canadian province, whose day-to-day is ordinarily preoccupied with domestic matters such as infrastructure projects, healthcare funding and co-operating with the federal government.

But these are no ordinary times in Canada. The country is in the middle of a transfer of power, from outgoing Trudeau to Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney.

It is also facing what has been referred to as an “existential threat” from its neighbour and long-time ally to the south.

Announcing his intention to pause energy tariffs pending trade talks, Ford vowed to Canadians that he will not “roll over” and warned that using Ontario’s energy supply as a bargaining chip remains on the table.

But he said he will not ignore the chance to resolve this dispute with Americans.

His emergence as the face of Canada’s fight is, in many ways, understandable. As Ontario premier, he is at the helm of a province that is home to 16 million people and Canada’s large auto manufacturing sector, which is deeply intertwined with that of the US, leaving it vulnerable to any broad tariff threats.

He is also chair of the Council of the Federation, a multilateral congress that includes all of Canada’s provincial and territorial premiers.

On Wednesday, Ford kept busy ahead of his meeting with the Americans. He sat down for breakfast with incoming Prime Minister Carney, where the two discussed the need to “stand firm and strong” to Trump.

Americans will undoubtedly see more of Ford in the coming weeks and months. The premier just decisively secured four more years in office after campaigning on standing up against the US president.

For Ontarians, Ford is a well-known figure. He has led the province since 2018 and is only the second premier in its history to secure three consecutive majority government wins.

He is the product of a Toronto political dynasty known as “Ford Nation”. For many years, he was overshadowed by his younger brother, the late Rob Ford, who was the mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014 before he was ousted after a crack cocaine scandal.

Locally, the Fords are infamous for their “authentic” and approachable style of politics, said Mr Chambers, who was coached high school football by the younger Ford.

Premier Ford is known for handing out his personal cell phone number to constituents, encouraging them to contact him directly. During a news conference on US tariffs last week, he urged people to be patient as he worked to respond to more than 4,000 text messages he has received lately.

Despite his popularity, the premier is also embroiled in several controversies. Chief among them is an ongoing police investigation into a now-scrapped deal his government made that would have allowed the development of environmentally-protected land.

On the national stage, he has run up against Alberta Premier Smith, who has called for a more measured and cautious response to Trump and his tariffs.

That caution has also been practised by other leaders, namely France’s Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, both of whom struck a more diplomatic tone in their February visits to the White House.

But Ford’s defiant stance against Trump is widely supported in Canada. Polls show the majority of Canadians support retaliating against the US, and a swell of nationalism has since emerged across the country.

While Ford has been forceful, he has also been careful in his direct appeals to Americans.

“Believe me when I say I don’t want to do this,” he said earlier this week when he announced his plan to hike electricity prices, before underscoring that his priority is to protect Ontario jobs.

Mr Chambers said he expects more of that consolatory but firm tone at Thursday’s meeting.

The US has introduced a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports from around the world.

In response, Canada and the EU have announced new tariffs on US goods worth billions of dollars, stoking fears of a global trade war.

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 200% tariff on alcohol from EU countries unless the bloc scraps its “nasty 50% tariff on whisky”.

Trump has already imposed 25% tariffs on other imports from Mexico and Canada – with some exemptions – and a 20% levy on Chinese goods.

Tariffs are taxes charged on goods imported from other countries.

The companies that bring the foreign goods into the country pay the tax to the government.

Typically, tariffs are a percentage of a product’s value. A 20% tariff on Chinese goods means a product worth $10 (£7.76) has an additional $2 charge.

Firms may choose to pass on some or all of the cost of tariffs to customers.

The US has typically charged lower tariffs on goods than other countries.

Economists fear Trump’s new taxes – and the further tariffs on foreign imports that he has suggested may start on 2 April – could lead to a sharp increase in the prices consumers pay in the US and around the globe.

• BBC reporters answer your tariff questions

Tariffs are a central part of Trump’s overall economic vision.

He says tariffs will boost US manufacturing and protect jobs, raising tax revenue and growing the domestic economy.

He also wants to restore America’s trade balance with its foreign partners – reducing the gap that exists between how much the US imports from and exports to individual countries.

But he has refused to rule out the prospect of a recession as a result of his trade policies, which sent US stocks sharply down in the days before the metal tariffs took effect.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later said the tariffs were “worth it” even if they did lead to an economic downturn.

Trump’s tariffs initially targeted goods from China, Mexico and Canada.

These accounted for more than 40% of imports into the US in 2024.

But Trump has accused the three countries of not doing enough to end the flow of migrants and illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the US.

All three countries have rejected the accusations.

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• Is the US really heading into a recession?

The 25% tariffs on all US imports of steel and aluminum began on 12 March.

The US buys more steel than any other country – with Canada, Brazil and Mexico its top three suppliers.

Canada is also the largest supplier of aluminum to the US, providing almost 60% of the amount imported.

When Trump first announced the tariff on steel and aluminium imports, he said there would be no exceptions.

On 11 March, he threatened to double the levy for Canadian metals because of that country’s decision to charge more to electricity customers in three northern US states, in response to other US tariffs.

Trump scrapped this plan just hours before it was due to take effect, after Canada agreed to suspend the extra energy charges.

Trump previously announced tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium in 2018, during his first term as president.

However, he later negotiated exceptions for many countries including Australia, Canada and Mexico.

Despite those previous exemptions, tariffs raised the average price of steel and aluminium in the US by 2.4% and 1.6% respectively, according to the US International Trade Commission.

• Three American goods that could rise in price due to metal tariffs

In the hours after the levy took effect, Canada and the EU both announced retaliatory tariffs.

Canada introduced a 25% tariff on an additional C$29.8bn ($20bn; £16bn) worth of US goods from 13 March.

This includes steel products worth C$12.6bn, sports equipment, computers and cast iron items.

• Incoming Canadian PM Carney ready to talk trade with Trump if ‘there’s respect for sovereignty’

The EU tariffs will target US goods worth €26bn (£22bn), and will start on 1 April and be fully in place on 13 April.

They will cover items ranging “from boats to bourbon to motorbikes”, in addition to steel and aluminium goods such as pipes, window frames and tin foil.

European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen said she “deeply regrets this measure”. Tariffs are “bad for business and worse for consumers”, she added.

Writing on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said that if the EU’s 50% tax on US whiskey was not removed “immediately”, the US would levy a 200% tariff on all wines, Champagnes and alcoholic products coming out of EU represented countries.

“This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US,” he added.

• EU braces for higher prices as US trade war ramps up

The UK exports hundreds of millions of pounds worth of steel to the US every year.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told MPs that the UK will take “pragmatic approach” to the US tariffs, but confirmed it will “keep all options on the table”.

• How will the latest Trump tariffs affect the UK?

China’s foreign ministry said the country would take “all necessary measures” to safeguard its rights and interests, arguing that the tariffs breached World Trade Organization rules.

Trump has already introduced 25% tariffs on other goods from both US neighbours, Canada and Mexico.

These were originally due to start on 4 February but were delayed for a month to allow further negotiations. The 25% tariffs began on 4 March, with a 10% tariff on Canadian energy imports.

On 5 March, Trump announced a month-long tariff exemption for cars made in North America which comply with the continent’s existing free trade agreement, the US-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA).

That deal, which was negotiated by Trump during his first term in office, sets out rules for how much of a car must be made in each country to qualify for duty-free treatment.

The Canadian and Mexican tariffs had prompted fears of significant impacts on car manufacturing.

Component parts typically cross the US, Mexican and Canadian borders multiple times before a vehicle is completely assembled.

Shares in leading US carmakers rose after the announcement.

On 6 March Trump expanded the tariff exemption to include other goods shipped under the USMCA.

Items currently covered by the pact’s rules include televisions, air conditioners, avocados and beef, according to analysis by the firm Trade Partnership Worldwide.

Trump also reduced tariffs on potash – a key ingredient for fertiliser used by US farmers – from 25% to 10%.

Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Trump of planning “a total collapse of the Canadian economy [to] make it easier to annex us”.

He said Canada would immediately target C$30bn ($21bn; £16bn) worth of US imports, and goods worth a further C$125bn in 21 days.

After Trump excluded more Canadian goods from these tariffs, Canada said it would delay the planned second round of taxes.

But it is not clear what will happen with these now given Canada’s response to the US steel and aluminium tariffs.

Trudeau’s successor Mark Carney also strongly criticised Trump’s “unjustified tariffs”, and vowed that “in trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford had said he would bring in a 25% surcharge on Canadian electricity exports to three US states: Michigan, New York and Minnesota in response to the tariffs.

But these plans were suspended after Trump’s threat to double the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium imports.

• Canada hits US with retaliatory tariffs after warning of ‘existential threat’
• Who is Doug Ford, the Canadian premier standing up to Trump?

Mexico also delayed retaliatory tariffs on US goods during the initial month-long pause.

President Claudia Sheinbaum urged Mexicans to “remain calm” over Trump, insisting that “cooler heads will prevail.”

She also agreed to deploy 10,000 troops to the US-Mexico border to help tackle smuggling.

Speaking after the tariffs came into force on 4 March, she said the US decision had “no justification”, and promised to respond with “tariff and non-tariff measures”.

However, before these were set out, Trump announced the concessions for carmakers and other goods, which she welcomed.

While Trump has been very critical of his Canadian counterpart Trudeau, he has praised Sheinbaum, calling their relationship “very good”.

• As the US and Canada trade barbs, it’s so far so good for Mexico’s Sheinbaum

A 10% charge on all goods imported from China started on 4 February.

Trump later said shipments worth less than $800 would be exempt.

On 10 February, China responded with its own tariffs, including a 10-15% tax on some US agricultural goods.

Beijing has also targeted various US aviation, defence and tech firms by adding them to an “unreliable entity list” and imposing export controls.

The 10% levy doubled to 20% on 4 March.

China urged the US to return to dialogue with Beijing as soon as possible.

“If the United States… persists in waging a tariff war, a trade war, or any other kind of war, the Chinese side will fight them to the bitter end,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian warned.

• China says it is ready for ‘any type of war’ with US
• Can Trump’s tariffs break China’s grip on manufacturing?

All steel and aluminium imports are being taxed at 25%.

Goods from China worth more than $800 are covered by the 20% tariff.

Non-exempt imports from Mexican and Canada are subject to a 25% levy.

Canadian energy exports to the US face a 10% tariff, which could affect a broad range of businesses.

US tariffs on imported washing machines between 2018 and 2023 increased the price of laundry equipment by 34%, according to official statistics. Prices fell once the tariffs expired.

• Toymakers warn of price rises
• Six things that could get more expensive for Americans under Trump tariffs

The US has not announced any targeted sanctions against the UK.

As well as steel, Britain exports pharmaceutical products, cars and scientific instruments to America.

The UK government says it is negotiating a broader economic agreement with the US to get rid of tariffs.

During his 26 February cabinet meeting, Trump said he would set out specific sanctions on EU goods “very soon”, but these have not been announced.

The US had a trade deficit of $213bn with the EU in 2024 – something Trump has previously described as “an atrocity”.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a senior member of Lighthouse, the life-coaching group which was the subject of the BBC podcast series, A Very British Cult.

The warrant was issued for Shaun Cooper, a director of the group’s business entity Lighthouse International Group Holdings Trading LLP, for failing to attend court.

Cooper is the first senior member of the group that the authorities have taken this kind of action against.

Lighthouse began as a life coaching organisation founded by a man called Paul Waugh. But a BBC investigation exposed it as an organisation that ruined the lives of its members and tried to silence any critics.

In the two years since the BBC published its investigation, several people have left the group and are rebuilding their lives. But a small, committed group of members – now calling themselves Lighthouse Global Media – remain devoted to Paul Waugh. They deny that Lighthouse is a cult.

Following a separate investigation into Lighthouse conducted by the Insolvency Service, the High Court in London shut down the business entity “in the public interest” in March 2023, on the grounds that it had filed false or misleading accounts and not cooperated with the investigation.

The Insolvency Service investigation established that, between August 2014 and July 2022, the group received more than £2.4m income – even though it had not declared any assets or income.

Since then, the High Court has requested that all four company directors – Paul Waugh, Chris Nash, Shaun Cooper and Warren Vaughan – cooperate with the Official Receiver’s ongoing efforts to identify any assets to pay those owed money by Lighthouse.

• Listen: A Very British Cult
• Inside Lighthouse, the life coaching cult that takes over lives

Paul Waugh, the leader, moved to South Africa shortly after the company was shut down, along with Chris Nash. Both Waugh and Nash have failed to comply with a November 2024 court order to turn over Lighthouse’s financial records. According to Lighthouse’s letters to the court, this is because both are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

According to Daniel Curthoys, in court for the Official Receiver, Shaun Cooper had also failed to turn up for any of the numerous interviews arranged by investigators.

At a hearing on the 25 February 2025, the court was told, in a letter from Cooper’s Lighthouse colleagues, that he was suffering from depression and anxiety, and had left the country. The letter was accompanied by heavily-redacted medical notes.

Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Sebastian Prentis said Lighthouse’s letter was “a very long way short” of explaining why Cooper had failed to appear or provide any information to the two-year investigation into Lighthouse.

Granting the application for an arrest warrant, he noted that despite the claims made in Lighthouse’s letter, Cooper was apparently well enough to leave Britain. Cooper’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

Of the four former directors, only Warren Vaughan has so far cooperated. At an earlier court hearing, he told the investigators he had left Lighthouse.

In response to the investigation by the Insolvency Service, Lighthouse set up a website criticising the service, accusing it of “bullying” the group.

The site says that “Lighthouse refuses to comply with the Insolvency Service’s demands, beyond the bear [sic] minimum necessary, on the basis that any ‘investigation’ has been falsely triggered by malicious and vindictive individuals and is thereby corrupt and invalid.”

Belgian police have raided several locations in the country as part of an investigation into corruption within the European Parliament.

Prosecutors said the alleged corruption was “under the guise of commercial lobbying”, and that several people had been detained for questioning.

According to officials, an address in Portugal was also searched by local police in relation to the case.

Belgian newspaper Le Soir said the investigation was linked to Chinese tech giant Huawei and its activities in Brussels since 2021. The BBC has approached Huawei for comment.

“Corruption was allegedly practiced regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day, under the guise of commercial lobbying and taking various forms, such as compensation for political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses, or regular invitations to football matches,” the prosecutor’s office explained.

Le Soir reported that several people suspected of being lobbyists working for Huawei were detained, over the alleged bribery of current or former members of the European Parliament (MEP) to promote the company’s trade policy.

A police source told AFP news agency that no MEPs were among those arrested on Thursday.

A total of 21 raids were conducted in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia, the prosecutor’s office told the newspaper.

The investigation focuses on “active corruption within the European Parliament” as well as “forgery and use of forged documents”, all within the framework of a “criminal organisation”, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that it was also looking to uncover possible money laundering.

The Queen sent a personal letter of support to French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

Ms Pelicot was drugged and raped by her ex-husband, who also recruited dozens of men to also abuse her, over nearly a decade.

Queen Camilla, a long-standing campaigner on domestic and sexual violence, was said to be “tremendously affected” by Ms Pelicot’s ordeal and wanted to recognise her “extraordinary dignity and courage”, Newsweek reports.

In December, judges in the French city of Avignon sentenced 72-year-old Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison.

The palace declined to comment on the contents of the letter, which is standard protocol for private correspondence sent from the Queen and other members of the royal family.

But a royal aide told Newsweek despite Ms Pelicot’s “personal suffering” she had helped “highlight a very significant societal problem”.

They added: “It was very much [the Queen’s] instigation and determination to write to express support from the highest level.”

Ms Pelicot’s case, and France’s largest rape trial, brought global attention as she waived her right to anonymity to throw the court’s doors open. In her words, she did it to make the “shame swap sides” from the victim to the rapist – something which turned the 72-year-old into a figurehead for feminism.

During the trial, groups of women lined up outside court to applaud her strength, sometimes offering flowers.

• How an ordinary woman shook attitudes to rape in France

Her ex-husband’s crimes were only uncovered when he was caught taking photographs up women’s skirts in a supermarket.

Pelicot filmed the rapes of his wife, collecting hundreds of videos he stored on a hard disk. He stood trial alongside 50 other men.

Of his co-defendants, 46 were found guilty of rape, two were found guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual assault.

Pelicot was also convicted of taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine, after photos of them were also discovered on his hard drive.

Dominique and Gisèle’s daughter, Caroline Darian, is now pressing charges against her father, accusing him of drugging and raping her.

Ms Darian, 46, says she is clearly unconscious in the two photographs of her found on her father’s hard drive.

Pelicot has always denied sexually abusing his daughter.

The Queen has vowed to campaign for victims of domestic violence throughout her lifetime, and has called for a “culture change” to stop violence against women.

She has worked with a number of charities and refuges, and supported campaigns through royal visits over a number of years.

In November last year, an ITV documentary followed the Queen’s campaign work. In the film, she said domestic abuse should not be a taboo subject, and called for it to be talked about more openly.

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.

India’s largest telecoms company Reliance Jio and its rival Bharti Airtel have signed separate deals with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring the Starlink internet service to the country.

The move has caught most analysts by surprise, as Musk has publicly clashed with both companies recently.

It comes as Indian and US officials discuss a trade deal. US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on 2 April.

The agreements, touted to expand satellite internet coverage across India, are still conditional upon SpaceX obtaining the Indian government’s approval to begin operations.

Starlink had 4.6 million subscribers across the world, as of 2024.

SpaceX has been aiming to launch services in India since 2021, but regulatory hurdles have delayed its arrival.

Both Jio and Airtel say they will leverage their mobile network along with Starlink to deliver broadband services to communities and businesses across the country, including in rural and remote regions.

Jio will offer Starlink equipment in its retail outlets and online stores along with providing installation support for the devices, while Airtel says it is exploring the same.

Airtel also says the tie-up, along with an existing deal with Starlink rival Eutelsat OneWeb, would help to expand its connectivity.

Many had not anticipated Starlink’s simultaneous deals with Jio Platforms and Airtel.

Up until the announcement, Jio was seen as Starlink’s biggest competitor in India’s satellite broadband market.

Billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, who own Jio and Airtel respectively, had jointly opposed Musk’s demand to administratively allocate satellite spectrum.

Mr Musk had argued that spectrum should be allotted as this would align with international standards.

Ambani and Mittal had wanted it to be auctioned instead in a competitive bidding process.

Last October, in a major win for Musk, the Indian government announced that spectrum would be allocated administratively.

The tie-ups come off the back of that policy and Musk’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington last month, during which they discussed cooperation in areas of space technology and mobility.

Musk’s influence on the US government is “sky-high” and “probably a good reason why Delhi took a contrarian position with respect to Jio’s ask for spectrum auction rather than allocation, which is rare”, says Prasanto K Roy, a technology analyst.

India is the world’s second largest internet market but more than 670 million of its 1.4 billion people have no access to the internet, according to a 2024 report by GSMA, a trade body representing mobile network operators worldwide.

Satellite broadband provides internet access anywhere within the satellite’s coverage.

This makes it a reliable option for remote or rural areas where traditional services like DSL – a connection that uses telephone lines to transmit data – or cable are unavailable. It also helps to bridge the hard-to-reach digital divide.

“Starlink is a clear winner here,” says Tarun Pathak, an analyst at Counterpoint Research. If approved, the tie-ups give Musk access to 70% of India’s mobile users.

Musk has been “eyeing a presence [in India] because its size will also give him economies of scale” given how expensive satellite internet is, he says.

These partnerships are also a quick way for Starlink to comply with India’s data localisation laws, he adds.

For consumers, how the services are priced will be key, given mobile data in India is among the cheapest globally.

Satellite broadband plans cost around $150 a month, whereas mobile data is 150 rupees ($2; £1.33).

But a partnership with both Airtel and Jio could help bring prices down to around 3,000 rupees, says Roy.

“Also, pricing may be better from Musk’s point of view and not rock-bottom, with Jio and Airtel offering the same services,” he says.

For Airtel and Jio, the partnership with Musk is a clear result of the telecoms policy not favouring them, analysts say.

“Jio was hoping that it would raise the entry barriers for others by pressing for the auction route. But since that hasn’t happened, they must have felt it is better to change tack and do a tie-up,” says Roy.

Pathak says the Indian government, on the other hand, possibly felt it would be better to “co-operate” rather than “compete” with Musk with Trump’s tariffs looming and a trade deal under discussion.

A Nasa-SpaceX mission that aimed to clear the way for two “stranded” astronauts to get back to Earth has been postponed.

The Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was put back due to a hydraulic ground issue. The next possible launch opportunity is on Friday evening.

The rocket aimed to fly four new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) and pave the way for the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The two Nasa astronauts flew to space in June but were not able to return on a Boeing spacecraft after it was deemed unsafe. The pair should be able to return to Earth within days of the SpaceX mission reaching the ISS.

The Nasa astronauts left earth on 5 June 2024 for an eight-day mission and have been stuck at the ISS for more than nine months, instead helping ongoing missions at the station with maintenance and experiments.

The Wednesday launch would have made it possible for them to return to Earth as early as Sunday.

SpaceX said the issue that forced the launch to scrub related to the hydraulics on one of the clamp arms, which engineers were trying to fix. There were concerns the arm would not have been able to open fully during launch.

The company said the next launch window would be at 1903 Eastern Time (2303GMT) on Friday.

Ms Williams, 58, and Mr Wilmore, 61, have taken their peculiar situation in their stride, saying in a news conference from the ISS in September that they have been trained to “expect the unexpected”.

“This is my happy place,” Ms Williams said at the time, though admitting she missed her family and two dogs.

Mr Wilmore noted the issues with the Starliner spacecraft they arrived on made them not “comfortable” to fly back home on.

He added, however, that 90% of their training was “preparing for the unexpected”.

He said they would stay up there for “eight months, nine months, 10 months” if necessary.

Ms Williams said being in space makes her think more about planet Earth.

“It opens up the door to making you think a bit differently,” she explained. “It’s the one planet we have and we should be taking care of it.”

The number of measles cases in the European region doubled last year to reach the highest level in 25 years, health officials say.

A joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN children’s fund, Unicef, said children under the age of five accounted for more than 40% of the cases reported in Europe and central Asia.

“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call,” Hans Henri Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said. “Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security.”

The MMR vaccine – which immunises people against measles, mumps and rubella – is 97% effective in fighting off the dangerous virus.

Measles is a highly contagious disease which is spread by coughs and sneezes.

Common symptoms include:

• high fever
• sore, red and watery eyes
• coughing
• sneezing

The measles virus can lead to pneumonia, brain swelling and death.

The WHO/Unicef joint analysis covering 53 countries said there had been 127,350 measles cases reported in the European region in 2024 – the highest since 1997.

A total of 38 deaths had been reported up to 6 March 2025.

Measles cases, they added, had been declining since 1997, but the trend reversed in 2018-19 and cases rose significantly in 2023-24 “following a backsliding in immunisation coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“Vaccination rates in many countries are yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, increasing the risk of outbreaks,” they warned.

The European region accounted for a third of all measles cases globally in 2024, the joint analysis said. Within that area, Romania had the highest number of cases – 30,692 – followed by Kazakhstan with 28,147.

The WHO/Unicef statement concluded that measles remained “a significant global threat” and urged governments where cases were occurring to take quick action – and those where the virus had not arrived to be prepared to act.

There have been two deaths in the US recently as the disease – which was considered “eliminated” in the US in 2000 – spreads there and across Canada, too.

Falling vaccination rates have been blamed for the recent flare-up.

In Europe, for instance, eight out of 10 people who were diagnosed with measles in the last year were not vaccinated, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Estimates from 2023 show that only four countries – Hungary, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia – had met the 95% threshold for vaccination to prevent an outbreak, the ECDC said on Tuesday.

Concern has been expressed in the UK, too, over the spread of the disease, as vaccination rates for two doses have fallen below 90%.

Dr Ben Kasstan-Dabush of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine warned people against trusting unverified information on their social media.

“We also learnt from the Covid-19 vaccination programme that misinformation can travel rapidly and can influence people’s decisions. It’s important to be mindful that the vaccine information on social media may not be based on scientific evidence,” Dr Kasstan-Dabush said.

Outside the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) detention centre, where former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has been taken, his supporters gathered on Wednesday night, waving national flags and shouting, “Bring him back!” as a vehicle thought to be carrying him was driven through the imposing iron gates at speed.

Shortly before he landed in the Netherlands, the 79-year-old unapologetically defended his bloody “war on drugs” for which the ICC says there are “reasonable grounds” to charge him with murder as a crime against humanity.

Small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial on his watch as mayor and, later, as president.

The official toll stands at 6,000, though activists believe the real figure could run into the tens of thousands.

Duterte said he cracked down on drug dealers to rid the country of street crimes.

However, rights groups allege that the campaign was rife with police abuse, targeting young men from the urban poor.

Duterte is the first Asian former head of state to be indicted by the ICC – and the first suspect to be flown to The Hague in three years.

And his arrival comes at a pivotal moment for the International Criminal Court.

Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and deportation on Monday was the result of an unprecedented chain of events.

His supporters allege that the ICC is being used as a political tool by the country’s current president Ferdinand Marcos who has publicly fallen out with the powerful Duterte family.

The ICC is a court of last resort designed to hold the most powerful to account when domestic courts are unable or unwilling to do so. But this case is a reminder of the extent to which it depends on state co-operation in order to fulfil its mandate – it effectively has no power to arrest people without the co-operation of the countries they are in, which is most often refused.

In the case of Duterte, chances that he would ever be prosecuted by the ICC seemed unthinkable even in 2022, when his daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte, allied with Marcos to create the powerful “uniteam” that swept presidential elections.

Up until a few months ago, Marcos had dismissed the idea of co-operating with the ICC.

But the pace at which Duterte was served an arrest warrant and extradited shows that when political winds shift, those once considered untouchable can find themselves touching down in The Hague.

The whole process of his extradition – from his detention in Manila to his arrival in The Hague – has been documented on social media by his daughter Kitty and Duterte himself through his aide. His plane was the most tracked on flight radar.

“I am the one who led our law enforcement and military. I said that I will protect you and I will be responsible for all of this,” he said on a Facebook video, one of many that was shared over more than 24 hours during his journey from Manila to The Hague.

It provided rare insight into what is usually an opaque process, and the world was able to follow, sometimes in real time, every step of it right down to the meals Duterte was served on board his chartered jet.

Duterte’s arrest now sends a strong signal that even powerful individuals may be held accountable for their actions, potentially deterring future abuses.

His case has also reignited debate about the ICC’s role in relation to national sovereignty, a concern often raised by non-member states like the United States, Russia, and China.

The court depends on its 128 members to fund and be the operational arm of this judicial body.

So Duterte’s headline-making arrival, followed by his first night in custody at The Hague, offer the court a much-needed win.

After serving two high-profile arrest warrants – one for the Russian president Vladimir Putin, and another for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza – which are unlikely to be enforced, the arrival of Duterte will be put forth as proof the court is capable of bringing those accused of the gravest atrocities to face justice.

It is a litmus test for the ICC’s ability to function effectively in an increasingly polarised climate.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan was recently sanctioned by Donald Trump over the arrest warrant issued for Benjamin Netanyahu.

The detention of Duterte provides him with a powerful response.

“Many say international law is not strong,” Karim Khan acknowledged. “But international law is not as weak as some may think. When we come together, when we build partnerships, the rule of law can prevail.”

The former Philippines president will now mark his 80th birthday this month in the ICC’s detention facility, located in the dunes of The Hague.

The facility, once a Nazi prison complex, provides each detainee with a private cell, access to computers, a library, and sports facilities.

If he isn’t satisfied with the meals provided, Duterte has the option to prepare his own food using a shopping list in the detention center’s kitchen. He will also have access to medical care, lawyers, and visitors.

He is expected to make his initial court appearance in the coming days, where he will confirm his identity, choose the language he wishes to follow proceedings in, and acknowledge the charges against him.

Following this public appearance, a confirmation of charges hearing will follow, during which the judges will decide whether the prosecution has presented a sufficient amount of evidence to proceed to trial.

If the charges are confirmed, it could be many months before he eventually goes on trial, and years before a final judgment.

The White House has withdrawn its candidate to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just hours before he was set to testify before a Senate committee.

President Donald Trump’s administration pulled the nomination of Dave Weldon because “it was clear he did not have the votes in the Senate” to be confirmed, an official told CBS News, BBC’s news partner.

The Senate has so far confirmed every Trump nominee, including his more controversial choices.

Weldon was set to speak before the Senate’s health committee at 10:00 EST (14:00 GMT) on Thursday.

Trump named the 71-year-old, a doctor and former Republican member of the House of Representatives, to lead the health agency in November.

It is the first time a CDC director must be confirmed by the Senate, because of a law passed by Congress in 2022.

The BBC has contacted the White House and Weldon for comment.

The former Republican representative told the New York Times he had mixed feelings about the news.

“It is a shock, but, you know, in some ways, it’s relief,” Weldon said. “Government jobs demand a lot of you, and if God doesn’t want me in it, I’m fine with that.”

The CDC is in charge of vaccine recommendations as well as monitoring infectious disease outbreaks and preventing chronic diseases.

Weldon told the New York Times he had been excited to work with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr – whose agency oversees the CDC – to enact his so-called “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

Weldon said he and Kennedy had been friends for years.

The health secretary has faced criticism over his response to measles outbreaks across the country, which have sickened over 250 people.

Kennedy, who has been critical of measles vaccines and other childhood immunizations, has downplayed the seriousness of the outbreak, calling it “not unusual”, while also promoting treatments not supported by health experts.

Weldon also spread false claims about vaccines, including debunked theories about their ties to autism.

He served as a lawmaker for 14 years, leaving in 2009. For the past 13 years, he has worked as a clinical university professor of biomedical engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology, according to his LinkedIn.

In nominating Weldon last year, Trump claimed Americans had lost faith in the CDC, and that Weldon “understands American family values, and views health as one of utmost importance”.

Mehboob Hussain was riding the train home on Tuesday when the tracks under the front car exploded.

In the depths of central Pakistan’s Bolan Pass, a pocket of wilderness so remote that there is no internet or mobile network coverage, the nine-coach Jaffar Express ground to a halt. Then the bullets started flying.

“I was a passenger on the train that was attacked,” Mr Hussain told BBC Urdu.

He, along with some 440 others, had been travelling from Quetta to Peshawar through the heart of the restive Balochistan province when a group of armed militants struck – they bombed the tracks, fired on the train and then stormed the carriages.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) quickly claimed responsibility for the siege, and threatened to kill many of those on board if Pakistani authorities did not release Baloch political prisoners within 48 hours.

The group, which many countries have designated a terrorist organisation, has waged a decades-long insurgency to gain independence for Balochistan, accusing Islamabad of exploiting the province’s rich mineral resources while also neglecting it.

BLA militants have a long history of attacking military camps, railway stations and trains in the region.

But this was the first time they had hijacked one.

The siege lasted over 30 hours. According to authorities, 300 passengers have now been freed, and 33 BLA militants, 21 civilian hostages and four military personnel were killed. But conflicting figures suggest many passengers remain unaccounted for.

Information relating to the attack and the subsequent rescue operation has been tightly controlled throughout.

But the BBC was able to speak to multiple eyewitnesseses who described the “doomsday scenes” on board the train as the attack unfolded.

As Ishaq Noor told BBC Urdu of those first few moments: “We held our breath throughout the firing, not knowing what would happen next.”

A railway police officer who was on board the train told BBC Urdu that, contrary to initial reports from Pakistani authorities, the train was “not in a tunnel but in an open area” when it was hit.

The BLA has also released an alleged video of the moment the train was struck by the blast. It shows an open section of track that runs along the base of a large rocky slope.

Atop that slope, according to the video, is a cluster of BLA fighters.

The officer described to the BBC how he initially “fought together with other police officers” to try and hold off the militants until “the ammunition ran out”.

“They [the BLA] were moving in front of us on the mountain and they were much more numerous than us, in the hundreds,” the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recalled. He noted that he was accompanied by four railway police and two members of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC).

At least 100 of those on the train were members of the security forces, according to Pakistani officials.

“I told my companion to give me the G-3 rifle because it is a better weapon,” the officer explained. “When I got the rifle and the rounds, we also started firing back. I used to fire one shot at a time at them so that they could not come near us and the train… [But] in an hour-and-half, our rounds were over… We were helpless.”

When the gunfire from those on board the Jaffar Express ceased, the militants came down from the surrounding mountains and started taking passengers off the train, the officer said.

“They started checking cards and telling people to go this way, this way,” he said, explaining that the hostages were separated into groups alongside the train, according to their ethnicity.

The militants were speaking in the Balochi language, he added, and declared, “We have made demands to the government and if they are not met, we will not spare anyone; we will set the vehicle on fire”.

The officer claimed the militants were receiving orders: “They would get orders to kill, and they would pick up people from the group and kill them. They killed many people – both army personnel and civilians.”

Some passengers, however, were allowed to leave unharmed – including women, children, the elderly and those who lived in Balochistan, according to Mr Noor.

Among those released was Noor Muhammad. He said that when the initial volleys of gunfire stopped after an hour, armed men forced open the door to the train and entered, saying “get out or we will shoot you”.

Mr Muhammad said he was escorted off the train, and when he told the militants his wife was still in the back of the car, they brought her out too. Then they “told us to go straight and not look back”.

The couple walked through the wilderness, he said, and with “great difficulty” reached Panir Railway Station at about 1900, where they rested.

His wife recalled the moment the Pakistan military arrived to meet them.

“They told me, ‘ma’am, come inside with us, we will take you home safely,'” she said. The soldiers took the couple to the town of Machh, she added, “and then we reached Quetta to our children, who were waiting for us”.

Some passengers who managed to leave the train late on Tuesday evening said they walked for nearly four hours to reach the next railway station. They included Muhammad Ashraf, who had been riding the train to Lahore to visit his family.

“We reached the station with great difficulty,” he told BBC Urdu, “because we were tired and there were children and women with us.”

As night descended over the Jaffar Express, scores of BLA militants began to depart, according to the police official who did not wish to named.

“Many of them hugged each other and 70, 80 people left while 20, 25 stayed behind,” he said.

At about 10pm, he recalled, violence erupted again.

“Some people tried to run away, they [the BLA] saw them and opened fire, then everyone fell to the ground,” the official said.

Mr Mehboob similarly recalled gunfire throughout the night – and said that at one point, a person close to him, who had five daughters, was shot.

“When someone is killed in front of your eyes, you don’t know what to do,” he said.

Another passenger, Allahditta, said his cousin was killed in front of him by the BLA. He said his cousin was pleading to the militants to not kill him as he had young daughters but “his life was not spared”.

The BBC on Wednesday saw dozens of wooden coffins being loaded at Quetta railway station. A railway official said they were empty and being transported to collect casualties.

It was during the time of morning prayer on Wednesday that rescuers from the FC started firing on the BLA militants, Mr Allahditta said.

Amid the sudden chaos, he and others broke free.

“When the FC opened fire at the time of the Fajr call to prayer, we escaped from the militants,” Mr Allahdita said.

The police official similarly recalled the moment when the FC moved in, briefly diverting the BLA militants’ focus away from the hostages.

“When the FC arrived in the morning, the attention of these people turned to this direction,” the official said. “I told my companion, ‘Let’s try to run away.'”

Militants fired on the escapees as they fled, and the official said his companion was hit from behind.

“He told me to let go of him. I said no, I’ll carry you on my shoulder. Then another person also joined hands and we went down the hills and out of firing range.”

Mr Mehboob, Mr Allahdita, the police official and his companion all managed to escape the Jaffar Express alive as the FC attacked the militants.

Military and paramilitary troops and helicopters had surrounded the stranded train since Tuesday. On Wednesday, they killed the hostage-takers and cleared the site, according to a military spokesperson.

Authorities said there were 440 passengers on the train – and 300 of them have been freed. But it’s still unclear what happened to the remaining 140. Reuters and AFP quoted an unnamed security official who said some miliants had left, taking an unknown number of passengers with them.

The military says it is still working to find passengers who escaped and fled into the surrounding area, and insists that any others involved in the hijacking would be brought to justice.

Mr Noor, who is now distributing alms and charity in his hometown along with his wife, is just grateful to have escaped the situation with his life.

“Thank God,” Mr Noor said. “He saved us.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is the latest to criticise a US influencer whose video of her taking a wild baby wombat away from its distressed mother has angered conservationists.

Albanese suggested that the woman, Sam Jones, tries doing so with animals that “can actually fight back”: “Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.”

Ms Jones, who calls herself an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter”, was filmed picking up the joey by the road and running across it to a car, while its mother ran after them.

The man filming can be heard laughing: “Look at the mother, it’s chasing after her!” The video, which was filmed in Australia, has since been deleted.

Immigration officials are reviewing Ms Jones’s visa, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the BBC, following calls for her to be deported.

An online petition supporting Ms Jones’s deportation has received 10,500 signatures so far.

“Given the level of scrutiny that will happen if she ever applies for a visa again, I’ll be surprised if she even bothers,” Burke said in a statement.

Ms Jones’s “appalling” behaviour could have caused severe harm to the wombats, conservationists say.

The Wombat Protection Society said it was shocked to see the “mishandling of a wombat joey in an apparent snatch for ‘social media likes'”.

“[She] then placed the vulnerable baby back onto a country road – potentially putting it at risk of becoming roadkill,” it noted in its statement, adding that it remains unclear if the joey reunited with its mother.

“I caught a baby wombat,” Ms Jones exclaimed in the video, while the joey could be heard hissing and struggling in her grip.

Her caption in the now-deleted post read: “My dream of holding a wombat has been realised! Baby and mom slowly waddled back off together into the bush.”

“The baby was carefully held for one minute in total and then released back to mom,” she wrote in the comments, responding to criticism.

“They wandered back off into the bush together completely unharmed. I don’t ever capture wildlife that will be harmed by my doing so.”

Following the backlash, Ms Jones, who has more than 92,000 followers on Instagram, made her account private. But several media outlets had already shared the video – as well as earlier posts, said to be taken in Australia, which show her holding an echidna and a “little shark”.

Wombats, which are native to Australia, are a legally protected species across the country. Baby wombats share a strong bond with their mothers, and any separation can be distressing and harmful, conservationists say.

“Wombats are not a photo prop or plaything,” said Suzanne Milthorpe, Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection Australia, in a statement online.

“It’s just unacceptable, and we’re glad she’s being called to account. Snatching a screaming baby wombat from their mother is not just appalling, it’s very possibly illegal under state or national laws,” Ms Milthrope said.

Some experts believe Ms Jones broke the law because Australia prohibits people from harming or taking native wildlife.

It is only allowed if the joey is in need of help because its mother has died, wildlife veterinarian Tania Bishop told ABC News.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong also weighed in on the “dreadful” video.

“I think everyone who would have seen that would have thought, leave the baby wombat alone. Leave it with its mum,” she told 7News.

With Donald Trump’s tit-for-tat tariffs on India looming next month, millions of Americans may have to brace for steeper medical bills.

Last week, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal made an unscheduled trip to the US for discussions with officials, hoping to strike a trade deal.

It followed Trump’s announcement that he would impose tariffs – which are government taxes on foreign imports – on India by 2 April, in retaliation to India’s tariffs on American goods.

Goyal wants to stave off tax increases on India’s critical export industries like medicinal drugs.

Nearly half of all generic medicines taken in the US come from India alone. Generic drugs – which are cheaper versions of brand-name medications – imported from countries like India make up nine out of 10 prescriptions in the US.

This saves Washington billions in healthcare costs. In 2022 alone, the savings from Indian generics amounted to a staggering $219bn (£169bn), according to a study by consulting firm IQVIA.

Without a trade deal, Trump’s tariffs could make some Indian generics unviable, forcing companies to exit part of the market and exacerbating existing drug shortages, experts say.

Tariffs could “worsen the demand-supply imbalances” and the uninsured and poor will be left counting the costs, says Dr Melissa Barber, a drug costing expert from Yale University.

The effects could be felt across people suffering from a range of health conditions.

Over 60% of prescriptions for hypertension and mental health ailments in the US were filled with Indian-made drugs, according to the IQVIA study funded by the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).

Sertraline, the most prescribed antidepressant in the US, is a prominent example of how dependent Americans are on Indian supplies for essential drugs.

Many of them cost half as much as those from non-Indian companies.

“We are worried about this,” says Peter Maybarduk, a lawyer at Public Citizens, a consumer advocacy group fighting for access to medicines. One in four American patients fail to take medicines due to their costs, he adds.

Trump is already reportedly facing pressure from US hospitals and generic drugmakers because of his tariffs on Chinese imports.

The raw materials for 87% of the drugs sold in the US are located outside the country and primarily concentrated in China which fulfils around 40% of global supply.

With tariffs on Chinese imports rising 20% since Trump took office, the cost of raw materials for drugs has already gone up.

Trump wants companies to shift manufacturing to the US to avoid his tariffs.

Big pharma giants like Pfizer and Eli Lily, that sell brand name and patented drugs, have said they are committing to move some manufacturing there.

But the economics for low-value drugs do not add up.

Dilip Shanghvi, chairman of India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharma, told an industry gathering last week that his company sells pills for between $1 and $5 per bottle in the US and tariffs “do not justify relocating our manufacturing to the US”.

“Manufacturing in India is at least three to four times cheaper than in the US,” says Sudarshan Jain of the IPA.

Any quick relocation will be next to impossible. Building a new manufacturing facility can cost up to $2bn and take five to 10 years before it is operational, according to lobby group PhRMA.

For local pharma players in India, the tariff blow could be brutal too.

The pharmaceutical sector is India’s largest industrial export according to GTRI, a trade research agency.

India exports some $12.7bn worth of drugs to the US annually, paying virtually no tax. US drugs coming into India, however, pay 10.91% in duties.

This leaves a “trade differential” of 10.9%. Any reciprocal tariffs by the US would increase the costs for both generic medicines and specialty drugs, according to GTRI.

It flags up pharmaceuticals as one of the sectors that is most vulnerable to price increases in the US market.

Indian firms which largely sell generic drugs already work on thin margins and won’t be able to afford a steep tax outgo.

They sell at much lower prices compared to competing peers, and have steadily gained dominance across cardiovascular, mental health, dermatology and women’s health drugs in the world’s largest pharma market.

“We can offset single-digit tariff hikes with cost cuts, but anything higher will have to be passed down to consumers,” the finance head of a top Indian drugmaker who didn’t want to be identified, told the BBC.

North America is their biggest revenue source, contributing a third of the earnings and profitability of most companies.

“It is the fastest growing market and most crucial. Even if we increase exposure to other markets, it will not adjust for any loss in the US market,” the finance head said.

Umang Vohra, CEO of India’s third-largest drug firm Cipla, said at a public gathering recently that tariffs should not ultimately dictate what businesses do, “because there is a risk that four years later, those tariffs may go away”.

But four years is a long time, and could make or break the fortunes of several companies.

To avoid any of this, “India should just drop its tariffs on pharma goods”, Ajay Bagga, a veteran market expert told the BBC. “US drug exports into India are barely half a billion dollars, so the impact will be negligible.”

The IPA, which consists of India’s largest drug makers, has also recommended zero duty on US drug exports so that India isn’t negatively impacted by reciprocal levies.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government recently added 36 life-saving drugs to the list of medicines fully exempted from a basic customs duty in the budget, and President Trump dropped a hint last week that India could be yielding to his pressure.

India has agreed to cut tariffs “way down”, he said, because “somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done”.

Delhi has not responded yet, but pharma players in both countries are nervously waiting to see the specifics of a trade deal that could have a bearing on lives and livelihoods.

“In the short term, there may be some pain through new tariffs, but I think they’ll make significant progress by the fall of this year for a first tranche [trade] agreement,” Mark Linscott, Senior Advisor at US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, told the BBC, adding that neither country could afford a breakdown in pharma supply chains.

China’s biggest hotpot chain Haidilao has offered to compensate more than 4,000 diners who visited one of its Shanghai branches, where two teens urinated into their hotpot broth.

A video of the boys peeing into their broth pot while dining in a private room was widely shared online last month. It is not clear who might have filmed the incident.

Police said the 17-year-olds, who were drunk at the time, were detained soon after the incident.

There is no suggestion anyone consumed the affected broth. Haidilao has apologised to customers, saying it has replaced all hotpot equipment and dining utensils, as well as disinfecting other crockery and utensils.

The incident happened late in February, though the company’s management only found out about it days later, after videos circulated on social media.

Haidilao said the staff on duty at the time had failed to stop the teens.

It took another week to find out which outlet it was, the company said, as it has dozens of outlets in the city.

Diners in Haidilao use their own personal hotpot equipment to cook their food, and broths are not re-used again for other customers. However, it is unclear in this case if the hotpot in question was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before it was used by the next customer.

“We fully understand that the distress caused to our customers by this incident cannot be fully compensated for by any means, but we will do our utmost to take responsibility,” the company said in a statement.

Haidilao said customers who dined at the outlet between 24 February and 8 March will receive a full refund, followed by cash compensation that is 10 times the amount they were billed.

The company has expanded quickly since it opened its first restaurant in Jianyang in Sichuan province. It now operates more than 1,000 restaurants across the world.

Haidilao is known for its customer service and family-friendly atmosphere, where ladies can receive manicures and kids are treated to candy floss while waiting for a table.

A Taiwanese actor who was earlier arrested for allegedly dodging mandatory military duties has now begun his conscription service.

Darren Wang, who shot to fame for his breakout role in the 2015 teen rom-com Our Times, allegedly used forged medical documents to try to get a military service exemption, according to local news outlets.

All men in Taiwan have to undergo compulsory military service for one year. The government raised this from four months in 2022, citing growing threats from mainland China.

Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, but China sees the self-ruled island as a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing’s control.

News of the 33-year-old Wang’s alleged military evasion had earlier sparked debate on Chinese social media with some Taiwanese netizens accusing him of evading his duties, and others asking him to “become a citizen [of the People’s Republic of China]”.

Wang is popular in the Chinese mainland, and has previously referred to it as the “motherland”.

Wang was arrested at his home on 18 February and taken for questioning by police before being released on bail.

Local news reports said he was under investigation for the alleged forgery of a medical document, with Taiwan’s Central News Agency saying that “relevant evidence” had been seized from his home.

He was released on bail, but was later investigated again for his suspected involvement in an attempted murder case after police reportedly discovered incriminating messages on his phone.

Wang was taken into custody again in March for this, and was later released on bail.

He is still under investigation for both charges.

On Thursday, Wang joined more than 1,000 other recruits at the Chenggong Ling military camp in Taichung city.

They will undergo weeks of basic training before being transferred to a specialised unit.

All men over the age of 18 in Taiwan are required to serve in the army – though deferments can be granted in certain cases. However, all men are required to serve in the military by the time they turn 36.

In the 1990s, men were required to serve in the military for up to three years, this was over the next few decades gradually shortened, before being reduced to four months.

However, then president Tsai Ing-wen had in 2022 said this would be extended to a year amid growing tensions with China.

Taiwan is on the frontline of authoritarian expansion,” she had then said, adding that conscripts will also undergo more intense training, borrowing some elements from the US and other advanced militaries.

“He was on top of me – we were kissing and having sex, then suddenly he put his forearm on my neck and pressed hard with his full weight. I just froze.”

Rachel* had never slept with the man before. Speaking to the BBC, she says while the sex was consensual, the man began choking her without warning and without her consent – and that was deeply frightening.

“He just did it like it was normal and it caught me by surprise, so I just went with it,” the 26-year-old says. “I didn’t lose consciousness, but this numbness came over me and I just waited for it to stop.”

It happened again a fortnight later, Rachel says, with another man whom she had met on a dating site. Like the previous occasion, there was no discussion about choking beforehand.

“The actual strangling is a blank in my memory,” she says. “His hands were round my neck, and then I disassociated with it until it ended.

“You go from feeling safe to losing control of the situation. I didn’t have sex for a year afterwards because of how it made me feel alienated from my body.”

Both incidents were distressing for Rachel, who assumes the men who choked her must have seen it in pornography.

“It felt like it was – in their minds – just a normal part of sex.”

A recent government review found porn involving non-fatal strangulation (NFS) was “rife” and that its prevalence online was contributing to choking filtering into some people’s sex lives – particularly among young people. The BBC has spoken to women who’ve experienced choking during sex – both willingly and not – and to experts who say, while it may be more common, it is illegal and highly dangerous.

When someone is strangled, pressure on the neck cuts off the blood supply to the brain, which can lead to feeling dizzy and light-headed. The level of oxygen in the body suddenly drops, while the build-up of carbon dioxide significantly increases. This can cause brain damage or even death.

Other risks include loss of consciousness, strokes, seizures, and speech disorders. Choking can also lead to psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and contribute to depression.

Despite the health risks, a recent survey by the government-funded charity the Institute For Addressing Strangulation (IFAS), suggests strangling is most common in the 16-34 age group, with 35% of respondents reporting they had been choked by a partner during consensual sex.

Some 16% of all UK-based respondents (385 out of 2,344) have been strangled once or more during consensual sex, and the data shows a slightly higher proportion of women have experienced it compared with men.

Half of the sample who had experienced it said they had agreed to it, while 17% said they hadn’t.

Some people who engage in sexual asphyxiation say it intensifies pleasure – like Amanda*, who told the BBC she is regularly strangled by her boyfriend during what she calls rough sex.

“It gets us both off,” the 28-year-old says. “I find the idea of turning him on a turn on, and I trust that he won’t go too far and put lots of pressure on.

“It’s an intimate thing with the person you trust the most, so you feel safe.”

A quick search on a mainstream adult website, and it takes just seconds to find a series of porn films featuring long sequences of non-fatal strangulation (NFS).

The influence of pornography has resulted in strangulation becoming “standard behaviour” according to Prof Hannah Bows, from Durham University’s Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse.

“What we’ve seen in the last 10 to 15 years is that it’s become a glamorised, fantasised and celebrated form of ‘normal’ sexual encounters,” she says.

Her conclusions are reinforced by the findings of the porn industry review commissioned by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. It found content involving NFS was “rife on mainstream platforms”, and recommended making, possessing or publishing porn showing women being strangled during sex, a crime. It isn’t currently illegal to depict online.

The government also said further action is needed to address the findings that graphic strangulation is becoming normalised in real life.

NFS was made a specific offence in England and Wales in 2022, with a maximum prison sentence of five years. About 700 offenders were sentenced for non-fatal strangulation or suffocation offences between July 2022 and June 2023, crime statistics shared with the BBC show.

There are no statistics on the number of people who have died from strangulation while having sex. The latest femicide census shows of the 2,000 women aged 14 or above who had been killed in the UK since 2014, strangulation was used in 550 (27%). Some 372 were strangled by an intimate partner.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) warns NFS can be used to control and coerce a partner by using physical strength to create fear – and studies suggest victims are seven times more likely to be murdered by their partner if there had been non-fatal strangulation beforehand.

Amanda didn’t know choking could be an offence in England and Wales, even if done consensually and for pleasure. “I had no idea,” she says, “but it’s our business and it’s our sex life – and it’s not like we both haven’t talked about it.”

Her boyfriend agrees: “It’s hot. We watch it on porn and so you think, ‘if they do it and it works, why not us?’ I might be more careful now though.”

However, Harriet Smailes, from the IFAS, says there is “no safe way to strangle”.

“We also know that consent for these acts is not always sought in advance, and an individual’s ability to provide ongoing consent can be impeded by being strangled.”

Kama Melly KC, who specialises in prosecuting sexual offence cases, says NFS often occurs as an act of domestic violence, and can be difficult to prove due to a lack of visible injuries, eye witnesses, CCTV or forensic findings.

“The fact that there can be a loss of consciousness after just a few seconds – that means the victim doesn’t have a very clear narrative of events,” she adds.

Ms Melly says defendants can claim strangulation during sex was consensual, although such a defence is not possible if the victim suffers serious harm.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, the NPCC’s lead for domestic abuse, wants people to think twice before engaging in sexual asphyxiation.

“I would say get yourself informed and really understand, because you’re not a medical expert,” she says. “You may feel that you’re doing something that’s safe, but all the research and evidence would suggest it’s not.

“It’s incredibly dangerous, so think through the consequences.”

A plane carrying former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has arrived in the Netherlands where he is to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his deadly “war on drugs”.

Duterte was arrested at Manila airport on Tuesday and within hours was on a chartered jet which flew via Dubai to The Hague, where the ICC sits.

The 79-year-old could become the first Asian former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.

Duterte, who contested his extradition, led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022 and presided over a violent “war on drugs” that saw thousands of small-time drug dealers, users and others killed without trial.

The Gulfstream G550 landed in Dubai for a stopover early on Wednesday and its expected departure was delayed for several hours while Duterte received medical checks, Reuters news agency reports.

Once the plane had landed in Rotterdam, the ICC confirmed that Duterte was in its custody to face charges “of murder as a crime against humanity”.

“A hearing will be scheduled in due course for Mr Duterte’s initial appearance before the Court.”

Meanwhile the former leaders’ supporters gathered outside The Hague Penitentiary Institution protesting his arrest. Many of them waved the Philippine flag, while others mimicked Duterte’s signature fist-pumping gesture.

“We stand with Duterte,” read a banner held up by supporters.

Duterte’s main political rival, current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, was instrumental in handing him over. Minutes after Duterte left Philippines airspace, Marcos gave a televised address saying the country was fulfilling its legal obligation.

“This is what the international community expects of us,” Marcos said.

The Duterte and Marcos families are the Philippines’ most powerful political dynasties. They joined forces to sweep the country’s last national election in 2022, but have fallen out in recent months as they pursued separate agendas.

Duterte being handed to the ICC is the latest twist in a political feud that has unfolded spectacularly in the public view.

The Duterte and Marcos families formed a formidable alliance in the 2022 elections. Against the elder Duterte’s wishes, his daughter Sara ran as Marcos Jr’s vice-president instead of seeking her father’s post.

Marcos initially refused to co-operate with the ICC investigation, but as his relationship with the Duterte family deteriorated, he changed his stance.

Vice-President Duterte said her father’s arrest amounted to “kidnapping”, claiming it violated Philippine sovereignty. She left Manila for the Netherlands on Wednesday, according to her office.

Rodrigo Duterte previously insisted that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, since he pulled the country out of the tribunal in 2019, three years after it took note of the drug war’s rising death toll.

But according to the Rome Statute that is the basis for the ICC, the court maintains jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed before a nation leaves the tribunal.

The ICC investigation covers 2011-2019, which includes the period when Duterte was mayor of Davao, a sprawling metropolis in the country’s south, where his family has held power for decades.

Complaints filed against Duterte at the ICC allege that he kept a “death squad” of bounty hunters to go after drug suspects in Davao, and later replicated this model on a national scale when he was elected president.

Human Rights Watch called Duterte’s arrest a “critical step for accountability in the Philippines”.

Duterte built a reputation for Davao as one of the Philippines’ safest cities, and cultivated the image of a tough-talking, anti-establishment man of the masses to pull off a dark horse win in the 2016 presidential elections.

Polls show he is the most popular Philippines president since the restoration of democracy in 1986.

His supporters have threatened to hold large rallies to protest against his arrest. They had asked the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order against the ICC warrant – but the court did not act before the former president was flown out on Tuesday.

On social media, where the Dutertes maintain a strong following, the reaction was mixed.

Many praised the ICC for delivering justice for those who died in the drug war, while others defended Duterte’s legacy, with some calling for widespread rallies.

“Justice served,” read a top-liked comment on TikTok.

“Philippines was safe during Duterte’s time,” another TikTok user wrote, saying the former leader built bridges, roads and other infrastructure. “He was the best president.”

US President Donald Trump has pledged to impose more tariffs after his latest move to introduce import taxes on steel and aluminium entering the US prompted retaliation from the European Union (EU) and Canada.

Trump said that “of course” he would respond to the countermeasures, repeating his warning to reveal “reciprocal” tariffs next month on countries around the world.

“Whatever they charge us with, we’re charging them,” he said.

The threat marked a further escalation of a trade war which has rattled financial markets amid concerns over the impact on the economies and consumers in many countries around the world, including the US.

On Wednesday, Trump moved forward with a plan to widen US tariffs on steel and aluminium, imposing a blanket duty of 25% and ending exemptions that the US had previously granted for shipments from some countries.

That followed an order earlier this month that raised levies on Chinese imports into the US to at least 20%.

Trump has also threatened tariffs – which are taxes applied to goods as they enter a country – on a range of more specific items, including copper, lumber and cars.

Leaders in Canada and Europe called the new metals taxes unjustified and struck back with their own tariffs on a range of US products.

Other countries that are key US suppliers of metals, including the UK, Australia, Mexico and Brazil, held off on any immediate retaliation.

“Like everybody else, I’m disappointed to see global tariffs in relation to steel and aluminium but we will take a pragmatic approach,” said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

“We are…negotiating a deal which covers and includes tariffs if we succeed. But we will keep all options on the table.”

Canada said from Thursday it would start charging a 25% tax on nearly C$30bn ($20bn; £16bn) worth of US products, including steel, computers and sports equipment.

Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney said he was ready to negotiate a renewed trade deal with Trump, as long as there was “respect for Canadian sovereignty”.

The EU said it would raise its levies on up to €26bn ($28bn; £22bn) worth of US goods, including boats, bourbon and motorbikes, from 1 April.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the response was intended to be “strong but proportionate” and added that the EU stood “ready to engage in a meaningful dialogue”.

“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business and worse for consumers,” she said, warning the economic disruption put jobs at stake and would send prices higher.

“Nobody needs that – on both sides, neither in the European Union nor in the United States.”

Trump had said he wants to boost US steel and aluminium production in the longer run, but critics say in the immediate term the taxes on imports of the metals will raise prices for US consumers and dent economic growth.

Major packaged food makers including Quaker Oats and Folgers coffee asked Trump for targeted exemptions from tariffs on imports such as cocoa and fruit, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

PepsiCo, Conagra and J M Smucker, also requested the president exempt ingredients not available from US sources in the letter, which was sent by the trade group the Consumer Brands Association.

Coffee, oats, cocoa, spices, tropical fruit and tin mill steel, used for some food and household goods, are among the imports listed as unavailable domestically, Reuters reported.

The import taxes are also expected to reduce demand for steel and aluminium that is not made in the US – a blow to makers of the metals elsewhere.

The EU estimated that the latest US tariffs affect about 5% of its total exports to the US, while the US is the destination for roughly 90% of Canada’s steel and aluminium exports.

Shares in the US were mixed on Wednesday, after two days of sharp decline. The Dow closed down 0.2%, while the S&P 500 ended nearly 0.5% higher and the Nasdaq jumped 1.2%.

In an appearance at the White House with the Irish prime minister, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Trump said he did not plan to back down from his trade fight, saying he was “not happy” with EU trade policies.

He cited concerns about legal penalties it has imposed on Apple and rules he claimed put US farm products and cars at a disadvantage.

“They’re doing what they should be doing perhaps for the European Union but it does create ill will,” he said.

Repeating his threat to hit European cars with tariffs, he added later: “We’re going to win that financial battle.”