US President Donald Trump has praised talks held with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the US-proposed ceasefire deal in Ukraine as “good and productive”.

This comes after Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow on Thursday evening, after which the Kremlin said it shared the US’s “cautious optimism” over a peace process.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that the talks provided “a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, accused Putin of trying to drag out talks to continue the war, while Sir Keir Starmer said the Russian president could not be allowed to “play games” with ceasefire proposals.

• Follow live: Trump says US had ‘good and productive’ talks with Putin over Ukraine war

Earlier this week, Ukraine accepted the US-proposed ceasefire deal, which Russia is yet to agree to.

On Thursday, Putin had said the idea of a ceasefire was “right and we support it… but there are nuances” and he set out a number of tough conditions for peace, a response branded “manipulative” by Zelensky.

Ukraine’s leader continued his criticism on Friday in a series of posts on X, writing: “Putin cannot exit this war because that would leave him with nothing.

“That is why he is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire.”

He said Putin would “drag” everyone into “endless discussions… wasting days, weeks, and months on meaningless talks while his guns continue to kill people”.

“Every condition Putin puts forward is just an attempt to block any diplomacy. This is how Russia works. And we warned about this.”

UK PM Sir Keir said the Kremlin’s “complete disregard” for Trump’s ceasefire proposal demonstrated Putin was “not serious about peace”.

“If Russia finally comes to the table, then we must be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure it is a serious and enduring peace,” he said.

“If they don’t, then we need to strain every sinew to ramp up economic pressure on Russia to secure an end to this war.”

On Saturday, Sir Keir will host a video call with as many as 25 leaders to develop the peacekeeping mission proposed during a summit in London earlier this month.

The “coalition of the willing” – as he called it – will work to deter future Russian aggression, should the US-proposed ceasefire come into effect.

In his social media posts on Friday, Zelensky “strongly” urged “everyone who can influence Russia, especially the United States, to take strong steps that can help”, because Putin would not stop the war on his own.

“Putin is lying about the real situation on the battlefield… the casualties” and “the true state of his economy”, he said, explaining that Putin was “doing everything possible to ensure that diplomacy fails”.

But the White House believes the two sides have “never been this close to peace”.

Talking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained that the talks between Putin and Witkoff in Moscow on Thursday were “productive”.

She added Trump has been “putting pressure on Putin and the Russians to do the right thing”.

Trump’s social media post also “strongly requested” Putin should spare the lives of Ukrainian troops, whom he described as surrounded by Russian forces, adding it would be a “horrible massacre” not seen since World War Two.

His comments came after Putin said on Thursday that Ukrainian troops in Kursk had been “isolated” and were trying to leave, as Russia ramps up efforts to reclaim the region invaded by Ukraine last year.

But on Friday, Ukraine’s armed forces general staff denied the encirclement of its troops, calling it “false and fabricated”.

In a statement, it said operations were continuing, with Ukrainian troops having withdrawn and “successfully regrouped” to better defensive positions.

“There is no threat of encirclement of our units,” it said.

In response to Trump’s request, Putin said Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk would be treated with “dignity in line with the norms of international law and the laws of the Russian Federation” if they gave up arms and surrendered.

Meanwhile, G7 members have been meeting in Quebec, where host Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said all the members agreed with the US proposal of a ceasefire that is supported by Ukrainians.

“And we are now studying and looking at Russian reactions, so ultimately the ball is now in Russia’s court when it comes to Ukraine.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who was also at the meeting, said the members were united in calling for a ceasefire with “no conditions”.

Following the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would not make foreign policy decisions based on what leaders said on social media or at a news conference, and stressed the “only way to end this war is through a process of negotiations”.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Vladimir Putin of trying to “sabotage” diplomatic efforts to secure an immediate ceasefire.

In a post on social media, he urged the US to put more pressure on the Russian president, saying only the “strength of America” could end the war.

The Ukrainian leader said Putin was “doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire”.

At his press conference on Thursday, Putin said he accepted the idea of a ceasefire but qualified that with numerous questions about detail.

• Peace talks are in parallel universe, say Ukraine front-line troops
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He raised the Kursk border region, where Russian forces are retaking territory occupied by Ukraine six months ago. He accused Ukrainian forces of “heinous crimes against civilians” – something Kyiv denies – and asked whether they should walk free or surrender.

He asked about whether Ukraine would use a ceasefire to mobilise, retrain and resupply its troops, without suggesting his forces might do the same.

And Putin raised numerous questions about how a ceasefire could be monitored and policed along the frontline in the east. “Who will be able to determine who violated the potential ceasefire agreement over a distance of 2,000 km and where exactly?” he asked. “Who will be held responsible for violating the ceasefire?”

At a meeting with journalists on Friday, Zelensky addressed these issues directly, especially the questions about verification. He said Ukraine was more than able to verify a ceasefire in the air and the sea. But he said the surveillance and intelligence capabilities of American and European aircraft and satellites would be needed to monitor the front line.

Ukraine believes Putin’s conditions of detail can be addressed. Much harder to deal with are Putin’s objections of principle. He said any deal should “proceed from the assumption that this cessation should lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis”. By that, he means his objections to the expansion of the Nato military alliance and the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign independent state.

There is very little chance of that being addressed in any immediate interim ceasefire. Not for nothing did G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada emphasise Ukraine’s territorial integrity “and its right to exist and its freedom, sovereignty and independence”.

This is why Zelensky said “Russia is the only party that wants the war to continue and diplomacy to break down”.

So what could happen now? Well the ball is in America’s court. President Trump could choose to step up pressure on Russia as Ukraine is demanding. He could impose more sanctions on Russia – and countries buying its cheap oil and gas. He could also give more military and intelligence support to Ukraine. Or alternatively Trump could offer Russia more concessions to get a deal over the line, a possibility that worries some here in Kyiv. Much of the contact between the US and Russia has been held in secret compared to the very public diplomatic pressure imposed on Ukraine.

That is why Zelensky is calling out Russia’s delaying tactics and urging the West to put more pressure on Putin. He may also be enjoying seeing Russia in the spotlight, having been the butt of American diplomatic efforts for more than a month since Trump and Putin had their first telephone call.

The bottom line is that Trump has driven a diplomatic bulldozer through many international issues since his inauguration, including the war in Ukraine.

But now he has come up against the walls of the Kremlin and they may be harder to get through.

Trump wants a fast end to the fighting. Putin wants a “painstaking” discussion about details and principles. Two incompatible imperatives held by two stubborn leaders used to getting their way. Who will blink first? The prospects of a ceasefire are by no means certain, for all the American expressions of “cautious optimism”.

The gates to the Izaguirre Ranch look much like any others you might find in the state of Jalisco. Two prancing horses on the front perhaps a nod to the surrounding cattle-grazing and sugarcane fields.

Yet what lies behind the black iron doors is allegedly evidence of some of Mexico’s worst drug cartel violence of recent times.

Following a tip-off about the possible location of a mass grave, an activist group of relatives of some of Mexico’s thousands of disappeared people went to the ranch, hoping to find some sign of their missing loved ones.

What they found was far worse: 200 pairs of shoes, hundreds of items of clothing, scores of suitcases and rucksacks, discarded after the owners themselves were apparently disposed of.

Even more chilling, several ovens and human bone fragments were found at the ranch.

The site was used, the activists claim, by the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) for the forced recruitment and training of their foot-soldiers, and for torturing their victims and cremating their bodies.

“There were children’s toys in there,” says Luz Toscano, a member of the Buscadores Guerreros de Jalisco Collective.

“People were desperate”, she recalls.

“They’d see the shoes and say: ‘those look like the ones my missing relative was wearing when they disappeared’.”

Toscano believes the authorities must now go through all the personal effects piece by piece and make them available to the families for closer inspection.

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For many, however, the worst part of the gruesome discovery is that local police raided the ranch, near the village of Teuchitlán, as recently as last September.

While at the time they made 10 arrests and released two hostages, they either didn’t find or didn’t reveal any evidence of the apparent magnitude of violence carried out there.

While the full picture is still to come over what action, if any, was taken by the municipal and state authorities after last year’s operation, critics and victims’ families openly accuse them of complicity with the cartels in Jalisco.

State Governor Pablo Lemus responded in a video message.

His administration was cooperating fully with the federal authorities, he said, and insisted that “no one in Jalisco is washing their hands” of the case.

For Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, the events in Jalisco threaten to overshadow a strong start to her presidency.

Given the serious doubts about the actions of the local police and the state attorney general’s office, she has ordered federal investigators to take charge of the case.

She urged people not to jump to conclusions while the investigation is ongoing.

“It is important is to make the investigation before we come to any conclusions,” she said in her morning press briefing earlier this week.

“What did they find at the site? Before anything else, we must hear from the attorney general’s office, which is the agency responsible, and they will let the entire country know what they have found.”

Whether most Mexicans will believe the official version of events, however, is another question.

The place is now crawling with police officers, federal investigators and forensics teams in dust overalls.

Whatever they conclude, though, the media in Mexico is calling the Izaguirre Ranch an “extermination” site.

Meanwhile, more search teams of victims’ relatives have come to the state capital, Guadalajara, ahead of a protest march this weekend to urge the authorities to do more to find Mexico’s missing people.

Rosario Magaña was among them. She is the mother of Carlos Amador Magaña, who disappeared in June 2017. He was just 19 years old.

“I still feel desperate, as it’s been eight years and I’m still in the same situation”, she said – speaking of her endless search for her son who was kidnapped along with his best friend.

“It’s a very, very slow process when it comes to the state attorney general’s office and the investigation.”

“I still have faith and hope of finding him”, she stressed. “But I’m in a situation which doesn’t move forward, and it’s discouraging.”

As she left a church service for the unknown victims at the ranch in Teuchitlán, Rosario said the allegations of mistakes, oversight, collusion and negligence in the case only underlined the uphill struggle mothers like her have faced for years in obtaining answers to the most basic of questions about their children’s whereabouts.

“There are so many mass graves in Jalisco, so many cartel safehouses, the authorities know the CJNG’s modus operandi. So, what is the government doing?” she asks rhetorically.

A portable power bank likely caused a fire that engulfed and destroyed a passenger plane in South Korea in January, according to local authorities.

The Air Busan plane caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in the country’s south on 28 January – causing three people on board to sustain minor injuries.

On Friday, South Korea’s transport ministry said that interim investigation results indicate the fire may have started because insulation inside a power bank battery had broken down.

The power bank was found in an overhead luggage compartment where the fire was first detected, and its debris had scorch marks, according to the statement.

Investigators could not say what may have caused the battery breakdown, it added.

The update is also based only on interim findings, and is not a final accident report on the aircraft, an Airbus A321ceo.

Airlines around the world have banned power banks from checked luggage for years due to safety concerns, which relate to the lithium-ion batteries inside the devices.

These batteries can produce extreme heat and fire if damage or manufacturing faults cause them to short circuit.

Lithium-ion batteries of any kind have been banned from the cargo holds of passenger planes since 2016, as per a directive by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

In the week after the Air Busan fire, the airline tightened those rules further, announcing that it would no longer allow passengers to keep power banks in their onboard luggage.

The carrier said the new rules were in response to an increase in the number of power banks that were overheating.

A growing number of airlines – including China Airlines and Thai Airways – are rolling out similar rules, with Singapore Airlines and its low-cost unit Scoot set to become the latest to ban the use and charging of power banks onboard from 1 April.

On 28 February, the South Korean government also announced that passengers boarding flights in the country would be required to carry portable batteries and chargers on their person, rather than storing them in overhead compartments.

The US has averted a government shutdown after the Senate passed a Republican-led measure to keep the government funded for the next six months.

The stopgap funding bill passed in the Senate 54-46, as two Democrats joined all but one Republican senator in voting yes. President Donald Trump must now sign it into law before the Friday midnight deadline.

The key vote came earlier when some Senate Democrats, after fierce debate, allowed the measure to pass a procedural hurdle.

The Senate minority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, and nine others broke with their colleagues to vote to advance the bill to its final Friday evening vote.

Two Democrats – Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Independent Senator Angus King of Maine – voted in favour of its final passage. Schumer voted “no”.

On Thursday, he announced he would vote to allow the measure to move forward, saying although it wasn’t a bill he liked, he believed triggering a shutdown would be a worse result.

• Democrat Party infighting exposes struggle to unite against Trump

Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez called Schumer’s willingness to let the spending bill proceed a “huge slap in the face”, adding that there is a “wide sense of betrayal” among the party, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

She said supporting the bill “codifies the chaos and the reckless cuts that Elon Musk has been pursuing”, and that Senate Democrats who voted yes would be empowering “the robbing of our federal government in order to finance tax cuts for billionaires”.

The Democrats had agonised over whether to support the measure, and eventually pushed for a 30-day continuing resolution that was unlikely to earn enough support to pass.

Senator Ted Cruz accused the Democrats of conducting “political theater” and praised the bill’s passage.

“The government is funded, let’s get back to work,” he said in a statement.

The passage is a victory for Trump and congressional Republicans.

On Friday morning, Trump offered rare bipartisan praise of Schumer’s decision to let the bill advance, writing that “a non pass would be a Country destroyer, approval will lead us to new heights”.

The legislation would keep much of the federal funding levels from the Biden Administration in place, with some key changes.

It increases military spending by $6bn (£4.6bn), for items like border security, veterans healthcare, and military spending. But would cut non-defence funding by about $13bn.

Local officials in Washington DC had feared the bill would result in a $1bn cut in federal funds for the city over the next six months. However, the Senate approved a separate bill that kept its current operating budget intact, the New York Times reported.

An eight-year-old child who was raped in Bangladesh died of her injuries on Thursday, setting off fierce protests around the country.

The girl was raped while visiting her elder sister’s house in the city of Magura some time between the night of 5 March and the following morning, according to a case filed by her mother.

The elder sister’s 18-year-old husband, along with his parents and brother, were arrested and placed on remand.

On Thursday night, after hearing news of the child’s death, an angry mob descended on the house where the incident is alleged to have taken place, setting it on fire.

The girl died at about 13:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Thursday after suffering three cardiac arrests, according to a statement by the government’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) department.

“Although doctors managed to stabilize the condition twice, the heart failed to restart after the third episode,” the statement said.

She had spent six days in a critical condition at the Combined Military Hospital in the capital Dhaka, after being admitted on 8 March.

“I thought my daughter would survive,” her mother said following the girl’s death, according to local media. “If she had made it through, I would never have let her go anywhere alone again.”

The girl’s body was taken back to Magura in an army helicopter, which landed at the local stadium around 18:00 to fierce protests.

Aiyub Ali, officer-in-charge of Magura Sadar Police Station, said that authorities struggled to bring the situation under control, according to local news outlet The Daily Star.

Thousands of people gathered in the public square in Magura for the girl’s namaz-e-janaza, the Islamic funeral prayer, before she was laid to rest at 19:30.

An absentee funeral was also held for the girl at Dhaka University, in the nation’s capital, followed by a protest march and speeches by female students.

Many protesters demanded that the government expedite justice for rape victims and reform laws related to women and children’s safety.

Protesters also called for greater clarity around the legal definitions of what constitutes rape in Bangladesh, which they said were currently ambiguous.

The trial of the rape and murder case is expected to begin within the next seven days, according to legal advisor Asif Nazrul.

“DNA sample collection has been completed, we hope to get the report within the next five days,” Mr Nazrul told a press briefing at the Secretariat on Thursday – adding that statements had already been taken from 12 to 13 people.

“If we can start the trial within seven days, our judges will be able to ensure justice with the utmost speed,” he added.

The rape of minors is punishable by death in Bangladesh, as per a law that was passed in 2020.

The introduction of that law followed a series of high-profile sexual violence cases, including the brutal gang assault on a 37-year-old woman that was filmed and spread on social media.

Less than a week after the rape of the young girl in Magura, media reports emerged of at least three rapes of children of around the same age in different parts of Bangladesh.

In some cases the accused were neighbours of the victim, while others were close relatives.

According to statistics from the Law and Arbitration Center, 3,438 child rape cases have been filed in Bangladesh in the last eight years, and there have been many more rape victims.

At least 539 of them are under the age of six, and 933 are between the ages of seven and twelve.

Research has shown that in most cases, children are sexually abused or raped by people they know.

The elderly woman gazes wistfully into the distance, her hands curled over a basket of tobacco, surrounded by the hundreds of cigarettes she has spent hours rolling by hand.

The photograph is one of several snapped by student Rashmitha T in her village in Tamil Nadu, featuring her neighbours who make traditional Indian cigarettes called beedis.

“No-one knows about their work. Their untold stories need to be told,” Rashmitha told the BBC.

Her pictures were featured in a recent exhibition about India’s labourers titled The Unseen Perspective at the Egmore Museum in Chennai.

All the photographs were taken by 40 students from Tamil Nadu’s government-run schools, who documented the lives of their own parents or other adults.

From quarry workers to weavers, welders to tailors, the pictures highlight the diverse, backbreaking work undertaken by the estimated 400 million labourers in India.

Many beedi rollers, for instance, are vulnerable to lung damage and tuberculosis due to their dangerous work, said Rashmitha.

“Their homes reek of tobacco, you cannot stay there long,” she said, adding that her neighbours sit outside their homes for hours rolling beedis.

For every 1,000 cigarettes they roll, they only earn 250 rupees ($2.90; £2.20), she told the BBC.

In the state’s Erode district, Jayaraj S captured a photo of his mother Pazhaniammal at work as a brick maker. She is seen pouring a clay and sand mixture into moulds and shaping bricks by hand.

Jayaraj had to wake up at 2am to snap the picture, because his mother begins working in the middle of the night.

“She has to start early to avoid the afternoon sun,” he said.

It was only when he embarked on his photography project that he truly realised the hardships she has to endure, he added.

“My mother frequently complains of headaches, leg pain, hip pain and sometimes faints,” he said.

In the Madurai district, Gopika Lakshmi M captured her father Muthukrishnan selling goods from an old van.

Her father has to get a dialysis twice a week after he lost a kidney two years ago.

“He drives to nearby villages to sell goods despite being on dialysis,” Lakshmi says.

“We don’t have the luxury of resting at home.”

But despite his serious condition, her father “looked like a hero” as he carried on with his gruelling daily routine, said Gopika.

Taking pictures with a professional camera was not easy initially, but it got easier after months of training with experts, said the students.

“I learned how to shoot at night, adjust shutter speed and aperture,” said Keerthi, who lives in the Tenkasi district.

For her project, Keerthi chose to document the daily life of her mother, Muthulakshmi, who owns a small shop in front of their house.

“Dad is not well, so mum looks after both the shop and the house,” she said. “She wakes up at 4am and works until 11pm.”

Her photos depict her mother’s struggles as she travels long distances via public buses to source goods for her store.

“I wanted to show through photographs what a woman does to improve her children’s lives,” she said.

Mukesh K spent four days with his father, documenting his work at a quarry.

“My father stays here and comes home only once a week,” he said.

Mukesh’s father works from 3am till noon, and after a brief rest, works from 3pm to 7pm. He earns a meagre sum of about 500 rupees a day.

“There are no beds or mattresses in their room. My father sleeps on empty cardboard boxes in the quarry,” he said. “He suffered a sunstroke last year because he was working under the hot sun.”

The students, aged 13 to 17, are learning various art forms, including photography, as part of an initiative by the Tamil Nadu School education department.

“The idea is to make students socially responsible,” said Muthamizh Kalaivizhi, state lead of Holistic Development programme in Tamil Nadu’s government schools and founder of non-government organisation Neelam Foundation.

“They documented the working people around them. Understanding their lives is the beginning of social change,” he added.

Sam Jones, a US influencer who briefly snatched a baby wombat from its distressed mother, and uploaded the footage to social media has left Australia.

Australia’s Home Affairs minister Tony Burke had earlier said his department was reviewing whether it could revoke Ms Jones’s visa, but the BBC understands that she left the country of her own accord.

“There has never been a better time to be a baby wombat,” Burke said in a short statement on Friday celebrating Jones’s departure.

Anger erupted across Australia after Jones posted a video of her taking a baby wombat from the side of a road while laughing and running away from the distraught mother wombat.

The video also shows the baby wombat hissing in distress before Jones then returns it to the bush.

Jones, who also goes by the name Samantha Strable, has nearly 100,000 followers and describes herself as an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” on her Instagram profile. She has since made her account private and deleted her post.

Her video was swiftly met with widespread condemnation, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling the incident an “outrage”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the video “dreadful”.

On Friday, opposition leader Peter Dutton said he thought it was “a cruel act” and that he was “glad” the influencer has now left.

An online petition demanding Jones be deported from Australia garnered more than 30,000 signatures.

However, as Jones had not been charged nor been deemed a threat to the country – the government may not have had any grounds to cancel her visa.

In since-deleted comments, Jones said “the baby was carefully held for one minute in total and then released back to mom”.

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

But wildlife experts have deemed Jones’s act a “blatant disregard” for native wildlife.

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

Suzanne Milthorpe, Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection Australia, told BBC Newsday that posting such a video for “cheap content” was “unacceptable”.

“To that baby it must have seemed like a giant predator was picking it up and taking it away,” she said.

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.

A new TikTok account claiming to be Jones after her original account was allegedly banned, published a post on Thursday saying that “the hate is currently too much for me to handle” and that there had been “hundreds” of death threats.

“Imagine someone just goes up to your child and curses at them? Let’s have some respect,” the post said.

Most, however, have remained critical of Jones’s act.

“Maybe imagine if someone picked up your child and laughed while you screamed for them to give them back,” read a comment under the post, a reference to Jones’s snatching of the wombat from its mother.

In some of his strongest rhetoric yet amid worsening cross-strait ties, Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te has labelled China a “foreign hostile force”.

He said Taiwan had “no choice but to take even more proactive measures” as a result, as he announced a raft of new national security measures, including reinstating a military court system and tightening the residency criteria for those from China, Hong Kong and Macau.

In response to Lai’s remarks, Chinese authorities called him a “destroyer of cross-straits peace” and a “creator of crisis”.

China claims the self-ruled Taiwan as its territory but Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland.

China was quick to respond to Lai’s statement, with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua said China would have “no choice but to take decisive measures… [if] ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces dare to cross the red line”.

“Those who play with fire will surely be burned.”

This is not the first time Lai, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is seen as pro-independence, has incurred Beijing’s wrath. He was previously labelled a “troublemaker” ahead of the polls, and Chinese state media even suggested he should be prosecuted for secession.

Speaking to reporters after a high-level national security meeting on Thursday, Lai also warned of China’s growing espionage efforts.

President Lai said China had “taken advantage of Taiwan’s freedom” to recruit different members of society, including current and former armed force members, organised crime groups and the media to “divide, destroy and subvert us from within”.

Taiwanese authorities charged 64 people with spying for China last year – a three-fold increase from 2021 – Lai claimed, adding that the majority of them were current or former military officials.

To counter China’s attempts to infiltrate and spy on the military, Lai said he planned to restore the military court system to “allow military judges to return to the frontline… to handle criminal cases involving active-duty military personnel”.

Taiwan had in 2013 abolished the military court system after it came under fire for its opaque handling of the death of an army conscript.

Lai also called on authorities to “provide entertainers with guidelines on conduct while working in China”, adding that this would prevent China from pressuring stars to behave in ways that “endanger national dignity”.

His comments come as Taiwanese authorities earlier criticised Taiwanese celebrities who shared social media posts calling for Taiwan to be “returned” to China.

Taiwanese actors and singers looking to advance their careers in China’s lucrative entertainment industry have come also under increasing pressure to publicly adopt a pro-Beijing stance on the issue.

The US is expelling South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying he is “no longer welcome in our great country”.

In a post on X, Rubio accused Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool of hating America and President Donald Trump.

He described him as a “race-baiting politician”, adding “we have nothing to discuss with him”.

The rare move marks the latest development in rising tensions between the two countries.

The BBC has contacted the South African embassy in Washington DC for comment.

In his post on Friday, Rubio linked to an article from the right-wing outlet Breitbart that quoted some of Rasool’s recent remarks made during an online lecture about the Trump administration.

“What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency, at home… and abroad,” Rasool said at the event.

He added that the Maga movement was a response “to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate… is projected to become 48 percent white”.

In response, Rubio called Rasool “PERSONA NON GRATA,” referencing the Latin phrase for “unwelcome person”.

The post from Rubio came as he departed Canada from a meeting with foreign ministers.

Ties between the US and South Africa have been deteriorating since Trump took office.

The US president signed an executive order last month that freezes assistance to South Africa. The order references “egregious actions” by South Africa and cites “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners – those who descended from Dutch settlers.

The order also references a new law, the Expropriation Act, that the order claims targets Afrikaners by allowing the government to take away private land.

“As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,” according to a statement from the White House.

The government in South Africa denies its law is related to race, the Associated Press reported.

A fact sheet from the White House states the country “blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority descendants of settler groups”.

While lower-ranking diplomats are sometimes expelled, it’s highly unusual in the US for it to happen to a more senior official like a foreign ambassador, the Associated Press reported, noting neither the US nor Russia took such actions against one another even amid tensions during the Cold War.

Rasool previously served as the country’s ambassador to the US from 2010 to 2015 before being tapped again for the post in 2025.

He was born and grew up in Cape Town. When he was nine, he and his family were forcibly removed from an apartment that was declared only for white people. As he grew older, he became more interested in politics and said the eviction was a significant moment in his upbringing that guided his future.

SpaceX has launched a rocket carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of a plan to bring astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home.

The pair were due to be on the ISS for only eight days, but because of technical issues with the experimental spacecraft they came on, they have been there for more than nine months.

The astronauts are due to begin their journey back to Earth two days after the new crew arrives. Steve Stich, manager of Nasa’s commercial crew programme said he was delighted at the prospect.

“Butch and Suni have done a great job and we are excited to bring them back,” he said.

The astronauts, along with their ISS workmates, Nasa’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will be relieved by four astronauts, from Russia, Japan and two from the US.

There will be a two-day handover after which the old crew are due to begin their journey back to Earth. But there could be a small further delay, as they wait for conditions on Earth to be right for a safe re-entry of the returning capsule, according to Dana Weigel, manager, of the ISS programme.

“Weather always has to cooperate, so we’ll take our time over that if it is not favourable,” she told reporters.

Ms Weigel explained that the astronauts had begun getting ready for the handover last week.

“Butch rang a ceremonial bell as Suni handed over command to cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin,” she said.

The astronauts have consistently said that they have been happy to be on board the space station, with Suni Williams describing it as her “happy place”. But Dr Simeon Barber, of the Open University, told BBC News that there would likely have been a personal cost.

“When you are sent on a work trip that is supposed to last a week, you are not expecting it to take the best part of a year,” he said.

“This extended stay in space will have disrupted family life, things will have happened back home that they will have missed out on, so there will have been a period of upheaval.”

Butch and Suni arrived at the ISS at the beginning of June 2024 to test an experimental spacecraft called Starliner, which was built by the aerospace firm Boeing, a rival to SpaceX.

The mission had been delayed by several years because of technical issues in the spacecraft’s development, and there were problems during its launch and docking on to the ISS. This included issues with some of Starliner’s thrusters, which would be needed to slow the spacecraft for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and leaks of helium gas in the propulsion system.

Nasa decided that it would not take even a small risk in bringing back Butch and Suni on Starliner, when they had the option of returning them on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Nasa decided the best option was to do this during a scheduled crew rotation, even though it would mean keeping the astronauts on the space station for several months.

Boeing has consistently argued that it would have been safe to bring Butch and Suni back on Starliner, and were unhappy about the decision to use a rival’s capsule instead, which will be “embarrassing” for Boeing, according to Dr Barber.

“It’s not a good look for Boeing to see astronauts they took into space come back in a competitor’s craft.”

Both President Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have said that Butch and Suni could have been brought home sooner, most recently in a joint interview with Fox News in February.

President Trump states: “They got left in space.”

When the interviewer, Sean Hannity, elaborates, saying “They were supposed to be there eight days. They’re there almost 300,” Mr Trump responds with one word: “Biden.” Mr Musk follows up asserting: “They were left up there for political reasons.”

The assertion is denied by Nasa’s Steve Stitch.

“We looked at a wide range of options and worked hand-in-hand with SpaceX to look at what was the best thing to do overall and when we laid all that out the best option was to have the one we are embarking upon,” he said.

That decision was supported by Dr Libby Jackson, who is head of space at the Science Museum in London and worked at Europe’s control centre for the ISS.

“Butch and Suni’s wellbeing would always have been at the very forefront of everybody’s minds as the decisions were being made for how best to deal with the circumstances that they were presented,” she said.

“Nasa made those decisions based on good technical reasons, on programmatic reasons, and found the right solution that has kept Butch and Suni safe.

“I really look forward to seeing them return to Earth, safe and sound, along with the rest of their crewmates.”

US immigration authorities have announced the arrest of a second activist who participated in pro-Palestinian protests last spring at Columbia University in New York City.

Leqaa Kordia, who is a Palestinian and from the West Bank, was arrested in New Jersey, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Friday.

The statement said another student, Ranjani Srinivasani, who has Indian citizenship, chose to “self-deport” by leaving the US earlier this week.

This follows the arrest of Columbia campus activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained on Saturday in New York before being flown to a jail in Louisiana.

The DHS statement says that Ms Kordia had overstayed her student visa, which had been terminated in 2022 “for lack of attendance”. It did not say whether she had been attending Columbia or another institution.

She had previously been arrested in April 2024 for taking part in protests at Columbia University, according to DHS.

Ms Srinivasan, a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University, had her visa revoked on 5 March.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a statement.

“When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”

Ms Srinivasan’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem told the Wall Street Journal that the government’s statement was “full of the falsehoods we’ve come to expect of DHS”.

Mr Kassem told the paper the government “violated basic rights” by revoking a visa “simply for engaging in protected political speech”.

The BBC contacted a lawyer for Ms Srinivasan for comment on Friday evening.

Contact details for Mr Kodia’s lawyer were not Immediately available.

• Who is Mahmoud Khalil, Palestinian student activist facing US deportation?

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged that pro-Palestinian activists, including Mr Khalil, support Hamas, a group designated a terrorist organisation by the US.

The president argues these protesters should be deported.

Mr Khalil, 30, is a Syrian-born Columbia graduate and US green card holder.

His case has raised questions about free speech on college campuses and the legal process that would allow for the deportation of a US permanent resident.

His lawyers say he was exercising free speech rights to demonstrate in support of Palestinians in Gaza and against US support for Israel.

Mr Khalil’s lawyers deny that he supports Hamas.

Additionally, on Thursday night DHS agents executed two search warrants in rooms on the Columbia campus.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche of the US justice department said the agents were searching for evidence that the university was “harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus”.

“That investigation is ongoing, and we are also looking at whether Columbia’s handling of earlier incidents violated civil rights laws and included terrorism crimes,” he said.

Columbia Interim President Katrina Armstrong said in a letter to the campus that she was “heartbroken” to inform them of the federal raid.

“No one was arrested or detained. No items were removed, and no further action was taken,” she said.

The Trump administration has also pulled $400m (£310m) of federal funding from Columbia University, saying it failed to fight antisemitism on campus.

Millions of Indians are celebrating Holi, the festival of colours.

The spring festival symbolises the victory of good over evil and marks the end of winter.

People light a bonfire, smear or spray friends and family members with colour and water, and feast on traditional sweets prepared for the occasion.

It’s one of India’s biggest festivals, with millions returning to their hometowns to celebrate with loved ones.

The festival honours the divine love of Hindu deities Radha and Krishna, and boisterous celebrations are held in the northern Indian cities of Mathura and Vrindavan, believed to be their birthplace.

Historical texts suggest the festival has long been celebrated to mark good harvests and seek fertile land.

• Listen to Jennifer read this article

The boss of online clothing brand Snag has told the BBC it gets more than 100 complaints a day that the models in its adverts are “too fat”.

Chief executive Brigitte Read says models of her size 4-38 clothing are frequently the target of “hateful” posts about their weight.

The brand was cited in an online debate over whether adverts showing “unhealthily fat” models should be banned after a Next advert, in which a model appeared “unhealthily thin”, was banned.

The UK’s advertising watchdog says it has banned ads using models who appear unhealthily underweight rather than overweight due to society’s aspiration towards thinness.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 61 complaints about models’ weight in 2024, with the vast majority being about models who appeared to be too thin.

But it only had grounds to investigate eight complaints and none were about Snag.

Catherine Thom read the BBC report about the Next advert ban and got in touch to say she found it “hypocritical to ban adverts where models appear too thin for being socially irresponsible, however when models are clearly obese we’re saying it’s body positivity”.

The 36-year-old from Edinburgh was one of several people who contacted the BBC with this view, while a Reddit thread had more than 1,000 comments with many along the same theme.

Mrs Thom says she was “bombarded with images of obese girls in tights” after buying from Snag when she was pregnant.

“I see Snag tights plastering these morbidly obese people all over social media,” she says.

“How is that allowed when the photo of the Next model isn’t? There should be fairness, not politically correct body positivity. Adverts normalising an unhealthy weight, be it obese or severely underweight, are equally as harmful.”

But Snag founder Ms Read says: “Shaming fat people does not help them to lose weight and actually it really impacts mental health and therefore their physical health.”

She thinks the idea of banning adverts showing models with bigger bodies is a symptom of society’s “fat phobia”.

Of her 100 staff, 12 are dedicated “just to remove negative comments and big up those promoting body positivity”.

“Fat people exist, they’re equally as valid as thin people, they buy clothes and they need to see what they look like on people that look like them,” she says.

“You are not worth less the bigger you are. Models of all sizes, shapes, ethnicities and abilities are valid and should be represented.”

Sophie Scott is a 27-year-old salon owner from Lossiemouth in Scotland who has modelled for Snag, and received positive and negative comments about her size on social media.

“I get either ‘you’re so beautiful’ or ‘you need to lose weight’. When I started modelling I was a size 30. Having lost weight since then I’m still on the receiving end of hate comments because it will never be enough for some people.”

Sophie is used to online comments telling her she is “unhealthy”, but says, “fitness is not measured by the way you look. They are making assumptions, they don’t know me or my activity levels.

“People say ‘you’re glorifying obesity’ but I don’t think anyone is looking at me and saying ‘I want to look like that’. Perhaps some people are looking at me and saying ‘she has a similar body type to me’.

“When I get a message from someone saying ‘we are the same size and you’ve inspired me to wear what I want’, it takes away from every hate comment I get.

“If I’ve helped one person accept their body then the hate comments don’t really bother me.”

Fashion journalist Victoria Moss believes the “depressing” debate shows society is not used to seeing bigger bodies in advertising campaigns.

“You’d be pretty hard pushed to find genuine plus-size models on retailers’ websites because even a mid-size is a 10/12 and plus is 14/16 which is actually around the average size for a woman in the UK,” she says.

“The issue with adverts showing very small or very big models is the context and the provocation. We know people with eating disorders seek out images of very thin people as ‘thinspiration’. But if anyone sees a picture of a bigger person they’re not going to drive to buy 10 McDonald’s to try to get fatter.”

Jess Tye at the ASA told the BBC the watchdog gets about 35,000 complaints a year about all advertising, and in 2024 received 61 complaints about 52 adverts relating to the model’s weight.

She says an advert will be investigated if it could be seen to be encouraging people to aspire to an unhealthy body weight. Adverts simply promoting body confidence and using a model who is relevant to the product’s size range would not be investigated.

“It’s to do with the wider societal context. We know in the UK currently society tends to view thinness as aspirational and that’s not the case for being overweight.”

Cher Horowitz has brought her life of Beverly Hills high fashion, friendship and matchmaking to London’s West End, as classic 1990s teen film Clueless has been given a musical makeover.

Clueless has been brought to the stage by the film’s original writer and director Amy Heckerling – who says keeping the 90s theme was integral to the show.

Heckerling insists she has “no interest in being modern” – which will come as a relief to the audiences who grew up quoting “As if!” and aspiring to Cher’s plaid and Prada-filled wardrobe.

The story follows the life of the naïve and lovably spoiled teenager, who plays matchmaker with her friends before ultimately finding love herself.

An adaption of Jane Austen’s Emma, Clueless captured the teen spirit of the 90s and inspired countless school dramas like Mean Girls, Gossip Girl and Legally Blonde.

The stage version has songs in the form of an original score by singer-songwriter KT Tunstall.

Speaking to the BBC, Tunstall says the film’s was “omnipotent” in the 90s and influenced everything from the clothes people wore to the music people listened to.

The Scottish singer, best known for songs like Black Horse and the Cherry Tree and Suddenly I See, says working on the show was a “dream project”.

She says the original soundtrack was a big inspiration, and describes the music as “a mixtape of all your favourite 90s bangers”.

The process of creating the soundtrack for Clueless: The Musical was intense for Tunstall, who says it’s no easy feat to add music to an adaptation of a film that didn’t originally have it.

“You really have to think about whether a song fits the structure and flow of the story and whether it actually helps the audience understand the narrative better,” she says.

Heckerling says she actually wishes the film had been a musical because “there were natural moments in the script where characters could have sung”.

“Those types of films weren’t very common in the 90s but I’m glad we could add in music now,” she says.

Critics had mixed thoughts about the new songs – the Guardian called them “disappointingly flat-footed” in a two-star review and said the lyrics “too often serve as exposition rather than raising the emotional drama”.

Similarly, the Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish wrote that the show has “numbers designed to sound in keeping with the period but which are so generic they don’t ring with real-world authenticity”.

But What’sOnStage praised Tunstall’s “infuriatingly catchy tunes” and Glenn Slater’s “nifty, witty lyrics”.

For Emma Flynn, who is making her West End debut as Cher, the music has another important function in the show – it allows characters to easily share their inner thoughts with the audience.

“In the film you hear these really funny inner monologues of Cher, but the great thing about this show is you can hear all of the character’s thoughts, which makes you feel more connected to them.”

Flynn has been praised by critics, with the Evening Standard noting her “powerfully-sung breakout performance” and describing it as channelling “both Alicia Silverstone in the original movie and Sabrina Carpenter today, while making the role entirely her own”.

Co-star Keelan McAuley, who plays nerdy Josh, tells the BBC he loves the play’s nostalgia factor.

“The flip phone was the most advanced technology they had in the 90s and there’s something so enchanting about a time where there was no access to social media,” he says.

The show stays almost entirely true to the 1995 film, with everyone sporting the latest 90s fashions, carrying a glitzy pager, and listening to angsty teen bangers on a Walkman.

While it may feel like a nostalgia fest, Heckerling admits she doesn’t “like to stick to real life”, and even her sunny film was far from the reality of what the 90s were like for most teenagers in LA, with race riots and other political problems.

The Independent’s three-star review says the show “sticks to the original movie like chewing gum to the underside of a school desk” at first, but changes tack by the second half.

“[Director Rachel] Kavanaugh and Heckerling gain the confidence to part ways a bit from the movie’s script, and to let the story’s heart show,” Alice Saville wrote.

For Tunstall, what sets Clueless apart from traditional rom-coms and high school dramas is that there isn’t a typical villain and there’s no nastiness or bad intentions from the main characters.

Jane Austen famously thought her main character wouldn’t be a widely liked heroine, but Tunstall says she is often people’s favourite character because of her honesty and depth.

“People can relate to her on a deeper level, like how she is trying to process the death of her mother and help keep her family in order.

“Those themes are universal and that’s what makes this story so enduring.”

When Kajol contracted tuberculosis in January, USAID kept her alive. Now she and her family are in danger again after the Trump administration ordered most US aid spending to end.

TB can be fatal if left untreated. The highly contagious bacterial disease, which usually infects the lungs, is not prevalent in rich countries, because treatment is relatively cheap. But in Bangladesh, it is a scourge.

That’s especially so in neighbourhoods such as Mohammadpur, a slum in the capital Dhaka where Kajol,17, lives.

“We are poor people,” she says. She is the sole breadwinner for herself, her mother and little brother. Her job in a garment factory keeps them all afloat.

So when she fell ill in January, it could have been catastrophic.

Instead, help arrived through Dipa Halder. For the last three years, she has been canvassing the residents of Mohammadpur about TB and getting people the treatment they so desperately need, free of cost.

The initiative, which gets people tested and get them treatment they need including proper nutrition, is run by a local aid organisation, Nari Maitree. It was funded by the US Agency for International Aid (USAID) until February, when it received a letter from the US government saying the funds had been terminated.

That brought Kajol’s treatment, only partially completed, to an abrupt end.

Cutting off medicines mid-treatment makes the chances of TB becoming drug-resistant much greater. It makes the disease much more difficult to combat and puts patients at greater risk of severe illness and death.

The government provides free medication but getting diagnosed and collecting the medicines can be cost prohibitive for many.

“Now I have to go get the medicine myself,” she says. “I am struggling a lot.”

“The people here are quite vulnerable,” says Dipa, 21. “I can tell them to go to a particular doctor, which would help them save some money.

“Or I try to provide them with some financial assistance from our organisation so that they can continue their treatment.”

According to a US government performance report seen by the BBC, support by USAID in 2023 resulted directly in the identification and reporting of more than a quarter of a million new cases of TB in Bangladesh. In the same year, there were 296,487 new or relapse cases of TB which were cured or successfully completed as a result of USAID.

The agency was seen as integral to the country’s fight against tuberculosis.

“You ask people on the street, they will say yeah, it’s the US, they are the ones that are keeping it [tuberculosis] in control,” said a director of a USAID project in Bangladesh, who is not authorised to speak publicly and did not want to be named.

“Bangladesh was USAID’s largest programme in Asia,” says Asif Saleh, executive director of the non-profit BRAC organisation. “In terms of its impact, particularly in the healthcare sector, it has been massive.

“Particularly around vaccination, reducing child mortality and maternal mortality, USAID has played a massive role in this country.”

In 2024, Bangladesh received $500m in foreign assistance. This year, that amount has cratered to $71m. To put that number into context, in the three-year period from 2021-2023, USAID committed an average of $83m annually in Bangladesh for health initiatives alone, including combating TB.

Cuts to USAID have meant Nari Maitree can no longer offer its Stop TB Program, but it also means Dipa is out of work. She supports her elderly parents and her younger sister.

“I am completely shattered now that I lost my job. I am carrying the burden of the family. Being unemployed is a devastating situation,” she told the BBC.

In a document seen by the BBC, 113 programmes that were funded directly by the USAID office in Bangladesh have stopped. The list does not include the myriad programmes that are funded directly by US agencies in Washington.

“The NGO sector [In Bangladesh] employs 500,000 people at least,” says Mr Saleh. “It’s huge. Thousands and thousands of jobs are going to be eliminated.”

It’s not just the United States that is moving away from foreign aid. The UK has announced cuts to its foreign assistance programmes, as has Switzerland. It is likely that other countries may follow suit.

It’s a sobering reality for Bangladesh. The country’s government was overthrown last year and the economy is shaky, with inflation near 10% and a jobs crisis, particularly among young people.

Interim leader Muhammad Yunus says Bangladesh will come up with a new strategy on how to survive following the aid cuts – but doesn’t say how.

When pressed in a BBC interview on how the country will cover the shortfall from USAID, Yunus said: “It was a small part, not a big deal. It doesn’t mean Bangladesh will disappear from the map.”

Asif Saleh says the way the cuts have been implemented has been abrupt and chaotic. The impact on a country like Bangladesh is immeasurable.

Nowhere is that more clear than in Cox’s Bazar, a coastal city in south-eastern Bangladesh, home to the world’s largest refugee camp. More than one million Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority community that the United Nations calls victims of ethnic cleansing, fled violent purges in their home country, neighbouring Myanmar.

Unable to go back home and unable to work outside the refugee camp, the Rohingya depend on international aid for their survival.

The United States contributed almost half of all aid to Rohingya refugees.

“We have run out of soap,” says Rana Flowers, country representative for the UN children’s agency Unicef. “We are now having to truck water into the camps. It’s an absolutely critical time. There is an outbreak of cholera with over 580 cases, along with a scabies outbreak.”

Water sanitation projects in the camps used to be funded by USAID.

Since the order to stop work went into effect at the end of January, hospitals such as the International Red Cross hospital in Cox’s Bazar are reduced to providing emergency assistance only. Any hope the money would be reinstated was crushed this week, when the Trump administration cancelled more than 80% of all the programmes at USAID.

Patients like Hamida Begum, who was getting regular treatment for hypertension, are left with few options.

“I’m old and I don’t have anyone to help me,” she says. Her husband died last year, leaving her to care for her four children alone, including her 12-year-old daughter who cannot walk.

“I cannot go to another hospital far from home because of my daughter.”

At a nearby UN food distribution centre, Rehana Begum is standing beside two large sacks.

Inside, she says, are six litres of cooking oil and 13kg of rice, along with basics such as onions, garlic and dried chillies. These rations, given to her by the World Food Programme (WFP), need to last her and her family a month.

I ask how she will manage now that her rations will be cut in half beginning next month.

She looked shocked. Then she started to cry.

“How can we possibly survive with such a small amount?” asks Rehana, 47, who shares one room with her husband and five children. “Even now, it is difficult to manage.”

The WFP says it was forced to make the drastic cut because of “a critical funding shortfall for its emergency response operations”.

The rations now being allotted to the Rohingya community will only meet their basic daily dietary needs, igniting fears they will be left with just enough to live and not much more.

“This is an absolute disaster in the making,” says Rana Flowers of Unicef. “Desperate frustrated people within the camps will lead to security concerns. If that escalates to the degree it could, we won’t be able to go into the camps to help.”

Think of video games, and you’ll probably think of something competitive.

Some of the most popular titles in the world, such as Fortnite and Call of Duty, are focused on outgunning, outrunning or outclassing opponents.

But, as Josef Fares and his studio Hazelight have shown, that’s not the only thing gamers want.

His latest, Split Fiction, is a collaborative experience where two players work together to solve puzzles and beat obstacles.

The adventure game has received rave reviews, sold one million copies in 48 hours and is currently among the most-watched titles on streaming platform Twitch.

It’s not a one-off. His previous title, It Takes Two, featured similar “couch co-op” gameplay and sold 20 million copies and won a Game of the Year Award.

What draws players to these friendlier experiences?

A report from analytics company Midia Research found that couch co-op was especially popular among people aged 16 to 24.

It surveyed 9,000 gamers worldwide, and said roughly 40% of respondents in the age range reported it was their preferred way to play.

The report said “social play is a key part of gaming for younger consumers,” and suggested more developers could look to incorporate collaborative elements.

Co-operative games are also big with streamers – watching players bicker as they try to conquer a new title is a great source of viral moments.

Last year Chained Together, where players work together to escape the depths of hell, was a hit thanks to huge names like Kai Cenat and IShowSpeed getting in on the action.

Couple Melissa and John, from Middlesbrough, have been uploading clips of themselves playing Split Fiction together to TikTok.

The game centres around fantasy author Zoe and sci-fi writer Mio, who become trapped in simulated versions of their own stories.

Melissa, a keen reader, says the plot appealed to her, but the chance to team up got her invested.

“A lot of the time when you play video games you are isolated from other people and it’s just nice to be together, spend that quality time together,” Melissa tells Newsbeat.

John says popular online games are often very competitive, which can be stressful.

“I don’t want to have to come home tired and have to focus 100% to just be able to do ok at a game,” he says.

“Whereas this one, I can just sit back, relax and just enjoy the experience.”

What Hazelight does is unique, but other companies do implement co-op features into their titles.

Guildford-based Supermassive Games, which specialises in “interactive horror movies”, made couch co-op a standard mode in its titles after publishing its breakout hit Until Dawn.

They found players were going through the single-player title in groups, passing the pad between them as the narrative – which changes based on choices made in-game – progressed.

Competitive social play is also popular. Some of the best-selling games on Nintendo’s Switch system – Mario Kart 8 and the Mario Party series – are frequently played with mates around the TV.

In recent years, developers have tried to replicate the success of games like Fortnite – so-called “live service” titles that constantly update and retain players for months, if not years.

If you get it right, the potential financial rewards are huge, but cutting through in a saturated market is difficult.

And as the video games industry continues to deal with mass layoffs, studio closures and decreased spending on premium games, not many publishers want to take a risk.

Josef believes there may be too much focus on the bottom line.

“Publishers need to step up and really trust the developer,” he says.

“But also developers, I think, need to have a clear vision and stick with what they believe in.”

He does admit, though, that not everyone has his studio’s history, nor his personality.

“I am a – what do you say? – a different breed,” says Josef.

When he was directing his first game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, feedback from some early playtests was “super bad”.

“I’m like, they’re wrong, they’re wrong, because I know it’s great,” he says.

He’s spoken before about resisting pressure to put micro-transactions – in-game purchases – in his projects, and is uncompromising despite his studio’s close relationship with EA, one of the world’s biggest publishers.

“I don’t expect everybody to be like me, but that’s me with my extreme confidence,” he says.

“What we do, I love it.

“We’re sticking to the vision of what we believe in. Stick with the vision, go with it.

“And I think if you really love what you do people love it as well.”

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

Lizzo has played her first live show for nearly two years, telling fans she came though a “dark depression” after being sued and accused of harassment by three of her former dancers.

Performing in Los Angeles, the Grammy winner told the crowd she went through a period where she “didn’t want to live any more”.

In 2023, three of Lizzo’s former tour dancers sued the US pop star, accusing her of sexual harassment and fat-shaming. The star denied the claims but the dancers are requesting a jury trial.

She has also been involved in a legal battle with a stylist who claimed she was subjected to racial and sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.

Famous for hits including Truth Hurts and About Damn Time, Lizzo is now on the comeback trail with two new singles.

She told the crowd at LA’s The Wiltern on Wednesday that a stranger at a concert she attended had given her a “life-saving moment” by hugging her and saying they loved her.

“Then it was 10 people, then 100… then 1,000… then it was 10,000 people showering me with love and support – this is the kind of love you can only get in real life,” she said, in a video captured on TikTok.

She urged anyone else going through depression to “reach out”, adding: ” I say it because it’s so hard to do.”

Lizzo came under scrutiny in August 2023 after the dancers filed their legal action, which included accusations of sexual, religious and racial harassment, discrimination, assault, false imprisonment and creating a hostile work environment.

In a statement at the time, Lizzo denied the allegations, saying: “These sensationalised stories are coming from former employees who have already publicly admitted that they were told their behaviour on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional.”

The star and her Big Grrrl Big Touring company have requested that the court dismiss the dancers’ allegations.

In December 2024, she won a key ruling in a separate legal battle with the stylist, who claimed she was subjected to racial and sexual harassment and a hostile work environment by members of the singer’s management team while on tour in 2023, as well as unpaid overtime.

An LA federal judge ruled that wardrobe assistant Asha Daniels could not sue the singer as an individual, but Big Grrrl Big Touring remains a defendant in the ongoing case.

Lizzo has more gigs planned this month in New York and Minneapolis.

The captain of a cargo ship that collided with an oil tanker in the North Sea has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter.

Vladimir Motin, 59, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, Russia, has been remanded in police custody to appear at Hull Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, Humberside Police said.

The Portuguese-flagged Solong and US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate crashed off the East Yorkshire coast at about 10:00 GMT on Monday.

Filipino national Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, has been named as the crew member of the Solong who is missing and presumed dead, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “We have authorised Humberside Police to charge a Russian national in relation to a collision involving two vessels in the North Sea off the east coast of England.”

Mr Ferguson added: “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against this defendant are now active and that he has the right to a fair trial.

“It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is trying to establish the cause of the crash.

It said initial inquiries found the Solong was travelling from Grangemouth to Rotterdam and had often sailed the same route.

“At 09:47 GMT it struck the Stena Immaculate that was at anchor off the entrance to the River Humber,” the MAIB said.

On Friday, Stena Bulk said salvage experts from SMIT Salvage had successfully boarded Stena Immaculate to conduct a thorough assessment.

It said the salvage process was “necessarily methodical, comprehensive and ongoing” and would “require time to complete fully”.

Chief coastguard Paddy O’Callaghan said “only small periodic pockets of fire” on Solong remained, which were “not causing undue concern”.

He added regular aerial surveillance flights continued to monitor the vessels and confirmed “there continues to be no cause for concern from pollution” from either ship.

All 23 crew on board Stena Immaculate were Americans who are currently in Grimsby and are likely to be repatriated in due course, the BBC understands.

A Russian national has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Finnish court for committing war crimes in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Voislav Torden, 38, a senior member of the Russian far-right mercenary group Rusich, was found guilty of four charges by a court in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, on Friday, while he was acquitted of a fifth charge.

The charges relate to an ambush and firefight that occurred in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, which killed 22 Ukrainian soldiers and injured four others. Torden denies the allegations.

It marks the first time charges have been brought and heard in a Finnish court over allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.

Torden, previously known as Yan Petrovsky, was a founding member of Rusich, which operated in the eastern Donbas region as part of pro-Russian separatist fighting against Ukraine. Rusich is a subunit of the Wagner group.

It was alleged that, on 5 September 2014, Torden led his men as part of an ambush of Ukrainian soldiers by pretending to be Ukrainian, before setting fire to a truck and car belonging to the unit.

Twenty-one Ukrainian troops were killed and a further five injured, the indictment said.

The court in Helsinki found there was insufficient evidence to conclude that Rusich was specifically responsible for the ambush, as there were several other groups involved.

However, it found Torden guilty on all other counts, including that he was in charge of the Rusich mercenaries present during the ambush, who killed at least one Ukrainian soldier and injured another.

His men were also found to have mutilated a wounded soldier by “making the Rusich group symbol on his face”.

Torden was found to have distributed “degrading” images of the soldier and to have posted on social media that Rusich would “not grant mercy”.

A panel of three judges unanimously found him guilty of the latter four charges, writing that the most serious – of killing a soldier – was “comparable to murder due to its brutality and cruelty”.

While the court held that there was insufficient evidence to find him culpable for the deaths of the 21 other Ukrainian soldiers, it ordered him to pay compensation to the family of the soldier whose death he was found responsible for.

Torden has consistently denied the allegations levelled against him, Finland’s public broadcaster reports. He intends to appeal against the conviction, according to national newspaper Ilta-Sanomat.

Torden’s lawyer, Heikki Lampela, said the verdict had taken them by surprise.

“There was no evidence that he killed the wounded or gave the order to do so,” he told Finland’s public broadcaster, Yle, adding that Torden was “equally confused” he had received a life sentence “for an act he did not commit”.

Torden was arrested at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in July 2023 at the request of the Ukrainian government, which sought to extradite him.

That request was rejected by Finland’s Supreme Court over concerns he would not receive a fair trial in Ukraine – but he was still able to be tried in Helsinki as he was accused of crimes under international law.

Yle reports that similar charges have been tried domestically relating to acts in countries including Rwanda and Iraq.

The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general hailed the court’s ruling as a “key milestone” in holding perpetrators of “grave violations of international humanitarian law accountable”.

It added in a statement that Ukrainian officials had ensured that the court had heard from victims and witnesses in Ukraine during the trial, adding that it would continue to work with partners internationally to “ensure there is no impunity for war criminals”.

Angola is under fire after it denied entry to several senior African political figures set to attend a conference hosted by the country’s main opposition party.

Unita said it had invited the politicians, including Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, Mozambique’s Venancio Mondlane and Botswana’s former President Ian Khama, to a summit on democracy.

“The action of the Angolan government to prevent us from entering Angola is inexplicable and unacceptable,” Lissu said on X.

The BBC has asked the Angolan government to comment.

But according to a source from the Migration and Aliens Service (SME), “the expulsion was due to irregularities in the visa procedure, which prevented Mondlane and 13 other members of his entourage from entering Angolan territory”.

Mondlane, who has called for nationwide protests over what he says were rigged elections last year, was this week subjected to travel restrictions in his home country.

At least 20 leaders and representatives from various political parties across Africa were denied entry, said Lissu.

“The government of this country is ruling a dictatorship while pretending that Angola is a democratic country,” he said.

Lissu is a vocal critic of the Tanzanian government and head of the main opposition party, Chadema. He survived an assassination attempt in 2017 and has spent several years in exile.

Kenyan senator Edwin Sifuna, from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, said on X he was among those denied entry into Angola.

Delegates from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Sudan who had visas or were eligible for visa on arrival were deported, the Platform for African Democrats (Pad), a group of opposition parties across Africa, said in a statement.

Khama, Colombia’s former President Andres Pastrana, Zanzibar’s first Vice-President Othman Masoud Othman and 24 others were detained at the airport for nine hours with no explanation. They were released but missed their connecting flights, according to Pad.

The Angolan government promised to make up for these actions by providing a plane, but it never materialised, the opposition grouping said.

Zanzibar’s main opposition party, ACT Wazalendo, urged the Tanzanian government to immediately summon the Angolan ambassador to provide a formal explanation of why the party’s vice-president was denied entry to the country.

Tomas Viera Mario, a Mozambican political analyst, told the BBC the move was “strange” as Angola’s President Joao Lourenco has positioned himself as a kind of mediator on the continent.

Lourenco is currently the chair of the African Union (AU), and is hosting peace talks over the DR Congo conflict next week.

Mr Mario added that barring these figures showed “total contempt and “little respect” for the pan-African spirit of the AU.

All the deported leaders were part of a delegation invited by Unita to attend its 59th anniversary celebrations in Benguela province.

Unita lawmaker Nelito da Costa Ekwiki also condemned the decision not to allow them entry to the country.

The Angolan government has long been accused of shutting down dissent in order to maintain its hold on power.

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Germany’s conservative leader, Friedrich Merz, has clinched an enormous financial package to revamp defence and infrastructure, ahead of a crunch vote in parliament next Tuesday.

Merz, who aims to lead a government with the Social Democrats in the coming weeks, is in a rush to push through a big boost in spending on defence and creaking infrastructure.

After winning elections last month, he said it was his absolute priority to strengthen Europe because President Donald Trump appeared indifferent to its fate.

After 10 hours of talks with the Greens, he said the deal sent a clear message to his country’s allies: “Germany is back.”

He added: “Germany is making its major contribution to defending freedom and peace in Europe.”

Merz, who is expected to become Germany’s next chancellor, is bidding to get his debt and spending reforms through the outgoing parliament before the newly elected MPs are able to take their seats in the Bundestag on 25 March.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party doubled its number of MPs in the election and could jeopardise Merz’s spending push if it fails to go through in time. The Left party also objects to the reforms.

Under Germany’s constitution, Merz needs a two-thirds majority to get the changes passed. With the support of the Greens and Social Democrats, he should succeed.

Urgent motions by both the AfD and the Left to challenge next week’s sessions of the outgoing parliament failed at the constitutional court on Friday, enabling the vote to go ahead.

The conservative Christian Democrat leader said the three-party plan agreed by his party, the Social Democrats and Greens involved:

• A big boost in spending on defence, civil protection and intelligence – with spending over 1% of GDP (economic output) exempt from debt restrictions
• A special €500bn (£420bn) infrastructure fund for additional investments over 10 years, including €100bn to cover climate-protection initiatives
• Germany’s 16 states will be allowed to borrow up to 0.35% of GDP above the debt limit.

The defence plans also allow spending on aid for states “attacked in violation of international law” to be exempt from the so-called debt-brake.

That would enable outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz to release €3bn in aid to Ukraine as early as next week.

Germany’s last government collapsed late in 2024 because of disagreements over loosening debt restrictions brought in by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government during the financial crisis in 2009.

It meant that the government could not borrow more than 0.35% of Germany’s gross economic output, while the country’s rail and bridge infrastructure creaked from years of underinvestment and ministers tried to boost military spending.

Social Democrat chairman Lars Klingbeil said Friday’s agreement sent a “historical signal” for Germany that would make the country stronger and “strengthen Germany’s role in Europe too”.

Although the Greens were in the old government, they will not be part of Merz’s coalition. However, the party was delighted that the €100bn secured for climate funding would go “in the right direction”.

Outgoing Greens Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also hailed the defence package as not just making Germany safer but sending “a clear signal to Ukraine, Europe and the world”.

Germany was taking responsibility in turbulent times, she added.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel was less impressed, and accused Merz of bending the constitution and loading future generations with a “gigantic burden”.

“This is nothing less than a financial coup,” she complained.

An eight-year-old child who was raped in Bangladesh died of her injuries on Thursday, setting off fierce protests around the country.

The girl was raped while visiting her elder sister’s house in the city of Magura some time between the night of 5 March and the following morning, according to a case filed by her mother.

The elder sister’s 18-year-old husband, along with his parents and brother, were arrested and placed on remand.

On Thursday night, after hearing news of the child’s death, an angry mob descended on the house where the incident is alleged to have taken place, setting it on fire.

The girl died at about 13:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Thursday after suffering three cardiac arrests, according to a statement by the government’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) department.

“Although doctors managed to stabilize the condition twice, the heart failed to restart after the third episode,” the statement said.

She had spent six days in a critical condition at the Combined Military Hospital in the capital Dhaka, after being admitted on 8 March.

“I thought my daughter would survive,” her mother said following the girl’s death, according to local media. “If she had made it through, I would never have let her go anywhere alone again.”

The girl’s body was taken back to Magura in an army helicopter, which landed at the local stadium around 18:00 to fierce protests.

Aiyub Ali, officer-in-charge of Magura Sadar Police Station, said that authorities struggled to bring the situation under control, according to local news outlet The Daily Star.

Thousands of people gathered in the public square in Magura for the girl’s namaz-e-janaza, the Islamic funeral prayer, before she was laid to rest at 19:30.

An absentee funeral was also held for the girl at Dhaka University, in the nation’s capital, followed by a protest march and speeches by female students.

Many protesters demanded that the government expedite justice for rape victims and reform laws related to women and children’s safety.

Protesters also called for greater clarity around the legal definitions of what constitutes rape in Bangladesh, which they said were currently ambiguous.

The trial of the rape and murder case is expected to begin within the next seven days, according to legal advisor Asif Nazrul.

“DNA sample collection has been completed, we hope to get the report within the next five days,” Mr Nazrul told a press briefing at the Secretariat on Thursday – adding that statements had already been taken from 12 to 13 people.

“If we can start the trial within seven days, our judges will be able to ensure justice with the utmost speed,” he added.

The rape of minors is punishable by death in Bangladesh, as per a law that was passed in 2020.

The introduction of that law followed a series of high-profile sexual violence cases, including the brutal gang assault on a 37-year-old woman that was filmed and spread on social media.

Less than a week after the rape of the young girl in Magura, media reports emerged of at least three rapes of children of around the same age in different parts of Bangladesh.

In some cases the accused were neighbours of the victim, while others were close relatives.

According to statistics from the Law and Arbitration Center, 3,438 child rape cases have been filed in Bangladesh in the last eight years, and there have been many more rape victims.

At least 539 of them are under the age of six, and 933 are between the ages of seven and twelve.

Research has shown that in most cases, children are sexually abused or raped by people they know.

There has been flooding and landslides in parts of northern Italy as red alerts cover cities including Florence and Pisa.

Torrential rain prompted the alerts for parts of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, with heavy and persistent rainfall expected into the afternoon on Friday.

Tuscany’s president said local rescue and health services were on high alert and advised residents to exercise “the utmost attention and caution”.

Almost a month’s worth of rain fell in Florence on Friday morning while landslides and mudslides were reported in Bologna, where some residents were evacuated on Thursday evening ahead of heavy rain overnight.

No casualties have so far been reported, and the city said the worst of the flooding had passed by mid-morning on Friday.

A family of four was rescued from a landslide in Badia Prataglia, Tuscany on Thursday evening, according to local media.

The national fire brigade said it had received dozens of calls after the Rimaggio flooded and flowed through the Sesto Fiorentino area on Florence’s northern outskirts.

In Pisa, flood defences were being erected along the Arno river as local authorities warned it had surpassed the first flood-risk level.

Roads were also affected by flooding and fallen trees, with residents in Florence advised against all travel after the A1 motorway was partially closed.

Schools were shut in more than 60 municipalities in Tuscany, local media reported, as were several campuses of the University of Florence.

Florence has seen more than double its average March rainfall of 61mm in the past three days.

It saw more than 53mm of rain in just six hours on Friday morning, after a further 36mm had fallen overnight.

The red weather alerts – indicating serious risk of extreme and widespread flooding – were set to continue throughout the day.

Further heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected to move across the northern half of Italy into Saturday, before drier weather begins to move in.

An area of high pressure in the north-east Atlantic has in recent days blocked the path of low pressure systems which normally pass to the north-west of the UK, sending them through the Mediterranean instead.

Some rivers in Emilia-Romagna were already swollen after previous downpours.

More than 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the north-eastern region in September 2024 after it was battered by Storm Boris.

The previous year, 13 people died in the region after six months’ worth of rainfall fell in a day and a half. Twenty rivers burst their banks and there were some 280 landslides.

The devastating floods brought by Storm Boris were made worse by climate change, scientists at the World Weather Attribution group said.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent – which not only brings much more frequent and intense heatwaves, but also more extreme rainfall.

A hotter world means the atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can lead to heavier rainfall.

Have you been affected by the floods in Italy? You can get in touch and send your photos here.

Elon Musk’s electric carmaker Tesla has warned it and other US exporters could be harmed by countries retaliating to Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Mr Musk is a close ally of the US president and is leading efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.

But in an unsigned letter addressed to the US trade representative, Tesla said while it “supports” fair trade it was concerned US exporters were “exposed to disproportionate impacts” if other countries retaliated to tariffs.

The letter was dated the same day that Trump hosted an event at the White House where he promised to buy a Tesla in a show of support for Mr Musk.

It is unclear who at Tesla wrote the letter as it is unsigned, or if Mr Musk was aware of it.

Tesla’s share price has dropped 40% since the start of the year. Mr Musk is the carmaker’s chief executive and while some have argued his alignment with the Trump administration is hurting its brand, market analysts say the share fall is more about worries over Tesla meeting production targets and a drop in sales over the past year.

In the letter, Tesla said it was making changes to its supply chains to find as many local suppliers for its cars and batteries so it was less reliant on foreign markets.

“None the less,” it warned, “even with aggressive localisation of the supply chain, certain parts and components are difficult or impossible to source within the US.”

The US president has imposed an additional 20% tariff on all imports from China, prompting Beijing to respond with retaliatory levies including on cars. China is Tesla’s second biggest market after the US.

“For example, past trade actions by the United States have resulted in immediate reactions by the targeted countries, including increased tariffs on EVs imported into those countries,” the letter reads.

The EU and Canada have both threatened sweeping retaliations for tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US, which went into effect earlier this week.

Demonstrators have targeted Tesla showrooms in recent weeks in protest against Mr Musk’s cost-cutting role in Trump’s administration, where he is head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

Earlier this week, Trump hosted an event at the White House where he said people protesting against Tesla should be labelled domestic terrorists, while sitting in the driver’s seat of a brand new red Tesla that he said he planned to buy.

Trump said demonstrators were “harming a great American company”, and anyone using violence against the electric carmaker would “go through hell”.

US President Donald Trump has praised talks held with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the US-proposed ceasefire deal in Ukraine as “good and productive”.

This comes after Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow on Thursday evening, after which the Kremlin said it shared the US’s “cautious optimism” over a peace process.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that the talks provided “a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, accused Putin of trying to drag out talks to continue the war, while Sir Keir Starmer said the Russian president could not be allowed to “play games” with ceasefire proposals.

• Follow live: Trump says US had ‘good and productive’ talks with Putin over Ukraine war

Earlier this week, Ukraine accepted the US-proposed ceasefire deal, which Russia is yet to agree to.

On Thursday, Putin had said the idea of a ceasefire was “right and we support it… but there are nuances” and he set out a number of tough conditions for peace, a response branded “manipulative” by Zelensky.

Ukraine’s leader continued his criticism on Friday in a series of posts on X, writing: “Putin cannot exit this war because that would leave him with nothing.

“That is why he is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire.”

He said Putin would “drag” everyone into “endless discussions… wasting days, weeks, and months on meaningless talks while his guns continue to kill people”.

“Every condition Putin puts forward is just an attempt to block any diplomacy. This is how Russia works. And we warned about this.”

UK PM Sir Keir said the Kremlin’s “complete disregard” for Trump’s ceasefire proposal demonstrated Putin was “not serious about peace”.

“If Russia finally comes to the table, then we must be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure it is a serious and enduring peace,” he said.

“If they don’t, then we need to strain every sinew to ramp up economic pressure on Russia to secure an end to this war.”

On Saturday, Sir Keir will host a video call with as many as 25 leaders to develop the peacekeeping mission proposed during a summit in London earlier this month.

The “coalition of the willing” – as he called it – will work to deter future Russian aggression, should the US-proposed ceasefire come into effect.

In his social media posts on Friday, Zelensky “strongly” urged “everyone who can influence Russia, especially the United States, to take strong steps that can help”, because Putin would not stop the war on his own.

“Putin is lying about the real situation on the battlefield… the casualties” and “the true state of his economy”, he said, explaining that Putin was “doing everything possible to ensure that diplomacy fails”.

But the White House believes the two sides have “never been this close to peace”.

Talking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained that the talks between Putin and Witkoff in Moscow on Thursday were “productive”.

She added Trump has been “putting pressure on Putin and the Russians to do the right thing”.

Trump’s social media post also “strongly requested” Putin should spare the lives of Ukrainian troops, whom he described as surrounded by Russian forces, adding it would be a “horrible massacre” not seen since World War Two.

His comments came after Putin said on Thursday that Ukrainian troops in Kursk had been “isolated” and were trying to leave, as Russia ramps up efforts to reclaim the region invaded by Ukraine last year.

But on Friday, Ukraine’s armed forces general staff denied the encirclement of its troops, calling it “false and fabricated”.

In a statement, it said operations were continuing, with Ukrainian troops having withdrawn and “successfully regrouped” to better defensive positions.

“There is no threat of encirclement of our units,” it said.

In response to Trump’s request, Putin said Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk would be treated with “dignity in line with the norms of international law and the laws of the Russian Federation” if they gave up arms and surrendered.

Meanwhile, G7 members have been meeting in Quebec, where host Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said all the members agreed with the US proposal of a ceasefire that is supported by Ukrainians.

“And we are now studying and looking at Russian reactions, so ultimately the ball is now in Russia’s court when it comes to Ukraine.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who was also at the meeting, said the members were united in calling for a ceasefire with “no conditions”.

Following the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would not make foreign policy decisions based on what leaders said on social media or at a news conference, and stressed the “only way to end this war is through a process of negotiations”.

A US influencer who was filmed taking a wild baby wombat away from its distressed mother in Australia has said she is “truly sorry” and received thousands of death threats over the incident.

Sam Jones, who calls herself an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter”, was filmed picking up the joey on the side of a road, while laughing and running over to a car, while the mother chases after them.

It sparked a massive backlash, with Australian PM Anthony Albanese challenging her to “take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there”.

In a lengthy statement on her Instagram page, Jones says she was trying to get the animals safely off the road.

She says, as can be seen in the video, that the mother runs off the road, but the baby does not, and Jones scoops it up. She says she ran across the road “not to rip the joey away from its mother, but from fear she might attack me”.

“The snap judgement I made in these moments was never from a place of harm or stealing a joey,” the statement says.

She emphasises that it was “not staged, nor was it done for entertainment”, and in her excitement of the moment, “acted too quickly and failed to provide necessary context to viewers online”.

• US influencer draws backlash for stealing baby wombat from mum

In the second part of her statement, Jones launches a scathing attack on Australia’s animal culling laws, including wombats, kangaroos, horses, deer and pigs.

Australia has various culling laws and regulations that spark controversy and divide the nation.

Wombats, which are native to Australia, are a protected species, but permits can be obtained to cull them if deemed necessary.

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The anger that rippled across Australia was so strong that Home Affairs minister Tony Burke said his department was reviewing whether it could revoke Jones’s visa. However, the BBC understands that she left the country of her own accord.

Jones, who also goes by the name Samantha Strable, has nearly 95,000 followers and describes herself as an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” on her Instagram profile. She has since deleted the wombat post.

Sam Jones, a US influencer who briefly snatched a baby wombat from its distressed mother, and uploaded the footage to social media has left Australia.

Australia’s Home Affairs minister Tony Burke had earlier said his department was reviewing whether it could revoke Ms Jones’s visa, but the BBC understands that she left the country of her own accord.

“There has never been a better time to be a baby wombat,” Burke said in a short statement on Friday celebrating Jones’s departure.

Anger erupted across Australia after Jones posted a video of her taking a baby wombat from the side of a road while laughing and running away from the distraught mother wombat.

The video also shows the baby wombat hissing in distress before Jones then returns it to the bush.

Jones, who also goes by the name Samantha Strable, has nearly 100,000 followers and describes herself as an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” on her Instagram profile. She has since made her account private and deleted her post.

Her video was swiftly met with widespread condemnation, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling the incident an “outrage”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the video “dreadful”.

On Friday, opposition leader Peter Dutton said he thought it was “a cruel act” and that he was “glad” the influencer has now left.

An online petition demanding Jones be deported from Australia garnered more than 30,000 signatures.

However, as Jones had not been charged nor been deemed a threat to the country – the government may not have had any grounds to cancel her visa.

In since-deleted comments, Jones said “the baby was carefully held for one minute in total and then released back to mom”.

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

But wildlife experts have deemed Jones’s act a “blatant disregard” for native wildlife.

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

Suzanne Milthorpe, Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection Australia, told BBC Newsday that posting such a video for “cheap content” was “unacceptable”.

“To that baby it must have seemed like a giant predator was picking it up and taking it away,” she said.

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.

A new TikTok account claiming to be Jones after her original account was allegedly banned, published a post on Thursday saying that “the hate is currently too much for me to handle” and that there had been “hundreds” of death threats.

“Imagine someone just goes up to your child and curses at them? Let’s have some respect,” the post said.

Most, however, have remained critical of Jones’s act.

“Maybe imagine if someone picked up your child and laughed while you screamed for them to give them back,” read a comment under the post, a reference to Jones’s snatching of the wombat from its mother.

“Nerve-wrecking, terrifying and horrific.”

That is how one witness described her experience getting off an American Airlines flight that caught fire after it was forced to make an emergency landing in Colorado.

Some of the 172 passengers travelling on the flight bound for Dallas were seen standing on the plane’s wing after it touched down in Denver, with large plumes of smoke encircling around them.

Everyone on board, including six crew members, made it out of the plane alive, with 12 passengers treated at hospital for minor injuries, according to airport officials.

One of those passengers, Michele Woods, told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, how everything about the flight seemed normal at take off.

It was not until they were cruising in the air that she noticed a loud noise reverberating from one of the plane’s engines.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later confirmed the plane diverted to Denver at around 17:15 local time (23:15 GMT) after the crew reported “engine vibrations”.

But even when the plane landed, passengers soon realised they were still far from safety.

“Everything was fine but then there was smoke filling the cabin,” said Ms Woods, who was returning home after attending a trade show in Colorado.

Seated at the front of the plane, she explained how she was one of the few in a position where they were able to walk off the plane once it had touched down.

Other passengers, as now viral images of huddled people standing on the wing of a smoking plane show, did not have as straightforward an escape.

Ingrid Hibbit, who was travelling on flight 1006 with her husband and daughter, was one of the unfortunate few forced out onto the wing before she could reconnect with her family on the ground.

“[You could see] flames from the window and the windows [were] kind of melting,” Ms Hibbit told CBS. Dismounting from the plane proved to be a difficult task – not helped, she pointed out, by being dressed in Birkenstock sandals.

“I was like shaking, I was not stable,” she admitted.

Adding to her already fever-pitch anxieties was the fact neither she, nor any member of her family, were seated in the same section of the plane. They could communicate only through text messages.

“I was hoping everything was okay, but we really didn’t know for sure,” she said, adding that despite the ordeal lasting only 10 minutes, “it was a very long 10 minutes”.

“It was a really great feeling to see that everyone was okay.”

She and her family finally touched down at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Friday morning, along with several of the other passengers.

Relief, she said, had swept through the group, particularly after an “exhausting” episode that had overshadowed the start of their family holiday.

“If this would’ve happened in the air, I don’t think we would be telling this story at all, because who knows what that would’ve been like,” she said. “I’m grateful that everyone survived.”

Iran is using drones and intrusive digital technology to crush dissent, especially among women who refuse to obey the Islamic republic’s strict dress code, the United Nations has said.

Investigators say Iranian security officials are using a strategy of “state-sponsored vigilantism” to encourage people to use specialist phone apps to report women for alleged dress code violations in private vehicles such as taxis and ambulances.

Their new report also highlights the increasing use of drones and security cameras to monitor hijab compliance in Tehran and in southern Iran.

For women who defy the laws, or protest against them, the consequences are severe – arrest, beating, and even rape in custody.

• Iranian women ‘ready to pay the price’ for defying hijab rules
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The findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran come after it determined last year that the country’s theocracy was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

Witnesses said the 22-year-old Kurd was badly beaten by the morality police during her arrest, but authorities denied she was mistreated and blamed “sudden heart failure” for her death. Her killing sparked a massive wave of protests that continues today, despite threats of violent arrest and imprisonment.

“Two-and-a-half years after the protests began in September 2022, women and girls in Iran continue to face systematic discrimination, in law and in practice, that permeates all aspects of their lives, particularly with respect to the enforcement of the mandatory hijab,” the report said.

“The state is increasingly reliant on state-sponsored vigilantism in an apparent effort to enlist businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance, portraying it as a civic responsibility.”

At Tehran’s Amirkabir University, authorities installed facial recognition software at its entrance gate to also find women not wearing the hijab, the report said.

Surveillance cameras on Iran’s major roads are also being used to search for uncovered women.

Investigators also said they obtained the “Nazer” mobile phone app offered by Iranian police, which allows “vetted” members of the public and the police to report on uncovered women in vehicles, including ambulances, buses, metro cars and taxis.

“Users may add the location, date, time and the licence plate number of the vehicle in which the alleged mandatory hijab infraction occurred, which then ‘flags’ the vehicle online, alerting the police,” the report said.

According to the report, a text message is then sent to the registered owner of the vehicle, warning them they had been found in violation of the mandatory hijab laws. Vehicles could be impounded for ignoring the warnings, it added.

The UN investigators interviewed almost 300 victims and witnesses – they also looked in-depth at Iran’s judicial system, which they said lacks any real independence. Victims of torture and other violations were also persecuted while their families were “systematically intimidated”, according to their report.

They also found evidence of the extrajudicial executions of three child and three adult protesters, later dismissed by the state as suicides.

The report also established additional cases of sexual violence in custody, citing the case of one arrested woman who was beaten severely, subjected to two mock executions, raped and then gang-raped.

The report will be presented to the Human Rights Council on 18 March.

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.

Mark Carney, an economist and political newcomer, has been sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister, and delivered remarks vowing to “never” become a part of the United States.

He took office on Friday just days after being elected leader of the governing Liberal Party and amid an ongoing trade war with US President Donald Trump.

“We know that by building together, we can give ourselves far more than anyone else can take away,” he said after the ceremony.

Carney replaces outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was in office for nine years, after a landslide victory in last week’s Liberal leadership race.

“We will never, in any shape or form, be part of the US,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Friday, referring to Trump’s musings that Canada join the US as its “51st state”.

“We are very fundamentally a different country,” he said, later adding the notion is “crazy”.

He declined to answer questions about the timing of Canada’s next federal election – currently scheduled for October – but hinted he would move quickly to seek “as strong a mandate that is needed for the time”.

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In his first order as prime minister, Carney moved to end a policy that had been frequent attacked against by political opponents.

He ended the consumer carbon pricing programme – a key environmental policy under Trudeau that had become deeply unpopular in recent years amid high inflation.

Conservatives have criticised the tax, saying it raised the price of goods and energy for Canadian families.

At an afternoon cabinet meeting, Carney said his government will still take steps to fight climate change. An industrial carbon tax on large emitters remains in place.

Canadians receive a rebate to offset the cost of carbon pricing and will get their final cheque in April.

Canadian politics in recent months have largely been overshadowed by the trade war Trump launched after taking office in January – and with a general election on the horizon, Carney is expected to pitch himself as the candidate best equipped to take on Trump.

He previously held roles as governor of the Bank of Canada, the country’s central bank, and of the Bank of England, and helped both countries weather major financial disruption.

He intends to travel to the UK and France as his first foreign trip as PM next week.

Carney said he also looks forward to speaking with Trump.

“We respect the United States. We respect President Trump,” he said.

“President Trump is has put some very important issues at the top of his agenda.”

Carney has promised to uphold Canada’s reciprocal tariffs on specific American goods for as long as Trump maintains 25% universal tariffs on Canadian goods not covered by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) trade deal.

Canada is dependent on trade with the US. Economists say it risks a recession if Trump’s tariffs are fully imposed.

Several of Carney’s new cabinet members served under Trudeau, and in particular he kept on those who have been working directly with the Trump administration in recent months.

They including Mélanie Joly, who remains in foreign affairs; David McGuinty, who remains in public safety; Jonathan Wilkinson, staying on as energy minister; Dominic Leblanc, who has moved from finance to trade; and François-Philippe Champagne, moved from industry to finance.

When the federal election comes, Carney’s main rival will be Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

Before the the threat of tariffs, Conservatives enjoyed a 20-point lead in some election polls. Now polls are indicating a much closer race.

Speaking after Carney on Friday, Poilievre argued that Liberals do not deserve a fourth term in office, arguing adding they have already had nine years to improve affordability and other issues in the country.

“It will be the same Liberal results,” he said.

Poilievre added that if he were to be elected prime minister, he would “face off against President Trump directly, respond with counter tariffs and take back control”.

When Canadians next go to the polls, the Liberals will face not only the Conservatives – who are the official opposition with 120 seats in the House of Commons – but also the Bloc Quebecois, who have 33 seats, and the New Democrats (NDP), who have 24.

Reacting to Carney’s swearing in, the leader of the NDP argued that his cabinet appointments show that there is no room for progressive Liberals under his leadership.

Jagmeet Singh said that he had failed to create separate cabinet portfolios for minister of women, youth, or people with disabilities, and described Carney as someone who has made billionaires “very rich at the cost of workers”.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Vladimir Putin of trying to “sabotage” diplomatic efforts to secure an immediate ceasefire.

In a post on social media, he urged the US to put more pressure on the Russian president, saying only the “strength of America” could end the war.

The Ukrainian leader said Putin was “doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire”.

At his press conference on Thursday, Putin said he accepted the idea of a ceasefire but qualified that with numerous questions about detail.

• Peace talks are in parallel universe, say Ukraine front-line troops
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He raised the Kursk border region, where Russian forces are retaking territory occupied by Ukraine six months ago. He accused Ukrainian forces of “heinous crimes against civilians” – something Kyiv denies – and asked whether they should walk free or surrender.

He asked about whether Ukraine would use a ceasefire to mobilise, retrain and resupply its troops, without suggesting his forces might do the same.

And Putin raised numerous questions about how a ceasefire could be monitored and policed along the frontline in the east. “Who will be able to determine who violated the potential ceasefire agreement over a distance of 2,000 km and where exactly?” he asked. “Who will be held responsible for violating the ceasefire?”

At a meeting with journalists on Friday, Zelensky addressed these issues directly, especially the questions about verification. He said Ukraine was more than able to verify a ceasefire in the air and the sea. But he said the surveillance and intelligence capabilities of American and European aircraft and satellites would be needed to monitor the front line.

Ukraine believes Putin’s conditions of detail can be addressed. Much harder to deal with are Putin’s objections of principle. He said any deal should “proceed from the assumption that this cessation should lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis”. By that, he means his objections to the expansion of the Nato military alliance and the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign independent state.

There is very little chance of that being addressed in any immediate interim ceasefire. Not for nothing did G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada emphasise Ukraine’s territorial integrity “and its right to exist and its freedom, sovereignty and independence”.

This is why Zelensky said “Russia is the only party that wants the war to continue and diplomacy to break down”.

So what could happen now? Well the ball is in America’s court. President Trump could choose to step up pressure on Russia as Ukraine is demanding. He could impose more sanctions on Russia – and countries buying its cheap oil and gas. He could also give more military and intelligence support to Ukraine. Or alternatively Trump could offer Russia more concessions to get a deal over the line, a possibility that worries some here in Kyiv. Much of the contact between the US and Russia has been held in secret compared to the very public diplomatic pressure imposed on Ukraine.

That is why Zelensky is calling out Russia’s delaying tactics and urging the West to put more pressure on Putin. He may also be enjoying seeing Russia in the spotlight, having been the butt of American diplomatic efforts for more than a month since Trump and Putin had their first telephone call.

The bottom line is that Trump has driven a diplomatic bulldozer through many international issues since his inauguration, including the war in Ukraine.

But now he has come up against the walls of the Kremlin and they may be harder to get through.

Trump wants a fast end to the fighting. Putin wants a “painstaking” discussion about details and principles. Two incompatible imperatives held by two stubborn leaders used to getting their way. Who will blink first? The prospects of a ceasefire are by no means certain, for all the American expressions of “cautious optimism”.

Greenland’s leading political parties have issued a joint statement to condemn Donald Trump’s “unacceptable behaviour”, after the US president seemed to escalate his campaign to take over the island.

The show of unity saw all leaders of parties in the Inatsisartut – the parliament – release a joint message saying they “cannot accept the repeated statements about annexation and control of Greenland”.

It follows a meeting between Trump and Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte on Thursday, where the president seemed to double down on his annexation plan.

Greenland’s joint statement was orchestrated by outgoing Prime Minister Mute B Egede, whose party was defeated in an election on Tuesday.

“Our country will never be the USA and we Greenlanders will never be Americans,” Egede wrote on Facebook. “Don’t keep treating us with disrespect. Enough is enough.”

Greenland – the world’s biggest island, between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans – has been controlled by Denmark, nearly 3,000km (1,860 miles) away, for about 300 years.

Greenland governs its own domestic affairs, but decisions on foreign and defence policy are made in Copenhagen.

The US has long had a security interest in the island. It has had a military base there since World War Two, and Trump is probably also keen on the rare earth minerals that could be mined.

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Greenland was already on the defensive about Trump’s annexing talk, but his comments to Rutte at the White House sent further shockwaves when he implied that Nato’s help might be needed to seize the island.

“You know, Mark, we need that for international security… we have a lot of our favourite players cruising around the coast, and we have to be careful,” Trump said.

“We’ll be talking to you,” he added.

When asked about the prospect of annexation, Trump said: “I think that will happen.”

Rutte has been criticised in both Greenland and Denmark for not reprimanding Trump. Instead, he said he would “leave that [issue] outside… I do not want to drag Nato into that”.

He then pivoted to praise – something several world leaders have used when dealing with Donald Trump – saying he was “totally right” that security in the Arctic must be maintained.

The joint statement from Greenland’s politicians emphasised that they are united in their pushback against Trump’s plan.

“Greenland continues the work for Greenland,” the statement said.

“We all stand behind this effort and strongly distance ourselves from attempts to create discord.”

Their decision to speak out came three days after elections in which the centre-right opposition – the Democratic Party – won a surprise victory.

Its leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who is likely to be Greenland’s new prime minister, is now negotiating with other parties to form a coalition.