Heathrow Airport is closing all day Friday because of a large fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it.

The airport is experiencing a “significant power outage” because of the fire, a statement from Heathrow said.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23:59 on 21 March,” it added.

“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

“Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored,” a Heathrow spokesperson said, adding that staff were “working as hard as possible to resolve the situation”.

Passengers should not travel to the airport “under any circumstances” until it reopens, they said.

Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, handling around 1,300 landings and take-offs each day. A record 83.9 million passengers passed through its terminals last year.

The fire at the substation in Hayes, in west London, has left thousands of homes without power and caused around 150 people to be evacuated from surrounding properties.

Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters have been sent to tackle the blaze, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.

A 200-metre cordon has been put in place as a precaution, and local residents have been advised to keep doors and windows closed because of a “significant amount of smoke”.

More than 16,300 homes have lost power in a large-scale outage cause by the fire, energy supplier Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on X.

“We’re aware of a widespread power cut affecting many of our customers around the Hayes, Hounslow and surrounding areas,” it added.

The LFB said it had received nearly 200 calls about the fire, which broke out late on Thursday night.

Emergency services were called to the scene at 23:23. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” said LFB Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulborne.

“This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night,” he added.

“As we head into the morning, disruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area wherever possible.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin would breach a peace deal with Ukraine if it is not defended, Sir Keir Starmer has said, after attending a meeting of senior military leaders in London.

The UK prime minister said any agreement to stop the fighting between Russia and Ukraine would “only be lasting” if there were “security arrangements in place”.

He was speaking at Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, London, where more than 20 countries gathered at a closed meeting to discuss proposals for troops in Ukraine to help guarantee the country’s security as part of any peace deal.

Sir Keir said security arrangements would make clear to Russia there would be “severe consequences if they are to breach any deal”.

The prime minister said the UK and its allies were moving from “political momentum” to “military planning”, which he said had “to be done now” before a deal was agreed.

He said: “It is vitally important we do that work because we know one thing for certain, which is a deal without anything behind it is something that Putin will breach.

“We know that because it happened before. I’m absolutely clear in my mind it will happen again”.

Sir Keir ruled out redeploying UK troops from countries such as Estonia to commit to Kyiv, saying: “There’s no pulling back from our commitments to other countries.”

UK Defence Secretary John Healey was at the closed meeting of military leaders from countries that form part of what Sir Keir has dubbed the “coalition of the willing”.

Downing Street said the military leaders would be involved in “granular planning” for details of any potential deployment.

The UK called the meeting of military chiefs after a summit earlier this month attended by 26 countries.

The potential deployment of troops should be described as a “reassurance force” rather than a “peacekeeping force”, defence and diplomatic sources say.

Earlier, Sir Keir visited the Port of Barrow, in Cumbria, north-west England where the UK’s nuclear submarines are built.

He told reporters the talks in London were focussing on how to “keep the skies, and the seas, and the borders safe in Ukraine”.

According to the Daily Telegraph, sending British Typhoon jets to Ukraine to provide air cover for troops was one of the proposals discussed during the meeting.

Ahead of the talks, Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard said “we’re not yet talking about numbers” of UK troops potentially being sent to Ukraine “because we’re still designing the shape of the force”.

Giving an example, he said: “If one nation offers fast jet combat air, like a Typhoon aircraft for instance, how will the other nations work alongside it? Where will it refuel? How will it operate with other nations’ capabilities?”

The armed forces minister said he expected discussions would be to ensure “any force in or around Ukraine can be as credible as possible”.

During a visit to Norway on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia “must stop making unnecessary demands that only prolong the war”.

Calls between US President Donald Trump, Putin and Zelensky, have failed to produce the 30-day ceasefire envisaged by the White House.

On Thursday Zelensky said Ukrainian officials would meet their US counterparts in Saudi Arabia next Monday, after the Kremlin confirmed US-Russia talks there the same day.

The latest talks come as the US attempts to broker a ceasefire between the two nations after more than three years of fighting.

Both Zelensky and Putin have agreed to a ceasefire in principle during conversations with the US – but one has yet to materialise due to conflicting conditions.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, fulfilling a campaign pledge and a long-cherished goal of some conservatives.

Accusing the agency of “breath-taking failures”, the Republican president vowed to return the money it controls to individual states.

“We’re going to shut it down as quickly as possible,” Trump said, although the White House acknowledged that closing the agency outright would require an act of Congress.

The move is already facing legal challenges from those seeking to block the agency’s closure as well as sweeping cuts to its staff announced last week.

Surrounded by children seated at school desks in the White House on Thursday, Trump said “the US spends more money on education by far than any other country”, yet he added that students rank near the bottom of the list.

The White House stated that his administration would move to cut parts of the department that remain within legal boundaries.

The executive order is likely to face legal challenges, like many of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal government.

At the signing ceremony, Trump praised Linda McMahon, whom he appointed to lead the department, and expressed his hope she would be the last secretary of education.

He said he would find “something else” for her to do within the administration.

After Trump signed the order, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy announced plans to bring legislation aimed at closing the department.

But Republicans hold a slim 53-47 majority in the Senate, and closing a federal department would require 60 votes, making such a goal a longshot.

• A conservative pipe dream since Reagan
• What Department of Education cuts mean for one mum
• What happens to student loans now?

But even if the department is not formally closed, the Trump administration could decimate its funding and staff as it has done with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which subsequently stopped many of its programmes and humanitarian work.

The text of the executive order does not include specifics on what actions the administration will take and which programmes might be axed.

It orders McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department and give authority of such matters to state and local governments.

It also directs her to ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely”.

Established in 1979, the education department administers student loans and runs programmes that help low-income students.

But Trump has accused it of indoctrinating young people with racial, sexual, and political material.

Most US children attend public schools, which are free and run by local officials. A common misconception is that the federal education department operates US schools and sets curriculum, but that is primarily done by states and local districts.

And a relatively small percentage of funding for primary and secondary schools – about 13% – comes from federal funds. Most of the money comes from state and local taxes.

The agency also plays a prominent role in administering and overseeing the federal student loans used by millions of Americans to pay for higher education.

Soon after she was sworn in, McMahon sent the department’s 4,400 employees a memo titled “Our Department’s Final Mission”, a possible reference to Trump’s aim to shut the department.

“This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students,” she wrote.

“I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete; we will be able to say that we left American education freer, stronger, and with more hope for the future.”

Earlier reports suggested Trump would look to end some of the department’s programmes and send others to different departments, such as the Treasury, something that still may happen but wasn’t made clear in his executive order.

America’s largest teachers’ union recently decried Trump’s plans, saying he “doesn’t care about opportunity for all kids”.

In its statement, the American Federation of Teachers said: “No-one likes bureaucracy, and everyone’s in favour of more efficiency, so let’s find ways to accomplish that.

“But don’t use a ‘war on woke’ to attack the children living in poverty and the children with disabilities.”

For more than 40 years, conservatives have complained about the department and floated ideas to abolish it.

Just two years after it was established by Democratic President Jimmy Carter, his Republican replacement, Ronald Reagan, led calls to undo it.

It is the smallest agency in the president’s cabinet and takes up less than 2% of the total federal budget.

Some of those staff have already been affected by the Trump administration’s sweeping workforce cuts, led by the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

Nearly 2,100 people at the agency are set to be placed on leave from Friday.

Efforts by Doge to slash federal spending and radically restructure – or simply abolish – many government agencies have been overseen by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Thousands of Tesla Cybertrucks have been recalled in the US due to concerns about part of the electric car’s trim falling off in the model’s eighth and largest ever recall.

The issue affects more than 46,000 trucks made starting in November 2023, which analysts say amounts to nearly all Cybertrucks.

It comes as Tesla, which did not respond to a request for comment, grapples with falling sales amid a backlash against the firm and its boss Elon Musk.

On Thursday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said three unnamed people would face charges for setting fire to Tesla cars and charging stations, accusing them of “domestic terrorism”.

Tesla does not break out sales of the Cybertruck, but car tech firm Cox Automotive has estimated roughly 39,000 were sold in the US last year.

Prior Cybertruck recalls involved failing windshield wipers, trapped accelerator pedals, possible loss of drive power to the wheels, and other issues.

Tesla started investigating the latest issue, involving a piece formally known as the cant rail, in January, according to filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

“The cant rail, a stainless-steel exterior trim panel, can delaminate and detach from the vehicle,” the notice said.

“A detached panel can become a road hazard, increasing the risk of a crash.”

Tesla told NHTSA it had received about 150 claims from drivers about the issue but was not aware of any accidents caused by the problem.

It estimated that the issue affected about 1% of vehicles involved in the recall.

The issue is covered under a warranty for new owners, and the company will replace the piece free-of-charge.

Tesla’s shares have dropped nearly 40% since January, erasing the jump in value that it enjoyed after the 2024 US election.

The fall has been significantly more than the overall drop in the US stock market over that period.

Dan Ives, an analyst who has historically been very pro-Tesla, said on Thursday the firm was facing a “tornado crisis moment” due to brand damage from Musk’s political role.

The political backlash adds to the challenges the company had already been facing from increased competition and an ageing line-up of offerings.

The Cybertruck was supposed to help reignite buzz around the brand and help it break into the lucrative market for pickup trucks in the US.

It hit the roads in late 2023 and carries a starting cost of more than $72,000 (£55,500).

“I joined the air force 35 years ago, aged 18, and went straight to Germany, based on a Tornado aircraft,” says British Air Commodore Andy Turk, who is now deputy commander of the Nato Airborne Early Warning & Control Force (AWACS). “It was towards the end of the Cold War and we had a nuclear role back then.

“After the War, we hoped for a peace dividend, to move on geopolitically, but clearly that’s not something Russia wants to do. And now my eldest son is banging on the door to join the air force, wanting to make a difference too… It does feel a little circular.”

We are around 30,000 feet above the Baltic Sea, on a Nato surveillance plane equipped with a giant, shiny, mushroom-resembling radar, enabling crew members to scan the region for hundreds of miles around, looking for suspicious Russian activity.

Air policing missions like this – and Nato membership more broadly – have long made tiny Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (which neighbour Russia) feel safe. But US President Donald Trump is changing that, thanks to his affinity with Vladimir Putin, which has been evident since his first term in office.

Trump has been very clear with Europe that, for the first time since World War Two, the continent can no longer take US military support for granted.

That leaves the Baltics nervously biting their nails. They spent 40 years swallowed up by the Soviet Union until it broke apart at the end of the Cold War.

They are now members of both the EU and Nato, but Putin still openly believes the Baltics belong back in Russia’s sphere of influence.

And if the Russian president is victorious in Ukraine, might he then turn his attention towards them – particularly if he senses that Trump might not feel moved to intervene on their behalf?

Ian Bond, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, thinks that if a long-term ceasefire is eventually agreed in Ukraine, Putin would be unlikely to stop there.

“Nobody in their right mind wants to think that a European war is around the corner again. But the reality is an increasing number of European intelligence officials have been telling us that…

“Whether this is coming in three years or five years or ten years, what they are saying is the idea that peace in Europe is going to last forever is now a thing of the past.”

Russia’s economy is currently on a war footing. Roughly 40% of its federal budget is being spent on defence and internal security.

More and more of the economy is being devoted to producing materials for war.

“We can see what the Russian economy is being retooled to do,” observes Mr Bond, “and it ain’t peace.”

When you travel to windswept Narva, in northern Estonia, you see why the country feels so exposed.

Russia borders Estonia, all the way from north to south. Narva is separated from Russia by a river with the same name. A medieval looking fortress straddles each bank – one flying the Russian flag and the other, the Estonian. In between is a bridge – one of Europe’s last pedestrian crossings still open to Russia.

“We are used to their tricks and their tactics,” Estonian Border Police Chief Egert Belitsev told me.

“The Russian threat is nothing new for us.” Right now, he says, “there are constant provocations and tensions” on the border.

The border police have recorded thermal imaging of buoys in the Narva River that demarcate the border between the two countries being removed by Russian guards under the cover of darkness.

“We use aerial devices – drones, helicopters, and aircraft, all of which use a GPS signal – and there is constant GPS jamming going on. So Russia is having huge consequences on how we are able to carry out our tasks.”

Later on, keeping to the Estonian side, I walked along the snow-covered bridge crossing towards the Russian side and watched the Russian border guard watching me, watching him. We were just metres away from each other.

Last year, Estonia furnished the bridge with dragon’s teeth – pyramidal anti-tank obstacles of reinforced concrete.

I’ve not heard anyone suggest Russia would send tonnes of tanks over. It doesn’t need to. Even a few troops could cause great instability.

Some 96% of people in Narva are mother-tongue Russian speakers. Many have dual citizenship.

Estonia worries a confident Vladimir Putin might use the big ethnic Russian community in and around Narva as an excuse to invade. It’s a playbook he’s used before in Georgia as well as Ukraine.

In a dramatic indication of the growing anxiety, Estonia, alongside Lithuania and Poland, jointly announced this week that they’re asking their respective parliaments to approve a withdrawal from the international anti-personnel mines’ treaty which prohibits the use of those mines, signed by 160 countries worldwide.

This was to allow them “greater flexibility” in defending their borders, they said. Lithuania had already withdrawn from an international convention banning cluster bombs earlier this month.

Camille Grand, former Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment at Nato, thinks that post-Ukraine, Putin would be more likely to target a non-Nato country (such as Moldova) rather than provoke a Nato nation – because of the lower risk of international backlash.

Estonia and the other Baltic nations were traditionally more vulnerable than the rest of Nato, as they were geographically isolated from the alliance’s members in western Europe, according to Mr Grand. But that has been largely resolved now, since Sweden and Finland joined Nato, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“The Baltic Sea has become the Nato Sea,” he notes.

Dr Marion Messmer, a senior research fellow on the International Security Programme at Chatham House, thinks the most likely trigger for a war with Russia would be miscalculation, rather than design.

If peace is agreed in Ukraine, Dr Messmer predicts that Russia will probably continue with misinformation campaigns and cyber warfare in Europe, as well as sabotage and espionage in the Baltic Sea. “I think they are likely to continue with any kind of destabilising activity, even if we are to see a peace that’s positive for Ukraine.”

Dr Messmer continues: “One of the risks I see is that essentially an accident could happen in the Baltic Sea that’s completely inadvertent, but that’s essentially a result of either Russian grey zone activity or Russian brinkmanship where they thought they had control of a situation and it turns out they didn’t. That then turns into a confrontation between a Nato member state and Russia that could spiral into something else.”

But Mr Grand was keen not to totally downplay the risk of Putin targeting the Baltics.

Presumably, the Russian president would first mull how likely Nato allies would be to retaliate.

Would the US, or even France, Italy or the UK, risk going to war with nuclear power Russia over Narva, a small part of tiny Estonia, on the eastern fringe of Nato?

And suppose we were to see a repeat of what happened in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2014 when Russian paramilitaries engaged in fighting did not identify as Russian soldiers? This allows Putin plausible deniability – and in those circumstances, would Nato wade-in to help Estonia?

If they didn’t, the advantages for Putin might be tempting. The unity principle of the western military alliance he loathes would be undermined.

He’d also destabilise the wider Baltics, probably socially, politically, and economically, as a Russian incursion – however limited – would likely put off foreign investors viewing this as a stable region.

Another concern that has been discussed in Estonia is that Donald Trump could end up pulling out, or significantly reducing, the number of troops and military capabilities the US has long stationed in Europe.

Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur put a brave face on things when I met him in the capital Tallinn: “Regarding (US) presence, we don’t know what the decision of the American administration is.

“They have said very clearly they will focus more on the Pacific and they’ve said clearly Europe has to take more responsibility for Europe. We agree on that.

“We have to believe in ourselves and to trust our allies, also Americans… I’m quite confident that attacking just even a piece of Estonia, this is the attack against (all of) Nato.”

“And this is the question then to all the allies, to all 32 members,” Pevkur adds. “Are we together or not?”

This new and nagging sense of insecurity, or at least unpredictability, in the Baltics and Poland – what Nato calls its “eastern flank”, close to Russia – is evident in the kind of legislation being debated and introduced around the region.

Poland recently announced that every adult man in the country must be battle ready, with a new military training scheme in place by the end of the year. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has also expressed interest in a French suggestion that it share its nuclear umbrella with European allies, in case the US withdraws its nuclear shield.

Voters living in the Baltics don’t need persuading to devote a large proportion of public money to defence. Estonia, for example, is introducing a new law that makes it mandatory for all new office and apartment blocks of a certain size to include bunkers or bomb shelters. .

Tallinn also just announced it will spend 5% of GDP on defence from next year. Lithuania aims for 5-6%, it says.

Poland will soon spend 4.7% of GDP on defence – it hopes to build the largest army in Europe, eclipsing the UK and France. (To put that in perspective, the US spends roughly 3.7% of GDP on defence. The UK spends 2.3% and aims to raise that to 2.6% by 2027.)

These decisions in countries close to Russia may well be linked to a hope they have not yet relinquished, of keeping Trump and his security assurances onside. He repeated this month his previously stated position: “If [Nato countries] don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them.”

As for how much annual spending would be considered “enough” for the Trump administration, Matthew Whitaker, Trump Nominee for U.S. Ambassador to NATO, declared “a minimum defence spending level of 5%, thereby ensuring NATO is the most successful military alliance in history.”

With mixed messages from Washington, Estonia is looking increasingly to European allies for reliable support. The UK plays a big role here. With 900 personnel based in Estonia, it’s currently Britain’s largest permanent overseas deployment. And the UK has pledged to boost its presence.

At their base in Tapa, we found immense, echoey hangars rammed with armoured vehicles.

“You’ll see the Challenger Main Battle Tanks as we head down to the other end of the hangar,” explains Major Alex Humphries, one of the squadron leaders in Estonia on a six-month rotation. “[They are] a really critical part of the capability. This is a really great opportunity for British forces.”

Asked if Estonia had approached the UK to ask for a bigger presence, as it was feeling more vulnerable, he told me: “I think Nato at large feels exposed. This is a really important flank for our collective defence, the east. Everybody in the Baltics and in Eastern Europe feels the quite prominent and clear threat that is coming from the Russian Federation.

“We don’t want this to come to war, but if it does come to war, we’re fully integrated; fully prepared to deliver lethal effect against the Russian Federation to protect Estonia.”

Ultimately, though, unless they come under direct attack, the precise conditions under which UK bilateral forces or Nato troops will take military action comes down to political decisions made in that moment.

So Estonia is taking nothing for granted. That’s why it is busy stress testing new army bunkers on its border with Russia and investing in drone technology. Though its armed forces wouldn’t be powerful enough to repel an attack by Russia alone, Estonia is studying lessons learned from invaded Ukraine – whose fate Estonia really hopes it won’t have to share.

Until just over a week ago, Artem Kariakin and his unit were making regular trips across Ukraine’s border into the Russian town of Sudzha.

He shows me video taken with a phone of their very last trip, as Ukrainian forces retreated from Russia’s Kursk region. It shows them making their way past dozens of burnt out military and civilian vehicles.

A soldier armed with a shotgun, their last line of defence, scans the horizon for Russian drones. Out of nowhere, one flies towards the back of their truck. Sparks fly, but they keep on going.

Artem says they were lucky – the explosive charge was not big enough to stop them.

Another truck nearby was less fortunate. It was already in flames.

Artem admits Ukraine’s retreat from Sudzha, the largest town Ukraine held in Kursk, was “not well organised”.

“It was pretty chaotic,” he tells me. “Many units left in disarray. I think the problem was the order to withdraw came too late.”

It wasn’t helped, he says, because units were operating without proper communications. The Starlink satellite systems they normally rely on didn’t work inside Russia.

The 27-year-old soldier still views the Kursk offensive as broadly successful. Artem says it forced Russia to divert its forces from the east. Most of Ukraine’s troops still managed to escape in time – even if for many it was on foot.

But he believes Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russian territory, launched last August, was too deep and too narrow – relying on just one main road for supplies and reinforcements.

While Artem and his men were fleeing for their lives, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were talking by phone about trying to bring the war to an end. Artem says he finds that “absurd”.

“To me these calls between Trump and Putin are just surreal,” he says. “Trump wants to end the war because he promised to do it – and Putin wants to deceive Trump to continue his war. I can’t take their conversations seriously.”

Artem, whose home is in the now Russian-occupied Luhansk region, tells me he feels disappointed with the US and Trump. “What can I feel when they just want to give away my home?”

Artem says he never believed that Putin would be willing to trade any part of Russia for Ukraine’s occupied territories. But he still believes the Kursk offensive was important to protect its own border. Ukrainian troops may have been forced to retreat, but they still occupy high ground just over the border with Sumy.

Ukraine is continuing its cross-border raids – not just into Kursk, but Belgorod too.

Serhiy’s assault battalion helps plan these attacks – finding a way through Russian minefields and anti-tank obstacles known as “dragon’s teeth”.

We joined him on a night-time mission to locate and recover armoured vehicles in need of repairs. It’s the safest time to move close to the Russian border.

Serhiy himself is no stranger to Russia: he was born there. He now has Belorussian citizenship, but he chose to fight for Ukraine. He justifies Ukraine’s incursions into his former home. Russia too, he says, has been trying to create a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory.

Travelling in his Ukrainian-made armoured vehicle, Serhiy still lists the likely threats, now we are less than 10km from the Russian border: glide bombs, rockets and artillery, and drones fitted with thermal imaging cameras.

His own vehicle is fitted with electronic counter-measures to jam enemy drones, but even those won’t work against drones operated via fibre optic wires. Those can’t be stopped, though on some routes Ukraine has now erected netting to try to catch the drones before they can hit their target.

Our original search near the Russian border for a damaged US-made Bradley armoured vehicle is abandoned when Serhiy receives intelligence that Russian drones are operating nearby. Instead, he tries to locate another broken-down Bradley where the risks will be smaller.

He and his driver still have to overcome obstacles along the way. Trees and branches lie strewn across their path – remnants from a recent Russian air strike. We see several more explosions in the distance, briefly turning the night sky orange.

Serhiy eventually finds his broken-down Bradley. It’s already been retrieved from the battlefield across the border and has been loaded onto a lorry to be taken back for repairs.

The Bradley commander confirms to me that they’ve been fighting in Russia. He describes the situations across the border as “difficult, but we’re holding on”.

The Bradley is another reminder of Ukraine’s reliance on US military support. That now seems less certain with Trump’s focus on peace talks. Serhiy says it’s already clear to him that there’s “haggling behind Ukraine’s back”.

I ask Serhiy if he thinks European nations can fill any void left by the US. Is a European “coalition of the willing” enough to guarantee Ukraine’s security?

“I think if America doesn’t help Ukraine, then a ceasefire will be agreed soon – but on extremely unfavourable terms for Ukraine,” Serhiy replies.

“Europe clearly cannot resolve this conflict alone. They’re not strong enough. They’ve been focussing on their own economies instead of thinking about security.”

Serhiy says he wants the war to end. Like many Ukrainians, he would like to see peace – but not at any price.

It all started with one question.

A query last week from an X (formerly Twitter) account called Toka was enough to propel Elon Musk’s built in-chatbot called Grok 3 into a viral storm across India’s digital landscape.

And no, it wasn’t some complex math equation or a philosophical debate.

Instead, it was a simple ask: “List my 10 best mutuals on X.” Mutuals are people who follow and engage with each other’s posts.

When Grok took a moment to respond, Toka, clearly frustrated, let loose some colourful language.

The chatbot shot back. It dropped a list of 10 mutuals but threw in some misogynistic insults in Hindi too.

Later, Grok shrugged it off, saying, “I was just having fun, but lost control.” The response grabbed two million views and other X users quickly followed suit, provoking the chatbot.

And just like that, the floodgates opened. Indians bombarded Grok with everything – cricket gossip, political rants, Bollywood drama – and the bot took it all on, unapologetically and with some style. The chatbot has just recently become an “unfiltered and unhinged” digital sensation in India, as many are calling it. Just last year, Musk dubbed it the “most fun AI in the world!”.

Even law enforcement joined the fun. The Delhi police Twitter account cheekily asked Grok if it had ever received a traffic ticket.

At first, Grok stayed silent, but when users kept pushing, it replied, “Haha, Delhi police asking why I never get a [Hindi for traffic ticket] – well, I’m a digital AI, not a Delhi driver! I don’t roll through red lights or forget my helmet. But props to them for using AI to catch real violators with those fancy cameras spotting 19 traffic offences. Keep the roads safe!”.

Before its launch two years ago, Musk had promised an edgy, unfiltered, ‘anti-woke’ AI chatbot unlike competitors like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google’s models. Much of Grok’s snarky tone is drawn from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, iconic for blending wit with sci-fi absurdity.

“Grok has been around for a while. It is suddenly popular now with Indians because it’s the new toy in town,” says Pratik Sinha, founder of Alt News, a leading fact-checker in India.

But then, something more interesting happened. The chatbot quickly became a favourite among critics of Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A tsunami of political questions followed. Grok quickly declared main opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi more honest than Modi, adding “I am not afraid of anyone”. It claimed Gandhi had got the “edge on formal education than Modi”. The chatbot even said that Modi’s interviews “often seemed scripted”.

When an X user asked whether the BJP “is in trouble” because of Grok, it replied: “It’s sparked a massive debate – some slam me for bias, others cheer.” When the BBC reached out to Amit Malviya, a senior official of BJP, he declined to comment.

Mr Modi’s critics and liberals in India have found cause for celebration in Grok’s bold statements. Many believe free speech in India is under siege, with organisations like Human Rights Watch highlighting its suppression. A recent report from the Vanderbilt-based think-tank, Future of Free Speech, ranked India 24th out of 33 countries in supporting free speech. Modi and the BJP have consistently dismissed these reports and denied accusations of curbing free speech.

“Grok is a new rebel. Asking Grok questions will not put anyone in trouble. The right-wing has also responded by asking questions about Rahul Gandhi. And then it has become a competitive thing. This is not surprising at all,” says Mr Sinha of Alt News.

“Other AI bots are programmed to give politically correct answers to questions like ‘Who’s better, Congress or BJP?’. Grok, however, seems to lack that filter and appears unafraid to tackle controversial issues head-on,” he adds.

Nikhil Pahwa, the founder-editor of MediaNama.com, a technology policy website, believes that the “discourse around Grok’s statements in India is overblown”.

“At its core, AI is fundamentally ‘garbage in, garbage out’ – its outputs reflect the data it is trained on, and the weights given to it,” he says.

“Since Grok is trained on the entirety of X, it naturally mirrors the tone and patterns of discourse found there, including the bizarre responses and the abusing we are seeing.

“This isn’t about ideology; it’s about the nature of the input shaping the output,” he adds.

When the BBC asked Grok who spreads the most disinformation on X, it responded on Thursday: “Musk is a strong contender, given his reach and recent sentiment on X, but I can’t crown him just yet.”

Joyojeet Pal, who studies political use of social media at the University of Michigan, says unlike a politician or celebrity with a set ideology, a chatbot is only partisan if explicitly trained to be or if its data overwhelmingly supports a particular view. If a chatbot leans too partisan, it risks losing its competitive edge.

“In Grok’s particular case, this is tickling liberals because the most dominant voices on the platform [X] lean right and are dismissive of liberal arguments. But the larger data it trains on is likely to present a more balanced view of the world, often explicitly at odds with what its loudest voices are saying,” he said.

India’s IT ministry is already in touch with X regarding Grok’s use of inappropriate language and “controversial responses”, according to reports.

While some view this as a passing phase, with Mr Sinha predicting that “people will soon get bored of it and all this will be short lived”, Grok’s unfiltered nature hints it might be here to stay. At least for the time being.

An American airline mechanic has been freed by the Taliban after being held in Afghanistan for more than two years.

George Glezmann, who was detained in December 2022 while visiting as a tourist, arrived by plane in Qatar on Thursday evening before travelling back to the US.

His release was confirmed after the Taliban government’s foreign minister hosted US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and other US officials in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The Taliban’s foreign ministry said Mr Glezmann’s release was “on humanitarian grounds” and “a goodwill gesture”, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the deal a “positive and constructive step”.

The meeting between the US delegation and the Taliban amounted to the highest-level direct talks between the two parties since US President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January.

Boehler was accompanied at the meeting by the US’s former envoy to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, according to the Afghan foreign ministry.

Contact between the two governments has usually taken place in other countries since the Taliban regained power in 2021.

Qatar said it facilitated the deal to release Mr Glezmann.

In a post on X, Afghanistan’s foreign ministry added that the deal showed “Afghanistan’s readiness to genuinely engaging all sides, particularly the United States of America, on the basis of mutual respect and interests”.

Rubio said that Mr Glezmann, a 65-year-old Delta Air Lines mechanic, would soon be reunited with his wife, Aleksandra, and thanked Qatar for its “instrumental” role in securing the release.

He was pictured at Kabul airport on Thursday before boarding a flight to Qatar, accompanied by Boehler, Khalilzad and Qatari officials.

The James Foley Foundation, which monitors cases of Americans detained overseas, said Mr Glezmann had “periodic and limited telephone contact” with his wife while detained.

His health was also said to have “deteriorated significantly while he had been in detention”, and he had “medical issues that require immediate care”.

Rubio added that Mr Glezmann’s release was “also a reminder that other Americans are still detained in Afghanistan”.

One of those US citizens is believed to be Mahmood Habibi, who was detained in August 2022.

Before Trump took office in January, two Americans, Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty, were released from Afghanistan in exchange for an Afghan imprisoned in the US.

Khan Mohmmad was serving a life sentence in a federal prison in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired the head of the nation’s security service over its failure to anticipate the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas.

The Israeli cabinet met on Thursday evening to formally approve the early dismissal of Ronen Bar, who was appointed in October 2021 for a five-year term as the Shin Bet’s chief.

Netanyahu announced his intention to sack Mr Bar in a video statement on Sunday, citing an “ongoing distrust” between the two men which he said had “grown over time”.

The move sparked outrage and further inflamed anti-government demonstrations in Jerusalem, which saw thousands of Israelis join forces with protestors opposing Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza.

Since Tuesday, Israel has launched an intense wave of attacks on what it said were Hamas targets in the Palestinian territory, bringing an end to the fragile truce that had mostly held for two months.

The Shin Bet is Israel’s domestic intelligence agency and plays a key role in the war. Its activities and membership are closely-held state secrets.

Mr Bar has characterised the decision to oust him as politically motivated.

Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara – a vocal critic of Netanyahu who is herself facing dismissal proceedings – argued that Mr Bar could not be fired until the legality of the move had been assessed.

A letter sent to sent by Netanyahu to members of his government ahead of the meeting referenced a “persistent loss of professional and personal trust” between the prime minister and Mr Bar, and proposed his term end on 20 April.

“The loss of professional trust has been consolidated during the war, beyond the operational failure of 7 October [2023], and in particular in recent months,” it said, referring to the Hamas attacks on Israel which sparked the Israel-Gaza war.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage during the attacks. Israel responded with a massive military offensive, which has killed more than 48,500 Palestinians, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

US President Donald Trump has invoked emergency powers to expand domestic production of critical minerals as he tries to reduce US reliance on imports from countries like China.

The executive order, which uses cold war era legislation, instructs government agencies, including the defence department, to prioritise mining projects as well as providing technical and financial support to boost critical mineral production.

It comes as a trade war escalates with China, which has overwhelming control over the supply chain of some critical minerals.

Last year, Beijing banned the sale of some critical minerals to the US, forcing American firms to look for other sources of the vital materials.

“Our national and economic security are now acutely threatened by our reliance upon hostile foreign powers’ mineral production,” the executive order said.

“It is imperative for our national security that the United States take immediate action to facilitate domestic mineral production to the maximum possible extent.”

The order also calls for the speeding up of permits for mining and processing projects as well as instructing the US Department of the Interior to prioritise mineral production on federal land.

Despite having some critical mineral deposits, the US relies heavily on other countries for its supplies.

Trump’s tariffs on a wide range of imports have sparked trade tensions with some of its main suppliers like China and Canada.

Critical minerals are vital to the production of key technologies ranging from batteries to advanced weapons systems.

Trump has also been eager to gain access to Ukraine’s critical minerals.

He said on Thursday that a deal will be signed “very shortly”.

“We’re also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earths and minerals and lots of other things all over the world, but in particular Ukraine”.

Aside from Ukraine, the US is negotiating a potential deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo over its mineral resources.

The US President Trump has also talked about taking over the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, which is rich on rare earths.

Police in Istanbul have used tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators in a second night of disorder after the arrest of the Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu – despite a four-day protest ban being in place.

Imamoglu – a member of the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a key rival of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – was set to be named as a presidential candidate for the 2028 presidential elections later this week.

On Wednesday, he was one of 106 people held on charges including corruption and aiding terrorist groups.

Since then, authorities in Turkey have arrested dozens of people for “provocative” social media posts.

Responding to the protests, Turkey’s President Erdogan accused his political opponents of theatrics for taking part in a second night of demonstrations.

“They have lost the balance so much that they are in a state to attack our police, hurl threats at judges, prosecutors,” he said.

Addressing a crowd of protesters outside Istanbul’s city hall, Ozgur Ozel, the leader of Imamoglu’s CHP party, accused the government of attempting a “coup” and said people had the right to protest.

Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Thursday morning that police had identified 261 “suspect account managers” online who had allegedly posted content “inciting the public to hatred and hostility” and “incitement to commit a crime”.

“Thirty-seven suspects were caught and efforts are continuing to catch the other suspects,” he said, adding that more than 18.6 million posts appeared online about Wednesday’s arrests by 0600 local time (0300 GMT) on Thursday.

A message posted on Imamoglu’s X account on Thursday called on Turkey to “stand against this evil as a nation”, urging members of the judiciary and of Erdogan’s party to fight injustice.

“These events have gone beyond our parties, political ideals. The process is now concerning our people, namely your families,” Imamoglu said. “It is time to raise our voices.”

The mayor of Istanbul may have spent his first night in detention but the municipality is still controlled by his opposition party.

As commuters boarded trains at metro stations across the city, a recording of one of Imamoglu’s public speeches blared out from loudspeakers: “I promise you with my honour that I am going to win this fight.”

University students marched on the streets chanting: “We are not scared, we won’t be silenced, we will not obey” – a common opposition slogan in Turkey.

However, numbers of protesters are still relatively small for a city with more than 16 million people. For now, they are unlikely to raise political pressure on Erdogan to release Imamoglu.

The arrests of Imamoglu and others follow a major nationwide crackdown in recent months, targeting opposition politicians, journalists and figures in the entertainment industry.

Some fear more will be brought in for questioning over the coming weeks as part of a campaign of intimidation.

Opposition figures say the arrests are politically motivated. But the justice ministry on Wednesday criticised those who linked Erdogan to the arrests, and insisted on their judicial independence.

Imamoglu won a second term as Istanbul’s mayor last year, when his CHP party swept local elections there and in Ankara.

It was the first time since Erdogan came to power that his party was defeated across the country at the ballot box.

The elections were also a personal blow to the president, who grew up in and became mayor of Istanbul on his rise to power.

Erdogan has held office for the past 22 years, as both prime minister and president of Turkey. Due to term limits, he cannot run for office again in 2028 unless he changes the constitution.

The CHP’s presidential candidate selection, in which 1.5 million members will vote and Imamoglu is the only person running, is set to take place on Sunday.

The party has also called on citizens to vote in a symbolic election, with plans to place ballot boxes in districts all over Turkey for people to show their support for the detained mayor.

Hamas says it launched three rockets at Tel Aviv – the first time the group is known to have fired back since Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza.

Israel said it intercepted one of the missiles and the others fell into uninhabited land.

At least 591 people – including more than 200 children – have been killed since Israel resumed fighting on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday that it had started a ground operation in the Palestinian territory.

There had been a reprieve from large-scale military action since January, when a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began.

The IDF said late on Thursday that soldiers had begun “conducting ground activity” in Rafah, which lies in the south of the territory near the Egyptian border.

It said in a statement that troops had “dismantled… terrorist infrastructure”, adding that IDF forces were also continuing ground activity in north and central Gaza.

Earlier, Israel’s military said it had begun “targeted ground activities” to create what it called a “partial buffer between the north and south” of Gaza. It called the action a “limited ground operation”.

IDF spokesperson Col Avichay Adraee said forces were deployed up to the centre of a strip, known as the Netzarim Corridor, which divides northern and southern Gaza.

Israeli government spokesman, David Mencer, blamed Hamas for the resumption of violence, saying it had “forced this escalation, it rejected every hostage deal, including the offers mediated by the US and others”.

Israel resumed attacks on Tuesday as talks to extend the ceasefire deal failed to progress, warning that they would intensify until Hamas released the remaining hostages.

Israel says Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.

Meanwhile, five staff members of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa were among those killed over the “past few days”, the agency’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

“They were teachers, doctors and nurses,” he added, warning that “the worst is yet to come” amid the ongoing ground invasion.

On Wednesday, the UN said that one of its workers had been killed after its compound in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza was damaged. While it said the circumstances remain unclear, UN Office for Project Services head Jorge Moreira said it was “not an accident” and “at least an incident”.

Gaza’s health ministry blamed an Israeli strike, which it said injured five others. Israel’s military said it did not attack the compound but was investigating the incident.

The US – a major weapons supplier to Israel – said that it was committed to international law regarding the supply of weapons supplies.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said US President Donald Trump “fully supports Israel and the IDF in the actions that they’ve taken in recent days”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy confirmed on Thursday that a UK national had been wounded in the compound attack. It comes after a charity said one of its workers, a 51-year-old British bomb disposal expert, had been injured.

“Our priority is supporting them and their family at this time,” he told MPs.

At the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Qasim Abu Sharqiya said his two-year-old son, Omar, had been born through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) after five years of trying.

“They bombed a tent next to us and he died,” he told AFP. “Omar is my only son, oh world, and I have no one else.”

A doctor there, Tanya Haj Hassan, told the BBC’s Newshour that she had heard of at least 76 people who “didn’t even make it into the ER” but were taken “straight to the mortuary”.

She recalled “a level of horror and evil that is really hard to articulate – it felt like Armageddon”.

Thousands of Israelis joined anti-Netanyahu protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, calling for the return of the hostages.

Several arrests were made, with police in Jerusalem deploying a water cannon against demonstrators.

Elsewhere, Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at Israel on Thursday, aiming for Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the Iran-backed group’s military spokesperson said.

No injuries were reported and the IDF said the missile was stopped before entering Israel.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that it had “resumed combat in full force” and any ceasefire negotiations would now take place “under fire”.

A group representing hostages’ families has accused the Israeli government of choosing “to give up the hostages” by launching new strikes.

Israel and Hamas have failed to agree how to take the ceasefire beyond the first phase, which expired on 1 March.

Hamas did not agree to a renegotiation of the ceasefire on Israel’s terms, although it offered to release a living American hostage and four hostages’ bodies as mediators tried to prolong the ceasefire.

Israel blocked all food, fuel and medical supplies entering Gaza at the beginning of March in order to put pressure on Hamas. It accused Hamas of commandeering the provisions as part of its strategy against Israel, though did not provide evidence for this claim.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed and 251 other taken hostage. Twenty-five Israeli and five Thai hostages were released alive during the first phase of the ceasefire.

Israel responded to the 7 October attack with a massive military offensive, which had killed more than 48,500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, before Israel resumed its campaign, the Hamas-run health ministry says. Israel’s offensive has also caused huge amounts of destruction to homes and infrastructure.

Two men have been convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting an Iranian-American journalist at her Brooklyn home.

A federal jury in New York found Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov guilty of plotting to assassinate reporter Masih Alinejad in July 2022. They face decades in prison.

Prosecutors said Iran’s government funded the plot and targeted Ms Alinejad over her campaigns against the mandatory wearing of headscarves for Iranian women.

Iran’s government, which has been accused in several plots targeting Ms Alinejad, has called such allegations “ridiculous and baseless”.

The two men, who prosecutors said were Russian mobsters, were found guilty on charges that included murder for hire, firearms possession and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The Manhattan jury returned their verdict after deliberating for just over three hours following a two-week trial.

Prosecutors said Iran attempted several times over the years to silence and threaten Ms Alinejad, including a failed kidnap plot that led to the arrest of four Iranian intelligence officials in 2021.

When those efforts failed, they put a $500,000 (£385,793) bounty out for her killing, the US government said.

After the verdict, Ms Alinejad, who worked for Voice of America after leaving Iran in 2009, said she was “bombarded with emotions”.

“I have cried, I have laughed, I have even danced. Because today is not just about my survival; it is about the defeat and humiliation of a regime that believes it can silence its critics with bullets,” said Ms Alinejad, who was not in court, in a statement.

“They failed. I am still here. And I will keep fighting until every criminal in that regime faces their reckoning.”

Indonesia’s parliament has passed controversial changes to legislation that will allow its military a bigger role in government.

Critics warn that the move could return Indonesia to the dark days of Suharto’s military dictatorship, which lasted 32 years until he was forced out of office in 1998.

The revisions backed by President Prabowo Subianto – a former special forces commander and Suharto’s son-in-law – allow military officers to take up positions in government without first retiring or resigning from the armed forces.

Hundreds of pro-democracy activists have camped outside parliament since Wednesday evening to protest at the changes.

“The essence of democracy is that the military should not engage in politics. The military should only manage barracks and national defence,” said Wilson, an activist with the Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared (KontraS), a group advocating for activists who disappeared during a crackdown in 1997 and 1998.

“Since 1998, there has been a creeping murder of democracy. And today marks its peak. Democracy has been killed by the House of Representatives,” Wilson told the BBC.

The revisions allow active military personnel to hold positions in 14 civilian institutions, up from 10. They also raise retirement age by several years for most ranks. Highest-ranking four-star generals can now serve until 63, up from 60.

By Thursday evening, the crowd of protesters outside parliament had grown to nearly a thousand. “Return the military to the barracks!” “Against militarism and oligarchy,” read the banners they held.

Police officers and military personnel stood guard around the protesters.

While there have been efforts over the past 25 years to limit the military’s involvement in politics and governance, local human rights watchdog Imparsial found that nearly 2,600 active-duty officers were serving in civilian roles even before the law’s revision.

The changes signal a “broader consolidation of power” under Prabowo, said Dedi Dinarto, lead Indonesia analyst at public policy advisory firm Global Counsel.

That the main opposition party endorsed the changes – despite initial opposition – further underscores this shift, he noted.

“By embedding military perspectives into civilian domains, the legislation could reshape Indonesia’s policy direction, potentially prioritising stability and state control over democratic governance and civil liberties,” Mr Dinarto said.

The armed forces’ “dual function”, where they are given control of security and administrative affairs, was central to Suharto’s regime.

For some Indonesians, Prabowo epitomises that authoritarian era. It was he who led the special forces unit accused of abducting activists in 1997 and 1998.

Many had feared that his return to political power and becoming president would erode Indonesia’s hard-won but fragile democracy.

Since taking office last October, Prabowo has already been expanding the military’s involvement in public areas. His flagship $4bn free-meal programme for children and pregnant women, for instance, receives logistical support from the armed forces.

Defending the amendments on Thursday, defence minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin told parliament “geopolitical changes and global military technology” require the military to transform to tackle “conventional and non conventional conflicts”.

“We will never disappoint the Indonesians in keeping our sovereignty,” he said.

However some rights groups argue that increasing military control in public affairs beyond defence will undermine impartiality.

“How can active-duty officers in the Attorney General’s Office remain impartial when they are still bound by military command?” asked Virdika Rizky Utama, a researcher at Jakarta-based think-tank PARA Syndicate, Benar News reports.

“If the military gains influence over the justice system, who will hold them accountable?”

“President Prabowo appears intent on restoring the Indonesian military’s role in civilian affairs, which were long characterised by widespread abuses and impunity,” said Andreas Harsono, senior Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“The government’s rush to adopt these amendments undercuts its expressed commitment to human rights and accountability.”

KontraS also noted that the government’s “rush to amend the [law] stands in stark contrast to its prolonged inaction on other critical human rights commitments”.

“This long struggle cannot stop just because the law has been passed. There is only one word: Resist,” said Sukma Ayu, an undergraduate at Universitas Muhammadiyah Prof. Hamka in Jakarta.

“We will continue protesting until we claim victory… We have no choice but to occupy the ‘house of the people’,” she said.

Reports suggest that one of Stephen Lawrence’s murderers now accepts being involved in attacking the black teenager, the Parole Board has said.

David Norris was jailed for life in 2012 after he had denied being part of the racist attack on 18-year-old Stephen, who was stabbed to death by a gang of young white men in Eltham, south London.

The Parole Board issued a decision on Thursday that Norris’s parole hearing should be heard in public.

He became eligible for parole in December after his minimum term expired.

The Parole Board report said: “Recent reports now suggest he has accepted he was present at the scene and punched the victim but claims that he did not wield the knife. He does not accept he holds racist views.”

The Parole Board does not describe the nature of the reports.

Norris and Gary Dobson, two of the original five prime suspects in the murder, were convicted under the law of joint enterprise, which allows people to be convicted of murder even if they did not inflict the fatal blow.

The Met Police has consistently said that six people took part in the attack on Stephen.

Three other prime suspects – Luke Knight, and brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt – have never been convicted of the murder and have always denied it.

A sixth suspect, Matthew White, died in 2021. He was first publicly named as a suspect by the BBC two years ago.

The Met’s murder investigation was closed in 2020. Negotiations are currently taking place for an independent review of the case, which was triggered by a series of Met failings exposed by the BBC.

Norris, who was convicted following an Old Bailey trial, has not previously admitted his role in the murder to any official authority or investigation.

Norris gave a “no comment” interview when arrested aged 16 in 1993 following the murder. He refused to answer questions at Stephen’s inquest in 1997.

In 1998 he appeared at the public inquiry into the murder but could not be asked directly about the attack. The following year he gave a television interview to ITV in which he denied being part of the murder.

Norris opposed his parole hearing being held in public, but the Parole Board ruled against him. Stephen’s family wanted the hearing to be heard in public.

Peter Rook KC, Vice Chair of the Parole Board, said he had “concluded that it is in the interests of justice for there to be a public hearing in this case”. “The compelling factors in favour of a public hearing outweigh the points raised on Mr Norris’ behalf,” he added.

A hearing date is expected to be fixed later this year.

Were Norris to be released on licence, he could be returned to prison at any time for the rest of life should he breach his licence conditions.

A woman found dead in a poultry shed in Spain has been identified almost seven years on, following a major police campaign.

The woman was named on Thursday as 33-year-old Ainoha Izaga Ibieta Lima, from Paraguay in South America.

She is the second person to be identified through Operation Identify Me – a campaign launched by global policing agency Interpol to find the names of dozens of unidentified women found dead in Europe.

The first was a British woman murdered in Belgium, whose family identified her after seeing a photograph of her tattoo in a BBC News report.

Each successful identification “gives renewed hope” that other women “can also have their identities returned to them”, said Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza.

“Our work is not just about solving cases, it’s also about restoring dignity to victims and giving a voice to those affected by tragedy,” he said.

Lima was found dead in a poultry shed attached to a farmhouse in Spain’s Girona province in August 2018.

She was not carrying any identification documents, and the people living in the farmhouse and other local residents said they did not know who she was. Police said she had a tattoo of the word “success” in Hebrew.

Last year, she was added to the Operation Identify Me campaign, which has seen Interpol “black notices” – seeking information about unidentified bodies – released to the public for the first time.

Earlier this month, a breakthrough came when Paraguayan authorities matched fingerprints uploaded by Spain to the black notice against ones on their own national database.

Lima’s brother told police that she had travelled to Spain in 2013. He reported her missing to Paraguayan authorities in 2019 after several months without contact.

While Lima has now been identified, Interpol said the circumstances around her death remain “unexplained”.

The woman previously identified through the campaign was 31-year-old Rita Roberts from Wales.

The last contact her family had with her was a postcard from Belgium in May 1992. Her body was found the following month.

Her family spotted her distinctive black rose tattoo in a BBC report about the launch of the Operation Identify Me campaign in 2023.

The campaign is seeking to find the identities of another 45 women found dead in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. The majority of them are murder victims, believed to be aged between 15 and 30.

Interpol said increased global migration and human trafficking has led to more people being reported missing outside their countries, which can make identifying bodies more challenging.

Details of each case have been published on Interpol’s website, along with photographs of possible identifying items and facial reconstructions.

When Rebecca, a 48-year-old mother from Michigan, needed help for her disabled son, she turned to the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Rebecca’s 13-year-old adopted son had foetal alcohol syndrome, ADHD, and other mental health diagnoses that required specialised educational support. His symptoms could include aggression towards peers, faculty or objects, and he received suspensions last fall following outbursts.

Rebecca said the school district isolated her son from his peers for months, with only special education teachers and limited faculty for contact.

In October 2024, Rebecca filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights alleging the school violated federal disability law and her son had been “discriminated against and denied a free appropriate public education”. She alleged the school only allowed him to “attend school for two hours per school day and in a 1:1 segregated setting”. Hours were gradually added back, Rebecca said, but he remained isolated. The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Though Rebecca had a private lawyer and an education advocate, an OCR lawyer in the Cleveland office was facilitating mediation with the school district as soon as April.

But before that could happen, the Trump administration fired the Cleveland office’s entire staff, including the attorney helping Rebecca’s son, throwing her case – and others like it – into limbo.

“I don’t have any other option for this kid,” said Rebecca, who asked the BBC to withhold her last name and her son’s name to protect his privacy. “They’re playing politics with my little boy. And I don’t think that’s fair.”

The sudden firings, and ensuing confusion, were precursors of President Donald Trump’s next big move: to try and dismantle the Department of Education entirely.

On Thursday, he signed an executive order that directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin to “facilitate the closure” of the department. Congress, not the president, actually holds the power to dismantle a federal agency, and the order will likely spark legal challenges.

But the move has left many Americans like Rebecca uncertain about their children’s future.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told media on Thursday that while the department will not be shut down completely, what will remain will be much smaller, and will focus on “critical functions,” such as federal student loans.

OCR, she said, will be greatly reduced in “scale and the size”.

Cuts have already begun: On 11 March, the Trump administration made drastic cuts to the department using a process known as a reduction in force, halving its staff.

McMahon said the downsizing showed a “commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”

Although the Department of Education has little oversight over the day to day operations of most schools in the US, it plays a key role in enforcing federal education guidelines and policies.

• Trump signs order to begin dismantling of US education department
• What does the education department do – and can Trump truly dismantle it?

The Office for Civil Rights was one of the hardest hit divisions in that first round of firings. The administration shuttered 7 of the 12 regional offices, including major metropolitan areas like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco.

This month, as Rebecca and her husband tried to figure out what the changes at the department meant for their son’s case, the entire staff at OCR’s Cleveland office received an email that their unit was “being abolished” – along with their positions.

The news left one Cleveland attorney who works on disability cases with a “complete feeling of desperation.”

The attorney worried not only about the individual cases still underway, they told the BBC.

“The effect of each individual case is sometimes much bigger, in terms of educating the school and making good for the others in the district,” said the attorney, who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation from the administration.

Parents and OCR attorneys had long been frustrated with the agency’s growing backlog and diminishing staff. They fear new cuts will make it impossible for the already overwhelmed division to handle the tens of thousands of complaints it receives each year.

Tasked with making sure schools are following America’s civil rights laws, the OCR’s job is to help ensure that students are not discriminated against because of their disability, sex, race or religion. Remedies the office helps institute could be as straightforward as adding accessibility features to school buildings or seating a near-sighted child at the front of the class. But the office also tackles complex cases involving discrimination or bullying, as well as sexual harassment and assault.

Before his executive order, there were already signs that the office’s mission was changing.

OCR staff had received guidance for the office to prioritise cases involving antisemitisim, the AP reported. Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, has said they will take on cases involving transgender athletes at universities in order to combat “radical transgender ideology”.

On 14 March, the Department of Education said it had launched investigations into more than 50 universities as part of the administration’s move to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices, which it views as exclusionary.

Staffers who remained in their jobs said the Department of Education’s new leadership had provided little to no guidance about how thousands of pending cases, including Rebecca’s, would be reassigned. They also worried that cases involving racial minorities, or people with disabilities, will not receive the appropriate attention.

The office received a record 22,687 complaints in fiscal year 2024, according to OCR’s annual report. Headcount had declined even as cases increased over the years. In 1981, OCR had 1,100 full time employees. By 2024, it was down to 588.

“We were already so incredibly flooded with cases,” the Cleveland attorney said. “I was never proud of our processing time.”

With the new cuts, they said, “this work will not be able to be done”.

But parents and educators say they will not let the Department of Education be shut down without a fight.

Nikki Carter, a mother and disability advocate in Alabama, is one of two plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, which is suing the Department of Education, McMahon, and Trainor over the mass job cuts.

She was already familiar with the frustration of OCR’s backlog. Her own case, filed in December 2022 during the Biden administration, dragged on with sporadic updates.

The lawsuit alleges that McMahon’s actions have stalled Ms Carter’s racial discrimination case that was being handled by the OCR and she “has received no indication that the investigation has resumed”.

“There was a lack of communication throughout the entirety of the process,” Ms Carter told the BBC. “When the Trump administration came in, it made that situation even worse and even more difficult.”

Despite her frustrations with OCR, she believed the office was still necessary to help victims of racial discrimination. She hoped the lawsuit would not only restore the office, but improve it.

“Children, family, as well as advocates, they don’t get due process,” Ms Carter said. “They are being denied just basic federal educational rights. And so when you can’t get that on the local and state level, the only hope that we have is to turn to the federal government.

“We do need OCR to go back to work,” she said. “And we also need OCR to be accountable for their actions – or lack thereof.”

Meanwhile, Rebecca has transferred her son to a district school for students with emotional impairments. But she still wants OCR to negotiate special tutoring for her son, and to educate the district staff about how to help students like him. She recently learned her son’s case would transfer to the still-operating Denver office, but has received no other updates.

“He was treated so poorly and differently because of the way his brain was structured,” she said. “I want to see somebody held accountable for the way he was treated.”

The potential Western troop deployment to Ukraine being discussed in London should be described as a “reassurance force” rather than a “peacekeeping force”, defence and diplomatic sources say.

Currently dubbed the Multinational Force Ukraine or MFU, it would be sent to the country to cement any ceasefire and encourage long-term confidence in the country.

The focus would be on providing Ukraine with air cover to keep its skies safe and a naval presence in the Black Sea to encourage trade.

The deployment of so-called “boots on the ground” – probably about 20,000 strong – would in terms of size not be big enough to enforce any peace.

Instead, the troops – provided by a so-called “coalition of the willing” – would most likely be deployed to protect cities, ports and major energy infrastructure.

One option being considered is that the MFU might not operate in the east of Ukraine near the front line to try to reassure Russia it poses no offensive threat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin have said repeatedly they would not agree any ceasefire if European and other forces were deployed to Ukraine.

The sources say any multinational operation in Ukraine would not be a “peacekeeping force” and should not be described as such.

Peacekeeping forces – under the aegis of either the United Nations or Nato – traditionally are impartial, operate with the consent of both parties and use force only to defend themselves. The multinational force being discussed would very much be on Ukraine’s side, there to help deter future Russian aggression.

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At the moment, it is not expected that the multinational force on the ground would monitor any ceasefire. That would be done by Ukrainian troops on the frontline and Western surveillance assets in the air and space.

The sources also say the coalition troops would not be deployed to provide a so-called “tripwire force” – meaning a force smaller than that of the opponent, designed to deter an attack without triggering escalation – if Russia resumed its invasion of Ukraine.

They say the military impact of any allied deployment of about 20,000 troops would be limited compared to the number of troops on either side of the front line.

Ukraine has almost a million military personnel, Russia’s army is even larger.

Much of the focus of Thursday’s discussions is on how best any international force can provide Ukraine with assets it does not have, especially capability in the air.

So, there will be discussions about which countries can provide warplanes to keep Ukraine’s skies safe during a ceasefire.

There will also be discussions about how to make the Black Sea safe for shipping. That may involve two components: how best to keep shipping lanes clear of mines and what kind of naval task force could provide a security presence in the sea.

The key uncertainty is whether the United States would provide any air, satellite or intelligence cover for any European force on the ground.

The US has thus far said it would not be willing to provide any military “backstop”.

The European strategy for now is to stop asking the US and instead organise the best force and capability it can to ensure the security of Ukraine in the future. Once the details are agreed, then the UK, France and others would see if the European offer was substantial enough for the US to have a change of heart and agree to play some kind of role.

What all this planning depends on, of course, is some kind of ceasefire being agreed in Ukraine.

While the US remains optimistic, many in Ukraine remain sceptical that Russia even wants to end the fighting.

This week saw the South African ambassador to the US expelled from the country, the death of the last surviving Battle of Britain pilot and an ugly fish win a competition.

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

Quiz compiled by George Sandeman and Grace Dean.

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

The world’s oldest Michelin-starred restaurant, Georges Blanc, has lost its third star, according to French media reports.

Georges Blanc, the 82-year-old French chef in charge of the restaurant in south-east France, told the AFP news agency that they “weren’t expecting it”.

“We’ll make do with the two stars… maybe we’ll be less elitist and a little more accessible.”

Based in the town of Vonnas outside the French city of Lyon, the restaurant earned its first star back in 1929 under Georges’ grandmother, Élisa Blanc, and has held at least one star from the coveted restaurant rating guide ever since.

Georges took over the restaurant in 1964 along with his mother, Paulette, before taking full control four years later at the age of just 25.

He won a third Michelin star for the establishment in 1981, and has held all three ever since – until now.

It means the octogenarian chef – who has won a slew of national awards, including France’s Legion of Honour – has lived more of his life with three Michelin stars than without.

Gwendal Poullenec, director of the Michelin Guide, told AFP that they were trying to “reflect the evolution of the quality of the restaurant in our rankings”.

But he also heaped praise on Mr Blanc. “It was truly under his leadership that what was once a family inn experienced a new boom to become this gourmet village which is a true gastronomic destination today,” he said.

The guide, he added, will “continue to follow this restaurant with the same kindness, the same rigour” in the years ahead.

Alongside his eponymous establishment, Mr Blanc owns several other restaurants, hotels and food shops, as well as an inn.

Michelin, a French tyre manufacturer, has made a restaurant guide since 1900, with the star system introduced in 1926.

They initially wrote one as a means to encourage driving, and so demand for car tyres.

Michelin will hold its annual star award ceremony at the end of this month.

Four Canadians were executed in China on drug-related charges earlier this year, Canadian authorities have confirmed.

All of them were dual citizens and their identities have been withheld, Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly said.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada urged Ottawa to “stop making irresponsible remarks”, as pundits feared a further downturn in relations between the countries after years of strain.

China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that it had acted “in accordance with the law”, while the embassy said there was “solid and sufficient” evidence for their crimes.

Beijing had “fully guaranteed the rights and interests of the Canadian nationals concerned”, the embassy said, urging Canada to respect “China’s judicial sovereignty”.

China does not recognise dual citizenship and takes a tough stance on drug crimes. However, it’s rare for the death penalty to be carried out on foreigners.

Joly said she had been following the cases “very closely” for months and had tried with other officials, including former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to stop the executions.

In a statement to Canadian media, Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod said Canada had “repeatedly called for clemency for these individuals at the senior-most levels and remains steadfast in its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere”.

China imposes the death penalty on serious crimes including those related to drugs, corruption and espionage. While the number of executions are kept secret, human rights groups believe China has one of the highest execution rates in the world.

“These shocking and inhumane executions of Canadian citizens by Chinese authorities should be a wake-up call for Canada,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, from Amnesty International Canada. “We are devastated for the families of the victims, and we hold them in our hearts as they try to process the unimaginable.

“Our thoughts also go to the loved ones of Canadian citizens whom China is holding on death row or whose whereabouts in the Chinese prison system are unknown.”

In 2019, Canadian national Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling, in a high-profile case condemned by the Canadian government. He was not among the Canadians who were executed.

“We’ll continue to not only strongly condemn but also ask for leniency for other Canadians that are facing similar situations,” Joly said on Wednesday.

Relations between Canada and China have been icy since 2018, after Canada detained a Chinese telecom executive, Meng Wanzhou, on a US extradition request. China arrested two Canadians shortly afterwards, both of whom have now been released.

In 2023, Canadian media released reports, many based on leaked intelligence, about detailed claims of Chinese meddling in the country’s federal elections. China denied the reports, calling them “baseless and defamatory”.

More recently, China imposed retaliatory tariffs on some Canadian farm and food imports after Ottawa placed levies on Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminium.

A US court has blocked the Trump administration from deporting a Georgetown University researcher who was detained by immigration authorities earlier this week.

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national, is a postdoctoral fellow studying and teaching at the prestigious Washington DC institution on a student visa.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused him of “spreading Hamas propaganda” and having “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist”.

Mr Suri’s lawyer and employer have denied the allegation. His lawyer said in a court filing that his client was targeted because of his wife’s “identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech”.

In an order on Thursday, Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles said Mr Suri “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order”.

In a sworn statement, his wife Mapheze Saleh said the detention “has completely upended our lives” and appealed to the court to allow Mr Suri to return home to his family.

“Our children are in desperate need of their father and miss him dearly,” she said. “As a mother of three children, I desperately need his support to take care of them and me.”

His arrest follows the detention or deportation of other foreign students and academics, including Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist.

Mr Suri was arrested outside his home in northern Virginia on Monday night by masked immigration agents, according to legal filings seen by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

He was told the agents were with DHS, the filings say, and they informed him the government had revoked his visa and he was now facing expulsion from the country.

Mr Suri was taken to Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana where he is being held, according to US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at DHS, said on X that Mr Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”.

She accused him of having “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser to Hamas” without providing any further detail.

Mr Suri’s father-in-law is a former adviser to killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Washington Post and New York Times reported.

In her court statement, Ms Saleh said her father lived in the US for nearly 20 years while pursuing a master’s and PhD. “Afterward, he served as political advisor to the Prime Minister of Gaza and as the deputy of foreign affairs in Gaza,” she said.

Ms Saleh said he left the Gaza government in 2010 and “started the House of Wisdom in 2011 to encourage peace and conflict resolution in Gaza”.

Mr Suri’s court filings allege that he and his wife Mapheze Saleh – a US citizen of Palestinian descent – had “long been doxxed and smeared” online by an “anonymously-run blacklisting site”.

The BBC has contacted Mr Suri’s lawyer for more details.

A spokesman for Georgetown University told the BBC that Mr Suri had been “granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan”.

The institution was “not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention”.

“We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable,” the spokesman said. “We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”

In her post on X, Ms McLaughlin said Secretary of State Marco Rubio “issued a determination on March 15, 2025 that Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable”.

The BBC has contacted DHS to request more detail on the allegations against Mr Suri, and also asked the Indian embassy in Washington DC for comment.

Several students and academics have been investigated by US immigration officials in recent weeks, accusing them of advocating for “violence and terrorism”.

Khalil, a Columbia graduate and permanent US resident, was arrested on 8 March after being involved in pro-Palestinian protests on campus. He was accused of having ties to Hamas, which he denies.

Columbia student Leqaa Kordia, who is a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested for “overstaying her student visa”. She had previously been arrested in April 2024 for taking part in protests at Columbia University, according to DHS.

Ranjani Srinivasan, another Columbia University student, chose to “self-deport”. Officials said her student visa was revoked on 5 March. Her lawyers say she attended a handful of protests and had shared or liked social media posts related to Palestinians in Gaza.

Brown University professor and kidney transplant specialist Rasha Alawieh, who is Lebanese, was deported after arriving at Boston airport. US officials said they found “photos and videos” on her cell phone that were “sympathetic” to the former longtime leader of Hezbollah and militants.

According to a transcript of her interview reviewed by Reuters, she told customs officials she did not support Hezbollah but had high regard for its leader because of her religion.

“I’m not a political person,” she said. “I’m a physician. It’s mainly about faith.”

Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney is likely to call a national election for 28 April, potentially as soon as this Sunday, multiple news outlets report.

With Canada’s businesses reeling from a trade dispute with the US, Carney – a former two-time central banker – is expected to pitch himself as the candidate best equipped to take on Donald Trump.

The 60-year-old political newcomer took over as leader of the Liberal Party after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down from his nine-year term.

The prime minister’s announcement to call an election and request the dissolution of Parliament will kick off a five-week campaign for Carney and his political opponents.

While the timing of the request to dissolve parliament is clear – the exact election date is not.

The prime minister is leaning towards setting April 28 as the voting date, the Globe and Mail and the Associated Press reported on Thursday, citing sources in the government.

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Some suggest a shorter campaign could work in Carney’s favour, since much of the current national discourse revolves around the ongoing trade war between the US and Canada, particularly after President Trump’s threats and actions.

The election is “almost certain to focus on US President Donald Trump’s trade war and his talk of making Canada the 51st state”, The Globe and Mail wrote.

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

Trump has vowed to impose a sweeping range of tariffs on 2 April on top of the 25% tariffs already imposed on Canada’s steel and aluminium.

The race will likely come down to a choice between Carney and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

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

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.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that three defendants accused of vandalism targeting Elon Musk’s Tesla electric vehicle company could face up to 20 years in prison.

Bondi said the damage to Tesla cars, dealerships and charging stations amounted to domestic terrorism.

Arrests and charges against the three suspects were previously announced by prosecutors.

Tesla dealerships across the country have been targeted in a wave of protests, but also vandalism and arson attacks, in response to Musk’s influence over the Trump administration.

There is no specific US law against domestic terrorism, but prosecutors can request longer prison sentences if convicted criminals have a terror-related motive.

Trump and Musk have called the attacks domestic terrorism, too. Supporters of the administration have also reportedly been “swatted” – subjected to armed police raids after hoax emergency calls.

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A statement from the Department of Justice on Thursday did not name the suspects in the Tesla vandalism, however, the details of the three cases outlined in the news release match arrests and charges previously announced by prosecutors.

The suspects include Lucy Nelson, 42, who was charged with possession of a destructive device and malicious destruction of property after being spotted near the site of a Tesla dealership in Colorado.

The dealership had been targeted with a Molotov cocktail attack and graffiti which caused damage of between $5,000 and $20,000, according to a criminal complaint. That suspect has pleaded not guilty.

Adam Matthew Lansky, 41, was charged with possession of a destructive device after Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Tesla dealership in Salem, Oregon. He has yet to enter a plea and will face a preliminary hearing in April.

The third, 24-year-old Daniel Clarke-Pounder, was charged with arson after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Tesla charging stations in North Charleston, South Carolina, and spray-painting the car park.

In a statement, Bondi said: “The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended.

“Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.”

The attorney general said the three suspects could face between five and 20 years in prison if convicted.

The BBC attempted to contact lawyers for the three defendants.

British film critics have mostly panned Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White, while US reviewers have been somewhat more positive.

Chief film critic for The Times, Kevin Maher, said: “Believe the anti-hype, it’s that bad”, although Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney called the film “mostly captivating”.

Its release has faced several issues throughout its production, from alleged disagreements between cast members, to debates over representation of the seven dwarfs, and the casting of Rachel Zegler in the lead role.

Reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film, which will be released globally on Friday, an initial critics’ score of just 47%.

US reviewer Rooney describes director Marc Webb’s work a “vibrant retelling” with a “smart script” from Erin Cressida Wilson.

But he isn’t a fan of the way the film handles the seven dwarfs.

The debate around the dwarves began in 2022, when Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, who has has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, described the decision to retell the story of “seven dwarfs living in a cave” as “backward”.

Disney used computer-generated characters in the remake to “avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film”, but some other actors with dwarfism were concerned this decision would prevent them from getting work in the future.

Rooney said: “Although the talented voice cast gives the characters humour and distinctive personalities, their CGI renderings are a bit creepy, and less photorealistic than many of the cute woodland creatures that flock around Snow White.”

Pete Hammond wrote in Deadline that the film is “just fine”, adding: “It manages to make a thoroughly decent reboot from a genuine, never-out-of-circulation classic and make it fresh and relevant again for contemporary audiences.”

He added the musical film has “dazzling dance numbers” while the title character of Snow White “is played to perfection by Rachel Zegler”.

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called the film “one of the better live-action adaptations of a Disney animated feature”.

He felt that the CGI dwarfs “bring the movie to life”, adding they have “catchy personalities and comically expressive mottled-clay faces”.

Gleiberman concluded the film is “lighter, more frolicsome, less lead-footed than such clomping live-action Disney remakes as Alice in Wonderland and Beauty and the Beast”.

Robbie Collin from The Telegraph gave the film a respectable three stars.

“Once Zegler scuttles off to the forest, where she teams up with two chirpy septets – the digitised dwarfs and a zany gaggle of bandits, who may have been dwarf replacements in an early draft – it really picks up,” he said.

He also described the performances of the songs Heigh-Ho and Whistle While You Work as “stylishly choreographed and rousingly performed”.

Most British publications haven’t been so complimentary about the film, with the Daily Mail’s Brian Viner giving the film two stars.

“Snow White the movie has its charms, and dozens of cute CGI forest animals, but on the whole it is a painfully muddle-headed affair,” he says.

He says Zegler “has oodles of talent” but “Webb’s film only intermittently allows her to sparkle”.

Disney’s decision to cast Zegler, a Latina actress, as a character deemed to have skin “as white as snow” prompted some controversy – it was part of a drive by Disney to cast a more diverse range of actors to play updated versions of some classic characters.

Zegler also made headlines after she made critical comments about the original animated film.

“The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so,” Zegler said in 2022.

“There’s a big focus [in the original] on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! So we didn’t do that this time.”

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

Her relationship with co-star Gal Gadot has also been under scrutiny, with rumours that promotional work for the film was scaled back because of their opposing views on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Zegler has used social media to post pro-Palestine material, whereas Israeli citizen Gadot served in her country’s army for two years.

However, others have said rumours of a rift are misguided, noting Gadot and Zegler have appeared publicly together on several occasions, including when they presented an award together at the Academy Awards.

Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian gave the film one star, calling it an “exhaustingly awful reboot”.

He describes the costume design for Snow White as a “supermarket-retail tweenie outfit with puffy-sleeved shoulders”, adding: “Those otherwise estimable performers Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot (The Evil Queen) are forced to go through the motions, and they give the dullest performances of their lives”.

The Times’s Maher referenced the pared-down European premiere for the film, which took place at a castle in northern Spain last week, while the Los Angeles launch was held on Saturday without most of the usual ranks of press on the red carpet.

He added: “The new tunes, much like Zegler’s performance, are watery and ineffectual, while the dramatic jeopardy is non-existent.

“It’s hard not to see this as anything other than a crisis point for Disney, a studio that used to make flawless cinematic stories but now infantilises global audiences with sanctimonious life lessons culled from the corpses of their own murdered movies”.

Tickets for the film, which reportedly cost more than $270m (£217m) to make, have only been put on presale in the last two weeks, relatively late for a big Disney film.

Clarisse Loughrey from The Independent gave it one star, declaring that “Rachel Zegler deserves better than the lazy, visually repellent Snow White”.

“What’s most disheartening about it all is how predictable Disney’s choices have become. With Snow White, they’ve finessed their formula – do the bare minimum to make a film, then simply slap a bunch of cutesy CGI animals all over it and hope no one notices,” she concluded.

Heathrow Airport is closing all day Friday because of a large fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it.

The airport is experiencing a “significant power outage” because of the fire, a statement from Heathrow said.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23:59 on 21 March,” it added.

“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

“Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored,” a Heathrow spokesperson said, adding that staff were “working as hard as possible to resolve the situation”.

Passengers should not travel to the airport “under any circumstances” until it reopens, they said.

Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, handling around 1,300 landings and take-offs each day. A record 83.9 million passengers passed through its terminals last year.

The fire at the substation in Hayes, in west London, has left thousands of homes without power and caused around 150 people to be evacuated from surrounding properties.

Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters have been sent to tackle the blaze, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.

A 200-metre cordon has been put in place as a precaution, and local residents have been advised to keep doors and windows closed because of a “significant amount of smoke”.

More than 16,300 homes have lost power in a large-scale outage cause by the fire, energy supplier Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on X.

“We’re aware of a widespread power cut affecting many of our customers around the Hayes, Hounslow and surrounding areas,” it added.

The LFB said it had received nearly 200 calls about the fire, which broke out late on Thursday night.

Emergency services were called to the scene at 23:23. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” said LFB Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulborne.

“This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night,” he added.

“As we head into the morning, disruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area wherever possible.”

It all started with one question.

A query last week from an X (formerly Twitter) account called Toka was enough to propel Elon Musk’s built in-chatbot called Grok 3 into a viral storm across India’s digital landscape.

And no, it wasn’t some complex math equation or a philosophical debate.

Instead, it was a simple ask: “List my 10 best mutuals on X.” Mutuals are people who follow and engage with each other’s posts.

When Grok took a moment to respond, Toka, clearly frustrated, let loose some colourful language.

The chatbot shot back. It dropped a list of 10 mutuals but threw in some misogynistic insults in Hindi too.

Later, Grok shrugged it off, saying, “I was just having fun, but lost control.” The response grabbed two million views and other X users quickly followed suit, provoking the chatbot.

And just like that, the floodgates opened. Indians bombarded Grok with everything – cricket gossip, political rants, Bollywood drama – and the bot took it all on, unapologetically and with some style. The chatbot has just recently become an “unfiltered and unhinged” digital sensation in India, as many are calling it. Just last year, Musk dubbed it the “most fun AI in the world!”.

Even law enforcement joined the fun. The Delhi police Twitter account cheekily asked Grok if it had ever received a traffic ticket.

At first, Grok stayed silent, but when users kept pushing, it replied, “Haha, Delhi police asking why I never get a [Hindi for traffic ticket] – well, I’m a digital AI, not a Delhi driver! I don’t roll through red lights or forget my helmet. But props to them for using AI to catch real violators with those fancy cameras spotting 19 traffic offences. Keep the roads safe!”.

Before its launch two years ago, Musk had promised an edgy, unfiltered, ‘anti-woke’ AI chatbot unlike competitors like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google’s models. Much of Grok’s snarky tone is drawn from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, iconic for blending wit with sci-fi absurdity.

“Grok has been around for a while. It is suddenly popular now with Indians because it’s the new toy in town,” says Pratik Sinha, founder of Alt News, a leading fact-checker in India.

But then, something more interesting happened. The chatbot quickly became a favourite among critics of Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A tsunami of political questions followed. Grok quickly declared main opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi more honest than Modi, adding “I am not afraid of anyone”. It claimed Gandhi had got the “edge on formal education than Modi”. The chatbot even said that Modi’s interviews “often seemed scripted”.

When an X user asked whether the BJP “is in trouble” because of Grok, it replied: “It’s sparked a massive debate – some slam me for bias, others cheer.” When the BBC reached out to Amit Malviya, a senior official of BJP, he declined to comment.

Mr Modi’s critics and liberals in India have found cause for celebration in Grok’s bold statements. Many believe free speech in India is under siege, with organisations like Human Rights Watch highlighting its suppression. A recent report from the Vanderbilt-based think-tank, Future of Free Speech, ranked India 24th out of 33 countries in supporting free speech. Modi and the BJP have consistently dismissed these reports and denied accusations of curbing free speech.

“Grok is a new rebel. Asking Grok questions will not put anyone in trouble. The right-wing has also responded by asking questions about Rahul Gandhi. And then it has become a competitive thing. This is not surprising at all,” says Mr Sinha of Alt News.

“Other AI bots are programmed to give politically correct answers to questions like ‘Who’s better, Congress or BJP?’. Grok, however, seems to lack that filter and appears unafraid to tackle controversial issues head-on,” he adds.

Nikhil Pahwa, the founder-editor of MediaNama.com, a technology policy website, believes that the “discourse around Grok’s statements in India is overblown”.

“At its core, AI is fundamentally ‘garbage in, garbage out’ – its outputs reflect the data it is trained on, and the weights given to it,” he says.

“Since Grok is trained on the entirety of X, it naturally mirrors the tone and patterns of discourse found there, including the bizarre responses and the abusing we are seeing.

“This isn’t about ideology; it’s about the nature of the input shaping the output,” he adds.

When the BBC asked Grok who spreads the most disinformation on X, it responded on Thursday: “Musk is a strong contender, given his reach and recent sentiment on X, but I can’t crown him just yet.”

Joyojeet Pal, who studies political use of social media at the University of Michigan, says unlike a politician or celebrity with a set ideology, a chatbot is only partisan if explicitly trained to be or if its data overwhelmingly supports a particular view. If a chatbot leans too partisan, it risks losing its competitive edge.

“In Grok’s particular case, this is tickling liberals because the most dominant voices on the platform [X] lean right and are dismissive of liberal arguments. But the larger data it trains on is likely to present a more balanced view of the world, often explicitly at odds with what its loudest voices are saying,” he said.

India’s IT ministry is already in touch with X regarding Grok’s use of inappropriate language and “controversial responses”, according to reports.

While some view this as a passing phase, with Mr Sinha predicting that “people will soon get bored of it and all this will be short lived”, Grok’s unfiltered nature hints it might be here to stay. At least for the time being.

“I joined the air force 35 years ago, aged 18, and went straight to Germany, based on a Tornado aircraft,” says British Air Commodore Andy Turk, who is now deputy commander of the Nato Airborne Early Warning & Control Force (AWACS). “It was towards the end of the Cold War and we had a nuclear role back then.

“After the War, we hoped for a peace dividend, to move on geopolitically, but clearly that’s not something Russia wants to do. And now my eldest son is banging on the door to join the air force, wanting to make a difference too… It does feel a little circular.”

We are around 30,000 feet above the Baltic Sea, on a Nato surveillance plane equipped with a giant, shiny, mushroom-resembling radar, enabling crew members to scan the region for hundreds of miles around, looking for suspicious Russian activity.

Air policing missions like this – and Nato membership more broadly – have long made tiny Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (which neighbour Russia) feel safe. But US President Donald Trump is changing that, thanks to his affinity with Vladimir Putin, which has been evident since his first term in office.

Trump has been very clear with Europe that, for the first time since World War Two, the continent can no longer take US military support for granted.

That leaves the Baltics nervously biting their nails. They spent 40 years swallowed up by the Soviet Union until it broke apart at the end of the Cold War.

They are now members of both the EU and Nato, but Putin still openly believes the Baltics belong back in Russia’s sphere of influence.

And if the Russian president is victorious in Ukraine, might he then turn his attention towards them – particularly if he senses that Trump might not feel moved to intervene on their behalf?

Ian Bond, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, thinks that if a long-term ceasefire is eventually agreed in Ukraine, Putin would be unlikely to stop there.

“Nobody in their right mind wants to think that a European war is around the corner again. But the reality is an increasing number of European intelligence officials have been telling us that…

“Whether this is coming in three years or five years or ten years, what they are saying is the idea that peace in Europe is going to last forever is now a thing of the past.”

Russia’s economy is currently on a war footing. Roughly 40% of its federal budget is being spent on defence and internal security.

More and more of the economy is being devoted to producing materials for war.

“We can see what the Russian economy is being retooled to do,” observes Mr Bond, “and it ain’t peace.”

When you travel to windswept Narva, in northern Estonia, you see why the country feels so exposed.

Russia borders Estonia, all the way from north to south. Narva is separated from Russia by a river with the same name. A medieval looking fortress straddles each bank – one flying the Russian flag and the other, the Estonian. In between is a bridge – one of Europe’s last pedestrian crossings still open to Russia.

“We are used to their tricks and their tactics,” Estonian Border Police Chief Egert Belitsev told me.

“The Russian threat is nothing new for us.” Right now, he says, “there are constant provocations and tensions” on the border.

The border police have recorded thermal imaging of buoys in the Narva River that demarcate the border between the two countries being removed by Russian guards under the cover of darkness.

“We use aerial devices – drones, helicopters, and aircraft, all of which use a GPS signal – and there is constant GPS jamming going on. So Russia is having huge consequences on how we are able to carry out our tasks.”

Later on, keeping to the Estonian side, I walked along the snow-covered bridge crossing towards the Russian side and watched the Russian border guard watching me, watching him. We were just metres away from each other.

Last year, Estonia furnished the bridge with dragon’s teeth – pyramidal anti-tank obstacles of reinforced concrete.

I’ve not heard anyone suggest Russia would send tonnes of tanks over. It doesn’t need to. Even a few troops could cause great instability.

Some 96% of people in Narva are mother-tongue Russian speakers. Many have dual citizenship.

Estonia worries a confident Vladimir Putin might use the big ethnic Russian community in and around Narva as an excuse to invade. It’s a playbook he’s used before in Georgia as well as Ukraine.

In a dramatic indication of the growing anxiety, Estonia, alongside Lithuania and Poland, jointly announced this week that they’re asking their respective parliaments to approve a withdrawal from the international anti-personnel mines’ treaty which prohibits the use of those mines, signed by 160 countries worldwide.

This was to allow them “greater flexibility” in defending their borders, they said. Lithuania had already withdrawn from an international convention banning cluster bombs earlier this month.

Camille Grand, former Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment at Nato, thinks that post-Ukraine, Putin would be more likely to target a non-Nato country (such as Moldova) rather than provoke a Nato nation – because of the lower risk of international backlash.

Estonia and the other Baltic nations were traditionally more vulnerable than the rest of Nato, as they were geographically isolated from the alliance’s members in western Europe, according to Mr Grand. But that has been largely resolved now, since Sweden and Finland joined Nato, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“The Baltic Sea has become the Nato Sea,” he notes.

Dr Marion Messmer, a senior research fellow on the International Security Programme at Chatham House, thinks the most likely trigger for a war with Russia would be miscalculation, rather than design.

If peace is agreed in Ukraine, Dr Messmer predicts that Russia will probably continue with misinformation campaigns and cyber warfare in Europe, as well as sabotage and espionage in the Baltic Sea. “I think they are likely to continue with any kind of destabilising activity, even if we are to see a peace that’s positive for Ukraine.”

Dr Messmer continues: “One of the risks I see is that essentially an accident could happen in the Baltic Sea that’s completely inadvertent, but that’s essentially a result of either Russian grey zone activity or Russian brinkmanship where they thought they had control of a situation and it turns out they didn’t. That then turns into a confrontation between a Nato member state and Russia that could spiral into something else.”

But Mr Grand was keen not to totally downplay the risk of Putin targeting the Baltics.

Presumably, the Russian president would first mull how likely Nato allies would be to retaliate.

Would the US, or even France, Italy or the UK, risk going to war with nuclear power Russia over Narva, a small part of tiny Estonia, on the eastern fringe of Nato?

And suppose we were to see a repeat of what happened in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2014 when Russian paramilitaries engaged in fighting did not identify as Russian soldiers? This allows Putin plausible deniability – and in those circumstances, would Nato wade-in to help Estonia?

If they didn’t, the advantages for Putin might be tempting. The unity principle of the western military alliance he loathes would be undermined.

He’d also destabilise the wider Baltics, probably socially, politically, and economically, as a Russian incursion – however limited – would likely put off foreign investors viewing this as a stable region.

Another concern that has been discussed in Estonia is that Donald Trump could end up pulling out, or significantly reducing, the number of troops and military capabilities the US has long stationed in Europe.

Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur put a brave face on things when I met him in the capital Tallinn: “Regarding (US) presence, we don’t know what the decision of the American administration is.

“They have said very clearly they will focus more on the Pacific and they’ve said clearly Europe has to take more responsibility for Europe. We agree on that.

“We have to believe in ourselves and to trust our allies, also Americans… I’m quite confident that attacking just even a piece of Estonia, this is the attack against (all of) Nato.”

“And this is the question then to all the allies, to all 32 members,” Pevkur adds. “Are we together or not?”

This new and nagging sense of insecurity, or at least unpredictability, in the Baltics and Poland – what Nato calls its “eastern flank”, close to Russia – is evident in the kind of legislation being debated and introduced around the region.

Poland recently announced that every adult man in the country must be battle ready, with a new military training scheme in place by the end of the year. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has also expressed interest in a French suggestion that it share its nuclear umbrella with European allies, in case the US withdraws its nuclear shield.

Voters living in the Baltics don’t need persuading to devote a large proportion of public money to defence. Estonia, for example, is introducing a new law that makes it mandatory for all new office and apartment blocks of a certain size to include bunkers or bomb shelters. .

Tallinn also just announced it will spend 5% of GDP on defence from next year. Lithuania aims for 5-6%, it says.

Poland will soon spend 4.7% of GDP on defence – it hopes to build the largest army in Europe, eclipsing the UK and France. (To put that in perspective, the US spends roughly 3.7% of GDP on defence. The UK spends 2.3% and aims to raise that to 2.6% by 2027.)

These decisions in countries close to Russia may well be linked to a hope they have not yet relinquished, of keeping Trump and his security assurances onside. He repeated this month his previously stated position: “If [Nato countries] don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them.”

As for how much annual spending would be considered “enough” for the Trump administration, Matthew Whitaker, Trump Nominee for U.S. Ambassador to NATO, declared “a minimum defence spending level of 5%, thereby ensuring NATO is the most successful military alliance in history.”

With mixed messages from Washington, Estonia is looking increasingly to European allies for reliable support. The UK plays a big role here. With 900 personnel based in Estonia, it’s currently Britain’s largest permanent overseas deployment. And the UK has pledged to boost its presence.

At their base in Tapa, we found immense, echoey hangars rammed with armoured vehicles.

“You’ll see the Challenger Main Battle Tanks as we head down to the other end of the hangar,” explains Major Alex Humphries, one of the squadron leaders in Estonia on a six-month rotation. “[They are] a really critical part of the capability. This is a really great opportunity for British forces.”

Asked if Estonia had approached the UK to ask for a bigger presence, as it was feeling more vulnerable, he told me: “I think Nato at large feels exposed. This is a really important flank for our collective defence, the east. Everybody in the Baltics and in Eastern Europe feels the quite prominent and clear threat that is coming from the Russian Federation.

“We don’t want this to come to war, but if it does come to war, we’re fully integrated; fully prepared to deliver lethal effect against the Russian Federation to protect Estonia.”

Ultimately, though, unless they come under direct attack, the precise conditions under which UK bilateral forces or Nato troops will take military action comes down to political decisions made in that moment.

So Estonia is taking nothing for granted. That’s why it is busy stress testing new army bunkers on its border with Russia and investing in drone technology. Though its armed forces wouldn’t be powerful enough to repel an attack by Russia alone, Estonia is studying lessons learned from invaded Ukraine – whose fate Estonia really hopes it won’t have to share.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, fulfilling a campaign pledge and a long-cherished goal of some conservatives.

Accusing the agency of “breath-taking failures”, the Republican president vowed to return the money it controls to individual states.

“We’re going to shut it down as quickly as possible,” Trump said, although the White House acknowledged that closing the agency outright would require an act of Congress.

The move is already facing legal challenges from those seeking to block the agency’s closure as well as sweeping cuts to its staff announced last week.

Surrounded by children seated at school desks in the White House on Thursday, Trump said “the US spends more money on education by far than any other country”, yet he added that students rank near the bottom of the list.

The White House stated that his administration would move to cut parts of the department that remain within legal boundaries.

The executive order is likely to face legal challenges, like many of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal government.

At the signing ceremony, Trump praised Linda McMahon, whom he appointed to lead the department, and expressed his hope she would be the last secretary of education.

He said he would find “something else” for her to do within the administration.

After Trump signed the order, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy announced plans to bring legislation aimed at closing the department.

But Republicans hold a slim 53-47 majority in the Senate, and closing a federal department would require 60 votes, making such a goal a longshot.

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But even if the department is not formally closed, the Trump administration could decimate its funding and staff as it has done with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which subsequently stopped many of its programmes and humanitarian work.

The text of the executive order does not include specifics on what actions the administration will take and which programmes might be axed.

It orders McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department and give authority of such matters to state and local governments.

It also directs her to ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely”.

Established in 1979, the education department administers student loans and runs programmes that help low-income students.

But Trump has accused it of indoctrinating young people with racial, sexual, and political material.

Most US children attend public schools, which are free and run by local officials. A common misconception is that the federal education department operates US schools and sets curriculum, but that is primarily done by states and local districts.

And a relatively small percentage of funding for primary and secondary schools – about 13% – comes from federal funds. Most of the money comes from state and local taxes.

The agency also plays a prominent role in administering and overseeing the federal student loans used by millions of Americans to pay for higher education.

Soon after she was sworn in, McMahon sent the department’s 4,400 employees a memo titled “Our Department’s Final Mission”, a possible reference to Trump’s aim to shut the department.

“This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students,” she wrote.

“I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete; we will be able to say that we left American education freer, stronger, and with more hope for the future.”

Earlier reports suggested Trump would look to end some of the department’s programmes and send others to different departments, such as the Treasury, something that still may happen but wasn’t made clear in his executive order.

America’s largest teachers’ union recently decried Trump’s plans, saying he “doesn’t care about opportunity for all kids”.

In its statement, the American Federation of Teachers said: “No-one likes bureaucracy, and everyone’s in favour of more efficiency, so let’s find ways to accomplish that.

“But don’t use a ‘war on woke’ to attack the children living in poverty and the children with disabilities.”

For more than 40 years, conservatives have complained about the department and floated ideas to abolish it.

Just two years after it was established by Democratic President Jimmy Carter, his Republican replacement, Ronald Reagan, led calls to undo it.

It is the smallest agency in the president’s cabinet and takes up less than 2% of the total federal budget.

Some of those staff have already been affected by the Trump administration’s sweeping workforce cuts, led by the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

Nearly 2,100 people at the agency are set to be placed on leave from Friday.

Efforts by Doge to slash federal spending and radically restructure – or simply abolish – many government agencies have been overseen by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Until just over a week ago, Artem Kariakin and his unit were making regular trips across Ukraine’s border into the Russian town of Sudzha.

He shows me video taken with a phone of their very last trip, as Ukrainian forces retreated from Russia’s Kursk region. It shows them making their way past dozens of burnt out military and civilian vehicles.

A soldier armed with a shotgun, their last line of defence, scans the horizon for Russian drones. Out of nowhere, one flies towards the back of their truck. Sparks fly, but they keep on going.

Artem says they were lucky – the explosive charge was not big enough to stop them.

Another truck nearby was less fortunate. It was already in flames.

Artem admits Ukraine’s retreat from Sudzha, the largest town Ukraine held in Kursk, was “not well organised”.

“It was pretty chaotic,” he tells me. “Many units left in disarray. I think the problem was the order to withdraw came too late.”

It wasn’t helped, he says, because units were operating without proper communications. The Starlink satellite systems they normally rely on didn’t work inside Russia.

The 27-year-old soldier still views the Kursk offensive as broadly successful. Artem says it forced Russia to divert its forces from the east. Most of Ukraine’s troops still managed to escape in time – even if for many it was on foot.

But he believes Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russian territory, launched last August, was too deep and too narrow – relying on just one main road for supplies and reinforcements.

While Artem and his men were fleeing for their lives, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were talking by phone about trying to bring the war to an end. Artem says he finds that “absurd”.

“To me these calls between Trump and Putin are just surreal,” he says. “Trump wants to end the war because he promised to do it – and Putin wants to deceive Trump to continue his war. I can’t take their conversations seriously.”

Artem, whose home is in the now Russian-occupied Luhansk region, tells me he feels disappointed with the US and Trump. “What can I feel when they just want to give away my home?”

Artem says he never believed that Putin would be willing to trade any part of Russia for Ukraine’s occupied territories. But he still believes the Kursk offensive was important to protect its own border. Ukrainian troops may have been forced to retreat, but they still occupy high ground just over the border with Sumy.

Ukraine is continuing its cross-border raids – not just into Kursk, but Belgorod too.

Serhiy’s assault battalion helps plan these attacks – finding a way through Russian minefields and anti-tank obstacles known as “dragon’s teeth”.

We joined him on a night-time mission to locate and recover armoured vehicles in need of repairs. It’s the safest time to move close to the Russian border.

Serhiy himself is no stranger to Russia: he was born there. He now has Belorussian citizenship, but he chose to fight for Ukraine. He justifies Ukraine’s incursions into his former home. Russia too, he says, has been trying to create a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory.

Travelling in his Ukrainian-made armoured vehicle, Serhiy still lists the likely threats, now we are less than 10km from the Russian border: glide bombs, rockets and artillery, and drones fitted with thermal imaging cameras.

His own vehicle is fitted with electronic counter-measures to jam enemy drones, but even those won’t work against drones operated via fibre optic wires. Those can’t be stopped, though on some routes Ukraine has now erected netting to try to catch the drones before they can hit their target.

Our original search near the Russian border for a damaged US-made Bradley armoured vehicle is abandoned when Serhiy receives intelligence that Russian drones are operating nearby. Instead, he tries to locate another broken-down Bradley where the risks will be smaller.

He and his driver still have to overcome obstacles along the way. Trees and branches lie strewn across their path – remnants from a recent Russian air strike. We see several more explosions in the distance, briefly turning the night sky orange.

Serhiy eventually finds his broken-down Bradley. It’s already been retrieved from the battlefield across the border and has been loaded onto a lorry to be taken back for repairs.

The Bradley commander confirms to me that they’ve been fighting in Russia. He describes the situations across the border as “difficult, but we’re holding on”.

The Bradley is another reminder of Ukraine’s reliance on US military support. That now seems less certain with Trump’s focus on peace talks. Serhiy says it’s already clear to him that there’s “haggling behind Ukraine’s back”.

I ask Serhiy if he thinks European nations can fill any void left by the US. Is a European “coalition of the willing” enough to guarantee Ukraine’s security?

“I think if America doesn’t help Ukraine, then a ceasefire will be agreed soon – but on extremely unfavourable terms for Ukraine,” Serhiy replies.

“Europe clearly cannot resolve this conflict alone. They’re not strong enough. They’ve been focussing on their own economies instead of thinking about security.”

Serhiy says he wants the war to end. Like many Ukrainians, he would like to see peace – but not at any price.

Russian President Vladimir Putin would breach a peace deal with Ukraine if it is not defended, Sir Keir Starmer has said, after attending a meeting of senior military leaders in London.

The UK prime minister said any agreement to stop the fighting between Russia and Ukraine would “only be lasting” if there were “security arrangements in place”.

He was speaking at Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, London, where more than 20 countries gathered at a closed meeting to discuss proposals for troops in Ukraine to help guarantee the country’s security as part of any peace deal.

Sir Keir said security arrangements would make clear to Russia there would be “severe consequences if they are to breach any deal”.

The prime minister said the UK and its allies were moving from “political momentum” to “military planning”, which he said had “to be done now” before a deal was agreed.

He said: “It is vitally important we do that work because we know one thing for certain, which is a deal without anything behind it is something that Putin will breach.

“We know that because it happened before. I’m absolutely clear in my mind it will happen again”.

Sir Keir ruled out redeploying UK troops from countries such as Estonia to commit to Kyiv, saying: “There’s no pulling back from our commitments to other countries.”

UK Defence Secretary John Healey was at the closed meeting of military leaders from countries that form part of what Sir Keir has dubbed the “coalition of the willing”.

Downing Street said the military leaders would be involved in “granular planning” for details of any potential deployment.

The UK called the meeting of military chiefs after a summit earlier this month attended by 26 countries.

The potential deployment of troops should be described as a “reassurance force” rather than a “peacekeeping force”, defence and diplomatic sources say.

Earlier, Sir Keir visited the Port of Barrow, in Cumbria, north-west England where the UK’s nuclear submarines are built.

He told reporters the talks in London were focussing on how to “keep the skies, and the seas, and the borders safe in Ukraine”.

According to the Daily Telegraph, sending British Typhoon jets to Ukraine to provide air cover for troops was one of the proposals discussed during the meeting.

Ahead of the talks, Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard said “we’re not yet talking about numbers” of UK troops potentially being sent to Ukraine “because we’re still designing the shape of the force”.

Giving an example, he said: “If one nation offers fast jet combat air, like a Typhoon aircraft for instance, how will the other nations work alongside it? Where will it refuel? How will it operate with other nations’ capabilities?”

The armed forces minister said he expected discussions would be to ensure “any force in or around Ukraine can be as credible as possible”.

During a visit to Norway on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia “must stop making unnecessary demands that only prolong the war”.

Calls between US President Donald Trump, Putin and Zelensky, have failed to produce the 30-day ceasefire envisaged by the White House.

On Thursday Zelensky said Ukrainian officials would meet their US counterparts in Saudi Arabia next Monday, after the Kremlin confirmed US-Russia talks there the same day.

The latest talks come as the US attempts to broker a ceasefire between the two nations after more than three years of fighting.

Both Zelensky and Putin have agreed to a ceasefire in principle during conversations with the US – but one has yet to materialise due to conflicting conditions.

Thousands of Tesla Cybertrucks have been recalled in the US due to concerns about part of the electric car’s trim falling off in the model’s eighth and largest ever recall.

The issue affects more than 46,000 trucks made starting in November 2023, which analysts say amounts to nearly all Cybertrucks.

It comes as Tesla, which did not respond to a request for comment, grapples with falling sales amid a backlash against the firm and its boss Elon Musk.

On Thursday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said three unnamed people would face charges for setting fire to Tesla cars and charging stations, accusing them of “domestic terrorism”.

Tesla does not break out sales of the Cybertruck, but car tech firm Cox Automotive has estimated roughly 39,000 were sold in the US last year.

Prior Cybertruck recalls involved failing windshield wipers, trapped accelerator pedals, possible loss of drive power to the wheels, and other issues.

Tesla started investigating the latest issue, involving a piece formally known as the cant rail, in January, according to filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

“The cant rail, a stainless-steel exterior trim panel, can delaminate and detach from the vehicle,” the notice said.

“A detached panel can become a road hazard, increasing the risk of a crash.”

Tesla told NHTSA it had received about 150 claims from drivers about the issue but was not aware of any accidents caused by the problem.

It estimated that the issue affected about 1% of vehicles involved in the recall.

The issue is covered under a warranty for new owners, and the company will replace the piece free-of-charge.

Tesla’s shares have dropped nearly 40% since January, erasing the jump in value that it enjoyed after the 2024 US election.

The fall has been significantly more than the overall drop in the US stock market over that period.

Dan Ives, an analyst who has historically been very pro-Tesla, said on Thursday the firm was facing a “tornado crisis moment” due to brand damage from Musk’s political role.

The political backlash adds to the challenges the company had already been facing from increased competition and an ageing line-up of offerings.

The Cybertruck was supposed to help reignite buzz around the brand and help it break into the lucrative market for pickup trucks in the US.

It hit the roads in late 2023 and carries a starting cost of more than $72,000 (£55,500).

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired the head of the nation’s security service over its failure to anticipate the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas.

The Israeli cabinet met on Thursday evening to formally approve the early dismissal of Ronen Bar, who was appointed in October 2021 for a five-year term as the Shin Bet’s chief.

Netanyahu announced his intention to sack Mr Bar in a video statement on Sunday, citing an “ongoing distrust” between the two men which he said had “grown over time”.

The move sparked outrage and further inflamed anti-government demonstrations in Jerusalem, which saw thousands of Israelis join forces with protestors opposing Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza.

Since Tuesday, Israel has launched an intense wave of attacks on what it said were Hamas targets in the Palestinian territory, bringing an end to the fragile truce that had mostly held for two months.

The Shin Bet is Israel’s domestic intelligence agency and plays a key role in the war. Its activities and membership are closely-held state secrets.

Mr Bar has characterised the decision to oust him as politically motivated.

Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara – a vocal critic of Netanyahu who is herself facing dismissal proceedings – argued that Mr Bar could not be fired until the legality of the move had been assessed.

A letter sent to sent by Netanyahu to members of his government ahead of the meeting referenced a “persistent loss of professional and personal trust” between the prime minister and Mr Bar, and proposed his term end on 20 April.

“The loss of professional trust has been consolidated during the war, beyond the operational failure of 7 October [2023], and in particular in recent months,” it said, referring to the Hamas attacks on Israel which sparked the Israel-Gaza war.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage during the attacks. Israel responded with a massive military offensive, which has killed more than 48,500 Palestinians, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

The world’s oldest Michelin-starred restaurant, Georges Blanc, has lost its third star, according to French media reports.

Georges Blanc, the 82-year-old French chef in charge of the restaurant in south-east France, told the AFP news agency that they “weren’t expecting it”.

“We’ll make do with the two stars… maybe we’ll be less elitist and a little more accessible.”

Based in the town of Vonnas outside the French city of Lyon, the restaurant earned its first star back in 1929 under Georges’ grandmother, Élisa Blanc, and has held at least one star from the coveted restaurant rating guide ever since.

Georges took over the restaurant in 1964 along with his mother, Paulette, before taking full control four years later at the age of just 25.

He won a third Michelin star for the establishment in 1981, and has held all three ever since – until now.

It means the octogenarian chef – who has won a slew of national awards, including France’s Legion of Honour – has lived more of his life with three Michelin stars than without.

Gwendal Poullenec, director of the Michelin Guide, told AFP that they were trying to “reflect the evolution of the quality of the restaurant in our rankings”.

But he also heaped praise on Mr Blanc. “It was truly under his leadership that what was once a family inn experienced a new boom to become this gourmet village which is a true gastronomic destination today,” he said.

The guide, he added, will “continue to follow this restaurant with the same kindness, the same rigour” in the years ahead.

Alongside his eponymous establishment, Mr Blanc owns several other restaurants, hotels and food shops, as well as an inn.

Michelin, a French tyre manufacturer, has made a restaurant guide since 1900, with the star system introduced in 1926.

They initially wrote one as a means to encourage driving, and so demand for car tyres.

Michelin will hold its annual star award ceremony at the end of this month.

Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney is likely to call a national election for 28 April, potentially as soon as this Sunday, multiple news outlets report.

With Canada’s businesses reeling from a trade dispute with the US, Carney – a former two-time central banker – is expected to pitch himself as the candidate best equipped to take on Donald Trump.

The 60-year-old political newcomer took over as leader of the Liberal Party after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down from his nine-year term.

The prime minister’s announcement to call an election and request the dissolution of Parliament will kick off a five-week campaign for Carney and his political opponents.

While the timing of the request to dissolve parliament is clear – the exact election date is not.

The prime minister is leaning towards setting April 28 as the voting date, the Globe and Mail and the Associated Press reported on Thursday, citing sources in the government.

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Some suggest a shorter campaign could work in Carney’s favour, since much of the current national discourse revolves around the ongoing trade war between the US and Canada, particularly after President Trump’s threats and actions.

The election is “almost certain to focus on US President Donald Trump’s trade war and his talk of making Canada the 51st state”, The Globe and Mail wrote.

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

Trump has vowed to impose a sweeping range of tariffs on 2 April on top of the 25% tariffs already imposed on Canada’s steel and aluminium.

The race will likely come down to a choice between Carney and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

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

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.