Israel has carried out the most intense air strikes on Lebanon in nearly four months, after several rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the first time since a ceasefire came into effect in November.

The Israeli military said it had hit dozens of rocket launchers and a command centre belonging to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia and political group, in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two people, including a child, were killed and eight injured in the strikes.

Hezbollah said it had not carried out the rocket attack into Israel. Lebanon said an investigation has been launched.

Saturday’s attack came days after Israel reinforced its offensive against Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, in Gaza.

The Israeli military said it had intercepted three rockets in the northern Israeli town of Metula, and there were no reports of casualties.

The Lebanese military said it had dismantled “three primitive rocket launchers” in the south, and the country’s defence minister said an investigation had been launched into the attack.

Hezbollah, the main armed group active in Lebanon, said it had not carried out the attack, and that it remained committed to the ceasefire that ended 14 months of conflict in Lebanon.

This is the worst violence since the fragile ceasefire, brokered by the US and France, came into effect.

Under the terms of the deal, the Lebanese military would deploy thousands of additional soldiers to the south of the country to prevent armed groups from attacking Israel.

Hezbollah was required to remove its fighters and weapons, while the Israeli military would withdrawal from positions occupied in the war.

But Israel has carried out nearly daily air strikes on what it describes as Hezbollah targets, and has indicated that attacks will continue to prevent the group from rearming.

The Israeli military is still occupying five locations in southern Lebanon, in what the Lebanese government says is a violation of the country’s sovereignty and a breach of the deal.

Israel says the Lebanese military has not yet fully deployed to those areas, and that it needs to remain at those points to guarantee the security of its border communities.

Saturday’s attack on Israel will put even more pressure on the Lebanese government, and probably be used as an example by Israel that the Lebanese army does not have full control of southern areas, where Hezbollah has traditionally had a strong presence and support.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who came to power in January, has said only the state should have arms in the country, in what is seen as a reference to Hezbollah’s arsenal.

On Saturday, he condemned “attempts to drag Lebanon into a cycle of violence”, while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the escalation carried the “risk of dragging the country into another war”.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Unifil, said it was “alarmed by the possible escalation of violence”, urging both Israel and Lebanon to “uphold their commitments”.

Hezbollah was battered in the conflict with Israel: many of its leaders were assassinated, hundreds of fighters killed and much of its arsenal destroyed.

The group faces the huge challenge of providing financial help to its communities affected by the war, and pressure from its opponents to disarm.

Lebanon’s international partners say they will only help the country if the government acts to curb Hezbollah, the most powerful group in Lebanon.

Hezbollah launched its campaign the day after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, saying it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The longstanding conflict escalated and led to an intense Israeli air campaign across Lebanon, and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The offensive killed about 4,000 people in Lebanon – including many civilians – and led to the displacement of more than 1.2 million residents.

Israel’s stated goal in its war against Hezbollah was to allow the return of about 60,000 residents who had been displaced from communities in the country’s north because of the group’s attacks, and to remove it from areas along the border.

US President Donald Trump revoked security clearances from his previously defeated Democratic election rivals, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, as well as a number of other former officials and critics.

Trump said in February he was revoking security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden. His order confirmed that decision, adding that he was also revoking the security clearance of “any other member” of the Biden family.

“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump’s memorandum read.

Former US presidents and top security officials usually keep their security clearance as a courtesy.

Trump ordered department and agency leaders to “revoke unescorted access to secure United States government facilities for these individuals.”

“This action includes, but is not limited to, receipt of classified briefings, such as the President’s Daily Brief, and access to classified information held by any member of the intelligence community by virtue of the named individuals’ previous tenure in the Congress,” the order stated.

For several named figures, the loss of access to classified material and spaces will have a more symbolic impact.

It may limit the materials they are able to review, or restrict access to some government buildings or secure facilities.

The lawyers and prosecutors named by Trump, however, could potentially face roadblocks in accessing or reviewing information for their cases or clients.

Trump’s revocations focus on top Biden administration officials, as well as prominent political critics and attorneys who have challenged Trump or his allies in court.

Biden’s secretary of state Antony Blinken, national security advisor Jake Sullivan, and deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco all lost their clearances.

Trump also targeted two of his own former officials from his first term: Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman, who testified during his first impeachment trial that began in 2019.

Trump also revoked access for high-profile Republican critics, former Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

They were the only two Republican lawmakers who joined a US House investigation into Trump’s role in the 6 January 2021 attack on Congress.

Both also voted to charge Trump in his second impeachment, which a Democratic-led US House of Representatives instigated after the riot. Trump was acquitted by the Senate on the charge of inciting the 6 January riot.

Trump has also singled out top legal opponents in his latest decision on security access. His order revoked clearance for New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought multiple lawsuits against Trump and his businesses.

In a civil fraud lawsuit that concluded in 2024, a judge found Trump liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Trump is appealing the decision.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted and won Trump’s criminal hush money case last year, also lost his clearance.

Trump’s legal targets went beyond elected prosecutors. He withdrew security clearance for Norm Eisen, an attorney leading multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce.

Andrew Weissman, a former federal prosecutor who joined an investigation of Trump during his first term and later provided media commentary about the hush money trial, also lost his clearance.

Previous media reports had indicated that the administration had pulled the security clearance for a top whistleblower attorney in Washington, Mark Zaid.

Friday’s order confirmed Trump had revoked his access.

Several of the individuals chosen by Trump derided his order in social media statements.

“I don’t care what noises Donald Trump makes about a security clearance that hasn’t been active for five years,” Mr Vindman wrote on X.

Mr Eisen wrote on X that being targeted by Trump’s order “just makes me file even more lawsuits!”

Trump had earlier pulled security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials whom he accused of meddling in the 2020 election in Biden’s favour. He provided no evidence for these claims.

In 2021, Biden – serving as president at the time – barred his defeated rival Trump from having access to intelligence briefings citing his “erratic behaviour”.

A 2024 Justice Department special counsel report found Biden had improperly retained classified documents from his time as vice president. The report noted that Biden had cooperated with federal investigators and returned the discovered documents.

In 2023, Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith indicted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents following his first term in office and obstructing their return to the government.

Trump pleaded not guilty and a Florida federal judge dismissed the case in July 2024. Smith officially dropped the case that December after Trump won re-election.

Turkish authorities say 343 people were arrested during a third day of protests across the country on Friday.

The protests began after the arrest of a key opposition figure – Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – on Wednesday.

He was detained on charges of corruption and aiding terrorist groups, days before he was due to be announced as a candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

In a speech on Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the protests and said his government would not “surrender” to “vandalism” or “street terror”. “We will not accept the disruption of public order.”

Imamoglu has reportedly been questioned by Turkish police ahead of his expected court appearance later today – with more protests expected later on.

Imamoglu, who is from the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), is seen as one of Erdogan’s strongest political rivals.

He was one of more than 100 people, including other politicians, journalists and businessmen, detained as part of an investigation.

Thousands gathered in protest in Istanbul on Friday. Riot police reportedly fired rubber bullets and pepper gas as they clashed with hundreds of demonstrators. Other clashes were reported in Izmir.

Ozgur Ozel, the leader of CHP, had called for the third nightly protest outside Istanbul’s city hall at 20:30 local time (17:30 GMT) and said the president was afraid of the protests.

He also asked people elsewhere in Turkey to demonstrate peacefully at the same time, wherever they are in the country.

“Break down those barricades without harming the police, take to the streets and squares,” he said.

Authorities tried to stifle the street demonstrations with a four-day ban on all gatherings in Istanbul, announced straight after the arrests on Wednesday.

They have since extended this order to Ankara and the western coastal city of Izmir as protests have spread, with tens of thousands gathering across Turkey.

Ahead of Friday’s protests, Istanbul’s pro-Erdogan governor ordered the closure of the Galata and Ataturk bridges, both of which cross the Golden Horn estuary to where city hall is located.

Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya has similarly criticised the demonstrations, calling the opposition “irresponsible”.

Another 54 people have been arrested for violating a law on “inciting the public to hatred and hostility” by posting online, he said.

Yerlikaya added that 16 police officers have been injured in the demonstrations.

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

Opposition figures say the arrests are politically motivated. But the Ministry of Justice has criticised those who link Erdogan to the arrests, and insist 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.

Pope Francis will make his first public appearance in five weeks on Sunday, where he will give his blessing and greet a crowd from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the Vatican have said.

The 88-year-old has been recovering from double pneumonia.

He has only been seen by the public once since he was admitted to hospital on 14 February, in a photograph released by the Vatican last week, which showed him praying in a hospital chapel.

The Vatican said on Friday that the Pope’s condition is improving, but one official said he may have to “relearn to speak” following his prolonged use of high-flow oxygen therapy.

“The pope is doing very well, but high-flow oxygen dries everything out. He needs to relearn how to speak, but his overall physical condition is as it was before,” Cardinal Victor Fernandez said on Friday, Reuters reported.

The Vatican added that the pope’s condition was stable, with some improvements in breathing and mobility.

It confirmed he no longer uses mechanical ventilation for breathing at night, but was instead receiving oxygen via a small tube under his nose. During the day, he is using less high-flow oxygen.

Doctors have not given any indication regarding his discharge from hospital, the Vatican said.

Earlier this month, an audio recording of Pope Francis speaking in his native Spanish was played in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

His voice was breathless as he thanked the Catholic faithful for their prayers.

The Cardinal, who is head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, dismissed speculation that the pontiff would follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign the papacy.

When asked if he thought the pope could be discharged in time for Easter which falls on 20 April, the Cardinal said he did not know.

Pope Francis has spent nearly 12 years as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

He has suffered a number of health issues throughout his life, including having part of one of his lungs removed at age 21, making him more prone to infections.

Boxing heavyweight legend George Foreman has died aged 76.

Known as Big George in the ring, the American built one of the most remarkable and enduring careers in the sport, winning Olympic gold in 1968 and claiming the world heavyweight title twice, 21 years apart – the second making him the oldest champion in history aged 45.

He lost his first title to Muhammad Ali in their famous Rumble in the Jungle fight in 1974. But overall, he boasted an astonishing total of 76 wins including 68 knockouts, almost double that of Ali.

Foreman retired in 1997 but not before he agreed to put his name to a best-selling grill – a decision that went on to bring him fortunes that dwarfed his boxing earnings.

His family said in a post on Instagram on Friday night: “Our hearts are broken. A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand and great grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose.”

The statement added: “A humanitarian, an Olympian, and two time heavyweight champion of the world, He was deeply respected – a force for good, a man of discipline, conviction, and a protector of his legacy, fighting tirelessly to preserve his good name – for his family.”

Tributes poured in from others across the sport, with former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson saying Foreman’s “contribution to boxing and beyond will never be forgotten”.

The Ring magazine, often dubbed the Bible of Boxing, described him as “one of the greatest heavyweights of all time”.

“[He] will be remembered as an icon of the sport forever.”

Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas, on 10 January 1949, and raised along with six siblings by a single mother in the segregated American South.

He dropped out of school and turned to street robberies before eventually finding his outlet in the ring.

Foreman won the heavyweight gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, aged 19, before turning pro and winning 37 consecutive matches. He lost only five bouts over his career.

He beat previously undefeated reigning champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1973 knocking him down six times in the first two rounds.

His 1974 Rumble in the Jungle against Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, remains one of the most famous boxing matches ever.

Ali, the older man, was the underdog after he was stripped of his crown seven years earlier for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War.

Foreman reflected on the legendary fight 50 years later in an October interview with BBC World Service Newshour, explaining that everyone thought he was going to decimate Ali.

“Oh, he’s not going to last one round,” the boxer said experts were predicting at the time.

Foreman told the BBC he typically would get “real nervous” and have “butterflies” before any boxing match, but that night – it was the “most comfortable” he had felt.

But the wily Ali used a tactic that later became known as “rope-a-dope”, which wore out Foreman, causing him to throw out hundreds of punches before Ali unloaded on him in the eighth round and scored a knockout.

After a second professional loss, Foreman retired in 1977 and became an ordained minister at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Texas, which he founded and built.

He told the BBC his defeat to Ali became the “best thing that ever happened to me” as it ultimately led him to “get my message out” through preaching.

He recalled that his preaching started small, on street corners and with friends, then grew.

“We began meeting informally at various homes in Houston, and before long, the crowds became too large for most houses to accommodate,” Foreman said on his website.

“Eventually, we bought a piece of land and an old, dilapidated building on the north-east side of Houston.”

Foreman came out of retirement in 1987 to raise money for a youth centre he founded. He won 24 matches before losing to Evander Holyfield after 12 rounds in 1991.

In 1994, Foreman knocked out undefeated Michael Moorer to become the oldest ever heavyweight champion at age 45.

He became ad pitchman for his George Foreman Grill, which millions have purchased since it hit the market in 1994, thanks in part to his memorable catchphrase, the “Lean Mean Grilling Machine”.

Foreman was married five times. He has a dozen children, including five sons who are all named George.

He explained on his website that he named them after himself so they “they would always have something in common”.

“I say to them, ‘If one of us goes up, then we all go up together,” he explained. “And if one goes down, we all go down together!'”

The Trump administration is planning to import eggs from Turkey and South Korea and is in talks with other countries in hopes of easing all-time high prices for the American consumer, officials confirmed.

“We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters at the White House.

It follows the administration’s announcement of a $1bn (£792m) plan to combat a raging bird flu epidemic that has forced US farmers to cull tens of millions of chickens.

Despite President Trump’s campaign promise to reduce prices, the cost of eggs has surged more than 65% over the past year, and it is projected to rise by 41% in 2025.

Rollins said her department was also in talks with other countries to secure new supplies, but did not specify which regions.

“When our chicken populations are repopulated and we’ve got a full egg laying industry going again, hopefully in a couple of months, we then shift back to our internal egg layers and moving those eggs out onto the shelf, ” she said.

Polish and Lithuanian poultry associations said on Friday they had also been approached by US embassies regarding possible egg exports, the AFP reported.

“Back in February, the American embassy in Warsaw asked our organisation whether Poland would be interested in exporting eggs to the US market,” Katarzyna Gawronska, director of the National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers, told the news agency.

• Farmers say bird flu a ‘crisis’ as egg prices soar
• 100,000 eggs stolen from one US grocer as bird flu drives up prices

In February, the US Department of Agriculture unveiled a $1bn, five-point plan to tackle the price of eggs, with a budget of $500m for biosecurity measures, roughly $100m for vaccine research and development, and $400m for farmer financial relief programs.

The Trump administration said it will provide commercial egg farms with best practices and consulting services for free, and pay up to 75% of the costs to address vulnerabilities to help prevent the spread of bird flu.

“Our plan was to invest a significant amount of money to do audits across the country to have USDA help these egg laying companies to secure their barns,” Rollins said. “…and since we began doing that most recently, we’ve seen a significant decline in the bird flu.”

Though the avian flu, or H5N1, has circulated among American poultry flocks for years, an outbreak starting in 2022 has wreaked havoc on farms, killing more than 156 million birds and sending egg prices skyrocketing.

Egg prices became a rallying point for Trump in last year’s presidential run as he sought to capitalise on voters’ frustrations with the rising cost of essential items.

During his address to the US Congress earlier this month, he blamed the soaring egg prices on his predecessor Joe Biden.

“Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control – and we are working hard to get it back down,” he added.

Egg prices rose as the Biden administration directed millions of egg-laying birds to be culled last year amid a bird flu outbreak, though prices have continued rising during the early stages of Trump’s second presidency.

Kalki Koechlin has acted in blockbuster Bollywood films, modelled for international beauty brands and appeared on the cover of Vogue India. But in a world that puts such a premium on looking young, she says at times she feels “ugly”.

“We live in a social [media] world that has distorted beauty,” the actor, writer and producer tells the award-winning BBC World Service podcast Dear Daughter. “It has tricked us into thinking beauty is a certain size, a certain colour or a certain shape.”

The half-hour programme features letters from parents to their children – in which they pass on the advice and life lessons which matter to them – and a conversation with the show’s host Namulanta Kombo.

Kalki’s letter is addressed to her five-year-old daughter. In it, she offers advice for navigating pressures around body image and describes the ways unrealistic beauty standards have affected her personally.

The actor, who lives in Goa in India with her husband Israeli musician Guy Hershberg and their daughter, says the inspiration for the letter came to her when, one day after school, the child came to her to say she didn’t feel pretty.

“When they’re so young, they’re so perfect and you think, ‘Oh my goodness. How is it possible that you could think you’re not pretty?!'” she says on the podcast.

In the letter, Kalki, who is herself the host of another BBC podcast, My Indian Life, writes that she also feels “ugly sometimes, even though I’m constantly told by the world around me that I’m beautiful”.

She advises her daughter that “beauty standards will change throughout your lifetime, so do not hold too much value to what society deems beautiful currently”.

“Remember that your scars, your wrinkles, your eyes, your lips, your hands, your feet, your hair, your skin are all here as witnesses to your beautiful life. They are here to grow old with you, and carry you through the ups and downs. They are your friends for life,” she writes.

Born in Puducherry, India, to French parents, Kalki describes herself as a “geeky introvert” while growing up. As a teenager, she says, she was uncomfortable with her appearance, and pursuing a career on camera only intensified those feelings.

“Becoming a celebrity, having your face out there and being in front of the camera… There’s another layer of self-consciousness that kicks in.”

• Listen to Kalki’s episode here

Working in the film industry, she says she experienced a particular pressure to maintain a youthful appearance. Once, she says, a producer even suggested over lunch that she get dermal fillers for her wrinkles.

“He said, ‘All you need is a little filler for your laughter lines.’ I smiled and said, ‘Well, I better stop smiling so much.’ So I think my approach has been to deal with it with humour.”

Kalki says this happened when she was in her 30s and that she’d “already lived enough life to not be affected”.

“But I know that 20-year-olds are being told this and they feel the pressure to go and change their face very early on.”

Kalki says she believes this pressure is worsened by the rise of social media. “We all scrutinise [ourselves] and we all have these filters.” And in her letter, she shares her fears of trying to protect her daughter from such scrutiny.

She jokes that she even wondered about moving to Australia when she heard of the country’s plans to ban smartphones for under-16s. “That’s how my mother-brain is working!”

Kalki is not the only celebrity to speak about the pressure to appear young that is faced by women in the public eye.

Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown made headlines earlier this month for calling out journalists who have criticised the way she has aged.

“The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices is disturbing,” the 21-year-old said in a three-minute video on her Instagram page.

Dear Daughter podcast is the brainchild of Namulanta Kombo, a mother from Nairobi on a quest to create a “handbook to life” for her daughter, through the advice of parents from all over the world.

Each episode has a guest reading a letter they’ve written to their children, or their future children, or the children they never had, with the advice, life lessons and personal stories they wish to pass on.

In one of the episodes of the current season, Bridgerton actor Adjoa Andoh tells her three children to trust their instincts. In another, wildlife documentary presenter Rae Wynn-Grant offers advice on how to survive self-doubt and encounters with bears.

Dear daughter,

One day after school you told me, “Maman I’m not pretty.” You were only four. I panicked and immediately responded with, “What do you mean, of course you’re pretty, you’re as pretty as a butterfly, as bright as the sun.” And you continued to say angrily, “I’m not, I’m just not.”

In retrospect, I wish I had listened to you and been curious enough to ask you why you didn’t feel pretty? You see I make mistakes too, my own insecurities and need to protect you took over and I didn’t allow you the space to feel what you were feeling. Don’t let others decide who you are. Not even me. You have far more experience at being you than anyone else. And no-one else can be a better you than you.

Thankfully, I get second chances at being a better mother, and when a few weeks later you said “I don’t like myself”, I stopped my impulse to tell you what you were and listened. There was some silence and then you opened up about how you were having a hard time with some other children in school.

I thought about how to ensure you know that beauty is not skin deep. The truth is sometimes you will feel ugly. I feel ugly sometimes even though I’m constantly told by the world around me that I’m beautiful. And so now I have made it a point to tell you how beautiful you are, not when you’re feeling bad about the way you look, and not when you’re dressed your best, but when you are being the best versions of you.

As you grow older I know that you will not always believe that you’re beautiful because we live in a social world that has distorted beauty, that has tricked us into thinking beauty is a certain size, a certain colour, or a certain shape. These beauty standards will change throughout your lifetime, so do not hold too much value to what society deems beautiful currently.

Remember that you are whole and that if you start to pick apart your little nose or your hairy brows or your not quite right ears, you will start to feel ugly, but that is only because you are forgetting the whole. An elephant is a beautiful animal, but pick it apart and it’s got a long wrinkly nose, strange side glancing eyes, huge sticking out ears and a big fat stomach.

Remember that your scars, your wrinkles, your eyes, your lips, your hands, your feet, your hair, your skin are all here as witnesses to your beautiful life, they are here to grow old with you, and carry you through the ups and downs, they are your friends for life.

Dear daughter, do you know when I’ll stop loving you? Never.

Facebook has agreed to stop targeting adverts at an individual user using personal data after she filed a lawsuit against its parent company, tech giant Meta.

Tanya O’Carroll, 37, who lives in London and works in the tech policy and human rights sector, said it would open a “gateway” for other people wanting to stop the social media company from serving them adverts based on their demographics and interests.

The Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data watchdog, said online targeted advertising should be considered direct marketing.

In a statement, Meta said it provided “robust settings and tools for users to control their data and advertising preferences”.

Ms O’Carroll, who created her Facebook account about 20 years ago, filed a lawsuit against Meta in 2022, asking it to stop using her personal data to fill her social media feeds with targeted adverts based on topics it thought she was interested in.

“I knew that this kind of predatory, invasive advertising is actually something that we all have a legal right to object to,” Ms O’Carroll told Radio 4’s Today Programme.

“I don’t think we should have to accept these unfair terms where we consent to all that invasive data tracking and surveillance.”

It was when she found out she was pregnant in 2017 that she realised the extent to which Facebook was targeting adverts at her.

She said the adverts she got “suddenly started changing within weeks to lots of baby photos and other things – ads about babies and pregnancy and motherhood”.

“I just found it unnerving – this was before I’d even told people in my private life, and yet Facebook had already determined that I was pregnant,” she continued.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation controls how personal information is used by organisations.

Ms O’Carroll’s lawsuit argued that Facebook’s targeted advertising system was covered by the UK’s definition of direct marketing, giving individuals the right to object.

Meta said that adverts on its platform could only be targeted to groups of a minimum size of 100 people, rather than individuals, so did not count as direct marketing. But the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) disagreed.

“Organisations must respect people’s choices about how their data is used,” a spokesperson for the ICO said. “This means giving users a clear way to opt out of their data being used in this way.”

Ms O’Carroll said that Meta had agreed to stop using her personal data for direct marketing purposes, “which in non-legalese means I’ve essentially been able to turn off all the creepy, invasive, targeted ads on Facebook”.

She said that she did not want to stop using Facebook, saying that it is “filled with all of those connections and family and friends, and entire chapters of my life”.

Ms O’Carroll said she hoped her individual settlement would make it easier for others who wanted Facebook to stop giving them targeted adverts.

“If other people want to exercise their right, I believe they now have a gateway to do so knowing that the UK regulator will back them up,” she said.

Meta said it disagreed with Ms O’Carroll’s claims, adding “no business can be mandated to give away its services for free.”

A spokesperson added: “Facebook and Instagram cost a significant amount of money to build and maintain, and these services are free for British consumers because of personalised advertising.”

“Our services support British jobs and economic growth by connecting businesses with the people most likely to buy their products, while enabling universal access to online services regardless of income. We will continue to defend its value while upholding user choice and privacy.”

Facebook and Instagram have a subscription service in most of Europe, where users can pay monthly so that they don’t get ads on the platform.

The Meta spokesperson said the company was “exploring the option” of offering a similar service to UK users and would “share further information in due course.”

Columbia University has agreed to several demands from the Trump administration after $400m (£310m) in federal funding was pulled over accusations the university failed to fight antisemitism on campus.

Columbia says face masks used for the purpose of concealing identity are no longer allowed, and anyone involved in a protest must, when asked, present university identification.

Friday’s memo from the university comes after the Trump administration gave Columbia a list of nine items that were required before it would reconsider the $400m in funding.

Columbia has agreed to much of the demands, but the Trump administration is yet to respond and it is unclear if the funding will be restored.

“Our response to the government agencies outlines the substantive work we’ve been doing over the last academic year to advance our mission, ensure uninterrupted academic activities, and make every student, faculty, and staff member safe and welcome on our campus,” Interim President Katrina Armstrong told students in an email on Friday.

A change that will impact academics at Columbia is the shift in its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department. A new official will now lead that department.

“In this role, the Senior Vice Provost will review the educational programs to ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced,” the memo read.

Columbia says the role will “conduct a thorough review of the portfolio of programs in regional areas across the University, starting immediately with the Middle East”.

The university will also review admission procedures to “ensure unbiased admission processes”.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration said the reason for funding being pulled at Columbia was because of alleged “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.

Pro-Palestinian protests at the New York City campus last year, and the political fallout, was the key factor in the Trump administration’s decision.

Days after the administration announced federal funding cuts, Columbia said it was disciplining students who participated in a pro-Palestinian protest last spring and took over a campus building.

Some students were suspended and others expelled for their involvement.

When the $400m was pulled, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said: “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding”.

The Trump administration had requested masks be banned on Columbia campuses, and to allow university police to arrest “agitators” – if negotiations about federal funding were to continue.

It is not only Columbia that has faced funding cuts, the Trump administration has warned 60 universities that funding may be cancelled if allegations of antisemitism on campuses are not addressed.

This all comes in the wake of a high-profile arrest of one of Columbia’s students. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and campus activist, was detained by federal immigration authorities earlier this month.

Mr Khalil, a legal permanent US resident, faces deportation for his role in the 2024 campus protests.

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

The 30-year-old’s lawyers say he was exercising free speech rights to demonstrate in support of Palestinians in Gaza and against US support for Israel. They accused the government of “open repression of student activism and political speech”.

The Sudanese army has regained control of key areas of the capital, Khartoum, from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary faction seeking to overthrow the overthrow the UN-recognised government.

On Friday, jubilant army soldiers took photos of themselves in front of the battle-scarred entrance to the presidential palace in the heart of the city.

Fighting in Sudan broke out in April 2023, when the RSF launched attacks on Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) bases throughout Sudan, capturing significant territory, including key parts of the capital city and its airport.

Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict, millions have been forced from their homes and many have been left facing famine in what the UN has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

BBC Verify has been analysing videos and images posted during the conflict, frequently by fighters on both sides, to build a picture of the army’s push to take back control of Khartoum.

• Sudan war: A simple guide

The city is bounded by two great rivers, the Blue and White Nile, and the army’s fight to regain control has been defined by these geographical constraints.

The offensive to retake the capital began in earnest on 26 September when the army launched air strikes against RSF-held areas in Khartoum.

Then in January, the beginning of the dry season saw fresh pushes by the army – bolstered by a new alliance with Islamists and ethnic militias – leading to a string of strategic victories.

We’ve identified video and photographs from key moments in the retaking of the city.

The army headquarters in central Khartoum had been encircled by RSF forces for 21 months, trapping soldiers unable to link up with other army units closing in on the city.

Then in late January, following military advances further north, the army was able to send reinforcements to break through RSF lines and end the siege.

Verified social media footage posted on 25 January shows soldiers celebrating in the grounds of the army HQ.

The following day, the army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, visited the army HQ saying his forces would “eradicate” the RSF and pursue them to the corners of the country.

Many RSF fighters attempted to withdraw across the White Nile River to safer areas on the western side as pressure mounted on their positions.

They found their escape route blocked following a reported air strike by the SAF on the main bridge across the river.

Footage posted on 6 February shows this crossing point at Jebel Awliya dam about 40 km south of Khartoum, blocked by badly damaged vehicles, with black smoke visible in the distance.

BBC Verify has been able to confirm the location of this footage using satellite imagery which also shows black smoke rising at that location on the bridge.

Army forces approaching Khartoum attempted to take control of the Manshiya Bridge, the last major crossing under RSF control.

On 3 March, the SAF posted drone footage from the battle for control of the bridge.

In it we can see the army targeting RSF vehicles and fighters trying to flee. A truck, carrying some men, and others running alongside, can be seen going up in flames as it is hit on the bridge.

Further drone footage shows more than a dozen men scampering through shrubs towards the bridge.

In the following days the army was able to hold its position at the bridge and to close in on the remaining RSF fighters trapped in the area.

BBC Verify has identified dramatic footage, posted on 16 March, of what appears to be an RSF fighter caught in an army ambush as they flee the SAF advance towards the city centre.

Along a tarmac street, a speeding motorcycle comes under a hail of bullets and suddenly flips over throwing off its rider.

The men firing – identifiable as belonging to the army from their uniform and yellow headbands – can be heard in the footage congratulating themselves following the attack.

By matching the buildings and the trees we see in the videos to satellite imagery, we have established the incident took place at a location about 2 km (1.2 miles) south of the presidential palace.

We’ve identified video of the army striking a convoy of vehicles travelling along al-Qasr Avenue, moving away from the palace, posted online early on the morning of 20 March.

The footage shows a huge fire erupting, with multiple explosions and projectiles emerging from within the fire, suggesting the detonation of munitions being carried on the vehicles.

The video is accompanied by voices, speaking in Arabic, describing the attack on the RSF convoy vehicles containing weaponry.

We have managed to establish the location from two buildings seen in the footage which match buildings we see on Google Maps at a junction just over 1km from the presidential palace.

Just a few hours later, jubilant Sudan army soldiers posed for pictures in front of the palace building, their arms raised in victory.

The RSF still hold control over significant parts of the city as well as large areas of western Sudan. But the taking of the palace by the army is hugely symbolic moment in the conflict.

Mountains of rubbish blight the streets of the UK’s second-biggest city with no end in sight to a dispute that has been going on for weeks.

Wherever you stand on the contentious issue of Birmingham’s bin strikes, the reality remains the same.

Almost every residential area is plagued by overflowing bins. Rats and other vermin are taking over the streets, and fly-tippers are exploiting the strike by dumping rubbish in open spaces.

More than a million people have been affected. Some say they are being held to ransom over the fate of a small number of refuse collectors, while others accuse the bankrupt city council of snatching money from essential workers due to its own financial mismanagement.

“The sights are absolutely shocking,” explained Dan O’Brien, who lives in the city centre. “It’s such a terrible situation.”

The 27-year-old said dead rodents mowed down by cars were becoming common, adding he had seen four in just one morning.

Javed Haider, from Sparkhill, also told me he had seen rats around bin bags and believed it had become a “health hazard”.

He added that there was also a problem with fly-tipping.

“There’s spots where people just come out of their cars, dump it and they go away,” he said.

Student Milan Karki, who is originally from Nepal but currently lives in Balsall Heath, likewise said he was afraid the current situation could lead to health problems.

“Where people live, it should be clean,” he said.

Their experiences are not unique and the BBC has heard from dozens of people with similar stories.

Their message is often the same: things can’t carry on like this.

More than 400 bin workers who are members of the Unite union have been striking on and off since the beginning of the year.

The dispute is over Birmingham City Council plans to downgrade some staff and reduce their pay as part of wide-ranging measures to shore up the troubled authority’s finances.

It means neighbourhoods are going weeks without collections, sometimes resulting in 6ft bin bag stacks and “rats the size of cats” scurrying around.

William Timms, the owner of WJ Pest Solutions, told the BBC he had experienced a 75% increase in calls.

“There are rats in front gardens, back, and gaining access because of the bins being left out,” he explained.

A powerful stench is already present in some areas as spring beckons and temperatures begin to increase.

But despite the pleas of residents, a compromise appears some way off, with the most recent round of talks on Thursday ending without an agreement.

It means there’s no end in sight for the dispute, which could stretch long into the summer.

The city has been here before.

There were big rows between refuse workers and the local authority in 2017 and 2019.

On both occasions, there were weeks of missed collections and rubbish strewn across city streets.

But some people have told the BBC the current situation is as bad as they’ve ever seen it.

And this time, there appears to be very little goodwill between the two sides.

On Friday 14 March, there were ugly scenes at the council’s Atlas Depot in Tyseley, in the south-east of the city.

A BBC reporter who was present at the scene said five police vehicles and a police helicopter were dispatched following reports of waste trucks being blocked from leaving.

Striking workers on the picket line insisted they were only stopping lorries from leaving if they had safety concerns.

Days earlier, there were separate claims about a bin worker being struck by an object at the site.

It prompted Labour council leader John Cotton to condemn “violence on picket lines”.

He added people had a right to go to work without fear of intimidation, but the union hit back and accused the local authority of trying to “smear” the behaviour of refuse workers.

Elsewhere in the city, there were scenes likened to “binmageddon” when a mobile refuse collection service descended into chaos after being swarmed by people desperate to dispose of their rubbish.

A council refuse truck was approached by so many residents as it attempted to travel along Anderton Park Road in Moseley that a local councillor concerned about safety called police.

An officer at the scene told the BBC it was a waste of resources but said he understood people’s anger, as they had to live in the area.

Follow the BBC’s coverage on the Birmingham bin strikes:

• Rubbish piles high in city as bin strike drags on
• Refunds over abandoned garden waste service
• ‘We cannot move on offer to striking bin workers’
• Residents disposing of waste at tip due to bin strikes

Izzy Knowles, the Liberal Democrat councillor for the ward, spoke to the BBC after the service was called off two hours ahead of schedule.

“People were going to the wagons to put the rubbish in themselves, which you shouldn’t do,” she said.

“Somebody was going to get hurt.”

Later in the week, private security was deployed at another collection service.

It’s not just residents expressing concerns about the impact of rotting rubbish and unruly pests on their health.

A West Midlands Police statement said stopping the collection of waste was considered “a risk for public health and safety in the community” and a matter for all public agencies, including policing.

This language was echoed by local Labour MP Preet Gill, who said she feared a “public health emergency”, while Tory MP Wendy Morton said “squeaky blinders rats” could invade her nearby constituency.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, meanwhile, is pointing the finger at the Labour-run council and using the situation to attack the government ahead of local elections.

A warning that has perhaps attracted less attention, however, is one issued by West Midlands Fire Service.

Area Commander Gemma McSweeney told the BBC there had already been a “small increase” in rubbish fires in recent weeks, and she feared a big blaze outside someone’s home could have “devastating” consequences.

“Our biggest concern at the minute is where we see a build-up of rubbish outside anybody’s property,” she explained.

Administered by the largest local authority in Europe, the UK’s second city has a long history as an industrial and economic powerhouse.

But the past few years have seen Birmingham lurch from crisis to crisis, and its long-documented financial woes are at the heart of this dispute.

As part of massive savings, it wants to remove waste recycling and collection officer (WRCO) roles, something Unite claims is safety critical and would cost affected staff £8,000 a year.

The council disputes the union’s figures, claiming just 17 staff would lose the maximum amount of about £6,000.

The local authority insists 80% of the workforce have already accepted alternative offers, including promotion to driver roles, voluntary redundancy or moving to street cleaning teams – with just 41 still yet to agree terms.

Whichever way you cut the numbers, a solution appears far out of reach.

“If you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox”: with that advice in an exclusive BBC interview, the hugely popular gaming platform’s CEO Dave Baszucki ignited a fierce debate among parents.

Mr Baszucki also stressed the company took protecting its users extremely seriously and pointed out that “tens of millions” of people have “amazing experiences” on what is the UK’s most popular gaming site for children aged eight to 12.

Hundreds of people got in touch with the BBC after reading his comments: many said parents needed to take more responsibility, or highlighted how safe and enjoyable Roblox was for their children.

Others painted a much darker picture – accusations of grooming, addiction and a company that failed to respond to their concerns.

Here are some of their stories. The BBC has changed some names to protect the identities of young people.

For Amir, from Leeds, Mr Baszucki’s comments were “ridiculous”, and the course of action he suggested was “much easier said than done”.

“Roblox is ruining my son”, he told the BBC – and he feels powerless to stop it.

A user since he was eight or nine, he says the 15-year-old is “addicted” and can now use the site for up to 14 hours a day.

“He is a single child and both parents are so busy working. I feel guilty we haven’t been able to give him quality time. That’s been robbed by Roblox,” Amir told the BBC.

The son’s account is linked to the father’s email address, and Amir has received “hundreds” of emails over the years from Roblox about the violation of the ‘terms of use’.

He says his son has been given temporary bans, but finds a way to play on – using multiple accounts and the accounts of others.

Amir hopes he can reduce his son’s time on the platform by “playing cards, talking and watching YouTube together” rather than forcing him off the platform completely.

In response, Roblox highlighted to BBC News the screen time limit feature on the platform that gives parents the ability to restrict the amount of time children are allowed to spend on Roblox each day.

Sally, from the north of Scotland, told the BBC she “fully takes responsibility” as a parent – but questioned whether Roblox was doing the same.

She told the BBC her nine-year-old daughter was being groomed on Roblox and – despite reporting it to the platform – did not get a response, leaving her “enraged”.

The mother said last December her child was chatting to someone in a game where you can “mimic real life”. This user coerced her child to role play “marriage”. They told the girl they were touching themselves, and asked Sally’s daughter to touch herself and take a photo.

They offered Roblox’s in-game currency in exchange for the picture. The child didn’t do it, and told her mother days later.

“When she approached me, it was with a lot of tears, and feeling very, very shameful with what had happened. I assured my child that it’s not their fault that they have done everything correct – to tell me.

“This is unacceptable for a platform that’s advertised towards young children. It seems like the company isn’t taking any responsibility and clearly their filters are not working.”

Sally said companies that created platforms should be liable for any issues with them, rather than telling its users “‘well, don’t use it’.”

In his BBC interview, Mr Baszucki said building a “trust and safety system” had been an important part of Roblox ever since it launched.

He added: “We do, in the company, take the attitude that any bad – even one bad incident – is one too many.

“We watch for bullying, we watch for harassment, we filter all of those kinds of things, and I would say behind the scenes, the analysis goes on all the way to, if necessary, reaching out to law enforcement.”

He said he remained confident in Roblox’s safety tools and insisted the firm went above and beyond to keep its users safe.

Roblox also says it analyses all communications that pass between members on the platform, increasingly using more advanced AI systems and other tech to do so – and anything flagged is sent for further investigation.

It stressed to BBC News that users cannot share images with each other on the platform.

Concerns about children being exposed to sexual content on Roblox have been aired before.

In November last year, under 13s were banned on the platform from sending direct messages, and also from playing in “hangout experiences” which features chat between players. Other parental controls were also introduced.

Many people have also contacted the BBC to endorse what the Roblox CEO said.

Kathryn Foley said she was “impressed” with Mr Baszuki’s “honesty” in his interview, and highlighted ongoing conversations she has with her nine-year-old daughter, Helene, about the platform.

• Gaming Empire: The Roblox story

Helene is a big fan of the animal game Adopt Me.

“I would say on the whole the Roblox experience has been a very positive one with Adopt Me being a very kind and safe place for her to have fun with her friends,” Kathryn said.

Meanwhile, Kirsty Solman spoke to the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2 about her 13-year-old son Kyle, who has ADHD, autism and severe anxiety.

“He really struggles with social interactions and small talk. Being on Roblox and other gaming platforms, he is then able to play with his classmates.

“That stress and anxiety is taken away, and he has ended up with a really good group of friends.”

Kirsty said she spoke to her son about online safety and checks his devices every day.

Phil from London agreed parents needed to take the initiative when it came to online safety.

“There is a danger in thinking the internet is a crèche,” he commented on the BBC website.

Brent Dmitruk calls himself an earthquake predictor.

In mid-October, he told his tens of thousands of social media followers that an earthquake would soon hit at the westernmost point of California, south of the small coastal city of Eureka.

Two months later, a magnitude 7.3 struck the site in northern California – putting millions under a tsunami warning and growing Mr Dmitruk’s following online as they turned to him to forecast the next one.

“So to people who dismiss what I do, how can you argue it’s just a coincidence. It requires serious skill to figure out where earthquakes will go,” he said on New Year’s Eve.

But there’s one problem: earthquakes can’t be predicted, scientists who study them say.

It’s exactly that unpredictability that makes them so unsettling. Millions of people living on the west coast of North America fear that “the big one” could strike at any moment, altering landscapes and countless lives.

Lucy Jones, a seismologist who worked for the US Geological Survey (USGS) for more than three decades and authored a book called The Big Ones, has focused much of her research on earthquake probabilities and improving resiliency to withstand such cataclysmic events.

For as long as she has studied earthquakes, Ms Jones said there have been people wanting an answer to when “the big one” – which means different things in different regions – will happen and claiming to have cracked the code.

“The human need to make a pattern in the face of danger is extremely strong, it is a very normal human response to being afraid,” she told the BBC. “It doesn’t have any predictive power, though.”

With some 100,000 earthquakes felt worldwide each year, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), it is understandable that people want to have warning.

The Eureka area – a coastal city 270 miles (434km) north of San Francisco, where December’s earthquake occurred, has felt more than 700 earthquakes within the last year alone – including more than 10 in just the last week, data shows.

The region, which is where Mr Dmitruk guessed correctly that a quake would occur, is one of the most “seismically active areas” of the US, according to the USGS. Its volatility is due to three tectonic plates meeting, an area known as the Mendocino Triple Junction.

It is the movement of plates in relation to each other – whether above, below or alongside – that causes stress to build up. When the stress is released, an earthquake can occur.

Guessing that an earthquake would happen here is an easy bet, Ms Jones said, although a strong magnitude seven is quite rare.

The USGS notes there have been only 11 such quakes or stronger since 1900. Five, including the one Mr Dmitruk promoted on social media, happened in that same region.

While the guess was correct, Ms Jones told the BBC that it’s unlikely any earthquake – including the largest, society-destroying types – will ever be able to be forecasted with any accuracy.

There is a complex and “dynamic” set of geological factors that lead to an earthquake, Ms Jones said.

The magnitude of an earthquake is likely formed as the event is happening, she said, using ripping a piece of paper as an analogy: the rip will continue unless there’s something that stops it or slows it – such as a water marks that leave the paper wet.

Scientists know why an earthquake occurs – sudden movements along fault lines – but predicting such an event is something the USGS says cannot be done and something “we do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future”.

The agency notes it can calculate earthquake probability in a particular region within a certain number of years – but that’s as close as they can come.

Geological records show that some of the largest types of earthquakes, known as “the big one” to locals, do happen with some amount of regularity. The Cascadia subduction zone is known to slip every 300 to 500 years, regularly upending the Pacific north-western coast with 100-ft (30.5 metres) tall mega-tsunamis.

While the San Andreas fault in Southern California is also the source of another potential “big one”, with bone-rattling earthquakes happening there every 200-300 years. Experts have said the “big one” could happen at any moment in either region.

Ms Jones says over her career, she’s had several thousand people alert her to such predictions of a big earthquake – including people in the 1990s who would send faxes to her office in hopes of alerting them.

“When you get a prediction every week, somebody’s going to be lucky, right?” she says with a laugh. “But then that usually would go to their head and they predicted 10 more that weren’t right.”

Such a scenario appears to have happened with Mr Dmitruk, who has no science background. He has long-predicted an incredibly large quake would strike south-west Alaska or islands off the coast of New Zealand, with a magnitude so strong he said it could disrupt global trade.

• Why earthquakes made Los Angeles shake like a bowl full of jelly
• How climate change worsens heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods
• Thousands evacuate Santorini as more earthquakes strike island

The USGS says an earthquake prediction must have three defined elements – a date and time, the location of the earthquake and the magnitude – in order to be of any use.

But Mr Dmitruk’s timeline keeps shifting.

At one point, he said it would come immediately before or after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

Then he said it would definitely happen before 2030.

While that sizeable quake has yet to strike, Mr Dmitruk said he still believes the it will occur.

“I don’t believe it’s just by chance,” Mr Dmitruk told the BBC. “It is not random or luck.”

This type of thinking is common when it comes to earthquakes, Ms Jones said.

“Random distributions can look like they have patterns, we see constellations in the stars,” she said.

“A lot of people are really afraid of earthquakes, and the way to deal with it is to predict [when] it’s going to happen.”

But just because you cannot predict when an earthquake will strike doesn’t mean you have to be unprepared, experts said.

Each year, on the third Thursday in October, millions of Americans participate in the largest earthquake drill on earth: The Great Shake Out.

It was created by a group at the Southern California Earthquake Center, which included Ms Jones.

During the drill, people practise the guidance of Drop, Cover, and Hold On: they drop to their knees, take cover under a sturdy object like a desk, and hold on for one minute.

The drill has become so popular since its inception that it has spread up the earthquake-prone coast to other states and countries.

If outdoors, people are advised to get to an open space away from trees, buildings or power-lines. Near the ocean, people practise fleeing to higher ground after the shaking stops to prepare for the possibility of a tsunami.

“Now, while the ground is not shaking, while it’s not a very stressful situation, is really the best time to practise,” said Brian Terbush, the Earthquake and Volcano Program Manager for the Washington state Emergency Management Division.

Apart from the drills, residents of West Coast states use a phone alert system maintained by USGS called ShakeAlert.

The system works by detecting pressure waves emitted by an earthquake. While it can’t predict when an earthquake will happen in the distant future, it does give seconds of warning that could be life-saving. It is the closest thing to an earthquake “predictor” that has been invented so far.

A promising footballer from south London says being told he would never be able to play the sport he loves again was “one of the hardest things to deal with mentally”.

Collin Skhoyimue was signed to a League One club’s academy just before his 14th birthday and two months into his contract, he was selected to play a match above his age grade.

But that was short-lived as he suffered an injury to the cartilage in his knee during the game and was subsequently released.

Eight years on, Collin, now 21, says it was like “somebody taking his dream away”.

It’s a familiar story. There are an estimated 1.5 million players playing organised youth football in England at any one time – but only around 180 of those will make it as a Premier League professional.

Collin’s love for football started when he was five years old.

“I remember I used to fold up socks into a ball and put it on the floor and play,” he says.

He would make football goals on both sides of his house using his mum’s shoes and, as the only player, would try to score for both teams.

When he got signed for the League One football club in December 2017, he went home to surprise his mum Sylvia.

Collin says it was “a good feeling that the hard work paid off” and he “proved the haters wrong”, referring to the people in his school who had doubts about him and called him names.

League One is the third tier of professional football in England, below the Premier League and the Championship.

“Collin is a very passionate boy, once he gets it in his mind ‘I’m going to do this’, he’s so determined and he’ll go for it and get it done,” his mum says.

Collin was one of three young boys who were chosen to go on trial for the football academy out of 300 trialists, which he describes as “a dream”. He says he used his six-week summer holiday to prepare for the initial open trial.

Two months after being signed, the footballer was given the opportunity to play for the under-15s, despite being in the under-14 squad at the time.

During this match, he was passing the ball from defence and was injured when his knee collided with an opponent’s knee during a tackle.

“After that, my football career turned into a nightmare,” the 21-year-old says.

Despite doing rehab with his academy for six months, Collin decided to get a scan with the NHS, where doctors diagnosed him with a congenital discoid meniscus and told him he would need surgery on his knee.

He was then put on the NHS waiting list and nine months later had the operation.

Six months afterwards, Collin’s team was about to enter the under-16 season.

However, the academy manager who initially signed him for the club had left the team, meaning the new coach had not seen him play and he was released.

“One of the hardest things about that is not that I got released because of my ability or if I’m always late to training… but the reason I got released was out of my hands so there was genuinely nothing I could have done to avoid myself from getting released,” Collin says.

“Football is a business,” he adds. “Once you’re playing and you’re well, everyone loves you – but when you’re on the sidelines and you’re not playing and no longer useful, they’ll just throw you out.

“As a footballer, you’re just an asset and I think the earlier you realise that, the better.”

Despite the surgery, Collin’s problems with his knee continued and he underwent another operation. Six months later, a scan revealed that the issue had not been solved.

Collin says his surgeon then told him: “You’ve now had two surgeries… the issue has not been solved and you will never ever be able to play football again.”

Those last 10 words were “one of the most heartbreaking experiences”, says Collin.

He adds he did not go into school for a week because “his dream was over”.

Despite not playing football for four years, Collin did not give up hope for the game he loved.

Having finally made a recovery to his knee, he made his first appearance back on the pitch in August 2022, despite doctors saying he would never play again.

“That was one of the best days of my life,” he says.

He then developed a love for coaching, began managing an under-7s team and started his own coaching business to “be that person that [he] needed when [he] was younger”.

After being signed to a new football team and playing for one year for the full-time National League, Collin suffered another injury to his other knee and has been in recovery since December 2023.

He now hosts a series on social media called Injured 2 Pro where he shares his journey.

Collin hopes to use his story to inspire and motivate people around the world.

“I’ve been through a lot and when you’ve been through a lot you have a lot to give so I feel like I have a lot to give back,” he says.

When Donald Trump met President Zelensky in New York last September, the then US presidential candidate exuded confidence he could bring the war in Ukraine to an early end. “If we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” he said.

How quickly he meant varied over time. In a TV debate a few days earlier, Trump had promised he would “get it settled before I even become president”. This was an escalation on his previous commitment in May 2023 to stop the fighting in the first 24 hours of his presidency.

Trump has now been in office for more than two months and the penny may be beginning to drop in the White House that trying to end a conflict as bitter and complex as this may take time.

In a television interview last weekend, the US president admitted that when he promised to end the war in a day, he was “being a little bit sarcastic”.

There are many reasons for the slower progress than Team Trump may have anticipated.

First, the president’s belief in the power of his personal, one-on-one diplomacy may have been misplaced. He has long believed any international problem can be solved if he sits down with another leader and agrees a deal. Trump first spoke to Vladimir Putin on 12 February, an hour-and-a-half conversation he described as “highly productive”. The two leaders spoke again on 18 March.

But it is clear these telephone calls failed to secure the immediate 30-day interim ceasefire Trump wanted. The only substantive concession he squeezed out of Putin was a promise to end Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, a commitment he is accused by Ukraine of breaking within hours of the call.

Second, the Russian president has made it clear he does not intend to be rushed. His first public comments about the negotiations came last week in a press conference that was a whole month after his telephone call with Trump.

Putin showed he was resolutely opposed to the US two-stage strategy of seeking an interim ceasefire before talking about a longer-term settlement. Instead, he said any talks must address what he sees as “the root causes of the war”, namely his fears an expanding Nato alliance and the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state somehow present a threat to Russia’s security. He also set out detailed questions and conditions that must be answered and met before any deal could be agreed.

Third, the US strategy of directing its initial focus on Ukraine may have been misjudged. The White House came to the belief that President Zelensky was the obstacle to peace. Western diplomats acknowledge the Ukrainian government was slow to realise just how much the world had changed with the arrival of Trump.

But the US pressure on Kyiv that led to the now infamous confrontation in the Oval Office – when Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, harangued the Ukrainian leader – consumed time, effort and political capital.

It also ruptured transatlantic relations, setting Europe and the US at odds, another diplomatic problem that took time to settle. All the while Vladimir Putin sat back and enjoyed the show, biding his time.

Fourth, the sheer complexity of the conflict makes any resolution hard. The Ukrainian offer was initially for an interim ceasefire in the air and at sea. The idea was that this would be relatively straightforward to monitor.

But in last week’s talks in Jeddah, the US insisted any immediate ceasefire should also include the more than 1200km-long front line in the east. Instantly that made the logistics of verifying any ceasefire more complicated. This, of course, was then rejected by Putin.

But even his agreement to the more modest proposal – to end attacks on energy infrastructure – is not without its problems. It is the details about that proposal which will occupy much of the technical negotiations that are expected to take place in Saudi Arabia on Monday. Military and energy experts will draw up detailed lists of potential power plants – nuclear or otherwise – that might be protected.

They will also try to agree which weapons systems should not be used. But agreeing the difference between energy and other civilian infrastructure may take some time. Remember: Ukraine and Russia are not talking to one another; they are engaging separately and bilaterally with the US which is promising to shuttle between both sides. This again adds to the time.

Fifth, the US focus on the economic benefits of a ceasefire distracted attention from the priority of ending the fighting. Trump has spent time trying to agree a framework deal giving US firms access to Ukrainian critical minerals. Some saw this as the US investing in Ukraine’s future – others as it extorting the country’s natural resources.

President Zelensky argued initially he could agree a deal only if the US promised to provide Ukraine with security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression. The White House refused, saying the presence of US mining firms and workers would be deterrent enough. Eventually Zelensky conceded defeat and said he would agree a minerals deal without security guarantees. But despite that, the US has yet to sign the agreement, hoping again to improve the terms, possibly by including access to or even ownership of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

Ending wars can be complex and time consuming. We would not have got to this stage without Trump’s pushing, but progress has not been as quick or simple as he believed. In December 2018, as he campaigned for the presidency, Volodymyr Zelensky suggested negotiations with Vladimir Putin would be quite straightforward. “You need to talk in a very simple way,” he told the Ukrainian journalist, Dmytro Gordon. ‘”What do you want, what are your conditions?” And I’d tell them: ‘Here are our points.’ We would agree somewhere in the middle.”

Well, on the evidence of the last two months, it may be harder than that.

For most people, the idea of a holiday abroad involves packing a suitcase and being away for at least a weekend, if not a week or more.

But for Monica Stott, a single day is enough to fly to another country, explore, and return home before bedtime.

The 37-year-old from Wrexham enjoys taking part in holidays that have become known online as extreme day trips – and has visited Milan, Bergamo, Lisbon, Amsterdam and even Reykjavik for a single day.

“I think people are always surprised that you really do feel like you’ve had a holiday,” said Monica.

Monica, who is a full-time travel blogger, said the idea of an extreme day trip first occurred to her while travelling for work.

“My first few extreme day trips were to Ireland when I had clients over there,” she explained.

“I’d quite often pop over for a one or two-hour meeting and come home. Then I realised I could stay [a bit longer] and make a full day of it.”

Monica then discovered a number of Facebook groups where people were sharing their own experiences of extreme day trips, and became inspired to start booking her own in her spare time.

“There’s research suggesting that most of your best holiday memories are made in the first one or two days. When I thought about it, I agreed. A lot of the best moments happen when you first arrive.

“You arrive in time for breakfast, squeeze as much as you possibly can, and then fly home at night. It’s an intense, busy, crazy day.”

While Monica enjoys busy days in one location, Luka Chijiutomi-Ghosh, an 18-year-old student from Cardiff, has taken things a step further.

“It began on Christmas Eve when I found a return flight to Prague for under £15. I booked it immediately, but then I realised the flight landed in Prague at 21:00 and returned to the UK at 09:00,” said Luka.

“So, I thought I could treat it as if it was daytime, sleep in the day and walk around the city at night.”

Luka said he realised that he only needed six hours to explore a city.

A few weeks later, when on holiday in Paris, he decided to see how many neighbouring countries he could travel to within a day by train.

“I went to Luxembourg, Brussels and Amsterdam, and returned to Paris all within the same day,” he said.

Luka’s logic, he said, was that he would probably have spent as much time travelling if he was on a day trip in the UK.

Facebook groups where people share their experiences of taking extreme day trips have acquired hundreds of thousands of members, with some focused specifically on regional UK airports.

Monica and Luka said their trips were efficient, budget-friendly, and helped to break up their routines without needing a week away from home.

“People always say they’d love to visit places like Paris or Rome but don’t have the time or money for a long trip. This is a way around that,” Monica said.

For Luka, it’s also a practical choice.

“I look at how much I spend on a student night out, sometimes up to £60 or £70. If I can get a return flight for under £20 and experience a whole new city instead, why not?”

Despite Monika and Luka’s enthusiasm, extreme day trips have drawn criticism over their environmental impact.

Flying is responsible for 2.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 8% of UK emissions.

These gases warm the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and climate change.

Both Monica and Luka acknowledge this issue.

“I think if it means people are taking way more flights, and airlines are putting on more flights, then I do see that as a negative impact,” Monica said.

“But a lot of people doing extreme day trips are doing it because they either can’t afford to take a longer holiday or don’t have time.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say one person’s holiday is more important than another person’s holiday, because they’re going for longer.”

Luka argued that the flights would often go ahead regardless.

“The seat will be filled by someone,” he said.

“Also, if another form of transport can be used then that would be a good idea. For example, on my trip involving three cities, I didn’t take a single flight.”

Both also said that extreme day trips were appealing due to the high cost of public transport within the UK.

Monica said her trips required careful planning.

“I try to choose destinations that are less than a two-hour flight. Once you get in over two hours, it’s just such a long day of travel.”

She also said she tried to stay calm at the airport to avoid unnecessary stress.

“A lot of people get really excited or anxious at the airport, and that can be exhausting,” she said.

“If you just treat it like getting on a train or a bus, you don’t use up all your energy with that pre-holiday anxiety.”

Flights have resumed at Heathrow Airport, a day after a fire at a nearby electrical substation shut down operations at one of the world’s major transport hubs.

Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, said on Saturday morning it was open and fully operational, however flight disruptions are expected to last days.

British Airways estimated 85% of its planned flights would run on Saturday, but with delays throughout. As of 07:00 GMT the majority of departures had left as expected but of arrivals nine of the first 20 flights scheduled to land were cancelled.

More than 1,300 flights were affected on Friday, tracking website Flightradar24 said, and passengers were told not to travel to the airport unless their airline advised them to.

National Grid said that an “interim solution” had been found to allow power to be restored to customers including Heathrow Airport, saying that the network had been “reconfigured to restore all customers impacted”.

Firefighters worked throughout the day to bring the blaze at North Hyde substation in Hayes, west London, under control.

Here’s what we know so far.

• LIVE: First flights of day land at Heathrow as services resume after day of chaos
• What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed?

A fire at an electrical substation in west London, which supplies Heathrow, caused a major power outage at the airport, prompting its closure.

It is not yet known what caused the fire at the substation, but Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said there was no suggestion of foul play as counter-terrorism police investigate.

“The counter-terrorism command has specific capabilities and capacities that mean that they are used to conducting investigations at pace,” she said, adding that they were needed as the fire took place next to a critical piece of national infrastructure.

Emergency services were first called to Nestles Avenues in Hayes, west London at 23:23 GMT on Thursday.

Jonathan Smith, London Fire Brigade (LFB) deputy commissioner, said the fire at the electrical substation involved a transformer containing 25,000 litres of cooling oil.

The fire was “very visible and significant,” he said. The LFB said the fire was under control by 06:28.

On Friday evening, the service said the fire was “believed to be non-suspicious” and the investigation will “focus on the electrical distribution equipment”.

Commander Simon Messinger, who is leading the Metropolitan Police’s response to the fire, said: “Various specialist investigators continue to examine the scene and it is expected to take some time before full assessments can be completed.”

But he repeated that “at this stage, there remains no indication of any foul play”.

The substation is about a mile and a half away from the airport.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the substation’s back-up generator “appears to have been knocked out”.

Videos shared on social media showed tall flames and plumes of smoke billowing from the substation overnight.

People living nearby were advised to keep doors and windows closed to avoid smoke inhalation.

With Heathrow being such a busy airport for passenger journeys and global trade, questions have been raised over whether it has back-up systems in the event of power cuts.

The BBC understands that Heathrow does have back-up power for its key systems, but kickstarting these alternative power supplies for the whole airport takes time.

A source said it was not possible to switch the power back on immediately.

A Heathrow source also told the BBC that they have “multiple sources” of energy at the airport – with diesel generators and “uninterruptable power supplies” in place.

They added that when the power outage happened the back-up systems “all operated as expected”.

The systems, however, are not enough to run the whole airport – hence the decision to close it down.

And even once the power is back on, there are countless systems which need to be rebooted and checked to ensure they are working properly and are stable.

It is unclear why Heathrow’s own back-up systems were not adequate to keep the airport running when one critical component of its energy supply was knocked out, and it is also unclear why the National Grid transmission network was not set up to supply sufficient electricity.

A Heathrow source said these questions would be investigated.

The first flights since the fire took off from and landed at Heathrow on Friday evening, with the airport initially saying it would prioritise repatriation and relocation of aircraft.

Heathrow said the airport was “open and fully operational” on Saturday morning, however a number of flights were cancelled and disruptions were expected to last days.

The closure had knock-on effects at many other airports, as airlines cancelled and diverted flights.

The airport has apologised for the disruption and has advised passengers to contact their airlines for further information.

Its helpline number is 020 8757 2700.

Late on Friday, the Department for Transport said on X that restrictions on overnight flights at Heathrow had been temporarily lifted to ease congestion.

Only 5,800 flights are allowed to take off or land at Heathrow between 23:30 and 06:00 each year, under government restrictions designed to limit how much noise the airport makes at night.

At least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow were affected on Friday, Flightradar24 said, with some 120 affected aircraft already in the air when the closure was announced.

The Foreign Office has advised UK citizens who are abroad and require urgent assistance to contact their teams via an online query form.

Air Canada and United Airlines have announced they will be resuming some or all of their flights from Friday evening. Virgin Atlantic has said it hopes to operate “a near full schedule” on Saturday with limited cancellations, adding that it will continuously review flights.

Gatwick Airport told the BBC it was aware of the situation at Heathrow Airport and stands “ready to support as required”.

Several of Australia’s Qantas airline planes have been diverted from London to Paris, with other flights likely to be affected, it said.

British Airways has cancelled all its short-haul flights due to operate to and from the airport on Friday.

Some long-haul flights – including to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Singapore and Rio de Janeiro – were later given clearance to depart from Heathrow from 1900 GMT and the airline said it was reviewing the fire’s implications for Saturday’s schedule and beyond.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s main airline cancelled all its flights to London on Friday.

The Heathrow Express railway service said it was running a reduced service from Paddington to Heathrow.

In addition to passengers expecting to fly, disruption has been caused to thousands of homes in west London, which have been left without power.

About 150 people had to be evacuated from surrounding properties.

More than 16,300 homes lost power in a large-scale outage caused by the fire, energy supplier Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said.

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

National Grid said on Friday afternoon the network had been “reconfigured to restore all customers impacted, including the ability to resupply the parts of Heathrow airport that are connected to North Hyde”.

Meanwhile, two nurseries and four schools in Hillingdon – the London borough Heathrow Airport is located in – are shut today.

Hillingdon Council are assisting 12 people who were evacuated from their homes by the emergency services with hotel accommodation.

Bin collections will also be impacted on Friday, the council warned.

Bus routes in the Hillingdon area have been affected and the M4 is closed between junction three and four, while the Terminal Four spur roads are also closed.

No injuries from the fire have been reported.

Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police are now leading the investigation into the fire because of the location of the substation and the “impact on critical national infrastructure”.

It added there was currently no indication of foul play but it is keeping “an open mind”.

London Fire Brigade said it was working closely with the Metropolitan Police.

A US federal judge has reprimanded government lawyers as he questioned President Donald Trump’s invocation of rarely used powers to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants.

Judge James Boasberg repeatedly clashed with justice department attorney Drew Ensign during a court hearing in Washington DC, saying he was not used to such “intemperate, disrespectful language” in government filings.

Trump last Saturday deported 238 Venezuelan alleged gang members to a mega-prison in El Salvador after invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, last used during World War Two.

Speaking in the Oval Office earlier on Friday, the Republican president insisted his administration was getting “bad people out of our country”, and renewed his attacks on Judge Boasberg, describing him as a “radical left lunatic”.

The Trump administration maintains the men were “carefully vetted” and verified as gang members before being flown to El Salvador.

Some of their family members, however, have disputed that allegation, and US officials have acknowledged “many” of the men have no US criminal record. Venezuela’s interior ministry has also disputed that the men had links to the Tren de Aragua gang.

• What is the 1798 law that Trump used to deport migrants?
• Mother spots son deported from US in mega-prison footage
• What is Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang targeted by Trump?

At Friday’s hearing, Judge Boasberg said he agreed that the US president had “wide latitude” to enforce immigration law.

But he expressed reservations that the deported migrants had no legal remedy to contest whether they were gang members or not.

“The policy ramifications of this are incredibly troublesome and problematic and concerning,” Judge Boasberg said.

Last Saturday, he issued a verbal order to the government to turn around the deportation flights, but the White House said it was too late as the planes were already in international airspace.

The timing of the flights was a contentious issue in court on Friday.

“Did you not understand that when I said do that immediately, I meant it?” Judge Boasberg told Mr Ensign.

He said the Trump administration would be held accountable if they breached his court order.

“The government’s not being terribly co-operative at this point, but I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my word,” he said.

The judge could hold specific Trump officials in contempt of court for defying his ruling, although the president himself has broad immunity from any legal repercussions for official acts while in office.

Outside the White House on Friday, a journalist asked Trump about the signing of last week’s presidential proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act.

“I don’t know when it was signed because I didn’t sign it,” he said.

The White House later told the BBC that Trump did personally sign the executive order. Their emailed statement said the president was talking about the 1798 law when he said he did not sign it.

The deportations case has raised constitutional questions given that US government agencies are generally expected to comply with a federal judge’s ruling.

At another hearing on Thursday, Judge Boasberg dismissed a government court filing on the migrant deportation flights as “woefully insufficient”.

Trump has called for the judge to be impeached, and accused him of trying to usurp the presidency.

Earlier this week Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare admonishment, without naming Trump, saying impeachment was “not an appropriate response”.

The government has appealed against Judge Boasberg’s temporary restraining order. A hearing is due at the city’s court of appeals on Monday.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has said it will revoke the temporary legal status of more than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Those migrants have been warned to leave the country before their permits and deportation shield are cancelled on 24 April, according to a notice posted by the federal government.

The 530,000 migrants were brought into the US under a Biden-era sponsorship process known as CHNV that was designed to open legal migration pathways. Trump suspended the programme once he took office.

It is unclear how many of these migrants have been able to secure another status in the interim that would allow them to stay in the US legally.

The programme was launched under Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022, first covering Venezuelans before it was expanded to other countries.

• Judge in migrants deportations case says government lawyers ‘disrespectful’

It allowed the migrants and their immediate family members to fly into the US if they had American sponsors and remain for two years under a temporary immigration status known as parole.

The Biden administration had argued that CHNV would help curb illegal crossings at the southern US border and allow for better vetting of those entering the country.

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday rebuked the prior administration and said the programme had failed in its goals.

The agency’s statement said Biden officials had “granted them [migrants] opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers; forced career civil servants to promote the programs even when fraud was identified; and then blamed Republicans in Congress for the chaos that ensued and the crime that followed”.

However, the 35-page notice in the Federal Register said some of those in the US under CHNV might be allowed to remain on a “case-by-case basis”.

Karen Tumlin, founder of the Justice Action Center in California, said her organisation is set to challenge the move in court.

She told the BBC the decision hurt people “who did everything right that the US Government asked of them”, adding that “their sponsors in the United States paid the fees, filled out the government paperwork, waited in line”.

“To say ‘oh, we’re so sorry, even if you had 18 months left on your grant of permission to be here we’re going to pull the rug out from under you in the next 30 days,’ it’s really quite surprising.”

• Trump has vowed to end birthright citizenship. Can he do it?
• ‘Oopsie, too late’ – US courts tested by Trump’s latest deportations

Trump is also considering whether to cancel the temporary legal status of some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to the US during the conflict with Russia.

CHNV helped a reported 213,000 Haitians enter the US amid deteriorating conditions in the Caribbean country.

More than 120,700 Venezuelans, 110,900 Cubans and over 93,000 Nicaraguans were also allowed into the US under the programme before Trump shut it down.

Last month, DHS announced it would in August end another immigration designation, temporary protected status (TPS), for 500,000 Haitians living in the US.

TPS was granted to nationals of designated countries facing unsafe conditions, such as armed conflict or environmental disasters.

DHS also halted TPS for Venezuelans in the US, although this is facing a legal challenge.

Since taking office in January, Trump’s immigration policies have encountered a number of legal hurdles.

A viral filter which made people appear overweight has been removed from TikTok, after the BBC reported it had sparked a wave of user criticism.

Known as a “chubby filter”, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool took a photo of a person and edited their appearance to look as though they had put on weight.

Many people have shared their “before and after” images on the platform with jokes about how different they looked – however, others said it was a form of “body shaming” and should not be permitted.

Experts have also warned the filter could fuel a “toxic diet culture” online and potentially contribute to eating disorders.

TikTok said the filter had been uploaded by a CapCut, which is separate from TikTok but has the same parent company, ByteDance.

TikTok also told the BBC it was reviewing videos uploaded to the app that used the effect, and was making them ineligible for recommendation and blocking them from teen accounts.

It added any videos that breached its community guidelines – for example by featuring bullying or harassment – would be removed.

Sadie, who has 66,000 followers on TikTok, had been one of those calling for the “mean” filter to be banned.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” she said after the filter was taken down.

“I’m happy that TikTok did that, because ultimately social media should be a fun, lighthearted place, not somewhere where you get bullied for how you look,” the 29-year-old from Bristol said.

She said she was contacted by women who said they had deleted TikTok from their phones because the trend made them feel bad about themselves.

Dr Emma Beckett, a food and nutrition scientist, told the BBC she felt the trend was “a huge step backwards” in terms weight stigma.

“It’s just the same old false stereotypes and tropes about people in larger bodies being lazy and flawed, and something to be desperately avoided,” she said.

She warned that could have a broad social effect.

“The fear of weight gain contributes to eating disorders and body dissatisfaction, it fuels toxic diet culture, making people obsess over food and exercise in unhealthy ways and opening them up to scam products and fad diets.”

Prior to the app being pulled, the BBC spoke to a number of TikTok users who said they were uncomfortable with the filter.

Nina, who lives in north Wales, said she felt it fed into a “narrative” being spread online tying together people’s appearance with their self-worth.

“This is a toxic view that I thought we were moving away from,” she said.

“If a filter is clearly offensive it should be removed,” she told the BBC.

Emma, who lives in Ayr, agreed.

“My first thought when I saw the ‘chubby filter’ was how damaging that would be.

“People were basically saying they looked disgusting because they were ‘chubby’ and as a curvier woman, who essentially looks like the “after” photo on this filter, it was disheartening for me.”

Filters – which use AI to manipulate a person’s appearance – are common on TikTok.

Many are harmless – for example one popular trend makes it appear as if a person was made out of Lego.

Some of the most popular videos using the filter have been liked tens of thousands of times.

For the purpose of this article, I used the filter on myself.

I felt incredibly uncomfortable.

As someone who is very body positive and has struggled with their self-image in the past, using it couldn’t be further away from how I personally use social media and I was unhappy that TikTok pushed it to me in the first place.

This filter appeared on my TikTok “For You” page the other day despite me not engaging with any weight-related or health content.

After I watched the video and read the comments, TikTok began to suggest similar videos from other people using the filter, and even another where AI can turn you thinner.

Thankfully it also began to start showing me creators who were criticising the trend, some of whom we’ve spoken to for this article.

AI images and filters have become commonplace on TikTok and quickly accepted to be used for fun – the same way some Gen-Zs and Millennials might remember Snapchat filters.

But filters like these, although they may seem fun, can be very damaging to someone’s mental health and encourage them to compare themselves not only to others, but an unrealistic version of themselves.

The Trump administration is planning to import eggs from Turkey and South Korea and is in talks with other countries in hopes of easing all-time high prices for the American consumer, officials confirmed.

“We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters at the White House.

It follows the administration’s announcement of a $1bn (£792m) plan to combat a raging bird flu epidemic that has forced US farmers to cull tens of millions of chickens.

Despite President Trump’s campaign promise to reduce prices, the cost of eggs has surged more than 65% over the past year, and it is projected to rise by 41% in 2025.

Rollins said her department was also in talks with other countries to secure new supplies, but did not specify which regions.

“When our chicken populations are repopulated and we’ve got a full egg laying industry going again, hopefully in a couple of months, we then shift back to our internal egg layers and moving those eggs out onto the shelf, ” she said.

Polish and Lithuanian poultry associations said on Friday they had also been approached by US embassies regarding possible egg exports, the AFP reported.

“Back in February, the American embassy in Warsaw asked our organisation whether Poland would be interested in exporting eggs to the US market,” Katarzyna Gawronska, director of the National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers, told the news agency.

• Farmers say bird flu a ‘crisis’ as egg prices soar
• 100,000 eggs stolen from one US grocer as bird flu drives up prices

In February, the US Department of Agriculture unveiled a $1bn, five-point plan to tackle the price of eggs, with a budget of $500m for biosecurity measures, roughly $100m for vaccine research and development, and $400m for farmer financial relief programs.

The Trump administration said it will provide commercial egg farms with best practices and consulting services for free, and pay up to 75% of the costs to address vulnerabilities to help prevent the spread of bird flu.

“Our plan was to invest a significant amount of money to do audits across the country to have USDA help these egg laying companies to secure their barns,” Rollins said. “…and since we began doing that most recently, we’ve seen a significant decline in the bird flu.”

Though the avian flu, or H5N1, has circulated among American poultry flocks for years, an outbreak starting in 2022 has wreaked havoc on farms, killing more than 156 million birds and sending egg prices skyrocketing.

Egg prices became a rallying point for Trump in last year’s presidential run as he sought to capitalise on voters’ frustrations with the rising cost of essential items.

During his address to the US Congress earlier this month, he blamed the soaring egg prices on his predecessor Joe Biden.

“Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control – and we are working hard to get it back down,” he added.

Egg prices rose as the Biden administration directed millions of egg-laying birds to be culled last year amid a bird flu outbreak, though prices have continued rising during the early stages of Trump’s second presidency.

Israel’s defence minister has told the military to “seize additional areas in Gaza” and threatened to permanently occupy parts of it, if Hamas does not free all remaining hostages.

Israel Katz said that the military would continue its ground operation in Gaza “with increasing intensity” until all of the hostages “both living and dead” were returned.

It is thought 24 of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza are alive, but their fate remains in the balance after negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire deal failed to progress.

The fragile ceasefire that had been in place since January ended this week as Israel resumed its ground campaign and bombing of Gaza, killing hundreds of people.

The situation in the Strip has been described as “gravely, gravely concerning” with “absolutely desperate tragedies occurring all over Gaza” by Sam Rose from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.

Israel and the US have accused Hamas of rejecting proposals to extend the ceasefire. Hamas has said it is “engaging with the mediators with full responsibility and seriousness”.

However, Katz said in a statement on Friday that “the more Hamas continues its refusal, the more territory it will lose to Israel”.

Katz added that Israel still agreed to a proposal, which was brought by US envoy Steve Witkoff, “to release all the kidnapped, both living and dead, in advance and in two stages with a ceasefire in between”.

“We will intensify the fighting with strikes from the air, sea and land and by expanding the ground manoeuvre until the hostages are released and Hamas is defeated,” Katz wrote.

The defence minister also said Israel would “implement US President Trump’s voluntary transfer plan for Gaza residents”.

Trump said he wants the US to take over and rebuild the Gaza Strip, while permanently removing its population of two million Palestinians.

• Why did the ceasefire not hold?
• Explaining the latest on the war in Gaza
• Decoding the Ukraine ceasefire plan line by line

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have said Gaza is “not for sale”, while the UN warned that any forced displacement of civilians from occupied territory is strictly prohibited under international law and “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.

Months of negotiations, led by the US, Qatar and Egypt, saw a ceasefire deal proposed in three stages. Israel and Hamas failed to agree on how to take the truce beyond the first phase.

The plan stalled when the US and Israel proposed to extend stage one. Hamas rejected the change and said it was a “blatant attempt” by Israel “to evade the agreement”.

The ceasefire was broken on Tuesday when Israel launched a heavy wave of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 430 people in two days, the Hamas-run health ministry said. On Thursday, Hamas launched three rockets at Tel Aviv.

Blaming Hamas for the resumption of violence, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the group had “rejected every hostage deal”.

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

On Friday, the acting US ambassador to the UN squarely blamed Hamas for the ongoing war and resumption of fighting.

“Every death would have been avoided had Hamas accepted the bridge proposal,” Dorothy Shea told the UN Security Council.

Hamas has denied it is responsible for stalling the negotiations, and said it “remains deeply involved” and is “engaging with the mediators with full responsibility and seriousness”.

In a statement on Telegram, Hamas wrote it is discussing “the Witkoff proposal and other different ideas put forward, all with the goal of securing a prisoner exchange deal that ensures the release of prisoners, ends the war, and achieves a withdrawal” [of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip].

In his statement, Katz also said that civilians would be evacuated from the areas the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are targeting.

Previous evacuation orders have sent panic through Palestinians families, many of whom have been displaced repeatedly by the war and have few safe options left.

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 Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 49,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says, and there is large-scale destruction to homes and infrastructure in the Strip.

Iceland’s minister for children has resigned after admitting she had a child with a teenager more than 30 years ago.

Ásthildur Lóa Thórsdóttir said in a media interview she had first started a relationship when the boy was 15 years old, and she was a 22-year-old counsellor at a religious group which he attended.

She then gave birth to his child when he was 16 years old and she was 23.

“It’s been 36 years, a lot of things change in that time and I would definitely have dealt with these issues differently today,” the 58-year-old told Icelandic media.

Iceland’s Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir told the press this was “a serious matter”, although she said she knew little more than “the average person”.

“This is a very personal matter [and] out of respect for the person concerned, I will not comment on the substance,” she said.

According to Visir newspaper, Frostadóttir said she had only received confirmation of the story on Thursday night.

She immediately summoned the Thórsdóttir to her office, where she resigned.

Icelandic news agency RUV broke the story on Thursday night.

Thórsdóttir revealed in an interview with them that she had met the father, who RUV name as Eirík Ásmundsson, while she was working at the religious group Trú og líf (Religion and Life), which he had reportedly joined because of a difficult home life.

He was 15 years old and she was 22 at the time of their meeting. Thórsdóttir gave birth to their son when they were both a year older.

RUV report that the relationship was secret, but that Ásmundsson was present at his child’s birth and spent the first year with him.

However, the news agency writes this changed when Thórsdóttir met her current husband.

They report they have seen documents Ásmundsson submitted to Iceland’s justice ministry requesting access to his son, but that Thórsdóttir denied it, while also requesting – and receiving – child support payments from him over the following 18 years.

A relative of Ásmundsson tried twice to contact the Icelandic prime minister about the relationship last week.

Frostadóttir said last night that when the woman revealed it involved a government minister she asked for more information, which led to the revelation and the resignation.

In her TV interview with RUV last night, Thórsdóttir said she was upset that the woman had contacted the prime minister.

“I understand… what it looks like,” she said, adding that it is “very difficult to get the right story across in the news today”.

While the age of consent in Iceland is 15, it is illegal to have sex with a person under the age of 18 if you are their teacher or mentor, if they are financially dependent on you, or work for you. The maximum sentence for this crime is three years in jail.

Despite resigning from her ministerial job, Thórsdottir said she had no plans to leave parliament.

US President Donald Trump revoked security clearances from his previously defeated Democratic election rivals, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, as well as a number of other former officials and critics.

Trump said in February he was revoking security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden. His order confirmed that decision, adding that he was also revoking the security clearance of “any other member” of the Biden family.

“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump’s memorandum read.

Former US presidents and top security officials usually keep their security clearance as a courtesy.

Trump ordered department and agency leaders to “revoke unescorted access to secure United States government facilities for these individuals.”

“This action includes, but is not limited to, receipt of classified briefings, such as the President’s Daily Brief, and access to classified information held by any member of the intelligence community by virtue of the named individuals’ previous tenure in the Congress,” the order stated.

For several named figures, the loss of access to classified material and spaces will have a more symbolic impact.

It may limit the materials they are able to review, or restrict access to some government buildings or secure facilities.

The lawyers and prosecutors named by Trump, however, could potentially face roadblocks in accessing or reviewing information for their cases or clients.

Trump’s revocations focus on top Biden administration officials, as well as prominent political critics and attorneys who have challenged Trump or his allies in court.

Biden’s secretary of state Antony Blinken, national security advisor Jake Sullivan, and deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco all lost their clearances.

Trump also targeted two of his own former officials from his first term: Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman, who testified during his first impeachment trial that began in 2019.

Trump also revoked access for high-profile Republican critics, former Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

They were the only two Republican lawmakers who joined a US House investigation into Trump’s role in the 6 January 2021 attack on Congress.

Both also voted to charge Trump in his second impeachment, which a Democratic-led US House of Representatives instigated after the riot. Trump was acquitted by the Senate on the charge of inciting the 6 January riot.

Trump has also singled out top legal opponents in his latest decision on security access. His order revoked clearance for New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought multiple lawsuits against Trump and his businesses.

In a civil fraud lawsuit that concluded in 2024, a judge found Trump liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Trump is appealing the decision.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted and won Trump’s criminal hush money case last year, also lost his clearance.

Trump’s legal targets went beyond elected prosecutors. He withdrew security clearance for Norm Eisen, an attorney leading multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce.

Andrew Weissman, a former federal prosecutor who joined an investigation of Trump during his first term and later provided media commentary about the hush money trial, also lost his clearance.

Previous media reports had indicated that the administration had pulled the security clearance for a top whistleblower attorney in Washington, Mark Zaid.

Friday’s order confirmed Trump had revoked his access.

Several of the individuals chosen by Trump derided his order in social media statements.

“I don’t care what noises Donald Trump makes about a security clearance that hasn’t been active for five years,” Mr Vindman wrote on X.

Mr Eisen wrote on X that being targeted by Trump’s order “just makes me file even more lawsuits!”

Trump had earlier pulled security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials whom he accused of meddling in the 2020 election in Biden’s favour. He provided no evidence for these claims.

In 2021, Biden – serving as president at the time – barred his defeated rival Trump from having access to intelligence briefings citing his “erratic behaviour”.

A 2024 Justice Department special counsel report found Biden had improperly retained classified documents from his time as vice president. The report noted that Biden had cooperated with federal investigators and returned the discovered documents.

In 2023, Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith indicted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents following his first term in office and obstructing their return to the government.

Trump pleaded not guilty and a Florida federal judge dismissed the case in July 2024. Smith officially dropped the case that December after Trump won re-election.

Israel has carried out the most intense air strikes on Lebanon in nearly four months, after several rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the first time since a ceasefire came into effect in November.

The Israeli military said it had hit dozens of rocket launchers and a command centre belonging to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia and political group, in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two people, including a child, were killed and eight injured in the strikes.

Hezbollah said it had not carried out the rocket attack into Israel. Lebanon said an investigation has been launched.

Saturday’s attack came days after Israel reinforced its offensive against Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, in Gaza.

The Israeli military said it had intercepted three rockets in the northern Israeli town of Metula, and there were no reports of casualties.

The Lebanese military said it had dismantled “three primitive rocket launchers” in the south, and the country’s defence minister said an investigation had been launched into the attack.

Hezbollah, the main armed group active in Lebanon, said it had not carried out the attack, and that it remained committed to the ceasefire that ended 14 months of conflict in Lebanon.

This is the worst violence since the fragile ceasefire, brokered by the US and France, came into effect.

Under the terms of the deal, the Lebanese military would deploy thousands of additional soldiers to the south of the country to prevent armed groups from attacking Israel.

Hezbollah was required to remove its fighters and weapons, while the Israeli military would withdrawal from positions occupied in the war.

But Israel has carried out nearly daily air strikes on what it describes as Hezbollah targets, and has indicated that attacks will continue to prevent the group from rearming.

The Israeli military is still occupying five locations in southern Lebanon, in what the Lebanese government says is a violation of the country’s sovereignty and a breach of the deal.

Israel says the Lebanese military has not yet fully deployed to those areas, and that it needs to remain at those points to guarantee the security of its border communities.

Saturday’s attack on Israel will put even more pressure on the Lebanese government, and probably be used as an example by Israel that the Lebanese army does not have full control of southern areas, where Hezbollah has traditionally had a strong presence and support.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who came to power in January, has said only the state should have arms in the country, in what is seen as a reference to Hezbollah’s arsenal.

On Saturday, he condemned “attempts to drag Lebanon into a cycle of violence”, while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the escalation carried the “risk of dragging the country into another war”.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Unifil, said it was “alarmed by the possible escalation of violence”, urging both Israel and Lebanon to “uphold their commitments”.

Hezbollah was battered in the conflict with Israel: many of its leaders were assassinated, hundreds of fighters killed and much of its arsenal destroyed.

The group faces the huge challenge of providing financial help to its communities affected by the war, and pressure from its opponents to disarm.

Lebanon’s international partners say they will only help the country if the government acts to curb Hezbollah, the most powerful group in Lebanon.

Hezbollah launched its campaign the day after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, saying it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The longstanding conflict escalated and led to an intense Israeli air campaign across Lebanon, and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The offensive killed about 4,000 people in Lebanon – including many civilians – and led to the displacement of more than 1.2 million residents.

Israel’s stated goal in its war against Hezbollah was to allow the return of about 60,000 residents who had been displaced from communities in the country’s north because of the group’s attacks, and to remove it from areas along the border.

If royal visits are about sending a message, then the picture of the Prince of Wales in a tank near the Russian border must be one of the most direct.

Prince William has come to Estonia to support UK troops in what is now the British Army’s biggest operational deployment overseas, defending the Baltic state from the threat of Russia.

On Friday, in a freezing cold, mud-churned military training area, the prince saw the soldiers and military equipment guarding Nato’s eastern flank.

The prince, in camouflage uniform, peering from a Challenger 2 tank and then an armoured fighting vehicle, was sending a signal about the UK’s commitment to deter any aggression from Russia.

During his two-day trip to Estonia, Prince William visited some of the 900 British troops in this multinational force, including soldiers of the Mercian regiment of which the prince is colonel-in-chief.

He was given a tour of the military training grounds at Tapa Camp – part of Operation Cabrit which is the UK’s contribution to secure Nato’s “collective security and defence” in this vulnerable Baltic region.

The prince, who was wearing a Nato badge on his uniform, was shown field training for this battlegroup, meeting Estonian and French troops too.

He asked soldiers about their deployment in terms of the “context of being so near to Russia” and wondered whether this felt more real than previous training.

This is what deterrence to Russia looks like on the ground – and the base shows how much the balance of power can shift.

Before Estonia regained its independence in 1991, this had been a base for Soviet air defences, with MIG fighter planes poised to take on the West.

Now the positions are reversed, with Estonian troops and their Nato allies located here to prevent a Russian incursion.

The strategically-important army base has been expanding, with the icy streets lined with military vehicles.

As well as riding in a Challenger 2 tank, the prince saw a Warrior armoured vehicle, a French Griffon fighting vehicle, a multiple launch rocket system, a Trojan vehicle for clearing obstacles and he drove an Archer mobile artillery system.

The war in Ukraine has shown how fast the technology of combat is changing and on Thursday the prince saw a hydrogen-powered drone, on a visit to designers in Estonia’s capital Tallinn.

At the Tapa army base he asked soldiers about the new “drone threat” facing modern armies and “the change of tactics” that would require.

Around the base there were warning signs saying: “Report drone sightings.”

The visit also focused on the wellbeing of service men and women who are posted here. Prince William asked whether there was still a stigma when it comes to talking about mental health problems in the armed forces. “It’s going in the right direction,” welfare officer Amy-Jane Hale replied.

While touring the facilities, the prince managed to try his hand at pool and table football. That quickly became a game between his team Aston Villa and a supporter of their rivals Birmingham City.

On Thursday, hundreds of local Estonians waited in the cold to meet the prince in Tallinn, lining the railings to shake his hand or to take a selfie. He was warmly welcomed to this small, tech-savvy country, which increasingly relies upon its allies.

Estonia has been a strong supporter of Ukraine, sharing a border with Russia and having been under Soviet rule in the past. All around the capital there are Ukrainian flags flying alongside the Estonian blue, black and white tricolour.

Many Ukrainian families have taken refuge in Estonia. During a visit to a school in Tallinn for Ukrainian child refugees, Prince William praised Ukraine’s strength.

“The Ukrainian resilience is everywhere,” Prince William told the students. “You have a very good spirit, very good souls, it’s very important.”

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.

Columbia University has agreed to several demands from the Trump administration after $400m (£310m) in federal funding was pulled over accusations the university failed to fight antisemitism on campus.

Columbia says face masks used for the purpose of concealing identity are no longer allowed, and anyone involved in a protest must, when asked, present university identification.

Friday’s memo from the university comes after the Trump administration gave Columbia a list of nine items that were required before it would reconsider the $400m in funding.

Columbia has agreed to much of the demands, but the Trump administration is yet to respond and it is unclear if the funding will be restored.

“Our response to the government agencies outlines the substantive work we’ve been doing over the last academic year to advance our mission, ensure uninterrupted academic activities, and make every student, faculty, and staff member safe and welcome on our campus,” Interim President Katrina Armstrong told students in an email on Friday.

A change that will impact academics at Columbia is the shift in its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department. A new official will now lead that department.

“In this role, the Senior Vice Provost will review the educational programs to ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced,” the memo read.

Columbia says the role will “conduct a thorough review of the portfolio of programs in regional areas across the University, starting immediately with the Middle East”.

The university will also review admission procedures to “ensure unbiased admission processes”.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration said the reason for funding being pulled at Columbia was because of alleged “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.

Pro-Palestinian protests at the New York City campus last year, and the political fallout, was the key factor in the Trump administration’s decision.

Days after the administration announced federal funding cuts, Columbia said it was disciplining students who participated in a pro-Palestinian protest last spring and took over a campus building.

Some students were suspended and others expelled for their involvement.

When the $400m was pulled, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said: “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding”.

The Trump administration had requested masks be banned on Columbia campuses, and to allow university police to arrest “agitators” – if negotiations about federal funding were to continue.

It is not only Columbia that has faced funding cuts, the Trump administration has warned 60 universities that funding may be cancelled if allegations of antisemitism on campuses are not addressed.

This all comes in the wake of a high-profile arrest of one of Columbia’s students. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and campus activist, was detained by federal immigration authorities earlier this month.

Mr Khalil, a legal permanent US resident, faces deportation for his role in the 2024 campus protests.

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

The 30-year-old’s lawyers say he was exercising free speech rights to demonstrate in support of Palestinians in Gaza and against US support for Israel. They accused the government of “open repression of student activism and political speech”.

Turkish authorities say 343 people were arrested during a third day of protests across the country on Friday.

The protests began after the arrest of a key opposition figure – Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – on Wednesday.

He was detained on charges of corruption and aiding terrorist groups, days before he was due to be announced as a candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

In a speech on Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the protests and said his government would not “surrender” to “vandalism” or “street terror”. “We will not accept the disruption of public order.”

Imamoglu has reportedly been questioned by Turkish police ahead of his expected court appearance later today – with more protests expected later on.

Imamoglu, who is from the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), is seen as one of Erdogan’s strongest political rivals.

He was one of more than 100 people, including other politicians, journalists and businessmen, detained as part of an investigation.

Thousands gathered in protest in Istanbul on Friday. Riot police reportedly fired rubber bullets and pepper gas as they clashed with hundreds of demonstrators. Other clashes were reported in Izmir.

Ozgur Ozel, the leader of CHP, had called for the third nightly protest outside Istanbul’s city hall at 20:30 local time (17:30 GMT) and said the president was afraid of the protests.

He also asked people elsewhere in Turkey to demonstrate peacefully at the same time, wherever they are in the country.

“Break down those barricades without harming the police, take to the streets and squares,” he said.

Authorities tried to stifle the street demonstrations with a four-day ban on all gatherings in Istanbul, announced straight after the arrests on Wednesday.

They have since extended this order to Ankara and the western coastal city of Izmir as protests have spread, with tens of thousands gathering across Turkey.

Ahead of Friday’s protests, Istanbul’s pro-Erdogan governor ordered the closure of the Galata and Ataturk bridges, both of which cross the Golden Horn estuary to where city hall is located.

Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya has similarly criticised the demonstrations, calling the opposition “irresponsible”.

Another 54 people have been arrested for violating a law on “inciting the public to hatred and hostility” by posting online, he said.

Yerlikaya added that 16 police officers have been injured in the demonstrations.

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

Opposition figures say the arrests are politically motivated. But the Ministry of Justice has criticised those who link Erdogan to the arrests, and insist 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.

Iceland’s minister for children has resigned after admitting she had a child with a teenager more than 30 years ago.

Ásthildur Lóa Thórsdóttir said in a media interview she had first started a relationship when the boy was 15 years old, and she was a 22-year-old counsellor at a religious group which he attended.

She then gave birth to his child when he was 16 years old and she was 23.

“It’s been 36 years, a lot of things change in that time and I would definitely have dealt with these issues differently today,” the 58-year-old told Icelandic media.

Iceland’s Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir told the press this was “a serious matter”, although she said she knew little more than “the average person”.

“This is a very personal matter [and] out of respect for the person concerned, I will not comment on the substance,” she said.

According to Visir newspaper, Frostadóttir said she had only received confirmation of the story on Thursday night.

She immediately summoned the Thórsdóttir to her office, where she resigned.

Icelandic news agency RUV broke the story on Thursday night.

Thórsdóttir revealed in an interview with them that she had met the father, who RUV name as Eirík Ásmundsson, while she was working at the religious group Trú og líf (Religion and Life), which he had reportedly joined because of a difficult home life.

He was 15 years old and she was 22 at the time of their meeting. Thórsdóttir gave birth to their son when they were both a year older.

RUV report that the relationship was secret, but that Ásmundsson was present at his child’s birth and spent the first year with him.

However, the news agency writes this changed when Thórsdóttir met her current husband.

They report they have seen documents Ásmundsson submitted to Iceland’s justice ministry requesting access to his son, but that Thórsdóttir denied it, while also requesting – and receiving – child support payments from him over the following 18 years.

A relative of Ásmundsson tried twice to contact the Icelandic prime minister about the relationship last week.

Frostadóttir said last night that when the woman revealed it involved a government minister she asked for more information, which led to the revelation and the resignation.

In her TV interview with RUV last night, Thórsdóttir said she was upset that the woman had contacted the prime minister.

“I understand… what it looks like,” she said, adding that it is “very difficult to get the right story across in the news today”.

While the age of consent in Iceland is 15, it is illegal to have sex with a person under the age of 18 if you are their teacher or mentor, if they are financially dependent on you, or work for you. The maximum sentence for this crime is three years in jail.

Despite resigning from her ministerial job, Thórsdottir said she had no plans to leave parliament.

Facebook has agreed to stop targeting adverts at an individual user using personal data after she filed a lawsuit against its parent company, tech giant Meta.

Tanya O’Carroll, 37, who lives in London and works in the tech policy and human rights sector, said it would open a “gateway” for other people wanting to stop the social media company from serving them adverts based on their demographics and interests.

The Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data watchdog, said online targeted advertising should be considered direct marketing.

In a statement, Meta said it provided “robust settings and tools for users to control their data and advertising preferences”.

Ms O’Carroll, who created her Facebook account about 20 years ago, filed a lawsuit against Meta in 2022, asking it to stop using her personal data to fill her social media feeds with targeted adverts based on topics it thought she was interested in.

“I knew that this kind of predatory, invasive advertising is actually something that we all have a legal right to object to,” Ms O’Carroll told Radio 4’s Today Programme.

“I don’t think we should have to accept these unfair terms where we consent to all that invasive data tracking and surveillance.”

It was when she found out she was pregnant in 2017 that she realised the extent to which Facebook was targeting adverts at her.

She said the adverts she got “suddenly started changing within weeks to lots of baby photos and other things – ads about babies and pregnancy and motherhood”.

“I just found it unnerving – this was before I’d even told people in my private life, and yet Facebook had already determined that I was pregnant,” she continued.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation controls how personal information is used by organisations.

Ms O’Carroll’s lawsuit argued that Facebook’s targeted advertising system was covered by the UK’s definition of direct marketing, giving individuals the right to object.

Meta said that adverts on its platform could only be targeted to groups of a minimum size of 100 people, rather than individuals, so did not count as direct marketing. But the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) disagreed.

“Organisations must respect people’s choices about how their data is used,” a spokesperson for the ICO said. “This means giving users a clear way to opt out of their data being used in this way.”

Ms O’Carroll said that Meta had agreed to stop using her personal data for direct marketing purposes, “which in non-legalese means I’ve essentially been able to turn off all the creepy, invasive, targeted ads on Facebook”.

She said that she did not want to stop using Facebook, saying that it is “filled with all of those connections and family and friends, and entire chapters of my life”.

Ms O’Carroll said she hoped her individual settlement would make it easier for others who wanted Facebook to stop giving them targeted adverts.

“If other people want to exercise their right, I believe they now have a gateway to do so knowing that the UK regulator will back them up,” she said.

Meta said it disagreed with Ms O’Carroll’s claims, adding “no business can be mandated to give away its services for free.”

A spokesperson added: “Facebook and Instagram cost a significant amount of money to build and maintain, and these services are free for British consumers because of personalised advertising.”

“Our services support British jobs and economic growth by connecting businesses with the people most likely to buy their products, while enabling universal access to online services regardless of income. We will continue to defend its value while upholding user choice and privacy.”

Facebook and Instagram have a subscription service in most of Europe, where users can pay monthly so that they don’t get ads on the platform.

The Meta spokesperson said the company was “exploring the option” of offering a similar service to UK users and would “share further information in due course.”

Boxing heavyweight legend George Foreman has died aged 76.

Known as Big George in the ring, the American built one of the most remarkable and enduring careers in the sport, winning Olympic gold in 1968 and claiming the world heavyweight title twice, 21 years apart – the second making him the oldest champion in history aged 45.

He lost his first title to Muhammad Ali in their famous Rumble in the Jungle fight in 1974. But overall, he boasted an astonishing total of 76 wins including 68 knockouts, almost double that of Ali.

Foreman retired in 1997 but not before he agreed to put his name to a best-selling grill – a decision that went on to bring him fortunes that dwarfed his boxing earnings.

His family said in a post on Instagram on Friday night: “Our hearts are broken. A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand and great grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose.”

The statement added: “A humanitarian, an Olympian, and two time heavyweight champion of the world, He was deeply respected – a force for good, a man of discipline, conviction, and a protector of his legacy, fighting tirelessly to preserve his good name – for his family.”

Tributes poured in from others across the sport, with former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson saying Foreman’s “contribution to boxing and beyond will never be forgotten”.

The Ring magazine, often dubbed the Bible of Boxing, described him as “one of the greatest heavyweights of all time”.

“[He] will be remembered as an icon of the sport forever.”

Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas, on 10 January 1949, and raised along with six siblings by a single mother in the segregated American South.

He dropped out of school and turned to street robberies before eventually finding his outlet in the ring.

Foreman won the heavyweight gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, aged 19, before turning pro and winning 37 consecutive matches. He lost only five bouts over his career.

He beat previously undefeated reigning champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1973 knocking him down six times in the first two rounds.

His 1974 Rumble in the Jungle against Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, remains one of the most famous boxing matches ever.

Ali, the older man, was the underdog after he was stripped of his crown seven years earlier for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War.

Foreman reflected on the legendary fight 50 years later in an October interview with BBC World Service Newshour, explaining that everyone thought he was going to decimate Ali.

“Oh, he’s not going to last one round,” the boxer said experts were predicting at the time.

Foreman told the BBC he typically would get “real nervous” and have “butterflies” before any boxing match, but that night – it was the “most comfortable” he had felt.

But the wily Ali used a tactic that later became known as “rope-a-dope”, which wore out Foreman, causing him to throw out hundreds of punches before Ali unloaded on him in the eighth round and scored a knockout.

After a second professional loss, Foreman retired in 1977 and became an ordained minister at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Texas, which he founded and built.

He told the BBC his defeat to Ali became the “best thing that ever happened to me” as it ultimately led him to “get my message out” through preaching.

He recalled that his preaching started small, on street corners and with friends, then grew.

“We began meeting informally at various homes in Houston, and before long, the crowds became too large for most houses to accommodate,” Foreman said on his website.

“Eventually, we bought a piece of land and an old, dilapidated building on the north-east side of Houston.”

Foreman came out of retirement in 1987 to raise money for a youth centre he founded. He won 24 matches before losing to Evander Holyfield after 12 rounds in 1991.

In 1994, Foreman knocked out undefeated Michael Moorer to become the oldest ever heavyweight champion at age 45.

He became ad pitchman for his George Foreman Grill, which millions have purchased since it hit the market in 1994, thanks in part to his memorable catchphrase, the “Lean Mean Grilling Machine”.

Foreman was married five times. He has a dozen children, including five sons who are all named George.

He explained on his website that he named them after himself so they “they would always have something in common”.

“I say to them, ‘If one of us goes up, then we all go up together,” he explained. “And if one goes down, we all go down together!'”

When Donald Trump met President Zelensky in New York last September, the then US presidential candidate exuded confidence he could bring the war in Ukraine to an early end. “If we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” he said.

How quickly he meant varied over time. In a TV debate a few days earlier, Trump had promised he would “get it settled before I even become president”. This was an escalation on his previous commitment in May 2023 to stop the fighting in the first 24 hours of his presidency.

Trump has now been in office for more than two months and the penny may be beginning to drop in the White House that trying to end a conflict as bitter and complex as this may take time.

In a television interview last weekend, the US president admitted that when he promised to end the war in a day, he was “being a little bit sarcastic”.

There are many reasons for the slower progress than Team Trump may have anticipated.

First, the president’s belief in the power of his personal, one-on-one diplomacy may have been misplaced. He has long believed any international problem can be solved if he sits down with another leader and agrees a deal. Trump first spoke to Vladimir Putin on 12 February, an hour-and-a-half conversation he described as “highly productive”. The two leaders spoke again on 18 March.

But it is clear these telephone calls failed to secure the immediate 30-day interim ceasefire Trump wanted. The only substantive concession he squeezed out of Putin was a promise to end Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, a commitment he is accused by Ukraine of breaking within hours of the call.

Second, the Russian president has made it clear he does not intend to be rushed. His first public comments about the negotiations came last week in a press conference that was a whole month after his telephone call with Trump.

Putin showed he was resolutely opposed to the US two-stage strategy of seeking an interim ceasefire before talking about a longer-term settlement. Instead, he said any talks must address what he sees as “the root causes of the war”, namely his fears an expanding Nato alliance and the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state somehow present a threat to Russia’s security. He also set out detailed questions and conditions that must be answered and met before any deal could be agreed.

Third, the US strategy of directing its initial focus on Ukraine may have been misjudged. The White House came to the belief that President Zelensky was the obstacle to peace. Western diplomats acknowledge the Ukrainian government was slow to realise just how much the world had changed with the arrival of Trump.

But the US pressure on Kyiv that led to the now infamous confrontation in the Oval Office – when Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, harangued the Ukrainian leader – consumed time, effort and political capital.

It also ruptured transatlantic relations, setting Europe and the US at odds, another diplomatic problem that took time to settle. All the while Vladimir Putin sat back and enjoyed the show, biding his time.

Fourth, the sheer complexity of the conflict makes any resolution hard. The Ukrainian offer was initially for an interim ceasefire in the air and at sea. The idea was that this would be relatively straightforward to monitor.

But in last week’s talks in Jeddah, the US insisted any immediate ceasefire should also include the more than 1200km-long front line in the east. Instantly that made the logistics of verifying any ceasefire more complicated. This, of course, was then rejected by Putin.

But even his agreement to the more modest proposal – to end attacks on energy infrastructure – is not without its problems. It is the details about that proposal which will occupy much of the technical negotiations that are expected to take place in Saudi Arabia on Monday. Military and energy experts will draw up detailed lists of potential power plants – nuclear or otherwise – that might be protected.

They will also try to agree which weapons systems should not be used. But agreeing the difference between energy and other civilian infrastructure may take some time. Remember: Ukraine and Russia are not talking to one another; they are engaging separately and bilaterally with the US which is promising to shuttle between both sides. This again adds to the time.

Fifth, the US focus on the economic benefits of a ceasefire distracted attention from the priority of ending the fighting. Trump has spent time trying to agree a framework deal giving US firms access to Ukrainian critical minerals. Some saw this as the US investing in Ukraine’s future – others as it extorting the country’s natural resources.

President Zelensky argued initially he could agree a deal only if the US promised to provide Ukraine with security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression. The White House refused, saying the presence of US mining firms and workers would be deterrent enough. Eventually Zelensky conceded defeat and said he would agree a minerals deal without security guarantees. But despite that, the US has yet to sign the agreement, hoping again to improve the terms, possibly by including access to or even ownership of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

Ending wars can be complex and time consuming. We would not have got to this stage without Trump’s pushing, but progress has not been as quick or simple as he believed. In December 2018, as he campaigned for the presidency, Volodymyr Zelensky suggested negotiations with Vladimir Putin would be quite straightforward. “You need to talk in a very simple way,” he told the Ukrainian journalist, Dmytro Gordon. ‘”What do you want, what are your conditions?” And I’d tell them: ‘Here are our points.’ We would agree somewhere in the middle.”

Well, on the evidence of the last two months, it may be harder than that.