South Korea’s constitutional court has dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, reinstating him as the country’s acting president.

Han took over as acting leader last December when President Yoon Suk Yeol was suspended from duties and impeached by parliament after he attempted to declare martial law.

However, Han only lasted two weeks in power before lawmakers voted to impeach him as well. Since then, South Korea has been led by deputy prime minister Choi Sang-mok.

South Korea has been roiled by political chaos since Yoon’s botched attempt to impose martial law.

Shortly after assuming the role of acting president, Han blocked the appointment of new judges to the constitutional court – something the opposition had hoped would improve the odds of Yoon getting impeached.

As a result, they voted to impeach Han.

But on Monday, the judges ruled seven to one to strike down the impeachment.

“I thank the constitutional court for its wise decision,” Han said after the ruling was announced. “I will work to bring the government to order.”

South Korea remains on tenterhooks for another upcoming decision by the same court – on the impeachment of President Yoon.

Lawmakers voted to impeach Yoon on 14 December, but it is ultimately up to the constitutional court to decide.

If the court votes to uphold the impeachment, Yoon would be immediately removed from office and South Korea must hold a presidential election within 60 days. If it dismisses the impeachment, Yoon would return to his duties immediately.

The court date has not yet been set for the Yoon verdict, but in recent weeks Seoul has seen swelling protests from Yoon’s supporters and opponents, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets of the nation’s capital last weekend.

Political analyst Leif-Eric Easley said the dismissal of Han’s impeachment shows that the constitutional court “wants to appear impartial, upholding the law and encouraging national stability during a messy political transition”.

It “serves to admonish progressive parties for their overzealousness in impeaching government officials”, said Dr Easley. He noted that opposition lawmakers have filed several impeachment motions, and the court has dismissed the nine cases it has ruled on so far.

“Reinstating Han is also partly political theatre setting up its more consequential ruling on Yoon’s impeachment.” Dr Easley added.

“Mostly siding with conservatives on Han’s case can be seen as a play for unity and legitimacy” for when the court votes on Yoon’s fate in coming days, he said.

Greenland’s politicians have condemned plans for high-profile US visits, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s threats to take over the island.

Second Lady Usha Vance will make a cultural visit this week, and a separate trip is expected from Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

Outgoing Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede described the plan as aggressive, and said the duo had not been invited for meetings. Meanwhile, the island’s likely next leader accused the US of showing a lack of respect.

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

It governs its own domestic affairs, but decisions on foreign and defence policy are made in Copenhagen. The US has long held a security interest – and has had a military base on the island since World War Two.

It is also thought Trump is interested in the island’s rare earth minerals. His son Donald Jr visited Greenland before Trump’s inauguration in January.

Announcing Mrs Vance’s visit, the White House said the second lady would visit historical sites and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race.

Her delegation – including her son – would be there to “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity”, the statement said.

Waltz’s trip was confirmed by a source who spoke to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News. He is expected to visit before Mrs Vance and to travel with Energy Secretary Chris Wright, according to the New York Times.

Outgoing PM Egede described Waltz’s visit in particular as a provocation. “What is the security advisor doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power to us,” he told Sermitsiaq newspaper.

Speaking to the same paper, Greenland’s probable next PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen accused the American officials of showing the local population a lack of respect.

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US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said the United States has a vested interest in the Arctic, and so “it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a US Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground”.

He said that the visit is also an opportunity to ” build on partnerships that respects Greenland’s self-determination and advances economic cooperation” and to “learn about Greenland, its culture, history, and people”.

Trump appeared to escalate his campaign to take over the island during a conversation with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte earlier this month.

Greenland was already on the defensive about Trump’s talk of a takeover, but he sent further shockwaves by implying he might ask to take the island with support of Nato, a military alliance of which Denmark is also a part.

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

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

The move prompted Greenland’s leading political parties to issue a joint statement to condemn the American president’s “unacceptable behaviour”.

The issue took centre-stage in the recent election, during which Egede’s governing Inuit Ataqatigiit party was defeated in a surprise result by Nielsen’s Democratic party, which favours a gradual approach to independence from Denmark.

Earlier this month, during a speech to the US Congress, Trump said he strongly supported the people of Greenland’s right to determine their own future. “If you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” he said.

According to recent polls, almost 80% of Greenlanders back independence from Denmark. But an opinion survey in January suggested an even greater number rejected the idea of becoming part of the US.

Canada’s general election campaign is under way, a 36-day sprint taking place in unprecedented circumstances.

Voters will consider which party should govern the country just as the US – its neighbour and largest economic partner – launches a trade war and President Donald Trump muses about making Canada the 51st US state.

Domestic issues like housing and immigration will still be important, of course, but for the first time in decades, Canadians will also be grappling with fundamental questions about the country’s future when they head to the ballot box on 28 April.

Here are five things to watch as the campaign unfolds.

Canada and the US share deeply integrated economies, a long-standing security partnership and the longest “undefended” border in the world.

So when President Donald Trump says he wants to use “economic force” against America’s neighbour, calls the border an “artificially drawn line” and imposes steep tariffs, it marks a profound shift in the relationship between the two allies.

“It is impossible to overstate the impact of the president’s actions on Canadian politics, on Canadian psyche, on Canadian business,” said Marci Surkes, chief strategy officer at public affairs firm Compass Rose and a former policy director to ex-prime minister Justin Trudeau, a Liberal.

Trump’s interventions have already reshaped politics in Canada, helping transform what seemed like a certain Conservative victory into a too-close-to-call battle with the Liberals.

And on Sunday, as campaigning began, all the party leaders focused their launch messages heavily on the US threats.

What the US president says and does over the next few weeks will inevitably factor into the race. On April 2, for example, in just the second week of campaigning, the White House is expected to announce more global tariffs.

He has already started to make his views on the election known, telling Fox News host Laura Ingraham on 18 March that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is “stupidly, no friend of mine” and that it may be “easier to deal actually with a Liberal”.

Ultimately, he added, who wins “doesn’t matter to me at all”.

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Canadians know their next PM will have no choice but to deal with Donald Trump.

So the question on many voters’ minds is: who can most capably handle the unpredictable US president?

The contest essentially boils down to the new Liberal leader Mark Carney and Poilievre, who has led the Conservatives since 2022.

Two other major parties will be contesting seats in Parliament – the left-leaning New Democrats (NDP) and the the Bloc Québécois – but Canadians have historically elected Conservative or Liberal governments.

Carney, 60, is a former central banker who is new to politics – after taking over from Justin Trudeau earlier this month, he became the first prime minister in Canada never elected to Parliament.

He brings experience on the world stage – he governed the Bank of England from 2013-2020 – but lacks time spent in the cut and thrust of political campaigning, and will get his first real test in this general election.

If the Liberals fail to win the election, he could have the shortest tenure of any PM in the country’s history.

At 45, Poilievre may be significantly younger, but he is a political veteran. First elected to the House of Commons at age 25, he has two decades of experience in federal politics, including time in cabinet, and is known for his political acumen.

As party leader, he was quick to highlight the pain that inflation was inflicting on Canadian families, and capitalise on broader anger at Trudeau and the Liberals on issues like immigration.

His tag line “Canada is broken” has in recent weeks become “Canada first”. The shift in message from a country in decline to one of patriotism and strength comes as he presents himself as able to stand up to Trump.

He is “the consummate retail politician”, Ms Surkes said, but “suffers from having – right now – a brand and a narrative that no longer fits the moment”.

It will be the first time in decades that a Canadian election is not focused mostly on domestic issues.

Instead, this election is about the big, national questions: Canada’s sovereignty and what the country must do to face an uncertain future with uncertain allies.

Ms Surkes compared the situation to the 1988 elecftion, when Canada’s relationship with the US also took centre stage as the country mulled joining the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“The same types of questions were being asked in terms of whether there would be a forfeiture of Canadian sovereignty, economic sovereignty, economic independence,” she said.

This time, both main parties are pushing a vision of growth and independence – building much-needed housing, moving forward on major energy and resource projects, retaliating against US tariffs and bolstering Canada’s defence capabilities.

So where are the differences?

Carney has moved the Liberals more towards the political centre as he seeks to distance himself from Trudeau, who left office deeply unpopular.

He has promised to “spend less and invest more” and to boost capital investments in things like housing, and military infrastructure and computing resources.

Poilievre, a fiscal hawk, pitches cutting red tape and taxes to boost industry and spur infrastructure investment and home building.

The Conservatives have also focused more sharply on issues like crime.

The core domestic concerns that Canadians have had in recent years – affordability, housing, healthcare – haven’t gone away.

But pollster David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data, says they have been subsumed by the “existential threat” of the trade war with the US.

“Even if the cost of living is still the top issue, it may not be as powerful a motivator to drive voting behavior,” he adds.

So the parties will be challenged to come up with convincing policies to address these concerns – but frame them in the context of the wider economic threat.

The US tariffs, the uncertainty caused by their on-again-off-again nature, and Canada’s C$60bn in counter-tariffs, are already being felt by businesses and communities across the country.

This week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development more than halved its economic growth outlook for Canada this year and next.

National opinion polls have seen a stunning reversal in recent weeks, with the Conservatives losing the 20-point lead they had over the Liberals for the better part of a year.

As the race officially begins, it’s a toss-up.

Mr Coletto said three factors led to the “perfect storm” in polling: the resignation of the deeply unpopular Trudeau, the Liberal leadership race which that sparked, and the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

Both candidates now are trying to “bring their enemies to the battlefield” to eke out an advantage, he added. Carney is seeking to paint Poilievre as “Trump-light”, while Poilievre suggests Carney is “just like Justin”.

Each campaign enjoys natural advantages, he says.

The Conservatives have “an animated base who desperately want a change in government”, along with a well-funded political machine.

The Liberals currently “have the advantage on narrative” that has helped shift the polls more in their favour.

The other two official parties – the NDP and the Bloc – have both seen their popularity diminish.

The left-leaning NDP, which had 24 seats in the last Parliament, helped prop up the Liberal minority government in recent years in exchange for support for progressive policies like dental care for low-income Canadians.

But leader Jagmeet Singh has been pushing hard against Carney, seeking to frame him as someone who will “protect billionaires and big business”.

Bloc leader Blanchet said on Sunday he would fight for Quebec companies and workers struggling under US tariffs, especially in the aluminium industry.

It was an invitation from a classmate 15 years ago that changed the life of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar now facing deportation from the US over accusations he is linked to a Hamas member.

On that summer evening, Mr Suri had been sitting outside his department at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university when a classmate announced that an international aid convoy was set to go to Gaza – the Palestinian territory run by the armed Islamist group Hamas and under blockade by Israel.

To students of conflict studies, the caravan – of more than 150 people from several Asian countries – offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness one of the world’s most contentious disputes up close.

Mr Suri happily agreed to participate, a classmate recalled to the BBC.

It was during this trip that he met Mapheze Saleh, a Palestinian and the daughter of a former Hamas adviser, whom he married a few months later.

After living in Delhi for almost a decade, the couple moved to the US where Mr Suri joined the prestigious Georgetown University as a postdoctoral fellow.

He had been living in Virginia for nearly three years when the police knocked on his door on the evening of 17 March and arrested him.

Three days later, on 20 March, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted that Mr Suri was being detained for his “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, a senior adviser to Hamas”. He has denied the allegations.

This action follows President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants and activists involved in pro-Palestinian campus protests which authorities have accused of fuelling antisemitism and supporting Hamas. The group is designated a terrorist organisation by the US. India, however, has not banned Hamas.

Although Mr Suri, who entered the US legally on a student visa, has had his deportation blocked by a US court, the Trump administration’s allegations have shocked those who know him back home.

His acquaintances describe him as a soft-spoken, shy and hardworking student with a broad knowledge of the world, while his classmates and teachers said they found allegations of him having ties with Hamas “tenuous”.

India has historically supported the Palestinian cause. But it has also developed close, strategic ties with Israel in recent years, with Delhi often refraining from criticising Israel’s actions.

Even then, “by no stretch of imagination can Suri be associated with anything unlawful”, one of his professors from Jamia told the BBC.

“Having a view on the ongoing conflict is not a crime. As a conflict studies scholar, it is well within his professional mandate to share his analysis of the war in Gaza.”

Those who accompanied him on the trip held similar views.

Feroze Mithiborwala, one of the organisers of the caravan, remembered Mr Suri as an intelligent, young man.

“He always took a secular stance in our discussions. He was not some right-wing Islamist type of character,” he said.

The trip began in December 2010 from Delhi. As India’s neighbour Pakistan refused to give a travel permit to the group, the convoy had to travel to Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt before finally reaching Gaza.

The route, most of which was covered by bus, offered much for a student of peace and conflict studies, one of Mr Suri’s friends who also went on the tour said.

Throughout the trip, he was deeply moved by the sufferings he witnessed in Gaza and focused on providing aid to the widowed and elderly, he added.

The caravan, in many ways, “brought Mr Suri closer to the Palestinian cause”, but his interest was largely academic, said another classmate who was in touch with him until days before his arrest.

The second and the last time Mr Suri went to Gaza was for his own wedding with Ms Saleh.

A US citizen, Ms Saleh had been working as a translator and volunteer in Gaza at that time.

Her father, who has lived in the US, is a former adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed by Israel last year, according to a statement submitted by her in court.

In 2010, her father left the Gaza government and “started the House of Wisdom in 2011 to encourage peace and conflict resolution in Gaza”, it adds.

When Ms Saleh and Mr Suri first met, they did not speak much. But they connected again a few months later, a friend who accompanied him on the caravan told the BBC.

Their wedding made headlines in India, as the couple moved back to Delhi and continued to live there for about eight years.

Ms Saleh enrolled herself for a masters degree in Jamia and later worked at the Qatar embassy. In 2023, Mr Suri moved to the US and Ms Saleh followed him.

He was months away from completing his fellowship when he was arrested.

Mr Suri’s father said it pained him to see his son in this situation.

“He has no connections with Hamas or Palestine [other than his marriage]. His sin is that he is married to a Palestinian woman,” he said.

But he is hopeful that his son will not be deported. “After all, these are merely allegations. There is no proof of any wrongdoing,” he added.

South Korean K-pop group NewJeans have announced they are taking a break from all activities, after a court ruled against them in their ongoing dispute with their record label Ador.

The five-piece, who have attempted to rebrand as NJZ, announced during a show at ComplexCon Hong Kong on Sunday that “this will be our last performance for a little while”, after debuting their new song Pit Stop.

The court ruling on Friday forbade the group from organising their own appearances, making music or signing advertising deals during their dispute with Ador.

NewJeans are seeking to cut ties with Ador after accusing them of mistreatment, and have said they will challenge the court’s ruling.

The group have been embroiled in a lengthy dispute with their record label since August 2024, when Hybe, the parent company of Ador, allegedly forced out NewJeans’ mentor, Min Hee-Jin.

The band issued an ultimatum demanding that Min should be restored – and, when Hybe refused, went public with a number of complaints against the label, including the claim it had deliberately undermined their careers.

One of the group’s members, Hanni, also alleged that she suffered workplace harassment while working with the label.

In a press conference in November, NewJeans announced their departure from the company, saying Hybe and Ador had lost the right to represent them as artists.

The Seoul court ruled that NewJeans’ claims did not “sufficiently prove that Ador violated their significant duty as part of their contract”, adding that the music label had upheld “most of its duty including payment”.

The court’s decision prevents the band from conducting independent activities, which means it will face difficulty rebranding under its new name, NJZ, without facing severe financial penalties for breach of contract.

The Hong Kong concert on Sunday night marked the group’s first public appearance since the ruling.

After debuting their new song, the five members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Heyin took turns to read a letter addressing their fans in English and Korean.

“This stage means so much to us and every single one of you who gives us strength just by being here,” Hanni and Dani said.

“It is really hard for us to say this, but this might be our last performance for a little while. Out of respect for the court’s decision, we’ve decided to pause all our activities for now.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” they added, “but we believe this is something we need to do at this moment.”

The group also said that the decision was “about protecting ourselves so that we can come back even stronger”.

“We had to speak up to protect the values that we believe in, and that was a choice that we don’t regret at all,” they added.

“We surely believe that standing up for our dignity, our rights and everything we deeply care about is something we had to do, and that belief will not change.”

The speech ended an hour-long headlining set in front of a crowd of more than 11,000 fans at the AsiaWorld Expo Arena, Hong Kong’s largest live music venue.

The group performed under their new name NJZ, in seeming defiance of last week’s ruling.

In a statement on Monday, Ador said they “regret the members’ decision to proceed with a performance under a name other than NewJeans, despite the court order, and their unilateral announcement of a suspension of activities”.

“Ador is fully committed to supporting NewJeans, consistent with the terms of our legally valid exclusive contract,” they added. “We hope to meet with the artists as soon as possible to discuss the path forward.”

NewJeans are considered one of the brightest new bands in K-Pop, and were the eighth biggest-selling act in the world in 2023.

Mia Love, the first US black Republican congresswoman, has died aged 49 in Utah, her family has announced.

“She passed away peacefully” on Sunday, surrounded by family at her home in the town of Saratoga Springs, a statement said.

Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, had represented the state of Utah in the House of Representatives.

Her daughter Abigale said earlier this month that Love had no longer been responding to treatment for brain cancer.

“In the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of happy memories, Mia quietly slipped the bands of mortality and, as her words and vision always did, soared heavenward,” said the family statement, which was posted on X.

Paying tributes to Love, Utah Governor Spencer Cox wrote: “A true trailblazer and visionary leader, Mia inspired countless Utahns through her courage, grace, and unwavering belief in the American dream.

“Her legacy leaves a lasting, positive impact on our state. We will miss her deeply.”

Mia Love’s political career formally started in 2003 when she won a seat on the Saratoga Springs’ city council, and she later became the mayor, aged 34.

In 2014, she was elected to the US House of Representatives. She made history as the first black Republican woman to take up the role, and served two terms.

Love was critical of Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2016, endorsing instead his Republican nomination rival Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who dropped out of the race a few months later.

She also called for Trump to publicly apologise for making derogatory comments about Haiti in 2018.

Her bid for a third term ended in a razor-thin defeat to her Democratic rival Ben McAdams.

Trump reacted to that by saying at a news conference: “Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost.”

Before entering politics, the mother of three worked for some time as a flight attendant.

As a teenager she dreamed of an acting career, later graduating from the University of Hartford in Connecticut with a degree in musical theatre.

In 2022, Love was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a fast-moving and aggressive form of brain cancer, and was given just 10-15 months to live – which she surpassed.

Her death comes nearly two weeks after Love wrote an opinion piece for Deseret News, which she said was “not to say goodbye but to say thank you and express my living wish for you and the America I know”.

Golfer Tiger Woods has announced he is dating Vanessa Trump, the former daughter-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

Vanessa, 47, was married to Donald Trump Jr for 13 years. The pair, who have five children, divorced in 2018.

On Sunday, Woods, 49, posted pictures of Vanessa and himself on social media saying: “Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side! We look forward to our journey through life together.”

“At this time we would appreciate privacy for all those close to our hearts.”

It is unclear what prompted the public announcement, but rumours of their relationship had been reported in gossip magazines in recent weeks.

Woods, who has won 15 major championships, is known for being guarded about his personal life after exposure of his marital infidelities and sex scandals damaged his public standing in the 2000s and affected his playing career.

He admitted himself into a sex addiction rehab clinic, and went through an acrimonious split from his first wife Elin Nordegren months later after six years of marriage. The couple have two children together.

US media outlets report that Tiger Woods’ children attend the same school as Vanessa Trump’s.

As the former wife of Donald Trump’s eldest son, Vanessa had been a regular attendee at official events involving Trump’s extended family during his first term in office.

Woods, the former world number one, is also known to have played golf with President Trump on several occasions, including last month. Trump loves golf and owns more than a dozen courses.

In February, Woods attended a meeting with Trump and Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) heads at the White House about the future of the sport’s tournaments and current division with the Saudi Arabia-LIV league.

Woods wore his Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was bestowed on him by Trump in 2019 during the president’s first term.

Woods announced an achilles tendon injury earlier this month that has sidelined him from professional competition. He has not suggested a timeline for when he might return to the courses.

He has not competed in a PGA Tour event this season, following the death of his mother, Kultida, in February.

The new couple both have children who are junior golfers.

Kai Trump, 17, has announced her commitment to playing collegiate golf at the University of Miami in 2026.

She and Charlie Woods both played at a junior invite-only tournament in South Carolina last week.

Woods has previously announced relationships with World Cup champion ski racer Lindsey Vonn and Erica Herman, his former restaurant manager.

That relationship ended badly – Herman filed law suits against Woods and his trust in 2023, which she later withdrew.

A mother in northern Nigeria is visibly upset as she clutches her two-year-old child, who has burns and discoloured skin on his face and legs.

The 32-year-old used skin-whitening products on all six of her children, under pressure from her family, with results that she now deeply regrets.

Fatima, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s identity, says one of her daughters covers her face whenever she goes out in order to hide her burns.

Another was left with darker skin than before – with a pale circle around her eyes, while a third has whitish scars on her lips and knees.

Her toddler still has weeping wounds – his skin is taking a long time to heal.

“My sister gave birth to light-skinned children but my children are darker skinned. I noticed that my mother favours my sister’s children over mine due to their skin tone and it hurt my feelings a lot,” Fatima says.

She says she used creams she bought at her local supermarket in the city of Kano, without a doctor’s prescription.

At first it seemed to work. The grandmother warmed towards Fatima’s children, who were aged between two and 16 at the time.

But then the burns and scars appeared.

Skin-whitening or lightening, also known as bleaching in Nigeria, is used in different parts of the world for cosmetic reasons, though these often have deep cultural roots.

Women in Nigeria use skin-whitening products more than in any other African country – 77% use them regularly, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

In Congo-Brazzaville the figure is 66%, in Senegal 50% and in Ghana 39%.

The creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinone, which can be harmful if used in high quantities, and in many countries are only obtainable with a doctor’s prescription.

Other ingredients sometimes used are the poisonous metal, mercury, and kojic acid – a by-product from the manufacture of the Japanese alcoholic drink, sake.

Dermatitis, acne and skin discolouration are possible consequences, but also inflammatory disorders, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.

The skin may become thinner, with the result that wounds take longer to heal, and are more likely to become infected, the WHO says.

The situation is so bad that Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) declared a state of emergency in 2023.

It is also becoming more common for women to bleach their children, like Fatima did.

“A lot of people link light skin to beauty or wealth. Women tend to shield, as they call it, their children from that discrimination by bleaching them from childbirth,” Zainab Bashir Yau, the owner of a dermatology clinic in the capital, Abuja, tells the BBC.

She estimates that 80% of the women she has met have bleached their children, or plan to do so.

Some were bleached themselves as babies, she says, so are just continuing the practice.

One of the most common ways to tell whether someone is using skin-whitening products in Nigeria is by the darkness of their knuckles. Other parts of people’s hands or feet get lighter, but knuckles tend to remain dark.

However, smokers and drug users also sometimes have dark patches on their hands, due to the smoke.

So users of skin-lightening products are sometimes mistakenly assumed to belong to this group.

Fatima says that is what happened to her daughters, aged 16 and 14.

“They faced discrimination from society – they all point fingers at them and call them drug addicts. This has affected them a lot,” she says.

They have both lost potential fiancés because men do not want to be associated with women who might be thought to take drugs.

I visited a popular market in Kano, where people who call themselves “mixologists” create skin-whitening creams from scratch.

The market has a whole row of shops where thousands of these creams are sold.

Some pre-mixed varieties are arranged on shelves, but customers can also select raw ingredients and ask for the cream to be mixed in front of them.

I noticed that many bleaching creams, with labels saying they were for babies, contained regulated substances.

Other sellers admitted using regulated ingredients such as kojic acid, hydroquinone and a powerful antioxidant, glutathione, which may cause rashes and other side-effects.

I also witnessed teenage girls buying bleaching creams for themselves and in bulk so that they could sell them to their peers.

One woman, who had discoloured hands, insisted that a seller add a lightening agent to a cream that was being mixed for her children, even though it was a regulated substance for adults and illegal to use on children.

“Even though my hands are discoloured, I am here to buy creams for my kids so they can be light-skinned. I believe my hands are this way just because I used the wrong one. Nothing will happen to my children,” she said.

One seller said most of his customers were buying creams to make their babies “glow”, or to look “radiant and shiny”.

Most seemed to be unaware of the approved dosages.

One salesman said he used “a lot of kojic” – well over the prescribed limit – if someone wanted light skin and a smaller quantity if they wanted a subtler change.

The approved dosage of kojic acid in creams in Nigeria is 1%, according to Nafdac.

I even saw salesmen giving women injections.

Dr Leonard Omokpariola, a director at Nafdac, says attempts are being made to educate people about the risks.

He also says markets are being raided, and there are efforts to seize skin-lightening ingredients at Nigeria’s borders as they are brought into the country.

But he says it was sometimes hard for law-enforcement officials to identify these substances.

“Some of them are just being transported in unlabelled containers, so if you do not take them to the labs for evaluation, you can’t tell what is inside.”

Fatima says her actions will haunt her forever, especially if her children’s scars do not fade.

“When I confided in my mum about what I did, due to her behaviour, and when she heard the dangers of the cream and what stigma her grandchildren are facing, she was sad that they had to go through that and apologised,” she says.

Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistake.

“Even though I have stopped… the side-effects are still here, I beg other parents to use my situation as an example.”

A high court in South Korea has upheld the conviction of a 24-year-old man for a series of sexual crimes, including rape – after the attack was reflected on a washing machine door and caught on security footage, say reports.

The CCTV video submitted by the victim did not appear to show the crime – until investigators spotted the attack in the door’s reflection.

The man had already been indicted for other offenses, including the suspected rape of a former girlfriend and sex with a minor, reports say.

He was originally convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail in November but appealed the decision. The high court then sentenced him to seven years, saying that it took into account the settlement that he had reached with one of the victims.

The man was also required to wear an ankle tag for seven years after his release and has been banned from working in facilities for children, juveniles and disabled people for seven years.

British-American influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have appeared at a police station after returning to Romania from the US.

The brothers registered with the authorities in the capital, Bucharest, in a legal formality to demonstrate their compliance with an ongoing criminal investigation.

They are under investigation in Romania for forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors and money laundering. Andrew also faces allegations of rape and sex with a minor. The pair deny all accusations.

After leaving the police station, Andrew, 38, refused to say whether he would remain in Romania, but vowed to clear his name both there and in the UK.

The brothers returned to Romania on Friday nearly a month after they unexpectedly had their travel ban lifted by the authorities.

Soon after, the pair announced they flew on a private jet to Florida – where they quickly became the focus of a new investigation.

Florida’s state attorney-general launched a criminal inquiry into the brothers, welcomed by the US National Centre on Sexual Exploitation, which represents one of Tate’s alleged victims.

The brothers’ exit from Romania led to speculation that prosecutors felt political pressure from President Donald Trump – whom they support. Trump has denied any knowledge of their release and the Tates have dismissed claims of outside influence.

Replying to a question about the US charges today, Andrew denied them and said: “I am investigated everywhere on the planet, because I am one of the most important people on the planet.”

He also said there was a “witch hunt” against him.

The pair were arrested in Romania in late 2022 amid accusations of misleading women and transporting them to Romania where they were later sexually exploited and subjected to physical violence.

The pair are also the subjects of a separate investigation in the UK into allegations of rape and human trafficking, which they deny.

British authorities have secured a warrant over allegations of sexual aggression dating back to 2012, meaning the brothers could face extradition once Romanian proceedings conclude.

Last month, Romanian authorities warned the Tates they must return for a court appearance or risk “a higher custodial measure”.

Andrew, who has been banned from several social media platforms for his misogynistic views and hate speech, later told his 10 million followers on X that he had spent $185,000 (£142,800) on a private jet to “sign one single piece of paper in Romania”.

The BBC asked Andrew on Monday about his inflammatory tweets in the aftermath of the Southport attack in the UK last year in which three girls at a summer holiday dance and yoga class were stabbed to death and he falsely claimed the attacker was an illegal immigrant. Tate called the BBC correspondent “a nobody” before being driven away.

In a recent interview, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke positively about India’s relationship with long-time rival China. He said normalcy had returned to the disputed India-China border and called for stronger ties.

These are striking comments, because tensions have been high since a nasty border clash in the northern Ladakh region in 2020 – the deadliest since a 1962 war.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning expressed appreciation for Modi’s words and declared that “the two countries should be partners that contribute to each other’s success”.

Modi’s pitch for closer partnership isn’t actually as big of a leap as it may seem, given recent improvements in bilateral ties. But the relationship remains strained, and much will need to fall into place – bilaterally and more broadly geopolitically – for it to enjoy a true rapprochement.

India-China ties have many bright spots.

Bilateral trade is consistently robust; even after the Ladakh clash, China has been India’s top trade partner. They co-operate multilaterally, from Brics, the alliance of major developing countries, to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. They share interests in advancing non-Western economic models, countering Islamist terrorism and rejecting what they deem US moral crusading.

Even after the Ladakh clash sunk ties to their lowest level in decades, the two militaries continued to hold high-level dialogues, which resulted in a deal in October to resume border patrols. Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping at a Brics summit in Russia that month and they pledged further co-operation. In January, the two sides agreed to resume direct flights.

Still, the relationship remains troubled.

Each side has close security ties with the other’s main competitor: India with the US and China with Pakistan.

China opposes Indian policies in the disputed Kashmir region. Beijing frustrates India’s great power ambitions by blocking its membership in influential groupings like the Nuclear Suppliers Group and permanent membership on the UN Security Council.

China has a large naval presence, and its only overseas military base, in India’s broader maritime backyard.

The Belt and Road Initiative, the connectivity corridor through which Beijing has expanded its footprint in India’s neighbourhood, is categorically rejected by Delhi for passing through India-claimed territory.

• Bangladesh wooed by China as ties with India fray
• What led to Modi and Xi meeting and thaw in ties

Meanwhile, India is deepening ties with Taiwan, which China views as a renegade province. It hosts the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader. Beijing regards him as a dangerous separatist.

India is negotiating sales of supersonic missiles to Southeast Asian states that could be used to deter Chinese provocations in the South China Sea. China views several global forums to which India belongs, such as the Indo-Pacific Quad and the Middle East Europe Economic Corridor, as attempts to counter it.

There are several signposts to watch to get a better sense of the relationship’s future trajectory.

One is border talks. Fifty thousand squares miles of the 2,100-mile (3,380km)-long frontier – an area equal to the size of Greece – remain disputed.

The situation on the border is the biggest bellwether of the relationship. The Ladakh clash shattered trust; last year’s patrolling deal helped restore it. If the two sides can produce more confidence-building measures, this would bode well for relations.

Future high-level engagement is also important. If Modi and Xi, both of whom place a premium on personal diplomacy, meet this year, this would bolster recent momentum in bilateral ties. They’ll have opportunities on the sidelines of leaders summits for Brics in July, G20 in November and the Shanghai Co-operation Group (SCO) sometime later this year.

Another key signpost is Chinese investment, which would bring critical capital to key Indian industries from manufacturing to renewables and help ease India’s $85bn (£65.7bn) trade deficit with China.

An increase in such investments would give India a timely economic boost and China more access to the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Stronger commercial co-operation would provide more incentives to keep broader tensions down.

Regional and global developments are also worth watching.

Four of India’s neighbours – Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka – recently had new leaders take office who are more pro-China than their predecessors. But so far, they’ve sought to balance ties with Beijing and Delhi, not align with China.

If this continues, Delhi’s concerns about Beijing’s influence in India’s neighbourhood could lessen a bit. Additionally, if China were to pull back from its growing partnership with India’s close friend Russia – a more likely outcome if there’s an end to the war in Ukraine, which has deepened Moscow’s dependence on Beijing – this could help India-China ties.

The Trump factor looms large, too.

US President Donald Trump, despite slapping tariffs on China, has telegraphed a desire to ease tensions with Beijing.

If he does, and Delhi fears Washington may not be as committed to helping India counter China, then India would want to ensure its own ties with China are in a better place.

• India’s balancing act with West as Brics flexes new muscles
• India-China border row explained in 400 words

Additionally, if Trump’s impending reciprocal tariff policy hits India hard – and given the 10% average tariff differentials between the US and India, it certainly could – India will have another incentive to strengthen commercial cooperation with Beijing.

India and China are Asia’s two largest countries, and both view themselves as proud civilisation states.

They’re natural competitors. But recent positive developments in ties, coupled with the potential for bilateral progress on other fronts, could bring more stability to the relationship – and ensure Modi’s conciliatory language isn’t mere rhetoric.

Saira Baloch was 15 when she stepped into a morgue for the first time.

All she heard in the dimly-lit room were sobs, whispered prayers and shuffling feet. The first body she saw was a man who appeared to have been tortured.

His eyes were missing, his teeth had been pulled out and there were burn marks on his chest.

“I couldn’t look at the other bodies. I walked out,” she recalled.

But she was relieved. It wasn’t her brother – a police officer who had been missing for nearly a year since he was arrested in 2018 in a counter-terrorism operation in Balochistan, one of Pakistan’s most restive regions.

Inside the morgue, others continued their desperate search, scanning rows of unclaimed corpses. Saira would soon adopt this grim routine, revisiting one morgue after another. They were all the same: tube lights flickering, the air thick with the stench of decay and antiseptic.

On every visit, she hoped she would not find what she was looking for – seven years on, she still hasn’t.

Activists say thousands of ethnic Baloch people have been disappeared by Pakistan’s security forces in the last two decades – allegedly detained without due legal process, or abducted, tortured and killed in operations against a decades-old separatist insurgency.

The Pakistan government denies the allegations, insisting that many of the missing have joined separatist groups or fled the country.

Some return after years, traumatised and broken – but many never come back. Others are found in unmarked graves that have appeared across Balochistan, their bodies so disfigured they cannot be identified.

And then there are the women across generations whose lives are being defined by waiting.

Young and old, they take part in protests, their faces lined with grief, holding up fading photographs of men no longer in their lives. When the BBC met them at their homes, they offered us black tea – Sulemani chai – in chipped cups as they spoke in voices worn down by sorrow.

Many of them insist their fathers, brothers and sons are innocent and have been targeted for speaking out against state policies or were taken as a form of collective punishment.

Saira is one of them.

She says she started going to protests after asking the police and pleading with politicians yielded no answers about her brother’s whereabouts.

Muhammad Asif Baloch was arrested in August 2018 along with 10 others in Nushki, a city along the border with Afghanistan. His family found out when they saw him on TV the next day, looking scared and dishevelled.

Authorities said the men were “terrorists fleeing to Afghanistan”. Muhammad’s family said he was having a picnic with friends.

Saira says Muhammad was her “best friend”, funny and always cheerful – “My mother worries that she’s forgetting his smile.”

The day he went missing, Saira had aced a school exam and was excited to tell her brother, her “biggest supporter”. Muhammad had encouraged her to attend universty in Quetta, the provincial capital.

“I didn’t know back then that the first time I’d go to Quetta, it would be for a protest demanding his release,” Saira says.

Three of the men who were detained along with her brother were released in 2021, but they have not spoken about what happened.

Muhammad never came home.

The journey into Balochistan, in Pakistan’s south-west, feels like you are stepping into another world.

It is vast – covering about 44% of the country, the largest of Pakistan’s provinces – and the land is rich with gas, coal, copper and gold. It stretches along the Arabian Sea, across the water from places like Dubai, which has risen from the sands into glittering, monied skyscrapers.

But Balochistan remains stuck in time. Access to many parts is restricted for security reasons and foreign journalists are often denied access.

It’s also difficult to travel around. The roads are long and lonely, cutting through barren hills and desert. As the infrastructure thins out the further you travel, roads are replaced by dirt tracks created by the few vehicles that pass.

Electricity is sporadic, water even scarcer. Schools and hospitals are dismal.

In the markets, men sit outside mud shops waiting for customers who rarely come. Boys, who elsewhere in Pakistan may dream of a career, only talk of escape: fleeing to Karachi, to the Gulf, to anywhere that offers a way out of this slow suffocation.

Balochistan became a part of Pakistan in 1948, in the upheaval that followed the partition of British India – and in spite of opposition from some influential tribal leaders, who sought an independent state.

Some of the resistance turned militant and, over the years, it has been stoked by accusations that Pakistan has exploited the resource-rich region without investing in its development.

Militant groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), designated a terrorist group by Pakistan and other nations, have intensified their attacks: bombings, assassinations and ambushes against security forces have become more frequent.

Earlier this month, the BLA hijacked a train in Bolan Pass, seizing hundreds of passengers. They demanded the release of missing people in Balochistan in return for freeing hostages.

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

The disappearances in the province are widely believed to be part of Islamabad’s strategy to crush the insurgency – but also to suppress dissent, weaken nationalist sentiment and support for an independent Balochistan.

Many of the missing are suspected members or sympathisers of Baloch nationalist groups that demand more autonomy or independence. But a significant number are ordinary people with no known political affiliations.

Balochistan’s Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told the BBC that enforced disappearances are an issue but dismissed the idea that they were happening on a large scale as “systematic propaganda”.

“Every child in Balochistan has been made to hear ‘missing persons, missing persons’. But who will determine who disappeared whom?

“Self-disappearances exist too. How can I prove if someone was taken by intelligence agencies, police, FC, or anyone else or me or you?”

Pakistan’s military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif recently said in a press conference that the “state is solving the issue of missing persons in a systematic manner”.

He repeated the official statistic often shared by the government – of the more than 2,900 cases of enforced disappearances reported from Balochistan since 2011, 80% had been resolved.

Activists put the figure higher – at around 7,000 – but there is no single reliable source of data and no way to verify either side’s claims.

Women like Jannat Bibi refuse to accept the official number.

She continues to search for her son, Nazar Muhammad, who she claims was taken in 2012 while eating breakfast at a hotel.

“I went everywhere looking for him. I even went to Islamabad,” she says. “All I got were beatings and rejection.”

The 70-year-old lives in a small mud house on the outskirts of Quetta, not far from a symbolic graveyard dedicated to the missing.

Jannat, who runs a tiny shop selling biscuits and milk cartons, often can’t afford the bus fare to attend protests demanding information about the missing. But she borrows what she can so she can keep going.

“Silence is not an option,” she says.

Most of these men – including those whose families we spoke to – disappeared after 2006.

That was the year a key Baloch leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti, was killed in a military operation, leading to a rise in anti-state protests and armed insurgent activities.

The government cracked down in response – enforced disappearances increased, as did the number of bodies found on the streets.

In 2014, mass graves of missing people were discovered in Tootak – a small town near the city of Khuzdar, where Saira lives, 275km (170 miles) south of Quetta.

The bodies were disfigured beyond identification. The images from Tootak shook the country – but the horror was no stranger to people in Balochistan.

Mahrang Baloch’s father, a famous nationalist leader who fought for Baloch rights, had disappeared in early 2009. Abdul Gaffar Langove had worked for the Pakistani government but left the job to advocate for what he believed would be a safer Balochistan.

Three years later Mahrang received a phone call that his body had been found in Lasbela district in the south of the province.

“When my father’s body arrived, he was wearing the same clothes, now torn. He had been badly tortured,” she says. For five years, she had nightmares about his final days. She visited his grave “to convince myself that he was no longer alive and that he was not being tortured”.

She hugged his grave “hoping to feel him, but it didn’t happen”.

When he was arrested, Mahrang used to write him letters – “lots of letters and I would draw greeting cards and send them to him on Eid”. But he returned the cards, saying his prison cell was no place for such “beautiful” cards. He wanted her to keep them at home.

“I still miss his hugs,” she says.

After her father’s death, Mahrang says, her family’s world “collapsed”.

And then in 2017, her brother was picked up by security forces, according to the family, and detained for nearly three months.

“It was terrifying. I made my mother believe that what happened to my father wouldn’t happen to my brother. But it did,” Mahrang says. “I was scared of looking at my phone, because it might be news of my brother’s body being found somewhere.”

She says her mother and she found strength in each other: “Our tiny house was our safest place, where we would sometimes sit and cry for hours. But outside, we were two strong women who couldn’t be crushed.”

It was then that Mahrang decided to fight against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Today, the 32-year-old leads the protest movement despite death threats, legal cases and travel bans.

“We want the right to live on our own land without persecution. We want our resources, our rights. We want this rule of fear and violence to end.”

Mahrang warns that enforced disappearances fuel more resistance, rather than silence it.

“They think dumping bodies will end this. But how can anyone forget losing their loved one this way? No human can endure this.”

She demands institutional reforms, ensuring that no mother has to send her child away in fear. “We don’t want our children growing up in protest camps. Is that too much to ask?”

Mahrang was arrested on Saturday morning, a few weeks after her interview with the BBC.

She was leading a protest in Quetta after 13 unclaimed bodies – feared to be missing persons – were buried in the city. Authorities claimed they were militants killed after the Bolan Pass train hijacking, though this could not be independently verified.

Earlier Mahrang had said: “I could be arrested anytime. But I don’t fear it. This is nothing new for us.”

And even as she fights for the future she wants, a new generation is already on the streets.

Masooma, 10, clutches her school bag tightly as she weaves through the crowd of protesters, her eyes scanning every face, searching for one that looks like her father’s.

“Once, I saw a man and thought he was my father. I ran to him and then realised he was someone else,” she says.

“Everyone’s father comes home after work. I have never found mine.”

Masooma was just three months old when security forces allegedly took her father away during a late-night raid in Quetta.

Her mother was told he would return in a few hours. He never did.

Today, Masooma spends more time at protests than in the classroom. Her father’s photograph is always with her, tucked safely in her school bag.

Before every lesson begins, she takes it out and looks at it.

“I always wonder if my father will come home today.”

She stands outside the protest camp, chanting slogans with the others, her small frame lost in the crowd of grieving families.

As the protest comes to an end she sits cross-legged on a thin mat in a quiet corner. The noise of slogans and traffic fades as she pulls out her folded letters – letters she has written but could never send.

Her fingers tremble as she smooths out the creases, and in a fumbling, uncertain voice, she begins to read them.

“Dear Baba Jan, when will you come back? Whenever I eat or drink water, I miss you. Baba, where are you? I miss you so much. I am alone. Without you, I cannot sleep. I just want to meet you and see your face.”

A mother in northern Nigeria is visibly upset as she clutches her two-year-old child, who has burns and discoloured skin on his face and legs.

The 32-year-old used skin-whitening products on all six of her children, under pressure from her family, with results that she now deeply regrets.

Fatima, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s identity, says one of her daughters covers her face whenever she goes out in order to hide her burns.

Another was left with darker skin than before – with a pale circle around her eyes, while a third has whitish scars on her lips and knees.

Her toddler still has weeping wounds – his skin is taking a long time to heal.

“My sister gave birth to light-skinned children but my children are darker skinned. I noticed that my mother favours my sister’s children over mine due to their skin tone and it hurt my feelings a lot,” Fatima says.

She says she used creams she bought at her local supermarket in the city of Kano, without a doctor’s prescription.

At first it seemed to work. The grandmother warmed towards Fatima’s children, who were aged between two and 16 at the time.

But then the burns and scars appeared.

Skin-whitening or lightening, also known as bleaching in Nigeria, is used in different parts of the world for cosmetic reasons, though these often have deep cultural roots.

Women in Nigeria use skin-whitening products more than in any other African country – 77% use them regularly, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

In Congo-Brazzaville the figure is 66%, in Senegal 50% and in Ghana 39%.

The creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinone, which can be harmful if used in high quantities, and in many countries are only obtainable with a doctor’s prescription.

Other ingredients sometimes used are the poisonous metal, mercury, and kojic acid – a by-product from the manufacture of the Japanese alcoholic drink, sake.

Dermatitis, acne and skin discolouration are possible consequences, but also inflammatory disorders, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.

The skin may become thinner, with the result that wounds take longer to heal, and are more likely to become infected, the WHO says.

The situation is so bad that Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) declared a state of emergency in 2023.

It is also becoming more common for women to bleach their children, like Fatima did.

“A lot of people link light skin to beauty or wealth. Women tend to shield, as they call it, their children from that discrimination by bleaching them from childbirth,” Zainab Bashir Yau, the owner of a dermatology clinic in the capital, Abuja, tells the BBC.

She estimates that 80% of the women she has met have bleached their children, or plan to do so.

Some were bleached themselves as babies, she says, so are just continuing the practice.

One of the most common ways to tell whether someone is using skin-whitening products in Nigeria is by the darkness of their knuckles. Other parts of people’s hands or feet get lighter, but knuckles tend to remain dark.

However, smokers and drug users also sometimes have dark patches on their hands, due to the smoke.

So users of skin-lightening products are sometimes mistakenly assumed to belong to this group.

Fatima says that is what happened to her daughters, aged 16 and 14.

“They faced discrimination from society – they all point fingers at them and call them drug addicts. This has affected them a lot,” she says.

They have both lost potential fiancés because men do not want to be associated with women who might be thought to take drugs.

I visited a popular market in Kano, where people who call themselves “mixologists” create skin-whitening creams from scratch.

The market has a whole row of shops where thousands of these creams are sold.

Some pre-mixed varieties are arranged on shelves, but customers can also select raw ingredients and ask for the cream to be mixed in front of them.

I noticed that many bleaching creams, with labels saying they were for babies, contained regulated substances.

Other sellers admitted using regulated ingredients such as kojic acid, hydroquinone and a powerful antioxidant, glutathione, which may cause rashes and other side-effects.

I also witnessed teenage girls buying bleaching creams for themselves and in bulk so that they could sell them to their peers.

One woman, who had discoloured hands, insisted that a seller add a lightening agent to a cream that was being mixed for her children, even though it was a regulated substance for adults and illegal to use on children.

“Even though my hands are discoloured, I am here to buy creams for my kids so they can be light-skinned. I believe my hands are this way just because I used the wrong one. Nothing will happen to my children,” she said.

One seller said most of his customers were buying creams to make their babies “glow”, or to look “radiant and shiny”.

Most seemed to be unaware of the approved dosages.

One salesman said he used “a lot of kojic” – well over the prescribed limit – if someone wanted light skin and a smaller quantity if they wanted a subtler change.

The approved dosage of kojic acid in creams in Nigeria is 1%, according to Nafdac.

I even saw salesmen giving women injections.

Dr Leonard Omokpariola, a director at Nafdac, says attempts are being made to educate people about the risks.

He also says markets are being raided, and there are efforts to seize skin-lightening ingredients at Nigeria’s borders as they are brought into the country.

But he says it was sometimes hard for law-enforcement officials to identify these substances.

“Some of them are just being transported in unlabelled containers, so if you do not take them to the labs for evaluation, you can’t tell what is inside.”

Fatima says her actions will haunt her forever, especially if her children’s scars do not fade.

“When I confided in my mum about what I did, due to her behaviour, and when she heard the dangers of the cream and what stigma her grandchildren are facing, she was sad that they had to go through that and apologised,” she says.

Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistake.

“Even though I have stopped… the side-effects are still here, I beg other parents to use my situation as an example.”

Rum is a key part of Jamaica’s cultural identity, but what exactly makes a rum Jamaican?

That question is at the centre of a dispute that is continuing to rumble on the Caribbean island, as some producers wish to strengthen rules on what can, and cannot, be called “Jamaica rum”.

In October of last year, Jamaica’s Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) approved amendments to the geographical indication (GI) designation for Jamaica Rum that was originally set up in 2016. The biggest change is that ageing the rum overseas is now prohibited.

The amendment was called for by the Spirits Pool Association (SPA), the trade organisation that seeks to speak as a single voice for Jamaica’s six rum distilleries – Appleton (which is owned by J Wray and Nephew), Clarendon, Hampden Estate, Long Pond, New Yarmouth and Worthy Park Estate.

The SPO’s argument is that a stronger GI is needed for the appellation to be officially recognised in its two key export markets – the EU and the US.

It says this would give Jamaican rum better protection against competitors, and lead to more drinkers recognising it as a premium product made to high specifications in a certain geographic location.

But the amendment has caused quite a stir in Jamaica, because one of the biggest producers claims it would put it out of business.

This company, National Rums of Jamaica (NRJ), owns Long Pond and 73% of Clarendon. NRJ is comprised of three shareholders – the government of Jamaica, Demerara Distillers of Guyana and the Barbados-based West Indies Rum Distillery (Wird).

The key factor is that Wird has since 2017 been owned by French spirits firm Maison Ferrand. Its business model relies heavily on exporting rum in bulk and ageing overseas – something not allowed under Jamaica’s new GI.

It argues that rum aged outside of Jamaica is still Jamaican rum, and that the island has exported and aged rum abroad for centuries.

And so, the NRJ is appealing the ruling of JIPO, with a hearing scheduled for 28 April.

The Spirits Pool Association says that Wird only started to have issues with the geographical indication after its takeover by Maison Ferrard.

“What we’re saying is, if you truly believe in Jamaica rum, age it in Jamaica,” says Christopher Gentles, general manager of the SPA.

Rum is typically made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses, the thick treacle-like substance leftover after refined sugar has been produced from the harvested plants.

Mr Gentles says that ageing the rum before it is sold is of paramount importance, and that doing so outside of Jamaica invalidates the products authenticity and uniqueness. And so, he adds that “we were a little bit puzzled” by the NRJ’s objection.

The SPA also points out that exporting and ageing spirits overseas means Jamaica misses out on the value-added processes like refining, bottling, labelling and distributing as well as other secondary benefits to the local economy like rum tourism.

Both the NRJ and Maison Ferrard declined to comment.

The use of GIs makes a product distinctive, and opens up three potential sources of value, according to Dev Gangjee, professor of intellectual property law at the University of Oxford.

“The first is simply a price premium. Research shows products can charge a price that is 1.5 to 2.7 times more than standard.”

This isn’t always reflected in profit as GI products are often more expensive to make, he adds.

The second reason is “they anchor production in that region”. This stops a product from becoming generic and losing its value – like cheddar cheese, which was originally from a specific part of the UK but is now a by-word for a generalised type of cheese.

Lastly, Prof Gangjee says GIs help to advertise the region and “opens up other aspects of history and geography”, citing France’s successful wine tourism industry.

Examples of successful and longstanding GIs are Scotch whisky, champagne, and Parma ham.

Another Caribbean country similarly embroiled in a dispute over GI and rum is Barbados. Currently the island doesn’t have a scheme.

Barbados has five distilleries and four agreed on the wording of a proposed Barbados rum GI. The sole objector was Wird, which owns brands such as Cockspur.

Similarly to the situation in Jamaica, it objects to the proposed rules against ageing overseas.

The failure by Barbados to obtain a GI has frustrated the other producers, including Richard Seale, owner of the island’s Foursquare distillery. “We need to have intrinsic industries that are rooted here, tied here, that cannot be separated from here,” he says.

Back in Jamaica, the SPA wants the country’s rum to apply for the EU’s Protected Geographical Indication classification, but this cannot happen until the proceedings at the JIPO have concluded.

Mr Gentles hopes that a compromise can be reached, even if it means that both sides are not totally happy. “It is my firm believe that one day we will put this behind us,” he says.

And while the SPA hopes that a stronger GI will boost acclaim and business, it is also about pride in a product intimately linked to Jamaica’s history.

In the days following the October ruling Jamaican newspaper, The Gleaner, endorsed the JIPO decision, saying there were many examples of firms “with no association to Jamaica attempting to appropriate the mystique of the island’s brand”.

It concluded: “When foreign entities become owners of uniquely Jamaican products, there should be a commitment to robustly maintain the integrity of the brand.”

Greenland’s politicians have condemned visits that high-level US politicians plan to make as President Donald Trump continues to threaten to take over the island.

Second Lady Usha Vance is going on a cultural visit to the island this week, while Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is expected to visit as well.

Outgoing Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede called the trips aggressive.

The planned visits come after Greenland’s centre-right opposition Democratic party recently won the territory’s general election in a surprise result.

The semi-autonomous island is currently controlled by Denmark. The vote was dominated by the question of independence, and Trump’s takeover threat.

• Greenland condemns planned visits by Usha Vance and Trump adviser
• Greenland’s opposition wins election dominated by independence and Trump

Greenland, the world’s largest island, is located in the Arctic.

It is also the most sparsely populated territory. About 56,000 people live there, mostly indigenous Inuit people.

About 80% of its territory is covered by ice, meaning most people live on the south-western coast around the capital, Nuuk.

An autonomous – or self-governing – territory of Denmark, it is also home to Danish and US military bases.

Greenland’s economy is mainly based on fishing. Large subsidies from the Danish government account for about a fifth of its income, or GDP.

In recent years, there has been increased interest in Greenland’s natural resources, including mining for rare earth minerals, uranium and iron.

These may become more accessible as global warming leads to some of the ice covering Greenland to melt.

• Inside the race for Greenland’s mineral wealth

Located geographically within North America, Greenland has been controlled by Denmark – nearly 3,000km (1,860 miles) away – for about 300 years.

The island was governed as a colony until the mid-20th Century. For much of this time, it remained isolated and poor.

In 1953, it was made part of the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenlanders became Danish citizens.

In 1979, a referendum on home rule gave Greenland control of most policies within the territory, with Denmark retaining control over foreign affairs and defence.

The US has long maintained a security interest in Greenland. After Nazi Germany occupied mainland Denmark during World War Two, the US invaded Greenland, establishing military and radio stations across the territory.

After the war, US forces remained in Greenland. Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, has been operated by the US ever since.

In 1951, a defence agreement with Denmark granted the US a significant role in the defence of the territory, including the right to build and maintain military bases.

“If Russia were to send missiles towards the US, the shortest route for nuclear weapons would be via the North Pole and Greenland,” said Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College.

“That’s why the Pituffik Space Base is immensely important in defending the US.”

China and Russia have begun building up their Arctic military capabilities in recent years, according to an Arctic Institute paper. The paper called for the US to further develop its presence in the Arctic to counter its rivals.

In January, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Denmark was open to discussions with the US, adding that Washington had “legitimate” interests in the region.

“We see a Russia that is arming itself. We see a China that is also starting to take an interest,” Rasmussen said.

Trump is also likely interested in the mining potential across Greenland’s vast landmass, Mr Jacobsen added, especially the rare earth minerals in the south.

• Danes struggle with response to Trump Greenland threat

During a speech to Congress, Trump said that control of Greenland was essential “for national security and international security.”

He said he strongly supported the people of Greenland’s right to determine their own future.

“If you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” he added.

Though the president’s rhetoric may seem unusual, a succession of US presidents have tried to gain control of Greenland for more than a century.

“The US has tried a few times to push the Danes out of Greenland and take it over as part of the US, or at least to have full security tutelage of Greenland,” said Lukas Wahden, the author of 66° North, a newsletter on Arctic security.

In 1867, after buying Alaska from Russia, US Secretary of State William H Seward led negotiations to buy Greenland from Denmark, but failed to reach any agreement.

In 1946, the US offered to pay $100m (equivalent to $1.2bn; £970m today) for the territory, judging that it was vital for national security, but the Danish government refused.

Trump also tried to buy Greenland during his first presidential term.

Both Denmark and the Greenlandic government rejected the 2019 proposal, saying: “Greenland is not for sale.”

The debate over the territory’s independence has been “put on steroids by Trump”, according to Masaana Egede, editor of the newspaper Sermitsiaq.

According to recent polls, almost 80% of Greenlanders back independence from Denmark.

But an opinion survey in January found that 85% of Greenlanders rejected the idea of becoming part of the US, versus 6% who wanted it. The rest were undecided.

When BBC correspondent Fergal Keane visited the island in January, he said he heard one phrase again and again: “Greenland belongs to Greenlanders. So, Trump can visit but that’s it.”

The issue took centre stage in the election.

“We deserve to be treated with respect and I don’t think the American president has done that lately since he took office,” said outgoing Prime Minister Egede during the campaign.

He previously said the territory should free itself from “the shackles of colonialism”, but wanted to take gradual steps towards autonomy.

In contrast, the opposition party Naleraq wanted to immediately start divorce proceedings from Denmark and have closer defence dealings with Washington.

Speaking after the election results, the man expected to become the nect PM – Democratic leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen – said that “Greenland needs us to stand together in a time of great interest from outside.”

When Trump first raised the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, many locals told the BBC they were opposed to the proposal.

“This is a very dangerous idea,” said Dines Mikaelsen, a tour operator who was born and raised in Tasiilaq, east Greenland.

“He’s treating us like a good he can purchase,” said Aleqa Hammond, Greenland’s first female prime minister.

US negotiators have held talks in the Saudi capital Riyadh with their Ukrainian counterparts and are separately meeting the Russians.

Washington’s aim is to bring about an immediate partial ceasefire to the war in Ukraine, followed by a comprehensive peace deal.

So could these Riyadh talks produce the breakthrough so many are hoping for?

It depends who you listen to.

“I feel that he (Putin) wants peace,” said President Trump’s personal envoy Steve Witkoff, adding: “I think that you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress.”

Yet Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman has dampened expectations. “We are only at the beginning of this path,” he told Russian state TV.

Kyiv suffered one of its heaviest attacks from Russian drones on Saturday night, with three people killed, including a five-year-old girl.

• LIVE: Talks in Saudi Arabia as Russia keeps up attacks

“We need to push Putin to give a real order to stop the strikes,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in his evening address on Sunday. “The one who brought this war must take it away.”

The Kremlin, meanwhile, seems to be in no rush to sign up to a ceasefire, with Vladimir Putin adding on numerous “nuances”, or preconditions, before agreeing to the 30-day ceasefire proposed by Washington and agreed to by Kyiv.

In Riyadh the US-Ukraine talks began soon after nightfall on Sunday, behind closed doors in one of Saudi Arabia’s many luxury establishments, with the Ukrainian delegation headed by the country’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov.

These, he said, were “technical” discussions, focusing on how best to safeguard energy facilities and critical infrastructure.

After the meeting, Umerov described the talks as “productive” in a post on X and said they were working to make Zelensky’s goal of securing “a just and lasting peace” a reality.

Black Sea shipping lanes are also under discussion, with Russia reportedly keen to revive a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain from its ports without being attacked, in exchange for relief on sanctions.

Both sides, Russia and Ukraine, have carried out hugely destructive attacks on each other’s infrastructure – with a marked distinction.

Moscow has sought to plunge Ukraine’s population into cold and darkness by targeting its electricity generation, while Kyiv has become increasingly successful in its long-range drone strikes that have struck Russian oil facilities critical to its war effort.

President Trump wants a quick end to this war, Europe’s worst since 1945 and one which has led to combined casualties on both sides of hundreds of thousands of killed, captured, wounded or missing men.

Ukraine’s leadership, still bruised from that catastrophic row in the Oval Office last month, is trying hard to convince Washington it is not the obstacle to peace.

When the Americans proposed a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire on land, sea and in the air at talks in Jeddah this month, Ukraine quickly agreed to the terms.

The ball, said the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the time, was now in Russia’s court.

But despite the US failure to get Moscow to agree to that ceasefire, the Trump administration is putting little or no pressure, at least not in public, on Russia to fall into line. In fact, quite the opposite.

In an interview this weekend with the pro-Trump journalist Tucker Carlson, Steve Witkoff, the man spearheading the US drive for a ceasefire, appeared to take a stance totally at odds with that of Europe.

Ukraine, he suggested, was “a false country”, Russia had been provoked and Putin was a man of his word who could be trusted.

Witkoff, a former New York real estate developer and golfing partner of Donald Trump, also dismissed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s efforts to put together a military force to help safeguard an eventual peace deal in Ukraine, calling it “a posture and a pose”.

South Korean K-pop group NewJeans have announced they are taking a break from all activities, after a court ruled against them in their ongoing dispute with their record label Ador.

The five-piece, who have attempted to rebrand as NJZ, announced during a show at ComplexCon Hong Kong on Sunday that “this will be our last performance for a little while”, after debuting their new song Pit Stop.

The court ruling on Friday forbade the group from organising their own appearances, making music or signing advertising deals during their dispute with Ador.

NewJeans are seeking to cut ties with Ador after accusing them of mistreatment, and have said they will challenge the court’s ruling.

The group have been embroiled in a lengthy dispute with their record label since August 2024, when Hybe, the parent company of Ador, allegedly forced out NewJeans’ mentor, Min Hee-Jin.

The band issued an ultimatum demanding that Min should be restored – and, when Hybe refused, went public with a number of complaints against the label, including the claim it had deliberately undermined their careers.

One of the group’s members, Hanni, also alleged that she suffered workplace harassment while working with the label.

In a press conference in November, NewJeans announced their departure from the company, saying Hybe and Ador had lost the right to represent them as artists.

The Seoul court ruled that NewJeans’ claims did not “sufficiently prove that Ador violated their significant duty as part of their contract”, adding that the music label had upheld “most of its duty including payment”.

The court’s decision prevents the band from conducting independent activities, which means it will face difficulty rebranding under its new name, NJZ, without facing severe financial penalties for breach of contract.

The Hong Kong concert on Sunday night marked the group’s first public appearance since the ruling.

After debuting their new song, the five members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Heyin took turns to read a letter addressing their fans in English and Korean.

“This stage means so much to us and every single one of you who gives us strength just by being here,” Hanni and Dani said.

“It is really hard for us to say this, but this might be our last performance for a little while. Out of respect for the court’s decision, we’ve decided to pause all our activities for now.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” they added, “but we believe this is something we need to do at this moment.”

The group also said that the decision was “about protecting ourselves so that we can come back even stronger”.

“We had to speak up to protect the values that we believe in, and that was a choice that we don’t regret at all,” they added.

“We surely believe that standing up for our dignity, our rights and everything we deeply care about is something we had to do, and that belief will not change.”

The speech ended an hour-long headlining set in front of a crowd of more than 11,000 fans at the AsiaWorld Expo Arena, Hong Kong’s largest live music venue.

The group performed under their new name NJZ, in seeming defiance of last week’s ruling.

In a statement on Monday, Ador said they “regret the members’ decision to proceed with a performance under a name other than NewJeans, despite the court order, and their unilateral announcement of a suspension of activities”.

“Ador is fully committed to supporting NewJeans, consistent with the terms of our legally valid exclusive contract,” they added. “We hope to meet with the artists as soon as possible to discuss the path forward.”

NewJeans are considered one of the brightest new bands in K-Pop, and were the eighth biggest-selling act in the world in 2023.

South Korea’s constitutional court has dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, reinstating him as the country’s acting president.

Han took over as acting leader last December when President Yoon Suk Yeol was suspended from duties and impeached by parliament after he attempted to declare martial law.

However, Han only lasted two weeks in power before lawmakers voted to impeach him as well. Since then, South Korea has been led by deputy prime minister Choi Sang-mok.

South Korea has been roiled by political chaos since Yoon’s botched attempt to impose martial law.

Shortly after assuming the role of acting president, Han blocked the appointment of new judges to the constitutional court – something the opposition had hoped would improve the odds of Yoon getting impeached.

As a result, they voted to impeach Han.

But on Monday, the judges ruled seven to one to strike down the impeachment.

“I thank the constitutional court for its wise decision,” Han said after the ruling was announced. “I will work to bring the government to order.”

South Korea remains on tenterhooks for another upcoming decision by the same court – on the impeachment of President Yoon.

Lawmakers voted to impeach Yoon on 14 December, but it is ultimately up to the constitutional court to decide.

If the court votes to uphold the impeachment, Yoon would be immediately removed from office and South Korea must hold a presidential election within 60 days. If it dismisses the impeachment, Yoon would return to his duties immediately.

The court date has not yet been set for the Yoon verdict, but in recent weeks Seoul has seen swelling protests from Yoon’s supporters and opponents, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets of the nation’s capital last weekend.

Political analyst Leif-Eric Easley said the dismissal of Han’s impeachment shows that the constitutional court “wants to appear impartial, upholding the law and encouraging national stability during a messy political transition”.

It “serves to admonish progressive parties for their overzealousness in impeaching government officials”, said Dr Easley. He noted that opposition lawmakers have filed several impeachment motions, and the court has dismissed the nine cases it has ruled on so far.

“Reinstating Han is also partly political theatre setting up its more consequential ruling on Yoon’s impeachment.” Dr Easley added.

“Mostly siding with conservatives on Han’s case can be seen as a play for unity and legitimacy” for when the court votes on Yoon’s fate in coming days, he said.

Lying in a hospital bed, Ioan Pollard weighed 45 stone (286kg), his kidney was failing and he did not know if he would even survive the night.

Aged 27 at the time, he needed a transplant but was ineligible for the waiting list due to his weight.

“I really pushed myself as far as I could in terms of how much my body could take,” said Ioan.

“The hospital staff told me the next eight hours were critical and I may not be here in the morning.”

A new S4C documentary will follow the journalist after he lost 30 stone in order to receive a new kidney and with it, a new life.

A month after his 27th birthday, Ioan almost lost his life.

He had scratches on his leg which had turned septic.

“It was immediately obvious that my kidneys had been severely damaged,” said Ioan, who lives in Caernarfon, Gwynedd.

“They told me that things didn’t look good and that we needed to start talking about dialysis.

“The size and weight of my body meant I had no chance of getting a transplant. The truth is, I was far too fat.”

It was a huge concern for friends and family, especially his mother.

“We were worried about his health. I thought he was going to eat himself to the grave,” said Eleri Pollard.

Looking back through his clothes from a period where they had be bought from specialist shops, his waist had reached 72 inches.

“I had no self control,” said Ioan, who is S4C’s digital news editor.

“Food controlled everything I did and how I lived my life.

“At the time I didn’t accept that I was addicted to food and was overeating but, looking back, I obviously was.”

He added: “I could be here all day blaming this and that for the situation I was in, but it simply comes down to two things – I was too greedy and too lazy.

“When I look back, I feel embarrassed that I had chosen to live my life like that. It’s only now that I realise what I’d done to myself and my body.”

In a period of seven years, with the help of bariatric operations to reduce his stomach and remove skin, he lost more than half his weight – 30 stones (191kg) – he was eligible for a transplant.

It was discovered that his mother was a match and could donate one of her kidneys to her son.

“I want Ioan to live his life, he deserves it,” she said.

Ioan, now 35, now hopes for a healthier future.

“I’ve been through so much. I just want this to work without any problems,” he said.

“It’s natural to worry more about mam than myself because mam is putting herself in a vulnerable position to try to improve my life. It all depends on this now.”

Marw Isio Byw, Monday 24 March at 20:00 on S4C

French actor Gérard Depardieu has appeared in court at the start of a trial on charges of sexual assault.

Depardieu, 76, is accused of sexually abusing two women during a film shoot in 2021.

Prosecutors say he made explicit sexual remarks to, and then aggressively “groped”, two members of the production team.

If convicted, Depardieu could face five years in jail and a fine of up to €75,000 (£63,000; $81,0000). This is the first case against Depardieu to come to trial, although in total about 20 women have accused him of improper behaviour.

He is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema’s response to the #MeToo movement.

Several dozen protesters were present outside the Paris courthouse on Monday, with many holding up placards in support of victims of sexual assault and chanting feminist slogans.

Depardieu has consistently denied any wrongdoing and, in an open letter published in French newspaper Le Figaro in 2023, said he had never hurt a woman. “Hurting a woman would be like kicking my mother in the stomach,” he wrote.

He added that he was “neither a rapist nor a predator” and lamented that it was his word against the “trial by media and lynching” that he faced.

Depardieu’s lawyer Jérémie Assous said on Monday that his client was “extremely affected” by the impending trial but that he was planning on “letting the truth burst out”.

Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, the lawyer for one of the two plaintiffs, told Reuters that there was “fear, because he’s a cinema giant.”

“It’s a struggle between David and Goliath and [the plaintiffs] are afraid of retaliation as they all work in cinema but at a much lower level than Depardieu.”

The trial was due to begin late last year but was postponed because of Depardieu’s ill health. His lawyer has said the actor has had quadruple bypass surgery, suffers from diabetes and “gets exhausted very very quickly”.

However Depardieu has now been deemed fit to stand trial by a medical expert and should appear in court on Monday and Tuesday, although he will be afforded frequent breaks.

French actor Charlotte Arnould was the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Depardieu, in 2018. An investigation is under way.

Despite the mounting allegations, Depardieu – a towering figure of French cinema – has received strong messages of support from some members of France’s artistic community.

A group of more than 50 actors, directors and producers including Charlotte Rampling and Carla Bruni said accusations against Depardieu were “an attack on art itself” in a letter published in 2023.

The same year, French President Emmanuel Macron also attracted anger when he said that Depardieu was “a great actor” who “made France proud”.

Campaigners said the comments undermined efforts to protect women from violence.

Actress Léa Seydoux called Macron’s comments “crazy”, adding that it “gives a very bad image for France”.

The trial is due to run on Monday and Tuesday, and a verdict will be announced in several weeks.

Impractical Jokers star Joe Gatto has denied a TikTok user’s claims of sexual assault, but has admitted exercising “poor judgment”.

The 48-year-old US comedian, who appeared on the prank show from 2011-21, responded after a woman alleged he sexually assaulted her in 2023, when she was 19.

In a statement to US media, Gatto said: “I have used poor judgment and as a result have violated the trust of the people I love most. But anyone who knows me at all knows full well that I wouldn’t assault anyone.”

He added: “Working on myself is an ongoing process, and I am now going to take some time away from the public eye to focus my energies where I need to.”

The TikTok user claimed she had been abused by the star at a Milwaukee hotel in September 2023, after having been invited to see one of his stand-up shows following a chance meeting.

“I got sexually assaulted by Joe Gatto, the Impractical Joker,” she said in a video posted on Thursday, adding she had been talking about her experience “for over a year” and had not expected it to suddenly go viral.

She said she had been to see Gatto at his hotel after the gig. “I don’t want to go into the details about everything,” she continued, but added she also did not “want any girl to feel” the way he made her feel.

She posted pictures of bruises on her bottom that the star allegedly caused with his teeth.

Gatto starred on Impractical Jokers – a hidden camera US comedy and reality show with improvisational elements – for nine seasons before leaving in 2021.

He said at the time he was stepping away “due to some issues in my personal life” amid his separation from his wife.

In September 2023, Gatto shared online that the couple had reconciled.

Golfer Tiger Woods has announced he is dating Vanessa Trump, the former daughter-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

Vanessa, 47, was married to Donald Trump Jr for 13 years. The pair, who have five children, divorced in 2018.

On Sunday, Woods, 49, posted pictures of Vanessa and himself on social media saying: “Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side! We look forward to our journey through life together.”

“At this time we would appreciate privacy for all those close to our hearts.”

It is unclear what prompted the public announcement, but rumours of their relationship had been reported in gossip magazines in recent weeks.

Woods, who has won 15 major championships, is known for being guarded about his personal life after exposure of his marital infidelities and sex scandals damaged his public standing in the 2000s and affected his playing career.

He admitted himself into a sex addiction rehab clinic, and went through an acrimonious split from his first wife Elin Nordegren months later after six years of marriage. The couple have two children together.

US media outlets report that Tiger Woods’ children attend the same school as Vanessa Trump’s.

As the former wife of Donald Trump’s eldest son, Vanessa had been a regular attendee at official events involving Trump’s extended family during his first term in office.

Woods, the former world number one, is also known to have played golf with President Trump on several occasions, including last month. Trump loves golf and owns more than a dozen courses.

In February, Woods attended a meeting with Trump and Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) heads at the White House about the future of the sport’s tournaments and current division with the Saudi Arabia-LIV league.

Woods wore his Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was bestowed on him by Trump in 2019 during the president’s first term.

Woods announced an achilles tendon injury earlier this month that has sidelined him from professional competition. He has not suggested a timeline for when he might return to the courses.

He has not competed in a PGA Tour event this season, following the death of his mother, Kultida, in February.

The new couple both have children who are junior golfers.

Kai Trump, 17, has announced her commitment to playing collegiate golf at the University of Miami in 2026.

She and Charlie Woods both played at a junior invite-only tournament in South Carolina last week.

Woods has previously announced relationships with World Cup champion ski racer Lindsey Vonn and Erica Herman, his former restaurant manager.

That relationship ended badly – Herman filed law suits against Woods and his trust in 2023, which she later withdrew.

Greenland’s politicians have condemned plans for high-profile US visits, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s threats to take over the island.

Second Lady Usha Vance will make a cultural visit this week, and a separate trip is expected from Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

Outgoing Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede described the plan as aggressive, and said the duo had not been invited for meetings. Meanwhile, the island’s likely next leader accused the US of showing a lack of respect.

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

It governs its own domestic affairs, but decisions on foreign and defence policy are made in Copenhagen. The US has long held a security interest – and has had a military base on the island since World War Two.

It is also thought Trump is interested in the island’s rare earth minerals. His son Donald Jr visited Greenland before Trump’s inauguration in January.

Announcing Mrs Vance’s visit, the White House said the second lady would visit historical sites and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race.

Her delegation – including her son – would be there to “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity”, the statement said.

Waltz’s trip was confirmed by a source who spoke to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News. He is expected to visit before Mrs Vance and to travel with Energy Secretary Chris Wright, according to the New York Times.

Outgoing PM Egede described Waltz’s visit in particular as a provocation. “What is the security advisor doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power to us,” he told Sermitsiaq newspaper.

Speaking to the same paper, Greenland’s probable next PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen accused the American officials of showing the local population a lack of respect.

• Why does Trump want Greenland and what do its people think?
• Greenland’s politicians unite against Trump
• Meet Usha Vance, the new second lady of the United States

US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said the United States has a vested interest in the Arctic, and so “it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a US Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground”.

He said that the visit is also an opportunity to ” build on partnerships that respects Greenland’s self-determination and advances economic cooperation” and to “learn about Greenland, its culture, history, and people”.

Trump appeared to escalate his campaign to take over the island during a conversation with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte earlier this month.

Greenland was already on the defensive about Trump’s talk of a takeover, but he sent further shockwaves by implying he might ask to take the island with support of Nato, a military alliance of which Denmark is also a part.

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

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

The move prompted Greenland’s leading political parties to issue a joint statement to condemn the American president’s “unacceptable behaviour”.

The issue took centre-stage in the recent election, during which Egede’s governing Inuit Ataqatigiit party was defeated in a surprise result by Nielsen’s Democratic party, which favours a gradual approach to independence from Denmark.

Earlier this month, during a speech to the US Congress, Trump said he strongly supported the people of Greenland’s right to determine their own future. “If you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” he said.

According to recent polls, almost 80% of Greenlanders back independence from Denmark. But an opinion survey in January suggested an even greater number rejected the idea of becoming part of the US.

Mia Love, the first US black Republican congresswoman, has died aged 49 in Utah, her family has announced.

“She passed away peacefully” on Sunday, surrounded by family at her home in the town of Saratoga Springs, a statement said.

Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, had represented the state of Utah in the House of Representatives.

Her daughter Abigale said earlier this month that Love had no longer been responding to treatment for brain cancer.

“In the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of happy memories, Mia quietly slipped the bands of mortality and, as her words and vision always did, soared heavenward,” said the family statement, which was posted on X.

Paying tributes to Love, Utah Governor Spencer Cox wrote: “A true trailblazer and visionary leader, Mia inspired countless Utahns through her courage, grace, and unwavering belief in the American dream.

“Her legacy leaves a lasting, positive impact on our state. We will miss her deeply.”

Mia Love’s political career formally started in 2003 when she won a seat on the Saratoga Springs’ city council, and she later became the mayor, aged 34.

In 2014, she was elected to the US House of Representatives. She made history as the first black Republican woman to take up the role, and served two terms.

Love was critical of Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2016, endorsing instead his Republican nomination rival Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who dropped out of the race a few months later.

She also called for Trump to publicly apologise for making derogatory comments about Haiti in 2018.

Her bid for a third term ended in a razor-thin defeat to her Democratic rival Ben McAdams.

Trump reacted to that by saying at a news conference: “Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost.”

Before entering politics, the mother of three worked for some time as a flight attendant.

As a teenager she dreamed of an acting career, later graduating from the University of Hartford in Connecticut with a degree in musical theatre.

In 2022, Love was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a fast-moving and aggressive form of brain cancer, and was given just 10-15 months to live – which she surpassed.

Her death comes nearly two weeks after Love wrote an opinion piece for Deseret News, which she said was “not to say goodbye but to say thank you and express my living wish for you and the America I know”.

A high court in South Korea has upheld the conviction of a 24-year-old man for a series of sexual crimes, including rape – after the attack was reflected on a washing machine door and caught on security footage, say reports.

The CCTV video submitted by the victim did not appear to show the crime – until investigators spotted the attack in the door’s reflection.

The man had already been indicted for other offenses, including the suspected rape of a former girlfriend and sex with a minor, reports say.

He was originally convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail in November but appealed the decision. The high court then sentenced him to seven years, saying that it took into account the settlement that he had reached with one of the victims.

The man was also required to wear an ankle tag for seven years after his release and has been banned from working in facilities for children, juveniles and disabled people for seven years.

It was an invitation from a classmate 15 years ago that changed the life of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar now facing deportation from the US over accusations he is linked to a Hamas member.

On that summer evening, Mr Suri had been sitting outside his department at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university when a classmate announced that an international aid convoy was set to go to Gaza – the Palestinian territory run by the armed Islamist group Hamas and under blockade by Israel.

To students of conflict studies, the caravan – of more than 150 people from several Asian countries – offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness one of the world’s most contentious disputes up close.

Mr Suri happily agreed to participate, a classmate recalled to the BBC.

It was during this trip that he met Mapheze Saleh, a Palestinian and the daughter of a former Hamas adviser, whom he married a few months later.

After living in Delhi for almost a decade, the couple moved to the US where Mr Suri joined the prestigious Georgetown University as a postdoctoral fellow.

He had been living in Virginia for nearly three years when the police knocked on his door on the evening of 17 March and arrested him.

Three days later, on 20 March, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted that Mr Suri was being detained for his “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, a senior adviser to Hamas”. He has denied the allegations.

This action follows President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants and activists involved in pro-Palestinian campus protests which authorities have accused of fuelling antisemitism and supporting Hamas. The group is designated a terrorist organisation by the US. India, however, has not banned Hamas.

Although Mr Suri, who entered the US legally on a student visa, has had his deportation blocked by a US court, the Trump administration’s allegations have shocked those who know him back home.

His acquaintances describe him as a soft-spoken, shy and hardworking student with a broad knowledge of the world, while his classmates and teachers said they found allegations of him having ties with Hamas “tenuous”.

India has historically supported the Palestinian cause. But it has also developed close, strategic ties with Israel in recent years, with Delhi often refraining from criticising Israel’s actions.

Even then, “by no stretch of imagination can Suri be associated with anything unlawful”, one of his professors from Jamia told the BBC.

“Having a view on the ongoing conflict is not a crime. As a conflict studies scholar, it is well within his professional mandate to share his analysis of the war in Gaza.”

Those who accompanied him on the trip held similar views.

Feroze Mithiborwala, one of the organisers of the caravan, remembered Mr Suri as an intelligent, young man.

“He always took a secular stance in our discussions. He was not some right-wing Islamist type of character,” he said.

The trip began in December 2010 from Delhi. As India’s neighbour Pakistan refused to give a travel permit to the group, the convoy had to travel to Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt before finally reaching Gaza.

The route, most of which was covered by bus, offered much for a student of peace and conflict studies, one of Mr Suri’s friends who also went on the tour said.

Throughout the trip, he was deeply moved by the sufferings he witnessed in Gaza and focused on providing aid to the widowed and elderly, he added.

The caravan, in many ways, “brought Mr Suri closer to the Palestinian cause”, but his interest was largely academic, said another classmate who was in touch with him until days before his arrest.

The second and the last time Mr Suri went to Gaza was for his own wedding with Ms Saleh.

A US citizen, Ms Saleh had been working as a translator and volunteer in Gaza at that time.

Her father, who has lived in the US, is a former adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed by Israel last year, according to a statement submitted by her in court.

In 2010, her father left the Gaza government and “started the House of Wisdom in 2011 to encourage peace and conflict resolution in Gaza”, it adds.

When Ms Saleh and Mr Suri first met, they did not speak much. But they connected again a few months later, a friend who accompanied him on the caravan told the BBC.

Their wedding made headlines in India, as the couple moved back to Delhi and continued to live there for about eight years.

Ms Saleh enrolled herself for a masters degree in Jamia and later worked at the Qatar embassy. In 2023, Mr Suri moved to the US and Ms Saleh followed him.

He was months away from completing his fellowship when he was arrested.

Mr Suri’s father said it pained him to see his son in this situation.

“He has no connections with Hamas or Palestine [other than his marriage]. His sin is that he is married to a Palestinian woman,” he said.

But he is hopeful that his son will not be deported. “After all, these are merely allegations. There is no proof of any wrongdoing,” he added.

Tens of thousands of people across Turkey have been protesting the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Protesters have been fired upon with tear gas and rubber bullets in what has become the worst unrest in the country for more than a decade.

Demonstrations began in Istanbul on 19 March, sparked by the arrest of leading opposition politician Ekrem Imamoglu earlier the same day.

It came days before Imamoglu was due to be elected as presidential candidate for the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP). He was confirmed as the party’s candidate for the 2028 election from his prison cell on Sunday, following a symbolic vote.

Prosecutors accuse Imamoglu of corruption, which he denies. More than 100 people have also been detained as part of the investigation.

He was formally arrested on Sunday and charged with “establishing and managing a criminal organisation, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender”. He has also been suspended from his post as mayor of Istanbul.

His CHP party said the arrest represented a “coup against our next president” and called for supporters to take to the streets in protest.

Students demonstrated at multiple universities in Istanbul, chanting “We are not scared, we won’t be silenced, we will not obey” – a common opposition slogan in Turkey.

Protests started off relatively small in scale for a city with more than 16 million people.

But they have since spread to dozens of other cities across Turkey and are now on a level not seen for more than a decade.

Demonstrations have been largely peaceful, though there have been clashes with police using water cannons and tear gas.

There has been a major nationwide crackdown in recent months with authorities targeting opposition politicians, journalists and figures in the entertainment industry.

Some protesters say the demonstrations also represent wider concerns over Turkey’s shift toward autocracy, as well as the economy and healthcare.

Many of those protesting Imamoglu’s arrest are university students.

Students from different universities gathered in front of Istanbul University near the Beyazit area on Wednesday, breaking through a police barricade and moving towards Sarchane, where the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality building is located.

Protests on Thursday were also held on multiple university campuses in Istanbul before spreading to the streets.

More than 1,100 people have been detained since demonstrations began, according to Turkey’s interior minister.

• Follow live updates: Turkey says 1,133 people arrested in five days as it issues ‘clear warning’ to protesters

At least 10 journalists covering the protests have also been detained in Istanbul and Izmir during dawn raids by police.

The CHP continued its vote for the party’s presidential candidate on Sunday with supporters heading to the ballot box in a symbolic vote for Imamoglu despite despite his arrest.

Speaking to AFP near Istanbul’s city hall, 29-year-old voter Ferhat said: “Whenever there’s a strong opponent [to Erdogan], they are always jailed.

“There is a dictatorship in Turkey right now, nothing else. It’s politics in name only.”

Meanwhile, Sukru Ilker, 70, said protesters did not want to “confront the police” but to protect the candidate the city had voted for.

Ayten Oktay, a 63-year-old pharmacist, said Turkey had “woken up”, adding: “We will defend our rights until the end.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the protests, saying his government would not “surrender” to “vandalism” or “street terror”.

“We will not accept the disruption of public order,” he has said.

Turkish authorities have banned public gatherings, but this has not deterred protesters.

Erdogan and his administration have also denied claims Imamoglu’s arrest was politically motivated, insisting that Turkey’s judiciary is independent.

Turkey’s president says the CHP has not been able to respond to the corruption allegations and accused its party chairman, Özgür Özel, of sowing unrest on the streets.

The European Commission urged Turkey on Monday to “uphold democratic values” as a country that is both a member of the Council of Europe and a candidate for joining the EU.

Erdogan has held office for the past 22 years, as both prime minister and president of Turkey for the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) he founded.

Due to term limits, he cannot run for office again in 2028 unless he changes the constitution.

He and his AKP government survived an attempted coup in 2016 which saw clashes on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, leaving 256 people dead.

To his supporters, Erdogan has brought Turkey years of economic growth, but to his critics he is an autocratic leader intolerant of dissent who harshly silences anyone who opposes him.

The UK Foreign Office has not updated its advice for travelling to Turkey since the current demonstrations.

But its advice page does note that demonstrations in cities can become violent, with police known to have used water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds.

It advises to avoid all demonstrations and leave the area if one develops.

The Foreign Office advises against all travel to within 10km (6 miles) of the border with Syria due to fighting and a heightened risk of terrorism.

Further advice on travel to Turkey can be found here.

You can get in touch by following this link

South Korean K-pop group NewJeans have announced they are taking a break from all activities, after a court ruled against them in their ongoing dispute with their record label Ador.

The five-piece, who have attempted to rebrand as NJZ, announced during a show at ComplexCon Hong Kong on Sunday that “this will be our last performance for a little while”, after debuting their new song Pit Stop.

The court ruling on Friday forbade the group from organising their own appearances, making music or signing advertising deals during their dispute with Ador.

NewJeans are seeking to cut ties with Ador after accusing them of mistreatment, and have said they will challenge the court’s ruling.

The group have been embroiled in a lengthy dispute with their record label since August 2024, when Hybe, the parent company of Ador, allegedly forced out NewJeans’ mentor, Min Hee-Jin.

The band issued an ultimatum demanding that Min should be restored – and, when Hybe refused, went public with a number of complaints against the label, including the claim it had deliberately undermined their careers.

One of the group’s members, Hanni, also alleged that she suffered workplace harassment while working with the label.

In a press conference in November, NewJeans announced their departure from the company, saying Hybe and Ador had lost the right to represent them as artists.

The Seoul court ruled that NewJeans’ claims did not “sufficiently prove that Ador violated their significant duty as part of their contract”, adding that the music label had upheld “most of its duty including payment”.

The court’s decision prevents the band from conducting independent activities, which means it will face difficulty rebranding under its new name, NJZ, without facing severe financial penalties for breach of contract.

The Hong Kong concert on Sunday night marked the group’s first public appearance since the ruling.

After debuting their new song, the five members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Heyin took turns to read a letter addressing their fans in English and Korean.

“This stage means so much to us and every single one of you who gives us strength just by being here,” Hanni and Dani said.

“It is really hard for us to say this, but this might be our last performance for a little while. Out of respect for the court’s decision, we’ve decided to pause all our activities for now.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” they added, “but we believe this is something we need to do at this moment.”

The group also said that the decision was “about protecting ourselves so that we can come back even stronger”.

“We had to speak up to protect the values that we believe in, and that was a choice that we don’t regret at all,” they added.

“We surely believe that standing up for our dignity, our rights and everything we deeply care about is something we had to do, and that belief will not change.”

The speech ended an hour-long headlining set in front of a crowd of more than 11,000 fans at the AsiaWorld Expo Arena, Hong Kong’s largest live music venue.

The group performed under their new name NJZ, in seeming defiance of last week’s ruling.

In a statement on Monday, Ador said they “regret the members’ decision to proceed with a performance under a name other than NewJeans, despite the court order, and their unilateral announcement of a suspension of activities”.

“Ador is fully committed to supporting NewJeans, consistent with the terms of our legally valid exclusive contract,” they added. “We hope to meet with the artists as soon as possible to discuss the path forward.”

NewJeans are considered one of the brightest new bands in K-Pop, and were the eighth biggest-selling act in the world in 2023.

A mother in northern Nigeria is visibly upset as she clutches her two-year-old child, who has burns and discoloured skin on his face and legs.

The 32-year-old used skin-whitening products on all six of her children, under pressure from her family, with results that she now deeply regrets.

Fatima, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s identity, says one of her daughters covers her face whenever she goes out in order to hide her burns.

Another was left with darker skin than before – with a pale circle around her eyes, while a third has whitish scars on her lips and knees.

Her toddler still has weeping wounds – his skin is taking a long time to heal.

“My sister gave birth to light-skinned children but my children are darker skinned. I noticed that my mother favours my sister’s children over mine due to their skin tone and it hurt my feelings a lot,” Fatima says.

She says she used creams she bought at her local supermarket in the city of Kano, without a doctor’s prescription.

At first it seemed to work. The grandmother warmed towards Fatima’s children, who were aged between two and 16 at the time.

But then the burns and scars appeared.

Skin-whitening or lightening, also known as bleaching in Nigeria, is used in different parts of the world for cosmetic reasons, though these often have deep cultural roots.

Women in Nigeria use skin-whitening products more than in any other African country – 77% use them regularly, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

In Congo-Brazzaville the figure is 66%, in Senegal 50% and in Ghana 39%.

The creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinone, which can be harmful if used in high quantities, and in many countries are only obtainable with a doctor’s prescription.

Other ingredients sometimes used are the poisonous metal, mercury, and kojic acid – a by-product from the manufacture of the Japanese alcoholic drink, sake.

Dermatitis, acne and skin discolouration are possible consequences, but also inflammatory disorders, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.

The skin may become thinner, with the result that wounds take longer to heal, and are more likely to become infected, the WHO says.

The situation is so bad that Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) declared a state of emergency in 2023.

It is also becoming more common for women to bleach their children, like Fatima did.

“A lot of people link light skin to beauty or wealth. Women tend to shield, as they call it, their children from that discrimination by bleaching them from childbirth,” Zainab Bashir Yau, the owner of a dermatology clinic in the capital, Abuja, tells the BBC.

She estimates that 80% of the women she has met have bleached their children, or plan to do so.

Some were bleached themselves as babies, she says, so are just continuing the practice.

One of the most common ways to tell whether someone is using skin-whitening products in Nigeria is by the darkness of their knuckles. Other parts of people’s hands or feet get lighter, but knuckles tend to remain dark.

However, smokers and drug users also sometimes have dark patches on their hands, due to the smoke.

So users of skin-lightening products are sometimes mistakenly assumed to belong to this group.

Fatima says that is what happened to her daughters, aged 16 and 14.

“They faced discrimination from society – they all point fingers at them and call them drug addicts. This has affected them a lot,” she says.

They have both lost potential fiancés because men do not want to be associated with women who might be thought to take drugs.

I visited a popular market in Kano, where people who call themselves “mixologists” create skin-whitening creams from scratch.

The market has a whole row of shops where thousands of these creams are sold.

Some pre-mixed varieties are arranged on shelves, but customers can also select raw ingredients and ask for the cream to be mixed in front of them.

I noticed that many bleaching creams, with labels saying they were for babies, contained regulated substances.

Other sellers admitted using regulated ingredients such as kojic acid, hydroquinone and a powerful antioxidant, glutathione, which may cause rashes and other side-effects.

I also witnessed teenage girls buying bleaching creams for themselves and in bulk so that they could sell them to their peers.

One woman, who had discoloured hands, insisted that a seller add a lightening agent to a cream that was being mixed for her children, even though it was a regulated substance for adults and illegal to use on children.

“Even though my hands are discoloured, I am here to buy creams for my kids so they can be light-skinned. I believe my hands are this way just because I used the wrong one. Nothing will happen to my children,” she said.

One seller said most of his customers were buying creams to make their babies “glow”, or to look “radiant and shiny”.

Most seemed to be unaware of the approved dosages.

One salesman said he used “a lot of kojic” – well over the prescribed limit – if someone wanted light skin and a smaller quantity if they wanted a subtler change.

The approved dosage of kojic acid in creams in Nigeria is 1%, according to Nafdac.

I even saw salesmen giving women injections.

Dr Leonard Omokpariola, a director at Nafdac, says attempts are being made to educate people about the risks.

He also says markets are being raided, and there are efforts to seize skin-lightening ingredients at Nigeria’s borders as they are brought into the country.

But he says it was sometimes hard for law-enforcement officials to identify these substances.

“Some of them are just being transported in unlabelled containers, so if you do not take them to the labs for evaluation, you can’t tell what is inside.”

Fatima says her actions will haunt her forever, especially if her children’s scars do not fade.

“When I confided in my mum about what I did, due to her behaviour, and when she heard the dangers of the cream and what stigma her grandchildren are facing, she was sad that they had to go through that and apologised,” she says.

Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistake.

“Even though I have stopped… the side-effects are still here, I beg other parents to use my situation as an example.”

Disney’s live-action version of the classic fairy tale Snow White has topped the North American box office chart despite a slew of underwhelming reviews.

The movie has taken an estimated $87.3m (£67.5m) globally during its opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. Almost half of that figure came from North America.

But it is below expectations for a film that reportedly cost more than $270m.

The reworking of the 1937 feature length animation had seemed like a surefire hit before running into a series of controversies ahead of its release.

The revamp of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became a flashpoint for social and political divisions, even before it reached cinemas around the world.

That included some criticism of the casting of Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, as the heroine.

• How the Disney remake became 2025’s most divisive film
• Snow White film is both ‘bad’ and ‘captivating’ say critics

There was also a backlash about Zegler’s pro-Palestinian comments and about pro-Israel comments by Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who plays Snow White’s stepmother, the Evil Queen.

And there is an ongoing debate about whether there should have been dwarfs in the film at all, live or computer-generated imagery (CGI).

In mainland China, Snow White ranked outside the top five movies in cinemas, according to EntGroup’s China Box Office website.

In the country of more than 1.4bn people, it brought in less than a $1m in its first three days in cinemas.

“I suspect that the multiple controversies have dulled the film’s appeal,” entertainment industry consultant Patrick Frater told the BBC.

“That and the waning impact of many Hollywood productions in Asia which we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic.”

On the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Snow White has a critics’ score of just 44%, although the audience reaction ‘Popcornometer’ stands at 73%.

The Guardian’s Wendy Ide described it as “toe-curlingly terrible”, but the Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney called the film “mostly captivating”.

With its creepy CGI dwarfs and muddled tone, Disney’s latest live-action remake is “not calamitous” but is “a mind-boggling mash-up”, the BBC’s Nicholas Barber said.

Supermarket chain Morrisons is to shut 52 cafes and 17 convenience stores, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.

The retailer will also close a number of in-store services, including some meat and fish counters, pharmacies and all its market kitchens in an attempt to redirect cash to other parts of the business.

It is expected the cuts will be rolled out over the next few months.

The retailer has come under significant pressure from the growth of discounter rivals, with Aldi overtaking Morrisons as the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket chain in 2022.

Morrisons said most staff affected by the changes were expected to be redeployed, but around 365 employees would be at risk of redundancy.

The store closures will all be Morrisons Daily convenience stores, which have extended opening hours.

The other closures include 52 cafes,13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters, four pharmacies and all 18 market kitchens, which are small food courts that offer freshly made meals to take away.

The chain employs 95,000 people in its 500 supermarkets and 1,600 Morrisons Dailys.

In-store cafes will be shut in five London stores, with cafes in Leeds, Portsmouth and Glasgow also affected.

In some stores, the supermarket plans to work with third parties “to provide a relevant specialist offer”, said chief executive Rami Baitiéh.

“The changes we are announcing today are a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons and enable us to focus our investment into the areas that customers really value and that can play a full part in our growth.”

In January, rival Sainsbury’s announced it was shutting down the remainder of its cafes, saying that most shoppers “do not use the cafes regularly”.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Morrisons was going to have to make adjustments to be able to compete in a price-sensitive market.

“The supermarket chain is closing services seen as nice-to-have, but not essential, and scaling back its convenience footprint as it readies for a round of cost-cutting from rivals,” she said.

“Discounters Aldi and Lidl are already proving to be formidable competition. Morrison’s clearly wants to free up cash to be as value-focused as possible as an intense period of competition is forecast.”

Cafes:

• Bradford Thornbury
• Paisley Falside Rd
• London Queensbury
• Portsmouth
• Great Park
• Banchory North Deeside Rd
• Failsworth Poplar Street
• Blackburn Railway Road
• Leeds Swinnow Rd
• London Wood Green
• Kirkham Poulton St
• Lutterworth Bitteswell Rd
• Stirchley
• Leeds Horsforth
• London Erith
• Crowborough
• Bellshill John St
• Dumbarton Glasgow Rd
• East Kilbride Lindsayfield
• East Kilbride Stewartfield
• Glasgow Newlands
• Largs Irvine Rd
• Troon Academy St
• Wishaw Kirk Rd
• Newcastle UT Cowgate
• Northampton Kettering Road
• Bromsgrove Buntsford Ind Pk
• Solihull Warwick Rd
• Brecon Free St
• Caernarfon North Rd
• Hadleigh
• London – Harrow – Hatch End
• High Wycombe Temple End
• Leighton Buzzard Lake St
• London Stratford
• Sidcup Westwood Lane
• Welwyn Garden City Black Fan Rd
• Warminster Weymouth St
• Oxted Station Yard
• Reigate Bell St
• Borehamwood
• Weybridge – Monument Hill
• Bathgate
• Erskine Bridgewater SC
• Gorleston Blackwell Road
• Connah’s Quay
• Mansfield Woodhouse
• Elland
• Gloucester – Metz Way
• Watford – Ascot Road
• Littlehampton – Wick
• Helensburgh

Morrisons Daily convenience stores:

• Gorleston Lowestoft Road
• Peebles 3-5 Old Town
• Shenfield 214 Hutton Road
• Poole Waterloo Estate
• Tonbridge Higham Lane Est
• Romsey The Cornmarket
• Stewarton Lainshaw Street
• Selsdon Featherbed Lane
• Haxby Village
• Great Barr Queslett Road
• Whickham Oakfield Road
• Worle
• Goring-By-Sea Strand Para
• Woking Westfield Road
• Wokingham 40 Peach Street
• Exeter 51 Sidwell Street
• Bath Moorland Road