The Trump administration is facing political uproar after the White House confirmed that a journalist was inadvertently added to an unsecure group chat in which US national security officials planned a military strike in Yemen.

The Atlantic magazine’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he was included on a Signal message group where Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were apparently among members.

He said he saw classified military plans for US strikes on Houthi rebels, including weapons packages, targets and timing, two hours before the bombs struck.

The report sparked a firestorm of criticism from Democrats and concerns among several Republicans.

Goldberg said he was added to the message chain, apparently by accident, after receiving a connection request from someone who appeared to be White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

“If they were going to pick an errant phone number, I mean at least it wasn’t somebody who supported the Houthis, because they were actually handing out information that I believe could have endangered the lives of American service people who were involved in that operation,” he told PBS in an interview.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday afternoon that he was not aware of the Atlantic article.

“The attacks on the Houthis have been highly successful and effective,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.”

The defence secretary also defended the military operation discussed in the chat, citing its success. When pressed by reporters, Hegseth criticised Goldberg as a “deceitful and highly discredited” journalist and resisted questions about the content of the messages.

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said the breach was a mistake, but argued that the chat showed “top level officials doing their job, doing it well”.

Democratic lawmakers demanded an investigation, casting the episode as a national security scandal.

“This is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence that I have read about in a very, very long time,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said his panel planned to investigate the matter.

“It’s definitely a concern,” he added. “It appears that mistakes were made.”

On 11 March, Atlantic editor-in-chief Goldberg writes in his article that he received a connection request on the encrypted messaging app Signal from an account that purported to be Waltz’s.

He said he initially wondered if the group chat messages might be a hoax until four days later, Saturday 15 March, when he was sitting in a supermarket car park, watching Signal communications about a strike.

When he checked X for updates about Yemen, he wrote, he was stunned to see reports of explosions in the capital city of Sanaa.

A Houthi official posted on X at the time that 53 people had been killed in the US air strikes.

Signal is generally used by journalists and Washington officials because of the secure nature of its communications, the ability to create aliases, and to send disappearing messages.

Two days later, Goldberg said he was added to a Signal chat entitled “Houthi PC small group”.

A number of accounts that appeared to belong to cabinet members and national security officials were included in the 18-person chat, Goldberg reported.

Accounts labelled “JD Vance”, the name of the vice-president; “Pete Hegseth,” the defence secretary; and “John Ratcliffe,” director of the Central Intelligence Agency; were among names in the chain.

Top national security officials from various agencies also appeared in it, including Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

• Live updates: Yemen strike plans shared with journalist
• Trump’s national security team’s chat app leak stuns Washington

At one point during the communications over the strikes, the account labelled “JD Vance” seemed to disagree with Trump, Goldberg reported.

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” the Vance account wrote at approximately 8:15 on 14 March.

“There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.

“I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself.

“But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”

In a statement to the BBC on Monday, Vance spokesman William Martin said the vice-president “unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy.

“The president and the vice-president have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement,” Martin said.

The National Security Council confirmed much of the Atlantic report.

Spokesman Brian Hughes told the BBC: “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic. We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.

“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy co-ordination between senior officials.”

Goldberg reported that the officials also discussed the potential for Europe to pay for US protection of key shipping lanes.

“Whether it’s now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes,” the account associated with Waltz wrote on 14 March.

The message continued, saying that at Trump’s request, his team was working with the defence department and state department “to determine how to compile the cost associated and levy them on the Europeans”.

At one point in the thread the Vance account griped that the strikes would benefit the Europeans, because of their reliance on those shipping lanes, adding: “I just hate bailing Europe out again.”

The user identified as Hegseth responded three minutes later: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”

There are few US presidential actions more sensitive, more fraught with peril, than when and where to use American military force.

If such information were obtained by American adversaries in advance, it could put lives – and national foreign policy objectives – at risk.

Fortunately for the Trump administration, a group chat with information about an impending US strike in Yemen among senior national security officials on the encrypted chat app Signal did not fall into the wrong hands.

Unfortunately for the Trump administration, the message thread was observed by an influential political journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg.

The Atlantic Magazine editor-in-chief, in an article posted on Monday on his publication’s website, says he appears to have been inadvertently added to the chat by White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

Members of the group seemed to include Vice-President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, among others.

A National Security Council spokesman told the BBC the text message thread “appears to be authentic”.

Goldberg says the group debated policy and discussed operational details about the impending US military strike – conversations that provided a rare near-real-time look at the inner workings of Trump’s senior national security team.

“Amazing job,” Waltz wrote to the group, just minutes after the US strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen took place on Saturday 15 March.

He followed up with emojis of a US flag, a fist and fire. Other senior officials joined in on the group congratulations.

These White House celebrations may prove short-lived after Monday’s revelations, however.

That an outsider could inadvertently be added to sensitive national defence conversations represents a stunning failure of operational security by the Trump administration.

And that these conversations were taking place outside of secure government channels designed for such sensitive communications could violate the Espionage Act, which sets rules for handling classified information.

“This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe,” Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, posted on X.

Democratic congressman Chris Deluzio said in a press statement that the House Armed Services Committee, on which he sits, must conduct a full investigation and hearing on the matter as soon as possible.

“This is an outrageous national security breach, and heads should roll,” he said.

Criticism wasn’t limited to Democrats, either.

Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, told the political website Axios that the administration’s action was “unconscionable”.

“None of this should have been sent on non-secure systems,” he said of Waltz’s messaging. “Russia and China are surely monitoring his unclassified phone.”

With Republicans in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Trump’s own party would have to initiate any kind of formal congressional investigation into the matter.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appeared to downplay such a possibility as he told reporters that the White House had admitted its error.

“They’ll tighten up and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “I don’t know what else you can say about that.”

Trump, for his part, pleaded ignorance when asked by reporters in the Oval Office about the Atlantic story, saying that it was the first he had heard of it.

The White House then released a statement defending the president’s national security team, including Waltz.

By Monday evening, however, rumours in Washington were swirling that high-level resignations may ultimately be necessary, with attention focusing on Waltz, whose invitation brought Goldberg into the group conversation. The White House has provided no further comments even as this speculation has grown.

In its afternoon statement, the White House noted that the strikes were “highly successful and effective”. That could help minimise some the political fallout from the chat-group discussions, which also revealed some divisions within Trump’s national security team.

JD Vance was the highest-ranking participant in the Signal text group that discussed detailed plans about the US military strike on Yemen.

While the vice-president has typically marched in lockstep with Trump in his public comments on foreign policy, in the private discussions he said that he thought the administration was making a “mistake” by taking military action.

He noted that the targeted Houthi forces in Yemen posed a larger threat to European shipping, while the danger to American trade was minimal.

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance wrote. “There’s a further risk that we see moderate to severe spike in oil prices.”

The vice-president went on to say that he would support what the team decided and “keep these concerns to myself”.

“But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”

This is far from the first time a vice-president has disagreed with their president on matters of foreign policy.

Dick Cheney clashed with George W Bush in the later years of his presidency over handling of the Iraq war, and Joe Biden believed that Barack Obama’s covert operation to kill Osama Bin Laden was too risky.

This is also not the first time that the handling of sensitive national security material has generated headlines. Both Trump and Joe Biden were investigated for their possession of classified information after leaving office. Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump for alleged violations related to his refusal to turn over material stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence – a case that was dropped when Trump won re-election last year.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for communications while US secretary of state became a major issue during her unsuccessful presidential campaign.

Like this White House group chat, some of those messages provided insight into the inner workings of Clinton’s team.

Their revelation also proved to be political damaging. A handful of her stored messages were later deemed to contain “top secret” information.

“We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified,” Trump said during that campaign – one of many attacks on Clinton for what he said was a clear violation of federal law.

On Monday afternoon, Clinton took to social media to posted her own, brief comment on the revelations of the White House group chat on Signal.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she wrote.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has reported annual revenue for 2024 that has leapfrogged rival Tesla.

The Shenzhen-based firm says revenue rose by 29% to come in at 777 billion yuan ($107bn; £83bn), boosted by sales of its hybrid vehicles. This topped the $97.7bn reported by Elon Musk’s Tesla.

BYD has also just launched a lower-priced car to rival Tesla’s Model 3, which has long been the top selling electric vehicle (EV) in China.

It comes as Tesla faces a backlash around the world over Musk’s ties to US President Donald Trump, while Chinese carmakers have been hit with tariffs in Western countries.

BYD sold around the same number of EVs as Tesla last year – 1.76 million compared to 1.79 million, respectively.

But when sales of the Chinese company’s hybrid cars are taken into account it is much bigger, selling a record 4.3 million vehicles globally in 2024.

On Sunday, BYD announced a new model to take on Tesla.

Its Qin L model has a starting price in China of 119,800 yuan, while a basic version of Tesla’s Model 3 is priced at 235,500 yuan.

It comes as Chinese consumers are cutting spending in the face of economic challenges, including a property crisis, slowing growth, and high local government debt.

Last week, BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu announced new battery charging technology, which he said could charge an EV in five minutes.

That compares with around 15 minutes to charge a Tesla using its supercharger system.

In February, BYD announced that its so-called “God’s Eye” advanced driver-assistance technology would be available free in all its models.

Shares in the firm, which is backed by veteran US investor Warren Buffett, have jumped by more than 50% so far this year.

A backlash against Musk and his carmaker has gathered momentum since he was appointed head of the Trump administration’s Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been tasked with slashing federal government spending.

Musk has also intervened in politics abroad, including giving his backing to far-right party Alternative für Deutschland ahead of Germany’s parliamentary election and criticising UK politicians such as Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Meanwhile, China’s EV manufacturers have been targeted with tariffs in large parts of the world, including the US and the European Union.

In early 2022, residents of the rural Philippine town of Bamban, north of Manila, gathered for the mayoral campaign rally of a plucky young woman named Alice Leal Guo.

Supporters dressed in pink – their candidate’s favourite colour – chattered in anticipation of her arrival.

Then came the low thudding of a helicopter rotor, prompting cheers from the crowd. Sitting in the cockpit, Guo – in a pink shirt and a pilot’s headset – flashed a smile, waving down at her supporters.

As the helicopter touched down, the crowd broke into a chant: “A-lice Guo! A-lice Guo!”

At 31, Guo’s star was rising: with promises of generous subsidies and economic development, all delivered in her signature brassy, upbeat tone, she had galvanised a following in the town which would see her become its first female mayor.

But few of those cheering could have predicted that less than three years later, Guo would be behind bars, facing charges of human trafficking and allegations that she was a Chinese spy.

Her downfall began with a police raid that uncovered a compound where a giant scam operation was being run from just behind her office. But as the authorities delved deeper, and Guo struggled to answer basic queries about her past, a perplexing question emerged: who really is Alice Guo?

Guo says she came to local politics from the pig-farming business, having managed her family’s commercial piggery for several years.

The career change would have required deep pockets – and when quizzed about her campaign finances much later, Guo said it was friends and acquaintances in the pig-farming business who had supported her mayoral bid.

But Guo also had connections to a number of wealthy Chinese businesspeople. Little is known about them, but some have subsequently been convicted of money-laundering, and now also face charges of human trafficking alongside Guo.

Her campaign focused on her sunny persona. On stage at one event, Guo told her audience: “For our team, rule number one is: Do no harm! No harm is allowed, we should just spread love, love, love!”

Such cheerful platitudes would carry a taint of irony, in retrospect, when authorities exposed the harm and suffering they alleged had been inflicted under Guo’s watch.

But upon taking office in June 2022, she brought the youthful, bright-eyed energy of her campaign into Bamban Municipal Hall, painting it pink and decorating the outside of the building with flowers.

“Alice was beautiful, she was kind and she was helpful to other women,” said Priscilla May Aban, 31, who runs a vegetable stall in the town. She told the BBC that she had voted for Guo precisely because she was a woman, adding that as mayor, Guo had arranged cleaning jobs for women of the town.

Guo was widely regarded as a caring and empathetic leader, judging by conversations the BBC had with several residents of Bamban. Miah Mejia, the daughter of one of Alice’s political allies, claimed that she had given a free scholarship to every local household. Another interviewee told us he hadn’t received a college scholarship but had been given a cash subsidy for his school fees.

An emotional Francisco Flores, 75, said, “She’s helped a lot of poor people here in Bamban, giving medicines and the way she is with people, you’d never see a problem.”

He proudly mentioned the arrival of a McDonald’s and a branch of the Philippine fast-food chain Jollibee during Guo’s tenure.

Online, pro-Guo social media accounts portrayed her as a progressive young mayor presiding over a pink-tinted wonderland of parades, buffalo races and concerts.

A year-and-half into her mayoralty, however, this carefully crafted image began to crumble.

In February 2024, Philippine police received a report about a Vietnamese national who had escaped from the captivity of Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, a company operating out of a walled compound in Bamban.

On the evening of 12 March, police officers and soldiers gathered nearby to plan a raid on the site, located just a minute’s walk from Guo’s office in the Municipal Hall.

One officer who was there, Marvin de la Paz of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), told the BBC that around midnight, police informants sent word that people were leaving the compound in buses.

Suspecting that their plans for a raid had been leaked, Mr de la Paz and his colleagues raced straight for the compound. On the way, they saw people fleeing in the other direction, and some officers in the convoy had to peel off and chase them down. When they arrived at the site, they found one of the largest scam hubs ever uncovered in the Philippines, containing 36 buildings and spanning almost 20 acres.

“We were amazed,” Mr de la Paz said, “That was our first time seeing such a grandiose entrance [to a scam compound]… Somehow you feel like you’re small in this compound.”

It later emerged that the compound was built on land which Guo had previously owned – and that, as mayor, she had granted Zun Yuan a business permit. Her name also appeared on an electricity bill found at the site.

Alice Guo’s lawyers did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Zun Yuan was purportedly an online gambling and entertainment company, which held a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) licence – accreditation that previously allowed such entities to operate legally in the Philippines.

A relaxation in gambling regulations under ex-President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017 led to a surge of Pogo-driven business activity. But many scam syndicates also found Pogo licences useful for masking their criminal operations – and PAOCC told the BBC they found evidence that Zun Yuan was running “pig-butchering” scams from its office in the compound.

Pig-butchering is a con where scammers take time to build trust with victims by posing as lovers or prospective business partners, then trick them into investing their money into fraudulent schemes.

When shown around the compound by PAOCC officers earlier this month, the BBC found, in a deserted employee dormitory, training scripts on how to scam targets.

“I want to create my own financial empire,” a scripted character – a female crypto expert at an international bank – says to her target, before flattering him and encouraging him to share his dreams. She is told to put her target on hold while pretending to “cash in on a trade” – only to declare, moments later, that she had made a killing. She then asks whether he himself knows how to trade, setting him up for the transfer of money that would soon follow.

This is just one of the many ways in which these compounds swindle billions of dollars around the world. Typically run by Chinese organised crime groups across South East Asia, they are staffed by a mixture of willing employees and trafficked victims who are forced to scam.

According to de la Paz, he and his colleagues found more than 300 foreign nationals in the Bamban compound, many of them working there against their will.

Punishments for disobedient or underperforming workers ranged from beatings to the banal: the BBC was shown a notebook from the compound, in which a worker had copied out the phrase, “I will meet my targets tomorrow”, hundreds of times in Chinese.

Enclosed by walls topped with barbed wire, the workers’ area of the compound was its own self-contained world, featuring a basketball court, supermarket and restaurants. Employees lived in rooms of six, each with a balcony equipped with a toilet and shower.

Their bosses meanwhile lived in a separate gated enclave, says de la Paz, who showed the BBC one of the villas there.

A marble-clad living room featured a high-end entertainment system, security monitor and ornate hardwood furniture. Behind the house was a swimming pool, beside which was a staircase that led down into what were supposedly escape tunnels, now flooded with water.

By the time security forces stormed the Bamban compound on the evening of 12 March 2024, some of these scam bosses had already eluded capture.

But the raid signalled a shift in the political climate.

In June 2022, just as Guo was being sworn in as mayor, Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential term had ended.

His successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, soon began facing calls for a ban on Pogo businesses. Many across Philippine society sounded the alarm about the criminality that often lurked within, despite the millions they brought in as revenue. Their biggest customers were rich Chinese, which led to concerns about foreign influence as Marcos, unlike his predecessor, courted Washington over Beijing.

When the raid in Bamban happened, it exposed a dark underbelly of the Philippines – and the two worlds of Alice Guo – the pink office from where she had sought a political career and the scam compound, which suggested far murkier ambitions – collapsed in on one another.

Guo had been a relatively unknown name in the Philippines until last May when she was called to appear before the Senate to explain her links to the scam compound.

Almost overnight, she became a meme. When she told senators she had grown up on a family farm, it brought swift ridicule from Filipinos who said she was too glamorous for the countryside. She became notorious for her inconsistent, vague comments, as well as her claims to have forgotten basic details of her early life, leading social media to nickname her “my amnesia girl”.

Guo said she’d had a secluded childhood as the child of a Chinese father and Filipino mother – but could not remember where in the Philippines her family home had been.

At one point, a senator said to her: “Please mayor, a little more candour than you have shown so far in answering some of the important questions.”

She told sceptical senators that she had sold her stake in the land before becoming mayor, and that the issuance of a business permit to Zun Yuan had been a mere administrative measure.

Suspicion mounted when, during the hearings, a court in Singapore convicted two of Guo’s Chinese former business partners in the Philippines of money-laundering.

Then, last July, despite the intense public interest in her case, Guo managed to slip through the travel restrictions imposed on her and escape to Indonesia. A few months later, she was re-arrested and returned to the Philippines.

It was also in July that Philippine investigators made a breakthrough. Guo’s fingerprints were found to match those on file for a girl from China named Guo Hua Ping, who had arrived in the Philippines alongside her mother, also Chinese, in the early 2000s.

This revelation sparked another line of inquiry in the Senate: the idea that Guo might be a spy, exercising influence or gathering intelligence for the Chinese state. The idea spread quickly among the watching public, dominating public discussion of the case.

Jaye Bekema – a senior officer on the staff of Risa Hontiveros, one of the senators who probed potential links between scam syndicates and Chinese intelligence – says the possibility that Guo was a spy warranted an investigation.

“I think there should be some clarity as to what a spy means,” Ms Bekema said, while stressing that there is no conclusive proof of Guo being a spy.

“I am more likely to believe that she didn’t plan to be a spy, but that she was tapped to be one [by the Chinese government] because of her criminal connections and her influence on local politics and the local government.”

In many ways, Guo had become a victim of her own success. The career she chose and the limelight she worked hard to attract meant that she was fully exposed to public scrutiny when China-Philippines relations soured under Marcos.

As political rhetoric escalated and tensions between the two countries spiralled, not least of all in the South China Sea, the young mayor found herself in the crosshairs of espionage accusations.

Others, however, are more sceptical of the allegation. The Chinese state and Guo would have made strange bedfellows, according to Teresita Ang See, a civic leader in the Chinese-Filipino community.

“What can she spy on in a place like [Bamban]? It’s in central Luzon, it’s not near any of the sensitive establishments. Why use her? She’s very visible, she flaunts her lifestyle. The last person you would use as a spy would be a person like Alice Guo,” says Ang See.

But those who led the questioning against Guo, such as Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, say that it’s more complicated than that.

“Transnational criminals working around the region know how to tap into… I’ll call it local talent to penetrate our society, whether through politics or business,” he explains.

Either way, Guo’s case shed light on the Philippine state’s vulnerability to being corrupted and co-opted by criminal groups abusing Pogo licences.

In mid-2024, President Marcos declared a blanket ban on all Pogos, citing their widespread abuse by organised crime.

Gatchalian says that the investigation into Alice Guo helped drive this change.

“Because of it, there was a groundswell of people really clamouring for a ban,” he tells the BBC. “And that’s when the president officially banned Pogos.”

Since then, Philippine police have raided scores of scam hubs across the country. But given how influential the syndicates have become, there are concerns that leaks within the security forces and government institutions are allowing criminals to evade capture, according to Mr de la Paz.

Ms Bekema says she feels certain that some candidates in the upcoming national elections are still being financed with Pogo money, while Ang See says that serving police officers have been found working for the criminal syndicates.

In Bamban, concerns about state infiltration seem far from people’s minds.

The streets are decked with brightly-coloured campaign posters for the upcoming municipal elections. The Municipal Hall has been whitewashed, and the flowers have been removed.

Guo is currently on trial in six separate cases, potentially facing decades in prison, and has been barred from running for public office again. She has pleaded not guilty to human trafficking charges.

Yet many still treasure the memory of their embattled ex-mayor.

One of those currently standing for Bamban councillor is Miah Mejia’s father, Fortunato, a garrulous 69-year-old, who also ran in 2022 as a member of Alice’s party, although he lost. He even featured in one of her publicity videos at the time.

He says that the people of Bamban had taken a chance by electing Guo, but that she had good connections to Chinese investors and had delivered on all her promises to the townspeople.

He is also indifferent to the Senate’s evidence that Guo was not a Filipino.

“That’s what they’ve been showing, but we still don’t believe it because we don’t care whether she’s Filipino or not,” he says. “What’s important is whether or not she helps us.”

Mr Mejia is adamant that the Alice Guo he knew would not have been involved in human trafficking.

“Never, ever would she do something like that,” he says, flatly. “I know she has a heart. She fears the Lord.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed opposition political parties for provoking a “movement of violence”, as protests in the country continue for a sixth night.

Unrest began in Istanbul last Wednesday when the city’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s main presidential rival, was detained on corruption charges.

Thousands of people gathered once again on Monday. Unrest had escalated on Sunday night, with protesters fired on with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Imamoglu, also suspended from his post as mayor, said the allegations against him were politically motivated, a claim denied by Erdogan.

Large numbers of riot police accompanied protesters around Istanbul’s city hall on Monday night, as crowds chanted and waved Turkish flags.

Vehicles carrying water guns were also seen close by, though protests appeared to be largely peaceful with no repeat of the fierce clashes seen on Sunday.

In figures released before Monday evening’s gatherings, the Turkish government said 1,133 people had been arrested since the protests started.

In an earlier televised statement, Erdogan labelled the demonstrations “evil” and blamed opposition political parties for “disturbing the peace of our citizens with provocations”.

Speaking from Ankara, Turkey’s capital, he called for the protests to end and said that “instead of responding to allegations”, opposition parties had “made the most vile and unlawful statements in our political history for [the last] five days”.

CHP leader Özgür Özel spoke to the thousands gathered on Monday night He told the crowd that the demonstration was “an act of defiance against fascism”.

Özel said he would visit Imamoglu in jail in Silivri on Tuesday. He said the CHP would appeal for the politician to be released pending trial, and for his trial to be shown live on state broadcaster TRT.

Despite being in custody, Imamoglu was confirmed on Monday as the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) candidate for Turkey’s 2028 presidential election. The vote confirming his candidacy was symbolic as he was the only person running.

He spent Sunday night in jail after being formally arrested and charged earlier that day with “establishing and managing a criminal organisation, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender”.

In a post on X over the weekend, Imamoglu said he would “never bow” and criticised his arrest as a “black stain on our democracy”.

He also sent greetings to those protesting and said that voters had showed Turkey had had “enough” of Erdogan.

The demonstrations seen in recent days are the largest in Turkey since the Gezi protests of 2013, which began in Istanbul over the demolition of a local park.

They have been largely peaceful, but on Sunday police officers fired water cannons and used pepper spray as clashes unfolded.

Dilek Kaya Imamoglu, Imamoglu’s wife, was also outside Istanbul’s city hall and told demonstrators the “injustice” her husband faced had “struck a chord with every conscience”.

Imamoglu was one of more than 100 people detained last week as part of an investigation. Others arrested included politicians, journalists and businessmen.

His arrest does not prevent his candidacy or election as president, but he will not be able to run if he is convicted of any of the charges against him.

The jailed politician is seen as one of the most formidable rivals of Erdogan, who has held office in Turkey for 22 years as both prime minister and president.

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

Turkey’s Ministry of Justice criticised those connecting Erdogan to the arrests, and insisted on its judicial independence.

On 24 March 2020, India announced its first Covid lockdown, just as the world stood on the brink of a global pandemic that would claim millions of lives.

India’s already fragile healthcare system collapsed under the pandemic’s weight.

The WHO estimated over 4.7 million Covid deaths in India – nearly 10 times the official count – but the government rejected the figure, citing flaws in the methodology.

Five years later, BBC India journalists reflect on their experiences recounting how, at times, they became part of the story they were covering.

Soutik Biswas, BBC News

It was the summer of 2021.

I woke up to the frantic voice of a school teacher. Her 46-year-old husband had been battling Covid in a Delhi hospital, where oxygen was as scarce as hope.

Here we go again, I thought, dread creeping in. India was trapped in the deadly grip of a lethal second wave of infections, with Delhi at its heart. And it was just another day in a city where breathing itself had become a privilege.

We scrambled for help, making calls, sending SOS messages, hoping someone might have a lead.

Her voice shook as she told us her husband’s oxygen levels had dipped to 58. It should have been 92 or higher. He was slipping, but she clung to the small comfort that it had climbed to 62. He was still conscious, still speaking. For now.

But how long could this last? I wondered. How many more lives would be lost because the basics – oxygen, beds, medicine – were beyond reach? This wasn’t supposed to happen in 2021. Not here.

The woman called back. The hospital didn’t even have an oxygen flow meter, she said. She had to find one herself.

We reached out again. Phones buzzed, tweets flew into the void, hoping someone would see us. Finally, a device was located – a small victory in a sea of despair. The oxygen would flow. For now.

The numbers didn’t lie, though.

A report from the same hospital told of a 40-year-old man who died waiting for a bed. He found a stretcher, at least, the report helpfully added. That was where we were now: grateful for a place to lay the dead.

In the face of this, oxygen was a commodity. So were medicines, in short supply and hoarded by those who could pay. People were dying because they couldn’t breathe, and the city choked on its own apathy.

This was a war. It felt like a war. And we were losing it.

Yogita Limaye, BBC News

“Balaji, why are you lying like this,” screamed a woman outside Delhi’s GTB hospital, shaking her unconscious brother who was lying on a stretcher.

Minutes later, her brother, the father of two children, died, waiting outside a hospital before he was even seen by a doctor.

I will never forget her cry.

Around her, families pleaded at the door of the hospital to get a doctor to come and see their loved ones.

They were among hundreds of pleas for help we heard over the weeks we reported on how the second wave of Covid, which began in March 2021, brought a nation to its knees.

It was as though people had been left to tackle a vicious pandemic on their own – going from hospital to hospital searching for beds and oxygen.

The second wave had not come without warning, but India’s government, which had declared victory over the disease two months earlier, was caught unprepared by the resurgence.

In the ICU of a major hospital, I saw the head doctor pace up and down, making one phone call after another frantically searching for supplies of oxygen.

“There’s just one hour of supply left. Reduce the oxygen we’re supplying to our patients to the lowest levels needed to ensure all organs continue to function properly,” he instructed his deputy, his face tense.

I distinctly remember the heat and fumes from 37 funeral pyres burning simultaneously under the April sun at a Delhi crematorium.

People sat in shock – not yet feeling the grief and anger that would come – seemingly stunned into silence by the frightening speed at which Covid ravaged the capital.

Our work messaging groups buzzed all the time with news of yet another colleague desperately needing a hospital bed for a loved one.

No-one was untouched by it.

In Pune, my father was recovering from a Covid-related heart attack he’d suffered a month earlier.

Back in my hometown Mumbai, one of my closest friends lay critical on a ventilator in hospital.

After five weeks in ICU, miraculously, he recovered. But my father’s heart never did, and a year later, he suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving a permanent hole in our lives.

Covid-19 will always be the most difficult story I’ve ever covered.

Vikas Pandey, BBC News

Covering the pandemic was the hardest assignment of my life because it’s a story that literally came home.

Friends, relatives and neighbours called every day, asking for help procuring oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and even essential medicines. I interviewed several grieving families at that time.

Yet, a few incidents have remained etched in my memory.

In 2021, I reported Altuf Shamsi’s story, which sums up the unimaginable pain millions went through.

His pregnant wife and father were both infected with the virus and admitted to different hospitals in Delhi. He knew me through a friend and called to ask if I could help him find another doctor after the hospital where his dad was admitted told him that chances of survival were zero. While he was speaking to me, he got another call from his wife’s doctor who said they were running out of oxygen for her.

He lost his father first and later texted me: “I was looking at his body, while reading SOS messages from Rehab’s [his wife] hospital for oxygen.”

A few days later, he lost his wife too after she gave birth to their daughter.

The two other incidents came closer to home than anything else.

A relative deteriorated very fast after being admitted to a hospital.

He was put on a ventilator and doctors gave a bleak prognosis. One of them advised trying an experimental drug that had shown some results in the UK.

I tweeted and called everybody I thought could help. It’s hard to put that frustration into words – he was sinking with each passing hour but the drug that could potentially save him was nowhere to be found.

A kind doctor helped us with one injection but we needed three more. Then someone read my tweet and reached out – she had procured three vials for her father but he died before he could be given the doses. I took her help and my relative survived.

But a cousin did not. He was admitted to the same hospital. His oxygen levels were dipping every hour and he needed to be put on a ventilator, but the hospital didn’t have any free.

I made calls the whole night.

The next morning, the hospital ran out of oxygen, leading to many deaths, including his. He left behind his wife and two young children. I still wonder if there was something more I could have done.

Geeta Pandey, BBC News

The morning after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a hard lockdown, I headed out to Delhi’s main bus station. The only people out on the streets were police and paramilitaries, deployed to ensure people stayed indoors.

The bus station was deserted. A few hundred metres away, I met men, women and children who were looking for ways to reach home, hundreds of miles away. Over the next few days, those numbers swelled into millions as people desperately tried to find a way to be with their families and loved ones.

As the virus made its way over the next few months, and the capital city – along with the rest of the country – remained under a strict shutdown, tragedy lurked at every corner.

We feared stepping out and we feared staying in.

All hopes – including mine – were pinned on a vaccine that scientists across the globe were racing to develop.

I had last visited my mother, bedridden in our ancestral village 450 miles (724km) from Delhi, in January 2020, just a couple of months before the lockdown. My mother, like millions of other people, didn’t really understand what Covid was – the disease that had suddenly disrupted their lives.

Every time I called, she had only one question: “When will you visit?” The fear that I could carry the virus to her at a time when she was most vulnerable kept me away.

On 16 January 2021, I was at Max hospital in Delhi when India rolled out the world’s biggest vaccination drive, promising to vaccinate all the adults in the country of 1.4 billion people. Doctors and medical staff there described it as a “new dawn”. Some told me they would visit their families as soon as they received their second doses.

I called my mother and told her that I will get my vaccine and visit her soon. But a week later, she was gone.

Anagha Pathak, BBC Marathi

A few days after India announced the lockdown, I was travelling to the border of Maharashtra state to document the impact of the restrictions.

It was three in the morning as I drove along the eerily empty Mumbai-Agra highway. My hometown of Nashik looked unrecognisable.

Instead of traffic, migrant workers filled the road, walking back home, stranded and out of work. Among them was a young couple from Uttar Pradesh. They had worked as labourers in Mumbai. The wife, still in her early 20s, was pregnant. They had hoped to catch a ride on a truck, but that didn’t happen. By the time they reached Nashik, they had run out of food, water and money.

I will never forget seeing the pregnant woman, her fragile body walking under the scorching sun. I had never felt more helpless. Covid protocols prevented me from offering them a ride. All I could do was give them some water and snacks, while documenting their journey.

A few miles ahead, around 300 people waited for a government bus to take them to the state border. But it was nowhere in sight. After making some calls, two buses finally arrived – still not enough. But I made sure the couple got on the one heading towards Madhya Pradesh state, where they were supposed to catch another bus.

I followed them in my car and waited for some time for them to catch their next bus. It never came.

Eventually, I left. I had an assignment to finish.

Five years have passed, and I still wonder: Did the woman make it home? Did she survive? I don’t know her name, but I still remember her weary eyes and fragile body.

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.

Russia has launched a missile strike targeting north-eastern Ukraine as US and Russian officials met to push for a pause in the war.

After Monday’s attack, which injured dozens in the city of Sumy, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia must end strikes instead of “making hollow statements about peace”.

The latest round of talks between the US and Russia concluded on Monday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Top of the agenda was reportedly the revival of a 2022 grain deal allowing Kyiv to export across the Black Sea.

In return, Moscow is said to be seeking relief from Western sanctions, enabling it to export fertilisers.

The Russia-US talks went on for 12 hours. Russian news agencies said a joint statement would be released on Tuesday.

Late on Monday a White House source told Reuters news agency the talks in Riyadh are going “extremely well” and it expected “to have a positive announcement in the near future”.

Ukrainian and US delegations will meet on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia for talks to follow Russia-US negotiations, Ukraine’s national broadcaster Suspilne reported.

Optimistic US ambitions for ending this war have had a head-on collision with reality. Finding common ground for even a partial ceasefire is proving a highly complex task.

This is not something that can be solved quickly. So in the current talks, the aim has been to come up with a kind of “ceasefire light”, focusing on the Black Sea.

Russia stopped giving safe passage to cargo ships going to and from Ukraine in mid-2023, when it pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal complaining that sanctions were still in place.

The Ukrainian delegation is in the same building – but there are no plans for the warring sides to meet. The Ukrainians remained there after meeting American counterparts on Sunday evening.

Kyiv described talks as “productive and focused”, while US President Donald Trump’s special envoy said separate discussions with Ukrainian and Russian teams would bring about “some real progress” to ending the war.

Both Russia and Ukraine have continued fighting despite the ongoing talks looking to bring a halt to hostilities across the vast front line.

Ukrainian officials say 65 people, including 14 children, were injured in Monday’s attack on Sumy.

The city has long been the subject of Russian strikes – it lies just over the border from the Kursk region of Russia occupied by Ukraine last year. But Monday’s missile strike was exceptional.

The authorities said a school, hospital and apartment blocks were damaged. Scores were injured – including children.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the attack showed Russia was “once again showing that it wants to continue the terror”.

“The international community must increase the pressure on Russia to stop the aggression and ensure justice and save the lives of Ukrainians,” he wrote on X.

Sumy borders Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which have been occupied by Ukrainian troops to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in any negotiations, though they have been forced back in recent weeks.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of not abiding by last week’s deal for a 30-day ceasefire during which the warring parties would refrain from targeting infrastructure facilities.

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine launched a drone attack against the Kropotkinskaya oil pumping station in Krasnodar, southern Russia, at 02:00 local time on Monday (23:00 GMT on Sunday), according to Russian state media.

The defence ministry said it had shot down overnight 227 Ukrainian drones in several Russian regions.

Meanwhile, a Russian air strike injured a 37-year-old man in Ukraine’s Kyiv region, according to local authorities.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

The current negotiations, mediated by the US, are part of Trump’s plan to secure a wider ceasefire in Ukraine.

His special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said he was hopeful that real progress would be made during the talks, in an interview with Fox News.

After Sunday evening’s meeting between Kyiv and Washington, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said the talks were working towards securing “a just and lasting peace” for Ukraine and Europe.

“The discussion was productive and focused – we addressed key points including energy”, he said in a post on X.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ahead of Monday’s meeting there were “difficult negotiations ahead”.

“We are only at the beginning of this path,” he told Russian State TV.

The UK has a new watch list of 24 infectious diseases that could pose the greatest future threat to public health.

Some are viruses with global pandemic potential – like Covid – while others are illnesses that have no existing treatments or could cause significant harm.

Avian, or bird, flu is on the list, as well as mosquito-spread illnesses that may become common with rising temperatures from climate change, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

The aim is to steer scientists and investors into making new tests and vaccines or medicines in preparation.

There is no ranking within the list, since threats constantly change, UKHSA chief scientific officer Prof Isabel Oliver says.

And it will be updated at least once a year, to avoid a repeat of the Covid pandemic, where experts had been planning for an entirely different outbreak – influenza.

“When Covid arrived, it took too long to adjust our response to a different threat, which was part of the reason we ended up in lockdown,” Prof Mark Woolhouse, director of the Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa, University of Edinburgh, said.

“Since the pandemic, there have been many initiatives to better understand the diversity of pandemic threats that the UK and the world may face in the coming years.

“The UKHSA’s pathogen prioritisation exercise is a welcome contribution to this global effort.”

A family of viruses called Paramyxoviridae, which includes measles, is on the list.

And this was the type of pandemic threat public-health agencies around the world were most worried about, Prof Woolhouse said.

A novel measles-like virus would be highly spreadable and “impossible to control by even the strictest lockdown”, making it “a threat far worse than Covid.”

“It would also be considerably more deadly and, unlike Covid, it would be a [major] threat to children,” Prof Woolhouse said.

Prof Oliver said the UKHSA would consult animal-health colleagues for future updates, since many new and emerging outbreaks were zoonotic disease that jumped species to infect humans.

Some bacteria also feature, including those such as gonorrohoea where resistance to existing antibiotic treatments is becoming an issue.

• Adenovirus
• Lassa fever
• Norovirus
• Mers
• Ebola (and similar viruses, such as Marburg)
• Flaviviridae (which includes dengue, Zika and hepatitis C)
• Hantavirus
• Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever
• Flu (non-seasonal, including avian)
• Nipah virus
• Oropouche
• Rift Valley fever
• Acute flaccid myelitis
• Human metapneumovirus (HMPV)
• Mpox
• Chikungunya
• Anthrax
• Q fever
• Enterobacteriaceae (such as E. coli and , which causes plague)
• Tularaemia
• Moraxellaceae (which cause lung, urine and bloodstream infections)
• Gonorrhoea
• Staplylococcus
• Group A and B Strep

Two women who were part of a Russian spy network run from the UK are named for the first time today by a BBC investigation.

Bulgarian nationals Cvetelina Gencheva and Tsvetanka Doncheva took part in elaborate surveillance operations against people spied on by the cell.

Neither woman answered questions when contacted by the BBC.

Ms Gencheva, an airport worker, hung up when contacted by phone, and said she did not want to comment on the case in response to a subsequent letter.

Ms Doncheva denied being herself and walked away when approached near her home in Vienna, Austria.

Six other Bulgarians are awaiting sentencing in London for their roles in spying for Russia as part of the cell.

Police described the network as a “highly sophisticated” operation that threatened lives. Three pleaded guilty, admitting knowing they were working for Russia, while three more were convicted this month after a trial at the Old Bailey having failed to persuade the jury that they didn’t.

The cell was directed from abroad by Jan Marsalek, originally from Austria, who was a business executive in Germany who became a Russian intelligence asset. The cell’s targets included journalists who have investigated Russian espionage. One, Roman Dobrokhotov, told the BBC he believed Vladimir Putin was ultimately responsible.

The court heard about two mystery women who took part in surveillance operations in Europe.

The BBC tracked down and confirmed the identities of both women through open source digital research and speaking to sources.

Ms Gencheva, who lives in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, exploited her work in the airline industry to obtain private flight details of people targeted by the cell.

Spies followed the people onto planes and were booked in nearby seats, getting so close as to see what was being typed into their targets’ mobiles phones, even at one stage identifying a Pin number for a phone belonging to journalist Roman Dobrokhotov.

Ms Gencheva was part of a team sent to Berlin to spy on Mr Dobrokhotov, and she was a member of chat groups with three of those convicted of spying in the UK case – cell leader Orlin Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova – which were used to co-ordinate the spying.

She provided flight details for journalist Christo Grozev, and was tasked with gathering as much travel information as possible on another target of the cell, Russian dissident Kirill Kachur.

During the Old Bailey trial, the mystery airline worker was known as “Cvetka” or “Sveti”.

The BBC first identified Ms Gencheva through her social media profiles. On Facebook, she had interacted with Katrin Ivanova and Biser Dzhambazov.

We then found she was an airline worker.

According to her Linkedin profile, she has held positions in ticket sales for travel companies. Bulgarian company filings say she is the sole owner of International Aviation Consult.

Screen captures of travel data found on a hard drive belonging to cell leader Roussev were from airline industry software known as “Amadeus”.

On her LinkedIn profile, we found Ms Gencheva noted her proficiency with the software.

After the BBC’s research identified Ms Gencheva, a source confirmed to the BBC that she is known to the Bulgarian security services as being connected to the spy network. She is not charged with any offence.

We contacted Ms Gencheva on a Bulgarian phone number she uses for real estate work. She hung up when informed the call was from BBC News and was being recorded, not even waiting for an explanation of what we were calling about.

In response to a letter setting out the evidence relating to her, she said she did “not wish to comment on the case” and did not consent for her name to be used. Writing in Bulgarian, she claimed not to speak English well. However, her public LinkedIn profile lists her English ability as “full professional proficiency” and says she has studied in English to degree level.

Ms Doncheva helped spy on the investigative journalist Christo Grozev in Vienna, occupying a flat opposite where he lived and operating a camera that took images of his home.

She was paid to conduct an anti-Ukraine propaganda campaign, which included putting stickers on locations including Vienna’s Soviet war memorial and was intended to make supporters of Ukraine appear like neo-Nazis.

The BBC identified Ms Doncheva through her social media profiles after the Old Bailey trial heard about a “Tsveti” who had worked with the cell. Sources in Austria then confirmed her identity.

In Vienna, she met at least three of those convicted of spying in the UK case – Vanya Gaberova, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova.

Senior Austrian officials, including the head of the Secret Service Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, were among those selected for surveillance by Ms Doncheva, alongside the Austrian investigative journalist Anna Thalhammer, who has written about Russian espionage.

Ms Doncheva, who is unemployed, was arrested by Austrian police in December.

Court documents first reported by the Austrian magazines Profil and Falter, and later seen by the BBC, reveal she is “strongly suspected of having committed the crime of secret intelligence to the detriment of Austria”.

She told investigators she conducted surveillance after being asked by long-time friend Vanya Gaberova – one of the six Bulgarians awaiting sentencing. She said Gaberova provided her with a list of names, addresses and photographs.

She initially told police she had been misled by the others, who first told her they were conducting a “student project” and later that they were working for Interpol. But Austrian investigators are recorded as saying it is “incomprehensible” that Ms Doncheva believed such “dubious stories”.

The documents say the intelligence cell in which Ms Doncheva operated was ultimately controlled by Jan Marsalek from Moscow on behalf of the Russian intelligence services and that evidence seized by investigators shows she was contracted by Marsalek and the UK cell leader Orlin Roussev.

The documents say Marsalek directed that Anna Thalhammer be targeted. Ms Doncheva admitted to police she had photographed the journalist’s then workplace and sought to watch her from a nearby restaurant.

Ms Thalhammer, now editor of Austrian news magazine Profil, told the BBC she was first told about being spied on last year by police, and she is now aware of being watched for some time.

“She obviously sat in front of the office in a very nice fish restaurant. I really can recommend it. She complained that it’s too expensive, that she needs more money. She got that money.”

She says “that woman” also spied on a number of “high-ranked people”.

Ms Thalhammer does not know where else she was followed, but that some of her sources were identified and attempts were made to break into their homes.

She says “Vienna is the capital of spies” but no one has been sentenced in the city for espionage and the “law here is great for spies”.

“I’m frustrated and I’m also honestly a little bit scared,” she added. “I live alone with my daughter. It’s not so nice to know that the state doesn’t take care if somebody is threatening journalists, politicians or anybody else.”

A prolific social media user – even her cat has a TikTok account – Ms Doncheva posted a photo of herself on Facebook in a Vladimir Putin T-shirt in 2022 and 2023. When someone commented that in Russia a large percentage of women want to have Putin’s baby, Ms Doncheva replied saying not only in Russia, followed by a lip-licking emoji.

Ms Doncheva denied being herself when approached by the BBC in a Vienna street and refused to answer questions, but we have verified that the woman was indeed Ms Doncheva.

When approached, she was wearing clothes and carrying items seen in Ms Doncheva’s social media posts: a distinctive blue tracksuit, a pair of glasses, and a patterned mobile phone case. We also observed her entering Ms Doncheva’s registered home address less than 20 minutes after she denied being Ms Doncheva.

She has not responded to a letter offering her a chance to comment.

The two women worked alongside the six Bulgarians who were convicted of conspiring to spy for Russia.

A cache of almost 80,000 Telegram messages between Roussev and his controller Marsalek was recovered by UK police.

The messages revealed multiple operations carried out by the cell in the years before February 2023, when their activities were disrupted by police.

The UK-based spies even targeted Ukrainian soldiers thought to be training at a US military base in Germany. Roussev and Marsalek discussed kidnapping and killing journalists Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov.

Unlike the six spies convicted in the UK, Ms Doncheva and Ms Gencheva are not in custody and have not been convicted of any offence.

The Austrian public prosecutor’s request for pre-trial detention of Ms Doncheva was rejected and she was released.

Austrian court documents state there is “no risk” of Ms Doncheva absconding because she is “socially integrated” in the country and cares for her mother, and that a risk of further crime is not particularly high given the imprisonment in the UK of others involved,

Ms Thalhammer told the BBC she “can’t understand” why the person who spied on her was released.

“Maybe [they] shouldn’t believe everything a spy says.”

She said the Austrian secret service thinks there are other spy cells and that their activity has continued after the arrest of the six Bulgarians in the UK.

Ms Gencheva has remained free in Bulgaria, publicly presenting herself as an experienced airline and travel industry professional.

After being contacted by the BBC, Ms Gencheva changed her profile name on Facebook and LinkedIn. She continues to list her proficiency with the Amadeus airline software.

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US President Donald Trump has been gifted a new portrait from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin – while trashing an existing painting of him as “truly the worst”.

The new portrait has not been shown publicly. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as a “personal gift”, adding that only Putin himself could disclose further details.

Meanwhile, Trump took to Truth Social to criticise an earlier picture of him that hung in the Colorado State Capitol building until it was removed on Monday.

The US president has paid close attention to cultivating his image, and made headlines in January by unveiling an official portrait that was variously described by critics as serious or ominous.

Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed receipt of the new work from Moscow, saying he had been asked to transport it back to Washington.

He described the work as a painting – a “beautiful portrait” by a “leading Russian artist” – but gave no further critique. Trump was “clearly touched by it”, he added.

The gift was confirmed by Peskov, as American and Russian negotiators again sat down for talks in Saudi Arabia as part of Trump’s drive to end the war in Ukraine.

The gift highlights the diplomatic thaw between the two nations after Trump returned to the White House in January.

In an interview, Witkoff – who met Putin 10 days ago – said the Russian president had been “gracious”. Putin told him, he added, that he had prayed for Trump after an assassination attempt against him last year.

That attempt on Trump’s life – which took place during a rally in Pennsylvania – gave rise to perhaps the most iconic image of him ever produced.

AP photographer Evan Vucci caught the moment that Trump, with a bloody ear, held up a defiant fist and told supporters to “fight, fight, fight”. That image was further mythologised by Trump, who used it to adorn the cover of a book.

• Decoding Donald Trump’s new official portrait
• The 17th Century painting that unlocks Trump’s portrait
• Dramatic images from rally at which Trump survived assassination effort

Trump is yet to publicly comment on the image that was sent by Putin – but he left no doubt of the kind of portraiture he liked and disliked when delivering his views on the Colorado image.

The painting, which was presented to the building in 2019, was “purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before”, he wrote on Truth Social on Monday morning.

That was unlike the same artist’s depiction of Barack Obama, Trump wrote. Offering rare praise for his predecessor, Trump said Obama looked “wonderful” in his own portrait by the same artist, English-born Sarah Boardman.

Trump reportedly lost up to 30lb (13.6kg) during last year’s presidential campaign. He told reporters he had been “so busy” he had not “been able to eat very much”.

The Republican also used the portrait to make a political point – describing Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, as “radical” and “extremely weak on crime”.

But the portrait had nothing to do with Polis, US media pointed out. It was instead the result of a crowdfunding campaign that was launched by a Republican. The portrait was reportedly commissioned to fill an empty space that had briefly been filled with an image of Vladimir Putin by a prankster.

Following the backlash, a committee of leaders from both parties ordered the painting removed on Monday afternoon, according to a spokesman for Colorado’s House Democrats. It will be kept in a secure location “until further notice”.

The BBC has contacted Ms Boardman for comment. Discussing her work with the Colorado Times Recorder in 2019, she acknowledged that there would “always be anger at a president from one side or the other. It is human nature.”

Another portrait artist told the BBC he “would have painted things slightly differently”, but that presidential portraits were nuanced, and he had sympathy for the artist.

Robert Anderson, who created the official portrait of President George W Bush which hangs in the US National Portrait Gallery, said viewers tended to bring “baggage” depending on their feelings about the painting’s subject.

For that reason, the reaction to an artwork often had “very little to do with the quality of art”, he said.

Of Trump, Mr Anderson said: “I think it would be very difficult to paint him because he has a particular impression of himself which might be very different to that of many others – probably at least half of the country.”

A spokesman for Polis told 9News said the governor was “surprised to learn the president of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork”.

The statement continued: “We appreciate the president and everyone’s interest in our capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.”

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.

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.”

US funding cuts will lead to an additional 2,000 new HIV infections each day and over six million further deaths over the next four years, the UNAids chief has warned.

It would mark a stark reversal in the global fight against HIV, which has seen the number of deaths from the disease decrease from more than two million in 2004 to 600,000 in 2023, the most recent year for which figures are available.

UNAids Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said the US government’s decision to pause foreign aid – which included funding for HIV programmes – was already having devastating consequences.

She called on the US to reverse the cuts immediately, warning women and girls were being hit particularly hard.

US President Donald Trump announced the pause on foreign aid, for an initial 90 days, on his first day in office in January as part of a review into government spending. The majority of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programmes have since been terminated.

Many US-financed HIV treatment and prevention programmes received stop work orders, leading to the closure of mother and baby clinics in Africa, and severe shortages of life saving anti-retroviral (ARV) medicines.

Ms Byanyima said she feared a return to the 1990s, when HIV medication was scarcely available in poorer countries, and infections and deaths soared.

The US has for years been the single biggest funder of HIV treatment and prevention, and Ms Byanima thanked Washington for its generosity and humanity.

She added it was “reasonable” for the US “to want to reduce its funding – over time”, but said the “sudden withdrawal of lifesaving support [was] having a devastating impact”.

There has been no sign that Washington is listening to appeals to change course.

Traditional aid donors in Europe also plan funding cuts, and UNAids – the joint UN agency which combats HIV – has had no indication that other countries might step in to fill the gap left by the US.

Speaking in Geneva on Monday, Ms Byanyima described the case of Juliana, a young woman in Kenya living with HIV. She worked for a US-funded programme that supported new mothers to access treatment to ensure their babies did not develop the disease.

With the programme suspended, Ms Byanyima said Juliana was not only out of work but, because she was still breastfeeding her youngest child, she also feared losing the treatment she needed.

Previously, the World Health Organization (WHO) said eight countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Haiti and Ukraine – could soon run out of HIV drugs after the US funding pause.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that disruption to HIV programmes “could undo 20 years of progress”.

In February, South Africa’s leading Aids lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), warned the country could see a return to when HIV patients struggled to access necessary services for their treatment.

“We can’t afford to die, we can’t afford to go back to those years where we were suffering with access to services, especially for people living with HIV treatment,” said TAC chair Sibongile Tshabalala.

Ms Byanyima also proposed a deal to the Trump administration, offering an opportunity to market a new US-developed ARV to millions of people.

Lenacapavir, made by US company Gilead, is given by injection every six months, with UNAids believing 10 million people could benefit from it.

The profits and jobs resulting from such a deal would be hugely beneficial to the US, Ms Byanyima added.

UNAids is one of a number of UN agencies facing funding cuts.

The UN Refugee Agency has suggested it may have to lose 6,000 jobs, while Unicef has warned that progress to reduce child mortality is threatened, and the World Food Programme has had to cut rations in famine threatened regions.

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.

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.

Spectators have shared their shock and horror as they watched a decorated South African Air Force pilot crash to his death at a local air show, while they recalled his final moments.

James O’Connell died after the plane he was flying crashed during a performance at the West Coast Air Show held in Saldanha, 112 km (70 miles) north of Cape Town, over the weekend.

According to organisers, Mr O’Connell was performing a “routine display” on a retired military aircraft when it “experienced a sudden loss of altitude and entered a steep dive”.

An investigation into the accident is currently underway as tributes pour in for the seasoned former Air Force pilot.

Mr O’Connell’s crash was captured by numerous videos and images which have since been shared widely on social media.

In one, the 68-year-old aircraft, an Impala Mark 1, can be seen flying upside-down before returning to its original position and then nose-diving to the ground.

A huge cloud of smoke and fire can then be seen as it crashes to the ground, while gasps of shock can be heard from the watching crowd.

Air show commentator Brian Emmenis, who was present at the show and provided running commentary on Mr O’Connell’s performance, can then be heard urging the stunned crowd to “stay calm and remain where you are”.

Speaking to the BBC two days after the horrific crash, Mr Emmenis shared his final exchange with the decorated pilot.

Mr Emmenis said he had known Mr O’Connell from the latter’s time as a test pilot at the South African Air Force.

According to him, Mr O’Connell worked at the Air Force for nearly three decades before moving to the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA), where he worked as chief flight instructor and was head of the test pilot school. The academy confirmed the Impala was one of its display aircraft.

“James O’Connell was an incredible test pilot… a very popular guy [and] a thorough professional but also a great friend and good guy to work with,” he told the BBC on Monday.

Mr Emmenis said the pair spoke about Mr O’Connell’s upcoming performance before he took off.

Mr O’Connell at this point was “in a good frame of mind”, he noted.

“As he taxied past… my words [to him] were: ‘Have a good [display] my friend’ and he [replied]: ‘Thanks’.”

Mr Emmenis later explained in a statement released by West Coast Air Show organisers that Mr O’Connell had gone into a “dirty configuration” – described as a move where the undercarriage is extended – where he turned the aircraft over and “the undercarriage was down”.

“But when he turned, I could see that the aircraft was in a nose-down attitude and that concerned me. I stopped talking and I looked because I thought: ‘Wow, he’s low and diving down to the ground’ and sadly, that’s exactly what happened. And I waited and suddenly saw the flame, I never heard the impact, I was too far away but I saw this huge [flame].”

The seasoned commentator described the shock and devastation felt across the aviation industry at the news of Mr O’Connell’s death.

“South Africa is devastated. In fact, not only South Africa – I’ve been getting calls from all over [the world]. Aviation is a small world and it’s a band of brothers …especially [in] air show flying because usually it’s the best of the best that get chosen to go do these displays.”

While it is too early to speculate on what exactly went wrong, he reasoned that as a “highly qualified test pilot”, Mr O’Connell would not have attempted anything he didn’t think he could manage.

“I don’t think anybody would do a manoeuvre like that if you didn’t know what it’s about,” he said.

Clive Coetzee, organiser of the West Coast Air Show, said that he was “deeply saddened by the event” and spoke of the shocking effect it had, not only on attendees, but other participants.

Among them was a young pilot who was set to do his first show that same day but pulled out when he witnessed Mr O’Connell’s crash.

And while Mr Coetzee only met Mr O’Connell on the day of the fateful accident, he described him as a “funny guy” and “very nice” based on their final chat.

Both men declined to comment on the Impala’s track record, but Mr Emmenis said: “It was kept in immaculate condition and when the test flight school took it, they stripped it down and checked for any faults. So there was nothing wrong with it, it was absolutely perfect.”

The Impala is a retired Air Force aircraft that first took to the skies in 1957.

Leading tributes for Mr O’Connell was the TFASA, which described him as a “true aviation legend” with 36 years flying experience.

A US appeals court judge on Monday said the US gave Nazis “better treatment” during World War II than it did to hundreds of Venezuelans deported this month over alleged gang ties.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit heard arguments over the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport 238 alleged Venezuelan gang members to a mega-prison in El Salvador.

During a fraught two-hour hearing, Judge Patricia Millett questioned the government’s use of the law to deport the Venezuelans without a way to challenge the allegations.

“There were planeloads of people,” she said. “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemy Act than has happened here.”

Earlier on Monday, a federal judge refused to lift a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants with the invocation of the wartime powers.

Judge James Boasberg ruled that many of those deported dispute their gang affiliation and must be allowed to challenge their removal.

Trump proclaimed on 15 March that members of the Venezuelan crime gang Tren de Aragua were “conducting irregular warfare” against the US, justifying their deportation under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

But later that evening, Judge Boasberg issued a 14-day halt to deportations under the proclamation, verbally ordering the government to turn flights around. The White House insisted it was too late, as the planes were already in international airspace.

In a hearing on Monday, lawyers for the government sought to overturn Boasberg’s original March 15 restraining order.

Government lawyer Drew Ensign called Boasberg’s temporary restraining order “utterly unprecedented” and argued it intruded upon the president’s foreign policy powers.

He added that the government “certainly dispute[d] the Nazi analogy” Judge Millett gave.

The claims sparked a tense back-and-forth between Mr Ensign and the judge, who argued: “Of course there’s no precedent, because no president has ever used this.”

“Y’all could’ve picked me up on Saturday and thrown me on a plane thinking I’m a member of Tren de Aragua and given me no chance to protest it,” added Judge Millett, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

She claimed the administration did not carefully review whether the Venezuelan nationals actually were gang members before they were deported.

Later on Monday, border czar Tom Homan called the Nazi-related allegation “disgusting”, according to CBS, the BBC’s news partner.

US Circuit Judge Justin Walker, an appointee of Trump, appeared less skeptical of the government’s arguments. The three-judge panel did not say when it would rule on the issue.

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

But some of their family members have disputed that allegation, and US officials have acknowledged “many” of the men have no US criminal record.

On Monday before the hearing, Judge Boasberg noted: “Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge.”

The judge noted the Trump administration was still free to deport Venezuelans through regular immigration process.

The deportations have created tension between the White House and Judge Boasberg, who said on Friday that he had never heard lawyers for the government speak to him the way the Trump administration attorneys had.

“I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order, who ordered this and what the consequences will be,” the judge said at a hearing last Friday.

Trump has described Boasberg as a “constitutional disaster” who “doesn’t mind if criminals come into our country”.

The Alien Enemies Act grants the president sweeping powers to quickly deport citizens of an “enemy” nation.

The deportations have been criticised by human rights groups, which have argued the move is illegal because the US is not at war.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the government’s use of the war-time law to ship the Venezuelan nations to El Salvador.

“It’s modern-day warfare, and we are going to continue to fight that and protect American citizens every single step of the way,” Bondi told Fox News.

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.

There are few US presidential actions more sensitive, more fraught with peril, than when and where to use American military force.

If such information were obtained by American adversaries in advance, it could put lives – and national foreign policy objectives – at risk.

Fortunately for the Trump administration, a group chat with information about an impending US strike in Yemen among senior national security officials on the encrypted chat app Signal did not fall into the wrong hands.

Unfortunately for the Trump administration, the message thread was observed by an influential political journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg.

The Atlantic Magazine editor-in-chief, in an article posted on Monday on his publication’s website, says he appears to have been inadvertently added to the chat by White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

Members of the group seemed to include Vice-President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, among others.

A National Security Council spokesman told the BBC the text message thread “appears to be authentic”.

Goldberg says the group debated policy and discussed operational details about the impending US military strike – conversations that provided a rare near-real-time look at the inner workings of Trump’s senior national security team.

“Amazing job,” Waltz wrote to the group, just minutes after the US strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen took place on Saturday 15 March.

He followed up with emojis of a US flag, a fist and fire. Other senior officials joined in on the group congratulations.

These White House celebrations may prove short-lived after Monday’s revelations, however.

That an outsider could inadvertently be added to sensitive national defence conversations represents a stunning failure of operational security by the Trump administration.

And that these conversations were taking place outside of secure government channels designed for such sensitive communications could violate the Espionage Act, which sets rules for handling classified information.

“This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe,” Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, posted on X.

Democratic congressman Chris Deluzio said in a press statement that the House Armed Services Committee, on which he sits, must conduct a full investigation and hearing on the matter as soon as possible.

“This is an outrageous national security breach, and heads should roll,” he said.

Criticism wasn’t limited to Democrats, either.

Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, told the political website Axios that the administration’s action was “unconscionable”.

“None of this should have been sent on non-secure systems,” he said of Waltz’s messaging. “Russia and China are surely monitoring his unclassified phone.”

With Republicans in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Trump’s own party would have to initiate any kind of formal congressional investigation into the matter.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appeared to downplay such a possibility as he told reporters that the White House had admitted its error.

“They’ll tighten up and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “I don’t know what else you can say about that.”

Trump, for his part, pleaded ignorance when asked by reporters in the Oval Office about the Atlantic story, saying that it was the first he had heard of it.

The White House then released a statement defending the president’s national security team, including Waltz.

By Monday evening, however, rumours in Washington were swirling that high-level resignations may ultimately be necessary, with attention focusing on Waltz, whose invitation brought Goldberg into the group conversation. The White House has provided no further comments even as this speculation has grown.

In its afternoon statement, the White House noted that the strikes were “highly successful and effective”. That could help minimise some the political fallout from the chat-group discussions, which also revealed some divisions within Trump’s national security team.

JD Vance was the highest-ranking participant in the Signal text group that discussed detailed plans about the US military strike on Yemen.

While the vice-president has typically marched in lockstep with Trump in his public comments on foreign policy, in the private discussions he said that he thought the administration was making a “mistake” by taking military action.

He noted that the targeted Houthi forces in Yemen posed a larger threat to European shipping, while the danger to American trade was minimal.

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance wrote. “There’s a further risk that we see moderate to severe spike in oil prices.”

The vice-president went on to say that he would support what the team decided and “keep these concerns to myself”.

“But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”

This is far from the first time a vice-president has disagreed with their president on matters of foreign policy.

Dick Cheney clashed with George W Bush in the later years of his presidency over handling of the Iraq war, and Joe Biden believed that Barack Obama’s covert operation to kill Osama Bin Laden was too risky.

This is also not the first time that the handling of sensitive national security material has generated headlines. Both Trump and Joe Biden were investigated for their possession of classified information after leaving office. Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump for alleged violations related to his refusal to turn over material stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence – a case that was dropped when Trump won re-election last year.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for communications while US secretary of state became a major issue during her unsuccessful presidential campaign.

Like this White House group chat, some of those messages provided insight into the inner workings of Clinton’s team.

Their revelation also proved to be political damaging. A handful of her stored messages were later deemed to contain “top secret” information.

“We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified,” Trump said during that campaign – one of many attacks on Clinton for what he said was a clear violation of federal law.

On Monday afternoon, Clinton took to social media to posted her own, brief comment on the revelations of the White House group chat on Signal.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she wrote.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

The Trump administration is facing political uproar after the White House confirmed that a journalist was inadvertently added to an unsecure group chat in which US national security officials planned a military strike in Yemen.

The Atlantic magazine’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he was included on a Signal message group where Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were apparently among members.

He said he saw classified military plans for US strikes on Houthi rebels, including weapons packages, targets and timing, two hours before the bombs struck.

The report sparked a firestorm of criticism from Democrats and concerns among several Republicans.

Goldberg said he was added to the message chain, apparently by accident, after receiving a connection request from someone who appeared to be White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

“If they were going to pick an errant phone number, I mean at least it wasn’t somebody who supported the Houthis, because they were actually handing out information that I believe could have endangered the lives of American service people who were involved in that operation,” he told PBS in an interview.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday afternoon that he was not aware of the Atlantic article.

“The attacks on the Houthis have been highly successful and effective,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.”

The defence secretary also defended the military operation discussed in the chat, citing its success. When pressed by reporters, Hegseth criticised Goldberg as a “deceitful and highly discredited” journalist and resisted questions about the content of the messages.

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said the breach was a mistake, but argued that the chat showed “top level officials doing their job, doing it well”.

Democratic lawmakers demanded an investigation, casting the episode as a national security scandal.

“This is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence that I have read about in a very, very long time,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said his panel planned to investigate the matter.

“It’s definitely a concern,” he added. “It appears that mistakes were made.”

On 11 March, Atlantic editor-in-chief Goldberg writes in his article that he received a connection request on the encrypted messaging app Signal from an account that purported to be Waltz’s.

He said he initially wondered if the group chat messages might be a hoax until four days later, Saturday 15 March, when he was sitting in a supermarket car park, watching Signal communications about a strike.

When he checked X for updates about Yemen, he wrote, he was stunned to see reports of explosions in the capital city of Sanaa.

A Houthi official posted on X at the time that 53 people had been killed in the US air strikes.

Signal is generally used by journalists and Washington officials because of the secure nature of its communications, the ability to create aliases, and to send disappearing messages.

Two days later, Goldberg said he was added to a Signal chat entitled “Houthi PC small group”.

A number of accounts that appeared to belong to cabinet members and national security officials were included in the 18-person chat, Goldberg reported.

Accounts labelled “JD Vance”, the name of the vice-president; “Pete Hegseth,” the defence secretary; and “John Ratcliffe,” director of the Central Intelligence Agency; were among names in the chain.

Top national security officials from various agencies also appeared in it, including Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

• Live updates: Yemen strike plans shared with journalist
• Trump’s national security team’s chat app leak stuns Washington

At one point during the communications over the strikes, the account labelled “JD Vance” seemed to disagree with Trump, Goldberg reported.

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” the Vance account wrote at approximately 8:15 on 14 March.

“There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.

“I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself.

“But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”

In a statement to the BBC on Monday, Vance spokesman William Martin said the vice-president “unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy.

“The president and the vice-president have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement,” Martin said.

The National Security Council confirmed much of the Atlantic report.

Spokesman Brian Hughes told the BBC: “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic. We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.

“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy co-ordination between senior officials.”

Goldberg reported that the officials also discussed the potential for Europe to pay for US protection of key shipping lanes.

“Whether it’s now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes,” the account associated with Waltz wrote on 14 March.

The message continued, saying that at Trump’s request, his team was working with the defence department and state department “to determine how to compile the cost associated and levy them on the Europeans”.

At one point in the thread the Vance account griped that the strikes would benefit the Europeans, because of their reliance on those shipping lanes, adding: “I just hate bailing Europe out again.”

The user identified as Hegseth responded three minutes later: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”

Two women who were part of a Russian spy network run from the UK are named for the first time today by a BBC investigation.

Bulgarian nationals Cvetelina Gencheva and Tsvetanka Doncheva took part in elaborate surveillance operations against people spied on by the cell.

Neither woman answered questions when contacted by the BBC.

Ms Gencheva, an airport worker, hung up when contacted by phone, and said she did not want to comment on the case in response to a subsequent letter.

Ms Doncheva denied being herself and walked away when approached near her home in Vienna, Austria.

Six other Bulgarians are awaiting sentencing in London for their roles in spying for Russia as part of the cell.

Police described the network as a “highly sophisticated” operation that threatened lives. Three pleaded guilty, admitting knowing they were working for Russia, while three more were convicted this month after a trial at the Old Bailey having failed to persuade the jury that they didn’t.

The cell was directed from abroad by Jan Marsalek, originally from Austria, who was a business executive in Germany who became a Russian intelligence asset. The cell’s targets included journalists who have investigated Russian espionage. One, Roman Dobrokhotov, told the BBC he believed Vladimir Putin was ultimately responsible.

The court heard about two mystery women who took part in surveillance operations in Europe.

The BBC tracked down and confirmed the identities of both women through open source digital research and speaking to sources.

Ms Gencheva, who lives in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, exploited her work in the airline industry to obtain private flight details of people targeted by the cell.

Spies followed the people onto planes and were booked in nearby seats, getting so close as to see what was being typed into their targets’ mobiles phones, even at one stage identifying a Pin number for a phone belonging to journalist Roman Dobrokhotov.

Ms Gencheva was part of a team sent to Berlin to spy on Mr Dobrokhotov, and she was a member of chat groups with three of those convicted of spying in the UK case – cell leader Orlin Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova – which were used to co-ordinate the spying.

She provided flight details for journalist Christo Grozev, and was tasked with gathering as much travel information as possible on another target of the cell, Russian dissident Kirill Kachur.

During the Old Bailey trial, the mystery airline worker was known as “Cvetka” or “Sveti”.

The BBC first identified Ms Gencheva through her social media profiles. On Facebook, she had interacted with Katrin Ivanova and Biser Dzhambazov.

We then found she was an airline worker.

According to her Linkedin profile, she has held positions in ticket sales for travel companies. Bulgarian company filings say she is the sole owner of International Aviation Consult.

Screen captures of travel data found on a hard drive belonging to cell leader Roussev were from airline industry software known as “Amadeus”.

On her LinkedIn profile, we found Ms Gencheva noted her proficiency with the software.

After the BBC’s research identified Ms Gencheva, a source confirmed to the BBC that she is known to the Bulgarian security services as being connected to the spy network. She is not charged with any offence.

We contacted Ms Gencheva on a Bulgarian phone number she uses for real estate work. She hung up when informed the call was from BBC News and was being recorded, not even waiting for an explanation of what we were calling about.

In response to a letter setting out the evidence relating to her, she said she did “not wish to comment on the case” and did not consent for her name to be used. Writing in Bulgarian, she claimed not to speak English well. However, her public LinkedIn profile lists her English ability as “full professional proficiency” and says she has studied in English to degree level.

Ms Doncheva helped spy on the investigative journalist Christo Grozev in Vienna, occupying a flat opposite where he lived and operating a camera that took images of his home.

She was paid to conduct an anti-Ukraine propaganda campaign, which included putting stickers on locations including Vienna’s Soviet war memorial and was intended to make supporters of Ukraine appear like neo-Nazis.

The BBC identified Ms Doncheva through her social media profiles after the Old Bailey trial heard about a “Tsveti” who had worked with the cell. Sources in Austria then confirmed her identity.

In Vienna, she met at least three of those convicted of spying in the UK case – Vanya Gaberova, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova.

Senior Austrian officials, including the head of the Secret Service Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, were among those selected for surveillance by Ms Doncheva, alongside the Austrian investigative journalist Anna Thalhammer, who has written about Russian espionage.

Ms Doncheva, who is unemployed, was arrested by Austrian police in December.

Court documents first reported by the Austrian magazines Profil and Falter, and later seen by the BBC, reveal she is “strongly suspected of having committed the crime of secret intelligence to the detriment of Austria”.

She told investigators she conducted surveillance after being asked by long-time friend Vanya Gaberova – one of the six Bulgarians awaiting sentencing. She said Gaberova provided her with a list of names, addresses and photographs.

She initially told police she had been misled by the others, who first told her they were conducting a “student project” and later that they were working for Interpol. But Austrian investigators are recorded as saying it is “incomprehensible” that Ms Doncheva believed such “dubious stories”.

The documents say the intelligence cell in which Ms Doncheva operated was ultimately controlled by Jan Marsalek from Moscow on behalf of the Russian intelligence services and that evidence seized by investigators shows she was contracted by Marsalek and the UK cell leader Orlin Roussev.

The documents say Marsalek directed that Anna Thalhammer be targeted. Ms Doncheva admitted to police she had photographed the journalist’s then workplace and sought to watch her from a nearby restaurant.

Ms Thalhammer, now editor of Austrian news magazine Profil, told the BBC she was first told about being spied on last year by police, and she is now aware of being watched for some time.

“She obviously sat in front of the office in a very nice fish restaurant. I really can recommend it. She complained that it’s too expensive, that she needs more money. She got that money.”

She says “that woman” also spied on a number of “high-ranked people”.

Ms Thalhammer does not know where else she was followed, but that some of her sources were identified and attempts were made to break into their homes.

She says “Vienna is the capital of spies” but no one has been sentenced in the city for espionage and the “law here is great for spies”.

“I’m frustrated and I’m also honestly a little bit scared,” she added. “I live alone with my daughter. It’s not so nice to know that the state doesn’t take care if somebody is threatening journalists, politicians or anybody else.”

A prolific social media user – even her cat has a TikTok account – Ms Doncheva posted a photo of herself on Facebook in a Vladimir Putin T-shirt in 2022 and 2023. When someone commented that in Russia a large percentage of women want to have Putin’s baby, Ms Doncheva replied saying not only in Russia, followed by a lip-licking emoji.

Ms Doncheva denied being herself when approached by the BBC in a Vienna street and refused to answer questions, but we have verified that the woman was indeed Ms Doncheva.

When approached, she was wearing clothes and carrying items seen in Ms Doncheva’s social media posts: a distinctive blue tracksuit, a pair of glasses, and a patterned mobile phone case. We also observed her entering Ms Doncheva’s registered home address less than 20 minutes after she denied being Ms Doncheva.

She has not responded to a letter offering her a chance to comment.

The two women worked alongside the six Bulgarians who were convicted of conspiring to spy for Russia.

A cache of almost 80,000 Telegram messages between Roussev and his controller Marsalek was recovered by UK police.

The messages revealed multiple operations carried out by the cell in the years before February 2023, when their activities were disrupted by police.

The UK-based spies even targeted Ukrainian soldiers thought to be training at a US military base in Germany. Roussev and Marsalek discussed kidnapping and killing journalists Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov.

Unlike the six spies convicted in the UK, Ms Doncheva and Ms Gencheva are not in custody and have not been convicted of any offence.

The Austrian public prosecutor’s request for pre-trial detention of Ms Doncheva was rejected and she was released.

Austrian court documents state there is “no risk” of Ms Doncheva absconding because she is “socially integrated” in the country and cares for her mother, and that a risk of further crime is not particularly high given the imprisonment in the UK of others involved,

Ms Thalhammer told the BBC she “can’t understand” why the person who spied on her was released.

“Maybe [they] shouldn’t believe everything a spy says.”

She said the Austrian secret service thinks there are other spy cells and that their activity has continued after the arrest of the six Bulgarians in the UK.

Ms Gencheva has remained free in Bulgaria, publicly presenting herself as an experienced airline and travel industry professional.

After being contacted by the BBC, Ms Gencheva changed her profile name on Facebook and LinkedIn. She continues to list her proficiency with the Amadeus airline software.

If you have information about this story or a similar one that you would like to share with the BBC News Investigations team please get in touch. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can contact us in the following ways:

Email: security.investigations@bbc.co.uk

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Click here to learn how to use SecureDrop, an anonymous whistleblowing tool that works only in the Tor browser and follow the advice to stay secure.

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.

In early 2022, residents of the rural Philippine town of Bamban, north of Manila, gathered for the mayoral campaign rally of a plucky young woman named Alice Leal Guo.

Supporters dressed in pink – their candidate’s favourite colour – chattered in anticipation of her arrival.

Then came the low thudding of a helicopter rotor, prompting cheers from the crowd. Sitting in the cockpit, Guo – in a pink shirt and a pilot’s headset – flashed a smile, waving down at her supporters.

As the helicopter touched down, the crowd broke into a chant: “A-lice Guo! A-lice Guo!”

At 31, Guo’s star was rising: with promises of generous subsidies and economic development, all delivered in her signature brassy, upbeat tone, she had galvanised a following in the town which would see her become its first female mayor.

But few of those cheering could have predicted that less than three years later, Guo would be behind bars, facing charges of human trafficking and allegations that she was a Chinese spy.

Her downfall began with a police raid that uncovered a compound where a giant scam operation was being run from just behind her office. But as the authorities delved deeper, and Guo struggled to answer basic queries about her past, a perplexing question emerged: who really is Alice Guo?

Guo says she came to local politics from the pig-farming business, having managed her family’s commercial piggery for several years.

The career change would have required deep pockets – and when quizzed about her campaign finances much later, Guo said it was friends and acquaintances in the pig-farming business who had supported her mayoral bid.

But Guo also had connections to a number of wealthy Chinese businesspeople. Little is known about them, but some have subsequently been convicted of money-laundering, and now also face charges of human trafficking alongside Guo.

Her campaign focused on her sunny persona. On stage at one event, Guo told her audience: “For our team, rule number one is: Do no harm! No harm is allowed, we should just spread love, love, love!”

Such cheerful platitudes would carry a taint of irony, in retrospect, when authorities exposed the harm and suffering they alleged had been inflicted under Guo’s watch.

But upon taking office in June 2022, she brought the youthful, bright-eyed energy of her campaign into Bamban Municipal Hall, painting it pink and decorating the outside of the building with flowers.

“Alice was beautiful, she was kind and she was helpful to other women,” said Priscilla May Aban, 31, who runs a vegetable stall in the town. She told the BBC that she had voted for Guo precisely because she was a woman, adding that as mayor, Guo had arranged cleaning jobs for women of the town.

Guo was widely regarded as a caring and empathetic leader, judging by conversations the BBC had with several residents of Bamban. Miah Mejia, the daughter of one of Alice’s political allies, claimed that she had given a free scholarship to every local household. Another interviewee told us he hadn’t received a college scholarship but had been given a cash subsidy for his school fees.

An emotional Francisco Flores, 75, said, “She’s helped a lot of poor people here in Bamban, giving medicines and the way she is with people, you’d never see a problem.”

He proudly mentioned the arrival of a McDonald’s and a branch of the Philippine fast-food chain Jollibee during Guo’s tenure.

Online, pro-Guo social media accounts portrayed her as a progressive young mayor presiding over a pink-tinted wonderland of parades, buffalo races and concerts.

A year-and-half into her mayoralty, however, this carefully crafted image began to crumble.

In February 2024, Philippine police received a report about a Vietnamese national who had escaped from the captivity of Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, a company operating out of a walled compound in Bamban.

On the evening of 12 March, police officers and soldiers gathered nearby to plan a raid on the site, located just a minute’s walk from Guo’s office in the Municipal Hall.

One officer who was there, Marvin de la Paz of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), told the BBC that around midnight, police informants sent word that people were leaving the compound in buses.

Suspecting that their plans for a raid had been leaked, Mr de la Paz and his colleagues raced straight for the compound. On the way, they saw people fleeing in the other direction, and some officers in the convoy had to peel off and chase them down. When they arrived at the site, they found one of the largest scam hubs ever uncovered in the Philippines, containing 36 buildings and spanning almost 20 acres.

“We were amazed,” Mr de la Paz said, “That was our first time seeing such a grandiose entrance [to a scam compound]… Somehow you feel like you’re small in this compound.”

It later emerged that the compound was built on land which Guo had previously owned – and that, as mayor, she had granted Zun Yuan a business permit. Her name also appeared on an electricity bill found at the site.

Alice Guo’s lawyers did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Zun Yuan was purportedly an online gambling and entertainment company, which held a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) licence – accreditation that previously allowed such entities to operate legally in the Philippines.

A relaxation in gambling regulations under ex-President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017 led to a surge of Pogo-driven business activity. But many scam syndicates also found Pogo licences useful for masking their criminal operations – and PAOCC told the BBC they found evidence that Zun Yuan was running “pig-butchering” scams from its office in the compound.

Pig-butchering is a con where scammers take time to build trust with victims by posing as lovers or prospective business partners, then trick them into investing their money into fraudulent schemes.

When shown around the compound by PAOCC officers earlier this month, the BBC found, in a deserted employee dormitory, training scripts on how to scam targets.

“I want to create my own financial empire,” a scripted character – a female crypto expert at an international bank – says to her target, before flattering him and encouraging him to share his dreams. She is told to put her target on hold while pretending to “cash in on a trade” – only to declare, moments later, that she had made a killing. She then asks whether he himself knows how to trade, setting him up for the transfer of money that would soon follow.

This is just one of the many ways in which these compounds swindle billions of dollars around the world. Typically run by Chinese organised crime groups across South East Asia, they are staffed by a mixture of willing employees and trafficked victims who are forced to scam.

According to de la Paz, he and his colleagues found more than 300 foreign nationals in the Bamban compound, many of them working there against their will.

Punishments for disobedient or underperforming workers ranged from beatings to the banal: the BBC was shown a notebook from the compound, in which a worker had copied out the phrase, “I will meet my targets tomorrow”, hundreds of times in Chinese.

Enclosed by walls topped with barbed wire, the workers’ area of the compound was its own self-contained world, featuring a basketball court, supermarket and restaurants. Employees lived in rooms of six, each with a balcony equipped with a toilet and shower.

Their bosses meanwhile lived in a separate gated enclave, says de la Paz, who showed the BBC one of the villas there.

A marble-clad living room featured a high-end entertainment system, security monitor and ornate hardwood furniture. Behind the house was a swimming pool, beside which was a staircase that led down into what were supposedly escape tunnels, now flooded with water.

By the time security forces stormed the Bamban compound on the evening of 12 March 2024, some of these scam bosses had already eluded capture.

But the raid signalled a shift in the political climate.

In June 2022, just as Guo was being sworn in as mayor, Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential term had ended.

His successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, soon began facing calls for a ban on Pogo businesses. Many across Philippine society sounded the alarm about the criminality that often lurked within, despite the millions they brought in as revenue. Their biggest customers were rich Chinese, which led to concerns about foreign influence as Marcos, unlike his predecessor, courted Washington over Beijing.

When the raid in Bamban happened, it exposed a dark underbelly of the Philippines – and the two worlds of Alice Guo – the pink office from where she had sought a political career and the scam compound, which suggested far murkier ambitions – collapsed in on one another.

Guo had been a relatively unknown name in the Philippines until last May when she was called to appear before the Senate to explain her links to the scam compound.

Almost overnight, she became a meme. When she told senators she had grown up on a family farm, it brought swift ridicule from Filipinos who said she was too glamorous for the countryside. She became notorious for her inconsistent, vague comments, as well as her claims to have forgotten basic details of her early life, leading social media to nickname her “my amnesia girl”.

Guo said she’d had a secluded childhood as the child of a Chinese father and Filipino mother – but could not remember where in the Philippines her family home had been.

At one point, a senator said to her: “Please mayor, a little more candour than you have shown so far in answering some of the important questions.”

She told sceptical senators that she had sold her stake in the land before becoming mayor, and that the issuance of a business permit to Zun Yuan had been a mere administrative measure.

Suspicion mounted when, during the hearings, a court in Singapore convicted two of Guo’s Chinese former business partners in the Philippines of money-laundering.

Then, last July, despite the intense public interest in her case, Guo managed to slip through the travel restrictions imposed on her and escape to Indonesia. A few months later, she was re-arrested and returned to the Philippines.

It was also in July that Philippine investigators made a breakthrough. Guo’s fingerprints were found to match those on file for a girl from China named Guo Hua Ping, who had arrived in the Philippines alongside her mother, also Chinese, in the early 2000s.

This revelation sparked another line of inquiry in the Senate: the idea that Guo might be a spy, exercising influence or gathering intelligence for the Chinese state. The idea spread quickly among the watching public, dominating public discussion of the case.

Jaye Bekema – a senior officer on the staff of Risa Hontiveros, one of the senators who probed potential links between scam syndicates and Chinese intelligence – says the possibility that Guo was a spy warranted an investigation.

“I think there should be some clarity as to what a spy means,” Ms Bekema said, while stressing that there is no conclusive proof of Guo being a spy.

“I am more likely to believe that she didn’t plan to be a spy, but that she was tapped to be one [by the Chinese government] because of her criminal connections and her influence on local politics and the local government.”

In many ways, Guo had become a victim of her own success. The career she chose and the limelight she worked hard to attract meant that she was fully exposed to public scrutiny when China-Philippines relations soured under Marcos.

As political rhetoric escalated and tensions between the two countries spiralled, not least of all in the South China Sea, the young mayor found herself in the crosshairs of espionage accusations.

Others, however, are more sceptical of the allegation. The Chinese state and Guo would have made strange bedfellows, according to Teresita Ang See, a civic leader in the Chinese-Filipino community.

“What can she spy on in a place like [Bamban]? It’s in central Luzon, it’s not near any of the sensitive establishments. Why use her? She’s very visible, she flaunts her lifestyle. The last person you would use as a spy would be a person like Alice Guo,” says Ang See.

But those who led the questioning against Guo, such as Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, say that it’s more complicated than that.

“Transnational criminals working around the region know how to tap into… I’ll call it local talent to penetrate our society, whether through politics or business,” he explains.

Either way, Guo’s case shed light on the Philippine state’s vulnerability to being corrupted and co-opted by criminal groups abusing Pogo licences.

In mid-2024, President Marcos declared a blanket ban on all Pogos, citing their widespread abuse by organised crime.

Gatchalian says that the investigation into Alice Guo helped drive this change.

“Because of it, there was a groundswell of people really clamouring for a ban,” he tells the BBC. “And that’s when the president officially banned Pogos.”

Since then, Philippine police have raided scores of scam hubs across the country. But given how influential the syndicates have become, there are concerns that leaks within the security forces and government institutions are allowing criminals to evade capture, according to Mr de la Paz.

Ms Bekema says she feels certain that some candidates in the upcoming national elections are still being financed with Pogo money, while Ang See says that serving police officers have been found working for the criminal syndicates.

In Bamban, concerns about state infiltration seem far from people’s minds.

The streets are decked with brightly-coloured campaign posters for the upcoming municipal elections. The Municipal Hall has been whitewashed, and the flowers have been removed.

Guo is currently on trial in six separate cases, potentially facing decades in prison, and has been barred from running for public office again. She has pleaded not guilty to human trafficking charges.

Yet many still treasure the memory of their embattled ex-mayor.

One of those currently standing for Bamban councillor is Miah Mejia’s father, Fortunato, a garrulous 69-year-old, who also ran in 2022 as a member of Alice’s party, although he lost. He even featured in one of her publicity videos at the time.

He says that the people of Bamban had taken a chance by electing Guo, but that she had good connections to Chinese investors and had delivered on all her promises to the townspeople.

He is also indifferent to the Senate’s evidence that Guo was not a Filipino.

“That’s what they’ve been showing, but we still don’t believe it because we don’t care whether she’s Filipino or not,” he says. “What’s important is whether or not she helps us.”

Mr Mejia is adamant that the Alice Guo he knew would not have been involved in human trafficking.

“Never, ever would she do something like that,” he says, flatly. “I know she has a heart. She fears the Lord.”

US President Donald Trump has been gifted a new portrait from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin – while trashing an existing painting of him as “truly the worst”.

The new portrait has not been shown publicly. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as a “personal gift”, adding that only Putin himself could disclose further details.

Meanwhile, Trump took to Truth Social to criticise an earlier picture of him that hung in the Colorado State Capitol building until it was removed on Monday.

The US president has paid close attention to cultivating his image, and made headlines in January by unveiling an official portrait that was variously described by critics as serious or ominous.

Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed receipt of the new work from Moscow, saying he had been asked to transport it back to Washington.

He described the work as a painting – a “beautiful portrait” by a “leading Russian artist” – but gave no further critique. Trump was “clearly touched by it”, he added.

The gift was confirmed by Peskov, as American and Russian negotiators again sat down for talks in Saudi Arabia as part of Trump’s drive to end the war in Ukraine.

The gift highlights the diplomatic thaw between the two nations after Trump returned to the White House in January.

In an interview, Witkoff – who met Putin 10 days ago – said the Russian president had been “gracious”. Putin told him, he added, that he had prayed for Trump after an assassination attempt against him last year.

That attempt on Trump’s life – which took place during a rally in Pennsylvania – gave rise to perhaps the most iconic image of him ever produced.

AP photographer Evan Vucci caught the moment that Trump, with a bloody ear, held up a defiant fist and told supporters to “fight, fight, fight”. That image was further mythologised by Trump, who used it to adorn the cover of a book.

• Decoding Donald Trump’s new official portrait
• The 17th Century painting that unlocks Trump’s portrait
• Dramatic images from rally at which Trump survived assassination effort

Trump is yet to publicly comment on the image that was sent by Putin – but he left no doubt of the kind of portraiture he liked and disliked when delivering his views on the Colorado image.

The painting, which was presented to the building in 2019, was “purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before”, he wrote on Truth Social on Monday morning.

That was unlike the same artist’s depiction of Barack Obama, Trump wrote. Offering rare praise for his predecessor, Trump said Obama looked “wonderful” in his own portrait by the same artist, English-born Sarah Boardman.

Trump reportedly lost up to 30lb (13.6kg) during last year’s presidential campaign. He told reporters he had been “so busy” he had not “been able to eat very much”.

The Republican also used the portrait to make a political point – describing Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, as “radical” and “extremely weak on crime”.

But the portrait had nothing to do with Polis, US media pointed out. It was instead the result of a crowdfunding campaign that was launched by a Republican. The portrait was reportedly commissioned to fill an empty space that had briefly been filled with an image of Vladimir Putin by a prankster.

Following the backlash, a committee of leaders from both parties ordered the painting removed on Monday afternoon, according to a spokesman for Colorado’s House Democrats. It will be kept in a secure location “until further notice”.

The BBC has contacted Ms Boardman for comment. Discussing her work with the Colorado Times Recorder in 2019, she acknowledged that there would “always be anger at a president from one side or the other. It is human nature.”

Another portrait artist told the BBC he “would have painted things slightly differently”, but that presidential portraits were nuanced, and he had sympathy for the artist.

Robert Anderson, who created the official portrait of President George W Bush which hangs in the US National Portrait Gallery, said viewers tended to bring “baggage” depending on their feelings about the painting’s subject.

For that reason, the reaction to an artwork often had “very little to do with the quality of art”, he said.

Of Trump, Mr Anderson said: “I think it would be very difficult to paint him because he has a particular impression of himself which might be very different to that of many others – probably at least half of the country.”

A spokesman for Polis told 9News said the governor was “surprised to learn the president of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork”.

The statement continued: “We appreciate the president and everyone’s interest in our capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.”

Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has reported annual revenue for 2024 that has leapfrogged rival Tesla.

The Shenzhen-based firm says revenue rose by 29% to come in at 777 billion yuan ($107bn; £83bn), boosted by sales of its hybrid vehicles. This topped the $97.7bn reported by Elon Musk’s Tesla.

BYD has also just launched a lower-priced car to rival Tesla’s Model 3, which has long been the top selling electric vehicle (EV) in China.

It comes as Tesla faces a backlash around the world over Musk’s ties to US President Donald Trump, while Chinese carmakers have been hit with tariffs in Western countries.

BYD sold around the same number of EVs as Tesla last year – 1.76 million compared to 1.79 million, respectively.

But when sales of the Chinese company’s hybrid cars are taken into account it is much bigger, selling a record 4.3 million vehicles globally in 2024.

On Sunday, BYD announced a new model to take on Tesla.

Its Qin L model has a starting price in China of 119,800 yuan, while a basic version of Tesla’s Model 3 is priced at 235,500 yuan.

It comes as Chinese consumers are cutting spending in the face of economic challenges, including a property crisis, slowing growth, and high local government debt.

Last week, BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu announced new battery charging technology, which he said could charge an EV in five minutes.

That compares with around 15 minutes to charge a Tesla using its supercharger system.

In February, BYD announced that its so-called “God’s Eye” advanced driver-assistance technology would be available free in all its models.

Shares in the firm, which is backed by veteran US investor Warren Buffett, have jumped by more than 50% so far this year.

A backlash against Musk and his carmaker has gathered momentum since he was appointed head of the Trump administration’s Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been tasked with slashing federal government spending.

Musk has also intervened in politics abroad, including giving his backing to far-right party Alternative für Deutschland ahead of Germany’s parliamentary election and criticising UK politicians such as Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Meanwhile, China’s EV manufacturers have been targeted with tariffs in large parts of the world, including the US and the European Union.

On Wednesday the chancellor will give an update on her plans for the economy.

The government has promised to boost growth, which should mean higher pay, more jobs, and more spending on services such as the NHS, education and transport.

Rachel Reeves will share the latest official outlook, which is expected to say the UK economy will grow 1% this year, rather than the previously forecast 2%.

And she will have to explain how she intends to tackle the big challenges facing her when she delivers her Spring Statement.

Those challenges are also being felt on the ground, in people’s everyday lives.

People have contacted the BBC through our Your Voice, Your BBC News to tell us how they are feeling about the months ahead and what plans they have to tackle the hurdles they face.

“I’m working paycheque to paycheque,” says Dylan Caulkin. “If I have a tyre that pops, I rely on credit.”

The teaching assistant, who lives with his parents near Truro, Cornwall, is about to start a new job as a support worker for people with learning difficulties.

At £12.24 an hour, his pay will be only just above the level the minimum wage is rising to in April. But it is more than he is getting in his current role.

“I’m very excited,” he says. The opportunity for doing overtime, too, means the change will have a “massive impact” on his finances.

He pays his parents £160 a month rent and contributes to food costs, which are higher for him as he is on a gluten-free diet. His car – a necessity, he says – costs about £500 a month to run. And he has a small amount of credit card debt he is currently trying to clear.

He sometimes has £100 left over at the end of the month for spending on himself.

“I’m very lucky to have family around me,” he says. “I wouldn’t be able to survive without them.”

He would like to see the government provide more help for young people like him.

“In the near-future I’m looking to move in with my partner but it is just so expensive.”

• How much will the minimum wage rise by?

What happens next with interest rates is what matters most to Ellie Richardson and Billy Taylor.

They found their dream home for £350,000 last year, but the sale has been delayed and now won’t be completed before stamp duty rises at the end of this month, costing them an extra £2,500.

“You have to roll with the punches,” says Ellie, who works in sports PR. But they hope mortgage rates aren’t also about to go up.

She and Billy, a builder, have been shuttling between his parents’ and her parents’ houses in Essex for the past three years.

“We’ve worked really hard to save as much as we can for this house,” she says. “We’re pretty set on it.”

They have a joint income of around £80,000 and they have a mortgage offer that would see them pay around £1,200 a month.

But if the house purchase is delayed too long, they may end up having to apply for a new mortgage.

“The silver lining is, if we do complete later in the year, then hopefully mortgage rates could be lower,” she says.

• When will interest rates go down again?
• What is stamp duty and how is it changing?

Elspeth Edwards is worried about the tightening of eligibility criteria for the welfare benefits she receives.

“If the support gets taken away I’ll have to rely on my parents for everything,” she says.

The student from Worcester has a combination of health conditions including PoTS, which causes her heart rate to increase very quickly when she stands up and can lead to loss of balance and consciousness.

“I faint multiple times a day, I’m in immense pain constantly. I dislocate my fingers, elbows, shoulders and knees a lot.

“Most students work part-time,” she says. “I’ve been deemed unfit to work.”

Elspeth receives a total of about £1,200 a month through a student maintenance loan and incapacity and disability benefits.

She is dropping out of her current course – nursing – because she can’t manage the hospital shifts. She wants to start a new course, in astrophysics, in the autumn.

But she says her parents can’t support her financially, so if her benefits are cut, she will have to abandon that ambition.

“I’ve got more outgoings than the average student,” she says.

Currently, she has nothing left at the end of the month, after spending around £800 on rent and another good chunk on her cardiac support dog, Podge.

His food costs £90 a month, there are vet’s bills, and recently he needed a new harness that helps him to communicate to her, including when she is about to faint. It cost £1,200.

“Currently all my money goes on him,” she says.

• What are the Pip and universal credit changes?
• Under-22s to be excluded from incapacity benefits

Businessman Lincoln Smith reckons consumer confidence is the lowest it has been for 15 years.

He owns and runs Custom Heat, a plumbing firm based in Rugby. The rising cost of living has meant his customers have cut back on annual boiler services and other things. On top of that, taxes for businesses go up in April.

“That makes you shrink your ambitions, makes you think, ‘Let’s not replace people who are leaving.'”

The company is not taking on apprentices this year, and has even got rid of the office cleaner.

Lincoln himself is taking a 20% pay cut to help balance the books for the forthcoming financial year.

He’ll be earning £125,000, while his wife, who also works for the business, earns £45,000.

“It sounds like a lot,” he admits, but the cut will still mean lifestyle changes. “When you are earning any salary, you set your outgoings based on it.”

With a mortgage of £3,000 a month they are already at “breakeven point”, he says.

“We haven’t booked a holiday this year. We are definitely not going away,” he says.

But if that is not enough he will look at moving house to reduce the mortgage.

It’s a bit upsetting, he says, because it’s the only house his sons, aged seven and four, have known.

“I know it’s ‘first world problems’,” he says. “You’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do.”

• How much do employers pay in National Insurance?

Radhika Gupta thinks whatever Rachel Reeves does on Wednesday she shouldn’t cut spending on health or education.

The student from Derry in Northern Ireland is in the third year of a five-year medical degree at Queen’s University in Belfast.

“One thing that worries me is how many doctors want to leave,” she says.

“The consensus is it is not worth practising medicine in the UK because of how little you are paid. And you are left with a lot of student debt.

“I don’t think the government really understands the challenges.”

Despite what she sees as underfunded services and staff burnout she wants to work in England after she graduates.

But more needs to be done to fund and improve medical training, she says.

The other thing she would like to see more money spent on is transport, which is one of her biggest expenses at around £75 a month, partly because unreliable public transport sometimes means she takes a cab to the hospital.

Her parents and maintenance loan give her about £800 a month, which she supplements with tutoring and casual work in hospitality. Her rent is £600. There are extra costs like her scrubs – she needs several sets – at £35 a set.

“Things are quite tight,” she says.

• How do student loans work?

“There doesn’t seem to be anything good on the horizon,” says Malcolm Hindley, a retired window cleaner from Liverpool.

A widower, he lives with his daughter, who “does everything round the house” and cares for him and her disabled daughter.

He owns his own house, but finds it hard to get by on his £200-a-week state pension, plus attendance allowance of around £80 a week.

He needs a car to get to the shops and medical appointments, and has just been in a car accident that has left him with a neck brace, on top of existing mobility issues.

He will be listening out on Wednesday for further details around cuts to benefits for the long-term sick and disabled.

Losing the winter fuel payment was hard, he says, because he feels the cold more as he gets older. Now he is worried what else might go.

“The way this government’s working, it just seems to be hitting the poorer more. What else are they going to take off us?”

He doesn’t have much left at the end of the month, but what he does have goes on ice creams and sweets for the grandchildren.

“When you see their faces it’s brilliant,” he says.

• How much is the winter fuel payment and who can still get it?

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed opposition political parties for provoking a “movement of violence”, as protests in the country continue for a sixth night.

Unrest began in Istanbul last Wednesday when the city’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s main presidential rival, was detained on corruption charges.

Thousands of people gathered once again on Monday. Unrest had escalated on Sunday night, with protesters fired on with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Imamoglu, also suspended from his post as mayor, said the allegations against him were politically motivated, a claim denied by Erdogan.

Large numbers of riot police accompanied protesters around Istanbul’s city hall on Monday night, as crowds chanted and waved Turkish flags.

Vehicles carrying water guns were also seen close by, though protests appeared to be largely peaceful with no repeat of the fierce clashes seen on Sunday.

In figures released before Monday evening’s gatherings, the Turkish government said 1,133 people had been arrested since the protests started.

In an earlier televised statement, Erdogan labelled the demonstrations “evil” and blamed opposition political parties for “disturbing the peace of our citizens with provocations”.

Speaking from Ankara, Turkey’s capital, he called for the protests to end and said that “instead of responding to allegations”, opposition parties had “made the most vile and unlawful statements in our political history for [the last] five days”.

CHP leader Özgür Özel spoke to the thousands gathered on Monday night He told the crowd that the demonstration was “an act of defiance against fascism”.

Özel said he would visit Imamoglu in jail in Silivri on Tuesday. He said the CHP would appeal for the politician to be released pending trial, and for his trial to be shown live on state broadcaster TRT.

Despite being in custody, Imamoglu was confirmed on Monday as the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) candidate for Turkey’s 2028 presidential election. The vote confirming his candidacy was symbolic as he was the only person running.

He spent Sunday night in jail after being formally arrested and charged earlier that day with “establishing and managing a criminal organisation, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender”.

In a post on X over the weekend, Imamoglu said he would “never bow” and criticised his arrest as a “black stain on our democracy”.

He also sent greetings to those protesting and said that voters had showed Turkey had had “enough” of Erdogan.

The demonstrations seen in recent days are the largest in Turkey since the Gezi protests of 2013, which began in Istanbul over the demolition of a local park.

They have been largely peaceful, but on Sunday police officers fired water cannons and used pepper spray as clashes unfolded.

Dilek Kaya Imamoglu, Imamoglu’s wife, was also outside Istanbul’s city hall and told demonstrators the “injustice” her husband faced had “struck a chord with every conscience”.

Imamoglu was one of more than 100 people detained last week as part of an investigation. Others arrested included politicians, journalists and businessmen.

His arrest does not prevent his candidacy or election as president, but he will not be able to run if he is convicted of any of the charges against him.

The jailed politician is seen as one of the most formidable rivals of Erdogan, who has held office in Turkey for 22 years as both prime minister and president.

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

Turkey’s Ministry of Justice criticised those connecting Erdogan to the arrests, and insisted on its judicial independence.

On 24 March 2020, India announced its first Covid lockdown, just as the world stood on the brink of a global pandemic that would claim millions of lives.

India’s already fragile healthcare system collapsed under the pandemic’s weight.

The WHO estimated over 4.7 million Covid deaths in India – nearly 10 times the official count – but the government rejected the figure, citing flaws in the methodology.

Five years later, BBC India journalists reflect on their experiences recounting how, at times, they became part of the story they were covering.

Soutik Biswas, BBC News

It was the summer of 2021.

I woke up to the frantic voice of a school teacher. Her 46-year-old husband had been battling Covid in a Delhi hospital, where oxygen was as scarce as hope.

Here we go again, I thought, dread creeping in. India was trapped in the deadly grip of a lethal second wave of infections, with Delhi at its heart. And it was just another day in a city where breathing itself had become a privilege.

We scrambled for help, making calls, sending SOS messages, hoping someone might have a lead.

Her voice shook as she told us her husband’s oxygen levels had dipped to 58. It should have been 92 or higher. He was slipping, but she clung to the small comfort that it had climbed to 62. He was still conscious, still speaking. For now.

But how long could this last? I wondered. How many more lives would be lost because the basics – oxygen, beds, medicine – were beyond reach? This wasn’t supposed to happen in 2021. Not here.

The woman called back. The hospital didn’t even have an oxygen flow meter, she said. She had to find one herself.

We reached out again. Phones buzzed, tweets flew into the void, hoping someone would see us. Finally, a device was located – a small victory in a sea of despair. The oxygen would flow. For now.

The numbers didn’t lie, though.

A report from the same hospital told of a 40-year-old man who died waiting for a bed. He found a stretcher, at least, the report helpfully added. That was where we were now: grateful for a place to lay the dead.

In the face of this, oxygen was a commodity. So were medicines, in short supply and hoarded by those who could pay. People were dying because they couldn’t breathe, and the city choked on its own apathy.

This was a war. It felt like a war. And we were losing it.

Yogita Limaye, BBC News

“Balaji, why are you lying like this,” screamed a woman outside Delhi’s GTB hospital, shaking her unconscious brother who was lying on a stretcher.

Minutes later, her brother, the father of two children, died, waiting outside a hospital before he was even seen by a doctor.

I will never forget her cry.

Around her, families pleaded at the door of the hospital to get a doctor to come and see their loved ones.

They were among hundreds of pleas for help we heard over the weeks we reported on how the second wave of Covid, which began in March 2021, brought a nation to its knees.

It was as though people had been left to tackle a vicious pandemic on their own – going from hospital to hospital searching for beds and oxygen.

The second wave had not come without warning, but India’s government, which had declared victory over the disease two months earlier, was caught unprepared by the resurgence.

In the ICU of a major hospital, I saw the head doctor pace up and down, making one phone call after another frantically searching for supplies of oxygen.

“There’s just one hour of supply left. Reduce the oxygen we’re supplying to our patients to the lowest levels needed to ensure all organs continue to function properly,” he instructed his deputy, his face tense.

I distinctly remember the heat and fumes from 37 funeral pyres burning simultaneously under the April sun at a Delhi crematorium.

People sat in shock – not yet feeling the grief and anger that would come – seemingly stunned into silence by the frightening speed at which Covid ravaged the capital.

Our work messaging groups buzzed all the time with news of yet another colleague desperately needing a hospital bed for a loved one.

No-one was untouched by it.

In Pune, my father was recovering from a Covid-related heart attack he’d suffered a month earlier.

Back in my hometown Mumbai, one of my closest friends lay critical on a ventilator in hospital.

After five weeks in ICU, miraculously, he recovered. But my father’s heart never did, and a year later, he suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving a permanent hole in our lives.

Covid-19 will always be the most difficult story I’ve ever covered.

Vikas Pandey, BBC News

Covering the pandemic was the hardest assignment of my life because it’s a story that literally came home.

Friends, relatives and neighbours called every day, asking for help procuring oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and even essential medicines. I interviewed several grieving families at that time.

Yet, a few incidents have remained etched in my memory.

In 2021, I reported Altuf Shamsi’s story, which sums up the unimaginable pain millions went through.

His pregnant wife and father were both infected with the virus and admitted to different hospitals in Delhi. He knew me through a friend and called to ask if I could help him find another doctor after the hospital where his dad was admitted told him that chances of survival were zero. While he was speaking to me, he got another call from his wife’s doctor who said they were running out of oxygen for her.

He lost his father first and later texted me: “I was looking at his body, while reading SOS messages from Rehab’s [his wife] hospital for oxygen.”

A few days later, he lost his wife too after she gave birth to their daughter.

The two other incidents came closer to home than anything else.

A relative deteriorated very fast after being admitted to a hospital.

He was put on a ventilator and doctors gave a bleak prognosis. One of them advised trying an experimental drug that had shown some results in the UK.

I tweeted and called everybody I thought could help. It’s hard to put that frustration into words – he was sinking with each passing hour but the drug that could potentially save him was nowhere to be found.

A kind doctor helped us with one injection but we needed three more. Then someone read my tweet and reached out – she had procured three vials for her father but he died before he could be given the doses. I took her help and my relative survived.

But a cousin did not. He was admitted to the same hospital. His oxygen levels were dipping every hour and he needed to be put on a ventilator, but the hospital didn’t have any free.

I made calls the whole night.

The next morning, the hospital ran out of oxygen, leading to many deaths, including his. He left behind his wife and two young children. I still wonder if there was something more I could have done.

Geeta Pandey, BBC News

The morning after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a hard lockdown, I headed out to Delhi’s main bus station. The only people out on the streets were police and paramilitaries, deployed to ensure people stayed indoors.

The bus station was deserted. A few hundred metres away, I met men, women and children who were looking for ways to reach home, hundreds of miles away. Over the next few days, those numbers swelled into millions as people desperately tried to find a way to be with their families and loved ones.

As the virus made its way over the next few months, and the capital city – along with the rest of the country – remained under a strict shutdown, tragedy lurked at every corner.

We feared stepping out and we feared staying in.

All hopes – including mine – were pinned on a vaccine that scientists across the globe were racing to develop.

I had last visited my mother, bedridden in our ancestral village 450 miles (724km) from Delhi, in January 2020, just a couple of months before the lockdown. My mother, like millions of other people, didn’t really understand what Covid was – the disease that had suddenly disrupted their lives.

Every time I called, she had only one question: “When will you visit?” The fear that I could carry the virus to her at a time when she was most vulnerable kept me away.

On 16 January 2021, I was at Max hospital in Delhi when India rolled out the world’s biggest vaccination drive, promising to vaccinate all the adults in the country of 1.4 billion people. Doctors and medical staff there described it as a “new dawn”. Some told me they would visit their families as soon as they received their second doses.

I called my mother and told her that I will get my vaccine and visit her soon. But a week later, she was gone.

Anagha Pathak, BBC Marathi

A few days after India announced the lockdown, I was travelling to the border of Maharashtra state to document the impact of the restrictions.

It was three in the morning as I drove along the eerily empty Mumbai-Agra highway. My hometown of Nashik looked unrecognisable.

Instead of traffic, migrant workers filled the road, walking back home, stranded and out of work. Among them was a young couple from Uttar Pradesh. They had worked as labourers in Mumbai. The wife, still in her early 20s, was pregnant. They had hoped to catch a ride on a truck, but that didn’t happen. By the time they reached Nashik, they had run out of food, water and money.

I will never forget seeing the pregnant woman, her fragile body walking under the scorching sun. I had never felt more helpless. Covid protocols prevented me from offering them a ride. All I could do was give them some water and snacks, while documenting their journey.

A few miles ahead, around 300 people waited for a government bus to take them to the state border. But it was nowhere in sight. After making some calls, two buses finally arrived – still not enough. But I made sure the couple got on the one heading towards Madhya Pradesh state, where they were supposed to catch another bus.

I followed them in my car and waited for some time for them to catch their next bus. It never came.

Eventually, I left. I had an assignment to finish.

Five years have passed, and I still wonder: Did the woman make it home? Did she survive? I don’t know her name, but I still remember her weary eyes and fragile body.