Senior members of Donald Trump’s cabinet have been involved in a serious security breach while discussing secret military plans for recent US attacks on the Houthi armed group in Yemen.

In an extraordinary blunder, key figures in the Trump administration – including the vice-president, JD Vance, the defence secretary Pete Hegseth, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard – used the commercial chat app Signal to convene and discuss plans – while also including a prominent journalist in the group.

Signal is not approved by the US government for sharing sensitive information.

Others in the chat included the Trump adviser Stephen Miller; Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles; and the key Trump envoy Steve Witkoff.

The breach was revealed in an article published on Monday by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic magazine, who discovered that he had been included in a Signal chat called “Houthi PC Small Group” and realising that 18 other members of the group included Trump cabinet members.

In his account, Goldberg said that he removed sensitive material from his account, including the identity of a senior CIA officer and current operational details.

The report was confirmed by Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the national security council, who told the magazine: “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”

Hughes added: “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.”

Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he was unaware of the incident. “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of the Atlantic,” Trump said.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, later released a statement saying: “President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.”

The incident is likely to further raise concerns over the Trump administration’s trustworthiness with intelligence shared by erstwhile allies – not least as Hegseth boasts at one stage of guaranteeing “100 percent OPSEC – operations security” while a celebrated journalist is reading his message.

The discussions seen by Goldberg include comments from Vance, who appeared unconvinced of the urgency of attacking Yemen, as well as conversations over what price should be expected of Europeans and other countries for the US removing the threat to a key global shipping route.

Security and intelligence commentators in the US described the breach of operational security as unprecedented – both for the use of a commercial chat service and for the inclusion of Goldberg.

In the US military, the highest political echelon and intelligence services operate under strict rules for communication of classified material and for the discussion of issues concerning operational security where lives and outcomes could be compromised by disclosure.

While Signal is regarded as a secure encrypted chat service, its weakness is that phones on which it is installed can themselves be vulnerable.

Among those aghast at the breach was the Democratic representative Pat Ryan, an army veteran who sits on the House armed services committee who described it using the second world war-era epithet “Fubar” – meaning “fucked up beyond all recognition”.

“If House Republicans won’t hold a hearing on how this happened IMMEDIATELY, I’ll do it my damn self.”

Shane Harris, a longtime national security reporter – formerly of the Washington Post and now with the Atlantic – wrote on BlueSky: “In 25 years of covering national security, I’ve never seen a story like this.”

Goldberg writes that he was initially dubious about whether the messages might be some kind of foreign disinformation operation, but became convinced they were genuine both because of the language and positions presented and because the plan discussed coincided with an actual attack on Yemen.

One striking exchange involved Vance and Hegseth making disparaging remarks about Europe.

“The account identified as ‘JD Vance’ addressed a message at 8:45 to @Pete Hegseth: ‘if you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again,’” Goldberg wrote. (The administration has argued that America’s European allies benefit economically from the US navy’s protection of international shipping lanes.)

Goldberg continues: “The user identified as Hegseth responded three minutes later: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this.

“Nobody else even close. Question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space.”

In reality, about 20 countries are involved in the mission to protect shipping from Houthi attacks including British warships.

As Goldberg became aware of the attack on Yemen taking place, he recorded how he went back to the Signal channel:

“‘Michael Waltz’ [US national security adviser] had provided the group an update. Again, I won’t quote from this text, except to note that he described the operation as an ‘amazing job.’’’

A few minutes later, [another individual wrote]: “A good start.”

Not long after, Waltz responded with three emojis: a fist, an American flag and fire. Others soon joined in, including “MAR”, [Marco Rubio]. He wrote: “Good Job Pete and your team!!” and “Susie Wiles”. She texted: “Kudos to all – most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM! Really great. God bless.”

Senior Trump administration officials have triggered bipartisan outrage after broadcasting classified military plans through a Signal group chat to which they had inadvertently added a prominent journalist.

According to reporting in the Atlantic, the editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally invited into a Signal chat group with more than a dozen senior Trump administration officials including Vice-President JD Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, national security adviser, Mike Waltz, secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and others.

“It has made us look weak to our adversaries,” the California congressman Ro Khanna told the Guardian. “We need to take cybersecurity far more seriously and I look forward to leading on that.”

Catching up? Here’s what happened on 23 March.

A catastrophic security leak is triggering bipartisan outrage after the Atlantic revealed that senior Trump administration officials accidentally broadcast highly sensitive military plans through a Signal group chat with a journalist reading along.

On the Senate floor on Monday, the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called it “one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time” and urged Republicans to seek a “full investigation into how this happened, the damage it created and how we can avoid it in the future”.

“Every single one of the government officials on this text chain have now committed a crime – even if accidentally,” the Delaware senator Chris Coons wrote on Twitter/X. “We can’t trust anyone in this dangerous administration to keep Americans safe.”

The New York representative Pat Ryan called the incident “Fubar” (an acronym for “fucked up beyond all recognition”) and threatened to launch his own congressional investigation “IMMEDIATELY” if House Republicans fail to act.

According to reporting in the Atlantic, the editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally invited into a Signal chat group with more than a dozen senior Trump administration officials including Vice-President JD Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, national security adviser, Mike Waltz, secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and others.

The reporting exposes not only a historic mishandling of national security information but a potentially illegal communication chain in which sensitive military plans about airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen were casually shared in an encrypted group chat with automatic delete functions.

“It has made us look weak to our adversaries,” the California congressman Ro Khanna told the Guardian. “We need to take cybersecurity far more seriously and I look forward to leading on that.”

As the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Jim Himes has overseen countless classified briefings. But the Signal group chat leak of impending war plans has made him “horrified”.

“If true, these actions are a brazen violation of laws and regulations that exist to protect national security, including the safety of Americans serving in harm’s way,’ he said. “These individuals know the calamitous risks of transmitting classified information across unclassified systems, and they also know that if a lower-ranking official under their command did what is described here, they would likely lose their clearance and be subject to criminal investigation.”

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, posted on social media: “This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe.”

Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic minority leader, called for a “substantive investigation into this unacceptable and irresponsible national security breach”, saying the leak was “completely outrageous and shocks the conscience”.

The Republican senator John Cornyn described the incident more colloquially, telling reporters it was “a huge screw-up” and suggesting that “the interagency would look at that” to determine how such a significant security lapse occurred.

The White House confirmed the leak. The national security council spokesperson, Brian Hughes, told the Guardian: “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”

But the White House attempted to defend the communications, with Hughes describing the messages as an example of “deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials”.

“The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security,” Hughes said.

But most lawmakers don’t see it that way. The Rhode Island senator Jack Reed said on X that the incident represented “one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen”.

The echoes of past document controversies are also coming back to haunt some of the senior officials in the chat, who previously criticized similar security breaches. In 2024, Waltz – the current national security adviser – had said “Biden’s sitting National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sent Top Secret messages to Hillary Clinton’s private account. And what did DOJ do about it? Not a damn thing.”

In 2023, Hegseth had his own critique of the Biden administration handling classified documents “flippantly”, remarking on Fox News that “If at the very top there’s no accountability”, then we have “two tiers of justice”.

When pressed by a reporter about the group chat on Monday, Hegseth said that “nobody was texting war plans” and attacked Goldberg as “deceitful and highly discredited” without refuting any specifics from the Atlantic story.

In response to the accidental leak, Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, called on Hegseth to resign or be fired from his position as defense secretary.

In a statement, Martin said: “It’s crystal clear that our men and women in uniform deserve better – and that our national security cannot be left in Hegseth’s incompetent and unqualified hands.”

The bombshell revelation also potentially violated federal record-keeping laws. The Federal Records Act, which mandates preservation of government communications, typically mandates that records are kept for two years, and the Signal messages were scheduled to automatically delete in under four weeks.

The New York Republican representative Mike Lawler summed up the bipartisan consensus: “Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels – and certainly not to those without security clearances. Period.”

Senior Trump administration officials have triggered bipartisan outrage after broadcasting classified military plans through a Signal group chat to which they had inadvertently added a prominent journalist.

According to reporting in the Atlantic, the editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally invited into a Signal chat group with more than a dozen senior Trump administration officials including Vice-President JD Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, national security adviser, Mike Waltz, secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and others.

“It has made us look weak to our adversaries,” the California congressman Ro Khanna told the Guardian. “We need to take cybersecurity far more seriously and I look forward to leading on that.”

Catching up? Here’s what happened on 23 March.

A catastrophic security leak is triggering bipartisan outrage after the Atlantic revealed that senior Trump administration officials accidentally broadcast highly sensitive military plans through a Signal group chat with a journalist reading along.

On the Senate floor on Monday, the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called it “one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time” and urged Republicans to seek a “full investigation into how this happened, the damage it created and how we can avoid it in the future”.

“Every single one of the government officials on this text chain have now committed a crime – even if accidentally,” the Delaware senator Chris Coons wrote on Twitter/X. “We can’t trust anyone in this dangerous administration to keep Americans safe.”

The New York representative Pat Ryan called the incident “Fubar” (an acronym for “fucked up beyond all recognition”) and threatened to launch his own congressional investigation “IMMEDIATELY” if House Republicans fail to act.

According to reporting in the Atlantic, the editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally invited into a Signal chat group with more than a dozen senior Trump administration officials including Vice-President JD Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, national security adviser, Mike Waltz, secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and others.

The reporting exposes not only a historic mishandling of national security information but a potentially illegal communication chain in which sensitive military plans about airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen were casually shared in an encrypted group chat with automatic delete functions.

“It has made us look weak to our adversaries,” the California congressman Ro Khanna told the Guardian. “We need to take cybersecurity far more seriously and I look forward to leading on that.”

As the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Jim Himes has overseen countless classified briefings. But the Signal group chat leak of impending war plans has made him “horrified”.

“If true, these actions are a brazen violation of laws and regulations that exist to protect national security, including the safety of Americans serving in harm’s way,’ he said. “These individuals know the calamitous risks of transmitting classified information across unclassified systems, and they also know that if a lower-ranking official under their command did what is described here, they would likely lose their clearance and be subject to criminal investigation.”

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, posted on social media: “This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe.”

Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic minority leader, called for a “substantive investigation into this unacceptable and irresponsible national security breach”, saying the leak was “completely outrageous and shocks the conscience”.

The Republican senator John Cornyn described the incident more colloquially, telling reporters it was “a huge screw-up” and suggesting that “the interagency would look at that” to determine how such a significant security lapse occurred.

The White House confirmed the leak. The national security council spokesperson, Brian Hughes, told the Guardian: “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”

But the White House attempted to defend the communications, with Hughes describing the messages as an example of “deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials”.

“The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security,” Hughes said.

But most lawmakers don’t see it that way. The Rhode Island senator Jack Reed said on X that the incident represented “one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen”.

The echoes of past document controversies are also coming back to haunt some of the senior officials in the chat, who previously criticized similar security breaches. In 2024, Waltz – the current national security adviser – had said “Biden’s sitting National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sent Top Secret messages to Hillary Clinton’s private account. And what did DOJ do about it? Not a damn thing.”

In 2023, Hegseth had his own critique of the Biden administration handling classified documents “flippantly”, remarking on Fox News that “If at the very top there’s no accountability”, then we have “two tiers of justice”.

When pressed by a reporter about the group chat on Monday, Hegseth said that “nobody was texting war plans” and attacked Goldberg as “deceitful and highly discredited” without refuting any specifics from the Atlantic story.

In response to the accidental leak, Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, called on Hegseth to resign or be fired from his position as defense secretary.

In a statement, Martin said: “It’s crystal clear that our men and women in uniform deserve better – and that our national security cannot be left in Hegseth’s incompetent and unqualified hands.”

The bombshell revelation also potentially violated federal record-keeping laws. The Federal Records Act, which mandates preservation of government communications, typically mandates that records are kept for two years, and the Signal messages were scheduled to automatically delete in under four weeks.

The New York Republican representative Mike Lawler summed up the bipartisan consensus: “Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels – and certainly not to those without security clearances. Period.”

A Palestinian director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has been arrested by the Israeli army after masked settlers attacked his house.

According to five Jewish American activists who witnessed the attack, Hamdan Ballal, one of the four directors of the the film that documented the destruction of villages in the West Bank, was surrounded and attacked by a group of about 15 armed settlers in Susya in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron.

“They started throwing stones towards Palestinians and destroyed a water tank near Hamdan’s house,” said Joseph, of the activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, who asked not to use his full name for security reasons.

The witnesses said that a group of soldiers arrived at the scene alongside other settlers dressed in military uniform, who chased Hamdan to his house and handed him over to the military.

‘‘The settlers destroyed his car with stones and slashed one of the tyres,’’ another witness, Raviv, told the Guardian. ‘‘All the windows and windshields were broken.’’

Ballal was injured by the settlers and taken by the Israeli army.

Members of the activist group filmed the attack and then entered the house and saw blood over the floor, which a family member said was spilled when Hamdan was hit on the head.

The director, and another man – identified only as Nasser – were arrested and taken to a police station. It was not clear why.

In a statement the IDF said there was a violent confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis after “terrorists” threw rocks at Israeli citizens.

“IDF and Israeli Police forces arrived to disperse the confrontation, at this point, several terrorists began hurling rocks at the security forces,” the statement said.

“The forces apprehended three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in the violent confrontation. The detainees were taken for further questioning by the Israel Police.”

Basel Adra, another of No Other Land’s four directors, who are all from Israel and Palestine, told the Guardian he thought the escalating settler violence might be a response to the international recognition won by the documentary.

“Palestinians in the village have been under physical attack by settlers almost daily. The settlers’ violence is increasing here. Maybe it’s a revenge for the movie and the Oscar,” he said.

Adra, who witnessed the attack in Susya described the violence as “horrific”. “There were dozens of settlers together with the Israeli soldiers and they were threatening us with weapons,” he said. “The police were there from the beginning and did not intervene. While the soldiers were pointing their weapons at us, the settlers started attacking the houses of the Palestinians.

“Hamdan tried to protect his family and the settlers attacked him. Soldiers started shooting in the air to prevent anyone to help Hamdan. He was shouting for help. They let the settlers attack him and then the army abducted him.”

Nasser’s Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham posted on X: “A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film no other land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.”

This is not the first time that directors and member of crew of No Other Land have been attacked by settlers.

Last February, Adra was also surrounded and attacked by masked Israeli settlers.

Earlier on Monday, Adra wrote on X that “armed and masked settlers” were “leading a terror attack on Masafer Yatta” as he was writing.

“Dozens of settlers arrived at my friend Naser’s house in Susya, throwing stones at his home, smashing his vehicle, and slashing [the vehicle’s tyres with knives],” he added.

“We risked our life to film,” he said, noting that “soldiers are ordering us to stay inside our homes in the village, while those who attack and could’ve slaughtered the residents in their homes roam freely, masked, around the village”.

Israel’s culture minister has called the Oscar win for the joint Palestinian-Israeli documentary “a sad moment for the world of cinema”.

Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 65 people in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including women, children and two journalists, the Palestinian health authority said on Monday, nearly a week after Israel broke its ceasefire with Hamas.

Palestinians in Gaza have again been fleeing for their lives after Israel launched its new offensive in the territory, which started on Tuesday last week with a wave of airstrikes that killed about 700 people, mostly civilians, ending two months of relative calm, according to the Palestinian health ministry in the territory run by Hamas.

Hossam Shabat, a journalist for the Al Jazeera Mubasher channel, was killed in northern Gaza on Monday. Witnesses told the network that his car was targeted in the eastern part of Beit Lahiya.

Earlier in the day, Mohammad Mansour, a reporter who worked for Palestine Today, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

According to witnesses, Mansour was targeted “in his house alongside his wife and his son” without any prior warning.

There was no immediate comment by the Israel Defense Forces.

At least 208 journalists and media workers have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate.

Palestinian medics say an Israeli strike hit a school where displaced people were sheltering in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least four people, including a child.

Another 18 people were wounded in Monday’s strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to al-Awda hospital, which received the casualties. Three other hospitals had earlier reported 25 deaths from Israeli strikes overnight and into Monday.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians.

In a separate Israeli airstrike on Sunday night, the Nasser hospital, the largest medical facility in southern Gaza, was hit, killing five people, including a Hamas political leader.

The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site.

Hamas confirmed that a member of its political office, Ismail Barhoum, had been killed. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the target was Barhoum.

Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV said Barhoum was being treated at the hospital for wounds sustained in a previous attack. Another Hamas leader, Salah al-Bardawil, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis on Sunday. Both Bardawil and Barhoum were members of the 19-member political office, the group’s decision-making body, 11 of whom have been killed since the start of the war in late 2023, according to Hamas sources.

Sunday’s strike on Nasser hospital was the second on a health facility in Gaza in three days. On Friday, Israel blew up central Gaza’s Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital, Gaza’s only specialised cancer treatment hospital, which had already been severely damaged by Israeli airstrikes since October 2023.

Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a volunteer in a Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) team working at Nasser hospital, said medics in the emergency department were awaiting casualties when a massive blast shook the building.

“Everybody ran out to see what happened until one of my colleagues screamed ‘They hit surgery,’ Haj-Hassan said in a voice message. “There was so much smoke and fire. I ran across to the building next door, where the paediatric ICU is, just to grab my portable ultrasounds and a few things, knowing that we’d be receiving casualties.

“As I walked out, I could see the second floor of the building on fire.”

Steve Cutts, the chief executive of MAP, said the attack “demonstrates once again that nowhere is safe in Gaza”.

Cutts said a 16-year-old boy recovering from earlier surgery was also killed and at least eight people, including medical staff, were injured.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its office in the southern Gaza Strip was damaged by an explosive projectile on Monday, adding that no staff were wounded.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the aim of the war was to destroy Hamas as a military and governing entity. The ambition of the new campaign was to force the group to give up the remaining hostages, he said last week.

On Monday, Hamas’s armed wing released a video showing two Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the Palestinian militants’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The footage, which lasts a little over three minutes and whose exact recording date could not be verified, shows two men sitting on the floor speaking in Hebrew to a hostage who has since been released, asking him to recount his experiences in captivity in order to speed up their release.

Meanwhile, officials say Egypt has introduced a new proposal to try to get the Gaza ceasefire back on track.

According to the plan, Hamas would release five living hostages, including an American-Israeli, in return for Israel allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and a weeks-long pause in the fighting, an Egyptian official said Monday. Israel would also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

A Hamas official said the group had “responded positively” to the proposal, without elaborating.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 50,082 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and another 113,408 have been wounded, since the beginning of the war, triggered by an attack by Hamas militants in Israel in October 2023 in which they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

A group of Venezuelan immigrants have been deported from the US to Honduras and then sent on to Venezuela, after an apparent deal between the three countries.

The flights came one day after a Venezuelan government official announced on social media it would resume accepting deportees from the US. Deportations from the US to Venezuela, which have rarely taken place, have been a point of dispute for the Trump administration.

Sunday’s indirect deportation flight to Venezuela comes amid heightened tensions between the Trump administration and Venezuela, and an increase in operations targeting Venezuelan immigrants in the US.

The Venezuelan government official’s announcement also alluded to the highly contentious expulsion of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador last week.

“Migrating is not a crime, and we will not rest until we accomplish the return of all who need it, and until we rescue our brothers that are kidnapped in El Salvador,” said Jorge Rodríguez Gomez, the president of the Venezuelan national assembly.

The Honduran foreign minister announced on Sunday night that 199 Venezuelans were deported from the US to a military base in Honduras on Sunday. From there, the migrants were placed on Venezuelan planes and returned to Venezuela.

“This process shows us again the positive cooperation between the government of Honduras, the United States of America and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” Enrique Reina said on X.

According to the US state department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, the Trump administration expects to see “a consistent flow of deportation flights to Venezuela going forward”.

Since the Trump administration took office two months ago, there has been heightened pressure and aggression towards the Venezuelan government. In early February, the Venezuelan government sent two planes to the US to pick up deportees and returned them to Venezuela. At the time, the two flights were seen as a breakthrough in relations between the US and Venezuela.

However, scheduled flights were again placed on hold by the Venezuelan government, after Donald Trump reversed the 2022 license given to Chevron to operate in Venezuela. Last week, secretary of state Marco Rubio threatened “new, severe, and escalating sanctions” on Venezuela if it did not accept deportations.

On Monday, the treasury department published a license authorizing the wind down of Chevron’s work in Venezuela.

The first deportation to Venezuela via Honduras took place last month, when the US deported 177 Venezuelan immigrants previously detained at the Guantánamo Bay naval base. The US government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the Honduran foreign minister at the time both announced that deportation.

The Honduran government has strong diplomatic relations with Venezuela and their involvement in the transfer of Venezuelan deportees raises questions about behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Trump administration and the two Latin American governments. Before the US president took office, Honduran leftwing president Xiomara Castro had threatened to expel the US military from a base in the Central American country, in response to Trump’s threats to engage in mass deportations.

But after February’s first deportation to Venezuela via Honduras, Reina confirmed that Castro’s husband – former president reformist Manuel Zelaya– had coordinated with Trump envoys Mauricio Claver-Carone and Richard Grenell for the transfer of the migrants.

In a shakeup to US and Honduran relations, Castro’s brother-in-law and Zelaya’s brother, was previously accused in a US federal court of collaborating with drug traffickers. Her predecessor Juan Orland0 Hernández was convicted and sentenced in New York of drug trafficking.

All of this comes amid heightened US aggression towards the Venezuelan government. Earlier this year, before Trump assumed the presidency, the US state department announced a reward of up to $25m, for information leading to the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. In March 2020, under Trump’s first presidency, Maduro and other top officials were indicted in a New York federal court of drug trafficking and related crimes.

On Monday, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on any country that purchases oil from Venezuela, saying the country “has been very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse”.

When announcing the secondary tariffs, Trump added, without proof, that Venezuela has “purposefully and deceitfully” sent to the US, tens of thousands of “undercover” gang members. In late February, the state department designated the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization. The Trump administration has continually, also without proof, claimed that many Venezuelan immigrants in the US belong to the gang, and have been sent by the Venezuelan government.

Last week, the Trump administration quickly, and without due process, expelled 238 Venezuelan migrants from the US to El Salvador after invoking the Alien Enemies Act. When invoking the Act, Trump said that the Tren de Aragua gang “is closely aligned with, and indeed has infiltrated, the Maduro regime”.

The Venezuelan immigrants were sent to a high-security “terrorism” prison, run by the rightwing Salvadoran government of Nayib Bukele.

In the days that followed, news organizations began publishing details of the operation, including that some of the Venezuelans expelled to El Salvador were not members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The Trump administration continues to say that the rendition operation was legal, and that all Venezuelans expelled in the operation were gang members. A federal judge blocked the administration from expelling people via the Alien Enemies Act, and on Monday, he ruled migrants are entitled to individual hearings before being expelled.

Despite the Trump administration claiming that alleged Tren de Aragua members were sent by the Venezuelan government, an intelligence document suggests otherwise. Reporting from the New York Times last Thursday revealed that the CIA and the National Security Agency contradict Trump’s claims of the Venezuelan government’s ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, raising questions about Trump’s invocation of the war-time Alien Enemies Act. The justice department announced a criminal investigation into the source of the New York Times’ reporting.

Mark Carney has lamented Canada’s lost friendship with the United States as he visited the town that sheltered thousands of stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks.

The Canadian prime minister’s visit to Gander, Newfoundland, on the second day of a national election campaign comes against the backdrop of a trade war and sovereignty threats from Donald Trump.

“In this crisis caused by the US president and those who are enabling him, we lament a friendship lost,” Carney said on Monday. “In Gander Canadians did extraordinary things for Americans when they needed it. Now, we need to do extraordinary things for ourselves.”

Residents of Gander opened their arms to nearly 6,600 airline passengers diverted there when the US government shut down airspace during 9/11.

In a matter of a few hours, the town population of 10,000 in 2001 was overwhelmed by 38 planeloads of travelers, yet locals went to work in their kitchens and cleaned up spare rooms to offer space and food to the newcomers.

Flight crews quickly filled Gander’s hotels, so passengers were taken to schools, fire stations, church halls. The Canadian military flew in 5,000 cots. Stores donated blankets, coffee machines, barbecue grills. Unable to retrieve their luggage, passengers became dependent on the kindness of strangers, and it came in the shape of clothes, showers, toys, banks of phones to call home free of charge, an arena that became a giant walk-in fridge full of donated food.

Once all the planes had landed or turned back to Europe, Gander’s air traffic controllers switched to cooking meals in the building nonstop for three days.

On Monday, Carney visited the home of Beulah Cooper, who opened her home and comforted many including Dennis and Hannah O’Rourke, an elderly couple whose New York firefighter son, Kevin, went missing at the World Trade Center and was later confirmed to have died there.

The O’Rourkes remained friends with Cooper long after and went back to Gander, saying they felt eternally indebted.

“More than 6,000 passengers. Overnight, the town’s population almost doubled,” Carney said during a speech to residents. “You showed friendship to people who were fearful. In a crisis, you showed your character. When people needed help, you gave it.”

Carney noted the story of that day became legend, immortalized in the Canadian-made Broadway hit musical Come From Away.

“It became yet another example of the unbreakable bond between Canadians and Americans. Because when Americans are in need, Canadians have always shown up,” Carney said.

Carney noted Canadians have always been by Americans’ side whether it was during the Iranian hostage crisis, or more recently during the California wildfires or in Afghanistan, where Canada lost 158 members of the armed forces and seven civilians.

Trump has declared a trade war on his northern neighbor and continues to call for Canada to become the 51st state, a position that has infuriated Canadians. The US president has threatened economic coercion in his annexation threats and suggested the border is a fictional line.

Trump put 25% tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products – as well as all of America’s trading partners – on 2 April.

Carney said Canadians were over the shock of the betrayal but now had to look out for themselves. He said Canadians and Americans had traditionally been like brothers.

“But that’s changed. And it wasn’t us who did the changing. Unfortunately, President Trump’s actions have put that kinship under greater strain today than at any point in our storied history,” Carney said.

Carney and his Conservative opponent, Pierre Poilievre, said Trump must respect Canada’s sovereignty as they kicked off their election campaigns on Sunday. Carney announced a five-week election campaign before the vote on 28 April.

Carney still has not had a phone call with Trump and suggested that might not happen until after the election. “I’m available for a call. But you know we are going to talk on our terms as a sovereign country, not as what he pretends we are,” Carney said.

He said the Americans were making a “fundamental mistake” in the trade war.

“They think they will weaken us. They think that they can own us, quite frankly, that’s what they think,” he said. “We are going to get stronger. We are going to wait this out. They are going to come to the table and we are going to negotiate a good deal for Canadians.”

Turkish authorities have arrested more than 1,100 people including journalists, while bombarding the social media platform X with requests to block hundreds of accounts after tens of thousands took to the streets in the largest anti-government protests in years.

One journalist was detained while covering demonstrations that took place outside Istanbul city hall, while nine others were detained in dawn raids.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking after a cabinet meeting in the capital, Ankara, called the protests a “movement of violence”.

He said the country’s main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) would be held accountable for injuries to police officers and damage to property, adding that they should stop “provoking” the public.

The sweeping arrests came the morning after the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested on corruption charges and sent to a high-security prison on the outskirts of the city, on the same day he was named the opposition’s candidate for president.

Mass demonstrations triggered by İmamoğlu’s detention amount to the largest in Turkey in more than a decade. The protests have resulted in increasing pushback from the Turkish authorities, with police now readily deploying pepper spray, teargas and armoured water cannon trucks against crowds gathering in Istanbul as well as other major towns and cities across the country.

On Monday evening, crowds of students filled streets in the Beşiktaş neighbourhood, but were quickly hemmed in by lines of riot police.

The Turkish interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said 1,133 people had been detained in five days, starting with the dawn raid in which İmamoğlu and tens of municipal officials were taken into custody. Many of those detained in the days since were arrested for breaching a city-wide ban on protests in Istanbul. The city’s governor also restricted entry to Istanbul over the weekend in an attempt to curb the demonstrations.

Yerlikaya added that “some circles have been abusing the right to assembly and demonstration, attempting to disrupt public order, inciting street events and attacking our police. Such actions are aimed at disrupting the peace and security of our people.”.

Turkish authorities deny that the charges against İmamoğlu, a rival of the president, are political. Even so the crackdown on the Istanbul mayor as well as the protests have proven costly to the Turkish state, as economists estimate the Turkish central bank spent up to $25bn (£19.3bn) propping up the lira in three days last week.

Financial analyst Haluk Bürümcekçi said while the Turkish central bank had enough reserves to sustain the interventions, these “would not be adequate for similar ongoing demand”.

Turkey has struggled for years with an economic crisis that has driven up the cost of living, fuelling criticism of the government long before the demonstrations began.

The Turkish capital markets board said over the weekend that it had banned short selling for one month because of “recent developments”, at the Istanbul stock exchange, as the markets reeled from the impact of the crackdown on protests and İmamoğlu’s detention.

Evin Barış Altıntaş, who heads the Media and Law Studies Association, a free speech organisation that supports journalists detained in Turkey, said it was notable that most of the journalists detained overnight were photographers.

“The main aim is to cut off the number of people taking photos at protests,” she said, pointing to threats from Ebubekir Şahin, the head of Turkey’s media regulator, RTÜK, to suspend broadcaster’s licences for broadcasting live footage of the demonstrations. Şahin later denied any threats or that RTÜK’s actions threatened media freedom in Turkey, saying simply “the state will do what is necessary”.

Altıntaş said the arrests and threats to broadcasters were part of the government’s efforts to stifle coverage of the growing protests in the hope of quelling the demonstrations entirely.

“The protests are huge in number, so the authorities are trying very hard to contain that,” she said. “There’s an obvious attempt to stop the dissemination of news reports about protests, but I’m not sure how they will manage that as these are growing every day.”

The global government affairs team from the social media platform X said they “object to multiple court orders from the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority to block over 700 accounts of news organisations, journalists, political figures, students, and others within Türkiye”.

“We believe this decision from the Turkish government is not only unlawful, it hinders millions of Turkish users from news and political discourse in their country. We look forward to defending these principles through the legal system,” they added.

Altıntaş said that despite claims by the X boss, Elon Musk, that free speech was defended on the platform, it was clear X was allowing at least 110 accounts to be blocked in Turkey, according to her records. These included journalists covering the protests, as well as feminist organisations and student groups, she added.

“There is a clear attempt to censor images and videos of the protests, and this is obviously a part of that,” she said.

Turkish authorities have arrested more than 1,100 people including journalists, while bombarding the social media platform X with requests to block hundreds of accounts after tens of thousands took to the streets in the largest anti-government protests in years.

One journalist was detained while covering demonstrations that took place outside Istanbul city hall, while nine others were detained in dawn raids.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking after a cabinet meeting in the capital, Ankara, called the protests a “movement of violence”.

He said the country’s main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) would be held accountable for injuries to police officers and damage to property, adding that they should stop “provoking” the public.

The sweeping arrests came the morning after the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested on corruption charges and sent to a high-security prison on the outskirts of the city, on the same day he was named the opposition’s candidate for president.

Mass demonstrations triggered by İmamoğlu’s detention amount to the largest in Turkey in more than a decade. The protests have resulted in increasing pushback from the Turkish authorities, with police now readily deploying pepper spray, teargas and armoured water cannon trucks against crowds gathering in Istanbul as well as other major towns and cities across the country.

On Monday evening, crowds of students filled streets in the Beşiktaş neighbourhood, but were quickly hemmed in by lines of riot police.

The Turkish interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said 1,133 people had been detained in five days, starting with the dawn raid in which İmamoğlu and tens of municipal officials were taken into custody. Many of those detained in the days since were arrested for breaching a city-wide ban on protests in Istanbul. The city’s governor also restricted entry to Istanbul over the weekend in an attempt to curb the demonstrations.

Yerlikaya added that “some circles have been abusing the right to assembly and demonstration, attempting to disrupt public order, inciting street events and attacking our police. Such actions are aimed at disrupting the peace and security of our people.”.

Turkish authorities deny that the charges against İmamoğlu, a rival of the president, are political. Even so the crackdown on the Istanbul mayor as well as the protests have proven costly to the Turkish state, as economists estimate the Turkish central bank spent up to $25bn (£19.3bn) propping up the lira in three days last week.

Financial analyst Haluk Bürümcekçi said while the Turkish central bank had enough reserves to sustain the interventions, these “would not be adequate for similar ongoing demand”.

Turkey has struggled for years with an economic crisis that has driven up the cost of living, fuelling criticism of the government long before the demonstrations began.

The Turkish capital markets board said over the weekend that it had banned short selling for one month because of “recent developments”, at the Istanbul stock exchange, as the markets reeled from the impact of the crackdown on protests and İmamoğlu’s detention.

Evin Barış Altıntaş, who heads the Media and Law Studies Association, a free speech organisation that supports journalists detained in Turkey, said it was notable that most of the journalists detained overnight were photographers.

“The main aim is to cut off the number of people taking photos at protests,” she said, pointing to threats from Ebubekir Şahin, the head of Turkey’s media regulator, RTÜK, to suspend broadcaster’s licences for broadcasting live footage of the demonstrations. Şahin later denied any threats or that RTÜK’s actions threatened media freedom in Turkey, saying simply “the state will do what is necessary”.

Altıntaş said the arrests and threats to broadcasters were part of the government’s efforts to stifle coverage of the growing protests in the hope of quelling the demonstrations entirely.

“The protests are huge in number, so the authorities are trying very hard to contain that,” she said. “There’s an obvious attempt to stop the dissemination of news reports about protests, but I’m not sure how they will manage that as these are growing every day.”

The global government affairs team from the social media platform X said they “object to multiple court orders from the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority to block over 700 accounts of news organisations, journalists, political figures, students, and others within Türkiye”.

“We believe this decision from the Turkish government is not only unlawful, it hinders millions of Turkish users from news and political discourse in their country. We look forward to defending these principles through the legal system,” they added.

Altıntaş said that despite claims by the X boss, Elon Musk, that free speech was defended on the platform, it was clear X was allowing at least 110 accounts to be blocked in Turkey, according to her records. These included journalists covering the protests, as well as feminist organisations and student groups, she added.

“There is a clear attempt to censor images and videos of the protests, and this is obviously a part of that,” she said.

The Australian government’s scientific agency has joined more than a dozen universities in being sent a questionnaire from the Trump administration asking to confirm whether it aligns with US government interests.

On Tuesday, the CSIRO revealed it had received the correspondence from the US. A spokesperson at the CSIRO said it was aware of a “small number” of researchers who had received the questionnaire in recent weeks and was “determining an appropriate response”.

The questions include whether the organisation receives funding from China, whether it is a climate or “environmental justice” project, and whether it is taking “appropriate measures” to defend against “gender ideology” in line with Trump’s executive order on gender.

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Seven universities including the Australian National University, Monash University, University of Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales, Charles Darwin University, Macquarie University and the University of Western Australia have had their US funding cut on research projects since the Trump administration came into power, the education department confirmed.

Separately, researchers from at least 13 universities who receive US funding have been sent surveys, seeking a response within 48 hours to more than 30 questions to support “program determinations”, university sources told the Guardian.

Some 40% of Australian publications in the physical sciences involve American collaborators – including on vaccine development, cyclone tracking capability and observational systems that monitor, forecast and respond to extreme weather events.

“CSIRO has a number of touch points with the US government as part of our research portfolio,” a CSIRO spokesperson said.

“As the situation is still developing, it would be premature to speculate on how the changes in the US will affect CSIRO’s US collaborations and partnerships. However, CSIRO has not received formal advice that our science collaborations will be impacted.”

It comes as the federal government is under mounting pressure to respond to the US attacks on scientific funding.

Last week, the Australian Academy of Science called for the prime minister to convene an emergency meeting of the National Science and Technology council to “comprehensively assess the extent of Australia’s exposure to US R&D investment” and develop “risk mitigation strategies”.

Speaking to the ABC on Monday, the education minister, Jason Clare, was asked whether the Trump administration’s questionnaires constituted foreign interference, as the National Tertiary Education Union has argued.

“No, I don’t think it is,” he replied. “This is that US funded research, US universities working with Australian universities. Ultimately, it’s up to the US about what research it wants to fund.”

Clare said the education department was “starting to get more information” about the research cuts, which he said emerged from a review the US government had initiated into foreign aid.

“Research has been caught in that,” he said. “The Australian embassy in Washington is working with US departments to get a better understanding of this.

“We expect that the outcomes of that review that the US has initiated will be clearer in the second half of April.”

Asked if the Australian government would consider filling the funding gaps if they arose, Clare said it wasn’t “practical” to underwrite foreign research.

The chief executive of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy, told the ABC on Tuesday it was “really alarming” that Australia’s largest research funder, equivalent to around $600m a year, was reacting this way.

“The United States doesn’t gift Australia this money. It is seeking our expertise, and I’m really concerned that after decades of collaboration, all of this could be put at risk,” he said.

“The new administration … are clear that they want to have … an alignment with their worldview and whether or not that $600m of funding will be consistent with that.”

President of the Australian Academy of Science, Prof Chennupati Jagadish, said the US had become an “unpredictable” partner, with threats emerging to Australia’s strategic R&D capability “every day”.

“Taking a wait and see approach to the management of Australia’s national strategic R&D capability is dangerous and the consequences of inaction have profound consequences for Australians’ way of life,” he said.

A body representing more than 90 airlines using Heathrow airport said there might be a case for legal action if a settlement over the costs incurred from Friday’s closure after a fire is not reached.

Europe’s largest airport was closed in the early hours of Friday morning after the blaze at a major electricity substation hit electricity supplies.

No planes were allowed to take off or land, causing diversions which affected about 1,300 flights and roughly 250,000 passengers.

Some flights resumed on Friday evening but airlines faced difficulties and passengers were disrupted due to airline crew being in different parts of the world.

Nigel Wicking, the chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee representing more than 90 airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, told Sky News he hoped an agreement over the costs from the closure could be “amicably settled at some point in time”.

But he acknowledged that “there might be a case for legal action” if they did not get “good enough recourse and repayment in terms of the costs”, adding: “I would hope not. But in some of these situations that’s the only course once you’ve gone through everything else.”

Wicking also criticised the west London airport’s communication. He said it was “appalling” that airlines had to wait until midnight on Friday to confirm terminal 2 would open on Saturday.

Wicking added the situation was “not justifiable given the amount of money that has been spent on Heathrow over the years and the fact that it is the most expensive airport in the world”.

By mid-afternoon on Friday, the airport had told all airlines to begin preparations for a full schedule on Saturday, the Guardian understands.

Wicking also called for an independent investigation into what happened and the length of time it took for flights to resume.

An internal review of the airport’s crisis management plans and its response will be undertaken by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member of Heathrow’s board.

On Saturday, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, ordered an investigation into the power outage which will be led by the National Energy System Operator.

A Heathrow spokesperson told the Guardian on Monday: “This was an unprecedented issue which began with a fire at an off-airport substation, in less than 24 hours the entire airport was rebooted from a standing start and we delivered a full schedule from Saturday onwards.

“There are two reviews into the systems and response both at Heathrow and with the wider grid infrastructure.

“We will support these and lessons will be learned where needed. Every penny we invest in our airport infrastructure is approved by airlines and our regulator. On a project-by-project basis, they oversee and influence how we build and maintain Heathrow.”

Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.

Sales of new Tesla cars slumped in Europe last month in the latest indication of a potential buyer backlash over Elon Musk’s high profile and controversial behaviour since becoming a leading figure in Donald Trump’s administration.

The Texas-based electric carmaker sold less than 16,000 vehicles across Europe last month, down 44% on average across 25 countries in the EU, the UK, Norway and Switzerland, according to data compiled by the research platform Jato Dynamics.

Tesla’s market share fell to 9.6% last month, the lowest it has registered in February for five years. In January, its sales across Europe fell 45%, from 18,161 in 2024 to 9,945.

However, in the UK the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported an almost 21% rise in the number of new Tesla cars registered in February, with the Model 3 and Model Y proving the second and third most popular after the Mini Cooper.

Analysts and investors have been attempting to assess what impact Musk’s political interventions are having on the carmaker, where he is chief executive, amid signs that his senior role in Trump’s administration is leading to a consumer backlash by some Tesla owners or prospective buyers. Tesla dealerships have also been the target of protests.

The tech billionaire and close Trump adviser has shown support for Germany’s far-right AfD party, theatrically brandished a “chainsaw of democracy” at a conservative conference, and accused Keir Starmer and other senior politicians of covering up the scandal about grooming gangs.

However, analysts have said that the volatile sales are also likely to have been affected by Tesla’s overhaul of the Model Y.

Felipe Muñoz, a global analyst at Jato Dynamics, said: “Tesla is experiencing a period of immense change. In addition to Elon Musk’s increasingly active role in politics and the increased competition it is facing within the EV market, the brand is phasing out the existing version of the Model Y – its bestselling vehicle – before it rolls out the update.

“Brands like Tesla, which have a relatively limited model lineup, are particularly vulnerable to registration declines when undertaking a model changeover.”

The research company’s figures for February show that Tesla’s rivals powered ahead in Europe last month.

Volkswagen reported a 180% increase in sales of battery electric vehicles to just under 20,000, while BMW and Mini sold a combined 19,000 such models last month.

The Chinese-owned BYD recorded a 94% increase in sales in Europe to more than 4,000. Separate figures show that BYD’s global sales topped $100bn (£83bn) last year, overtaking Tesla as the world’s biggest electric car company by revenue.

BYD, which last beat Tesla on global annual revenues in 2018, reported revenues of 777bn yuan (£86bn) in 2024, a 29% year-on-year increase, beating analyst estimates. Tesla reported annual revenues of $97.7bn last year.

BYD also sells about the same number of electric vehicles as Tesla – 1.76m compared with 1.79m respectively in 2024. However, when sales of BYD’s other hybrid cars are included it is much larger.

Polestar, which is primarily owned by Volvo’s parent company, Geely, recorded an 84% increase to more than 2,000 vehicles.

BYD sold 4.27m vehicles last year, almost as many as the 4.5m sold by Ford, and has forecast that it will sell between 5m and 6m this year. The Hong Kong-listed company has a market value of about $160bn, up about 50% so far this year. Tesla is valued at $780bn despite a share-price plunge of more than a third in 2025. Tesla shares opened up 6% on Monday as the wider Nasdaq index rose nearly 2%.

Total car sales in across the 25 EU markets, the UK, Norway and Switzerland dropped by 3% to 970,000 in February, while BEV registrations were up by a quarter.

Researchers are developing an injection that creates a contraceptive implant in the body using an approach that could herald a new way of delivering drugs over long periods of time.

Current contraceptive implants last for years, meaning women do not have to take a pill every day, but the devices must be fitted by a trained professional via a small surgical procedure. Contraceptive injections are already available but they have limitations, including that they last for only three months.

Now scientists say they have completed proof-of-concept experiments for a new type of long-lasting implant that self-assembles in the body.

While not yet tested in humans, the researchers behind the work say the approach could bring benefits beyond the field of birth control, offering a simple way to administer long-acting drug delivery systems without the need for invasive procedures – an appealing prospect for parts of the world with poor medical infrastructure.

“It’s suitable for any poorly soluble hydrophobic drug, especially where long-acting delivery is needed. This includes treatments for HIV, TB, schizophrenia, chronic pain, or metabolic disease​,” said Dr Giovanni Traverso, a co-author of the study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s hospital in the US.

The approach involves injecting micro-crystals of a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone contained in a solvent that does not mix well with water.

Once in the body, the solvent exchanges with bodily fluid. However, the micro-crystals prefer to clump together than interact with this water-rich environment. This, together with the formation of further crystals as the solvents exchange, results in the development of a solid implant, capable of releasing the drug slowly over time.

The team, whose study was published in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering, tested the approach in rats, allowing them to refine the choice of solvent in the injection. The drug release in rats was sustained for at least 97 days, although Traverso said there was potential for longer durations depending on formulation adjustments​.

“The dosing and volumes of drug are compatible with multi-year dosing,” he said, adding that the formation of a solid implant means it can be removed if required, while the approach is also compatible with the use of small needles.

However, the research is still in its early stages, with the efficacy of the approach yet to be tested. “It lays the groundwork for future human studies which we hope will start in the next three to five years,” Traverso said.

Dr Janet Barter, the president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, said the approach could be an exciting advancement.

“This innovation has the potential to be convenient option for individuals in low-resource settings, where access to contraception and healthcare services can be limited,” she said. “We welcome further research into the safety, efficacy, and the accessibility of this promising technology and encourage the authors to work with potential users in future to ensure they meet the needs and preferences of those who will rely on it.”

Donald Trump critics aimed ridicule at the president after he publicly demanded the removal of his portrait at Colorado’s state capitol building, calling it “truly the worst”.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump shared an image of the portrait and complained about the painting, saying it was bad and blaming it on Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis – whom the president insulted as being “radically left”.

A Republican admirer of Trump actually commissioned the portrait.

House Democrats said in a statement on Monday evening that the oil painting would be taken down at the request of Republican leaders in the legislature.

Senate minority leader Paul Lundeen, a Republican, said that he requested for Trump’s portrait to be taken down and replaced by one “that depicts his contemporary likeness”.

“If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol, then that’s up to them,” Colorado House Democrats spokesperson, Jarrett Freedman, said.

“I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post on Sunday night, and further said the governor “should be ashamed of himself”!

It was unclear what triggered Trump’s tirade about the portrait.

In two follow-up posts, Trump shared separate images of himself in an apparent attempt to distribute photos that he considered more flattering.

Liberal and anti-Trump commentators laughed at the president’s reaction on social media.

On X, Sam Stein of MSNBC wrote that he was “absolutely dying” over how Trump was so upset by his portrait “that he couldn’t resist posting” about it. Stein said it was also funny “how objectively bad the portrait is”.

Former Republican attorney Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the liberal news website MeidasTouch Network, wrote on X that Trump was “the most fragile, sensitive snowflake in history” while sharing a screenshot of the president’s Truth Social post.

Another social media account named Republicans Against Trump also shared the president’s post while calling him “a petty, insecure baby”.

Trump alleged without evidence that his portrait had been “purposefully distorted”. The president then complained that his Democratic presidential predecessor Barack Obama “looks wonderful” in his portrait at the Colorado capitol.

Despite Trump’s criticism of Polis for the painting, it was actually unveiled by a Republican group in 2019. A former Republican state senator had crowdfunded nearly $10,000 to commission the painting, according to Colorado news station KUSA.

Trump did not have a portrait hanging in the Colorado state capitol for his first presidency, which began in 2017. In 2018, a liberal political activist placed a large portrait of Vladimir Putin – whom Trump openly admires – in the empty space, but it was quickly removed by capitol staff.

That prompted then Republican state senator Kevin Grantham to raise money through a GoFundMe campaign to hang Trump’s portrait in the state capitol.

A Polis spokesperson told KUSA that the governor was “surprised to learn the President of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado state capitol and its artwork”.

“We appreciate the president and everyone’s interest in our capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience,” the Polis spokesperson added.

Trump’s Sunday night comments had prompted a steady stream of visitors to pose for photos with the painting before the announcement that it would be taken down.

Aaron Howe, visiting from Wyoming on Monday, stood in front of Trump’s portrait, looking down at photos of the president on his phone, then back up at the portrait.

“Honestly he looks a little chubby,” said Howe of the portrait, but “better than I could do”.

“I don’t know anything about the artist,” said Howe, who voted for Trump. “It could be taken one way or the other.”

Kaylee Williamson, an 18-year-old Trump supporter from Arkansas, got a photo with the portrait.

“I think it looks like him. I guess he’s smoother than all the other ones,” she said. “I think it’s fine.”

Associated Press contributed to reporting