In Murmansk, the largest city north of the Arctic circle, President Vladimir Putin vowed to “strengthen Russia’s global leadership in the Arctic”, while warning that “geopolitical competition in the region” was intensifying.

The first example he gave was Donald Trump’s idea to acquire Greenland.

But from the Kremlin leader there was no criticism of his US counterpart.

And that’s telling, as the White House and the Kremlin try to rebuild relations.

“In short, America’s plans in relation to Greenland are serious,” President Putin said in an address to Russia’s Arctic Forum in Murmansk.

“These plans have deep historical roots. And it’s clear that the US will continue to systematically pursue its geo-strategic, military-political and economic interests in the Аrctic.

“As for Greenland this is a matter for two specific countries. It has nothing to do with us.”

So said the president who had launched a full-scale invasion of a sovereign neighbouring country and claims to have annexed whole swathes of Ukraine.

When Joe Biden was in the White House, Moscow and Washington were vocal in their criticism of one another.

How things have changed.

• Russia’s next move? The countries trying to Putin-proof themselves
• Why Trump is struggling to secure fast ceasefire in Ukraine
• Why does Trump want Greenland and what do its people think?

Today Russia is promoting the idea of economic cooperation with the United States in an Arctic region packed with natural resources.

“We are open to considering different investment opportunities that we can do jointly with the US, in certain sectors approved by the Russian government,” says Kirill Dmitriev, President Putin’s envoy for foreign investment and economic cooperation.

Mr Dmitriev, who is also chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has already been in talks with US officials.

“We are open for investment cooperation in the Arctic. That could be in logistics, or other areas beneficial to Russia and to the US,” Mr Dmitriev adds.

“But before deals can be done the war in Ukraine needs to end,” I suggest.

“Many people in the West accuse Russia of dragging its feet, showing no compromise or concessions, and just laying down conditions.”

“I am focused on economics and investments, so I don’t comment on political issues,” Mr Dmitriev responds.

“The only thing I can say is we have a very good dialogue, and I think it’s very important that the US is trying to understand Russia’s position.”

Moscow seems confident that it can woo Washington with promises of lucrative deals in the Arctic and across Russia.

That confidence is understandable considering how senior US officials have been repeating Kremlin talking points about the war in Ukraine and about Europe.

In a recent interview with former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff appeared to accept the results of Moscow-organised referenda that were held in Ukrainian territories seized and occupied by Russia.

These votes that have not been recognised by the international community.

In the words of one recent Russian newspaper headline: “US and Russian officials are now talking the same language.”

Are the Russian authorities at all surprised by the sea change in America’s Russia policy?

“[In America] there are two parties that compete with one another,” says Nikolai Patrushev, former head of Russia’s FSB domestic security service.

Mr Patrushev, who is now an aide to President Putin, is one of the most powerful figures in Russia.

While on the side lines of the Arctic Forum he tells me: “When the Democrats were in power, they took one view. The Republicans have another.

“It doesn’t mean that they agree with Russia’s standpoint. Only that they have their own, which they promote, and we can cooperate with them.”

I ask Mr Patrushev: “Do you have a sense that a new world order is being forged?”.

“We used to have a system where two powers dominated in the world. Then it was just one. Now we’re building a multi-polar world. But with its own peculiarities,” says Mr Patrushev.

In the centre of Murmansk, a giant inflatable whale has taken over one of the city’s squares.

Attached to wires, it’s bobbing over a sea of silver balloons designed to look like waves. The balloons are dancing in the wind beneath the blow-up beast.

It’s a giant installation. But then Russia has enormous ambitions, both for the Arctic and for the country’s relations with America.

The whale is attracting a great deal of interest with lots of families posing for photos.

It’s an opportunity to ask Russians whether they support the idea of economic cooperation with America in the Arctic and whether they’re surprised when Washington appears to take Moscow’s side?

Elina isn’t.

“Russia is strong,” she says. “You should always back the strong ones and go along with them.”

“We need to develop the Arctic,” Olga tells me. “Cooperation with ‘friendly countries’ is a good thing.”

“And do you see America as a ‘friendly country’?” I ask.

“You know what? I can’t decide.” replies Olga.

Meanwhile presidential envoy Mr Dmitriev is singing the praises of one particular American – Elon Musk – and counting on cooperation.

“We believe Elon Musk is a great visionary, a great leader and a very successful person,” Mr Dmitriev tells me. “Russia has a lot to offer for a mission to Mars because we have some nuclear technologies which can be applicable.

“There are some video conferences we believe will be upcoming with, let’s say, the Musk team.”

Australia will head to the polls for a federal election on 3 May, in what is predicted to be a tight race.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose Labor Party will be defending a small majority, announced the date from Parliament House on Friday.

Opinion polls predict a slim margin between the country’s two major parties, and the possibility either will have to work with independent MPs or minor parties – which combined won a record share of the vote at the last election – to form the next government.

The campaign is expected to be dominated by cost-of-living issues, and Labor is fighting to avoid becoming the first single-term government to lose an election in almost a century.

In a press conference on Friday morning, Albanese reiterated his pledge to address the cost of living – having already unveiled plans to provide more free healthcare, cut student debt and deliver small tax cuts. He argued that electing his rival Peter Dutton would be a step backwards for the country.

“It was always going to take more than three years to clean up 10 years of mess,” he said, referring to the previous coalition government he defeated at the last election in 2022.

Never has voters’ choice been more important, or more clear, he said: “This election is a choice between Labor’s plan to keep building or Peter Dutton’s promise to cut.”

Albanese said his campaign would be about “hope and optimism,” while Dutton’s would be “all about fear”.

The leader of the Liberal-National coalition, however, has said the country cannot afford three more years of a Labor government.

“The question Australians need to ask is: Is our country better off today than three years ago?” Dutton said at a press conference after the election was called.

“Because of Labor’s bad decisions, Australians are doing it tough and they need help.”

He argued his party would “get Australia back on track” by reining in “wasteful spending”, slimming down the public service, cutting immigration, and making fuel and energy cheaper.

The Greens, which last election won a record number of seats, said Australians should vote for them to keep Labor accountable on issues like the environment and housing.

“Minority government is coming. And with the major parties’ offering about as attractive as a dead fish, you can see why,” leader Adam Bandt said.

The affordability of housing and groceries is at the top of voters’ minds, as well as access to healthcare, though concern about managing record immigration and reducing crime is increasing significantly. Climate action – the feature of the last election – remains important to many Australians too.

Politics in Australia – where voting is compulsory for adults – is traditionally dominated by Labor and the Liberal-National coalition. Either party needs to win at least 76 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives – where the prime minister sits – to form a majority government.

One of the country’s longest serving politicians, Albanese took power after long period of political instability, in which the country changed leader six times in only eight years.

He promised unity and integrity and – after a campaign marked by anger over Australia’s emissions reductions efforts – vowed to “end the climate wars”.

Albanese’s government enshrined into law a boosted emissions cut target, and introduced a mechanism that acts as a carbon cap for the country’s biggest emitters – though experts say more ambition is needed.

However, Albanese’s key goal of achieving constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and establishing a parliamentary advisory body for them, failed at a referendum in 2023.

And he has come under pressure over global economic conditions which have exacerbated cost-of-living pain in Australia – and played a part in the downfall of several incumbent governments around the world in the past year.

Last year, he came under fire after it emerged that he had bought a A$4.3m ($2.9m, £2.2m) cliff-top home amid a national housing crisis.

Australians have not ousted a government from Canberra after only a single term since 1931.

Dutton – who was a police officer in Queensland before he was elected – has more than 20 years in parliament under his belt, many of them spent as a senior minister handling key portfolios like health, immigration, defence and home affairs.

He built a reputation as a hard-line conservative best known for overseeing Australia’s controversial policies on asylum seekers, and his role in the downfall of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

He has styled himself as a cultural warrior – opposing same sex marriage, diversity and inclusion initiatives and the Voice to Parliament referendum – but has in recent times tried to shake his tough public persona, which he says doesn’t accurately reflect who he is.

For Neha Bapna, nothing in the world is more important than her dog Muffin.

Every time she takes a train to travel across India, the four-year-old Shih Tzu is right by her side – in first class. He only eats hypoallergenic food, which is often double the price of normal dog food and treats.

“I have spent sleepless nights trying to figure out what food suits him. He is my child, I do not want him to have any trouble,” says the 43-year-old Mumbai-based entrepreneur.

Pampering one’s pet used to be a luxury exclusive to the ultra-rich. But now affluent and middle-class urban Indians like Ms Bapna are splurging more on their “fur babies”, fuelling a boom in India’s pet care industry that has almost doubled in value in recent years.

The pandemic has played a huge role, according to Ankur Bisen, senior partner at Technopak retail consultancy.

“Covid created a need for companionship when people were staying at home. So you could see young mothers, people in their first jobs, people who by choice decided not to have kids… All these people started going for pet ownership,” he says.

The number of pets in Indian households has grown sharply from 26 million in 2019 to 32 million in 2024, according to a report by consulting firm Redseer.

And as late marriages, smaller family sizes and evolving social norms reshape family structures in urban India, these pets are increasingly being given the care and attention typically reserved for children.

Nikhil Bhushan and Lakshna Gulati, who live in the capital, Delhi, say raising their pets allows them to experience parenthood without complexity.

The couple, who have no biological children, share their home with two rescued pets: a dog named Mowgli and a cat named Marmalade.

“When we got married five years ago, we weren’t ready to have children, but soon after rescuing the pets, our house truly became a home – there was something missing which is now complete. They bring us joy and seeing them every day brightens our lives,” says Mr Bhushan.

“We like to spoil them,” adds Ms Gulati. “Whenever we see [a toy] they might like, we immediately buy it, even knowing it will be destroyed in no time.”

In 2024, Indians spent $3.6bn (£2.78bn) on products and services for their pets, a substantial increase from $1.6bn in 2019, according to the Redseer report.

This rapid growth has been fuelled by emerging trends such as pet boarding, insurance and specialised veterinary care.

“Twenty years ago, pet care was limited to basic services like vaccination and veterinary care,” says Pankaj Poddar, chief executive of pet care company Zigly.

“Now, people want the best for their pets – whether it’s clothing, accessories, or even specialised services,” he says. “I have seen parents spend as much as 10% of their incomes on their pets – be it taking them to special parties or even regular checkups.”

Ms Bapna, for instance, spends between 25,000 rupees ($290; £220) and 40,000 rupees on Muffin in a month, mostly on his travel and special diet.

She takes her dog on a trip every few weeks, whether it’s a day outing to a nearby farmhouse or a longer stay at a resort, and stays in pet-friendly accommodation which are pricier than regular hotels.

When she takes the train to Jodhpur every few months to visit her parents, Ms Bapna buys first-class tickets – which are more than double the price of general tickets – as dogs and cats in India are only allowed in first-class coaches.

Ms Bapna doesn’t mind the huge bills. When it comes to spending on Muffin, she says, “This is one area where I make no concessions.”

This kind of spending has propelled sales for pet care companies like Zigly.

“In the last eight-to-nine months, we have grown between 7% and 10% month-on-month,” says Mr Poddar, whose company has reached a monthly gross merchandise value of around 46m rupees per month and is expected to reach 1bn rupees by next year.

More companies which offer cheaper services, such as pet care chain The Pet Point, have also sprung up to cater to the increasingly middle-class clientele.

For most Indian pet parents these days, “value for money takes precedence over premiumisation”, says The Pet Point’s co-founder Akshay Mahendru. “A customer is more likely to get grooming services for their pet every week for 600 rupees, rather than somewhere above 1,500 rupees.”

Mr Mahendru says that sales for comparatively cheaper pet products like toys or snacks has also increased manifold with the emergence of quick commerce platforms like Zepto or Blinkit that do deliveries in 10-15 minutes.

Experts are optimistic that India’s pet care market has room to grow, given global trends. According to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Pet Economy Report 2023, the global pet care sector, currently valued at $320bn, could exceed $500bn by the end of this decade.

Redseer’s report estimates India’s pet care market to double in the next three years and potentially cross $7bn by 2028.

But challenges still remain.

India continues to be dogged by unequal economic growth, slowing consumption and wage stagnation which can dampen the industry’s growth.

Most cities here also lack pet-friendly public spaces, hotels and transport options, presenting a multitude of inconveniences to pet parents.

Whenever Mr Bhushan and Ms Gulati travel with Mowgli, they bring portable beds and disposable plates and bowls “so we’re always prepared during our stays”, says Mr Bhushan.

“However, problems arise when we go for meals during our trips. Many places do not accept pets, which limits our options,” he adds.

Ms Bapna faces similar challenges when travelling with Muffin. But she is optimistic that things will change.

“When I first got him in 2021, there were very few pet-friendly places and activities. But now in Mumbai there are special events, resorts and cafes that welcome pets,” she said.

These days Muffin gets to attend “socialisation events”, where he gets to play with other dogs, or goes to pet festivals where he can play games and sample special pet food.

“It gives me hope,” Ms Bapna says with a smile.

Chinese technology giant Tencent has made a €1.2bn ($1.25bn) investment in a spin-off from Ubisoft, the maker of the Assassin’s Creed video games.

Shenzhen-based Tencent will own about a quarter of the new business, with Ubisoft holding the rest of the new subsidiary, which is valued at around €4bn.

The unit will run some of the French firm’s biggest franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.

Tencent, which is one of the world’s biggest video games developers, is also known for its internet-based services, including the hugely popular messaging app WeChat.

“Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s co-founder and chief executive said in a statement.

Tencent is now Ubisoft’s second biggest shareholder with a stake of just under 10%.

“We are excited to extend our longstanding partnership with Ubisoft through this investment,” Martin Lau, President of Tencent, said.

Ubisoft said it will now focus on its other marquee titles, including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and The Division.

Ubisoft’s stock market value has fallen sharply in recent years after delays to the launches of new games and falling sales.

That’s despite its shares getting a boost earlier this month as investors welcomed the launch of the latest instalment of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

The much-anticipated Assassin’s Creed Shadows had been delayed several times.

It followed the disappointing performance of another of the firm’s major titles, Star Wars Outlaws, and concerns from some onlookers about how Ubisoft is being run.

Allegations of sexual misconduct by former Ubisoft executives have also hit the firm.

When Cyclone Alfred barrelled over Australia’s east coast earlier this month, it also blew the government’s election plans off course.

Hoping to capitalise on some rare good news on interest rates, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was on the cusp of announcing an April polling date. Instead he had to pivot and focus on responding to the natural disaster. It was, one Labor Minister told me, a decision taken from him by “an act of God”.

You might say that’s been a theme of his government: big plans often derailed by unpleasant surprises – trying global economic conditions and a cost-of-living crisis which is battering many countries, foreign wars and tricky geopolitics, post-pandemic fallout and rising national divisions, and now giant storms.

“Global conditions are real,” Albanese, who leads the Labor Party, said as he officially announced a 3 May election.

Though, despite those challenges, he says his party has delivered. “Landing where we have is like landing a 747 [jet] on a helicopter pad,” he said, pointing to a recent increase in wage growth and falling inflation.

But he wants a second term to reset.

Standing in his way is Peter Dutton – a conservative who leads the Liberal Party, the dominant member of the so-called Coalition with the National Party of Australia – who just two years ago polling indicated was deeply unpopular.

But the race between them is now so tight and the rise of independents or minor parties such that many are expecting a hung parliament.

So how has it unravelled for Prime Minister Albanese?

His victory in May 2022 was seen as a fresh start after nine years of conservative rule.

Climate action was big on the agenda, as was addressing the cost-of-living and restoring stability to the country’s leadership.

But the legacy he eyed for his government was on Indigenous affairs. He opened his victory speech reiterating a pledge to hold a historic referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an advisory body that would inform the government on issues that affect First Nations people.

Albanese spent most of 2023 campaigning for a “Yes” vote. This was the moment, he hoped, that First Nations people would get constitutional recognition – finally catching up with other former British colonies – and that Australia would begin mending what many see as a very broken relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

But the proposal was decisively rejected, leaving many Indigenous people feeling disappointed and betrayed. Albanese was also left licking his wounds after a damaging campaign.

Some critics blamed confusion and misinformation for why about 60% of Australians voted “No”. But while Albanese was campaigning for the “Yes” vote, opposition leader Peter Dutton campaigned for “No”, attacking Albanese for spending money on the referendum while a cost-of-living crisis intensified.

“[Dutton] not only won on the referendum, but also he won on positioning Labor as the government that’s not completely focused on the issues that matter to Australia,” says Kos Samaras, political consultant and a former Labor strategist.

During Albanese’s tenure, interest rates have been put up 12 times (and cut once, in February), inflation soared post-pandemic, the country’s housing crisis deepened, and Australians increasingly felt stretched.

Though the prime minister would lay the blame for many of those issues at the previous coalition government’s feet, voters want to know who is best placed to deal with all of them now.

In Anthony Albanese’s victory speech in 2022, he said Australia was “the greatest country on earth”. Australian voters though are increasingly questioning whether that’s still true – and perhaps more importantly, whether politicians from traditional parties are the ones able to fix it.

So though many are disillusioned with Labor, this won’t necessarily translate as a vote for Dutton’s Coalition at the ballot box.

Support for minor parties and independents reached record levels at the previous election, and similar is expected this time around. If neither party reaches the magic number of 76 seats in the House of Representatives, which poll after poll paints as unlikely, independent candidates could be the kingmakers of any future government.

If that happens, Australia would be another page in a story unfolding all over the world – disenfranchised voters seeking more radical solutions and voting for change. In many places this is a real threat to democracy as people stop trusting the system.

But while Australia faces the same challenges as other parts of the world, a few quirks in its electoral system have thus far guarded against more radical swings that we’ve seen in other countries, like the US, France and Germany.

Experts all agree that mandatory voting is a key factor in Australia’s political stability. In the 2022 elections, just under 90% of the population voted – much, much higher than the average OECD turnout of 69%. The fine for not voting in a federal election is a mere A$20 but there’s a sense of duty here to go out and vote.

What that means is politicians don’t have to mobilise their bases – turnout is a given, it’s just about pushing your narrative. Where voting is optional, there’s a tendency for special interest groups to become overly influential as those who are less engaged decide not to cast a ballot. Plus, if everyone, no matter their politics, education or their wealth, goes to vote, it tends to pull the result towards a more representative centre.

“[Australia’s] elections are decided in the middle,” says the country’s chief election analyst Antony Green. “That means getting your message through those people who aren’t paying much attention.”

The other big stabiliser for Australia, say experts, is preferential voting – where voters effectively number their candidates in order of who they want to win. It’s why in recent years the Greens have emerged on the left and One Nation on the right but still, Labor and the Coalition dominate. Experts say preferential voting tempers the effects of polarisation and forces the two major parties to appeal to people who aren’t necessarily voting for them first in order to receive their next preferences, which also helps moderate policy.

While the campaign will focus on problems close to home, the candidates would be foolish to ignore the global political headwinds.

During last year’s presidential election, few analysts I spoke to seemed to think a Trump White House would massively impact Australia, this comparatively small and distant democracy.

But five months feels like a lifetime in today’s politics. Not a day goes by without Donald Trump making the headlines and Australians are tuning in to watch.

With Trump’s obvious disregard for longstanding alliances as well as constant talk of tariffs and trade wars, all this plays a part in Australians’ fears about their place in the world – and importantly, the future of what is arguably its most important diplomatic and military relationship.

Peter Dutton argues he’d be much better than Albanese at dealing with Trump. But there are doubts that anyone really knows how to handle this new administration – politicians of all stripes around the globe are feeling their way with how best to manage their relationship with the US.

With Albanese firing the starting gun today, Australians have just over a month of intense campaigning to help them determine who they want to lead them through the next three years.

While Labor’s handling of the ex-cyclone Alfred has improved its chances – the Prime Minister’s approval ratings have risen to their highest level in 18 months – polling in recent months has pointed towards a Dutton administration.

It’s still incredibly close, and the Albanese government faces the unenviable prospect of being the first which fails to win a second term since 1931.

Countries around the world are braced for Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day in America!!!” next week.

The US president’s deadline to impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners will come just days after he hit foreign carmakers with 25% import taxes.

Vietnam could be particularly vulnerable to Trump’s latest salvo of levies. It has a large trade deficit with the US and has been a beneficiary of firms moving factories out of China to avoid measures announced during his first term in office.

While some countries have hit back at Washington, Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Pham Minh Chinh, has suggested that he may take a more diplomatic approach.

Speaking in January, he said he was willing to visit Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and “golf all day long” if it “benefits” his country, drawing laughter in the room.

Would that work?

Trump has previously said Vietnam was “worse than China” and “almost the single worst abuser of anybody”.

But he has not yet specifically targeted Vietnam with tariffs, even though it has the third largest trade deficit with the US, after China and Mexico.

Analysts say Vietnam is doing well at engaging with Washington – but its efforts may still not be enough to avoid most of Trump’s tariff plans.

“The Vietnam PM seems to be taking a page from the book of [former Japanese PM] Shinzo Abe, who built a close personal relationship with Trump over their shared love of golf,” said Stephen Olson, a former US trade negotiator.

“I would not however expect any special treatment of Vietnam from a policy point of view. Personal relationships are important to Trump, but in this case, I believe his desire to appear tough on trade will win out.”

Vietnam has said it doesn’t plan to “restrict trade” with the US, although it currently taxes some imports from there.

The government said this week that it will allow SpaceX, which is owned by close Trump ally Elon Musk, to operate its Starlink satellite internet service in the country on a trial basis.

Some analysts see this as one of the measures Vietnam has taken to avoid being hit with US tariffs.

Hanoi also said it will lower tariffs on several US imports, including energy and cars, a move aimed at “improving trade balances”.

It came less than two weeks after Vietnamese and US companies signed more than $4bn (£5.4bn) in deals, in areas including oil and gas exploration.

Steve Norris from the consultancy Control Risks said “Vietnam is being careful to avoid any moves which would signal any non-cooperation on trade issues”.

This strategy is in line with its foreign policy approach – known as “bamboo diplomacy”. Like shoots of plants that sway with the wind, Vietnam hopes to be adaptable to foreign pressures.

“If the US were to increase pressure on Vietnam, the government might respond with offers to facilitate investments in the hospitality and casino industries, undertake advanced machinery purchases, and – capturing the moment – consider access to Vietnam’s rare earth minerals,” Mr Norris said.

One big factor working against Vietnam is concerns about China’s influence.

Vietnam was one of the biggest beneficiaries of US-China tensions during Trump’s first term.

In 2018, he hit China with tariffs, causing some businesses to rethink where they made their products. Some chose to shift manufacturing to Vietnam.

This has led to an increase of exports from Vietnam to the US, with Chinese companies that have moved production there contributing to that figure.

Former US trade negotiator Wendy Cutler said Vietnam has emerged as a “destination for major Chinese investment”.

While the US remains Vietnam’s biggest export market, China is its largest supplier of goods, accounting for more than a third of imports, according to the latest official data.

Chinese firms were also behind nearly one in every three new investments in Vietnam last year.

“These are huge red flags for Trump. My expectation is that Vietnam will at some point be hit hard by tariffs,” Mr Olson said.

However, tariffs on Vietnam could impact US businesses such as tech firms Apple and Intel, and sportswear giant Nike, which have moved production lines from China to Vietnam.

A recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam found that most US manufacturers there expect to lay off staff if tariffs are imposed.

The US president believes the levies will boost his country’s economy by encouraging more businesses to make goods in the US and bring in billions of dollars of taxes.

But many economists have warned that it could force up prices for American consumers and negatively impact global trade.

Washington is also concerned about so-called “trans-shipments” – Chinese goods passing through Vietnam on their way to other countries.

US officials have been “quietly stressing to Vietnam that it must reduce its trade surplus over time and combat the trans-shipment of Chinese goods through the country,” Mr Norris said.

Vietnam’s prime minister has said he is confident that his administration can “handle the relationship with the US”.

Now that the South East Asian nation has cut some tariffs on US goods they may be more attractive to Vietnamese consumers, increasing America’s share of trade with the country.

And then there is golf – playing a game with Trump had worked for the late Japanese leader Shinzo Abe.

Abe and Trump established a friendship, which included many golf games over several years. The friendship arguably helped Abe secure tariff exemptions for Japan’s critical car industry at the time.

For now, it is unclear if Vietnam would really give golf diplomacy a swing.

The real test will come next week, when a new slate of Trump’s taxes are set to take effect.

A former police officer has been spared a jail sentence over his fatal decision to Taser a 95-year-old woman with dementia symptoms at an Australia aged care home.

Kristian White said he had used the weapon to prevent a “violent confrontation” after finding Clare Nowland disoriented and holding a small kitchen knife in May 2023.

But the officer was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury last November, after prosecutors argued his actions towards the great-grandmother, who later died of her injuries, were “grossly disproportionate”.

The case sparked public outcry, with the judge at one point saying it was “unlike any other that I have had to confront” over nearly two decades on the bench.

Handing down his sentence in the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Ian Harrison said White’s actions at Yallambee Lodge in the town of Cooma, near Canberra, were a “terrible mistake”.

The “obvious” reality was that Mrs Nowland was a “frail and confused 95-year-old woman” who “posed nothing that could reasonably be described as a threat of any substance”.

“The simple but tragic fact would seem to me to be that Mr White completely – and on one available view inexplicably – misread and misunderstood the dynamics of the situation,” Mr Harrison said.

The trial heard White was called to the care home around 04:00 on 17 May 2023, after Mrs Nowland was seen ambling around the premises with two serrated steak knives.

Body cam footage showed he warned Mrs Nowland to drop the blades while aiming his weapon at her, before saying “bugger it” and firing. She fell and hit her head, triggering a fatal brain bleed.

The defence highlighted evidence from one of the paramedics and White’s police partner who both said Mrs Nowland had made them feel scared for their safety.

But prosecutors had argued Mrs Nowland – who weighed under 48kg (105lb) and used a walker to get around – did not pose a threat and the officer was “impatient”, using his weapon just three minutes after confronting her.

Mrs Nowland’s family, at a sentencing hearing last month, said White’s “unfathomable” and “inhumane” actions had forever changed their lives.

“To this day I am traumatised by this gutless coward act,” Michael Nowland, Clare’s eldest son, told the court.

White previously told the court he didn’t think Mrs Nowland would be “significantly injured” and that he was “devastated” by her death.

In a letter of apology to her relatives, White wrote: “I deeply regret my actions and the severe consequences they have caused, to not only Mrs Nowland, but also to your family and the greater community.”

Justice Harrison said a jail term was not necessary, given White had already lost his job and become an unwelcome member of the local community, and did not pose a risk of reoffending. He added it would also be difficult for a former officer to live in prison.

He sentenced White to a community corrections order of two years – essentially a good behaviour bond – and 425 hours of community service.

Speaking outside court, Mr Nowland said his family was disappointed.

“A slap on the wrist for someone that’s killed our mother,” he said. “It’s very, very hard to process that.”

“Justice and fairness, that’s all we wanted.”

Mrs Nowland’s death sparked global outrage and drew scrutiny over NSW Police’s use of force.

White had served as a police officer with the NSW police for 12 years before he was removed after his conviction.

Commissioner Karen Webb described the death as “a terrible tragedy” that shouldn’t have happened, but stressed that the force’s Taser and training policies are appropriate.

A high-powered delegation of US officials will spend Friday at a remote military base on Greenland in what is being viewed as the latest manifestation of American designs on the sparsely populated semi-autonomous Danish territory.

The US group includes Vice-President JD Vance and his wife Usha, White House National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah.

The trip marks the latest twist in what has become a tangled diplomatic journey that began with what was originally billed as a private tour by the US second lady.

Usha Vance was only supposed to travel to Greenland with her son to attend cultural events, like a dog-sledding race, and to spend some time visiting the capital of Nuuk.

The planned visit raised eyebrows, however, in light of President Donald Trump’s repeated comments that he would like to annex mineral-rich Greenland, which he says is critical for US security.

When it was then announced that Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, would join the delegation visiting the island, the people of Greenland and Denmark appeared to grow uncomfortable. The American visits began to look less like a cultural interaction and more like an effort to meddle in the island’s internal politics by rallying support for closer ties to the US among the local population – at the expense of Danish sovereignty.

Greenland’s Acting Prime Minister Mute B Egede said it was a “provocation” and “demonstration of power”, and asked the international community to step up.

“Just for the record, the government of Greenland has not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official,” Egede said.

Ordinary Greenlanders also made their displeasure known, promising that the American delegation would not receive a warm welcome.

• Why does Trump want Greenland and what do its people think?
• Greenland’s politicians unite against Trump

In Sisimiut, where the annual dog race is held, the mayor declined to set up a meeting with the second lady, citing next week’s municipal elections as a reason. A silent protest had been planned too, which would have seen locals turn their back on the American visitors – a potentially publicly awkward situation and poor optics for Mrs Vance.

“The US administration could see they were heading for PR catastrophe,” political analyst Noa Redington said.

“They were heading for a charm offensive without charm,” he said. “With people absolutely not happy to see Usha Vance or any other American politicians.”

A mere two days after Usha Vance’s trip was announced, the cultural itinerary was dropped, replaced by a single visit to a remote US military installation – Pituffik Space Base. And now, Vice-President Vance would be joining his wife.

Waltz was no longer listed on the itinerary, though he was added again later.

“Leaders in both America and in Denmark, I think, ignored Greenland for far too long,” JD Vance said, announcing his visit. “That’s been bad for Greenland. It’s also been bad for the security of the entire world. We think we can take things in a different direction.”

Despite his comments, political leaders in Denmark cautiously welcomed the change of plan, and especially the limiting of the itinerary to just the US base.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that while the vice-president’s presence may increase the formality of the visit, it was actually “masterful spin” which made the US “look like they’re escalating when they’re actually deescalating.”

“I actually think it is very positive that the Americans are cancelling their visit to the Greenlandic community. Then they will instead make a visit to their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that,” he said.

Vance is the highest-ranking US official to ever visit Greenland and while the limited scope of the trip has pleased Denmark, the fact that he is going at all underscores the high level of interest the Trump administration has in the island.

The US president himself has continued to reiterate his desire to acquire Greenland for national security reasons, saying on Wednesday that the US will “go as far as we have to go” to accomplish that goal.

According to Michael Williams, a professor of international politics at Ottawa University, Trump’s focus on Greenland appears to reflect a larger international strategy that involves exerting US influence over key territories within its sphere of geographic influence.

Canada and Greenland, both early targets of interest for the administration, occupy key Arctic waterways that are being contested by other global powers, like Russia and China.

Recent US moves could be viewed as an attempt to gain the upper hand in these strategic North Americans regions.

“You want to amp up the American presence in the north and its control over those northern reaches,” Williams said.

“If you can do that, then you can actually potentially control those northern waters in a much, much more direct way than has ever been necessary before.”

Attempts by superpowers to exert influence on less powerful nations echo the Cold War, when the US and Soviet Union faced off in global ideological competition.

But the focus of these efforts were typically non-aligned nations, not America’s closest allies and neighbours.

While the Vances’ trip to Greenland may be scaled back, America’s larger designs on the island do not appear to have diminished. Any sigh of relief in Copenhagen may be short-lived.

Vance’s visit to the Pituffik Space Base suggests a narrower focus on American security and military matters. The shortest route for Russian nuclear missiles to reach the US runs through Greenland, and Pituffik plays a crucial role in US missile defence.

“I’m sure he’ll say the security of Greenland is not safe in the hands of Denmark,” Redington said, adding this would “put even more pressure on the Danish government”.

“This is absolutely not the end of anything. It’s the beginning of something even more complicated than before.”

Strong winds, dense forest and unusually dry weather – that’s the deadly combination that experts say is fuelling the largest wildfires in South Korea’s history.

The inferno in the south-east has burned through 35,810 hectares (88,500 acres) as of Thursday – that’s about half the size of New York City – killing 27 people so far and displacing tens of thousands.

Authorities believe the wildfires started by accident from human activity, but the main drivers of the devastation are dry land, and strong gusts sweeping over inland regions.

The high concentration of pine forest in North Gyeongsang province, where the fires are burning, is also “oiling” the blaze, said a forest disaster expert.

“Pine trees contain resin, which acts like oil, intensifying fires when ignited. This resin causes wildfires to burn faster, stronger, and longer,” said Lee Byung-doo from the National Institute of Forest Science in Seoul.

Andong, one of the worst-hit cities, is known for its tranquil pine forests.

While they provide shelter and food for local wildlife and sometimes help break the wind, pine trees “become problematic during wildfires”, Mr Lee told the BBC.

“Because forests [in South Korea] contain large numbers of pine trees, the areas are particularly vulnerable when fires break out,” he said.

Furthermore, pine trees retain their needles throughout winter, making them susceptible to “crown fires” – wildfires that spread by igniting the dense canopy of branches and leaves. This has contributed to the rapid and extensive spread of the flames over the past week.

Unlike neighbouring countries such as China and North Korea, South Korea has made gains in forest cover over recent years.

“Most mountains are now filled with fallen leaves and pine trees… This accumulation has become a significant factor in accelerating the spread of wildfire,” says Baek Min-ho, a disaster prevention specialist at Kangwon National University.

Climate change is also to blame, experts say.

“This wildfire has once again exposed the harsh reality of a climate crisis unlike anything we’ve experienced before,” South Korea’s disaster chief Lee Han-kyung said on Thursday.

The ideal environment for these record blazes has been building for the past few weeks, which saw temperatures rise above 20C (68F), unusually high for spring. Analysis by Climate Central, which researches climate science, suggests that these high temperatures have been made up to five times more likely by global warming.

The unusual heat dried out the land and air, allowing fires to spread more rapidly, especially when combined with strong winds.

Dense tree cover and strong winds in the fire-hit region also pose substantial challenges to firefighting efforts.

On Wednesday, a 73-year-old pilot died when his firefighting helicopter crashed in Uiseong county. At least three other firefighters have been killed in the blazes.

Most of the 26 people who died are in their 60s and 70s, officials say. South Korea is an ageing society, where one in five people are at least 65 years old.

North Gyeongsang is its second-oldest province, which also explains the relatively high death toll – it is especially difficult to evacuate older people in a disaster because they may have mobility issues or other health risks.

They may also have more difficulty accessing or interpreting evacuation orders.

Three residents of an elderly care facility in Yeongdeok county died on Wednesday, when the car they were in went up in flames. Only one out of four in the vehicle managed to flee in time, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

Acting President Han Duck-soo said on Thursday it was “worrying” that many of the victims are elderly, as he ordered the interior minister to relocate to North Gyeongsang to oversee relief efforts.

An Andong resident who evacuated but lost her home told the BBC her family and their neighbours were caught off guard by the fires.

“No one in the village was prepared,” said the woman, who asked not to be named.

“We had to leave with nothing, and all our belongings are gone. Many of the residents are elderly, so I hope the government can provide temporary shelters where people can stay comfortably,” she said.

Historical relics have also been burned to the ground – a significant loss to an area considered one of South Korea’s cultural centres.

These include treasures in two temples, each more than 1,000 years old. One of them, the Gounsa temple, dates back to the Silla dynasty (57BC to 935AD).

King Charles III spent a short period of time in hospital on Thursday after experiencing temporary side effects during cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace said.

The King returned to Clarence House, where he was said to be continuing to work on state papers and make calls from his study. He has cancelled a tour of Birmingham on Friday, acting on medical advice.

Charles, 76, had planned to travel to the city for a busy schedule of engagements, which included four events.

The palace first announced the King’s cancer diagnosis in February 2024.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said meetings with three ambassadors on Thursday were also affected.

“Tomorrow, he was due to undertake four public engagements in Birmingham and is greatly disappointed to be missing them on this occasion,” the palace’s statement added.

“He very much hopes that they can be rescheduled in due course and offers his deepest apologies to all those who had worked so hard to make the planned visit possible.”

A palace source described it as a “most minor bump in a road that is very much heading in the right direction”.

The palace did not provide further information over what his side effects were.

Queen Camilla attended a reception in Wembley, north London on Thursday and did not join the King during his brief stay at hospital.

After the palace released the news, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he “wishes His Majesty the King all the very best”.

The underlying message from the palace is one of reassurance – with the postponement of the visit to Birmingham presented as a brief setback against an otherwise optimistic picture on the King’s health.

There was no drama, they went to the London Clinic hospital in central London in a car and not an ambulance, and the late night announcement followed a decision that it was wiser to postpone Friday’s visit.

It might also have seemed wiser to get ahead of the news and remain transparent about a minor problem, rather than make it a major event with a last-minute cancellation.

His cancer treatment is ongoing but the King has seemed keen not to be defined by his illness. He seems to thrive on meeting crowds and has shown no signs of slowing down, with a full set of engagements.

In recent weeks, he has been on a trip to Northern Ireland, he launched a playlist of favourite music and attended the Commonwealth Day service, having missed it last year after his cancer diagnosis.

The King has been centre-stage in recent weeks, unexpectedly involved in global diplomacy.

After inviting President Donald Trump for a second state visit to the UK, the King then showed solidarity with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky after his disastrous meeting with Trump in the White House.

He also gave a warm welcome to Mark Carney, Canada’s new prime minister, whose country has been under pressure from Trump.

None of that suggested that the monarch was running out of energy. And the postponement of the state visit to the Vatican, announced earlier this week, had been about the health of Pope Francis rather than the King – with the rest of the visit to Italy expected to go ahead.

While recognising that it is impossible to rule out any further health problems, the message from Buckingham Palace is that the King is expected to be back to normal in terms of his diary next week.

The King’s wider state visit to Italy is also set to continue in April with some alterations to the planned programme, the palace said this week.

The palace has never disclosed what type of cancer the King has. He returned to public duties last April after a period of treatment and recuperation.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada’s old relationship with the United States, “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over”.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa after a cabinet meeting, Carney said Canadians must “fundamentally reimagine our economy” in the face of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

He said Canada would respond with retaliatory tariffs that will have “maximum impact” on the US.

Trump announced on Wednesday he would target imported vehicles and vehicle parts with a 25% tax, stating: “This is permanent.”

Carney, the Liberal Party leader, called the original Canada-US Automotive Products Agreement signed in 1965 the most important deal in his lifetime.

“That’s finished with these tariffs,” he said in French.

He continued that Canada can sustain an auto industry with the US tariffs provided the government and business community work to “reimagine” and “retool” the industry.

Canada needs to build an economy Canadians can control, he said, and that would include rethinking it’s trade relationship with other partners.

It remains to be seen whether Canadians can have a strong trading relationship with the United States going forward, he added.

Carney has switched his campaign plans ahead of next month’s general election to confront the latest import duties.

The US has already partially imposed a blanket 25% tariff on Canadian goods, along with a 25% duty on all aluminium and steel imports. Canada has so far retaliated with about C$60bn ($42bn; £32bn) of tariffs on US goods.

The new car tariffs will come into effect on 2 April, with charges on businesses importing vehicles starting the next day, the White House said. Taxes on parts are set to start in May or later.

• Germany leads defiance to Trump car tariffs, saying it ‘will not give in’

Early on Thursday morning, Trump warned Canada and the EU against joining forces versus the US in the trade war.

“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.

Carney met his ministers in Ottawa on Thursday morning to “discuss trade options”. He had originally been scheduled to campaign in Quebec.

He said during his press conference that President Trump had reached out to him last night to schedule a call, and that it would take place in the “next day or two”.

If it takes place, this would be the first call between the pair.

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservatives, the main opposition party, called the tariffs “unjustified and unprovoked”.

The NDP, a left-wing party that previously helped prop up the minority Liberal government of ex-PM Justin Trudeau, also switched its campaign plans on Thursday.

Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, spent the day meeting union leaders and car workers in Windsor, Ontario, an auto manufacturing hub across from Detroit, Michigan.

He said the US tariffs are a “betrayal” against a close ally, saying that “Donald Trump has started an illegal trade war with Canada” for “absolutely no reason”.

He said any auto company that moves their operations out of Canada because of the tariffs should be blocked from selling cars in the country.

Canadians go to the polls on 28 April.

The US imported about eight million cars last year – accounting for about $240bn in trade and roughly half of overall sales.

Earlier this month, after he became Liberal leader and before he was sworn in as prime minister, Carney gave a victory speech in which he lambasted the US president.

“A person who worships at the altar of Donald Trump will kneel before him, not stand up to him,” he said, while assailing his main rival, Poilievre.

Mexico is the top supplier of cars to the US, followed by South Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany.

• Trump announces 25% tariffs on car imports to US
• Germany says it ‘will not give in’ and Europe must ‘respond firmly’ to Trump
• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• Watch: The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher on Trump’s negotiating tactics
• Six things that could get more expensive under new taxes

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, in a news conference on Thursday morning, declined to comment directly on the new auto tariffs.

She vowed her government would “always defend Mexico”, and fight to maintain job creation and protect Mexican companies affected by import taxes.

She said Mexico would provide an “integral response” to the Trump administration’s tariffs on 3 April, the day after many are due to come into effect.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly noted that many US car companies have operations in both Mexico and Canada, which are bound by a North American free trade agreement that Trump himself negotiated during his first term in the White House.

“Of course, there shouldn’t be tariffs,” she said on Thursday. “That’s the essence of the free trade agreement.”

Six Russian tourists have died after a tourist submarine sank in the Red Sea near the Egyptian city of Hurghada.

Thirty-nine other people were rescued after the vessel – the Sindbad – sank at about 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT), officials say. Nine are said to have been injured with four in critical condition.

Two of those who died were children, Russia’s Tass news agency reports, citing a Russian official.

Authorities are still investigating and it is currently not known what caused the incident.

This is the second incident involving a tourist vessel in the Red Sea in recent months. In November, a boat capsized near Marsa Allam, which left 11 people missing, presumed dead.

The Sindbad had been in operation as a tourist submarine for a number of years.

• Egypt submarine sinking: What we know so far

Sindbad Submarines, the company running the trips, says its vessels take passengers on journeys to explore coral reefs near the Hurghada coastline.

The Red Sea governor, Amr Hanafy, said the 45 passengers on the Sindbad were from Russia, India, Norway and Sweden. Five Egyptian crew members were also on board.

Mr Hanafy said the six who died were all Russian, but full details of the victims have not yet been released.

Two married doctors are among those who have died and their daughters remain in hospital, authorities said.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing, but the Association of Tour Operators of Russia cited in a Telegram post the submarine hit a reef and subsequently lost pressure while at a depth of 20 metres (65 feet).

The city of Hurghada is located to the south-east of Cairo – a tourist destination which is known both for its beaches and coral reefs.

Sindbad Submarines’ website says its tours allow passengers to travel 25 metres (82 feet) underwater.

Dr James Aldridge from Bristol took the same trip on the submarine in February 2025. He told the BBC: “The sub was well-maintained and was as shown in the promotional photos.

“Fresh paint, modern equipment and with attentive and professional English-speaking staff (including two divers to accompany you down).”

He explained passengers listened to a safety briefing, which had been recorded in multiple languages, and said that life jackets were not issued.

“We toured the reef for 40 minutes. For the first 20 I was facing the reef, the sub never strayed ‘too close’ and I never felt unsafe. For the return trip, I was facing the ocean,” he added.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, which operates more than 20 museums and research centres visited by millions yearly in Washington DC and New York City.

The order directs the vice-president to “eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the institute’s museums, centres and the National Zoo in Washington.

It also directs the interior secretary to restore federal properties, including parks, memorials and statues, which “have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history”.

The move is part of Trump’s effort to shape American culture, in addition to politics.

The order is titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. It says that Vice-President JD Vance, who became a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents due to his position in government, will lead the purge.

Trump’s order says that Congress should not fund Smithsonian exhibits and programmes that “divide Americans by race”. It alleges that the American Women’s History Museum, which is in development, plans to “recognize men as women”.

It also singles out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, saying that the museum “has proclaimed that ‘hard work,’ ‘individualism,’ and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture’.” The museum opened in 2016 in Washington as former President Barack Obama, America’s first black president, was leaving office.

The Smithsonian museums offer free entry to some 15 to 30 million visitors each year. It operates 21 museums in Washington, Virgina and New York.

They include the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the American Art Museum, the National Zoo and more than a dozen others.

The order also instructs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to complete “restorations and improvements” to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It comes ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which took place within the building.

Trump has set out to radically reshape American culture, which he says has been contaminated by “woke” left-wing ideology. He has signed several orders that are intended to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes from the federal government – some of which led to legal challenges.

Shortly after taking office, Trump fired the board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, and installed himself as chairman.

The move led to widespread criticism from actors and directors, causing several to cancel upcoming performances.

On 3 May Australians will head to the polls to vote in their first federal election since 2022.

The results will determine who the next prime minister will be, as well as the make-up of the nation’s parliament.

Australia famously has a unique electoral system – and some quirky polling day traditions. Voting is mandatory for all citizens over 18, the country uses preferential voting, and picking up a “democracy sausage” is a polling day custom.

Almost 18 million people are registered to vote in this election – roughly 98% of those who are eligible.

Unlike the First Past the Post system – used in the UK and most US states – which elects candidates based on who has received the greatest number of votes in a single count, regardless of whether they’ve secured an absolute majority – voters in Australia rank candidates in order of preference.

If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the first tally, the votes from the least popular candidates are then redistributed, and that process repeated until someone secures a majority.

In races for the House of Representatives, voters are required to mark a preference down for every single candidate listed on the ballot.

However, in Senate races, voters only need to mark down a designated number of preferences.

It is the leader of the party that receives the most seats in the House who then becomes prime minister. There is no separate leadership ballot.

All of the seats in Australia’s House of Representatives – that’s 150 in this election -will be up for grabs, as will 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate.

Australia has two major parties: the left-leaning Australian Labor Party and the conservative Liberal-National coalition.

One party needs to win at least 76 seats in the House to form a majority government.

If it cannot do that, it must try to win support from minor parties or independent MPs.

In both state and federal elections, the vote share for minor parties and independents has been steadily increasing in Australia for decades.

That reached record levels in the 2022 federal election, with one in three Australians casting votes for candidates outside the two major parties.

Labor formed a majority government after winning the 2022 election, which delivered the biggest loss for the Liberal Party since its inception.

As it stands, Labor has 78 seats in the House of Representatives, while the coalition has 57, with minor parties and independents splitting the remainder.

But with one House seat abolished, if Labor loses just two seats at this election it will be stripped of its majority in parliament.

In order to form a government in its own right, the coalition needs to win 19 seats, likely including many of those it lost to independent candidates during the 2022 vote.

Anthony Albanese has been the prime minister since the last election, and a stalwart of parliament for almost 30 years.

While he enjoyed a period of broad popularity after coming to power in 2022, he has in recent times come under pressure over his handling of divisive topics like housing, Indigenous affairs and both antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Albanese is being challenged by Peter Dutton, who became head of the Liberal-National coalition after their 2022 defeat. He is contesting his first election as opposition leader.

Known as a staunch conservative, Dutton has years of experience in important ministerial portfolios – like defence and home affairs – but has been a controversial figure at times, particularly on social issues.

Both the polling and the political messaging around this year’s election indicate that cost of living is the biggest concern for many voters.

Since the 2022 election, inflation – which is now slowing – has pushed up the prices of everyday essentials such as food and utilities, leaving many households feeling stretched.

The Albanese government has implemented a string of policies that it says are aimed at providing relief, such as keeping the cost of medications down, and offering tax cuts, energy rebates and rental assistance to those eligible.

However, Australia has raised interest rates 12 times since Albanese was elected in May 2022 – something that is done independently of government but seen to reflect their economic management – and that has put additional pressure on borrowers and those with mortgages across the country.

Housing affordability will also be a key issue this election cycle, with several Australian cities among the most expensive in the world for homebuyers.

Historically, Australians are used to getting a result and knowing who will form government on election night.

However, it is usually not the Australian Election Commission – the official body tasked with manually counting the votes – that declares this.

Instead, the AEC provides what’s known as an “indicative count” throughout the day, which media commentators, election experts and sometimes even the parties and candidates themselves then base their calls on.

The AEC does not formally declare a seat until it is confident the result will not change based on the number of uncounted votes, which can sometimes take days.

An investigative journalist who won an $18m (£14m) defamation case against a Ghanaian MP says that, although he is hopeful he will receive the money, what is more rewarding is the message his victory sends.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas began legal action against Kennedy Agyapong after the MP labelled him a “criminal” following his investigation into football corruption in Ghana and elsewhere.

He initially brought the case in Ghana, and lost, but then took it to the US, where Agyapong owns property, and won.

“The bigger impact for me is not the money but the fact that young journalists are encouraged [to hold the powerful to account] no matter how big you are [as] a politician”, Anas told the BBC.

The court heard that Agyapong, among other accusations made on a podcast, had called the reporter a “criminal” and alleged he was behind the murder of fellow journalist Ahmed Suale.

Anas told the BBC he was still grieving Suale and that, despite the recent arrest of one suspect, he believes there are other culprits still at large.

“From time to time I go to where Ahmed was shot, and I go to have my own quiet time. I go to his grave.

“It encourages me. When Ahmed was alive he asked me one day: ‘Boss, I want [to] assure you [that] one day if you should die, I would continue with the good work that you do’. I didn’t know it was going to be the reverse because, all along… I was the one who was the target.”

Anas has been scathing in his criticism of Ghana’s legal system, telling the BBC he believes “many” members of the judiciary “are doing nothing but tilting the scale of justice in favour of the wrong one”.

He decided to bring his case against the MP to the US state of New Jersey, where the politician was at the time he was interviewed for the Daddy Fred Show podcast, according to court papers filed by Anas’ lawyers.

The journalist’s victory earlier this month saw him awarded $18m in damages as the result of a unanimous decision by an eight-member jury in Essex County Superior Court in New Jersey, finding Agyapong liable for defamation.

The figure included $8m in punitive damages.

“I feel very happy, I think that it’s a vindication of what I have always preached. This goes a long way to encourage African journalists across the continent there’s a need for us to be resilient. There’s a need for us to have a stomach to take the heat,” Anas told the BBC.

Now that the court has ordered Agyapong to pay damages, the journalist says he is confident the funds will be transferred because his legal team’s “due diligence” had assessed the value of property and businesses owned by the MP before bringing the case.

“I cannot be 100% certain, but I know that my legal team has done some work and they have a plan,” he adds.

Anas says that, even though his case was won in the US, it should serve as a wake-up call to the rich and powerful that African journalists can and will hold them to account.

“We also have the capacity to stand toe-to-toe with you. Whilst we are patient, whilst we are honest, our day will definitely come.”

• Betraying the Game: African officials filmed taking cash
• Ghana dissolves football association after BBC investigation into corruption
• Players union welcomes life ban for Gabon football coach over sexual abuse

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has released a social media video filmed inside a controversial mega-prison in El Salvador, thanking the country and its president for “bringing our terrorists here and incarcerating them”.

Secretary Noem was in the country to tour the facility, where US officials recently sent 238 Venezuelans.

In a cell behind her as she spoke were dozens of bare-chested and tattooed Salvadorean members from the MS-13 and the 18th Street gangs.

The trip suggests President Trump does not intend to back down from his immigration policy in the face of an injunction, upheld by an appeals court, on removing the Venezuelans from US soil under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.

Secretary Noem described the prison as “one of the tools in our toolbox” and warned people that “if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face”.

As part of her visit, she is due to meet Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele, an ally of US President Donald Trump, who had the Terrorism Confinement Centre (Cecot) facility built as part of his own crackdown on gang crime in El Salvador.

President Bukele made the offer to incarcerate deportees and prisoners from the US at the Cecot during a recent visit to the Central American nation by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The move has prompted an outcry in the US and Venezuela, with several family members of the deportees insisting their relatives do not belong to any gang.

As Secretary Noem was being shown around the notorious facility on Wednesday, the Trump Administration received another setback in its effort to send foreign nationals there.

An appeals court in Washington DC upheld a decision by a lower court to put a temporary injunction on the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants under the 1798 act, which allows for the expulsion of foreign citizens with little due process.

The use of the act has drawn an outcry from immigration lawyers and activists who argue that some men accused of being gang members have been sent to El Salvador and locked up in the mega-prison on the basis of little evidence, including simply having tattoos.

Human rights groups have warned that the jail, in which inmates are held in windowless cells and sleep on bare metal bunks, is a “concrete and steel pit”.

The White House continues to insist that all those they rounded up are dangerous gang members and were carefully vetted.

However, several of their family members in Venezuela say their loved ones had no prior convictions.

The deportation of 238 Venezuelans to the Cecot earlier this month has also put the Trump Administration into open conflict with a federal judge, James Boasberg, over the use of the centuries-old law to justify their quick deportation.

Judge Boasberg has since imposed an injunction on further deportations under the law, which was last invoked during World War Two.

The fate of the Venezuelans has also come under severe criticism by a Washington Court of Appeals judge who said that even “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act”.

The comparison prompted a furious reaction from senior officials in the Trump Administration.

Meanwhile, lawyers in El Salvador, apparently acting in coordination with the Venezuelan government, have lodged a petition with the Salvadorean Supreme Court to try to secure the immediate release of the men.

The deportations to El Salvador under Trump’s second term are part of the president’s long-running campaign against illegal immigration in the US.

He won over voters on the campaign trail, in part, by promising to enact the largest deportation operation in US history.

In January, Trump signed an executive order declaring Tren de Aragua and MS-13 foreign terrorist organisations.

While irregular border crossings have plummeted to the lowest number in decades since Trump took office, the Republican president has reportedly been frustrated by the relatively slow pace of deportations so far.

This week saw Rachel Reeves unveil her Spring Statement, the White House continue to shake the global economy with tariff threats, and the nominations for the BAFTA TV Awards be announced.

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

Quiz compiled by George Sandeman and Grace Dean.

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

Six people have died after a tourist submarine sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, a local governor has said.

Among 39 others who were rescued, nine were said to have been injured, with four of them in critical condition, after the incident early on Thursday morning near the city of Hurghada.

In total, 45 passengers were thought to have been on-board the submarine, called Sindbad, when it sank close to the harbour.

Here is what we know so far.

The Red Sea area governor, Amr Hanafy, said six tourists died and 39 further people were rescued after the submarine sank. No people are missing.

He said the 45 passengers on board were from Russia, India, Norway and Sweden. There were also five Egyptians on board.

All of those who died were from Russia. A Russian official in Hurghada, Viktor Voropaev, said that two of those killed were children. Authorities in the Russian republic of Tatarstan told Russian media that two others who died were married doctors.

An earlier statement from the Russian embassy in Egypt had said all of the tourists on board were Russian.

The submarine, Sindbad, had been in operation as a tourist submarine for a number of years.

According to the company running the tourist trips – Sindbad Submarines – its vessels take passengers on journeys to explore coral reefs near the Hurghada coastline.

The company says it holds two of the only “14 real recreational submarines” in the world, which hold 44 seats for passengers and two seats for pilots.

Tours are designed for both adults and children, the company’s website says, and allow passengers to travel 25 metres (82 feet) underwater.

Dr James Aldridge, who took the same trip on one of the company’s submarines last month, said each passenger is given “a seat on a cushion next to your window and there is a recorded safety brief in multiple languages”.

The vessel “wasn’t cramped or overcrowded”, Dr Aldridge, from Bristol, said, adding that he “never felt unsafe”.

“The sub departed and we toured the reef for 40 minutes,” he said. “For the first 20 I was facing the reef, the sub never strayed ‘too close’.”

According to Dr Aldridge, the divers accompanying the submarine “used fish food to attract the wildlife” to keep the passengers entertained.

Dr Aldridge said the submarine “never went close” to a 25-metre depth.

He was not, however, issued a life jacket.

Benjamin Grey, 50, from Camberley, also took a trip on a Sindbad submarine in February – but had quite a different experience.

He boarded with his 13-year-old daughter and his partner, and said he noticed “problems” during the trip, including the submarine surfacing “at least three times”.

“About halfway through there was a diver who looked like he’d picked up a rock,” he said. “He was banging something on the bottom of the submarine. Clearly at some point the submarine had stopped moving and the divers outside were doing something.”

He also said – in contrast to Dr Aldridge – that “no safety procedures were talked through”.

The submarine sank around one kilometre (0.6 miles) off the coast of the Egyptian Red Sea city of Hurghada, the BBC understands.

The Russian embassy said it happened around 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT), about 0.6 miles (1km) from the shore.

Hurghada is a popular tourist destination, with its coastline known for its beaches and coral reefs. A number of tourist trip companies operate out of its harbour.

In recent years, there have been other incidents involving Red Sea tourist boats operating out of the city.

In November, a tourist boat called the Sea Story sank, leaving 11 dead or missing – including a British couple – and 35 survivors. The BBC later heard accusations of safety failings on board.

UK investigators said last month there had been 16 incidents involving “liveaboard” vessels in the area in the last five years, with a number resulting in deaths.

Authorities in Egypt are investigating the cause of the incident, and details are currently unclear.

There continues to be a lot of activity from other boats around the harbour near where the submarine sank.

Red Sea governor Amr Hanafy said the submarine had a valid licence and the crew leader had the correct “scientific certificates”.

It appeared that the weather was quite calm with no sign of any rough waters.

President Volodymyr Zelensky was in a buoyant mood when I met him in Paris with a panel of three other European journalists. He had interrupted a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace and went back there for what he called a “tête à tête dinner” after the interview.

Macron had not just rolled out the red carpet for him. The Eiffel Tower, behind Zelensky in a picture window as we talked in one of Paris’s great museums, was lit up in yellow and blue, the colours of the Ukrainian national flag.

The French wanted him to feel as if he was among friends. Zelensky had come to Paris to meet leaders and diplomats from 30 other countries who are working out what they can contribute to the “coalition of the willing”, the group that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are trying to organise to offer Ukraine security guarantees if there is a long-term ceasefire.

Zelensky’s welcome in Paris was a clear contrast to the dressing down he was given by US President Donald Trump and his vice president JD Vance when he visited the White House last month.

After their verbal attack, Zelensky was unceremoniously turfed out of the White House and not long afterwards Trump ordered the suspension of American military aid and intelligence to Ukraine.

It was restored after Zelensky, advised by the British, the French and other European allies, went out of his way to mend his fences with Trump and his administration.

He switched to the kind of flattering language Trump demands and agreed to an American plan for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. He dropped his insistence on US security guarantees first, to underpin any ceasefire.

But even though US military and intelligence assistance is flowing, Trump’s ruthless suspension of it, which cost Ukrainian lives, has left a deep sense of unease in Ukraine and among its European allies.

The evidence is piling up that Trump’s United States is not a reliable ally. It is getting easier to sketch out scenarios in which it might not be an ally at all.

Most European leaders still try to act publicly as if the 80-year-old alliance with the US is healthy. But the gathering of 30 countries in Paris shows they realise they can no longer rely on the benevolence of the United States.

American presidents going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower in the late 1950s have complained, with good reason, about Europeans getting a free ride from the US security blanket over Europe. Trump has finally pulled it away.

During the interview, Zelensky praised the array of plans that are being formulated in western Europe – led by the UK, France and Germany – to spend more on defence.

He suggested that in three to five years, “if everything goes as it is now”, Europe might even catch up with the United States.

At best, that is a highly optimistic estimate, less an accurate forecast and more a gesture of appreciation for European allies who unlike the Americans attach very few conditions and strings to support for Ukraine.

Europe, Zelensky said, “has discipline and no chaos”. That might be seen as an oblique and unflattering comparison with the twists and turns coming out of the Trump White House.

• Russia: Sanctions must be lifted before maritime ceasefire can start
• What is Swift and why is banning Russia so significant?
• Why did Putin invade Ukraine?

I asked him about the conditions Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has attached to the latest small step in the Trump peace initiative, which is a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.

After Ukraine and Russia held separate meetings with the Americans in Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin issued a statement that required concessions as Russia’s price for a ceasefire.

The most significant demand was for a state-owned Russian bank to be readmitted to the Swift system for international payments. That would open a door back into mainstream global commerce for Russia.

That decision does not depend on Trump, as Swift is based in Belgium.

The European Union foreign affairs spokeswoman responded with a statement saying one of the “main preconditions” for lifting or amending sanctions on Russia was “the end of the Russian unprovoked and unjustified aggression in Ukraine and the unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces from the entire territory of Ukraine”.

Even Trump, reluctant to criticise Putin, suggested that Russia might be “dragging its feet” in the negotiations with the US. It reminded him of his own business career.

He told the US cable channel Newsmax that “I’ve done it over the years… I don’t want to sign a contract. I want to sort of stay in the game.”

I asked Zelensky where the push for a ceasefire stood, given Russia’s demands. He called for a resolute response from the Americans.

“If America is going to stand strong and not bend to the conditions of the Russians – we stand on our land.

“We are defending it; we have shown our resilience to everyone… And now it’s very important that our partners would be resilient and strong, at least at the minimum, as we are.”

I asked whether he believed the Americans would, as he put it, stay strong.

“I hope so. I hope so. God bless they will. But we’ll see.”

Zelensky has no choice about stating his faith in Trump’s America, even though he must have grave doubts.

Trump’s decision to punish Ukraine by cutting off military intelligence about Russia missile launches had an immediate and deadly impact, and Zelensky had to work hard to get Trump to relent. He does not want it to happen again.

He was open about why he had to try to stay close to Trump, even as the US president seemed to be prioritising the restoration of relations with Moscow as he repeated Russian propaganda points, not least the lie that Ukraine started the war.

“We needed to unblock the aid from the US. For us, the exchange of intelligence is very important.”

That did not stop Zelensky rebuking comments made by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s super envoy, a real estate billionaire turned diplomat who deals with the Middle East as well as the Russian-Ukraine war.

In an interview last week with Tucker Carlson, a right-wing podcaster in the United States, Witkoff disparaged the drive by the UK’s Starmer and France’s Macron to create the “coalition of the willing” to support Ukraine.

The American said it was a posture and pose, “a simplistic desire” to sound like Winston Churchill. His words fit squarely into what seems now to be a settled view in the Trump Administration that their erstwhile allies in Europe are a parasitical burden on the United States.

What if Witkoff was right? Strip away the insults and recognise that Europe’s richest nations have chosen, for decades, to spend most of their considerable wealth on matters they consider more pressing than their militaries.

Zelensky said Witkoff and others in the Trump administration, had fallen for Russian propaganda.

“I think that Witkoff often quotes the Kremlin narratives… I can’t be ungrateful to the Americans for everything they did, but they are often, unfortunately, under the influence of Russian narratives. And we cannot agree with these narratives.”

Zelensky suggested that Witkoff was better at his old job, developing real estate in Manhattan.

“He doesn’t look like a military man. He doesn’t look like a general, and he doesn’t have such experience. As far as I know, he is very good at selling and buying real estate. And this is a little different.”

President Zelensky, for a man who has lived with immense pressure since Russia’s full scale invasion more than three years ago, was remarkably buoyant, clearly pleased by the reception he had in Paris and the efforts that President Macron and Prime Minister Starmer are making to rally European support and to persuade, even cajole, Trump not to cut intelligence and military support to Ukraine.

Zelensky seemed happy with his new strategy of agreeing to temporary ceasefires to force Putin to show his reluctance to pause the war.

I asked Zelensky how he was dealing with the pressure. His goal, he said, was for his children to be able “to walk down the street and not have to hide.” And how did he think he’d be remembered; as the man who saved Ukraine, or tried to and failed? Zelensky grimaced slightly. Better, he said, than Putin, who was getting old and feared his own people.

“He will die soon. It is a fact. His reign could end before he finishes his historically insignificant and unsuccessful life. This is what he fears.”

Zelensky laughed.

“And I will do everything I can to defend Ukraine as much as I can. And I am definitely younger than Putin.”

Trump might be hoping for a deal by Easter. Zelensky is still looking to the long haul.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US has revoked at least 300 foreign students’ visas as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to clamp down on pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses.

“Maybe more than 300 at this point,” he said while speaking to reporters on a visit to Guyana. “We do it every day, every time I find one of these lunatics.”

Rubio was asked to confirm how many student visas the administration had revoked in its crackdown on rhetoric at universities that it considers anti-Israeli.

The remarks follow immigration officials detention of a doctoral Turkish student attending Tufts University – an arrest the secretary defended.

A video of the student, Rumeysa Ozturk, being taken away by masked, plain-clothes officers to an unmarked car outside Boston, Massachusetts, has gone viral and sparked protests online.

Ms Ozturk is a Fullbright Scholar on an F-1 student visa and is in a doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development at Tufts.

Rubio was asked on Thursday why the Turkish student’s visa was revoked.

“Here’s why: I’ve said it everywhere, and I’ll say it again,” Rubio said. “If you apply for a student visa to come to the United States and you say you’re coming not just to study, but to participate in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings, and cause chaos, we’re not giving you that visa.”

It is currently unclear whether Ms Ozturk has been charged with anything.

Rubio did not provide any of the specific allegations against the 30-year-old, who has participated in pro-Palestinian protests. The Tufts student also co-wrote an opinion piece in the student newspaper last year that called for her university to divest from companies with ties to Israel and acknowledge “Palestinian genocide”.

“Based on patterns we are seeing across the country, her exercising her free speech rights appears to have played a role in her detention,” Mahsa Khanbabai, Ms Ozturk’s lawyer, told Reuters.

This arrest is the latest in a string of actions taken against international students in the US who have expressed support for Palestinians.

Trump officials have said they are making use of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the State Department to deport non-citizens who are “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests” of the US.

The arrests are a part of Trump’s pledge to combat what the administration has classified as antisemitism, which was written into an executive order in January.

Since then, the White House has also revoked $400m (£308m) in Columbia funding over allegations the university failed to combat antisemitism on its campus, and threatened to do the same to other universities.

One of the highest profile arrests involves Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist, who remains in a Louisiana detention facility without charges.

Ms Ozturk was also taken to a detention centre in Louisiana. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ordered that Ms Ozturk be detained in Massachusetts, but federal records show she is still being held in Louisiana.

The government has been ordered to provide more information on Ms Ozturk’s arrest by Friday.

US Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said earlier this week that Ms Ozturk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans”.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, called the arrest “the latest in an alarming pattern to stifle civil liberties”.

“The Trump administration is targeting students with legal status and ripping people out of their communities without due process. This is an attack on our Constitution and basic freedoms – and we will push back,” she said in a statement.

On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt its efforts to deport and arrest another student, Yunseo Chung of Columbia University. The 21-year-old is a legal permanent resident who moved to the US from South Korea as a child.

On Thursday, Rubio said the US gave students visa to earn a degree and “not become a social activist tearing up our campuses”.

“If you lie, get the visa, and then engage in that kind of behaviour once you’re here, we’re going to revoke it,” he said.

Acclaimed author Sir Salman Rushdie is set to release his first work of fiction in nearly three years, following a stabbing that left him blind in one eye in 2022.

The Eleventh Hour will consist of a collection of stories from around the world, set across India, England and the US.

The work will be published by Vintage, part of Penguin Random House, on 4 November – more than three years after he was stabbed while on stage by an assailant who was convicted last month of attempted murder and assault.

“Salman Rushdie’s new fiction moves between the places he has grown up in, inhabited, explored, and left,” the publisher said.

According to Penguin Random House, the book depicts the story of “two quarrelsome old men in Chennai, India, who experience private tragedy against the backdrop of national calamity”.

For readers familiar with Sir Salman’s Midnight’s Children, for which he won the Booker Prize, this upcoming work revisits the Bombay neighbourhood of that book, where “a magical musician is unhappily married to a multibillionaire”.

Sir Salman said the book is made up of three novellas – short stories – all of which were written in the last 12 months.

The stories explore themes and places present in his mind, the author added, highlighting “mortality, Bombay, farewells, England (especially Cambridge), anger, peace, America, and Goya and Kafka and Bosch”.

News of his latest work comes a year after Sir Salman released an autobiographical account of what happened when he was stabbed on stage during an event at the Chautauqua Institution.

Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder explored Sir Salman’s account of the attack, when he was stabbed more than a dozen times by Hadi Matar, 27.

As well as vision loss in one eye, the attack in August 2022 left Sir Salman with other severe injuries, including damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm.

In February, Matar was found guilty of his attempted murder and assault and now faces a sentence of more than 30 years in prison.

Sir Salman testified during the trial. Recalling the incident, he said he was struck by the assailant’s eyes, “which were dark and seemed very ferocious”.

He initially thought he had been punched, before realising he had been stabbed.

The 77-year-old previously spent several years in hiding after the 1988 publication of The Satanic Verses – a fictional story inspired by the life of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad – triggered threats against his life.

The surrealist, post-modern novel sparked outrage among some Muslims, who considered its content to be blasphemous – insulting to a religion or god – and was banned in some countries.

A year after the book’s release, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for Sir Salman’s execution. He offered a $3m (£2.5m) reward in a fatwa – a legal decree issued by an Islamic religious leader.

The British-Indian author has released as many as 16 novels, including Midnight’s Children, for which he won the Booker Prize.

BBC correspondent Mark Lowen has been deported from Turkey after being arrested in Istanbul on Wednesday, the BBC has said.

Lowen had been in Turkey for several days to report on the ongoing protests that were sparked by the Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest last week.

Imamoglu – who is being held in jail on corruption charges he denies – is seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival.

He has been selected by his party as presidential candidate in the 2028 election.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the BBC said: “This morning (27 March) the Turkish authorities deported BBC News correspondent Mark Lowen from Istanbul, having taken him from his hotel the previous day and detained him for 17 hours.”

On Thursday morning, he was presented with a written notice that he was being deported for “being a threat to public order,” the statement said.

Mark Lowen said: “To be detained and deported from the country where I previously lived for five years and for which I have such affection has been extremely distressing. Press freedom and impartial reporting are fundamental to any democracy.”

The BBC’s CEO of News Deborah Turness added: “This is an extremely troubling incident and we will be making representations to the Turkish authorities.

“Mark is a very experienced correspondent with a deep knowledge of Turkey and no journalist should face this kind of treatment simply for doing their job. We will continue to report impartially and fairly on events in Turkey.”

The Turkey director of Human Rights Watch, Emma Sinclair-Webb, told the BBC she was shocked at the deportation of an international journalist.

“This sends a message to the rest of the international media that ‘we will not tolerate you covering stories we don’t want the world to see,'” she said.

Thousands of people across Turkey have turned out for protests which have so far seen more than 1,400 people detained.

The protesters say Imamoglu’s arrest is politically motivated, but the justice ministry insists on its judicial independence.

President Erdogan has labelled the demonstrations “evil” and blamed the opposition for “disturbing the peace”.

Several journalists have also been arrested, including a photojournalist from French news agency Agence France Presse and several Turkish reporters. Many were reportedly released on Thursday morning.

Nightly protests have stopped but Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), is planning a rally in Istanbul on Saturday.

Popular Indian comedian Kunal Kamra has refused to apologise after jokes he made during a stand-up show angered supporters of a top politician in Maharashtra state.

Clips of the jokes – some of them were directed at the state’s Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde – had gone viral.

Members of the Shiv Sena party, which is led by Shinde, vandalised the hotel in Mumbai – the capital of Maharashtra – where the show was held.

A police case was also registered against Kamra and politicians from the state’s ruling coalition have asked him to apologise.

In a statement released on Monday night, Kamra said he would “co-operate with the police and courts for any lawful action” taken against him.

“But will the law be fairly and equally deployed against those who have decided that vandalism is the appropriate response to being offended by a joke?” he added.

Police arrested 12 people for the vandalism at the hotel, which housed a comedy club where the show was filmed. They were later released on bail.

As the controversy raged, Shinde said he did not support the vandalism, but added that “the other person should also maintain a certain standard”.

“There is freedom of expression. We understand satire. But there should be a limit,” he told BBC Marathi.

Kamra is a well-known name in the Indian comedy scene, with his political satire and stand-up shows getting millions of views on social media.

In his latest show – called Naya Bharat (New India) – Kamra refers to Shinde’s 2022 defection from the Shiv Sena party which triggered a major political crisis in the state.

The move led to a split in the Shiv Sena – India’s Election Commission later recognised Shinde’s group as the “real” Shiv Sena. The party is now part of the governing coalition in Maharashtra along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party.

In the show, Kamra sang a parody of a Bollywood song where he indirectly referred to Shinde as a traitor, outraging his supporters.

It’s not clear when the show was filmed at the hotel but the reactions this week were swift.

After Shiv Sena workers ransacked the venue, the studio Habitat – which often hosted stand-up comedy shows – said it was shutting down until it figured out “the best way to provide a platform for free expression without putting ourselves and our property in jeopardy”.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Mumbai’s civic authorities, also demolished some structures at the hotel, citing alleged building violations.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is from the BJP, criticised Kamra, asking him to apologise. “None of us are against freedom of speech. We support satire or even political satire and we do not paint it differently,” he said.

Both he and Shinde accused Kamra of speaking on behalf of the opposition.

A lawmaker from Shinde’s party also said in a video that Shiv Sena workers would pursue Kamra across the country and he would be forced to leave India.

In his statement, Kamra said he would not “hide under [his] bed”, waiting for the outrage to die down.

“As far as I know, it is not against the law to poke fun at our leaders and the circus that is our political system,” he said.

Opposition leaders have supported Kamra.

Uddhav Thackeray, chief of Shinde’s former party – the Shiv Sena (UBT) – said Kamra had not done anything wrong.

“He stated the facts and voiced the public opinion,” he added.

Indian comedians have often faced legal action over comments and jokes. In 2021, Munawar Faruqui spent days in jail after being accused of hurting Hindu religious sentiments in jokes that – it turned out – he didn’t actually crack.

Actor and comedian Vir Das also faced outrage and police complaints after a show in the US where he described India as a country of two sides where people “worship women during the day but gang rape them at night”.

A global health organisation has warned that one million children could die from preventable diseases if the US terminates its financial support.

Dr Sania Nishtar – head of Gavi, an alliance that buys critical vaccines for developing countries – told the BBC a cut in US funding would have a “disastrous impact on global health security”.

This follows a report in the New York Times that the Trump administration intends to terminate Gavi’s funding – the US is the alliance’s third largest donor.

Gavi had not received a termination notice from the US but it was “engaging with the White House and Congress” to secure $300m (£230m) for its activities in 2025, and longer-term funding, Dr Nishtar said.

The US has pledged $1.6bn for the 2026-2030 period – about 15% of Gavi’s total funding.

Since taking office in January 2025, US President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants overseas spending to be closely aligned with his “America First” approach.

The international development sector has been braced for a profound effect on humanitarian programmes around the world.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) was one of the first agencies targeted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) for cuts at the start of 2025, when the Trump administration ordered a 90-day freeze of all US foreign aid.

Of the 500 million children that needed to be immunised around the world, 75 million would miss out if Gavi lost US funding, said Dr Nishtar, resulting in deaths from preventable diseases like measles, tuberculosis, pneumonia and polio.

This would also mean that governments and health agencies’ ability to keep the world safe through vaccine stockpiles against diseases such as Ebola, cholera and mpox would be compromised, she said.

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) agrees with Gavi’s warning about the potential funding cuts.

“The consequences of this political decision will be catastrophic,” said MSF USA chief programs officer Carrie Teicher.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) “fully supports” Gavi and was “engaging” with US authorities on the disruption caused by the withdrawal of US funding for major programmes, said Africa CDC emergencies incident manager Dr Ngongo Ngashi.

He added: “We are prioritising routine vaccines but we also know how crucial vaccines for emergencies are.”

Dr Ngashi also said it was “critical that we find our own funding streams – that are not dependent on the decision of partners” and which help Africans contribute “to advancing public health”.

Gavi has said it will try to further broaden its donor base. Indonesia, a country that has previously been a recipient of Gavi’s assistance, became a donor last year.

“As a lean and efficient organisation where 97 cents in every dollar raised goes towards our immunisation programmes, it is impossible to consider that any cut in funding by the US would not have disastrous implications for global health and for the safety of people everywhere,” Dr Sania Nishtar said.

The BBC has contacted the US State Department, which runs what remains of USAID, for comment.

Firefighters in South Korea are racing to save lives and ancient artefacts from the largest wildfire in the country’s history.

At least 27 people have been killed so far, according to the country’s interior ministry – making the blaze also South Korea’s deadliest. A further 32 people have been injured, some seriously.

Most of those killed were in their 60s and 70s, local officials say.

It is thought the wildfires, which first broke out in south-eastern Sancheong county nearly a week ago, were started accidentally by local human activities.

Fuelled by strong and dry winds, the fires have spread to several neighbouring counties, including Uiseong – where the largest of all the blazes currently is.

The authorities believe this fire broke out while visitors were tending to a family grave in the hills. Video footage from the gravesite shows a lighter on the ground.

Other fires are presumed to have been started from a welding spark, or burning of rubbish.

The fires have burned though more than 35,810 hectares (88,500 acres) so far – about half the size of New York City. As they continue to spread, artefacts including wooden printing blocks and paintings, have been moved from major temples.

The authorities are keeping a close eye on potential damage to two Unesco-listed sites: Hahoe Village and Byeongsan Seowon in Andong City.

The fires have already destroyed the Gounsa temple, which was built in 618 AD and was one of the largest temples in the province.

A Buddhist architectural structure deemed a national treasure from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) was also destroyed, forestry authorities confirmed.

Tens of thousands of people have so far been ordered to evacuate because of the fires.

Kwon Young-chang, 35, told the BBC that the smoke filled his neighbourhood in Andong, forcing him to head north to Yecheon.

“The damage in Andong is devastating, and our neighbours, who have suffered great losses, are in deep despair,” he said.

Mr Kwon said the official information he had received had been confusing, and that he had been getting updates from local authorities’ social media pages. He feared that older people would not have access to these.

Another Andong resident, who asked not to be named, told BBC Korean that her house, which her family had lived in for more than 30 years, was “completely burnt down” within just a few hours.

“There’s nothing left. You can’t even tell where the house used to be,” she said. “It’s difficult to see the village like this.”

Jang Jung-suk, who lives in Cheongsong County, says her beekeeping site was completely destroyed by the fire.

“We saw really strong winds the day the fire spread to our village. It was hard to even stand still,” Jang said.

After briefly evacuating, she and her husband returned to find their home damaged and their business, which they had been building for five years and were just starting to reach a point of stability with, gone. Jang says her husband couldn’t hold back tears when he saw the damage.

“I’m at a loss. I need to figure out how to start over,” she said.

While the weather rarely causes wildfires on its own, it can give conditions that help wildfires to take hold and spread.

This is exactly what has happened in South Korea. Temperatures several degrees above the seasonal norm have combined with dry ground, strong winds and low humidity to fuel fires that authorities say were ignited by human activity.

Lee Han-gyeong, the government official in charge of emergency response, said “we are witnessing the reality of climate crisis like never before”.

A federal judge ordered White House officials involved in a group chat on military strikes in Yemen to preserve the messages after a bombshell report revealed that they potentially shared classified information.

US District Judge James Boasberg ordered members of President Donald Trump’s national security team to keep any messages sent or received over the Signal messaging app between 11 and 15 March.

The order stems from a lawsuit filed by American Oversight, which alleges that Trump officials’ use of Signal violated federal records laws.

“The Trump Administration has and will continue to comply with all applicable record-keeping laws,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.

The Atlantic, which first reported the existence of the chat group, noted that messages in the chat were set to disappear after a certain period of time. That has raised concerns that the messages could vanish.

Judge Boasberg said at the hearing that the order was intended to ensure no messages were lost, and not a finding of wrongdoing.

On Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic reported he was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat along with other accounts that appeared to belong to top Trump administration officials, including Vice-President JD Vance and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

Members of the Signal chat discussed an imminent strike against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, and an account purporting to belong to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted detailed attack and weapons plans for a 15 March strike.

The National Security Council later confirmed the chat’s authenticity.

• Read the messages Trump officials exchanged on leaked Signal thread
• Three sensitive messages from Yemen strike Signal chat unpacked and explained
• Four lingering questions about Trump officials’ Signal chat

American Oversight’s lawsuit names several of the chat’s primary participants: Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The suit also named the National Archives and Records Administration, which is tasked with overseeing the preservation of government documents.

American Oversight argues that the Signal chat was covered by the Federal Records Act.

The suit argues that using a “private, encrypted, auto-deleting platform for official communications” without forwarding it to an official government system violated that statute.

“Without court action, they – and many like them – will be automatically destroyed or lost forever,” the suit states.

Hegseth and other administration officials have maintained that no sensitive information was shared. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that “no war plans” were discussed on the chat, and she insisted to reporters that the information shared should be characterised as “sensitive policy discussions”.

At a Thursday afternoon hearing, Judge Boasberg ordered the officials named in the lawsuit to preserve 11-15 March Signal messages.

He followed up with a written order, stating that his decision would expire on 10 April “in the event that Defendants’ measures are satisfactory to the Court”.

“This order marks an important step toward accountability,” Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, told the BBC in a statement. “We are grateful for the judge’s ruling to halt any further destruction of these critical records.”

Judge Boasberg is also handling a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador earlier this month.

That case sparked accusations that the Trump administration had violated the judge’s order to immediately return the immigrants to US soil, and to turn around planes if necessary. Judge Boasberg had first verbally ordered their return, before following with a written order.

The White House had argued it did not violate Judge Boasberg’s order, and has issued escalating attacks against the judge. President Donald Trump suggested that the judge should be impeached, prompting a rare rebuke from US Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.

Judge Boasberg addressed the situation at Thursday’s hearing over the Signal chat, noting that he had been assigned the new Signal case at random.

After ordering the Trump officials preserve their Signal communications, Judge Boasberg assured parties that his verbal order would be followed up in writing.

In Murmansk, the largest city north of the Arctic circle, President Vladimir Putin vowed to “strengthen Russia’s global leadership in the Arctic”, while warning that “geopolitical competition in the region” was intensifying.

The first example he gave was Donald Trump’s idea to acquire Greenland.

But from the Kremlin leader there was no criticism of his US counterpart.

And that’s telling, as the White House and the Kremlin try to rebuild relations.

“In short, America’s plans in relation to Greenland are serious,” President Putin said in an address to Russia’s Arctic Forum in Murmansk.

“These plans have deep historical roots. And it’s clear that the US will continue to systematically pursue its geo-strategic, military-political and economic interests in the Аrctic.

“As for Greenland this is a matter for two specific countries. It has nothing to do with us.”

So said the president who had launched a full-scale invasion of a sovereign neighbouring country and claims to have annexed whole swathes of Ukraine.

When Joe Biden was in the White House, Moscow and Washington were vocal in their criticism of one another.

How things have changed.

• Russia’s next move? The countries trying to Putin-proof themselves
• Why Trump is struggling to secure fast ceasefire in Ukraine
• Why does Trump want Greenland and what do its people think?

Today Russia is promoting the idea of economic cooperation with the United States in an Arctic region packed with natural resources.

“We are open to considering different investment opportunities that we can do jointly with the US, in certain sectors approved by the Russian government,” says Kirill Dmitriev, President Putin’s envoy for foreign investment and economic cooperation.

Mr Dmitriev, who is also chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has already been in talks with US officials.

“We are open for investment cooperation in the Arctic. That could be in logistics, or other areas beneficial to Russia and to the US,” Mr Dmitriev adds.

“But before deals can be done the war in Ukraine needs to end,” I suggest.

“Many people in the West accuse Russia of dragging its feet, showing no compromise or concessions, and just laying down conditions.”

“I am focused on economics and investments, so I don’t comment on political issues,” Mr Dmitriev responds.

“The only thing I can say is we have a very good dialogue, and I think it’s very important that the US is trying to understand Russia’s position.”

Moscow seems confident that it can woo Washington with promises of lucrative deals in the Arctic and across Russia.

That confidence is understandable considering how senior US officials have been repeating Kremlin talking points about the war in Ukraine and about Europe.

In a recent interview with former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff appeared to accept the results of Moscow-organised referenda that were held in Ukrainian territories seized and occupied by Russia.

These votes that have not been recognised by the international community.

In the words of one recent Russian newspaper headline: “US and Russian officials are now talking the same language.”

Are the Russian authorities at all surprised by the sea change in America’s Russia policy?

“[In America] there are two parties that compete with one another,” says Nikolai Patrushev, former head of Russia’s FSB domestic security service.

Mr Patrushev, who is now an aide to President Putin, is one of the most powerful figures in Russia.

While on the side lines of the Arctic Forum he tells me: “When the Democrats were in power, they took one view. The Republicans have another.

“It doesn’t mean that they agree with Russia’s standpoint. Only that they have their own, which they promote, and we can cooperate with them.”

I ask Mr Patrushev: “Do you have a sense that a new world order is being forged?”.

“We used to have a system where two powers dominated in the world. Then it was just one. Now we’re building a multi-polar world. But with its own peculiarities,” says Mr Patrushev.

In the centre of Murmansk, a giant inflatable whale has taken over one of the city’s squares.

Attached to wires, it’s bobbing over a sea of silver balloons designed to look like waves. The balloons are dancing in the wind beneath the blow-up beast.

It’s a giant installation. But then Russia has enormous ambitions, both for the Arctic and for the country’s relations with America.

The whale is attracting a great deal of interest with lots of families posing for photos.

It’s an opportunity to ask Russians whether they support the idea of economic cooperation with America in the Arctic and whether they’re surprised when Washington appears to take Moscow’s side?

Elina isn’t.

“Russia is strong,” she says. “You should always back the strong ones and go along with them.”

“We need to develop the Arctic,” Olga tells me. “Cooperation with ‘friendly countries’ is a good thing.”

“And do you see America as a ‘friendly country’?” I ask.

“You know what? I can’t decide.” replies Olga.

Meanwhile presidential envoy Mr Dmitriev is singing the praises of one particular American – Elon Musk – and counting on cooperation.

“We believe Elon Musk is a great visionary, a great leader and a very successful person,” Mr Dmitriev tells me. “Russia has a lot to offer for a mission to Mars because we have some nuclear technologies which can be applicable.

“There are some video conferences we believe will be upcoming with, let’s say, the Musk team.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada’s old relationship with the United States, “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over”.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa after a cabinet meeting, Carney said Canadians must “fundamentally reimagine our economy” in the face of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

He said Canada would respond with retaliatory tariffs that will have “maximum impact” on the US.

Trump announced on Wednesday he would target imported vehicles and vehicle parts with a 25% tax, stating: “This is permanent.”

Carney, the Liberal Party leader, called the original Canada-US Automotive Products Agreement signed in 1965 the most important deal in his lifetime.

“That’s finished with these tariffs,” he said in French.

He continued that Canada can sustain an auto industry with the US tariffs provided the government and business community work to “reimagine” and “retool” the industry.

Canada needs to build an economy Canadians can control, he said, and that would include rethinking it’s trade relationship with other partners.

It remains to be seen whether Canadians can have a strong trading relationship with the United States going forward, he added.

Carney has switched his campaign plans ahead of next month’s general election to confront the latest import duties.

The US has already partially imposed a blanket 25% tariff on Canadian goods, along with a 25% duty on all aluminium and steel imports. Canada has so far retaliated with about C$60bn ($42bn; £32bn) of tariffs on US goods.

The new car tariffs will come into effect on 2 April, with charges on businesses importing vehicles starting the next day, the White House said. Taxes on parts are set to start in May or later.

• Germany leads defiance to Trump car tariffs, saying it ‘will not give in’

Early on Thursday morning, Trump warned Canada and the EU against joining forces versus the US in the trade war.

“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.

Carney met his ministers in Ottawa on Thursday morning to “discuss trade options”. He had originally been scheduled to campaign in Quebec.

He said during his press conference that President Trump had reached out to him last night to schedule a call, and that it would take place in the “next day or two”.

If it takes place, this would be the first call between the pair.

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservatives, the main opposition party, called the tariffs “unjustified and unprovoked”.

The NDP, a left-wing party that previously helped prop up the minority Liberal government of ex-PM Justin Trudeau, also switched its campaign plans on Thursday.

Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, spent the day meeting union leaders and car workers in Windsor, Ontario, an auto manufacturing hub across from Detroit, Michigan.

He said the US tariffs are a “betrayal” against a close ally, saying that “Donald Trump has started an illegal trade war with Canada” for “absolutely no reason”.

He said any auto company that moves their operations out of Canada because of the tariffs should be blocked from selling cars in the country.

Canadians go to the polls on 28 April.

The US imported about eight million cars last year – accounting for about $240bn in trade and roughly half of overall sales.

Earlier this month, after he became Liberal leader and before he was sworn in as prime minister, Carney gave a victory speech in which he lambasted the US president.

“A person who worships at the altar of Donald Trump will kneel before him, not stand up to him,” he said, while assailing his main rival, Poilievre.

Mexico is the top supplier of cars to the US, followed by South Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany.

• Trump announces 25% tariffs on car imports to US
• Germany says it ‘will not give in’ and Europe must ‘respond firmly’ to Trump
• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• Watch: The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher on Trump’s negotiating tactics
• Six things that could get more expensive under new taxes

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, in a news conference on Thursday morning, declined to comment directly on the new auto tariffs.

She vowed her government would “always defend Mexico”, and fight to maintain job creation and protect Mexican companies affected by import taxes.

She said Mexico would provide an “integral response” to the Trump administration’s tariffs on 3 April, the day after many are due to come into effect.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly noted that many US car companies have operations in both Mexico and Canada, which are bound by a North American free trade agreement that Trump himself negotiated during his first term in the White House.

“Of course, there shouldn’t be tariffs,” she said on Thursday. “That’s the essence of the free trade agreement.”

A high-powered delegation of US officials will spend Friday at a remote military base on Greenland in what is being viewed as the latest manifestation of American designs on the sparsely populated semi-autonomous Danish territory.

The US group includes Vice-President JD Vance and his wife Usha, White House National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah.

The trip marks the latest twist in what has become a tangled diplomatic journey that began with what was originally billed as a private tour by the US second lady.

Usha Vance was only supposed to travel to Greenland with her son to attend cultural events, like a dog-sledding race, and to spend some time visiting the capital of Nuuk.

The planned visit raised eyebrows, however, in light of President Donald Trump’s repeated comments that he would like to annex mineral-rich Greenland, which he says is critical for US security.

When it was then announced that Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, would join the delegation visiting the island, the people of Greenland and Denmark appeared to grow uncomfortable. The American visits began to look less like a cultural interaction and more like an effort to meddle in the island’s internal politics by rallying support for closer ties to the US among the local population – at the expense of Danish sovereignty.

Greenland’s Acting Prime Minister Mute B Egede said it was a “provocation” and “demonstration of power”, and asked the international community to step up.

“Just for the record, the government of Greenland has not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official,” Egede said.

Ordinary Greenlanders also made their displeasure known, promising that the American delegation would not receive a warm welcome.

• Why does Trump want Greenland and what do its people think?
• Greenland’s politicians unite against Trump

In Sisimiut, where the annual dog race is held, the mayor declined to set up a meeting with the second lady, citing next week’s municipal elections as a reason. A silent protest had been planned too, which would have seen locals turn their back on the American visitors – a potentially publicly awkward situation and poor optics for Mrs Vance.

“The US administration could see they were heading for PR catastrophe,” political analyst Noa Redington said.

“They were heading for a charm offensive without charm,” he said. “With people absolutely not happy to see Usha Vance or any other American politicians.”

A mere two days after Usha Vance’s trip was announced, the cultural itinerary was dropped, replaced by a single visit to a remote US military installation – Pituffik Space Base. And now, Vice-President Vance would be joining his wife.

Waltz was no longer listed on the itinerary, though he was added again later.

“Leaders in both America and in Denmark, I think, ignored Greenland for far too long,” JD Vance said, announcing his visit. “That’s been bad for Greenland. It’s also been bad for the security of the entire world. We think we can take things in a different direction.”

Despite his comments, political leaders in Denmark cautiously welcomed the change of plan, and especially the limiting of the itinerary to just the US base.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that while the vice-president’s presence may increase the formality of the visit, it was actually “masterful spin” which made the US “look like they’re escalating when they’re actually deescalating.”

“I actually think it is very positive that the Americans are cancelling their visit to the Greenlandic community. Then they will instead make a visit to their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that,” he said.

Vance is the highest-ranking US official to ever visit Greenland and while the limited scope of the trip has pleased Denmark, the fact that he is going at all underscores the high level of interest the Trump administration has in the island.

The US president himself has continued to reiterate his desire to acquire Greenland for national security reasons, saying on Wednesday that the US will “go as far as we have to go” to accomplish that goal.

According to Michael Williams, a professor of international politics at Ottawa University, Trump’s focus on Greenland appears to reflect a larger international strategy that involves exerting US influence over key territories within its sphere of geographic influence.

Canada and Greenland, both early targets of interest for the administration, occupy key Arctic waterways that are being contested by other global powers, like Russia and China.

Recent US moves could be viewed as an attempt to gain the upper hand in these strategic North Americans regions.

“You want to amp up the American presence in the north and its control over those northern reaches,” Williams said.

“If you can do that, then you can actually potentially control those northern waters in a much, much more direct way than has ever been necessary before.”

Attempts by superpowers to exert influence on less powerful nations echo the Cold War, when the US and Soviet Union faced off in global ideological competition.

But the focus of these efforts were typically non-aligned nations, not America’s closest allies and neighbours.

While the Vances’ trip to Greenland may be scaled back, America’s larger designs on the island do not appear to have diminished. Any sigh of relief in Copenhagen may be short-lived.

Vance’s visit to the Pituffik Space Base suggests a narrower focus on American security and military matters. The shortest route for Russian nuclear missiles to reach the US runs through Greenland, and Pituffik plays a crucial role in US missile defence.

“I’m sure he’ll say the security of Greenland is not safe in the hands of Denmark,” Redington said, adding this would “put even more pressure on the Danish government”.

“This is absolutely not the end of anything. It’s the beginning of something even more complicated than before.”

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, which operates more than 20 museums and research centres visited by millions yearly in Washington DC and New York City.

The order directs the vice-president to “eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the institute’s museums, centres and the National Zoo in Washington.

It also directs the interior secretary to restore federal properties, including parks, memorials and statues, which “have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history”.

The move is part of Trump’s effort to shape American culture, in addition to politics.

The order is titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. It says that Vice-President JD Vance, who became a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents due to his position in government, will lead the purge.

Trump’s order says that Congress should not fund Smithsonian exhibits and programmes that “divide Americans by race”. It alleges that the American Women’s History Museum, which is in development, plans to “recognize men as women”.

It also singles out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, saying that the museum “has proclaimed that ‘hard work,’ ‘individualism,’ and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture’.” The museum opened in 2016 in Washington as former President Barack Obama, America’s first black president, was leaving office.

The Smithsonian museums offer free entry to some 15 to 30 million visitors each year. It operates 21 museums in Washington, Virgina and New York.

They include the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the American Art Museum, the National Zoo and more than a dozen others.

The order also instructs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to complete “restorations and improvements” to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It comes ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which took place within the building.

Trump has set out to radically reshape American culture, which he says has been contaminated by “woke” left-wing ideology. He has signed several orders that are intended to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes from the federal government – some of which led to legal challenges.

Shortly after taking office, Trump fired the board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, and installed himself as chairman.

The move led to widespread criticism from actors and directors, causing several to cancel upcoming performances.

King Charles III spent a short period of time in hospital on Thursday after experiencing temporary side effects during cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace said.

The King returned to Clarence House, where he was said to be continuing to work on state papers and make calls from his study. He has cancelled a tour of Birmingham on Friday, acting on medical advice.

Charles, 76, had planned to travel to the city for a busy schedule of engagements, which included four events.

The palace first announced the King’s cancer diagnosis in February 2024.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said meetings with three ambassadors on Thursday were also affected.

“Tomorrow, he was due to undertake four public engagements in Birmingham and is greatly disappointed to be missing them on this occasion,” the palace’s statement added.

“He very much hopes that they can be rescheduled in due course and offers his deepest apologies to all those who had worked so hard to make the planned visit possible.”

A palace source described it as a “most minor bump in a road that is very much heading in the right direction”.

The palace did not provide further information over what his side effects were.

Queen Camilla attended a reception in Wembley, north London on Thursday and did not join the King during his brief stay at hospital.

After the palace released the news, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he “wishes His Majesty the King all the very best”.

The underlying message from the palace is one of reassurance – with the postponement of the visit to Birmingham presented as a brief setback against an otherwise optimistic picture on the King’s health.

There was no drama, they went to the London Clinic hospital in central London in a car and not an ambulance, and the late night announcement followed a decision that it was wiser to postpone Friday’s visit.

It might also have seemed wiser to get ahead of the news and remain transparent about a minor problem, rather than make it a major event with a last-minute cancellation.

His cancer treatment is ongoing but the King has seemed keen not to be defined by his illness. He seems to thrive on meeting crowds and has shown no signs of slowing down, with a full set of engagements.

In recent weeks, he has been on a trip to Northern Ireland, he launched a playlist of favourite music and attended the Commonwealth Day service, having missed it last year after his cancer diagnosis.

The King has been centre-stage in recent weeks, unexpectedly involved in global diplomacy.

After inviting President Donald Trump for a second state visit to the UK, the King then showed solidarity with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky after his disastrous meeting with Trump in the White House.

He also gave a warm welcome to Mark Carney, Canada’s new prime minister, whose country has been under pressure from Trump.

None of that suggested that the monarch was running out of energy. And the postponement of the state visit to the Vatican, announced earlier this week, had been about the health of Pope Francis rather than the King – with the rest of the visit to Italy expected to go ahead.

While recognising that it is impossible to rule out any further health problems, the message from Buckingham Palace is that the King is expected to be back to normal in terms of his diary next week.

The King’s wider state visit to Italy is also set to continue in April with some alterations to the planned programme, the palace said this week.

The palace has never disclosed what type of cancer the King has. He returned to public duties last April after a period of treatment and recuperation.

A former police officer has been spared a jail sentence over his fatal decision to Taser a 95-year-old woman with dementia symptoms at an Australia aged care home.

Kristian White said he had used the weapon to prevent a “violent confrontation” after finding Clare Nowland disoriented and holding a small kitchen knife in May 2023.

But the officer was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury last November, after prosecutors argued his actions towards the great-grandmother, who later died of her injuries, were “grossly disproportionate”.

The case sparked public outcry, with the judge at one point saying it was “unlike any other that I have had to confront” over nearly two decades on the bench.

Handing down his sentence in the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Ian Harrison said White’s actions at Yallambee Lodge in the town of Cooma, near Canberra, were a “terrible mistake”.

The “obvious” reality was that Mrs Nowland was a “frail and confused 95-year-old woman” who “posed nothing that could reasonably be described as a threat of any substance”.

“The simple but tragic fact would seem to me to be that Mr White completely – and on one available view inexplicably – misread and misunderstood the dynamics of the situation,” Mr Harrison said.

The trial heard White was called to the care home around 04:00 on 17 May 2023, after Mrs Nowland was seen ambling around the premises with two serrated steak knives.

Body cam footage showed he warned Mrs Nowland to drop the blades while aiming his weapon at her, before saying “bugger it” and firing. She fell and hit her head, triggering a fatal brain bleed.

The defence highlighted evidence from one of the paramedics and White’s police partner who both said Mrs Nowland had made them feel scared for their safety.

But prosecutors had argued Mrs Nowland – who weighed under 48kg (105lb) and used a walker to get around – did not pose a threat and the officer was “impatient”, using his weapon just three minutes after confronting her.

Mrs Nowland’s family, at a sentencing hearing last month, said White’s “unfathomable” and “inhumane” actions had forever changed their lives.

“To this day I am traumatised by this gutless coward act,” Michael Nowland, Clare’s eldest son, told the court.

White previously told the court he didn’t think Mrs Nowland would be “significantly injured” and that he was “devastated” by her death.

In a letter of apology to her relatives, White wrote: “I deeply regret my actions and the severe consequences they have caused, to not only Mrs Nowland, but also to your family and the greater community.”

Justice Harrison said a jail term was not necessary, given White had already lost his job and become an unwelcome member of the local community, and did not pose a risk of reoffending. He added it would also be difficult for a former officer to live in prison.

He sentenced White to a community corrections order of two years – essentially a good behaviour bond – and 425 hours of community service.

Speaking outside court, Mr Nowland said his family was disappointed.

“A slap on the wrist for someone that’s killed our mother,” he said. “It’s very, very hard to process that.”

“Justice and fairness, that’s all we wanted.”

Mrs Nowland’s death sparked global outrage and drew scrutiny over NSW Police’s use of force.

White had served as a police officer with the NSW police for 12 years before he was removed after his conviction.

Commissioner Karen Webb described the death as “a terrible tragedy” that shouldn’t have happened, but stressed that the force’s Taser and training policies are appropriate.

A day after US President Donald Trump said he would hit foreign cars and car parts with a new import tax of 25%, many of the world’s biggest automakers appeared stunned into silence, as they took in a move expected to wreak havoc across the industry.

Investors sold off shares of carmakers in Japan, Germany and the UK on Thursday, wiping billions of value off names such as Toyota, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover.

Firms in America were some of the hardest hit, with General Motors down more than 7%.

Shares in Tesla, which is known for its US factories and whose boss Elon Musk is one of Trump’s biggest donors and closest advisers, were notably spared from the hit, ending the day flat.

But Musk warned that even his company would not be immune from the tariff disruption.

“Important to note that Tesla is NOT unscathed here,” Musk wrote on social media. “The cost impact is not trivial.”

Tesla’s Model Y, which topped Cars.com’s 2024 index of American-made cars for the third year running, only sources 70% of its parts from the US, according to Patrick Masterson, lead researcher for the list.

“The major takeaway I think people should know about this is no vehicle is 100% US-made,” he said.

“The consumer is going to feel it across the board and I really don’t think that any automaker is going to be spared from this, Tesla included.”

The latest tariffs could affect roughly $300bn-$400bn in imports, depending on what parts are affected by the order, according to Macquarie. That amounts to almost 10% of everything the US brings into the country each year.

It is expected to push up prices by roughly $4,000 to $12,000, depending on the vehicle.

Many major car companies have operations in the US, while also bringing in models, or parts from outside of the US.

Japan’s Toyota, for example, has 10 manufacturing plants in the US and its Highlander SUV ranks highly on the American-made list.

But its Prius ships in from Japan.

General Motors also brings in significant parts and cars from Korea and Mexico, which Volkswagen also relies on heavily, despite assembling the Atlas SUV in the US.

Some firms may be able to redirect work to factories in the US, Oxford Economics has suggested, but it warned that such a move was likely to lead to higher prices and “significantly lower production in the US’s main trading partners”.

The action is likely to have a more significant impact on carmakers exporting from Germany and the UK, which are known for selling fewer, more premium and luxury brands at higher prices, such as Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Ferrari, which ships its cars from Italy, immediately announced a 10% price hike, to help cover the new cost of the duty.

As companies are forced to respond to the 25% tariffs, by raising prices or accepting lower profits, some may decide to pull some models out of the US entirely, leading to fewer choices for American consumers, warned Patrick Anderson, chief executive of the Anderson Economic Group.

This could also lead to carmakers without a current large manufacturing presence in the US, such as Jaguar Land Rover or Porsche, reducing production in their home countries, potentially affecting jobs.

All Mitsubishi cars sold in the US are imported, while Hyundai, which announced plans for a plant in the US earlier this week, ships most of its cars from South Korea.

Trump, who started discussing tariffs on cars in his first term, said his latest tariff enforcement would be permanent, claiming it will boost America’s manufacturing base.

It follows previous moves to impose tariffs of at least 20% on goods being imported into the US from China along with 25% levies on some goods from Canada and Mexico.

A 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering America is also already in force.

He is also set to introduce so-called reciprocal tariffs against individual countries based on their trade balance with the US.

The White House said the car duties would start on April 3, while tariffs on certain car parts are set to come into effect a month later.

For now, parts made in Mexico and Canada – which have traditionally entered the US under a free trade agreement – will be spared, while officials get custom systems prepared.

The carve-out for parts from Mexico and Canada, which the White House said would be temporary, was a relief to some in the industry.

But General Motors is still facing potential increased costs starting at about $10.5bn, according to JP Morgan.

Ford’s bill would start at roughly $2bn, more than doubling over time as tariffs on parts come into effect, according to estimates from the banking giant.

It said the added cost across the industry would amount to more than $80bn.

Jennifer Safavian, president of Autos Drive America, which represents international carmakers, said her members were still working out the repercussions of the move and other tariffs that have been recently announced or are looming.

But she warned that the measure would lead to higher prices, fewer sales, and less production across the industry.

“They’re trying to digest this,” she said. “But again there’s no question that these tariffs are going to have an impact on the US auto industry.”

Germany has said it “will not give in” and that Europe must “respond firmly” as US President Donald Trump targets imported cars and car parts with a 25% tax in his latest tariffs.

Other major world economies have vowed to retaliate, with France’s president branding the move “a waste of time” and “incoherent”, Canada calling it a “direct attack”, and China accusing Washington of violating international trade rules.

Carmaker stocks from Japan to Germany dipped. In the US, General Motors dropped 7%, while Ford fell more than 2%.

Trump has threatened to impose “far larger” tariffs if Europe works with Canada to do what he describes as “economic harm” to the US.

• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• Canada PM weighs response to ‘direct attack’ of Trump car tariffs
• Watch: The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher on Trump’s negotiating tactics
• Six things that could get more expensive under new taxes

The fresh car tariffs will come into effect on 2 April, with charges on businesses importing vehicles starting the next day. Taxes on parts are set to start in May or later.

Trump has long maintained the tariffs are part of a drive to help US manufacturing and says if cars are made in America there will be “absolutely no tariff”.

Tariffs are taxes charged on goods imported from other countries.

While the measures can protect domestic businesses, they also raise costs for companies reliant on parts from abroad.

The firms that bring the foreign goods into the country pay the tax to the government. Firms may choose to pass on some or all of the cost of tariffs to customers.

The US imported about eight million cars last year – accounting for about $240bn (£186bn) in trade and roughly half of overall sales.

Mexico is the top supplier of cars to the US, followed by South Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany.

Analysts have estimated that tariffs on parts just from Canada and Mexico could lead to costs rising by $4,000-$10,000 depending on the vehicle, according to the Anderson Economic Group.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the European Union must “respond firmly”.

“It must be clear that we will not give in to the US. We need to show strength and self-confidence,” he added.

France backed this joint approach, with its finance minister saying Europe must retaliate with tariffs on US products.

At a press conference on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was “not the time” for the US to be imposing tariffs.

“Imposing tariffs means breaking value chains, it means creating in the short term an inflationary effect and destroying jobs,” he said in Paris.

“All of this is rather a waste of time and will create a lot of worry,” he added, urging Trump to reconsider.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the tariffs a “direct attack” on his country and its car industry, adding it “will hurt us”, but trade options were being discussed.

In the UK, car industry body the SMMT said the car tariffs announcement was “not surprising but, nevertheless, disappointing”.

Uniparts founder John Neill said the Trump tariffs were “a gift to the Chinese”, because international consumers would respond to a trade war by buying Chinese alternatives.

Meanwhile, China accused Trump of violating World Trade Organization rules.

“There are no winners in a trade war or a tariff war. No country’s development and prosperity has been achieved by imposing tariffs,” a spokesman for the foreign ministry said.

There are warnings from Japan that there will be a “significant impact” on the economic relationship it shares with the US. A government spokesman described the measures as “extremely regrettable” and said officials had asked the US for an exemption.

In South Korea, a day before the latest levy, Hyundai announced it would invest $21bn (£16.3bn) in the US and build a new steel plant in Louisiana.

Trump hailed the investment as a “clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work”.

Bosch – based in Germany – said it had confidence in the “long-term potential” of the North American market and would continue to expand its business there.

The International Monetary Fund said it was not projecting a US recession, but warned a trade war could have a “significant adverse effect” on Canada and Mexico’s economic outlooks.

President Donald Trump has pulled the nomination of New York Rep Elise Stefanik to serve as the US ambassador to the United Nations.

Announcing his decision in a post on social media, Trump said it was essential that Stefanik retain her seat in the House of Representatives to protect Republicans’ razor-thin majority.

“I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day. There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations.”

Calling her one of his biggest allies, the president said Stefanik would rejoin the House leadership team.

In preparation for the UN role, she had forfeited her position as the third most senior member, the House Republican Conference chairperson.

Speaker Mike Johnson praised her in statement. “There is no doubt she would have served with distinction as our ambassador to the United Nations, but we are grateful for her willingness to sacrifice that position and remain in Congress to help us save the country.”

Stefanik, a onetime Trump critic turned MAGA darling, was the president’s first cabinet pick. She was expected to sail through Senate confirmation, but the vote on her nomination was delayed because her support was needed in the House to pass Republican-backed legislation.

Her confirmation was supposed to move to a vote after a pair of special election races in Florida on 1 April. Former Rep Mike Waltz – the current national security advisor – is one of the congressmen to leave the two Republican-safe seats empty.

But discussions were held at the White House on Thursday about whether Stefanik should remain in Congress, given the president’s agenda and the need to protect the narrow 218-213 Republican majority in the House.

Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the decision showed Republicans were in panic mode, and Trump feared losing a district he won by 21 points in November 2024.

“He withdrew her nomination to be U.N. Ambassador because the extremists are afraid they will lose the special election to replace her. The Republican agenda is extremely unpopular, they are crashing the economy in real time and House Republicans are running scared,” Jeffries said.

Stefanik will continue to represent her solidly Republican upstate New York district, where she recently held a farewell tour in preparation for the UN role. She also attended a White House cabinet meeting last month.

During her confirmation hearing, Stefanik said she would make Trump’s agenda her own, particularly his “peace through strength” approach to US foreign policy.

As a member of Congress, she has been one of the international body’s toughest critics and a staunch defender of Israel.

She has previously called for the US to cut funding to the UN, describing it as a “cesspool of anti-Semitism” and a “corrupt, defunct and paralyzed institution”.

The Trump administration has already ordered a review of US funding to the UN’s regular budget and sweeping cuts to foreign aid that has dramatically impacted the work and staff of several UN agencies.

The organization is seriously examining what the effects of further cuts or delayed payments would mean. It is facing a cash crunch and has moved with urgency to reduce planned spending by up to 20% and to impose a hiring freeze.

The White House has not announced who the president might nominate to serve as ambassador to the UN next.

One diplomat told the BBC it would be good to have a US ambassador there soon so they can better engage with the Trump administration.

Stefanik’s nomination is the fourth nominee who did not make it through a confirmation process.

Former congressman Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, withdrew after Trump nominated him to serve as attorney general. Chad Chronister withdrew from leading the Drug Enforcement Administration, and David Weldon withdrew from serving as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When Cyclone Alfred barrelled over Australia’s east coast earlier this month, it also blew the government’s election plans off course.

Hoping to capitalise on some rare good news on interest rates, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was on the cusp of announcing an April polling date. Instead he had to pivot and focus on responding to the natural disaster. It was, one Labor Minister told me, a decision taken from him by “an act of God”.

You might say that’s been a theme of his government: big plans often derailed by unpleasant surprises – trying global economic conditions and a cost-of-living crisis which is battering many countries, foreign wars and tricky geopolitics, post-pandemic fallout and rising national divisions, and now giant storms.

“Global conditions are real,” Albanese, who leads the Labor Party, said as he officially announced a 3 May election.

Though, despite those challenges, he says his party has delivered. “Landing where we have is like landing a 747 [jet] on a helicopter pad,” he said, pointing to a recent increase in wage growth and falling inflation.

But he wants a second term to reset.

Standing in his way is Peter Dutton – a conservative who leads the Liberal Party, the dominant member of the so-called Coalition with the National Party of Australia – who just two years ago polling indicated was deeply unpopular.

But the race between them is now so tight and the rise of independents or minor parties such that many are expecting a hung parliament.

So how has it unravelled for Prime Minister Albanese?

His victory in May 2022 was seen as a fresh start after nine years of conservative rule.

Climate action was big on the agenda, as was addressing the cost-of-living and restoring stability to the country’s leadership.

But the legacy he eyed for his government was on Indigenous affairs. He opened his victory speech reiterating a pledge to hold a historic referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an advisory body that would inform the government on issues that affect First Nations people.

Albanese spent most of 2023 campaigning for a “Yes” vote. This was the moment, he hoped, that First Nations people would get constitutional recognition – finally catching up with other former British colonies – and that Australia would begin mending what many see as a very broken relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

But the proposal was decisively rejected, leaving many Indigenous people feeling disappointed and betrayed. Albanese was also left licking his wounds after a damaging campaign.

Some critics blamed confusion and misinformation for why about 60% of Australians voted “No”. But while Albanese was campaigning for the “Yes” vote, opposition leader Peter Dutton campaigned for “No”, attacking Albanese for spending money on the referendum while a cost-of-living crisis intensified.

“[Dutton] not only won on the referendum, but also he won on positioning Labor as the government that’s not completely focused on the issues that matter to Australia,” says Kos Samaras, political consultant and a former Labor strategist.

During Albanese’s tenure, interest rates have been put up 12 times (and cut once, in February), inflation soared post-pandemic, the country’s housing crisis deepened, and Australians increasingly felt stretched.

Though the prime minister would lay the blame for many of those issues at the previous coalition government’s feet, voters want to know who is best placed to deal with all of them now.

In Anthony Albanese’s victory speech in 2022, he said Australia was “the greatest country on earth”. Australian voters though are increasingly questioning whether that’s still true – and perhaps more importantly, whether politicians from traditional parties are the ones able to fix it.

So though many are disillusioned with Labor, this won’t necessarily translate as a vote for Dutton’s Coalition at the ballot box.

Support for minor parties and independents reached record levels at the previous election, and similar is expected this time around. If neither party reaches the magic number of 76 seats in the House of Representatives, which poll after poll paints as unlikely, independent candidates could be the kingmakers of any future government.

If that happens, Australia would be another page in a story unfolding all over the world – disenfranchised voters seeking more radical solutions and voting for change. In many places this is a real threat to democracy as people stop trusting the system.

But while Australia faces the same challenges as other parts of the world, a few quirks in its electoral system have thus far guarded against more radical swings that we’ve seen in other countries, like the US, France and Germany.

Experts all agree that mandatory voting is a key factor in Australia’s political stability. In the 2022 elections, just under 90% of the population voted – much, much higher than the average OECD turnout of 69%. The fine for not voting in a federal election is a mere A$20 but there’s a sense of duty here to go out and vote.

What that means is politicians don’t have to mobilise their bases – turnout is a given, it’s just about pushing your narrative. Where voting is optional, there’s a tendency for special interest groups to become overly influential as those who are less engaged decide not to cast a ballot. Plus, if everyone, no matter their politics, education or their wealth, goes to vote, it tends to pull the result towards a more representative centre.

“[Australia’s] elections are decided in the middle,” says the country’s chief election analyst Antony Green. “That means getting your message through those people who aren’t paying much attention.”

The other big stabiliser for Australia, say experts, is preferential voting – where voters effectively number their candidates in order of who they want to win. It’s why in recent years the Greens have emerged on the left and One Nation on the right but still, Labor and the Coalition dominate. Experts say preferential voting tempers the effects of polarisation and forces the two major parties to appeal to people who aren’t necessarily voting for them first in order to receive their next preferences, which also helps moderate policy.

While the campaign will focus on problems close to home, the candidates would be foolish to ignore the global political headwinds.

During last year’s presidential election, few analysts I spoke to seemed to think a Trump White House would massively impact Australia, this comparatively small and distant democracy.

But five months feels like a lifetime in today’s politics. Not a day goes by without Donald Trump making the headlines and Australians are tuning in to watch.

With Trump’s obvious disregard for longstanding alliances as well as constant talk of tariffs and trade wars, all this plays a part in Australians’ fears about their place in the world – and importantly, the future of what is arguably its most important diplomatic and military relationship.

Peter Dutton argues he’d be much better than Albanese at dealing with Trump. But there are doubts that anyone really knows how to handle this new administration – politicians of all stripes around the globe are feeling their way with how best to manage their relationship with the US.

With Albanese firing the starting gun today, Australians have just over a month of intense campaigning to help them determine who they want to lead them through the next three years.

While Labor’s handling of the ex-cyclone Alfred has improved its chances – the Prime Minister’s approval ratings have risen to their highest level in 18 months – polling in recent months has pointed towards a Dutton administration.

It’s still incredibly close, and the Albanese government faces the unenviable prospect of being the first which fails to win a second term since 1931.