Canada’s prime minister has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over”, as governments from Tokyo to Berlin to Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.

Mark Carney warned Canadians that Trump had permanently altered relations and that, regardless of any future trade deals, there would be “no turning back”.

He told reporters: “The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over.”

The prime minister called Trump’s car tariffs “unjustified”, and said they were in breach of existing trade deals between the countries.

Carney said he would speak to provincial premiers and business leaders on Friday to discuss a coordinated response, with retaliatory measures expected next week.

“Our response to these latest tariffs is to fight, is to protect, is to build,” Carney said. “We will fight the US tariffs with retaliatory trade actions of our own that will have maximum impact in the United States and minimum impacts here in Canada.”

Trump announced on Wednesday that he would impose a 25% tariff on cars and car parts shipped to the US from 3 April in a move experts have predicted is likely to depress production, drive up prices and fuel a global trade war.

The US imported almost $475bn (£367bn) worth of cars last year, mostly from Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Germany. European carmakers alone sold more than 750,000 vehicles to American drivers.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday he had told his US counterpart that tariffs were not a good idea. They “disrupt value chains, create an inflationary effect and destroy jobs. So it’s not good for the US or European economies,” he said.

Paris would work with the European Commission on a response intended to get Trump to reconsider, he said. Officials in Berlin also stressed that the commission would defend free trade as the foundation of the EU’s prosperity.

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, bluntly described Trump’s decision as wrong, and said Washington appeared to have “chosen a path at whose end lie only losers, since tariffs and isolation hurt prosperity, for everyone”.

France’s finance minister, Eric Lombard, called the US president’s plan “very bad news” and said the EU would be forced to raise its own tariffs. His German counterpart, Robert Habeck, promised a “firm EU response”. “We will not take this lying down,” he said.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said Europe would approach the US with common sense but “not on our knees”. Good transatlantic relations are “a strategic matter” and must survive more than one prime minister and one president, he said.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, described the move as “bad for businesses, worse for consumers” because “tariffs are taxes”. She said the bloc would continue to seek negotiated solutions while protecting its economic interests.

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the tariffs were “very concerning” and that his government would be “pragmatic and clear-eyed” in response. The UK “does not want a trade war, but it’s important we keep all options on the table”, he said.

One option for Canada is to impose excise duties on exports of oil, potash and other commodities. “Nothing is off the table to defend our workers and our country,” said Carney, who added that the old economic and security relationship between Canada and the US was over.

South Korea said it would put in place a full emergency response to Trump’s proposed measures by April.

China’s foreign ministry said the US approach violated World Trade Organization rules and was “not conducive to solving its own problems”. Its spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said: “No country’s development and prosperity are achieved by imposing tariffs.”

The Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said Tokyo was putting “all options on the table”. Japan “makes the largest amount of investment to the US, so we wonder if it makes sense for [Washington] to apply uniform tariffs to all countries”, he said.

Reuters and Agence-France Presse contributed to this report

Airline travel between Canada and the US is “collapsing” amid Donald Trump’s tariff war, with flight bookings between the two countries down by over 70%, newly released data suggests.

According to data from the aviation analytics company OAG, airline capacity between Canada and the US has been reduced through October 2025, with the biggest cuts occurring between the months of July and August, which is considered peak travel season. Passenger bookings on Canada to US routes are currently down by over 70% compared to the same period last year.

Comparing the available bookings from March 2024 to March 2025, OAG looked at how many people have booked trans-border flights in the six-month period between April through September. It found that the number of tickets booked was down anywhere from 71% to 76%.

Total capacity available for passengers on flights between the two countries has also seen a reduction, likely a response to decreasing demands. The data shows that more than 320,000 seats have been removed by airlines operating between the two countries through to the end of October, with the highest cuts, 3.5%, also occurring during the peak summer months.

But the steep decline suggests that the current capacity cuts do not even begin to cover the current disinterest in traveling to the US.

The dramatic drop in bookings suggests that Canadian travelers are holding off on making reservations, probably due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding the tariff war. Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, called the latest round of Trump’s tariffs a “direct attack” on Canadian workers.

Though a decline in travel between Canada and the US was expected, the substantial 70% drop in bookings could require drastic changes for airlines, such as Air Canada, which is the airline that has the largest network of border crossings between the neighboring countries.

Beyond the trade dispute, some Canadians say they feel increasingly uneasy crossing into the US following several high-profile incidents of foreign visitors being detained by Ice.

Shares in automakers around the world fell sharply on Thursday after Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on all car imports to the US in the latest escalation of his global trade war.

The new levies on cars and light trucks will take effect on 3 April, a day after Trump plans to announce reciprocal tariffs aimed at the countries responsible for the bulk of the US trade deficit.

Shares in US carmakers fell on the back of Trump’s announcement, with General Motors down by 7.4% and Ford 3.4% lower in early trading on Thursday.

Asked whether Britain would impose its own tariffs against the US in response, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the UK was not immediately planning any retaliatory levies.

“We are not at the moment in a position where we want to do anything to escalate these trade wars,” she told Sky News. “Trade wars are no good for anyone.”

An escalation of tariffs would be bad for Britain “but it would be bad for the US as well, and that’s why we are working intensely these next few days to try to secure a good deal for Britain”, Reeves said in a separate BBC interview. ”

Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening that the tariffs “start off with a 2.5% base, which is what we’re at, and go to 25%”.

Speaking to reporters in Paris, Keir Starmer called the latest US tariffs “very concerning”. Cars are the UK’s biggest goods export to the US, with £6.4bn in sales in 2023, led by manufacturers such as Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover.

Aston Martin was worst hit on the FTSE 250 index in London on Thursday, with the shares falling 6.7%, reaching a record low of 67p at one point before closing at 68.7p.

Carmakers dragged European shares to a two-week low before they recovered some of their losses. The Dax benchmark index for Germany, which is among the biggest suppliers of cars and car parts to the US, fell by 1.6% before ending trading at 0.7% down.

Volkswagen lost 3.6% before closing 1.3% down. The company is the most exposed to tariffs among German carmakers because of its large supply base in Mexico and lack of US production for its Audi and Porsche brands.

The Fiat and Vauxhall parent, Stellantis, slumped by 4.2%, Mercedes-Benz lost 2.7%, BMW dropped by 2.6% and Porsche slid by 2.5%. Volvo Cars fell by 0.9% and the car parts maker Continental declined by about 2.5%.

It was a similar picture in Asia. In Japan, shares in Toyota Motor lost 2%, Honda Motor fell by 2.5%, while Nissan Motor was down by 1.7%, which helped to pull the Nikkei index down 0.6%. In South Korea, Hyundai Motor’s shares fell by 4.3%, only days after it tried to placate Trump by announcing a $21bn investment in the US.

The UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders called for more government support after reporting another fall in output. Mike Hawes, its chief executive, said: “These are worrying times for UK vehicle makers with car production falling for 12 months in a row, rising trade tensions and weak demand.”

He urged the UK and US governments to “come together immediately and strike a deal that works for all”.

Reeves also said the government could review an electric vehicle incentive scheme that had given subsidies to Tesla, whose CEO is Trump’s senior adviser Elon Musk. Canada recently froze rebate payments to Tesla.

As a company that only sells EVs, it can sell surplus credits to car firms that are struggling to meet EV sales targets set by the government.

“We are looking at the zero-emission vehicle mandate, which is why some of … that money goes to Tesla, and looking at how we can better support the car manufacturing industry in the UK,” Reeves said.

Asked if Britain could save carmakers such as Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin from tariffs, she said: “That’s what we’re working on. We’ve got a few more days left of those negotiations before these tariffs are due to come in.”

Starmer, who was in Paris for a summit on Ukraine, insisted all options were open. “Rather than jumping into a trade war, it is better, pragmatically, to come to an agreed way forward on this, if we can,” he said. “But look, we always have to put the national interest first, and that’s why also being clear that as we engage in those negotiations, those discussions, we will keep all options on the table.

“The industry doesn’t want [a] trade war, but it’s important we keep all options on the table.”

Trump’s announcement drew swift condemnation from the EU and from the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, who called it a “direct attack” on Canadian workers. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, described the move as “bad for businesses, worse for consumers”.

The new tariffs could increase the cost of a US vehicle by thousands of dollars, given the intertwined manufacturing operations across Canada, Mexico and the US.

Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, called for the EU to give a firm response to Trump: “It needs to be clear that we will not take this lying down.”

Donald Trump’s administration has offered fossil fuel companies an extraordinary opportunity to evade air pollution rules by simply emailing the US president to ask him to exempt them.

Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set up a new email address where what it calls the “regulated community” can request a presidential exemption from their requirements under the Clean Air Act, which is used to regulate dangerous toxins emitted from polluting sources.

Operators of power plants that burn coal or oil, linked to tens of thousands of deaths each year in the US via the mercury, arsenic and other carcinogens emitted through their air pollution, have until Monday to ask Trump to allow them to bypass clean air laws.

“The president will make a decision on the merits” of each request, which can be for up to two years and be renewed, according to the EPA website. Helpfully, the EPA’s site provides a template for these requests, including pointers as to how to successfully ask for an exemption.

Trump pledged as a presidential candidate to repeal environmental laws if he got $1bn in campaign donations from oil and gas companies. While he didn’t reach that figure, Trump did receive tens of millions of dollars from the industry and has said that the US needs to “drill, baby, drill” through unfettered fossil fuel expansion, rejecting the scientific consensus that burning coal, oil and gas is causing a worsening climate crisis.

As president, Trump has set about dismantling pollution rules. Dozens of rollbacks by the EPA have targeted regulations that were intended to save nearly 200,000 lives in the US by 2050, as well as prevent millions of asthma attacks, heart and respiratory problems and other public health harms.

Rewriting these rules will take time, however, meaning that Trump has turned to an obscure and rarely used corner of the Clean Air Act to suspend pollution rules in the meantime. Under the act, presidents can exempt a business from pollution requirements if the technology necessary to meet the standard is not available and that this is in the US’s national security interests.

Environmental groups said that power plants had used technology to lower pollutants for years and that the new emailed exemption was an outrageous attempt to side-step clean air laws. “These safeguards protect the health and wellbeing of our communities and there is no legitimate basis to suspend them,” said Laurie Williams, director of the Sierra Club’s beyond coal campaign.

“The EPA must abandon this ridiculous proposal now, and do its job of holding fossil fuel companies to current air pollution standards.”

The decision to set up the email by Lee Zeldin, administrator of the EPA, was “an extreme and improper abuse of Clean Air Act authorities that only allow for exemptions from vital pollution protections in very narrow circumstances,” said Vickie Patton, general counsel for the green advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund.

“This is a Trump EPA-led effort to evade established limits on toxic pollution that protect millions of people across the US.”

Patton’s organization on Thursday filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all submissions to the portal, including the names of all entities requesting the exemptions. The group has pledged to “go to court if necessary” to obtain the records, and to make them public.

“[T]he American public deserves to know what the Trump EPA and polluters are doing to the air they breathe,” said Patton.

Reached for comment, an EPA spokesperson said: “Section 112(i)(4) specifically states that the president may exempt any stationary source ‘if the president determines that the technology to implement such standard is not available and that it is in the national security interests of the United States to do so’.”

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has met with the Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos, in Manila saying the two countries must stand “shoulder to shoulder” in the face of the threat represented by China.

Hegseth’s meeting at the presidential palace comes as he opens a tour of Pacific allies that risks being overshadowed by a mounting scandal over leaked plans for military strikes.

“Deterrence is necessary around the world but specifically in this region, in your country, considering the threats from the Communist Chinese,” he said.

Hegseth’s Manila visit, to be followed by trips to Tokyo and second world war battleground Iwo Jima, follows months of confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed South China Sea.

Beijing claims almost the entirety of the crucial waterway despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.

“Friends need to stand shoulder to shoulder to deter conflict to ensure that there’s free navigation, whether you call it the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea,” Hegseth said.

“Peace through strength is a very real thing.”

The trip – aimed at bolstering ties in the Asia-Pacific region amid rising tensions with Beijing – comes as Hegseth faces calls to resign by Democratic lawmakers and a Republican congressman’s push for an independent report.

The US defence chief revealed details of strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen in a group of top administration officials on the messaging platform Signal, according to a senior journalist added to the chat by accident.

Hegseth is expected to meet his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, on Friday.

In response to China’s growing influence, the US has been strengthening alliances with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Philippines.

Manila and Washington have deepened their defence cooperation since Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims.

In recent years, top US officials have warned that an “armed attack” against the Philippines in the waterway would invoke the two countries’ mutual defence treaty. They have expanded the sharing of military intelligence and boosted to nine the number of bases US troops have access to on the archipelago.

Given the Philippines’ proximity to Taiwan and its surrounding waters, Manila’s cooperation would be crucial in the event of a conflict with China.

Hegseth’s visit overlaps with bilateral military exercises that will expand in April to include the countries’ navies and air forces.

Despite mounting pressure over the Signal leak, Donald Trump has defended Hegseth. “Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this,” said the US president when asked by AFP whether the defence secretary should be considering his position.

He also repeated his insistence that no classified information was shared in the breach, adding that national security adviser Mike Waltz “took responsibility” for the error.

Waltz added Goldberg to the group chat that included Hegseth, the vice-president, JD Vance, the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, and others.

The US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth has a tattoo that appears to read “infidel” or “non-believer” in Arabic, according to recently posted photos on his social media account.

In photos posted on Tuesday on X, the Fox News host turned US defense secretary had what appears to be a tattoo that says “kafir”, an Arabic term used within Islam to describe an unbeliever. Hegseth appears to have also had the tattoo in another Instagram photo posted in July 2024.

Some people on social media criticized Hegseth for getting a tattoo that could be considered offensive to Muslims, especially as the US military seeks to represent a diverse pool of faiths. It is estimated that upwards of 5,000 to 6,000 US military members practice Islam.

“This isn’t just a personal choice; it’s a clear symbol of Islamophobia from the man overseeing U.S. wars,” posted Nerdeen Kiswani, a pro-Palestinian activist in New York.

She added: “‘Kafir’ has been weaponized by far-right Islamophobes to mock and vilify Muslims. It’s not about his personal beliefs. It’s about how these beliefs translate into policy – how they shape military decisions, surveillance programs, and foreign interventions targeting Muslim countries.”

A former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, Joe Biggs, also has a similar tattoo.

“Tattooing the Arabic word kafir – which refers to someone who knowingly denies or conceals fundamental divine truths – on his body is a display of both anti-Muslim hostility and personal insecurity,” Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), told Newsweek.

This is not the first time Hegseth has been involved in a tattoo-related controversy. The defense secretary has previously shown off tattoos that indicate a fascination with “crusader aesthetics”, an increasing trend among the far right.

His prior contentious tattoo is located on his right biceps – right next to the new one. It reads “Deus Vult”, which translates to “God Wills It” in Latin, believed to be a Crusader battle cry. Hegseth also has a tattoo on his chest of the Jerusalem cross, also known as the Crusader’s cross due to being popularized during the Christian Crusades.

The criticism of the tattoo comes at a time of increased scrutiny for the defense secretary. Members of Congress in the US are calling for an investigation into Hegseth and the other officials involved in the Signal leak that inadvertently exposed operational details of US plans to bomb Yemen. Several representatives have called for Hegseth to resign.

European leaders have affirmed their support for Ukraine at a Paris summit and agreed now was “not the time” to lift sanctions against Russia, but with splits remaining on Franco-British plans for a “reassurance force” to help guarantee an eventual ceasefire.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday the meeting of more than two dozen heads of state and government had agreed unanimously that sanctions on Moscow should not be eased until “peace has clearly been established” in Ukraine.

The third meeting of what France and the UK have called the “coalition of the willing” for Ukraine was called amid widespread concern that Donald Trump may be open to rolling back some sanctions in order to get Russia to agree to a partial ceasefire deal.

“Ukraine had the courage to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire,” Macron said after the summit, also attended by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, and the heads of the European Commission and council.

“Since that Ukrainian announcement, there has been no Russian response,” Macron said. “There have just been new conditions posed [by Moscow] for a much more limited and hypothetical ceasefire.”

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said there was “complete clarity” on the importance of not lifting sanctions, with leaders “on the contrary” discussing how sanctions could be increased “to support the US initiative to bring Russia to the table” with further pressure.

Starmer told reporters at the British embassy after the summit: “It means increasing the economic pressure on Russia, accelerating new tougher sanctions bearing down on Russia’s energy revenues and working together to make this pressure count.”

He added that he did not believe Vladimir Putin was negotiating in good faith. Starmer said: “It’s clear the Russians are filibustering. They are playing games and then playing for time. It is a classic from the Putin playbook.”

Putin last night suggested Ukraine could be placed under a form of temporary administration to allow for new elections and the signature of key accords with the aim of reaching a settlement, Russian news agencies reported.

In a separate briefing, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said lifting sanctions on Russia would be a grave mistake and “makes no sense” as long as peace had “not actually been achieved – and unfortunately we are still a long way from that”.

Zelenskyy said Russia “does not want any kind of peace” but instead “wants to divide Europe and America”, and there should be “no lifting of any kind of sanctions until Russia stops this war”. Instead, there should be “more packages of sanctions”.

Zelenskyy added after the summit that he felt the US should respond to what he called Moscow’s violation of a commitment not to strike Ukrainian energy targets. “I think there should be a reaction from the US,” he said.

The meeting sought to define the security guarantees the European and other allies could offer Ukraine once a ceasefire was agreed to end the three-year-old war – including the possible deployment of military forces by some of its members.

Facing political and logistical constraints and possible Russian and US resistance, coalition members are far from agreed on the latter option. Anglo-French plans for a post-truce “reassurance force” had not won universal backing, Macron said.

The force was “a British-French proposition, desired by Ukraine”, he said, adding: “It does not have unanimity, but we do not need unanimity to do this.” Nonetheless, an Anglo-French delegation would soon travel to Ukraine to discuss needs, he said.

The French president said “several” of Ukraine’s European allies were prepared to deploy to Ukraine, but some did not “have the necessary capacity” and others were reluctant to put troops on the ground due to the “political context”.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, repeated Rome’s refusal to send troops to defend any ceasefire deal, adding that it was “important to continue working with the US” and she hoped a US delegation would attend the next coalition meeting.

Macron said the reassurance force, stationed away from the frontline but offering strategic support, could form part of a security guarantee that also included more support for the Ukrainian army and a broader push to rearm by coalition members.

The UK-France mission would also discuss the shape of “tomorrow’s Ukraine army”, Macron said, emphasising the importance of a “strong Ukrainian army … that is well equipped for the day after”.

Starmer confirmed that French, British and also German army chiefs would travel to Kyiv to help with planning support for Ukraine’s army, with a new Ukraine defence contact group to meet “to marshal more military aid and keep Ukraine in the fight”.

Zelenskyy said there were “many questions” and “few answers” on the possible deployment of European troops and “the actions of this contingent, its responsibilities – what it can do, how it can be used, who will be in charge of it”.

Starmer said the Paris meeting had made progress “in terms of numbers and intent”, but could not say how many countries were willing to deploy troops to Ukraine, nor whether he was any closer in securing support for such an idea from Washington.

Pushed to say how long he would give Putin to respond positively to the ceasefire proposals, the British prime minister said: “We need to see this developing in days and weeks, not months and months.”

• The Czech-led ammunition initiative for Ukraine can deliver another 1.5m artillery rounds in 2025, as many as last year, the Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, said on Thursday after the Paris summit of Ukraine’s allies. The initiative was launched last year and funded by a number of allies. Among the rounds provided in 2024 were 500,000 units of 155mm shells, the Czech defence ministry said in February this year. The 155mm rounds fit Nato artillery guns provided by western allies to Ukraine, whereas its post-Soviet arsenal uses 152mm shells. The Czech-led initiative supplies both kinds.

• European leaders affirmed their support for Ukraine at a Paris summit and agreed now was “not the time” to lift sanctions against Russia, Jon Henley and Kiran Stacey report. Leaders “on the contrary” discussing how sanctions could be increased “to support the US initiative to bring Russia to the table”, said Keir Starmer, the British prime minister. “It means increasing the economic pressure on Russia, accelerating new tougher sanctions bearing down on Russia’s energy revenues and working together to make this pressure count.”

• Starmer confirmed that French, British and also German army chiefs would travel to Kyiv to help with planning support for Ukraine’s army, with a new Ukraine defence contact group to meet “to marshal more military aid and keep Ukraine in the fight”. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, spoke about France and Britain’s “coalition of the willing” plan to send forces to Ukraine to help maintain an eventual ceasefire. “It does not have unanimity today, but we do not need unanimity to do this,” Macron said. Italy is among Ukraine allies that have said they would not send troops. “There will be a reassurance force with several European countries who will deploy [to Ukraine],” Macron said.

• “Massive shelling” killed a 55-year-old woman and a man at a public transport station in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, the regional governor said. Railway infrastructure was damaged and power supplies disrupted. It led Kyiv to accuse Russia of breaking a commitment not to strike Ukraine’s energy targets. “There has been shelling, seemingly not aimed at the energy sector, but the energy sector was affected,” a senior Ukrainian official told AFP, adding: “We qualify this as a clear violation.” Ukraine has dismissed as “fake” Russian allegations that Ukrainian drones hit energy facilities in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions, and in the occupied Crimean peninsula.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday called on the US to respond to what he called Moscow’s violation of its commitment not to strike Ukrainian energy targets. “I think there should be a reaction from the US,” the Ukrainain president told reporters in Paris, saying that energy facilities had been damaged in a strike on Thursday and that it was “unclear who is monitoring” the pledges to halt such strikes.

• Zelenskyy has struck a tone of strategic optimism this week, Dan Sabbagh writes in this analysis piece. Though he complained about “messages of the Kremlin” repeated by Steve Witkoff, a Donald Trump envoy, Zelenskyy reasoned that over time the White House team would appreciate the Kremlin was not acting in good faith. It would become clear that “the Russians don’t want” an unconditional ceasefire as they threw up more and more objections. “People,” he said, meaning Trump’s top team “will not believe the Russians more and more with every day”.

• Ukraine’s state-owned and main railway carrier Ukrzaliznytsia said it had partially restored online services after a big cyber-attack hit passenger and freight transport systems. The company said the first 12,000 tickets were bought through Ukrzaliznytsia’s online services after their restoration – though the system remained under heavy demand and consumers should only use it if they had no other way to get a ticket.

• Germany’s Eurofighter jets intercepted and escorted away a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 reconnaissance plane that approached north-eastern Germany over the Baltic Sea on Thursday, the Luftwaffe said. “The reason was an unknown aeroplane over the Baltic Sea, which was flying without a flight plan or activated transponder,” the air force said. It was steered back towards the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad from where it was first tracked, said the German news outlet Bild.

• Zelenskyy told reporters the US was “constantly” changing the terms of a proposed minerals deal, but added that he did not want Washington to think Kyiv was against it. According the Financial Times, a new proposal would give the US first rights to purchase resources extracted under the agreement and that it recoup all the money it has given Ukraine since 2022, in addition to a 4% annual interest rate, before Ukraine begins to gain access to the profits. This week, Scott Bessent, Trump’s treasury secretary, said the US hoped to “go to full discussions and perhaps even get signatures next week” – though the Trump administration has promised repeatedly for several months that a deal is about to be signed.

• The Netherlands will speed up the release of its promised €3.5bn of support for Ukraine and send €2bn this year instead of in 2026, a spokesperson for the prime minister said on Thursday.

Popular sportswear company Hoka has been accused of failing to acknowledge the Māori origins of its name by Indigenous intellectual property experts in New Zealand, making it the latest in a string of global brands to be accused of misappropriating Māori culture.

The French American firm, which specialises in running shoes, takes its name from the Māori word hoka, meaning “to fly”. Its logo, a bird in flight, mirrors the word’s meaning, as does its tagline “fly, human, fly”.

In its early days, the company attributed its name – which was then Hoka One One, loosely meaning “to fly over the earth” in Māori – to the “ancient Māori language”. That attribution disappeared from its “about” section after Deckers Brands took ownership in 2012. The brand now makes no mention of the name’s origin on its website.

“If they don’t want to associate themselves as being a Māori word – they need to stop using it,” said Lynell Tuffery Huria, who is recognised as the first Māori patent attorney and is a leading expert on Indigenous intellectual property rights.

“Why are you using that word if you’re not prepared to acknowledge its whakapapa [origin] and its history and to engage with the Indigenous people from which the word comes from?” she asked.

Hoka has not responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment.

Māori words, concepts and motifs – be they tattoo, design or art – are often rich in meaning and history, and their use is frequently governed by a set of protocols, or tikanga. Not observing tikanga risks undermining Māori culture, and puts brands at risk of being challenged, Tuffery Huria said.

In recent years, a number of international brands have faced criticism for using Māori words and imagery. In 2020, Formula One driver Fernando Alonso’s clothing line was accused of cashing in on Māori culture. A year later, a UK carpet company was criticised for using Māori culture to sell carpet. Gaming companies have come under fire for using Māori tattoos on their characters, while social media companies have faced outrage for creating Māori facial tattoo filters.

In New Zealand, Air New Zealand prompted outrage when it attempted to trademark an image of the Māori greeting “Kia Ora” in 2019. That same year, a cruise ship company was forced to apologise after its staff dressed up in wildly inaccurate Māori costumes to perform a greeting for its guests. Beer companies have similarly faced backlash for using Māori ancestors on their bottles.

Tuffery Huria is not against brands using Māori words, as long as they have followed best practice, including consulting with Indigenous communities.

“We want to share our culture, we want to share our language, we want to share our narratives … but it needs to be respected and protected in a manner that’s consistent with how we view it.”

Two of Hoka’s shoe styles – Arahi and Hopara – also take their names from Māori. Hopara should be spelled hōpara, and means “to explore”. Arahi can mean “to lead” and, in some contexts, its use is considered sacred, says Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, a leading intellectual property rights expert.

“By putting something sacred on your feet, or on your shoes, it’s kind of saying you have got no respect for the culture. That’s quite offensive,” Taiuru said, adding that it would be akin to putting an image of a royal family member on the bottom of his shoe.

A Hoka video on social media from 2019 shows a Māori musician teaching viewers how to pronounce the brand’s name correctly, during Māori language week. But in the company’s more recent videos, the word Hoka and it’s Māori-named shoe styles, are mispronounced.

Hoka should, at a minimum, pronounce its own name correctly, Taiuru said.

“By not doing it, that shows a huge amount of disrespect.”

There is a very fine line between appropriation and appreciation of cultures, Taiuru said, and the best way brands such as Hoka can honour Indigenous cultures is to consult with them.

“If you’re going to use someone else’s culture for your own product, you should at least know what the value of that cultural item is and acknowledge it.”

King Charles required hospital observation on Thursday after experiencing “temporary side-effects” as part of his continuing medical treatment for cancer, Buckingham Palace has said.

The 76-year-old monarch underwent scheduled treatment for cancer on Thursday morning, which required “a short period of observation in hospital”, according to a palace statement.

“His majesty’s afternoon engagements were therefore postponed,” a spokesperson said.

“His majesty has now returned to Clarence House and as a precautionary measure, acting on medical advice, tomorrow’s diary programme will also be rescheduled.”

The king sent his apologies to “all those who may be inconvenienced or disappointed” as a result of his decision to postpone his engagements and reschedule his diary, the statement added.

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

Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February 2024 and returned to public-facing duties in April while still undergoing weekly treatment.

He has had a busy week of engagements, including a reception for media and a visit to a soil exhibition, and he is due to make a historic state visit to Italy in 10 days’ time. It is understood that this visit, where the king plans to become the first British sovereign to address both houses of the Italian parliament, is expected to go ahead as planned.

The king had been due to meet ambassadors in audiences at Buckingham Palace on Thursday afternoon and to travel to Birmingham on Friday, but these were postponed.

The king visited the London Clinic, the same hospital where he was treated for an enlarged prostate in January 2024, on Thursday morning.

It is understood the side-effects, the specifics of which have not been disclosed, were temporary and not uncommon with many medical treatments.

He was not joined by the queen during his brief stay, and travelled to and from the hospital by car.

After he returned home to Clarence House, the king was said to be on good form, and was reported to be working on state papers and making calls from his study.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “His majesty was due to receive credentials from the ambassadors of three different nations this afternoon.

“Tomorrow he was due to undertake four public engagements in Birmingham, and is greatly disappointed to be missing them on this occasion.

“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.”

The announcement from the palace was made late on Thursday evening because the king needed time to consult his staff and medical team after he returned to Clarence House.

Since his diagnosis last year, the king’s diary of engagements is understood to have been developed in full consultation with his medical team at all stages to protect his recovery.

It was decided on balance that it was wiser to cancel the visit to Birmingham, which involved four back-to-back engagements, as a precautionary measure.

Sources told PA Media the hospital visit was not a major development and no further updates were expected on the king’s health, with any minor alterations to his diary that may be required next week being announced in due course.

Charles became king on 8 September 2022 after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

When announcing his cancer diagnosis last February, the palace asked for privacy and only confirmed it was a “form of cancer”.

The king was diagnosed after a “separate issue of concern was noted” and investigated while he was being treated for a benign prostate condition.

In December 2024, the palace said the king’s “treatment has been moving in a positive direction and as a managed condition the treatment cycle will continue into next year”.

When asked how he was that month during a visit with the queen to Walthamstow in north-east London, the king smiled as he replied: “I’m still alive.”

King Charles required hospital observation on Thursday after experiencing “temporary side-effects” as part of his continuing medical treatment for cancer, Buckingham Palace has said.

The 76-year-old monarch underwent scheduled treatment for cancer on Thursday morning, which required “a short period of observation in hospital”, according to a palace statement.

“His majesty’s afternoon engagements were therefore postponed,” a spokesperson said.

“His majesty has now returned to Clarence House and as a precautionary measure, acting on medical advice, tomorrow’s diary programme will also be rescheduled.”

The king sent his apologies to “all those who may be inconvenienced or disappointed” as a result of his decision to postpone his engagements and reschedule his diary, the statement added.

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

Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February 2024 and returned to public-facing duties in April while still undergoing weekly treatment.

He has had a busy week of engagements, including a reception for media and a visit to a soil exhibition, and he is due to make a historic state visit to Italy in 10 days’ time. It is understood that this visit, where the king plans to become the first British sovereign to address both houses of the Italian parliament, is expected to go ahead as planned.

The king had been due to meet ambassadors in audiences at Buckingham Palace on Thursday afternoon and to travel to Birmingham on Friday, but these were postponed.

The king visited the London Clinic, the same hospital where he was treated for an enlarged prostate in January 2024, on Thursday morning.

It is understood the side-effects, the specifics of which have not been disclosed, were temporary and not uncommon with many medical treatments.

He was not joined by the queen during his brief stay, and travelled to and from the hospital by car.

After he returned home to Clarence House, the king was said to be on good form, and was reported to be working on state papers and making calls from his study.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “His majesty was due to receive credentials from the ambassadors of three different nations this afternoon.

“Tomorrow he was due to undertake four public engagements in Birmingham, and is greatly disappointed to be missing them on this occasion.

“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.”

The announcement from the palace was made late on Thursday evening because the king needed time to consult his staff and medical team after he returned to Clarence House.

Since his diagnosis last year, the king’s diary of engagements is understood to have been developed in full consultation with his medical team at all stages to protect his recovery.

It was decided on balance that it was wiser to cancel the visit to Birmingham, which involved four back-to-back engagements, as a precautionary measure.

Sources told PA Media the hospital visit was not a major development and no further updates were expected on the king’s health, with any minor alterations to his diary that may be required next week being announced in due course.

Charles became king on 8 September 2022 after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

When announcing his cancer diagnosis last February, the palace asked for privacy and only confirmed it was a “form of cancer”.

The king was diagnosed after a “separate issue of concern was noted” and investigated while he was being treated for a benign prostate condition.

In December 2024, the palace said the king’s “treatment has been moving in a positive direction and as a managed condition the treatment cycle will continue into next year”.

When asked how he was that month during a visit with the queen to Walthamstow in north-east London, the king smiled as he replied: “I’m still alive.”

A federal judge on Thursday ordered that the Trump administration preserve all Signal messages exchanged in the now-infamous Signal group chat in which officials conducted a high-level military operation on the unclassified commercial app and inadvertently included a journalist.

The temporary restraining order from James Boasberg, the chief US district judge in Washington, compelled defense secretary Pete Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, CIA director John Ratcliffe and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to save their texts from 11 to 15 March.

Boasberg made clear that his order was aimed at ensuring no messages from the Signal chat were lost – the group chat was set to automatically delete messages after a certain time period – and not because he decided the Trump administration had done anything wrong.

The disclosure that the Trump administration’s most senior officials were conducting deliberations about a military operation on Signal appalled the national security establishment and prompted fears from freedom of information groups that the communications could be lost.

The existence of the Signal chat erupted into public view after the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic magazine, to the text chain in which Hegseth provided details of the operation to strike Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, hours before the attack began.

Hegseth’s messages included a summary of operational details, described as a “team update”, such as the launch times of F-18 fighter jets, the time that the first bombs were expected to drop and when naval Tomahawk missiles would be launched.

Waltz also shared a real-time update (“first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed”), which had the potential to reveal the capabilities and assets the US had in the region.

The Wall Street Journal reported late on Thursday that the information shared by Waltz was supplied by a human source working for Israeli intelligence, and that Israeli officials complained privately to US officials that Waltz’s texts became public.

The lawsuit was brought by the non-profit transparency and watchdog group American Oversight, which accused the officials in the Signal chat of flouting the Federal Records Act, which requires government communications by agency officials to be preserved.

Boasberg is set to decide at a later stage whether the disappearing message function of the Signal chat violated federal records retention laws. American Oversight complained that the discussion in the Signal chat amounted to policy deliberations that needed to be retained.

During a brief federal court hearing before Boasberg in Washington, the Trump administration said the agencies led by the officials in the Signal chat were already taking steps to preserve what they each had. However, it was not immediately known what each agency had individually retained.

In one court filing, the administration’s lawyers at the justice department said one of the participants in the Signal chat, Bessent, had already turned over the version of messages that was on his phone. It also said the defense department had requested a full copy of the chat from Hegseth’s phone.

Separately, the White House instructed this week that the so-called “department of government efficiency” preserve all communications sent over the Signal app in a new “records retention policy”, according to a court filing in an unrelated case, but seemingly in response to the fallout from the Houthi attack group chat.

Noel Clarke told a producer to “fuck off” after being warned that his behaviour with a female actor before a sex scene would “end up on the front of a national newspaper”, a witness has told the high court.

The producer said he had approached the former Doctor Who star after being informed by a distressed actor, named as Maya, that Clarke had said “things like ‘we’re going to fuck later on, we’ll fuck next week’”.

“Maya also told me that Noel had been pressuring her to be nude in the scene,” the producer said in his witness statement. “I spoke to Noel and told him that Maya felt he had been saying things to her that were unprofessional (specifically his comments about fucking her). I remember Noel denied that he had said anything of the sort. I said to him: ‘Why would Maya make that up?’”

The producer said he had not believed Clarke, 49, during what he told the court was a “combative” conversation.

“Noel was very resistant and belligerent during this conversation,” the producer said. “When Noel said that we would need to get a different actress to replace Maya. I distinctly remember saying to him words to the effect, ‘You’ve been saying we’re going to fuck later to her – surely you can see where that leads? Do you really want to end up on the front of a national newspaper? As that’s the way this is going.’ In response, Noel told me to ‘fuck off’.”

The producer was giving evidence as a witness for Guardian News and Media (GNM), the publisher of the Guardian, in its defence against a libel claim by Clarke relating to seven articles and a podcast published between April 2021 and March 2022 accusing him of sexual misconduct.

Clarke denies putting pressure on Maya over the sex scene or acting inappropriately. He has said he apologised to her in a phone call for one comment in which he recalled saying something like, “don’t worry, you look great”, in order to “boost her confidence”.

Cross-examining the producer, Philip Williams, representing Clarke, suggested the account was not true and asked why it was that Maya went on to send Clarke friendly messages after working with him. The court heard that Maya had also thanked Clarke for making her feel “at ease” during an initial audition.

The producer responded that he was not aware of what happened after they had worked together but that he would have been “pleased” if they had been reconciled.

A female producer on the same production said she had also been informed by Maya that Clarke was pressuring her to be naked during the sex scene and that she felt he was “coming on to her because he was being leery and suggestive”.

Asked about the later apparent friendliness in messages between Clarke and Maya, the producer responded that it did not surprise her as “that’s how it was” for women in the business when dealing with powerful people.

A female runner on the same production told the court that Maya had told her that Clarke was “bullying her and undermining her, saying to her she would ‘never make it’, and insinuating that he could ruin her career and that she was only in this show because of him”.

She added: “Maya said she felt she was in a #MeToo situation with Noel.”

Clarke’s barrister suggested that Maya was already a successful actor by that stage and that the former runner had been mistaken in her evidence, which she denied.

He asked whether she was a “driver” of the #MeToo movement. “I’m supportive of it but I don’t engage on a daily basis,” she said.

The court also heard from Lisa Graham, who claimed that Clarke had “put his hand over my thigh and in-between my legs” while she had been assisting him as a volunteer at a convention centre in Bournemouth in 2016.

Graham claimed that his hand had gone “an inch or two from my panty line”, forcing her to physically move her chair away from him.

She further claimed that Clarke had repeatedly proposed that they “go upstairs and have sex” and ranked passing women on their sexual attractiveness, including a pregnant woman who he said he would “bang” because “you can’t put another baby in them”.

Clarke denies the claims. His barrister accused Graham of misinterpreting the conversation and jumping on a bandwagon.

She denied the accusation, telling the court that she had been forced to “relive things that I did not want to have to relive” but that she had decided that speaking out was the “right thing to do”.

A final witness, Garry Moore, an amateur film-maker, told the court that Clarke had shown him a clip of a female actor named as Florence in a scene in which she was naked. He said he had been “shocked” that Clarke had the footage on his phone.

Put to him by the claimant’s junior barrister, Arthur Lo, that this was part of the process of selecting an actor for a part, Moore said they were not at that stage and that he believed Clarke simply wanted to “show that he could get actresses to do anything that he wanted”.

The trial continues.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, and his wife Usha are due to touch down in Greenland on Friday in a drastically scaled down trip after the original plans for the unsolicited visit prompted an international diplomatic row.

The visit to Pituffik, a remote ice-locked US military base in northwestern Greenland, will be closely watched by leaders in Nuuk and Copenhagen, who have aired their opposition to the trip amid ongoing threats by Donald Trump to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.

“It’s safe to say we would rather not have him [Vance] in Greenland,” a government source in Copenhagen said.

Before the Vances’ arrival, Trump said the US will “go as far as we have to go” to gain control of the island which he claimed the US “needs” for national and international security.

The mood in Copenhagen was understood to be apprehensive. On Thursday, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, responded to Trump’s comments, saying: “Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom. That is not going to change.”

She added: “We in the kingdom would really like to work together with the Americans on defence and security. We want that in Ukraine, we want that in Europe, and of course we also want that when it comes to the high north. But Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”

Meanwhile Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s minister for foreign affairs, said Vance would not be greeted by Danish politicians at Pituffik because “it has nothing to do with us”.

“This is about an American vice-president who is going to visit his own military installation in Greenland. It has nothing to do with us,” he said.

The Vance visit comes as political parties in Greenland are about to sign a coalition agreement in Nuuk on Friday in a show of unity after elections earlier this month. Greenlandic media reported four of the five parties in parliament – all except Naleraq – will go into a coalition led by Jens Frederik Nielsen of the Democrats who won 30% of the vote.

The delegation, originally to be led by the second lady, Usha Vance, was scheduled to visit the capital Nuuk and Sisimiut, for a dog sled race. Bulletproof cars had already been delivered to Nuuk in preparation.

But after strong comments from Múte B Egede, the prime minister of Greenland, and Frederiksen, the White House switched to a single stop at Pituffik.

Announcing he would be joining his wife on the trip to Greenland, the vice-president said in a video: “Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protect the security of the entire world.”

The White House has shared few details of what is planned, but it is expected to be a “traditional” troop visit.

The Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said that Trump’s statements were “far out” and “a hidden threat”.

“It is not fair for the American president to use that rhetoric,” he told Danish broadcaster TV2. “You are going too far both in terms of interfering in internal affairs in Greenland and not least in the lack of respect for the fact that it is the people of Greenland who determine Greenland’s future.”

Pele Broberg, the Naleraq leader, which came second in the election but left coalition negotiations earlier this week, said the diplomatic disagreements over the US visit were a missed opportunity.

“I consider this an extreme example of failed diplomacy by Greenlandic politicians,” he said. “I don’t think anybody is doubting that this is a missed opportunity.”

Meanwhile in Russia, Vladimir Putin told an Arctic forum in Murmansk on Thursday that he considered US plans to acquire Greenland as “serious”. “We are talking about serious plans on the American side with regard to Greenland,” he said. “These plans have longstanding historical roots.”

Belgian authorities are investigating the alleged rape and sexual assault of at least 41 women whose drinks are thought to have been spiked, with three bar managers identified as prime suspects, prosecutors have said.

Officials believe drugs were mixed into the women’s drinks, including ketamine, a general anaesthetic used for recreational purposes because of its hallucinogenic effects.

Investigators say the three main suspects, who run the establishments where the spiking is alleged to have taken place in the north-western city of
Kortrijk, discussed the attacks with one another.

“There are already 41 victims identified for the period between December 2021 to December 2024, and the investigation continues to potentially identify others,” Griet De Prest, a spokesman for the Western Flanders public prosecutor’s office, said on Thursday.

De Prest said one of the main suspects had been arrested.

A second is due to appear in front of a judge on Thursday, while a third was released after a series of arrests on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The men are suspected of rape, sexual assault and illegal administration of harmful substances, the prosecutor’s office said.

“The young women were offered shots of alcohol, often with an amaretto flavour, after which they woke up the next morning, groggy in an unknown bed or in their own bed, with clear evidence of sexual abuse,” Tom Janssens, another spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, told Flemish public television VRT.

Belgium’s interior minister, Bernard Quintin, denounced the alleged attacks as “unacceptable” and criticised how easy it was to get hold of ketamine.

“If the drug can be obtained easily and cheaply, it becomes easier to commit crimes,” the minister added.

“Women must be able to go out safely, wherever they want, whenever they want,” he said.

Donald Trump revealed his intentions to reshape the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order on Thursday that targets funding to programs with “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology”.

The president said there has been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite US history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth”.

He signed an executive order putting JD Vance in charge of an effort to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo.

Trump’s order specifically names the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Women’s history museum, which is in development.

“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn – not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” the order said.

Representatives for the Smithsonian did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. It consists of 21 museums and the National Zoo. Eleven museums are located along the National Mall in Washington.

The institution was established with funds from James Smithson, a British scientist who left his estate to the United States to found “at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge”.

On Thursday, Trump also created the “DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force” by executive order. It will be chaired by Stephen Miller, the US homeland security adviser.

According to the order, the task force will coordinate with local officials on such things as enforcing federal immigration law, including deporting people living illegally in the city, boost the law enforcement presence, and increase the speed and lower the cost of processing applications to carry concealed weapons.

The order also calls for removing graffiti and taking other steps to beautify the city.

Trump has talked often about his desire to make the city safer and prettier.