Actor Val Kilmer, who starred in some of the biggest movies of the 1980s and 90s, including Top Gun and Batman Forever, has died at the age of 65.

He also appeared in 1991’s The Doors – playing the legendary band’s frontman Jim Morrison – plus the Western Tombstone and crime drama Heat.

Kilmer died of pneumonia on Tuesday in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told US media. She said her father had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.

Tracheotomy surgery affected his voice and curtailed his acting career, but he returned to the screen to reprise his role as fighter pilot Iceman alongside Tom Cruise in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.

• Obituary: A brilliant, underrated and unpredictable film star
• Look back at Val Kilmer’s best-known roles

Paying tribute, Heat director Michael Mann said: “While working with Val on Heat I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.

“After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news,” Mann wrote on Instagram.

Francis Ford Coppola, who directed him in 2011’s Twixt, said: “Val Kilmer was the most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life.

“He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know – I will always remember him.”

“See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you,” US actor Josh Brolin wrote alongside a picture of himself and Kilmer on Instagram.

“You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those”, he added.

British actor David Thewlis, who worked with Kilmer on 1996’s ill-fated The Island of Dr Moreau, posted: “He was one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. Proud to have called him a friend and co-conspirator.”

Fellow Brit Will Kemp, who appeared in 2004 film Mindhunters with Kilmer, wrote: “So many great memories of working with him. He was fun, unpredictable, generous and overall very kind to me when I was very new to the job.”

Actor Josh Gad posted: “RIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon.”

James Woods wrote: “His rendition of Doc Holliday in Tombstone was what every actor dreams of achieving. So many wonderful performances. Sad to lose him so soon.”

Born Val Edward Kilmer on 31 December 1959, Kilmer grew up in a middle-class family in Los Angeles.

His parents were Christian Scientists, a movement to which Kilmer would adhere for the rest of his life.

Aged 17, he became the then-youngest pupil to enrol at the Julliard School, in New York, one of the world’s most prestigious drama conservatories.

He made his name in the comedies Top Secret! in 1984 and Real Genius the following year, before cementing his acting credentials as Iceman, the nemesis to Cruise’s character Maverick in 1986’s Top Gun, one of the decade’s defining movies.

Kilmer went on to star in fantasy Willow and crime thriller Kill Me Again – both alongside British actress Joanne Whalley, who he married in 1988. The couple had two children.

He further proved his dynamic and versatile talents when he convincingly portrayed rock frontman Morrison in The Doors, 20 years after the singer’s death.

Tombstone, in which Kilmer played gunfighter Doc Holliday, and Heat, in which he appeared alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, were also hits.

He took over Batman’s cape from Michael Keaton for Batman Forever in 1995, which achieved box office success but mixed reviews, and Kilmer pulled out of the next Batman movie.

In 1997, he appeared in The Saint as the master criminal and master of disguise – based on Leslie Charteris’ books, which had also inspired the 1960s TV show starring Roger Moore.

Kilmer voiced both God and Moses in animated film The Prince of Egypt, and starred as Marlon Brando’s crazed sidekick in The Island of Dr Moreau – but that film became one of Hollywood’s most notorious flops.

Its director John Frankenheimer declared he would never work again with Kilmer, who had gained a reputation for being difficult on set.

He said that reputation was because “I care very much about telling the story well”.

He played a gay private detective who teamed up with Robert Downey Jr’s petty thief in 2005’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

In 2021, Kilmer released a documentary chronicling the highs and lows of his life and career. Val, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, features 40 years of home recordings, including him speaking with a voice box post-cancer surgery.

He had continued acting, but his comeback with a cameo appearance as Iceman in the long-awaited Top Gun sequel was particularly poignant.

Cruise said at the time: “I’ve known Val for decades, and for him to come back and play that character… he’s such a powerful actor that he instantly became that character again.”

Kilmer was also an artist, often creating paintings inspired by his film roles.

Film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his role in The Doors summed up his appeal and persona.

“There was something sort of dark and troubling and sensual and kind of self-destructive about him,” she said.

“It was a quality that meant he was never just the bland Hollywood pretty boy that led so many roles. There was something else going on underneath the surface.”

US entertainment journalist KJ Matthews echoed that, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “He’s your bad boy, he’s edgy, good looking, definitely Hollywood star looks.

“And I like the way he played roles. He always played them in an unconventional, unpredictable way.

“When Val Kilmer was attached to a project, you just knew he was going to do something interesting with that character.”

Every time Donald Trump has mentioned his plan to levy massive tariffs on imports into the US, there has been a widespread assumption that they will be delayed, watered down or rowed back.

Today, he will reveal in the White House Rose Garden not just how serious he is about “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”, but effectively call time on decades of economic globalisation.

And it is still possible that he will do this by launching the equivalent of a salvo of ballistic missiles into the global trading system, with a universal tariff on all imports into the USA.

The option of a 20% universal tariff is the only way to get to some of the massive revenues of trillions of dollars claimed by some of his advisers.

World braces as Trump set to announce sweeping tariffs

In recent days, President Trump has been adamant that the tariffs will be “reciprocal” and the US will be “nicer” to its trade partners.

That doesn’t rule out wide-scale imposition of tariffs at 10 or 20%, if, for example, the US deems that Value Added Taxes are tariffs.

It is possible that countries could be very broadly bracketed into different levels of a basically universal tariff. As one G7 negotiator told me at the weekend, “it all comes down to President Trump”.

A system such as this, with equivalent global retaliation, would see the UK economy shrinking by 1%, enough to wipe out growth and lead to pressure for tax rises or spending cuts.

The total cost around the world could, according to an Aston University Business School study, be $1.4 trillion (£1.1tn), as trade is diverted, and prices rise.

• UK will take calm approach to US tariffs, PM says
• Three big unknowns ahead of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs
• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• Is Trump right when he says the US faces unfair trade?
• Six things that could get more expensive for Americans under Trump tariffs

In industry, there is some expectation that the European Union will target US tech companies. There could be quite the contrast should the UK choose not just to hold back on retaliation, but offer a significant tax cut to US big tech.

Trade wars are hard to win, and easy for everyone to lose.

A universal tariff of 20%, or its equivalent, would be a historic hit to the global trading system.

There is something bigger here, however. As the Vice President JD Vance said in a speech last month, globalisation has failed in the eyes of this administration because the idea was that “rich countries would move further up the value chain, while the poor countries made the simpler things”.

As that has not panned out, especially in the case of China, the US is moving away from this world.

If the US overplays its hand in alienating its allies today, China will be waiting. The hit to US business in Europe, for example, could be offset by cheaper electronics, clothes, and toys from the East arriving in the UK and lowering prices, diverted from the US market.

What starts later today is designed not just to reshape America, and trade, but the way the world itself has been run.

Myanmar’s military opened fire at a Chinese Red Cross convoy carrying earthquake relief supplies on Tuesday night.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an armed rebel group, said that military troops shot at the convoy of nine vehicles with machine guns in eastern Shan State.

The convoy was en route to Mandalay, the hard-hit city near the epicentre of the magnitude-7.7 earthquake that struck last Friday. No injuries have been reported.

Myanmar’s junta, which said it was investigating the incident, denied shooting directly at the vehicles. It said troops fired shots into the air after the convoy did not stop, despite it being signalled to do so.

China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that its rescue team and supplies were safe, adding that it hoped “all factions and parties in Myanmar will prioritize earthquake relief efforts”.

Myanmar has been gripped by violence amid a civil war between the junta – which seized power in a 2021 coup – and ethnic militias and resistance forces across the country.

The country’s humanitarian crisis has worsened significantly after last week’s massive earthquake, which has killed more than 2,700 people, by the government’s estimate. The actual death toll is believed to be much higher.

Multiple international aid agencies and foreign governments have dispatched personnel and supplies to quake-hit regions.

A military spokesperson on Wednesday said troops saw the aid convoy coming from Naungcho township on Tuesday night, with vehicles sporting Chinese stickers and Myanmar number plates, but had not been given prior notice of the vehicles’ movement.

“When we saw the convoy, we stopped it. But they continued. We opened fire from about 200m away, but they didn’t stop,” he said.

“At about 100m away, we fired three shots in the air, after which the vehicles turned back towards Naungcho.”

China’s Blue Sky Rescue Team, which has been providing rescue support in Mandalay, had been given a security cover when they travelled through this route, the spokesperson said.

He added that when international agencies want to give aid, they need to inform the Myanmar government.

The TNLA, which was escorting the Red Cross convoy, said they had informed the military council about going to Mandalay.

After retreating to Naungcho, they would be continuing their journey, the group said in a statement.

Rebel groups have unilaterally announced a ceasefire to support earthquake relief efforts. But the military has refused to do the same.

Hours after the quake struck on Friday, the junta launched an air strike in Naungcho township that killed seven people.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has said that since ethnic armed groups were still “training in preparation for attacks”, the military would continue its “necessary defence operations”.

The UN described the airstrikes as “completely outrageous and unacceptable”.

On Tuesday morning, Rajesh Nayak stepped outside the firecracker warehouse in India’s Gujarat state where he worked to drink water.

Some moments later, an explosion ripped through the building, killing 21 people, including Mr Nayak’s brother.

“Some of my other relatives have also died. I had come to work here only from Sunday,” a distraught Nayak, who is in hospital with minor injuries, said.

Most of the victims were from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh state and had recently come to work at the warehouse, located in an industrial estate in Banaskantha district in Gujarat.

Their families lived in huts close to the building and some of them were also killed from the force of the explosion. Banaskantha District Collector Mihir Patel told BBC Gujarati that the victims included four women and three children.

It’s not clear yet what caused the explosion, but officials are investigating if firecrackers were being manufactured illegally at the warehouse.

“Primary information has been received that the explosion took place when firecrackers were being made here,” said Mr Patel, the collector.

India has strict rules around firecracker production but these are often not enforced strongly on the ground. Accidents are regularly reported, especially at illegal factories.

The incident in Gujarat came a day after eight people were killed in an explosion at an illegal firecracker factory hundreds of miles away in West Bengal state.

Police in Gujarat have arrested two men, owners of the warehouse, in connection with the explosion and are searching for one more person. A special investigation team has been set up to look into the incident.

Banaskantha district police chief Akshay Raj Makwana said a preliminary investigation showed that aluminium powder was stored in the building.

“This powder is non-explosive but flammable and easily available in the market. We are investigating the supply chain and how the accused sourced such material,” said Mr Makwana.

Mr Patel told reporters that the building had been registered as a warehouse for storing firecrackers, but its licence had expired in December. When a team went to inspect the area in March, he said, the building was empty.

When BBC Gujarati reached the area on Tuesday, the air smelt strongly of sulphur.

The explosion caused extensive damage, destroying the warehouse and a wall of the adjacent factory. Large concrete slabs were thrown up to 300ft away.

Mr Makwana, the police chief, said a slab in the building collapsed, trapping workers underneath.

The powerful blast also destroyed surrounding huts and killed some family members of the workers.

A sanitation worker told BBC Gujarati that he carried out four bodies on stretchers from the site. “My heart sank when I saw a child’s body,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is from Gujarat, has expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and announced financial assistance.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says the military will expand its operation in Gaza and seize “large areas” of the territory – incorporating them into what he described as “security zones.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Katz said the expanded operation aimed to “destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”, and would require a large-scale evacuation of Palestinians.

It comes as local hospitals said at least 15 Palestinians were killed in the territory overnight.

The Hamas-run civil defence agency said first responders had recovered the bodies of 12 people, including children, from a home in the Khan Younis area.

There have been reports of extensive Israeli air strikes and shelling along the Egypt border and there is a growing sense that a new major Israeli ground offensive is looming in Gaza.

This week, Israel’s military ordered an estimated 140,000 people in Rafah to leave their homes and issued new evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza.

Israel has already significantly expanded a buffer zone around the edge of Gaza over the course of the war, and seized control of a corridor of land cutting through its centre.

Israel launched its renewed Gaza offensive on 18 March, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal to extend the ceasefire and free the 59 hostages still held captive in Gaza.

Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of violating the original deal they had agreed to in January.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel said they were “horrified to wake up” to the news of the expanded military operation. In a statement, the group urged the Israeli government to prioritise securing the release of all hostages still held in Gaza.

In his statement announcing plans to seize more territory, Katz also urged Gazans to act to remove Hamas and free remaining Israeli hostages, without suggesting how they should do so.

The humanitarian situation across Gaza has dramatically worsened in recent weeks, with Israel refusing to allow aid into the Gaza Strip since 2 March – the longest aid blockage since the war began.

Last month the UN announced it was reducing its operations in Gaza, one day after eight Palestinian medics, six Civil Defence first responders and a UN staff member were killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 50,399 people have been killed in Gaza during the ensuing war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

China’s military conducted a live-fire exercise in the Taiwan Strait to simulate strikes on key ports and energy facilities, it said on Wednesday.

The exercise, codenamed “Strait Thunder”, is an escalation of military drills China held on Tuesday around Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing claims as its territory.

Taiwan’s presidential office said on Tuesday that it “strongly condemns” the “military provocations”, which have become increasingly routine amid souring cross-strait ties.

The drills come as China sharpened its rhetoric against Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, labelling him a “parasite” and “separatist”. Lai had earlier this month referred to China as a “foreign hostile force”.

The drills were meant to be a “serious warning and powerful containment of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces”, said a statement from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

It also released a series of cartoons depicting Lai as a “parasite” that was “poisoning Taiwan island” and – along with an image of Lai being grilled over a fire – “courting ultimate destruction”.

Another video by the PLA, titled “Subdue demons and vanquish evils”, likened the military’s capabilities to the magical powers of the Monkey King, a mythical Chinese character.

In recent days, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily published a series of op-eds denouncing Lai as a “troublemaker” and “warmonger”.

“Facts have fully proven that Lai Ching-te is a vicious war maker,” read one of the articles published on Wednesday. “Subdue demons and vanquish evils, use force to stop war.”

While the trigger for this week’s drills were not spelled out, Chinese authorities and state media have referenced a slew of policies announced by Lai last month to counter influence and infiltration operations by Beijing – where Lai used the “foreign hostile force” term.

However, the timing of the exercises, coming weeks after Lai’s announcement, suggests that Chinese authorities wanted to wait for the conclusion of meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and international business leaders, along with the annual Boao business summit that wrapped up on 28 March.

They also come with the world’s attention turned elsewhere, as global markets brace for the Trump administration’s latest round of tariffs.

In response to China’s latest military drills, the White House said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump was “emphasising the importance of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait”. On Wednesday, the US State Department reaffirmed its “enduring commitment” to Taiwan.

During his recent visit to Asia, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth also repeatedly criticised China’s aggression in the region and pledged to provide “robust, ready and credible deterrence”, including in the Taiwan Strait.

However, the PLA seems to be moving towards a situation where such exercises around Taiwan occur regularly rather than in response to any specific perceived provocation.

Some experts see the drills as a dress rehearsal for a possible real blockade in an attempt to overthrow the government in Taipei in the future.

In the words of the Chinese military this week, they serve as a practice run “close in on Taiwan from all directions”.

In addition, analysts believe that Beijing has been increasing the frequency and size of its military exercises as a way of trying to increase pressure on Taiwan’s population to eventually accept an annexation by China as inevitable.

This is despite the fact that opinion polls have routinely shown that the vast majority of Taiwanese people firmly oppose a takeover of their democratically governed island group by China’s Communist Party.

Taiwanese officials have warned that China may stage more military drills later this year, on dates like the anniversary of Lai taking office or Taiwan’s National Day in October.

However, in Taiwan, movements by the PLA can also provide an opportunity.

Each time China conducts such war games, Taiwan’s military chiefs have said that they can study the manoeuvres in order to better prepare their own forces for any real attack.

The Environment Agency (EA) has launched a comprehensive review into shipments of waste tyres from the UK to India.

Last week, BBC File on 4 Investigates heard that millions of these tyres – sent for recycling – were actually being “cooked” in makeshift furnaces, causing serious health problems and environmental damage.

The pressure group Fighting Dirty has threatened legal proceedings against the EA over what it called a “lack of action” over the issue of tyre exports.

The EA has asked the group to wait until its own review is complete, and it has also asked File on 4 Investigates to share the evidence from its investigation.

The UK generates about 50 million waste tyres (nearly 700,000 tonnes) every year. According to official figures, about half of these are exported to India, supposedly to be recycled.

But BBC File on 4 Investigates revealed that some 70% of tyres exported to India from the UK and the rest of the world are being sent to makeshift industrial plants, where they are “cooked” in order to extract steel, small amounts of oil as well as carbon black – a powder or pellet that can be used in various industries.

Conditions at these plants – many of which are in rural backwaters – can be toxic and harmful to public health, as well as potentially dangerous.

In January, two women and two children were killed in an explosion at a plant in the western state of Maharashtra, where European-sourced tyres were being processed.

A BBC team visited the site and saw soot, dying vegetation and polluted waterways around. Villagers complained of persistent coughs and eye problems.

Following the broadcast, the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) told BBC File on 4 Investigates that officials and lawyers within the EA were “very keen” to investigate the claims made in the programme, including any potential criminal activity.

In a letter seen by the BBC, lawyers for the EA said that our investigation would be carefully considered as part of a review it has launched into its approach to waste tyre shipments.

They added that the EA has been working to engage the relevant environmental authorities in India on this issue and is taking steps to arrange a delegation to meet with officials later this year.

Fighting Dirty founder Georgia Elliott-Smith, who has been in correspondence with the EA over this issue since 2023, said it was a “major victory” for the group and that “the government must stop turning a blind eye to the illegal and immoral activity”.

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The deaths of a British couple in New Zealand are being investigated as a murder-suicide, police have said.

Police said a man and a woman, who have not been named, were found after officers were asked to conduct a welfare check in Roseneath, a suburb of the capital Wellington, on Monday.

The couple is reported to have moved to New Zealand from the UK late last year.

Det Insp Haley Ryan said police were not looking for anyone else in relation to the incident, but issued an appeal for any information related to the case with them.

The UK Foreign Office said it had not been contacted about the incident.

Police said in a statement that they were “providing support to the family at the centre of this tragic event”.

“The family have requested privacy as they grieve their loss,” they added.

Police said two bodies were found after officers forced entry to a property on Palliser Road, having been asked by a concerned family member that morning to check in on them.

The couple’s neighbour, Emma Prestidge, told public broadcaster Radio New Zealand that they had moved to the area from London.

“My understanding is they’d finally packed up their lives in London, and all their stuff was in a shipping container and they were kind of looking to move here for good,” she said.

“They were in the next phase of their life, I guess, and ready to kind of set themselves up for the next part of their chapter, which is truly sad.”

Police in New Zealand urged anyone with CCTV of the area to get in contact. Det Insp Ryan earlier said the case was being referred to the coroner.

In a statement to the BBC, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We have not been approached for consular assistance in this case, but our staff stand ready to support British nationals overseas 24/7.”

The BBC has contacted the New Zealand Coroner’s Office for comment.

Heathrow Airport was warned about the “resilience” of its power supply in the days before a fire which shut down the airport for more than a day last month.

The boss of a group representing airlines told a group of MPs on Wednesday that he spoke to Heathrow on 15 March about his concerns and again on 19 March.

Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee boss Nigel Wicking said he raised cases of “theft of wire and cable around some of the power supply” which he said temporarily took out runway lights, which are critical to passenger safety,

Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye apologised to the nearly 300,000 passengers whose journeys were disrupted by the closure on 21 March.

He offered his “deepest regrets” adding that the “situation was unprecedented”. The airport was shutdown after a fire at an electrical substation.

Speaking to MPs on the transport committee, Mr Wicking said the temporary failure of the runway lights which he noticed before the fire “obviously made me concerned, and as such I’d raised the point”.

“I wanted to understand better the overall resilience of the airport.”

He added: “It is the most expensive airport in the world, with regard passenger charges, so from our perspective, that means we should actually have the best service, we should have the best infrastructure.”

He said he had spoken to the Team Heathrow director on 15 March about his concerns – six days before the fire – and the chief operating officer and chief customer officer on 19 March – two days before the fire.

On the day of the shutdown, airlines had to divert 120 aircraft, which is “not a light decision to be made in any context”, he added.

As a consequence, when Mr Wicking joined a call with NATs, the national air traffic service, at 05:30, “they’d run out of space within the UK for aircraft to divert”.

“Aircraft were then going to Europe, and then some were even halfway across Europe and going back to base in India,” he said. “So, quite a level of disruption for those passengers, let alone all of the cancellations”.

Mr Woldbye said Heathrow realised “during the early hours” of Friday 21 March that “we were losing power to the airport”.

“In our operations centre you would seen all the red lights go, that the systems were powering down,” he said. “We had no information as to why.”

“We then had a slightly later stage call from the fire department that the substation was on fire,” he said.

Heathrow is supplied by three substations, but knocking out one caused the airport to shut down.

Mr Woldbye said a third of the airport was powering down and that Terminal 2 was particularly affected, along with certain central systems. He added that it became “first and foremost a safety situation”.

“We need to make sure, when a crisis happens, that people are safe,” he said.

The first priority was to check that no-one been caught in lifts or was hurt.

Safety critical systems such as runway, runway lighting and the control tower “switched in as they should”, however, he said.

When asked why the airport had not reopened sooner, Mr Woldbye said that could have meant passengers got hurt.

He said: “If we had got this wrong, we might be sitting here today having a very different discussion about why people got injured, and I think it would have been a much more serious discussion.

“So there is a margin within which our people have to take very serious safety decisions, and that is what they are trained for, that is what they do, and that requires that every single system is up and running, tested and safe.”

However, Mr Wicking said Terminal 5 could have reopened sooner.

He said: “In terms of T5, my understanding both from British Airways but also on the day, was that pretty much everything was fine to operate by mid-morning, by 10 o’clock.”

Twenty-three more women have come forward to the police with allegations against serial rapist Zhenhao Zou – a Chinese PhD student found guilty in London last month of drugging and raping 10 women across two continents.

Police said at the conclusion of his trial they had video evidence, filmed by Zou himself, of potentially 50 more victims – and they have been trying to trace these women. Detectives now say, however, that they believe Zou’s “offending group is far greater”.

Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence

Two women who have contacted police in the past month with new allegations have also spoken to the BBC World Service. One said Zou raped her in his hometown in China, after spiking her drink which left her conscious but unable to speak or move. The other said Zou drugged her too – in London – and that she had woken up to find him filming himself sexually assaulting her.

We have also spoken to two women whose testimony helped convict Zou – who will be sentenced in June. “If I had spoken up earlier, maybe there wouldn’t have been so many victims after me,” one of them told us.

She and the other women say they struggle with the guilt of now knowing that Zou has assaulted so many women.

One of the women making new allegations, who we are calling Alice, told the BBC that Zou had assaulted her in London in 2021, but that she had only felt able to go to police after his trial last month. “I didn’t know that was something you could report,” the Chinese national told us.

She says she first met Zou while out clubbing in London with other Chinese-student friends. The group had all added one another on WeChat, a popular social messaging app.

Not long afterwards, a mutual friend invited Alice to have drinks at Zou’s upmarket student accommodation in Bloomsbury.

There were two bottles of spirits on the table, she says, both already opened and half-empty. She began to share drinks from one of the bottles with her friend – but says Zou only drank from the other one.

Alice says her friend normally tolerated alcohol well, but this time became drunk very quickly and appeared to fall asleep on the floor. The alcohol kicked in suddenly for Alice too, she says.

“Normally when you drink too much, you feel good for a while. But that night I just felt extremely dizzy and sleepy right away.”

Zou persuaded her it wouldn’t be safe to take a taxi home in the state she was in, she told us, and asked her to take a nap in his bedroom. She says she agreed, knowing her friend was also still in the apartment.

The next thing she says she remembers is waking up to Zou removing her trousers.

“I stopped him right away,” she says – explaining how she then noticed a torchlight from a mobile phone above her head, and realised, to her horror, that he was filming her.

Alice describes trying to leave his bedroom but being aggressively “yanked back from the doorway”. Zou used such strong force to try to keep her in the bedroom, she says, that she “had to cling on to the door frame with both hands”.

It was only when she threatened to scream for help, that he let go – she told us – with Zou then telling her not to make “a big deal” of things, or to go to the police.

Zou contacted Alice the next day on WeChat, she says, but he made no mention of the previous night. He asked her to dinner but she says she ignored him and they were never in touch again.

Alice confided in a few close friends, but took things no further.

“I thought that, first, you needed evidence. And second, something substantial had to have happened before you could call the police.”

Alice says the next time she saw Zou’s face was nearly four years later in the media – after he was charged by police.

It is challenging for foreign nationals to report sexual crimes in the UK, says Sarah Yeh, a trustee at Southeast and East Asian Women’s Association in London.

“It would be daunting for anyone [from] overseas to be traumatised by rape and then have to navigate the British legal system and the NHS, or even access the services provided for victims,” she told us.

They might not understand their rights or what resources are available to them – she says – as well as being concerned about repercussions, negative impacts on their studies, shame brought on themselves and their families, and potential legal challenges.

About a year after Alice says she was assaulted, she discovered that one of her male friends in London also knew Zou, but had cut all contact because he found out Zou had been spiking women’s drinks.

The friend – who the BBC is calling Jie – told us he “wasn’t surprised at all” when he heard Zou had been convicted.

“A lot of friends at the time probably knew [what Zou was doing]. I reckon some of our female friends knew too.”

Jie told us he accidentally drank from someone else’s glass at a party in 2022, and then became “unwell” and “very sleepy”. Zou then told him he had spiked the drink – says Jie – and had meant for a woman at the party to drink it.

Jie says Zou later showed him a small bag of drugs and asked if he wanted to “collaborate with him”. He says he took from this that Zou wanted his help finding girls whose drinks he could spike. Jie says he refused.

The BBC asked Jie why he had initially continued to see Zou and why he didn’t go to the police. Jie told us they both had lots of mutual friends so it was difficult not to socialise together. He says he did warn his friends about Zou, telling them not to hang out with him “because he was drugging people”.

Jie doesn’t like thinking about those memories, he says, and that is why he hasn’t gone to the police – adding that he had believed the women’s testimonies were enough to convict Zou.

Eventually, Jie says, he did cut all ties with him.

Another young woman who has been in touch with police in London and China since Zou’s trial is “Rachel”. She says she was drugged and raped by him in 2022 in his hometown of Dongguan – in Guangdong province.

Rachel told the BBC she had gone on a date with Zou, having met him online. She thought they were going to a bar, she says, but ended up at his home – a large villa which Zou had described as one of his family’s many properties.

With his back turned to her, she says Zou mixed her a green-coloured cocktail. They then started a drinking game, she says, and she experienced a “wave of dizziness”. Rachel has told UK police that Zou took her up to a bedroom, where she became unable to speak or move her body, and then raped her.

She thought about calling the police the next day, but decided against it. She feared it would be very difficult to prove non-consent. “It’s hard for me to prove the fact that I was willing to go to his place for drinks and that was not a signal that I was consenting to sex,” she told us.

She added that Dongguan is a small place and there was always a risk that people she knew – her parents, relatives and colleagues – would find out and think she was “indiscreet”.

We have seen Rachel’s statement to UK police. She wants her story to be heard now, she says, to encourage more victims to come forward – and because she would like to see Zou prosecuted in China as well as the UK.

Cdr Kevin Southworth – who leads public protection at the Metropolitan Police – told the BBC officers were still working their way through the 23 potential new cases and that some of the people were “definitely not identical” to those featured in Zou’s seized secret footage or from the charge cases so far.

“It speaks to the fact that his offending group is actually far greater than we had realised,” he says.

A second trial for the convicted rapist has not been ruled out and there is “certainly a case” to discuss with the Crown Prosecution Service, given the numbers of women coming forward, he adds.

The BBC has also spoken to the only two victims who police were able to identify ahead of Zou’s trial – both are Chinese nationals who had been studying in London. The women got to know each other on social media after one of them, who we are calling Beth, posted about her experience.

Beth was raped by Zou in 2023 and had tried to report the crime to the Metropolitan Police soon afterwards. But then she decided not to pursue things because she felt unsure of UK law and had been left feeling discouraged after her initial interaction with the police, which included a poor translation of her 999 call.

“Back then I didn’t know [Zou’s name]. I didn’t know his address, I could only give general information,” she says.

In frustration, Beth posted a warning on social media about what had happened to her. Another Chinese student, “Clara”, says she “immediately” knew this was the same man who had drugged and raped her after a night out in London’s Chinatown, two years before.

Every detail in Beth’s post pointed to the same man, says Clara: “He has a Guangdong accent, he looks honest and he wears a Rolex submariner watch.”

The women began to speak online and Beth encouraged Clara to report what had happened to her to the police.

Months later, police contacted Beth to say they were re-investigating the case. Clara had come forward.

On Zou’s seized devices, police had also found a video featuring Beth.

The Met has since expressed regret over how it initially handled her allegations.

“We want to avoid situations where victims feel like they’re maybe not being taken seriously, or heaven forbid, being disbelieved,” says Cdr Southworth. Additional training is now being rolled out to all front line officers, he says.

Clara describes a positive experience with British police. She says she didn’t want to fly to London for the trial, in case her parents found out, so the Met sent two officers to China to support her as she gave evidence by video instead.

The officers were assisted by the Chinese authorities, who have been working collaboratively with the Met and are “very supportive”, says Cdr Southworth.

“I hope that can give some encouragement to victim-survivors, wherever they are in the world, that you are safe to come forward.”

Beth – who gave her evidence in court in London – says it was only afterwards that she realised that she and Clara were the only two women to have helped convict Zou.

“I thought for a long time that I wasn’t an important part of the case against Zou,” she says.

Now she is glad she testified and is encouraging other women to come forward.

If you have information about this story that you would like to share with us please get in touch.

You can contact BBC journalist wanqing.zhang@bbc.co.uk – please include contact details if you are willing to speak to her.

As the call to prayer rang out in Sagaing last Friday, hundreds of Muslims hurried to the five mosques in the city in central Myanmar.

They were eager to hold their last Friday prayers for Ramadan, just days away from the festive period of Eid that would mark the end of the holy month.

Then, at 12:51 local time (06:21 GMT), a deadly earthquake struck. Three mosques collapsed, including the biggest one, Myoma, killing almost everyone inside.

Hundreds of kilometres away, the former imam of Myoma mosque, Soe Nay Oo, felt the quake in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

In the following days, he found out that around 170 of his relatives, friends and members of his former congregation had died, mostly in the mosques. Some were leading figures in the city’s close-knit Muslim community.

“I think about all the people who lost their lives, and the victims’ children – some of them are young children,” he told the BBC. “I can’t hold back my tears when I talk about this.”

More than 2,700 people have died in the quake which happened near Sagaing and Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city. The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers continue to pull out bodies from rubble.

• What we know about the earthquake
• Mandalay was the ‘city of gold’ – now it reeks of death
• Heartbroken parents call out children’s names at earthquake-hit pre-school

While the area was known for its ancient Buddhist temples, the cities were also home to a significant Muslim population.

An estimated 500 Muslims died while praying in their mosques, according to figures given by the country’s leader, Min Aung Hlaing, on Monday.

Eyewitnesses in Sagaing have told the BBC that the road where the mosques were, Myoma Street, was the worst hit in the city. Many other houses on the street have also collapsed.

Hundreds of people have sought shelter by the side of the road, either because they are now homeless, or are too afraid to go back to their homes in case there are aftershocks. Food supplies are reported to be scarce.

In Myoma alone, more than 60 people were said to be crushed in the collapse, while scores more died in the Myodaw and Moekya mosques. More bodies were still being pulled out on Tuesday.

There are indications that the worshippers had tried to escape, according to Soe Nay Oo, who has received multiple reports from surviving members of his community.

He currently lives in the Thai city of Mae Sot with his wife and daughter, after escaping from Myanmar soon after a coup that took place in 2021.

There were bodies found outside of the main prayer hall, he said, in the area where worshippers wash themselves. Some were also found clutching other people’s hands, in what looked like attempts to pull them away from the crumbling building.

Among the many loved ones Soe Nay Oo lost was one of his wife’s cousins. Her death, he said, was “the most painful thing that I have endured” in his 13 years as an imam.

“She was the one who showed her love to us the most,” said Soe Nay Oo. “Everyone in the family loved her. The loss is unbearable for us.”

Another of his wife’s cousins, a well-respected businessman who had performed the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, also died.

“He always called me Nyi Lay [‘little brother’ in Burmese]…When I married my wife, he said we are family now and he always treated me like his own little brother,” said Soe Nay Oo.

“He was always there for us whenever we needed him. I have lost those whom I love like brothers like him.”

Some of the close friends who died include Soe Nay Oo’s former assistant imam, whom he remembered for his strong work ethic and remarkable talent in reciting the Quran.

The principal of the local public school, who was also the only female trustee of the Myoma mosque, also died. She was remembered by Soe Nay Oo as a generous soul who would often pay for mosque programmes out of her own pocket.

He said every time he hears of yet another person from the community who died, he experiences a new wave of grief. “I feel devastated… it always comes to my mind, the memories I cherish of them.

“Even though they were not close relatives, they were the ones who always welcomed me, followed my prayers, and who prayed together.”

The fact that they died during Ramadan is not lost on him. “All the departed have returned to Allah’s home, I would say. They will be remembered as martyrs accordingly,” he said.

Like other parts of Myanmar affected by the quake, the community is struggling to deal with the sheer number of bodies.

It has been complicated by ongoing fighting between the military junta and resistance groups. The Muslim cemetery in Sagaing is close to an area controlled by the rebel People’s Defence Forces (PDF), and has been closed to the public for several years. The military has continued to bomb some parts of the wider Sagaing region following the quake.

Sagaing city’s Muslim community has had to move the bodies of their dead to Mandalay, crossing the Irrawaddy River using the sole bridge connecting the two cities, according to Soe Nay Oo.

Their bodies are being left at Mandalay’s biggest mosque for burial. Some have not been buried within 24 hours of their death per Islamic tradition.

“For Muslims, it is the saddest thing, that we cannot bury our families by ourselves at the end of their journey,” he said.

The survivors have been trying to help in the rescue, even as they cope with the trauma. “Some from my community told me to pray for them. To be honest, they couldn’t even describe their loss in words when I speak to them.”

It is hard for Soe Nay Oo to be far from his former congregation. Like many other people from Myanmar who have migrated abroad, he feels survivor’s guilt.

“If I were the imam still, at the time of the quake, I would have gone with them – that I can accept peacefully. If not, at least I could be on the ground to do anything that I can.

“Now I can’t go back. It’s painful to think about it.

Soe Nay Oo began to sob. “This sad and frustrated feeling I have right now, I have never felt this way before in my life. I am the kind of man who would hardly cry.

He adds that he has not been able to sleep for days. His worry has been magnified by the fact he has yet to hear from some family members, including his own siblings who were in Mandalay.

Soe Nay Oo has paused his work for a human rights group in Thailand and is currently helping to coordinate rescue efforts in Sagaing – sharing any information he can get from his contacts in the city.

At least 1,000 Muslims in the area have been affected who still need assistance, he estimates.

“I feel relief only whenever somebody on the ground asks for help, and I can help them.”

Mandalay used to be known as the city of gold, dotted by glittering pagodas and Buddhist burial mounds, but the air in Myanmar’s former royal capital now reeks of dead bodies.

So many corpses have piled up since a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck last Friday close to Mandalay, that they have had to be “cremated in stacks”, one resident says.

The death toll from the quake and a series of aftershocks has climbed past 2,700, with 4,521 injured and hundreds still missing, Myanmar’s military chief said. Those figures are expected to rise.

Residents in the country’s second most populous city say they have spent sleepless nights wandering the streets in despair as food and water supplies dwindle.

The Mandalay resident who spoke of bodies being “cremated in stacks” lost her aunt in the quake.

“But her body was only pulled out of the rubble two days later, on 30 March,” said the 23-year-old student who wanted only to be known as J.

Poor infrastructure and a patchwork of civil conflicts are severely hampering the relief effort in Myanmar, where the military has a history of suppressing the scale of national disasters. The death toll is expected to keep rising as rescuers gain access to more collapsed buildings and cut-off districts.

J, who lives in Mandalay’s Mahaaungmyay district, has felt “dizzy from being deprived of sleep”, she said.

Many residents have been living out of tents – or nothing – along the streets, fearing that what’s left of their homes will not hold up against the aftershocks.

“I have seen many people, myself included, crouching over and crying out loud on the streets,” J said.

But survivors are still being found in the city. The fire service said it had rescued 403 people in Mandalay in the past four days, and recovered 259 bodies. The true number of casualties is thought to be much higher than the official version.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, military chief Min Aung Hlaing said the death toll may exceed 3,000, but the US Geological Survey said on Friday “a death toll over 10,000 is a strong possibility” based on the location and size of the quake.

Young children have been especially traumatised in the disaster.

A local pastor told the BBC his eight-year-old son had burst into tears all of a sudden several times in the last few days, after witnessing parts of his neighbourhood buried under rubble in an instant.

“He was in the bedroom upstairs when the earthquake struck, and my wife was attending to his younger sister, so some debris had fallen onto him,” says Ruate, who only gave his first name.

“Yesterday we saw bodies being brought out of collapsed buildings in our neighbourhood,” said Ruate, who lives in the Pyigyitagon area of southern Mandalay.

“It’s very sobering. Myanmar has been hit by so many disasters, some natural, some human made. Everyone’s just gotten so tired. We are feeling hopeless and helpless.”

A monk who lives near the Sky Villa condominium, one of the worst-hit buildings reduced from 12 to six storeys by the earthquake, told the BBC that while some people had been pulled out alive, “only dead bodies have been recovered” in the past 24 hours.

“I hope this will be over soon. There are many [bodies] still inside, I think more than a hundred,” he said.

Crematoriums close to Mandalay have been overwhelmed, while authorities have been running out of body bags, among other supplies, including food and drinking water.

Around the city, the remains of crushed pagodas and golden spires line the streets. While Mandalay used to be a major centre for the production of gold leaf and a popular tourist destination, poverty in the city has soared in recent years, as with elsewhere in Myanmar (formerly called Burma).

Last week’s earthquake also affected Thailand and China, but its impact has been especially devastating in Myanmar, which has been ravaged by a bloody civil war, a crippled economy and widespread disillusionment since the military took power in a coup in 2021.

On Tuesday, Myanmar held a minute of silence to remember victims, part of a week of national mourning. The junta called for flags to fly at half mast, media broadcasts to be halted and asked people to pay their respects.

Even before the quake, more than 3.5 million people had been displaced within the country.

Thousands more, many of them young people, have fled abroad to avoid forced conscription – this means there are fewer people to help with relief work, and the subsequent rebuilding of the country.

Russia and China, which have helped prop up Myanmar’s military regime, are among countries that have sent aid and specialist support.

But relief has been slow, J said.

“[The rescue teams] have been working non-stop for four days and I think they are a little tired. They need some rest as well.

“But because the damage has been so extensive, we have limited resources here, it is simply hard for the relief workers to manage such massive destruction efficiently,” she said.

While the junta had said that all assistance is welcome, some humanitarian workers have reported challenges accessing quake-stricken areas.

Local media in Sagaing, where the earthquake’s epicentre was located, have reported restrictions imposed by military authorities that require organisations to submit lists of volunteers and items that they want to bring into the area.

Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have urged the junta to allow aid workers immediate access to these areas.

“Myanmar’s military junta still invokes fear, even in the wake of a horrific natural disaster that killed and injured thousands,” said Bryony Lau, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director.

“The junta needs to break from its appalling past practice and ensure that humanitarian aid quickly reaches those whose lives are at risk in earthquake-affected areas,” she said.

The junta has also drawn criticism for continuing to open fire on villages even as the country reels from the disaster. Large parts of Sagaing are under control of resistance groups.

A commander in the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) – a network of pro-democracy civilian groups – told the BBC that the military was carrying out ground attacks.

Rebel commander Min Naing, who commands 300 fighters, said his forces were not fighting back, claiming to be respecting a two-week ceasefire announced by the opposition National Unity Government after the earthquake.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance – which is made up of three ethnic groups that also oppose the junta – on Tuesday also announced a month-long ceasefire in order, it said, to help facilitate relief efforts.

Meanwhile, BBC Burmese reported there had been drone attacks and aerial bombings in Kachin and Shan states.

Myanmar is reeling following the huge earthquake which hit the country on Friday, 28 March.

The 7.7 magnitude tremor was felt elsewhere, including in Thailand and south-west China.

More than 2,700 people have died and more than 4,500 have been injured, say the leaders of Myanmar’s military government. Those figures are expected to rise. In Thailand, at least 21 people lost their lives.

Here is what we know so far.

The earthquake’s epicentre was located 16km (10 miles) north-west of the town of Sagaing, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

This is also near Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, with a population of about 1.5 million people – and about 200km (125 miles) north of the capital, Nay Pyi Taw.

The first earthquake struck at about 12:50 (06:20 GMT), according to the USGS. A second earthquake struck 12 minutes later, with a 6.4 magnitude. Its epicentre was 18km south of Sagaing.

Aftershocks have continued since – the latest on Sunday was a magnitude-5.1 tremor north-west of Mandalay, with a resident telling BBC Burmese it was the strongest they had felt since 28 March.

• Live: Follow the latest on the Myanmar earthquake
• Watch: Moment Bangkok high-rise under construction collapses
• Eyewitnesses describe horror in quake’s aftermath
• In pictures: Damaged buildings and buckled roads

The strong quake buckled roads, damaged bridges and flattened many buildings in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) – a country of some 55 million people.

It is considered one of the world’s most geologically “active” areas.

A state of emergency has been declared in the six most impacted regions – Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway, Bago, Shan and Nay Pyi Taw.

The ruling junta said on Saturday that 1,591 houses had been damaged in the Mandalay region, and that scores of people remained trapped with rescuers searching “with bare hands”.

Strong tremors were also felt elsewhere, including in Thailand and south-west China.

• What caused the Myanmar earthquake – and why did it make a tower in Bangkok collapse?

The Thai capital, Bangkok, sits more than 1,000km (621 miles) from the epicentre of Friday’s earthquake – and yet an unfinished high-rise building in the city was felled by it.

Videos also showed rooftop pools in Bangkok spilling over the sides of swaying buildings.

The official death toll in Myanmar now stands at more than 2,700 but this is expected to keep rising as rescuers gain access to more collapsed buildings. Many of the fatalities so far were in Mandalay.

More than 4,500 people were injured and at least 441 are missing, the military government said. Rescue operations are ongoing.

The US Geological Survey’s modelling estimates Myanmar’s death toll could exceed 10,000, with losses surpassing annual economic output.

Meanwhile, in Bangkok, 21 people have been confirmed dead – 14 of them at the high-rise building that collapsed, where dozens of people remain missing.

Getting information out of Myanmar is difficult, which is part of the reason why the exact earthquake death toll is currently unknown.

Since a coup in 2021 it has been ruled by a military junta, which has a history of suppressing the scale of national disasters.

The state controls almost all local radio, television, print and online media. Internet use is also restricted.

Mobile lines in the affected areas have been patchy, but tens of thousands of people also live without electricity, making it difficult for the BBC to reach residents.

Foreign journalists are rarely allowed into the country officially.

The junta has said it will not grant visas for foreign reporters requested to cover the aftermath the earthquake, citing an inability to guarantee their safety.

The 2021 coup triggered huge protests, which evolved into a widespread insurgency involving pro-democracy and ethnic rebel groups – eventually sparking an all-out civil war.

Large parts of the Sagaing region, the epicentre of the earthquake, are now under the control of pro-democracy resistance groups. The junta, however, has greater control over urban areas – including the cities of Mandalay, Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon.

The National Unity Government (NUG), which represents the ousted civilian administration, announced that its armed wing – the People’s Defence Force (PDF) – was pausing “offensive military operations” for two weeks from 30 March in earthquake-affected areas, except for “defensive actions.”

Anti-coup PDF battalions have been fighting the military junta since the latter seized power in 2021.

The impact of any pause is uncertain as many ethnic armed groups act independently of the NUG.

Meanwhile, the junta has continued airstrikes in some areas, with the UN condemning them as “completely outrageous and unacceptable”.

Some international aid – mainly from China and India – has begun to arrive after the military authorities issued a rare appeal.

Aid has also been sent from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Russia.

Rescuers from several countries have joined local efforts to locate and pull out any survivors.

The Red Cross has issued an urgent appeal for $100m (£77m), while the UN is seeking $8m for its earthquake response.

“People urgently require medical care, clean drinking water, tents, food, and other basic necessities,” the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said on Monday.

The need is especially great in and around Mandalay, according to the IRC, where there is no electricity, water is running out and hospitals are overwhelmed.

Michael Dunford, country director for the UN World Food Programme, told the BBC that bringing aid from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw and Mandalay was taking twice as long as it normally would, due to damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The Earth’s crust is made up of separate bits, called plates, that nestle alongside each other.

These plates often try to move but are prevented by the friction of rubbing up against an adjoining one.

But sometimes, the pressure builds until one plate suddenly jerks across, causing the surface to move.

They are measured on a scale called the Moment Magnitude Scale (Mw). This has replaced the Richter scale, which is now considered outdated and less accurate.

The number attributed to an earthquake represents a combination of the distance the fault line has moved and the force that moved it.

A tremor of 2.5 or less usually cannot be felt but can be detected by instruments. Quakes of up to five are felt and cause minor damage. The Myanmar earthquake at 7.7 is classified as major and usually causes serious damage, as it has in this instance.

Anything above 8.0 causes catastrophic damage and can totally destroy communities at its centre.

This earthquake and its aftershocks were relatively shallow – about 10km in depth.

That means the impact on the surface is likely to have been more devastating than a deeper earthquake, with buildings shaken much harder and more likely to collapse.

On 26 December 2004, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of Indonesia, triggering a tsunami that swept away entire communities around the Indian Ocean. That 9.1 magnitude quake killed about 228,000 people.

The largest ever earthquake registered 9.5 and was recorded in Chile in 1960.

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has warned about the possibility of several strong aftershocks in places affected by the earthquake.

It has advised people in the area, or tourists planning to travel to Myanmar, Thailand or Laos, to monitor local media and follow the advice of local authorities and tour operators.

The FCDO has also previously issued advice against travel to parts of Myanmar and all but essential travel to parts of Thailand and Laos.

Myanmar’s security situation “may deteriorate at short notice and the military regime can introduce travel restrictions at any time” amid an “increasingly volatile” conflict, it said.

The FCDO’s warning for parts of Thailand is “due to regular attacks in the provinces by the border with Malaysia” and its advice for Laos relates to “intermittent attacks on infrastructure and armed clashes with anti-government groups” in Xaisomboun province.

Ask a group of film fans which role they will most remember actor Val Kilmer for, and each person will probably give you a different answer.

His performances in films like The Doors, Heat and Batman Forever are all likely to come up, while Willow and True Romance have their own dedicated fans.

One of his biggest films, Top Gun, is not only beloved by people old enough to have seen it when it was released in 1986, but also a much younger generation who are familiar with the much-memed scene of Kilmer’s Iceman playing volleyball.

Here are some of his most memorable roles from his wide-ranging stage and screen career.

• Top Gun and Batman actor Val Kilmer dies aged 65
• Val Kilmer: A brilliant, underrated and unpredictable film star

Kilmer’s first screen role was opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in an ABC Afterschool Special. He played her character’s boyfriend, who drives drunk with devastating results.

Another of his earliest film roles was in 1985 comedy film Real Genius, in which he starred opposite Gabriel Jarret.

Kilmer’s real career breakthrough came the following year, when he appeared in Top Gun, one of the biggest box office hits of the 1980s.

Kilmer played Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, the arrogant rival to Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

Two years later, Kilmer starred as a mercenary swordsman in Willow, the fantasy adventure directed by Ron Howard.

Kilmer and Joanne Whalley starred together in films including Willow and Twixt, and in 1989 they played a couple who rob a pair of Las Vegas mobsters in Kill Me Again. They got married in 1988.

Kilmer channelled the spirit of singer Jim Morrison in director Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic of US rock band The Doors.

In 1993’s True Romance, Kilmer played a version of Elvis Presley who is a figment of Christian Slater’s imagination. The film was written by Quentin Tarantino and saw Kilmer reunited with Top Gun director Tony Scott.

In 1995, Kilmer delivered a memorable and chilling performance in Michael Mann’s Heat, as the right-hand man of a criminal played by Robert De Niro.

In the same year, Kilner played one of his most defining roles as Bruce Wayne, the titular superhero in Batman Forever, opposite Nicole Kidman.

In 1997, Kilmer appeared in The Saint as a high-tech thief and master of disguise who uses the moniker of various saints.

Not all of Kilmer’s films were box office hits, however. The Island Of Dr Moreau, released in 1996, was a critical and comercial flop.

Red Planet, which was set on Mars, earned $33m on a budget of $80m in 2000.

In 2004, Kilmer played King Philip in Alexander, which co-starred Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great.

Kilmer’s stage roles included a 2005 stint in London’s West End in The Postman Always Rings Twice at the Playhouse Theatre.

Later that year, he appeared with Robert Downey Jr (right) and Michelle Monoghan (centre) in the crime comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

In 2006, he appeared in CBS mini-series Comanche Moon, pictured with Troy Baker as Pea Eye Parker (left) and Keith Robinson as Joshua Deets (right).

Kilmer again reunited with Top Gun director Tony Scott for hit 2006 action sci-fi film Deja Vu, also starring Denzel Washington (left) and Adam Goldberg (right).

Kilmer starred in two films opposite rapper 50 Cent – 2009’s Streets of Blood and 2010’s Gun, both of which were released directly to video and DVD.

Kilmer was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for best spoken word album, for voicing Zorro in an audio drama adaptation of The Mark of Zorro.

Kilmer played writer Mark Twain in a one-man stage show called Citizen Twain in California in 2012.

Later that year, Kilmer filmed scenes for Terrence Malick’s film Song To Song at a Texas music festival. The film was released five years later, in 2017.

In 2013, Kilmer appeared as himself in Life’s Too Short, the comedy series created by Warwick Davis, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Kilmer and Davis had previously appeared together in Willow.

Kilmer was pictured with Al Pacino at a live reading of Shakespeare’s Live Read of The Merchant Of Venice in 2019, more than two decades after starring together in Heat.

Off screen, Kilmer dated a number of high-profile women over the years, including Cher, Angelina Jolie, Daryl Hannah and Cindy Crawford.

Kilmer launched his movie Twixt at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011.

A British couple who face being deported from Australia after one of them was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) have said it is not fair the life they built could be taken away “any minute”.

Jessica Mathers was told the potential cost to health services of treating her condition meant her 2023 application for permanent residency alongside boyfriend Rob O’Leary was rejected.

The 30-year-old, a project manager and DJ from Macclesfield who has lived in Sydney since 2017, said the couple had been “living in a state of uncertainty” for years as they waited for an outcome of an appeal against the decision.

The Australian Department of Home Affairs said it cannot comment on individual cases.

Ms Mathers and Mr O’Leary, 31, from East London, met while backpacking in the country in 2017 and have lived there ever since.

He started a business in the carpentry and construction trade three years ago, and said the couple had “made the most of our lives here”.

But Ms Mathers’s diagnosis of the relapsing-remitting variant of MS in 2020 has led to a visa battle with authorities that could see the pair thrown out of the country.

Symptoms are typically mild for this form of MS, according to the NHS, but about half of cases can develop into a more progressive form of the disease.

She has received treatment in Australia under a reciprocal health agreement with the UK and said her condition had been “well managed” so far.

But the couple’s requests for permanent residency were rejected in 2023 due to the costs associated with her medical care.

Non-citizens entering Australia must meet certain health requirements, including not having “unduly increasing costs” for the country’s publicly-funded healthcare service Medicare.

The couple lodged an appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal after the visa rejection in 2023, and have been waiting for the past two years for an outcome.

Mr O’Leary said they had offered to pay the medical costs themselves or take out private insurance, “but the law is black and white, and the refusal is based on that, it’s really hard for us”.

They have started an online petition to call for Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs to review their case and look into immigration policies that “unfairly target individuals with well-managed health conditions”.

Mr O’Leary said the couple were “not asking for special treatment” but a chance to continue “working hard to contribute to this country in meaningful ways”.

He said: “We’ve always paid tax, we’ve always worked, Jess has done heaps of charity work.”

Ms Mathers said the couple had been “stuck not knowing what to do” as they waited for the outcome of their appeal, which had made it difficult for her to find anything other than temporary work.

She said: “It’s held up our whole life, it’s really upsetting.

“We know that we could get a refusal from the tribunal and then get given 28 days to leave the country, at any minute.

“We’ve got so much opportunity in Australia, and to walk away from it would be so sad.”

On Tuesday morning, Rajesh Nayak stepped outside the firecracker warehouse in India’s Gujarat state where he worked to drink water.

Some moments later, an explosion ripped through the building, killing 21 people, including Mr Nayak’s brother.

“Some of my other relatives have also died. I had come to work here only from Sunday,” a distraught Nayak, who is in hospital with minor injuries, said.

Most of the victims were from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh state and had recently come to work at the warehouse, located in an industrial estate in Banaskantha district in Gujarat.

Their families lived in huts close to the building and some of them were also killed from the force of the explosion. Banaskantha District Collector Mihir Patel told BBC Gujarati that the victims included four women and three children.

It’s not clear yet what caused the explosion, but officials are investigating if firecrackers were being manufactured illegally at the warehouse.

“Primary information has been received that the explosion took place when firecrackers were being made here,” said Mr Patel, the collector.

India has strict rules around firecracker production but these are often not enforced strongly on the ground. Accidents are regularly reported, especially at illegal factories.

The incident in Gujarat came a day after eight people were killed in an explosion at an illegal firecracker factory hundreds of miles away in West Bengal state.

Police in Gujarat have arrested two men, owners of the warehouse, in connection with the explosion and are searching for one more person. A special investigation team has been set up to look into the incident.

Banaskantha district police chief Akshay Raj Makwana said a preliminary investigation showed that aluminium powder was stored in the building.

“This powder is non-explosive but flammable and easily available in the market. We are investigating the supply chain and how the accused sourced such material,” said Mr Makwana.

Mr Patel told reporters that the building had been registered as a warehouse for storing firecrackers, but its licence had expired in December. When a team went to inspect the area in March, he said, the building was empty.

When BBC Gujarati reached the area on Tuesday, the air smelt strongly of sulphur.

The explosion caused extensive damage, destroying the warehouse and a wall of the adjacent factory. Large concrete slabs were thrown up to 300ft away.

Mr Makwana, the police chief, said a slab in the building collapsed, trapping workers underneath.

The powerful blast also destroyed surrounding huts and killed some family members of the workers.

A sanitation worker told BBC Gujarati that he carried out four bodies on stretchers from the site. “My heart sank when I saw a child’s body,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is from Gujarat, has expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and announced financial assistance.

The US has been unable to meaningfully respond to the Myanmar earthquake due to the Trump administration’s decision to slash foreign aid, according to three former senior US officials.

One former US Agency for International Development (USAID) mission director for Myanmar told the BBC that “America has been on the sidelines” after the disaster.

“The US basically was not there for the rescue-window period,” said another official. All three suggested the deep cuts to aid probably cost lives.

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck on Friday, leaving at least 2,700 people dead, more than 4,500 injured and hundreds still missing, according to the country’s military. Those figures are expected to rise.

The former USAID officials said the agency mobilised Disaster Assistance Response Teams (Darts) from the US after previous major earthquakes. Comprised of highly trained rescuers, sniffer dogs and specialist equipment, the teams are immediately made ready then dispatched when the affected country requests them.

A typical deployment, like that sent to the Turkey-Syria earthquake in 2023, could comprise some 200 people – the majority of them rescue workers. US teams are often the biggest of all foreign assistance groups on the ground.

The US Department of State said on Monday a US team based in the region was on its way to Myanmar. It is believed to comprise three people who are advisers, not rescuers.

The state department also said it was donating $2m (£1.6m) to humanitarian assistance organisations to support earthquake-affected communities. This figure is significantly smaller than previous US government donations during disasters, according to the former officials.

President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk is finalising the shutdown of USAID after weeks spent dismantling the agency and placing staff on administrative leave. Trump targeted foreign assistance on his first day in office, calling it an “industry” that was in many cases “antithetical to American values”.

• What is USAID and why is Trump poised to ‘close it down’?
• More than 80% of USAID programmes ‘officially ending’

On Friday, after the earthquake struck, the White House attempted to mobilise a Dart team, according to Andrew Natsios, who served as USAID administrator in George W Bush’s administration. But, he said, it couldn’t because key officials were on administrative leave.

“The problem is they fired most of the 500 people that make up the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, so obviously there are no people [from the bureau] to be on the Dart team to be sent – and the people have to be trained and be familiar with disaster relief operations,” he said.

Staff at the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance received letters of termination the day the earthquake struck, said Chris Milligan, who served as USAID Mission Director in Myanmar from 2012 to 2016.

“The employees… were told to go home by one o’clock. Everyone was told. All employees in that building were told to go home at one o’clock, and then they were told later to come back,” said Mr Milligan.

“It shows the lack of management and the confusion that there was an earthquake earlier, and they didn’t have the foresight to say ‘Okay, let’s retain these people’.”

Two of the former USAID officials said the administration couldn’t deploy US search and rescue teams, sniffer dogs and specialist equipment to Myanmar because logistics contracts to transport them from Virginia and California had been cancelled as part of the cuts, led by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

“It is the first time that I can think of that the US has simply not responded meaningfully to a major disaster,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, who ran the USAID Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) from 2013 to 2016.

He said for the last few decades, with every disaster on this scale, the US would be the largest and most capable team on the ground.

“You’ve got 75 to 100 people, the dogs and it’s a pretty substantial lift [which] you’ve got to get there, operating and excavating piles, within the first really four days.”

“The US basically was not there for the rescue window, period. And it’s too late,” said Mr Konyndyk.

It’s unlikely the agency could reactivate logistics contracts in time for a Dart team to Myanmar in time to save lives, he said. “If you wanted to issue new ones, the people who could issue new contracts and do the tenders for that, they’ve all been fired,” explained Mr Konyndak.

The US state department rejects the notion that the cuts have impacted disaster relief in Myanmar.

The department had partners it worked with “that may not require us to be physically present”, spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said on Monday.

“With the reform that the government is going through with the lead of President Trump… certain things won’t necessarily look the same. But the success in the work and our impact will still be there,” she said.

• ‘I feel guilty for not being in Myanmar – our people need us the most now’
• The man mourning 170 loved ones lost in Myanmar’s earthquake
• ‘We still have hope’: Searching for quake survivors in Mandalay
• Teacher captures aftermath of Myanmar earthquake

However, Mr Konyndyk described the claim as “fantasy land”.

“You can’t pull people out of a building virtually, you can’t excavate, you can’t do live rescues from a collapsed building without boots on the ground,” he said.

Chris Milligan, the former USAID mission director for Myanmar, said the rescue capacity available in the United States would double the capacity already on the ground in Myanmar.

“This is the new normal. This is what it looks like when the United States sits on the international sidelines, when the United States is a weaker international player, when it cedes the space to other global players like China,” said Mr Milligan.

The state department told the BBC it did not intend to deploy a Dart team to Myanmar, adding it was continuing many existing lifesaving programs and strategic investments that “strengthen our partners and our own country”.

A state department spokesperson said: “USAID has contracts in place with Urban Search and Rescue Teams to assist in responding to disasters.”

“[A] USAID team of humanitarian experts based in the region are traveling to Burma to assess additional needs,” the spokesperson continued.

“A Dart is essentially a coordination mechanism. We are able to coordinate with our partners for this specific response without a Dart. Every response is different,” added the spokesperson.

In 2019 Srija became the first transgender woman to legally marry in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu after a historic court ruling. Now a new documentary, Amma’s Pride, chronicles Srija’s battle for state recognition of her marriage and the unwavering support of her mother, Valli.

“Srija is a gift,” Valli, 45, tells the BBC as she and her daughter embrace.

“I know that not all trans people have what I have,” Srija, 25, from the port city of Thoothukudi, adds.

“My education, my job, my marriage – everything was possible because of my mother’s support.”

She and her mother are sharing their story for the first time in Amma’s Pride (Mother’s Pride), which follows Srija’s unique experience.

Srija met her future husband, Arun, at a temple in 2017. After learning they shared mutual friends they soon began texting each other regularly. She was already out as transgender and had begun her transition.

“We talked a lot. She confided in me about her experiences as a trans woman,” Arun tells the BBC.

Within months, they fell in love and decided they wanted to spend their lives together.

“We wanted legal recognition because we want a normal life like every other couple,” Srija says. “We want all the protections that come from a legal recognition of marriage.”

That incudes securities, such as the transfer of money or property if one spouse dies.

In 2014, the Indian Supreme Court established certain protections for transgender people, granting them equal rights to education, employment, healthcare and marriage – although India still does not allow same-sex marriages.

It’s not known how many trans couples have married in India, or who was the first. Activists say there was at least one trans wedding legally registered before Srija and Arun’s – in 2018 a couple married in Bangalore.

“Of course there are queer couples, or transgender couples, all over India,” says the director of Amma’s Pride, Shiva Krish, but because of continuing discrimination “several are secretive about their relationship. Srija and Arun, and Valli, are unique in choosing to live their everyday life out in the open.”

Srija and Arun’s attempt to register their 2018 wedding was rejected, with the registrar arguing that the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act defined marriage as a union between a “bride” and a “groom”, which therefore excluded trans women.

But the couple, backed by LGBT activists, pushed back, taking their relationship into the public domain. The effort was worth it.

They received global attention in 2019 when the Madras High Court in Chennai upheld their right to marry, stating that transgender people should be recognised as either a “bride” or “groom” as defined by the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act.

The ruling was seen by LGBT activists as a pivotal step in the acceptance of transgender people in India, with Srija and Arun both becoming well known locally for challenging cultural norms.

But media coverage also invited negative scrutiny.

“The day after local news coverage, I was fired from my job,” says Arun, who worked as a manual labourer in the transport sector. He believes it was due to transphobia.

Online trolling followed.

“People sent abusive messages criticising me for being married to a transgender woman,” he says.

The couple briefly separated under the strain.

Despite this, Srija excelled at her education, frequently coming first in class at high school.

She went on to complete a degree in English literature from a university in Tamil Nadu, becoming one of the only people in her family to receive higher education.

It’s a source of pride for Valli, who left school aged 14.

Even before battling to have her marriage recognised by the state, Srija and her family faced hostility and mistreatment.

After Srija came out as a transgender woman at the age of 17, she and her mother and younger brother, China, were evicted from their home by their landlord.

Several family members stopped speaking to them.

But Srija’s mother and brother were steadfast in their support.

“I will always stand by my daughter,” says Valli.

“All trans people should be supported by their family.”

Valli, who became a single parent when her husband died when Srija was just six, works in a kitchen at a school.

But despite earning a modest income, she helped pay for her daughter’s gender reassignment, in part by selling some of her jewellery, and cared for her afterwards.

“She takes good care of me,” Srija says.

There are thought to be about two million transgender people in India, the world’s most populous country, although activists say the number is higher.

While the country has passed trans-inclusive legislation and recognised in law a “third gender”, stigma and discrimination remain.

Studies have found transgender people in India face high rates of abuse, mental health issues, and limited access to education, employment, and healthcare. Many are forced to beg or enter sex work.

Globally, the UN says significant numbers of transgender people face rejection from their families.

“Not a lot of trans people in India, or even the world, have the support of their families,” says filmmaker, Shiva Krish.

“Srija and Valli’s story is unique.”

Srija says she hopes the film will help challenge stereotypes about trans people and the types of stories that are often promoted in the media about the group – especially those that focus on trauma and abuse.

“This documentary shows that we can be leaders. I am a manager, a productive member of the workforce,” Srija says.

“When people see new kinds of stories on trans people, hopefully their mindsets will also change.”

After premiering at international film festivals, Amma’s Pride was shown at a special screening in Chennai, for members of the LGBT community and allies, to mark International Trans Day of Visibility on Monday 31 March.

Following the Chennai screening, a workshop was held where participants in small groups discussed family acceptance and community support for trans individuals.

“We hope our screening events will foster connections between trans individuals, their families, and local communities,” adds Chithra Jeyaram, another one of the filmmakers behind Amma’s Pride.

The Amma’s Pride production team hope that the universal themes of family support in the face of stigma means the documentary and workshops can be rolled out to rural audiences, as well as other cities in India, and neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh.

As for Srija and Arun, they now work as managers for private companies and hope to adopt a child soon. “We’re hoping for a normal future,” says Srija.

“I would like to become a grandmother soon,” Valli adds, smiling.

The battered heart of Khartoum lies eerily quiet now, after weeks of intense urban combat in the Sudanese capital.

We entered the city just days after Sudan’s army recaptured it from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the culmination of a six-month offensive through the central part of the country.

Once the commercial heart and seat of Sudan’s government, Khartoum is now a burnt-out shell.

Taking back the capital was a turning point in the two-year civil war, which erupted out of a power struggle between the army and the RSF, and is estimated to have claimed at least 150,000 lives.

But – as celebrations for Eid spill out into the capital’s streets and people here consider the war to be over – it is not clear what direction the conflict will take now.

We drove first to the presidential palace, which the RSF seized early in the war.

It was an important base for the paramilitary fighters.

The floors are covered with debris and broken glass.

Cushioned chairs once used for official functions stand covered with dust, a few paintings still hang on the walls, ragged chandeliers dangle from the ceilings.

But almost everything else had been looted – even the electrical cables were yanked out of the walls.

The worst damage is at the front of the building, which was struck by RSF drones shortly after the army seized the palace.

The main entrance is wrecked, dried blood still visible on the stairs, the windows now gaping holes looking out over the River Nile.

“I was really very excited to be in the Republican palace,” one soldier told me as we walked down the grimy red carpet.

“It’s my first time in this place and I waited for this place [like] the Sudanese in general. They wanted it to be free. It is symbol of our dignity.”

It is also an important symbol of power for the army.

Soldiers sang and danced, their jubilation erupting as the Muslim Eid holiday began.

A local restaurant delivered a feast for them, hailed as heroes by many in the capital.

But their victory was won at enormous cost.

The level of destruction in central Khartoum is stunning: government ministries, banks and towering office blocks stand blackened and burned.

The tarmac at the international airport is a graveyard of smashed planes, its passport and check-in counters covered in ashes.

We drove slowly, weaving around unexploded ordnance in the road.

At one intersection body parts were in a heap, two skulls clearly visible. About 100m (328ft) down the road, a body lay in front of a damaged car.

A stop at St Matthew’s Cathedral, built by the British in 1908 and a place of worship for the country’s minority Christian population, was a welcome reprieve.

The beautifully painted ceiling is intact.

A hole high in one wall showed where a shell had crashed through, a cross had fallen down.

But it looked much better than many of the buildings we had seen.

A soldier cleaning up rubble on the floor told us that most of the damage was caused by shrapnel from shelling around the church.

No-one destroyed the “house of God”, he said, but the RSF fighters desecrated the building by defecating in it.

He said his son was born on the first day of the war, but because of the non-stop fighting he had still not had a chance to go home and see the child.

The paramilitaries also occupied the areas where diplomatic missions are located.

When the fighting began, countries and companies scrambled to evacuate staff.

At the entrance of the British embassy, an RSF slogan is scrawled on the wall.

The bullet-proof glass of the building largely held, but it is pockmarked with many signs of impact.

In the car park at the back, a fleet of vehicles stands destroyed.

Across the street, a UK flag hung over the staircase of a battered building, crumpled and dirty.

This is Sudan’s third civil war in 70 years, and in some ways, it is worse than any of the others – as previous conflicts were fought in other parts of the country.

But this one has torn through the core of Sudan, hardening divisions and threatening to split the nation.

Further away from the combat zone, scattered celebrations for Eid spilled into the street.

For people here the war is over, even though it continues elsewhere.

The army has been accused of atrocities, and reports say tens of thousands fled the fighting in recent days. But in Khartoum, people celebrated the end of the brutal RSF control.

The mood was also buoyant at a communal kitchen in the neighbourhood of al-Jeraif West.

“I feel like I’ve been re-created,” said Osman al-Bashir, his eyes lighting up with the new reality after citing a list of the war’s hardships. He told me he had learned his English from the BBC World Service.

Duaa Tariq is a pro-democracy activist, part of the movement that in 2019 toppled military leader Omar al-Bashir, whose authoritarian rule had lasted nearly three decades.

She has been focusing on helping her neighbourhood survive the war.

“We’re celebrating Eid for the first time in two years,” she said.

“Everybody’s dressing up, including myself! I’m overwhelmed with a lot of emotions, just like trying to learn how to live again. We feel free, we feel light, even the air smells different.”

Ms Tariq struggled to keep the kitchens running during the war as food ran out, the city looted by the RSF, under siege by the army and US aid cut.

Food is still scarce, but there is hope now.

“I’m feeling wonderful. I feel safe. I feel great, even though I’m hungry,” said an elderly man, Kasim Agra.

“You know, it doesn’t matter. Freedom is what’s important.

“As you see, I carry a mobile,” he said, pointing to a phone in his pocket.

“You couldn’t carry a mobile about two weeks ago.”

That is something many people in different parts of Khartoum have said to me – mobile telephones were a lifeline to the outside world, and a prime target for theft by RSF fighters.

Mr Agra was optimistic that Khartoum, and the country, could recover.

“I think the government is going to bring investors: Americans, Saudis, Canadians, Chinese, they’re going to rebuild this country, I believe.”

Even if such massive reconstruction takes place, it is hard to imagine Khartoum retaining its distinct cultural and architectural features.

Several of the women also echoed something I have repeatedly heard elsewhere – they can finally sleep again, after lying awake nights afraid that RSF looters would break in.

The weight of fear and loss is heavy: so many stories of abuse, of life endangered and disrupted.

“Our children are traumatised,” says Najwa Ibrahim.

“They need psychiatrists to help them. My sister’s a teacher and tried to work with the children, but it’s not enough.”

Ms Tariq also has questions about the impact of the war: “When will the city be accessible again, open again?

“And another personal question as an activist, what will happen to all the freedoms and rights that we gained over the past five years of revolution?” she asked, referring to the years that followed the ousting of Bashir when a joint civilian-military government had been working towards a return to civilian rule.

“How will it be again for civil society, actors, for activists, for freedom fighters? I’m not sure of our future now.”

No-one is sure of Sudan’s future.

“We pray for the people of Darfur,” 16-year-old Hawaa Abdulshafiea said, referring to the western stronghold of the RSF, where the humanitarian crisis has been worst, and where the focus of the war is expected to shift.

“May God protect them.”

• Will recapture of presidential palace change course of Sudan war?
• The gravedigger ‘too busy to sleep’ as Khartoum fighting rages
• ‘People will starve’ because of US aid cut to Sudan
• One-year-olds among those raped during Sudan civil war, UN says
• The two generals at the heart of the conflict

US prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting dead UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Tuesday that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek capital punishment for the “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination”.

Mr Thompson was shot dead outside a hotel in New York on 4 December. Police arrested Mr Mangione, 26, days later in Pennsylvania after a nationwide manhunt.

He has pleaded not guilty to state charges, and has yet to enter a plea for separate federal charges. He is awaiting trial in a New York prison.

In the press release, Bondi said Mr Thompson’s murder “was an act of political violence” and that it “may have posed grave risk of death to additional persons” nearby.

Investigators say Mr Mangione was motivated to kill Mr Thompson, 50, because of anger with US health insurance companies.

A lawyer for Mr Mangione called the decision “barbaric”, accused the government of “defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry”, and said Mr Mangione was caught in a tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors.

“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi,” said Karen Friedman Agnifilo in a statement.

Mr Mangione is facing 11 state criminal counts in New York, including first-degree murder and murder as a crime of terrorism.

• Listen: BBC Sounds presents The Mangione Trial

If convicted of all the counts, he would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But federal prosecutors have also separately charged Mr Mangione for using a firearm to commit murder and interstate stalking resulting in death. These charges make him eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutors have said the federal and state cases will move forward parallel with one another.

Mr Mangione is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Brooklyn.

New York prosecutors have already shared some evidence in their case against him, including a positive match of his fingerprints with those discovered at the crime scene.

According to New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Mr Mangione arrived in New York City on 24 November and stayed in a Manhattan hostel using a fake ID for 10 days before carrying out the attack against Mr Thompson.

The healthcare boss was shot in the back by a masked assailant on 4 December as he was walking into a hotel where the company he led was holding an investors’ meeting.

A nationwide search led police to Mr Mangione five days later at a McDonald’s hundreds of miles away in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Police said that when they found Mr Mangione, he was in possession of a ghost gun – a firearm assembled from untraceable parts – a fake ID, a passport and a handwritten document indicating “motivation and mindset”.

Mr Thompson’s killing ignited a fraught debate about how the US healthcare system operates.

Some Americans, who pay more for healthcare than people in any other country, expressed anger over what they see as unfair treatment by insurance firms.

US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in December that the rhetoric on social media in the wake of the killing was “extraordinarily alarming”.

“It speaks of what is really bubbling here in this country, and unfortunately we see that manifested in violence, the domestic violent extremism that exists,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation.

The US State Department has revoked visas held by members of a Mexican band for “glorifying a drug kingpin”.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said the band, Los Alegres del Barranco, had projected an image of El Mencho onto a screen at a recent concert in Mexico.

El Mencho, whose real name is Nemesio Oseguera Ramos, is the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the most feared transnational drug trafficking gangs.

The CJNG is one of eight criminal groups which the Trump administration recently declared “foreign terrorist organisations” as part of its strategy to “ensure the total elimination” of these groups in the US.

In a post on X, Landau wrote “in the Trump Administration, we take seriously our responsibility over foreigners’ access to our country”.

He added that “the last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists”.

The band fell foul of both the US and the Mexican authorities on Saturday when they displayed an image of El Mencho during their concert in the Mexican city of Zapopan.

It was projected while they played a song which praises him as “a man of war who loves his family” and extols his exploits as the leader of the “cartel with four letters”, a thinly veiled reference to the CJNG.

Narcocorridos, songs praising drug cartel leaders, are not uncommon in Mexico.

Many bands playing norteña music – a genre characterised by catchy lyrics often sung to a polka-inspired rhythm and accompanied by an accordion and the twelve-stringed bajo sexto – are paid by drug barons to compose these songs.

Some bands rely on income early in their careers from being hired to play at private parties, many of which are hosted by people involved in or with connections to the cartels.

The song praising El Mencho is not the only narcocorrido in Los Alegres del Barranco’s repertoire.

An earlier song entitled The 701 is about the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and how he rose to number 701 in Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people.

Composed before El Chapo was jailed, it describes him as “the world’s most wanted man” who is not only rich because he has “many banknotes” but also because he “can count on the friendship of the people”, the song claims.

The concert at which the band projected the image of El Mencho came just weeks after relatives searching for disappeared loved ones came across a ranch that has been described by the authorities as a “training and extermination camp” for the CJNG.

Hundreds of abandoned shoes and suitcases, as well as bone fragments and ovens, found at the ranch seem to indicate that the cartel used it to train people it had recruited forcibly or by deception, killing those who resisted.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was among those who criticised the band.

Asked about the incident at her morning news conference, she said that “this shouldn’t happen, it’s not right” and ordered an investigation.

The singer of Los Alegres del Barranco appeared pleased by the mention of his band during the president’s news conference.

Speaking in a video published on TikTok, he answered a fan’s question about it, saying “how cool” it was and thanking people “for all the support we have received”.

Conservative TV company Newsmax has seen its stock market valuation surge by more than 2,200% since its debut in New York on Monday.

The US firm’s shares, which were originally priced at $10 (£7.75) each, stood at $233 at the end of Tuesday’s trading session.

That means it has a market value of almost $30bn, which surpasses Fox Corp – the owner of rival Fox News – and other media giants Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global.

Newsmax is seen as friendly to US President Donald Trump and was promoted by him during his first term in the White House.

The share price surge has made Newsmax’s founder and chief executive Christopher Ruddy one of the richest people in the US, with a net worth of more than $9bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Analysts said retail investors drove gains, drawing comparisons to the soaring price of GameStop.

The video game retailer’s popularity among some investors during the pandemic helped coin the idea of meme stocks.

The meme-stock phenomenon was part of a wider increase in trading by retail investors – people not working for investment houses or other private firms.

Newsmax was founded in 1998 as an online platform. It launched its cable news channel in 2014.

Its ratings were boosted in 2020 when it was endorsed by Trump, who had become increasingly angry at Fox News.

Mr Ruddy, who is a friend of Trump, insisted at the time that he did not want Newsmax to become “Trump TV”.

Earlier this month, Newsmax paid $40m to settle allegations that it defamed voting machine company Smartmatic by reporting false claims that it helped rig the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

It is the latest company with ties to conservatives to start selling shares on the stock market, joining Canada-based video platform Rumble Inc and President Trump’s media venture, Trump Media & Technology Group.

Tourists and residents have been evacuated as a volcano erupted in south-west Iceland, threatening a town and popular attraction.

The volcano has been spewing lava in a fiery display of orange and red since the eruption began in the morning, creating a huge crack in the ground which has grown to 1.2km (0.75 miles) long.

Multiple earthquakes have occurred in the volcanic area throughout the day.

The volcano is close to the fishing town of Grindavik and the famous Blue Lagoon spa. A small number of people refused to evacuate the town, local media reported.

Grindavik resident Asrun Kristinsdottir told the BBC she fled after hearing emergency sirens early in the morning.

Living near the volcano for most of her life meant she always had bags packed and ready to go. But she said this time was different because of “constant” quakes as she was preparing to leave.

The protective barriers around Grindavik have been breached, as a new eruptive fissure opened a few hundred meters inside, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) reported.

It was “extremely difficult” to see this activity inside the town’s safety barriers, said Ms Kristinsdottir, who serves as president of Grindavik town council.

People had been asked to “leave the danger zone”, the region’s police commissioner Ulfar Ludviksson told Iceland’s RUV broadcaster. But he said individuals staying in “seven or eight houses there… have decided to remain in the town”.

There were fears that the town was “in danger of having lava flows entering the inhabited area”, said Rikke Pedersen from the Nordic Volcanological Centre.

A hot water pipe has broken in the northern part of Grindavik, which confirms that considerable cracking has occurred within the town, the IMO said.

However, volcanic activity eased off in the early afternoon on Tuesday.

Thormar Omarrson runs a pizza restaurant in Grindavik that was forced to close due to the eruption.

He told the BBC he had lived in the town for 30 years but relocated with his family in 2024 after the authorities warned about the increasing risk posed by eruptions.

Leaving was “heartbreaking”, Mr Omarrson said. “My family was born and raised there and now their community is gone.”

He said some of his friends in Grindavik had refused to evacuate: “When you live there in your home you want to be left alone in your home.”

Most of the 4,000 residents of Grindavik left in a mass evacuation in 2023 because of the dangers of the volcanic activity. The volcano has erupted several times since.

The length of the magma that formed on Tuesday under the crater series stretched to about 11 km (6.8 miles) – the longest that has been measured since 11 November 2023, meteorologists said. The magma corridor extends about 3km further northeast than seen in previous eruptions.

Based on current wind direction, gas pollution from the eruption will travel northeast towards the capital area, the IMO added.

The eruption, which began around 09.45 local time (10:45 BST), occurred after several earthquakes hit the area known as the Sundhnuk crater range.

Multiple eruptions have occurred on the Reykjanes Peninsula since 2021.

The last time the peninsula had a period of volcanic activity was 800 years ago – and the eruptions continued for decades.

Iceland has 33 active volcano systems and sits over what is known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between two of the largest tectonic plates on the planet.

President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia’s highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military.

The spring call-up for a year’s military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.

That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

Vice Adm Vladimir Tsimlyansky said the new conscripts would not be sent to fight in Ukraine for what Russia calls its “special military operation”.

However, there have been reports of conscripts being killed in fighting in Russia’s border regions and they were sent to fight in Ukraine in the early months of the full-scale war.

The current draft, which takes place between April and July, comes despite US attempts to forge a ceasefire in the war.

There was no let-up in the violence on Tuesday, with Ukraine saying that a Russian attack on a power facility in the southern city of Kherson had left 45,000 people without electricity.

Although Russia has turned down a full US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine, it says it did agree to stop attacking Ukraine’s energy facilities. In an apparent attempt to deny Moscow had broken the terms of that deal, Russian officials said they had told Putin that Ukrainian drones had carried out attacks with little sign of a break.

Russia calls up conscripts in the spring and autumn but the latest draft of 160,000 young men is 10,000 higher than the same period in 2024.

Since the start of last year, the pool of young men available for the draft has been increased by raising the maximum age from 27 to 30.

As well as call-up notices delivered by post, Russia’s young men will be receiving notifications on the state services website Gosuslugi.

In Moscow there were reports that call-ups had already been sent out on 1 April via the mos.ru city website.

Increasing numbers of Russians are trying to avoid the army by taking on “alternative civilian service”. But human rights lawyer Timofey Vaskin warned on independent Russian media that every new call-up since the start of the war had become a lottery: “Authorities are coming up with new forms of refilling the army.”

Quite apart from its twice-yearly draft, Russia has also called up large numbers of men as contract soldiers and recruited thousands of soldiers from North Korea.

Moscow has had to respond to extensive losses in Ukraine, with more than 100,000 verified by the BBC and Mediazona as soldiers killed in Ukraine.

The true number could be more than double.

• Invisible losses fighting for Russia in Ukraine
• Why did Putin’s Russia invade Ukraine?

Putin has scaled up the size of the military three times since he ordered troops to capture Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s defence ministry linked the December 2023 increase in the size of the military to “growing threats” from both the war in Ukraine and the “ongoing expansion of Nato”.

Nato has expanded to include Finland and Sweden, as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Finland has Nato’s longest border with Russia, at 1,343km (834 miles) and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Tuesday that his country would join other states neighbouring Russia in pulling out of the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel mines.

Poland and the Baltic states made similar decisions two weeks ago because of the military threat from Russia.

Orpo said the decision to resume using anti-personnel mines was based on military advice, and that the people of Finland had nothing to worry about.

The government in Helsinki also said defence spending would be increased to 3% of economic output (GDP), up from 2.4% last year.

US Senator Cory Booker has broken the record for the longest speech ever delivered in the Senate.

The New Jersey Democrat’s marathon address, a symbolic protest against President Donald Trump, in which he warned of a “grave and urgent” moment in American history, ended after for 25 hours and four minutes.

Although it was not a filibuster – a speech designed to obstruct passage of a bill – it held up legislative business in the Republican-controlled Senate. The rules for such speeches require a speaker to remain standing and forgo bathroom breaks.

The previous record was held by Republican Senator Strom Thurmond who, when still a Democrat in 1957, spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act.

Booker said he would speak for as long as he was physically able as he began his address at around 19:00 local time on Monday evening. He concluded at 20:06 on Tuesday.

The 55-year-old, who is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the chamber, filled some of the time reading letters from constituents, who said they had been harmed by President Trump’s policies.

The former presidential candidate also ran out the clock by discussing sports, reciting poetry and taking questions from colleagues.

Booker, who is African-American, spoke of his roots as the descendant of both slaves and slave-owners.

“I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people are more powerful,” he said, referring to segregationist Thurmond’s record-setting address 68 years ago.

As he reached the milestone, Booker said he was going to “deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling”.

He was able to give his jaw much-needed respite during the speech by taking questions from colleagues, including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

The Democratic Party, currently out of power in the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, rallied behind Booker’s symbolic act of protest.

Booker’s speech is also the longest in the Senate since a 21-hour filibuster in 2013 by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, against Obamacare.

Cruz told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that a filibuster is a challenging physical feat.

For his own protest, he wore comfortable shoes and tried to drink as little water as possible – an approach he described as “nothing in, nothing out”.

Actor Val Kilmer, who starred in some of the biggest movies of the 1980s and 90s, including Top Gun and Batman Forever, has died at the age of 65.

He also appeared in 1991’s The Doors – playing the legendary band’s frontman Jim Morrison – plus the Western Tombstone and crime drama Heat.

Kilmer died of pneumonia on Tuesday in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told US media. She said her father had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.

Tracheotomy surgery affected his voice and curtailed his acting career, but he returned to the screen to reprise his role as fighter pilot Iceman alongside Tom Cruise in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.

• Obituary: A brilliant, underrated and unpredictable film star
• Look back at Val Kilmer’s best-known roles

Paying tribute, Heat director Michael Mann said: “While working with Val on Heat I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.

“After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news,” Mann wrote on Instagram.

Francis Ford Coppola, who directed him in 2011’s Twixt, said: “Val Kilmer was the most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life.

“He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know – I will always remember him.”

“See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you,” US actor Josh Brolin wrote alongside a picture of himself and Kilmer on Instagram.

“You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those”, he added.

British actor David Thewlis, who worked with Kilmer on 1996’s ill-fated The Island of Dr Moreau, posted: “He was one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. Proud to have called him a friend and co-conspirator.”

Fellow Brit Will Kemp, who appeared in 2004 film Mindhunters with Kilmer, wrote: “So many great memories of working with him. He was fun, unpredictable, generous and overall very kind to me when I was very new to the job.”

Actor Josh Gad posted: “RIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon.”

James Woods wrote: “His rendition of Doc Holliday in Tombstone was what every actor dreams of achieving. So many wonderful performances. Sad to lose him so soon.”

Born Val Edward Kilmer on 31 December 1959, Kilmer grew up in a middle-class family in Los Angeles.

His parents were Christian Scientists, a movement to which Kilmer would adhere for the rest of his life.

Aged 17, he became the then-youngest pupil to enrol at the Julliard School, in New York, one of the world’s most prestigious drama conservatories.

He made his name in the comedies Top Secret! in 1984 and Real Genius the following year, before cementing his acting credentials as Iceman, the nemesis to Cruise’s character Maverick in 1986’s Top Gun, one of the decade’s defining movies.

Kilmer went on to star in fantasy Willow and crime thriller Kill Me Again – both alongside British actress Joanne Whalley, who he married in 1988. The couple had two children.

He further proved his dynamic and versatile talents when he convincingly portrayed rock frontman Morrison in The Doors, 20 years after the singer’s death.

Tombstone, in which Kilmer played gunfighter Doc Holliday, and Heat, in which he appeared alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, were also hits.

He took over Batman’s cape from Michael Keaton for Batman Forever in 1995, which achieved box office success but mixed reviews, and Kilmer pulled out of the next Batman movie.

In 1997, he appeared in The Saint as the master criminal and master of disguise – based on Leslie Charteris’ books, which had also inspired the 1960s TV show starring Roger Moore.

Kilmer voiced both God and Moses in animated film The Prince of Egypt, and starred as Marlon Brando’s crazed sidekick in The Island of Dr Moreau – but that film became one of Hollywood’s most notorious flops.

Its director John Frankenheimer declared he would never work again with Kilmer, who had gained a reputation for being difficult on set.

He said that reputation was because “I care very much about telling the story well”.

He played a gay private detective who teamed up with Robert Downey Jr’s petty thief in 2005’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

In 2021, Kilmer released a documentary chronicling the highs and lows of his life and career. Val, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, features 40 years of home recordings, including him speaking with a voice box post-cancer surgery.

He had continued acting, but his comeback with a cameo appearance as Iceman in the long-awaited Top Gun sequel was particularly poignant.

Cruise said at the time: “I’ve known Val for decades, and for him to come back and play that character… he’s such a powerful actor that he instantly became that character again.”

Kilmer was also an artist, often creating paintings inspired by his film roles.

Film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his role in The Doors summed up his appeal and persona.

“There was something sort of dark and troubling and sensual and kind of self-destructive about him,” she said.

“It was a quality that meant he was never just the bland Hollywood pretty boy that led so many roles. There was something else going on underneath the surface.”

US entertainment journalist KJ Matthews echoed that, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “He’s your bad boy, he’s edgy, good looking, definitely Hollywood star looks.

“And I like the way he played roles. He always played them in an unconventional, unpredictable way.

“When Val Kilmer was attached to a project, you just knew he was going to do something interesting with that character.”

Every time Donald Trump has mentioned his plan to levy massive tariffs on imports into the US, there has been a widespread assumption that they will be delayed, watered down or rowed back.

Today, he will reveal in the White House Rose Garden not just how serious he is about “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”, but effectively call time on decades of economic globalisation.

And it is still possible that he will do this by launching the equivalent of a salvo of ballistic missiles into the global trading system, with a universal tariff on all imports into the USA.

The option of a 20% universal tariff is the only way to get to some of the massive revenues of trillions of dollars claimed by some of his advisers.

World braces as Trump set to announce sweeping tariffs

In recent days, President Trump has been adamant that the tariffs will be “reciprocal” and the US will be “nicer” to its trade partners.

That doesn’t rule out wide-scale imposition of tariffs at 10 or 20%, if, for example, the US deems that Value Added Taxes are tariffs.

It is possible that countries could be very broadly bracketed into different levels of a basically universal tariff. As one G7 negotiator told me at the weekend, “it all comes down to President Trump”.

A system such as this, with equivalent global retaliation, would see the UK economy shrinking by 1%, enough to wipe out growth and lead to pressure for tax rises or spending cuts.

The total cost around the world could, according to an Aston University Business School study, be $1.4 trillion (£1.1tn), as trade is diverted, and prices rise.

• UK will take calm approach to US tariffs, PM says
• Three big unknowns ahead of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs
• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• Is Trump right when he says the US faces unfair trade?
• Six things that could get more expensive for Americans under Trump tariffs

In industry, there is some expectation that the European Union will target US tech companies. There could be quite the contrast should the UK choose not just to hold back on retaliation, but offer a significant tax cut to US big tech.

Trade wars are hard to win, and easy for everyone to lose.

A universal tariff of 20%, or its equivalent, would be a historic hit to the global trading system.

There is something bigger here, however. As the Vice President JD Vance said in a speech last month, globalisation has failed in the eyes of this administration because the idea was that “rich countries would move further up the value chain, while the poor countries made the simpler things”.

As that has not panned out, especially in the case of China, the US is moving away from this world.

If the US overplays its hand in alienating its allies today, China will be waiting. The hit to US business in Europe, for example, could be offset by cheaper electronics, clothes, and toys from the East arriving in the UK and lowering prices, diverted from the US market.

What starts later today is designed not just to reshape America, and trade, but the way the world itself has been run.

Wisconsin voters have elected a Democratic-backed judge to serve on the state supreme court, according to projections, following the most expensive judicial election in US history.

Susan Crawford is on course to beat conservative rival Brad Schimel, which would keep intact the 4-3 liberal control of the Midwestern state’s highest court.

President Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk was a prominent fundraiser in the campaign, and was the subject of Democratic attack ads. More than $100m (£77m) was spent by the candidates and their allies, including $20m by Musk.

The result is expected to have far-reaching implications, potentially even affecting the balance of power in the US Congress.

That is because the state’s supreme court is expected to play a key role in cases related to congressional redistricting ahead of midterm elections in 2026 and the next presidential election, in 2028.

With the majority of ballots tallied, Crawford had won about 54% of the vote, and Schimel had around 45%, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

Addressing the fundraising by Musk, Crawford told supporters in her victory speech: “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”

The Dane county judge was formerly a private lawyer for Planned Parenthood and she backed abortion rights during her campaign.

After giving his personal backing to Schimel, Tuesday’s result was a setback for Trump in a crucial swing state that he won by less than a percentage point during last November’s presidential election.

However, he took consolation from fellow Republicans managing to hold on to two congressional seats in Florida elections on Tuesday.

• Florida Republican defeats Democrat in US House special election

The contest was seen as a test of Musk’s powerbroking status. The SpaceX and Tesla boss travelled to the state to give out millions of dollars to voters who pledged to support conservative causes.

Musk addressed the defeat of his candidate in a post on his social media site X, writing: “I expected to lose, but there is value to losing a piece for a positional gain.”

In the city of Milwaukee, which leans Democratic, officials reported a shortage of ballots on Tuesday “due to unprecedented and historic voter turnout”, the city’s election commission said in a statement.

Wisconsin separately voted on Tuesday to enshrine into the state constitution a law requiring voters to show ID to cast their ballots.

Voters were already required to show ID, but adding it to the state constitution made it harder to change in the future. Crawford had opposed the voter ID constitutional amendment.

At an NBA game in Milwaukee on Tuesday, several voters spoke to the BBC about their concerns.

Milwaukee Bucks fan Mike McClain said he was motivated by a dislike for Musk, who he referred to as “the real president”.

“I don’t know how a billionaire, almost a trillionaire, can decide what’s going on,” he said. “You can’t even relate with common people.”

Crawford also benefited from large donations by billionaire donors, including financier George Soros, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. But Musk outspent them all.

A Schimel supporter who did want to give his name said he was supporting the conservative out of loyalty to Trump.

“We got to take it back home here and reinforce everything that Donald Trump has done,” he said.

Much of the liberal campaign focused on the role played by Musk in the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a cost-cutting taskforce that has moved to fire thousands of government workers and slash the federal payroll.

During a rally on Sunday, Musk distributed two $1m cheques to voters at a rally who signed a petition of his against “activist judges”.

Others who signed it received $100 from Musk.

On Tuesday, Musk’s political action committee added that it would pay $50 to anyone who snapped a picture of a Wisconsin resident standing outside a polling site and holding a photo of Schimel.

Musk donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump to the White House. He held similar $1m giveaways to boost the Republican president’s campaign last year.

Wisconsin’s supreme court is expected to play a key role in determining the shape of congressional districts if Democrats seek to challenge current district maps as they are widely expected to do.

Republicans currently hold six of the state’s eight seats in the US House of Representatives.

At his rally on Sunday, Musk alluded to the looming fight over congressional districts, saying the judicial race was ultimately about control of the US House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a narrow majority.

That slender margin was shored up on Tuesday in special congressional elections in Trump’s political heartland of Florida.

Republican candidates Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine held on to those ruby-red seats in races that were seen as a barometer of the political landscape ahead of next year’s Midterm elections.

The deaths of a British couple in New Zealand are being investigated as a murder-suicide, police have said.

Police said a man and a woman, who have not been named, were found after officers were asked to conduct a welfare check in Roseneath, a suburb of the capital Wellington, on Monday.

The couple is reported to have moved to New Zealand from the UK late last year.

Det Insp Haley Ryan said police were not looking for anyone else in relation to the incident, but issued an appeal for any information related to the case with them.

The UK Foreign Office said it had not been contacted about the incident.

Police said in a statement that they were “providing support to the family at the centre of this tragic event”.

“The family have requested privacy as they grieve their loss,” they added.

Police said two bodies were found after officers forced entry to a property on Palliser Road, having been asked by a concerned family member that morning to check in on them.

The couple’s neighbour, Emma Prestidge, told public broadcaster Radio New Zealand that they had moved to the area from London.

“My understanding is they’d finally packed up their lives in London, and all their stuff was in a shipping container and they were kind of looking to move here for good,” she said.

“They were in the next phase of their life, I guess, and ready to kind of set themselves up for the next part of their chapter, which is truly sad.”

Police in New Zealand urged anyone with CCTV of the area to get in contact. Det Insp Ryan earlier said the case was being referred to the coroner.

In a statement to the BBC, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We have not been approached for consular assistance in this case, but our staff stand ready to support British nationals overseas 24/7.”

The BBC has contacted the New Zealand Coroner’s Office for comment.

US Senator Cory Booker has broken the record for the longest speech ever delivered in the Senate.

The New Jersey Democrat’s marathon address, a symbolic protest against President Donald Trump, in which he warned of a “grave and urgent” moment in American history, ended after for 25 hours and four minutes.

Although it was not a filibuster – a speech designed to obstruct passage of a bill – it held up legislative business in the Republican-controlled Senate. The rules for such speeches require a speaker to remain standing and forgo bathroom breaks.

The previous record was held by Republican Senator Strom Thurmond who, when still a Democrat in 1957, spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act.

Booker said he would speak for as long as he was physically able as he began his address at around 19:00 local time on Monday evening. He concluded at 20:06 on Tuesday.

The 55-year-old, who is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the chamber, filled some of the time reading letters from constituents, who said they had been harmed by President Trump’s policies.

The former presidential candidate also ran out the clock by discussing sports, reciting poetry and taking questions from colleagues.

Booker, who is African-American, spoke of his roots as the descendant of both slaves and slave-owners.

“I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people are more powerful,” he said, referring to segregationist Thurmond’s record-setting address 68 years ago.

As he reached the milestone, Booker said he was going to “deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling”.

He was able to give his jaw much-needed respite during the speech by taking questions from colleagues, including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

The Democratic Party, currently out of power in the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, rallied behind Booker’s symbolic act of protest.

Booker’s speech is also the longest in the Senate since a 21-hour filibuster in 2013 by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, against Obamacare.

Cruz told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that a filibuster is a challenging physical feat.

For his own protest, he wore comfortable shoes and tried to drink as little water as possible – an approach he described as “nothing in, nothing out”.

Myanmar’s military opened fire at a Chinese Red Cross convoy carrying earthquake relief supplies on Tuesday night.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an armed rebel group, said that military troops shot at the convoy of nine vehicles with machine guns in eastern Shan State.

The convoy was en route to Mandalay, the hard-hit city near the epicentre of the magnitude-7.7 earthquake that struck last Friday. No injuries have been reported.

Myanmar’s junta, which said it was investigating the incident, denied shooting directly at the vehicles. It said troops fired shots into the air after the convoy did not stop, despite it being signalled to do so.

China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that its rescue team and supplies were safe, adding that it hoped “all factions and parties in Myanmar will prioritize earthquake relief efforts”.

Myanmar has been gripped by violence amid a civil war between the junta – which seized power in a 2021 coup – and ethnic militias and resistance forces across the country.

The country’s humanitarian crisis has worsened significantly after last week’s massive earthquake, which has killed more than 2,700 people, by the government’s estimate. The actual death toll is believed to be much higher.

Multiple international aid agencies and foreign governments have dispatched personnel and supplies to quake-hit regions.

A military spokesperson on Wednesday said troops saw the aid convoy coming from Naungcho township on Tuesday night, with vehicles sporting Chinese stickers and Myanmar number plates, but had not been given prior notice of the vehicles’ movement.

“When we saw the convoy, we stopped it. But they continued. We opened fire from about 200m away, but they didn’t stop,” he said.

“At about 100m away, we fired three shots in the air, after which the vehicles turned back towards Naungcho.”

China’s Blue Sky Rescue Team, which has been providing rescue support in Mandalay, had been given a security cover when they travelled through this route, the spokesperson said.

He added that when international agencies want to give aid, they need to inform the Myanmar government.

The TNLA, which was escorting the Red Cross convoy, said they had informed the military council about going to Mandalay.

After retreating to Naungcho, they would be continuing their journey, the group said in a statement.

Rebel groups have unilaterally announced a ceasefire to support earthquake relief efforts. But the military has refused to do the same.

Hours after the quake struck on Friday, the junta launched an air strike in Naungcho township that killed seven people.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has said that since ethnic armed groups were still “training in preparation for attacks”, the military would continue its “necessary defence operations”.

The UN described the airstrikes as “completely outrageous and unacceptable”.

Republicans have won a closely watched special Florida congressional election but with a much reduced majority that will make them uneasy about next year’s midterms.

Republican State Senator Randy Fine defeated Democrat Josh Weil to fill the seat that was held by National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.

The result dashes Democratic hopes of pulling what would have been a stunning upset in a district that Donald Trump carried by 30 points in last November’s presidential election.

The Republican prevailed in the other Florida special election, to fill the seat vacated by firebrand conservative Congressman Matt Gaetz.

That contest never drew the kind of national fundraising dollars, or attention, that the Fine-Weil matchup garnered.

But the narrow margin of Fine’s victory, down to around 14 points, is likely to stoke some Republican anxiety about their prospects in the national mid-term congressional elections in 2025.

Democrat Weil, a strong Gaza supporter who clashed with Fine’s anti-Palestinian stance, made waves by raising more than $12m in campaign donations, compared to the approximately $1m brought in by his opponent. That disparity, along with polls that showed a contest within the margin of error, had put this congressional race in the national spotlight.

• US House narrowly passes Trump-backed spending bill
• Trump withdraws Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be UN ambassador

It also prompted a last-minute influx of national Republican support that included telephone town halls by Trump and other prominent conservatives. Those efforts appear to have paid off, as Republican turnout climbed in the final days of early voting and in-person ballots cast by Republicans exceeded party expectations on election day.

At a polling location in the Valdosta Public Library in Daytona Beach, a steady stream of voters clad in American flag hats and Trump paraphernalia served as a vivid illustration of a last-minute surge of conservative support for Fine.

“People are getting the message that they need to turn out to vote,” said Mary Fikert, a Fine campaign volunteer stationed at a small tent in the library’s expansive parking lot. “It was embarrassing that it was so close.”

Republicans still hold only a narrow majority in the House of Representatives after Tuesday’s results, but it appears to be a sustainable margin through next year’s election, improving what would have been gloomy prospects of advancing Trump’s legislative agenda if Fine had been defeated.

Democrats may be buoyed by the relative success achieved by Weil, a public school teacher who has never held elective office. His message focused on what he characterised as the dire consequences of the White House’s efforts to slash government programmes and personnel. That resonated in the conservative region, which is populated by military veterans and retirees, although it was not enough to carry him to victory.

Even before results were announced, Democrats predicted that their progress here in Florida would be a harbinger of larger success in next year’s congressional mid-term elections. That remains to be seen.

Republicans, on the other hand, will be relieved that electoral disaster was averted, even if some candidates in more closely contested races next year face a less hospitable political climate than they enjoyed in 2024.

President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia’s highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military.

The spring call-up for a year’s military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.

That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

Vice Adm Vladimir Tsimlyansky said the new conscripts would not be sent to fight in Ukraine for what Russia calls its “special military operation”.

However, there have been reports of conscripts being killed in fighting in Russia’s border regions and they were sent to fight in Ukraine in the early months of the full-scale war.

The current draft, which takes place between April and July, comes despite US attempts to forge a ceasefire in the war.

There was no let-up in the violence on Tuesday, with Ukraine saying that a Russian attack on a power facility in the southern city of Kherson had left 45,000 people without electricity.

Although Russia has turned down a full US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine, it says it did agree to stop attacking Ukraine’s energy facilities. In an apparent attempt to deny Moscow had broken the terms of that deal, Russian officials said they had told Putin that Ukrainian drones had carried out attacks with little sign of a break.

Russia calls up conscripts in the spring and autumn but the latest draft of 160,000 young men is 10,000 higher than the same period in 2024.

Since the start of last year, the pool of young men available for the draft has been increased by raising the maximum age from 27 to 30.

As well as call-up notices delivered by post, Russia’s young men will be receiving notifications on the state services website Gosuslugi.

In Moscow there were reports that call-ups had already been sent out on 1 April via the mos.ru city website.

Increasing numbers of Russians are trying to avoid the army by taking on “alternative civilian service”. But human rights lawyer Timofey Vaskin warned on independent Russian media that every new call-up since the start of the war had become a lottery: “Authorities are coming up with new forms of refilling the army.”

Quite apart from its twice-yearly draft, Russia has also called up large numbers of men as contract soldiers and recruited thousands of soldiers from North Korea.

Moscow has had to respond to extensive losses in Ukraine, with more than 100,000 verified by the BBC and Mediazona as soldiers killed in Ukraine.

The true number could be more than double.

• Invisible losses fighting for Russia in Ukraine
• Why did Putin’s Russia invade Ukraine?

Putin has scaled up the size of the military three times since he ordered troops to capture Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s defence ministry linked the December 2023 increase in the size of the military to “growing threats” from both the war in Ukraine and the “ongoing expansion of Nato”.

Nato has expanded to include Finland and Sweden, as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Finland has Nato’s longest border with Russia, at 1,343km (834 miles) and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Tuesday that his country would join other states neighbouring Russia in pulling out of the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel mines.

Poland and the Baltic states made similar decisions two weeks ago because of the military threat from Russia.

Orpo said the decision to resume using anti-personnel mines was based on military advice, and that the people of Finland had nothing to worry about.

The government in Helsinki also said defence spending would be increased to 3% of economic output (GDP), up from 2.4% last year.

Deadly Israeli air strikes have been reported in Gaza, as Israel’s defence minister said its military would expand its offensive and seize large areas of the Palestinian territory – incorporating them into what he described as “security zones”.

Israel Katz said the expanded operation aimed to “destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”, and would require a large-scale evacuation of Palestinians.

Later, at least 19 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed in a strike on a UN clinic sheltering displaced families in the northern town of Jabalia, the nearby Indonesian hospital said.

The Israeli military said it targeted “Hamas terrorists” hiding there.

Overnight strikes across Gaza killed at least 20 more people, according to local hospitals.

The Civil Defence said its first responders recovered the bodies of 12 people, including children and women, from a home in the southern Khan Younis area.

Rida al-Jabbour said a neighbour and her three-month-old baby were among the dead.

“From the moment the strike occurred we have not been able to sit or sleep or anything,” she told Reuters news agency.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

The Civil Defence said the strike in Jabalia later on Wednesday hit two rooms in a clinic run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) which was being used as a shelter.

Video verified by the BBC showed dozens of people and ambulances rushing to the building. Smoke was seen billowing from a wing where two floors appeared to have collapsed.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it targeted Hamas operatives who were “hiding inside a command-and-control centre that was being used for co-ordinating terrorist activity and served as a central meeting point”.

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of aerial surveillance and additional intelligence,” it added.

A spokeswoman for Unrwa told the Associated Press that one of the agency’s buildings had been hit, but that she had no further details on casualties or what the building was being used as.

There were also reports of extensive Israeli air strikes and shelling along the Egypt border overnight and there is a growing sense that a new major Israeli ground offensive is looming in Gaza.

Israeli Army Radio said on Wednesday that Israeli tanks and ground forces had begun to advance into central and eastern parts of the southernmost city of Rafah.

This week, Israel’s military ordered an estimated 140,000 people in Rafah to leave their homes and issued new evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza.

Israel has already significantly expanded a buffer zone around the edge of Gaza over the course of the war, and seized control of a corridor of land cutting through its centre.

Israel launched its renewed Gaza offensive on 18 March, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal to extend the ceasefire and free the 59 hostages still held captive in Gaza.

Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of violating the original deal they had agreed to in January.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel, which represents many hostages’ relatives, said they were “horrified to wake up” to the news of the expanded military operation.

The group urged the Israeli government to prioritise securing the release of all hostages still held in Gaza.

In his statement announcing plans to seize more territory, Katz also urged Gazans to act to remove Hamas and free remaining Israeli hostages, without suggesting how they should do so.

The humanitarian situation across Gaza has dramatically worsened in recent weeks, with Israel refusing to allow aid into the Gaza Strip since 2 March – the longest aid blockage since the war began.

Last month the UN announced it was reducing its operations in Gaza, one day after eight Palestinian medics, six Civil Defence first responders and a UN staff member were killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 50,399 people have been killed in Gaza during the ensuing war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

On Tuesday morning, Rajesh Nayak stepped outside the firecracker warehouse in India’s Gujarat state where he worked to drink water.

Some moments later, an explosion ripped through the building, killing 21 people, including Mr Nayak’s brother.

“Some of my other relatives have also died. I had come to work here only from Sunday,” a distraught Nayak, who is in hospital with minor injuries, said.

Most of the victims were from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh state and had recently come to work at the warehouse, located in an industrial estate in Banaskantha district in Gujarat.

Their families lived in huts close to the building and some of them were also killed from the force of the explosion. Banaskantha District Collector Mihir Patel told BBC Gujarati that the victims included four women and three children.

It’s not clear yet what caused the explosion, but officials are investigating if firecrackers were being manufactured illegally at the warehouse.

“Primary information has been received that the explosion took place when firecrackers were being made here,” said Mr Patel, the collector.

India has strict rules around firecracker production but these are often not enforced strongly on the ground. Accidents are regularly reported, especially at illegal factories.

The incident in Gujarat came a day after eight people were killed in an explosion at an illegal firecracker factory hundreds of miles away in West Bengal state.

Police in Gujarat have arrested two men, owners of the warehouse, in connection with the explosion and are searching for one more person. A special investigation team has been set up to look into the incident.

Banaskantha district police chief Akshay Raj Makwana said a preliminary investigation showed that aluminium powder was stored in the building.

“This powder is non-explosive but flammable and easily available in the market. We are investigating the supply chain and how the accused sourced such material,” said Mr Makwana.

Mr Patel told reporters that the building had been registered as a warehouse for storing firecrackers, but its licence had expired in December. When a team went to inspect the area in March, he said, the building was empty.

When BBC Gujarati reached the area on Tuesday, the air smelt strongly of sulphur.

The explosion caused extensive damage, destroying the warehouse and a wall of the adjacent factory. Large concrete slabs were thrown up to 300ft away.

Mr Makwana, the police chief, said a slab in the building collapsed, trapping workers underneath.

The powerful blast also destroyed surrounding huts and killed some family members of the workers.

A sanitation worker told BBC Gujarati that he carried out four bodies on stretchers from the site. “My heart sank when I saw a child’s body,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is from Gujarat, has expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and announced financial assistance.