The International Monetary Fund has warned that Donald Trump’s implementation of swingeing tariffs poses a “significant risk” to the global economy, as stock markets continue to be hit by a worldwide sell-off by investors.

Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, said it was important that the US and its trading partners avoided further escalating Trump’s trade war, while markets in Asia and Australia experienced further declines on Friday.

“We are still assessing the macroeconomic implications of the announced tariff measures, but they clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth,” Georgieva said. “It is important to avoid steps that could further harm the world economy. We appeal to the United States and its trading partners to work constructively to resolve trade tensions and reduce uncertainty.”

The US president’s “liberation day” tariff policies, which have resulted in sweeping border taxes of between 10% and 50% imposed on almost every nation, wiped more than $2.5tn (£1.9tn) off Wall Street stocks and share prices in other financial centres across the globe on Thursday.

The sell-off continued into Friday, with Asian and European markets falling. Japan’s Nikkei index fell almost 3% on Friday, ending the week down 9%, while Tokyo’s Topix was down 4.5%. South Korea’s Kospi closed down 1.3%.

In London, the FTSE 100 – which fell by 1.5% on Thursday in its worst day since last August – tumbled another 99 points, or 1.17%, to 8,375 points, the lowest since mid-January. Banking stocks were among the heavier fallers, with the Asia-focused Standard Chartered dropping by about 4%.

Elsewhere in Europe, the French Cac 40 index was 0.68% lower and the German Dax fell 0.71%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 2.2% amid fears of a global recession after Trump’s announcement of Washington’s steepest trade barriers in more than 100 years.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell by 3.8% on Friday, down to $67.48 a barrel. That is the lowest level since early December 2021.

Futures prices indicate that the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones will drop by 0.7% when trading resumes in New York, while the Nasdaq is expected to open down 0.5%.

Derren Nathan, the head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Despite months of sabre-rattling by Donald Trump, markets appear to have been unprepared for the depth and breadth of tariffs announced by the White House.

“The tech-heavy Nasdaq saw the worst of it, falling nearly 6%, but there were hefty drops among the banks, industrials and energy sectors. Traditional defensive havens offered some refuge, with gains seen in consumer staples and utilities.”

Shares in Indian pharmaceutical companies also slumped after Trump said that US tariffs on drugmakers were still under consideration. The NSE Nifty Pharma index fell more than 6% on Friday.

Pharmaceutical companies had experienced a boost on Thursday as the sector was believed to have been exempted from the US import duties.

In the UK, a Treasury minister said the government was “negotiating intensively” and “at pace” to secure a deal with the US. The government is also consulting on possible retaliatory action.

The exchequer secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, told Sky News: “The next stage of engagement is to ask [for companies’] input about what possible measures would look like in terms of the UK response because we want to involve businesses in that decision, and we need to be clear that we keep all options on the table … We reserve the right to retaliate but we want a deal, and our full focus is on that.”

Bond prices have jumped across Europe and the US amid fears over global economic growth.

UK government bonds – seen as a safe haven asset – increased in value, sending the yield, or effective interest rate, plummeting. The two-year UK government bond yield fell to its lowest level since last September, 0.29 percentage points lower than when US tariffs were announced. The 10-year gilt was 0.1% lower, taking it to the lowest level since February.

The falls will ease the pressure on the UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who announced cuts to welfare spending in the spring statement largely to cover an increase in borrowing costs earlier this year.

Traders also ramped up their bets on cuts to UK interest rates. The money markets now expect about 74 basis points of cuts by the Bank of England this year. That shows that three more quarter-point rate cuts are almost fully priced in.

A cut, from the current level of 4.5%, at the Bank’s next rate-setting meeting in early May is now an 86% chance, up from about 75% on Thursday.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that Donald Trump’s implementation of swingeing tariffs poses a “significant risk” to the global economy, as stock markets continue to be hit by a worldwide sell-off by investors.

Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, said it was important that the US and its trading partners avoided further escalating Trump’s trade war, while markets in Asia and Australia experienced further declines on Friday.

“We are still assessing the macroeconomic implications of the announced tariff measures, but they clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth,” Georgieva said. “It is important to avoid steps that could further harm the world economy. We appeal to the United States and its trading partners to work constructively to resolve trade tensions and reduce uncertainty.”

The US president’s “liberation day” tariff policies, which have resulted in sweeping border taxes of between 10% and 50% imposed on almost every nation, wiped more than $2.5tn (£1.9tn) off Wall Street stocks and share prices in other financial centres across the globe on Thursday.

The sell-off continued into Friday, with Asian and European markets falling. Japan’s Nikkei index fell almost 3% on Friday, ending the week down 9%, while Tokyo’s Topix was down 4.5%. South Korea’s Kospi closed down 1.3%.

In London, the FTSE 100 – which fell by 1.5% on Thursday in its worst day since last August – tumbled another 99 points, or 1.17%, to 8,375 points, the lowest since mid-January. Banking stocks were among the heavier fallers, with the Asia-focused Standard Chartered dropping by about 4%.

Elsewhere in Europe, the French Cac 40 index was 0.68% lower and the German Dax fell 0.71%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 2.2% amid fears of a global recession after Trump’s announcement of Washington’s steepest trade barriers in more than 100 years.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell by 3.8% on Friday, down to $67.48 a barrel. That is the lowest level since early December 2021.

Futures prices indicate that the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones will drop by 0.7% when trading resumes in New York, while the Nasdaq is expected to open down 0.5%.

Derren Nathan, the head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Despite months of sabre-rattling by Donald Trump, markets appear to have been unprepared for the depth and breadth of tariffs announced by the White House.

“The tech-heavy Nasdaq saw the worst of it, falling nearly 6%, but there were hefty drops among the banks, industrials and energy sectors. Traditional defensive havens offered some refuge, with gains seen in consumer staples and utilities.”

Shares in Indian pharmaceutical companies also slumped after Trump said that US tariffs on drugmakers were still under consideration. The NSE Nifty Pharma index fell more than 6% on Friday.

Pharmaceutical companies had experienced a boost on Thursday as the sector was believed to have been exempted from the US import duties.

In the UK, a Treasury minister said the government was “negotiating intensively” and “at pace” to secure a deal with the US. The government is also consulting on possible retaliatory action.

The exchequer secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, told Sky News: “The next stage of engagement is to ask [for companies’] input about what possible measures would look like in terms of the UK response because we want to involve businesses in that decision, and we need to be clear that we keep all options on the table … We reserve the right to retaliate but we want a deal, and our full focus is on that.”

Bond prices have jumped across Europe and the US amid fears over global economic growth.

UK government bonds – seen as a safe haven asset – increased in value, sending the yield, or effective interest rate, plummeting. The two-year UK government bond yield fell to its lowest level since last September, 0.29 percentage points lower than when US tariffs were announced. The 10-year gilt was 0.1% lower, taking it to the lowest level since February.

The falls will ease the pressure on the UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who announced cuts to welfare spending in the spring statement largely to cover an increase in borrowing costs earlier this year.

Traders also ramped up their bets on cuts to UK interest rates. The money markets now expect about 74 basis points of cuts by the Bank of England this year. That shows that three more quarter-point rate cuts are almost fully priced in.

A cut, from the current level of 4.5%, at the Bank’s next rate-setting meeting in early May is now an 86% chance, up from about 75% on Thursday.

South Korea’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been removed from office after the country’s constitutional court voted unanimously to uphold parliament’s decision to impeach him over his ill-fated declaration of martial law in December.

After weeks of deliberations and growing concerns about the future of South Korea’s democracy, all eight justices voted to strip Yoon of his presidential powers.

The ruling means that the acting president, Han Duck-soo, will remain in office until South Koreans elect a new leader within 60 days.

Han vowed to ensure “there are no gaps in national security and diplomacy” and to maintain public safety and order until the vote.

“Respecting the will of our sovereign people, I will do my utmost to manage the next presidential election in accordance with the constitution and the law, ensuring a smooth transition to the next administration,” he said in a televised address.

In a written message to the country’s “beloved citizens” following his removal from office, Yoon said it had been “a great honour” to serve as president.

“I deeply thank all of you who have supported and encouraged me despite my many shortcomings,” he said. “I am very sorry and regretful that I could not live up to your expectations. I will always pray for our beloved Republic of Korea and its citizens.”

While anti-Yoon protesters celebrated the court’s decision – many of them in tears – media reports said some of his supporters had starting damaging police vehicles near the court building.

In the court ruling, broadcast live, the acting chief justice, Moon Hyung-bae, said the decision had been unanimous. “We hereby pronounce the following ruling, with the unanimous agreement of all Justices.“(We) dismiss respondent President Yoon Suk Yeol.”

As crowds outside hung onto his every word, Moon said Yoon had violated his duty as president by taking actions that were beyond the powers granted to him under the constitution. Yoon’s actions, he added, had constituted a serious challenge to democracy.

“(Yoon) committed a grave betrayal of the trust of the people, who are the sovereign members of the democratic republic,” Moon said, adding by declaring martial law, Yoon had created chaos in all areas of society, the economy and foreign policy.

Moon said: “The defendant not only declared martial law, but also violated the constitution and laws by mobilizing military and police forces to obstruct the exercise of legislative authority. Ultimately, the declaration of martial law in this case violated the substantive requirements for emergency martial law.

“Given the grave negative impact on constitutional order and the significant ripple effects of the defendant’s violations, we find that the benefits of upholding the constitution by removing the defendant from office far outweigh the national losses from the removal of a president.”

Yoon, who was not in court for the ruling, cannot appeal and must now turn his attention to a separate criminal trial – linked to his martial law declaration – on charges of insurrection.

His ruling party said it “solemnly accepts” the constitutional court’s decision. “It is regrettable, but the People Power party solemnly accepts and humbly respects the constitutional court’s decision,” lawmaker Kwon Young-se said. “We extend our sincere apologies to the people.”

One of Yoon’s lawyers, Yoon Kap-keun, remained defiant, however, describing the judgement as “completely incomprehensible” and a “purely political decision”.

The long-awaited decision on Yoon’s late-night order to impose martial law in early December has exposed deep divisions in South Korean society and alarmed the US and other allies.

His opponents and supporters have held large rallies in recent days, although an unprecedented police presence meant protesters were unable to access the immediate vicinity of the court building on Friday. Reports said that 14,000 police officers had been deployed in the capital in anticipation of possible violence, irrespective of which way the court ruled.

Yoon’s supporters and lawyers argued that the impeachment proceedings were illegal and that he should be immediately returned to office, three years after the conservative populist was voted to lead Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.

A Gallup Korea poll released last week showed 60% of South Koreans said he should be permanently removed from office. His opponents have accused the former prosecutor of abusing his presidential powers in an attempt to suspend democratic institutions and take the country back into its dark authoritarian past.

The opposition-controlled national assembly voted to impeach Yoon in mid-December, a fortnight after he imposed martial law in an attempt, he claimed, to prevent “anti-state” opposition forces with North Korean sympathies from destroying the country.

Yoon was forced to lift the edict after only six hours, however, after lawmakers defied efforts by security forces to seal off parliament and voted to reject it. Yoon has claimed he never intended to fully impose emergency military rule and has tried to downplay the chaos, pointing out that no one was killed or injured.

Yoon became the second South Korean president to be removed from office through impeachment after Park Geun-hye in 2017. If found guilty in his criminal trial, he faces life imprisonment or the death penalty, although South Korea has not carried out an execution since the late 1990s.

Top congressional Democrats on Thursday protested against the reported firing of Gen Tim Haugh as director of the National Security Agency (NSA), with one lawmaker saying the decision “makes all of us less safe”.

The Washington Post reported late Thursday that Haugh and his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, had been dismissed from their roles. Haugh also headed US Cyber Command, which coordinates the Pentagon’s cybersecurity operations. The Post report cited two current US officials and one former US official who requested anonymity.

Senator Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said in a statement: “General Haugh has served our country in uniform, with honor and distinction, for more than 30 years. At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyber threats … how does firing him make Americans any safer?”

Representative Jim Himes, the ranking member on the House intelligence committee, said he was “deeply disturbed by the decision”.

“I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first – I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this administration,” Himes added. “The intelligence committee and the American people need an immediate explanation for this decision, which makes all of us less safe.”

Earlier on Thursday, President Donald Trump said he had fired “some” White House National Security Council officials, a move that came a day after far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns directly to him about staff loyalty.

Loomer, during her Oval Office conversation with Trump, urged the president to purge staffers she deemed insufficiently loyal to his “Make America Great Again” agenda, according to several people familiar with the matter. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel manner.

“Always we’re letting go of people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he made his way to Miami on Thursday afternoon. “People that we don’t like or people that we don’t think can do the job or people that may have loyalties to somebody else.”

The firings come as Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz continues to fight calls for his ouster after using the publicly available encrypted Signal app to discuss planning for the sensitive 15 March military operation targeting Houthi militants in Yemen.

Warner said on Thursday night, “It is astonishing, too, that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the National Security Agency while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app – even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office.”

Haugh met last month with Elon Musk, whose “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, has roiled the federal government by slashing personnel and budgets at dozens of agencies. In a statement, the NSA said the meeting was intended to ensure both organizations were “aligned” with the new administration’s priorities.

Haugh had led both the NSA and Cyber Command since 2023. Both departments play leading roles in the nation’s cybersecurity. The NSA also supports the military and other national security agencies by collecting and analysing a vast amount of data and information globally.

Cyber Command is known as America’s first line of defence in cyberspace and also plans offensive cyberoperations for potential use against adversaries. Defence secretary Pete Hegseth recently ordered the office to pause some offensive cyberoperations against Russia, in another sign of how Trump’s administration is transforming the work of the nation’s intelligence community.

Party tricks are second nature to Chanel Tapper, who has long wielded the Guinness World Records title for woman with the globe’s longest tongue.

The California native can easily use the 3.8in (9.75cm) organ to remove Jenga blocks from a stack. She can flip red plastic cups with it; touch the tip of her nose as well as under her chin; and raise a spoon by curling it around the utensil.

But nothing quite beats showing her tongue to people and watching them shriek in terror as they realize it is longer than a medium-sized lightbulb – or a credit card.

“Honestly, the best reaction I could ever get when someone sees my tongue is screaming,” Tapper, 34, said recently in an interview published on the Guinness World Records website. “People yell or scream in shock, or horror sometimes, [and] that’s probably my favorite because it’s funny to me because it’s a dramatic response.”

Tapper’s comments to the organization whose database of 40,000 records is a constant source of public fascination came about two decades after acquaintances first clued her into her uniquely prodigious tongue.

She once recounted how she was about 11 when she got into the habit of teasing people around her by sticking her tongue out, and the common reaction was for them to comment on its length. Then, about a couple of years later, she achieved early internet virality after YouTube users spotted her sticking her tongue out on a video and became transfixed by its elongation.

Guinness World Records finally invited her to an event in Los Angeles in 2010 to measure her tongue and see if she merited a spot in the organization’s database. She closely beat two other competitors for the distinction, surpassing the average tongue length for women by about 1.9cm (roughly three-fourths of an inch) – and for men by some 1.2cm (a half-inch or so).

Tapper’s record still stood as of her 31 March interview with Guinness. Even though more than one online commenter has compared her to the slimy-tongued, fictional Marvel Comics villain Venom, she said she held the mark dearly.

“I like little fun, silly things like that,” Tapper said.

Furthermore, the recognition had given her the chance to travel internationally.

One such trip involved visiting the fashion capital Milan and being photographed with her tongue painted blue and green in photos for the Welcome Successful Living campaign from the Italian brand Diesel. Other Guinness World Record holders participated in the campaign, too.

“It’s fun – I get to see the parts of the world I’ve never seen before,” Tapper said.

People on the Aegean islands, more used in April to the sight and scent of spring’s blossoms, have been left reeling from flash floods spurred by typhoon-strength gales, with authorities calling a state of emergency in some of Greece’s most popular destinations less than three weeks before Easter.

“It’s a total catastrophe and it happened in just two hours,” said Costas Bizas, the mayor of Paros, the island worst hit by weather not seen in decades. “We need all the help we can get.”

On Paros and Mykonos, two of the country’s most visited islands, officials were racing against the clock to complete clean-up operations before the arrival of tourists for the Easter break.

Scrambling to address the chaos after the area’s heaviest rainfall in 20 years, emergency crews on the Cycladic islands and farther south in Rhodes and Crete reported “apocalyptic” scenes. In Paros, people saw cars, motorcycles and beachside restaurant furniture hurtling into the sea as torrential rain flooded shops and homes and turned streets into debris-filled streams. The picturesque port of Naoussa was transformed into a “lake of mud”, local people said, with the sea and land “becoming one”. Large parts of the road network were devastated.

In Mykonos, another hotspot expected to attract thousands of visitors at Easter, hailstorms triggered landslides, with muddy flood waters cascading through its white-washed alleys. Civil protection services urged residents to restrict their movements and stay indoors. In Crete’s port town of Chania, officials spoke of “biblical destruction” as images of flooded streets, hospitals and courthouses also emerged.

Schools on several islands were closed, and inhabitants were still picking their way through silt-strewn streets on Thursday.

Meteorologists said more rain was dumped on Paros over the course of a couple of hours on Tuesday than would normally fall in an entire month. “It’s incredible, really, that there were no casualties,” said one official.

Climate breakdown is causing extreme rainfall to become more common and more intense across most of the world, and flooding has most probably become more frequent and severe in these locations as a result.

But the devastation at tourist destinations that, thanks to the rise in global travel, increasingly draw record numbers has also highlighted Greece’s lack of preparedness in dealing with natural disasters.

Critics have singled out the absence of proper flood management systems, as well as unregulated development on the Aegean islands, which have attracted ever more visitors seeking villas, swimming pools and other high-end services.

“Yes, the rainfall was intense but what turned it into a disaster wasn’t just nature; it was the result of decades of unsustainable construction,” wrote the Greek environmentalist and former MEP Kriton Arsenis.

“Paros has been overbuilt at a dramatic pace. In the past five years alone, it has topped the Cyclades in new building permits, surpassing even Mykonos and Santorini. Villas, hotels, roads and swimming pools have replaced the dry-stone terraces that once held water, slowed down runoff and kept the soil alive.”

In the effort to construct and to cater to ever more tourists, natural gullies had been cemented over, he said. “They no longer hold or filter water. They simply accelerate it – pushing it downhill with force, until it floods homes, or is lost to the sea.”

It was critical, he said, that a way was found in such heavily built environments to absorb, store and release rainwater slowly. “This wasn’t just a flood. It was a failure of planning … [and] this same story is unfolding all along the Mediterranean coast.”

At a time when anger over the impoverished state of public services has also prompted some of the largest protests in years – with hundreds of thousands of Greeks taking to the streets in fury on the second anniversary of the Tempe rail disaster – others bemoaned the lack of state funding on islands whose populations dwindled drastically in winter.

“Not enough money, clearly, is put into civil protection,” said Mykonos’s former mayor Konstantinos Koukas. “To fix that, funds have to stop being allocated based on the permanent population of a place. It’s why we have the scenes we see today, clearing up after a storm when Easter is just a few weeks away.”

The prominent commentator Nikos Syrigos, who hails from the Cycladic isle of Syros, said that despite tourism being the engine of Greece’s economy, the underdevelopment of its islands meant destinations that were “giants in the summer” became “dwarfs in the winter”.

“Streets that have been turned into streams [by this storm] will be turned into them again,” he said this week. “Unfortunately, the Cyclades have remained years behind when it comes to infrastructure and are completely ill-prepared to withstand any intense [weather] phenomenon, much less any that is extreme.”

People on the Aegean islands, more used in April to the sight and scent of spring’s blossoms, have been left reeling from flash floods spurred by typhoon-strength gales, with authorities calling a state of emergency in some of Greece’s most popular destinations less than three weeks before Easter.

“It’s a total catastrophe and it happened in just two hours,” said Costas Bizas, the mayor of Paros, the island worst hit by weather not seen in decades. “We need all the help we can get.”

On Paros and Mykonos, two of the country’s most visited islands, officials were racing against the clock to complete clean-up operations before the arrival of tourists for the Easter break.

Scrambling to address the chaos after the area’s heaviest rainfall in 20 years, emergency crews on the Cycladic islands and farther south in Rhodes and Crete reported “apocalyptic” scenes. In Paros, people saw cars, motorcycles and beachside restaurant furniture hurtling into the sea as torrential rain flooded shops and homes and turned streets into debris-filled streams. The picturesque port of Naoussa was transformed into a “lake of mud”, local people said, with the sea and land “becoming one”. Large parts of the road network were devastated.

In Mykonos, another hotspot expected to attract thousands of visitors at Easter, hailstorms triggered landslides, with muddy flood waters cascading through its white-washed alleys. Civil protection services urged residents to restrict their movements and stay indoors. In Crete’s port town of Chania, officials spoke of “biblical destruction” as images of flooded streets, hospitals and courthouses also emerged.

Schools on several islands were closed, and inhabitants were still picking their way through silt-strewn streets on Thursday.

Meteorologists said more rain was dumped on Paros over the course of a couple of hours on Tuesday than would normally fall in an entire month. “It’s incredible, really, that there were no casualties,” said one official.

Climate breakdown is causing extreme rainfall to become more common and more intense across most of the world, and flooding has most probably become more frequent and severe in these locations as a result.

But the devastation at tourist destinations that, thanks to the rise in global travel, increasingly draw record numbers has also highlighted Greece’s lack of preparedness in dealing with natural disasters.

Critics have singled out the absence of proper flood management systems, as well as unregulated development on the Aegean islands, which have attracted ever more visitors seeking villas, swimming pools and other high-end services.

“Yes, the rainfall was intense but what turned it into a disaster wasn’t just nature; it was the result of decades of unsustainable construction,” wrote the Greek environmentalist and former MEP Kriton Arsenis.

“Paros has been overbuilt at a dramatic pace. In the past five years alone, it has topped the Cyclades in new building permits, surpassing even Mykonos and Santorini. Villas, hotels, roads and swimming pools have replaced the dry-stone terraces that once held water, slowed down runoff and kept the soil alive.”

In the effort to construct and to cater to ever more tourists, natural gullies had been cemented over, he said. “They no longer hold or filter water. They simply accelerate it – pushing it downhill with force, until it floods homes, or is lost to the sea.”

It was critical, he said, that a way was found in such heavily built environments to absorb, store and release rainwater slowly. “This wasn’t just a flood. It was a failure of planning … [and] this same story is unfolding all along the Mediterranean coast.”

At a time when anger over the impoverished state of public services has also prompted some of the largest protests in years – with hundreds of thousands of Greeks taking to the streets in fury on the second anniversary of the Tempe rail disaster – others bemoaned the lack of state funding on islands whose populations dwindled drastically in winter.

“Not enough money, clearly, is put into civil protection,” said Mykonos’s former mayor Konstantinos Koukas. “To fix that, funds have to stop being allocated based on the permanent population of a place. It’s why we have the scenes we see today, clearing up after a storm when Easter is just a few weeks away.”

The prominent commentator Nikos Syrigos, who hails from the Cycladic isle of Syros, said that despite tourism being the engine of Greece’s economy, the underdevelopment of its islands meant destinations that were “giants in the summer” became “dwarfs in the winter”.

“Streets that have been turned into streams [by this storm] will be turned into them again,” he said this week. “Unfortunately, the Cyclades have remained years behind when it comes to infrastructure and are completely ill-prepared to withstand any intense [weather] phenomenon, much less any that is extreme.”

An Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in Gaza City has killed at least 27 people, rescuers said, and hundreds of thousands in the Rafah area are fleeing in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war amid Israel’s newly announced campaign to “divide up” the Gaza Strip.

Three missiles hit Dar al-Arqam school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon, the civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said, killing several children and wounding 100 people.

The building was being used as a shelter for Palestinians displaced from their homes. In a statement, the Israeli military said it had taken precautions to avoid civilian casualties in the bombing of what it described as a control centre for the militant group Hamas.

Another 20 people were killed in a dawn airstrike on the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, bringing the total number of casualties reported by the local health ministry to 97 in the past 24 hours.

The intense wave of Israeli bombing comes amid a major expansion of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) aerial and ground operations in the besieged Palestinian territory following Israel’s decision to abandon a two-month-old ceasefire two weeks ago.

The Israeli military said on Thursday it had struck more than 600 “terror targets” across the strip since resuming large-scale airstrikes on 18 March. Gaza’s health ministry, which the UN relies on for casualty data, says 1,163 people have been killed in bombings since the ceasefire collapsed.

On Wednesday, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the army was “seizing territory” and “dividing up” Gaza. Israel has cut off humanitarian aid, food and fuel to the strip for over a month in an effort to pressure Hamas.

He did not elaborate on how much Palestinian land Israel intended to capture in the renewed offensive, but according to Ocha, the UN humanitarian agency, the IDF has declared 64% of the territory military buffer zones and “no-go” zones for civilians.

Netanyahu’s latest announcement has renewed fears of permanent displacement for the strip’s 2.3 million residents. It is also likely to inflame worries that Israel intends to permanently take control of the territory.

On Thursday, local media footage showed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing the southern city of Rafah and surrounding areas, as Israeli ground troops advanced to create Netanyahu’s newly announced security corridor. Movement was impeded, however, by at least three Israeli strikes on the two main roads leading north.

The “Morag route” is named for a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, suggesting the new military zone will separate the two southern cities in the same manner as Israel’s Netzarim corridor, just south of Gaza City.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in which Israel says 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, were killed and a further 250 taken captive. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 50,357 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Efforts led by Qatari and Egyptian mediators to restart ceasefire talks have so far failed.

Indian police said on Thursday they had arrested a US tourist who sneaked on to a highly restricted island carrying a coconut and a can of Diet Coke to a tribe untouched by the industrial world.

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel – part of India’s Andaman Islands – in an attempt to meet the Sentinelese people, who are believed to number only about 150.

All outsiders, Indians and foreigners alike, are banned from travelling within 3 miles (5km) of the island to protect the Indigenous people from outside diseases and to preserve their way of life.

“The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation,” the Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief, HGS Dhaliwal, told AFP.

Satellite photographs show a coral reef-fringed island – stretching to some 6 miles at its widest point – with thick forest and white sand beaches.

The Sentinelese last made international headlines in 2018 after they killed John Allen Chau, 27, an American missionary who landed illegally on their beach.

Chau’s body was not recovered and there were no investigations over his death because of the Indian law prohibiting anyone from going to the island.

India sees the wider Andaman and Nicobar Islands as strategically sited on key global shipping lanes. They are closer to Myanmar than mainland India.

New Delhi plans to invest at least $9bn (£6.7bn) to expand naval and airbases, troop accommodation, the port and the main city in the region.

Dhaliwal said Polyakov kept blowing a whistle off the shore of North Sentinel Island for about an hour to attract the tribe’s attention before he went ashore.

“He landed briefly for about five minutes, left the offerings on the shore, collected sand samples, and recorded a video before returning to his boat,” Dhaliwal said. “A review of his GoPro camera footage showed his entry and landing into the restricted North Sentinel Island.”

Police said Polyakov was arrested late on Monday, about two days after he went ashore, and had visited the region twice in recent months.

He first used an inflatable kayak in October 2024 but was stopped by hotel staff, police said on Thursday. Polyakov made another unsuccessful attempt during a visit in January 2025.

This time Polyakov used another inflatable boat with a motor to travel the roughly 35 kilometres (22 miles) of open sea from the main archipelago.

The Sentinelese, whose language and customs remain a mystery to outsiders, shun all contact and have a record of hostility to anyone who tries to get close.

A photograph issued by the Indian coastguard and Survival International two decades ago showed a Sentinelese man aiming a bow and arrow at a passing helicopter.

Indian authorities have prosecuted any locals who have aided attempts to enter the island and are trying to identify anyone who may have helped Polyakov.

The Andamans are also home to the 400-strong Jarawa tribe, who activists say are also threatened by contact from outsiders. Tourists have previously bribed local officials in an attempt to spend time with the Jarawa.

The privy council in London will soon be called upon to make the final decision on a court case to remove homophobic laws in Trinidad and Tobago.

The laws were repealed in 2018 in a high court judgment that struck from the statute book the “buggery law” that had criminalised consensual anal sex since an act passed in 1925 under British rule. However, last week Trinidad’s supreme court upheld a government appeal against the ruling and recriminalised the act, dealing a hammer blow to LGBTQ+ rights in the Caribbean country and prompting the UK Foreign Office to update its advice for LGBTQ+ travellers.

The 2018 case was brought by Jason Jones, an LGBTQ+ activist. This week he said he would continue the fight before the privy council – Trinidad’s final court of appeal. Central to his argument will be the controversial “savings clause”, which former British empire jurisdictions such as Trinidad can revert to whenever a challenge is made to their constitution.

“This backwards step revolves around the savings clause, which was designed as an instrument for the smooth transition of power upon independence in 1962 to protect the laws we had for hundreds of years. That clause is now being used against democracy in our country,” said Jones.

Jones argues that because Trinidad and Tobago altered its sexual offences legislation three times – in 1976 when it became a republic, in 1986, and in 2000 – the law can no longer be classified as “saved”.

“These are Trinidadian laws,” he said. “Parliament is hiding its homophobic bigotry behind an archaic clause that serves no useful purpose in a modern democratic country.”

The mood among Trinidad’s LGBTQ+ people is a far cry from their tears of joy on the steps of Port of Spain’s Hall of Justice seven years ago. Back then, the judge Devindra Rampersad delivered a poetic ruling that swept away nearly a century of discrimination enshrined in law.

“This is a case about the dignity of the person, not the will of the majority or any religious view,” Rampersad said at the time. “History has proven that the two do not always coincide.”

For the law to be constitutional, he added, every Trinidadian must be free “to make decisions as to whom he or she loves”.

In contrast, the weighty 196-page report from which the appeal judge Nolan Bereaux read in overturning Jones v AG was clinical, claiming, “Judges cannot change the law. We give effect to parliament’s intention. Buggery remains a crime in Trinidad and Tobago.”

The judgment reverted to a familiar trope that the law is never actually enforced in practice. “No one has been charged or punished … for engaging in consensual anal sex in the privacy of his or her home,” it said.

But LGBTQ+ activists say enforcement is not the point. Jones’s victory was achieved on the grounds that the law denied him his human rights and right to privacy.

The cofounder of Pride TT, Kennedy Maraj, described last week’s ruling as a devastating setback and a betrayal by the justice system. “It tells LGBTQ+ individuals their very existence remains subject to legal scrutiny, that progress is fragile and that hard-won rights can be overturned,” Maraj said.

Patrick Lee Loy came out to his family at 30. As one of few openly gay Trinidadian men, he said he felt “shocked and angry that, as a community, we will not be free to express who we love”.

Although Trinidad is notoriously hedonistic – its exuberance plain to see at carnival where hundreds of thousands of straight, gay, lesbian and trans Trinidadians parade the streets wearing next to nothing – the undercurrent of religious piety and even extremism that runs through its Catholic, Hindu, Anglican, Muslim and evangelical traditionalists heavily influences opinions on sexual freedom.

Whether it is safe to be gay in Trinidad is a complex question – more so than in Jamaica, where the answer is an outright no. Away from the more liberal confines of the capital, there are many communities where to be gay puts you in danger.

“I know a few gay men who were murdered,” said Loy. “The crimes were never solved. In one instance, the family did not push for an investigation in case it brought up too many ghosts.

“I have friends who only meet at their home. When we go out to a restaurant or bar, they will not come. They fear for their jobs, families and status. Now that people feel the government will not protect its citizens, some may feel it is easier to target us.”

Jones’s 2018 case triggered a wave of similar cases across the Commonwealth, including in India where homosexuality was decriminalised just months after Trinidad. A new progressive era appeared to have dawned in the global south.

In Trinidad, however, the government immediately appealed against the decision – a move designed to reassure its religious, socially conservative electorate. Backlogs delayed the case, which has taken seven years to be heard by the country’s highest court.

The ruling echoed sentiments in a similar case thrown out by Jamaica’s supreme court in 2023 that such matters were for parliament to decide.

If the privy council rules in favour of Trinidad’s government, Jones says it is time to leave the institution, which “can no longer be of useful service if hamstrung by the savings clause”.

A parliamentary committee has recommended a bill that seeks to radically reinterpret New Zealand’s founding treaty between Māori tribes and the British Crown should not proceed.

The treaty principles bill, which was introduced to parliament by the minor coalition Act party, seeks to abandon a set of well-established principles that guide the relationship between Māori and ruling authorities in favour of its own redefined principles.

The bill prompted a record number of submissions, including more than 300,000 written submissions. After weeks of hearings, the justice select committee reported back to the house on Friday, more than a month ahead of schedule.

In its report the committee said the vast majority of submissions received opposed the legislation. Among the common themes raised by opponents were inconsistency with the treaty, flaws or inadequacies in the bill development process and the negative effect of the bill on social cohesion.

The Act party argues that Māori have been afforded different political and legal rights and privileges compared with non-Māori because of the principles that have flowed from the Treaty of Waitangi – New Zealand’s founding document that is instrumental in upholding Māori rights.

The bill has sparked strident criticism from lawyers, academics and the public, who believe Act’s principles will weaken Māori rights and remove checks on the crown. It has prompted mass meetings of Māori leaders, and the largest ever protest on Māori rights.

The bill’s proponent, Act leader David Seymour, said that high-profile bills often result in committee submissions that “don’t reflect public opinion”.

“Opponents will make much of the balance of submissions, but if they believed the public opposed the bill they could call for a referendum where everyone votes,” he said in a statement after the report.

As part of its coalition agreement with Act, National promised it would support the bill through its first reading and the select committee process. But both National and the third coalition partner, New Zealand First, have said they will vote it down at the second reading.

Prime minister Christopher Luxon told media on Tuesday the committee had been overwhelmed with the number of submissions.

“The positions on the treaty principles bill are well known on all sides of that debate and what’s important now is to actually wrap it up and actually move it forward,” he said.