China has hit back hard against Donald Trump’s “bullying” tariffs, raising fears that the escalating trade war could trigger a global recession and prompting fresh turmoil in financial markets.

Beijing retaliated on Friday with punitive 34% additional tariffs on all goods imported from the US – mirroring the US decision and exacerbating a sell-off on global stock markets.

Almost $5tn (£4tn) has been wiped off the value of global stock markets since Trump’s Rose Garden address on Wednesday evening, analysts calculated.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed more than 7% lower than Monday – its worst week’s trading since late February 2020, when anxiety about the Covid-19 pandemic was gripping the markets.

The dramatic escalation in trade hostilities between the world’s two largest economies magnified concerns among investors about the risks to global growth.

The chair of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, warned the trade war would mean “higher inflation and slower growth”, as Jerome Powell resisted Trump’s calls to cut interest rates.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also warned the escalating trade war was likely to hit global economic growth. The tariffs “clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth,” said the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva.

China’s retaliation came after Trump imposed 34% tariffs on Chinese goods, which were already subject to a 20% levy, taking the total levy to 54%. He also imposed hefty tariffs on neighbouring countries in south-east Asia including Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, through which billions of dollars of Chinese exports are processed on their way to the US.

Trump responded on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday. He said: “CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED – THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!”

The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said ministers would continue to negotiate with Washington, in the hope that the 10% levy on UK exports could be lifted. The UK is offering a series of concessions, including a cut to the £1bn-a-year digital services tax for some of the biggest tech firms.

“We want to do everything in our power, and we’ll continue to do everything in our power to get the best possible deal for British industry, working closely with them to protect prosperity and jobs here in the UK,” she said.

Financial markets are now pricing in a further three interest cuts from the Bank of England by the end of this year, as they weigh up the risks of weaker growth, as some analysts warned that a slowdown could force Reeves to raise taxes in her autumn budget.

“I would have thought the central expectation now must be that if she is sticking to her fiscal rules, she’ll need to increase taxes in the autumn by possibly some significant amount,” said Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

On Wall Street, the tech-focused Nasdaq index entered bear market territory – meaning it has lost more than 20% of its value since the sell-off began. It was down 5.8% on Friday alone. The S&P 500 fell 9.1%, its worst five-day trading stretch since March 2020.

Oil prices also declined sharply, as experts reassessed their projections for global growth, with Brent crude down 7% at about $65 a barrel.

Georgieva appealed for calm. “It is important to avoid steps that could further harm the world economy. We appeal to the US and its trading partners to work constructively to resolve trade tensions and reduce uncertainty.”

There was little sign of such moderation in China’s trenchant response to the Trump tariffs, however. The country’s state council tariff commission said the US approach was “not in line with international trade rules, seriously undermines China’s legitimate rights and interests, and is a typical unilateral bullying practice”.

Despite fears his trade war will send prices higher for Americans, Trump also called on the independent Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, urging Powell, “CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!”

In a speech in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday, however, Powell suggested the outlook was still too uncertain to make decisions about the direction of monetary policy. “It is too soon to say what the appropriate policy stance should be. I understand the uncertainty that people feel, but it’s a process that we are going through.”

But he gave a blunt assessment of the likely effects of Trump’s policies. “While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected,” he said. “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.”

The president has promised voters his “liberation day” policies will bring jobs and investment pouring back into the US. But investors fear the higher prices that are likely to result will depress consumer demand in the US, and put the brakes on export-dependent economies worldwide.

The market meltdown has also been fuelled by Trump’s unpredictability, which makes it impossible to forecast whether he will negotiate away some of the tariffs in exchange for concessions – or double down.

On Friday alone, Trump posted a message insisting “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” followed four hours later by another statement in which he said he had had “a very productive call” with the Vietnamese leader, To Lam, who Trump claimed had offered to reduce that country’s tariffs.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, shrugged off the chaos on Wall Street on Friday, appearing to suggest it was all part of the administration’s plan for reshaping the US economy.

“Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the US,” he claimed.

Still, in the UK, some economists suggested the tariffs may have only a modest impact. James Smith, an economist at the analysts ING, said: “The overall hit from tariffs on Britain’s GDP is perhaps only 0.2% or so. Certainly not enough to decisively change the outlook for UK growth. And remember there are some decent tailwinds for growth this year, notably from government spending.”

The investment bank JP Morgan said it now sees a 60% chance of the global economy entering recession by the year-end, up from 40% previously.

Wall Street suffered its worst week since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis five years ago as investors worldwide balked at Donald Trump’s risky bid to overhaul the global economy with sweeping US tariffs.

The US president doubled down on his plan on Friday, insisting he would not back down even as the chairman of the Federal Reserve warned it would likely raise prices and slow down economic growth.

A stock-market rout continued apace, with the benchmark S&P 500 falling 322 points, or 6%, and the Dow Jones industrial average retreating 2,231.07 points, or 5.2%, in New York. The Dow’s two-day slump has wiped out $6.4tn in value, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, sank 5.8%, and entered bear market territory, having fallen more than 20% since peaking in December.

Over the week, the S&P 500 fell 9.1%, its worst five-day trading stretch since March 2020.

Trump sought to reverse the slide, but an insistence that his policies “will never change” in an all-caps social media post appeared to only reinforce apprehension over his strategy.

“ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL!” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

China outlined plans to retaliate, setting the stage for an all-out trade war between the world’s two largest economies, as other governments worldwide pulled together their response.

The sweeping package of tariffs unveiled by Donald Trump on Wednesday includes an exemption for the energy sector, which is a clear sign of the president’s fealty to his big oil donors over the American people, advocates say.

Reports also indicated that Trump only signed off on the details of his bid to drive the world into a new economic era hours before it was unveiled. The US president decided on the final plan at about 1pm on Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. He announced it at 4pm.

The US market declines capped another dismal day for global indices. The FTSE 100 fell 5% in London. The CAC 40 declined 4.3% in Paris. The Nikkei 225 dropped 2.8% in Tokyo.

“It is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected,” the Fed chair Jerome Powell said. “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.”

Wall Street suffered its worst week since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis five years ago as investors worldwide balked at Donald Trump’s risky bid to overhaul the global economy with sweeping US tariffs.

The US president doubled down on his plan on Friday, insisting he would not back down even as the chairman of the Federal Reserve warned it would likely raise prices and slow down economic growth.

A stock-market rout continued apace, with the benchmark S&P 500 falling 322 points, or 6%, and the Dow Jones industrial average retreating 2,231.07 points, or 5.2%, in New York. The Dow’s two-day slump has wiped out $6.4tn in value, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, sank 5.8%, and entered bear market territory, having fallen more than 20% since peaking in December.

Over the week, the S&P 500 fell 9.1%, its worst five-day trading stretch since March 2020.

Trump sought to reverse the slide, but an insistence that his policies “will never change” in an all-caps social media post appeared to only reinforce apprehension over his strategy.

“ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL!” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

China outlined plans to retaliate, setting the stage for an all-out trade war between the world’s two largest economies, as other governments worldwide pulled together their response.

The sweeping package of tariffs unveiled by Donald Trump on Wednesday includes an exemption for the energy sector, which is a clear sign of the president’s fealty to his big oil donors over the American people, advocates say.

Reports also indicated that Trump only signed off on the details of his bid to drive the world into a new economic era hours before it was unveiled. The US president decided on the final plan at about 1pm on Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. He announced it at 4pm.

The US market declines capped another dismal day for global indices. The FTSE 100 fell 5% in London. The CAC 40 declined 4.3% in Paris. The Nikkei 225 dropped 2.8% in Tokyo.

“It is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected,” the Fed chair Jerome Powell said. “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.”

The comedian and actor Russell Brand has been charged with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape as well as two counts of sexual assault.

Brand will appear in court in London on 2 May, according to the Metropolitan police, which began investigating him in September 2023 after a range of allegations.

The force said the allegations related to four separate women, as it appealed for anyone affected by the case to come forward.

It is alleged that Brand raped a woman in 1999 in the Bournemouth area, indecently assaulted a woman in 2001 in the Westminster area of London, orally raped and sexually assaulted a woman in 2004 in Westminster and sexually assaulted a woman in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.

Det Supt Andy Furphy from the Metropolitan police, who is leading the investigation, said: “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers.

“The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.

“A dedicated team of investigators is available via email at CIT@met.police.uk. Support is also available by contacting the independent charity Rape Crisis.”

The Met said detectives had begun investigations after receiving a number of allegations, which followed reporting by Channel 4’s Dispatches and the Sunday Times.

Brand has previously denied allegations of rape, assault and emotional abuse that have been made against him. And in a video posted on Instagram released later on Friday, he said that he had “never engaged in non-consensual activity” and was “grateful” for the chance to defend himself in court.

The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement that it had authorised the police to charge Brand with a number of sexual offences.

Jaswant Narwal, a barrister and prosecutor at the CPS, said: “We carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023.

“We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offences including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.

Narwal added: “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendant has the right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”

Brand is believed to have moved to the US, claiming he is being “attacked” and “shut down” by the British authorities. He interviewed Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, last year in Florida.

The decision to authorise charges follows the confirmation in November 2024 by the CPS that detectives had passed on an evidence file regarding sexual offence allegations against Brand.

Channel 4 and the production company Banijay UK also announced they had launched separate internal investigations into his conduct, after the allegations in 2023, with the BBC also reviewing Brand’s time at the corporation.

In the Dispatches programme, four women alleged assaults had taken place between 2006 and 2013, a period in which Brand was working for the BBC and Channel 4, as well as starring in Hollywood films.

An investigation, launched by Banijay UK – which bought the company that produced some of the Channel 4 shows Brand worked on – found that informally raised concerns about the comedian and actor’s behaviour while he worked on several of the channel’s programmes were “not properly escalated or adequately addressed”.

The Channel 4 investigation found “no evidence” that staff were aware of accusations about the comedian and actor contained in the Dispatches programme. A BBC review, which was published in January, found a number of people “felt unable to raise” concerns about the presenter.

Brand, who presented a BBC Radio 2 show between 2006 and 2008, left the role after his on-air prank that became known as Sachsgate, when he left a voicemail for the Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter.

The entertainer, who was born in Essex and started a career in entertainment as a standup comedian, became famous in Britain as the host of the television programme Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

He went on to star in Hollywood films such as St Trinian’s and the remake of Arthur. He also delved into politics, endorsing Ed Miliband in the 2015 British general election, but has now emerged as a fervent backer of Donald Trump and has appeared alongside a range of hard-right political commentators.

In recent years he has focused on podcasting and cultivating followers on video platforms. He has reinvented himself as a Christian, after being baptised in the River Thames in 2024 during a ceremony that also involved the adventurer and broadcaster Bear Grylls.

The Duke of York sent letters directly to China’s president, the prince’s former senior adviser told a special immigration tribunal, with an alleged Chinese spy advising him on how to write them.

Dominic Hampshire, who worked for Andrew from 2019-22, said Andrew had “always had a communication channel” with Xi Jinping that was “accepted” and may even have been encouraged by Buckingham Palace and the late queen.

Yang Tengbo – also known as Chris Yang – who has previously said he had “done nothing wrong or unlawful”, was excluded from the UK on national security grounds by the then home secretary, Suella Braverman, in March 2023.

He unsuccessfully challenged the decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) last year, with judges finding the businessman was a “close confidant” of Andrew and had “won a significant degree, one could say an unusual degree, of trust” from the duke.

Documents in the legal challenge, including Hampshire’s witness statement, were made public on Friday following a request from several media organisations.

According to Hampshire’s statement, Andrew sent a letter each year on the Chinese president’s birthday. “The royal household, including the late queen, were fully aware of this communication – it was certainly accepted and it may be fair to say it was even encouraged – it was an open channel of communication that was useful to have.”

He added: “As is my job, I would draft these letters with the help of those (in this instance Chris) that understood how messages need to be conveyed due to cultural differences.”

Hampshire described the letters to Xi as “top-level ‘nothingness’ and a courtesy type of letter. For example, the duke sends a letter to the president for his birthday each year.”

His statement, made in May 2024, said Andrew “must surely be a valuable communication point with China”. “Whilst I think China would prefer a different royal, the reality is, to this day, that if the UK government or the palace said that someone needs to see the Chinese president and talk to him, I think the duke would be able to do that, whereas I don’t think anyone else could do so as simply.”

Hampshire said that, having known Andrew for nearly 20 years, and worked closely with him for five, he believed he was “deeply trusted” within the palace at “the highest level”. He said he had had two meetings in six months last year with Andrew and the king “to discuss what the duke can do moving forward in a way that is acceptable to his majesty”.

Hampshire said the Eurasia Fund was discussed with the king at these meetings. The Eurasia Fund was an investment vehicle, involving Andrew and Yang, which intended to use Chinese funds for renewable energy projects in Africa but never got off the ground.

Buckingham Palace said of Hampshire’s meetings with the king: “While his majesty met the duke and his adviser to hear outline proposals for independent funding over the past year, the individual known as H6 [Yang] was not mentioned at any time or in any way as part of these discussions.”

It is understood that while Andrew may have mentioned a number of proposals including the Eurasia Fund, it was not discussed in any level of detail with the king, nor did the king or his advisers give approval to this business relationship or opportunity.

Hampshire said Andrew’s reputation was “irrecoverable” after his BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis about his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “This was a common feeling within the royal household, despite what the duke thought may happen. It was very clear internally within the royal household that we would have to look at options for the duke’s future away from royal duties.”

He said the duke’s Pitch@Palace initiative, set up to support entrepreneurs, was one of Andrew’s “indisputable successes” and there were hopes it would continue internationally. He added that Yang, who was the founder-partner of Pitch@Palace China, had not deserted the duke after the interview even while UK sponsors and supporters of Andrew’s initiative were “falling away”.

In Yang’s witness statement, further details of which were also released on Friday, he said of Andrew: “Prior to 2016, the duke did not have a good reputation in China. But because of the work on Pitch he had succeeded in building up his personal brand and reputation in China.

“He was well regarded in senior circles and in Chinese media perception. After the Maitlis interview, the duke’s reputation in China was terrible.”

Hampshire said he was summonsed by the late queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, and asked if he knew Yang, who had come to the attention of the security services. Hampshire said in his statement he told Young: “Chris is pretty much our only avenue for the duke moving forward and arguably the only light at the end of the tunnel for him. Do you have a plan B? Sir Edward said he did not.”

In the five years he had known Yang, Hampshire said there had “never been one single red flag in my head” about him, and in the “limited contact” Andrew had, the duke was “of the same opinion”. He added that Yang “categorically does not have a close relationship with the duke”.

After the documents were made public on Friday, Hampshire said he left the royal household in 2022 and no longer provided advice to Andrew. He said Andrew “fully complied” with advice to end all contact with Yang.

“For the record, as soon as the Duke of York was advised to cease all contact with Mr Yang, he fully complied,” Hampshire said in a statement. “He did not receive a penny in funding or support, directly or indirectly, from any Chinese individual or entity.”

Yang has previously said he intends to appeal against the decision upholding his ban from entering the UK.

The editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Katharine Viner, has told the high court there was a “very high public interest” in reporting allegations made against Noel Clarke after he received a special Bafta award.

In a witness statement, Viner said she believed it was conceivable that the actor’s endorsement by the British academy film awards could lead to an escalation of his allegedly abusive behaviour towards women.

Clarke, who is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM), the publisher of the Guardian, for libel over seven articles and a podcast published between April 2021 and March 2022, was given an honorary Bafta award in 2021, which was later suspended.

Viner, who has held the position of editor-in-chief at the Guardian since 2015, said that Clarke’s alleged sexual misconduct appeared to be “something of an open secret in the UK film and TV industry”.

She was made aware of the intention to follow up on leads about Clarke’s behaviour in April 2021 by the Guardian’s head of investigations, Paul Lewis.

Two journalists with experience of reporting on matters of sexual misconduct, Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne, were assigned to the investigation, which developed at pace.

In her witness statement, Viner said she had been made aware that the Daily Mirror was also investigating Clarke but added that “we placed little, if any, importance on that in the timing of the publication”.

Clarke strongly denied the allegations when they were put to him.

Viner said that the number and credibility of the sources as well as the consistency of the accounts and the robustness of the reporting weighed in favour of publication.

She said: “I considered there was a very clear public interest in exposing allegations of misconduct in the context that the individual in question had been recently celebrated and further empowered through the special award that had been made by Bafta.

“In the light of the long period over which allegations had been made, it was conceivable that this endorsement of Mr Clarke and consolidation of his influence in the British film and television industry could enable him to continue or escalate the relevant behaviour, potentially with impunity.

“However, even if the timing of the award had not influenced the timing of publication, I consider we would likely have published the story in any case and perhaps only slightly later.”

Philip Williams, representing Clarke, 49, asked Viner about the role she played in the coverage.

She said: “I would say that I expect the reporters to do the reporting, the editors to do the editing, and then for them to escalate it to me. That is what happened in this case.”

When cross-examined, she added that when judging the public interest of a story there were formal systems in place and that she sought to take any “emotion out of it”.

The Guardian’s deputy editor, Owen Gibson, told the high court that GNM’s ownership structure ensured that there was no commercial or proprietorial pressure to publish the results of an investigation.

He confirmed that concerns that Clarke and his business partner, Jason Maza, were contacting witnesses and “could cause further intimidation or distress to sources or other women, as well as potentially deterring sources from speaking to us or going on the record” had been a consideration in the timing of the first article.

“We have to look after our sources and I considered that to be a legitimate factor when considering the timing of publication,” he said.

Anna Kaiser, a German film director, was the final witness in GNM’s defence. She told the court that she had been an intern on the film Doghouse in 2008 in which Clarke had played a leading role.

She said: “When he arrived in the morning or when I first saw him each day, he would greet me and, on several occasions, try to pull me in with an arm before going in to peck me on the lips.

“As I recall, I pulled away every time and I can’t remember if he ever actually succeeded at kissing me this way. I think this happened around a handful of times. At first it was cheeky but persistent, but it became less playful and his attitude became less friendly after I avoided it each time. My reaction each time, though I didn’t say it in so many words, was ‘oh, not this again’”.

When asked by Clarke’s barrister whether this was not simply standard behaviour on such an intimate and friendly film set, Kaiser noted that none of the other men on the set had greeted female colleagues by kissing them on the lips.

The closing submissions in the trial will be heard on Friday before a written judgment by Mrs Justice Steyn.

• A Russian missile strike killed at least 18 people, including nine children, in a residential area of Ukraine’s central city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, local officials said – one of Moscow’s deadliest attacks this year in the war. The strike in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town damaged residential blocks and sparked fires, the regional governor said on Telegram. More than 30 people, including a three-month-old baby, were in hospital, Serhiy Lysak said. At least 50 people were wounded, the emergency services said, adding that the figure was growing. Zelenskyy said rescue efforts were still under way and called on the west to exert greater pressure on Moscow. “All Russian promises end with missiles, drones, bombs or artillery,” he said in his nightly video address. “Diplomacy means nothing to them.”

• Russia’s defence ministry said the strike on Kryvyi Rih was targeted at a military gathering, a claim the Ukrainian military denounced as “false information”. “The missile struck a residential area with a playground,” the military’s general staff said on Telegram. The city’s military administrator said after the strike that Russian drones had later attacked private homes there, triggering fires at four sites. Oleksandr Vilkul said an elderly woman had died in her home and five others were injured.

• The US secretary of state said Donald Trump was not “going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations” with Russia over Ukraine, adding Washington would know within weeks whether Moscow was serious about pursuing peace. “We’re testing to see if the Russians are interested in peace,” Marco Rubio told journalists in Brussels on Friday after talks with Nato allies. “Their actions – not their words, their actions – will determine whether they’re serious or not, and we intend to find that out sooner rather than later.” Pjotr Sauer reports that Rubio also appeared to strike a more sympathetic tone towards Kyiv, saying the Ukrainians “have shown a willingness to enter, for example, into a complete ceasefire”.

• The Kremlin said on Friday that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had no plans to talk after a visit to Washington by the Russian president’s investment envoy as wider negotiations over a Ukraine truce appeared stalled. According to NBC News on Thursday, Trump’s inner circle was advising him not to speak to Putin again until the Russian leader commits to a full ceasefire in Ukraine.

• Ukraine and Russia accused each other of fresh attacks on energy infrastructure, in breach of a US-brokered moratorium. Zelenskyy said Moscow launched a drone attack on a thermal power plant in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson on Friday, while Russia’s defence ministry accused Kyiv of attacking Russian energy facilities six times in the past 24 hours.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that European military planners could be ready within a month with details of a foreign troop contingent in Ukraine seen as critical to ending the war with Russia. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv after meeting British and French military chiefs, the Ukrainian president said many other countries would also contribute to the effort, which envisages foreign troops patrolling Ukrainian land, sea and airspace. “I think the teams need about a month, no longer, and we will be fully ready with an understanding of this infrastructure.”

• The Vatican’s foreign minister spoke with his Russian counterpart on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine and plans to stop the fighting, the Vatican said. Russia’s foreign ministry later said the phone call between Sergey Lavrov and Archbishop Paul Gallagher had been initiated by the Vatican and that they had discussed “ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis with the obligatory reliable elimination of its root causes”.

• A Russian missile strike killed at least 18 people, including nine children, in a residential area of Ukraine’s central city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, local officials said – one of Moscow’s deadliest attacks this year in the war. The strike in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town damaged residential blocks and sparked fires, the regional governor said on Telegram. More than 30 people, including a three-month-old baby, were in hospital, Serhiy Lysak said. At least 50 people were wounded, the emergency services said, adding that the figure was growing. Zelenskyy said rescue efforts were still under way and called on the west to exert greater pressure on Moscow. “All Russian promises end with missiles, drones, bombs or artillery,” he said in his nightly video address. “Diplomacy means nothing to them.”

• Russia’s defence ministry said the strike on Kryvyi Rih was targeted at a military gathering, a claim the Ukrainian military denounced as “false information”. “The missile struck a residential area with a playground,” the military’s general staff said on Telegram. The city’s military administrator said after the strike that Russian drones had later attacked private homes there, triggering fires at four sites. Oleksandr Vilkul said an elderly woman had died in her home and five others were injured.

• The US secretary of state said Donald Trump was not “going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations” with Russia over Ukraine, adding Washington would know within weeks whether Moscow was serious about pursuing peace. “We’re testing to see if the Russians are interested in peace,” Marco Rubio told journalists in Brussels on Friday after talks with Nato allies. “Their actions – not their words, their actions – will determine whether they’re serious or not, and we intend to find that out sooner rather than later.” Pjotr Sauer reports that Rubio also appeared to strike a more sympathetic tone towards Kyiv, saying the Ukrainians “have shown a willingness to enter, for example, into a complete ceasefire”.

• The Kremlin said on Friday that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had no plans to talk after a visit to Washington by the Russian president’s investment envoy as wider negotiations over a Ukraine truce appeared stalled. According to NBC News on Thursday, Trump’s inner circle was advising him not to speak to Putin again until the Russian leader commits to a full ceasefire in Ukraine.

• Ukraine and Russia accused each other of fresh attacks on energy infrastructure, in breach of a US-brokered moratorium. Zelenskyy said Moscow launched a drone attack on a thermal power plant in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson on Friday, while Russia’s defence ministry accused Kyiv of attacking Russian energy facilities six times in the past 24 hours.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that European military planners could be ready within a month with details of a foreign troop contingent in Ukraine seen as critical to ending the war with Russia. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv after meeting British and French military chiefs, the Ukrainian president said many other countries would also contribute to the effort, which envisages foreign troops patrolling Ukrainian land, sea and airspace. “I think the teams need about a month, no longer, and we will be fully ready with an understanding of this infrastructure.”

• The Vatican’s foreign minister spoke with his Russian counterpart on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine and plans to stop the fighting, the Vatican said. Russia’s foreign ministry later said the phone call between Sergey Lavrov and Archbishop Paul Gallagher had been initiated by the Vatican and that they had discussed “ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis with the obligatory reliable elimination of its root causes”.

Los Angeles county has reached a $4bn agreement to settle nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959, officials said Friday.

The agreement, which still needs approval from the Los Angeles county board of supervisors, would be the largest of its kind and have long-lasting financial effects for the county, officials said.

“On behalf of the county, I apologize wholeheartedly to everyone who was harmed by these reprehensible acts,” Fesia Davenport, the county’s chief executive, said in a statement.

The agreement would settle lawsuits filed by thousands of people who alleged they were mistreated and sexually abused in foster care and juvenile detention facilities in Los Angeles county. The plaintiffs were able to sue because of a California law that took effect in 2020 and suspended the statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse victims to bring cases for three years.

Many of the claims involved the MacLaren children’s center, which was closed in 2003. The facility, which was intended to be a safe space for children awaiting placement in foster homes, opened in 1961 and was overseen by probation officials until it was placed under the county’s department of children and family services in 1976.

One man said he was sexually abused by a physician at the facility when he was eight years old, while another said he was assaulted by a male staff member in a bathroom when he was five. Children were routinely placed in solitary confinement, drugged and restrained in chairs at the facility, according to court papers filed by plaintiffs.

“It is bittersweet for the survivors, because nothing is ever going to take away what was done to them, and how badly their lives were altered and how much they have suffered,” said Adam Slater, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys. “However, the settlement hopefully gives them some measure of justice and provides them with some measure of closure.”

The agreement by Los Angeles county would surpass the Boy Scouts of America’s 2022 settlement for $2.6bn with more than 80,000 men who said they were molested as children by Scout leaders and others. At the time, that was considered the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in US history.

Last year, the archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $800m to victims of clergy sexual abuse, bringing the total payout to more than $1.5bn.

Disclosure of the tentative payout comes at a time when the nation’s largest county – home to about 10 million residents – is facing a tightening bind of financial obligations on its $49bn annual budget. County officials fear hundreds of millions of dollars for public services could vanish in Trump administration cutbacks, while the county has seen additional costs from January’s historic wildfires as it also deals with an ongoing homeless crisis.

Davenport recently said the county is facing a “large amount of uncertainty” with its budget – some agencies are largely funded by federal dollars.

The proposed agreement includes creating a countywide hotline for reporting child sexual abuse allegations against county employees and developing a system to expedite investigations, county officials said.

“By balancing justice for the victims with a commitment to reform, this resolution ensures both acknowledgment of past wrongs and a pathway to a safer, more accountable future,” Patrick McNicholas, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement.

The county’s claims board will consider the proposed settlement on Monday. If approved, it would be considered by the board of supervisors on 29 April.

More than 60 of Reform UK’s council candidates standing in this year’s elections are defectors from the Conservative party, according to research from the Labour party.

Reform has also selected an ex-Conservative for its candidate in the upcoming Runcorn and Helsby byelection, while the party’s mayoral candidate for Greater Lincolnshire is the former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns, who lost her parliamentary seat in West Yorkshire last July.

All but one of Reform’s MPs, including the party leader, Nigel Farage, were previously members of the Conservative party.

Labour has accused Farage’s party of a “mass rebrand” as Reform populates its ranks with candidates seeking to “save their own political careers” after the Conservatives suffered huge losses in the 2024 general election.

A Reform spokesperson said: “This is less than 4% of all our 1,630 candidates. Is this the same Labour party that accepted the defections of then Conservative MPs Christian Wakeford and Natalie Elphicke?”

The Labour study of candidate nominations for the local elections in May shows more than 60 Reform council candidates across Britain have served as councillors, candidates or activists for the Tories.

Reform’s parliamentary candidate for the byelection in Runcorn and Helsby, triggered by the resignation of the Labour MP Mike Amesbury after a criminal conviction, is Sarah Pochin, a former Tory councillor for Cheshire East.

In social media posts that have been deleted since Pochin became a Reform candidate, she described her “absolute pleasure” posing in 2019 with the then levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, while she was a Conservative councillor, before describing her meeting with Liz Truss’s business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, as “inspiring”.

Nineteen of the 23 councils up for election this May are run by the Conservatives. There will be mayoral elections in the West of England, and Peterborough and Cambridgeshire, and inaugural mayoral contests in Hull and East Yorkshire, and Greater Lincolnshire.

A Labour spokesperson said: “A snake might shed its skin but at the end of the day it’s still a snake. Is that why so many of Nigel Farage’s council candidates are slithering away from their years serving the Tory party?

“Farage claims to be a breath of political fresh air, but he just hoovered up 60 candidates who failed our country as card-carrying Conservatives.

“The truth is, we now know when you take the mask off a Reform candidate, you’ll often find a tired old Tory trying to breathe life into a failed political career.

“A vote for Reform on 1 May risks letting a Tory in by the back door. Only Labour can bring real change to Britain.”

Israel has restarted ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip and killed at least 25 people in airstrikes on the southern city of Khan Younis in what it says is a renewed military campaign aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages.

At least 25 people were killed in the attack on Khan Younis early on Friday, the local Nasser hospital told AFP, as the search for survivors continued.

More than 1,250 Palestinians in the besieged territory have been killed in Israeli bombings since 18 March, including at least 100 people on Thursday alone in airstrikes that hit three schools turned shelters. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the targets were Hamas control centres.

According to the UN, 280,000 people have been forced to leave their homes or shelters since Israel decided to abandon a two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas, cutting off aid and fuel on 2 March and resuming large-scale bombing two weeks later.

Ground troops have since re-entered the strip’s southernmost city of Rafah and the Netzarim corridor that cuts off Gaza City from the rest of the territory. On Friday, the IDF said troops were advancing in Shuja’iya, a northern suburb of Gaza City.

Israeli officials vowed this week to seize large swathes of the strip as security zones and establish a new military corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis, exacerbating Palestinian fears of permanent displacement and annexation.

Friday also saw escalations on other fronts in the regional conflagration set in motion by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel. Israel says 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, were killed and a further 250 taken captive in the attack; all but 59 have since been released in hostage and detainee swaps. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign on Gaza has killed at least 50,600 people, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

In Lebanon on Friday, the Israeli military said it had killed Hassan Farhat, a senior Hamas commander, in an airstrike on the southern city of Sidon, a move that threatens to upset the fragile truce signed in November with the Hamas-allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The bombing came after Israel targeted what it said were Hezbollah facilities in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, last week for the first time since the ceasefire went into effect. That attack was launched in response to rocket fire aimed at northern Israel, which neither Hamas nor Hezbollah claimed responsibility for.

Tensions between Israel and the new transitional government in Syria are also rising after a wave of Israeli airstrikes across the country and a deepening Israeli ground incursion in the Daraa border area on Thursday, in which 13 people were killed.

Israel has long targeted Hezbollah and Iranian assets in Syria but has continued its bombing campaign since Islamist-led rebel groups forced the dictator Bashar al-Assad to flee the country in December. It has also seized land in southern Syria and warned that Islamist groups must stay away from Israeli territory.

Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkey, which backs the new regime in Damascus, on Friday accused Israel of fuelling regional instability.

“Israel is taking out, one by one, all these capabilities that a new state can use against Isis and other terrorist threats,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Brussels. “What Israel is doing in Syria is not only threatening the security of Syria, but also is paving the way for future instability of the region.”

Also on Friday, the Israeli army confirmed troops killed a Palestinian teenager after shooting at a group of boys and young men throwing stones near the occupied West Bank village of Husan the night before. Palestinian officials gave his name as Yusef Zaoul, 17. The IDF did not comment on the deceased’s name or age.

Donald Trump said he will sign an executive order to extend the TikTok ban deadline. This is the second time the president will have delayed the ban or sale of the social media app, and will punt the deadline to 75 days from now.

The TikTok deal “requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed”, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform on Friday.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, issued a statement in response to the executive order: “ByteDance has been in discussion with the US government regarding a potential solution for TikTok US. An agreement has not been executed. There are key matters to be resolved. Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law.”

China put a possible deal on hold this week after Trump announced his sweeping tariffs, according to Reuters.

Congress passed a law last year forcing TikTok to either divest or sell its assets in the US. The law stemmed from concerns that the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, could use the social media platform to manipulate Americans. The first deadline to ban or force the sale of the app was 19 January. But, on his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to delay that decision to 5 April. Now the new deadline will be in mid-June.

Earlier this week, the president met with potential buyers for TikTok and said his administration is “very close” to a deal. Among those who’ve reportedly thrown in bids are a consortium of investors led by the software giant Oracle, asset manager Blackstone, Amazon, Walmart, billionaire Frank McCourt, a crypto foundation, and the founder of the adult website OnlyFans.

TikTok is a tremendously popular social media app with 170 million users in the US. Investors and corporations see huge appeal with owning the app and its secretive algorithm.

ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok and in previous court filings said a divestiture “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally”.

After announcing sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, Trump hinted on Thursday aboard Air Force One that he might lessen the trade penalties on China if ByteDance were to approve a sale. The country faces a 54% tariff on goods imported to the US.

“We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say we’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs. The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” he said.

In his Truth Social post Friday, Trump reiterated that sentiment, saying: “We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!).

“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark,’” he continued. “We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Beyond yodelling along to the opening credits or decoding hidden clues about the show’s plot, some fans of the critically acclaimed comedy drama The White Lotus have taken their obsession a step further this season.

Since the drama – this season set in Thailand – premiered on 17 February in the UK, Thai takeaway orders through Just Eat have increased by 11%, as viewers look to “[travel] via their taste buds”.

Orders from Busaba, a popular modern chain, rose by 25% with pad thai, chilli beef jasmine rice and calamari proving fan favourites.

Pad Thai and veggie spring rolls are other popular choices from Rosa’s Thai, with takeaways jumping 21% after the show first aired.

The impact of hit TV shows on travel habits is well known – demand for trips to the show’s previous locations in Hawaii and Sicily spiked after their release, a phenomenon now referred to as the “White Lotus effect”.

For many, trips to luxury resorts, spa retreats and popular filming locations are out of reach, but “sampling the cuisine” from these destinations offers viewers a way to experience a piece of the show’s world in real life, said Melanie Zanoza Bartelme, associate director of food and drink research at the market research firm Mintel.

“Consumers want more than ever to feel a part of the worlds they immerse themselves in, including their favourite television shows. That’s why we’ve seen consumers pursuing ‘set-jetting’, or visiting the filming locations of these programmes.

“For most consumers, though, such trips are out of reach, but sampling the cuisine of those locations is a lot easier. Takeaway and other cuisine exploration of the foods enjoyed by TV characters gives consumers a tangible way to connect with their favourite shows without needing to leave their sofas,” she said.

The ritual, nicknamed “White Lotus Mondays” (or Sundays, for US viewers), has gone viral on social media, with fans posting videos of their Thai food orders in front of the TV. One video showing a user’s table covered in Thai food, captioned: “I saw this idea and will be doing it every week from now on,” has more than 959.1k views and 90.2k likes.

Trish Caddy, Mintel’s associate director of foodservice, added: “Mintel research finds that 58% of UK diners who recently ordered or are open to trying south-east Asian cuisine [such as] Thai food, show strong enthusiasm for its bold flavours.

“Cultural influences continue to redefine what we eat and how we connect with global cuisine.”