In response to why Beijing is not backing down to Donald Trump on tariffs, the answer is that it doesn’t have to.

China’s leaders would say that they are not inclined to cave in to a bully – something its government has repeatedly labelled the Trump administration as – but it also has a capacity to do this way beyond any other country on Earth.

Before the tariff war kicked in, China did have a massive volume of sales to the US but, to put it into context, this only amounted to 2% of its GDP.

That said, the Communist Party would clearly prefer not to be locked in a trade war with the US at a time when it has been struggling to fix its own considerable economic headaches, after years of a real estate crisis, overblown regional debt and persistent youth unemployment.

However, despite this, the government has told its people that it is in a strong position to resist the attacks from the US.

It also knows its own tariffs are clearly going to hurt US exporters as well.

Trump has been bragging to his supporters that it would be easy to force China into submission by simply hitting the country with tariffs, but this has proven to be misleading in the extreme.

Beijing is not going to surrender.

China’s leader Xi Jinping told the visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday that his country and the European Union should “jointly resist the unilateral bullying practices” of the Trump administration.

Sanchez, in turn, said that China’s trade tensions with the US should not impede its cooperation with Europe.

Their meeting took place in the Chinese capital in the hours before Beijing again increased its tariffs on goods from the US – though it has said it will not respond to further US tariff increases.

Next week Xi will visit Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia. These are all countries which have been hit hard by Trump’s tariffs.

His ministers have been meeting counterparts from South Africa, Saudi Arabia and India, talking up greater trade co-operation.

In addition, China and the EU are reportedly in talks about potentially removing European tariffs on Chinese cars, to be replaced by a minimum price instead, to rein in a new round of dumping.

In short, wherever you look, you can see that China has options.

And analysts have said that these mutual tariff increases by the two superpowers are now becoming almost meaningless, as they’ve already passed the point of cutting out much of the trade between them.

So, the tit-for-tat tariff increases in both directions have become more like symbolism.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning has, over the past two days, posted images of Chairman Mao on social media, including a clip during the Korean War when he told the US that “no matter how long this war lasts we will never yield”.

Above this, she posted her own comments, saying: “We are Chinese. We are not afraid of provocations. We won’t back down.”

When the Chinese government wheels out Chairman Mao, you know they’re getting serious.

The head of the British armed forces has visited China for the first time in a decade.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin discussed “issues of common concern” with China’s military leaders in Beijing, its defence ministry said in a short statement.

“We agreed that in an unstable world we must play our part as responsible nations with global interests,” Sir Tony wrote on X, “and we reflected on the importance of military-to-military communications”.

The last time a Chief of the Defence Staff visited China was in 2015. Since becoming prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer has sought to strengthen ties with the country.

The admiral’s visit coincided with the escalation of an intense trade war between China and the US after President Trump’s announcement of higher tariffs.

Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed on Thursday that the trip had happened earlier this week.

“It’s always good to have military to military engagement and that is what he was establishing”, Healey told reporters in Brussels.

He said that the admiral’s visit followed in the footsteps of one made recently by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who became only the second foreign secretary to visit China in six years when he went in October last year.

Healey said that in the discussions the admiral was “very firm in the arguments about peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific” region “and concerns about any use of military aggression or assertiveness to pursue political ends”.

Healey did not specifically mention Taiwan, where China has launched major military drills which have been seen as provocation towards the island and wider region.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that will, eventually, be part of the country, and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve this.

But many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation – although most are in favour of maintaining the status quo where Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it.

Sir Tony has now joined the defence secretary in Brussels for meetings with allies on Ukraine.

The head of the US military base in Greenland has been fired after she reportedly sent an email distancing herself from Vice-President JD Vance’s criticism of Denmark.

The US military’s Space Operations Command said Col Susannah Meyers had been removed from her role at Pituffik Space Base due to a “loss of confidence in her ability to lead”.

Last month, Vance said Denmark had “not done a good job” for Greenlanders and had not spent enough on security while visiting the Danish territory.

The alleged email, released by a military news site, told staff Vance’s comments were “not reflective” of the base. A Pentagon spokesman cited the article, saying “undermining” US leadership was not tolerated.

Following Vance’s trip, on 31 March, Col Meyers is reported to have written: “I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice-President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base.”

Military.com – which published the email – said the contents had been confirmed as accurate to them by the US Space Force.

Appearing to confirm this was the reason for her firing, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell linked to the Military.com article in a post on X, writing: “Actions [that] undermine the chain of command or to subvert President [Donald] Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense.”

The Space Force’s statement announcing Col Meyers’ removal on Thursday said that Col Shawn Lee was replacing her.

It added: “Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties.”

Col Meyers had assumed command of the Arctic station in July last year. Col Lee was previously a squadron commander at the Clear Space Force Station in Alaska.

During his whirlwind trip, Vance had also reiterated Trump’s desire to annex Greenland for security reasons.

Since the US delegation’s visit, both Greenland and Denmark have shown a united front, opposing a US annexation of the autonomous Danish territory.

Earlier this month, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s official visit saw her stand side-by-side with her Greenlandic counterpart Jens-Frederik Nielsen and his predecessor, Mute Egede.

Speaking to reporters, Frederiksen directly addressed Trump, telling him: “You can’t annex other countries.”

She added that Denmark was fortifying its military presence in the Arctic, and offered closer collaboration with the US in defending the region.

The US has long maintained a security interest in Greenland as a strategically important territory. It has had a military presence on the island since occupying it following the occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany during World War Two.

“If Russia were to send missiles towards the US, the shortest route for nuclear weapons would be via the North Pole and Greenland,” Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, previously told the BBC.

“That’s why the Pituffik Space Base is immensely important in defending the US.”

Greenland, the world’s largest island, has been under Danish control for around 300 years.

Polls show that the vast majority of Greenlanders want to gain independence from Denmark – but do not wish to become part of the US.

Greenland has had the right to call an independence referendum since 2009, though in recent years some political parties have begun pushing harder for one to take place.

Workers have been told to hurry home, classes have been suspended and outdoor events have been cancelled as northern China braces for extreme winds this weekend.

Millions have been urged to stay indoors, with some state media outlets warning that people weighing less than 50kg (110lbs) may be “easily blown away”.

Winds reaching 150kph (93mph) are expected to sweep Beijing, Tianjin and other parts of Hebei region from Friday to Sunday, as a cold vortex moves southeast from Mongolia.

For the first time in a decade, Beijing has issued an orange alert for gales – the second-highest in a four-tier weather warning system.

Strong winds sweeping from Mongolia are not uncommon, especially at this time of the year. But the impending winds are expected to be stronger than anything the area has seen in years.

Temperatures in Beijing are expected to drop by 13 degrees Celsius within 24 hours, when the strongest winds hit on Saturday, authorities said.

“This strong wind is extreme, lasts for a long time, affects a wide area, and is highly disastrous,” the Beijing Meteorological Service said.

China measures wind speed with a scale that goes from level 1 to 17. A level 11 wind, according to the China Meteorological Administration, can cause “serious damage”, while a level 12 wind brings “extreme destruction”.

The winds this weekend are expected to range from level 11 to 13.

Several sporting events slated for the weekend have been suspended, including the world’s first humanoid robot half marathon, which will now be held on 19 April.

Parks and tourist attractions have been closed as authorities have told residents to avoid outdoor activities, while construction works and train services have been suspended.

Thousands of trees across the city have been reinforced or pruned to prevent them from falling.

Officials have warned people to avoid entering mountains and forests, where gusts are expected to be especially strong.

As residents hunker down, social media users are finding humour in their shelved weekend plans.

“This wind is so sensible, it starts on Friday evening and ends on Sunday, without disrupting work on Monday at all,” said a Weibo user.

Hashtags about the strong winds, and the warning that those weighing less than 50kg could be swept away, have been trending on Chinese social media. One Weibo user quipped: “I eat so much all the time, just for this day.”

Beijing has also issued an alert for forest fires and prohibited people from starting fires outdoors.

The winds are expected to start weakening on Sunday night.

The remains of 36 Indigenous ancestors will be returned to Australia, in the latest repatriation of bodies taken from their traditional lands.

Six of the ancestors’ bodies were formally returned to their Queensland communities – Woppaburra, Warrgamay, Wuthathi and Yadhaighana – at a ceremony at London’s Natural History Museum.

The Australian government will take care of the other ancestors’ remains until their traditional custodians can be found.

The remains of Indigenous people were taken from Australia by a range of people, including scientists and explorers, following Britain’s colonisation of the country in the 18th Century.

These remains have ended up in museums, universities and private collections around the world.

However, growing ethical concerns about the collection, sale and display of human remains has led to an increase in efforts to return these in recent decades.

“The removal of our ancestors from their resting places was an act of deep disrespect—one that severed our spiritual and cultural connections to Country,” Thomas Holden, who represented the Warrgamay community, said at Thursday’s ceremony.

“Repatriation is about more than just bringing our ancestors home. It is about reaffirming our sovereignty, our rights, and our deep cultural and spiritual obligations to care for our people, even in death.”

This is the fourth group of ancestral remains that the Natural History Museum has returned to Australia. It said staff had undertaken “detailed archival research” involving several organisations to find out where the remains had come from.

According to the Australian government’s arts office, the latest repatriation brings the number of First Nations ancestors returned from around the world to 1,775. This includes more than 200 sets of remains from the Natural History Museum.

It added that discussions were being held with other institutions and private holders in the UK about the “unconditional and voluntary return of further ancestors”.

“The repatriation of our ancestors is a vital step in healing the wounds of the past and restoring the spiritual and cultural balance that was disrupted when they were taken from their homeland,” said Wuthathi representative Keron Murray.

Wayne Blair, an acclaimed actor and filmmaker who represented the Woppaburra people, described repatriation as “an eternal flame, the eternal healing is both spiritual and physical, for our elders and community”.

“You are not returning science specimens, you are returning ancestors to their families, their descendants.”

A Pakistan-born Chicago businessman wanted in India for his role in the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai city has been remanded in custody for 18 days.

Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen, landed in Delhi on Thursday. India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) confirmed his extradition had been successful.

Indian authorities accuse 64-year-old Rana of aiding the Mumbai attacks by working with childhood friend David Headley to support Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani group blamed for the assault.

On 26 November 2008, 10 militants launched deadly attacks across Mumbai, killing 166 and injuring hundreds, before being stopped by security forces on 29 November.

Rana was extradited from the US and arrested by the NIA upon arrival in Delhi on Thursday evening.

He was escorted to a special court under heavy security, trailed by dozens of journalists vying for a glimpse of Rana.

On Friday, the NIA said in a statement that the agency would question Rana “in detail in order to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the deadly 2008 attacks”.

India’s home ministry has appointed well-known lawyer Narendra Mann to lead the prosecution in the case.

Rana or his lawyers have not made any public comments yet.

On Friday, the US Embassy in Delhi said in a press release that Rana was to stand trial in India on 10 criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in the attacks.

“Rana’s extradition is a critical step toward seeking justice for the six Americans and scores of other victims who were killed in the heinous attacks,” it said.

In 2011, a US court cleared Rana of directly plotting the attacks but convicted him of supporting the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2013 but released in 2020 on health grounds. He was re-arrested later that year after India requested his extradition.

A US court approved Rana’s extradition in 2023, but he remained in custody awaiting final government clearance.

In February, President Donald Trump approved the move following a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The US Supreme Court later rejected Rana’s appeals against the decision.

US prosecutors in the case said that in 2006, Rana allowed Headley to open an office of his Chicago-based immigration services firm in Mumbai, which Headley then used as cover to scout sites for the 2008 attacks.

The charges brought against Rana by the NIA include criminal conspiracy, waging war against the Indian government and terrorism.

Six people, including three children, were killed after a helicopter carrying a family of tourists crashed into the Hudson River in New York, authorities have said.

The family of five was from Spain and the sixth person was the pilot, New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on Thursday. All were onboard the helicopter at the time of the crash, which is under investigation.

“Our hearts go out to the families,” Adams said.

Authorities have yet to release the identities, but they have been widely named as Agustín Escobar and his wife Mercè Camprubí Montal, who were both executives at Siemens, and their children, aged four, five and 11.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Siemens said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Agustin Escobar and his family.

“Our deepest condolences go out to all of his relatives.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the news was devastating and that he shared the grief of the victims’ families.

The Spanish family lived in Barcelona, and regional leader Salvador Illa sent “all my affection” to their family and friends.

A photograph of the family briefly published by the tour company shows them posing in front of the helicopter before the fatal incident.

Video footage shows the helicopter falling out of the sky upside down before splashing into the Hudson River.

Officials said the helicopter lost control soon after turning at the George Washington Bridge to move along the New Jersey shoreline.

The helicopter was operated by tour company New York Helicopters and took off from the Downtown Skyport on the lower side of Manhattan at 14:59 local time (19:59 BST).

• What we know about the Hudson helicopter crash

The first calls about the crash came around 15:17 EDT (20:17 BST) and rescue boats were launched immediately, New York Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker said.

“Swimmers were in the water shortly after the call,” he said.

Once on the scene, rescuers searched the water for victims or survivors and initiated “immediate life-saving measures”, but the efforts were unsuccessful.

Four victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while two others were declared dead at a nearby hospital, officials said.

The part of the river where the helicopter crashed is near Manhattan’s west side, an area known for its trendy shops and dining. It’s also near the main campus of New York University.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the investigation into the crash of the Bell 206 – a two-bladed helicopter – will be led by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Bell 206 is commonly used by sightseeing companies, television news stations and police departments.

US President Donald Trump said the crash was terrible and more details would soon be released about what happened.

“God bless the families and friends of the victims,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Michael Roth, the CEO of New York Helicopter Charter Inc, told CNN he was “devastated”.

“I’m a father, a grandfather, and my wife hasn’t stopped crying since this afternoon,” he said. When asked about the maintenance of the helicopter, Mr Roth replied: “It’s my director of maintenance who deals with that.”

Eyewitnesses who saw the crash told CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, that they saw parts of the helicopter fall from the sky.

“I looked outside my window. I saw a few people running towards the water, and some people were acting pretty normal. So I was like oh, it might not be anything. Then I started to hear all the sirens come outside,” Jersey City resident Jenn Lynk said.

Another, Ipsitaa Banigrhi, told CBS the crash sounded like thunder.

“I saw, like, black particles flying,” she said. “Again, I thought maybe it’s just like, dust, or birds, and then we heard all the emergency vehicles and sirens go by, and I think that’s when it was like, OK, what’s happening.”

This is not the first deadly tourist helicopter crash in New York City. In 2018, another tourist helicopter crashed into the East River. All five passengers drowned with only the pilot surviving.

In 2009, a helicopter carrying Italian tourists collided with a private plane over the Hudson River, killing nine.

The US Supreme Court has instructed the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a mega-jail in El Salvador.

The Trump administration has conceded that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error”, but appealed against a district court’s order to “facilitate and effectuate” his return to the US.

On Thursday, in a 9-0 ruling, Supreme Court judges declined to block the lower court’s order.

That order “requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent”, the justices ruled.

Mr Garcia, a Salvadorian migrant, is one of dozens of migrants the US placed on military planes last month and sent to El Salvador’s infamous Cecot (Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism) – a prison known for housing gang members – under an arrangement between the two countries.

In a statement on Thursday evening after the top court’s decision, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer for Mr Garcia, said “the rule of law prevailed”.

“The Supreme Court upheld the district judge’s order that the government has to bring Kilmar home.”

• Can the US return man deported to El Salvador? Immigration lawyers think so

In its emergency appeal to the Supreme Court last week, the Trump administration argued Judge Paula Xinis of the Maryland district court lacked the authority to issue the order to return Mr Garcia by 23:59 EST last Monday, and that US officials could not compel El Salvador to return Mr Garcia.

US Solicitor General D John Sauer wrote in his emergency court filing: “The Constitution charges the president, not federal district courts, with the conduct of foreign diplomacy and protecting the nation against foreign terrorists, including by effectuating their removal.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked Judge Xinis’s order while it considered the matter, before issuing its decision on Thursday.

On Thursday, the top court also directed Judge Xinis to explain her initial order, specifically the extent to which she required the Trump administration to “effectuate” Mr Garcia’s return, adding that she may have exceeded her authority.

“The district court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,” the Supreme Court said.

A justice department spokesperson told the BBC that the Supreme Court correctly recognised “it is the exclusive prerogative of the president to conduct foreign affairs”.

“By directly noting the deference owed to the executive branch, this ruling once again illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the president’s authority to conduct foreign policy.”

The government has said Mr Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error”, although they also allege he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyer denies.

The case will now return to the trial court. The justices did not give the administration a deadline for when Mr Garcia should be returned.

Mr Garcia, now 29, entered the US illegally as a teenager from El Salvador. In 2019, he was arrested with three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities.

But an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation on the grounds that he might be at risk of persecution from local gangs in his home country.

Mr Garcia, who is married to a US citizen, was deported on 15 March despite a court ruling forbidding it.

His wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura has been calling for his release since his deportation.

“This continues to be an emotional roller coaster for my children, Kilmar’s mother, his brother and siblings,” Ms Sura told the New York Times on Thursday, adding that “I will continue fighting until my husband is home”.

At 01:00 on Tuesday morning Carwin Javie Molleja was dancing with his mother in Santo Domingo’s Jet Set nightclub when he noticed something fall from the ceiling.

At the time, he didn’t think much of it. “No-one thought that because a small stone fell the entire roof was going to collapse,” he says.

The percussionist, who had moved to the Dominican Republic eight years earlier, was out with his mother, Carmin, and friends to see a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez.

It was the first time Carwin, 32, and his mother had seen each other in three years and it was meant to be a night of joy and celebration.

But in the early hours of Tuesday morning, disaster struck.

“What I have in my head are the screams, the loud sound of the ceiling falling in, my mom’s screams asking me if I’m OK, me asking her if she’s OK,” Carwin recalls.

“Everything happened so fast. I guess I closed my eyes and my instinct was to hug my mum.”

Both Carwin and his mother, who had been standing near the stage, were struck on the head by pieces of falling ceiling, but were lucky to avoid serious injury. Rubby Perez was among those killed.

In the chaos that quickly unfolded, Carwin managed to find a door through which he and his mother escaped outside.

But his friend Jessica and her sister were still in the club. Desperate to find them, he decided to go back inside.

Inside the club, Carwin desperately shouted Jessica’s name but no one answered.

He says he felt powerless to help those who had become trapped under the debris.

“The stones were huge. I felt useless.”

Carwin says he then repeatedly went out of the building, where he’d try to call paramedics, then return inside to shout his friend’s name and call her phone.

“After that, the calls stopped going through.”

Carwin describes the aftermath of the collapse as “total chaos”.

“People were going crazy,” he says.

“They were pulling out injured people. I saw when they pulled out the saxophonist who died.”

Within minutes of the collapse, emergency services arrived, as ambulances and stretchers “kept coming”.

Carwin says he remained at the scene for about an hour and a half after the collapse.

In that time, he says he didn’t see any machinery arriving to remove the debris.

He says he wanted to continue trying to find his friend, but needed to take home his mother, who was in pain.

“I needed to get her home and calm her down.”

Later that day, Jessica and her sister’s lifeless bodies were found among the rubble. At least 221 people were killed in the disaster.

Carwin says he regrets not having been able to do more for his friend.

“It was horrible not being able to help her. I yelled her name, but she didn’t answer. It feels awful not being able to do anything.”

An Indian forest worker, who was suspended after he was seen offering water to a cheetah and her cubs in a viral video, has been restored in his job at the sanctuary.

Satyanarayan Gurjar, a driver at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh state, violated instructions which said only authorised personnel could go near the big cats.

Cheetahs became extinct in India in 1952 but they were reintroduced in Kuno in 2022 as part of an ambitious plan to repopulate the species.

“I was suspended but have now been reinstated,” Mr Gurjar told BBC Hindi. “I am thankful to the authorities,” he said, adding that the region’s top forest official was incensed at his act.

Forest officials confirmed his reinstatement after protests by members of his community. Since this was his first offence, forest officials said they let him go with a warning, telling him that if he encountered an animal in distress in future, he should contact the authorities and not intervene himself.

The viral footage surfaced on Sunday with a video showing him pouring water into a metal pan, urged by off-camera voices. Moments later, a cheetah called Jwala and her four cubs drink from it.

Mr Gurjar said he was not at fault and blamed those who made the videos viral.

Referring to the cheetah and her cubs in the video, he said, “I called her by her name, saying ‘Jwala come, Jwala come’. They come only when you call them by their names.”

While initial reports called the video “heart-warming” and praised Mr Gurjar for his “kindness” and “bravery”, many on social media raised safety concerns and urged authorities to create water sources within the park to prevent such encounters.

Mr Gurjar says he isn’t afraid of wild animals as his ancestors have lived in forests for generations.

“I can sense the feelings of 99% of animals just by looking at them. I could immediately sense that the cheetah and her cubs were thirsty and I offered them water,” he said.

Officials say staff sometimes offer water to big cats near park boundaries to lure them back into the forest.

Chief Conservator of Forests Uttam Kumar Sharma said earlier that only trained personnel wre allowed near cheetahs to guide them back and avoid conflict. The man’s actions violated protocol, which clearly instructs staff to keep their distance, he added.

Mr Gurjar also has some advice about what to do if you encounter a big cat. “If you ever face a cheetah, speak to it with love – don’t hit it or throw stones,” he said.

Between 2022 and 2023, 20 cheetahs were relocated from South Africa and Namibia to Kuno – the first intercontinental move of its kind.

Since then, eight have died from causes like kidney failure and mating injuries, raising concerns about the park’s suitability.

Park authorities deny the allegations, saying 26 cheetahs remain -17 in the wild and nine in enclosures.

India is expected to receive 20 more from South Africa this year.

Euphoria and Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane has revealed he has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of motor neurone disease (MND).

Speaking to People, the 52-year-old US actor said he was “grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter”.

“I feel fortunate that I am able to continue working and am looking forward to returning to set of Euphoria next week,” he added, while asking for privacy for himself and his family.

Dane stars as the Jacobs family patriarch Cal Jacobs on hit HBO teen drama show Euphoria, which is due to begin production on season three on Monday.

Before that, he was perhaps best known as Dr Mark Sloan on Grey’s Anatomy from 2006.

He also played Jason Dean in fantasy drama series Charmed, and Captain Tom Chandler in action drama show The Last Ship, while appearing in films such as Marley & Me, Valentine’s Day and Burlesque.

He is married to fellow actress and model Rebecca Gayheart, and the couple have two children.

According to the NHS, MND “encompasses several different conditions whose common feature is the premature degeneration of motor nerves (known as neurons or sometimes neurones)”.

It says nearly 90% of patients with MND have the mixed ALS form of the disease.

• ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare degenerative disease that causes progressive paralysis of the muscles
• Patients first experience twitching or weakness in a limb, often followed by slurred speech
• The disease affects the nerve cells in the brain and spine that control muscle movement, causing patients to slowly lose their ability to speak, eat, walk and breathe independently
• There is no cure for ALS, and, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, people usually live for three to five years after diagnosis although some can live for decades

Donald Trump announced a massive tariff plan last week that would have upended the global economic order as well as long-established trading relationships with America’s allies.

But that plan – or at least a significant part of it – is on ice after the president suspended higher tariffs on most countries for 90 days while leaning into a trade war with China.

So with this partial reversal, is Trump any closer to realising his goals on trade? Here’s a quick look at five of his key ambitions and where they now stand.

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

Trump’s original trade plan packed a big punch that landed around the world, with a flat 10% baseline tariff on everyone (including some uninhabited islands) and additional “reciprocal” tariffs on the 60 countries that he said were the worst offenders.

It sent allies and adversaries scrambling, as they stared down the prospect of a debilitating blow to their economies.

The White House has been quick to boast about all the world leaders who have reached out to the president to make deals and offer trade concessions – “more than 75”, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Although the administration hasn’t released a list of all the countries that Trump said on Tuesday were “kissing my ass” and promising to do anything, the US has announced it is in negotiations with South Korea and Japan, among others.

THE TAKEAWAY: America’s trading partners have 90 days to strike some sort of agreement with Trump, and the clock is ticking. But the fact that talks are happening indicates that the president has a good chance of getting something for his efforts.

• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• What does the tariff pause mean for global trade?

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

Trump has said for decades that tariffs are an effective way of rebuilding America’s manufacturing base by shielding it from unfair foreign competition. While some factories may be able to increase production in current facilities, more substantive efforts take time. And for business leaders to pull the trigger on “reshoring” their production lines and investing in new US factories, they will want to know that the rules of the game are relatively stable.

The president’s on-again, off-again tariff moves over the past week are inherently unstable, however. For the moment, it’s difficult to predict where the final tariff levels will land and which industries will receive the greatest protections. It could be car manufacturers and steel producers today, and high-tech electronics companies tomorrow.

THE TAKEAWAY: When tariffs are applied and removed seemingly at the president’s whim, it’s much more likely that companies – both in the US and abroad – will hunker down and wait for the dust to settle before making any big commitments.

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

After Trump’s tariff about-face on Wednesday, several White House officials – including Treasury Secretary Bessent – were quick to say that Trump’s goal was to drop the hammer on the real villain, China.

“They are the biggest source of the US trade problems,” Bessent told reporters, “and indeed they are the problem for the rest of the world.

If Trump wanted a battle of wills with China, testing each side’s tolerance for economic and political pain, he got one – even if the president and his aides have hinted that they are looking for an exit ramp.

On Wednesday, Trump said that he blamed past US leaders, not China, for the current trade dispute. The prior day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president would be “incredibly gracious” if China reaches out to make a deal.

THE TAKEAWAY: Even if this showdown is one Trump wants, picking a fight with the second-largest economy in the world, with military power to match, comes at enormous risk. And along the way America may have alienated the allies it needs most in such a confrontation.

• Why Trump is hitting China – and what might happen next

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump regularly touted that his proposed tariffs would bring in vast sums in new revenue, which the US could then use to shrink its budget deficit, fund tax cuts and pay for new government programmes.

A study last year by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated that a 10% universal tariff – which is what Trump has landed on for at least the next 90 days – would generate $2tn in new revenue over the next 10 years.

To put that in context, the tax cuts Congress recently included in its non-binding budget blueprint would cost approximately $5tn over the next 10 years, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

THE TAKEAWAY: Trump wanted more tariff revenue, and if he sticks with his baseline tariffs, plus the additional levies on certain imports and larger ones on China, he’s going to get it – at least until Americans switch to more domestic production, when the tariff money gusher could turn to a trickle.

• Is the US making $2bn a day from tariffs?

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

Analysts and experts have offered a grab bag of other explanations about why Trump made such an aggressive move on trade last week. Was he trying to drive down interest rates, or devalue the US dollar or bring the world to the table for a new, global agreement on trade? The president himself hasn’t spoken much about those kinds of elaborate schemes.

One thing he has talked about relentlessly, however, is his desire to lower costs for American consumers – and he has promised that his trade policy will help address this. While energy prices dipped in the week since Trump announced his tariff plan, that may have been a result of fears that the trade wars could trigger a global recession.

The consensus among economists is that new tariffs will drive up consumer prices, as tariffs are tacked on to the price of imports and, eventually, when there is less competition for US-made products. Last year, the Tax Foundation estimated that a 10% universal tariff would increase costs for American households by an average of $1,253 in its first year. Economists also warn that lower-income Americans will be hardest hit.

THE TAKEAWAY: An increase in prices is an arrow moving in the wrong direction – and it represents an enormous potential liability for both Trump’s political standing and his party’s future electoral prospects.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

There were some heroic efforts from Donald Trump and those around him on Wednesday night to suggest the past seven days were something other than absolute chaos.

By this reading, Trump’s 4D game of chess has left China in check. Certainly the Chinese economy faces a massive hit from punitive tariffs in its biggest market. But even accounting for the President’s roll back, the US has still erected a massive protectionist tariff wall, not seen since the 1930s.

The world is left with a universal 10% tariff, irrespective of whether that country (for example the UK or Australia) actually sells less to the US than the US sells to it.

There is now no difference between the EU, which clearly does have a massive trade deficit in goods and was preparing to retaliate, and the UK.

There is also an anxious wait to find out what comes next. One of the questions is whether President Trump pushes ahead with tariffs on medicines, the UK’s second biggest goods export.

Plus there is potential logistical chaos on the cards from a little-noticed multi-million dollar port tax for every cargo vessel docking in the US that was “made in China”. That is more than half of the global merchant fleet – and it is due next week.

Even with Trump’s stated 90 day pause on implementing higher tariffs, there remains too much uncertainty for companies to go through the rigmarole of rerouting global trade.

The central issue now, however, is that the world’s two great economic superpowers are facing off against each other like rutting stags.

Tariffs at these sky-high rates are massively hitting business between two nations which together account for around 3% of the entire world’s trade. The main motorway of the global economy is effectively shut.

The visible tangible consequences of all this will become very real very quickly: Chinese factories will close, workers will stroll from plant to plant looking for work.

Beijing will need to organise a stimulus package to account for the loss of whole percentage points of GDP, the kind of thing that happens when a natural disaster flattens a major city. Painful, but manageable at a cost, though not forever.

Meanwhile the US will see consumer prices surge. President Trump might try to order these US companies not to raise prices, but the effect will come through soon enough.

In theory this will be in sharp contrast to what is happening in other countries in the world. Across the border in Canada, or in Europe, not only will there not be such China-sourced price rises, there could be price cuts.

Trade wars on this scale do not stay confined to the flow of goods. They tend to become currency wars.

What we saw this week was the trade turmoil spread to credit markets, especially the US bond market, having already hit share prices.

Indeed there was an invaluable reveal for the game theory of this conflict. The Trump administration revealed a key pressure point with its concern about the “yippy” – as Trump called it – bond market.

As trading in US government debt continued overnight in Asia, the effective interest rate on these bonds rose to 5%.

This sort of borrowing should not move in such an erratic fashion.

The last time this happened was in the “Dash for Cash”, the key moment of financial fragility at the very beginning of the pandemic. The world was focussed on life or death in March 2020, but this potential further crisis was alleviated only by emergency action.

Effectively, the President’s row back was a form of emergency policy change.

Was the Chinese government behind this rash of US government bond sales in Asia? Probably not. However, what happened on Wednesday highlighted a vulnerability for Trump.

China is the second biggest holder of US government debt in the world and if it chose to, dumping all that debt would be catastrophic for America. But doing so would be a form of mutually assured economic destruction – the losses for China would be huge.

More importantly, what the bond markets were telling Trump is that they are deeply sceptical about his tariff policy.

The US does have the Federal Reserve, which does have some power to tranquillise bond markets. But right now it does not look like its chairman Jerome Powell will ride to the rescue.

The bond market scepticism echoes the sentiment of the ascendant Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He is now pushing for Trump to reach trade deals with their allies because the US needs them to take on China.

Given the US was previously calling these same close allies cheaters, looters and pillagers, there is no way this was the strategy all along.

This does matter. The US needs the EU, UK, the rest of the G7 on side in terms of China. China probably needs those countries just to stay neutral, and carry on soaking up its exports.

The rest of the world has seen Trump’s team struggle to explain tariffing penguin islands or poor African economies and the President himself recirculating the suggestion he was crashing stock markets on purpose. And they’ve witnessed the fact that the tariff rates were changed after they came into effect and also the absurd nature of the equation used to calculate them.

It’s in this context that Trump’s handling of the situation has handed leverage back to the rest of the world, because neither friend nor foe will know quite what they are negotiating with this America.

There is a calm, welcomed by all, but it could be rather brief.

India is the world’s fifth-largest and fastest-growing major economy.

Yet, a recent legacy of protectionism and inward-focused trade policies have held back its global competitiveness.

Its tariffs are high and the share of global exports remains under 2%. India’s vast domestic market has fuelled its growth – outpacing many others, economists argue, largely because the rest of the world is slowing. But in a turbulent, increasingly protectionist era, India’s instinct for self-reliance may oddly serve as a short-term shield.

As countries scramble to recalibrate in response to shifting US trade policies – like Donald Trump’s latest 90-day tariff pause after weeks of sabre-rattling – India’s relative detachment may have helped it weather shocks that have jolted more trade-dependent economies.

“India’s lower exposure to global goods trade could work in our favour. If export-driven economies slow down under tariff pressure, and we continue growing at 6%, we’ll start looking stronger by comparison – especially with our large domestic market to fall back on,” says Rajeswari Sengupta, an associate professor of economics at Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.

“Being trade-shy has turned into an advantage – but we can’t afford complacency. To seize new opportunities, India must stay nimble and open up more to trade gradually and strategically,” she adds.

It may not be easy, given India’s long and complicated relationship with trade barriers and tariffs.

In his book India’s Trade Policy: The 1990s and Beyond, Columbia University economist and noted trade expert Arvind Panagariya traces the complex and often inconsistent evolution of India’s approach to trade.

During the inter-war years, industries like textiles and iron and steel lobbied for – and received – high levels of protection. The chronic shortages of World War Two led to even stricter import controls, enforced through an elaborate licensing system.

While Asian peers such as Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore shifted to export-led strategies in the 1960s – and began posting impressive growth rates of 8–10% annually – India chose to double down on import substitution. As a result, imports as a share of GDP shrank from 10% in 1957–58 to just 4% by 1969–70.

By the mid-1960s, India had banned imports of consumer goods altogether. This not only removed the pressure on domestic producers to improve quality but also denied them access to world-class inputs and technology.

As a result, Indian products lost their competitiveness in global markets and exports stagnated. The resulting foreign exchange shortages led to even tighter import controls, creating a vicious cycle that stifled growth. Between 1951 and 1981, per capita income grew at a sluggish pace of just 1.5% a year.

The turning point came in 1991. Faced with a balance-of-payments crisis, India dismantled many import controls and let the rupee depreciate – a move that gave a much-needed boost to exporters and domestic producers competing with imports. Import licensing on consumer goods ended only in 2001, after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled against it.

The impact was striking: between 2002–03 and 2011–12, India’s exports of goods and services surged six-fold, soaring from $75bn to over $400bn.

With trade liberalisation and other reforms, India’s per capita income grew more in the first 17 years of the 21st Century than it did throughout the entire 20th Century, notes Prof Panagariya.

But the pushback to trade didn’t end.

Trade liberalisation in India was reversed twice – in 1996–97 and again since 2018 – with extensive use of anti-dumping measures to block imports from the most competitive sources, according to Prof Panagariya.

“Many post-colonial states like India harbour a deep-rooted suspicion that international commerce and trade are simply new forms of colonisation. Unfortunately, this mindset still lingers among some policymakers – and that’s a shame,” says Vivek Dehejia, a professor of economics at Carleton University in Canada.

Many economists argue that a decade of protectionist policies has undercut Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative, which focused on capital and technology-intensive sectors while sidelining labour-intensive industries like textiles. As a result, the programme has struggled to deliver meaningful gains in manufacturing and exports.

“If foreigners cannot sell their goods to us, they will not have the revenues to pay for the goods they buy from us. If we cut back on their goods, they will have to cut back on ours,” Prof Panagariya wrote.

Such protectionism has also led to allegations of cronyism.

“Tariffs have created protectionism in several Indian industries, disincentivising investments in efficiency by cosy incumbents and allowing them to steadily garner market power by building up concentrated positions,” according to Viral Acharya, a professor of economics at New York University Stern School of Business.

With the US turning inward and China under pressure, countries belonging to the European Union are scrambling for reliable trade partners – and India could be one of them. To seize this moment, economists believe India must lower its tariffs, boost export competitiveness and signal its openness to global trade.

Sectors like garments, textiles and toys present a golden opportunity, especially for the medium and small-scale sectors. But after a decade of stagnation, the big question is: can they scale up – and will the government back them?

If Trump follows through on his tariff plans after the current pause, India could see a $7.76bn – or 6.4% – drop in exports to the US this year, according to an estimate by Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think tank. (In 2024, India exported $89bn worth of goods to the American market.)

“The Trump tariffs are expected to deliver a mild blow to India’s merchandise exports to the US,” says Ajay Srivastava of GTRI.

He emphasises the need for India to broaden its trade base after securing a balanced deal with the US. This includes fast-tracking agreements with the EU, UK and Canada, while deepening ties with China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Asean.

At home, real impact hinges on reforms: simpler tariffs, a smoother goods and services tax (GST), better trade processes and fair implementation of quality controls. Without these, India risks missing the global moment.

There has been a historic upheaval in American trade policy.

The announcement of Donald Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on 2 April – what he called “liberation day” – sent a shockwave through the global trading system and financial markets.

And the President’s 90-day pause on some of these tariffs on 9 April set off a relief rally in stock markets.

But where has the rollercoaster of new US tariff announcements – and partial reversals – actually left the situation?

And what will it all mean for global trade?

The announced pause only applies to some of the new tariffs – taxes on imports – that Donald Trump announced on 2 April.

The new minimum 10% tariff rate, which came into effect on Saturday 5 April, is still in place for goods coming from all countries, including the UK.

There are exemptions for pharmaceuticals and microchips and some other items.

But that 10% tariff in itself is a major change in America’s trading relations with all other countries.

And for China, the rate will not fall at all but will be hiked further to 125%, plus another 20% linked to the drug fentanyl.

Nevertheless, the pause means the rates above 10% for 59 other territories will be suspended until July.

That includes 46% on Vietnam, 44% on Sri Lanka and 20% on the European Union.

That’s something of a relief for these nations, especially developing countries that rely heavily on manufactured goods exports to America.

Exports to the US are equivalent to 30% of Vietnam’s economy and there were fears a 46% tariff would have plunged the South East Asian nation into recession.

But Vietnam and others will still be paying the new 10% minimum tariff rate when previously many were facing substantially lower levies.

And countries such as Australia and South Korea, which had free trade deals with Washington – meaning zero tariffs on many exports to the US – will still see a major break in their trading relationships with America. They too will be subject to the 10% tariff.

The president has unilaterally torn up those free trade deals – as well as the one America had with Canada and Mexico, which Trump signed in his first term.

Numerous other tariffs Trump has announced since returning to the White House remain in place and are not affected by the pause.

That includes:

• 25% tariffs on all car imports to America, including from the UK
• 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, including products made from these metals
• 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico and Canada.

In big picture terms, economists warn the extent to which the pause actually changes the direction of overall US trade policy should not be exaggerated.

Bloomberg Economics has calculated the US’s average tariff on all its imports was set to go to 27% before the pause, the highest in more than 100 years.

And after the pause they estimate it will rise to 24%, still the highest in a century.

The pause on some tariffs has made relatively little difference for two reasons.

First, because the 10% universal rate on all US imports still applies.

Second, because of the president’s simultaneous hike, alongside the pause, in the tariff rate imposed on all imports from China, from 104% to 125%.

The US imported $440bn (£340bn) of goods from China in 2024, according to official US data.

That still represented around 13% of all US goods imports.

Most economists think, even after the pause, this all represents a major shift in US trade policy, which will harm the global economy.

And the intensification of the US trade war with China on top of this is expected to do further damage.

China and the US between them were projected to account for around 43% of the global economy by the International Monetary Fund in 2025.

A slowdown in both economies as a result of the trade conflict will have a knock-on negative effect on most other countries.

And economists caution that the impact of the additional uncertainty created by Trump’s pause will in itself further undermine the world economy by holding back corporate investment.

Before the Trump pause, some hoped the UK could potentially benefit in some ways from the new round of Trump tariffs.

The UK’s relatively lower tariff of 10% could have incentivised some multinational companies to produce more in Britain – rather than in the EU, which was facing a 20% tariff – for export to the US.

With the EU now facing the same US tariff as the UK that incentive has gone, although the UK government hopes to ultimately negotiate a free trade deal with the US to eliminate the 10% tariff.

It’s also the case that the majority of the UK’s exports to the US are services, rather than goods, and services are not affected by the US tariffs.

Nevertheless, the UK is now in the same position as almost every other country in the world with respect to US tariff barriers on goods.

The UK is still facing America’s 25% tariff on aluminium and steel exports – and also on products derived from those metals.

The UK exported $720m (£558m) of raw steel and aluminium to America in 2024 according to United Nations data.

And calculations by the Global Trade Alert research group suggest UK exports of metal products that are exposed to these new tariffs amounted to $2.9bn in 2024.

The UK is also subject to the new blanket US 25% import tariff on cars.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows the UK exported $9bn of cars to the US in 2024, around a quarter of its total car exports.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

When Chloe Qisha was training to be a therapist, she wondered whether her dreams of being a pop star would ever come true.

Now, with one of the biggest artists in the US covering her songs and a spot on the BBC Radio 1 playlist, it’s definitely happening for the singer even if, in her words, she’s “a little bit late”.

But, speaking to BBC Newsbeat, Chloe says “late” actually feels like the perfect time.

The London-based singer, who was born in Malaysia, has been breaking through with her track 21st Century Cool Girl, which she describes as “an ode to my teenage self”, about the insecurities and drama of teen romance.

Chloe laughs when she says that success has come after her brain had time to “fully develop”.

“I think if it happened any earlier in my life I would have messed it up for myself,” she says.

“I’m looking back at my younger self, who was a bit of a trainwreck of a human being, and just being like, ‘You’ve got this, it’s gonna work out, it’s going to be great’.

“It took a lot of finessing over the years but now this is my whole life and I’m just so excited.

“It feels like what Chloe Qisha was always meant to do.”

Chloe released her first self-titled EP back in November and has been busy releasing new music since.

She confesses her route into music – doing a psychology degree first – was “a little bit backwards”.

Chloe started writing songs at uni, after posting covers on YouTube inspired her to get deeper into the process.

“I realised I needed to learn how to write songs if I wanted to do this,” she says.

However, she thinks having the extra time and experience helped to reassure her that music was “100% the right path” for her.

But Chloe says her degree in psychology has influenced a lot of her songs, which explore themes of wellbeing.

“It’s like learning to accept yourself, learning to accept the insecurities and everything like that,” she says.

“I’m here as my older self, feeling more set and confident in my mental health,” she says.

Chloe might have left the textbooks behind as her career takes off, but the learning hasn’t stopped, she says, admitting she’s still finding out things about being a pop star.

She performed at BBC Introducing’s Ones To Watch showcase in January and says being on stage means focusing on more than just the music and the songwriting.

It’s also the live performances, filming music videos and adapting to professional choreography as someone better known for “really terrible dad dancing”.

All that work is worthwhile though, she says, when crowds of fans sing along to her songs.

“It’s moments like that you just can’t replace.

“It’s just so special.”

Critics, as well as fans, are starting to notice with the likes of Rolling Stone and NME dubbing Chloe as an artist to watch.

She has more than 700k monthly listeners on Spotify and when she recently released tickets for her first headline show in London it sold out in four minutes.

And she’s made a name on the other side of the world too, being spotted by US singer and chat show host Kelly Clarkson.

The American Idol winner’s TV programme features a “Kellyoke” segment where she covers other artists.

Usually those songs are by high-profile singers such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Coldplay.

But in February she picked Chloe’s song I Lied, I’m Sorry, just a couple of months after the track was featured as BBC Introducing’s Track of the Week.

Chloe says her song being performed on the show is something she still hasn’t processed.

“Kelly Clarkson. This almost, fantasy, beautiful, human being,” says Chloe.

“It just feels surreal, I still think it’s a prank.

“It’s such an honour, I feel so blessed,” she says.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.

This week saw the global markets ride a rollercoaster led by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, Madonna bury the hatchet with Elton John, and new details revealed about how the Titanic sank.

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

Quiz compiled by Ben Fell.

In the mood for more? Try last week’s quiz, or have a go at something from the archives.

It was a typical Friday lunchtime in Beirut’s southern suburb. Then, a single warning, posted in Arabic on X by a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), triggered panic and chaos in the densely populated area known as Dahieh.

“Urgent warning to those in the southern suburb of Beirut,” it read. The post included a map of a residential area, marking a building in red and two nearby schools. The IDF identified the building as a Hezbollah facility, and ordered the immediate evacuation of the schools.

An air strike was imminent.

What followed were scenes of sheer panic. Parents rushed towards the threatened area to collect their children from the schools, while residents fled in the opposite direction, visibly shaken and fearful.

“It was total chaos,” recalls Ahmad Alama, the director of St Georges School, one of those highlighted on the map. “We tried to contain the situation as much as we could, but it was crazy.”

The area was soon cleared, and Israeli forces destroyed the marked building, which they said was a warehouse storing Hezbollah drones.

The strike, carried out two weeks ago, was the first on Dahieh – an area with a strong Hezbollah presence – since a ceasefire ending the war between Israel and Hezbollah took effect last November.

It came hours after two rockets were launched from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel. Israel said it intercepted one rocket, while the other fell short of the border.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant and political group, denied involvement. Israel described the rocket fire as a ceasefire “violation”, while the office of Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the Israeli strike as a “violation of the agreement”.

“We thought the war had ended with the ceasefire,” says Mr Alama, “But unfortunately, we’re still living it every day.”

• What is Hezbollah and why has it been fighting Israel in Lebanon?
• Hezbollah at crossroads after blows from war weaken group

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued near-daily strikes on people and targets it says are linked to Hezbollah, saying it is acting to stop Hezbollah from rearming. The strikes have mainly occurred in southern Lebanon, but the recent bombings in Dahieh have sparked particular alarm.

On 1 April, a second Israeli strike hit the area – this time without warning – killing a Hezbollah commander and three other people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Mr Alama has been running St Georges School for 30 years. It serves around 1,000 children of all ages, boys and girls. Although religion is part of the curriculum for older pupils, he describes the school as secular.

It is also well-known in the community for its association with the Lebanese pop star and talent show judge, Ragheb Alama – Ahmad Alama’s brother and the school’s owner.

The recently destroyed building lies just metres from the school. It isn’t the only nearby scene of devastation. Another building, opposite one of St Georges’ gates, remains a massive pile of rubble – brought down by Israeli air strikes before the ceasefire.

During the war, the schools were closed. They didn’t have to deal with situations such as the one they faced. Now reopened, they are braced for the possibility of more bombing.

The school has devised evacuation plans, designating emergency meeting points in the basement and routes for pupils and staff to follow in case of any danger.

There are also new communication plans with parents to prevent a repeat of the chaos of last month’s strike. Children are now routinely reminded of these procedures, with regular evacuation drills.

Students, staff, and parents alike are traumatised by what happened, Mr Alama says.

Initially, the school considered cutting back on extracurricular activities to make up for lost learning, but they changed their minds.

“We decided otherwise,” Mr Alama says. “Pupils shouldn’t pay the price for something they aren’t responsible for. We’ve actually ended up increasing these activities – these kids need to release some of the pressure on them.”

Nearly five months into the ceasefire, the return of Israeli air strikes to Beirut has intensified fears of a return to all-out war.

The ceasefire was meant to end more than 13 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which began when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israeli military positions the day after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, saying it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

• The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal

The conflict escalated in September 2024, when Israel launched a devastating air campaign across Lebanon and invaded the south of the country.

Dahieh, deserted during the war, is bustling again. Shops have reopened, hookah smokers are back at crowded cafes, and the suburb seems as busy as before, with its persistently paralysing traffic.

But amid these signs of normality, scenes of destruction serve as a reminder of the pounding this area endured just months ago.

Some 346 buildings in the area were destroyed and another were 145 partly damaged by Israeli air strikes, according to a municipal official. Israel said it targeted Hezbollah facilities and weapons caches.

In many neighbourhoods, the rubble is still being cleared. The roar of bulldozers and jackhammers drilling into piles of debris is almost constant.

Some of the mounds of debris have Hezbollah flags planted on top of them, while large and small portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah leader killed by Israel during the war, line the roads.

However, amid the customary signs of defiance, many are now expressing a deep concern not always voiced – at least in front of cameras – by residents of Dahieh.

“The destruction is terrifying. I see the destroyed buildings and I cry,” says Sawsan Hariri, the headteacher of Burj High School, also in Dahieh.

The school, which also sits opposite a flattened building, sustained damage from nearby strikes.

“It’s depressing. Walking on the street, driving your car – it’s all just depressing.”

Ms Hariri used to live on the top floor of the school building with her husband and daughter, but their home has been destroyed. They now rent a flat nearby.

Before the war, Burj High School had around 600 pupils. Now, it has barely 100.

Many parents are reluctant to send their children back amid the scenes of destruction and the constant buzz of machinery. Others were concerned about the health risks, with thick dust still filling the air.

After the ceasefire, owners of the private school made some basic repairs at their own expense.

Hezbollah, which is banned as a terrorist organisation in many countries but in Lebanon is a political and social movement as well as a paramilitary force, has given those who lost their homes $12,000 for a year’s rent and has offered to cover the costs of repairs to apartments. However, schools and other institutions have not received any aid.

The Lebanese government has pledged to set up a reconstruction fund, which the World Bank estimates will cost $11bn nationwide. But international donors are believed to be insisting on the disarmament of Hezbollah and political reform – conditions that appear a distant prospect.

Though the clearing of rubble is expected to be over by the end of the year, few expect large-scale rebuilding to follow anytime soon.

Israeli troops fired more than 100 times during an attack in which they killed 15 emergency workers in Gaza, with some shots from as close as 12m (39ft) away, a forensic audio analysis of mobile phone footage commissioned by BBC Verify has found.

Two audio experts examined a 19-minute video authenticated by BBC Verify, showing the incident and the moments leading up to it near Rafah on 23 March.

The findings support a claim made by the Palestinian Red Crescent that the workers were “targeted from a very close range”. On 5 April an Israeli army official said aerial footage showed troops opening fire “from afar”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment on the analysis directly when approached by BBC Verify.

A spokesperson said it was investigating the attack and repeated claims that six of the people killed were linked to Hamas, without offering evidence. The Palestinian Red Crescent rejected the allegation, as did a ninth paramedic who survived and was detained by the IDF for 15 hours.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the full video was recovered from the phone of a medic killed and buried in a shallow grave by the IDF.

Video filmed by medic Rifaat Radwan who was killed in the incident showed the convoy driving at night, using headlights and flashing emergency lights. At least one medic can be seen wearing a high-vis jacket.

Faced with this, the Israeli army changed its account, admitting that its initial statement that the convoy approached “suspiciously” with its lights off was inaccurate.

Experts told BBC Verify they used sound waveforms and spectrograms to measure the distance of the gunfire from the microphone of the mobile. Shortened time gaps indicate that the distance between the microphone and the gunfire decreased as the video progressed.

They concluded that the first shots were fired from around 40m to 43m away. But towards the end of the video, gunfire came from around 12m away.

At a briefing on 5 April, an IDF official told reporters that surveillance showed the troops were at some distance when they opened fire, adding: “It’s not from close. They opened fire from afar.”

One military expert told BBC Verify that any engagements under 50m to 100m would be considered as being within close range.

Robert Maher, an audio forensics expert at Montana State University, said towards the start of the footage one firearm is discharged about 43m away from the mobile phone.

Mr Maher and another expert, Steven Beck, independently corroborated one another’s view that in the final few moments of the audio, shots are fired as close at 12m away.

Mr Beck, a former FBI consultant who now runs Beck Audio Forensics, said: “The shooter(s) at these times is much closer, with distances of 12m to 18m. There is a strange pop sound that may be a tire hit by a bullet.”

He added: “The shockwaves indicate that the bullets are passing close to the recorder microphone – meaning they are being shot at.”

Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British Army officer with over 20 years experience in conducting investigations in conflicts zones, said that at 50m the Israeli troops would have “definitively been able to identify the convoy as humanitarian” and would have been able to “determine that the personnel were unarmed and not posing a threat”.

• Israel changes account of Gaza medic killings after video showed deadly attack
• Survivor challenges Israeli account of attack on Gaza paramedics

Voices can also be heard towards the end of the recording, shouting in Hebrew: “Get up,” and: “You (plural) go back”.

Over the period of more than five minutes, at times, multiple firearms were in use simultaneously, the audio experts determined.

Mr Maher said “the sounds are often overlapping in such a way that it is clear multiple firearms are in use at the same time”.

Because of the overlap of gunshots, Mr Maher said it’s difficult to identify individual shots. But both experts determined independently that there were more than 100 shots.

Our audio analysts could not comment on which weapons were being used but Mr Beck said there are “several bursts of fully automatic gunfire”.

A bullet travelling at supersonic speed first creates a sonic boom – often called a “crack”. The sound of the bullet being fired is what creates a second sound, often called a “pop”.

At close distances, the two sounds are almost indiscernible to the human ear.

But by looking closely at the waveform of the audio, the two sounds can be detected and the distance between them measured.

What Mr Maher describes as “crack-pop sequences” are visible in these waveforms.

Mr Maher said the further away the firearm is from the microphone, the longer the gap between the two sounds.

Mr Maher said: “The first few audible gunshots have a crack-pop timing of about 72ms. Assuming a bullet speed of 800 m/s and speed of sound 343 m/s, that time gap implies the firearm was about 43 meters away. If the bullet speed were actually faster, that would move the firearm estimate closer to the microphone.”

There are limitations to their estimates. For example, analysts told us they cannot be certain of the type of firearm used or of the miss distance, which is how far off the shot is from the intended target. They also must make an assumption about the average speed of the bullet.

BBC Verify will continue to investigate this incident.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

The corner shop Ramji Dharod has manned for over six decades is now on the brink of closure.

The store sits in a bylane in the central Indian city of Mumbai’s busy shopping precinct, and has served the community for 75 years.

Dharod began coming to the shop with his father when he was just 10. These days, he mostly sits idle, waiting for an occasional customer to walk in.

Behind him, cardboard boxes of unsold biscuit packets and snacks show a “stock clearance sale” sign posted on them.

“I wouldn’t get a minute to breathe a few years ago, but now I rarely get anyone coming,” says the septuagenarian wryly. “They are all shopping online. I’ve decided to retire and down the shutters.”

As 10-minute online deliveries by “quick commerce” apps like Zomato, BlinkIt and Zepto pervade urban India, hundreds of thousands of neighbourhood stores across cities have closed down.

A lobby group of consumer product distributors estimated that number to be 200,000 last October, while the municipal body of the southern city of Chennai estimated 20% of small grocers and 30% of larger departmental stores had shut down in the city in the past 5 years.

Sunil Kenia who runs a provision store right beside Dharod’s shop says he’s still in business only because his family owns the shop. Those on rent are no longer able to stay afloat, he says.

“It started going downhill after the Covid lockdowns. Business is at 50% of what we did before the pandemic,” Kenia told the BBC.

Most of his revenue now comes from wholesale customers – hawkers or those selling street-side snacks. The retail customer has all but “vanished”, he says, because of the convenience of mobile deliveries.

Mumbai-based graphic designer Monisha Sathe is among the millions of urban Indians who’ve stopped their weekly run to the market because of the ease of quick commerce.

“Lugging groceries back home was a big pain,” says Sathe. And occasionally, when she took out her car, navigating narrow market lanes and finding a parking slot would be a challenge.

Sathe says she misses the human interaction she had with the grocers and vegetable vendors and even the variety of fresh produce on sale – but for her, the balance still tilts in favour of online deliveries because of how much easier it has made her life.

A recent survey by consultancy PwC shows some 42% of urban consumers in India’s big cities think like Sathe, especially preferring quick delivery for their urgent needs. And these shifts in buying behaviour have led to three out of 10 retailers reporting a negative impact on their business, with a 52% drop in essential goods sales.

But to what extent is quick commerce really hollowing out the Indian high street?

There’s no doubt general trade – which includes grocery stores, corner shops and even big retail outlets – has come under threat, says Ankur Bisen, a partner at Technopak retail advisory. But at least for now “quick commerce is still a three-four city story”, he says. Nearly all of their sales come from these cities.

Lightning fast deliveries bucked the global trend and became successful in India largely due to a large concentration of people staying in urban clusters.

They are serviced through low-rent “dark stores” – or small shops dedicated to delivery and not open to the public – in densely populated areas, enabling economies of scale.

But the precarious nature of demand and fragmented demographics of smaller towns could make it expensive for quick commerce players to expand and make money beyond the metros, says Mr Bisen.

There’s little doubt though that these online deliveries will disrupt trade in the longer run.

Bain and Company expects quick commerce to grow at over 40% annually through to 2030, driven by expansion across “geographies”.

And this has made traditional retail nervous.

Trade organisations – like the Confederation of All India Traders, or the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation which calls itself the voice of India’s 13m retailers – have made urgent and repeated pleas to the government against this breakneck expansion.

They allege that these companies are using billions of dollars in venture capital funds to engage in anti-competitive practices like “predatory pricing” or “deep discounting” which has further distorted the playing field for mom-and-pop shops.

The BBC spoke to several small retailers who shared these concerns. Mr Bisen too agreed there’s evidence of such practices in the clusters that quick commerce companies operate.

Swiggy, Zepto and Blinkit, who primarily control this market, did not agree to comment on the BBC’s queries on these allegations.

But a source within one of the quick commerce companies told the BBC the discounting was done by traders on the platform and not by them.

The source also said that contrary to the binary narrative of the “big guy versus small guy”, online deliveries were solving real-world challenges for people for whom going to the market was a “traumatic” experience.

“Think of women or senior citizens – they don’t want to be harassed or navigate potholes and traffic,” the source said. “Also consider the small brands that sell on our platform – they never get shelf space in physical shops where only the big names are displayed. We’ve democratised the market.”

Analysts say, the sheer diversity of India in terms of its stages of development, levels of income and infrastructure will mean that in the end all retail models – small corner shops, organised big retailers and quick commerce platforms – will cohabit in the country.

This is not a “winner takes all market”, says Mr Bisen, giving the example of e-commerce which came into India in 2010 and was meant to sound the death knell of local retailers.

Even after all these years, only 4% of all shopping is done online in India.

But the ripples caused by quick commerce should be a warning for physical retailers, say analysts, to improve their marketing and integrate technology to use both online and offline channels to give their consumers a better shopping experience.

Competing with click-of-a-button delivery means it can no longer be business as usual for the millions of corner shops who’ve existed for decades, with little or no innovation.

Michelle Obama has spoken out against rumours that her marriage to Barack Obama might be in trouble.

The former first lady has not accompanied her husband to several high-profile events – including Donald Trump’s inauguration and the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter – fuelling speculation that they might be separating.

Without explicitly mentioning these occasions, Mrs Obama told the Work in Progress podcast hosted by actress Sophia Bush that she was now in a position to control her own calendar as a “grown woman”.

She said that people were not able to believe that she was “making a decision” for herself and instead “had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing”.

Mrs Obama shared that she felt some guilt for stepping back from certain duties.

“That’s the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with like disappointing people,” she said.

“I mean, so much so that this year people couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.

“This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right? But that’s what society does to us.”

Mrs Obama also said in the podcast: “I chose to do what was best for me. Not what I had to do. Not what I thought other people wanted me to do.”

While her absence from President Trump’s inauguration was seen as a break from tradition, she did give a high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this past summer.

“Hope is making a comeback,” she told a Chicago crowd of thousands at the DNC, as she urged them to throw their weight behind then-presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Despite carving out more time for herself, the former first lady said she still finds time to “give speeches, to be out there in the world, to work on projects. I still care about girls’ education”.

The Obamas celebrated their 32nd anniversary last year in October.

Mrs Obama has previously been open about the struggles she faced in her marriage due to Mr Obama’s political ambitions and time in the White House in her best-selling memoir, Becoming.

She wrote in the book that her husband’s aspirations resulted in loneliness and exhaustion.

A mother is pleading to be reunited with her 10-year-old son who she has not seen in four years.

Lobna Yakout, who was raised in Northern Ireland, told BBC News NI her son Zayn was taken by her ex-husband while she was living in Egypt.

Her former husband, Karim Selim, 37, has since been convicted of the murder and torture of three women in Cairo, last year, according to local media reports. He has been sentenced to death.

The BBC has seen an Egyptian court document, from July, showing that Lobna has custody of Zayn. As far as Lobna is aware, this is still the legal position.

Lobna’s MP, Sinn Féin’s John Finucane, who has been helping her, said it was a “distressing” situation.

She has not seen Zayn since 2021, but said she had made numerous attempts to reunite with him.

Her son was born in Michigan, in the US, but the family moved to Egypt when he was two. She also brought Zayn on a visit to Belfast when he was one.

Lobna said she was in an abusive marriage with Selim for more than seven years and that she feared for her life before leaving him in 2020.

“It got to a point where I just couldn’t stay,” she told BBC News NI.

“I took my son and left. He didn’t contact us for six months, then he wanted us back.”

However, in 2021, at a short meeting with his father in Egypt, she said Zayn was taken away from her and she has not seen him since.

“I have been fighting to see him,” she said.

Lobna told the BBC that her ex tried to kill her and sent threatening messages.

It was then that she fled back to Belfast.

“No-one believed that he would try to kill me. I knew deep down he was going to kill me,” she said.

When the teacher came back to Belfast she trained in aesthetics to make money for her legal battle.

“I didn’t want to be a teacher and have one location where I could be found, so with aesthetics I can plan my location and clients,” she said.

In May 2024, she was then told the shocking news that he been accused of killing three people.

Selim was convicted last August of the murders of three women in Egypt.

She told BBC News NI she was able to get a “forced divorce” – a Khula – where a wife initiates divorce proceedings – part of family law, which is based on Islamic principles, in November 2024.

Lobna understands that her son, who is also a US citizen, is in Egypt and was placed with her former mother-in-law following Karim’s arrest.

Lobna said living without her son had been very difficult and she felt “numb”.

She has moved back to Egypt and has hired a lawyer to try to get Zayn returned to her custody, but has been highly critical of initial Egyptian police efforts to get her son back.

Lobna has also taken to social media channels, like TikTok, where her videos have been getting millions of views.

Lobna said her attempts at communication with her former in-laws have not been successful.

She said she continued to message her mother-in-law on the only numbers she has for her about her son, but does not get a reply, adding that the number has now blocked her.

“As a soon as I wake up I text my son: ‘I miss you, love you, hope you’re ok.’

“I need my son back – I want him back. He is 10 now.

“He is going to have social media. Someone must have seen him.”

The BBC has spoken to Zayn’s paternal grandmother, who disputes Lobna’s account of the situation and said she was originally given custody after his father’s arrest and said this was because Lobna was not considered a fit person to look after her son.

Due to the four years that Lobna has not been in her son’s life, she believes Lobna effectively abandoned her son.

She disputes Lobna’s custody claim and said she is acting in his best interests and is worried about the impact of the publicity on him.

Lobna’s lawyer, Shady Abdellatif Abdel Rahman, specialises in family law.

“Her ex-husband is a serial killer and he is still in the courts and there is a decision to kill him,” he told BBC News NI.

He said the Prosecutor General in Egypt had ruled that Zayn should be given back to Lobna, but added “we need to know the location of the boy”.

He has a meeting with the Assistant Minister of Justice for International Cooperation planned and is hopeful this will help to find Zayn and “bring him to his mother”.

“Until now I have helped 80 kids to get back to their mothers around the world.”

He hopes Zayn will be 81.

Lobna’s other lawyer, Ashraf Farahat, who she hired in autumn 2024, has also been working on her behalf.

“The husband’s mother keeps changing her residence address, which makes it difficult to enforce the legal order,” he told BBC News NI in December.

He said “we are taking this to the next level of pursuing a legal order against the husband’s mother we are hoping this will force her to surrender the child”.

Zayn’s grandmother strenuously denies the allegations that she has changed her residence address.

Lobna believes she will see Zayn again but said she is going public because if she does not, “when he grows up he will know that his mother loves him and has been looking for him”.

“I will never stop looking for you until the day that I die.”

Belfast North MP Sinn Féin’s John Finucane has been in contact with UK government ministers to ask what assistance they can provide to Lobna and her family to help bring her son home.

In a letter, seen by BBC News NI, Finucane was told by the Middle East and North Africa Minister Hamish Falconer that consular officials were in touch with her and the US Embassy and the British Embassy had registered its concern with the Egyptian foreign ministry.

A British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson told the BBC it had “provided support to a British woman in Egypt”.

BBC News NI understands that the US embassy has done a welfare check on Zayn.

When BBC News NI contacted the US State Department a spokeswoman said: “One of the highest priorities of the US Department of State is the safety and welfare of US citizens overseas, and we are dedicated to the safety and welfare of children – some of our most vulnerable citizens. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”

The BBC has also attempted to contact the Egyptian Interior Ministry and police.

If you have been affected by any of the content of this article, details of support can be found on the BBC Action Line website.

A general strike against public spending cuts in Argentina has severely disrupted transport.

All domestic flights have been cancelled, while trains and metro services have been suspended in Buenos Aires and other parts of the country.

Many shops remained closed in the capital but bus drivers continued to work. Airlines said international flights would go ahead as planned, with only a few delays.

It is the third general strike called by Argentina’s powerful unions since President Javier Milei took office at the end of 2023.

Since then, the president has introduced tough austerity measures to tackle hyperinflation. His plan has worked so far, with inflation down from more than 200% to about 60% a year. But the unions say the most vulnerable in society have been affected, including pensioners and low-paid workers.

Milei has slashed subsidies for transport, fuel and energy, fired tens of thousands of public servants and closed government departments.

Horacio Bianchi, a retired teacher living in Buenos Aires, told the Associated Press news agency people were suffering as they “don’t have enough money to eat”.

“These people [the government] came to solve the problems and they have absolutely worsened them for everyone,” he added.

On Wednesday, workers had joined a weekly protest staged by pensioners who have seen their pension funds slashed. In recent weeks, their protests have ended in violence as sympathetic groups, such as football fans, clashed with police.

The protest action comes as the Argentine government awaits whether it will be granted a new $20bn (£15.4bn) loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The country already owes the lender $44bn.

The US Treasury said Milei had “brought Argentina back from economic oblivion”.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will travel to Buenos Aires on Monday in support of the reforms.

Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has been cast in a new play as Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, the Royal Shakespeare Company has announced.

Born With Teeth will explore the relationship between a 27-year-old Marlowe and rising star William Shakespeare, as they are forced to work together on a new piece of work.

Gatwa said he was “so excited” to be appearing in the play, which he said was “like no version of Shakespeare and Marlowe that I’ve ever seen before”.

Shakespeare will be portrayed by Edward Bluemel, who has starred in Killing Eve, A Discovery of Witches, and alongside Gatwa in Sex Education.

The show will play for 11 weeks at the Wyndham’s Theatre from 13 August.

Born With Teeth, written Liz Duffy Adams, will take an “irreverent” look at the “high-octane world of two of the theatre’s greatest literary icons”, the RSC said.

Set in the backroom of a pub in 1591, the show sees Marlowe and Shakespeare forced to come together across three secret meetings to collaborate on a new play.

It’s a dangerous time for artists in England, a country rife with paranoia where spies are everywhere, and as the rivals duel with each other, they become increasingly tempted by the idea of betrayal.

The play premiered in Houston in 2022 and has since been performed around the US in Oregon, California and Florida, but this will mark its West End debut.

The UK production will be directed by Daniel Evans, whose previous stage credits include a production of American Buffalo starring Damian Lewis and John Goodman, and the James Graham play Quiz, about the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire coughing scandal.

In a statement, Bluemel said he felt “incredibly proud and excited” to be working with Gatwa and Evans.

“To be stepping into the shoes of a young William Shakespeare is a huge thrill for any actor and I can’t wait to get started,” he said.

“When I read Liz Duffy Adams’ script, I was instantly drawn into the high-stakes world of these two rival playwrights and the incredible, creative chemistry they share.

“There’s a real freshness and vitality to Liz’s writing that speaks directly to our world, and I can’t wait for West End audiences to experience it for the first time.”

Gatwa said: “Liz Duffy Adams has written an exceptional play that is smart, dark, sexy, sharp and funny! There’s a lot to get one’s teeth into.

“This is like no version of Shakespeare and Marlowe that I’ve ever seen before, and I can’t wait for audiences to join us for the ride”.

In a review after the play’s Texas premiere, Broadway World’s Christian Gill said: “It’s one part fan fiction, one part examination of egos, and another part commentary of the destructive capabilities of societal expectations.

“We spend ninety minutes watching a game between the best writers of their time.”

Rohan Preston of the Minnesota Star Tribune added: “The play cuts to the bone as Kit and Will trade barbs, ambitions and, ultimately, places in a history play that rewrites our understanding of these two figures.”

Gatwa got his breakthrough role playing Eric in Netflix’s Sex Education and has also appeared in Barbie.

He was cast in Doctor Who in 2022, taking over the lead role from Jodie Whittaker. His second season as the Doctor due to begin airing this weekend.

Gatwa’s casting in Born With Teeth comes after unconfirmed reports that he is set to leave Doctor Who, and that the show may be facing the axe. Neither Gatwa, the BBC or Disney+ have commented on the reports.

A Pakistan-born Chicago businessman wanted in India for his role in the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai city has been remanded in custody for 18 days.

Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen, landed in Delhi on Thursday. India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) confirmed his extradition had been successful.

Indian authorities accuse 64-year-old Rana of aiding the Mumbai attacks by working with childhood friend David Headley to support Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani group blamed for the assault.

On 26 November 2008, 10 militants launched deadly attacks across Mumbai, killing 166 and injuring hundreds, before being stopped by security forces on 29 November.

Rana was extradited from the US and arrested by the NIA upon arrival in Delhi on Thursday evening.

He was escorted to a special court under heavy security, trailed by dozens of journalists vying for a glimpse of Rana.

On Friday, the NIA said in a statement that the agency would question Rana “in detail in order to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the deadly 2008 attacks”.

India’s home ministry has appointed well-known lawyer Narendra Mann to lead the prosecution in the case.

Rana or his lawyers have not made any public comments yet.

On Friday, the US Embassy in Delhi said in a press release that Rana was to stand trial in India on 10 criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in the attacks.

“Rana’s extradition is a critical step toward seeking justice for the six Americans and scores of other victims who were killed in the heinous attacks,” it said.

In 2011, a US court cleared Rana of directly plotting the attacks but convicted him of supporting the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2013 but released in 2020 on health grounds. He was re-arrested later that year after India requested his extradition.

A US court approved Rana’s extradition in 2023, but he remained in custody awaiting final government clearance.

In February, President Donald Trump approved the move following a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The US Supreme Court later rejected Rana’s appeals against the decision.

US prosecutors in the case said that in 2006, Rana allowed Headley to open an office of his Chicago-based immigration services firm in Mumbai, which Headley then used as cover to scout sites for the 2008 attacks.

The charges brought against Rana by the NIA include criminal conspiracy, waging war against the Indian government and terrorism.

The head of the US military base in Greenland has been fired after she reportedly sent an email distancing herself from Vice-President JD Vance’s criticism of Denmark.

The US military’s Space Operations Command said Col Susannah Meyers had been removed from her role at Pituffik Space Base due to a “loss of confidence in her ability to lead”.

Last month, Vance said Denmark had “not done a good job” for Greenlanders and had not spent enough on security while visiting the Danish territory.

The alleged email, released by a military news site, told staff Vance’s comments were “not reflective” of the base. A Pentagon spokesman cited the article, saying “undermining” US leadership was not tolerated.

Following Vance’s trip, on 31 March, Col Meyers is reported to have written: “I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice-President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base.”

Military.com – which published the email – said the contents had been confirmed as accurate to them by the US Space Force.

Appearing to confirm this was the reason for her firing, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell linked to the Military.com article in a post on X, writing: “Actions [that] undermine the chain of command or to subvert President [Donald] Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense.”

The Space Force’s statement announcing Col Meyers’ removal on Thursday said that Col Shawn Lee was replacing her.

It added: “Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties.”

Col Meyers had assumed command of the Arctic station in July last year. Col Lee was previously a squadron commander at the Clear Space Force Station in Alaska.

During his whirlwind trip, Vance had also reiterated Trump’s desire to annex Greenland for security reasons.

Since the US delegation’s visit, both Greenland and Denmark have shown a united front, opposing a US annexation of the autonomous Danish territory.

Earlier this month, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s official visit saw her stand side-by-side with her Greenlandic counterpart Jens-Frederik Nielsen and his predecessor, Mute Egede.

Speaking to reporters, Frederiksen directly addressed Trump, telling him: “You can’t annex other countries.”

She added that Denmark was fortifying its military presence in the Arctic, and offered closer collaboration with the US in defending the region.

The US has long maintained a security interest in Greenland as a strategically important territory. It has had a military presence on the island since occupying it following the occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany during World War Two.

“If Russia were to send missiles towards the US, the shortest route for nuclear weapons would be via the North Pole and Greenland,” Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, previously told the BBC.

“That’s why the Pituffik Space Base is immensely important in defending the US.”

Greenland, the world’s largest island, has been under Danish control for around 300 years.

Polls show that the vast majority of Greenlanders want to gain independence from Denmark – but do not wish to become part of the US.

Greenland has had the right to call an independence referendum since 2009, though in recent years some political parties have begun pushing harder for one to take place.

Donald Trump announced a massive tariff plan last week that would have upended the global economic order as well as long-established trading relationships with America’s allies.

But that plan – or at least a significant part of it – is on ice after the president suspended higher tariffs on most countries for 90 days while leaning into a trade war with China.

So with this partial reversal, is Trump any closer to realising his goals on trade? Here’s a quick look at five of his key ambitions and where they now stand.

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

Trump’s original trade plan packed a big punch that landed around the world, with a flat 10% baseline tariff on everyone (including some uninhabited islands) and additional “reciprocal” tariffs on the 60 countries that he said were the worst offenders.

It sent allies and adversaries scrambling, as they stared down the prospect of a debilitating blow to their economies.

The White House has been quick to boast about all the world leaders who have reached out to the president to make deals and offer trade concessions – “more than 75”, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Although the administration hasn’t released a list of all the countries that Trump said on Tuesday were “kissing my ass” and promising to do anything, the US has announced it is in negotiations with South Korea and Japan, among others.

THE TAKEAWAY: America’s trading partners have 90 days to strike some sort of agreement with Trump, and the clock is ticking. But the fact that talks are happening indicates that the president has a good chance of getting something for his efforts.

• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• What does the tariff pause mean for global trade?

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

Trump has said for decades that tariffs are an effective way of rebuilding America’s manufacturing base by shielding it from unfair foreign competition. While some factories may be able to increase production in current facilities, more substantive efforts take time. And for business leaders to pull the trigger on “reshoring” their production lines and investing in new US factories, they will want to know that the rules of the game are relatively stable.

The president’s on-again, off-again tariff moves over the past week are inherently unstable, however. For the moment, it’s difficult to predict where the final tariff levels will land and which industries will receive the greatest protections. It could be car manufacturers and steel producers today, and high-tech electronics companies tomorrow.

THE TAKEAWAY: When tariffs are applied and removed seemingly at the president’s whim, it’s much more likely that companies – both in the US and abroad – will hunker down and wait for the dust to settle before making any big commitments.

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

After Trump’s tariff about-face on Wednesday, several White House officials – including Treasury Secretary Bessent – were quick to say that Trump’s goal was to drop the hammer on the real villain, China.

“They are the biggest source of the US trade problems,” Bessent told reporters, “and indeed they are the problem for the rest of the world.

If Trump wanted a battle of wills with China, testing each side’s tolerance for economic and political pain, he got one – even if the president and his aides have hinted that they are looking for an exit ramp.

On Wednesday, Trump said that he blamed past US leaders, not China, for the current trade dispute. The prior day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president would be “incredibly gracious” if China reaches out to make a deal.

THE TAKEAWAY: Even if this showdown is one Trump wants, picking a fight with the second-largest economy in the world, with military power to match, comes at enormous risk. And along the way America may have alienated the allies it needs most in such a confrontation.

• Why Trump is hitting China – and what might happen next

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump regularly touted that his proposed tariffs would bring in vast sums in new revenue, which the US could then use to shrink its budget deficit, fund tax cuts and pay for new government programmes.

A study last year by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated that a 10% universal tariff – which is what Trump has landed on for at least the next 90 days – would generate $2tn in new revenue over the next 10 years.

To put that in context, the tax cuts Congress recently included in its non-binding budget blueprint would cost approximately $5tn over the next 10 years, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

THE TAKEAWAY: Trump wanted more tariff revenue, and if he sticks with his baseline tariffs, plus the additional levies on certain imports and larger ones on China, he’s going to get it – at least until Americans switch to more domestic production, when the tariff money gusher could turn to a trickle.

• Is the US making $2bn a day from tariffs?

WHAT TRUMP SAID:

Analysts and experts have offered a grab bag of other explanations about why Trump made such an aggressive move on trade last week. Was he trying to drive down interest rates, or devalue the US dollar or bring the world to the table for a new, global agreement on trade? The president himself hasn’t spoken much about those kinds of elaborate schemes.

One thing he has talked about relentlessly, however, is his desire to lower costs for American consumers – and he has promised that his trade policy will help address this. While energy prices dipped in the week since Trump announced his tariff plan, that may have been a result of fears that the trade wars could trigger a global recession.

The consensus among economists is that new tariffs will drive up consumer prices, as tariffs are tacked on to the price of imports and, eventually, when there is less competition for US-made products. Last year, the Tax Foundation estimated that a 10% universal tariff would increase costs for American households by an average of $1,253 in its first year. Economists also warn that lower-income Americans will be hardest hit.

THE TAKEAWAY: An increase in prices is an arrow moving in the wrong direction – and it represents an enormous potential liability for both Trump’s political standing and his party’s future electoral prospects.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Workers have been told to hurry home, classes have been suspended and outdoor events have been cancelled as northern China braces for extreme winds this weekend.

Millions have been urged to stay indoors, with some state media outlets warning that people weighing less than 50kg (110lbs) may be “easily blown away”.

Winds reaching 150kph (93mph) are expected to sweep Beijing, Tianjin and other parts of Hebei region from Friday to Sunday, as a cold vortex moves southeast from Mongolia.

For the first time in a decade, Beijing has issued an orange alert for gales – the second-highest in a four-tier weather warning system.

Strong winds sweeping from Mongolia are not uncommon, especially at this time of the year. But the impending winds are expected to be stronger than anything the area has seen in years.

Temperatures in Beijing are expected to drop by 13 degrees Celsius within 24 hours, when the strongest winds hit on Saturday, authorities said.

“This strong wind is extreme, lasts for a long time, affects a wide area, and is highly disastrous,” the Beijing Meteorological Service said.

China measures wind speed with a scale that goes from level 1 to 17. A level 11 wind, according to the China Meteorological Administration, can cause “serious damage”, while a level 12 wind brings “extreme destruction”.

The winds this weekend are expected to range from level 11 to 13.

Several sporting events slated for the weekend have been suspended, including the world’s first humanoid robot half marathon, which will now be held on 19 April.

Parks and tourist attractions have been closed as authorities have told residents to avoid outdoor activities, while construction works and train services have been suspended.

Thousands of trees across the city have been reinforced or pruned to prevent them from falling.

Officials have warned people to avoid entering mountains and forests, where gusts are expected to be especially strong.

As residents hunker down, social media users are finding humour in their shelved weekend plans.

“This wind is so sensible, it starts on Friday evening and ends on Sunday, without disrupting work on Monday at all,” said a Weibo user.

Hashtags about the strong winds, and the warning that those weighing less than 50kg could be swept away, have been trending on Chinese social media. One Weibo user quipped: “I eat so much all the time, just for this day.”

Beijing has also issued an alert for forest fires and prohibited people from starting fires outdoors.

The winds are expected to start weakening on Sunday night.

Euphoria and Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane has revealed he has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of motor neurone disease (MND).

Speaking to People, the 52-year-old US actor said he was “grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter”.

“I feel fortunate that I am able to continue working and am looking forward to returning to set of Euphoria next week,” he added, while asking for privacy for himself and his family.

Dane stars as the Jacobs family patriarch Cal Jacobs on hit HBO teen drama show Euphoria, which is due to begin production on season three on Monday.

Before that, he was perhaps best known as Dr Mark Sloan on Grey’s Anatomy from 2006.

He also played Jason Dean in fantasy drama series Charmed, and Captain Tom Chandler in action drama show The Last Ship, while appearing in films such as Marley & Me, Valentine’s Day and Burlesque.

He is married to fellow actress and model Rebecca Gayheart, and the couple have two children.

According to the NHS, MND “encompasses several different conditions whose common feature is the premature degeneration of motor nerves (known as neurons or sometimes neurones)”.

It says nearly 90% of patients with MND have the mixed ALS form of the disease.

• ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare degenerative disease that causes progressive paralysis of the muscles
• Patients first experience twitching or weakness in a limb, often followed by slurred speech
• The disease affects the nerve cells in the brain and spine that control muscle movement, causing patients to slowly lose their ability to speak, eat, walk and breathe independently
• There is no cure for ALS, and, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, people usually live for three to five years after diagnosis although some can live for decades

Six people, including three children, were killed after a helicopter carrying a family of tourists crashed into the Hudson River in New York, authorities have said.

The family of five was from Spain and the sixth person was the pilot, New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on Thursday. All were onboard the helicopter at the time of the crash, which is under investigation.

“Our hearts go out to the families,” Adams said.

Authorities have yet to release the identities, but they have been widely named as Agustín Escobar and his wife Mercè Camprubí Montal, who were both executives at Siemens, and their children, aged four, five and 11.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Siemens said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Agustin Escobar and his family.

“Our deepest condolences go out to all of his relatives.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the news was devastating and that he shared the grief of the victims’ families.

The Spanish family lived in Barcelona, and regional leader Salvador Illa sent “all my affection” to their family and friends.

A photograph of the family briefly published by the tour company shows them posing in front of the helicopter before the fatal incident.

Video footage shows the helicopter falling out of the sky upside down before splashing into the Hudson River.

Officials said the helicopter lost control soon after turning at the George Washington Bridge to move along the New Jersey shoreline.

The helicopter was operated by tour company New York Helicopters and took off from the Downtown Skyport on the lower side of Manhattan at 14:59 local time (19:59 BST).

• What we know about the Hudson helicopter crash

The first calls about the crash came around 15:17 EDT (20:17 BST) and rescue boats were launched immediately, New York Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker said.

“Swimmers were in the water shortly after the call,” he said.

Once on the scene, rescuers searched the water for victims or survivors and initiated “immediate life-saving measures”, but the efforts were unsuccessful.

Four victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while two others were declared dead at a nearby hospital, officials said.

The part of the river where the helicopter crashed is near Manhattan’s west side, an area known for its trendy shops and dining. It’s also near the main campus of New York University.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the investigation into the crash of the Bell 206 – a two-bladed helicopter – will be led by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Bell 206 is commonly used by sightseeing companies, television news stations and police departments.

US President Donald Trump said the crash was terrible and more details would soon be released about what happened.

“God bless the families and friends of the victims,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Michael Roth, the CEO of New York Helicopter Charter Inc, told CNN he was “devastated”.

“I’m a father, a grandfather, and my wife hasn’t stopped crying since this afternoon,” he said. When asked about the maintenance of the helicopter, Mr Roth replied: “It’s my director of maintenance who deals with that.”

Eyewitnesses who saw the crash told CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, that they saw parts of the helicopter fall from the sky.

“I looked outside my window. I saw a few people running towards the water, and some people were acting pretty normal. So I was like oh, it might not be anything. Then I started to hear all the sirens come outside,” Jersey City resident Jenn Lynk said.

Another, Ipsitaa Banigrhi, told CBS the crash sounded like thunder.

“I saw, like, black particles flying,” she said. “Again, I thought maybe it’s just like, dust, or birds, and then we heard all the emergency vehicles and sirens go by, and I think that’s when it was like, OK, what’s happening.”

This is not the first deadly tourist helicopter crash in New York City. In 2018, another tourist helicopter crashed into the East River. All five passengers drowned with only the pilot surviving.

In 2009, a helicopter carrying Italian tourists collided with a private plane over the Hudson River, killing nine.

Australia has swiftly turned down China’s offer to “join hands” against Donald Trump’s tariffs, as Washington escalates its trade war with Beijing.

The White House recently imposed an import tax of 10% on Australian goods, but for China – Australia’s biggest trading partner – raised tariffs to 125%.

China’s ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian argued joint resistance is “the only way” to stop the “hegemonic and bullying behaviour of the US”, appealing for Canberra’s cooperation in an opinion piece on Thursday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, however, said Australians would “speak for ourselves”, while the country’s defence minister said the nation would not be “holding China’s hand”.

“It’s about pursuing Australia’s national interests, not about making common calls with China,” Richard Marles told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Hours earlier, Trump had dramatically changed course on his sweeping tariffs scheme, announcing a 90-day pause for countries hit with high US tariffs. In the meantime, a tariff of 10% would apply.

China was the exception though. Instead, the US imposed an extra bump on import fees, after Beijing announced it would impose 84% counter-tariffs on the US.

Canberra has expressed anger over the tariffs but has said it will not retaliate, instead seeking further negotiations with the White House.

In his opinion piece for Nine Newspapers, Mr Xiao said the US had “weaponised” trade issues and expressed concern that a “weak compromise” would enable Trump to “sabotage the international order” and drag the world economy into a “quagmire” and an “abyss”.

Australia and China have a “mutually beneficial and long-standing co-operation” and need to work together to “safeguard a fair and free trading environment”, he added.

“The international community… should firmly say no to unilateralism and protectionism.”

Albanese told reporters on Thursday that Australia’s trade relationship with China was an important one, but said Australia was focussed on looking for other export opportunities outside of the US.

“Eighty percent of trade does not involve the United States. There are opportunities for Australia and we intend to seize them,” he said.

Marles said Australia is also looking to lessen its reliance on China, to bolster “economic resilience”, adding that the country’s focus would be on diversifying trade, in particular with Indonesia, India, the UK and the UAE.

Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell has held meetings with Japan, Singapore, South Korea and India in recent days.

Michelle Obama has spoken out against rumours that her marriage to Barack Obama might be in trouble.

The former first lady has not accompanied her husband to several high-profile events – including Donald Trump’s inauguration and the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter – fuelling speculation that they might be separating.

Without explicitly mentioning these occasions, Mrs Obama told the Work in Progress podcast hosted by actress Sophia Bush that she was now in a position to control her own calendar as a “grown woman”.

She said that people were not able to believe that she was “making a decision” for herself and instead “had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing”.

Mrs Obama shared that she felt some guilt for stepping back from certain duties.

“That’s the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with like disappointing people,” she said.

“I mean, so much so that this year people couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.

“This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right? But that’s what society does to us.”

Mrs Obama also said in the podcast: “I chose to do what was best for me. Not what I had to do. Not what I thought other people wanted me to do.”

While her absence from President Trump’s inauguration was seen as a break from tradition, she did give a high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this past summer.

“Hope is making a comeback,” she told a Chicago crowd of thousands at the DNC, as she urged them to throw their weight behind then-presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Despite carving out more time for herself, the former first lady said she still finds time to “give speeches, to be out there in the world, to work on projects. I still care about girls’ education”.

The Obamas celebrated their 32nd anniversary last year in October.

Mrs Obama has previously been open about the struggles she faced in her marriage due to Mr Obama’s political ambitions and time in the White House in her best-selling memoir, Becoming.

She wrote in the book that her husband’s aspirations resulted in loneliness and exhaustion.

An Indian forest worker, who was suspended after he was seen offering water to a cheetah and her cubs in a viral video, has been restored in his job at the sanctuary.

Satyanarayan Gurjar, a driver at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh state, violated instructions which said only authorised personnel could go near the big cats.

Cheetahs became extinct in India in 1952 but they were reintroduced in Kuno in 2022 as part of an ambitious plan to repopulate the species.

“I was suspended but have now been reinstated,” Mr Gurjar told BBC Hindi. “I am thankful to the authorities,” he said, adding that the region’s top forest official was incensed at his act.

Forest officials confirmed his reinstatement after protests by members of his community. Since this was his first offence, forest officials said they let him go with a warning, telling him that if he encountered an animal in distress in future, he should contact the authorities and not intervene himself.

The viral footage surfaced on Sunday with a video showing him pouring water into a metal pan, urged by off-camera voices. Moments later, a cheetah called Jwala and her four cubs drink from it.

Mr Gurjar said he was not at fault and blamed those who made the videos viral.

Referring to the cheetah and her cubs in the video, he said, “I called her by her name, saying ‘Jwala come, Jwala come’. They come only when you call them by their names.”

While initial reports called the video “heart-warming” and praised Mr Gurjar for his “kindness” and “bravery”, many on social media raised safety concerns and urged authorities to create water sources within the park to prevent such encounters.

Mr Gurjar says he isn’t afraid of wild animals as his ancestors have lived in forests for generations.

“I can sense the feelings of 99% of animals just by looking at them. I could immediately sense that the cheetah and her cubs were thirsty and I offered them water,” he said.

Officials say staff sometimes offer water to big cats near park boundaries to lure them back into the forest.

Chief Conservator of Forests Uttam Kumar Sharma said earlier that only trained personnel wre allowed near cheetahs to guide them back and avoid conflict. The man’s actions violated protocol, which clearly instructs staff to keep their distance, he added.

Mr Gurjar also has some advice about what to do if you encounter a big cat. “If you ever face a cheetah, speak to it with love – don’t hit it or throw stones,” he said.

Between 2022 and 2023, 20 cheetahs were relocated from South Africa and Namibia to Kuno – the first intercontinental move of its kind.

Since then, eight have died from causes like kidney failure and mating injuries, raising concerns about the park’s suitability.

Park authorities deny the allegations, saying 26 cheetahs remain -17 in the wild and nine in enclosures.

India is expected to receive 20 more from South Africa this year.

Donald Trump is going to “make America’s showers great again” by easing rules restricting water flow, the White House says.

The US president is ordering the energy secretary to rescind a change introduced by Barack Obama that restricted multi-nozzle showers from discharging over 2.5 gallons of water per minute overall.

This served “a radical green agenda that made life worse for Americans”, the White House said, as Trump criticised the “ridiculous” amount of time he says it takes to wet his hair in the shower.

Consumer and conservation groups have previously argued that changing the rules is wasteful and unnecessary.

According to the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, which shared a factsheet in 2024, efficiency standards in the US set more than three decades ago “reduce water waste… save consumers money on their water and energy bills and help protect the environment”.

Under a 1992 energy law, showerheads in the US are not allowed to produce more than 2.5 gallons (9.5l) of water per minute.

Obama introduced a redefinition, as part of an Energy Conservation Program, that meant for showers with multiple nozzles, the restriction applied overall rather than to each nozzle.

At the end of Trump’s first term, in 2020, he moved to allow each nozzle to produce up to 2.5 gallons a minute.

But when Joe Biden succeeded him as president, he stopped that.

The current administration has dubbed their efforts a “war on water pressure”, saying Americans “pay for their own water and should be free to choose their showerheads without federal meddling”.

Trump now wants to return to the “straightforward meaning” of ‘showerhead’ from the 1992 law.

According to the White House fact sheet: “The Order frees Americans from excessive regulations that turned a basic household item into a bureaucratic nightmare.

“No longer will showerheads be weak and worthless.”

The order says the change will come into effect 30 days after the energy secretary publishes a notice rescinding the definition.

While signing the order in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said it was “ridiculous” he has to stand under the water for 15 minutes for his “beautiful” hair to get wet – echoing remarks he made during 2020.

At that time, he also complained about water not coming out of shower heads, saying his hair “has to be perfect”.

The remains of 36 Indigenous ancestors will be returned to Australia, in the latest repatriation of bodies taken from their traditional lands.

Six of the ancestors’ bodies were formally returned to their Queensland communities – Woppaburra, Warrgamay, Wuthathi and Yadhaighana – at a ceremony at London’s Natural History Museum.

The Australian government will take care of the other ancestors’ remains until their traditional custodians can be found.

The remains of Indigenous people were taken from Australia by a range of people, including scientists and explorers, following Britain’s colonisation of the country in the 18th Century.

These remains have ended up in museums, universities and private collections around the world.

However, growing ethical concerns about the collection, sale and display of human remains has led to an increase in efforts to return these in recent decades.

“The removal of our ancestors from their resting places was an act of deep disrespect—one that severed our spiritual and cultural connections to Country,” Thomas Holden, who represented the Warrgamay community, said at Thursday’s ceremony.

“Repatriation is about more than just bringing our ancestors home. It is about reaffirming our sovereignty, our rights, and our deep cultural and spiritual obligations to care for our people, even in death.”

This is the fourth group of ancestral remains that the Natural History Museum has returned to Australia. It said staff had undertaken “detailed archival research” involving several organisations to find out where the remains had come from.

According to the Australian government’s arts office, the latest repatriation brings the number of First Nations ancestors returned from around the world to 1,775. This includes more than 200 sets of remains from the Natural History Museum.

It added that discussions were being held with other institutions and private holders in the UK about the “unconditional and voluntary return of further ancestors”.

“The repatriation of our ancestors is a vital step in healing the wounds of the past and restoring the spiritual and cultural balance that was disrupted when they were taken from their homeland,” said Wuthathi representative Keron Murray.

Wayne Blair, an acclaimed actor and filmmaker who represented the Woppaburra people, described repatriation as “an eternal flame, the eternal healing is both spiritual and physical, for our elders and community”.

“You are not returning science specimens, you are returning ancestors to their families, their descendants.”