US President Donald Trump’s administration has exempted smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices from “reciprocal” tariffs, including the 125% levies imposed on Chinese imports.

US Customs and Border Patrol published a notice late on Friday explaining the goods would be excluded from Trump’s 10% global tariff on most countries and the much larger Chinese import tax.

The move comes after concerns from US tech companies that the price of gadgets could skyrocket, as many of them are made in China.

This is the first significant reprieve of any kind in Trump’s tariffs on China, with one trade analyst describing it as a “game-changer scenario”.

The exemptions – backdated to 5 April – also include other electronic devices and components, including semiconductors, solar cells and memory cards.

“This is the dream scenario for tech investors,” Dan Ives, who is the global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, posted on X. “Smartphones, chips being excluded is a game-changer scenario when it comes to China tariffs.”

Big tech firms such as Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft and the broader tech industry can breathe a huge sigh of relief this weekend, he added.

The White House indicated the exemptions were made to ensure companies had more time to move production to the US.

• Why Trump is hitting China on trade – and what might happen next
• Was Trump’s 90-day tariffs pause really a grand plan?

“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“At the direction of the president, these companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”

Trump, who is spending the weekend at his Florida home, told reporters on Friday he was comfortable with the high tariffs on China.

“And I think something positive is going to come out of that,” he said, touting his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

These electronic goods are still subject to the 20% tariff on China related to fentanyl, White House Deputy Chief of Staff on Policy Stephen Miller posted on X.

Some estimates suggested iPhone prices in the US could have as much as tripled if costs were passed on to consumers.

The US is a major market for iPhones, while Apple accounted for more than half of its smartphones sales last year, according to Counterpoint Research.

It says as much as 80% of Apple’s iPhones intended for US sale are made in China, with the remaining 20% made in India.

Like its fellow smartphone giant Samsung, Apple has been trying to diversify its supply chains to avoid an over-reliance on China in recent years.

India and Vietnam emerged as frontrunners for additional manufacturing hubs.

As the tariffs took effect, Apple reportedly looked to speed up and increase its production of India-produced devices in recent days.

Trump had planned for a host of steep tariffs on countries around the world to take effect this week.

But on Wednesday he announced he would implement a 90-day pause for countries hit by higher US tariffs – except China, whose tariffs he raised to 145%.

Trump said the tariff increase for China was because of the country’s readiness to retaliate with its own 84% levy on US goods.

In a dramatic change of policy, Trump said all countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive the reprieve – and only face a blanket tariff of 10% – until July.

The White House then said the move was a negotiating tactic to extract more favourable trade terms from other countries.

Trump has said his import taxes will address unfairness in the global trading system, as well as bring jobs and factories back to the US.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled and trains suspended as gales hit Beijing and northern China on Saturday.

By 11:30 local time (03:30 GMT) on Saturday, 838 flights had been cancelled at the capital’s two major airports, according to the news agency Reuters.

Wind gusts of up to 93mph (150kph) – the strongest in the Chinese capital for more than half a century – are set to continue through the weekend, forcing the closure of attractions and historic sites.

Millions were urged to stay indoors on Friday, with some state media outlets warning that people weighing less than 50kg may be “easily blown away”.

Train services, including the airport’s express subway line and some high-speed rail lines, have been suspended.

Parks were also shut, with some old trees reinforced or trimmed in preparation – but almost 300 trees have already fallen over in the capital.

A number of vehicles were damaged, but no injuries were reported. In Beijing, most residents followed authorities’ advice to stay indoors after the city warned 22 million residents to avoid non-essential travel.

“Everyone in Beijing was really nervous about it. Today there are hardly any people out on the streets. However, it wasn’t as severe as I had imagined,” a local resident told Reuters.

Meanwhile, a businessman from the Zhejiang province, near Shanghai, had his flight home cancelled.

“Because of the severe winds, all flights scheduled for last night and today were cancelled. So I will probably rebook my flight in a couple of days. I’m now basically stranded in Beijing,” he said.

The strong winds are from a cold vortex system over Mongolia and are expected to last through the weekend.

Winds bringing sand and dust from Mongolia are routine in spring, but climate change can make storms stronger and more severe.

Beijing issued its first orange alert for strong winds in a decade, with the strongest winds expected to arrive on Saturday.

China measures wind speed on a scale that goes from one 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, with conditions expected to ease by Sunday.

Three prison officers have been attacked by Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber.

The officers sustained life-threatening injuries on Saturday including burns, scalds and stab wounds in the attack at HMP Frankland in County Durham, the Prison Officers’ Association said.

Abedi threw hot cooking oil over the officers and used “home made weapons” to stab them, the organisation said.

The Prison Service confirmed three officers have been treated in hospital after an attack by a prisoner, adding police were investigating.

Two men and a woman were injured, with the latter since discharged from hospital.

A prison officer at HMP Frankland told BBC News “staff are shaken by what’s happened”.

“It’s a difficult day at the prison when colleagues are seriously hurt. You can’t help asking yourself why you do this job when something like this happens,” they added.

Abedi is the brother of Salman Abedi who carried out the Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people in 2017.

After Hashem Abedi, 28, was named by the Prison Officers’ Association as being involved in the attack, a government source confirmed to the BBC he was the prisoner involved.

Abedi was found guilty of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life in 2020 following the Manchester Arena attack. He was jailed for a minimum of 55 years before he could be considered for parole.

The sentence was a record for a determinate prison term.

In 2022, Abedi, along with two others, was found guilty of a previous “vicious attack” on two prison officers. For this attack he received a sentence of three years and 10 months – which was added to his previous minimum term.

Saturday’s attack took place in a separation centre used to hold the country’s most dangerous and influential extremist prisoners. The centre holds less than 10 inmates. Abedi has been a long-term resident.

Following the incident, the chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, Mark Fairhurst, said the freedoms given to prisoners in these centres should be reviewed.

“I am of the opinion that allowing access to cooking facilities and items that can threaten the lives of staff should be removed immediately,” Mr Fairhurst said.

“These prisoners need only receive their basic entitlements and we should concentrate on control and containment instead of attempting to appease them. Things have to change.”

Former prison governor John Podmore told the BBC this incident was a “catastrophic security failure” as he underlined this unit holds the “most violent and dangerous” offenders.

A Durham Constabulary spokesman has confirmed an investigation is under way following a “serious assault” at HMP Frankland.

The spokesman also said that two victims remain in hospital with “serious injuries”.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “I am appalled by the attack of three brave officers at HMP Frankland today. My thoughts are with them and their families.

“The police are now investigating. I will be pushing for the strongest possible punishment. Violence against our staff will never be tolerated.”

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick called the attack “extremely concerning”.

“There are serious concerns about the prison leadership’s ability to contain the threat from Islamist extremist inmates,” he said.

“This deeply serious security failure must be a turning point,” he added as he referenced a previous social media post of his titled “Britain’s prisons are being overrun by Islamist gangs”.

A spokesperson for the Prison Service said violence in prisons “will not be tolerated”.

“We will always push for the strongest punishment for attacks on our hardworking staff.”

CCTV footage shows the dramatic moment a bomb exploded in central Athens, damaging the offices of Greek railway company Hellenic Train.

A backpack containing the explosive was reportedly left outside the office block late on Friday. Police said anonymous calls were made to Greek media outlets warning of the attack. No fatalities or injuries have been reported.

Though the cause of the explosion is not yet known, it comes amid widespread anger over a railway disaster that left 57 dead in 2023.

Greece’s Transport Minister Christos Dimas condemned the explosion as a “criminal act” that had “endangered the lives of people”.

Local news outlets Efsyn, a Greek daily newspaper, and website Zougla – both of which received a call – said the explosive device had apparently been placed in a padlocked backpack on a scooter without licence plates.

A police bomb disposal squad arrived too late to safely detonate the device before it exploded, they said.

Dimas said in a statement: “This is a criminal act, which endangered the lives of people, employees and passers-by, in a central point of Athens and during peak traffic hour.”

He added: “Nothing justifies terrorism, no act of violence brings justice. The authorities and the judiciary now have the floor.”

The explosion occurred close to one of the Greek capital’s busiest highways, Leoforos Andrea Siggrou.

Hellenic Train confirmed no employees or passing citizens were injured and that the blast caused “limited material damage”.

It said: “Our company unequivocally condemns all forms of violence and tensions that fuel a climate of toxicity that undermines all progress.”

In February 2023, a freight train and a passenger train carrying 350 people travelling in opposite directions were accidentally put on the same track. Most of the people killed were young students, while dozens were injured.

Multiple protests have been held in Greece since, including earlier this year to mark the crash’s second anniversary.

Those demonstrations descended into violence, with hooded protesters seen throwing rocks and petrol bombs at police. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannons.

An inquiry concluded in February that the train crash was caused by human error, poor maintenance and inadequate staffing.

A date for a trial is yet to be announced.

Iran and the US have concluded a first round of talks in Oman over Tehran’s nuclear programme – the highest-level meeting between the two nations since 2018.

Both countries described the meeting as “constructive” and confirmed a second round of discussions will take place next week – with the US hailing the “direct communication” as being key to striking a possible deal.

President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers in 2018, and has long said he would make a “better” deal.

The talks are seen as an important first step in establishing whether a deal can be done.

At two-and-a-half hours, the first meeting was brief, reportedly respectful – and set the stage for a second round.

That was probably as good as it could get when Iranian and US officials sat down in Muscat, the capital of Oman – whose top diplomat mediated the primarily indirect negotiations.

They were the most significant talks since Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 during his first term in office.

The verdict of Iran’s lead negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, was positive.

“In my opinion, as the first meeting, it was a constructive meeting held in a very peaceful and respectful environment, because no inappropriate language was used,” he told Iranian state TV.

His diplomatic tone suggests the US team led by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff did not reiterate some of the president’s threats that Iran would face “great danger” if this dialogue did not succeed. He has repeatedly warned of possible military strikes.

This meeting ran with the delegations in separate rooms, relaying messages through Oman’s foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi.

Witkoff, who is leading the US delegation, had previously only spoken of meeting face-to-face.

But Araghchi and Witkoff did speak for a few minutes in the presence of Busaidi – not the direct talks US officials said would happen but what could be a small but significant opening.

Iran, mindful of pressure from hardliners at home, underlined how limited their face-to-face exchange was, with no photographs taken.

In a statement following the talks, the White House said the discussions “were very positive and constructive”, noting that Witkoff had emphasised to Iran that he had instructions to resolve the adversaries’ “differences through dialogue and diplomacy, if that is possible”.

“These issues are very complicated, and special envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome,” the statement added.

Araghchi had said ahead of the discussions that his country wanted a “fair agreement”.

After the talks concluded, he said discussions next week may not happen in Oman, but would still be mediated by the Middle Eastern nation. The White House said they would take place next Saturday.

“Neither we, nor the other party, want fruitless negotiations, discussions for discussions’ sake, time wasting or talks that drag on forever,” Araghchi told Iranian state television.

The most important issue at stake is what kind of deal each side would be willing to accept.

Trump sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader via the United Arab Emirates last month, saying he wanted a deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to avert possible military strikes by the US and Israel.

Iran hopes for a deal to limit, but not dismantle, its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

An unnamed source in Oman told news agency Reuters that the talks would seek to de-escalate regional tensions and secure prisoner exchanges.

Trump revealed the talks would take place during a visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Monday. The Israeli prime minister said on Tuesday that both leaders had agreed that Iran “will not have nuclear weapons”.

Netanyahu has called for a “Libya-style deal”, referring to the north African nation completely dismantling its weapons programme in an agreement reached with Western powers in 2003. That would be completely unacceptable to Iran.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

Iranian officials have made it clear the negotiations will focus only on its nuclear programme, not its broader defence capability, such as its ballistic missile programme.

Ahead of the talks, Trump said on Friday that he wanted Iran “to be a wonderful, great, happy country – but they can’t have nuclear weapons”.

Trump has warned that the US would use military force if a deal was not reached, and Iran has repeatedly said it will not negotiate under pressure.

But this process is taking place under immense pressure.

Even as preparations were under way to arrange this first meeting, the US moved more warships and stealth bombers to the region and imposed more sanctions.

• What is Iran’s nuclear programme and what does the US want?
• Iran says it is ready for nuclear deal if US stops military threats

The US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday it would “be a very bad day for Iran” if the talks were unsuccessful.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

However, since Trump pulled out of the 2015 agreement – which expires later this year – Iran has increasingly breached restrictions imposed by the existing nuclear deal in retaliation for crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago, and has stockpiled enough highly-enriched uranium to make several bombs.

Under the terms of the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to only enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity for the next 15 years.

In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog reported that Tehran had stockpiled uranium enriched to 60% purity and could swiftly move to 90%, which would be weapons-grade.

The 2015 nuclear deal took nearly two years of intensive negotiations. At the start of this new effort to reach an agreement, Iran’s programme is far more developed and complex, and the wider region is far more volatile.

The UK government is taking control of Chinese-owned British Steel after emergency legislation was rushed through Parliament in a single day.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told MPs the government’s likely next step would be to nationalise the Scunthorpe plant, which employs 2,700 people.

But he said he was forced to seek emergency powers to prevent owners Jingye shutting down its two blast furnaces, which would have ended primary steel production in the UK.

MPs and peers were called back from their Easter holidays to debate the legislation in an extremely rare Saturday sitting of both houses of Parliament. It has now received Royal Assent after being passed by the Commons and Lords.

The BBC understands UK government officials are at the Scunthorpe site ready to take control of operations.

After the legislation was given royal assent, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Today, my government has stepped in to save British steel.

“We are acting to protect the jobs of thousands of workers, and all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry.”

He said steel made in Britain “will be the backbone as we get Britain building once more,” adding: “Our industry is the pride of our history – and I want it to be our future, too.”

Speaking to steelworkers earlier on Saturday at a village hall near Scunthorpe, Sir Keir said: “You are the people who have kept this going.”

It came as several hundred people, including steelworkers and their families, took part in a march and a rally at Scunthorpe United’s Glanford Park stadium, chanting “we want our steel back”.

British Steel worker Rob Barroclough told the BBC: “Our family, like many others, is built around the steelworks. Who knows… my boys might end up working there one day, if it can be saved.”

He added: “We’re hoping for the best but planning for the worst.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that police were called to the steel works this morning after a suspected breach of the peace.

Jingye officials have been on-site regularly in recent days, and it’s thought that relations between them and the workers have become increasingly tense.

Sources told BBC News that when Jingye executives arrived at the plant this morning, the automatic number plate recognition scanners didn’t allow them through the site barriers.

Humberside Police said officers conducted checks and spoke to individuals but that there were no concerns raised and no arrests were made.

The legislation going through Parliament was not resisted by opposition parties – but the Conservatives said the government should have acted sooner and made “a total pig’s breakfast of this whole arrangement”.

The new law hands Reynolds sweeping powers to control management and workers at the plant to ensure production continues, including entering it by force, if necessary, to secure assets.

But Jingye will retain ownership of it for now.

The government remains hopeful it can secure private investment to save the loss-making plant, but ministers concede there are currently no companies willing to make an offer.

In the Commons, Reynolds acknowledged that public ownership was “the likely option”.

He said the government would “pay the fair market rate” to shareholders in the event of nationalisation but added: “In this case the market value is effectively zero.”

Keeping a loss-making plant open could come at a high cost to taxpayers.

But Reynolds insisted it was in the “national interest” to retain the ability to make steel from scratch and he believed the company had a future, particularly as the government was boosting infrastructure spending.

“Steel is fundamental to Britain’s industrial strength, to our security, and to our identity as a primary global power”, he told MPs.

He said he had been forced to take over the running of the plant because Jingye, which bought British Steel in 2020, had rejected the government’s offers to buy raw materials to keep the blast furnaces running.

“Despite our offer to Jingye being substantial, they wanted much more. Frankly, an excessive amount. We did however remain committed to negotiation.

“But over the last few days, it became clear that the intention of Jingye was to refuse to purchase sufficient raw material to keep the blast furnaces running, in fact, their intention was to cancel and refuse to pay for existing orders.

“The company would therefore have irrevocably and unilaterally closed down primary steel making at British Steel.”

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice urged the government to “show your cojones” and go further by fully nationalising British Steel “this weekend”.

Several Conservative MPs also spoke in favour of nationalisation. Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said recalling Parliament had been “absolutely the right thing to do” but urged ministers to use the “unprecedented legislation judiciously”.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now an independent MP, urged the government to nationalise all steelmaking in the UK.

Green MP Ellie Chowns said steel is integral to the “green industrial transformation” – including making wind turbines, trains and tracks – and nationalisation would give the UK the control it needs to renew the industry.

The government came under fire for acting to save the Scunthorpe plant but not taking the same action when the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot was threatened with closure.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Robert said it was a “bitter day for the people of Port Talbot”, as she urged the government to change the legislation to take control of what is left of the steelworks there.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn asked why the legislation only applies to England, when a Scottish oil refinery is facing closure.

“Why is this not being extended to Scotland? Why is Grangemouth not being included?” he asked Reynolds, adding the UK government was “not interested in Scotland”.

Reynolds said Grangemouth was “not comparable” with the situation at Scunthorpe, which he said was “unique”.

“The question for all members is whether we as a country want to continue to possess a steel industry, do we want to make the construction steel and rail we need here in the UK, or do we want to be dependent on overseas imports?” he told MPs.

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Israel’s defence minister has announced its military will soon “vigorously” expand its offensive throughout most of Gaza.

Israel Katz also said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had completed the takeover of a “security zone” in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, separating the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

Israel’s military also issued evacuation orders for Khan Younis and its surrounding areas, saying it was preparing to carry out strikes in response to the launch of projectiles from Gaza, which Hamas has claimed responsibility for.

Israel resumed its offensive against Hamas on 18 March following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire.

Since then, it has seized large areas of Gaza, displacing hundreds of thousands of Gazans once more.

The military has already seized land running along the entirety of the Palestinian territory’s borders, which it has characterised as a buffer zone to prevent attacks.

Israeli officials have said the ongoing offensive aims to pressure Hamas into freeing the 59 remaining hostages being held in Gaza – 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

On Saturday, Katz said the IDF had completed the takeover of the “Morag axis” – a reference to a former Jewish settlement located between Rafah and Khan Younis.

He said this “makes the entire area between the Philadelphia axis and Morag part of the Israeli security zone”.

The takeover of the corridor effectively cuts the southern city of Rafah off from Khan Younis. Rafah makes up almost one fifth of Gaza.

Katz also warned that “IDF activity will soon expand vigorously to additional locations throughout most of Gaza” and people in these areas “will have to evacuate the fighting zones”.

“This is the last moment to remove Hamas and release the hostages, and bring about an end to the war,” he said.

He added that areas of northern Gaza, including the city of Beit Hanoun and in the Netzarim Corridor – which cuts through central Gaza – were also being evacuated so that a “security zone” could be expanded there too.

“In northern Gaza as well – in Beit Hanoun and other neighbourhoods – residents are evacuating, the area is being taken over and the security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim corridor,” Katz said.

When approached for comment, the IDF referred the BBC to the defence ministry’s remarks.

Hamas said, in quotes cited by the news agency AFP, that the offensive not only “kills defenceless civilians” but also makes the fate of hostages “uncertain”.

The UN’s human rights office warned last month that the evacuation orders failed to comply with international law, accusing Israel of not taking any measures to provide accommodation for those affected, or ensuring satisfactory hygiene, health, safety and nutrition conditions.

Israel’s government said it was evacuating civilians to protect them from harm and from being used by Hamas as “human shields” in violation of international law.

Following Katz’s announcement, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for residents of the southern city of Khan Younis and its surrounding areas, saying it was preparing to respond to projectiles launched from Gaza earlier on Saturday.

The IDF said its air defences had intercepted three projectiles launched from Gaza towards Israeli territory. Hamas’s military wing later claimed responsibility for the attack. No injuries were reported.

In Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry said as of 13:00 local time (11:00 BST) on Saturday, 21 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours, and a further 64 injured.

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

More than 50,933 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Of those, 1,563 have been killed since 18 March, when Israel restarted its offensive in the Gaza Strip, the ministry said.

On an unusually crisp April day in a rural Texas town, dozens of Mennonite community members gathered alongside the nation’s top health official, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to mourn the death of an eight-year-old.

Daisy Hildebrand is the second unvaccinated girl from the community to die from measles in two months.

Officials in Seminole town also joined the reception after her funeral to support the family, said South Plains Public Health Director Zach Holbrooks. This time, there was no talk of the vaccine that prevents measles deaths – unlike many of his long days since the outbreak began.

“The focus was on their healing,” Mr Holbrooks said. “You never want to see anybody pass away, especially a child that young, from any kind of illness, because there is a prevention for it – the MMR vaccine.”

Like other Seminole natives, Mr Holbrooks was not vaccinated against measles as a child. He got a shot in college, and another in February, when his hometown became the epicentre of one of the country’s worst measles outbreaks in a decade.

The US has seen more than 700 cases this year, a sharp rise on the 285 cases reported in 2024. The majority of infections – 541 as of Friday – occurred in western Texas, with 56 patients sent to the hospital.

Cases in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas also are linked to the outbreak. Two children, including Daisy, have died – the first recorded fatalities from measles in the US since 2015.

It’s not slowing down either, public health experts say. They try to reach vaccine-hesitant residents, but struggle with those who carry on with daily life as usual, alongside mixed messaging from federal officials, including Kennedy, who has endorsed immunisation conspiracy theories in the past.

“I wish there were more coming in to get the vaccine,” Mr Holbrooks said. “We can put messaging out, but it’s up to them to come see us.”

The western Texas town of Seminole – population 7,000 – is bordered by miles of rural farmland and oil fields.

Among billboards for restaurants, gun silencers and tractors, a digital sign hints at the crisis gripping the community: a warning about the dangers of measles, which can cause complications including pneumonia, brain swelling and death.

It has spread rapidly among Mennonites, a religious community living near Seminole. Mr Holbrooks estimates the population could be as many as 40,000 across several counties. In those areas, public school vaccination rates are as low as 82%.

Roughly 95% of a community must be vaccinated against the measles to achieve herd immunity – when enough of a group is immune to a disease that its spread is limited and the unvaccinated are protected.

Mr Holbrooks remembers when the Low German Mennonite group began migrating to his hometown and nearby states in the 1970s. The religion has no specific doctrines against vaccinations, but they tend to avoid many modern aspects of life, including the health care system.

Their community is not alone. At least 118,000 kindergarteners in Texas are exempt from one or more vaccines, mostly in rural areas, according to Terri Burke, director of Texas vaccine advocacy group the Immunization Partnership. Parents can get a waiver to exempt their child from school vaccine requirements for a variety of reasons, including religion.

Savannah Knelsen, an 18-year-old server at a Seminole barbecue restaurant, has not been vaccinated against measles – or anything else.

Many of her family members and friends – also unvaccinated – caught the measles in recent weeks. One relative developed a fever of 104.5F (40.2C), but still chose not to go to the hospital.

The recent deaths of two children have not convinced her to get vaccinated, she said, adding that she was healthy and wanted to let her body “fight off” infections. Experts agree the vaccine is the best way to prevent infections – including severe ones.

Ms Knelsen’s 19-year-old co-worker, Jessica Giesbrecht, along with her family, has been vaccinated against the measles.

“I’m worried for my baby niece,” Ms Giesbrecht said, adding that she was too young to be vaccinated.

Still, the two said the outbreak doesn’t weigh heavily on daily life. Others in Seminole agree.

A cashier at a local pharmacy said no one has stopped by for measles vaccinations since the outbreak started. “People are just going about their lives,” she said.

On Sunday, Kennedy made his first trip to the region since the outbreak to attend the eight-year-old girl’s funeral.

The top US health official is an unlikely figure to spearhead the fight against measles – having in the past endorsed conspiracy theories about immunisation, including debunked claims about links to autism. He downplayed the outbreak in western Texas at first, calling it “not unusual”.

Trump echoed these remarks last weekend, saying that only a “fairly small number of people” had been impacted, when he was asked about it by the BBC aboard Air Force One. It was “not something new”, he added.

On Wednesday, Kennedy gave his strongest statement yet in support of the measles vaccine, telling the BBC’s US partner CBS News: “The federal government’s position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine.”

The remarks were met with social media backlash from some anti-vaccine supporters. Kennedy added, however, that the government “should not be mandating” vaccines.

The influence of some of his earlier remarks lingers.

In one of several Mennonite-owned natural-health stores in Seminole, dozens of bottles of cod liver oil – a supplement that contains vitamin A – are on display. Alongside the vaccine, Kennedy has promoted vitamin A as an alternative measles treatment, a remedy doctors say should not be given without guidance from a physician and is no substitute for the vaccine.

The treatment has at times proven dangerous. Covenant Children’s Hospital in nearby Lubbock told the BBC it has treated several unvaccinated children with measles for vitamin A toxicity – some had attempted to use it as a preventative measure.

The community needs federal officials to provide stronger messaging to help convince people to get vaccinated and slow the outbreak, said Gordon Mattimoe, director of the health department in nearby Andrews County.

“People look to their leaders to lead,” he said.

Jeff Hutt, a former spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again political action committee and Kennedy’s former national field director, argued that the health secretary had to “cover the middle ground”, providing statements that are “politically adequate” while also providing sceptical stances on vaccines.

“In covering the middle ground, I’m not necessarily sure he was able to reassure folks that he had a handle on [measles], or that he was able to reassure folks that he was sticking to his guns,” Mr Hutt said.

The Trump administration’s health policies could have other consequences in Texas, officials say. Local health departments are at risk of losing critical resources because of attempts to cut $11.4bn (£8.8bn) in public health grants. The move was temporarily blocked by a judge last week.

Mr Mattimoe said that because of the potential cuts – around $250,000 in grant funding for his health department – he is not able to hire a new nurse to give immunisations.

In a statement to the BBC, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it had deployed the “necessary” resources from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to respond to the outbreak.

“The CDC is in close, constant communication with local and state health officials on the ground to ensure they have what they need,” the official said.

The Texas Department of Health Services could lose as much as $550m in grant funding. It has provided staff, vaccines, testing and other support to local health departments, but likely will need extra funding, spokesman Chris Van Deusen told the BBC.

Mr Mattimoe contacted lawmakers and the state for help, but is not hopeful.

“I don’t think they have the funds,” he said.

In nearby Lubbock, Texas, just two days after the news of Daisy’s death, all was quiet at the health department’s vaccination clinic.

Other days had been busier, with as many as 20 people coming in for vaccines, said Katherine Wells, director of public health for the city, where hospitals receive children with severe measles cases from more rural counties.

Since the outbreak began in January, the city of Seminole has vaccinated 103 adults and 143 children against the measles, Mr Holbrooks said. The neighbouring three rural counties decided to close their underused vaccine clinics and send more staff to hard-hit Seminole.

“There’s always talk on, what else can we do, and are we doing enough?” Mr Holbrooks said. “We want to build trust, not tear it down.”

At times, local health officials have seen progress.

A Mennonite doctor in Andrews County gained community members’ trust and encouraged them to get vaccinated, said Mr Mattimoe.

“Those trusted messengers in those communities – I think [they’re] very important,” he said.

Ms Wells hopes vaccinations will start to pick up after the latest measles death and the city’s new guidance to vaccinate children as young as six months, instead of one year.

The bigger city saw an outbreak at a daycare, among children too young to be fully vaccinated, a situation she believes will be helped by the earlier shots.

But “there’s always going to be some people that we don’t reach”, Ms Wells said.

That means the virus is likely to circulate for a while in western Texas regions where people are unvaccinated, officials said.

“We’re just at the beginning of it,” Mr Mattimoe said. “It’s going to have to run through the community. Until they get that natural immunity, it’ll just keep running its course.”

A notorious bandit kingpin and 100 of his suspected followers have been killed in a joint military operation in north-west Nigeria, authorities say.

Gwaska Dankarami was said to have been a high-value target who reportedly served as second-in-command to an Islamic State-linked leader.

The alleged gang leader had been hiding in the Munumu Forest, with authorities reporting that several other criminal hideouts were also destroyed across the state on Friday.

His apparent death comes after bandits kidnapped 43 villagers and killed four others in a deadly attack on a village called Maigora in the northern Katsina State earlier this week.

The police had said that it deployed security forces in pursuit of the kidnappers.

However, this is not the first time Dankarami’s death has been reported.

In 2022, the Nigerian Airforce claimed to have killed him in a similar operation.

The Katsina State commissioner for internal security and home affairs, Nasir Mua’zu, said the killing was a significant milestone in the fight against banditry in the state.

“It is expedient to state that this successful mission has significantly disrupted the criminal networks that have long terrorised communities across Faskari, Kankara, Bakori, Malumfashi, and Kafur,” Mua’zu added.

Security forces said they had also recovered and destroyed two machine guns and locally fabricated shotguns.

In a separate operation on Thursday, security forces killed six bandits, including their commander, while several other bandits escaped with bullet wounds.

Seven motorcycles were also intercepted and recovered during the intelligence-led operation.

Katsina, the home state of former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, has witnessed sporadic attacks by bandits and kidnappers that have claimed many lives.

The state governor, Malam Dikko Umaru Radda, has expressed the government’s determination to eliminate criminals and ensure every forest is thoroughly monitored to protect residents.

The authorities said that the operations are part of a broader effort to restore stability in the state and the north-west region of Nigeria, which has witnessed repeated banditry attacks.

When scrolling through social media, you may have recently seen friends and family appearing in miniature.

It’s part of a new trend where people use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT and Copilot to re-package themselves – literally – as pocket-sized dolls and action figures.

It has taken off online, with brands and influencers dabbling in creating their mini-me.

But some are urging people to steer clear of the seemingly innocent trend, saying fear of missing out shouldn’t override concerns about AI’s energy and data use.

It may sound complicated, but the process is simple.

People upload a picture of themselves to a tool like ChatGPT, along with written prompts that explain how they want the final picture to look.

These instructions are really important.

They tell the AI tool everything it is meant to generate, from the items a person wants to appear with to the kind of packaging they should be in – which includes mimicking the box and font of popular toys like Barbie.

Many online will then personalise it further with their name, job and clothing choices.

Though it does not always work, and many have also shared some of the amusing mistakes the tools made, where the action dolls look nothing like them.

Like other generative AI tools, image generators are also prone to making things up, and may make assumptions about how someone should look.

And it’s not just regular people using it – the trend has been seized upon by a wealth of brands online including beauty company Mario Badescu and even Royal Mail.

Trends come and go – but by their very nature can make people feel compelled to take part to avoid missing out.

“Generative AI makes it easier and quicker for people to create and jump on trends,” says Jasmine Enberg, principal social media analyst at eMarketer.

She says the technology has made it quicker and easier to make online content, which may have the unexpected effect of quickening the pace at which other social media users get annoyed by it.

But she believes AI-driven trends will become a more regular appearance on our feeds “as the tech becomes a more regular part of our digital lives”.

While its light-hearted nature may have drawn people to it, the trend has drawn criticism from some concerned about its environmental impact.

Professor Gina Neff of Queen Mary University London tells the BBC that ChatGPT is “burning through energy”, and the data centres used to power it consume more electricity in a year than 117 countries.

“We have a joke in my house that every time we create one of these AI memes, it kills a tree,” says Lance Ulanoff, US editor of TechRadar, in an article about the trend.

“That’s hyperbole, of course, but it’s safe to say that AI content generation is not without costs, and perhaps we should be thinking about it and using it differently.”

• What is AI and how does it impact the environment?

People have also highlighted concerns that copyrighted data may have been used to create the technology which generates images without paying for it.

“ChatGPT Barbie represents a triple threat to our privacy, our culture and our planet,” says Ms Neff.

“While the personalisation might feel nice, these systems are putting brands and characters into a blender with no responsibility for the slop that emerges.”

And Jo Bromilow, director of social and influencer at PR and creative agency MSL UK, asks: “Is a cute, funny result really worth it?”

“If we’re going to really use AI properly, we have to set guardrails around how we use it conscientiously,” she says.

I started by finding a suggested prompt online – a list of instructions to enter into the AI tool in order for it to generate the image.

You have to upload your own selfie with your prompt and you also have to be very specific about what you want, including a list of which accessories you’d like included and what colour you want the box to be.

When it came to providing my job title, my first attempt was declined because I included BBC News and was told this violated content policy – I think because currently the BBC does not allow ChatGPT to use its output.

Once you do get an image you’re likely to want to tweak it further; my first attempt was too cartoon-like.

The following, more realistic version made me look considerably older than I am, then too child-like, and I gave up in the end trying to get it to use my actual eye-colour, which kept defaulting back to blue (mine are a blend of hazel and green).

It took a couple of minutes to generate each version and overall the process was slower than I would have liked, potentially because of its popularity.

It did start to feel like a lot of work for a passing trend, and it isn’t perfect – my doll is expanding out far beneath the supposed packaging.

But more importantly, somewhere in a data centre some hot computer servers were toiling away to make Action Figure Zoe.

They almost certainly could have been put to work on worthier causes.

Strolling in bright sunshine across the immaculately raked gravel of Paris’s Tuileries gardens, Barbara and Rick Wilson from The Dalles, Oregon, were not exactly in disguise. But earlier that morning, on their very first trip to France, Rick, 74, had taken an unusual precaution.

Before leaving his hotel, he’d taken a small piece of black tape and covered up the Stars and Stripes flag on the corner of his baseball cap.

“We’re sick about it. It’s horrible. Just horrible,” said Rick, as he and his wife contemplated the sudden sense of shame and embarrassment they said they now felt, as Americans, following President Trump’s abrupt moves on global trading tariffs.

Barbara, 70, even had a Canadian lapel pin in her pocket – a gift from another tourist – which she thought might come in useful if further subterfuge proved necessary.

“I’m disappointed in our country. We are upset about the tariffs,” she explained.

A few yards away, towards the crowds gathering outside the Louvre Museum, another American couple was also trying to keep a lower profile than usual. Chris Epps, 56, an attorney from New York, had decided he would dress a little differently on today’s tour.

“No New York Yankees hat. I left it in the hotel. People might come up to us, treat us differently. But so far, so good,” he added.

As the world grapples with the implications of Donald Trump’s see-sawing quest to upend the global trading system, the impacts are being felt not just on stock markets and businesses and investment funds, but in subtler ways too, and not least here in France, a country that continues to attract vast numbers of tourists from North America, and which has a centuries-old, close, and sometimes testy relationship with the United States.

To be clear, there are no indications that Americans are any less welcome here than before. Our interviews with a random selection of tourists were also carried out shortly before President Trump reversed some of his tariffs.

Nonetheless, the shock and anger generated in Europe by events of the past week have added fuel to perceptions of a much larger transatlantic rift – of a shifting of the tectonic plates of international relations.

It is early days, of course. Americans are far from united about their government’s actions and much of the evidence for changing sentiments is anecdotal.

But there are already some discernible effects on travel, tourism, academia and other fields.

“It’s a big drop,” said Philippe Gloaguen, the founder of France’s most prestigious travel guides, Le Guide du Routard, sitting behind a cluttered desk in Paris and noting that orders for his books about the US had fallen by 25% so far this year.

Not that Gloaguen was complaining. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“I’m very proud of my customers. They are young, well-educated, and very democratic. This was the truth for Putin… and for China. We know when there’s a dictatorship going on in a country,” he said, arguing that his French readers were beginning to view America in a similar light.

“They don’t want to spend their money in the United States,” Gloaguen continued, framing his publication as a sort of global democratic weathervane.

He noted that the abrupt fall in US sales was balanced by a rise in sales of books about “Canada and other countries.”

Other evidence from the travel industry is beginning to back up the idea of a growing disenchantment with the United States. The forecasting company, Oxford Economics, is already predicting an 8.9% drop in the number of French people travelling to the US this year compared with 2024.

Another recent analysis – of French expatriates living in the US – found that a remarkable 78% of them are now “particularly pessimistic” about their future in the country, while 73% of people polled within France, in March, believed the US was no longer an “ally”.

Over a morning coffee in a Parisian café, Nicolas Conquer – an enthusiastic Trump supporter and dual French-American citizen who leads the Republicans Abroad Paris branch – acknowledged “some volatility” because of the tariffs but argued that a “media narrative” was creating a false impression of strained transatlantic relations.

“I’m still standing my ground… reminding people that France and the US have been the oldest allies,” Conquer said, adding that any negative reaction to Trump’s America First agenda was based on a “childish or immature” view of international relations.

“Everyone knows that we have to have strong sovereignty, strong patriotism, and that… as Trump supporters go for ‘America First’, we would expect that… European governments would also promote UK first, Germany first, France first,” said Conquer.

But concern about the Trump administration’s recent actions and rhetoric – not just in relation to tariffs but also regarding Ukraine and Greenland – is widespread across France and hard to miss. Politicians, newspapers and television talk shows have all been busy dissecting the changes, often in a tone of bitter disillusionment.

In practical terms, the result has sometimes been to offer support to perceived victims of the Trump administration, with French scientific institutions, backed by the French government, beginning to offer places to American researchers who’ve lost their jobs due to cuts in government funding.

Elsewhere there are indications of nervousness about simply travelling to the US. A prestigious social studies institute in Paris recently sent its students a warning, following reports of foreigners being questioned about their political beliefs and refused entry.

“We urge you to be extra vigilant when travelling abroad. It is important not to travel with your usual equipment but to use a shared computer containing only data necessary for your stay and no sensitive data. During border checks, some security services may require the unlocking of digital devices to view information, including private information,” wrote a professor at EHESS, in a group email seen by the BBC.

Relations between Paris and Washington have survived many previous shocks – as, for instance, American taunts about “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” following France’s decision not to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, or the more recent spat over calls to return the Statue of Liberty.

But France’s friendship with the US has never been as unconditionally “special” as that claimed by, say, the British. The French may adore Hollywood cinema, country music and the allure of the American Dream, and celebrate ties that date back to America’s war of independence, but they have kept some distance too – shunning what’s known here as “Le Woke-isme” and, today more than ever, celebrating President De Gaulle’s determination to build an entirely French-owned nuclear deterrent separate from both Nato and the US.

“The American people remain our friend, but [Trump] is no longer our ally,” the former French President François Hollande announced recently.

“It’s definitely a relationship of ‘love’ and not always ‘like,'” said Kerry Halferty-Hardy, the President of the American Club of Paris, citing the ambivalent lyrics of the famous Serge Gainsbourg song, “Je t’aime – moi non plus.”

Looking out of her Paris apartment towards the Eiffel Tower, Halferty-Hardy argued that the shared values of liberty and the Enlightenment linking France and the US “are not easily dislodged and certainly not on the basis of one administration,” but she acknowledged that “no one can ignore what they’re seeing in the headlines.”

While on holiday in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last week, there was only one mission on my mind – getting my hands on the viral “Dubai chocolate” bar.

If you’re on TikTok, you will have seen the bar, which combines the flavours of chocolate, pistachio and tahini with filo pastry, and is inspired by the Arab dessert Knafeh.

The original, called Can’t Get Knafeh of It, by FIX Chocolatier, has been sold exclusively in the UAE since 2022. It become so popular on social media that it’s only on sale for two hours a day and often sells out within minutes.

But now imitations, known by the nickname “Dubai chocolate”, have hit UK supermarkets including Waitrose, Lidl and Morrisons, with some supermarkets limiting the number of bars customers are allowed to buy.

Yezen Alani, who co-owns FIX with his wife Sarah Hamouda, told the BBC the global attention Dubai chocolate was getting was “flattering and humbling”.

The FIX chocolate bar was first imagined by Hamouda in 2021, who craved the flavours while she was pregnant.

Alani and Hamouda started developing the bar a year later, running the business alongside their corporate jobs.

“Sarah and I were brought up in the UK and we moved to Dubai 10 years ago, so we’ve got Western and Arab roots.

“We wanted to create flavours that were inspired by that,” Alani says.

Part of the appeal of the chocolate is its exclusivity – you can only order it using a food delivery app, rather than walking into a shop or grabbing it at the supermarket.

It costs around £15 per bar and can only be bought during specific hours of the day to ensure the company can fulfil all their orders.

I also saw similar bars sold in many shops in the region, dubbed “Dubai chocolate” and adorned with pictures of pistachios and filo pastry.

Alani says the “copycat” bars are “very frustrating because people are trying knockoffs, which damages our brand”.

One of the reasons for the bar’s surge in popularity has been social media – with a viral video by TikTok user Maria Vehera from 2023 being cited as one of the main reasons for its rise to prominence.

It shows Vehera trying the Knafeh bar for the first time – along with several others made by the same chocolatier – and has been liked nearly seven million times.

The way the bar looks is made for social media – from the attractive orange and green spots on top of the smooth milk chocolate to the crunch sound it makes when you break off a piece.

Chocolate combined with pistachio isn’t new but the real standout element is the crunchy nature of the filling, with the filo pastry adding a texture and thickness to the bar.

Since the Can’t Get Knafeh of It bar is only available in one country, other brands have started to sell their versions in the UK, including Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt whose Dubai chocolate is being sold for £10 in supermarkets.

Since stocking the bar, Waitrose says they’ve had to introduce a two-bar limit for customers in order to regulate stock levels.

Another version has also been sold by Home Bargains, while supermarket Lidl has its own version for £4.99 and is also limiting purchase numbers.

One influencer documented how the has bar been kept behind tills for this reason.

Having tried the Lindt bar and a couple of other versions being sold in corner shops, there is quite a contrast.

The FIX chocolate is billed as a “dessert bar” and needs to be kept in the fridge, with a short expiry date like many dairy items.

This isn’t the case for the others, which have been designed to have a longer shelf life.

You can also see the difference in taste and texture – the original bar is almost double the width of the Lindt bar, which is more aligned to the size and shape of a standard chocolate bar.

When Alani and Hamouda first started out, they employed one person to fulfil around six to seven orders a day.

But since growing in popularity, primarily thanks to TikTok, their business now employs 50 people, who fulfil 500 orders a day.

One big talking point has been the price of the product, which is £15 per bar.

“It’s all handmade, every single design is done by hand,” Alani says.

“We use premium ingredients and the process is not like making other bars – you’ve got the baking, moulding the chocolate to the design and with the filling itself, even the pistachios are hand-picked and processed”.

Speaking to Arabian Business last year, Hamouda said: “My mother used to make Knafeh, and that’s something I wanted to capture my own way.

“Knafeh was the first flavour we perfected. The crunch, the pistachio, it had to be just right,” she added.

Despite the product’s success, Alani says “it’s been a tough journey” as the pair have been working together full time while also raising their two children.

“There’s been times where we’ve wanted to give up, but we said to ourselves ‘we’ll keep going as long as we can pay the rent’ and now we have no regrets as its worked out”.

When his camera stopped working on his iPhone recently, New Yorker Richard Medina didn’t waste any time. With the threat of tariff-fuelled price hikes on smartphones bearing down, he quickly called his phone company for a new one.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to switch this out now,'” the 43-year-old recalled. “Let’s take care of it.”

The move was a sign of the pressure rising across the US, where households are being buffeted by what could be staggering price rises, and even possible shortages triggered by the sweeping tariffs that US President Donald Trump announced this month.

Some are trying to stock up. Others say they feel paralysed by the changes, which have come quickly, or hope Trump will change his mind and reverse course – not an entirely unreasonable hope given the rapid changes in policy.

Trump, facing financial market revolt over his latest tariffs, has already altered his plans repeatedly.

First, he scaled back duties that had been planned on some countries, such as the European Union, in what was described as a 90-day pause.

Then, as market turmoil continued, he exempted smartphones and other electronics from the duties, announcing the carve-out just a few days after Mr Medina felt pressure to make a purchase.

“I can’t keep up with the president. Every day is something new,” said Anna Woods, 42, who recently received a message from her son’s summer camp warning that the tariffs might affect pricing of standard gear such as T-shirts.

The 42-year-old, who works in legal operations, says she is nervous but unclear how to proceed.

“I just feel like we’re living in uncertain times,” she said, adding: “I do need to make some purchases …. Everything is going up.”

The latest tariffs include a 10% tax on the vast majority of imports – and an eye-popping 145% duty on goods from China, which is the third biggest supplier of imports to the US after the European Union and Mexico and a key source of essentials such as smartphones, shoes and umbrellas.

The measures followed previous orders that added 25% levies on cars, steel, aluminium and some goods from Canada and Mexico.

In all, Trump’s orders have pushed the average effective tariff rate on imports in the US to the highest level in more than a century.

In stores, the immediate impact has been limited, since many firms stockpiled some products in anticipation of some tariffs.

But the tariffs are widely expected to lead to higher prices in the months ahead, especially for items such as clothing, leather goods, electronics and toys, many of which are made in China.

The Budget Lab at Yale forecasts that prices for clothing could soar by more than 60% in the short run; basic pharmaceutical products could jump by 12%, and food prices rise by 2.6%.

All told, the typical US family is facing a roughly $4,700 jump in costs due to the new taxes, if purchase patterns remain the same, it estimates.

“I’m extremely worried about it,” said 38-year-old mother Jamie Casey, one of more than a dozen people shopping at a Target in Brooklyn on a recent afternoon who shared their thoughts with the BBC about the tariffs.

She was in the store picking up formula – and some onesies and outfits for her daughter, who has yet to turn one.

“I wouldn’t say I’m panic-buying yet, but I am interested in how it plays out.”

Major retailers experienced a jump in visits in the weeks leading up to Trump’s tariff announcement, according to research firm Placer.ai, while purchases at the likes of Walmart and Target increased markedly in the immediate aftermath, according to data tracked by ConsumerEdge.

There has also been an uptick in US purchases on Amazon’s e-commerce platform, where Chinese sellers dominate, CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC recently.

“I don’t know if we can necessarily conclude it’s panic-buying but there seems to be broad stock-up behaviour,” said Michael Gunther, head of insights at ConsumerEdge, noting that two separate data sets used by the firm showed a pick-up.

Cristina Montoya said she had been buying extra canned food and frozen fruit, a little at a time for a few months, anxious about possible price increases, especially as a pensioner reliant on a fixed income.

“You never used to do your shopping nervous,” the 74-year-old said. “I feel like you have to buy a lot of things because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The dynamic has added to the tariff turmoil.

Last week, as the measures came into effect, some businesses started introducing tariff surcharges, while others abruptly cancelled shipments from China, unwilling to risk being unable to recoup the cost of the duties.

The disruption has the potential to cause near-term shortages in the US of items where China dominates the supply, such as baby carriages, colouring books and umbrellas, analysts at Macquarie noted this week.

Analysts say the pickup in consumer purchases is likely to prove temporary, or an acceleration of transactions that would have happened anyway.

If price rises start to hit, many economists expect Americans to opt for cheaper substitutes, delay purchases, or simply do without – a pullback with major consequences for an economy driven by consumer spending.

Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, is predicting the US economy will grow just 0.5% this year, and the unemployment rate will rise to 5% – the highest level since 2021 amid Covid.

Other firms, such as JP Morgan, are forecasting an outright recession.

“In terms of the consumer, it does get a little tricky,” Ms Bostjancic said.

“We could see consumer spending actually be strong in March and April but it’s just because of this surge ahead of the tariff increases,” she added. “Going forward, consumer spending is going to be weaker.”

On surveys, fears about both the economy and price rises are flaring, even though hiring has been solid and inflation cooled to 2.4% in March, down from 2.8% in February.

Some people shopping in New York said it felt like a whole way of life could be coming to an end.

Louis Lopez, an elevator mechanic in New York City, said he was so worried about the economy he had started to squirrel away cash under the mattress. But he was also holding shopping bags with new work clothes and a pair of Nike trainers for the summer.

“You might as well buy it now … while you have it good,” the 56-year-old said. “It’s going to change everything for everybody.”

Arsenal fans in Uganda partied well into the early hours this week, outside video halls and bars across the country, after their team’s stunning victory over Real Madrid.

The north London-based team won 3-0, at home, in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final stage.

Such was the passion, the joy and the adulation shown to midfielder Declan Rice and his free kicks, you would be forgiven for thinking Arsenal was homegrown.

Whenever the club play, the East African nation knows about it. Alongside Manchester United, they are one of the English Premier League (EPL) teams with the biggest support in the country.

Church services, packed with fans decked in the Gunners’ red and white colours, have been held before big matches – with prayers offered up for a side that sometimes looks as though it needs divine assistance.

The passion for Arsenal and other English clubs has spawned an entire industry in Uganda, with shops and vendors selling jerseys and bigger companies targeting their advertising around the results, while for sports betting companies it is massive business.

“I have covered football across Africa for many years and I can tell you without a doubt that the soccer enthusiasm in Uganda is on another level,” veteran sports journalist Isaac Mumema told the BBC.

For Swale Suleiman, a Manchester United fan and mechanic I met at a garage in the capital, Kampala, the excitement lies in the fact that EPL matches are competitive, entertaining and sometimes unpredictable and even a “small team can cause an upset”.

Ugandan fan clubs have been set up for all the top English sides. WhatsApp groups keep the debates going beyond halls and bars.

But Arsenal fans seem to take it to another level – some have even been arrested for holding victory parades without police notice after winning big matches.

However, this type of fandom also has a much uglier side, with the love for the game sometimes turning to deadly violence as tempers flare between rival supporters.

“Our people naturally get attached to something wholeheartedly and Ugandans really love football,” Uganda Football Coaches Association (UFCA) chairman Stone Kyambadde told the BBC.

“This soccer fanaticism has even grown stronger with the young generation because they watch the English Premier League from anywhere,” he said.

They can keep abreast of scores on their phones, but it is mainly a communal event and even the most remote village will have a makeshift video hall where fans will pack in to watch matches.

But it was for a funeral that villagers near Lake Victoria gathered last December, to bury a 30-year-old carpenter who was shot dead while celebrating Arsenal’s victory over Manchester United.

Speaker after speaker lamented the loss of John Senyange, who had been a Gunner all his life.

He had been watching the match in a video hall in the town of Lukaya – and when spontaneous cheering erupted from Arsenal fans after the final whistle, it upset their rivals, including a security guard, who reportedly pulled the trigger.

Earlier in the season, about 300km (186 miles) away in the south-western area of Kabale, Manchester United fan Benjamin Ndyamuhaki was stabbed to death by an Arsenal supporter after the two argued over the results of the epic clash between Arsenal and Liverpool.

In 2023, there were four Premiership-related deaths in different parts of the country – two Arsenal fans were killed by Man Utd supporters, a fan died in mysterious circumstances after Man Utd were trounced 7-0 by Liverpool and another man died from stab wounds after trying to intervene in a fight after Arsenal lost to Man Utd.

Football violence in Uganda dates back to the 1980s when local games were characterised by stone-throwing and fistfights between rival fans.

“There has always been cases of violence whenever Express FC and SC Villa – the two main local teams in Uganda – have a major derby,” sports scientist Lumbuye Linika told me at a football pitch in Kampala.

But things have become much worse – a situation experts blame on fanaticism fuelled by gambling, with many men trying to earn their living by placing bets.

In a tragic case several years ago, police said a man killed himself with poison after losing money in a bet.

With the rise of online gambling, it just takes a second to place a bet via an app on your phone which brings the hope of winning big coupled with bragging rights.

Gaming companies have also taken advantage of the Ugandan obsession with the EPL, setting up viewing centres where fans can watch games and place their bets.

This is where the trouble often brews – with rival fans teasing each other when their bets fail.

“With limited job opportunities, many football fans are turning to betting as a way to earn quick money,” said Amos Kalwegira, who stopped to chat to me one Monday morning on a street in Kampala when I spotted him in a Man Utd shirt.

“This has become an intense emotional investment which often quickly turns into aggression when soccer results aren’t favourable.”

For Mr Linika this is all proving corrosive: “Football should make us happy and Western soccer is supposed to be a form of entertainment but here in Uganda we have turned it to be a way of earning a livelihood, spoiling the fun.”

But Collins Bongomin, a senior officer in one of Uganda’s betting companies, said the industry should not be blamed for football violence.

“People just lack sufficient knowledge on managing expectations and anger,” he told the BBC, noting industry efforts to encourage responsible gambling.

With more than 2,000 betting shops across the country, it is also proving lucrative for the government, which collected about $50m (£40m) in tax revenue from gambling last year, according to local media.

Some note that the lethal rivalry mainly involves Uganda’s Arsenal and Man Utd fans, suggesting this has something to do with age and background.

Mr Linika, a Liverpool supporter, said his team tended to attract an older crowd and those that were slightly better off – with Arsenal’s and Man Utd’s fanbase drawn from poorer areas.

“Currently we are on top of the Premier League table and you rarely hear about a Liverpool fan involved in violence,” he said.

Pamela Icumar, popularly known as Mama Liverpool because of her ardent devotion to the Reds, agreed that her fellow fans knew how to manage their emotions “even when we’re losing”.

But Arsenal fan Agnes Katende laughed this off when I met up with them both in Kampala – the two women are part of a dedicated female following of the EPL. Ms Icumar is even part of a female only fan club.

For Solomon Kutesa, secretary of the official Arsenal Supporters Club in Uganda, the country’s drinking culture is to blame for the football violence.

“Some of the fans watch the games while intoxicated and it becomes hard to manage them when their teams lose,” he told the BBC.

Some suggest getting fans back into local stadiums and out of bars could curb the hysteria – and help revitalise the Ugandan Premier League.

“The current generation only knows about the European soccer. If we invest more on the local league we could manage to disrupt a lot of attention given to foreign games,” said Mr Kyambadde, while acknowledging it suffered from a bad reputation and lack of star power.

Former footballer Tom Lwanga, who played for Uganda’s national team when the Cranes reached the finals of the 1978 Africa Cup of Nations, agreed.

“We became famous because we used to play when stadiums were full. We need to return to that era and manage the frenzy with European football,” he told me in the empty stands of Kampala’s Phillip Omondi Stadium as we watched a local match.

Others blame the lack of live television broadcasts for the decline of the Ugandan league.

Asuman Basalirwa, chair of the Ugandan Parliamentary Sports Club, who was also at the Omondi stadium, is among those trying to boost the local game.

“I’m among the few MPs who watch local football and we want to see more leaders, even the president, coming to the stadiums to support local teams,” he said.

But for Mr Kutesa, whose love of Arsenal dates back to the days of players like Nwankwo Kanu and Thierry Henry, the next few weeks are all-important.

“Our emotions right now are high. We are where we belong and this is definitely our season,” he said back in February.

While it appears their title bid is over, they are in a strong position to qualify for the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in 16 years, as long as they avoid a disaster in Wednesday’s second leg against Real Madrid.

• Online gambling: Are Ugandans hooked?
• A football fan explores the dark side of sports betting in Africa
• Real Madrid ‘need something crazy’ to win Arsenal tie
• Why Uganda’s iconic crested crane faces extinction

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.

“Who was going to blink first?”

A source involved in the fraught negotiations since the election over the future of British Steel told me that as time passed, and literally, coal to keep the furnaces burning started to run out, that was the question – was the government going to offer even more to the Chinese owners of British Steel, Jingye, or act itself?

On Saturday, the government is changing the law to answer that question.

Unless something truly weird happens, Parliament will vote to give Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, the power to tell British Steel what to do – in practice, buying coal to keep the fires burning, to keep the once mighty steel industry alive.

• Follow latest updates as Parliament recalled over British Steel

Even on Thursday he was offering taxpayers’ cash to buy the raw materials to keep the furnaces alive as a sweetener for Jingye.

At one point in the talks, sources suggest they were asking for a billion-pound taxpayer bailout to keep the plant alive. But I’m told that price wouldn’t have been accompanied by any guarantee that jobs would be saved, or the plant protected for good.

Taking control on Saturday does not do that. The Chinese owners will remain the shareholders, for now. But Labour’s decision literally and metaphorically keeps the flames alive – the government hopes. And it commits taxpayers to start coughing up to save the steel industry – for how long, is a more complicated question.

So what then? Theoretically, Jingye could “get their act together and take the company back”, one insider suggests.

Talking to interested parties on Friday night, that seemed vanishingly unlikely.

The UK government has spent the last couple of weeks trying to tempt them to stay on board with huge inducements. That failed, so the chances of getting back involved seem pretty slim.

• Why is British Steel in trouble and who owns it?

There is the possibility that another company wants to swoop in and rescue the business.

Again, don’t hold your breath – the company has been losing money hand over fist, the blast furnaces are nearing the end of their useful life, and the cost of energy it gulps is enormous.

So in the current state, taking on the business as an offer? It’s not that pretty. Remember Jingye were the only bidder last time round – when a Conservative source says, “there were no other bidders – the alternative was closure or nationalisation, and the Conservatives were never going to nationalise”. So will Labour?

As of this weekend, that seems pretty likely. Remember the action in Parliament later does not mean nationalisation. But it’s a necessary first step if that is what’s going to happen.

You’ve probably heard ministers again and again say “all options are on the table” – that’s their get out of jail card where they don’t commit to anything in case their preferred option suddenly disappears. But as MPs gather to vote on the next steps, a journey towards nationalisation certainly feels like the direction.

Two different sources who have been part of the wider discussions tell me the prime minister has come to believe that taking British Steel back into public hands is what the government will have to do. There are practical and political reasons for why that might come to pass.

First, for the government to have a hope of achieving its aims – building infrastructure, spending more on defence at home, growing the economy and protecting jobs – it is logical to preserve a steel industry in this country.

That’s not just because ministers are loathe to see good jobs disappear. But because in government, the capacity to make steel is an important part of what the UK needs to be able to do. If the plant closes, the UK would become the only G7 country without primary steel making capability.

That wasn’t something the government was willing to tolerate. So if the private sector won’t do it – enter the state. Although, it wouldn’t be unfair to wonder why they have ended up making this decision at the last minute when the fuel for the furnaces is about to run out, given it was three weeks ago that the company sounded the alarm about possible closures.

Second, that requirement to act has become politically attractive because it fits into Sir Keir Starmer’s more and more familiar script, that the new world order has changed – governments need to be more active and agile in protecting their own interests.

It follows, if, as Treasury Minister Darren Jones, told us last week, globalisation is over, then the UK has to be able to make the materials and products like steel that it really needs itself.

One source remarks: “Dragging the Tories to Parliament over the weekend to back the Labour government’s plans to save British steel: I can finally see why people said government was worth it”.

It is politics after all.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has blamed the government’s “incompetence” for the last-minute recall, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said it was an opportunity to come up with “a serious plan” for domestic steel production.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the government’s plan was just a “short-term sticking plaster” and both he and the Green Party have called for public ownership as the only option.

It is worth remembering the problems in the steel industry didn’t start with Donald Trump, or this government, or even Jingye. Steel was nationalised in 1967, then sold back into the private sector in 1988.

Frantic negotiations with government about jobs, bailouts, survival are familiar. But there is gathering momentum around nationalisation as the solution, in a way unthinkable not so long ago.

Hypothetical conversations started at the top of government a couple of months ago about the possibility, detailed work only in the last week or so. But there is a growing consensus – one source familiar with the situation even says, “nationalisation is inevitable and has been for some time”.

But – “the hurdles are huge” – a source tells me. The most obvious obstacle? Cold hard cash, way beyond the initial price tag for raw materials to keep Scunthorpe going for a few more weeks.

In the long term, the blast furnaces are near the end of their life, the plant needs investment, massive investment, to make it safe and to have a proper future. One industry source told me modern electric furnaces could have a price tag as as much as £3bn each, and Scunthorpe might need two.

Energy costs for new or existing furnaces are enormous. In Number 10 and Number 11 there is an acknowledgement that the costs of energy for industry can be crippling. That could be another area where government is keen to act.

The government hasn’t yet shared, or hasn’t yet worked out, what the potential cost of taking on the plant in the long term might be. A Treasury source says it will have to be within the current plans for spending. And you don’t need me to remind you again how tight Number 11 says money is, how tightly Chancellor Rachel Reeves wants to stick to her spending rules.

And yet – if a big ticket effective nationalisation is the political choice, and it runs to many billions? Let’s see.

MPs voting later won’t determine the entire future for British Steel. But it puts the government on a path to make real some of its rhetoric in recent weeks, as one figure put it – “neoliberalism is over. Ownership matters again – Labour needs to define Britain’s place in this new, new world order”.

But passing a law in a rush is one thing. Political excitement another. Sir Keir used to attract ire from the left of his own party for walking away from some of his previous beliefs in common ownership, nationalising vital industries. Embarking on an expensive and complicated adventure to preserve a struggling multi-billion pound industry was not meant to be part of the plan.

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US and Iranian officials have held indirect talks in Oman’s capital, Muscat, to try to reach a new deal over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

Donald Trump pulled the US out of a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers in 2018, and reinstated economic sanctions, angering Iran.

The US president has warned of military action if the talks do not succeed.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.

It insists it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons, but many countries – as well as the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – are not convinced.

Suspicions about Iran’s intentions arose when the country was found to have secret nuclear facilities in 2002.

This broke an agreement called the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Iran and almost all other countries have signed.

The NPT lets countries use non-military nuclear technology – such as for medicine, agriculture and energy – but does not permit the development of nuclear weapons.

• US to hold direct nuclear talks with Iran, Trump says
• Iran says it is ready for nuclear deal if US stops military threats
• Analysis: Can Trump convince Iran to ditch its nuclear programme?

Since the US pulled out of the existing nuclear deal – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA – in 2018, Iran has breached key commitments, in retaliation for the decision to reinstate sanctions.

It has installed thousands of advanced centrifuges (purification machines) to enrich uranium, something which was banned by the JCPOA.

Nuclear weapons require uranium which has been enriched to 90% purity. Under the JCPOA, Iran was only allowed to possess up to 300kg (600lb) of uranium enriched to 3.67% – sufficient for civilian nuclear power and research purposes but not nuclear bombs.

But by March 2025, the IAEA said Iran had about 275kg of uranium which it had enriched to 60% purity. That is enough to theoretically make about half a dozen weapons, should Iran further enrich the uranium.

US officials have said they believe Iran could turn that uranium into enough weapons-grade material for one bomb in as little as a week. However, they have also said it would take Iran between a year to 18 months to build a nuclear weapon. Some experts say a “crude” device could be built in six months or less.

The UN, US and EU imposed extensive economic sanctions on Iran from 2010, over suspicions that its nuclear programme was being used to develop a bomb.

The sanctions stopped Iran from selling oil on international markets and froze $100bn (£77bn) of the country’s foreign assets. Its economy plunged into recession and the value of its currency fell to record lows, which in turn caused inflation to soar.

In 2015, Iran and six world powers – the US, China, France, Russia, Germany and the UK – agreed to the JCPOA after years of negotiations.

As well as limiting what Iran was permitted to do with its nuclear programme, it allowed the IAEA to access all of Iran’s nuclear facilities and to carry out inspections of suspect sites.

In return, the powers agreed to lift the sanctions.

The JCPOA was set to last up to 15 years, after which the restrictions would expire.

When Donald Trump took office in 2018, he removed the US – which had been a key pillar of the agreement.

He said it was a “bad deal” because it was not permanent and did not address Iran’s ballistic missile programme, amongst other things. Trump re-imposed US sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign to compel Iran to negotiate a new and expanded agreement.

Trump’s decision was influenced by America’s regional allies who were opposed to the deal, chiefly Israel.

Israel claimed that Iran was still pursuing a covert nuclear programme, and warned that Iran would use billions of dollars in sanctions relief to strengthen its military activities.

• Iran’s uranium enrichment ‘worrisome’ – nuclear watchdog
• High stakes as Iran nuclear issue reaches crunch moment
• Iran rejects nuclear talks as UAE delivers Trump’s letter

Trump’s announcement concerning talks with Iran appeared to take Israel by surprise. He had long said he would make a “better” deal than the JCPOA, though up till now Iran has rejected renegotiating the agreement.

Trump has previously warned that if Iran did not make a new deal “there will be bombing”.

His national security adviser Mike Waltz has said that Trump wants the “full dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear programme, adding: “That’s enrichment, that is weaponisation, and that is its strategic missile programme.”

Iran hopes a deal to limit, but not dismantle, its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

“Our intention is to reach a fair and honourable agreement from an equal position,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas said.

Although Trump had said there would be “direct talks”, Araghchi said the negotiations in Oman were indirect, with only a brief conversation between him and US envoy Steve Witkoff taking place as they were leaving.

Araghchi said Iran was ready to engage with the US, but that Trump must first agree there can be no “military option”.

After Trump’s announcement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the only acceptable deal would involve Iran agreeing to eliminate its nuclear programme. He said that meant: “We go in, blow up the facilities, and dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision and execution.”

Israel’s biggest fear will be that Trump might accept a compromise short of Iran’s complete capitulation which he could present as a diplomatic win.

Israel, which has not signed the NPT, is assumed to have nuclear weapons, something it neither confirms nor denies. It believes a nuclear-armed Iran, which does not accept Israel’s right to exist, would pose a substantial threat.

Both the US and Israel have the military capabilities to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but such an operation would be complex and risky, with an uncertain outcome.

Key nuclear sites are buried deep underground, meaning only the most powerful bunker-busting bombs could possibly reach them. While the US possesses these bombs, Israel is not known to.

Iran would almost certainly defend itself, which could include attacking US assets in the region, and firing missiles at Israel.

For an operation of this kind, the US would likely need to use its bases in the Gulf, as well as aircraft carriers.

But countries like Qatar, which hosts the biggest US airbase, might not agree to help it attack Iran, fearing retaliation.

When Omri Miran finally opens his WhatsApp account, he’s going to receive a torrent of messages.

Photos of his daughters. Late night musings from his wife, Lishay, as she lies in bed. Snapshots from an Israeli family life that’s gone on for 18 painful months without him.

Lishay started sending the messages three weeks after Hamas gunmen violently snatched Omri from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, on 7 October 2023.

She calls the chat Notes to Omri. She’s lost count of the number of messages she’s sent.

“My love, there are so many people you’ll need to meet when you come back,” she wrote at the end of October 2023.

“Amazing people who are helping me. Strangers who have become as close as can be.”

Three-and-a-half months later, she posted a message from the couple’s eldest daughter.

“Roni just said goodnight to you at the window like every night. She says you don’t hear her and she doesn’t see you… You’re really missing from her life and it’s getting harder for her to deal with your absence.”

Friday was Omri’s birthday. His second in captivity. As he turns 48, somewhere in the tunnels of Gaza, Lishay will be writing again, with tales of two daughters who were still babies when he last saw them.

Released hostages say Omri was seen alive last July. Lishay’s belief in her husband’s survival seems unshakeable, but this is the toughest time of the year. Not just Omri’s birthday, but also the eve of Pesach (Passover), when Jews celebrate the Biblical story of Exodus, in which Moses led their ancestors out of slavery in Egypt.

“You know, Pesach is the holiday of freedom,” Lishay says when we meet in a park near Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.

“I don’t feel free. I don’t think anyone in Israel can feel free.”

In the square itself, Omri’s birthday was marked on Friday.

The posters calling for his release once listed the hostage’s age as 46. Then 47.

Danny, Omri’s father, crossed out both, and wrote 48.

Nearby, preparations were well under way for a symbolic Passover Seder, or ritual feast.

A long table was being set, with places for each of the remaining 59 hostages still in Gaza (of whom 24 are believed to be alive).

The square is full of symbols: a mock-up of a Gaza tunnel, tents to represent the Nova music festival where hundreds were killed.

Along with a merchandise stall to support the families and a “virtual reality hostage experience”, it’s all part of a collective effort to keep the plight of the missing in the public eye and maintain political pressure on the Israeli government.

Lishay and her daughters have yet to return to the house where family life was blown apart in a few traumatic hours, 18 months ago.

But Lishay says she goes back to Nahal Oz from time to time to commune with her husband.

The kibbutz is just 700m from the border with Gaza. It’s as close as she can get to Omri.

“I can feel him over there,” she says. “I can speak with him.”

After a ceasefire came into effect in mid-January, the border was quiet. Lishay allowed herself to hope, even though she knew Omri’s age meant that he would not be among the first to be freed.

But the ceasefire ended after just two months. Now the border area – which Israelis call “the Gaza pocket” – echoes once more to the sounds of war, reigniting the deepest fears of all hostage families.

“I was terrified,” she says of her most recent trip.

Lishay is careful not to condemn her government, as some hostage families have. But she says that when she realised the war had resumed, she was “really angry”.

When Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Hungary’s Viktor Orban last week, he posted that the two men had discussed “the Hungarian hostage”, a reference to Omri’s dual Israel-Hungarian citizenship.

For Lishay, it stung.

“I was really, really hard to see this,” she says. “Omri has a name. He’s not just a hostage.”

In a Passover message delivered on Friday, Netanyahu once again promised the families that hostages would return and Israel’s enemies would be defeated.

Recent days have seen talk of another ceasefire deal, but it doesn’t feel imminent.

“The last time that it happened,” Lishay says, referring to the first ceasefire deal in November 2023, “we waited more than a year for another agreement. So now we are going to wait one year more? They can’t survive over there.”

For now, it seems her WhatsApp messages to Omri are destined to remain unopened.

But that doesn’t stop her looking for the grey ticks to turn blue.

“I know someday it’ll happen.”

A US judge has ruled the Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate detained last month over his role in pro-Palestinian protests.

Mr Khalil, a permanent legal US resident, has not been charged with a crime. In a letter written from the facility, he has said his “arrest was a direct consequence” of speaking out for Palestinian rights.

The government has cited a Cold War-era immigration law, declaring that his presence in the US was adverse to American foreign policy interests.

The immigration court’s ruling does not mean Mr Khalil would be immediately removed from the country. The judge gave his lawyers until 23 April to appeal against the order.

The activist has been held at a Louisiana detention centre since 8 March, when immigration officers told him he was being deported for taking part in protests against the war in Gaza.

• Who is Mahmoud Khalil, Palestinian student activist facing US deportation?

The 30-year-old was a prominent voice at Columbia University’s protests against the war in Gaza last year.

The Trump administration has cited a 1952 law that empowers the government to order someone deported if their presence in the country could pose unfavourable consequences for American foreign policy.

The judge said the Trump administration was allowed to move forward with its effort to deport Mr Khalil because the argument that he poses “adverse foreign policy consequences” for the US is “facially reasonable”.

Mr Khalil, who was otherwise silent, addressed the court after the ruling.

“I would like to quote what you said last time that there’s nothing that’s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness,” Mr Khalil said in court.

“Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process,” he said. “This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) described the decision as “pre-written”.

The rights group said the ruling came less than 48 hours after the US government “handed over the ‘evidence’ they have on Mr. Khalil – which included nothing more than a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that made clear Mr Khalil had not committed a crime and was being targeted solely based on his speech”.

The government, particularly Rubio, has said its efforts to deport Mr Khalil were also to “protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States” even if his activities were “otherwise lawful”.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised the judge’s ruling on Friday.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America,” she wrote on social media. “When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. Good riddance.”

Mr Khalil’s legal team has repeatedly said evidence of antisemitism has not been presented.

His lawyer, Marc Van Der Hout, condemned the decision and said his team was going to fight for Mr Khalil’s “right to speak out against what’s happening in the US”.

The legal team also said they expected further hearings in the case.

“I actually had a long conversation with him after the hearing,” Johnny Sinodis, another member of Mr Khalil’s legal team, told the BBC later on Friday. “He’s feeling confident. He’s feeling supported.”

“Mahmoud is not against the United States, he is not antisemitic,” he said. “He has done nothing wrong.”

Mr Khalil has also filed a federal court lawsuit in New Jersey challenging his arrest as unconstitutional. His lawyers have said the outcome of that case could block his deportation if they win.

The Trump administration has separately alleged that the student committed immigration fraud by failing to disclose certain information on his green card application.

This includes working for the British embassy in Beirut and the United Nations agency for Palestinian migrants and refugees. But the government has not submitted any new evidence related to this.

In a statement, White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said the Trump administration is “committed to the enforcement of our immigration laws and will take swift action to remove aliens who pose serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Friday, as Donald Trump urged the Russian president to “get moving” on a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said the meeting lasted for more than four hours and focused on “aspects of a Ukrainian settlement”. The meeting, Witkoff’s third with Putin this year, was described by special envoy Kirill Dmitriev as “productive”.

Trump, the US president, has expressed frustration over the progress of talks. On Friday, he wrote: “Russia has to get moving. Too many people ere [sic] DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war.”

It comes as Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg denied suggesting the country could be partitioned.

The Times earlier reported that, during an interview with the paper, Kellogg had proposed British and French troops could adopt zones of control in the west of Ukraine as part of a “reassurance force”.

Russia’s army, he reportedly suggested, could then remain in the occupied east. “You could almost make it look like what happened with Berlin after World War Two,” the paper quoted him as saying.

Kellogg later took to social media to say that the article had “misrepresented” what he said.

“I was speaking of a post-ceasefire resiliency force in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty,” he wrote on X, adding: “I was NOT referring to a partitioning of Ukraine.”

Neither the White House nor Kyiv reacted to the comments immediately. The BBC has asked the Times for a response.

Earlier on Friday, European nations agreed €21bn ($24bn; £18bn) in military aid for Kyiv.

Europe’s defence ministers said at the event that they saw no sign of an end to the war.

Ahead of the Putin-Witkoff talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was “no need to expect breakthroughs” as the “process of normalising relations is ongoing”.

Asked whether discussions could include setting up a date for Putin and Trump to meet, Peskov said: “Let’s see. It depends on what Witkoff has come with.”

Beforehand, Witkoff had a meeting with Dmitriev at the Grand Hotel Europe in St Petersburg, where a conference was held on stainless steel and the Russian market.

Dmitriev, the 49-year-old head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, visited Washington last week, becoming the most senior Russian official to go to the US since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Kremlin of prolonging the war during a visit on Friday to the site of a 4 April Russian missile attack on his home town of Kryvyi Rih. The attack killed 19 people, including nine children.

He also alleged that “at least several hundred” Chinese nationals were fighting with the Russian army, after Ukraine said it had captured two Chinese nationals.

“This means Russia is clearly trying to prolong the war even by using Chinese lives,” Zelensky said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko later told the state-owned news agency Tass that “nothing could be farther from the truth”.

Zelensky laid flowers in front of photos of Herman Tripolets, nine, and seven-year-olds Arina Samodina and Radyslav Yatsko.

He later reiterated a call for air defence systems “to protect lives and our cities”.

“We discussed this with President Trump – Ukraine is not just asking, we’re ready to purchase these additional systems,” he wrote on social media.

“Only powerful weapons can truly be relied upon to protect life when you have a neighbour like Russia.”

Trump has previously claimed he could end the Ukraine-Russia conflict “in 24 hours”. On Friday, he declared that it would not have happened at all if he had been in the White House when the war started.

“A war that should ld [sic] have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened, if I were President!!!,” he wrote.

In February, US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia for their first face-to-face talks since the invasion. Officials have also been meeting to discuss restoring full diplomatic relations.

The US attempted to broker a limited ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea, only for it to stall when the Kremlin asked for sanctions imposed after it launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour to be lifted.

Trump has since said he is “very angry” and “pissed off” with Putin over the lack of progress in agreeing a truce between Kyiv and Moscow.

Trump has also had a fractious relationship with Zelensky since his second term as US president began, culminating in an angry confrontation in the Oval Office in February.

Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the US was not its ally.

He said the US and Russia had not been able to go from “total distrust to alignment in two months” since Trump returned to the White House.

“We have too many disagreements,” he said. “But we are working on these disagreements step by step in different areas.”

Earlier this week, Washington and Moscow went ahead with a prisoner swap.

Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American, was sentenced to 12 years in jail in Russia for donating $51 to a Ukrainian charity when the war began in February 2022.

The Los Angeles resident was freed on Thursday morning and exchanged for Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen arrested in Cyprus in 2023.

He was accused of illegally exporting microelectronics to Russia for manufacturers working with the military.

The resentencing hearing of Menendez brothers can move forward despite opposition from the district attorney, a Los Angeles court has ruled.

The brothers’ attorneys are attempting to have them resentenced to a lesser term, which could potentially make them eligible for freedom.

Erik and Lyle were convicted of killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, a notorious case that still divides Americans. They are currently serving life in prison without the possibility of parole in California.

Friday’s ruling means a pair of high-profile hearings next week to decide whether the convicted killers will be resentenced, will continue.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman has voiced fierce opposition to resentencing the pair, after his predecessor put the process in motion just before the November election.

The brothers’ effort is based on a California law that allows certain inmates who were aged under 26 at the time of their crimes to seek resentencing and potential parole eligibility – recognising that brain development continues into a person’s mid-20s.

If the brothers are resentenced to 50 years to life as they have requested, it would make them immediately eligible for parole.

Lyle and Erik Menendez appeared for hearing remotely via a video stream from a San Diego prison. Both were dressed in blue prison jumpsuits and appeared nervous at times – looking down, rocking in chairs and taking deep breaths – as prosecutors recounted graphic details of the killings.

The district attorney’s office argued that while prosecutors can recognise inmates have rehabilitated while behind bars, the act of resentencing someone should be used with care.

Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian criticised the former DA George Gascón, whose backing of the resentencing effort allowed it to move forward.

He said the decision by Gascón to announce his support for the brothers to be resentenced just before the November election, which Gascón lost to Hochman by a wide margin, was politically driven.

The DA’s office has argued the brothers have not fully taken responsibility and have continued to grasp at alleged lies in the case to shed blame.

• Three possible paths to freedom: What’s next for the Menendez brothers?
• Menendez brothers feel ‘hope’ for parole after decades in jail
• ‘Like a golden ticket’ – Menendez brothers case sparks frenzy in LA

Mark Geragos, an attorney for the Menendez brothers, argued that the district attorney’s office was more concerned with re-litigating the previous trial and hadn’t examined what the pair had been doing the last 35 years in prison.

The pair had completed schooling while behind bars and worked to start rehabilitation programs for disabled and elderly inmates, along with incarcerated individuals suffering with trauma, he said.

The judge ruled that prosecutors failed to show why the resentencing effort should not continue and emphasised the importance of maintaining consistency even with shifts in leadership.

“There’s no new information,” the judge said. “None of this is really new. They’ve stuck with their story. It goes to whether they’ve been rehabilitated.”

The case was thrust back into the public eye last year as new evidence emerged and the release of a new Netflix drama, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

The series introduced the case to a new generation and garnered attention from celebrities – including Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell – who called for the brothers to be released.

Legal experts say the outcome of the Menendez brothers’ resentencing hearing could take several forms, depending on how the judge rules.

The most straightforward path would be to deny resentencing altogether, leaving their current sentence—life without the possibility of parole—intact. This is the outcome Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman is pushing for, arguing the brothers have not fully accepted responsibility for their crimes and therefore don’t qualify for a reduced sentence.

Alternatively, the court could side with former DA George Gascón’s earlier recommendation and resentence the brothers to 50 years to life. This would make them immediately eligible for parole, as they’ve already served more than 30 years. But eligibility doesn’t guarantee release; they would still need to convince a parole board they are no longer a danger to society.

Another possibility is that the judge opts for a modified sentence that reduces their punishment but does not immediately open the door to parole. In that case, the brothers could face several more years behind bars before becoming eligible.

The resentencing bid is one of three routes the brothers have been chasing in recent months in hopes of being freed.

California Gov Gavin Newsom is still weighing another option: granting the brothers clemency.

Newsom said the brothers were scheduled to appear before the state’s parole board on 13 June to discuss the findings of a risk assessment he’d ordered, examining whether Erik and Lyle pose a danger to society.

Depending on the results, the governor could grant clemency, commuting their sentences to make them eligible for parole or even releasing them outright.

The third route the brothers have eyed – asking for a new trial – hit a roadblock when Hochman’s office announced they would oppose the request.

A former Russian government minister, once a governor in illegally annexed Crimea, has been sentenced to 40 months in prison for breaching UK sanctions.

Dmitrii Ovsiannikov was found guilty of deliberately avoiding sanctions by receiving more than £75,000 from his wife, Ekaterina Ovsiannikova, into a newly-opened account, and a new Mercedes Benz SUV from his brother, Alexei Owsjanikow.

Ovsiannikov, who has a British passport, was found guilty on Wednesday of six out of seven counts of circumventing sanctions.

The case is the first prosecution in the UK regarding a breach of sanctions under the Russia Sanctions Regulations, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Two years after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, President Vladimir Putin appointed Ovsiannikov as acting governor of the “strategically significant” city of Sevastopol in Crimea, the jury heard.

In 2017, elections were held there for the position of governor and Ovsiannikov won. He resigned from the position in July 2019.

As a result of his senior job in illegally annexed Crimea, the EU and UK imposed financial sanctions on him.

In August 2022, Ovsiannikov travelled to Turkey from Russia and applied for a British passport.

Despite the fact that UK sanctions still applied, the jury heard that he was granted a passport in January 2023, which he was entitled to because his father was born in the UK.

Ovsiannikov challenged the EU sanctions and they were lifted just five days after he arrived in the UK.

After arriving in Britain on 1 February 2023, Ovsiannikov moved into his brother’s house in Clapham, where his wife and two younger children were already living and attending private school.

On 6 February, the former governor applied for a Halifax bank account and over the next two-and-a-half weeks his wife transferred £76,000 into his account – allowing him to put down a deposit on a Mercedes Benz GLC 300 SUV.

However, the bank later realised he was on the UK sanctions list and froze the account. His brother Alexei Owsjanikow bought the Mercedes instead, paying more than £54,000, the prosecution said.

The prosecution argued that when Ovsiannikov’s wife sent him the £76,000 and his brother bought the car they were also in breach of sanctions.

While in May 2024, Owsjanikow paid more than £40,000 in school fees for his brother’s two youngest children – which the prosecution argued was also in breach of sanctions.

Ovsiannikov’s wife, who was in the public gallery on Friday for the sentencing, was cleared of four counts of circumventing sanctions by assisting with payments totalling £76,000 to her husband in February 2023.

His brother, Owsjanikow, was cleared of breaching sanctions by buying the Mercedes-Benz, arranging car insurance for Ovsiannikov, and by making a Barclays bank account available to him.

However, the jury at Southwark Crown Court found Owsjanikow guilty on two counts of circumventing sanctions by paying school fees of £41,027 for his brother’s children. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended for 15 months.

The prosecution argued Ovsiannikov must have known he was subject to UK sanctions, because on 7 February 2023 he was applying for them to be lifted and had included his unique ID number and group ID number from his sanctions listing on the form.

He was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to 40 months’ imprisonment for each count, to be served concurrently.

The total amount of time he will serve was reduced by the 217 days he spent on curfew, and he will spend up to half of his sentence in custody before he is released on licence.

Ovsiannikov, the former governor of Sevastopol, also served as the Russian Federation’s deputy minister for industry and trade before he was dismissed and expelled from the ruling United Russia party in 2020.

Under the asset freeze, Ovsiannikov was not allowed to spend money even on basic necessities. Others were not permitted to assist him to do so.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on the outstanding charge, that Ovsiannikov deliberately avoided sanctions by opening the new bank account.

Julian Capon, head of the CPS’s economic organised crime unit, said prosecutors will begin legal action to recover “illegally obtained cash and assets”.

He said Ovsiannikov “knew he had been on the UK sanctions list since 2017 but chose to ignore this”.

National Crime Agency chief Graeme Biggar said the Ovsiannikov investigation was one of 180 which have aimed to “reduce a criminal threat posed by Putin-linked elites and their enablers since the invasion of Ukraine”.

Thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians will have their temporary deportation protections terminated, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem found the conditions in Afghanistan and Cameroon no longer merited US protections, according to a statement from DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

An estimated 14,600 Afghans previously eligible for temporary protected status (TPS) are now set to lose it in May, while some 7,900 Cameroonians will lose it in June.

TPS is granted to nationals of designated countries facing conditions – such as armed conflict or environmental disasters – which make it unsafe for them to return home.

The status typically lasts for up to 18 months, can be renewed by the incumbent homeland security secretary, and offers deportation protection and access to work permits.

Noem’s decision comes the same day a US judge ruled that the Trump administration could deport a university graduate who was detained last month over his role in pro-Palestinian protests.

According to McLaughlin, in September 2023 the then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that TPS for Afghans would be extended by 18 months, until 20 May of this year.

But on 21 March, having consulted with other US government agencies, Noem “determined that Afghanistan no longer continues to meet the statutory requirements for its TPS designation and so she terminated TPS for Afghanistan”, McLaughlin said.

She added that Noem’s decision was based on a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) review of conditions in Afghanistan, where the Taliban reassumed control almost four years ago.

A similar decision terminating Cameroon’s designation for TPS was made on 7 April, McLaughlin said.

Last month, the Trump administration said it would similarly revoke the temporary legal status of more than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua and Venezuela.

They were brought into the US under a Biden-era sponsorship process known as CHNV, which Trump suspended after taking office.

More than 120,700 Venezuelans, 110,900 Cubans and 93,000 Nicaraguans were allowed into the US under the programme before it was closed.

Those being told to leave have been warned to do so ahead of their permits and deportation protections expiring later this month, on 24 April, according to a notice posted by the federal government.

But it is not just people granted TPS who have been affected by the US’s changing immigration rules.

Shukriah – not her real name – lives in Washington DC. She arrived in the US in January last year with her family. They had fled Afghanistan and endured a long journey to the US, across 11 countries, in a bid to claim asylum.

“The fear of deportation has deeply affected my mental and physical health. I can hardly sleep, my legs are in pain, and I cry constantly from fear and anxiety,” she told the BBC.

Shukriah, who is seven months pregnant, received an email – seen by the BBC – on 10 April from the DHS which read: “It is time for you to leave the United States.”

It added: “Unless it expires sooner, your parole will terminate seven days from the date of this notice.

“If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions.”

The DHS website has information for Afghan nationals on how to apply for extensions to stay in the US now that programmes which previously protected them are being changed.

While Shukriah’s young children would all be eligible, because of their age, her and her husband’s path might be more complicated.

“My parole was granted under the humanitarian programme, and my asylum case is still pending,” she said.

“I don’t know what steps to take now, and I am very afraid of what will happen to me and my family.”

Immigration, specifically mass deportation, was a key focus of Trump’s election campaign – and has dominated policy since he took office.

Earlier this year, data obtained by Reuters showed that, in his first month back in office, the US deported 37,660 people – less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of the Biden administration.

The Trump administration has gone on to revoke the visas of hundreds of international students in a bid to clamp down on pro-Palestinian protests at university campuses across the US.

One such case saw a US immigration court rule on Friday that the US government could deport Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal US resident, who has been held at a Louisiana detention centre since 8 March.

In a letter written from the facility, he said his “arrest was a direct consequence” of speaking out for Palestinian rights.

Noem, praising the decision on social media, said that “it is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study” in the US, and that “when you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked”.

“Good riddance,” she added.

Mr Khalil’s lawyer said his team was going to fight for his client’s “right to speak out against what’s happening in the US”.

People are heading to the polls to pick the next president of Gabon, where for the first time in decades a Bongo family member is not on the ballot.

Former President Ali Bongo was forced from power 19 months ago by coup mastermind Gen Brice Oligui Nguema, who in turn has changed the constitution to allow him to run in Saturday’s election.

A total of eight candidates are in the running to become president, with only one woman in the race – Gninga Chaning Zenaba.

Other presidential challengers include former Prime Minister Alain Claude Bilie-by-Nze, who served under the Bongo regime, as well as two stalwarts of the former ruling PDG party, Stéphane Germain Iloko and Alain Simplice Boungouères.

Election results could start being announced on Sunday, but officials can continue the count into next week.

Close to one million people are expected to vote in Gabon and its diaspora.

• Who is Gen Brice Oligui Nguema?
• Why Gabon’s coup leader is bucking a trend by embracing democracy

The small oil- and timber-rich central African nation is home to just 2.5 million people. Despite its resources, about 35% of the population still live below the poverty line of $2 (£1.50) a day.

During the two-week campaign period, most of the candidates prioritised reacing voters in the interior while rallies in the capital, Libreville, were limited.

Yet large numbers of posters and billboards for Oligui Nguema dominate Libreville’s streets, with very few of his rivals’ adverts visible.

“I will vote for the builder Oligui Nguema,” reads a campaign message on the top of taxi driver Landry Obame-Mezui’s vehicle, who likes the junta leader because he “came in with a new way of doing things – action before speeches”.

But critics of Oligui Nguema say he has presided over an unfair transitional and electoral process, ushering in a new constitution and electoral code designed to favour his own candidacy in the election, despite his promise to hand over power to civilians.

An upper age limit was also introduced, making one of Oligui Nguema’s most popular opposition rivals Albert Ondo Ossa ineligible.

Go “back to the barracks,” was the jibe from the man seen as Oligui Nguema’s closest rival in the vote, Bilie-by-Nze. He considers himself the change the country needs, but his closeness to the ousted regime still attracts criticism from some.

After 55 successive years under President Omar Bongo and his son Ali Bongo, Gabonese people have told the BBC that all they have wanted is an end to the embezzlement, cronyism, indebtedness and unemployment they have endured.

“Our expectation is to have a new Gabon that is well-governed, well-managed, where there is social justice, equity and equal chances,” said registered voter Noel Kounta. “We want a developed and prosperous Gabon”.

“I would like the [next] president to focus more on jobs,” said 30-year-old pharmacist Shonnys Akoulatele, who also said she was underpaid in her current profession.

“The unemployment rate is so high, so they should at least show some compassion towards this issue, especially in the private sector.”

Polls are set to close at 18:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Saturday.

• Why does France have military bases in Africa?
• Self-medicating gorillas may hold new drugs clues
• Gabon’s predators on the pitch: Inside a paedophile football scandal

The US Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the Trump administration must try to release a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a mega-jail in El Salvador.

In a 9-0 ruling, the justices declined to block a lower court’s order to “facilitate” bringing back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but they also said Judge Paula Xinis may have exceeded her authority.

On Friday Judge Xinis directed the Trump administration to provide her with daily updates on what steps they are taking to bring Mr Garcia back to the US.

The government has conceded Mr Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error”, though it also alleges he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyer denies.

Mr Garcia, a Salvadoran, is one of dozens of alleged gang member migrants placed by the US on military planes last month and flown to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot (Terrorism Confinement Centre) under an arrangement between the two countries.

Following the Supreme Court’s order, lawyers for the Trump administration went in front of Judge Xinis of the Maryland district court on Friday to explain how they will release Mr Garcia.

The judge had asked the government to explain by that morning how they planned to bring Mr Garcia back, but justice department attorneys filed a motion asking for the deadline to be extended until Tuesday evening.

In a two-page filing, government lawyers called her deadlines “impracticable”.

During an at-times tense hearing that lasted about half an hour, Judge Xinis repeatedly pressed the justice department for specifics on Mr Garcia’s whereabouts.

“I’m not asking for state secrets,” she said. “I’m asking a very simple question: where is he?”

Judge Xinis ultimately ruled that the government must provide her with daily updates on Mr Garcia’s location and status, what efforts it had previously taken to get him back to the US and what efforts it will undertake.

In court documents, Mr Garcia’s lawyers accused the government of trying to “delay, obfuscate and flout court orders, while a man’s life and safety is at risk”.

• Can the US return man deported to El Salvador?

In its emergency appeal to the Supreme Court last week, the Trump administration argued that Judge Xinis lacked the authority to issue the order to return Mr Garcia by Monday night, and that US officials could not compel El Salvador to return him.

US Solicitor General Dean 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.”

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, issued its decision in an unsigned order on Thursday.

The justices did not give the administration a deadline for when Mr Garcia should be freed.

They said Judge Xinis may have exceeded her authority when she required the Trump administration to “effectuate” Mr Garcia’s return.

“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 order said.

On Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters that if the Supreme Court said “bring somebody back I would do that”.

“I respect the Supreme Court,” he 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.”

Mr Garcia, 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.

Democratic Senator Chis Van Hollen, who represents Mr Garcia, said the case marks a “troubling moment” for the US when it comes to the rule of law.

“It took them only 72 hours to illegally abduct Abrego Garcia and take him out of the country to El Salvador,” Van Hollen told BBC News. “They can get them back in 72 hours or less, and they need to do that. And they need to do it now.”

Mr Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is a US citizen and has been calling for his release since his deportation.

“I will continue fighting until my husband is home,” she told the New York Times on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has exempted smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices from “reciprocal” tariffs, including the 125% levies imposed on Chinese imports.

US Customs and Border Patrol published a notice late on Friday explaining the goods would be excluded from Trump’s 10% global tariff on most countries and the much larger Chinese import tax.

The move comes after concerns from US tech companies that the price of gadgets could skyrocket, as many of them are made in China.

This is the first significant reprieve of any kind in Trump’s tariffs on China, with one trade analyst describing it as a “game-changer scenario”.

The exemptions – backdated to 5 April – also include other electronic devices and components, including semiconductors, solar cells and memory cards.

“This is the dream scenario for tech investors,” Dan Ives, who is the global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, posted on X. “Smartphones, chips being excluded is a game-changer scenario when it comes to China tariffs.”

Big tech firms such as Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft and the broader tech industry can breathe a huge sigh of relief this weekend, he added.

The White House indicated the exemptions were made to ensure companies had more time to move production to the US.

• Why Trump is hitting China on trade – and what might happen next
• Was Trump’s 90-day tariffs pause really a grand plan?

“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“At the direction of the president, these companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”

Trump, who is spending the weekend at his Florida home, told reporters on Friday he was comfortable with the high tariffs on China.

“And I think something positive is going to come out of that,” he said, touting his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

These electronic goods are still subject to the 20% tariff on China related to fentanyl, White House Deputy Chief of Staff on Policy Stephen Miller posted on X.

Some estimates suggested iPhone prices in the US could have as much as tripled if costs were passed on to consumers.

The US is a major market for iPhones, while Apple accounted for more than half of its smartphones sales last year, according to Counterpoint Research.

It says as much as 80% of Apple’s iPhones intended for US sale are made in China, with the remaining 20% made in India.

Like its fellow smartphone giant Samsung, Apple has been trying to diversify its supply chains to avoid an over-reliance on China in recent years.

India and Vietnam emerged as frontrunners for additional manufacturing hubs.

As the tariffs took effect, Apple reportedly looked to speed up and increase its production of India-produced devices in recent days.

Trump had planned for a host of steep tariffs on countries around the world to take effect this week.

But on Wednesday he announced he would implement a 90-day pause for countries hit by higher US tariffs – except China, whose tariffs he raised to 145%.

Trump said the tariff increase for China was because of the country’s readiness to retaliate with its own 84% levy on US goods.

In a dramatic change of policy, Trump said all countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive the reprieve – and only face a blanket tariff of 10% – until July.

The White House then said the move was a negotiating tactic to extract more favourable trade terms from other countries.

Trump has said his import taxes will address unfairness in the global trading system, as well as bring jobs and factories back to the US.

The UK government is taking control of Chinese-owned British Steel after emergency legislation was rushed through Parliament in a single day.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told MPs the government’s likely next step would be to nationalise the Scunthorpe plant, which employs 2,700 people.

But he said he was forced to seek emergency powers to prevent owners Jingye shutting down its two blast furnaces, which would have ended primary steel production in the UK.

MPs and peers were called back from their Easter holidays to debate the legislation in an extremely rare Saturday sitting of both houses of Parliament. It has now received Royal Assent after being passed by the Commons and Lords.

The BBC understands UK government officials are at the Scunthorpe site ready to take control of operations.

After the legislation was given royal assent, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Today, my government has stepped in to save British steel.

“We are acting to protect the jobs of thousands of workers, and all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry.”

He said steel made in Britain “will be the backbone as we get Britain building once more,” adding: “Our industry is the pride of our history – and I want it to be our future, too.”

Speaking to steelworkers earlier on Saturday at a village hall near Scunthorpe, Sir Keir said: “You are the people who have kept this going.”

It came as several hundred people, including steelworkers and their families, took part in a march and a rally at Scunthorpe United’s Glanford Park stadium, chanting “we want our steel back”.

British Steel worker Rob Barroclough told the BBC: “Our family, like many others, is built around the steelworks. Who knows… my boys might end up working there one day, if it can be saved.”

He added: “We’re hoping for the best but planning for the worst.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that police were called to the steel works this morning after a suspected breach of the peace.

Jingye officials have been on-site regularly in recent days, and it’s thought that relations between them and the workers have become increasingly tense.

Sources told BBC News that when Jingye executives arrived at the plant this morning, the automatic number plate recognition scanners didn’t allow them through the site barriers.

Humberside Police said officers conducted checks and spoke to individuals but that there were no concerns raised and no arrests were made.

The legislation going through Parliament was not resisted by opposition parties – but the Conservatives said the government should have acted sooner and made “a total pig’s breakfast of this whole arrangement”.

The new law hands Reynolds sweeping powers to control management and workers at the plant to ensure production continues, including entering it by force, if necessary, to secure assets.

But Jingye will retain ownership of it for now.

The government remains hopeful it can secure private investment to save the loss-making plant, but ministers concede there are currently no companies willing to make an offer.

In the Commons, Reynolds acknowledged that public ownership was “the likely option”.

He said the government would “pay the fair market rate” to shareholders in the event of nationalisation but added: “In this case the market value is effectively zero.”

Keeping a loss-making plant open could come at a high cost to taxpayers.

But Reynolds insisted it was in the “national interest” to retain the ability to make steel from scratch and he believed the company had a future, particularly as the government was boosting infrastructure spending.

“Steel is fundamental to Britain’s industrial strength, to our security, and to our identity as a primary global power”, he told MPs.

He said he had been forced to take over the running of the plant because Jingye, which bought British Steel in 2020, had rejected the government’s offers to buy raw materials to keep the blast furnaces running.

“Despite our offer to Jingye being substantial, they wanted much more. Frankly, an excessive amount. We did however remain committed to negotiation.

“But over the last few days, it became clear that the intention of Jingye was to refuse to purchase sufficient raw material to keep the blast furnaces running, in fact, their intention was to cancel and refuse to pay for existing orders.

“The company would therefore have irrevocably and unilaterally closed down primary steel making at British Steel.”

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice urged the government to “show your cojones” and go further by fully nationalising British Steel “this weekend”.

Several Conservative MPs also spoke in favour of nationalisation. Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said recalling Parliament had been “absolutely the right thing to do” but urged ministers to use the “unprecedented legislation judiciously”.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now an independent MP, urged the government to nationalise all steelmaking in the UK.

Green MP Ellie Chowns said steel is integral to the “green industrial transformation” – including making wind turbines, trains and tracks – and nationalisation would give the UK the control it needs to renew the industry.

The government came under fire for acting to save the Scunthorpe plant but not taking the same action when the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot was threatened with closure.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Robert said it was a “bitter day for the people of Port Talbot”, as she urged the government to change the legislation to take control of what is left of the steelworks there.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn asked why the legislation only applies to England, when a Scottish oil refinery is facing closure.

“Why is this not being extended to Scotland? Why is Grangemouth not being included?” he asked Reynolds, adding the UK government was “not interested in Scotland”.

Reynolds said Grangemouth was “not comparable” with the situation at Scunthorpe, which he said was “unique”.

“The question for all members is whether we as a country want to continue to possess a steel industry, do we want to make the construction steel and rail we need here in the UK, or do we want to be dependent on overseas imports?” he told MPs.

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When his camera stopped working on his iPhone recently, New Yorker Richard Medina didn’t waste any time. With the threat of tariff-fuelled price hikes on smartphones bearing down, he quickly called his phone company for a new one.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to switch this out now,'” the 43-year-old recalled. “Let’s take care of it.”

The move was a sign of the pressure rising across the US, where households are being buffeted by what could be staggering price rises, and even possible shortages triggered by the sweeping tariffs that US President Donald Trump announced this month.

Some are trying to stock up. Others say they feel paralysed by the changes, which have come quickly, or hope Trump will change his mind and reverse course – not an entirely unreasonable hope given the rapid changes in policy.

Trump, facing financial market revolt over his latest tariffs, has already altered his plans repeatedly.

First, he scaled back duties that had been planned on some countries, such as the European Union, in what was described as a 90-day pause.

Then, as market turmoil continued, he exempted smartphones and other electronics from the duties, announcing the carve-out just a few days after Mr Medina felt pressure to make a purchase.

“I can’t keep up with the president. Every day is something new,” said Anna Woods, 42, who recently received a message from her son’s summer camp warning that the tariffs might affect pricing of standard gear such as T-shirts.

The 42-year-old, who works in legal operations, says she is nervous but unclear how to proceed.

“I just feel like we’re living in uncertain times,” she said, adding: “I do need to make some purchases …. Everything is going up.”

The latest tariffs include a 10% tax on the vast majority of imports – and an eye-popping 145% duty on goods from China, which is the third biggest supplier of imports to the US after the European Union and Mexico and a key source of essentials such as smartphones, shoes and umbrellas.

The measures followed previous orders that added 25% levies on cars, steel, aluminium and some goods from Canada and Mexico.

In all, Trump’s orders have pushed the average effective tariff rate on imports in the US to the highest level in more than a century.

In stores, the immediate impact has been limited, since many firms stockpiled some products in anticipation of some tariffs.

But the tariffs are widely expected to lead to higher prices in the months ahead, especially for items such as clothing, leather goods, electronics and toys, many of which are made in China.

The Budget Lab at Yale forecasts that prices for clothing could soar by more than 60% in the short run; basic pharmaceutical products could jump by 12%, and food prices rise by 2.6%.

All told, the typical US family is facing a roughly $4,700 jump in costs due to the new taxes, if purchase patterns remain the same, it estimates.

“I’m extremely worried about it,” said 38-year-old mother Jamie Casey, one of more than a dozen people shopping at a Target in Brooklyn on a recent afternoon who shared their thoughts with the BBC about the tariffs.

She was in the store picking up formula – and some onesies and outfits for her daughter, who has yet to turn one.

“I wouldn’t say I’m panic-buying yet, but I am interested in how it plays out.”

Major retailers experienced a jump in visits in the weeks leading up to Trump’s tariff announcement, according to research firm Placer.ai, while purchases at the likes of Walmart and Target increased markedly in the immediate aftermath, according to data tracked by ConsumerEdge.

There has also been an uptick in US purchases on Amazon’s e-commerce platform, where Chinese sellers dominate, CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC recently.

“I don’t know if we can necessarily conclude it’s panic-buying but there seems to be broad stock-up behaviour,” said Michael Gunther, head of insights at ConsumerEdge, noting that two separate data sets used by the firm showed a pick-up.

Cristina Montoya said she had been buying extra canned food and frozen fruit, a little at a time for a few months, anxious about possible price increases, especially as a pensioner reliant on a fixed income.

“You never used to do your shopping nervous,” the 74-year-old said. “I feel like you have to buy a lot of things because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The dynamic has added to the tariff turmoil.

Last week, as the measures came into effect, some businesses started introducing tariff surcharges, while others abruptly cancelled shipments from China, unwilling to risk being unable to recoup the cost of the duties.

The disruption has the potential to cause near-term shortages in the US of items where China dominates the supply, such as baby carriages, colouring books and umbrellas, analysts at Macquarie noted this week.

Analysts say the pickup in consumer purchases is likely to prove temporary, or an acceleration of transactions that would have happened anyway.

If price rises start to hit, many economists expect Americans to opt for cheaper substitutes, delay purchases, or simply do without – a pullback with major consequences for an economy driven by consumer spending.

Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, is predicting the US economy will grow just 0.5% this year, and the unemployment rate will rise to 5% – the highest level since 2021 amid Covid.

Other firms, such as JP Morgan, are forecasting an outright recession.

“In terms of the consumer, it does get a little tricky,” Ms Bostjancic said.

“We could see consumer spending actually be strong in March and April but it’s just because of this surge ahead of the tariff increases,” she added. “Going forward, consumer spending is going to be weaker.”

On surveys, fears about both the economy and price rises are flaring, even though hiring has been solid and inflation cooled to 2.4% in March, down from 2.8% in February.

Some people shopping in New York said it felt like a whole way of life could be coming to an end.

Louis Lopez, an elevator mechanic in New York City, said he was so worried about the economy he had started to squirrel away cash under the mattress. But he was also holding shopping bags with new work clothes and a pair of Nike trainers for the summer.

“You might as well buy it now … while you have it good,” the 56-year-old said. “It’s going to change everything for everybody.”

Three prison officers have been attacked by Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber.

The officers sustained life-threatening injuries on Saturday including burns, scalds and stab wounds in the attack at HMP Frankland in County Durham, the Prison Officers’ Association said.

Abedi threw hot cooking oil over the officers and used “home made weapons” to stab them, the organisation said.

The Prison Service confirmed three officers have been treated in hospital after an attack by a prisoner, adding police were investigating.

Two men and a woman were injured, with the latter since discharged from hospital.

A prison officer at HMP Frankland told BBC News “staff are shaken by what’s happened”.

“It’s a difficult day at the prison when colleagues are seriously hurt. You can’t help asking yourself why you do this job when something like this happens,” they added.

Abedi is the brother of Salman Abedi who carried out the Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people in 2017.

After Hashem Abedi, 28, was named by the Prison Officers’ Association as being involved in the attack, a government source confirmed to the BBC he was the prisoner involved.

Abedi was found guilty of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life in 2020 following the Manchester Arena attack. He was jailed for a minimum of 55 years before he could be considered for parole.

The sentence was a record for a determinate prison term.

In 2022, Abedi, along with two others, was found guilty of a previous “vicious attack” on two prison officers. For this attack he received a sentence of three years and 10 months – which was added to his previous minimum term.

Saturday’s attack took place in a separation centre used to hold the country’s most dangerous and influential extremist prisoners. The centre holds less than 10 inmates. Abedi has been a long-term resident.

Following the incident, the chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, Mark Fairhurst, said the freedoms given to prisoners in these centres should be reviewed.

“I am of the opinion that allowing access to cooking facilities and items that can threaten the lives of staff should be removed immediately,” Mr Fairhurst said.

“These prisoners need only receive their basic entitlements and we should concentrate on control and containment instead of attempting to appease them. Things have to change.”

Former prison governor John Podmore told the BBC this incident was a “catastrophic security failure” as he underlined this unit holds the “most violent and dangerous” offenders.

A Durham Constabulary spokesman has confirmed an investigation is under way following a “serious assault” at HMP Frankland.

The spokesman also said that two victims remain in hospital with “serious injuries”.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “I am appalled by the attack of three brave officers at HMP Frankland today. My thoughts are with them and their families.

“The police are now investigating. I will be pushing for the strongest possible punishment. Violence against our staff will never be tolerated.”

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick called the attack “extremely concerning”.

“There are serious concerns about the prison leadership’s ability to contain the threat from Islamist extremist inmates,” he said.

“This deeply serious security failure must be a turning point,” he added as he referenced a previous social media post of his titled “Britain’s prisons are being overrun by Islamist gangs”.

A spokesperson for the Prison Service said violence in prisons “will not be tolerated”.

“We will always push for the strongest punishment for attacks on our hardworking staff.”

Strolling in bright sunshine across the immaculately raked gravel of Paris’s Tuileries gardens, Barbara and Rick Wilson from The Dalles, Oregon, were not exactly in disguise. But earlier that morning, on their very first trip to France, Rick, 74, had taken an unusual precaution.

Before leaving his hotel, he’d taken a small piece of black tape and covered up the Stars and Stripes flag on the corner of his baseball cap.

“We’re sick about it. It’s horrible. Just horrible,” said Rick, as he and his wife contemplated the sudden sense of shame and embarrassment they said they now felt, as Americans, following President Trump’s abrupt moves on global trading tariffs.

Barbara, 70, even had a Canadian lapel pin in her pocket – a gift from another tourist – which she thought might come in useful if further subterfuge proved necessary.

“I’m disappointed in our country. We are upset about the tariffs,” she explained.

A few yards away, towards the crowds gathering outside the Louvre Museum, another American couple was also trying to keep a lower profile than usual. Chris Epps, 56, an attorney from New York, had decided he would dress a little differently on today’s tour.

“No New York Yankees hat. I left it in the hotel. People might come up to us, treat us differently. But so far, so good,” he added.

As the world grapples with the implications of Donald Trump’s see-sawing quest to upend the global trading system, the impacts are being felt not just on stock markets and businesses and investment funds, but in subtler ways too, and not least here in France, a country that continues to attract vast numbers of tourists from North America, and which has a centuries-old, close, and sometimes testy relationship with the United States.

To be clear, there are no indications that Americans are any less welcome here than before. Our interviews with a random selection of tourists were also carried out shortly before President Trump reversed some of his tariffs.

Nonetheless, the shock and anger generated in Europe by events of the past week have added fuel to perceptions of a much larger transatlantic rift – of a shifting of the tectonic plates of international relations.

It is early days, of course. Americans are far from united about their government’s actions and much of the evidence for changing sentiments is anecdotal.

But there are already some discernible effects on travel, tourism, academia and other fields.

“It’s a big drop,” said Philippe Gloaguen, the founder of France’s most prestigious travel guides, Le Guide du Routard, sitting behind a cluttered desk in Paris and noting that orders for his books about the US had fallen by 25% so far this year.

Not that Gloaguen was complaining. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“I’m very proud of my customers. They are young, well-educated, and very democratic. This was the truth for Putin… and for China. We know when there’s a dictatorship going on in a country,” he said, arguing that his French readers were beginning to view America in a similar light.

“They don’t want to spend their money in the United States,” Gloaguen continued, framing his publication as a sort of global democratic weathervane.

He noted that the abrupt fall in US sales was balanced by a rise in sales of books about “Canada and other countries.”

Other evidence from the travel industry is beginning to back up the idea of a growing disenchantment with the United States. The forecasting company, Oxford Economics, is already predicting an 8.9% drop in the number of French people travelling to the US this year compared with 2024.

Another recent analysis – of French expatriates living in the US – found that a remarkable 78% of them are now “particularly pessimistic” about their future in the country, while 73% of people polled within France, in March, believed the US was no longer an “ally”.

Over a morning coffee in a Parisian café, Nicolas Conquer – an enthusiastic Trump supporter and dual French-American citizen who leads the Republicans Abroad Paris branch – acknowledged “some volatility” because of the tariffs but argued that a “media narrative” was creating a false impression of strained transatlantic relations.

“I’m still standing my ground… reminding people that France and the US have been the oldest allies,” Conquer said, adding that any negative reaction to Trump’s America First agenda was based on a “childish or immature” view of international relations.

“Everyone knows that we have to have strong sovereignty, strong patriotism, and that… as Trump supporters go for ‘America First’, we would expect that… European governments would also promote UK first, Germany first, France first,” said Conquer.

But concern about the Trump administration’s recent actions and rhetoric – not just in relation to tariffs but also regarding Ukraine and Greenland – is widespread across France and hard to miss. Politicians, newspapers and television talk shows have all been busy dissecting the changes, often in a tone of bitter disillusionment.

In practical terms, the result has sometimes been to offer support to perceived victims of the Trump administration, with French scientific institutions, backed by the French government, beginning to offer places to American researchers who’ve lost their jobs due to cuts in government funding.

Elsewhere there are indications of nervousness about simply travelling to the US. A prestigious social studies institute in Paris recently sent its students a warning, following reports of foreigners being questioned about their political beliefs and refused entry.

“We urge you to be extra vigilant when travelling abroad. It is important not to travel with your usual equipment but to use a shared computer containing only data necessary for your stay and no sensitive data. During border checks, some security services may require the unlocking of digital devices to view information, including private information,” wrote a professor at EHESS, in a group email seen by the BBC.

Relations between Paris and Washington have survived many previous shocks – as, for instance, American taunts about “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” following France’s decision not to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, or the more recent spat over calls to return the Statue of Liberty.

But France’s friendship with the US has never been as unconditionally “special” as that claimed by, say, the British. The French may adore Hollywood cinema, country music and the allure of the American Dream, and celebrate ties that date back to America’s war of independence, but they have kept some distance too – shunning what’s known here as “Le Woke-isme” and, today more than ever, celebrating President De Gaulle’s determination to build an entirely French-owned nuclear deterrent separate from both Nato and the US.

“The American people remain our friend, but [Trump] is no longer our ally,” the former French President François Hollande announced recently.

“It’s definitely a relationship of ‘love’ and not always ‘like,'” said Kerry Halferty-Hardy, the President of the American Club of Paris, citing the ambivalent lyrics of the famous Serge Gainsbourg song, “Je t’aime – moi non plus.”

Looking out of her Paris apartment towards the Eiffel Tower, Halferty-Hardy argued that the shared values of liberty and the Enlightenment linking France and the US “are not easily dislodged and certainly not on the basis of one administration,” but she acknowledged that “no one can ignore what they’re seeing in the headlines.”

While on holiday in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last week, there was only one mission on my mind – getting my hands on the viral “Dubai chocolate” bar.

If you’re on TikTok, you will have seen the bar, which combines the flavours of chocolate, pistachio and tahini with filo pastry, and is inspired by the Arab dessert Knafeh.

The original, called Can’t Get Knafeh of It, by FIX Chocolatier, has been sold exclusively in the UAE since 2022. It become so popular on social media that it’s only on sale for two hours a day and often sells out within minutes.

But now imitations, known by the nickname “Dubai chocolate”, have hit UK supermarkets including Waitrose, Lidl and Morrisons, with some supermarkets limiting the number of bars customers are allowed to buy.

Yezen Alani, who co-owns FIX with his wife Sarah Hamouda, told the BBC the global attention Dubai chocolate was getting was “flattering and humbling”.

The FIX chocolate bar was first imagined by Hamouda in 2021, who craved the flavours while she was pregnant.

Alani and Hamouda started developing the bar a year later, running the business alongside their corporate jobs.

“Sarah and I were brought up in the UK and we moved to Dubai 10 years ago, so we’ve got Western and Arab roots.

“We wanted to create flavours that were inspired by that,” Alani says.

Part of the appeal of the chocolate is its exclusivity – you can only order it using a food delivery app, rather than walking into a shop or grabbing it at the supermarket.

It costs around £15 per bar and can only be bought during specific hours of the day to ensure the company can fulfil all their orders.

I also saw similar bars sold in many shops in the region, dubbed “Dubai chocolate” and adorned with pictures of pistachios and filo pastry.

Alani says the “copycat” bars are “very frustrating because people are trying knockoffs, which damages our brand”.

One of the reasons for the bar’s surge in popularity has been social media – with a viral video by TikTok user Maria Vehera from 2023 being cited as one of the main reasons for its rise to prominence.

It shows Vehera trying the Knafeh bar for the first time – along with several others made by the same chocolatier – and has been liked nearly seven million times.

The way the bar looks is made for social media – from the attractive orange and green spots on top of the smooth milk chocolate to the crunch sound it makes when you break off a piece.

Chocolate combined with pistachio isn’t new but the real standout element is the crunchy nature of the filling, with the filo pastry adding a texture and thickness to the bar.

Since the Can’t Get Knafeh of It bar is only available in one country, other brands have started to sell their versions in the UK, including Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt whose Dubai chocolate is being sold for £10 in supermarkets.

Since stocking the bar, Waitrose says they’ve had to introduce a two-bar limit for customers in order to regulate stock levels.

Another version has also been sold by Home Bargains, while supermarket Lidl has its own version for £4.99 and is also limiting purchase numbers.

One influencer documented how the has bar been kept behind tills for this reason.

Having tried the Lindt bar and a couple of other versions being sold in corner shops, there is quite a contrast.

The FIX chocolate is billed as a “dessert bar” and needs to be kept in the fridge, with a short expiry date like many dairy items.

This isn’t the case for the others, which have been designed to have a longer shelf life.

You can also see the difference in taste and texture – the original bar is almost double the width of the Lindt bar, which is more aligned to the size and shape of a standard chocolate bar.

When Alani and Hamouda first started out, they employed one person to fulfil around six to seven orders a day.

But since growing in popularity, primarily thanks to TikTok, their business now employs 50 people, who fulfil 500 orders a day.

One big talking point has been the price of the product, which is £15 per bar.

“It’s all handmade, every single design is done by hand,” Alani says.

“We use premium ingredients and the process is not like making other bars – you’ve got the baking, moulding the chocolate to the design and with the filling itself, even the pistachios are hand-picked and processed”.

Speaking to Arabian Business last year, Hamouda said: “My mother used to make Knafeh, and that’s something I wanted to capture my own way.

“Knafeh was the first flavour we perfected. The crunch, the pistachio, it had to be just right,” she added.

Despite the product’s success, Alani says “it’s been a tough journey” as the pair have been working together full time while also raising their two children.

“There’s been times where we’ve wanted to give up, but we said to ourselves ‘we’ll keep going as long as we can pay the rent’ and now we have no regrets as its worked out”.

When scrolling through social media, you may have recently seen friends and family appearing in miniature.

It’s part of a new trend where people use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT and Copilot to re-package themselves – literally – as pocket-sized dolls and action figures.

It has taken off online, with brands and influencers dabbling in creating their mini-me.

But some are urging people to steer clear of the seemingly innocent trend, saying fear of missing out shouldn’t override concerns about AI’s energy and data use.

It may sound complicated, but the process is simple.

People upload a picture of themselves to a tool like ChatGPT, along with written prompts that explain how they want the final picture to look.

These instructions are really important.

They tell the AI tool everything it is meant to generate, from the items a person wants to appear with to the kind of packaging they should be in – which includes mimicking the box and font of popular toys like Barbie.

Many online will then personalise it further with their name, job and clothing choices.

Though it does not always work, and many have also shared some of the amusing mistakes the tools made, where the action dolls look nothing like them.

Like other generative AI tools, image generators are also prone to making things up, and may make assumptions about how someone should look.

And it’s not just regular people using it – the trend has been seized upon by a wealth of brands online including beauty company Mario Badescu and even Royal Mail.

Trends come and go – but by their very nature can make people feel compelled to take part to avoid missing out.

“Generative AI makes it easier and quicker for people to create and jump on trends,” says Jasmine Enberg, principal social media analyst at eMarketer.

She says the technology has made it quicker and easier to make online content, which may have the unexpected effect of quickening the pace at which other social media users get annoyed by it.

But she believes AI-driven trends will become a more regular appearance on our feeds “as the tech becomes a more regular part of our digital lives”.

While its light-hearted nature may have drawn people to it, the trend has drawn criticism from some concerned about its environmental impact.

Professor Gina Neff of Queen Mary University London tells the BBC that ChatGPT is “burning through energy”, and the data centres used to power it consume more electricity in a year than 117 countries.

“We have a joke in my house that every time we create one of these AI memes, it kills a tree,” says Lance Ulanoff, US editor of TechRadar, in an article about the trend.

“That’s hyperbole, of course, but it’s safe to say that AI content generation is not without costs, and perhaps we should be thinking about it and using it differently.”

• What is AI and how does it impact the environment?

People have also highlighted concerns that copyrighted data may have been used to create the technology which generates images without paying for it.

“ChatGPT Barbie represents a triple threat to our privacy, our culture and our planet,” says Ms Neff.

“While the personalisation might feel nice, these systems are putting brands and characters into a blender with no responsibility for the slop that emerges.”

And Jo Bromilow, director of social and influencer at PR and creative agency MSL UK, asks: “Is a cute, funny result really worth it?”

“If we’re going to really use AI properly, we have to set guardrails around how we use it conscientiously,” she says.

I started by finding a suggested prompt online – a list of instructions to enter into the AI tool in order for it to generate the image.

You have to upload your own selfie with your prompt and you also have to be very specific about what you want, including a list of which accessories you’d like included and what colour you want the box to be.

When it came to providing my job title, my first attempt was declined because I included BBC News and was told this violated content policy – I think because currently the BBC does not allow ChatGPT to use its output.

Once you do get an image you’re likely to want to tweak it further; my first attempt was too cartoon-like.

The following, more realistic version made me look considerably older than I am, then too child-like, and I gave up in the end trying to get it to use my actual eye-colour, which kept defaulting back to blue (mine are a blend of hazel and green).

It took a couple of minutes to generate each version and overall the process was slower than I would have liked, potentially because of its popularity.

It did start to feel like a lot of work for a passing trend, and it isn’t perfect – my doll is expanding out far beneath the supposed packaging.

But more importantly, somewhere in a data centre some hot computer servers were toiling away to make Action Figure Zoe.

They almost certainly could have been put to work on worthier causes.

On an unusually crisp April day in a rural Texas town, dozens of Mennonite community members gathered alongside the nation’s top health official, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to mourn the death of an eight-year-old.

Daisy Hildebrand is the second unvaccinated girl from the community to die from measles in two months.

Officials in Seminole town also joined the reception after her funeral to support the family, said South Plains Public Health Director Zach Holbrooks. This time, there was no talk of the vaccine that prevents measles deaths – unlike many of his long days since the outbreak began.

“The focus was on their healing,” Mr Holbrooks said. “You never want to see anybody pass away, especially a child that young, from any kind of illness, because there is a prevention for it – the MMR vaccine.”

Like other Seminole natives, Mr Holbrooks was not vaccinated against measles as a child. He got a shot in college, and another in February, when his hometown became the epicentre of one of the country’s worst measles outbreaks in a decade.

The US has seen more than 700 cases this year, a sharp rise on the 285 cases reported in 2024. The majority of infections – 541 as of Friday – occurred in western Texas, with 56 patients sent to the hospital.

Cases in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas also are linked to the outbreak. Two children, including Daisy, have died – the first recorded fatalities from measles in the US since 2015.

It’s not slowing down either, public health experts say. They try to reach vaccine-hesitant residents, but struggle with those who carry on with daily life as usual, alongside mixed messaging from federal officials, including Kennedy, who has endorsed immunisation conspiracy theories in the past.

“I wish there were more coming in to get the vaccine,” Mr Holbrooks said. “We can put messaging out, but it’s up to them to come see us.”

The western Texas town of Seminole – population 7,000 – is bordered by miles of rural farmland and oil fields.

Among billboards for restaurants, gun silencers and tractors, a digital sign hints at the crisis gripping the community: a warning about the dangers of measles, which can cause complications including pneumonia, brain swelling and death.

It has spread rapidly among Mennonites, a religious community living near Seminole. Mr Holbrooks estimates the population could be as many as 40,000 across several counties. In those areas, public school vaccination rates are as low as 82%.

Roughly 95% of a community must be vaccinated against the measles to achieve herd immunity – when enough of a group is immune to a disease that its spread is limited and the unvaccinated are protected.

Mr Holbrooks remembers when the Low German Mennonite group began migrating to his hometown and nearby states in the 1970s. The religion has no specific doctrines against vaccinations, but they tend to avoid many modern aspects of life, including the health care system.

Their community is not alone. At least 118,000 kindergarteners in Texas are exempt from one or more vaccines, mostly in rural areas, according to Terri Burke, director of Texas vaccine advocacy group the Immunization Partnership. Parents can get a waiver to exempt their child from school vaccine requirements for a variety of reasons, including religion.

Savannah Knelsen, an 18-year-old server at a Seminole barbecue restaurant, has not been vaccinated against measles – or anything else.

Many of her family members and friends – also unvaccinated – caught the measles in recent weeks. One relative developed a fever of 104.5F (40.2C), but still chose not to go to the hospital.

The recent deaths of two children have not convinced her to get vaccinated, she said, adding that she was healthy and wanted to let her body “fight off” infections. Experts agree the vaccine is the best way to prevent infections – including severe ones.

Ms Knelsen’s 19-year-old co-worker, Jessica Giesbrecht, along with her family, has been vaccinated against the measles.

“I’m worried for my baby niece,” Ms Giesbrecht said, adding that she was too young to be vaccinated.

Still, the two said the outbreak doesn’t weigh heavily on daily life. Others in Seminole agree.

A cashier at a local pharmacy said no one has stopped by for measles vaccinations since the outbreak started. “People are just going about their lives,” she said.

On Sunday, Kennedy made his first trip to the region since the outbreak to attend the eight-year-old girl’s funeral.

The top US health official is an unlikely figure to spearhead the fight against measles – having in the past endorsed conspiracy theories about immunisation, including debunked claims about links to autism. He downplayed the outbreak in western Texas at first, calling it “not unusual”.

Trump echoed these remarks last weekend, saying that only a “fairly small number of people” had been impacted, when he was asked about it by the BBC aboard Air Force One. It was “not something new”, he added.

On Wednesday, Kennedy gave his strongest statement yet in support of the measles vaccine, telling the BBC’s US partner CBS News: “The federal government’s position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine.”

The remarks were met with social media backlash from some anti-vaccine supporters. Kennedy added, however, that the government “should not be mandating” vaccines.

The influence of some of his earlier remarks lingers.

In one of several Mennonite-owned natural-health stores in Seminole, dozens of bottles of cod liver oil – a supplement that contains vitamin A – are on display. Alongside the vaccine, Kennedy has promoted vitamin A as an alternative measles treatment, a remedy doctors say should not be given without guidance from a physician and is no substitute for the vaccine.

The treatment has at times proven dangerous. Covenant Children’s Hospital in nearby Lubbock told the BBC it has treated several unvaccinated children with measles for vitamin A toxicity – some had attempted to use it as a preventative measure.

The community needs federal officials to provide stronger messaging to help convince people to get vaccinated and slow the outbreak, said Gordon Mattimoe, director of the health department in nearby Andrews County.

“People look to their leaders to lead,” he said.

Jeff Hutt, a former spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again political action committee and Kennedy’s former national field director, argued that the health secretary had to “cover the middle ground”, providing statements that are “politically adequate” while also providing sceptical stances on vaccines.

“In covering the middle ground, I’m not necessarily sure he was able to reassure folks that he had a handle on [measles], or that he was able to reassure folks that he was sticking to his guns,” Mr Hutt said.

The Trump administration’s health policies could have other consequences in Texas, officials say. Local health departments are at risk of losing critical resources because of attempts to cut $11.4bn (£8.8bn) in public health grants. The move was temporarily blocked by a judge last week.

Mr Mattimoe said that because of the potential cuts – around $250,000 in grant funding for his health department – he is not able to hire a new nurse to give immunisations.

In a statement to the BBC, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it had deployed the “necessary” resources from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to respond to the outbreak.

“The CDC is in close, constant communication with local and state health officials on the ground to ensure they have what they need,” the official said.

The Texas Department of Health Services could lose as much as $550m in grant funding. It has provided staff, vaccines, testing and other support to local health departments, but likely will need extra funding, spokesman Chris Van Deusen told the BBC.

Mr Mattimoe contacted lawmakers and the state for help, but is not hopeful.

“I don’t think they have the funds,” he said.

In nearby Lubbock, Texas, just two days after the news of Daisy’s death, all was quiet at the health department’s vaccination clinic.

Other days had been busier, with as many as 20 people coming in for vaccines, said Katherine Wells, director of public health for the city, where hospitals receive children with severe measles cases from more rural counties.

Since the outbreak began in January, the city of Seminole has vaccinated 103 adults and 143 children against the measles, Mr Holbrooks said. The neighbouring three rural counties decided to close their underused vaccine clinics and send more staff to hard-hit Seminole.

“There’s always talk on, what else can we do, and are we doing enough?” Mr Holbrooks said. “We want to build trust, not tear it down.”

At times, local health officials have seen progress.

A Mennonite doctor in Andrews County gained community members’ trust and encouraged them to get vaccinated, said Mr Mattimoe.

“Those trusted messengers in those communities – I think [they’re] very important,” he said.

Ms Wells hopes vaccinations will start to pick up after the latest measles death and the city’s new guidance to vaccinate children as young as six months, instead of one year.

The bigger city saw an outbreak at a daycare, among children too young to be fully vaccinated, a situation she believes will be helped by the earlier shots.

But “there’s always going to be some people that we don’t reach”, Ms Wells said.

That means the virus is likely to circulate for a while in western Texas regions where people are unvaccinated, officials said.

“We’re just at the beginning of it,” Mr Mattimoe said. “It’s going to have to run through the community. Until they get that natural immunity, it’ll just keep running its course.”

CCTV footage shows the dramatic moment a bomb exploded in central Athens, damaging the offices of Greek railway company Hellenic Train.

A backpack containing the explosive was reportedly left outside the office block late on Friday. Police said anonymous calls were made to Greek media outlets warning of the attack. No fatalities or injuries have been reported.

Though the cause of the explosion is not yet known, it comes amid widespread anger over a railway disaster that left 57 dead in 2023.

Greece’s Transport Minister Christos Dimas condemned the explosion as a “criminal act” that had “endangered the lives of people”.

Local news outlets Efsyn, a Greek daily newspaper, and website Zougla – both of which received a call – said the explosive device had apparently been placed in a padlocked backpack on a scooter without licence plates.

A police bomb disposal squad arrived too late to safely detonate the device before it exploded, they said.

Dimas said in a statement: “This is a criminal act, which endangered the lives of people, employees and passers-by, in a central point of Athens and during peak traffic hour.”

He added: “Nothing justifies terrorism, no act of violence brings justice. The authorities and the judiciary now have the floor.”

The explosion occurred close to one of the Greek capital’s busiest highways, Leoforos Andrea Siggrou.

Hellenic Train confirmed no employees or passing citizens were injured and that the blast caused “limited material damage”.

It said: “Our company unequivocally condemns all forms of violence and tensions that fuel a climate of toxicity that undermines all progress.”

In February 2023, a freight train and a passenger train carrying 350 people travelling in opposite directions were accidentally put on the same track. Most of the people killed were young students, while dozens were injured.

Multiple protests have been held in Greece since, including earlier this year to mark the crash’s second anniversary.

Those demonstrations descended into violence, with hooded protesters seen throwing rocks and petrol bombs at police. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannons.

An inquiry concluded in February that the train crash was caused by human error, poor maintenance and inadequate staffing.

A date for a trial is yet to be announced.

Iran and the US have concluded a first round of talks in Oman over Tehran’s nuclear programme – the highest-level meeting between the two nations since 2018.

Both countries described the meeting as “constructive” and confirmed a second round of discussions will take place next week – with the US hailing the “direct communication” as being key to striking a possible deal.

President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers in 2018, and has long said he would make a “better” deal.

The talks are seen as an important first step in establishing whether a deal can be done.

At two-and-a-half hours, the first meeting was brief, reportedly respectful – and set the stage for a second round.

That was probably as good as it could get when Iranian and US officials sat down in Muscat, the capital of Oman – whose top diplomat mediated the primarily indirect negotiations.

They were the most significant talks since Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 during his first term in office.

The verdict of Iran’s lead negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, was positive.

“In my opinion, as the first meeting, it was a constructive meeting held in a very peaceful and respectful environment, because no inappropriate language was used,” he told Iranian state TV.

His diplomatic tone suggests the US team led by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff did not reiterate some of the president’s threats that Iran would face “great danger” if this dialogue did not succeed. He has repeatedly warned of possible military strikes.

This meeting ran with the delegations in separate rooms, relaying messages through Oman’s foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi.

Witkoff, who is leading the US delegation, had previously only spoken of meeting face-to-face.

But Araghchi and Witkoff did speak for a few minutes in the presence of Busaidi – not the direct talks US officials said would happen but what could be a small but significant opening.

Iran, mindful of pressure from hardliners at home, underlined how limited their face-to-face exchange was, with no photographs taken.

In a statement following the talks, the White House said the discussions “were very positive and constructive”, noting that Witkoff had emphasised to Iran that he had instructions to resolve the adversaries’ “differences through dialogue and diplomacy, if that is possible”.

“These issues are very complicated, and special envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome,” the statement added.

Araghchi had said ahead of the discussions that his country wanted a “fair agreement”.

After the talks concluded, he said discussions next week may not happen in Oman, but would still be mediated by the Middle Eastern nation. The White House said they would take place next Saturday.

“Neither we, nor the other party, want fruitless negotiations, discussions for discussions’ sake, time wasting or talks that drag on forever,” Araghchi told Iranian state television.

The most important issue at stake is what kind of deal each side would be willing to accept.

Trump sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader via the United Arab Emirates last month, saying he wanted a deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to avert possible military strikes by the US and Israel.

Iran hopes for a deal to limit, but not dismantle, its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

An unnamed source in Oman told news agency Reuters that the talks would seek to de-escalate regional tensions and secure prisoner exchanges.

Trump revealed the talks would take place during a visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Monday. The Israeli prime minister said on Tuesday that both leaders had agreed that Iran “will not have nuclear weapons”.

Netanyahu has called for a “Libya-style deal”, referring to the north African nation completely dismantling its weapons programme in an agreement reached with Western powers in 2003. That would be completely unacceptable to Iran.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

Iranian officials have made it clear the negotiations will focus only on its nuclear programme, not its broader defence capability, such as its ballistic missile programme.

Ahead of the talks, Trump said on Friday that he wanted Iran “to be a wonderful, great, happy country – but they can’t have nuclear weapons”.

Trump has warned that the US would use military force if a deal was not reached, and Iran has repeatedly said it will not negotiate under pressure.

But this process is taking place under immense pressure.

Even as preparations were under way to arrange this first meeting, the US moved more warships and stealth bombers to the region and imposed more sanctions.

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The US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday it would “be a very bad day for Iran” if the talks were unsuccessful.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

However, since Trump pulled out of the 2015 agreement – which expires later this year – Iran has increasingly breached restrictions imposed by the existing nuclear deal in retaliation for crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago, and has stockpiled enough highly-enriched uranium to make several bombs.

Under the terms of the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to only enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity for the next 15 years.

In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog reported that Tehran had stockpiled uranium enriched to 60% purity and could swiftly move to 90%, which would be weapons-grade.

The 2015 nuclear deal took nearly two years of intensive negotiations. At the start of this new effort to reach an agreement, Iran’s programme is far more developed and complex, and the wider region is far more volatile.