Paramilitaries in Sudan have murdered more than 200 civilians in a wave of attacks in displacement camps and around the city of El Fasher, the last big city still in the hands of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region.

The deaths include at least 56 civilians killed by the Rapid Support Forces over two days of attacks in Um Kadadah, a town they seized on the road to El Fasher.

The violence is some of the worst in the Darfur region since the civil war between the army and the paramilitary forces began almost exactly two years ago.

The UN said killings were continuing at two large displacement camps, including of the entire medical staff of Relief International, which was operating the only remaining clinic inside Zamzam camp. RSF forces were said to be burning buildings throughout Zamzam on Sunday, claiming they were seeking Sudanese government fighters hiding in the camps.

The US has condemned both sides in the war, saying the RSF has committed genocide in Darfur and that the army has attacked civilians.

The conflict has essentially divided Sudan in two, with the army holding sway in the north and east while the RSF controls most of Darfur and parts of the south.

The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and created what the International Rescue Committee described as “the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded”.

The deaths at the weekend put extra pressure on the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, to deliver a decisive response on the issue of civilian protection when he convenes a ministerial conference on Sudan in London on Tuesday. The conference of 20 countries and organisations will inevitably shine a spotlight on the United Arab Emirates, past backers of the RSF, to issue an unambiguous statement of condemnation.

The attacks on Um Kadadah, about 180km (112 miles) east of El Fasher, came one day after RSF fighters said they had taken the town from army forces. The victims appeared to be targeted because of their ethnicity.

Lammy tweeted: “Shocking reports are emerging from El Fasher, Darfur, where indiscriminate RSF attacks have killed civilians, including aid workers. This gives added urgency to Tuesday’s Sudan conference in London with international partners. All sides must commit to protection of civilians.”

The UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said she was “appalled and gravely alarmed by reports emerging from Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps as well as El Fasher town in North Darfur”. The two camps protect as many as 700,000 civilians displaced by previous violence and famine.

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab said it had observed that “arson attacks have burned multiple structures and significant areas of the Zamzam camp in the centre, south and south-east portions of the camp”.

The UN reported that the RSF had launched coordinated ground and air attacks on the camps and El Fasher from multiple directions on 11 April, triggering intense clashes and resulting in catastrophic consequences for civilians.

The UN said more than 100 people, including more than 20 children, were feared dead, including nine Relief International personnel. The Sudanese army said more than 70 people had been killed in El Fasher alone. The precise death toll was unverifiable due to deliberate internet shutdowns implemented by the RSF.

Last month the army recaptured the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, about 1,000km (600 miles) to the east.

Adam Regal, a spokesperson for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, said Zamzam and Abou Shouk remained under artillery shelling and an assault by RSF armed vehicles on Sunday.

Relief International said of the loss of its staff: “We understand this was a targeted attack on all health infrastructure in the region to prevent access to healthcare for internally displaced people. We are horrified that one of our clinics was also part of this attack – along with other health facilities in El Fasher.”

Both the Biden and Trump administrations in the US have said the RSF has committed genocide in Darfur, and that the army has attacked civilians. The Sudanese government last week took the UAE to the international court of justice, the UN’s top court, claiming the UAE was complicit in genocide.

Kate Ferguson, a co-director of Protection Approaches, said: “It appears that the RSF is attacking Zamzam, Abu Shouk and El Fasher simultaneously for the first time, including a ground assault on Zamzam. This is a significant escalation in violence against civilians in the North Darfur region and requires immediate diplomatic response.”

She said she feared such “a coordinated military effort by the RSF would represent the beginning of the assault we have all so long feared – including further acts of genocide and crimes against humanity – and should trigger all emergency diplomatic and other responses.”

She added: “In hosting the conference on Tuesday, Lammy holds the heavy responsibility of securing a collective response to the appalling atrocities committed yesterday and this weekend. It is a tough but rare opportunity to bring international commitment to protect civilians in Sudan from strong words to resolute action.

“This means sincerely confronting those backing and enabling atrocity crimes, and establishing a serious senior coalition willing to advance at pace the political and technical solutions necessary to halt genocide, crimes against humanity, war and famine.”

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will visit Vietnam on Monday as he begins a tour of south-east Asia where he will seek to strengthen ties with neighbouring countries amid an escalating trade war.

Xi will visit Vietnam from Monday before travelling to Malaysia and Cambodia, a high-profile tour that Chinese officials have described as being of “major importance”.

China will probably use the visit to emphasise that it is a stable partner, contrasting itself with Washington which imposed, then suspended, punishing tariffs across south-east Asia, an export-reliant region, in an announcement that sent shock waves through global markets.

Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, and Cambodia, where the garments and footwear sector is crucial to the economy, were among the worst hit by US tariffs, set at 46% and 49% respectively.

It is expected that China will sign dozens of deals with Vietnam on Monday including possible investment and cooperation arrangements to develop its railway network.

On Sunday, China called on the US to “completely cancel” its 145% tariffs for Chinese imports to the US, except in relation to consumer electronics and key chipmaking equipment.

“We urge the US to … take a big step to correct its mistakes, completely cancel the wrong practice of ‘reciprocal tariffs’ and return to the right path of mutual respect,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said in a statement. Retaliatory Chinese-imposed tariffs of 125% on US goods took effect on Saturday.

Stephen Olson, a former US trade negotiator, who is now a visiting senior fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, said that during Xi’s tour of neighbouring countries, China would probably “try to position itself as the responsible leader of the rules-based trade system while painting the US as a rogue nation intent on taking a sledgehammer to trade relationships”.

It was unclear if meaningful, concrete agreements would emerge from the meetings, but they would be symbolically important, Olson added.

For officials in Hanoi, the visit will form part of a delicate balancing act between China and the US, both of which are important economic partners.

The US is a crucial export market for south-east Asia and a security partner that serves as a counterbalance to China’s assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea. However, trade in the region is closely intertwined with China, with countries from the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, counting as the biggest recipient of Chinese exports last year, according to China’s customs data.

There are concerns in the region that the 145% tariff imposed on China by the US could lead to a flood of cheap Chinese goods to nearby countries, undermining local industry.

Vietnam and many others in the region have traditionally sought to avoid taking sides between the US and China and will want to avoid antagonising either party, especially as it tries to persuade Washington to lower its 46% tariff.

Vietnam, where US exports account for 30% of GDP, had already made several concessions in the run-up to the tariff announcement, and was shocked by the severity of the tariff announced this month.

It has since sent the deputy prime minister, Ho Duc Phoc, to Washington, offered to remove all tariffs on US imports and promised to buy more US goods, including defence and security products.

Vietnam is also preparing to crack down on Chinese goods being shipped from its territory to the US and tighten controls on sensitive exports to China, according to a Reuters report. This includes stricter rules relating to the export of dual-use goods such as semiconductors, which can be used for both civilian and military purposes, it was reported.

Vietnam was considered by many to be a winner in the trade war that occurred under the last Trump administration, as many companies moved there from China to skirt tariffs imposed by the US. However, this caused Vietnam’s trade surplus with the US to surpass $123bn (£94bn), leaving it especially vulnerable in the latest tariff announcement.

Vietnam, a communist one-party state, has set an ambitious target of becoming a high-income nation by 2045 – a goal driven by its exports, which would be derailed by the 46% tariff.

Cambodia and Malaysia are also seeking to negotiate with Trump. The US tariffs could devastate Cambodia’s garment industry, which employs 750,000 workers. Cambodia is especially exposed as exports to the US account for 25% of the country’s GDP.

Xi last visited Vietnam in December but he has not travelled to Cambodia and Malaysia in nine and 12 years respectively. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said the visit to Malaysia would mark “an important milestone” for the two countries, while describing Cambodia as an “iron-clad friend”.

The Malaysian communications minister, Fahmi Fadzil, said Xi’s visit was “part of the government’s efforts … to see better trade relations with various countries including China”.

Cambodia is one of China’s strongest allies in the region and it recently announced the completion of a China-backed project to upgrade a major naval base.

The country’s prime minister, Hun Manet, who took the reins from his dictator father Hun Sen in 2023, said at the recent inauguration of a Chinese-funded road that “Cambodian-Chinese ties have not changed”.

Xi’s visits form part of a wider charm offensive pursued by China in the wake of the trade war. Xi also vowed to deepen China’s strategic partnership with Indonesia in a call with that country’s president, Prabowo Subianto, on Sunday, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.

On Friday, Xi told the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, during a meeting in Beijing that China and the EU should “jointly oppose unilateral acts of bullying”, Xinhua reported.

China’s premier, Li Qiang, spoke by phone with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, last week for talks that emphasised the responsibility of both parties to support a “strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field”.

At least 34 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a Russian ballistic missile strike in the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people were going to church for Palm Sunday, in the worst attack on civilians this year.

Two missiles landed in the crowded city centre on Sunday morning. One hit a trolley bus full of passengers. Footage from the scene showed bodies lying in the street, burning cars, and rescuers carrying bloodied survivors. Two of the dead were children.

“My seven-year-old son was running for shelter when the second missile struck. The blast ripped off a door which hit him in the leg. He has a bruise but is OK,” said Volodymyr Niankin, a film director. “My son said this is the most terrible day of his life.”

Niankin said he saw bodies on the ground. “Many of the people who died were sitting on the bus or walking in the road. A lot of people were out and about because it was a religious festival. I think this is genocide.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said there were “dozens of dead and wounded civilians”. He accused Russia of carrying out an act of deliberate terror and said tough reaction was needed from the US, Europe and the rest of the world.

“Enemy missiles hit an ordinary city street, ordinary life: houses, educational institutions, cars on the street … And this on a day when people go to church: Palm Sunday, the feast of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem,” he posted on social media.

Zelenskyy said the Kremlin was ignoring a US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire. “Unfortunately, there in Moscow they are convinced they can keep killing with impunity. Action is needed to change this situation,” he said.

Officials said 117 people had been injured, including 15 children.

There was widespread international outrage. Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said the attack “crosses any line of decency”. “As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war,” he wrote on X.

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he was “appalled at Russia’s horrific attacks on civilians”. Vladimir Putin “must now agree to a full and immediate ceasefire without conditions”, he said.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, agreed on the “urgent need to impose a ceasefire on Russia”. “Everyone knows it is Russia alone that wants this war,” he said. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, described the scenes from Sumy as heartbreaking and horrific.

The EU’s ambassador to Ukraine, Katarína Mathernová, called the strikes a war crime. “Nothing seems to be sacred to the Russians – neither churches, nor Ukrainian children,” she said.

Ukrainians contrasted the images of bodies in Sumy with photos of Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, warmly shaking hands with Putin on Friday. The two held four hours of talks in St Petersburg.

Putin’s press spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Sunday that the talks were going very well but that it was “impossible to expect any instant results”.

Trump has said he is “pissed off” at Russia’s failure to stop bombing, but has so far not taken any concrete measures against Moscow. Ukraine has signed up to a 30-day ceasefire that Washington proposed a month ago.

Since then, Russia has escalated its bombardment of Ukrainian cities, firing 70 missiles and 2,200 drones. Nine children and nine adults were killed earlier this month when a Russian missile hit a playground in the city of Kryvyi Rih.

Zelenskyy has been pressing allies to send another 10 Patriot air defence systems to protect Ukraine’s skies. “Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and air bombs. We need the kind of attitude towards Russia that a terrorist deserves,” he said on Sunday.

Sumy is 15 miles (25km) from the border with Russia and is a major Ukrainian military hub. The missiles landed in a central civilian area where many people carrying willow branches for Palm Sunday were on their way to church.

Video from a car dashcam shows an orange flash as one of the missiles struck at 10.20am. Plumes of grey smoke can be seen as other vehicles reverse away from the danger and passersby run in panic.

The first missile hit a conference centre belonging to Sumy’s state university. Several children were waiting outside for an 11am theatre performance in a basement venue. The second landed 200 metres away, in Pokrovska Street, as the trolley bus rolled past.

Niankin said the centre was a unique arts hub and home to a theatre he ran. “I feel like half of my heart has been taken away. It was a place where we could play and create. Everything is destroyed: the stage, costumes, all our stuff. We have no chance to continue our work,” he said.

The director, who made a film about Sumy’s resistance to Russia’s 2022 invasion, said there were not a lot of people inside the building when it was flattened. “It happened half an hour before the show was due to start. My son was nearby attending a class in a studio.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said Russia had launched two Iskander-M missiles from its western territory in the Voronezh and Kursk regions. He identified the army forces responsible as the 112th and 448th missile brigades. “Another proof of the godlessness of the disgusting cursed Moscow,” he said.

Even by the warped standards of wartime, Russia’s Sunday morning attack on Sumy was astonishingly brazen. Two high-speed ballistic missiles, armed, Ukraine says, with cluster munitions, slammed into the heart of the border city in mid-morning as families went to church, waited for a theatre performance or were simply strolling about on a mild spring day.

The death toll currently stands at 34, including two children. Images from the scene show bodies or body bags on the ground, a trolley bus and cars burnt out, rubble and glass scattered around. It was reckless, cruel and vicious and its consequences entirely predictable to those who gave the order and pressed “launch”.

To contemplate a daytime city-centre attack, in the full knowledge that civilians will be present, reflects a Russian culture of impunity that has been allowed to endure without effective challenge. Nevertheless, Washington’s approach, under Donald Trump, has been to try to negotiate an end to the war by talking directly with Moscow, while remaining mostly silent on Russian attacks on civilians.

Talks between the US and Russia have continued unabated over the past two months at a time when Russian attacks on Ukraine’s cities appear to have stepped up. Nine adults and nine children were killed when a Russian ballistic missile using cluster bombs struck a children’s playground in Kryvyi Rih at the end of last week.

People were burned alive in their cars and the bodies of children were found dead in the playground, yet the attack was weakly condemned by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, who, toeing the White House line, would not say the deadly missile was from Russia as she tweeted: “This is why the war must end.”

Brink has since announced she will step down and been more forthright. On Sunday, the ambassador attributed the Sumy attack to Russia and repeated that it appeared cluster bombs had been used. But now that she is on her way out, it is easier for her to speak her mind while Russia’s Vladimir Putin toys with Trump and the rest of the US administration in peace talks that have hardly developed in two months.

On Friday, the Russian leader spent four hours in talks with Steve Witkoff, a donor real estate developer who has become a key Trump adviser on Ukraine as well as the Middle East. What they talked about is unclear, but reports suggest Witkoff has been pushing the idea that the quickest way to get Russia to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine is to force Kyiv to hand over the entirety of four provinces that are only partly occupied by Russia’s military, including the cities of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

The dissonance between the killing and destruction in Sumy on Sunday and the photographed handshake between Witkoff and Putin is all too evident to most observers. It is not clear why it should even be contemplated that Ukraine hand over territory (something that even the US cannot easily force on Kyiv) when Russia is willing to countenance daytime attacks on civilians.

But Moscow believes, and acts like it believes, it can get away with it. The Kremlin will ignore condemnation from European leaders and wait for the news cycle to move on – and will almost certainly continue to attack Ukrainian cities to little military purpose. Not only are drone attacks commonplace, but there are now concerns they are routinely being armed with cluster munitions, while almost every day one or two hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles are thrown into the deadly mix.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hopes that gradually Trump will realise Putin is not negotiating in good faith. Certainly, the attack on the centre of Sumy hardly suggests a strong appetite for peace. But it is unclear at what point, if any, the White House is prepared to conclude that killing of civilians means that it needs to put genuine pressure on Russia to negotiate rather than indulge the Kremlin.

The UK and its G7 allies are considering tightening the “meaningless” cap on Russian oil export prices after Donald Trump’s trade war caused global oil markets to crash.

UK Treasury officials are understood to be looking at plans to lower the $60 (£46) a barrel cap Russianexports after the oil market plunged this week to $59.77 a barrel for the first time in more than four years.

The G7 capped the price of Russian oil exports in late 2022 – when oil traded at well over $100 a barrel – to limit the oil revenues that Moscow could put towards its war efforts in Ukraine.

But experts have said the plan was “currently meaningless” after a steep fall in the global oil markets. It had already become increasingly irrelevant as Russia found loopholes to sell its crude at normal market rates, they added.

The Guardian understands that the UK is now working alongside its international partners to find a way to use the price cap to safeguard Ukraine against the Russian war machine while pushing the Kremlin to engage in a peace process in good faith.

The UK government was approached for comment.

The cap effectively barred all G7 and EU nations from buying Russian barrels above $60 – or providing shipping, insurance, brokering, trade finance and other support services for any deals done above this price.

But Russia was able to use a series of loopholes including the use of a shadow fleet of ageing oil tankers to carry cargoes at the usual market rates.

The cap applied to about half of Russia’s seaborne oil cargoes when it was first introduced, according to analysis by the commodity data provider S&P Global Platts, but about 80% was sold beyond the reaches of the gap by the end of last year.

“The cap is currently meaningless,” said Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. He told the Guardian that the G7 should consider “tightening the screws” on the Kremlin by lowering the price below $60.

“There might be a willingness within the G7 to do this to punish Moscow, especially because there are no real fears about leaving the oil market under-supplied,” he added.

Tom Keatinge, a director at the Royal United Services Institute, a defence and security thinktank, said: “It’s time to revisit the whole way in which we try to restrict Russia’s income from hydrocarbons. Whatever anyone might say, it doesn’t really seem to be working.”

Global oil market prices tumbled by almost a fifth in the days since the US president set out sweeping global trade tariffs amid fears that a trade war could trigger a global economic recession which would sap demand for energy.

The international oil benchmark fell from almost $75 a barrel last week to under $60 on Wednesday. The price climbed to above $65 on Thursday after Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs, aside from those levelled against China.

US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery on Monday after Donald Trump excluded imports of smartphones and laptops from his tariff regime late on Friday night.

Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.

The temporary reprieve was widely seen as a climbdown after pressure from Republican leaders concerned that the soaring cost of smartphones would spark a voter backlash. US retailers import about 80% of all smartphones, many of them from China, which Trump has slapped with tariffs totalling 145%.

US Customs and Border Protection said items like laptops, hard drives, smartphones, flat-panel monitors and some chips would qualify for the exemption. Vital machines made outside the US that are used to make semiconductors were also excluded.

It means these products will avoid the China tariff and the 10% baseline tariffs applied on other countries caught by the new regime.

Speaking on Air Force One on Saturday evening, Trump said he would be more specific about the latest exemption rules on Monday. “We’ve been making a lot of money,” he said. “It’s been the other way around. Other countries, in particular China was making a lot of money.”

It is not clear how long the exemption will last or whether separate tariffs will be negotiated on the specific products.

China has responded with a tariff on all US exports of 125%. Beijing said at the weekend that the reprieve for smartphones was a “small step” toward easing the trade fight between the world’s two biggest economies.

However, the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said the reprieve was likely to be lifted in 90 days and reiterated Trump’s longstanding plan to apply a different, specific levy to the sector.

Speaking on NBC, he said: “All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they’re going to have a special focus-type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored. We can’t be relying on China for fundamental things that we need.”

Lutnick dismissed interpretations of Trump’s reprieve that argued it reflected the president’s realisation that his China tariffs were unlikely to shift more manufacturing of smartphones, computers and other gadgets to the US in the near future.

On Sunday Trump warned that no country would be getting “off the hook” on his punishing tariffs, again singling out China for criticism. “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!”

Apple has spent decades building up a finely tuned supply chain in east Asia, including inside China. The firm has pledged to move some facilities back to the US over the next four years, which will cost it $500bn, including constructing a giant factory in Texas for artificial intelligence servers but was expecting to retain much of its international network as it expands its sales.

Trump’s move at the start of April to impose tariffs on imports to the US battered the stocks of tech’s magnificent seven – Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.

At one point, they lost $2.1tn, or 14% of their value, from 2 April. Shares have recovered since last Wednesday after Trump paused the tariffs except on China, allowing tech firms to use India and other conduits to import smartphones.

US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery on Monday after Donald Trump excluded imports of smartphones and laptops from his tariff regime late on Friday night.

Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.

The temporary reprieve was widely seen as a climbdown after pressure from Republican leaders concerned that the soaring cost of smartphones would spark a voter backlash. US retailers import about 80% of all smartphones, many of them from China, which Trump has slapped with tariffs totalling 145%.

US Customs and Border Protection said items like laptops, hard drives, smartphones, flat-panel monitors and some chips would qualify for the exemption. Vital machines made outside the US that are used to make semiconductors were also excluded.

It means these products will avoid the China tariff and the 10% baseline tariffs applied on other countries caught by the new regime.

Speaking on Air Force One on Saturday evening, Trump said he would be more specific about the latest exemption rules on Monday. “We’ve been making a lot of money,” he said. “It’s been the other way around. Other countries, in particular China was making a lot of money.”

It is not clear how long the exemption will last or whether separate tariffs will be negotiated on the specific products.

China has responded with a tariff on all US exports of 125%. Beijing said at the weekend that the reprieve for smartphones was a “small step” toward easing the trade fight between the world’s two biggest economies.

However, the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said the reprieve was likely to be lifted in 90 days and reiterated Trump’s longstanding plan to apply a different, specific levy to the sector.

Speaking on NBC, he said: “All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they’re going to have a special focus-type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored. We can’t be relying on China for fundamental things that we need.”

Lutnick dismissed interpretations of Trump’s reprieve that argued it reflected the president’s realisation that his China tariffs were unlikely to shift more manufacturing of smartphones, computers and other gadgets to the US in the near future.

On Sunday Trump warned that no country would be getting “off the hook” on his punishing tariffs, again singling out China for criticism. “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!”

Apple has spent decades building up a finely tuned supply chain in east Asia, including inside China. The firm has pledged to move some facilities back to the US over the next four years, which will cost it $500bn, including constructing a giant factory in Texas for artificial intelligence servers but was expecting to retain much of its international network as it expands its sales.

Trump’s move at the start of April to impose tariffs on imports to the US battered the stocks of tech’s magnificent seven – Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.

At one point, they lost $2.1tn, or 14% of their value, from 2 April. Shares have recovered since last Wednesday after Trump paused the tariffs except on China, allowing tech firms to use India and other conduits to import smartphones.

Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser to Donald Trump, said he and Elon Musk are “great” after the president’s multi-billionaire business adviser publicly called him “a moron” who was “dumber than a sack of bricks”.

“I’ve been called worse,” Navarro said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press in some of his most extensive remarks about the insults Musk directed at him days earlier. Praising Musk’s role in the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), Navarro added: “Everything’s fine with Elon.”

Navarro’s evident attempt to be magnanimous came after Musk criticized Trump’s proposals for global tariffs, which the president has since set at 10% on all countries, with some nations receiving higher trade levies.

Navarro has had a central role in devising the tariffs. And social media posts from Musk on Monday targeted Navarro, saying he “truly is a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks”. Musk had also previously said Navarro “ain’t built shit”.

Navarro, for his part, had called the chief of the electrical vehicle manufacturer Tesla a “car assembler” rather than a maker.

Asked by Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday about that back-and-forth, Navarro remarked: “Elon and I are great. It’s not an issue.”

Welker asked Navarro if Musk’s criticism of the tariffs that Navarro helped develop won with Trump given that the president paused higher trade levies for most countries for 90 days on Wednesday.

Navarro would not directly answer. Instead, he alluded to his having served four months in prison beginning in March 2024 because he refused to comply with a subpoena from members of Congress who were investigating the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol that was carried out by Trump supporters after his first presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

“Nobody should have to come into this government and have that happen or have to go to jail like I did,” said Navarro, who was released from prison in July and then appointed as the senior counselor for trade and manufacturing at the White House after Trump won his second presidency in November’s election.

Navarro had also dismissed Musk’s insults in an interview on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt.

“It’s no problem,” Navarro told CNN. “It’s like – it’s no problem.”

Musk has not commented.

Asked for her input on the feud between Musk and Navarro, the White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said: “Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.”

A Palestinian paramedic who has been missing since a massacre of medics and rescue workers by Israeli troops in Gaza last month is being detained in Israel, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The whereabouts of Assad al-Nsasrah, a Palestinian paramedic, had been unknown for weeks since an incident on 23 March when workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) and Palestinian civil defence came under fire as they drove ambulances to rescue injured colleagues in the southern city of Rafah.

Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one United Nations employee, were killed in the attack by Israeli troops. The UN has said they were deliberately shot “one by one” and the bodies, along with the rescue vehicles, were then buried with a bulldozer in a sandy pit, in what appears to have been an attempt to cover up the killings. Witnesses who uncovered the bodies said the workers were found still in their uniforms and some had their hands tied.

The Red Crescent called the attack on its workers a “grave violation of international law” and has called for an international investigation.

Nsasrah, 47, from Gaza, who had been working for Red Crescent for 16 years, was among the medics in the ambulances caught up in the ambush, and he had not been seen since. In an interview with the Guardian, another survivor, the Red Crescent volunteer Munther Abed, 27, said he had seen Nsasrah being taken away alive and blindfolded by Israeli officers at the scene of the killings.

On Sunday, the ICRC said it had “received information that the PRCS medic Assad al-Nsasrah has been detained in an Israeli place of detention”. The ICRC spokesperson gave no further details on where Nsasrah was being held and confirmed that Israel had not granted access to visit him.

“The ICRC has not been able to visit any Palestinian detainees held in Israeli places of detention since 7 October 2023,” said the spokesperson. “The ICRC continues to call for access to all places of detention and reiterates publicly and privately that all detainees must always be treated humanely and with dignity.”

In a statement, PRCS called on the international community to demand the release of Nsasrah, a father of six, stating that he had been “forcibly abducted while carrying out his humanitarian duties”.

There was no immediate comment from the Israel military.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have faced mounting pressure over inconsistencies in their account of the attack. They had initially claimed troops opened fire on vehicles that were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.

However, the IDF had to backtrack after mobile phone footage, from a medic who was among those killed at the scene, showed the ambulances – clearly marked with the Red Crescent logo – driving with flashing red emergency lights and headlights on their vehicles.

Abed, the medic who survived the attack, described how he was held for several hours by Israeli forces after the ambulances came under fire. He said he was fully stripped, beaten again and interrogated about his past before he was finally released.

The IDF said they were now re-examining “operational information” to understand why the initial account had been “mistaken”, and that an investigation was being carried out.

They added that a preliminary inquiry had indicated “troops opened fire due to a perceived threat after a previous encounter in the area, and that six of the individuals killed in the incident were identified as Hamas terrorists”. However, none of those killed in the attack were armed and no proof has yet been presented that any of those killed were Hamas militants.

The government could target parts of China’s security apparatus under new foreign influence rules, the Guardian has learned.

Ministers are considering including parts of the Chinese state accused of interference activities on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme (Firs).

China as a whole is not expected to be included on the enhanced tier, according to several people briefed on the discussions, but government sources stressed that no final decision about its status had been taken.

Firs, which will launch on 1 July, will require anyone in the UK acting for a foreign power or entity to declare their activities to the government.

The scheme will operate on two tiers. The enhanced tier will cover countries and entities deemed a particular risk, which will require extra disclosures.

Ministers have announced that Iran and Russia will be on the enhanced tier, meaning anyone directed by those two countries to carry out activities in the UK will have to declare it or face five years in prison.

The government has yet to say anything about China’s place in Firs, a matter which is subject to internal debate by ministers and officials weighing up security concerns against the economic benefits of closer ties with Beijing.

Financial services companies have privately argued against including China on the enhanced tier on the basis that they would have to fill out burdensome paperwork to justify business meetings.

In an effort to strengthen security without compromising economic ties, ministers are considering including specific parts of the Chinese political system that have been accused of interference in the west on the enhanced tier.

Entities under consideration include Beijing’s Ministry of State Security, which is its intelligence service, the United Front Work Department, often referred to as the international arm of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), and the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military. The government could also target the CCP as a whole.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do not comment on security matters.”

MI5’s director general, Ken McCallum, said in a 2022 speech that “the Chinese intelligence services, or bodies within the CCP itself – such as its United Front Work Department (UFWD) – are mounting patient, well-funded, deceptive campaigns to buy and exert influence” in the UK.

McCallum said the UFWD aimed “to amplify pro-CCP voices, and silence those that question the CCP’s legitimacy or authority”. He said its activities had “very real consequences in communities here in the UK” and that “it needs to be challenged”.

Conservative MPs have called for China to be included in the enhanced tier. The shadow security minister, Tom Tugendhat, told the Commons last year that “the advice from MI5 was very, very clear. If China isn’t in the enhanced tier, it’s not worth having.”

There are long-running tensions over the issue between the Home Office and the Treasury, which is relaying concerns about the potential burden on businesses.

Labour has pursued a rapprochement with Beijing since taking office. The foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have made trips to China in an effort to maintain positive economic relations despite security concerns.

Douglas Alexander, a trade minister, became the latest government figure to visit China last week for talks amid the intensifying trade dispute between Beijing and Washington. China is the UK’s fifth-largest trading partner.

The government is also carrying out a cross-Whitehall audit of the UK-China relationship, which was a Labour manifesto pledge.

Ecuadorians go to the polls on Sunday in a vote seen as a referendum on a “war on drugs” offensive that has led to numerous human rights violations, as the incumbent Daniel Noboa faces the leftist Luisa González in a tightly contested runoff.

Noboa, 37, edged out González, 47, in the first round in February by just 16,746 votes (0.17%) from a 13.7 million electorate.

Polls now indicate a statistical tie in the rematch of Ecuador’s 2023 runoff, when the then little-known heir to a banana fortune unexpectedly won a snap election to complete the term of former president Guillermo Lasso, who had dissolved Congress and stepped down to avoid impeachment.

In his first months in office, Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” and placed the armed forces at the centre of his mano dura (iron fist) policy against drug-trafficking gangs.

After an initial drop in crime, reports of human rights violations mounted, and violence levels soon returned to previous highs: Ecuador still has the highest homicide rate in Latin America, and the figures for January and February are the highest on record.

Last month, one of the most violent massacres in the country’s history took place in Socio Vivienda II, an impoverished neighbourhood in north-west Guayaquil, when 22 people were killed in a confrontation between rival gang factions.

“Everything is worse now,” said María, a Socio Vivienda II resident who asked not to be identified by her full name. “We’ve been abandoned by the state and left without the rule of law,” she said, adding that dozens of residents still had not been able to return home because of ongoing fighting.

But violence is far from the only issue affecting Noboa’s popularity. An energy crisis led to scheduled blackouts of up to 14 hours, GDP fell by 1.5% and the poverty rate rose from 26% to 28% between 2023 and 2024.

“Life has become unbearable,” said María. “You only eat once a day, and then you have to save a little for the afternoon so the children have something to eat. We just want to live with dignity,” she added.

In a YouGov survey commissioned by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), 61% of respondents said their economic situation and personal security had not improved since Noboa took office.

“The economy is not doing better, security is not doing better, people are facing blackouts, and they’re also witnessing a deterioration of the rule of law, with growing disregard for the constitution,” said Pedro Labayen Herrera, a researcher at CEPR specialising in Ecuador.

The political analyst Matías Abad Merchán said: “Despite Noboa having been in power for a short time, a small anti-Noboa segment of the electorate has indeed emerged – one that genuinely feels the president displays certain authoritarian tendencies.”

The president refused to step down during the electoral campaign period, as required by the constitution.

He also sparked an unprecedented diplomatic crisis by ordering police and military forces to storm the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest Jorge Glas, once a vice-president under the former leftist president Rafael Correa.

Correa – who has lived in Belgium since leaving office and was convicted in 2020 by an Ecuadorian court for corruption during his presidency – is González’s political patron.

Noboa, on the other hand, has made efforts to showcase support from the US president: the Ecuadorian leader left his country in the middle of the campaign to travel to Florida, where he posed for a photo with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

The incumbent has become embroiled in several controversies in the race’s final stretch.

He announced a “strategic alliance” with Erik Prince – the Trump-aligned founder of the controversial private military firm Blackwater – to supposedly reinforce his “war” on crime.

In early April, the Brazilian investigative outlet Pública revealed that at least three times cocaine has been found hidden in banana containers being sent to Europe by a company in which Noboa and his brother are the majority shareholders.

During a presidential debate, Noboa denied any wrongdoing and said that the family’s banana company was cooperating with investigators.

After the first round, Noboa alleged – without providing evidence – that there had been “irregularities”, a claim promptly rejected by observers from the European Union and the Organization of American States. For the runoff, he stated that he would only accept defeat “if there was no indication of fraud”.

“So if things don’t go his way, I think there’s a real risk that he won’t accept the results,” said Herrera.

On Wednesday, 14 Democratic members of the US Congress sent a letter to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, expressing concern that Noboa might not accept the results if he loses: “It’s therefore imperative that you send a clear message to the government of Ecuador and other Ecuadorian leaders emphasising the need for a free, fair and transparent electoral process, and noting that, if electoral observers determine these conditions to be met, the outcome of the election must be respected,” they wrote.

A 63-year-old British man has died after falling from a viewing platform overlooking the historic aqueduct of Segovia in central Spain, according to local authorities.

In a brief statement on Saturday, officials described the man as a British passport holder who had arrived in the city on Thursday with two other people.

Initial reports suggested he had been sitting on the ledge of the stairs leading to the lookout point and fell backwards after losing his balance, the local newspaper El Norte de Castilla reported.

City officials said the man, who has yet to be named, fell from the metres-high viewpoint shortly after 1pm local time (1200 BST) on Saturday. Emergency officials said they rushed to the scene and attempted to revive him.

The incident took place at a lookout point known as Postigo del Consuelo, which is tucked into remains of the medieval walls that surround the city. The small viewing platform has long attracted throngs of tourists and local people for the sweeping views it offers of the city and aqueduct.

With two tiers of arches and stretching more than 800 metres in length, the Roman aqueduct is believed to have been built around AD50. It was used until the 1970s to channel water to the city from nearby mountains. Declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1985, it stands at more than 28 metres above ground at its highest point.

As is customary in Spain with deaths believed to be accidental, judicial officials have launched an investigation and are gathering testimonies and evidence to confirm the circumstances of the death.

When contacted on Sunday, a spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in Spain, and are in touch with the local authorities.”