Donald Trump says Chinese-made smartphones and other electronics will not be exempt from tariffs – adding they are simply moving into a different levy “bucket”.

European stock markets bounced up on Monday morning after Friday’s official announcement that some of these products would escape levies of up to 145%.

China has called on Donald Trump to “completely cancel” his tariffs regime, and “return to the right path of mutual respect”.

However US officials said on Sunday that products would be subject to a “semiconductor tariff” instead, with Trump expected to reveal more details later.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the new levy would be in addition to a host of global tariffs the US imposed earlier this month, then paused for 90 days.

“We need our medicines and we need semiconductors and our electronics to be built in America,” he added.

On Saturday, a US customs notice revealed smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices would be excluded from the 125% tariff on goods entering the country from China.

But Trump chimed in on social media, saying there was no exemption for these products and called such reports about this notice false. Instead, he said that “they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket'”.

Trump added: “We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations.”

He said he would provide an update on Monday about semiconductor duties.

Everyday devices such as smartphones and laptops rely on semiconductors, which are small and powerful pieces of tech that form the basic building blocks of modern computation.

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On Monday, Sony announced that it was increasing the price of its flagship games console, the PlayStation 5, by about 10% in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, citing a “challenging economic environment”, inflation and fluctuating exchange rates. It did not announce price rises in the United States.

The Chinese commerce ministry had called Trump’s exemptions a “small step” by the US, and said that Beijing was “evaluating the impact” of the move.

But the suggestion by Trump administration officials of plans for future levies may dampen hopes of a thaw in the two rivals’ protectionist posture.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was asked on Sunday whether there were any plans for Trump to speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

“Right now we don’t have any plans on that,” he said during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Trump imposed a tariff amounting to 54% on imports of products from China at the beginning of April, before escalating to the current 145% rate.

In its own tit-for-tat tariffs, China imposed levies of 34% on US goods, before increasing it to 84% and then 125%, which took effect on Saturday.

In announcing its latest tariffs, China’s commerce ministry said last week that it would “fight to the end” if the US “insists on provoking a tariff war or trade war”.

Late on Saturday, while travelling to Miami, Florida, Trump said he would give more details of the exemptions at the start of next week.

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The White House has argued that it is using tariffs as a negotiating tactic to extract more favourable trade terms from other countries.

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

However, his interventions have seen massive fluctuations in the stock market and raised fears of a decrease in global trade that could have a knock-on effect on jobs and individual economies.

Algeria has asked 12 French embassy staff to leave the country within 48 hours, France’s foreign minister has said.

Jean-Noël Barrot added that it was linked to the indictment of three Algerians in France on Friday, one of whom is a consular official.

They are accused of involvement in the abduction last year of Amir Boukhors, 41, an outspoken critic of Algeria’s government who has an audience of more than one million people online. He had reportedly been granted asylum in France in 2023.

Barrot urged Algeria to “abandon” the expulsions and said France was ready to “respond immediately” if they went ahead.

Boukhors, also known as Amir DZ, has lived in France since 2016.

He was abducted in April 2024 in the southern suburbs of Paris and released the following day, according to his lawyer Eric Plouvier.

Plouvier told the AFP news agency that Boukhors had been “the subject of two serious attacks, one in 2022 and another on the evening of April 29 2024”.

French media reported that he was forced into a car with a flashing light by “fake police officers”, then released the next day in woodland without explanation.

Algerian authorities accuse the influencer of being “a saboteur linked to terrorist groups”. The North African nation has issued nine international arrest warrants against him, accusing him of fraud and associations with terrorist organisations.

He denies the allegations. In 2022, the French courts refused attempts to extradite him to Algeria.

The case is the latest in a growing number of incidents to have exacerbated a rift between France and Algeria.

They include the arrest and imprisonment in Algeria of French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal, who was accused of undermining Algeria’s territorial integrity.

Algeria recalled its ambassador from Paris last year after France backed Morocco’s claim to the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

The 12 French officials asked to leave on Monday include some members of the French interior ministry, a diplomatic source told AFP.

On Monday, Barrot said: “I am asking Algerian authorities to abandon these expulsion measures… if the decision to send back our officials is maintained, we will have no other choice but to respond immediately.”

Barrot claimed that the expulsions were a response to the indictment of three Algerian nationals on Friday in Paris – including the consular official – on charges including abduction, arbitrary detention and illegal confinement and participating in a terrorist organisation.

Algeria’s foreign ministry said it had summoned French ambassador Stéphane Romatet in response to “express its strong protest” and called for the official’s immediate release, according to the official Algerian news agency.

It added that the individual “was arrested in public and then taken into custody without notification through the diplomatic channels”.

The ministry claimed the move was “not a coincidence as it happens in a very specific context with the aim of stymying the process of relaunching bilateral relations”.

Tentative steps have been made to repair relations between the two nations with a phone call between French President Emmanuel Macron and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune taking place in March.

“The two presidents had a long, frank and friendly exchange on the state of bilateral relations and the tensions that have built up in recent months,” a joint statement read.

Following an official visit to Algeria on 6 April where he met with Tebboune, Barrot said he hoped for a “new phase” in relations.

Indian businessman Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following India’s request for his extradition.

Mr Choksi, who left India in 2018, was arrested on Saturday, his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told the BBC on Monday.

The diamond merchant is wanted by India over allegations of involvement in a case of defrauding one of the country’s largest banks of nearly $1.8bn (£1.3bn).

Mr Choksi has not commented publicly on the case, but his lawyer said they would appeal against his detention and also oppose his extradition to India.

“These are the obvious grounds [on which we will argue the case], that he is not a flight risk and secondly, that he is extremely sick. He is undergoing cancer treatment,” Mr Agarwal said.

He added that they would “contest the extradition on grounds that there isn’t enough evidence against him and the extradition request is politically motivated and the trial in India may not be fair”.

The BBC has reached out to India’s foreign ministry and financial crimes agency – the Enforcement Directorate (ED) – for comment.

According to a Times of India report, Mr Choksi was arrested on the basis of two non-bailable warrants issued by an Indian court in 2018 and 2021 – although it’s not clear why the action came now.

Mr Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are wanted by Indian authorities in connection with a $1.8bn fraud case at Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Mr Modi, who’s also been living abroad since 2018, is lodged in a prison in London and is awaiting extradition to India.

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Both were high-profile diamond traders. Mr Modi’s jewellery was worn by several Hollywood celebrities such as Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet. One of the biggest Bollywood stars, Priyanka Chopra, was his company’s brand ambassador.

Mr Choksi, meanwhile, was the owner of Gitanjali Gems, an Indian jewellery retailer which once had about 4,000 stores across India.

The ED has accused Mr Choksi and Modi of colluding with some employees of PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai city to get fraudulent advances for payments to overseas suppliers of jewels.

These funds were then allegedly diverted and laundered.

Mr Choksi and Mr Modi have denied the allegations against them.

After leaving India, Mr Choksi reportedly travelled to the US and later to Antigua – where he has citizenship.

In 2021, he was reportedly arrested in Dominica and deported back to Antigua.

Hariprasad SV, a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur who had in 2016 alerted authorities about the alleged scam at PNB, said Mr Choksi’s arrest was “great news”.

“Apart from bringing him back, the most important thing is to get back all those billions of dollars he looted from India,” he told ANI news agency.

The World Health Organization has said conditions at hospitals in Gaza are “beyond description”, after a major facility was put out of service by an Israeli air strike.

Spokeswoman Dr Margaret Harris told the BBC it was seeing “attack after attack” on hospitals and healthcare workers, and medical supplies were critically low due to Israel’s blockade of the territory.

On Sunday, staff at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City said an Israeli strike had destroyed its laboratory and damaged its emergency room. They did not report any direct casualties, but said a child died due to disruption of care.

The Israeli military said it hit a “command-and-control centre” used by Hamas to plan attacks.

The hospital is run by the Church of England, whose bishops said they shared “grief, sorrow and outrage” with Palestinians over the attack and called on Israel to provide evidence to support its claim.

A ceasefire in Gaza ended when Israel resumed its air and ground campaign four weeks ago, saying that military pressure would force Hamas to release the hostages it is still holding.

Al-Ahli hospital was struck by two missiles around midnight on Sunday – the fifth time it has been hit since the beginning of the war.

According to the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, the two-storey genetic laboratory was demolished and the pharmacy and emergency department buildings were damaged. Surrounding buildings were also damaged, including St Philip’s Church.

The diocese said the Israel military gave a 20-minute warning to hospital staff and patients to evacuate before the attack.

There were no casualties as a result of the strike, but one child who had previously suffered a head injury died as a result of the rushed evacuation process, it added.

Later, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency had been told by al-Ahli’s director that the emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines, and the pharmacy were “destroyed”.

The hospital was forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals, but 40 patients in a critical condition could not be moved, he added.

“Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law. Attacks on health care must stop. Once again we repeat: patients, health workers and hospitals must be protected.”

The Israeli foreign ministry said it was a “precise strike on a single building that was used by Hamas as a terror command and control centre” and where there was “no medical activity take place”.

It also stressed that an “early warning” was issued, and that the strike was “carried out while avoiding further damage to the hospital compound, which remained operational for continued medical treatment”.

Hamas condemned the attack as a “savage crime” and rejected the claim that it was using the facility for military purposes.

On Monday, the Church of England’s House of Bishops said in a statement they were “dismayed that hospitals have become battlegrounds in Gaza” and that Israel had “yet to provide clear and compelling evidence to substantiate its claim” that the hospital was being used by Hamas.

“Against that backdrop, we call for an independent, thorough and transparent investigation into this attack as well as the alleged misuse of the hospital.”

The bishops also said that “the extremely limited time given to staff and patients to evacuate the hospital was a further assault on fundamental human rights and basic human dignity”.

WHO representative Dr Rik Peeperkorn meanwhile told the BBC that al-Ahli was now unable to receive new patients pending repairs, and that this would “heavily impact trauma patients”.

“Al-Ahli was a key trauma hospital north of Wadi Gaza. It is the hospital with the only functional CT scanner north of Wadi Gaza,” he said, referring to the valley that effectively divides the territory in two because it is an Israeli-designated “no-go” area.

The charity Medical Aid for Palestinians also quoted an orthopaedic surgeon at al-Ahli as saying that the level of care the hospital could provide to the 40 remaining patients was “quite similar to that of a hostel”.

“We are unable to perform any surgical procedures, as these patients require laboratory diagnostics, pharmacy support, and emergency referrals in case of complications – all of which have ceased entirely due to the recent attack,” Dr Ahmed al-Shurafa said.

The ICRC’s head of sub-delegation in Gaza, Adrian Zimmermann, also warned that the wider shortage of medical supplies “puts the life and the wellbeing of Gazans who require healthcare services at risk”.

Dr Peeperkorn said they were running critically low because Israel had not allowed in any deliveries of humanitarian aid for more than six weeks.

He added that the WHO had stockpiled some supplies in its warehouses during the recent ceasefire, but that the Israeli military was not facilitating transfers between northern and southern Gaza.

“Last week, we had a discussion with one of the medical specialists at al-Ahli. He was telling us that they had to use the same surgical gowns and the same surgical gloves for various operations, while we have surgical gloves and gowns in our warehouse in Deir al-Balah [south of Wadi Gaza],” he recalled. “We want to bring them, but we are not facilitated.”

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 50,980 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A ceasefire deal that began in January and lasted two months saw Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages – eight of them dead – and five Thai hostages in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and a surge in humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, blaming Hamas’s refusal to accept a proposal for an extension of the agreement’s first phase and the release of more of the 59 hostages it is still holding, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Hamas accused Israel of violating the original deal, according to which there would be a second phase where all the remaining living hostages would be handed over and the war brought to a permanent end.

On Monday, a Hamas delegation led by the group’s chief negotiator left Cairo without making any progress in talks with Egyptian mediators aimed at reaching a new ceasefire agreement, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC.

“No breakthrough was achieved due to Israel’s refusal to commit to ending the war and withdrawing from the Gaza Strip,” the official said.

“Hamas showed flexibility, regarding the number of hostages to be released in order to make progress. But Israel wants the hostages back without ending the war,” he claimed.

Israel has said it is waiting for a response to its latest proposal, sent at the end of last week.

It is understood to have reduced slightly the number of hostages it is demanding should be released in exchange for an extension of the truce and the entry of humanitarian aid.

A group of hostages’ families, known as the Tikvah Forum, said on Monday that the parents of Eitan Mor had been told by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the government was working on a deal that would see 10 hostages freed – down from 11 or 12.

Relatives of a nine-year-old boy who was killed by an accidental gunshot in Australia have been charged over his death.

Paramedics treated the child for serious neck injuries at a farm in Windellama – near Goulburn in New South Wales (NSW) – on Sunday, following reports of a shooting. The boy died at the scene.

Local police have since arrested two people, including a 14-year-old, and charged them with unauthorised firearm offences.

An investigation into the incident is underway. It is not known what relation the family members had to the child.

“It’s rare to hear one shot here,” Ron Wenban, who lives near the farm with his partner, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“To have a gunshot like that happen, that was a concern, neither of us wanted to go over there.”

Mr Wenban said the family were based in Sydney and had bought the property as a holiday home.

Both of the relatives who were arrested will appear before court in May, with the teen attending the NSW Children’s Court.

The man was charged with allowing an unauthorised person to possess a firearm, as well as not keeping a firearm safely, while the teenager was charged with unauthorised possession.

The teen has been granted bail.

A private plane carrying six people crashed in an open field in upstate New York on Saturday, killing all on board, authorities say.

Among those on board were celebrated former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) football player Karenna Groff, her parents and her brother, according to a family statement.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the family had been travelling for a holiday celebration when the crash happened.

A video of the final seconds of the flight obtained by officials showed the aircraft intact before it crashed into the ground at a high rate of descent, the NTSB said.

A joint family statement identified the victims as Karenna Groff, her parents Dr Michael Groff and Dr Joy Saini, her brother Jared Groff and his partner Alexia Couyutas Duarte, and Karenna’s partner James Santoro.

“They were a wonderful family,” James’s father, John Santoro, told the Associated Press.

“The world lost a lot of very good people who were going to do a lot of good for the world if they had the opportunity. We’re all personally devastated.”

Karenna, a former athlete, was named Woman of the Year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2022, her senior year.

She had graduated from MIT, where she met James, and was enrolled in medical school at the New York University (NYU), the family said.

Her parents were both prominent doctors, while her brother, Jared, worked as a paralegal and his partner, Alexia, was about to join Harvard Law School.

“Karenna demonstrated exceptional skill and unwavering passion towards the care of patients and the mission of our institution. We will remember her for her warmth, her grace, her kindness, her outstanding accomplishments, and the pure joy she brought to our community,” an NYU spokesperson said.

A New York Times article identified the plane’s pilot as Karenna’s father, Dr Groff, who was “experienced” according to a family statement. The report that he was flying the crashed plane has not been publicly confirmed by the family or the authorities.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, NTSB official Todd Inman said the twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B was “compressed, buckled and embedded in the terrain” of a muddy agricultural field near Craryville, New York.

The crash happened at about midday as the family were headed to Columbia County Airport.

Mr Inman added that air traffic control attempted to contact the pilot several times but received no response or distress call.

The pilot had been flying under instrument flight rules, rather than visual flight rules, he said, adding that it was too soon to determine if reduced visibility from weather conditions were a factor.

Mr Inman said the plane had an upgraded cockpit with newer technology, certified to Federal Aviation Administration standards.

An investigation is under way and a probable cause of the crash will be determined in the NTSB’s final report in 12 to 24 months’ time.

This comes just days after six people, including a family of Spanish tourists, died in a helicopter crash in New York.

The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood has called a Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch that impersonated her using exaggerated prosthetic teeth “mean and unfunny”.

The British actress said the US comedy programme “punched down” on her and suggested the sketch was misogynistic.

In a series of Instagram posts, Wood wrote that she was happy to be made fun of “when it’s clever and in good spirits” but that there “must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way”.

Wood, 31, said she had received “apologies from SNL” after sharing her criticism. The BBC has contacted broadcaster NBC for a response.

The actress’s role in the third series of The White Lotus, which follows a group of guests at a resort, prompted significant media attention surrounding what she calls her “big gap teeth”.

The SNL sketch, which aired this week, imagined US President Donald Trump and his top team spending time at the fictional hotel.

Wood’s character Chelsea was portrayed by cast member Sarah Sherman using a pronounced accent and fake teeth.

At one point, in a reference to the actress’s teeth, she asks: “Fluoride? What’s that?”

Wood, who burst onto screens in Netflix’s Sex Education, said she was “not thin skinned” and understood that SNL was about “caricature”.

“But the whole joke was about fluoride,” she wrote on Sunday.

“I have big gap teeth not bad teeth.”

“The rest of the skit was punching up,” Wood added, “and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on”.

She said that she was not “hating on” Sarah Sherman, but “hating on the concept”.

Wood also shared a comment by an unnamed user describing the sketch as “sharp and funny” before taking “a screeching turn into 1970s misogyny”.

“This sums up my view,” the actress added.

She also criticised Sherman’s accent, writing: “I respect accuracy even if it’s mean.”

Wood, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, wrote that she had received “thousands of messages” agreeing with her since sharing her posts, and that she was glad she “said something”.

Speaking to GQ magazine last week, Wood said that the conversation surrounding her teeth made her “a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work”.

“It makes me really happy that it’s symbolising rebellion and freedom, but there’s a limit,” she said.

Wood added: “I don’t know if it was a man would we be talking about it this much? It’s still going on about a woman’s appearance.”

Following her posts, Wood’s younger sister Emily offered her support for the actress on her own Instagram story.

Sharing a picture of the pair together, Emily Wood said her sister was “out here personifying the word powerhouse”.

“The admiration I have for this woman is nuts. Beyond comprehension,” she continued, adding that she felt “deep animalistic protectiveness” over her.

“The greatest big sister. My best human on the planet. Her authenticity and originality is incomparable. My god we are really madly blessed to experience life on earth at the same time as her.”

A Liberal Democrat MP barred from entering Hong Kong has told the BBC she believes it was to “shut me up and to silence me”.

Wera Hobhouse flew to Hong Kong with her husband on Thursday to visit her son and newborn grandson. However she was detained at the airport, questioned and deported.

The MP for Bath, one of more than 40 parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) which is critical of Beijing’s record on human rights, said she was given no reason for being refused entry.

Downing Street said the trade minister, who is in Hong Kong to promote British exports, had relayed the government’s “deep concern” about the incident to senior Chinese and Hong Kong figures.

A government spokesperson said Douglas Alexander had “demanded an explanation” to understand why Hobhouse was refused entry, when speaking with senior Chinese and Hong Kong interlocutors, including Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration.

“Unjustified restrictions on the freedom of movement for UK citizens into Hong Kong only serves to further undermine Hong Kong’s international reputation and the important people-people connections between the UK and Hong Kong,” they said.

Speaking on the BBC’s Newscast show on Sunday, she said she wants “some answers”, and said she was not very “outspoken about China”.

Hobhouse told Newscast she and her husband had been looking forward to visiting their son, who has lived in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, since 2019.

While her husband “got processed quite quickly” and was allowed entry, she was taken aside for questioning, held for five hours and then put on a return flight.

Asked by presenter Laura Kuenssberg what the authorities said about why she was being detained, Hobhouse responded: “Nothing.”

She added: “They said not to worry at first, just a few questions to answer.”

In response to the suggestion it could be due to her involvement in Ipac, which scrutinises Beijing’s human rights record, Hobhouse said she was not very “outspoken about China”.

“I was only standing up for our values,” she said.

“It would be terrible if China uses this now to intimidate me, to stop me from speaking out for human rights and liberty and democracy.

“That is the last thing that should happen, but that is, of course probably the intention, to shut me up and to silence me.”

Hobhouse said she had experienced huge amount of solidarity from “very worried” MPs.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has promised to “urgently” raise the issue with authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing and “demand an explanation”.

He added it would be “unacceptable for an MP to be denied entry for simply expressing their views as a parliamentarian”.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has called for Lammy to summon the Chinese ambassador, adding the Chinese government cannot be allowed to “undermine our democracy by intimidating our parliamentarians.”

“I want some answers,” Hobhouse said, calling for Lammy to “reassure parliamentarians that this is not the way the Chinese communist parties can treat [them]”.

On Monday, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said “we’ve still had no answers from Beijing”.

He urged the government to reject China’s planning application for a new embassy in London. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner will decide whether to approve the plan, which has been opposed by the local council.

“China wants to take advantage of the UK’s openness while refusing entry to British MPs and placing bounties on the heads of democracy campaigners living in the UK,” Miller said.

It comes a week after two Labour MPs were denied entry to Israel while on a trip to visit the occupied West Bank.

“It is very chilling that authoritarian countries can treat us in this way,” said Hobhouse, adding the “diplomatic understanding” in which we allow politicians into each other’s countries seemed to be “collapsing”.

She has ruled out approaching the Chinese embassy for permission to enter Hong Kong, saying they will see their relatives elsewhere.

Asked about the timing of the incident in the week the UK government sought to take control of the Chinese-owned British Steel plant in Scunthorpe, Lincs, Hobhouse said she could only speculate.

She called for a “clear-eyed” approach to what China wants from Britain, saying “it’s not just fluffy, friendly relationships”.

“They want something from us. They use us and we must not be naïve about giving them access to too much, for example our critical national infrastructure.”

The Chinese Embassy has been approached for comment.

A Palestinian paramedic who has been missing since an Israeli attack that killed 15 other emergency workers in southern Gaza three weeks ago is being detained by Israeli authorities, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.

The ICRC confirmed in a statement that it had “received information” that Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medic Assad al-Nassasra was being held “in an Israeli place of detention”.

The PRCS said Mr Nassasra was “forcibly abducted” by Israeli troops following the attack and called for his immediate release.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not confirmed his detention. A spokesperson said it was aware of the claim about his whereabouts.

The bodies of eight PRCS medics, six Civil Defence first responders and a UN staff member were found buried in shallow graves on the outskirts of Rafah, a week after their convoy came under fire from Israeli troops there on 23 March.

One other PRCS medic survived and said he was released by Israeli forces after being detained for around 15 hours.

The PRCS has said the incident was a “full-fledged war crime”, accusing Israeli forces of “a series of deliberate attacks” on its staff and their ambulances as they answered a call to help casualties.

It has called for an independent international investigation into the incident and for those responsible to be held to account.

Last Monday, the IDF said a preliminary inquiry indicated troops “opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area, and that six of the individuals killed in the incident were identified as Hamas terrorists”, without giving evidence.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rejected the allegation, as did the other surviving paramedic.

The IDF initially said its troops fired on “suspicious vehicles” driving in darkness with their headlights and emergency lights off.

But it later said that account was “mistaken” after a video found on the mobile phone of medic Rifaat Radwan, who was in the same ambulance as Assad al-Nassasra, showed the convoy was using its emergency lights.

At the end of the video, the ambulances are seen pulled over on the roadside. The sound of gunfire can be then heard just as Radwan gets out of his ambulance. It continues for more than five minutes and Radwan is heard saying his last prayers, before the voices of Israeli soldiers are heard approaching.

Audio analysis by BBC Verify of the footage found Israeli troops fired more than 100 times during the attack, with some shots taken from as close as 12m (39ft) away.

In a statement released on Sunday, the PRCS said: “We have been informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that PRCS medic Assad al-Nassasra is being held by the Israeli occupation authorities.

“His fate had remained unknown since he was targeted along with other PRCS medics in Rafah.”

It added: “We call on the international community to pressure the occupation authorities to immediately release our colleague, medic Assad, who was forcibly abducted while carrying out his humanitarian duties.”

A spokeswoman for the PRCS told the New York Times Mr Nassasra had worked for the PRCS for 16 years, and was married with six children.

An ICRC spokeswoman said it had informed Mr Nassasra’s family and the PRCS after receiving information about his whereabouts.

It noted: “The ICRC has not been granted access to visit Assad al-Nassasra. The ICRC has not been able to visit any Palestinian detainees held in Israeli places of detention since 7 October 2023.”

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 were taken hostage.

More than 50,940 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

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From the end of April, the 500-year-old Royal Mail will be controlled by a Czech billionaire who co-owns a football club and is a major investor in a British supermarket – so, why would he want this ailing institution?

“A pair of scissors, one empty teapot and some hot water, please.” The slightly baffled staff at Claridge’s scrambled to comply with Daniel Kretinsky’s breakfast order as he sanitised and moisturised his hands.

The upscale hotel has been serving tea to the global elite for decades but Mr Kretinsky brought along his own packet of Chinese green tea, which he snipped open (hence the scissors) and poured into the empty pot.

He was tall, perfectly groomed, steely-eyed but unfalteringly polite and thoughtful. If you told anyone in the dining room he was a billionaire, they would have no problem believing it.

Known as the Czech Sphinx for his enigmatic style, Mr Kretinsky, who is 49, is worth £6bn according to the Sunday Times Rich List. He lives in plush mansions in Paris and London, was originally a lawyer and made his fortune in European energy markets.

Our meeting was at Claridge’s in June 2024 – I was trying to convince him to give me an interview about his audacious attempt to buy a British institution that was once seen as a national treasure: Royal Mail.

His profile as a buyer was one that unions and ministers typically would be wary of because of his historic connections with Russia – his companies own a gas pipeline that has transported Russian gas to Europe.

But six months on, his bid to buy Royal Mail’s parent company was cleared by the UK government after he agreed “legally binding” undertakings.

The government was awarded a so-called “golden share”, requiring it to be notified of any major changes to Royal Mail’s ownership, headquarters location and tax residency. The deal was also blessed by unions.

Earlier this month, the owner of Royal Mail said that the takeover could be completed by the end of April as the deal cleared the final regulatory hurdles standing in the way.

But step back and Royal Mail seems a strange target for a globally mobile oil and gas billionaire investor to set his sights on. It begs the question why would anyone, let alone a successful international entrepreneur, want to buy this faded relic?

Royal Mail was founded by Henry VIII more than 500 years ago and still carries the royal cipher on its vans. It is part of the fabric of British life and many people still have a fond relationship with their ‘postie’, who walks down their path bringing their letters and parcels to their door.

But in recent years Royal Mail’s crown has slipped. It is losing money and market share, has been fined for missing delivery targets and has made an enemy of its own workforce through a series of bitter strikes.

Royal Mail’s letter business is in steep decline too. It has gone from a peak of 20 billion letters sent in 2004 to under seven billion sent last year.

In December 2024, it was fined £10.5m by the regulator Ofcom for failing to meet delivery targets for first and second class mail.

While the boom in e-commerce has seen the volume of parcels rise, Royal Mail’s share of that more profitable business has been falling as new competitors like DPD, DHL, Amazon and Evri have eaten into its market share.

Royal Mail was split off from the Post Office in 2012 and privatised in 2013 at a value of £3.3bn. Its shares immediately rocketed by 38% on the first day of trading, leading to criticism – from the National Audit Office, among others – that it had been sold on the cheap.

At its peak in Covid-era May 2021, the company was worth more than £6bn but had slumped to just over £2bn when Mr Kretinsky launched his takeover bid last April.

He sealed the deal at £3.6bn – 63% higher than before he signalled his intent, but barely more than it was worth at privatisation over a decade ago.

“Royal Mail is a business that has historically found it difficult to grow revenues by more than costs,” says Alex Paterson, an analyst at Peel Hunt stockbrokers. “It has seen its parcels market share eroded by more dynamic competition that has been able to invest more in technology, and it has struggled with industrial relations to keep staff working towards a common goal.

“This is not a challenge to underestimate nor one that can be overcome quickly, but that requires considerable long-term investment in infrastructure, technology and staff.”

Part of the challenge, and one that puts Royal Mail at a disadvantage compared with its rivals, is that unlike them, Royal Mail has to meet a string of legal and regulatory obligations, says Hazel King, the editor of Parcel and Post Technology International.

Under what is called the universal service obligation (USO), Royal Mail is required by law to deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days a week to every address in the UK. So it cannot pick and choose which business it wants to do.

“Royal Mail must meet their universal service obligation while trying to compete with private firms who often cherry-pick the most profitable business,” says Ms King.

Mr Kretinsky says he has a plan. His success in the energy sector allowed him to buy a 27.5% stake in Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS). And his company – EP Group – intends to build a pan-European conglomerate built on three pillars: energy, retail and logistics.

He sees IDS as the cornerstone of the logistics pillar, with a plan to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Deutsche Post DHL, DPD and Amazon.

The USO has been under review by Ofcom, with Royal Mail hoping that the regulator will reduce the requirement to deliver second-class letters from six days a week to every other weekday. That single move could save Royal Mail £300m a year – putting it back on a break-even footing.

Mr Kretinsky told me during our interview that he would honour the USO “as long as I am alive”, but he is unsurprisingly very much in favour of changing its terms. He said he hopes that “rational minds prevail” when reforming a service that is unsustainable in its current form.

So far, the noises from Ofcom seem to be supportive. The regulator’s chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes told the BBC there were “real questions about what the service needs to be going into the future”.

Given letter numbers are falling, “we have to think about what is economical”, she said, adding Ofcom would be publishing plans for the regulation of Royal Mail “to make sure it is sustainable”.

While Royal Mail generally welcomed the proposed changes to the Universal Service Obligation, Royal Mail pushed back against proposed new delivery time and business customer requirements.

Royal Mail said last week that the level at which Ofcom is proposing to set the new delivery targets – 99.5% of First Class letters delivered within three days, and the same percentage of Second Class letters within five – is “over specified and will add significant cost to the delivery of the Universal Service”.

It also expressed concerns that proposals to add a new category of regulation to ensure timely delivery for business users like direct mail companies “goes against the wider government drive to reduce unnecessary regulation”.

But there are other factors that may have driven the sale. Some analysts have speculated that there is another jewel in the crown of IDS – and that Mr Kretinsky may really be after a different part of the business.

Along with Royal Mail, IDS also owns a European parcels business called GLS which it acquired in 1999 – long before Royal Mail was split off from the Post Office and privatised.

Last year GLS made a profit of £320m, compared to Royal Mail, which lost £348m as letter volumes continued to plunge and new competitors ate into its market share of the more profitable parcels business.

“GLS has been a profitable growth business, which has seen investment whereas Royal Mail has been a perpetual underperformer, as the board of parent company IDS has invested where it thinks it will see the best returns,” says Mr Paterson.

Mr Kretinsky rejects suggestions from some quarters that he wants to break up the group and has committed to keeping it together for at least five years. Even beyond that, he says the plan is to grow the company rather than shrink it, so a disposal of GLS would be “nonsensical”.

In fact, Mr Kretinsky says he hopes to bring the European parcel know-how at GLS to bear on Royal Mail’s operations.

What the unions are hoping, and Kretinsky is promising, is that Royal Mail will see greater investment and over time begin to look a bit more like GLS and its European counterparts such as Deutche Post DHL.

Given all the challenges Royal Mail faces, there’s an obvious question – why would a billionaire want to chance his arm on turning round something that others couldn’t, while up against powerful competitors?

Well, if you believe as Kretinsky does – and he is surely right – that getting parcels to people is a profitable and growing industry, then buying Royal Mail and GLS gives you a way to become a big European player in logistics quickly.

Add to that a powerful and historic brand, a database with every single UK address and a frontline workforce that most of its customers are fond of and pleased to see when they walk down the path – then, despite the challenges, it begins to make sense.

Mr Kretinsky is convinced future growth lies in out-of-home (OOH) delivery. The parcel lockers found in supermarket car parks and elsewhere, operated by the likes of Amazon, Evri and UPS, have grown quickly across Europe.

Earlier this month it was reported that Sainsbury’s would be the first supermarket to partner with Royal Mail and install parcel lockers at supermarkets. Some are already operating at several stores including ones in Clapham, Kidderminster and Chislehurst.

Royal Mail has also trialled a new postbox that can take small parcels. Customers procure a barcode from an app, then at the postbox they scan the barcode and drop the parcel into a drawer – this is all powered by solar panels on the box.

Emma Gilthorpe, Royal Mail chief executive, called it an “historic change” to give postboxes “a new lease of life”.

All of this boils down to the same thing: convenience. It means customers don’t have to wait at home for a delivery – the sender or parcel business emails or texts a code to unlock the locker. For the business it’s more efficient, allowing couriers to deliver lots of parcels to one place – meaning fewer miles on the road and less time.

“If they can grow the parcels business and claw back market share, there is every chance that they can add new jobs that could offset the reduction in jobs in the declining letters business,” says Mr Paterson.

“There is a significant long-term opportunity to run Royal Mail more successfully with regulatory changes to the USO and greater investment in technology and out-of-home deliveries.”

But Royal Mail still has a lot of catching up to do with its competitors. It currently has 1,500 lockers in the UK and aims to grow this figure to at least 20,000 over time. By contrast, Amazon already has 5,000 lockers across the UK and InPost has 7,500 across the UK.

That Mr Kretinsky has pulled off the takeover is no easy feat. Royal Mail is, after all, considered vital national infrastructure and as such the deal required review under national security laws.

Then there is the fact that his companies own a gas pipeline that has transported Russian gas to Europe – paid for and approved by EU member states. The small amount that was transported was reduced to zero at the end of 2024 when Ukraine refused to renew permission for any gas to flow across its borders.

Speaking in front of MPs in November, UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds referred to Mr Kretinsky as a “legitimate business figure” whose alleged links to Russia had already been reviewed and dismissed when he became the biggest shareholder in the company two years ago.

Getting the unions on board seemed even more of a challenge and the Communication Workers Union was wary of Mr Kretinsky. “The CWU believes Royal Mail should be in public hands,” Dave Ward, the CWU’s general secretary, told the BBC in June. “We know there are legitimate concerns about Royal Mail Group being owned by a foreign private equity investor.”

But during negotiations, union representatives secured a series of time-limited commitments from him, including guarantees that he will protect Royal Mail’s pension surplus, that there will be no compulsory redundancies for two years, no sell-off or break-up of any operational part of the existing company and no outsourcing of grades represented by the CWU.

Mr Kretinsky also agreed to restrictions on moving dividends out of Royal Mail Group and to respect agreements with and recognition of the CWU. He said he would keep the brand name and Royal Mail’s headquarters and tax residency in the UK for the next five years.

Union bosses told me that a life under Mr Kretinsky “couldn’t be any worse than what we have had for the last 10 years”.

So, as Mr Kretinsky looks certain to pull off the sale, what will customers notice?

The frequency of second-class deliveries may be reduced after the Ofcom review. We will see new Royal Mail lockers appearing in our neighbourhoods. And the price of first-class mail may go up: second-class stamps are regulated by Ofcom, while first-class ones are not.

The monarch’s head will still be on those stamps, but there is a new king of our mail system. And his name is Daniel Kretinsky.

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Fifty-seven years into his career, Neil Young has harvested millions of fans – but none of those followers is more devoted than his pet dogs.

“They love the music,” says the musician’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah.

“They go to every sound check and lay under the piano on the stage. Whenever Neil is playing, the dogs just migrate right to him and lay at his feet.”

It’s not just the dogs. During the 2020 lockdown, Young performed a livestream concert from the barn at his Colorado farm, surrounded by alpacas, ducks, chickens and even a horse.

“And every single one of the animals came over and laid down and watched him,” Hannah says. “It was so cool. I think they’re really drawn to the music.”

Hannah, known for appearing in films such as Blade Runner, Splash and Kill Bill, directed that livestream – and she’s stayed behind the camera to make a documentary about Young’s 2023 solo tour.

Filmed largely on her phone (“and it’s not even the most recent model”), it captures the star’s return to the stage, aged 75, after a four-year break, with his dogs in tow.

“He was very nervous about it,” she recalls.

“There’s always a point where he’s like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this… We’ll see’.”

“It’s funny, because he didn’t do any rehearsals before the tour. He likes things to be real and spontaneous. But as soon as he walked out on stage, he was fine.”

Playing without a band, the shows were loose and unpredictable. The setlist changed every night, and even recurring songs like Heart of Gold and Like A Hurricane would be played in different settings, on different instruments, without warning.

It’s a set-up that caused his director a few headaches.

“It was really hit or miss because every day he would go out to do sound check, and he would choose one of his three pianos and play something like Expecting To Fly,” says Hannah.

“So we’d set a camera on that piano but, when it came to show time, he wouldn’t go near it. There were quite a few shows where we literally got no footage.

“I was frustrated in the editing room, trust me.”

Despite those challenges, Hannah captured spellbinding, stripped back versions of rarely-played tracks like Vampire Blues, If You Got Love and Prime Of Life.

More revealing, however, was the footage she shot off the stage.

Large stretches of the film take place on a silver eagle tour bus, where Young rides shotgun beside his longtime driver, Jerry Don Burden.

Together, they shoot the breeze like Vladimir and Estragon – but rather than waiting for Godot, they’re waiting for the next arena car park.

The conversations are wonderfully mundane. There is ample discussion of scenery, snacks and setlists (“people think they want to hear the hits, because that’s all they’ve ever heard”, Young observes.)

It’s punctuated by stretches of companionable silence, where Young drums on his knees, or interacts with his son Ben, who was born with severe cerebral palsy.

Later, the musician emerges from the bathroom, stares into the camera and deadpans: “Now there’s no risk of having to pee in the middle of the show”.

Capturing that day-to-day normality was Hannah’s motivation from the start.

“So many performers put on a persona, and Neil just does not have that quality at all. Whatever he’s talking about with his bus driver, he continues talking about with the audience.

“People think of him as this intimidating, inscrutable person who’ll make an album the record company refuses to put out,” she continues, referring to the time Geffen Records sued Young for submitting two albums it considered “musically uncharacteristic”.

Hannah says people who judge him on that basis have got it wrong.

“He just has an absolute, uncanny commitment to his creative muse,” she argues.

“He’s not driven by financial interests, he’s not driven by self-aggrandisement, he’s not driven by anything other than that creative force, and it’s pretty incredible to witness.

“Having spent so much time with him, my perception is that he’s completely guileless. He has a lot of warmth and innocence, so I wanted to show that.”

Young recently made headlines for pulling out of the Glastonbury Festival, saying the BBC had asked him “to do a lot of things” he was “not interested in”.

He later backtracked, saying he’d received bad information, and will top the bill on the Pyramid Stage this June (Hannah jokes he’ll serenade Glastonbury’s livestock, in the style of his lockdown sessions).

But his European tour isn’t without peril. Writing on his website, Young has shared concerns that he could be barred from the US upon his return, following a rise in the number of people being detained and deported upon entering the country.

“If I talk about Donald J Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminium blanket,” he wrote.

Young, who holds dual Canadian-American citizenship, has long been an outspoken critic of President Trump, calling him “a disgrace to my country” and suing him for using the song Rockin’ In the Free World on the campaign trail.

Hannah reveals her husband was harassed during the first Trump administration, as he went through the process of becoming a US citizen.

“They tried to every trick in the book to mess him up, and made him keep coming back to be re-interviewed and re-interviewed. It’s ridiculous [because] he’s been living in America and paying taxes here since he was in his 20s.”

Despite that, she doesn’t think Young will be prevented from entering the country.

“They’ve been detaining people who have green cards or visas – which is hideous and horrifying – but they have not, so far, been refusing to let American citizens back in the country, so I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Hannah will accompany Young to Glastonbury, and says she’ll film his performance from the side of the stage (perhaps the BBC can use that footage, if all else fails).

The trip happens to fall on the 25th anniversary of her West End debut, in The Seven Year Itch. So, has she any desire to tread the boards again?

“Oh God, no,” she exclaims. “I really loving directing, because I don’t have to be the focus of things, and that’s a much more comfortable position for me.

“I mean, never say never, but that’s how I feel right now.”

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.

For more than a century, a member of the Lawton family has worked in Canada’s car industry.

Kathryn Lawton and husband Chad both work for the carmaker in Windsor, the heart of Canada’s automobile sector, just a bridge away from the US state of Michigan.

And so do their children, who are “fifth generation Ford workers”, she says.

So when US President Donald Trump suggested that Canada stole the American auto industry, Chad Lawton calls it “ludicrous”.

“These were never American jobs. These were Canadian jobs,” he told the BBC, on the day that Trump’s auto tariffs came into force.

“They’ve always been Canadian jobs, and they’re going to stay Canadian jobs because we didn’t take them from them. We created them, we sustained them.”

Kathryn agreed: “This is Ford City right here.”

Tucked away in southwestern Ontario, Windsor finds itself on one of the front lines of Trump’s trade war.

It faces a 25% tariff on foreign-made vehicles – reduced by half for cars made with 50% US-made components or more – as well as blanket 25% US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

US tariffs on auto parts are expected next month.

The region of just over 422,000 grew alongside Detroit – nicknamed Motor City for its role as an auto manufacturing hub – turning the region into an important centre for North American automobile production.

Ford first established its presence in Windsor in 1896, while the first Stellantis (then Chrysler) factory arrived in 1928, with dozens of factories and suppliers springing up around the city and surrounding region in the ensuing decades.

Much of the manufacturing has since left the city, though it still boasts two Ford engine factories and a Stellantis assembly plant, which employ thousands.

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Workers on both sides of the border have built iconic vehicles over the decades, most recently models like the Dodge Charger and the Ford F-150.

Some 24,000 people work directly in the automotive industry in Windsor-Essex, while an estimated 120,000 other jobs depend on the sector.

A drive through the neighbourhood around the Ford factory feels like a trip back in time, showcasing classic bungalows from the last century. Many have seen better days, though each boasts a verandah and small front yard. Large murals celebrating the city’s automotive history punctuate the scenery.

Windsor has weathered the challenges of the North American auto sector alongside Michigan, as the industry shares a deeply integrated supply chain.

Chad Lawton points to the 2008 financial crisis, when the Big Three American automakers – Ford, General Motors and Chrysler – faced staggering losses, and GM and Chrysler received billions in US bailouts to avoid bankruptcy.

That period was “bad, not just for next door, but also we went through a very, very rough time”, he said.

“This feels the same. The level of anxiety with the workers, the level of fear, the idea and the belief that this is just something that is so completely out of your control that you can’t wrap your head around what to do.”

John D’Agnolo, president of Unifor Local 200, which represents Ford workers in Windsor, said the situation “has created havoc”.

“I think we’re going to see a recession,” he said.

He continued: “People aren’t going to buy anything. I gotta tell my members not to buy anything. They gotta pay rent and food for their kids.”

What makes the tariffs such a hard pill to swallow for auto workers the BBC spoke to is that this situation has been brought about by the US, Canada’s closest economic and security ally.

“It seems like a stab in the back,” said Austin Welzel, 27, an assembly line worker at Stellantis. “It’s almost like our neighbors, our friends – they don’t want to work with us.”

Christina Grossi, who has worked at Ford for 25 years, said the prospect of losing her job, and what it will mean to her family, is “terrifying”.

But Ms Grossi also fears losing the meaning she gets from her work.

“You’ve been doing this job for so long and you really take pride in it, you’re proud of what you’re putting out to the public,” she said. “And now someone’s taking away the opportunity to do that.”

Laura Dawson, the executive director of Future Borders Coalition, said the tariffs could cause major upheavals throughout the sector due to its deep integration, with ripple effects felt across the continent if exports from Canada stop for more than a week.

She said the US tariffs structure is extremely complicated.

Cars crossing the border will need every component to be assessed for “qualifying content” – where it originates, the cost of labour to produce it, and – if it contains steel or aluminium – where that metal came from.

“Every part of an automobile is literally under a microscope for where it was produced and how,” she said.

The US tariffs have been a major factor in Canada’s general election, which is on 28 April, with Canada’s political parties rolling out suites of plans on the campaign trail to help the auto sector.

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Liberal leader Mark Carney, the current prime minister, has pledged to create a C$2bn ($1.4bn; £1.1bn) fund to boost competitiveness and protect manufacturing jobs, alongside plans to build an “all-in-Canada” auto component parts network.

In his role as prime minister, he imposed last week a reported C$35bn in counter auto tariffs, in addition to previously announced reciprocal measures on the US.

Carney’s main rival, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, has vowed to remove sales tax on Canadian vehicles, and to create a fund for companies affected by the tariffs to help keep their employees.

Jagmeet Singh, whose left-wing New Democratic Party is fighting for a competitive seat in Windsor, has pledged to use every dollar from counter tariffs to help workers, and to stop manufacturers from moving equipment to the US.

Still, Windsor’s economy is dependent on automakers, and heavily relies on trade with the United States. If it falters, everything – from restaurants to charities – will feel the effects.

The Penalty Box is a sports bar just down the road from the Stellantis plant, and popular with the workers there.

“We’re one of the busiest restaurants. I don’t want to say it, but if you ask around about the Penalty Box, they’ll tell you,” its 70-year-old owner, Van Niforos, said. “We do close to 1,000 meals a day.”

With a white apron and a wide smile, he relates its 33-year history. But his demeanour darkens when asked about threats the auto sector faces.

“It’s a devastating situation. I don’t want to think about it,” he said.

“We employ 60 people and we’re open six days a week. [If something happens to the Stellantis plant], will we be able to keep 60 people working? Absolutely no.”

Chad Lawton, sitting in his office at the local union, takes a deep breath as he contemplates how precarious his life feels.

He doesn’t think Carney’s counter tariffs help the current situation, arguing they “just makes a really bad situation a little bit worse”.

He hopes there is room for trade negotiation, but said he will be the first to say that Canada “cannot just concede and roll over”.

“I’ve worked for a Ford Motor Company for almost 31 years, and I have never seen anything close to this,” he said.

“That includes Covid, because at least with Covid, we knew what we were dealing with. And there was some certainty there.”

“This is all over the map.”

Sitting centre-right President Daniel Noboa has won the run-off round of Ecuador’s presidential election, meaning he will now serve a full four-year term.

Noboa, who described his victory as “historic”, has only been in power since November 2023 after winning a snap election.

He has defined his presidency, so far, through a tough military crackdown on violent criminal gangs in the country, which has become the most violent in the region.

His left-wing challenger, Luisa González, said she did not accept the result and claimed fraud, without providing evidence.

According to figures from Ecuador’s national electoral council, this is a decisive win for Noboa – with about 56% of the vote – after polls before the election suggested it was neck and neck.

“A victory of more than ten points and over 1 million votes, leaving no doubt as to who the winner is,” he said after the result was announced.

“This has been achieved through the perseverance, the struggle, and the hard work of every member of this team,” he added.

Noboa’s win means he has a mandate to continue his self-described “war” on criminal drug gangs, which has included militarising Ecuador’s streets and prisons, and constructing new maximum-security prisons.

He recently told the BBC he wanted foreign armies from places such as the US and Europe to join his fight against gangs in the country.

He is hoping to change the constitution to allow foreign military bases in the country again, which were banned under the presidency of Rafael Correa – the mentor of González.

Homicides have fallen slightly during Noboa’s tenure but violence remains very high. This January, more than 780 people were murdered in the country, making it one of Ecuador’s bloodiest months on record.

Polls before the election suggested that security was the top concern for voters.

Noboa’s challenge now is to prove to the country that his plan is working if he wants to avoid unrest and discontent.

This means there will be pressure on him to show that violent crime is going down, as well as unemployment.

Noboa’s ratings fell last year, in particular after widespread drought caused extreme power cuts across the country.

He has proposed investing more money in renewable energy to diversify the country’s energy supply, the majority of which currently comes from hydropower.

He has also signalled a desire to boost relations with the US and President Donald Trump. In February, he announced 27% tariffs on Mexican imports and also repealed his presidential decree that had granted amnesty to undocumented Venezuelan migrants in the country.

His campaign was notable for its focus on young people – he is 37 – with a strong emphasis on job creation and slick social media videos. He also pledged to invest in infrastructure in the country and tackle corruption.

After her defeat, González accused the electoral authorities of trampling on democracy, and demanded a recount. She would need to provide evidence of her claims for this to happen.

This will leave Ecuador deeply polarised, which will prove another challenge for Noboa if he wants to avoid unrest and division.

Many González supporters are nostalgic for what they perceive as a “better time” under Correa’s presidency (2007-17), when oil revenues boosted the economy and poverty was reduced.

He is a deeply divisive figure, though.

His critics in the country decry his rule as authoritarian, and he has since been convicted of corruption and lives in exile. González’s association with him remains controversial.

South Africa has appointed a special envoy to the US in an effort to ease tensions between the two countries, which have worsened since Donald Trump’s return as president.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Mcebisi Jonas’s selection, adding that he would be “entrusted with [advancing] South Africa’s diplomatic, trade and bilateral priorities”.

Jonas, a former deputy finance minister, made headlines when he made corruption allegations against a wealthy family linked to former President Jacob Zuma.

The US last month expelled South Africa’s ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, over remarks he had made about the Trump administration.

Ramaphosa’s office said Jonas would be “serving as the official representative” of the president and South Africa.

“He will lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships and engage with US government officials and private-sector leaders to promote our nation’s interests.”

Jonas has previously served as one of South Africa’s four investment envoys, appointed in 2018 to help encourage foreign companies to put their money into the country.

He first came into the spotlight during his tenure as deputy finance minister when he accused the wealthy Gupta family, which had close ties to Zuma, of offering him a bribe of 600 million rand ($31.7m; £24.14m) to become finance minister.

This was one of the most shocking of a series of allegations of corruption against Zuma and the Guptas.

Jonas, who declined the offer and would later become vocal about his resistance, said this offer came just before his then boss, Nhlanhla Nene, was sacked by Zuma.

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Had he accepted, Jonas at the time said that he would have been expected to remove key Treasury officials from their posts and use his position to advance the Gupta family’s “business ambitions” – an example of what has become known in South Africa as “state capture”.

He later said he had been told he would be killed if he ever spoke about the meeting. The Gupta family has denied the allegations, while Zuma has always denied all accusations of corruption made against him.

Nene was eventually replaced by then little-known David van Rooyen, leading to a run on the currency and national protests, before a new finance minister was appointed just days later.

Jonas currently serves as an independent non-executive chairman of the multinational telecommunications company, the MTN Group, which Ramaphosa said he will continue with alongside his appointment as special envoy.

Ramaphosa earlier this year announced he would be dispatching envoys to several countries, including the US, to explain the country’s position on key issues, some of which have drawn the Trump administration’s ire.

Relations between the US and South Africa, characterised by ups and downs over the years, hit rock bottom earlier this year, with Trump cutting off aid to the country, citing the new Expropriation Law, which allows the government to confiscate land without compensation in certain circumstances.

Trump, in a post over the weekend, reiterated his intention to boycott the upcoming G20 2025 Summit taking place in South Africa later this year, citing the controversial land policy as the main reason.

Trump has also condemned South Africa for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has denied.

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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.

Buying or renting a home has become unaffordable for the average Australian, driven by a perfect storm of astronomical house prices, relentless rental increases and a lack of social housing.

With less than a month until the federal election, housing remains among the top issues for voters, and the country’s two major parties – the Labor Party and the Liberal-National Coalition – have both pledged to tackle the crisis in a range of ways.

Australians are already struggling under cost-of-living pressures and bracing for the effects of Donald Trump’s global tariff war. And it remains to be seen whether either party will sway voters with their promise of restoring the Australian dream.

Simply put, Australia has not been building enough homes to meet the demands of its rapidly growing population, creating a scarcity that makes any available home more expensive to buy or rent.

Compounding the issue are Australia’s restrictive planning laws, which prevent homes being built where most people want to live, such as in major cities.

Red tape means that popular metropolitan areas like Melbourne and Sydney are far less dense than comparably sized cities around the world.

The steady decline of public housing and ballooning waitlists have made matters worse, tipping people into homelessness or overcrowded living conditions.

Climate change has also made many areas increasingly unliveable, with natural disasters such as bushfires and severe storms destroying large swathes of properties.

Meanwhile, decades of government policies have commercialised property ownership. So the ideal of owning a home, once seen as a right in Australia, has turned into an investment opportunity.

In short: it depends where you live.

Sydney is currently the second least affordable city in the world to buy a property, according to a 2023 Demographia International Housing Affordability survey.

The latest data from property analytics company CoreLogic shows the average Sydney home costs almost A$1.2m (£570,294, $742,026).

Across the nation’s capital cities, the combined average house price sits at just over A$900,000.

House prices in Australia overall have also jumped 39.1% in the last five years – and wages have failed to keep up.

It now takes the average prospective homeowner around 10 years to save the 20% deposit usually required to buy an average home, according to a 2024 State of the Housing System report.

The rental market has provided little relief, with rents increasing by 36.1% nationally since the onset of Covid – an equivalent rise of A$171 per week.

Sydney topped the charts with a median weekly rent of A$773, according to CoreLogic’s latest rental review. Perth came in second with average rents at A$695 per week, followed by Canberra at A$667 per week.

Immigration and foreign property purchases are often cited as causes for Australia’s housing crisis. But experts say that they are not significant contributors statistically.

Many people who move to Australia are temporary migrants, such as international students who live in dedicated student accommodation rather than entering the housing market, according to Michael Fotheringham, head of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

“The impact [of migrants] on the housing market is not as profound as some commentators have suggested,” Mr Fotheringham tells the BBC.

The federal government also recently sought to crack down on foreign homebuyers, by tripling fees.

However that is “a very small issue” with not much meaningful impact on housing strain, says Brendan Coates, from the Grattan Institute public policy think tank.

The latest data released by the Australian Taxation Office supports this, with homes purchased by foreign buyers in 2022-23 representing less than one percent of all sales.

“It’s already very difficult for foreigners to purchase homes under existing foreign investment rules. They are subject to a wide range of taxes, particularly in some states,” Mr Coates explains.

Labor and the Coalition have both promised to invest in building more homes – with Labor offering 1.2 million by 2029, and the Coalition vowing to unlock 500,000.

In their respective campaign launches, both parties promote housing initiatives aimed at first homebuyers.

Labor has pledged to expand an existing shared-equity scheme to allow all first homebuyers to purchase homes with a 5% deposit, an ease on the 20% deposit typically needed.

Albanese also promised 100,000 of the new homes his government creates will only be available to first homebuyers, in addition to building more social housing and introducing subsidies to help low-to-moderate-income earners.

The Coalition, if elected, will allow first-time buyers to use up to $50,000 from their superannuation retirement savings to fund a house purchase. They will make mortgage payments partially tax free for up to five years for all first homebuyers with newly built properties.

Central to the Coalition’s housing affordability policy is cutting migration, reducing the number of international students and implementing a two-year ban on foreign investment in existing properties.

Additionally, they have promised a A$5bn boost to infrastructure to support local councils by paying for water, power and sewerage at housing development sites.

The Greens’ policies, meanwhile, have focused on alleviating pressures on renters by calling for national rent freezes and caps.

They have also said that in the event of a minority government, they will be pushing to reform tax incentives for investors.

In short, experts say that while both Labor and the Coalition’s policies are steps in the right direction, neither are sufficient to solve the housing problem.

“A combination of both parties’ platforms would be better than what we’re seeing from either side individually,” Mr Coates tells the BBC.

A 2025 State of the Land report by the Urban Development Institute of Australia says the federal government will fail to meet its target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029 – falling short by almost 400,000.

The Coalition’s focus on reducing immigration, meanwhile, will only make housing marginally cheaper while making Australia poorer in the long-term, according to Mr Coates.

The cuts to migration will mean fewer skilled migrants, he explains, and the loss of revenue from those migrants will result in higher taxes for Australians.

Decades of underinvestment in social housing also means demand in that area is massively outstripping supply – which at 4% of housing stock is significantly lower than many other countries, according to Mr Fotheringham.

There’s also concern about grants for first homebuyers, which drive prices up further.

While commending the fact that these issues are finally being treated seriously, Mr Fotheringham believes it will take years to drag Australia out of a housing crisis that has been building for decades.

“We’ve been sleepwalking into this as a nation for quite some time,” he says. “[Now] the nation is paying attention, the political class is paying attention.”

Donald Trump says Chinese-made smartphones and other electronics will not be exempt from tariffs – adding they are simply moving into a different levy “bucket”.

European stock markets bounced up on Monday morning after Friday’s official announcement that some of these products would escape levies of up to 145%.

China has called on Donald Trump to “completely cancel” his tariffs regime, and “return to the right path of mutual respect”.

However US officials said on Sunday that products would be subject to a “semiconductor tariff” instead, with Trump expected to reveal more details later.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the new levy would be in addition to a host of global tariffs the US imposed earlier this month, then paused for 90 days.

“We need our medicines and we need semiconductors and our electronics to be built in America,” he added.

On Saturday, a US customs notice revealed smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices would be excluded from the 125% tariff on goods entering the country from China.

But Trump chimed in on social media, saying there was no exemption for these products and called such reports about this notice false. Instead, he said that “they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket'”.

Trump added: “We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations.”

He said he would provide an update on Monday about semiconductor duties.

Everyday devices such as smartphones and laptops rely on semiconductors, which are small and powerful pieces of tech that form the basic building blocks of modern computation.

• Trump’s iPhone olive branch is a significant trade war retreat
• Trump’s changing tariffs leave shoppers feeling paralysed

On Monday, Sony announced that it was increasing the price of its flagship games console, the PlayStation 5, by about 10% in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, citing a “challenging economic environment”, inflation and fluctuating exchange rates. It did not announce price rises in the United States.

The Chinese commerce ministry had called Trump’s exemptions a “small step” by the US, and said that Beijing was “evaluating the impact” of the move.

But the suggestion by Trump administration officials of plans for future levies may dampen hopes of a thaw in the two rivals’ protectionist posture.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was asked on Sunday whether there were any plans for Trump to speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

“Right now we don’t have any plans on that,” he said during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Trump imposed a tariff amounting to 54% on imports of products from China at the beginning of April, before escalating to the current 145% rate.

In its own tit-for-tat tariffs, China imposed levies of 34% on US goods, before increasing it to 84% and then 125%, which took effect on Saturday.

In announcing its latest tariffs, China’s commerce ministry said last week that it would “fight to the end” if the US “insists on provoking a tariff war or trade war”.

Late on Saturday, while travelling to Miami, Florida, Trump said he would give more details of the exemptions at the start of next week.

• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• US coffee shops worried about bitter price hike after tariffs

The White House has argued that it is using tariffs as a negotiating tactic to extract more favourable trade terms from other countries.

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

However, his interventions have seen massive fluctuations in the stock market and raised fears of a decrease in global trade that could have a knock-on effect on jobs and individual economies.

A private plane carrying six people crashed in an open field in upstate New York on Saturday, killing all on board, authorities say.

Among those on board were celebrated former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) football player Karenna Groff, her parents and her brother, according to a family statement.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the family had been travelling for a holiday celebration when the crash happened.

A video of the final seconds of the flight obtained by officials showed the aircraft intact before it crashed into the ground at a high rate of descent, the NTSB said.

A joint family statement identified the victims as Karenna Groff, her parents Dr Michael Groff and Dr Joy Saini, her brother Jared Groff and his partner Alexia Couyutas Duarte, and Karenna’s partner James Santoro.

“They were a wonderful family,” James’s father, John Santoro, told the Associated Press.

“The world lost a lot of very good people who were going to do a lot of good for the world if they had the opportunity. We’re all personally devastated.”

Karenna, a former athlete, was named Woman of the Year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2022, her senior year.

She had graduated from MIT, where she met James, and was enrolled in medical school at the New York University (NYU), the family said.

Her parents were both prominent doctors, while her brother, Jared, worked as a paralegal and his partner, Alexia, was about to join Harvard Law School.

“Karenna demonstrated exceptional skill and unwavering passion towards the care of patients and the mission of our institution. We will remember her for her warmth, her grace, her kindness, her outstanding accomplishments, and the pure joy she brought to our community,” an NYU spokesperson said.

A New York Times article identified the plane’s pilot as Karenna’s father, Dr Groff, who was “experienced” according to a family statement. The report that he was flying the crashed plane has not been publicly confirmed by the family or the authorities.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, NTSB official Todd Inman said the twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B was “compressed, buckled and embedded in the terrain” of a muddy agricultural field near Craryville, New York.

The crash happened at about midday as the family were headed to Columbia County Airport.

Mr Inman added that air traffic control attempted to contact the pilot several times but received no response or distress call.

The pilot had been flying under instrument flight rules, rather than visual flight rules, he said, adding that it was too soon to determine if reduced visibility from weather conditions were a factor.

Mr Inman said the plane had an upgraded cockpit with newer technology, certified to Federal Aviation Administration standards.

An investigation is under way and a probable cause of the crash will be determined in the NTSB’s final report in 12 to 24 months’ time.

This comes just days after six people, including a family of Spanish tourists, died in a helicopter crash in New York.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Donald Trump to visit his country before any deal is struck with Russia to end the war.

“Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” Zelensky said in an interview for CBS’s 60 Minutes programme.

The interview was recorded before a Russian missile hit the city of Sumy on Sunday, killing 35 people and injuring 117 others.

Without providing evidence, Russia said it fired two Iskander missiles at a meeting of Ukrainian soldiers, killing 60 of them. Trump said he had been told it was a mistake, without specifying who told him.

At the scene in Sumy, the conference centre Russia claimed was used for the meeting is smashed, and a crater marks the spot where a missile hit. The roof is no more.

Kyiv has not confirmed the gathering of military officers – however, a regional mayor in Sumy has demanded the resignation of local security officials if indeed they allowed such a meeting to happen.

Any gathering of soldiers is a prime target for Russia. In previous attacks and indeed throughout the invasion of Ukraine, civilians have been seen as acceptable collateral damage by the Russian military.

The attack comes as the US, Ukraine’s strongest military ally, has been pursuing an end to the war – now in its fourth year – through negotiation under Trump.

Asked about the attack, the US president said it was “terrible” and that he had been “told they made a mistake”, but did not elaborate.

Earlier, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired Lt-Gen Keith Kellogg, said the attack had crossed “any line of decency”.

However, it remains to be seen if Trump will accept Zelensky’s invitation.

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, is the only senior member of Trump’s team to visit Kyiv, and that was to demand Zelensky sign a contract heavily weighted in Washington’s favour to trade Ukraine’s mineral wealth for continued military aid. Zelensky refused.

The Ukrainian president has highlighted Russia’s continued attacks on civilians while Trump attempts to improve relations with Moscow in search of a ceasefire.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff has already held three meetings with Vladimir Putin, and Kyiv is adamant Moscow will exploit this as it continues to erode Ukraine’s territory.

European leaders condemned the Sumy attack. Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, told the country’s public broadcaster ARD the attack constituted a “serious war crime”.

“It was a perfidious act.. and it is a serious war crime, deliberate and intended,” the conservative politician said.

Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, said the attack showed “just what Russia’s supposed readiness for peace [was] worth”.

French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of “blatant disregard of human lives, international law, and the diplomatic efforts of President Trump”.

“Strong measures are needed to impose a ceasefire on Russia,” he said. “France is working tirelessly toward this goal, alongside its partners.”

Describing the attack as “barbaric”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added: “Russia was and remains the aggressor, in blatant violation of international law.

“Strong measures are urgently needed to enforce a ceasefire. Europe will continue to reach out to partners and maintain strong pressure on Russia until the bloodshed ends and a just and lasting peace is achieved, on Ukraine’s terms and conditions.”

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also gave a view, saying he was “appalled at Russia’s horrific attacks on civilians in Sumy”.

A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed and shocked” to learn of the missile attack.

“Attacks against civilians and civilian objects are prohibited under international humanitarian law, and that any such attacks, wherever they occur, must end immediately”, he added.

Guterres stressed the UN’s support for “meaningful efforts towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace that fully upholds Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”.

Sunday’s double missile strike was the deadliest attack on civilians in Ukraine this year.

Another Russian missile attack, earlier this month on 4 April, killed 20 people and injured 61 in the city of Kryvyi Rih.

On that occasion, Russia’s defence ministry said it had targeted a meeting of “unit commanders and Western instructors” in a restaurant. No evidence was provided.

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people – the vast majority of them soldiers – have been killed or injured on all sides since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

The UN estimates that nearly seven million Ukrainians are currently living as refugees.

The conflict goes back more than a decade, to 2014, when Ukraine’s pro-Russian president was overthrown. Russia then annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and backed insurgents in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.

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

The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood has called a Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch that impersonated her using exaggerated prosthetic teeth “mean and unfunny”.

The British actress said the US comedy programme “punched down” on her and suggested the sketch was misogynistic.

In a series of Instagram posts, Wood wrote that she was happy to be made fun of “when it’s clever and in good spirits” but that there “must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way”.

Wood, 31, said she had received “apologies from SNL” after sharing her criticism. The BBC has contacted broadcaster NBC for a response.

The actress’s role in the third series of The White Lotus, which follows a group of guests at a resort, prompted significant media attention surrounding what she calls her “big gap teeth”.

The SNL sketch, which aired this week, imagined US President Donald Trump and his top team spending time at the fictional hotel.

Wood’s character Chelsea was portrayed by cast member Sarah Sherman using a pronounced accent and fake teeth.

At one point, in a reference to the actress’s teeth, she asks: “Fluoride? What’s that?”

Wood, who burst onto screens in Netflix’s Sex Education, said she was “not thin skinned” and understood that SNL was about “caricature”.

“But the whole joke was about fluoride,” she wrote on Sunday.

“I have big gap teeth not bad teeth.”

“The rest of the skit was punching up,” Wood added, “and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on”.

She said that she was not “hating on” Sarah Sherman, but “hating on the concept”.

Wood also shared a comment by an unnamed user describing the sketch as “sharp and funny” before taking “a screeching turn into 1970s misogyny”.

“This sums up my view,” the actress added.

She also criticised Sherman’s accent, writing: “I respect accuracy even if it’s mean.”

Wood, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, wrote that she had received “thousands of messages” agreeing with her since sharing her posts, and that she was glad she “said something”.

Speaking to GQ magazine last week, Wood said that the conversation surrounding her teeth made her “a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work”.

“It makes me really happy that it’s symbolising rebellion and freedom, but there’s a limit,” she said.

Wood added: “I don’t know if it was a man would we be talking about it this much? It’s still going on about a woman’s appearance.”

Following her posts, Wood’s younger sister Emily offered her support for the actress on her own Instagram story.

Sharing a picture of the pair together, Emily Wood said her sister was “out here personifying the word powerhouse”.

“The admiration I have for this woman is nuts. Beyond comprehension,” she continued, adding that she felt “deep animalistic protectiveness” over her.

“The greatest big sister. My best human on the planet. Her authenticity and originality is incomparable. My god we are really madly blessed to experience life on earth at the same time as her.”

Indian businessman Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following India’s request for his extradition.

Mr Choksi, who left India in 2018, was arrested on Saturday, his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told the BBC on Monday.

The diamond merchant is wanted by India over allegations of involvement in a case of defrauding one of the country’s largest banks of nearly $1.8bn (£1.3bn).

Mr Choksi has not commented publicly on the case, but his lawyer said they would appeal against his detention and also oppose his extradition to India.

“These are the obvious grounds [on which we will argue the case], that he is not a flight risk and secondly, that he is extremely sick. He is undergoing cancer treatment,” Mr Agarwal said.

He added that they would “contest the extradition on grounds that there isn’t enough evidence against him and the extradition request is politically motivated and the trial in India may not be fair”.

The BBC has reached out to India’s foreign ministry and financial crimes agency – the Enforcement Directorate (ED) – for comment.

According to a Times of India report, Mr Choksi was arrested on the basis of two non-bailable warrants issued by an Indian court in 2018 and 2021 – although it’s not clear why the action came now.

Mr Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are wanted by Indian authorities in connection with a $1.8bn fraud case at Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Mr Modi, who’s also been living abroad since 2018, is lodged in a prison in London and is awaiting extradition to India.

• Indian bank hit by $1.8bn fraud case
• Nirav Modi: Who is India’s scandal-linked billionaire?

Both were high-profile diamond traders. Mr Modi’s jewellery was worn by several Hollywood celebrities such as Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet. One of the biggest Bollywood stars, Priyanka Chopra, was his company’s brand ambassador.

Mr Choksi, meanwhile, was the owner of Gitanjali Gems, an Indian jewellery retailer which once had about 4,000 stores across India.

The ED has accused Mr Choksi and Modi of colluding with some employees of PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai city to get fraudulent advances for payments to overseas suppliers of jewels.

These funds were then allegedly diverted and laundered.

Mr Choksi and Mr Modi have denied the allegations against them.

After leaving India, Mr Choksi reportedly travelled to the US and later to Antigua – where he has citizenship.

In 2021, he was reportedly arrested in Dominica and deported back to Antigua.

Hariprasad SV, a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur who had in 2016 alerted authorities about the alleged scam at PNB, said Mr Choksi’s arrest was “great news”.

“Apart from bringing him back, the most important thing is to get back all those billions of dollars he looted from India,” he told ANI news agency.

Relatives of a nine-year-old boy who was killed by an accidental gunshot in Australia have been charged over his death.

Paramedics treated the child for serious neck injuries at a farm in Windellama – near Goulburn in New South Wales (NSW) – on Sunday, following reports of a shooting. The boy died at the scene.

Local police have since arrested two people, including a 14-year-old, and charged them with unauthorised firearm offences.

An investigation into the incident is underway. It is not known what relation the family members had to the child.

“It’s rare to hear one shot here,” Ron Wenban, who lives near the farm with his partner, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“To have a gunshot like that happen, that was a concern, neither of us wanted to go over there.”

Mr Wenban said the family were based in Sydney and had bought the property as a holiday home.

Both of the relatives who were arrested will appear before court in May, with the teen attending the NSW Children’s Court.

The man was charged with allowing an unauthorised person to possess a firearm, as well as not keeping a firearm safely, while the teenager was charged with unauthorised possession.

The teen has been granted bail.

Pop star Katy Perry and five other women safely returned to Earth after reaching space aboard Jeff Bezos’ rocket.

The singer was joined by Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King, who said a highlight of the flight was hearing Perry sing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.

The New Shepard rocket lifted off from its West Texas launch site just after 08:30 local time (14:30 BST).

The flight lasted around 11 minutes and took the six women more than 100km (62 miles) above Earth, crossing the internationally recognised boundary of space and giving them a few moments of weightlessness.

Also on board were former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

The capsule returned to Earth with a parachute-assisted soft landing, while the rocket booster also landed back in Texas.

Cheering could be heard from inside the capsule as the recovery crew went to collect them.

Jeff Bezos opened the capsule door to welcome back Lauren Sánchez, the first to disembark.

“I’m so proud of this crew,” she said tearfully. “I can’t put it into words.”

She paused, before adding: “I looked out of the window and we got to see the moon.”

“Earth looked so quiet,” she said, adding that it was not what she expected. “It was quiet, but really alive.”

Next out was Katy Perry, who kissed the ground and lifted a daisy to the sky – her daughter is called Daisy.

Gayle King also got on her knees and kissed the ground.

“I just want to have a moment with the ground, just appreciate the ground for just a second,” she said.

The last to get out, Kerianne Flynn, pointed at the sky and shouted: “I went to space.”

A celebrity cast had watched the launch from the ground.

Speaking from the viewing platform, Khloé Kardashian said: “I didn’t realise how emotional it would be, it’s hard to explain. I have all this adrenaline and I’m just standing here.”

The spacecraft was fully autonomous, requiring no pilots, and the crew did not manually operate the vehicle.

“If you had told me that I would be part of the first-ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child. Although we didn’t grow up with much, I never stopped looking at the world with hopeful WONDER!” Perry said in a social media post prior to the launch.

Blue Origin says the last all-female spaceflight was over 60 years ago when Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space on a solo mission aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6.

Since then, there have been no other all-female spaceflights but women have made numerous significant contributions.

Blue Origin is a private space company founded in 2000 by Bezos, the billionaire entrepreneur who also started Amazon.

Although Blue Origin has not released full ticket prices, a $150,000 (£114,575.85) deposit is required to reserve a seat—underlining the exclusivity of these early flights.

Alongside its suborbital tourism business, the company is also developing long-term space infrastructure, including reusable rockets and lunar landing systems.

The New Shepard rocket is designed to be fully reusable and its booster returns to the launch pad for vertical landings after each flight, reducing overall costs.

According to US law, astronauts must complete comprehensive training for their specific roles.

Blue Origin says its New Shepard passengers are trained over two days with a focus on physical fitness, emergency protocols, details about the safety measures and procedures for zero gravity.

Additionally, there are two support members referred to as Crew Member Seven: one provides continuous guidance to astronauts, while the other maintains communication from the control room during the mission.

The rise of space tourism has prompted criticism that it is too exclusive and environmentally damaging.

Supporters argue that private companies are accelerating innovation and making space more accessible.

Professor Brian Cox told the BBC in 2024: “Our civilisation needs to expand beyond our planet for so many reasons,” and believes that collaboration between NASA and commercial firms is a positive step.

Rocket engine exhaust contains gases and particles that can affect Earth’s climate and ozone layer.

On its web page under the title “Protecting our Planet” Blue Origin claims “During flight, the only byproduct of New Shepard’s engine combustion is water vapor with no carbon emissions.”

However, Eloise Marais, a professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Quality at University College London points out that water vapour too is a greenhouse gas and is a chemical that is not supposed to be in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

“It alters the chemistry of the stratosphere, depleting the ozone layer, and also forms clouds that affect climate,” she says.

Experts say that as more and more rockets are launched, the risks of harming the ozone layer increases.

The high cost of space tourism makes it inaccessible to most people, with these expensive missions out of reach for the majority.

Critics, including actress Olivia Munn, questioned the optics of this particular venture, remarking “there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs,” during an appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends.

Astronaut Tim Peake has defended the value of human space travel, especially in relation to tackling global issues such as climate change.

At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Peake voiced his disappointment that space exploration was increasingly seen as a pursuit for the wealthy, stating: “I personally am a fan of using space for science and for the benefit of everybody back on Earth, so in that respect, I feel disappointed that space is being tarred with that brush.”

Two British tourists have drowned off the coast of a popular tourist town at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef.

A boy, 17, and a man, 46, were swept out to sea on Sunday while swimming at a beach without lifeguards in Seventeen Seventy – a town in Queensland named for the year Captain James Cook arrived in Australia.

The pair were declared dead at the scene after being pulled from the water by a police rescue helicopter.

An Australian man is also in a life-threatening condition after being swept out to sea, and was airlifted to hospital with serious head injuries.

While police revealed that the deceased were from the UK, their names have not yet been released.

“Sunday’s mission was a difficult one,” CapRescue, the emergency rescue service which found the three men, shared on social media – adding that the deaths had occurred “despite the best efforts of all involved”.

Police say the injured Australian man was from Monto, a town about 150km inland from Seventeen Seventy.

“We’re not sure whether the third person jumped into the water trying to perform a rescue,” Surf Life Saving Queensland’s Darren Everard told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

There is only one beach patrolled by lifeguards within a 50-kilometre radius of Seventeen Seventy.

Police are treating the drownings as non-suspicious and will prepare a report for the coroner.

One-hundred-and-seven people drowned in Australia last year, with 25% of them born overseas, according to Royal Life Saving Australia.

Australia’s coastal fatalities mostly occur around creeks and headlands at high tide when “it’s chaos in the water”, Everard explained.

Speaking to ABC, he encouraged tourists to “seek local knowledge” and swim between the flags.

A strike by bin workers in Birmingham is set to continue after the latest pay offer by the city council was “overwhelmingly” rejected.

It follows a month-long stand-off between members of the Unite union and the Labour-run authority as bin bags and fly-tipped rubbish have piled high on streets.

Unite said the city council’s “partial” offer was “totally inadequate” and did not address the potential pay cuts for 200 drivers.

The council has previously said the offer on the table was a fair one.

Unite’s national lead officer Onay Kasab said 97% of those who voted rejected the council’s deal, on a 60% turnout.

“They could see through what this so called proposal meant, it simply failed to deal with all of the issues and it also nailed the lie,” he said.

The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham said the rejection was “no surprise as these workers simply cannot afford to take pay cuts of this magnitude to pay the price for bad decision after bad decision”.

The dispute centres around the council’s decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles.

The union argued that the role brought safety expertise to an “often dirty and dangerous job”, and said about 170 affected workers faced losing up to £8,000 annually due to the decision.

Birmingham City Council, which disputes both the number of staff affected and the sums of money quoted by the union, said the WRCO role was not industry standard, and did not exist in other councils.

Councillors said earlier this month that with various offers on the table no worker “needed to lose a penny”.

However, speaking on Monday, Mr Kasab said the result of the ballot was proof that the dispute was more than “simply about 17 workers” – a number quoted by the council.

He said: “This is about huge pay cuts and hundreds of people, it’s time now for us all to sit down, no more negative briefing, and let’s reach a negotiated resolution and solution.”

At the end of March, the council declared a major incident, saying that some 17,000 tonnes of rubbish was lining the city’s streets.

Some residents have also reported an increase in rats and other vermin.

One refuse collector told the BBC on Monday that the mood among their colleagues was “powerful”, while another said their sentiments remained unchanged.

“As much as we want a resolution, none of us are willing to lose money,” they added.

In recent days, military planners have been called in to help deal with the situation.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said that was not about “boots on the ground” but it would help get waste cleared.

Other neighbouring authorities have also stepped in to help clear rubbish.

“We’ve got over two-thirds of the rubbish cleared off the streets now, this week we’ll start to see cleaning up the pavements and streets as well as the clearance of all of that rubbish, I’m very pleased about that,” Rayner said.

“The kids are off school – obviously it’s Easter holidays, we want that rubbish cleared.”

Sadia Khan, the chairperson of Friends of Spark Green Park, said while she sympathised with those on strike, “rejecting another offer is just going to make the whole population a lot sicker”.

She said dead cats had been found in parks and that she suspected it was due to them eating rat poison left out to reduce the growing problem of vermin.

“I know it’s a financial crisis people are struggling to manage, and everyone deserves a better wage, but there’s a limit to how long this can go on,” she said.

“How much can you can risk the health of a population? Over a million people will be very, very impacted by things if it carries on.”

Last week, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was very concerned by the public health situation in Birmingham.

The local authority is facing criticism, meanwhile, for pressing ahead with plans to switch from weekly to fortnightly collections while the strike remains unresolved.

Leaflets about the change have appeared in residents’ letter boxes, but Martin Mullaney, a former councillor for the city’s Moseley and Kings Heath ward, said the timing was “politically insensitive”.

The leaflets state residents will have a new green recycling bin to be collected fortnightly, a food bin to be collected weekly, and a black bin to be collected fortnightly on alternate weeks to recycling collections.

Although an all-out strike began on 11 March, there have been a series of on-off walkouts since January and some residents have told the BBC they have not had recycling collected in 2025.

US stock markets opened higher on Monday after the White House announced that imports of Chinese-made smartphones and some other electronics devices would be exempted from tariffs.

The rollback, issued early on Saturday, may end up being short-lived after President Donald Trump said these goods were simply being moved into a different tariff group or “bucket”.

The exemption – temporary or not – sent shares higher in Europe, with the UK’s FTSE 100 rising by 2.2% while leading indexes in France and Germany both climbed.

Apple’s share price rose sharply since as much as 80% of its iPhones intended for sale in the US are made in China.

Most imports from China to the US had faced a levy of 145% under Trump’s new trade regime. Beijing responded with its own 125% tariffs on American products coming into China.

The Trump administration is expected to announce tariffs on semiconductors on Monday, and smartphones, computers and other electronic devices exempted will fall into this category.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq index rose by 2% in the first few minutes of trading on Monday. The S&P 500 added 1.2% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.9%.

Apple’s share price rose by 2.9% while chip maker Nvidia was up by 1.2%.

Despite the partial recovery on Monday’s opening, global stock markets are still lower than before Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on 2 April.

Many US and European indexes suffered historic drops followed by record rises after Trump suspended many tariffs for 90 days.

However, the gains have not reversed the losses. The S&P 500 index is 3.8% down over the last month while the FTSE 100 is 5.7% down, the German Dax is 8.8% down, and the French Cac 40 is 9.3% down.

“It looks like the tech exemption provided some relief, but these rebounds can be temporary,” Sree Kochugovindan, a senior economist at aberdeen group, told the BBC.

“There is still risk of more volatility given the lack of clarity during this 90-day tariff pause,” she said.

Meanwhile, the value of the US dollar continued to fall on Monday – down 0.7% against the British pound, having dropped 2.7% against the pound since Thursday.

The bond market appeared stable on Monday, with a key interest rate on US government debt down to 4.4%.

The rate spiked last Wednesday as investors worried about a possible recession, and sold US government bonds, which are usually seen as a safe investment.