China has played down the risk of damage to its exports from Donald Trump’s tariffs, with an official saying the “sky won’t fall,” as stock markets rose on Monday amid signs of a retreat on electronics restrictions.

Leading tech stocks struggled for direction amid confusion over the Trump administration’s stance on key US imports like smartphones and semiconductors.

While it emerged that such electronic goods and components were exempt from the sweeping tariffs imposed this month, the US president and his officials have signaled they may not be spared for long.

Shares in Apple and Nvidia started the day higher, but by lunchtime in New York were up 2% and down 1%, respectively.

“THE BEST DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCE IS THE ABILITY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday, as firms around the world struggled to keep up with the latest developments, let alone judge what might happen next.

Consumers are starting to feel the impact of the trade tensions. Sony increased the price of its PlayStation 5 by 25% in some markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania, citing “a challenging economic environment” as the video game industry reels from the impact of Trump’s tariffs.

China, meanwhile, has vowed to stand firm in the face of Trump’s tariffs. The world’s second-largest economy has diversified its trade away from the US in recent years, according to Lyu Daliang, a customs administration spokesperson, in comments reported by state-owned agency Xinhua.

Beijing has retaliated forcefully to Washington’s tariffs, with 125% levies on US imports against the US’s total of 145% border taxes on goods moving the other way. The trade war has prompted turmoil on financial markets since Trump first revealed tariffs on every country in the world on 2 April. Since then he has partly retreated on the highest levies on most trading partners for at least 90 days, but has doubled down in his spat with China.

The White House offered further relief over the weekend with an exemption from the steepest tariffs for electronics including smartphones, laptops and semiconductors. But Trump officials later appeared to walk that back with the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, saying such devices would be “included in the semiconductor tariffs which are coming in probably a month or two”.

Trump said on Sunday night on Truth Social that “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’”, highlighting that smartphones are still subject to 20% levies and suggesting they could still rise higher.

However, investors on Monday appeared unconvinced by Trump’s attempts to play down the retreat. Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.2% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose by 2.2% and the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges climbed by 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively.

European stock market indices also jumped in opening trades, with London’s FTSE 100 up by 2.1%, Germany’s Dax up 2.6%, and France’s Cac 40 up 2.4%.

On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.3% on Monday. The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite was 0.2% higher.

“The sky won’t fall” for Chinese exports, China’s Lyu said. “These efforts have not only supported our partners’ development but also enhanced our own resilience”.

The customs report also played up China’s “vast domestic market”, and said “the country will turn domestic certainty into a buffer against global volatility”. China has increasingly tried to stimulate private consumption.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, on Monday criticised the US tariffs, during a visit to Vietnam. Vietnam has in recent decades grown to become the eighth largest source of goods for US consumers, but it is facing the threat of 46% tariffs when Trump’s 90-day pause expires.

In an article in a Vietnamese newspaper, Xi said that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere”.

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, warned there would be “no winners” in a trade war and that protectionism “leads nowhere”, as he began a three-nation trip to south-east Asia, starting in Vietnam on Monday.

Xi’s tour, which started in Hanoi, also includes rare visits to Malaysia and Cambodia and will seek to strengthen ties with China’s closest neighbours amid a trade war that has sent shock waves through global markets.

Writing in an article published in Vietnam’s Nhân Dân newspaper on Monday, Xi urged Vietnam to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment”, Beijing’s Xinhua news agency said.

He added that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere”.

It is expected Xi’s visit will seek to present China as a reliable partner, in contrast to Washington, which imposed – then suspended – tariffs of more than 40% on some countries in south-east Asia, an export-reliant region.

Officials in Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, were shocked when the country was hit with a tariff of 46%, even after various efforts to appease the Trump administration. The tariff, which has been paused, threatens to devastate the country’s ambitious economic growth plan.

Xi’s visit was reportedly planned prior to Trump’s tariff announcement. During meetings Vietnam and China will sign about 40 agreements across different sectors, Vietnam’s deputy prime minister, Bùi Thanh Sơn, said on Saturday. It is expected this will include cooperation to develop Vietnam’s railway network.

Vietnam’s leader, Tô Lâm, wrote in an article published in state media on Monday that Hanoi wanted to boost cooperation in defence, security and infrastructure, especially on rail links.

Xi’s visit will probably form part of an effort to prevent economic encirclement by the US and in the region, said Dr Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the Vietnam studies programme of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, who cited reports that Washington would prioritise trade negotiations with countries such as Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and India.

For Vietnam, Giang added, Xi’s visit presented “a risk and an opportunity”.

Vietnam, and many other south-east Asian countries, are trying to maintain a delicate balancing act between the US and China. The US is Vietnam’s main export market, with US exports accounting for 30% of Vietnam’s GDP. However, China is Vietnam’s top import source, which it relies on for raw materials and other supplies that will be used to produce exports destined for the US.

Vietnam has traditionally sought to avoid taking sides between the US and China and will want to avoid antagonising either party, especially as it tries to persuade Washington to lower tariffs.

Vietnam is vulnerable to Washington’s tariffs because its trade surplus with the US has grown rapidly over recent years to more than $123bn (£94bn), fuelled in part by companies relocating production to Vietnam to avoid tariffs imposed on China by the last Trump administration.

Hanoi is preparing to crack down on Chinese goods being shipped from its territory to the US, in an effort to appease Washington, according to a Reuters report, and to tighten controls on sensitive exports to China. It has also made other concessions, including offering to remove all tariffs on US imports and promising to buy more US goods.

Cambodia and Malaysia, which face tariffs of 49% and 24% respectively, are also seeking to negotiate with Donald Trump, while China has previously vowed to “fight until the end” if the US continued to escalate the trade war.

Hanoi will want to avoid being seen as moving too close to Beijing during Xi’s visit, given the tension between China and Washington, said Giang, but he added that China may be able to offer a “life-saving opportunity for Vietnamese economy … at least in the short run”.

This could include a commitment from China not to export its excess capacity to Vietnam. Across many south-east Asian countries there is concern that tariffs imposed on China by the US will worsen a problem of cheap Chinese goods overwhelming domestic industries. China could also increase its imports from south-east Asia, including in areas such as agriculture.

A willingness to pursue peaceful solutions to the dispute in the South China Sea, where Beijing and several south-east Asian countries have overlapping claims, would also improve perceptions of China in the region, added Giang.

“Now we are viewing the US as a global disruptor – that presents China a golden opportunity to be a responsible stakeholder in the region. And if they can do so, I think more and more south-east Asian countries will eventually move closer to China,” Giang said.

The UN’s trade and development arm, Unctad, is calling on Donald Trump to exempt the world’s poorest and smallest countries from “reciprocal” tariffs, or risk “serious economic harm”.

In a report published on Monday, Unctad identifies 28 nations the US president singled out for a higher tariff rate than the 10% baseline – despite each accounting for less than 0.1% of the US trade deficit.

These include Laos, which is expected to face a 48% tariff; Mauritius, on 40%; and Myanmar, to be hit with 45%, despite trying to recover from a devastating earthquake.

The White House shocked many developing countries with the punitive tariff rates announced this month.

Trump claimed rival economies had “looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” the US with unfair trade practices, and he wanted to create a level playing field.

Unctad said many of the countries targeted with high tariff rates were unlikely to be a threat to the world’s largest economy, given their small size and modest levels of exports.

The White House last week put the higher tariff rates on pause for 90 days, after unleashing chaos on world financial markets, leaving a 10% levy in place across the board.

But the administration’s formal position remains that the “reciprocal” tariff rates will come into force, subject to negotiations.

“The current 90-day pause presents an opportunity to reassess how small and vulnerable economies – including the least developed countries – are treated,” Unctad said.

“This is a critical moment to consider exempting them from tariffs that offer little to no advantage for US trade policy but risk causing serious economic harm.”

Unctad’s analysis said many of these economies were so small that they were likely to generate little demand for US exports, even if they lowered tariffs, as the White House appears to be demanding.

Malawi, facing 18% tariffs, bought just $27m of US exports last year; Mozambique, which faces 16% tariffs, $150m; Cambodia, set for 49% tariffs, $322m.

Unctad’s experts added that 36 of these small and poor countries were likely to generate less than 1% of total US tariff revenue, even if the US did not cut imports from them as the tariffs took effect.

Part of the logic of the tariff policy is meant to be to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. But for several tiny countries, their key exports are agricultural commodities, for which the US is unlikely to be able to find substitutes elsewhere – let alone develop a domestic industry.

Unctad highlighted the $150m in vanilla imported from Madagascar, close to $800m in cocoa from Ivory Coast and $200m in cocoa from Ghana.

With Madagascar set to face 47% tariffs, for example, the report said the main impact on the US was likely to be higher prices for consumers.

Some of the countries hit by the 10% tariffs – and due to face higher rates when the pause is over – were previously beneficiaries of a US policy called the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The scheme had been in place since 2000 and gave sub-Saharan African countries tariff-free access to US markets in order to encourage economic development. As many as 32 countries were eligible, before Trump’s announcement appeared to tear up the scheme.

Financial markets and manufacturers in developing countries are continuing to wrestle with the changeable nature of US trade policy.

Trump sowed fresh confusion over the weekend by appearing to revisit an announcement made on Friday, that some hi-tech goods, including laptops, would be exempt from tariffs.

In a post on his social media site Truth Social on Sunday, the president said no one was getting “off the hook”, and the administration would be investigating the “whole electronics supply chain”.

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, warned there would be “no winners” in a trade war and that protectionism “leads nowhere”, as he began a three-nation trip to south-east Asia, starting in Vietnam on Monday.

Xi’s tour, which started in Hanoi, also includes rare visits to Malaysia and Cambodia and will seek to strengthen ties with China’s closest neighbours amid a trade war that has sent shock waves through global markets.

Writing in an article published in Vietnam’s Nhân Dân newspaper on Monday, Xi urged Vietnam to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment”, Beijing’s Xinhua news agency said.

He added that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere”.

It is expected Xi’s visit will seek to present China as a reliable partner, in contrast to Washington, which imposed – then suspended – tariffs of more than 40% on some countries in south-east Asia, an export-reliant region.

Officials in Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, were shocked when the country was hit with a tariff of 46%, even after various efforts to appease the Trump administration. The tariff, which has been paused, threatens to devastate the country’s ambitious economic growth plan.

Xi’s visit was reportedly planned prior to Trump’s tariff announcement. During meetings Vietnam and China will sign about 40 agreements across different sectors, Vietnam’s deputy prime minister, Bùi Thanh Sơn, said on Saturday. It is expected this will include cooperation to develop Vietnam’s railway network.

Vietnam’s leader, Tô Lâm, wrote in an article published in state media on Monday that Hanoi wanted to boost cooperation in defence, security and infrastructure, especially on rail links.

Xi’s visit will probably form part of an effort to prevent economic encirclement by the US and in the region, said Dr Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the Vietnam studies programme of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, who cited reports that Washington would prioritise trade negotiations with countries such as Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and India.

For Vietnam, Giang added, Xi’s visit presented “a risk and an opportunity”.

Vietnam, and many other south-east Asian countries, are trying to maintain a delicate balancing act between the US and China. The US is Vietnam’s main export market, with US exports accounting for 30% of Vietnam’s GDP. However, China is Vietnam’s top import source, which it relies on for raw materials and other supplies that will be used to produce exports destined for the US.

Vietnam has traditionally sought to avoid taking sides between the US and China and will want to avoid antagonising either party, especially as it tries to persuade Washington to lower tariffs.

Vietnam is vulnerable to Washington’s tariffs because its trade surplus with the US has grown rapidly over recent years to more than $123bn (£94bn), fuelled in part by companies relocating production to Vietnam to avoid tariffs imposed on China by the last Trump administration.

Hanoi is preparing to crack down on Chinese goods being shipped from its territory to the US, in an effort to appease Washington, according to a Reuters report, and to tighten controls on sensitive exports to China. It has also made other concessions, including offering to remove all tariffs on US imports and promising to buy more US goods.

Cambodia and Malaysia, which face tariffs of 49% and 24% respectively, are also seeking to negotiate with Donald Trump, while China has previously vowed to “fight until the end” if the US continued to escalate the trade war.

Hanoi will want to avoid being seen as moving too close to Beijing during Xi’s visit, given the tension between China and Washington, said Giang, but he added that China may be able to offer a “life-saving opportunity for Vietnamese economy … at least in the short run”.

This could include a commitment from China not to export its excess capacity to Vietnam. Across many south-east Asian countries there is concern that tariffs imposed on China by the US will worsen a problem of cheap Chinese goods overwhelming domestic industries. China could also increase its imports from south-east Asia, including in areas such as agriculture.

A willingness to pursue peaceful solutions to the dispute in the South China Sea, where Beijing and several south-east Asian countries have overlapping claims, would also improve perceptions of China in the region, added Giang.

“Now we are viewing the US as a global disruptor – that presents China a golden opportunity to be a responsible stakeholder in the region. And if they can do so, I think more and more south-east Asian countries will eventually move closer to China,” Giang said.

The UN’s trade and development arm, Unctad, is calling on Donald Trump to exempt the world’s poorest and smallest countries from “reciprocal” tariffs, or risk “serious economic harm”.

In a report published on Monday, Unctad identifies 28 nations the US president singled out for a higher tariff rate than the 10% baseline – despite each accounting for less than 0.1% of the US trade deficit.

These include Laos, which is expected to face a 48% tariff; Mauritius, on 40%; and Myanmar, to be hit with 45%, despite trying to recover from a devastating earthquake.

The White House shocked many developing countries with the punitive tariff rates announced this month.

Trump claimed rival economies had “looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” the US with unfair trade practices, and he wanted to create a level playing field.

Unctad said many of the countries targeted with high tariff rates were unlikely to be a threat to the world’s largest economy, given their small size and modest levels of exports.

The White House last week put the higher tariff rates on pause for 90 days, after unleashing chaos on world financial markets, leaving a 10% levy in place across the board.

But the administration’s formal position remains that the “reciprocal” tariff rates will come into force, subject to negotiations.

“The current 90-day pause presents an opportunity to reassess how small and vulnerable economies – including the least developed countries – are treated,” Unctad said.

“This is a critical moment to consider exempting them from tariffs that offer little to no advantage for US trade policy but risk causing serious economic harm.”

Unctad’s analysis said many of these economies were so small that they were likely to generate little demand for US exports, even if they lowered tariffs, as the White House appears to be demanding.

Malawi, facing 18% tariffs, bought just $27m of US exports last year; Mozambique, which faces 16% tariffs, $150m; Cambodia, set for 49% tariffs, $322m.

Unctad’s experts added that 36 of these small and poor countries were likely to generate less than 1% of total US tariff revenue, even if the US did not cut imports from them as the tariffs took effect.

Part of the logic of the tariff policy is meant to be to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. But for several tiny countries, their key exports are agricultural commodities, for which the US is unlikely to be able to find substitutes elsewhere – let alone develop a domestic industry.

Unctad highlighted the $150m in vanilla imported from Madagascar, close to $800m in cocoa from Ivory Coast and $200m in cocoa from Ghana.

With Madagascar set to face 47% tariffs, for example, the report said the main impact on the US was likely to be higher prices for consumers.

Some of the countries hit by the 10% tariffs – and due to face higher rates when the pause is over – were previously beneficiaries of a US policy called the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The scheme had been in place since 2000 and gave sub-Saharan African countries tariff-free access to US markets in order to encourage economic development. As many as 32 countries were eligible, before Trump’s announcement appeared to tear up the scheme.

Financial markets and manufacturers in developing countries are continuing to wrestle with the changeable nature of US trade policy.

Trump sowed fresh confusion over the weekend by appearing to revisit an announcement made on Friday, that some hi-tech goods, including laptops, would be exempt from tariffs.

In a post on his social media site Truth Social on Sunday, the president said no one was getting “off the hook”, and the administration would be investigating the “whole electronics supply chain”.

Hungarian lawmakers have voted through a controversial constitutional amendment that campaigners described as a “significant escalation” in the government’s efforts to crack down on dissent and chip away at human rights.

Backed by the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his rightwing populist party, Fidesz, the amendment passed on Monday along party lines, with 140 votes for and 21 against.

It codifies the government’s recent ban on Pride events, paving the way for authorities to use facial recognition software to identify attenders and potentially fine them.

The amendment, which the government says prioritises the protection of children’s physical, mental and moral development, also enshrines the recognition of only two sexes, providing a constitutional basis for denying the gender identities of some in Hungary.

Amid Orbán’s repeated claims of foreign interference in the country’s politics, the amendment also allows the government to temporarily suspend Hungarian citizenship in the case of dual nationals deemed to pose a threat to the country’s security or sovereignty.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a rights group, described the amendment as a means of “legislating fear” in the EU country. “These laws represent a significant escalation in the government’s efforts to suppress dissent, weaken human rights protection and consolidate its grip on power,” it said in a statement.

The opposition Momentum party highlighted similarities with restrictions in Russia. Much like Vladimir Putin, Orbán has sought to portray himself as a champion of traditional family values, ushering in policies that include blocking same-sex couples from adopting children and barring any mention of LGBTQ+ issues in school education programmes.

Before Monday’s vote, Momentum issued a call on social media for Hungarians to join it in a blockade of the country’s parliament, in the hope of keeping lawmakers from voting in the legislation. “Let’s collectively prevent them from leading us down the Putin road and depriving us of our freedom,” it said.

On Monday, opposition politicians and other protesters attempted to block the entrance to a parliament parking garage, with some using zip ties to bind themselves together, and were physically removed by police.

The constitutional amendment was approved almost a month after lawmakers fast-tracked a law that banned public events held by LGBTQ+ communities. Thousands of people have since taken to the streets, blocking bridges and major thoroughfares with chants of “democracy” and “assembly is a fundamental right” in weekly protests.

“This government isn’t just dismantling democracy brick by brick, it’s now going at it with a bulldozer,” Ákos Hadházy, an independent lawmaker who campaigns alongside Momentum, said at a recent rally, according to Bloomberg. “We are here because we need to act fast to get ahead and stop it.”

Orbán and his government have said their aim is to protect children from what they describe as “sexual propaganda”, but analysts have pointed to forthcoming elections to argue that the country’s LGBTQ+ minority is being scapegoated by a government intent on mobilising its conservative base.

Orbán, who has long faced criticism for weakening democratic institutions and gradually undermining the rule of law, is facing an unprecedented challenge from a former member of the Fidesz party’s elite, Péter Magyar, before next year’s elections.

As news of the Pride ban broke last month, 22 European embassies in Hungary, including those of the UK, France and Germany, issued a joint statement saying they were deeply concerned that the legislation would result in “restrictions on the right of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression”.

The EU’s equality commissioner, Hadja Lahbib, also weighed in, writing on social media: “Everyone should be able to be who they are, live & love freely. The right to gather peacefully is a fundamental right to be championed across the European Union. We stand with the LGBTQI community – in Hungary & in all member states.”

The organisers of Budapest Pride, which regularly attracts tens of thousands of people, said they were determined to go ahead with this year’s march on 28 June. “This is not child protection, this is fascism,” they said last month.

The amendment, the 15th to Hungary’s constitution since it was unilaterally authored and approved by the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition in 2011, also seeks to reinforce Orbán over what he claims are foreign efforts to influence Hungary’s politics.

In a recent speech laced with conspiracy theories, Orbán pledged to “eliminate the entire shadow army” of foreign-funded “politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs and political activists”.

Rights groups described the amendment as a step in this direction for Orbán, a self-described “illiberal” leader, because it allows for the suspension of Hungarian citizenship for up to 10 years for dual nationals deemed to pose a threat to public order or security. The suspensions would only apply to Hungarians who hold citizenship of another country that is not a member of the EU or European Economic Area.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and the Háttér Society have urged the European Commission to launch a procedure against Hungary’s government, arguing that the recent changes breach EU law.

The groups highlighted the “gravity and urgency of the consequences of the adopted changes” in a recent statement, noting that they would “force LGBTQ+ people completely out of the public eye”. The nationwide ban is believed to be the first of its kind in the EU’s recent history.

The groups also said the amendment went further than violating the rights of LGBTQ+ people and those who supported them, describing it as a tool to further instil fear among those who voice dissent in the country. “The changes have overarching consequences that affect fundamental rights well beyond the issue of Pride,” they said.

Six women – including the pop star Katy Perry and morning TV host Gayle King – safely completed a trip to the edge of outer space and back from a private Texas ranch on Monday morning on a rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos, the Amazon co-founder and commercial space flight entrepreneur.

The women, who also included Bezos’s fiancee, Lauren Sánchez, made the trip to the Kármán line – the internationally recognized boundary of space – to float about, weightlessly, in the rocket’s capsule for three minutes before returning to Earth.

“Yeah baby, go for launch,” a mission controller could be heard saying shortly before the single-engine New Shepard rocket blasted off on time, at 8.30am local time (9.30am ET and 13.30am GMT).

King’s longtime friend, the TV talkshow host Oprah Winfrey, was on hand in Texas for the launch. Winfrey remarked that, for King, “this is bigger than just going to space” and “more than just overcoming fear”.

“Life is about continuing into grow into the fullest expression of yourself,” Winfrey said.

The talkshow queen could later be seen rubbing her eyes as the rocket reached its maximum ascent velocity of 2,300mph – or Mach 3. A commentator remarked that the vehicle was rising into the atmosphere ahead of “a stream of steam”.

As the rocket reached its highest point, about 62 miles (100km) above the Earth, a passenger could be heard to exclaim: “Oh my goddess.” Another could be heard saying: “I love you, Jeff Bezos.”

On the way back down to Earth, more screaming could be heard. The capsule, detached from its booster, made a soft landing on the Texas plains, two miles from the launchpad.

“Congratulations, and welcome back to Earth,” the commentator said. “Everybody just as ecstatic to be back on Earth.”

Sánchez’s fiance later opened the hatch to welcome her back to Earth, followed by her crewmates. The billionaire greeted each with a hug and kiss.

Perry, holding a daisy, kissed the ground with King. In a post-flight interview, Sánchez said: “The Earth was so quiet but also really alive. We are all in this together, and some connected. It makes me just want to hug everybody.”

“I had to come back,” Sánchez, who is set to marry Bezos this summer in Venice, added tearfully. “I wanted to come back. I’m getting married.”

The alternative, she said, “would be a bummer for me”.

On her return to earth, Perry said Monday’s flight had been “the highest high”.

“It’s about surrender to the unknown, it’s trust, and this whole journey is about more than going to space,” Perry remarked. It’s up there with meditation.

“This is up there.”

She added: “What you’re doing is really finding the love for yourself. I’m really feeling that divine feminine right now.”

Perry, 40, said last week she was listening to an audiobook of Cosmos by Carl Sagan and reading a book on string theory in preparation for the ride.

“I’ve always been interested in astrophysics and interested in astronomy and astrology and the stars,” she told the Associated Press. “We are all made of stardust, and we all come from the stars.”

The pop star also said that she planned to channel “that feminine divine that I was born with” to prepare for the new experience.

Before liftoff, King – who co-hosts CBS Mornings – said she was approaching the rocket trip with trepidation. “I still get very uncomfortable when people say ‘astronaut’,” she said. “I in no means feel like an astronaut. They said: ‘But, Gayle, if you go to space, you’re an astronaut.”

The pair, along with the former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn, traveled as the guests of Sánchez.

The flight was the 11th human flight for the New Shepard program, which has flown 52 people, including repeat astronauts, to the Kármán line.

Some critics have questioned whether the all-female trip is a moment of feminist progress since it comes as promotion for Bezos’s space tourism business that, in turn, is the marketing arm of Blue Origin’s commercial launch program.

The US actor Olivia Munn called the trip “a bit gluttonous” during a guest hosting appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends on CBS rival NBC.

“I know this is not the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now,” Munn said. “What are you guys going to do up in space?”

Rory McIlroy has warned the members of Augusta National they will have to “wheel me out of here when I am 90 years old” after finally ending his wait to win the Masters. In doing so, McIlroy became just the sixth golfer in history to complete a career grand slam.

McIlroy has warned his fellow professionals that he already feels perfectly placed for more major wins after adding number five to his CV.

The Northern Irishman’s playoff win over Justin Rose preceded a reception with those who run the tournament. “I said I will be going to that champions dinner every Tuesday night and they are going to have to wheel me out of here when I am 90 years old,” he said. His victory earns him a lifetime Masters exemption.

The condensed nature of golf’s calendar means thoughts already flick towards the rest of this year’s majors. The US PGA Championship next month is at Quail Hollow, where McIlroy has won four times. The Open returns to Royal Portrush, in McIlroy’s homeland, in the summer.

“I really do think this is going to free me up in these things,” McIlroy said. “It has been a long time coming, over 10 years since winning a major championship. And especially doing this; getting the Masters, the career grand slam, the fifth major, getting all that out of the way.

“I think it will allow me to play with a lot more freedom. I can’t wait to go back to Portrush in July. There is still a lot of golf left to play this year. I am excited for all of it and excited with where my game is. I want to enjoy this right now but there is a lot to look forward to.”

McIlroy held a five-shot lead at one stage of the final round of the Masters. Rose’s excellent 66 earned sudden death after McIlroy missed a chance to win the Green Jacket on the final hole of regulation play.

“It feels like it has been a long time coming,” McIlroy said. “I had my first real chance of winning this, 14 years ago. Every year coming to Augusta there has been a lot riding on it. Sometimes I handled that well, sometimes I didn’t. Thankfully I was able to get over the line.

“There were times in my life when I thought this was never going to happen, a few low points driving out of Magnolia Lane on Sunday nights. To finally get the job done is unbelievably satisfying. I don’t think it will sink in for a while. I persevered and was able to come out on top.”

A 10-year-old McIlroy spoke on television in Northern Ireland of winning every major. Now 25 years on, the dream was fulfilled. “When you are 10 years old, you don’t really know what you are saying but there was something in there,” McIlroy said.

“I am incredibly fortunate, my mum and dad saw potential in me and did everything possible to try to let me fulfil that potential. This is as much theirs as it is mine.

“For my team, it is validation that the work we have been putting in is paying off. For my mum and dad, hopefully it doesn’t change anything. I hope they were proud of me before this and I hope they are proud of me now.

“As the years go by, you cherish more and more your time with them and for them to be able to see me do this means a great deal to me.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Donald Trump to visit Ukraine to see the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion, while the US president appeared to play down Moscow’s latest deadly attack, the worst on civilians this year, calling it “a mistake”.

International leaders condemned Russia’s strike on the centre of the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, which killed 34 people, including two children. Two ballistic missiles hit as people made their way to church for Palm Sunday.

One of the missiles exploded next to a crowded trolleybus, killing many of the passengers onboard. Bodies lay on the ground and cars burned as rescuers carried away bloodied survivors. More than 100 were injured.

Asked about Russia’s attack on civilians, Trump said he was trying to get the war stopped. “I think it was terrible and I was told they made a mistake, but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing,” he said.

On Monday, the Kremlin denied its army had targeted civilians or that there had been any kind of “mistake”.

“Our army hits only military and military-related targets,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said when asked about the strike and Trump’s comments.

Russia’s defence ministry appeared to concede there had been civilian casualties, but placed the blame on Ukraine. “The Kyiv regime continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield, placing military facilities and holding events with the participation of soldiers in the centre of a densely populated city,” the ministry said. Russia has made similar accusations since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump also implied his predecessor, Joe Biden, was at fault for the war that began with Vladimir Putin’s invasion. “This war would never have started if I were president. That war is a shame,” he said.

His latest comments prompted an angry response from Ukrainians who are frustrated at Trump’s failure to confront or condemn Putin.

Olena Halushka, of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre in Kyiv, said: “No one accidentally uses a cluster munition warhead against a crowded city centre on a major holiday.” She also noted that Russia had killed nine children in a similar strike last week on the city of Kryvyi Rih.

Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former Lithuanian foreign minister, said: “This was not a mistake. A mistake is something like imposing tariffs on penguins. What we saw in Sumy is a deliberate continuation of a genocidal invasion. Our real mistake is not helping Ukraine enough.”

In an interview with the CBS show 60 Minutes, recorded before the attack on Sumy, Zelenskyy urged Trump to see the damage from Russia’s invasion for himself. “Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” he said.

The Ukrainian president pushed back on a suggestion made by the US vice-president, JD Vance, that Ukraine laid on “propaganda tours” for foreign leaders. “We will not prepare anything. It will not be theatre. You can go exactly where you want, in any city which [has] been under attacks,” Zelenskyy said.

He expressed frustration that senior White House figures continued to repeat Kremlin talking points. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff – who met Putin on Friday in St Petersburg – recently said four Ukrainian regions had “voted” to join Russia, a reference to fake referendums in occupied territory.

“I believe that Russian narratives prevail in the United States. It seems to me that the vice-president is justifying Putin’s actions. This is a change in reality. The Russians are the aggressors, and we are the victims,” Zelenskyy said.

Kyiv has accepted a US proposal made a month ago for a 30-day ceasefire. During this period Russia has escalated its bombardment of Ukrainian cities. Zelenskyy said: “Putin can’t be trusted. I told that to President Trump many times. So when you ask why the ceasefire isn’t working – this is why.”

He added: “Putin never wanted an end to the war. Putin never wanted us to be independent. Putin wants to destroy us completely – our sovereignty and our people.”

Zelenskyy said the conflict could “escalate into world war three if Putin is not stopped”. He said the “dictator’s ultimate goal was to revive the Russian empire” and to “return territories under Nato protection” – meaning the Baltic states and eastern Europe.

Ukrainian officials said Zelenskyy had been trying to fix his relationship with Trump after their disastrous February meeting in the White House. The Trump administration has indicated that Ukraine’s future security needs are now Europe’s problem.

Speaking to CBS, Zelenskyy said US military aid to Ukraine had “practically stopped”, adding that Kyiv was willing to buy US-made Patriot air defence systems.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Donald Trump to visit Ukraine to see the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion, while the US president appeared to play down Moscow’s latest deadly attack, the worst on civilians this year, calling it “a mistake”.

International leaders condemned Russia’s strike on the centre of the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, which killed 34 people, including two children. Two ballistic missiles hit as people made their way to church for Palm Sunday.

One of the missiles exploded next to a crowded trolleybus, killing many of the passengers onboard. Bodies lay on the ground and cars burned as rescuers carried away bloodied survivors. More than 100 were injured.

Asked about Russia’s attack on civilians, Trump said he was trying to get the war stopped. “I think it was terrible and I was told they made a mistake, but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing,” he said.

On Monday, the Kremlin denied its army had targeted civilians or that there had been any kind of “mistake”.

“Our army hits only military and military-related targets,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said when asked about the strike and Trump’s comments.

Russia’s defence ministry appeared to concede there had been civilian casualties, but placed the blame on Ukraine. “The Kyiv regime continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield, placing military facilities and holding events with the participation of soldiers in the centre of a densely populated city,” the ministry said. Russia has made similar accusations since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump also implied his predecessor, Joe Biden, was at fault for the war that began with Vladimir Putin’s invasion. “This war would never have started if I were president. That war is a shame,” he said.

His latest comments prompted an angry response from Ukrainians who are frustrated at Trump’s failure to confront or condemn Putin.

Olena Halushka, of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre in Kyiv, said: “No one accidentally uses a cluster munition warhead against a crowded city centre on a major holiday.” She also noted that Russia had killed nine children in a similar strike last week on the city of Kryvyi Rih.

Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former Lithuanian foreign minister, said: “This was not a mistake. A mistake is something like imposing tariffs on penguins. What we saw in Sumy is a deliberate continuation of a genocidal invasion. Our real mistake is not helping Ukraine enough.”

In an interview with the CBS show 60 Minutes, recorded before the attack on Sumy, Zelenskyy urged Trump to see the damage from Russia’s invasion for himself. “Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” he said.

The Ukrainian president pushed back on a suggestion made by the US vice-president, JD Vance, that Ukraine laid on “propaganda tours” for foreign leaders. “We will not prepare anything. It will not be theatre. You can go exactly where you want, in any city which [has] been under attacks,” Zelenskyy said.

He expressed frustration that senior White House figures continued to repeat Kremlin talking points. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff – who met Putin on Friday in St Petersburg – recently said four Ukrainian regions had “voted” to join Russia, a reference to fake referendums in occupied territory.

“I believe that Russian narratives prevail in the United States. It seems to me that the vice-president is justifying Putin’s actions. This is a change in reality. The Russians are the aggressors, and we are the victims,” Zelenskyy said.

Kyiv has accepted a US proposal made a month ago for a 30-day ceasefire. During this period Russia has escalated its bombardment of Ukrainian cities. Zelenskyy said: “Putin can’t be trusted. I told that to President Trump many times. So when you ask why the ceasefire isn’t working – this is why.”

He added: “Putin never wanted an end to the war. Putin never wanted us to be independent. Putin wants to destroy us completely – our sovereignty and our people.”

Zelenskyy said the conflict could “escalate into world war three if Putin is not stopped”. He said the “dictator’s ultimate goal was to revive the Russian empire” and to “return territories under Nato protection” – meaning the Baltic states and eastern Europe.

Ukrainian officials said Zelenskyy had been trying to fix his relationship with Trump after their disastrous February meeting in the White House. The Trump administration has indicated that Ukraine’s future security needs are now Europe’s problem.

Speaking to CBS, Zelenskyy said US military aid to Ukraine had “practically stopped”, adding that Kyiv was willing to buy US-made Patriot air defence systems.

Hundreds of former operatives from Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency have criticised the return to war in Gaza amid growing frustration over the failure to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

A group of more than 250 former Mossad figures – including three ex-chiefs – gave their backing to a letter first signed by air force veterans and reservists that urged the Israeli government to prioritise bringing back the hostages over fighting Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli government believes that 24 of the remaining 58 hostages who were taken captive in Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, are still alive.

The letter decried the amping-up of Israeli strikes and ground operations in Gaza since the collapse of the ceasefire in March as driven by the personal interests of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. It accused his government of putting the lives of soldiers and the hostages at risk for his own political gain.

Critics have alleged that Netanyahu’s decision to return to war in Gaza was driven by a need to appease the far-right parties in his coalition, who have threatened to bring down his government if he does not completely crush Hamas.

“The war mainly serves political and personal interests and not security interests,” said the letter.

The letter was first published and publicly signed last week by almost 1,000 reservists and retired officers from Israel’s air force, which has been at the forefront of the continued assault on Gaza.

It prompted a vehement response from Netanyahu, who said it was written by “an extreme fringe group that is once again trying to break Israeli society from within” and ordered the dismissal of all the active-duty reservists who had signed it.

Several similar statements were successively made in support, including by reservists from Israel’s elite Unit 8200, the biggest military intelligence unit, and hundreds of reservist doctors.

On Monday, another public letter signed by more than 1,500 former and current armoured corps soldiers and paratroopers with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including two former IDF chiefs of staff, called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza.

“We are soldiers who have served our country all our lives. We have driven tanks, commanded troops, and paid a heavy price. It is precisely this experience that pushes us today to call for a ceasefire,” said the letter, authored by Col Rami Matan, a former IDF deputy commander, adding: “Why do we continue to sacrifice human lives for unattainable objectives?”

Israel and Hamas have been engaged in negotiations in Cairo, with the involvement of Qatar, Egypt and the US, who have been attempting to broker another ceasefire after the last one collapsed in March and Israel launched a wave of strikes.

Reports emerged on Monday that Israel had proposed a deal to Hamas that would see 10 hostages released. According to Tikva Forum, a rightwing group advocating for the hostages, Netanyahu told the father of the hostage Eitan Mor on Sunday that the government was working on a deal that would bring home 10 captives, but gave no further details on the conditions Israel had put forward.

A Hamas official who spoke to the Lebanese newspaper Al Mayadeen said Israel had proposed the return of 10 hostages in return for an initial 45-day ceasefire, when the Israeli government’s blockade on aid going into Gaza would be lifted and the IDF would withdraw from Gaza territory it had seized since March.

According to the official, Israel and Hamas would also commit to negotiations for a second stage, which is where the previous ceasefire commitments had stalled and ultimately fallen apart. This would include discussions of a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, and the disarmament of Hamas.

Speaking to AFP on Monday, Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, accused Israel of obstructing progress towards a ceasefire. He said Hamas was willing “to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious prisoner swap deal, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid”.

However, he made it clear that the disarmament of Hamas was not “up for negotiation”.

On Sunday night, hundreds of people, including dozens of family members of former and current hostages, staged a protest outside the home of Ron Dermer, the minister Netanyahu has put in charge of the hostage negotiations, leading to five arrests.

In recent days, hostage families have alleged that Dermer, who is one of Netanyahu’s closest advisers, has been delaying and obstructing negotiations in order to suit the government’s political agenda. The Netanyahu government has pushed back at the allegations, stating that it was doing everything to free the hostages.

Doron Zektser, the father of the hostage Edan Alexander, addressed Dermer in a statement: “Come out, update us on the situation. That’s your responsibility. If you can’t do the job, resign. He doesn’t speak with the families. They’re rushing to war when it’s clear that only a deal will bring the hostages back.”

Campaigners with Canada’s Liberal party had some very American-esque politicking over the weekend, when Liberal operatives were found to have planted “stop the steal” buttons at a conservative conference to link the Conservative party to Donald Trump.

Two Liberal party staffers infiltrated last week’s Canada Strong and Free Network Conference (CSFN) in Ottawa at which they strategically placed provocative buttons designed to create the false impression that Conservative supporters of party leader Pierre Poilievre were embracing Trump-style rhetoric, highlighting internal party divisions.

The operation was exposed when a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) politics reporter overheard staffers boasting about their actions at an Ottawa pub, where they were drinking with other Liberal war room colleagues on Friday night.

One button featured the phrase “stop the steal” – directly echoing Trump’s baseless claims about the 2020 election results being stolen from him. Another displayed the name of Conservative national campaign director Jenni Byrne crossed out, with “Kory Teneycke” written underneath – referring to a leading Conservative strategist who has been publicly bashing Poilievre.

The CSFN conference, Canada’s less idealistic version of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), serves as a key gathering for conservative-minded Canadians to discuss policy proposals and network.

The incident comes in the final stretch of a heated campaign only weeks away from elections, in which the Liberals who hold a polling lead have consistently sought to characterize Poilievre as Canada’s version of Trump.

Poilievre’s confrontational style with mainstream media, his “Canada First” campaign slogan, and his frequent attacks on the CBC specifically as “government-funded media” have fueled these comparisons, despite his insistence on fundamental differences between himself and the US president. Just this Sunday on Radio-Canada’s popular talk show Tout le monde en parle, when asked if he was a “mini-Trump, medium Trump or large Trump”, Poilievre quipped about his lighter weight before emphasizing his “completely different story” as the child of middle-class teachers compared to the US president’s inherited wealth.

The Liberal party confirmed the incident on Sunday evening, saying some campaigners had “regrettably got carried away” with buttons “poking fun” at reported Conservative infighting. Liberal spokesperson Kevin Lemkay added that Liberal leader Mark Carney had made it clear “this does not fit his commitment to serious and positive discourse”.

Over the years, Poilievre has proudly associated himself as a culture warrior for Canada’s right, saying he wants the country to move away from “woke” to “warrior” and appearing on rightwing media like Canadian influencer Jordan Peterson’s show.

The Liberal party has been able to take advantage of linking Poilievre to Trump after near country-wide disappointment and disapproval that followed the US president’s targeting of Canada as the supposed “51st state” and choosing to include its previously friendly neighbor in mass tariffs. As a result, there has been a near-total plunge in Canadian tourism to the United States, and the Liberals hold a tight lead in the polls under new leader Carney.

“Despite their public claims, it’s clear that it’s the Liberals who are attempting to bring American-style politics to our country,” Conservative party spokesperson Sam Lilly said in a statement to CBC.

The company that operated the helicopter that crashed into New York City’s Hudson River on Thursday – killing all six people on board – has been shuttered with immediate effect, the US’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late on Sunday.

New York Helicopter Tours is “shutting down their operations immediately”, the FAA said in a statement on X. The agency added that it would launch a review of the company’s license and safety records in the meantime.

The tour operator was already the subject of an investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board, which said that the doomed helicopter – a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger IV – was not equipped with any flight data recording equipment.

It was on its eighth tour flight of the day when it crashed into the river near Hoboken, New Jersey, after taking off from Manhattan for an aerial tour of New York City.

Those killed in the crash were the pilot and his passengers: a family of five visiting from Spain.

The family members included the Siemens executive Agustín Escobar, 49, and his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, who was celebrating her 40th birthday at the time of the helicopter crash. The couple were joined by their three children: Víctor, 4; Mercedes, 8; and Agustín, 10.

The pilot, 36-year-old Seankese Johnson, was a US navy veteran who qualified as a commercial pilot in 2023 with more than 800 hours’ flying time.

News of the company’s closure came after Senator Chuck Schumer of New York urged the FAA to rescind New York Helicopter Tours’ operating certificate. The senator also called for the company’s operators to “cease their flights until the investigation is complete”.

“There is one thing for sure about New York City’s helicopter tour companies: they have a deadly track record,” Schumer at a Sunday news conference.

He added: “Eleven people killed in the last few years, and it is usually the companies, not the pilots, that are openly manipulating FAA rules, cutting corners and could well be putting profits over people.”

The company’s website was still online on Monday with a message to say it is “profoundly saddened by the tragic accident and loss of life that occurred on April 10, 2025, involving one of our helicopters in the Hudson River”.

The crash has drawn attention to the safety of civilian helicopter flights around Manhattan. The New York City mayor, Eric Adams has dismissed discussion of a blanket ban on helicopter tours in the city.

“That is part of the attraction of businesses being in the city, people coming to the city, seeing the city from the air,” Adams told NBC after the crash. “What we must do is make sure it’s safe, make sure it’s done correctly.”

But on the other side of the Hudson River, in New Jersey, opposition to air tourism is mounting, including from the mayor of Jersey City, which is just across the Hudson River from New York City.

“I think any reasonable person would come to the conclusion that the amount of air traffic over New York City and New Jersey – particularly Jersey City – is problematic,” the Jersey City mayor, Steve Fulop, told the Gothamist. “It’s just a matter of time before somebody else gets hurt.”

The Eastern Region Helicopter Council, an air tourism industry group, told the AP that New York City’s sightseeing tours “already operate under the most stringent of regulations”.

Thursday’s helicopter crash was one of two recent deadly mishaps involving small aircraft in New York. On Saturday, all six people aboard a twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B that crashed near the upstate community of Copake were killed.

The former college soccer star Karenna Groff – who was named the NCAA’s woman of the year in 2022 – was identified as one of the victims of that crash. Others included her father, Dr Michael Groff; her mother, Dr Joy Saini; her boyfriend, James Santoro; her brother, Jared Groff; and her brother’s partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte.

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

Investigators as of Monday had not determined what caused the crash.

NTSB officials have said air traffic controllers at New York’s Columbia county airport said the pilot reported a missed initial approach. The air traffic controllers then tried to alert the pilot to a low-altitude warning but could not reach him, officials said.

At least 85 sperm donors in the Netherlands have fathered 25 or more children, the national gynaecology and obstetrics organisation has said, after a new registration system showed fertility clinics have been breaking existing rules on sperm donation for decades.

The NVOG said on Monday that some clinics had deliberately used sperm batches more than 25 times, exchanged sperm without the necessary paperwork or donors’ knowledge, and allowed the same donors to donate sperm at multiple clinics.

“The number of so-called ‘mass donors’ should be zero,” gynaecologist Marieke Schoonenberg told the TV show Nieuwsuur. “On behalf of the whole profession, we wish to apologise. We didn’t do things as they should have been done.”

A law aimed at reducing the risk of involuntary incest and inbreeding should have barred donors from fathering more than 25 children in the Netherlands since 1992, but proved difficult to enforce because of strict privacy laws.

The limit was lowered to 12 in 2018, but the means to enforce it – a national register of donors and mothers with a code system ensuring sperm from the same donor cannot be used in more than 12 conceptions – came into force, retroactively, only in April.

“As a result, we now know, for the first time, the exact number of children per donor,” Schoonenberg said. Since 2004, when donors’ right to anonymity was lifted, the data showed there had been at least 85 “mass donors” (defined as at least 25 conceptions) in the Netherlands, she said.

Most were biological father to between 26 and 40 children, Schoonenberg said, although several had between 50 and 75. Among them were at least 10 fertility doctors, including Jan Karbaat, who illegally fathered at least 81 children at his clinic.

The most prolific donor was Jonathan Jacob Meijer, the subject of the Netflix documentary The Man with 1,000 Kids, who is known to have fathered at least 550 children worldwide. More than 100 of Meijer’s children were conceived in Dutch clinics.

Ties van der Meer, of Stichting Donorkind, a foundation that helps children trace their donor fathers, said the findings were a “medical calamity”. The data meant there were probably at least 3,000 children in the Netherlands with 25 or more half-brothers and sisters, he said.

“The harm done to people’s trust in the medical system, and in the governments that allowed all this to happen, is just the beginning,” van der Meer said, adding that both children and some of the donors would inevitably suffer more stress.

In a small, densely populated country such as the Netherlands, the children concerned were also likely to encounter more practical problems as they grew older, he said. “Once they start dating someone, they’re going to have to do DNA tests to make sure they’re not going out with a close relation,” van der Meer said.

He said it was essential that everyone involved was given all available information. The NVOG urged mothers, donors and children to contact their fertility clinics. The Dutch health ministry has said it will brief MPs on the findings this week.