Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.

This is the second, and more promising, time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet’s atmosphere by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

But the team and independent astronomers stress that more data is needed to confirm these results.

The lead researcher, Prof Nikku Madhusudhan, told me at his lab at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy that he hopes to obtain the clinching evidence soon.

“This is the strongest evidence yet there is possibly life out there. I can realistically say that we can confirm this signal within one to two years.”

K2-18b is two-and-a-half times the size of Earth and is 700 trillion miles, or 124 light years, away from us – a distance far beyond what any human could travel in a lifetime.

JWST is so powerful that it can analyse the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere from the light that passes through from the small red Sun it orbits.

The Cambridge group has found that the atmosphere seems to contain the chemical signature of at least one of two molecules that are associated with life: dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS). On Earth, these gases are produced by marine phytoplankton and bacteria.

Prof Madhusudhan said he was surprised by how much gas was apparently detected during a single observation window.

“The amount we estimate of this gas in the atmosphere is thousands of times higher than what we have on Earth,” he said.

“So, if the association with life is real, then this planet will be teeming with life,” he added.

Prof Madhusudhan went further: “If we confirm that there is life on K2-18b, it should basically confirm that life is very common in the galaxy.”

He told BBC Radio 5Live on Thursday: “This is a very important moment in science, but also very important to us as a species.

“If there is one example, and the universe being infinite, there is a chance for life on many more planets.”

Dr Subir Sarkar, a lecturer in astrophysics at Cardiff University and part of the research team, said the research suggests K2-18b could have an ocean which could be potentially full of life – though he cautioned scientists “don’t know for sure”.

He added that the research team’s work will continue to focus on looking for life on other planets: “Keep watching this space.”

There are lots of “ifs” and “buts” at this stage, as Prof Madhusudhan’s team freely admits.

Firstly, this latest detection is not at the standard required to claim a discovery.

For that, the researchers need to be about 99.99999% sure that their results are correct and not a fluke reading. In scientific jargon, that is a five sigma result.

These latest results are only three sigma, or 99.7%. Which sounds like a lot, but it is not enough to convince the scientific community. However, it is much more than the one sigma result of 68% the team obtained 18 months ago, which was greeted with much scepticism at the time.

But even if the Cambridge team obtains a five sigma result, that won’t be conclusive proof that life exists on the planet, according to Prof Catherine Heymans of Edinburgh University and Scotland’s Astronomer Royal, who is independent of the research team.

“Even with that certainty, there is still the question of what is the origin of this gas,” she told BBC News.

“On Earth it is produced by microorganisms in the ocean, but even with perfect data we can’t say for sure that this is of a biological origin on an alien world because loads of strange things happen in the Universe and we don’t know what other geological activity could be happening on this planet that might produce the molecules.”

That view is one the Cambridge team agree with. They are working with other groups to see if DMS and DMDS can be produced by non-living means in the lab.

“There is still a 0.3% chance that it might be a statistical fluke,” Prof Madhusudhan said.

Suggesting life may exist on another planet was “a big claim if true”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding: “So we want to be really, really thorough, and make more observations, and get the evidence to the level that there is less than a one-in-a-million chance of it being a fluke.”

He said this should be possible in “maybe one or two years”.

Other research groups have put forward alternative, lifeless, explanations for the data obtained from K2-18b. There is a strong scientific debate not only about whether DMS and DMDS are present but also the planet’s composition.

The reason many researchers infer that the planet has a vast liquid ocean is the absence of the gas ammonia in K2-18b’s atmosphere. Their theory is that the ammonia is absorbed by a vast body of water below.

But it could equally be explained by an ocean of molten rock, which would preclude life, according to Prof Oliver Shorttle of Cambridge University.

“Everything we know about planets orbiting other stars comes from the tiny amounts of light that glance off their atmospheres. So it is an incredibly tenuous signal that we are having to read, not only for signs of life, but everything else,” he said.

“With K2-18b part of the scientific debate is still about the structure of the planet.”

Dr Nicolas Wogan at Nasa’s Ames Research Center has yet another interpretation of the data. He published research suggesting that K2-18b is a mini gas giant with no surface.

Both these alternative interpretations have also been challenged by other groups on the grounds that they are inconsistent with the data from JWST, compounding the strong scientific debate surrounding K2-18b.

Prof Chris Lintott, presenter of the BBC’s The Sky at Night, said he had “great admiration” for Prof Madhusudhan’s team, but was treating the research with caution.

“I think we’ve got to be very careful about claiming that this is ‘a moment’ on the search to life. We’ve [had] such moments before,” he told Today.

He said the research should be seen instead as “part of a huge effort to try and understand what’s out there in the cosmos”.

Prof Madhusudhan acknowledges that there is still a scientific mountain to climb if he is to answer one of the biggest questions in science. But he believes he and his team are on the right track.

“Decades from now, we may look back at this point in time and recognise it was when the living universe came within reach,” he said.

“This could be the tipping point, where suddenly the fundamental question of whether we’re alone in the universe is one we’re capable of answering.”

The research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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There are some scientific discoveries that do much more than advance our knowledge: they create a shift in our psyche as they show us the scale of the Universe and our place in it.

One such moment was when space craft sent back images of the Earth for the first time. Another is the discovery of life on another world, a moment that has inched a little closer today with the news that signs of a gas, which on Earth is produced by simple marine organisms, has been found on a planet called K2-18b.

Now, the prospect of really finding alien life – meaning we are not alone in the Universe – is not far away, according to the scientist leading the team that made the detection.

“This is basically as big as it gets in terms of fundamental questions, and we may be on the verge of answering that question,” says Prof Nikku Madhusudhan of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University.

But all of this prompts even more questions, including, if they do find life on another world, how will this change us as a species?

Our ancestors have long created stories of beings that might dwell in the skies. In the early 20th Century, astronomers thought they could see straight line features on the Martian surface, raising speculation that one of our nearest planets might be home to an advanced civilisation: an idea that spawned a wealth of pulp science fiction culture involving flying saucers and little green aliens.

It was during an era when western governments generated fear of the spread of communism, so visitors from outer space were more often than not portrayed as menaces, bringing peril rather than hope.

But decades on, what has been described as “the strongest evidence yet” of life on another world has come, not from Mars or Venus, but from a planet hundreds of trillions of miles away orbiting a distant star.

Part of the challenge when it comes to researching the existence of alien life is knowing where to look.

Until relatively recently, the focus for Nasa’s search for life was Mars, but that began to change in 1992 with the discovery of the first planet orbiting another star outside of our solar system.

Although astronomers had suspected that there were other worlds around distant stars there had been no proof until that point. Since then, nearly 6,000 planets outside our solar system have been discovered.

Many are so-called gas giants, like Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system. Others are either too hot or too cold to support liquid water, thought to be essential for life.

But many are in what astronomers call “The Goldilocks Zone” where the distance is “just right” to support life. Prof Madhusudhan believes there could be thousands in our galaxy.

As these so-called exoplanets were being discovered, scientists began to develop instruments to analyse the chemical composition of their atmospheres. Their ambition was breathtaking, some would say audacious.

The idea was to capture the tiny amount of starlight glancing through the atmospheres of these faraway worlds and study them for chemical fingerprints of molecules, which on Earth can only be produced by living organisms, so-called biosignatures.

And they succeeded in developing such instruments for ground and space-based telescopes.

Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which detected the gas on the planet called K2-18b in this week’s discovery, is the most powerful space telescope ever built and its launch in 2021 generated excitement that the search for life was at long last within humanity’s grasp.

But JWST has its limits – it can’t detect faraway planets as small as ours or as close to their parent stars, because of the glare. So, Nasa is planning the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), scheduled for the 2030s, which will be able to spot and sample the atmospheres of planets similar to our own. (This is possible using what is effectively a high-tech sunshield that minimises light from the star which a planet orbits.)

Also coming online later this decade is the European Southern Observatory (ESO)’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which will be on the ground, looking up at the crystal-clear skies of the Chilean desert.

It has the largest mirror of any instrument built, 39-metres in diameter, and so can see vastly more detail at planetary atmospheres than its predecessors.

Prof Madhusudan, however, hopes to have enough data within two years to demonstrate categorically that he really has discovered the biosignatures around K2-18b. But even if he does achieve his aim, this won’t lead to mass celebrations about the discovery of life on another world.

Instead, it will be the start of another robust scientific debate about whether the biosignature could be produced by non-living means.

Eventually though, as more data is gathered from more atmospheres and as chemists fail in finding alternative explanations for biosignatures, the scientific consensus will slowly and gradually shift towards the probability that life does exist on other worlds, according to Prof Catherine Heymans, from Edinburgh University, who is Scotland’s Astronomer Royal.

“With more time on telescopes, astronomers will get a clearer vision of the chemical compositions of these atmospheres. You won’t know that it’s definitely life. But I think the more data that’s built up, and that if you see this in multiple different systems, not just this one particular planet, it gives us more confidence”.

The world wide web emerged in a series of incremental technological breakthroughs that didn’t necessarily feel of enormous consequence at the time.

In similar fashion, it may dawn on people that possibly the most enormous scientific, cultural and social transformation in the whole of human history has happened, but that the moment the balance was tipped in terms of there being other life out there was not fully recognised at the time.

A much more definitive discovery would be to discover life in our own solar system using robotic space craft containing portable laboratories. Any off-world bug could be analysed, possibly even brought back to Earth, providing prima facie evidence to at least significantly limit any scientific push back that may ensue.

The scientific case for the possibility of life or past life in our own solar system has increased in recent years following data sent back by various spacecraft, so several missions to search for signs of it are on their way.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars rover, planned for launch in 2028, will drill below the surface of Mars to search for signs of past and possibly present life. Given the extreme conditions on Mars, however, the discovery of fossilised past life is the more likely outcome.

China’s Tianwen-3 mission, also planned for launch in 2028 is designed to collect samples and bring them back to Earth by 2031. Nasa and ESA each have spacecraft on their way to the icy moons of Jupiter to see if there may be water, possibly vast oceans, under their icy surfaces.

But the spacecraft are not designed to find life itself. Instead, these missions lay the ground for future missions which will, according to Prof Michele Dougherty of Imperial College, London.

“It is a long, slow process,” she says. “The next decision to make would be a lander, which moon it goes to, and where we should be landing.

“You don’t want to land where the ice crust is so thick that there is no way you can get underneath the surface. And so, it’s a long, slow burn, but it’s pretty exciting en route”.

Nasa is also sending a spacecraft called Dragonfly to land on one of the moons of Saturn, Titan in 2034. It is an exotic world with what are thought to be lakes and clouds made from carbon-rich chemicals which give the planet an eerie orange haze, bringing The Beatles‘ song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to mind: a world with “marmalade skies”.

Along with water these chemicals are thought to be a necessary ingredient for life.

Prof Dougherty is one of the leading planetary scientists in her field. Does she think there is life on one of the icy Moons of Jupiter or Saturn?

“I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t,” she says, beaming with delight.

“Three things are required: a heat source, liquid water and organic (carbon-based) chemicals. If we have those three ingredients, the chances that life is able to form rises really steeply.

If simple life forms are found to exist that is no guarantee that more complex life forms are out there.

Prof Madhusudhan believes that, if confirmed, simple life should be “pretty common” in the galaxy. “But going from that simple life to complex life is a big step, and that is an open question. How that step happens? What are the conditions that govern that? We don’t know that. And then going from there to intelligent life is another big step.”

Dr Robert Massey, who is the deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, agrees that the emergence of intelligent life on another world is much less likely than simple life.

“When we see the emergence of life on Earth, it was so complex. It took such a long time for multi-cellular life to emerge and then evolve into diverse life forms.

“The big question is whether there was something about the Earth that made that evolution possible. Do we need exactly the same conditions, our size, our oceans and land masses for that to happen on other worlds or will that happen regardless?”

He believes that the discovery of even simple alien life would be the latest chapter in the diminution of humanity’s place in the cosmos.

As he puts it, centuries ago, we believed we were at the centre of the Universe and with each discovery in astronomy we have found ourselves “more displaced” from that point. “I think the discovery of life elsewhere it would further reduce our specialness,” he says.

Prof Dougherty, on the other hand, believes that such a discovery in our own solar system would be good for science, and good for the soul.

“The discovery of even simple life will allow us a better understanding about how we might have evolved way back those millions of aeons ago when we first evolved. And so, for me, it’s helping us find our place in the Universe.

“If we know there is life, elsewhere in our solar system and potentially beyond, [this] would somehow be comforting to me, knowing that we’re a fabric of something larger will make us bigger”.

Never before have scientists searched so hard for life on other worlds and never before have they had such incredible tools to do this with. And many working in the field believe that it is a matter of when, rather than if, they discover life on other worlds. And rather than bringing fear, the discovery of alien life will bring hope, according to Prof Madhusudhan.

“When we would look at the sky, we would see not just physical objects, stars and planets, we would see a living sky. The societal ramifications of that are immense. It will be a huge transformational change in the way we look at ourselves in the cosmic scene.

“It will fundamentally change the human psyche in how we view ourselves and each other, and any barriers, linguistic, political, geographical, will dissolve, as we realise we are all one. And that will bring us closer,” he continues.

“It will be another step in our evolution”.

A controversial new law introduced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has put the spotlight on waqf, or properties donated by Indian Muslims over centuries.

Waqf is a tradition across many Muslim-majority countries, where these properties are used to house and operate schools, orphanages, hospitals, banks and graveyards.

The properties in India are managed by waqf boards formed by different state governments. A federal organisation called the Central Waqf Council coordinates their functioning.

But thousands of these land tracts, worth billions of rupees, have been mired in legal disputes across the country for decades.

For instance, in India’s capital Delhi, there are more than a thousand of these properties, including mosques, graveyards and mausoleums. Emblems of the city’s centuries-old Islamic heritage, they have been used for religious, educational and charitable purposes to benefit the community. At least 123 of them are locked in long-running ownership disputes between the city’s waqf board and the federal government.

They form just a fraction of thousands of such cases fought by waqf boards across India against private parties – Muslims and non-Muslims – as well as government departments. It is one of the challenges that the federal government claims will be resolved through the new law, called the Waqf Amendment Act 2025, which has brought in dozens of changes to the existing system.

Many Muslim leaders and opposition parties have criticised the law, calling it an attempt to weaken the rights of minorities, and it has sparked protests and violence in some states. India’s Supreme Court has also begun hearing a bunch of pleas challenging the law.

Waqf disputes stem from a number of reasons – unclear land titles, oral declarations of properties as waqf, inconsistent laws, collusion with land mafias and years of official neglect.

Government data shows that of 872,852 waqf properties in India (on paper), at least 13,200 are entangled in legal battles, 58,889 have been encroached upon and more than 436,000 have unclear status.

Some of these claims have attracted national attention. For instance, waqf boards in different states are accused of wrongly claiming ownership of a predominantly Christian village in Kerala, several government buildings in Gujarat and a large tract of land used by farmers in Karnataka.

The federal government says waqf boards have declared ownership over 5,973 of its properties across India – an assertion denied by the boards which insist they rightfully own these sites.

Some disputes are traced back to India’s partition in 1947. In Punjab, more than half of the state’s 75,965 waqf properties have been “encroached”, a legacy of migration that left many Muslim estates in limbo. “Some owners fled to Pakistan, and others arrived and claimed the same properties,” said Mohammad Reyaz, who teaches at a university in Kolkata.

In Delhi, the 123 disputed properties are claimed by departments under the federal urban and housing ministry, while the waqf says its ownership dates back to the British era and earlier. Attempts by governments and courts to resolve the issue have not been successful.

As far back as 1923, lawmakers in British-ruled India had flagged concerns over waqf properties slipping away from Muslim control. The MPs pushed for their registration, warning that managers supposed to take care of the properties were wrongly listing themselves as owners – a practice critics say continues even today.

Prof Reyaz says such disputes have increased as land prices rise.

“Not many cared for every piece of land 40-50 years ago, but as its importance has grown, members of the community or descendants of the donors have started claiming the waqf land, often resulting in disputes in places where people have lived for generations, either after buying or encroaching on the land,” he says.

Disputes also stem from attempts by waqf boards to suddenly claim land they have long neglected. So, despite them being government organisations, the boards are being criticised for their unchecked power to claim properties.

Part of the concern is because of repeated assertions by media and politicians that the decision of the waqf tribunal – a specialised judicial organisation that hears waqf disputes – is final, says Mohd Ismail Khan, a Hyderabad-lawyer involved in several waqf-related cases. But the final authority, he points out, are higher courts.

Even under the old law – which the government said gave “draconian” powers to claim property ownership – waqf boards frequently failed to safeguard their own interests.

Afroz Alam Sahil, a journalist who has extensively covered waqf-related issues, highlighted these weaknesses in 2011 with a question filed under the right to information law about Delhi’s graveyards. The Delhi Waqf Board initially reported 562, later revising the number down to 488.

But in 2014, a waqf board official told him – in a BBC Hindi report – that only 70-80 graveyards remained under its supervision in the city.

This lack of clarity extends to other properties too. In 2008, says Mr Sahil, the Delhi Waqf Board issued a list of 1,964 properties under it in the city, but a federal government statement this month put that number at only 1,047. It’s not clear what has happened to the 917 properties missing from the list.

The BBC has reached out to the Central Waqf Council and Delhi Waqf Board for comment.

While most stakeholders agree that the system needs reform, critics fear the new bill will not improve the situation.

A major cause for concern is the removal of a provision called “waqf by user” – which allowed properties to be designated as waqf if they had been used for religious or charitable purposes by Muslims over time.

According to government records, 402,000 waqf properties are classified as “waqf by user”. This could be because they were orally donated decades or even centuries ago, without deeds or documents.

A federal minister has said in parliament that existing waqf-by-user properties – registered with the government before the new law came into force – will remain so unless their ownership has already been disputed. But it is not clear how many such properties have been formally registered.

Critics argue that eliminating this provision will spark new disputes and worsen existing ones as it could give rise to new claimants even for properties that have been actively used over the years.

One of the petitions submitted in the Supreme Court argues that since much of the waqf land is “not created under any deed” but was classified as “waqf by user”, much of the properties will cease to fall under the category.

The removal of the “waqf by user” provision also brings into question a 1998 Supreme Court ruling that said “once a waqf, always a waqf”, meaning once a property is donated as waqf, its character couldn’t be changed.

Syed Zafar Mahmood, a former bureaucrat, said this change in the new law could affect tens of thousands of waqf properties.

“Very few properties will remain waqf assets, while the rest may cease to exist,” he told BBC Hindi.

Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton has clarified he believes in climate change after facing backlash for comments made during an election debate on Wednesday night.

Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were asked about the increasing impact of climate change, to which Dutton replied he would “let scientists and others pass that judgment”.

He had previously said that flooding and natural disasters were “part of the history of our state of this country”. The comments generated outrage from climate groups and mockery from Albanese.

“I believe in climate change, and that it is a reality” Dutton said while campaigning on Monday.

During Wednesday’s debate, Dutton responded to the moderator’s question on whether flooding and natural disasters were getting worse by saying, “I don’t know because I’m not a scientist”.

“I can’t tell you whether the temperature has risen in Thargomindah because of climate change or the water levels are up,” he added.

Meanwhile Albanese, who had said Dutton’s words showed “no acceptance of the science of climate change” continued mocking his opponent on Thursday, asking “does he believe in gravity?”

Environmental organisations have reacted to Dutton’s debate remarks with dismay.

Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie told the Guardian “it’s outrageous for a senior political leader to be so out of touch that they claim they “don’t know” the risks Australians are facing.”

A report from the non-profit released earlier this month stated one in 23 properties across the country were found to be at high risk from climate change.

Australian Conservation Foundation Chief Executive Kelly O’Shanassy called Dutton’s words “a serious concern” in an interview with the Canberra Times, adding that “the next parliament is the last parliament that can get Australia’s massive contribution to climate change under control.”

Albanese was also questioned on his climate policy during the debate, though for different reasons.

The prime minister has championed renewable energy throughout his time in office, but has faced backlash for rising power bills.

Asked when fees would fall, the prime minister did not directly reply. Instead, he stressed renewables were the “cheapest form of power”.

In March, Labor announced it would extend a relief system for the bills, providing a further automatic $150AUD ($95;£72) rebate to households and small businesses.

The hour-long debate also saw the two party leaders pressed on other hot button issues for Australia including housing and foreign policy, in particular Australia’s relationship to the US.

As the trade war between China and the US escalates, attention has been focused on the increasingly high levels of tit-for-tat tariffs the two countries are imposing on one another.

But slapping reciprocal tariffs on Washington is not the only way Beijing has been able to retaliate.

China has now also imposed export controls on a range of critical rare earth minerals and magnets, dealing a major blow to the US.

The move has laid bare how reliant America is on these minerals.

This week, Trump ordered the commerce department to come up with ways to boost US production of critical minerals and cut reliance on imports – an attempt by Washington to reclaim this critical industry. But why exactly are rare earths so important and how could they shake up the trade war?

“Rare earths” are a group of 17 chemically similar elements that are crucial to the manufacture of many high-tech products.

Most are abundant in nature, but they are known as “rare” because it is very unusual to find them in a pure form, and they are very hazardous to extract.

Although you may not be familiar with the names of these rare earths – like Neodymium, Yttrium and Europium – you will be very familiar with the products that they are used in.

For instance, Neodymium is used to make the powerful magnets used in loudspeakers, computer hard drives, EV motors and jet engines that enable them to be smaller and more efficient.

Yttrium and Europium are used to manufacture television and computer screens because of the way they display colours.

“Everything you can switch on or off likely runs on rare earths,” explains Thomas Kruemmer, Director of Ginger International Trade and Investment.

Rare earths are also critical to the production of medical technology like laser surgery and MRI scans, as well as key defence technologies.

China has a near monopoly on extracting rare earths as well as on refining them – which is the process of separating them from other minerals.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that China accounts for about 61% of rare earth production and 92% of their processing.

That means it currently dominates the rare earths supply chain and has the capacity to decide which companies can and cannot receive supplies of rare earths.

Both the extraction and processing of these rare earths are costly and polluting.

All rare earth resources also contain radioactive elements, which is why many other countries, including those in the EU, are reluctant to produce them.

“Radioactive waste from production absolutely requires safe, compliant, permanent disposal. Currently all disposal facilities in EU are temporary,” says Mr Kruemmer.

But China’s dominance in the rare earth supply chain didn’t take place overnight – but rather, is the result of decades of strategic government policies and investment.

In a visit to Inner Mongolia in 1992, the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who oversaw China’s economic reform, famously said: “The Middle East has oil and China has rare earths”.

“Beginning in the late 20th century, China prioritised the development of its rare earth mining and processing capabilities, often at lower environmental standards and labour costs compared to other nations,” said Gavin Harper, a critical materials research fellow at the University of Birmingham.

“This allowed them to undercut global competitors and build a near-monopoly across the entire value chain, from mining and refining to the manufacturing of finished products like magnets.”

In response to tariffs imposed by Washington, China earlier this month began ordering restrictions on the exports of seven rare earth minerals – most of which are known as “heavy” rare earths, which are crucial to the defence sector.

These are less common and are harder to process than “light” rare earths, which also makes them more valuable.

From 4 April, all companies now have to get special export licenses in order to send rare earths and magnets out of the country.

That is because as a signatory to the international treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, China has the ability to control the trade of “dual use products”.

According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), this leaves the US particularly vulnerable as there is no capacity outside China to process heavy rare earths.

A US Geological report notes that between 2020 and 2023, the US relied on China for 70% of its imports of all rare earth compounds and metals.

This means that the new restrictions have the ability to hit the US hard.

Heavy rare earths are used in many military fields such as missiles, radar, and permanent magnets.

A CSIS report notes that defence technologies including F-35 jets, Tomahawk missiles and Predator unmanned aerial vehicles all depend on these minerals.

It adds that this comes as China “expands its munitions production and acquires advanced weapons systems and equipment at a pace five to six times faster than the United States”.

“The impact on the US defence industry will be substantial,” said Mr Kroemmer.

And it’s not only in the field of defence.

US manufacturing, which Trump has said he hopes to revive through the imposition of his tariffs, stand to be severely impacted.

“Manufacturers, particularly in defence and high-tech, face potential shortages and production delays due to halted shipments and limited inventories,” said Dr Harper.

“Prices for critical rare earth materials are expected to surge, increasing the immediate costs of components used in a wide range of products, from smartphones to military hardware,” he says, adding that this could result in potential production slowdowns for affected US companies.

If such a shortage from China persists in the long-run, the US could potentially begin diversifying its supply chains and scaling up its domestic and processing capabilities, though this would still require “substantial and sustained investment, technological advancements and potentially higher overall costs compared to the previous dependence on China”.

And it’s clear this is something already on Trump’s mind. This week, he ordered an investigation into the national security risks posed by the US’ reliance on such critical minerals.

“President Trump recognises that an overreliance on foreign critical minerals and their derivative products could jeopardise US defence capabilities, infrastructure development, and technological innovation,” said the order.

“Critical minerals, including rare earth elements, are essential for national security and economic resilience.”

The US has one operational rare earths mine, but it does not have the capacity to separate heavy rare earths and has to send its ore to China for processing.

There used to be US companies that manufactured rare earth magnets – until the 1980s, the US was in fact the largest producer of rare earths.

But these companies exited the market as China began to dominate in terms of scale and cost.

This is largely believed to be part of why US president Donald Trump is so keen to sign a minerals deal with Ukraine – it wants to reduce dependency on China.

Another place Trump has had his eye on is Greenland – which is endowed with the eighth largest reserves of rare earth elements.

Trump has repeatedly showed interest in taking control of the autonomous Danish dependent territory and has refused to rule out economic or military force to take control of it.

These might have been places that the US could have sourced some of its rare earth exports from, but the adversarial tone Trump has struck with them means the US could be left with very few alternative suppliers.

“The challenge the U.S. faces is two-fold, on the one hand it has alienated China who provides the monopoly supply of rare earths, and on the other hand it is also antagonising many nations that have previously been friendly collaborators through tariffs and other hostile actions,” said Dr Harper.

“Whether they will still prioritise collaboration with America remains to be seen in the turbulent policy environment of this new administration.”

The fortunes of India’s BluSmart, a popular electric ride hailing service and once a formidable rival to Uber, have quickly unravelled, with the company halting new cab bookings.

The brand, which still has India’s largest all electric ride-hailing fleet of more than 8,000 cars, set high service standards, including well maintained cars and polite drivers.

Quality was BluSmart’s biggest selling point as it took on bigger rivals – marred by badly maintained taxis, rude drivers and frequent cancellations – by offering a significantly more premium product that cost only a little more.

The possibility of its closure has led to hundreds taking to social media to express anger and sadness.

“As a frequent BluSmart user, the news of the service shutting down hits hard. Another service one got used to, lost to mismanagement,” one user said on X.

Although many people said they had already received a refund of their money saved in BluSmart’s digital wallet, some expressed anxiety about being asked to wait for 90 days.

So, what went wrong with a start-up that once raised millions of dollars in funding from marquee global investors and found a spot on every major clean-tech awards list since it launched in 2019?

The decision to halt services in the three cities it served – Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi – came after Indian market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), alleged that BluSmart’s founders Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi were diverting loans from another firm they owned to buy luxury apartments and golf equipment. The loans were meant to help BluSmart lease new cars.

BluSmart has not responded to the BBC’s questions.

The problem appears to be with both gross financial mismanagement alleged by the regulator and also the way in which BluSmart business model was structured.

Unlike traditional cab aggregators who lease their vehicles from individual drivers, BluSmart leased its fleet from companies – in particular from one firm called Gensol Engineering Limited (GEL), a stock market listed solar energy and EV leasing firm which is also run by the Jaggis.

Last month, credit ratings agencies CARE Ratings and ICRA downgraded the investment rating of GEL after they found that BluSmart had defaulted on its payments to the company.

ICRA also said it had received feedback from GEL’s lenders about delays in servicing debt and alleged that it had falsified records regarding its loans obligations, which raised concerns about the company’s corporate governance and liquidity position.

With its funding crunch seemingly intensifying, GEL has reportedly been in the market to sell some 3,000 electric vehicles it had bought to lease to BluSmart, upending latter’s ride-hailing business entirely.

The promoters of GEL and BluSmart publicly denied allegations made by the ratings agencies, but they were damning enough for India’s market regulator to launch its own inquiry which found that the company’s problems ran much deeper than just loan defaults.

“What has been witnessed in the present matter is a complete breakdown of internal controls and corporate governance norms in Gensol, a listed company,” Sebi said in its order. “The company’s funds were routed to related parties and used for unconnected expenses, as if the company’s funds were promoters’ piggy bank.”

The regulator further said that while the alleged “fund diversion” primarily occurred in the context of electric vehicle (EV) purchases intended for leasing to BluSmart, the risk it has created is “neither isolated nor contained”.

This is partly because the cars leased to BluSmart by GEL were financed by state lenders like the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA), who could now potentially be staring at huge losses.

The founders have now resigned from its board following an order from Sebi. The regulator has also barred the promoters from any activity in the stock market. All of this follows a mass exodus of BluSmart senior leadership, including of its chief executive officer and chief technology officer last month.

The saga has also led to millions of dollars of investor money being wiped out, with the share price of GEL crashing some 90% in the last year.

The independent directors have a “fiduciary responsibility, they need to be answerable”, said Dr Aniruddha Malpani, an activist angel investor.

Anil Singhvi who runs a corporate governance advisory firm, told the BBC the incident raised serious questions about continuing lapses of governance at Indian start-ups, where founders have often been caught “bungling”.

While BluSmart is “collateral damage”, he said, there were question marks about how sustainable its business model was, given continuing losses, growing competition and slowing consumer spending in India that would have led to the defaults.

For now GEL has said it is working to stabilise its operations following the revelations and will appoint a forensic auditor to examine the accounts of the company and its related entities. It is not clear whether BluSmart’s cab services will restart.

Beijing insists it will stand firm in the face of Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods. It has been trying to reassure everyone that the country is strong and the economy is resilient enough to weather this latest storm.

But this week, Chinese officials have acknowledged the potential for economic pain as a result of the unfolding trade war with the US.

One option for policymakers here is to try to increase domestic consumption to make up for lost export revenue.

China has a massive population and, if they start buying more stuff, Chinese companies won’t have to rely as much on trade overseas.

A key target in this endeavour are retirees with potentially decades of savings.

Now the government wants them to spend some of it – for the good of the country.

And initiatives like the “silver trains” – which are tailored specifically to older travellers – aim to do just that.

On board the Star Express, the cocktails are poured and the karaoke microphone is passed around, as retirees party their way through China’s south-western Yunnan province.

The roast goose is being devoured with shots of baijiu, a Chinese white spirit alcohol.

“We have been working hard all these years,” says 66-year-old Daniel Ling, who is travelling with a group of retired or semi-retired friends.

“The important thing when we reach this age, is to know what is the right thing to do – and that is to really enjoy life.”

The initiative hopes to turn an economic problem into an economic solution by giving older people a fun avenue to spend more.

Families are not spending enough because they don’t feel financially safe – the property crisis has diminished the value of their number one asset: their home. And growing unemployment has also potentially made their job less secure.

Add to the mix an ageing population and low birthrates and the proportion of retirees grows each year, making it harder for the economy to support them.

But what retirees do have is time on their hands and money to spend.

So now they are to be given more opportunities to splurge with special trains designed to take them to sites they might not normally visit – parts of the country further afield, which need a financial shot in the arm.

“The main places where the silver trains will stop are undeveloped rural areas or small towns with struggling economies,” says Dr Huang Huang, a research associate from the China Tourism Academy who has been studying the potential impact of this plan.

“They will consume various products on the trains, but after they pull into a station, they will also visit tourist attractions and traditional villages.”

In Baisha, the travellers stop by the modest street stalls at the bottom of old, two-storey, wooden houses built by the local Naxi ethnic minority.

One of them approaches a vendor selling barbecued strips of yak meat. They look tasty and she buys a bagful. The vendor’s husband, who is also working at the stall, says this business is only a year old and that they need outside customers to survive.

All along this street you can get potatoes with spicy sauce, lamb skewers, fresh orange juice and the traditional clothing of the Naxi people.

This is a region where incomes are low and most young people leave when they reach a certain age because there are hardly any jobs for them.

It is also not an easy place for many retirees to reach, but these silver trains make it possible, with easy access to boarding and alighting, and with staff to help as well as extra medical support if required.

Shi Lili, 69, whose granddaughter is accompanying her, says the travelling spirit of her youth has been rekindled: “When I was young I really liked exploring other places by myself. Now I’m older, I have my family who can go with me.”

By the end of last year, 22% of China’s population were over the age of 60, making up more than 310 million people.

So, if only the smallest percentage of China’s retirees take “silver trains”, it can still mean millions of ticket sales. And China’s railway authorities say they plan to be operating 100 routes within the next three years.

Such trips alone are not going to fix China’s massive challenge with low consumer spending. But economists would say these moves are a step in the right direction.

Older citizens now have a much greater desire to travel compared to previous generations, creating “huge potential”, according to Dr Huang.

“Given that China’s ageing population is now a reality going into the long run – something which is unlikely to the reversed – we should find more opportunities from this rather than always turning it into a challenge.”

Back on board the train, the silver adventurers are ready to crash out. And they can do so knowing that their big day out was – at least partly – for the benefit of all.

Then it’s onto the next town.

A Tesla whistleblower who has fought Elon Musk and his company through the courts for years has won the latest round of a long-running legal battle.

Engineer Cristina Balan lost her job after she raised a safety concern in 2014 about a design flaw which could affect the cars’ braking.

Her defamation claim against the firm seemed to have run out of road when a judge confirmed an arbitration decision dismissing her case – but a panel of appeal judges in California has reversed this decision in her favour.

She told BBC News she now wants to face Elon Musk and Tesla in open court.

Tesla has not responded to a request for comment.

Ms Balan said she believes the case will now in effect go back to square one, and new proceedings can be launched.

“We are hoping we will start a new lawsuit and we will have the chance to take on Elon Musk in front of a jury and judge,” she said.

The engineer was once so prominent at Tesla that her initials were engraved on the batteries inside Model S vehicles.

In an interview with BBC News last year, she said she is determined to prove her innocence for the sake of her son.

She also revealed she was in remission from stage-3B breast cancer, and her biggest worry was she may not live to see her final day in court.

Ms Balan claimed she was worried the carpets were curling underneath some pedals in Tesla models, creating a safety hazard.

She said managers rebuffed her concerns, became hostile, and she lost her job.

She then won a wrongful dismissal case – but this turned out to be the start of a long journey through the courts.

Ms Balan was publicly accused by Tesla of using its resources for a “secret project” – accusations which amount to embezzlement, a crime under US law.

She has consistently denied the accusation, and decided to bring a defamation case against the firm in 2019.

“I want to clear my name,” she told BBC News last year.

“I wish Elon Musk had the decency to apologise.”

A court then decided Ms Balan’s case should be subject to arbitration per a contract she signed while working for Tesla.

The arbitrator found in favour of the firm and Musk, dismissing her claims, due to California’s statute of limitations – meaning too much time had passed since the alleged defamatory statements were made.

Tesla brought the case back to a district court in California to have the decision confirmed.

However, Ms Balan appealed this decision, and judges from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found in her favour – in effect deciding the California court did not have the jurisdiction to make its judgement.

They have ordered for the confirmation of the arbitration award to be cancelled, and for the district court to dismiss the action due to its lack of jurisdiction.

The majority of legal experts the BBC has spoken to believe the case has some way to go before there will be any conclusion.

“Tesla is among the many corporations that force employees and customers into opaque arbitration processes and deploy aggressive strategies to retaliate against employees who voice criticism of corporate practices,” said Stanford professor Anat Admati.

And Bill Moran, Ms Balan’s attorney, agreed the legal process is far from over.

But he said the case was “revived” by the latest ruling.

“We are confident we can secure her either a new arbitration or alternatively a trial in court so that her case can be heard on the merits after so many years,” he said.

“She has fought cancer while waging this case… she is the epitome of strength and resolve, and she is now one step closer to getting the justice she deserves.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is heading to the US to meet Donald Trump – a visit that will see her walk a tightrope between representing the interests of the EU and remaining in the US president’s good books.

As the first European leader to travel to Washington since Trump introduced – then paused – 20% tariffs on the EU earlier in April, Meloni will be hoping to convince him of the merits of a “zero-for-zero” tariffs deal for the entire EU.

Italy is particularly vulnerable to any changes to US trade policy.

Around 10% of its exports – worth about €67bn (£57bn; $76bn) – go to the US, Italy’s third biggest non-EU trading partner, and the tariffs announced by Trump earlier this month caused Rome to halve its growth forecast.

“We know this is a difficult time,” Meloni said ahead of her trip. “We will do our best – I am aware of what I represent and of what I am defending.”

At this fraught moment, she is perhaps one of the best-placed current European leaders to speak to Trump. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen recognises that and they have been speaking regularly ahead of the trip.

Trump and Meloni famously enjoy a good relationship and have lavished praise on one another in the past. He has called her a “fantastic woman” who has “really taken Europe by storm”.

For her part, Meloni – who has headed a right-wing coalition government since 2022 – is ideologically closer to Trump than to some of her European neighbours.

In a video message to a US conservative conference in February, she echoed some of Trump’s common talking points, railing against mass migration, “globalist elites” and “woke ideology”.

She was also the only European leader to attend the US president’s inauguration in January, and has steered clear of overtly criticising the work of his administration since.

The harshest criticism she has dispensed was earlier this month, when she said Trump’s decision to impose 20% tariffs on the EU was “absolutely wrong” and that it would end up damaging the EU “as much as the US”.

“Meloni has always said that Europe shouldn’t take any decisions that put it on a collision course with the US, and that Europe should adapt rather than resist,” said Riccardo Alcaro of the Italian Institute for International Affairs in Rome.

“If the Trump administration is immovable on tariffs, she’ll agree to counter-tariffs. But her first move is always to say no. Because ultimately she thinks the importance of the West in the world is thanks to the US, and that the West revolves around the US.”

Meloni’s world view is also closer to that of many of Trump’s main allies than many of her European neighbours.

“She knows that Italy is strategically, politically and economically subordinate to the EU – but she also has a genuine proximity to MAGA Republicans,” Alcaro added.

US Vice-President JD Vance is due to travel to Rome on Friday for Easter, and will see Meloni as well as leading officials at the Vatican.

Meloni’s natural affinity to an administration many in Europe are having trouble finding common ground with has sparked concern among some Europeans that, in the privacy of the Oval Office, she may be tempted to go at it alone and argue for more favourable terms for Italy.

Last week France’s Industry Minister Marc Ferracci spoke out against “bilateral talks” and warned Trump’s strategy was to “divide Europeans”.

His comments irritated Rome and had to be toned down later by a French government spokesperson.

The European Commission has signalled it has confidence in Meloni, and a spokeswoman said “any outreach to the US [was] very welcome”.

However, the spokeswoman also said Meloni’s trip was being “closely coordinated” with the institutions, and underlined that handling trade policy was a job for the EU.

The EU negotiates on behalf of all member states, and no single country can negotiate lower tariffs for its own benefit.

Meloni’s team appears clear on this and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that Meloni “isn’t going to negotiate for Italy against Europe but is going to champion a European stance”.

Ultimately the Italian leader’s mission may be to emphasise to Trump that the EU is keen to reach a zero-tariff agreement and commit to buying American – especially when it comes to defence and liquified natural gas (LNG).

And, in more hushed tones, she may also tell him that Europe is in no rush to make any deals with China.

“I don’t know how public this will be but I think there will be some anti-China discourse as an incentive for the US administration,” Riccardo Alcaro said.

At home, party allies were singing Meloni’s praises before her plane to Washington even left the ground.

“This meeting shows Giorgia Meloni’s courage and stature,” said Brothers of Italy (FdI) MP Augusta Montarulli – although Senator Giovanbattista Fazzolari, somewhat less encouragingly, warned the trip would be “full of potential pitfalls”.

And centre-left opposition parties took the opportunity to berate Meloni’s proximity to the Trump administration.

“I have a feeling that upon her return Meloni will be flying the Trump flag rather than Italy’s or Europe’s,” said Peppe Provenzano of the Democratic Party (PD).

“I hope to be proven wrong.”

At an awards ceremony in Rome on Tuesday, Meloni addressed a room packed with entrepreneurs and business leaders – the very same who stand to lose the most from Trump’s tariffs.

Looking ahead to her trip to Washington, she chuckled nervously.

“As you can imagine,” she joked, “I’m feeling no pressure at all.”

After British actress Aimee Lou Wood called a Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch that impersonated her using exaggerated prosthetic teeth “mean and unfunny,” impressionists have told BBC News how they tread the line between being funny and offensive.

It all began with five minutes on NBC last Saturday night.

Titled The White Potus – a spin on hit HBO dark comedy The White Lotus – a SNL sketch depicted US president Donald Trump, his family and top team spending time at a fictional tropical hotel.

After jokes showing Eric Trump blending a gold Rolex watch and Ivanka Trump rejecting a spiritual call to give up material wealth, Wood’s White Lotus character Chelsea is portrayed by cast member Sarah Sherman using a pronounced accent and large teeth.

In response to a comment made by a character playing US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, she asks: “Fluoride? What’s that?”

The mineral is added to some water supplies and brands of toothpaste to help prevent tooth decay.

For BBC Radio 4’s Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens, the first misstep of the writers behind the SNL sketch was “not reading the room”.

It was a bad idea to joke about someone’s appearance in a sketch about The White Lotus, Ravens says, given Wood’s casting has been praised for a character lacking “those all-American, fake-looking teeth”.

“In the wake of all that, she’s been talking about how she was bullied at school and the butt of jokes. So then you think, ‘why would you do that joke’?”

It meant that in making fun of Wood’s appearance, the sketch “punched down,” says Ravens.

“You might make a joke about Donald Trump’s appearance because you’re definitely not punching down on the most powerful man in the western world.”

Ronni Ancona, co-writer and star of the early 2000s TV series The Big Impression, said she “could see” that the writers were also trying to make a point about US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s pledge to remove fluoride from US drinking water.

But in doing so, “they would have made this tenuous link between fluoride and Aimee Lou’s teeth. It’s a bit of a cheap shot,” she told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday.

After the show aired, Wood, 31, 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.”

Later on, in a post on social media, she said: “I’ve had apologies from SNL.”

However, Francine Lewis, a comedian whose impersonations have earned her a large following on social media, says the whole purpose of the US show is to “take the mick”.

While she can sympathise with someone being “embarrassed” by being the target of a sketch, Lewis adds that she thinks Wood’s response was “too sensitive”.

In her own impressions of celebrities, which include TV stars Gemma Collins and Stacey Solomon, Lewis has stuffed a pillow up her top to appear to be physically larger and put cotton wool on her teeth “to make them really white and jut out a bit”.

In recent times, both fans and some of her targets have taken offence.

“I don’t know if it’s just the new generation of young people that just take offence to every little thing,” she says.

“People that say you’re a troll, you’re a bully… I find myself hiding at celebrity events because I think ‘oh I do their impression, they might not like me’.”

But she believes that being impersonated is actually a marker of someone’s popularity and fame, saying that “it means you’ve arrived”.

Rather than adapting her impressions, Lewis is steadfast in her belief that “to make comedy funny, unfortunately you have to overstep the mark.”

It’s a view shared by Steve Nallon, known for impersonating former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on satirical TV programme Spitting Image.

“What caricaturists do by nature… is exaggerate the physicality. If a caricaturist is stopped from doing that, there’s no point in him being a caricaturist,” he says.

During the 1980s, one of his targets – former Labour minister Roy Hattersley – was mocked for a slight speech impediment, with water spurting out of his mouth as he spoke.

“The joke was Roy Hattersley spits,” says Nallon, who adds that Hattesley allegedly got on board with the joke after initially taking offence.

For Nallon, those in the public eye will always be fair game. “Maybe it’s not a bad lesson to learn that you’ve got to have the mickey taken out of you occasionally,” he says.

But times have changed. Ravens says that “people are much more sensitive” about targeting certain aspects of people’s appearances and mannerisms “than they used to be earlier on in my career, for example, and I think rightly so”.

This is not the first time SNL has received criticism of their portrayals.

It doesn’t mean the comedy is lost, says Ravens. In political satire – which was the main thrust of the SNL sketch – a really good impression satirises what the person is saying, rather than just fixating on how they look or how they deliver it, she adds.

During our phone interview, she seamlessly breaks into an impression of former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, but notes that just speaking in a tense, clipped way, “is only good for one line really”.

“You’re pricking pomposity and you’re exposing hypocrisy. That’s the point of satire.”

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After decades spent in prison by Erik and Lyle Menendez – and months of contentious court fights – a judge will hear arguments on whether the brothers should be resentenced, in a murder case that still divides America.

The pair are serving life in prison for killing their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, in 1989, when they were 21 and 18. Their case gained renewed attention after a popular Netflix series last year.

Thursday’s resentencing hearing will determine whether the pair should be resentenced to a lesser penalty. If approved, the brothers could become eligible for parole – potentially allowing their freedom.

Prosecutors at the time argued Erik and Lyle meticulously planned the killings so they could access their parents’ fortune. The current Los Angeles District Attorney says the brothers have continued to cling to lies about the case.

But the brothers’ lawyers have long argued the killings were an act of self-defence and claimed their father abused them for years. They have also pointed to court filings detailing their rehabilitation during their years behind bars.

Here is what to expect from the hearing – and a recap of how we got here.

The brothers shot and killed their parents with shotguns at their Beverly Hills mansion. There has long been a debate over their motive.

Prosecutors painted them during their trials as spoiled rich kids who wanted to access their parents’ $14m (£10.7m) fortune. They argued that the duo methodically bought shotguns and opened fire on their parents 13 times as the couple watched TV – before going gambling, to parties and on shopping sprees.

The brothers ultimately admitted to the killings – but argued they acted out of self-defence after years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse by their father Jose, a high-powered record label executive.

The brothers’ trial in 1993 was one of the first high-profile murder cases to be shown live on television, gripping audiences in the US and globally.

It ended deadlocked, but in 1996, the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder in a second trial during which the judge barred many of their claims of sexual abuse. They are imprisoned near San Diego.

A judge will look at evidence, hear from witnesses, and ultimately determine whether Erik and Lyle should be resentenced.

It will not be a re-trial, and guilt will not be a question. Much of the focus could instead be on what the brothers have done during their 30 years in prison.

The hearing – which will not be televised – will start Thursday in Los Angeles and is scheduled to also go into Friday, though it could wrap up in a single day.

• Who are the Menendez family?

Both sides – lawyers for the Menendez brothers and the district attorney’s office – will present arguments on why the brothers should or should not be resentenced.

They will also be able to call people to testify. This could include a wide variety of individuals, from people involved in prosecuting the brothers in the 1990s or prison officials talking about the brothers’ last 30 years behind bars.

We are likely to hear from members of the Menendez family, many of whom have become outspoken advocates for Erik and Lyle’s release. But at least one member of the family has been a fierce critic of the effort to free them.

Milton Anderson, who is Kitty Menendez’s brother, has called the brothers “cold-blooded” and has argued the pair should remain behind bars for the “heinous act”.

That is unclear. If they did, it would mark a significant moment in the case, and would leave them open to questions from prosecutors who oppose their release.

The pair have previously appeared remotely at hearings by video link. The BBC has asked whether they will appear in person, and if they will testify.

On a recent episode of his podcast, lawyer Mark Geragos said he had not decided whether to call them to the stand.

“I know right now that I’m going to put family members on the stand,” Mr Geragos said. “I know right now, I’ll put correctional officers on the stand. I know right now I may put behavioural scientists on the stand.”

The district attorney’s office has similarly not said who it plans to call to testify.

After the two-day hearing, Los Angeles County Judge Michael Jesic will rule on whether the brothers should be resentenced.

But it is not clear if that will come at the conclusion of the hearing, or later.

Even if Judge Jesic rules in favour of the brothers being resentenced, they will not be immediately released.

What happens next will depend on what type of sentence the judge offers the brothers. There is a chance they could be given a new, lesser sentence that would make them immediately eligible for parole.

But eligibility does not guarantee release; they would still need to convince a state parole board they are no longer a danger to society.

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

The Menendez brothers filed a motion in 2023 detailing new evidence alleging childhood sexual abuse by their father, and requesting their convictions be vacated.

The evidence included an allegation of rape from a former member of boy band Menudo, Roy Rosselló, and a letter Erik Menendez wrote to a cousin eight months before the murders, which detailed the alleged abuse.

The top LA prosecutor at the time, George Gascón, announced that he was supporting the resentencing bid, days before an election in November 2024. He denied the announcement was political and argued it was a long time coming.

Gascón’s announcement came shortly after a popular Netflix documentary and TV drama welcomed a new generation to the case. Many of the brothers’ supporters suggest that if they were put on trial today, their allegations of abuse would be taken more seriously – potentially leading to a very different outcome.

• What is the controversy around Netflix’s Menendez drama?
• Los Angeles DA opposes move to resentence Menendez brothers

After Gascón lost his re-election bid, Nathan Hochman took over the his office and the Menendez case. Hochman came out forcefully against their resentencing request, and said the brothers continued to stick by a litany of “lies”.

“They have not shown full insight into their crimes,” he said. But Hochman was rebuked by a judge who allowed the resentencing request to move forward.

The brothers have been following three paths in an effort to win their freedom. The other two are:

1. Clemency from the governor of California: This could mean a reduced sentence or even a pardon, but would not overturn the brothers’ convictions. Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered the parole board to conduct a risk assessment to determine if they pose a danger to society. A hearing is scheduled in June to discuss findings
2. A new trial: The brothers’ lawyers have also asked for a new trial, pointing to the alleged abuse by their father and arguing that jurors should be able to consider a lesser sentence, such as manslaughter. Hochman opposes this

• Read more on how the brothers could be freed

A haunting image of a young Gazan boy recovering from war injuries has been named World Press Photo of the Year for 2025.

The portrait, taken by Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for the New York Times, shows nine-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour, who lost both arms in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in March 2024.

Abu Elouf, who was evacuated from Gaza in late 2023, lives in the same apartment complex as Mahmoud in Doha, Qatar.

She has documented the lives of several wounded Gazans who made it out for treatment.

“This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly,” said World Press Photo executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury.

“It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations.”

Two finalists were selected as runners up alongside the photo of the year.

Night Crossing by John Moore for Getty Images and Droughts in the Amazon by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures, Bertha Foundation.

This striking image offers a powerful, intimate view of life at the border, capturing the complex realities of migration often lost in the polarised debate in the United States.

A young man carries food to his mother in the Amazon village of Manacapuru – once reachable by boat, now cut off by drought.

He walks two kilometres along a dry riverbed, a stark reminder of the region’s deepening water crisis.

The sight of parched, desert-like terrain in the world’s largest rainforest underscores the alarming scale of the drought.

This year’s winners represent the best of the 59,320 photographs by 3,778 photographers from 141 countries.

Here is a selection of the regional winners, with captions from the competition.

The three categories were singles (solo photographs), stories (series of 4-10 photos) and long-term projects (24-30 photos on a single theme).

Tamale Safalu trains in front of his home in Kampala, Uganda. Safulu lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident but still competes, becoming the first bodybuilder with a disability in Uganda to compete against able-bodied athletes.

In Livingstone, Zambia, failed rainy seasons and expanding human settlements have fuelled a sharp rise in human-elephant conflict. In 2024 alone, elephants killed at least 11 people in the area.

A local volunteer group is now working to protect both communities and wildlife.

In 2017, photographer Cinzia Canneri began documenting the lives of Eritrean women escaping authoritarian rule.

Since the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region erupted, her focus has widened to include Tigrayan women fleeing violence.

Both groups have faced brutal attacks, including rape, torture, and shootings. Zayid, 23 (not her real name – pictured) was raped in a refugee camp in Amhara.

While fleeing with her family to Addis Ababa, she and her sister were shot and wounded by Amhara soldiers.

Since the 1950s, around 200,000 Korean children have been adopted into the United States.

An Associated Press investigation has revealed widespread fraud in adoption documents, leaving many adoptees with false or incomplete histories.

For individuals like Nicole, who is pictured, the search for identity has uncovered painful truths about their past.

Myanmar, formerly Burma, has faced decades of unrest and conflict since gaining independence, with ongoing struggles for ethnic and regional autonomy.

Ye Aung Thu, who witnessed the 1988 military coup at the age of six, saw history repeat itself in 2021 when his own son was the same age.

He has since travelled across the country, documenting insurgent groups and capturing how their resilience offers hope amid turmoil.

The Ngāi Tūhoe people of the Te Urewera region in New Zealand have maintained a staunch independence. With a 2014 agreement, the New Zealand government opened the way to Tūhoe managing their ancestral lands according to their cultural values.

Recent changes by New Zealand’s right-wing government are seen as reversals of such policies regarding indigenous peoples. Yet the Tataiwhetu Trust farm in Te Urewera offers a revitalising model for a younger generation.

Ongoing conflict in their home village near Kupiansk, a frontline city in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, forced Anhelina’s family to seek refuge.

She now lives with her grandmother, Larisa, in Borshchivka, 95km from Kupiansk, while her mother lives and works in Kharkiv, about an hour’s journey away.

Ana Maria Jeremias has spent over four decades working as a carer and domestic worker in Portugal, reflecting the experience of many women across Europe.

Trafficked from Angola at the age of nine under the false promise of an education, she has since played a vital, often overlooked, role in the lives of the families she has served.

Kardash, a Russian-born photographer now living in Germany, reflects on the loss of home and the pain of loving those who see the world differently.

Returning to her hometown, she seeks to capture how war reshapes lives, while holding on to the hope that human connection can endure even amid deep divisions.

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump is widely seen as a pivotal moment in the 2024 presidential campaign, with lasting implications for the political future of the United States.

Moments after the shooting, the Republican nominee shouted “Fight, fight, fight!” as he was led from the stage.

Captured seconds later, this image offers a rare glimpse of vulnerability in a campaign centred on strength and resilience.

Farshi’s project examines how people confront death in a setting shaped by compassion and choice.

In a quiet residential neighbourhood in Washington state, where assisted dying is legal in certain circumstances, a house offers the terminally ill a place to spend their final hours, surrounded by care and community.

Here, with support and dignity, some choose to end their lives by taking prescribed medication, highlighting the deeply personal, and often tender, process of dying.

In 2022, El Salvador declared a “state of emergency” to combat gang violence, restricting rights like assembly and privacy.

Renewed 35 times by March 2025, it has led to mass incarceration and overcrowded prisons, where reports of abuse and neglect are common.

This project focuses on the personal stories behind these policies, revealing the human toll of the crackdown.

Between April and June 2024, record-breaking rainfall in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, led to the worst flood in the area’s history.

The Emberá Dobida, a nomadic indigenous group from Colombia, have migrated to Bogotá to escape paramilitary violence but face discrimination in the capital.

Suicides in the community have risen sharply, from 15 between 2015 and 2020 to 67 suicides and over 400 attempts by 2024.

This project highlights the lives of Emberá women affected by the crisis, shedding light on their struggles.

This project follows the dangerous journeys of migrants crossing the Darién Gap, a 100-kilometre stretch of dense jungle between Colombia and Panama.

Their paths are fraught with peril, from treacherous rivers and harsh terrain to the constant threat of violence and exploitation.

Cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which had been ongoing since the start of the Gaza conflict, intensified sharply in September 2024.

Beirut, once a safe haven for those fleeing airstrikes in southern Lebanon, itself came under fire as the violence spread northwards.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban government denies access to education to girls over 12, bars them from most work outside the home and in some regions, forbids them from leaving home without a male guardian, or with their face uncovered.

The spaces where women once gathered freely are now off limits. Despite these restrictions, Afghan women find subtle but powerful ways to resist.

Kolbars (border couriers) carry goods, such as household appliances, mobile phones, and clothes, on their backs through treacherous terrain from Iraq and Turkey into Iranian Kurdistan.

Decades-long marginalisation of Kurds means widespread unemployment in the region, driving many to a life of kolbari, where they risk being shot by security forces and border patrols.

The assault rifles and pistols arrived in Haiti stashed in two cardboard boxes, nestled among packages of food and clothes, on a cargo ship stacked with rust-red shipping containers.

They had come from the US, which one expert describes as a “supermarket” feeding an arms race among gangs that have brought chaos to the Caribbean island nation.

An investigation by the BBC World Service and BBC Verify traced the two boxes’ journey, showing how weapons from the US reach Haiti. It reveals a chain of lax laws, absent checks and suspected corruption used by traffickers to bypass a UN embargo.

Haitian police announced in April 2024 that they had seized the two boxes. They contained 12 assault rifles, 14 pistols and 999 ammunition cartridges.

A police photo clearly shows weapons from two different US-based manufacturers.

The shipment had travelled nearly 1,200km (746 miles) from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Cap-Haitien in northern Haiti, on the Rainer D cargo ship.

The shipping container was filled in a warehouse yard in Fort Lauderdale, according to a UN Panel of Experts, which is tasked with monitoring sanctions on Haiti and investigated the shipment.

Haitians in the US frequently ship much-needed food and other items to the country.

A man named Anestin Predestin told the Miami Herald that in late February 2024, he was leasing out space in the container.

He told the newspaper that a man who gave his name as “Diamortino” put in two boxes saying they contained “clothes” – and that he was shocked to learn later they had contained weapons.

The BBC’s attempts to contact Mr Predestin were unsuccessful.

It is not clear where the guns had been bought. Guns are not manufactured in Haiti, and previous seizures have included guns bought in Florida.

Sometimes dubbed the “gunshine state”, Florida was one of about 30 states where, until 2024, private, unlicensed sellers could sell firearms, for example at gun shows and online, without doing background checks. As president, Joe Biden tightened these rules nationally.

The UN panel says two Haitian brothers based in the US had used “straw buyers” – individuals buying on their behalf – to buy the weapons in the seized shipment.

Experts say this is a common method, often with the guns transported in multiple shipments of small quantities, a process named “ant trafficking”.

The container was shipped by the Florida-based shipping company Alliance International Shipping, Haitian police say.

Alliance International Shipping does not own vessels travelling to Haiti, but buys space on ships and sells it on to clients such as Mr Predestin.

The company’s president, Gregory Moraille, said in a statement to the BBC that it provides empty containers to customers, but does not physically interact with the cargo.

“Unfortunately, we have no viable means of preventing illicit shipments,” he says, adding the firm co-operates with authorities and has many staff originating from Haiti.

“Tragically, many of our own families have been victims of gun violence in Haiti,” he adds.

The BBC contacted US Customs and Border Protection to ask whether the shipment could have been checked as it left the US, but received no response.

The UN panel said last September that US searches had increased, but “the vast majority of the 200 containers heading from South Florida to Haiti every week are not inspected”.

A former official with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Bill Kullman, told the BBC that checks on outgoing cargo are “very scattershot” and the volume of shipments is “incredible”.

Haitian police say they discovered the weapons in a “targeted search” of the container.

According to the UN panel, a senior Haitian customs official had put one of the boxes containing weapons in his vehicle and was arrested and sacked a few days later.

Police said they were seeking a man called Wilmane Jean, who is named in the customs data as the consignee for the shipment – the person responsible for receiving it.

The BBC understands from sources in Haiti that he is a customs broker, is on the run and is suspected of being connected with gang activity in the north of the country.

A previous UN report says Haitian customs operations suffer from a lack of capacity, corruption among senior officials, and threats and attacks from gangs.

BBC attempts to contact Haitian customs authorities for comment were unsuccessful.

Around the time the weapons were packed into the shipping container, a wave of gang violence swept through the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Gangs freed thousands of inmates from the main prison, and blockaded the capital’s ports and airport.

In March 2024, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, unable to return from an overseas trip, agreed to step down.

A record 5,601 people were killed in gang violence in Haiti in 2024, according to the UN. Its agencies say nearly a tenth of the population – over a million people – have fled their homes and half the population faces acute hunger. Kidnapping and extortion are rife.

Wilson, a handyman from Port-au-Prince, was shot in the leg while trying to flee as gangs fought over territory in his neighbourhood.

“It was chaos, everyone was running from their homes,” he told the BBC. “My leg stopped working. When I looked down, blood was pouring.”

He is now living alongside hundreds of other people in a school that is being used as a shelter.

Experts say the authorities do not have the capacity to take back control, despite support from an international security force including at least 800 Kenyan police officers.

The gangs have gained territory in the past six months, and now control at least 85% of the capital, says Romain le Cour, a Haiti expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, an NGO with headquarters in Geneva.

Gang members frequently pose on social media with high-calibre weapons. Experts told the BBC some of the guns displayed were definitely made in the US, and others are likely to have been manufactured there too.

However, guns and ammunition “keep on coming”, says Mr Le Cour, which is “a massive driver for violence and instability”.

To investigate the potential scale of trafficking from the US using similar shipping routes, the BBC analysed customs data shared with us by the shipping data platform CargoFax.

We compiled a list of individuals currently under sanctions for alleged gang connections in Haiti, and others who have been arrested in Haiti or the US as suspected arms traffickers.

We checked these names against thousands of records of shipments from the US to Haiti over four years.

In total, 26 people on the list were named as consignees for 286 shipments, which took place before the individuals were put under sanctions or arrested. It is not clear whether these shipments contained weapons.

Listed 24 times as a consignee was Prophane Victor – a former member of Haiti’s parliament who was later put under UN and US sanctions for arming gangs and trafficking weapons. He was arrested in Haiti in January.

“First and foremost, US authorities are not doing enough,” says Mr Le Cour.

Mr Kullman, the former US official at the ATF, says there is no legal obligation on gun dealers to report suspicious buyers.

Changes to US gun laws are “really politically difficult to achieve”, he says, but he would like to see a voluntary code of conduct for firearms sellers covering issues such as sales to suspicious buyers and information sharing.

Also, gun registration – similar to car registration – is in place in a few states and could be “really helpful” if adopted more widely, Mr Kullman adds.

Jonathan Lowy, president of Global Action on Gun Violence, says gun makers are told when trafficked guns are under investigation and are aware which dealers are selling guns to traffickers.

“Manufacturers cutting off these dealers would put an immediate stop to most trafficking routes from the US.”

The BBC contacted the ATF and the US Department for Homeland Security for comment, but received no responses.

Mr Le Cour says international scrutiny of the problem has increased, but there is no visible impact: “We know we have the diagnosis, we know what the symptoms are, but we’re not doing anything to actually cure it”.

“Trump is a crazy man,” says Lionel Xu, who is surrounded by his company’s mosquito repellent kits – many were once best sellers in Walmart stores in the United States.

Now those products are sitting in boxes in a warehouse in China and will remain there unless President Donald Trump lifts his 145% tariffs on all Chinese goods bound for the US.

“This is so hard for us,” he adds.

Around half of all products made by his company Sorbo Technology are sold to the US.

It is a small company by Chinese standards and has around 400 workers in Zhejiang province. But they are not alone in feeling the pain of this economic war.

“We are worried. What if Trump doesn’t change his mind? That will be a dangerous thing for our factory,” says Mr Xu.

Nearby, Amy is helping to sell ice cream makers at her booth for the Guangdong Sailing Trade Company. Her key buyers, including Walmart, are also in the US.

“We have stopped production already,” she says. “All the products are in the warehouse.”

It was the same story at nearly every booth in the sprawling Canton Fair in the trading hub of Guangzhou.

When the BBC speaks to Mr Xu, he is getting ready to take some Australian buyers to lunch. They have come looking for a bargain and hope to drive down the price.

“We will see,” he says about the tariffs. He believes Trump will back down.

“Maybe it will get better in one or two months,” Mr Xu adds with his fingers crossed. Maybe, maybe…”

Last week, President Trump temporarily paused the vast majority of tariffs after global stock markets tumbled, and a sell-off in the US bond market.

But he kept the import levies targeted at Chinese goods being shipped to the US. Beijing responded by imposing its own 125% levies on American imports.

This has bewildered traders from more than 30,000 businesses who have come to the annual fair to show off their goods in several exhibition halls the size of 200 football pitches.

In the homeware section, firms displayed everything from washing machines to tumble dryers, electric toothbrushes to juicers and waffle makers. Buyers come from all over the world to see the products for themselves and make a deal.

But the cost of a food mixer or a vacuum cleaner from China with the added tariffs are now too high for most American firms to pass on the cost to their customers.

The world’s two largest economies have hit an impasse and Chinese goods meant for US households are piling up on factory floors.

The effects of this trade war will likely be felt in kitchens and living rooms across America, who will now have to buy these goods at higher prices.

China has maintained its defiant stance and has vowed to fight this trade war “until the end.”

It is a tone also used by some at the fair. Hy Vian, who was looking to buy some electric ovens for his firm, waved off the effects of tariffs.

“If they don’t want us to export – then let them wait. We already have a domestic market in China, we will give the best products to the Chinese first.”

China does have a large population of 1.4 billion people and in theory this is a strong domestic market.

Chinese policymakers have also been trying to stimulate more growth in a sluggish economy by encouraging consumers to spend.

But it is not working. Many of the country’s middle classes have invested their savings in buying the family home, only to watch their house prices slump in the last four years. Now they want to save money – not spend it.

While China may be better placed to weather the storm than other countries, the reality is that it is still an export-driven economy. Last year, exports accounted for around half of the country’s economic growth.

China also remains the world’s factory – with Goldman Sachs estimating that around 10 to 20 million people in China may be working on US-bound exports alone.

Some of those workers are already feeling the pain.

Not far from the Canton Fair, there are warrens of workshops in Guangdong making clothes, shoes and bags. This is the manufacturing hub for companies such as Shein and Temu.

Each building houses several factories on several floors where workers will labour for 14 hours a day.

On a pavement near some shoe factories, a few workers were squatting down to chat and smoke.

“Things are not going well,” says one, who was unwilling to give his name. His friend urges him to stop talking. Discussing economic difficulties can be sensitive in China.

“We’ve had problems since the Covid pandemic, and now there’s this trade war. I used to be paid 300-400 yuan ($40-54) a day, and now I will be lucky if I get 100 yuan a day.”

The worker says it is difficult to find work these days. Others making shoes on the street also told us they only earned enough to live a basic life.

While some in China feel pride in their product, others feel the pain of increasing tariffs and wonder how this crisis will end.

China is facing the prospect of losing a trading partner which buys more than $400bn (£302bn) worth of goods each year, but the pain will also be felt on the other side, with economists warning that the US could be heading for a recession.

Adding to the uncertainty is President Trump, who is known for his brinkmanship. He has continued to push Beijing and China has refused to back down.

However, Beijing has said it will not add any more to the current 125% tariff rate on US goods. They could retaliate in other ways – but it offers the two sides some breathing room from a week that sparked an economic war.

There is reportedly little contact between Washington and Beijing and neither side appears willing to head to the negotiating table any time soon.

In the meantime, some companies at the Canton Fair are using the event to try to find new markets.

Amy hopes her ice cream makers will head in a new direction.

“We hope to open the new European market. Maybe Saudi Arabia – and of course Russia,” she adds.

Others believe there is still money to be made in China. Among them is Mei Kunyan, 40, who says he is earning around 10,000 yuan a month at his shoe firm which sells to Chinese customers. Many major shoe manufacturers have moved to Vietnam where labour costs are cheaper.

Mr Mei has also realised something that businesses around him are now discovering: “The Americans are too tricky.”

Every spring for the past six years, millions of people have tuned in to a round-the-clock livestream of elk on the move in northern Sweden.

“The Great Moose Migration” tracks the animals as they swim across the Angerman River and make their annual journey toward greener, summer pastures.

This year’s 24-hour programme from SVT Play, the streaming platform for Sweden’s national broadcaster, began on Tuesday – a week ahead of schedule because of the warmer weather this April.

The broadcast has become a “slow TV” phenomenon, cultivating a loyal fanbase since its inception in 2019.

Cait Borjesson, 60, who has been hooked to the annual livestream since she stumbled upon it during the Covid-19 pandemic, said her TV had been on for 16 straight hours since it began on Tuesday.

“It’s unbelievably relaxing,” she said. “There’s the natural sounds of the birds, the wind, the trees. It gives you a sense that you’re in nature even if you’re not”.

For Cait, watching the migration has become a yearly tradition, so much so that she books time off work to fully immerse herself in the three-week broadcast.

She said the stream was “like therapy” which had helped her anxiety and panic attacks.

And she is not alone. SVT’s livestream has a wide audience, including a Facebook group boasting more than 77,000 members who come together to share their memorable moments, emotional reactions to the broadcast and their shared fascination of the migration.

A major part of their journey captured by SVT is through the village of Kullberg in northern Sweden, next to the Angerman. The animals are known as moose in North America, and elk in Europe.

Goran Ericsson, dean of the faculty of forest sciences at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and science advisor for the broadcast, said the elk migrate back to the summer ranges after aggregating in spots with better temperatures in the winter.

“Historically, this migration has been going on since the ice age,” he said. “During spring and summer, moose are more evenly spread out in the landscape.”

He added that around 95% of the elk in northern Sweden migrate annually, adding that early migrations were not new with this year’s prompted by less snow on the ground.

“Early springs happen occasionally,” he said. “We’re still within the normal range of variation.”

More than 30 cameras are used to capture the elk as they move through the vast landscapes, he added.

The show drew in nearly a million people during its launch in 2019, before garnering nine million viewers in 2024.

Minh-Xuan Truong, a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences who has surveyed viewers of the livestream, said in a fast-paced media environment, people enjoy experiencing nature through this “slow TV” style – a genre characterised by long, un-edited and real-time broadcasts.

“A lot of people say it’s like an open window to a forest,” he says. “When you ask them if they would prefer having music in the background, or commentary, they say they prefer just having the sound of the wind, the birds and trees.”

Sweden’s woodlands are home to about 300,000 elk. The animal is known in the Scandinavian country as “King of the Forest”.

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

When investigators smashed through a hastily built wall, they uncovered a set of secret jail cells.

It turned out to be a freshly bricked-up doorway – an attempt to hide what lurked behind.

Inside, off a narrow hallway, were tiny rooms to the right and left. It was pitch-black.

The team may never have found this clandestine jail – a stone’s throw from Dhaka’s International Airport – without the recollections of Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem and others.

A critic of Bangladesh’s ousted leader, he was held there for eight years.

He was blindfolded for much of his time in the prison, so he leaned on the sounds he could recall – and he distinctly remembered the sound of planes landing.

That was what helped lead investigators to the military base near the airport. Behind the main building on the compound, they found the smaller, heavily guarded, windowless structure made of brick and concrete where detainees were kept.

It was hidden in plain sight.

Investigators have spoken to hundreds of victims like Quasem since mass protests toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed’s government last August, and inmates in the jails were released. Many others are alleged to have been killed unlawfully.

The people running the secret prisons, including the one over the road from Dhaka airport, were largely from an elite counter-terrorism unit, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), acting on orders directly from Hasina, investigators say.

“The officers concerned [said] all the enforced disappearance cases have been done with the approval, permission or order by the prime minister herself,” Tajul Islam, the chief prosecutor for the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh, told the BBC.

Hasina’s party says the alleged crimes were carried out without its knowledge, that it bears no responsibility and that the military establishment operated alone – a charge the army rejects.

Seven months on, Quasem and others may have been released, but they remain terrified of their captors, who are serving security force members and are all still free.

Quasem says he never leaves home without wearing a hat and mask.

“I always have to watch my back when I’m travelling.”

He slowly walks up a flight of concrete steps to show the BBC where he was kept. Pushing through a heavy metal door, he bends his head low and goes through another narrow doorway into “his” room, the cell where he was held for eight years.

“It felt like being buried alive, being totally cut off from the outside world,” he tells the BBC. There were no windows and no doors to natural light. When he was inside, he couldn’t tell between day or night.

Quasem, a lawyer in his 40s, has done interviews before but this is the first time he has taken the media for a detailed look inside the tiny cell where he was held.

Viewed by torchlight, it is so small an average-sized person would have difficulty standing up straight. It smells musty. Some of the walls are broken and bits of brick and concrete lie strewn on the ground – a last-ditch attempt by perpetrators to destroy any evidence of their crimes.

“[This] is one detention centre. We have found that more than 500, 600, 700 cells are there all through the country. This shows that this was widespread and systematic,” says Islam, the prosecutor, who accompanied the BBC on the visit to the jail.

Quasem also clearly remembers the faint blue tiles from his cell, now lying in pieces on the floor, which led investigators to this particular room. In comparison to the cells on the ground floor, this one is much larger, at 10ft x 14ft (3m x 4.3m). There is a squatting toilet off to one side.

In painful detail, Quasem walks around the room, describing how he spent his time during his years in captivity. During the summers, it was unbearably hot. He would crouch on the floor and put his face as close to the base of the doorway as he could, to get some air.

“It felt worse than death,” he says.

Coming back to relive his punishment seems cruel. But Quasem believes it is important for the world to see what was done.

“The high officials, the top brass who aided and abetted, facilitated the fascist regime are still in their position,” he says.

“We need to get our story out, and do whatever we can to ensure justice for those who didn’t return, and to help those who are surviving to rehabilitate into life.”

Previous reports said he was kept inside a notorious detention facility – known as Aynaghor, or “House of Mirrors” – inside the main intelligence headquarters in Dhaka, but investigators now believe there were many such sites.

Quasem told the BBC he spent all his detention at the RAB base, apart from the first 16 days. Investigators now suspect the first site was a detective branch of police in Dhaka.

He believes he was disappeared because of his family’s politics. In 2016 he’d been representing his father, a senior member of the country’s largest Islamist party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, who was on trial and later hanged.

Five other men the BBC spoke to described being taken away, blindfolded and handcuffed, kept in dark concrete cells with no access to the outside world. In many cases they say they were beaten and tortured.

While the BBC cannot independently verify their stories, almost all say they are petrified that one day, they might bump into a captor on the street or on a bus.

“Now, whenever I get into a car or I’m alone at home, I feel scared thinking about where I was,” Atikur Rahman Rasel, 35, says. “I wonder how I survived, whether I was really supposed to survive.

He says his nose was broken and his hand is still painful. “They put handcuffs on me and beat me a lot.”

Rasel says he was approached by a group of men outside a mosque in Dhaka’s old city last July, as anti-government protests raged. They said they were from law enforcement and he had to go with them.

The next minute, he was taken into a grey car, handcuffed, hooded and blindfolded. Forty minutes later, he was pulled out of the car, taken into a building and put in a room.

“After about half an hour, people started coming in one by one and asking questions. Who are you? What do you do?” Then the beatings started, he says.

“Being inside that place was terrifying. I felt like I would never get out.”

Rasel now lives with his sister and her husband. Sitting on a dining chair in her flat in Dhaka, he describes his weeks in captivity in detail. He speaks with little emotion, seemingly detached from his experience.

He too believes his detention was politically motivated because he was a student leader with the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), of which his father was a senior member. His brother, who lived abroad, would frequently write social media posts critical of Hasina.

Rasel says there was no way of knowing where he was held. But after watching interim leader Muhammad Yunus visiting three detention centres earlier this year, he thinks he was kept in Agargaon district in Dhaka.

It was an open secret that Hasina had no tolerance for political dissent. Criticising her could get you “disappeared” without a trace, former detainees, opponents and investigators say.

But the total number of people who went missing may never become clear.

A Bangladeshi NGO that has tracked enforced disappearances since 2009 has documented at least 709 people who were forcibly disappeared. Among them, 155 people remain missing. Since the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was created in September, they have received more than 1,676 complaints from alleged victims and more people continue to come forward.

But that doesn’t represent the total number, which is believed to be much higher.

It is through speaking to people like Quasem that Tajul Islam is able to build a case against those responsible for the detention centres, including Sheikh Hasina.

Despite being held at different sites, the narrative of victims is eerily similar.

Mohammad Ali Arafat, spokesperson for Hasina’s Awami League party, denies any involvement. He says if people were forcibly disappeared, it was not done under the direction of Hasina – who remains in India, where she fled – or anyone in her cabinet.

“If any such detention did occur, it would have been a product of complex internal military dynamics,” said Arafat. “I see [no] political benefit for the Awami League or for the government to keep these people in secret detention.”

The military’s chief spokesman said it “has no knowledge of the things being implied”.

“The army categorically denies operating any such detention centres,” Lt Col Abdullah Ibn Zaid told the BBC.

Tajul Islam believes the people held in these prisons are evidence of Awami League involvement. “All the people who were detained here were from different political identities and they just raised their voice against the previous regime, the government of that time, and that is why they were brought here.”

To date they have issued 122 arrest warrants, but no one has yet been brought to justice.

Which is why victims like Iqbal Chowdhury, 71, believe their lives are still in danger. Chowdhury wants to leave Bangladesh. For years after he was released in 2019, he didn’t leave his house, not even to go to the market. Chowdhury was warned by his captors never to speak of his detention.

“If you ever reveal where you were or what happened, and if you are taken again, no one will ever find or see you again. You will be vanished from this world,” he says he was told.

Accused of writing propaganda against India and the Awami League, Chowdhury says that is why he was tortured.

“I was physically assaulted with an electric shock as well as being beaten. Now one of my fingers is heavily damaged by the electric shock. I lost my leg’s strength, lost physical strength.” He remembers the sound of others being physically tortured, grown men howling and crying in agony.

“I am still scared,” says Chowdhury.

Rahmatullah, 23, is also terrified. “They took away a year and a half of my life. Those times won’t ever be returned,” he says. “They made me sleep in a place where a human being should not even be.”

On 29 August 2023, he was taken from his home at midnight by RAB officers, some in uniform and others dressed in plain clothes. He was working as a cook in a neighbouring town while training to be an electrician.

After repeated interrogations, it became clear to Rahmatullah he was being forcibly detained for his anti-India and Islamic posts on social media. Using a pen and paper, he draws the layout of his cell, including the open drain he would use to relieve himself.

“Even thinking about that place in Dhaka makes me feel horrible. There was no space to lie down properly, so I had to sleep being curled up. I couldn’t stretch my legs while lying down.”

The BBC also interviewed two other former detainees – Michael Chakma and Masrur Anwar – to corroborate some of the details about the secret prisons and what is alleged to have gone on inside them.

Some of the victims live with physical scars from their detentions. All of them talk about the psychological torment that follows them everywhere they go.

Bangladesh is at a pivotal moment in its history as it tries to rebuild after years of autocratic rule. A crucial test of the country’s progress towards democracy will be its ability to hold a fair trial for the perpetrators of these crimes.

Islam believes it can, and must happen. “We must stop the recurrence of this type of offence for our future generations. And we have to do justice for the victims. They suffered a lot.”

Standing in what remains of his concrete cell, Quasem says a trial must take place as soon as possible so the country can close this chapter.

It’s not so simple for Rahmatullah.

“The fear has not gone away. The fear will remain until I die.”

The NHS will be pursued if it does not follow new guidance on single-sex spaces, the chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said.

Along with other public bodies, the NHS will be receiving guidelines after the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.

“We’ve been speaking to the health service for an inordinately long time – we will now be asking them when they will be updating their advice,” Baroness Falkner said.

Currently the NHS guidance says trans people should be accommodated according to the way they dress, their names and their pronouns. Under the ruling this would be scrapped.

• Five key takeaways from Supreme Court ruling

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says it is “working at pace” to provide an updated code of conduct for services, including the NHS and prisons.

The ruling could have implications for spaces such as hospital wards, changing rooms and domestic refuges.

Asked on the BBC’s Today Programme whether the EHRC would pursue the NHS if it doesn’t change, the Baroness replied “yes we will”.

“We will be having those conversations with them to update that guidance,” she said.

Wednesday’s case was brought by women’s rights campaigners who challenged the Scottish government, arguing sex-based protections should apply only to people that are born female.

Judges ruled that when the term “woman” is used in the Equality Act it means a biological woman, and “sex” means biological sex.

This means a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) – a legal document that recognises an individual’s gender identity – will now not change a person’s legal sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.

The Supreme Court justices argued this was the only consistent, coherent interpretation.

There is already Equality Act guidance which allows for women-only spaces, such as toilets, changing rooms and hospital wards in certain circumstances.

But under the new ruling a person who was born male but identifies as a woman does not have a right to use a space or service designated as women only.

Baroness Falkner said trans people should use their “power of advocacy” to ask for facilities including a “third space” for toilets.

“Single-sex services like changing rooms must be based on biological sex if a male person is allowed to use – it’s no longer a single sex space.”

She added the ruling was “a victory for common sense only if you recognise that trans people exist, they have rights and their rights must be respected”.

That includes transgender women who have legally changed their gender and hold a GRC.

Baroness Falkner said the next stage of litigation may well be tests of the efficacy of GRCs.

Asked about whether she thought GRCs were now “worthless”, she replied: “We don’t believe they are. We think they’re quite important.”

The equality watchdog says it expects its updated guidance to be in place by the summer.

The new guidance could also have an impact on women’s sport, where the question over whether transgender women can participate has been a high-profile issue in recent years.

Sports have tightened up rules around transgender athletes at the elite levels. Athletics, cycling and aquatics have banned transgender women from taking part in women’s events.

Other sports have put in place eligibility criteria. Earlier this month the English Football Association introduced stricter rules, but still allowed transgender women to continue to compete in the women’s game as long as their testosterone was kept below a certain level.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said a review on gender and equality laws was “a good idea”.

Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Cambridge, she said: “We need to make sure that the law is clear and the public bodies follow the law, not guidance from organisations that don’t understand it.”

She added the laws needed to be updated to ensure that they are “there to prevent discrimination, not for social engineering”.

Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman, a prominent supporter of trans rights, told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme the decision would “stoke the fires of the culture war” and trans people now feared they could lose access to facilities they’ve used, in some cases, for decades.

She added that trans people had been attacked in recent years “just for being who they are” and she was “concerned” about the impact of the Supreme Court decision.

Trans rights campaigners have said they will be examining the judgment closely to decide on their next steps.

The UK government has welcomed the “clarity and confidence” for women and service providers brought by the judgement.

Health minister Karin Smyth said the government would be reviewing the ruling to “make sure we are fully compliant with it” and would be working with equality bodies to make sure organisations were fully compliant.

She said the government was not interested in “so-called culture wars” and believed that everybody should have “their dignity and privacy and their rights respected”.

“I think now is the time to make sure that we look to the future, that rights are very clear for people and that service providers absolutely make sure they comply with the law,” she said.

The BBC has contacted the Department of Health for comment.

Nora Aunor, one of the Philippines’ most celebrated film stars, has died at the age of 71.

Aunor’s death on Wednesday was announced by her children on social media, but no further details were provided about her cause of death.

“She touched generations with her unmatched talent, grace, and passion for the craft. Her voice, presence, and artistry shaped a legacy that will never fade,” her daughter and actor Lotlot de Leon said on Instagram.

Born into a poor family in the city of Iriga, Aunor established a career in television, music and film over seven decades. She was named National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts in 2022 – the Philippines’ highest honour for the arts.

She rose to stardom as a singer in the 1960s before moving to the screen, where she amassed more than 200 credits in film and television.

One of her most memorable performances was in 1995’s The Flor Contemplacion Story, a film about a Filipino maid executed by Singapore for murdering her fellow domestic helper.

Aunor won local and international awards for her portrayal, along with dozens of other acting honours over her career.

She was married to Filipino actor Christopher de Leon from 1975 to 1996 and they had five children.

Her son Kristoffer Ian De Leon remembered his mother as a “source of unconditional love” in a Facebook post.

“She was the heart of our family. Her kindness, wisdom, and beautiful spirit touched everyone who knew her,” he wrote.

Aunor was most recently seen in the 2024 TV series Lilet Matias, Attorney-at-Law and filmed a special cameo for the musical Isang Himala.

Israel’s defence minister has said troops will remain in so-called security zones they have established by seizing large areas of Gaza even after an end to the war.

Israel Katz said the zones would provide a “buffer” to protect Israeli communities “in any temporary or permanent situation”, and that “tens of per cent” of the Palestinian territory had been added since the Israeli offensive resumed three weeks ago.

Israel would continue its six-week blockade of humanitarian aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages, he said, despite the UN warning of “devastating” consequences.

On Wednesday Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) became the latest international organisation to sound alarm at the impact of Israel’s campaign, saying that Gaza had been “turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance”.

“We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the entire population in Gaza,” Amande Bazerolle, the charity’s emergency co-ordinator in Gaza, said.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said more than 1,650 people have been killed since the war resumed on 18 March.

Hospital officials said at least 24 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Wednesday.

The majority of those reported killed were in Gaza City, in the north.

They included 10 members of the Hassouna family, mostly children and women. One of them was Fatema Hassouna – a young writer and photographer.

The BBC has asked the Israeli military for comment on the strike.

The UN says 69% of the territory is now under active Israeli military evacuation orders, within a “no-go” zone running along the borders with Israel and Egypt and the Wadi Gaza valley south of Gaza City, or both. Some 500,000 people have been newly displaced or uprooted once more, with no safe place to go, it estimates.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it has killed “hundreds of terrorists” in strikes while troops have advanced into several areas in the north and the south. It has established a new corridor that cuts the southern city of Rafah off from neighbouring Khan Younis and has designated 30% of Gaza as an “operational security perimeter”.

On Wednesday, Israel Katz said Israel’s policy was to “first and foremost make every effort to bring about the release of all hostages” still being held there and to “build a bridge to defeat Hamas later on”.

“Unlike in the past, the IDF is not evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized,” he said.

“The IDF will remain in the security zones as a buffer between the enemy and [Israeli] communities in any temporary or permanent situation in Gaza – as in Lebanon and Syria.”

Hamas has insisted Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.

“Any truce lacking real guarantees for halting the war, achieving full withdrawal, lifting the blockade, and beginning reconstruction will be a political trap,” the group said on Wednesday, according to Reuters news agency.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel, which represents many hostages’ relatives, called Katz’s plan an “illusion”.

“They promised that the hostages come before everything. In practice, however, Israel is choosing to seize territory before the hostages,” it said.

“There is one obvious, practical, solution and it is to release all of the hostages in one stage with an agreement, even at the cost of ending the war.”

Israeli military reservists and veterans have recently signed several open letters calling for the return of the hostages to be prioritised over fighting Hamas.

• Members of British Jewish body condemn Israel’s Gaza offensive

Katz also made clear that Israel would maintain its blockade of Gaza – it has blocked the entry of all food, medicine and other supplies since 2 March.

“Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population,” he said.

UN agencies strongly reject the Israeli government claim that there is no shortage of aid in Gaza because 25,000 lorry loads of supplies entered during the ceasefire, and suggest the blockade could breach international humanitarian law.

The UN’s humanitarian partners say tents are no longer available for distribution and that there has been a rise in acute malnutrition, with the number of children who received supplementary feeding decreasing by more than two thirds in March.

In its statement, MSF said the humanitarian response was “severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages, leaving people with few, if any, options for accessing care”.

MSF said two of its staff had been killed over the past two weeks and called the killing of 15 emergency workers by Israeli troops last month “yet another example of the complete disregard shown by Israeli forces for the protection of humanitarian and medical workers”.

It also said it was facing shortages in medications for pain management and chronic illnesses, antibiotics and critical surgical materials.

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.

At least 51,025 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Many of the 1.9 million displaced people returned to the home areas during the recent ceasefire, which began on 19 January.

That ceasefire saw Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages – eight of them dead – in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, a surge in humanitarian aid entering Gaza, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas.

Israel blocked supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its offensive two weeks later. It said Hamas had refused to accept a proposal to extend the ceasefire deal’s first phase and 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.

A senior Palestinian official told the BBC on Tuesday that Hamas had rejected a new Israeli proposal for a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release of half of the living Israeli hostages and disarmament of the armed group.

On Wednesday, sources close to the Israeli prime minister’s office told the Haaretz newspaper that Israel had not yet received an official reply from Hamas.

The allied armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad meanwhile released a new video showing the Israeli-German hostage Rom Braslavski. In the video, in which he appears to be speaking under duress, the 21-year-old appealed to the US and Israeli governments to secure his release.

Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, said it was painful to see him “cruelly paraded in a video”.

“The terrorists must release him and all hostages now. And to everyone involved in the talks: no duty is more pressing than their return,” he added.

The UK government has brought in a temporary ban on holidaymakers bringing in cheese and meat products from the EU in a bid to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease (FMD).

Travellers have not been allowed to bring back items such as cured meat and cheese, including in sandwiches, since Saturday due to the growing outbreak on the continent.

The restrictions apply regardless of whether the goods are packed or packaged, or bought from duty free.

It follows an earlier ban of similar products from Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria after rising cases of the cattle disease in those countries.

FMD is a highly infectious virus that causes blisters inside an animal’s mouth and under their hooves, and can cause lameness and problems feeding.

It causes no risk to humans and there are currently no cases of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK.

Any products of animal origin, like meat and dairy, could potentially be contaminated with FMD.

There are concerns that if contaminated products enter the UK, even if they are designed for human consumption, there is a chance that they could be consumed by animals – for instance if they are thrown away in a way that could come into contact with foraging wildlife or domestic livestock.

The restrictions apply to people arriving in Great Britain, not Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man.

Products will be seized and destroyed if people try to bring them in, and in “serious cases” people could be fined up to £5,000.

The list of restricted products includes:

• pork

• beef

• lamb

• mutton

• goat

• venison

• other products made from these meats, for example sausages

• milk and dairy products like butter, cheese and yoghurt

People can bring up to 2kg per person of powdered infant milk, infant food, or special food needed for medical reasons.

In 2001, an outbreak of FMD in the UK led to the culling of millions of animals. Although there were only 2,000 confirmed cases, more than six million sheep, cattle and pigs were slaughtered.

This is because each of those cases meant a farm having all of its livestock killed and burned.

The last outbreak of FMD in the UK was in 2007, although this was much smaller with only eight infected premises concentrated in one small area of the country.

Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers Union (NFU), said the government had been quick to bring in the initial ban and the NFU was glad it was now being extended.

“While the FMD source remains unidentified in parts of Europe, stricter border controls are essential,” he said.

“It’s imperative we have a comprehensive cross-government biosecurity plan with the necessary investment behind it, and which would place these restrictions on a permanent legislative footing.”

The Guild of Fine Food, which represents independent food and drink retailers, said the ban on “holiday treats” had been “hurried”, but added it brought UK government policy for holidaymakers more in line with restrictions already placed on small businesses.

“The food and drink industry absolutely supports the fact that we must protect our farmers and that biosecurity is paramount,” said John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food.

However, he said that “bureaucracy” brought in after Brexit had added “significant constraints” for small food and drink importers and exporters.

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The US has “dropped the ball” on chip manufacturing over the years, allowing China and other Asian hubs to steam ahead. So said Gina Raimondo, who at the time was the US Commerce Secretary, in an interview with me back in 2021.

Four years on, chips remain a battleground in the US-China race for tech supremacy, and US President Donald Trump now wants to turbocharge a highly complex and delicate manufacturing process that has taken other regions decades to perfect.

He says his tariff policy will liberate the US economy and bring jobs home, but it is also the case that some of the biggest companies have long struggled with a lack of skilled workers and poor-quality products in their American factories.

So what will Trump do differently? And, given that Taiwan and other parts of Asia have the secret sauce on creating high-precision chips, is it even possible for the US to produce them too, and at scale?

Semiconductors are central to powering everything from washing machines to iPhones, and military jets to electric vehicles. These tiny wafers of silicon, known as chips, were invented in the United States, but today, it is in Asia that the most advanced chips are being produced at phenomenal scale.

Making them is expensive and technologically complex. An iPhone for example may contain chips that were designed in the US, manufactured in Taiwan, Japan or South Korea, using raw materials like rare earths which are mostly mined in China. Next they may be sent to Vietnam for packaging, then to China for assembly and testing, before being shipped to the US.

It is a deeply integrated ecosystem, one that has evolved over the decades.

Trump has praised the chip industry but also threatened it with tariffs. He has told industry leader, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), it would have to pay a tax of 100% if it did not build factories in the US.

With such a complex ecosystem, and fierce competition, they need to be able to plan for higher costs and investment calls in the long term, well beyond Trump’s administration. The constant changes to policies aren’t helping. So far, some have shown a willingness to invest in the US.

The significant subsidies that China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have given to private companies developing chips are a big reason for their success.

That was largely the thinking behind the US Chips and Science Act, which became law in 2022 under President Joe Biden – an effort to re-shore the manufacture of chips and diversify supply chains – by allocating grants, tax credits, and subsidies to incentivise domestic manufacturing.

Some companies like the world’s largest chipmaker TSMC and the world’s largest smartphone maker Samsung have become major beneficiaries of the legislation, with TSMC receiving $6.6 billion in grants and loans for plants in Arizona, and Samsung receiving an estimated $6 billion for a facility in Taylor, Texas.

TSMC announced a further $100 billion investment into the US with Trump, on top of $65 billion pledged for three plants. Diversifying chip production works for TSMC too, with China repeatedly threatening to take control of the island.

But both TSMC and Samsung have faced challenges with their investments, including surging costs, difficulty recruiting skilled labour, construction delays and resistance from local unions.

“This isn’t just a factory where you make boxes,” says Marc Einstein, research director at market intelligence firm Counterpoint. “The factories that make chips are such high-tech sterile environments, they take years and years to build.”

And despite the US investment, TSMC has said that most of its manufacturing will remain in Taiwan, especially its most advanced computer chips.

Today, TSMC’s plants in Arizona produce high-quality chips. But Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, argues that “they’re a generation behind the cutting edge in Taiwan”.

“The question of scale depends on how much investment is made in the US versus Taiwan,” he says. “Today, Taiwan has far more capacity.”

The reality is, it took decades for Taiwan to build up that capacity, and despite the threat of China spending billions to steal Taiwan’s prowess in the industry, it continues to thrive.

TSMC was the pioneer of the “foundry model” where chip makers took US designs and manufactured chips for other companies.

Riding on a wave of Silicon Valley start-ups like Apple, Qualcomm and Intel, TSMC was able to compete with US and Japanese giants with the best engineers, highly skilled labour and knowledge sharing.

“Could the US make chips and create jobs?” asks Mr Einstein. “Sure, but are they going to get chips down to a nanometre? Probably not.”

One reason is Trump’s immigration policy, which can potentially limit the arrival of skilled talent from China and India.

“Even Elon Musk has had an immigration problem with Tesla engineers,” says Mr Einstein, referring to Musk’s support for the US’s H-1B visa programme that brings skilled workers to the US.

“That’s a bottleneck and there’s nothing they can do, unless they change their stance on immigration entirely. You can’t just magic PhDs out of nowhere.”

Even so, Trump has doubled down on tariffs, ordering a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector.

“It’s a wrench in the machine – a big wrench,” says Mr Einstein. “Japan for example was basing its economic revitalisation on semiconductors and tariffs were not in the business plan.”

The longer-term impact on the industry, according to Mr Miller, is likely to be a renewed focus on domestic manufacturing in many of the world’s key economies: China, Europe, the US.

Some companies could look for new markets. Chinese technology giant Huawei, for example, expanded into Europe and emerging markets including Thailand, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and many countries in Africa in the face of export controls and tariffs, although the margins in developing nations are small.

“China ultimately will want to win – it has to innovate and invest in R&D. Look at what it did with Deepseek,” says Mr Einstein, referring to the China-built AI chatbot.

“If they build better chips, everyone is going to go to them. Cost-effectiveness is something they can do now, and looking forward, it’s the ultra-high-tech fabrication.”

In the meantime, new manufacturing hubs may emerge. India has a lot of promise, according to experts who say there is more chance of it becoming integrated into the chip supply chain than the US – it’s geographically closer, labour is cheap and education is good.

India has signalled a willingness that it is open to chip manufacturing, but it faces a number of challenges, including land acquisition for factories, and water – chip production needs the highest quality water and a lot of it.

Chip companies are not completely at the mercy of tariffs. The sheer reliance and demand for chips from major US companies like Microsoft, Apple and Cisco could apply pressure on Trump to reverse any levies on the chip sector.

Some insiders believe intense lobbying by Apple CEO Tim Cook secured the exemptions to smartphone, laptop and electronic tariffs, and Trump reportedly lifted a ban on the chips Nvidia can sell to China as a result of lobbying.

Asked specifically about Apple products on Monday in the Oval Office, Trump said, “I’m a very flexible person,” adding that “there will be maybe things coming up, I speak to Tim Cook, I helped Tim Cook recently.”

Mr Einstein thinks it all comes down to Trump ultimately trying to make a deal – he and his administration know they can’t just build a bigger building when it comes to chips.

“I think what the Trump administration is trying to do is what it has done with TikTok’s owner Bytedance. He is saying I’m not going to let you operate in the US anymore unless you give Oracle or another US company a stake,” says Mr Einstein.

“I think they’re trying to fandangle something similar here – TSMC isn’t going anywhere, let’s just force them to do a deal with Intel and take a slice of the pie.”

But the blueprint of the Asia semiconductor ecosystem has a valuable lesson: no one country can operate a chip industry on its own, and if you want to make advanced semiconductors, efficiently and at scale – it will take time.

Trump is trying to create a chip industry through protectionism and isolation, when what allowed the chip industry to emerge throughout Asia is the opposite: collaboration in a globalised economy.

Gold has jumped to a fresh high as investors fret over the impact of the trade war between the US and China.

Spot gold touched $3,357.40 (£2,540) per ounce on Wednesday, before dipping from its peak. It has risen by around a third since the start of the year.

The rise follows comments by the head of US central bank who said President Donald Trump’s tariff policies are likely to mean slower growth, higher prices and unemployment risks.

The precious metal is viewed as a safer asset for investors during times of economic uncertainty.

At the Economic Club of Chicago on Wednesday, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said higher-than-expected tariffs announced in recent weeks could result in slowing US economic growth and rising prices for consumers.

Mr Powell gave his speech after a period of turmoil on global financial markets as investors reacted to the new import taxes coming into effect and the escalating trade war between the US and China.

Gold is in “full lifeboat mode” as it has become “the most crowded trade on the planet,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading and market strategy at SPI Asset Management.

“The dollar is stumbling under the weight of trade-policy whiplash, and portfolio managers have lost faith in anything that involves political discretion,” he added.

Analysts have compared this year’s gold rally to the Iranian Revolution more than four decades ago, when prices jumped by almost 120% from November 1979 to January 1980.

Gold crossed $3,000 an ounce for the first time last month as uncertainty over the impact of a global trade war set in.

Jesper Koll from advisory firm Monex Group said investors have flocked to gold as “a trust hedge against both inflation and government recklessness”.

“Everyone is looking for ‘real’ assets. It’s increasingly clear that Team Trump’s ‘move fast and break things’ approach to policy making will not change,” he added.

The introduction of tariffs by the Trump administration, which are taxes charged on businesses importing goods from overseas, has fuelled fears of inflation, which has driven investors to so-called safe haven assets like gold.

Trump has put taxes of 145% on China since he returned to the White House in January, and China has retaliated with a 125% tariff on US imports.

There is also uncertainty about whether sweeping US tariffs on a host of other countries will go into effect, after being paused for 90 days.

The Trump administration has said the measures will bring manufacturing back to the US, create jobs for American workers and generate billions of dollars of tax revenues.

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YouTuber MrBeast has issued an apology after his MrBeast Experience at a Las Vegas resort did not live up to the billing.

The influencer, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson and has more than 385 million subscribers, said the event “definitely isn’t the experience we hoped they’d deliver” and promised to make it up by inviting everyone affected to his studio.

The event at Resorts World Las Vegas was advertised as an “immersive” and “unforgettable” experience that included exclusive games, a MrBeast-themed menu and mystery bags thought to contain limited edition merchandise, including one with a $10,000 (£7,550) gift voucher.

Those who attended the three-day event complained and demanded refunds.

A crowd of frustrated fans confronted the resort’s CEO Alex Dixon on Tuesday, asking him to refund the $1,000 (£750) they spent on the three-day event.

Fans arrived at Resorts World Las Vegas expecting fun games and exclusive experiences from MrBeast, but some said they waited in their hotel rooms for their mystery bags and were underwhelmed.

“It should have been like mini-games, meet and greets, photo ops, special drinks, and things,” Theresa Metta, who travelled to Las Vegas with her mother told 8NewsNow, an affiliate of the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get any of that.”

Instead, the guests camped out in their hotel rooms waiting days for their bags to arrive. And when they did, the guests were underwhelmed.

“I was told to wait in my room for two days for a package to come, so I legit spent two days in my room for a package to come, and it was a box of chocolates,” Ms Metta said.

Several users said on social media that they received t-shirts in different sizes, which could be purchased for $9 (£7) online.

One posted a video on TikTok accusing the hotel and the YouTube star of “false advertising”, saying it was a “horrible” experience.

Replying to a fan’s complaint on X, Donaldson admitted it “definitely isn’t the experience we hoped they’d deliver” and promised to make it up by inviting everyone affected to his studio.

The event has since been removed from the hotel’s website.

The BBC has contacted Donaldson and Resorts World Las Vegas for comment.

Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.

This is the second, and more promising, time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet’s atmosphere by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

But the team and independent astronomers stress that more data is needed to confirm these results.

The lead researcher, Prof Nikku Madhusudhan, told me at his lab at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy that he hopes to obtain the clinching evidence soon.

“This is the strongest evidence yet there is possibly life out there. I can realistically say that we can confirm this signal within one to two years.”

K2-18b is two-and-a-half times the size of Earth and is 700 trillion miles, or 124 light years, away from us – a distance far beyond what any human could travel in a lifetime.

JWST is so powerful that it can analyse the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere from the light that passes through from the small red Sun it orbits.

The Cambridge group has found that the atmosphere seems to contain the chemical signature of at least one of two molecules that are associated with life: dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS). On Earth, these gases are produced by marine phytoplankton and bacteria.

Prof Madhusudhan said he was surprised by how much gas was apparently detected during a single observation window.

“The amount we estimate of this gas in the atmosphere is thousands of times higher than what we have on Earth,” he said.

“So, if the association with life is real, then this planet will be teeming with life,” he added.

Prof Madhusudhan went further: “If we confirm that there is life on K2-18b, it should basically confirm that life is very common in the galaxy.”

He told BBC Radio 5Live on Thursday: “This is a very important moment in science, but also very important to us as a species.

“If there is one example, and the universe being infinite, there is a chance for life on many more planets.”

Dr Subir Sarkar, a lecturer in astrophysics at Cardiff University and part of the research team, said the research suggests K2-18b could have an ocean which could be potentially full of life – though he cautioned scientists “don’t know for sure”.

He added that the research team’s work will continue to focus on looking for life on other planets: “Keep watching this space.”

There are lots of “ifs” and “buts” at this stage, as Prof Madhusudhan’s team freely admits.

Firstly, this latest detection is not at the standard required to claim a discovery.

For that, the researchers need to be about 99.99999% sure that their results are correct and not a fluke reading. In scientific jargon, that is a five sigma result.

These latest results are only three sigma, or 99.7%. Which sounds like a lot, but it is not enough to convince the scientific community. However, it is much more than the one sigma result of 68% the team obtained 18 months ago, which was greeted with much scepticism at the time.

But even if the Cambridge team obtains a five sigma result, that won’t be conclusive proof that life exists on the planet, according to Prof Catherine Heymans of Edinburgh University and Scotland’s Astronomer Royal, who is independent of the research team.

“Even with that certainty, there is still the question of what is the origin of this gas,” she told BBC News.

“On Earth it is produced by microorganisms in the ocean, but even with perfect data we can’t say for sure that this is of a biological origin on an alien world because loads of strange things happen in the Universe and we don’t know what other geological activity could be happening on this planet that might produce the molecules.”

That view is one the Cambridge team agree with. They are working with other groups to see if DMS and DMDS can be produced by non-living means in the lab.

“There is still a 0.3% chance that it might be a statistical fluke,” Prof Madhusudhan said.

Suggesting life may exist on another planet was “a big claim if true”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding: “So we want to be really, really thorough, and make more observations, and get the evidence to the level that there is less than a one-in-a-million chance of it being a fluke.”

He said this should be possible in “maybe one or two years”.

Other research groups have put forward alternative, lifeless, explanations for the data obtained from K2-18b. There is a strong scientific debate not only about whether DMS and DMDS are present but also the planet’s composition.

The reason many researchers infer that the planet has a vast liquid ocean is the absence of the gas ammonia in K2-18b’s atmosphere. Their theory is that the ammonia is absorbed by a vast body of water below.

But it could equally be explained by an ocean of molten rock, which would preclude life, according to Prof Oliver Shorttle of Cambridge University.

“Everything we know about planets orbiting other stars comes from the tiny amounts of light that glance off their atmospheres. So it is an incredibly tenuous signal that we are having to read, not only for signs of life, but everything else,” he said.

“With K2-18b part of the scientific debate is still about the structure of the planet.”

Dr Nicolas Wogan at Nasa’s Ames Research Center has yet another interpretation of the data. He published research suggesting that K2-18b is a mini gas giant with no surface.

Both these alternative interpretations have also been challenged by other groups on the grounds that they are inconsistent with the data from JWST, compounding the strong scientific debate surrounding K2-18b.

Prof Chris Lintott, presenter of the BBC’s The Sky at Night, said he had “great admiration” for Prof Madhusudhan’s team, but was treating the research with caution.

“I think we’ve got to be very careful about claiming that this is ‘a moment’ on the search to life. We’ve [had] such moments before,” he told Today.

He said the research should be seen instead as “part of a huge effort to try and understand what’s out there in the cosmos”.

Prof Madhusudhan acknowledges that there is still a scientific mountain to climb if he is to answer one of the biggest questions in science. But he believes he and his team are on the right track.

“Decades from now, we may look back at this point in time and recognise it was when the living universe came within reach,” he said.

“This could be the tipping point, where suddenly the fundamental question of whether we’re alone in the universe is one we’re capable of answering.”

The research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Toby Carvery’s owner has apologised after the company felled an ancient oak tree and admitted “we need to tighten our protocols” in a letter seen by the BBC.

The company cut down the 500-year-old oak despite a March 2024 planning document that called it a “fine specimen”, and the council stating it had centuries to live.

On Wednesday, Enfield Council’s leader branded the felling “an outrage” and said all legal options were being considered.

Phil Urban, from Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), wrote: “Clearly the felling of a beautiful old tree is a very emotive subject and is not something any of us would undertake lightly. I can only apologise for all the upset that it has caused.”

The pedunculate oak, which was cut down on 3 April, was located on the edge of Enfield council-owned park in north London and overlooked a Toby Carvery.

Mr Urban, chief executive of M&B which owns the pub chain, wrote to residents explaining that he “only became aware of what had happened at Whitewebbs Park when it was reported on in the media”.

He said: “In this instance, one of our team acted in good faith in response to expert advice and authorised the work to be done.

“However, I would totally accept that this was an exceptional circumstance, and as part of our review, we have already concluded that we need to tighten our protocols to ensure that if something like this were to ever happen again, that we could still protect our guests, team members and/or general wider public from harm but have time for a fuller consultation.”

Enfield Council said on Tuesday it had reported the felling as a case of criminal damage to the Met Police, which is understood to have closed its inquiry, deeming it a civil matter.

The chief executive added that he wanted “to assure you that we do try to be good neighbours”.

He said: “On a personal level, I am very sorry for all the anger and upset that this incident has caused.

“I am not expecting my words to resolve the depth of feeling, but I do hope that you will accept that we do try to always be responsible operators, and that the people involved did act in good faith and with good intentions.

“We will complete a thorough review and ensure that in future, exceptional situations are treated differently from the more regular health and safety issues that arise on a day-to-day basis.”

On Tuesday, an M&B source initially said that the company had approved the cutting down of the oak after being told the tree was dead.

In an official statement hours later, M&B stated it had received advice from contractors, who said: “The split and dead wood posed a serious health and safety risk.”

M&B subsequently removed this statement in a further update but maintained it had taken “necessary measures to ensure any legal requirements were met”.

The tree, with a girth of 6m (20ft), was a nationally significant pedunculate oak listed on the Woodland Trust’s ancient tree inventory.

News of the destruction of the oak came just two days after a report from the charity Tree Council and the Forest Research organisation warned that trees were only indirectly protected, with some “significant legal gaps”.

It recommended the development of a “robust and effective system” to ensure they were safeguarded.

As the trade war between China and the US escalates, attention has been focused on the increasingly high levels of tit-for-tat tariffs the two countries are imposing on one another.

But slapping reciprocal tariffs on Washington is not the only way Beijing has been able to retaliate.

China has now also imposed export controls on a range of critical rare earth minerals and magnets, dealing a major blow to the US.

The move has laid bare how reliant America is on these minerals.

This week, Trump ordered the commerce department to come up with ways to boost US production of critical minerals and cut reliance on imports – an attempt by Washington to reclaim this critical industry. But why exactly are rare earths so important and how could they shake up the trade war?

“Rare earths” are a group of 17 chemically similar elements that are crucial to the manufacture of many high-tech products.

Most are abundant in nature, but they are known as “rare” because it is very unusual to find them in a pure form, and they are very hazardous to extract.

Although you may not be familiar with the names of these rare earths – like Neodymium, Yttrium and Europium – you will be very familiar with the products that they are used in.

For instance, Neodymium is used to make the powerful magnets used in loudspeakers, computer hard drives, EV motors and jet engines that enable them to be smaller and more efficient.

Yttrium and Europium are used to manufacture television and computer screens because of the way they display colours.

“Everything you can switch on or off likely runs on rare earths,” explains Thomas Kruemmer, Director of Ginger International Trade and Investment.

Rare earths are also critical to the production of medical technology like laser surgery and MRI scans, as well as key defence technologies.

China has a near monopoly on extracting rare earths as well as on refining them – which is the process of separating them from other minerals.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that China accounts for about 61% of rare earth production and 92% of their processing.

That means it currently dominates the rare earths supply chain and has the capacity to decide which companies can and cannot receive supplies of rare earths.

Both the extraction and processing of these rare earths are costly and polluting.

All rare earth resources also contain radioactive elements, which is why many other countries, including those in the EU, are reluctant to produce them.

“Radioactive waste from production absolutely requires safe, compliant, permanent disposal. Currently all disposal facilities in EU are temporary,” says Mr Kruemmer.

But China’s dominance in the rare earth supply chain didn’t take place overnight – but rather, is the result of decades of strategic government policies and investment.

In a visit to Inner Mongolia in 1992, the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who oversaw China’s economic reform, famously said: “The Middle East has oil and China has rare earths”.

“Beginning in the late 20th century, China prioritised the development of its rare earth mining and processing capabilities, often at lower environmental standards and labour costs compared to other nations,” said Gavin Harper, a critical materials research fellow at the University of Birmingham.

“This allowed them to undercut global competitors and build a near-monopoly across the entire value chain, from mining and refining to the manufacturing of finished products like magnets.”

In response to tariffs imposed by Washington, China earlier this month began ordering restrictions on the exports of seven rare earth minerals – most of which are known as “heavy” rare earths, which are crucial to the defence sector.

These are less common and are harder to process than “light” rare earths, which also makes them more valuable.

From 4 April, all companies now have to get special export licenses in order to send rare earths and magnets out of the country.

That is because as a signatory to the international treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, China has the ability to control the trade of “dual use products”.

According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), this leaves the US particularly vulnerable as there is no capacity outside China to process heavy rare earths.

A US Geological report notes that between 2020 and 2023, the US relied on China for 70% of its imports of all rare earth compounds and metals.

This means that the new restrictions have the ability to hit the US hard.

Heavy rare earths are used in many military fields such as missiles, radar, and permanent magnets.

A CSIS report notes that defence technologies including F-35 jets, Tomahawk missiles and Predator unmanned aerial vehicles all depend on these minerals.

It adds that this comes as China “expands its munitions production and acquires advanced weapons systems and equipment at a pace five to six times faster than the United States”.

“The impact on the US defence industry will be substantial,” said Mr Kroemmer.

And it’s not only in the field of defence.

US manufacturing, which Trump has said he hopes to revive through the imposition of his tariffs, stand to be severely impacted.

“Manufacturers, particularly in defence and high-tech, face potential shortages and production delays due to halted shipments and limited inventories,” said Dr Harper.

“Prices for critical rare earth materials are expected to surge, increasing the immediate costs of components used in a wide range of products, from smartphones to military hardware,” he says, adding that this could result in potential production slowdowns for affected US companies.

If such a shortage from China persists in the long-run, the US could potentially begin diversifying its supply chains and scaling up its domestic and processing capabilities, though this would still require “substantial and sustained investment, technological advancements and potentially higher overall costs compared to the previous dependence on China”.

And it’s clear this is something already on Trump’s mind. This week, he ordered an investigation into the national security risks posed by the US’ reliance on such critical minerals.

“President Trump recognises that an overreliance on foreign critical minerals and their derivative products could jeopardise US defence capabilities, infrastructure development, and technological innovation,” said the order.

“Critical minerals, including rare earth elements, are essential for national security and economic resilience.”

The US has one operational rare earths mine, but it does not have the capacity to separate heavy rare earths and has to send its ore to China for processing.

There used to be US companies that manufactured rare earth magnets – until the 1980s, the US was in fact the largest producer of rare earths.

But these companies exited the market as China began to dominate in terms of scale and cost.

This is largely believed to be part of why US president Donald Trump is so keen to sign a minerals deal with Ukraine – it wants to reduce dependency on China.

Another place Trump has had his eye on is Greenland – which is endowed with the eighth largest reserves of rare earth elements.

Trump has repeatedly showed interest in taking control of the autonomous Danish dependent territory and has refused to rule out economic or military force to take control of it.

These might have been places that the US could have sourced some of its rare earth exports from, but the adversarial tone Trump has struck with them means the US could be left with very few alternative suppliers.

“The challenge the U.S. faces is two-fold, on the one hand it has alienated China who provides the monopoly supply of rare earths, and on the other hand it is also antagonising many nations that have previously been friendly collaborators through tariffs and other hostile actions,” said Dr Harper.

“Whether they will still prioritise collaboration with America remains to be seen in the turbulent policy environment of this new administration.”

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There are some scientific discoveries that do much more than advance our knowledge: they create a shift in our psyche as they show us the scale of the Universe and our place in it.

One such moment was when space craft sent back images of the Earth for the first time. Another is the discovery of life on another world, a moment that has inched a little closer today with the news that signs of a gas, which on Earth is produced by simple marine organisms, has been found on a planet called K2-18b.

Now, the prospect of really finding alien life – meaning we are not alone in the Universe – is not far away, according to the scientist leading the team that made the detection.

“This is basically as big as it gets in terms of fundamental questions, and we may be on the verge of answering that question,” says Prof Nikku Madhusudhan of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University.

But all of this prompts even more questions, including, if they do find life on another world, how will this change us as a species?

Our ancestors have long created stories of beings that might dwell in the skies. In the early 20th Century, astronomers thought they could see straight line features on the Martian surface, raising speculation that one of our nearest planets might be home to an advanced civilisation: an idea that spawned a wealth of pulp science fiction culture involving flying saucers and little green aliens.

It was during an era when western governments generated fear of the spread of communism, so visitors from outer space were more often than not portrayed as menaces, bringing peril rather than hope.

But decades on, what has been described as “the strongest evidence yet” of life on another world has come, not from Mars or Venus, but from a planet hundreds of trillions of miles away orbiting a distant star.

Part of the challenge when it comes to researching the existence of alien life is knowing where to look.

Until relatively recently, the focus for Nasa’s search for life was Mars, but that began to change in 1992 with the discovery of the first planet orbiting another star outside of our solar system.

Although astronomers had suspected that there were other worlds around distant stars there had been no proof until that point. Since then, nearly 6,000 planets outside our solar system have been discovered.

Many are so-called gas giants, like Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system. Others are either too hot or too cold to support liquid water, thought to be essential for life.

But many are in what astronomers call “The Goldilocks Zone” where the distance is “just right” to support life. Prof Madhusudhan believes there could be thousands in our galaxy.

As these so-called exoplanets were being discovered, scientists began to develop instruments to analyse the chemical composition of their atmospheres. Their ambition was breathtaking, some would say audacious.

The idea was to capture the tiny amount of starlight glancing through the atmospheres of these faraway worlds and study them for chemical fingerprints of molecules, which on Earth can only be produced by living organisms, so-called biosignatures.

And they succeeded in developing such instruments for ground and space-based telescopes.

Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which detected the gas on the planet called K2-18b in this week’s discovery, is the most powerful space telescope ever built and its launch in 2021 generated excitement that the search for life was at long last within humanity’s grasp.

But JWST has its limits – it can’t detect faraway planets as small as ours or as close to their parent stars, because of the glare. So, Nasa is planning the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), scheduled for the 2030s, which will be able to spot and sample the atmospheres of planets similar to our own. (This is possible using what is effectively a high-tech sunshield that minimises light from the star which a planet orbits.)

Also coming online later this decade is the European Southern Observatory (ESO)’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which will be on the ground, looking up at the crystal-clear skies of the Chilean desert.

It has the largest mirror of any instrument built, 39-metres in diameter, and so can see vastly more detail at planetary atmospheres than its predecessors.

Prof Madhusudan, however, hopes to have enough data within two years to demonstrate categorically that he really has discovered the biosignatures around K2-18b. But even if he does achieve his aim, this won’t lead to mass celebrations about the discovery of life on another world.

Instead, it will be the start of another robust scientific debate about whether the biosignature could be produced by non-living means.

Eventually though, as more data is gathered from more atmospheres and as chemists fail in finding alternative explanations for biosignatures, the scientific consensus will slowly and gradually shift towards the probability that life does exist on other worlds, according to Prof Catherine Heymans, from Edinburgh University, who is Scotland’s Astronomer Royal.

“With more time on telescopes, astronomers will get a clearer vision of the chemical compositions of these atmospheres. You won’t know that it’s definitely life. But I think the more data that’s built up, and that if you see this in multiple different systems, not just this one particular planet, it gives us more confidence”.

The world wide web emerged in a series of incremental technological breakthroughs that didn’t necessarily feel of enormous consequence at the time.

In similar fashion, it may dawn on people that possibly the most enormous scientific, cultural and social transformation in the whole of human history has happened, but that the moment the balance was tipped in terms of there being other life out there was not fully recognised at the time.

A much more definitive discovery would be to discover life in our own solar system using robotic space craft containing portable laboratories. Any off-world bug could be analysed, possibly even brought back to Earth, providing prima facie evidence to at least significantly limit any scientific push back that may ensue.

The scientific case for the possibility of life or past life in our own solar system has increased in recent years following data sent back by various spacecraft, so several missions to search for signs of it are on their way.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars rover, planned for launch in 2028, will drill below the surface of Mars to search for signs of past and possibly present life. Given the extreme conditions on Mars, however, the discovery of fossilised past life is the more likely outcome.

China’s Tianwen-3 mission, also planned for launch in 2028 is designed to collect samples and bring them back to Earth by 2031. Nasa and ESA each have spacecraft on their way to the icy moons of Jupiter to see if there may be water, possibly vast oceans, under their icy surfaces.

But the spacecraft are not designed to find life itself. Instead, these missions lay the ground for future missions which will, according to Prof Michele Dougherty of Imperial College, London.

“It is a long, slow process,” she says. “The next decision to make would be a lander, which moon it goes to, and where we should be landing.

“You don’t want to land where the ice crust is so thick that there is no way you can get underneath the surface. And so, it’s a long, slow burn, but it’s pretty exciting en route”.

Nasa is also sending a spacecraft called Dragonfly to land on one of the moons of Saturn, Titan in 2034. It is an exotic world with what are thought to be lakes and clouds made from carbon-rich chemicals which give the planet an eerie orange haze, bringing The Beatles‘ song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to mind: a world with “marmalade skies”.

Along with water these chemicals are thought to be a necessary ingredient for life.

Prof Dougherty is one of the leading planetary scientists in her field. Does she think there is life on one of the icy Moons of Jupiter or Saturn?

“I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t,” she says, beaming with delight.

“Three things are required: a heat source, liquid water and organic (carbon-based) chemicals. If we have those three ingredients, the chances that life is able to form rises really steeply.

If simple life forms are found to exist that is no guarantee that more complex life forms are out there.

Prof Madhusudhan believes that, if confirmed, simple life should be “pretty common” in the galaxy. “But going from that simple life to complex life is a big step, and that is an open question. How that step happens? What are the conditions that govern that? We don’t know that. And then going from there to intelligent life is another big step.”

Dr Robert Massey, who is the deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, agrees that the emergence of intelligent life on another world is much less likely than simple life.

“When we see the emergence of life on Earth, it was so complex. It took such a long time for multi-cellular life to emerge and then evolve into diverse life forms.

“The big question is whether there was something about the Earth that made that evolution possible. Do we need exactly the same conditions, our size, our oceans and land masses for that to happen on other worlds or will that happen regardless?”

He believes that the discovery of even simple alien life would be the latest chapter in the diminution of humanity’s place in the cosmos.

As he puts it, centuries ago, we believed we were at the centre of the Universe and with each discovery in astronomy we have found ourselves “more displaced” from that point. “I think the discovery of life elsewhere it would further reduce our specialness,” he says.

Prof Dougherty, on the other hand, believes that such a discovery in our own solar system would be good for science, and good for the soul.

“The discovery of even simple life will allow us a better understanding about how we might have evolved way back those millions of aeons ago when we first evolved. And so, for me, it’s helping us find our place in the Universe.

“If we know there is life, elsewhere in our solar system and potentially beyond, [this] would somehow be comforting to me, knowing that we’re a fabric of something larger will make us bigger”.

Never before have scientists searched so hard for life on other worlds and never before have they had such incredible tools to do this with. And many working in the field believe that it is a matter of when, rather than if, they discover life on other worlds. And rather than bringing fear, the discovery of alien life will bring hope, according to Prof Madhusudhan.

“When we would look at the sky, we would see not just physical objects, stars and planets, we would see a living sky. The societal ramifications of that are immense. It will be a huge transformational change in the way we look at ourselves in the cosmic scene.

“It will fundamentally change the human psyche in how we view ourselves and each other, and any barriers, linguistic, political, geographical, will dissolve, as we realise we are all one. And that will bring us closer,” he continues.

“It will be another step in our evolution”.

The US government has threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling foreign students – after the institution said it would not bow to demands from President Donald Trump’s administration and was hit with a funding freeze.

The White House has demanded the oldest university in the US make changes to hiring, admissions and teaching practices – to help fight antisemitism on campus.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has asked for records on what she called the “illegal and violent” activities of its foreign student visa-holders.

Harvard earlier said it had taken many steps to address antisemitism, and that demands were an effort to regulate the university’s “intellectual conditions”.

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a message on Monday to the Harvard community.

The new request from Noem said the institution would lose the “privilege of enrolling foreign students” if it did not comply with the demand for records.

Harvard said it was aware of the new request from Noem, which was made in a letter, the Reuters news agency reported.

International students make up more than 27% of Harvard’s enrolment this year. Even before Noem’s statement, billions of dollars hung in the balance for the university, after the freeze of some $2.2 bn (£1.7bn) in federal funding.

Trump has also threatened to also remove Harvard’s valuable tax exemption, the loss of which could cost Harvard millions of dollars each year. US media reports suggest the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has started drawing up plans to enact this.

“Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.

“Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds.”

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The administration’s attacks on Harvard are not isolated. The government’s antisemitism task force has identified at least 60 universities for review.

During his presidential campaign, Trump pitched a funding crackdown on universities, painting them as hostile to conservatives. He and Vice-President JD Vance have long railed against higher education institutions.

Polling by Gallup last year suggested that confidence in higher education had been falling over time among Americans of all political backgrounds, particularly Republicans – in part due to a belief that universities push a political agenda.

Since taking office, Trump has focused particularly on universities where pro-Palestinian protests have taken place. Some Jewish students have said they felt unsafe and faced harassment on campus.

In March, Columbia University agreed to several of the administration’s demands, after $400m in federal funding was pulled over accusations the university failed to fight antisemitism.

These included replacing the official leading its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department and pledging to take on a review to “ensure unbiased admission processes”.

Harvard too has made concessions – including by dismissing the leaders of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies, who had come under fire for failing to represent Israeli perspectives.

But it has drawn the line at the White House’s recent list of demands.

Beijing insists it will stand firm in the face of Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods. It has been trying to reassure everyone that the country is strong and the economy is resilient enough to weather this latest storm.

But this week, Chinese officials have acknowledged the potential for economic pain as a result of the unfolding trade war with the US.

One option for policymakers here is to try to increase domestic consumption to make up for lost export revenue.

China has a massive population and, if they start buying more stuff, Chinese companies won’t have to rely as much on trade overseas.

A key target in this endeavour are retirees with potentially decades of savings.

Now the government wants them to spend some of it – for the good of the country.

And initiatives like the “silver trains” – which are tailored specifically to older travellers – aim to do just that.

On board the Star Express, the cocktails are poured and the karaoke microphone is passed around, as retirees party their way through China’s south-western Yunnan province.

The roast goose is being devoured with shots of baijiu, a Chinese white spirit alcohol.

“We have been working hard all these years,” says 66-year-old Daniel Ling, who is travelling with a group of retired or semi-retired friends.

“The important thing when we reach this age, is to know what is the right thing to do – and that is to really enjoy life.”

The initiative hopes to turn an economic problem into an economic solution by giving older people a fun avenue to spend more.

Families are not spending enough because they don’t feel financially safe – the property crisis has diminished the value of their number one asset: their home. And growing unemployment has also potentially made their job less secure.

Add to the mix an ageing population and low birthrates and the proportion of retirees grows each year, making it harder for the economy to support them.

But what retirees do have is time on their hands and money to spend.

So now they are to be given more opportunities to splurge with special trains designed to take them to sites they might not normally visit – parts of the country further afield, which need a financial shot in the arm.

“The main places where the silver trains will stop are undeveloped rural areas or small towns with struggling economies,” says Dr Huang Huang, a research associate from the China Tourism Academy who has been studying the potential impact of this plan.

“They will consume various products on the trains, but after they pull into a station, they will also visit tourist attractions and traditional villages.”

In Baisha, the travellers stop by the modest street stalls at the bottom of old, two-storey, wooden houses built by the local Naxi ethnic minority.

One of them approaches a vendor selling barbecued strips of yak meat. They look tasty and she buys a bagful. The vendor’s husband, who is also working at the stall, says this business is only a year old and that they need outside customers to survive.

All along this street you can get potatoes with spicy sauce, lamb skewers, fresh orange juice and the traditional clothing of the Naxi people.

This is a region where incomes are low and most young people leave when they reach a certain age because there are hardly any jobs for them.

It is also not an easy place for many retirees to reach, but these silver trains make it possible, with easy access to boarding and alighting, and with staff to help as well as extra medical support if required.

Shi Lili, 69, whose granddaughter is accompanying her, says the travelling spirit of her youth has been rekindled: “When I was young I really liked exploring other places by myself. Now I’m older, I have my family who can go with me.”

By the end of last year, 22% of China’s population were over the age of 60, making up more than 310 million people.

So, if only the smallest percentage of China’s retirees take “silver trains”, it can still mean millions of ticket sales. And China’s railway authorities say they plan to be operating 100 routes within the next three years.

Such trips alone are not going to fix China’s massive challenge with low consumer spending. But economists would say these moves are a step in the right direction.

Older citizens now have a much greater desire to travel compared to previous generations, creating “huge potential”, according to Dr Huang.

“Given that China’s ageing population is now a reality going into the long run – something which is unlikely to the reversed – we should find more opportunities from this rather than always turning it into a challenge.”

Back on board the train, the silver adventurers are ready to crash out. And they can do so knowing that their big day out was – at least partly – for the benefit of all.

Then it’s onto the next town.

The NHS will be pursued if it does not follow new guidance on single-sex spaces, the chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said.

Along with other public bodies, the NHS will be receiving guidelines after the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.

“We’ve been speaking to the health service for an inordinately long time – we will now be asking them when they will be updating their advice,” Baroness Falkner said.

Currently the NHS guidance says trans people should be accommodated according to the way they dress, their names and their pronouns. Under the ruling this would be scrapped.

• Five key takeaways from Supreme Court ruling

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says it is “working at pace” to provide an updated code of conduct for services, including the NHS and prisons.

The ruling could have implications for spaces such as hospital wards, changing rooms and domestic refuges.

Asked on the BBC’s Today Programme whether the EHRC would pursue the NHS if it doesn’t change, the Baroness replied “yes we will”.

“We will be having those conversations with them to update that guidance,” she said.

Wednesday’s case was brought by women’s rights campaigners who challenged the Scottish government, arguing sex-based protections should apply only to people that are born female.

Judges ruled that when the term “woman” is used in the Equality Act it means a biological woman, and “sex” means biological sex.

This means a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) – a legal document that recognises an individual’s gender identity – will now not change a person’s legal sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.

The Supreme Court justices argued this was the only consistent, coherent interpretation.

There is already Equality Act guidance which allows for women-only spaces, such as toilets, changing rooms and hospital wards in certain circumstances.

But under the new ruling a person who was born male but identifies as a woman does not have a right to use a space or service designated as women only.

Baroness Falkner said trans people should use their “power of advocacy” to ask for facilities including a “third space” for toilets.

“Single-sex services like changing rooms must be based on biological sex if a male person is allowed to use – it’s no longer a single sex space.”

She added the ruling was “a victory for common sense only if you recognise that trans people exist, they have rights and their rights must be respected”.

That includes transgender women who have legally changed their gender and hold a GRC.

Baroness Falkner said the next stage of litigation may well be tests of the efficacy of GRCs.

Asked about whether she thought GRCs were now “worthless”, she replied: “We don’t believe they are. We think they’re quite important.”

The equality watchdog says it expects its updated guidance to be in place by the summer.

The new guidance could also have an impact on women’s sport, where the question over whether transgender women can participate has been a high-profile issue in recent years.

Sports have tightened up rules around transgender athletes at the elite levels. Athletics, cycling and aquatics have banned transgender women from taking part in women’s events.

Other sports have put in place eligibility criteria. Earlier this month the English Football Association introduced stricter rules, but still allowed transgender women to continue to compete in the women’s game as long as their testosterone was kept below a certain level.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said a review on gender and equality laws was “a good idea”.

Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Cambridge, she said: “We need to make sure that the law is clear and the public bodies follow the law, not guidance from organisations that don’t understand it.”

She added the laws needed to be updated to ensure that they are “there to prevent discrimination, not for social engineering”.

Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman, a prominent supporter of trans rights, told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme the decision would “stoke the fires of the culture war” and trans people now feared they could lose access to facilities they’ve used, in some cases, for decades.

She added that trans people had been attacked in recent years “just for being who they are” and she was “concerned” about the impact of the Supreme Court decision.

Trans rights campaigners have said they will be examining the judgment closely to decide on their next steps.

The UK government has welcomed the “clarity and confidence” for women and service providers brought by the judgement.

Health minister Karin Smyth said the government would be reviewing the ruling to “make sure we are fully compliant with it” and would be working with equality bodies to make sure organisations were fully compliant.

She said the government was not interested in “so-called culture wars” and believed that everybody should have “their dignity and privacy and their rights respected”.

“I think now is the time to make sure that we look to the future, that rights are very clear for people and that service providers absolutely make sure they comply with the law,” she said.

The BBC has contacted the Department of Health for comment.

Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton has clarified he believes in climate change after facing backlash for comments made during an election debate on Wednesday night.

Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were asked about the increasing impact of climate change, to which Dutton replied he would “let scientists and others pass that judgment”.

He had previously said that flooding and natural disasters were “part of the history of our state of this country”. The comments generated outrage from climate groups and mockery from Albanese.

“I believe in climate change, and that it is a reality” Dutton said while campaigning on Monday.

During Wednesday’s debate, Dutton responded to the moderator’s question on whether flooding and natural disasters were getting worse by saying, “I don’t know because I’m not a scientist”.

“I can’t tell you whether the temperature has risen in Thargomindah because of climate change or the water levels are up,” he added.

Meanwhile Albanese, who had said Dutton’s words showed “no acceptance of the science of climate change” continued mocking his opponent on Thursday, asking “does he believe in gravity?”

Environmental organisations have reacted to Dutton’s debate remarks with dismay.

Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie told the Guardian “it’s outrageous for a senior political leader to be so out of touch that they claim they “don’t know” the risks Australians are facing.”

A report from the non-profit released earlier this month stated one in 23 properties across the country were found to be at high risk from climate change.

Australian Conservation Foundation Chief Executive Kelly O’Shanassy called Dutton’s words “a serious concern” in an interview with the Canberra Times, adding that “the next parliament is the last parliament that can get Australia’s massive contribution to climate change under control.”

Albanese was also questioned on his climate policy during the debate, though for different reasons.

The prime minister has championed renewable energy throughout his time in office, but has faced backlash for rising power bills.

Asked when fees would fall, the prime minister did not directly reply. Instead, he stressed renewables were the “cheapest form of power”.

In March, Labor announced it would extend a relief system for the bills, providing a further automatic $150AUD ($95;£72) rebate to households and small businesses.

The hour-long debate also saw the two party leaders pressed on other hot button issues for Australia including housing and foreign policy, in particular Australia’s relationship to the US.

A Tesla whistleblower who has fought Elon Musk and his company through the courts for years has won the latest round of a long-running legal battle.

Engineer Cristina Balan lost her job after she raised a safety concern in 2014 about a design flaw which could affect the cars’ braking.

Her defamation claim against the firm seemed to have run out of road when a judge confirmed an arbitration decision dismissing her case – but a panel of appeal judges in California has reversed this decision in her favour.

She told BBC News she now wants to face Elon Musk and Tesla in open court.

Tesla has not responded to a request for comment.

Ms Balan said she believes the case will now in effect go back to square one, and new proceedings can be launched.

“We are hoping we will start a new lawsuit and we will have the chance to take on Elon Musk in front of a jury and judge,” she said.

The engineer was once so prominent at Tesla that her initials were engraved on the batteries inside Model S vehicles.

In an interview with BBC News last year, she said she is determined to prove her innocence for the sake of her son.

She also revealed she was in remission from stage-3B breast cancer, and her biggest worry was she may not live to see her final day in court.

Ms Balan claimed she was worried the carpets were curling underneath some pedals in Tesla models, creating a safety hazard.

She said managers rebuffed her concerns, became hostile, and she lost her job.

She then won a wrongful dismissal case – but this turned out to be the start of a long journey through the courts.

Ms Balan was publicly accused by Tesla of using its resources for a “secret project” – accusations which amount to embezzlement, a crime under US law.

She has consistently denied the accusation, and decided to bring a defamation case against the firm in 2019.

“I want to clear my name,” she told BBC News last year.

“I wish Elon Musk had the decency to apologise.”

A court then decided Ms Balan’s case should be subject to arbitration per a contract she signed while working for Tesla.

The arbitrator found in favour of the firm and Musk, dismissing her claims, due to California’s statute of limitations – meaning too much time had passed since the alleged defamatory statements were made.

Tesla brought the case back to a district court in California to have the decision confirmed.

However, Ms Balan appealed this decision, and judges from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found in her favour – in effect deciding the California court did not have the jurisdiction to make its judgement.

They have ordered for the confirmation of the arbitration award to be cancelled, and for the district court to dismiss the action due to its lack of jurisdiction.

The majority of legal experts the BBC has spoken to believe the case has some way to go before there will be any conclusion.

“Tesla is among the many corporations that force employees and customers into opaque arbitration processes and deploy aggressive strategies to retaliate against employees who voice criticism of corporate practices,” said Stanford professor Anat Admati.

And Bill Moran, Ms Balan’s attorney, agreed the legal process is far from over.

But he said the case was “revived” by the latest ruling.

“We are confident we can secure her either a new arbitration or alternatively a trial in court so that her case can be heard on the merits after so many years,” he said.

“She has fought cancer while waging this case… she is the epitome of strength and resolve, and she is now one step closer to getting the justice she deserves.”

After British actress Aimee Lou Wood called a Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch that impersonated her using exaggerated prosthetic teeth “mean and unfunny,” impressionists have told BBC News how they tread the line between being funny and offensive.

It all began with five minutes on NBC last Saturday night.

Titled The White Potus – a spin on hit HBO dark comedy The White Lotus – a SNL sketch depicted US president Donald Trump, his family and top team spending time at a fictional tropical hotel.

After jokes showing Eric Trump blending a gold Rolex watch and Ivanka Trump rejecting a spiritual call to give up material wealth, Wood’s White Lotus character Chelsea is portrayed by cast member Sarah Sherman using a pronounced accent and large teeth.

In response to a comment made by a character playing US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, she asks: “Fluoride? What’s that?”

The mineral is added to some water supplies and brands of toothpaste to help prevent tooth decay.

For BBC Radio 4’s Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens, the first misstep of the writers behind the SNL sketch was “not reading the room”.

It was a bad idea to joke about someone’s appearance in a sketch about The White Lotus, Ravens says, given Wood’s casting has been praised for a character lacking “those all-American, fake-looking teeth”.

“In the wake of all that, she’s been talking about how she was bullied at school and the butt of jokes. So then you think, ‘why would you do that joke’?”

It meant that in making fun of Wood’s appearance, the sketch “punched down,” says Ravens.

“You might make a joke about Donald Trump’s appearance because you’re definitely not punching down on the most powerful man in the western world.”

Ronni Ancona, co-writer and star of the early 2000s TV series The Big Impression, said she “could see” that the writers were also trying to make a point about US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s pledge to remove fluoride from US drinking water.

But in doing so, “they would have made this tenuous link between fluoride and Aimee Lou’s teeth. It’s a bit of a cheap shot,” she told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday.

After the show aired, Wood, 31, 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.”

Later on, in a post on social media, she said: “I’ve had apologies from SNL.”

However, Francine Lewis, a comedian whose impersonations have earned her a large following on social media, says the whole purpose of the US show is to “take the mick”.

While she can sympathise with someone being “embarrassed” by being the target of a sketch, Lewis adds that she thinks Wood’s response was “too sensitive”.

In her own impressions of celebrities, which include TV stars Gemma Collins and Stacey Solomon, Lewis has stuffed a pillow up her top to appear to be physically larger and put cotton wool on her teeth “to make them really white and jut out a bit”.

In recent times, both fans and some of her targets have taken offence.

“I don’t know if it’s just the new generation of young people that just take offence to every little thing,” she says.

“People that say you’re a troll, you’re a bully… I find myself hiding at celebrity events because I think ‘oh I do their impression, they might not like me’.”

But she believes that being impersonated is actually a marker of someone’s popularity and fame, saying that “it means you’ve arrived”.

Rather than adapting her impressions, Lewis is steadfast in her belief that “to make comedy funny, unfortunately you have to overstep the mark.”

It’s a view shared by Steve Nallon, known for impersonating former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on satirical TV programme Spitting Image.

“What caricaturists do by nature… is exaggerate the physicality. If a caricaturist is stopped from doing that, there’s no point in him being a caricaturist,” he says.

During the 1980s, one of his targets – former Labour minister Roy Hattersley – was mocked for a slight speech impediment, with water spurting out of his mouth as he spoke.

“The joke was Roy Hattersley spits,” says Nallon, who adds that Hattesley allegedly got on board with the joke after initially taking offence.

For Nallon, those in the public eye will always be fair game. “Maybe it’s not a bad lesson to learn that you’ve got to have the mickey taken out of you occasionally,” he says.

But times have changed. Ravens says that “people are much more sensitive” about targeting certain aspects of people’s appearances and mannerisms “than they used to be earlier on in my career, for example, and I think rightly so”.

This is not the first time SNL has received criticism of their portrayals.

It doesn’t mean the comedy is lost, says Ravens. In political satire – which was the main thrust of the SNL sketch – a really good impression satirises what the person is saying, rather than just fixating on how they look or how they deliver it, she adds.

During our phone interview, she seamlessly breaks into an impression of former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, but notes that just speaking in a tense, clipped way, “is only good for one line really”.

“You’re pricking pomposity and you’re exposing hypocrisy. That’s the point of satire.”

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