Lights flickered back to life across most of Spain and Portugal on Tuesday after a massive blackout hit the Iberian peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and elevators while millions lost phone and internet coverage.

Electricity had been restored to nearly 90% of mainland Spain by early on Tuesday, the grid operator REE said. Power was restored overnight to around 6.2m households in Portugal out of 6.5m, according to the national electricity grid operator. Lights also came on again in Madrid and in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.

Barely a corner of the peninsula, which has a joint population of almost 60 million people, escaped the blackout. But no firm cause for the shutdown has yet emerged.

Portuguese prime minister, Luis Montenegro, said the source of the outage was “probably in Spain”. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said that all the potential causes were being analysed and warned the public not to speculate because of the risk of “misinformation”.

Earlier, the blackout was blamed by Portugal’s grid operator REN on extreme temperature variations, and left the two countries without trains, metros, traffic lights, ATMs, phone connections and internet access.

People were trapped in lifts, stuck on trains, stalled in traffic and abandoned in airports. Hundreds stumbled along pitch-black metro tunnels using their phone torches; others scrambled for basics in supermarkets that could only take cash, or began long trudges home from work.

Mobile networks went down and internet access was cut as power failed at 12.33pm (11.33 BST). Hospitals postponed routine operations but used generators to attend to critical cases, and while electronic banking was able to function on backup systems, most ATM screens were blank.

In scenes reminiscent of the 2003 outage that caused widespread blackouts in the US north-east, rail services across the Iberian peninsula were halted, air traffic disrupted and traffic lights extinguished. Hundreds of people had to be rescued from jammed lifts.

The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martinez-Almeida, had urged people to minimise their journeys and stay where they were, adding: “It is essential that the emergency services can circulate.” Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended.

By 10pm local time on Monday, 62% of Spain’s substations were back online (421 of 680) and 43.3% of the power demand had been met, while Portugal’s grid operator REN said it had restored power to 85 of the country’s 89 substations.

Red Eléctrica had previously cautioned that it could take between six and 10 hours to fully restore supply after what it called an “exceptional and totally extraordinary” incident.

Along a major thoroughfare in Madrid’s Argüelles neighbourhood, the restoration of the power supply prompted whoops of delight and a round of hearty applause among the many people wandering the street.

Sánchez said that the power cut originated at 12.33pm, when, for five seconds, 15 gigawatts of the energy that was being produced – equivalent to 60% of all the energy that was being used – suddenly disappeared.

“That’s something that has never happened before,” he added. “What prompted this sudden disappearance of the supply is something that the experts still haven’t been able to determine. But they will … All potential causes are being analysed and no hypothesis or possibility is being ruled out.”

Sánchez thanked France and Morocco for sending additional electricity to Spain, and said the current shortfall would be eased using gas and hydroelectric power.

The Portuguese operator, REN, said the outage was caused by a “rare atmospheric phenomenon”, with extreme temperature variations in Spain causing “anomalous oscillations” in very high-voltage lines.

REN said the phenomenon, known as “induced atmospheric vibration”, caused “synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network”.

Widespread outages are unusual in Europe. In 2003, a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused blackouts for about 12 hours, and in 2006 an overloaded power network in Germany caused electricity cuts across parts of the country and in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The prime minister said additional nationalpolice and Guardia Civil officers had been deployed across the country to ensure people’s safety overnight, adding that hospitals were functioning well thanks to the efforts of healthcare workers.

He said telecommunications services were still suffering interruptions, mainly because of a lack of electricity supply to antennae.

Sánchez said that only 344 of the 6,000 flights in Spain on Monday had been cancelled, and that the country’s roads network was working well, barring some tailbacks.

The main travel disruption had occurred on the rail network, where 35,000 passengers trapped on more than 100 trains had been helped by rail companies and the military emergencies unit. Eleven more trains that had stopped in remote areas were still waiting to be reached.

In Madrid and other cities, traffic lights ceased to function, causing gridlock as vehicles slowed to avoid collisions, while metros were halted. Spain’s national road authority, DGT, urged motorists to avoid using the roads as much as possible.

El País newspaper posted photos and video on its website of passengers navigating darkened metro tunnels in the Spanish capital and police directing traffic on the city’s streets. Footage also showed its own reporters working by torchlight.

The Spanish health ministry said in a social media update it was in contact with regional authorities to assess the scope of the widespread blackout but reassured the public that hospitals had supplementary systems in place.

In Portugal, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country. Lisbon metro carriages were evacuated and ATMs and electronic payment systems cut out.

Sánchez said that eight of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions – Andalucía, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia and Valencia – had declared level 3 emergencies, placing responsibility for the response in the hands of the central government. He said schools in those areas would be open on Tuesday, but would not be offering regular classes.

He said the situation across the country remained very “asymmetric” on Monday night, with some regions already having 90% of their power restored, while others had recovered less than 15%.

Spain, Portugal and some of south-west France suffered a massive power cut on Monday, with major cities including Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon among those affected.

Houses, offices, trains, traffic lights and even the Madrid open tennis tournament were all hit, causing chaos for millions of people and prompting a scramble by the Spanish and Portuguese governments and network operators to understand the problem and race to fix it.

Four long hours after the power went out across Spain, bringing trains to a halt in Madrid’s metro stations and sending people scurrying for light and taxis, the denizens of the Spanish capital were swinging between pragmatism and polite, almost jocular, panic.

Behind the counter of his neighbourhood bazaar in a quiet corner of the city, a shop owner reeled off a list of the afternoon’s most popular purchases: radios, batteries, torches and candles. As he finished, yet another optimistic customer entered the shop.

“I don’t suppose you’ve got any radios left?” The shop owner shook his head. No radios.

Outside, on the boulevard that runs between two local schools, families were trotting home and trying to plan the next few hours. “We’re worried,” said Reyes Paterna, who was running a quick mental inventory as she took her young daughter home, where her one-year-old baby was waiting.

“Nothing’s working. We’ve got stuff for the baby but nothing else,” she said. “We’ve got a camping stove at home but we’re not sure if there’s any gas left in the cylinder.”

Paterna was also anxious about her mother, who lives on her own in Murcia, 200 miles away. “She could be stuck in the lift for all we know!”

For Paterna and everyone else in Madrid, the priorities were basic provisions and hoping that the patchy mobile phone coverage was restored as soon as possible, so that loved ones could be checked on and minds put at ease after hours of uncertainty.

As metro workers lounged outside a silent station – no trains meant no work – people chatted and joked about how things would be better if they were in their pueblos in the countryside, where power cuts are more common and most people cook with gas.

“We’re all in shock to be honest,” said one woman, as she guided her children home from school. Where were they headed? “To my mum’s. She’s got gas, so at least there’ll be some hot food for the kids.”

Such measured calm was not universal, however. As offices across the capital emptied and taxi drivers bellowed “cash only!” through their windows, at least one noble individual jumped the queue to get to a cab before a waiting pregnant woman.

With the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, holding an emergency meeting of the national security council, and the Madrid regional government calling for the declaration of a national emergency, people decided on their own courses of action.

Food and other goods were high on everyone’s list of priorities. Though one local supermarket was shuttered – either for want of working systems, or a lack of Euro-carrying customers in an increasingly cashless society – others were doing a good trade. Just as in the Covid pandemic, some people hadn’t been able to resist the urge to stock up on toilet roll.

Manuel Pastor, 72, had not bought toilet roll, but was pulling a shopping trolley homewards, nonetheless.

“I’ve bought some tins and stuff that will last a while, just in case,” he said. “All we can do now is wait. Hopefully it’ll only last a day or two, otherwise people will start to panic.”

He sighed, pondering the possibility of some kind of cyber-attack and hoping that people would resist the urge to panic. If that happened, he said, “everyone will be fighting over things, even before there are shortages. Remember when the pandemic started? What bloody idiots.”

For most people, however, panic would have to wait. There was dinner to be made, relatives to be checked on, and children to be collected and hugged.

The Chinese regime enlisted Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Alibaba, in an intimidation campaign to press a businessman to help in the purge of a top official, documents seen by the Guardian suggest.

The businessman, who can be named only as “H” for fear of reprisals against his family still in China, faced a series of threats from the Chinese state, in an attempt to get him to return home from France, where he was living. They included a barrage of phone calls, the arrest of his sister, and the issuing of a red notice, an international alert, through Interpol.

The climax, in April 2021, was the call from Ma. “They said I’m the only one who can persuade you to return,” Ma said.

H, who had known Ma for many years, recorded the call. He had done the same for calls he had received from other friends, as well as Chinese security officials, who had called in the weeks before, all with the same message.

Transcripts of those calls presented in a French court, along with other legal records, provide a rare insight into some of the methods used by the Chinese regime to exert its influence around the world. The documents lay out in detail how a combination of threats, co-opted legal mechanisms and extrajudicial pressures are used to control even those beyond the country’s borders.

The findings are part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) China Targets project, in which journalists documented the methods the Chinese regime uses to track and crush dissent abroad. The team includes the Guardian as well as Radio France and Le Monde, who obtained the transcripts and other legal paperwork.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the UK said: “The so-called ‘transnational repression’ by China is pure fabrication.”

Extradition threat

H, 48, a China-born citizen of Singapore, was in Bordeaux, France, when he received the call from Ma. A year earlier, a warrant had been issued by Chinese police for H’s arrest on charges of financial crime. Then, China had put out a notice for him through Interpol’s international criminal alert system. The French authorities confiscated his passport while they considered whether to extradite him.

The transcripts show that on the call, Ma suggested all of H’s problems would go away if he would help in the prosecution of Sun Lijun, a Chinese politician who had fallen out of favour with the ruling Chinese Communist party (CCP). Sun was being prosecuted for taking bribes and manipulating the stock market. “They are doing this all for Sun, not for you,” Ma said.

Sun, a former deputy security minister, was entrusted in 2017 with overseeing security in Hong Kong during mass protests against Beijing’s crackdown on democratic freedoms. He had been arrested the year before H started receiving the phone calls. Later, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) denounced Sun for “harbouring hugely inflated political ambitions” and “arbitrarily disagreeing with central policy guidelines”.

He became one of many top officials caught up in President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign, which human rights groups have said serves as a tool for Xi to purge his political rivals.

‘You have no other solution’

The transcript of the call suggests Ma was not happy to have been drawn into the affair. “Why did you involve me in this?” he asked H.

Like Sun, Ma had fallen out of favour with Xi’s regime. After giving a speech in October 2020 in which he criticised Chinese financial regulators, he was hit with repeated sanctions including a $2.8bn fine, and he disappeared from public view.

The phone call to H was made six months later. Ma explained in the call that he had been contacted by Chinese security officials. “They spoke to me very seriously,” Ma told H. “They say they guarantee that if you come back now, they will give you a chance to be exempted … You have no other solution … the noose will tighten more and more.”

Later, Ma called H’s lawyer to reiterate the message.

H did not return to China and his lawyers fought his extradition in the French courts.

Clara Gérard-Rodriguez, one of H’s lawyers, said: “We knew that if H went back to China, he would himself be arrested, detained, probably tortured until he agreed to testify … and that most of his assets, the shares of his company, would most likely be also transferred to other persons.”

The conviction rate for criminal cases in China is 99.98%, according to Safeguard Defenders, an organisation that investigates abuses by the Chinese regime. It has documented how forcible disappearances and torture are endemic within the justice system.

The money laundering charges brought against H in China, a year before the call from Ma, related to his connection to a credit platform, Tuandai.com. The founder of that company was jailed for 20 years for illegal fundraising. The Chinese police believed that he had attempted to hide some of the misappropriated funds when the investigation started. H, who had invested in the company, was accused of helping to move some of the money abroad through companies he controlled.

H’s lawyers told the French courts there was no evidence that he had known that the source of the funds was questionable. On a call to a friend, recorded in the French court documents, H protested his innocence. “None of this is true,” he said.

The Chinese government issued a red notice for H through Interpol, the international police watchdog. This flagged him as a potential criminal to police forces around the world and meant he was unable to travel. “It is like a pin through a butterfly,” said Ted R Bromund, an expert witness in legal cases involving Interpol procedures. “It holds someone down, locks them in place so they can’t get away.”

While red notices are used against serious criminals, campaigners have long warned that they can be abused. The British lawyer Rhys Davies recently told a government inquiry into transnational repression that red notices were “routinely used and abused by autocratic regimes to target dissidents and opponents overseas”. He called the system “the sniper rifle of autocrats because it is long-distance, targeted and very effective”.

While other countries, including Russia, Turkey and Rwanda, have also been known to abuse the system, China’s tactics are different, according to experts. Instead of relying on extraditions, the Chinese authorities use Interpol to locate people and then they ramp up the pressure, threatening them and family members back home until the individual agrees to return “voluntarily”.

A spokesperson for Interpol said the system meant thousands of the world’s “most serious criminals” were arrested every year. They added: “Interpol knows red notices are powerful tools for law enforcement cooperation and is fully aware of their potential impact on the individuals concerned, which is why we have robust – and continuously assessed and updated – processes for ensuring our systems are used appropriately.”

‘Psychological warfare’

As H waited in France, trapped by the legal process the red notice had begun, he received calls from friends and security officials, in what his lawyers called “all-out psychological warfare”. Sometimes the tone was friendly, with promises that all charges would be dropped; other times it was more threatening.

Transcripts of the call with the deputy investigator of the unit prosecuting Sun, Wei Fujie, suggest he promised H that if he returned there would be “no prosecution now, plus the cancellation of the red notice”.

A friend called and told H: “Within three days your whole family will be arrested!” Days later, H’s sister was arrested in China.

His case is far from unusual. The ICIJ’s China Targets project logged the details of 105 targets of transnational repression by China, in 23 countries. Half of them said their family members back home had been harassed through intimidation and interrogation by police or state security officials.

Rehabilitation

When H’s case came before the Bordeaux court of appeal, in July 2021, the court denied the extradition request. Later, the red notice was removed from Interpol’s systems. H’s lawyers successfully argued that the extradition request had been issued for political purposes, to compel testimony against Sun.

Sun was convicted of manipulating the stock market, taking bribes and other offences, without H’s intervention in the prosecution. He was given a suspended death sentence.

H, unable to trade or work in China, could not pay back loans or rent on a luxury property and became engulfed in debts totalling $135m, according to Chinese media. He declined to comment when approached by the Guardian.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the UK said: “China always respects the sovereignty of other countries and conducts law enforcement and judicial cooperation with other countries in accordance with the law.”

Representatives for Ma raised questions about his identity in the calls. The Guardian spoke to H’s lawyers, who said he had known the billionaire for many years prior to the call and that he had no doubt the caller was Ma. Throughout the legal process in which his lawyers challenged the red notice there were no questions raised about the identities of the callers.

Ma did not respond further to the Guardian.

Earlier this year, he was seen energetically applauding Xi at a meeting of business leaders in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People – a sign, according to local media, of the billionaire’s public rehabilitation.

Gérard-Rodriguez, H’s lawyer, said: “We saw and learned publicly of Jack Ma’s disappearance … this man, thought to be untouchable, extremely powerful, extremely well-connected in every country in the world, disappeared completely for several months and then reappeared, pledging his allegiance to the Chinese Communist party.

“And in the end, it was the same thing expected of H … that he would return to show his loyalty, to show which side he was on.”

Two women who were deported to Honduras alongside their US citizen children were held in “complete isolation” and denied any opportunity to coordinate the care and custody of their children before being put on a flight, according to one of the lawyers representing them.

The mothers were unable to contact attorneys or loved ones, and were not allowed the option to transfer the custody of their citizen children to another parent or caregiver, said Gracie Willis, an attorney with the National Immigration Project who is representing one of the families and coordinating with the team representing the other family.

“Here we had moms held completely in isolation, being told what was happening to their children. They didn’t have an opportunity to talk this through, to weigh the pros and cons of taking or leaving their children in the US,” Willis said.

One of the mothers, who was deported with her seven-year-old and her four-year-old, both of whom are citizens, was unable to access medications and care for her youngest, who has a rare form of late-stage cancer.

Another woman, who is pregnant, was put on a plane to Honduras along with her 11-year-old and two-year-old daughters, even as the children’s father and a caretaker designated by the family were desperately trying to contact them.

“She’s in the early stages of a pregnancy and has undergone unimaginable stress,” said Willis. “So she’s trying to ensure her and that unborn child’s safety and health, while also processing and working through what they’ve all been through.”

Both families were detained at regular check-in appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in New Orleans, according to lawyers, and then taken hours away from the city and prohibited from communicating with family members.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of immigrant parents in similar situations, who have both a deportation order and US citizen children, have to choose whether to leave their kids in the US under the care of another family member or guardian, or surrender them to Child Protective Services.

“No parent would want to be in that situation,” Willis said. “And we don’t bring any judgment against any decision that a parent makes.”

But the mothers who were rushed on to deportation flights with their children last week, in high-profile cases that have drawn widespread condemnation from civil rights groups and lawmakers, were not empowered to make any real choices for their families, Willis said.

“There were no real decisions being made here, especially when those parents were not able to communicate with other available caregivers,” she added.

After lawyers for VML, the two-year-old who is identified in court documents by only her initials, filed an emergency motion to prevent the US citizen toddler’s deportation, a federal district judge raised concerns that he had a “strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process”.

A hearing in VML’s case has been scheduled for 18 May. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been claiming that the family’s cases were handled legally and with due process.

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said: “The children aren’t deported. The mother chose to take the children with her.”

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, echoed Homan, saying: “I imagine those three US citizen children have fathers here in the United States. They can stay with their father. That’s up to their family to decide where the children go.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.

But VML’s father had been desperately trying to reach his partner and retrieve his toddler in the days leading up to the deportation, Willis said.

On 22 April, VML’s mother had been told to bring her children to her check-in with Ice, according to Willis. The father, who had brought them to the check-in appointment, began to worry that the appointment was taking longer than usual – and was later told that his partner and daughters had been detained.

When he was eventually able to speak to them, he could hear his partner and daughter crying on the phone and his call was cut off before he was able to give them a number for the family’s attorneys.

The government told him that it had removal orders for VML’s mother and her 11-year-old sister, who was not born in the US, and that their mother was choosing to also take VML to Honduras with them. They pointed to a handwritten letter, which they say was written by the mother, that reads in Spanish: “I will take my daughter … with me to Honduras.”

But the family’s lawyers dispute that the letter proves their consent, especially given that the parents weren’t allowed to coordinate VML’s release. They had wanted the toddler to be handed over to a US citizen that the family had chosen to serve as VML’s legal custodian. “The mom was never asked what she wanted. She was told, your child will be deported with you,” Willis said.

Before their deportation, both families had been dutifully complying with Ice orders to regularly check-in.

VML’s mother had arrived at the US southern border during the “remain in Mexico” program instituted during the first Trump administration, which forced non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait south of the border while their cases were processed.

The mother, and her now 11-year-old, had reported to an initial appointment with immigration officials but had been kidnapped in Mexico – and were unable to attend their second immigration hearing. When the mother and daughter managed to return and seek safety in the United States, immigration officials released them into the country on the condition that they regularly check-in – which they had been doing for about four years, according to Willis.

The other woman deported with her children had entered the US as an unaccompanied minor child, and had been issued deportation orders after she failed to report at a hearing that she was not aware was happening, as she never received a summons, Willis said.

As part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, unaccompanied minors are now being targeted for deportation, with the Department of Homeland Security engaging in “welfare checks” on children who arrived in the US alone, usually across the US-Mexican border.

The moves have sparked fears of a crackdown and prompted alarm about what one critic called “backdoor family separation”.

The president has also signed two executive orders related to immigration, including one targeting so-called “sanctuary cities” that “obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws”.

Here are the key stories at a glance:

Catching up? Here’s what happened on 27 April 2025.

Donald Trump signed two new executive orders on Monday afternoon related to immigration, according to the White House, including one targeting so-called “sanctuary cities” and another the administration says will strengthen law enforcement.

One of the orders aims to “strengthen and unleash America’s law enforcement to pursue criminals and protect innocent citizens”, according to the White House. It directs the attorney general to provide resources to the legal defense of police officers who “unjustly incur expenses and liabilities for actions taken during the performance of their official duties to enforce the law”. The order also includes a directive to “[hold] state and local officials accountable” for “willfully and unlawfully [directing] the obstruction of criminal law.”

The second order targets so-called “sanctuary cities”, and directs the attorney general and secretary of homeland security to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that “obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws”. It also calls on the government to identify federal funds that can be terminated as a consequence for cities that identify as sanctuary jurisdictions.

Trump also signed an order on Monday requiring commercial vehicle drivers, such as truckers, read and speak English.

The new executive orders come less than a week after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot withhold federal funding from cities and counties that have passed laws preventing or limiting cooperation with US immigration officials, considered “sanctuary cities”.

On his first day in office in January, Trump issued an order directing the attorney general and homeland security secretary to withhold federal funds from such jurisdictions as part of his administration’s crackdown on immigration.

In February, he also issued another order instructing the federal government to ensure that federal funding to state and local governments does not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation”.

In response, San Francisco, along with more than a dozen other cities and counties nationwide with “sanctuary” policies, challenged the orders.

According toWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the orders signed on Monday will bring the total number of executive orders signed during Trump’s first 100 days in office to more than 140, nearing the total number signed by Joe Biden over his four-year term.

Drinking champagne, eating more fruit, staying slim and maintaining a positive outlook on life could help reduce the risk of a sudden cardiac arrest, the world’s first study of its kind suggests.

Millions of people worldwide die every year after experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), when the heart stops pumping blood around the body without warning. They are caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, when the electrical system in the heart is not working properly. Without immediate treatment such as CPR, those affected will die.

The study identified 56 non-clinical risk factors associated with SCA, spanning lifestyle, physical measures, psychosocial factors, socioeconomic status and the local environment. It found compelling evidence that addressing these things could prevent a large number of cases.

Researchers found that factors such as higher consumption of champagne and white wine, increased fruit intake, along with maintaining a positive mood, weight management, blood pressure control and improved education, may serve as important protective factors. They concluded that between 40% and 63% of sudden cardiac arrest cases could be avoidable when looking at all 56 risk factors. Their findings were published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

The study’s co-investigator Renjie Chen of Fudan University in Shanghai said: “To our knowledge, this is the first study that comprehensively investigated the associations between non-clinical modifiable risk factors and SCA incidence. We were surprised by the large proportion (40%-63%) of SCA cases that could be prevented by improving unfavourable profiles.”

Researchers studied more than 500,000 people using data from the UK Biobank. Of those tracked, 3,147 people suffered SCAs during a typical follow-up period of 14 years.

The study’s lead investigator, Huihuan Luo, also from Fudan University, said: “All previous studies investigating the risk factors of SCA were hypothesis-driven and focused on a limited number of candidate exposure factors grounded in prior knowledge or theoretical frameworks.

“We conducted an exposome-wide association study, which examines the relationship between a wide range of environmental exposures and health outcomes using UK Biobank data, followed by Mendelian randomisation to assess causal relationships.

“The study found significant associations between various modifiable factors and SCA, with lifestyle changes being the most impactful in preventing cases.”

Eliminating the worst third of the 56 risk factors suggested 40% of SCA cases could be prevented, according to the study. This increased to 63% SCA prevention if the worst two-thirds of the risk factors were eliminated.

In a linked editorial, Nicholas Grubic from the University of Toronto in Canada, and Dakota Gustafson from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, said: “One of the study’s most intriguing findings is the cardioprotective effect associated with champagne and white wine consumption, questioning long-held assumptions about the specificity of red wine’s cardioprotective properties.

“Research on the underlying mechanisms remains unclear, but these findings reinforce the idea that the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption may be more complex than previously assumed.”

The suggestion that champagne and white wine may be helpful also conflict with existing advice.

The British Heart Foundation says lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of SCAs. These include cutting down on alcohol, quitting smoking, eating a healthy diet, taking medications and following treatments from your doctor, as well as being physically active.

To reduce the “immense burden” SCAs put on health systems, population-wide strategies that prioritise prevention are required, Grubic and Gustafson wrote. But while shifting from responding to SCAs to preventing them may seem straightforward, doing so would be far more complex in practice, they said.

They said: “The multifactorial nature of these events – often influenced by a combination of genetic predispositions, underlying cardiovascular conditions, environmental triggers, and lifestyle factors – poses significant challenges for healthcare professionals and policymakers.”

Four members of the “Hong Kong 47” group of pro-democracy campaigners and activists jailed on contentious national security convictions have been freed.

Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan are the first of the group to be released from jail, after serving sentences of more than four years. The group – tried together in Hong Kong’s largest ever national security trial – were sentenced in November. However most of them, including the four released on Tuesday, had already spent several years detained after courts denied bail.

The Hong Kong 47 are among a group of more than 50 pro-democracy politicians, activists, community workers and campaigners who were arrested in mass dawn raids in early 2021. The 47 were accused of breaching the 2020 national security by holding unofficial primaries before Hong Kong’s scheduled elections.

The group includes some of the most well-known figures of the resistance to the Beijing-led crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in the wake of the 2019 protests. Some, like accused organiser Benny Tai and activist Joshua Wong, had been jailed before on activism charges. For many, including Mo it was their first offence.

The four released on Tuesday had been given the shortest sentences, reduced for their guilty pleas but still more than four years. Their time held in pre-trial detention was taken into account.

Of the 47, 31 pleaded guilty, and two were acquitted at trial. The 14 who were convicted after pleading not guilty were given harsher sentences.

The four had been held across three different prisons – Mo at the Lo Wu Correctional Institution, and former legislator Fan at Shek Pik prison. Tam and Kwok, both former senior members of the Civic Party, had been held at Stanley Prison.

Local media reported seeing vehicles believed to be carrying the individuals leaving the various prisons in the early hours of Tuesday, adding that police had set up physical blocks to keep press at a distance and prevent them from following some cars.

Fan, speaking to the press when he arrived at his home early on Tuesday, said: “I will go back home and reunite with family. Thank you HongKongers”.

Philip Bowring, Mo’s husband, told reporters he was pleased Mo had returned home, saying she was “well and in good spirits.” But he said she would not give interviews for the time being.

“She has to get used to life again in the outside world,” he said at their door, adding that they probably would go to England to see their grandchildren later. The Ming Pao media outlet reported a banner was seen hanging in the family’s living room reading “welcome home Mum”.

Mo, 68, is founder of the Civic Party, and was an outspoken democratic legislator, until she and the entire democratic bloc quit in solidarity with colleagues over the disqualification of colleagues. She was denied bail in part because of WhatsApp conversations she’d had with foreign media.

In a message on Facebook soon after she was charged, Mo told supporters “I may be physically feeble, but I’m mentally sturdy … No worries. We all love Hong Kong yah.”

More than 40 members of the group are still in jail, serving sentences of up to 10 years. Tai, a legal scholar accused of being the “mastermind” behind the group’s “subversion”, was given the longest sentence, but had faced up to life in prison.

The primaries were held in 2020, just days after the national security law (NSL) came into force. The sweeping piece of legislation, imposed by the Chinese government to criminalise acts of dissent, sedition, and foreign collusion, has been widely criticised as a tool of Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to crush political opposition.

Its terms were and remain considered vaguely defined. At the time of the primaries Hong Kong minister Erick Tsang had warned that they could violate the law, but the organisers went ahead. Unofficial primaries had been held in the city before, including by pro-establishment parties.

The group aimed to win a majority in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, or LegCo, and then use it to block bills and force the dissolution of LegCo and the eventual resignation of the chief executive. The three government-selected national security judges overseeing the case found this to be an act of subversion.

The Hong Kong and central Chinese governments have rejected international criticism of the national security law and related prosecutions, saying it was necessary to restore order after the protests which drew millions to the city streets, and devolved into violent clashes. Thousands of protesters were arrested, with many still waiting to go through the court system five years later. Police were accused of widespread acts of brutality against protesters and journalists, but the force was cleared of wrongdoing by a controversial inquiry process which found its actions to be justified.

Reuters contributed to this report

Four members of the “Hong Kong 47” group of pro-democracy campaigners and activists jailed on contentious national security convictions have been freed.

Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan are the first of the group to be released from jail, after serving sentences of more than four years. The group – tried together in Hong Kong’s largest ever national security trial – were sentenced in November. However most of them, including the four released on Tuesday, had already spent several years detained after courts denied bail.

The Hong Kong 47 are among a group of more than 50 pro-democracy politicians, activists, community workers and campaigners who were arrested in mass dawn raids in early 2021. The 47 were accused of breaching the 2020 national security by holding unofficial primaries before Hong Kong’s scheduled elections.

The group includes some of the most well-known figures of the resistance to the Beijing-led crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in the wake of the 2019 protests. Some, like accused organiser Benny Tai and activist Joshua Wong, had been jailed before on activism charges. For many, including Mo it was their first offence.

The four released on Tuesday had been given the shortest sentences, reduced for their guilty pleas but still more than four years. Their time held in pre-trial detention was taken into account.

Of the 47, 31 pleaded guilty, and two were acquitted at trial. The 14 who were convicted after pleading not guilty were given harsher sentences.

The four had been held across three different prisons – Mo at the Lo Wu Correctional Institution, and former legislator Fan at Shek Pik prison. Tam and Kwok, both former senior members of the Civic Party, had been held at Stanley Prison.

Local media reported seeing vehicles believed to be carrying the individuals leaving the various prisons in the early hours of Tuesday, adding that police had set up physical blocks to keep press at a distance and prevent them from following some cars.

Fan, speaking to the press when he arrived at his home early on Tuesday, said: “I will go back home and reunite with family. Thank you HongKongers”.

Philip Bowring, Mo’s husband, told reporters he was pleased Mo had returned home, saying she was “well and in good spirits.” But he said she would not give interviews for the time being.

“She has to get used to life again in the outside world,” he said at their door, adding that they probably would go to England to see their grandchildren later. The Ming Pao media outlet reported a banner was seen hanging in the family’s living room reading “welcome home Mum”.

Mo, 68, is founder of the Civic Party, and was an outspoken democratic legislator, until she and the entire democratic bloc quit in solidarity with colleagues over the disqualification of colleagues. She was denied bail in part because of WhatsApp conversations she’d had with foreign media.

In a message on Facebook soon after she was charged, Mo told supporters “I may be physically feeble, but I’m mentally sturdy … No worries. We all love Hong Kong yah.”

More than 40 members of the group are still in jail, serving sentences of up to 10 years. Tai, a legal scholar accused of being the “mastermind” behind the group’s “subversion”, was given the longest sentence, but had faced up to life in prison.

The primaries were held in 2020, just days after the national security law (NSL) came into force. The sweeping piece of legislation, imposed by the Chinese government to criminalise acts of dissent, sedition, and foreign collusion, has been widely criticised as a tool of Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to crush political opposition.

Its terms were and remain considered vaguely defined. At the time of the primaries Hong Kong minister Erick Tsang had warned that they could violate the law, but the organisers went ahead. Unofficial primaries had been held in the city before, including by pro-establishment parties.

The group aimed to win a majority in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, or LegCo, and then use it to block bills and force the dissolution of LegCo and the eventual resignation of the chief executive. The three government-selected national security judges overseeing the case found this to be an act of subversion.

The Hong Kong and central Chinese governments have rejected international criticism of the national security law and related prosecutions, saying it was necessary to restore order after the protests which drew millions to the city streets, and devolved into violent clashes. Thousands of protesters were arrested, with many still waiting to go through the court system five years later. Police were accused of widespread acts of brutality against protesters and journalists, but the force was cleared of wrongdoing by a controversial inquiry process which found its actions to be justified.

Reuters contributed to this report

Voters in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) have ousted the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) party, electing the United National Congress’ (UNC) Kamla Persad-Bissessar as prime minister of the twin-island Caribbean nation.

The victory marks a remarkable comeback for Persad-Bissesar, 73, who previously served as prime minister from 2010-2015, and remains the only woman ever to have led the country.

In her victory speech to crowds of cheering supporters late on Monday, Persad-Bissesar pledged to deliver on election promises.

She said: “This victory is for the senior citizens to keep their pensions. This victory is for public servants to get their rightful salary increases. This victory is to reopen the children’s hospital …This victory is to once again give laptops to our children. This victory is to create over 50,000 jobs. And so, the victory is yours.”

Persad-Bissessar, a distinguished attorney, became the first woman to lead the UNC in 2010 . The UNC faced internal upheaval, high-profile resignations and a series of electoral defeats but Persad-Bissessar’s leadership has helped the party re-establish itself as a credible force, particularly among voters seeking change.

Her speech came minutes after the PNM conceded defeat. Former prime minister and PNM party leader Keith Rowley said: “Tonight is not a good night for the PNM, but it might be a good night for Trinidad … Things have gone very well with the processes. The results are coming in now. And from what we have coming in … it is clear at this time that we have lost the election.”

Outgoing prime minister Stuart Young added: “The electorate has spoken tonight, and we look forward to tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning you will see a strong PNM back on the road, back servicing the population of Trinidad and Tobago.”

The election also saw unprecedented success for the Tobago People’s party (TPP), which ousted two PNM incumbents in Tobago. For the first time since Jack Warner’s Independent Liberal party (ILP) won Chaguanas West in 2013, the country will now have three political parties represented in the House of Representatives.

The snap election, triggered after Rowley’s unprecedented resignation and the appointment of Young as prime minister, came amid a surge in the cost of living, Trump’s trade wars and soaring crime rates.

It followed a three-month state of emergency, declared on 30 December after a wave of bloody gang warfare. Last year, T&T, which has a population of about 1.5 million, recorded 624 homicides, making it one of the most violent countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

During their campaign, the UNC promised a range of initiatives to tackle crime, including the creation of new ministries of defence and justice.

Before the vote, Hamid Ghany, a political analyst at the University of the West Indies said that Trump’s relations with T&T may change with Persad-Bissessar as prime minister.

Earlier this month, the US revoked two licenses it had granted in recent years for the development of offshore natural gas projects between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, dealing a blow to the country’s economic growth projections.

“The closeness between PM Young and [Venezuela’s] Maduro’s regime will be on the Trump administration’s radar should the PNM win the election,” Ghany said. “It is quite possible that there may be a different response from the Trump administration should the UNC win the election, given the favourable disposition of Kamla Persad-Bissessar towards Trump,” he added.

Donald Trump plans to cushion the impact of his tariffs on US carmakers by easing some duties on foreign vehicle parts, his administration has said.

“President Trump is building an important partnership with both the domestic automakers and our great American workers,” the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said in a statement provided by the White House.

“This deal is a major victory for the president’s trade policy by rewarding companies who manufacture domestically, while providing runway to manufacturers who have expressed their commitment to invest in America and expand their domestic manufacturing.”

The move means car companies paying tariffs would not be charged other levies, such as those on steel and aluminium,, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development.

Carmakers would be able to secure a partial reimbursement for tariffs on imported auto parts, based on the value of their US car production, under the plans.

Cars made outside the US will still be subject to Trump’s tariffs but will be exempt from other levies. The plan is expected to be officially confirmed later on Tuesday.

Trump is traveling to Michigan on Tuesday to commemorate his first 100 days in office, a period that the Republican president has used to upend the global economic order.

The move to soften the effects of auto levies is the latest by his administration to show some flexibility on tariffs, which have sown turmoil in financial markets, created uncertainty for businesses and sparked fears of a sharp economic slowdown.

Carmakers said on Monday that they were expecting Trump to issue relief from the auto tariffs ahead of his trip to Michigan, which is home to the “Detroit Three” companies and more than 1,000 big auto suppliers.

The General Motors (GM) chief executive, Mary Barra, and Ford’s boss, Jim Farley, praised the planned changes. “We believe the president’s leadership is helping level the playing field for companies like GM and allowing us to invest even more in the US economy,” Barra said.

Farley said the changes “will help mitigate the impact of tariffs on automakers, suppliers and consumers”.

Last week, a coalition of US car industry groups urged Trump not to impose 25% tariffs on imported parts, warning they would cut vehicle sales and raise prices. Trump had said earlier he planned to impose tariffs of 25% on car parts no later than 3 May.

“Tariffs on auto parts will scramble the global automotive supply chain and set off a domino effect that will lead to higher auto prices for consumers, lower sales at dealerships and will make servicing and repairing vehicles both more expensive and less predictable,” the industry groups said in the letter.

The letter from the groups representing GM, Toyota Motor, Volkswagen, Hyundai and others, was sent to the US trade representative Jamieson Greer, the treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Lutnick.

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power, Amnesty International warns today.

In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.

Describing a “freefall” in human rights, the report said growing inaction over the climate crisis, violent crackdowns on dissent and a mounting backlash against the rights of migrants, refugees, women, girls and LGBTQ+ people could be traced to the so-called Trump effect.

Amnesty warned the situation would deteriorate further this year as Trump continued to dismantle the rules-based world order that Washington helped to build from the devastation of the second world war.

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, described the US president’s swift and deliberate targeting of international institutions designed to make the world safer and fairer as “terrifying”.

“You look forward to the end of this decade and wonder whether the basic frameworks and underpinnings of not just human rights but international law will still be standing. You probably haven’t been able to say that since 1935,” he said.

Amnesty’s report also documents how mass arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and lethal force are becoming increasingly widespread tools of repression.

In Bangladesh, “shoot-on-sight” orders during student protests led to hundreds of deaths; Mozambique’s disputed elections similarly sparked a deadly crackdown; and Turkey also imposed draconian bans on demonstrations.

The report also identified global inaction as an area of concern, particularly in relation to Sudan’s ruinous civil war. One of the warring sides there, the Rapid Support Forces, has been accused of repeatedly carrying out mass sexual violence against women and girls yet international action remains muted.

Trump’s sweeping foreign aid cuts had made conditions worse across the world, Amnesty said, closing crucial programmes in states such as Yemen and Syria, leaving children and survivors of conflict without access to food, shelter or healthcare.

Amnesty also raised concerns over failures to uphold international humanitarian law, citing Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

In Europe, Amnesty said Russia killed more Ukrainian civilians in 2024 than the previous year and continued to target non-military infrastructure. Trump is proposing that Ukraine cede territory to Russia as part of peace proposals dismissed as appeasement by critics.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said: “Trump has shown only utter contempt for universal human rights – emboldening anti-rights movements worldwide and letting corporate allies run amok.”

Looking further ahead, the report warned that governments risked failing future generations on the climate, economic inequality and corporate power.

It cited the collapse of the UN’s Cop29 climate conference, under fossil-fuel corporations’ influence, while rich countries “bullied” low-income nations into accepting inadequate climate financing.

Trump’s exit from the crucial Paris climate agreement threatened “to drag others with him”, Amnesty warned.

Elsewhere, against a backdrop of scapegoating migrants, “billionaires gained wealth as global poverty reduction stalled”, it said.

Women, girls and LGBTQ+ people faced intensifying attacks in a number of countries including Afghanistan and Iran, while LGBTQ+ rights were targeted in Uganda, Georgia and Bulgaria.

“The Trump administration fanned the flames, cutting support for gender equality and dismantling protections for trans people and women globally,” Amnesty said.

Kneecap have apologised to the families of murdered MPs David Amess and Jo Cox after footage emerged in which the Irish-language rappers purportedly call for politicians to be killed.

Criticism of the group has been mounting – including from Downing Street and the Conservative leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch – since a video emerged from a November 2023 gig appearing to show one person from the group saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”

Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said on Monday the prime minister believed the comments were “completely unacceptable” and “condemns them in the strongest possible terms”.

Katie Amess, whose father, David Amess, was murdered by an Islamic State fanatic in his Southend West constituency in 2021, said she was “gobsmacked at the stupidity of somebody or a group of people being in the public eye and saying such dangerous, violent rhetoric” and demanded an apology.

Overnight on Monday, the Belfast group – Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh – posted an apology on X and suggested the condemnation had been an “effort to derail the real conversation” about Gaza.

The band has previously claimed they are facing a “co-ordinated smear campaign” after speaking out about “the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people”.

“To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt,” they said in the 500-word statement.

“Establishment figures, desperate to silence us, have combed through hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a handful of words from months or years ago to manufacture moral hysteria,” they said.

“Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nation’s history.

“We also reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever. An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action. This distortion is not only absurd – it is a transparent effort to derail the real conversation.”

Scotland Yard is reportedly looking into the alleged call to kill MPs, along with another concert from November 2024 in which a member of the band appeared to shout “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah” – groups that are banned as terrorist organisations in the UK.

The trial of Erin Patterson for allegedly murdering her in-laws by serving them a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms has started in a Victorian court.

Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in South Gippsland in 2023.

The 15-member jury in the supreme court trial was empaneled on Tuesday.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering or attempting to murder the relatives of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson.

She is accused of murdering Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, his aunt Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Simon’s uncle and Heather’s husband.

Opening submissions in the case are expected to be made on Wednesday by Nanette Rogers SC, the prosecutor, and Patterson’s lawyer Colin Mandy SC.

Justice Christopher Beale said in his instructions to the jury that Patterson was no longer accused of attempting to murder her estranged husband.

He told the jury those charges had been discontinued, and that they should remove any consideration of these previous charges.

The panel is made up of 10 men and five women. Three of them are reserve jurors, with only 12 deciding on a verdict. The verdict must be unanimous.

Beale said that if the jurors happened to be watching television news and came across a story about the case, they should change the channel, and should similarly ignore it if they came across it in a newspaper or online.

“It’s your duty to decide this case only on the basis of that evidence. You must ignore all other considerations,” he said.

“You must dismiss all prejudices or sympathies you may have … your duty is to consider the evidence using your head, not your heart.

“You must completely ignore anything you have seen or heard in the media, including social media … about this case, and the people involved in it.”

Beale explained types of evidence, using an analogy about whether it was raining outside to outline the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence: someone who said he had seen or heard rain, as opposed to someone who witnessed a person carrying a wet coat or umbrella.

He also explained the onus was on the prosecution to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

“Ms Patterson does not have to prove anything. That never changes from start to finish,” he said.

“It’s not for her to demonstrate her innocence, but for the prosecution to prove the charges they have brought against her.

“It’s not enough for the prosecution to prove the accused is probably guilty, or very likely to be guilty.”

He said that in order for Patterson to be found guilty of murder the prosecution had to prove four elements beyond reasonable doubt: that Patterson caused the death of the alleged victim, that she did so consciously, voluntarily and deliberately, that she did so intending to kill, or to cause really serious injury, and that she did so without any lawful justification or excuse.

Beale drew a laugh from the jury when he said that some members of the public may consider them “pretty slack” for only sitting from 10.30am to 4.15pm, with a break for lunch and two shorter breaks.

“But as the trial goes on I think you’ll find it pretty demanding,” he said.

Beale ended his directions with a final warning: “Shut down any conversations with anybody, family, friends, who want to know more”.

The trial in Morwell continues on Wednesday.