Hamas says it will release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who is believed to be the last living captive with US nationality in Gaza, as a part of efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement.

The decision comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East on Tuesday. Hamas said it was also intended to facilitate a deal for the entry of humanitarian aid. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for 70 days.

Earlier a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the Palestinian armed group was holding direct negotiations with a US administration official in Qatar.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said it had been informed by the US of the Hamas intention to release Alexander.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the BBC that Hamas’s announcement was intended as a goodwill gesture before Trump’s arrival.

He said another meeting between Hamas and the mediators was scheduled for early Monday morning to finalise the process of Edan’s release, which would require a temporary halt to Israeli military activity and a suspension of aerial operations during the handover.

President Trump confirmed Alexander’s release in a post on Truth Social, calling it “monumental news” and “a step taken in good faith”.

Born in Tel Aviv but raised in New Jersey, 21-year-old Alexander was serving in an elite infantry unit on the border with Gaza when he was captured by Hamas militants during the 7 October attack.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 59 remain in the enclave, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Five of the hostages in Gaza are believed to be US citizens and Alexander was thought to be the only one still alive.

In its statement, Hamas said the release was part of efforts to achieve a ceasefire and allow food, medicine and other supplies into Gaza – which has been under a complete blockade by Israel for 70 days. The group said it wanted to reach a final agreement to end the war.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement that it had been informed by the US of the Hamas intention to release Alexander “as a gesture towards the Americans” and that the move was expected to lead to negotiations on further hostages.

Israel’s policy was that negotiations would be conducted “under fire, based on the commitment to achieve all of the objectives of the war”, it added.

The Families and Missing Families Forum campaign group said Alexander’s release “must mark the beginning of a comprehensive agreement that will secure the freedom of all remaining hostages”.

They said President Trump had “given the families of all the hostages hope” and urged Netanyahu to now “bring everyone back”.

Hamas has in the past said it will only agree to a deal that includes the end of the war, something that has been repeatedly rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The talks between Hamas and the US are taking place amid multiple reports suggesting growing frustration in the Trump administration with Netanyahu’s position. The prime minister is also under pressure at home, with many accusing him of prolonging the war for political purposes.

President Donald Trump arrives in the Middle East on Tuesday, and Israel has vowed to expand its military offensive against Hamas if no deal is reached by the end of his visit.

Israeli officials have said the plans for their expanded offensive include seizing all of the territory indefinitely, forcibly displacing Palestinians to the south, and taking over aid distribution with private companies despite opposition from the UN and its humanitarian partners, who say they will not co-operate because it appears to “weaponise” aid.

Israel has already blocked the entry of all food, medication and other humanitarian supplies into Gaza for 70 days, which aid agencies say amounts to a policy of starvation and could be a war crime, and renewed its aerial bombardment and other military operations there in mid-March, which have since killed 2,720 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Since the beginning of the year, according to the UN, about 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children have been identified. Food prices have rocketed by as much as 1,400%.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which saw about 1,200 people killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Some 59 are still held captive, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israel’s military campaign has killed 52,829 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Dust was rising on the track. It hung in the hot midday air as the white jeep came towards us. The driver was less than a minute away.

“I think it’s Moshe Sharvit,” said Gil Alexander, 72, a devout religious Jew who tries to protect Palestinian shepherds from intimidation by Jewish settlers.

Over the last year we’ve been documenting his work with shepherds in the northern Jordan Valley, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The man approaching us was placed under sanctions by Britain and the EU last year after they said he had used “physical aggression, threatened families at gunpoint, and destroyed property as part of a targeted and calculated effort to displace Palestinian communities”.

In a case reported by our colleagues at BBC Eye Investigates last year, a Palestinian grandmother alleged that Moshe Sharvit had forced her to leave her family home in October 2023. Ayesha Shtayyeh also said he pointed a gun at her head and threatened to kill her.

• Confronting violent settlers in the occupied West Bank, together
• Extremist settlers rapidly seizing West Bank land

“We’ve been here for 50 years…What have I ever done to him?” she asked when BBC Eye interviewed her.

She said her family’s troubles began after Moshe Sharvit established a so-called ‘outpost’- a settlement that is illegal under both Israeli and international law – chasing away the family’s sheep, damaging property and constantly threatening them. The alleged incident with the gun was the final straw.

Moshe Sharvit did not respond to BBC Eye’s requests for a response to Ayesha’s account.

Back on the mountainside, the man accused of this violence stopped his car and approached us. Nodding towards Gil Alexander he asked us: “Do you know he’s a very dangerous guy?”

When our translator explained to Moshe Sharvit we were from the BBC he said: “Ah the BBC… great lovers of Israel…” He went on to call us bad and dangerous people.

Addressing our translator he said: “So, do you understand that they’re the people who are most dangerous to the State of Israel?”

Then he phoned the police, asking them to come to the scene. When he wasn’t calling the police he filmed us filming him.

Moshe Sharvit and Gil Alexander represent starkly different visions of Israel’s future.

Moshe Sharvit believes all of the West Bank – which settlers and the Israeli government call Judea and Samaria – were given by God to the Jews.

In this he is supported by senior ministers in the government, including the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of Public Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Both men are settlers and leaders of far-right ultranationalist parties.

Smotrich has said Gaza will be “totally destroyed” and that its people will be “totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places”.

The ‘other places’ he envisages are foreign countries. Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for the police, has convictions for inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organisation.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, relies on the support of the far-right settler movement to keep his government in power.

He criticised the sanctions imposed on Moshe Sharvit and other settlers, saying his government viewed the move “with great severity”. US sanctions against Moshe Sharvit were dropped when President Donald Trump came to power.

The UN’s top court ruled last year that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is against international law and that all settlement activity is illegal.

Israel rejects this and argues that settlements are necessary for security, citing lethal attacks by Palestinian gunmen on settlers, such as the killing of three people last January in the West Bank.

Settlement expansion is anathema to Gil Alexander. He considers himself a Zionist, but within the existing borders of Israel.

These are the frontiers that existed before it seized the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, after neighbouring Arab countries launched a surprise attack.

He is part of a network called the Jordan Valley Activists – Moshe Sharvit calls them “anarchists” – offering solidarity, and working for peaceful co-existence with the Palestinians.

“What they [the settlers] want to see happen,” Gil Alexander told us, “[is] that it will be an area completely free of Arabs. It isn’t Moshe. It’s all the people above him who sent him here. Meaning from the top”.

Moshe Sharvit’s desire to have the Jordan Valley empty of Palestinians is shared by the leader of the regional council, a government-supported body, David Elhayani, who has visited the sanctioned settler.

In his air conditioned office about 15km (9 miles) from Moshe Sharvit’s settler outpost he told us “the notion of settler violence is an invention of the anarchist, extreme left meant to harm the settlement image”.

As for the future of the Palestinians, he was emphatic. They should go to neighbouring Jordan.

“This country needs to be free of Arabs. It’s the only way. It’s a global interest. Why global? Because the minute there won’t be Arabs here it will be a Jewish nation for the Jews who won’t have to hurt each other, there won’t be conflict, there won’t be anything.”

Gil Alexander and Moshe Sharvit have a history of antagonism. During an altercation on a Palestinian farmer’s land in January 2023, Moshe Sharvit says Gil Alexander tried to seize his firearm from its holster.

While speaking to our translator he produced a video of the incident on his phone.

“You can see Gil Alexander. Same hat and glasses. That’s me. Here you see he grabs my gun.”

Gil Alexander says he was acting in self-defence after Moshe Sharvit had grabbed his walking stick, and the phone of his friend and violently pushing it.

He says he feared Moshe Sharvit was going to use the weapon. As a result, Moshe Sharvit got a restraining order which forbids Gil Alexander from being within 2.5km (1.5 miles) of his farm.

The police have charged Gil Alexander with illegal possession of a weapon (the one he allegedly tried to take from Moshe Sharvit) and assault. The issue will be considered by the Israeli courts.

Moshe Sharvit himself is the subject of a restraining order forbidding him to approach a Palestinian family living near his outpost for six months, since March this year.

During our encounter the settler claimed that Gil Alexander had breached his restraining order by taking us to the high ground overlooking the valley. The peace activist told us later that he had mistakenly strayed just over half a kilometre inside the area of the order.

Although Moshe Sharvit’s settlement is illegal, even under Israeli law, it has not been removed.

Human rights organisations and numerous eyewitnesses testify that the Israeli army and police frequently stand by while settlers attack Palestinian villages.

The violence has escalated sharply since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped, and which triggered the Gaza war.

According to a report issued by the UN office for Humanitarian Affairs there were 1,804 attacks by settlers against Palestinians in the period January 2024 to March 2025.

The Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din (There is Law), reported that only 3% of complaints made against settlers resulted in a conviction. In six days last month – from 22 to 28 April – the UN recorded 14 incidents involving settlers that left 36 Palestinians injured.

In the tense atmosphere on the mountainside, and wanting to avoid any escalation, we decided to leave.

As we walked away, Moshe Sharvit went to his jeep and drove ahead of us, stopping where the track turned down the mountain. Our way out was blocked. There was no-one we could appeal to apart from the man preventing us from leaving.

Again, he phoned the police asking them to come. Gil Alexander phoned the police and his lawyer. Our team was worried that more settlers would come.

Then something surprising happened. I suggested to Moshe Sharvit that he should agree to be interviewed. After a brief pause, he said: “Bring the camera.”

What followed was less an interview, than a series of declarations. He was doing the work of God, he said.

Why did local Bedouin shepherds say they were very afraid of him? I asked.

“No, that is a lie. They’re telling stories so the world will think we’re crazy. It’s not true. It’s all lies that are built on lies of dozens of years of lying…” he said.

“The Arabs, since the formation of the country and before – all the past 77 years they’ve been preoccupied with harming the people of Israel, harming the land of Israel and causing the nation of Israel to be miserable and pitiful. But they don’t understand that the harder they try, the Lion will wake from his sleep and within one day we’ll end this story.”

He repeated the analogy of the Lion later in the interview saying, in what sounded like ominous words, that the Palestinians were “pushing the lion so hard into the corner that there will be no choice left but to finish this story”.

“7 October was small. One day it’ll be big.”

As for peaceful co-existence such as Gil Alexander supports, he said there was “no such thing as peace with enemies who try to destroy you”.

Moshe Sharvit’s brother Harel was killed fighting in Gaza in December 2023.

His world is the pastureland, the stony hills of the Jordan Valley, his sheep and cattle, the bed and breakfast he has opened.

He produced a glossy video, replete with a backing track of American country music, to promote his venture.

He spoke with contempt for the British sanctions against him. They were a new kind of antisemitism, he claimed.

“The minute someone tries to hurt me I get stronger. My spirit…I receive energies, my spirit continues on its mission, I continue advancing forward and planting roots deep into the land of Israel. I’m not bothered by Britain or America or anyone.”

Then he drove away. We were free to move on. Later as we were having lunch in a café about 15km (nine miles) away, a policeman appeared, looking for Gil Alexander.

He went with the police officer for questioning. After about an hour he returned, telling us he had been ordered not to enter the Jordan Valley for two weeks. He plans to lodge his own complaint against Moshe Sharvit over the incident.

We went to Gil Alexander’s home in a kibbutz inside Israel that overlooks the Valley. Gunmen from the Palestinian city of Jenin fired at the kibbutz two years ago.

Gil Alexander is not a pacifist. If he is attacked by Hamas or any other group, he will defend himself.

He said: “A son of our friends, two months ago he was killed here by a terrorist. He was a soldier in the reserves, 46 years old with six children. He volunteered for the reserves to protect me.”

“If the army hadn’t been there, they would have come here. He was killed while defending me. And today he is buried next to my two sons.”

But Gil Alexander seemed weary as we sat drinking tea amid the bright red flowers of his well-tended garden, and the fluttering yellow flags that symbolise Israel’s hostages held in Gaza.

He spoke of a beloved nephew killed fighting in Lebanon in an earlier war.

Did he not, I wondered, at the age of 72, think about retiring from the struggle and enjoying his garden? He laughed.

There was no chance of that. After two of his sons took their own lives – one was in the army, the other was about to enter the military – he had found a purpose in working for what he calls the “humanitarian” ideals of Judaism.

“After the tragedies of my sons, if I don’t find meaning in life, I’ll go crazy… And the things I do, are things I believe in. And these are things I also got from my father who was in the French underground during World War Two and fought for French liberation but was against any type of occupation and said, ‘Occupation is Occupation.'”

Two days after our encounter with Moshe Sharvit, a lone woman peace activist filmed him banging on the window of her car and rocking the vehicle.

The woman is clearly frightened by the intimidation. Moshe Sharvit acts as if he has nothing to fear.

The first head-to-head trial of two blockbuster weight-loss drugs has shown Mounjaro is more effective than rival Wegovy.

Both drugs led to substantial weight loss, but Mounjaro’s 20% weight reduction, after 72 weeks of treatment, exceeded the 14% from Wegovy, according to the trial’s findings.

Researchers who led the trial said both drugs had a role, but Mounjaro may help those with the most weight to lose.

Both drugs trick the brain into making you feel full so you eat less and instead burn fat stored in the body – but subtle differences in how they work to explain the difference in effectiveness.

Wegovy, also known as semaglutide, mimics a hormone released by the body after a meal to flip one appetite switch in the brain. Mounjaro, or tirzepatide, flips two.

The trial, which was paid for by Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Mounjaro, involved 750 obese people, with an average weight of 113kg (nearly 18 stone).

They were asked to take the highest dose they could tolerate of one of the two drugs.

The findings, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga and in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed:

• 32% of people lost a quarter of their body weight on Mounjaro compared to 16% on Wegovy
• Those on Mounjaro lost an average of 18cm from their waistlines compared with 13cm on Wegovy.
• Those on Mounjaro had better blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
• Both had similar levels of side-effects.
• Women tended to lose more weight than men.

Dr Louis Aronne, who conducted the trial at the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, said: “The majority of people with obesity will do just fine with semaglatide (Wegovy), those at the higher end may ultimately do better with tirzepatide (Mounjaro).”

In the UK, the two medicines are available from specialist weight-management services, but can also be bought privately.

Prof Naveed Sattar, from the University of Glasgow, said the drugs were “good options” for patients, but while “many will be satisfied with 15% weight loss… many want as much weight loss as possible”.

“In the UK, tirzepatide sales privately are now well ahead of semaglutide – that’s just a reality – and this paper will accelerate that I imagine,” he added.

However, Wegovy is also licensed for other conditions – such as preventing heart attacks – while the equivalent trials with Mounjaro have not been completed.

• Weight-loss drug approved for heart problems in UK

A huge amount of research into weight-loss drugs is still taking place. Higher doses of current drugs are being tested, as are new ways of taking them such as oral pills and new medicines that act on the body in different ways are being investigated.

It means the final winner in this field has yet to be determined.

Prof Sattar says the amount of research taking place means we may be approaching the point where “obesity prevention may also be possible soon”, but argues “it would be far better” to make our society healthier to prevent people becoming obese.

Both China and the United States have said that they’ve made progress at trade talks between the two countries in Switzerland.

The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the discussions as “productive and constructive,” while China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng said the talks were “in-depth” and “candid”.

The pair were engaged in secretive closed-door discussions all weekend, in the first meeting since US President Donald Trump levied steep tariffs against China in January.

The talks were the first face-to-face meetings between the two countries since President Trump imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, with Beijing responding with a 125% levy some US goods.

The huge tariffs caused turmoil in the financial markets and sparked fears of a global recession.

Full details from the talks will be jointly released on Monday.

Following the conclusion of the two-day talks in Geneva, US trade representative ambassador Jamieson Greer said “the deal we struck with our Chinese partners” would help reduce the US’s $1.2tn (£901bn) trade deficit.

Mr Bessent said the US and China have made “substantial progress” on de-escalating the trade war, while Vice Premier He said the talks were “of great significance to the two countries but also have an important impact on the stability and development of the global economy”.

He told reporters in Geneva that the meetings had been substantive, Reuters reported.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, inspector general of the World Trade Organization, called the talks “a significant step forward.”

“I urge both nations to build on this momentum by continuing to develop practical solutions that mitigate tensions, restore predictability, and strengthen confidence in the multilateral trading system,” she said in a statement.

On Saturday, following the first day of talks Trump praised the “total reset” on the relationship between the two countries.

In a social media post, the US president described the talks as being “very good” and said change had been “negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner”.

“We want to see, for the good of both China and the U.S., an opening up of China to American business. GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!” Trump added.

An escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing has seen the US president hit Chinese imports to the US with tariffs of 145%. China retaliated with levies of 125% on some US goods.

On Friday, before the talks began, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Washington would not lower tariffs unilaterally, and China would need to make its own concessions.

Both sides issued various other warnings ahead of the meeting, with Beijing saying the US must ease tariffs while Bessent stressed that the focus was on “de-escalation” and this was not a “big trade deal”.

Chinese state media reported that Beijing had decided to engage with the US after fully considering global expectations, the country’s interests and appeals from American businesses.

Last month, the BBC found that Chinese exporters were struggling with the US’s tariffs – one company, Sorbo Technology, reported that half of its products were normally sold to the US and were now sat in boxes in a warehouse in China.

Meanwhile, the US economy was found to have shrunk in the first three months of the year – contracting at an annual rate of 0.3% – as firms raced to get goods into the country.

The trade war between China and the US intensified last month after President Trump announced a universal baseline tariff on all imports to the United States, on what he called “Liberation Day”.

Around 60 trading partners, which the White House described as the “worst offenders”, were subjected to higher rates than others. The list included China and the European Union.

Trump said this was payback for years worth of unfair trade policies for the US.

He also separately announced a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium coming into the US, and a further 25% tariff on all cars and car parts.

It was announced last week that the US and UK had agreed a deal, in which the 25% will be cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars – matching the number of cars the UK exported last year.

Cars are the UK’s biggest export to the US, worth about £9bn last year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally” in Istanbul on Thursday for talks over ending the war.

His post on X came shortly after Donald Trump demanded Ukraine agree to Putin’s offer of direct talks between the two countries in Turkey.

“There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally,” Zelensky wrote.

He had earlier said his country was open to talks with Russia but only after a ceasefire was in place.

Western powers called for a 30-day pause in fighting to begin on Monday after European leaders spearheading the so-called “coalition of the willing” met in Kyiv on Saturday.

Putin’s offer of direct talks followed that intervention.

On Sunday Trump then posted on social media that Ukraine should agree to this “immediately” and it would provide clarity on whether there was a way to end the war.

“At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the US, will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly” he said, adding: “Have the meeting, now!”

In his post on X, Zelensky said he hoped Russia would agree to the ceasefire before the talks.

“We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy,” he said.

In a late-night address on Saturday, Putin invited Ukraine to take part in “serious negotiations” over the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Putin said he could “not rule out” the possibility that the talks could result in Russia and Ukraine agreeing “a new truce” – but did not address the calls for a 30-day ceasefire directly.

The Russian leader said: “This would be the first step towards a long-term, lasting peace, rather than a prologue to more armed hostilities after the Ukrainian armed forces get new armaments and personnel, after feverish trench-digging and the establishment of new command posts.”

Moscow has previously said that before Russia could consider a ceasefire, the West must first halt its military aid to Ukraine.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian president played host in Kyiv to UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Poland’s Donald Tusk, who later called Trump to discuss their plan.

Sir Keir later told the BBC the US president was “absolutely clear” that their suggestion of an immediate ceasefire was a “demand that must be met”.

Appearing at a news conference with Zelensky, they warned that “new and massive” sanctions would be imposed on Russia’s energy and banking sectors should Putin not agree to the unconditional 30-day ceasefire “in the air, at sea and on land”.

Russia and Ukraine last held direct negotiations in March 2022 in Istanbul, shortly after Moscow launched its invasion.

More than three years later, both sides have agreed, in principle, to resume negotiations. But talks and a deal are very different things. Both sides seemingly retain their red lines, which are as far apart as ever.

The White House is in discussions with the royal family of Qatar to possibly receive a luxury jumbo jet, intended for use as an Air Force One presidential plane.

In a statement, Qatar denied that the plane would be a gift, but said the transfer of an aircraft for “temporary use” was under discussion between the two countries.

According to CBS News, the BBC’s news partner in America, the plane would be donated to Trump’s presidential library at the end of his term.

The news comes as Trump is set to visit Qatar this week as part of the first major foreign trip of his second term.

Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s Media Attaché to the US, said negotiations were ongoing between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense.

“The matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made.”

Sources told CBS News that the plane will not be ready for use right away as it will need to retrofitted and cleared by security officials.

The potential value of the plane and its handling is sure to raise legal and ethical questions among critics.

On Sunday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump’s Administration is committed to full transparency”.

The White House’s current fleet includes two Boeing 747-200B planes customised for presidential use with special communications equipment and features like a stateroom, office and conference room, according to the US Air Force. The planes have been in use since 1990 and 1991.

Air Force One planes usually carry over to other administrations. According to the National Archives, only the Reagan presidential library has an Air Force One jet, and it flew seven presidents before being donated.

Qatar is said to be offering a version of a Boeing 747-8, a much newer model that ABC News reports has been upgraded into a “flying palace”.

Boeing had been contracted to provide the White House with newer planes, but Trump complained earlier this year that the company was behind schedule. His administration had initially negotiated with Boeing for two specialised 747-8 planes during his first administration.

The plane maker said the aircraft would not be available until 2027 or 2028.

“No, I’m not happy with Boeing. It takes them a long time to do, you know, Air Force One, we gave that contract out a long time ago,” Trump said in February.

“We may buy a plane or get a plane, or something.”

Trump had a positive diplomatic relationship with Qatar during his first term, which included an announcement in 2019 that the country would make a large purchase of American airplanes.

Qatar has also previously given private jets as gifts to other countries, such as a luxury plane given to Turkey in 2018.

The US-China trade war could be letting up, with the world’s two largest economies beginning talks in Switzerland.

Top trade officials from both sides met on Saturday in the first high-level meeting since US President Donald Trump hit China with tariffs in January.

Beijing retaliated immediately and a tense stand-off ensued as the two countries heaped levies on each other. New US tariffs on Chinese imports stand at 145%, and some US exports to China face duties of 125%.

There have been weeks of stern, and sometimes fiery, rhetoric where each side sought to paint the other as the more desperate party.

And yet this weekend they face each other over the negotiating table.

So why now?

Despite multiple rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs, both sides have been sending signals that they want to break the deadlock. Except it wasn’t clear who would blink first.

“Neither side wants to appear to be backing down,” said Stephen Olson, senior visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and a former US trade negotiator.

“The talks are taking place now because both countries have judged that they can move forward without appearing to have caved in to the other side.”

Still, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian emphasised on Wednesday that “the talks are being held at the request of the US”.

And the commerce ministry framed it as a favour to Washington, saying it was answering the “calls of US businesses and consumers”.

The Trump administration, however, claims it’s Chinese officials who “want to do business very much” because “their economy is collapsing”.

“They said we initiated? Well, I think they ought to go back and study their files,” Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.

But as the talks drew closer, the president struck a more diplomatic note: “We can all play games. Who made the first call, who didn’t make the – it doesn’t matter,” he told reporters on Thursday. “It only matters what happens in that room.”

The timing is also key for Beijing because it’s during Xi’s visit to Moscow. He was a guest of honour on Friday at Moscow’s Victory Day parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the World War Two victory over Nazi Germany.

Xi stood alongside leaders from across the Global South – a reminder to Trump’s administration that China not only has other options for trade, but it is also presenting itself as an alternative global leader.

This allows Beijing to project strength even as it heads to the negotiating table.

Trump insists that the tariffs will make America stronger, and Beijing has vowed to “fight till the end”- but the fact is the levies are hurting both countries.

Factory output in China has taken a hit, according to government data. Manufacturing activity in April dipped to the lowest level since December 2023. And a survey by news outlet Caixin this week showed that services activity has reached a seven-month low.

The BBC found that Chinese exporters have been reeling from the steep tariffs, with stock piling up in warehouses, even as they strike a defiant note and look for markets beyond the US.

“I think [China] realises that a deal is better than no deal,” says Bert Hofman, a professor at the East Asian Institute in National University Singapore.

“So they’ve taken a pragmatic view and said, ‘OK, well we need to get these talks going.'”

And so with the major May Day holiday in China over, officials in Beijing have decided the time is right to talk.

On the other side, the uncertainty caused by tariffs led to the US economy contracting for the first time in three years.

And industries that have long depended on Chinese-made goods are especially worried. A Los Angeles toy company owner told the BBC that they were “looking at the total implosion of the supply chain”.

Trump himself has acknowledged that US consumers will feel the sting.

American children may “have two dolls instead of 30 dolls”, he said at a cabinet meeting this month, “and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally”.

Trump’s approval ratings have also slid over fears of inflation and a possible recession, with more than 60% of Americans saying he was focusing too much on tariffs.

“Both countries are feeling pressure to provide a bit of reassurance to increasingly nervous markets, businesses, and domestic constituencies,” Mr Olson says.

“A couple of days of meetings in Geneva will serve that purpose.”

While the talks have been met with optimism, a deal may take a while to materialise.

The talks will mostly be about “touching base”, Mr Hofman said, adding that this could look like an “exchange of positions” and, if things go well, “an agenda [will be] set for future talks”.

The negotiations on the whole are expected to take months, much like what happened during Trump’s first term.

After nearly two years of tit-for-tat tariffs, the US and China signed a “phase one” deal in early 2020 to suspend or reduce some levies. Even then, it did not include thornier issues, such as Chinese government subsidies for key industries or a timeline for scrapping the remaining tariffs.

In fact, many of them stayed in place through Joe Biden’s presidency, and Trump’s latest tariffs add to those older levies.

What could emerge this time is a “phase one deal on steroids”, Mr Olson said: that is, it would go beyond the earlier deal and try to address flashpoints. There are many, from the illegal fentanyl trade which Washington wants China to crack down harder on to Beijing’s relationship with Moscow.

But all of that is far down the line, experts warn.

“The systemic frictions that bedevil the US-China trade relationship will not be solved any time soon,” Mr Olson adds.

“Geneva will only produce anodyne statements about ‘frank dialogues’ and the desire to keep talking.”

Poland has accused Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a massive fire that nearly completely destroyed a shopping centre in the capital Warsaw last year.

In a post on X, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland knows “for sure” that the blaze at the Marywilska shopping centre was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services.

Some of those responsible are already in custody, Tusk added, while all the others alleged to have been involved have been identified and are being searched for.

Moscow has not commented on the allegations, but has previously denied accusations of sabotage in Europe.

The fire in May 2024 destroyed 1,400 small businesses, with many of the staff there being members of Warsaw’s Vietnamese community.

Poland carried out a year-long investigation into the incident, which has now concluded the fire was organised by an unnamed person in Russia.

A joint statement by Poland’s justice and interior ministers said the actions of those in custody were “organised and directed by a specific person residing in the Russian Federation.”

The two ministries added that they were co-operating with Lithuania “where some of the perpetrators also carried out acts of diversion”.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has detained and convicted several people accused of sabotage on behalf of Russian intelligence services.

Polish officials have said that these attacks have been part of a “hybrid war” waged by Moscow.

Hybrid warfare is when a hostile state carries out an anonymous, deniable attack, usually in highly suspicious circumstances. It will be enough to harm their opponent, especially their infrastructure assets, but stop short of being an attributable act of war.

Nato also believes Russia is waging “hybrid warfare” in Europe, with the aim of punishing or deterring Western nations from continuing their military support for Ukraine.

Russia has denied repeated allegations by Nato countries that its secret services are engaged in sabotage operations across Europe.

Back in March, Lithuanian prosecutors accused Russia’s military intelligence service of being behind an arson attack on a branch of Ikea in the capital Vilnius last year.

At the time, Tusk said Lithuania had confirmed Warsaw’s “suspicions that [those] responsible for setting fires to shopping centres in Vilnius and Warsaw are the Russian secret services.”

Two Ukrainian suspects were arrested.

The Marywilska shopping centre opened in 2010 and in the fire many workers lost important documents and large sums of cash which were kept at the shopping centre due to fear of breaks ins at home.

Three months after the fire, a temporary shopping centre was opened by Marywilska’s owners, where approximately 400 traders resumed operations.

An alternative shopping centre in Warsaw, Modlinska 6D, was opened in October 2024 with traders relocating their businesses to the new site.

Amber Heard has announced the arrival of twins in an Instagram post shared on Mother’s Day in the United States.

The American actor revealed that she had welcomed daughter Agnes and son Ocean and was “elated beyond words” to celebrate the “completion” of her family.

Heard, 39, welcomed her first daughter, Oonagh, in 2021.

Under a picture of three pairs of feet, Heard wrote: “Becoming a mother by myself and on my own terms despite my own fertility challenges has been the most humbling experience of my life.”

The actor said she had chosen motherhood “responsibly and thoughtfully” and “couldn’t possibly burst with more joy”.

She described her family as one she had “strived to build for years”.

“To all the moms, wherever you are today and however you got here, my dream family and I are celebrating with you,” she added.

When Heard announced the birth of her first daughter in 2021, she spoke about her desire for it to be “normalised to not want a ring in order to have a crib”.

“I now appreciate how radical it is for us as women to think about one of the most fundamental parts of our destinies in this way,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.

Heard is best known for her films The Rum Diary, Drive Angry, Zombieland and Aquaman.

She was married to actor Johnny Depp from 2015 to 2016.

After their marriage ended, the pair accused each other of domestic abuse and engaged in two lengthy and high-profile defamation cases.

In the Depp v. News Group Newspapers (NGN) trial in 2020, Depp lost his UK libel case against the Sun newpaper after Heard gave evidence to back claims in the newspaper that he was a “wife-beater”.

In the widely publicised Depp v. Heard trial in the US, Heard was found liable for defaming Depp.

For six weeks in 2022, a court in the US state of Virginia heard details of the couple’s volatile relationship.

Depp sued his ex-wife for defamation over an opinion article she wrote for the Washington Post that alleged she was a domestic abuse victim, although it did not mention him by name. Heard counter-sued.

Jurors awarded Depp – who denied abusing Heard – $15m (£12m) in compensatory and punitive damages.

Heard won one of three counter-claims against Depp and was awarded $2m in compensatory damages.

Pope Leo XIV appealed for “no more war” in a message to world powers during his first Sunday address at the Vatican.

Reflecting on current conflicts, the newly selected pontiff called for a “lasting peace” in the war in Ukraine, a ceasefire in Gaza, and welcomed Saturday’s agreement to end recent hostilities between India and Pakistan.

He said he was “deeply hurt” by events in Gaza, expressed hope for a “lasting accord” between India and Pakistan, and wished for a “authentic, true and lasting peace” in Ukraine.

The Pope also recited the Regina Caeli prayer, in honour of the Virgin Mary, to the crowd in St Peter’s Square.

Pope Leo was chosen as the new leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday following the death of his predecessor, Pope Francis, and a two-day conclave in Vatican City.

On Saturday, he visited a shrine outside Rome before praying at Francis’ tomb inside the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Pope Leo will be formally inaugurated at a Mass in St Peter’s Square next week on 18 May.

Three years ago, as Bishop Robert Prevost, he denounced Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as an imperialist war and condemned crimes against humanity he said were being committed there.

On Sunday, he restricted himself to echoing his predecessor, Francis, in calling for peace.

“I would also like to address the powerful people of the world, repeating the always current call: ‘no more war’,” he told the crowd from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

“The immense tragedy of the Second World War ended 80 years ago…now we’re facing the tragedy of a third world war in pieces.”

The pontiff continued: “I carry in my heart the suffering of the beloved Ukrainian people.

“May whatever is possible be done to reach an authentic, true and lasting peace as quickly as possible. May all the prisoners be freed. May children return to their families.

“And I am deeply hurt by what is happening in the Gaza Strip.

“May a ceasefire immediately come into effect. May humanitarian aid be allowed into the civilian population and may all hostages be freed.”

He added: “I was happy to hear on the other hand that there was a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, and I hope that through the coming negotiations we might soon come to a lasting accord.”

His remarks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin set out competing plans for a peace process to bring the three-year invasion of Ukraine to an end.

In the Middle East, Israel has cut off all humanitarian aid entering Gaza and resumed its military offensive in the Palestinian territory following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement.

Meanwhile, India and Pakistan agreed to a tentative ceasefire on Saturday after days of cross-border military strikes that followed an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on 22 April.

It has been a busy week for the pontiff, who held his first Mass as Pope in the Sistine chapel on Friday before speaking to cardinals on Saturday.

During this meeting, he described himself as an unworthy choice for Pope, and vowed to continue the “precious legacy” of his predecessor.

He highlighted the importance of missionary work and discussion – as well as care for those he called the “least and the rejected”.

He explained he had chosen the name Leo after a 19th-century Pope known for his teaching on social justice.

The new Pope also suggested the development of artificial intelligence and other advances meant the church was necessary today for the defence of human dignity and justice.

He is due to hold an audience with the media on Monday ahead of his inauguration next Sunday.

As part of that Mass he will deliver a homily in the presence of numerous heads of state and dignitaries.

The 69-year-old is the 267th occupant of the throne of St Peter, and the first American to become a pontiff. He will lead members of the Catholic Church’s global community of 1.4bn people.

Born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, he worked for many years as a missionary in Peru before being made an archbishop there. He also has Peruvian nationality.

Although Leo was born in the US, the Vatican described him as the second pope from the Americas. Pope Francis, from Argentina, was the first.

Pope Leo is widely seen as a moderate who can offer “continuity” and “unity” following the death of his predecessor last month.

The new pontiff is believed to have shared Francis’ views on migrants, the poor and the environment.

In his first speech he told the crowds he wanted “to walk together with you as a united Church searching all together for peace and justice”.

The Taliban government in Afghanistan has banned chess until further notice due to fears the game is a source of gambling.

Officials said the game has been prohibited indefinitely until its compatibility with Islamic law can be determined.

Chess is the latest sport to be restricted by the Taliban. Women are essentially barred from participating in sport at all.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban has steadily imposed laws and regulations that reflect its austere vision of Islamic law.

On Sunday, Atal Mashwani, the spokesman of the Taliban government’s sports directorate, said chess in Islamic sharia law is “considered a means of gambling”.

“There are religious considerations regarding the sport of chess,” he told AFP news agency.

“Until these considerations are addressed, the sport of chess is suspended in Afghanistan.”

• How the Taliban stormed across Afghanistan in 10 days
• The Taliban’s broken promises

One cafe owner in Kabul, who has hosted informal chess competitions in recent years, said he would respect the decision but it would hurt his business.

“Young people don’t have a lot of activities these days, so many came here everyday,” Azizullah Gulzada said.

“They would have a cup of tea and challenge their friends to a game of chess.”

He also noted that chess is played in other Muslim-majority countries.

Last year, the authorities banned free fighting such as mixed martial arts (MMA) in professional competition, saying it was too “violent” and “problematic with respect to sharia”.

“It was found that the sport is problematic with respect to Sharia and it has many aspects which are contradictory to the teachings of Islam,” a Taliban spokesperson said last August.

MMA competitions were effectively outlawed in 2021 when the Taliban introduced legislation prohibiting “face-punching”.

In a dramatic turn of events, US President Donald Trump took to social media on Saturday to announce that India and Pakistan – after four tense days of cross-border clashes – had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire”.

Behind the scenes, US mediators, alongside diplomatic backchannels and regional players, proved critical in pulling the nuclear-armed rivals back from the brink, experts say.

However, hours after a ceasefire deal, India and Pakistan were trading accusations of fresh violations – underscoring its fragility.

India accused Pakistan of “repeated violations” while Pakistan insisted it remained committed to the ceasefire, with its forces showing “responsibility and restraint.”

Before Trump’s ceasefire announcement, India and Pakistan were spiralling towards what many feared could become a full-blown conflict.

After a deadly militant attack killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month, India launched air strikes inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir – triggering days of aerial clashes, artillery duels and, by Saturday morning, accusations from both sides of missile strikes on each other’s airbases.

The rhetoric escalated sharply, with each country claiming to have inflicted heavy damage while foiling the other’s attacks.

• Why India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir
• Drone war opens a new chapter in India-Pakistan conflict

Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call to Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir on 9 May “might have been the crucial point”.

“There’s still much we don’t know about the roles of various international actors, but it’s clear over the past three days that at least three countries were working to de-escalate – the US, of course, but also the UK and Saudi Arabia,” she says.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told Pakistani media that “three dozen countries” were involved in the diplomacy – including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the US.

“One question is whether, if this call had come earlier – right after the initial Indian strikes, when Pakistan was already claiming some Indian losses and an off-ramp was available – it might have prevented further escalation,” Ms Madan says.

This isn’t the first time US mediation has helped defuse an India–Pakistan crisis.

In his memoir, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo claimed he was woken up to speak with an unnamed “Indian counterpart”, who feared Pakistan was preparing nuclear weapons during the 2019 standoff.

Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria later wrote that Pompeo overstated both the risk of nuclear escalation and the US role in calming the conflict.

But diplomats say there is little doubt the US played an important role in defusing the crisis this time.

“The US was the most prominent external player. Last time, Pompeo claimed they averted nuclear war. While they’ll likely exaggerate, they may have played the primary diplomatic role, perhaps amplifying Delhi’s positions in Islamabad,” Mr Bisaria told the BBC on Saturday.

Yet at the outset, the US appeared strikingly standoffish.

As tensions flared, US Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that the US was not going to get involved in a war that’s “fundamentally none of our business”.

“We can’t control these countries though. Fundamentally, India has its gripes with Pakistan… America can’t tell the Indians to lay down their arms. We can’t tell the Pakistanis to lay down their arms. And so we’re going to continue to pursue this thing through diplomatic channels, ” he said in a television interview.

Meanwhile, President Trump said earlier this week: “I know both [leaders of India and Pakistan] very well, and I want to see them work it out… I want to see them stop, and hopefully they can stop now”.

Ejaz Haider, a Lahore-based defence analyst, told the BBC this appeared to be the only difference from previous occasions.

“The American role was a continuation of past patterns, but with one key difference – this time, they initially stayed hands-off, watching the crisis unfold instead of jumping in right away. Only when they saw how it was playing out did they step in to manage it,” Mr Haider told the BBC.

Experts in Pakistan say as the escalation cycle deepened, Pakistan sent “dual signals”, retaliating militarily while announcing a National Command Authority (NCA) meeting – a clear reminder of the nuclear overhang.

The NCA controls and takes operational decisions regarding Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

This was around the time US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stepped in.

“The US was indispensable. This outcome would not have occurred without Secretary Rubio’s efforts,” Ashley J Tellis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the BBC.

What also helped was Washington’s deepening ties with Delhi.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal rapport with Trump, plus the US’s broader strategic and economic stakes, gave the US administration diplomatic leverage to push both nuclear-armed rivals towards de-escalation.

Indian diplomats see three key peace tracks that happened this time, much like after Pulwama–Balakot in 2019:

• US and UK pressure
• Saudi mediation, with the Saudi junior foreign minister visiting both capitals
• The direct India-Pakistan channel between the two national security advisors (NSAs)

Despite shifting global priorities and a hands-off posture at first, the US ultimately stepped in as the indispensable mediator between South Asia’s nuclear rivals.

Whether overstated by its own officials or underacknowledged by Delhi and Islamabad, experts believe the US’s role as crisis manager remains as vital – and as complicated – as ever.

Doubts do, however, linger over the ceasefire’s durability after Saturday’s events, with some Indian media reporting it was essentially brokered by senior military officials of the two countries – not the US.

“This ceasefire is bound to be a fragile one. It came about very quickly, amid sky-high tensions. India appears to have interpreted it differently than did the US and Pakistan,” Michael Kugelman, a foreign policy analyst, told the BBC.

“Also, since it was put together so hastily, the accord may lack the proper guarantees and assurances one would need at such a tense moment.”

A charismatic 37-year-old, Burkina Faso’s military ruler Capt Ibrahim Traoré has skilfully built the persona of a pan-Africanist leader determined to free his nation from what he regards as the clutches of Western imperialism and neo-colonialism.

His message has resonated across Africa and beyond, with his admirers seeing him as following in the footsteps of African heroes like Burkina Faso’s very own Thomas Sankara – a Marxist revolutionary who is sometimes referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara”.

“Traoré’s impact is huge. I have even heard politicians and authors in countries like Kenya [in East Africa] say: ‘This is it. He is the man’,” Beverly Ochieng, a senior researcher at global consultancy firm Control Risks, told the BBC.

“His messages reflect the age we are living in, when many Africans are questioning the relationship with the West, and why there is still so much poverty in such a resource-rich continent,” she said.

After seizing power in a coup in 2022, Traoré’s regime ditched former colonial power France in favour of a strong alliance with Russia, that has included the deployment of a Russian paramilitary brigade, and adopted left-wing economic policies.

This included setting up a state-owned mining company, requiring foreign firms to give it a 15% stake in their local operations and to transfer skills to Burkinabé people.

The rule also applied to Russian miner Nordgold, which was given a licence in late April for its latest investment in Burkina Faso’s gold industry.

As part of what Traoré calls a “revolution” to ensure Burkina Faso benefits from its mineral wealth, the junta is also building a gold refinery and establishing national gold reserves for the first time in the nation’s history.

However, Western-owned firms appear to be facing a tough time, with Australia-headquartered Sarama Resources launching arbitration proceedings against Burkina Faso in late 2024 following the withdrawal of an exploration licence.

The junta has also nationalised two gold mines previously owned by a London-listed firm, and said last month that it planned to take control of more foreign-owned mines.

Enoch Randy Aikins, a researcher at South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies, told the BBC that Traoré’s radical reforms had increased his popularity in Africa.

“He is now arguably Africa’s most popular, if not favourite, president,” Mr Aikins said.

His popularity has been fuelled through social media, including many misleading posts intended to bolster his revolutionary image.

AI-generated videos of music stars like R Kelly, Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Beyoncé are seen immortalising him through song – though they have done nothing of the sort.

Ms Ochieng said that Traoré first caught the attention of Africans when he spoke at the Russia-Africa summit in 2023, telling African leaders to “stop behaving like puppets who dance every time the imperialists pull the strings”.

This speech was heavily publicised by Russian media, which has become a major player in promoting Traoré’s pan-Africanist image.

Thanks to his rhetoric and pushed by a slick social media campaign, his appeal has spread around the world, including among African-Americans and Black Britons, Ms Ochieng noted.

“Everyone who has experienced racism, colonialism and slavery can relate to his messages,” Ms Ochieng said, pointing out that African-American rapper Meek Mill had posted about him on X late last year, saying how much he liked his “energy and heart” – though he was ridiculed for mixing up names by referring to Traoré as Burkina Faso and later deleted the post.

But France’s president is not a fan, describing Traoré as part of a “baroque alliance between self-proclaimed pan-Africans and neo-imperialists”.

Emmanuel Macron was also referring to Russia and China whom he accused, in a 2023 speech, of provoking coups in Africa’s former French colonies, and hypocritically stirring up old arguments over sovereignty and colonial exploitation.

Traoré’s popularity comes despite the fact that he has failed to fulfil his pledge to quell a 10-year Islamist insurgency that has fuelled ethnic divisions and has now spread to once-peaceful neighbours like Benin.

His junta has also cracked down on dissent, including the opposition, media and civil society groups and punished critics, among them medics and magistrates, by sending them to the front-lines of the war against the jihadists.

For Rinaldo Depagne, the Africa deputy director of the International Crisis Group think-tank, Traoré commands such support because “he is young in a country with a young population” – the median age is 17.7 years.

“He is media-savvy, and uses the past to build his popularity as a reincarnation of Sankara,” he told the BBC.

“And he knows the art of politics – how to make a nation completely traumatised by war feel there is a better future. He is really good at that game.”

Sankara rose to power in a coup in 1983 at the age of 33, rallied the nation under the motto “Fatherland or death, we will win!”, and was killed four years later in another coup that put Burkina Faso back in France’s political orbit until Traoré’s seizure of power.

Ghanaian security analyst Prof Kwesi Aning, who previously worked at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, said the popularity of the military leader reflected a political shift taking place on the continent, especially in West Africa.

A 2024 survey in 39 countries by Afrobarometer showed a drop in support for democracy, although it remained the most popular form of government.

“Democracy has failed to give hope to the youth. It has not delivered jobs or better education and health,” Prof Aning told the BBC.

He said Traoré was “offering an alternative, and re-capturing the spirit of two historic epochs”:

• The post-independence era, when there were leaders like Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia
• And a later era with Sankara and Ghana’s Jerry Rawlings, whose coup in 1979 “was also very popular at the time”.

It was Traoré who stole the show at the inauguration of Ghana’s President John Mahama in January, when he arrived wearing battle fatigues with a pistol in his holster.

“There were already 21 heads of state there, but when Traoré walked in, the place lit up. Even my president’s bodyguards were running after him,” Prof Aning said.

Traoré offered a sharply contrasting image to some of the continent’s other leaders, who struggled to walk but clung to power by rigging elections, he said.

“Traoré is stylish and confident, with a very open face and a small smile. He is also a powerful orator, and presents himself as a man of the people.”

In a sign that his Russian-allied junta has made some progress on the economic front, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have given a generally upbeat assessment.

In a statement in early April, the IMF said that despite a “challenging humanitarian and security” environment, the economy was expected to remain “robust” in 2025, and the regime had made “commendable progress” in raising domestic revenue, containing the public wage bill, and increasing spending on education, health and social protection.

As for the World Bank, it said that inflation had surged from 0.7% in 2023 to 4.2% in 2024, but the extreme poverty rate, which refers to people living on less than $2.15 [£1.61] a day, had fallen by almost two percentage points to 24.9% because of “robust growth” in the agriculture and services sectors.

Despite these reports from US-based financial institutions, relations with both France and America have been frosty.

A recent example being the claim by the head of the US Africa Command, Gen Michael Langley, that Traoré was using Burkina Faso’s gold reserves for his junta’s protection rather than the nation’s benefit.

This appeared to be a reference to the long-standing view of the US, and some of its African allies, that Russian forces were propping up Traoré in exchange for a stake in Burkina Faso’s gold industry – undermining the military ruler’s image as a leader who expelled French troops in 2023 to reclaim the country’s sovereignty.

Gen Langley’s comments, made in early April during a US Senate committee hearing, triggered an uproar among the captain’s supporters, who felt their hero was being smeared.

This was further inflamed when shortly afterwards, the Burkinabé junta said it had foiled a coup plot, alleging the plotters were based in neighbouring Ivory Coast – where Gen Langley then made a visit.

Ivory Coast denied being involved in any plot, while the US Africa Command said Gen Langley’s visit had focused on addressing “common security challenges” – including “violent extremism”.

But the junta took the opportunity to organise one of its biggest rallies in Burkina Faso’s capital over fears that “imperialists” and their “lackeys” were trying to depose the captain.

“Because Colin Powell lied, Iraq was destroyed. Barack Obama lied, Gaddafi was killed. But this time, their lies won’t affect us,” one protester, musician Ocibi Johann, told the Associated Press news agency.

Rallies in solidarity with Traoré were also held abroad, including in London, on the same day.

He took to social media afterwards, posting in French and English, to express his gratitude to them for sharing his vision “for a new Burkina Faso and a new Africa”, adding: “Together, in solidarity, we will defeat imperialism and neo-colonialism for a free, dignified and sovereign Africa.”

It is impossible to say how things will end for the young captain, but he – along with military leaders in Mali and Niger – have certainly shaken up West Africa, and other states have followed their example by ordering French forces to leave.

The three military-ruled neighbours have also pulled out of the regional trade and security grouping Ecowas, formed their own alliance, and have ended free trade in the region by announcing the imposition of a 0.5% tariff on goods coming into their countries.

Mr Aikins said Traoré could learn from others, pointing out that when Rawlings took power in Ghana at the age of 32, he was known as “Junior Jesus” but after 19 years he left a mixed legacy – he had been unable to stem corruption despite helping to create an “enduring” democracy.

For a “lasting legacy”, Mr Aikins said, Traoré should focus on achieving peace and building strong state institutions to bring about good governance rather than “personalising” power and cracking down on dissent.

• Capt Ibrahim Traoré: From shy schoolboy to military leader
• Why France faces so much anger in West Africa
• Why young Africans are celebrating military takeovers

The Eurovision Song Contest was watched by around 163 million people last year – meaning there are potentially 163 million different opinions on what makes a perfect entrant.

Do you go for a soulful ballad, guaranteed to leave Europe misty-eyed and full of love and peace?

Or do you opt for a cheesy extravaganza, complete with saucy takes on regional costumes and eye-popping staging that will have the entire continent (and Australia) raving in their living rooms?

Forensic musicologist at Boston’s Berklee College of Music Joe Bennett has analysed hundreds of Eurovision finalists, identifying two dominant musical styles.

One is the “Euro-banger” – high-energy, 120+ BPM songs with kick drums and synth-heavy production, like Sweden’s winning entries Euphoria (Loreen, 2012) and Heroes (Måns Zelmerlöw, 2015).

The other is the slow-burning ballad – typically around 70 BPM, such as Portugal’s Amar Pelos Dois (Salvador Sobral, 2017) and the Netherlands’ Arcade (Duncan Laurence, 2019).

There is a cliché that Eurovision songs are only about love and peace – reinforced by a song performed during the 2016 contest’s interval about writing a perfect Eurovision song, called Love Love Peace Peace.

According to Bennett, there is some validity to this, with every Eurovision song falling under six broad lyrical themes: “love, unity, self-assertion, partying, history and songs about making music”.

He adds that “songs of self-assertion or lyrical self-empowerment do very well” – as seen with Austria’s 2014 winner Rise Like a Phoenix (Conchita Wurst).

Acts might be tempted to go over the top on staging, but this may not be the way to secure victory, according to our experts.

Songwriter Thomas Stengaard co-wrote Denmark’s 2013 winner Only Teardrops (as well as this year’s UK entry What the Hell Just Happened by Remember Monday). He puts his success down, in part, to its simple staging, which he says made it easy to remember.

“If you asked a kid to draw that staging, they could. It was a girl with no shoes on, two guys playing the drums and a flute guy. Very simple, but it worked.”

Vocal coach Carrie Grant, who led the UK’s jury in 2014 and came sixth in the contest as part of Sweet Dreams in 1983, agrees.

“There is nothing worse than having an artist whose stage has lots of money but their performance doesn’t warrant it,” she says. “It makes that performance seem worse.”

The 2014 winner (and Carrie’s personal favourite) was Conchita Wurst – the first act to win the contest without backing singers or dancers on stage since 1970.

What made Conchita stand out was that she was a bearded drag queen. Carrie believes Eurovision fans love things that are quirky and that “embrace the LGBT community”.

But she adds that Conchita wasn’t a gimmick but instead “a brilliant singer who could deliver what we call in vocal coaching ‘money moments'”.

Minor-key songs increasingly dominate Eurovision.

Bennett debunks the idea that “major equals happy, minor equals sad”, adding that “minor keys are more a shorthand for emotional depth”.

In 2023, 85% of finalists performed in minor keys, according to the Press Association. In the last 20 years, only two major-key songs have won – 2011’s Running Scared (for Azerbaijan) and 2017’s Amar Pelos Dois.

Professor Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, a researcher in music cognition at Princeton, highlights source sensitivity – our instinct to associate a song’s sound with its intended context. A few bars of a techno song, for example, and we have a mental image of a dark nightclub, and of the sort of DJ who might perform there.

This means certain minor keys now immediately signal “Eurovision-ness” to audiences.

Remember Monday’s What the Hell Just Happened was written at a songwriting camp, with multiple songwriters working together at a countryside retreat to write the perfect song for this year’s UK act.

The song was intentionally written in a major key to stand out in a sea of minor-key songs – similar to the UK’s 2022 second-place entry, Spaceman by Sam Ryder (B Major).

• Witchcraft, innuendo and moody goth boys: Your guide to all 37 of this year’s Eurovision songs

Repetition is important to make a song stick in the mind, says Margulis. But songs should avoid being too repetitive. Margulis says that what particularly makes a song catchy is “not only when they are heard repeatedly, but also when they throw in some kind of surprise twist”.

Bucks Fizz’s 1981 winner for the UK, Making Your Mind Up, is a classic example. First, the song changes key, quickly followed by a memorable costume change in which the female singers’ skirts were ripped off to reveal shorter skirts – a joint visual and musical twist.

Earlier Eurovision winners were often mocked for their nonsense lyrics, like Sweden’s 1984 winner Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley, but Bennett argues this highlights Eurovision’s strong focus on melody.

“Eurovision really needs big melodic hooks. You want people across Europe to be singing that melody. The need for a very accessible, catchy chorus is essential.”

Key changes have long been a way to introduce novelty into Eurovision songs. The 2000s saw multiple winners follow this formula, including Olsen Brothers’ Fly on the Wings of Love for Norway (2000), and Serbia’s Molitva in 2007.

But as Bennett points out, though they are still present in around a fifth of finalists, no song with a final chorus key change has won since Molitva almost 20 years ago.

Stengaard’s song for this year’s UK act Remember Monday is certainly full of surprises. BBC music correspondent Mark Savage said the song featured “a dizzying array of key changes and tempo shifts”.

The song is the songwriter’s answer to the question he asks himself whenever he writes for Eurovision: “How do you stand out in a contest where everyone wants to stand out?”

Every fortnight, Samii Wood snuggles up with a group of strangers for a “cuddle puddle”.

These gatherings see attendees melt into a large nest of cushions and blankets, offering each other platonic touch and comfort.

Samii, who is 41 and based in Bedford, is a professional cuddler, who also offers one-to-one cuddle therapy.

She believes human touch is not just comforting but also has measurable health benefits.

“Your serotonin levels, which is your feel-good hormone, are boosted and so is your oxytocin level, which is your love and bonding hormone,” she says.

Touch can also lower your levels of stress hormone cortisol and “can regulate the nervous system”, she adds.

Samii’s clients are sometimes suffering with nervous system issues, post-traumatic stress disorder or loneliness.

“People think that my service will be just full of creepy guys,” she says.

“It’s not like that. I have a variety of ages and males and females that come to these events.”

Pep Valerio, 36, from Bedford, has been attending Samii’s cuddle puddles for a couple of months.

“It’s healing without words. You don’t need to know people’s problems; you just know your touch is providing aid to them,” he said.

Samii describes how in group sessions, attendees are told to imagine certain scenarios to give specific emotional context.

“Sometimes I say, ‘Imagine the person you’re hugging is the person you’d most like to hug just one more time’,” she adds.

“That always chokes me up, and and we’ve had men and women both literally just sobbing on each other.”

One-to-one sessions are catered more towards an individual’s needs.

They can range from simply sitting close together and talking with an arm around them, to lying down and spooning.

It can also involve other nurturing touch, such as back stroking or cradling.

Some might raise an eyebrow at the thought that people are paying for this, but Sammi stresses it is a “fully clothed, platonic, nurturing service”.

To safeguard all involved, she screens clients before taking them on and gets them to sign consent forms that explicitly state boundaries.

“It’s very client-led, so they tell me what they want and what they’re comfortable with. It’s an ongoing dialogue,” Samii says.

She acknowledges that intimate touch can lead to arousal, but in those cases she enforces a break or change of position to refocus clients on the nurturing aspect of the session.

There is no regulatory body in the UK for this type of therapy, but professionals like Samii can gain accreditation from Cuddle Professionals International (CPI).

This body insists its members are taught to observe “ethical touch protocols” that rely on informed consent.

While many practices may uphold professional standards, it is potentially an easy environment to misuse and exploit.

Samii says people can report any wrongdoing to the police, local authority or CPI.

The body was founded by wellness expert Claire Mendelsohn, who according to her website, “recognised the need for regulation within the profession”.

CPI is now a registered college with the Complementary Medical Association, and approved by the International Institute for Complementary Therapists to deliver training.

Samii discovered cuddle therapy after watching a documentary showing how popular it was overseas.

However, in the UK, she finds that people are more reluctant to touch and be touched.

She blames the Covid pandemic and lockdowns for simultaneously making people “crave it more” but also be “more fearful of having it”.

She explains: “It’s huge in America and in Europe, not so much over here, but we really need it and people wouldn’t come to professional cuddlers like myself if we did not need that.

“We think we’re all connected because we’re online, but that’s why we’re so much more disconnected.

“We’re all seeking that connection and there’s no shame in saying, ‘I just want to be held by someone and I want to be hugged. I want to be seen and drop my walls and and have that’.”

Touch can benefit physical and mental health, according to a paper by Danish neuroscientist Dr Julian Packheiser and his colleagues from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

They found there was no difference in health benefits in adults between touch from a familiar person or a health care professional.

However, Sophie Scott, professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, argues that while touch has demonstrable benefits, the relationship between people involved is important.

Referring to another study, she says: “They put people in a scanner and physically hurt them; you could see the brain responding to the pain.

“However, when a partner held their hand, they had a reduced response to the pain. So there are chemical changes making you feel better, but that isn’t a random person; that is your partner.

“What worries me slightly about somebody doing that professionally is you need to develop that relationship. You wouldn’t just let anybody hold your hand.

“People like going to get their haircut or a manicure. Those are quite neutral parts of the body. Hugging might get a bit closer to their danger zones.

“What I’m saying is people would need to feel safe. If they didn’t feel safe, it would be highly adversive to do that”.

Numerous other studies have highlighted the benefit of touch and its potential to benefit mental and physical health.

Mr Valerio had been exploring alternative methods of healing, such as tapping and tai-chi, when he came across cuddle therapy.

“It relieves stress, promotes relaxation and togetherness,” he says.

He says Samii has created a safe environment by playing a soothing soundtrack and getting people to take part in warm-up hug-based exercises at the start.

“Once you’ve done a few exercises, to break down those walls, it feels like the most natural thing lie on the floor and cuddle a lot of strangers,” he says.

“There are people are crying before we have settled into the cuddle puddle, just based on the hug-based exercises we’ve done and some of the emotions that are brought up.”

He has also taken part in one-to-one exercises with Samii, which he says allow for “a deeper bond”.

“Spooning feels vulnerable, especially being the guy spooned by a woman. It allows you to experience holding and being held,” he says.

“Afterwards I feel held, I feel supported, I feel as if I’ve shed some of my load and my wall has been lowered.”

“High-protein” versions of snacks and food staples are all over our supermarket shelves – from pancakes and pasta, to rice pudding and oven pizza.

Celebrities are getting in on the act too. Khloe Kardashian unveiled Khloud Protein Popcorn a fortnight ago, which she described as “the perfect combination of a tasty snack and a boost of protein to fuel your day”, while Zac Efron promoted a protein-rich porridge in January.

But is this increased advertising of protein just a marketing gimmick or are these products actually useful if you’re trying to build muscle or live a healthy life? And is it worth the extra cost?

Sales of them are rising; figures shared with BBC News by the research agency Mintel show that, excluding sports nutrition items, 8.3% of food product launches made claims about being a source of protein, or having high levels of it, in the first three months of 2025.

That was up from 6.1% in 2024 and 4.6% the year before.

Kiti Soininen, a research director at Mintel, says protein claims are being added to food with naturally high levels of the nutrient, like chicken breasts and pulses, but also on products you wouldn’t expect.

“Mousses, desserts, granola, pancakes, even the odd pizza, are coming through with a high-protein claim,” she says. “Protein is enjoying a bit of a ‘health halo’ at the moment.”

Ethan Smith, a personal trainer in Liverpool, says high-protein diets are necessary for building muscle but that it ought to be done without the high protein snacks and drinks you see in shops.

“I’m a huge believer that there is nothing better than whole foods,” he says. “You can get the protein that you need from vegetables and lean meats.”

He believes the convenience of high-protein snacks, combined with the positive perception of the nutrient among customers, has led to manufacturers using protein as a marketing tool.

For manufacturers to claim their product is a source of protein, they must show regulators at least 12% of its energy value is provided by protein. To make a claim that a product is high in protein, the figure is 20%.

To help reach these scores they can add protein-rich ingredients to their products, like nuts and pulses, or make them more dense by removing water.

“When someone in a rush is getting a meal deal for lunch, you can see why they would reach for a protein bar or drink instead of two boiled eggs,” he says. “In my 12 years as a personal trainer, I’ve never seen as much hype around the benefits of protein as I am now.”

The benefits of protein range from muscle building and sports performance to helping with weight loss by suppressing appetite and helping women during pregnancy.

If you’re trying to build muscle you need to consume around 1.6g of protein per kilogram of your body weight each day, says Dr Paul Morgan, a university lecturer in human nutrition.

He says for the average person trying to ensure their general health, this figure should be around 1.2g.

He thinks many of the supermarket products advertising their protein content are “gimmicky” and warns they might not be as good for you as advertised.

“I think they do have a benefit but we are wary that a lot of them are ultra processed foods and that’s a really topical area [in our field] that we don’t know enough about,” he says.

Ultra-processed foods have come under scrutiny recently with one study published last month linking them to early death.

He explains that researchers in his field are trying to understand the differing impact on muscles that two similar protein sources might have when one of them is ultra-processed.

Another issue is calories because putting on weight is the most common problem people have when they are trying to consume more protein, Dr Morgan explains, as any excess is stored in the body as fat.

Some protein advertised snacks and drinks can have as many calories as regular products using similar ingredients.

Nature Valley’s protein peanut and chocolate bars have 489kcal per 100g, while Cadbury’s peanut brunch bars, which also contain chocolate, have 485kcal at the same weight.

Dr Morgan dismisses theories that eating too much protein can damage your bones or harm your kidneys, though there are exceptions if you have a pre-existing health condition.

Despite his concerns over ultra-processed protein products, Dr Morgan sees the benefit of increased protein in staple foods.

These might be particularly useful to elderly people who need more protein than the average person to maintain strength in their muscles and bones.

Tesco’s high-protein penne pasta contains 8.8g of protein per 100g, while their normal penne contains 5.8g of protein for the same weight. However, customers pay more for this as the high protein-penne costs £4.80 per kg. The normal penne costs £1.29 per kg.

So is it worth buying these protein advertised products?

It might be if you’re someone who needs more protein to maintain your health or if you’re trying to build muscle and need just a little bit extra to meet your daily protein goal, says Ethan.

“If the majority of your diet is whole foods and you need that extra 20g of protein to hit your goal and want something sweet – then go for that pudding or snack,” he tells us. “Having balance is important – but you shouldn’t be relying on them.”

He adds: “When I started my career, people used to talk about whey protein just as a supplement to your diet. Now the number of companies putting protein on anything and everything is insane.”

We’ve seen it before: Vladimir Putin doesn’t react well to ultimatums. We saw it again, last night, in the Kremlin.

President Putin slammed European powers for talking to Russia “in a boorish manner and with the help of ultimatums”.

He didn’t go into detail. He didn’t need to.

This was clearly his response to the ultimatum set by European leaders in Kyiv.

They had warned Moscow that if Russia didn’t agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday, there will be more sanctions against Russia and more military assistance for Ukraine.

On Saturday, Sir Keir Starmer said that “if he [Putin] is serious about peace, then he has a chance to show it”.

The Kremlin’s response: we’re serious, but we’ll show it our way.

Putin’s way (his counter proposal) is direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul next Thursday.

But, crucially, no immediate ceasefire.

So, is the Kremlin’s offer a serious peace initiative? Or is it simply an attempt by Moscow to play for time and to prolong the war? And, with this proposal, might Russia also be trying to split the Western coalition that is backing Ukraine?

Let’s begin with a short, but key question: does Vladimir Putin want peace?

He claims he does. But peace only on Russia’s terms.

Moscow suspects it has little to gain from a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, especially since the Russians believe they currently have the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine.

• Live updates on this story
• Frank Gardner: What Trump does next is crucial – and he could go either way

But neither does Russia want to be seen as an obstacle to peace. It’s keen to maintain a good relationship with the Donald Trump administration, with which the Kremlin has been working hard on improving ties.

If a US-Russia rapprochement continues, the Kremlin will be hoping for speedy sanctions relief and an economic boost.

By proposing direct talks in Istanbul, President Putin is sending a signal to the White House: “I am a man of peace.”

• Why Zelensky can’t and won’t give up Crimea

But by not committing to an immediate 30-day ceasefire, the likelihood is Russia will continue the war, and push on to seize and occupy more Ukrainian territory.

The Kremlin leader’s vague reference to “not excluding” that the Istanbul talks might lead to “new ceasefires” will be greeted with deep scepticism by Kyiv.

And when we’re talking about war and peace, keep in mind that it was President Putin who ordered the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

This was his decision, one widely seen as an attempt to force Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit.

He didn’t call it a war, though. He portrayed Russia’s actions as a “special military operation”.

Last night, though, Putin declared: “There is ongoing fighting, war. But we’re offering to resume talks that were interrupted, and not by us. What’s bad about that?”

The Kremlin may well be calculating that its offer of direct talks in Istanbul will drive a wedge between the US administration and European leaders.

Following Putin’s announcement, President Trump hailed a “potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine” in a social media post, and promised to “continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens”.

Emmanuel Macron described Putin’s offer as a “first step, but not enough.” The French president also said “an unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations.”

Putin announced his proposal in a late-night statement delivered inside the Kremlin.

I was among a small group of foreign journalists invited to join Russian reporters for what we were told would be a press conference.

We waited several hours for the event to begin. In the end, the Russian president took no questions. After delivering his statement he left the hall.

With US President Donald Trump due to visit Gulf states this week, a key focus will be securing significant new investment for the US economy.

“President Trump wants the announcement [of more Gulf money for the US],” says economist Karen Young, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank.

“He wants to have a big poster in a meeting that describes where these investments might go. And some estimation of what they will do to the American economy in terms of job creation or his big push, of course, on domestic manufacturing.”

Trump is due to arrive in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday 13 May, to meet the country’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump is then expected to attend a summit of Gulf leaders in the city on 14 May, before travelling to Qatar that same day, and then ending his three-day trip in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 15 May.

The economic importance of the region to Trump is highlighted by the fact that the visit to Saudi Arabia was due to be the first overseas trip of his second term in the White House. That was before the death of Pope Francis necessitated Trump attending his funeral in Rome towards the end of April.

Saudi Arabia was also the first country that Trump visited during his first term of office, going against the modern practise of US presidents to start with the UK, Canada or Mexico.

Securing new investments in the US from Gulf states, and particularly from their state-backed sovereign wealth funds, will help Trump to signal back home that his “America First” agenda is delivering results.

The presidential visit is drawing top Wall Street and Silicon Valley leaders to Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-US investment forum on 13 May in Riyadh will feature CEOs from BlackRock, Palantir, Citigroup, IBM, Qualcomm, Alphabet, and Franklin Templeton.

The push comes amid economic headwinds, as President Trump’s new import tariffs have significantly disrupted global trade, confidence, and the US economy itself. US economic output fell in the first three months of this year, its first fall in three years.

Back in January, Prince Mohammed said that Saudi Arabia would invest $600bn (£450bn) in the US over the next years. However, Trump has already said that he’d like that to rise to $1tn, including purchases of more US military equipment.

According to Ali Shihabi – a Saudi commentator and author, with close ties to the Saudi government – a number of economic agreements will be signed during the trip.

“These deals will further integrate the Saudi and US economies together, joint ventures in the kingdom, in the United States, procurements of American weapons and goods,” says Mr Shihabi.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment fund (PIF), which controls assets worth $925bn, already has numerous investments in the US. These include Uber, gaming firm Electronic Arts, and electric car firm Lucid.

Meanwhile, the UAE has already committed to investing $1.4tn in the US over the next 10 years, in sectors such as AI, semiconductors, energy and manufacturing. This was announced by the White House in March after the UAE’s national security advisor, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met President Trump in Washington.

Yet Ms Young from the Middle East Institute says that the scale of these investments is not realistic in the short term. She instead says that they are long-term strategic moves, and that the figures should be taken “with a little bit of a grain of salt”.

Regarding specific deals that could be announced during Trump’s visit, it is widely reported that Saudi Arabia will agree to buy more than $100bn of US arms and other military items.

These are said to include missiles, radar systems and transport aircraft.

The US has been a longstanding arms supplier to Saudi Arabia, but in 2021 the then Biden administration stopped selling Riyadh offensive weapons, citing concerns about the country’s role in the war in neighbouring Yemen.

The 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was also widely reported to be a factor. A US report said that Prince Mohammed had approved the murder.

The Biden White House resumed the sale of these weapons last year. While it cited that the Saudis had stopped bombing Yemen, some commentators said that the US was seeking Saudi assistance to help end the conflict in Gaza and aid its future reconstruction.

Mr Shihabi says Saudi Arabia will be seeking assurances from the White House that the US will implement a “more efficient procurement system”, enabling the Gulf state to access ammunition and military equipment far more quickly and easily.

“The Trump administration is initiating procedures to facilitate those deals. So, it’s expected that this process will improve immediately,” he adds.

Artificial intelligence is the other topic that will dominate the agenda during Mr Trump’s visit. Talks are expected to centre on attracting greater Gulf investment into US tech firms, and boosting the region’s access to cutting-edge American semiconductors.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been investing billions of dollars into tech and AI sectors as try to diversify their economies away from oil.

The Emiratis, in particular, are keen to establish themselves as a global AI hub.

Last week, the Trump administration scrapped the Biden-era chip regulations that placed restrictions on exports of advanced US chips to more than 120 countries including the Gulf states.

The White House is expected to draft new rules that would potentially involve direct negotiations with countries like the UAE.

“For the UAE, this is absolutely essential,” says Ms Young. “They are aggressively building out their AI capacity. So, for them getting access to US technology is imperative to be the best.”

While much attention will be on Trump courting Gulf capital for the US, Saudi Arabia is equally focused on drawing American investment into its ambitious Vision 2030 program.

Led by giant construction projects, such as the building of a linear city called The Line, Vision 2030 is central to the Saudi government’s continuing efforts to diversify the country’s economy away from oil.

It also involves pouring resources into entertainment, tourism, mining and sports.

However, foreign direct investment into Saudi Arabia declined for a third straight year in 2024, reflecting persistent challenges in attracting overseas capital.

The fall in global oil prices since the start of the year has further strained Riyadh’s finances, increasing pressure to either raise debt or cut spending to sustain its development goals.

Oil prices tumbled to a four-year low amid growing concerns that a trade war could dampen global economic growth.

The decline was further fuelled by the group of oil producing nations, Opec+, announcing plans to increase output.

Saudi Arabia is part of that group, and some commentators said that the rise was in part a desire to please Trump, who has called for lower oil prices.

Other analysts said the reason was more that Opec+ remains confident that the global economy is growing.

The US-Saudi Business Council, is an organisation that aims to boost trade ties between the two countries.

It is hoping that Trump’s visit will push American businesses to explore more opportunities in Saudi Arabia, especially in sectors like AI, healthcare and education.

“The Saudi government is looking heavily to invest in these sectors. There is a very big appetite for Saudi companies to collaborate with American companies,” Huthaim Al Jalal, who heads the Riyadh office for the organisation, tells the BBC.

Saudi officials are said to be confident that some deals in these sectors will be secured during Trump’s visit.

For Saudi Arabia, Trump’s visit is about strengthening ties with their longest-standing Western ally – a relationship that grew strained during the Biden years. For President Trump, it is about landing investment deals that can be framed as a win for his economic agenda.

“President Trump is looking for a headline of big investments in America, and he will get that from this trip,” adds Mr Shihabi.

Three men have been arrested in Japan for attempting to smuggle hermit crabs out of the country.

The suspects, aged 24, 26 and 27, and widely identified in Japanese media as being Chinese nationals, were detained on Amami, a southerly island where the spiral-shelled crustaceans are a protected species.

Authorities were alerted to the men’s live cargo when hotel staff, who had been asked to look after their luggage, noticed the suitcases making a “rustling noise”, police told local media.

Officers subsequently discovered “thousands” of hermit crabs, weighing around 95kg. The third man was found to have a further 65kg in another set of three suitcases.

“Our investigation is ongoing to identify whether they had [the crabs] to sell them, or to keep them as pets, or to eat them,” a police spokesman told the news agency AFP following the arrests on Wednesday. “We are reviewing all possibilities.”

Police said the hermit crabs were “a national treasure”, being a part of Amami Island’s plant and animal diversity.

Hermit crabs – so named because they scavenge shells to live in – can regularly be seen on the beaches of the popular tourist destination.

The crabs can be worth up to ¥20,000 (£103), according to the Japan Times.

A “large-scale air and ground search” is continuing for a British hiker who has been missing for a week in New Zealand.

More than 40 staff and volunteers are hunting for Eli Sweeting, who is originally from Bristol. The 25-year-old was reported missing on May 4 after failing to return from a solo hike up Mitre Peak, a steep mountain in Milford Sound area of Fiordland National Park on the country’s South Island.

New Zealand Police has said they “remain positive” despite the challenging terrain, which means at times they can only progress 250 metres (0.1miles) an hour.

Helicopters, dogs and locals have been assisting with the hunt, and some of his family have also flown out to help.

In a fundraising post, his sister Serena Sweeting described her brother as one of the “kindest, most compassionate people”.

“We just want him home safe,” she said.

The search party has been focusing on a route heading down the mountain after spotting a light there, but the dense area makes it hard for infrared cameras to detect any signs of movement.

The operation was briefly halted on Wednesday and Thursday due to weather warnings, but resumed again on Friday and Saturday.

Police confirmed this weekend there was “large-scale air and ground search effort planned for the coming days”.

The area where Mr Sweeting has hiking has incredibly steep rough terrain, but police said they remained hopeful as Mr Sweeting is an “experienced hiker”.

The police spokesperson added: “While the [man] has not yet been located, police remain positive as the search remains ongoing.

“A Land Search and Rescue team stayed near Mitre Peak overnight to continue the search early this morning.”

Lesego Chombo’s enthusiasm for life is as infectious as her achievements are impressive: she has won the Miss Botswana 2022 and Miss World Africa 2024 crowns, is a working lawyer, has set up her own charitable foundation – and made history in November, becoming Botswana’s youngest cabinet minister.

She was just 26 years old at the time – and had clearly impressed Botswana’s incoming President Duma Boko, whose Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) had just won a landslide, ousting the party that had governed for 58 years.

It was a seismic shift in the politics of the diamond-rich southern African nation – and Boko, a 55-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer, hit the ground running.

His main focus, he said, was fixing an economy too reliant on diamonds, telling the BBC ahead of his inauguration that he wanted young people to be the solution – “to become entrepreneurs, employ themselves and employ others”.

Key to this was finding a suitable ambassador – and Chombo was clearly it: a young woman already committed to various causes.

He made her minister of youth and gender.

“I’ve never been more proud to be young,” she told the BBC at the ministry’s headquarters in the capital, Gaborone.

“I’m a young person living in Botswana, passionate about youth development, gender equality, but also so passionate about the development of children.”

The beauty queen did not campaign to be an MP – she is what is called a specially elected member of parliament – and is now one of just six female MPs in the 69-member National Assembly.

Chombo said becoming an MP and then minister came as a complete surprise to her.

“I got appointed by a president who had never met me,” she said.

“Miss World and the journey that I thought I was supposed to pursue as my final destination was only the platform through which I would be seen for this very role.”

It was her crowning as Miss Botswana in 2022 that raised her profile and enabled her to campaign for social change, while trying to inspire other young women.

It also gave her the opportunity to set up the Lesego Chombo Foundation, which focuses on supporting disadvantaged youngsters and their parents in rural areas – and which she is still involved with, its projects funded by corporate companies and others.

“We strive to have a world where we feel seen and heard and represented. I’m very thrilled that I happen to be the very essence of that representation,” she said.

As she prepared for last year’s Miss World pageant, she said: “I really put myself in the zone of service. I really channelled it for this big crown.”

Now in political office, she is aware of the expectations placed on her in a country where approximately 60% of the population is below 35 years.

It also has a high level of unemployment – 28%, which is even higher for young people and women who have limited economic opportunities and battle systemic corruption.

Chombo said this was something she was determined to change: “Currently in Botswana, the rates of unemployment are so high.

“But it’s not just the rate of unemployment, it’s also just the sphere of youth development.

“It’s lacking, and so my desire is to create an ecosystem, an environment, a society, an economy in which youth can thrive.”

Chombo said her plan was to develop a comprehensive system that nurtured youth-led initiatives, strengthened entrepreneurship and ensured young people had a seat at the table when decisions were being made.

With Botswana’s anti-corruption policy undergoing a rigorous review, she said this would ensure that quotas for young entrepreneurs – when state departments and agencies put out tenders for goods and services – were actually reached.

The government has begun a 10-month forensic audit of government spending that will include 30 state-owned enterprises.

Indeed President Boko is intent on cracking down on corruption, seeing this as a way to bolter investor confidence and diversify the economy – something his deputy has been seeking to do on recent trips to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland.

And a key deal has now been secured with UAE-based CCI Global, a provider of business process outsourcing, to open a hub in Botswana.

While youth development is a central pillar of her work, gender equity also remains close to her heart.

Her short time in office has coincided with a growing outcry over gender-based violence.

According to a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report, over 67% of women in Botswana have experienced abuse, more than double the global average.

“It hurts to know that it could be me next,” she admitted.

A month into her appointment, she was criticised for voting against an opposition motion in parliament to create “peace desks” at police stations and magistrate courts to quickly deal with victims.

At the time she said such provisions already existed within the law and what was needed was more public awareness.

This was followed in January by a police report noting that at least 100 women had been raped and another 10 murdered during the festive season – this caused public outrage with many lashing out at her on social media over the issue.

The minister reiterated – on several occasions, including before parliament in March – that Botswana had many laws and strategies in place and what was important was to ensure these they were actually applied.

But she told the BBC the government would be pushing for the implementation of a Gender-Based Violence Act, aimed at closing legal loopholes that have long hindered justice for survivors.

She said she was also advocating a more holistic approach, involving the ministries of health, education and local government.

“We want curriculums that promote gender equity from a young age,” Chombo said.

“We want to teach children what gender-based violence is and how to prevent it.

“It will boil down to inclusion of teaching gender equity at home, how parents behave around their children, how they model good behaviour.”

She has also been vocal about the need to address issues affecting men, particularly around mental health and positive masculinity, encouraging chiefs “to ensure that our patriarchal culture is not actively perpetuating gender violence”.

“I hear a lot of people say: ‘Why do you speak of women more than men?’

“It’s because as it stands in society, women are mostly prejudiced [against].

“But when we speak of gender equality, we’re saying that it should be applied equally for everyone. But what we strive for is gender equity.”

Chombo, who studied law at the University of Botswana, said she was thankful to her mother and other strong women for inspiring her – saying that women had to work “10 times harder” to succeed.

“[My mother] has managed to create an environment for me to thrive. And growing up, I got to realise that it’s not an easy thing.

“As women, we face so many pressures: ‘A woman cannot do this. A woman can’t do that. A woman can’t be young and in leadership.’ I’m currently facing that.”

She also credited Julia Morley, the CEO of Miss World, for helping her: “She has managed to create a legacy of what we call beauty with a purpose for so many young girls across the world.

“She has just inspired us so deeply to take up social responsibility.”

Chombo is serious about this. The beauty queen-cum-lawyer-cum-minister knows she has made history – but is also aware that her real work has only just begun.

“Impact. Tangible impact. That’s what success would look like to me,” she said.

“I want to look back and see that it is there and it is sustainable. That when I leave, someone else is able to carry it through.”

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A fourth round of talks between the US and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme have taken place in Oman, with both sides agreeing to meet again.

US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff said the discussions in Muscat were encouraging, while Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described them as “difficult but useful”.

The US has insisted that Iran must scrap its uranium enrichment to prevent the country developing nuclear weapons, but Tehran denies it has such an aim and on Sunday again stressed it did not intend to give up the programme.

Donald Trump pulled out of a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and five other world powers in 2018.

He previously warned of possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities if the fresh set of talks, which began in April, do not succeed.

Two previous rounds of the negotiations were held in Muscat with one taking place in the Omani embassy in Rome.

A senior US official said the latest discussions lasted more than three hours, adding: “Agreement was reached to move forward with the talks to continue working through technical elements.

“We are encouraged by today’s outcome and look forward to our next meeting, which will happen in the near future.”

Speaking to Iranian state TV, Araghchi said the talks had been “more serious and more direct” than on previous occasions.

“The two sides have now a better understanding of each other’s positions. We can characterise the talks today as moving forward.”

But Araghchi said “contradictory positions taken by the US in the media is not acceptable to us as they do not help the negotiations”.

The talks came in the same week that Witkoff said in an interview with US media outlet Breitbart News that the US expects Iran to dismantle its uranium enrichment activities.

Araghchi said: “Enrichment is an issue that Iran will not give up and there is no room for compromise on it. However, its dimensions, levels, or amounts might change for a period to allow confidence-building.”

Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

However, since Trump pulled out of the 2015 agreement – which expires later this year – Iran has increasingly breached restrictions imposed by the existing nuclear deal in retaliation for crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago, and has stockpiled enough highly-enriched uranium to make several bombs.

Under the terms of the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to only enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity for the next 15 years.

In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog reported that Tehran had stockpiled uranium enriched to 60% purity and could swiftly move to 90%, which would be weapons-grade.

The 2015 nuclear deal took nearly two years of intensive negotiations. At the start of this new effort to reach an agreement, Iran’s programme is far more developed and complex, and the wider region is far more volatile.

Koyo Kouoh, who has died aged 57, was one of the art world’s leading figures and a fierce advocate of African creatives.

A Cameroon-born curator, Kouoh had been at the height of her career.

She was due to become the first African woman to lead next year’s Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art events, and led one of Africa’s largest contemporary art museums.

The cause of Kouoh’s unexpected death has not yet been made public. The curator passed away in Switzerland, according to reports.

South African artist Candice Breitz described Kouoh as “magnificently intelligent, endlessly energetic and formidably elegant”.

Otobong Nkanga, a Nigerian visual artist, called the late curator a source of warmth, generosity and brilliance”.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni also spoke of Kouoh’s impact, saying her passing “leaves a void in the world of contemporary art”.

Kouoh’s colourful life began in 1967, when she was born in Cameroon, a Central African country with a rich artistic heritage.

She grew up in the country’s largest city, Douala, before moving to Switzerland aged 13.

There, she studied business administration and banking but, in a pivotal moment, chose not to pursue finance as a career.

“I am fundamentally uninterested in profit,” she explained in a 2023 interview with the New York Times.

Rather than building on her degree, Kouoh assisted migrant women as a social worker and began to immerse herself in the world of art.

She gave birth to her son in Switzerland during the 90s, an experience she described as “profoundly transformative”. She would go on to adopt three other children.

Fed up with life in the Swiss city of Zurich, Kouoh returned to Africa in 1996.

She worked as a curator in Senegalese capital city Dakar, before founding Raw Material Company, an expansive, independent art hub.

Just last week, and six years into her role as the director of South Africa’s Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Kouoh reflected on her love for Dakar.

“Dakar made me who I am today,” she told the Financial Times.

“It’s the place I came of age professionally, where I really became a curator and an exhibition-maker… I’m in Cape Town now but, mentally, I live in Dakar. It’s the one and only place for me.”

When Kouoh took the top job at Zeitz, Africa’s biggest contemporary art museum, the institution was in crisis.

Founding director Mark Coetzee had been suspended in 2018 following allegations of staff harrasment and later resigned.

Kouoh has been widely credited with turning Zeitz’s fortunes around, leading it through the scandal, as well as the Covid pandemic.

“For me, it became a duty to salvage this institution,” she told The Art World: What If…?! podcast.

“I was convinced that the failure of Zeitz, if it had failed would’ve been the failure of all of us African art professionals in the field, somehow indirectly.”

As Zeitz’s director and curator, Kouoh oversaw a number of acclaimed exhibitions, including When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting. The show, which brings together works by black artists from the last century, is currently on display in Brussels.

In a statement announcing Kouoh’s “sudden” death, Zeitz expressed its “profound sorrow” and said that, out of respect, the museum would be closed “until further notice”.

In her Financial Times interview last week, Kouoh challenged the idea that death would bring an end to her endeavours.

“I do believe in life after death, because I come from an ancestral black education where we believe in parallel lives and realities,” she said.

“There is no ‘after death’, ‘before death’ or ‘during life’. It doesn’t matter that much. I believe in energies – living or dead – and in cosmic strength.”

• The Ivorian artist ‘not surprised’ to be a best-seller
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• Ethiopian artist Julie Mehretu breaks African art-world record again

The White House is in discussions with the royal family of Qatar to possibly receive a luxury jumbo jet, intended for use as an Air Force One presidential plane.

In a statement, Qatar denied that the plane would be a gift, but said the transfer of an aircraft for “temporary use” was under discussion between the two countries.

According to CBS News, the BBC’s news partner in America, the plane would be donated to Trump’s presidential library at the end of his term.

The news comes as Trump is set to visit Qatar this week as part of the first major foreign trip of his second term.

Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s Media Attaché to the US, said negotiations were ongoing between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense.

“The matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made.”

Sources told CBS News that the plane will not be ready for use right away as it will need to retrofitted and cleared by security officials.

The potential value of the plane and its handling is sure to raise legal and ethical questions among critics.

On Sunday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump’s Administration is committed to full transparency”.

The White House’s current fleet includes two Boeing 747-200B planes customised for presidential use with special communications equipment and features like a stateroom, office and conference room, according to the US Air Force. The planes have been in use since 1990 and 1991.

Air Force One planes usually carry over to other administrations. According to the National Archives, only the Reagan presidential library has an Air Force One jet, and it flew seven presidents before being donated.

Qatar is said to be offering a version of a Boeing 747-8, a much newer model that ABC News reports has been upgraded into a “flying palace”.

Boeing had been contracted to provide the White House with newer planes, but Trump complained earlier this year that the company was behind schedule. His administration had initially negotiated with Boeing for two specialised 747-8 planes during his first administration.

The plane maker said the aircraft would not be available until 2027 or 2028.

“No, I’m not happy with Boeing. It takes them a long time to do, you know, Air Force One, we gave that contract out a long time ago,” Trump said in February.

“We may buy a plane or get a plane, or something.”

Trump had a positive diplomatic relationship with Qatar during his first term, which included an announcement in 2019 that the country would make a large purchase of American airplanes.

Qatar has also previously given private jets as gifts to other countries, such as a luxury plane given to Turkey in 2018.

Amber Heard has announced the arrival of twins in an Instagram post shared on Mother’s Day in the United States.

The American actor revealed that she had welcomed daughter Agnes and son Ocean and was “elated beyond words” to celebrate the “completion” of her family.

Heard, 39, welcomed her first daughter, Oonagh, in 2021.

Under a picture of three pairs of feet, Heard wrote: “Becoming a mother by myself and on my own terms despite my own fertility challenges has been the most humbling experience of my life.”

The actor said she had chosen motherhood “responsibly and thoughtfully” and “couldn’t possibly burst with more joy”.

She described her family as one she had “strived to build for years”.

“To all the moms, wherever you are today and however you got here, my dream family and I are celebrating with you,” she added.

When Heard announced the birth of her first daughter in 2021, she spoke about her desire for it to be “normalised to not want a ring in order to have a crib”.

“I now appreciate how radical it is for us as women to think about one of the most fundamental parts of our destinies in this way,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.

Heard is best known for her films The Rum Diary, Drive Angry, Zombieland and Aquaman.

She was married to actor Johnny Depp from 2015 to 2016.

After their marriage ended, the pair accused each other of domestic abuse and engaged in two lengthy and high-profile defamation cases.

In the Depp v. News Group Newspapers (NGN) trial in 2020, Depp lost his UK libel case against the Sun newpaper after Heard gave evidence to back claims in the newspaper that he was a “wife-beater”.

In the widely publicised Depp v. Heard trial in the US, Heard was found liable for defaming Depp.

For six weeks in 2022, a court in the US state of Virginia heard details of the couple’s volatile relationship.

Depp sued his ex-wife for defamation over an opinion article she wrote for the Washington Post that alleged she was a domestic abuse victim, although it did not mention him by name. Heard counter-sued.

Jurors awarded Depp – who denied abusing Heard – $15m (£12m) in compensatory and punitive damages.

Heard won one of three counter-claims against Depp and was awarded $2m in compensatory damages.

Before Silvana Santos arrived in the little town of Serrinha dos Pintos more than 20 years ago, residents had no idea why so many local children had lost the ability to walk.

The remote town in north-eastern Brazil is home to fewer than 5,000 people, and is where biologist and geneticist Santos identified and named a previously unknown condition: Spoan syndrome.

Caused by a genetic mutation, the syndrome affects the nervous system, gradually weakening the body. It only appears when the altered gene is inherited from both parents.

Santos’s research marked the first time the disease had been described anywhere in the world. For this and later work, she was named one of the BBC’s 100 most influential women in 2024.

Before Santos arrived, families had no explanation for the illness affecting their children. Today, residents talk confidently about Spoan and genetics.

“She gave us a diagnosis we never had. After the research, help came: people, funding, wheelchairs,” says Marquinhos, one of the patients.

Where Santos is from in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest and wealthiest city, many of her neighbours were members of the same extended family originally from Serrinha. Many of them were cousins of varying degrees, married to each other.

They told Santos that many of people in their hometown couldn’t walk, but that no one knew why.

One of the neighbours’ daughters, Zirlândia, suffered from a debilitating condition: as a child, her eyes moved involuntarily and over time, she lost strength in her limbs and needed to use a wheelchair, requiring help with even the simplest tasks.

Years of investigation would lead Santos and a research team to identify these as symptoms of Spoan syndrome.

They would go on to find 82 other cases worldwide.

At the invitation of her neighbours, Santos visited Serrinha on holiday. She describes her arrival as stepping into “a world of its own” – not just because of the lush scenery and mountain views, but also due to what seemed to be a notable social coincidence.

The more she walked and spoke with locals, the more surprised she was at how common marriages between cousins were.

Serrinha’s geographical isolation and little inward migration mean that many of the population are related, making marriage between cousins far more likely and more socially acceptable.

Worldwide, marriages between relatives were estimated at around 10% in the early 2010s. More recent data shows the rate varies widely, from over 50% in countries like Pakistan, to 1-4% in Brazil and less than 1% in the US and Russia. Most children born to pairs of cousins are healthy, experts say.

But these marriages do face a higher risk of a harmful genetic mutation being passed down through the family.

“If a couple is unrelated, the chance of having a child with a rare genetic disorder or disability is about 2–3%. For cousins, the risk rises to 5–6% per pregnancy,” explains geneticist Luzivan Costa Reis from Brazil’s Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

A 2010 study led by Santos showed that more than 30% of couples in Serrinha were related, and a third of them had at least one child with a disability.

Santos set out to find a diagnosis for the people of Serrinha and she began planning a detailed genetic study, requiring multiple trips and eventually leading to her relocating to the region.

She drove the 2,000km to and from São Paulo many times in the early years of her research. She collected DNA samples door-to-door, chatting to locals over coffee and gathering family stories, all the while trying to locate the mutation causing the disease.

What was supposed to be three months of fieldwork turned into years of dedication.

It all led to the publication in 2005 of the team’s study revealing the existence of Spoan in the Brazilian hinterland.

Santos’s team found that the mutation involves the loss of a small fragment of a chromosome, which causes a gene to overproduce a key protein in brain cells.

“They said it came from Maximiano, a womaniser in our family,” recalls farmer Lolô, whose daughter Rejane has Spoan.

Lolô, now 83, married his cousin and never left Serrinha. He still tends cattle and relies on family to care for Rejane, who struggles with daily tasks.

But the genetic mutation behind Spoan is far older than the legend of Old Maximiano: it likely arrived more than 500 years ago with early European settlers in the north-east of Brazil.

“Sequencing studies show strong European ancestry in patients, supporting records of Portuguese, Dutch, and Sephardic Jewish presence in the region,” says Santos.

The theory gained strength after two Spoan cases were found in Egypt, and further studies showed that the Egyptian cases also shared European ancestry, pointing to a common origin in the Iberian Peninsula.

“It likely came with related Sephardic Jews or Moors fleeing the Inquisition,” says Santos. She believes more cases may exist globally, especially in Portugal.

Although there’s been little progress toward a cure, tracking patients has brought some change. Rejane recalls how people used to be called “cripples”. Now, they’re simply said to have Spoan.

Wheelchairs brought not just independence, but also helped prevent deformities – in the past, many with the condition had been left simply lying in bed or on the floor.

As Spoan progresses, physical limitations worsen with age and by 50, nearly all patients become fully dependent on carers.

This is the case for Inés’s children, who are among the oldest in Serrinha. Chiquinho, 59, can no longer speak, and Marquinhos, 46, has limited communication abilities.

“It’s hard to have a ‘special’ child. We love them the same, but we suffer for them,” says Inés, who is married to a second cousin.

Larissa Queiroz, 25, the niece of Chiquinho and Marquinho, also married a distant relative. She and her husband, Saulo, only discovered their common ancestor after several months of dating.

“In Serrinha dos Pintos, deep down, we’re all cousins. We’re related to everyone,” she says.

Couples like Larissa and Saulo are the focus of a new research project which Santos is also involved in. Backed by Brazil’s Ministry of Health, it will screen 5,000 couples for genes linked to serious recessive diseases.

The goal is not to stop cousin marriages, but to help couples understand their genetic risks, says Santos. Now a university professor, she also leads a genetics education centre and works to expand testing in the north-east of Brazil.

Though she no longer lives in Serrinha dos Pintos, every visit feels like coming home.

“It’s as if Santos is family,” says Inés.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally” in Istanbul on Thursday for talks over ending the war.

His post on X came shortly after Donald Trump demanded Ukraine agree to Putin’s offer of direct talks between the two countries in Turkey.

“There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally,” Zelensky wrote.

He had earlier said his country was open to talks with Russia but only after a ceasefire was in place.

Western powers called for a 30-day pause in fighting to begin on Monday after European leaders spearheading the so-called “coalition of the willing” met in Kyiv on Saturday.

Putin’s offer of direct talks followed that intervention.

On Sunday Trump then posted on social media that Ukraine should agree to this “immediately” and it would provide clarity on whether there was a way to end the war.

“At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the US, will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly” he said, adding: “Have the meeting, now!”

In his post on X, Zelensky said he hoped Russia would agree to the ceasefire before the talks.

“We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy,” he said.

In a late-night address on Saturday, Putin invited Ukraine to take part in “serious negotiations” over the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Putin said he could “not rule out” the possibility that the talks could result in Russia and Ukraine agreeing “a new truce” – but did not address the calls for a 30-day ceasefire directly.

The Russian leader said: “This would be the first step towards a long-term, lasting peace, rather than a prologue to more armed hostilities after the Ukrainian armed forces get new armaments and personnel, after feverish trench-digging and the establishment of new command posts.”

Moscow has previously said that before Russia could consider a ceasefire, the West must first halt its military aid to Ukraine.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian president played host in Kyiv to UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Poland’s Donald Tusk, who later called Trump to discuss their plan.

Sir Keir later told the BBC the US president was “absolutely clear” that their suggestion of an immediate ceasefire was a “demand that must be met”.

Appearing at a news conference with Zelensky, they warned that “new and massive” sanctions would be imposed on Russia’s energy and banking sectors should Putin not agree to the unconditional 30-day ceasefire “in the air, at sea and on land”.

Russia and Ukraine last held direct negotiations in March 2022 in Istanbul, shortly after Moscow launched its invasion.

More than three years later, both sides have agreed, in principle, to resume negotiations. But talks and a deal are very different things. Both sides seemingly retain their red lines, which are as far apart as ever.

Hamas says it will release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who is believed to be the last living captive with US nationality in Gaza, as a part of efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement.

The decision comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East on Tuesday. Hamas said it was also intended to facilitate a deal for the entry of humanitarian aid. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for 70 days.

Earlier a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the Palestinian armed group was holding direct negotiations with a US administration official in Qatar.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said it had been informed by the US of the Hamas intention to release Alexander.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the BBC that Hamas’s announcement was intended as a goodwill gesture before Trump’s arrival.

He said another meeting between Hamas and the mediators was scheduled for early Monday morning to finalise the process of Edan’s release, which would require a temporary halt to Israeli military activity and a suspension of aerial operations during the handover.

President Trump confirmed Alexander’s release in a post on Truth Social, calling it “monumental news” and “a step taken in good faith”.

Born in Tel Aviv but raised in New Jersey, 21-year-old Alexander was serving in an elite infantry unit on the border with Gaza when he was captured by Hamas militants during the 7 October attack.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 59 remain in the enclave, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Five of the hostages in Gaza are believed to be US citizens and Alexander was thought to be the only one still alive.

In its statement, Hamas said the release was part of efforts to achieve a ceasefire and allow food, medicine and other supplies into Gaza – which has been under a complete blockade by Israel for 70 days. The group said it wanted to reach a final agreement to end the war.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement that it had been informed by the US of the Hamas intention to release Alexander “as a gesture towards the Americans” and that the move was expected to lead to negotiations on further hostages.

Israel’s policy was that negotiations would be conducted “under fire, based on the commitment to achieve all of the objectives of the war”, it added.

The Families and Missing Families Forum campaign group said Alexander’s release “must mark the beginning of a comprehensive agreement that will secure the freedom of all remaining hostages”.

They said President Trump had “given the families of all the hostages hope” and urged Netanyahu to now “bring everyone back”.

Hamas has in the past said it will only agree to a deal that includes the end of the war, something that has been repeatedly rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The talks between Hamas and the US are taking place amid multiple reports suggesting growing frustration in the Trump administration with Netanyahu’s position. The prime minister is also under pressure at home, with many accusing him of prolonging the war for political purposes.

President Donald Trump arrives in the Middle East on Tuesday, and Israel has vowed to expand its military offensive against Hamas if no deal is reached by the end of his visit.

Israeli officials have said the plans for their expanded offensive include seizing all of the territory indefinitely, forcibly displacing Palestinians to the south, and taking over aid distribution with private companies despite opposition from the UN and its humanitarian partners, who say they will not co-operate because it appears to “weaponise” aid.

Israel has already blocked the entry of all food, medication and other humanitarian supplies into Gaza for 70 days, which aid agencies say amounts to a policy of starvation and could be a war crime, and renewed its aerial bombardment and other military operations there in mid-March, which have since killed 2,720 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Since the beginning of the year, according to the UN, about 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children have been identified. Food prices have rocketed by as much as 1,400%.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which saw about 1,200 people killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Some 59 are still held captive, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israel’s military campaign has killed 52,829 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Both China and the United States have said that they’ve made progress at trade talks between the two countries in Switzerland.

The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the discussions as “productive and constructive,” while China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng said the talks were “in-depth” and “candid”.

The pair were engaged in secretive closed-door discussions all weekend, in the first meeting since US President Donald Trump levied steep tariffs against China in January.

The talks were the first face-to-face meetings between the two countries since President Trump imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, with Beijing responding with a 125% levy some US goods.

The huge tariffs caused turmoil in the financial markets and sparked fears of a global recession.

Full details from the talks will be jointly released on Monday.

Following the conclusion of the two-day talks in Geneva, US trade representative ambassador Jamieson Greer said “the deal we struck with our Chinese partners” would help reduce the US’s $1.2tn (£901bn) trade deficit.

Mr Bessent said the US and China have made “substantial progress” on de-escalating the trade war, while Vice Premier He said the talks were “of great significance to the two countries but also have an important impact on the stability and development of the global economy”.

He told reporters in Geneva that the meetings had been substantive, Reuters reported.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, inspector general of the World Trade Organization, called the talks “a significant step forward.”

“I urge both nations to build on this momentum by continuing to develop practical solutions that mitigate tensions, restore predictability, and strengthen confidence in the multilateral trading system,” she said in a statement.

On Saturday, following the first day of talks Trump praised the “total reset” on the relationship between the two countries.

In a social media post, the US president described the talks as being “very good” and said change had been “negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner”.

“We want to see, for the good of both China and the U.S., an opening up of China to American business. GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!” Trump added.

An escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing has seen the US president hit Chinese imports to the US with tariffs of 145%. China retaliated with levies of 125% on some US goods.

On Friday, before the talks began, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Washington would not lower tariffs unilaterally, and China would need to make its own concessions.

Both sides issued various other warnings ahead of the meeting, with Beijing saying the US must ease tariffs while Bessent stressed that the focus was on “de-escalation” and this was not a “big trade deal”.

Chinese state media reported that Beijing had decided to engage with the US after fully considering global expectations, the country’s interests and appeals from American businesses.

Last month, the BBC found that Chinese exporters were struggling with the US’s tariffs – one company, Sorbo Technology, reported that half of its products were normally sold to the US and were now sat in boxes in a warehouse in China.

Meanwhile, the US economy was found to have shrunk in the first three months of the year – contracting at an annual rate of 0.3% – as firms raced to get goods into the country.

The trade war between China and the US intensified last month after President Trump announced a universal baseline tariff on all imports to the United States, on what he called “Liberation Day”.

Around 60 trading partners, which the White House described as the “worst offenders”, were subjected to higher rates than others. The list included China and the European Union.

Trump said this was payback for years worth of unfair trade policies for the US.

He also separately announced a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium coming into the US, and a further 25% tariff on all cars and car parts.

It was announced last week that the US and UK had agreed a deal, in which the 25% will be cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars – matching the number of cars the UK exported last year.

Cars are the UK’s biggest export to the US, worth about £9bn last year.

The first head-to-head trial of two blockbuster weight-loss drugs has shown Mounjaro is more effective than rival Wegovy.

Both drugs led to substantial weight loss, but Mounjaro’s 20% weight reduction, after 72 weeks of treatment, exceeded the 14% from Wegovy, according to the trial’s findings.

Researchers who led the trial said both drugs had a role, but Mounjaro may help those with the most weight to lose.

Both drugs trick the brain into making you feel full so you eat less and instead burn fat stored in the body – but subtle differences in how they work to explain the difference in effectiveness.

Wegovy, also known as semaglutide, mimics a hormone released by the body after a meal to flip one appetite switch in the brain. Mounjaro, or tirzepatide, flips two.

The trial, which was paid for by Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Mounjaro, involved 750 obese people, with an average weight of 113kg (nearly 18 stone).

They were asked to take the highest dose they could tolerate of one of the two drugs.

The findings, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga and in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed:

• 32% of people lost a quarter of their body weight on Mounjaro compared to 16% on Wegovy
• Those on Mounjaro lost an average of 18cm from their waistlines compared with 13cm on Wegovy.
• Those on Mounjaro had better blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
• Both had similar levels of side-effects.
• Women tended to lose more weight than men.

Dr Louis Aronne, who conducted the trial at the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, said: “The majority of people with obesity will do just fine with semaglatide (Wegovy), those at the higher end may ultimately do better with tirzepatide (Mounjaro).”

In the UK, the two medicines are available from specialist weight-management services, but can also be bought privately.

Prof Naveed Sattar, from the University of Glasgow, said the drugs were “good options” for patients, but while “many will be satisfied with 15% weight loss… many want as much weight loss as possible”.

“In the UK, tirzepatide sales privately are now well ahead of semaglutide – that’s just a reality – and this paper will accelerate that I imagine,” he added.

However, Wegovy is also licensed for other conditions – such as preventing heart attacks – while the equivalent trials with Mounjaro have not been completed.

• Weight-loss drug approved for heart problems in UK

A huge amount of research into weight-loss drugs is still taking place. Higher doses of current drugs are being tested, as are new ways of taking them such as oral pills and new medicines that act on the body in different ways are being investigated.

It means the final winner in this field has yet to be determined.

Prof Sattar says the amount of research taking place means we may be approaching the point where “obesity prevention may also be possible soon”, but argues “it would be far better” to make our society healthier to prevent people becoming obese.

Dust was rising on the track. It hung in the hot midday air as the white jeep came towards us. The driver was less than a minute away.

“I think it’s Moshe Sharvit,” said Gil Alexander, 72, a devout religious Jew who tries to protect Palestinian shepherds from intimidation by Jewish settlers.

Over the last year we’ve been documenting his work with shepherds in the northern Jordan Valley, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The man approaching us was placed under sanctions by Britain and the EU last year after they said he had used “physical aggression, threatened families at gunpoint, and destroyed property as part of a targeted and calculated effort to displace Palestinian communities”.

In a case reported by our colleagues at BBC Eye Investigates last year, a Palestinian grandmother alleged that Moshe Sharvit had forced her to leave her family home in October 2023. Ayesha Shtayyeh also said he pointed a gun at her head and threatened to kill her.

• Confronting violent settlers in the occupied West Bank, together
• Extremist settlers rapidly seizing West Bank land

“We’ve been here for 50 years…What have I ever done to him?” she asked when BBC Eye interviewed her.

She said her family’s troubles began after Moshe Sharvit established a so-called ‘outpost’- a settlement that is illegal under both Israeli and international law – chasing away the family’s sheep, damaging property and constantly threatening them. The alleged incident with the gun was the final straw.

Moshe Sharvit did not respond to BBC Eye’s requests for a response to Ayesha’s account.

Back on the mountainside, the man accused of this violence stopped his car and approached us. Nodding towards Gil Alexander he asked us: “Do you know he’s a very dangerous guy?”

When our translator explained to Moshe Sharvit we were from the BBC he said: “Ah the BBC… great lovers of Israel…” He went on to call us bad and dangerous people.

Addressing our translator he said: “So, do you understand that they’re the people who are most dangerous to the State of Israel?”

Then he phoned the police, asking them to come to the scene. When he wasn’t calling the police he filmed us filming him.

Moshe Sharvit and Gil Alexander represent starkly different visions of Israel’s future.

Moshe Sharvit believes all of the West Bank – which settlers and the Israeli government call Judea and Samaria – were given by God to the Jews.

In this he is supported by senior ministers in the government, including the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of Public Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Both men are settlers and leaders of far-right ultranationalist parties.

Smotrich has said Gaza will be “totally destroyed” and that its people will be “totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places”.

The ‘other places’ he envisages are foreign countries. Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for the police, has convictions for inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organisation.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, relies on the support of the far-right settler movement to keep his government in power.

He criticised the sanctions imposed on Moshe Sharvit and other settlers, saying his government viewed the move “with great severity”. US sanctions against Moshe Sharvit were dropped when President Donald Trump came to power.

The UN’s top court ruled last year that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is against international law and that all settlement activity is illegal.

Israel rejects this and argues that settlements are necessary for security, citing lethal attacks by Palestinian gunmen on settlers, such as the killing of three people last January in the West Bank.

Settlement expansion is anathema to Gil Alexander. He considers himself a Zionist, but within the existing borders of Israel.

These are the frontiers that existed before it seized the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, after neighbouring Arab countries launched a surprise attack.

He is part of a network called the Jordan Valley Activists – Moshe Sharvit calls them “anarchists” – offering solidarity, and working for peaceful co-existence with the Palestinians.

“What they [the settlers] want to see happen,” Gil Alexander told us, “[is] that it will be an area completely free of Arabs. It isn’t Moshe. It’s all the people above him who sent him here. Meaning from the top”.

Moshe Sharvit’s desire to have the Jordan Valley empty of Palestinians is shared by the leader of the regional council, a government-supported body, David Elhayani, who has visited the sanctioned settler.

In his air conditioned office about 15km (9 miles) from Moshe Sharvit’s settler outpost he told us “the notion of settler violence is an invention of the anarchist, extreme left meant to harm the settlement image”.

As for the future of the Palestinians, he was emphatic. They should go to neighbouring Jordan.

“This country needs to be free of Arabs. It’s the only way. It’s a global interest. Why global? Because the minute there won’t be Arabs here it will be a Jewish nation for the Jews who won’t have to hurt each other, there won’t be conflict, there won’t be anything.”

Gil Alexander and Moshe Sharvit have a history of antagonism. During an altercation on a Palestinian farmer’s land in January 2023, Moshe Sharvit says Gil Alexander tried to seize his firearm from its holster.

While speaking to our translator he produced a video of the incident on his phone.

“You can see Gil Alexander. Same hat and glasses. That’s me. Here you see he grabs my gun.”

Gil Alexander says he was acting in self-defence after Moshe Sharvit had grabbed his walking stick, and the phone of his friend and violently pushing it.

He says he feared Moshe Sharvit was going to use the weapon. As a result, Moshe Sharvit got a restraining order which forbids Gil Alexander from being within 2.5km (1.5 miles) of his farm.

The police have charged Gil Alexander with illegal possession of a weapon (the one he allegedly tried to take from Moshe Sharvit) and assault. The issue will be considered by the Israeli courts.

Moshe Sharvit himself is the subject of a restraining order forbidding him to approach a Palestinian family living near his outpost for six months, since March this year.

During our encounter the settler claimed that Gil Alexander had breached his restraining order by taking us to the high ground overlooking the valley. The peace activist told us later that he had mistakenly strayed just over half a kilometre inside the area of the order.

Although Moshe Sharvit’s settlement is illegal, even under Israeli law, it has not been removed.

Human rights organisations and numerous eyewitnesses testify that the Israeli army and police frequently stand by while settlers attack Palestinian villages.

The violence has escalated sharply since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped, and which triggered the Gaza war.

According to a report issued by the UN office for Humanitarian Affairs there were 1,804 attacks by settlers against Palestinians in the period January 2024 to March 2025.

The Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din (There is Law), reported that only 3% of complaints made against settlers resulted in a conviction. In six days last month – from 22 to 28 April – the UN recorded 14 incidents involving settlers that left 36 Palestinians injured.

In the tense atmosphere on the mountainside, and wanting to avoid any escalation, we decided to leave.

As we walked away, Moshe Sharvit went to his jeep and drove ahead of us, stopping where the track turned down the mountain. Our way out was blocked. There was no-one we could appeal to apart from the man preventing us from leaving.

Again, he phoned the police asking them to come. Gil Alexander phoned the police and his lawyer. Our team was worried that more settlers would come.

Then something surprising happened. I suggested to Moshe Sharvit that he should agree to be interviewed. After a brief pause, he said: “Bring the camera.”

What followed was less an interview, than a series of declarations. He was doing the work of God, he said.

Why did local Bedouin shepherds say they were very afraid of him? I asked.

“No, that is a lie. They’re telling stories so the world will think we’re crazy. It’s not true. It’s all lies that are built on lies of dozens of years of lying…” he said.

“The Arabs, since the formation of the country and before – all the past 77 years they’ve been preoccupied with harming the people of Israel, harming the land of Israel and causing the nation of Israel to be miserable and pitiful. But they don’t understand that the harder they try, the Lion will wake from his sleep and within one day we’ll end this story.”

He repeated the analogy of the Lion later in the interview saying, in what sounded like ominous words, that the Palestinians were “pushing the lion so hard into the corner that there will be no choice left but to finish this story”.

“7 October was small. One day it’ll be big.”

As for peaceful co-existence such as Gil Alexander supports, he said there was “no such thing as peace with enemies who try to destroy you”.

Moshe Sharvit’s brother Harel was killed fighting in Gaza in December 2023.

His world is the pastureland, the stony hills of the Jordan Valley, his sheep and cattle, the bed and breakfast he has opened.

He produced a glossy video, replete with a backing track of American country music, to promote his venture.

He spoke with contempt for the British sanctions against him. They were a new kind of antisemitism, he claimed.

“The minute someone tries to hurt me I get stronger. My spirit…I receive energies, my spirit continues on its mission, I continue advancing forward and planting roots deep into the land of Israel. I’m not bothered by Britain or America or anyone.”

Then he drove away. We were free to move on. Later as we were having lunch in a café about 15km (nine miles) away, a policeman appeared, looking for Gil Alexander.

He went with the police officer for questioning. After about an hour he returned, telling us he had been ordered not to enter the Jordan Valley for two weeks. He plans to lodge his own complaint against Moshe Sharvit over the incident.

We went to Gil Alexander’s home in a kibbutz inside Israel that overlooks the Valley. Gunmen from the Palestinian city of Jenin fired at the kibbutz two years ago.

Gil Alexander is not a pacifist. If he is attacked by Hamas or any other group, he will defend himself.

He said: “A son of our friends, two months ago he was killed here by a terrorist. He was a soldier in the reserves, 46 years old with six children. He volunteered for the reserves to protect me.”

“If the army hadn’t been there, they would have come here. He was killed while defending me. And today he is buried next to my two sons.”

But Gil Alexander seemed weary as we sat drinking tea amid the bright red flowers of his well-tended garden, and the fluttering yellow flags that symbolise Israel’s hostages held in Gaza.

He spoke of a beloved nephew killed fighting in Lebanon in an earlier war.

Did he not, I wondered, at the age of 72, think about retiring from the struggle and enjoying his garden? He laughed.

There was no chance of that. After two of his sons took their own lives – one was in the army, the other was about to enter the military – he had found a purpose in working for what he calls the “humanitarian” ideals of Judaism.

“After the tragedies of my sons, if I don’t find meaning in life, I’ll go crazy… And the things I do, are things I believe in. And these are things I also got from my father who was in the French underground during World War Two and fought for French liberation but was against any type of occupation and said, ‘Occupation is Occupation.'”

Two days after our encounter with Moshe Sharvit, a lone woman peace activist filmed him banging on the window of her car and rocking the vehicle.

The woman is clearly frightened by the intimidation. Moshe Sharvit acts as if he has nothing to fear.

In a dramatic turn of events, US President Donald Trump took to social media on Saturday to announce that India and Pakistan – after four tense days of cross-border clashes – had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire”.

Behind the scenes, US mediators, alongside diplomatic backchannels and regional players, proved critical in pulling the nuclear-armed rivals back from the brink, experts say.

However, hours after a ceasefire deal, India and Pakistan were trading accusations of fresh violations – underscoring its fragility.

India accused Pakistan of “repeated violations” while Pakistan insisted it remained committed to the ceasefire, with its forces showing “responsibility and restraint.”

Before Trump’s ceasefire announcement, India and Pakistan were spiralling towards what many feared could become a full-blown conflict.

After a deadly militant attack killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month, India launched air strikes inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir – triggering days of aerial clashes, artillery duels and, by Saturday morning, accusations from both sides of missile strikes on each other’s airbases.

The rhetoric escalated sharply, with each country claiming to have inflicted heavy damage while foiling the other’s attacks.

• Why India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir
• Drone war opens a new chapter in India-Pakistan conflict

Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call to Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir on 9 May “might have been the crucial point”.

“There’s still much we don’t know about the roles of various international actors, but it’s clear over the past three days that at least three countries were working to de-escalate – the US, of course, but also the UK and Saudi Arabia,” she says.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told Pakistani media that “three dozen countries” were involved in the diplomacy – including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the US.

“One question is whether, if this call had come earlier – right after the initial Indian strikes, when Pakistan was already claiming some Indian losses and an off-ramp was available – it might have prevented further escalation,” Ms Madan says.

This isn’t the first time US mediation has helped defuse an India–Pakistan crisis.

In his memoir, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo claimed he was woken up to speak with an unnamed “Indian counterpart”, who feared Pakistan was preparing nuclear weapons during the 2019 standoff.

Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria later wrote that Pompeo overstated both the risk of nuclear escalation and the US role in calming the conflict.

But diplomats say there is little doubt the US played an important role in defusing the crisis this time.

“The US was the most prominent external player. Last time, Pompeo claimed they averted nuclear war. While they’ll likely exaggerate, they may have played the primary diplomatic role, perhaps amplifying Delhi’s positions in Islamabad,” Mr Bisaria told the BBC on Saturday.

Yet at the outset, the US appeared strikingly standoffish.

As tensions flared, US Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that the US was not going to get involved in a war that’s “fundamentally none of our business”.

“We can’t control these countries though. Fundamentally, India has its gripes with Pakistan… America can’t tell the Indians to lay down their arms. We can’t tell the Pakistanis to lay down their arms. And so we’re going to continue to pursue this thing through diplomatic channels, ” he said in a television interview.

Meanwhile, President Trump said earlier this week: “I know both [leaders of India and Pakistan] very well, and I want to see them work it out… I want to see them stop, and hopefully they can stop now”.

Ejaz Haider, a Lahore-based defence analyst, told the BBC this appeared to be the only difference from previous occasions.

“The American role was a continuation of past patterns, but with one key difference – this time, they initially stayed hands-off, watching the crisis unfold instead of jumping in right away. Only when they saw how it was playing out did they step in to manage it,” Mr Haider told the BBC.

Experts in Pakistan say as the escalation cycle deepened, Pakistan sent “dual signals”, retaliating militarily while announcing a National Command Authority (NCA) meeting – a clear reminder of the nuclear overhang.

The NCA controls and takes operational decisions regarding Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

This was around the time US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stepped in.

“The US was indispensable. This outcome would not have occurred without Secretary Rubio’s efforts,” Ashley J Tellis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the BBC.

What also helped was Washington’s deepening ties with Delhi.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal rapport with Trump, plus the US’s broader strategic and economic stakes, gave the US administration diplomatic leverage to push both nuclear-armed rivals towards de-escalation.

Indian diplomats see three key peace tracks that happened this time, much like after Pulwama–Balakot in 2019:

• US and UK pressure
• Saudi mediation, with the Saudi junior foreign minister visiting both capitals
• The direct India-Pakistan channel between the two national security advisors (NSAs)

Despite shifting global priorities and a hands-off posture at first, the US ultimately stepped in as the indispensable mediator between South Asia’s nuclear rivals.

Whether overstated by its own officials or underacknowledged by Delhi and Islamabad, experts believe the US’s role as crisis manager remains as vital – and as complicated – as ever.

Doubts do, however, linger over the ceasefire’s durability after Saturday’s events, with some Indian media reporting it was essentially brokered by senior military officials of the two countries – not the US.

“This ceasefire is bound to be a fragile one. It came about very quickly, amid sky-high tensions. India appears to have interpreted it differently than did the US and Pakistan,” Michael Kugelman, a foreign policy analyst, told the BBC.

“Also, since it was put together so hastily, the accord may lack the proper guarantees and assurances one would need at such a tense moment.”

When Charlie Hopkins thinks back to the three years he spent in one of America’s most famous prisons, he remembers the “deathly quiet” the most.

In 1955, Hopkins was sent to Alcatraz – a famed prison on an isolated island off the coast of San Francisco – after causing trouble at other prisons to serve a 17-year sentence for kidnapping and robbery.

Falling asleep at night in his cell on the remote island, he said, the only sound was the whistle of ships passing.

“That’s a lonely sound,” Hopkins said. “It reminds you of Hank Williams singing that song, ‘I’m so lonesome I could cry.'”

Now 93 and living in Florida, Hopkins said the San Francisco National Archives informed him that he is likely the last surviving former Alcatraz inmate. Another former inmate, William Baker, appeared to be alive as of last year.

In an interview with the BBC this week, Hopkins described life at Alcatraz – which formed the setting for the 1996 film The Rock – where he made friends with gangsters and once helped plan an unsuccessful escape.

Although it closed decades ago, US President Donald Trump recently claimed that he wants to re-open it as a federal prison.

When Hopkins was transferred to the high-security prison in 1955, from an Atlanta facility, he remembers it being clean, but barren. And there were few distractions – no radio at the time, and few books, he said.

“There was nothing to do,” he said. “You could walk back and forth in your cell or do push-ups.”

Hopkins kept busy part of the time with his job cleaning Alcatraz, sweeping the floors and buffing them “until they shined”, he said.

He was sent to prison in 1952 in Jacksonville, Florida, for his role in a series of robberies and kidnappings. He was part of a group that took hostages to get through roadblocks and steal cars, he said.

• The men who broke out of Alcatraz with a spoon

At Alcatraz, Hopkins had some infamous neighbours. The facility housed many violent criminals over its 30 years – Al Capone; Robert Stroud, a murderer known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz”; and crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger – making it the subject of a host of films and television shows.

A 22-acre island, 1.25 miles (2km) off San Francisco and surrounded by freezing waters with strong currents, Alcatraz was originally a naval defence fort. It was rebuilt in the early 20th century as a military prison. The US Justice Department took it over in the 1930s, transforming the facility into a federal prison to address rampant organised crime at the time.

Even in the high-security prison, Hopkins said he still managed to get into trouble and spent many days in the facility’s “D Block” – solitary confinement where inmates who misbehaved were held and rarely let out of their cells.

His longest stint there – six months – came after he tried to help several other prisoners, including notorious bank robber Forrest Tucker, escape Alcatraz, Hopkins said. He helped steal hacksaw blades from the prison’s electric shop to cut the prison bars in the basement kitchen.

The plan didn’t work – prison guards discovered the blades in other inmates’ cells, Hopkins said. “A few days after they locked them up, they locked me up,” he said.

But that did not stop one of the inmates.

In 1956, when Tucker was taken to a hospital for a kidney operation, he stabbed his ankle with a pencil so prison guards would have to remove his leg irons, Tucker told the New Yorker. Then, as he was taken to get an X-ray, he overpowered hospital orderlies and ran away, he said.

He was captured in a hospital gown in a cornfield hours later.

As more prisoners attempted to escape Alcatraz over the years, officials ramped up security, Hopkins said.

“When I left there in 1958, the security was so tight you couldn’t breathe,” he said.

All told, there were 14 separate attempts over the years involving 36 inmates, according to the National Park Service.

One of the most famous involved Frank Morris, and brothers Clarence and John Anglin, who escaped in June 1962 by placing papier-mâché heads in their beds and breaking out through ventilation ducts. They were never found, but the FBI concluded that they drowned in the cold waters surrounding the island.

A year later, the prison shut down after the government determined it would be more cost-effective to build new prisons than to keep the remote island facility in operation.

Now it’s a publicly run museum visited by millions each year that generates about $60m (£45m) a year in revenue for park partners.

The building is decrepit, with peeling paint, rusted pipes, and crumbling toilets in each cramped cell. Construction on the main prison facility began in 1907, and more than a century of exposure to the elements has rendered the place all but uninhabitable.

Trump said this week, however, that he wants his government to re-open and expand the island prison for the country’s “most ruthless and violent offenders”.

Alcatraz “represents something very strong, very powerful” – law and order, Trump said.

But experts and historians said Trump’s proposal to re-establish the prison is far-fetched, as it would cost billions to repair and bring up to date with other federal facilities.

Hopkins agrees. “It would be so expensive,” he said.

“Back then, the sewage system went into the ocean,” he added. “They’d have to come up with another way of handling that.”

Hopkins left Alcatraz five years before it closed down for good. He had been transferred to a prison in Springfield, Missouri and given psychiatric medication that improved his behaviour and helped him heal psychological issues, he said.

But the avid Trump supporter said he does not believe the president’s proposal is serious.

“He don’t really want to open that place,” Hopkins said, adding that Trump was trying to “get a point across to the public” about punishing criminals and those who enter the US illegally.

Hopkins was released in 1963, working first at a truck stop before taking on other jobs. He went back to his home state of Florida, where now he has a daughter and grandson.

After several decades reflecting on his crimes and life in Alcatraz, he wrote a 1,000-page memoir, with nearly half of the book detailing his troubled behaviour, he said.

“You wouldn’t believe the trouble I caused them when I was there,” he said. “I can see now, looking back, that I had problems.”