A 53-year-old man has been arrested after a car hit a number of pedestrians in Liverpool city centre during the Premier League victory parade.

Eyewitnesses and videos shared on social media have shown the vehicle driving through a crowd as people scatter.

Police say they are not treating the incident as terror-related.

Details are still emerging, but here’s what we know so far.

• LIVE UPDATES: Child and adult seriously hurt
• WATCH: Videos show car driving through crowd
• WITNESSES: ‘Car missed us by inches’

A car collided with a number of pedestrians on Water Street just after 18:00, Merseyside Police said.

In a statement the force said: “We were contacted at just after 18:00 today, Monday 26 May, following reports a car had been in collision with a number of pedestrians on Water Street.

“The car stopped at the scene and a male has been detained.”

Police later said a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area had been arrested and that he was believed to be the driver.

The ambulance service said 27 people had been taken to hospital for treatment, with two, including one child, seriously injured.

Another 20 people were treated for injuries at the scene.

Four children were among the injured.

Four people including a child were lifted from beneath the car, Merseyside chief fire Nick Searle said.

The incident is not being treated as terror-related, police said.

Police only define events as terrorism if they are considered to have been intended to influence the government or intimidate the public for the purpose of “advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause”.

Video from the scene shows the car ploughing into the a group of people then speeding up before coming to a halt.

Other footage shows people striking the car after it stopped, with the back windscreen shattered.

Numerous emergency service vehicles attended the scene.

One eyewitness, BBC reporter Matt Cole, described seeing a car coming through the crowd that “just wasn’t stopping”.

He said it was being chased by a group of men “who were trying to bang on the side of it and throw things at it”.

He estimated the car was travelling at “more than 20 [mph]”.

He said his initial assumption was that the driver just wanted to “barge through crowds because they didn’t want to wait”.

Another witness, Matthew O’Carroll, 28, from Runcorn, saw the car approaching the top of Water Street.

He said the vehicle had been going at a “decent” speed and that the driver had been beeping as he went through the crowd.

Water Street is near the Strand, where moments before the incident occurred Liverpool FC had paraded the Premier League trophy from the top of a bus.

Thousands of people had come out to celebrate the team’s victory. The incident happened about a mile before the parade’s finishing point.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is being kept updated on the latest developments.

He posted on X: “The scenes in Liverpool are appalling – my thoughts are with all those injured or affected.

“I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the pictures were “deeply worrying”.

“My thoughts are with all those affected, and the emergency services as they respond to what appears a horrific incident,” she said.

Liverpool FC said it was in contact with the police and its “thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident”, while rivals Everton FC echoed the sentiment.

Liverpool said in a statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident. We will continue to offer our full support to the emergency services and local authorities who are dealing with this incident.”

Liverpool’s staff celebrations are understood to have been postponed because of the incident.

The Premier League has also released a statement, saying “everyone at the Premier League is shocked by the appalling events in Liverpool this evening, and our heartfelt thoughts go out to all those injured and affected.

“We have been in contact with Liverpool FC and have offered our full support following this serious incident.”

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotherham told the BBC a day of “absolute celebration” had been “overshadowed” by the incident. He urged the public to avoid speculation while police continue their investigation.

The former head of India’s wrestling federation has been cleared in a sexual harassment case filed by a minor female wrestler.

A court in the capital, Delhi, accepted a Delhi police report, recommending the cancellation of the case against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

A former MP from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Singh still faces charges of sexual harassment and stalking in a separate case by six adult female wrestlers.

Singh has always denied these charges.

The cases against Singh made headlines in 2023 when he was charged with sexual harassment after months of protests by India’s top wrestlers.

The protests made headlines globally, especially after the police detained them as they tried to march to India’s new parliament building in Delhi.

Footage of the Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia and two-time world champion medallist Vinesh Phogat being dragged in the streets and carried off in police vans went viral, sparking criticism from top athletes and opposition politicians.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also condemned the way the wrestlers were being treated and called for an impartial inquiry into their complaints.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was criticised for not acting strongly or swiftly enough against Singh since he was a member of his party. The government had rejected the allegations.

• The man at the centre of India’s wrestling row
• India’s wrestling chief charged with sexual harassment

The wrestlers agreed to pause their protests after meeting Home Minister Amit Shah and then Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.

Thakur assured them that charges would be filed against Singh by 15 June 2023.

Seven female wrestlers, including the minor, registered complaints with the police accusing Singh of molesting and groping them at training camps and tournaments.

In the case of the minor, police had invoked the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

Singh, denied all the allegations, accusing the wrestlers of being “politically motivated”.

Weeks later, the minor retracted her earlier statements and withdrew her allegations, reports said. Wrestler Sakshi Malik told the BBC at the time that she believed “the player was pressurised into withdrawing the charges”. Mr Singh refused to comment on the allegation, saying “let law take its course”.

On Monday, legal news site Bar and Bench reported that the police had given a report in court seeking cancellation of the case as the minor wrestler’s father said he had made a false complaint.

The prosecution lawyer said “no corroborative evidence” had been found in the allegations after a detailed investigation in the case.

Bar and Bench said the wrestler and her father had appeared before the court and expressed satisfaction with the police investigation. They also did not oppose the cancellation report.

In the aftermath of the row, Singh had stepped down as the wrestling federation chief. He was replaced by his close aide Sanjay Singh, who was later elected as the organisation’s chief, leading to the accusation that Brij Bhushan Singh was still running it by proxy. The two Singhs denied the accusation but the federal sports ministry suspended the federation in December 2023.

In 2024, the federation resumed its functions after United World Wrestling, the international, organisation governing wrestling, lifted its ban on the Indian federation. Earlier this year, The Hindu and Indian Express newspapers reported that the Wrestling Federation of India was functioning out of Singh’s address in Delhi.

Singh was also denied a ticket by the BJP to contest the 2024 general election. The party instead fielded his son Karan Bhushan Singh from Kaiserganj – the seat in the northern Uttar Pradesh state which the senior Singh had held since 1999. The junior Singh won the election.

South Korea will elect a new president on 3 June to replace Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office for placing the country under martial law for six hours in December.

The winner will be tasked with managing the political and economic fallout of Yoon’s move, which plunged the country in deep turmoil and divided opinions.

The snap election is also being held as South Korea faces an unpredictable ally in US President Donald Trump – and that will shape long-running challenges such as the threat from North Korea, and Seoul’s frosty relationship with China.

Here is what you need to know as the nation of about 52 million people chooses a new president who will lead it for the next five years.

Yoon was supposed to serve as president until 2027, but his term ended in disgrace.

He shocked the nation by declaring martial law on 3 December, citing threats from “anti-state forces” and North Korea – but it soon became clear that he was spurred by his own political troubles.

A week later, he was impeached by parliament. On 4 April, a constitutional court upheld his impeachment and removed him from office permanently, setting the stage for a snap presidential election within 60 days, as required by law.

In the six turbulent months since Yoon’s martial law attempt, the country has had three acting presidents, the most recent being Lee Ju-ho, the labour minister who assumed the role one month before the election.

Lee replaced Prime Minister Han Duck Soo, who himself was impeached just weeks after taking over from Yoon as acting president. Finance minister Choi Sang-mok was acting president before Han was reinstated in March.

Yoon’s martial law laid bare the deep political divisions in the country, as those who supported his decision to impose martial law and those who opposed it took to the streets in protest.

The following months of uncertainty shook public confidence in South Korea’s economy. And this was at a time when US President Donald Trump unleashed his tariffs on America’s trading partners, with South Korean goods facing a 25% levy.

Closer to home, relations with North Korea are a persistent challenge. While 2025 has been relatively uneventful, the year before saw heightened tensions as Kim Jong Un escalated the rhetoric, and both sides spent months sending balloons and drones carrying propaganda materials across the border.

South Korea’s new leader must also balance Seoul’s relations between its biggest trading partner, Beijing, and its most important security ally, Washington.

Then there is the task of arresting the country’s declining birth rate, which is among the lowest in the world – 0.75.

Polls have placed Lee Jae-myung of the main opposition Democratic Party as the frontrunner among six candidates, followed by Kim Moon-soo from the ruling PPP.

Lee, who lost to Yoon by a razor-thin margin in 2022, is hailed by his supporters as a working class hero. He worked in a factory before he became a human rights lawyer and politician. He has promised to establish a “real Republic of Korea” with jobs and a fair society.

Kim, a former labour minister, has positioned himself as a president for the economy, promising to create a business-friendly environment.

The other candidates are Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party, Kwon Young-guk of the Democratic Labor Party and two independents – Hwang Kyo-ahn and Song Jin- ho.

For the first time in 18 years, there is no woman running for president. The first woman to run for president was Hong Suk-Ja in 1987, but she withdrew before the vote. The election in 2012 saw four female candidates contest for the top job.

The election is scheduled on 3 June and voting precincts will be open from 06:00 local time (22:00 GMT) to 20:00. South Koreans overseas were allowed to vote early from 20 to 25 May.

Results are expected to come in after polls close and the winner will likely be known in the early hours of the following day.

When Yoon defeated Lee in 2022, he was proclaimed the winner nine hours after the close of voting, or at 04:40 the morning after election day.

That was the closest presidential contest in the country’s history, which saw Yoon win by a 0.73% difference in votes.

The new president will take office immediately and unlike many of his predecessors, will not have the advantage of a formal transition from Yoon.

Yoon faces trial for an insurrection charge as a result of his attempt to impose martial law.

In January this year he became South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to take him into custody. He was relased from detention weeks later on a technicality.

He was also recently indicted for abuse of power, a separate charge to insurrection.

Before the election, Yoon quit his party in what analysts said was an attempt to shore up the chances of PPP’s presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo.

North Korea has criticised the US’s plan for a futuristic “Golden Dome” missile shield, saying it could “turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field”.

The defence system, which President Donald Trump plans to unveil by the end of his term, is aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry slammed the plan as “the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance”, state media reported.

It accused Washington of being “hell-bent… to militarise outer space” and warned that the plan might spark “a global nuclear and space arms race”.

North Korea considers Washington an adversary and has routinely condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang probably sees the Golden Dome as a threat that can “significantly weaken” its nuclear arsenal, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP news agency.

“If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,” he said.

In 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state, and it has tested a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles in recent years.

Early this year it claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which it said “will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region”.

North Korea joins China in criticising the US’s plan. Beijing said last week that it is “seriously concerned” about the Golden Dome, which it said has “strong offensive implications”.

“The United States, in pursuing a ‘US-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself,” China’s foreign ministry said. “This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.”

Many analysts believe an update to the US’s limited defence systems is necessary, but some warn the process of developing the Golden Dome could face technical and political challenges.

For one, its hefty price tag could suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it could end up costing 20 times that over decades.

Nepali sherpa Kami Rita, also known as “Everest Man”, has scaled Mount Everest for the 31st time, breaking his own record for the most climbs up the world’s tallest peak.

The 55-year-old, who was guiding a group of Indian army officials up the mountain, reached its 8,849m summit at 04:00 local time on Tuesday (23:15 GMT Monday).

“Kami Rita Sherpa needs no introduction. He is not just a national climbing hero, but a global symbol of Everest itself,” expedition organiser Seven Summit Treks said in a statement.

Kami Rita first summited Everest in 1994 guiding a commercial expedition and has made the peak almost ever year since.

He scaled it twice some years, like in 2023 and 2024.

His closest competitor for the Everest record is fellow Nepali sherpa Pasang Dawa, who scaled the peak 29 times – the latest attempt made last week.

Kami Rita has previously told media how his climbs are just work.

“I am glad for the record, but records are eventually broken,” he told AFP in May last year. “I am more happy that my climbs help Nepal be recognised in the world.”

Earlier this month, Kami Rita posted snippets of life on Everest, including one of the Puja ceremony, a Tibetan Buddhist ritual done before Everest expeditions to pray for a safe and successful climb.

Kami Rita’s feat comes one week after British mountaineer Kenton Cool summited Everest for the 19th time, also breaking his own record for the most climbs for a non-sherpa.

More than 500 people and their guides have climbed Everest successfully this climbing season, which is coming to an end.

Nepal issued more than 1,000 climbing permits this season – including for Everest and other peaks – according to its tourism department.

The number of Everest summit attempts has soared in recent years. However this has led to concerns around overcrowding and environmental impact.

Last year, authorities introduced a rule requiring climbers to clear up their own poo and bring it back to base camp to be disposed of.

A naval court in Greece has charged 17 coastguards over the deadliest migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean Sea for a decade.

Up to 650 people were feared to have drowned when the overcrowded Adriana fishing vessel sank near Pylos, off the Greek coast, in the early hours of 14 June 2023.

Survivors later told the BBC that Greek coastguards had caused their boat to capsize in a botched attempt to tow it and then silenced witnesses.

“It has taken us two years just for these charges to come, even though so many people witnessed what happened,” one of the survivors said on Monday.

The Greek authorities have always denied the claims against them.

The Deputy Prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court has found that 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard should face criminal charges.

Among them is the captain of the coastguard ship, the LS-920, who is charged with “causing a shipwreck”, leading to the deaths of “at least 82 people”.

This corresponds to the number of bodies recovered, although it is thought as many as an additional 500 people drowned, including women and children who were all below deck.

The disaster occurred in international waters but within Greece’s rescue zone.

The then-Chief of the Coast Guard and the Supervisor of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre in Piraeus are among four officials charged with “exposing others to danger”.

The captain of the LS-920 is also charged with “dangerous interference of maritime transport” as well as a “failure to provide assistance” to the migrant boat.

The crew of the ship are charged for “simple complicity” in all the acts allegedly committed by the captain.

A coastguard ship had been monitoring the Adriana for 15 hours before it sank.

It had left Libya for Italy with an estimated 750 people on board. Only 104 of them are known to have survived.

We have been investigating since the day of the disaster and our series of findings has cast serious doubt on the official Greek version of events.

Within a week, we obtained shipping data which challenged the claim the migrant boat had not been in trouble and so did not need to be rescued.

A month later, survivors told us the coastguard had caused their boat to sink in a disastrous effort to tow it and then forced witnesses to stay silent.

Last year, a case against nine Egyptians was thrown out, amid claims they had been scapegoated by the Greek authorities.

Earlier this year, audio recordings emerged which further challenged the official Greek version of events.

We first met Syrian refugees, who we called Ahmad and Musaab to protect their identities, a month after the disaster.

They said they each paid $4,500 (£3,480) for a spot on the boat.

The younger brother of Ahmad – a Syrian now living in Germany – was also on board and did not survive.

Musaab described to us the moment when – he alleged – the Greek coastguards caused their boat to sink.

“They attached a rope from the left,” he said. “Everyone moved to the right side of our boat to balance it. The Greek vessel moved off quickly causing our boat to flip. They kept dragging it for quite a distance.”

The men claimed that once on land, in the port of Kalamata, the coastguard told survivors to “shut up” when they started to talk about how the Greek authorities had caused the disaster.

“When people replied by saying the Greek coastguard was the cause, the official in charge of the questioning asked the interpreter to tell the interviewee to stop talking,” Ahmad said.

He said officials shouted: “You have survived death. Stop talking about the incident Don’t ask more questions about it.”

On Monday, Ahmad said he felt vindicated by the charges that had been brought.

“I’m very happy they are eventually being held accountable for all that they have committed, but until I see them in prison nothing has been done yet,” he said.

“To be honest, the Greek legal system is very unreliable.”

The joint legal team representing survivors and victims of the disaster said the decision to pursue a case against the 17 coastguards was a big step forward towards justice being done.

In a statement it said: “Almost two years after the Pylos shipwreck, the prosecution and referral to main investigation for felonies of 17 members of the Coast Guard, including senior officers of its leadership, constitutes a substantial and self-evident development in the course of vindication of the victims and the delivery of justice.”

It is understood the 17 men who have now been charged will be questioned in the coming weeks by the Deputy Prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court.

The court will then decide whether to send them to full trial or dismiss the charges.

It is not immediately clear what punishment the coastguards could receive if found guilty.

Greece has previously told the BBC its Coast Guard fully respects human rights and has rescued more than 250,000 people at sea in the past decade.

Nearly three weeks after Rohit Sharma’s sudden retirement from Test cricket, the Indian cricket board has ended speculation of his successor by naming Shubman Gill as India’s new captain for the upcoming five-Test series against England in June.

At 25, Gill becomes India’s 37th Test captain – and one of its youngest, after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri.

His appointment marks a turning point for Indian cricket. The squad he leads is without batting greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, spin stalwart R Ashwin who retired six months ago, and pace spearhead Mohammed Shami, who was sidelined due to fitness concerns.

The team is rich in young batting talent but will miss the experience of Kohli and Sharma. Despite Jaspreet Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammad Siraj, the bowling attack still feels a touch raw.

Adding to Gill’s challenge: India haven’t won a Test series in England since 2007.

His appointment followed intense deliberations between chief selector Ajit Agarkar, coach Gautam Gambhir, and backchannel talks with other contenders.

Though Bumrah seemed the natural choice after serving as vice-captain in Australia, concerns over his ability to shoulder the workload of a five-Test series tipped the scales in Gill’s favour.

A prodigy from Punjab state, Gill has long carried the weight of expectation with elegance.

He burst into the spotlight in 2014, not yet 15, hammering 351 in a world-record opening stand of 587 with Nirmal Singh in the Punjab Inter-District ML Markan Trophy. It was a knock that vindicated his family’s bold move from the border village of Chak Kherewala to Mohali, seeking better training and greater exposure for the young talent.

Consistent run-getting as a junior, fast-tracked him into the under-19 ranks which is where Gill really made his first big impact.

Vice-captain of the team that played the 2017-18 U-19 World Cup, he emerged as the top run aggregator for India, highlighted by a skilful, unbeaten 102 against arch rivals Pakistan in the semi-final. In the final where India beat Australia, Gill scored a handy 31.

At the time, all eyes were on Prithvi Shaw – the U-19 captain whose Mumbai schoolboy feats drew comparisons with Tendulkar. His rise was meteoric: a Test debut century, another soon after. But by 2020, his career had begun to unravel.

Temporarily sidelined, Gill made an immediate impact on his Ranji Trophy debut with a half-century, followed by a century. Under Yuvraj Singh’s mentorship, he sharpened both his batting and game awareness.

Prolific runs pushed selectors to consider Gill as Shaw’s replacement. He debuted in Tests in Melbourne, December 2020, during India’s memorable comeback series win.

Tall and graceful, Gill’s technical precision and elegant stroke play – especially front of the wicket – set him apart as a promising young talent. Nicknamed the ‘Prince’ by his family, the title soon became his cricketing identity. Hailed as the Next Big Thing, he’s widely tipped to succeed Virat Kohli as the next generation’s leading batsman.

That promise remains unproven. Like Kohli, Gill is an all-format player, but unlike Kohli’s early dominance, Gill has yet to display the same ambition and match-winning impact – especially in Tests, where his 1,893 runs in 32 matches are solid but not outstanding.

Gill’s first captaincy, less than five years after his Test debut, comes at a crucial point in his career.

With enough international experience to elevate his batting from good to great, he now faces a stern test against England’s Bazball style of play in challenging conditions. Success here would be a major boost to his standing as a top Test player.

But it is as captain that Gill probably faces tougher challenges.

The England series kicked off India’s new World Test Championship cycle, following two finals appearances but a disappointing early exit in the last one. India’s recent Test form has been poor, with back-to-back series losses to New Zealand and Australia.

To pull India out of the current rut, Gill will have to lead the way as batter as well as captain in charge of a new-look team, whose dressing-room and dynamics he will have to understand and, perhaps, reshape.

“Gill is a young man we are investing in not just for one series, but for the next five-six years to take Indian cricket ahead,” said chief selector Ajit Agarkar.

That should be a tremendous reassurance for the new captain. While his appointment brings its share of pressure, it also carries immense hope – and an opportunity to carve his own legacy in Indian cricket history.

King Charles III will deliver a significant speech in Canada’s parliament later on Tuesday that is expected to offer his support in the country’s dispute with US President Donald Trump.

The King and Queen Camilla received a warm welcome when they arrived in Ottawa, on the royal couple’s first trip to Canada since the start of their reign.

Soon after arriving, the King, who is Canada’s head of state, held a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, recently elected on a wave of anti-Trump public opinion.

Carney has praised the “historic ties” that make up Canada’s independent identity, including the “vitality of our constitutional monarchy”, which he said “crises only fortify”.

Carney invited the King to deliver the speech at the opening of parliament after his recent general election victory, in a campaign dominated by the threats to Canada’s sovereignty from Trump.

It will be the first time in almost 50 years that a monarch gives the Speech from the Throne, with the King’s decision to come to parliament in Ottawa seen as a symbolic show of support for Canada.

The King’s speech will be written on the advice of the Canadian government, with the expectation that it will send a clear, if diplomatic, message that the country is “not for sale” to the US.

Carney said in advance that the speech, to be delivered in French and English, would match “the weight of our times”.

On Monday afternoon, the King and Carney held a meeting at Rideau Hall, the residence of Canada’s governor-general, with both men sitting in front of Canadian flags.

There were also meetings with leaders of Canada’s indigenous and First Nations groups, including Cindy Woodhouse, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

• In pictures: King Charles and Queen Camilla welcomed in Ottawa
• Why is the King in Canada, and what is the throne speech?
• What’s changed in how Canada views the monarchy?

Looking relaxed in the Ottawa sunshine, the King took part in a tree-planting ceremony, receiving an enthusiastic reception from onlookers, who cheered and crowded round to shake hands with him.

“Canada feels threatened and scared. It is very important he is here,” said Theresa McKnight, from Mississauga, Ontario.

Her sister Dianne St Louis, from near Toronto, agreed: “It’s critical. It means a great deal to have the King standing side by side with Canadians.”

There had been a warm welcome at Ottawa airport, for what will be a visit of about 24 hours on the ground in Canada.

Carney was on the runway to meet the royal visitors, with a welcoming party that included schoolchildren from English- and French-speaking schools and representatives of First Nations communities.

A community event had also been a checklist of Canadian moments, such as the King dropping a puck to start a game of street hockey and getting jars of maple syrup.

But the main focus of this trip will be the historic speech on Tuesday, with the prospect of the King delivering the Canadian government’s message of rejecting calls to become the US 51st state.

It is also a diplomatic balancing act because in his role as head of state of the UK, the King has been part of an effort to keep good relations with Trump, including inviting him for a second state visit.

But in Canada, the King will have to speak on behalf of Canada. As another bystander said at Rideau Hall: “Sovereignty is important and he is the epitome of that.”

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Sweden-based car maker Volvo Cars says it will cut around 3,000 jobs as part of its cost-cutting measures.

The firm says the layoffs will mainly impact office-based positions in Sweden, representing about 15% of its white collar workforce.

Last month, Volvo Cars, which is owned by Chinese group Geely Holding, announced an 18 billion Swedish kronor ($1.9bn; £1.4bn) “action plan” shake-up of the business.

The global motor industry is facing a number of major challenges including US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported cars, higher cost of materials and slower sales in Europe.

The chief executive of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, pointed to the “challenging period” faced by the industry as a reason for the layoffs.

“The actions announced today have been difficult decisions, but they are important steps as we build a stronger and even more resilient Volvo Cars,” he said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the firm said its global sales for April fell by 11% compared to the same period last year.

Volvo Cars has its main headquarters and development offices in Gothenburg, Sweden. It has major production plants in Sweden, Belgium, China and the US.

The company was sold by US motor industry giant Ford to China’s Geely in 2010.

In 2021, Volvo said all of its cars would go electric by 2030. Last year it scaled back that ambition due to a number of issues including “additional uncertainties created by recent tariffs on EVs in various markets”.

Japanese car maker Nissan said earlier this month that it will cut another 11,000 jobs globally and shut seven factories as it shakes up the business in the face of weak sales.

Falling sales in China and heavy discounting in the US, its two biggest markets, have taken a heavy toll on earnings, while a proposed merger with Honda and Mitsubishi collapsed in February.

The latest cutbacks brought the total number of layoffs announced by the company in the past year to about 20,000, or 15% of its workforce.

In an example of the cutthroat rivalry between carmakers, Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD announced at the weekend that it would cut the prices of more than 20 of its models.

The move brings the price of its cheapest car, the Seagull EV, to as low as 55,800 yuan ($7,745; £5,700).

In response Chinese government-owned Changan and Leapmotor, which is backed by Chrysler owner Stellantis, announced their own price cuts.

Shares in Chinese car makers fell sharply after those announcements.

In April, BYD outsold Elon Musk’s Tesla in Europe for the first time, according to car industry research firm Jato Dynamics.

Crowds of far-right Israelis chanted insults and assaulted Palestinians during an annual parade for Jerusalem Day on Monday.

Chants of “death to Arabs” and nationalistic slogans were repeated during the event, which commemorates Israeli forces taking Palestinian-majority East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Violence broke out as ultranationalist Jews streamed into Palestinian areas of Jerusalem’s walled Old City.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said the event had become a festival of “hatred and racism”, adding it was “a disgrace and an insult to Judaism”.

Israeli police were deployed as violence broke out in the walled Old City of Occupied East Jerusalem shortly after midday.

Thousands of nationalist Israelis descended to Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances. Right-wing activists held banners that read “67 – Jerusalem in our hands; 2025 – Gaza in our hands”.

Arab traders in the Muslim Quarter who had yet to close their shops were harassed by young Israeli men, witnesses said.

Chants of “May your village burn” and “Your home will be ours” were heard throughout the march.

Aggressive marchers were detained and removed from the Old City by Israeli police.

National security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, of the Jewish Power party, called for the death penalty for “terrorists” in an address to the crowds.

Gvir also visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam and known by Jews as the Temple Mount. Jews revere it as the location of two Biblical Temples and it is the holiest site in Judaism.

The compound is administered by a Jordanian Islamic trust. Jews are allowed to visit but not pray there.

A spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, based in the West Bank, condemned the march and Ben Gvir’s visit to Al-Aqsa.

Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, “repeated incursions into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and provocative acts such as raising the Israeli flag in occupied Jerusalem threaten the stability of the entire region,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.

In a cabinet meeting on Monday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep Jerusalem “united, whole, and under Israeli sovereignty”.

Left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan described images of violence in the Old City as “shocking”.

“This is what hatred, racism and bullying look like,” he said in a statement on X.

“We will fight for Jerusalem for all of us, Jews, Christians and Muslims, secular and religious.

“Jerusalem belongs to all those who love her. We will fight for her and restore her as a city for us all.”

Lapid, another opposition leader, added: “There is nothing Jewish about this violence. The government ministers who remain silent in the face of these events are complicit in this disgrace.”

Every year thousands of Israelis march a route through Jerusalem and the annexed Old City, ending at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray in Jerusalem. On Sunday, a large Israeli flag was unfurled at the Western Wall plaza.

The parade marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and the “unification” of a city that the Israeli government says is their eternal capital.

Palestinians also want Jerusalem as their future capital and much of the international community regards East Jerusalem as Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.

This year’s Flag March again coincided with the war in Gaza and escalating Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Fifty-seven are still being held, about 20 of whom are assumed to be alive.

At least 53,939 people, including at least 16,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

In Nigerian politics, there has long been an informal understanding: presidential appointments should carefully balance the country’s many ethnic and religious differences. Today, there are growing concerns that this is being ignored.

While the constitution requires regional representation in cabinet positions, the broader distribution of other prominent roles has traditionally followed a convention aimed at fostering national cohesion.

Nigeria’s fractious divisions have in the past torn the country – Africa’s most populous – apart.

Concerns about fairness in presidential appointments are not new, but a chorus of criticism is growing over President Bola Tinubu’s picks, with some accusing the head of state – who has been in power for two years – of favouring people from his own Yoruba ethnic group.

The presidency vehemently denies the accusation.

There have long been fears that members of one ethnic group would come to dominate key positions – and this means that presidential appointments are closely scrutinised whenever they are announced.

There are over 250 ethnic groups in the country with Hausa-Fulanis, Igbo and Yoruba – hailing from the north, south-east and south-west respectively – being the three largest.

Critics say that Tinubu, a southern Muslim, showed signs of ignoring precedent from the onset when he picked another Muslim (although from the north) to be his running mate for the last election.

Since the return of democracy in 1999, the major parties had always put forward a mixed Muslim-Christian ticket, as the country is roughly evenly divided between followers of the two religions.

Tinubu’s appointments since becoming president in May 2023 are facing growing cricisim.

Although there are dozens of roles for a head of state to fill, there are eight jobs that “are the most crucial for every administration”, according to political analyst and barrister Lawal Lawal.

These are the heads of the:

• central bank
• state-owned oil company, NNPC
• police
• army
• customs service
• intelligence agency
• anti-corruption agency and
• revenue service.

There is no constitutional ranking of positions, but collectively these roles control the key financial and security apparatus of the country.

Every president inherits his predecessor’s appointees, but has the prerogative to replace them.

As of April, all eight positions under Tinubu are now filled by Yorubas.

The recent appointment of former Shell boss Bayo Ojulari to head the state-owned oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), in place of a northerner turbocharged the debate about the apparent monopoly of one group in top positions.

Looking at who filled the same posts under Tinubu’s two immediate predecessors, there was no such dominance of one ethnic group at the same stage of their presidencies.

Goodluck Jonathan – who served from 2010 to 2015 – had a relatively balanced team of two ethnic Fulanis, two Hausas, one Atyap, one Igbo, one Yoruba and one Calabar.

When it came to Muhammadu Buhari – in power from 2015 to 2023 – the situation was less clear.

In the top eight he had three Hausas, two Kanuris, one Igbo, one Yoruba and one Nupe.

But in the minds of many Nigerians, Hausas, Kanuris and Nupes are all seen as northerners – and therefore there was a perception that Buhari, who is from the north, showed favouritism.

Some argue that Tinubu’s appointments have merely continued the trend, but the 100%-Yoruba make-up of the eight key positions is unprecedented.

“For a democratically elected president, I cannot remember at any point in Nigerian history where you have this high concentration of a particular ethnic group holding most of the sensitive positions,” history professor Tijjani Naniya told the BBC.

This is not just about what has happened in the past but it could have an impact on the unity and even the future of the country, the professor said.

“For me, the fear is what if the next president continues on this path and picks most of the sensitive positions from his ethnic group, it diminishes the feeling of belonging among the rest and also reduces belief in democracy,” he said.

In the last two years, many northerners, mostly Hausa-Fulanis, have looked at the apparent direction of travel with alarm.

The current men (there are no women) in charge of the NNPC, the police, customs and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) all replaced northerners.

The removal of Abdulrasheed Bawa, a Hausa, as boss of the EFCC in 2023 just two years after he was appointed was especially controversial.

He was arrested, accused of abuse of office and detained for over 100 days before the charges were dropped.

He was replaced by Ola Olukoyode, an ethnic Yoruba.

Some from the north felt Mr Bawa was unfairly treated and pushed aside to make way for Mr Olukoyode.

“The president needs to know that the Yoruba people are just a part of the country, and all appointments should be spread across all ethnic groups and regions,” social affairs analyst Isah Habibu told the BBC.

Without addressing specific cases, a Tinubu spokesperson has said the president is being fair and balanced, by taking the wider view of all appointments.

Media aide Sunday Dare did try to go into detail, saying overall, 71 northerners and 63 southerners had been appointed by Tinubu. But his 9 April post on X was later deleted, after people pointed out errors in his claim.

He promised an updated list, but more than six weeks later, it has yet to appear.

Tinubu faces critics even from within his own party.

Senator Ali Ndume is from the north and – like Tinubu – belongs to the All Progressives Congress. In one television interview he said he had gone on air to talk about the president’s appointment “wrongdoings”.

Ndume said he was shocked, describing them as “non-inclusive and not reflecting the president’s ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda, which promised to carry every section of the country along”.

Another presidential aide, Daniel Bwala, disputed the idea that some positions were more significant than others.

“All I know is that the constitutional provisions [regarding appointments] have been taken care of by the president – there’s nowhere in the constitution [where it is] mentioned top five, top 10 and the rest,” he told the BBC.

“The way we see it is that any position or appointment that one is privileged to serve in is very critical and important.

“The national security adviser is from the north-east, the chief of defence staff is from the north-west and the secretary to the federal government is from north-central.”

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, which coordinates policy on behalf of the presidency, released a statement on 12 April saying Tinubu was being fair.

“This administration is dedicated to ensuring that all regions and demographics of the country are adequately represented in its institutions and agencies,” it said.

Political analyst Mr Lawal said the president should appoint the best person for the job, irrespective of their ethnic origin – and agues that this is what Tinubu is doing.

“It’s high time Nigeria looks beyond ethnicity,” he said.

There could be a time when Nigerians no longer obsess over the ethnic origins of those in the upper echelons of government, but historian Prof Naniya says this is still some way off.

He believes it can only happen when the country gets at least four presidents in succession who give every section a sense of belonging in terms of projects and appointments.

“I think it can be done but needs the right leaders.”

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Farooq Ahmed still bristles with anger when he talks about his brother’s death.

Mohammad Iqbal, a resident of Poonch city in Indian-administered Kashmir, died in cross-border shelling on 7 May, the morning after India launched a series of air strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in retaliation to a militant attack in the town of Pahalgam that killed 26 people. Pakistan has denied having any role in the attack.

Mr Ahmed says that Iqbal died where he had worked for more than two decades – Zia-ul-Uloom, a madrassa, or a religious centre focused on Islamic teachings, in Poonch.

But his death, it turned out, was just the beginning of the family’s troubles.

As the news spread, several media channels falsely accused Iqbal of being a terrorist, following which the police put out a statement refuting the claim.

“My brother was a teacher but they saw his beard and skullcap and branded him a terrorist,” Mr Ahmed says.

“It was like having salt rubbed into our wounds. We had lost Iqbal and then the media defamed him. The dead can’t defend themselves.”

Indian officials say that a total of 16 people, including Iqbal, were killed in the cross-border shelling during the four-day military conflict that broke out between India and Pakistan following the airstrikes.

Pakistan has claimed 40 civilian deaths, though, it remains unclear how many of these were directly caused by the shelling.

The two nuclear-armed countries have shared a tense relationship for decades, as both administer the Himalayan region of Kashmir in part, but claim it in full.

They have fought three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947 and came back from the brink of another one earlier this month.

But as the military conflict escalated, another battle played out on social media – a disinformation war of claims and counterclaims that circulated online and on TV.

Just like rumours about Iqbal’s identity, other misleading and inaccurate information also found its way into some mainstream news channels and websites.

This included claims such as India having destroyed Pakistan’s Karachi port, which was later debunked by the Indian government.

Some of the other fabrications were harder to spot, like an AI-generated video of a Pakistan army general claiming that his country had lost two aircraft in combat.

“The scale of misinformation and fact-free assertions being broadcast by the media was shocking,” says Manisha Pande, managing editor at Newslaundry, an independent news platform.

She notes that while a degree of sensationalism is expected as channels compete for viewership, “the jingoistic and irresponsible coverage” of the conflict was unprecedented in its intensity — and unlike anything she had witnessed before.

No one knows this better than Mr Ahmed.

“I don’t know where news channels got the information about my brother from,” Mr Ahmed says.

“Who did they speak to? What kind of evidence did they have that my brother was a terrorist?” he asks.

Weeks later, the family is still reeling from the tragedy.

Mr Ahmed says that on 7 May, his brother left home for the madrassa in the morning as usual, but it was his body that returned home. By noon, they had buried him in a nearby cemetery.

For some time, the family had no idea about the misinformation that was being shared by some news outlets. They were busy performing Iqbal’s last rites.

It was only hours later that a relative received a WhatsApp forward – a video clip of a prominent news channel claiming that the Indian army had killed a terrorist, with Iqbal’s photo flashing on the screen.

“We were shocked. Soon, we began getting more calls from people asking us what was going on and why was the media calling Iqbal a terrorist,” Mr Ahmed says.

The claim was shared by some prominent channels, including Zee News, ABP and News18. The BBC has reached out to the channels for comment.

One channel claimed that Iqbal was killed in an “Indian strike on a terrorist camp” in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and that he was a terrorist with Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

“Our family members have been staying in Poonch for generations. How can they say my brother was living in Pakistan? They [the media] should be ashamed,” Mr Ahmed says.

The accusation against Iqbal was circulated so widely and swiftly that on 8 May, the Poonch police put out a statement, clarifying that Iqbal had died in cross-border shelling in the madrasa.

“Poonch Police strongly refutes such false narratives. The deceased, Maulana Mohd Iqbal, was a respected religious figure in the local community and had no affiliation with any terror outfit,” the statement said, adding that legal action would be taken against any media outlet or individual who circulated the fake news.

But for Mr Ahmed, the statement was too little too late.

“By then, the false claim would’ve already reached millions of people in India,” he says.

He adds that except for one channel, News18, no one else had publicly apologised to him or their viewers for the mistake.

Mr Ahmed says he wants to take legal action against the channels, but the process would have to wait as the family is struggling to make ends meet.

Iqbal is survived by his two wives and eight children. He was the only earning member in his family.

Mr Ahmed says that the compensation given by the government, which amounts to a few million rupees, will last only for a year or two and they must start planning for the future now.

“The whole family depended on my brother. He was a quiet and gentle man who loved teaching children,” Mr Ahmed says.

“But who’s going to tell this to the world? For many people, my brother is still a terrorist whose killing is justified. How will they understand our pain?”

Nearly three weeks after Rohit Sharma’s sudden retirement from Test cricket, the Indian cricket board has ended speculation of his successor by naming Shubman Gill as India’s new captain for the upcoming five-Test series against England in June.

At 25, Gill becomes India’s 37th Test captain – and one of its youngest, after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri.

His appointment marks a turning point for Indian cricket. The squad he leads is without batting greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, spin stalwart R Ashwin who retired six months ago, and pace spearhead Mohammed Shami, who was sidelined due to fitness concerns.

The team is rich in young batting talent but will miss the experience of Kohli and Sharma. Despite Jaspreet Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammad Siraj, the bowling attack still feels a touch raw.

Adding to Gill’s challenge: India haven’t won a Test series in England since 2007.

His appointment followed intense deliberations between chief selector Ajit Agarkar, coach Gautam Gambhir, and backchannel talks with other contenders.

Though Bumrah seemed the natural choice after serving as vice-captain in Australia, concerns over his ability to shoulder the workload of a five-Test series tipped the scales in Gill’s favour.

A prodigy from Punjab state, Gill has long carried the weight of expectation with elegance.

He burst into the spotlight in 2014, not yet 15, hammering 351 in a world-record opening stand of 587 with Nirmal Singh in the Punjab Inter-District ML Markan Trophy. It was a knock that vindicated his family’s bold move from the border village of Chak Kherewala to Mohali, seeking better training and greater exposure for the young talent.

Consistent run-getting as a junior, fast-tracked him into the under-19 ranks which is where Gill really made his first big impact.

Vice-captain of the team that played the 2017-18 U-19 World Cup, he emerged as the top run aggregator for India, highlighted by a skilful, unbeaten 102 against arch rivals Pakistan in the semi-final. In the final where India beat Australia, Gill scored a handy 31.

At the time, all eyes were on Prithvi Shaw – the U-19 captain whose Mumbai schoolboy feats drew comparisons with Tendulkar. His rise was meteoric: a Test debut century, another soon after. But by 2020, his career had begun to unravel.

Temporarily sidelined, Gill made an immediate impact on his Ranji Trophy debut with a half-century, followed by a century. Under Yuvraj Singh’s mentorship, he sharpened both his batting and game awareness.

Prolific runs pushed selectors to consider Gill as Shaw’s replacement. He debuted in Tests in Melbourne, December 2020, during India’s memorable comeback series win.

Tall and graceful, Gill’s technical precision and elegant stroke play – especially front of the wicket – set him apart as a promising young talent. Nicknamed the ‘Prince’ by his family, the title soon became his cricketing identity. Hailed as the Next Big Thing, he’s widely tipped to succeed Virat Kohli as the next generation’s leading batsman.

That promise remains unproven. Like Kohli, Gill is an all-format player, but unlike Kohli’s early dominance, Gill has yet to display the same ambition and match-winning impact – especially in Tests, where his 1,893 runs in 32 matches are solid but not outstanding.

Gill’s first captaincy, less than five years after his Test debut, comes at a crucial point in his career.

With enough international experience to elevate his batting from good to great, he now faces a stern test against England’s Bazball style of play in challenging conditions. Success here would be a major boost to his standing as a top Test player.

But it is as captain that Gill probably faces tougher challenges.

The England series kicked off India’s new World Test Championship cycle, following two finals appearances but a disappointing early exit in the last one. India’s recent Test form has been poor, with back-to-back series losses to New Zealand and Australia.

To pull India out of the current rut, Gill will have to lead the way as batter as well as captain in charge of a new-look team, whose dressing-room and dynamics he will have to understand and, perhaps, reshape.

“Gill is a young man we are investing in not just for one series, but for the next five-six years to take Indian cricket ahead,” said chief selector Ajit Agarkar.

That should be a tremendous reassurance for the new captain. While his appointment brings its share of pressure, it also carries immense hope – and an opportunity to carve his own legacy in Indian cricket history.

Listen to this article.

I step into the booth with some trepidation. I am about to be subjected to strobe lighting while music plays – as part of a research project trying to understand what makes us truly human.

It’s an experience that brings to mind the test in the science fiction film Bladerunner, designed to distinguish humans from artificially created beings posing as humans.

Could I be a robot from the future and not know it? Would I pass the test?

The researchers assure me that this is not actually what this experiment is about. The device that they call the “Dreamachine”, after the public programme of the same name, is designed to study how the human brain generates our conscious experiences of the world.

As the strobing begins, and even though my eyes are closed, I see swirling two-dimensional geometric patterns. It’s like jumping into a kaleidoscope, with constantly shifting triangles, pentagons and octagons. The colours are vivid, intense and ever-changing: pinks, magentas and turquoise hues, glowing like neon lights.

The “Dreamachine” brings the brain’s inner activity to the surface with flashing lights, aiming to explore how our thought processes work.

The images I’m seeing are unique to my own inner world and unique to myself, according to the researchers. They believe these patterns can shed light on consciousness itself.

They hear me whisper: “It’s lovely, absolutely lovely. It’s like flying through my own mind!”

The “Dreamachine”, at Sussex University’s Centre for Consciousness Science, is just one of many new research projects across the world investigating human consciousness: the part of our minds that enables us to be self-aware, to think and feel and make independent decisions about the world.

By learning the nature of consciousness, researchers hope to better understand what’s happening within the silicon brains of artificial intelligence. Some believe that AI systems will soon become independently conscious, if they haven’t already.

But what really is consciousness, and how close is AI to gaining it? And could the belief that AI might be conscious itself fundamentally change humans in the next few decades?

The idea of machines with their own minds has long been explored in science fiction. Worries about AI stretch back nearly a hundred years to the film Metropolis, in which a robot impersonates a real woman.

A fear of machines becoming conscious and posing a threat to humans is explored in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, when the HAL 9000 computer attacks astronauts onboard its spaceship. And in the final Mission Impossible film, which has just been released, the world is threatened by a powerful rogue AI, described by one character as a “self-aware, self-learning, truth-eating digital parasite”.

But quite recently, in the real world there has been a rapid tipping point in thinking on machine consciousness, where credible voices have become concerned that this is no longer the stuff of science fiction.

The sudden shift has been prompted by the success of so-called large language models (LLMs), which can be accessed through apps on our phones such as Gemini and Chat GPT. The ability of the latest generation of LLMs to have plausible, free-flowing conversations has surprised even their designers and some of the leading experts in the field.

There is a growing view among some thinkers that as AI becomes even more intelligent, the lights will suddenly turn on inside the machines and they will become conscious.

Others, such as Prof Anil Seth who leads the Sussex University team, disagree, describing the view as “blindly optimistic and driven by human exceptionalism”.

“We associate consciousness with intelligence and language because they go together in humans. But just because they go together in us, it doesn’t mean they go together in general, for example in animals.”

So what actually is consciousness?

The short answer is that no-one knows. That’s clear from the good-natured but robust arguments among Prof Seth’s own team of young AI specialists, computing experts, neuroscientists and philosophers, who are trying to answer one of the biggest questions in science and philosophy.

While there are many differing views at the consciousness research centre, the scientists are unified in their method: to break this big problem down into lots of smaller ones in a series of research projects, which includes the Dreamachine.

Just as the search to find the “spark of life” that made inanimate objects come alive was abandoned in the 19th Century in favour of identifying how individual parts of living systems worked, the Sussex team is now adopting the same approach to consciousness.

They hope to identify patterns of brain activity that explain various properties of conscious experiences, such as changes in electrical signals or blood flow to different regions. The goal is to go beyond looking for mere correlations between brain activity and consciousness, and try to come up with explanations for its individual components.

Prof Seth, the author of a book on consciousness, Being You, worries that we may be rushing headlong into a society that is being rapidly reshaped by the sheer pace of technological change without sufficient knowledge about the science, or thought about the consequences.

“We take it as if the future has already been written; that there is an inevitable march to a superhuman replacement,” he says.

“We did not have these conversations enough with the rise of social media, much to our collective detriment. But with AI, it is not too late. We can decide what we want.”

But there are some in the tech sector who believe that the AI in our computers and phones may already be conscious, and we should treat them as such.

Google suspended software engineer Blake Lemoine in 2022, after he argued that AI chatbots could feel things and potentially suffer.

In November 2024, an AI welfare officer for Anthropic, Kyle Fish, co-authored a report suggesting that AI consciousness was a realistic possibility in the near future. He recently told The New York Times that he also believed that there was a small (15%) chance that chatbots are already conscious.

One reason he thinks it possible is that no-one, not even the people who developed these systems, knows exactly how they work. That’s worrying, says Prof Murray Shanahan, principal scientist at Google DeepMind and emeritus professor in AI at Imperial College, London.

“We don’t actually understand very well the way in which LLMs work internally, and that is some cause for concern,” he tells the BBC.

According to Prof Shanahan, it’s important for tech firms to get a proper understanding of the systems they’re building – and researchers are looking at that as a matter of urgency.

“We are in a strange position of building these extremely complex things, where we don’t have a good theory of exactly how they achieve the remarkable things they are achieving,” he says. “So having a better understanding of how they work will enable us to steer them in the direction we want and to ensure that they are safe.”

The prevailing view in the tech sector is that LLMs are not currently conscious in the way we experience the world, and probably not in any way at all. But that is something that the married couple Profs Lenore and Manuel Blum, both emeritus professors at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, believe will change, possibly quite soon.

According to the Blums, that could happen as AI and LLMs have more live sensory inputs from the real world, such as vision and touch, by connecting cameras and haptic sensors (related to touch) to AI systems. They are developing a computer model that constructs its own internal language called Brainish to enable this additional sensory data to be processed, attempting to replicate the processes that go on in the brain.

“We think Brainish can solve the problem of consciousness as we know it,” Lenore tells the BBC. “AI consciousness is inevitable.”

Manuel chips in enthusiastically with an impish grin, saying that the new systems that he too firmly believes will emerge will be the “next stage in humanity’s evolution”.

Conscious robots, he believes, “are our progeny. Down the road, machines like these will be entities that will be on Earth and maybe on other planets when we are no longer around”.

David Chalmers – Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science at New York University – defined the distinction between real and apparent consciousness at a conference in Tucson, Arizona in 1994. He laid out the “hard problem” of working out how and why any of the complex operations of brains give rise to conscious experience, such as our emotional response when we hear a nightingale sing.

Prof Chalmers says that he is open to the possibility of the hard problem being solved.

“The ideal outcome would be one where humanity shares in this new intelligence bonanza,” he tells the BBC. “Maybe our brains are augmented by AI systems.”

On the sci-fi implications of that, he wryly observes: “In my profession, there is a fine line between science fiction and philosophy”.

Prof Seth, however, is exploring the idea that true consciousness can only be realised by living systems.

“A strong case can be made that it isn’t computation that is sufficient for consciousness but being alive,” he says.

“In brains, unlike computers, it’s hard to separate what they do from what they are.” Without this separation, he argues, it’s difficult to believe that brains “are simply meat-based computers”.

And if Prof Seth’s intuition about life being important is on the right track, the most likely technology will not be made of silicon run on computer code, but will rather consist of tiny collections of nerve cells the size of lentil grains that are currently being grown in labs.

Called “mini-brains” in media reports, they are referred to as “cerebral organoids” by the scientific community, which uses them to research how the brain works, and for drug testing.

One Australian firm, Cortical Labs, in Melbourne, has even developed a system of nerve cells in a dish that can play the 1972 sports video game Pong. Although it is a far cry from a conscious system, the so-called “brain in a dish” is spooky as it moves a paddle up and down a screen to bat back a pixelated ball.

Some experts feel that if consciousness is to emerge, it is most likely to be from larger, more advanced versions of these living tissue systems.

Cortical Labs monitors their electrical activity for any signals that could conceivably be anything like the emergence of consciousness.

The firm’s chief scientific and operating officer, Dr Brett Kagan is mindful that any emerging uncontrollable intelligence might have priorities that “are not aligned with ours”. In which case, he says, half-jokingly, that possible organoid overlords would be easier to defeat because “there is always bleach” to pour over the fragile neurons.

Returning to a more solemn tone, he says the small but significant threat of artificial consciousness is something he’d like the big players in the field to focus on more as part of serious attempts to advance our scientific understanding – but says that “unfortunately, we don’t see any earnest efforts in this space”.

The more immediate problem, though, could be how the illusion of machines being conscious affects us.

In just a few years, we may well be living in a world populated by humanoid robots and deepfakes that seem conscious, according to Prof Seth. He worries that we won’t be able to resist believing that the AI has feelings and empathy, which could lead to new dangers.

“It will mean that we trust these things more, share more data with them and be more open to persuasion.”

But the greater risk from the illusion of consciousness is a “moral corrosion”, he says.

“It will distort our moral priorities by making us devote more of our resources to caring for these systems at the expense of the real things in our lives” – meaning that we might have compassion for robots, but care less for other humans.

And that could fundamentally alter us, according to Prof Shanahan.

“Increasingly human relationships are going to be replicated in AI relationships, they will be used as teachers, friends, adversaries in computer games and even romantic partners. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I don’t know, but it is going to happen, and we are not going to be able to prevent it”.

A college in Beijing has found itself at the centre of public fury after it allegedly asked a student to prove she was on her period to qualify for sick leave.

A viral video, filmed inside what appears to be a clinic and posted to social media this month, shows a young woman asking an older woman: “Does every menstruating girl have to take off their trousers and show you before they can get a sick note?”

“Basically yes,” the older woman replies. “This is a school rule.”

Local media identified the video’s location as a clinic at the Gengdan Institute university college, which later said in a statement that its staff had “followed protocol”. But social media users have decried the encounter as a serious invasion of privacy.

Neither the student nor Gengdan Institute immediately responded to BBC News’ requests for comment.

Both the student’s video and the school’s statement appear to have been taken down, though screenshots and snippets have been recirculated online, including by state media.

On Douyin, China’s TikTok, a user claiming to be the student said her original account was suspended for 30 days for “pornographic content” after she posted the video.

In its statement dated 16 May, Gengdan Institute reportedly said the videos of the incident circulating online had been “distorted” – and that the institution had the right to pursue legal action against those who “maliciously spread untrue videos”.

The statement also said that the staff had followed the proper procedure during the encounter, such as “initiating clinical work after getting the student’s permission”, and did not use tools or conduct a physical examination.

In the video, the staff member did not reply when the student asked for written proof of the school regulation to check students’ menstrual status. She subsequently asked the student to go to a hospital instead.

On social media, the incident has triggered an outpouring of anger and sarcasm towards the school’s rules.

“My head hurts, should I open my skull and call it a day?” wrote one social media user.

“Let’s just take the sanitary pad out and paste it on the sick note,” another Weibo said.

A staff member at Gengdan Institute told local outlet Dute News that the school may have created the rule about proving menstruation in order to deter students from faking periods to get sick notes.

But that argument has rung hollow among social media users.

“If they’re worried about students using their periods as an excuse several times a month, why not simply make a record of it? It’s not that complicated,” one person wrote on Weibo.

State media has also waded into the debate.

“Menstruation is already an intimate topic for women. Rules like this will make students feel very uncomfortable, and even negatively impact students’ psychological wellbeing,” reads an opinion piece from China National Radio.

Gengdan Institute now joins a list of tertiary institutions across the country that have come under fire for what many see as overbearing and ham-fisted attempts at controlling their students.

Last year, some universities were criticised for banning the use of bed curtains in their dormitories. The curtains are often used by students for privacy in shared rooms, but school authorities said they were a fire and safety hazard.

Additionally, during the popular May Day holiday season last year, some universities issued strict guidelines for students who had planned to travel. These included avoiding solo trips, road trips, or cycling trips for safety – which many saw as the institutions overstepping their authority in students’ private lives.

On social media site Xiaohongshu, a user claiming to be a student at Gengdan Institute said “the school’s clinic deserves all the criticism it’s getting”.

“I heard from some older students that this kind of thing has been going on for a while. Some girls spoke up before, but nothing was done,” the user wrote.

“I’m glad it made the trending topics this time. People didn’t stay silent.”

A man with a rare form of blood cancer has travelled 10,000 miles to meet the stranger who saved his life.

Luke Melling, 31, from Melbourne, Australia, says he was “staring death in the face” before receiving a stem-cell transplant from Alastair Hawken, of Grantham, Lincolnshire.

The match between the pair was so perfect that the men now believe they could be distantly related, as both their families hail from Preston, Lancashire – the town they chose for their emotional first meeting.

They are sharing their story to encourage more people to join the NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry.

Three years ago, Luke, who was then 28, was desperately ill in hospital with Hodgkin lymphoma.

He had been living with the condition since he was 16 and, despite being in remission four times, the cancer kept coming back.

After exhausting all other treatments, he was told he needed a transplant of stem cells – which can be found in the bone marrow and produce essential blood cells – to survive.

But no-one in his family, and no-one in Australia, was a match, so doctors started searching global stem-cell registries for a donor.

“It was pretty much like, ‘This is it – this is the only option you have. It’s either this or you’re going to die’,” Luke says.

“Finding out that my sister wasn’t a match was terrifying – we just didn’t know if there would be anybody registered who would be a suitable match for me.”

But then, after a six-month wait, Luke was told there was hope. The register had discovered a potential donor on the other side of the world.

“When we found out we had the perfect match, that was an emotional moment,” Luke recalls. “I remember mum – she was in hysterics, crying.”

For Alastair, then 48, the phone call came out of the blue. A regular blood donor, he had signed up to the NHS registry in 2008.

When he was asked if he was still willing to donate, the father-of-three did not hesitate.

“It was no problem at all,” he says. “What can I do, where can I be? It was nice to be wanted, or to feel that I could be of use to someone.”

Before the donation, Alastair was injected with a high-strength cell-generating drug. After a couple of days he could barely move, but he was told that showed the process was working and the body was “over-generating stem cells”.

He then went to a hospital for the stem cells to be “harvested” in a process similar to blood donation, while he was fed snacks and watched television.

“There’s no discomfort,” he says. “The stem cells are taken out and packaged up, and then they’re counted in the laboratory – 85 million is what we needed for Luke, and that’s what was taken.

“I felt amazing – my body was made up of fresh stem cells – and then my [harvested] stem cells went on their journey.”

The cells were cryogenically frozen within hours to be sent to Australia, where Luke was waiting.

Luke had his transplant a month later, but all he knew about the donor was that he was a 48-year-old man from the UK.

He was not allowed to contact Alastair until two years had passed and the treatment was considered successful.

At that point, Alastair did not know whether Luke had survived.

“I just hoped. I hoped and prayed that he had,” he says.

And then an email dropped into his inbox via the stem cell registry.

“It was like all my Christmases had come at once,” Alastair recalls. “It was a really beautiful moment.”

The men were put in contact with each other and finally met in Preston on Friday.

Luke told Alastair: “To have someone like you, who is so beautiful, lovely and kind, having done all this, I’m glad it’s your cells. I just can’t thank you enough.”

For his part, Alastair, who runs a gingerbread business, describes the donation as his “legacy”.

He told Luke: “If I achieve nothing more than just seeing that smile on your face, then I’ve achieved everything I need to achieve.”

Preston was a fitting place to meet as Alastair’s grandparents lived in the town and Luke’s family also have roots there.

Luke, who is now 31 and back to full health, feels he can put the last 15 years behind him. He has even run a marathon.

“Meeting Alastair in person is a dream come true,” he says. “What do you say to the person who has given you your life back by literally giving a part of themselves?

“Me being able to get on that plane and fly across the world is possible only because of him.

“The moment I got to give him that huge hug and thank him in person is a moment I’ll never forget.”

Alastair, now 51, hopes their story will encourage others to sign up to the stem cell registry.

“Meeting Luke today really brings home just what a difference that simple act can make,” he says.

“I just wish more people would put themselves forward to be on the register to donate, whether it’s platelets or organs or blood or stem cells – that is just the gift of life.

“There’s nothing that makes you feel more complete as a human being – and when it’s a success story, like it clearly has been in our case, it makes everything all worthwhile.”

Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds latest episode of Look North here.

North Korea has arrested a fourth official over the failed launch of a new warship that has enraged the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

Ri Hyong-son, deputy director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Munitions Industry Department, was “largely responsible for the serious accident” last week, state-run news agency KCNA said on Monday.

The 5,000-ton destroyer had tipped over and damaged its hull, in what Kim described as a “criminal act” that “severely damaged the [country’s] dignity and pride”.

The vessel is being repaired under the guidance of an expert group, KCNA said.

Mr Ri, who is part of the party’s Central Military Commission, is the highest level official arrested over the incident so far.

The commission commands the Korean People’s Army and is responsible for developing and implementing North Korea’s military policies.

Over the weekend, Pyongyang also detained three officials at the northern Chongjin shipyard, where the destroyer was built and where its launch failed.

The officials were the chief engineer, its construction head and an administrative manager.

Kim earlier said Wednesday’s incident was caused by “absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism”.

It is not clear what punishment they might face, but the authoritarian state has been known to sentence officials it finds guilty of wrongdoing to forced labour and even death.

It is uncommon for North Korea to publicly disclose local accidents, though it has done this a handful of times in the past after failed satellite launches.

Some analysts believe Kim’s swift and severe response was meant as a signal that Pyongyang will continue to advance its military capabilities.

While such criticism is “not surprising” for a dictatorship, it is unusual that state media is openly reporting it, says Chun In-bum, a former commander of South Korea’s special forces.

“I fear this might be a sign of confidence and a show of resilience,” he says.

“With this new line of ships, North Korea seems to intend on challenging the sovereignty of the South in earnest.”

Michael Madden, a North Korea expert from the Stimson Center in Washington, sees Kim’s response as a sign of the “high priority” his regime is putting into developing warships.

The mishap may have resulted from officials “trying to do too much at once”, he notes, saying that “there seems to have been an unusual amount of internal pressure on the personnel and production units to get this all done”.

Last week’s shipyard accident comes weeks after North Korea unveiled a similar warship in another part of the country.

Kim had called that warship a “breakthrough” in modernising North Korea’s navy and said it would be deployed early next year.

Fake discounts, pressure selling, and other practices on Chinese fast-fashion website Shein breach the law, the European Union (EU) has said.

The bloc said it has given Shein one month to respond to its findings or face fines based on its sales in the EU countries where it says it has breached the law.

“It’s now for Shein to step up, respect the rules and bring its practices fully in line with EU consumer standards,” said EU justice commissioner Michael McGrath.

A Shein spokesperson said: “Our priority remains ensuring that European consumers can have a safe, reliable, and enjoyable online shopping experience.”

The EU said on Monday its ongoing investigation from the EU’s consumer rights enforcer found “a broad range of practices with which consumers are confronted while shopping on Shein and that are in breach of EU law”.

This included misleading information, deceptive product labels, misleading sustainability claims, and hidden contact details.

It also found instances of pretending to offer better deals by showing price reductions that were not based on the actual prior prices, and fake deadlines to put consumers under pressure to buy.

The EU has also asked Shein to make sure its product reviews and ratings are “not presented to consumers in a misleading manner”.

“All companies reaching out to EU consumers must play by our rules. Today’s action sends a clear message: we will not shy away from holding e-commerce platforms to account, regardless of where they are based,” said McGrath.

A Shein spokesperson said it has been “working constructively with national consumers authorities and the EU Commission to demonstrate our commitment to complying with EU laws and regulations, and we are continuing to engage in this process to address any concerns”.

Shein has come under fire for its business practices before, with a January BBC report revealing some staff were working 75-hour weeks, in breach of Chinese labour laws.

That same month, Shein was accused of “wilful ignorance” by MPs in the UK after its lawyer repeatedly refused to answer questions about where the retailer sources its cotton.

In response to the BBC investigation into worker conditions, Shein said it is “committed to ensuring the fair and dignified treatment of all workers within our supply chain”, and that it is investing tens of millions of dollars in strengthening governance and compliance.

“We strive to set the highest standards for pay and we require that all supply chain partners adhere to our code of conduct,” it said.

Ngabi Dora Tue, consumed by grief, was barely able to stand on her own.

The coffin of her husband, Johnson Mabia, sat amid a crowd of stricken mourners in Limbe in Cameroon’s South-West region – an area that had witnessed scenes like this many times before.

While on a work trip, Johnson – an English-speaking civil servant – and five colleagues were captured by armed separatists.

The militants were – and still are – fighting for the independence of Cameroon’s two anglophone regions in what is a predominantly francophone country. A near-decade-long conflict that has led to thousands of deaths and stunted life in the area.

When he was abducted four years ago, Dora struggled to reach Johnson. When she eventually heard from separatist militants, they asked for a ransom of over $55,000 (£41,500) to be paid within 24 hours in order to secure his release. Dora then received another call from one of Johnson’s relatives.

“He said… that I should take care of the children. That my husband is no more. I didn’t even know what to do. Tuesday he was travelling, and he was kidnapped. Friday he was killed,” says Dora.

The separatists responsible had not just murdered but decapitated Johnson, and left his body on the road.

The roots of the separatist struggle lie in long-standing grievances that stretch back to full independence in 1961, and the formation of a single Cameroonian state in 1972 from former British and French territories.

Since then the English-speaking minority have felt aggrieved at the perceived erosion of rights by the central government. Johnson was just an innocent by-stander, caught up in an increasingly brutal fight for self-determination and the government’s desperate attempts to stamp out the uprising.

The current wave of violence began almost a decade ago.

In late 2016, peaceful protests started against what was perceived to be the creeping use of the francophone legal system in the region’s courtrooms. The French- and English-speaking parts of Cameroon use different judicial systems.

The protests rapidly spread, and led to a call for the closing of shops and institutions.

The response of the security forces was immediate and severe – people were beaten, intimidated and there were mass arrests. The African Union called it “a deadly and disproportionate use of violence”.

Cameroon’s defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment on this or other issues in this article.

Armed groups were set up. And, in late 2017 as tensions escalated, anglophone separatist leaders declared independence for what they called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

To date, five million anglophone Cameroonians have been dragged into the conflict – equivalent to one-fifth of the total population. At least 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes.

“We used to wake up in the morning to dead bodies on the streets,” says Blaise Eyong, a journalist from Kumba in the English-speaking South-West region of Cameroon, who has produced and presented a documentary on the crisis for BBC Africa Eye, and was forced from his hometown with his family in 2019.

“Or you hear that a house has been set ablaze. Or you hear that someone was kidnapped. People’s body parts chopped off. How do you live in a city where every single morning you’re worried if your relatives are safe?”

There have been a number of national and international attempts to resolve the crisis, including what the government called “a major national dialogue” in 2019.

Although the talks established a special status for the country’s two anglophone regions which acknowledged their unique history, very little was resolved in practical terms.

Felix Agbor Nkongho – a barrister who was one of the leaders of the 2016 protests and was later arrested – says that with both sides now seeming to act with impunity, the moral high ground has disappeared.

“There was a time… where most people felt that, if they needed security, they would go to the separatists,” he tells BBC Africa Eye.

“But over the last two years, I don’t think any reasonable person would think that the separatists would be the ones to protect them. So everybody should die for us to have independence and I ask the question: who are you going to govern?”

But it is not just the separatists who are accused of abuses.

Organisations such as Human Rights Watch have recorded the brutal response of the security forces to the anglophone independence movement. They have documented the burning of villages and the torture, unlawful arrests and extrajudicial killings of people in a war largely unseen by the outside world.

Examples of state-sponsored brutality are not difficult to find.

John (not his real name) and a close friend were taken into custody by Cameroonian military forces, accused of buying weapons for a separatist group.

John recalls that after being incarcerated, they were given a document which they were told to sign without being given the chance to read its contents. When they refused, the torture began.

“That is when they separated us into different rooms,” says John. “They tortured [my friend]. You could just hear them flogging everywhere. I could feel it on my own body [too]. They beat me everywhere. Later they told me he accepted and signed and they allowed him to go.”

But that was not the truth.

A month after his arrest, another man arrived in John’s cell. He told him that his friend had, in fact, died in the room he had been held and tortured in. Months later John’s case was dropped and he was released without charge.

“I just live in fear because I don’t really know where to start from or where it is safe to start from or how,” says John.

Part of the separatists’ strategy to weaken the state and its security forces is to push for a ban on education which they say is a tool of government propaganda.

In October 2020, a school in Kumba was attacked. No-one claimed responsibility for the atrocity but the government blamed separatists. Men armed with machetes and guns killed at least seven children.

The incident sparked, for a brief moment, international outrage and condemnation.

“Nearly half the schools in this region have been shut,” says journalist Eyong.

“A whole generation of kids is missing out on their education. Imagine the impact this will have for our communities and also for our country.”

As if the violence between the government forces and the various separatist groups was not enough, an additional front has opened up in the war. Militant groups in the separatist areas have emerged to fight the Ambazonians in an effort to keep Cameroon united.

A leader of one of these groups, John Ewome (known as Moja Moja), regularly led patrols in the town of Buea in search of separatists until he was arrested in May 2024.

He, too, has been accused of human rights violations, of public humiliation and torturing unarmed civilians thought to be separatist sympathisers. He denies the accusations. “I’ve never laid my hands on any civilian. Just the Ambazonians. And I believe the gods of this land are with me,” he told the BBC.

Meanwhile, the cycle of abductions and killings continue.

Joe (not his real name) was – like Johnson – taken hostage by a separatist group, keen to maintain control through fear – and to cash in.

“I walked into the house, and found my children and my wife on the floor while the commander was sitting in my kitchen with his gun very close. All around me, my neighbour had been taken, my landlord had been taken. So when I saw them, I knew it was my turn,” says Joe.

He was led into the forest with 15 other people where he witnessed the execution of two of his fellow captives. But he was eventually freed after the military discovered the camp.

Johnson was not as lucky and, about two years after his funeral took place, news arrived that neither were his five colleagues kidnapped with him. Their bodies had just been found.

More families will now have to try to come to terms with their enormous loss. For Ngabi Dora Tue, sitting with her young child in her lap, the future feels almost overwhelming.

“I have debts I have to settle I don’t even know how to settle,” she says.

“I thought of selling my body for money. And then I Iook at the shame that would come after, I just have to swallow the difficulty and then push forward. I was very young to become a widow.”

The BBC has asked for a response from the Ambazonia Defense Forces (ADF), which claims to be the largest separatist force.

It responded that there are a multiplicity of separatist fighters now operating in the anglophone region.

The ADF said it operates within international law and does not attack government workers, schools, journalists or civilians.

Instead it has blamed individuals and fringe entities acting on their own accord who are not members of the ADF for these attacks.

The group also accuses government infiltrators of committing atrocities while claiming to be Ambazonian fighters to turn the local populations against the liberation struggle.

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German Tom Kopke was victorious at the Gloucestershire cheese-rolling event for the second year in a row, saying he “risked his life” to win.

Mr Kopke, 23, who runs his own YouTube channel, was one of dozens of competitors who took part in the traditional annual event down the slopes of Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire.

Each race sees people chase a 7lb (3kg) wheel of Double Gloucester down one of the UK’s steepest hills, with the winner claiming the cheese.

“Last year the hill was muddy and this year it was dry and dangerous and people got injured,” Mr Kopke said after his victory.

There were seven races in all, two of them in memory of former cheese rolling winners who have since died.

“It was crazy. This year was different,” said Mr Kopke, who publishes content to his 366,000 subscribers under the name Tooleko. “I shut off my brain and went for it.

“All the people at the top said they were going to steal my title, but this is mine.

“I worked for this. I risked my life for this. It’s my cheese – back to back.”

One spectator from Mr Kopke’s race was taken to hospital from the event, which the local authorities say is dangerous and puts a strain on the county’s ambulance service.

Thousands of people watched the races from the side, top and bottom of Cooper’s Hill.

The second men’s race was won by Luke Preece, from Gloucester, who flew down the hill race dressed in a Superman costume.

“I am absolutely buzzed, amazing… the adrenaline,” he said afterwards.

“My dad did it, I can’t believe it, it’s amazing.”

The women’s race was won by London university student Ava Sender Logan, 20.

“This is my first time,” she said.

“I thought it was such a tradition, and I will probably feel it tomorrow.

“It felt quite long coming down and then I hit my head. I’m down – that’s what matters.”

But what about Ava’s prize of a wheel of Double Gloucester? “I don’t like cheese,” she admitted.

• Cheese rolling as it happened

The final men’s downhill race was won by Byron Smith, 33, from New Zealand, who had to settle for second place last year.

“It feels great, yeah,” he said.

“I did it last year and came second in my heat and I thought I could do it this year and I did.

“I ran as fast as I could and tried to get back up, and this year I did.”

A fight involvingmachetes at a Melbourne shopping centre has prompted an Australian state to fast-track the country’s first-ever ban on the weapon’s sale.

The ban – to start in Victoria this Wednesday, instead of September – comes after two gangs attacked each other at Northland shopping centre in Preston on Sunday afternoon. A man, 20, remains in hospital in a serious condition.

Victoria’s premier said the ban will “choke the supply”, adding “the community shouldn’t have to deal with these weapons in their shopping centres – neither should our police”.

Two boys, aged 16 and 15, were on Sunday charged with affray, intentionally causing injury, and possession and use of a controlled weapon.

On Monday, police said two men, aged 20 and 18, had also been arrested and were being interviewed. All four people were known to police previously.

“This was a planned fight between two rival youth gangs with no innocent bystanders hurt,” said deputy commissioner David Clayton.

“Fortunately, these events are not very commonplace in Victoria,” he said, adding that youth knife crime is “rare” but “frightening”.

Clayton said one in 10 knife crimes in the state is committed by young people, and often happen in public places.

Emergency services were called to the shopping centre in Preston – about 11km (seven miles) north of Melbourne – just after 14:30 local time (05:30 BST) on Sunday after reports of up to 10 people fighting.

Police said the investigation “remains ongoing” and more arrests are expected. Three of the four machetes used during the attack have been seized, police said.

Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan described the attack as “appalling”.

“We must never let the places where we gather – where families come together, to meet, to shop, to enjoy the peace of their weekend – become the places we fear,” Allan said at a press conference.

“It took the United Kingdom 18 months to bring about a ban on machetes and we are moving to do it within six months,” she added.

In March, Victoria announced legislative changes to its Control of Weapons Act, making it illegal to sell or possess machetes, with the new law to start in September.

The ban covers machetes, which are broadly defined as “knives with a cutting blade longer than 20cm”. It does not include knives primarily used in kitchens.

A three-month amnesty from September means anyone with a machete can place them in specially designated boxes at police stations.

Police also thanked a man who held down one of the alleged offenders until police arrived, saying he “performed an outstanding job”, but added they don’t encourage the public to become involved in such incidents.

In England and Wales, a ban on “zombie-style” knives and machetes was introduced last September, making it illegal to own, make, transport or sell a wide range of “statement” knives favoured by criminal gangs.

A 53-year-old man has been arrested after a car hit a number of pedestrians in Liverpool city centre during the Premier League victory parade.

Eyewitnesses and videos shared on social media have shown the vehicle driving through a crowd as people scatter.

Police say they are not treating the incident as terror-related.

Details are still emerging, but here’s what we know so far.

• LIVE UPDATES: Child and adult seriously hurt
• WATCH: Videos show car driving through crowd
• WITNESSES: ‘Car missed us by inches’

A car collided with a number of pedestrians on Water Street just after 18:00, Merseyside Police said.

In a statement the force said: “We were contacted at just after 18:00 today, Monday 26 May, following reports a car had been in collision with a number of pedestrians on Water Street.

“The car stopped at the scene and a male has been detained.”

Police later said a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area had been arrested and that he was believed to be the driver.

The ambulance service said 27 people had been taken to hospital for treatment, with two, including one child, seriously injured.

Another 20 people were treated for injuries at the scene.

Four children were among the injured.

Four people including a child were lifted from beneath the car, Merseyside chief fire Nick Searle said.

The incident is not being treated as terror-related, police said.

Police only define events as terrorism if they are considered to have been intended to influence the government or intimidate the public for the purpose of “advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause”.

Video from the scene shows the car ploughing into the a group of people then speeding up before coming to a halt.

Other footage shows people striking the car after it stopped, with the back windscreen shattered.

Numerous emergency service vehicles attended the scene.

One eyewitness, BBC reporter Matt Cole, described seeing a car coming through the crowd that “just wasn’t stopping”.

He said it was being chased by a group of men “who were trying to bang on the side of it and throw things at it”.

He estimated the car was travelling at “more than 20 [mph]”.

He said his initial assumption was that the driver just wanted to “barge through crowds because they didn’t want to wait”.

Another witness, Matthew O’Carroll, 28, from Runcorn, saw the car approaching the top of Water Street.

He said the vehicle had been going at a “decent” speed and that the driver had been beeping as he went through the crowd.

Water Street is near the Strand, where moments before the incident occurred Liverpool FC had paraded the Premier League trophy from the top of a bus.

Thousands of people had come out to celebrate the team’s victory. The incident happened about a mile before the parade’s finishing point.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is being kept updated on the latest developments.

He posted on X: “The scenes in Liverpool are appalling – my thoughts are with all those injured or affected.

“I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the pictures were “deeply worrying”.

“My thoughts are with all those affected, and the emergency services as they respond to what appears a horrific incident,” she said.

Liverpool FC said it was in contact with the police and its “thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident”, while rivals Everton FC echoed the sentiment.

Liverpool said in a statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident. We will continue to offer our full support to the emergency services and local authorities who are dealing with this incident.”

Liverpool’s staff celebrations are understood to have been postponed because of the incident.

The Premier League has also released a statement, saying “everyone at the Premier League is shocked by the appalling events in Liverpool this evening, and our heartfelt thoughts go out to all those injured and affected.

“We have been in contact with Liverpool FC and have offered our full support following this serious incident.”

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotherham told the BBC a day of “absolute celebration” had been “overshadowed” by the incident. He urged the public to avoid speculation while police continue their investigation.

North Korea has criticised the US’s plan for a futuristic “Golden Dome” missile shield, saying it could “turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field”.

The defence system, which President Donald Trump plans to unveil by the end of his term, is aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry slammed the plan as “the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance”, state media reported.

It accused Washington of being “hell-bent… to militarise outer space” and warned that the plan might spark “a global nuclear and space arms race”.

North Korea considers Washington an adversary and has routinely condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang probably sees the Golden Dome as a threat that can “significantly weaken” its nuclear arsenal, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP news agency.

“If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,” he said.

In 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state, and it has tested a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles in recent years.

Early this year it claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which it said “will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region”.

North Korea joins China in criticising the US’s plan. Beijing said last week that it is “seriously concerned” about the Golden Dome, which it said has “strong offensive implications”.

“The United States, in pursuing a ‘US-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself,” China’s foreign ministry said. “This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.”

Many analysts believe an update to the US’s limited defence systems is necessary, but some warn the process of developing the Golden Dome could face technical and political challenges.

For one, its hefty price tag could suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it could end up costing 20 times that over decades.

The former head of India’s wrestling federation has been cleared in a sexual harassment case filed by a minor female wrestler.

A court in the capital, Delhi, accepted a Delhi police report, recommending the cancellation of the case against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

A former MP from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Singh still faces charges of sexual harassment and stalking in a separate case by six adult female wrestlers.

Singh has always denied these charges.

The cases against Singh made headlines in 2023 when he was charged with sexual harassment after months of protests by India’s top wrestlers.

The protests made headlines globally, especially after the police detained them as they tried to march to India’s new parliament building in Delhi.

Footage of the Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia and two-time world champion medallist Vinesh Phogat being dragged in the streets and carried off in police vans went viral, sparking criticism from top athletes and opposition politicians.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also condemned the way the wrestlers were being treated and called for an impartial inquiry into their complaints.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was criticised for not acting strongly or swiftly enough against Singh since he was a member of his party. The government had rejected the allegations.

• The man at the centre of India’s wrestling row
• India’s wrestling chief charged with sexual harassment

The wrestlers agreed to pause their protests after meeting Home Minister Amit Shah and then Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.

Thakur assured them that charges would be filed against Singh by 15 June 2023.

Seven female wrestlers, including the minor, registered complaints with the police accusing Singh of molesting and groping them at training camps and tournaments.

In the case of the minor, police had invoked the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

Singh, denied all the allegations, accusing the wrestlers of being “politically motivated”.

Weeks later, the minor retracted her earlier statements and withdrew her allegations, reports said. Wrestler Sakshi Malik told the BBC at the time that she believed “the player was pressurised into withdrawing the charges”. Mr Singh refused to comment on the allegation, saying “let law take its course”.

On Monday, legal news site Bar and Bench reported that the police had given a report in court seeking cancellation of the case as the minor wrestler’s father said he had made a false complaint.

The prosecution lawyer said “no corroborative evidence” had been found in the allegations after a detailed investigation in the case.

Bar and Bench said the wrestler and her father had appeared before the court and expressed satisfaction with the police investigation. They also did not oppose the cancellation report.

In the aftermath of the row, Singh had stepped down as the wrestling federation chief. He was replaced by his close aide Sanjay Singh, who was later elected as the organisation’s chief, leading to the accusation that Brij Bhushan Singh was still running it by proxy. The two Singhs denied the accusation but the federal sports ministry suspended the federation in December 2023.

In 2024, the federation resumed its functions after United World Wrestling, the international, organisation governing wrestling, lifted its ban on the Indian federation. Earlier this year, The Hindu and Indian Express newspapers reported that the Wrestling Federation of India was functioning out of Singh’s address in Delhi.

Singh was also denied a ticket by the BJP to contest the 2024 general election. The party instead fielded his son Karan Bhushan Singh from Kaiserganj – the seat in the northern Uttar Pradesh state which the senior Singh had held since 1999. The junior Singh won the election.

Sweden-based car maker Volvo Cars says it will cut around 3,000 jobs as part of its cost-cutting measures.

The firm says the layoffs will mainly impact office-based positions in Sweden, representing about 15% of its white collar workforce.

Last month, Volvo Cars, which is owned by Chinese group Geely Holding, announced an 18 billion Swedish kronor ($1.9bn; £1.4bn) “action plan” shake-up of the business.

The global motor industry is facing a number of major challenges including US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported cars, higher cost of materials and slower sales in Europe.

The chief executive of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, pointed to the “challenging period” faced by the industry as a reason for the layoffs.

“The actions announced today have been difficult decisions, but they are important steps as we build a stronger and even more resilient Volvo Cars,” he said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the firm said its global sales for April fell by 11% compared to the same period last year.

Volvo Cars has its main headquarters and development offices in Gothenburg, Sweden. It has major production plants in Sweden, Belgium, China and the US.

The company was sold by US motor industry giant Ford to China’s Geely in 2010.

In 2021, Volvo said all of its cars would go electric by 2030. Last year it scaled back that ambition due to a number of issues including “additional uncertainties created by recent tariffs on EVs in various markets”.

Japanese car maker Nissan said earlier this month that it will cut another 11,000 jobs globally and shut seven factories as it shakes up the business in the face of weak sales.

Falling sales in China and heavy discounting in the US, its two biggest markets, have taken a heavy toll on earnings, while a proposed merger with Honda and Mitsubishi collapsed in February.

The latest cutbacks brought the total number of layoffs announced by the company in the past year to about 20,000, or 15% of its workforce.

In an example of the cutthroat rivalry between carmakers, Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD announced at the weekend that it would cut the prices of more than 20 of its models.

The move brings the price of its cheapest car, the Seagull EV, to as low as 55,800 yuan ($7,745; £5,700).

In response Chinese government-owned Changan and Leapmotor, which is backed by Chrysler owner Stellantis, announced their own price cuts.

Shares in Chinese car makers fell sharply after those announcements.

In April, BYD outsold Elon Musk’s Tesla in Europe for the first time, according to car industry research firm Jato Dynamics.

Nepali sherpa Kami Rita, also known as “Everest Man”, has scaled Mount Everest for the 31st time, breaking his own record for the most climbs up the world’s tallest peak.

The 55-year-old, who was guiding a group of Indian army officials up the mountain, reached its 8,849m summit at 04:00 local time on Tuesday (23:15 GMT Monday).

“Kami Rita Sherpa needs no introduction. He is not just a national climbing hero, but a global symbol of Everest itself,” expedition organiser Seven Summit Treks said in a statement.

Kami Rita first summited Everest in 1994 guiding a commercial expedition and has made the peak almost ever year since.

He scaled it twice some years, like in 2023 and 2024.

His closest competitor for the Everest record is fellow Nepali sherpa Pasang Dawa, who scaled the peak 29 times – the latest attempt made last week.

Kami Rita has previously told media how his climbs are just work.

“I am glad for the record, but records are eventually broken,” he told AFP in May last year. “I am more happy that my climbs help Nepal be recognised in the world.”

Earlier this month, Kami Rita posted snippets of life on Everest, including one of the Puja ceremony, a Tibetan Buddhist ritual done before Everest expeditions to pray for a safe and successful climb.

Kami Rita’s feat comes one week after British mountaineer Kenton Cool summited Everest for the 19th time, also breaking his own record for the most climbs for a non-sherpa.

More than 500 people and their guides have climbed Everest successfully this climbing season, which is coming to an end.

Nepal issued more than 1,000 climbing permits this season – including for Everest and other peaks – according to its tourism department.

The number of Everest summit attempts has soared in recent years. However this has led to concerns around overcrowding and environmental impact.

Last year, authorities introduced a rule requiring climbers to clear up their own poo and bring it back to base camp to be disposed of.

A naval court in Greece has charged 17 coastguards over the deadliest migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean Sea for a decade.

Up to 650 people were feared to have drowned when the overcrowded Adriana fishing vessel sank near Pylos, off the Greek coast, in the early hours of 14 June 2023.

Survivors later told the BBC that Greek coastguards had caused their boat to capsize in a botched attempt to tow it and then silenced witnesses.

“It has taken us two years just for these charges to come, even though so many people witnessed what happened,” one of the survivors said on Monday.

The Greek authorities have always denied the claims against them.

The Deputy Prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court has found that 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard should face criminal charges.

Among them is the captain of the coastguard ship, the LS-920, who is charged with “causing a shipwreck”, leading to the deaths of “at least 82 people”.

This corresponds to the number of bodies recovered, although it is thought as many as an additional 500 people drowned, including women and children who were all below deck.

The disaster occurred in international waters but within Greece’s rescue zone.

The then-Chief of the Coast Guard and the Supervisor of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre in Piraeus are among four officials charged with “exposing others to danger”.

The captain of the LS-920 is also charged with “dangerous interference of maritime transport” as well as a “failure to provide assistance” to the migrant boat.

The crew of the ship are charged for “simple complicity” in all the acts allegedly committed by the captain.

A coastguard ship had been monitoring the Adriana for 15 hours before it sank.

It had left Libya for Italy with an estimated 750 people on board. Only 104 of them are known to have survived.

We have been investigating since the day of the disaster and our series of findings has cast serious doubt on the official Greek version of events.

Within a week, we obtained shipping data which challenged the claim the migrant boat had not been in trouble and so did not need to be rescued.

A month later, survivors told us the coastguard had caused their boat to sink in a disastrous effort to tow it and then forced witnesses to stay silent.

Last year, a case against nine Egyptians was thrown out, amid claims they had been scapegoated by the Greek authorities.

Earlier this year, audio recordings emerged which further challenged the official Greek version of events.

We first met Syrian refugees, who we called Ahmad and Musaab to protect their identities, a month after the disaster.

They said they each paid $4,500 (£3,480) for a spot on the boat.

The younger brother of Ahmad – a Syrian now living in Germany – was also on board and did not survive.

Musaab described to us the moment when – he alleged – the Greek coastguards caused their boat to sink.

“They attached a rope from the left,” he said. “Everyone moved to the right side of our boat to balance it. The Greek vessel moved off quickly causing our boat to flip. They kept dragging it for quite a distance.”

The men claimed that once on land, in the port of Kalamata, the coastguard told survivors to “shut up” when they started to talk about how the Greek authorities had caused the disaster.

“When people replied by saying the Greek coastguard was the cause, the official in charge of the questioning asked the interpreter to tell the interviewee to stop talking,” Ahmad said.

He said officials shouted: “You have survived death. Stop talking about the incident Don’t ask more questions about it.”

On Monday, Ahmad said he felt vindicated by the charges that had been brought.

“I’m very happy they are eventually being held accountable for all that they have committed, but until I see them in prison nothing has been done yet,” he said.

“To be honest, the Greek legal system is very unreliable.”

The joint legal team representing survivors and victims of the disaster said the decision to pursue a case against the 17 coastguards was a big step forward towards justice being done.

In a statement it said: “Almost two years after the Pylos shipwreck, the prosecution and referral to main investigation for felonies of 17 members of the Coast Guard, including senior officers of its leadership, constitutes a substantial and self-evident development in the course of vindication of the victims and the delivery of justice.”

It is understood the 17 men who have now been charged will be questioned in the coming weeks by the Deputy Prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court.

The court will then decide whether to send them to full trial or dismiss the charges.

It is not immediately clear what punishment the coastguards could receive if found guilty.

Greece has previously told the BBC its Coast Guard fully respects human rights and has rescued more than 250,000 people at sea in the past decade.

King Charles III will deliver a significant speech in Canada’s parliament later on Tuesday that is expected to offer his support in the country’s dispute with US President Donald Trump.

The King and Queen Camilla received a warm welcome when they arrived in Ottawa, on the royal couple’s first trip to Canada since the start of their reign.

Soon after arriving, the King, who is Canada’s head of state, held a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, recently elected on a wave of anti-Trump public opinion.

Carney has praised the “historic ties” that make up Canada’s independent identity, including the “vitality of our constitutional monarchy”, which he said “crises only fortify”.

Carney invited the King to deliver the speech at the opening of parliament after his recent general election victory, in a campaign dominated by the threats to Canada’s sovereignty from Trump.

It will be the first time in almost 50 years that a monarch gives the Speech from the Throne, with the King’s decision to come to parliament in Ottawa seen as a symbolic show of support for Canada.

The King’s speech will be written on the advice of the Canadian government, with the expectation that it will send a clear, if diplomatic, message that the country is “not for sale” to the US.

Carney said in advance that the speech, to be delivered in French and English, would match “the weight of our times”.

On Monday afternoon, the King and Carney held a meeting at Rideau Hall, the residence of Canada’s governor-general, with both men sitting in front of Canadian flags.

There were also meetings with leaders of Canada’s indigenous and First Nations groups, including Cindy Woodhouse, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

• In pictures: King Charles and Queen Camilla welcomed in Ottawa
• Why is the King in Canada, and what is the throne speech?
• What’s changed in how Canada views the monarchy?

Looking relaxed in the Ottawa sunshine, the King took part in a tree-planting ceremony, receiving an enthusiastic reception from onlookers, who cheered and crowded round to shake hands with him.

“Canada feels threatened and scared. It is very important he is here,” said Theresa McKnight, from Mississauga, Ontario.

Her sister Dianne St Louis, from near Toronto, agreed: “It’s critical. It means a great deal to have the King standing side by side with Canadians.”

There had been a warm welcome at Ottawa airport, for what will be a visit of about 24 hours on the ground in Canada.

Carney was on the runway to meet the royal visitors, with a welcoming party that included schoolchildren from English- and French-speaking schools and representatives of First Nations communities.

A community event had also been a checklist of Canadian moments, such as the King dropping a puck to start a game of street hockey and getting jars of maple syrup.

But the main focus of this trip will be the historic speech on Tuesday, with the prospect of the King delivering the Canadian government’s message of rejecting calls to become the US 51st state.

It is also a diplomatic balancing act because in his role as head of state of the UK, the King has been part of an effort to keep good relations with Trump, including inviting him for a second state visit.

But in Canada, the King will have to speak on behalf of Canada. As another bystander said at Rideau Hall: “Sovereignty is important and he is the epitome of that.”

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Crowds of far-right Israelis chanted insults and assaulted Palestinians during an annual parade for Jerusalem Day on Monday.

Chants of “death to Arabs” and nationalistic slogans were repeated during the event, which commemorates Israeli forces taking Palestinian-majority East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Violence broke out as ultranationalist Jews streamed into Palestinian areas of Jerusalem’s walled Old City.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said the event had become a festival of “hatred and racism”, adding it was “a disgrace and an insult to Judaism”.

Israeli police were deployed as violence broke out in the walled Old City of Occupied East Jerusalem shortly after midday.

Thousands of nationalist Israelis descended to Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances. Right-wing activists held banners that read “67 – Jerusalem in our hands; 2025 – Gaza in our hands”.

Arab traders in the Muslim Quarter who had yet to close their shops were harassed by young Israeli men, witnesses said.

Chants of “May your village burn” and “Your home will be ours” were heard throughout the march.

Aggressive marchers were detained and removed from the Old City by Israeli police.

National security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, of the Jewish Power party, called for the death penalty for “terrorists” in an address to the crowds.

Gvir also visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam and known by Jews as the Temple Mount. Jews revere it as the location of two Biblical Temples and it is the holiest site in Judaism.

The compound is administered by a Jordanian Islamic trust. Jews are allowed to visit but not pray there.

A spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, based in the West Bank, condemned the march and Ben Gvir’s visit to Al-Aqsa.

Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, “repeated incursions into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and provocative acts such as raising the Israeli flag in occupied Jerusalem threaten the stability of the entire region,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.

In a cabinet meeting on Monday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep Jerusalem “united, whole, and under Israeli sovereignty”.

Left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan described images of violence in the Old City as “shocking”.

“This is what hatred, racism and bullying look like,” he said in a statement on X.

“We will fight for Jerusalem for all of us, Jews, Christians and Muslims, secular and religious.

“Jerusalem belongs to all those who love her. We will fight for her and restore her as a city for us all.”

Lapid, another opposition leader, added: “There is nothing Jewish about this violence. The government ministers who remain silent in the face of these events are complicit in this disgrace.”

Every year thousands of Israelis march a route through Jerusalem and the annexed Old City, ending at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray in Jerusalem. On Sunday, a large Israeli flag was unfurled at the Western Wall plaza.

The parade marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and the “unification” of a city that the Israeli government says is their eternal capital.

Palestinians also want Jerusalem as their future capital and much of the international community regards East Jerusalem as Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.

This year’s Flag March again coincided with the war in Gaza and escalating Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Fifty-seven are still being held, about 20 of whom are assumed to be alive.

At least 53,939 people, including at least 16,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The Kremlin claimed Donald Trump was showing signs of “emotional overload” after he called Vladimir Putin “absolutely crazy” following Moscow’s largest aerial assault on Ukraine.

The US president said on Truth Social on Sunday that “something has happened” to Putin, after Russia killed 13 in Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles. “He has gone absolutely crazy,” Trump said. “Needlessly killing a lot of people.”

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said the comments were “connected to an emotional overload of everyone involved”.

Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, meanwhile said that Ukraine’s allies had removed all range limits on supplied arms, amid reports he would give Kyiv Taurus missiles.

Trump’s comments followed Russia’s largest combined aerial attack since its full-scale invasion of February 2022. At least 13 people were killed and dozens injured in Ukraine during the night between Saturday and Sunday after Russia fired 367 drones and missiles.

Between Sunday evening and Monday morning, Russia launched 355 drones against Ukraine, killing 10. The Ukrainian air force said it was the largest attack yet conducted with drones alone.

Peskov said the latest aerial assaults were a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s “social infrastructure”.

The Russian defence ministry said that air defence systems destroyed 20 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said on Sunday there was no “military sense” to Russia’s aerial attacks – rather they were “an obvious political choice… by Putin, a choice by Russia… to continue the war and destroy lives.”

In an apparent response to the Russian attacks over the weekend, German chancellor Merz said there were “no longer” range restrictions on arms supplied to Ukraine.

“This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by attacking military positions in Russia… with very few exceptions, it didn’t do that until recently. It can now do that,” Merz said.

Reuters reported that Zelensky was due to travel to Berlin on Wednesday, although this has not been confirmed.

The BBC approached the Chancellery for comment on whether Merz’s statement suggested an announcement was imminent on the supply of Taurus missiles – something that the previous German government refused to do.

Last year, the UK said that Ukraine had the right to decide how to use British supplied weapons in its defence. In November, then-US president Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles supplied by the US to strike Russia, albeit with limitations.

The Taurus missile has a range of about 500km – a far greater distance than other systems supplied by Ukraine’s allies. Russia said supply of the weapon would be “a dangerous move”.

Speaking in New Jersey late on Sunday, Trump said of Putin: “I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”

He also said he was considering increasing US sanctions on Russia – something he has repeatedly threatened to do before.

Trump posted his “crazy” remark shortly afterwards, adding on Truth Social: “I’ve always said that he wants all of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”

But the US president also had strong words for Zelensky, saying that he was “doing his country no favours by talking the way he does”.

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” Trump wrote of Zelensky.

Despite Kyiv’s European allies preparing further sanctions for Russia, the US has said it will either continue trying to broker these peace talks, or “walk away” if progress does not follow.

Peskov said on Monday that Russia was “truly grateful” to the Americans and “personally to President Trump” for their help in organising and launching this negotiation process.

Last week, Trump and Putin had a two-hour phone call to discuss a US-proposed ceasefire deal to halt the fighting.

The US president said he believed the call had gone “very well”, adding that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately start” negotiations toward a ceasefire and “an end to the war”.

Ukraine has publicly agreed to a 30-day ceasefire but Putin has only said Russia will work with Ukraine to craft a “memorandum” on a “possible future peace” – a move described by Kyiv and its European allies as delaying tactics.

The first direct Ukrainian-Russian talks since 2022 were held on 16 May in Istanbul, Turkey.

Aside from a major prisoner of war swap last week, there was little or no progress on bringing a pause in fighting closer.

Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory. This includes Crimea – Ukraine’s southern peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

A Canadian man has been sentenced to almost two years in prison for stealing a famous photograph of Sir Winston Churchill known as “The Roaring Lion”.

Jeffrey Wood had pleaded guilty to stealing the original print from Ottawa’s Château Laurier hotel between Christmas 2021 and early January 2022. He also admitted committing forgery.

The photo of Britain’s war-time prime minister, taken by Yousuf Karsh in 1941, features on the UK £5 note.

Ottawa Police said it was found last year in Genoa, Italy in the possession of a private buyer, who was unaware it was stolen.

The image depicts a frowning Churchill, who was 67 at the time, shortly after he delivered a speech to the Canadian parliament.

It wasn’t until August 2022 that a hotel staff member realised the original photo had been replaced with a fake.

According to Canadian media, Wood said he took the photo to find money for his brother, who was suffering from mental health problems.

During sentencing, Justice Robert Wadden said: “It is a point of national pride that a portrait taken by a Canadian photographer would have achieved such fame.”

“There is an element of trust in our society that allows such properties to be displayed, to be enjoyed by all Canadians. To steal, damage and traffic in such property is to breach that trust,” he added.

“We’re very happy to see that Canadian history is recognised,” said Geneviève Dumas, the general manager of the Château Laurier hotel, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Wood was sentenced to “two years less a day”, a distinction which means he will serve his sentence in a provincial institution instead of a federal prison.

The lawyer representing Wood said the sentence was “unnecessarily harsh” given that he was a first-time offender.

A 53-year-old man has been arrested after a car hit a number of pedestrians in Liverpool city centre during the Premier League victory parade.

Eyewitnesses and videos shared on social media have shown the vehicle driving through a crowd as people scatter.

Police say they are not treating the incident as terror-related.

Details are still emerging, but here’s what we know so far.

• LIVE UPDATES: Child and adult seriously hurt
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• WITNESSES: ‘Car missed us by inches’

A car collided with a number of pedestrians on Water Street just after 18:00, Merseyside Police said.

In a statement the force said: “We were contacted at just after 18:00 today, Monday 26 May, following reports a car had been in collision with a number of pedestrians on Water Street.

“The car stopped at the scene and a male has been detained.”

Police later said a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area had been arrested and that he was believed to be the driver.

The ambulance service said 27 people had been taken to hospital for treatment, with two, including one child, seriously injured.

Another 20 people were treated for injuries at the scene.

Four children were among the injured.

Four people including a child were lifted from beneath the car, Merseyside chief fire Nick Searle said.

The incident is not being treated as terror-related, police said.

Police only define events as terrorism if they are considered to have been intended to influence the government or intimidate the public for the purpose of “advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause”.

Video from the scene shows the car ploughing into the a group of people then speeding up before coming to a halt.

Other footage shows people striking the car after it stopped, with the back windscreen shattered.

Numerous emergency service vehicles attended the scene.

One eyewitness, BBC reporter Matt Cole, described seeing a car coming through the crowd that “just wasn’t stopping”.

He said it was being chased by a group of men “who were trying to bang on the side of it and throw things at it”.

He estimated the car was travelling at “more than 20 [mph]”.

He said his initial assumption was that the driver just wanted to “barge through crowds because they didn’t want to wait”.

Another witness, Matthew O’Carroll, 28, from Runcorn, saw the car approaching the top of Water Street.

He said the vehicle had been going at a “decent” speed and that the driver had been beeping as he went through the crowd.

Water Street is near the Strand, where moments before the incident occurred Liverpool FC had paraded the Premier League trophy from the top of a bus.

Thousands of people had come out to celebrate the team’s victory. The incident happened about a mile before the parade’s finishing point.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is being kept updated on the latest developments.

He posted on X: “The scenes in Liverpool are appalling – my thoughts are with all those injured or affected.

“I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the pictures were “deeply worrying”.

“My thoughts are with all those affected, and the emergency services as they respond to what appears a horrific incident,” she said.

Liverpool FC said it was in contact with the police and its “thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident”, while rivals Everton FC echoed the sentiment.

Liverpool said in a statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident. We will continue to offer our full support to the emergency services and local authorities who are dealing with this incident.”

Liverpool’s staff celebrations are understood to have been postponed because of the incident.

The Premier League has also released a statement, saying “everyone at the Premier League is shocked by the appalling events in Liverpool this evening, and our heartfelt thoughts go out to all those injured and affected.

“We have been in contact with Liverpool FC and have offered our full support following this serious incident.”

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotherham told the BBC a day of “absolute celebration” had been “overshadowed” by the incident. He urged the public to avoid speculation while police continue their investigation.