China says the US has “severely violated” their trade truce and that it will take strong measures to defend its interests.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Washington has “seriously undermined” the agreement reached during talks in Geneva last month, when both countries lowered tariffs on goods imported from each other.

The spokesperson added that US actions have also severely violated the consensus reached during a phone call in January between China’s leader Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.

The comments come after Trump said on Friday that China had “totally violated its agreement with us”.

The US President did not give details but Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later said China had not been removing non-tariff barriers as agreed under the deal.

Under the trade truce struck in May at a meeting in Geneva, the US lowered tariffs imposed on goods from China from 145% to 30%. China’s retaliatory tariffs on US goods dropped from 125% to 10%.

On Monday, Beijing said US violations of the agreement included stopping sales of computer chip design software to Chinese companies, warning against using chips made by Chinese tech giant Huawei, and cancelling visas for Chinese students.

The deal reached in Geneva came as a surprise to many analysts as it seemed that the two sides were incredibly far apart on many trade issues.

This showed that during face-to-face talks Washington and Beijing can reach agreements.

But as the rhetoric is once again ratcheting up, the fragility of the current truce has been highlighted and gives an indication of just how challenging it may be to reach a longer-term trade deal.

Although the fresh accusations may suggest that talks between Washington and Beijing are not going well, two top White House officials suggested on Sunday that Trump and Xi could hold talks soon.

Treasury Secretary Bessent told CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, that details of the trade will be “ironed out” once Xi and Trump speak, but he did not say exactly when that conversation is expected to happen.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC News that the two leaders are expected to talk this week and “both sides have expressed a willingness to talk”.

“The bottom line is that we’ve got to be ready in case things don’t happen the way we want,” Hassett said of the expected talks.

But the Chinese side prefers agreements to be done at a lower level first before they reach the desk of the president.

Last week, Trump announced the US would double its current tariffs on steel and aluminium from 25% to 50%, starting on Wednesday.

Speaking at a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Friday, Trump said the move would help boost the local steel industry and national supply, while reducing reliance on China.

The Australian woman accused of killing three relatives and gravely injuring another with a toxic mushroom meal has taken to the witness stand at her trial.

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to four charges – three of murder and one of attempted murder – over the beef wellington lunch at her regional Victorian house in July 2023.

Prosecutors argue she intentionally sought out death cap mushrooms and cooked them for her relatives, before lying to police and disposing of evidence.

However the defence case is that Patterson had unintentionally served poison to family members she loved, and then “panicked”.

Three people died in hospital in the days after the meal, including Ms Patterson’s former in-laws, Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.

A single lunch guest survived – local pastor Ian Wilkinson – after weeks of treatment in hospital.

Over six weeks, the jury in the Victorian Supreme Court has heard from more than 50 witnesses called by the prosecution, including Ms Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, and the surviving lunch guest, Ian.

It is now the defence’s turn to call witnesses, and first up was Ms Patterson herself.

The 50-year-old told the court that by 2023 she had felt for some months that her relationship with the wider Patterson family – Don and Gail in particular – had perhaps developed a bit more distance or space.

“We saw each other less,” she says.

“I’d come to have concerns that Simon was not wanting me to be involved too much with the family anymore.”

After detailing a brief period of separation between the couple when their first child was an infant, Erin Patterson told the court that she and Simon Patterson struggled to work out their disagreements.

“If we had any problems at all it was… we couldn’t communicate well when we disagreed about something,” she said.

“We would just feel hurt and not know how to resolve it.”

She also told the court about the traumatic birth of her first child in 2009, less than a year before the couple’s first break.

“He started to go into distress and they lost his heartbeat,” she said.

Her voice choking up, she explained doctors performed an emergency caesarean to get her son out quickly.

When he was ready to go home, Ms Patterson said she discharged herself from hospital against medical advice as she didn’t want to remain there alone.

The jury has heard that Ms Patterson discharged herself from hospital against medical advice in the days after the fatal lunch, which prosecutors earlier pointed to as evidence that she was not unwell.

However her barrister Colin Mandy in his opening address said she had done so at several occasions over her life.

Ms Patterson gave less than an hour of evidence before court broke up for the day, and will return to resume her testimony on Tuesday.

A Palestinian doctor whose children were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza on 23 May has died from injuries sustained in the same attack, health officials say.

Dr Hamdi al-Najjar, 40, had just returned from dropping his wife, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, off at Nasser Hospital, where the couple both worked, when their home in Khan Younis was struck. Nine of their children were killed, while the 10th was severely injured.

Hamdi was treated in hospital for brain and internal injuries but died on Saturday. Alaa and their 11-year-old son Adam, who remains in hospital, are the sole remaining survivors of the family.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time that the incident was being reviewed.

The couple founded a private medical compound in Khan Younis, of which Hamdi was the head. His brother, Dr Ali al-Najjar, described him as a loving father who would tend to poorer patients for free.

Their children Yahya, Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Rivan, Saydeen, Luqman and Sidra were all killed in the attack. The eldest was 12 years old and the youngest six-months, according to local media.

Hamdi sustained significant injuries to his brain, lungs, right arm, and kidney in the strike, Dr Milena Angelova-Chee, a Bulgarian doctor working at Nasser hospital, told the BBC last week.

Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in the hospital who operated on the surviving son, Adam, told the BBC that it was “unbearably cruel” that his mother Alaa, who spent years caring for children as a paediatrician, could lose almost all her own in a single strike.

He said that Adam’s “left arm was just about hanging off, he was covered in fragment injuries and he had several substantial lacerations.”

“Since both his parents are doctors, he seemed to be among the privileged group within Gaza, but as we lifted him onto the operating table, he felt much younger than 11.”

Italy’s government on Thursday offered to treat Adam after an appeal from his uncle, Dr Ali al-Najjar, who told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper that the Nasser hospital was ill-equipped to treat him.

“He needs to be taken away immediately, to a real hospital, outside of the Gaza Strip. I beg the Italian government to do something, take him, Italians save him,” he said.

“The Italian government has expressed its willingness to transfer the seriously injured boy to Italy,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it was studying the feasibility of the proposal.

At the time, the IDF said in response to reports of the strike that “an aircraft struck several suspects identified by IDF forces as operating in a building near troops in the Khan Younis area, a dangerous combat zone that had been evacuated of civilians in advance for their protection. The claim of harm to uninvolved individuals is being reviewed.”

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.

At least 54,418 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A Chinese Harvard graduate’s speech calling for unity in a divided world, delivered days after the US vowed to “aggressively” revoke Chinese students’ visas, has sparked mixed reactions in the US and her home country.

“We don’t rise by proving each other wrong. We rise by refusing to let one another go,” Jiang Yurong said on Thursday, the same day a US federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s ban on foreign students at Harvard.

Her speech went viral on the Chinese internet, with some saying it moved them to tears. However, others said her elite background is not representative of Chinese students.

In the US, some have flagged her alleged links with the Chinese Communist Party.

In their efforts to restrict Harvard from enrolling foreign students, US authorities had accused the institution of “co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”.

Ms Jiang, who studied international development, was the first Chinese woman to speak at a Harvard graduation ceremony.

In her address, Ms Jiang emphasised the value of Harvard’s international classrooms, noting how that taught her and her classmates to “dance through each other’s traditions” and “carry the weight of each other’s worlds”.

“If we still believe in a shared future, let us not forget: those we label as enemies – they, too, are human. In seeing their humanity, we find our own,” said Ms Jiang, who spent her final two years of school at Cardiff Sixth Form College in Wales before going to Duke University in the US for her undergraduate degree.

A conservative X account, with the handle @amuse, criticised Harvard for choosing a graduation speaker who is “a representative of a CCP-funded and monitored non-government organisation”, alleging that her father works for a non-government organisation that “serves as a quasi-diplomatic agent for the [party]”.

The account, which has 639,000 followers, has previously posted pro-Donald Trump content, such as the US leader fighting Darth Vader and sexualised imagery of former Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Some Chinese social media users, on the other hand, allege that the organisation Ms Jiang’s father works for is backed by prominent American companies and foundations.

The BBC has not independently verified these allegations.

“This is why she could get a scholarship to go to the UK for high school, and later also to Harvard,” wrote a user on China’s X-like platform, Weibo.

Others called for her to stay on in the US, with comments that reeked with sarcasm. “Such talent should be left to the United States,” one wrote. “I hope she will continue to glow abroad and stay away from us!” read another.

But Ms Jiang’s vision of a “shared humanity” also struck a chord.

“That she is able to stand on an international stage and speak the heart of Chinese students has moved me to tears,” wrote a user on Red Note, another Chinese social media platform.

Another user defended Jiang by hitting back at those who criticised her: “You may not have changed them, but they’ve heard you… As more and more people speak out like you, you will eventually move and change others.”

There are around 6,800 international students at Harvard, who make up more than 27% of its enrolments in the past academic year.

About a third of these foreign students are from China, and more than 700 are Indian.

From allegations of infidelity to swinging scandals, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives offers a look into a version of Mormon life far removed from traditional public perception.

Set in suburban Utah, the TV series follows a group of Mormon women – most of whom rose to fame on TikTok and became MomTok influencers – as they manage scandals, confront marital breakdowns and clash over everything from business ventures to party invitations.

But beneath the sensational plotlines is a more complex story about the evolving dynamics within a tight-knit community.

The group of Mormon mothers have been making content online for the past five years but say the concept of reality TV still feels very new to them.

“I’ve heard that eventually people learn how to play the reality TV game but that’s not us yet, we’re still trying to figure it out,” Jessi Ngatikaura tells the BBC. “So you’re getting to see the real us.”

What started off as a hobby has now become a job and the women speak openly on the show about the amount of money they make from reality TV and brand deals.

“It is totally our job now but we chose this and we could all walk away any time if we didn’t want to be part of it,” Jessi says.

Whitney Leavitt explains that “naturally dynamics will change when there’s more money and family involved and definitely some people get competitive” but reassures me the group are still friends off camera.

Across the two seasons of the show, Jessi and Whitney have had challenging storylines play out – Whitney is presented as the villain in season one and at the end of season two it is alleged Jessi has had an affair.

The pair speak candidly about the impact having your life watched and commented on by millions of people worldwide has had on them.

“It’s been hard coming to terms with the fact we have no control over the narrative and you don’t ever really get over it,” Whitney explains. “But you have to accept that and let it go.”

As the show follows the lives of nine friends, it’s easy to see how some of them may create more drama for themselves in order to guarantee some screen time but Jessi insists that’s not the case and no one “plays up but naturally emotions are heightened”.

“We’re actually recording four or five days a week so we don’t know what will make the final edit.”

Jessi says her explosive Halloween party was not manufactured by producers and there is just “naturally so much drama that we don’t need to create more just for the show”.

Given the intensity of drama and filming demands, the presence of strong aftercare is essential and both women praise the production for its duty of care standards.

“There are always therapists on hand and at first I was like why are Taylor and Jen having therapy all the time and now I’m having five or six hours of it a week,” Jessi confesses. “I’ve found it’s useful even if you’re not going through a hard time.”

Whitney also accessed some aftercare in season one after being presented as the villain of the show.

“It totally sucked being the villain and I was angry, had a lot of resentment and was really sad. There were so many overwhelming emotions for me but I was proud that instead of running away I stayed and had those hard conversations I didn’t want to have,” Whitney says.

Whitney was one of the members of the MomTok group that Taylor Frankie Paul publicly revealed was involved in “soft swinging”, something she denies and caused a rift to form in their friendship.

The open discussions around sex, marital affairs and alcohol on the show has caused some backlash from the Mormon church.

“When the first trailer came out there was some backlash from the church because they were scared but actually we’re showing you how we live the Mormon life and we all live it differently,” Whitney says.

Jessi adds the docudrama shows how “we are all normal and everyday girls, not people wearing bonnets and churning butter like you might think”.

The women say that not only has the church come to accept the show, they are also helping young women think about their faith differently.

“We’ve definitely influenced people to question their faith, dive deeper into it or be more honest about it and I’ve had messages from some people saying that they’re joining the church because of me,” Jessi says.

While their religion plays an important part of their life, they’re keen to tell me that they are not the face of Mormonism.

“There are Mormons who still get upset about it but we’re just showing our version of it and I think that’s empowering as hopefully people can relate to our stories and struggles.”

Adamu Yusuf’s life has been upended since he lost nine of his family members in Tiffin Maza, one of two communities in his town worst-hit by floods in north-central Nigeria.

The father-of-one, 36, said his wife and newborn baby were among those washed away in floods early on Thursday morning in Niger state.

“She was the one that woke me up when the flood hit, and I quickly gathered the family and told everyone to hold one another. As we stepped outside, we saw water everywhere in our living room and the compound. They panicked and we got disconnected.”

His wife and baby had only just returned to the town of Mokwa a day prior, after having stayed at his in-laws house for a few weeks after having given birth.

“I watched helplessly as water washed away my family. I survived because I could swim. It was God that saved me,” Mr Adamu said.

Local officials say the death toll has risen to more than 200 on Sunday, a sharp increase from 110 on Friday.

Another 500 people are missing and a local official told the BBC that rescue efforts had stopped because the authorities believe they are unlikely to be found alive.

The mood in the Tiffin Maza community on Saturday was one of grief, despair and loss.

Scattered clothes, soaked mattresses and crushed metal roofing sheets were some of the last remains of what are now hundreds of destroyed houses.

The structures still standing bear the harsh impact of the floods, with roofs washed off or some parts of the buildings destroyed.

Standing on a blue tiled floor, the only thing that points to where his bedroom once was, Mr Adamu looked around the vast empty space that has replaced his community.

“I lost everything to this flood. But the most painful is that of my family. The only valuable I have now is this cloth I am wearing which was even given to me by my friend.”

He said one relative has been found dead and he has “resigned to fate that others won’t return” to him alive.

Nineteen-year-old high school graduate, Isa Muhammed, has been inconsolable since he heard that his beloved teacher’s house was washed away while the teacher and eight members of his family were inside.

“Two have been found dead; one of them was his baby. My teacher, his second child, his sister and four other relatives are still missing. A building fell on his wife who wasn’t inside the house with them, and she died instantly.”

Mr Muhammed also lost family, remembering his uncle who died in the disaster.

“Uncle Musa was a very good friend to my late father. He took care of me since my dad died in 2023. He taught me to value education and always told me to do the right thing.

“Anytime I am alone and think about him, tears always roll down my cheeks. I haven’t been able to sleep since the incident happened,” Mr Muhammed said.

The water has now receded, and residents gathered on Saturday to offer condolences to the victims and also lend a hand in the search efforts.

Some residents told BBC News that the deluge was at least 7ft (2.1m) high in some parts of the community.

There was a strong foul smell around Tiffin Maza, and residents believe it is proof that there were dead bodies under the thick mud the floods washed up.

They are working to find them and give the dead a decent burial like they have done for others since Thursday.

“I have never seen that kind of floods before in my life, but I am grateful that my family survived it,” 65-year-old Ramat Sulaiman said.

Ms Sulaiman’s house was completely destroyed, rendering her family homeless.

She said 100 children who used to sleep in a Quranic school two blocks from her house “all got washed away”.

“It was a painful sight for me. The children cried for help, but no one could do anything. As their cries got louder, their building sunk and flowed away.”

Her son, Saliu, has been left homeless and broke.

“I lost at least $1,500 to the floods. It was the proceeds from the sale of my farm produce the previous day. I contemplated going back into the room to get it, but the pressure of the water scared me,” he said.

“I also lost eleven bags of groundnuts and seven bags of beans. My wife and I couldn’t pick anything from our room. But I am grateful we made it out on time. There were so many dead bodies in the water.”

He has been having nightmares since, he said.

“I am traumatised.”

Authorities are yet to confirm if a dam broke, exacerbating the impact of the recent floods as widely reported.

Mokwa District Head, Alhaji Muhammadu Shaba Aliyu, indicated to the BBC that there is a “reservoir” in the area that can spill out water “anytime there’s rain”, however he added that the magnitude of the flood is excessive.

Residents told BBC News they believed the floodwater was not caused by the heavy rainfall they had experienced.

“The rain couldn’t have caused the floods because it had subsided and there was no water anywhere. I was outside and suddenly I saw water gushing down in high speed and scattering everything on its path,” Mr Muhammed said.

Ms Sulaiman said: “When I woke up for prayers, I opened the door and looked outside and didn’t see any water. Moments later, I started hearing people screaming. We don’t know where it came from. Its source is a mystery.”

“For people that said the flood was as a result of the rain, they are lying. The rain had stopped before the flood started. Nobody knows the cause of this flood, it’s just from God,” Mr Adamu said.

Mokwa Deputy Local Chairman, Musa Alhaji Aliyu Kimboku, also dismissed that rain caused the flood.

Days after the devastating incident, he said neighbouring villages had been told to help bury “any corpse that they find”.

District head Mr Aliyu said some corpses were unrecoverable because they “went through the River Niger”.

Locals said the pressure of the floodwater was so intense that it washed up bodies to the town of Rabba, at least an hour’s drive from Mokwa.

The National Emergency Management Agency said those injured are receiving treatment, while displaced victims have been taken to resettlement camps and relief materials distributed.

The country’s Meteorological Agency has projected that the rainy season will last up to 200 days in central Nigeria this year, while it could linger for a longer period in mostly southern states.

At the beginning of May, the federal government launched a flood awareness campaign, to educate citizens on flood risks.

Thirty of the West African nation’s 36 states are at risk of flooding, and Niger state is one of them.

As victims salvage what they can from the ruins of their homes to start a new life, those that lost their loved ones like Mr Adamu said that they will never be able to heal, although they have accepted their fate.

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Almost 40 years on, it seems surprising there are still new stories to tell about the Lockerbie disaster.

The destruction of Pan Am 103 in the skies above the small Dumfries and Galloway town on 21 December 1988 is one of the most chronicled events in recent British history.

A bomb exploded in the plane’s cargo hold, causing the Boeing 747 to break up at 31,000ft as it flew from Heathrow to New York.

All 259 passengers and crew on board were killed, along with 11 people in Lockerbie who died when the plane fell on their homes. It remains the biggest terror attack to have taken place on British soil.

Coverage tends to focus on anniversaries, but the past six months have brought two big-budget television dramas and later this year a play about the town’s response to the disaster will debut at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre.

Now, a BBC Scotland documentary aims to tell some of the less well-known stories about those who died on the flight, and about those they left behind.

Among the victims on the plane was Tim Burman, a 24-year-old banker who was flying to New York to spend Christmas with his girlfriend, Rose Grant.

Tim was the youngest of four and the only boy. His three sisters – Rachel, Tanya and Fiona – remember him as an “arty, sporty” brother who was keen on the environment and loved running in the Scottish hills.

Tanya says: “He genuinely was easy-going and fun, really good fun”.

Rose, who Tim met while he was on a gap year in Australia, says: “I enjoyed his sense of humour, his style, sense of adventure, ability to get on with everyone.”

They all mourn his lost potential. His sister Tanya says: “He’s both the brother we had, but also a victim of Pan Am 103.”

Rose believes Tim and his death created a huge bond between them all.

“Tim is everywhere in the conversation and the mannerisms of Rachel, Tanya and Fiona,” she says.

“Our connection is held together by him still.”

Olive Gordon was 25 and a hairdresser from Birmingham.

She had bought a last-minute ticket on Pan Am 103 and was planning on enjoying some shopping in New York in the run up to Christmas.

“She was just yapping. She said ‘I’m going to America tomorrow. Going to buy stuff’. She loved shopping,” her sister Donna says.

Donna describes Olive as “very bubbly, very full on. You just would not forget her if you knew her”.

Olive was one of nine siblings.

“I have always asked ‘why her? why my sister?'” her brother Colyn says.

“And it’s something that you sort of battle with. And I’m still battling with it, a little bit. Well, not a little bit, a lot.”

Her family believe she would have been in business now, something involving hair and beauty.

“She would probably be an influencer right now,” Donna says.

William MacAllister, known as Billy, was a 26-year-old professional golfer from Mull. He was heading to the USA for a romantic break with his girlfriend Terri.

Her friends say Terri was hoping Billy was about to propose.

Fellow golf pro Stewart Smith worked with Billy at a course in London and remembers his friend as a natural comic with a zest for life.

“He was a very funny guy. Great sense of humour, great sense of fun,” he says.

“He had moved to Richmond Park, so I went across and worked with Billy. Imagine living in London in the mid-80s when you’re mid-20s, both of you.

“We had some great times.”

Back in Mull, family friends have put a memorial bench on the course at Tobermory, where they say Billy played every day after school and every weekend from the age of 12. They remember him as “some guy”.

Family friend Olive Brown says: “Every December I do have a wee sad moment, thinking he’s not here. All that potential, enthusiasm and ability got caught short.”

Colyn and other members of Olive Gordon’s family visited Lockerbie in the days after the disaster. It was a shocking scene.

“I remember the crater, this huge hole, and these little bits all over the place. It just had this smell. My God, my sister was found here. Somewhere here,” he says.

In the weeks that followed, members of the local community came together to wash, press and package up the belongings of those who had died on the plane.

The Lockerbie laundry has become a symbol of the kindness shown by the people of the town. They treated the dead and their families with love and care while coping with their own immeasurable trauma.

Colyn says: “Just thinking about it now makes me emotional. Because these people, they don’t know you, they’ve never met you. But the way they treated you is as if they were family.

“The people of Lockerbie showed how humanity works. How to display compassion, to display love. I’ll never forget them.

“I don’t know if it’s quite macabre to say this but I’ve always said I am glad that’s the place that my sister’s life was ended. Because of the type of people that live in this place.”

The events of the night of 21 December 1988 have resonated across the decades.

In 2001, a Libyan intelligence officer, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted of the bombing and 270 counts of murder, following a trial in front of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty.

Suffering from terminal prostate cancer, Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds in 2009.

He was returned to Libya and spent the next three years living in a villa in Tripoli before finally succumbing to his illness in 2012.

Ten years later, Libyan Abu Agila Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, was taken into American custody after being removed from his home in Tripoli.

He is awaiting trial in the USA, accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103.

Today, the town of Lockerbie remembers the disaster in its own, quiet, way.

Pupils from the secondary school can apply for a scholarship to spend a year at Syracuse University, in memory of 35 students from there who died in the bombing.

There is a memorial garden on the edge of the town, as well as plaques in Sherwood Crescent and Park Place, the two sites where most of the plane came down.

Nearby Tundergarth Church, which overlooks the field where the nose cone was found, is also a site of remembrance.

But more than anything, the Lockerbie bombing victims are remembered by those they left behind.

Every year in Tobermory, members at the golf club play for the cup which carries Billy MacAllister’s name.

And his friend Stewart has a special reason to remember him.

“He had a big impact on my life really because, had Billy not enticed me to go and work over at Richmond, I would probably have not got to know my then girlfriend, who became my wife. My life would have been a very different one from what it became,” he says.

“What a shame he didn’t get a chance to go on and fulfil his potential.”

For Rose, Tim’s early death has shaped the course of the past four decades for all those who loved him.

“I think the gift that Tim’s given us is to live our lives. I always feel that I owe that to him. Get out and do it.”

Olive’s death has had the same effect on Colyn and their siblings.

“Olive would have wanted us to live a good life, a full life. Like how she lived. Having a good time.”

The FBI says an attack in Boulder, Colorado, that injured eight people was a “targeted act of violence”, and they are investigating it as an “act of terrorism”.

A group of people had gathered for a “regularly scheduled, weekly, peaceful event”, which was organised by Run for Their Lives, an organisation that raises awareness for Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

The FBI said that, according to witnesses, a suspect threw an incendiary device into the group of people, and used a “makeshift flamethrower” to attack them. They said a suspect had been identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45. Mr Soliman was taken to hospital shortly after the attack, the FBI said.

Police said they were “fairly confident” that they had the lone suspect in custody. There was no evidence the suspect was connected to a wider group.

“The suspect was heard to yell ‘Free Palestine’ during the attack,” said special agent in charge of the Denver field office of the FBI, Mark Michalek.

He added: “It is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism.”

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Boulder County jail records indicate that Mohamed Sabry Soliman was booked on a number of charges including attempted murder, assault and use of an explosive device.

He was also charged with murder, however Boulder Police Department confirmed on Monday none of the victims have died. The reasons for the murder charge were not immediately clear. The BBC has contacted Boulder County sheriffs and Boulder police.

Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said he did not believe anyone else was involved. “We’re fairly confident we have the lone suspect in custody,” he said.

The 45-year-old is an Egyptian national, government officials confirmed to the BBC’s broadcast partner, CBS News, in Colorado.

In 2022, Mr Soliman arrived in California on a non-immigrant visa that expired in February 2023, multiple sources have told CBS News. He had recently been living in Colorado Springs.

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a post on X that the suspect “is illegally in our country” and had filed for asylum in September 2022.

Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, said on X that Mr Soliman was given a work permit by the Biden administration after he had overstayed his visa.

There are eight victims, aged between 52 and 88. Four are women and four are men. All of them have been taken to hospitals with burns and other injuries. The injuries range from “minor” to “very serious”.

The eldest of the victims is a Holocaust survivor, Rabbi Israel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado Boulder, has told CBS.

Wilhelm described the 88-year-old as a “very loving person”.

Run for their Lives holds walking and running events around the world calling for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, according to their website.

It says its events are not protests, but “peaceful walks”.

Their website says there are currently 230 active groups around the world, with the majority in North America and Europe.

The groups meet once a week for a 1km walk wearing red T-shirts. They also carry national flags of the citizens who are among the hostages still held in Gaza.

The Run for their Lives Instagram account has more than 6,000 followers. Their Facebook group has more than 2,000 members.

The movement was started by a group of Israelis in California, but local events are “independently led”, according to their website.

The investigations continue and more briefings from the police and the FBI are expected on Monday.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said her department is working with “interagency partners, including the FBI”, and would share more information when it becomes available.

“We are praying for the victims and their families. This violence must stop,” she said.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, released a statement saying he was “shocked” by the incident, which he called “pure antisemitism”.

The Jewish community in Boulder released a statement saying: “Our hearts go out to those who witnessed this horrible attack, and prayers for a speedy recovery to those who were injured… When events like this enter our own community, we are shaken.”

This is the second high-profile attack on the Jewish community in recent days.

Two young people were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC by a gunman who shouted “Free Palestine”.

Data from the Anti-Defamation League suggests antisemitic incidents spiked to a record level in 2023 and again in 2024.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is at the centre of a political firestorm after he approved a law that gives the state the power to expropriate some privately owned land without compensation for owners.

The law, which is yet to be implemented, has drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump, who sees it as discriminating against white farmers.

Centre-right political parties and lobby groups in South Africa have also opposed it, saying they will challenge the Expropriation Act – as the law is named – in court on the grounds that it threatens property rights.

Ramaphosa’s government says the law provides for compensation to be paid in the vast majority of cases – and the changes are needed to increase black ownership of land.

Most private farmland is still owned by white people.

When Nelson Mandela came to power more than 30 years ago, ending the racist system of apartheid, it was promised that this would be rectified through a willing-buyer, willing-seller land reform programme – but critics say this has proved too slow and too costly.

In rare circumstances it would be land that was needed for the “public interest”, legal experts told the BBC.

According to South African law firm Werksmans Attorneys, this suggested it would mainly, or perhaps only, happen in relation to the land reform programme.

Although it could also be used to access natural resources such as minerals and water, the firm added, in an opinion written by its experts in the field, Bulelwa Mabasa and Thomas Karberg.

Mabasa and Karberg told the BBC that in their view, productive agricultural land could not be expropriated without compensation.

They said any expropriation without compensation – known as EWC – could take place only in a few circumstances:

• For example, when an owner was not using the land and was holding it for “speculative purposes”
• Or when an owner “abandoned the land by failing to exercise control over it despite being reasonably capable of doing so”.

Owners would probably still get compensation for the buildings on the land and for the natural resources, the lawyers said.

Mabasa and Karberg added that EWC was “not aimed at rural land or farmland specifically, and could include land in urban areas”.

However, in cases where compensation is paid, the rules are set to change, with owners likely to get less money.

The plan is for owners to receive “just-and-equitable” compensation – a departure from the higher “market value” they have been getting up to now, Mabasa and Karberg said.

The government had been paying market-value compensation despite the fact that this was “at odds” with the constitution, adopted after white-minority rule ended in 1994, they added.

The lawyers said that all expropriations had “extensive procedural fairness requirements”, including the owner’s right to go to court if they were not happy.

The move away from market-value compensation will also apply to land expropriated for a “public purpose” – like building state schools or railways.

This has not been a major point of controversy, possibly because it is “hardly a novel concept” – a point made by JURISTnews, a legal website run by law students from around the world.

“The US Constitution, for instance, provides that the government can seize private property for public use so long as ‘just compensation’ is provided,” it added.

The government hopes so.

University of Western Cape land expert Prof Ruth Hall told the BBC that more than 80,000 land claims remain unsettled.

In the eastern regions of South Africa, many black people work on farms for free – in exchange they are allowed to live there and keep their livestock on a portion of the owners’ land, she said.

The government wants to transfer ownership of this land to the workers, and it was “unfair” to expect it to pay the market value, Prof Hall added.

Over the last three decades, the government has used existing powers to expropriate property–- with less than market-value compensation – in fewer than 20 cases, she said.

The new law was aimed at making it easier and cheaper to restore land to black people who were “dispossessed” of it during white-minority rule or were forced to be “long-term tenants” as they could not own land, Prof Hall added.

“It’s a bargaining chip,” she said.

But she doubts that the government will press ahead with implementing the law in the foreseeable future as the “political cost” has become too high.

The academic was referring to the fact that Trump has opposed the law, saying it discriminates against white farmers and their land was being “seized” – a charge the government denies.

In February, Trump cut aid to South Africa, and in April he announced a 30% tariff on South African goods and agricultural products, although this was later paused for 90 days.

This was followed by last month’s infamous Oval Office showdown when Trump ambushed Ramaphosa with a video and printouts of stories alleging white people were being persecuted – much of his dossier has been discredited.

• Fact-checking Trump’s Oval Office confrontation with Ramaphosa

Like Trump, the second-biggest party in Ramaphosa’s coalition government, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is opposed to the legislation.

In a statement on 26 May, the party said that its top leadership body had rejected the notion of “nil compensation”.

However, it has agreed with the concept of just-and-equitable compensation rather than market-value compensation, adding it should be “adjudicated by a court of law”.

Surprisingly, Jaco Kleynhans of the Solidarity Movement, an influential Afrikaner lobby group, said that while the new law could “destroy” some businesses and he was opposed to it, he did not believe it would lead to the “large-scale expropriation of farmland”.

“I don’t see within the wording of this text that that will happen,” he said in a recent panel discussion at an agricultural exhibition held in South Africa’s Free State province – where a large number of conservative Afrikaner farmers live.

The South African Property Owners Association said it was “irrational” to give “nil compensation” to an owner who held land for speculative purposes.

“There are many landowners whose sole purpose of business is to speculate in land. They do not get the land for free and they have significant holding costs,” the association said, adding it had no doubt the law would be “abundantly tested” in the courts.

Mabasa and Karberg said one view was that the concept of EWC was a “legal absurdity” because “intrinsic in the legal definition of expropriation, is a requirement for compensation to be paid”.

However, the lawyers pointed out the alternative view was that South Africa’s constitution “implicitly recognises that it would in some circumstances be just and equitable for compensation to be nil”.

South Africa’s Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson has defended the legislation, breaking ranks with his party, the DA.

In fact he is in charge of the new legalisation and, on a discussion panel, he explained that while he had some concerns about the law, it was a “dramatic improvement” on the previous Expropriation Act, with greater safeguards for owners.

He said the law could also help end extortionist demands on the state, and in some cases “nil compensation” – which he argued was different from EWC – could be justified.

He gave as an example the problems being faced by the state-owned power utility Eskom.

It plans to roll out a transmission network over about 4,500km (28,000 miles) of land to boost electricity supplies to end the power crisis in the country.

Ahead of the roll-out, some individuals colluded with Eskom officials to buy land for 1m rand ($56,000; £41,000), and then demanded R20m for it, he said.

“Is it just and equitable to give them what they want? I don’t think that’s in the interest of the broader community or the state,” Macpherson said.

Giving another example, Macpherson said that some of South Africa’s inner cities were in a “disastrous” condition. After owners left, buildings were “over-run” and “hijacked” for illegal occupation. The cost to the state to rebuild them could exceed their value, and in such cases the courts could rule that an owner qualified for “nil compensation”, he said.

“Nil is a form of compensation,” Macpherson added, while ruling it out for farms.

Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero told South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper that he wanted to use the buildings for the “public good”, like accommodating around 300,000 people on the housing waiting list.

He added the owners of nearly 100 buildings could not be located.

“They have abandoned the buildings,” he said, adding some of the owners were from the UK and Germany.

But Mabasa and Karberg told the BBC that in such cases compensation would probably still have to be paid for the buildings, though not the land.

If the state could not locate the owners, it “must deposit the compensation with the Master of the High Court” in case they returned or could be traced later, they said.

The law is in limbo, as Ramaphosa – about four months after giving his assent to it – has still not set a date for its implementation.

Nor is he likely to do so anytime soon, as he would not want to further antagonise Trump while South Africa was trying to negotiate a trade deal with the US.

And on the domestic front, the DA is spearheading opposition to the legislation. It said it wanted a “judicial review” of it, while at the same time it was pressing ahead with court action to challenge the law’s constitutionality.

The DA’s tough line is in contrast with that of Macpherson, who, a few weeks ago, warned that if the law was struck down in its entirety: “I don’t know what’s going to come after that.

“In politics, sometimes you must be careful what you wish for because often you can get it,” he said.

His comments highlight the deep fissures in South African politics, with some parties, such as Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), believing that the legislation did not go far enough to tackle racial inequality in land ownership.

With land such an emotive issue, there is no easy solution to the dispute – and it is likely to continue to cause tensions within South Africa, as well as with the US president.

• Rebuked by Trump but praised at home: How Ramaphosa might gain from US showdown
• Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?
• South Africans’ anger over land set to explode

The striking feature of this election has been the leading opposition candidate, Lee Jae-myung, campaigning in a bullet-proof vest.

At a recent rally, he was escorted to the podium by close protection officers, ready to shield him with their ballistic briefcases. He then addressed the crowd from behind bullet-proof glass, under the gaze of rooftop watchers.

This is not South Korean politics as usual. But South Korea has not been itself lately.

It is still recovering from the martial law crisis last December, when the president, Yoon Suk Yeol, tried to orchestrate a military takeover.

He failed, because of resistance from the public and politicians, and was impeached, triggering this snap election to choose his successor.

But the chaos Yoon unleashed that night has festered.

While stuck in limbo, without a president, the country has become more polarised and its politics more violent.

At street protests earlier this year it became commonplace to chant for various political leaders to be executed. And since launching his presidential bid, Lee has been receiving death threats, and his team say they have even uncovered a credible plot to assassinate him.

This election is an opportunity to steer South Korea back onto safer, more stable ground, and heal these fractures.

Given this, the ruling party was always going to struggle, marred by President Yoon’s self-defeating coup. But rather than break away from the disgraced former president, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) has chosen a candidate who repeatedly defended Yoon and his actions.

Kim Moon-soo, Yoon’s former labour minister, was the only cabinet member who refused to stand and apologise during a parliamentary hearing into martial law. He said sorry only well into his campaign, after he had won Yoon’s public endorsement.

This has turned the election into more of a referendum on martial law than anything else. Given most of the public overwhelmingly rejected the move, it has also virtually gilded the path for the opposition leader Lee, who famously livestreamed himself scaling the walls of the parliament complex, to get inside and vote down the president’s order.

Now the Democratic Party politician portrays himself as the only candidate who can ensure this never happens again. He has said he will change the constitution to make it more difficult for future presidents to declare martial law.

“We must prevent the return of the rebellion forces,” Lee urged voters at his recent rally from behind fortified glass.

Such promises have pulled in people from across the political spectrum. “I didn’t like Lee before, but since martial law I now trust and depend on him,” said 59-year-old Park Suh-jung, who admitted this was the first time she had attended a political event.

One man in his 50s said he was a member of another smaller political party, but had decided to back Lee this time: “He is the only person who can end Yoon’s martial law insurrection. We need to stop those who destroyed our democracy.”

Most recent polls put Lee about 10 points ahead of his rival Kim, but he was not always so popular. This is his second time running for president, having lost out to Yoon three years ago. He is a divisive character, who has been embroiled in a series of court cases and political scandals. There are many who do not trust him, who loathe him even.

Kim, hoping to capitalise on this, has branded himself “the fair and just candidate”. It is a slogan his supporters have adopted, many seemingly backing him not for his policies, but because he is not Lee.

“I don’t like Kim but at this point there’s no real choice. The other candidate has too many issues,” said one elderly woman who is planning to vote for him.

Kim has charted an unusual political path. As a student who campaigned for workers’ rights, he was tortured and imprisoned under South Korea’s right-wing dictatorship in the 1980s but then moved sharply to the right himself.

He was picked by the party base, many of whom are still loyal to Yoon. The party leadership, realising he was not the best choice, tried to replace him at the last minute with a more moderate, experienced politician, only to be blocked by furious members.

This has left the party weak and divided, with many suspecting it will splinter into rival factions after voting day. “Haven’t we already imploded?” one party insider said to me recently, their face crumpled in their hands. “This is a miserable campaign.”

“Choosing Kim is the biggest mistake the conservative party have made in this election, and they do know that. They will have to be held accountable for this decision,” said Jeongmin Kim, the executive director of Korea Pro, a Seoul-based news and analysis service.

Lee has seized this opportunity to hoover up centrist votes. He has shifted his policies to the right, and even claimed his left-leaning party is, in fact, conservative.

This, despite his reputation as a staunch leftist. He grew up in a slum outside Seoul, working in factories rather than attending school, and is someone who has previously quoted US senator Bernie Sanders.

But gone are his previous pledges to introduce a universal basic income. This time, he is courting South Korea’s powerful conglomerate businesses, the chaebols. He has even incorporated the conservative colour red into his own blue logo, and hits the campaign trail wearing red and blue trainers.

He has rebranded his foreign policy too. Typically, his Democratic Party is cautious about Korea’s security alliance with the US, preferring to prioritise relations with China and North Korea.

But Lee is casting himself as a “pragmatist” who can adapt to a changing security environment. “The US-Korea alliance is the backbone of our national security. It should be strengthened and deepened,” he said in a recent televised debate.

All this has left voters and diplomats here unsure of what he really stands for, and what he will do if elected – though this seems to be the point.

Ms Kim, Korea Pro’s analyst, believes his makeover is more genuine than might appear. “He was already high up in the polls, so he didn’t need to work hard to win votes,” she said. “I think he is playing a longer game. He wants to be a popular leader, someone who can be trusted by more than half of the country.”

Bringing the country together will be the biggest challenge for whoever wins.

When people vote on Tuesday, it will be six months to the day since they came out onto the streets to resist a military takeover.

After months of chaos, they are desperate to move forward, so the country can start addressing pressing issues that have been on hold, including tariff negotiations with US President Donald Trump.

But more than anything they hope this election can restore their own confidence in their democracy, which has been badly shaken.

At a baseball game in the capital Seoul last week – arguably the only place where Koreans are as tribal as they are about politics – both sides were united, acutely aware of this election’s importance.

“I’m really concerned about our democracy,” said Dylan, a data engineer. “I hope we have the power to save it and make it greater than before. My vote is a piece of power.”

“The next president needs to show people clearly and transparently what he is doing,” said one man in his mid-20s. “We need to watch him carefully.”

If Lee is to win, and by the margin the polls suggest, he would have a solid mandate, as well as control of parliament, giving him three years to implement major political reforms.

That could be good for rebuilding South Korea’s stability but would come with its own challenges, said the political analyst Ms Kim.

“If Lee wins, he will have a lot of power. {Given how Yoon behaved} he will need to be very responsible when using it.”

The UK will build “up to” 12 new attack submarines, the prime minister has announced, as the government unveils its major defence review on Monday.

The new conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines will replace the seven-strong Astute class from the late 2030s onwards.

The review is expected to recommend the armed forces move to “warfighting readiness” to deter growing threats faced by the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer said the government will adopt a “Nato-first” stance towards defence, so that everything it does adds to the strength of the alliance.

The threat posed by Moscow has been a key part of the government’s pitch ahead of Monday’s review, led by ex-Labour defence secretary Lord Robertson, which was commissioned by Labour shortly after it took office last July.

The report will make 62 recommendations, which the government is expected to accept in full.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of its publication, Sir Keir said the danger posed by Russia “cannot be ignored” and the “best way” to deter conflict was to prepare for it.

The government has committed to increasing UK defence spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of national income by 2027, a move welcomed by opposition parties amid a growing consensus on boosting military expenditure.

The PM told an audience at the BAE Systems’ shipyard in Govan, Glasgow that he was “100% confident” the plans – including £15bn on nuclear warheads and thousands of new long-range weapons – could be delivered on current funding plans.

But the run-up to the review’s release has been dominated by a political row over when UK spending should hit the next milestone of 3%.

The government says it has an “ambition” to hit the target by 2034 at the latest, after the next general election, but the Conservatives say the move – which would hike spending by around £20bn a year – should be met by the end of the decade.

Sir Keir said he would only commit the government to a timescale when he knew how it could be paid for, adding a date would otherwise be “performative”.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said Labour’s review should be “taken with a pinch of salt” unless the government showed there would be enough money to pay for it.

The Liberal Democrats have said Labour’s 2034 timeline is “far too late” and have suggested an earlier date should be found in cross-party talks.

The party’s defence spokesperson Helen Maguire called for a “concrete commitment” on funding to back up the submarines announcement, adding that Labour had left “serious questions” over how the project would be financed.

Other announcements in the review will include:

• Commitment to £1.5bn to build six new factories to enable an “always on” munitions production capacity
• Building up to 7,000 long-range weapons including missiles or drones in the UK, to be used by British forces
• Pledge to set up a “cyber and electromagnetic command” to boost the military’s defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace
• Extra £1.5bn to 2029 to fund repairs to military housing
• £1bn on technology to speed up delivery of targeting information to soldiers

Defence Secretary John Healey has signalled he is not aiming to increase the overall size of the Army before the next general election.

On Sunday, he said his “first job” was to reverse a decline in numbers with a target to return to a strength of 73,000 full-time soldiers “in the next Parliament”.

The Astute class is the Royal Navy’s current fleet of attack submarines, which have nuclear-powered engines and are armed with conventional torpedoes and missiles.

As well as protecting maritime task groups and gathering intelligence, they protect the Vanguard class of submarines that carry the UK’s Trident nuclear missiles.

The sixth submarine in the current Astute series was launched last October, with the seventh, the final one in the series, currently under construction.

The next generation of attack submarines that will replace them, SSN-AUKUS, have been developed with the Australian Navy under a deal announced in 2021 under the previous Conservative government.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it expected the rollout of the new generation would see a submarine built every 18 months.

It added the construction programme would see a “major expansion of industrial capability” at BAE Systems’ shipbuilding site in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, as well as the Derby site of Rolls-Royce, which makes nuclear reactors.

Meanwhile work on modernising the warheads carried by Trident missiles is already under way.

The £15bn investment into the warhead programme will back the government’s commitments to maintain the continuous-at-sea nuclear deterrent.

In his announcement on Monday, Sir Keir is to repeat a Labour manifesto commitment to deliver the Dreadnought class of nuclear-armed submarines, which are due to replace the ageing Vanguard fleet from the early 2030s onwards.

The MoD’s Defence Nuclear Enterprise accounts for 20% of its budget and includes the cost of building four Dreadnought class submarines.

Authorities in India have arrested a man for trying to smuggle dozens of rare reptiles, including venomous snakes, into the country.

The Indian citizen, who was returning from Thailand, was stopped by customs officials at the airport in Mumbai city on Sunday.

Officials said the reptiles, including 47 venomous vipers, were found concealed in the man’s checked-in luggage.

The reptiles have been seized under various wildlife protection laws in India.

The passenger has not been named and as he is in custody. He has not commented on his arrest.

Customs officials have released photographs on X of colourful snakes squirming in a dish.

In their post, they said they had seized three spider-tailed horned vipers, five Asian leaf turtles and 44 Indonesian pit vipers from the passenger.

It isn’t clear where the reptiles had been sourced from.

• Leopard cub found in passenger’s luggage at Indian airport
• Rare Madagascar tortoises seized at Mumbai airport

While it is not illegal to import animals into the country, India’s wildlife protection law bans the import of certain species, including those classified as endangered or protected by the government.

A passenger also needs to get the required permits and licenses before importing any wildlife.

Reports of customs officials seizing banned wildlife from passengers trying to smuggle them into the country are not uncommon.

In January, Indian authorities arrested a Canadian man at the Delhi airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage and month later, officials at the Mumbai airport stopped a passenger carrying five Siamang gibbons, a small ape native to the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

The gibbons, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, were concealed in a plastic crate placed inside the passenger’s trolley bag.

In November, customs officers arrested two passengers returning from Bangkok for carrying12 exotic turtles.

In 2019, officials at the Chennai airport seized a horned pit viper snake, five Iguanas, four blue-tongued skinks, three green tree frogs and 22 Egyptian tortoises from a man travelling from Thailand.

Northern Ireland-born fashion designer Jonathan Anderson has announced he is to take on the role of creative director of both women’s and men’s collections at Dior.

In April, Anderson confirmed he was to become the artistic director of the luxury French fashion house menswear, one month after stepping back as creative director at Loewe after more than 10 years in the job.

He becomes the first designer to head both the women’s and men’s lines at the well-known brand.

The 40-year-old, who was born in Magherafelt in County Londonderry, said it was a “great honour” to take on the role.

“I have always been inspired by the rich history of this House, its depth, and empathy,” he said in an Instagram post on Monday.

“I look forward to working alongside its legendary Ateliers to craft the next chapter of this incredible story.”

Anderson is to take on the womenswear collection after its artistic director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, announced her departure after almost a decade in the job last week.

In January, British designer Kim Jones stepped down as artistic director for Dior’s menswear.

Anderson’s move to Dior is part of a major reshuffling of jobs at global fashion brands following some resignations and forced departures.

He is set to debut his first collection, Dior Men Summer 2026, during Paris Fashion Week on 27 June.

Bernard Arnault, chair of luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVHM) and Dior’s parent company, described Anderson as “one of the greatest creative talents of his generation”.

“His incomparable artistic signature will be a crucial asset in writing the next chapter of the history of the House of Dior.”

Dior’s chairperson, Delphine Arnault, said she is “delighted” that Anderson’s creativity will be brought to life at the House.

“I have followed his career with great interest since he joined the LVMH group over 10 years ago,” she said in a statement.

“I am convinced he will bring a creative and modern vision to our House, inspired by the fabulous story of Monsieur Dior and the codes he created.”

Anderson is known for his innovative styles and gender-fluid designs, and has created some iconic and recognisable looks throughout his career.

In 2023, he crafted Rihanna’s Super Bowl half-time performance outfit, which she used to announce her pregnancy and Ariana Grande’s 2024 Met Gala gown.

Anderson trained at the London College of Fashion, before beginning his career in Prada’s marketing department.

He launched his eponymous brand JW Anderson in 2008, before being appointed as the creative director at Loewe – a Spanish leather goods brand founded in 1846 – in 2013.

One of his designs, a colourful patchwork crochet cardigan worn by singer Harry Styles which inspired a viral TikTok trend amongst fans during the Covid-19 pandemic, was added to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum fashion collection earlier this year.

Anderson has won a number of high-profile awards, including Designer of the Year at the 2024 Fashion Awards in December for the second year in a row.

He is also the son of former Ireland rugby captain, Willie Anderson.

It’s a grim paradox, doctors say.

On the one hand, antibiotics are being overused until they no longer work, driving resistance and fuelling the rise of deadly superbugs. On the other hand, people are dying because they can’t access these life-saving drugs.

A new study by the non-profit Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) looked at access to antibiotics for nearly 1.5 million cases of carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative (CRGN) infections across eight major low- and middle-income countries, including India, Brazil and South Africa. CRGN bacteria are superbugs resistant to last-line antibiotics – yet only 6.9% of patients received appropriate treatment in the countries studied.

India bore the lion’s share of CRGN infections and treatment efforts, procuring 80% of the full courses of studied antibiotics but managing to treat only 7.8% of its estimated cases, the study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal reports. (A full drug course of antibiotics refers to the complete set of doses that a patient needs to take over a specific period to fully treat an infection.)

Common in water, food, the environment and the human gut, Gram-negative bacteria cause infections such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia and food poisoning.

They can pose a serious threat to newborns and the elderly alike. Especially vulnerable are hospital patients with weakened immunity, often spreading rapidly in ICUs and proving difficult – and sometimes impossible – to treat. Treating carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections is doubly difficult because those bacteria are resistant to some of the most powerful antibiotics.

“These infections are a daily reality across all age groups,” says Dr Abdul Ghafur, infectious disease consultant at Apollo Hospital in India’s Chennai city. “We often see patients for whom no antibiotic works – and they die.”

The irony is cruel. While the world tries to curb antibiotic overuse, a parallel tragedy plays out quietly in poorer nations: people dying from treatable infections because the right drugs are out of reach.

“For years, the dominant narrative has been that antibiotics are being overused, but the stark reality is that many people with highly drug-resistant infections in low- and middle-income countries are not getting access to the antibiotics they need,” says Dr Jennifer Cohn, GARDP’s Global Access Director and senior author of the study.

• India’s ‘blockbuster’ drugs to take on deadly superbugs
• India facing a pandemic of antibiotics-resistant superbugs

The study examined eight intravenous drugs active against carbapenem-resistant bacteria – ranging from older antibiotics including Colistin to newer ones such as Ceftazidime-avibactam. Of the few available drugs, Tigecycline was the most widely used.

Researchers blame the treatment gap on weak health systems and limited access to effective antibiotics.

For example, only 103,647 full treatment courses were procured of Tigecycline across eight countries – far short of the 1.5 million patients who needed them, the study found. This highlighted a major shortfall in the global response to drug-resistant infections.

What prevents patients with drug-resistant infections in India from getting the right antibiotics?

Physicians point to multiple barriers – reaching the right health facility, getting accurate diagnostic tests, and accessing effective drugs. Cost remains a major hurdle, with many of these antibiotics priced far beyond the reach of poorer patients.

“Those who can afford these antibiotics often overuse them; those who can’t, don’t get them at all,” says Dr Ghafur. “We need a system that ensures access for the poor and prevents misuse by the well-to-do.”

To improve access, these drugs must be made more affordable. To prevent misuse, stronger regulation is key.

“Ideally, every antibiotic prescription in hospitals should require a second sign-off – by an infection specialist or microbiologist,” says Dr Ghafur. “Some hospitals do this, but most don’t. With the right oversight, regulators can ensure this becomes standard practice.”

To fix the access problem and curb misuse, both smarter policies and stronger safeguards are essential, say researchers. But access alone won’t solve the crisis – the pipeline of new antibiotics is drying up. The decline in antibiotic R&D – and the limited availability of existing drugs – is a global issue.

India bears one of the world’s heaviest burdens of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but it may also hold the key to combating it – both at home and globally, researchers say.

“India is also one of the largest markets for new antibiotics and can successfully advocate for the development and access of new antibiotics,” says Dr Cohn. With a strong pharmaceutical base, the country is emerging as a hub for AMR innovation, from promising new antibiotics to advanced diagnostics.

Dr Cohn says India can strengthen its antibiotic response by generating local data to better estimate needs and pinpoint gaps in the care pathway.

This would allow for more targeted interventions to improve access to the right drugs.

Innovative models are already emerging – Kerala state, for instance, is using a “hub-and-spoke approach” to support lower-level facilities in managing serious infections. Coordinated or pooled procurement across hospitals or states could also reduce the cost of newer antibiotics, as seen with cancer drug programmes, researchers say.

Without access to the right antibiotics, modern medicine begins to unravel – doctors risk losing the ability to safely perform surgery, treat complications in cancer patients, or manage everyday infections.

“As an infectious disease doctor, I see appropriate use as one part – but only one part – of access,” says Dr Ghafur. “When we get new antibiotics, it’s important to save them on one hand – and save them for right patients.”

Clearly, the challenge is not just to use antibiotics wisely, but to ensure they reach those who need them most.

An al-Qaeda linked group says it carried out a major attack on the Malian town of Boulikessi, and seized control of an army base.

More than 30 soldiers were killed in Sunday’s attack, according to sources quoted by the Reuters news agency, however that figure has not been confirmed by the authorities.

On Monday the same group, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), says it targeted the military in the historic city of Timbuktu, with residents reporting hearing gunfire and explosions.

In a statement responding to Sunday’s attack, Mali’s army said it “reacted vigorously”, before “withdrawing” – suggesting a tactical retreat.

“Many men fought, some until their last breath, to defend the Malian nation,” the statement added.

An unnamed local source told Reuters that JNIM had left many casualties and “cleared the camp”.

Unverified video footage showed dozens of militants pouncing on the base, including one which captured them stepping on bodies, according to Reuters.

In Monday’s attack, JNIM said its fighters had attacked a military airport and Russian mercenaries.

Military and security sources told the AFP news agency they were “fighting back”, but that the militants were “everywhere in the city”.

A local official said the attackers had arrived “with a vehicle packed with explosives” that detonated close to the army camp.

Timbuktu, a UN World Heritage Site, was captured by Islamist militants in 2012 before they were driven out, but has once more been under siege in recent years.

The attacks, the latest sign of collapsing security in Mali and the wider Sahel region, came after the United States Africa Command warned about growing efforts by various different Islamist militant groups which operate in the Sahel to gain access to West Africa’s coastline.

During a press conference on Friday, the commander of United States Africa Command (Africom), Gen Michael Langley, described recent attacks in Nigeria, the wider Sahel, and the Lake Chad Basin as deeply troubling, warning that the groups’ access to the coast would significantly boost their capacity for smuggling and arms trafficking.

It is thought that more than 400 soldiers have been killed by militants since the beginning of last month in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Reuters reports.

• Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to form joint force to fight jihadists
• The region with more ‘terror deaths’ than rest of world combined
• ‘I thought I would die’ – freed captive tells BBC of life in West African jihadist base

A Chinese Harvard graduate’s speech calling for unity in a divided world, delivered days after the US vowed to “aggressively” revoke Chinese students’ visas, has sparked mixed reactions in the US and her home country.

“We don’t rise by proving each other wrong. We rise by refusing to let one another go,” Jiang Yurong said on Thursday, the same day a US federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s ban on foreign students at Harvard.

Her speech went viral on the Chinese internet, with some saying it moved them to tears. However, others said her elite background is not representative of Chinese students.

In the US, some have flagged her alleged links with the Chinese Communist Party.

In their efforts to restrict Harvard from enrolling foreign students, US authorities had accused the institution of “co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”.

Ms Jiang, who studied international development, was the first Chinese woman to speak at a Harvard graduation ceremony.

In her address, Ms Jiang emphasised the value of Harvard’s international classrooms, noting how that taught her and her classmates to “dance through each other’s traditions” and “carry the weight of each other’s worlds”.

“If we still believe in a shared future, let us not forget: those we label as enemies – they, too, are human. In seeing their humanity, we find our own,” said Ms Jiang, who spent her final two years of school at Cardiff Sixth Form College in Wales before going to Duke University in the US for her undergraduate degree.

A conservative X account, with the handle @amuse, criticised Harvard for choosing a graduation speaker who is “a representative of a CCP-funded and monitored non-government organisation”, alleging that her father works for a non-government organisation that “serves as a quasi-diplomatic agent for the [party]”.

The account, which has 639,000 followers, has previously posted pro-Donald Trump content, such as the US leader fighting Darth Vader and sexualised imagery of former Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Some Chinese social media users, on the other hand, allege that the organisation Ms Jiang’s father works for is backed by prominent American companies and foundations.

The BBC has not independently verified these allegations.

“This is why she could get a scholarship to go to the UK for high school, and later also to Harvard,” wrote a user on China’s X-like platform, Weibo.

Others called for her to stay on in the US, with comments that reeked with sarcasm. “Such talent should be left to the United States,” one wrote. “I hope she will continue to glow abroad and stay away from us!” read another.

But Ms Jiang’s vision of a “shared humanity” also struck a chord.

“That she is able to stand on an international stage and speak the heart of Chinese students has moved me to tears,” wrote a user on Red Note, another Chinese social media platform.

Another user defended Jiang by hitting back at those who criticised her: “You may not have changed them, but they’ve heard you… As more and more people speak out like you, you will eventually move and change others.”

There are around 6,800 international students at Harvard, who make up more than 27% of its enrolments in the past academic year.

About a third of these foreign students are from China, and more than 700 are Indian.

A Chinese Harvard graduate’s speech calling for unity in a divided world, delivered days after the US vowed to “aggressively” revoke Chinese students’ visas, has sparked mixed reactions in the US and her home country.

“We don’t rise by proving each other wrong. We rise by refusing to let one another go,” Jiang Yurong said on Thursday, the same day a US federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s ban on foreign students at Harvard.

Her speech went viral on the Chinese internet, with some saying it moved them to tears. However, others said her elite background is not representative of Chinese students.

In the US, some have flagged her alleged links with the Chinese Communist Party.

In their efforts to restrict Harvard from enrolling foreign students, US authorities had accused the institution of “co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”.

Ms Jiang, who studied international development, was the first Chinese woman to speak at a Harvard graduation ceremony.

In her address, Ms Jiang emphasised the value of Harvard’s international classrooms, noting how that taught her and her classmates to “dance through each other’s traditions” and “carry the weight of each other’s worlds”.

“If we still believe in a shared future, let us not forget: those we label as enemies – they, too, are human. In seeing their humanity, we find our own,” said Ms Jiang, who spent her final two years of school at Cardiff Sixth Form College in Wales before going to Duke University in the US for her undergraduate degree.

A conservative X account, with the handle @amuse, criticised Harvard for choosing a graduation speaker who is “a representative of a CCP-funded and monitored non-government organisation”, alleging that her father works for a non-government organisation that “serves as a quasi-diplomatic agent for the [party]”.

The account, which has 639,000 followers, has previously posted pro-Donald Trump content, such as the US leader fighting Darth Vader and sexualised imagery of former Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Some Chinese social media users, on the other hand, allege that the organisation Ms Jiang’s father works for is backed by prominent American companies and foundations.

The BBC has not independently verified these allegations.

“This is why she could get a scholarship to go to the UK for high school, and later also to Harvard,” wrote a user on China’s X-like platform, Weibo.

Others called for her to stay on in the US, with comments that reeked with sarcasm. “Such talent should be left to the United States,” one wrote. “I hope she will continue to glow abroad and stay away from us!” read another.

But Ms Jiang’s vision of a “shared humanity” also struck a chord.

“That she is able to stand on an international stage and speak the heart of Chinese students has moved me to tears,” wrote a user on Red Note, another Chinese social media platform.

Another user defended Jiang by hitting back at those who criticised her: “You may not have changed them, but they’ve heard you… As more and more people speak out like you, you will eventually move and change others.”

There are around 6,800 international students at Harvard, who make up more than 27% of its enrolments in the past academic year.

About a third of these foreign students are from China, and more than 700 are Indian.

Authorities in India have arrested a man for trying to smuggle dozens of rare reptiles, including venomous snakes, into the country.

The Indian citizen, who was returning from Thailand, was stopped by customs officials at the airport in Mumbai city on Sunday.

Officials said the reptiles, including 47 venomous vipers, were found concealed in the man’s checked-in luggage.

The reptiles have been seized under various wildlife protection laws in India.

The passenger has not been named and as he is in custody. He has not commented on his arrest.

Customs officials have released photographs on X of colourful snakes squirming in a dish.

In their post, they said they had seized three spider-tailed horned vipers, five Asian leaf turtles and 44 Indonesian pit vipers from the passenger.

It isn’t clear where the reptiles had been sourced from.

• Leopard cub found in passenger’s luggage at Indian airport
• Rare Madagascar tortoises seized at Mumbai airport

While it is not illegal to import animals into the country, India’s wildlife protection law bans the import of certain species, including those classified as endangered or protected by the government.

A passenger also needs to get the required permits and licenses before importing any wildlife.

Reports of customs officials seizing banned wildlife from passengers trying to smuggle them into the country are not uncommon.

In January, Indian authorities arrested a Canadian man at the Delhi airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage and month later, officials at the Mumbai airport stopped a passenger carrying five Siamang gibbons, a small ape native to the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

The gibbons, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, were concealed in a plastic crate placed inside the passenger’s trolley bag.

In November, customs officers arrested two passengers returning from Bangkok for carrying12 exotic turtles.

In 2019, officials at the Chennai airport seized a horned pit viper snake, five Iguanas, four blue-tongued skinks, three green tree frogs and 22 Egyptian tortoises from a man travelling from Thailand.

China says the US has “severely violated” their trade truce and that it will take strong measures to defend its interests.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Washington has “seriously undermined” the agreement reached during talks in Geneva last month, when both countries lowered tariffs on goods imported from each other.

The spokesperson added that US actions have also severely violated the consensus reached during a phone call in January between China’s leader Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.

The comments come after Trump said on Friday that China had “totally violated its agreement with us”.

The US President did not give details but Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later said China had not been removing non-tariff barriers as agreed under the deal.

Under the trade truce struck in May at a meeting in Geneva, the US lowered tariffs imposed on goods from China from 145% to 30%. China’s retaliatory tariffs on US goods dropped from 125% to 10%.

On Monday, Beijing said US violations of the agreement included stopping sales of computer chip design software to Chinese companies, warning against using chips made by Chinese tech giant Huawei, and cancelling visas for Chinese students.

The deal reached in Geneva came as a surprise to many analysts as it seemed that the two sides were incredibly far apart on many trade issues.

This showed that during face-to-face talks Washington and Beijing can reach agreements.

But as the rhetoric is once again ratcheting up, the fragility of the current truce has been highlighted and gives an indication of just how challenging it may be to reach a longer-term trade deal.

Although the fresh accusations may suggest that talks between Washington and Beijing are not going well, two top White House officials suggested on Sunday that Trump and Xi could hold talks soon.

Treasury Secretary Bessent told CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, that details of the trade will be “ironed out” once Xi and Trump speak, but he did not say exactly when that conversation is expected to happen.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC News that the two leaders are expected to talk this week and “both sides have expressed a willingness to talk”.

“The bottom line is that we’ve got to be ready in case things don’t happen the way we want,” Hassett said of the expected talks.

But the Chinese side prefers agreements to be done at a lower level first before they reach the desk of the president.

Last week, Trump announced the US would double its current tariffs on steel and aluminium from 25% to 50%, starting on Wednesday.

Speaking at a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Friday, Trump said the move would help boost the local steel industry and national supply, while reducing reliance on China.

Ukraine says it has completed its biggest long-range attack of the war with Russia on Sunday, after using smuggled drones to launch a series of major strikes on at least 40 Russian warplanes at four military bases.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said 117 drones were used in the so-called “Spider’s Web” operation by the SBU security service, striking “34% of [Russia’s] strategic cruise missile carriers”.

SBU sources told BBC News it took a year and a half to organise the strikes.

Russia confirmed Ukrainian attacks in five regions, calling them a “terrorist act”.

The attacks come as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators head to Istanbul, Turkey, for a second round of peace talks on Monday.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian government’s centre for counteracting disinformation, said at least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed and others damaged.

The talks are expected to start around 13:00 local time (10:00 GMT) at the Ciragan Palace.

Expectations are low, as the two warring sides remain far apart on how to end the war.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported a massive drone and missile attack on its territory over the weekend.

At least six people, including a seven-year-old child, were injured following a strike in Kharkiv in the early hours of Monday, the region’s governor said.

Elsewhere, Russia’s state news agency Ria said the country’s security service thwarted an attempted arson attack in the east.

It said two residents in the Primorye region were attempting to sabotage a railway track on Ukraine’s orders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula it annexed in 2014.

• Ukraine’s audacious drone attack sends critical message to Russia – and the West

SBU sources earlier told BBC News that Sunday’s attack involved drones hidden in wooden mobile cabins, with remotely operated roofs on trucks, brought near the airbases and then fired “at the right time”.

In several posts on social media late on Sunday, Zelensky said he congratulated SBU head Vasyl Maliuk with the “absolutely brilliant result” of the operation.

He said that each of the 117 drones launched had its own pilot.

“The most interesting thing – and we can already say this publicly – is that the ‘office’ of our operation on Russian territory was located right next to the FSB of Russia in one of their regions,” the Ukrainian president said.

The FSB is Russia’s powerful state security service.

Zelensky also said that all of the people involved in the operation had been safely “led away” from Russia before the strikes.

The SBU estimated the damage to Russia’s strategic aviation was worth about $7bn (£5bn), promising to unveil more details soon.

The BBC has not independently verified the Ukrainian claims.

Sources in the SBU told the BBC in a statement earlier on Sunday that four Russian airbases – two of which are thousands of miles from Ukraine – were hit:

• Belaya in Irkutsk oblast (region), Siberia
• Olenya in Murmansk oblast, Russia’s extreme north-west
• Dyagilevo in central Ryazan oblast
• Ivanovo in central Ivanovo oblast

The SBU sources said that among the hit Russian aircraft were strategic nuclear-capable bombers called Tu-95 and Tu-22M3, as well as A-50 early warning warplanes.

They described the whole operation as “extremely complex logistically”.

“The SBU first smuggled FPV drones into Russia, followed later by mobile wooden cabins. Once on Russian territory, the drones were hidden under the roofs of these cabins, which had been placed on cargo vehicles,” the sources said.

“At the right moment, the roofs were remotely opened, and the drones took off to strike the Russian bombers.”

Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev confirmed drones that attacked the Belaya military base in Sredniy, Siberia, were launched from a truck.

Kobzev wrote on Telegram that the launch site had been secured and there was no threat to life.

Russian media outlets have also reported that other attacks were similarly started with drones emerging from lorries.

One user was heard saying that the drones were flying out of a Kamaz truck near a petrol station.

Russian media were reporting the attack in Murmansk but said air defences were working. The attack in Irkutsk was also being reported.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed that airbases in the country’s five regions were attacked in a post on social media later on Sunday.

It claimed that “all attacks were repelled” on military airbases in the Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions. The latter base was not mentioned by the SBU sources.

In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, “several aircraft caught fire” after drones were launched from nearby areas, the ministry said.

It said all the blazes were extinguished and there were no casualties. “Some of the participants in the terrorist attacks have been detained,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities say 472 drones and seven ballistic and cruise missiles were involved in a wave of attacks on Ukraine last night.

This would appear to be one of the largest single Russian drone attacks so far. Ukraine says it “neutralised” 385 aerial targets.

In a separate development, Ukraine’s land forces said 12 of its military personnel were killed and more than 60 injured in a Russian missile strike on a training centre.

Ukraine’s head of land forces, Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi, tendered his resignation shortly afterwards.

He said his decision was “dictated by my personal sense of responsibility for the tragedy”.

Australia’s defence minister Richard Marles has called on China to explain why it needs to have “such an extraordinary military build-up”.

He said Beijing needs to provide greater transparency and reassurance as it is the “fundamental issue” for the region.

Meanwhile, the Philippines defence minister Gilberto Teodoro Jr has called China “absolutely irresponsible and reckless” in its actions in the South China Sea.

The ministers had separately addressed reporters on the sidelines of an Asian defence summit held in Singapore.

China has yet to respond to either Marles or Teodoro.

Organised by the think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Shangri-la Dialogue has traditionally been anchored by the US and China, which have been jostling for power in the region.

This year China has sent a lower-level delegation and scrapped its speech. In the absence of a strong Chinese presence, the dialogue has been dominated by criticism and questions of Beijing posed by the US and its allies.

On Sunday morning, Marles asserted that “what we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and build up in conventional sense, by any country since the end of the Second World War”.

It is not just the size of the military build-up that concerns other countries, he told reporters.

“It’s the fact that it is happening without strategic reassurance. It’s happening without a clear strategic intent on the part of China… what we want to see is strategic transparency and strategic reassurance be provided by China, and an understanding of why it is needed to have such an extraordinary military build-up.”

He cited Australia as an example of such transparency, noting that Canberra makes public its national defence strategy and defence reviews, and makes it “utterly clear” that when they build up their defences it is for Australia and Asia’s security.

“So there is total strategic clarity and assurance that is being provided by Australia to our neighbours, to the region, to the world. That’s what we would like to see,” he said.

Answering a question on a highly-scrutinised Chinese military exercise conducted near Australia and New Zealand’s waters in February, Marles said that while it was “disruptive, and we believe that it could have been done in a better way”, ultimately “China was acting in accordance with international law”.

“The guiding light, the bedrock here, needs to be compliance with international law. That’s what we keep talking about, is the rules-based order.”

Marles was also asked about Hegseth’s call for Indo-Pacific partners to increase defence spending as a bulwark against the threat of China.

Marles said “we actually are taking steps down this path… we understand it, we’re up for it.” US President Donald Trump has called on Australia to increase its spending to 3%, but Canberra has yet to publicly commit to that number.

Marles added that part of that spending would come under Aukus, a pact among Australia, the UK and the US to build up a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

He said projects under the pact were “on track” and he was “very optimistic” about the progress, including more visits of American submarines to Australia and rotations through a Perth-based navy base.

In a separate interview with the BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner, the Philippines defence minister Teodoro said China has been “absolutely irresponsible and reckless in appropriating most, if not all, of the South China Sea and the world cannot tolerate this.”

The two countries have repeatedly clashed over competing claims in the South China Sea, and the Philippines has complained of aggressive and violent tactics by the Chinese coast guard.

He echoed the call for a preservation of the international order, saying that “the takeaway of a lot of defence ministers is that Europe and the US must continue to lead” on this.

“That was the call of the Philippines. That is the call of Lithuania, Latvia, the smaller countries who have a way of life that values freedom and dignity of the human being.”

“And with a way of life that we don’t want the deep state looking over our shoulders or being scared of what we say,” he said, referring to China.

On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had warned of China’s “imminent” threat towards Taiwan and accused Beijing of becoming a “hegemonic power” in the region.

China has vigorously attacked Hegseth in two separate statements, with the latest posted on its Foreign Ministry website early on Sunday.

It said that Hegseth had “vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a ‘threat’.

“No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the US itself, who is also the primary factor undermining the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.”

Earlier in the defence summit, French President Emmanuel Macron had made a pitch for Europe to be a new ally to Asia.

China also responded to Macron, who had compared the defence of Taiwan to the defence of Ukraine, and said the comparison was “unacceptable” as the “Taiwan question is entirely China’s affair”.

China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island, as its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to eventually “reunify” with it.

The Australian woman accused of killing three relatives and gravely injuring another with a toxic mushroom meal has taken to the witness stand at her trial.

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to four charges – three of murder and one of attempted murder – over the beef wellington lunch at her regional Victorian house in July 2023.

Prosecutors argue she intentionally sought out death cap mushrooms and cooked them for her relatives, before lying to police and disposing of evidence.

However the defence case is that Patterson had unintentionally served poison to family members she loved, and then “panicked”.

Three people died in hospital in the days after the meal, including Ms Patterson’s former in-laws, Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.

A single lunch guest survived – local pastor Ian Wilkinson – after weeks of treatment in hospital.

Over six weeks, the jury in the Victorian Supreme Court has heard from more than 50 witnesses called by the prosecution, including Ms Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, and the surviving lunch guest, Ian.

It is now the defence’s turn to call witnesses, and first up was Ms Patterson herself.

The 50-year-old told the court that by 2023 she had felt for some months that her relationship with the wider Patterson family – Don and Gail in particular – had perhaps developed a bit more distance or space.

“We saw each other less,” she says.

“I’d come to have concerns that Simon was not wanting me to be involved too much with the family anymore.”

After detailing a brief period of separation between the couple when their first child was an infant, Erin Patterson told the court that she and Simon Patterson struggled to work out their disagreements.

“If we had any problems at all it was… we couldn’t communicate well when we disagreed about something,” she said.

“We would just feel hurt and not know how to resolve it.”

She also told the court about the traumatic birth of her first child in 2009, less than a year before the couple’s first break.

“He started to go into distress and they lost his heartbeat,” she said.

Her voice choking up, she explained doctors performed an emergency caesarean to get her son out quickly.

When he was ready to go home, Ms Patterson said she discharged herself from hospital against medical advice as she didn’t want to remain there alone.

The jury has heard that Ms Patterson discharged herself from hospital against medical advice in the days after the fatal lunch, which prosecutors earlier pointed to as evidence that she was not unwell.

However her barrister Colin Mandy in his opening address said she had done so at several occasions over her life.

Ms Patterson gave less than an hour of evidence before court broke up for the day, and will return to resume her testimony on Tuesday.