Ten people have been killed in a school shooting in the Austrian city of Graz, in what is the deadliest gun attack in the country’s recent history.

Police said the 21-year-old gunman, a former student, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after.

The incident took place at Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the north-west of the city.

Six females and three males were killed in the attack, according to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. A further 12 people were injured, some seriously, according to police.

Later on Tuesday, local media reported an injured female had died in hospital, bringing the number of victims killed to 10.

The gunman, who has not yet been named, was a former Dreierschützengasse student who didn’t graduate from the school, Karner told a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

There has been a lot of speculation about the case, Karner noted, adding it is now the job of the criminal office to investigate.

In the same conference, police said the gunman’s motive was still under investigation.

Officers also confirmed the gunman was not known to police before the attack.

Current information suggests the shooter legally owned the two guns used in the attack and had a firearms licence, police added.

Local media outlets have reported the suspect used a pistol and a shotgun to carry out the shooting.

He was an Austrian man from the wider Graz region who acted alone, police said.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria, and a nationwide minute’s silence will be held on Wednesday at 10:00am local time in memory of the victims.

Flags on the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where the President Alexander Van der Bellen has his office, will fly at half mast.

The school where the attack took place will remain closed until further notice, according to Austria’s Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr.

The Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said Tuesday was a “dark day in [the] history of our country” and declared the shooting a “national tragedy”.

“A school is more than just a place to learn – it is a space for trust, for feeling comfortable and for having a future,” he told the conference, adding this safe place had been “violated”.

“In these difficult hours, being human is our strongest point,” he said.

Austria’s APA news agency has reported that seven of those killed were pupils.

The attack “strikes our country right at its heart”, Stocker said in the immediate aftermath.

“These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them.”

Police said they began an operation at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) after gunshots were heard from inside the school.

A specialist Cobra tactical unit – which handles attacks and hostage situations – was deployed to the school, police said.

Authorities evacuated all pupils and teachers from the building. Police confirmed the school had been secured and there was no further danger posed to members of the public.

“Locally, we have seen people crying on the streets, talking to friends that have been at the school when the shooting happened, who have maybe lost a friend,” said Fanny Gasser, a journalist for the Austrian daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung.

She told BBC News “everybody knows somebody” at the school because Graz – despite being the second-largest city in Austria – is “not that big”.

She said the school was likely unprepared for the possibility of an attack. “We are not living in America, we are living in Austria, which seems like a very safe space.”

Local mayor Elke Kahr called the incident a “terrible tragedy”.

European Commission Vice-President Kaja Kallas said she was “deeply shocked” by the news. “Every child should feel safe at school and be able to learn free from fear and violence,” she posted on X.

By Tuesday afternoon, long queues had formed outside a blood donation centre in Graz.

“Today is a hard day for all of us in Graz. I’m hear to [donate] my blood to help other people who need it,” 25-year-old Stephanie Koenig told Reuters news agency.

“Today I’m here because I wanted to do something. I felt helpless with the news,” Johanna, 30, said.

Another person standing in line told Reuters giving blood felt like the “only way possible to help”.

The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s recent history.

In 2020, jihadist gunman Kujtim Fejzulai shot four people dead and wounded 23 others on a rampage through Vienna’s busy nightlife district.

Meanwhile, in 2016, a gunman opened fire at a concert in the town of Nenzing, killing two people before shooting himself dead. Eleven other people were injured in the attack.

There is shock, sadness and disbelief in Graz, after the worst shooting in modern Austrian history left 11 people dead, including the gunman.

“We never could have imagined that this could have happened here, in our place. It’s a sad day for the whole city,” said Reka, who lives close to the school.

For many years, Austria had been spared the pain of mass school shootings.

But that all changed at about 10:00 on Tuesday when a former student ran amok at a secondary school in the Dreierschützengasse, close to the main station in Austria’s second largest city.

Morning classes were under way when the attack took place. Some students at the school would have been taking their final exams.

It took police 17 minutes to bring the situation under control.

By the time it was over six female victims and three males had died. Hours later, a seventh female victim, an adult woman, died in hospital. Several others remain in hospital, some with critical injuries.

The gunman, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen with two firearms, took his own life at the school.

A former pupil who never passed his final exams, he is reported to have seen himself as a victim of bullying.

Local resident Reka told me she couldn’t understand how an attack like this could have happened in her well-ordered city.

“This area is quiet, safe and beautiful,” she said. “People are nice, the school is good.”

Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen said: “This horror cannot be put into words. What happened today in a school in Graz, hits our country right in the heart. These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way.”

He said there was “nothing at this moment that can alleviate the pain that the parents, grandparents, siblings and friends of those murdered are feeling”.

Austria’s Chancellor Christian Stocker, who rushed to the scene with the Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, called it “a national tragedy, that had shaken the entire country.” He said there were no words to describe “the pain and grief that we all – the whole of Austria – is feeling”.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria. Flags on the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where President van der Bellen has his office, will fly at half-mast.

Austria has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 firearms per 100 persons, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project.

But school shootings here are rare. There have been a few incidents over the years that have involved far fewer casualties:

• In 2018 a 19-year-old was shot by another youth in Mistelbach, north of Vienna
• In 2012 in St Pölten, a pupil was shot dead by his father
• In 1997, in Zöbern, a 15-year-old killed a teacher and seriously injured another
• And in 1993 a 13-year-old boy in Hausleiten seriously injured the head teacher and then killed himself.

Austria’s most violent gun attack in recent years took place in the heart of Vienna in November 2020. Four people were killed and 22 injured when a convicted jihadist ran through the centre of the city opening fire, before he was eventually shot by police.

Machine guns and pump action guns are banned, while revolvers, pistols and semi-automatic weapons are allowed only with official authorisation. Rifles and shotguns are permitted with a firearms licence or a valid hunting licence, or for members of traditional shooting clubs.

The Graz gunman is understood to have owned both firearms legally, and he had no criminal record. One of his guns was bought only the day before the attack, according to one report.

Outside the school, a young man on a bicycle watched as the police allowed security vehicles through the security cordon round the school.

“It’s horrific,” he told me. “This is my home. I can’t understand how so many people my age are dead. This shouldn’t happen here.”

India’s Coast Guard is continuing efforts to douse a fire on a Singapore-flagged cargo ship in the Arabian Sea near the coast of the southern state of Kerala.

MV Wan Hai 503, which was heading to India’s Mumbai city from Sri Lanka’s Colombo, reported an internal container explosion on Monday, resulting in a major fire on board.

Eighteen crew members have been rescued, while four are still missing. Singapore has sent a team to assist in the rescue efforts.

The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has issued an alert for the coast of Kerala due to potential oil spill and debris from the ship .

Footage on Tuesday showed MV Wan Hai 503 emitting large plumes of smoke as the Indian Navy and Coast Guard tried to extinguish the fire onboard.

The Coast Guard said fires and explosions continued to be seen on the ship.

In a search and rescue operation carried out on Monday, 18 of the ship’s 22 crew members were rescued and brought ashore where some of them are being treated for injuries.

The crew members had abandoned the ship when the fire broke out and left on a boat after which they were rescued by the Navy, India’s defence ministry said.

The Singapore Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said four crew members are still missing – two of them are from Taiwan, one from Myanmar and one from Indonesia. The MPA said that it has sent a team to help with the rescue.

Kerala Ports Minister VN Vasavan said that 50 containers from the ship had fallen into the sea.

The ship was carrying 100 tonnes of bunker oil, Mathrubhumi News reported. Containers that fell from it were drifting along the coast of Kerala, INCOIS told Manorama News, and could drift towards its coastline in the next three days.

This is the second such incident in three weeks near the Kerala coast. Last month, a Liberian-flagged vessel carrying oil and hazardous cargo leaked and sank in the Arabian Sea, sparking fears that harmful substances could endanger the health of residents and marine life.

The state government then banned fishing within a 20-nautical mile radius of the shipwreck and announced compensation for families from fishing communities in four affected districts.

Kerala’s coastal stretch is rich in biodiversity and the state is also an important tourist destination.

Israel says it has deported Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, a day after the Gaza-bound aid boat she and 11 other people were on was intercepted by Israeli forces in the Mediterranean.

Thunberg departed Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning on a flight to France after she agreed to be deported, the Israeli foreign ministry said.

Upon arriving at an airport in Paris, Thunberg accused Israel of illegally kidnapping her and other activists on the boat while they were in international waters.

France said five of the six French citizens detained alongside her had refused to sign their deportation orders and would now be subject to judicial proceedings.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the activist group operating the yacht The Madleen, has demanded the immediate release of everyone detained.

The vessel was intercepted early on Monday while the activists tried to deliver a “symbolic” amount of aid to Gaza in defiance of Israel’s maritime blockade and highlight the humanitarian crisis there.

The Israeli foreign ministry dismissed it as a “selfie yacht”, and announced in a post on X on Monday night that the passengers had been transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport following the vessel’s arrival at the port of Ashdod on Monday night.

“Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorize their deportation,” it said.

On Tuesday morning, the ministry said Thunberg had “just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France)”, and posted a photo of her sitting on a plane.

Speaking to reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport, Thunberg said Israel had committed “an illegal act by kidnapping us on international waters and against our will, bringing us to Israel, keeping us in the bottom of the boat, not letting us getting out and so on”.

She added: “But that is not the real story here, the real story is that there is a genocide going on in Gaza, and a systematic starvation following the siege and blockade now, which is leading to food, medicine, water – that are desperately needed to get into Gaza – is prevented from doing so.”

The Israeli foreign ministry has insisted the blockade was “consistent with international law”, and that unauthorised attempts to breach it were “dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts”.

Asked why she was free while others were still detained, Thunberg said it was “a bit unclear”. She said she and some others had signed a document saying they wanted to go back as soon as they could, but did not accept they had entered the country illegally, but others hadn’t signed this document.

She added she had been unable to say goodbye to fellow activists before her deportation, and was unsure what was happening to them. “I’m very worried about them,” she said.

France’s Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, earlier wrote on X: “Our consul was able to see the six French nationals arrested by the Israeli authorities last night.”

“One of them has agreed to leave voluntarily and should return today. The other five will be subject to forced deportation proceedings.”

Barrot did not identify them, but the six French nationals include MEP Rima Hassan and two journalists, Omar Faiad of Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Yanis Mhamdi of online publication Blast, who Reporters Without Borders said were documenting the Madleen’s journey.

As well as France and Sweden, citizens of Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey were on board the vessel.

The FFC confirmed in a statement on Monday night that all 12 had reached Ashdod and that it expected any who refused to be deported to be transferred to a detention facility in Ramle, near Tel Aviv.

“We continue to demand the immediate release of all volunteers and the return of the stolen aid. Their kidnapping is unlawful and a violation of international law,” it added.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the aid, which includes baby formula and medicine, would be transferred to Gaza “through real humanitarian channels”.

The FFC said the Madleen was intercepted by the Israeli military inside international waters about 185km (115 miles) west of Gaza early on Monday.

According to the group, the vessel was surrounded by quadcopter drones, sprayed with a “white irritant substance”, and had its communications jammed.

Video footage released by the group showed the passengers sitting down with their hands raised as Israeli forces boarded.

It also posted a pre-recorded clip showing Thunberg saying: “If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel.”

“I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”

The foreign ministry later said all the passengers were “safe and unharmed”, and posted a video showing troops handing them food and water.

When the Madleen set sail from Italy on 1 June, the FFC said it was “carrying humanitarian aid and international human rights defenders in direct defiance of Israel’s illegal and genocidal blockade”. The Israeli foreign ministry called it a “gimmick”, while Israel has rejected accusations of genocide.

On Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the maritime blockade was necessary to prevent the smuggling of weapons to Hamas.

Israel and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza when Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007 by ousting its rivals, a year after winning legislative elections.

Israel stopped all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March this year and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

It said the steps were meant to put pressure on the group to release the hostages still held in Gaza, but the UN warned that Gaza’s 2.1 million population were facing catastrophic levels of hunger because of the resulting shortages of food.

Three weeks ago, Israel launched an expanded offensive to take control of all areas of Gaza. It also partially eased the blockade, allowing in a “basic” amount of food.

Israel is now prioritising distribution through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which it backs along with the US. The UN and other aid groups are refusing to co-operate with the new system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence.

It is 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,927 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The UK has sanctioned two far-right Israeli ministers over “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities” in the occupied West Bank.

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will both be banned from entering the UK and will have any assets in the UK frozen as part of the measures announced by the foreign secretary.

David Lammy said Finance Minister Smotrich and National Security Minister Ben-Gvir had “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights”.

In response, Israel said: “It is outrageous that elected representatives and members of the government are subjected to these kind of measures.”

The sanctions are part of a joint move by the UK, Norway, Australia, Canada and New Zealand announced on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the move, writing on X: “These sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war”.

He urged the nations to reverse the sanctions, adding that the US “stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.”

The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, joined Rubio’s condemnation, describing the move as a “shocking decision” in an interview with the BBC.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have also been criticised for their stance on the war in Gaza. Both ministers oppose allowing aid into the Strip and have called for Palestinians there to be resettled outside the territory.

The Foreign Office said: “As Palestinian communities in the West Bank continue to suffer from severe acts of violence by extremist Israeli settlers which also undermine a future Palestinian state, the UK has joined Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway in stepping up the international response.”

After the announcement, Lammy said: “These actions are not acceptable. This is why we have taken action now – to hold those responsible to account.

“We will strive to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of the remaining hostages by Hamas which can have no future role in the governance of Gaza, a surge in aid and a path to a two-state solution.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the cabinet would meet next week to respond to what he called an “unacceptable decision”.

The Foreign Office added that the five nations are “clear that the rising violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the West Bank must stop”.

In a statement it said the sanctions against the ministers “cannot be seen in isolation from events in Gaza where Israel must uphold International Humanitarian Law”.

The ministers lead ultra-nationalist parties in the governing coalition, which holds an eight-seat majority in parliament. The support of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, which holds six seats, and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which holds seven seats, is crucial to the government’s survival.

Speaking at the inauguration of a new settlement in the West Bank, Smotrich said he felt “contempt” towards the UK’s move.

“Britain has already tried once to prevent us from settling the cradle of our homeland, and we cannot do it again,” he said. “We are determined, God willing, to continue building.”

The minister was alluding to the period when Britain governed Palestine and imposed restrictions on Jewish immigration, most significantly from the late 1930s to late 1940s.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law – a position supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year – although Israel disputes this.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer said that 2024 had seen the “worst settler violence” in the West Bank in the past two decades and this year was “on track to be just as violent”.

Commenting on the sanctions imposed on the two ministers, Falconer said they were “responsible for inciting settler violence” in the West Bank which has “led to the deaths of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of whole towns and villages”.

Falconer said Smotrich and Ben-Gvir had continued their “appalling” rhetoric despite warnings from the UK government, and so action was taken.

The possibility of sanctioning these two ministers has long been in the pipeline.

In October, Lord Cameron said he had planned to sanction the pair, when he was foreign secretary from 2023-24, as a way of putting pressure on Israel.

The UK’s decision reflects growing popular and parliamentary pressure to take further action against the Israeli government for its operations both in Gaza and the West Bank.

It also comes after a steady escalation of pressure by the UK and other allies.

Last month the leaders of Britain, France and Canada issued a joint statement saying that Israel was at risk of breaking international law. The UK also broke off trade talks with Israel.

In the Commons last month, Lammy described remarks by Smotrich about “cleansing” Gaza of Palestinians as “monstrous” and “dangerous” extremism.

• 19 May: UK, France and Canada denounce expanded Israeli offensive on Gaza and continuing blockade, warn of “concrete” response; Israeli PM calls move “huge prize” for Hamas
• 20 May: UK suspends free trade talks with Israel, sanctions settlers, and summons Israel’s ambassador; Israel foreign ministry calls move “regrettable”
• 22 May: Israeli PM links criticism of Israel by leaders of UK, France and Canada to deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC on 21 May
• 10 June: UK sanctions Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir for advocating forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza; Israel’s foreign minister calls move “outrageous”

Conservative shadow home secretary Dame Priti Patel did not directly comment on the sanctions, but said: “We have been clear that the British government must leverage its influence at every opportunity to ensure the remaining hostages [held by Hamas] are released, that aid continues to reach those who need it, and a sustainable end to the conflict is achieved.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey welcomed the sanctions, but said it was “disappointing” that the Conservative government and Labour “took so long to act”.

It is 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,927 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

At least four people have died in a wave of bomb and gun attacks in south-western Colombia, according to local media reports.

Two police officers were said to be among those killed in the attacks, which targeted Cali, the country’s third-largest city, and several nearby towns.

Car bombs, motorcycle bombs, rifle fire and a suspected drone were reportedly used to strike police stations, municipal buildings and civilian targets as an escalating security crisis grips the South American country.

Local media have linked some of the attacks to a faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a once-powerful guerrilla group. The BBC has not been able to independently verify this.

Multiple people have been injured in the attacks, although the precise number of casualties is not yet clear.

The attacks came days after the attempted assassination of presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay in the capital city, Bogota, while he addressed supporters.

The mayor of the region’s biggest city, Cali, said the city had returned to 1989, when it was rife with drugs trade and cartel violence.

Large-scale Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian cities are on the rise.

Monday night’s bombardment, while not record breaking, was typical of the new norm.

For several hours after midnight, drones buzzed incessantly over Kyiv.

It seemed they were coming from almost every direction, as searchlights raked the sky and skeins of orange tracer fire rose from air defence units stationed around the city.

As each drone approached, the streets would echo with the deep rattle of heavy machine gun fire.

From our hotel, a fire could be seen raging in the distance, as a fiery orange moon, nearly full, slowly faded as if unwilling to compete.

Loud explosions would mark a successful interception, or a drone reaching its target.

Sitting underneath all this drama, it is hard to keep a sense of perspective.

The word “massive” is routinely used in official statements.

But a glance at the statistics tells an unmistakable story: away from the front lines, Ukraine is in the midst of the most sustained bombardment since the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with a sharp increase in the number of drones.

In the three months before August last year, Russia fired a total of 1,100, according to a report by Ukraine’s general staff.

A steep rise followed, with 818 drones recorded in August, 1,410 in September and more than 2,000 in October.

But the numbers just keep going up.

In May, for the first time, the number of drones exceeded 4,000. This month is likely to set a new record.

Since the start of June, Russia has fired an average of 256 projectiles every 24 hours, according to figures compiled by the Ukrainian air force.

The overwhelming majority of these are drones, including Shahed-type models and various decoys designed to confuse Ukraine’s air defence systems.

Russia first started using Iranian-supplied Shaheds – the word means “martyr” – in late 2022.

But by the following summer, it was producing its own variant, known as Geran, at a special economic zone in Yelabuga, in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

According to Artem Dehtiarenko, spokesman for Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, 25,000 drones have been produced there, with a further 20,000 assembled from previously supplied Iranian components.

Of 315 detected during Monday night’s bombardment, 250 were actual strike drones, according to Ukraine’s air force spokesman, Yurii Ihnat.

“Most of them were headed specifically for Kyiv,” he told the Ukrainian RBC news agency.

A total of seven ballistic and cruise missiles were also fired at the capital.

It meant another sleepless night for Kyiv’s long-suffering population.

“It’s become more intense,” Katya, a Kyiv resident told me.

“It used to be easier emotionally. Now it’s somehow become harder.”

And it’s not just the intensity of the strikes. After hundreds of similar nights, people in Kyiv can sense the subtle shifts in technology as Russia develops its capability.

“There are more drones with a slightly different sound than before,” Katya said.

The SBU’s Dehtiarenko says Russia is making constant modifications.

“Russian engineers have been tasked with increasing their destructive power in order to maximise devastation and civilian casualties,” he said.

“In addition, efforts are being made to make the Geran drones less vulnerable to Ukrainian air defences.”

Apartment blocks and office buildings were among the locations hit on Monday. Kyiv generally avoids saying if damage was caused to anything that might be considered a military target.

But a statement from the culture ministry said that for the first time, Kyiv’s St Sophia cathedral felt the impact.

St Sophia’s is a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of Ukraine’s most significant cultural and religious monuments, with spectacular 11th Century mosaics and frescoes.

A blast wave is said to have damaged a plastered cornice on the eastern façade but not affected the interior.

“However, any vibrational impact caused by explosions poses a serious threat to the integrity of the structure,” the ministry said in a statement.

A teaching assistant has died after being stabbed by a student outside a school in Nogent, north-east France, officials say.

The 31-year-old teaching assistant was stabbed on Tuesday morning outside Françoise Dolto middle school as pupils’ bags were being checked by police, the Haute-Marne prefecture said.

French media reported a suspect had been taken into custody, with Prime Minister François Bayrou saying the student was 14 years old.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the teaching assistant was a “victim of a senseless wave of violence” and declared that “the nation is in mourning”.

Politicians across parties condemned the attack and called for more action against knife crime.

The suspect was not formerly known to police and the motive for the attack remains unconfirmed, local media reported.

Bayrou and French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said the teaching assistant was stabbed by a student.

Borne said she would travel to Nogent to visit the school, adding “I commend the composure and dedication of those who acted to restrain the attacker”.

Bayrou wrote on social media that “our thoughts go out” to the victim’s “little boy”, family, loved ones and the entire educational community.

“The threat of bladed weapons among our children has become critical”, Bayrou said, adding it is “up to us to make this widespread scourge a public enemy”.

Opposition politicians pushed back on the government to take more action.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), denounced what she called the “trivialisation of ultraviolence, encouraged by the apathy of the public authorities to put an end to it”.

“Not a week goes by without a tragedy striking a school,” she wrote on social media.

Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, criticised Macron for what Bardella said was a “denial” of “savagery”, seizing upon comments Macron made over the weekend.

Speaking on Saturday ahead of the UN Conference on Oceans, Macron had said he did “not want either the government or Parliament to give in to the conveniences of the moment”, criticising those “who want to make people forget the fight for the climate” and “prefer, in the meantime, to brainwash people about the invasion of the country and the latest news”.

There have been other recent knife attacks in schools. Last October, a teacher was killed during an attack at a school in the northern city of Arras.

Following a stabbing at a high school in Nantes in April, Bayrou called for “an intensification of controls put in place around and within schools”.

At the end of April, the Ministry of National Education reported that 94 bladed weapons had been seized since March in 958 random bag checks at schools.

Jean-Remi Girard, president of the National Union of Secondary Schools, said: “It’s impossible to be more vigilant 24 hours a day. We can’t say that every student is a danger or a threat, otherwise we’d never get out of bed in the morning.”

A minibus carrying schoolchildren has been swept away by heavy flooding in South Africa, a spokesperson for the Eastern Cape provincial government has told the BBC.

Khuselwa Rantjie said it was unclear how many children were on the bus, but three had so far been found alive. Rescue efforts had been suspended as night had fallen and would resume on Wednesday, she added.

In a separate incident, the bodies of seven people carried away by flood water have been found in the province’s OR Tambo district.

South Africa has been hit by heavy snow, rains and gale force winds that have claimed the lives of a further five people in a road accident, and have left nearly 500,000 homes without electricity.

The Eastern Cape – the birthplace of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela – has been worst-affected by the icy conditions, along with KwaZulu-Natal province.

The bad weather has forced the closure of some major roads in the two provinces to avoid further casualties.

“This is a devastating reminder of nature’s force. We urge everyone to exercise extra caution in areas prone to flooding,” Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane said in a statement.

Five people died when a minibus taxi overturned near the coastal city of East London, with the driver saying he had lost control as he was trying to avoid a fallen tree, Eastern Cape transport department spokesperson, Unathi Binqose, told the BBC.

Two people were injured in the accident, he added.

State power utility Eskom said that almost 300,000 homes had been hit by electricity cuts in 14 towns and villages in Eastern Cape.

A further 196,000 homes in 24 areas in KwaZulu-Natal were also experiencing power cuts, Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena told the BBC.

KwaZulu-Natal Transport Minister Siboniso Duma said that heavy snow had led to lorries being stuck on roads, causing huge congestion.

Grader machines have been stationed on worst-affected roads to clear snow before it reached more than 30cm (12in) in depth.

Meteorologist Lehlohonolo Thobela also warned of strong winds and heavy waves at sea, making navigation for ships difficult.

Both Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are along the coast.

South Africa regularly receives snowfall during its winter months, from June through August, with temperatures diving below 0C (32F).

There is also regular flooding and scientists say that climate change is causing heavier rainfall in the region.

Flash floods and overflowing rivers between 30 April and 2 May caused significant damage to about 4,500 homes, and left 18 people injured.

• Unpacking the South African land law that so inflames Trump
• Rebuked by Trump but praised at home: How Ramaphosa might gain from US showdown
• Tears and heartbreak over tragic story of South African girl sold by her mother

Kendrick Lamar stole the show at the BET Awards in Los Angeles, which celebrate black actors, singers and sports stars, winning five out of his 10 nominations including best album, video and male hip-hop artist.

The rapper won best album for GNX and best video for Not Like Us, while he and filmmaker Dave Free also took home the prize for video director of the year.

Lamar said at the awards, which were hosted by Kevin Hart: “BET has always made sure they’re representing the culture right and always put me in the midst of the cycle of what we represent.”

Rapper Doechii, who won best female hip-hop artist, used her moment on stage to lambast US President Donald Trump for “using military forces to stop protest” in LA, where US Marines and the National Guard are being deployed.

Demonstrations began on Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in heavily Latino parts of the city, by the federal agency that identifies people in the US illegally and carries out arrests and deportations.

Doechii added: “I want y’all to consider what kind of government it appears to be, when every time we exercise our democratic rights to protest, the military is deployed against us.”

Last year’s BET hip-hop awards were also dominated by Lamar, where he won eight out of 11 nominations.

Ultimate icon awards, for achievement in music, entertainment, advocacy and community impact, were also handed out to musicians Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg and Kirk Franklin, along with actor Jamie Foxx.

Foxx accepted his award from Stevie Wonder, and spoke about his recovery after having a stroke in 2023.

“I gotta be honest, when I saw the in memoriam [segment], I was like, ‘Man, that could have been me’,” he said.

Carey, who also performed at the awards, was given hers by Busta Rhymes, and said: “This means so much. If you’re gonna get one, might as well start with the Ultimate Icon Award.

“My life and career have been quite the adventure. I will spare you the long, drawn-out saga tonight,” she added, as she praised her fellow icon winners.

Wicked star Cynthia Erivo won best actress, having also been nominated for the BET Her award – which recognises empowering songs that focus on women – for her stellar version of Defying Gravity. Gladiator II’s veteran star Denzel Washington won best actor.

The ceremony also featured R&B artist Ashanti’s compilation of songs, including her 2002 hit Foolish, while Lil Kim performed Left Eye (Remix) with Honey Bxby.

Other performers included Jim Jones, Amerie, Keyshia Cole, Mya, TI, B2K and Bow Wow with Jermaine Dupri.

Here is the list of winners in full:

• Best female R&B/pop artist – SZA
• Best male R&B/pop artist – Chris Brown
• Best group – Future & Metro Boomin
• Best collaboration – Luther – Kendrick Lamar and SZA
• Best male hip hop artist – Kendrick Lamar
• Best Female hip hop artist – Doechii
• Video of the year – Not Like Us – Kendrick Lamar
• Video director of the year – Dave Free and Kendrick Lamar
• Best new artist – Leon Thomas
• Album of the year – GNX – Kendrick Lamar
• Dr Bobby Jones best gospel/inspirational award – Rain Down on Me – GloRilla feat. Kirk Franklin, Maverick City Music
• Best actress – Cynthia Erivo
• Best actor – Denzel Washington
• Best movie – Luther: Never Too Much
• YoungStars award – Blue Ivy Carter
• Sportswoman of the year – Angel Reese (basketball)
• Sportsman of the year – Jalen Hurts (football)
• BET Her award – Heart of a Woman – Summer Walker

Eurostar has said it plans to launch direct train services from London to Germany and Switzerland.

A fleet of up to 50 new trains, costing around €2bn (£1.7bn), is planned to be up and running by the early 2030s, the firm announced.

Travel time between London and Frankfurt will be about five hours, and around five hours and 20 minutes to Geneva.

But there are questions over the expansion as the firm needs to make sure it has enough space for more trains at its depot in east London.

Eurostar’s boss said there was strong demand for train travel across Europe, despite the challenges of higher operational costs and inflation squeezing customer budgets.

“A new golden age of international sustainable travel is here,” said chief executive Gwendoline Cazenave, adding that customers were “wanting to go further by rail than ever before”.

The introduction of the new trains, which will replace some older ones, will lead to a 30% increase in trains that service London.

The firm is also planning for the proposed new fleet to service a direct line to Geneva from both Amsterdam and Brussels.

It said it was working with partners to get the new lines up and running.

It is not clear if the routes to Frankfurt and Geneva will include stops on the way for passengers to board or leave.

However, Eurostar’s proposals are not set in stone.

Its Temple Mills railway storehouse in east London is the only depot in the UK able to accommodate the larger trains used in continental Europe and which is already linked to the cross-Channel line.

All the infrastructure along the line, including Temple Mills, is owned by London St Pancras Highspeed, a government organisation previously known as HS1.

Currently, it used exclusively by Eurostar who operates the line on a long-term lease.

But there are several other firms that want to start operating services between London and mainland Europe. These include Spanish start-up Evolyn, Richard Branson’s Virgin and a partnership between Gemini Trains and Uber.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has told the BBC it was reviewing proposals from these firms to use Temple Mills, as well as Eurostar’s plans to increase services.

The regulator has already said the depot had enough space to either house an expanded Eurostar fleet or accommodate a rival company’s trains – but not both.

The ORR said it would make a decision on who gets to use the depot by the end of October, but the prospect of losing vital space at Temple Mills to its rivals could severely derail Eurostar’s plans to expand its services.

In this event, the firm has previously said it would “continue to encourage private investment in new depot facilities beyond Temple Mills, of which there are many options”.

Eurostar’s announcement came as the firm reported a 5% boost in passengers in 2024 compared with the previous year.

It saw a record 19.5 million passengers last year across all of its services.

The company also said it will increase the frequency of its most popular route between London and Paris.

Currently, Eurostar’s London trains go to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and during the ski season, the French Alps.

It also runs trains within France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Getlink, which owns the Channel Tunnel, signed an agreement in February with London St Pancras Highspeed to increase the number of services running to Europe.

In the 20 months since the war in Gaza began, Amit Hevrony has been spat at, screamed at, and pelted with rocks and eggs in Israel’s streets, all because she was calling for peace.

“We would sit in silence, just a bunch of women dressed in white, holding signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English saying: ‘compassion’, ‘peace’, ‘nutritional security’,” she told me.

“We thought: who argues with peace? But these demonstrations would get the same hatred as when we called to Stop the Occupation or Free Gaza. One guy screamed at us during a peace sit-in in Tel Aviv that he wished we would all be raped in Gaza, while we sat in silence holding signs saying ‘love'”.

I first met Amit in the early months of the war. The grandchild of Holocaust survivors, she described to me then how family discussions about what was happening in Gaza left her feeling angry and frustrated. She is convinced that Israel’s actions amounted to “Nazification”.

Now, she says, something in her family is shifting.

“With my father, I can say things that he couldn’t hear before, and it sinks in,” she said. “He’ll say ‘but what about Hamas?’ And I say, ‘Dad, if 80 kids were killed last night, it doesn’t matter – as a human, and specifically as a Jew, you must say this has to stop right now’. And he understands.”

The number of people in Israel concerned about Gazan suffering has been slowly increasing, but Amit and her friends are still part of a small minority.

The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) asked Israelis last month whether the suffering of Gazan civilians should be a factor in their government’s decisions on the war. The majority – 67% – said Israel should either ignore it or consider it to a “fairly small extent”. Among Jewish Israelis, that rose to more than three-quarters.

Many Israelis, disillusioned after more than a year and a half of fighting, do now want an end to the war – in most cases this is not primarily because of Gaza’s suffering, but out of concern for the 54 Israeli hostages who are believed to remain in Hamas captivity (figures can vary), of whom 31 are believed to be dead.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 251 others hostage.

Since then, at least 54,607 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run ministry of health. The UN estimates that more than a quarter of them are children.

After Israel broke the latest ceasefire in March, some of Amit’s fellow activists have begun holding up posters of children killed and injured in Gaza during their silent demonstrations.

“We thought we would get a lot of mad, aggressive responses,” said one of the organisers, Alma Beck. “But we were surprised when people asked us who these kids are, and what happened to them – genuinely curious and concerned.”

She believes that many Israelis are not exposed to the human stories of suffering in Gaza.

“The government and media do everything to shelter Israelis from what is happening in Gaza. There’s a wall of denial that’s very, very strong,” she said.

“I think this was the first instance of humanising the numbers [of casualties] – giving them a face, giving them a story. And it’s hard to look away.”

The fear and anger that galvanised Israel after the Hamas attacks, papering over divisions and driving support for the military campaign, has given way to exhaustion as the conflict grinds on.

Support for the conflict was already waning a year ago. Less than a third of Israelis supported fresh military action in Rafah, according to the IDI, while almost two-thirds supported a deal with Hamas.

More recently, several polls carried out this year by well-respected organisations have found a majority in favour of a ceasefire deal – with the primary aim of releasing the hostages.

Posters of the hostages and “Stop The War” slogans were dotted among the rainbow flags at Jerusalem’s Pride March in June.

Yitzchak Zitter, there with his boyfriend, is currently serving as a reserve soldier in the Israeli army, but thinks the war is no longer worth it.

“I don’t think we’re getting closer to any of the stated goals of the war,” he said. “A year ago, stating these opinions openly was very unpopular, especially in the military. But today, people are tired of this war, we hate it, we’re done. And if you bring in the hostages, it becomes a much more acceptable opinion.”

Returning the hostages held by Hamas is by far the biggest reason Israelis give for wanting to end the war. At the main weekly anti-war demonstrations here, Gazans barely figure at all.

“Empathy for the people who celebrated the massacres of October 7 is very low,” Yitzchak says. “They voted for Hamas [in 2006] and haven’t really done much to get rid of them since. If we saw mass protests in Gaza, we would have a different conversation.”

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has continued to insist that his military campaign in Gaza is critical to releasing the remaining hostages. So far, eight living captives have been freed in rescue operations by Israeli forces, while more than 140 have been released through agreements with Hamas.

Netanyahu says the military pressure has helped push Hamas into those agreements. But many of those demonstrating outside his office in Jerusalem, or in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, disagree.

“We can’t bring them back like that,” said one protestor, a developmental psychologist called Mayan Eliahu Ifhar. “It’s a terrible mistake. The war is killing them.”

That feeling has been echoed by many hostage families, worried that their relatives will die in captivity as the war grinds on, or be killed in Israeli airstrikes.

There is also growing disillusionment over whether Mr Netanyahu’s other war goal is achievable: the total destruction of Hamas as a military and governing force.

After 20 months, exhaustion with the war has reached Israel’s armed forces. This is Israel’s longest war, and some reservists are on their third or fourth rotation. Some are now refusing to serve – a few because of ethical objections, but many more because of the strain on their health, finances and families.

But demands to end the war – from the streets, in military recruitment offices, and even within his own security cabinet – have left Netanyahu unmoved.

Part of the reason, says Prof Tamar Hermann from the IDI, is that the vast majority of those calling for an end to the war are people who say they would never vote for him.

“The majority [of Israelis] see the war as a political war,” she said. “If you are for the government, then you are for the government, regardless of what they are doing. And if you are against the government, you are against everything they are doing. It’s black and white. And the war has made that worse.”

To hear what Netanyahu’s supporters thought about the war, we went to a rally in support of him.

The streets in Jerusalem leading up to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, were a sea of blue and white Israeli flags, and the noise from vast loudspeakers set up along the route was deafening.

The crowd – mostly dressed in accordance with conservative religious rules – surged past buses with reinforced windows, fresh from ferrying groups of settlers from the occupied West Bank. Many young men carried M16 rifles slung over their shoulders.

I met Yisrael and his wife near the entrance.

“We can’t end the war [now],” says Yisrael. “It’ll end when Hamas is totally defeated and the whole infrastructure is totally taken apart. If you leave it now, they’ll rebuild everything and the situation will come back in another three or four years.”

Like almost all Israelis, he agreed that getting the hostages home was very important – but said there were other considerations too.

“There have to be some conditions,” he said. “You can’t save some people now, and then there’s another war in two or three years, a thousand more deaths. That’s not going to help anyone.”

Further into the crowd, another demonstrator, Avigdor Bargil, said the war should stop only “when Hamas is on its knees” – and that Gazans should move to other countries, like Indonesia, France and the UK.

“It’s not their home, they took it,” he said, when I asked why Gazans should leave their home. “This is our land – the land God gave us in the Torah.”

This religious justification for seizing Palestinian land has been a regular theme of hard-right nationalist parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, since well before the war.

Cabinet members like finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, have long pushed for Israel to annex the occupied West Bank – or assert “sovereignty” as he puts it – but the war in Gaza, and the stance taken by US President Donald Trump, have opened up dreams of annexing that territory too.

Netanyahu needs to keep his coalition together, or run the risk of early elections.

And according to the respected US polling agency, Pew Research Center, the idea of expelling Gazans from their land has the support of a huge majority of Israelis – even secular ones.

Some right-wing voters are starting to turn against the war. But beneath the headlines of opinion polls, divisions over the war still largely fall along political lines.

Around half of right-wing Israelis told an IDI survey last week that the war could still bring back the hostages or destroy Hamas; only 6% of those on the left felt the same.

After a brief moment of unity after the Hamas attacks, old political divisions have resurfaced here, as deep as ever.

Mayan Eliahu Ifhar, the developmental psychologist at the protest in Tel Aviv, says that differences over the war are dividing her from friends, not just from adversaries.

“When I hear the bombs in Gaza, it tears me apart. But there are people, even my friends, who hear these bombs and say, ‘ok they deserve it’. I can’t spend time with them. I just can’t look them in the eyes.”

Amit Hevrony, the protestor who described the abuse she received at peace demonstrations, decided several months ago to leave Israel for a while and head to America, to find respite from the daily confrontation with her compatriots.

But here too, she has found herself isolated.

She told me how she had been to a pro-Palestinian demo there, and that when she told people she was from Israel, some didn’t want to speak to her.

“I said I was on their side, and that I go to pro-Palestinian demos in Israel,” Amit told me. “One girl asked me stupid questions, like ‘do your friends support the genocide?’ I support any action that calls to stop what’s happening in Gaza, but I can see how full of hate these demos are and it breaks my heart.”

Accusations of antisemitism have tainted some pro-Palestinian movements in Europe and America, complicating the situation for Israelis like Amit.

“I don’t think anyone can hate Israel as much as I hate it now, because I feel so betrayed by it – and it’s my home, it’s my country, it’s my language, my people, my friends.”

“What Israel is doing right now is the worst thing, not only for Palestinians, but for Israelis and Jews. It will forever be this horrible stain.”

Listen to Theo read this article

In China, they call it the Seagull, and it has looks to match. It is sleek and angular, with bright, downward-slanting headlights that have more than a hint of mischievous eyes about them.

It is, of course, a car. A very small one, designed as a cheap city runabout – but it could have huge significance. Available in China since 2023, where it has proved extremely popular, it has just been launched in Europe with the name Dolphin Surf (because Europeans apparently aren’t as keen on seagulls as Chinese people).

When it goes on sale in the UK this week, it’s expected to have a price tag of around £18,000. That will still make it, for an electric car on western markets, very cheap indeed.

It won’t be the outright lowest-priced model on offer: the Dacia Spring, manufactured in Wuhan jointly by Renault and Dongfeng, and the Leapmotor T03, which is being produced by a joint venture between Chinese startup Leapmotor and Stellantis, both cost less.

But the Dolphin Surf is the new arrival that has long-established brands most worried. That is because the company behind it has been making ever bigger waves on international markets.

BYD is already the biggest player in China. It overtook Tesla in 2024 to become the world’s best-selling maker of electric vehicles (EVs), and since entering the European markets two years ago, it has expanded aggressively.

“We want to be number one in the British market within 10 years,” says Steve Beattie, sales and marketing director for BYD UK.

BYD is part of a wider expansion of Chinese companies and brands that some believe could change the face of the global motor industry – and which has already prompted radical action from the US government and the EU.

It means once-unknown marques like Nio, Xpeng, Zeekr or Omoda could become every bit as much household names as Ford or Volkswagen. They will join classic brands such as MG, Volvo and Lotus, which have been under Chinese ownership for years.

The products on offer already encompass a huge range, from runabouts like the tiny Dolphin Surf to exotic supercars, like the pothole-jumping U9, from BYD’s high-end sub-brand Yangwang.

“Chinese brands are making massive inroads into the European market,” says David Bailey, professor of business and economics at Birmingham Business School.

In 2024, 17 million battery and plug-in hybrid cars were sold worldwide, 11 million of those in China. Chinese brands, meanwhile, had 10% of global EV and plug-in hybrid sales outside their home country, according to the consultancy Rho Motion. That figure is only expected to grow.

For consumers, it should be good news – leading to more high-quality and affordable electric cars becoming available. But with rivalry between Beijing and western powers showing no sign of subsiding, some experts are concerned Chinese vehicles could represent a security risk from hackers and third parties. And for established players in Europe, it represents a formidable challenge to their historic dominance.

“[China has] a huge cost advantage through economies of scale and battery technology. European manufacturers have fallen well behind,” warns Mr Bailey.

“Unless they wake up very quickly and catch up, they could be wiped out.”

China’s car industry has been developing rapidly since the country joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001. But that process accelerated rapidly in 2015, when the Communist Party introduced its “Made in China 2025” initiative. The 10-year plan to make the country a leader in several high-tech industries, including EVs, attracted intense criticism from abroad, and particularly the US, amid claims of forced technology transfers and theft of intellectual property – all of which the Chinese government denies.

Fuelled by lavish state funding, the plan helped lay the groundwork for the breakneck growth of companies like BYD – originally a maker of batteries for mobile phones – and allowed the Chinese parent companies of MG and Volvo, SAIC and Geely, to become major players in the EV market.

“The general standard of Chinese cars is very, very high indeed,” says Dan Caesar, chief executive of Electric Vehicles UK.

“China has learned extremely quickly how to manufacture cars.”

Yet competition in China has become ever more cut-throat, with brands jostling for space in an increasingly saturated market. This has led them to hunt for sales elsewhere.

While Chinese firms have expanded into East Asia and South America, for years the European market proved a tough nut to crack – that is, until governments here decided to phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel models.

The transition to electric cars opened the door to new players.

“[Chinese brands] have seen an opportunity to get a bit of a foothold,” says Oliver Lowe, UK product manager of Omoda and Jaecoo, two sub brands of the Chinese giant Chery.

Low labour costs in China, coupled with government subsidies and a very well-established supply chain, have given Chinese firms advantages, their rivals have claimed. A report from the Swiss bank UBS, published in late 2023, suggested that BYD alone was able to build cars 25% more cheaply than western competitors.

Chinese firms deny the playing field is uneven. Xpeng’s vice chairman Brian Gu told the BBC at the Paris Motor Show in 2024 that his company is competitive “because we have fought tooth and nail through the most competitive market in the world”.

Concerns that Chinese EV imports could flood international markets at the expense of established manufacturers reached fever pitch in 2024.

In the US, the Alliance for American Manufacturing warned they could prove to be an “extinction-level event” for the US industry, while the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen suggested that “huge state subsidies” for Chinese firms were distorting the European market.

The Biden administration took dramatic action, raising import tariffs on Chinese-made EVs from 25% to 100%, effectively making it pointless to sell them in the US.

It was condemned by Beijing as “naked protectionism”.

Meanwhile, in October 2024, the EU imposed extra tariffs of up to 35.3% on Chinese-made EVs. The UK, however, took no action.

Matthias Schmidt, founder of Schmidt Automotive Research, says the EU’s tariffs have now made it harder for Chinese firms to gain market share.

“The door was wide open in 2024… but the Chinese failed to take their chance. With the tariffs in place, Chinese manufacturers are now unable to push their cost advantage onto European consumers.”

European manufacturers have been racing to develop their own affordable electric cars. French car-maker Renault is among them.

At its factory in Douai, in northeastern France, an army of spark-spitting robots weld sections of steel to form car bodies, while on the main assembly line, automated systems mate together bodyshells, doors, batteries, motors and other parts, before human workers apply the finishing touches.

The factory has been making cars for Renault since 1974, but four years ago, the ageing production lines were replaced with new highly automated, digitally-controlled systems.

Part of the site was also taken over by the Chinese-owned battery firm AESC, which built its own “gigafactory” next door.

It’s part of Renault’s wider plan to set up an ultra-modern EV “hub” in northern France. Mirroring the lean production techniques of Chinese manufacturers, the hub cuts costs by maximising efficiency and ensuring that suppliers are located as close as possible.

“Our target was to be able to produce affordable electric cars here to sell in Europe,” explains Pierre Andrieux, director of the Douai plant, arguing that automated processes “will enable us to do that profitably”.

But the company is also exploiting something the Chinese brands do not have: heritage. Its latest model, the Renault 5 E-tech, built in Douai, borrows its name from one of the company’s most famous products.

The original Renault 5, launched in 1972, was a quirky little everyman car with boxy looks and low running costs that became a cult classic.

The new design, despite being a state-of-the art EV, pays homage to its predecessor in name and appearance, in an effort to emulate its popular appeal.

But irrespective of how desirable Chinese cars are in comparison with European rivals, some experts believe we should be wary of them – for security reasons.

Most modern vehicles are internet-enabled in some way – to allow satellite navigation, for example – and drivers’ phones are often connected to car systems. Pioneered by Tesla, so-called “over-the-air updates” can upgrade a car’s software remotely.

This has all led to concerns, in some quarters, that cars could be hacked and used to harbour spyware, monitor individuals or even be immobilised at the touch of a keyboard.

Earlier this year, a British newspaper reported that military and intelligence chiefs had been ordered not to discuss official business while riding in EVs; it was also alleged that cars with Chinese components had been banned from sensitive military sites.

Then in May, a former head of the intelligence service MI6 claimed that Chinese-made technology in a range of products, including cars, could be controlled and programmed remotely. Sir Richard Dearlove warned MPs that there was the potential to “immobilise London”.

Beijing has always denied all accusations of espionage.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London says that the recent allegations are “entirely unfounded and absurd”.

“China has consistently advocated the secure, open, and rules-based development of global supply chains,” the spokesperson told the BBC. “Chinese enterprises operating around the world are required to comply with local laws and regulations.

“To date, there is no credible evidence to support the claim that Chinese EVs pose a security threat to the UK or any other country.”

Joseph Jarnecki, research fellow at defence and security think-tank The Royal United Services Institute, argues that potential risks can be mitigated.

“Chinese carmakers exist in this highly competitive market. While they’re beholden to Chinese law and that may require compliance with national security agencies, none of them want to damage their ability to grow and to have international exports by being perceived as a security risk,” he says.

“The Chinese government equally is conscious of the need for economic growth. They’re not hell-bent on solely conducting surveillance.”

But the car industry is just one area in which Chinese technology is becoming increasingly enmeshed in the UK economy. To achieve the government’s climate objectives, for instance, “It will be necessary to use Chinese-supplied technology”, adds Mr Jarnecki.

He believes that regulators of key industries should be given sufficient resources to monitor cyber security and advise companies using Chinese products of any potential issues.

As for electric cars powered by Chinese technology, there’s no question that they’re here to stay.

“Even if you have a car that’s made in Germany or elsewhere, it probably contains quite a few Chinese components,” says Dan Caesar.

“The reality is most of us have smartphones and things from China, from the US, from Korea, without really giving it a second thought. So I do think there’s some fearmongering going on about what the Chinese are capable of.

“I think we have to face the reality that China is going to be a big part of the future.”

Sly Stone, a funk-rock star who led the group Sly and the Family Stone, has died at the age of 82, his family said in a statement.

A statement said he had suffered a “prolonged battle” with the lung disease COPD.

Stone, whose real name was Sylvester Stewart, grew up singing gospel with his siblings, and went on to play the Woodstock music festival in 1969.

On the way, Stone was a San Francisco radio DJ, before he and his band hit the big time with hits including It’s a Family Affair and If You Want Me to Stay.

Stone was a giant of funk music, known for blending psychedelia, funk, rock and soul, his big style and even bigger hair.

Here is a selection of images from his life.

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The wedding ceremony was almost over when newlywed Bobby Underwood stepped on a napkin-covered glass to break it, as is Jewish tradition, and everyone shouted “Mazel Tov!”.

But as he and his new wife Siobhan turned to walk back down the aisle, their wedding officiants said, “Wait.” There was a surprise.

“All of these drones started rising up,” recalls Mrs Underwood. “It was honestly remarkable, very overwhelming – and incredibly emotional for us.”

Around 300 drones appeared in the night sky, displaying lights of various colours, and forming images chosen to represent the bride and groom.

These included a baseball player hitting a ball – as Mr Underwood is a big baseball fan – and a diamond ring being placed on a finger.

The couple were married on New Year’s Eve 2024, in New York State. Mrs Underwood’s mother had arranged the surprise drone show with help from the couple’s wedding planner – who had suggested it as a “wow factor” component of the day. It seemed to have the desired effect.

“It was kind of just shock – ‘Is this really happening right now?’,” says Mrs Underwood. “I can’t believe my mom did this for us.”

Drone shows are becoming ever more popular. Once rarities, they are now appearing at occasions ranging from birthday parties and weddings, to major sporting events. Some theme parks even have resident drone shows that take place multiple nights in a row.

Glastonbury music festival had its first drone show in 2024, flown by UK-based drone show company, Celestial.

And record-breaking displays are pushing the technology to its limits – the biggest drone show in history took place in China last October. It featured a total of 10,200 drones and broke a record set only the previous month. So, does all this spell the end for fireworks?

“They are really beautiful – they are art,” says Sally French, a US-based drone industry commentator known as The Drone Girl. She says that drone shows have appeared at baseball games, corporate conferences, and even at ports, to celebrate the launch of cruises.

Drone displays are becoming highly sophisticated, she explains, with some drone shows featuring thousands of flying devices, allowing them to animate figures or patterns in incredible detail.

“I saw a Star Wars-themed drone show where there was a full-on lightsabre battle,” adds Ms French.

One barrier might be the price tag, however, with the cost per drone at around $300 (£220) in the UK, says Ms French, citing industry data from drone show software firm SPH Engineering: “A 500 drone show would be over $150,000.”

Mrs Underwood does not have an exact figure, but estimates that her wedding drone show cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The sky’s the limit, actually. Skymagic, one of the world’s largest drone show companies, has put on major displays that cost north of $1m says Patrick O’Mahony, co-founder and creative director.

Skymagic’s shows have taken place in various countries – including the 2023 Coachella music festival in California.

The company has also performed drone shows in the UK, including as part of the King’s Coronation concert, which was broadcast by the BBC.

Mr O’Mahony has worked with designers of fireworks displays and other, similar events. But drones have revolutionised outdoor public displays, he says.

His company has a fleet of 6,000 custom-designed drones. Each one can reach speeds of up to 10 meters per second. The drones sport LED lights and have batteries that allow for 25 minutes of flight time.

To make them easier to transport, the drones are stored in flight cases and unpacked at venues in a giant marquee before they are laid out in the take-off area, half a metre apart, in a grid pattern.

“Once the drones have received their ‘go’ command [they] fly the entire show,” adds Mr O’Mahony, explaining that a single human pilot on the ground controls thousands of the devices at once.

The drones are geo-fenced, based on Global Positioning System (GPS) data, which prevents them from straying beyond the allotted flight area. In windy conditions, though, they can get blown off course. In such cases, they automatically return to a landing spot on the ground, says Mr O’Mahony.

Fireworks have a “boom” factor that drones generally don’t, notes Ms French. However, Bill Ray, an analyst at market research firm Gartner, says that some drones can now launch pyrotechnics, for a firework-like effect. For instance, a stream of sparks raining down from the lower portion of an image created by a group of drones.

Plus, Mr Ray says it is much easier to accurately synchronise drone movements with music during a show, which could be another reason behind their appeal. But the cost of shows remains prohibitive to some, and in part comes down to the fact that laying out the devices and gathering them all up again after the performance is still a relatively slow, manual process, adds Mr Ray.

Pedro Rosário is chief executive of Drone Show Animations, a company that designs drone show performances for other companies that supply the drones themselves. Mr Rosário says that one challenging aspect of his work is in coming up with displays that adhere to various regulations applying to drone flights, since these rules differ from country to country. England has stricter regulations than countries in the Middle East, for example, he says.

Mr Rosário adds that drone shows, which might be paired with pyrotechnics, traditional fireworks or even lasers, allow for a huge degree of creative freedom: “You can really build something that has emotional value, it can tell a story.”

In Mrs Underwood’s case, that seems to have worked. Her guests enjoyed the spectacle too, she adds: “We’ve heard compliments about our wedding in general – but, consistently, the drone show is something people bring up as something they never expected to see.”

When 26-year-old Umar Sofi received his acceptance letter from Columbia University’s School of Journalism, he thought the hardest part of his journey was over.

After trying for three years, Mr Sofi had finally been admitted to his dream university and even secured a partial scholarship. He quit his job in anticipation of the big move.

But on 27 May, when the US suddenly paused student visa appointments, the ground slipped from beneath his feet.

“I was numb. I could not process what had happened,” Mr Sofi, who lives in Indian-administered Kashmir, told the BBC.

Some 2,000km (1,242 miles) away in Mumbai, 17-year-old Samita Garg (name changed on request) went through a similar ordeal.

A day after she was accepted into a top US university to study biochemistry – her first step towards becoming a dermatologist – the US embassy halted student visa appointments.

“It is scary and stressful,” Ms Garg told the BBC over the phone. “It feels like I’ve been left in the lurch, not knowing when this will end.”

Both Mr Sofi and Ms Garg now have only a few weeks to secure their visas before the academic year begins in August, but little clarity on whether they can go ahead with their plans.

Last month President Donald Trump’s administration asked US embassies across the world to stop scheduling appointments for student visas and expand social media vetting of applicants.

This wider move followed a crackdown on America’s elite universities like Harvard, which Trump accused of being too liberal and of not doing enough to combat antisemitism.

Trump’s decisions have had far-reaching repercussions in India, which sends more international students to the US than any other country.

Over the last month, the BBC spoke with at least 20 students at various stages of their application process, all of whom echoed deep anxieties about their futures. Most chose to remain anonymous, fearing retribution from the US government and worried that speaking out now could hurt their chances of obtaining a visa, or renewing it.

• Trump’s battle on international students explained… in 70 seconds
• Students say they ‘regret’ applying to US universities after visa changes
• Trump suspends foreign student visas at Harvard

More than 1.1 million international students were enrolled in US colleges in the 2023-24 school year, according to Open Doors, an organisation that collects data on foreign students.

Nearly a third of them, or more than 330,000, were from India.

Educational consultants report that applications to US universities for the upcoming autumn semester have dropped by at least 30% because of the uncertainty.

“Their biggest fear is safety – what if their visas are rejected or they’re deported mid-term?” said Naveen Chopra, founder of TC Global, an international education consultancy.

Experts say many students are now either deferring their plans or switching to countries perceived to be more “stable” like the UK, Germany, Ireland and Australia.

Prema Unni (name changed on request) was accepted into three US universities for a master’s in data analytics. But instead of preparing for the move, he decided to forgo the opportunity altogether.

“There’s uncertainty at every step – first the visa, then restrictions on internships and part-time work, and the constant surveillance while on campus,” Mr Unni said. “It is very stressful.”

The halt on visa interviews is the latest in a series of policies tightening immigration rules for students. A few weeks ago, the US warned that students who drop out or miss classes without proper notification risk having their visas revoked, and could be barred from future entry.

These decisions have come around the time of the year when 70% of student visas are issued, or renewed, sparking great unease among Indian students.

“No student wants to go to a country and then have the visa policy suddenly change,” Chris R Glass, a professor at Boston College told the BBC. “They need stability and options.”

The uncertainty will have long-term consequences – both for the aspirations of Indian students, but also for the US’s future as a coveted higher education hub – says Prof Glass.

Foreign student enrolment in US universities was slowing even before Trump’s latest salvo.

According to The Indian Express newspaper, the US denied 41% of student visa applications between the fiscal years 2023 and 2024, the highest rejection rate in a decade, and nearly doubling from 2014.

Data from Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS), which tracks foreign students’ compliance with their visas, showed a nearly 10% drop in international student enrolments as of March this year compared with the same period in 2024.

International students are a financial lifeline for many US colleges, especially regional and state universities offering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and other master’s programmes.

These students pay significantly higher tuition fees than US citizens.

In the 2023–24 academic year alone, foreign students contributed $43.8bn to the US economy, according to Nafsa, an association of International educators. They also supported over 375,000 jobs.

“This really isn’t about a short-term disruption of tuition revenue. This is about a long-term rupture in a strategic relationship that benefits both countries,” Prof Glass said.

For decades the brightest Indian students have depended on an American education in the absence of top quality Indian universities or a supportive research ecosystem.

In turn they’ve helped plug a skills gap in the US.

Many land highly sought-after jobs after they finish their courses – in particular, representing a significant pool of skilled professionals in sectors like biotechnology, healthcare and data science – and have even gone on to lead iconic companies.

Everyone from Google’s Sunder Pichai to Microsoft’s Satya Nadella went to the US as students.

While this has often led to concerns of a “brain-drain” from India, experts point out that India is simply unable to solve the problem of quality and quantity higher education in the immediate future to provide a domestic alternative to these students.

Experts say it will be a lose-lose situation for both countries, unless the cloud of uncertainty lifts soon.

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, has removed all 17 members of a committee that issues official government recommendations on immunisations.

Announcing the move in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said that conflicts of interest on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip) were responsible for undermining trust in vaccinations.

Kennedy said he wanted to “ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible.”

Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy’s longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of a number of vaccines, although in his Senate confirmation hearing he said he is “not going to take them away.”

On Monday he said he was “retiring” all of the Acip panel members. Eight of the 17 panellists were appointed in January 2025, in the last days of President Biden’s term.

Most of the members are practising doctors and experts attached to major university medical centres.

After the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves vaccines based on whether the benefits of the shot outweigh the risks, Acip recommends which groups should be given the shots and when, which also determines insurance coverage of the shots.

Kennedy noted that if he did not remove the committee members, President Trump would not have been able to appoint a majority on the panel until 2028.

“The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” Kennedy wrote.

He claimed that health authorities and drug companies were responsible for a “crisis of public trust” that some try to explain “by blaming misinformation or antiscience attitudes.”

In the editorial, Kennedy cited examples from the 1990s and 2000s and alleged that conflicts of interest persist.

“Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Acip members are required to disclose conflicts of interest, which are posted online, and to recuse themselves from voting on decisions where they may have a conflict.

The members have a wide range of vaccine expertise, and thoroughly review and debate vaccine data to make the best decisions for the public, said Paul Offit, a former Acip member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

In his editorial, Kennedy said that the “problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt”.

“The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy,” he claimed.

Dr Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, a professional organisation for American doctors, said mass sacking “upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.”

“With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses,” Dr Scott said in a statement.

Kennedy’s move appears contrary to assurances he gave during his confirmation hearings. Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana who is also a doctor, reported that he received commitments from the health secretary that Acip would be maintained “without changes.”

On Monday, Cassidy wrote on X: “Of course, now the fear is that the Acip will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.

“I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”

Public health experts share Cassidy’s concerns that Kennedy may appoint vaccine-sceptics to the board.

Such replacements would mean some vaccines “won’t be recommended at all” and other effective shots could “no longer be reimbursable by insurance companies”, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official.

“As a consequence, we will see still further declines in vaccination rates, and then a resurgence of the diseases that they could have prevented,” he said.

Kennedy did not say who he would appoint to replace the board members. The health secretary appears to be calling people himself and asking them to serve on the panel, said Dr Offit, who said he has heard from at least two people Kennedy called.

“His whole notion of radical transparency – this is the opposite of that,” Dr Offit said. “This is one man making a decision behind closed doors.”

Acip has a meeting scheduled starting 25 June, at which members are scheduled to vote on recommendations for vaccines for Covid, flu, meningococcal disease, RSV and other illnesses.

The BBC contacted the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Acip chair, Dr Helen Keipp Talbot, for comment.

Namrata Nangia and her husband have been toying with the idea of having another child since their five-year-old daughter was born.

But it always comes back to one question: ‘Can we afford it?’

She lives in Mumbai and works in pharmaceuticals, her husband works at a tyre company. But the costs of having one child are already overwhelming – school fees, the school bus, swimming lessons, even going to the GP is expensive.

It was different when Namrata was growing up. “We just used to go to school, nothing extracurricular, but now you have to send your kid to swimming, you have to send them to drawing, you have to see what else they can do.”

According to a new report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN agency for reproductive rights, Namrata’s situation is becoming a global norm.

The agency has taken its strongest line yet on fertility decline, warning that hundreds of millions of people are not able to have the number of children they want, citing the prohibitive cost of parenthood and the lack of a suitable partner as some of the reasons.

UNFPA surveyed 14,000 people in 14 countries about their fertility intentions. One in five said they haven’t had or expect they won’t have their desired number of children.

The countries surveyed – South Korea, Thailand, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, US, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa, and Nigeria – account for a third of the global population.

They are a mix of low, middle and high-income countries and those with low and high fertility. UNFPA surveyed young adults and those past their reproductive years.

“The world has begun an unprecedented decline in fertility rates,” says Dr Natalia Kanem, head of UNFPA.

“Most people surveyed want two or more children. Fertility rates are falling in large part because many feel unable to create the families they want. And that is the real crisis,” she says.

“Calling this a crisis, saying it’s real. That’s a shift I think,” says demographer Anna Rotkirch, who has researched fertility intentions in Europe and advises the Finnish government on population policy.

“Overall, there’s more undershooting than overshooting of fertility ideals,” she says. She has studied this at length in Europe and is interested to see it reflected at a global level.

She was also surprised by how many respondents over 50 (31%) said they had fewer children than they wanted.

The survey, which is a pilot for research in 50 countries later this year, is limited in its scope. When it comes to age groups within countries for example, the sample sizes are too small to make conclusions.

But some findings are clear.

In all countries, 39% of people said financial limitations prevented them from having a child.

The highest response was in Korea (58%), the lowest in Sweden (19%).

In total, only 12% of people cited infertility – or difficulty conceiving – as a reason for not having the number of children they wanted to. But that figure was higher in countries including Thailand (19%), the US (16%), South Africa (15%), Nigeria (14%) and India (13%).

“This is the first time that [the UN] have really gone all-out on low fertility issues,” says Prof Stuart Gietel-Basten, demographer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Until recently the agency focused heavily on women who have more children than they wanted and the “unmet need” for contraception.

Still, the UNFPA is urging caution in response to low fertility.

“Right now, what we’re seeing is a lot of rhetoric of catastrophe, either overpopulation or shrinking population, which leads to this kind of exaggerated response, and sometimes a manipulative response,” says Dr Kanem.

“In terms of trying to get women to have more children, or fewer.”

She points out that 40 years ago China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Turkey were all worried their populations were too high. By 2015 they wanted to boost fertility.

“We want to try as far as possible to avoid those countries enacting any kind of panicky policies,” says Prof Gietel-Basten.

“We are seeing low fertility, population ageing, population stagnation used as an excuse to implement nationalist, anti-migrant policies and gender conservative policies,” he says.

UNFPA found an even bigger barrier to children than finances was a lack of time. For Namrata in Mumbai that rings true.

She spends at least three hours a day commuting to her office and back. When she gets home she is exhausted but wants to spend time with her daughter. Her family doesn’t get much sleep.

“After a working day, obviously you have that guilt, being a mom, that you’re not spending enough time with your kid,” she says.

“So, we’re just going to focus on one.”

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A South Korean court has fined a woman for sexual misconduct after she pulled down a colleague’s trousers – and his underwear, by accident – in front of their colleagues, local media reported.

On top of the 2.8 million won ($2,100; £1,500) fine, the woman in her 50s has also been ordered to complete eight hours of sexual violence prevention education.

The incident reportedly happened last October at a restaurant kitchen in Gangwon province in the north-east.

The Chuncheon District Court’s ruling on Saturday rejected the woman’s claim that she had intended it to be a prank on her colleague, who is in his 20s.

But the court said it was taking into account the fact that she had no prior criminal record and had shown remorse. She had knelt down to apologise to the man and his parents, the judge said.

“It seems like they punished a simple prank too harshly,” says one comment under the Chosun Daily’s report of the case.

But another reader argues, “The fine is not excessive at all. Why are you playing this kind of prank? Does this look like a prank to you?”

Pulling down someone’s trousers, which could include underwear – “pantsing” or “debagging” as it’s known – is often seen as a common practical joke despite criticism that it is a form of bullying.

Pantsing has long been used as a comic routine on variety shows and reality TV in South Korea.

But it has got people in trouble as well. In 2019, South Korean Olympic short track speed skating champion Lim Hyo-jun was suspended for a year after he pulled down a male teammate’s trousers in front of other female skaters.

And in 2021, a group of elementary school students in North Jeolla Province were investigated for bullying a younger boy at a playground, after the victim’s mother told police that they had pulled her son’s pants down.

A man in Texas has been charged with murder after he allegedly slipped an abortion drug into his pregnant girlfriend’s drink.

Justin Anthony Banta was arrested on Friday after a months-long investigation into his former girlfriend’s accusation that he gave her the Plan C pill (known as an abortion drug) without her knowledge, according to police in the US state.

Mr Banta’s ex-partner said when she disclosed her pregnancy last year, he had offered to cover the cost of an abortion, but she expressed her desire to keep the baby.

Police said after meeting with Mr Banta in a coffee shop, she experienced heavy bleeding and visited the emergency room, but lost her baby a few days later.

Mr Banta was also charged with tampering with physical evidence and is awaiting prosecution, according to the Parker County Sheriff’s Office.

Police said Mr Banta’s former girlfriend was around six-weeks pregnant when she went for a check up with her doctor, who told her the baby was healthy and had “a strong heartbeat” and vital signs.

“Later that same day, the victim reported she met Banta at a coffee shop… where she expressed her suspicion that Banta had secretly added abortion-inducing pills to her drink without her knowledge or permission,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Mr Banta’s former girlfriend also said he suggested they buy the Plan C abortion drug online after she disclosed her pregnancy.

Following an interview with Mr Banta, police collected his mobile phone, but later discovered “crucial evidence relating to the case” was deleted, they said.

Investigators said they believed Mr Banta, who worked in IT at the US Department of Justice, later accessed his phone remotely and performed a “reset”.

An arrest warrant for him was then obtained, and Mr Banta was charged last week with capital murder and tampering with physical evidence.

Police said the cases against Mr Banta remained active and ongoing.

Texas has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the US, banning all abortions except in dire medical circumstances.

The state introduced a law in 2022 that carries civil and criminal penalties for those who perform abortions.

A law in 2021 also bans the termination of pregnancies after a baby’s heartbeat is detected, but does make exceptions for medical emergencies.

The customs officers at Brussels Airport were stunned. They had opened crates in the back of a lorry expecting to find a tonne of medical ketamine. But somewhere on its journey, the white powder had been switched for salt.

After zigzagging hundreds of miles across Europe, the contents of the consignment had been verified five days earlier by customs officers at Schipol Airport in the Netherlands, ready for its road trip to Belgium.

But somewhere between Amsterdam and Brussels the ketamine had vanished – the authorities believe most likely into the black market – replaced by the salt and freshly forged documents.

While it is not known where the drug ended up, and no-one responsible has been caught, this case shows the increasingly elaborate methods crime gangs are using to traffic ketamine across Europe and into the UK.

They exploit its classification in some countries as a legal medicine by transporting it across multiple borders to confuse the authorities. Consignments then disappear and are illegally sold as a hallucinogenic drug.

“It’s clear that criminal organisations are misusing all these long routes,” says Marc Vancoillie, head of Belgium’s central directorate of drugs.

Belgian investigators have uncovered at least 28 similar consignment switches – involving an estimated 28 tonnes of ketamine – since this case in 2023.

Some criminal gangs are now making more money from selling ketamine than other illegal drugs such as cocaine, Mr Vancoille told us, describing the situation as an epidemic.

In the UK, ketamine consumption has risen 85% between 2023 and 2024, wastewater analysis – sampling human waste from sewage plants to measure the scale of illicit drug use – suggests.

Latest figures show there were 53 deaths involving ketamine in 2023. It has been linked to high-profile deaths including those of Friends actor Matthew Perry and drag star The Vivienne. Abuse of the drug can also lead to cognitive problems and permanent bladder damage.

UK organised crime groups “are clearly stepping into this new market”, says Adam Thompson from the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The challenge for European law enforcement agencies is compounded by the fact that ketamine is used as a vital legitimate anaesthetic in hospitals and veterinary clinics, as well as being a popular illegal recreational drug.

File on 4 Investigates has examined how organised crime groups are exploiting this dual classification. In countries such as the UK and Belgium, ketamine is classified as a narcotic.

But in countries including Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, it is regulated as a medicine, meaning it faces less scrutiny during its import and transit.

“It starts off being produced for those markets and exported from countries like India,” said Mr Thompson. “But then it’s diverted by organised crime groups into illicit supply.”

Armed with this knowledge, the smugglers have developed a preferred route – shipping the drug from India, where it is legitimately produced as a medicine, into Germany, through the Netherlands and Belgium, then on to the UK.

In the case of the disappearing consignment at Brussels Airport, the drug was originally flown from India to Austria. It was then driven to Germany before being flown to the Netherlands where it was unloaded again and readied for the road trip to Belgium. During all of these connections it was being moved legally.

But, somewhere during this last leg, it was swapped with salt – and it is thought the ketamine entered the black market for illegal sales.

In another case, a container arriving at the Belgian port of Antwerp which had been verified as containing ketamine, was found to hold sugar.

Criminal groups are also exploiting legal supply chains by setting up front companies to import ketamine under the guise of legitimate use, only to divert it into illicit markets once it arrives in Europe.

The more countries and jurisdictions it goes through, the more difficult it is to investigate, requiring liaison between law enforcement agencies, Belgian and Dutch Police told the BBC. It also helps disguise where the front company – an import company which obtains a legitimate licence – is based.

“They [the criminals] will put all kinds of steps – companies in different countries – in between. So it’s hard for us to backtrack if we find any large quantities of ketamine,” said Ch Insp Peter Jansen, a drug expert from the Dutch police.

Germany, Europe’s biggest importer of ketamine, has a huge pharmaceutical industry, so large consignments are less likely to raise suspicions.

In 2023 alone,100 tonnes of ketamine were imported from India, Mr Vancoillie says – far more than would be expected for legitimate medical and veterinary use.

“Between 20 to 25% will be necessary for legal purposes and not more,” he told us. “It’s tonnes and tonnes and tonnes that disappeared in criminal routes.”

European police forces say they are planning to liaise with the Indian authorities to try to tackle the problem, with Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office telling us it carries out intensive monitoring of new psychoactive substances like ketamine.

It added it was “in close contact with national and international authorities, organisations and institutions in order to be able to anticipate and react to further developments and new trends”.

The smuggling network sees plenty of reward in England and Wales, where an estimated 269,000 people aged 16-59 reported using ketamine in the year ending March 2024, government figures show. Among young people aged 16-24, usage has soared by 231% since 2013.

“Ketamine is a very cheap drug compared to some other illicit drugs,” the NCA’s Adam Thompson explained. “It’s sold for about £20 a gram at street level, compared to £60 to £100 for cocaine.”

The drug is being smuggled into the UK through two main routes – concealed in small parcels sent by post, or hidden in lorries and vans arriving via ferries and the Channel Tunnel, the NCA believes.

With hundreds of thousands of parcels arriving in the UK only a small percentage are spotted. It’s “very easy to hide that needle in the haystack,” Mr Thompson added.

In Belgium, some criminal groups are using AirBnBs to store ketamine before sending it through France to the UK, by cars, lorries or trucks, according to Mr Vancoillie.

In one case, somebody reported as suspicious a group of men who were moving IKEA boxes into a van. The vehicle had been hired, which meant the authorities were able to track its prior movements back to an AirBnB in Staden, Belgium.

There, they found 480kg (1,058lbs) of ketamine, along with 117kg of cocaine, and 63kg of heroin, stored in a garage.

Eight British nationals were eventually linked to the case and prosecuted.

As ketamine use continues to rise and trafficking methods grow more inventive, authorities across Europe are calling for greater international co-operation.

“It’s a responsibility of agencies and countries across the globe,” Mr Thompson warned, “to think about this.”

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A Kenyan blogger who died in police custody was hit on the head and his death was likely to have been caused by assault, a post-mortem has revealed.

This contradicts police claims that Albert Ojwang “sustained head injuries after hitting his head against a cell wall”.

His death has sparked widespread outrage in Kenya, with rights groups demanding that police be held accountable. Mr Ojwang, 31, was detained following a complaint by the deputy police chief, who accused him of tarnishing his name on social media.

“The cause of death is very clear; head injury, neck compression and other injuries spread all over the body that are pointing towards assault,” state pathologist Bernard Midia said.

Police have not yet commented on the findings.

Mr Ojwang, a digital creator who microblogged on X and Facebook on topical political and social issues, was arrested in Homa Bay, a town in western Kenya, on Friday.

He was detained over a post on X that was allegedly critical of Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat.

He was subsequently transferred over 350km (220 miles) to the capital, Nairobi, and booked into the Central Police Station on Saturday.

Police said he was later found unconscious in his cell with self-inflicted injuries.

But an autopsy, conducted by five pathologists who released a unanimous report, revealed that Mr Ojwang had severe head injuries and suffered neck compression and multiple soft tissue trauma.

Dr Midia, who led the team of pathologists, said that Mr Ojwang did not hit himself on the wall, as police had said in a statement on Sunday.

He said if Mr Ojwang had done this, the pattern of injuries would have been different, and frontal bleeding on the head would be seen.

“But the bleeds that we found on the scalp… on the skin of the head were spaced, including on the face, sides of the head and the back of the head,” Dr Midia said at a press conference.

“There were also multiple soft tissue injuries spread all over the body, including the head, neck, upper limbs and the trunk and lower limbs… these were injuries that were externally inflicted,” he added.

The injuries were consistent with “external assault” and there were also signs of a struggle, according to the pathologists.

Mr Ojwang’s father, Meshack Ojwang, has appealed to President William Ruto to help him get justice for his son.

“Help me as a taxpayer. The officers who picked up my son saw our home was humble and assumed we didn’t matter,” the father said.

Ruto has not yet commented.

The Digital Content Creators Association of Kenya paid tribute to Mr Ojwang, saying: “Albert was more than a content creator – he was a voice of the youth, a symbol of resilience, and an embodiment of the dreams and hopes of a generation that uses digital platforms to inspire change. His legacy will not be silenced.”

Faith Odhiambo, president of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), said the autopsy report clearly showed that Mr Ojwang had been “tortured” and “brutally murdered” in police custody.

“We will continue to pile pressure until every single officer involved is held personally liable. We won’t accept more excuses,” Ms Odhiambo said.

Veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga has condemned Mr Ojwang’s “horrifying” death, saying it added to a long list of “young and defenceless Kenyans whose lives have been taken too soon, in brutal and senseless circumstances, at the hands of the police”.

Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja earlier suspended several officers who were on duty at the time of Mr Ojwang’s death.

Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has launched an inquiry into his death.

But human rights groups have demanded more action, terming the blogger’s death as a possible attempt to silence the digital community through intimidation and fear.

A crowd of activists, holding placards and chanting “Stop killing us”, protested on Monday outside Nairobi City mortuary, where Mr Ojwang’s body is being kept.

• Why Kenya’s president has so many nicknames
• The ‘tax collector’ president sparking Kenyan anger
• BBC identifies security forces who shot Kenya anti-tax protesters

Uber will trial robotaxis – autonomous cars with no human safety driver at the wheel – in London next spring.

The ride-hailing app will work with the UK artificial intelligence (AI) firm Wayve, which has been testing out the technology on the city’s streets with human oversight, in line with current legislation.

The announcement comes after the UK government changed its rules about the driverless cars once again.

It was originally aiming for the tech to come to British roads in 2026, then the date was changed to the second half of 2027.

But it now says it is introducing an accelerated framework for small autonomous “bus and taxi like” commercial services to get them underway earlier.

It is not yet clear whether the vehicles in Uber’s trial will be available for customers to use – the firm says it is still working out the details.

It has previously said it intends to add them as a regular option via its UK app as soon as legislation allows.

The Department for Transport says the industry could create 38,000 jobs and add £42bn to the UK economy by 2035.

But speaking to the BBC last month, GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast said the “significant social implications” driverless cars and taxis could have – including on unemployment – should also be fully considered.

Uber launched a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas in March and said its driverless vehicles could work for 20 hours per day, seven days per week.

Customers there can choose whether to take a robotaxi if there is one available, with no difference in fare. Tesla is planning to launch a rival service in the same city in June.

Fully driverless cars have done millions of miles on public roads in other countries too, including China, UAE and Singapore, but whether they are more or less safe than human-driven ones is still being investigated.

Numerous studies suggest automated vehicles are less accident-prone than human drivers, based on US data.

But there have been a number of incidents involving robotaxis in the countries where they operate, ranging from road accidents to passengers being locked in.

And one service in San Francisco was cancelled after a series of malfunctions.

In May I took a ride in a car fitted out with Wayve’s autonomous kit across central London. We had a human safety driver at the wheel but he did not have to use the controls once during our 30 minute journey.

The car handled every potential hazard which appeared in the busy streets including congestion, temporary traffic lights, cyclists and, at one point, a pedestrian using crutches in the middle of the road.

The Ford Mach-e was fitted with sensors and a radar, and an AI-powered system controlled the vehicle’s responses in real time.

If anything it was a lot more cautious than a human driver, which made for a reassuringly uneventful trip.

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Ten people have been killed in a school shooting in the Austrian city of Graz, in what is the deadliest gun attack in the country’s recent history.

Police said the 21-year-old gunman, a former student, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after.

The incident took place at Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the north-west of the city.

Six females and three males were killed in the attack, according to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. A further 12 people were injured, some seriously, according to police.

Later on Tuesday, local media reported an injured female had died in hospital, bringing the number of victims killed to 10.

The gunman, who has not yet been named, was a former Dreierschützengasse student who didn’t graduate from the school, Karner told a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

There has been a lot of speculation about the case, Karner noted, adding it is now the job of the criminal office to investigate.

In the same conference, police said the gunman’s motive was still under investigation.

Officers also confirmed the gunman was not known to police before the attack.

Current information suggests the shooter legally owned the two guns used in the attack and had a firearms licence, police added.

Local media outlets have reported the suspect used a pistol and a shotgun to carry out the shooting.

He was an Austrian man from the wider Graz region who acted alone, police said.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria, and a nationwide minute’s silence will be held on Wednesday at 10:00am local time in memory of the victims.

Flags on the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where the President Alexander Van der Bellen has his office, will fly at half mast.

The school where the attack took place will remain closed until further notice, according to Austria’s Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr.

The Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said Tuesday was a “dark day in [the] history of our country” and declared the shooting a “national tragedy”.

“A school is more than just a place to learn – it is a space for trust, for feeling comfortable and for having a future,” he told the conference, adding this safe place had been “violated”.

“In these difficult hours, being human is our strongest point,” he said.

Austria’s APA news agency has reported that seven of those killed were pupils.

The attack “strikes our country right at its heart”, Stocker said in the immediate aftermath.

“These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them.”

Police said they began an operation at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) after gunshots were heard from inside the school.

A specialist Cobra tactical unit – which handles attacks and hostage situations – was deployed to the school, police said.

Authorities evacuated all pupils and teachers from the building. Police confirmed the school had been secured and there was no further danger posed to members of the public.

“Locally, we have seen people crying on the streets, talking to friends that have been at the school when the shooting happened, who have maybe lost a friend,” said Fanny Gasser, a journalist for the Austrian daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung.

She told BBC News “everybody knows somebody” at the school because Graz – despite being the second-largest city in Austria – is “not that big”.

She said the school was likely unprepared for the possibility of an attack. “We are not living in America, we are living in Austria, which seems like a very safe space.”

Local mayor Elke Kahr called the incident a “terrible tragedy”.

European Commission Vice-President Kaja Kallas said she was “deeply shocked” by the news. “Every child should feel safe at school and be able to learn free from fear and violence,” she posted on X.

By Tuesday afternoon, long queues had formed outside a blood donation centre in Graz.

“Today is a hard day for all of us in Graz. I’m hear to [donate] my blood to help other people who need it,” 25-year-old Stephanie Koenig told Reuters news agency.

“Today I’m here because I wanted to do something. I felt helpless with the news,” Johanna, 30, said.

Another person standing in line told Reuters giving blood felt like the “only way possible to help”.

The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s recent history.

In 2020, jihadist gunman Kujtim Fejzulai shot four people dead and wounded 23 others on a rampage through Vienna’s busy nightlife district.

Meanwhile, in 2016, a gunman opened fire at a concert in the town of Nenzing, killing two people before shooting himself dead. Eleven other people were injured in the attack.

Namrata Nangia and her husband have been toying with the idea of having another child since their five-year-old daughter was born.

But it always comes back to one question: ‘Can we afford it?’

She lives in Mumbai and works in pharmaceuticals, her husband works at a tyre company. But the costs of having one child are already overwhelming – school fees, the school bus, swimming lessons, even going to the GP is expensive.

It was different when Namrata was growing up. “We just used to go to school, nothing extracurricular, but now you have to send your kid to swimming, you have to send them to drawing, you have to see what else they can do.”

According to a new report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN agency for reproductive rights, Namrata’s situation is becoming a global norm.

The agency has taken its strongest line yet on fertility decline, warning that hundreds of millions of people are not able to have the number of children they want, citing the prohibitive cost of parenthood and the lack of a suitable partner as some of the reasons.

UNFPA surveyed 14,000 people in 14 countries about their fertility intentions. One in five said they haven’t had or expect they won’t have their desired number of children.

The countries surveyed – South Korea, Thailand, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, US, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa, and Nigeria – account for a third of the global population.

They are a mix of low, middle and high-income countries and those with low and high fertility. UNFPA surveyed young adults and those past their reproductive years.

“The world has begun an unprecedented decline in fertility rates,” says Dr Natalia Kanem, head of UNFPA.

“Most people surveyed want two or more children. Fertility rates are falling in large part because many feel unable to create the families they want. And that is the real crisis,” she says.

“Calling this a crisis, saying it’s real. That’s a shift I think,” says demographer Anna Rotkirch, who has researched fertility intentions in Europe and advises the Finnish government on population policy.

“Overall, there’s more undershooting than overshooting of fertility ideals,” she says. She has studied this at length in Europe and is interested to see it reflected at a global level.

She was also surprised by how many respondents over 50 (31%) said they had fewer children than they wanted.

The survey, which is a pilot for research in 50 countries later this year, is limited in its scope. When it comes to age groups within countries for example, the sample sizes are too small to make conclusions.

But some findings are clear.

In all countries, 39% of people said financial limitations prevented them from having a child.

The highest response was in Korea (58%), the lowest in Sweden (19%).

In total, only 12% of people cited infertility – or difficulty conceiving – as a reason for not having the number of children they wanted to. But that figure was higher in countries including Thailand (19%), the US (16%), South Africa (15%), Nigeria (14%) and India (13%).

“This is the first time that [the UN] have really gone all-out on low fertility issues,” says Prof Stuart Gietel-Basten, demographer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Until recently the agency focused heavily on women who have more children than they wanted and the “unmet need” for contraception.

Still, the UNFPA is urging caution in response to low fertility.

“Right now, what we’re seeing is a lot of rhetoric of catastrophe, either overpopulation or shrinking population, which leads to this kind of exaggerated response, and sometimes a manipulative response,” says Dr Kanem.

“In terms of trying to get women to have more children, or fewer.”

She points out that 40 years ago China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Turkey were all worried their populations were too high. By 2015 they wanted to boost fertility.

“We want to try as far as possible to avoid those countries enacting any kind of panicky policies,” says Prof Gietel-Basten.

“We are seeing low fertility, population ageing, population stagnation used as an excuse to implement nationalist, anti-migrant policies and gender conservative policies,” he says.

UNFPA found an even bigger barrier to children than finances was a lack of time. For Namrata in Mumbai that rings true.

She spends at least three hours a day commuting to her office and back. When she gets home she is exhausted but wants to spend time with her daughter. Her family doesn’t get much sleep.

“After a working day, obviously you have that guilt, being a mom, that you’re not spending enough time with your kid,” she says.

“So, we’re just going to focus on one.”

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The UK has sanctioned two far-right Israeli ministers over “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities” in the occupied West Bank.

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will both be banned from entering the UK and will have any assets in the UK frozen as part of the measures announced by the foreign secretary.

David Lammy said Finance Minister Smotrich and National Security Minister Ben-Gvir had “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights”.

In response, Israel said: “It is outrageous that elected representatives and members of the government are subjected to these kind of measures.”

The sanctions are part of a joint move by the UK, Norway, Australia, Canada and New Zealand announced on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the move, writing on X: “These sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war”.

He urged the nations to reverse the sanctions, adding that the US “stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.”

The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, joined Rubio’s condemnation, describing the move as a “shocking decision” in an interview with the BBC.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have also been criticised for their stance on the war in Gaza. Both ministers oppose allowing aid into the Strip and have called for Palestinians there to be resettled outside the territory.

The Foreign Office said: “As Palestinian communities in the West Bank continue to suffer from severe acts of violence by extremist Israeli settlers which also undermine a future Palestinian state, the UK has joined Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway in stepping up the international response.”

After the announcement, Lammy said: “These actions are not acceptable. This is why we have taken action now – to hold those responsible to account.

“We will strive to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of the remaining hostages by Hamas which can have no future role in the governance of Gaza, a surge in aid and a path to a two-state solution.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the cabinet would meet next week to respond to what he called an “unacceptable decision”.

The Foreign Office added that the five nations are “clear that the rising violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the West Bank must stop”.

In a statement it said the sanctions against the ministers “cannot be seen in isolation from events in Gaza where Israel must uphold International Humanitarian Law”.

The ministers lead ultra-nationalist parties in the governing coalition, which holds an eight-seat majority in parliament. The support of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, which holds six seats, and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which holds seven seats, is crucial to the government’s survival.

Speaking at the inauguration of a new settlement in the West Bank, Smotrich said he felt “contempt” towards the UK’s move.

“Britain has already tried once to prevent us from settling the cradle of our homeland, and we cannot do it again,” he said. “We are determined, God willing, to continue building.”

The minister was alluding to the period when Britain governed Palestine and imposed restrictions on Jewish immigration, most significantly from the late 1930s to late 1940s.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law – a position supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year – although Israel disputes this.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer said that 2024 had seen the “worst settler violence” in the West Bank in the past two decades and this year was “on track to be just as violent”.

Commenting on the sanctions imposed on the two ministers, Falconer said they were “responsible for inciting settler violence” in the West Bank which has “led to the deaths of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of whole towns and villages”.

Falconer said Smotrich and Ben-Gvir had continued their “appalling” rhetoric despite warnings from the UK government, and so action was taken.

The possibility of sanctioning these two ministers has long been in the pipeline.

In October, Lord Cameron said he had planned to sanction the pair, when he was foreign secretary from 2023-24, as a way of putting pressure on Israel.

The UK’s decision reflects growing popular and parliamentary pressure to take further action against the Israeli government for its operations both in Gaza and the West Bank.

It also comes after a steady escalation of pressure by the UK and other allies.

Last month the leaders of Britain, France and Canada issued a joint statement saying that Israel was at risk of breaking international law. The UK also broke off trade talks with Israel.

In the Commons last month, Lammy described remarks by Smotrich about “cleansing” Gaza of Palestinians as “monstrous” and “dangerous” extremism.

• 19 May: UK, France and Canada denounce expanded Israeli offensive on Gaza and continuing blockade, warn of “concrete” response; Israeli PM calls move “huge prize” for Hamas
• 20 May: UK suspends free trade talks with Israel, sanctions settlers, and summons Israel’s ambassador; Israel foreign ministry calls move “regrettable”
• 22 May: Israeli PM links criticism of Israel by leaders of UK, France and Canada to deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC on 21 May
• 10 June: UK sanctions Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir for advocating forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza; Israel’s foreign minister calls move “outrageous”

Conservative shadow home secretary Dame Priti Patel did not directly comment on the sanctions, but said: “We have been clear that the British government must leverage its influence at every opportunity to ensure the remaining hostages [held by Hamas] are released, that aid continues to reach those who need it, and a sustainable end to the conflict is achieved.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey welcomed the sanctions, but said it was “disappointing” that the Conservative government and Labour “took so long to act”.

It is 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,927 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

There is shock, sadness and disbelief in Graz, after the worst shooting in modern Austrian history left 11 people dead, including the gunman.

“We never could have imagined that this could have happened here, in our place. It’s a sad day for the whole city,” said Reka, who lives close to the school.

For many years, Austria had been spared the pain of mass school shootings.

But that all changed at about 10:00 on Tuesday when a former student ran amok at a secondary school in the Dreierschützengasse, close to the main station in Austria’s second largest city.

Morning classes were under way when the attack took place. Some students at the school would have been taking their final exams.

It took police 17 minutes to bring the situation under control.

By the time it was over six female victims and three males had died. Hours later, a seventh female victim, an adult woman, died in hospital. Several others remain in hospital, some with critical injuries.

The gunman, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen with two firearms, took his own life at the school.

A former pupil who never passed his final exams, he is reported to have seen himself as a victim of bullying.

Local resident Reka told me she couldn’t understand how an attack like this could have happened in her well-ordered city.

“This area is quiet, safe and beautiful,” she said. “People are nice, the school is good.”

Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen said: “This horror cannot be put into words. What happened today in a school in Graz, hits our country right in the heart. These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way.”

He said there was “nothing at this moment that can alleviate the pain that the parents, grandparents, siblings and friends of those murdered are feeling”.

Austria’s Chancellor Christian Stocker, who rushed to the scene with the Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, called it “a national tragedy, that had shaken the entire country.” He said there were no words to describe “the pain and grief that we all – the whole of Austria – is feeling”.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria. Flags on the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where President van der Bellen has his office, will fly at half-mast.

Austria has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 firearms per 100 persons, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project.

But school shootings here are rare. There have been a few incidents over the years that have involved far fewer casualties:

• In 2018 a 19-year-old was shot by another youth in Mistelbach, north of Vienna
• In 2012 in St Pölten, a pupil was shot dead by his father
• In 1997, in Zöbern, a 15-year-old killed a teacher and seriously injured another
• And in 1993 a 13-year-old boy in Hausleiten seriously injured the head teacher and then killed himself.

Austria’s most violent gun attack in recent years took place in the heart of Vienna in November 2020. Four people were killed and 22 injured when a convicted jihadist ran through the centre of the city opening fire, before he was eventually shot by police.

Machine guns and pump action guns are banned, while revolvers, pistols and semi-automatic weapons are allowed only with official authorisation. Rifles and shotguns are permitted with a firearms licence or a valid hunting licence, or for members of traditional shooting clubs.

The Graz gunman is understood to have owned both firearms legally, and he had no criminal record. One of his guns was bought only the day before the attack, according to one report.

Outside the school, a young man on a bicycle watched as the police allowed security vehicles through the security cordon round the school.

“It’s horrific,” he told me. “This is my home. I can’t understand how so many people my age are dead. This shouldn’t happen here.”

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, has removed all 17 members of a committee that issues official government recommendations on immunisations.

Announcing the move in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said that conflicts of interest on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip) were responsible for undermining trust in vaccinations.

Kennedy said he wanted to “ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible.”

Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy’s longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of a number of vaccines, although in his Senate confirmation hearing he said he is “not going to take them away.”

On Monday he said he was “retiring” all of the Acip panel members. Eight of the 17 panellists were appointed in January 2025, in the last days of President Biden’s term.

Most of the members are practising doctors and experts attached to major university medical centres.

After the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves vaccines based on whether the benefits of the shot outweigh the risks, Acip recommends which groups should be given the shots and when, which also determines insurance coverage of the shots.

Kennedy noted that if he did not remove the committee members, President Trump would not have been able to appoint a majority on the panel until 2028.

“The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” Kennedy wrote.

He claimed that health authorities and drug companies were responsible for a “crisis of public trust” that some try to explain “by blaming misinformation or antiscience attitudes.”

In the editorial, Kennedy cited examples from the 1990s and 2000s and alleged that conflicts of interest persist.

“Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Acip members are required to disclose conflicts of interest, which are posted online, and to recuse themselves from voting on decisions where they may have a conflict.

The members have a wide range of vaccine expertise, and thoroughly review and debate vaccine data to make the best decisions for the public, said Paul Offit, a former Acip member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

In his editorial, Kennedy said that the “problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt”.

“The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy,” he claimed.

Dr Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, a professional organisation for American doctors, said mass sacking “upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.”

“With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses,” Dr Scott said in a statement.

Kennedy’s move appears contrary to assurances he gave during his confirmation hearings. Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana who is also a doctor, reported that he received commitments from the health secretary that Acip would be maintained “without changes.”

On Monday, Cassidy wrote on X: “Of course, now the fear is that the Acip will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.

“I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”

Public health experts share Cassidy’s concerns that Kennedy may appoint vaccine-sceptics to the board.

Such replacements would mean some vaccines “won’t be recommended at all” and other effective shots could “no longer be reimbursable by insurance companies”, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official.

“As a consequence, we will see still further declines in vaccination rates, and then a resurgence of the diseases that they could have prevented,” he said.

Kennedy did not say who he would appoint to replace the board members. The health secretary appears to be calling people himself and asking them to serve on the panel, said Dr Offit, who said he has heard from at least two people Kennedy called.

“His whole notion of radical transparency – this is the opposite of that,” Dr Offit said. “This is one man making a decision behind closed doors.”

Acip has a meeting scheduled starting 25 June, at which members are scheduled to vote on recommendations for vaccines for Covid, flu, meningococcal disease, RSV and other illnesses.

The BBC contacted the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Acip chair, Dr Helen Keipp Talbot, for comment.

Israel says it has deported Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, a day after the Gaza-bound aid boat she and 11 other people were on was intercepted by Israeli forces in the Mediterranean.

Thunberg departed Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning on a flight to France after she agreed to be deported, the Israeli foreign ministry said.

Upon arriving at an airport in Paris, Thunberg accused Israel of illegally kidnapping her and other activists on the boat while they were in international waters.

France said five of the six French citizens detained alongside her had refused to sign their deportation orders and would now be subject to judicial proceedings.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the activist group operating the yacht The Madleen, has demanded the immediate release of everyone detained.

The vessel was intercepted early on Monday while the activists tried to deliver a “symbolic” amount of aid to Gaza in defiance of Israel’s maritime blockade and highlight the humanitarian crisis there.

The Israeli foreign ministry dismissed it as a “selfie yacht”, and announced in a post on X on Monday night that the passengers had been transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport following the vessel’s arrival at the port of Ashdod on Monday night.

“Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorize their deportation,” it said.

On Tuesday morning, the ministry said Thunberg had “just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France)”, and posted a photo of her sitting on a plane.

Speaking to reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport, Thunberg said Israel had committed “an illegal act by kidnapping us on international waters and against our will, bringing us to Israel, keeping us in the bottom of the boat, not letting us getting out and so on”.

She added: “But that is not the real story here, the real story is that there is a genocide going on in Gaza, and a systematic starvation following the siege and blockade now, which is leading to food, medicine, water – that are desperately needed to get into Gaza – is prevented from doing so.”

The Israeli foreign ministry has insisted the blockade was “consistent with international law”, and that unauthorised attempts to breach it were “dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts”.

Asked why she was free while others were still detained, Thunberg said it was “a bit unclear”. She said she and some others had signed a document saying they wanted to go back as soon as they could, but did not accept they had entered the country illegally, but others hadn’t signed this document.

She added she had been unable to say goodbye to fellow activists before her deportation, and was unsure what was happening to them. “I’m very worried about them,” she said.

France’s Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, earlier wrote on X: “Our consul was able to see the six French nationals arrested by the Israeli authorities last night.”

“One of them has agreed to leave voluntarily and should return today. The other five will be subject to forced deportation proceedings.”

Barrot did not identify them, but the six French nationals include MEP Rima Hassan and two journalists, Omar Faiad of Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Yanis Mhamdi of online publication Blast, who Reporters Without Borders said were documenting the Madleen’s journey.

As well as France and Sweden, citizens of Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey were on board the vessel.

The FFC confirmed in a statement on Monday night that all 12 had reached Ashdod and that it expected any who refused to be deported to be transferred to a detention facility in Ramle, near Tel Aviv.

“We continue to demand the immediate release of all volunteers and the return of the stolen aid. Their kidnapping is unlawful and a violation of international law,” it added.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the aid, which includes baby formula and medicine, would be transferred to Gaza “through real humanitarian channels”.

The FFC said the Madleen was intercepted by the Israeli military inside international waters about 185km (115 miles) west of Gaza early on Monday.

According to the group, the vessel was surrounded by quadcopter drones, sprayed with a “white irritant substance”, and had its communications jammed.

Video footage released by the group showed the passengers sitting down with their hands raised as Israeli forces boarded.

It also posted a pre-recorded clip showing Thunberg saying: “If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel.”

“I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”

The foreign ministry later said all the passengers were “safe and unharmed”, and posted a video showing troops handing them food and water.

When the Madleen set sail from Italy on 1 June, the FFC said it was “carrying humanitarian aid and international human rights defenders in direct defiance of Israel’s illegal and genocidal blockade”. The Israeli foreign ministry called it a “gimmick”, while Israel has rejected accusations of genocide.

On Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the maritime blockade was necessary to prevent the smuggling of weapons to Hamas.

Israel and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza when Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007 by ousting its rivals, a year after winning legislative elections.

Israel stopped all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March this year and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

It said the steps were meant to put pressure on the group to release the hostages still held in Gaza, but the UN warned that Gaza’s 2.1 million population were facing catastrophic levels of hunger because of the resulting shortages of food.

Three weeks ago, Israel launched an expanded offensive to take control of all areas of Gaza. It also partially eased the blockade, allowing in a “basic” amount of food.

Israel is now prioritising distribution through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which it backs along with the US. The UN and other aid groups are refusing to co-operate with the new system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence.

It is 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,927 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Large-scale Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian cities are on the rise.

Monday night’s bombardment, while not record breaking, was typical of the new norm.

For several hours after midnight, drones buzzed incessantly over Kyiv.

It seemed they were coming from almost every direction, as searchlights raked the sky and skeins of orange tracer fire rose from air defence units stationed around the city.

As each drone approached, the streets would echo with the deep rattle of heavy machine gun fire.

From our hotel, a fire could be seen raging in the distance, as a fiery orange moon, nearly full, slowly faded as if unwilling to compete.

Loud explosions would mark a successful interception, or a drone reaching its target.

Sitting underneath all this drama, it is hard to keep a sense of perspective.

The word “massive” is routinely used in official statements.

But a glance at the statistics tells an unmistakable story: away from the front lines, Ukraine is in the midst of the most sustained bombardment since the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with a sharp increase in the number of drones.

In the three months before August last year, Russia fired a total of 1,100, according to a report by Ukraine’s general staff.

A steep rise followed, with 818 drones recorded in August, 1,410 in September and more than 2,000 in October.

But the numbers just keep going up.

In May, for the first time, the number of drones exceeded 4,000. This month is likely to set a new record.

Since the start of June, Russia has fired an average of 256 projectiles every 24 hours, according to figures compiled by the Ukrainian air force.

The overwhelming majority of these are drones, including Shahed-type models and various decoys designed to confuse Ukraine’s air defence systems.

Russia first started using Iranian-supplied Shaheds – the word means “martyr” – in late 2022.

But by the following summer, it was producing its own variant, known as Geran, at a special economic zone in Yelabuga, in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

According to Artem Dehtiarenko, spokesman for Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, 25,000 drones have been produced there, with a further 20,000 assembled from previously supplied Iranian components.

Of 315 detected during Monday night’s bombardment, 250 were actual strike drones, according to Ukraine’s air force spokesman, Yurii Ihnat.

“Most of them were headed specifically for Kyiv,” he told the Ukrainian RBC news agency.

A total of seven ballistic and cruise missiles were also fired at the capital.

It meant another sleepless night for Kyiv’s long-suffering population.

“It’s become more intense,” Katya, a Kyiv resident told me.

“It used to be easier emotionally. Now it’s somehow become harder.”

And it’s not just the intensity of the strikes. After hundreds of similar nights, people in Kyiv can sense the subtle shifts in technology as Russia develops its capability.

“There are more drones with a slightly different sound than before,” Katya said.

The SBU’s Dehtiarenko says Russia is making constant modifications.

“Russian engineers have been tasked with increasing their destructive power in order to maximise devastation and civilian casualties,” he said.

“In addition, efforts are being made to make the Geran drones less vulnerable to Ukrainian air defences.”

Apartment blocks and office buildings were among the locations hit on Monday. Kyiv generally avoids saying if damage was caused to anything that might be considered a military target.

But a statement from the culture ministry said that for the first time, Kyiv’s St Sophia cathedral felt the impact.

St Sophia’s is a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of Ukraine’s most significant cultural and religious monuments, with spectacular 11th Century mosaics and frescoes.

A blast wave is said to have damaged a plastered cornice on the eastern façade but not affected the interior.

“However, any vibrational impact caused by explosions poses a serious threat to the integrity of the structure,” the ministry said in a statement.

A minibus carrying schoolchildren has been swept away by heavy flooding in South Africa, a spokesperson for the Eastern Cape provincial government has told the BBC.

Khuselwa Rantjie said it was unclear how many children were on the bus, but three had so far been found alive. Rescue efforts had been suspended as night had fallen and would resume on Wednesday, she added.

In a separate incident, the bodies of seven people carried away by flood water have been found in the province’s OR Tambo district.

South Africa has been hit by heavy snow, rains and gale force winds that have claimed the lives of a further five people in a road accident, and have left nearly 500,000 homes without electricity.

The Eastern Cape – the birthplace of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela – has been worst-affected by the icy conditions, along with KwaZulu-Natal province.

The bad weather has forced the closure of some major roads in the two provinces to avoid further casualties.

“This is a devastating reminder of nature’s force. We urge everyone to exercise extra caution in areas prone to flooding,” Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane said in a statement.

Five people died when a minibus taxi overturned near the coastal city of East London, with the driver saying he had lost control as he was trying to avoid a fallen tree, Eastern Cape transport department spokesperson, Unathi Binqose, told the BBC.

Two people were injured in the accident, he added.

State power utility Eskom said that almost 300,000 homes had been hit by electricity cuts in 14 towns and villages in Eastern Cape.

A further 196,000 homes in 24 areas in KwaZulu-Natal were also experiencing power cuts, Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena told the BBC.

KwaZulu-Natal Transport Minister Siboniso Duma said that heavy snow had led to lorries being stuck on roads, causing huge congestion.

Grader machines have been stationed on worst-affected roads to clear snow before it reached more than 30cm (12in) in depth.

Meteorologist Lehlohonolo Thobela also warned of strong winds and heavy waves at sea, making navigation for ships difficult.

Both Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are along the coast.

South Africa regularly receives snowfall during its winter months, from June through August, with temperatures diving below 0C (32F).

There is also regular flooding and scientists say that climate change is causing heavier rainfall in the region.

Flash floods and overflowing rivers between 30 April and 2 May caused significant damage to about 4,500 homes, and left 18 people injured.

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A teaching assistant has died after being stabbed by a student outside a school in Nogent, north-east France, officials say.

The 31-year-old teaching assistant was stabbed on Tuesday morning outside Françoise Dolto middle school as pupils’ bags were being checked by police, the Haute-Marne prefecture said.

French media reported a suspect had been taken into custody, with Prime Minister François Bayrou saying the student was 14 years old.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the teaching assistant was a “victim of a senseless wave of violence” and declared that “the nation is in mourning”.

Politicians across parties condemned the attack and called for more action against knife crime.

The suspect was not formerly known to police and the motive for the attack remains unconfirmed, local media reported.

Bayrou and French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said the teaching assistant was stabbed by a student.

Borne said she would travel to Nogent to visit the school, adding “I commend the composure and dedication of those who acted to restrain the attacker”.

Bayrou wrote on social media that “our thoughts go out” to the victim’s “little boy”, family, loved ones and the entire educational community.

“The threat of bladed weapons among our children has become critical”, Bayrou said, adding it is “up to us to make this widespread scourge a public enemy”.

Opposition politicians pushed back on the government to take more action.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), denounced what she called the “trivialisation of ultraviolence, encouraged by the apathy of the public authorities to put an end to it”.

“Not a week goes by without a tragedy striking a school,” she wrote on social media.

Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, criticised Macron for what Bardella said was a “denial” of “savagery”, seizing upon comments Macron made over the weekend.

Speaking on Saturday ahead of the UN Conference on Oceans, Macron had said he did “not want either the government or Parliament to give in to the conveniences of the moment”, criticising those “who want to make people forget the fight for the climate” and “prefer, in the meantime, to brainwash people about the invasion of the country and the latest news”.

There have been other recent knife attacks in schools. Last October, a teacher was killed during an attack at a school in the northern city of Arras.

Following a stabbing at a high school in Nantes in April, Bayrou called for “an intensification of controls put in place around and within schools”.

At the end of April, the Ministry of National Education reported that 94 bladed weapons had been seized since March in 958 random bag checks at schools.

Jean-Remi Girard, president of the National Union of Secondary Schools, said: “It’s impossible to be more vigilant 24 hours a day. We can’t say that every student is a danger or a threat, otherwise we’d never get out of bed in the morning.”

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In China, they call it the Seagull, and it has looks to match. It is sleek and angular, with bright, downward-slanting headlights that have more than a hint of mischievous eyes about them.

It is, of course, a car. A very small one, designed as a cheap city runabout – but it could have huge significance. Available in China since 2023, where it has proved extremely popular, it has just been launched in Europe with the name Dolphin Surf (because Europeans apparently aren’t as keen on seagulls as Chinese people).

When it goes on sale in the UK this week, it’s expected to have a price tag of around £18,000. That will still make it, for an electric car on western markets, very cheap indeed.

It won’t be the outright lowest-priced model on offer: the Dacia Spring, manufactured in Wuhan jointly by Renault and Dongfeng, and the Leapmotor T03, which is being produced by a joint venture between Chinese startup Leapmotor and Stellantis, both cost less.

But the Dolphin Surf is the new arrival that has long-established brands most worried. That is because the company behind it has been making ever bigger waves on international markets.

BYD is already the biggest player in China. It overtook Tesla in 2024 to become the world’s best-selling maker of electric vehicles (EVs), and since entering the European markets two years ago, it has expanded aggressively.

“We want to be number one in the British market within 10 years,” says Steve Beattie, sales and marketing director for BYD UK.

BYD is part of a wider expansion of Chinese companies and brands that some believe could change the face of the global motor industry – and which has already prompted radical action from the US government and the EU.

It means once-unknown marques like Nio, Xpeng, Zeekr or Omoda could become every bit as much household names as Ford or Volkswagen. They will join classic brands such as MG, Volvo and Lotus, which have been under Chinese ownership for years.

The products on offer already encompass a huge range, from runabouts like the tiny Dolphin Surf to exotic supercars, like the pothole-jumping U9, from BYD’s high-end sub-brand Yangwang.

“Chinese brands are making massive inroads into the European market,” says David Bailey, professor of business and economics at Birmingham Business School.

In 2024, 17 million battery and plug-in hybrid cars were sold worldwide, 11 million of those in China. Chinese brands, meanwhile, had 10% of global EV and plug-in hybrid sales outside their home country, according to the consultancy Rho Motion. That figure is only expected to grow.

For consumers, it should be good news – leading to more high-quality and affordable electric cars becoming available. But with rivalry between Beijing and western powers showing no sign of subsiding, some experts are concerned Chinese vehicles could represent a security risk from hackers and third parties. And for established players in Europe, it represents a formidable challenge to their historic dominance.

“[China has] a huge cost advantage through economies of scale and battery technology. European manufacturers have fallen well behind,” warns Mr Bailey.

“Unless they wake up very quickly and catch up, they could be wiped out.”

China’s car industry has been developing rapidly since the country joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001. But that process accelerated rapidly in 2015, when the Communist Party introduced its “Made in China 2025” initiative. The 10-year plan to make the country a leader in several high-tech industries, including EVs, attracted intense criticism from abroad, and particularly the US, amid claims of forced technology transfers and theft of intellectual property – all of which the Chinese government denies.

Fuelled by lavish state funding, the plan helped lay the groundwork for the breakneck growth of companies like BYD – originally a maker of batteries for mobile phones – and allowed the Chinese parent companies of MG and Volvo, SAIC and Geely, to become major players in the EV market.

“The general standard of Chinese cars is very, very high indeed,” says Dan Caesar, chief executive of Electric Vehicles UK.

“China has learned extremely quickly how to manufacture cars.”

Yet competition in China has become ever more cut-throat, with brands jostling for space in an increasingly saturated market. This has led them to hunt for sales elsewhere.

While Chinese firms have expanded into East Asia and South America, for years the European market proved a tough nut to crack – that is, until governments here decided to phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel models.

The transition to electric cars opened the door to new players.

“[Chinese brands] have seen an opportunity to get a bit of a foothold,” says Oliver Lowe, UK product manager of Omoda and Jaecoo, two sub brands of the Chinese giant Chery.

Low labour costs in China, coupled with government subsidies and a very well-established supply chain, have given Chinese firms advantages, their rivals have claimed. A report from the Swiss bank UBS, published in late 2023, suggested that BYD alone was able to build cars 25% more cheaply than western competitors.

Chinese firms deny the playing field is uneven. Xpeng’s vice chairman Brian Gu told the BBC at the Paris Motor Show in 2024 that his company is competitive “because we have fought tooth and nail through the most competitive market in the world”.

Concerns that Chinese EV imports could flood international markets at the expense of established manufacturers reached fever pitch in 2024.

In the US, the Alliance for American Manufacturing warned they could prove to be an “extinction-level event” for the US industry, while the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen suggested that “huge state subsidies” for Chinese firms were distorting the European market.

The Biden administration took dramatic action, raising import tariffs on Chinese-made EVs from 25% to 100%, effectively making it pointless to sell them in the US.

It was condemned by Beijing as “naked protectionism”.

Meanwhile, in October 2024, the EU imposed extra tariffs of up to 35.3% on Chinese-made EVs. The UK, however, took no action.

Matthias Schmidt, founder of Schmidt Automotive Research, says the EU’s tariffs have now made it harder for Chinese firms to gain market share.

“The door was wide open in 2024… but the Chinese failed to take their chance. With the tariffs in place, Chinese manufacturers are now unable to push their cost advantage onto European consumers.”

European manufacturers have been racing to develop their own affordable electric cars. French car-maker Renault is among them.

At its factory in Douai, in northeastern France, an army of spark-spitting robots weld sections of steel to form car bodies, while on the main assembly line, automated systems mate together bodyshells, doors, batteries, motors and other parts, before human workers apply the finishing touches.

The factory has been making cars for Renault since 1974, but four years ago, the ageing production lines were replaced with new highly automated, digitally-controlled systems.

Part of the site was also taken over by the Chinese-owned battery firm AESC, which built its own “gigafactory” next door.

It’s part of Renault’s wider plan to set up an ultra-modern EV “hub” in northern France. Mirroring the lean production techniques of Chinese manufacturers, the hub cuts costs by maximising efficiency and ensuring that suppliers are located as close as possible.

“Our target was to be able to produce affordable electric cars here to sell in Europe,” explains Pierre Andrieux, director of the Douai plant, arguing that automated processes “will enable us to do that profitably”.

But the company is also exploiting something the Chinese brands do not have: heritage. Its latest model, the Renault 5 E-tech, built in Douai, borrows its name from one of the company’s most famous products.

The original Renault 5, launched in 1972, was a quirky little everyman car with boxy looks and low running costs that became a cult classic.

The new design, despite being a state-of-the art EV, pays homage to its predecessor in name and appearance, in an effort to emulate its popular appeal.

But irrespective of how desirable Chinese cars are in comparison with European rivals, some experts believe we should be wary of them – for security reasons.

Most modern vehicles are internet-enabled in some way – to allow satellite navigation, for example – and drivers’ phones are often connected to car systems. Pioneered by Tesla, so-called “over-the-air updates” can upgrade a car’s software remotely.

This has all led to concerns, in some quarters, that cars could be hacked and used to harbour spyware, monitor individuals or even be immobilised at the touch of a keyboard.

Earlier this year, a British newspaper reported that military and intelligence chiefs had been ordered not to discuss official business while riding in EVs; it was also alleged that cars with Chinese components had been banned from sensitive military sites.

Then in May, a former head of the intelligence service MI6 claimed that Chinese-made technology in a range of products, including cars, could be controlled and programmed remotely. Sir Richard Dearlove warned MPs that there was the potential to “immobilise London”.

Beijing has always denied all accusations of espionage.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London says that the recent allegations are “entirely unfounded and absurd”.

“China has consistently advocated the secure, open, and rules-based development of global supply chains,” the spokesperson told the BBC. “Chinese enterprises operating around the world are required to comply with local laws and regulations.

“To date, there is no credible evidence to support the claim that Chinese EVs pose a security threat to the UK or any other country.”

Joseph Jarnecki, research fellow at defence and security think-tank The Royal United Services Institute, argues that potential risks can be mitigated.

“Chinese carmakers exist in this highly competitive market. While they’re beholden to Chinese law and that may require compliance with national security agencies, none of them want to damage their ability to grow and to have international exports by being perceived as a security risk,” he says.

“The Chinese government equally is conscious of the need for economic growth. They’re not hell-bent on solely conducting surveillance.”

But the car industry is just one area in which Chinese technology is becoming increasingly enmeshed in the UK economy. To achieve the government’s climate objectives, for instance, “It will be necessary to use Chinese-supplied technology”, adds Mr Jarnecki.

He believes that regulators of key industries should be given sufficient resources to monitor cyber security and advise companies using Chinese products of any potential issues.

As for electric cars powered by Chinese technology, there’s no question that they’re here to stay.

“Even if you have a car that’s made in Germany or elsewhere, it probably contains quite a few Chinese components,” says Dan Caesar.

“The reality is most of us have smartphones and things from China, from the US, from Korea, without really giving it a second thought. So I do think there’s some fearmongering going on about what the Chinese are capable of.

“I think we have to face the reality that China is going to be a big part of the future.”