President Donald Trump has ordered that all US government staff working on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes be put on immediate paid administrative leave.

In an executive order late on Tuesday, he called for an end to the “dangerous, demeaning and immoral” programmes.

The White House confirmed that all federal DEI staff had to be put on leave by 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday, before the offices and programmes in question were shut down.

Since re-taking office on Monday, Trump has acted swiftly on a number of key pledges through a raft of unilateral actions. He repeatedly attacked DEI practices on the campaign trail, arguing that they were discriminatory.

DEI programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.

Their backers say they address historical underrepresentation and discrimination against certain groups including racial minorities, but critics say such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.

In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump pledged to “forge a society that is colour-blind and merit-based”.

Tuesday’s executive order took aim at what it called the “illegal” policies of DEI and DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility), framing them as being in opposition to US law.

It said these policies had the capability to “violate” important underlying civil rights laws that protect Americans from discrimination.

The order further asserted that DEI programmes “undermine our national unity” as they denied “traditional” values in favour of an “identity-based spoils system”.

In a social media post, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she could “gladly confirm” reporting by the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that all federal employees in DEI roles will be put on paid leave by Wednesday’s end of work day.

Ms Leavitt said the move “is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds”, and fulfils a campaign promise made by Trump.

The memo seen by CBS was sent from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to heads of government agencies. As well as instructing them to place DEI employees on leave, it made a number of requests including the removal of public websites for DEIA offices.

It also orders that federal hiring, promotions and performance reviews “reward individual initiative” rather than “DEI-related factors”, and revokes a 1965 executive order signed by former President Lyndon B Johnson that makes it illegal for federal contractors to discriminate on the basis of “race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin” in their hiring.

By Thursday, federal agencies must compile a list of DEI offices and workers, the order declares. By 31 January, agencies must submit “a written plan” for executing lay-offs in DEI offices.

The order also requires the attorney general to submit, within 120 days, recommendations “to encourage the private sector” to end similar diversity efforts.

Tuesday’s order comes on the heels of another one that pledged to put to an end programmes deemed “radical and wasteful” by Trump.

That one, signed on Monday, declares that all DEI offices, positions and programmes be terminated within 60 days, “to the maximum extent allowed by law”.

It is unclear how many government employees would be affected by these orders.

Several large US companies have ended or scaled back their DEI programmes in recent weeks, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Facebook parent company Meta.

Others, like Apple and retailers Target and Costco, have publicly defended their DEI programmes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had a video call hours after Donald Trump was sworn in on Monday, pledging to bring bilateral ties to “greater heights”, according to state media on both sides.

Calling Xi a “dear friend”, Putin said Russia and China were building ties “on the basis of friendship, mutual trust and support” despite external pressure.

Xi called on Putin to “continue deepening strategic coordination, firming up mutual support, and safeguarding legitimate interests”.

Trump on Tuesday threatened tariffs on Beijing, calling it “an abuser”, and warned that “big trouble” will come for Moscow if it does not strike a deal to end war in Ukraine.

Putin told Xi, however, that any Ukraine settlement “must respect Russian interests”, according to foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov who spoke to reporters after the call.

Beijing has been accused of building up Moscow’s war machine by providing it with critical components for the conflict in Ukraine.

Trade between both countries reached a record $240bn (£191bn) in 2023, up more than 64% since 2021 – before Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Putin and Xi confirmed readiness to build relations with the US on a mutually beneficial and respectful basis, if the Trump team shows an interest”, Ushakov said.

He also said, however, that the call was “not connected with Trump’s inauguration in any way”.

The call lasted about one-and-a-half hours, during which Putin and Xi also discussed the situations in the Middle East, South Korea and Taiwan, according to Ushakov.

Chinese state media said Xi also expressed readiness to work with Putin in response to “external uncertainties”, without mentioning specifics.

Xi held a phone call with Trump last week, which the US president described as a “very good” discussion for both countries. They spoke about trade, fentanyl and TikTok, among other things, he said.

Putin has yet to speak with Trump, but congratulated him on state television hours before the inauguration.

One of the people who served jail time for taking part in the US Capitol riot four years ago has refused a pardon from President Donald Trump, saying: “We were wrong that day.”

Pamela Hemphill, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison, told the BBC that there should be no pardons for the riot on 6 January 2021.

“Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation,” she said.

“I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative.”

Hemphill, who was nicknamed the “Maga granny” by social media users – in reference to Trump’s “make America great again” slogan – said she saw the Trump government as trying to “rewrite history and I don’t want to be part of that”.

“We were wrong that day, we broke the law – there should be no pardons,” she told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme.

• Proud Boys and Oath Keepers among those pardoned over riot
• What are presidential pardons and how do they work?

Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of nearly 1,600 people involved in the attempt to violently overturn the 2020 election came just hours into his presidency.

In a news conference on Tuesday at the White House, he said: “These people have already served years in prison, and they’ve served them viciously.

“It’s a disgusting prison. It’s been horrible. It’s inhumane. It’s been a terrible, terrible thing.”

However, the move has drawn an uneasy reaction from some Republican politicians.

Senator Thom Tillis, from North Carolina, said he “just can’t agree” with the move, adding that it “raises legitimate safety issues on Capitol Hill”.

Another Republican US senator, James Lankford from Oklahoma, told CNN: “I think we need to continue to say we are a party of law and order.”

He added: “I think if you attack a police officer, that’s a very serious issue and they should pay a price for that.”

Also among those pardoned was one of the riot’s most recognisable figures, Jacob Chansley, the self-styled QAnon Shaman, who was released from jail in 2023 after serving 27 months of his 41-month jail sentence.

He told the BBC that he heard the news from his lawyer while he was at the gym.

He added: “I walked outside and I screamed ‘freedom’ at the top of my lungs and then gave a good Native American war cry.”

• LIVE: Follow BBC’s live coverage
• ANALYSIS: Six Trump executive orders to watch
• IN DEPTH: Relationship with Europe this time may be very different
• PARDONS: Jan 6 defendants get nearly everything they wanted
• WATCH: Bishop asks Trump to show mercy to LGBT people and migrants

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

South Korea will change the concrete barriers used for navigation at seven airports across the country following December’s plane crash that killed 179 people.

Seven airports will also have their runway safety areas adapted following a review of all South Korea’s airports that was carried out after the crash – the deadliest in the country’s history.

The Jeju Air flight was bringing passengers home from Thailand after Christmas when it made an emergency landing at Muan airport and exploded after slamming into a concrete barrier at the end of the runway.

The cause of the crash is still unknown but air safety experts had earlier said the number of casualties could have been much lower if not for the structure.

The concrete structure holds a navigation system that assists aircraft landings – known as a localiser. South Korea’s transport ministry had said this system could also be found in other airports in the country and even overseas.

Safety inspectors have now identified nine of these systems, which they say need to be altered. These include the systems at Muan and Jeju International Airport which is the country’s second-largest airport.

They are looking to either replace the concrete bases with more lightweight structures or bury them underground.

Officials added that Muan International Airport’s existing concrete mounds would be removed entirely and the localiser “reinstalled using breakable structures”.

Following the crash, it emerged that an operating manual from Muan International Airport, uploaded early in 2024, had said the concrete embankment was too close to the end of the runway.

The document, prepared by Korea Airports Corp, had recommended the location of the equipment be reviewed during a planned expansion.

Chris Kingswood, a pilot with 48 years’ experience who has flown the same type of aircraft involved in the crash, previously told the BBC that “obstacles within a certain range and distance of the runway are required to be frangible, which means that if an aircraft strikes them that they do break.

Apart from the barriers, seven airports will also have their runway safety areas adapted after the investigation found that they were shorter than the recommended 240m (787ft).

According to reports, the runway safety area at Muan airport had been about 200m long.

A runway safety area refers to an area adjacent to, or at the end of a runway, meant to limit damage to aircraft should they overshoot, undershoot or veer off the runway.

The 179 passengers onboard the Boeing B737-800 plane were aged between three and 78 years old, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Two cabin crew members were the only survivors.

Investigators are still looking into what caused the crash, but the pilot had warned of a bird strike before pulling out of a first landing attempt. The plane crashed on its second landing attempt when the landing gear did not emerge.

Flight data and cockpit voice recorders stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, an investigation into the black boxes later found.

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ordered the seizure of two “offensive” paintings by MF Husain, one of India’s most famous artists.

The court on Monday granted permission for the police to seize the artworks after a complaint was filed alleging that the paintings, displayed at an art gallery and featuring two Hindu deities, “hurt religious sentiments”.

Husain, who died in 2011 aged 95, often faced backlash for the depictions of nude Hindu gods in his paintings.

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) which held the exhibition said in a statement that it is “not a party to the legal proceedings and is seeking legal advice”.

The paintings were part of an exhibition called Husain: The Timeless Modernist, showcasing more than 100 works at DAG from 26 October to 14 December.

The complainant, Amita Sachdeva, a lawyer, said on X that on 4 December, she photographed the “offensive paintings” displayed at the DAG and, after researching previous complaints against the late artist, filed a police complaint five days later.

On 10 December, Ms Sachdeva reported that she visited the gallery with the investigating officer, only to discover that the paintings had been removed. She claimed that the gallery officials asserted they had never exhibited the paintings.

The BBC has contacted DAG for comment.

The paintings that Ms Sachdeva shared online depicted Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman alongside nude female figures. She also alleged that the Delhi police had failed to file a report.

She later petitioned the court to preserve the CCTV footage from the gallery during the period when the paintings were reportedly on display, according to media reports.

On Monday, a judge at Delhi’s Patiala House Courts said that the police had accessed the footage and submitted their report. According to the inquiry, the exhibition was held in a private space and was intended solely to showcase the artist’s original work, the judge added.

The art gallery said in a statement that they are “reviewing the situation” and “trying to follow developments”.

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of India’s biggest painters and was called “Picasso of India” but his art often stirred controversy in the country. His works have sold for millions of dollars.

His career was marked by controversy when he was accused of obscenity and denounced by hardline Hindus for a painting of a nude goddess.

In 2006, Husain publicly apologised for his painting, Mother India. It showed a nude woman kneeling on the ground creating the shape of the Indian map. He left the country the same year and lived in self-imposed exile in London until his death.

In 2008, India’s Supreme Court refused to launch criminal proceedings against Husain, saying that his paintings were not obscene and nudity was common in Indian iconography and history.

The court had then dismissed an appeal against a high court ruling that quashed criminal proceedings against Husain in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, condemning the rise of a “new puritanism” in India.

The court also rejected calls for Husain, then in exile, to be summoned and asked to explain his paintings, which were accused of outraging religious sentiments and disturbing national integrity.

“There are so many such subjects, photographs and publications. Will you file cases against all of them? What about temple structures? Husain’s work is art. If you don’t want to see it, don’t see it. There are so many such art forms in temple structures,” the top court said.

Many believe there is a rising tide of illiberalism against artistic expression in India.

In October the Bombay High Court reprimanded the customs department for seizing artworks by renowned artists FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee on the grounds that they were “obscene material.”

The court ruled that not every nude or sexually explicit painting qualifies as obscene and ordered the release of seven seized artworks.

An endangered plant known as the “corpse flower” for its putrid stink is about to bloom in Australia – and captivated the internet in the process, with thousands already tuned in to a livestream ahead of its grand debut.

The titan arum plant, housed in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney, blooms only once every few years for just 24 hours.

Affectionately dubbed Putricia, it will release a smell described as “wet socks, hot cat food, or rotting possum flesh”.

The long wait and uncertainty as to when Putricia will bloom – has spawned jokes and even a unique lingo in the livestream’s chat, with thousands commenting “WWTF”, or “We Watch the Flower”.

The current view is not much: Putricia stands silent and tall in front of a brown curtain, comfortably ensconced behind a red velvet rope. Occasionally, a visitor pops into the frame as they snap a selfie with the plant.

But once she blooms, viewers can expect to see Putricia unfold a vibrant maroon or crimson skirt, known as a spathe, around her spadix which is the large spike in the middle of the plant.

The Gardens have said it is “hard to predict exactly when” Putricia will bloom, but that has not stopped the thousands gathered online.

“I’m back again to see how Putricia is going and I can see she’s still taking her time like the queen she is, fair play,” wrote one commenter. “This is the slowest burlesque ever,” said another.

Yet another person wrote: “Overnight I watched, fell asleep, awoke, watched, fell asleep. I am weak, but Putricia is strong. WWTF.”

Other popular acronyms among viewers are WDNRP (We Do Not Rush Putricia) and BBTB (Blessed Be The Bloom).

The plant can only be found in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, where it is known as bunga bangkai – or “corpse flower” in Indonesian. Its scientific name is Amorphophallus titanum, which is derived from Ancient Greek and means “giant misshapen penis”,

It has the world’s largest flowering structure, as it can grow up to 3m (10 feet) tall and weigh up to 150kg. The plant contains several hundred flowers in the base of its spadix.

It is endangered in the wild due to deforestation and land degradation.

Putricia is one of several titan arums in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, which last saw one bloom 15 years ago.

But there have been other corpse flower blooms across Australia in recent years, including Melbourne and Adelaide’s botanic gardens, each time attracting thousands of curious visitors keen on having a whiff.

There are also a few housed in Kew Gardens in London, where one bloomed in June last year. The titan arum first flowered outside of Sumatra in 1889 in Kew.

“It has been a long fight full of tears for us.”

That is how Ann “Waaddao” Chumaporn describes the years that led to this moment – on Thursday, when same-sex marriage becomes legal in Thailand, and more than a hundred couples will tie the knot in one of Bangkok’s biggest shopping malls, in a riot of colour and celebration.

And the same question which has been heard throughout the long campaign to get the equal marriage law passed will be asked again: why Thailand? Why nowhere else, aside from Taiwan and Nepal, in Asia?

People think they know the answer. Thailand is famously open to and accepting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. They have long been visible in all walks of life. Thai people are easy-going about pretty much everything. “Mai pen rai” – no big deal – is a national catch-phrase. Buddhist beliefs, followed by more than 90% of Thais, don’t forbid LGBT lifestyles. Surely, then, equal marriage was inevitable.

Except it wasn’t. “It was not easy,” says Ms Waaddao, who organises Bangkok Pride March.

The first Pride march in Thailand took place only 25 years ago. Back then it was hard to get approval from the police, and the march was a chaotic, unfocused event. After 2006 only two marches took place until 2022. In 2009 one planned Pride march in Chiang Mai had to be abandoned because of the threat of violence.

“We were not accepted, by our own families and by society,” Ms Waaddao adds. “There were times when we did not think marriage equality would ever happen, but we never gave up.”

For all of Thailand’s general tolerance of LGBT people, getting equal rights, including marriage, required a determined campaign to change attitudes in Thai officialdom and society. And attitudes have changed.

When Chakkrit “Ink” Vadhanavira started dating his partner in 2001, they were both actors playing leading roles in TV series. At that time homosexuality was still officially described by the Thai Ministry of Health as a mental illness.

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“Back then society could not accept leading male roles being played by a gay man. There was lots of gossip about us in the media, much of it untrue, which really stressed us,” Mr Chakkrit recalls.

“We decided then that if we were going to date each other, we had to leave showbiz.”

They are still together but they have stayed out of the limelight for more than 20 years, running a successful production company.

A lot has changed in that time – and their industry gets some credit for that.

The way LGBT characters are portrayed in Thai TV dramas, from comical oddities to mainstream roles, made a big difference, according to Tinnaphop Sinsomboonthong, an assistant professor at Thammasat University who self-identifies as queer.

“Nowadays they represent us as normal characters, like you see in real life,” he says. “The kind of LGBTQ+ colleague you might have in the office, or your LGBTQ+ neighbour. This really helped change perceptions and values in all generations.”

The so-called Boy Love dramas have helped bring the rest of society round to the idea of not just tolerance, but full acceptance and equal rights for the community.

These romantic television dramas featuring love affairs between beautiful young men have grown enormously in popularity over the past decade, especially during the Covid pandemic.

They are now one of Thailand’s most successful cultural exports, with huge audiences in places like China. Series like My School President and Love Sick have got hundreds of millions of views on streaming networks.

At the same time, activists became more focused and united in their bid to get the law changed. The many different LGBT groups came together in the Change 1448 campaign – 1448 is the clause in the Thai Civil Code covering the definition of marriage – and later under the Rainbow Coalition for Marriage Equality.

They linked up with other groups fighting for greater rights and freedoms in Thailand, and they learned to work with political parties in parliament to persuade them to change their stance on the law.

The resumption of Pride marches in 2022, and getting the government to recognise and promote the appeal of Thailand as an attractive destination for LGBT travellers also helped change public perceptions.

“We did not fight, we negotiated,” Mr Tinnaphop says. “We knew we had to talk to Thai society, and little by little, we shifted attitudes.”

Getting the equal marriage law through parliament was also helped by political developments in Thailand.

For five years following a coup in 2014, the country was ruled by a conservative military government, which was willing only to consider recognising civil partnerships for LGBT couples, without full rights like inheritance.

But in the 2019 election which returned Thailand to civilian rule, a new, youthful reformist party called Future Forward, which fully supported equal marriage, did unexpectedly well. They won the third-largest share of seats, revealing a growing hunger for change in Thailand.

When a year later Future Forward was dissolved by a controversial court verdict, it set off months of student-led protests calling for sweeping reforms, including curbs to the monarchy’s power.

LGBT campaigners were prominent in those protests, giving them greater national prominence. The protests eventually died down, with many of the leaders arrested for questioning the monarchy’s role.

But in the 2023 election the successor to Future Forward, calling itself Move Forward, performed even better than in 2019, winning more seats than any other party. Again, it was clear that the desire for change was felt across Thai people of all ages.

Move Forward was blocked from forming a government by conservatives who objected to its call for wholesale political reforms.

But by this time, equal marriage was less contentious. Few opposed it. And passing it gave the unwieldy and unpopular coalition government which had been formed without Move Forward a quick accomplishment with which to please most of the country.

Thailand, though, is an outlier in Asia. Few other countries in the region are likely to follow suit.

The influence of Islam in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei makes the notion of equal marriage a non-starter. LGBT communities there face discrimination and prosecution; in Brunei sex between men carries the death penalty.

In the Philippines, there is growing acceptance of LGBT couples living together openly. But the Roman Catholic Church vehemently opposes same-sex marriage.

In Vietnam, like Thailand, there are no religious or ideological obstacles, but campaigning to change the law, as happened in Thailand, is difficult under a repressive regime. Much the same is true in China. Until the ruling communist party endorses equal marriage, which it shows no signs of doing, it cannot happen.

Even in democracies like Japan and South Korea – where political parties are largely conservative and dominated by older men – the prospects look bleak.

“It is largely conservative Christians who are blocking it,” says Chae-yoon Han, executive director of the Beyond the Rainbow Foundation in South Korea.

“Most, if not all, politicians in the conservative party of President Yoon are devout Christians, and they have framed marriage equality as a ‘leftist agenda’, which could potentially open society to a ‘leftist, communist takeover’.”

India appeared close to legalising same-sex marriage in 2023, when the decision fell to its Supreme Court – but the judges declined, saying it was up to parliament.

So Thailand hopes to benefit from being a pioneer. Tourism is one of the few areas of the Thai economy doing well in the post-pandemic recovery, and the country is seen as a safe and welcoming destination for LGBT holiday-makers.

Growing numbers of same-sex couples from other Asian countries are choosing to live here now.

The legal recognition they can get for their marriages will allow them to raise children and grow old together with nearly all the rights and protections given to heterosexual couples.

Australia’s federal police have said they are investigating whether “overseas actors or individuals” are paying local criminals to carry out antisemitic crimes in the country.

There has been a spate of such incidents in recent months, the latest of which saw a childcare centre in Sydney set alight and sprayed with anti-Jewish graffiti. No-one was injured.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a snap cabinet meeting in response, where officials agreed to set up a national database to track antisemitic incidents.

Thus far, the federal police taskforce, set up in December to investigate such incidents, received more than 166 reports of antisemitic crimes.

Albanese said it appeared some of the crimes were “being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors”.

“Now, it’s unclear who or where the payments are coming from,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw said it was possible that cryptocurrencies – which can take longer to identify – had been used.

He added that police were also investigating whether young people were carrying out these crimes and whether they had been radicalised online.

However, Mr Kershaw cautioned, “intelligence is not the same as evidence” and more charges were expected soon.

Last week, a man from Sydney became the first person to be charged by the federal taskforce, dubbed Special Operation Avalite, over alleged death threats he made towards a Jewish organisation.

Albanese said Tuesday’s incident at a childcare centre in the eastern Sydney suburb of Maroubra was “as cowardly as it is disgusting” and described it as a “hate crime”.

“This was an attack targeted at the Jewish community. And it is a crime that concerns us all because it is also an attack on the nation and society we have built together,” he wrote on social media.

Israel’s deputy foreign minister told the ABC that Australia’s government had been “inflaming” problems in the local community by not clamping down harder on antisemitic crimes.

But Albanese on Wednesday said his government had “acted from day one” to protect Australia’s Jewish community, and criticised those seeking to make it a “political issue”.

The Jewish Council of Australia, which was set up last year in opposition to antisemitism, said that it “strongly condemns” this and all such incidents.

“These acts underscore the urgent need for cooperation, education and community dialogue to combat prejudice and promote understanding,” it said in a statement.

Most of the recent incidents have taken place in Sydney and have involved antisemitic graffiti, arson and vandalism of buildings including synagogues.

New South Wales has set up its own state-level taskforce to address these incidents and more than 35 people have been charged so far with antisemitism-related offences. These include a 33-year-old man who was charged on Wednesday over an attempt to set fire to a synagogue earlier this month.

A further 70 arrests have been made for similar crimes in the neighbouring state of Victoria, where a synagogue was set on fire last month.

On Wednesday, police said they had charged a 33-year-old Sydney man over the

Actor and director Justin Baldoni has released out-takes from a romantic scene in his film It Ends With Us, which he says is evidence that his co-star Blake Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment are unfounded.

However, she has responded by saying the footage of the pair filming a slow dance is “damning” and corroborates her claims.

The two stars played a couple in the hit film, which came out last year, but have since become embroiled in an increasingly bitter legal battle.

Lively, 37, sued Baldoni, 40, in December, accusing him of engaging in “inappropriate and unwelcome behaviour” and a smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation. He countersued last week, claiming she had made a “duplicitous attempt to destroy” him.

• Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: What you need to know

On Tuesday, Baldoni’s team released almost 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage to outlets including the Daily Mail and Variety.

It includes three takes from a scene set in a bar, and starts with a caption saying they “clearly refute” Lively’s allegations of inappropriate behaviour, and show both actors “clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism”.

Lively’s lawyers said it showed him “repeatedly leaning in toward Ms Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character”.

Every moment “was improvised by Mr Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy co-ordinator present”, they said.

“Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognise Ms Lively’s discomfort.

“They will recognise her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching. No woman should have to take defensive measures to avoid being touched by their employer without their consent.”

Releasing the video was “another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public”, they claimed.

Baldoni’s lawyer told the Hollywood Reporter his client was exercising “his right to publicly defend himself by putting forth actual facts and evidence”.

“Ms Lively wants very different standards to apply to her but fortunately, truth and authenticity apply to everyone and can never be wrong,” he said.

Lively’s lawsuit cited the scene as an example of how Baldoni “ignored well-established industry protocols in filming intimate scenes, and exploited the lack of controls on set to behave inappropriately”.

Her legal documents said he wasn’t speaking in character and that no sound was recorded.

“At one point, he leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘it smells so good.’

“None of this was remotely in character, or based on any dialogue in the script, and nothing needed to be said because, again, there was no sound – Mr Baldoni was caressing Ms Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles.

“When Ms Lively later objected to this behaviour, Mr Baldoni’s response was, ‘I’m not even attracted to you.'”

His legal documents said Lively was “consistently unable to take direction” and that she “insisted” she wanted the characters to constantly talk, which he disagreed about.

When he tried to “encourage her to take his direction, Baldoni offered up that he and his wife often just look into each other’s eyes silently, to which she responded, ‘Like sociopaths,’ and laughed.”

Lively “continued arguing” and “continued to break character”, which was “extremely confusing for Baldoni”.

He said Lively apologised for the smell of her spray tan and body make-up. “Baldoni responded, ‘It smells good,’ and continued acting, slow dancing as he believed his character would with his partner, which requires some amount of physical touching.”

Lively joked about Baldoni’s nose, and that he should get plastic surgery, he said.

“Any suggestion that this scene was filmed in any manner other than pure professionalism by Baldoni is unequivocally countered with actual evidence,” his documents added.

“Her allegation of sexual harassment is a documented and knowingly fabricated lie.”

Lively and Baldoni, who was also the film’s director, are slow dancing in a bar and their audio was recorded. After an initial exchange in which she questions whether they are in the correct position, they dance and smile silently.

He kisses her forehead then goes to kiss her on the lips before she apparently hesitates and they continue dancing. She then seems to turn her head with their faces close together and he kisses her cheek.

She tells him: “I think we should be talking. I think it’s more romantic if we’re like… dancing and talking.” He agrees and says “the whole montage is us talking”.

She continues: “Cause it’s like the moment they kiss, then you give them the thing that they want to see.”

He replies: “That’s why almost kissing is also good.” She responds: “Yeah. But we’re still talking.”

They continue dancing affectionately, laughing and discussing the scene. He nuzzles her neck. She tells him talking is “more romantic”. He says he “just got lost” and there’s “no issue with talking most of the time” because viewers will “never know [what’s being said] in slow motion”.

He tells her “I know you and Ryan [Reynolds, her husband] talk all the time”, but he and his wife Emily like to stare at each other, joking that “you would find it terrifying”. She laughs and jokes that “I’d be like, ‘Oh no I found a sociopath'”.

He asks the camera operator to film their lips “super close”, to which she agrees but adds that they should “start talking” and “don’t give it [the kiss] to them”. He agrees they should “keep restraint”.

They keep dancing with their foreheads and noses touching, upon which she starts laughing because she feels “so nosey”. He jokes that “my nose is so big” and she laughs that the film would have to “shut down” and “deal with that”, adding: “Just kidding.”

In the next take, he appears to kiss her neck then says “Am I getting beard on you today?” She laughs and responds: “I’m probably getting spray tan on you.” He nuzzles the other side of her neck and says: “It smells good”. She adds: “Well, it’s not that, it’s my body make-up”. They continue dancing and he shouts cut.

A third take shows their feet and bodies as they dance. The opening caption says “these are all three takes filmed of the sequence”.

A cat has made three flights between New Zealand and Australia in just 24 hours after being forgotten on a plane.

Mittens, an eight-year-old Maine Coon, was booked to travel from Christchurch to Melbourne on 12 January – but her cage was left in the Air New Zealand aircraft’s cargo hold.

After waiting for three hours for Mittens at Melbourne airport, owner Margo Neas was told by ground staff the plane had already returned to New Zealand with her pet.

During that flight the heating was turned on to keep the cat comfortable, Ms Neas said. The pet – who had lost weight but was otherwise unharmed – was later flown again to Melbourne to reunite with her owner.

Speaking to NBC on Wednesday, Ms Neas said she and her son had been informed about the mishap by airport ground staff in Melbourne.

“They said: ‘Look, we have located your cat – but it’s actually on the return flight to Christchurch…’

“And I said: ‘When did you discover that the cat wasn’t taken off the plane?’ And they said: ‘We’ve only just discovered now.’ And I said: ‘How can this happen?'”

Ms Neas said she was told that the pilot had already been alerted to turn the heating on in the cargo hall where the temperature could be as low as 7C.

Air New Zealand is still looking into how Mittens was forgotten, but reports say a stowed wheelchair may have obscured a baggage handler’s view of her cage.

The airline has apologised for the distress caused and promised to reimburse all travel costs.

The company does not accept direct animal bookings from the public for international flights, so passengers must book via approved pet carrier firms.

Ms Neas said she had been relieved to be finally reunited with Mittens.

“She basically just ran into my arms and just snuggled up in here and just did the biggest cuddles of all time,” she was quoted as saying by the AP news agency on Wednesday. “It was just such a relief.”

Ms Neas, who had earlier decided to relocate to Australia, added: “It was not a great start to our new life in Melbourne because we didn’t have the family, we weren’t complete.”

The one-way flight time between Christchurch and Melbourne usually takes less than four hours.

Opposition parties and NGOs are demanding explanations from the Italian government after Rome released the head of Libya’s judicial police, who had been arrested on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant over war crimes allegations.

Osama Najim – also known as Almasri – is also the director of an infamous detention centre in Mitiga, near Tripoli, which Amnesty International says is the scene of “horrific violations committed with total impunity”.

Mr Najim was freed due to a legal technicality, Italian media said, quoting interior ministry sources.

He had been arrested on Saturday in Turin, where he had attended a Juventus-Milan football match.

Mr Najim was flown back to Libya on Tuesday night on an Italian government flight. Images shared by local media showed a jubilant crowd welcoming him back with cheers and fireworks.

Shortly after Mr Najim was arrested internal ICC sources were already concerned Italy may release him, said Avvenire, the daily newspaper that first broke the story.

Italian opposition parties have expressed outrage at the release, which Rome has not yet commented on.

Matteo Renzi, former prime minister and leader of a centrist opposition party, asked justice minister Carlo Nordio “to account for his decision before MPs”, while Arturo Scotto of the Democratic Party (PD) said Mr Najim was a “Libyan mafia boss” and that Italy – an ICC signatory – had to adhere to international treaties.

Libyan writer and journalist Khalil Elhassi said Italy should explain to the Libyan people why it had released “an extremely dangerous criminal” who he said was “known for taking part in torture of Libyans and migrants”.

Two NGOs who work with migrants – Mediterranea Saving Humans and Refugees in Libya – said they had been left “stunned” by news of Mr Najim’s release.

“Some of us have suffered torture in the Mitiga camp,” the NGOs said in a statement, adding that “any crime committed on [detainees] will fall on the conscience of those who protected and freed a criminal like [Mr Najim].”

According to Amnesty International, Mr Najim headed the Judicial Police wing of the Mitiga prison since 2016 and, from 2021, oversaw various other prisons as director of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution of the Libyan Judicial Police.

Libya has been splintered since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, is currently divided between two rival governments, as well as by militias.

Right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made frequent trips to Libya and signed agreements with Tripoli.

In October, she said the two countries were bound “deep cooperation” and were working together to fight illegal immigration.

But Italian governments of all stripes have worked with Libyan authorities and militias for years, providing them with financial and technical support under controversial agreements to tackle illegal immigration, including training and funding for the Libyan coast guard which intercepts migrant boats.

As part of this agreement, Libya is expected to help reduce the number of migrants who pass through the country and arrive in Italy.

The people who are intercepted by the coastguard and brought back to shore are often imprisoned in detention camps, where they are subject to inhuman treatment and dire conditions.

Earlier this month, Italy released an Iranian engineer, Mohammad Abedini, who had been detained on suspicion of supplying drone technology that led to the deaths of US soldiers.

It is thought Abedini’s release was linked to the case of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who had been freed days before after being detained in Iran for three weeks.

Donald Trump has signed sweeping executive orders on his return to the US presidency, vowing swift action on some of his top campaign issues.

Among the directives that have gained the most publicity are an immigration crackdown and rollbacks of some climate-friendly policies.

But even presidential powers have their limits – and in some cases, he faces hurdles before his plans can become reality.

Here are six of Trump’s eye-catching actions with analysis by BBC reporters, who give their verdict on whether each order could take effect.

• What are executive orders?
• Live updates on Trump’s second term

What does the order say?

The order argues that cartels have “engaged in a campaign of violence and terror” throughout the hemisphere, and flooded the US with crime, posing a national security risk to the US.

Additionally, the order specifies that the US policy is to “ensure the total elimination” of these groups in the US. It gives US agencies 14 days to provide recommendations on which groups are to be designated and be ready to expedite the removal of individuals from the US.

What are the roadblocks?

Designating a cartel as a terrorist group could open the door to prosecuting US citizens or even legitimate businesses found to be somehow tied to those groups. The designation could also strain relations with countries including Mexico, which has vocally called for its sovereignty to be respected.

What is the potential impact?

For one, the designation of these groups as foreign terrorist organisations could ultimately be used to justify military action against targets in Mexico or other countries in which similar groups operate.

The designation could also see the US federal government dedicate more resources and enhanced legal tools to fight cartels and other gangs, and go after their business and financial interests on both sides of the border.

While it would make “material support” of these groups a crime, it remains unclear what that could mean. In theory, that could mean that drug dealers and users, including US citizens, could be charged with aiding terrorists – as could US citizens or businesses on the border that are extorted to pay them.

What does the order say?

The executive order asks the US ambassador to the UN to “immediately” submit a formal written request to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

It says the accord does not reflect the country’s values or its economic and environmental objectives.

What are the roadblocks?

Any country can withdraw from the global climate pact, but UN regulations mean the process of removing a country can be drawn out.

Trump announced his intent to withdraw during his last term in 2017, but it was not formally finalised until 2020. We can expect another waiting period this time of at least one year.

President Joe Biden rejoined it shortly after taking office in 2021

What is the potential impact?

The US is responsible for around 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second biggest polluter behind China. This damages the global effort to limit emissions.

Its withdrawal in the past has raised issues of trust on climate leadership, and questions about whether the agreement itself has been effective.

The withdrawal is also in line with Trump’s goal to boost domestic oil and gas production, though the US is already the number one producer of both in the world. It is one of several of Trump’s reversals of environmental protections that were enacted by the Biden administration.

What does the order say?

This order aims to end birthright citizenship for children born in the US to immigrant parents who are in the country illegally, as well as those born to parents who are in the country on a temporary basis.

There have been reports that the administration will enforce the order by withholding documents, such as passports, from people it deems ineligible for citizenship.

What are the roadblocks?

The principle of birthright citizenship is established in the US Constitution. The 14th Amendment says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are citizens of the United States.

The legal challenges are already under way – one claims the order is “unconstitutional, and flouts fundamental American values”.

“Ultimately this will be decided by the courts. This is not something [Trump] can decide on his own,” Saikrishna Prakash, a constitutional expert, told the BBC.

What is the potential impact?

Trump has threatened mass deportations, which could include those whose birthright citizenship is revoked if Trump is successful in enforcing this executive action.

Legal cases could ultimately have to be decided by the US Supreme Court, which could take a long time.

What does the order say?

The order says the US was withdrawing “due to the organization’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Trump’s longheld antipathy towards the WHO is rooted in a perception that it was dominated by – and so soft on – China, which the president has long believed was responsible for the spread of the virus.

It also mentions “unfairly onerous payments” the US made to the WHO.

What are the roadblocks?

It is the second time Trump has ordered the US be pulled out of the WHO. He began the process and Biden later reversed the decision after taking office.

The US exit won’t take effect until 2026 at the earliest, but leaving will require the approval of Congress.

On paper, the Republicans have a majority in both houses of Congress. But their numerical advantage is slim, and it would only take a few Republican defectors to potentially block the move.

What is the potential impact?

“Catastrophic”, “disastrous”, “damaging” is how some global public health experts are describing it.

Of the 196 member states, the US is by far the largest individual funder, contributing almost a fifth of the total WHO budget.

It’s possible that funding could disappear almost overnight and that could have an impact on the ability of the WHO to respond to emergencies.

There is also concern among some scientists that this would leave the US isolated when it comes to access to programmes such as pandemic preparedness and seasonal influenza strain sequencing, which is used to develop annual flu jabs.

That could ultimately harm the health of Americans, and the US national interest.

Some argue US withdrawal could prompt further reforms of how the WHO works, making it a body that better serves the public health needs of people around the globe.

What does the order say?

The order calls for the Gulf of Mexico to “officially be renamed the Gulf of America”.

Trump can change the name of the Gulf on official US government documents.

This has happened on some documents already – including a weather update from Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, which refers to “an area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America”.

What are the roadblocks?

Trump can’t force other countries or companies to change the name.

For example, it’s currently still labelled as the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps.

What is the potential impact?

There’s no formal international agreement for the naming of maritime areas – although there is a body that seeks to resolve disputes if raised.

So Mexico could raise an official dispute, and allies of the US and Mexico could be caught up in a diplomatic spat between the two countries.

In response to the order, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said the US can call it the “Gulf of America”, but this won’t change what Mexico and the rest of the world call it.

What does the order say?

“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” it says, adding that the federal government will use the term sex, not gender identity.

President Trump’s team argues that requirements to refer to transgender people in government facilities and workplaces by pronouns that match their gender identity violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment on freedom of speech and religion.

States like Kansas and Montana have already legislated to enshrine a biological definition of sex into law.

What are the roadblocks?

There are likely to be legal challenges.

The Human Rights Campaign, which represents LGBTQ+ people, stated that “we will fight back against these harmful provisions with everything we’ve got”.

These challenges could work their way up to the US Supreme Court which, with its conservative majority, could rule in Trump’s favour.

What is the potential impact?

Prisons and settings such as shelters for migrants and rape victims would be segregated by sex under the plans, which campaigners say will help safeguard women. But transgender rights groups say trans women could be put at a heightened risk of violence.

Official identification documents, including passports and visas, would have to state whether the individual was “male” or female”. US citizens would no longer be able to select “X” as a third option.

• ANALYSIS: Anthony Zurcher on the beginning of a new Trump era
• IN PICTURES: Defining images as the 47th US president takes office
• VIRAL MOMENTS: Carrie Underwood audio fail and Melania’s air kiss
• FASHION: Melania’s striking hat and other eye-catching look
• POLICIES: Trump vows to leave Paris climate agreement

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.

Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money-laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Trump championed Ulbricht’s cause, joining libertarians who said the conviction was an example of government overreach. On Tuesday, he said he had called Ulbricht’s mother to inform her that he had granted a pardon to her son.

Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013 after police arrested Ulbricht, sold illegal drugs using Bitcoin, as well as hacking equipment and stolen passports.

Ulbricht was found guilty of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking.

During his trial, prosecutors said Ulbricht’s website, hosted on the hidden “dark web”, sold more than $200m (£131m) worth of drugs anonymously.

Prosecutors said he also solicited six murders-for-hire, including one against a former Silk Road employee, though they said no evidence existed that any killings were actually carried out.

“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponisation of government against me,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Tuesday. “He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”

• What are presidential pardons, and who has Trump pardoned?
• Proud Boys and Oath Keepers among those pardoned by Trump

Ulbricht ran Silk Road under the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, a reference to a character in the 1987 film The Princess Bride.

The marketplace itself took its name from the historic trade routes spanning Europe, Asia and parts of Africa.

The site achieved notoriety through media reports and online chatter. But users could only access the site through Tor – a system that lets people use the web without revealing who they are or which country they are in.

Court documents from the FBI said the site had just under a million registered users, but investigators said they did not know how many were active.

Ulbricht was arrested in a San Francisco public library in 2013 in an elaborate sting operation, while allegedly chatting online with someone he thought was a colleague but was in fact an undercover federal agent.

Investigators had been through a painstaking process of piecing together the suspect’s digital footprint.

Sentencing Ulbricht – who has two college degrees – District Judge Katherine Forrest said he was “no better a person than any other drug dealer”.

She said the site had been his “carefully planned life’s work”.

The judge noted the lengthy sentence also acted as a message to copycats that there would be “very serious consequences”.

“I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity,” Ulbricht said at his sentencing in May 2015.

Despite the judge’s hope that the sentence would act as a deterrent, bigger marketplaces similar to Silk Road emerged after its closure.

Trump previously hinted that he planned to commute Ulbricht’s sentence during a speech last year at the Libertarian National Convention – while seeking to court votes ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The Libertarian party had been advocating for Ulbricht’s release and said his case was an example of government overreach.

Republican congressman Thomas Massie, a Trump ally, applauded the president’s decision.

“Thank you for keeping your word to me and others who have been advocating for Ross’ freedom,” said the Kentucky lawmaker.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Donald Trump’s first full day in office has come to an end with a late-evening move to shut down the offices of federal agencies overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

He also pardoned a man convicted of operating Silk Road, a dark web marketplace, and launched a $500bn artificial intelligence plan.

On Wednesday he will meet congressional leaders and appear on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News.

His most frenetic time in a busy few days came shortly after taking the oath at his inauguration on Monday.

He signed a flurry of executive orders to enact some of the promises he made in the election campaign.

Executive orders carry the weight of law, but can be overturned by subsequent presidents or the courts. Several of those planned by Trump face legal challenges.

Here is a summary of some of Trump’s actions so far.

• Follow live updates on Trump’s second term
• What are executive orders?

‘National emergency’

Trump has proclaimed that “America’s sovereignty is under attack”, declaring this to be a national emergency that allows him to free up more funding to reinforce the border with Mexico.

The same directive tells officials to relaunch efforts to build a border wall with Mexico that was started under his first presidency. This is not an executive order and it is unclear how such an effort might be funded.

Closing the border

The president has told the military to “seal the borders” – citing the flow of illicit drugs, human smuggling and crime relating to crossings.

Birthright citizenship

Trump has ordered that officials deny the right to citizenship to the children of migrants either in the US illegally or on temporary visas.

But the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution has long been interpreted to enshrine that right, and Trump’s order was immediately challenged in federal court.

Terrorism designation for gangs and cartels

Trump has designated drug cartels and international gangs as foreign terrorist organisations – adding the likes of Salvadoran gang MS-13 to a list that includes the so-called Islamic State.

‘Remain in Mexico’ and no more ‘catch and release’

Trump has re-implemented his “Remain in Mexico” policy from his first term. This returned about 70,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers across the border to await hearings, before being cancelled by President Joe Biden.

The same order demands the end of “catch and release”, a policy that allows migrants to live in US communities while they await their hearings. Trump has previously promised “the largest deportation program in American history”, but this could face legal and logistical challenges.

The order also shut down a major Biden-era immigration pipeline: a sponsorship initiative that allowed up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to fly to the US. It had been designed to cut illegal crossings.

Death penalty for some immigrant criminals

Trump has ordered that the federal death penalty be reinstated. Executions have not happened in recent years. It would apply to any “capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in this country” and anyone convicted of murdering a law-enforcement officer.

Refugee resettlement

Trump has suspended the US refugee resettlement programme, though details remain unclear.

Pull out of the Paris agreement (again)

Trump has signed off on withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement – the landmark international deal to limit rising global temperatures. He will have to wait a year before it happens. He previously withdrew in 2017, before Biden re-entered.

‘Energy emergency’

Trump has declared a “national energy emergency”, promising to fill up oil reserves. In his inaugural address, he vowed to “drill, baby, drill” for more fossil fuels.

Alaskan fuel

He signed an executive order titled “unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential”, pledging to “unlock” oil, gas and other natural resources from the state.

End Green New Deal

Trump has halted the Green New Deal, a series of Biden measures that were aimed at boosting green jobs, regulating the fossil fuel industry and limiting pollution.

He has ordered agencies to halt funds appropriated through two laws, the Inflation Reduction Act and another law on infrastructure and jobs. He said the US would end leasing to wind farms and revoke what he calls an electric vehicle “mandate”.

• Trump vows to leave Paris climate agreement and ‘drill, baby, drill’

Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the US from the UN’s health body, the World Health Organization (WHO).

This marks the second time Trump has ordered the US be pulled out of the WHO, after Biden re-entered it. He was critical of how the Geneva-based institution handled Covid-19.

• Trump orders US to leave World Health Organization

Transgender people

Trump has declared that the US will only recognise “two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality”. It is expected to affect transgender policies relating to government communications, civil rights protections and federal funding, as well as prisons. It will affect official documents like passports and visas.

In the same executive order, Trump ended all government programmes, policies, statements and communications that promote or support “gender ideology”.

DEI

On Tuesday evening a memo, followed by another executive order, shut down all the offices of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes within the federal government “with immediate effect” but giving them until 1700 ET on Wednesday to comply.

The day before, after being inaugurated, Trump had halted all such programmes labelling them “radical and wasteful”. The administration has also promised further actions that may affect the private sector.

• Trump moves to make anti-DEI policy official

Trump has signed a directive postponing by 75 days the implementation of a law that would ban Chinese-owned app TikTok in the US. The platform had briefly been shut the day before the inauguration, to comply with the law – which demands that a new American owner be found.

Trump formerly backed a TikTok ban, but indicated he reversed course after his campaign videos attracted billions of views. Asked what the action does after he signed it, he said it gives him the right to “sell it or close it”.

• What does Trump’s executive order mean for TikTok?

• ANALYSIS: Six Trump executive orders to watch
• IN DEPTH: Relationship with Europe this time may be very different
• PARDONS: Jan 6 defendants get nearly everything they wanted
• WATCH: Bishop asks Trump to show mercy to LGBT people and migrants
• GLOBAL: Trump considers 10% tariff on China

Pardoning hundreds who stormed US Capitol

Trump announced he was issuing pardons for nearly 1,600 of his supporters who were arrested in the riot at the US Capitol in 2021.

Trump has repeatedly referred to those arrested in the riot as “hostages”. At least 600 were charged with assaulting or impeding federal officers.

Commuting sentences of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys

Trump also commuted sentences for members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, far-right groups who were convicted of seditious conspiracy in relation to the riot.

A lawyer for former Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who was jailed for 22 years for seditious conspiracy, said his client also expected to be released.

• Proud Boys and Oath Keepers among riot defendants pardoned

Doge and Elon Musk

Trump has signed a directive creating the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – a new advisory body on cutting government costs. It is expected to be led by Elon Musk – who Trump separately said would get an office for about 20 employees.

Freeze on federal hiring

Another order halts any new federal hiring – except within the US military and several other categories – until the Trump administration has full control over the government.

Federal employees returning to the office

Trump has also signed a memorandum mandating that federal workers must work in the office and are not allowed to work from home.

Censorship

Another directive orders the “restoration of freedom of speech and preventing government censorship”. It directs the attorney general to investigate the activities of officials at certain agencies – such as the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Federal Trade Commission – during the Biden era.

Political prosecutions

Another executive order seeks to end the “weaponisation of government against political adversaries”. It mandates a review of the work of various law enforcement and intelligence agencies under Biden to “identify any instances” of alleged weaponisation, and then recommend “appropriate remedial actions”.

‘American-First’

Trump has announced he is pausing foreign aid, outlining that he wants a review of foreign assistance programs. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said this was part of a new “American-First” foreign policy.

Cuba

Trump wants to undo Biden’s recent decision to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. He could also reinstate sanctions against Venezuela. Both countries were frequent targets of his ire during his first administration.

Regulatory freeze

Another order directs federal agencies to refrain from issuing any new regulations until the Trump administration has full control of the government.

Unvaccinated federal workers

As part of a directive reversing Biden-era policies, Trump revoked a mandate that federal workers must be vaccinated with the Covid vaccine. He has promised to reinstate the 8,000 military service members who were discharged due to the Pentagon’s Covid vaccine mandate – with full backpay.

Tackling inflation

Trump has signed a directive asking every US federal department and agency to address the cost of living. The directive, which is not an executive order, asks agencies to look at lowering the costs of housing, healthcare and key household items, groceries and fuel.

It asks for a report in 30 days. It not clear how the Trump administration intends to lower these costs – and this is not detailed in the directive.

‘Gulf of America’ and Alaska’s Mount Denali

Trump has directed the secretary of the interior to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.

The same order also directs the secretary to rename Alaska’s Mount Denali to Mount McKinley – in honour of America’s 25th president whose tariff policies Trump admires. President Barack Obama changed the name from McKinley to Denali to reflect what North America’s highest peak was called by native tribes.

Tariffs

After bracing for weeks for a trade war with the US, Canada has – for now – evaded import taxes that Donald Trump had threatened to impose on the country as soon as he takes office.

But Trump said on Monday the tariffs on Canada and Mexico could come on 1 February, and ordered federal officials to review US trade relationships for unfair practices, including those with Canada, Mexico and China.

• Canada avoids Trump’s tariffs – for now

Secret documents

At a rally on Sunday, Trump said he would release classified documents related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963, a subject of countless conspiracy theories, as well as the 1968 killings of Senator Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Crypto pile

Trump has championed cryptocurrency, and his election saw the value of Bitcoin increase by 30%. Some believe Trump will move quickly to create a federal “Bitcoin stockpile” – a strategic reserve similar to the US’s stockpile of gold and oil – that he has said would serve as a “permanent national asset to benefit all Americans”.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

The creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI, is teaming up with another US tech giant, a Japanese investment firm and an Emirati sovereign wealth fund to build $500bn (£405bn) of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States.

The new company, called The Stargate Project, was announced at the White House by Donald Trump who billed it “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.”

The venture, which began before Trump took office, announced $100bn of funding was being made available immediately, with the rest to come over four years, creating an estimated 100,000 jobs.

It is a partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, Japan’s Softbank – led by Masayoshi Son – and MGX, a tech investment arm of the United Arab Emirates government.

The AI industry has exploded in recent years, creating massive extra demand for the data centres which it relies on, while also raising concerns about the huge amounts of water and power such facilities require.

The US is already the world leader in AI investment, vastly outspending any other country.

However Trump insisted he needed to intervene to help the industry.

“I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations because we have an emergency,” said Donald Trump, stressing the importance of keeping AI in the US.

Trump said his government would “make it possible for them to get that production done very easily.”

“I think this will be the most important project of this era,” said OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, who stood alongside Trump as he made the announcement.

“We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr President,” he added, crediting Trump despite work on the project already being under way.

• What is AI, how does it work and what can it be used for?

Oracle’s chief technology office, Larry Ellison, said the first data centre was under construction in Texas and more would be built in other locations in the US.

The Information, a technology news website, first reported on the project in March last year.

OpenAI said the announcement was the culmination of more than a year’s worth of conversations.

Other technology partners include British chipmaker Arm, US chipmaker Nvidia and Microsoft, which already has a partnership with OpenAI.

The project is the latest in a series of large investments into data centres by the US tech industry.

Microsoft, one of the OpenAI’s major backers, said earlier this month it was on track to invest $80bn to build out AI-powered data centres this year.

It is also involved in a $100bn venture that includes BlackRock and MGX and is focused on making AI data centre investments.

Amazon has been pouring money into the space at a similar scale, announcing two projects worth about $10bn each in just the last two months.

In a report last year, McKinsey said that global demand for data centre capacity would more than triple by 2030, growing between 19% and 27% annually by 2030.

For developers to meet that demand, the consultancy estimated that at least twice the capacity would have to be built by 2030 as has been constructed since 2000.

But analysts have warned that the process is likely to be bogged down by issues such as power and land constraints and permitting.

The surge in demand for the centres also raised concerns about the impact on energy supplies and questions about the role of foreign investors.

In one of his final acts in the White House, former President Joe Biden put forward rules that would restrict exports of AI-related chips to dozens of countries around the world, saying the move would help the US control the industry.

He also issued orders related to the development of data centres on government land, which spotlighted a role for clean energy in powering the centres.

• LIVE: Follow BBC’s live coverage
• ANALYSIS: Anthony Zurcher on the beginning of a new Trump era
• IN PICTURES: Defining images as the 47th US president takes office
• WATCH: Inauguration day in two minutes
• VIRAL MOMENTS: Carrie Underwood goes a cappella and Melania’s air kiss

US President Donald Trump has said he is considering imposing a 10% tariff on imports of Chinese-made goods as soon as 1 February.

Trump said discussions with his administration were “based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada”.

He called China an “abuser”. China responded saying trade wars have “no winners”.

Despite the aggressive talk, the 10% tariff would be much less than the 60% tariff Trump mentioned on the campaign trail.

Trump’s comments followed his threats to levy import taxes of 25% on Mexico and Canada, accusing them of allowing undocumented migrants and drugs to come into the US.

In a press conference in Washington on Tuesday, Trump also vowed to hit the European Union with tariffs.

He said the EU “treat us very, very badly”.

“So they’re going to be in for tariffs. It’s the only way you’re going to get back. It’s the only way you’re going to get fairness.”

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning responded to Trump’s threats by promising to “safeguard its national interests”.

“We have always believed that trade wars and tariff wars have no winners,” she added.

Shortly after he was sworn in on Monday, the new president also instructed federal agencies to conduct a review of existing trade deals and identify unfair practices by US trading partners.

Meanwhile, a top Chinese official spoke out against protectionism at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

China’s Vice Premier, Ding Xuexiang, called for a “win-win” solution to trade disputes without mentioning the US.

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to fight back.

“If the [US] president does choose to proceed with tariffs, Canada will respond – and everything is on the table,” Trudeau said.

Ottawa is preparing counter-tariffs in response to the threat, reportedly worth billions of dollars.

Canada, China and Mexico are the top US trading partners.

Tariffs are an important part of Trump’s economic plans. The president believes they can boost growth, protect jobs and raise tax revenue.

But many economists say such measures could lead to higher prices for Americans and harm companies hit by foreign retaliation.

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Niluper says she has been living in agony.

A Uyghur refugee, she has spent the past decade hoping her husband would join her and their three sons in Turkey, where they now live.

The family was detained in Thailand in 2014 after fleeing increasing repression in their hometown in China’s Xinjiang province. She and the children were allowed to leave Thailand a year later. But her husband remained in detention, along with 47 other Uyghur men.

Niluper – not her real name – now fears she and her children may never see him again.

Ten days ago, she learned that Thai officials had tried to persuade the detainees to sign forms consenting to be sent back to China. When they realised what was in the forms, they refused to sign them.

The Thai government has denied having any immediate plans to send them back. But human rights groups believe they could be deported at any time.

“I don’t know how to explain this to my sons,” Niluper told the BBC on a video call from Turkey. Her sons, she says, keep asking about their father. The youngest has never met him.

“I don’t know how to digest this. I’m living in constant pain, constant fear that at any moment I may get the news from Thailand that my husband has been deported.”

The last time Thailand deported Uyghur asylum seekers was in July 2015. Without warning, it put 109 of them onto a plane back to China, prompting a storm of protest from governments and human rights groups.

The few photos that were released show them hooded and handcuffed, guarded by large numbers of Chinese police officers. Little is known about what happened to them after their return. Other deported Uyghurs have received long prison sentences in secret trials.

The nominee for Secretary of State in the incoming Trump administration, Marco Rubio, has promised to press Thailand not to send the remaining Uyghurs back.

Their living conditions have been described by one human rights defender as “a hell on earth”.

They are all being held in the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) in central Bangkok, which houses most of those charged with immigration violations in Thailand. Some are there only briefly, while waiting to be deported; others are there much longer.

Driving along the narrow, congested road known as Suan Phlu it is easy to miss the non-descript cluster of cement buildings, and difficult to believe they house an estimated 900 detainees – the Thai authorities give out no precise numbers.

The IDC is known to be hot, overcrowded and unsanitary. Journalists are not allowed inside. Lawyers usually warn their clients to avoid being sent there if at all possible.

There are 43 Uyghurs there, plus another five being held in a Bangkok prison for trying to escape. They are the last of around 350 who fled China in 2013 and 2014.

They are kept in isolation from other inmates and are rarely allowed visits by outsiders or lawyers. They get few opportunities to exercise, or even to see daylight. They have been charged with no crime, apart from entering Thailand without a visa. Five Uyghurs have died in custody.

“The conditions there are appalling,” says Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of the People’s Empowerment Foundation, an NGO trying to help the Uyghurs.

“There is not enough food – it is mostly just soup made with cucumber and chicken bones. It is crammed in there. The water they get, both for drinking and washing, is dirty. Only basic medicines are provided and these are inadequate. If someone falls ill, it takes a long time to get an appointment with the doctor. And because of the dirty water, the hot weather and bad ventilation, a lot of the Uyghurs get rashes or other skin problems.”

But the worst part of their detention, say those who have experienced it, is not knowing how long they will be imprisoned in Thailand, and the constant fear of being sent back to China.

Niluper says there were always rumours about deportation but it was difficult to find out more. Escaping was hard because they had children with them.

“It was horrible. We were so scared all the time,” recalls Niluper.

“When we thought about being sent back to China, we would have preferred to die in Thailand.”

China’s repression of the Muslim Uyghurs has been well documented by the UN and human rights groups. Up to one million Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in re-education camps, in what human rights advocates say is a state campaign to eradicate Uyghur identity and culture. There are many allegations of torture and enforced disappearances, which China denies. It says it has been running “vocational centres” focused on de-radicalising Uyghurs.

Niluper says she and her husband faced hostility from Chinese state officials over their religiosity – her husband was an avid reader of religious texts.

The couple made the decision to flee when people they knew were being arrested or disappearing. The family were in a group of 220 Uyghurs who were caught by the Thai police trying to cross the border to Malaysia in March 2014.

Niluper was held in an IDC near the border, and then later in Bangkok, until with 170 other women and children, she was allowed in June 2015 to go to Turkey, which usually offers Uyghurs asylum.

But her husband remains in the Bangkok IDC. They were separated when they were detained, and she has had no contact with him since a brief meeting they were permitted in July 2014.

She says she was one of 18 pregnant women and 25 children crammed into a room that was just four by eight metres. The food was “bad and there was never enough for all of us”.

“I was the last one to give birth, at midnight, in the bathroom. The next day the guard saw my condition and that of my baby was not good, so they took us to the hospital.”

Niluper was also separated from her eldest son, who was just two years old at the time and held with his father – an experience which she says has traumatised him, after experiencing “terrible conditions” and witnessing a guard beating an inmate. When the guards brought him back to her, she says, he did not recognise her.

“He was so scared, screaming and crying. He could not understand what had happened. He did not want to talk to anyone.”

It took a long time before he accepted his mother, she says, and after that he would not leave her even for a moment, even after they had arrived in Turkey.

“It took a really, really long time for him to understand that he was finally in a safe place.”

Thailand has never explained why it will not allow the remaining Uyghurs to join their families in Turkey, but it is almost certainly because of pressure from China.

Unlike other inmates in the IDC, the fate of the Uyghurs is not handled by the Immigration Department but instead by Thailand’s National Security Council, a body chaired by the prime minister in which the military has significant influence.

As the influence of the US, Thailand’s oldest military ally, wanes, that of China has been steadily increasing. The current Thai government is keen to build even closer ties to China, to help revive the faltering economy.

The United Nations Refugee Agency has been accused of doing little to help the Uyghurs, but says it is given no access to them, so is unable to do much. Thailand does not recognise refugee status.

Accommodating China’s wish to get the Uyghurs back is not without risk though. Thailand has just taken a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, for which it lobbied hard.

Deporting 48 men who have already endured more than a decade of incarceration would badly tarnish the image the Thai government is trying to project.

Thailand will also be mindful of what happened just a month after the last mass deportation in 2015.

On 17 August that year a powerful bomb exploded at a shrine in Bangkok which was popular with Chinese tourists. Twenty people were killed, in what was widely assumed to be a retaliation by Uyghur militants, although the Thai authorities tried to downplay the link.

Two Uyghur men were charged with the bombing, but their trial has lasted for nine years, with no end in sight. One of them, say his lawyers, is almost certainly innocent. A veil of secrecy surrounds the trial; the authorities seem reluctant to let anything from the hearings tying the bomb to the deportation to get out.

Even those Uyghurs who have managed to get to Turkey must then deal with their uncertain status there, and with the severance of all communications with their families in Xinjiang.

“I have not heard my mother’s voice for 10 years,” says Hasan Imam, an Uyghur refugee who now works as a lorry driver in Turkey.

He was in the same group as Niluper caught by the Malaysian border in 2014.

He remembers how the following year the Thai authorities deceived them about their plan to deport some of them to China. He says they were told some men would be moved to a different facility, because the one they were in was too crowded.

This was after some women and children had been sent to Turkey, and, unusually, the men in the camp were also allowed to talk to their wives and children in Turkey on a phone.

“We were all happy, and full of hope,” Hassan says. “They selected them, one by one. At this point they had no idea they would be sent back to China. It was only later, through an illicit phone we had, that we found out from Turkey that they had been deported.”

This filled the remaining detainees with despair, recalls Hasan, and two years later, when he was moved temporarily to another holding camp, he and 19 others made a remarkable escape, using a nail to make a hole in a crumbling wall.

Eleven were recaptured, but Hasan managed to cross the forested border into Malaysia, and from there reached Turkey.

“I do not know what condition my parents are in but for those still detained in Thailand it is even worse,” he says.

They fear being sent back and imprisoned in China – and they also fear that it would mean more severe punishment for their families, he explains.

“The mental strain for them is unbearable.”

The settlement between Prince Harry and News Group Newspapers is a dramatic, high stakes, turnaround. But it’s courtroom drama without the court.

Prince Harry’s team hailed the deal that stopped the trial as a “monumental victory”, receiving an undisclosed amount of “substantial damages” and an “unequivocal apology”.

They say he’s been vindicated – but will there also, deep down, be some mixed feelings. Was this really “slaying dragons” of the tabloid press, as he’d celebrated after a previous win when he’d given evidence in court against Mirror Group Newspapers?

While on the other side of the scrapped case, NGN says the agreement “draws a line under the past” and they reject the claims that would have been made in court about a corporate cover-up.

When NGN has spent £1bn on previous claims, they might think any extra spent on staying out of court was a win for them too.

Why did Prince Harry strike a deal now?

It seems a change from Prince Harry being adamant that this was about “accountability”.

“The goal is accountability. It’s really that simple,” Prince Harry told a media event in New York last month, about why he was taking on the Murdoch press.

“The scale of the cover up is so large that people need to see it for themselves,” he said.

He was fully aware of the financial risks built into such civil disputes, but seemed determined to press on, not just for himself but for 1,300 claimants who he said had settled but had “no justice”.

“Accountability” was mentioned again in a statement read out on behalf of Prince Harry and his co-claimant Lord Watson.

“The time for accountability has arrived,” but it meant in terms of calling on Parliament and the police to pursue what they called the “unlawful activity now finally admitted” and “the perjury and cover ups along the way”.

There was a similar call for a follow-up when Prince Harry won against the Mirror group newspapers, but there has been no imminent sign of action.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise that there was a deal.

There has always been immense pressure for a settlement, because the curve of civil law bends so strongly in that direction.

Even if a claimant wins a case, they could end up paying the costs of their opponents, if the damages award is less than they have been offered.

The legal costs and damages at stake in this case could have been £10m. That’s a big poker hand decision for anyone. Plus the unknown jeopardy of what might happen in the court case and what questions Harry might have faced on the witness stand. He might have had his case ruled out of time or had his claims rejected.

The psychological cards would all have been stacked towards doing a deal. Does everyone have a price? Even when they’re seen as the last man standing?

In terms of the amount of damages paid to Prince Harry, or what he might do with the money, that hasn’t been made public.

But what Prince Harry’s team have seized upon is the skyscraper scale of the apology – seeing it as a “collapse” of the NGN’s denials.

They might argue that even if he had fought the court battle and won, there wouldn’t be any more to be gained.

This has always been a very personal battle for Prince Harry, the battle with the tabloids touching on his childhood as well as his adult life. So it’s significant that the apology includes an admission of a “serious intrusion” into the “private life of Diana, Princess of Wales”.

That could mean more to him than any financial deal.

Prince Harry’s team also repeated the claim that “the Sun, the flagship title for Rupert Murdoch’s UK media empire, has indeed engaged in illegal practices”.

This references the apology’s mention of “unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun”.

NGN’s statement emphasises that this applies to the activities of external private investigators, “not by journalists” on the Sun.

But it narrows some of the fastidious distancing that there’s between what had happened at the shut down News of the World and the Sun.

While the statement from Prince Harry’s team lambasts those presiding over a “toxic culture” in parts of the media, past and present, and repeats its claim about a corporate cover-up, these are attack lines from a court case that will now never happen.

NGN rejects the claims of a cover-up and the destruction of evidence. But the overall tone of the response is relief at the end of arguments over old battles, and that this now draws a line under all these disputes over front pages from decades ago.

“Indeed the judge made it clear in remarks in court at the end of the hearing that these cases are likely to be the last liable to go to trial,” said NGN.

The bombshell case that was going to see Prince Harry giving evidence against his tabloid tormentors is over before it began. Who, in the end, will be more pleased about that?

When Pte Oleksander Bezverkhny was evacuated to the Feofaniya Hospital in Kyiv, few believed he would live. The 27-year-old had a severe abdominal injury and shrapnel had ripped through his buttocks. Both his legs were amputated.

Then, doctors discovered that his infections were resistant to commonly-used antibiotics – and the already daunting task of saving his life became almost hopeless.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is when bacteria evolve and learn how to defend themselves against antibiotics and other medicines, rendering them ineffective.

Ukraine is far from the only country affected by this issue: around 1.4 million people globally died of a AMR infection in 2021, and in the UK there were 66,730 serious antibiotic-resistant infections in 2023. However, war appears to have accelerated the spread of multi-resistant pathogens in Ukraine.

Clinics treating war injuries have registered a sharp increase of AMR cases. More than 80% of all patients admitted to Feofaniya Hospital have infections caused by microbes which are resistant to antibiotics, according to deputy chief physician Dr Andriy Strokan.

Ironically, antimicrobial-resistant infections often originate from medical facilities.

Medical staff try to follow strict hygiene protocols and use protective equipment to minimise the spread of these infections but facilities can be overwhelmed with people injured in the war.

Dr Volodymyr Dubyna, the head of the Mechnikov Hospital’s ICU, said that since the start of the Russian invasion his unit alone has increased the number of beds from 16 to 50. Meanwhile, with many employees fleeing the war or joining the military themselves, staffing levels are down.

Dr Strokan explained that these circumstances can affect the spread of AMR bacteria. “In surgical departments there is one nurse that looks after 15-20 patients,” he said. “She physically cannot scrub up her hands in the required amount and frequency in order not to spread infections.”

The nature of this war also means patients are exposed to far more strains of infection than they would be in peacetime. When a soldier is evacuated for medical reasons, they will often pass through multiple facilities, each with their own strains of AMR. While medical professionals say this is unavoidable because of the scale of the war, it only worsens the spread of AMR infections.

This was the case for Pte Bezverkhny who was treated at three different facilities before reaching the hospital in Kyiv. Since his infections could not be treated with the usual medication, his condition deteriorated and he contracted sepsis five times.

This situation is different to other recent conflicts, for example the Afghanistan War, where Western soldiers would be stabilised on site and then air-transferred to a European clinic rather than passing through multiple different local facilities.

This would not be possible in Ukraine as the influx of patients has not been seen since the Second World War, according to Dr Dubyna, whose hospital in Dnipro neighbours front-line regions. Once his patients are stable enough, they are transferred to another clinic – if it has room – to free up capacity.

“In terms of microbiological control, it means they spread [bacteria] further. But if it’s not done, we’re not able to work. Then it’s a catastrophe.”

With so many wounded, Ukrainian hospitals simply cannot usually afford to isolate infected patients – meaning that multi-resistant and dangerous bacteria spread unchecked.

The problem is that infections they cause must be treated with special antibiotics from the “reserve” list. But the more often doctors prescribe these, the quicker bacteria adapt, making those antibiotics ineffective too.

“We have to balance our scales,” Dr Strokan explains. “On the one hand, we must save a patient. On the other – we mustn’t breed new microorganisms that will have antimicrobial resistance.”

In Pte Bezverkhny’s case, doctors had to use very expensive antibiotics, which volunteers sourced from abroad. After a year in hospital and over 100 operations, his condition is no longer life-threatening.

Doctors managed to save his life. But as pathogens grow more resistant, the struggle to save others only gets harder.

“It has been a long fight full of tears for us.”

That is how Ann “Waaddao” Chumaporn describes the years that led to this moment – on Thursday, when same-sex marriage becomes legal in Thailand, and more than a hundred couples will tie the knot in one of Bangkok’s biggest shopping malls, in a riot of colour and celebration.

And the same question which has been heard throughout the long campaign to get the equal marriage law passed will be asked again: why Thailand? Why nowhere else, aside from Taiwan and Nepal, in Asia?

People think they know the answer. Thailand is famously open to and accepting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. They have long been visible in all walks of life. Thai people are easy-going about pretty much everything. “Mai pen rai” – no big deal – is a national catch-phrase. Buddhist beliefs, followed by more than 90% of Thais, don’t forbid LGBT lifestyles. Surely, then, equal marriage was inevitable.

Except it wasn’t. “It was not easy,” says Ms Waaddao, who organises Bangkok Pride March.

The first Pride march in Thailand took place only 25 years ago. Back then it was hard to get approval from the police, and the march was a chaotic, unfocused event. After 2006 only two marches took place until 2022. In 2009 one planned Pride march in Chiang Mai had to be abandoned because of the threat of violence.

“We were not accepted, by our own families and by society,” Ms Waaddao adds. “There were times when we did not think marriage equality would ever happen, but we never gave up.”

For all of Thailand’s general tolerance of LGBT people, getting equal rights, including marriage, required a determined campaign to change attitudes in Thai officialdom and society. And attitudes have changed.

When Chakkrit “Ink” Vadhanavira started dating his partner in 2001, they were both actors playing leading roles in TV series. At that time homosexuality was still officially described by the Thai Ministry of Health as a mental illness.

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“Back then society could not accept leading male roles being played by a gay man. There was lots of gossip about us in the media, much of it untrue, which really stressed us,” Mr Chakkrit recalls.

“We decided then that if we were going to date each other, we had to leave showbiz.”

They are still together but they have stayed out of the limelight for more than 20 years, running a successful production company.

A lot has changed in that time – and their industry gets some credit for that.

The way LGBT characters are portrayed in Thai TV dramas, from comical oddities to mainstream roles, made a big difference, according to Tinnaphop Sinsomboonthong, an assistant professor at Thammasat University who self-identifies as queer.

“Nowadays they represent us as normal characters, like you see in real life,” he says. “The kind of LGBTQ+ colleague you might have in the office, or your LGBTQ+ neighbour. This really helped change perceptions and values in all generations.”

The so-called Boy Love dramas have helped bring the rest of society round to the idea of not just tolerance, but full acceptance and equal rights for the community.

These romantic television dramas featuring love affairs between beautiful young men have grown enormously in popularity over the past decade, especially during the Covid pandemic.

They are now one of Thailand’s most successful cultural exports, with huge audiences in places like China. Series like My School President and Love Sick have got hundreds of millions of views on streaming networks.

At the same time, activists became more focused and united in their bid to get the law changed. The many different LGBT groups came together in the Change 1448 campaign – 1448 is the clause in the Thai Civil Code covering the definition of marriage – and later under the Rainbow Coalition for Marriage Equality.

They linked up with other groups fighting for greater rights and freedoms in Thailand, and they learned to work with political parties in parliament to persuade them to change their stance on the law.

The resumption of Pride marches in 2022, and getting the government to recognise and promote the appeal of Thailand as an attractive destination for LGBT travellers also helped change public perceptions.

“We did not fight, we negotiated,” Mr Tinnaphop says. “We knew we had to talk to Thai society, and little by little, we shifted attitudes.”

Getting the equal marriage law through parliament was also helped by political developments in Thailand.

For five years following a coup in 2014, the country was ruled by a conservative military government, which was willing only to consider recognising civil partnerships for LGBT couples, without full rights like inheritance.

But in the 2019 election which returned Thailand to civilian rule, a new, youthful reformist party called Future Forward, which fully supported equal marriage, did unexpectedly well. They won the third-largest share of seats, revealing a growing hunger for change in Thailand.

When a year later Future Forward was dissolved by a controversial court verdict, it set off months of student-led protests calling for sweeping reforms, including curbs to the monarchy’s power.

LGBT campaigners were prominent in those protests, giving them greater national prominence. The protests eventually died down, with many of the leaders arrested for questioning the monarchy’s role.

But in the 2023 election the successor to Future Forward, calling itself Move Forward, performed even better than in 2019, winning more seats than any other party. Again, it was clear that the desire for change was felt across Thai people of all ages.

Move Forward was blocked from forming a government by conservatives who objected to its call for wholesale political reforms.

But by this time, equal marriage was less contentious. Few opposed it. And passing it gave the unwieldy and unpopular coalition government which had been formed without Move Forward a quick accomplishment with which to please most of the country.

Thailand, though, is an outlier in Asia. Few other countries in the region are likely to follow suit.

The influence of Islam in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei makes the notion of equal marriage a non-starter. LGBT communities there face discrimination and prosecution; in Brunei sex between men carries the death penalty.

In the Philippines, there is growing acceptance of LGBT couples living together openly. But the Roman Catholic Church vehemently opposes same-sex marriage.

In Vietnam, like Thailand, there are no religious or ideological obstacles, but campaigning to change the law, as happened in Thailand, is difficult under a repressive regime. Much the same is true in China. Until the ruling communist party endorses equal marriage, which it shows no signs of doing, it cannot happen.

Even in democracies like Japan and South Korea – where political parties are largely conservative and dominated by older men – the prospects look bleak.

“It is largely conservative Christians who are blocking it,” says Chae-yoon Han, executive director of the Beyond the Rainbow Foundation in South Korea.

“Most, if not all, politicians in the conservative party of President Yoon are devout Christians, and they have framed marriage equality as a ‘leftist agenda’, which could potentially open society to a ‘leftist, communist takeover’.”

India appeared close to legalising same-sex marriage in 2023, when the decision fell to its Supreme Court – but the judges declined, saying it was up to parliament.

So Thailand hopes to benefit from being a pioneer. Tourism is one of the few areas of the Thai economy doing well in the post-pandemic recovery, and the country is seen as a safe and welcoming destination for LGBT holiday-makers.

Growing numbers of same-sex couples from other Asian countries are choosing to live here now.

The legal recognition they can get for their marriages will allow them to raise children and grow old together with nearly all the rights and protections given to heterosexual couples.

When Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem was abducted at night by armed men from his home in Bangladesh, his four-year-old daughter was too young to understand what was happening.

“They were dragging me away, I was barefoot,” he tells me, sobbing. “My youngest daughter was running behind me with my shoes saying ‘take, father’, as if she thought I was going away.”

He was held in solitary confinement for eight years, handcuffed and blindfolded, yet still doesn’t know where or why.

The British-trained barrister, 40, is one of Bangladesh’s so-called “disappeared”. These were critics of Sheikh Hasina, the country’s prime minister of more than 20 years, in two terms, until she was deposed last August.

Hasina’s regime ruled over the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971 in which hundreds were killed, including at least 90 people while she clung to power on her last day in office.

Controversial in her own right, Hasina is also the aunt of Labour MP Tulip Siddiq – who resigned as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s anti-corruption minister last week after a slew of corruption allegations that she denied.

These included claims Siddiq’s family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh – and that she used properties in London linked to her aunt’s allies.

The government’s ethics watchdog later found she did not break the ministerial code, but Siddiq resigned anyway.

That isn’t necessarily the end of the matter, though.

The episode raises troubling questions about Starmer’s judgement and Labour’s approach to courting the votes of people of Bangladeshi heritage.

Questions are now swirling over why Labour failed to see this coming, given the party has long known about Siddiq’s links to her scandal-hit aunt. It was 2016 when Bin Quasem’s case was first raised with her.

He and others among Bangladesh’s “disappeared” have represented an awkward tension with Siddiq’s publicly voiced views on human rights in the years since.

She long campaigned for the release from Iran of her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, for example, while showing an apparent comparative indifference in her public statements to the suffering and extrajudicial killings under her aunt’s regime in Bangladesh.

Siddiq has also previously appeared alongside her aunt at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and appeared on BBC television as a spokesperson for the Awami League, the political party Hasina has led since 1981.

Siddiq also thanked Awami League members for helping her election as a Labour MP in 2015. Two pages on her website from 2008 and 2009 setting out her links to the party were later removed.

Yet once in Parliament Siddiq told journalists that she had “no capability or desire to influence politics in Bangladesh”.

So these links weren’t a secret, but perhaps they weren’t viewed as a bad thing within Labour, not least since it has shown little sign of distancing itself from the Awami League in recent years.

Then-Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick told the Commons in 2012 that they were “sister organisations”, a warmth shared by many of his colleagues.

And Starmer – who entered Parliament in 2015 at the same time as Siddiq in her neighbouring seat – has met Hasina multiple times.

This included in 2022 when the then-Bangladeshi PM was in London for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, a meeting that Bin Quasem calls “heartbreaking and shocking”.

A Starmer ally argues it is “perfectly legitimate” for him to have met Hasina, and it did not amount to an endorsement of her policies.

The apparent attempts by Labour over the years to keep Bangladesh on side might reflect the political reality here in the UK, especially in parts of the capital city.

“You can’t succeed in east London without understanding the Bangladeshi vote”, one seasoned Labour campaigner explains.

However, those who fail to appreciate the country’s divided and volatile politics can end up offending those they are attempting to charm. “You need to carefully balance what you say and do,” the campaigner says. “If you are too overt for one [Bangladeshi] party, you’ll get criticised.”

Analysis by the FT suggests there are at least 17 UK constituencies where the voting-age Bangladeshi population is larger than the Labour majority.

Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency has at least 6,000 adult residents of Bangladeshi origin.

Might this mix of warmth and political pragmatism have clouded Starmer’s judgement from a potential corruption storm on the horizon when, shortly after winning the election in July, he appointed Siddiq as the Treasury minister responsible for leading Britain’s anti-corruption efforts?

“Starmer has blindspots for his friends and political allies,” says a Labour source. “It’s not new.”

Investigative journalist David Bergman, who has been shedding light on Siddiq’s connections to Bangladeshi politics for a decade, points out context is everything. “This was not a major story until Labour got into power, Tulip Siddiq became a minister and the Awami League government fell,” he says.

He argues someone in the party should have raised concerns many years before. “There was first a blind spot about Tulip Siddiq’s failure to respond to enforced disappearances in Bangladesh,” Bergman argues.

“Then there was a blind spot about how tied she was to the UK Awami League.”

When I put this to one Labour MP, they responded that the UK media, as well as Labour, have had a Bangladesh blind spot.

“There are some 600,000 people in the British Bangla diaspora”, they say. “It is a country with the eighth largest population on Earth yet we’ve not heard a peep [from the UK media] since the events of 5 August.”

The corruption investigations into Hasina are likely to rumble on for some time, potentially bringing further issues for Starmer’s top team to address in the months ahead while Siddiq remains a Labour MP.

For Bin Quasem, the toppling of Hasina’s regime saw him abruptly awoken in his cell, bundled into a car and dumped in a ditch, before finally being allowed to return home to his two daughters.

Toddlers when he last saw them in 2016, they are now young women. “I couldn’t really recognise them, and they couldn’t recognise me,” he tells me through tears.

“At times it’s difficult to stomach that I never got to see my daughters grow up.

“I missed the best part of life. I missed their childhood.”

The fire that killed at least 76 people at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the early hours of Monday is one of the deadliest disasters of its kind in Turkish history.

Some survivors have said they did not hear an alarm and experts have told the BBC they would not have expected such a high death toll in a hotel where fire protection systems were working properly.

The 12-storey hotel at Turkey’s popular Kartalkaya ski resort hosts tens of thousands of visitors every year, so Turks understandably want to know how such a terrible tragedy could have happened at the start of a two-week school holiday.

The interior minister said the fire started at 03:27 (00:27 GMT) in the restaurant area on the fourth floor and firefighters arrived within 45 minutes.

Some survivors have described smelling smoke as much as an hour earlier.

Culture and Tourism minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the hotel had a fire competence certificate “issued by the fire department”.

But that has been challenged by local mayor Tanju Ozcan, who said the fire department had not issued a positive report since 2007.

Some survivors say they heard no alarm, while there have been claims of inadequacies in the hotel’s fire extinguishing systems.

“My wife smelled the fire,” said Atakan Yelkovan, who said he was staying on the third floor of the hotel.

“We went down earlier than others. The alarm did not go off… It took about an hour to an hour-ad-a-half for the fire brigade to come. In the meantime, the fourth and fifth floors were burning. People on the upper floors were screaming.”

Some guests on higher floors tried to escape with their bedding and some jumped to their deaths.

Eylem Senturk said the fire alarm did not go off until she was out of the building. Her husband had to jump off the hotel porch because of the smoke: “We are very lucky to have survived.”

The BBC has tried to contact the hotel’s managers regarding these allegations but has so far received no response.

Nine people, including the hotel owner, have been detained as part of the Turkish investigation.

Hotel managers have issued a statement saying they mourn the losses and are co-operating fully with the authorities.

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In such a big building where fire systems are fully operational, experts say fire detectors are expected to respond to a fire within seconds and send an alert to a fire control dashboard.

“In a good business, there should be someone in charge of this panel 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Kazim Beceren, president of the Turkish Fire Protection and Education Foundation, told the BBC.

The death toll is also extremely high, which raises further questions.

“There will always be fires, but we would not expect so many people to die in this type of building,” said Prof Sevket Ozgur Atayilmaz, head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Yildiz Technical University, who has worked on fire safety planning.

“If the structure is designed correctly for fire, if there are escape routes, and if the smoke is evacuated correctly, it is possible to overcome the fire without loss of life.”

The interior minister said there were two fire escapes, but there are indications they were not of a good standard.

An official from the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) in Bolu, Erol Percin, said the way the fire had spread suggested that fire warning, detection and extinguishing systems might not have been present.

He said the building’s exterior wooden facade should have been 100% fire-resistant, but that did not appear to be the case.

The head of the Turkish Fire Protection and Education Foundation told the BBC that the size of the fire suggested that “the fire system either does not exist or was not designed in accordance with the standards”.

There were 238 people staying in the Grand Kartal Hotel at the time.

Kazim Beceren said fire safety systems were designed with the aim of taking three minutes to evacuate each floor – and a facility with more than 200 people could be evacuated in 15 to 30 minutes under ideal conditions.

When an alarm goes off, the person in charge of the fire control dashboard is expected to check the location, according to the head of the Turkish Fire Protection and Education Foundation.

If there is no indication of a false alarm or if a second detector sends a warning, fire alarms are then normally activated throughout the building.

In a properly installed system, people are then directed by announcement to the nearest fire exits, with flashing lights for people who are hearing-impaired or audible warnings for those sleeping.

As fires can spread very quickly, sprinkler systems are seen as highly important for intervention at an early stage.

So too is a back-up power source. According to fire protection regulations, signs pointing to emergency exits and lights showing the paths to these exits have to work for one to three hours, even if there is a power outage.

The engineers’ and architects’ union in Bolu said in a statement that “an automatic sprinkler system is mandatory” in buildings of this size.

“The photos on the hotel’s website show that the automatic sprinkler system, which was supposed to be installed in 2008, was not installed. Because of this failure, the fire spread rapidly and there were casualties.”

BBC Turkish has not been able to independently confirm the allegations about either the wooden cladding on the building or the hotel’s fire extinguishing system.

One of the big questions is whether the hotel’s fire systems were properly inspected.

Bolu Mayor Tanju Ozcan said the ministry of tourism was responsible as the hotel was beyond the boundary of his town. Erol Percin agreed.

The mayor said that the last time Bolu’s municipality had given a report stating the hotel was fireproof was in 2007, and there had been no such checks since then.

However, Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the hotel did have a fire competence certificate “issued by the fire department” and inspections were down to them.

There have also been calls for relatively old structures to come under scrutiny because of changing legislation.

“Places should stop operating if they do not comply with current standards, in crowded places such as hotels, residences, nursing homes or kindergartens,” says Prof Atayilmaz of Yildiz Technical University.

When Teddy Swims turned up to the MTV Awards last September, he was nominated for four prizes, including best new artist.

In the event, the combined forces of Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter denied him a single Moon Man trophy – but the singer left with something much more valuable.

“I didn’t realise until a couple of weeks later, but my partner and I conceived that night,” he beams.

“We’re due in June and things are great. I think we’re gonna crush it.”

Domestic bliss isn’t a quality that fans might associate with Teddy Swims.

His huge breakthrough single Lose Control, and the hit album I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy, were rooted in dysfunction, addiction and heartbreak.

They were inspired by a toxic, mutually destructive relationship from which he had escaped. In the past, he has described it as a “really co-dependent lifestyle” that went from “bender to bender” as both sides “leveraged each other’s shame against one another”.

As he sings on a recent single, “I saved my life when I showed you the door”.

But that was only one chapter in the story of the 32-year-old Georgia native Jaten Dimsdale.

This Friday, he releases a second album, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy Part 2, that explains what happened next.

“I’ve learned that love doesn’t have to be this thing of high highs and low lows – fighting and pulling teeth just to stay together,” he says.

“The first album was a lot of turmoil, and not too much closure. So I wanted to come back and say, ‘Here’s me on the other side of this, and I’m doing better’.

“I feel like, as a listener, I would want to hear that there’s a way out.”

His new partner is also a singer-songwriter, Raiche Wright, who he met “a couple of Thanksgivings ago” when she came to one of his shows – and the new album dwells in a sort of bewildered bliss.

“” he wonders on the slick R&B groove of Are You Real.

Later, on the acoustic guitar ballad If You Ever Change Your Mind, he croons, “” with a quiet sincerity rarely found in a pop record.

Musically, the album paints from the same palette as before – a brand of 1960s soul where dusty piano grooves and chugging guitar lines are punched up with a modern pop sheen, and a pinch of rock and roll swagger.

But it’s not all hearts and flowers. The sumptuous soul of Black And White makes a plea for tolerance, inspired by the prejudice Dimsdale and his partner – who has mixed black and white heritage – have faced.

“I see people looking disgusted because we’re different colours – especially down South,” he says.

“But it’s okay to be happy in love with someone of a different colour, or a different size or shape, or the same sex, or whatever it is.

“Why would you be hating on that? It’s such a backwards thing.”

Dimsdale learned about acceptance the hard way. Born in Conyers, an eastern suburb of Atlanta, his grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher with set views on the world, and family life was hard to navigate.

His parents divorced when he was three and, although both remarried, their new relationships were problematic. His mother, with whom he lived, married an alcoholic who left suddenly when Dinsdale was 18 and never spoke to the family again.

His father, who he saw at weekends, married a woman who developed serious mental health problems, including schizophrenia, and spent long stretches in hospital. His dad ended up raising Dimsdale’s step-brothers almost single-handedly.

“He’d work 18 hours a day, and still get the homework done and still get to the practices, all by himself,” he says.

“There’s just not enough I can say about how amazing that man truly is.”

Dimsdale was a late bloomer when it came to music. As a youngster, he was a dedicated footballer, until a friend convinced him to audition for a school production of Damn Yankees.

The musical sparked a love affair with singing. He researched vocal techniques on YouTube, soaking in performances by Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin.

After graduation, he started playing with local metal bands, adopting the stage name “Swims” from internet forum-speak for Someone Who Isn’t Me Sometimes. Teddy, meanwhile, is a childhood nickname, based on his affable and cuddly persona.

But it was a cover of Shania Twain’s country ballad You’re Still The One that earned him his big break.

On YouTube, it’s been watched 197 million times. One of those viewers was a talent scout for Warner Bros records, who signed Dimsdale to a record deal on Christmas Eve 2019.

They partnered the musician with professional writers like Julian Bunetta (Sabrina Carpenter, One Direction) and Mikky Ekko (Rihanna, Drake) – but he also retained his high school band, Freak Feely, who play with him to this day.

After three EPs, and hundreds of sessions, they wrote Lose Control, and Dinsdale instantly “knew it was going to change my life”.

He was right. With 2.2 billion global streams, it is one of the most successful songs in recent chart history – but finding an audience took time.

There was no viral moment or TikTok trend associated with Lose Control. Instead, Dimsdale “did it the old-fashioned way”.

“We showed up and did every damn interview possible,” he says. “We went to every office and radio station and shook every hand individually. We stopped everyone on the street, busking.”

He believes the personal touch beats everything, hands down.

“People love to see their friend win, so if you go out there and make time for them, it goes a lot further than a playlist coming across your desk, or a little file coming to your email that says, ‘Hey, can you push this song?’

“And that’s the old way you work a record, before streaming.”

Bashfully, he confesses the song made him a millionaire (“so I can’t be too mad at that girl any more, can I?”) but he’s learning that making money means spending money.

“A million dollars goes so fast,” he says. “Once you put 66 people on a tour, with all the gear and all the lights, it’s right out the door as fast as you get it.

“Twenty bucks still means what 20 bucks meant to me before, but the amount coming in and out is such a scary thing to look at sometimes.”

As we speak, he’s in rehearsals in Pennsylvania, ahead of his first European arena tour, which includes two nights at Wembley this March.

The stage has just been built for the first time, and he’s eager to acquaint himself with all the ramps and video walls. The music… not so much.

“I wouldn’t say I’m already sick of the songs, but we’ve been playing them non-stop for two weeks now,” he says. “I can’t wait ’til people sing along, so I can fall in love with them again.”

If you’ve been to a Teddy Swims show, you’ll know he lays his heart on the line.

There are countless videos of him sobbing as he performs Some Things I’ll Never Know, a song about abandonment and grief. For the upcoming tour, he’s playing it back-to-back with a new tear-jerker, Northern Lights, that dives even deeper into heartbreak.

He’s going to be a mess – but Dimsdale insists it’s a good thing.

“Every day I try to cry a little bit,” he says. “It’s just pain leaving the body.

“And it’s a constant reminder that, whatever you were going through, on the other side of it there’s happiness.”

With his bearded and tattooed face, you might not expect such emotional intelligence – but Dimsdale’s model of masculinity wasn’t afraid to share his feelings.

“I’m my daddy’s son,” he says. “He’s just a sensitive man. He’ll tell you he loves you, he’ll tell you he’s proud of you. Man, I’ll still sit there, laying in his arms while we’re watching TV on the couch.”

“He’s the most beautiful, humble human being I’ve ever met. Second to only Jesus Christ.”

So, the obvious question: Is dad excited to become a grandfather?

“He’s doing backflips,” laughs the singer.

“I’m almost scared to have him as a granddad, because I want my kids to think I’m cool, too.”

President Donald Trump has ordered that all US government staff working on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes be put on immediate paid administrative leave.

In an executive order late on Tuesday, he called for an end to the “dangerous, demeaning and immoral” programmes.

The White House confirmed that all federal DEI staff had to be put on leave by 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday, before the offices and programmes in question were shut down.

Since re-taking office on Monday, Trump has acted swiftly on a number of key pledges through a raft of unilateral actions. He repeatedly attacked DEI practices on the campaign trail, arguing that they were discriminatory.

DEI programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.

Their backers say they address historical underrepresentation and discrimination against certain groups including racial minorities, but critics say such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.

In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump pledged to “forge a society that is colour-blind and merit-based”.

Tuesday’s executive order took aim at what it called the “illegal” policies of DEI and DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility), framing them as being in opposition to US law.

It said these policies had the capability to “violate” important underlying civil rights laws that protect Americans from discrimination.

The order further asserted that DEI programmes “undermine our national unity” as they denied “traditional” values in favour of an “identity-based spoils system”.

In a social media post, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she could “gladly confirm” reporting by the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that all federal employees in DEI roles will be put on paid leave by Wednesday’s end of work day.

Ms Leavitt said the move “is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds”, and fulfils a campaign promise made by Trump.

The memo seen by CBS was sent from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to heads of government agencies. As well as instructing them to place DEI employees on leave, it made a number of requests including the removal of public websites for DEIA offices.

It also orders that federal hiring, promotions and performance reviews “reward individual initiative” rather than “DEI-related factors”, and revokes a 1965 executive order signed by former President Lyndon B Johnson that makes it illegal for federal contractors to discriminate on the basis of “race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin” in their hiring.

By Thursday, federal agencies must compile a list of DEI offices and workers, the order declares. By 31 January, agencies must submit “a written plan” for executing lay-offs in DEI offices.

The order also requires the attorney general to submit, within 120 days, recommendations “to encourage the private sector” to end similar diversity efforts.

Tuesday’s order comes on the heels of another one that pledged to put to an end programmes deemed “radical and wasteful” by Trump.

That one, signed on Monday, declares that all DEI offices, positions and programmes be terminated within 60 days, “to the maximum extent allowed by law”.

It is unclear how many government employees would be affected by these orders.

Several large US companies have ended or scaled back their DEI programmes in recent weeks, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Facebook parent company Meta.

Others, like Apple and retailers Target and Costco, have publicly defended their DEI programmes.

One of the people who served jail time for taking part in the US Capitol riot four years ago has refused a pardon from President Donald Trump, saying: “We were wrong that day.”

Pamela Hemphill, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison, told the BBC that there should be no pardons for the riot on 6 January 2021.

“Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation,” she said.

“I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative.”

Hemphill, who was nicknamed the “Maga granny” by social media users – in reference to Trump’s “make America great again” slogan – said she saw the Trump government as trying to “rewrite history and I don’t want to be part of that”.

“We were wrong that day, we broke the law – there should be no pardons,” she told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme.

• Proud Boys and Oath Keepers among those pardoned over riot
• What are presidential pardons and how do they work?

Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of nearly 1,600 people involved in the attempt to violently overturn the 2020 election came just hours into his presidency.

In a news conference on Tuesday at the White House, he said: “These people have already served years in prison, and they’ve served them viciously.

“It’s a disgusting prison. It’s been horrible. It’s inhumane. It’s been a terrible, terrible thing.”

However, the move has drawn an uneasy reaction from some Republican politicians.

Senator Thom Tillis, from North Carolina, said he “just can’t agree” with the move, adding that it “raises legitimate safety issues on Capitol Hill”.

Another Republican US senator, James Lankford from Oklahoma, told CNN: “I think we need to continue to say we are a party of law and order.”

He added: “I think if you attack a police officer, that’s a very serious issue and they should pay a price for that.”

Also among those pardoned was one of the riot’s most recognisable figures, Jacob Chansley, the self-styled QAnon Shaman, who was released from jail in 2023 after serving 27 months of his 41-month jail sentence.

He told the BBC that he heard the news from his lawyer while he was at the gym.

He added: “I walked outside and I screamed ‘freedom’ at the top of my lungs and then gave a good Native American war cry.”

• LIVE: Follow BBC’s live coverage
• ANALYSIS: Six Trump executive orders to watch
• IN DEPTH: Relationship with Europe this time may be very different
• PARDONS: Jan 6 defendants get nearly everything they wanted
• WATCH: Bishop asks Trump to show mercy to LGBT people and migrants

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Donald Trump has signed sweeping executive orders on his return to the US presidency, vowing swift action on some of his top campaign issues.

Among the directives that have gained the most publicity are an immigration crackdown and rollbacks of some climate-friendly policies.

But even presidential powers have their limits – and in some cases, he faces hurdles before his plans can become reality.

Here are six of Trump’s eye-catching actions with analysis by BBC reporters, who give their verdict on whether each order could take effect.

• What are executive orders?
• Live updates on Trump’s second term

What does the order say?

The order argues that cartels have “engaged in a campaign of violence and terror” throughout the hemisphere, and flooded the US with crime, posing a national security risk to the US.

Additionally, the order specifies that the US policy is to “ensure the total elimination” of these groups in the US. It gives US agencies 14 days to provide recommendations on which groups are to be designated and be ready to expedite the removal of individuals from the US.

What are the roadblocks?

Designating a cartel as a terrorist group could open the door to prosecuting US citizens or even legitimate businesses found to be somehow tied to those groups. The designation could also strain relations with countries including Mexico, which has vocally called for its sovereignty to be respected.

What is the potential impact?

For one, the designation of these groups as foreign terrorist organisations could ultimately be used to justify military action against targets in Mexico or other countries in which similar groups operate.

The designation could also see the US federal government dedicate more resources and enhanced legal tools to fight cartels and other gangs, and go after their business and financial interests on both sides of the border.

While it would make “material support” of these groups a crime, it remains unclear what that could mean. In theory, that could mean that drug dealers and users, including US citizens, could be charged with aiding terrorists – as could US citizens or businesses on the border that are extorted to pay them.

What does the order say?

The executive order asks the US ambassador to the UN to “immediately” submit a formal written request to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

It says the accord does not reflect the country’s values or its economic and environmental objectives.

What are the roadblocks?

Any country can withdraw from the global climate pact, but UN regulations mean the process of removing a country can be drawn out.

Trump announced his intent to withdraw during his last term in 2017, but it was not formally finalised until 2020. We can expect another waiting period this time of at least one year.

President Joe Biden rejoined it shortly after taking office in 2021

What is the potential impact?

The US is responsible for around 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second biggest polluter behind China. This damages the global effort to limit emissions.

Its withdrawal in the past has raised issues of trust on climate leadership, and questions about whether the agreement itself has been effective.

The withdrawal is also in line with Trump’s goal to boost domestic oil and gas production, though the US is already the number one producer of both in the world. It is one of several of Trump’s reversals of environmental protections that were enacted by the Biden administration.

What does the order say?

This order aims to end birthright citizenship for children born in the US to immigrant parents who are in the country illegally, as well as those born to parents who are in the country on a temporary basis.

There have been reports that the administration will enforce the order by withholding documents, such as passports, from people it deems ineligible for citizenship.

What are the roadblocks?

The principle of birthright citizenship is established in the US Constitution. The 14th Amendment says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are citizens of the United States.

The legal challenges are already under way – one claims the order is “unconstitutional, and flouts fundamental American values”.

“Ultimately this will be decided by the courts. This is not something [Trump] can decide on his own,” Saikrishna Prakash, a constitutional expert, told the BBC.

What is the potential impact?

Trump has threatened mass deportations, which could include those whose birthright citizenship is revoked if Trump is successful in enforcing this executive action.

Legal cases could ultimately have to be decided by the US Supreme Court, which could take a long time.

What does the order say?

The order says the US was withdrawing “due to the organization’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Trump’s longheld antipathy towards the WHO is rooted in a perception that it was dominated by – and so soft on – China, which the president has long believed was responsible for the spread of the virus.

It also mentions “unfairly onerous payments” the US made to the WHO.

What are the roadblocks?

It is the second time Trump has ordered the US be pulled out of the WHO. He began the process and Biden later reversed the decision after taking office.

The US exit won’t take effect until 2026 at the earliest, but leaving will require the approval of Congress.

On paper, the Republicans have a majority in both houses of Congress. But their numerical advantage is slim, and it would only take a few Republican defectors to potentially block the move.

What is the potential impact?

“Catastrophic”, “disastrous”, “damaging” is how some global public health experts are describing it.

Of the 196 member states, the US is by far the largest individual funder, contributing almost a fifth of the total WHO budget.

It’s possible that funding could disappear almost overnight and that could have an impact on the ability of the WHO to respond to emergencies.

There is also concern among some scientists that this would leave the US isolated when it comes to access to programmes such as pandemic preparedness and seasonal influenza strain sequencing, which is used to develop annual flu jabs.

That could ultimately harm the health of Americans, and the US national interest.

Some argue US withdrawal could prompt further reforms of how the WHO works, making it a body that better serves the public health needs of people around the globe.

What does the order say?

The order calls for the Gulf of Mexico to “officially be renamed the Gulf of America”.

Trump can change the name of the Gulf on official US government documents.

This has happened on some documents already – including a weather update from Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, which refers to “an area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America”.

What are the roadblocks?

Trump can’t force other countries or companies to change the name.

For example, it’s currently still labelled as the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps.

What is the potential impact?

There’s no formal international agreement for the naming of maritime areas – although there is a body that seeks to resolve disputes if raised.

So Mexico could raise an official dispute, and allies of the US and Mexico could be caught up in a diplomatic spat between the two countries.

In response to the order, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said the US can call it the “Gulf of America”, but this won’t change what Mexico and the rest of the world call it.

What does the order say?

“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” it says, adding that the federal government will use the term sex, not gender identity.

President Trump’s team argues that requirements to refer to transgender people in government facilities and workplaces by pronouns that match their gender identity violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment on freedom of speech and religion.

States like Kansas and Montana have already legislated to enshrine a biological definition of sex into law.

What are the roadblocks?

There are likely to be legal challenges.

The Human Rights Campaign, which represents LGBTQ+ people, stated that “we will fight back against these harmful provisions with everything we’ve got”.

These challenges could work their way up to the US Supreme Court which, with its conservative majority, could rule in Trump’s favour.

What is the potential impact?

Prisons and settings such as shelters for migrants and rape victims would be segregated by sex under the plans, which campaigners say will help safeguard women. But transgender rights groups say trans women could be put at a heightened risk of violence.

Official identification documents, including passports and visas, would have to state whether the individual was “male” or female”. US citizens would no longer be able to select “X” as a third option.

• ANALYSIS: Anthony Zurcher on the beginning of a new Trump era
• IN PICTURES: Defining images as the 47th US president takes office
• VIRAL MOMENTS: Carrie Underwood audio fail and Melania’s air kiss
• FASHION: Melania’s striking hat and other eye-catching look
• POLICIES: Trump vows to leave Paris climate agreement

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.

Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money-laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Trump championed Ulbricht’s cause, joining libertarians who said the conviction was an example of government overreach. On Tuesday, he said he had called Ulbricht’s mother to inform her that he had granted a pardon to her son.

Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013 after police arrested Ulbricht, sold illegal drugs using Bitcoin, as well as hacking equipment and stolen passports.

Ulbricht was found guilty of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking.

During his trial, prosecutors said Ulbricht’s website, hosted on the hidden “dark web”, sold more than $200m (£131m) worth of drugs anonymously.

Prosecutors said he also solicited six murders-for-hire, including one against a former Silk Road employee, though they said no evidence existed that any killings were actually carried out.

“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponisation of government against me,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Tuesday. “He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”

• What are presidential pardons, and who has Trump pardoned?
• Proud Boys and Oath Keepers among those pardoned by Trump

Ulbricht ran Silk Road under the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, a reference to a character in the 1987 film The Princess Bride.

The marketplace itself took its name from the historic trade routes spanning Europe, Asia and parts of Africa.

The site achieved notoriety through media reports and online chatter. But users could only access the site through Tor – a system that lets people use the web without revealing who they are or which country they are in.

Court documents from the FBI said the site had just under a million registered users, but investigators said they did not know how many were active.

Ulbricht was arrested in a San Francisco public library in 2013 in an elaborate sting operation, while allegedly chatting online with someone he thought was a colleague but was in fact an undercover federal agent.

Investigators had been through a painstaking process of piecing together the suspect’s digital footprint.

Sentencing Ulbricht – who has two college degrees – District Judge Katherine Forrest said he was “no better a person than any other drug dealer”.

She said the site had been his “carefully planned life’s work”.

The judge noted the lengthy sentence also acted as a message to copycats that there would be “very serious consequences”.

“I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity,” Ulbricht said at his sentencing in May 2015.

Despite the judge’s hope that the sentence would act as a deterrent, bigger marketplaces similar to Silk Road emerged after its closure.

Trump previously hinted that he planned to commute Ulbricht’s sentence during a speech last year at the Libertarian National Convention – while seeking to court votes ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The Libertarian party had been advocating for Ulbricht’s release and said his case was an example of government overreach.

Republican congressman Thomas Massie, a Trump ally, applauded the president’s decision.

“Thank you for keeping your word to me and others who have been advocating for Ross’ freedom,” said the Kentucky lawmaker.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ordered the seizure of two “offensive” paintings by MF Husain, one of India’s most famous artists.

The court on Monday granted permission for the police to seize the artworks after a complaint was filed alleging that the paintings, displayed at an art gallery and featuring two Hindu deities, “hurt religious sentiments”.

Husain, who died in 2011 aged 95, often faced backlash for the depictions of nude Hindu gods in his paintings.

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) which held the exhibition said in a statement that it is “not a party to the legal proceedings and is seeking legal advice”.

The paintings were part of an exhibition called Husain: The Timeless Modernist, showcasing more than 100 works at DAG from 26 October to 14 December.

The complainant, Amita Sachdeva, a lawyer, said on X that on 4 December, she photographed the “offensive paintings” displayed at the DAG and, after researching previous complaints against the late artist, filed a police complaint five days later.

On 10 December, Ms Sachdeva reported that she visited the gallery with the investigating officer, only to discover that the paintings had been removed. She claimed that the gallery officials asserted they had never exhibited the paintings.

The BBC has contacted DAG for comment.

The paintings that Ms Sachdeva shared online depicted Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman alongside nude female figures. She also alleged that the Delhi police had failed to file a report.

She later petitioned the court to preserve the CCTV footage from the gallery during the period when the paintings were reportedly on display, according to media reports.

On Monday, a judge at Delhi’s Patiala House Courts said that the police had accessed the footage and submitted their report. According to the inquiry, the exhibition was held in a private space and was intended solely to showcase the artist’s original work, the judge added.

The art gallery said in a statement that they are “reviewing the situation” and “trying to follow developments”.

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of India’s biggest painters and was called “Picasso of India” but his art often stirred controversy in the country. His works have sold for millions of dollars.

His career was marked by controversy when he was accused of obscenity and denounced by hardline Hindus for a painting of a nude goddess.

In 2006, Husain publicly apologised for his painting, Mother India. It showed a nude woman kneeling on the ground creating the shape of the Indian map. He left the country the same year and lived in self-imposed exile in London until his death.

In 2008, India’s Supreme Court refused to launch criminal proceedings against Husain, saying that his paintings were not obscene and nudity was common in Indian iconography and history.

The court had then dismissed an appeal against a high court ruling that quashed criminal proceedings against Husain in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, condemning the rise of a “new puritanism” in India.

The court also rejected calls for Husain, then in exile, to be summoned and asked to explain his paintings, which were accused of outraging religious sentiments and disturbing national integrity.

“There are so many such subjects, photographs and publications. Will you file cases against all of them? What about temple structures? Husain’s work is art. If you don’t want to see it, don’t see it. There are so many such art forms in temple structures,” the top court said.

Many believe there is a rising tide of illiberalism against artistic expression in India.

In October the Bombay High Court reprimanded the customs department for seizing artworks by renowned artists FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee on the grounds that they were “obscene material.”

The court ruled that not every nude or sexually explicit painting qualifies as obscene and ordered the release of seven seized artworks.

Shivering a little, Marcos pulls his hoodie over his head as much to protect his identity as to shield him from the cold.

A year ago, at just 16 years old, he says he was forcibly recruited into a drug cartel in his home state of Michoacán, Mexico.

Recounting his story of horror and escape, Marcos (not his real name) says he and his family fled Michoacán with only what they were wearing.

Leaving for the pharmacy one evening to buy painkillers for his mother’s toothache, he says he was suddenly surrounded by four pick-up trucks with armed men inside.

“Get in,” he says they ordered, “or we’ll kill your family.”

They dragged him off to a shack where several other youths were in the same predicament, according to Marcos.

For months, he says he was made to be a foot soldier in a war he wanted no part of, before managing to escape with the help of a gang member who took pity on him.

Marcos has spent months inside a migrant shelter in the Mexican border city of Tijuana waiting to make his case for asylum before the US authorities, confident that he could convince them he has what US immigration courts call “credible fear” of persecution or torture in Mexico.

But now he thinks President Trump’s sweeping executive orders on immigration and border security have ruined his chances of success.

“I hope they look at the circumstances of every person and take each case on its merit,” he says, “and that Mr Trump’s heart softens to help those who truly need it.”

From the Oval Office on Monday evening, hours after returning to the presidency, Trump signed a blizzard of orders aimed at delivering on one of his central campaign promises: to drastically reduce illegal migration and asylum claims at the US border.

Among the measures were a move to declare some drug cartels terrorist organisations, paving the way for US military action and deportations.

That order has Pastor Albert Rivera, the director of a migrant shelter that primarily houses people fleeing cartel intimidation and death threats, confused.

He says there’s a contradiction at the heart of the executive order.

“If you’re going from saying these people are fleeing gangs to say they are now fleeing terrorists, surely that only makes their claims for asylum stronger,” he argues.

For Trump’s supporters on the other side of the border, in southern California, the need for these strict new measures is self-evident.

“It will be a relief,” says Paula Whitsell, the chairwoman of the San Diego County Republican Party, about the new president’s plan to launch what he’s called “the largest deportation in American history”.

“Our system here in San Diego County is very burdened by the heavy weight of all these people coming in, and we’re just not built for it. The county is not made to be able to sustain this,” she argues.

She insists the measures are not inherently anti-immigrant – “we are still a nation of immigrants” – but directed instead at removing undocumented criminals in the US and dismantling the gangs that operate people-smuggling routes across the border.

But for people waiting in Mexico, who say they have done nothing wrong and have legitimate claims for asylum, Trump’s orders have had sweeping and swift consequences.

On the morning that the president took the oath of office, around 60 migrants gathered at the Chaparral crossing in Tijuana, waiting to speak to border guards about their asylum claims. But they never got the chance, as Mexican officials instead directed them towards buses that would take them back to shelters.

The CBP One app – a mobile application launched by the Biden administration and criticised by Trump on the campaign trial – had shut down.

The app had been the only legal pathway to request asylum at the US-Mexico border, and with all of its appointments scrapped, there would no crossing the border.

For some, it felt like the end of the road.

Oralia has been living with her two youngest children for seven months in a nylon tent just walking distance from the US border.

She says she is also fleeing cartel threats in Michoacán, and that her 10-year-old boy has epilepsy. She says her hope was to get him medical attention somewhere safe in the US.

But without the CBP One app, Oralia says she has little hope that her claim will ever be heard.

“We have no choice but to go back and trust in God that nothing happens,” she says.

A local migrant rights’ lawyer has apparently advised her to wait and see how President Trump’s actions unfold. But Oralia’s mind is made up.

Her bags packed, the tent she’s called home for most of the last year is now vacant for the next family.

“It’s all been so unjust,” she says, wiping away tears.

“Mexico receives their citizens with no complaint, but it doesn’t work the other way round.

“I just hope God moves him [Trump] because there are lots of families like ours.”

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The Royal Navy has been monitoring a Russian spy ship after it entered British waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has told MPs.

John Healey said the vessel, Yantar, was used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure.

He said the incident was “another example of growing Russian aggression”.

Healey added: “I also wanted President Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you’re doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”

Russia describes Yantar as an oceanic research vessel and it is operated by the country’s Ministry of Defence.

Western nations have often tracked the ship operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables.

They also believe Russia has been stepping up this activity since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

As well as surveillance equipment the ship can operate submersible drones capable of reaching the ocean floor.

Undersea infrastructure is crucial for energy supply through power cables and pipelines, while more than 95% of internet traffic is also secured via undersea cables.

Healey said Yantar was currently in the North Sea, after passing through UK waters and being detected 45 miles off the British coast in the English Channel on Monday.

“For the last two days the Royal Navy has deployed HMS Somerset and HMS Tyne to monitor the vessel every minute through our waters,” he said.

“I changed the Royal Navy’s rules of engagement so that our warships can get closer and better track the Yantar. So far, the ship has complied with international rules of navigation.”

The defence secretary said it was the second time the vessel had entered British waters in recent months, with Yantar also detected “loitering over UK critical undersea infrastructure” in November.

He said a Royal Navy submarine had been authorised to surface close to Yantar “strictly as a deterrent measure” and “to make clear that we have been covertly monitoring its every move”.

“The ship then left UK waters without further loitering and sailed down to the Mediterranean,” he added.

Healey said the government was strengthening its response to Russian naval activity with its Nato allies.

He said the Royal Air Force would provide surveillance aircraft to join a Nato deployment to protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

It comes after an undersea cable between Estonia and Finland was damaged in December, with Finnish police investigating whether a Russian ship was involved.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the Conservative Party stood “shoulder to shoulder” with the government’s approach and its “transparency” over the Russian naval threat.

He also welcomed the change to the Royal Navy’s rules of engagement, adding: “This sends a powerful signal to Putin that we will not be intimidated and that if his aim is to keep pushing the boundaries of malign activity in our waters, and those proximate to us, we will respond.”

Cartlidge said the Russian activity showed why defence spending needed to be increased as soon as possible.

In the shadow of Iceland’s largest geothermal power station, a large warehouse houses a hi-tech indoor farm of sorts that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Under a strange pink-purple glow, illuminated panels buzz and cylindrical columns of water bubble away as a futuristic crop of microalgae grows.

It’s here that Iceland’s Vaxa Technologies has developed a system that harnesses energy and other resources from the nearby power plant to cultivate these tiny aquatic organisms.

“It’s a new way of thinking about food production,” says general manager Kristinn Haflidason as he gives me a tour of the space-age facility.

For much of our history, humans have consumed seaweed, also known as macroalgae.

But its tiny relative, microalgae has been a less common food source, although it was eaten for centuries in ancient Central America and Africa.

Now scientists and entrepreneurs are increasingly exploring its potential as a nutrition-rich, sustainable food.

About 35 minutes from the capital Reykjavik, the Vaxa site produces the microalgae Nannochloropsis, both as food for people, and for feed in fish and shrimp farming.

It also grows a type of bacteria called Arthospira, also known as blue-green algae, as it shares similar properties with microalgae.

When dried out it is known as spirulina and is used as a dietary supplement, a food ingredient, and as a bright-blue food colouring.

These tiny organisms photosynthesise, capturing energy from light to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

“The algae is eating CO2, or turning the CO2 into biomass,” explains Mr Haflidason. “It’s carbon negative.”

Vaxa’s plant has a unique situation.

It’s the only place where algae cultivation is integrated with a geothermal power station, which supplies clean electricity, delivers cold water for cultivation, hot water for heating, and even pipes across its CO2 emissions.

“You end up with a slightly negative carbon footprint,” says Asger Munch Smidt-Jensen, a food technology consultant at Danish Technology Institute (DTI), who co-authored a study assessing the environmental impact of Vaxa’s spirulina production.

“We also found a relatively low footprint, both in terms of land and water use.”

Round-the-clock renewable energy, plus a stream of CO2, and nutrients with a low carbon footprint, are needed to ensure the setup is climate-friendly, and he thinks that isn’t easily replicated.

“There is a huge input of energy to run these photo-bioreactors, and you have to artificially simulate the sun, so you need a high energy light source,” he explains.

“My main takeaway is that we should utilise these areas [like Iceland] where we have low impact energy sources to make energy intensive products,” adds Mr Munch Smidt-Jensen.

• Watch Click: The Icelandic farm growing algae for food

Back at the algae plant, I climb onto an elevated platform, where I’m surrounded by noisy modular units called photo-bioreactors, where thousands upon thousands of tiny red and blue LED lights fuel the microalgae’s growth, in place of sunlight.

They’re also supplied water and nutrients.

“More than 90% of the photosynthesis happens within very specific wavelengths of red and blue light,” explains Mr Haflidason. “We are only giving them the light that they use.”

All the conditions are tightly controlled and optimised by machine learning, he adds.

About 7% of the crop is harvested daily and rapidly replenished by new growth.

Vaxa’s facility can produce up to 150 metric tonnes of algae annually and it plans to expand.

As the crops are rich in protein, carbohydrates, omega-3s, fatty-acids, and vitamin B12, Mr Haflidason believes growing microalgae this way could help tackle global food insecurity.

Many other companies are betting on the potential of microalgae – it’s estimated the market will be worth $25.4bn (£20.5bn) by 2033.

Danish start-up Algiecel has been trialling portable shipping container-sized modules that house photo-bioreactors, and which could link up to carbon-emitting industries to capture their CO2, while simultaneously producing food and feed.

Crops are also being used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, biofuel and a replacement for plastic.

Perhaps also microalgae could be produced in space.

In a project funded by the European Space Agency, the Danish Technological Institution plans to test if a microalgae can be grown on the International Space Station.

Despite all the investment, there’s some way to go before microalgae becomes an everyday part of our diet.

It still needs a lot of development, according to Mr Munch Smidt-Jensen.

He points out that the texture lacks firmness. Meanwhile the taste can be “fishy” if the algae is a saltwater variety.

“But there are ways of overcoming this,” he adds.

There’s also the societal question.

“Are people ready for it? How do we make it so that everyone wants to eat this?”

Malene Lihme Olsen, a food scientist at Copenhagen University who researches micro algae, says its nutritional value needs more research.

“Green microalgae [chlorella] have a very robust cell wall, so it can be difficult for us to digest and get all the nutrients,” she says.

For now she says microalgae is better added to other “carrier products” like pasta or bread to help with taste, texture and appearance.

However, Ms Olsen believes microalgae are a promising future food.

“If you compare one hectare of soy in Brazil, and imagine we had one hectare of algae field, you could produce 15 times more protein a year [from the algae].”

Back at the plant I’m looking at an unappetising green sludge. It’s the harvested microalgae with the water squeezed out, ready for further processing.

Mr Haflidason offers me a taste and, after initial reluctance, I try some and find its flavour neutral with a texture like tofu.

“We are absolutely not proposing that anyone should eat green sludge,” jokes Mr Haflidason.

Instead the processed algae is an ingredient for everyday foods, and in Reykjavik one bakery makes bread with Spirulina and a gym puts it in smoothies.

“We’re not going to change what you eat. We’re just going to change the nutritional value of the foods that you eat,” he says.

Elon Musk has brushed aside the furore over a one-armed gesture he gave during a speech celebrating the inauguration of Donald Trump.

At Monday’s event, Musk thanked the crowd for “making it happen”, before placing his right hand over his heart and then thrusting the same arm out into air straight ahead of him. He then turned and repeated the action for those sitting behind him.

Some on X, the social medial platform he owns, likened the gesture to a Nazi salute, though others disagreed.

In response, the SpaceX and Tesla chief posted on X: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”

Musk, the world’s richest man and a close ally of President Trump, was speaking at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC when he made the gesture.

“My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured,” the 53-year-old said, after giving the second one-armed salute.

There was immediate backlash on social media and disagreement about Musk’s intent.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, said: “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.”

But the Anti-Defamation League, an organisation founded to combat antisemitism, did not agree.

“It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” it posted on X.

Andrea Stroppa, a confidant of Musk who has connected him with far-right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, was reported by Italian media to have posted the clip of Musk with the caption: “Roman Empire is back starting from Roman salute”.

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The Roman salute was widely used in Italy by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party, before later being adopted by Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Stroppa later deleted his post, Italian media said. He later posted that “that gesture, which some mistook for a Nazi salute, is simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, ‘I want to give my heart to you'”.

“That is exactly what he communicated into the microphone. ELON DISLIKES EXTREMISTS!”

The gesture comes as Musk’s politics have increasingly shifted to the right. He has made recent statements in support of Germany’s far-right AfD party and British anti-immigration party Reform UK.

Appearing at the Davos at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was asked about the comparison to a Nazi salute, something that is banned in Germany.

“We have the freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany,” he said.

“… what we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme right positions. And this is what I would like to repeat again.”

Musk has become one of Trump’s closest allies and has been tapped to co-lead what the president has termed the Department of Government Efficiency.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had a video call hours after Donald Trump was sworn in on Monday, pledging to bring bilateral ties to “greater heights”, according to state media on both sides.

Calling Xi a “dear friend”, Putin said Russia and China were building ties “on the basis of friendship, mutual trust and support” despite external pressure.

Xi called on Putin to “continue deepening strategic coordination, firming up mutual support, and safeguarding legitimate interests”.

Trump on Tuesday threatened tariffs on Beijing, calling it “an abuser”, and warned that “big trouble” will come for Moscow if it does not strike a deal to end war in Ukraine.

Putin told Xi, however, that any Ukraine settlement “must respect Russian interests”, according to foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov who spoke to reporters after the call.

Beijing has been accused of building up Moscow’s war machine by providing it with critical components for the conflict in Ukraine.

Trade between both countries reached a record $240bn (£191bn) in 2023, up more than 64% since 2021 – before Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Putin and Xi confirmed readiness to build relations with the US on a mutually beneficial and respectful basis, if the Trump team shows an interest”, Ushakov said.

He also said, however, that the call was “not connected with Trump’s inauguration in any way”.

The call lasted about one-and-a-half hours, during which Putin and Xi also discussed the situations in the Middle East, South Korea and Taiwan, according to Ushakov.

Chinese state media said Xi also expressed readiness to work with Putin in response to “external uncertainties”, without mentioning specifics.

Xi held a phone call with Trump last week, which the US president described as a “very good” discussion for both countries. They spoke about trade, fentanyl and TikTok, among other things, he said.

Putin has yet to speak with Trump, but congratulated him on state television hours before the inauguration.

Yemen’s Houthi movement says it has released the crew of the cargo ship Galaxy Leader, which its fighters seized in November 2023 at the start of their campaign of attacks on Red Sea shipping linked to the Gaza war.

Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported that the 25 crew of the Bahamas-flagged and Japanese-operated vehicle carrier – comprising nationals from Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Philippines, Mexico and Romania – had been handed over to Oman.

The Houthi Supreme Council said the decision was “in support of Gaza and the ceasefire agreement” between Hamas and Israel that began on Sunday.

The head of the UN’s International Maritime Organization said the crew’s release was “a moment of profound relief”.

“Today’s breakthrough is a testament to the power of collective diplomacy and dialogue, recognizing that innocent seafarers must not become collateral victims in wider geopolitical tensions,” Arsenio Dominguez said.

“It is also a return to operations in the Red Sea as we have been accustomed to, and upholding of the freedom of navigation.”

Galaxy Leader’s operator, NYK Line, said it was still trying to confirm the news, but added: “If confirmed, this would great news for us and we are relieved that the crew can return home”.

The Houthis, who control north-western Yemen, began attacking Israel and international shipping shortly after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.

The US and UK have carried out air strikes in Yemen in response to the group’s attacks on dozens of merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Israel has also carried out four rounds of air strikes against the Houthis since July in retaliation for the 400 missiles and drones that the Israeli military says have been launched at the country from Yemen, most of which have been shot down.

The mysterious balls that forced the closure of several beaches in Sydney last week were found to contain saturated fatty acids, E. coli and faecal bacteria, authorities say.

Sydney’s Northern Beaches council said it has sent the debris to the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) for further analysis.

Nine beaches, including popular spots Manly and Dee Why, were closed on 14 January after the marble-sized balls started washing up.

It came months after thousands of black blobs started appearing on the city’s coasts in October, prompting authorities to close some of its most famous beaches for several days and order a massive clean-up.

The latest batch of balls was cleaned up from harbour beaches this week, the Northern Beaches council said in its statement on Tuesday.

It urged anyone who spotted the balls not to handle them and to contact authorities.

Besides the acids and bacteria, the balls also contained volcanic rock pumice.

Northern Beaches mayor Sue Heins said she hopes the EPA analysis will “identify the source so that they can stop this from happening at other beaches”.

“We are continuing to conduct regular inspections of our beaches and encourage the community to report any sightings,” she said.

The first batch of debris in October were at first mistakenly called “tar balls” but were later found to contain everything from cooking oil and soap scum molecules, to blood pressure medication, pesticides, hair, methamphetamine and veterinary drugs.

Scientists said they resembled fat, oil and grease blobs – often called “fatbergs” – which are commonly formed in sewage systems.

But Sydney Water has reported that its water treatment plants are operating normally and that there were no known issues with waste systems in the city.

The election of a new taoiseach has been delayed again after a bitter row in the Dáil (Irish parliament) forced proceedings to be suspended.

The Irish parliament returned to nominate Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin as the new taoiseach (prime minister) before he is formally appointed to the office by President Michael D Higgins.

Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy called for a 15 minute suspension after Teachtaí Dála (TDs) refused to “stop shouting” at her and take their seats.

Sinn Féin and other opposition TDs voiced their anger at plans to allow independent TDs who are supporting the government to join them on the opposition benches.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said it was a “brazen” move by the government to allow the plans to happen.

After the Dáil resumed several TDs continued to challenge Murphy over a decision to allow independent TDs who are supporting the government to sit on the opposition benches.

They refused to take their seats and the proceedings were then suspended for 30 minutes.

The Dáil was adjourned again at about 13:15 local time.

The 34th Dáil will see Martin elected as taoiseach for the second time, replacing Fine Gael leader Simon Harris who will return as tánaiste (deputy prime minister).

Fianna Fáil – the largest party – has formed a government with Fine Gael and a range of independent regional TDs after November’s election.

Sinn Féin remain the largest opposition party after winning 39 seats. Fianna Fáil gained 48 seats while Fine Gael was third with 38 seats.

Martin and Harris confirmed the new draft programme for government earlier this month.

The deal paved the way for the next government and was successfully endorsed by both parties in recent days.

Speaking after his party endorsed the programme for government, Martin said there was a “strong commitment” on behalf of his party to deliver for the Irish people.

“I can assure you, we will spare no effort in working selflessly on behalf of the people of Ireland to deliver this programme for government, to make things better for people and to improve the quality of life as we navigate very turbulent global waters,” he said.

Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael ruled out Sinn Féin as a coalition partner, which party leader Mary Lou McDonald called “bad practice”.

This is the first time the new government will sit after November’s election, with government negotiations taking around five weeks to complete.

The new Dáil has already been the source of controversy after a number of independent TDs including Michael Lowry, Danny Healy-Rae, Barry Heneghan and Gillian Toole, who support the government, want to form a “technical group” which would allow them speaking time and other rights from the opposition benches.

Another member of the group, Michael Healy-Rae, said they were “perfectly entitled to stand up as part of a technical group and ask questions and to be part of debates”.

He told BBC NI’s Good Morning Ulster programme: “When you support a government it doesn’t mean that you are silenced and you can’t be engaging, that you can’t ask questions, that you can’t ask questions of national and local importance.

“We haven’t changed our minds, but what we are doing is we are rowing in to say we need a stable, secure, sound, solid government for the next five years and we are going to support that because we feel that we will better able to serve our constituents and the country by being within government than outside.”

The new Ceann Comhairle (speaker) – also a regional independent – Verona Murphy, who is the first woman to hold the role, told TDs she would consider submissions opposing the plan, but permitted the group to “provisionally” take their original seats for now.

All other opposition groups are against the idea, labelling it as having a foot in both camps and taking time away from those who wish to scrutinise the government.

Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh said: “I think it absolutely undermines the integrity of the Dáil.

“The standing orders are very clear in that and we’ve got legal advice and the Labour Party have legal advice as well to say that.

“A technical group is a body of members of the opposition it’s very, very clear.”

Analysis: Chris Page, BBC News Ireland Correspondent

It had been expected that the dispute over speaking rights would lead to something of a row in the chamber.

But the rowdiness has reached a level which wasn’t widely anticipated.

The 34th Dáil (lower house of the Irish Parliament) has begun with two suspensions in quick succession – and the process to elect a Taoiseach is running at least an hour late.

For opposition parties, the issue is about more than how speaking time is shared out – it is also about how funding and resources are carved up.

They have also had an opportunity to grab the spotlight from the incoming government, on a day which is usually focused on the new taoiseach and ministers – and their plan to run Ireland in the coming years.

We can expect the coalition parties to accuse their opponents of creating an undignified spectacle on an important day for the country.

As part of Wednesday’s Dáil return, Martin is due to travel to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet Irish President Michael D Higgins in the state reception room.

The president will then sign the warrant of appointment and hand the seal of the taoiseach and the seal of government to Martin.

Later, the appointment of members of the government will begin.

The president will sign the warrant of appointment for the members of the government and the warrant of appointment of the attorney general, each of which will be countersigned by the taoiseach.

The president will then present each minister in turn with their seal of office.

Netflix will raise prices across a number of countries after adding nearly 19 million subscribers in the final months of 2024.

The streaming firm said it will increase subscription costs in the US, Canada, Argentina and Portugal.

Asked if prices were set to increase in the UK, a spokesperson for Netflix said there was “nothing to share right now”.

Netflix announced better-than-expected subscriber numbers, helped by the second series of South Korean drama Squid Game as well as sports including a boxing match between influencer-turned-fighter Jake Paul and former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

In the US, prices will increase across almost all plans including the standard subscription with no adverts which will now cost $17.99 (£14.60) a month, up from $15.49.

Its membership with adverts will also rise, by one dollar to $7.99.

The last time Netflix raised prices in the US was October 2023, when it also lifted costs for some plans in the UK.

“We will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix,” it said.

Meanwhile, the company said it finished last year with more than 300 million subscribers in total. It had been expected to add 9.6 million new subscribers between October and December but far surpassed that number.

It is the last time that Netflix will report quarterly subscriber growth – from now on it said it will “continue to announce paid memberships as we cross key milestones”.

As well as Squid Game and the Paul v Tyson fight, Netflix also streamed two NFL games on Christmas Day.

It will also broadcast more live events including WWE wrestling and has bought the rights for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031.

Paolo Pescatore, a technology analyst at PP Foresight, said Netflix “is now flexing its muscles by adjusting prices given its far stronger and diversified programming slate compared to rivals”.

Net profit between October and December doubled to $1.8bn compared to the same period a year ago.

Sales rose from $8.8bn to $10.2bn.

An endangered plant known as the “corpse flower” for its putrid stink is about to bloom in Australia – and captivated the internet in the process, with thousands already tuned in to a livestream ahead of its grand debut.

The titan arum plant, housed in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney, blooms only once every few years for just 24 hours.

Affectionately dubbed Putricia, it will release a smell described as “wet socks, hot cat food, or rotting possum flesh”.

The long wait and uncertainty as to when Putricia will bloom – has spawned jokes and even a unique lingo in the livestream’s chat, with thousands commenting “WWTF”, or “We Watch the Flower”.

The current view is not much: Putricia stands silent and tall in front of a brown curtain, comfortably ensconced behind a red velvet rope. Occasionally, a visitor pops into the frame as they snap a selfie with the plant.

But once she blooms, viewers can expect to see Putricia unfold a vibrant maroon or crimson skirt, known as a spathe, around her spadix which is the large spike in the middle of the plant.

The Gardens have said it is “hard to predict exactly when” Putricia will bloom, but that has not stopped the thousands gathered online.

“I’m back again to see how Putricia is going and I can see she’s still taking her time like the queen she is, fair play,” wrote one commenter. “This is the slowest burlesque ever,” said another.

Yet another person wrote: “Overnight I watched, fell asleep, awoke, watched, fell asleep. I am weak, but Putricia is strong. WWTF.”

Other popular acronyms among viewers are WDNRP (We Do Not Rush Putricia) and BBTB (Blessed Be The Bloom).

The plant can only be found in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, where it is known as bunga bangkai – or “corpse flower” in Indonesian. Its scientific name is Amorphophallus titanum, which is derived from Ancient Greek and means “giant misshapen penis”,

It has the world’s largest flowering structure, as it can grow up to 3m (10 feet) tall and weigh up to 150kg. The plant contains several hundred flowers in the base of its spadix.

It is endangered in the wild due to deforestation and land degradation.

Putricia is one of several titan arums in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, which last saw one bloom 15 years ago.

But there have been other corpse flower blooms across Australia in recent years, including Melbourne and Adelaide’s botanic gardens, each time attracting thousands of curious visitors keen on having a whiff.

There are also a few housed in Kew Gardens in London, where one bloomed in June last year. The titan arum first flowered outside of Sumatra in 1889 in Kew.

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ordered the seizure of two “offensive” paintings by MF Husain, one of India’s most famous artists.

The court on Monday granted permission for the police to seize the artworks after a complaint was filed alleging that the paintings, displayed at an art gallery and featuring two Hindu deities, “hurt religious sentiments”.

Husain, who died in 2011 aged 95, often faced backlash for the depictions of nude Hindu gods in his paintings.

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) which held the exhibition said in a statement that it is “not a party to the legal proceedings and is seeking legal advice”.

The paintings were part of an exhibition called Husain: The Timeless Modernist, showcasing more than 100 works at DAG from 26 October to 14 December.

The complainant, Amita Sachdeva, a lawyer, said on X that on 4 December, she photographed the “offensive paintings” displayed at the DAG and, after researching previous complaints against the late artist, filed a police complaint five days later.

On 10 December, Ms Sachdeva reported that she visited the gallery with the investigating officer, only to discover that the paintings had been removed. She claimed that the gallery officials asserted they had never exhibited the paintings.

The BBC has contacted DAG for comment.

The paintings that Ms Sachdeva shared online depicted Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman alongside nude female figures. She also alleged that the Delhi police had failed to file a report.

She later petitioned the court to preserve the CCTV footage from the gallery during the period when the paintings were reportedly on display, according to media reports.

On Monday, a judge at Delhi’s Patiala House Courts said that the police had accessed the footage and submitted their report. According to the inquiry, the exhibition was held in a private space and was intended solely to showcase the artist’s original work, the judge added.

The art gallery said in a statement that they are “reviewing the situation” and “trying to follow developments”.

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of India’s biggest painters and was called “Picasso of India” but his art often stirred controversy in the country. His works have sold for millions of dollars.

His career was marked by controversy when he was accused of obscenity and denounced by hardline Hindus for a painting of a nude goddess.

In 2006, Husain publicly apologised for his painting, Mother India. It showed a nude woman kneeling on the ground creating the shape of the Indian map. He left the country the same year and lived in self-imposed exile in London until his death.

In 2008, India’s Supreme Court refused to launch criminal proceedings against Husain, saying that his paintings were not obscene and nudity was common in Indian iconography and history.

The court had then dismissed an appeal against a high court ruling that quashed criminal proceedings against Husain in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, condemning the rise of a “new puritanism” in India.

The court also rejected calls for Husain, then in exile, to be summoned and asked to explain his paintings, which were accused of outraging religious sentiments and disturbing national integrity.

“There are so many such subjects, photographs and publications. Will you file cases against all of them? What about temple structures? Husain’s work is art. If you don’t want to see it, don’t see it. There are so many such art forms in temple structures,” the top court said.

Many believe there is a rising tide of illiberalism against artistic expression in India.

In October the Bombay High Court reprimanded the customs department for seizing artworks by renowned artists FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee on the grounds that they were “obscene material.”

The court ruled that not every nude or sexually explicit painting qualifies as obscene and ordered the release of seven seized artworks.

Musician Chris Brown says he’s suing a film studio over a documentary released last year which included accusations of sexual assault.

Chris Brown: A History of Violence was released by Warner Bros in October and featured testimony from an anonymous dancer who claimed he raped her on a yacht in 2020.

In a statement, the Forever singer’s lawyers say the film is “defamatory”, and her claims were “baseless” and “sensationalised”, accusing Warner Bros of “recklessly damaging” his reputation.

As well as Warner Bros, the lawsuit also names production company Ample. Neither firm responded when contacted for comment by BBC Newsbeat.

Chris Brown’s lawyers say he is seeking $500m (£405m), after filing the complaint at a court in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The statement goes on to say that his lawyers had told producers the allegations – which also included evidence tampering – were “misleading” and “discredited” but that Warner Bros proceeded to release the documentary “without regard for Mr Brown, prioritising profits over journalistic integrity”.

In a copy of the complaint, seen by BBC Newsbeat, Chris Brown’s lawyers cast doubt on the dancer’s reliability as a witness and highlight three claims in the documentary which they say are “false”.

These include a comment that he has a “predisposition for punching women in the face”, the dancer’s allegation he raped her and a claim he manipulated or deleted texts between them before sharing them with police.

Lawyers say the documentary “states in every available fashion that he is a serial rapist and sexual abuser”.

The allegations are said to have caused him emotional distress as well as “significant harm to [his] reputation, career and business opportunities”.

The documentary has, they say, “irreparably tarnished [his] career and standing in the public eye”.

Chris Brown first faced allegations from the dancer, known in court and in the documentary as Jane Doe, in 2022 when she sued him for $20m (£14.9m).

Her lawsuit claimed he drugged and raped her during a party on a yacht at a property owned by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ in Miami, Florida.

But the case was reportedly dismissed by a judge.

The 35-year-old has had a history of well-documented legal troubles.

In 2014, he pleaded guilty to punching a man outside a hotel in Washington DC while he was taking a photo with two women.

Two years later, a model claimed he assaulted her at a Las Vegas casino, however police said there was not enough evidence to bring charges.

A court also ordered him to stay away from ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran in 2017 after she claimed he threatened to kill her.

Last year’s documentary also examined other allegations against Chris Brown including a rape inquiry in Paris – in which he was released without charge – and assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009, which he pleaded guilty to.

His lawyers say he’s “never been found at fault for any type of sexual crime”.

“Their [Warner Bros and Ample’s] actions undermine not only Mr Brown’s decade-long efforts to rebuild his life but also the credibility of true survivors of violence,” his lawyer Levi McCathern says.

Chris Brown says a portion of any damages would be donated to survivors of sexual violence.

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