At least 30 people have been killed in a crush at the world’s largest religious gathering, the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela in northern India, officials say.

The incident took place early on Wednesday when devotees on the riverbanks in the city of Prayagraj were trampled by other pilgrims rushing to take part in a sacred day of ritual bathing.

Another 60 people were injured, police said. It took most of the day for official casualty figures to emerge, prompting opposition leaders to accuse authorities of a lack of transparency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to those who lost loved ones. Many pilgrims are still seeking news of relatives and friends.

Police said 90 injured people had been taken to hospitals. “Unfortunately, 30 of those devotees have died,” senior police officer Vaibhav Krishna told a news conference on Wednesday evening.

He said 25 of the dead had been identified.

Earlier in the day, BBC reporters had witnessed scenes of chaos, with clothes, shoes, blankets and backpacks strewn on the ground as crowds tried to escape the site of the accident.

“People were going in every direction,” one eyewitness Ayesha Mishra told the BBC. “They were getting pushed around and falling down. Children were getting crushed by the crowds.”

Videos and photos from the scene showed people on the ground, their bruised bodies and faces covered in mud. Some were being carried away on stretchers, as ambulances zipped in and out of the sprawling tent city set up for the event.

For hours there was confusion over the number of people who had died or been injured.

The main hospital was cordoned off and reporters barred from entry. Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state – where Prayagraj is located – spoke of serious injuries, but did not mention deaths.

Prime Minister Modi did acknowledge there had been fatalities but did not say how many.

“I wish for the speedy recovery of all injured,” he said in a post on X, calling the incident “extremely sad”.

News of the accident did little to discourage the huge crowds thronging the venue – more than 50 million had bathed by 14:00 local time (08:30GMT), according to government figures.

The Kumbh Mela happens every 12 years at Sangam, the confluence of three sacred rivers – the Ganges (Ganga), Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati. Hindus believe that bathing in the sacred waters will cleanse them of sins and help them attain salvation.

While the holy bath is the main draw, the event is also a vibrant carnival of faith, where people from all walks of lives, including ascetics, politicians and celebrities, converge to celebrate.

• ‘It’s absolute chaos’: At the scene of the crush
• What is Kumbh Mela?

Crowds from all over the country – and the world – have been arriving in Prayagraj in trains, buses and taxis, to participate in the festival which began on 13 January and will go on until 26 February. Some have come alone, others with their family, including children and the elderly.

Wednesday was the biggest and most important bathing day of the festival, with officials estimating crowds of up to 100 million people. It’s also the day of the Shahi snan – or the royal bath – that sees thousands of ash-smeared ascetics taking a plunge in the river.

By Tuesday evening, crowds had already begun to swell up and an air of jubilance engulfed the venue. Ecstatic devotees sang and danced in large and colourful processions. And people were looking forward to taking a dip the next morning.

But the celebrations soon turned into a moment of horror.

The news of the crush first broke between 01:00 and 02:00 local time (19:30- 20:30 GMT) when many ambulances were seen entering and leaving the venue.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that devotees had been sleeping around the barricades of the Sangam nose – the point of confluence of the rivers – when the crowd surged towards them, leading to the crush.

People began to run in confusion, many of them injured. Others had their clothes torn.

“The crowds were so huge that people were trampling upon each other. Me and my family, we all fell down,” said Poonam Singh, a devotee, who came with seven relatives of hers, all of whom were missing.

“I lost all my money, my belongings and I can’t find my family anywhere,” she added.

Uncertainty over what had happened added to the chaos. Many devotees said they sensed something was wrong, but decided to proceed anyway as there was no confirmation from authorities about the situation.

The first announcements were made around 04:00, when officials started asking people to stop going to the Sangam nose and instead take a dip at the nearest river bank they could find.

But that did not change much – by then, paths leading to the Sangam were already jam packed.

Tens of thousands of people continued to proceed – and still were doing so, hours after the accident.

The ascetics had earlier said they would cancel their appearance, but later made their way to bathe at Sangam, although with their processions scaled down.

For many pilgrims, the search for loved ones stretched through the day, and continued into the night. Many remained at the site of the accident, where slippers, clothes and other belongings of the victims lay covered in mud. Occasional screams of those grieving pierced through the commotion.

Anita Devi, from the central city of Jhansi, said she had spent the entire morning looking for her husband.

“He needs his medicines but they are with me. When the crush happened, I lost hold of his hand and he was gone in a blink,” she told the BBC.

“It’s been so many hours but I can’t find him. This year there are so many lost-and-found centres that I don’t know where he might have gone. I am praying hard that he is alive and safe.”

Crowd crushes are common in India where there is frequent overcrowding at religious events, festivals and public spaces. Last year, more than 120 people were killed in Hathras district, also in Uttar Pradesh, during a religious gathering.

Officials say the situation at the Kumbh Mela is now under control. But Indian opposition leaders have criticised the government over the crush.

“Mismanagement, mismanagement and administration’s special focus on VIP movement instead of common devotees are responsible for this tragic incident,” Rahul Gandhi, opposition leader in parliament, said in a post on X, calling the incident “extremely sad”.

Some pilgrims also blamed authorities for the disaster.

Ayesha Mishra questioned why there was no police presence where the crush happened.

“They were standing towards the end of the festival venue, while so many of us got crushed in the middle,” she said.

“We do not want to take a holy dip like this,” she added. “The government should just ask people to stay home at this point.”

The Australian government has been told by Moscow that one of its citizens in Russian captivity is still alive.

Oscar Jenkins, a 32-year-old teacher, was captured last year while fighting for Ukraine.

“The Australian government has received confirmation from Russia that Oscar Jenkins is alive and in custody,” Foreign Minster Penny Wong said in a statement on Wednesday.

Earlier, there were reports that Mr Jenkins had been killed while in captivity, with the Australian government citing “grave concerns” for his welfare.

“We still hold serious concerns for Mr Jenkins as a prisoner of war,” Wong’s statement added.

It also called on Russia to release him and reiterated Australia’s stance that the Russian Federation was obligated to treat all prisoners of war in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Prisoners of war are protected from all acts of violence or intimidation by the Geneva convention.

Earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said that the government was “urgently seeking” confirmation that Mr Jenkins was alive.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as saying that it was “good news” but called on Moscow to provide “video proof” of his well being.

Mr Jenkins is thought to be the first Australian to have been held as a prisoner of war while fighting for Ukraine.

A video surfaced in December last year showing Mr Jenkins, with his hands tied, being hit in the face and questioned by Russian forces.

He explains he is a teacher and also a soldier who lives in both Australia and Ukraine.

They ask him if he is being paid to fight in Ukraine.

Princess Beatrice has given birth to her second child, named Athena, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Athena was born several weeks prematurely and weighed 4lb 5oz, but is said to be healthy and doing well.

The new baby, the second child of Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, was born a week ago on 22 January at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

The King and Queen and other members of the Royal Family were said to be delighted at the baby’s safe arrival, said the Palace.

Beatrice had been due to give birth in early Spring, but in December had received medical advice not to travel long distances.

The photo issued of Athena shows her wrapped in a blanket, with her hand over her face.

In a social media post, her father Edoardo said: “She is tiny and absolutely perfect” and the family was “completely besotted with her”.

The new baby, Athena, is the grandchild of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and Sarah, the Duchess of York. She becomes 11th in line to the throne.

“She is already so adored and I’m incredibly blessed to be a granny once again. So proud of Edo, Beatrice and the rest of my little 5-a-side team,” posted the duchess on social media.

The statement from Buckingham Palace gave the baby’s full name as Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi, born last Wednesday at 12.57pm.

Beatrice, aged 36, and her daughter are both doing well, said the Palace, and the family are spending time with Athena’s older siblings Wolfie – Mr Mapelli Mozzi’s son from a previous relationship – and Sienna.

The parents thanked staff at the London hospital for their “wonderful care”, the same hospital where their older daughter Sienna had been born in 2021.

In ancient Greece, Athena was the goddess of war, handicraft and wisdom.

The Pentagon has revoked the security detail and clearance for Gen Mark Milley, a former US general who has been critical of US President Donald Trump.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the move as one of his first acts in office, asking officials to investigate Gen Milley’s “conduct” and review his military grade.

Gen Milley previously served as the top US general during Trump’s first term but later criticised his former boss, and was quoted calling him a “fascist”.

Since returning to office, Trump has revoked security protections for a handful of former officials with whom he has clashed, including former top health official Anthony Fauci.

Trump previously accused Gen Milley of treason for phone calls he held with his Chinese counterpart during the final weeks of his first Trump presidency, including in the wake of a riot at the US Capitol building by Trump’s supporters in 2021.

Gen Milley reportedly used one of the calls to reassure China that the US would not launch a nuclear strike. On social media the president described those calls as “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”.

Gen Milley, however, testified the calls were coordinated with other defence secretaries.

It was in Bob Woodward’s book War, published last year, that Gen Milley was quoted calling Trump “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country”.

And in 2023, when giving his final speech as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Milley said the military did not take an oath to a “wannabe dictator”. The comment that was seen by many as a reference to Trump, the man who nominated him for the job in the first place.

Ahead of Trump’s return to the White House last week, outgoing President Joe Biden issued Gen Milley – and a handful of others, including Fauci – a pre-emptive pardon in case they faced retribution from Trump.

Biden’s statement said the pardons should “not be mistaken as an acknowledgment” that any of those covered “engaged in any wrongdoing”.

Gen Milley thanked Biden for the move and said he did not want to spend the rest of his life “fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights”.

“I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety,” he said.

The news that Gen Milley was being stripped of his security detail and security clearance was confirmed in a statement to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has also been told to “conduct an inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding Gen Milley’s conduct so that the Secretary may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination,” the statement said.

Trump’s new administration has also revoked security protections for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his former National Security Adviser John Bolton and his former envoy Brian Hook.

In the hours after Trump’s second inauguration, Trump’s officials also removed from the Pentagon a portrait depicting Gen Milley’s as chair of the joint chiefs of staff.

Millions of people across Asia and the world are welcoming the Lunar New Year which coincides with the first new moon of the lunar calendar.

Widely considered to be the most important event in the year for many in Asia and some Asian communities worldwide, the Lunar New Year represents a fresh start for those who celebrate.

Fireworks, music, fairs, lanterns, dragon and lion dancing filled streets across Asia as celebrations that typically last about 15 days began.

The UK’s choice for the next ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson, has described his previous criticism of Donald Trump as “ill-judged and wrong”.

Speaking in an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, he said the new US president had won “fresh respect” from him, adding he was “quite confident” Trump would approve of his appointment.

As part of the process Lord Mandelson’s credentials have to be presented to Trump, which the president is reportedly expected to agree to.

In previous years, Lord Mandelson has described Trump as “reckless” and “a bully”.

In an interview with an Italian journalist in 2019, he described Trump as “reckless and a danger to the world”.

This followed a 2018 interview with the Evening Standard where he described Trump as “a bully”.

But he told Fox News: “I made those remarks six years ago in 2019, led rather along this by an Italian journalist… it was a time in Britain by the way with very fraught politics and there was high emotion about many things in Britain at that time.

“I consider my remarks about President Trump as ill-judged and wrong.

“And I think that time and attitudes towards the president has changed since then.”

Acknowledging Trump’s “extraordinary” second mandate, Lord Mandelson said Trump had won “fresh respect” from him and said he had heard nothing from the White House that suggested there was going to be any difficulty about his appointment.

“I think that President Trump will look at my credentials and consider what’s best for the relationship going forward, ” he said.

“The president is a nice person, is a fair-minded person, and that’s why I feel quite confident that, when as I say he does look at my credentials he’ll think ‘right, I think this guy could work well for both our countries and our special relationship’.”

He added Trump could be “one of the most consequential” US presidents.

• PROFILE: How the Prince of Darkness became his excellency
• Trump campaign adviser calls incoming UK ambassador to US a ‘moron’
• Peter Mandelson ‘honoured’ to be appointed US ambassador

The government is much less concerned than previously about the possibility that Lord Mandelson’s appointment could be blocked by Trump.

Some of the president’s allies had suggested that the president could take the extraordinary step of blocking him from taking up the role.

Trump’s co-presidential campaign manager Chris LaCivita last month warned Lord Mandelson to “stay home” and called him “an absolute moron” over his past comments on Trump.

But Lord Mandelson is understood to have now received his “agrément” from the US government – a formal step confirming their willingness to accept him as a diplomat in their country.

The final hurdle will come when Lord Mandelson presents his “letter of credence” to Trump.

It is understood that he is likely to fly to Washington DC to carry out the final formalities next week.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Lord Mandelson is HMA-designate and the formal diplomatic process is ongoing.”

The US State Department has also been contacted for comment.

Mandelson’s comments go further than others in government in recanting previous criticism of Trump.

Others in government such as the Foreign Secretary David Lammy have typically sought to deflect questions about their attacks on Trump by pointing out that many senior Republican politicians have previously criticised him too.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had his first phone call with Trump since the inauguration, but its is thought Lord Mandelson’s appointment was not discussed.

Lord Mandelson is a well-known figure in British politics, having served in multiple ministerial roles under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before taking up a life peerage in the Lords.

He was appointed by Sir Keir in December and will replace outgoing ambassador Dame Karen Pierce, the first woman to serve as UK ambassador to the US.

Authorities in Sydney are investigating whether explosives discovered in a caravan were intended for an antisemitic attack.

The explosives could have caused a 40-metre-wide blast and “significant damage,” police said on Wednesday, adding that the threat was contained.

A note was found in the caravan that displayed antisemitic messages, investigators said.

“This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said.

New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told a news conference that the caravan was discovered on 19 January in Dural, a suburb of north-west Sydney.

The investigation became public on Wednesday after details of it were leaked to the media.

There was “some indication that the explosives might be used in some form of antisemitic attack,” Mr Hudson said, but he wouldn’t be drawn on the possible target.

He said officers had “mitigated the risk as much as possible” but stressed: “I’m not saying it’s been eliminated. I’m saying it’s been mitigated.”

“That’s one of the reasons we’re talking today, for members of the public to be vigilant in relation to what they see and what they hear in relation to antisemitism in our community.”

An investigation involving the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has been launched.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted a statement on X saying that “hate and extremism have no place in Australian society”.

He said that New South Wales Police had “people in custody” and was working with the AFP taskforce investigating antisemitic crimes called Special Operation Avalite.

Premier Chris Minns described the incident as “terrorism”.

“This would strike terror into the community, particularly the Jewish community, and it must be met with the full resources of the government.”

It has not yet been designated a terrorist incident, the premier confirmed.

The discovery follows a spate of antisemitic attacks in Australia in recent months.

In December, worshippers were forced to flee as Melbourne’s Adass Israel synagogue was set on fire.

Earlier this month, a childcare centre in Sydney was set alight and sprayed with antisemitic graffiti.

A Malaysian court has fined a Singaporean influencer for falsely claiming that she was nearly kidnapped at a mall near Malaysia’s border with Singapore.

A post by beauty influencer Amyra Laila Ho went viral after she claimed that a couple tried to abduct her after forcing her to sniff tea leaves that left her feeling dizzy and numb.

However, police said their investigations disproved her claim, which went viral and sparked discussions about security in Johor Bahru.

Johor Bahru lies on one end of the roughly one-kilometre long causeway that links the southern tip of Malaysia to the north of Singapore. Millions cross over every day, making it one of the world’s busiest border crossings.

Ho pleaded guilty to providing false information to a police officer and was fined 1,000 ringgit ($228; £183), which she immediately paid, Singaporean and Malaysian media said.

Ho’s post where she detailed the alleged abduction attempt also appears to have been taken down from her Instagram account, which is under the name Venus Ho.

She had claimed that the abduction attempt happened after she refused to buy tea leaves from the couple.

She added that they then tried to abduct her. The man held her arm and pretended to be her husband while the woman took her bag containing 400 ringgit.

She said her alleged attackers fled and pushed her to the floor when passersby started noticing what was happening.

“Based on CCTV recordings and technical evidence, no movement involving the victim was detected at the location,” M Kumar, police chief for Johor state, which includes the city of Johor Bahru, told reporters.

Malaysian police said that after Ho posted about the alleged abduction attempt, “Social media influencers also commented on the issue, framing it as a threat to the safety of tourists visiting Johor”.

Police added that strict action would be taken against “anyone who deliberately spreads rumours or manipulates facts to cause public anxiety, particularly concerning safety issues”.

Johor Bahru lies on one end of the roughly one-kilometre long causeway that links the southern tip of Malaysia to the north of neighbouring Singapore.

About 300,000 commuters pass through the causeway daily, according to Singaporean media. Singapore and Malaysia also recently designated the area as a special economic zone, where they hope to attract more investments.

Ukraine says its forces successfully hit an oil refinery in the Russian town of Kstovo, around 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

Four drones hit a Lukoil company depot, Ukrainian media said, adding that the facility suffered significant damage.

Videos posted on social media showed large flames rising over an industrial facility.

Regional governor Gleb Nikitin said that drone debris had fallen over the industrial zone, and that no casualties had been reported at the scene.

Separately, the governor of the region of Smolensk, Vasily Anokhin, said on Telegram that a “massive” drone attack against “civilian infrastructure” had occurred in his region, although no casualties were immediately reported.

Anokhin said one of the drones had been shot down when attempting to hit a nuclear power facility. The BBC has not been able to verify this information independently.

A mother and her toddler were killed in the border region of Belgorod, which has come under frequent attack from Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, said another child and his father were also injured in the strike.

The strike on Kstovo, Smolensk and Belgorod were part of a larger overnight attack, in which Russia said it brought down more than 100 Ukrainian drones and which led the airports of St. Petersburg and Kazan to suspend operations overnight.

It is one of the largest Ukrainian operations of its kind during the war and the second massive drone attack this week. On Friday, Ukraine hit another Russian oil refinery and targeted Moscow during an attack involving a wave of at least 121 drones.

As Ukrainian drones swarmed Russia’s skies, Moscow launched an overnight attack of its own, triggering air alerts in various Ukrainian regions.

The Ukrainian army said it shot down 29 Russian drones over nine regions.

As the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, the conflict grinds on.

Russia is making regular small advances in the east of Ukraine, edging ever closer to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk, which plays a crucial role as a logistics hub used by Ukrainian forces in the region.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces continue to hold on to several hundred square kilometres of territory in Russia’s western Kursk region, where they launched a lightning offensive in August.

Smartwatch firm Garmin is facing a backlash after customers around the world complained their devices were not working.

Some users reported seeing a blue triangle when they tried to turn on their watch, while others were stuck on its start-up screen.

Garmin’s Fenix 8 smartwatches, which retail for just under £1,000 ($1,200), are some of the devices to have issues – however not all watches are affected by the outage.

The firm told the BBC it was aware of the problem, and suggested users reset their devices – adding it would “provide more information on a permanent fix when available”.

Customers have taken to social media to express their frustration at their smartwatches not working properly and what many see as the company’s slow response.

Garmin has offered a potential solution to the problem, involving resetting the device and connecting to a Garmin app.

But it concedes that this alone may not solve the problem, and in that case it is advising people to factory reset their device.

Some people on social media have claimed that even after a factory reset, they are unable to get their smartwatch to function properly.

“Their instructions don’t fix it and Garmin are silent,” one person said in a post on X.

And Absolute Radio DJ Leona Graham is one of the people to share their frustrations online, along with footage of the blue triangle.

According to Garmin’s website, the issues are affecting the following devices:

• Approach Watch
• Edge Cycling Computers
• Epix Watch
• Fenix Watch
• Forerunner Watch
• Instinct Series Watch
• Vivoactive 4 and 5
• Venu 3 and 3S

The firm has yet to give a reason for the issues, though some experts have speculated it is a result of the device being unable to communicate with GPS properly due to a bad update.

And despite its update to its support page, a lack of communication on social media has landed Garmin in hot water with its users.

“You should really prioritize your current customers and the ongoing issue with many watches,” said one person, while another called it “unbelievable” that the firm had not yet outlined the cause of the issue.

“Stop burying your heads in the sand, these watches don’t come cheap,” they said on Wednesday morning.

When ChatGPT stormed the world of artificial intelligence (AI), an inevitable question followed: did it spell trouble for China, America’s biggest tech rival?

Two years on, a new AI model from China has flipped that question: can the US stop Chinese innovation?

For a while, Beijing seemed to fumble with its answer to ChatGPT, which is not available in China.

Unimpressed users mocked Ernie, the chatbot by search engine giant Baidu. Then came versions by tech firms Tencent and ByteDance, which were dismissed as followers of ChatGPT – but not as good.

Washington was confident that it was ahead and wanted to keep it that way. So the Biden administration ramped up restrictions banning the export of advanced chips and technology to China.

That’s why DeepSeek’s launch has astonished Silicon Valley and the world. The firm says its powerful model is far cheaper than the billions US firms have spent on AI.

So how did a little-known company – whose founder is being hailed on Chinese social media as an “AI hero” – pull this off?

When the US barred the world’s leading chip-makers such as Nvidia from selling advanced tech to China, it was certainly a blow.

Those chips are essential for building powerful AI models that can perform a range of human tasks, from answering basic queries to solving complex maths problems.

DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng described the chip ban as their “main challenge” in interviews with local media.

Long before the ban, DeepSeek acquired a “substantial stockpile” of Nvidia A100 chips – estimates range from 10,000 to 50,000 – according to the MIT Technology Review.

Leading AI models in the West use an estimated 16,000 specialised chips. But DeepSeek says it trained its AI model using 2,000 such chips, and thousands of lower-grade chips – which is what makes its product cheaper.

Some, including US tech billionaire Elon Musk, have questioned this claim, arguing the company cannot reveal how many advanced chips it really used given the restrictions.

But experts say Washington’s ban brought both challenges and opportunities to the Chinese AI industry.

It has “forced Chinese companies like DeepSeek to innovate” so they can do more with less, says Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney.

“While these restrictions pose challenges, they have also spurred creativity and resilience, aligning with China’s broader policy goals of achieving technological independence.”

The world’s second-largest economy has invested heavily in big tech – from the batteries that power electric vehicles and solar panels, to AI.

Turning China into a tech superpower has long been President Xi Jinping’s ambition, so Washington’s restrictions were also a challenge that Beijing took on.

The release of DeepSeek’s new model on 20 January, when Donald Trump was sworn in as US president, was deliberate, according to Gregory C Allen, an AI expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The timing and the way it’s being messaged – that’s exactly what the Chinese government wants everybody to think – that export controls don’t work and that America is not the global leader in AI,” says Mr Allen, former director of strategy and policy at the US Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

In recent years the Chinese government has nurtured AI talent, offering scholarships and research grants, and encouraging partnerships between universities and industry.

The National Engineering Laboratory for Deep Learning and other state-backed initiatives have helped train thousands of AI specialists, according to Ms Zhang.

And China had plenty of bright engineers to recruit.

Take DeepSeek’s team for instance – Chinese media says it comprises fewer than 140 people, most of whom are what the internet has proudly declared as “home-grown talent” from elite Chinese universities.

Western observers missed the emergence of “a new generation of entrepreneurs who prioritise foundational research and long-term technological advancement over quick profits”, Ms Zhang says.

China’s top universities are creating a “rapidly growing AI talent pool” where even managers are often under the age of 35.

“Having grown up during China’s rapid technological ascent, they are deeply motivated by a drive for self-reliance in innovation,” she adds.

Deepseek’s founder Liang Wenfeng is an example of this – the 40-year-old studied AI at the prestigious Zhejiang University. In an article on the tech outlet 36Kr, people familiar with him say he is “more like a geek rather than a boss”.

And Chinese media describe him as a “technical idealist” – he insists on keeping DeepSeek as an open-source platform. In fact experts also believe a thriving open-source culture has allowed young start-ups to pool resources and advance faster.

Unlike bigger Chinese tech firms, DeepSeek prioritised research, which has allowed for more experimenting, according to experts and people who worked at the company.

“The Top 50 talents in this field might not be in China, but we can build people like that here,” Mr Liang said in an interview with 36Kr.

But experts wonder how much further DeepSeek can go. Ms Zhang says that “new US restrictions may limit access to American user data, potentially impacting how Chinese models like DeepSeek can go global”.

And others say the US still has a huge advantage, such as, in Mr Allen’s words, “their enormous quantity of computing resources” – and it’s also unclear how DeepSeek will continue using advanced chips to keep improving the model.

But for now, DeepSeek is enjoying its moment in the sun, given that most people in China had never heard of it until this weekend.

His sudden fame has seen Mr Liang become a sensation on China’s social media, where he is being applauded as one of the “three AI heroes” from southern Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong.

The other two are Zhilin Yang, a leading expert at Tsinghua University, and Kaiming He, who teaches at MIT in the US.

DeepSeek has delighted the Chinese internet ahead of Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest holiday. It’s good news for a beleaguered economy and a tech industry that is bracing for further tariffs and the possible sale of TikTok’s US business.

“DeepSeek shows us that only if you have the real deal will you stand the test of time,” a top-liked Weibo comment reads.

“This is the best new year gift. Wish our motherland prosperous and strong,” another reads.

A “blend of shock and excitement, particularly within the open-source community,” is how Wei Sun, principal AI analyst at Counterpoint Research, described the reaction in China.

Fiona Zhou, a tech worker in the southern city of Shenzhen, says her social media feed “was suddenly flooded with DeepSeek-related posts yesterday”.

“People call it ‘the glory of made-in-China’, and say it shocked Silicon Valley, so I downloaded it to see how good it is.”

She asked it for “four pillars of [her] destiny”, or ba-zi – like a personalised horoscope that is based on the date and time of birth.

But to her disappointment, DeepSeek was wrong. While she was given a thorough explanation about its “thinking process”, it was not the “four pillars” from her real ba-zi.

She says she will still give it another go at work, as it will probably be more useful for such tasks.

The emergence of Chinese AI app DeepSeek has shocked financial markets, and prompted US President Donald Trump to describe it as “a wake-up call” for the US tech industry.

DeepSeek’s claim that its R1 artificial intelligence (AI) model was made at a fraction of the cost of its rivals has raised questions about the future about of the whole industry, and caused some the world’s biggest companies to sink in value.

DeepSeek has become the most downloaded free app in the US just a week after it was launched.

So how does it compare to its much more established and apparently much more expensive US rivals, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini?

When you ask ChatGPT what the most popular reasons to use ChatGPT are, it says that assisting people to write is one of them.

From gathering and summarising information in a helpful format to even writing blog posts on a topic, ChatGPT has become an AI companion for many across different workplaces.

As a proud Scottish football fan, I asked ChatGPT and DeepSeek to summarise the best Scottish football players ever, before asking the chatbots to “draft a blog post summarising the best Scottish football players in history”.

DeepSeek responded in seconds, with a top ten list – Kenny Dalglish of Liverpool and Celtic was number one. It helpfully summarised which position the players played in, their clubs, and a brief list of their achievements.

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• Watch: Why DeepSeek has caused shockwaves

DeepSeek also detailed two non-Scottish players – Rangers legend Brian Laudrup, who is Danish, and Celtic hero Henrik Larsson. For the latter, it added “although Swedish, Larsson is often included in discussions of Scottish football legends due to his impact at Celtic”.

For its subsequent blog post, it did go into detail of Laudrup’s nationality before giving a succinct account of the careers of the players.

ChatGPT’s answer to the same question contained many of the same names, with “King Kenny” once again at the top of the list.

Its detailed blog post briefly and accurately went into the careers of all the players.

It concluded: “While the game has changed over the decades, the impact of these Scottish greats remains timeless.” Indeed.

For this fun test, DeepSeek was certainly comparable to its best-known US competitor.

The emergence of advanced AI models has made a difference to people who code.

When ChatGPT experienced an outage last week, X had a number of amusing posts from developers saying they couldn’t do their work without the faithful tool by their side.

How does DeepSeek compare here?

Javier Aguirre, an AI researcher at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, specialises in researching in medicine and AI.

In a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday, he wrote: “I am quite impressed with Deepseek. While coding, we usually try to explode AI chatbots to the limit to see their capabilities in assisting with coding.

“Today I had a really tricky and complex problem. Even chatGPT o1 was not able to reason enough to solve it. I gave a try to Deepseek and it solved it at once and straight to the point.”

He also pointed out that for coders, the combination of models can lead to success. This was echoed by Addy Osmani, who is the Head of Chrome Developer Experience at Google.

In a post to his 208k followers on LinkedIn, he spoke about combining DeepSeek with US AI firm Anthropic’s tool Claude Sonnet. In 2023, Amazon invested $4bn into Anthropic.

Mr Osmani said: “Code with AI? DeepSeek R1 + Claude Sonnet may be the best new hybrid coding model. Yes, engineers are using them together.”

Mr Osmani also said DeepSeek was “significantly cheaper” to use than both Claude Sonnet and OpenAI’s o1 model.

What about brainstorming? I asked ChatGPT and DeepSeek to give me “ideas for a story for children about a boy who lives on the moon”.

ChatGPT responded in seconds with six neatly summarised ideas. One was about a boy called Max who worked as a postman on the moon and was sent on an adventure. Another was about Oliver, who was drawn by the sounds of a mysterious orchestra made up of aliens.

None of these stories are going to challenge Harry Potter or Roald Dahl any time soon, but it is a start for more refined ideas to flourish perhaps.

DeepSeek, on the other hand, responded with just one idea – “Luna and the Boy Who Chased the Stars”. Its response was 387 words (with no mention of anyone or thing called “Luna”), and comprised a story about a curious boy called Milo who lived on the moon.

It struck me that while ChatGPT gave me ideas, DeepSeek wrote a full story. It wasn’t particularly good, with a simple focus on a character going from A to B, but it was a start – and it was impressive how quickly it delivered it.

One of my memories from high school is my history teacher explaining to us how the First World War came about following a complex situation regarding many European powers, with the conflict finally sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.

How would the chatbots deal with explaining such a complex and nuanced piece of history? Pretty well.

ChatGPT gave a detailed account and outlined the key factors. DeepSeek’s account was not as detailed, but its brief overview did cover all the main points and events.

Google’s Gemini assistant gave a similar synopsis to ChatGPT and DeepSeek, and also gave the user the opportunity to click on links from reputable sources such as the Imperial War Museum in the UK.

As I saw on other tasks and prompts, DeepSeek was certainly comparable to its US competitors.

The tasks I set the chatbots were simple but they point to something much more significant – the winner of the so-called AI race is far from decided.

For all the vast resources US firms have poured into the tech, their Chinese rival has shown their achievements can be emulated.

Prof Neil Lawrence, DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at Department of Computer Science and Technology, at the University of Cambridge, said this was just the start.

“I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the type of innovation we can expect in these models,” he said.

He highlighted an example from history – James Watt is synonymous with the steam engine, even though he improved it rather than invented it.

“There’s plenty of space for budding James Watts to emerge, and that they are less likely to come from established players,” he said.

China’s success in technology has not come out of thin air, even given the unlikely origins of the DeepSeek deep shock.

The obscure Hangzhou hedge fund that coded a ChatGPT competitor as a side project it claims cost just $5.6m to train emerges from a concerted effort to invest in future generations of technology.

This is not an accident. This is policy.

The raw materials of artificial intelligence (AI) are microchips, science PhDs and data. On the latter two, China might be ahead already.

There are on average more than 6,000 PhDs in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) coming out of Chinese universities every month. In the US it is more like 2,000-3,000, in the UK it is 1,500.

In terms of patents generally, more are being filed in China than in the rest of the world put together. In 2023 China filed 1.7 million patents, against 600,000 in the US. Two decades earlier China had a third of the patents filed by the US, a quarter of Japan’s and was well behind South Korea and Europe.

While there are some questions about the quality, on some measures China now exceeds the US on what is known as “citation-weighted” patents too, which adjusts for how often new scientific papers are referred to.

Chinese lithium-ion electric batteries now cost per kWh about a seventh of what they cost a decade ago. DeepSeek is doing in AI exactly what China has done elsewhere.

While the impact of this was most visible in electric vehicles (EVs), where China is now the world’s biggest exporter, having cornered the supply chains and the science for battery technology, it stretches well beyond.

Even in auto the Chinese manufacturers are now pushing the concept of “electric intelligent vehicles”, in which conventional carmakers cannot compete, especially on software development.

China’s consumer electronics companies are shifting into car manufacturing, with “dark factories” operated 24/7 by armies of AI-powered robots, now also increasingly made in China.

The country is electrifying at an astonishing rate, and is referred to by some researchers as an “electro state”. It now files three-quarters of all clean tech patents, versus a twentieth at the start of the century.

Last year the US National Science Board asserted China’s objective of being the world’s leading science and engineering nation was on the verge of being achieved. “We already see this in artificial intelligence, where China out publishes us, has more patents, and produces more students than the United States,” they wrote.

Delegates who accompanied the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves to China earlier this month marvelled at how the Beijing air had been cleaned up, and indigenous electric cars were everywhere. Another UK CEO told me of a visit to Huawei’s Oxbridge-style campus complete with spires and bridges, and its own Tube line, purely for its scientists.

Clearly, however, there are concerns about censorship, democracy and security. One of the drivers of the Chinese AI industry has been access to extraordinary amounts of data, which is more difficult to get hold of in the West.

If the US Congress was sufficiently concerned about TikTok to ban it, then surely a table-topping AI program could be highly problematic. President Trump’s argument this morning was that DeepSeek’s innovation was “positive” and “a wake-up call”. China has not been prominent as the first target of Trump tariffs.

There is still an obvious balancing act for the UK government here. But this sort of innovation and its impact on the world was exactly why the chancellor visited Beijing a fortnight ago.

She said at the time she wanted a long-term relationship with China that is “squarely in our national interest” with the visit part of a “commitment to explore deeper economic co-operation” between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and President Xi.

Other European nations such as Spain have encouraged China not just to set up factories but to transfer its advanced battery technology, for example, into Europe.

The West wants China to make its T-shirts, its tables, its TVs and EVs. But could that really now stretch into DeepSeek data-hungry AI models too? It is a deep tremor, not just for tech, but for economics and geopolitics as well.

DeepSeek’s arrival at the top of the Apple App Store charts has placed it firmly in the public consciousness, shaking the belief that the US would continue as the largely unchallenged global superpower of AI.

This dominance has been mainly down to enormous capital investment – but China’s DeepSeek was developed for a fraction of the price of its US rivals. Its sudden debut has had a huge impact, wiping $1tn off the value of US tech stocks.

The efficiency and capability of DeepSeek’s model should not be underestimated.

All of this has been achieved using lower-end technology, a consequence of US restrictions on the export to China of high-tech components – Nvidia’s H100 chip at the higher end and its H800 chip at the lower end, both of which are commonly used in AI.

• What exactly is DeepSeek and why is everyone talking about it?

The US barred its export over fears that China could challenge American AI dominance if given unfettered access to Silicon Valley technology, so a viable AI model created in this environment speaks for itself in terms of ingenuity and potential.

Despite this, it is what DeepSeek represents, rather than what it has produced, that may ultimately be its lasting legacy.

It highlights a new way of thinking about the economics of the AI industry.

It levels the playing field for governments and companies with aspirations to become AI power players.

And it demonstrates that innovation born of necessity can produce results with the power to make the money markets rethink the economic direction of travel.

Many already felt the US AI industry was rife with inflated valuations, leading to talk of an AI bubble. That bubble hasn’t quite burst, but its structural integrity is certainly now under strain.

Some may interpret DeepSeek’s impact as a sign that the seat of AI power is shifting eastward – but it’s also possible that innovators worldwide will now take inspiration and attempt to develop their own lower-cost AI technologies.

The investment plans announced in the US – worth hundreds of billions of dollars – were simply not replicable elsewhere, but that may no longer be such a problem.

• DeepSeek vs ChatGPT – how do they compare?
• Watch: Marc Cieslak explains why DeepSeek has caused shockwaves

The UK government has made clear its intention to use AI as an economic driver. If lower development costs become the norm, this ambition may become more attainable.

The UK has never lacked innovators, but British businesses have often struggled to scale without significant overseas investment. A cheaper, more resourceful approach to AI could help the UK and other governments realise the goal of cultivating homegrown AI powerhouses.

The US tech giants, however, are unlikely to take this lying down. They may have been given a bloody nose by the markets, but they still have enormous technical and financial resources at their disposal.

These companies are already exploring new ways of monetising their AI technologies and finding applications for AI across public life.

However, they may now face a tightening of belts and lowering of valuation expectations as a new economic reality kicks in.

Australia’s science minister, Ed Husic, has become the first member of a Western government to raise privacy concerns about DeepSeek, the Chinese chatbot causing turmoil on the markets and in the tech industry.

Chinese tech, from Huawei to TikTok, has repeatedly been the subject of allegations the firms are linked to the Chinese state, and fears this could lead to peoples’ data being harvested for intelligence purposes.

Donald Trump has said DeepSeek is a “wake up call” for the US but did not seem to suggest it was a threat to national security – instead saying it could even be a good thing if it brought costs down.

But Husic told ABC News on Tuesday there remained a lot of unanswered questions, including over “data and privacy management.”

“I would be very careful about that, these type of issues need to be weighed up carefully,” he added.

DeepSeek has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment – but users in the UK and US have so far shown no such caution.

DeepSeek has rocketed to the top of the app stores in both countries, with market analysts Sensor Tower saying it has seen 3 million downloads since launch.

As much as 80% of these have come in the past week – meaning it has been downloaded at three times the rate of rivals such as Perplexity.

Meanwhile, US officials have raised questions about national security, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“I spoke with [the National Security Council] this morning, they are looking into what [the national security implications] may be,” she said.

And the US navy has reportedly banned its members from using DeepSeek’s apps altogether, citing “potential security and ethical concerns”, according to CNBC.

The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BBC News.

According to DeepSeek’s own privacy policy, it collects large amounts of personal information collected from users, which is then stored “in secure servers” in China.

This may include:

• Your email address, phone number and date of birth, entered when creating an account
• Any user input including text and audio, as well as chat histories
• So-called “technical information” – ranging from your phone’s model and operating system to your IP address and “keystroke patterns”.

It says it uses this information to improve DeepSeek by enhancing its “safety, security and stability”.

It will then share this information with others, such as service providers, advertising partners, and its corporate group, which will be kept “for as long as necessary”.

• DeepSeek: The Chinese AI app that has the world talking
• Watch the AI bot respond to question about China
• Is the tool as good as it seems?
• Watch: Why DeepSeek has caused shockwaves

“There are genuine concerns around the technological potential of DeepSeek, specifically around the terms of its privacy policy,” said ExpressVPN’s digital privacy advocate Lauren Hendry Parsons.

She specifically highlighted the part of the policy which says data can be used “to help match you and your actions outside of the service” – which she said “should immediately ring an alarm bell for anyone concerned with their privacy”.

But while the app harvests a lot of data, experts point out it’s very similar to privacy policies users may have already agreed to for rival services like ChatGPT and Gemini, or even social media platforms.

“For any openly available AI model, with a web or app interface – including but not limited to DeepSeek – the prompts, or questions that are asked of the AI, then become available to the makers of that model, as are the answers,” said Emily Taylor, chief executive of Oxford Information Labs

“So, anyone working on confidential or national security areas needs to be aware of those risks,” she told the BBC.

Dr Richard Whittle from University of Salford said he had “various concerns about data and privacy” with the app, but said there were “plenty of concerns” with the models used in the US too.

“Consumers should always be wary, especially in the hype and fear of missing out on a new, highly popular, app,” he said.

The UK data regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office has urged the public to be aware of their rights around their information being used to train AI models.

Asked by BBC News if it shared the Australian government’s concerns, it said in a statement: “Generative AI developers and deployers need to make sure people have meaningful, concise and easily accessible information about the use of their personal data and have clear and effective processes for enabling people to exercise their information rights.

“We will continue to engage with stakeholders on promoting effective transparency measures, without shying away from taking action when our regulatory expectations are ignored.”

Millions of people across Asia and the world are welcoming the Lunar New Year which coincides with the first new moon of the lunar calendar.

Widely considered to be the most important event in the year for many in Asia and some Asian communities worldwide, the Lunar New Year represents a fresh start for those who celebrate.

Fireworks, music, fairs, lanterns, dragon and lion dancing filled streets across Asia as celebrations that typically last about 15 days began.

Sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich could owe the UK up to £1bn after a botched attempt to avoid tax on hedge fund investments, evidence seen by the BBC suggests.

Leaked papers reveal investments worth $6bn (£4.7bn) were routed through companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). But evidence suggests they were managed from the UK, so should have been taxed there.

Some of the money that funded Chelsea FC when Mr Abramovich owned it can be traced back to companies involved in the scheme, the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) also found.

The oligarch’s lawyers said he “always obtained independent expert professional tax and legal advice” and “acted in accordance with that advice”.

Mr Abramovich – who now reportedly divides his time between Istanbul, Tel Aviv and the Russian resort of Sochi – denies having any knowledge of or being personally responsible for any unpaid tax.

Joe Powell, a Labour MP who leads a Parliamentary group on fair taxation, called on HM Revenue and Customs to “urgently” investigate the case to recover what could be “very significant amounts of money that could be invested in public services”.

At the heart of the scheme was Eugene Shvidler, a former Chelsea FC director and a billionaire businessman in his own right, who is currently challenging the UK government’s decision to sanction him for his close links to Mr Abramovich.

Mr Shvidler moved to the USA after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but from 2004 until 2022 he lived in the UK, with properties in London and Surrey.

A tax expert told the BBC that evidence Mr Shvidler had been making strategic decisions on the investments while based in the UK, and not in the BVI, was “a pretty big smoking gun”, suggesting the companies should have been paying UK tax.

Lawyers for Mr Shvidler said the BBC was basing its reporting on “confidential business documents that present an incomplete picture” and had “drawn strong and erroneous conclusions as to Mr Shvidler’s conduct”.

They said “the structure of investments” was “the subject of very careful and detailed tax planning, undertaken and advised on by leading tax advisors”.

The scheme involving Mr Abramovich’s hedge fund investments was revealed in a huge leak of data that the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have been examining for over a year – thousands of files and emails from a Cyprus-based company that administered Mr Abramovich’s global empire.

The BBC and its media partners, including The Guardian, have been reporting on the leaked files since 2023 as part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Cyprus Confidential investigation. On Tuesday, we revealed how Mr Abramovich had dodged millions in VAT on the running costs of his yacht fleet.

The leaked data shows how Mr Abramovich invested a large part of the wealth he acquired in the 1990s through a corrupt deal – ploughing it into a company in the BVI called Keygrove Holdings Ltd.

A network of British Virgin Islands companies owned by Keygrove invested this money – up to $6bn (£4.8bn) between the late 1990s and early 2020s – into Western hedge funds, according to the leaked files.

These investments made the oligarch an estimated $3.8bn (£3.1bn) in profits over almost two decades. By making the investments through companies in the BVI, which does not levy tax on corporate profits, the scheme appears to be set up to ensure as little tax as possible was paid.

It is not unusual for businesses to legally avoid paying tax on their profits by making their investments from companies in tax havens. But the companies involved must be managed and controlled offshore where they are incorporated.

If an offshore company’s strategic decisions are being taken by someone in the UK, its profits could be taxed as if it were a UK company.

The leaked documents show how the directors of the BVI investment companies handed sweeping powers over them to Mr Shvidler, who was living in the UK and gained British citizenship in 2010.

The BBC has seen “general power of attorney” documents dated between 2004 and 2008, that gave him the “broadest possible powers” and “full power to do everything and anything” to investment companies in the BVI.

From 2008, Mr Shvidler appears to have acquired the power to direct the investments of Keygrove, which owned the BVI companies, through another company.

Millennium Capital Ventures Ltd, which was owned indirectly by Mr Shvidler’s wife and appointed him as a director in 2000, became Keygrove’s investment manager. It was assigned “full power and authority to supervise and direct” the investment of the assets, “all without prior consultation with client”.

Further evidence of Mr Shvidler’s crucial role in the investment decisions of the BVI companies emerged in a court case brought in September 2023 by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against a New York firm called Concord Management.

The SEC filing says that Concord had only one client, since identified as Mr Abramovich. The company advised on investment decisions for the oligarch’s BVI companies.

It identifies a “longtime close associate” of Mr Abramovich, referred to as “Person B”, who “made investment decisions” for Mr Abramovich.

It says he was “the point of contact for receiving investment advice” and “for either deciding or communicating the decision whether to go forward with recommended transactions”.

Using the leaked documents, the BBC was able to identify “Person B” as Eugene Shvidler.

The evidence suggests Mr Shvidler was making the decisions described by the SEC, managing and controlling Mr Abramovich’s investments, from the UK rather than the BVI.

Tax expert Rita de le Feria told the BBC that evidence a UK resident, such as Mr Shvidler, was taking “strategic big decisions” on the hedge fund investments was a “clear indication” the huge profits should have been taxed by the UK.

“I think this is a pretty big smoking gun. That would be, again, strong evidence that the effective management of the company was not taking place in the BVI,” she said.

Mr Shvidler’s lawyers said there can be “no question of Mr Shvidler, either knowingly or negligently, being involved in an unlawful scheme to avoid paying tax”.

Lawyers for Mr Abramovich said that in addition to the advice he obtained over his tax affairs, he “expects that similar advice was sought” by those with responsibility for running companies related to him.

The leaked documents also reveal how large amounts of the untaxed profits from Mr Abramovich’s hedge fund investments passed through a network of the oligarch’s companies before flowing into Chelsea FC.

The hedge fund investments flowed back into his companies in the BVI and then into Keygrove, their parent company.

Keygrove then loaned out money to other companies in Mr Abramovich’s network, which in turn lent money to Camberley International Investments Ltd – a company set up to bankroll Chelsea FC.

By 2021, when Chelsea won the Champions League, Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup, hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to the club could be traced back to companies benefiting from Mr Abramovich’s untaxed hedge fund investments.

If HMRC were to investigate, how much could Mr Abramovich or the companies concerned owe?

We have assessed the profits made by the investment companies in the BVI from 1999 to 2018.

The leaked documents only contain complete accounts for the companies investing in hedge funds from 2013 to 2018.

But we can estimate how much money the companies involved were likely to have made over the entire period by looking at their “revenue reserves”. These are profits kept in the businesses, rather than being paid out to shareholders. By the end of 2018 this amounted to $3.8bn.

Applying historical UK corporation tax and currency conversion rates to the revenue reserves up to 2012, and the yearly profits to 2018, amounts to a potential tax bill of more than £500m owed to HMRC.

But in the event of an enquiry into unpaid tax, HMRC can also impose late payment interest and penalties for failure to notify the authorities.

If tax has gone unpaid, then depending on whether an investigation concluded those responsible knew but did not tell HMRC, or whether they did not know, the total amount due could range from almost £700m to over £1bn.

There is a possibility that some tax on the profits could not be recovered, as HMRC investigations can only go back a maximum of 20 years.

However, our calculations are also likely to be an underestimate, because we have applied the lowest rate of corporation tax that existed between 1999 and 2012, and it is possible profits had been extracted from the companies in that period that we have not included in our sums.

In any event, Mr Abramovich’s tax bill could dwarf the £653m bill imposed on Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2023.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the British government allowed Roman Abramovich to sell Chelsea FC to Todd Boehly. It did so on the condition that £2.5bn from the proceeds would be donated to charities supporting victims of the war in Ukraine.

Nearly three years later, the money still sits in a frozen Barclays bank account, reportedly due to disagreement over how it should be spent, with Mr Abramovich wanting the money to go to “all the victims” of the war, and the UK government insisting it should be spent solely on humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

The BBC’s investigation suggests that, just as Ukrainians are waiting for money from the former Chelsea boss, so is the British taxpayer.

Protesters in Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, have been burning portraits of Rwanda’s president and tearing up Rwandan flags as M23 rebels have taken control of most the eastern city of Goma.

Their fury is focused on Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who they accuse of backing the rebels – an accusation long made by the UN.

To put it bluntly, a group of UN experts maintains the Rwandan army is in “de facto control of M23 operations”, detailing how M23 recruits are trained under Rwandan supervision and supported by high-tech Rwandan weaponry.

Goma, which lies at the foot of a volcano near Lake Kivu, sits on the border with Rwanda. It is the capital of mineral-rich North Kivu province – and is an important trading and humanitarian hub and the base for the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission.

The city had also become a refuge for those fleeing the conflict between M23 fighters and the army that erupted again in late 2021 – with the population swelling to around two million.

They all face further turmoil as fighting erupted there on Sunday night with loud explosions echoing through the streets, which are now strewn with bodies. The exact circumstances of what is going on is unclear as phone lines are down and electricity and water supplies have been cut off. But the M23 seem to have captured most, if not all, of the city.

“There was no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23,” said UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, though he added that it was it was difficult to tell the exact numbers on the ground in Goma.

Tellingly some Congolese army soldiers in Goma who surrendered on Monday, did so by crossing over the border into Rwanda.

Since the conflict begun, President Kagame has repeatedly denied any involvement in supporting the M23 rebels, who are well equipped, well armed and well trained.

However, this response has noticeably shifted as accusations continue to grow with “overwhelming evidence” showing Rwanda’s support for the rebel group, according to Richard Moncrief, International Crisis Group’s project director for the Great Lakes

“The tone has changed to justification for defensive measures,” he told the BBC. “It has become harder to deny Rwanda’s support for M23.”

On Sunday, Rwanda’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “This fighting close to the Rwandan border continues to present a serious threat to Rwanda’s security and territorial integrity, and necessitates Rwanda’s sustained defensive posture.”

It said it was concerned by “misguided or manipulative” statements that lacked context about the conflict.

For Kagame, the context all comes down to the Rwandan genocide that took place over 100 days in 1994.

The ethnic Hutu militia involved in killing up to 800,000 people – the vast majority from the Tutsi community – fled to what is now DR Congo, some forming the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

This rebel group is still active in the notoriously unstable eastern DR Congo – and still includes some of those responsible for the genocide.

Kagame, who headed the rebel Tutsi force that ended the killing more than three decades ago, sees this “genocidal militia” as an existential threat.

His government has twice invaded DR Congo, saying it wants to stop Hutu rebel groups from staging cross-border attacks.

Earlier this month he called out his Congolese counterpart, Félix Tshisekedi, for failing to deal with the FDLR and talk to the M23, saying this was exacerbating the conflict.

Mr Moncrief believes that the targeting of Goma is more about making a political point as he says the M23 does not need the city strategically as it already “controls many more lucrative areas”.

“It is President Kagame’s way of exerting power over who is in charge of North Kivu,” said the Great Lakes expert.

Rwanda accused the military governor of North Kivu, who was killed in fighting last week, of collaborating with the FDLR.

The discovery of this kind of high-level collaboration, experts agree, would have been like a red flag to a bull for Rwanda.

The M23’s origins are tied to these tensions – it is the latest incarnation of a rebel group that says it is fighting for the interests of the minority Tutsi community in eastern DR Congo.

Its first uprising more than a decade ago ended with a peace deal – when its fighters disarmed and mainly moved into camps in Uganda.

But three years ago, they began leaving the camps saying the deal was not honoured and within a couple months was seizing territory.

The UN peacekeeping mission – first deployed in 1999 – is not mandated to go on the offensive. Two regional forces – an East African one followed by a southern African one – specially deployed over the last few years at the request of Tshisekedi have failed to contain the M23.

This gives an indication of the M23’s sophisticated operations.

According to the UN group of experts, this includes five months of training at the M23’s main base in Tchanzu, hilly terrain not far from Rwanda’s border, that incorporates courses on theory and ideology and then practical elements including “war tactics”, “engagement rules” and “bush tactics”.

It said Rwandan officers were often at the camp, where recruits, including children, were brought – some joining up on a voluntary basis, others forced to do so in a systematic operation where local chiefs had to provide conscripts.

The experts said Sultani Makenga, who once fought for Kagame in the early 1990s in Rwanda and is now the M23’s military chief, attended some of the passing-out ceremonies between 25 September and 31 October 2024 that involved 3,000 recruits.

Rwanda’s spokesperson Yolande Makolo did not address the question of whether Rwandan officers were in the M23 camp but she did deny the charges about child soldiers, telling the BBC last year: “The claim about recruiting minors in camps is absurd, it’s blatant information warfare against Rwanda.”

However UN expert reports detail how the M23’s strength has grown since May when numbers were put at around 3,000.

The experts estimate that between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan army troops are on the ground in DR Congo – saying it based this on authenticated photographs, drone footage, video recordings, testimonies and intelligence.

Captured M23 fighters said that the Rwandans were known as the “Friendly Force”, with the experts’ December report saying the English term was “generically used” even when interviewees were speaking in other languages.

They said these Rwandan special forces were there to train and support the rebels, and they did not interact with M23 regulars.

Rwanda’s ally Uganda, unhappy about another rebel group in DR Congo that threatens its security, has also been accused of helping the M23 – with its officers also spotted at Tchanzu. The UN experts say Uganda has also supplied weapons, hosted rebel leaders and allowed cross-border movements of M23 fighters – accusations Kampala denies.

Kagame recently expressed his frustration that after Tshisekedi came to power in 2019, his suggestion that Rwanda work alongside the Congolese army to tackle the FDLR had been rebuffed – unlike a joint offensive by DR Congo and Uganda against the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels.

This may explain the re-emergence of the M23 in 2021 – with evidence showing Rwanda’s backing of the group continues to grow.

Clémentine de Montjoye, senior researcher in the Africa division at Human Rights Watch, told the BBC that geolocated images placed Rwandan troops in Sake, a town just outside Goma last week.

The UN experts say the M23’s decision to capture the mining town of Rubaya, which fell to its forces in May, was “motivated by a strategic need to monopolise” the lucrative trade in coltan, which is used to make batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones.

Its December report says the group now collects at least $800,000 (£643,000) a month from the taxation of coltan in Rubaya – and ensures that around 120 tonnes of the coveted mineral is sent directly to Rwanda every four weeks.

It includes satellite images to show how a road was widened by September on the Congolese side of the Kibumba border crossing to allow access for heavy trucks that were previously unable to use the route into Rwanda.

Ms De Montjoye explained how the advanced weapons being used by the M23 were not available to any other of the numerous armed groups operating in eastern DR Congo.

“Earlier last year, we documented how Rwandan forces, and M23 had fired 122mm rockets, hitting displacement camps,” she told the BBC.

“It’s certainly with the kind of military support that the M23 has received that they’ve been able to make such an advance [on Goma].”

The UN experts have documented many such examples, including the use of Israeli-made anti-tank guided missiles.

Mr Moncrief said the M23 was also using technology to interfere with Global Positioning System (GPS) that had stopped the Congolese army from flying drones it had acquired from China.

The UN experts said the “spoofing and jamming” near areas controlled by M23 and the Rwandan army had also disrupted other aircraft.

President Kagame has dismissed these UN reports, pouring scorn on their “expertise” and saying they ignore many outrages committed in DR Congo to focus on “imaginary problems” created by the M23.

The East African Community – currently headed by Kenya’s president – is now trying to mediate, though Tshisekedi has said he will not attend a hastily organised emergency summit.

Observers say Rwanda’s president will be telling any mediator that the FDLR is the only subject up for discussion as he is adamant their presence makes DR Congo an unsafe neighbour – something he reiterated at a press conference earlier this month.

“Honestly, for the last 30 years if anyone wanted to understand what the problems are [in DR Congo] and what solutions should be, you don’t even need to be an expert,” Kagame said.

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• ‘We would vote for peace – if we had a vote’

Authorities say that at least 30 people have died and a further 60 were injured in a crowd crush at the massive Kumbh Mela festival in India.

The world’s biggest religious festival and humanity’s largest gathering, the event attracts millions of Hindu pilgrims to sacred riverbanks in India.

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Kumbh Mela is a religious gathering that draws tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims and spiritual seekers from India and across the globe.

The event is deeply rooted in Hindu mythology and centres on the belief in the purifying power of sacred rivers. Pilgrims bathe in these rivers, believing the ritual cleanses their sins and brings them closer to spiritual liberation.

The festival rotates between four key locations in India: Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain. Each site is tied to a sacred river – the Ganges, Godavari or Shipra.

A full Kumbh Mela is held every 12 years in the four cities. A half (“Ard”) Kumbh is held mid-way between two full Kumbhs.

Officials say the 2025 festival is a Maha (Great) Kumbh Mela, which occurs only every 144 years, making it an even more significant event.

The name “Kumbh Mela” translates to “Festival of the Pitcher” in Sanskrit.

“Kumbh” refers to the pitcher or pot that contained the nectar of immortality in Hindu mythology, while “Mela” means a fair or gathering.

Hindu scriptures recount the legend of the Samudra Manthan – the churning of the ocean of milk by gods and demons in search of the nectar of immortality.

According to mythology, four drops of this nectar fell on the locations where Kumbh Mela is now celebrated, making them sacred.

Kumbh Mela attracts people from all walks of life, from sadhus (Hindu holy men) to ordinary citizens, including families and international visitors.

While most attendees are Hindus, the event also draws interest from people of other faiths who are curious about its cultural and spiritual significance.

The festival is ultimately an opportunity for attendees to seek spiritual renewal and salvation.

Bathing in the holy rivers during the festival is believed to absolve sins, liberate participants from the cycle of rebirth and bring them closer to moksha (spiritual liberation).

For many, the pilgrimage to Kumbh Mela is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, offering a chance to reaffirm their faith, connect with others and immerse themselves in the traditions of Hindu spirituality.

The festival is typically around 45 days long – with the 2025 Kumbh Mela taking place from 13 January to 26 February.

The event concludes after the final designated bathing day, known as the last shahi snan (royal bath).

The timing and duration of each Kumbh Mela are determined by astrologers and religious authorities.

The festival is a blend of religious rituals and cultural activities.

Its central feature is the shahi snan (royal baths).These ceremonial baths are led by groups of sadhus, including naga sadhus, who are known for covering themselves in ash and symbolising renunciation.

As well as bathing rituals, Kumbh Mela also features spiritual discussion, religious processions, prayers and cultural performances.

Religious organisations set up a number of temporary camps, providing food, shelter and opportunities for spiritual learning.

Kumbh Mela’s scale is unparalleled. Attendance varies but the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj stands out for its sheer scale.

About 400 million people are expected to attend throughout the 45-day period, authorities say.

Attendees spread out across the banks of the rivers, spanning some 12km.

Officials use a variety of sources to collate the number of pilgrims but they admit there is a possibility of some duplication. For instance, the one million long-term pilgrims, known as Kalpwasis, are counted daily.

CCTV cameras are used to monitor crowd density in real time, while manual headcounts at entry and exit points also validate numbers.

Drone surveillance provides aerial views of densely populated areas, especially during peak events like holy bathing days.

Analysis of mobile phone data, which uses the number of active mobile devices in the area, also helps to estimate crowd sizes.

Organising Kumbh Mela is a monumental task.

Authorities establish temporary cities with infrastructure to accommodate the millions of people who attend.

Facilities provided include makeshift hospitals, sanitation systems and transportation networks.

The 2025 festival is expected to cover 4,000 hectares (40 sq km).

This will include:

• 160,000 tents
• 40,000 police and security officials
• 15,000 sanitation workers
• 99 parking lots for over half a million vehicles
• 30 floating pontoon bridges over the river
• 67,000 street lights
• 150,000 toilets
• 25,000 bins

On the night of 11 January 2005, a family of five attempted to escape a violent storm battering their home on the island of South Uist.

Winds gusting to 124mph had coincided with a high tide, and a surging sea was threatening to overwhelm the MacPhersons’ house.

The conditions were so severe that wind and waves hurled sand and rocks against the outside walls.

Archie and Murdina MacPherson, their children Andrew, seven, and Hannah, five, along with Murdina’s father Calum Campbell set off in two cars.

They hoped to reach the safety of Archie’s parents’ home, just over a mile away, but they never made it; their cars were swept away.

Archie and Murdina had grown up in the Hebrides before moving away to the mainland for jobs.

Archie worked as a joiner in Glasgow and Murdina had been a personal assistant to the head of Gaelic at BBC Scotland.

They had returned home to the isles to raise their young family.

Archie took on work as a self-employed builder and Murdina was secretary at a local school.

Some of those closest to the family have spoken publicly for the first time about the tragedy in a new BBC Alba documentary, Eòrpa: After the Storm.

Murdina’s close friend Cirsty Macinnes said: “It’s been 20 years but I still find it hard to look at her house when I have to drive past it.

“The house is still there, but they’re not.”

South Uist is home to about 1,800 people and one of the southern isles in the 160-mile (257km) length of the Western Isles, a chain of islands off Scotland’s west coast.

On the west side of the Hebridean islands is the North Atlantic, with nothing but open ocean until North America.

Islanders are long accustomed to wild winter weather.

But the suddenness and severity of the 11 January storm shocked many of them.

The storm had started days earlier as a low depression hundreds of miles away off America’s east coast.

By the time it reached the Western Isles it had increased in intensity.

The atmospheric pressure alone raised the sea level by almost 70cm (27in).

The bad weather coincided with a high spring tide, further raising the height of the water.

The Western Isles were hit by strong winds and heavy, driving rain.

Waves overtopped sand dunes on the low-lying island of South Uist.

Causeways, which are crossings carrying roads over short sections of sea between islands, contributed to raising flood levels as the storm roared in.

Power went out across the islands and mobile phone reception was lost.

Archie’s father David MacPherson was working a shift at a Ministry of Defence missile range in West Gerinish, South Uist, unaware of the tragedy unfolding near his home.

He recalled how the lights went out in his building at 15:00.

An emergency generator kicked in but it ran out of fuel at 20:00.

He said: “There was a light at the emergency exit that lasted until midnight, but that went out too.

“I was in darkness. I’ll never forget it, how terrifying it was.

“And no idea what was happening a few miles down the road.

“A terrible night.”

Murdina’s brother Neil Campbell had planned to meet his sister and her family that evening.

He said: “I’d been away for Christmas and we were going to have dinner together.

“We had presents to give each other.”

But on his drive from the neighbouring island of Benbecula he was stopped by the storm and forced to turn back.

“The wind hit the car and seawater started gushing through in front of me,” he said.

“I just froze.”

Neil said his sister’s house was on the edge of an area of coastal meadow called machair next to the sea.

He said: “The storm surge had surrounded them.

“There was sand and rocks thrown up against the wall of the house.

“They must have been terrified.

“I think they just fled.”

The family’s cars are believed to have been caught up in the storm surge, which breached the coastline and caused extensive flooding.

The vehicles were later discovered to have been swept into an inland loch.

The bodies of Archie, 36, Murdina, 37, and Calum, 67, were found first before the children’s in the following days.

Neil said: “You’re waiting all day for something, and then they tell you they’ve found them.

“It’s a relief in one way. But at the same time, they’re telling you you’ve lost everyone.

“That’s what’s difficult to deal with. You never deal with it.”

Cirsty remembered the anger and grief she felt in the wake of the storm.

She said: “The priest at the time said they went to God together.

“I was so angry, I said they didn’t. I said what kind of god would do such a terrible thing to such good people?

“To children who were so lovely and innocent?”

She said Murdina had been a great friend to her and was funny, generous and strong.

Mourners travelled from across the isles to attend the funeral in St Mary’s Church at Griminish in Benbecula.

Five coffins were laid in a row before the congregation – the adults rested in three brown coffins and the children in coffins of brilliant white.

Large floral tributes spelling out each of their names were placed at the foot of the altar.

Three priests were joined by Archie’s uncle, The Reverend John Smith, for the service.

He told the packed church that life had been better because of the family’s existence.

There were prayers, readings, hymns and accordion playing.

Widower and former joiner Calum had been a piping instructor in local schools and a piper played as the coffins were carried from the church.

Mairi Macinnes was headteacher of Iochdar School, where Andrew and Hannah were pupils at the time, and where Murdina was a secretary.

She told the documentary how Murdina had spoken of the coming storm, but without any fear or expectation of the destruction it would bring.

Mairi said: “I remember well, on the afternoon beforehand when news came that there was really bad weather coming.

“I can still see Murdina standing there saying the school would be off, that there was a storm on the way.”

US President Donald Trump has offered incentives to federal workers has offered federal workers the option to resign and receive pay for eight months, in a major effort to shrink and reform the US government.

In an email, his administration has asked almost all government employees to decide by 6 February whether they want to be part of a “deferred resignation” programme that will mean them leaving their jobs no later than the end of September.

Those who received the email have voiced confusion about what the deal would mean in practice.

The website of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) gives an outline of the plans, stating on an FAQs page that those who accept the deal are “not expected to work”, except in rare cases.

It also says anyone who decides to quit will be exempt for the remainder of their contracts from Trump’s requirement that they work in the office rather than at home.

Senior Trump officials told US media that the plan could save the government up to $100bn (£80bn).

Delivering the offer, a message from the OPM, the government’s HR agency, highlighted planned reforms including a requirement that most employees work in their offices five days a week.

Since returning to the White House last week, Trump has already declared the end of Covid-era home working practices.

The OPM said the offer was available to “all full-time federal employees” – excluding certain staff such as postal workers, members of the military, immigration officials, and some national security teams.

Workers wishing to take the deal were asked to reply to the email with the word “resign” in the subject line. The offer has been described as “very generous” by the White House.

• Pentagon strips Gen Mark Milley of US security detail and clearance
• My criticism of Trump was wrong, says UK’s incoming ambassador to US

The message also warned of future downsizing that could impact those who chose to stay. “We cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity,” it read.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, told CNN that federal workers were “overwhelmingly left of centre”, and that it was “essential” for Trump to “get control of government”.

The move has been condemned. In a statement to US media, the head of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union warned that this “purging” process would have “vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government”.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine was among those questioning Trump’s power to make such deals. “If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you just like he stiffed contractors,” he said. “He doesn’t have any authority to do this. Do not be fooled by this guy.”

• EXPLAINED: What we know about Musk’s cost-cutting mission
• VOTER REACTION: Americans react to Trump’s first week

The returning US president repeatedly pledged to cut the size of the government and slash federal spending while on the campaign trail.

He tasked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with leading an advisory body focused on cutting regulations, spending, and headcounts within the federal government. Ramaswamy has since left this new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) to run for governor of Ohio.

But the email on Tuesday bore resemblance to one sent to employees of Twitter, now X, in late 2022 after Musk bought the social media platform. He asked for an emailed response if they wanted to remain at the company.

Get in touch.

The mass offer came at the end of an at-times chaotic day in Washington, following a memo Trump issued which said he would pause federal grants, loans and other assistance.

A district judge suspended the order – which was initially set to go into effect on Tuesday afternoon – until next Monday.

In the hours before that decision, there was widespread confusion over which federal programmes and organisations would be impacted. The White House repeatedly sought to assuage concerns that Social Security payments and Medicaid access could be disrupted.

In a letter to the White House, top Democrats expressed “extreme alarm” about the plan to pause funding.

Also on Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at restricting young people’s access to gender-related medical treatments.

The order, titled Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, says it would prevent those aged under 19 from making “life-altering” choices.

“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” the order said.

It is unclear how the order would be implemented and it is likely to be challenged in court.

• EXPLAINED: What Trump has done since taking power
• VOTERS: 10 Americans give their verdict on week one
• BORDER: Six things Trump has done about migration
• FOREIGN POLICY: Trump faces a very different Kim this time
• WATCH: How new press secretary, 27, did at first briefing

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 Chinese-made artificial intelligence (AI) model called DeepSeek has shot to the top of Apple Store’s downloads, stunning investors and sinking some tech stocks.

Its latest version was released on 20 January, quickly impressing AI experts before it got the attention of the entire tech industry – and the world.

US President Donald Trump said it was a “wake-up call” for US companies who must focus on “competing to win”.

What makes DeepSeek so special is the company’s claim that it was built at a fraction of the cost of industry-leading models like OpenAI – because it uses fewer advanced chips.

That possibility caused chip-making giant Nvidia to shed almost $600bn (£482bn) of its market value on Monday – the biggest one-day loss in US history.

DeepSeek also raises questions about Washington’s efforts to contain Beijing’s push for tech supremacy, given that one of its key restrictions has been a ban on the export of advanced chips to China.

Beijing, however, has doubled down, with President Xi Jinping declaring AI a top priority. And start-ups like DeepSeek are crucial as China pivots from traditional manufacturing such as clothes and furniture to advanced tech – chips, electric vehicles and AI.

So what do we know about DeepSeek?

AI can, at times, make a computer seem like a person.

A machine uses the technology to learn and solve problems, typically by being trained on massive amounts of information and recognising patterns.

The end result is software that can have conversations like a person or predict people’s shopping habits.

In recent years, it has become best known as the tech behind chatbots such as ChatGPT – and DeepSeek – also known as generative AI.

These programs again learn from huge swathes of data, including online text and images, to be able to make new content.

But these tools can create falsehoods and often repeat the biases contained within their training data.

Millions of people use tools such as ChatGPT to help them with everyday tasks like writing emails, summarising text, and answering questions – and others even use them to help with basic coding and studying.

DeepSeek is the name of a free AI-powered chatbot, which looks, feels and works very much like ChatGPT.

That means it’s used for many of the same tasks, though exactly how well it works compared to its rivals is up for debate.

It is reportedly as powerful as OpenAI’s o1 model – released at the end of last year – in tasks including mathematics and coding.

Like o1, R1 is a “reasoning” model. These models produce responses incrementally, simulating a process similar to how humans reason through problems or ideas. It uses less memory than its rivals, ultimately reducing the cost to perform tasks.

Like many other Chinese AI models – Baidu’s Ernie or Doubao by ByteDance – DeepSeek is trained to avoid politically sensitive questions.

When the BBC asked the app what happened at Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989, DeepSeek did not give any details about the massacre, a taboo topic in China.

It replied: “I am sorry, I cannot answer that question. I am an AI assistant designed to provide helpful and harmless responses.”

Chinese government censorship is a huge challenge for its AI aspirations internationally. But DeepSeek’s base model appears to have been trained via accurate sources while introducing a layer of censorship or withholding certain information via an additional safeguarding layer.

Deepseek says it has been able to do this cheaply – researchers behind it claim it cost $6m (£4.8m) to train, a fraction of the “over $100m” alluded to by OpenAI boss Sam Altman when discussing GPT-4.

DeepSeek’s founder reportedly built up a store of Nvidia A100 chips, which have been banned from export to China since September 2022.

Some experts believe this collection – which some estimates put at 50,000 – led him to build such a powerful AI model, by pairing these chips with cheaper, less sophisticated ones.

The same day DeepSeek’s AI assistant became the most-downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store in the US, it was hit with “large-scale malicious attacks”, the company said, causing the company to temporary limit registrations.

It was also hit by outages on its website on Monday.

DeepSeek was founded in December 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, and released its first AI large language model the following year.

Not much is known about Liang, who graduated from Zhejiang University with degrees in electronic information engineering and computer science. But he now finds himself in the international spotlight.

He was recently seen at a meeting hosted by China’s premier Li Qiang, reflecting DeepSeek’s growing prominence in the AI industry.

Unlike many American AI entrepreneurs who are from Silicon Valley, Mr Liang also has a background in finance.

He is the CEO of a hedge fund called High-Flyer, which uses AI to analyse financial data to make investment decisons – what is called quantitative trading. In 2019 High-Flyer became the first quant hedge fund in China to raise over 100 billion yuan ($13m).

In a speech he gave that year, Liang said, “If the US can develop its quantitative trading sector, why not China?”

In a rare interview last year, he said China’s AI sector “cannot remain a follower forever”.

He went on: “Often, we say there’s a one or two-year gap between Chinese and American AI, but the real gap is between originality and imitation. If this doesn’t change, China will always be a follower.”

Asked why DeepSeek’s model surprised so many in Silicon Valley, he said: “Their surprise stems from seeing a Chinese company join their game as an innovator, not just a follower – which is what most Chinese firms are accustomed to.”

Australia’s science minister has raised some doubts over the security of the app.

“There are a lot of questions that will need to be answered in time on quality, consumer preferences, data and privacy management,” Ed Husic told ABC.

“I would be very careful about that. These type of issues need to be weighed up carefully.”

DeepSeek’s achievements undercut the belief that bigger budgets and top-tier chips are the only ways of advancing AI, a prospect which has created uncertainty about the future of high-performance chips.

“DeepSeek has proven that cutting-edge AI models can be developed with limited compute resources,” says Wei Sun, principal AI analyst at Counterpoint Research.

“In contrast, OpenAI, valued at $157 billion, faces scrutiny over its ability to maintain a dominant edge in innovation or justify its massive valuation and expenditures without delivering significant returns.”

The company’s possibly lower costs roiled financial markets on 27 January, leading the tech-heavy Nasdaq to fall more than 3% in a broad sell-off that included chip makers and data centres around the world.

Nvidia appears to have been hit the worst as its stock price plunged 17% on Monday before slowly beginning to recover on Tuesday, roughly 4% by midday.

The chip maker had been the most valuable company in the world, when measured by market capitalisation, but fell to third place after Apple and Microsoft on Monday, when its market value shrank to $2.9tn from $3.5tn, Forbes reported.

DeepSeek is a privately owned company, which means investors cannot buy shares of stock on any of the major exchanges.

DeepSeek’s rise is a huge boost for the Chinese government, which has been seeking to build tech independent of the West.

While the Communist Party is yet to comment, Chinese state media was eager to note that Silicon Valley and Wall Street giants were “losing sleep” over DeepSeek, which was “overturning” the US stock market.

“In China, DeepSeek’s advances are being celebrated as a testament to the country’s growing technological prowess and self-reliance,” says Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney.

“The company’s success is seen as a validation of China’s Innovation 2.0, a new era of homegrown technological leadership driven by a younger generation of entrepreneurs.”

But she also warned that this sentiment may also lead to “tech isolationism”.

The Pentagon has revoked the security detail and clearance for Gen Mark Milley, a former US general who has been critical of US President Donald Trump.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the move as one of his first acts in office, asking officials to investigate Gen Milley’s “conduct” and review his military grade.

Gen Milley previously served as the top US general during Trump’s first term but later criticised his former boss, and was quoted calling him a “fascist”.

Since returning to office, Trump has revoked security protections for a handful of former officials with whom he has clashed, including former top health official Anthony Fauci.

Trump previously accused Gen Milley of treason for phone calls he held with his Chinese counterpart during the final weeks of his first Trump presidency, including in the wake of a riot at the US Capitol building by Trump’s supporters in 2021.

Gen Milley reportedly used one of the calls to reassure China that the US would not launch a nuclear strike. On social media the president described those calls as “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”.

Gen Milley, however, testified the calls were coordinated with other defence secretaries.

It was in Bob Woodward’s book War, published last year, that Gen Milley was quoted calling Trump “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country”.

And in 2023, when giving his final speech as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Milley said the military did not take an oath to a “wannabe dictator”. The comment that was seen by many as a reference to Trump, the man who nominated him for the job in the first place.

Ahead of Trump’s return to the White House last week, outgoing President Joe Biden issued Gen Milley – and a handful of others, including Fauci – a pre-emptive pardon in case they faced retribution from Trump.

Biden’s statement said the pardons should “not be mistaken as an acknowledgment” that any of those covered “engaged in any wrongdoing”.

Gen Milley thanked Biden for the move and said he did not want to spend the rest of his life “fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights”.

“I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety,” he said.

The news that Gen Milley was being stripped of his security detail and security clearance was confirmed in a statement to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has also been told to “conduct an inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding Gen Milley’s conduct so that the Secretary may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination,” the statement said.

Trump’s new administration has also revoked security protections for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his former National Security Adviser John Bolton and his former envoy Brian Hook.

In the hours after Trump’s second inauguration, Trump’s officials also removed from the Pentagon a portrait depicting Gen Milley’s as chair of the joint chiefs of staff.

The maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI, has complained that rivals, including those in China, are using its work to make rapid advances in developing their own artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

The status of OpenAI – and other US firms – as the world leaders in AI has been dramatically undermined this week by the sudden emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese app that can emulate the performance of ChatGPT, apparently at a fraction of the cost.

Bloomberg has reported that Microsoft is investigating whether data belonging to OpenAI – which it is a major investor in – has been used in an unauthorised way.

The BBC has contacted Microsoft and DeepSeek for comment.

OpenAI’s concerns have been echoed by the recently appointed White House “AI and crypto czar”, David Sacks.

Speaking on Fox News, he suggested that DeepSeek may have used the models developed by OpenAI to get better, a process called knowledge distillation.

“There’s substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models,” Mr Sacks said.

“I think one of the things you’re going to see over the next few months is our leading AI companies taking steps to try and prevent distillation… That would definitely slow down some of these copycat models.”

In a statement, OpenAI said Chinese and other companies were “constantly trying to distil the models of leading US AI companies”.

“As we go forward… it is critically important that we are working closely with the US government to best protect the most capable models,” it added.

• What is DeepSeek?
• Is DeepSeek safe to use?
• China’s DeepSeek shakes AI industry
• ChatGPT v DeepSeek – how do they compare?

Naomi Haefner, assistant professor of technology management at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, said the question of distillation could throw the notion that DeepSeek created its product for a fraction of the cost into doubt.

“It is unclear whether DeepSeek really trained its models from scratch,” she said.

“OpenAI have stated that they believe DeepSeek may have misappropriated large amounts of data from them.

“If this is the case, then the claims about training the model very cheaply are deceptive. Until someone replicates the training approach we won’t know for sure whether such cost-efficient training is really possible.”

Crystal van Oosterom, AI Venture Partner at OpenOcean, agreed that “DeepSeek has clearly built upon publicly available research from major American and European institutions and companies”.

However, it is not clear how problematic the idea of “building on” the work of others is.

This is especially true in AI, where the accusation of disrespecting intellectual property rights has been frequently levelled at major US AI firms.

US officials are also considering the national security implications of DeepSeek’s emergence, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“I spoke with [the National Security Council] this morning, they are looking into what [the national security implications] may be,” said Ms Leavitt, who also restated US President Donald Trump’s remarks a day earlier that DeepSeek should be a wake-up call for the US tech industry.

The announcement comes after the US navy reportedly banned its members from using DeepSeek’s apps due to “potential security and ethical concerns”.

According to CNBC, the US navy has sent an email to its staff warning them not to use the DeepSeek app due to “potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model’s origin and usage”.

The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BBC News.

Data safety experts have warned users to be careful with the tool, given it collects large amounts of personal data and stores it in servers in China.

Meanwhile, DeepSeek says it has been the target of cyber attacks. On Monday it said it would temporarily limit registrations because of “large-scale malicious attacks” on its software.

A banner showing on the company’s website says registration may be busy as a result of the attacks.

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Caroline Kennedy – the cousin of Robert F Kennedy Jr – has urged US senators to reject her cousin as America’s next health and human services secretary in a scathing letter released on Tuesday.

The message, shared through social media, was sent to senators ahead of RFK Jr’s questioning by senators on Wednesday in what could prove a contentious first confirmation hearing.

“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together,” she wrote. “It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator.”

Caroline Kennedy added that her cousin’s views on vaccines disqualify him from the role of being one of America’s leading health policymakers. RFK Jr has yet to respond.

In the message – published in video form online and sent to senators in a letter – Caroline Kennedy said her decision to speak out was prompted by her concerns about the high-profile role he could have in the Trump administration if confirmed.

The president, by contrast, has vowed that his nominee will “make America great and healthy again” by restoring US health agencies to “the traditions of gold standard scientific research”.

The health and human services secretary oversees agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the latter of which has some 18,000 employees.

• Follow live updates from RFK Jr’s first confirmation hearing

“He lacks any relevant government, financial, management, or medical experience,” Caroline Kennedy said. “His views on vaccines are dangerous and wilfully misinformed.”

RFK Jr has long been a vaccine sceptic and has baselessly claimed there is a link between vaccines and autism. He has, however, recently said jabs are “not going to be taken away from anybody” – and that his aim is to improve the science on vaccine safety, which he believes has “huge deficits”.

He could face questions from senators in Wednesday’s hearing about this topic, and his plans for targeting junk food – an issue on which he has wider public support.

Explaining her “predator” comment, Caroline Kennedy alleged that “Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children, vaccinating his own kids while building a following, hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs”.

RFK Jr has previously been quoted saying he would “pay anything” to turn back time and not vaccinate his own children.

Raising further concerns about RFK Jr’s “personal qualities”, Caroline Kennedy claimed her cousin “encouraged” siblings and cousins “down the path of substance abuse”.

RFK Jr has publicly spoken about his past struggle with drug addiction including heroin use. He plead guilty to bringing heroin onto a plane in 1984.

The letter also makes an historical claim of animal cruelty against RFK Jr. “His basement, his garage, and his dorm room were the centres of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks,” Caroline Kennedy wrote. “It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.”

Caroline Kennedy – a former US ambassador to Australia and Japan – also said both her father, former President John F Kennedy, and her uncle Robert Kennedy, would be “disgusted” by her cousin’s actions.

RFK Jr briefly ran for president last year as an independent after initially launching a Democratic primary bid. He eventually suspended his campaign, endorsing Trump.

The UK’s choice for the next ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson, has described his previous criticism of Donald Trump as “ill-judged and wrong”.

Speaking in an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, he said the new US president had won “fresh respect” from him, adding he was “quite confident” Trump would approve of his appointment.

As part of the process Lord Mandelson’s credentials have to be presented to Trump, which the president is reportedly expected to agree to.

In previous years, Lord Mandelson has described Trump as “reckless” and “a bully”.

In an interview with an Italian journalist in 2019, he described Trump as “reckless and a danger to the world”.

This followed a 2018 interview with the Evening Standard where he described Trump as “a bully”.

But he told Fox News: “I made those remarks six years ago in 2019, led rather along this by an Italian journalist… it was a time in Britain by the way with very fraught politics and there was high emotion about many things in Britain at that time.

“I consider my remarks about President Trump as ill-judged and wrong.

“And I think that time and attitudes towards the president has changed since then.”

Acknowledging Trump’s “extraordinary” second mandate, Lord Mandelson said Trump had won “fresh respect” from him and said he had heard nothing from the White House that suggested there was going to be any difficulty about his appointment.

“I think that President Trump will look at my credentials and consider what’s best for the relationship going forward, ” he said.

“The president is a nice person, is a fair-minded person, and that’s why I feel quite confident that, when as I say he does look at my credentials he’ll think ‘right, I think this guy could work well for both our countries and our special relationship’.”

He added Trump could be “one of the most consequential” US presidents.

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The government is much less concerned than previously about the possibility that Lord Mandelson’s appointment could be blocked by Trump.

Some of the president’s allies had suggested that the president could take the extraordinary step of blocking him from taking up the role.

Trump’s co-presidential campaign manager Chris LaCivita last month warned Lord Mandelson to “stay home” and called him “an absolute moron” over his past comments on Trump.

But Lord Mandelson is understood to have now received his “agrément” from the US government – a formal step confirming their willingness to accept him as a diplomat in their country.

The final hurdle will come when Lord Mandelson presents his “letter of credence” to Trump.

It is understood that he is likely to fly to Washington DC to carry out the final formalities next week.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Lord Mandelson is HMA-designate and the formal diplomatic process is ongoing.”

The US State Department has also been contacted for comment.

Mandelson’s comments go further than others in government in recanting previous criticism of Trump.

Others in government such as the Foreign Secretary David Lammy have typically sought to deflect questions about their attacks on Trump by pointing out that many senior Republican politicians have previously criticised him too.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had his first phone call with Trump since the inauguration, but its is thought Lord Mandelson’s appointment was not discussed.

Lord Mandelson is a well-known figure in British politics, having served in multiple ministerial roles under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before taking up a life peerage in the Lords.

He was appointed by Sir Keir in December and will replace outgoing ambassador Dame Karen Pierce, the first woman to serve as UK ambassador to the US.

Smartwatch firm Garmin is facing a backlash after customers around the world complained their devices were not working.

Some users reported seeing a blue triangle when they tried to turn on their watch, while others were stuck on its start-up screen.

Garmin’s Fenix 8 smartwatches, which retail for just under £1,000 ($1,200), are some of the devices to have issues – however not all watches are affected by the outage.

The firm told the BBC it was aware of the problem, and suggested users reset their devices – adding it would “provide more information on a permanent fix when available”.

Customers have taken to social media to express their frustration at their smartwatches not working properly and what many see as the company’s slow response.

Garmin has offered a potential solution to the problem, involving resetting the device and connecting to a Garmin app.

But it concedes that this alone may not solve the problem, and in that case it is advising people to factory reset their device.

Some people on social media have claimed that even after a factory reset, they are unable to get their smartwatch to function properly.

“Their instructions don’t fix it and Garmin are silent,” one person said in a post on X.

And Absolute Radio DJ Leona Graham is one of the people to share their frustrations online, along with footage of the blue triangle.

According to Garmin’s website, the issues are affecting the following devices:

• Approach Watch
• Edge Cycling Computers
• Epix Watch
• Fenix Watch
• Forerunner Watch
• Instinct Series Watch
• Vivoactive 4 and 5
• Venu 3 and 3S

The firm has yet to give a reason for the issues, though some experts have speculated it is a result of the device being unable to communicate with GPS properly due to a bad update.

And despite its update to its support page, a lack of communication on social media has landed Garmin in hot water with its users.

“You should really prioritize your current customers and the ongoing issue with many watches,” said one person, while another called it “unbelievable” that the firm had not yet outlined the cause of the issue.

“Stop burying your heads in the sand, these watches don’t come cheap,” they said on Wednesday morning.

Princess Beatrice has given birth to her second child, named Athena, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Athena was born several weeks prematurely and weighed 4lb 5oz, but is said to be healthy and doing well.

The new baby, the second child of Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, was born a week ago on 22 January at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

The King and Queen and other members of the Royal Family were said to be delighted at the baby’s safe arrival, said the Palace.

Beatrice had been due to give birth in early Spring, but in December had received medical advice not to travel long distances.

The photo issued of Athena shows her wrapped in a blanket, with her hand over her face.

In a social media post, her father Edoardo said: “She is tiny and absolutely perfect” and the family was “completely besotted with her”.

The new baby, Athena, is the grandchild of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and Sarah, the Duchess of York. She becomes 11th in line to the throne.

“She is already so adored and I’m incredibly blessed to be a granny once again. So proud of Edo, Beatrice and the rest of my little 5-a-side team,” posted the duchess on social media.

The statement from Buckingham Palace gave the baby’s full name as Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi, born last Wednesday at 12.57pm.

Beatrice, aged 36, and her daughter are both doing well, said the Palace, and the family are spending time with Athena’s older siblings Wolfie – Mr Mapelli Mozzi’s son from a previous relationship – and Sienna.

The parents thanked staff at the London hospital for their “wonderful care”, the same hospital where their older daughter Sienna had been born in 2021.

In ancient Greece, Athena was the goddess of war, handicraft and wisdom.

Millions of people across Asia and the world are welcoming the Lunar New Year which coincides with the first new moon of the lunar calendar.

Widely considered to be the most important event in the year for many in Asia and some Asian communities worldwide, the Lunar New Year represents a fresh start for those who celebrate.

Fireworks, music, fairs, lanterns, dragon and lion dancing filled streets across Asia as celebrations that typically last about 15 days began.

The emergence of Chinese AI app DeepSeek has shocked financial markets, and prompted US President Donald Trump to describe it as “a wake-up call” for the US tech industry.

DeepSeek’s claim that its R1 artificial intelligence (AI) model was made at a fraction of the cost of its rivals has raised questions about the future about of the whole industry, and caused some the world’s biggest companies to sink in value.

DeepSeek has become the most downloaded free app in the US just a week after it was launched.

So how does it compare to its much more established and apparently much more expensive US rivals, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini?

When you ask ChatGPT what the most popular reasons to use ChatGPT are, it says that assisting people to write is one of them.

From gathering and summarising information in a helpful format to even writing blog posts on a topic, ChatGPT has become an AI companion for many across different workplaces.

As a proud Scottish football fan, I asked ChatGPT and DeepSeek to summarise the best Scottish football players ever, before asking the chatbots to “draft a blog post summarising the best Scottish football players in history”.

DeepSeek responded in seconds, with a top ten list – Kenny Dalglish of Liverpool and Celtic was number one. It helpfully summarised which position the players played in, their clubs, and a brief list of their achievements.

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DeepSeek also detailed two non-Scottish players – Rangers legend Brian Laudrup, who is Danish, and Celtic hero Henrik Larsson. For the latter, it added “although Swedish, Larsson is often included in discussions of Scottish football legends due to his impact at Celtic”.

For its subsequent blog post, it did go into detail of Laudrup’s nationality before giving a succinct account of the careers of the players.

ChatGPT’s answer to the same question contained many of the same names, with “King Kenny” once again at the top of the list.

Its detailed blog post briefly and accurately went into the careers of all the players.

It concluded: “While the game has changed over the decades, the impact of these Scottish greats remains timeless.” Indeed.

For this fun test, DeepSeek was certainly comparable to its best-known US competitor.

The emergence of advanced AI models has made a difference to people who code.

When ChatGPT experienced an outage last week, X had a number of amusing posts from developers saying they couldn’t do their work without the faithful tool by their side.

How does DeepSeek compare here?

Javier Aguirre, an AI researcher at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, specialises in researching in medicine and AI.

In a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday, he wrote: “I am quite impressed with Deepseek. While coding, we usually try to explode AI chatbots to the limit to see their capabilities in assisting with coding.

“Today I had a really tricky and complex problem. Even chatGPT o1 was not able to reason enough to solve it. I gave a try to Deepseek and it solved it at once and straight to the point.”

He also pointed out that for coders, the combination of models can lead to success. This was echoed by Addy Osmani, who is the Head of Chrome Developer Experience at Google.

In a post to his 208k followers on LinkedIn, he spoke about combining DeepSeek with US AI firm Anthropic’s tool Claude Sonnet. In 2023, Amazon invested $4bn into Anthropic.

Mr Osmani said: “Code with AI? DeepSeek R1 + Claude Sonnet may be the best new hybrid coding model. Yes, engineers are using them together.”

Mr Osmani also said DeepSeek was “significantly cheaper” to use than both Claude Sonnet and OpenAI’s o1 model.

What about brainstorming? I asked ChatGPT and DeepSeek to give me “ideas for a story for children about a boy who lives on the moon”.

ChatGPT responded in seconds with six neatly summarised ideas. One was about a boy called Max who worked as a postman on the moon and was sent on an adventure. Another was about Oliver, who was drawn by the sounds of a mysterious orchestra made up of aliens.

None of these stories are going to challenge Harry Potter or Roald Dahl any time soon, but it is a start for more refined ideas to flourish perhaps.

DeepSeek, on the other hand, responded with just one idea – “Luna and the Boy Who Chased the Stars”. Its response was 387 words (with no mention of anyone or thing called “Luna”), and comprised a story about a curious boy called Milo who lived on the moon.

It struck me that while ChatGPT gave me ideas, DeepSeek wrote a full story. It wasn’t particularly good, with a simple focus on a character going from A to B, but it was a start – and it was impressive how quickly it delivered it.

One of my memories from high school is my history teacher explaining to us how the First World War came about following a complex situation regarding many European powers, with the conflict finally sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.

How would the chatbots deal with explaining such a complex and nuanced piece of history? Pretty well.

ChatGPT gave a detailed account and outlined the key factors. DeepSeek’s account was not as detailed, but its brief overview did cover all the main points and events.

Google’s Gemini assistant gave a similar synopsis to ChatGPT and DeepSeek, and also gave the user the opportunity to click on links from reputable sources such as the Imperial War Museum in the UK.

As I saw on other tasks and prompts, DeepSeek was certainly comparable to its US competitors.

The tasks I set the chatbots were simple but they point to something much more significant – the winner of the so-called AI race is far from decided.

For all the vast resources US firms have poured into the tech, their Chinese rival has shown their achievements can be emulated.

Prof Neil Lawrence, DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at Department of Computer Science and Technology, at the University of Cambridge, said this was just the start.

“I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the type of innovation we can expect in these models,” he said.

He highlighted an example from history – James Watt is synonymous with the steam engine, even though he improved it rather than invented it.

“There’s plenty of space for budding James Watts to emerge, and that they are less likely to come from established players,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has offered incentives to federal workers has offered federal workers the option to resign and receive pay for eight months, in a major effort to shrink and reform the US government.

In an email, his administration has asked almost all government employees to decide by 6 February whether they want to be part of a “deferred resignation” programme that will mean them leaving their jobs no later than the end of September.

Those who received the email have voiced confusion about what the deal would mean in practice.

The website of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) gives an outline of the plans, stating on an FAQs page that those who accept the deal are “not expected to work”, except in rare cases.

It also says anyone who decides to quit will be exempt for the remainder of their contracts from Trump’s requirement that they work in the office rather than at home.

Senior Trump officials told US media that the plan could save the government up to $100bn (£80bn).

Delivering the offer, a message from the OPM, the government’s HR agency, highlighted planned reforms including a requirement that most employees work in their offices five days a week.

Since returning to the White House last week, Trump has already declared the end of Covid-era home working practices.

The OPM said the offer was available to “all full-time federal employees” – excluding certain staff such as postal workers, members of the military, immigration officials, and some national security teams.

Workers wishing to take the deal were asked to reply to the email with the word “resign” in the subject line. The offer has been described as “very generous” by the White House.

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The message also warned of future downsizing that could impact those who chose to stay. “We cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity,” it read.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, told CNN that federal workers were “overwhelmingly left of centre”, and that it was “essential” for Trump to “get control of government”.

The move has been condemned. In a statement to US media, the head of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union warned that this “purging” process would have “vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government”.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine was among those questioning Trump’s power to make such deals. “If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you just like he stiffed contractors,” he said. “He doesn’t have any authority to do this. Do not be fooled by this guy.”

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The returning US president repeatedly pledged to cut the size of the government and slash federal spending while on the campaign trail.

He tasked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with leading an advisory body focused on cutting regulations, spending, and headcounts within the federal government. Ramaswamy has since left this new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) to run for governor of Ohio.

But the email on Tuesday bore resemblance to one sent to employees of Twitter, now X, in late 2022 after Musk bought the social media platform. He asked for an emailed response if they wanted to remain at the company.

Get in touch.

The mass offer came at the end of an at-times chaotic day in Washington, following a memo Trump issued which said he would pause federal grants, loans and other assistance.

A district judge suspended the order – which was initially set to go into effect on Tuesday afternoon – until next Monday.

In the hours before that decision, there was widespread confusion over which federal programmes and organisations would be impacted. The White House repeatedly sought to assuage concerns that Social Security payments and Medicaid access could be disrupted.

In a letter to the White House, top Democrats expressed “extreme alarm” about the plan to pause funding.

Also on Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at restricting young people’s access to gender-related medical treatments.

The order, titled Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, says it would prevent those aged under 19 from making “life-altering” choices.

“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” the order said.

It is unclear how the order would be implemented and it is likely to be challenged in court.

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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 leader of Canada’s most populous province has triggered a snap election, saying he needs a decisive mandate to fight Donald Trump’s tariff threat.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has led the province for more than seven years, has emerged as a de-facto spokesperson for Canada in the tariff fight after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would step down in March.

The early election call is a sign of how the new US president has upended politics in the country.

The provincial campaign comes more than a year before the date required by law, with Ford citing the need for voters to give him another majority to “outlast” President Trump.

“This is gonna be a battle for the next four years,” he said.

Trump has said he is considering 25% sweeping levies on Canadian goods, which could come as early as Saturday.

Earlier this month, Ford appeared at a press conference wearing a hard-to-miss baseball cap emblazoned with the words “Canada Is Not for Sale”.

The cap’s catchphrase was inspired by a line the premier uttered on Fox News as he made the rounds on US networks to defend Canada’s interests in the possible coming trade war.

His message resonated north of the border, earning him the nickname “Captain Canada” from columnists and pundits.

The cap went viral after Ford wore it, with C$20,000 ($13,900; £11,100) worth of stock selling in less than two hours, according to broadcaster Radio-Canada.

But Ford is facing criticism for the election call by those who worry he is throwing Ontario into an expensive campaign even as it faces the threat of costly tariffs.

The premier is also facing questions from opponents over the politics of the early vote.

His Progressive Conservative government has been embroiled in several controversies, including an ongoing criminal investigation into a deal to sell a piece of environmentally protected land for real estate development.

Ford’s election decision is an example of how Trump has affected Canadian politics, said media commentator and law professor Errol Mendes, with the University of Ottawa.

The tariffs expected to have a devastating impact on the Canada’s trade-dependent economy. The US is its largest trading partner.

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Prof Mendes told the BBC that the tariffs have shifted the calculus for Canadian politicians at all levels of government, from provincial premiers like Ford to those jockeying to replace Trudeau as federal Liberal leader.

In that leadership race, front-runners Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney have each focused on how they would respond to Trump’s tariffs.

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the federal Conservatives whose message has centered mostly on domestic issues, has been pushed to provide his own plan for how he would deal with Trump.

“The whole Trump thing has completely shaken up” political strategy in Canada, Prof Mendes said.

For Ford, it has been an opportunity to be at the forefront of a critical national conversation, especially amid political chaos in Ottawa following Trudeau’s decision to resign.

His province stands to suffer significantly if the tariffs materialise.

Ontario’s economy is the largest in Canada, making up about 38% of the country’s GDP, and has a significant automotive sector that is deeply integrated with the US.

Ford has suggested that 500,000 of Ontario’s 14.2 million people could lose their jobs if the US follows through in the blanket tariffs.

The premier is known for his folksy, straight-talking style – one that has become synonymous with his family name and popularised by his late brother, former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

“You can’t let someone hit you over the head with a sledgehammer without hitting them back twice as hard, in my opinion,” he stated earlier this month.

He has called for a strong retaliation to any sweeping tariffs, suggesting that Canada cut off energy supply to the US and calling for provincial liquor stores to pull American booze off their shelves.

In the same breath, he has proposed the idea of “Fortress Am-Can” – a catchy slogan to sell Trump on a stronger energy alliance between the two countries.

By calling an election in his province early, Prof Mendes said Ford is playing several games of political chess as he seeks to solidify his position both in Ontario and as a voice for Canada.

Prof Mendes said Ford has so far succeeded in drawing US attention to his message, more so than other premiers and Trudeau.

He is expected to lead a delegation of Canadian premiers to meet US lawmakers in Washington DC twice next month.

Domestically, however, he still faces significant challenges, primarily the ongoing investigation into his government’s land dealings.

“Now is the time (for Ford) to get the election done and get his massive new majority to weather that storm, whenever it happens,” Prof Mendes said.

An election could also secure him another term before the possible US tariffs take a bite out of the provincial economy.

Despite the controversies, Ford has maintained a stronghold in Ontario. He has won a majority twice, and polls so far indicate he is headed for a third.

He said Ford has proven himself to be a political survivor by communicating effectively with a working-class base, much like Trump.

“He is connecting in terms of being able to fight, and fight fiercely for Canada,” he said.

Fourteen members of an Australian religious group have been convicted of killing an eight-year-old diabetic girl who was denied insulin for almost a week.

Elizabeth Struhs died at home in 2022, having suffered from diabetic ketoacidosis, which causes fatally high blood sugar.

The court heard that Elizabeth’s treatment was withheld because the group, known as the Saints, opposed medical care, believing God would heal her.

Her father Jason Struhs and the group’s leader Brendan Stevens were on trial for murder but were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Twelve other members, including Elizabeth’s mother and brother, were also convicted of manslaughter. All had pleaded not guilty.

When handing down his almost 500-page verdict on Wednesday, Justice Martin Burns said that although it was clear Elizabeth’s parents and “every member of the church including all other accused” had adored her, their actions had resulted in her death.

“It cannot be doubted that Elizabeth was lovingly cared for in almost every way,” he said.

“However, due to a singular belief in the healing power of God… she was deprived of the one thing that would most definitely have kept her alive.”

The Saints are not affiliated with an established church in Australia and have roughly two dozen members from three families.

The judge-alone trial in the Supreme Court of Queensland began in July last year and lasted several months.

Prosecutors called 60 witnesses and painted a picture of an “intelligent” child who suffered greatly in her final days.

“She was described as speaking little, needing help going to the toilet, and being incontinent,” prosecutor Caroline Marco said, adding that the girl would have endured vomiting, extreme lethargy, and a loss of consciousness.

The congregation, meanwhile, had prayed and sung for Elizabeth, whose health deteriorated as she lay on a mattress at her home in Toowoomba, about 125km (78 miles) west of Brisbane.

No effort was made to call a doctor, and authorities were not notified until 36 hours after her death, as the group believed she could be brought back to life, the court heard.

The 14 defendants, aged between 22 and 67, represented themselves at trial, having all refused legal representation or to enter pleas. The court was required to enter not guilty pleas on their behalf.

Most had been charged because they had either counselled or aided her father in his decision to withhold Elizabeth’s insulin, the court heard.

Prosecutors said that Jason Struhs, 53, had converted to the church much later than his wife Kerrie Struhs, 49, and that he had previously supported giving Elizabeth medicine.

They argued he changed his mind after being baptised into the group and that ultimately he knew the decision would end his daughter’s life.

Speaking through tears when it was his turn to take the stand at trial, Jason Struhs said that he and Elizabeth had agreed to “stop the insulin” together, and that he still believed his daughter would be resurrected.

“Elizabeth is only sleeping, and I will see her again,” he told the court.

Stevens, 63, defended the group’s actions as faith-based and described the trial as an act of “religious persecution”.

He said that the group was within its “rights to believe in the word of God completely” and that their decision not to enter pleas was because the congregation had “no intention of fighting” the case by using law.

Elizabeth’s sister Jayde Struhs told the trial she had left the Saints and fled her family home at 16, after coming out as gay, and was now estranged from them.

She and other witnesses described the congregation as having increasingly strict views, including that mainstream healthcare should be shunned and that both Christmas and Easter were “pagan” or ungodly festivals.

The court also heard that Elizabeth’s life had been in danger in 2019 when she was admitted to hospital in a diabetic coma weighing just 15kg (2st 5lb), after having become too weak to walk.

She was then diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and her family was told she would need daily insulin injections.

Both parents were charged over that incident – however Jason Struhs testified against his wife and received a more lenient sentence.

At the time, he said his wife – who had been a member of the Saints for years – did not believe in providing their kids with medical treatment for religious reasons. He also openly expressed regret for having “let his daughter down”.

The court heard he later helped provide her with insulin for a period while his wife was in jail, but that he then faced pressure from other members of the religious group to stop doing so.

Giving his verdict, Justice Burns said that Jason Struhs and Stevens couldn’t be convicted of murder because prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the pair had intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to Elizabeth.

But all 14 defendants were guilty of manslaughter, he ruled, because they were jointly involved in a crime that resulted in her death.

Jayde Struhs said that while she was pleased with the verdict, the “system had failed” her sister.

“We are only here today because more wasn’t done sooner to protect her or remove her from an incredibly unsafe situation in her own home,” she said in a statement outside court.

The group is expected to be sentenced next month.

Toowoomba has long had a “colourful array of sectarian Christian groups and independent churches of various kinds”, says Bernard Doherty, who studies new religious movements.

“The Saints appear to be one of these small independent churches which form around a few families,” he told the BBC, adding that little is known about the close-knit congregation.

Jayde Struhs said the Saints had attended the Revival Centres International church in Brisbane, but they broke away after Stevens failed to become a pastor there. They then formed their own parish and held sermons at his house multiple times a week, she said.

Climate change was a major factor behind the hot, dry weather that gave rise to the devastating LA fires, a scientific study has confirmed.

It made those weather conditions about 35% more likely, according to World Weather Attribution – globally recognised for their studies linking extreme weather to climate change.

The authors noted that the LA wildfire season is getting longer while the rains that normally put out the blazes have reduced.

The scientists highlight that these wildfires are highly complex with multiple factors playing a role, but they are confident that a warming climate is making LA more prone to intense fire events.

“Climate change increased the risk of the devastating LA wildfires,” said Dr Clair Barnes, from Imperial College London, the study’s lead author.

“Drought conditions are more frequently pushing into winter, increasing the chance a fire will break out during strong Santa Ana winds that can turn small ignitions into deadly infernos.”

The Santa Ana winds are strong and gusty east or north-easterly winds that blow from inland California towards the coast.

Around 30 people have died and more than 10,000 homes have been destroyed in the fast-spreading, destructive fires that broke out in early January.

This new study looks at what are termed the fire-prone conditions that can lead to dangerous conflagrations.

It’s been carried out by a team of researchers from World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global group that publishes rapid analyses of climate-related weather events.

They use climate models to simulate how the warming that has occurred since the middle of the 19th century is influencing heatwaves, droughts, floods and fires.

The widespread burning of coal, oil and gas in the wake of the industrial revolution has driven billions of tonnes of planet-warming gases into the atmosphere.

Acting like a blanket, these gases have driven up temperatures by around 1.2C since then.

By using climate models and statistical methods along with real world observations, the WWA group have been able to show how much of an influence climate warming has had on extreme events.

In the case of the LA fires, they found that the hot, dry conditions that drove them are expected to occur once every 17 years.

This is an increase in likelihood of around 35% compared to a world that hadn’t experienced warming.

“We actually see that the models show very much the same results that the [real world] observations have,” said Dr Friederike Otto, the head of World Weather Attribution.

“So there, in this combined index, we are quite confident about the result… we have actually a signal that we can say that we definitely can attribute that, also quantitatively.”

The researchers also examined other important variables that can lead to wildfire including the length of the fire season.

By analysing weather observations, the scientists found that this has increased by around 23 days since the world began warming, around 1850.

The team say that this means the dry conditions and the Santa Ana winds that are crucial for the spread of fires, are increasingly overlapping.

Another key element is drought.

Dry conditions in the LA area over the October to December period are now about 2.4 times more likely than before humans starting using fossil fuels on a large scale.

The researchers are clear that climate change increased the probability of the hot, dry conditions that gave rise to the fires.

However, the authors are more cautious about the link between rising temperatures and the longer fire season or decreased rainfall, saying that the models did not show a significant connection.

Despite these reservations, the conclusion is that a warmer world increased the chances of the devastating wildfires occurring – as more fossil fuels continue to be burnt, those chances will continue to rise.

“Overall the paper finds that climate change has made the Los Angeles fires more likely despite some statistical uncertainty,” said Prof Gabi Hegerl, from the University of Edinburgh, who was not part of the study team.

“This is a carefully researched result that should be taken seriously,” she said in a statement.

The new work builds on research that was published while the fires were still burning fiercely.

That study linked the wildfires to what’s termed “climate whiplash.”

The idea is that very wet years are followed almost immediately by very dry ones, which increases the risk of fires.

This is what happened in LA, when two wet winters were followed by an extremely dry autumn and winter this year – the wet weather promoted the growth of grass and shrubs that became the fuel for the fires that took off in the gusting Santa Ana winds.

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The Australian government has been told by Moscow that one of its citizens in Russian captivity is still alive.

Oscar Jenkins, a 32-year-old teacher, was captured last year while fighting for Ukraine.

“The Australian government has received confirmation from Russia that Oscar Jenkins is alive and in custody,” Foreign Minster Penny Wong said in a statement on Wednesday.

Earlier, there were reports that Mr Jenkins had been killed while in captivity, with the Australian government citing “grave concerns” for his welfare.

“We still hold serious concerns for Mr Jenkins as a prisoner of war,” Wong’s statement added.

It also called on Russia to release him and reiterated Australia’s stance that the Russian Federation was obligated to treat all prisoners of war in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Prisoners of war are protected from all acts of violence or intimidation by the Geneva convention.

Earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said that the government was “urgently seeking” confirmation that Mr Jenkins was alive.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as saying that it was “good news” but called on Moscow to provide “video proof” of his well being.

Mr Jenkins is thought to be the first Australian to have been held as a prisoner of war while fighting for Ukraine.

A video surfaced in December last year showing Mr Jenkins, with his hands tied, being hit in the face and questioned by Russian forces.

He explains he is a teacher and also a soldier who lives in both Australia and Ukraine.

They ask him if he is being paid to fight in Ukraine.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has backed a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport as part of a fresh plan to get the UK’s sluggish economy growing.

She said Heathrow expansion, which has been delayed for decades over environmental concerns, would “make Britain the world’s best connected place to do business”.

In a wide-ranging speech to business leaders, she also backed expansions at Luton and Gatwick airports, as well as a “growth corridor” between Oxford and Cambridge, which she claimed could be “Europe’s Silicon Valley”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the plans had mostly been stolen from her party but claimed that Labour’s new employment laws would destroy any prospect of growth.

In her speech, Reeves sought to inject some optimism and confidence into the economy, which has taken a battering in recent months as growth has flatlined.

She hit back at Conservative claims that her “job destroying” Budget was to blame, insisting she had “no alternative” but to increase employers’ National Insurance to restore stability.

She did not explicitly rule out further tax increases in the spring – but insisted the government had “begun to turn things round” and was determined to go “further and faster” to boost growth.

She described the UK as a country of “huge potential” which had been “held back” for “too long” because politicians lacked the “courage” to challenge the status quo.

“Low growth is not our destiny, but growth will not come without a fight, without a government willing to take the right decisions now to change our country’s future for the better,” she added.

The government has made growth its top priority because so many of its other plans – to improve public services and living standards, as well as its chances of winning the next election – depend on it.

Reeves said a third runway at Heathrow was “badly needed” to boost trade across the UK and she was “inviting proposals to be brought forward” by the summer, with money expected to come from the private sector.

The government insists advances in aviation meant a third runway would not break its carbon reduction rules – but it is still being fiercely resisted by environmental campaigners and Labour’s London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Reeves says she is keen to get on with the project, although it is unlikely to be completed until the mid 2030s, saying it was an example of the government taking bold decisions in the public interest.

Other projects announced today include a major redevelopment of Old Trafford, the area around a new stadium for Manchester United, and a plan to bring Doncaster/Sheffield airport back into use and boost industry at East Midlands airport.

The government also promised better rail and road links to cut the journey time between Oxford and Cambridge, as well as new reservoirs to address water shortages in the area and investment in high tech industries.

Reeves claimed the new “growth corridor” would add up to £78bn to the UK economy by 2035.

Many of the projects are unlikely to be completed before the next general election.

Reeves acknowledged that today’s announcements were the start of a long process.

But Labour is hoping they will send a signal to business and consumers that the government is serious about growth – and that voters will notice signs work is under way.

New powers in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill would cut years off the length periods it has taken to get major infrastructure projects off the ground, according to Reeves.

She said she has been “genuinely shocked” at how slow planning system is – adding developers should be able to stop worrying about “the bats and the newts”.

And Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to get rid of a “thicket of red tape” that he claimed was deterring foreign investment, in an article for The Times.

The government is also relaxing restrictions on big pension funds to encourage them to invest more in UK businesses.

Trade unions welcomed the Heathrow announcement and the airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye described the chancellor’s speech as “the bold, responsible vision the UK needs to thrive in the 21st century”.

But Sir Sadiq Khan said: “I’m simply not convinced that you can have hundreds of thousands of additional flights at Heathrow every year without a hugely damaging impact on our environment.”

The government will also review the so-called Green Book rules – guidance issued by the Treasury on how to appraise policies, programmes and projects – which it said have in the past biased infrastructure spending to already fast growing areas, mainly in the south.

At prime minister’s questions, Kemi Badenoch took aim at the government’s Employment Rights Bill, which aims to strengthen workers’ rights.

The Conservatives claimed it would “hammer” businesses and destroy growth, and urged the PM to scrap the parts that will extend entitlement to statutory sick pay.

“Government itself, his government itself, estimates that these changes will increase business costs from £600m to £1bn in sick pay,” she told Sir Keir.

“That will mean higher prices, fewer jobs, less growth.”

The prime minister insisted the new laws would be “good for workers and good for growth” and accused the Tories of being “a coalition of blockers”.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called on Sir Keir to drop his objections to a UK-EU customs union and other “growth damaging trade barriers” on an upcoming trip to Brussels.

The SNP’s economy spokesman Dave Doogan said the chancellor’s speech “offered nothing for Scotland”, adding: “Instead of fixing broken Brexit Britain, Rachel Reeves has taken the UK economy in the wrong direction.”