President Donald Trump has fired US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown, the highest-ranking officer in the country, as part of a major shake-up of the top military leadership.

“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump posted on social media. He said five other top officers were being replaced.

Gen Brown was the second black officer in US history to hold the post, which advises both the president and the secretary of defence on national security.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously said that Gen Brown should be fired because of his “woke” focus on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in the military.

Later on Friday, Hegseth announced the firings of two additional senior officers: Chief of Naval Operations Adm Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen Jim Slife.

Adm Franchetti was the first woman to lead the Navy.

All three top officers removed on Friday were appointed by former President Joe Biden.

Hegseth said in a statement: “Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”

Trump said he would nominate Air Force Lt Gen Dan Caine – a career F-16 pilot who most recently served as CIA associate director for military affairs – as the new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

Gen Brown was visiting troops at the US southern border on Friday roughly two hours before Trump’s post announcing his departure.

Rumours had been swirling this week that the president would seek to remove Gen Brown, whose term was set to expire in 2027.

Gen Brown made headlines in 2020 when he spoke out about race following the death of George Floyd.

He posted a video message to the Air Force describing the pressures he had felt as one of the few black men in his unit and being questioned about his credentials.

Colin Powell was the first black chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, serving from 1989-93.

One of Trump’s first acts after being sworn in last month was to fire the first female commandant of the Coast Guard, citing “excessive focus” on diversity.

In November, before he was confirmed, Hegseth said on a podcast that there were many problems in the military, including diversity initiatives, which the Trump administration should “course correct”.

“First of all, you got to fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said in describing the steps he believed Trump should take.

The Pentagon also announced on Friday that it would cut its budget and let go of 5,400 probationary employees next week.

Meanwhile, a federal court in Maryland temporarily blocked Trump from implementing bans on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

US District Judge Adam Abelson said the directives by Trump probably violate free-speech rights in the US Constitution.

Donald Trump has been back in the White House for a month.

His fifth week in office saw more dramatic moves as the president continued on his plan to remake the federal government, implement sweeping cuts and reshape American foreign policy.

This week he called Ukraine’s war-time president a “dictator”, pledged to make IVF more affordable and dismissed his highest-ranking military officer.

If you’re after a catch-up, here is a reminder of 19 major moves from the Trump administration this week.

Trump on Tuesday called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” – part of a heated back and forth between the two leaders that also saw the US president appear to blame Ukraine for Russia’s invasion.

His attacks came after Zelensky reacted to US-Russia talks about the war, from which Kyiv was excluded.

Zelensky said Trump was “living in a disinformation space” governed by Moscow after Trump said the Ukrainian leader was down to 4% approval rating among the Ukrainian public – a figure Zelensky said was being spread by Russia.

Zelensky’s term was due to come to an end in May 2024 but his country has been under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago, and elections are suspended.

The “dictator” line prompted criticism from European leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said it was “simply wrong and dangerous”.

• Read more about Trump and Zelensky’s relationship over time
• Our correspondent Anthony Zurcher analyses Trump echoing Russia
• Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine

On Tuesday, US and Russian officials held their first high-level, face-to-face talks since the war started but Ukraine was not invited.

Top US officials met Moscow counterparts in Saudi Arabia, prompting fears in Kyiv that the country invaded by Russia was being sidelined.

On Friday, he told Fox News it was not important for Zelensky to be at peace talks but he would “of course” take a call from him.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said talks with Russia were a first step towards negotiating a peace deal and nothing would be imposed on Ukraine.

• Who was at the table at US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia?
• Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford on the “extraordinary” meeting

Russian authorities released a US national who was arrested at a Moscow airport this month for cannabis possession.

Kalob Byers, 28, was freed hours before the talks between US and Russian officials over the war in Ukraine were set to begin.

The US also said it will release a Russian national – Alexander Vinnik, who was arrested in 2017 on charges related to the laundering of billions of dollars using virtual currency Bitcoin – as part of a prisoner exchange that brought home American schoolteacher Marc Fogel last week.

• Russia frees US national held on drug charges
• US releases Russian Bitcoin fraud suspect as Belarus frees American

The Trump administration is moving to end New York City’s congestion pricing plan, which charges vehicles entering the city in certain areas, then uses tolls to upgrade its aging transit systems. It was launched last month.

“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD,” Trump said on social media. “Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

In response, New York Govenor Kathy Hochul said: “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king. We’ll see you in court.”

• Read more about the move to end New York City congestion charge

Four women who allege they were sexually abused by the social media influencer Andrew Tate said they were “extremely concerned” by reports that US officials had asked Romania to relax travel restrictions against Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate, who have dual UK-US nationality.

The Financial Times newspaper first reported that US officials had brought up the case with the Romanian government last week, and it was then followed up by Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell at the weekend.

One source told the paper that a request had been made by the US to return the brothers’ passports to them so they could travel while waiting for the criminal case against them to finish.

The US State Department has been approached by the BBC for comment.

• Read reaction from the lawyer for the alleged victims here
• Who is Andrew Tate? The self-proclaimed misogynist influencer

The US Border Patrol said there was a decrease in migrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in January.

It recorded 29,000 arrests – the lowest since May 2020 and down from 47,000 in December, according to department figures.

Trump took office on 20 January, replacing predecessor Joe Biden.

The Trump administration has promised to clamp down on undocumented migration into the US, which has also included declaring an emergency at the southern border and expanded processes that allow for rapid expulsions.

Trump reassigned the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week, US media reported. The move came after Trump and border tsar Tom Homan expressed anger that deportation numbers weren’t higher.

• Six big immigration changes under Trump
• Trump sends first migrant detainees to Guantanamo Bay

The Trump administration – and his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) leader Elon Musk – are continuing a cost-cutting drive that aims to drastically reduce the federal workforce.

More than 6,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees are expected to be fired, and on Friday the Pentagon said it planned to “release” 5,400 probationary workers starting early next week.

Around 1,000 employees in the US National Park Service were let go last weekend – roughly 5% of the workforce – according to CBS News.

It has also begun firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees, and the head of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union David Spero called the firings “shameful”.

Polling suggests there is public support for less government spending but also concern that Musk’s efficiency drive could go too far.

• Trump moves to close entries to government worker buyout programme
• Hundreds fired at aviation safety agency, union says
• What is Doge and why is Elon Musk cutting so many jobs?

Trump’s administration is attempting to rehire officials with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) who worked on the government response to bird flu before being fired over the weekend, US media report.

The terminations came as the latest outbreak of the bird flu has wreaked havoc on poultry and cattle farms, causing egg prices to skyrocket.

A USDA spokesperson told the BBC that although “several” officials working on bird flu were “notified of their terminations” over the weekend, “we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters”.

It’s not the first time this has happened – after firing officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration last week, US media reported that the government was trying to reinstate some, but was struggling to contact them.

• Read more about the USDA layoffs

Trump has signed an executive order that will examine ways to make in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments more affordable.

Speaking at an event at Mar-a-Lago, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the order asks that the Domestic Policy Council make recommendations within 90 days to protect access to IVF and “aggressively” reduce its costs.

During his campaigning, Trump said that IVF treatments would be paid for by insurance companies or the government if he returned to the White House.

• Trump said insurance or government should pay for IVF

A row erupted between the White House and the Associated Press (AP) – a global media organisation – after Google Maps changed the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the Gulf of America for people using the app in the US.

Trump has ordered the body of water to be renamed in US government documents.

The AP says that it will not change the name of the Gulf of Mexico in its style guide, which is used by many US media outlets.

Trump said on Tuesday that he will block AP from the Oval Office and Air Force One until it stops referring to the Gulf of Mexico.

The media organisation sued three Trump officials in response, US media reported on Friday. The AP argues Trump’s ban violates the First Amendment and is seeking an emergency hearing to declare Trump’s moves unconstitutional.

• Google Maps updates Gulf of Mexico name for US users

US justice department lawyers on Wednesday defended their decision to end a criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Last week, the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss fraud and bribery charges against Adams. Seven justice department lawyers, including the top US prosecutor in Manhattan, resigned over an order to drop the case.

Adams was indicted last year on the charges. He denies any wrongdoing.

Trump has denied that he had any involvement in asking prosecutors to dismiss the Adams case.

On Friday, a judge paused Adams’ trial and ordered an outside lawyer to advise him by coming up with arguments against dropping the charges – essentially creating a legal test.

• Foreign bribes, cheap flights: What is Eric Adams accused of?
• Flurry of resignations after DOJ tells prosecutors to drop Eric Adams case

On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order ending federal benefits for undocumented migrants.

The measure will seek to ensure that any federal funds to states and localities “will not be used to support sanctuary policies or assist illegal immigration”, according to the White House.

The Trump administration also suspended a service on Tuesday that helped children who come to the US without a parent or guardian to navigate the immigration court system.

• Migrants on edge as Trump administration ramps up raids and arrests

Trump said he is considering using a percentage of the potential savings from Elon Musk’s taskforce to send payments directly to US taxpayers.

“We’re thinking about giving 20% back to the American citizens and 20% back to pay down debt,” Trump said in Florida this week, without giving further details.

Before making the remarks, Musk had posted on his social media platform X that he “will check with the President” after a user suggested the pair should announce a “DOGE Dividend”.

• Americans weigh up Musk’s influence
• Elon Musk denies ‘hostile takeover’ of government

During his speech at the Munich Security Conference a week ago, US Vice-President JD Vance launched a scalding attack on European democracies saying the greatest threat facing the continent was not from Russia and China, but “from within”.

Vance was expected to address possible talks to end the war in Ukraine but instead accused European governments – including the UK’s – of retreating from their values, and ignoring voter concerns on migration and free speech.

The speech was denounced by several politicians at the conference.

• Analysis: JD Vance’s blast at Europe ignores Ukraine and defence agenda

Rubio boycotted a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in South Africa this week, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he will not attend next week’s gathering of G20 finance ministers.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa told the meeting that a commitment to multilateralism and international law is vital to solving global crises.

Announcing his refusal to attend, Rubio said South Africa was “using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words: DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and climate change”.

Bessent said he had other commitments in Washington.

• South Africa opens G20 talks but US snubs meeting

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has told US military services to identify $50bn in cuts next year so the money can be used elsewhere for Trump’s priorities.

The deputy defence secretary said in a statement on Wednesday that “excessive bureaucracy” and “unnecessary spending that set our military back under the previous administration, including through so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs” would end.

Late Friday night, Trump announced on Truth Social, his social media platform, that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was leaving, as well.

• Trump defends Musk and says Doge will look at military spending

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has restored funding for 9/11-related cancer research after Doge attempted to cancel it last week, according to officials.

The $257,000 (£199,000) contract goes towards data processing to compare cancer incidence rates among firefighters exposed to the World Trade Center toxins with firefighters who were not.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said: “9/11 cancer research and funding for FDNY should have never been on the chopping block”.

Trump’s motorcade drove round the Daytona racetrack in the opening event of the season’s Nascar series.

The president’s Air Force One jet gave a flyby for spectators before he met the drivers and led them for a lap around the circuit.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown was fired as the highest-ranking military officer in the country, responsible for advising the president and defence secretary.

On Friday evening, Trump took to social media to announce the departure of Gen Brown, who was the second black officer in US history to hold the post. The president said five other top officers were being replaced.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously said Gen Brown should be fired because of his “woke” focus on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in the military.

• Trump replaces highest-ranking military officer

US President Donald Trump’s remark that his country spent $21m to boost voter turnout in India’s elections has triggered a political slugfest in the country.

He made the remark days after a team led by Elon Musk said it had cancelled the payout as part of its crackdown on a US agency providing foreign aid.

India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called the payout an “external interference” and accused the opposition Congress party of seeking this intervention.

The Congress denied the allegation, calling Trump’s claims “nonsensical”. The US has not provided any evidence to support its claim.

On Friday, India’s foreign ministry said it found the claims “deeply troubling”.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said it was “premature” to make public statements about the matter at this stage and that relevant authorities were investigating it.

Trump vowed to boost the US economy and soon after returning to office, he created the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), led by Musk, to slash federal spending and jobs. Musk says Doge’s mission is to save taxpayer money and cut national debt.

One of its biggest moves – now making global headlines – is a crackdown on USAID, the US agency overseeing humanitarian aid since the 1960s. Musk, who has called USAID a “criminal organisation”, announced on Sunday that funding for several projects had been cancelled.

The cuts included $486m for the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening”, with “$21m for voter turnout in India” and “$22m for inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova”.

Defending Doge’s cuts, Trump said India “had a lot of money” and was among the world’s highest-taxing nations.

On Thursday, he doubled down, questioning the $21m spend on “India’s voter turnout”.

The latest comments came a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first Washington visit under Trump’s second term, where Trump announced expanded military sales, increased energy exports and plans for a trade deal and new defence framework.

“I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected. We have got to tell the Indian government,” the US president said at a summit in Miami.

The same day, BJP leader Amit Malviya shared a clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi speaking at an event in London before the 2024 general election.

In the clip, Gandhi can be heard saying that major democracies like the US and European countries were “oblivious that a huge chunk of democratic model has come undone [in India]”.

“Rahul Gandhi was in London, urging foreign powers – from the US to Europe – to intervene in India’s internal affairs,” Malviya alleged in his post on X.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh dismissed the claim and urged the government to report on USAID’s decades-long support to governmental and non-governmental institutions during PM Modi’s tenure.

Despite widespread reports, neither Doge nor Trump has provided evidence that USAID gave India $21m for voter turnout.

India’s poll panel has not responded, but former election chief SY Qureshi denied receiving such funding during his tenure, which ran from 2010 to 2012.

Earlier, Malviya claimed that in 2012, under Mr Qureshi, the panel signed an agreement with a group linked to George Soros’ foundation – primarily funded by USAID – to support a voter turnout campaign.

Mr Qureshi dismissed the allegation as “malicious”, stating that the agreement explicitly imposed “no financial or legal obligation on either side”.

On Friday, the Indian Express newspaper said in an investigative report that the $21m was sanctioned for Bangladesh and not India.

It was meant to run for three years until July 2025 and that $13.4m had already been spent, according to records accessed by the newspaper.

The leaders of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party have announced plans to dissolve what was once the city’s largest opposition group.

Members will soon vote on the final decision on whether to shut down the 31-year-old party, chairman Lo Kin-hei said.

The party has been struggling to survive following moves by China to crack down on dissent in the city in the wake of the 2019 protests.

Beijing and Hong Kong’s government have argued that such moves were necessary for national security.

As part of the crackdown, Beijing overhauled the former British colony’s polling systems.

The so-called “patriots law” was passed in Hong Kong in 2021 that ensured only people regarded as loyal to the Communist regime in Beijing could serve as lawmakers or local councillors in the semi-autonomous territory.

This law effectively barred the Democratic Party from taking part in elections.

At a late-night press conference on Tuesday after a party meeting, Mr Lo said the party’s leaders had made the call to wind down based on the “current political situation”.

“Developing democracy in Hong Kong is always difficult, and it’s especially difficult in the past few years,” Mr Lo said to reporters.

He did not comment when asked if the party’s leaders’ decision had been made under political pressure.

The party has set up a work group for the shutdown process. At least 75% of its members attending an upcoming general meeting will have to approve the move before it is final. A date for that meeting is yet to be set.

On Wednesday, Hong Kong government adviser Regina Ip accused the Democratic Party of pursuing an agenda that opposed China and “constantly causing trouble inside and outside parliament”.

“Therefore I am not surprised at all that they have been losing supporters in recent years… the Democratic Party has already reached a dead end,” said Ms Ip, co-convener of Hong Kong’s cabinet-like Executive Council.

The Democratic Party was notable for having rare direct negotiations with the Liaison Office – the Chinese Communist government’s representation in Hong Kong – in 2010, to discuss plans for more liberal elections.

Its younger members, however, saw those negotiations as a betrayal. The move triggered a split while the party lost support.

It subsequently regained strength and became the most successful opposition political force in the city after acquiring the most seats in the 2019 local council elections, which took place during the violent anti-government protests.

A number of the Democratic Party’s members – including prominent pro-democracy figures Helena Wong, Lam Cheuk-ting, Wu Chi-wai and Albert Ho – are among the Hong Kong 47 group of campaigners jailed under the controversial national security law.

Another member, former legislator Ted Hui, is now living in Australia in exile and is wanted by the Hong Kong government for alleged national security offences. Earlier this week a court issued an order to confiscate his assets and money in Hong Kong, which are held by his family and a law firm.

In December, Hong Kong stripped the honorary Justice of the Peace title from Martin Lee KC, a key founder of the Democratic Party, after the veteran barrister lost his appeal against an unauthorised assembly conviction.

Driving into Tver, the first thing I notice are the soldiers.

They’re everywhere. On billboards, the sides of buildings, at bus stops. Portraits with the words “Hero of Russia”. Posters of troops with Kalashnikov rifles encouraging the public to “Love, be proud of and defend” Russia.

In other words, to sign up and go and fight in Ukraine. Three years after its full-scale invasion of its neighbour, Russia is seeking new recruits.

Despite all the military imagery around town, if you live in Tver it’s possible to convince yourself that life is normal. The front line is hundreds of miles away.

“Just look around,” Mikhail, a local teacher, tells me. “Cars are passing by and all the shops are open. No shells are falling from anywhere. We are not panicking. We can’t hear any sirens wailing. We do not run to any evacuation points.”

For many Russians their invasion of Ukraine – what the Kremlin still calls a “special military operation” – is something they only encounter on their TV screens.

But for people like Anna, it’s much more real.

“I know a lot of people who went off to fight,” Anna says when we get chatting on the street.

“Some of them never came home. I hope [the war] ends as soon as possible.”

Donald Trump claims that’s what he wants, too. Without inviting Ukraine to the negotiating table, the Trump administration has already entered direct talks with the Russian leadership.

What do Russians make of the US president and his overtures to Moscow?

“Trump is a dark horse,” believes Anna. “I’m not sure what to expect from him.”

Some of the people I talk to in Tver repeat the official narrative they have been hearing for the last three years on state TV: that their country is not the aggressor, that Russia is defending Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine and liberating, not occupying, territory.

It doesn’t mean that Russian society as a whole buys into this alternative reality.

“In a society people always prefer to be in the mainstream,” believes Andrei Kolesnikov, a columnist for newtimes.ru and Novaya Gazeta. “If the mainstream is pro-war and the TV says that we are at war with the West, the average citizen will think like this. It’s easier not to think about the details. You want to live peacefully, so why not join the majority?

“Some researchers call this the foetal position. When you defend yourself from this unexplainable world you look like a baby. You say: ‘I can’t explain to myself what is happening. I believe you. You can feed me with words. I’ll accept it.’ This is typical for all societies of this kind: a bit authoritarian, a bit totalitarian.”

Larissa and her husband Valery willingly accept the official line.

“We’re all for the special military operation,” Larissa tells me. “We’re ready to volunteer and go there ourselves!”

They haven’t yet, clearly.

“We hope [Russia] will be victorious. We want Ukraine’s total capitulation.”

The police turn up. They’ve received a call informing them that “suspicious-looking people with a camera” are going around Tver. Meaning us.

They’re polite but want to know why we’re here. They take a statement from our driver. They check our vehicle. They ask me for an official explanation for our visit. I tell them we’re gauging the mood away from Moscow. We show our documents, which are in order.

While we’ve been talking to the officers, a camera crew from Russian state TV has pitched up and started filming us.

“We were just passing,” says the reporter, “and we spotted the police and recognised you. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” I reply. “Perhaps you can tell us?”

“What have you been filming?”

“We’ve been talking to people on the street,” I say. “I believe we’re allowed to do that.”

“Yes, in our country we have freedom of speech,” the reporter replies. “Perhaps the police just want to help you? It’s unpleasant to hear Western TV spreading fake news that there’s no free speech in Russia. You’re talking to people freely and no one gets in your way.”

“Apart from you,” I point out. “And the police officers standing next to our car.”

The incident, which lasted about an hour, is no real surprise. Three years of war have fuelled suspicion of the West inside Russia. Early signs of a thaw in US-Russian relations have yet to change that.

From talking to people in Tver it becomes clear that Russians are hoping that an end to the fighting will bring economic relief.

“Prices are so high now for the things I need most,” says Yulia as she rocks her baby to sleep in a pram. “Like the price of potatoes and onions. I really feel it.”

But teacher Mikhail doesn’t feel that Donald Trump has any strategy for securing peace.

“Unfortunately, Trump hasn’t got any plan,” believes Mikhail. “He is an improviser. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do. My sympathies are with him. I’m glad he won. But speaking about this episode, we’re all in the dark. And Trump is in the dark himself.”

Planes flying between Australia and New Zealand have been diverted as China conducts a closely-scrutinised military exercise in nearby waters that may involve live fire.

The rare presence of three Chinese naval ships in the Tasman Sea has put both antipodean countries on alert in recent days, with Australia calling it “unusual”.

Australian airline Qantas told the BBC it “temporarily adjusted” the routes of its planes and other carriers have reportedly done the same.

China has said the exercise, which is taking place in international waters, is in accordance with international law.

The ships are now reportedly 340 nautical miles east of the New South Wales coast of Australia, although they were said to have come as close as 150 nautical miles from Sydney at one point.

Australia and New Zealand have been closely monitoring the Chinese fleet – a frigate, a cruiser and a supply tanker – since last week, and have dispatched their own ships to observe them.

Earlier this week, New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins said China had not informed them they would be sending warships to their region and “have not deigned to advise us on what they are doing in the Tasman Sea”, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles said that the ships’ presence was “not unprecedented, but it is an unusual event”.

China’s foreign ministry confirmed on Friday they were doing naval training and exercises in “distant waters”.

“The exercises were conducted in a safe, standard, and professional manner at all times, in accordance with relevant international laws and practices,” spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Chinese fleet issued an alert on Friday that they would start conducting exercises which may involve live fire.

“This is activity that has occurred in waters consistent with international law… there has been no imminent risk of danger to any Australian assets or New Zealand assets,” he said.

But Marles said the Chinese had not directly notified Australian officials when they put out the alert.

“What China did was put out a notification that it was intending to engage in live fire, and by that I mean a broadcast that was picked up by airlines, literally commercial planes that were flying across the Tasman,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, adding that usually such notices would be given 12 to 24 hours in advance.

On Friday an Emirates plane was reportedly informed about the exercise by Chinese authorities, while it was still in the air as it flew from Sydney to Christchurch. The BBC is seeking confirmation.

In a statement to the BBC, Qantas confirmed that it had changed the routes of its planes flying across the Tasman Sea and said it was continually monitoring airspace.

“We continue to work with the Australian government and broader industry to monitor the situation,” it added.

Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand have reportedly done the same.

The drill comes just days after Australia and China held a defence dialogue in Beijing where they had discussed military transparency and communication, among other things.

The two countries have seen several recent tense maritime encounters.

Earlier this month, Canberra said a Chinese fighter jet had released flares in front of an Australian military aircraft while flying over the South China Sea. Beijing said the aircraft had “intentionally intruded” into its airspace.

In May last year, Australia accused a Chinese fighter plane of dropping flares close to an Australian navy helicopter that was part of a UN Security Council mission on the Yellow Sea.

Canberra accused Beijing’s navy of using sonar pulses in international waters off Japan in November 2023, resulting in Australian divers suffering injuries.

The last time India and Pakistan clashed in a major ICC 50-over contest was in 2023, at the highly anticipated World Cup league match in Ahmedabad.

As a contest, it turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax – India, in dominant form, comfortably chased down a subpar Pakistan target, securing a resounding victory.

And as Pakistani fans didn’t get visas to travel to India, aside from the cricket team, the country’s only notable presence was in the media centre.

Sunday’s ICC Champions Trophy clash between the arch-rivals at Dubai International Stadium promises a vastly different atmosphere.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) reported that tickets sold out within minutes – and with the UAE hosting more than 3.7 million Indians and nearly 1.7 million Pakistanis, a vibrant and well-represented crowd from both nations is all but guaranteed.

But can a sea of green flags in the stands inspire Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan’s men to defy the odds in this must-win clash against Rohit Sharma’s India?

Pakistan can take comfort in their strong head-to-head record in UAE – 19 wins in 28 ODIs, plus a lone T20I victory in the 2021 World Cup in Dubai.

Most of Pakistan’s wins against India came at Sharjah during their dominant run in the 1980s and ’90s, winning 18 of 24 games there.

In Dubai, India beat them twice in the 2018 Asia Cup, while both teams won a game each in a 2006 Abu Dhabi series.

Since Pakistan’s glory days in Sharjah, the tide has shifted – apart from the occasional T20I win, India has largely dominated in the new millennium.

Veteran cricket writer Ayaz Memon feels there is no reason to look at India-Pakistan clashes in the UAE through the prism of the past.

”There is no doubt that Pakistan enjoyed tremendous crowd support in the Sharjah days, with the local Pathan population making up the numbers. However, the team then boasted of the likes of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Aamer Sohail and the two Ws [Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis],” Memon says.

“Compare that to the state of the current team, which comes up with some exceptional results from time to time but lacks any form of consistency.”

The glitzy, ever-expanding United Arab Emirates city-state of Dubai offers little sign of a major cricket event – there are no welcome banners at the airport.

Instead, hoardings of Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek and company dominate, as the city is in full swing for the annual Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Head south, and the ‘Ring of Fire’ at Dubai International Stadium emerges from the highway, signalling cricket’s presence.

Towering images of all eight captains line the arena, but for the next two days, all eyes will be on Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Rizwan’s teams as fans worldwide await their fate.

It’s no secret that catering to broadcasters and marketing demands, the ICC consistently places India and Pakistan in the same group for major tournaments. This ensures at least one high-stakes league clash, with the potential for a blockbuster rematch in the knockouts.

At a time when cricket faces overexposure and its international structure is threatened by the rise of T20 franchise leagues, the India-Pakistan rivalry remains its biggest box-office draw.

A big plus about the tight, top-eight team format of the ICC Champions Trophy is that a little slip-up can cost even the heavyweights dear.

”The 50-over World Cup gives you a chance to pull back even if you stumble in the odd game as there are 10 games in the fray. It’s much different here where all three of your group matches are important to proceed to the semi-finals,” India captain Sharma said on the eve of their opening match against Bangladesh.

India cleared their first hurdle with a six-wicket win against Bangladesh on Thursday, powered by Shubman Gill’s classy century (cementing his status as a future ODI captain), Mohammed Shami’s five-wicket haul and a quickfire cameo from skipper Sharma, who crossed the 11,000-run mark in the format.

Jasprit Bumrah’s absence – expected as he recovers from a back spasm sustained in the final Test in Australia – remains a talking point. However, on this wicket, the spotlight is set to shift to the spinners.

Pakistan’s lead-up to the tournament has been a rollercoaster – both unpredictable and vulnerable. Their last three ODIs paint the picture perfectly.

Ten days ago, Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha’s stunning 260-run stand powered Pakistan to a record 353-run chase against South Africa in Karachi, securing a spot in the Tri-series final.

But just two days later, they faltered, looking ordinary as New Zealand cruised to a five-wicket win, denying them a confidence boosting title ahead of the Champions Trophy.

Then on Wednesday, after their bowlers made early inroads, they let the Kiwis off the hook, eventually crashing to a 60-run defeat in their tournament opener.

This has put their backs against the wall ahead of the big game – and what has irked former Pakistan greats is captain Rizwan’s statement that they will take the India match as “just another game”.

History shows that Pakistan thrives in such situations, echoing Imran Khan’s legendary “caged tigers” rallying cry from their triumphant 1992 World Cup campaign.

Yes, the odds favour India, but Pakistan can never be written off on UAE soil. After all, it’s a new day, a fresh battle, and anything can happen in a big game.

It looked small at first, in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Yet as we approached the USS Carl Vinson it filled the view out of the back of the Osprey tilt-rotor which was carrying us there, its deck packed with state-of-the-art warplanes. At nearly 90,000 tonnes, and more than 300 metres in length, the nuclear-powered Carl Vinson is one of the largest warships ever built.

Watching its FA18 and F35 fighter jets being hurled into the air every minute or two by the carrier’s steam catapults is a spine-tingling experience, a procedure managed with impressive composure by the crew on the crowded deck.

An untimely Pacific squall which drenched us and everything else did not slow them at all.

Even after years of rapid advances in Chinese military capabilities, the United States is still unrivalled in its capacity to project force anywhere around the world with its fleet of 11 super-carriers.

But does a $13bn (£10bn) aircraft carrier which the latest Chinese missiles could sink in a matter of minutes make sense any more – particularly in the age of Donald Trump?

We had been invited onto the Carl Vinson to see another side of US carrier strategy, one which emphasises American friendliness, and willingness to work with allies – something you don’t hear much in Washington these days.

The Carl Vinson was taking part in an exercise with two other aircraft carriers and their escorting destroyers from France and Japan, about 200km east of the Philippines. In the absence of wars to fight, US carrier groups spend much of their time doing this, learning how to operate together with allied navies. Last year they held one exercise that brought together ships from 18 navies.

This one was smaller, but was the first in the Pacific involving a French carrier for more than 40 years.

Down in the massive hangar, below the noisy flight deck, Rear Adm Michael Wosje, commander of the Carl Vinson’s strike force, was sitting with his French colleague, Rear Adm Jacques Mallard of the carrier Charles de Gaulle, and his Japanese colleague Rear Adm Natsui Takashi of the Kaga, which is in the process of being converted to Japan’s first aircraft carrier since World War Two.

The Charles de Gaulle is the only warship in the world which matches some of the capabilities of the US super-carriers, but even then is only half their size.

All three admirals were brimming with bonhomie.

The fraught scenes in Europe, where President Trump’s men were ripping up the rule book which underscored the international order for the past 80 years, and telling one-time allies they were now on their own, seemed a world away.

“Our network of strong alliances and partnerships, such as those that we share with France and Japan, is a key advantage of our nations as we confront our collective security challenges,” said Adm Wosje. In impeccable English Adm Mallard concurred: “This exercise is the expression of a will to better understand each other, and to work for the defence of compliance in international law.”

No one mentioned the radical new views emanating from Washington, nor did they mention an increasingly assertive China, although Adm Natsui might have had both in mind when he said Japan now found itself in “the most severe and complex security environment. No country can now protect her own security alone.”

Down in the warren of steel corridors which make up the living quarters of the 5,000 men and women on the Carl Vinson, the official portraits of the new president and vice-president were already hanging, the one of Trump with its now familiar pugilistic glower. We were not permitted to interview the crew, and politics would have been off-limits anyway, but some of those on board were curious what I thought of the new administration.

Internet access on board is spotty, but they do keep in touch with home. We were told they even get Amazon deliveries while at sea, picked up from designated collection points.

It is a fair bet then that there is plenty of discussion of what President Trump has in store for these giants of the navy. Elon Musk has already vowed to bring his cost-cutting wrecking ball to the Pentagon and its $900bn budget, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has welcomed that, although, he stressed, the Pentagon is not USAID which President Trump has vowed to shut down completely.

In the hangar we watched the crew maintaining the aircraft, surrounded by packing cases and spare parts. We were warned not to film any exposed parts of these technological marvels, for fear of revealing classified information. We could not even risk touching the F35 fighters, which have a prohibitively expensive special coating to help conceal them from radar.

They showed us the “Jet Shop” where they repair and test the engines, a technician who identified himself as ‘082 Madeiro’ explained that they needed to carry enough spare parts to keep the planes flying on long deployments, and that after a certain number of hours the engines had to be completely replaced, whether or not they were faulty. There was a brand new engine in its enormous packaging next to him. Cost, around $15m.

Running the Carl Vinson costs around $700m a year.

So will the Trump administration take a knife to the Pentagon budget? Hegseth has said he believes there are significant efficiencies to be found. He has also openly mused about the value of aircraft carriers. “If our whole power projection platform is aircraft carriers, and if 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our ten aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of conflict, what does that look like?”, he said in an interview last November.

The debate about the utility of aircraft carriers is not new. It goes right back to when they first appeared a century ago. Critics today argue that they are too vulnerable to the latest generation of Chinese ballistic and hypersonic missiles, forcing them to stay at a distance from the Chinese coast which would put their aircraft out of range. The money, they say, would be better spent on newer technology.

There is something archaic about these massive, welded hunks of steel, that seemed to have their heyday in the Pacific War of the 1940s. Yet in the vast expanse of the ocean, with few airfields, it has proved difficult to do without them. Supporters argue that, with their escorts of guided-missile destroyers, the super carriers can defend themselves quite well, and that they are still hard to sink. Downsize these carriers, to carry only helicopters or planes which can land and take off vertically as many countries have done, and you end up with vessels which are even more vulnerable.

It is worth noting that China too believes in the value of aircraft carriers; it has already built three. And as floating symbols of US prestige, they may appeal to President Trump, a man known for his love of flamboyant structures, whatever the economic arguments for and against them.

At his Senate confirmation hearing Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration would prioritise increased ship-building, although he did not say how this can be achieved. The US has only four naval shipyards left; China has, by some estimates, more than 200 times the ship-building capacity of the US. He also told his counterparts in Japan and South Korea that he wanted to deepen defence co-operation with them. Europe may be on its own, but it seems Asian allies will get the attention of this White House as it focuses on the strategic challenge posed by China.

Three new Ford-class nuclear carriers, the next generation after the Carl Vinson, are currently under construction, although two will not be in service until the next decade. The plan is to complete ten of this new class of carrier, and so far there have been no indications that the Trump administration wants to change that. For all its many critics, the US super-carrier is probably here to stay.

A New Jersey man who stabbed renowned British-Indian author Sir Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage has been convicted of attempted murder and assault.

Hadi Matar, 27, now faces a sentence of more than 30 years in prison.

The attack in August 2022 left Sir Salman with severe injuries including damage to his liver, vision loss in one eye and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm.

The jury’s guilty verdict on Friday came after a two-week trial in Chautauqua County Court in western New York state, near the site of the attack.

The jury also found Matar guilty of assault for wounding the interviewer, Henry Reese, who was on stage with the author. Mr Reese suffered a minor head injury during the attack.

Matar’s sentencing date has been scheduled for 23 April.

Sir Salman, 77, testified that he was on stage at the historic Chautauqua Institution when he saw a man rushing towards him.

Recalling the incident, he said he was struck by the assailant’s eyes, “which were dark and seemed very ferocious”.

He initially thought he had been punched, before realising he had been stabbed – 15 times in total – with wounds to his eye, cheek, neck, chest, torso and thigh.

The attack took place more than 35 years after Sir Salman’s novel, The Satanic Verses, was first published.

The novel, inspired by the life of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, sparked outrage among some Muslims, who considered its content to be blasphemous. The book was banned in some countries after it was published in 1988.

Sir Salman faced countless death threats and was forced into hiding for nine years after Iran’s religious leader issued a fatwa – or decree – calling for the author’s death due to the book.

But in recent years, the author said he believed the threats against him had diminished.

During the trial’s closing arguments on Friday, prosecuting lawyer Jason Schmidt played a video in slow-motion of the attack, the Associated Press reports.

“I want you to look at the targeted nature of the attack,” Mr Schmidt said in court, according to the news outlet. “There were a lot of people around that day but there was only one person who was targeted,” he told the jury.

During the two-week trial, defence lawyer Andrew Brautigan argued that prosecutors had failed to prove Matar intended to kill Sir Salman. Matar had pleaded not guilty.

His lawyers declined to call any witnesses of their own and Matar did not testify in his defence.

In an interview with the New York Post from jail in 2022, Matar praised Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, for calling for Sir Salman’s execution.

“I don’t think he’s a very good person,” Matar said about the author. “He’s someone who attacked Islam.”

He added that he had only read a few pages of the Satanic Verses.

Matar, born in Fairview in New Jersey to parents who emigrated from Lebanon, has also been charged in a separate federal case with providing material support to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, according to an indictment unsealed in July.

Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organisation by Western states, Israel, Gulf Arab countries and the Arab League.

Germany’s rival political leaders will take their fight for votes right to the last minute in a push that reflects the pivotal nature of Sunday’s election, not just for their country but for Europe as a whole.

Conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz told supporters that under his leadership, Germany would take responsibility in Europe, and that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would be consigned to the political margins once more.

He will end his Christian Democrat party’s campaign with a rally in Munich, while his rivals will make a final appeal in a TV “speed-dating” programme with voters.

For months German politics has been paralysed by the collapse of the previous government.

Now, hopes have been raised across Europe that this vote will bring some certainty to the EU’s biggest democracy and its biggest economy, which has struggled to escape from lingering recession.

Nothing will change overnight. No party can govern without forming a coalition, and that will take weeks.

Reviving the economy has been one of the two big issues of the campaign; the other has been migration and security, thrust on Germany’s politicians by a series of deadly attacks since May 2024.

The cities of Mannheim, Solingen, Magdeburg, Aschaffenburg and Munich have all suffered grievous attacks.

All the alleged attackers were immigrants, and the AfD under Alice Weidel has advanced to about 20% in the polls with its nationalist, anti-immigration message.

She has appealed to younger voters on social media, and is far ahead in the race on TikTok, with 866,000 followers. She has also been buoyed by support from both billionaire Elon Musk and US Vice-President JD Vance, who has been accused of meddling in the German campaign.

The AfD talks of securing Germany’s borders and deporting migrants who came illegally and committed crimes. But she uses the word “remigration” which has also been linked to mass deportations.

In Solingen, where a Syrian was accused of stabbing to death three people last August, hundreds of people turned out on Friday night to speak out against the rise of the far right.

“We have a lot of friends who grew up in Germany whose parents did not,” said one woman called Natalie, 35. “We don’t want anybody to kick them out and we don’t want our borders closed.”

One man called Jochen held up a sign that read “Never Again is Now!”

There was a large police presence at the protest, and a police union spokesman said on Friday there was a risk of attacks aimed at destabilising democracy.

All the mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD in government, but if it polls higher than 20% it could double its number of seats to 150 in the 630-seat parliament.

Merz’s most likely partner is Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, although probably without Scholz himself. The message from his centre-left SPD as the final day of campaigning began was that every vote counts, and if Germans wanted a strong government they needed a strong SPD.

The Social Democrats are languishing in third in the polls, but Scholz is pinning his hopes on an estimated one in five undecided voters who could make a big difference.

Friedrich Merz was in a relaxed and confident mood when he appeared on stage this week in front of 1,200 supporters in the tech-hub city of Darmstadt near Frankfurt. But his message was stark as he turned his thoughts to Donald Trump’s presidency.

One hand in his pocket and the other holding the microphone, he spoke of unprecedented times and a “tectonic shift in the world’s centres of power”.

“A political order is now crumbling. What we have become used to for decades is breaking down.” He was not even sure if the US would join Germany in celebrating the 70th year of its accession to Nato in the summer.

He castigated the outgoing government for failing to take a leading role on the international stage.

“The German government and chancellor must finally take on a leading role in Europe again. If I’m elected I will spend a significant part of my time keeping this European Union together.”

Find out more about Germany’s elections:

Who’s who and what you need to know

Merz: Risk-taker who flirted with far right

Katya Adler: Far right looks for breakthrough as Germany falters

Tensions laid bare as Germans worry about immigration

Germans have had almost nightly opportunities to see their political leaders thrash out the big issues in TV debates, and Alice Weidel has been in the thick of them, sharing the stage with both Merz and Scholz.

In the run-up to the vote she met Vice-President JD Vance, who castigated German politicians for raising a “firewall” against the far right and of ignoring “the will of the voters”.

That firewall – in German – has held strong since the end of the war, although Merz himself was accused of breaking it when he relied on the support of the AfD last month in a motion on migration.

He has faced demonstrations ever since, and there was a noisy protest when he visited Darmstadt.

PhD student Annika, 29, held a Herz statt Merz banner – love instead of Merz. “He says he won’t do something with the far-right AfD, but his actions contradict what he says. I don’t trust him at all.”

Merz appears to have been stung by the outcry and has sought to reassure voters there will be “no tolerance, no minority government [with the AfD], nothing at all”.

Beloved Australian soap drama Neighbours has been cancelled again, two years after it was saved by Amazon MGM Studios.

Without specifying a reason, Amazon confirmed the series will finish at the end of 2025 – 40 years and more than 9,000 episodes after its television debut.

It was dropped by Channel 5 in 2022, but revived by Amazon for its streaming platforms just four months after a star-studded farewell episode watched by millions.

The soap – which helped launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie – has long been a huge hit with Australian and UK audiences, and last year received its first Emmy nomination.

A statement on the show’s social media said the soap would be “resting” from December.

“Audiences all around the world have loved and embraced Neighbours for four decades and we are very proud of the huge success over the last two years,” executive producer Jason Herbison wrote.

“We value how much the fans love Neighbours and we believe there are more stories of the residents of Ramsay Street to tell in the future,” Mr Hebrison added, hinting that the producers will again hunt for a new backer.

New episodes will continue to air on Amazon Prime Video and Australia’s Channel Ten four times a week until the end of 2025.

In a statement, Amazon MGM Studios said it was “proud” to have played “a small part” in Neighbours history.

“Forty years is an incredible milestone,” a spokesperson said.

Fans vented their disappointment at the decision.

One wrote on social media: “I refuse point blank to accept that they will try to take @neighbours from me AGAIN!!! It’s sometimes the only 20 minutes in the day I can escape. Absolutely blooming well not!!”

Someone else wrote: “I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve logged into @primevideouk to be greeted by #Neighbours sitting at the top of the weekly charts.

“Now @amazon have cancelled the soap. At least a few of us will save money when we cancel though, right?”

Another said: “Will be so sad to say goodbye again, the joy & comfort this show has given for 40 years.”

Set and filmed in Melbourne, Neighbours was first broadcast in Australia in 1985 and launched on BBC One a year later.

The show has lately featured more diverse characters and storylines, amid questions over how well it reflected modern Australia. It featured the first same-sex marriage on Australian TV.

It also had its controversies, however. A number of actors recently came forward with racism allegations, prompting production company Fremantle Media to promise a review.

News of the show’s cancellation comes after actor Ian Smith – who plays Ramsay Street stalwart Harold Bishop – last year announced he would leave the show, revealing he has terminal cancer.

It also follows cutbacks elsewhere to TV soaps, including to the numbers of episodes of British shows Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks.

Hamas says it has handed over a body to the Red Cross which it claims is that of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas.

It comes after Israel said forensic testing showed a body handed over on Thursday – said by Hamas to be Shiri Bibas – was not that of the Israeli mother but a different unidentified woman.

Israeli medical authorities said they were preparing to conduct an identification test on the body.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was in contact with the Bibas family.

A senior Hamas official confirmed to the BBC the handover of the new body had taken place on Friday evening.

Israel earlier accused Hamas of breaking the terms of the ceasefire deal after forensic testing showed the remains of Shiri Bibas had not been handed back on Thursday.

The bodies of her sons Ariel and Kfir Bibas were returned to Israel, as was that of another hostage, Oded Lifschitz.

Hamas claimed the children and their mother were killed by Israeli bombing, without providing evidence.

In a post on X on Friday, Hamas spokesman Ismail al-Thawabta said Shiri’s remains seemed to have been mixed up with other bodies under rubble after the air strike.

Israel has disputed the claim that Ariel and Kfir Bibas were killed in an airstrike, with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari telling a press conference “forensic findings”, which have not been seen by the BBC, suggested the boys had been killed “deliberately”.

He said evidence had been shared with Israel’s “partners around the world so they can verify it”.

Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were aged 32, four and nine months when they were kidnapped during the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.

They were taken hostage along with the children’s father Yarden Bibas, 34, who was released alive by Hamas on 1 February.

In the Hamas attacks of 7 October, about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages.

In response, Israel launched a massive military campaign against Hamas which has killed at least 48,319 Palestinians – mainly civilians – according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

A man has been seriously injured in a knife attack near Berlin’s Holocaust memorial.

The incident took place at around 18:00 local time (17:00 GMT), police said on X, adding that investigations into what happened “are ongoing”.

Images showed emergency vehicles and armed police lined along one side of the memorial site. Officers cordoned off the site and were searching the area.

The victim – a 30-year-old Spanish tourist – has been transported to hospital with wounds not thought to be life threatening.

Police have arrested a male suspect. It is not clear whether the attacker was known to the victim.

They also said they did not know what the weapon was.

Many officers have been deployed to the area in the aftermath, with a police statement on X saying there are also rescue workers on site “caring for several people who witnessed the events”.

The attack appears to have taken place on the northern side of the memorial – opposite which sits the US Embassy.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which covers 19,000 sq metres, is described as being Germany’s central Holocaust memorial.

Hours after the attack in the German capital, Swedish police said they had apprehended three men near the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, on suspicion of preparing to commit violent crime.

“We are unable to comment on the potential motive,” police spokesperson Susanna Rinaldo told the Reuters news agency.

There has been no suggestion that the attack in Berlin and arrests in Stockholm are linked.

The stabbing comes just days before federal elections are held in Germany.

When Sir Keir Starmer visits the White House next Thursday, he will be treading a fine diplomatic line.

He will want to maintain his support for President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine’s government. But he will also want to gain the ear of President Donald Trump over the talks he has begun with Russia to end the war.

All this while keeping out of the venomous verbal crossfire between Washington and Kyiv.

That will be no easy task.

Transatlantic relations are in pieces. The US president has upended America’s longstanding support for Ukraine and sidelined Europe in the process.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth says European security is no longer a US priority. Vice-President JD Vance attacks the very nature of European democracy.

It is into this cauldron of ideological enmity that Sir Keir will seek a hearing when he meets the president and his team at the White House.

So what can and should the prime minister do?

Diplomats say he has one advantage over European allies, namely his permanence. Trump, they say, knows Sir Keir is one of the few European leaders who will stay in power throughout his presidency. Trump, it is said, likes the fact the prime minister has a healthy parliamentary majority.

“I get along with him well,” Trump told the BBC a few weeks ago. “I like him a lot. He’s liberal, which is a bit different from me, but I think he’s a very good person and I think he’s done a very good job thus far.”

But warm words and familiarity do not pay for lunch inside the Washington beltway.

What could Sir Keir offer the famously transactional president? He has already made a downpayment by offering to deploy British boots on the ground in Ukraine as part of a post-war reassurance force.

This angered some European leaders who thought it premature and divisive. It also risked Europe getting excluded from discussions about more fundamental issues such as Ukraine’s territory and sovereignty. But the troops offer may gain Sir Keir some diplomatic brownie points in the West Wing.

The other thing Sir Keir could offer Trump is the strongest possible language he can muster promising to increase UK defence spending. Starmer is not expected to announce when he will meet his target of spending 2.5% of national income on defence. But he may talk up both the UK’s commitment and his calls for other European allies to do likewise.

Sir Alex Younger, former chief of MI6, told BBC Two’s Newsnight: “We need to demonstrate that we are prepared to play a role, take control of our own environment, recognise that we have got to develop our power and that has got to happen quickly.”

But diplomats say the main argument Starmer must make is to convince Trump that a fast deal on Russian terms would be against his own interests. Namely that the terms of any ceasefire – its fairness, its permanence, its safeguards – were as important as any short term cessation of hostilities. In other words, that there is no point in having a triumphant ceasefire agreement which does not survive for long, risking Trump’s reputation.

“If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history, the man who brought peace and ended this war,” Lord Darroch, the former UK ambassador to the US, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“But it has to be a fair deal. If it’s a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books.”

Key to that would be urging Trump to put pressure on Vladmir Putin by threatening to seize frozen Russian assets, increase support for Ukraine and tighten up sanctions.

But the risks of the prime minister’s trip are huge. The famously thin-skinned president could take offence at Sir Keir’s outright contradiction of his claim that Zelensky is a dictator. He could be irritated by Sir Keir’s insistence that any European reassurance force deployed to Ukraine must have a US “backstop”, expected in the form of aircover.

The diplomatic pitfalls of cross words and cancelled press conferences will be troubling the minds of British officials as they prepare for the trip. They will be acutely aware President Emmanuel Macron of France will be in Washington before them on Monday, competing for Mr Trump’s ear.

Sir Keir likes to say that in these troubled times, the UK can once again become a bridge between Europe and the US. France may be keen for that role too.

Another potential point of tension will be trade. Team Trump is promising to impose tariffs on UK goods entering the US that match VAT levied on American goods entering the UK. One argument the UK could make is that hitting British and European trade will make it harder for them to spend more on defence. But officials say that would be a hard argument to make to a president who thinks Europe is ripping off the US both economically and militarily.

The greatest risk, however, is that no manner of charm, politics or diplomacy may touch the sides of this new administration, that there is simply no transactional offer that can bridge the vast ideological divide that now exists between Europe and the US. That may be the cold hard lesson the British delegation learns in Washington.

“We are living in a US presidency which is based on great power diplomacy,” one official said. “If we can work within that, fine. If not, God help us.”

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US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky have entered a war of words after the US leader initiated talks with Russia about ending the conflict, but did not include Ukraine.

After Zelensky said Trump was in a “disinformation space”, Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” – a remark condemned by Kyiv’s allies.

The two have traded barbs in the past, but Zelensky has usually tried to toe a diplomatic line with Trump.

Here is a look back at what the two have said to, and about, one another, and how their public relationship has developed over the years.

21 April 2019: On the day Zelensky is elected president of Ukraine, Trump, still in his first term, calls Zelensky to congratulate him. Trump says it was an “incredible election” and adds that “you will do a great job”.

2019: Allies of Trump begin stoking allegations that Joe Biden, then Democratic frontrunner for president, lobbied Ukraine to dismiss its top prosecutor to stymie an investigation into energy firm Burisma, of which his son, Hunter, sat on the board. The allegations were later found to be fabricated, and the prosecutor was removed from office for corruption.

25 July 2019: In a phone conversation that would become the basis for Trump’s first impeachment, Trump asks Zelensky to “get to the bottom” of the allegations. Zelensky says the evidence would reviewed later that year.

29 September 2020: In the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden, Trump alludes to the allegations, saying: “Once you became vice-president, [Hunter] made a fortune in Ukraine and China and Moscow and various other places.”

24 February 2022: Russia begins its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Trump describes as “appalling”. He adds that Zelensky is “brave” for remaining in Kyiv, and claims the invasion “would never have happened” if he had been elected in 2020.

5 March 2023: “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, I will have the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine settled,” Trump tells a conservative conference. “And it will take me no longer than one day.”

May 2024: Zelensky’s term expires but he remains in office, as scheduled elections in Ukraine do not go ahead because the nation remains under martial law. He previously said that “now is not the time for elections”.

22 September 2024: Zelensky tells the New Yorker magazine: “My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even if he might think he knows how.” He adds that “many” leaders have thought they could, but have been unable to.

25 September 2024: On the campaign trail, Trump accuses Zelensky of “making little nasty aspersions toward your favourite president, me”, adding: “Any deal, even the worst deal, would have been better than what we have right now.”

27 September 2024: Zelensky and Trump meet in New York. Zelensky says they have a “common view that the war has to be stopped and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can’t win”, while Trump says he will resolve the war “very quickly”.

6 November 2024: Trump is re-elected US president. Zelensky is among the first world leaders to call to congratulate him, writing shortly after that he looked forward to a “strong” US under Trump’s “decisive leadership”.

22 January 2025: “It’s time to MAKE A DEAL,” Trump writes on Truth Social. “We can do it the easy way or the hard way.” He adds that without a deal, he will be forced to place further economic restrictions on Russia.

23 January 2025: Trump tells the World Economic Forum that Zelensky “wants to make a deal” but Putin “might not”.

15 February 2025: Zelensky writes that he has begun working with Trump’s team, adding: “The world is looking up to America as the power that has the ability to not only stop the war but also help ensure the reliability of peace afterward.”

18 February 2025: US-Russia talks about ending the war begin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Zelensky tells reporters that the talks took place “behind Ukraine’s back”, adding: “Once again, decisions about Ukraine are being made without Ukraine.”

18 February 2025: After the talks, Trump says he was “disappointed” by Ukraine’s reaction and appeared to blame Ukraine for starting the war, adding that the country “could have made a deal” earlier.

19 February 2025: Zelensky says the US president is caught in a Russian “disinformation space”. He adds: “We are standing strong on our own two feet. I am counting on… the unity of Europe and the pragmatism of America.”

19 February 2025: Trump accuses Zelensky of talking the US into spending $350bn (£277bn), and of claiming that half of that money was now missing. Trump calls Zelensky a “dictator” who has “done a terrible job”.

European nations may need to offer reliable security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia if the US will not, the former head of the UK armed forces has said.

Retired General Sir Nick Carter said ensuring Ukraine’s sovereignty was fundamental to a fair deal, and that Europe must set out its vision of peace that deters Russian aggression.

He said the UK could take a lead in doing this, ahead of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with US President Donald Trump next week.

US efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to an end have recently caused a growing rift between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and sparked discussions among European leaders.

The US has announced it will soon begin direct negotiations with Russia on a peace deal as the Trump administration seeks to take a smaller role in securing Europe.

However some of Trump’s recent remarks about Ukraine and its leader have caused concern about the direction those talks may go. On Thursday night, Zelensky said Ukraine needed “reliable and well-defined” security guarantees.

Gen Carter, who was chief of the UK’s defence staff between 2018 and 2021, said it was for Ukraine to decide what a “fair settlement” to end the war meant.

But the UK and other European allies needed to make clear their position on “what the minimum acceptable level might be”, he told a BBC One Question Time special on the war in Ukraine.

“Fundamentally, there has got to be some form of guarantee of Ukraine’s sovereignty in the future.

“That means there’s got to be a copper bottom security guarantee, and if America’s not prepared to do that then some others are going to have to step up to the plate to provide that.

“You can add to it accession to the European Union, you can add a viable economy – there are other ingredients that would look like a just and viable peace. But the bottom line is a security guarantee.”

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Sir Keir has previously said a “US security guarantee” is “the only way to effectively deter Russia”.

But he also said the UK would be willing to provide peacekeeping troops if a US “backstop” was provided. Allies have suggested this could involve US air support, logistics and intelligence capabilities.

Trump said earlier this week that he “would not object” to Europe sending in peacekeeping troops, but the US “won’t have to put any over there”.

Washington has suggested more generally that Europe needs to take greater responsibility for its own defence.

Gen Carter warned the UK armed forces were “remarkably hollow” after a “process of neglect over a 30-year period”.

“We are in a position, I think, where we are massively vulnerable at the moment,” he said, describing how much of the UK’s critical infrastructure was dependent on undersea cables or “not properly protected by cyber defences”.

He continued: “Whether we like it or not, that means we’re going to have to start protecting ourselves.

“And the sort of onslaught that Ukraine has suffered from the air via drones and missiles over the course of the last three years is unsustainable as far as the UK’s concerned.

“We might be able to park a destroyer in the Thames to protect parts of London but nothing more than that.”

In the US, the prime minister is expected to maintain his support for Zelensky and Ukraine while seeking to gain Trump’s ear over talks with Russia.

He will visit the White House after French President Emmanuel Macron, who is seeking to co-ordinate a European response.

China, a vital partner for Russia, has offered its support for the US-Russia talks, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying “a window for peace is opening”.

But Foreign Secretary David Lammy appeared sceptical of whether Moscow was serious about peace, after listening to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov’s speech at a G20 summit in South Africa.

He said the UK was “ready to listen” to Russia if it was serious about peace and rejected “Tsarist imperialism”.

During Thursday’s programme, Ukrainian refugees in the audience spoke about the trauma of seeing their country torn apart by war.

One woman began crying as she said she wanted to return home to her parents, adding: “I wish I would see my family all together.”

Millions of Ukrainians have fled their homeland since Russia’s full-scale invasion began nearly three years ago.

Accurate casualty counts are hard to come by, but it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, have been killed or injured in the conflict which continues to rage while talks begin.

At least six people were killed in Russian strikes on three separate regions on Thursday, according to local authorities.

Meanwhile, on the frontlines, Russia has been gaining ground faster than at any time since the start of the war.

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A meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and some of the country’s foremost business leaders this week has fuelled excitement and speculation, after Alibaba founder Jack Ma was pictured at the event.

The charismatic and colourful Mr Ma, who was one of China’s most prominent businessmen, had withdrawn from public life after criticising China’s financial sector in 2020.

His reappearance at Monday’s event has sparked a wave of discussion, with experts and analysts wondering what it means for him, China’s tech sector and the economy in general.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive – tech stocks, including those of Alibaba, rallied soon after the event.

On Thursday, the e-commerce giant reported financial results that beat expectations, with shares ending the trading day in New York more than 8% higher. The company’s shares are up 60% since the beginning of the year.

So what are analysts reading into Mr Ma’s appearance at the event alongside other high-profile guests – including DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng?

Analysts began looking for clues about the significance of the meeting as soon as Chinese state media started releasing pictures of the event.

“Jack Ma’s attendance, his seating in the front row, even though he did not speak, and his handshake with Xi are clear signs he has been rehabilitated,” China analyst Bill Bishop wrote.

Social media was abuzz with users praising Mr Ma for his return to the public spotlight.

“Congratulations [Jack] Ma for the safe landing,” said one user on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

“The comeback of [Jack] Ma is a shot in the arm to the current Chinese economy,” said another.

It is unsurprising that observers have attached so much significance to an appearance by Mr Ma.

Before his disappearance from public life in 2020 – following comments at a financial conference that China’s state-owned banks had a “pawn-shop mentality” – Mr Ma was the poster boy for China’s tech industry.

An English teacher with no background in computing, Mr Ma co-founded Alibaba in his apartment more than two decades ago after convincing a group of friends to invest in his online marketplace.

He went on to build one of China’s largest tech conglomerates and become one of the country’s richest men.

That was before his “pawn shop” comment, when he also lamented the “lack of innovation” in the country’s banks.

It led to the cancellation of his $34.5bn (£27.4bn) stock market flotation of Ant Group, his financial technology giant.

This was seen at the time as an attempt by Beijing to humble a company that had become too powerful, and a leader who had become too outspoken.

Analysts agree that the fact he’s back in the spotlight, at a symposium where Xi Jinping himself presided, is a very good sign for Mr Ma.

Some caution, however, that the fact he was not among the speakers may show that he has not fully returned to the exalted status he once enjoyed.

Also, the lack of coverage his attendance received in Chinese media outlets seems to confirm he has not been completely rehabilitated.

Xi Jinping told participants at the symposium that their companies needed to innovate, grow and remain confident despite China’s economic challenges, which he described as “temporary” and “localised”.

He also said it was the “right time for private enterprises and private entrepreneurs to fully display their talents”.

This has been widely interpreted as the government telling private tech firms that they too are back in good graces.

Mr Ma’s downfall had preceded a broader crackdown on China’s tech industry.

Companies came to face much tighter enforcement of data security and competition rules, as well as state control over important digital assets.

Other companies across the private sector, ranging from education to real estate, also ended up being targeted in what came to be known as the “common prosperity” campaign.

The measures put in place by the common prosperity policies were seen by some as a way to rein in the billionaire owners of some of China’s biggest companies, to instead give customers and workers more of a say in how firms operate and distribute their earnings.

But as Beijing imposed tough new regulations, billions of dollars were wiped off the value of some of these companies – many of them tech firms – rattling international investors.

This, along with a worsening global economy that was affected by the pandemic as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has contributed to considerable changes in China’s economic situation.

Growth has slowed, jobs for the country’s youth have become more scarce and, amid a property sector downturn, people are not spending enough.

As rumours that Mr Ma would attend Monday’s meeting began to spread, so did a glimmer of hope. Richard Windsor, director of technology at research firm Counterpoint, said Mr Ma’s presence would be a sign that China’s leadership “had enough of stagnation and could be prepared to let the private sector have a much freer hand”.

Aside from Mr Ma and Mr Liang, the list of guests also included key figures from companies such as telecommunications and smartphone firm Huawei, electric-vehicle (EV) giant BYD, and many others from across the tech and industrial sectors.

“The [guest] list showcased the importance of internet/tech/AI/EV sectors given their representation of innovation and achievement,” said a note from market analysts at Citi.

“[It] likely indicates the importance of technology… and the contribution of private enterprises to the development and growth of China’s economy.”

Those present at the meeting seemed to share that sentiment. Lei Jun, the chief executive of consumer electronics giant Xiaomi, told state media that he senses the president’s “care and support” for businesses.

The symposium took place after the country experienced what some observers have described as a “Sputnik moment”: the arrival of DeepSeek’s disruptive R1 artificial intelligence (AI) model at the end of last month.

Soon after its release, the Chinese-made AI chatbot rose through the ranks to become one of the most downloaded in the world. It also triggered a sudden sell-off of major US tech stocks, as fears mounted over America’s leadership in the sector.

Back in China, the app’s global success has sparked a wave of national pride that has quickly spread to financial markets. Investment has been pouring into Chinese stocks – particularly those of tech companies – listed in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has also upgraded its outlook for Chinese stocks, saying rapid AI adoption could boost companies’ revenues and attract as much as $200bn of investment.

But the biggest significance of this innovation was that it came as a result of DeepSeek having to innovate due to a ban on the export of advanced chips and technology to China.

Now, with Trump back in the White House and his fondness of trade tariffs, Mr Xi may have found it necessary to recalibrate his approach to China’s entrepreneurs.

Instead of a return to an era of unregulated growth, some analysts believe Monday’s meeting signalled an attempt to steer investors and businesses toward Mr Xi’s national priorities.

The Chinese president has been increasingly emphasising policies that the government has referred to as “high-quality development” and “new productive forces”.

Such ideas have been used to reflect a switch from what were previously fast drivers of growth, such as property and infrastructure investment, towards high-end industries such as semiconductors, clean energy and AI.

The goal is to achieve “socialist modernisation” by 2035 – higher living standards for everyone, and an economy driven by advanced manufacturing and less reliant on imports of foreign technology.

Mr Xi knows that to get there he will need the private sector fully on board.

“Rather than marking the end of tech sector scrutiny, [Jack Ma’s] reappearance suggests that Beijing is pivoting from crackdowns to controlled engagement,” an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, Marina Zhang told the BBC.

“While the private sector remains a critical pillar of China’s economic ambitions, it must align with national priorities – including self-reliance in key technologies and strategic industries.”

The Nature inFocus Photography competition celebrates photographers who capture powerful moments in natural history and highlight critical conservation issues.

Each year, the contest showcases a stunning array of imaginative and artistic images, while raising awareness of the environment.

Winners are selected according to a series of categories: Animal Behaviour, Animal Portraits, Conservation Focus, Creative Nature Photography, Wildscape & Animals in Their Habitat and Photographer of the Year – Portfolio.

Below is a selection of the winning entries.

A school of hardyhead silverside fish moves with remarkable precision, twisting and turning in unison as they attempt to evade a group of blacktip reef sharks in Athuruga, Maldives.

As night falls over the water, Alpine newts begin their silent hunt. They glide between clusters of frog eggs, each one carefully positioning itself for a meal before the darkness deepens.

Kuwani, a renowned tigress of Kolsa, remains a dominant force, even at the age of 14.

A wild boar unknowingly ventures too close to the tigress, unaware of the imminent danger. In a flash, she springs into action, her muscles tensed and claws unsheathed.

Kolsa is a region within the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, located in the state of Maharashtra, India.

A leopard climbs a tree, her cub observing from below before instinctively following her lead.

Captured by a camera trap near Mysore in India, this intimate moment highlights the strong bond between mother and cub, while also offering a glimpse into the natural instincts of the leopard.

In the waters of Wilpattu National Park in Sri Lanka, a water buffalo emerges from a swim, its head adorned with a garland of floating weeds.

A devotee stands in the Yamuna River, New Delhi, offering prayers to the sun.

Once revered as sacred, the river now ranks among the world’s most polluted, overwhelmed by industrial waste, sewage, and agricultural run-off.

In Austria, a group of snails rests lightly on blades of grass, their delicate forms illuminated against a glowing backdrop, creating a striking sense of fragility.

High in the Andean mountains of Ecuador, Tony, a large, male spectacled bear, shelters from the midday heat beneath the shade of a century-old fig tree draped in Spanish moss.

At sunrise in Hokkaido, Japan, red-crowned cranes move through a veil of mist, their graceful forms resembling brushstrokes on a canvas.

This year, the coveted Photographer of the Year Portfolio award went to Supun Dilshan for Trapped Between Worlds, a striking visual story that draws attention to the struggles of Sri Lankan elephants.

The images show the increasingly dire situation faced by these majestic animals, as they try to survive in environments that are being rapidly altered by human activities.

A damselfly gazes through a hole in a vibrant green leaf, offering a rare glimpse into its delicate world in Sundarganj, Bangladesh.

The contrast between the insect’s slender form and the leaf’s textured surface underscores the intricate beauty of nature’s hidden wonders.

All photos courtesy Nature inFocus Photography Awards

From pilfering chips to swallowing whole starfish, gulls are known for their voracious appetites.

However, one scientist was so astounded to see pictures on social media of gulls eating “weird and wonderful things” that she launched a citizen science project to study their shifting diets.

University of Salford ecologist Dr Alice Risely wants people to upload their snaps of hungry gulls to the project’s website, Gulls Eating Stuff.

“By studying gulls’ diet, we can learn more about their behaviour, their role in ecosystems and the pressures they face in a changing world,” she said.

UK seabirds face threats from warming oceans, overfishing and avian flu.

Gull populations are in decline, with several species on the UK red list of conservation concern.

Some gulls are coming to live closer to people, adding human leftovers to their natural menu of fish, crabs, starfish and earthworms.

The birds may be flocking to urban areas to find food to feed their chicks during the breeding season, switching back to a natural diet once their youngsters have fledged.

Alternatively, gulls may be relying on human leftovers for much of the year as the natural food supply dwindles.

“The fact is we just really don’t know – there is very little data,” said Dr Risely.

“This is why we wanted to exploit this resource of online photos to try and help us understand what the gulls are eating, and if there are any patterns we can find.”

One particularly striking photograph shows a gull eating a baby puffin.

It was taken by scientist Samuel Schmidt on a trip to the Farne Islands in Northumberland.

Getting more information on what gulls are eating – in proximity to people and as the climate changes – “could be very enlightening”, he said.

“The gull wasn’t malicious; it was just hungry,” he added.

Gulls are known to eat other birds, including pigeons.

The UK is known for its huge colonies of seabirds nesting on cliffs – but populations are plummeting amid a host of pressures, from climate change to a lack of food.

• Five seabirds added to UK red list of most concern

Gulls are in trouble in their natural spaces – and some species, such as herring gulls and lesser black-backed gulls are seeking refuge in coastal cities.

There is very little data on the number of urban gulls – but natural populations are regularly monitored, showing big declines.

Three gull species are on the UK red list of conservation concern:

• The great black-backed gull – a very large gull with black wings and a powerful beak that nests around the coast, on clifftops, rooftops and islands
• The common gull – a medium-sized gull scarcer than its name suggests that nests around lakes in the north of England and Scotland
• The grey-backed and pink-legged herring gull.

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A theatre-lover was “astonished” to find a 119-year-old message in a bottle during a special behind-the-scenes tour of Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre.

Mike Hume was on scaffolding 40ft (12m) above the stage when he put his hand in a gap behind an ornate crown decoration and found the century-old bottle.

After months of painstaking effort, experts managed to extract the note from inside and found a list of the people who built the theatre in 1906.

Mr Hume, who is one of the theatre’s donors, was on the tour of its £40m restoration works when he made the find.

The 48-year-old said it was curiosity that caused him to reach behind the crown.

“It really was like a scene out of Indiana Jones,” he said.

“It was a bit damp and there was all this crumbly plaster and stuff in there – then my hand stumbled on this solid object and I pulled out this glass bottle.”

Although the top of the bottle had been dipped in plaster, to keep it sealed, Mr Hume could see a note inside.

Using his phone to photograph the folded-up note he could just about make out the name in handwritten ink – “W S Cruikshank” – the contractor who built the Edwardian theatre.

Theatre bosses were unable to open the bottle after it was found on 6 December so it was sent to specialists who carefully cut the bottom off.

Inside was a note which had become glued together with age, so experts used special techniques and chemicals to prise it apart.

BBC Scotland News asked the genealogy service Findmypast to help uncover the story behind the men who left the note.

The top name on the list was prominent Edinburgh builder William Stewart Cruickshank, who was just over 50 when he embarked on the King’s Theatre project.

He was born in Aberlour in Banffshire and later married Jane Taylor Beck, with whom he had seven children.

Next on the list is the theatre’s head architect, John Daniel Swanston, who was born in Dundee in 1868 and educated at Dollar Academy.

He opened his own architectural practice in Kirkcaldy in 1895 and specialised in theatre, cinema and public house work.

He died in 1956 in Newton Mearns, in the south of Glasgow, at the home of his daughter Dr Muriel Swanston.

Another architect named in the letter was James Davidson, who was born in Airdrie in 1848, the son of a weaver.

He was educated at Airdrie Academy and initially trained as a joiner but later became an architect.

The third architect was John Tulloch, who was born in January 1847 in East Lothian.

Draughtsman John Alexander Cameron, foreman plasterer George King and foreman William Begg are also listed in the note as well as plasterers John Hutchinson, Andrew S Law and William Hunter.

Extra details found by Findmypast about the men has been handed over by BBC Scotland to the theatre.

Curators will use the extensive research to make a display in an new exhibition room in the theatre along with the bottle and note.

The King’s Theatre cost £50,000 to build in 1905. The current redevelopment, which started in 2018, will cost £40.7m.

Two lifts are being fitted and staircases widened at The Category A-listed theatre, which is managed by Capital Theatres.

The auditorium is being redeveloped, reinstating the back wall, new control room, upgraded lighting system in the gantry, and a new ventilation system.

Abby Pendlebury, the theatre’s heritage engagement manager, said it was “incredibly thrilling” to find the bottle.

“I think it is fascinating we have a list of plasterers and draftsmen,” she said.

“It’s showing how personal this was to so many people and how there is a real human connection going back. It’s just really beautiful to see.”

She said it was “an absolute fluke find” and the way it had been preserved was “incredibly impressive”.

“The most magical thing to me is everyone who has ever sat in that auditorium and looked at the stage has seen it and so it’s just been this gem that’s been hiding this whole time,” she said.

“I’m amazed we found it and I am amazed at the list of names.”

Jen Baldwin, research specialist at Findmypast, said: “Unexpected finds like these can offer a fascinating window into the past.

“This was a collection of highly-skilled artisans from a range of backgrounds, who came together to create one of Edinburgh’s most well-loved, iconic creative spaces which has entertained audiences for over a century.”

The theatre is due to reopen in spring 2026.

US President Donald Trump has said French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “haven’t done anything” to end the war in Ukraine, ahead of their visits to the White House next week.

Trump also said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had “no cards” in peace negotiations, adding: “I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UK, France and other allies have been supplying Kyiv with weapons and other aid.

On Monday, European leaders held a crisis summit in Paris on Ukraine – a day before US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, and amid fears that Ukraine and Europe could be excluded from peace negotiations.

Despite his criticism of Macron and Sir Keir, Trump in his interview with Fox News also praised the European leaders. He said he considered Macron to be a “friend”, and called the British prime minister a “very nice guy”.

Macron is expected to visit Washington DC on Monday, while Sir Keir will be there on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the British prime minister said he was “ready and willing” to put UK troops on the ground in Ukraine to help guarantee its security as part of a peace deal.

The BBC has contacted the PM’s office for comment.

While European leaders have ruled out negotiating with Russia, they have met regularly to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US, UK and EU, along with countries including Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed more than 20,000 sanctions on Russia.

Many European nations have also signed agreements to support and provide aid to Ukraine.

In January, Sir Keir signed a “landmark” pact, telling Zelensky: “We are with you not just today, for this year or the next – but for 100 years – long after this terrible war is over and Ukraine is free and thriving once again.”

Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said he had had “extensive and positive” discussions with Zelensky during their meeting in Kyiv on Thursday.

Kellogg praised Zelensky as a “courageous leader” – only days after Trump referred to him as a “dictator”.

In recent days Zelensky has held phone calls with various global leaders, who have expressed their commitment to ensuring Ukraine is involved in peace talks.

Trump, in his Fox interview on Friday, said Russia and Ukraine would not want to begin peace talks without his own personal involvement.

He also continued to criticise Zelensky, saying: “I’ve been watching this man for years now as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as his soldiers get decimated.

“I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it. You just get sick of it, and I’ve had it.”

And after criticising Zelensky over the past week – using talking points that analysts say sound more like they originate in Moscow than Washington DC – Trump offered that “of course” he would take a phone call from Ukraine’s president.

He insisted several times that Zelensky was to blame for failing to prevent the war, saying that Russia could have been “talked out” of invading Ukraine.

• Can Europe and UK persuade Trump they’re relevant to Ukraine’s future?
• Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine
• Who was at the table at US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia?

Asked about Ukraine’s absence at peace talks in Saudi Arabia this week, Trump said that Russia “found it impossible to make a deal with Zelensky”.

He said he believed that Russia sincerely wanted a deal to end the war, but that President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t have to make a deal”.

US Vice-President JD Vance later hit back at critics who said that Trump’s stance on Russia amounted to “appeasement”.

“We are negotiating to end the conflict. It is ‘appeasement’ only if you think the Ukrainians have a credible pathway to victory. They don’t, so it’s not,” he said in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and Washington appeared to be inching closer to signing a deal that would give the US rights to Ukraine’s deposits of rare earth minerals.

Trump has styled this as a way for Ukraine to repay the US for its past military support. On Friday, he told reporters that the US and Ukraine were “pretty close” to signing the deal, adding that the US would “get our money back”.

In a video address late on Friday, Zelensky said Ukrainian and US teams were working on a draft agreement, which “can add value to our relations”. But he stressed that “what matters most is getting the details right”.

The Ukrainian president had rejected the initial US proposal made several days ago, saying he “cannot sell our state”.

White House Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on Friday that Zelensky was “going to sign that deal”.

Driving into Tver, the first thing I notice are the soldiers.

They’re everywhere. On billboards, the sides of buildings, at bus stops. Portraits with the words “Hero of Russia”. Posters of troops with Kalashnikov rifles encouraging the public to “Love, be proud of and defend” Russia.

In other words, to sign up and go and fight in Ukraine. Three years after its full-scale invasion of its neighbour, Russia is seeking new recruits.

Despite all the military imagery around town, if you live in Tver it’s possible to convince yourself that life is normal. The front line is hundreds of miles away.

“Just look around,” Mikhail, a local teacher, tells me. “Cars are passing by and all the shops are open. No shells are falling from anywhere. We are not panicking. We can’t hear any sirens wailing. We do not run to any evacuation points.”

For many Russians their invasion of Ukraine – what the Kremlin still calls a “special military operation” – is something they only encounter on their TV screens.

But for people like Anna, it’s much more real.

“I know a lot of people who went off to fight,” Anna says when we get chatting on the street.

“Some of them never came home. I hope [the war] ends as soon as possible.”

Donald Trump claims that’s what he wants, too. Without inviting Ukraine to the negotiating table, the Trump administration has already entered direct talks with the Russian leadership.

What do Russians make of the US president and his overtures to Moscow?

“Trump is a dark horse,” believes Anna. “I’m not sure what to expect from him.”

Some of the people I talk to in Tver repeat the official narrative they have been hearing for the last three years on state TV: that their country is not the aggressor, that Russia is defending Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine and liberating, not occupying, territory.

It doesn’t mean that Russian society as a whole buys into this alternative reality.

“In a society people always prefer to be in the mainstream,” believes Andrei Kolesnikov, a columnist for newtimes.ru and Novaya Gazeta. “If the mainstream is pro-war and the TV says that we are at war with the West, the average citizen will think like this. It’s easier not to think about the details. You want to live peacefully, so why not join the majority?

“Some researchers call this the foetal position. When you defend yourself from this unexplainable world you look like a baby. You say: ‘I can’t explain to myself what is happening. I believe you. You can feed me with words. I’ll accept it.’ This is typical for all societies of this kind: a bit authoritarian, a bit totalitarian.”

Larissa and her husband Valery willingly accept the official line.

“We’re all for the special military operation,” Larissa tells me. “We’re ready to volunteer and go there ourselves!”

They haven’t yet, clearly.

“We hope [Russia] will be victorious. We want Ukraine’s total capitulation.”

The police turn up. They’ve received a call informing them that “suspicious-looking people with a camera” are going around Tver. Meaning us.

They’re polite but want to know why we’re here. They take a statement from our driver. They check our vehicle. They ask me for an official explanation for our visit. I tell them we’re gauging the mood away from Moscow. We show our documents, which are in order.

While we’ve been talking to the officers, a camera crew from Russian state TV has pitched up and started filming us.

“We were just passing,” says the reporter, “and we spotted the police and recognised you. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” I reply. “Perhaps you can tell us?”

“What have you been filming?”

“We’ve been talking to people on the street,” I say. “I believe we’re allowed to do that.”

“Yes, in our country we have freedom of speech,” the reporter replies. “Perhaps the police just want to help you? It’s unpleasant to hear Western TV spreading fake news that there’s no free speech in Russia. You’re talking to people freely and no one gets in your way.”

“Apart from you,” I point out. “And the police officers standing next to our car.”

The incident, which lasted about an hour, is no real surprise. Three years of war have fuelled suspicion of the West inside Russia. Early signs of a thaw in US-Russian relations have yet to change that.

From talking to people in Tver it becomes clear that Russians are hoping that an end to the fighting will bring economic relief.

“Prices are so high now for the things I need most,” says Yulia as she rocks her baby to sleep in a pram. “Like the price of potatoes and onions. I really feel it.”

But teacher Mikhail doesn’t feel that Donald Trump has any strategy for securing peace.

“Unfortunately, Trump hasn’t got any plan,” believes Mikhail. “He is an improviser. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do. My sympathies are with him. I’m glad he won. But speaking about this episode, we’re all in the dark. And Trump is in the dark himself.”

Donald Trump has been back in the White House for a month.

His fifth week in office saw more dramatic moves as the president continued on his plan to remake the federal government, implement sweeping cuts and reshape American foreign policy.

This week he called Ukraine’s war-time president a “dictator”, pledged to make IVF more affordable and dismissed his highest-ranking military officer.

If you’re after a catch-up, here is a reminder of 19 major moves from the Trump administration this week.

Trump on Tuesday called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” – part of a heated back and forth between the two leaders that also saw the US president appear to blame Ukraine for Russia’s invasion.

His attacks came after Zelensky reacted to US-Russia talks about the war, from which Kyiv was excluded.

Zelensky said Trump was “living in a disinformation space” governed by Moscow after Trump said the Ukrainian leader was down to 4% approval rating among the Ukrainian public – a figure Zelensky said was being spread by Russia.

Zelensky’s term was due to come to an end in May 2024 but his country has been under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago, and elections are suspended.

The “dictator” line prompted criticism from European leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said it was “simply wrong and dangerous”.

• Read more about Trump and Zelensky’s relationship over time
• Our correspondent Anthony Zurcher analyses Trump echoing Russia
• Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine

On Tuesday, US and Russian officials held their first high-level, face-to-face talks since the war started but Ukraine was not invited.

Top US officials met Moscow counterparts in Saudi Arabia, prompting fears in Kyiv that the country invaded by Russia was being sidelined.

On Friday, he told Fox News it was not important for Zelensky to be at peace talks but he would “of course” take a call from him.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said talks with Russia were a first step towards negotiating a peace deal and nothing would be imposed on Ukraine.

• Who was at the table at US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia?
• Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford on the “extraordinary” meeting

Russian authorities released a US national who was arrested at a Moscow airport this month for cannabis possession.

Kalob Byers, 28, was freed hours before the talks between US and Russian officials over the war in Ukraine were set to begin.

The US also said it will release a Russian national – Alexander Vinnik, who was arrested in 2017 on charges related to the laundering of billions of dollars using virtual currency Bitcoin – as part of a prisoner exchange that brought home American schoolteacher Marc Fogel last week.

• Russia frees US national held on drug charges
• US releases Russian Bitcoin fraud suspect as Belarus frees American

The Trump administration is moving to end New York City’s congestion pricing plan, which charges vehicles entering the city in certain areas, then uses tolls to upgrade its aging transit systems. It was launched last month.

“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD,” Trump said on social media. “Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

In response, New York Govenor Kathy Hochul said: “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king. We’ll see you in court.”

• Read more about the move to end New York City congestion charge

Four women who allege they were sexually abused by the social media influencer Andrew Tate said they were “extremely concerned” by reports that US officials had asked Romania to relax travel restrictions against Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate, who have dual UK-US nationality.

The Financial Times newspaper first reported that US officials had brought up the case with the Romanian government last week, and it was then followed up by Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell at the weekend.

One source told the paper that a request had been made by the US to return the brothers’ passports to them so they could travel while waiting for the criminal case against them to finish.

The US State Department has been approached by the BBC for comment.

• Read reaction from the lawyer for the alleged victims here
• Who is Andrew Tate? The self-proclaimed misogynist influencer

The US Border Patrol said there was a decrease in migrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in January.

It recorded 29,000 arrests – the lowest since May 2020 and down from 47,000 in December, according to department figures.

Trump took office on 20 January, replacing predecessor Joe Biden.

The Trump administration has promised to clamp down on undocumented migration into the US, which has also included declaring an emergency at the southern border and expanded processes that allow for rapid expulsions.

Trump reassigned the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week, US media reported. The move came after Trump and border tsar Tom Homan expressed anger that deportation numbers weren’t higher.

• Six big immigration changes under Trump
• Trump sends first migrant detainees to Guantanamo Bay

The Trump administration – and his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) leader Elon Musk – are continuing a cost-cutting drive that aims to drastically reduce the federal workforce.

More than 6,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees are expected to be fired, and on Friday the Pentagon said it planned to “release” 5,400 probationary workers starting early next week.

Around 1,000 employees in the US National Park Service were let go last weekend – roughly 5% of the workforce – according to CBS News.

It has also begun firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees, and the head of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union David Spero called the firings “shameful”.

Polling suggests there is public support for less government spending but also concern that Musk’s efficiency drive could go too far.

• Trump moves to close entries to government worker buyout programme
• Hundreds fired at aviation safety agency, union says
• What is Doge and why is Elon Musk cutting so many jobs?

Trump’s administration is attempting to rehire officials with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) who worked on the government response to bird flu before being fired over the weekend, US media report.

The terminations came as the latest outbreak of the bird flu has wreaked havoc on poultry and cattle farms, causing egg prices to skyrocket.

A USDA spokesperson told the BBC that although “several” officials working on bird flu were “notified of their terminations” over the weekend, “we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters”.

It’s not the first time this has happened – after firing officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration last week, US media reported that the government was trying to reinstate some, but was struggling to contact them.

• Read more about the USDA layoffs

Trump has signed an executive order that will examine ways to make in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments more affordable.

Speaking at an event at Mar-a-Lago, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the order asks that the Domestic Policy Council make recommendations within 90 days to protect access to IVF and “aggressively” reduce its costs.

During his campaigning, Trump said that IVF treatments would be paid for by insurance companies or the government if he returned to the White House.

• Trump said insurance or government should pay for IVF

A row erupted between the White House and the Associated Press (AP) – a global media organisation – after Google Maps changed the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the Gulf of America for people using the app in the US.

Trump has ordered the body of water to be renamed in US government documents.

The AP says that it will not change the name of the Gulf of Mexico in its style guide, which is used by many US media outlets.

Trump said on Tuesday that he will block AP from the Oval Office and Air Force One until it stops referring to the Gulf of Mexico.

The media organisation sued three Trump officials in response, US media reported on Friday. The AP argues Trump’s ban violates the First Amendment and is seeking an emergency hearing to declare Trump’s moves unconstitutional.

• Google Maps updates Gulf of Mexico name for US users

US justice department lawyers on Wednesday defended their decision to end a criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Last week, the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss fraud and bribery charges against Adams. Seven justice department lawyers, including the top US prosecutor in Manhattan, resigned over an order to drop the case.

Adams was indicted last year on the charges. He denies any wrongdoing.

Trump has denied that he had any involvement in asking prosecutors to dismiss the Adams case.

On Friday, a judge paused Adams’ trial and ordered an outside lawyer to advise him by coming up with arguments against dropping the charges – essentially creating a legal test.

• Foreign bribes, cheap flights: What is Eric Adams accused of?
• Flurry of resignations after DOJ tells prosecutors to drop Eric Adams case

On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order ending federal benefits for undocumented migrants.

The measure will seek to ensure that any federal funds to states and localities “will not be used to support sanctuary policies or assist illegal immigration”, according to the White House.

The Trump administration also suspended a service on Tuesday that helped children who come to the US without a parent or guardian to navigate the immigration court system.

• Migrants on edge as Trump administration ramps up raids and arrests

Trump said he is considering using a percentage of the potential savings from Elon Musk’s taskforce to send payments directly to US taxpayers.

“We’re thinking about giving 20% back to the American citizens and 20% back to pay down debt,” Trump said in Florida this week, without giving further details.

Before making the remarks, Musk had posted on his social media platform X that he “will check with the President” after a user suggested the pair should announce a “DOGE Dividend”.

• Americans weigh up Musk’s influence
• Elon Musk denies ‘hostile takeover’ of government

During his speech at the Munich Security Conference a week ago, US Vice-President JD Vance launched a scalding attack on European democracies saying the greatest threat facing the continent was not from Russia and China, but “from within”.

Vance was expected to address possible talks to end the war in Ukraine but instead accused European governments – including the UK’s – of retreating from their values, and ignoring voter concerns on migration and free speech.

The speech was denounced by several politicians at the conference.

• Analysis: JD Vance’s blast at Europe ignores Ukraine and defence agenda

Rubio boycotted a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in South Africa this week, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he will not attend next week’s gathering of G20 finance ministers.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa told the meeting that a commitment to multilateralism and international law is vital to solving global crises.

Announcing his refusal to attend, Rubio said South Africa was “using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words: DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and climate change”.

Bessent said he had other commitments in Washington.

• South Africa opens G20 talks but US snubs meeting

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has told US military services to identify $50bn in cuts next year so the money can be used elsewhere for Trump’s priorities.

The deputy defence secretary said in a statement on Wednesday that “excessive bureaucracy” and “unnecessary spending that set our military back under the previous administration, including through so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs” would end.

Late Friday night, Trump announced on Truth Social, his social media platform, that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was leaving, as well.

• Trump defends Musk and says Doge will look at military spending

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has restored funding for 9/11-related cancer research after Doge attempted to cancel it last week, according to officials.

The $257,000 (£199,000) contract goes towards data processing to compare cancer incidence rates among firefighters exposed to the World Trade Center toxins with firefighters who were not.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said: “9/11 cancer research and funding for FDNY should have never been on the chopping block”.

Trump’s motorcade drove round the Daytona racetrack in the opening event of the season’s Nascar series.

The president’s Air Force One jet gave a flyby for spectators before he met the drivers and led them for a lap around the circuit.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown was fired as the highest-ranking military officer in the country, responsible for advising the president and defence secretary.

On Friday evening, Trump took to social media to announce the departure of Gen Brown, who was the second black officer in US history to hold the post. The president said five other top officers were being replaced.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously said Gen Brown should be fired because of his “woke” focus on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in the military.

• Trump replaces highest-ranking military officer

Hunter Schafer, the transgender star of HBO hit teen drama Euphoria, has said her new US passport lists her as male, despite her selecting female when she filled out the paperwork.

“I was shocked,” Schafer, 26, said in a TikTok video showing the ‘M’ marker on her new travel document. “I just didn’t think it was actually going to happen,” she added, hitting out at President Donald Trump’s policies on gender.

Schafer, a transgender woman, said she was travelling abroad next week and anticipated challenges at the airport because of the new passport. Her previous passport listed her as female.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an order recognising two sexes only and declaring they cannot be changed. The US now issues passports with just male or female designations, based on a person’s sex recorded at birth.

Previously, Americans could self-select their gender for passports and also request to be listed as X, which the Biden administration in 2022 said was being offered as an option “for non-binary, intersex and gender non-confirming individuals”.

Schafer said she lost her passport while filming overseas and needed to get a new one. She filled out forms indicating she was female, but when she picked up her replacement, it listed her as male, according to her post.

She said she believed it was “a direct result of the administration our country is currently operating under”.

Trump’s executive order reads: “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

It adds: “‘Sex’ is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity’.”

The US state department, which issues passports, says on its website that it will “only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer’s biological sex at birth”.

After learning about Trump’s executive order, Schafer said her first reaction was: “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Today I saw it,” she said in the TikTok video.

Schafer added: “I just feel like it’s important to share that it’s not just talk – that this is real and it’s happening and no-one – no matter their circumstance, no matter how wealthy or white or pretty or whatever – is excluded.”

The Euphoria star said she changed her gender markers for her driver’s licence and passports when she was a teenager, but that her birth certificate was never amended.

“I’m pretty sure it’s going to come along with having to out myself to border patrol agents and that whole gig, much more often than I would like to or is really necessary,” she said.

On the HBO drama, now in its third season, she plays a transgender teenager, Jules Vaughn, who has a complicated relationship with the main character Rue.

Germany’s rival political leaders will take their fight for votes right to the last minute in a push that reflects the pivotal nature of Sunday’s election, not just for their country but for Europe as a whole.

Conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz told supporters that under his leadership, Germany would take responsibility in Europe, and that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would be consigned to the political margins once more.

He will end his Christian Democrat party’s campaign with a rally in Munich, while his rivals will make a final appeal in a TV “speed-dating” programme with voters.

For months German politics has been paralysed by the collapse of the previous government.

Now, hopes have been raised across Europe that this vote will bring some certainty to the EU’s biggest democracy and its biggest economy, which has struggled to escape from lingering recession.

Nothing will change overnight. No party can govern without forming a coalition, and that will take weeks.

Reviving the economy has been one of the two big issues of the campaign; the other has been migration and security, thrust on Germany’s politicians by a series of deadly attacks since May 2024.

The cities of Mannheim, Solingen, Magdeburg, Aschaffenburg and Munich have all suffered grievous attacks.

All the alleged attackers were immigrants, and the AfD under Alice Weidel has advanced to about 20% in the polls with its nationalist, anti-immigration message.

She has appealed to younger voters on social media, and is far ahead in the race on TikTok, with 866,000 followers. She has also been buoyed by support from both billionaire Elon Musk and US Vice-President JD Vance, who has been accused of meddling in the German campaign.

The AfD talks of securing Germany’s borders and deporting migrants who came illegally and committed crimes. But she uses the word “remigration” which has also been linked to mass deportations.

In Solingen, where a Syrian was accused of stabbing to death three people last August, hundreds of people turned out on Friday night to speak out against the rise of the far right.

“We have a lot of friends who grew up in Germany whose parents did not,” said one woman called Natalie, 35. “We don’t want anybody to kick them out and we don’t want our borders closed.”

One man called Jochen held up a sign that read “Never Again is Now!”

There was a large police presence at the protest, and a police union spokesman said on Friday there was a risk of attacks aimed at destabilising democracy.

All the mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD in government, but if it polls higher than 20% it could double its number of seats to 150 in the 630-seat parliament.

Merz’s most likely partner is Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, although probably without Scholz himself. The message from his centre-left SPD as the final day of campaigning began was that every vote counts, and if Germans wanted a strong government they needed a strong SPD.

The Social Democrats are languishing in third in the polls, but Scholz is pinning his hopes on an estimated one in five undecided voters who could make a big difference.

Friedrich Merz was in a relaxed and confident mood when he appeared on stage this week in front of 1,200 supporters in the tech-hub city of Darmstadt near Frankfurt. But his message was stark as he turned his thoughts to Donald Trump’s presidency.

One hand in his pocket and the other holding the microphone, he spoke of unprecedented times and a “tectonic shift in the world’s centres of power”.

“A political order is now crumbling. What we have become used to for decades is breaking down.” He was not even sure if the US would join Germany in celebrating the 70th year of its accession to Nato in the summer.

He castigated the outgoing government for failing to take a leading role on the international stage.

“The German government and chancellor must finally take on a leading role in Europe again. If I’m elected I will spend a significant part of my time keeping this European Union together.”

Find out more about Germany’s elections:

Who’s who and what you need to know

Merz: Risk-taker who flirted with far right

Katya Adler: Far right looks for breakthrough as Germany falters

Tensions laid bare as Germans worry about immigration

Germans have had almost nightly opportunities to see their political leaders thrash out the big issues in TV debates, and Alice Weidel has been in the thick of them, sharing the stage with both Merz and Scholz.

In the run-up to the vote she met Vice-President JD Vance, who castigated German politicians for raising a “firewall” against the far right and of ignoring “the will of the voters”.

That firewall – in German – has held strong since the end of the war, although Merz himself was accused of breaking it when he relied on the support of the AfD last month in a motion on migration.

He has faced demonstrations ever since, and there was a noisy protest when he visited Darmstadt.

PhD student Annika, 29, held a Herz statt Merz banner – love instead of Merz. “He says he won’t do something with the far-right AfD, but his actions contradict what he says. I don’t trust him at all.”

Merz appears to have been stung by the outcry and has sought to reassure voters there will be “no tolerance, no minority government [with the AfD], nothing at all”.

President Donald Trump has fired US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown, the highest-ranking officer in the country, as part of a major shake-up of the top military leadership.

“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump posted on social media. He said five other top officers were being replaced.

Gen Brown was the second black officer in US history to hold the post, which advises both the president and the secretary of defence on national security.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously said that Gen Brown should be fired because of his “woke” focus on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in the military.

Later on Friday, Hegseth announced the firings of two additional senior officers: Chief of Naval Operations Adm Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen Jim Slife.

Adm Franchetti was the first woman to lead the Navy.

All three top officers removed on Friday were appointed by former President Joe Biden.

Hegseth said in a statement: “Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”

Trump said he would nominate Air Force Lt Gen Dan Caine – a career F-16 pilot who most recently served as CIA associate director for military affairs – as the new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

Gen Brown was visiting troops at the US southern border on Friday roughly two hours before Trump’s post announcing his departure.

Rumours had been swirling this week that the president would seek to remove Gen Brown, whose term was set to expire in 2027.

Gen Brown made headlines in 2020 when he spoke out about race following the death of George Floyd.

He posted a video message to the Air Force describing the pressures he had felt as one of the few black men in his unit and being questioned about his credentials.

Colin Powell was the first black chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, serving from 1989-93.

One of Trump’s first acts after being sworn in last month was to fire the first female commandant of the Coast Guard, citing “excessive focus” on diversity.

In November, before he was confirmed, Hegseth said on a podcast that there were many problems in the military, including diversity initiatives, which the Trump administration should “course correct”.

“First of all, you got to fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said in describing the steps he believed Trump should take.

The Pentagon also announced on Friday that it would cut its budget and let go of 5,400 probationary employees next week.

Meanwhile, a federal court in Maryland temporarily blocked Trump from implementing bans on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

US District Judge Adam Abelson said the directives by Trump probably violate free-speech rights in the US Constitution.

Planes flying between Australia and New Zealand have been diverted as China conducts a closely-scrutinised military exercise in nearby waters that may involve live fire.

The rare presence of three Chinese naval ships in the Tasman Sea has put both antipodean countries on alert in recent days, with Australia calling it “unusual”.

Australian airline Qantas told the BBC it “temporarily adjusted” the routes of its planes and other carriers have reportedly done the same.

China has said the exercise, which is taking place in international waters, is in accordance with international law.

The ships are now reportedly 340 nautical miles east of the New South Wales coast of Australia, although they were said to have come as close as 150 nautical miles from Sydney at one point.

Australia and New Zealand have been closely monitoring the Chinese fleet – a frigate, a cruiser and a supply tanker – since last week, and have dispatched their own ships to observe them.

Earlier this week, New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins said China had not informed them they would be sending warships to their region and “have not deigned to advise us on what they are doing in the Tasman Sea”, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles said that the ships’ presence was “not unprecedented, but it is an unusual event”.

China’s foreign ministry confirmed on Friday they were doing naval training and exercises in “distant waters”.

“The exercises were conducted in a safe, standard, and professional manner at all times, in accordance with relevant international laws and practices,” spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Chinese fleet issued an alert on Friday that they would start conducting exercises which may involve live fire.

“This is activity that has occurred in waters consistent with international law… there has been no imminent risk of danger to any Australian assets or New Zealand assets,” he said.

But Marles said the Chinese had not directly notified Australian officials when they put out the alert.

“What China did was put out a notification that it was intending to engage in live fire, and by that I mean a broadcast that was picked up by airlines, literally commercial planes that were flying across the Tasman,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, adding that usually such notices would be given 12 to 24 hours in advance.

On Friday an Emirates plane was reportedly informed about the exercise by Chinese authorities, while it was still in the air as it flew from Sydney to Christchurch. The BBC is seeking confirmation.

In a statement to the BBC, Qantas confirmed that it had changed the routes of its planes flying across the Tasman Sea and said it was continually monitoring airspace.

“We continue to work with the Australian government and broader industry to monitor the situation,” it added.

Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand have reportedly done the same.

The drill comes just days after Australia and China held a defence dialogue in Beijing where they had discussed military transparency and communication, among other things.

The two countries have seen several recent tense maritime encounters.

Earlier this month, Canberra said a Chinese fighter jet had released flares in front of an Australian military aircraft while flying over the South China Sea. Beijing said the aircraft had “intentionally intruded” into its airspace.

In May last year, Australia accused a Chinese fighter plane of dropping flares close to an Australian navy helicopter that was part of a UN Security Council mission on the Yellow Sea.

Canberra accused Beijing’s navy of using sonar pulses in international waters off Japan in November 2023, resulting in Australian divers suffering injuries.

“Who’d you pick as the next Bond?”

That was the question posed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos this week to his 6.8 million followers on X.

It is Bezos who will now have the final say on the next 007. He asked for suggestions alongside a screenshot of the BBC News story about his company gaining creative control of the famous spy film franchise.

The choice of Daniel Craig’s replacement will now be Amazon MGM Studios’ biggest decision.

So let’s take a look at what direction the company could take, and who is in the frame.

If the replies to Bezos’s call out are anything to go by, Henry Cavill is the (online) people’s choice.

The former Super Man actor, who has said he “would love to play Bond”, was widely regarded to have been the runner-up years ago when Craig landed the part for the first of his five 007 films, 2006’s Casino Royale.

The movie’s director Martin Campbell told the Express last year that Cavill’s audition was “tremendous” and that “if Daniel didn’t exist, Henry would have made an excellent Bond”.

There was just one problem. “He just looked a little young at that time back then,” added Campbell.

Longstanding Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, who announced on Thursday they were stepping down, have previously shot down the idea of a younger Bond.

“Remember, Bond’s already a veteran,” Wilson said in 2022. “He’s had some experience. He’s a person who has been through the wars, so to speak. He’s probably been in the SAS or something.”

Amazon may have different ideas – but at 41, Cavill could ironically now be considered too old, especially if he stays for a string of subsequent movies.

The next most common suggestions in the replies to Bezos were Tom Hardy, Aaron Taylor-Johson and Idris Elba.

Taylor-Johnson, 34, known for roles in Kick-Ass and Kraven the Hunter, was at one stage rumoured to have been offered the job, but no announcement ever materialised.

Kraven bombed at the box office last year, though, which could count against him.

The bookmakers had Happy Valley actor James Norton listed as their favourite on Friday.

Speaking on the red carpet at last weekend’s Bafta Awards, Norton, 39, described the speculation around him becoming Bond as “so weird and bemusing” yet “fun”.

Mark O’Connell, author of Catching Bullets: Memoirs of a Bond Fan, told the BBC he thinks Amazon – and whoever they choose as the next director – will go for a younger actor than in previous times, and he hopes they buy British again.

“Tom Hardy would be great, [but] I think he’s, dare I say, too old,” he said of the 47-year-old Mad Max actor.

“There’s a lot of guys that keep getting quoted [and] I’m like, they’re too old.

“I think Amazon’s going to bring it younger. I think we’re looking at early 30s. Paul Mescal is a good name. Kingsley Ben-Adir, who’s one of the Kens in the Barbie movie, I’d keep an eye on him – he’s got a sort of [Sean] Connery swagger about him.

“Harris Dickinson, who’s a British actor doing well in Babygirl with Nicole Kidman at the moment, he’s very British,” O’Connell added.

“I hope they stick with the British DNA and origins of the role. I think they would be foolish to move away from that. But time will tell.”

Bond has been played by two non-British actors in the past – Australian George Lazenby and Irishman Pierce Brosnan. So don’t rule out the likes of fellow Irish stars Mescal, Oscar winner Cillian Murphy, Aidan Turner, or Aussie Jacob Elordi.

Could Amazon break the mould and go for the first American Bond? If so, Austin Butler has been mooted.

Other Brits who have been shaken but not stirred into the mix include Challengers star Josh O’Connor, 34, and Babylon’s Stuart Martin, 39, as well as White Lotus actor Theo James, who is 40.

Callum Turner, Richard Madden, Will Poulter and Nicholas Hoult have also been suggested, among others.

Since Bond – originally the creation of author Ian Fleming – hit the big screen in 1962, first played by Scotsman Sean Connery, his hair and eye colour have changed, not to mention his accent.

But so far, the character’s skin colour and gender have remained fixed.

That is apart from when Lashana Lynch briefly took over the 007 title from Craig’s Bond in No Time to Die.

“James Bond can be of any colour, but he is male,” Broccoli said in 2020.

“I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that.”

She added: “He should be British, so British can be any [ethnicity].”

Bridgerton actor Rege-Jean Page has been mooted alongside Ben-Adir as a possible first non-white Bond, as have Lucien Laviscount, Paapa Essiedu, Damson Idris, Riz Ahmed and Aaron Pierre.

If Bezos does break Broccoli’s rule and go for a woman, Cynthia Erivo would be a popular choice.

However, Idris Elba, 52, the star of The Wire and Luther, said in 2023 that the racist backlash to the prospect of him being Bond “made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting”.

It’s not just the lead role that the Amazon casting department will have to think about.

“In terms of what they could do with the women, I would love to see more interesting and nuanced female characters,” said Monica Germanà, author of Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender.

“There is a growing female fandom, so we want more interesting female characters teasing Bond’s masculine ego.”

Then there are the villains, who are the characters with their “pulse on the real world”, Germanà said.

“They represent the anxieties we have about the world. So it’d be interesting what Amazon does with that. Will the next villain be, I don’t know, will it be AI? Will it be something to do with climate change? Will it be far-right politics that they tap into?”

Debating the next James Bond is “a national and international obsession”, BBC Radio 1 film critic Ali Plumb told BBC Breakfast.

“I want to have an answer for you. I want to say names like Harris Dickinson or Leo Woodall and say, yes, it’s going to be them. But it’s all up in the air.”

Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine and podcast told BBC Radio 5 Live that while he “admired what Craig has achieved”, he wants the new management “to rediscover the fun of Bond”.

Bond fan and author Ajay Chowdhury added: “I think Bond ultimately is fantasy and it’s fun and I think that entertainment value could be brought back.”

Bond bosses have often alternated between serious and lighter-hearted lead actors, he said.

“They always tend to reboot. You have a serious Bond [like Timothy] Dalton followed by a lighter Bond, Brosnan. Serious, Craig – and I think it’s time to do that again.”

Chowdhury thinks the new Bond will be “an established British actor” with what he calls “the Goldilocks amount of fame” – not too hot, not too cold.

“They’ll have done TV and theatre across the Atlantic, but they won’t be stars,” he offers.

“They’ll have just the right amount of fame and they’ll be young enough to do three or four [films].

“Who is it? We have no idea!”

US President Donald Trump’s remark that his country spent $21m to boost voter turnout in India’s elections has triggered a political slugfest in the country.

He made the remark days after a team led by Elon Musk said it had cancelled the payout as part of its crackdown on a US agency providing foreign aid.

India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called the payout an “external interference” and accused the opposition Congress party of seeking this intervention.

The Congress denied the allegation, calling Trump’s claims “nonsensical”. The US has not provided any evidence to support its claim.

On Friday, India’s foreign ministry said it found the claims “deeply troubling”.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said it was “premature” to make public statements about the matter at this stage and that relevant authorities were investigating it.

Trump vowed to boost the US economy and soon after returning to office, he created the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), led by Musk, to slash federal spending and jobs. Musk says Doge’s mission is to save taxpayer money and cut national debt.

One of its biggest moves – now making global headlines – is a crackdown on USAID, the US agency overseeing humanitarian aid since the 1960s. Musk, who has called USAID a “criminal organisation”, announced on Sunday that funding for several projects had been cancelled.

The cuts included $486m for the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening”, with “$21m for voter turnout in India” and “$22m for inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova”.

Defending Doge’s cuts, Trump said India “had a lot of money” and was among the world’s highest-taxing nations.

On Thursday, he doubled down, questioning the $21m spend on “India’s voter turnout”.

The latest comments came a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first Washington visit under Trump’s second term, where Trump announced expanded military sales, increased energy exports and plans for a trade deal and new defence framework.

“I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected. We have got to tell the Indian government,” the US president said at a summit in Miami.

The same day, BJP leader Amit Malviya shared a clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi speaking at an event in London before the 2024 general election.

In the clip, Gandhi can be heard saying that major democracies like the US and European countries were “oblivious that a huge chunk of democratic model has come undone [in India]”.

“Rahul Gandhi was in London, urging foreign powers – from the US to Europe – to intervene in India’s internal affairs,” Malviya alleged in his post on X.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh dismissed the claim and urged the government to report on USAID’s decades-long support to governmental and non-governmental institutions during PM Modi’s tenure.

Despite widespread reports, neither Doge nor Trump has provided evidence that USAID gave India $21m for voter turnout.

India’s poll panel has not responded, but former election chief SY Qureshi denied receiving such funding during his tenure, which ran from 2010 to 2012.

Earlier, Malviya claimed that in 2012, under Mr Qureshi, the panel signed an agreement with a group linked to George Soros’ foundation – primarily funded by USAID – to support a voter turnout campaign.

Mr Qureshi dismissed the allegation as “malicious”, stating that the agreement explicitly imposed “no financial or legal obligation on either side”.

On Friday, the Indian Express newspaper said in an investigative report that the $21m was sanctioned for Bangladesh and not India.

It was meant to run for three years until July 2025 and that $13.4m had already been spent, according to records accessed by the newspaper.

The last time India and Pakistan clashed in a major ICC 50-over contest was in 2023, at the highly anticipated World Cup league match in Ahmedabad.

As a contest, it turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax – India, in dominant form, comfortably chased down a subpar Pakistan target, securing a resounding victory.

And as Pakistani fans didn’t get visas to travel to India, aside from the cricket team, the country’s only notable presence was in the media centre.

Sunday’s ICC Champions Trophy clash between the arch-rivals at Dubai International Stadium promises a vastly different atmosphere.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) reported that tickets sold out within minutes – and with the UAE hosting more than 3.7 million Indians and nearly 1.7 million Pakistanis, a vibrant and well-represented crowd from both nations is all but guaranteed.

But can a sea of green flags in the stands inspire Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan’s men to defy the odds in this must-win clash against Rohit Sharma’s India?

Pakistan can take comfort in their strong head-to-head record in UAE – 19 wins in 28 ODIs, plus a lone T20I victory in the 2021 World Cup in Dubai.

Most of Pakistan’s wins against India came at Sharjah during their dominant run in the 1980s and ’90s, winning 18 of 24 games there.

In Dubai, India beat them twice in the 2018 Asia Cup, while both teams won a game each in a 2006 Abu Dhabi series.

Since Pakistan’s glory days in Sharjah, the tide has shifted – apart from the occasional T20I win, India has largely dominated in the new millennium.

Veteran cricket writer Ayaz Memon feels there is no reason to look at India-Pakistan clashes in the UAE through the prism of the past.

”There is no doubt that Pakistan enjoyed tremendous crowd support in the Sharjah days, with the local Pathan population making up the numbers. However, the team then boasted of the likes of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Aamer Sohail and the two Ws [Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis],” Memon says.

“Compare that to the state of the current team, which comes up with some exceptional results from time to time but lacks any form of consistency.”

The glitzy, ever-expanding United Arab Emirates city-state of Dubai offers little sign of a major cricket event – there are no welcome banners at the airport.

Instead, hoardings of Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek and company dominate, as the city is in full swing for the annual Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Head south, and the ‘Ring of Fire’ at Dubai International Stadium emerges from the highway, signalling cricket’s presence.

Towering images of all eight captains line the arena, but for the next two days, all eyes will be on Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Rizwan’s teams as fans worldwide await their fate.

It’s no secret that catering to broadcasters and marketing demands, the ICC consistently places India and Pakistan in the same group for major tournaments. This ensures at least one high-stakes league clash, with the potential for a blockbuster rematch in the knockouts.

At a time when cricket faces overexposure and its international structure is threatened by the rise of T20 franchise leagues, the India-Pakistan rivalry remains its biggest box-office draw.

A big plus about the tight, top-eight team format of the ICC Champions Trophy is that a little slip-up can cost even the heavyweights dear.

”The 50-over World Cup gives you a chance to pull back even if you stumble in the odd game as there are 10 games in the fray. It’s much different here where all three of your group matches are important to proceed to the semi-finals,” India captain Sharma said on the eve of their opening match against Bangladesh.

India cleared their first hurdle with a six-wicket win against Bangladesh on Thursday, powered by Shubman Gill’s classy century (cementing his status as a future ODI captain), Mohammed Shami’s five-wicket haul and a quickfire cameo from skipper Sharma, who crossed the 11,000-run mark in the format.

Jasprit Bumrah’s absence – expected as he recovers from a back spasm sustained in the final Test in Australia – remains a talking point. However, on this wicket, the spotlight is set to shift to the spinners.

Pakistan’s lead-up to the tournament has been a rollercoaster – both unpredictable and vulnerable. Their last three ODIs paint the picture perfectly.

Ten days ago, Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha’s stunning 260-run stand powered Pakistan to a record 353-run chase against South Africa in Karachi, securing a spot in the Tri-series final.

But just two days later, they faltered, looking ordinary as New Zealand cruised to a five-wicket win, denying them a confidence boosting title ahead of the Champions Trophy.

Then on Wednesday, after their bowlers made early inroads, they let the Kiwis off the hook, eventually crashing to a 60-run defeat in their tournament opener.

This has put their backs against the wall ahead of the big game – and what has irked former Pakistan greats is captain Rizwan’s statement that they will take the India match as “just another game”.

History shows that Pakistan thrives in such situations, echoing Imran Khan’s legendary “caged tigers” rallying cry from their triumphant 1992 World Cup campaign.

Yes, the odds favour India, but Pakistan can never be written off on UAE soil. After all, it’s a new day, a fresh battle, and anything can happen in a big game.

US President Donald Trump has said French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “haven’t done anything” to end the war in Ukraine, ahead of their visits to the White House next week.

Trump also said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had “no cards” in peace negotiations, adding: “I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UK, France and other allies have been supplying Kyiv with weapons and other aid.

On Monday, European leaders held a crisis summit in Paris on Ukraine – a day before US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, and amid fears that Ukraine and Europe could be excluded from peace negotiations.

Despite his criticism of Macron and Sir Keir, Trump in his interview with Fox News also praised the European leaders. He said he considered Macron to be a “friend”, and called the British prime minister a “very nice guy”.

Macron is expected to visit Washington DC on Monday, while Sir Keir will be there on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the British prime minister said he was “ready and willing” to put UK troops on the ground in Ukraine to help guarantee its security as part of a peace deal.

The BBC has contacted the PM’s office for comment.

While European leaders have ruled out negotiating with Russia, they have met regularly to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US, UK and EU, along with countries including Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed more than 20,000 sanctions on Russia.

Many European nations have also signed agreements to support and provide aid to Ukraine.

In January, Sir Keir signed a “landmark” pact, telling Zelensky: “We are with you not just today, for this year or the next – but for 100 years – long after this terrible war is over and Ukraine is free and thriving once again.”

Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said he had had “extensive and positive” discussions with Zelensky during their meeting in Kyiv on Thursday.

Kellogg praised Zelensky as a “courageous leader” – only days after Trump referred to him as a “dictator”.

In recent days Zelensky has held phone calls with various global leaders, who have expressed their commitment to ensuring Ukraine is involved in peace talks.

Trump, in his Fox interview on Friday, said Russia and Ukraine would not want to begin peace talks without his own personal involvement.

He also continued to criticise Zelensky, saying: “I’ve been watching this man for years now as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as his soldiers get decimated.

“I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it. You just get sick of it, and I’ve had it.”

And after criticising Zelensky over the past week – using talking points that analysts say sound more like they originate in Moscow than Washington DC – Trump offered that “of course” he would take a phone call from Ukraine’s president.

He insisted several times that Zelensky was to blame for failing to prevent the war, saying that Russia could have been “talked out” of invading Ukraine.

• Can Europe and UK persuade Trump they’re relevant to Ukraine’s future?
• Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine
• Who was at the table at US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia?

Asked about Ukraine’s absence at peace talks in Saudi Arabia this week, Trump said that Russia “found it impossible to make a deal with Zelensky”.

He said he believed that Russia sincerely wanted a deal to end the war, but that President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t have to make a deal”.

US Vice-President JD Vance later hit back at critics who said that Trump’s stance on Russia amounted to “appeasement”.

“We are negotiating to end the conflict. It is ‘appeasement’ only if you think the Ukrainians have a credible pathway to victory. They don’t, so it’s not,” he said in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and Washington appeared to be inching closer to signing a deal that would give the US rights to Ukraine’s deposits of rare earth minerals.

Trump has styled this as a way for Ukraine to repay the US for its past military support. On Friday, he told reporters that the US and Ukraine were “pretty close” to signing the deal, adding that the US would “get our money back”.

In a video address late on Friday, Zelensky said Ukrainian and US teams were working on a draft agreement, which “can add value to our relations”. But he stressed that “what matters most is getting the details right”.

The Ukrainian president had rejected the initial US proposal made several days ago, saying he “cannot sell our state”.

White House Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on Friday that Zelensky was “going to sign that deal”.

Wearing a black “Make America Great Again” hat and dark sunglasses, Elon Musk – the multi-billionaire tasked by Donald Trump with taking a metaphorical chainsaw to the federal government – received a rock-star welcome as he took the stage at a right-wing gathering on Thursday.

He even had a literal chainsaw.

As the crowd of several thousand cheered, Argentine President Javier Milei, also a favourite at the annual Cpac event, emerged from backstage. He handed Musk a shiny chainsaw with “viva la Libertad carajo! – Spanish for “Long live liberty, damn it!”- emblazoned on the blade.

Musk waved the power tool high, shouting: “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy! Chainsaw!”

It was a remarkable moment on a day typified by less animated speeches about the dangers of big government and the accomplishments of Trump’s first month back in the White House. It demonstrated how Musk is the only conservative who approaches Trump’s ability to energise a crowd.

Outside of Washington, however, there are signs that Musk’s chainsaw approach to federal government – which includes shuttering agencies, defunding programmes and mass civil service layoffs – may be cutting too close to the bone.

At about the same time as Musk was celebrating the work of his so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” at the event near Washington DC, Republican congressman Rich McCormick was holding a town hall forum for his constituents.

Many in Roswell, Georgia, were angry about the impact of the Musk-inspired cuts and let the congressman know it.

“Congress controls the budget, not the president,” a woman said. “You are doing a disservice to set that down and not stand up for us.”

McCormick’s response was drowned out by jeers.

“I understand trying to do more with less – that’s reasonable,” another constituent said. “What’s not reasonable is taking this chainsaw approach.”

• What is Doge and why is Musk cutting so many jobs?
• Trump administration tries to rehire bird flu officials

Earlier this month, Pew Research found that 54% of Americans have an unfavourable view of Musk, including 37% that responded “very unfavourable”.

Only 23% of Americans told Reuters-Ipsos pollsters this week that the president has the right to fire “any federal employee who disagrees with the president”. Fifty-eight percent said they were concerned that popular government programmes, like Social Security retirement benefits for the elderly and subsidised student loans – could be affected.

Just over half of Americans in a CNN poll said Trump had gone “too far” in exercising his presidential power.

At an earlier event at Cpac on Thursday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson praised Musk and his team.

“They are exposing this massive fraud, waste and abuse that we have not been able to uncover because the deep state has hidden it from us,” he said.

Many Republicans have agreed with this sentiment, even if it means ceding congressional power over government spending to the president. Congressional conservatives have been trying to downsize the federal government for decades with limited effectiveness – and now Musk and Trump are delivering, albeit through a sweeping expansion of executive power.

North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis told CBS News he believed Doge’s approach was necessary because Republicans had failed to get legitimate answers from bureaucrats about how to make government more efficient.

“And the way to force people to justify investments on exceptions is to shut everything down,” Tillis said. “I know it’s disruptive, but I think they need to have the capacity to bring things back online that make sense.”

That may change, however, if Trump’s poll numbers – which have dipped slightly recently – continue to decline and if Republican legislators are challenged by constituents at town hall meetings or have their offices flooded with angry calls.

Members of Congress across the US have begun stepping forward to defend federal programmes – including funding for academic research, agriculture, veterans services and national parks – that have been affected by Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” actions.

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama called for a “smart, targeted approach” to cuts that could target health research conducted in her home state. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican, complained on social media that many of the proposed layoffs “will do more harm than good”.

“I share the administration’s goal of reducing the size of the federal government,” she wrote on X, “but this approach is bringing confusion, anxiety and now trauma to our civil servants.”

The Trump administration has already walked back some of its announced layoffs in key sectors – including Department of Energy employees who handle nuclear weapons security, Department of Agriculture teams tasked with containing the recent outbreak of bird flu, and workers in a programme that monitors the health of first responders and survivors of the 11 September World Trade Center attack.

“I think many of these firings are indiscriminate,” said Susan Collins of Maine, another centrist Republican senator. “The fact that workers were let go who are working on avian flu, and the fact that workers have also been fired who are responsible for nuclear safety, shows that we need a far more careful approach.”

At his appearance last week at the White House, Musk acknowledged that his team might make mistakes in its eagerness to slash government spending – “but we will act quickly to correct any mistakes”, he promised.

That may be cold comfort for Americans adversely affected by the Doge chainsaw, however.

And it could come at a political price.

History has shown that even when mistakes are fixed, voters often remember these kind of missteps the next time they head to the polls.

A selection of news photographs from around the world.

An Indian pharmaceutical company is manufacturing unlicensed, highly addictive opioids and exporting them illegally to West Africa where they are driving a major public health crisis in countries including Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote D’Ivoire, a BBC Eye investigation has revealed.

Aveo Pharmaceuticals, based in Mumbai, makes a range of pills that go under different brand names and are packaged to look like legitimate medicines. But all contain the same harmful mix of ingredients: tapentadol, a powerful opioid, and carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant so addictive it’s banned in Europe.

This combination of drugs is not licensed for use anywhere in the world and can cause breathing difficulties and seizures. An overdose can kill. Despite the risks, these opioids are popular as street drugs in many West African countries, because they are so cheap and widely available.

The BBC World Service found packets of them, branded with the Aveo logo, for sale on the streets of Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Ivoirian towns and cities.

Having traced the drugs back to Aveo’s factory in India, the BBC sent an undercover operative inside the factory, posing as an African businessman looking to supply opioids to Nigeria. Using a hidden camera, the BBC filmed one of Aveo’s directors, Vinod Sharma, showing off the same dangerous products the BBC found for sale across West Africa.

In the secretly recorded footage, the operative tells Sharma that his plan is to sell the pills to teenagers in Nigeria “who all love this product”. Sharma doesn’t flinch. “OK,” he replies, before explaining that if users take two or three pills at once, they can “relax” and agrees they can get “high”. Towards the end of the meeting, Sharma says: “This is very harmful for the health,” adding “nowadays, this is business.”

It is a business that is damaging the health and destroying the potential of millions of young people across West Africa.

In the city of Tamale, in northern Ghana, so many young people are taking illegal opioids that one of the city’s chiefs, Alhassan Maham, has created a voluntary task force of about 100 local citizens whose mission is to raid drug dealers and take these pills off the streets.

“The drugs consume the sanity of those who abuse them,” says Maham, “like a fire burns when kerosene is poured on it.” One addict in Tamale put it even more simply. The drugs, he said, have “wasted our lives”.

The BBC team followed the task force as they jumped on to motorbikes and, following a tip off about a drug deal, launched a raid in one of Tamale’s poorest neighbourhoods. On the way they passed a young man slumped in a stupor who, according to locals, had taken these drugs.

When the dealer was caught, he was carrying a plastic bag filled with green pills labelled Tafrodol. The packets were stamped with the distinctive logo of Aveo Pharmaceuticals.

It’s not just in Tamale that Aveo’s pills are causing misery. The BBC found similar products, made by Aveo, have been seized by police elsewhere in Ghana.

We also found evidence that Aveo’s pills are for sale on the streets of Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire, where teenagers dissolve them in an alcoholic energy drink to increase the high.

Publicly-available export data show that Aveo Pharmaceuticals, along with a sister company called Westfin International, is shipping millions of these tablets to Ghana and other West African countries.

Nigeria, with a population of 225 million people, provides the biggest market for these pills. It has been estimated that about four million Nigerians abuse some form of opioid, according to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics.

The Chairman of Nigeria’s Drug and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa, told the BBC, opioids are “devastating our youths, our families, it’s in every community in Nigeria”.

In 2018, following a BBC Africa Eye investigation into the sale of opioids as street drugs, Nigerian authorities tried to get a grip on a widely abused opioid painkiller called tramadol.

The government banned the sale of tramadol without prescription, imposed strict limits on the maximum dose, and cracked down on imports of illegal pills. At the same time, Indian authorities tightened export regulations on tramadol.

Not long after this crackdown, Aveo Pharmaceuticals began to export a new pill based on tapentadol, an even stronger opioid, mixed with the muscle-relaxant carisoprodol.

West African officials are warning that opioid exporters appear to be using these new combination pills as a substitute for tramadol and to evade the crackdown.

In the Aveo factory there were cartons of the combination drugs stacked on top of each other, almost ceiling-high. On his desk, Vinod Sharma laid out packet after packet of the tapentadol-carisoprodol cocktail pills that the company markets under a range of names including Tafrodol, the most popular, as well as TimaKing and Super Royal-225.

He told the BBC’s undercover team that “scientists” working in his factory could combine different drugs to “make a new product”.

Aveo’s new product is even more dangerous than the tramadol it has replaced. According to Dr Lekhansh Shukla, assistant professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bengaluru, India, tapentadol “gives the effects of an opioid” including very deep sleep.

“It could be deep enough that people don’t breathe, and that leads to drug overdose,” he explained. “And along with that, you are giving another agent, carisoprodol, which also gives very deep sleep, relaxation. It sounds like a very dangerous combination.”

Carisoprodol has been banned in Europe because it is addictive. It is approved for use in the US but only for short periods of up to three weeks. Withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, insomnia, and hallucinations.

When mixed with tapentadol the withdrawal is even “more severe” compared to regular opioids, said Dr Shukla. “It’s a fairly painful experience.”

He said he knew of no clinical trials on the efficacy of this combination. Unlike tramadol, which is legal for use in limited doses, the tapentadol-carisoprodol cocktail “does not sound like a rational combination”, he said. “This is not something that is licensed to be used in our country.”

In India, pharmaceutical companies cannot legally manufacture and export unlicensed drugs unless these drugs meet the standards of the importing country. Aveo ships Tafrodol and similar products to Ghana, where this combination of tapentadol and carisoprodol is, according to Ghana’s national Drug Enforcement Agency, unlicensed and illegal. By shipping Tafrodol to Ghana, Aveo is breaking Indian law.

We put these allegations to Vinod Sharma and Aveo Pharmaceuticals. They did not respond.

The Indian drugs regulator, the CDSCO, told us the Indian government recognises its responsibility towards global public health and is committed to ensuring India has a responsible and strong pharmaceutical regulatory system.

It added that exports from India to other countries are closely monitored and that recently tightened regulation is strictly enforced. It also called importing countries to support India’s efforts by ensuring they had similarly strong regulatory systems.

The CDSCO stated it has taken up the matter with other countries, including those in West Africa, and is committed to working with them to prevent wrongdoing. The regulator said it will take immediate action against any pharmaceutical firm involved in malpractice.

Aveo is not the only Indian company making and exporting unlicensed opioids. Publicly available export data suggest other pharma companies manufacture similar products, and drugs with different branding are widely available across West Africa.

These manufacturers are damaging the reputation of India’s fast-growing pharmaceutical industry, which makes high-quality generic medicines upon which millions of people worldwide depend and manufactures vaccines which have saved millions of lives. The industry’s exports are worth at least $28bn (£22bn) a year.

Speaking about his meeting with Sharma, the BBC’s undercover operative, whose identity must remain concealed for his safety, says: “Nigerian journalists have been reporting on this opioid crisis for more than 20 years but finally, I was face to face… with one of the men at the root of Africa’s opioid crisis, one of the men who actually makes this product and ships it into our countries by the container load. He knew the harm it was doing but he didn’t seem to care… describing it simply as business.”

Back in Tamale, Ghana, the BBC team followed the local task force on one final raid that turned up even more of Aveo’s Tafrodol. That evening they gathered in a local park to burn the drugs they had seized.

“We are burning it in an open glare for everybody to see,” said Zickay, one of the leaders, as the packets were doused in petrol and set ablaze, “so it sends a signal to the sellers and the suppliers: if they get you, they’ll burn your drugs”.

But even as the flames destroyed a few hundred packets of Tafrodol, the “sellers and suppliers” at the top of this chain, thousands of miles away in India, were churning out millions more – and getting rich on the profits of misery.

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella has cancelled a planned speech in the US, after President Donald Trump’s former top adviser made a hand gesture that some likened to a Nazi salute.

Steve Bannon yelled “fight, fight, fight” before extending his right arm, fingers pointed and palm down, during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) near Washington DC on Thursday evening.

Bardella, who leads France’s National Rally party, was scheduled to speak at the event on Friday. He said in a statement that he was cancelling his appearance over what he called a “gesture referring to Nazi ideology”.

Bannon denied the Nazi comparison and called the gesture a “wave”, saying it was the “exact same wave” he did on stage at a speech seven years ago in France to Bardella’s party.

“If he cancelled [the speech] over what the mainstream media said about the speech, he didn’t listen to the speech. If that’s true, he’s unworthy to lead France. He’s a boy, not a man,” Bannon told the French news magazine Le Point.

Inside the halls of the suburban convention centre hosting Cpac, Romanian far-right leader George Simion also disagreed with Bardella’s interpretation of Bannon’s hand gesture.

“Any historian knows that wasn’t a Nazi salute,” he told the BBC.

Bannon’s on-stage gesture appeared to mirror one from tech billionaire-turned-presidential adviser Elon Musk during Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. Musk also denied he had performed a Nazi salute after an uproar.

Bardella, seen as a future French presidential hopeful, was one of several high-profile international politicians scheduled to speak at Cpac during the four-day conference, which began on Wednesday.

Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss addressed the conservative bash on its first day, telling attendees that the British state was “failing”. On Thursday, Argentine President Javier Milei handed Elon Musk a shiny chainsaw that he wielded on stage, celebrating sweeping cuts to the federal government by his Doge initiative.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is due to speak on Saturday, ahead of President Trump’s address.

The annual Cpac conference has become increasingly dominated by Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, and this year, it has taken on a celebratory tone in the wake of his election victory in November.

Speaker after speaker have lauded the blizzard of action launched by the White House in the month since the Republican returned to the Oval Office.

Bannon was met with a standing ovation after his speech on Thursday, which ended with the controversial gesture.

“The only way that they win is if we retreat, and we are not going to retreat,” he told the crowd.

“We’re not going to surrender, we are not going to quit, we’re going to fight, fight, fight.”

Bannon was Trump’s top adviser at the start of his first term in office before the president fired him. The firebrand conservative hosts the influential War Room podcast, listened to by legions of Trump supporters.

He was released from prison in October, after serving four months for defying a congressional subpoena over the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

In another case, Bannon was spared prison time after pleading guilty earlier this month to defrauding donors over a fundraiser to build a US-Mexico border wall.

Cryptocurrency firm Bybit said hackers stole $1.5bn (£1.1bn) worth of digital currency in what could be the biggest crypto theft in history.

The Dubai-based company’s founder told users that their funds were “safe” and that if would refund any of those affected.

It said hackers stole from its Ethereum coin digital wallet. Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by value after Bitcoin.

Bybit’s founder Ben Zhou said the money could be covered by the firm or by a loan from partners. Bybit holds $20bn (£15bn) in assets.

Bybit said the hackers exploited security features, then transferred the money to an unidentified address.

After the theft, the value of Ethereum fell by around 4% on Friday, leaving it worth $2,641.41 (£2,090) per coin.

The scale of the theft would exceed a previous record, which was a $620m (£490m) heist of Ethereum and USD Coin from the Ronin Network in 2022.

Bybit was founded in 2018. US President Donald Trump and former Paypal chief Peter Thiel were reportedly among its early investors.

Bybit says it has more than 60 million users worldwide and offers access to various cryptocurrencies.

“Bybit is solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss,” Mr Zhou added.

The company said in a post on X that it had reported the case to authorities and that it was working “quickly and extensively” to identify the hackers.

Cryptocurrencies, which have become popular with investors, have sparked division as many criticise their value for being based purely on speculation, allowing their value to be easily manipulated.

Most recently, Donald Trump has been criticised for launching his own digital coin while saying he “doesn’t know much” about the cryptocurrency.

The digital coin called TRUMP appeared on his social media accounts ahead of his inauguration and quickly became one of the most valuable crypto coins, but has since fallen significantly in value.

It highlights security concerns within the digital currency market, which was hoping for renewed trust after Mr Trump launched his coin. His adviser and and multi-billionaire owner of Tesla, Elon Musk, has also in the past talked up Bitcoin.

In 2014, crypto exchange Mt Gox filed for bankruptcy after $350m (£210m) worth of digital currency had been stolen due to a loophole in its security.

In 2019, hackers stole stolen $41m worth of Bitcoin from the Binance exchange in another major crypto-currency heist.

Apple is taking the unprecedented step of removing its highest level data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded access to user data.

Advanced Data Protection (ADP) means only account holders can view items such as photos or documents they have stored online through a process known as end-to-end encryption.

But earlier this month the UK government asked for the right to see the data, which currently not even Apple can access.

Apple did not comment at the time but has consistently opposed creating a “backdoor” in its encryption service, arguing that if it did so, it would only be a matter of time before bad actors also found a way in.

Now the tech giant has decided it will no longer be possible to activate ADP in the UK.

It means eventually not all UK customer data stored on iCloud – Apple’s cloud storage service – will be fully encrypted.

Data with standard encryption is accessible by Apple and shareable with law enforcement, if they have a warrant.

The Home Office told the BBC: “We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices.”

In a statement Apple said it was “gravely disappointed” that the security feature would no longer be available to British customers.

“As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products, and we never will,” it continued.

• How does encryption work?

The ADP service is opt-in, meaning people have to sign up to get the protection it provides.

From 1500GMT on Friday, any Apple user in the UK attempting to turn it on has been met with an error message.

Existing users’ access will be disabled at a later date.

It is not known how many people have signed up for ADP since it became available to British Apple customers in December 2022.

Prof Alan Woodward – a cyber-security expert at Surrey University – said it was a “very disappointing development” which amounted to “an act of self harm” by the government.

“All the UK government has achieved is to weaken online security and privacy for UK based users,” he told the BBC, adding it was “naïve” of the UK to “think they could tell a US technology company what to do globally”.

Online privacy expert Caro Robson said she believed it was “unprecedented” for a company “simply to withdraw a product rather than cooperate with a government”.

“It would be a very, very worrying precedent if other communications operators felt they simply could withdraw products and not be held accountable by governments,” she told the BBC.

Meanwhile, Bruce Daisley, a former senior executive at X, then known as Twitter, told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “Apple saw this as a point of principle – if they were going to concede this to the UK then every other government around the world would want this.”

The request was served by the Home Office under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which compels firms to provide information to law enforcement agencies.

Apple would not comment on the notice and the Home Office refused to either confirm or deny its existence, but the BBC and the Washington Post spoke to a number of sources familiar with the matter.

It provoked a fierce backlash from privacy campaigners, who called it an “unprecedented attack” on the private data of individuals.

Last week, Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, responded to a post on X expressing his concerns about the government’s request.

He wrote: “If the UK forces a global backdoor into Apple’s security, it will make everyone in every country less safe. One country’s secret order risks putting all of us in danger and it should be stopped.”

Two senior US politicians said it was so serious a threat to American national security that the US government should re-evaluate its intelligence-sharing agreements with the UK unless it was withdrawn.

It is not clear that Apple’s actions will fully address those concerns, as the IPA order applies worldwide and ADP will continue to operate in other countries.

One of those US politicians – Senator Ron Wyden – told BBC News that Apple withdrawing end-to-end encrypted backups from the UK “creates a dangerous precedent which authoritarian countries will surely follow”.

Senator Wyden believes the move will “not be enough” for the UK to drop its demands, which would “seriously threaten” the privacy of US users.

In its statement, Apple said it regretted the action it had taken.

“Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end-encryption is more urgent than ever before,” it said.

“Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in future in the UK.”

Rani Govender, policy manager for child safety online at the NSPCC, said it wants tech firms like Apple to ensure they are balancing child and user safety with privacy.

“As Apple looks to change its approach to encryption, we’re calling on them to make sure that they also implement more child safety measures, so that children are properly protected on their services,” she told BBC News.

The UK children’s charity has said that end-to-end encrypted services can hinder child safety and protection efforts, such as identifying the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The row comes amid growing push-back in the US against regulation being imposed on its tech sector from elsewhere.

In a speech at the AI Action Summit in Paris at the beginning of February, US Vice President JD Vance made it clear that the US was increasingly concerned about it.

“The Trump administration is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening the screws on US tech companies with international footprints,” he said.