The EU has suspended its retaliatory 25% tariffs on US goods for 90 days after Donald Trump’s dramatic climbdown in his trade war.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU would put on hold for 90 days the countermeasures – 25% tariffs on €21bn (£18bn) of US goods – that it had agreed on Wednesday. “We want to give negotiations a chance,” she said. “If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in.”

In an earlier statement that did not mention the EU countermeasures, von der Leyen had welcomed the US president’s 90-day pause on his highest tariffs, as she reiterated that the EU was ready to negotiate a trade deal with the US.

The chaotic U-turn by the White House on Wednesday means that until July the EU will face a 10% duty on exports to the US, rather than the 20% “reciprocal tariff” rate that was in force for a matter of hours. Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars remain in place.

Von der Leyen said Trump’s announcement to pause the higher rates of tariffs he had imposed on many countries was “an important step towards stabilising the global economy”.

On Wednesday, EU member states voted almost unanimously to impose 25% tariffs on €21bn-worth of US agricultural and industrial products in retaliation for the steel and aluminium tariffs that Trump announced in February.

Those EU duties – weighted towards goods from Republican states in the US – will now only come into force if trade talks fail. The European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill, when asked why the EU had decided to freeze its retaliation even though Trump’s metals tariffs remained in place, said: “We are not going to take the further step right now because we want new space for negotiations. We want to talk to our American counterparts.”

The commission will also freeze proposals on further retaliation that had been expected to be published next week. “What has happened today is that in response to President Trump’s announcement, we have pushed the pause button, and until further notice, it is paused,” Gill said.

Trump seemed unaware on Wednesday of the EU’s initial retaliation, commenting that it was “bad timing” when asked about it by a reporter. The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, told Trump that the measures were being phased in, saying: “They threatened, but they picked a later date, and our expectation is that it’s going to be later still.”

Trump replied: “I’m glad that they held back.”

Von der Leyen also reiterated the EU’s willingness to negotiate a tariff-free agreement covering cars and industrial goods, an offer she made publicly after Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk came out in favour of zero tariffs between Europe and the US last weekend.

Von der Leyen said: “Tariffs are taxes that only hurt businesses and consumers. That’s why I’ve consistently advocated for a zero-for-zero tariff agreement between the European Union and the United States.”

Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, said Trump’s decision to pause planned tariff increases for most countries was a testament to EU unity.

Asked about Trump’s reversal in an interview with the German broadcaster RTL, Merz said the announcement was a “reaction to the determination of the Europeans”.

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, welcomed the US tariffs pause, describing it as “a door to negotiation and deals between countries”. But Sánchez, who is on a trade visit to south-east Asia, also described Trump’s decision to impose tariffs “on the whole world – including a terrifying 46% on Vietnam” as “an unjustified and unjust decision”.

As the prospect of possible negotiations loomed, Sánchez said Spain would always work for “a world of open doors”, adding: “Spain’s response is being coordinated with the EU in order to protect our exporters. Not a single business will be left exposed because of this measure.”

Donald Trump is facing accusations of market manipulation after posting on social media that it was a “great time to buy” just hours before he made a dramatic U-turn on his trade war that led to big rises in stock markets around the world.

Shortly after US markets opened on Wednesday morning, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”.

Less than four hours later, he shocked investors by announcing a 90-day pause on additional trade tariffs on most countries except China, sending share indexes soaring.

In America the S&P 500 blue chip index closed up by more than 9%, while the technology-focused Nasdaq index shut more than 12% up. Stocks continued to rise in Asia and Europe on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 index up by 9%, and London’s FTSE 100 index rising by as much as 4% in early trading.

Trump does not usually sign off his post with his initials. Those letters happen to be the same as the ticker for Trump Media & Technology Group, the business that controls Truth Social, whose stock shot up by 22% on Wednesday.

The timing of the US president’s posts and subsequent huge share jumps has sparked accusations of market manipulation. The Democratic senator Adam Schiff has called for an investigation, saying: “These constant gyrations in policy provide dangerous opportunities for insider trading.

“Who in the administration knew about Trump’s latest tariff flip-flop ahead of time? Did anyone buy or sell stocks, and profit at the public’s expense? I’m writing to the White House – the public has a right to know.”

The Democratic senator Chris Murphy also wrote on X that an “insider trading scandal is brewing … Trump’s 9:30am tweet makes it clear he was eager for his people to make money off the private info only he knew. So who knew ahead of time and how much money did they make?”

The New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for all members of Congress to disclose any stocks they had bought in the past 24 hours. “I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor,” she wrote on X. “Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things. It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress.”

When asked by US reporters on Wednesday evening when exactly he arrived at his decision to pause the tariffs on most countries for 90 days, Trump said: “For a period of a time. I would say this morning. Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it.”

However White House officials have argued the shift was part of the strategy all along, with his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, arguing it was his “art of the deal” at work.

Several investors have used volatility in the stock market in recent weeks as a buying opportunity. The US representative for Georgia, Republican and Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, disclosed that she had made several purchases on 3 and 4 April – days when there were sharp market falls after Trump first detailed his “liberation day” tariffs on 2 April – including shares in Amazon.com and Apple. Shares in the technology companies rose by 12% and 15% respectively on Wednesday.

While Trump has paused many of the new country-specific tariffs, he has maintained pressure on China, the second biggest economy in the world. He increased the tariff on Chinese imports to 125% from the 104% level that started on Wednesday. Beijing could respond again after hitting US imports with 84% tariffs that began on Thursday.

China says Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing “will end in failure” for Washington, hours after the US president announced he would increase his tariffs on the country’s imports to 125%.

China’s own 84% retaliatory tariffs on US imports came into effect on Thursday amid an escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

Beijing’s tariffs are the latest salvo against Trump, who on Wednesday announced a pause to his steepest tariffs on dozens of countries, capping them at 10% for 90 days, but excluding China from the U-turn after it refused to withdraw its retaliatory measures.

On Thursday, China’s foreign ministry said Beijing was not interested in a fight “but will not fear if the United States continues its tariff threats.

“The US cause doesn’t win the support of the people and will end in failure,” a ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said at a regular press conference.

Beijing’s commerce ministry was less aggressive in tone, saying “the door to dialogue is open”, and adding: “We hope the US will meet China halfway, and, based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, properly resolve differences through dialogue and consultation.”

Markets rebounded after Trump’s announcement of the sudden pause, following the most volatile period in financial markets since the pandemic.

Taiwan stocks soared 9.2% in early trading on Thursday. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 7.2%, while in Seoul the Kospi was up more than 5%. In Australia, the ASX 200 jumped more than 6%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 2.69%, while the Shanghai composite index jumped 1.29%.

On Wall Street on Wednesday, the Dow index soared to nearly 8% higher, while the Nasdaq rose 12.2% to its best day in 24 years, after the announcement of the pause.

A China Daily editorial published on Wednesday night said “caving into the US pressure is out of the question for Beijing”.

The head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday that an escalating US-China tariff war could cut trade in goods between the two countries by 80%. Given they account for 3% of world trade, the conflict could “severely damage the global economic outlook”, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.

Chinese companies selling products on Amazon were preparing to raise prices for the US or quit that market because of the “unprecedented blow” from the tariffs, the head of China’s largest e-commerce association said.

Trump’s 90-day pause maintained the blanket global 10% tariff but halted the steeper reciprocal tariffs.

In response, the European Union announced on Thursday it would also pause its new tariffs against the US for 90 days, to allow time for negotiations.

“I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line; they were getting yippy, you know,” Trump said on Wednesday when asked why he had announced the pause.

Beijing had said earlier it would impose 84% tariffs on US products from midday local time on Thursday, put 18 US companies on trade restriction lists and bring in other countermeasures. It came after Trump’s “liberation day” announcement of a global tariff regime, which added a 34% tariff to the 20% already levied on China, prompting Beijing to announce reciprocal tariffs of 34%.

Trump warned China to withdraw them or he would respond but China refused, and the two sides embarked on a series of tit-for-tat raises. Trump pledged a levy of 104% and then 125% against Chinese imports, and left them in place while announcing a reprieve elsewhere.

“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the USA and other countries is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” Trump wrote, as he announced the latest US tariff assault on China.

Questioned by reporters, he claimed China “wants to make a deal, they just don’t know how quite to go about it. They’re proud people. President Xi [Jinping] is a proud man. I know him very well. They don’t know quite how to go about it but they’ll figure it out,” he said.

The China Daily editorial said on Wednesday: “It is not that China does not understand what the unprecedentedly high tariffs mean for its exports and the economy in general.

“Profits of export-oriented industries will take a blow and the resulting decline in manufacturing investment and consumer sentiment will dampen economic growth. But it also knows that kowtowing to the US’s tariff bullying will gain it nothing, given that it is no secret the US is now intent on cutting China out of its consumer market and reshaping the global supply chains to serve its own narrow interests.”

China appears to be approaching other countries in an apparent attempt to shore up trading agreements away from the US.

China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, has said in talks with his Malaysian counterpart that they are willing to work with trading partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to strengthen coordination.

He also spoke to the EU trade and security commissioner on Tuesday, saying China was willing to deepen trade, investment and industrial cooperation, and that China and the EU would immediately restart negotiations on electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, Beijing’s attempts to “join hands” with Australia – which relies heavily on China for trade but has a deep alliance with the US – were rebuffed by the country’s defence minister, Richard Marles.

“We’re not about to make common cause with China – that’s not what’s going to happen here,” Marles said. “We don’t want to see a trade war between America and China, to be clear, but our focus is on actually diversifying our trade.”

Trump has dismissed the market volatility, saying “sometimes you have to take medicine”, but appeared to waver as predictions of a US recession grew stronger.

Governments that were facing higher export tariffs welcomed Trump’s pause, but many were still affected by sector-based tariffs.

“We received the latest US announcement positively,” Japan’s chief government spokesperson, Yoshimasa Hayashi, told a regular briefing. But he added: “We continue to strongly demand that the United States reviews measures on its reciprocal tariffs, tariffs on steel and aluminium, and tariffs on vehicles and auto parts.”

EU member states had approved retaliatory 25% tariffs on up to $23bn in US goods – targeting farm produce and products from Republican states – from next week, in response to sweeping steel and aluminium tariffs imposed by Trump.

The US president announced his decision at the same time as a congressional hearing featuring Jamieson Greer, his US trade representative.

“It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you,” the Democratic representative Steven Horsford, of Nevada, told Greer. “This is amateur hour, and it needs to stop.”

Agencies contributed to this report

Moscow has released a US-Russian dual national, Ksenia Karelina, who had been detained in Russia, in a prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on X: “American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release.”

He added that Trump would “continue to work for the release of ALL Americans”.

Karelina, a beautician and former ballet dancer who lives in Los Angeles, was also identified in Russian media reports as Ksenia Khavana.

She was arrested in Ekaterinburg in February last year and sentenced in August to 12 years in prison on a treason conviction for allegedly raising money for the Ukrainian military.

A rights group said the charges stemmed from a $51 (£40) donation to Razom, a US charity that sends non-lethal aid to Ukraine.

In exchange for Karelina, the US reportedly freed Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen, who was arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of the US. Petrov had been accused of exporting sensitive microelectronics to Russia.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the swap, said the deal had been negotiated by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, and an unidentified senior Russian intelligence official.

“Today, President Trump brought home another wrongfully detained American from Russia,” the WSJ quoted Ratcliffe as saying. “I’m proud of the CIA officers who worked tirelessly to support this effort, and we appreciate the government of UAE for enabling the exchange.”

Ratcliffe has spoken to the head of the Federal State Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, and the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, in recent months.

“Petrov was exchanged for US citizen Ksenia Karelina, who also holds Russian citizenship and was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for treason in the form of financial assistance to a foreign state,” the FSB said in a statement.

“We express our gratitude to the UAE leadership for their assistance,.”

Karelina’s lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, said on Instagram that she was flying to the US from Abu Dhabi, where the exchange took place.

Abu Dhabi was the scene of a previous high-profile prisoner swap between Russia and the United States in December 2022, when the US basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged for the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The UAE has been a mediator in prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine, while Dubai has become home to many Russians and Ukrainians who have fled there since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Agencies contributed to this report

A British adventurer has apologised after her claims to be the first woman to traverse Canada’s largest island solo were dismissed by members of the Inuit population who criticised her dangerous “privilege and ignorance”.

Camilla Hempleman-Adams, 32, covered 150 miles (240km) on foot and by ski while pulling a sledge across Baffin Island, Nunavut, in temperatures as low as -40C and winds of 47mph during the two-week expedition last month.

The trek took Hempleman-Adams, the daughter of the adventurer Sir David Hempleman-Adams, from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung, through Auyuittuq national park.

But her claims have been described as incorrect, with local people saying they had travelled the same route for generations.

Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, an Inuit artist based in Ottawa, said on Instagram: “There is no way in hell a British colonizer is coming to Inuit Nunaat in 2025 and claiming any firsts.

“My gramma walked 100’s of km yearly, often pregnant, to Spring fishing and winter caribou hunting grounds because that was life. Every inch of this continent has indigenous history and stories like this. Help me call out this ignorant and racist behaviour.”

Kabloona said the matter had affected the community because many people who lived traditional nomadic lifestyles had died, raising concerns that cultural practices would gradually be lost to time.

“The article hit people really hard in a very sensitive spot because of our history and the difficulties we face every day in combatting western colonialism,” she told the BBC.

“This woman is coming here from such a place of privilege and ignorance that it seems dangerous. It was almost like she was bringing back news of a new continent to Europe and saying: ‘There’s nobody here!’ We were and still are.”

She added: “It’s such a clear example of how colonialism benefits from dispossessing Indigenous people of their land and writing us out of history.”

Hempleman-Adams wrote on her expedition website before departure: “Parks Canada has confirmed there are no historical records of a female solo attempt from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung.”

Kabloona said this was because crossing the terrain was considered “a normal way of life for them”.

Hempleman-Adams, a producer living in London and the youngest British woman to ski to the north pole aged 15, said: “It was never my intention to misrepresent any historical achievements or cause distress to local communities.

“Before undertaking the expedition, I researched and verified the accuracy of my claim with Parks Canada and local outfitters in both towns who confirmed that there was no known female solo winter crossing from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung.

“However, if this information is incorrect, I apologise unreservedly for making an incorrect claim and for causing offence.”

She added she was “truly saddened” that coverage of her trek “may have caused concern or upset … I remain committed to learning from this experience and engaging with the community with the utmost respect.”

Andrew Tate told a woman he was “debating whether to rape you or not” before he strangled and forced himself upon her, according to one of four women suing the self-proclaimed misogynistic influencer.

He is also accused of whispering “good girl” as he raped a woman he employed at his webcam business whom he had separately threatened with a gun, and strangling another so often that she developed spots from burst capillaries around her eyes.

A fourth woman, whom he allegedly first met at Yates nightclub in Luton, claims Tate continued to have sexual intercourse with her after strangling her to the point that she lost consciousness.

“She heard the defendant saying things like ‘I own you’ and ‘I’m going to kill you,’” according to her claim.

Tate denies the allegations, which include rape, coercive control and assault and battery, describing them as a “pack of lies” and “gross fabrications”. He claims his relationships with the women were consensual and that there was no violence or coercive control involved.

His lawyers further claim that the allegations for personal injury are barred as they relate to a period between 2013 and 2015 and are subject to a three-year limitation period.

It is claimed that emails, texts and other potential evidence in his defence will have been lost.

The claims by the four women have been filed at the high court where a preliminary hearing is scheduled for 15 April. Three of the women involved had reported Tate to Hertfordshire police in 2019 but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to bring criminal charges.

According to the claims, two of the women worked for Tate’s webcam business in 2015 and the other two were in relationships with him in 2013 and 2014.

One of the women who allegedly had a relationship with Tate in 2013 said she told him she did not want to rush into full sexual intercourse but that he raped her at his flat after a training session before a kickboxing fight.

He is alleged to have told her: “I’m just debating whether to rape you or not.”

According to the claim, she “did not believe what she was hearing and asked him if he was joking”. Tate’s “face turned angry, and he proceeded to put one hand around her neck and, with the other, tried to remove her underwear”, it is claimed.

The claim goes on: “The … claimant was saying ‘no Andrew, you said you wouldn’t’ and “no, no, no”. His grip was tight but at that point it was not so tight that she could not speak.

“His response was to tell the … claimant to ‘shut the fuck up’. When she was quiet, he told her she was a ‘good girl’, and the … claimant thought if she was quiet he would partially release the stranglehold on her neck.”

Tate is alleged to have then raped the woman and to have repeatedly asked her: “Who do you belong to?”

In Tate’s filed defence, he claims the sexual intercourse was consensual and that the woman went on to visit him “on a number of occasions thereafter”. The defence adds: “They had sex several times. This is not the behaviour of someone in fear.”

All four women claim to have developed long-term mental health problems as a result of their alleged experiences.

Tate is under criminal investigation in three countries, including in Romania where he and his brother, Tristan, are accused of human trafficking, trafficking of minors and money laundering. He also faces allegations of rape.

Bedfordshire police are seeking to arrest the Tate brothers in relation to allegations of rape and trafficking dating back to between 2012 and 2015. The two men, who deny all accusations against them, are believed to currently be in Dubai.

A Danish couple who fled their “forest resort” in Sweden for Guatemala and left behind a large tax debt and 158 barrels of human waste have hit back at criticism and claimed that their handling of the compost toilets was “very normal”.

Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, both chefs, abandoned their purportedly eco-friendly retreat, Stedsans, in Halland, southern Sweden, last year. They owed large sums to Swedish and Danish tax authorities. They have since set up a business in Guatemala.

The story behind their disappearance and the abandoned human waste was revealed this week after an investigation by the newspapers Politiken and Dagens Nyheter. It also found that the couple had allowed wastewater to run into the forest and alleged that animals had died as a result of being left outside and that others were abandoned.

Hansen and Helbæk’s actions were described by local authorities as “environmental crime”. However, on Thursday, the couple claimed they were acting lawfully.

Commenting on the barrels left behind from their compost toilets, they said in a post on social media: “For people in rural Sweden it’s a very normal thing.”

They added: “It’s also a very important part of the permaculture principles that you deal with your own shit.”

The property’s new owner is aware of the barrels and they can be used for compost, they said. “Half of them are ready to use this spring, the other half is ready in 1 year, following the guidelines of Swedish law.”

But Daniel Helsing, the head of building and environment at the local authority, Hylte council, said the couple did not follow the necessary requirements for composting waste.

“There are a number of requirements that you have to follow and they have not,” he said. “Normal practice, if you do not have a water closet solution, is that you have a collecting service for your barrels that the local authorities in basically every county in Sweden provide. That would be the most common solution to handling toilet waste if you are not using water closets.”

It is possible to compost toilet waste but it has to be done according to local authority instructions, he said. “You would have to report that you are going to compost toilet waste and that gives us as the local authority a chance to set out rules and guidelines for how to do it.”

The Swedish Tourist Association said it was unfamiliar with the methods used at Stedsans. A spokesperson said: “I have never heard anything like that.”

Hansen and Helbæk accused the journalists behind the investigation of lying and of causing “our life’s biggest (literal!) shitstorm”.

They added: “The article claims that we have been damaging the local environment with our procedures at our permaculture resort and that we have left animals to die. All these claims and several others are false.”

Accusing the local authorities of being cowards, Hansen and Helbæk said that Hylte council was aware of their toilets. They had, the couple said, shown the toilets and procedures to authority representatives “several times”. “Either the municipality lies, or they have not done the work we have paid them to do, which is to make sure that all rules are followed.”

Hylte council said they had not been paid to deal with waste and that they were assessing whether it would be reported to police.

Hansen and Helbæk said their company had gone bankrupt and that they had tax debt in Denmark that had “multiplied tenfold” because of interest and fees over a decade. To prevent the debt from growing, they said, they would have to pay Danish tax authorities – which they accused of being “cold-hearted” and “narcissistic” – more than 50,000 DKK a month (£5,800), which they suggest they are unable to.

Hansen previously said they owed the Swedish tax agency “over 7m” SEK (more than £550,000).

Among the reasons they fled to Guatemala, they said, was “to give our family a second chance”. Describing it as their birthright, they added: “If you see us as villains for making this choice, we are sorry.”

A Danish couple who fled their “forest resort” in Sweden for Guatemala and left behind a large tax debt and 158 barrels of human waste have hit back at criticism and claimed that their handling of the compost toilets was “very normal”.

Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, both chefs, abandoned their purportedly eco-friendly retreat, Stedsans, in Halland, southern Sweden, last year. They owed large sums to Swedish and Danish tax authorities. They have since set up a business in Guatemala.

The story behind their disappearance and the abandoned human waste was revealed this week after an investigation by the newspapers Politiken and Dagens Nyheter. It also found that the couple had allowed wastewater to run into the forest and alleged that animals had died as a result of being left outside and that others were abandoned.

Hansen and Helbæk’s actions were described by local authorities as “environmental crime”. However, on Thursday, the couple claimed they were acting lawfully.

Commenting on the barrels left behind from their compost toilets, they said in a post on social media: “For people in rural Sweden it’s a very normal thing.”

They added: “It’s also a very important part of the permaculture principles that you deal with your own shit.”

The property’s new owner is aware of the barrels and they can be used for compost, they said. “Half of them are ready to use this spring, the other half is ready in 1 year, following the guidelines of Swedish law.”

But Daniel Helsing, the head of building and environment at the local authority, Hylte council, said the couple did not follow the necessary requirements for composting waste.

“There are a number of requirements that you have to follow and they have not,” he said. “Normal practice, if you do not have a water closet solution, is that you have a collecting service for your barrels that the local authorities in basically every county in Sweden provide. That would be the most common solution to handling toilet waste if you are not using water closets.”

It is possible to compost toilet waste but it has to be done according to local authority instructions, he said. “You would have to report that you are going to compost toilet waste and that gives us as the local authority a chance to set out rules and guidelines for how to do it.”

The Swedish Tourist Association said it was unfamiliar with the methods used at Stedsans. A spokesperson said: “I have never heard anything like that.”

Hansen and Helbæk accused the journalists behind the investigation of lying and of causing “our life’s biggest (literal!) shitstorm”.

They added: “The article claims that we have been damaging the local environment with our procedures at our permaculture resort and that we have left animals to die. All these claims and several others are false.”

Accusing the local authorities of being cowards, Hansen and Helbæk said that Hylte council was aware of their toilets. They had, the couple said, shown the toilets and procedures to authority representatives “several times”. “Either the municipality lies, or they have not done the work we have paid them to do, which is to make sure that all rules are followed.”

Hylte council said they had not been paid to deal with waste and that they were assessing whether it would be reported to police.

Hansen and Helbæk said their company had gone bankrupt and that they had tax debt in Denmark that had “multiplied tenfold” because of interest and fees over a decade. To prevent the debt from growing, they said, they would have to pay Danish tax authorities – which they accused of being “cold-hearted” and “narcissistic” – more than 50,000 DKK a month (£5,800), which they suggest they are unable to.

Hansen previously said they owed the Swedish tax agency “over 7m” SEK (more than £550,000).

Among the reasons they fled to Guatemala, they said, was “to give our family a second chance”. Describing it as their birthright, they added: “If you see us as villains for making this choice, we are sorry.”

Prosecutors in Rome have opened an investigation into the murder of an Italian scientist in Colombia, with one theory being that he could have been killed by warring criminal clans in a case of mistaken identity.

Alessandro Coatti, who until late last year worked at the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) in London, was last seen leaving a hostel in Santa Marta, a port city on the Caribbean coast, on 3 April.

The 38-year-old’s dismembered body parts were found two days later in a suitcase dumped on the outskirts of the city.

The molecular biologist had been travelling and conducting research in South America after working in London for eight years. There is no evidence that Ciotta had any links to organised crime.

Rome prosecutors will collaborate with counterparts in Colombia, with Italy expected to send a team of investigators to Santa Marta. According to reports in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, one line of inquiry is that Coatti could have been killed by mistake in the context of a “settling of scores” between organised crime groups.

Lerber Dimas, a crime expert, told the Colombian news website El Tiempo that the killing bore the hallmarks of the two armed groups operating in the area, Clan del Golfo and the Autodefensas Conquistadores de la Sierra.

Norma Vera Salazar, a human rights expert, said there had been a spate of similar crimes. “There is a clear recurring pattern in these crimes: bodies are tortured, dismembered, stuffed into garbage or coffee sacks, and abandoned along rural roads,” she told El Tiempo. “These types of murders are used by self-defence groups to send warning messages, instil fear and mark territory.”

Coatti was travelling alone in South America, visiting Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador before arriving on 3 April in Santa Marta, which is surrounded by beaches and mountains and is a gateway to some of Colombia’s most popular tourist destinations. His disappearance was reported the next day.

Coatti was born in Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region, where his parents live in the town of Alfonsine, close to Ravenna. He was planning to return to Italy for Easter, his uncle Giovanni told the Italian press. “Alessandro was a good, happy person and a brilliant biologist,” he told the local news site Il Resto del Carlino. “He loved to travel and discover the world.”

He added: “We are shocked, what happened is surreal. We have entrusted ourselves to the Italian and Colombian authorities. We want the truth. Alessandro was only 38 years old, with a life ahead of him. We cannot understand why this happened to him, and in that way.”

China has confirmed that the head of the British military paid an unannounced visit to the country this week, where he met his counterpart at a time when Beijing’s trade dispute with the US was intensifying.

London did not publicise the visit, but China’s defence ministry said Adm Sir Tony Radakin had discussed strengthening military cooperation with a country that the UK officially describes as posing a “systemic challenge”.

Radakin met Gen Liu Zhenli, the chief of staff of China’s central military commission, on Wednesday, the defence ministry said in a short statement published on its website.

“The two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on China-UK relations and mil-to-mil relations, international and regional situations and issues of common concern, and had communication on strengthening exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries,” the ministry said.

There was no immediate comment from from the UK’s Ministry of Defence, but British sources said it was in the country’s interest to maintain robust military-to-military communications with China – and to engage in “firm conversations” about the importance of peace in the Indo-Pacific.

Some British politicians critical of China expressed surprise at the visit. The former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said his jaw had dropped when he learned about the visit.

“The Labour government is kowtowing to China, but they shouldn’t make the military follow them,” he said. “The most astonishing and alarming thing is to watch China being treated as an ally and friend, a country that trashed the Sino-British agreement on Hong Kong and has arrested peaceful democracy campaigners.”

Frances D’Souza, a cross-bench peer and member of the all-party parliamentary group on Taiwan, said: “I have to say that it does not bode well for a robust UK policy on supporting a democratic Taiwan … This drives a hole through any possibility of having a coherent policy.”

It is the first time a UK chief of defence staff has visited China since 2015, when Britain was trying to foster a “golden era” of relations. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, made a state visit to the UK the same year.

Relations have deteriorated since as China has aggressively asserted its control over Hong Kong, a former British colony. It has also been accused of spying on the UK and acting as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine by supplying components for munitions.

Labour has tried to strike a balance since taking office. Two senior British ministers – the foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves – have visited China in an effort to maintain positive economic relations despite the security concerns. Reeves said a long-term relationship with China was “squarely in our national interest” on her trip in January.

Radakin is reported to have given a speech to students at the People’s Liberation Army National Defence University, which specialises in military education. The Times reported that he had defended the post-second world war security order and emphasised the value of alliances.

Donald Trump introduced a 125% tariff on Chinese imports to the US this week, prompting Beijing to retaliate with an 84% levy of its own. Beijing said on Thursday that a US trade war would end in failure after Trump had accused China of “ripping off the USA” with cheap imported goods.

The UK defence secretary, John Healey, co-hosted a meeting of defence ministers from 30 countries at Nato headquarters in Brussels on Thursday to discuss increasing pressure on Russia over Ukraine.

He told his counterparts: “We cannot jeopardise the peace by forgetting about the war. The daily reality for millions of Ukrainians continues, drone attacks, missile strikes, brutal fighting on the frontline, so we must put more pressure on President Putin to end his war and we must step up support for Ukraine.”

The discussions focused on planning for a “reassurance force” that could be deployed in Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement. The prospect of a ceasefire seems distant after Russia effectively rejected a US-backed proposal for a 30-day pause in hostilities.

Russia carried out airstrikes against Kyiv earlier in the week, while Ukraine claimed to have captured Chinese nationals fighting for the Russian army. China’s foreign ministry said it was verifying the situation, but rejected Kyiv’s accusation that more Chinese citizens were involved in the fighting as groundless.

Scotland Yard has been accused of suppressing a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest after the co-head of Greenpeace UK was arrested for pouring biodegradable blood-red dye into a pond outside the US embassy in London.

Will McCallum, the co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, was among five people arrested when the large pond outside the embassy was turned red on Thursday in what Greenpeace said was a protest at the US government’s continued sale of weapons to Israel.

Greenpeace said McCallum had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Four other activists were also arrested near the embassy on suspicion of criminal damage and conspiracy to cause criminal damage.

According to the campaign group, 12 activists tipped non-toxic, biodegradable dye from containers emblazoned with the words Stop Arming Israel into the pond in Nine Elms, south-west London. The containers were delivered to the embassy on bicycles with trailers disguised as delivery bikes.

Areeba Hamid, the co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, said: “These arrests are further proof that the right to protest is under attack in the UK. This protest used biodegradable pond dye that is designed to disperse and wash away naturally.

“We took this action because US weapons continue to fuel an indiscriminate war that’s seen bombs dropped on schools and hospitals, entire neighbourhoods blasted to rubble, and tens of thousands of Palestinian lives obliterated. As the biggest supplier of weapons to the Israeli military, the US government bears a heavy responsibility for the horrors unfolding in Gaza.”

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 50,000 people, was in response to Hamas’s 7 October attack, in which more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and a further 250 taken hostage.

Greenpeace UK is campaigning for the UK and US governments to announce a total arms embargo on Israel.

A Metropolitan police spokesperson said: “Five people have so far been arrested nearby on suspicion of criminal damage and conspiracy to cause criminal damage. The pond is accessible via a public footpath. There was no breach or attempted breach of the secure perimeter of the site.”

France is to tighten its ban on the use of mobile phones in middle schools, making pupils at the ages of 11 to 15 shut away their devices in a locker or pouch at the start of the day and access them again only as they are leaving.

The education minister told the senate she wanted children to be fully separated from their phones throughout the school day in all French middle schools from September.

Élisabeth Borne said: “At a time when the use of screens is being widely questioned because of its many harmful effects, this measure is essential for our children’s wellbeing and success at school.”

In 2018, France banned children from using mobile phones in all middle schools – known as collèges. Phones must remain switched off in schoolbags and cannot be used anywhere in the school grounds, including at break-time.

Schools have reported a positive effect, with more social interaction, more physical exercise, less bullying and better concentration. But some did report a few children would sneak into the toilets to watch videos on phones at break.

Now the government says it is necessary to go further, fully separating children from their devices for the entire school day.

This enforced “digital pause” – as the French government calls it – has been tested in a pilot scheme in about 100 middle schools for the past six months, with children giving up their phones on arrival – placing them a locker or box, or in a special locked pouch that can only be unlocked by an electronic system at the school gates as they go home.

Devices are banned in primary schools.

Borne told the senate: “All the feedback from the trial is positive, namely on improving the atmosphere in schools, and there has been massive support from parents and teachers.”

After some unions questioned the cost and logistics of organising the scheme, Borne said it would be up to headteachers to choose a format – for example lockers or pouches – adding that it would cost no more than a few thousand euros.

Borne, who quoted a study last month by the French National Book Council, said: “A young person now spends on average five hours a day in front of a screen, but they only spend three hours a week with a book … Not only is reading going down, but for those who do read, half of them are doing something else on their phone at the same time. All that is damaging to students’ success.”

A report by scientists and experts commissioned by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, last year concluded that children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they were 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they were 18.

No child should have a phone before age 11, the report said, and they should only have a handset without access to the internet before 13.

Macron has said he favoured taking steps to limit children’s exposure to screens.

The moves come as the leader of England’s largest teaching union calls for a statutory ban on phones in schools. A survey of more than 15,000 schools found that 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools in England had some form of ban.

Less than 10% of the plastic produced around the world is made from recycled material, according to the first detailed global analysis of its life cycle.

The research reveals that most plastic is made from fossil fuels, predominantly coal and oil, despite rhetoric by producers, supermarkets and drinks companies about plastic being recycled.

The research analysed the 400m tonnes of plastic produced in 2022 in order to support attempts to reduce pollution and promote sustainable plastic management.

Plastic production has risen markedly since the 2m tonnes manufactured in 1950, and is projected to reach 800m tonnes a year by 2050. “As a result plastic pollution is a pressing and growing global issue, posing major challenges for the environment, economy, and public health,” the authors said.

Quanyin Tan and colleagues analysed key trends in the global plastic supply chain. Of the 400m tonnes of plastic produced over the course of 2022, just under 38m tonnes (9.5%) was produced from recycled plastic, 98% of the remaining 362m tonnes was produced from fossil fuels, predominantly coal and oil.

The research, published in Communications Earth & Environment, shows a significant increase in the amount of plastic being disposed of by incineration rather than recycling, with just 27.9% of plastic waste disposed of in 2022 actually being recycled.

While China is the biggest producer and consumer of plastic, Americans consume the most plastic per head, the equivalent of 216kg per person a year. The US produces 40.1 megatonnes (Mt) of plastic waste – most of it from plastic packaging.

The 28 countries of the EU and Japan also register high per capita plastic consumption, at 86.6kg and 129kg respectively.

Globally, landfill remains the main destination of plastic waste, accounting for 103.37 Mt or 40%.

Attempts continue to agree a global plastic waste treaty to tackle the environmental and public health scourge of plastic waste.

Talks in Busan, South Korea, ended in failure last December after fossil fuel producing nations, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, resisted attempts to include production caps in the treaty.

More than 100 countries supported a draft text that included legally binding global reductions in plastic production and the phasing out of certain chemicals and single-use plastic products.

Talks are due to resume in Geneva in August.