At least nine people have been killed and more than 70 injured in Kyiv after Russia carried out one of the most devastating air attacks against Ukraine for months, with Kharkiv and other cities also targeted.

Waves of drones as well as ballistic and guided missiles struck the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday. There were explosions for much of the night, beginning at about 1am local time, and the rattle of anti-aircraft fire as Ukrainian defences tried to shoot the missiles down.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said rescuers were pulling survivors from under the rubble. The injured included six children and a pregnant woman. A house, cars, and other buildings were set on fire, with extensive damage caused by falling debris in several districts, he said.

“Russia has launched a massive combined strike on Kyiv,” Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Telegram. “According to preliminary data, nine people were killed, 63 injured.”

Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said a big rescue operation was under way in the Svyatoshinsky district of Kyiv, involving dogs and engineering teams. “Mobile phones can be heard ringing under the ruins. The search will continue until everybody is got out. We have information about two children who cannot be found at the scene of the incident,” he added.

On Wednesday evening, drones could be seen buzzing in the sky above the north-east Kharkiv region and flying over a forest. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, was hit by seven missiles and 12 kamikaze drones in strikes throughout the night as black smoke plumed overhead.

According to Kharkiv’s mayor, several private houses, a factory and a high-rise apartment block were hit. “One of the most recent strikes hit a densely populated residential area. Two people were injured there,” Ihor Terekhov said, urging people to be careful.

The onslaught came as Donald Trump lashed out at Volodymyr Zelenskyy for failing to support a US “peace plan”, in which Crimea and other Ukrainian territories would be handed to Russia.

On Wednesday, Trump accused Ukraine’s president of prolonging the “killing field” and making “very harmful” statements. Zelenskyy has ruled out recognising Crimea as Russian and says a complete ceasefire is needed before any settlement can be discussed.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy said he was cutting short a trip to South Africa because of the attack. “It has been 44 days since Ukraine agreed to a full ceasefire and a halt to strikes… And it has been 44 days of Russia continuing to kill our people,” Zelensky said in a post on X. “The strikes must be stopped immediately and unconditionally,” he added.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga, said Russia’s “maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its regions, combined with these brutal strikes, show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace”.

He added: “Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied. Putin demonstrates through his actions, not words, that he does not respect any peace efforts and only wants to continue the war. Weakness and concessions will not stop his terror and aggression. Only strength and pressure will.”

Posting on social media, as Russian bombs fell around them, Ukrainians criticised Trump’s one-sided approach and his apparent indifference to Ukrainian civilian casualties. The massive attack suggested the Kremlin was not remotely interested in peace, they suggested.

Olga Rudenko, the editor of the Kyiv Independent newspaper, wrote on social media: “Can’t begin to explain how surreal it is to be sitting on the floor in the safest place of my apartment hearing an extremely loud Russian missile+drone attack – after having spent entire day discussing and editing coverage of the US effectively demanding Ukraine’s surrender.”

Euan MacDonald, a freelance journalist, added: “Great big bang in Kyiv, and another – incoming missiles. Shaheds also in city, just heard anti-aircraft guns. And two more big bangs just as I write … Not been this noisy for a while …”

There were further attacks in the cities of Pavlohrad and Zhytomyr, as well as in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In Kyiv some residents spent a sleepless night in the subway, which doubles as a missile shelter. According to the photographer Kostyantyn Liberov, Shahed drones struck the same district twice as rescuers and civilians were trying to free a young woman who was trapped in a collapsed building.

“Honey, we’ll get you out no matter what. We’re right here,” one of the rescuers reassured her, as the loud roar of a Shahed drone buzzed overhead, Liberov reported.

The videographer Anton Shtuka, who filmed the difficult rescue operation, said: “Sometimes it looks like these strikes hit our homes because [Vladimir] Putin feels US support and begins to pressure Ukraine even more.” He added, ironically: “Thank you, partners.”

Kyiv was last hit by missiles in early April, when at least three people were hurt. It has been the target of sporadic attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenksyy’s office, said: “Putin shows only a desire to kill. The attacks on civilians must stop.”

Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of jeopardising what he claimed was an imminent peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, as he gave the clearest hint yet that the US would be willing to formally recognise Russia’s seizure of Crimea as part of any agreement.

The US president claimed a deal to end the war – largely negotiated between Washington and Moscow – was close, while the vice-president, JD Vance, said the agreement would include a proposal to freeze the conflict roughly along the current frontlines.

It was unclear how Ukraine and its European allies, who were meeting in London on Wednesday, would respond to a plan largely constructed in their absence. Zelenskyy countered by proposing a simple ceasefire without conditions on both sides, though this did not immediately gain any traction from the US.

But after a day of speculation and partial disclosure of the terms of the peace proposal, Trump attacked his Ukrainian counterpart, complaining that Kyiv was unwilling to cede Crimea to Russia – the most contentious aspect of the tentative agreement that has leaked so far.

The US president wrote on social media that “Crimea was lost years ago” in 2014, when Barack Obama was president, and its control “is not even a point of discussion”, an apparent reference to the fact that Ukraine has been unable to recapture it in the three-year war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

Reports that Washington would be willing to recognise Crimea under Russian control have been circulating for a couple of days. That prompted Zelenskyy to say on Tuesday that “Ukraine will not recognise the occupation of Crimea”, arguing that doing so it would be incompatible with the country’s constitution.

Responding to a report of his comments, Trump wrote on Wednesday that “this statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia” and accused the Ukrainian leader of making “inflammatory statements” that “makes it so difficult to settle this War”.

“Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory,” Trump wrote, implying that US was willing to do so, before accusing Ukraine of failing to defend Crimea. “If he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?”

Later, Trump said he thought Russia had agreed to a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy now the holdout.

“I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy. So far it’s been harder.”

Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea in March 2014 during a political crisis in Ukraine after the ousting of the country’s pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych. Gunmen seized the regional parliament and airports, and in a subsequent referendum 97% voted to join Russia. The poll was not recognised as legal by the US, UK or EU.

Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, said that US recognition of Russia’s control of Crimea would be a “de jure recognition of territory taken by force” and amount to “actively endorsing the Russian position in opposition to the European position and Ukrainian politics”.

A Ukraine peace summit in London was hastily downgraded on Wednesday morning after Washington said the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, would not be travelling the evening before. Hosted by the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, the meeting was said to be taking place at the level of officials instead.

Downing Street said it had consisted of substantive technical meetings on how to stop the fighting, with Washington’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg; Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and national security advisers from France and Germany among those present.

Vance had earlier called on Ukraine and Russia to accept a US-led peace proposal and threatened that Washington would abandon its effort to end the war – a Trump campaign promise – if it was not accepted.

“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance said.

The US proposal would mean “we’re going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today”, Vance said, though he added there should be some adjustments. “Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”

A ceasefire on the current frontlines has already been accepted in principle by Ukraine and Zelenskyy called again for an immediate halt to the three-year war. “In Ukraine, we insist on an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire,” he said, adding that “stopping the killings is the number one task”.

Early on Thursday, a missile attack in Kyiv killed at least two people and wounded 54, the capital’s mayor said. Thirty-eight of the injured – including six children – were hospitalised, Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Nine people were reportedly killed early on Wednesday when a Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers in the Ukrainian city of Marhanets – one of 134 large drones that Ukrainian authorities reported had attacked the country overnight.

Though Ukraine has indicated it is willing to accept de facto Russian occupation of about a fifth of its territory, arguing that it will reunite the country by diplomatic means eventually, it has refused to accept what would be a domestically unpopular partition by accepting Russia’s formal control of Crimea, even if the recognition came from the US.

Other anticipated elements of the deal are that Ukraine would be prevented by a US veto from joining Nato, a point largely accepted by a reluctant Kyiv. Another, that future security guarantees would be provided by a UK and French-led “coalition of the willing” made up of 30 countries, has not been accepted by Russia.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia continued to oppose the presence of European peacekeeping forces, which Ukraine sees as the only viable alternative to Nato membership for ensuring its security.

Peskov said there were “many nuances” surrounding negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine and that the positions of the various parties involved had yet to be brought closer – suggesting, from a Russian perspective, that the deal was not yet agreed.

Initial reports on Tuesday had suggested Russia was willing to trade territory it does not control in Ukraine – in effect, fresh air – for a US recognition of its seizure of Crimea, in what would be a formal acknowledgment that it is possible to change borders by force, creating an extraordinary post-second world war precedent.

Russia may be banking on the idea that Ukraine is weary after more than three years of war and that its proposal is a reasonable counter to western suggestions, backed by the US, Ukraine and Europe, that there should be an immediate and full ceasefire to allow other wider negotiations to take place.

The contours of the White House’s “final” peace proposal to halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine have come into focus with proposals to freeze the frontlines in exchange for terms that critics have termed a surrender to Russian interests in the the three-year-old conflict.

Three people with knowledge of the talks told the Guardian that Vladimir Putin had signalled a readiness to effectively freeze the frontlines of the conflict in exchange for numerous concessions, including US recognition of Russian control of Crimea and considerable US sanctions relief. The Financial Times first reported Putin’s proposal on Tuesday.

The vice-president, JD Vance, confirmed on Wednesday that the US would seek to “freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today”. Some territory could change hands, he said.

“The current lines, or somewhere close to them, is where you’re ultimately … going to draw the new lines in the conflict,” he said. “Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”

But reports of the US proposal do not include other Kremlin demands, including a limit on the future size of the Ukrainian military or a ban on foreign troops in the country. Russia had listed concerns over Ukraine’s military and foreign backing as among its “root causes” for launching its 2022 full-scale invasion.

A draft version of the White House proposal seen by Axios reported that Russia would receive de jure recognition of Moscow’s control of Crimea, de facto recognition of Russia’s occupation of much of eastern Ukraine, and a promise that Ukraine would not become a member of Nato (although it could join the EU).

Russia could also receive sanctions relief for its energy sector, enabling the Kremlin to increase vital revenue flows that have been impeded since the invasion.

Ukraine, in turn, would receive a “robust security guarantee” from an ad hoc group of European nations, although the draft did not describe how a peacekeeping force would operate or whether the US would take part. Ukraine would also be promised unimpeded passage on the Dnipro River and some territory in the Kharkiv region, along with vaguely defined pledges for future financial support for rebuilding.

Senior Russian officials have said Moscow will not take part in talks that include discussions of a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine. “Russia is still against [the presence of European peacekeepers],” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Wednesday. “That would be de facto Nato forces and resources on the territory of Ukraine. It was one of the main reasons for the start of the special military operation.”

The US decision to recognise Crimea would be politically contentious in Ukraine and would mark a turning point in US postwar policy, with the White House effectively endorsing a Russian effort to redraw the borders of Europe by force.

The Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said this week that Ukraine “will not legally recognise the occupation of Crimea … There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.”

Donald Trump reacted angrily to Zelenskyy’s remarks on Wednesday, calling them “very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia”.

“Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?” he wrote.

“The situation for Ukraine is dire,” he said. Zelenskyy “can have peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country”.

Moscow also appears to be eyeing the deal favourably. “There is a chance to make a deal,” said one source close to the Kremlin. “But they could also miss that chance.”

A draft of the plan seen by Axios, as well as the Telegraph, said that Ukraine would retain control over the Zaporizhzhia power plant but it would be managed by the US, which would supply electricity to both Ukraine and Russia.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has vowed to punish all those responsible for Tuesday’s attack in Kashmir, pursuing them “to the ends of the Earth”.

Twenty-six men were killed in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam, in the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority territory since 2000.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” Modi said, in his first speech since the Himalayan attack.

India accused Islamabad on Wednesday of supporting “cross-border terrorism” and downgraded ties with its neighbour with a series of diplomatic measures. Pakistan has denied any role in the attack.

On Wednesday evening, Pakistan’s top diplomat in Delhi, Saad Ahmad Warraich, the charge d’affaires at the Pakistan embassy, was summoned by India’s ministry of external affairs, according to a diplomatic source and local media reports.

India had already closed a key land border with Pakistan, suspended a water-sharing treaty, and barred Pakistani citizens from entering under a visa exemption scheme.

On Thursday, police in Kashmir published notices naming three suspected militants alleged to have been involved in the attack, and announced rewards for information leading to their arrest. Two of the three suspected militants are Pakistani nationals, according to the notices.

The late-night summoning of Pakistan’s top diplomat reflected India’s “anguish” over the attack, the official said. “We raised our concerns and formally notified the measures India has taken in the wake of the terror attack.”

According to the diplomatic source and local media, the Pakistani diplomat was informed that all defence advisers at the country’s mission in New Delhi had been declared persona non grata and were expected to leave within a week.

Modi, who was speaking in Bihar state to launch development projects, first led two minutes of silence in memory of those killed.

“I say this unequivocally: whoever has carried out this attack, and the ones who devised it, will be made to pay beyond their imagination,” he said, speaking in Hindi in front of a large crowd. “They will certainly pay. Whatever little land these terrorists have, it’s time to reduce it to dust. The willpower of 1.4 billion Indians will break the backbone of these terrorists.”

He finished his speech with rare comments in English, directing them to an audience abroad. “Terrorism will not go unpunished,” Modi said. “Every effort will be made to ensure that justice is done.”

India also announced on Wednesday it would withdraw its defence attaches from Pakistan, reduce its mission staff in Islamabad from 55 to 30 and declare Pakistan’s defence personnel persona non grata.

Modi has called for an all-party meeting with opposition parties on Thursday, to brief them on the government’s response to the attack.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the high-altitude territory in full but governing separate portions of it.

In Islamabad, the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was scheduled to hold a meeting of the national security committee to discuss Pakistan’s response, the foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, posted on X.

The Indus water treaty, mediated by the World Bank, splits the Indus River and its tributaries between the neighbours and regulates the sharing of water. It had until now withstood wars between the neighbours.

India would hold the treaty in abeyance, the Indian foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, said.

Diplomatic ties between the two nuclear-armed rivals had been loose even before the latest measures were announced, after Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and said it would not post its own high commissioner to Delhi when India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir in 2019.

On Wednesday, Indian security forces fanned out across Kashmir as the army and police launched a large-scale manhunt for the perpetrators of the attack.

Amid rapidly rising tensions in the Himalayan region, which has been riven by militant violence since the start of an anti-Indian insurgency in 1989, survivors said the militants had asked men they had rounded up to recite Islamic verses before executing those who could not.

A little-known militant group, the Kashmir Resistance, claimed responsibility for the attack. Posting on social media, it expressed discontent that more than 85,000 “outsiders” had been settled in the region, spurring a “demographic change”.

Tuesday’s attack is seen as a setback to what Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party have projected as a huge achievement in revoking the special status that Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed, and bringing peace and development to the long-troubled Muslim-majority region.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

The brutal militant attack that killed 26 people in one of Kashmir’s most scenic spots has shattered the region’s relative calm, turning a popular tourist destination into a scene of horror – and raising fears of a fresh conflict between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan.

Soon after the attack in which gunmen emerged from dense pine woods and opened fire on families picnicking and riding ponies, India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, vowed a “loud and clear response”.

A little-known outfit called the Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the attack, but India believes the group to be a proxy for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group or another Pakistan-based faction. Pakistan denies backing insurgents, but says it supports Kashmiri calls for self-determination.

The massacre has reignited tensions between the two neighbours, which have fought three wars over the disputed Muslim-majority territory and come close to conflict several times.

An Indian security analyst who asked not to be named said the attack came a week after Pakistan’s army chief, Gen Asim Munir, described Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular” and promised not to “leave our Kashmiri brothers in their heroic struggle”.

“This is a very pivotal moment for the region. We have two nuclear-armed neighbours staring at each other,” said the US foreign policy author and South Asia expert Michael Kugelman. “All bets could be off.”

Among its first retaliatory moves, India announced the expulsion of the Pakistan high commission’s defence, navy and air advisers; the closure of a critical border trading point; and – for the first time – the suspension of the crucial Indus waters treaty.

The treaty governs the shared waters of one of the world’s biggest river systems that affects millions of lives in both countries, and India has never previously put the deal “in abeyance” – even in times of open conflict between the two neighbours.

But if the terrorists hoped the assault would win support from Kashmiris or revive separatist sentiment, they miscalculated: more than a dozen Kashmiri groups staged a complete shutdown of stores and businesses to mourn the victims, while local people held protest marches chanting: “Tourists are our lives.”

“Kashmiris are genuinely appalled,” said Siddiq Wahid, a professor in the department of international relations at Shiv Nadar University.

Militant violence has plagued Kashmir, claimed by both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan, since an anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989.

Thousands have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years.

In a controversial move in 2019, Narendra Modi’s government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous constitutional status, splitting the state into two federally governed territories. The government, known for its embrace of a Hindu-first political agenda, also allowed non-local land ownership to further integrate Kashmir with the rest of India.

The security clampdown reduced militant activity and tourism surged – a record 3.5 million people visited the Kashmir valley in 2024. Modi has framed Kashmir’s “normalisation” as a political triumph, saying firm action resolved the separatist issue and made the snow-capped, lush region “open for business”, although there is some local resentment at the heavy militarisation.

“Unfortunately, this attack punctures the government’s narrative that things are ‘normal’,” said another Indian security analyst who also requested anonymity.

Modi’s swift return from an official visit to Saudi Arabia signals the government’s determination to respond. Pressure is mounting for a strong response to the daylight attack in a heavily militarised zone.

Delhi may opt for cross-border strikes, as it did after the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops, analysts said.

But this time, the victims were not soldiers or security personnel, making the situation even more politically charged.

“India cannot twiddle its thumbs. Once the escalatory ladder is revved up, it can go out of hand,” said the security analyst. “You cannot read Modi, you can’t predict the man. He is very muscular,” he added.

What heightens the political dynamics of the Kashmir attack is the timing – during a high-level US visit. The US vice- president, JD Vance, on his first official trip to India, emphasised strengthening defence ties and praised India as a strategic partner.

In 2002, India and Pakistan came very close to full-scale war after a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. The US played a key diplomatic role in de-escalating the crisis.

“The messaging we are seeing from senior officials points to the US being fully behind India – and that it would not stand in the way of how India will respond,” Kugelman said.

The UK’s new deal with the EU will be a break from “debates and arguments of the past,” the UK’s chief negotiator, Nick Thomas-Symonds, has said, pledging that growth would be the highest priority of the talks.

It comes as Keir Starmer prepares to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in London, as momentum builds towards a crucial EU-UK summit in May.

Amid pressure from MPs to agree a youth mobility deal, despite a cabinet split on the proposal, the Cabinet Office minister said in an article for the Guardian that the negotiations should move on from the turmoil of the Brexit years.

“Pursuing a new partnership with the EU is about meeting the needs of our times,” he wrote . “This is not about ideology or returning to the divisions of the past, but about ruthless pragmatism and what works in the national interest.”

The government is expected to seek far closer regulatory alignment with the EU on trade, a key source of division in the Brexit years, where Eurosceptics sought the furthest possible divergence from Brussels.

“We want to put more money in the pockets of working people and provide Britain with long-term stability and security; we won’t be defined by debates and arguments of the past,” Thomas-Symonds wrote.

In a hint that the government acknowledges how crucial the reset will be for both sides, with a recession looming fuelled by Donald Trump’s tariffs and with support for Ukraine wavering, Thomas-Symonds said Labour was “rising to meet the challenges in this new era of global instability”.

“The government needs to work with Britain’s allies on solutions that will minimise the impact of these global shocks,” he said.

It is understood the UK is on the verge of agreeing to enter into negotiations on three key topics: the youth mobility scheme, a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal to eliminate checks on food and drink being exported to the EU and entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, and a deal on carbon emissions.

It is thought the SPS deal would be based on a deal the EU struck with Switzerland in 2023 but with substantial changes. A defence pact is almost sealed after the EU’s white paper on defence in March paved the way for British defence companies such as Babcock and BAE Systems to bid for money from the new €150bn (£129bn) EU defence fund.

UK and European sources also expect an announcement on trafficking and intelligence sharing as a way of signalling a tough approach to irregular migration.

Thomas-Symonds said the emphasis throughout the talks would be on the benefit that a new relationship could mean for people and businesses, and he said the time was right for the EU to fully reset its approach to the UK after years of political division.

“Britain is a politically stable country, and the government has a huge mandate, with over four years left to deliver our policies,” he said. “We’ve shown that Britain is back on the world stage and that it has a lot to offer.”

The minister said the meeting on Thursday between Starmer and von der Leyen would take stock of the progress made towards the 19 May summit “and make sure teams are meeting our aspirations – to grow the economy, boost living standards and keep the UK safe”.

But he said it would also mean sticking to the red lines of no return to the single market, the customs union or freedom of movement. “We will only agree an EU deal that meets the needs of the British people and respects the 2016 referendum result. By doing this we will to seize the opportunities in front of us to deliver a better future,” he said.

One key aspect of any deal is likely to be a youth mobility visa for Europeans. More than 60 Labour MPs urged Starmer to allow thousands of young Europeans to live and work in the UK, in a letter published by the Guardian on Wednesday.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said discussions on a potential scheme were ongoing, in the clearest hint yet that the government is preparing to do a deal.

Cabinet differences remain on the shape a youth visa deal could take. Reeves is said to be in favour of a deal that includes time-limited youth visas, the highest priority for Brussels, but the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has insisted on a cap on numbers, with a time limit of one year.

A dozen states sued the Trump administration in the US court of international trade in New York on Wednesday to stop its tariff policy, saying it is unlawful and has brought chaos to the American economy.

The lawsuit said the policy put in place by Donald Trump has been subject to his “whims rather than the sound exercise of lawful authority”.

It challenged the US president’s claim that he could arbitrarily impose tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The suit asks the court to declare the tariffs to be illegal, and to block government agencies and its officers from enforcing them.

A message sent to the justice department for comment was not immediately returned.

The states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.

In a release, the Arizona attorney general, Kris Mayes, called Trump’s tariff scheme “insane”.

She said it was “not only economically reckless – it is illegal”.

The Connecticut attorney general, William Tong, said: “Trump’s lawless and chaotic tariffs are a massive tax on Connecticut families and a disaster for Connecticut businesses and jobs.”

The lawsuit maintained that only Congress has the power to impose tariffs and that the president can only invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when an emergency presents an “unusual and extraordinary threat” from abroad.

“By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the president has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy,” the lawsuit said.

Last week, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, sued the Trump administration in US district court in the northern district of California over the tariff policy, saying his state could lose billions of dollars in revenue as the largest importer in the country.

The White House spokesperson Kush Desai responded to Newsom’s lawsuit, saying the Trump administration “remains committed to addressing this national emergency that’s decimating America’s industries and leaving our workers behind with every tool at our disposal, from tariffs to negotiations”.

An implantable, non-hormonal male contraceptive has been shown to last for at least two years, a trial has found.

The contraceptive, known as Adam, is a water-soluble hydrogel that is implanted in the sperm ducts, preventing sperm from mixing with semen.

The company behind the product, Contraline, says the approach offers a reversible alternative to condoms and vasectomies, with the hydrogel designed to break down in the body after a set period of time, restoring fertility.

Now Contraline has released details of its phase 1 clinical trial, revealing Adam can successfully block the release of sperm for 24 months, with no sperm detected in the semen of the two participants who have so far reached this time point in the trial. In addition, it said no serious adverse events had been recorded.

“This is really exciting, because our goal since day one has been to create a two-year-long male contraceptive – that is what the demand is for: a two-year-long, temporary or reversible male birth control. And we have the first data to show that that’s possible,” said Kevin Eisenfrats, the founder and chief executive of Contraline.

Eisenfrats said the 25 participants in the clinical trial were enrolled at different points in time, with more results expected to follow.

“It’s great proof of concept,” he added..

Eisenfrats said the implant was inserted in a minimally invasive procedure that took about 10 minutes and used local anaesthetic, meaning the patient remained awake.

Adam is not the first male contraceptive in development that acts by blocking the sperm ducts (vas defrens), although Eisenfrats said some other implants had used materials that did not break down in the body, adding there was little data to show fertility was restored after they were removed, while there were also concerns such implants could cause scarring of the vas defrens and lead to permanent sterilisation.

The results from the Adam clinical trial have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal and do not include data on the reversibility of the implant. However, Eisenfrats said the hydrogel had a predictable lifespan and had been shown to break down over time in animal trials, with work using lower doses in men revealing a shorter period of efficacy.

“The way to think about this is sort of like the IUD [intrauterine device] for men,” said Eisenfrats, adding after a two-year period men could decide whether to get another implant. The team is working on a procedure to enable “on-demand reversal”. Eisenfrats said sperm tests could be used by men at home to check whether the contraceptive was still effective.

Contraline said it was expecting to begin a phase 2 clinical trial in Australia later this year, involving 30 to 50 participants.

Prof Richard Anderson, an expert in hormonal male contraception at the University of Edinburgh, welcomed the findings. “It’s impressive that this looks like something that does actually work, which is great,” he said.

‘We’ve now got hormonal and non-hormonal methods in advanced clinical development, which is potentially a much better position than we’ve been in previously in terms of actually getting something on the market for men to really use.”

But Anderson and Prof Jon Oatley of Washington State University said at present no data had been released showing the reversibility of the Adam implant, and it remained unclear how long a single implant actually lasted for.

Anderson also said it had yet to be shown that the implant could be removed, while Oatley said the long-term ramifications of blocking the vas defrens were unknown.

Oatley added that while the Adam implant could be a strong contraceptive option for men, uptake may be limited.

“Given a choice of a pill, patch, injectable, or surgery I believe that most men would choose pill or patch over surgery,” he said.

An implantable, non-hormonal male contraceptive has been shown to last for at least two years, a trial has found.

The contraceptive, known as Adam, is a water-soluble hydrogel that is implanted in the sperm ducts, preventing sperm from mixing with semen.

The company behind the product, Contraline, says the approach offers a reversible alternative to condoms and vasectomies, with the hydrogel designed to break down in the body after a set period of time, restoring fertility.

Now Contraline has released details of its phase 1 clinical trial, revealing Adam can successfully block the release of sperm for 24 months, with no sperm detected in the semen of the two participants who have so far reached this time point in the trial. In addition, it said no serious adverse events had been recorded.

“This is really exciting, because our goal since day one has been to create a two-year-long male contraceptive – that is what the demand is for: a two-year-long, temporary or reversible male birth control. And we have the first data to show that that’s possible,” said Kevin Eisenfrats, the founder and chief executive of Contraline.

Eisenfrats said the 25 participants in the clinical trial were enrolled at different points in time, with more results expected to follow.

“It’s great proof of concept,” he added..

Eisenfrats said the implant was inserted in a minimally invasive procedure that took about 10 minutes and used local anaesthetic, meaning the patient remained awake.

Adam is not the first male contraceptive in development that acts by blocking the sperm ducts (vas defrens), although Eisenfrats said some other implants had used materials that did not break down in the body, adding there was little data to show fertility was restored after they were removed, while there were also concerns such implants could cause scarring of the vas defrens and lead to permanent sterilisation.

The results from the Adam clinical trial have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal and do not include data on the reversibility of the implant. However, Eisenfrats said the hydrogel had a predictable lifespan and had been shown to break down over time in animal trials, with work using lower doses in men revealing a shorter period of efficacy.

“The way to think about this is sort of like the IUD [intrauterine device] for men,” said Eisenfrats, adding after a two-year period men could decide whether to get another implant. The team is working on a procedure to enable “on-demand reversal”. Eisenfrats said sperm tests could be used by men at home to check whether the contraceptive was still effective.

Contraline said it was expecting to begin a phase 2 clinical trial in Australia later this year, involving 30 to 50 participants.

Prof Richard Anderson, an expert in hormonal male contraception at the University of Edinburgh, welcomed the findings. “It’s impressive that this looks like something that does actually work, which is great,” he said.

‘We’ve now got hormonal and non-hormonal methods in advanced clinical development, which is potentially a much better position than we’ve been in previously in terms of actually getting something on the market for men to really use.”

But Anderson and Prof Jon Oatley of Washington State University said at present no data had been released showing the reversibility of the Adam implant, and it remained unclear how long a single implant actually lasted for.

Anderson also said it had yet to be shown that the implant could be removed, while Oatley said the long-term ramifications of blocking the vas defrens were unknown.

Oatley added that while the Adam implant could be a strong contraceptive option for men, uptake may be limited.

“Given a choice of a pill, patch, injectable, or surgery I believe that most men would choose pill or patch over surgery,” he said.

Spain has scrapped a €6.6m (£5.7m) order for millions of bullets from an Israeli company after the junior partners in its coalition government denounced it as a “flagrant breach” of the alliance agreement that jeopardised the country’s sustained efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza.

The country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza, questioning whether it is following international humanitarian law and calling the number of Palestinian deaths “truly unbearable”.

Sánchez’s rhetoric has been reinforced by Spain’s decision last year to formally recognise a Palestinian state, and by the government’s commitment to neither buy weapons from, nor sell weapons to, Israel since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza that began with Hamas’s attacks on October 7 2023.

On Wednesday, however, it emerged that Spain’s interior ministry wanted the purchase of 15.3m rounds of 9mm ammunition from the Israeli company IMI Systems to go ahead because the the contract was too far advanced and too expensive to cancel. The ministry also said the cancellation of the contract would leave the Guardia Civil police force without the bullets they needed to fulfil their duties.

News that the contract was proceeding drew a furious response from the leftwing Sumar platform, which was founded by Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s labour minister and one of the country’s three deputy prime ministers. Sumar called for the immediate cancellation of the contract, while the leader of the platform’s United Left group said he and his colleagues would not tolerate “any part of the executive financing a genocidal state”. Israel denies allegations of genocide, which are being reviewed by the International Court of Justice in a case first brought by South Africa.

The arms deal had driven another wedge between the socialists and Sumar, who were already divided over Sánchez’s plans to invest €10.5bn to enable Spain to reach its long-delayed Nato commitment of spending 2% of its GDP on defence. Díaz’s platform has described the move as “incoherent” and “absolutely exorbitant”.

On Thursday morning, the offices of Sánchez and Díaz said the contract would be unilaterally cancelled and that an import licence for the ammunition would be denied. Announcing the scrapping of the deal, the government said “all paths of negotiation” had been exhausted over the issue, adding that legal advice was being sought over the matter.

“The parties that make up the progressive coalition government are firmly committed to the Palestinian cause and to peace in the Middle East,” government sources said. “That is why Spain will neither buy arms from, nor sell arms to, Israeli companies.”

The sources added that any unfulfilled arms orders from Israel placed before October 7 2023 would not proceed.

Irish-language rap group Kneecap have responded to criticism of statements they made about Israel during their Coachella performance on the weekend, saying that statements are “not aggressive” in comparison to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

During their second set at the Coachella music festival in California on 18 April, the rap group, known for their political performances and support of Palestine, led the crowd in chants of “free, free Palestine”. Messages displayed on the stage’s screens during their set read: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people” and “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.” Another read: “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine.”

During the set, Kneecap member Mo Chara also criticised Israel’s bombing of Gaza, saying: “The Palestinians have nowhere to go. It’s their fucking home and they’re bombing them from the skies. If you’re not calling it a genocide, what the fuck are you calling it?”

In the wake of their performance, TV presenter Sharon Osbourne criticised the band’s incorporation of “aggressive political statements” into its set, accusing it of hate speech and saying its US working visas should be revoked. Fox News commentators also condemned the band, comparing the comments made during its Coachella set to Nazi Germany.

Asked by BBC News Northern Ireland for their response to Osborne’s comments, Kneecap replied: “Statements aren’t aggressive, murdering 20,000 children is though.”

Kneecap’s manager, Daniel Lambert, told Irish broadcaster RTÉ the band had received death threats following their performance at Coachella and described the threats as “too severe to get into”. On social media the band have also been sharing messages of support they have received.

The trio, Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara from Belfast and DJ Próvaí from Derry, have built a large following in the US. On Thursday, they announced they have sold out their entire October tour of Canada and the US.

In a statement to BBC News Northern Ireland, the US State Department said that when considering revoking work visas, they look at information that “may indicate a potential visa ineligibility under US immigration laws, pose a threat to public safety, or other situations where revocation is warranted”.

St Peter’s Basilica has reopened for thousands of people to pay their final respects to Pope Francis for a second day, following a brief pause after keeping its doors open all night.

The 16th-century basilica, where Francis’s simple wooden coffin is placed on the main altar, was scheduled to close at midnight but remained open until 5.30am to allow in those who still wished to enter.

The Vatican said on Thursday morning that more than 50,000 people had viewed the late pontiff’s body in the 24 hours since the basilica opened to the faithful on Wednesday morning. About 13,000 of those were between midnight and 5.30am on Thursday. St Peter’s reopened at 7am.

The pope, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in Casa Santa Marta on Monday, aged 88, after a stroke and subsequent heart failure. He had been recovering from double pneumonia, which had kept him in hospital for five weeks.

His body was moved to the basilica on Wednesday, when thousands of people started queuing for hours under the hot spring sun in St Peter’s Square to pay their final respects to Francis, who will lie in state until Friday evening.

In keeping with his requests for simple funeral rites, Francis was dressed in his vestments, holding a rosary, with his open casket lined with red cloth.

Unlike those of most of his predecessors, his coffin, which is being watched over by two Swiss Guards, has not been raised on a platform. That was one of the rituals Francis shunned when he simplified rules for papal funerals last year.

His funeral mass will take place at St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning, an event that will be attended by a host of world leaders and royals, including the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, the US president, Donald Trump, and Prince William. He will then be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, breaking with longstanding Vatican tradition.

Mourners in St Peter’s Square had erupted into a prolonged but sombre applause on Wednesday as Francis’s coffin was carried through it by pallbearers in a solemn procession involving dozens of cardinals and bishops, and watched over by Swiss Guards.

The bells of the basilica gently tolled as a choir chanted psalms and prayers in Latin, repeating the call to “pray for us”.

“It was the most profound moment,” said Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins, the former archbishop of Toronto, who was among the procession. “But from the simple prayers to the incense, it was no different to a [funeral] ritual that any baptised person would have.”

In the queue, which stretched along the road leading to Vatican City, many held umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun. Braced for a long wait, Abigail and her family, from California, had brought food. “We’re happy to wait as long as it takes,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be here.”

It was only a few days ago that Francis had made his way through St Peter’s Square aboard the popemobile before appearing on the basilica’s central balcony to give a blessing to the crowds gathered for Easter Sunday mass. It was his final public appearance.

Even though people were aware that Francis was seriously ill, some of those waiting in the queue to pay tribute were still struggling to grasp the fact of his death.

“It feels strange that he is no longer with us,” said Piotr Grzeszyk, from Poland.

Their shoulders wrapped with the flag of Francis’s native Argentina, Vicky Cabral and her family arrived in Rome from Buenos Aires on Saturday and saw Francis on the balcony the next day.

They had been hoping to get another glimpse of him during the now suspended canonisation of Carlo Acutis, which had been due to take place on 27 April.

“We came to Italy for the Catholic jubilee year and for Carlo Acutis,” said Cabral. “But it now feels like a real blessing to be here for this special moment. Francis was a great pope and I think he should be made a saint too.”

Once through the huge bronze doors and inside the cavernous basilica, pilgrims fell silent as they shuffled slowly towards the altar.

Francesco Catini, who travelled to Rome from Venice, had waited for four hours to see Francis’s body. “It was a beautiful experience,” he said. “To me, Francis was a living example of peace, of love, and especially of humility and solidarity.”

Chiara Frassine, from Brescia in northern Italy, had waited a similar amount of time. “I’m very happy to be here,” she said as she left the basilica. “Pope Francis had a pure soul. He was a humble point of reference for many people, not just Catholics.”

Not everyone waiting to pay their respects was Catholic. Standing at the end of the queue was Gunnar Prieß, from Germany, who arrived in the Italian capital on Wednesday morning.

“I booked a flight only to be here to see this,” he said. “I am not Catholic, but this is so majestic. What we’re seeing here today is the expression of a holy ritual that goes back 2,000 years. There’s an aura in the Vatican and I wanted to experience it.”

As the funeral rituals continue, speculation is rife about who will succeed Francis. Some 103 cardinals met on Wednesday evening and approved nine days of mourning from the date of the funeral, with a conclave – the secret election process to choose a new pope – therefore not expected to begin before 5 May.

There is no clear frontrunner, although Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines, and Pietro Parolin, from Italy, who were among the procession, are early favourites.

Collins will be involved in the conclave too and, at 78, will be among the 135 cardinals eligible to vote. But he declined to give any hint of who he thought might succeed Francis.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and a coalition of militias including the Rwanda-backed M23 have agreed to work towards a truce to end the fighting that has engulfed the eastern part of the country since January.

In similarly worded statements released on Wednesday night, the government and Alliance Fleuve Congo (Congo River Alliance) said their representatives had held talks facilitated by Qatar and resolved to end the conflict through peaceful means.

“After frank and constructive discussions, representatives of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the AFC/M23 agreed to work towards concluding a truce that would contribute to the effectiveness of a ceasefire,” said the statement.

“By mutual agreement, both parties reaffirm their commitment to an immediate cessation of hostilities, a categorical rejection of any hate speech, intimidation and call on all local communities to uphold these commitments.”

The statement, the first such agreement the sides have announced jointly, described the talks as “frank and constructive” and said they were reaffirming their commitment to “an immediate end to hostilities”.

Delegations from M23 and the Congolese government met in Doha this month. The latest mediation effort by Qatar, which has signed several economic cooperation agreements with Rwanda and the DRC, came after the Arab country brokered a meeting between the Congolese president, Felix Tshisekedi, and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, in the capital last month.

Both leaders called for a ceasefire after the meeting but it was not held. More than six truces and ceasefires have been agreed but failed since 2021.

In January, M23 started a rapid advance against the Congolese military and its allied forces in eastern DRC, capturing the region’s largest cities, Goma and Bukavu.

The fighting has left a trail of destruction and exacerbated the humanitarian situation in the region. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

DRC, the US and other countries say Rwanda is backing M23 in order to exploit the area’s vast natural resources, which Rwanda denies.

Some participants in the Qatar talks complained the meetings were quickly weighed down by technical details.

Sources from both sides told Reuters potential “confidence-building measures” such as the release of Congo-held prisoners accused of links to Rwanda and M23 inflamed tensions and almost derailed the outcome.

“They are asking for too much,” a Congolese government source said. “Our justice system is independent. We cannot give in to every whim. Crimes have been committed. Some people must pay.”

A source from the AFC rebel alliance said the parties left Doha when the disagreements over the confidence-building measures became an unsurmountable obstacle to substantive talks.

Diplomats briefed on the talks said Qatar managed to put pressure on the two sides into releasing a joint statement agreeing to continue to work on a truce.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Revolut has been tracking staff behaviour, granting or docking points on an internal “Karma” system that is feeding into the UK bank’s decisions on bonus payouts.

The practice was detailed in Revolut’s annual report, which showed that profits had more than doubled last year, jumping by 148% to £1bn in 2024. That increase was due to a rise in subscriptions, and revenues from its wealth and crypto trading divisions.

Revolut – Europe’s most valuable fintech firm – did not disclose a bonus pool for staff, but explained that it had been building a “healthy risk and compliance culture” through a “points-based system” that was helping determine payouts for its workforce.

That system, called Karma, which launched in 2020, is used to track how well staff follow risk and compliance rules “resulting in employees gaining and losing points that will ultimately affect bonuses”, Revolut’s annual report says.

Those points are amalgamated at a team level, with their collective score then used to either dock or multiply individual employees’ final bonuses. Revolut said that Karma “serves … as a feedback loop that rewards and corrects behaviours”.

The move comes as Revolut tries to bolster a once-tarnished reputation for weak compliance and a toxic work culture. In the years after its launch in 2015, Revolut grappled with accounting issues and EU regulatory breaches, as well as reputational concerns, including an over-aggressive work environment, all of which are believed to have delayed the approval of its UK banking licence.

The fintech company says it has since resolved those accounting and regulatory problems, and has made efforts to improve its working culture.

Commenting on the programme, a Revolut spokesperson said: “Our proprietary Karma system is focused on driving positive risk and compliance actions at Revolut. This industry-leading scheme, started in 2020, effectively measures and incentivises good risk practice.

“We have seen company-wide Karma performance related to key risk and compliance processes increase by 25% since its inception, showing the success of linking these actions to remuneration, ultimately building a strong culture of risk management and compliance across the business.”

Co-founded by the former Lehman Brothers banker Nik Storonsky, Revolut originally launched as a pre-paid card focused on free currency exchange for customers. It has since grown to more than 10,000 staff, serving customers in more than 36 countries, with more than 50 products and services. As well as money transfers, it offers home rentals, buy-now pay-later credit, wage advance, e-sims, and crypto trading.

Revolut waited three years but finally secured a UK banking licence, with restrictions, in July and expects to gain full approval from UK regulators this year. It will pave the way for a bumper stock market flotation, with Revolut last valued at $45bn. UK politicians and City bankers are desperate to convince Storonsky that London should host Revolut’s primary listing.

On Thursday, the bank reported that customer account subscription revenue had leaped by 74% last year to £423m, after it rolled out “enhanced benefits” across its paid plans. Among its flashy perks were tickets to an exclusive London gig with the pop star Charli xcx days before her sold-out UK arena tour in November.

Revenues across Revolut’s wealth division surged by 298%, driven by cryptocurrency trading and the launch of its own crypto exchange platform.