US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin had “constructive” talks in Moscow on Friday lasting three hours, according to an aide of Putin’s.

Yuri Ushakov said the possibility of Russia and Ukraine resuming direct talks was a particular point of discussion.

The US has not released details of what was discussed during the meeting, but afterwards President Donald Trump said work to bring about a peace deal between the two sides was going “smoothly”.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the BBC territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia could be discussed if a “full and unconditional ceasefire” was agreed upon.

Reports suggest Ukraine would be expected to give up large portions of land annexed by Russia under a US peace proposal.

Trump has said he would support Russia keeping the Crimean peninsula – which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Zelensky has previously rejected this idea.

Traffic was halted as a convoy of cars carrying Witkoff arrived in central Moscow, as he made his fourth visit to Russia since the start of the year.

The three-hour talks were described as “constructive and very useful” by Putin aide Ushakov.

It had brought the “Russian and US positions closer together not just on Ukraine but also on a range of other international issues”, he said.

“Specifically on the Ukrainian crisis, the possibility of resuming direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives was in particular discussed,” he added.

Earlier this week, Putin signalled for the first time since the early stages of the war that he was open to talks with Zelensky.

His remarks were believed to be in response to a proposal by the Ukrainian president for a 30-hour Easter truce to be extended for 30 days. No truce has yet been agreed on.

Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

Crimea has become a particular flashpoint.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea of recognising Crimea as part of Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Friday: “Our position is unchanged – only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian.”

However, in later remarks he suggested to the BBC that “territorial issues” could be discussed if a “full and unconditional ceasefire” is agreed on.

“A full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything,” he said.

He also referenced comments made by Trump in an interview with Time magazine, in which the US president said “Crimea will stay with Russia”.

“What President Trump says is true, and I agree with him in that today we do not have enough weapons to return control over the Crimean peninsula,” Zelensky said.

The US’s peace plan has not been publicly released, but reports suggest it proposes Russia keeps the land it has gained, amounting to about 20% of Ukraine’s territory – a condition that is in Moscow’s favour.

According to the Reuters news agency, which has seen US proposals handed to European officials last week as well as subsequent counter-proposals from Europe and Ukraine, there are significant disparities between them.

The US deal offers American legal acceptance of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian control of other occupied areas, including all of the Luhansk region.

By contrast, the Europeans and Ukrainians will only discuss what happens to occupied Ukrainian territory after a ceasefire has come into effect.

As the meeting between Witkoff and Putin was taking place, Trump claimed talks were going in the right direction.

“They’re meeting with Putin right now, as we speak, and we have a lot of things going on, and I think in the end we’re going to end up with a lot of good deals, including tariff deals and trade deals,” he told reporters in the US.

He said his aim was to bring about an end to fighting in Ukraine which was claiming the lives of 5,000 Ukrainian and Russians a week, adding he believed “we’re pretty close” to a peace deal.

Writing on Truth Social later, Trump said Zelensky had not signed the “final papers on the very important Rare Earths Deal with the United States”.

“It is at least three weeks late,” he said, adding that he hoped it would be signed “immediately”.

The long-talked of minerals deal, which would give the US a stake in Ukraine’s abundant natural resource deposits, was meant to be signed in February but was derailed after an acrimonious meeting between Trump and Zelensky in Washington.

Russia and Ukraine’s positions in securing a peace deal still seem miles apart, with no representative from Ukraine invited to take part in the talks in Moscow.

Writing on social media on Friday, Zelensky criticised Russia for failing to agree to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US on 11 March and urged allies to apply more pressure to it.

“It’s been 45 days since Ukraine agreed to President Trump’s proposal for quiet in the sky, sea and the frontline,” he said. “Russia rejects all this. Without pressure this cannot be resolved. Pressure on Russia is necessary.”

He said Russia was being allowed to import missiles from countries such as North Korea, which he said it then used in a deadly missile strike on Kyiv on Thursday, which killed 12 people.

“Insufficient pressure on North Korea and its allies allows them to make such ballistic missiles. The missile that killed the Kyiv residents contained at least 116 parts imported from other countries, and most of them, unfortunately, were made by US companies,” Zelensky alleged.

Following the attack on Kyiv, Trump said he was “putting a lot of pressure” on both sides to end the war, and directly addressed Putin in a post on social media, saying: “Vladimir STOP!”

Since then, however, Trump has blamed Kyiv for starting the war, telling Time magazine: “I think what caused the war to start was when they [Ukraine] started talking about joining Nato.”

Ahead of the talks between Witkoff and Putin on Friday, a senior Russian general was killed in a car bomb attack in the Russian capital. The Kremlin accused Ukraine of being responsible. Kyiv has not commented.

Two people were also killed in a Ukrainian strike on the Russian region of Belgorod, the local governor said. Again, Ukraine has not commented on the claim.

Russia launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls almost 20% of Ukrainian territory.

Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese has pledged to invest A$1.2bn (£580m) in a strategic reserve for critical minerals if he wins next month’s election, as trade tensions escalate.

The announcement came after China imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements, essential to the production of advanced technologies – including electric vehicles, fighter jets, and robots.

China’s controls apply to all countries but were widely seen as retaliation to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Albanese said Australia would prioritise minerals that are key to its security, and that of its partners, including rare earths. But could his plan challenge China’s dominance?

Rare earths are a group of 17 elements – named “rare” because they are notoriously difficult to extract and refine.

Rare earths, like samarium and terbium, are critical to the production of technologies set to shape the world in the coming decades – including electric vehicles and highly advanced weapons systems.

Albanese’s proposed reserve includes rare earths as well as other critical minerals of which Australia is a top producer – like lithium and cobalt.

Both China and Australia have rare earth reserves. But 90% of rare earth refining – which makes them usable in technology – takes place in China, giving the country significant control over supply.

And that has spooked Western governments.

Beijing said its restrictions on rare earths were in response to Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports to the US, currently at 145%.

But analysts say Washington’s inability to secure the supply of rare earths has become one of the Trump administration’s chief anxieties, especially as diplomatic tensions with Beijing have deepened.

Around 75% of US rare earth imports came from China between 2019 and 2022, according to the US Geological Survey.

Philip Kirchlechner, director of Iron Ore Research in Perth, Western Australia, told the BBC that the US and EU had “dropped the ball” on recognising the importance of the rare earths over recent decades, as China swiftly developed a monopoly over refinement.

“China has its foot on the blood vein… of US and European defence systems,” he added.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, this week said that China halting exports of rare earths used in advanced magnets was affecting the company’s ability to develop humanoid robots, in an early symbol of the pain Beijing has the power to inflict on US companies.

Albanese’s proposal says that minerals in the reserve will be available to both “domestic industry and international partners”, in a likely reference to allies such as the US and EU.

But Kirchlechner, while welcoming the move as “long overdue”, added that the proposal is “not going to solve the problem”.

The fundamental issue is that even if Australia stockpiles more critical minerals, the refining process of rare earths will still largely be controlled by China.

Lithium – not a rare earth, but a crucial metal in the production electric vehicle batteries and solar panels – is a good example. Australia mines 33% of the world’s lithium, but only refines and exports a tiny fraction. China, on the other hand, mines just 23% of the world’s lithium, but refines 57% of it, according to the International Energy Agency.

Australia has been investing in refining rare earths as part of its Future Made in Australia plan, aimed at leveraging the country’s critical minerals reserves to drive the green transition.

Arafura Rare Earths, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, last year received A$840m in funding to create the country’s first combined mine and refinery for rare earths. And in November, Australia opened its first rare earths processing plant, also in Western Australia, operated by Lynas Rare Earths.

But the country is expected to depend on China for refining until at least 2026, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, headquartered in Washington.

China has been trying to seize on the volatility brought by Trump.

In a series of editorials in Australian newspapers, China’s ambassador to Canberra lambasted Washington’s approach to global trade, and called on Australia to “join hands” with Beijing – something that Albanese quickly rejected.

Australia has touted its resource industry in its talks with Trump. Some critical minerals were exempt from a 10% tariff he imposed on imports of most Australian products.

But analysts say Albanese’s proposal is mainly aimed at protecting Australia and its partners from strategic adversaries like China.

Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at Natixis, told the BBC that Albanese’s plan was “more sophisticated” than previous proposals, because it included the ability to sell Australia’s resources at moments of economic tension.

If China imposes export controls, she added, Australia could begin selling more of its mineral reserves to help lower prices on global markets, and loosen the control China has had on setting prices.

But she said that Australia still cannot completely replace China.

“If [Australia’s] goal is to serve the West, become more instrumental to the West – especially the US – there are weak spots China can enter – and the most important is refining.”

Pope Francis refused to heed advice to slow down in his final few years, preferring to “die with his boots on”, according to a close aide.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister since 2014, said the Pope was driven to carry on because he knew he had an opportunity to help the powerless.

While he describes a polite, gentle and compassionate man, Archbishop Gallagher also said Pope Francis knew his own mind and often defied the advice of those around him.

“One thing I always admired about him – though did not always agree with at first – was that he didn’t run away from difficult things,” said Archbishop Gallagher.

“He would face up to the issues and that showed remarkable courage,” he added.

Pope Francis, the first ever Latin American pope, died on Monday aged 88, following a period of ill health that led to him spending five weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.

Sitting in his reception room in the Vatican, Archbishop Gallagher said even he had been stunned by the magnitude of the void he feels has been left by the Pope’s death.

“He was very much the voice of the voiceless and was very aware that the vast majority of people are powerless and do not have their destiny in their hands. I think he felt that he could contribute something to make things a little bit better for them,” he added.

The Vatican official, who accompanied the Pope on his foreign trips, said he was drawn in particular to the plight of migrants and of women and children caught up in conflict, saying he felt their suffering “in a very real way”.

Archbishop Gallagher suggested Pope Francis’s sense he could have a hand in helping alleviate suffering is what drove him to keep working at full pace even when told not to, saying he thought it had been “66 or 67 years” since the Pope had taken a holiday.

Pope Francis’s very first trip outside Rome was to meet migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa. But he then travelled extensively abroad visiting more than 60 countries, and not always ones his aides wanted him to go to.

Archbishop Gallagher remembered the time the Pope wanted to visit the Central African Republic and a meeting at which many advisers told him it was too dangerous to go.

“He just said ‘well I’m going and if nobody wants to come, fine, I’ll go on my own’, which of course was rather putting us to shame,” said Archbishop Gallagher.

Pope Francis visited the Central African Republic in 2015 as he had wanted to.

“He was always willing to surprise us with who he was willing to meet and talk to. Sometimes this institution [the Vatican] would say one should be a bit more prudent and he wouldn’t listen to that.”

The Vatican foreign minister described the Pope’s ability to scythe through difficult subjects with clarity, reminding officials, for example, to remember migrants as human beings and not just “numbers” in their discussions about them.

On foreign trips over the years, Pope Francis could sometimes be seen nodding to sleep during formal events with politicians and heads of state, or wearing an expression that suggested he was not enjoying the moment.

Archbishop Gallagher acknowledged what observers had long suspected, that the Pope would rather be surrounded by regular people, and particularly young people, rather than meet the “great and the good”.

He feels the legacy of Pope Francis has many dimensions but certainly includes breaking down barriers between the public and the institution of the Church and particularly its leader, who he described as “very approachable, very normal”.

“I used to like telling anecdotes and he also liked that sort of thing. The last thing he ever said to me, two weeks ago, was, ‘don’t lose your sense of humour’.”

The Vatican said more than 250,000 people paid their respects to Pope Francis between Wednesday and Friday during his lying-in-state in St Peter’s Basilica, ahead of his funeral on Saturday.

Will India be able to stop the Indus river and two of its tributaries from flowing into Pakistan?

That’s the question on many minds, after India suspended a major treaty governing water sharing of six rivers in the Indus basin between the two countries, following Tuesday’s horrific attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) survived two wars between the nuclear rivals and was seen as an example of trans-boundary water management.

The suspension is among several steps India has taken against Pakistan, accusing it of backing cross-border terrorism – a charge Islamabad flatly denies. It has also hit back with reciprocal measures against Delhi, and said stopping water flow “will be considered as an Act of War”.

The treaty allocated the three eastern rivers – the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej – of the Indus basin to India, while 80% of the three western ones – the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab – to Pakistan.

Disputes have flared in the past, with Pakistan objecting to some of India’s hydropower and water infrastructure projects, arguing they would reduce river flows and violate the treaty. (More than 80% of Pakistan’s agriculture and around a third of its hydropower depend on the Indus basin’s water.)

India, meanwhile, has been pushing to review and modify the treaty, citing changing needs – from irrigation and drinking water to hydropower – in light of factors like climate change.

Over the years, Pakistan and India have pursued competing legal avenues under the treaty brokered by the World Bank.

But this is the first time either side has announced a suspension – and notably, it’s the upstream country, India, giving it a geographic advantage.

But what does the suspension really mean? Could India hold back or divert the Indus basin’s waters, depriving Pakistan of its lifeline? And is it even capable of doing so?

Experts say it’s nearly impossible for India to hold back tens of billions of cubic metres of water from the western rivers during high-flow periods. It lacks both the massive storage infrastructure and the extensive canals needed to divert such volumes.

“The infrastructure India has are mostly run-of-the-river hydropower plants that do not need massive storage,” said Himanshu Thakkar, a regional water resources expert with the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.

Such hydropower plants use the force of running water to spin turbines and generate electricity, without holding back large volumes of water.

Indian experts say inadequate infrastructure has kept India from fully utilising even its 20% share of the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus waters under the treaty – a key reason they argue for building storage structures, which Pakistan opposes citing treaty provisions.

Experts say India can now modify existing infrastructure or build new ones to hold back or divert more water without informing Pakistan.

“Unlike in the past, India will now not be required to share its project documents with Pakistan,” said Mr Thakkar.

But challenges like difficult terrain and protests within India itself over some of its projects have meant that construction of water infrastructure in the Indus basin has not moved fast enough.

After a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in 2016, Indian water resources ministry officials had told the BBC they would speed up construction of several dams and water storage projects in the Indus basin.

Although there is no official information on the status of such projects, sources say progress has been limited.

Some experts say that if India begins controlling the flow with its existing and potential infrastructure, Pakistan could feel the impact during the dry season, when water availability is already at its lowest.

“A more pressing concern is what happens in the dry season – when the flows across the basin are lower, storage matters more, and timing becomes more critical,” Hassan F Khan, assistant professor of Urban Environmental Policy and Environmental Studies at Tufts University, wrote in the Dawn newspaper.

“That is where the absence of treaty constraints could start to be felt more acutely.”

The treaty requires India to share hydrological data with Pakistan – crucial for flood forecasting and planning for irrigation, hydropower and drinking water.

Pradeep Kumar Saxena, India’s former IWT commissioner for over six years, told the Press Trust of India news agency that the country can now stop sharing flood data with Pakistan.

The region sees damaging floods during the monsoon season, which begins in June and lasts until September. But Pakistani authorities have said India was already sharing very limited hydrological data.

“India was sharing only around 40% of the data even before it made the latest announcement,” Shiraz Memon, Pakistan’s former additional commissioner of the Indus Waters Treaty, told BBC Urdu.

Another issue that comes up each time there is water-related tension in the region is if the upstream country can “weaponise” water against the downstream country.

This is often called a “water bomb”, where the upstream country can temporarily hold back water and then release it suddenly, without warning, causing massive damage downstream.

Could India do that?

Experts say India would first risk flooding its own territory as its dams are far from the Pakistan border. However, it could now flush silt from its reservoirs without prior warning – potentially causing damage downstream in Pakistan.

• How water shortages are brewing wars

Himalayan rivers like the Indus carry high silt levels, which quickly accumulate in dams and barrages. Sudden flushing of this silt can cause significant downstream damage.

There’s a bigger picture: India is downstream of China in the Brahmaputra basin, and the Indus originates in Tibet.

In 2016, after India warned that “blood and water cannot flow together” following a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir which India blamed on Pakistan, China blocked a tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo – that becomes the Brahmaputra in northeast India.

China, that has Pakistan as its ally, said they had done it as it was needed for a hydropower project they were building near the border. But the timing of the move was seen as Beijing coming in to help Islamabad.

After building several hydropower plants in Tibet, China has green-lit what will be the world’s largest dam on the lower reaches of Yarlung Tsangpo.

Beijing claims minimal environmental impact, but India fears it could give China significant control over the river’s flow.

Federal agents arrested a Wisconsin judge and charged her with obstruction for allegedly trying to help an undocumented immigrant evade arrest.

Announcing her arrest, FBI director Kash Patel accused Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan of “intentionally misdirecting” immigration agents away from a Mexican man they were trying to arrest last week.

“Thankfully our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public,” Patel wrote on X.

During a preliminary court hearing on Friday, Dugan’s lawyer said she “wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety”.

The judge has been charged with obstruction and concealing an individual to avoid arrest, and faces a maximum of six years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Dugan was released on her own recognisance pending a hearing on 15 May.

The charges stem from events that played out in Dugan’s courtroom last week.

On 17 April, an immigration judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national facing three misdemeanour battery counts stemming from a domestic fight, according to court documents filed in the case by the FBI.

The following day, Flores-Ruiz appeared in the Milwaukee court for a scheduled hearing, and six officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency arrived at the courthouse to make the arrest.

The agents identified themselves to court officials and waited outside Dugan’s courtroom, but according to the FBI affidavit, the judge became “visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd,’ left the bench, and entered chambers” when she learned of their presence.

In the hallway outside the court, Dugan and the unnamed agents then argued over the type of arrest warrant that had been issued, before the judge instructed them to report to the office of the county’s chief judge.

While several agents were in the office, affidavit says, the judge ushered Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to a side door meant for jury members leading out of the courtroom.

But two agents remained near the courtroom and spotted Flores-Ruiz attempting to escape, the affidavit says.

Flores-Ruiz, who authorities say had previously been deported from the US in 2013, managed to exit the courthouse but was arrested just minutes later after a short foot chase.

Dugan’s arrest came one day after a former judge in New Mexico was taken into custody accused of harbouring an alleged Venezuelan gang member in his home.

“I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law and they are not,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in an interview on Friday.

“And if you are destroying evidence, if you are obstructing justice, when you have victims sitting in a courtroom of domestic violence, and you’re escorting a criminal defendant out a back door, it will not be tolerated.”

Reaction to the arrest largely split along partisan lines.

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, called it a “gravely serious and drastic move”.

“Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,” Baldwin said in a statement. “By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this President is putting those basic democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson also criticised the arrest, calling it “showboating” and warned that it would have a “chilling effect” on court proceedings.

Wisconsin’s Republican US Senator, Ron Johnson, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “I would advise everyone to cooperate with federal law enforcement and not endanger them and the public by obstructing their efforts to arrest criminals and illegal aliens.”

Dugan was first elected as a judge in 2016, and was re-elected to a second six-year term in 2022.

Judicial elections in Wisconsin are non-partisan, however Dugan was endorsed by Milwaukee’s Democratic mayor.

The obstruction charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the concealment charges can be punished by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

In 2019, during the first Trump administration, a judge in Massachusetts was arrested after she allowed an undocumented immigrant defendant to retrieve property from a lockup in the courtroom. The immigrant then left the courtroom.

Judge Shelley M Richmond Joseph was charged with obstruction, but the charges were dropped in 2022, although she still faces an ongoing ethics complaint stemming from the incident.

The seat at the Vatican had been vacant for two days when a group of grey-clad nuns stood on St Peter’s Square and started to sing.

Softly at first then louder, as if to encourage those who joined in timidly, the nuns broke into Ave Maria.

Every so often they shuffled a few inches forward, following the queue for Pope Francis’s lying in state. And all the while they sang, their faces turned to St Peter’s Basilica to their left, their white veils glistening under their large sun hats.

It was a fitting sight for an extraordinary week in which Rome seemed to regain its reputation as the “capital of the world” – and St Peter’s Square as the centre of the Catholic universe.

There is mourning, but also recognition that the Pope, who lived to 88, died quickly and peacefully. “At least he didn’t suffer,” many say. Yet this isn’t the time for celebration either – that will have to wait until after the funeral, when the conclave will spark the usual frenzy of excitement, intrigue and inevitable speculation.

Before then, in Rome these in-between days have taken on a flavour of their own.

Elena, a Romanian woman in her 50s, said she had noticed a “pensive” atmosphere in the city. “There are big crowds around but I have felt everything was a bit quieter, there is something different in the air,” she told the BBC, guessing that the Pope’s death was encouraging people to “look inside” more.

She added that everyone she spoke to this week – even non-believers – had been marked by his death somehow.

Her friend Lina agreed. She was standing behind the counter of her tobacconist shop in Borgo Pio, a quiet cobblestoned street lined with buildings in earthy tones and flower boxes near the Vatican. “It’s neither a week of tragedy nor one of celebration,” she said. “It’s a chance for people to think, to reflect, and I think that’s much needed.”

Nearby, people slowly ambled down Via della Conciliazione – the pedestrian street that connects Italy and the Vatican city state, and the same one the Pope’s coffin will travel down on Saturday as he reaches his final place of rest in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The 4th Century church is only located around 4km away from St Peter’s, but the journey there is set to take around two hours as the car carrying the Pope’s coffin will move at walking pace to allow people lining the streets to see it and say their goodbyes, the Vatican said earlier this week.

Two plain-clothed police officers acknowledged that the neighbourhood was much busier than usual, but that it “felt like a Saturday,” and that people had been very relaxed.

Still, the signs of the huge security operation mounted by the Vatican and Italian authorities were everywhere.

On Wednesday, a soldier stood outside a religious goods shop brandishing a hefty bazooka-like anti-drone device. Asked whether the contraption could, for instance, disrupt drone frequencies and force them to return to their bases, he replied mysteriously: “Maybe, among other things.”

Next to him, a fellow soldier scanned the sky with binoculars. On the day of the funeral, they will be joined by thousands of security personnel from various branches of the police and armed forces, as well as river patrol units, bomb-sniffing dogs and rooftop snipers.

American student Caislyn, who was sat on a bench sketching the dome of St Peter’s, said she was “shocked” at how safe she felt despite the number of people around.

The 21-year-old attributed that to the fact that “people are here to pay their respects to Francis, and to enjoy this beautiful city.” She called the atmosphere “bittersweet,” but said she saw the funeral as a “celebration of life”.

“He gave such a great example to the world,” she reminisced.

As Caislyn recalled Francis’ commitment to the poorest of society, many others referenced his last-known trip outside the Vatican on Maundy Thursday, when he visited prisoners at the Regina Coeli jail, as he had done many times before.

“He was close to the people,” Elena said fondly, adding that she understood why he “couldn’t stay away” from helping those worst off.

“I work as a volunteer for homeless people and every time I try to stop, something pulls me back. Why? Because I lived like them for three months, because I come from poverty too. It’s not hard for me to feel close to them,” she said.

“And I think it was the same for Francis,” she said, mentioning comments by Francis’s sister Maria Elena who told Italian media last month that she and her siblings had grown up in poverty in Argentina.

Elena added: “He never forgot where he was from. Even when he got to the highest role, he never let it change him.”

For Belgian tourist Dirk, whose wife was queuing to see the Pope lying in state in the basilica, the sombre atmosphere since the Pope’s death is something that “draws people in, it’s something they want to be a part of”.

“It might just be temporary, it’ll probably be over by Monday,” he laughed.

• IN PICTURES: Symbolism on show as Pope lies in open coffin
• PROFILE: Acting head of the Vatican Cardinal Kevin Farrell
• EXPLAINER: A visual guide to Pope Francis’s funeral
• WATCH: How previous Popes were laid to rest
• Are you in Rome for the Pope’s funeral? Get in touch.

Dryly, he remarked on the number of homeless – and often disabled – people around the Vatican. “I saw a woman who was walking almost bent over, and people in clergy clothes completely ignored her, in fact they looked in the other direction so they wouldn’t have to be confronted with it,” he said.

“So it remains shocking, the wealth of these churches around us and the poverty of the people sleeping on their doorsteps.” He shook his head. “The contrast is jarring to me.”

Katleho – an upbeat young woman from Lesotho – told the BBC that she felt “special, happy” when she received Pope Francis’s Easter blessing on the day before he died, when he appeared on St Peter’s balcony. “I thought: I’m a real Catholic now!,” she laughed.

She said she felt “so privileged to be joining a multitude of people” who were paying their respects to Pope Francis this week. “It’s a real shared experience, it’s so wonderful,” she said, skipping off to catch up with the rest of her group.

For three days this week, tens of thousands of people streamed into St Peter’s to bid their last farewell to the Argentinian Pope who – as he put it when he was elected – had come “from the end of the world”.

Father Ramez Twal, from Jerusalem, was the last in line in the queue to see Pope Francis’s body.

“It’s amazing that we as a group from the Holy Land get to say the last goodbye for our late Pope Francis,” he said.

“For us, it’s a really emotional moment to say thank you to him for being with us during this terrible time in the Holy Land.

“He means a lot to me, because he gave us a spiritual way of thinking, he had a love he gave for all, and he taught us to respect each other. We will miss him.”

As they entered the basilica after hours of queuing, visitors and pilgrims proceeded towards Francis’s body, lying in a casket by the high altar built over the tomb of St Peter, the Catholic Church’s first pope. Some brandished selfie sticks, others clutched their rosaries or their children’s hands. All were very quiet.

Outside, under the warm April sunshine, groups of joyous African pilgrims in flashy head wraps ate gelato by the Bernini fountain, seagulls circling overhead.

Retired Californian couples fanned themselves under the square’s colonnades, and journalists from around the world shouted questions in shaky Italian at any cardinal who looked like they may have a vote in the upcoming conclave.

Holding his phone out to show a caller back home his surroundings, a Brazilian priest spun on himself, laughing.

Myanmar authorities have arrested an astrologer for causing panic by predicting a new earthquake in a viral TikTok video.

John Moe The posted his prediction on 9 April, just two weeks after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 3,500 people and destroyed centuries-old temples in the South East Asian nation.

He was arrested Tuesday for making “false statements with the intention of causing public panic”, Myanmar’s information ministry said.

John Moe The had warned that an earthquake would “hit every city in Myanmar” on 21 April. But experts say earthquakes are impossible to predict due to the complexity of the factors involved in such disasters.

In his video, which got more than three million views, John Moe The urged people to “take important things with you and run away from buildings during the shaking.”

“People should not stay in tall buildings during the day,” read its caption.

A Yangon resident told AFP that many of her neighbours believed in the prediction. They refused to stay in their homes and camped outside the day John Moe The said the earthquake would happen.

His now-defunct TikTok account, which has more than 300,000 followers, claims to make predictions based on astrology and palmistry.

He was arrested during a raid on his home in Sagaing, central Myanmar.

The areas of Mandalay and Sagaing were hit especially hard by the earthquake on 28 March, which prompted a rare request from the Myanmar junta for foreign aid.

That earthquake was felt some 1,000km away in Bangkok, where a building collapsed at a construction site, killing dozens.

The UN World Food Programme says it has depleted all its food stocks in Gaza, where Israel has blocked deliveries of humanitarian aid for seven weeks.

“Today, WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens,” it warned. “These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days.”

Israel cut off aid on 2 March and resumed its offensive two weeks later after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire, saying it was putting pressure on Hamas to release its remaining hostages.

The UN says Israel is obliged under international law to ensure supplies for the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza. Israel says it is complying with international law and there is no aid shortage.

At the end of March, all 25 bakeries supported by the WFP in Gaza were forced to close after wheat flour and cooking fuel ran out. Food parcels distributed to families containing two weeks’ rations were also exhausted.

Malnutrition is also rapidly worsening, according to the UN. Last week, one of its humanitarian partners screened 1,300 children in northern Gaza and identified more than 80 cases of acute malnutrition – a two-fold increase from previous weeks.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there are also severe shortages of medicine, medical supplies and equipment for hospitals overwhelmed by casualties from the Israeli bombardment, and that fuel shortages are hampering water production and distribution.

World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “an awful and grim moment” had been reached in Gaza.

“This aid blockade must end. Lives depend on it.”

The WFP said the current Israeli blockade – the longest closure Gaza has ever faced – had exacerbated already fragile markets and food systems.

Food prices had skyrocketed by up to 1,400% compared to during the ceasefire, and the shortages of essential commodities raised serious nutrition concerns for vulnerable populations, including children under five, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly, it warned.

“The situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached a breaking point: people are running out of ways to cope, and the fragile gains made during the short ceasefire have unravelled. Without urgent action to open borders for aid and trade to enter, WFP’s critical assistance may be forced to end,” the agency said.

“WFP urges all parties to prioritize the needs of civilians and allow aid to enter Gaza immediately and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.”

More than 116,000 tonnes of food assistance – enough to feed one million people for up to four months – is positioned at aid corridors and is ready to be delivered as soon as Israel reopens Gaza’s border crossings, according to the agency.

In the meantime, WFP Country Director Antoine Renard told the BBC the agency was trying everything it could to keep the hot meals kitchens running.

“More than 80% of the population… have been displaced during the war. And just since 18 March [when the Israeli offensive restarted], you’ve got more than 400,000 people who have been displaced once again,” he said.

“Every time you move, every time you lose assets. So these kitchens are so essential for people to have a basic meal.”

However, even when fully supplied, the kitchens have been reaching just half the population with only 25% of daily food needs.

Gavin Kelleher, humanitarian access manager with the Norwegian Refugee Council, told the BBC from central Gaza that once the kitchens’ food stocks ran out they would no longer able to provide anything.

To survive, he said, people were eating less, bartering to “exchange a bag of diapers for lentils or cooking oil”, or selling what belongings they have left to try to get cash to access remaining food supplies.

He added that begging was also taking place on a scale not seen before in Gaza, but that people were not able to give to others anymore.

“The desperation is really, really severe.”

Earlier this week, the Israeli foreign ministry rejected criticism of the blockade from the UK, France and Germany, which called it “intolerable” and demanded it end immediately in a joint statement.

The ministry said more than 25,000 lorries carrying almost 450,000 tonnes of aid had entered Gaza during the ceasefire, adding: “Israel is monitoring the situation on the ground, and there is no shortage of aid in Gaza.”

It also said Israel was not obliged to allow in aid because Hamas had “hijacked” supplies “to rebuild its terror machine”.

Hamas has previously denied stealing aid and the UN has said it has kept “a very good chain of custody on all the aid it’s delivered”.

Last week, Hamas rejected an Israeli proposal for a new ceasefire, which included a demand to disarm in return for a six-week pause in hostilities and the release of 10 of the 59 hostages still in captivity. The group reiterated it would hand over all of the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 51,439 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

China will let scientists from six countries, including the US, examine the rocks it collected from the Moon – a scientific collaboration that comes as the two countries remain locked in a bitter trade war.

Two Nasa-funded US institutions have been granted access to the lunar samples collected by the Chang’e-5 mission in 2020, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Thursday.

CNSA chief Shan Zhongde said that the samples were “a shared treasure for all humanity,” local media reported.

Chinese researchers have not been able to access Nasa’s Moon samples because of restrictions imposed by US lawmakers on the space agency’s collaboration with China.

Under the 2011 law, Nasa is banned from collaboration with China or any Chinese-owned companies unless it is specifically authorised by Congress.

But John Logsdon, the former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told BBC Newshour that the latest exchange of Moon rocks have “very little to do with politics”.

While there are controls on space technology, the examination of lunar samples had “nothing of military significance”, he said.

“It’s international cooperation in science which is the norm.”

Washington has imposed tariffs Chinese goods that go up to 245%, while Beijing has hit back with 125% tariffs on US goods.

US President Donald Trump previously hinted at a de-escalation in the trade war, but Beijing has denied that there were negotiations between the two sides.

In 2023, the CNSA put out a call for applications to study its Chang’e-5 moon samples.

What’s special about the Chang’e-5 Moon samples is that they “seem to be a billion years younger” than those collected from Apollo missions, Dr Logsdon said. “So it suggests that volcanic activity went on in the moon more recently than people had thought”.

Space officials from the US and China had reportedly tried to negotiate an exchange of moon samples last year – but it appears the deal did not materialise.

Besides Brown University and Stony Brook University in the US, the other winning bids came from institutions in France, Germany, Japan, Pakistan, the UK.

Shan, from the CNSA, said the agency will “maintain an increasingly active and open stance” in international space exchange and cooperation, including along the space information corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative

“I believe China’s circle of friends in space will continue to grow,” he said.

Luigi Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all federal charges brought over the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York last year.

The 26 year old, who was arrested in December and accused of shooting Mr Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel, faces the charges of murder and stalking.

His not guilty plea means he will now face trial and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if he is convicted.

Mr Mangione arrived at the Lower Manhattan court on Friday wearing a prison outfit and with his hands in cuffs. He acknowledged he had read the indictment against him before entering his plea, telling the judge: “not guilty”.

Earlier on Friday, federal prosecutors officially filed to seek the death penalty in this case.

They argued that he carried out Mr Thompson’s murder “to amplify an ideological message” and spark resistance to the health insurance industry.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who directed prosecutors to seek capital punishment, said in April that Mr Thompson’s death was “an act of political violence”.

Mr Mangione’s lawyers previously called discussion of executing him “barbaric”.

During the 35-minute hearing on Friday, Judge Margaret Garnett attempted to co-ordinate a pre-trial schedule, while Mr Mangione’s lawyers continued to raise objections to his indictments on both federal and state charges in New York.

The judge agreed Mr Mangione’s lawyers would need months to go through prosecutors’ “three terabytes” of evidence, including police footage, data from social media, financial and phone companies and other evidence from state prosecutors.

It means Mr Mangione’s federal trial will not take place before 2026 – with the judge planning his next federal appearance for 5 December, when a “firm trial date” will be set.

During the hearing, Mr Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, pushed for her client to be tried in federal court – where the death penalty is at stake – before state court, arguing the reverse would raise “constitutional issues”.

She also accused state prosecutors of “eavesdropping” on Mr Mangione’s recorded calls with her from jail. Judge Garnett asked prosecutors to write a letter within seven days explaining how Mr Mangione would be ensured access to a separate phone line to make privileged calls with his legal team.

The judge also asked Ms Friedman Agnifilo to submit a new motion by 27 June requesting the government be prevented from seeking the death penalty, since she submitted her first motion before prosecutors formally filed notice that they would do so.

Judge Garnett also asked prosecutors to remind Bondi and government officials of rules surrounding public statements and their impact on a fair trial and jury selection.

Mr Mangione is also facing state charges in both Pennsylvania, where he was arrested, and New York. At an arraignment in December, he pleaded not guilty to state murder and terrorism charges in New York.

Mr Thompson was shot dead in Manhattan early on 4 December last year.

The suspect escaped the scene before exiting the city. Five days later, Mr Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania.

Public reaction to Mr Thompson’s killing has shed light on deep frustrations with privatised healthcare. Some have celebrated Mr Mangione has a folk hero, and a fund set up for his legal defence garnered nearly $1m (£750,000) in donations.

Supporters gathered outside the courthouse on Friday too.

Shell casings with the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose” were found at the crime scene. Critics say these words are associated with healthcare companies avoiding payouts and increasing their profits.

A Dutch town hall has admitted that it “most likely” accidentally disposed of 46 artworks, including an Andy Warhol print of the former Dutch queen, during renovation works last year.

Maashorst municipality said the works, including a 1980s silkscreen print of Queen Beatrix worth about €15,000 (£12,800), disappeared during work on a town hall last year.

An investigation said the artworks were stored in a basement during renovations and a lack of guidelines for storing the artworks could have been among the reasons why they ended up being thrown away.

Mayor Hans van der Pas told public broadcaster Omroep Brabant: “That’s not how you treat valuables. But it happened. We regret that.”

A statement by the municipality on Thursday said the artworks were put into storage during work on a town hall in Uden – which is being incorporated into the neighbouring municipality of Landerd to form the Maashorst municipality.

“It’s most likely that the artworks were accidentally taken away with the trash,” they said.

A report by investigators found that some of the artworks were stored in wheelie bins in the basement and were “not handled with care”, according to daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.

The report concluded: “Ownership was not properly established, no policies and procedures were established regarding the renovation and insufficient action was taken when the artworks turned out to be missing.”

It went on to say that a lack of guidelines for registration, storage, conservation and security of the artworks, were also contributing factors.

Local media reports that the 46 artworks altogether were worth around €22,000 (£18,800) and the Maashorst municipality said it was unlikely they will ever be found.

Queen Beatrix reigned as queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until she abdicated in 2013, when she was succeeded by her son King Willem-Alexander.

The Queen Beatrix print was part of Warhol’s series Reigning Queens, which comprised of 16 colourful prints of four monarchs, including the late Queen Elizabeth II, Margrethe II of Denmark – who abdicated in 2023 – and Queen Ntombi Twala of Eswatini, previously known as Swaziland.

Warhol, considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century, created the prints in 1985 – two years before his death.

In November last year, Warhol prints of Queen Beatrix and Ntombi Twala were stolen – and abandoned – during a heist on a Dutch art gallery.

Local police at the time said thieves took four silkscreen prints from the MPV Gallery in the North Brabant province and fled by car.

But the portraits of Queen Beatrix and Queen Ntombi were later abandoned because they did not fit in the vehicle, NOS reported at the time.

California’s economy has overtaken that of the country of Japan, making the US state the fourth largest global economic force.

Governor Gavin Newsom touted new data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis showing California’s growth.

The data shows California’s gross domestic product (GDP) hit $4.10 trillion (£3.08 trillion) in 2024, surpassing Japan, which was marked at $4.01 trillion. The state now only trails Germany, China and the US as a whole.

“California isn’t just keeping pace with the world – we’re setting the pace,” Newsom said.

The new figures come as Newsom has spoken out against President Donald Trump’s tariffs and voiced concern about the future of the state’s economy.

California has the largest share of manufacturing and agricultural production in the US. It is also home to leading technological innovation, the centre of the world’s entertainment industry and the country’s two largest seaports.

Newsom, a prominent Democrat and possible presidential candidate in 2028, filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s authority to impose the levies, which have caused disruption to global markets and trade.

Trump has enacted 10% levies on almost all countries importing to the US, after announcing a 90-day pause on higher tariffs.

Another 25% tariff was imposed on Mexico and Canada. The levies on China, however, have led to an all-out trade war with the world’s second largest economy.

Trump imposed import taxes of up to 145% on Chinese goods coming into the US and China hit back with a 125% tax on American products.

His administration said last week that when the new tariffs were added on to existing ones, the levies on some Chinese goods could reach 245%.

Newsom noted his worries about the future of the state’s economy.

“While we celebrate this success, we recognise that our progress is threatened by the reckless tariff policies of the current federal administration,” he said. “California’s economy powers the nation, and it must be protected.”

Trump has argued his trade war is only levelling the playing field after years of the US being taken advantage of.

The tariffs are an effort to encourage factories and jobs to return to the US. It is one major pillar of his economic agenda, as is a cut in interest rates, aimed at reducing the cost of borrowing for Americans.

The new data shows California’s GDP behind the US at $29.18 trillion, China at $18.74 trillion and Germany at $4.65 trillion. It also shows California was the fastest growing among those countries.

Japan’s economy is under pressure because of its decreasing and ageing population, which means its workforce is shrinking and social care costs are ballooning.

This week, the IMF cut its economic growth forecast for Japan and projected that the central bank would raise interest rates more slowly than previously expected because of the impact of higher tariffs.

“The effect of tariffs announced on April 2 and associated uncertainty offset the expected strengthening of private consumption with above-inflation wage growth boosting household disposable income,” its World Economic Outlook report said.

Indonesia is on an ambitious mission to offer free meals to 80 million school children – but that hasn’t exactly gone according to plan.

Nearly 80 students across two high schools in Cianjur, south of the capital Jakarta, fell ill after eating the meals this week. Most of those who ended up in hospital have since been discharged.

This is the latest in a series of food poisonings that have been linked to the programme, a signature policy of President Prabowo Subianto.

Authorities investigating the case say the suspected cause is negligent food preparation. Samples from the vomit of students have been sent for lab testing, and police say they have questioned people handling the food, from cooks to packers to delivery workers.

A 16-year-old student told local media that the shredded chicken in the meal had an “unpleasant odour”. “I felt dizzy, nauseous and vomited,” he said.

Across the world, programmes offering free meals to students have proved to be effective in improving health, academic performance and attendance.

But Indonesia’s $28bn (£21bn) version – shaping up to be the most expensive of its kind – has become the target of food safety concerns and heated anti-government protests.

In February, when thousands took to the streets to protest at budget cuts, they aimed their ire at the hefty price of Prabowo’s free school meals: “Children eat for free, parents are laid off,” read one of their protest signs.

A centrepiece of Prabowo’s presidential campaign last year, the free meals programme was pitched as a way to tackle stunting – a condition caused by malnutrition that affects a fifth of children below the age of five in Indonesia.

“Through this initiative, our children will grow taller and emerge as champions,” Prabowo said in 2023.

Since he took office last October, this programme, along with other populist policies like new houses and free medical check-ups, has earned him political points. His approval ratings stood at 80% after his first 100 days in power.

In the first phase, which began in January, free school meals have made their way to 550,000 students in 26 provinces.

While the programme is “well-intentioned”, Maria Monica Wihardja, a visiting fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, told the BBC there has been “no evidence” of “widespread urgency” for free school meals.

According to a national survey in 2024, less than 1% of Indonesia’s households went at least one day without any meals in the past year.

Since January, a series of food poisonings have raised apprehension about the free meals.

Michelle, an elementary school student in East Nusa Tenggara province, was one of several in her school who suffered suspected food poisoning in February. She told BBC Indonesian at the time that the food, which had given her a stomach ache, was “bland and stale”.

After the incident, some parents started preparing homemade lunches for their children instead, a school official told BBC Indonesian.

This week, after the food poisoning in Cianjur, authorities have promised to step up food safety processes.

“We must improve quality,” said Dadan Hindayana, head of the National Nutrition Agency, who had visited the students in hospital.

“⁠One obvious thing is the lack of mature and in-depth planning before this program was launched,” Eliza Mardian, a researcher at the Center of Reform on Economics Indonesia, told the BBC.

“The haste ends up sacrificing quality and effectiveness, which actually worsens the public’s perception of this programme.”

The cost of the programme has not helped matters.

Indonesia has set aside more than $10bn this year for the free school meals.

By comparison, India spends $1.5bn a year to feed 120 million children in what is the world’s largest such programme. Brazil’s version costs about the same and serves some 40 million students.

To foot the steep bill in Indonesia, Prabowo has urged the country’s tycoons to help, and accepted a funding offer from China.

He also ordered $19bn in cuts to pay for it, along with other populist schemes – which made it especially controversial.

Several ministries, including education, had their budgets slashed by half. Bureaucrats who were not furloughed alleged they were forced to scrimp by limiting the use of air conditioning, lifts and even printers.

University students were furious as news spread of cancelled scholarship programmes and disruptions to their classes.

“The worst thing is when the stomach is full, but the brain is not filled,” Muhammad Ramadan, a student protester in Bandung, told BBC Indonesian – referring to Prabowo’s school meals plan.

There could be more challenges ahead, such as allegations of budget mismanagement, which have begun to emerge after Indonesia’s anti-graft bureau flagged a “real possibility” of fraud in March.

Police launched an investigation this month after a meal provider in south Jakarta accused authorities of embezzlement, saying that she has not been paid since her kitchen started preparing school meals in February.

Prabowo, who has continued to defend the programme, said this week that his administration will “handle” the allegations and “safeguard every cent of public money”.

Experts, however, say the problem runs much deeper.

Large-scale social assistance programmes in Indonesia have historically been “riddled with corruption”, Muhammad Rafi Bakri, a research analyst at Indonesia’s audit board, told the BBC.

“Given the sheer size of the budget,” he said, “this program is a goldmine for corrupt officials.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he will step back from his role with the Trump administration’s cost-cutting team known as Doge.

Those at the White House, including the president, have said it has long been the plan that Musk would soon step away, but the news came as the billionaire’s car business saw earnings plunge.

Musk’s announcement left many unanswered questions, including when he will actually leave the administration and what will happen to Doge, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency.

When asked by the BBC on Wednesday, President Donald Trump reinforced the message that the administration was preparing for Musk’s departure.

“We have to, at some point, let him go and do that. We expected to be doing it about this time. I’ll talk to Elon about it,” Trump said at the White House.

The president also said Tesla will “be taken care of” once Musk returns and alleged that Musk was being “treated very unfairly, I guess, by some of the public”.

“He’s a great patriot, and [that] should have never happened to him,” Trump added.

However, under government rules, spending fewer days at Doge could actually prolong Musk’s stint in government.

Musk has been designated a “special government employee” (SGE) – a label that allows him to work at a paid or unpaid government job for 130 days each year.

According to a 2007 Department of Justice memo, cited in an October 2024 guidance document from the Office of Government Ethics, any day on which an SGE performs any work for the government counts as a full day towards that limit.

Measured from Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, the 130-day limit – assuming Musk, who brags about working weekends, clocks roughly five days a week at Doge – would run out toward the end of May.

But scaling back would extend that timeframe. Additionally, the 130-day limit would reset in January 2026.

Musk has not given details on his intended schedule. He made the announcement on Tuesday, after Tesla reported financial troubles including a 71% drop in profits.

The drop came after repeated “Tesla takedown” protests across the globe and calls for boycotts against the car manufacturer amid Musk’s government role. While organisers have said most protests have been peaceful, some have been destructive with fires set at Tesla showrooms or at charging stations.

• Musk’s Tesla facilities in US face ‘Takedown’ protests
• Trump says anti-Tesla protesters will face ‘hell’
• Musk to reduce Doge role after Tesla profits plunge

The company warned investors that the pain could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast while saying “changing political sentiment” could meaningfully hurt demand for the vehicles.

Musk told investors on an earnings call that the time he allocates to Doge “will drop significantly” and that he would be “allocating far more of my time to Tesla”.

After the comments, Tesla’s languishing stock price rose.

It’s also unclear how many days Musk has already worked for the government, whether the government is keeping a tally, and how the limit would be enforced.

There has been criticism that the Trump administration may have flouted government rules in creating Musk’s unprecedented role, and concerns that he may not follow the time limit.

Under rules for SGEs, Musk would have to undergo ethics training, provide a confidential financial disclosure statement, and avoid conflicts of interest.

His corporate empire includes large companies that do business with the US government and foreign governments, including SpaceX, which has $22 billion in US government contracts, according to the company’s chief executive.

The rules also prohibit special government employees from partisan activities, including wearing clothing with political slogans, while in government offices or carrying out official duties. Musk has been pictured wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat in the Oval Office.

Still, in February, an anonymous White House official told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that Musk would file a confidential financial disclosure at some point, and had been given an ethics briefing.

The following month, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the BBC: “Elon Musk is selflessly serving President Trump’s administration as a special government employee, and he has abided by all applicable federal laws.”

For now, Musk appears to serve at Trump’s behest, with no clear oversight other than the president himself.

In a report released last week, progressive think-tank Public Citizen criticised the Trump administration and said the White House was “wildly abusing” the SGE rules.

“Right now, the public has no way to know whether SGEs like Musk who don’t file public financial disclosure reports or are permitted to oversee themselves are putting the people’s interests ahead of their own,” said report author Jon Golinger.

The BBC has contacted Musk and the Office of Personnel Management – the agency overseeing special government employees, and one where Doge employees have reportedly taken over several functions – for comment.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that around 100 Doge employees would remain in various government departments after Musk departs this year.

Musk and Trump set a deadline for Doge to finish its work, which corresponds to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.

The executive order setting up Doge, signed by Trump on Inauguration Day in January, mentioned 4 July 2026 as the ending date.

Earlier, in December, Musk responded to a tweet that also said Doge would finish entirely on that date.

“The final step of DOGE is to delete itself,” he wrote.

It’s a bright spring morning in Hanover, Germany, and I’m on my way to meet a robot.

I have been invited to see the G1, a humanoid robot built by Chinese firm, Unitree, at the Hannover Messe, one of the world’s largest industrial trade shows.

Standing at about 4’3″ (130cm), G1 is smaller and more affordable than other humanoid robots on the market, and has such a highly fluid range of motion and dexterity that videos of it performing dance numbers and martial arts have gone viral.

Today the G1 is being controlled remotely by Pedro Zheng, the Unitree sales manager.

He explains that customers must program each G1 for autonomous functions.

Passers-by stop and actively try to engage with the G1, which cannot be said for a lot of the other machines being shown off in the cavernous conference room.

They reach out to shake its hand, make sudden movements to see if it will respond, they laugh when G1 waves or bends backwards, they apologise if they bump into it. There’s something about its human shape that, uncanny as it is, sets people at ease.

Unitree is just one of dozens of companies around the world developing robots that have a human form.

The potential is huge – for business it promises a workforce that doesn’t need holidays or pay rises.

It could also be the ultimate domestic appliance. After all, who wouldn’t want a machine that could do the laundry and stack the dishwasher.

But the technology is still some way off. While robotic arms and mobile robots have been common in factories and warehouses for decades, conditions in those workplaces can be controlled and workers can be kept safe.

Introducing a humanoid robot to a less predictable environment, like a restaurant or a home, is a much more difficult problem.

To be useful humanoid robots would have to be strong, but that also makes them potentially dangerous – simply falling over at the wrong time could be hazardous.

So much work needs to be done on the artificial intelligence that would control such a machine.

“The AI simply has not yet reached a breakthrough moment,” a Unitree spokesperson tells the BBC.

“Today’s robot AI finds basic logic and reasoning – such as for understanding and completing complex tasks in a logical way – a challenge,” they said.

At the moment their G1 is marketed at research institutions and tech companies, who can use Unitree’s open source software for development.

For now entrepreneurs are focussing their efforts on humanoid robots for warehouses and factories.

The highest profile of those is Elon Musk. His car company, Tesla, is developing a humanoid robot called Optimus. In January he said that “several thousand” will be built this year and he expects them to be doing “useful things” in Tesla factories.

Other carmakers are following a similar path. BMW recently introduced humanoid robots to a US factory. Meanwhile, South Korean car firm Hyundai has ordered tens of thousands of robots from Boston Dynamics, the robot firm it bought in 2021.

Thomas Andersson, founder of research firm STIQ, tracks 49 companies developing humanoid robots – those with two arms and legs. If you broaden the definition to robots with two arms, but propel themselves on wheels, then he looks at more than 100 firms.

Mr Andersson thinks that Chinese companies are likely to dominate the market.

“The supply chain and the entire ecosystem for robotics is huge in China, and it’s really easy to iterate developments and do R&D [research and development],” he says.

Unitree underlines that advantage – its G1 is cheap (for a robot) with an advertised price of $16,000 (£12,500).

Also, Mr Andersson points out, the investment favours Asian nations.

In a recent report STIQ notes that almost 60% of all funding for humanoid robots has been raised in Asia, with the US attracting most of the rest.

Chinese companies have the added benefit of support from the national and local government.

For example, in Shanghai there is a state-backed training facility for robots, where dozens of humanoid robots are learning to complete tasks.

So how can US and European robot makers compete with that?

Bristol-based Bren Pierce has founded three robotics companies and the latest, Kinisi has just launched the KR1 robot.

While the robot has been designed and developed in the UK, it will be manufactured in Asia.

“The problem you get as a European or American company, you have to buy all these sub-components from China in the first place.

“So then it becomes stupid to buy your motors, buy your batteries, buy your resistors, shift them all halfway around the world to put together when you could just put them all together at the source, which is in Asia.”

As well as making his robots in Asia, Mr Pierce is keeping costs down by not going for the full humanoid form.

Designed for warehouses and factories, the KR1 does not have legs.

“All of these places have flat floors. Why would you want the added expense of a very complex form factor… when you could just put it on a mobile base?” he asks.

Where possible, his KR1 is built with mass-produced components – the wheels are the same as you would find on an electric scooter.

“My philosophy is buy as many things as you can off the shelf. So all our motors, batteries, computers, cameras, they’re all commercially available, mass produced parts,” he says.

Like his competitors at Unitree, Mr Pierce says that the real “secret sauce” is the software that allows the robot to work with humans.

“A lot of companies come out with very high-tech robots, but then you start needing a PhD in robotics to be able to actually install it and use it.

“What we’re trying to design is a very simple to use robot where your average warehouse or factory worker can actually learn how to use it in a couple of hours,” Mr Pierce says.

He says the KR1 can perform a task after being guided through it by a human 20 or 30 times.

The KR1 will be given to pilot customers to test this year.

So will robots ever break out of factories into the home? Even the optimistic Mr Pierce says it’s a long way off.

“My long term dream for the last 20 years has been building the everything robot. This is what I was doing my PhD work in I do think that is the end goal, but it’s a very complicated task,” says Mr Pierce.

“I still think eventually they will be there, but I think that’s at least 10 to 15 years away.”

The Netherlands, March 2025. Yungblud is leaving his hotel in Amsterdam when he’s approached by a fan in floods of tears.

“You saved my life,” she sobs.

“No, you saved your own life,” he replies, quietly. “Maybe the music was the soundtrack, but you saved your own life, OK?”

Leaning in for a hug, he adds, “Don’t be sad, be happy. I love ya.”

It’s a remarkably touching moment, full of compassion and devoid of rock star ego.

Two weeks later, after a video of the encounter goes viral, Yungblud is still moved by the memory.

“I didn’t think people would see that, except me and her,” he says, “but it was such a moment for me.”

The interaction crystallised something he’d felt for a while.

“I always said that Bowie and My Chemical Romance saved my life, but ultimately you have to find yourself,” he says.

“Like this morning, I put my headphones on and I listened to [The Verve’s] Lucky Man, and it made me go, ‘Oh, I’m ready to face the day’.

“But Richard Ashcroft didn’t tell me I was ready to face the day. I said that to myself.

“That’s what I was trying to tell that girl in Amsterdam.”

Self-assurance is a lesson he learned the hard way.

On the surface, Yungblud, aka 27-year-old Dominic Harrison, had it all. Two number one albums, an international fanbase, a Louis Theroux documentary and enough clout to run his own festival.

But if you looked more closely, there were chinks in the armour. Those number one albums both fell out of the Top 30 after one week, a sign of a strong core fanbase, with limited crossover appeal.

And the first year of his Bludfest in Milton Keynes was criticised after long queues and a lack of water caused fans to pass out and miss the concert.

Harrison was keenly aware of it all. As he released his self-titled third album in 2022, he hit a low.

“Yungblud was number one in seven countries, and I wasn’t happy because it wasn’t the album I wanted to make,” he says.

“It was a good album, but it wasn’t exceptional.”

The problem, he says, was a record label who’d pushed him in a more commercial direction. But in polishing his sound, he lost the angry unpredictability that characterised his best work.

“It’s funny, my-self titled album was actually the one where I was most lost,” he observes.

“I felt like I compromised but, because of that, I was never taking no for an answer again.”

Nowhere is that clearer than on his comeback single, Hello Heaven, Hello.

Over nine minutes and six seconds it achieves Caligulan levels of excess, full of scorching guitar solos, throat-shredding vocal runs, and even an orchestral coda.

“” Harrison asks himself, as he re-ignites his ambition.

The song’s purposefully unsuited to radio – unlike the follow-up single, Lovesick Lullaby. Released today, it’s a free-associating rampage through a messy night out, that ends with epiphany in a drug dealer’s apartment.

Combining Liam Gallagher’s sneer with Beach Boys’ harmonies, it’s uniquely Yungblud. But the singer reveals it was originally written for his last album.

“We were actually discouraged from doing it,” he says.

“My advisor at the time, a guy called Nick Groff [vice president of A&R at Interscope, responsible for signing Billie Eilish], was like, ‘I don’t get it’.”

Warming to the theme, he continues: “The music industry is crap because it’s all about money but, as an artist, I need to make sure that anything I put out is exciting and unlimited.

“It can’t be like a 50% version of me.”

To achieve that, he shunned expensive recording studios and made his new album in a converted Tetley brewery in Leeds.

Professional songwriters were banished, too, in favour of a close group of collaborators, including guitarist Adam Warrington, and Matt Schwartz, the Israeli-British producer who helmed his 2018 debut.

“When you make an album in LA or London, everything is great, even if it’s mediocre, because people want a hit out of it,” he argues.

“When you make an album with family, all they want is the truth.”

One of the most honest tracks on the record is Zombie, a lighters-aloft ballad (think Coldplay, sung by Bruce Springsteen) about “feeling you’re ugly, and learning to battle that”.

“I always was insecure about my body, and that got highlighted as I got famous,” says the singer, who last year revealed he’d developed an eating disorder due to body dysmorphia.

“But I realised, the biggest power you can give someone over you is in how you react. So I decided, I’m going to get sober, I’m going to get fit, and I discovered boxing.”

He ended up working with the South African boxer Chris Heerden – who was recently in the news after Russia jailed his ballerina girlfriend, Ksenia Karelina.

“I met him before all that,” says Harrison, “but he’s been extremely inspirational. Boxing’s become like therapy for me.

“If someone says something bad about me, I go to the gym, hit the punch bag for an hour and talk it out.”

Fans have noticed the change… drooling over photos of his newly chiseled torso, and declaring 2025 his “shirt-off era”.

“Maybe the shirt-off era is a comeback to all the comments I’ve had,” he laughs.

“I’m claiming a freedom and a sexiness and a liberation.”

He’s clearly found a degree of serenity, without surrendering the restless energy that propelled him to fame.

Part of that is down to control. In January, he created a new company that brings together his core business of recorded music with touring operations, his fashion brand and his music festival, Bludfest.

The event kicked off in Milton Keynes last summer but suffered teething troubles, when fans were stuck in long queues.

“I will fully take responsibility for that,” says the star, who claims he was “backstage screaming” at police and promoters to get the lines moving.

“The problem was, there were six gates open when there should have been 12,” he says, suggesting people underestimated his fans’ dedication.

“When Chase and Status had played [there] a day before, there were 5,000 people when the doors opened, and another 30,000 trickled in during the day.

“With my fans, there were 20,000 kids at the gate at 10am. So we’ve learned a lot for this year. There’ll be pallets of water outside. It’ll be very different.”

Dedication to his fans is what makes Yungblud Yungblud.

He built the community directly from his phone and, whether intended or not, that connection has sustained his career – insulating him from the tyrannies of radio playlists and streaming placement.

Maintaining a personal relationship becomes harder as his fanbase grows but, ever astute, he hired a fan to oversee his social accounts.

“She’s called Jules Budd. She used to come to my gigs in Austin and she’d sell confetti to pay for gas money to the next city.

“She built an account called Yungblud Army, and she’s amazing at letting me understand what are people feeling.

“If people are outside and security aren’t treating them right, I know about it because she’s in contact with them. So I brought her in to make the community safer as it gets bigger.”

With his new album, he wants to make that community even bigger. Harking back to the sounds of Queen and David Bowie, he says it’ll “reclaim the good chords” (Asus4 and Em7, in case you’re wondering).

“The shackles are off,” he grins.

“We made an album to showcase our ambition and the way we want to play.

“Can you imagine seeing Yungblud in a stadium? 100% yes. Let’s do it.”

Israel’s destructive military campaign in Gaza has released a silent killer: asbestos.

The mineral, once widely-used in building materials, releases toxic fibres into the air when disturbed that can cling to the lungs and – over decades – cause cancer.

Nowadays, its use is banned across much of the world, but it is still present in many older buildings.

In Gaza, it is found primarily in asbestos roofing used across the territory’s eight urban refugee camps – which were set up for Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war – according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

In October 2024, UNEP estimated that up to 2.3 million tons of rubble across Gaza could be contaminated with asbestos.

“The Gaza rubble is a very, very toxic environment,” says Professor Bill Cookson, director of the National Centre for Mesothelioma Research in London. “People are going to suffer acutely, but also in the longer term as well, things that children may carry throughout their lives.”

“The lives lost now are not going to end here. The legacy is going to continue,” says Liz Darlison, CEO of Mesothelioma UK.

When asbestos is disturbed by something like an air strike, its fibres – too small to see with the human eye – can be breathed in by those nearby and can then work their way through to the lining of the lungs.

Over many years – usually decades – they can cause scarring which leads to a serious lung condition known as asbestosis, or, in some cases, an aggressive form of lung-cancer named mesothelioma.

“Mesothelioma is a terrible, intractable illness,” says Prof Cookson.

“The really worrying thing,” he adds, “is that it’s not dose related. So even small inhalations of asbestos fibre can cause subsequent mesothelioma.

“It grows within the pleural cavity. It’s extremely painful. It’s always diagnosed late. And it’s pretty well resistant to all treatments.”

Typically, those who contract mesothelioma do so 20 to 60 years after exposure – meaning it will take decades before the possible impact across the territory is felt. A higher level, or longer period, of exposure is believed to accelerate the progression of the disease.

Dr Ryan Hoy, whose research into dust inhalation was cited by the UNEP, says it is extremely difficult to avoid breathing in asbestos fibres because they are “really tiny particles that float in the air that can get very, very deep into the lungs.”

They are even harder to avoid, he says, because Gaza is so “densely populated”. The territory houses approximately 2.1 million people and is 365 sq km (141 sq miles) – about one quarter of the size of London.

Experts on the ground there say people are unable to manage the risks posed by asbestos or dust inhalation due to the more immediate dangers of Israel’s military offensive.

“At this point in time, [dust inhalation] is not something that is perceived as a worrying thing by the population. They even don’t have things to eat, and they’re more afraid to be killed by the bombs,” says Chiara Lodi, medical co-ordinator in Gaza for the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières.

“The lack of awareness about the risks of asbestos, combined with the ongoing challenges [people in Gaza] face in trying to rebuild their lives, means they are unable to take the necessary measures to protect themselves,” a Gaza-based spokesperson for the NGO SOS Children’s Villages said.

Many are “not fully aware of the harmful effects of the dust and debris”, they added.

After a previous conflict in Gaza in 2009, a UN survey of the territory found asbestos in debris from older buildings, sheds, temporary building extensions, roofs and the walls of livestock enclosures.

There are several types of asbestos ranging from so-called “white asbestos”, which is the least dangerous, to “blue”, or crocidolite, which is the most. Highly-carcinogenic crocidolite asbestos was previously found in Gaza by the UN.

Globally, around 68 countries have banned the use of asbestos, though some maintain exemptions for special use. It was banned in the UK in 1999, and Israel banned its use in buildings in 2011.

As well as mesothelioma, asbestos can cause other forms of lung cancer, larynx and ovarian cancer.

A further, lesser known risk is that of silicosis, a lung disease caused by breathing in silica dust, usually over many years. Concrete generally contains 20-60% silica.

Dr Hoy says the sheer amount of dust in Gaza could lead to an “increased risk of respiratory tract infections, upper and lower airway infections, pneumonia, exacerbations of pre-existing lung disease like asthma,” as well as, “emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can be worsened by acute exposure to dust”.

For years, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York have been used as a case-study by health experts to examine the effects of a large toxic dust-cloud on a civilian population.

“The Twin Towers were not in the middle of a war zone,” says Ms Darlison, “so it was something we were able to measure and quantify easier”.

As of December 2023, 5,249 of those who were registered with the US government’s World Trade Center Health Programme have died as a result of aerodigestive illness or cancer – a far higher figure than the 2,296 people who were killed in the attack itself. A total of 34,113 people were diagnosed with cancer over the same period.

The US and a group of Arab States have proposed competing plans for the reconstruction of Gaza. The UN has warned that the process will have to be managed carefully to avoid disturbing the vast amounts of asbestos-contaminated rubble.

“Unfortunately,” says Ms Darlison, “the very properties that made us use so much of it are the properties that make it difficult to get rid of.”

A UNEP spokesperson told the BBC that the debris removals process will “increase the likelihood of asbestos disturbance and the release of hazardous fibres into the air”.

A UNEP assessment indicated that clearing all debris could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2 billion (£929m).

The Israeli military launched its offensive on Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023 that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 people taken hostage.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Donald Trump has signed a controversial executive order aimed at stepping up deep-sea mining within US and in international waters.

The move to allow exploration outside its national waters has been met by condemnation from China which said it “violates” international law.

Thursday’s order is the latest issued by the US president to try to increase America’s access to minerals used by the aerospace, green technology and healthcare sectors.

The deep sea contains billions of tonnes of potato-shaped rocks, called polymetallic nodules, which are rich in critical minerals like cobalt and rare earths.

The latest US executive order was issued to “establish the United States as a global leader in responsible seabed mineral exploration”, it reads.

The move appears to bypass a long-running round of UN negotiations on mining in international waters.

Many countries, including China, have delayed issuing permits until countries agreed a framework for how resources could be shared.

“The US authorisation… violates international law and harms the overall interests of the international community,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Friday.

China dominates global production of rare earths and critical metals like cobalt and lithium.

Trump has been frustrated by this relative weakness of the US position, analysts say.

“We want the US to get ahead of China in this resource space under the ocean, on the ocean bottom,” a US official said on Thursday.

To achieve this, the order says the US will speed up the process of issuing exploration licences and recovery permits both in its own waters and in “areas beyond national jurisdiction”.

The administration estimates that deep-sea mining could boost the country’s GDP by $300bn (£225bn) over 10 years and create 100,000 jobs

The EU, the UK and others support a moratorium on the practice until further scientific research is carried out.

Environmentalists and scientists are concerned that marine species living in the deep sea could be harmed by the process.

“Deep-sea mining is a deeply dangerous endeavour for our ocean,” said Jeff Watters of Ocean Conservancy, a US-based environmental group.

“The harm caused by deep-sea mining isn’t restricted to the ocean floor: it will impact the entire water column, top to bottom, and everyone and everything relying on it,” he added in a statement released on Friday.

It is not clear how quickly deep-sea mining could begin but one mining company, The Metals Company (TMC), is already in discussions with the US government to obtain permits.

TMC’s CEO Gerard Barron has previously said he hopes to begin mining by the end of the year.

Along with others in the mining industry, he disputes the environmental claims made and has argued that the abyssal zone – 3,000m to 6,000m below sea level – has very low concentrations of life.

“Here there’s zero flora. And if we measure the amount of fauna [animal life], in the form of biomass, there is around 10g per square metre. That compares with more than 30kg of biomass where the world is pushing more nickel extraction, which is our equatorial rainforests,” he previously told the BBC.

A recent paper published by the Natural History Museum and the National Oceanography Centre looked at the long term impacts of deep sea mining from a test carried out in the 1970s.

It concluded that some sediment-dwelling creatures were able to recolonise the site and recover from the test, but larger animals appeared not to have returned.

The scientists concluded this could have been because there were no more nodules for them to live on. The polymetallic nodules where the minerals are found take millions of years to form and therefore cannot easily be replaced.

Traders are counting their losses as Tanzania clamps down on people trying to flout a ban on goods from neighbouring Malawi in an escalating regional trade row.

On Friday, businesswomen told the BBC that some fellow traders had been arrested on the second day of a ban imposed by Tanzania on all agricultural imports from Malawi and South Africa.

“My bananas were seized and destroyed. Right now, our business has brought losses, and we only have a little money left,” said Jestina Chanya, a trader in Karongo, about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Tanzania.

Diplomatic efforts to address the dispute have failed but Tanzania’s agriculture minister said fresh talks were ongoing.

Last month, Malawi blocked imports of flour, rice, ginger, bananas and maize from Tanzania, and other countries, saying this was to protect local producers.

South Africa has for years prohibited the entry of bananas from Tanzania.

On Thursday, Tanzania’s Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe said trade restrictions from those two countries “directly affected” traders from his country and described the trade barrier as “unfair and harmful”.

Bashe announced an immediate ban on all agricultural imports from the two countries, “to protect our business interests”.

Trade flows have been greatly affected at Kasumulu – the official border crossing between Tanzania and Malawi.

When the BBC visited the Malawian town of Karonga, traders – mostly women – said they were still shaken by the sight of tonnes of their produce slowly rotting, then ultimately being dumped after being denied entry into Tanzania.

“The losses I have incurred are big because I can’t go buy anything any more, and I don’t even know how I will feed my children,” said June Mwamwaja.

But Tanzanian traders have also been hit.

On Saturday Tanzania’s agriculture minister posted a video on social media showing a pile of rotten bananas in a truck which had been prevented from entering Malawi.

Tonnes of tomatoes also spoiled at the border recently after lorries from Tanzania were denied entry into Malawi.

Malawian traders like Jeniffa Mshani said they preferred agricultural goods from Tanzania because it was easier and more affordable to source them across the border.

“Tanzanian products are big and sell very well in the market, and their prices are good. Our local [Malawi] products are more expensive. I have nothing to do – I don’t have the capacity to compete with those [who have big capital]. I just can’t,” she told the BBC.

They said Tanzanian produce, especially potatoes, were larger and of better quality.

Others said their customers preferred Tanzanian plantains over Malawian ones, describing the former as tastier, while the latter were often spongy.

But since Thursday, Malawian authorities, both at the border and in nearby markets, have become increasingly strict – often arresting traders found with Tanzanian produce.

“When we bring goods from Tanzania, they turn us back. One of us was stopped and arrested right at the border,” another trader said.

Some of them said they had no idea why they were being blocked while some rich business people were still allowed to transport goods across the border.

“They are targeting us who have little capital, while those with big money are still bringing in goods,” said Ms Chanya, who sells potatoes and bananas in Karonga market.

Following the crackdown, some traders have resorted to selling their goods in secret, afraid to display them openly for fear of arrest.

“We only carry three or four bunches [of bananas], just to earn a living for the children,” said Evelina Mwakijungu, adding: “But our large consignments have been blocked, so we have no business – we’re struggling with our families”.

The normally bustling border crossing of Kasumulu remained noticeably quieter than usual with drivers seen relaxing in the shade of trees, while others played draughts or lounged in the back of their lorries.

They declined to be quoted directly but explained that they were simply waiting for word from their bosses on what to do next.

On a normal day, more than 15 lorries loaded with agricultural produce would cross the border, drivers told the BBC.

Malawi’s trade ministry spokesperson Patrick Botha told local media that they were yet to get official communication on the issue.

“We are hearing [about] this from social media. At an appropriate time, we will comment,” he was quoted as saying.

Malawi has become an increasingly important market for Tanzanian goods in recent years, with exports trebling between 2018 and 2023, according to official Tanzanian figures.

But landlocked Malawi, which has relied on Tanzanian ports to carry its exports such as tobacco, sugar and soybeans to the rest of the world, will have to reroute its goods.

It is not yet clear how hard South Africa, which exports various fruits, including apples and grapes, to Tanzania, will be hit by the ban. South African authorities are yet to comment.

The row comes at a time when Africa is supposed to be moving towards greater free trade through the establishment of a continent-wide free-trade area, which began operating four years ago.

• Is it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats?
• Tanzania signs major carbon credit deal covering national parks
• Tanzania’s second-hand trade war
• Malawi seeks billions of dollars from US firm over ruby sales

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has told the BBC that Ukraine may have to give up land as part of a peace deal with Russia, amid a growing pressure from President Donald Trump to accept territorial concessions.

“One of the scenarios is… to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution, temporary,” he said in response to questions from the BBC.

But the 53-year-old former boxing champion-turned politician stressed that the Ukrainian people would “never accept occupation” by Russia.

He was speaking hours after a Russian missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv killed 12 people and injured more than 80.

It was one of the deadliest Russian assaults on the Ukrainian capital in months.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

Klitschko is now one of the most senior Ukrainian politicians to indicate publicly that his country may have to give up territory, albeit temporarily.

The Kyiv mayor and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are political opponents. The mayor has repeatedly accused the president and his team of trying to undermine his authority.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme from his office in central Kyiv on Thursday, Klitschko noted that he was “responsible for the capital of Ukraine”, describing it as “the heart” of the war-torn country.

He said Zelensky might be forced to take a “painful solution” to achieve peace.

When asked whether Zelensky has been discussing with him any details of a possible settlement, Klitschko replied bluntly: “No.”

“President Zelensky does [it] himself. It’s not my function,” he added.

Referring to a very public bust-up between Zelensky and Trump at the White House in February, the mayor suggested that key issues between top politicians would be better discussed “without video cameras”.

Earlier this week, Trump accused Zelensky of harming peace negotiations, after the Ukrainian leader again ruled out recognising Russian control of Crimea, a southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Trump has said “Crimea will stay with Russia”, in an interview with Time magazine on Friday, having previously said the peninsula was “lost years ago”.

But Zelensky has pointed to a 2018 “Crimea declaration” by Trump’s then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo saying the US “rejects Russia’s attempted annexation”.

Ukraine and its European allies have in recent weeks expressed alarm over what many on the continent see as Trump’s warming of relations with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

In later remarks made after his BBC interview about the possibility of Ukraine ceding territory, Klitschko said he “did not say anything new” and that many world politicians and media outlets were discussing it as a potential outcome of a peace deal.

“We understand that the scenario involving territorial concessions contradicts our national interests and we must fight against its implementation until the very end. This will require extraordinary efforts both from us and European partners,” he added.

• Trump criticises Zelensky as Ukraine refuses Russian control of Crimea
• Why Zelensky can’t and won’t give up Crimea

As talks ramp up, Russian strikes on Ukraine have continued.

On Thursday, an attack on Kyiv killed 12 people and injured dozens, officials said. The BBC witnessed the body of a child being brought out from the wreckage of their home while people quietly cried nearby.

Svitlana, a teacher at a school close by which was also hit, spoke of her hurt and added she believed Russia would not stop its aggression if Ukraine gave up Crimea.

“Those who think that Putin will stop if he is given Crimea, they don’t know who the Russians are, he is not going to stop,” she said.

She said Zelensky expresses the opinion of “all of us and we support him”.

Another woman, Olha, who had helped rescue workers carry out 10 people, five of whom were dead and the rest injured, was more critical.

“As of now I think it’s better to be away from here because nothing good awaits us here,” she said, adding there “will not be a good solution” for Ukraine.

She said Zelensky “was a comedian and he should have stayed a comedian”.

A senior Russian general has been killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow, officials have confirmed.

Russia’s Investigative Committee (SK) – the main federal investigating authority in the country – confirmed Gen Yaroslav Moskalik died when a Volkswagen Golf car exploded after an improvised explosive device stuffed with pellets went off.

Local media reported the car was parked next to the general’s house in the eastern suburb of Balashikha and exploded as he walked past it.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has blamed Ukraine for the attack, saying Kyiv “continues its involvement in terrorist activities inside our country”. Ukraine has not commented.

Moskalik represented Russia’s General Staff in talks with Ukraine in Paris in 2015, which resulted in the Minsk agreements set up to end the war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces that started in 2014.

According to the Kremlin website, he joined the Russian contingent led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin aide and former Russian ambassador to the US, Yuri Ushakov, for those ceasefire talks.

Videos and photos circulating on Telegram on Friday show a car in flames outside a block of flats.

As a matter of policy, Ukraine never officially admits or claims responsibility for targeted attacks such as the one which killed Gen Moskalik.

But unnamed sources within Ukrainian security services have previously told the media, including the BBC, that they have been behind similar assassinations, such as the killing of Gen Igor Kirillov in December 2024. Named officials, though, never went on the record.

Within Russia, there does not appear to be a force willing and able to carry out such attacks.

The incident came before US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday.

Lavrov earlier said Moscow was “ready to reach a deal” with the US to end the Ukraine war, although some elements needed to be “fine-tuned”.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, suggested his country may have to give away territory as part of any peace deal.

Drone attacks on Ukraine continued overnight into Friday.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 103 drones, which killed three people, including a child and a 76-year-old woman, in the town of Pavlohrad, in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Kharkiv also came under attack with its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, saying several private buildings were damaged.

Myanmar authorities have arrested an astrologer for causing panic by predicting a new earthquake in a viral TikTok video.

John Moe The posted his prediction on 9 April, just two weeks after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 3,500 people and destroyed centuries-old temples in the South East Asian nation.

He was arrested Tuesday for making “false statements with the intention of causing public panic”, Myanmar’s information ministry said.

John Moe The had warned that an earthquake would “hit every city in Myanmar” on 21 April. But experts say earthquakes are impossible to predict due to the complexity of the factors involved in such disasters.

In his video, which got more than three million views, John Moe The urged people to “take important things with you and run away from buildings during the shaking.”

“People should not stay in tall buildings during the day,” read its caption.

A Yangon resident told AFP that many of her neighbours believed in the prediction. They refused to stay in their homes and camped outside the day John Moe The said the earthquake would happen.

His now-defunct TikTok account, which has more than 300,000 followers, claims to make predictions based on astrology and palmistry.

He was arrested during a raid on his home in Sagaing, central Myanmar.

The areas of Mandalay and Sagaing were hit especially hard by the earthquake on 28 March, which prompted a rare request from the Myanmar junta for foreign aid.

That earthquake was felt some 1,000km away in Bangkok, where a building collapsed at a construction site, killing dozens.

A Rwandan beekeeper living in the US has been arrested over his alleged involvement in the 1994 genocide in his country.

Faustin Nsabumukunzi is accused of committing “heinous acts of violence abroad” when he served as a local leader at the start of genocide, the Justice Department said.

The 65-year-old suspect was also charged with visa fraud and attempted naturalisation fraud when he moved to the US in 2003. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on bail.

“Nsabumukunzi repeatedly lied to conceal his involvement in the horrific Rwandan genocide while seeking to become a lawful permanent resident and citizen of the United States,” said John Durham, a federal prosecutor.

In just 100 days in 1994, about 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists.

The mainly Tutsi forces who took power following the genocide were alleged to have killed thousands of Hutu people in Rwanda in retaliation.

• Rwanda genocide: World failed us in 1994, President Paul Kagame says

Nsabumukunzi is alleged to have set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and to have participated in killings, prosecutors said, citing witnesses.

“Nsabumukunzi used his leadership position to oversee the violence and killings of Tutsis in his local area and directed groups of armed Hutus to kill Tutsis,” the federal prosecutors said.

He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison in absentia by a Rwandan genocide court, according to US legal papers.

The suspect was arrested on Thursday at his home in Bridgehampton, New York, where he had settled as a gardener and beekeeper in an exclusive enclave on Long Island, according to the US media.

Prosecutors said he had lied to US officials in his immigration application, including by falsely denying any involvement as a perpetrator of the Rwandan genocide when he sought refugee status in 2003.

He allegedly repeated those lies in his subsequent applications for a green card and naturalisation.

“For over two decades, he got away with those lies and lived in the United States with an undeserved clean slate,” said prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York.

He pleaded not guilty and was released on a bond of $250,000 (£188,000).

The bail package requires home detention and GPS monitoring, but he will be allowed to continue working as a gardener.

Nsabumukunzi faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, if convicted.

In Rwanda, Nsabumukunzi oversaw 150 beekeepers and 1,500 hives, according to the New York Times which profiled him in 2006.

In the US, he oversaw about 100 hives for the Hamptons Honey Company, which had hired him to scale up its production, the report said.

Gabriel Alfaya, the owner of Hamptons Honey since 2009, said he was unaware that Nsabumukunzi had worked for the company and had never met him, the New York Times reported.

Nsabumukunzi’s lawyer, Evan Sugar, described his client as “a law-abiding beekeeper and gardener”, in an interview with the AP news agency.

The lawyer said Nsabumukunzi was “a victim of the Rwandan genocide who lost scores of family members and friends to the violence”.

He said his client was rightfully granted refugee status and lawful permanent residence and planned to “fight these 30-year-old allegations” while maintaining his innocence.

Several people who fled Rwanda to other countries have been arrested on charges related to the killings, as the East African country continues to pursue more genocide suspects from their safe havens abroad.

• BBC reporter returns home to Rwanda – 30 years after genocide
• Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter
• ‘I forgave my husband’s killer – our children married’

Federal agents arrested a Wisconsin judge and charged her with obstruction for allegedly trying to help an undocumented immigrant evade arrest.

Announcing her arrest, FBI director Kash Patel accused Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan of “intentionally misdirecting” immigration agents away from a Mexican man they were trying to arrest last week.

“Thankfully our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public,” Patel wrote on X.

During a preliminary court hearing on Friday, Dugan’s lawyer said she “wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety”.

The judge has been charged with obstruction and concealing an individual to avoid arrest, and faces a maximum of six years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Dugan was released on her own recognisance pending a hearing on 15 May.

The charges stem from events that played out in Dugan’s courtroom last week.

On 17 April, an immigration judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national facing three misdemeanour battery counts stemming from a domestic fight, according to court documents filed in the case by the FBI.

The following day, Flores-Ruiz appeared in the Milwaukee court for a scheduled hearing, and six officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency arrived at the courthouse to make the arrest.

The agents identified themselves to court officials and waited outside Dugan’s courtroom, but according to the FBI affidavit, the judge became “visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd,’ left the bench, and entered chambers” when she learned of their presence.

In the hallway outside the court, Dugan and the unnamed agents then argued over the type of arrest warrant that had been issued, before the judge instructed them to report to the office of the county’s chief judge.

While several agents were in the office, affidavit says, the judge ushered Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to a side door meant for jury members leading out of the courtroom.

But two agents remained near the courtroom and spotted Flores-Ruiz attempting to escape, the affidavit says.

Flores-Ruiz, who authorities say had previously been deported from the US in 2013, managed to exit the courthouse but was arrested just minutes later after a short foot chase.

Dugan’s arrest came one day after a former judge in New Mexico was taken into custody accused of harbouring an alleged Venezuelan gang member in his home.

“I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law and they are not,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in an interview on Friday.

“And if you are destroying evidence, if you are obstructing justice, when you have victims sitting in a courtroom of domestic violence, and you’re escorting a criminal defendant out a back door, it will not be tolerated.”

Reaction to the arrest largely split along partisan lines.

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, called it a “gravely serious and drastic move”.

“Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,” Baldwin said in a statement. “By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this President is putting those basic democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson also criticised the arrest, calling it “showboating” and warned that it would have a “chilling effect” on court proceedings.

Wisconsin’s Republican US Senator, Ron Johnson, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “I would advise everyone to cooperate with federal law enforcement and not endanger them and the public by obstructing their efforts to arrest criminals and illegal aliens.”

Dugan was first elected as a judge in 2016, and was re-elected to a second six-year term in 2022.

Judicial elections in Wisconsin are non-partisan, however Dugan was endorsed by Milwaukee’s Democratic mayor.

The obstruction charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the concealment charges can be punished by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

In 2019, during the first Trump administration, a judge in Massachusetts was arrested after she allowed an undocumented immigrant defendant to retrieve property from a lockup in the courtroom. The immigrant then left the courtroom.

Judge Shelley M Richmond Joseph was charged with obstruction, but the charges were dropped in 2022, although she still faces an ongoing ethics complaint stemming from the incident.

Former Republican congressman George Santos has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to the federal charges in New York court last August.

Prosecutors had asked for 87 months in prison – the sentence Santos ultimately received – while Santos’s attorneys had requested he serve two years, the minimum sentence for aggravated identity theft.

The sentencing marks the final step in the downfall of the novice New York politician, who was expelled from Congress after the fraud case alleged that he lied about his background and misused campaign funds to finance his lifestyle.

Santos reportedly apologised for his actions while crying in court on Friday, saying: “I cannot rewrite the past, but I can control the road ahead.”

The judge overseeing the case appeared unconvinced. “You got elected with your words, most of which were lies,” she said.

Santos will report to prison on 25 July.

The federal government alleged Santos laundered campaign funds to pay for his personal expenses, illegally claimed unemployment benefits while he was employed and lied to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Prosecutors said he charged more than $44,000 (£32,000) to his campaign over a period of months using credit cards belonging to contributors who were unaware they were being defrauded.

In court last year, Santos admitted to theft and applying for unemployment benefits that he was not entitled to receive. He has also acknowledged making false statements and omissions on financial statements submitted to the House Ethics Committee and the FEC.

The former lawmaker has been ordered to pay at least $374,000 (£280,000) in restitution.

He has been attempting to raise money on Cameo, a platform where people can purchase personalized videos from celebrities.

Santos’s downfall began after the New York Times in 2022 published an investigation revealing the freshman congressman had lied about his CV, including having a university degree and working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

From there, the lies continued to pile up, including allegations that he stole money from a fundraiser for a dying dog and that he lied about his mother surviving the 11 September terrorist attacks. Shortly after, local and federal officials began to investigate.

He was eventually charged with 23 federal felony crimes, and in 2023, he became the first member of Congress to be expelled in more than 20 years, only the sixth in history.

A report from the House ethics panel accused him of misusing campaign funds for personal benefits, including Botox and subscriptions on the OnlyFans website.

Santos defeated a Democratic incumbent in 2022, flipping the district that encompasses parts of New York’s Long Island and Queens, where he grew up.

Santos, an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, has said that he would not ask the president for a pardon.

“If the president thinks I’m worthy of any level of clemency that is bestowed upon him, he can go ahead and do it, but for me to seek a pardon is to deny accountability and responsibility,” Santos told the New York Times.

Yet he appeared to contradict himself in an episode of his podcast, when his guest, blogger Perez Hilton asked him if he would request a pardon if he were sentenced to years in prison.

“You bet your sweet ass I would,” he told the TV personality.

Will India be able to stop the Indus river and two of its tributaries from flowing into Pakistan?

That’s the question on many minds, after India suspended a major treaty governing water sharing of six rivers in the Indus basin between the two countries, following Tuesday’s horrific attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) survived two wars between the nuclear rivals and was seen as an example of trans-boundary water management.

The suspension is among several steps India has taken against Pakistan, accusing it of backing cross-border terrorism – a charge Islamabad flatly denies. It has also hit back with reciprocal measures against Delhi, and said stopping water flow “will be considered as an Act of War”.

The treaty allocated the three eastern rivers – the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej – of the Indus basin to India, while 80% of the three western ones – the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab – to Pakistan.

Disputes have flared in the past, with Pakistan objecting to some of India’s hydropower and water infrastructure projects, arguing they would reduce river flows and violate the treaty. (More than 80% of Pakistan’s agriculture and around a third of its hydropower depend on the Indus basin’s water.)

India, meanwhile, has been pushing to review and modify the treaty, citing changing needs – from irrigation and drinking water to hydropower – in light of factors like climate change.

Over the years, Pakistan and India have pursued competing legal avenues under the treaty brokered by the World Bank.

But this is the first time either side has announced a suspension – and notably, it’s the upstream country, India, giving it a geographic advantage.

But what does the suspension really mean? Could India hold back or divert the Indus basin’s waters, depriving Pakistan of its lifeline? And is it even capable of doing so?

Experts say it’s nearly impossible for India to hold back tens of billions of cubic metres of water from the western rivers during high-flow periods. It lacks both the massive storage infrastructure and the extensive canals needed to divert such volumes.

“The infrastructure India has are mostly run-of-the-river hydropower plants that do not need massive storage,” said Himanshu Thakkar, a regional water resources expert with the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.

Such hydropower plants use the force of running water to spin turbines and generate electricity, without holding back large volumes of water.

Indian experts say inadequate infrastructure has kept India from fully utilising even its 20% share of the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus waters under the treaty – a key reason they argue for building storage structures, which Pakistan opposes citing treaty provisions.

Experts say India can now modify existing infrastructure or build new ones to hold back or divert more water without informing Pakistan.

“Unlike in the past, India will now not be required to share its project documents with Pakistan,” said Mr Thakkar.

But challenges like difficult terrain and protests within India itself over some of its projects have meant that construction of water infrastructure in the Indus basin has not moved fast enough.

After a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in 2016, Indian water resources ministry officials had told the BBC they would speed up construction of several dams and water storage projects in the Indus basin.

Although there is no official information on the status of such projects, sources say progress has been limited.

Some experts say that if India begins controlling the flow with its existing and potential infrastructure, Pakistan could feel the impact during the dry season, when water availability is already at its lowest.

“A more pressing concern is what happens in the dry season – when the flows across the basin are lower, storage matters more, and timing becomes more critical,” Hassan F Khan, assistant professor of Urban Environmental Policy and Environmental Studies at Tufts University, wrote in the Dawn newspaper.

“That is where the absence of treaty constraints could start to be felt more acutely.”

The treaty requires India to share hydrological data with Pakistan – crucial for flood forecasting and planning for irrigation, hydropower and drinking water.

Pradeep Kumar Saxena, India’s former IWT commissioner for over six years, told the Press Trust of India news agency that the country can now stop sharing flood data with Pakistan.

The region sees damaging floods during the monsoon season, which begins in June and lasts until September. But Pakistani authorities have said India was already sharing very limited hydrological data.

“India was sharing only around 40% of the data even before it made the latest announcement,” Shiraz Memon, Pakistan’s former additional commissioner of the Indus Waters Treaty, told BBC Urdu.

Another issue that comes up each time there is water-related tension in the region is if the upstream country can “weaponise” water against the downstream country.

This is often called a “water bomb”, where the upstream country can temporarily hold back water and then release it suddenly, without warning, causing massive damage downstream.

Could India do that?

Experts say India would first risk flooding its own territory as its dams are far from the Pakistan border. However, it could now flush silt from its reservoirs without prior warning – potentially causing damage downstream in Pakistan.

• How water shortages are brewing wars

Himalayan rivers like the Indus carry high silt levels, which quickly accumulate in dams and barrages. Sudden flushing of this silt can cause significant downstream damage.

There’s a bigger picture: India is downstream of China in the Brahmaputra basin, and the Indus originates in Tibet.

In 2016, after India warned that “blood and water cannot flow together” following a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir which India blamed on Pakistan, China blocked a tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo – that becomes the Brahmaputra in northeast India.

China, that has Pakistan as its ally, said they had done it as it was needed for a hydropower project they were building near the border. But the timing of the move was seen as Beijing coming in to help Islamabad.

After building several hydropower plants in Tibet, China has green-lit what will be the world’s largest dam on the lower reaches of Yarlung Tsangpo.

Beijing claims minimal environmental impact, but India fears it could give China significant control over the river’s flow.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin had “constructive” talks in Moscow on Friday lasting three hours, according to an aide of Putin’s.

Yuri Ushakov said the possibility of Russia and Ukraine resuming direct talks was a particular point of discussion.

The US has not released details of what was discussed during the meeting, but afterwards President Donald Trump said work to bring about a peace deal between the two sides was going “smoothly”.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the BBC territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia could be discussed if a “full and unconditional ceasefire” was agreed upon.

Reports suggest Ukraine would be expected to give up large portions of land annexed by Russia under a US peace proposal.

Trump has said he would support Russia keeping the Crimean peninsula – which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Zelensky has previously rejected this idea.

Traffic was halted as a convoy of cars carrying Witkoff arrived in central Moscow, as he made his fourth visit to Russia since the start of the year.

The three-hour talks were described as “constructive and very useful” by Putin aide Ushakov.

It had brought the “Russian and US positions closer together not just on Ukraine but also on a range of other international issues”, he said.

“Specifically on the Ukrainian crisis, the possibility of resuming direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives was in particular discussed,” he added.

Earlier this week, Putin signalled for the first time since the early stages of the war that he was open to talks with Zelensky.

His remarks were believed to be in response to a proposal by the Ukrainian president for a 30-hour Easter truce to be extended for 30 days. No truce has yet been agreed on.

Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

Crimea has become a particular flashpoint.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea of recognising Crimea as part of Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Friday: “Our position is unchanged – only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian.”

However, in later remarks he suggested to the BBC that “territorial issues” could be discussed if a “full and unconditional ceasefire” is agreed on.

“A full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything,” he said.

He also referenced comments made by Trump in an interview with Time magazine, in which the US president said “Crimea will stay with Russia”.

“What President Trump says is true, and I agree with him in that today we do not have enough weapons to return control over the Crimean peninsula,” Zelensky said.

The US’s peace plan has not been publicly released, but reports suggest it proposes Russia keeps the land it has gained, amounting to about 20% of Ukraine’s territory – a condition that is in Moscow’s favour.

According to the Reuters news agency, which has seen US proposals handed to European officials last week as well as subsequent counter-proposals from Europe and Ukraine, there are significant disparities between them.

The US deal offers American legal acceptance of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian control of other occupied areas, including all of the Luhansk region.

By contrast, the Europeans and Ukrainians will only discuss what happens to occupied Ukrainian territory after a ceasefire has come into effect.

As the meeting between Witkoff and Putin was taking place, Trump claimed talks were going in the right direction.

“They’re meeting with Putin right now, as we speak, and we have a lot of things going on, and I think in the end we’re going to end up with a lot of good deals, including tariff deals and trade deals,” he told reporters in the US.

He said his aim was to bring about an end to fighting in Ukraine which was claiming the lives of 5,000 Ukrainian and Russians a week, adding he believed “we’re pretty close” to a peace deal.

Writing on Truth Social later, Trump said Zelensky had not signed the “final papers on the very important Rare Earths Deal with the United States”.

“It is at least three weeks late,” he said, adding that he hoped it would be signed “immediately”.

The long-talked of minerals deal, which would give the US a stake in Ukraine’s abundant natural resource deposits, was meant to be signed in February but was derailed after an acrimonious meeting between Trump and Zelensky in Washington.

Russia and Ukraine’s positions in securing a peace deal still seem miles apart, with no representative from Ukraine invited to take part in the talks in Moscow.

Writing on social media on Friday, Zelensky criticised Russia for failing to agree to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US on 11 March and urged allies to apply more pressure to it.

“It’s been 45 days since Ukraine agreed to President Trump’s proposal for quiet in the sky, sea and the frontline,” he said. “Russia rejects all this. Without pressure this cannot be resolved. Pressure on Russia is necessary.”

He said Russia was being allowed to import missiles from countries such as North Korea, which he said it then used in a deadly missile strike on Kyiv on Thursday, which killed 12 people.

“Insufficient pressure on North Korea and its allies allows them to make such ballistic missiles. The missile that killed the Kyiv residents contained at least 116 parts imported from other countries, and most of them, unfortunately, were made by US companies,” Zelensky alleged.

Following the attack on Kyiv, Trump said he was “putting a lot of pressure” on both sides to end the war, and directly addressed Putin in a post on social media, saying: “Vladimir STOP!”

Since then, however, Trump has blamed Kyiv for starting the war, telling Time magazine: “I think what caused the war to start was when they [Ukraine] started talking about joining Nato.”

Ahead of the talks between Witkoff and Putin on Friday, a senior Russian general was killed in a car bomb attack in the Russian capital. The Kremlin accused Ukraine of being responsible. Kyiv has not commented.

Two people were also killed in a Ukrainian strike on the Russian region of Belgorod, the local governor said. Again, Ukraine has not commented on the claim.

Russia launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls almost 20% of Ukrainian territory.

The seat at the Vatican had been vacant for two days when a group of grey-clad nuns stood on St Peter’s Square and started to sing.

Softly at first then louder, as if to encourage those who joined in timidly, the nuns broke into Ave Maria.

Every so often they shuffled a few inches forward, following the queue for Pope Francis’s lying in state. And all the while they sang, their faces turned to St Peter’s Basilica to their left, their white veils glistening under their large sun hats.

It was a fitting sight for an extraordinary week in which Rome seemed to regain its reputation as the “capital of the world” – and St Peter’s Square as the centre of the Catholic universe.

There is mourning, but also recognition that the Pope, who lived to 88, died quickly and peacefully. “At least he didn’t suffer,” many say. Yet this isn’t the time for celebration either – that will have to wait until after the funeral, when the conclave will spark the usual frenzy of excitement, intrigue and inevitable speculation.

Before then, in Rome these in-between days have taken on a flavour of their own.

Elena, a Romanian woman in her 50s, said she had noticed a “pensive” atmosphere in the city. “There are big crowds around but I have felt everything was a bit quieter, there is something different in the air,” she told the BBC, guessing that the Pope’s death was encouraging people to “look inside” more.

She added that everyone she spoke to this week – even non-believers – had been marked by his death somehow.

Her friend Lina agreed. She was standing behind the counter of her tobacconist shop in Borgo Pio, a quiet cobblestoned street lined with buildings in earthy tones and flower boxes near the Vatican. “It’s neither a week of tragedy nor one of celebration,” she said. “It’s a chance for people to think, to reflect, and I think that’s much needed.”

Nearby, people slowly ambled down Via della Conciliazione – the pedestrian street that connects Italy and the Vatican city state, and the same one the Pope’s coffin will travel down on Saturday as he reaches his final place of rest in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The 4th Century church is only located around 4km away from St Peter’s, but the journey there is set to take around two hours as the car carrying the Pope’s coffin will move at walking pace to allow people lining the streets to see it and say their goodbyes, the Vatican said earlier this week.

Two plain-clothed police officers acknowledged that the neighbourhood was much busier than usual, but that it “felt like a Saturday,” and that people had been very relaxed.

Still, the signs of the huge security operation mounted by the Vatican and Italian authorities were everywhere.

On Wednesday, a soldier stood outside a religious goods shop brandishing a hefty bazooka-like anti-drone device. Asked whether the contraption could, for instance, disrupt drone frequencies and force them to return to their bases, he replied mysteriously: “Maybe, among other things.”

Next to him, a fellow soldier scanned the sky with binoculars. On the day of the funeral, they will be joined by thousands of security personnel from various branches of the police and armed forces, as well as river patrol units, bomb-sniffing dogs and rooftop snipers.

American student Caislyn, who was sat on a bench sketching the dome of St Peter’s, said she was “shocked” at how safe she felt despite the number of people around.

The 21-year-old attributed that to the fact that “people are here to pay their respects to Francis, and to enjoy this beautiful city.” She called the atmosphere “bittersweet,” but said she saw the funeral as a “celebration of life”.

“He gave such a great example to the world,” she reminisced.

As Caislyn recalled Francis’ commitment to the poorest of society, many others referenced his last-known trip outside the Vatican on Maundy Thursday, when he visited prisoners at the Regina Coeli jail, as he had done many times before.

“He was close to the people,” Elena said fondly, adding that she understood why he “couldn’t stay away” from helping those worst off.

“I work as a volunteer for homeless people and every time I try to stop, something pulls me back. Why? Because I lived like them for three months, because I come from poverty too. It’s not hard for me to feel close to them,” she said.

“And I think it was the same for Francis,” she said, mentioning comments by Francis’s sister Maria Elena who told Italian media last month that she and her siblings had grown up in poverty in Argentina.

Elena added: “He never forgot where he was from. Even when he got to the highest role, he never let it change him.”

For Belgian tourist Dirk, whose wife was queuing to see the Pope lying in state in the basilica, the sombre atmosphere since the Pope’s death is something that “draws people in, it’s something they want to be a part of”.

“It might just be temporary, it’ll probably be over by Monday,” he laughed.

• IN PICTURES: Symbolism on show as Pope lies in open coffin
• PROFILE: Acting head of the Vatican Cardinal Kevin Farrell
• EXPLAINER: A visual guide to Pope Francis’s funeral
• WATCH: How previous Popes were laid to rest
• Are you in Rome for the Pope’s funeral? Get in touch.

Dryly, he remarked on the number of homeless – and often disabled – people around the Vatican. “I saw a woman who was walking almost bent over, and people in clergy clothes completely ignored her, in fact they looked in the other direction so they wouldn’t have to be confronted with it,” he said.

“So it remains shocking, the wealth of these churches around us and the poverty of the people sleeping on their doorsteps.” He shook his head. “The contrast is jarring to me.”

Katleho – an upbeat young woman from Lesotho – told the BBC that she felt “special, happy” when she received Pope Francis’s Easter blessing on the day before he died, when he appeared on St Peter’s balcony. “I thought: I’m a real Catholic now!,” she laughed.

She said she felt “so privileged to be joining a multitude of people” who were paying their respects to Pope Francis this week. “It’s a real shared experience, it’s so wonderful,” she said, skipping off to catch up with the rest of her group.

For three days this week, tens of thousands of people streamed into St Peter’s to bid their last farewell to the Argentinian Pope who – as he put it when he was elected – had come “from the end of the world”.

Father Ramez Twal, from Jerusalem, was the last in line in the queue to see Pope Francis’s body.

“It’s amazing that we as a group from the Holy Land get to say the last goodbye for our late Pope Francis,” he said.

“For us, it’s a really emotional moment to say thank you to him for being with us during this terrible time in the Holy Land.

“He means a lot to me, because he gave us a spiritual way of thinking, he had a love he gave for all, and he taught us to respect each other. We will miss him.”

As they entered the basilica after hours of queuing, visitors and pilgrims proceeded towards Francis’s body, lying in a casket by the high altar built over the tomb of St Peter, the Catholic Church’s first pope. Some brandished selfie sticks, others clutched their rosaries or their children’s hands. All were very quiet.

Outside, under the warm April sunshine, groups of joyous African pilgrims in flashy head wraps ate gelato by the Bernini fountain, seagulls circling overhead.

Retired Californian couples fanned themselves under the square’s colonnades, and journalists from around the world shouted questions in shaky Italian at any cardinal who looked like they may have a vote in the upcoming conclave.

Holding his phone out to show a caller back home his surroundings, a Brazilian priest spun on himself, laughing.

Stars from the reality television show Love On The Spectrum went on the defensive after Robert F Kennedy Jr commented that people with autism make limited contributions to society.

People with autism “will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go on a date”, the US Health and Human Services chief said earlier this month.

The remarks from Kennedy drew widespread anger from people with autism who reject the notion of needing to be repaired, but also responses from those pushing for a greater understanding of autism.

“Autistic people have the same hopes, dreams and yes, the same awkward dating moments as anyone else,” Dani Bowman, one of the television show’s star’s said to US media.

The reality TV star on the show, which is about a group of autistic adults’ experiences dating, said Kennedy’s comments were “completely false”.

Since joining the Trump administration, Kennedy has made autism a main focus. Autism diagnoses have increased sharply since 2000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That rise is, at least in part, attributable to increased autism awareness and an expanding definition of the disorder, scientists say. First recognized as a developmental disorder in 1978, autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that symptoms vary by person. Some need little to no support in their daily lives, while others need a great amount of support.

• The genetic mystery of why some people develop autism
• RFK Jr pledges to find the cause of autism by September

Earlier this month, Kennedy pledged “a massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism in five months. He did not give details on the project or funding it. He also said his department would investigate potential causes.

“Everything is on the table, our food system, our water, our air, different ways of parenting, all the kind of changes that may have triggered this epidemic,” Kennedy later told Fox News.

But the idea of curing autism is concerning for some.

“Wanting to cure autism implies that our way of being is wrong and it isn’t,” Ms Bowman told NewsNation. “We don’t need to be fixed. We need to be supported. But the answer isn’t erasing autism, it’s building a more inclusive world for all of us.”

Another star of Love on the Spectrum, James B Jones, attacked Kennedy’s autism remarks on social media, calling them “extremely ignorant, and to be perfectly frank, downright offensive”.

But not everyone agrees.

While advocacy groups focus on acceptance and inclusion they avoid “uncomfortable truths about children like mine”, Emily May, a mother of a child with autism, wrote in a New York Times opinion piece on Friday.

“I have no interest in defending Mr. Kennedy, whose shaky science and conspiracy theories will do nothing to benefit those with autism and their families,” Ms May said. “And yet, I think his remarks echo the reality and pain of a subset of parents of children with autism who feel left out of much of the conversation around the condition.”

Despite her frustration, Ms May expressed admiration for Kennedy’s “willingness to speak frankly about the painful parts of [her] child’s life”.

Autism Speaks, an advocacy organisation, agreed in part with Ms May’s sentiments.

The organisation said they heard from parents who felt Kennedy’s comments resonated “with their lived experience”.

“The language we use matters,” Autism Speaks said in a statement to the BBC. “It should reflect current science and honor the lived experiences of autistic people, many of whom lead fulfilling lives and make invaluable contributions to their families, workplaces and communities.”

Dr Manish Arora, founder of LinusBio who has spent more than two decades studying autism, noted that Kennedy’s statements can be “very hurtful for families and autistic individuals”.

But he also welcomed more research into the causes of autism and said increased attention is a “meaningful opportunity”.

Still, he wishes the debate was “less polarising”.

“Scientists should see the opportunity here, avoid the polarised discourse and see the opportunities here,” Dr Arora told the BBC.

Jake Tilk, and his brother, Max Tilk, who is on the autism spectrum, largely avoid that political discourse in their social media videos where they share what their day-to-day life looks.

They share their lives online to create awareness and acceptance of autism, because the brothers want to celebrate neurodiversity, Jake Tilk told the BBC.

“It’s most important that discussions about autism are grounded in science, compassion and most importantly the living experiences of people with autism themselves,” he said.

Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese has pledged to invest A$1.2bn (£580m) in a strategic reserve for critical minerals if he wins next month’s election, as trade tensions escalate.

The announcement came after China imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements, essential to the production of advanced technologies – including electric vehicles, fighter jets, and robots.

China’s controls apply to all countries but were widely seen as retaliation to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Albanese said Australia would prioritise minerals that are key to its security, and that of its partners, including rare earths. But could his plan challenge China’s dominance?

Rare earths are a group of 17 elements – named “rare” because they are notoriously difficult to extract and refine.

Rare earths, like samarium and terbium, are critical to the production of technologies set to shape the world in the coming decades – including electric vehicles and highly advanced weapons systems.

Albanese’s proposed reserve includes rare earths as well as other critical minerals of which Australia is a top producer – like lithium and cobalt.

Both China and Australia have rare earth reserves. But 90% of rare earth refining – which makes them usable in technology – takes place in China, giving the country significant control over supply.

And that has spooked Western governments.

Beijing said its restrictions on rare earths were in response to Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports to the US, currently at 145%.

But analysts say Washington’s inability to secure the supply of rare earths has become one of the Trump administration’s chief anxieties, especially as diplomatic tensions with Beijing have deepened.

Around 75% of US rare earth imports came from China between 2019 and 2022, according to the US Geological Survey.

Philip Kirchlechner, director of Iron Ore Research in Perth, Western Australia, told the BBC that the US and EU had “dropped the ball” on recognising the importance of the rare earths over recent decades, as China swiftly developed a monopoly over refinement.

“China has its foot on the blood vein… of US and European defence systems,” he added.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, this week said that China halting exports of rare earths used in advanced magnets was affecting the company’s ability to develop humanoid robots, in an early symbol of the pain Beijing has the power to inflict on US companies.

Albanese’s proposal says that minerals in the reserve will be available to both “domestic industry and international partners”, in a likely reference to allies such as the US and EU.

But Kirchlechner, while welcoming the move as “long overdue”, added that the proposal is “not going to solve the problem”.

The fundamental issue is that even if Australia stockpiles more critical minerals, the refining process of rare earths will still largely be controlled by China.

Lithium – not a rare earth, but a crucial metal in the production electric vehicle batteries and solar panels – is a good example. Australia mines 33% of the world’s lithium, but only refines and exports a tiny fraction. China, on the other hand, mines just 23% of the world’s lithium, but refines 57% of it, according to the International Energy Agency.

Australia has been investing in refining rare earths as part of its Future Made in Australia plan, aimed at leveraging the country’s critical minerals reserves to drive the green transition.

Arafura Rare Earths, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, last year received A$840m in funding to create the country’s first combined mine and refinery for rare earths. And in November, Australia opened its first rare earths processing plant, also in Western Australia, operated by Lynas Rare Earths.

But the country is expected to depend on China for refining until at least 2026, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, headquartered in Washington.

China has been trying to seize on the volatility brought by Trump.

In a series of editorials in Australian newspapers, China’s ambassador to Canberra lambasted Washington’s approach to global trade, and called on Australia to “join hands” with Beijing – something that Albanese quickly rejected.

Australia has touted its resource industry in its talks with Trump. Some critical minerals were exempt from a 10% tariff he imposed on imports of most Australian products.

But analysts say Albanese’s proposal is mainly aimed at protecting Australia and its partners from strategic adversaries like China.

Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at Natixis, told the BBC that Albanese’s plan was “more sophisticated” than previous proposals, because it included the ability to sell Australia’s resources at moments of economic tension.

If China imposes export controls, she added, Australia could begin selling more of its mineral reserves to help lower prices on global markets, and loosen the control China has had on setting prices.

But she said that Australia still cannot completely replace China.

“If [Australia’s] goal is to serve the West, become more instrumental to the West – especially the US – there are weak spots China can enter – and the most important is refining.”

Luigi Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all federal charges brought over the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York last year.

The 26 year old, who was arrested in December and accused of shooting Mr Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel, faces the charges of murder and stalking.

His not guilty plea means he will now face trial and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if he is convicted.

Mr Mangione arrived at the Lower Manhattan court on Friday wearing a prison outfit and with his hands in cuffs. He acknowledged he had read the indictment against him before entering his plea, telling the judge: “not guilty”.

Earlier on Friday, federal prosecutors officially filed to seek the death penalty in this case.

They argued that he carried out Mr Thompson’s murder “to amplify an ideological message” and spark resistance to the health insurance industry.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who directed prosecutors to seek capital punishment, said in April that Mr Thompson’s death was “an act of political violence”.

Mr Mangione’s lawyers previously called discussion of executing him “barbaric”.

During the 35-minute hearing on Friday, Judge Margaret Garnett attempted to co-ordinate a pre-trial schedule, while Mr Mangione’s lawyers continued to raise objections to his indictments on both federal and state charges in New York.

The judge agreed Mr Mangione’s lawyers would need months to go through prosecutors’ “three terabytes” of evidence, including police footage, data from social media, financial and phone companies and other evidence from state prosecutors.

It means Mr Mangione’s federal trial will not take place before 2026 – with the judge planning his next federal appearance for 5 December, when a “firm trial date” will be set.

During the hearing, Mr Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, pushed for her client to be tried in federal court – where the death penalty is at stake – before state court, arguing the reverse would raise “constitutional issues”.

She also accused state prosecutors of “eavesdropping” on Mr Mangione’s recorded calls with her from jail. Judge Garnett asked prosecutors to write a letter within seven days explaining how Mr Mangione would be ensured access to a separate phone line to make privileged calls with his legal team.

The judge also asked Ms Friedman Agnifilo to submit a new motion by 27 June requesting the government be prevented from seeking the death penalty, since she submitted her first motion before prosecutors formally filed notice that they would do so.

Judge Garnett also asked prosecutors to remind Bondi and government officials of rules surrounding public statements and their impact on a fair trial and jury selection.

Mr Mangione is also facing state charges in both Pennsylvania, where he was arrested, and New York. At an arraignment in December, he pleaded not guilty to state murder and terrorism charges in New York.

Mr Thompson was shot dead in Manhattan early on 4 December last year.

The suspect escaped the scene before exiting the city. Five days later, Mr Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania.

Public reaction to Mr Thompson’s killing has shed light on deep frustrations with privatised healthcare. Some have celebrated Mr Mangione has a folk hero, and a fund set up for his legal defence garnered nearly $1m (£750,000) in donations.

Supporters gathered outside the courthouse on Friday too.

Shell casings with the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose” were found at the crime scene. Critics say these words are associated with healthcare companies avoiding payouts and increasing their profits.

Donald Trump has signed a controversial executive order aimed at stepping up deep-sea mining within US and in international waters.

The move to allow exploration outside its national waters has been met by condemnation from China which said it “violates” international law.

Thursday’s order is the latest issued by the US president to try to increase America’s access to minerals used by the aerospace, green technology and healthcare sectors.

The deep sea contains billions of tonnes of potato-shaped rocks, called polymetallic nodules, which are rich in critical minerals like cobalt and rare earths.

The latest US executive order was issued to “establish the United States as a global leader in responsible seabed mineral exploration”, it reads.

The move appears to bypass a long-running round of UN negotiations on mining in international waters.

Many countries, including China, have delayed issuing permits until countries agreed a framework for how resources could be shared.

“The US authorisation… violates international law and harms the overall interests of the international community,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Friday.

China dominates global production of rare earths and critical metals like cobalt and lithium.

Trump has been frustrated by this relative weakness of the US position, analysts say.

“We want the US to get ahead of China in this resource space under the ocean, on the ocean bottom,” a US official said on Thursday.

To achieve this, the order says the US will speed up the process of issuing exploration licences and recovery permits both in its own waters and in “areas beyond national jurisdiction”.

The administration estimates that deep-sea mining could boost the country’s GDP by $300bn (£225bn) over 10 years and create 100,000 jobs

The EU, the UK and others support a moratorium on the practice until further scientific research is carried out.

Environmentalists and scientists are concerned that marine species living in the deep sea could be harmed by the process.

“Deep-sea mining is a deeply dangerous endeavour for our ocean,” said Jeff Watters of Ocean Conservancy, a US-based environmental group.

“The harm caused by deep-sea mining isn’t restricted to the ocean floor: it will impact the entire water column, top to bottom, and everyone and everything relying on it,” he added in a statement released on Friday.

It is not clear how quickly deep-sea mining could begin but one mining company, The Metals Company (TMC), is already in discussions with the US government to obtain permits.

TMC’s CEO Gerard Barron has previously said he hopes to begin mining by the end of the year.

Along with others in the mining industry, he disputes the environmental claims made and has argued that the abyssal zone – 3,000m to 6,000m below sea level – has very low concentrations of life.

“Here there’s zero flora. And if we measure the amount of fauna [animal life], in the form of biomass, there is around 10g per square metre. That compares with more than 30kg of biomass where the world is pushing more nickel extraction, which is our equatorial rainforests,” he previously told the BBC.

A recent paper published by the Natural History Museum and the National Oceanography Centre looked at the long term impacts of deep sea mining from a test carried out in the 1970s.

It concluded that some sediment-dwelling creatures were able to recolonise the site and recover from the test, but larger animals appeared not to have returned.

The scientists concluded this could have been because there were no more nodules for them to live on. The polymetallic nodules where the minerals are found take millions of years to form and therefore cannot easily be replaced.

Myanmar authorities have arrested an astrologer for causing panic by predicting a new earthquake in a viral TikTok video.

John Moe The posted his prediction on 9 April, just two weeks after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 3,500 people and destroyed centuries-old temples in the South East Asian nation.

He was arrested Tuesday for making “false statements with the intention of causing public panic”, Myanmar’s information ministry said.

John Moe The had warned that an earthquake would “hit every city in Myanmar” on 21 April. But experts say earthquakes are impossible to predict due to the complexity of the factors involved in such disasters.

In his video, which got more than three million views, John Moe The urged people to “take important things with you and run away from buildings during the shaking.”

“People should not stay in tall buildings during the day,” read its caption.

A Yangon resident told AFP that many of her neighbours believed in the prediction. They refused to stay in their homes and camped outside the day John Moe The said the earthquake would happen.

His now-defunct TikTok account, which has more than 300,000 followers, claims to make predictions based on astrology and palmistry.

He was arrested during a raid on his home in Sagaing, central Myanmar.

The areas of Mandalay and Sagaing were hit especially hard by the earthquake on 28 March, which prompted a rare request from the Myanmar junta for foreign aid.

That earthquake was felt some 1,000km away in Bangkok, where a building collapsed at a construction site, killing dozens.