Donald Trump has questioned Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war in Ukraine following his meeting with the country’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral.

Posting on social media after leaving Rome, Trump said he feared Putin was “tapping me along” after Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv earlier this week, adding there was “no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas”.

Earlier in the day Trump and Zelensky were seen in deep discussion in St Peter’s Basilica shortly before the funeral began.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting with Zelensky as “very productive”. The Ukrainian president said it had the “potential to become historic”.

It was Trump’s first face-to-face encounter with the Ukrainian president since February’s acrimonious Oval Office showdown.

Writing on his Truth Social account, Trump said the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities “makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?'”.

Trump had previously said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” following Friday’s three-hour talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president.

The Kremlin meanwhile said on Saturday that Putin had confirmed to Witkoff Russia’s readiness to enter into direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions”.

Trump and Zelensky’s sit down in Rome was the first time the leaders had come face-to-face since their White House meeting, when Trump told Zelensky “you don’t have the cards” and he was not winning against Russia.

He repeated that message this week, saying the Ukrainian leader had “no cards to play”. Trump has previously blamed Ukraine for starting the war and has accused Zelensky multiple times of being an obstacle to peace negotiations.

But the White House struck a more positive tone about Saturday’s meeting, while Zelensky described the sit down as a “very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

Two images were released of the meeting, showing the US leader in a blue suit and Ukrainian president in a black top and trousers, sitting opposite each other in intense conversation.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also posted an image of the meeting on X with the caption: “No words are needed to describe the importance of this historic meeting. Two leaders working for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica.”

Another image posted by the Ukrainian delegation from inside St Peter’s showed the two men standing alongside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, his hand on Zelensky’s shoulder.

The implication was that the prime minister and French president had helped to bring the two together, against the sombre backdrop of the funeral.

After the meeting, Trump and Zelensky walked down the steps of the basilica, where Zelensky’s arrival was met with applause from the crowds, and took their seats in the front row.

• Thousands line streets of Rome as Pope Francis laid to rest
• Who was there and where did they sit?
• Extraordinary photos from the funeral

During the service, the pair sat a short distance from each other, with Macron and other heads of state in between.

In his homily, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re spoke of Pope Francis’s incessant calls for peace. “‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” said the cardinal.

Ukrainian officials had talked of a possible second meeting but Trump’s motorcade drove away from St Peter’s immediately afterwards and his plane left Rome a short time later.

Zelensky, however, later met Macron in the garden of Villa Bonaparte, home to the French embassy to the Holy See.

He also met Sir Keir at Villa Wolkonsky, the British ambassador’s residence, as well as holding separate talks with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In a post on X, Macron said ending the war in Ukraine was an objective that “we share in common with President Trump”, adding that Ukraine was ready for “an unconditional ceasefire”.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer and Zelensky discussed the positive progress that had been made recently to “secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” adding that the pair had agreed to “maintain momentum” and “speak again at the earliest opportunity”.

During February’s heated White House exchange, Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “gambling with World War Three” by not going along with ceasefire plans led by Washington.

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.

These concessions would reportedly include giving up large portions of land, including the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that “a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything”.

From an office perched on the scalloped edge of the continent, Victoria Bradley jokes that she has the most beautiful doctor’s practice in Australia.

Outside her window, farmland rolls into rocky coastline, hemming a glasslike bay striped with turquoise and populated by showboating dolphins.

Home to about 3,000 people, a few shops, two roundabouts and a tiny hospital, Streaky Bay is an idyllic beach town.

For Dr Bradley, though, it is anything but. The area’s sole, permanent doctor, she spent years essentially on call 24/7.

Running the hospital and the general practitioner (GP) clinic, life was a never-ending game of catch up. She’d do rounds at the wards before, after and in between regular appointments. Even on good days, lunch breaks were often a pipe dream. On bad days, a hospital emergency would blow up her already punishing schedule.

Burnt out, two years ago she quit – and the thread holding together the remnants of the town’s healthcare system snapped.

Streaky Bay is at the forefront of a national crisis: inadequate government funding is exacerbating a shortage of critical healthcare workers like Dr Bradley; wait times are ballooning; doctors are beginning to write their own rules on fees, and costs to patients are skyrocketing.

A once-revered universal healthcare system is crumbling at every level, sometimes barely getting by on the sheer willpower of doctors and local communities.

As a result, more and more Australians, regardless of where they live, are delaying or going without the care they need.

Health has become a defining issue for voters ahead of the nation’s election on 3 May, with both of Australia’s major parties promising billions of dollars in additional funding.

But experts say the solutions being offered up are band-aid fixes, while what is needed are sweeping changes to the way the system is funded – reform for which there has so far been a lack of political will.

Australians tell the BBC the country is at a crossroads, and needs to decide if universal healthcare is worth saving.

Healthcare was the last thing on Renee Elliott’s mind when she moved to Streaky Bay – until the 40-year-old found a cancerous lump in her breast in 2019, and another one four years later.

Seeing a local GP was the least of her problems. With the expertise and treatment she needed only available in Adelaide, about 500km away, Mrs Elliott has spent hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars accessing life-saving care, all while raising three boys and running a business.

Though she has since clawed back a chunk of the cost through government schemes, it made an already harrowing time that much more draining: financially, emotionally and physically.

“You’re trying to get better… but having to juggle all that as well. It was very tricky.”

When Australia’s modern health system was born four decades ago – underpinned by a public insurance scheme called Medicare – it was supposed to guarantee affordable and accessible high-quality care to people like Mrs Elliott as “a basic right”.

Health funding here is complex and shared between states and federal governments. But the scheme essentially meant Australians could present their bright green Medicare member card at a doctor’s office or hospital, and Canberra would be sent a bill. It paid through rebates funded by taxes.

Patients would either receive “bulk billed” – completely free – care, mostly through the emerging public system, or heavily subsidised treatment through a private healthcare sector offering more benefits and choice to those who wanted them.

Medicare became a national treasure almost instantly. It was hoped this set up would combine the best parts of the UK’s National Health Service and the best of the United States’ system.

Fast forward 40 years and many in the industry say we’re on track to end up with the worst of both.

There is no denying that healthcare in Australia is still miles ahead of much of the world, particularly when it comes to emergency care.

But the core of the crisis and key to this election is GP services, or primary care, largely offered by private clinics. There has historically been little need for public ones, with most GPs choosing to accept Medicare rebates as full payment.

That is increasingly uncommon though, with doctors saying those allowances haven’t kept up with the true cost of delivering care. At the same time, staff shortages, which persist despite efforts to recruit from overseas, create a scarcity that only drives up prices further.

According to government data, about 30% of patients must now pay a “gap fee” for a regular doctor’s appointment – on average A$40 (£19.25; $25.55) out of pocket.

But experts suspect the true figure is higher: it’s skewed by seniors and children, who tend to visit doctors more often and still enjoy mostly bulk-billed appointments. Plus there’s a growing cohort of patients not captured by statistics, who simply don’t go to the doctor because of escalating fees.

Brisbane electrician Callum Bailey is one of them.

“Mum or my partner will pester and pester and pester… [but] I’m such a big ‘I’ll just suffer in silence’ person because it’s very expensive.”

And every dollar counts right now, the 25-year-old says: “At my age, I probably should be in my prime looking for housing… [but] even grocery shopping is nuts.

“[I] just can’t keep up.”

This is a tale James Gillespie kept hearing.

So his startup Cleanbill began asking the question: if the average Australian adult walked into a GP clinic, could they get a free, standard appointment?

This year, they called almost all of the nation’s estimated 7,000 GP clinics – only a fifth of them would bulk bill a new adult patient. In the entire state of Tasmania, for example, they couldn’t find a single one.

The results resonate with many Australians, he says: “It really brought it home to them that, ‘Okay, it’s not just us. This is happening nationwide’.”

And that’s just primary care.

Public specialists are so rare and so overwhelmed – with wait times often far beyond safe levels – that most patients are funnelled toward exorbitantly expensive private care. The same goes for a lot of non-emergency hospital treatments or dental work.

There are currently no caps on how much private specialists, dentists or hospitals can charge and neither private health insurance nor slim Medicare rebates reliably offer substantial relief.

The BBC spoke to people across the country who say the increasing cost of healthcare had left them relying on charities for food, avoiding dental care for almost a decade, or emptying their retirement savings to fund treatment.

Others are borrowing from their parents, taking out pay-day loans to buy medication, remortgaging their houses, or selling their possessions.

Kimberley Grima regularly lies awake at night, calculating which of her three children – who, like her, all have chronic illnesses – can see their specialists. Her own overdue health checks and tests are barely an afterthought.

“They’re decisions that you really don’t want to have to make,” the Aboriginal woman from New South Wales tells the BBC.

“But when push comes to shove and you haven’t got the money… you’ve got no other option. It’s heart-breaking.”

Another woman tells the BBC that had she been able to afford timely appointments, her multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disease, would have been identified, and slowed, quicker.

“I was so disabled by the time I got a diagnosis,” she says.

The people missing out tend to be the ones who need it the most, experts say.

“We have much more care in healthier, wealthier parts of Australia than in poorer, sicker parts of Australia,” Peter Breadon, from the Grattan Institute think tank says.

All of this creates a vicious cycle which feeds even more pressure back into an overwhelmed system, while entrenching disadvantage and fuelling distrust.

Every single one of those issues is more acute in the regions.

Streaky Bay has long farewelled the concept of affordable healthcare, fighting instead to preserve access to any at all.

It’s why Dr Bradley lasted only three months after quitting before “guilt” drove her back to the practice.

“There’s a connection that goes beyond just being the GP… You are part of the community.

“I felt that I’d let [them] down. Which was why I couldn’t just let go.”

She came back to a far more sustainable three-day week in the GP clinic, with Streaky Bay forced to wage a bidding war with other desperate regions for pricey, fly-in-fly-out doctors to fill in the gaps.

It’s yet another line on the tab for a town which has already invested so much of its own money into propping up a healthcare system supposed to be funded by state and private investment.

“We don’t want a gold service, but what we want is an equitable service,” says Penny Williams, who helps run the community body which owns the GP practice.

When the clinic was on the verge of closure, the town desperately rallied to buy it. When it was struggling again, the local council diverted funding from other areas to top up its coffers. And even still most standard patients – unless they are seniors or children – fork out about A$50 per appointment.

It means locals are paying for their care three times over, Ms Williams says: through their Medicare taxes, council rates, and then out-of-pocket gap fees.

“No-one would say this is the Australia that we want, surely,” Elizabeth Deveny, from the Consumers Health Forum of Australia, tells the BBC.

Like many wealthy countries, the nation is struggling to cope with a growing population which is, on average, getting older and sicker.

There’s a small but increasing cohort which says it is time to let go of the notion of universal healthcare, as we’ve known it.

Many doctors, a handful of economists, and some conservative politicians have sought to redefine Medicare as a “safety net” for the nation’s most vulnerable rather than as a scheme for all.

Health economist Yuting Zhang argues free healthcare and universal healthcare are different things.

The taxes the government collects for Medicare are already nowhere near enough to support the system, she says, and the country either needs to have some tough conversations about how it will find additional funds, or accept reasonable fees for those who can afford them.

“There’s always a trade-off… You have limited resources, you have to think about how to use them effectively and efficiently.”

The original promise of Medicare has been “undermined by decades of neglect”, the Australian Medical Association’s Danielle McMullen says, and most Australians now accept they need to contribute to their own care.

She says freezes to Medicare rebates – which were overseen by both parties between 2013 and 2017 and meant the payments didn’t even keep up with inflation – were the last straw. Since then, many doctors have been dipping into their own pockets to help those in need.

Both the Labor Party and the Liberal-National coalition accept there is a crisis, but blame each other for it.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton says his government will invest A$9bn in health, including funds for extra subsided mental health appointments and for regional universities training key workers.

“Health has become another victim of Labor’s cost of living crisis… we know it has literally never been harder or more expensive to see a GP than it is right now,” health spokesperson Anne Ruston told the BBC in a statement.

On the other side, Albanese – whipping out his Medicare card almost daily – has sought to remind voters that Labor created the beloved system, while pointing out the Coalition’s previously mixed support of the universal scheme and the spending cuts Dutton proposed as Health Minister a decade ago.

“At this election, this little card here, your Medicare card, is what is at stake,” Albanese has said.

His government has started fixing things already, he argues, and has pledged an extra A$8.5bn for training more GPs, building additional public clinics, and subsidising more medicines.

But the headline of their rescue packages is an increase to Medicare rebates and bigger bonuses for doctors who bulk bill.

Proposed by Labor, then matched by the Coalition, the changes will make it possible for 9 out of 10 Australians to see a GP for free, the parties claim.

One Tasmanian doctor tells the BBC it is just a “good election sound bite”. He and many other clinicians say the extra money is still not enough, particularly for the longer consults more and more patients are seeking for complex issues.

Labor has little patience for those criticisms, citing research which they claim shows their proposal will leave the bulk of doctors better off and accusing them of wanting investment “without strings attached”.

But many of the patients the BBC spoke to are sceptical either parties’ proposals will make a huge difference.

There’s far more they need to be doing, they say, rattling off a wish list: more work on training and retaining rural doctors; effective regulation of private fees and more investment in public specialist clinics; universal bulk billing of children for all medical and dental expenses; more funding for allied health and prevention.

Experts like Mr Breadon say, above all else, the way Medicare pays clinicians needs to be overhauled to keep healthcare access genuinely universal.

That is, the government needs to stop paying doctors a set amount per appointment, and give them a budget based on how large and sick the populations they serve are – that is something several recent reviews have said.

And the longer governments wait to invest in these reforms, the more they’re going to cost.

“The stars may be aligning now… It is time for these changes, and delaying them would be really dangerous,” Mr Breadon says.

In Streaky Bay though, locals like Ms Williams wonder if it’s too late. Things are already dangerous here.

“Maybe that’s the cynic in me,” she says, shaking her head.

“The definition of universal is everyone gets the same, but we know that’s not true already.”

A federal judge says that a two-year-old US citizen may have been deported to Honduras with her mother and 11-year-old sister without due process amid the Trump administration’s drive to ramp up deportations.

In a court filing, Judge Terry Doughty said that there was “strong suspicion” that the child – identified only as VML – was deported “with no meaningful process”.

The Louisiana-born child and her family members were apprehended during a routine appointment at a New Orleans immigration office on 22 April, according to documents.

A spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security said the mother wanted to take her children with her when she was sent to Honduras.

According to the court documents, the judge had sought to arrange a phone call with the girl’s mother, but was told by a government lawyer that it “would not be possible because she (and presumably VML) had just been released in Honduras.”

The immigration status of the girl’s mother, father and sister remains unclear. The two-year-old, however, is a US citizen.

“It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a US citizen,” said the judge.

A hearing has been scheduled for 19 May “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process”.

In a statement sent to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that “the parent made the decision to take the child with them to Honduras.”

“It is common that parents want to be removed with their children,” she added.

Earlier this week, the girl’s father had also filed for a temporary transfer of legal authority, which according to state law would give his sister-in-law – also a US citizen – custody of the children.

However, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent spoke to a family attorney and “refused to honour the request” and said that the “father could try to pick her up, but that he would also be taken into custody.”

In a second, similar case in Florida, a Cuban woman with a one-year-old and a US citizen husband were detained at a scheduled immigration appointment and flown back to Cuba two days later, according to media reports.

The woman, identified as Heidy Sánchez, was still breastfeeding her daughter, who suffers from seizures, according to her lawyer. He has argued that Ms Sanchez was not a criminal and should have remained in the US on humanitarian grounds.

Thousands of undocumented immigrants have been detained since Donald Trump returned to the White House on 20 January.

Trump’s hard-line immigration policies have encountered a number of legal hurdles.

In the highest-profile case, the government admitted it mistakenly deported El Salvador national Kilmar Ábrego García, but contends he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyer and family denies. Mr Ábrego García has never been convicted of a crime.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government should facilitate bringing back Mr Ábrego García, but the Trump administration has said he will “never” live in the US again.

A miniature dachshund has been found alive and well on Kangaroo Island off the coast of Australia, more than 500 days after she first went missing.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue had been working “around the clock” to find the dog, Valerie, since she was last spotted by her owners on a November 2023 camping trip.

Georgia Gardner and her boyfriend, Joshua Fishlock, had momentarily left Valerie in a playpen at their campsite while the couple went fishing. When they returned, she was gone.

Valerie survived intense heat and avoided venomous snakes as well intense rescue efforts during her 529 days in the wilderness.

“After weeks of tireless efforts […] Valerie has been safely rescued and is fit and well,” Kangala said in a social media post.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue said volunteers spent 1,000-plus hours searching for Valerie, covering more than 5,000km (8,046 miles).

The effort also included surveillance cameras and a trap cage with a remote door system filled with food, Ms Gardner’s clothes and some of Valerie’s toys from home.

In the initial days after Valerie went missing, other campers spotted her underneath a parked car which startled the dog and sent her fleeing into bushland, the Washington Post reported.

Months later, island locals reported seeing a pink collar that matched Valerie’s, much to the surprise of Jared Karran, a director at Kangala.

“Of all dogs, that would be the last one I would say would survive out there, but they do have a good sense of smell,” Mr Karran said.

Ms Gardner sent rescuers a t-shirt that she had worn that helped lead to Valeries’ capture by creating “scent trail” inside the large dog trap.

In a 15-minute video on social media, Kangala directors and rescue volunteers Jared and Lisa Karran explained how the “rollercoaster” rescue transpired.

Ms Karran said they had to wait until Valerie was in the right part of the trap and calm enough to ensure she would not attempt another escape.

“She went right into the back corner, which is where we wanted her, I pressed the button, and thankfully it all worked perfectly,” Mr Karran said.

“I know people were a little bit frustrated, like ‘why is it taking so long?’ but these are the things that we were doing in the background,” he said.

Ms Karran said she wore the remnants of Ms Gardner’s clothes as she approached Valerie and sat with her until the dog was “completely calm”.

Ms Gardner said on social media after Valerie’s long-awaited rescue: “For anyone who’s ever lost a pet, your feelings are valid and never give up hope.

“Sometimes good things happen to good people.”

When Donald Trump made a historic return to power earlier this year, it was with the help of voters who represented a diverse coalition of backgrounds – truck drivers, veterans, business owners and more.

They represented a wide range of perspectives that helped explain Trump’s enduring appeal. But 100 days after he took office, how do his staunchest supporters feel now?

The BBC has returned to five of them. Here’s what they had to say about the promises he kept, the pledges he has yet to address, and what they want next.

Luiz Oliveira says he “can’t keep up” with the rapid policy changes Trump has made in his first 100 days.

On immigration, he has appreciated the flurry of new border restrictions and the emphasis on deportations, including sending men to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. Encounters between migrants and US border agents at the US-Mexico are now at a four-year low.

The issue is important to Luiz, a Brazilian who came to the US legally in the 1980s and now lives in Nevada. Echoing Trump, he describes the influx of migrants in recent years as an “invasion”.

Luiz, 65, says Trump is telling undocumented immigrants: “This is my house, my yard, and you’re not going to stay here.”

In other areas, however, he, is nervous about Trump’s approach.

The coffee shop owner supports Trump’s efforts to make other countries pay “their fair share” through tariffs. But he’s apprehensive about the short-term economic effects as well as how long it could take for America to see the benefits.

“It’s going to be painful [and] I don’t think it’s going to be as fast as he says.

“I’m a supporter, but at the end of the day, if this doesn’t work, I’ll say it’s a mistake – he did things too fast, scared the markets, scared the economy.”

Amanda Sue Mathis backed Trump in 2024 because she felt he was the best candidate to address America’s most pressing problems – 100 days in, she says he’s made strong progress.

“There were a lot of people who cared about the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, but I think it’s time we look at our country and get things in order before we go fix other countries’ problems,” the 34-year-old Navy veteran says.

She wants a “merit-based society” and praises Trump’s rollback of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies which had tried to boost minority representation and tackle discrimination. Critics say those policies are themselves discriminatory – and Amanda Sue believes they went too far in recent years.

She also welcomes Trump’s executive orders restricting gender care for Americans under the age of 19 and banning transgender women from female sports.

Broadly, she thinks the president is “kicking butt” and his first 100 days have made her “happier with [her] vote”.

But Amanda Sue is prepared to have her mind changed too.

“I’m not one of those people who is always for Trump,” she says. “If he messes up, I’ll be the first one to tell you.”

Trump’s promise to impose tariffs and bring manufacturing jobs back to America was a key reason why Ben Maurer, a 39-year-old freight truck driver from Pennsylvania, voted for the president.

“A lot of people thought he was bluffing on more than a few things,” he says.

So Ben’s delighted Trump hit the gas immediately, imposing tariffs on countries that range from allies like Canada and Mexico to adversaries like China.

It has not been a smooth ride, however. In a tumultuous series of announcements, the administration has raised, lowered, delayed and retracted tariffs in response to ongoing trade negotiations and stock market reaction.

Currently, the US has imposed a 10% tariffs on all imports – and China has been hit with a 145% tax on goods it exports to America.

Despite economists’ concerns about higher prices, Ben believes the businesses he delivers to will benefit in the long run.

“Trump has earned back the respect [for the US],” he says of the president’s tariff policies. “We are still the force to be reckoned with.”

Overall, he feels Trump has been more productive at the start of his second term. The president had time to prepare, he says, and it shows.

June Carey’s opinion of Donald Trump has not changed, but the first few months of Trump’s second term are not what she anticipated either.

“He’s a bit more aggressive and a little bit more erratic than I expected,” the California artist says.

But June, 70, doesn’t see the surprises as negative. She is “blown away” by the “waste” the so-called Department of Government Efficiency – led by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk – says it has found.

Critics say his claims about savings appear to be inflated and he has faced a backlash for blunt cuts at government departments that were later reversed, including firings of key federal workers.

June says she’s uncertain about Musk himself.

“Musk is a character I don’t understand,” June says. “My feeling is that if Trump has trusted him as much as he has, than he must be a pretty good guy with the right ideas and the right goals.”

She previously told the BBC she was concerned about welfare spending and hoped Trump would push Americans to be more self-sufficient. While she is happy with the cuts so far, she hopes they leave alone social security – the monthly government payments that she and 67 million retired or disabled Americans live off.

Democrats warn those are at risk in future, but June asks: “Why would they cut [social security] when they’ve cut so many things that have saved them millions and millions of dollars?”

Jeremy Stevens has faithfully stood by Trump for years.

“[Trump is] very aggressively getting things he promised on the campaign trail done,” he says.

At his automotive repair and used car shop in Maine, Jeremy sees some customers who feel differently about Trump’s economic efforts. But the 45-year-old believes their nerves around tariffs in particular come from “a lack of understanding”.

The tariffs are part of a Trump administration vision that Jeremy believes will pay off in the long run – if critics can hold on until then.

“There definitely is a perception out there about the impact of these policies that is short-sighted,” he says.

Trump’s back-and-forth shift on tariff policies have come at a price, economists say. Markets around the world were sent spiralling. The International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth forecast because of the uncertainty, with the US hardest hit. It warned there is a 40% chance of a recession in the US.

But Jeremy is convinced time will prove Trump right.

“It’s a temporary pain,” he says. “This too shall pass.”

At least 14 people have been killed and 750 injured in a massive explosion at one of Iran’s key ports, authorities say.

The blast took place at Shahid Rajaee, the country’s largest commercial port, near the southern city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday morning.

It blew out windows and roofs of nearby buildings and destroyed cars. Residents reported feeling the impact of the blast up to 50km (31 miles) away.

Videos verified by the BBC show a fire growing in intensity before a huge explosion, with people subsequently fleeing the blast and others lying wounded on roads surrounded by smoking debris.

“The entire warehouse was filled with smoke, dust and ashes. I don’t remember if I went under the table or was thrown there by the blast,” one person who was in the area told state TV.

Aerial footage showed at least three areas ablaze and Iran’s interior minister later confirmed that the fire was spreading from one container to another. Schools and offices in the region have been ordered to remain closed on Sunday.

One private maritime risk firm said it believed the affected containers had contained solid fuel destined for ballistic missiles.

The fire was the result of “improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles”, Ambrey Intelligence said.

Ambrey said it was aware that an Iran-flagged ship “discharged a shipment of sodium perchlorate rocket fuel at the port in March 2025”.

The Financial Times newspaper had previously reported that two vessels had shipped fuel to Iran from China.

State media quoted witnesses as saying the explosion occurred after a fire broke out and spread to unsealed containers storing “flammable materials”.

Customs officials later released a statement reported by Iranian state TV saying the explosion had probably resulted from a fire that had broken out in a hazmat and chemical materials storage depot.

In a later update Ambrey quoted Iran’s National Disaster Management Organisation as saying officials had previously issued warnings to Shahid Rajaee port regarding the safe storage of chemicals.

Shahid Rajaee port is Iran’s largest and most advanced terminal, through which much of the country’s commercial shipping transits.

It is located on the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping channel for oil cargo, and is about 20km (12 miles) west of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s major port city on its south coast and home to the Iranian Navy’s main base.

Iran’s national oil production company said the explosion at the port had “no connection” to the country’s oil refineries, fuel tanks and pipelines, local media reported.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed his “deep regret and sympathy” for victims. He has announced a government investigation and sent the interior minister to the region to lead it.

Saturday’s explosion coincided with the latest round of negotiations between Iranian and US officials on Iran’s nuclear programme, with US President Donald Trump aiming to make a deal that would prevent Tehran from gaining nuclear weapons.

Negotiating through Oman mediators, both sides reported that progress had been made, but Iran’s top representative said work was still needed to narrow differences. Negotiations will continue next week.

Iran has said it is open to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions easing but has insisted it will not stop enriching uranium. It insists its nuclear programme is for civilian use.

The talks this year have marked the first high-level engagement between the US and Iran since 2018, when Trump in his first term pulled out of a previous deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear activities and reinstated economic sanctions.

• What is Iran’s nuclear programme and what does the US want?

There had been rumours. There had been aerial photographs. There had been the written testimony of a few escapees. But it took liberation for the revelation of the shocking reality of the Nazi’s concentration camps.

Nowhere was this more true than when British and Canadian troops advanced on the camp at Bergen-Belsen, near Hanover, in April 1945.

A truce with local German commanders enabled them to enter without a fight. They were met with a stomach-churning vista of death, a torrid panorama of human suffering.

The troops calculated there were 13,000 unburied corpses. A further 60,000 emaciated, diseased, spectral-like survivors stood and lay amongst them.

On Sunday, to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen, more than a thousand survivors and families will attending commemoration events at the camp.

“To me, Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy,” wrote one British soldier, Michael Bentine, who, after World War Two, went on to become a famous entertainer.

Other chroniclers, film-makers and diarists struggled to convey in words and pictures the scenes that made unwanted incursions into their minds.

The BBC’s Richard Dimbleby was the first broadcaster to enter the camp shortly after liberation. In his landmark broadcast he included the words: “This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life.”

Belsen’s notoriety soon stood out, not just because of the chillingly vivid accounts of journalists, soldiers and photographers, whose testimonies were sent around the world, but because it was found with all its grotesqueness intact.

Other camps further east, like the death camps of Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz, had either been destroyed by the Germans to hide their crimes in the face of Soviet advances or emptied of their inmates.

At Belsen, the huts, the barracks, the evidence, remained.

At Belsen, there were witnesses, perpetrators, victims.

It was where many of those eastern concentration camp prisoners ended up. Overcrowding led to dysentery, malnutrition and typhus.

There were no gas chambers at Belsen. It was Nazi cruelty and incompetence that accounted for the 500 deaths a day that the camp endured.

And most of it came in the final weeks of the war, well into April 1945.

As the Third Reich collapsed and freedom came to those in other occupied territories, the dying continued at Belsen: between 50,000 and 70,000 people in total, more than 30,000 of those between January and April 1945.

Around 14,000 of the prisoners died after liberation, their digestive systems unable to cope with the high calorific, rich, sustenance offered by well-meaning cooks and medics.

The vast majority were Jews, with Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and homosexuals among other groups to be engulfed by the horrors of the camp.

WATCH on iPlayer: Belsen: What They Found – Directed by Sam Mendes

Among the survivors and relatives attending the event on Sunday are 180 British Jews. Their journey is being organised by AJEX, the Jewish Military Association.

Wreaths will be laid by AJEX veterans, as well as dignitaries, including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.

A psalm will be read by UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis.

They will do so amid the verdant surroundings of Lower Saxony where the watch towers, fences and buildings have gone.

That’s because, in the end, to contain disease, the British soldiers decided they had to burn the huts at Belsen.

And so, today, little remains. A visitor centre is a focal point, near to where a handful of memorial stones and crosses have been erected.

The inscription on one reads here rest 5,000 dead.

It is just one of the graves, one of the memories, that haunt the grassed landscape.

The death of Virginia Giuffre will leave questions that are now likely to remain unanswered.

Her name will always be associated with the scandals and criminality surrounding the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his circle – with Ms Giuffre one of the most prominent among his accusers, revealing the trafficking and sexual exploitation of young women.

The photo of her and Prince Andrew, taken in London in 2001, became emblematic of the royal’s entanglement with Epstein and was central to his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019.

The origins of the picture remain uncertain. But Ms Giuffre’s death adds another layer to the mystery of what must have inadvertently become one of the most widely viewed photos in royal history.

• Virginia Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein accuser, dies
• Virginia Giuffre remembered as ‘fierce warrior against sexual abuse’

Epstein – who was said to have taken the photo – died in jail facing sex trafficking charges.

Ghislaine Maxwell – who helped him abuse young girls and is pictured to the right of Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre – is in prison in the US. Prince Andrew has stepped down from all public duties. And Virginia Giuffre, a smiling teenager in the photo, is now dead.

Ms Giuffre – who was born in the US – died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia aged 41, her family said on Friday.

Prince Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing involving Ms Giuffre.

They reached an out-of-court settlement in 2022, in which Prince Andrew paid an undisclosed amount of money.

A statement with the settlement expressed regret on his part – but contained no admission of liability or an apology. Prince Andrew has always denied all the accusations against him.

The prospect of Prince Andrew facing a court hearing in New York was averted by the settlement, but it had been a huge problem for the Royal Family, and Prince Andrew was swiftly removed from all official public roles.

His reputation has never recovered.

At this stage, there is still much that is not known about Ms Giuffre’s last days or her personal circumstances.

But as her family has said, as a young woman, she had the strength to stand up to a toxic mix of power, money and privilege in the circle surrounding Epstein, that sexually exploited so many girls.

There will be suspicions the long shadow of Epstein’s poisonous misuse of wealth and influence has indirectly claimed another victim.

Russian security forces say they have detained a Ukrainian spy accused of killing a senior Russian general in a car bomb attack in Moscow’s suburbs on Friday.

The FSB secret service said they had apprehended “Ukrainian special services agent Ignat Kuzi” who had “planted explosives in a Volkswagen Golf” to kill Gen Yaroslav Moskalik.

Gen Moskalik had been the deputy head of the main operational directorate of the military’s General Staff. He died after walking past the car parked outside his house in the suburb of Balashikha.

The FSB said Kuzin had rigged the car with a homemade explosive device and the bomb had then been set off remotely from Ukraine.

Ukraine has not commented on the bombing.

The FSB said the suspect had been recruited by Ukraine in 2023, and had driven to Moscow in September that year.

Russian media also reported that the FSB had released a video showing the detained man giving an apparent confession, as well as footage of his arrest and of the bomb’s components.

The Kremlin had on Friday blamed Ukraine for the attack, saying Kyiv “continues its involvement in terrorist activities inside our country”.

Gen Moskalik had represented Russia in talks with Ukraine in Paris in 2015, which resulted in the failed Minsk agreements which aimed to end the fighting in the Donbas region between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces that started in 2014.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The French government has been urged to reconsider rehoming two stranded killer whales in Canada.

Wikie, 23, and her 11-year-old son Keijo are currently held at Marineland Antibes, a marine zoo in southern France, where they were born and have been kept their entire lives. It closed in January.

An application to send them to the most likely rehoming destination – Loro Parque marine zoo in Tenerife – was blocked by Spanish authorities. Loro Parque is already home to four orcas, including one born last month.

Lori Marino, president of The Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP), said their site in Nova Scotia is “the only option left”, as French authorities have not yet identified a location in Europe for orcas and rejected a move to a marine zoo in Japan.

Her group is bidding to rehome the orcas in the east Canadian province despite a previous offer being rejected by the French ministry for ecology earlier this year.

Animal rights groups want the orcas to be rehomed in a whale sanctuary where they will have more space to swim and will not be forced to breed or perform in shows.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the French ecology minister, said in February she was looking for a European sanctuary but a suitable site for Wikie and Keijo has not been secured yet.

“If you don’t even have a site, you’re years away from being a viable sanctuary,” said Lori, adding that the WSP had already carried out environmental studies, water surveys and been offered a lease by Canada’s department of natural resources.

Managers at Marineland said sanctuaries are a hypothetical that “will take years” to be built and with “no guarantees” the whales will be properly looked after.

They stressed that Wikie and Keijo “must leave now” for their own welfare, adding: “Marineland reaffirms the extreme urgency of transferring the animals to an operational destination.”

Though Marineland has closed as a marine zoo business, they are still legally responsible for the welfare of the animals until they are rehomed.

The application to move them to Loro Parque was described as a temporary measure by Pannier-Runacher that would bridge the gap until a sanctuary in Europe had been found and built.

But activists feared the transfer would end up being permanent. The decision by a Spanish scientific panel to block it came as a pleasant surprise to many of them.

“I was shocked,” Lori told BBC News. “We thought it was a fait accompli. We assumed that was where the orcas were going, it looked like a done deal.”

The scientific panel’s approval was needed to complete the transfer but they concluded Loro Parque’s facilities did “not meet the minimum requirements in terms of surface area, volume and depth necessary to house the specimens in optimal conditions”.

Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach, head of animal welfare and wildlife research at the charity World Animal Protection, said the decision was “unexpected but rational”.

He added that it “perfectly illustrates the fact that marine parks are an outdated industry with dropping acceptability” in society.

Loro Parque responded to the panel’s decision by saying their “facilities are recognised by independent assessors as providing among the highest levels of animal welfare in the world”.

The WSP has identified a site in Port Hilford Bay, Nova Scotia that they plan to cordon off using 1,600m of nets.

The project’s team also contains people who were involved in a whale sanctuary that was created to house Keiko – the orca who starred in the 1993 movie Free Willy.

Charles Vinick, CEO of the WSP, managed the Keiko project in Iceland and Jeff Foster, who specialises in moving marine animals, was also part of that team.

Keiko was born in the wild and was able to relearn some survival skills after arriving at the sanctuary in 1998.

He spent four years there before leaving with a pod of orcas he had joined. They swam to Norway where he died in 2003 following an infection.

There is no chance Wikie and Keijo will be released into the wild as, unlike Keiko, they were born in captivity.

They have spent their whole lives being cared for and entertained by their trainers. Lori says they would be similarly cared for in Nova Scotia but have much more space to live in than a pool.

“We have a whole crew who know how to build and run a sanctuary,” said Lori. “They have done it before and I think we are the only team who has any experience in doing this.”

Lori and the WSP team contacted the ministry after learning the transfer to Loro Parque had been blocked. At time of writing, they had not received a response.

BBC News also contacted the ministry for comment. Pannier-Runacher had not made any new announcements about what will happen to the orcas.

Until a decision is made Wikie and Keijo remain in Marineland, unaware the rest of their home is now empty.

Numerous world leaders and royals have gathered in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral.

Among the most prominent figures at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning were Prince William, US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden, Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Their attendance comes at a fragile time for international diplomacy, with Trump meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky before the service.

So among the VIP attendees, who sat next to whom?

Trump was in a front-row seat near Francis’ coffin, alongside his wife Melania Trump, across the aisle from Macron and his wife Brigitte.

Intriguingly, he and First Lady Melania were sitting between two staunch supporters of Ukraine. Estonia’s President Alar Karis was to Melania’s left, and Finland’s Alexander Stubb to Trump’s right.

Estonia and Finland are both staunch allies of another man of the moment in attendance – Zelensky, who looked sombre-faced at the Vatican. He was sitting on the same row as Macron, separated by a few other dignitaries.

Zelensky, who has been locked in negotiations and public arguments with Trump in recent weeks, was just 10 seats and one aisle away from him, on the same row.

Shortly before the funeral started, the pair were pictured sitting locked in deep discussion.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting as “very productive,” while Zelensky said it was “very symbolic” and had “potential to become historic”.

The VIPs were in a separate section from the hundreds of thousands of members of the public who have descended on Rome for the event.

Dignitaries were sitting on the the right-hand side of the square, next to St Peter’s Basilica.

Those with the best seats were Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian President Sergio Mattarella, representing the country that surrounds the Vatican City state.

Behind them were reigning sovereigns, and other delegations were seated in alphabetical order in French, the official language of diplomacy, on other benches.

Representing British royalty, the Prince of Wales was sitting next to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz several rows back from the front, and some distance away from Starmer.

Starmer himself sat in the fifth row with his wife Victoria.

Behind the British leader was the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Former US President Joe Biden was seen hand in hand with his wife Jill. He was sitting four rows behind Trump.

• LIVE UPDATES: World leaders in Rome for Pope’s funeral
• EXPLAINED: A visual guide to the funeral
• IN FULL: Funeral Mass details
• WATCH: Applause heard as Zelensky arrives for the funeral

Many European leaders, as well as royalty from European countries, were in attendance.

The Macrons watched the service closely from their front row position, and the French president shook hands with Trump.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was at the proceedings, and was seen chatting with Macron.

Other political figures and royals attending the Pope’s funeral included:

• Poland President Andrzej Duda
• Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader
• Belgium King Philippe and Queen Mathilde
• German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
• Croatia President Zoran Milanovic
• Ecuador President Daniel Noboa
• Ireland Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin
• Moldova President Maia Sandu
• Latvia President Edgars Rinkevics
• New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
• Sweden King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia
• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
• Queen Mary of Denmark
• Jordan King Abdullah II and Queen Rania
• Hungary President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban
• European Council President Antonio Costa

Democrats have struggled to land a unified message in President Donald Trump’s first months in office, with fractures both in Congress and among supporters. What comes next for a party in a difficult spot?

The rural, agricultural town of Bakersfield, California, is an odd stop for a pair of East Coast progressive politicians.

After all, Trump won the surrounding county by 20 points in the last election, and the dusty fields and endless orchards feel a world away from the party’s power centres in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Yet Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Independent Senator Bernie Sanders packed a local auditorium during a recent stop on their Fighting Oligarchy tour. The rally felt like a 1960s-style sit-in with attendees singing along to a gentle rendition of Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land. They launched rowdy boos and jeers every time Sanders inveighed against Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The visit also felt like an answered prayer for local Democrats and left-leaning Independents who oppose Trump and his policies, while directing much of their fury at their own party, which they feel has failed to mount an effective opposition.

The Democratic party “should be doing more to try to protect everybody,” said Karla Alcantar, 26, who attended the rally. “I feel like some of them have just folded over completely, and there are some that are trying to do the work of all.”

“I definitely feel like they should be doing way more,” she said.

It is not a great time to be a Democratic politician in the United States. The party is out of power. Elected officials cannot agree on a course of action to counter Trump’s agenda. No clear leader has emerged to unify the unwieldy coalition. Various ideological and generational factions are warring against each other and nobody seems to be winning.

“I understand that they don’t have the power to, like, change like things drastically, but they do have the power to slow down like things even a little bit,” said rally attendee Juan Dominguez, 26. “It honestly feels like I’m not seeing any of that.”

The anger extends beyond the rally-goers.

Fifty-two percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said their party’s leadership is moving in the wrong direction, according to a CNN/SSRS poll conducted in mid-March, as opposed to 48% who said it is moving in the right direction.

That same survey suggested a desire for strong opposition: 57% wanted Democrats in Congress to try and stop the Republican party’s agenda. It’s a complete reversal of a poll in 2017, the year after Trump first won the presidency, that suggested 74% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents wanted leaders to work with Republicans following a divisive election.

“What they’re pressing for is not just Democratic leaders to lash out because that’s going to make their followers feel good,” said former Pennsylvania congressman Conor Lamb, who held a town hall-style event in Pittsburgh last week.

Though Lamb said he is not currently running for office, he felt a hunger within the Democratic base.

“I think they feel like the survival of the system we have all counted on is itself on the line, and they want us to act with that level of urgency,” Lamb told the BBC. “I think it’s important for us not to forget just to be advocates for things that are specific and concrete, and really affecting people.”

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s tour is just one attempt to solve that. It stops in conservative-dominated areas and remains laser-focused on the economy, citing cost of living grievances that propelled Trump to a second term, while framing him and his billionaire supporters like Musk as the culprits.

Ocasio-Cortez put the argument simply: “Oligarchy or democracy?”

But the Fighting Oligarchy tour is only one theory about how the Democratic Party should evolve.

“It is completely normal when a party loses, especially the presidency, for there to be this period of soul searching and asking, ‘What’s next?'” said Professor Christian Grose, a political scientist at the University of Southern California.

Some Democrats accused their party of falling out of step with more conservative Americans on subjects like transgender rights, or failing to accommodate diverse viewpoints within the party’s ideological spectrum. Without widening their potential base, these Democrats argue, they stand little chance of regaining power.

One such gambit by California Governor Gavin Newsom involves moving the party’s branding more to the center. Though Newsom has long brushed off White House ambitions, he is among a new generation of Democrats who could vie for the presidency in 2028.

The governor, known nationwide as a liberal defender of abortion and LGBTQ rights, recently launched a podcast to host conversations with politicos who disagree with him.

Newsom’s decision to interview right-wing strategist Steve Bannon infuriated many Democrats.

“I think it’s important to have difficult conversations or even have a civil conversation that may be difficult for people to listen to, because everyone is out there trying to tear each other down,” Newsom said at a recent press conference.

While such debates over whether to moderate or play to the base feature in every party’s soul-searching, this year does have a new twist, Mr Grose noted.

“Some of the questions for the Democrats’ strategy is the age question – is it time for a new generation? That is a little unique,” he said.

David Hogg, 25, a gun safety organiser and vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, is currently locked in a heated public debate with a party elder statesmen, strategist James Carville.

Hogg recently pledged $20m through his political group to fund primary challengers to Democrats in safe seats.

“We cannot win back the majority if we do not convince the American people that our party offers something that isn’t just, not Donald Trump, but something substantially better,” he said. “I think it’s time for some new voices in our party.”

Carville, credited with shepherding Bill Clinton to the White House, called the plan “insane.”

“Aren’t we supposed to run against Republicans?” he asked on CNN.

As party figures traded barbs on TV, disgruntled Democrats rallying in Bakersfield told the BBC that it doesn’t matter as much what leaders do, as long as they do something – preferably something loud.

Lisa Richards, a 61-year-old voter who drove 230 miles from San Diego, praised New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s recent 25-hour speech on the US Senate floor opposing Trump’s policies.

That speech, and the Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez rallies are “showing people in the country that they care,” Ms Richards said.

Pope Francis has been buried in Rome after a funeral ceremony and procession attended by hundreds of thousands of people and many heads of state.

The first South American pontiff passed away on Monday aged 88, marking the end of a 12-year pontificate.

As the Italian capital woke up to a hazy morning, teenage pilgrims, nuns and priests of all denominations filed silently down the streets leading to the Vatican.

Many of the streets around St Peter’s Basilica were closed – both to allow the flow of visitors and for security reasons, as more than a hundred foreign dignitaries were expected to join the funeral mass.

• Extraordinary photos from Pope Francis’ funeral
• Zelensky and Trump meet inside St Peter’s Basilica
• Who was at Pope Francis’ funeral and where did they sit?

More than 8,000 Italian police of different branches were out in force, as well as firefighters, medics, canine unit handlers, volunteers, members of the armed forces and even park guards.

Many had been called in from all sides of Italy to be in Rome today – resulting in a rather joyous blend of accents from across the country, from the Sicilian to the Milanese.

By 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) much of the square was already full.

Jessica, 22 and from Mexico, and Cyril, 20 and from the US, had arrived at dawn to secure a front row spot to the funeral mass.

“We never thought we’d be this close. We sacrificed a little sleep to be here but it’s worth it,” said Jessica.

She’s a Catholic and said her relatives in Mexico would “never believe it” when she told them she had been at the Vatican for the Pope’s funeral.

As heads of state and foreign dignitaries took their places to the right of the altar, hundreds of photographers in the press area on the roof of the colonnade snapped their cameras furiously, hoping to capture a candid image of US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose last meeting in February gave rise to a combative exchange in the Oval Office.

But soon after, as a striking photo of the two men sitting on two chairs inside St Peter’s began to circulate, it emerged that they had already met for around 15 minutes before the service began.

Later, Zelensky said the meeting “had potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

No more details were shared, but some on social media later joked that, given the setting, the meeting had been a “miracle”.

Photos showed that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump, Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron had also all met in the Vatican.

From the bright red of the clergy’s habits to the muted grey and blue of nuns’ veils to the rainbow sun hats worn by pilgrims, all morning St Peter’s Square was a riot of colours glistening in the sun.

Hymns played out on giant speakers, occasionally drowned out by the sound of helicopters flying overhead, as drones and seagulls crisscrossed over Michelangelo’s dome.

Yet the voice of 91-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re rang loud and clear as he presided over the mass.

The service’s structure was very similar to that of any Catholic funeral mass, although the readings were done in many different languages and all hymns were sung in Latin.

Outside St Peter’s, a crowd the Vatican later said numbered 200,000 applauded as large screens showed Zelensky take his seat. There was also applause when the Pope’s simple wooden coffin was brought out.

The crowd’s applause marked some other salient moments – such as when Cardinal Re, as part of his homily, remembered the Pope’s commitment to migrants and peace.

He mentioned that the Pope’s first trip had been to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the port of arrival in Europe for many migrants who make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, and recalled the mass the Pope celebrated at the US-Mexico border.

“War, he said, results in the death of people and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it was before: it is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone.”

The cardinal emphasised that Pope Francis had repeatedly urged the world to “build bridges, not walls”.

“It was good to hear that on a day when so many heads of state were on St Peter’s Square,” a woman called Maria told the BBC. She and her friend Grazia had flown in from Sardinia especially for the funeral.

“It was a message especially for them, I think, because it’s them who decide whether there’s going to be war or peace, not us… Let’s hope something made it through to them.”

“Otherwise them being here was just pure hypocrisy,” added Grazia.

During communion, a procession of white-clad priests made its way down St Peter’s Square, carrying golden chalices full of wafers for communion, as many in the large crowd moved forward to receive the hosts.

Soon after, Cardinal Re blessed the Pope’s coffin with holy water, before burning incense in a thurible – a symbol of cleansing – and the basilica’s bells tolled three times after the blessing of the coffin was carried out.

After some brief mingling, world leaders started making their way out of the basilica. Their motorcades then filed out of the Vatican.

Within an hour Trump was reported to be back on Air Force One, while other leaders held various informal meetings in Rome.

Meanwhile, the Pope’s coffin was carried through Rome in a slow procession to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial.

Authorities said 140,000 had lined the streets, clapping and waving as the hearse – a repurposed white popemobile – crossed the Tiber river and drove past some of Rome’s most recognisable sights: the Colosseum, the Forum and the Altare della Patria national monument on Piazza Venezia.

Once the coffin reached Santa Maria Maggiore, it was taken inside and the live broadcast ceased.

Pope Francis was buried in the righthand side of the church, near a beloved icon of the Virgin Mary, at around 15:00.

Visitors, pilgrims and the clergy vacated St Peter’s Square quickly. Many could be seen minutes later in the numerous cafes, restaurants and pizzerias of the historic Borgo Pio neighbourhood nearby.

Grazia from Sardinia said the funeral had made a big impression on her.

“It was wonderful to meet in a single square with people who come from every corner of the world and to live a shared moment. This is the legacy of the Pope,” she said.

Officials said the day had unfolded without any major incidents.

“Four hundred thousand people shared a historic and emotional moment, and thanks to everyone’s commitment the day took place in a solemn and serene way, without critical issues,” said the head of the Civil Protection, Fabio Ciciliano.

The city of Rome and the Catholics of the world will now be preparing for the next momentous event – the conclave, which will select the next Pope.

A date has not yet been set but it is thought it could start as early as 5 or 6 May, after the Novemdiales – the mandatory nine days of mourning – are over.

With 135 cardinals set to attend, it will be the largest conclave in modern history and one of the most unpredictable.

Over the past few days, cardinals wandering around Rome were hounded by journalists trying to get a steer on what the conclave might yield.

After the funeral, too, the Cardinal of Tonga Soane Patita Paini Mafi was approached by the media as he made his way out of St Peter’s Square.

After a South American pope, is it time for an Asian one, he was asked.

Cardinal Mafi laughed and pointed to the sky. “Only He knows,” he said.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – set up to cut US government spending – claims to have saved, on average, more than $10bn a week since President Trump entered office.

“We’re talking about almost $200bn and rising fast,” Trump told the BBC when talking about Mr Musk’s cost-cutting drive on 23 April.

Doge’s website says it is focusing on cancelling contracts, grants and leases put in place by previous administrations, as well as tackling fraud and reducing the government workforce.

BBC Verify has looked at the agency’s biggest claimed savings, examining the figures and speaking to experts.

Our analysis found that behind some of the large numbers, there is a lack of evidence to back them up.

In October, Mr Musk pledged to cut “at least $2 trillion” from the federal government budget. He subsequently halved this target and on 10 April talked about making savings of $150bn from “cutting fraud and waste” by the end of the next financial year in 2026.

The US federal budget for the last financial year was $6.75tn.

Doge publishes a running total of its estimated savings on its website – which stood at $160bn the last time the site was updated on 20 April.

However, less than 40% of this figure is broken down into individual savings.

We downloaded the data from the Doge website on 23 April and added up the total claimed savings from contracts, grants and leases.

Our analysis found only about half of these itemised savings had a link to a document or other form of evidence.

US media has also highlighted some accounting errors, including Doge mistakenly claiming to have saved $8bn from cancelling an immigration contract which in fact had a total value of $8m.

Doge says it is working to upload all receipts in a “digestible and transparent manner” and that, as of 20 April, it has posted receipts “representing around 30% of all total savings”. It also lists some receipts as being “unavailable for legal reasons”.

BBC Verify examined the four largest savings listed on the Doge website which had receipts attached.

The department claims these add up to $8.3bn, but after examining the evidence provided and speaking to people familiar with federal contracts, this figure appears to be overstated.

For three of the savings, Doge links to documents on the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). This is a database which records contracts given out by the US government.

The documents show a contract’s start and end date, the maximum amount the government has agreed to spend, and how much of that has been spent.

David Drabkin, a federal contracts expert who helped develop the FPDS database, said the maximum figure listed should be treated with caution.

“FPDS does not reflect the actual paid price until some period of time after the contract has been completed and the contract actions have been recorded,” he says.

“For example, when buying research and development into a vaccine no one really knows how much that’s going to cost – so when a price is set, it’s not a definite price but rather an upper limit.”

So if Doge counts the maximum figure, that can represent projected spending over a number of years, rather than a direct saving from the country’s yearly spending.

Doge’s largest listed individual saving is $2.9bn.

It comes from cancelling a contract – which started in 2023 under President Biden – for a facility in Texas to house up to 3,000 unaccompanied migrant children.

Doge appears to have taken the “total contract value” until 2028 – the end date listed – and subtracted the amount spent so far to get the $2.9bn figure.

But the contract was reviewed annually, meaning renewing it until 2028 was not guaranteed.

A source familiar with this contract – who spoke on condition of anonymity – told BBC Verify that Doge’s figure is “based on speculative, never-used figures” and that the actual spending depended on how many children were placed at the facility and the services they required.

“In truth, the government never incurred those costs and could never reach that ceiling amount. The real, documentable savings from early termination were approximately $153 million”, they estimated.

They say this figure comes from tallying up the $18m per month fixed running costs (for things like staffing and security at the facility) from February – when Doge announced the cut – to November – when the contract was subject to annual review.

They also told us that the site – which closed on the same day as the Doge announcement – never reached its maximum capacity of 3,000 children, and about 2,000 stayed at the Texas facility at its peak, before numbers fell significantly as border crossings decreased.

We contacted the Administration for Children and Families and the Department for Health and Human Services which awarded the contract but are yet to hear back.

The second largest saving listed by Doge comes from cancelling a contract between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and an IT company called Centennial Technologies which it claims was worth $1.9bn.

The document which Doge links to has a total contract value of $1.9bn and all of the other cost fields, including the amount already spent, are for $0.

However, Mr Drabkin told us this does not necessarily mean that nothing had been spent on the contract.

He said several government departments have poor recording keeping, meaning the amount spent during some contracts might not always be updated in a timely fashion.

• Musk to reduce Doge role after Tesla profits plunge
• Will Elon Musk be able to cut $2 trillion from US government spending?

The contract start date is listed as August 2024 and was estimated to run until 2031.

However, Centennial Technologies’ CEO told the New York Times that the agreement had actually been cancelled last autumn during the Biden administration.

The company did not respond to our requests for further comment.

Another IT contract, this time with the Department of Defense, is the third largest claimed saving.

Doge says $1.76bn was saved by cancelling a contract with an IT services company called A1FEDIMPACT.

On the contract document, the total value is listed as $2.4bn. An online database of government contracts called Higher Gov says this amount was the ceiling value.

Again, there is $0 recorded for the amount that had been spent at the time the contract was terminated.

It is unclear where Doge’s figure of $1.76bn comes from – we have asked the Pentagon and the supplier about it.

The fourth largest claimed saving of $1.75bn comes from cancelling a USAID grant to Gavi, a global health organisation, which campaigns to improve access to vaccines.

Doge links to a page on USASpending.gov. It shows a grant was paid to Gavi in three instalments, during the Biden administration, totalling $880m.

Gavi confirmed that $880m had been paid out by USAID but said it had not been told the grant had been terminated.

“Gavi has not received a termination notice related to this grant,” a spokesperson told us.

We have not found any evidence for the $1.75bn saving claimed by Doge, and a source familiar with the contract said it was unclear where it comes from.

We asked the USAID Office of Inspector General about the grant but it did not respond to us.

While Doge may have cut a significant amount of government spending, the lack of evidence provided for its biggest claimed savings makes it impossible to independently confirm exactly how much.

Doge does not have a press office but BBC Verify has contacted the White House to ask for more evidence of these claimed savings.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

The threat to Canada’s sovereignty from US President Donald Trump has dominated the election, but the country also faces a challenge from within. Some western Canadians, fed up with a decade of Liberal rule, are openly calling for separation.

Standing in front of a crowd of about 100 squeezed into a small event hall in the city of Lethbridge, Dennis Modry is asking locals about Alberta’s future.

Who thinks Alberta should have a bigger role in Canada, he asks? A dozen or so raise their hands.

Who thinks the province should push for a split from Canada and form its own nation? About half the crowd raise their hands.

“How many people would like Alberta to join the US?” Another show of support from half the crowd.

Mr Modry, a retired heart surgeon, is a co-leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a grassroots organisation pushing for an independence referendum.

The possibility of a split has long been a talking point in this conservative-leaning province. But two factors have given it new momentum: Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st US state, and the subsequent boost that has given the Liberal Party in the polls ahead of Monday’s federal election.

Mr Modry told the BBC the separatist movement has grown in recent months – driven in part, he believes, by the president’s rhetoric.

“We’re not interested in that”, he said. “We’re interested in Alberta sovereignty.”

Jeffrey Rath, however – a lawyer and rancher from Calgary who is another of the project’s co-founders – was not as dismissive of Trump’s 51st state suggestion. Although he agrees independence is the priority, he could see a future where Alberta joined with the US.

“We have a lot more culturally in common with our neighbours to the south in Montana… [and] with our cousins in Texas, than we do anywhere else,” he said.

Previously on the political fringes, the possibility of a unity crisis is now being discussed out in the open.

In an opinion piece for national newspaper the Globe and Mail, Preston Manning – an Albertan considered one of the founders of the modern conservative movement in Canada – warned “large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it”.

Accusing the party of mismanaging national affairs and ignoring the priorities of western Canadians, he added: “A vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession – a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”

This sense of “western alienation”, a term used to describe the feeling that the region is often overlooked by politicians in Canada’s capital, is nothing new. For decades, many in the oil and gas-rich prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskachtewan have bemoaned how they are underrepresented, despite the region’s economic significance for the country as a whole.

That resentment grew under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, which brought in environmental policies some Albertans view as a direct attack on the region’s economic growth.

National polls suggest the Liberals, now under the leadership of Mark Carney, could be headed for their fourth consecutive win come election day on Monday. That it could come in part because of a surge of support in Ontario and Quebec – the eastern provinces where so much of the population is concentrated – only adds to the regional divide.

Judy Schneider, whose husband works in the oil industry in Calgary, told the BBC she would vote “yes” in an independence referendum.

She said she didn’t see Carney, who spent much of the last decade away from Canada but was raised in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital, as a westerner.

“He can come and say ‘I’m from Alberta,’ but is he?” Ms Schneider said.

An independent Alberta remains an unlikely prospect – a recent Angus Reid poll suggested that only one in four Albertans would vote to leave Canada if a referendum were held now. A majority of Canadians, however, feel the issue should be taken seriously, a separate Nanos poll indicated.

Political analysts say the divide will pose a challenge to the country’s next prime minister, especially if Carney wins. And even a victory for Calgary-born Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would “not solve the imbalance that presently exists between the East and the West,” Mr Modry, the activist, said.

That wider sentiment has pushed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who leads the United Conservative Party, to strike her own path in trade talks with the US, while other provincial leaders and the federal government have co-ordinated their efforts closely. She even visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

In Canada, Smith has publicly warned of a “national unity crisis” if Alberta’s demands – which centre around repealing Trudeau-era environmental laws to accelerate oil and gas production – are not met by the new prime minister within six months of the election.

While Smith has dismissed talk of outright separation as “nonsense”, critics have accused her of stoking the flames at such a consequential time for Canada’s future.

Even those within the separatist movement have different ideas on how best to achieve their goals.

Lorna Guitton, a born-and-bred Albertan and a volunteer with the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the BBC in Lethbridge that her aim was for the province to have a better relationship with the rest of Canada.

She described the current union as “broken”, and believes a referendum, or the threat of it, will give Albertans “leverage” in future negotiations with Ottawa.

But Ms Guitton also dismissed any notion of it becoming a 51st US state.

“They’ve got enough of their own problems. Why would I want to be part of that?” she said. “I would rather be my own independent, sovereign province, or a province with a better deal in Canada.”

• Patriotism surges in Quebec as Trump rattles Canada
• Who’s who in Canada’s federal election
• Canada’s top candidates talk up fossil fuels as climate slips down agenda

At his ranch outside of Calgary in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Mr Rath has a different view.

As he tended to his race horses, he spoke of the political and social attitudes of free enterprise and small government that are shared by Albertans and many Americans.

“From that perspective, I would see Alberta as being a good fit within the United States,” he said.

He is currently putting together a “fact-finding” delegation to travel to Washington DC and bring the movement directly to the Trump administration.

Many voters in Alberta, however, dismiss the notion of independence altogether, even if they agree that the province has been overlooked.

Steve Lachlan from Lethbridge agrees the West lacks representation in Ottawa but said: “We already have separation, and we need to come together.”

And the Liberals are not entirely shut out from the province. Polls suggest that Alberta may send more Liberal MPs to Ottawa than in 2021, partly due to changing demographics that led to the creation of new ridings in urban Edmonton and Calgary.

James Forrester, who lives in the battleground Calgary Centre district, told the BBC he had traditionally voted Conservative but has leaned left in recent years. This time, he will vote Liberal because of the “Carney factor”.

“I feel he’s the best guy to deal with Trump,” he said. As for the separation sentiment: “I’m not worried about it.”

Virginia Giuffre, who became a prominent accuser of Jeffrey Epstein and the Duke of York, has been described by her family as a “fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking” after her death aged 41.

Ms Giuffre was born Virginia Roberts in California in 1983, before her family relocated to Florida. At seven, she said she was sexually abused by a family friend and her later childhood was spent in and out of foster care.

She met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, in 2000 while working as a locker room attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. Maxwell offered her an interview for the chance to train as a massage therapist, she said, and took her to Jeffrey Epstein.

What she had expected to be a job interview was in fact the beginning of years of abuse, according to Ms Giuffre.

Ms Giuffre was taken by Epstein on private jets around the world. She told the BBC she was abused by the US financier and “passed around like a platter of fruit” to his associates.

In 2001, at the age of 17, she said Epstein brought her to London and introduced her to Prince Andrew, who she claimed sexually abused her three times. The prince, who has denied all claims against him, reached an out-of-court settlement with her in 2022 which contained no admission of liability or apology.

• Virginia Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein accuser, dies

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Ms Giuffre said Epstein had lost interest in her when she turned 19 in 2003, as she had become too old for him.

She said she convinced the wealthy financier to pay for her to get training to become a professional masseuse and he arranged for her to take a class in Thailand. But she was also expected to bring home a Thai girl that Epstein had arranged to come to the US.

Instead, on that trip, Ms Giuffre met a man named Robert whom she fell in love with and married 10 days later.

They spent time in the US before moving to Australia, initially settling in Cairns in far north Queensland before relocating close to the western city of Perth. The pair had three children together: Christian, Noah and Emily.

Reports suggest their marriage eventually broke down. On 2 February, she allegedly breached a family violence restraining order in Ocean Reef, the town where her family lived, according to Western Australia Courts.

On 22 March she posted the following on Instagram: “My beautiful babies have no clue how much I love them and they’re being poisoned with lies.

“I miss them so very much. I have been through hell & back in my 41 years but this is incredibly hurting me worse than anything else.”

Just over a week later she posted again to say she was recovering in hospital after a “serious” vehicle collision and had “four days to live”, alongside a photo of her in hospital. Her family later said she had not intended to make the post public.

Western Australia Police disputed the severity of the crash, saying they were only able to find a report of a “minor crash” between a school bus and a car in Neergabby, about an hour north of Perth, on 24 March.

The collision was reported by the bus driver the following day, while there were no reported injuries, a police spokeswoman said.

Ms Giuffre was living at a farm in Neergabby, where she was found dead on Friday.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said in a statement, confirming her death by suicide.

“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.”

The family added the children “were the light of her life” and that it was while holding her newborn daughter she “realized she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others.”

Ms Giuffre’s representative Dini von Mueffling described her as “one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know.

“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims. She adored her children and many animals. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

Imposing statues of rams and lions used to stand in the grounds of Sudan’s National Museum – priceless artefacts from the time when Nubian rulers conquered what is now Egypt to the north, along with exquisite Christian wall paintings dating from many centuries ago.

On a typical day, groups of school children would stare in awe at this reminder of their nation’s imposing past, tourists would file through one of Khartoum’s must-sees, and on occasion concerts were held in the grounds.

But that was before war broke out two years ago.

As the Sudanese military reasserts its control over the capital, having finally chased out its rival the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the full scale of the destruction of two years of war is becoming clear.

Government ministries, banks and office blocks stand blackened and burned, while the museum – a symbol of the nation’s proud history and culture – has been particularly hard hit.

Senior officials say tens of thousands of artefacts were either destroyed or shipped off to be sold during the time the RSF was in control of central Khartoum, where the museum is situated.

“They destroyed our identity, and our history,” Ikhlas Abdel Latif Ahmed, director of museums at Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

Before the conflict, the National Museum was a gem.

Located at the very heart of Sudan – close to the Presidential Palace, and the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers – it told a story of the succession of great civilisations that inhabited this area over time.

Now, when museum officials made an inspection visit, they were greeted with shattered glass, bullet cases on the floor and traces of looting everywhere.

• A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan
• BBC finds fear, loss and hope in Sudan’s ruined capital after army victory

“The building was very unique and very beautiful,” Ms Ahmed said.

“The militia [the description Sudanese officials give to the RSF] took so many of the unique and beautiful collections, and destroyed and damaged the rest.”

Looting has been reported at other Sudanese museums and ancient sites. Last September the UN’s world heritage organisation, Unesco, warned of a “threat to culture” and urged art dealers not to import or export artefacts smuggled out of Sudan.

Before the war, the National Museum was undergoing rehabilitation, and so many of its treasures were boxed up.

That may have made it easier for the collections to be removed.

Sudanese officials say precious artefacts from the National Museum were taken away to be sold.

They strongly suspect RSF fighters took some of the valuables to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They produced no evidence. However the UN panel of experts on Sudan has reported that the RSF has been exporting significant quantities of gold to the UAE, since even before the war.

The UAE has also been widely accused of funding the RSF, although both parties have always denied these accusations.

“We had a strong room for the gold collection, they managed to open it and took all the gold,” Ms Ahmed said.

“Maybe they kept it for themselves, or maybe they traded it in the market.”

So the whereabouts of pieces like a gold collar from the pyramid of King Talakhamani at Nuri, which dates to the 5th Century BC, are unknown.

Asked about the value of what was taken, Ms Ahmed replied simply: “There is no value for the museum artefacts, it’s more expensive than you could imagine.”

The de facto government of Sudan says it will contact Interpol and Unesco to attempt to recover artefacts looted from the National Museum and elsewhere.

However recovering the artefacts seems a difficult and perhaps even dangerous task, with little immediate prospect of success.

The government, and other Sudanese observers, say the RSF’s attacks against museums, universities and buildings like the National Records Office are a conscious attempt to destroy the Sudanese state – but, again, the RSF denies this.

Amgad Farid, who runs the Fikra for Studies and Development think-tank, is particularly critical of the looting.

“The RSF’s actions transcend mere criminality,” he wrote in a piece shared by his organisation.

“They constitute a deliberate and malicious assault on Sudan’s historical identity, targeting the invaluable heritage of Nubian, Coptic, and Islamic civilisations spanning over 7,000 years, constituting a cornerstone of African and global history, enshrined within these museums.

“This is not an incidental loss amid conflict – it is a calculated endeavour to erase Sudan’s legacy, to sever its people from their past, and to plunder millennia of human history for profit.”

The story of the National Museum – taken over by armed men, its gold and valuables looted and stolen – mirrors the individual stories of so many Sudanese in this conflict: they have been forced to flee, their houses occupied, their gold stolen.

According to the UN, nearly 13 million people have been forced from their homes since the fighting began in 2023, while an estimated 150,000 people have been killed.

“The war is against the people of Sudan,” Ms Ahmed says, bemoaning the war’s human cost, as well as the unimaginable loss of centuries of heritage.

She – along with other like-minded individuals – intend to restore the National Museum and other looted institutions.

“Inshallah [God willing] we will get all our collections back,” she said.

“And we build it more beautiful than before.”

• Sudanese eating charcoal and leaves to survive, aid agency warns
• The mother and children trapped between two conflicts
• Will recapture of presidential palace change course of Sudan war?
• Sudan’s ‘invisible crisis’ – where more children are fleeing war than anywhere else

As they walked through arrivals at Manchester Airport, a couple seemed to be behaving oddly towards their baby.

Something did not sit right with Border Force officers. One worried the relationship between the three was “not genuine”.

Officers pulled the couple for questioning. The man, Raphael Ossai, claimed to be the girl’s father.

He handed them a birth certificate for the baby, which showed his travelling companion, Oluwakemi Olasanoye, as the child’s mother.

But officers found a second birth certificate, hidden in the lining of the couple’s luggage. It named another woman, Raphael’s British wife, as the little girl’s mother.

It was the start of a mystery that remains unsolved – the little girl’s true identity is still not fully known.

What we do know is the child is not related to any of the adults. The girl, who we are calling Lucy, seems to have been born in rural Nigeria in September 2022, and given to an orphanage when she was just three days old.

The couple who carried her to the UK, Ossai and Olasanoye, pleaded guilty to immigration offences and were sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by deportation.

Now Lucy has been in care in Manchester for nearly two years. The Nigerian High Commission did not engage in depth with the case despite multiple requests from the High Court.

For the last nine months the High Court in Manchester has been trying to find out who Lucy really is, as it decides what her future should be.

The court heard that on 20 June 2023, Ossai and Olasanoye unlawfully brought Lucy to the UK from Lagos, via Addis Ababa. Olasanoye had a visa to work in the UK and agreed to travel with Ossai and Lucy.

When the couple were sentenced in criminal court, it was believed that Lucy was the child of Ossai and his Nigerian-born British wife.

Ossai met his British wife in Kenya and married her in Nigeria in 2017 – but he had never been to the UK. When he applied for a visitor’s visa, he was turned down due to financial circumstances.

At the time of sentencing, the judge said the “principal motive for this offence” was to bring the baby to the UK so he and his British wife could live as a “family” with Lucy.

However during the High Court hearing, DNA tests proved Lucy is not related to either of the adults.

Documents presented to the court said that she had been born to a young student in rural Nigeria, who was not able to care for her. Her father was not known.

The papers indicated the mother had voluntarily relinquished Lucy to an orphanage.

Ossai and his British wife said they had been looking for a little girl to adopt, and he collected Lucy when she was a tiny baby.

The couple had permission to foster the little girl but not to adopt her or take her out of Nigeria.

Ossai, a music producer, took Lucy to a small flat in Lagos where he looked after her for the next nine months.

He told the court he had cared for the baby well – that he had fed her properly, played her music, and kept her safe.

But a social worker from the Children and Family Court Advisory Service CAFCASS said she believed Lucy had been neglected, underfed and under stimulated.

She had met the little girl when she was just over a year old, in October 2023.

“It was really sad when I met her,” a social worker told the court.

Giving evidence, she said it was as though the child did not realise “she was actually a person”.

“She was so lost, and not really present… she just felt so alone yet she was surrounded by people,” she added.

During an observation session, the social worker said Lucy became very “panicky” when her foster carer stood up to leave the room.

She also displayed an “extreme cry” that was “very difficult to soothe”.

When asked whether Lucy could have been traumatised by the flight or by her transfer to care, the social worker said she believes it is unlikely that alone was to blame.

She added that if Lucy had developed a secure attachment to Ossai, that would have been transferred to her foster carer.

The judge said the child lacked “basic parental attachment” but did not make a finding on the cause.

“I am sure that her being brought into this country illegally and thus separated from her carers is bound to be a significant factor,” he said.

Although Ossai has been sentenced to be deported, he and his British wife asked the High Court to assess them to care for Lucy.

Ossai said that he thought of Lucy as his daughter. His lawyers said that as the Nigerian authorities had approved him as her foster parent, the English court had no power to take her away.

Lucy had always been happy with him, Ossai said, and he thought taking her into care had upset her, especially placing her with white foster carers.

“The white may be strange to her,” he added. “When they took her from me I saw the way she was looking at them.”

His lawyers raised concerns that if Lucy were adopted by a white family, she would lose her cultural identity.

Ossai’s British wife said Lucy “is like that precious gift that I desired so much”.

She told the High Court she would do “anything and everything” for her, adding “I see her as my child”.

Both broke down and cried in court when they talked about the little girl.

The High Court Judge hearing the case, Sir Jonathan Cohen, rejected Ossai and his British wife’s application to be assessed to care for Lucy.

He said the lies they had told and the actions they had taken, especially moving Lucy from Nigeria, had “inevitably caused her very significant emotional harm”.

Lucy has been placed with several different foster carers and is residing in at least her third new home since her arrival in the UK. In April, the judge ordered she be placed for adoption in the UK and that her name be changed.

He said that Lucy “needs to have the best opportunities going forward in the world”, and that can “only be done in a placement in an alternative family”.

The judge added that she would be provided with “background” about her heritage and told what happened in her past.

He found that Ossai and his British wife had a genuine desire to adopt Lucy.

Julian Bild, an immigration lawyer for anti-trafficking charity Atleu, said in circumstances where a woman is a UK national and a child is a UK national via adoption or otherwise, “it is likely the family would be allowed to stay here”.

It is possible for a child to receive British citizenship if they are brought to and physically adopted in the UK, he said.

But he added that it is “very, very unlikely that a Nigerian could simply adopt a child to improve their immigration situation and get away with it because that would be pretty transparent”.

“A person seeking to bring a child to the UK for the purpose of adoption would first need to get a Certificate of Eligibility from the UK government before being able to do so.

“The genuineness for all of this to happen is obviously looked at very closely by the family courts, social workers and experts to ensure the arrangement is in the best interests of the child.”

The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases and therefore could not clarify whether Ossai and Olasanoye had been removed from the UK.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that we will do everything to make sure they are not free to roam Britain’s streets, including removing them from the UK at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Since the election we’ve removed 3,594 foreign criminals, a 16% increase on the same period 12 months prior.”

The Nigerian High Commission did not respond to our requests for comment.

Russia’s military says it has regained full control of the country’s western Kursk region – a claim denied by Ukraine.

Top Russian commander Valery Gerasimov said the last village held by Ukrainian troops had now been recaptured – eight months after Kyiv’s surprise incursion.

He also praised the “heroism” of North Korean troops during a Russian counter-offensive, in what is the first time Russia has publicly acknowledged their involvement. Russian President Vladimir Putin described Ukraine’s efforts in Kursk as a complete failure.

Ukraine says its troops are still conducting operations in the Russian border region, with the military describing Moscow’s claims as “propaganda tricks”.

Ukrainian forces have been in retreat in Kursk in recent months, facing 70,000 Russian troops and heavy drone attacks as part of Russia’s drive to regain the territory.

In its latest report on 25 April, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think-tank said: “Russian forces recently advanced near the international border in Kursk Oblast [region] as part of efforts to push Ukrainian forces from their limited remaining positions in the area.”

The ISW also reported that “fighting continued in [Russia’s] north-western Belgorod Oblast [region] on 25 April”.

During a video conference meeting with Putin on Saturday, Gerasimov said: “Today, the last settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, has been liberated from Ukrainian forces.”

Gerasimov said more than 76,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and wounded in the Kursk region – a claim not verified independently.

He also praised North Korean troops for providing “significant assistance in defeating the group of Ukrainian armed forces”.

“The Kyiv regime’s adventure has completely failed,” Putin told Gerasimov in response, claiming that it would pave the way for further Russian advances on other fronts.

Russia’s military says its troops now control several settlements in Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region, located next to Kursk.

Responding in a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said the situation on the battlefield was “difficult” – but insisted its forces were still holding positions in Kursk and were continuing an incursion in the Belgorod region, which lies immediately south of Kursk.

Ukraine’s incursion was launched last August as an attempt to create a buffer zone on the border between the two countries that would prevent Russian forces from being deployed on Ukraine’s eastern front line.

It comes a day after US President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” on ending the war, following talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin this week.

But Trump on Saturday questioned Putin’s willingness to end the war, referencing Russia’s attacks on Kyiv earlier this week which killed at least 12 people and injured 90 others.

His comments followed a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican – their first face-to-face encounter since February’s acrimonious Oval Office showdown.

The White House struck a more positive tone about Saturday’s meeting, while Zelensky described the sit down as a “very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

Ukraine’s leader told the BBC on Friday that he was pushing for a “full and unconditional ceasefire” before any deal was struck.

Kyiv has faced growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of any deal with Moscow to end fighting, which could reportedly include giving up the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected any such concessions.

Ukraine had hoped it could use the land it had seized in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in 2022 and currently controls around 20% of Ukraine’s internationally-recognised territory.

A van appears to have been driven slowly into Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters as hundreds marched through London for their “last day of action”.

A mass of people wearing JSO’s orange vests rallied in Westminster on Saturday after the group claimed a victory on new oil and gas licences and said “we’re hanging up the hi vis”.

The group has drawn attention, criticism and jail terms for protests ranging from throwing soup on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers and spray-painting Charles Darwin’s grave, to climbing on M25 gantries.

During the march, a man in a white minivan appeared to edge it forwards until it was pressed against protesters. Police appeared to successfully call for the crowd to move away.

The minivan was also carrying a child and at least one other passenger.

People standing front of the vehicle, some holding a JSO banner, were seen holding their hands up, with one shouting to the police “officer, I’m being pushed back”.

The driver exited the vehicle and could be heard remonstrating with the protesters about the road being blocked.

Police reminded the man the disruption was temporary and people had a right to protest.

Other similar incidents of drivers apparently becoming frustrated with people in the road were also caught on camera.

In its March statement announcing the end of direct action, the group said: “Just Stop Oil’s initial demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history.

“We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.”

The Labour government has said it will not issue licences for new oil and gas exploration, while a series of recent court cases have halted fossil fuel projects including oil drilling in Surrey, a coal mine in Cumbria and the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in the North Sea over climate pollution.

Labour has distanced itself from Just Stop Oil, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer criticising its actions and saying protesters must face the full force of the law.

The Metropolitan Police have been approached for comment.

A woman says she has been left unable to walk after she was accidentally trampled by players participating in an annual Easter Monday tradition.

Alexie Winship said she was among spectators watching the Hallaton bottle kicking event in Leicestershire, where players attempt to wrestle wood kegs through a field to win.

The 23-year-old was caught up in a scrum and seriously injured. At hospital, she was found to have suffered a neurological injury and a bleed on her spine, which has left her without most feeling below her waist.

Ms Winship, who remains in hospital, said she could not remember much of what happened.

I was on the outskirts [of the players], just watching when a beer keg came flying out in my direction,” Ms Winship said.

“I couldn’t get out of the way. I was with friends who said I got kicked in the head, knocked out, and then trampled on.

“It was like a stampede. One of my friends pulled me out and I was blue-lighted to hospital.”

Bottle kicking takes place in a field between neighbouring villages Hallaton and Medbourne. It has few rules, but is won when players are able to carry two of three barrels across a stream back to their village.

Two of the “bottles” contain beer, while one is completely wooden – painted red and white – and is referred to as the dummy.

Organisers have said local legend suggested the event, preceded by a procession through Hallaton in which hare pies are scattered, can trace its roots back 2,000 years.

Ms Winship told the BBC she had planned to run a half-marathon on Sunday, but her injuries had “thrown a spanner in the works”.

She added while she was a spectator, she “never intended” to get involved in the action.

“I can’t feel anything below my waist. I can’t walk,” she said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen and that’s the scary thing. I’m an active, fit and healthy person.”

Ms Winship, who works in retail, has been told she will recover, but that it would be “a long-term thing” and that she was facing “months” using a wheelchair.

She added she wanted people to be aware of the risks of attending the event.

“I wasn’t standing particularly close,” she said. “We were a few metres away but it surged so quickly towards us.

“They [the players] were looking at the keg, not where they were going. I know it was an accident.

“Maybe they could have marshals to make it safer.”

Phil Allan, chairman of the bottle kicking organising committee, said he wished Ms Winship a “full recovery”.

He added people were warned well in advance of the risks of entering the field of play.

“We don’t want anyone to get hurt but you do get the odd injury – it’s an age-old problem,” Mr Allan said.

“We’ve looked at all sorts of things but you can’t marshal it. It’s an unpredictable event.

“We put posters up around the field telling people they enter at their own risk so they are warned. And we pay for ambulances and paramedics to attend in case anyone does get hurt.”

Bottle kicking is not the only peculiar rough-and-tumble English tradition that comes with a risk of injury.

Paramedics are deployed to the annual cheese rolling event in Gloucestershire, where participants chase a 7lb (3kg) Double Gloucester down a steep 200-yard hill, many tripping and tumbling as they go.

Medics have also been required to treat players hurt during Royal Shrovetide Football, which takes place annually in Ashbourne in Derbyshire, as the Up’Ards and Down’Ards compete to move a ball to opposite ends of the town.

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed an agreement to respect each other’s sovereignty and come up with a draft peace deal by 2 May.

The deal was signed by the two countries’ foreign ministers in Washington, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also present at Friday’s ceremony.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent months as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized swathes of mineral-rich territory in eastern DR Congo.

After losing territory, the government in Kinshasa turned to the US for help in exchange for access to the minerals.

Relations have been so poor between DR Congo and Rwanda that the meeting in Washington and a promise to resolve disputes through dialogue is a sign of progress.

The text of the agreement says both sides now expect significant investments facilitated by the US government and private sector.

Despite the talks, fighting reportedly continued on Friday in North Kivu province.

Earlier this week, DR Congo and the M23 group said they were committed to peace, expressing hopes that a permanent ceasefire could be reached.

• What’s the fighting in DR Congo all about?
• The evidence that shows Rwanda is backing rebels in DR Congo
• Your phone, a rare metal and the war in DR Congo

Officials in eastern DR Congo say some 7,000 people have been killed there since January.

The decades-long conflict has intensified since the start of the year when M23 staged an unprecedented offensive, seizing Goma and Bukavu – eastern Congo’s two largest cities – and sparking fears of a wider regional war.

DR Congo accuses Rwanda of arming the M23 and sending troops to support the rebels in the conflict.

Despite assertions from both the UN and US, Rwanda has denied supporting the M23.

• DR Congo conflict tests China’s diplomatic balancing act
• How DR Congo’s Tutsis become foreigners in their own country
• ‘They took all the women here’: Rape survivors recall horror of DR Congo jailbreak

Royal Navy ships based in Plymouth and Portsmouth were deployed to track Russian warships through British waters this week, a navy spokesperson has said.

Plymouth-based HMS St Albans, a Type-23 frigate, monitored the Admiral Golovoko as it sailed east through the English Channel and launched a Merlin helicopter to gather information from the air.

Portsmouth-based patrol ship HMS Mersey tracked RFN Soobrazitelny as it sailed west.

HMS Alban’s commanding officer, Cdr Matt Teare, said the “regularity of Russian activity around the United Kingdom reinforces the vital importance of continuous integration with our allies and partners”.

HMS Albans was also involved in a three-day operation to monitor the Russian Steregushchiy-class corvette Stoikiy earlier this month, the navy said.

Cdr Teare said the frigate “is at very high readiness to operate whenever, and wherever, the nation needs us in the protection of our home and the waters surrounding it”.

He added he was “extremely proud” of his crew’s professionalism and “tireless dedication to keeping our nation safe”.

Meanwhile, Portsmouth-based patrol HMS Mersey tracked RFN Soobrazitelny as the corvette sailed west, supported by Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker RFA Tidesurge.

Russian tanker Kola was also monitored heading in the same direction in a coordinated effort with the Joint Maritime Security Centre.

XX

Donald Trump has questioned Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war in Ukraine following his meeting with the country’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral.

Posting on social media after leaving Rome, Trump said he feared Putin was “tapping me along” after Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv earlier this week, adding there was “no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas”.

Earlier in the day Trump and Zelensky were seen in deep discussion in St Peter’s Basilica shortly before the funeral began.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting with Zelensky as “very productive”. The Ukrainian president said it had the “potential to become historic”.

It was Trump’s first face-to-face encounter with the Ukrainian president since February’s acrimonious Oval Office showdown.

Writing on his Truth Social account, Trump said the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities “makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?'”.

Trump had previously said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” following Friday’s three-hour talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president.

The Kremlin meanwhile said on Saturday that Putin had confirmed to Witkoff Russia’s readiness to enter into direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions”.

Trump and Zelensky’s sit down in Rome was the first time the leaders had come face-to-face since their White House meeting, when Trump told Zelensky “you don’t have the cards” and he was not winning against Russia.

He repeated that message this week, saying the Ukrainian leader had “no cards to play”. Trump has previously blamed Ukraine for starting the war and has accused Zelensky multiple times of being an obstacle to peace negotiations.

But the White House struck a more positive tone about Saturday’s meeting, while Zelensky described the sit down as a “very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

Two images were released of the meeting, showing the US leader in a blue suit and Ukrainian president in a black top and trousers, sitting opposite each other in intense conversation.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also posted an image of the meeting on X with the caption: “No words are needed to describe the importance of this historic meeting. Two leaders working for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica.”

Another image posted by the Ukrainian delegation from inside St Peter’s showed the two men standing alongside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, his hand on Zelensky’s shoulder.

The implication was that the prime minister and French president had helped to bring the two together, against the sombre backdrop of the funeral.

After the meeting, Trump and Zelensky walked down the steps of the basilica, where Zelensky’s arrival was met with applause from the crowds, and took their seats in the front row.

• Thousands line streets of Rome as Pope Francis laid to rest
• Who was there and where did they sit?
• Extraordinary photos from the funeral

During the service, the pair sat a short distance from each other, with Macron and other heads of state in between.

In his homily, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re spoke of Pope Francis’s incessant calls for peace. “‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” said the cardinal.

Ukrainian officials had talked of a possible second meeting but Trump’s motorcade drove away from St Peter’s immediately afterwards and his plane left Rome a short time later.

Zelensky, however, later met Macron in the garden of Villa Bonaparte, home to the French embassy to the Holy See.

He also met Sir Keir at Villa Wolkonsky, the British ambassador’s residence, as well as holding separate talks with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In a post on X, Macron said ending the war in Ukraine was an objective that “we share in common with President Trump”, adding that Ukraine was ready for “an unconditional ceasefire”.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer and Zelensky discussed the positive progress that had been made recently to “secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” adding that the pair had agreed to “maintain momentum” and “speak again at the earliest opportunity”.

During February’s heated White House exchange, Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “gambling with World War Three” by not going along with ceasefire plans led by Washington.

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.

These concessions would reportedly include giving up large portions of land, including the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that “a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything”.

From an office perched on the scalloped edge of the continent, Victoria Bradley jokes that she has the most beautiful doctor’s practice in Australia.

Outside her window, farmland rolls into rocky coastline, hemming a glasslike bay striped with turquoise and populated by showboating dolphins.

Home to about 3,000 people, a few shops, two roundabouts and a tiny hospital, Streaky Bay is an idyllic beach town.

For Dr Bradley, though, it is anything but. The area’s sole, permanent doctor, she spent years essentially on call 24/7.

Running the hospital and the general practitioner (GP) clinic, life was a never-ending game of catch up. She’d do rounds at the wards before, after and in between regular appointments. Even on good days, lunch breaks were often a pipe dream. On bad days, a hospital emergency would blow up her already punishing schedule.

Burnt out, two years ago she quit – and the thread holding together the remnants of the town’s healthcare system snapped.

Streaky Bay is at the forefront of a national crisis: inadequate government funding is exacerbating a shortage of critical healthcare workers like Dr Bradley; wait times are ballooning; doctors are beginning to write their own rules on fees, and costs to patients are skyrocketing.

A once-revered universal healthcare system is crumbling at every level, sometimes barely getting by on the sheer willpower of doctors and local communities.

As a result, more and more Australians, regardless of where they live, are delaying or going without the care they need.

Health has become a defining issue for voters ahead of the nation’s election on 3 May, with both of Australia’s major parties promising billions of dollars in additional funding.

But experts say the solutions being offered up are band-aid fixes, while what is needed are sweeping changes to the way the system is funded – reform for which there has so far been a lack of political will.

Australians tell the BBC the country is at a crossroads, and needs to decide if universal healthcare is worth saving.

Healthcare was the last thing on Renee Elliott’s mind when she moved to Streaky Bay – until the 40-year-old found a cancerous lump in her breast in 2019, and another one four years later.

Seeing a local GP was the least of her problems. With the expertise and treatment she needed only available in Adelaide, about 500km away, Mrs Elliott has spent hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars accessing life-saving care, all while raising three boys and running a business.

Though she has since clawed back a chunk of the cost through government schemes, it made an already harrowing time that much more draining: financially, emotionally and physically.

“You’re trying to get better… but having to juggle all that as well. It was very tricky.”

When Australia’s modern health system was born four decades ago – underpinned by a public insurance scheme called Medicare – it was supposed to guarantee affordable and accessible high-quality care to people like Mrs Elliott as “a basic right”.

Health funding here is complex and shared between states and federal governments. But the scheme essentially meant Australians could present their bright green Medicare member card at a doctor’s office or hospital, and Canberra would be sent a bill. It paid through rebates funded by taxes.

Patients would either receive “bulk billed” – completely free – care, mostly through the emerging public system, or heavily subsidised treatment through a private healthcare sector offering more benefits and choice to those who wanted them.

Medicare became a national treasure almost instantly. It was hoped this set up would combine the best parts of the UK’s National Health Service and the best of the United States’ system.

Fast forward 40 years and many in the industry say we’re on track to end up with the worst of both.

There is no denying that healthcare in Australia is still miles ahead of much of the world, particularly when it comes to emergency care.

But the core of the crisis and key to this election is GP services, or primary care, largely offered by private clinics. There has historically been little need for public ones, with most GPs choosing to accept Medicare rebates as full payment.

That is increasingly uncommon though, with doctors saying those allowances haven’t kept up with the true cost of delivering care. At the same time, staff shortages, which persist despite efforts to recruit from overseas, create a scarcity that only drives up prices further.

According to government data, about 30% of patients must now pay a “gap fee” for a regular doctor’s appointment – on average A$40 (£19.25; $25.55) out of pocket.

But experts suspect the true figure is higher: it’s skewed by seniors and children, who tend to visit doctors more often and still enjoy mostly bulk-billed appointments. Plus there’s a growing cohort of patients not captured by statistics, who simply don’t go to the doctor because of escalating fees.

Brisbane electrician Callum Bailey is one of them.

“Mum or my partner will pester and pester and pester… [but] I’m such a big ‘I’ll just suffer in silence’ person because it’s very expensive.”

And every dollar counts right now, the 25-year-old says: “At my age, I probably should be in my prime looking for housing… [but] even grocery shopping is nuts.

“[I] just can’t keep up.”

This is a tale James Gillespie kept hearing.

So his startup Cleanbill began asking the question: if the average Australian adult walked into a GP clinic, could they get a free, standard appointment?

This year, they called almost all of the nation’s estimated 7,000 GP clinics – only a fifth of them would bulk bill a new adult patient. In the entire state of Tasmania, for example, they couldn’t find a single one.

The results resonate with many Australians, he says: “It really brought it home to them that, ‘Okay, it’s not just us. This is happening nationwide’.”

And that’s just primary care.

Public specialists are so rare and so overwhelmed – with wait times often far beyond safe levels – that most patients are funnelled toward exorbitantly expensive private care. The same goes for a lot of non-emergency hospital treatments or dental work.

There are currently no caps on how much private specialists, dentists or hospitals can charge and neither private health insurance nor slim Medicare rebates reliably offer substantial relief.

The BBC spoke to people across the country who say the increasing cost of healthcare had left them relying on charities for food, avoiding dental care for almost a decade, or emptying their retirement savings to fund treatment.

Others are borrowing from their parents, taking out pay-day loans to buy medication, remortgaging their houses, or selling their possessions.

Kimberley Grima regularly lies awake at night, calculating which of her three children – who, like her, all have chronic illnesses – can see their specialists. Her own overdue health checks and tests are barely an afterthought.

“They’re decisions that you really don’t want to have to make,” the Aboriginal woman from New South Wales tells the BBC.

“But when push comes to shove and you haven’t got the money… you’ve got no other option. It’s heart-breaking.”

Another woman tells the BBC that had she been able to afford timely appointments, her multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disease, would have been identified, and slowed, quicker.

“I was so disabled by the time I got a diagnosis,” she says.

The people missing out tend to be the ones who need it the most, experts say.

“We have much more care in healthier, wealthier parts of Australia than in poorer, sicker parts of Australia,” Peter Breadon, from the Grattan Institute think tank says.

All of this creates a vicious cycle which feeds even more pressure back into an overwhelmed system, while entrenching disadvantage and fuelling distrust.

Every single one of those issues is more acute in the regions.

Streaky Bay has long farewelled the concept of affordable healthcare, fighting instead to preserve access to any at all.

It’s why Dr Bradley lasted only three months after quitting before “guilt” drove her back to the practice.

“There’s a connection that goes beyond just being the GP… You are part of the community.

“I felt that I’d let [them] down. Which was why I couldn’t just let go.”

She came back to a far more sustainable three-day week in the GP clinic, with Streaky Bay forced to wage a bidding war with other desperate regions for pricey, fly-in-fly-out doctors to fill in the gaps.

It’s yet another line on the tab for a town which has already invested so much of its own money into propping up a healthcare system supposed to be funded by state and private investment.

“We don’t want a gold service, but what we want is an equitable service,” says Penny Williams, who helps run the community body which owns the GP practice.

When the clinic was on the verge of closure, the town desperately rallied to buy it. When it was struggling again, the local council diverted funding from other areas to top up its coffers. And even still most standard patients – unless they are seniors or children – fork out about A$50 per appointment.

It means locals are paying for their care three times over, Ms Williams says: through their Medicare taxes, council rates, and then out-of-pocket gap fees.

“No-one would say this is the Australia that we want, surely,” Elizabeth Deveny, from the Consumers Health Forum of Australia, tells the BBC.

Like many wealthy countries, the nation is struggling to cope with a growing population which is, on average, getting older and sicker.

There’s a small but increasing cohort which says it is time to let go of the notion of universal healthcare, as we’ve known it.

Many doctors, a handful of economists, and some conservative politicians have sought to redefine Medicare as a “safety net” for the nation’s most vulnerable rather than as a scheme for all.

Health economist Yuting Zhang argues free healthcare and universal healthcare are different things.

The taxes the government collects for Medicare are already nowhere near enough to support the system, she says, and the country either needs to have some tough conversations about how it will find additional funds, or accept reasonable fees for those who can afford them.

“There’s always a trade-off… You have limited resources, you have to think about how to use them effectively and efficiently.”

The original promise of Medicare has been “undermined by decades of neglect”, the Australian Medical Association’s Danielle McMullen says, and most Australians now accept they need to contribute to their own care.

She says freezes to Medicare rebates – which were overseen by both parties between 2013 and 2017 and meant the payments didn’t even keep up with inflation – were the last straw. Since then, many doctors have been dipping into their own pockets to help those in need.

Both the Labor Party and the Liberal-National coalition accept there is a crisis, but blame each other for it.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton says his government will invest A$9bn in health, including funds for extra subsidised mental health appointments and for regional universities training key workers.

“Health has become another victim of Labor’s cost of living crisis… we know it has literally never been harder or more expensive to see a GP than it is right now,” health spokesperson Anne Ruston told the BBC in a statement.

On the other side, Albanese – whipping out his Medicare card almost daily – has sought to remind voters that Labor created the beloved system, while pointing out the Coalition’s previously mixed support of the universal scheme and the spending cuts Dutton proposed as Health Minister a decade ago.

“At this election, this little card here, your Medicare card, is what is at stake,” Albanese has said.

His government has started fixing things already, he argues, and has pledged an extra A$8.5bn for training more GPs, building additional public clinics, and subsidising more medicines.

But the headline of their rescue packages is an increase to Medicare rebates and bigger bonuses for doctors who bulk bill.

Proposed by Labor, then matched by the Coalition, the changes will make it possible for 9 out of 10 Australians to see a GP for free, the parties claim.

One Tasmanian doctor tells the BBC it is just a “good election sound bite”. He and many other clinicians say the extra money is still not enough, particularly for the longer consults more and more patients are seeking for complex issues.

Labor has little patience for those criticisms, citing research which they claim shows their proposal will leave the bulk of doctors better off and accusing them of wanting investment “without strings attached”.

But many of the patients the BBC spoke to are sceptical either parties’ proposals will make a huge difference.

There’s far more they need to be doing, they say, rattling off a wish list: more work on training and retaining rural doctors; effective regulation of private fees and more investment in public specialist clinics; universal bulk billing of children for all medical and dental expenses; more funding for allied health and prevention.

Experts like Mr Breadon say, above all else, the way Medicare pays clinicians needs to be overhauled to keep healthcare access genuinely universal.

That is, the government needs to stop paying doctors a set amount per appointment, and give them a budget based on how large and sick the populations they serve are – that is something several recent reviews have said.

And the longer governments wait to invest in these reforms, the more they’re going to cost.

“The stars may be aligning now… It is time for these changes, and delaying them would be really dangerous,” Mr Breadon says.

In Streaky Bay though, locals like Ms Williams wonder if it’s too late. Things are already dangerous here.

“Maybe that’s the cynic in me,” she says, shaking her head.

“The definition of universal is everyone gets the same, but we know that’s not true already.”

At least 14 people have been killed and 750 injured in a massive explosion at one of Iran’s key ports, authorities say.

The blast took place at Shahid Rajaee, the country’s largest commercial port, near the southern city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday morning.

It blew out windows and roofs of nearby buildings and destroyed cars. Residents reported feeling the impact of the blast up to 50km (31 miles) away.

Videos verified by the BBC show a fire growing in intensity before a huge explosion, with people subsequently fleeing the blast and others lying wounded on roads surrounded by smoking debris.

“The entire warehouse was filled with smoke, dust and ashes. I don’t remember if I went under the table or was thrown there by the blast,” one person who was in the area told state TV.

Aerial footage showed at least three areas ablaze and Iran’s interior minister later confirmed that the fire was spreading from one container to another. Schools and offices in the region have been ordered to remain closed on Sunday.

One private maritime risk firm said it believed the affected containers had contained solid fuel destined for ballistic missiles.

The fire was the result of “improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles”, Ambrey Intelligence said.

Ambrey said it was aware that an Iran-flagged ship “discharged a shipment of sodium perchlorate rocket fuel at the port in March 2025”.

The Financial Times newspaper had previously reported that two vessels had shipped fuel to Iran from China.

State media quoted witnesses as saying the explosion occurred after a fire broke out and spread to unsealed containers storing “flammable materials”.

Customs officials later released a statement reported by Iranian state TV saying the explosion had probably resulted from a fire that had broken out in a hazmat and chemical materials storage depot.

In a later update Ambrey quoted Iran’s National Disaster Management Organisation as saying officials had previously issued warnings to Shahid Rajaee port regarding the safe storage of chemicals.

Shahid Rajaee port is Iran’s largest and most advanced terminal, through which much of the country’s commercial shipping transits.

It is located on the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping channel for oil cargo, and is about 20km (12 miles) west of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s major port city on its south coast and home to the Iranian Navy’s main base.

Iran’s national oil production company said the explosion at the port had “no connection” to the country’s oil refineries, fuel tanks and pipelines, local media reported.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed his “deep regret and sympathy” for victims. He has announced a government investigation and sent the interior minister to the region to lead it.

Saturday’s explosion coincided with the latest round of negotiations between Iranian and US officials on Iran’s nuclear programme, with US President Donald Trump aiming to make a deal that would prevent Tehran from gaining nuclear weapons.

Negotiating through Oman mediators, both sides reported that progress had been made, but Iran’s top representative said work was still needed to narrow differences. Negotiations will continue next week.

Iran has said it is open to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions easing but has insisted it will not stop enriching uranium. It insists its nuclear programme is for civilian use.

The talks this year have marked the first high-level engagement between the US and Iran since 2018, when Trump in his first term pulled out of a previous deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear activities and reinstated economic sanctions.

• What is Iran’s nuclear programme and what does the US want?

When Donald Trump made a historic return to power earlier this year, it was with the help of voters who represented a diverse coalition of backgrounds – truck drivers, veterans, business owners and more.

They represented a wide range of perspectives that helped explain Trump’s enduring appeal. But 100 days after he took office, how do his staunchest supporters feel now?

The BBC has returned to five of them. Here’s what they had to say about the promises he kept, the pledges he has yet to address, and what they want next.

Luiz Oliveira says he “can’t keep up” with the rapid policy changes Trump has made in his first 100 days.

On immigration, he has appreciated the flurry of new border restrictions and the emphasis on deportations, including sending men to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. Encounters between migrants and US border agents at the US-Mexico are now at a four-year low.

The issue is important to Luiz, a Brazilian who came to the US legally in the 1980s and now lives in Nevada. Echoing Trump, he describes the influx of migrants in recent years as an “invasion”.

Luiz, 65, says Trump is telling undocumented immigrants: “This is my house, my yard, and you’re not going to stay here.”

In other areas, however, he, is nervous about Trump’s approach.

The coffee shop owner supports Trump’s efforts to make other countries pay “their fair share” through tariffs. But he’s apprehensive about the short-term economic effects as well as how long it could take for America to see the benefits.

“It’s going to be painful [and] I don’t think it’s going to be as fast as he says.

“I’m a supporter, but at the end of the day, if this doesn’t work, I’ll say it’s a mistake – he did things too fast, scared the markets, scared the economy.”

Amanda Sue Mathis backed Trump in 2024 because she felt he was the best candidate to address America’s most pressing problems – 100 days in, she says he’s made strong progress.

“There were a lot of people who cared about the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, but I think it’s time we look at our country and get things in order before we go fix other countries’ problems,” the 34-year-old Navy veteran says.

She wants a “merit-based society” and praises Trump’s rollback of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies which had tried to boost minority representation and tackle discrimination. Critics say those policies are themselves discriminatory – and Amanda Sue believes they went too far in recent years.

She also welcomes Trump’s executive orders restricting gender care for Americans under the age of 19 and banning transgender women from female sports.

Broadly, she thinks the president is “kicking butt” and his first 100 days have made her “happier with [her] vote”.

But Amanda Sue is prepared to have her mind changed too.

“I’m not one of those people who is always for Trump,” she says. “If he messes up, I’ll be the first one to tell you.”

Trump’s promise to impose tariffs and bring manufacturing jobs back to America was a key reason why Ben Maurer, a 39-year-old freight truck driver from Pennsylvania, voted for the president.

“A lot of people thought he was bluffing on more than a few things,” he says.

So Ben’s delighted Trump hit the gas immediately, imposing tariffs on countries that range from allies like Canada and Mexico to adversaries like China.

It has not been a smooth ride, however. In a tumultuous series of announcements, the administration has raised, lowered, delayed and retracted tariffs in response to ongoing trade negotiations and stock market reaction.

Currently, the US has imposed a 10% tariffs on all imports – and China has been hit with a 145% tax on goods it exports to America.

Despite economists’ concerns about higher prices, Ben believes the businesses he delivers to will benefit in the long run.

“Trump has earned back the respect [for the US],” he says of the president’s tariff policies. “We are still the force to be reckoned with.”

Overall, he feels Trump has been more productive at the start of his second term. The president had time to prepare, he says, and it shows.

June Carey’s opinion of Donald Trump has not changed, but the first few months of Trump’s second term are not what she anticipated either.

“He’s a bit more aggressive and a little bit more erratic than I expected,” the California artist says.

But June, 70, doesn’t see the surprises as negative. She is “blown away” by the “waste” the so-called Department of Government Efficiency – led by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk – says it has found.

Critics say his claims about savings appear to be inflated and he has faced a backlash for blunt cuts at government departments that were later reversed, including firings of key federal workers.

June says she’s uncertain about Musk himself.

“Musk is a character I don’t understand,” June says. “My feeling is that if Trump has trusted him as much as he has, than he must be a pretty good guy with the right ideas and the right goals.”

She previously told the BBC she was concerned about welfare spending and hoped Trump would push Americans to be more self-sufficient. While she is happy with the cuts so far, she hopes they leave alone social security – the monthly government payments that she and 67 million retired or disabled Americans live off.

Democrats warn those are at risk in future, but June asks: “Why would they cut [social security] when they’ve cut so many things that have saved them millions and millions of dollars?”

Jeremy Stevens has faithfully stood by Trump for years.

“[Trump is] very aggressively getting things he promised on the campaign trail done,” he says.

At his automotive repair and used car shop in Maine, Jeremy sees some customers who feel differently about Trump’s economic efforts. But the 45-year-old believes their nerves around tariffs in particular come from “a lack of understanding”.

The tariffs are part of a Trump administration vision that Jeremy believes will pay off in the long run – if critics can hold on until then.

“There definitely is a perception out there about the impact of these policies that is short-sighted,” he says.

Trump’s back-and-forth shift on tariff policies have come at a price, economists say. Markets around the world were sent spiralling. The International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth forecast because of the uncertainty, with the US hardest hit. It warned there is a 40% chance of a recession in the US.

But Jeremy is convinced time will prove Trump right.

“It’s a temporary pain,” he says. “This too shall pass.”

The death of Virginia Giuffre will leave questions that are now likely to remain unanswered.

Her name will always be associated with the scandals and criminality surrounding the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his circle – with Ms Giuffre one of the most prominent among his accusers, revealing the trafficking and sexual exploitation of young women.

The photo of her and Prince Andrew, taken in London in 2001, became emblematic of the royal’s entanglement with Epstein and was central to his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019.

The origins of the picture remain uncertain. But Ms Giuffre’s death adds another layer to the mystery of what must have inadvertently become one of the most widely viewed photos in royal history.

• Virginia Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein accuser, dies
• Virginia Giuffre remembered as ‘fierce warrior against sexual abuse’

Epstein – who was said to have taken the photo – died in jail facing sex trafficking charges.

Ghislaine Maxwell – who helped him abuse young girls and is pictured to the right of Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre – is in prison in the US. Prince Andrew has stepped down from all public duties. And Virginia Giuffre, a smiling teenager in the photo, is now dead.

Ms Giuffre – who was born in the US – died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia aged 41, her family said on Friday.

Prince Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing involving Ms Giuffre.

They reached an out-of-court settlement in 2022, in which Prince Andrew paid an undisclosed amount of money.

A statement with the settlement expressed regret on his part – but contained no admission of liability or an apology. Prince Andrew has always denied all the accusations against him.

The prospect of Prince Andrew facing a court hearing in New York was averted by the settlement, but it had been a huge problem for the Royal Family, and Prince Andrew was swiftly removed from all official public roles.

His reputation has never recovered.

At this stage, there is still much that is not known about Ms Giuffre’s last days or her personal circumstances.

But as her family has said, as a young woman, she had the strength to stand up to a toxic mix of power, money and privilege in the circle surrounding Epstein, that sexually exploited so many girls.

There will be suspicions the long shadow of Epstein’s poisonous misuse of wealth and influence has indirectly claimed another victim.

A miniature dachshund has been found alive and well on Kangaroo Island off the coast of Australia, more than 500 days after she first went missing.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue had been working “around the clock” to find the dog, Valerie, since she was last spotted by her owners on a November 2023 camping trip.

Georgia Gardner and her boyfriend, Joshua Fishlock, had momentarily left Valerie in a playpen at their campsite while the couple went fishing. When they returned, she was gone.

Valerie survived intense heat and avoided venomous snakes as well intense rescue efforts during her 529 days in the wilderness.

“After weeks of tireless efforts […] Valerie has been safely rescued and is fit and well,” Kangala said in a social media post.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue said volunteers spent 1,000-plus hours searching for Valerie, covering more than 5,000km (8,046 miles).

The effort also included surveillance cameras and a trap cage with a remote door system filled with food, Ms Gardner’s clothes and some of Valerie’s toys from home.

In the initial days after Valerie went missing, other campers spotted her underneath a parked car which startled the dog and sent her fleeing into bushland, the Washington Post reported.

Months later, island locals reported seeing a pink collar that matched Valerie’s, much to the surprise of Jared Karran, a director at Kangala.

“Of all dogs, that would be the last one I would say would survive out there, but they do have a good sense of smell,” Mr Karran said.

Ms Gardner sent rescuers a t-shirt that she had worn that helped lead to Valeries’ capture by creating “scent trail” inside the large dog trap.

In a 15-minute video on social media, Kangala directors and rescue volunteers Jared and Lisa Karran explained how the “rollercoaster” rescue transpired.

Ms Karran said they had to wait until Valerie was in the right part of the trap and calm enough to ensure she would not attempt another escape.

“She went right into the back corner, which is where we wanted her, I pressed the button, and thankfully it all worked perfectly,” Mr Karran said.

“I know people were a little bit frustrated, like ‘why is it taking so long?’ but these are the things that we were doing in the background,” he said.

Ms Karran said she wore the remnants of Ms Gardner’s clothes as she approached Valerie and sat with her until the dog was “completely calm”.

Ms Gardner said on social media after Valerie’s long-awaited rescue: “For anyone who’s ever lost a pet, your feelings are valid and never give up hope.

“Sometimes good things happen to good people.”

Numerous world leaders and royals have gathered in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral.

Among the most prominent figures at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning were Prince William, US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden, Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Their attendance comes at a fragile time for international diplomacy, with Trump meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky before the service.

So among the VIP attendees, who sat next to whom?

Trump was in a front-row seat near Francis’ coffin, alongside his wife Melania Trump, across the aisle from Macron and his wife Brigitte.

Intriguingly, he and First Lady Melania were sitting between two staunch supporters of Ukraine. Estonia’s President Alar Karis was to Melania’s left, and Finland’s Alexander Stubb to Trump’s right.

Estonia and Finland are both staunch allies of another man of the moment in attendance – Zelensky, who looked sombre-faced at the Vatican. He was sitting on the same row as Macron, separated by a few other dignitaries.

Zelensky, who has been locked in negotiations and public arguments with Trump in recent weeks, was just 10 seats and one aisle away from him, on the same row.

Shortly before the funeral started, the pair were pictured sitting locked in deep discussion.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting as “very productive,” while Zelensky said it was “very symbolic” and had “potential to become historic”.

The VIPs were in a separate section from the hundreds of thousands of members of the public who have descended on Rome for the event.

Dignitaries were sitting on the the right-hand side of the square, next to St Peter’s Basilica.

Those with the best seats were Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian President Sergio Mattarella, representing the country that surrounds the Vatican City state.

Behind them were reigning sovereigns, and other delegations were seated in alphabetical order in French, the official language of diplomacy, on other benches.

Representing British royalty, the Prince of Wales was sitting next to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz several rows back from the front, and some distance away from Starmer.

Starmer himself sat in the fifth row with his wife Victoria.

Behind the British leader was the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Former US President Joe Biden was seen hand in hand with his wife Jill. He was sitting four rows behind Trump.

• LIVE UPDATES: World leaders in Rome for Pope’s funeral
• EXPLAINED: A visual guide to the funeral
• IN FULL: Funeral Mass details
• WATCH: Applause heard as Zelensky arrives for the funeral

Many European leaders, as well as royalty from European countries, were in attendance.

The Macrons watched the service closely from their front row position, and the French president shook hands with Trump.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was at the proceedings, and was seen chatting with Macron.

Other political figures and royals attending the Pope’s funeral included:

• Poland President Andrzej Duda
• Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader
• Belgium King Philippe and Queen Mathilde
• German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
• Croatia President Zoran Milanovic
• Ecuador President Daniel Noboa
• Ireland Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin
• Moldova President Maia Sandu
• Latvia President Edgars Rinkevics
• New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
• Sweden King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia
• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
• Queen Mary of Denmark
• Jordan King Abdullah II and Queen Rania
• Hungary President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban
• European Council President Antonio Costa

A federal judge says that a two-year-old US citizen may have been deported to Honduras with her mother and 11-year-old sister without due process amid the Trump administration’s drive to ramp up deportations.

In a court filing, Judge Terry Doughty said that there was “strong suspicion” that the child – identified only as VML – was deported “with no meaningful process”.

The Louisiana-born child and her family members were apprehended during a routine appointment at a New Orleans immigration office on 22 April, according to documents.

A spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security said the mother wanted to take her children with her when she was sent to Honduras.

According to the court documents, the judge had sought to arrange a phone call with the girl’s mother, but was told by a government lawyer that it “would not be possible because she (and presumably VML) had just been released in Honduras.”

The immigration status of the girl’s mother, father and sister remains unclear. The two-year-old, however, is a US citizen.

“It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a US citizen,” said the judge.

A hearing has been scheduled for 19 May “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process”.

In a statement sent to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that “the parent made the decision to take the child with them to Honduras.”

“It is common that parents want to be removed with their children,” she added.

Earlier this week, the girl’s father had also filed for a temporary transfer of legal authority, which according to state law would give his sister-in-law – also a US citizen – custody of the children.

However, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent spoke to a family attorney and “refused to honour the request” and said that the “father could try to pick her up, but that he would also be taken into custody.”

In a second, similar case in Florida, a Cuban woman with a one-year-old and a US citizen husband were detained at a scheduled immigration appointment and flown back to Cuba two days later, according to media reports.

The woman, identified as Heidy Sánchez, was still breastfeeding her daughter, who suffers from seizures, according to her lawyer. He has argued that Ms Sanchez was not a criminal and should have remained in the US on humanitarian grounds.

Thousands of undocumented immigrants have been detained since Donald Trump returned to the White House on 20 January.

Trump’s hard-line immigration policies have encountered a number of legal hurdles.

In the highest-profile case, the government admitted it mistakenly deported El Salvador national Kilmar Ábrego García, but contends he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyer and family denies. Mr Ábrego García has never been convicted of a crime.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government should facilitate bringing back Mr Ábrego García, but the Trump administration has said he will “never” live in the US again.

The threat to Canada’s sovereignty from US President Donald Trump has dominated the election, but the country also faces a challenge from within. Some western Canadians, fed up with a decade of Liberal rule, are openly calling for separation.

Standing in front of a crowd of about 100 squeezed into a small event hall in the city of Lethbridge, Dennis Modry is asking locals about Alberta’s future.

Who thinks Alberta should have a bigger role in Canada, he asks? A dozen or so raise their hands.

Who thinks the province should push for a split from Canada and form its own nation? About half the crowd raise their hands.

“How many people would like Alberta to join the US?” Another show of support from half the crowd.

Mr Modry, a retired heart surgeon, is a co-leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a grassroots organisation pushing for an independence referendum.

The possibility of a split has long been a talking point in this conservative-leaning province. But two factors have given it new momentum: Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st US state, and the subsequent boost that has given the Liberal Party in the polls ahead of Monday’s federal election.

Mr Modry told the BBC the separatist movement has grown in recent months – driven in part, he believes, by the president’s rhetoric.

“We’re not interested in that”, he said. “We’re interested in Alberta sovereignty.”

Jeffrey Rath, however – a lawyer and rancher from Calgary who is another of the project’s co-founders – was not as dismissive of Trump’s 51st state suggestion. Although he agrees independence is the priority, he could see a future where Alberta joined with the US.

“We have a lot more culturally in common with our neighbours to the south in Montana… [and] with our cousins in Texas, than we do anywhere else,” he said.

Previously on the political fringes, the possibility of a unity crisis is now being discussed out in the open.

In an opinion piece for national newspaper the Globe and Mail, Preston Manning – an Albertan considered one of the founders of the modern conservative movement in Canada – warned “large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it”.

Accusing the party of mismanaging national affairs and ignoring the priorities of western Canadians, he added: “A vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession – a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”

This sense of “western alienation”, a term used to describe the feeling that the region is often overlooked by politicians in Canada’s capital, is nothing new. For decades, many in the oil and gas-rich prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskachtewan have bemoaned how they are underrepresented, despite the region’s economic significance for the country as a whole.

That resentment grew under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, which brought in environmental policies some Albertans view as a direct attack on the region’s economic growth.

National polls suggest the Liberals, now under the leadership of Mark Carney, could be headed for their fourth consecutive win come election day on Monday. That it could come in part because of a surge of support in Ontario and Quebec – the eastern provinces where so much of the population is concentrated – only adds to the regional divide.

Judy Schneider, whose husband works in the oil industry in Calgary, told the BBC she would vote “yes” in an independence referendum.

She said she didn’t see Carney, who spent much of the last decade away from Canada but was raised in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital, as a westerner.

“He can come and say ‘I’m from Alberta,’ but is he?” Ms Schneider said.

An independent Alberta remains an unlikely prospect – a recent Angus Reid poll suggested that only one in four Albertans would vote to leave Canada if a referendum were held now. A majority of Canadians, however, feel the issue should be taken seriously, a separate Nanos poll indicated.

Political analysts say the divide will pose a challenge to the country’s next prime minister, especially if Carney wins. And even a victory for Calgary-born Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would “not solve the imbalance that presently exists between the East and the West,” Mr Modry, the activist, said.

That wider sentiment has pushed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who leads the United Conservative Party, to strike her own path in trade talks with the US, while other provincial leaders and the federal government have co-ordinated their efforts closely. She even visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

In Canada, Smith has publicly warned of a “national unity crisis” if Alberta’s demands – which centre around repealing Trudeau-era environmental laws to accelerate oil and gas production – are not met by the new prime minister within six months of the election.

While Smith has dismissed talk of outright separation as “nonsense”, critics have accused her of stoking the flames at such a consequential time for Canada’s future.

Even those within the separatist movement have different ideas on how best to achieve their goals.

Lorna Guitton, a born-and-bred Albertan and a volunteer with the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the BBC in Lethbridge that her aim was for the province to have a better relationship with the rest of Canada.

She described the current union as “broken”, and believes a referendum, or the threat of it, will give Albertans “leverage” in future negotiations with Ottawa.

But Ms Guitton also dismissed any notion of it becoming a 51st US state.

“They’ve got enough of their own problems. Why would I want to be part of that?” she said. “I would rather be my own independent, sovereign province, or a province with a better deal in Canada.”

• Patriotism surges in Quebec as Trump rattles Canada
• Who’s who in Canada’s federal election
• Canada’s top candidates talk up fossil fuels as climate slips down agenda

At his ranch outside of Calgary in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Mr Rath has a different view.

As he tended to his race horses, he spoke of the political and social attitudes of free enterprise and small government that are shared by Albertans and many Americans.

“From that perspective, I would see Alberta as being a good fit within the United States,” he said.

He is currently putting together a “fact-finding” delegation to travel to Washington DC and bring the movement directly to the Trump administration.

Many voters in Alberta, however, dismiss the notion of independence altogether, even if they agree that the province has been overlooked.

Steve Lachlan from Lethbridge agrees the West lacks representation in Ottawa but said: “We already have separation, and we need to come together.”

And the Liberals are not entirely shut out from the province. Polls suggest that Alberta may send more Liberal MPs to Ottawa than in 2021, partly due to changing demographics that led to the creation of new ridings in urban Edmonton and Calgary.

James Forrester, who lives in the battleground Calgary Centre district, told the BBC he had traditionally voted Conservative but has leaned left in recent years. This time, he will vote Liberal because of the “Carney factor”.

“I feel he’s the best guy to deal with Trump,” he said. As for the separation sentiment: “I’m not worried about it.”

There had been rumours. There had been aerial photographs. There had been the written testimony of a few escapees. But it took liberation for the revelation of the shocking reality of the Nazi’s concentration camps.

Nowhere was this more true than when British and Canadian troops advanced on the camp at Bergen-Belsen, near Hanover, in April 1945.

A truce with local German commanders enabled them to enter without a fight. They were met with a stomach-churning vista of death, a torrid panorama of human suffering.

The troops calculated there were 13,000 unburied corpses. A further 60,000 emaciated, diseased, spectral-like survivors stood and lay amongst them.

On Sunday, to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen, more than a thousand survivors and families will attending commemoration events at the camp.

“To me, Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy,” wrote one British soldier, Michael Bentine, who, after World War Two, went on to become a famous entertainer.

Other chroniclers, film-makers and diarists struggled to convey in words and pictures the scenes that made unwanted incursions into their minds.

The BBC’s Richard Dimbleby was the first broadcaster to enter the camp shortly after liberation. In his landmark broadcast he included the words: “This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life.”

Belsen’s notoriety soon stood out, not just because of the chillingly vivid accounts of journalists, soldiers and photographers, whose testimonies were sent around the world, but because it was found with all its grotesqueness intact.

Other camps further east, like the death camps of Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz, had either been destroyed by the Germans to hide their crimes in the face of Soviet advances or emptied of their inmates.

At Belsen, the huts, the barracks, the evidence, remained.

At Belsen, there were witnesses, perpetrators, victims.

It was where many of those eastern concentration camp prisoners ended up. Overcrowding led to dysentery, malnutrition and typhus.

There were no gas chambers at Belsen. It was Nazi cruelty and incompetence that accounted for the 500 deaths a day that the camp endured.

And most of it came in the final weeks of the war, well into April 1945.

As the Third Reich collapsed and freedom came to those in other occupied territories, the dying continued at Belsen: between 50,000 and 70,000 people in total, more than 30,000 of those between January and April 1945.

Around 14,000 of the prisoners died after liberation, their digestive systems unable to cope with the high calorific, rich, sustenance offered by well-meaning cooks and medics.

The vast majority were Jews, with Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and homosexuals among other groups to be engulfed by the horrors of the camp.

WATCH on iPlayer: Belsen: What They Found – Directed by Sam Mendes

Among the survivors and relatives attending the event on Sunday are 180 British Jews. Their journey is being organised by AJEX, the Jewish Military Association.

Wreaths will be laid by AJEX veterans, as well as dignitaries, including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.

A psalm will be read by UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis.

They will do so amid the verdant surroundings of Lower Saxony where the watch towers, fences and buildings have gone.

That’s because, in the end, to contain disease, the British soldiers decided they had to burn the huts at Belsen.

And so, today, little remains. A visitor centre is a focal point, near to where a handful of memorial stones and crosses have been erected.

The inscription on one reads here rest 5,000 dead.

It is just one of the graves, one of the memories, that haunt the grassed landscape.