Several people have died after a shooting at a hair salon in the town of Uppsala, Swedish media have reported.

Police said they have received calls from members of the public who reported that they heard loud bangs that sounded like gunfire close to Vaksala Square in the centre of the city.

The shooting happened on the eve of the Walpurgis spring festival, which brings large crowds onto the streets.

Several people were found with injuries that suggested gunshot wounds, police said.

Officers have cordoned off a large area and an investigation is underway.

Police spokesman Magnus Jansson Klarin was quoted by local media saying they received several reports of bangs in the area.

Swedish public broadcaster SVT said it spoke to a number of witnesses at the scene who told them they heard shots fired.

This is a breaking news story which will be updated.

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The power is out and nothing is working. How am I supposed to get through the day?

That was the question faced by millions of people on Monday across Spain and Portugal during the worst electricity blackout in their history.

We ask people who spent the day without electricity about what helped them get on with life and what outage essentials they were missing.

Cash

Paying with phone and card has become the norm, but in cities across Spain and Portugal, queues formed at cash machines - at least the ones that were still working - as shops switched away from card payments.

"We managed to pay for our coffees with card when the outage first started, [but later] we didn't have any cash so we couldn't buy a thing," Ed Rowe, 26, in Madrid told the BBC.

"All the restaurants that were open were cash only."

Grace O'Leary, 32, who also lives in Spain's capital, said she and her mum were counting coins to see if she had enough money to buy wine from a corner shop.

"Cash, apparently, is in fact, king."

Jaime Giorgio, 28, was lucky enough to have some cash on him, which allowed him to buy food and other essentials.

"In Madrid it was quite chaotic, there was no tube and you couldn't take out any cash.

"I had cash, but my flatmate didn't, so I had to lend him money to buy things."

Radio

The power outage also led to an information blackout, as people spent the day without internet, WhatsApp, calls, and TV.

"The complete loss of communication was the most confusing and concerning thing... we were only left to speculate as to the cause and piece together news from people in the neighbourhood," said Daniel Clegg from Barcelona.

The 42-year-old said the absence of information led him to looking at the sky to see if planes were still flying.

For Siegfried and Christine Buschschluter, an old windup transistor radio helped tune in to local radio stations to find out what was happening after their phones stopped working and power went off at their rural home outside Spain's capital.

Christine, 82, explained: "You had to keep on winding and winding.

"It was quite a strange situation. I was born in Berlin during the war and it reminded me of those days when my parents tried to get some news - it took me back."

The couple reckon the outage will lead to boom in demand for battery-operated radios.

And it is also on Daniel's shopping list. "Essential kit for back to basics communication and staying informed that I completely neglected to remember."

Tinned food

Microwaves, air fryers and some hobs and ovens all demand electricity.

But on Monday food that does not require electricity to heat or prepare it were in demand.

In supermarkets, shoppers formed long queues and panic-bought essentials - echoing scenes from the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We bought a lot of food that wasn't going to go off, like tuna in cans, just in case," says actor Jaime.

"The outage only lasted a day and now we have so much food, but most of it isn't going to go bad, as it is easily preserved."

Lesley Elder, in town Fortuna in south-eastern Spain, said: "Trying to find food you don't need to heat up, that was more difficult than we thought.

"So we ended up having ham and cheese for dinner."

She adds a little gas stove to heat up food in a pan would have been helpful.

Candles and torches

Across the Iberian peninsula, people turned to candles to light up dark spaces.

Richard, who lives in the Spanish city of Alcala de Henares, said not a single street light was on when night fell.

"People were finding their way around by torchlight. It was quite surreal seeing the view from my window totally black especially as I live next to a dual carriageway," he said.

"In my spare time, I make candles and luckily I had a few going spare so I could see in the dark."

Sarah Baxter, from Barcelona, said she even used a candle stovetop to heat up food.

"We could heat beans and rice, and bring water to a boil for instant potatoes," she said.

"It was much safer than a propane camping stove inside the apartment."

Although candles and naked flames can pose a fire risk.

Powerbank

With no power people relied on having battery in their devices.

In Madrid, people queued outside tech shops to get their hands on a power bank.

Luckily for Sarah she had a solar charger that kept her phone charged through ten hours of blackout, and helped her elderly neighbour do the same.

Lesley says her Kindle ran out of battery. "No TV, no Scrabble puzzle on my phone. So having a couple of books would have been helpful," she said.

But for others, not having access to the internet and their devices was a relief.

"Everyone relies on technology so much that it's quite a nice reminder you can be more independent," said Ed.

"You don't have to be connected with everyone all the time," said his flatmate Hannah Steiner, 23. "I was having a good time with my flatmates."

Sara Francisco, 24, from Leiria, in central Portugal, said: "I feel this thing that happened was important to make us be more aware and be more conscious about our habits."

US President Donald Trump has celebrated the 100th day of his second term in office with a campaign-style speech, touting his achievements and targeting political foes.

Hailing what he called a "revolution of common sense", he told a crowd of supporters in Michigan that he was using his presidency to deliver "profound change".

The Republican mocked his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, and aimed fresh criticism at the US Federal Reserve's chairman, while dismissing opinion polls that show his own popularity slipping.

Trump has delivered a dramatic fall in the number of migrants crossing illegally into the US, but the economy is a political vulnerability as he wages an international trade war.

"We've just gotten started, you haven't seen anything yet," Trump told the crowd on Tuesday in a suburb of Detroit.

Speaking at the hub of America's automative industry, Trump said car firms were "lining up" to open new manufacturing plants in the Midwestern state.

But earlier in the day he softened a key element of his economic plan - tariffs on the import of foreign cars and car parts - after US car-makers warned of the danger of rising prices.

At his rally, Trump also said opinion polls indicating his popularity had slipped were "fake".

According to Gallup, Trump is the only post-World War Two president to have less than half the public's support after 100 days in office, with an approval rating of 44%.

But the majority of Republican voters still firmly back the president. And the rival Democratic Party is also struggling in polling.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said Trump's first 100 days were a "colossal failure".

"Trump is to blame for the fact that life is more expensive, it's harder to retire, and a 'Trump recession' is at our doorstep," the DNC said.

• Trump's breakneck start is fraught with political risk
• 'Kicking butt' or 'going too fast'? Trump voters reflect on 100 days

Trump conducted his own informal poll in Tuesday's remarks, asking the crowd for their favourite Biden nicknames. He also mocked his Democratic predecessor's mental agility and even how he appears in a swim suit, while continuing to insist he was the real victor of the 2020 election, which he lost.

Other targets of his ire included Jerome Powell, head of the US central bank, whom the president said was not doing a good job.

Trump touted progress on immigration – encounters at the southern border have plummeted to just over 7,000, down from 140,000 in March of last year.

On Tuesday the White House also said almost 65,700 immigrants had been deported in his term so far, although that is a slower pace than in the last fiscal year when US authorities deported more than 270,000.

Part of the way through his speech Trump screened a video of deportees being expelled from the US and sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador.

His immigration crackdown has faced a flurry of legal challenges, as has his effort to end the automatic granting of citizenship to anyone born on US soil.

During Tuesday's speech he insisted egg prices had declined 87%, a claim contradicted by the latest government price figures.

Inflation, energy prices and mortgage rates have fallen since Trump took office, although unemployment has risen slightly, consumer sentiment has sagged and the stock market was plunged into turmoil by the tariffs.

Before the speech, Joe DeMonaco, who owns a carpentry business in Michigan, said Trump's patchwork of on-again, off-again import taxes were starting to increase prices, which he will have to pass on to his customers.

"I was hoping... he would approach things a little bit differently seeing that he's a little seasoned coming into a second term," Mr DeMonaco told the BBC. "But we're just treading water and seeing if things get better from here."

But it's clear that Trump's most steadfast supporters stand by him.

"I'm just thrilled," said Teresa Breckinridge, owner of the Silver Skillet Diner in Atlanta, Georgia.

"He's handling things wherever he can, multiple times a day, and he's reporting back to the people… I think the tariffs will end up definitely being in our favour."

A 29-year-old doctor from Bristol has had her eyesight saved after a "game-changing" test identified a mystery infection that had plagued her health for five years.

Ellie Irwin suffered persistent inflammation in her right eye resulting in blurred vision and underwent intensive treatment to no avail. At one point she even considered having her eye removed.

It was only after Ellie was offered a "last resort" analysis called metagenomics, that she was diagnosed with a rare bacterial infection which was cured with antibiotics.

"It's been transformative," Ellie told the BBC. "I feel so fortunate."

Professor Carlos Pavesio, consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, says Ellie's case is a "breakthrough in the diagnosis of infectious diseases".

"There are many patients we treat with chronic infections for years, but despite multiple tests we cannot identify the bug responsible," he says.

In 2019, while still at medical school, Ellie began suffering from inflammation in her right eye. All tests for infection came back negative and it was assumed she had an autoimmune condition.

Ellie was prescribed steroid eye drops and immunosuppressants, some of which needed to be given by intravenous infusion.

"It was completely dominating my life," Ellie says. "I needed eye drops every single hour and it was difficult to balance that alongside starting work as a junior doctor. My vision was really variable, and I would have some bad days.

"I was on so much medication and going to so many appointments, yet I didn't feel I was getting any better."

The treatment and inflammation led to Ellie developing a cataract that had to be surgically removed, just after she graduated from medical school.

Ellie says she eventually reached "breaking point", and even began considering having her affected eye removed.

"Whilst losing sight in one eye is terrifying," she says, "my biggest fear was that it might spread to my left eye."

It was one of Ellie's doctors at Southmead Hospital in Bristol who suggested metagenomics - a last resort test not generally available to patients and only used where standard diagnostic tools have failed to identify or rule out infection.

Metagenomics technology uses cutting-edge genomic sequencing, which can identify all bacteria, funghi or parasites present in a sample by comparing them against a database of millions of pathogens.

A team at Moorfields Eye Hospital arranged for a sample of fluid to be taken from inside Ellie's eye and sent to the metagenomics labs at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) - the only lab in the UK officially recognised to carry out these diagnostic tests for patients, and one of only a few in the world.

Currently, the standard method for detecting bacterial infections is by trying to grow a sample of it in a Petri dish.

For viruses, the most common diagnostic tool is a PCR test. These will be familiar to many from the pandemic, when millions sent off swabs in the post to confirm whether they had Covid.

However, Dr Julianne Brown, principal clinical scientist at the GOSH metagenomics service, says PCR has some drawbacks.

"The trouble with PCR is that you have to think of the viruses that might be causing an infection and do a separate test for each and every one," she says. "So if you've got an infection with something that's unexpected, rare or not previously known, you won't find it."

Dr Brown says metagenomics is "an enormous step up - it's a complete game-changer".

In Ellie's case, metagenomics diagnosed a rare strain of the bacterial infection leptospirosis found in South America.

It is now presumed Ellie picked up the bug swimming in the Amazon river in 2018, while on a trip to Ecuador and Colombia.

Ellie says it was an emotional moment when she was given the results of the test.

"I broke down - I just had to cry. I never imagined that it would come back positive and be for something that was treatable," she says.

"I was given three weeks of antibiotics and within days my vision was clearer and the inflammation subsided."

A single metagenomics test costs around £1,300, which is far more than standard diagnostics. However, as the technology is developed that price is likely to fall rapidly.

Virologist Professor Judy Breuer, who has been developing metagenomics at GOSH and University College London (UCL) for more than a decade, says her team currently receives three or four samples a week from hospitals around the UK for metagenomic testing in addition to those it carries out on its own patients.

These are often samples from parts of the body that are normally sterile sites, where bacteria are not usually found such as the brain, central nervous system, liver and eye.

"In the future, we think metagenomics will become a first line test and be able to diagnose infection in any sample, probably within the same day," she says.

It's also likely to become faster, cheaper and easier to do, explains Dr Brown, meaning it will become available to more patients rather than just a small number who are severely unwell.

Resolving her eye problems has allowed Ellie to concentrate on her training as a GP and arrange her wedding.

Ellie was married in Newcastle on 29 March, the same day the city celebrated Newcastle United's win in the Carabao Cup.

She says: "We got a shout-out from Ant and Dec and went up on a scissor lift above the Newcastle United fans, which was incredible."

Prof Breuer says she is thrilled with how the treatment is changing lives.

"It is amazing to see the impact it is having for patients like Ellie."

The government has made very little progress in preparing the UK for the growing threats posed by rising temperatures since coming to power, its climate watchdog has warned.

In a highly critical report, the independent Climate Change Committee says progress is "either too slow, has stalled, or is heading in the wrong direction".

From hospitals and care homes to food and water supplies, this could leave the UK vulnerable to serious economic and health impacts in the decades ahead, the CCC warns.

In response, the government pointed to its investment in flood defences, but acknowledged more work was needed.

Floods Minister Emma Hardy told BBC News that preparing for the changing climate was "something we're really committed to".

"We are putting £2.65bn into upgrading, maintaining and building new flood defences.

"But we absolutely know, of course, there's more that needs to be done."

Fuelled by climate change, the UK's weather extremes are intensifying, from the 40C heat of July 2022 to England's wettest 18 months on record between October 2022 to March 2024.

Such events are only likely to become more severe and happen more often, as the planet continues to get hotter due to humanity's emissions of planet-warming gases.

Better preparation can limit the damage by making the country more resilient, but the CCC says this is not happening at anywhere near the required pace.

"We are seeing climate impact happening faster and more intensely and increasing [but] government just doesn't yet seem to be taking it seriously," Baroness Brown, chair of the Adaptation Committee at the CCC, told BBC News.

"The manifesto said it was going to address this issue of resilience and yet, so far, it's done nothing," she added.

"We've heard some warm words… but nothing has come out yet."

None of the 46 areas assessed were found to be making "good" progress in adapting to climate change. Only three had "good" plans and policies in place for the future.

These are mostly unchanged from the CCC's last report in 2023.

Health is one of the areas that remains most poorly prepared.

The CCC points to the rising number of deaths linked to extreme heat and hospitals themselves being vulnerable to hot weather.

Baroness Brown highlights the case of Guy's and St Thomas', the biggest hospital trust in London, which was hit by a failure to its data centres during the extreme heat of July 2022.

This meant it was unable to operate its appointments system at a time of intense demand, and it had to move to paper appointments.

"We lost thousands of crucial appointments for people for critical tests," she said.

"We're trying to improve the NHS. Unless we take into account that it has to be resilient to the climate, we're going backwards."

Flooding is another challenging area. Plans and policies to ensure places are resilient to river and coastal flooding are found to have worsened since the CCC's previous report.

The ancient town of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire is a case in point. It's been flooded repeatedly in the last four years, most recently in November 2024.

Polly Pearce described how her charity shop flooded.

"It was so quick... [like] a tsunami," she said.

"[The water] came up as high as the panelling right up on the wall... we had all our Christmas stuff ready but lost it."

The main street is studded with empty shops, many reportedly put out of business by the cost of repeated floods.

Shop owners say insurance companies either won't insure their properties or that the premiums are now so high many shop keepers say they simply can't afford it.

And the Environment Agency has said it can't afford the £25m-£30m cost of flood protection for the town.

The government says it is committed to helping residents, however, and that work to improve the flood resilience of properties will begin in the summer.

The CCC notes progress in some other areas of climate adaptation, such as plans to identify risks to businesses and financial institutions.

'A huge mistake'

At the heart of these discussions is the question of cost.

But putting off efforts to prepare the UK for the changing climate in an attempt to save cash would be "a huge mistake" and could increase economic damage in the long run, Baroness Brown said.

"We are very worried about their spending review," she added, in an unusually strong plea from the Committee.

"This is not a tomorrow problem; it's a today problem. If we don't address it today, it becomes a disaster tomorrow."

A freedom of information request submitted by the BBC found there are just 18 members of staff working fully on climate adaptation at the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).

That's just 0.3% of Defra's nearly 6,600 full-time-equivalent core staff.

Defra said some of these employees also worked on climate adaptation part-time, and the figures don't include those working in other parts of government.

Additional reporting by Miho Tanaka

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of losing hot water or heating when their old type of electricity meter goes out of action.

Energy companies have said it will be "very, very difficult" to replace all Radio Teleswitching System (RTS) meters with smart meters before the old technology is switched off on 30 June.

Campaigners estimate more than 300,000 homes could lose heating - or have it stuck on constantly - in what energy regulator Ofgem has called "an urgent consumer welfare issue".

The government said the industry had to "work urgently to continue to increase the pace of replacements".

Since the 1980s, RTS meters have used a longwave radio frequency to switch between peak and off peak rates.

The technology is becoming obsolete and energy companies have a deadline to change their customers' meters by 30 June.

At the end of March, there were still 430,000 households using RTS meters for their heating and hot water, according to Energy UK, which represents energy companies.

It said more than 1,000 RTS meters were now being replaced each day.

But based on the 430,000 figure, this daily rate would need to be more like 5,000 to stand a chance of reaching everyone.

• Concern old meters still in use ahead of switch off
• Panorama: The Truth about Smart Meters

Ned Hammond, Energy UK's deputy director for customers, told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours the rate of replacement was rising, but added: "Obviously we'd need to increase from there significantly still to replace all the meters by the end of June."

Asked whether it was impossible to get every RTS meter switched over by 30 June, he said: "I wouldn't want to say impossible - but clearly very, very difficult to get to that point."

Simon Francis, from campaign group the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said the Energy UK figures suggested more than 300,000 households could be left with a meter that doesn't work from 1 July.

He added: "With pressures on the replacement programme growing and with limited engineer availability, especially in rural areas, there's a real risk of prolonged disruption, particularly for vulnerable households."

RTS meters typically control heating and hot water on a separate circuit to the rest of the household's electricity, so things like plug sockets and lights are unlikely to be affected by the switch-off, Ofgem said.

The RTS network was originally planned to be switched off in March 2024, but this was extended to give energy companies more time to get through everyone.

Energy companies are still targeting 30 June "as things stand", Mr Hammond added, and are developing plans for a "managed and very careful phase down of the system", aiming to protect vulnerable customers.

'I don't want a smart meter'

One challenge of changing everyone on to the new system is a distrust of smart meters. The BBC has previously found that smart meters can sometimes give inaccurate readings and can work worse or better depending on where you live.

Jane from Norfolk told the BBC she is on an RTS meter and does not want a smart meter but feels as if she is being forced into getting one. She is currently on an Economy 7 tariff and does not want to switch.

"It's not yet lawful to say I've got to have one. And I really, really don't want one. I'm perfectly happy with the way things are," she said.

Diane Gray, who lives near Cockermouth in Cumbria, uses RTS to control the heating and hot water in her home on an Economy 7 tariff. She wants a smart meter but has been told one won't work in her house.

In December, her supplier wrote to her to say: "At the moment we're not able to install a new meter in your home that works with your current meter's heating set up. Please bear with us. We are working hard on a solution for your meter type."

She's since received another notification that a smart meter will be fitted in early June.

"I've got no idea where it's going to leave us," she told the BBC.

"It is very concerning. Because they're doing it in the summer, come the winter I keep thinking there must be some solution they're going to give us before we need to start using the heating."

If your energy supplier cannot fit a smart meter in your home, Ofgem says your supplier must install a "suitable meter" with no disruption to your service.

What to do if you think you have an RTS meter

According to Ofgem, you may have an RTS meter if

• Your home has a separate switch box near your meter with a Radio Teleswitch label on it
• Your home is heated using electricity or storage heaters
• There is no gas supply to your area
• You get cheaper energy at different times of day, for example, on an Economy 7 tariff
• If you haven't been contacted, Ofgem recommends reaching out to your supplier to arrange the replacement
• However, beware if someone contacts you claiming you need to pay to change your meter as it's likely a scam.

US President Donald Trump has celebrated the 100th day of his second term in office with a campaign-style speech, touting his achievements and targeting political foes.

Hailing what he called a "revolution of common sense", he told a crowd of supporters in Michigan that he was using his presidency to deliver "profound change".

The Republican mocked his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, and aimed fresh criticism at the US Federal Reserve's chairman, while dismissing opinion polls that show his own popularity slipping.

Trump has delivered a dramatic fall in the number of migrants crossing illegally into the US, but the economy is a political vulnerability as he wages an international trade war.

"We've just gotten started, you haven't seen anything yet," Trump told the crowd on Tuesday in a suburb of Detroit.

Speaking at the hub of America's automative industry, Trump said car firms were "lining up" to open new manufacturing plants in the Midwestern state.

But earlier in the day he softened a key element of his economic plan - tariffs on the import of foreign cars and car parts - after US car-makers warned of the danger of rising prices.

At his rally, Trump also said opinion polls indicating his popularity had slipped were "fake".

According to Gallup, Trump is the only post-World War Two president to have less than half the public's support after 100 days in office, with an approval rating of 44%.

But the majority of Republican voters still firmly back the president. And the rival Democratic Party is also struggling in polling.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said Trump's first 100 days were a "colossal failure".

"Trump is to blame for the fact that life is more expensive, it's harder to retire, and a 'Trump recession' is at our doorstep," the DNC said.

• Trump's breakneck start is fraught with political risk
• 'Kicking butt' or 'going too fast'? Trump voters reflect on 100 days

Trump conducted his own informal poll in Tuesday's remarks, asking the crowd for their favourite Biden nicknames. He also mocked his Democratic predecessor's mental agility and even how he appears in a swim suit, while continuing to insist he was the real victor of the 2020 election, which he lost.

Other targets of his ire included Jerome Powell, head of the US central bank, whom the president said was not doing a good job.

Trump touted progress on immigration – encounters at the southern border have plummeted to just over 7,000, down from 140,000 in March of last year.

On Tuesday the White House also said almost 65,700 immigrants had been deported in his term so far, although that is a slower pace than in the last fiscal year when US authorities deported more than 270,000.

Part of the way through his speech Trump screened a video of deportees being expelled from the US and sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador.

His immigration crackdown has faced a flurry of legal challenges, as has his effort to end the automatic granting of citizenship to anyone born on US soil.

During Tuesday's speech he insisted egg prices had declined 87%, a claim contradicted by the latest government price figures.

Inflation, energy prices and mortgage rates have fallen since Trump took office, although unemployment has risen slightly, consumer sentiment has sagged and the stock market was plunged into turmoil by the tariffs.

Before the speech, Joe DeMonaco, who owns a carpentry business in Michigan, said Trump's patchwork of on-again, off-again import taxes were starting to increase prices, which he will have to pass on to his customers.

"I was hoping... he would approach things a little bit differently seeing that he's a little seasoned coming into a second term," Mr DeMonaco told the BBC. "But we're just treading water and seeing if things get better from here."

But it's clear that Trump's most steadfast supporters stand by him.

"I'm just thrilled," said Teresa Breckinridge, owner of the Silver Skillet Diner in Atlanta, Georgia.

"He's handling things wherever he can, multiple times a day, and he's reporting back to the people… I think the tariffs will end up definitely being in our favour."

What happened on TikTok?

Influencer campaign

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The power is out and nothing is working. How am I supposed to get through the day?

That was the question faced by millions of people on Monday across Spain and Portugal during the worst electricity blackout in their history.

We ask people who spent the day without electricity about what helped them get on with life and what outage essentials they were missing.

Cash

Paying with phone and card has become the norm, but in cities across Spain and Portugal, queues formed at cash machines - at least the ones that were still working - as shops switched away from card payments.

"We managed to pay for our coffees with card when the outage first started, [but later] we didn't have any cash so we couldn't buy a thing," Ed Rowe, 26, in Madrid told the BBC.

"All the restaurants that were open were cash only."

Grace O'Leary, 32, who also lives in Spain's capital, said she and her mum were counting coins to see if she had enough money to buy wine from a corner shop.

"Cash, apparently, is in fact, king."

Jaime Giorgio, 28, was lucky enough to have some cash on him, which allowed him to buy food and other essentials.

"In Madrid it was quite chaotic, there was no tube and you couldn't take out any cash.

"I had cash, but my flatmate didn't, so I had to lend him money to buy things."

Radio

The power outage also led to an information blackout, as people spent the day without internet, WhatsApp, calls, and TV.

"The complete loss of communication was the most confusing and concerning thing... we were only left to speculate as to the cause and piece together news from people in the neighbourhood," said Daniel Clegg from Barcelona.

The 42-year-old said the absence of information led him to looking at the sky to see if planes were still flying.

For Siegfried and Christine Buschschluter, an old windup transistor radio helped tune in to local radio stations to find out what was happening after their phones stopped working and power went off at their rural home outside Spain's capital.

Christine, 82, explained: "You had to keep on winding and winding.

"It was quite a strange situation. I was born in Berlin during the war and it reminded me of those days when my parents tried to get some news - it took me back."

The couple reckon the outage will lead to boom in demand for battery-operated radios.

And it is also on Daniel's shopping list. "Essential kit for back to basics communication and staying informed that I completely neglected to remember."

Tinned food

Microwaves, air fryers and some hobs and ovens all demand electricity.

But on Monday food that does not require electricity to heat or prepare it were in demand.

In supermarkets, shoppers formed long queues and panic-bought essentials - echoing scenes from the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We bought a lot of food that wasn't going to go off, like tuna in cans, just in case," says actor Jaime.

"The outage only lasted a day and now we have so much food, but most of it isn't going to go bad, as it is easily preserved."

Lesley Elder, in town Fortuna in south-eastern Spain, said: "Trying to find food you don't need to heat up, that was more difficult than we thought.

"So we ended up having ham and cheese for dinner."

She adds a little gas stove to heat up food in a pan would have been helpful.

Candles and torches

Across the Iberian peninsula, people turned to candles to light up dark spaces.

Richard, who lives in the Spanish city of Alcala de Henares, said not a single street light was on when night fell.

"People were finding their way around by torchlight. It was quite surreal seeing the view from my window totally black especially as I live next to a dual carriageway," he said.

"In my spare time, I make candles and luckily I had a few going spare so I could see in the dark."

Sarah Baxter, from Barcelona, said she even used a candle stovetop to heat up food.

"We could heat beans and rice, and bring water to a boil for instant potatoes," she said.

"It was much safer than a propane camping stove inside the apartment."

Although candles and naked flames can pose a fire risk.

Powerbank

With no power people relied on having battery in their devices.

In Madrid, people queued outside tech shops to get their hands on a power bank.

Luckily for Sarah she had a solar charger that kept her phone charged through ten hours of blackout, and helped her elderly neighbour do the same.

Lesley says her Kindle ran out of battery. "No TV, no Scrabble puzzle on my phone. So having a couple of books would have been helpful," she said.

But for others, not having access to the internet and their devices was a relief.

"Everyone relies on technology so much that it's quite a nice reminder you can be more independent," said Ed.

"You don't have to be connected with everyone all the time," said his flatmate Hannah Steiner, 23. "I was having a good time with my flatmates."

Sara Francisco, 24, from Leiria, in central Portugal, said: "I feel this thing that happened was important to make us be more aware and be more conscious about our habits."

US President Donald Trump has called Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to congratulate him on his victory in the country's general election and the two have agreed meet in the near future.

The two countries were expected to enter talks about a new economic and security relationship after Monday's vote.

Trump's trade tariffs and repeated comments undermining Canada's sovereignty overshadowed the race, which ended with Carney's Liberals projected to win a minority government, according to public broadcaster CBC.

That result will make Carney's pressing tasks of negotiating with his US counterpart and tackling a range of domestic issues more of a challenge, as he'll need to wrangle support from other political parties.

In their first call since the election, Trump congratulated Carney on his victory, according to the prime minister's office on Tuesday.

The office also said the two leaders had "agreed on the importance of Canada and the United States working together – as independent, sovereign nations – for their mutual betterment".

The Liberals will need to rely on their support to pass legislation through the House of Commons.

They also face possible defeat in any vote of confidence in the chamber.

The Liberals are most likely to find willing partners with the diminished left-wing New Democrats, who have in the past supported the Liberals, and the Bloc Québécois.

The Liberals are projected to have won 169 seats, three short of the 172 needed for a majority in Canada's House of Commons.

It still marks a historic turnaround for a party that had seemed on course for collapse just months ago.

Carney, a former central banker for Canada and the UK, will continue as prime minister, having stepped into the role last month following his unpopular predecessor Justin Trudeau's resignation.

One issue where it may be easy for the Liberals to find support in the House is in passing legislation to help workers and industries affected by US tariffs - something all parties swung behind on the campaign trail.

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On Tuesday morning, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet suggested Carney could benefit from at least a period of stability in the House.

Blanchet urged a "truce" among parties while Canada negotiated trade with the US, saying it was clear Canadians wanted political stability in unstable times.

He said it wasn't time for other parties to "threaten to overthrow the government anytime soon" and didn't see any scenario "other than collaboration for a period of slightly over a year".

The leader of the sovereigntist party, which only runs candidates in Quebec, did urge Carney to avoid pressing the province on certain issues, noting that collaboration goes both ways.

On Tuesday, the White House commented on Carney's win, with deputy press secretary Anna Kelly saying: "The election does not affect President Trump's plan to make Canada America's cherished 51st state."

In an interview with the BBC, Carney said that Canada deserves "respect" from the US and he will only allow a Canada-US trade and security partnership "on our terms".

Carney has told the BBC that a 51st state scenario was "never, ever going to happen".

Meanwhile, new US ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, said in a video statement that he is "committed to making progress in this great relationship".

Carney has also promised action on a range of domestic issues, including tackling the country's housing crisis and tax cuts for lower- and middle-income Canadians.

The prime minister also needs to prepare for the G7 summit in June, which Canada is hosting in the province of Alberta.

In Monday's election, both the Liberals and the Conservatives saw a significant rise in their share of the national vote compared with four years ago.

The Conservative Party came in second, on track to win 144 seats, and will form Official Opposition.

Increased support for Canada's two largest parties has come at the expense of smaller parties, particularly the NDP, whose share of the popular vote is down by around 12 percentage points.

Voter turnout for the election was 67%.

Both Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh lost their seats, with Singh announcing he will step down as leader of the left-wing party.

Reform UK's candidate to be the first mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, has appeared to contradict her party's leader Nigel Farage over their outlook on children with special educational needs, or SEND.

Dame Andrea, a former Conservative minister, has spoken publicly about both her and her young son having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

In a news conference last week, Nigel Farage said that he thought there were too many diagnoses of special educational needs in children.

Farage said that "so many of these diagnoses, for SEND before 18, for disability register after 18 – so many of these have been conducted on Zoom, with the family GP.

"And I think we are massively – I'm not being heartless, I'm being frank – I think we are massively over diagnosing those with mental illness problems and those with other general behavioural disabilities."

Dame Andrea told the BBC that she and Mr Farage "are not always going to agree on everything" when asked to respond to his remarks.

"In no party do you ever agree with everything. I didn't with the Conservatives did I - I was the worst critic," she added.

"All I can go on is my personal experience as a parent, as somebody who's neurodiverse myself, and as a former MP who saw some of the very sad stories of children, how they've been left behind really."

Dame Andrea said she had seen people waiting three or four years to receive a diagnosis for a child, "by which time they're going into secondary education and they're way behind."

"I pulled my child out of mainstream into private school because he was two years behind, and as a parent you do the best for your child. I know his daily struggles and to me it's about ensuring everybody gets that best start in life, no matter what your background is."

A source close to Nigel Farage said he was seeking to argue that mental health issues were being over diagnosed in children.

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Nestled in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan sits the picturesque village of Sergele.

For generations villagers have made a living growing pomegranates, almonds and peaches and foraging in the surrounding forests for wild fruits and spices.

But Sergele, located 16km (10 miles) from the border with Turkey, has become increasingly surrounded by Turkish military bases, which are dotted across the slopes.

One, perched halfway up the western ridge, looms over the village, while another in the east is under construction.

At least seven have been built here over the past two years, including one by a small dam that regulates Sergele's water supply, rendering it off limits to villagers.

"This is 100% a form of occupation of Kurdish [Iraqi Kurdistan] lands," says farmer Sherwan Sherwan Sergeli, 50, who has lost access to some of his land.

"The Turks ruined it."

Sergele is now in danger of being dragged into what's known locally as the "Forbidden Zone" - a large strip of land in northern Iraq affected by Turkey's war with the Kurdish militant group the PKK, which launched an insurgency in southern Turkey in 1984.

The Forbidden Zone spans almost the entire length of the Iraqi border with Turkey and is up to 40km (25 miles) deep in places.

Community Peacemaker Teams, a human rights group based in Iraqi Kurdistan, says that hundreds of civilians have been killed by drone and air strikes in and around the Forbidden Zone. According to a 2020 Kurdistan parliamentary report, thousands have been forced off their land and whole villages have been emptied out by the conflict.

Sergele is now effectively on the front line of Turkey's war with the PKK.

When the BBC World Service Eye Investigations team visited the area, Turkish aircraft pummelled the mountains surrounding the village to root out PKK militants, who have long operated from caves and tunnels in northern Iraq.

Much of the land around Sergele had been burned by shelling.

"The more bases they put up, the worse it gets for us," says Sherwan.

Turkey has been rapidly growing its military presence in the Forbidden Zone in recent years, but until now the scale of this expansion was not publicly known.

Using satellite imagery assessed by experts and corroborated with on-the-ground reporting and open-source content, the BBC found that as of December 2024, the Turkish military had built at least 136 fixed military installations across northern Iraq.

Through its vast network of military bases, Turkey now holds de-facto control of more than 2,000 sq km (772 square miles) of Iraqi land, the BBC's analysis found.

Satellite images further reveal that the Turkish military has built at least 660km (410 miles) of roads connecting its facilities. These supply routes have resulted in deforestation and left a lasting imprint on the region's mountains.

While a few of the bases date back to the 1990s, 89% have been constructed since 2018, after which Turkey began significantly expanding its military presence in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Turkish government didn't respond to the BBC's requests for interviews, but has maintained that its military bases are necessary to push back the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organisation by Ankara and a number of Western nations, including the UK.

The sub-district capital of Kani Masi, which is only 4km (2.5 miles) from the Iraqi-Turkish border and parts of which are within the Forbidden Zone, may offer a glimpse into Sergele's future.

Once famous for its apple production, few residents remain here now.

Farmer Salam Saeed, whose land is in the shadow of a large Turkish base, hasn't been able to cultivate his vineyard for the past three years.

"The moment you get here, you will have a drone hover over you," he tells the BBC.

"They will shoot you if you stay."

The Turkish military first set up here in the 1990s and has been consolidating its presence since.

Its main military base, featuring concrete blast walls, watch and communication towers and space for armoured personnel carriers to move inside, is much more developed than the smaller outposts around Sergele.

Salam, like some other locals, believes Turkey ultimately wants to claim the territory as its own.

"All they want is for us to leave these areas," he adds.

Little leverage

Near Kani Masi, the BBC saw first-hand how Turkish forces have effectively pushed back the Iraqi border guard, which is responsible for protecting Iraq's international boundaries.

At several locations, the border guards were manning positions well inside Iraqi territory, directly opposite Turkish troops, unable to go right up to the border and potentially risk a clash.

"The posts that you see are Turkish posts," says General Farhad Mahmoud, pointing to a ridge just across a valley, about 10km (6 miles) inside Iraqi territory.

But "we cannot reach the border to know the number of posts", he adds.

Turkey's military expansion in Iraqi Kurdistan - fuelled by its rise as a drone power and growing defence budget - is seen as part of a broader foreign policy shift towards greater interventionism in the region.

Similar to its operations in Iraq, Turkey has also sought to establish a buffer zone along its border with Syria to contain Syrian armed groups allied with the PKK.

In public, Iraq's government has condemned Turkey's military presence in the country. But behind closed doors it has accommodated some of Ankara's demands.

In 2024, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly fight the PKK.

But the document, obtained by the BBC, did not place any limitations on Turkish troops in Iraq.

Iraq depends on Turkey for trade, investment and water security, while its fractured internal politics have further undermined the government's ability to take a strong stance.

Iraq's national government did not respond to the BBC requests for comment.

Watch Turkey’s hidden war: The Forbidden Zone on iPlayer

People outside the UK can watch the documentary on YouTube

Meanwhile, the rulers of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan have a close relationship with Ankara based on mutual interests and have often downplayed the civilian harm due to Turkey's military action.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), an arch enemy of the PKK, dominates the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and has officially been in charge since 2005, when Iraq's constitution granted the region its semi-autonomous status.

The KDP's close ties with Turkey have contributed to the region's economic success and have strengthened its position, both against its regional political rivals and with the Iraqi government in Baghdad, with which it tussles for greater autonomy.

Hoshyar Zebari, a senior member of the KDP's politburo, sought to blame the PKK for Turkey's presence in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"They [the Turkish military] are not harming our people," he told the BBC.

"They are not detaining them. They are not interfering in them going about their business. Their focus, their sole goal is the PKK."

The conflict shows no signs of ending, despite the PKK's long-jailed leader Abdulla Ocalan calling in February for his fighters to lay down arms and disband.

Turkey has continued to shell targets across Iraqi Kurdistan, while the PKK claimed responsibility for downing a Turkish drone last month.

And while violent incidents in Turkey have declined since 2016, according to a tally by the NGO Crisis Group, those in Iraq have spiked, with civilians living on the border region facing growing risk of death and displacement.

One of those killed was 24-year-old Alan Ismail, a stage-four cancer patient hit by an air strike in August 2023 while on a trip to the mountains with his cousin, Hashem Shaker.

The Turkish military has denied carrying out a strike that day, but a police report seen by the BBC attributes the incident to a Turkish drone.

When Hashem filed a complaint in a local court about the attack he was detained by Kurdish security forces and held for eight months on suspicion of supporting the PKK - an accusation he and his family deny.

"It has destroyed us. It's like killing the whole family," says Ismail Chichu, Alan's father.

"They [the Turks] have no rights to kill people in their own country on their own land."

Turkey's Defence Ministry did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment. It has previously told the media that the Turkish armed forces follow international law, and that in the planning and execution of their operations they only target terrorists, while taking care to prevent harm to civilians.

The BBC has seen documents suggesting Kurdish authorities may have acted to help Turkey evade accountability for civilian casualties.

Confidential papers seen by the BBC show a Kurdish court closed the investigation into Alan's killing, saying the perpetrator was unknown.

And his death certificate - issued by Kurdish authorities and seen by the BBC - says he died because of "explosive fragments".

Failing to mention when victims of air strikes have died as a result of violence, rather than an accident, makes it difficult for families to seek justice and compensation, to which they're entitled under both Iraqi and Kurdish law.

"In most of the death certificates, they only wrote 'infijar', which means explosion," says Kamaran Othman from Community Peacemaker Teams.

"It can be anything exploding.

"I think the Kurdish Regional Government doesn't want to make Turkey responsible for what they are doing here."

The KRG said it acknowledged the "tragic loss of civilians resulting from military confrontation between the PKK and Turkish army in the region".

It added that "a number of casualties" had been documented as "civilian martyrs", meaning they have been unjustly killed and entitling them to compensation.

Almost two years after Alan was killed, his family is still waiting, if not for compensation, at least for acknowledgement from the KRG.

"They could at least send their condolences - we don't need their compensation," says Ismail.

"When something is gone, it's gone forever."