Kyle believed God was looking out for him when he survived a violent farm robbery in South Africa eight years ago with only a black eye and broken ribs. The robbers failed to get the kettle and iron working, so were unable to burn anyone. Then the gun trigger jammed when they tried to shoot Kyle in the spine.
“They specifically said they were coming back for this farm … [that] it was their land,” said the 43-year-old, who did not want to use his full name. “Only afterwards, we found out that the guy that stays on the plot was actually killed … the farmhand … I don’t know what his name was.”
Kyle, a divorced father of three, is one of thousands of white South Africans hoping to take up Donald Trump’s offer of refugee status, to escape crime and what they allege is discrimination against white people.
The Trump administration’s support for these claims, while stopping other new refugee arrivals, has inflamed uncomfortable conversations about how far racial reconciliation still has to go, three decades after the end of white minority rule.
The US president’s offer was a “godsend”, said Kyle, now a salesman working remotely for an overseas company: “I’ve got white children, they’re at the bottom of the hiring list here. So, there is no future for them. And the sad thing is they don’t even know what apartheid is.”
White Afrikaner governments racially segregated every aspect of life from relationships to where people were allowed to live during apartheid, repressing South Africa’s Black majority while keeping the white minority safe and much better off.
South Africa remains deeply unequal, more than 30 years since the system ended. The black South African unemployment rate is 46.1%, for example, compared with 9.2% for white people.
Affirmative action has created a Black elite, but also nurtured feelings of disfranchisement among some white South Africans. Less than two-thirds of white South Africans agreed that apartheid deprived black people of their livelihoods, v three-quarters of Black South Africans, according to the 2023 Reconciliation Barometer, a survey by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, a thinktank.
Kate Lefko-Everett, the report’s author, said: “The level of contact and interaction between South Africans of different race groups has not really changed substantially.”
South Africa’s high violent crime rate – in the last quarter of 2024 there were almost 7,000 murders, according to police figures – affects everyone. But it has also added to a siege mentality among some white people. Almost two-thirds of white people were considering emigrating, compared with 27% of all South Africans, according to 2022 Afrobarometer data.
More than 8,200 people have registered their interest in US refugee status, the New York Times reported in March. The US embassy in Pretoria refused to comment.
Chilly Chomse, a 43-year-old carpenter, said he wanted to claim asylum for the sake of his four daughters.
He moved to Orania, a white, Afrikaner-only town, for work during the Covid-19 pandemic, but said he was not committed like some residents: “Once you leave this Orania premises, you are still in South Africa … you’re not safe and you can’t remain here 24/7 for the rest of your life.”
While some white English-speaking South Africans like Kyle hope the refugee programme will include them too, Trump’s February executive order referred to “ethnic minority Afrikaners”. It claimed a recently signed South African law that allows land expropriation in limited circumstances would enable the government to seize Afrikaners’ property, while state policy was “fuelling disproportionate violence against racially disfavoured landowners” (a longstanding far-right claim).
When Esté Richter, a friend of Chomse’s in Orania, heard about Trump’s refugee policy, she initially did not believe it. “Then I felt that someone has heard us, finally, that someone has heard the cries of Afrikaners,” said Richter, 35, who homeschools her two children and helps her husband with plumbing jobs.
“The main reason why we are looking at the refugee programme is in September 2022 my husband’s father was murdered on his farm,” she said. Richter’s mother-in-law was burned with a hot iron, beaten up and abandoned in the bush, but survived.
The Afrikaner rights group AfriForum met Trump allies in the US during his first term, claiming the South African government was “complicit” in white farmer murders. The group, which has 300,000 members, continues to claim that “Afrikaners are the target”.
Rudolph Zinn, a University of Limpopo professor, noted South African police data on farm attacks – which listed 12 “farming community” murders in the final quarter of 2024 – included black smallholder farms and non-commercial plots.
He said: “It’s definitely not linked to any political motive or a specific race. It’s all about the money.”
Zinn said imprisoned farm robbers he interviewed said they would tailor their language to instil as much fear as possible to get victims to hand over cash and valuables. “If it’s a white victim, then they would say: ‘I hate you because you’ve taken our land.’ But the very same offender would, when it’s a Black victim, say: ‘You’re a coconut, black on the outside, but inside you’re white.’”
Both AfriForum, which promotes staying in South Africa, and the prospective refugees raised the controversial Kill the Boer song as a reason for their fears. A South African court ruled in 2022 that the song, sung by the populist, far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party at political rallies, was not meant literally.
Sam Busa, a 60-year-old business consultant of British descent, wants to claim asylum for herself and her three adult sons. She set up an “Amerikaners” website and social media pages to disseminate information, and gathered 30,000 signatures to thank Trump for offering refugee status.
She said: “We’re in, in my personal opinion, an advanced stage of a genocide potentially unfolding. What that does is it effectively throws out any argument about economic status.”
An Indian paramilitary serviceman keeps watch in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, where militants killed 26 tourists last week
Pakistan's information minister says that the country has "credible intelligence" that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours.
Attaullah Tarar's comments come after India accused Pakistan of supporting militants behind an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists last week. Islamabad rejects the allegations.
Tarar said that India intends to use the attack as a "false pretext" for a strike and that "any such military adventurism by India would be responded to assuredly and decisively".
The BBC has contacted the Indian foreign ministry for comment.
The attack near the tourist town of Pahalgam was the deadliest attack on civilians in two decades in the disputed territory. Both India and Pakistan claim the region and have fought two wars over it.
Troops from both sides have traded intermittent small-arms fire across the border in recent days.
There has been speculation over whether India will respond with military strikes against Pakistan, as it did after deadly militant attacks in 2019 and 2016.
Authorities said last week they had conducted extensive searches in Indian-administered Kashmir, detaining more than 1,500 people for questioning. More people have been detained since then, although the numbers are unclear.
Kashmir, which India and Pakistan claim in full but administer only in part, has been a flashpoint between the two nuclear-armed countries since they were partitioned in 1947.
Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an armed insurgency against Indian rule since 1989, with militants targeting security forces and civilians alike.
India has not named any group it suspects carried out the attack in Pahalgam and it remains unclear who did it. A little-known group called the Resistance Front, which was initially reported to have claimed it carried out the shootings, issued a statement denying involvement. The front is reportedly affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group.
Indian police have named three of four suspected attackers. They said two were Pakistani nationals and one a local man from Indian-administered Kashmir. There is no information on the fourth man.
Many survivors said the gunmen specifically targeted Hindu men.
The attack has sparked widespread anger in India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly saying the country will hunt the suspects "till the ends of the earth" and that those who planned and carried it out "will be punished beyond their imagination".
A slowdown in commerce between the United States and China caused by escalating tariffs was evident in a report Wednesday on manufacturing activity in April.
A slowdown in commerce between the United States and China caused by escalating tariffs was evident in a report Wednesday on manufacturing activity in April.
Weeks after she hid from the cameras in the Oval Office, Gretchen Whitmer welcomed the president to her state as he delivered the federal funding she had sought for an air base.
Kyle believed God was looking out for him when he survived a violent farm robbery in South Africa eight years ago with only a black eye and broken ribs. The robbers failed to get the kettle and iron working, so were unable to burn anyone. Then the gun trigger jammed when they tried to shoot Kyle in the spine.
“They specifically said they were coming back for this farm … [that] it was their land,” said the 43-year-old, who did not want to use his full name. “Only afterwards, we found out that the guy that stays on the plot was actually killed … the farmhand … I don’t know what his name was.”
Kyle, a divorced father of three, is one of thousands of white South Africans hoping to take up Donald Trump’s offer of refugee status, to escape crime and what they allege is discrimination against white people.
The Trump administration’s support for these claims, while stopping other new refugee arrivals, has inflamed uncomfortable conversations about how far racial reconciliation still has to go, three decades after the end of white minority rule.
The US president’s offer was a “godsend”, said Kyle, now a salesman working remotely for an overseas company: “I’ve got white children, they’re at the bottom of the hiring list here. So, there is no future for them. And the sad thing is they don’t even know what apartheid is.”
White Afrikaner governments racially segregated every aspect of life from relationships to where people were allowed to live during apartheid, repressing South Africa’s Black majority while keeping the white minority safe and much better off.
South Africa remains deeply unequal, more than 30 years since the system ended. The black South African unemployment rate is 46.1%, for example, compared with 9.2% for white people.
Affirmative action has created a Black elite, but also nurtured feelings of disfranchisement among some white South Africans. Less than two-thirds of white South Africans agreed that apartheid deprived black people of their livelihoods, v three-quarters of Black South Africans, according to the 2023 Reconciliation Barometer, a survey by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, a thinktank.
Kate Lefko-Everett, the report’s author, said: “The level of contact and interaction between South Africans of different race groups has not really changed substantially.”
South Africa’s high violent crime rate – in the last quarter of 2024 there were almost 7,000 murders, according to police figures – affects everyone. But it has also added to a siege mentality among some white people. Almost two-thirds of white people were considering emigrating, compared with 27% of all South Africans, according to 2022 Afrobarometer data.
More than 8,200 people have registered their interest in US refugee status, the New York Times reported in March. The US embassy in Pretoria refused to comment.
Chilly Chomse, a 43-year-old carpenter, said he wanted to claim asylum for the sake of his four daughters.
He moved to Orania, a white, Afrikaner-only town, for work during the Covid-19 pandemic, but said he was not committed like some residents: “Once you leave this Orania premises, you are still in South Africa … you’re not safe and you can’t remain here 24/7 for the rest of your life.”
While some white English-speaking South Africans like Kyle hope the refugee programme will include them too, Trump’s February executive order referred to “ethnic minority Afrikaners”. It claimed a recently signed South African law that allows land expropriation in limited circumstances would enable the government to seize Afrikaners’ property, while state policy was “fuelling disproportionate violence against racially disfavoured landowners” (a longstanding far-right claim).
When Esté Richter, a friend of Chomse’s in Orania, heard about Trump’s refugee policy, she initially did not believe it. “Then I felt that someone has heard us, finally, that someone has heard the cries of Afrikaners,” said Richter, 35, who homeschools her two children and helps her husband with plumbing jobs.
“The main reason why we are looking at the refugee programme is in September 2022 my husband’s father was murdered on his farm,” she said. Richter’s mother-in-law was burned with a hot iron, beaten up and abandoned in the bush, but survived.
The Afrikaner rights group AfriForum met Trump allies in the US during his first term, claiming the South African government was “complicit” in white farmer murders. The group, which has 300,000 members, continues to claim that “Afrikaners are the target”.
Rudolph Zinn, a University of Limpopo professor, noted South African police data on farm attacks – which listed 12 “farming community” murders in the final quarter of 2024 – included black smallholder farms and non-commercial plots.
He said: “It’s definitely not linked to any political motive or a specific race. It’s all about the money.”
Zinn said imprisoned farm robbers he interviewed said they would tailor their language to instil as much fear as possible to get victims to hand over cash and valuables. “If it’s a white victim, then they would say: ‘I hate you because you’ve taken our land.’ But the very same offender would, when it’s a Black victim, say: ‘You’re a coconut, black on the outside, but inside you’re white.’”
Both AfriForum, which promotes staying in South Africa, and the prospective refugees raised the controversial Kill the Boer song as a reason for their fears. A South African court ruled in 2022 that the song, sung by the populist, far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party at political rallies, was not meant literally.
Sam Busa, a 60-year-old business consultant of British descent, wants to claim asylum for herself and her three adult sons. She set up an “Amerikaners” website and social media pages to disseminate information, and gathered 30,000 signatures to thank Trump for offering refugee status.
She said: “We’re in, in my personal opinion, an advanced stage of a genocide potentially unfolding. What that does is it effectively throws out any argument about economic status.”
If last year's general election was all consuming and everywhere, this year's local elections, in truth, are neither.
That is not to denigrate for a moment how much they matter in the places where they are happening, nor the extent to which they will mould the mood of national politics in their aftermath.
So there is a very good chance you are reading this in a part of the country without any contests.
And there is a good chance too, given what I hear from the political parties, that your heart might not be pulsating in ecstasy even if the community centre down the road is morphing into a polling station tomorrow.
I detect a curious paradox right now: anger confronts an expectation of widespread indifference.
Turnout in local elections that do not coincide with a general election are almost always shrivelled.
But what I pick up anecdotally – I've just spent the last few days in Lincolnshire, reporting on the race to be the county's first directly elected mayor – matches what the research group More in Common has picked up in focus groups.
The group's UK Director, Luke Tryl, diagnoses a "despondency or misery about the state of Britain that doesn't feel sustainable".
Put that sentiment, reduced turnout and a splintering of party support in all sorts of directions into the mixer and what you end up with is a wildly unpredictable politics where the margins between victory and defeat could be very narrow indeed.
Or to put it more bluntly: if not many votes in total then go in lots of different directions, two things are likely: the gap between the winner and the runners-up might be rather limited, and the share of the vote needed to win could be very small.
And winning on a small share of the vote raises immediate questions about your mandate.
The elections analyst Sir John Curtice argues in the Telegraph that "the mainstream is dead", five parties have a chance of making real inroads in these contests and what stands out now is that both Labour and the Conservatives are struggling, rather than the conventional dynamic of one being up while the other is down.
The Conservatives have spent weeks talking up how down they feel about these elections.
And senior Labour folk too are cranking up the gloom in the conversations I have with them.
Which then leaves us with Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and an often overlooked element of local English democracy – independents.
This is a huge moment for Reform.
One of the standout trends in British politics since the general election last year has been the party's rising support in the opinion polls.
What Thursday will test is the extent to which that translates into real votes in real elections.
The party's talk is big – they say they can win the next general election. The next few days will give us a sense of how or whether, albeit up to four years out from choosing the next government, that is a plausible claim.
When you wake up on Friday morning. if, unlike political nerds, you have actually been to bed, the headlines that will greet you will be about Reform.
That is because a lot of the contests where there is an expectation that they could win are being counted overnight.
There is the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby near Liverpool and the race to be Lincolnshire's first mayor, for a start.
Later in the day on Friday, the emphasis will shift somewhat, as local authorities particularly but not exclusively in the south of England do their counting, and the Liberal Democrats will be looking to make extensive gains against the Conservatives in particular and we will be able to assess if the Green Party's collection of councillors has grown again.
It is only by Friday teatime that we will have a rounded picture of how all of the parties and the independents contesting these elections have fared.
And then the debate on what it all means will begin.
For generations Sherwen Sergeli and his family have made a living from his village's land, but that's now under threat
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."
Phil Caller
Sergele, a village in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, is now on the front line of Turkey's war with the Kurdish militant PKK group
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.
Phil Caller
Salam Saeed, whose land is in the shadow of a large Turkish military base, has not been able to cultivate his vineyard for three years
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.
Phil Caller
Few residents remain in Kani Masi, where a large Turkish military base (pictured) is now present
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.
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."
Phil Caller
When Hashem Shaker filed a complaint after surviving an air strike 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
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.
Phil Caller
Ismail Chichu says he wants the Kurdish authorities to acknowledge his son's death and send their condolences
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.
"Wills & Kate on love island" reports The Sun as the royal pair make a "romantic getaway" to the Isle of Mull in western Scotland. The trip marks the 14th wedding anniversary of the Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales, who are known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay when in Scotland. The visit includes trying "whisky and haggis in Tobermory", the tabloid writes. Meeting a young girl who also survived cancer, Kate is said to have told her "well done, girl".
Kate is dubbed "lady of the smiles" by the Daily Mail, sharing a photo of her laughing. In parallel, the paper highlights the "notorious hackers" behind the "M&S cyber raid". It reports that "a shadowy group operating under the name Scattered Spider" were to blame for the attack, "which has crippled the retailer for more than a week". The group is "made up of 1,000 mainly British and American youths and young men", according to the Mail.
Former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has told Sir Keir Starmer "net zero is doomed", The Daily Telegraph reports. In its top story, the paper says Sir Tony called the current environmental policy solutions "inadequate" and said that they were "increasingly viewed as unaffordable, ineffective or politically toxic".
The Times echoes the Telegraph with Sir Tony's warning. Unlike the Telegraph though, the paper reports on the end to the Canadian election: "Trump will not break us, vows Carney" after his "triumph". Elsewhere on the front page, "pupils say toodle-oo to playing the recorder" as the instrument "risks going the way of the lute and the harpsichord" and falling out of favour.
"Blair blows hole in Labour's net-zero plan" writes The i Paper, highlighting the former PM's comments that plans to stop using fossil fuels will "fail". Sir Tony's alternate solution of "tech such as AI and small nuclear reactors" is something "government insiders insist" Sir Kier agrees on. A small picture of opposition leader Kemi Badenoch features below larger portraits of the two Labour leaders with the caption "Badenoch the blunderer walks into another fine mess". The i also marks 100 days of US President Donald Trump's second presidency saying "Musk is biggest loser of inner circle".
Clapping and grinning amid supporters, Canadian election victor and now Prime Minister Mark Carney makes the front page photo of the Financial Times. The Liberal party leader "capitalised on a patriotic surge in the face of US President Donald Trump's tariffs", it writes. Below, "US trade gap breaks record" as Trump's tariffs trigger a "surge in imports". The deficit between American imports and exports has widened from $92.8bn this time last year to $162bn, the FT reports. It also writes of how the "golden passport" scheme in Malta has been "ruled illegal" by the European Court of Justice.
A large picture of newly elected Carney also features on the front page of The Guardian with the headline "America will never own us". Several stories from the US also make top billing: Trump's trade deal with the UK has been made a "second-order priority" according to officials and the White House has accused Amazon of a "hostile and political act". The tech giant had planned to inform shoppers of the amount Trump's tariffs would cost them "as they shopped", the Guardian writes. The paper also reports on a story of a Ukrainian journalist who reportedly died by torture in a Russian jail.
"Our children are starving" writes the Daily Mirror in block capitals. It draws attention to "mums' desperate plea" as the Israeli blockade on Gaza which cut off aid supplies on 2 March "leaves 65,000 kids suffering from malnutrition". A photo of a young girl in the crush of a crowd with bowls outstretched around her fills the page.
The duo accused of chopping down the 150-year old sycamore on Hadrian's Wall were "on a moronic mission" says Metro. Friends Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers drove 40 minutes to fell the tree, sending each other videos of its downfall afterwards, it writes.
"Women's battle for safe spaces goes on" headlines the Daily Express in reference to the recent Supreme Court judgment that confirmed the term "woman" refers to a biological woman in the 2010 Equality Act. Transgender former judge Victoria McCloud has written to the European Court of Human Rights saying the judgment "violated her civil liberties". Academic Kathleen Stock, who is a "gender critical campaigner", called her a "moron", according to the paper. Also on the front page of the Express, former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace "did make sex act remark to my male friend".
"Give us sun days off boss" asks the Daily Star as the UK faces "siesta sizzler". Without a day off, the Star writes "we'll call in sick, or, ahem, work from home."
People use candles in the streets of the city Ourense in north-western Spain
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
EPA
People form a queue at a cash point in Madrid
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
Buschschluter family
This windup radio allowed the Buschschluters to tune into radio station
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
Jaime Giorgio
Jaime Giorgio walked across Madrid to take essentials to his family
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
EPA
People turned to candles to light up their homes
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
Bloomberg via Getty Images
People queued outside shops selling power banks in Madrid
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.
Ed Rowe
Ed, sitting on his balcony during the blackout, enjoyed being away from his devices
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."
The global significance of Mark Carney's election as Canadian Prime Minister is he now sits at the centre of an alternative pole of global economic thinking. Everything but Trump.
There was a half expectation here that Carney would immediately sue for peace with President Trump when the polls closed on the election. It has emphatically not happened.
In the final days of polling, in his victory speech in Ottawa, and in his interview with me, he clearly intends to continue with the approach that has brought him to elected power, with a majority still possible. Even if he falls just short of a majority, two of the other main party leaders have lost their seats, and are likely to sign up to some degree behind a united Canada agenda on issues facing the US.
Underpinning this approach is absolute conviction that the US is making a mistake that will primarily and visibly backfire on itself, its companies, and its consumers. The fact the White House is attacking Amazon for "hostile acts" in publishing tariffs is a cast-iron example of this. President Trump's gun is pointed primarily at his own feet, the thinking goes.
Jordan Peterson, an implacable opponent of Mark Carney, recently lamented on Joe Rogan's podcast that "once Carney is elected, Trump will not have a more seasoned enemy in the West. Carney is very well connected especially in Europe and the UK."
While "enemy" is overstating it, Peterson was right, and additionally Carney is also very adept at understanding the nexus between markets and headlines. He made a number of announcements as PM about rethinking the purchase of US fighter jets, slightly changing the purchases of US government debt, all of which would have quickly focused some minds in the US.
That said, there is significant potential economic damage about to be wrought by these tariffs on a Canadian economy, with three quarters of its exports going to the US. There is no getting away from that.
Carney's answer during the campaign was to accept the US has changed and to diversify. A credible push in that direction might also help any chance of US businesses, Congress, or forces within the administration rowing back on the tariffs.
Carney was abundantly clear to me that he is in no rush to go to the White House or Mar-a-Lago.
"We'll have a partnership on our terms. There's a win-win possibility there, but on our terms, not on their terms," he said.
A key part of that is forging new strategic alliances elsewhere, with Europe, and the UK. "One would assume" that Canada and the UK could do a free trade agreement that has been stalled, he told me. Co-operation on defence and Canada's abundant critical minerals is also on the table. He also dismissed President Trump's territorial ambitions not just for his country, but Greenland and Panama too.
On the campaign trail in his hometown of Edmonton, I heard him say "America's leadership of the global economy is over" and that was a "tragedy". Implicitly, he is saying, with the help of the rest of the G7, he will step up.
And by an incredible quirk of fate, it is he who will host the G7 summit in Alberta in June, just days before the expiry of President Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs pause. Will Trump attend on the land he both tariffs and covets?
All roads lead to Kananaskis in the middle of June.
State officials have detained thousands of Muslims and demolished homes, and activists say that right-wing Hindus are intensifying a demonization campaign.
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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People use candles in the streets of the city Ourense in north-western Spain
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
EPA
People form a queue at a cash point in Madrid
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
Buschschluter family
This windup radio allowed the Buschschluters to tune into radio station
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
Jaime Giorgio
Jaime Giorgio walked across Madrid to take essentials to his family
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
EPA
People turned to candles to light up their homes
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
Bloomberg via Getty Images
People queued outside shops selling power banks in Madrid
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.
Ed Rowe
Ed, sitting on his balcony during the blackout, enjoyed being away from his devices
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."
The charges stemmed from a criminal case more than 20 years ago. In the interim, the businessman, David Lee, had repeatedly visited China without issue.
The charges stemmed from a criminal case more than 20 years ago. In the interim, the businessman, David Lee, had repeatedly visited China without issue.
Trump’s comments undermined previous statements by his top aides and were a blunt sign of his administration’s intention to double down and defy the courts.
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