Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused the US and Donald Trump of being responsible for "casualties, damage and slander" in his country during recent protests.

In a speech on Saturday, Khamenei acknowledged that thousands of people had been killed during recent unrest, "some in an inhuman, savage manner" but blamed the deaths on "seditionists".

The US president has urged Iranian anti-government demonstrators to "keep protesting" and threatened military intervention if security forces kill them.

Protests in Iran have claimed 3,090 lives, according to US-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), in unrest that started over the economy on 28 December.

Since then, the protests have turned into calls for the end of the rule of Iran's supreme leader.

The Iranian government has called the demonstrations "riots" backed by Iran's enemies.

Protesters have been met with deadly force and there has been a near-total shutdown of the internet and communication services.

There have been fewer reports of unrest in recent days but with internet access still restricted developments on the ground remain unclear.

During his speech on Saturday, Khamenei also said Iran considered President Trump to be a "criminal" and said the US must be "held accountable" for recent unrest.

He also claimed on social media that "America's goal is to swallow Iran".

Trump has not yet responded to the supreme leader and the BBC has approached the White House for a comment.

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had been told "the killing in Iran has stopped", but added that he had not ruled out military action against the country.

His comments came after the US and UK both reduced the number of personnel at the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

Officials told CBS, the BBC's US partner, that a partial American withdrawal was a "precautionary measure".

A new system urging doctors to "think again" if they are unable to pin down a diagnosis after seeing a patient three times - named Jess's Rule - is to be advertised in every GP surgery in England from this week.

The NHS initiative is named after Jessica Brady, who died from advanced stage 4 cancer in 2020, at the age of 27.

Before her eventual diagnosis, Jess had contacted her GP on more than 20 occasions after feeling unwell. But she was told her symptoms were related to long Covid and she was "too young for cancer".

Her mother, Andrea Brady, welcomed the government rollout of the posters. She told BBC Breakfast: "We still need to trust our doctors but trust ourselves as well."

Under the patient safety initiative, GPs are asked to take a "fresh eyes" approach if they have been unable to offer a patient a substantiated diagnosis or their symptoms have escalated after three appointments.

Jess, an engineer at Airbus, became ill in June 2020.

Andrea said her family initially assumed it was something minor, "but that wasn't what happened for Jess".

Her symptoms, which included unexplained weight loss, night sweats and vomiting, escalated.

"It was very, very painful... to see the impact on Jess not just physically but the toll it was taking on her mentally," said Andrea.

Jess had contact with six different doctors at her GP surgery and three face-to-face consultations with a family doctor, but no referral to a specialist was made.

Her family then arranged a private appointment and she was referred to a specialist, who gave Jess a terminal cancer diagnosis of adenocarcinoma, cancer of the glands that line the organs, in November.

She died three weeks later, days before Christmas 2020.

The government said posters in consultation rooms would improve patient safety by prompting doctors to "revisit patient records, challenge initial assumptions and remain alert to warning signs that might otherwise be missed".

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "Every patient deserves to be heard, and every serious illness deserves to be caught early.

"Jess's Rule makes that possible - reminding clinicians to take a fresh look when symptoms persist, and empowering patients to speak up about their care."

Andrea said the family wanted to follow what Jess had "really wanted to start when she was diagnosed, which was to create some positive change".

"It's taken five years but to know now that Jess's rule is out there and happening and is being received really positively and proactively by primary care colleagues is really, really important," she added.

She said the rule was a "two-way thing" intended to benefit both patients and GPs.

The posters were designed by the Department of Health and Social Care, Jess's mum Andrea and dad Simon, and NHS England.

Dr Claire Fuller, National Medical Director for NHS England, said: "Encouraging GP teams to challenge a diagnosis when it matters most could save lives by avoiding missed or late diagnoses."

The White House has released the names of the members who will form the Trump administration's new "Board of Peace" for Gaza.

With the US president as chair, the board will oversee the work of a committee of Palestinian technocrats tasked with the temporary governance of Gaza - and its reconstruction.

Each member of the "Board of Peace" is expected to be in charge of a portfolio that will be "critical to Gaza's stabilisation", the White House added. But it is not yet clear who will be responsible for which priorities.

So who is on the board?

Sir Tony Blair

Former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair had long been talked about as a potential member of Trump's "Board of Peace, with the US president confirming back in September that he had expressed an interest in joining the body.

The former Labour Party leader was the UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007 and took the country into the Iraq War in 2003, a decision which means some may view his presence on the board as controversial.

After leaving office, he served as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of international powers - the United Nations, European Union, US and Russia - from 2007 to 2015.

Sir Tony is the only founding member of the executive board who is not a US citizen.

Sir Tony previously described Trump's plans for Gaza as the "best chance of ending two years of war, misery and suffering".

Marco Rubio

As US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio is central to the Trump administration's approach to foreign policy.

Before Trump's return to office, Rubio had spoken out against a ceasefire in Gaza, saying that he wanted Israel "to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on".

But he has since praised the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal signed in October as the "best" and "only" plan.

Also in October, Rubio criticised a move by the Israeli parliament towards annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Steve Witkoff

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, a real estate magnate and golf partner to Trump, will also be on the board.

Earlier this month, Witkoff announced the start of phase two of Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza, adding that it would see the reconstruction and full demilitarisation of Gaza - including the disarmament of Hamas.

He added that he expects Hamas to "comply fully with its obligations" under the deal, or face "serious consequences".

Witkoff has been a central figure in US-led efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, including holding a five-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in December.

Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law, has also played a key role in the Trump administration's foreign policy negotiations.

Alongside Witkoff, Kushner has often worked as a US mediator for the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars.

In November, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss key sticking points in the peace deal.

At a talk at Harvard University in 2024, Kushner said "Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable... if people would focus on building up livelihoods."

Marc Rowan

Billionaire Marc Rowan is the CEO of Apollo Global Management, a large private equity firm headquartered in New York.

Rowan was seen as a contender to become US treasury secretary for Trump's second term.

Ajay Banga

Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, has advised a number of senior US politicians, including President Barack Obama, during his lengthy career.

Born in India in 1959, Banga became a US citizen in 2007, and later served as the CEO of Mastercard for more than a decade.

Former US President Joe Biden nominated him to lead the World Bank in 2023.

Robert Gabriel

Robert Gabriel, a US national security adviser, will be the final member of the "founding executive board".

Gabriel has worked with Trump since his 2016 presidential campaign, shortly after which, according to PBS, he became a special assistant to Stephen Miller, another of Trump's key current advisers.

Nickolay Mladenov

The White House statement also said that Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and former UN Middle East envoy, would be the board's representative on the ground in Gaza.

He will oversee a separate 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), charged with managing the day-to-day governance of post-war Gaza.

The NCAG will be led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA) which governs parts of the occupied West Bank not under Israeli control, will head that new committee.

The Syrian army is moving into areas east of Aleppo city, after Kurdish forces started a withdrawal.

Syrian troops have been spotted entering Deir Hafer, a town about 50km (30 miles) from Aleppo.

On Friday, the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia announced it would redeploy east of the Euphrates river. This follows talks with US officials, and a pledge from Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to make Kurdish a national language.

After deadly clashes last week, the US urged both sides to avoid a confrontation. President al-Sharaa is seeking to integrate the Kurds' military and civilian bodies into Syrian national institutions.

In a statement to state-run news agency Sana, the Syrian army said its forces "began entering the western Euphrates area", and declared it had established "full military control" of Deir Hafer.

The military urged civilians not to enter the operations area until it is secured and "cleared it of all mines and war remnants".

Images showed Syrian forces advancing towards the area, including with tanks.

The move comes after Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi agreed to pull back his US-backed SDF "towards redeployment in areas east of the Euphrates", responding to "calls from friendly countries and mediators".

US special envoy Tom Barrack and Mazloum Abdi are set to meet later on Saturday in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

In recent days, the Syrian army had urged civilians to flee the Deir Hafer area, with at least 4,000 people leaving, according to Syrian authorities.

Before the Kurdish withdrawal, President al-Sharaa said he would make Kurdish a national language, and recognise the Kurdish new year as an official holiday.

The decree, announced on Friday, is the first formal recognition of Kurdish national rights since Syria's independence in 1946. It stated that Kurds were "an essential and integral part" of Syria, where they have endured decades of oppression under previous rulers.

Despite the apparent easing of tensions, disagreements linger. In response to the decree, the Kurdish administration in Syria's north and north-east said it was "a first step" but called for "permanent constitutions that express the will of the people", rather than "temporary decrees".

Meanwhile, after Syrian troops entered areas east of Aleppo, accusing Damascus of "violating" the agreement by moving in earlier than agreed.

Syria's army also accused the SDF of "violating the agreement", saying two of its soldiers had been killed by Kurdish forces as the military moved in.

Kurdish forces have been controlling swathes of Syria's oil-rich north and north-east, much of it gained during the civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade.

Following the ousting of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, President al-Sharaa has been seeking to integrate the Kurdish bodies into Syrian institutions.

In March 2025, the SDF signed a deal with the government to that effect. Almost a year on, the agreement is still not implemented, with each sides blaming the other.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused the US and Donald Trump of being responsible for "casualties, damage and slander" in his country during recent protests.

In a speech on Saturday, Khamenei acknowledged that thousands of people had been killed during recent unrest, "some in an inhuman, savage manner" but blamed the deaths on "seditionists".

The US president has urged Iranian anti-government demonstrators to "keep protesting" and threatened military intervention if security forces kill them.

Protests in Iran have claimed 3,090 lives, according to US-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), in unrest that started over the economy on 28 December.

Since then, the protests have turned into calls for the end of the rule of Iran's supreme leader.

The Iranian government has called the demonstrations "riots" backed by Iran's enemies.

Protesters have been met with deadly force and there has been a near-total shutdown of the internet and communication services.

There have been fewer reports of unrest in recent days but with internet access still restricted developments on the ground remain unclear.

During his speech on Saturday, Khamenei also said Iran considered President Trump to be a "criminal" and said the US must be "held accountable" for recent unrest.

He also claimed on social media that "America's goal is to swallow Iran".

Trump has not yet responded to the supreme leader and the BBC has approached the White House for a comment.

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had been told "the killing in Iran has stopped", but added that he had not ruled out military action against the country.

His comments came after the US and UK both reduced the number of personnel at the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

Officials told CBS, the BBC's US partner, that a partial American withdrawal was a "precautionary measure".

President Yoweri Museveni has been declared the winner of Thursday's election extending his four decades in power by another five years.

He gained 72% of the vote, the election commission announced, against 25% for his closest challenger Bobi Wine, who has condemned what he described as "fake results" and "ballot stuffing". He has not provided any evidence and the authorities have not responded to his allegations.

Wine has called on Ugandans to hold non-violent protests.

Museveni, 81, first came to power as a rebel leader in 1986 but since then has won seven elections.

The election process was marred by violence and Wine, a 43-year-old former pop star, says that at least 21 people have been killed around the country in recent days.

The authorities have so far confirmed seven deaths.

Access to the internet has been cut in the country since Tuesday, making it hard to verify information.

The authorities say the blackout was necessary to prevent misinformation, fraud and the incitement of violence - a move condemned by the UN human rights office as "deeply worrying".

Wine has demanded that the internet be restored.

Overnight, Wine's party said that he had been abducted from his home in the capital, Kampala - a claim denied by the police.

Wine later issued a statement on Facebook saying that he had managed to evade a night-time raid by security forces and was in hiding.

He had previously said he was under house arrest.

This has not been confirmed by the police but spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said Wine's movements were restricted because his home was an area of "security interest".

"We have controlled access to areas which are security hotspots," Uganda's Daily Monitor paper quoted him as saying.

"We cannot allow people to use some places to gather and cause chaos," he said.

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The Syrian army is moving into areas east of Aleppo city, after Kurdish forces started a withdrawal.

Syrian troops have been spotted entering Deir Hafer, a town about 50km (30 miles) from Aleppo.

On Friday, the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia announced it would redeploy east of the Euphrates river. This follows talks with US officials, and a pledge from Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to make Kurdish a national language.

After deadly clashes last week, the US urged both sides to avoid a confrontation. President al-Sharaa is seeking to integrate the Kurds' military and civilian bodies into Syrian national institutions.

In a statement to state-run news agency Sana, the Syrian army said its forces "began entering the western Euphrates area", and declared it had established "full military control" of Deir Hafer.

The military urged civilians not to enter the operations area until it is secured and "cleared it of all mines and war remnants".

Images showed Syrian forces advancing towards the area, including with tanks.

The move comes after Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi agreed to pull back his US-backed SDF "towards redeployment in areas east of the Euphrates", responding to "calls from friendly countries and mediators".

US special envoy Tom Barrack and Mazloum Abdi are set to meet later on Saturday in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

In recent days, the Syrian army had urged civilians to flee the Deir Hafer area, with at least 4,000 people leaving, according to Syrian authorities.

Before the Kurdish withdrawal, President al-Sharaa said he would make Kurdish a national language, and recognise the Kurdish new year as an official holiday.

The decree, announced on Friday, is the first formal recognition of Kurdish national rights since Syria's independence in 1946. It stated that Kurds were "an essential and integral part" of Syria, where they have endured decades of oppression under previous rulers.

Despite the apparent easing of tensions, disagreements linger. In response to the decree, the Kurdish administration in Syria's north and north-east said it was "a first step" but called for "permanent constitutions that express the will of the people", rather than "temporary decrees".

Meanwhile, after Syrian troops entered areas east of Aleppo, accusing Damascus of "violating" the agreement by moving in earlier than agreed.

Syria's army also accused the SDF of "violating the agreement", saying two of its soldiers had been killed by Kurdish forces as the military moved in.

Kurdish forces have been controlling swathes of Syria's oil-rich north and north-east, much of it gained during the civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade.

Following the ousting of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, President al-Sharaa has been seeking to integrate the Kurdish bodies into Syrian institutions.

In March 2025, the SDF signed a deal with the government to that effect. Almost a year on, the agreement is still not implemented, with each sides blaming the other.

Google has appealed a US district judge's landmark antitrust ruling that found the company illegally held a monopoly in online search.

"As we have long said, the Court's August 2024 ruling ignored the reality that people use Google because they want to, not because they're forced to," Google's vice president for regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland said.

In its announcement on Friday, Google said the ruling by Judge Amit Mehta didn't account for the pace of innovation and intense competition the company faces.

The company is requesting a pause on implementing a series of fixes - viewed by some observers as too lenient - aimed at limiting its monopoly power.

Judge Mehta acknowledged the rapid changes to the Google's business when he issued his remedies in September, writing that the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) had changed the course of the case.

He refused to grant government lawyers their request for a Google breakup that would include a spin-off of Chrome, the world's most popular browser.

Instead, he pushed less rigorous remedies, including a requirement that Google share certain data with "qualified competitors" as deemed by the court.

That data was due to include portions of its search index, Google's massive inventory of web content that functions like a map of the internet.

The judge also called for Google to allow certain competitors to display the tech giant's search results as their own in a bid to give upstarts the time and resources they need to innovate.

On Friday, Mulholland balked at being forced to share search data and syndication services with rivals as she justified the request for a halt to implementing the orders.

"These mandates would risk Americans' privacy and discourage competitors from building their own products — ultimately stifling the innovation that keeps the U.S. at the forefront of global technology," Mulholland wrote.

While the company has invested growing sums of cash into AI, those ambitions have come under scrutiny.

Last month, the EU opened an investigation into Google over its AI summaries which appear above search results.

The European Commission said it would probe whether Google used data from websites to provide the service and failed to offer appropriate compensation to publishers.

Google said the investigation risked stifling innovation in a competitive market.

This week, Google parent Alphabet became the fourth company ever to reach a market capitalisation of $4tn.

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From the moment he seized power in September 2021 Guinea's Mamadi Doumbouya struck an imposing figure.

Just 36 years old at the time, the broad-shouldered colonel, standing at well over six feet (1.8m), wearing military fatigues, mirrored sunglasses and a red beret certainly made an impression when announcing the coup.

A relatively unknown member of an elite army unit, he declared that the government of ousted President Alpha Condé had disregarded democratic principles and that citizens' rights were being trampled on.

After more than four years of acting as interim president, and going back on a promise not to run for leadership of the country, Doumbouya, now 41, is set to be sworn in as the elected head of state on Saturday.

The discreet, disciplined and private man won 87% of the vote in December's election against a severely depleted field.

Ex-Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, now in exile, described the process as a charade which generated "fabricated" results.

While seemingly enjoying some popular support, critics have questioned Doumbouya's democratic credentials as some political parties have been banned, activists have mysteriously disappeared and media outlets been shut down.

Scrolling back through the social media accounts from the president's office there is a sense of a carefully curated image.

The army man, now a general, has, for the main, ditched the camouflage in favour of the baseball cap and tracksuit, or a boubou - traditional Guinean attire of loose-fitting robes with elaborate embroidery. The shades though are still at times in evidence.

Pictures show him at the opening of schools, or transport and mining infrastructure or cycling through the streets of the capital, Conakry. The message is clear: this is a man of action who is working on behalf of the people.

"This was presenting an image of someone who can be close to civilians, someone who is a civilian leader and can be representative of the people," Beverly Ochieng, senior analyst with Dakar-based security intelligence firm Control Risks, told the BBC.

"In some ways this is distancing himself from what brought him to power – a coup - and the fact that his entire career has been in the military."

In the 15 years before he took power, Doumbouya gained extensive international experience, including being educated to master's level in France and serving in the French Foreign Legion. He was also in Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Central African Republic and worked on close protection in Israel, Cyprus and the UK.

But the donning of civilian clothes may not be entirely sincere, according to some analysts.

"I'm not sure that he has transitioned from a military man. I think that the military costume will remain even if he is conducting the return to civilian order," argued Aïssatou Kanté, a researcher in the West Africa office of the Institute of Security Studies.

She referred to a ban on political demonstrations, the exclusion of Doumbouya's main challengers in December's election and the suspension of key opposition parties.

Human rights campaigners have demanded to know the whereabouts of two activists - Oumar Sylla (known as Foniké Menguè) and Mamadou Billo Bah – who have not been seen since July 2024. They suspect the men were taken by the military.

Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders has also expressed concern that journalist Habib Marouane Camara has been missing for more than a year. It has described how journalists are now censoring themselves and are fearful about what might happen to them.

Nevertheless, the 2021 coup was widely welcomed in the country and since then Doumbouya appears to have remained a popular figure.

Polling organisation Afrobarometer found that between 2022 and 2024 the proportion of people who trusted the president either "partially" or "a lot" grew from 46% to 53%.

The president-elect may not have a clearly defined ideology guiding him but for Kanté his emphasis on Guineans being in control of their own destiny has become very important.

"It's what keeps coming up in official speeches - this affirmation of political and economic sovereignty," she told the BBC.

In his address to the nation a few days into the new year, he struck a conciliatory tone, calling on all Guineans to build a nation of peace and "fully assumed" sovereignty.

In a country that continues to grapple with high levels of poverty despite plentiful natural resources – including the world's largest reserves of bauxite, which is used to make aluminium - this idea strikes a chord.

The government's messaging on the development of the vast iron-ore resources in Simandou underscores the possible benefits for the people.

The three billion tonnes of ore available in a remote southern part of the country, which began to be exported last month, could transform the global iron market, as well as Guinea's fortunes.

The authorities say earnings from the project, partly owned by Chinese miners as well as the British-Australian corporation Rio Tinto, will be invested in new transport infrastructure as well as health and education.

The success or otherwise of Simandou may define Doumbouya's presidency.

He appears determined to keep some of the processing and added-value parts of the industry in Guinea to ensure greater benefits.

Across the broader mining sector, his government has cancelled dozens of contracts over the past year where it was felt that the companies were not investing in Guinea – a move that has led one UAE-based firm to take the country to an international court.

"This move towards resource nationalism makes him look like a local hero. He looks like he's really fighting for the rights of his citizens, even if that means business disruptions," said analyst Ochieng.

The emphasis on sovereignty has also led to a pragmatic approach to international relations, observers say. Unlike coup leaders elsewhere in West Africa, Doumbouya has not outrightly rejected the former colonial power France in favour of Russia.

Neither, despite his background in France and having a French wife, has he been accused of being a puppet of Paris.

Doumbouya very much wants to be seen as someone running things in the interests of the country.

Come Saturday, the president will preach a message of national unity and will hope that he can usher in a new era of prosperity for Guinea.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney's new approach to Canada's foreign policy can perhaps be distilled in one line: "We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be."

That was his response when asked about the deal struck with China on Friday, despite concerns over its human rights record and nearly a year after he called China "the biggest security threat" facing Canada.

The deal will see Canada ease tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that it imposed in tandem with the US in 2024. In exchange, China will lower retaliatory tariffs on key Canadian agricultural products.

Experts told the BBC the move represents a significant shift in Canada's policy on China, one that is shaped by ongoing uncertainty with the US, its largest trade partner.

"The prime minister is saying, essentially, that Canada has agency too, and that it's not going to just sit and wait for the United States," said Eric Miller, a Washington DC based trade adviser and president of the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group.

• China and Canada announce tariffs relief after high-stakes meeting
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• Four things the US wants from Canada on trade

Carney told reporters on Friday that "the world has changed" in recent years, and the progress made with China sets Canada up "well for the new world order".

Canada's relationship with China, he added, had become "more predictable" than its relationship with the US under the Trump administration.

He later wrote, in a social media post, that Canada was "recalibrating" its relationship with China, "strategically, pragmatically, and decisively".

In Canada, as daylight broke on Friday, reaction to the deal was swift.

Some, like Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, hailed it as "very good news". Farmers in Moe's province have been hard hit by China's retaliatory tariffs on Canadian canola oil, and the deal, he said, would bring much needed relief.

But Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province is home to Canada's auto sector, was sharply critical of the deal. He said removing EV tariffs on China "would hurt our economy and lead to job losses".

In a post on X, Ford said Carney's government was "inviting a flood of cheap made-in-China electric vehicles without any real guarantees of equal or immediate investment in Canada's economy".

Some experts said the electric vehicle provisions in the trade deal would help China make inroads into the Canadian automobile market.

With the lower EV tariffs, approximately 10% of Canada's electric vehicle sales are now expected to go to Chinese automakers, said Vivek Astvansh, a business professor at McGill University in Montreal.

The expected increase in Chinese EV sales could put pressure on US-based EV makers like Tesla which are seeking to expand their market share in Canada, he said.

"Carney has signalled to the Trump administration that it is warming up to China," Astvansh added.

Reaction from the White House, meanwhile, has been mixed.

In an interview with CNBC on Friday morning, US trade representative Jamieson Greer called the deal "problematic" and said Canada may come to regret it.

President Donald Trump, however, hailed it as "a good thing".

"If you can get a deal with China, you should do that," he told reporters outside the White House.

Since taking office for a second time last year, Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian sectors like metals and automotives, which has led to swirling economic uncertainty. He has also threatened to rip up a longstanding North American free trade agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico, calling it "irrelevant".

That trade agreement, the USMCA, is now under a mandatory review. Canada and Mexico have both made clear they want it to remain in place.

But the decision to carve out a major new deal with China is a recognition by Carney that the future of North American free trade remains unclear, Miller of the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group told the BBC.

"There's a reasonable chance that we could end up in 2026 without a meaningful, workable trade deal with the United States," he said. "And Canada needs to be prepared."

The deal with China drops Canada's levies on Chinese EVs from 100% to 6.1% for the first 49,000 vehicles imported each year. That quota could rise, Carney said, reaching 70,000 in half a decade.

Canada and the US put levies on Chinese EVs in 2024, arguing that China was overproducing vehicles and undermining the ability of other countries to compete.

China is the world's largest producer of EVs, accounting for 70% of global production.

In exchange, China will cut tariffs on Canadian canola seed to around 15% by 1 March, down from the current rate of 84%. Carney said Beijing had also committed to removing tariffs on Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crabs and peas "until at least the end of the year".

China also committed to removing visa requirements for Canadian visitors, Carney said.

Beijing did not corroborate the details in a separate statement, but said "the two reached a preliminary joint agreement on addressing bilateral economic and trade issues".

The introduction of Chinese EVs to Canada's market will likely mean cheaper prices for Canadian consumers, said Gal Raz, an associate professor of Operations Management and Sustainability at Western University and an expert on the EV supply chain.

But Raz acknowledged that the deal Canada struck could hurt Canadian car manufacturers if it comes without further action from the Carney government to help the domestic sector.

He said it was the result of an "unfortunate" deterioration of the Canada-US trade relationship, which he noted has also hurt Canada's automotive industry.

"The US has really put Canada in a corner," he said.

Asked why Canada is giving China access to its automotive market, Carney said that China produces "some of the most affordable and energy-efficient vehicles in the world". He said he expects the deal will spur Chinese investment into Canada's auto industry, though he did not provide further details.

Trump himself has signalled openness to China building plants in the US if it means creating more jobs for Americans, despite his tough-on-China stance.

"If they want to come in and build a plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbours, that's great, I love that," Trump said at the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday. "Let China come in, let Japan come in."

The US president is notably headed to Beijing for his own meeting with President Xi Jinping in April. He has also invited Xi for a state visit to Washington.

For Carney, though, Friday's deal may just be the first step in a "recalibration" of Canada's trade relations.

With additional reporting from Daniel Bush in Washington

Credit card debt is an increasingly heavy burden for millions of Americans.

Selena Cooper, 26, is among those dealing with the strain. A former paralegal at the Social Security Administration, she was left without a stable income when the US government shut down a few months ago. She lost her job permanently after Christmas.

Cooper first missed her credit card payments in October, when her paycheques ground to a halt. Since then, she said her debt across her three credit cards has accumulated to $6,000.

Last month, her card issuers Capital One and American Express notified her that they were raising her interest rates due to late payments. The rate on her Capital One cards doubled to 16%, while the one on her Amex jumped from 10% to 18%, she said.

Credit card rates have caught the attention of US President Donald Trump. Last week, he proposed capping them at 10% for one year from 20 January - an idea that Cooper said "would help a little bit, but it's still not going to get me out of debt".

Cooper, who lives in Columbia, South Carolina, is now leaning on her photography business for income. "It'll pay small bills - but not my credit card debt," she said.

Credit card interest rates have been rising in recent years. They averaged about 22% as of November, up from 13% a decade ago, Federal Reserve data shows. 37% of adults carry a credit card balance, and overall credit card debt in the US totals more than $1tn.

"It does show that consumers are feeling pinched, they're going to continue to feel pinched," Susan Schmidt, portfolio manager at Exchange Capital Resources in Chicago, told the BBC.

"I think the Trump administration is trying to find a way out of it."

Trump's proposal, which was among his campaign promises, was met with a swift backlash from bank executives, who say a cap would erode consumers' access to credit. Banks could cut credit limits or close riskier accounts.

Interest charges are a source of revenue for banks and other big lenders, amounting to $160bn in 2024, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - an agency that Trump largely dismantled last year.

Banks are already pushing to protect that income, arguing that a rate cap would backfire to the detriment of consumers. JP Morgan hinted at the possibility of legal action.

"People will lose access to credit on a very, very extensive and broad basis, especially the people who need it the most," Jeremy Barnum, JP Morgan's chief financial officer, warned on the company's earnings call on Monday.

Jane Fraser, Citigroup's chief executive, also pushed back against the proposal on Wednesday and warned of a "severe impact on access to credit and on consumer spending across the country".

Some analysts and economists agree that a cap, on its own, might not benefit consumers as much as Trump and lawmakers across the political aisle claim.

"A 10% cap may not be the right solution because the people that are already in trouble, that's not necessarily going to help them," said Schmidt of Exchange Capital Resources.

Benedict Guttman-Kenney, an assistant professor of finance at Rice University, said banks might respond by limiting how much they lend to people with lower credit scores, who are considered higher-risk borrowers. Those are the people most at risk of losing access to credit cards, he said.

Banks, he added, might also try to recoup their revenue elsewhere, like by raising annual fees or late fees.

"It's not clear that people are going to be better off," Guttman-Kenney said. "They're still paying similar amounts of money."

But he noted that some bank expenses are "bloated", meaning they have room to cut costs to keep their margins intact. They could, for example, trim down how much they spend on marketing, he said.

And a recent Vanderbilt University study found that Americans would save roughly $100bn a year in interest costs if a 10% rate cap were to be implemented.

"This is something people would see, they would notice, they would feel it," said Brian Shearer, a researcher at Vanderbilt's Policy Accelerator and the author of the study.

"This alone would impact their household budgets substantially."

Shearer questioned a key argument put forward by bank executives and their lobbyists: that any reduction in rates will necessarily lead to a reduction in lending. He pointed to banks' robust margins in the credit card market.

Interest payments, he added, do not account for the majority of the revenue that banks earn on credit cards.

"No policy is without some pros and cons," Shearer said. "To continue lending, banks would have to reduce rewards to some extent, especially to people with lower FICO scores (credit scores).

"However, the savings from interest, even to those people who lose some rewards, would far exceed the lost rewards."

'I'm losing sleep'

Morgan, 31, who asked to use only her first name, is also among those struggling to pay down thousands of dollars.

Since last May, she has been using her Discover card to pay for her two-year-old daughter's childcare, while unemployed. She said she decided to send her daughter to daycare because she needed the freedom, due to struggles with her mental and physical health.

Those payments have left her with $6,700 in credit card debt.

Morgan's husband works in the military and pays for the family's other expenses. Through a service member benefit programme, she secured an interest rate of roughly 3% on her credit card. Had she been forced to pay the typical 27% interest rate, sending her daughter to childcare would not have been an option, she said.

"I'm losing sleep over the $6,700, but I have a little wiggle room to be able to do that because once I get a job, I can pay it off," Morgan said.

That's why Trump's proposal to cap credit card rates at 10% struck her as a "step in the right direction".

"I hope it actually comes to fruition," she said. "It's one of the few things he's done that prioritises people over businesses."

Will the proposal go anywhere?

The idea to cap credit card rates has been floating in legislative circles for years, and it has garnered bipartisan support.

Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican, and Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democrat, last year introduced a bill to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement that she spoke with Trump this week and "told him that Congress can pass legislation to cap credit card rates if he will actually fight for it".

"If he really wants to get something done, including capping credit card interest rates or lowering housing costs, he would use his leverage and pick up the phone," Warren said.

Still, there are hurdles ahead. Getting Congress on board could prove challenging, despite some support on both sides of the aisle.

House Speaker Mike Johnson this week distanced himself from the rate cap proposal, citing "negative secondary effects" and a pullback in lending as a result. "It's something that we've got to be very deliberate about," Johnson said at a press conference.

And banks are poised to keep pushing hard against it.

"If the Trump administration backs down, I think it would be because of the bank lobbying," said Shearer, of Vanderbilt.

"This is their cash cow. They're not going to let it go easily."

Four people have been taken to hospital and several people have been arrested after a protest outside the Iranian embassy in London.

One protester climbed across balconies onto the embassy roof removing a flag on Friday night before being detained, said police.

It added police officers had been injured after missiles were thrown at them, although the ambulance service has not said whether it was police or protesters who were taken to hospital.

Demonstrations have been taking place outside the embassy after widespread anti-government protests in Iran, where more than 2,600 protesters have been killed, according to a US-based human rights group.

The man who removed a flag from the embassy's roof was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, trespass on diplomatic property and assaulting police, the Metropolitan Police said.

It added "a number" of people had also been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and a section 35 dispersal order had been imposed outside the embassy "as a result of ongoing disorder".

"A significant police presence remains in place, including additional officers who have been deployed during the evening to prevent further disorder."

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said it was called at 20:45 GMT "to reports of an incident at the junction of Exhibition Road and Kensington Road".

Four people had been taken to hospital while two others were treated at the scene, it said.

Earlier this week the Iranian ambassador in London was summoned to the Foreign Office after the killings of protesters in Iran.

Last Saturday, two people were arrested at a protest outside the embassy where a protester also climbed onto the building's balcony and appeared to tear down the Iranian flag.