Germany's conservatives under Friedrich Merz have reached a deal with the Social Democrats to govern Europe's biggest economy, five months after the previous government collapsed.

Merz, 69, said their agreement sent "a strong and clear signal" to Germans and the EU that Germany "will get a strong government capable of action".

The two sides have been under intense pressure to put an end to Germany's political limbo since Merz's Christian Democrats won federal elections in February.

Germany has been buffeted by economic turbulence caused by President Donald Trump's trade tariffs, and recent opinion polls suggest the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany has now overtaken Merz's party.

Merz, 69, may have to wait until next month for the new parliament to elect him as chancellor, but should have no problem with a 13-seat majority.

Announcing the coalition deal, he said the parties had worked very hard over the past few weeks, but "ahead of us we have a strong plan to bring our country to the forefront again".

Merz promised the next government would reform and stabilise Germany and that the rest of Europe would be able to rely on the country.

The parties had already signalled their urgency last month, when they pushed through significant reform of Germany's strict debt rules.

The changes will mean the new government will be able to plough significant investment into the military and the country's crumbling infrastructure.

Included in Wednesday's agreement are a series of measures to "control and largely end irregular migration" and impose border controls, aimed at addressing one of the big concerns of voters in the February election.

Merz said he was confident the coalition deal would be approved by their respective parties and that they would be able to get to work in early May.

Meanwhile, an Ipsos poll on Wednesday put Merz's conservatives in second place on 24% support, a point behind Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose co-leader Alice Weidel hailed the survey as unprecedented, and promised that "political change will come".

At least 29 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a multi-storey residential building in the east of Gaza City, a local hospital says.

The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said warplanes targeted the area near al-Hawashi mosque in the Shejaiya neighbourhood on Tuesday morning.

It said eight children were among the dead, more than 60 people were injured, and that rescuers were still searching for two dozen others under the rubble.

The Israeli military said it had struck a "senior Hamas terrorist" who was responsible for planning and executing attacks in the area.

Numerous steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of "precision weapons", it added.

The military also accused Hamas of violating international law by deliberately using the civilian population as human shields.

Video from Shejaiya showed the dust-covered bodies of small children being carried away from the rubble by distraught relatives and rescue workers.

Ayub Salim, 26, told AFP news agency that the area around the residential building struck on Tuesday morning was "overcrowded with tents, displaced people and homes".

He said it was hit by "multiple missiles" and that "shrapnel flew in all directions".

"Dust and massive destruction filled the entire place, we couldn't see anything, just the screams and panic of the people," he added. "It is truly a horrific massacre."

Hamas also said the Israeli military had "committed a bloody massacre".

Thousands of Shejaiya residents fled last week after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the neighbourhood, saying it was operating with force to destroy "terrorist infrastructure".

Earlier on Tuesday, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said at least 33 people had been killed in Israeli attacks over the previous 24 hours.

That brought the reported total of those killed since Israel resumed its air and ground campaign against Hamas on 18 March to 1,482.

Another 390,000 people have been displaced over the past three weeks, with two-thirds of the territory now designated by the Israeli military as "no-go" zones or placed under evacuation orders, according to the UN.

The UN has also warned that supplies of food, medicine and fuel have dried up because Israel has prevented any deliveries of humanitarian aid for a month to put pressure on Hamas.

On Tuesday, Secretary General António Guterres condemned the Israeli blockade, saying it violated international law and had opened "the floodgates of horror".

"Gaza is a killing field and civilians are in an endless death loop," he added.

The Israeli foreign ministry rejected Guterres' criticism, saying he had "not let the facts get in the way when spreading slander against Israel".

"There is no shortage of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip - over 25,000 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip in the 42 days of the ceasefire. Hamas used this aid to rebuild its war machine," spokesman Oren Marmonstein said.

On Monday, the heads of six UN humanitarian agencies had described Israel's assertion that there was enough food for Gaza's 2.1 million population as "far from reality on the ground".

They called for the protection of civilians, the facilitation of aid deliveries, the release of the hostages held by Hamas, and the renewal of the ceasefire.

Mediators are continuing to try to resurrect the ceasefire, which started on 19 January and saw Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages - eight of them dead - and five Thai hostages in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and a surge in humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Israel said it resumed its offensive due to Hamas's refusal to accept a proposal for an extension of the ceasefire deal's first phase and the release of more of the 59 hostages it is still holding, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Hamas accused Israel of violating the original agreement, according to which there would be a second phase where all the remaining living hostages would be handed over and the war brought to a permanent end.

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

More than 50,840 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

Queen Camilla has been given a Margherita pizza on a visit to a school in Rome, in honour of her 20th wedding anniversary to King Charles.

The King and Queen are on the third day of their state visit to Italy - and the Queen was given a taste of local cuisine when she was presented with a delivery-style box of pizza while visiting a local state school.

The King began the day by meeting Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, receiving a ceremonial red-carpet welcome at the Villa Doria Pamphili, on the outskirts of Rome.

The King and Meloni seemed to be having an animated conversation, with the politician a fluent English speaker, as they walked around the 17th Century palace's gardens.

A military band on horseback lined up in front of the palace to greet the King, against the villa's backdrop of orange trees and views stretching over St Peter's and the Vatican.

Later on Wednesday, the King will become the first UK monarch to deliver a speech to both houses of the Italian parliament.

Part of the speech is expected to be delivered in Italian.

The royal couple will then spend the evening of their wedding anniversary at a state banquet at the Quirinale Palace, an event likely to be a showcase for local food and for a guest list of celebrities and dignitaries.

The King and Queen have been given a warm reception on their trip to Italy, posing for photos on Tuesday as they met crowds outside the Colosseum, near the ancient site of the Temple of Venus.

There were calls of "Carlo" - Italian for Charles - from crowds waiting to see the royal visitors and local media also seemed interested by their car, the claret coloured State Bentley.

Back home at Buckingham Palace, there was a musical tribute to mark the royal couple's wedding anniversary.

The Royal Family's official X account posted a video which showed guards playing a brass version of Madness's 1981 hit It Must Be Love.

Donald Trump is a man in a hurry.

In the few short months he has been in office, the US president has sought and failed to bring peace to Gaza and Ukraine. He has bombed Yemen. He has launched a global trade war. Now he is turning his attention, such that it is, to Iran.

This has always been on the president's jobs list. For Trump, Iran is unfinished business from his first term.

The issue remains the same as it was then: what can stop Iran seeking a nuclear weapon?

Iran denies it has any such ambition. But other countries believe the Islamic republic wants at the very least the capacity to build a nuclear warhead, a desire that some fear could spark an arms race or even all-out war in the Middle East.

In 2015, Iran agreed a deal with the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China. It was called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Under its provisions, Iran would limit its nuclear ambitions - and allow in international inspectors - in return for getting economic sanctions lifted.

But Trump pulled the US out of the deal in 2018, claiming it rewarded terrorism by funding Iran's proxy militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The US reimposed sanctions.

Iran subsequently ignored some of the deal's restrictions and enriched more and more uranium nuclear fuel.

Analysts fear Iran could soon have enough weapons' grade uranium to make a nuclear warhead.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) watchdog estimates Iran's stockpile of 60% enriched uranium could make about six bombs if it was enriched to the next and final level.

Within days of his inauguration, Trump restored his former policy of so-called "maximum pressure" on Iran.

On 4 February, with his trademark fat felt-tip pen, he signed a memorandum ordering the US Treasury to impose further sanctions on Iran and punish countries violating existing sanctions, especially those buying Iranian oil.

Now the White House is hoping to match that economic pressure with diplomacy.

Last month, Trump sent a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

The president offered to begin negotiations and sought a deal within a couple of months.

Now he has agreed to direct discussions between US and Iranian officials in Oman at the weekend.

The US threat to Iran is explicit: agree a deal or face military action.

"If the talks aren't successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger," Trump said on Monday.

So how might Iran respond?

Some policymakers in Tehran appear keen to agree a deal that could get sanctions lifted.

Iran's economy is in dire straits, with soaring inflation and a plunging currency.

But any such deal might involve compromises some hardliners could find hard to stomach.

Iran has suffered huge reverses in recent months, seeing its proxy militias severely weakened by war with Israel and its regional ally, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, ousted. Some in Tehran argue now may be exactly the time to build a nuclear deterrent.

Both the US and Iran seem far apart. Their negotiating positions are not explicit.

But the US has made clear it wants the full dismantlement of Iran's nuclear programme, including a complete end to any further uranium enrichment, plus no further support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

That might prove too much for Iran to accept.

A complete ban on any nuclear enrichment - even for civilian purposes - has long been seen as an absolute red line for Tehran.

There is also the problem of Iranian technological expertise: its scientists simply know more now about how to make a nuclear weapon than they did 10 years ago.

As for Israel, it has made clear it would accept only the complete end to any Iranian nuclear capability. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he would agree to "the way it was done in Libya".

This is a reference to the decision by late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to dismantle his entire nuclear programme in 2003 in return for getting sanctions lifted.

But Iran is unlikely to follow this precedent.

What if talks fail?

Israel has long considered military options to try to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities. But many are buried deep in underground bunkers.

Military analysts say Israel would need not just US help to bomb Iran, it might also need special forces on the ground to guarantee the destruction of its nuclear facilities.

This means military action would be risky and its success by no means guaranteed.

Trump also came to office promising not to start any more so-called "forever wars", and an all-out regional conflict involving Iran could become one of those.

That has not stopped the US president from reportedly giving Israel more air defences and deploying more long-range B2 bombers to the region.

So, for now, Trump seems to be looking for a diplomatic solution - one Israel might have to accept as a fait accompli, regardless of its provisions.

But if there is no agreement, he is reserving the right to use force, the consequences of which could be devastating.

In the meantime, the president is allowing two months for both sides to agree a deal.

He may have forgotten it took negotiators two years to agree the JCPOA. Rushed diplomacy is not always successful diplomacy.

• Iran says it is ready for nuclear deal if US stops military threats
• High stakes as Iran nuclear issue reaches crunch moment

Confidence in the US economy is plummeting as investors dumped government debt amid growing concerns over the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs.

On Wednesday, the yield - or interest rate - on US bonds spiked sharply to touch the highest level since February at 4.5%.

The government sell bonds - essentially an IOU - to raise money from financial markets and these are viewed as a safe investment, meaning the US normally does not need to offer high rates to attract buyers.

Trump has gone ahead with sweeping tariffs on goods being imported into the US, while Washington's trade war with Beijing has escalated.

After the US implemented a 104% tariff on products from China at midnight on Wednesday, Beijing hit back with 84% levy on American products.

Stock markets have been falling sharply over the past few days in reaction to Trump pressing ahead with tariffs.

However, the sale of bonds poses a major problem for the world's biggest economy.

While the rate is the same level as a couple of months ago, the interest rates for US borrowing over 10 years has spiked sharply in the past couple of days up from 3.9%.

"Rising bond yields mean higher costs for companies to borrow, and of course governments too," said Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell.

"Bonds should do well in times of turmoil as investors flee to safety, but Trump's trade war is now undermining the US debt market," he added.

Some analysts suggested that the US Federal Reserve might be forced to step in if turbulence continues, in a move reminiscent of the Bank of England's emergency action in 2022 following Liz Truss's mini-Budget.

"We see no other option for the Fed but to step in with emergency purchases of US Treasuries to stabilise the bond market," said George Saravelos, global head of FX research at Deutsche Bank.

"We are entering uncharted territory," he said, adding that it was "very hard" to predict how markets would react in the coming days as the bond market suggested investors had "lost faith in US assets".

'US recession a coin toss'

Simon French, chief economist at Panmure Liberum, told the BBC that the Fed could decide to cut interest rates in a bid to protect US jobs by making it easier for businesses to borrowing cash as they face higher costs from tariffs.

He said it was a "coin toss" over whether the US would enter a recession.

This is defined as a prolonged and widespread decline in economic activity typically characterised by a jump in unemployment and fall in incomes.

JP Morgan, the investment banking giant, has raised the likelihood of a US recession from 40% to 60% and warned that American policy was "tilting away from growth".

Trump's introduction of tariffs, which are charged on goods imported from countries overseas, threatens to upend many global supply chains.

US-based companies that bring the foreign goods into the country will pay the tax to the government.

Firms may choose to pass on some or all of the cost of tariffs to customers, which could push up inflation.

Trump's plan is aimed at protecting American businesses from foreign competition and also to boost domestic manufacturing.

Questions remain over the scale and what type of investors are dumping US bonds.

There is been speculation some foreign countries, such as China which owns some $759bn of US bonds, might be selling them.

Mr Saravelos said: "There is little room now left for an escalation on the trade front. "The next phase risks being an outright financial war involving Chinese ownership of US assets."

But he warned: "There can be no winner to such a war. The loser will be the global economy."

China has called for the world to unite against Trump's tariffs as the country's exporters reel from crippling new US levies that have risen to 104%.

"Global unity can triumph over trade tyranny," declared an editorial in the state-run newspaper China Daily, noting Beijing's collaborations with Japan, South Korea and other Asian economies. A separate piece called for the European Union to work with it to "uphold free trade and multilateralism".

Beijing "firmly opposes and will never accept such hegemonic and bullying practices," foregin ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters on Wednesday.

The tariffs come at a difficult time for China's sluggish economy: domestic consumption remains weak and exports are still a major driver of growth.

The sweeping nature of Trump's tariffs has also left Chinese businesses scrambling to adjust their supply chains - with most countries affected, firms say it's hard to find a way out of this uncertainty.

The tariffs will shrink "already razor-thin profit margins", said the owner of a Chinese business that handles cross-border logistics for e-commerce, as well as air and sea freight.

"Higher tariffs raise costs for freight forwarders like us, as well as for factories, companies, and sellers. It just means everyone earns less."

Any tariff upwards of 35% will wipe out all the profits that Chinese businesses make when exporting to the US or South East Asia, said Dan Wang from the Eurasia Group consultancy.

"Growth is going to be much lower since exports contributed to 20% to 50% of growth since the Covid pandemic," she added.

The Chinese government has not announced retaliatory measures but Beijing is reportedly considering banning Hollywood films and suspending fentanyl cooperation with the US, according to Chinese blogger Liu Hong, who is a senior editor at state-run Xinhua news.

But that would offer little comfort to firms like Fuling, a firm that sells disposable tableware to US fast food restaurants like McDonald's and Wendy's, said the additional tariffs will "significantly impact" its business. It noted that nearly two-thirds of the company's revenue in 2023 and the first half of last year came from the US.

To mitigate the impact of tariffs, Fuling, which is headquartered in China's Zhejiang province, started a new factory in Indonesia late last year.

But Trump's new tariffs have introduced more uncertainty for Chinese exports from Indonesia are now subject to a 32% levy, the company said in a corporate filing.

Indonesia was hit along with much of the world in President Trump's announcement of expansive tariffs last week, which he claimed would allow the US economy to flourish.

But economists have warned of a US and global recession. The tariffs have also shaken global markets and drawn criticism from billionaire CEOs, including Trump's ally Elon Musk.

Trump's import taxes include a 10% baseline tariff on almost all foreign imports to the US, and higher custom tariffs for what he calls the "worst offenders". These include Cambodia (49%), Vietnam (46%) and Thailand (36%), developing economies that have benefited from strong exports.

After Beijing announced tit-for-tat tariffs, Trump raised the levies on Chinese imports, more than doubling them to 104%.

Emo told the BBC he is holding out hope that China will be able to negotiate away some of these taxes: "Only when a final decision is made can we plan our next steps."

While China has left the door open for talks, Trump has not spoken to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since returning to the White House.

Such broad, sweeping tariffs will cause more harm than good, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said in a note to its member companies on Wednesday.

"This level of upheaval is unprecedented, and it remains unclear how the current measures will benefit consumers in either nation or the broader economy," read the note signed by Chair Alvin Liu and President Michael Hart.

Some analysts believe the levies will force China to restructure its economy and rely heavily on domestic consumption, which it has been struggling to boost.

Otherwise, the tariffs will not be sustainable for China in the longer term, Tim Waterer from brokerage KCM Trade said.

"The tariffs are aimed at suppressing China," said the manager of a Chinese freight company.

Wu Changchun added that many of the South East Asian countries that have been hit with steep tariffs are "exactly where many Chinese businesses have relocated", such as Vietnam and Cambodia.

The Tianjin-based company plans to negotiate with some of its American clients to share the burden of the tariffs. "Every case is different, but overall, the impact has been quite substantial," he said.

Mr Wu, whose company operates mainly on shipping routes between China and Cambodia, said he is already seeing a fall in freight volume.

Several construction projects in Cambodia have also come to a halt after Trump's tariffs announcement, he said.

"If the tariffs were at 10% or 20%, businesses might still be able to absorb the cost by optimising supply chains, cutting margins and sharing the burden. Trade could still go on... [But at 104%] that's no longer something trade-offs can fix," said Mr Wu, a general manager at Maritima Maruba.

"That's full-on decoupling. Trade would basically come to a standstill."

Additional reporting by Annabelle Liang

Germany's conservatives under Friedrich Merz have reached a deal with the Social Democrats to govern Europe's biggest economy, five months after the previous government collapsed.

Merz, 69, said their agreement sent "a strong and clear signal" to Germans and the EU that Germany "will get a strong government capable of action".

The two sides have been under intense pressure to put an end to Germany's political limbo since Merz's Christian Democrats won federal elections in February.

Germany has been buffeted by economic turbulence caused by President Donald Trump's trade tariffs, and recent opinion polls suggest the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany has now overtaken Merz's party.

Merz, 69, may have to wait until next month for the new parliament to elect him as chancellor, but should have no problem with a 13-seat majority.

Announcing the coalition deal, he said the parties had worked very hard over the past few weeks, but "ahead of us we have a strong plan to bring our country to the forefront again".

Merz promised the next government would reform and stabilise Germany and that the rest of Europe would be able to rely on the country.

The parties had already signalled their urgency last month, when they pushed through significant reform of Germany's strict debt rules.

The changes will mean the new government will be able to plough significant investment into the military and the country's crumbling infrastructure.

Included in Wednesday's agreement are a series of measures to "control and largely end irregular migration" and impose border controls, aimed at addressing one of the big concerns of voters in the February election.

Merz said he was confident the coalition deal would be approved by their respective parties and that they would be able to get to work in early May.

Meanwhile, an Ipsos poll on Wednesday put Merz's conservatives in second place on 24% support, a point behind Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose co-leader Alice Weidel hailed the survey as unprecedented, and promised that "political change will come".

Hundreds of rescue workers in the Dominican Republic have been searching through the night for survivors of a roof collapse at a nightclub in the capital, Santo Domingo.

At least 113 people died and more than 150 were injured in the incident, which happened just before 01:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Tuesday at the Jet Set club, officials said.

Hundreds of guests were inside the popular venue attending a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez.

Pérez, as well as former Major League Baseball player Octavio Dotel, and a provincial governor, are among those who have been confirmed dead.

Mobile phone footage recorded inside the club, which has been verified by the BBC, shows Pérez on stage singing while the man recording can be heard talking.

"Something fell from the ceiling" the man recording says, while his finger can be seen pointing towards the roof.

In the footage, Pérez can be seen looking towards the area pointed out by the man.

Less than 30 seconds later, a noise can be heard and the recording goes black while a woman is heard shouting "Dad, what's happened to you?".

It is not clear how many people exactly were inside the popular venue but estimates range between 500 and 1,000 people.

Emergency workers have demolished one of the walls of the club to better reach those still buried under the rubble.

Relatives desperate for news of their missing loved ones have been holding vigils at the scene.

Among them was Pérez's daughter Zulinka, who is a backing singer in his merengue band.

She described how she had been on stage, singing with her father when the tragedy unfolded.

Zulinka said she was saved by her husband, who shielded her with his body when the roof collapsed, telling her that she had to make it out "to be there for our son".

She managed to crawl out from under the rubble and her husband also made it out alive.

Her 69-year-old father, however, remained trapped for hours.

According to Zulinka, he survived the collapse and managed to guide emergency workers to his location.

"They found him singing, he started to sing so they would hear him," she told local media.

But around 17:00 local time, more than 16 hours after the tragedy had occurred, Zulinka was informed by rescue workers at the scene that her father had died before they could free him.

His manager later confirmed his death.

Nelsy Cruz also survived the initial impact from the falling debris and was among the first to raise the alarm - by directly calling the president of the Dominican Republic.

The first call the 41-year-old governor of Monte Cristi province placed as she lay injured in the debris was to President Luis Abinader, asking him to send the emergency services to save those around her who were also severely injured.

It was only after she had made the call to the president that Nelsy Cruz called her brother, seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star Nelson Cruz, their father said.

She later died in hospital from injuries she had sustained from falling glass.

Octavio Dotel, a former Major League Baseball pitcher, is also among those who died after being pulled from the debris.

The 51-year-old was rescued alive but died on the way to hospital.

It is not yet clear what caused Jet Set's roof to collapse.

The club was previously a cinema and had been turned into a music venue hosting regular dance music concerts on Monday nights.

The concerts drew people of all ages and on the day of the collapse, a number of athletes, celebrities and politicians were in attendance.

President Abinader has declared three days of national mourning.

Tributes have been paid to a London-based scientist who formerly worked for the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) after he was found murdered in northern Colombia.

Alessandro Coatti's remains were discovered on the outskirts of Santa Marta, a port city on the Caribbean coast, on Sunday, investigators say.

Santa Marta's Mayor, Carlos Pinedo Cuello, said a reward of 50,000 Colombian pesos (£8,940) was being offered for information leading to the capture of those responsible for the death of the Italian citizen.

In a statement issued on Tuesday. the RSB said it was "devastated" by news of Mr Coatti's killing.

"He was a passionate and dedicated scientist, leading RSB animal science work, writing numerous submissions, organising events and giving evidence in the House of Commons," the RSB said.

"Ale was funny, warm, intelligent, loved by everyone he worked with and will be deeply missed by all who knew and worked with him.

"Our thoughts and best wishes go out to his friends and family at this truly awful time."

Santa Marta is a gateway to some of Colombia's most popular tourist destinations including Tayrona National Park, Minca and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.

Mr Coatti, who took a master's course at University College London (UCL), worked for the RSB for eight years as science policy officer before being promoted to senior science policy officer.

He left the RSB at the end of 2024 to volunteer in Ecuador and travel in South America.

Parts of the scientist's dismembered body were found in a suitcase dumped in a stream.

Posting on X, Mr Pinedo Cuello said: "This crime will not go unpunished. The criminals must know that crime has no place in Santa Marta. We will pursue them until they are brought to justice."

A hotel worker who spoke to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo said Mr Coatti had inquired about visiting the village of Minca and was conducting research on local animal species.

China has called for the world to unite against Trump's tariffs as the country's exporters reel from crippling new US levies that have risen to 104%.

"Global unity can triumph over trade tyranny," declared an editorial in the state-run newspaper China Daily, noting Beijing's collaborations with Japan, South Korea and other Asian economies. A separate piece called for the European Union to work with it to "uphold free trade and multilateralism".

Beijing "firmly opposes and will never accept such hegemonic and bullying practices," foregin ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters on Wednesday.

The tariffs come at a difficult time for China's sluggish economy: domestic consumption remains weak and exports are still a major driver of growth.

The sweeping nature of Trump's tariffs has also left Chinese businesses scrambling to adjust their supply chains - with most countries affected, firms say it's hard to find a way out of this uncertainty.

The tariffs will shrink "already razor-thin profit margins", said the owner of a Chinese business that handles cross-border logistics for e-commerce, as well as air and sea freight.

"Higher tariffs raise costs for freight forwarders like us, as well as for factories, companies, and sellers. It just means everyone earns less."

Any tariff upwards of 35% will wipe out all the profits that Chinese businesses make when exporting to the US or South East Asia, said Dan Wang from the Eurasia Group consultancy.

"Growth is going to be much lower since exports contributed to 20% to 50% of growth since the Covid pandemic," she added.

The Chinese government has not announced retaliatory measures but Beijing is reportedly considering banning Hollywood films and suspending fentanyl cooperation with the US, according to Chinese blogger Liu Hong, who is a senior editor at state-run Xinhua news.

But that would offer little comfort to firms like Fuling, a firm that sells disposable tableware to US fast food restaurants like McDonald's and Wendy's, said the additional tariffs will "significantly impact" its business. It noted that nearly two-thirds of the company's revenue in 2023 and the first half of last year came from the US.

To mitigate the impact of tariffs, Fuling, which is headquartered in China's Zhejiang province, started a new factory in Indonesia late last year.

But Trump's new tariffs have introduced more uncertainty for Chinese exports from Indonesia are now subject to a 32% levy, the company said in a corporate filing.

Indonesia was hit along with much of the world in President Trump's announcement of expansive tariffs last week, which he claimed would allow the US economy to flourish.

But economists have warned of a US and global recession. The tariffs have also shaken global markets and drawn criticism from billionaire CEOs, including Trump's ally Elon Musk.

Trump's import taxes include a 10% baseline tariff on almost all foreign imports to the US, and higher custom tariffs for what he calls the "worst offenders". These include Cambodia (49%), Vietnam (46%) and Thailand (36%), developing economies that have benefited from strong exports.

After Beijing announced tit-for-tat tariffs, Trump raised the levies on Chinese imports, more than doubling them to 104%.

Emo told the BBC he is holding out hope that China will be able to negotiate away some of these taxes: "Only when a final decision is made can we plan our next steps."

While China has left the door open for talks, Trump has not spoken to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since returning to the White House.

Such broad, sweeping tariffs will cause more harm than good, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said in a note to its member companies on Wednesday.

"This level of upheaval is unprecedented, and it remains unclear how the current measures will benefit consumers in either nation or the broader economy," read the note signed by Chair Alvin Liu and President Michael Hart.

Some analysts believe the levies will force China to restructure its economy and rely heavily on domestic consumption, which it has been struggling to boost.

Otherwise, the tariffs will not be sustainable for China in the longer term, Tim Waterer from brokerage KCM Trade said.

"The tariffs are aimed at suppressing China," said the manager of a Chinese freight company.

Wu Changchun added that many of the South East Asian countries that have been hit with steep tariffs are "exactly where many Chinese businesses have relocated", such as Vietnam and Cambodia.

The Tianjin-based company plans to negotiate with some of its American clients to share the burden of the tariffs. "Every case is different, but overall, the impact has been quite substantial," he said.

Mr Wu, whose company operates mainly on shipping routes between China and Cambodia, said he is already seeing a fall in freight volume.

Several construction projects in Cambodia have also come to a halt after Trump's tariffs announcement, he said.

"If the tariffs were at 10% or 20%, businesses might still be able to absorb the cost by optimising supply chains, cutting margins and sharing the burden. Trade could still go on... [But at 104%] that's no longer something trade-offs can fix," said Mr Wu, a general manager at Maritima Maruba.

"That's full-on decoupling. Trade would basically come to a standstill."

Additional reporting by Annabelle Liang

US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs targeting most of the world are now in effect – and outside China, no other region has been hit as hard as South East Asia.

Near the top of the list are Vietnam and Cambodia which have been hit by some of the highest tariffs: 46% and 49%. Further down are Thailand (36%), Indonesia (32%) and Malaysia (24%). The Philippines gets a tariff of 17%, and Singapore of 10%.

This is a huge blow for a region highly dependent on exports. Its widely-admired economic development over the past three decades has largely been driven by its success in selling its products to the rest of the world, in particular to the US.

Exports to the US contribute 23% of Vietnam's GDP, and 67% of Cambodia's.

That growth story is now imperilled by the punitive measures being imposed in Washington.

The longer-term impact of these tariffs, assuming they stay in place, will vary, but will certainly pose big challenges to the governments of Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia in particular.

Vietnam's "bamboo diplomacy", where it attempts to be friends with everyone and balance ties with both China and the US, will now be tested.

Under the leadership of the new Communist Party Secretary-General To Lam, Vietnam has embarked on an ambitious plan to build an upper-income, knowledge-and-tech-based economy by the year 2045. It has been aiming for annual growth rates in excess of 8%.

Exporting more to the US, already its biggest market, was central to that plan.

It was also the main reason why Vietnam agreed to elevate their relationship to that of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2023.

The Communist Party, which tolerates little dissent and has no formal political opposition, depends on its economic pledges for its legitimacy . Already viewed by many economists as too ambitious, these will now be even harder to meet.

Thailand depends on US exports less than Vietnam – under 10% of GDP – but the Thai economy is in much worse shape, having underperformed for the past decade. The Thai government is trying to find ways to lift economic growth, most recently attempting but failing to legalise gambling, and these tariffs are another economic blow it cannot afford.

For Cambodia, the tariffs pose perhaps the greatest political threat in the region.

The government of Hun Manet has proved just as authoritarian as that of his father Hun Sen, whom he succeeded two years ago, but it is vulnerable.

Keeping the Hun family's hold on power has required offering rival clans in Cambodia economic privileges like monopolies or land concessions, but this has helped create a glut of property developments, which are no longer selling, and a mass of grievances over land expropriations.

The garment sector, which employs 750,000 people, has been a crucial social safety valve, giving steady incomes to Cambodia's poorest. Thousands of those jobs are now likely to be lost as a result of President Trump's tariffs.

Unlike China, which has hit back with its own levies, the official message from governments in South East Asia, is don't panic, don't retaliate, but negotiate.

Vietnam has dispatched deputy prime minister Ho Duc Pho to Washington to plead his country's case, and has offered to eliminate all tariffs on US imports. Thailand plans to send its finance minister to make a similar appeal, and has offered to reduce its tariffs and buy more American products, like food and aircraft.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is also heading to Washington, though with exports to the US making up only 11% of Malaysia's total, his country is less affected than some of its neighbours.

However, the Trump administration appears to be in no mood to compromise.

Peter Navarro, President Trump's senior counsellor on trade and manufacturing and one of the main thinkers behind the new policy, said in interviews on Monday that Vietnam's offer of zero tariffs was meaningless, because it would not address the deficit in trade where Vietnam sells $15 worth of goods to the US for every $1 it buys.

He accused Vietnam of keeping multiple non-tariff barriers to US imports, and said that one-third of all Vietnamese exports to the US were actually Chinese products, trans-shipped through Vietnam.

The proportion of Vietnamese exports which are being made or trans-shipped there to avoid US tariffs on China is difficult to assess, but detailed trade studies put it at between 7% and 16%, not one-third.

Like Vietnam, the government of Cambodia has appealed to the US to postpone the tariffs while it attempts to negotiate.

The local American Chamber of Commerce has called for the 49% tariffs to be dropped, making the point that the Cambodian garment industry, the country's biggest employer, will be badly affected, but that no tariff level, however high, will see clothing and footwear manufacturing return to the US.

Perhaps the most perverse tariff rate is the 44% applied to Myanmar, a country mired in a civil war, which has no capacity to buy more US goods.

US exports make up only a small proportion of Myanmar's GDP, less than 1%.

But as in Cambodia, that sector, mainly garments, is one of the few that provides a steady income to poor families in Myanmar's cities.

In a supreme irony, Trump has until now been a popular figure in this region.

He has been widely admired in Vietnam for his tough, transactional approach to foreign policy, and Cambodia's former strongman Hun Sen, still the main power behind the scenes, has long sought a close personal relationship with the US president, proudly posting selfies with him at their first meeting in 2017.

Only last month Cambodia was praising Trump for shutting down the US media networks Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, which often carried the views of Cambodian dissidents.

Now Cambodia, like so many of its neighbours, finds itself in a long line of supplicants pleading with him to ease their tariff burden.

Three Americans convicted for their role in a failed coup in Democratic Republic of Congo last year have been sent home to the US to serve the rest of their jail terms.

The three were originally sentenced to death by a military court before their sentences were commuted to life in prison last week.

US Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the three were "in our custody".

The repatriation comes as the US and DR Congo explore a deal to exploit the central African country's huge mineral wealth.

Last week, US President Donald Trump's senior adviser for Africa visited DR Congo and confirmed that the two countries were in talks about minerals and said it could involve "multibillion-dollar investments".

DR Congo has large deposits of coltan and cobalt, used in electronic equipment and batteries for electric cars, which are currently largely extracted by Chinese mining companies.

The three American convicts - Marcel Malanga Malu, Tylor Thomson and Zalman Polun Benjamin - left DR Congo on Tuesday to serve the remainder of their sentences in the US, said Congolese presidential spokesperson Tina Salama.

They were escorted to N'Djili International Airport in Kinshasa in "strict compliance with legal procedures", said DR Congo's presidency.

The transfer "is part of a dynamic of strengthening judicial diplomacy and international cooperation in matters of justice and human rights" between DR Congo and the US, the presidency added.

The Americans were among 37 people sentenced to death last September by a military court.

Jean-Jacques Wondo, a dual Congolese and Belgian citizen who was also sentenced to death, was in February transferred to Belgium because of ill-health.

It is not clear if the other convicts, who include a Briton, a Belgian and a Canadian national, will also have their sentences commuted.

They were accused of leading an attack on both the presidential palace and the home of an ally of President Félix Tshisekedi last May. Later they were convicted of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges, which they denied.

The suspected leader of the plot, Christian Malanga, a US national of Congolese origin, was killed during the attack, along with five others. Hi son, Marcel Malanga Malu, is among those sent home on Tuesday.

Details of the prisoner transfer agreement were not immediately clear but the State Department said it was aware of the repatriation done in collaboration with the US embassy in Kinshasa, the DR Congo capital.

The Department of State spokesperson said that the US condemned the armed attacks and supported DR Congo's bid to hold the convicts accountable, but she also sought "consistent, compassionate, humane treatment and a fair legal process".

Joseph Szlavik-Soto, a lobbyist working for the Congolese government, told Reuters news agency that it had agreed to pay for the damage caused by protesters who attacked the US embassy and other missions earlier this year. The US officials are yet to comment on the matter.

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Twenty people have been killed in a fire at a nursing home in north-east China, state media report.

The blaze in Chengde city, Hebei province, broke out on Tuesday night local time and was extinguished in about two hours.

Nineteen people survived the fire and were taken to hospital for observation, reports say.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the blaze, and a person in charge of the home has been detained. No other details were immediately available.

On social media, some called for a thorough investigation while others expressed sympathy for the elderly victims.

"Old people already have mobility issues," one Weibo user wrote. "I can't imagine how desperate they must have felt during the fire."

Nursing homes and elderly care facilities have doubled between 2019 and 2024, according to authorities, as China deals with a growing ageing population.

In 2023, 29 people died - many of them elderly - and dozens were injured after a private hospital in Beijing caught fire.

US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs targeting most of the world are now in effect – and outside China, no other region has been hit as hard as South East Asia.

Near the top of the list are Vietnam and Cambodia which have been hit by some of the highest tariffs: 46% and 49%. Further down are Thailand (36%), Indonesia (32%) and Malaysia (24%). The Philippines gets a tariff of 17%, and Singapore of 10%.

This is a huge blow for a region highly dependent on exports. Its widely-admired economic development over the past three decades has largely been driven by its success in selling its products to the rest of the world, in particular to the US.

Exports to the US contribute 23% of Vietnam's GDP, and 67% of Cambodia's.

That growth story is now imperilled by the punitive measures being imposed in Washington.

The longer-term impact of these tariffs, assuming they stay in place, will vary, but will certainly pose big challenges to the governments of Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia in particular.

Vietnam's "bamboo diplomacy", where it attempts to be friends with everyone and balance ties with both China and the US, will now be tested.

Under the leadership of the new Communist Party Secretary-General To Lam, Vietnam has embarked on an ambitious plan to build an upper-income, knowledge-and-tech-based economy by the year 2045. It has been aiming for annual growth rates in excess of 8%.

Exporting more to the US, already its biggest market, was central to that plan.

It was also the main reason why Vietnam agreed to elevate their relationship to that of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2023.

The Communist Party, which tolerates little dissent and has no formal political opposition, depends on its economic pledges for its legitimacy . Already viewed by many economists as too ambitious, these will now be even harder to meet.

Thailand depends on US exports less than Vietnam – under 10% of GDP – but the Thai economy is in much worse shape, having underperformed for the past decade. The Thai government is trying to find ways to lift economic growth, most recently attempting but failing to legalise gambling, and these tariffs are another economic blow it cannot afford.

For Cambodia, the tariffs pose perhaps the greatest political threat in the region.

The government of Hun Manet has proved just as authoritarian as that of his father Hun Sen, whom he succeeded two years ago, but it is vulnerable.

Keeping the Hun family's hold on power has required offering rival clans in Cambodia economic privileges like monopolies or land concessions, but this has helped create a glut of property developments, which are no longer selling, and a mass of grievances over land expropriations.

The garment sector, which employs 750,000 people, has been a crucial social safety valve, giving steady incomes to Cambodia's poorest. Thousands of those jobs are now likely to be lost as a result of President Trump's tariffs.

Unlike China, which has hit back with its own levies, the official message from governments in South East Asia, is don't panic, don't retaliate, but negotiate.

Vietnam has dispatched deputy prime minister Ho Duc Pho to Washington to plead his country's case, and has offered to eliminate all tariffs on US imports. Thailand plans to send its finance minister to make a similar appeal, and has offered to reduce its tariffs and buy more American products, like food and aircraft.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is also heading to Washington, though with exports to the US making up only 11% of Malaysia's total, his country is less affected than some of its neighbours.

However, the Trump administration appears to be in no mood to compromise.

Peter Navarro, President Trump's senior counsellor on trade and manufacturing and one of the main thinkers behind the new policy, said in interviews on Monday that Vietnam's offer of zero tariffs was meaningless, because it would not address the deficit in trade where Vietnam sells $15 worth of goods to the US for every $1 it buys.

He accused Vietnam of keeping multiple non-tariff barriers to US imports, and said that one-third of all Vietnamese exports to the US were actually Chinese products, trans-shipped through Vietnam.

The proportion of Vietnamese exports which are being made or trans-shipped there to avoid US tariffs on China is difficult to assess, but detailed trade studies put it at between 7% and 16%, not one-third.

Like Vietnam, the government of Cambodia has appealed to the US to postpone the tariffs while it attempts to negotiate.

The local American Chamber of Commerce has called for the 49% tariffs to be dropped, making the point that the Cambodian garment industry, the country's biggest employer, will be badly affected, but that no tariff level, however high, will see clothing and footwear manufacturing return to the US.

Perhaps the most perverse tariff rate is the 44% applied to Myanmar, a country mired in a civil war, which has no capacity to buy more US goods.

US exports make up only a small proportion of Myanmar's GDP, less than 1%.

But as in Cambodia, that sector, mainly garments, is one of the few that provides a steady income to poor families in Myanmar's cities.

In a supreme irony, Trump has until now been a popular figure in this region.

He has been widely admired in Vietnam for his tough, transactional approach to foreign policy, and Cambodia's former strongman Hun Sen, still the main power behind the scenes, has long sought a close personal relationship with the US president, proudly posting selfies with him at their first meeting in 2017.

Only last month Cambodia was praising Trump for shutting down the US media networks Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, which often carried the views of Cambodian dissidents.

Now Cambodia, like so many of its neighbours, finds itself in a long line of supplicants pleading with him to ease their tariff burden.

US President Donald Trump is ripping up the rulebook on trade that has been in place for more than 50 years.

His latest round of sweeping tariffs, which came into force shortly after midnight on Wednesday, hits goods from some of America's biggest trading partners including China and the European Union with dramatic hikes in import duties.

The president and his allies say the measures are necessary to restore America's manufacturing base, which they view as essential to national security.

But it remains a potentially seismic action, affecting more than $2tn worth of imports, which will push the overall effective tariff rate in the US to the highest level in more than a century.

In the US, key consumer goods could see huge price rises, including an estimated 33% for clothing, and analysts are warning of near-certain global economic damage as sales in America drop, trade shrinks and production abroad falls.

With the stock market reeling and political pressure in the US starting to build, the White House has worked to soothe nerves by floating the possibility of trade talks, touting conversations that have already begun with Japan, Vietnam and South Korea.

But Trump has signalled resistance to the kinds of exemptions he granted during his first term, and even if these talks are ultimately productive, country-by-country deal-making will no doubt take time.

"The primary question... is whether or not there will be negotiations," said Thierry Wizman, a global strategist at the investment bank Macquarie. "And no one has an answer to that because it's going to depend on the approach and the disposition of the negotiating parties."

• LIVE: Follow updates and analysis
• EXPLAINED: What would S US-China trade war do?
• WATCH: Is the US heading for a recession?
• REACTION: The Canadians and Danes boycotting US products

The US already appears set on a collision course with China, which was its third biggest supplier of imports last year.

The White House said on Tuesday that it was moving ahead with Trump's social media threat to add a further 50% levy on imports from China, on top of the 54% duties that had already been announced, unless Beijing agreed to withdraw its retaliation.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, declined to say if the two sides had spoken directly since the threat.

But publicly, China has shown little willingness to back down, describing Trump's moves as "bullying" and warning that "intimidation, threat and blackmail are not the right way to engage with China".

"If the US decides not to care about the interests of the US itself, China and the rest of the world, and is determined to fight a tariff and trade war, China's response will continue to the end," he said in a statement.

The rapid change has shaken US businesses with decades of ties to China, which now find themselves paralysed and unsure how this escalating trade fight might end.

"You would laugh if you weren't crying," said US businessman Jay Foreman, whose toy company Basic Fun! is known for classics such as Tonka Trucks and Care Bears, the vast majority of which are made in China.

He put out notice to his suppliers to halt any shipments to the US earlier this week, as the US announced it would hit goods from China with duties starting at 104%.

"We just have to hold our shipments until this thing gets sorted out," he said. "And if it doesn't get sorted out, them I'm going to sell down the inventory that I have in my warehouse and pray."

Speaking to Congress on Tuesday, Jamieson Greer, who leads the office of the US Trade Representative, declined to set a timeline for how quickly talks might progress.

"The president is fixed in his purpose. This trade deficit and offshoring and the loss of jobs has persisted for too long," he said, while acknowledging the measures might lead to a "challenging" economic adjustment.

"It is a moment of drastic, overdue change, but I am confident the American people will rise to the occasion as they have done before," he said.

Shares in the US resumed their downward slide on Tuesday, giving up early gains spurred by Trump comments about trade talks that the fight might see a quick resolution.

The S&P 500 is now trading at its lowest level in more than a year, after seeing roughly 12% of its value wiped out since the announcement last Wednesday.

Stock markets from Japan to Germany have also been shaken, as investors assess the wider repercussions of the actions. In the UK, the FTSE 100 has dropped about 10%.

"What I'm really seeing is trepidation, uncertainty, a lot of questions, a lot of people wanting us to predict what will happen next," said Amy Magnus, director of compliance and customs affairs for Deringer, a Vermont-based firm that is one of America's top five customs brokers. "But I have entered into a world that I cannot predict."

Erin Williamson, vice-president of US customs brokerage at GEODIS, a global supply chain operator, said on Tuesday afternoon, said that the uncertainty had prompted some of her firm's clients to simply put shipments on pause.

"One of the top ways that you can confirm that you're not putting your business at risk is really holding off until maybe the dust settles," she said.

The uncertainty is raising the risks to the economy, said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics of the Budget Lab at Yale, which is not predicting a recession in the US, but still expects tariffs announced so far this year will cost the US 600,000 jobs and lead to a roughly $3,800 hit to purchasing power for the average household.

"A lot of the market turmoil we've seen is not about the substance of the economic damage of tariffs on their own. A lot of it is about the uncertainty," he said.

"Businesses and consumers don't know what the tariff rate is going to be an hour from now... How can you invest or make plans for the future in that environment?"

Mr Tedeschi said he saw no clear end to the trade war in sight.

"Even if the administration wanted to step back, how does it save face in a way that is mutually acceptable to all the relevant players?" he said. "That's becoming harder by the day."

At least 15 people have died after a roof collapsed at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic.

Many more are injured and rescue workers are still attempting to free people from the rubble.

It is not yet clear what caused the incident, which happened in the early hours of Tuesday during a concert by the popular merengue singer Rubby Pérez at the Jet Set discotheque in the capital, Santo Domingo.

The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has expressed his condolences to the families affected.

The director of the Emergency Operations Centre (COE), Juan Manuel Méndez, said rescue workers were still looking for people under the debris.

He added that ambulances had made more than 100 trips to the area's hospitals, at times carrying more than one patient. Officials are still trying to determine the total number of those injured.

The preliminary total of those killed is 15.

Mr Méndez said he was hopeful that many of those buried under the collapsed roof were still alive.

Jet Set is a popular nightclub in the capital which regularly hosts dance music concerts on Monday evenings.

Video footage apparently taken inside the club shows people sitting at tables in front of the stage and some dancing to the music in the back while Rubby Pérez sings.

In a separate mobile phone recording shared on social media, a man standing next to the stage can be heard saying "something fell from the ceiling", while his finger can be seen pointing towards the roof.

In the footage, singer Rubby Pérez, also seems to be looking towards the area pointed out by the man.

Less than 30 seconds later, a noise can be heard and the recording goes black while a woman is heard shouting "Dad, what's happened to you?".

One of Rubby Pérez's band members told local media that the club had been full when the collapse happened "at around 1am".

"I thought it was an earthquake," the musician said.

"The Albanian mafia would call me and say: 'We want to send 500kg of drugs.' If you don't accept, they kill you."

César (not his real name) is a member of the Latin Kings, a criminal drug gang in Ecuador. He was recruited by a corrupt counternarcotics police officer to work for the Albanian mafia, one of Europe's most prolific cocaine trafficking networks.

The Albanian mafia has expanded its presence in Ecuador in recent years, drawn by key trafficking routes through the country, and it now controls much of the cocaine flow from South America to Europe.

Despite Ecuador not producing the drug, 70% of the world's cocaine now flows through its ports, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa says.

It is smuggled into the country from neighbouring Colombia and Peru – the world's two largest producers of cocaine.

Police say they seized a record amount of illicit drugs last year, the majority of it cocaine, and that this indicates total exports are on the rise.

The consequences are deadly: January 2025 saw 781 murders, making it the deadliest month in recent years. Many of them were related to the illegal drug trade.

We spoke to people in the supply chain to understand why this crisis is worsening – and how rising European cocaine consumption is fuelling it.

César, 36, first started working with cartels when he was 14 years old, citing poor job opportunities as one factor.

"The Albanians needed someone to solve problems," he explains. "I knew the port guards, the transport drivers, the CCTV camera supervisors."

He bribes them to help smuggle drugs into Ecuador's ports or to turn a blind eye – and the occasional camera.

After cocaine arrives in Ecuador from Colombia or Peru it is stashed in warehouses until his Albanian employers become aware of a shipping container that will be leaving one of the ports for Europe.

Gangs use three main methods to smuggle cocaine into shipments: hiding drugs in cargo before it reaches the port, breaking into containers at the port, or attaching drugs to ships at sea.

Sometimes César has made up to $3,000 (£2,235) for one job, but the incentive is not just money: "If you don't do a job the Albanians ask for, they'll kill you."

César says he feels some regret over his role in the drugs trade, particularly what he calls the "collateral victims".

But he believes that the fault lies with the consumer countries. "If consumption keeps growing, so will trafficking. It will be unstoppable," he says, adding: "If they fight it there, it will end here."

Ordinary workers, not just gang members, get caught in this supply chain.

Juan, not his real name, is a truck driver. One day he picked up a tuna shipment to take to the port. He says that something seemed off.

"The first alarm bell was when we went to the warehouse and it only had the cargo, nothing else. It was a rented warehouse, no company name," he recalls.

"Two months later, I saw on the news that the containers had been seized in Amsterdam, full of drugs. We never knew."

Some drivers unknowingly transport drugs; others are coerced – if they refuse, they are killed.

European gangs are drawn to Ecuador for its location but also its legal exports, which provide a convenient way to hide illicit cargo.

"Banana exports make up 66% of containers that leave Ecuador, 29.81% go to the European Union, where drug consumption is growing," explains banana industry representative José Antonio Hidalgo.

Some gangs have even set up fake fruit import or export companies in Europe and Ecuador as a front for illicit activities.

"These European traffickers pose as businessmen," says "José" (not his real name), a prosecutor who targets organised crime groups and who spoke anonymously due to threats he has received.

One notorious example is Dritan Gjika, accused of being one of the most powerful Albanian mafia leaders in Ecuador.

Prosecutors say he had stakes in fruit export companies in Ecuador, and import companies in Europe, which he used to traffic cocaine. He remains on the run, but many of his accomplices faced convictions after a multinational police operation.

Lawyer Monica Luzárraga defended one of his associates and now speaks candidly about her knowledge of how these networks operate.

"In those years, banana exports to Albania boomed," she says.

She appears frustrated that authorities did not put two and two together sooner that criminal groups were using this as a front: "The entire economy here is stagnant. Yet one item that has increased in exports is bananas. So, two plus two equals four."

Why exports are rising

At Ecuador's ports, the police and armed forces try to control the situation.

Boats patrol the waters, police scan banana boxes for bricks of cocaine – even police scuba divers search for drugs hidden beneath ships.

Everyone is heavily armed, even those simply guarding banana boxes before they are loaded into shipping containers. This is because if drugs are found during a search, a corrupt port worker would likely be involved, and it could trigger a violent incident.

Despite these efforts, police say the amount of cocaine being successfully smuggled out of Ecuador has reached a record high. Rising demand and economic factors are blamed.

Nearly 300 tonnes of drugs were seized last year – a new annual record, according to Ecuador's interior ministry.

Major Christian Cozar Cueva of the National Police says that "there has been about a 30% increase in seizures headed for Europe in recent years".

This increase in cocaine shipments has made it more dangerous for those caught up in the supply chain.

Truck driver "Juan" says the rise of "container contamination" makes him more vulnerable.

He says officials seized a container the day before with two tonnes of drugs: "It used to be kilos, now we talk about tonnes."

"If you don't contaminate the containers, you have two options: leave the job or end up dead."

An economy battered by the Covid pandemic left more Ecuadoreans vulnerable to gang recruitment.

A state that was financially stretched post-pandemic, a security force which had less experience dealing with organised crime, and previously lax visa rules facilitated European gangs' presence there post-2020.

Monica Luzárraga says 2021 was the year when the "Albanian mafia infiltration took off".

She says this period coincided with an "influx" of Albanian citizens and a spike in banana exports, including to Albania.

"This is a lucrative business that harms Ecuador and benefits criminal organisations. How can we accept an economy built on suffering?"

A message to Europe

This ire toward foreign cartels is unsurprising, given their contribution to rising violence.

But one thing some traffickers and those fighting them agree on: the trade is fuelled by consumers, particularly in Europe, the US and Australia.

UN data shows global cocaine consumption has hit record levels. Its surveys suggest the UK has the world's second highest rate of cocaine use.

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates the UK consumes about 117 tonnes of cocaine annually and has the biggest market in Europe.

Evidence suggests consumption in the UK is rising.

The UK Home Office's analysis of wastewater suggests cocaine consumption increased by 7% from 2023 to 2024. NCA operations seized about 232 tonnes of cocaine in 2024, compared with 194 tonnes in 2023.

The NCA's deputy director of threat leadership, Charles Yates, says this makes the UK the "country of choice" for organised crime groups who profit from the high demand.

He estimates the UK cocaine market is worth around £11bn ($14.2bn), and criminal gangs make about £4bn a year in the UK alone.

Those fighting these gangs in Ecuador, like prosecutor José, say it is down to "countries whose nationals are consumers to exercise greater control" on those financing the trade.

Its victims take many forms.

For Mr Hidalgo it is the banana exporters suffering reputational and economic damage. For Ms Luzárraga, it is "children, adolescents who are being co-opted by criminal gangs".

"In Europe there are citizens willing to pay large amounts of money to have the drugs they consume. The drugs that are ultimately costing the lives of Ecuadorean citizens."

The NCA stresses that as well as these "catastrophic" effects on communities along the supply chain, cocaine use is claiming additional casualties in users due to cardiovascular and psychological impacts. Cocaine-related deaths in the UK increased by 30% in 2023 compared to 2022, to 1,118.

The NCA also warns that the drug exacerbates domestic violence.

He is clear law enforcement's efforts to tackle the supply aren't enough: "Supply side action on its own is never going to be the answer. What's really important is changing the demand."

From drug gang members to the country's president, this is Ecuador's message to Europe, too.

President Daniel Noboa, who is standing for a second term in the presidential election run-off on 13 April, has made fighting criminal gangs one of his main priorities and deployed the military to tackle gang-related violence.

He told the BBC: "The chain that ends in 'UK fun' involves a lot of violence."

"What's fun for one person probably involves 20 homicides along the way."

Additional reporting by Jessica Cruz

US President Donald Trump is ripping up the rulebook on trade that has been in place for more than 50 years.

His latest round of sweeping tariffs, which came into force shortly after midnight on Wednesday, hits goods from some of America's biggest trading partners including China and the European Union with dramatic hikes in import duties.

The president and his allies say the measures are necessary to restore America's manufacturing base, which they view as essential to national security.

But it remains a potentially seismic action, affecting more than $2tn worth of imports, which will push the overall effective tariff rate in the US to the highest level in more than a century.

In the US, key consumer goods could see huge price rises, including an estimated 33% for clothing, and analysts are warning of near-certain global economic damage as sales in America drop, trade shrinks and production abroad falls.

With the stock market reeling and political pressure in the US starting to build, the White House has worked to soothe nerves by floating the possibility of trade talks, touting conversations that have already begun with Japan, Vietnam and South Korea.

But Trump has signalled resistance to the kinds of exemptions he granted during his first term, and even if these talks are ultimately productive, country-by-country deal-making will no doubt take time.

"The primary question... is whether or not there will be negotiations," said Thierry Wizman, a global strategist at the investment bank Macquarie. "And no one has an answer to that because it's going to depend on the approach and the disposition of the negotiating parties."

• LIVE: Follow updates and analysis
• EXPLAINED: What would S US-China trade war do?
• WATCH: Is the US heading for a recession?
• REACTION: The Canadians and Danes boycotting US products

The US already appears set on a collision course with China, which was its third biggest supplier of imports last year.

The White House said on Tuesday that it was moving ahead with Trump's social media threat to add a further 50% levy on imports from China, on top of the 54% duties that had already been announced, unless Beijing agreed to withdraw its retaliation.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, declined to say if the two sides had spoken directly since the threat.

But publicly, China has shown little willingness to back down, describing Trump's moves as "bullying" and warning that "intimidation, threat and blackmail are not the right way to engage with China".

"If the US decides not to care about the interests of the US itself, China and the rest of the world, and is determined to fight a tariff and trade war, China's response will continue to the end," he said in a statement.

The rapid change has shaken US businesses with decades of ties to China, which now find themselves paralysed and unsure how this escalating trade fight might end.

"You would laugh if you weren't crying," said US businessman Jay Foreman, whose toy company Basic Fun! is known for classics such as Tonka Trucks and Care Bears, the vast majority of which are made in China.

He put out notice to his suppliers to halt any shipments to the US earlier this week, as the US announced it would hit goods from China with duties starting at 104%.

"We just have to hold our shipments until this thing gets sorted out," he said. "And if it doesn't get sorted out, them I'm going to sell down the inventory that I have in my warehouse and pray."

Speaking to Congress on Tuesday, Jamieson Greer, who leads the office of the US Trade Representative, declined to set a timeline for how quickly talks might progress.

"The president is fixed in his purpose. This trade deficit and offshoring and the loss of jobs has persisted for too long," he said, while acknowledging the measures might lead to a "challenging" economic adjustment.

"It is a moment of drastic, overdue change, but I am confident the American people will rise to the occasion as they have done before," he said.

Shares in the US resumed their downward slide on Tuesday, giving up early gains spurred by Trump comments about trade talks that the fight might see a quick resolution.

The S&P 500 is now trading at its lowest level in more than a year, after seeing roughly 12% of its value wiped out since the announcement last Wednesday.

Stock markets from Japan to Germany have also been shaken, as investors assess the wider repercussions of the actions. In the UK, the FTSE 100 has dropped about 10%.

"What I'm really seeing is trepidation, uncertainty, a lot of questions, a lot of people wanting us to predict what will happen next," said Amy Magnus, director of compliance and customs affairs for Deringer, a Vermont-based firm that is one of America's top five customs brokers. "But I have entered into a world that I cannot predict."

Erin Williamson, vice-president of US customs brokerage at GEODIS, a global supply chain operator, said on Tuesday afternoon, said that the uncertainty had prompted some of her firm's clients to simply put shipments on pause.

"One of the top ways that you can confirm that you're not putting your business at risk is really holding off until maybe the dust settles," she said.

The uncertainty is raising the risks to the economy, said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics of the Budget Lab at Yale, which is not predicting a recession in the US, but still expects tariffs announced so far this year will cost the US 600,000 jobs and lead to a roughly $3,800 hit to purchasing power for the average household.

"A lot of the market turmoil we've seen is not about the substance of the economic damage of tariffs on their own. A lot of it is about the uncertainty," he said.

"Businesses and consumers don't know what the tariff rate is going to be an hour from now... How can you invest or make plans for the future in that environment?"

Mr Tedeschi said he saw no clear end to the trade war in sight.

"Even if the administration wanted to step back, how does it save face in a way that is mutually acceptable to all the relevant players?" he said. "That's becoming harder by the day."

At least 15 people have died after a roof collapsed at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic.

Many more are injured and rescue workers are still attempting to free people from the rubble.

It is not yet clear what caused the incident, which happened in the early hours of Tuesday during a concert by the popular merengue singer Rubby Pérez at the Jet Set discotheque in the capital, Santo Domingo.

The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has expressed his condolences to the families affected.

The director of the Emergency Operations Centre (COE), Juan Manuel Méndez, said rescue workers were still looking for people under the debris.

He added that ambulances had made more than 100 trips to the area's hospitals, at times carrying more than one patient. Officials are still trying to determine the total number of those injured.

The preliminary total of those killed is 15.

Mr Méndez said he was hopeful that many of those buried under the collapsed roof were still alive.

Jet Set is a popular nightclub in the capital which regularly hosts dance music concerts on Monday evenings.

Video footage apparently taken inside the club shows people sitting at tables in front of the stage and some dancing to the music in the back while Rubby Pérez sings.

In a separate mobile phone recording shared on social media, a man standing next to the stage can be heard saying "something fell from the ceiling", while his finger can be seen pointing towards the roof.

In the footage, singer Rubby Pérez, also seems to be looking towards the area pointed out by the man.

Less than 30 seconds later, a noise can be heard and the recording goes black while a woman is heard shouting "Dad, what's happened to you?".

One of Rubby Pérez's band members told local media that the club had been full when the collapse happened "at around 1am".

"I thought it was an earthquake," the musician said.

A faulty radio antenna contributed to a deadly mid-air helicopter collision at an Australian theme park and resort, transport safety officials say.

Four people died - including two British tourists - and several more were seriously injured when the two aircraft hit each other in January 2023, near Sea World on the Gold Coast.

An investigation by Australia's Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) found one of the pilots did not hear a vital radio call shortly before the accident, and that a series of changes by Sea World meant risk controls were over time eroded.

The accident rocked the Gold Coast, one of the nation's biggest tourist hotspots.

The two helicopters collided around 20 seconds after one had taken off and as the other was landing.

Those who died were all travelling in the helicopter which was taking off. The other aircraft managed to make an emergency landing, with passengers suffering a range of injuries.

The ATSB report found that in the months leading up to the accident, Sea World had tried to improve its offering of leisure flights by adding a second helipad location and introducing larger Eurocopter EC140 B4 helicopters.

"Over time, these changes undermined risk controls used to manage traffic separation and created a conflict point between launching and departing helicopters," it said.

The aircraft preparing to take off also had a faulty antenna.

In the run-up to the collision, a call from the arriving helicopter was either not received or not heard by the pilot on the ground, who was loading passengers at the time.

However, once the passengers were on board, a ground crew member advised the departing helicopter pilot that the airspace was clear. By the time the chopper took off, though, that information was no longer correct.

Meanwhile the pilot who was wanting to land after a five-minute scenic flight had seen the other helicopter on the ground but didn't deem it a threat, the report said.

He would have expected to have been alerted by a "taxiing" radio call if that situation changed. However the faulty antenna likely prevented the broadcast of the taxiing call, the report said.

"Without the taxiing call being received, the pilot of the inbound helicopter, who was likely focusing on their landing site, had no trigger to reassess the status of the departing helicopter as a collision risk."

Among those who died were Diane Hughes, 57, and her 65-year-old husband Ron who were from Neston, Cheshire. They had married in 2022 and were on holiday visiting relatives after being separated by COVID.

The "fun-loving" couple from Neston, Cheshire, had "a zest for life", their family said in a statement at the time.

Also killed was Sydney resident Vanessa Tadros, 36, and 40-year-old Sea World Helicopters pilot Ashley Jenkinson, who was originally from Birmingham.

A further six people were seriously injured while three others sustained minor injuries in the crash.

Shortly after the accident, the passengers on the flight that was returning hailed the pilot as a "hero" for landing the helicopter safely.

In all, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau made 28 findings that underline "key lessons" for operators and pilots.

"The most fundamental lesson from this investigation is that making changes to aviation operations, even those that appear to increase safety, can have unintended consequences," ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said.

"It is therefore critical that changes to aviation operations are managed through the implementation of a defined process to ensure overall safety is not adversely affected."

A US judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore the Associated Press's access to presidential events after the White House blocked the news agency in a dispute over the term "Gulf of America".

District Judge Trevor McFadden on Tuesday said the administration's restriction on AP journalists was "contrary to the First Amendment", which guarantees freedom of speech.

The dispute arose when the AP refused to adopt the administration's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" in its coverage, following an executive order by President Donald Trump.

The ban has meant that the AP has been unable to access press events at the White House as well as Air Force One.

Judge McFadden, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, also paused the ruling's implementation until Sunday to allow administration's lawyers time to appeal.

"The Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists — be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere — it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints," he wrote in his ruling. "The Constitution requires no less."

The AP had argued that the administration violated the news agency's constitutional right to free speech by restricting access due to disagreements over the its language.

In February, Judge McFadden had declined to immediately restore its access to presidential events.

After Tuesday's ruling, AP spokesperson Lauren Easton said the agency was "gratified by the court's decision".

"Today's ruling affirms the fundamental right of the press and public to speak freely without government retaliation. This is a freedom guaranteed for all Americans in the U.S. Constitution," she said in a statement.

The ruling was also welcomed by other organisations who had criticised the initial restrictions on the AP.

"This is a careful, well-reasoned opinion that properly describes the exclusion of the Associated Press from the press pool as retaliatory, viewpoint-based, and unconstitutional," said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

The AP sued three senior Trump administration officials — Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich — claiming the restrictions were unlawful and infringed on press freedom.

The Trump administration argued that the Associated Press was not entitled to "special access" to the president.

Soon after taking office in January, the Trump administration issued an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America", a move the White House said reflects the gulf's status as "an indelible part of America".

The AP said it would continue to use the term Gulf of Mexico, while acknowledging the Trump administration's efforts to rename it.

In response, the White House restricted the AP's access to events covered by the "pool" of journalists who report back to other media outlets.

Iran is ready to engage with the US at talks on Saturday over its nuclear programme "with a view to seal a deal", its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.

But US President Donald Trump must first agree there can be no "military option", Araghchi said, and added that Iran would "never accept coercion".

He also insisted the negotiations in Oman would be indirect, contradicting Trump's surprise announcement on Monday that they would be "direct talks".

Trump, who pulled the US out a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers during his first term, warned that Iran would be in "great danger" if talks were not successful.

The US and Iran have no diplomatic ties, so last month Trump sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader via the United Arab Emirates. It said he wanted a deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to avert possible military strikes by the US and Israel.

Trump disclosed the upcoming talks during a visit to the White House on Monday by the Israeli Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that both leaders had agreed "Iran will not have nuclear weapons" and added "the military option" would happen if talks dragged on.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

However, Iran has increasingly breached restrictions imposed by the existing nuclear deal, in retaliation for crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago, and has stockpiled enough highly-enriched uranium to make several bombs.

The US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that this weekend's meeting in Oman would be "very big".

"I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious," Trump said.

But he also warned that it would "be a very bad day for Iran" if the talks were not successful.

In an opinion piece published by the Washington Post on Tuesday, Iran's foreign minister declared that it was "ready to engage in earnest and with a view to seal a deal".

"We will meet in Oman on Saturday for indirect negotiations. It is as much an opportunity as it is a test," Araghchi said.

Iran harboured "serious doubts" about the sincerity of the US government's intentions, he noted, citing the "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions that Trump restored soon after starting his second term.

"To move forward today, we first need to agree that there can be no 'military option', let alone a 'military solution'," he said.

"The proud Iranian nation, whose strength my government relies on for real deterrence, will never accept coercion and imposition."

Araghchi insisted there was no evidence that Iran had violated its commitment not to seek nuclear weapons, but also acknowledged that "there may exist possible concerns about our nuclear programme".

"We are willing to clarify our peaceful intent and take the necessary measures to allay any possible concern. For its part, the United States can show that it is serious about diplomacy by showing that it will stick to any deal it makes. If we are shown respect, we will reciprocate it."

"The ball is now in America's court," he added.

Iran's hard-line Tasnim news agency said Araghchi would head the country's delegation at the Oman talks, underlining their importance.

The BBC's US partner CBS News meanwhile confirmed that Trump's Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff would lead the US side, and said America is continuing to push for them to be direct talks.

During the first set of meetings, the US was expected to call on Iran to fully dismantle its nuclear programme and, depending on how negotiations went, technical experts were then expected to follow up in additional talks, it said.

US officials have so far revealed few details about Trump's demands.

However, after Witkoff said in a recent interview that Trump was proposing a "verification programme" to show Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz clarified the goal was "full dismantlement".

Israel's prime minister echoed Waltz's stance in a video on Tuesday, saying he wanted a "Libyan-style" agreement - a reference to the North African country's decision to dismantle its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes in 2003.

"They go in, blow up the installations, dismantle all of the equipment, under American supervision and carried out by America," Netanyahu explained.

He then said: "The second possibility, that will not be, is that they drag out the talks and then there is the military option."

Israel, which is assumed to have its own nuclear weapons but maintains an official policy of deliberate ambiguity, views a nuclear Iran as an existential threat.

Tel Aviv said last year it had hit an Iranian nuclear site in retaliation for an missile attack.

A senior official at Iran's foreign ministry told the BBC that it would never agree to dismantle its nuclear programme, and added the "Libya model" would never be part of any negotiations.

The 2015 deal that Iran reached with then-US President Barack Obama's administration, as well as the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany, saw it limit its nuclear activities and allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in return for sanctions relief.

However, in 2018, Trump unilaterally abandoned the agreement, which he said did too little to stop Iran's potential pathway to a bomb.

Iran then increasingly breached the agreement's restrictions. The IAEA warned in February that Iran had stockpiled almost 275kg (606lb) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, which is near weapons grade. That would theoretically be enough, if enriched to 90%, for six nuclear bombs.

The heads of six UN agencies have appealed to world leaders to act urgently to make sure food and supplies get to Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has stopped letting in deliveries for more than a month.

A joint statement said Palestinians were "trapped, bombed and starved again" with supplies "piling up" at crossing points.

Israel has blocked the entry of supplies, including humanitarian aid, since 2 March, after the first stage of a ceasefire expired, demanding Hamas agree to extend that part of the truce. Hamas has refused, accusing Israel of reneging on its commitments.

Israel has said there is enough food in Gaza "for a long period of time", but the agencies said this was not the case.

"The latest ceasefire allowed us to achieve in 60 days what bombs, obstruction and lootings prevented us from doing in 470 days of war: life-saving supplies reaching nearly every part of Gaza," the statement said.

"While this offered a short respite, assertions that there is now enough food to feed all Palestinians in Gaza are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low."

The statement was signed by the heads of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); the UN's children's agency (Unicef); the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS); the World Food Programme (WFP); and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Because of the blockade, all UN-supported bakeries have closed, markets are empty of most fresh vegetables and hospitals are rationing painkillers and antibiotics.

The statement says that Gaza's "partially functional health system is overwhelmed [and]... Essential medical and trauma supplies are rapidly running out."

"With the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza now in its second month, we appeal to world leaders to act – firmly, urgently and decisively – to ensure the basic principles of international humanitarian law are upheld.

"Protect civilians. Facilitate aid. Release hostages. Renew a ceasefire."

The two-month pause in fighting saw a surge in humanitarian aid let into Gaza, as well as the release by Hamas of 33 hostages - eight of them dead - in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Israel renewed its aerial bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza on 18 March.

The war was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 50,810 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive since then, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Ukrainian forces have captured two Chinese nationals who were fighting for the Russian army in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Ukrainian president said intelligence suggested the number of Chinese soldiers in Russia's army is "much higher than two".

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Chinese troops fighting on Ukrainian territory "puts into question China's declared stance for peace" and added that their envoy in Kyiv has been summoned for an explanation.

It marks the first official allegation that China is supplying Russia with manpower for its war in Ukraine. There has been no immediate response to the claims from Moscow or Beijing.

In a statement on social media platform X, Zelensky said the soldiers were captured in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region with identification documents, including bank cards which had "personal data" on them.

Ukraine's forces fought six Chinese soldiers and took two of them prisoner, he said.

The post was accompanied by a video showing one of the alleged Chinese captives in handcuffs, speaking Mandarin Chinese and apparently describing a recent battle.

"We have information suggesting that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupier's units than just these two," he said.

"Russia's involvement of China, along with other countries, whether directly or indirectly, in this war in Europe is a clear signal that Putin intends to do anything but end the war," he said.

Zelensky called for a response "from the United States, Europe, and all those around the world who want peace".

An investigation is under way and the captives are currently in the custody of Ukraine's security service, he added.

Ukraine's foreign minister said that he had summoned China's charge d'affaires in Kyiv to "demand an explanation".

Writing on X, Andrii Sybiha said: "We strongly condemn Russia's involvement of Chinese citizens in its war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as their participation in combat against Ukrainian forces."

He added: "Chinese citizens fighting as part of Russia's invasion army in Ukraine puts into question China's declared stance for peace and undermines Beijing's credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council."

French newspaper Le Monde has previously reported that it identified around 40 accounts on TikTok's sister app, Douyin - which is only available in China - belonging to Chinese individuals who claim to have signed up with the Russian army.

North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia's war effort against Ukraine, according to Kyiv and Western officials.

One of Russia's chief advantages in the war is numbers. There have been reports of Moscow using "meat grinder" tactics to throw huge numbers of soldiers at the front lines and incrementally improve their position.

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

Elon Musk has called President Donald Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, a "moron" over comments he made about his electric vehicle firm, Tesla.

Musk - who is also a member of the Trump administration - also said Navarro was "dumber than a sack of bricks" in posts on his social media platform X.

It was in response to an interview Navarro gave in which he described Tesla as a "car assembler", rather than a manufacturer, because of its use of foreign-made parts.

Navarro was being interviewed about Trump's tariff policy and said he wanted to see such parts made in the US in the future instead.

Musk said the claims were "demonstrably false."

The BBC has asked the White House for comment.

Trump has in part justified his global wave of tariffs by saying he wants to revive manufacturing in the US.

This is an argument Navarro was expanding on during an appearance on CNBC on Monday.

"If you look at our auto industry, right, we're in assembly line for German engines and transmissions right now", he said.

"We're going to get to a place where America makes stuff again, real wages are going to be up, profits are going to be up".

Responding to the comments on Tuesday, Musk posted a link to a 2023 article by car valuation firm Kelley Blue Book, which cited Car.com findings that Tesla vehicles had the most parts produced in the US.

"By any definition whatsoever, Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content," Musk wrote in a follow-up post.

Technology industry analyst Dan Ives said on Sunday that the company was less exposed to tariffs than other US car makers such as GM, Ford, and Stellantis.

But he too claimed the company sourced the majority of its parts from outside the US, highlighting China.

"The tariffs in their current form will disrupt Tesla, the overall supply chain, and its global footprint which has been a clear advantage over the years vs. rising competitors like BYD," he said.

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Trump's tariffs have caused stock market falls around the world, as investors calculate it will result in firms making smaller profits.

Musk - who is leading DOGE, which is tasked with cutting federal spending - warned in an X post on 27 March that even his company would not be immune from tariff disruption.

Another Trump backer, the billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, has called for a pause on the tariffs to stave off what he called "major global economic disruption."

In a post on X, he said the current plans would do "unnecessary harm."

Navarro is considered an ultra-Trump loyalist after being jailed for ignoring a subpoena from a House committee investigating alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

He is also thought to be one of the main architects of Trump's tariff policy.

Ukrainian forces have captured two Chinese nationals who were fighting for the Russian army in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Ukrainian president said intelligence suggested the number of Chinese soldiers in Russia's army is "much higher than two".

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Chinese troops fighting on Ukrainian territory "puts into question China's declared stance for peace" and added that their envoy in Kyiv has been summoned for an explanation.

It marks the first official allegation that China is supplying Russia with manpower for its war in Ukraine. There has been no immediate response to the claims from Moscow or Beijing.

In a statement on social media platform X, Zelensky said the soldiers were captured in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region with identification documents, including bank cards which had "personal data" on them.

Ukraine's forces fought six Chinese soldiers and took two of them prisoner, he said.

The post was accompanied by a video showing one of the alleged Chinese captives in handcuffs, speaking Mandarin Chinese and apparently describing a recent battle.

"We have information suggesting that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupier's units than just these two," he said.

"Russia's involvement of China, along with other countries, whether directly or indirectly, in this war in Europe is a clear signal that Putin intends to do anything but end the war," he said.

Zelensky called for a response "from the United States, Europe, and all those around the world who want peace".

An investigation is under way and the captives are currently in the custody of Ukraine's security service, he added.

Ukraine's foreign minister said that he had summoned China's charge d'affaires in Kyiv to "demand an explanation".

Writing on X, Andrii Sybiha said: "We strongly condemn Russia's involvement of Chinese citizens in its war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as their participation in combat against Ukrainian forces."

He added: "Chinese citizens fighting as part of Russia's invasion army in Ukraine puts into question China's declared stance for peace and undermines Beijing's credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council."

French newspaper Le Monde has previously reported that it identified around 40 accounts on TikTok's sister app, Douyin - which is only available in China - belonging to Chinese individuals who claim to have signed up with the Russian army.

North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia's war effort against Ukraine, according to Kyiv and Western officials.

One of Russia's chief advantages in the war is numbers. There have been reports of Moscow using "meat grinder" tactics to throw huge numbers of soldiers at the front lines and incrementally improve their position.

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

The number of state executions around the world has reached its highest level in ten years, a new report by Amnesty International has said.

More than 1,500 recorded executions took place in 2024 with Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia accounting for a combined 1,380 and the United States for 25, the charity found.

Despite this rise, the report also found that the total number of countries carrying out the death penalty stood at 15 - the lowest number on record for the second consecutive year.

Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the "tide is turning" on capital punishment, adding that "it is only a matter of time until the world is free from the shadow of the gallows".

While these figures are the highest they have been since 2015 - when at least 1,634 people were subject to the death penalty - the true overall figure is likely to be higher.

Amnesty International says the figure does not include those killed in China, which it believes carries out thousands of executions each year. North Korea and Vietnam are also not included.

Data on the use of the death penalty is classified as a state secret both in China and Vietnam, meaning that the charity has been unable to access statistics.

Other obstacles, such as restrictive state practices or the ongoing crises in Gaza and Syria, meant that little or no information was available for those areas.

The report, entitled Death Sentences and Executions 2024, cited that Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were responsible for the overall rise in known executions.

Iraq almost quadrupled its executions from at least 16 to at least 63, while Saudi Arabia doubled its yearly total from 172 to at least 345.

Executions in Iran rose from at least 853 in 2023 to at least 972 in 2024.

The report also said that the two main reasons for the spike in the use of capital punishment was down to "countries weaponising the death penalty against protesters" and for "drug-related crimes".

The charity found that more than 40% of executions in 2024 were carried out for drug-related offences, which it said was unlawful under human rights law.

In 2024, Zimbabwe signed into law a bill that abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes and, since September 2024, the world has seen two cases where death row inmates in Japan and the US have been acquitted and granted clemency respectively.

The charity also said more than two thirds of all UN member states voted in favour of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty last year.

At least 50 hippos and other large animals have been killed by anthrax poisoning in Africa's oldest national park, its director has said.

Photos shared by the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo show the motionless animals floating along the Ishasha River. Park officials say they first started appearing last week.

The exact cause of the poisoning is unknown but tests have confirmed the presence of anthrax.

Park director Emmanuel de Merode said work was under way to recover the animals and bury them to prevent further spread, but it was difficult because there were no excavators.

"It's difficult due to lack of access and logistics," he told Reuters news agency.

"We have the means to limit the spread by... burying them with caustic soda."

The river runs north to Lake Edward, one of Africa's great lakes, where more dead animals have been reported locally.

Anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis and can be deadly but usually it does not spread easily.

It largely survives as spores that hide away in soil for years before entering an animal through inhalation or a cut or wound.

The Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature has warned residents to avoid wildlife and boil water from local sources before drinking.

Stretching 7,800 sq km (3,000 sq miles), Virunga is one of the most biologically diverse, but also most dangerous, national parks on the continent.

The park is a popular tourist destination but has also been affected by the conflict between rebel groups and the Congolese army in recent years.

Thousands of armed soldiers belonging to different rebel groups roam Virunga and its surrounding areas, battling for control of the region's rich resources.

Many rangers have died protecting wildlife there.

In recent decades there have been efforts to increase the number of hippos in the park after the population declined from over 20,000 to just a few hundred as a result of poaching and war.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

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The US and Iran are holding "direct talks" over a possible nuclear deal on Saturday, Donald Trump has said.

Discussions between Washington and Tehran will be at a "very high level", the US president said on Monday, before warning it would be a "very bad day for Iran" if no agreement was reached.

Last month, Trump raised the prospect of military action against Iran after its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly rejected the offer of direct talks.

Trump disclosed the talks after a White House meeting with Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who has also previously raised the prospect of attacking Iran to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said: "We have a very big meeting on Saturday [with Iran], and we're dealing with them directly... And maybe a deal is going to be made, that would be great."

Trump later said Iran would be in "great danger" if the talks were not successful, adding: "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren't successful, I actually think it'll be a very bad day for Iran."

The president did not provide further details about the talks, including how progressed they are or which officials have been involved.

Iran has not publicly commented since Trump said direct contact had taken place between the two countries, which have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1980.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said: "We have expressed our point of view: We are in favour of diplomacy and negotiations [with Washington], but only [through] indirect [channels].

"Of course, it must be acknowledged that no round of negotiations has taken place so far."

In March, Trump sent a letter to Iran's leader via an intermediary from the United Arab Emirates setting out his willingness to negotiate.

That offer was rejected by Iran, though its leadership signalled a willingness to discuss a possible deal with the US via a third party.

Curbing Iran's ability to build nuclear weapons has been a key foreign policy goal for the US and its allies for decades.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama made an agreement with Iran under which it would limit its nuclear activities and allow international inspectors into the country to ensure facilities were being solely used for civilian purposes and not weapons production.

In return, Iran was to be offered relief from sanctions, which have crippled its economy.

That agreement was co-signed by China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK.

However, in 2016, Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the deal, which he had been strongly critical of during his first presidential election campaign.

In the years that followed, Iran has increasingly breached its terms. The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned Tehran has built up large stockpiles of enriched uranium, which can be used to make nuclear bombs.

In recent months, Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of negotiating a new agreement with Iran, while threatening military action if one can not be reached.

Israel sees preventing its rival Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon as central to its long-term security. It has reportedly weighed up striking its production facilities in recent months.

Last year, Israel said it had hit an Iranian nuclear site in retaliation for Iran's earlier missile attack on Israel.

Speaking at the White House, Netanyahu said: "We and the United States are both united in the goal that Iran does not ever get nuclear weapons.

"If it can be done diplomatically in a full way, the way it was done in Libya, I think that would be a good thing."