The US began collecting a 10% "baseline" tariff on all imports on Saturday as President Donald Trump urged Americans to "hang tough" after market turmoil.

The UK and France are among hundreds of countries impacted and its leaders have said nothing is off the table. While China, which has been hit the hardest by President Trump's tariffs, announced a significant retaliatory response.

All three major stock indexes in the US plunged more than 5% on Friday, with the S&P 500 dropping almost 6%, capping the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.

In Washington DC, New York and other cities thousands gathered to protest against a range of Trump's policies - from the economy to government cuts.

Trump described the market volatility as "an economic revolution", which the US "will win".

"Hang tough, it won't be easy, but the end result will be historic," he added in a post on Truth Social.

His policy changes have sent shockwaves through global supply chains.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell almost 5% - its steepest in five years, while Asian markets also dropped and exchanges in Germany and France faced similar declines.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump and responsible for the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), said the US and Europe could move towards a "zero-tariff situation", which could create "a free-trade zone between Europe and North America".

His comments, made as he travelled to meet government ministers in Italy, came days before the Trump administration introduces tariffs on goods of up to 50% on 9 April to what it calls the "worst offenders" for trade imbalances with the US.

The EU is due to be hit with a 20% levy.

In his first term in office, Trump scorned a proposed free-trade deal with the EU, called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment partnership, but a bubbling trade war was ended after he put threats to impose tariffs on European cars aside in 2018.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had a series of calls with world leaders following Trump's tariffs announcement on Wednesday.

• Starmer's response to Trump tariffs is both to slow down and go faster

In a readout issued after Sir Keir's conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, Downing Street said the pair "agreed that a trade war was in nobody's interests but nothing should be off the table".

Sir Keir and Macron also "shared their concerns about the global economic and security impact, particularly in South East Asia".

China, the world's second largest economy, was hardest hit by Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" towards nations he deems unfriendly to America's interest.

On Friday, Beijing announced retaliatory tariffs of 34% on US imports - the same as Washington imposed on imports from China. Beijing also filed a complaint against the new tariffs to the World Trade Organisation.

In a statement a day later, China's foreign ministry urged Washington to "stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China's economy and trade, and stop undermining the legitimate development rights of the Chinese people".

In Washington DC and across the US, around 1,200 demonstrations were expected to take place on Saturday, marking the largest single day of protest against President Trump and Musk since the White House announced policy changes to how the US government is led - expanding the power of the executive branch.

The White House is yet to comment on the protests, but Trump was pictured by an AP photographer - excluded from the press pool - with an issue of the New York Post in his hand, open to an article about China.

The impact on trade since tariffs came into place has been palpable.

In the UK, Jaguar Land Rover announced it would "pause" all shipments to the US as it works to "address the new trading terms".

A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was swept away by flood waters on Friday, one of at least nine people to die in a series of dramatic storms that continue to pummel the US.

High winds and heavy rain continued to batter states including Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky on Saturday, delaying recovery efforts.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service said to expect "potentially historic" rainfall and wide temperature swings from the central US to the East Coast into Sunday.

The boy was reportedly walking to his school bus stop on Friday morning when he was overtaken by flooding. The Frankfort Police Department, in Frankfurt, Kentucky, confirmed it recovered his body about two hours later.

"We are deeply saddened at this horrific tragedy that claimed the life of one of our students," Franklin County Schools Superintendent Mark Kopp said at a news conference on Friday.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear called the boy's death an "unimaginable loss". He also confirmed another death - that of an adult - in Kentucky on Saturday.

"We need everyone to understand that all water poses a risk right now. Let's do everything possible to keep our loved ones safe," he said in a statement.

National Weather Service forecasters said severe thunderstorms and flash flooding were expected across a wide band of the central US that extended from Arkansas and Louisiana to Western Pennsylvania into Sunday before the system would weaken and move to the East Coast.

As of Saturday afternoon, more than 162,000 people were already without power in Arkansas, Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky had already declared states of emergency earlier in the week.

Forecasters said the storms Saturday had "the makings of a catastrophic, potentially historic heavy rainfall and flash flood event, with some locations potentially seeing rainfall amounts as high as 10-20 (inches) when all is said and done".

Even when the rain stops, swollen rivers will continue to pose a danger, forecasters said. Changes in pressure and high winds also puts the area from eastern Texas to western Tennessee at enhanced risk for tornados.

It has been a punishing week of weather for the region. Dozens of tornados have been reported and hundreds of counties have spent days under storm warnings since Wednesday.

Other deaths have included a man and his teenaged daughter in Tennessee and a 68-year-old man in Missouri who reportedly stopped to help a stranded driver.

The same region was hit by tornadoes, wildfires and dust storms that killed 40 and left "staggering" damage in March.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has fired one of his deputies for taking a "lavish" trip to Antarctica with his wife during Nowruz, the Persian new year.

The president's office described Shahram Dabiri's trip as "unjustifiable and unacceptable given the ongoing economic challenges" in Iran.

A picture of Dabiri and his wife posing in front of MV Plancius, which was bound for the South Pole, circulated widely on social media and caused outrage in Iran.

In a statement on Saturday, Pezeshkian said Dabari had been removed as vice president of parliamentary affairs for "indefensible" actions, regardless of whether they were financed from his own pocket.

"In a government that seeks to follow the values of the first Shia Imam (Imam Ali), and amid significant economic pressures on our people, the lavish travels of government officials, even when personally financed, are indefensible," Pezeshkian said.

Iran's economy is under significant strain, and subject to Western sanctions due in part to its support of groups including Hamas and Hezbollah, which have been proscribed terrorist organisations by the US, UK and the EU.

Iran's unemployment rate as of October 2024 was 8.4%, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while its annual inflation rate was 29.5%.

Pezeshkian said Dabiri's actions "starkly contradict the principle of simplicity that is paramount for those in positions of authority".

The Antarctica expedition on the MV Plancius reportedly has a starting cost of equivalent to $6,685 (£5,187).

Usually, visits to the coldest and least populated continent in the world are carried out by scientists and seasoned explorers.

However, tourism voyages on cruises have surged in popularity in recent years. The Dutch vessel pictured in the picture of Dabiri, for example, was used by the Royal Netherlands Navy for military and civilian research between 1976 and 2004.

It is not clear what expedition package Dabiri chose or what mode of transport he took from Iran to Antarctica.

On one of the many package deals available online, explorers need to embark and disembark from Ushuaia, one of the southernmost points of Argentina. The town is about 3,079km (1,913 miles) from Buenos Aires, the Argentinian capital.

The Iranian president was elected last year with a promise to revive the economy and improve Iranians' daily lives. He replaced Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash.

Iranian media reported that many of Pezeshkian's supporters urged him to remove Dabiri from post as the public grew disgruntled over the trip.

Mobile phone footage has emerged that appears to contradict Israel's account of why soldiers opened fire on a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, killing 15 rescue workers.

The video published by the New York Times, and said to have been filmed by a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedic who was killed, shows the vehicles moving in darkness with headlights and emergency flashing lights switched on early on the morning of 23 March - before coming under fire.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initial statement said "several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles."

A surviving paramedic previously told the BBC that the ambulances were clearly marked and had their internal and external lights on.

The IDF has been approached for comment about the video, which the PRCS said had been shown to the UN Security Council.

The video shows the marked vehicles drawing to a halt on the edge of the road, lights still flashing, and at least two emergency workers stepping out wearing reflective clothing.

The windscreen of the vehicle being filmed from is cracked and shooting can then be heard lasting for several minutes as the person filming says prayers. He is understood to be one of the dead paramedics.

The footage was found on his phone after his body was recovered from a shallow grave one week after the incident. The bodies of the eight paramedics, six Gaza Civil Defence workers and one UN employee were found buried in sand, along with their wrecked vehicles. It took international organisations days to negotiate safe access to the site.

Israel claimed a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been killed in the incident, but it has not provided any evidence or further explained the threat to its troops.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar earlier this week echoed the army account, saying "the IDF did not randomly attack an ambulance".

The IDF promised to investigate the circumstances after a surviving paramedic questioned its account.

In an interview with the BBC, paramedic Munther Abed said: "During day and at night, it's the same thing. External and internal lights are on. Everything tells you it's an ambulance vehicle that belongs to the Palestinian Red Crescent. All lights were on until the vehicle came under direct fire."

He also denied he or his team had any militant connections.

"All crews are civilian. We don't belong to any militant group. Our main duty is to offer ambulance services and save people's lives. No more, no less," he said.

Speaking at the United Nations yesterday the President of the PRCS, Dr Younis Al-Khatib, referred to the video recording, saying: "I heard the voice of one of those team members who was killed. His last words before being shot…'forgive me mum, I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives'. It's heartbreaking".

He called for "accountability" and "an "independent and thorough investigation" of what he called an "atrocious crime".

One paramedic is still unaccounted for following the 23 March incident.

Pained cries rang out in front of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's official residence on Friday, as judges of the Constitutional Court judges confirmed his impeachment.

"I came here with hope in my heart, believing we would win ... It's so unfair," 64-year-old Won Bog-sil told BBC Korean from the rally, where thousands had gathered in support of Yoon.

These scenes were live streamed to thousands more on YouTube - a platform popular with not just Yoon's supporters but the president himself.

A disgraced Yoon is now stripped of his power, but he leaves behind an ever more divided South Korea.

Last December, Yoon's shock martial law declaration cost him the confidence of much of the country. But among his supporters, his ongoing legal troubles have only further buttressed the image of a wronged saviour.

Many of them echo narratives peddled by influential right-wing YouTubers who support Yoon: that martial law was necessary to protect the country from pro-North Korea opposition lawmakers and a dangerously powerful opposition, and that Yoon's conservative party was a victim of election fraud.

All this has culminated in a fringe movement that has become both more energised and extreme, spilling out from behind computer screens onto the streets.

"Stop the Steal" signs have become a fixture at pro-Yoon rallies - co-opted from supporters of US President Donald Trump, whose own political career has been helped by a network of conservative YouTubers.

Shortly after Yoon's arrest in January, enraged supporters stormed a courthouse in Seoul, armed with metal beams, assaulting police officers who stood in their way.

Last month, an elderly man died after setting himself on fire near Seoul City Hall weeks earlier. A stack of fliers accusing opposition leaders of being pro-North Korean forces were found near him.

"If they remain here, our country will become a communist nation," the fliers read. "There is no future for this country, no future for the youth."

Even conservatives have been surprised and divided by this new trend of violence.

"He has watched too many trashy YouTube videos," read one op-ed in Korea JoongAng Daily - one of many conservative news outlets that have become increasingly at odds with Yoon supporters. "A compulsive watcher of biased YouTube content can live in a fanatic world dominated by conspiracies."

From the outset Yoon embraced right-wing YouTubers, inviting some of them to his inauguration in 2022.

In January, as he defied attempts to arrest him, the president told supporters that he was watching their rallies on YouTube livestream. PPP lawmakers said Yoon had urged them to consume "well-organised information on YouTube" instead of "biased" legacy media.

Entwined on these YouTube channels are narratives of the opposition Democratic Party being obsequious to Beijing and trying to curry favour with Pyongyang.

After the Democratic Party won at the polls by a landslide last April, some of these channels claimed that Yoon was a victim of electoral interference led by China, and that North Korea sympathisers lurking among the opposition were behind the ruling party's defeat. Similar claims were echoed by Yoon when he tried to justify his short-lived martial law declaration.

These narratives have found resonance in an online audience that harbours a general distrust of mainstream media and worries about South Korea's neighbours.

"I think [the election was] totally fraudulent, because when you vote, you fold the paper, but they kept finding papers that were not folded," Kim, who gave only his surname, told the BBC at a pro-Yoon rally in January. Claims like these have not waned despite a previous Supreme Court ruling that the voting slips were not manipulated.

Kim, 28, is among a contingent of young men who have become the new faces of South Korea's right-wing.

Young Perspective, a YouTube channel with more than 800,000 subscribers run by someone who describes himself as "a young man who values freedom", often shares clips from parliamentary sessions showing PPP politicians taking down opposition members.

Another popular YouTuber is Jun Kwang-hoon, a pastor and founder of the evangelical Liberty Unification Party, who posts videos of politically loaded sermons urging his 200,000 subscribers to join pro-Yoon rallies. This is in line with the historically strong protestant support for conservatism in South Korea.

Nam Hyun-joo, an employee at a theological school, told the BBC that she believed the Chinese Communist Party was "the main actor behind the election fraud". Standing alone outside the Constitutional Court in the biting January cold, she held a protest sign denouncing the judiciary.

Other voices dominating the virtual realm are a snapshot of the rest of Yoon's support base: middle-aged or elderly men. One of them runs A Stroke of Genius, one of the largest pro-Yoon YouTube channels with 1.6 million subscribers. His livestreams of rallies and monologues pillorying Yoon's opponents regularly rack up tens of thousands of views, with the comments section flooded with calls to "protect President Yoon".

In the tumultuous months since Yoon's martial law declaration, it appears that his party's popularity has not suffered.

In fact, quite the opposite: While the PPP's approval ratings sank to 26.2% in the days after Yoon declared martial law, it rebounded to more than 40% just weeks later - much higher than before the chaos.

Buoyed by the loyalty of his supporters, Yoon wrote in a letter to them in January that it was only after being impeached that he "felt like a president".

"Everyone's kind of scratching their heads a bit here," Michael Breen, a Seoul-based consultant and former journalist who covered the Koreas, tells the BBC. While conservatives in South Korea have been "very divided and feeble" over the last decade, he says, Yoon is "now more popular with them than he was before he tried to introduce martial law".

This solidarity has likely been fuelled by a shared dislike of the opposition, which has launched multiple attempts to impeach members of Yoon's cabinet, pushed criminal investigations against Yoon and his wife, and used its parliamentary majority to impeach Yoon's replacement Han Duck-soo.

"I think the opposition party's power in the assembly went to its head," says Mr Breen. "Now they've shot themselves in the foot."

An embattled Yoon has become larger than life, rebranded as a martyr who saw martial law as the only way to save South Korea's democracy.

"If it wasn't for the good of the country, he wouldn't have chosen martial law, where he would have to pay with his life if he failed," a pro-Yoon rally attendee, who gave only his surname Park, told the BBC.

This has also contributed to a widening chasm within the PPP. While some have joined pro-Yoon rallies, others crossed party lines to vote for Yoon's impeachment.

"Why are people worshipping him like a king? I can't understand it," said PPP lawmaker Cho Kyoung-tae, who supported Yoon's impeachment.

Kim Sang-wook, another PPP lawmaker who has emerged as a prominent anti-Yoon voice among conservatives, said he was pressured to leave the party after supporting Yoon's impeachment. And now YouTubers, according to Kim, have become the president's public relations machine.

Worries have simmered over an increasingly ungovernable group within the conservative movement. And as influential left-wing YouTubers similarly rally anti-Yoon protesters, there are also concerns that political differences are being driven ever deeper into the fabric of South Korea's society.

"Much damage has already been done in terms of radicalising the right, and the left as well for that matter," US-based lawyer and Korea expert Christopher Jumin Lee told the BBC.

He added that at this point "any compromise with a conservative party that continues to embrace Yoon will likely be seen as anathema".

"By driving his insurrection attempt into the centre of Korean politics, Yoon has effectively executed a decade's worth of polarisation."

Donald Trump, in announcing his sweeping new tariffs on US imports on Wednesday, promised that the history books would record 2 April as America's "liberation day".

After two days of stock market turmoil, however, this may also be remembered as the week the president's second-term agenda ran headfirst into economic - and political - reality.

US stocks have been in a tailspin since Trump unveiled his tariffs at Wednesday afternoon's White House Rose Garden event, with signs that America's trading partners - Canada, the European Union and China, most notably - are not backing away from a fight.

Meanwhile, other presidential efforts, on foreign policy and immigration, and at the ballot box - have faced notable setbacks in recent days.

The White House on Thursday felt a bit like a building battening down for a coming storm. The four big posters showing America's "reciprocal" tariffs on a long list of countries were on prominent display in the press briefing room, but administration officials available to respond to media questions were few and far between.

Out on Pennsylvania Avenue, workers unloaded pallets of metal fencing, which will ring the White House grounds in preparation for what officials anticipate to be a large anti-Trump demonstration at the nearby Washington Monument on Saturday. The first lady announced that a White House garden tour event that had been scheduled for that day was postponed because of security concerns.

Even the normally loquacious president stopped only briefly to talk with the crush of reporters on his way to board the Marine One helicopter on the first leg of his journey to Florida.

"I said this would be exactly the way it is," he declared when asked about the day's stock market turmoil. The markets - and America as a whole - would soon boom, he said.

The president, it seems, is willing to wait out the tempest created by his tariff plan. He appears confident that his economic vision of a rebuilt, job-rich American manufacturing sector protected from foreign competition - a vision he has closely held for decades - will ultimately be proven right.

• Worst week for US stocks since Covid crash as China hits back on tariffs
• At a glance: What Trump's new tariffs mean for the EU, China and others
• Explainer: What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• Analysis: How worried should we be about markets turmoil?

The Trump agenda's close encounter with cold, hard reality wasn't limited to trade this week, however.

His two top foreign policy priorities - ending the wars in Gaza and Ukraine - both appear mired in the kind of messy details and conflicting agendas that often obstruct lasting peace.

Israel has once again moved into Gaza and escalated a bombing campaign that is generating reports of widespread civilian casualties. The ceasefire that Trump touted in the days before he took office appears to be in tatters.

Russia, meanwhile, continues to pile new conditions on to negotiations for a full ceasefire with Ukraine, which is an indication that the nation may be buying time to allow its ground forces to take more territory.

"If I think they're tapping us along, I will not be happy about it," Trump said of Russia. But he added that he still believes President Vladimir Putin wants to "make a deal".

Evidence so far indicates the contrary, according to Jake Sullivan, who was President Joe Biden's national security adviser.

In an interview with the BBC, he accused Trump of handing Russia most of its demands, though he acknowledged it was still early in the process and things could yet change.

"So the current dynamic in these negotiations a) is not in fact producing Russian willingness to reach a fair and just compromise, but b) is actually stimulating a view in Moscow that if they just keep holding out, they're just going to keep getting concessions from the United States. And so far that is what has happened."

Even Trump's deportation and immigration enforcement efforts, which still have high public support, have been at least partially derailed by legal challenges.

While his administration has successfully completed several flights transferring alleged Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang members to an El Salvadoran high-security prison, the judge presiding over a case challenging those deportations said on Thursday there was a "fair likelihood" officials had violated his court order to turn the flights around.

Other court challenges - to Trump's suspension of political asylum processing and refugee resettlement, his attempt to end birthright citizenship and his revocation of temporary protected status for about 350,000 Venezuelans - are currently working their way through the US legal system.

At some point, the US Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on many of these disputes.

This week also marked the biggest round of elections since Trump's November 2024 victory, as voters headed to the polls in Wisconsin to elect a state judge and in two Florida special elections for seats in the House of Representatives.

While the Republican candidates in Florida prevailed, their winning margins were about 15%, which is about half of what Trump posted in those congressional districts in November.

In Wisconsin, a key political battleground state, the Democratic-backed candidate won. Democrats were able to maintain the liberal majority on the court despite the tens of millions of dollars spent by conservative groups, including by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who campaigned there in person.

Taken as a whole the results suggest that Democrats are doing well in hotly contested races and may be making inroads even in reliably conservative areas - in part by campaigning against Musk and his efforts to massively cut federal programmes and staff.

That could be an indication that the party will have the political wind at their backs in state elections this November and the midterm congressional elections next year.

The stock market tumult, and those ballot-box results, may be behind a few scattered signs of dissent within Republican ranks.

Ted Cruz, an arch-conservative senator from Texas, said on his podcast on Friday that Trump's tariffs "could hurt jobs and could hurt America" - particularly if other nations retaliate, as China has already done.

"If we're in a scenario 30 days from now, 60 days from now, 90 days from now, with massive American tariffs, and massive tariffs on American goods in every other country on Earth, that is a terrible outcome," he continued.

On Wednesday night in the US Senate, four Republicans joined with Democrats to support rescinding the emergency declaration that justifies Trump's earlier Canada tariffs.

And on Thursday, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa joined with Democrat Maria Cantwell of Washington to back a measure that would require Congress to directly approve tariffs that stay in effect longer than 60 days.

Republicans by and large have been sticking with the president. They seem unwilling, or unable, to sway Trump from his current course on tariffs and government cuts and appear fearful of the political consequences of breaking with the man who has a vise-like grip on the party.

But if the current economic shock becomes a long-term hardship, and if government programme cuts translate into tangible disruptions in popular services or if Trump's standing in opinion polls continues to sag, members of his own party may begin eyeing the exit signs for the first time in years.

And that would bring an unceremonious end to some of Trump's most ambitious efforts.

Trump, no longer worried about standing before voters, may feel liberated from the immediate political consequences of his actions - but reality has a way of asserting itself in the end.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has dismissed accusations that Washington was left unable to help in the Myanmar earthquake due to the Donald Trump administration's shuttering of its humanitarian aid agency.

Asked by the BBC why the US had not meaningfully responded, as it routinely has to past such disasters, Rubio said "we are not the government of the world".

Earlier this week, former officials at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said the US was left unable to send rescuers and dogs due to the agency's dismantling.

Rubio said the US had to balance global humanitarian rescue work with "other needs" and "other priorities" that were in the US national interests.

"There's a lot of other rich countries in the world, they should all be pitching in.

"We're going to do our part. We already have people there. We'll have more people there. We'll help as much as we can [but] it's not the easiest place to work… they have a military junta that doesn't like us," Rubio said.

On Tuesday, a former USAID official told the BBC the shuttering of the agency, led by the billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, meant the White House could not send teams from the US to save lives in the immediate aftermath of the 28 March earthquake.

The disaster has killed more than 3,000 people.

Routinely in such earthquakes, the US can deploy up to 200 rescue workers and sniffer dogs along with specialist equipment, and is often the biggest and best equipment foreign response team on the ground.

Last week, the state department said a US team of three advisers based in the region was being sent to disaster zone.

Speaking to reporters at a Nato meeting in Brussels, Rubio blamed the military regime in Myanmar for the lack of access, even though the state department said earlier this week the country had made a formal request for assistance.

Former USAID officials say their work is seen as non-political, and they have previously accessed countries regarded as politically hostile.

"That would have impeded our response, no matter what," said Rubio.

"That said, we are willing to continue to help in the humanitarian crisis. Other countries need to do so as well. China is a very rich country. India is a rich country. There are a lot of other countries in the world, and everyone should pitch in."

China and India were among the first to have teams on the ground in Myanmar, according to former American humanitarian officials.

Rubio dismissed the accounts of humanitarian aid experts who said the inability to deploy a large US rescue team was due to the USAID cuts.

"These are people that make millions and hundreds of millions of dollars in these NGOs [non-governmental organisations] all over the world that stand up and they get flooded with the US taxpayer money, and then we have to spend 10 [or] 100 million dollars to get 10 million to people. We're not doing that anymore. Okay? We have stopped. We are no longer going to spend 10 million, 100 million dollars to get 10 million to recipients.

"We're not going to fund these global NGOs all over the world that are living off of this. We're not doing it.

"We are prepared to help and work with governments and appropriate NGOs on the ground that are delivering assistance. We will be there, and we will be helpful [but] there are a lot of other rich countries, they should also pitch in and help… we are going to do our part," Rubio added.

As news of the Myanmar earthquake emerged, the White House had reportedly tried to deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) from the US - but could not do so because the Trump administration's cuts had cancelled logistics contracts and fired officials who oversaw such deployments, according to the former officials.

The cuts to USAID had been led by Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) after President Trump targeted foreign assistance on his first day in office, calling it an "industry" that was in many cases "antithetical to American values".

• What is USAID and why is Trump poised to 'close it down'?
• More than 80% of USAID programmes 'officially ending'

Shares slid again on Friday as markets continued to react to the uncertainty surrounding the economic impact of US tariffs.

European markets saw further falls as trading got under way, with both the UK's FTSE 100 index and France's Cac 40 down more than 1%. Asian markets had also declined earlier.

The sweeping new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday triggered a slump in global stock markets, with the US S&P 500 having its worst day since the impact of Covid in 2020.

Traders are concerned the tariffs will increase prices and weigh on growth in the US and abroad.

Trump told reporters on Thursday he thought things were going "very well", adding: "The markets are going to boom."

But on Friday markets continued to slide, with Germany's Dax index down more than 1%.

Trump has said the tariffs will boost US economic growth, but some economists have warned of a slowdown in the US and in the global economy.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has said the new tariffs "clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth".

She said the IMF was still looking into the "macroeconomic implications" of the measures and stressed the need to avoid actions that could do more damage to the global economy.

A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has killed at least 14 people and left dozens of others wounded, according to regional head Serhii Lysak.

Six of the dead were children, said President Volodymyr Zelensky, who grew up in the city.

Images from the scene showed at least one victim lying in a playground cordoned off by police. The head of the city's defence administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said a ballistic missile had landed in the centre of a residential area.

One video showed a large section of a 10-storey block of flats obliterated by the attack and victims lying on the road outside.

The attack is among the deadliest on Kryvyi Rih since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

The city also came under attack earlier this week when a building in the centre was struck. Officials said four people were killed in that attack.

Zelensky wrote on social media that at least five buildings had been damaged in Friday's strike: "There is only one reason why this continues: Russia doesn't want a ceasefire, and we see it."

His home city is about 40 miles (70km) from the front line in eastern Ukraine and with a population of 600,000 it is reputed to be the longest city in Europe.

A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has killed at least 14 people and left dozens of others wounded, according to regional head Serhii Lysak.

Six of the dead were children, said President Volodymyr Zelensky, who grew up in the city.

Images from the scene showed at least one victim lying in a playground cordoned off by police. The head of the city's defence administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said a ballistic missile had landed in the centre of a residential area.

One video showed a large section of a 10-storey block of flats obliterated by the attack and victims lying on the road outside.

The attack is among the deadliest on Kryvyi Rih since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

The city also came under attack earlier this week when a building in the centre was struck. Officials said four people were killed in that attack.

Zelensky wrote on social media that at least five buildings had been damaged in Friday's strike: "There is only one reason why this continues: Russia doesn't want a ceasefire, and we see it."

His home city is about 40 miles (70km) from the front line in eastern Ukraine and with a population of 600,000 it is reputed to be the longest city in Europe.

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador.

Kilmar Abergo Garcia, who was was expelled last month along with hundreds of alleged gang members, must be returned to the US by no later than Monday, US District Judge Paula Xinis ordered.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a recent court filing that deporting Mr Garcia was an "administrative error". An immigration judge granted him a legal protection from deportation in 2019.

The White House has alleged Mr Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, but his lawyers argued there is no evidence to prove that he is gang-affiliated, adding that he has never been charged with a crime in any country.

American companies looking to sell into the huge Chinese market have just taken a big hit. A 34% price increase on all US goods entering the country will knock some out of here altogether.

This is especially bad for US agricultural producers. They already had 10 or 15% tariffs on their produce entering China, in response to the last round of Trump tariffs. Now, if you add 34% on top of that, it is probably pricing most of them out.

Beijing doesn't seem too worried about looking elsewhere for more chicken, pork and sorghum and – at the same time – it knows it is whacking the US president right in his heartland.

Globally, all of this has analysts worried.

The problem is that supply chains have become so international, components in any given product could be sourced from all corners of the planet.

So, when the ripples of economic distress start spreading from country to country, it could have potentially catastrophic consequences for all trade.

• Live updates: Markets and reaction to Trump tariffs
• Full list: See all Trump tariffs by country
• Watch: Why Trump's tariffs aren't really reciprocal

Most concerning is that the world's two greatest economies are now at each other's throats with no indication that either is preparing to backdown.

Just take the timing of Beijing's announcement.

The Chinese government revealed its promised "resolute countermeasures" to Trump's latest tariffs in a written statement from the finance ministry at 18:00 local time (10:00 GMT), on a Friday night, which is also a public holiday.

The timing could mean several things.

1. It wanted to somewhat bury the news at home, so as to not spook people too much.

2. It simply made the announcement as soon as its own calibrations had been finalised.

3. Beijing had given up on the hope of using the small window it had before Trump's 54% tariffs on Chinese goods took effect next week to do a deal. So, the government just decided to let it rip.

If it is the last of these reasons, that is pretty bleak news for the global economy because it could mean that a settlement between the world's superpowers could be harder to reach than many had expected.

Another indicator of President Xi's attitude towards President Trump's tariffs can be seen by what he was doing when they were announced.

Elsewhere, governments may have been glued to the television, hoping to avoid the worst from Washington.

Not here.

Xi and the six other members of the Politburo Standing Committee were out planting trees to draw attention to the need to counter deforestation.

It presented a kind of calmness in the face of Trump, giving off a vibe along the lines of: do you're best Washington, this is China and we're not interested in your nonsense.

There is still room for the US and China to cut some sort of deal, but the rhetoric does not seem to be heading that way.

Another possible path is for China to increase its trade with other countries – including western nations once seen as close allies of the US – and for these new routes to essentially cut America out of the loop.

Again, this would hurt not only US companies but also US consumers who will already be paying higher prices thanks to Trump's tariffs.

A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has killed at least 14 people and left dozens of others wounded, according to regional head Serhii Lysak.

Six of the dead were children, said President Volodymyr Zelensky, who grew up in the city.

Images from the scene showed at least one victim lying in a playground cordoned off by police. The head of the city's defence administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said a ballistic missile had landed in the centre of a residential area.

One video showed a large section of a 10-storey block of flats obliterated by the attack and victims lying on the road outside.

The attack is among the deadliest on Kryvyi Rih since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

The city also came under attack earlier this week when a building in the centre was struck. Officials said four people were killed in that attack.

Zelensky wrote on social media that at least five buildings had been damaged in Friday's strike: "There is only one reason why this continues: Russia doesn't want a ceasefire, and we see it."

His home city is about 40 miles (70km) from the front line in eastern Ukraine and with a population of 600,000 it is reputed to be the longest city in Europe.

US President Donald Trump has extended the deadline to comply with a law that requires TikTok's parent company "ByteDance" to sell the popular video app to an American buyer.

The 75-day extension comes as the administration finalises a plan to keep the popular app running in the US.

The social media platform, which is used by 170 million in the US, initially went dark for several hours before Trump took office as the app prepared to shutter in the US due to a law passed by Congress.

"The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed," Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social on Friday.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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It was early morning on 23 March when the police came to Yasin Akgul's door in Istanbul – while his children were still in bed. Just hours before, the Turkish photojournalist had returned home from covering mass anti-government protests. Now he was a wanted man.

"I went to the door and saw there was a lot of police," he says. "They said they had an arrest order for me but gave me no details. My son was awake, and I couldn't even tell him what was happening as I didn't get it myself."

Akgul, 35, has seen "plenty of action" in more than a decade as a photojournalist with the AFP news agency – from war-torn Syria to IS-controlled Iraq. On home soil in Turkey, he has been beaten by the police several times while taking pictures, he says - including on World Peace Day – and has been detained "so many times".

But being arrested at home was a first.

"A chill fell over the house," he tells us. "In my work, at the protests, I have seen a lot of violence, and tear gas, but having the police in my home, I felt more afraid."

Akgul was one of seven journalists arrested in dawn raids. All had been covering the protests sparked by the arrest of the city's opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu – the main political rival of Turkey's long-time leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The protesters say the mayor's arrest over corruption charges, which he denies, is politically motivated – an attempt to end his hopes of becoming the country's next president.

The authorities had banned the protests but had been unable to stop them.

Akgul is facing charges of "taking part in illegal rallies and marches". He says the aim is clear – to stop others taking pictures of the biggest unrest in Turkey in more than a decade.

He was in the thick of it – gas mask on – when he took some of the most iconic images of the night.

His photos show a man dressed as a whirling dervish (a dancing mystic) being pepper-sprayed by a line of riot police – striking images of a battle for the soul of Turkey that went around the world, before landing him behind bars.

"This message is to all the journalists," he says. "Don't shoot (take pictures), don't speak, don't film. They are making other journalists afraid that if they go back into the field, they could face the same thing." The fact that he works for an international news agency, AFP, makes that message even louder, he believes.

It has been received and understood.

"After we were arrested, many freelance journalists could not shoot the next day. Everyone was afraid," he told us, sitting on his couch at home with his wife Hazal by his side.

Their three-year-old daughter, Ipek, lay on the couch, holding her father's hand. Their son, Umut, eight, listened on, wearing a Harry Potter-style hat and glasses.

Akgul believes those arrested were carefully chosen – among them seasoned photojournalists. "They are trying to remove us from the front lines," he says.

Plenty of his friends – fellow journalists - have already removed themselves, leaving Turkey because they faced charges or feared they would.

For now, his family is among many here worrying that they could be torn apart by the courts. The government says the judiciary is independent. Human rights groups say judges are under political control, and Turkish democracy is being eroded, year on year.

President Erdogan – who has many loyal supporters - retains a tight grip on the levers of power. He says the protests are "street terrorism" and accuses the opposition of leading "a movement of violence". He has predicted that the demonstrations will wane.

Maybe. Maybe not.

As Yasin Akgul was being released from prison on the morning of 27 March, the BBC's Mark Lowen was being deported from Istanbul, after 17 hours in detention. He was given papers saying he was "a threat to public order".

The authorities later said – after the BBC reported the story – that he had been deported because he lacked accreditation.

It's not only journalists who are at risk. One of the mayor's own lawyers was detained briefly "on fictitious grounds", according to a social media post that Ekrem Imamoglu sent from his cell in a high security prison.

His legal team fight on, but they too are feeling the chill.

"The right to a defence, I think, is sacred. It's part of a fair trial that your lawyers should feel comfortable and safe," says Ece Guner, who is both a lawyer, and an adviser to the mayor.

"It would be a lie to say that no-one is worried, to be honest," she tells us, "but we still feel we have a duty to our country to say the truth, to preserve democracy, and the rule of law."

Where does Turkish democracy stand now? Some here fear it's on its last gasp.

In the past two weeks or so – since the protests began on 19 March - around 2,000 people have been detained, according to Turkey's interior ministry.

Many of those are students and members of Generation Erdogan – those who have only known the 22-year rule of Turkey's long-time leader. Arresting them sends another message.

"It's a huge warning to young people, a loud and clear warning – don't get involved," says Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey Director for Human Rights Watch.

She says the government has also been "lashing out in all directions against perceived opposition" from any quarter, not just the mayor's Republic People's Party (CHP), which is the main opposition party here.

"Public bodies are under threat," she says. "If they speak out and use their voices with authority, there is an attempt to stifle them immediately."

She expects that the coming months will see continuing attempts to limit the protests, and "render them invisible".

That won't be hard given the government's extensive control of the media here. The huge demonstrations held so far didn't lead the bulletins on state TV and pro-government outlets, and when they were shown the protesters were referred to as terrorists.

The most recent rally - last weekend - attracted several hundred thousand people, at the least. The opposition claims more than two million people attended.

Some families brought several generations with them to hear calls for change under a warm sun. We saw the usual heavy police presence but this time there was no tear gas, or rubber bullets. This rally was not banned.

Among the throng we met Alp, 32, who said he had come to defend democracy while there was still time. We didn't ask for a surname – many protesters prefer not to give theirs. He said he was concerned about the risk of arrest.

"The police are collecting students, and women and working people like us," he said.

"So, all of us are in danger right now. But we have to stand up. That's our only choice. If we don't do anything, if we just watch, the battle is lost already."

The opposition is promising to keep up its protests and its campaign on the streets. It's pressing for presidential elections to be brought forward from 2028.

Opposition polls suggest President Erdogan would lose to Imamoglu – if he were freed from jail and able to run as a candidate.

The president himself should not be able to run - as he is already in his second term - but there's speculation here that he could try to change the constitution.

The opposition insists there will be weekly protests from now on. If so, it looks certain that the arrests will continue.

It's unclear if Yasin Akgul's case will go to trial, but the charges against him remain. Despite the danger he hopes to keep telling the story here.

"Someone needs to do this job," he says, "and I think I am one of those people."

A landmine-detecting rat in Cambodia has set a new world record to become the first rodent to uncover more than 100 mines and other deadly war remnants.

Ronin, an African giant pouched rat, has uncovered 109 landmines and 15 items of unexploded ordnance since 2021, charity Apopo, which trains the animals, said in a statement.

Cambodia remains littered with millions of unexploded munitions following about 20 years of civil war that ended in 1998.

The Guinness Book of World Records said that Ronin's "crucial work" is making a real difference to people who have had to live with the "fear that one misstep while going about their day-to-day lives could be their last."

Apopo, which is based in Tanzania, currently has 104 rodent recruits, or HeroRATS, as the non-profit likes to call them.

The rats are trained to sniff out chemicals that are found in landmines and other weapons abandoned on battlefields. Because of their small size, the rats are not heavy enough to detonate the mines.

The rats can check an area the size of a tennis court in about 30 minutes, the charity says, whereas a human with a metal detector might take four days to clear the same land.

They can also detect tuberculosis, an infectious disease that commonly affects the lungs, far quicker than it would be found in a lab using conventional microscopy, Apopo says.

Ronin's impressive work in Cambodia's northern Preah Vihear province has surpassed the previous record held Magawa, a rat who sniffed out 71 mines and was presented with a gold medal for his heroism in 2020.

Since Apopo's work began 25 years ago, the organisation has cleared 169,713 landmines and other explosives worldwide - more than 52,000 have been in Cambodia. The charity also works in other countries affected by war, including Ukraine, South Sudan and Azerbaijan.

There are still an estimated four to six million landmines and other exploded munitions buried in Cambodia, according to the Landmine Monitor.

The Trump administration has fired Gen Timothy Haugh - the head of both the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command - the BBC's US partner CBS has reported.

It is not clear why he was removed, but it comes after a meeting between President Donald Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer on Wednesday. Ms Loomer reportedly urged Trump to fire specific employees whom she suspected lacked support for his agenda.

She posted on X that Gen Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble, who US media reported was also let go, "have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired."

Before their firings were reported, Trump told reporters he would get rid of any staff deemed to be disloyal.

"We're always going to let go of people – people we don't like or people that take advantage of, or people that may have loyalties to someone else," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Trump made the comments as reports emerged of the firings of at least three other officials at the White House National Security Council (NSC), following the reported meeting with Ms Loomer. The president did not confirm names.

The National Security Agency (NSA) referred the BBC to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs for a comment on the firings.

The White House previously told the BBC that the NSC "won't comment on personnel" matters.

The top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees - Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - disclosed Gen Haugh's firing to CBS.

Himes said in a statement that he was "deeply disturbed" by the decision, CBS reported.

"I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first — I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration," Himes said.

Those fired from the NSC on Thursday included Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence; Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs; and David Feith, a senior director overseeing technology and national security, CBS reported.

It was not clear if Gen Haugh and Ms Noble's removals were connected to those at the NSC.

The firings follow a major controversy involving the NSC last month when senior officials inadvertently added a journalist to a Signal messaging thread about military strikes in Yemen.

Gen Haugh, who was not on the Signal chat, testified on Capitol Hill last week about the leak.

The extent to which that controversy played a role in the firings is unclear.

Trump has so far stood by top officials involved in the incident, including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who took responsibility for the Atlantic magazine reporter being added to the Signal chat, and said it was an accident.

According to CBS, a source familiar with the situation said the Signal incident "opened the door" to looking into staff members believed not to be sufficiently aligned with Trump, while Ms Loomer's visit sealed the fate for those who were terminated.

The administration has been looking at outside meetings held by national security staff, reprimanding some for meeting people not believed to be aligned with the president, according to the source.

Aboard Air Force One en route to Miami, Florida, on Thursday, Trump praised Ms Loomer and confirmed he had met with her, calling her a "great patriot" and a "very strong person".

"She makes recommendations… sometimes I listen to those recommendations," he said. "I listen to everybody and then I make a decision."

In a phone call with the BBC, Ms Loomer said it would be "inappropriate" to divulge details of her meeting with Trump on Wednesday.

"It was a confidential meeting," she said. "It's a shame that there are still leakers at the White House who leaked this information."

She texted a statement that said: "It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my research findings.

"I will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will continue reiterating the importance of STRONG VETTING, for the sake of protecting the President of the United States of America and our national security."

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who posted information in the chat, is now the subject of an internal review into his use of Signal and whether he complied with his department's policies, the Pentagon's office of the acting inspector general said on Thursday.

Inspector general offices routinely conduct independent investigations and audits of federal agencies, and look into possible security breaches.

Upon returning to the White House in January, Trump removed many of the government's inspectors general and has installed acting heads of the watchdogs at the defence, commerce, labour and health departments.

The inspector general of the US Department of Defense has launched an investigation into Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal application to message other top-level officials about military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The White House faced a backlash after a journalist was inadvertently added to a group chat - where specific details of strikes were discussed - on the commercial app.

The investigation comes at the request of the Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee.

The goal of the probe is to determine whether the defence secretary and other staff complied with the department policies on using messaging applications to discuss official business.

The acting inspector general, Steven Stebbins, said in a letter to Hegseth that the watchdog would also "review compliance with classification and records retention requirements".

The White House faced a host of questions after Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a Signal chat in early March, in which Hegseth discussed the exact timings of planned strikes, along with weapons packages and other details.

Democrats have called for officials - including Hegseth and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who created the group chat - to resign over the incident.

The Trump administration maintains the information shared in the chat was not classified.

• Who are the Houthis and why is the US targeting them?
• Four lingering questions about Trump officials' Signal chat

The inspector general's letter asks Hegseth to name two points of contact for the investigation within five days, including one government employee who is familiar with the incident as well as a "member of the Senior Executive Service or a General/Flag Officer".

The review will take place both in Washington DC, and at US Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, according to the letter.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was aware of the inspector general's probe.

"Those cases would have to be referred to me," she said. "They have not been referred to me."

On 26 March, Senate Armed Services Committee chair Republican Roger Wicker and ranking member Democrat Jack Reed asked the Pentagon watchdog to probe what messages were communicated in the Signal chat, defence department policy on sharing sensitive information on non-government networks and recommendations on actions the government should take.

The senators said the Signal scandal "raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information".

A Thai court has issued an arrest warrant for an American academic under Thailand's lese-majeste law that forbids insulting the monarchy.

The army filed a complaint against Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University in central Thailand, under lese-majeste and computer crime laws, according to his legal representation.

Mr Chambers and his lawyer are due to report to police on Tuesday, where charges are expected to be filed.

Akarachai Chaimaneekarakate, advocacy lead for the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Centre representing Mr Chambers, told the BBC he did not know the reason for the complaint.

If convicted, Mr Chambers could face three to 15 years in prison for each lese-majeste count.

The BBC has contacted Royal Thai Police for comment.

It is rarer for the lese-majeste law to be used against foreigners, but it has happened before, Mr Akarachai said.

The army filed the complaint against Mr Chambers for "defamation, contempt or malice" towards the royal family, "importing false computer data" in a way "likely to damage national security or cause public panic", and disseminating computer data "that may affect national security", according to a letter from police received by the university's social sciences faculty on Friday, his legal representation said.

The court had already issued the arrest warrant on Monday, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Centre added.

If charges are filed against Mr Chambers next Tuesday, police could release him on bail or detain him, in which case his lawyer would apply for bail.

Police will then investigate and if they believe he did commit the offense, pass a case along to prosecutors, who will decide whether to indict him.

According to his LinkedIn page, Mr Chambers first lived and worked in Thailand 30 years ago, and has spent years since then lecturing and researching in the country, including writing books on its military.

He has not received a subpoena before, his legal representation said.

Thailand's lese-majeste law has been in place since the creation of the country's first criminal code in 1908, although the penalty was toughened in 1976.

The government says the law is necessary to protect the monarchy. Critics say the law is used to clamp down on free speech.

Mr Akarachai told the BBC lese-majeste has been used more since student-led pro-democracy protests, which also targeted the monarchy, swept the country in 2020.

After months of protests, Thailand revived the lese-majeste law for the first time in more than two years.

Since late 2020, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Centre has seen more than 300 cases of lese-majeste involving more than 270 people, including 20 children under the age of 18, Mr Akarachai said.

"When people take to the streets to demand monarchy reforms, they face the risk of political prosecution. Now, when academics write or discuss about those issues in academic settings, it seems they also face the same risk of political prosecution," he said.

Last year, a reformist political party was dissolved by court order after the court ruled the party's campaign promise to change lese-majeste was unconstitutional.

The European Parliament called on Thailand last month to reform the law, which it said was "among the strictest in the world", and grant amnesty to those prosecuted and imprisoned under it.

On Wednesday, Thai parliament is set to discuss the issue of amnesty bills, Mr Akarachai said.

A growing confrontation between Israel and Turkey over influence in Syria is posing a serious challenge for Syria's fragile new government.

On Wednesday night, Israel bombed several military targets in Syria, including two airports – Hama military airport and the T4 base near Homs.

Syria's foreign ministry said the bombardment virtually destroyed the Hama base. A prominent Syrian human rights group said four defence ministry employees were killed, and a dozen other people injured.

The air strikes hit Syria, but their real target was Turkey.

Shortly afterwards, Israel's foreign minister accused Turkey of playing a "negative role" in Syria, and Israel's defence minister warned Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, that he would "pay a very heavy price" if he allowed "hostile forces" to enter his country.

Ankara is currently negotiating a joint defence pact with Sharaa's new government, and there have been widespread reports that Turkey is moving to station aircraft and air defence systems at Syria's T4 and Aleppo airbases.

Some analysts compared Israel's intense air strikes on Hama airport this week with the much lighter bombing on the edge of the T4 base, suggesting that Turkey may have already moved some equipment there and that Israel was calibrating its attack to avoid a full-blown escalation.

Relations between Israel and Turkey have nose-dived since the Gaza war began in October 2023, with Ankara introducing trade restrictions and accusing Israel of genocide.

That regional tension is now playing out on new ground in Syria.

After the air strikes on Wednesday, Turkey's foreign ministry accused Israel of destabilising the region by "both causing chaos and feeding terrorism" and said it was now the greatest threat to the security of the region.

But foreign minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters news agency that his country was not seeking confrontation with Israel, and that Syria could set its own policies with its southern neighbour.

Syria's new leader has repeatedly signalled that he was not looking for confrontation with Israel. Soon after sweeping President Bashar al-Assad from power last December, he told the BBC that Syria would not pose a threat to any country.

He has even left the door open to normalising diplomatic relations with Israel in the future, telling the Economist last month that Syria wanted peace with all parties, but that it was too early to discuss such a sensitive issue.

His top priority since taking power has been to unite a bitterly divided Syria, and pacify external relations with its neighbours, while he cements his power and control.

But Israel has not made that easy. Its military interventions in Syria are fuelling conflict with both external powers like Turkey, and with internal groups like jihadists in the country's south.

Once an implacable enemy of Syria's former president and his Iranian ally, Israel is also suspicious of Sharaa, a man who once led the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda and whose new government is backed by Turkey.

Since he took power, Israel's military has repeatedly pounded Syrian weapons stores, airfields and other military sites left by the former regime, to avoid them falling into enemy hands, it says.

It has also occupied a demilitarised buffer zone, set up after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and has sent forces onto the Syrian side of a nearby mountain, setting up nine bases across the area.

Israeli troops are also making regular incursions into Syria's south-western provinces, vowing to prevent the presence of any armed groups or government forces there.

Earlier this week, the local government in the southern city of Deraa said nine civilians were killed in an Israeli bombardment, during the deepest incursion there yet by Israeli forces.

Another four people were killed in Israeli shelling near the village of Koya late last month, after local gunmen tried to stop the advance of Israeli forces there.

Since then, mosques in both Deraa and Damascus have reportedly called for jihad against Israeli forces.

Charles Lister, head of the Syria Programme at the US-based Middle East Institute, which studies the region, has counted more than 70 ground incursions into south-west Syria since February, describing this as "an extraordinarily dangerous moment – and an unnecessary one".

Since the fall of Assad four months ago, he says, not one attack has targeted Israel from Syria, the country's security forces have intercepted "at least 18 weapons shipments destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon, and dismantled at least eight formerly Iranian-linked rocket launch sites".

Many Syrians are disappointed by Israel's response to their new government. They watched for years as Israel targeted the Assad regime, and believed that Assad's fall would bring the chance for a less confrontational relationship with Israel.

Some say that view is now changing.

"We used to believe that the Israeli army was only targeting Assad's regime forces," said Ismail, a restaurant owner in the west of the country. "But its continued, incomprehensible bombings are sadly making us think that Israel is an enemy of the Syrian people."

Syria is vulnerable because its internal divisions are easily inflamed by regional and global interventions. The roots of sectarian conflict run deep here, nourished by decades of repressive rule by the Assad family, members of Syria's Alawite minority.

Ahmed al-Sharaa's attempts to reassure the country's minorities were interrupted in early March by an explosion of violence in Syria's coastal region – a stronghold of the former regime.

At least 1,000 Alawite civilians or disarmed fighters were massacred by pro-government forces, after government units were ambushed in a co-ordinated attack led by remnants of Syria's former armed forces.

Those former armed forces were once backed by Iran. Some analysts believe their remnants may still be receiving some support from Tehran.

Syrians celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad as an end to their civil war, and a chance to unite.

But outside powers helped fuel that civil war for more than a decade, and its neighbours are now eyeing the vacuum left by Assad. The risk is growing that Syria will again fall victim to the conflicts of outside powers, played out on Syrian soil.

Libyan authorities have accused aid groups of plotting to change the country's ethnic make-up by encouraging African migrants to stay there, and has ordered them to close their offices.

Ten groups have been singled out - including Doctors Without Borders, the UN refugee agency, and Norwegian Refugee Council.

"This plan to settle migrants of African origin in our country represents a hostile act. It aims to change the demographic composition of the country and threatens the balance of Libyan society," said Internal Security Authority spokesman Salem Gheit on Thursday.

It echoes a similar announcement made by Tunisia two years ago, which was swiftly condemned as anti-black racism.

Both nations sit on the Mediterranean coast and are key transit points for African migrants crossing the sea to Europe.

Since the overthrow of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 there has been a breakdown in government, allowing armed militias and human-traffickers to proliferate.

The country has been divided into two, each run by a rival administration.

Militiamen have been accused of running detention centres where migrants are beaten to death or starved, and the Libyan coastguard is accused of sometimes filming people in the sea rather than rescuing them. The Libyan authorities have not commented on these accusations.

Thursday's order to expel the aid groups was made by the internationally recognised government based in the capital, Tripoli.

'Are they not Africans themselves?'

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) suspended its work in Libya a week ago, describing a campaign of harassment by Libyan authorities "summoning and interrogating the staff of international NGOs" since mid-March.

"Our organisation is very concerned about the consequences that these orders will have on the health of patients and on the safety of humanitarian workers," MSF said in a statement sent to the BBC.

In response to Thursday's announcement, the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) has defended its work, telling the BBC that the people it helps are not "migrants" but refugees in dire need.

It also says it operates with the consent of the Tripoli government.

"We are in contact with the authorities in Libya and are following up with them to seek clarity. UNHCR has been operating in Libya for over 30 years, providing humanitarian assistance to refugees, asylum-seekers and vulnerable Libyan communities," spokesman William Spindler told the BBC.

One of the accusations reportedly made by Libya's International Security Authority against the 10 aid groups was that they support "illegal migrants by providing them with food, clothes, and medicine, which encouraged these migrants to consider Libya as a final destination and not a transit country". But many say they do not want to stay in the country.

For years sub-Saharan African migrants have been subjected to grave rights abuses and dehumanising treatment in Libya - including being killed, enslaved, or repeatedly raped.

"He used to call me a 'disgusting black'. He raped me and said: 'This is what women were made for,'" a Sudanese refugee trafficked in Libya told the BBC this year, about a man who had offered her a job cleaning his house.

"Even kids here are mean to us, they treat us as beasts and sorcerers, they insult us for being black and African, are they not Africans themselves?"

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South Korea's president has been removed from office after the Constitutional Court voted unanimously to uphold his impeachment.

Yoon Suk Yeol was suspended from duty in December after being impeached by parliament, following his failed attempt to impose martial law.

The ruling on Friday was met with tears of joy and sadness among Yoon's critics and supporters, who had gathered in various parts of Seoul to watch the verdict live.

A snap election to vote for Yoon's replacement must be held by 3 June.

What next for South Korea?

After months of anxiously waiting, South Koreans have some badly needed closure. The country can now start to repair and move forward, the first step being to elect a new leader.

But the crisis Yoon has unleashed is far from over. Although his military takeover only lasted six hours, the political fallout has only intensified with each month that has passed.

The night of 3 December, when Yoon ordered troops to storm parliament, changed something in South Korea's psyche. It reawakened the ghosts of the country's violent, dictatorial past, showing people that martial law was not, as most had assumed, consigned to history.

Many are still upset by what happened that night, and afraid that the threat of martial law could be brandished again by future zealous politicians.

Today's verdict therefore came as a relief to most, who cheered on the streets of Seoul as the verdict was read out. It is a victory for South Korea's democracy, that for a while looked as if it was on dangerous ground.

The constitutional court was damning in its criticism of Yoon's authoritarian power grab, as all eight judges voted to remove him from office.

In upholding his impeachment, Moon Hyung-bae, acting president of the eight-men bench, said Yoon's short-lived military takeover was not justified, and that he had "[gone] against the people he was supposed to protect".

He added that the implementation of martial law "damaged people's basic political rights" and "violated the principles of the rule of law and democracy".

Already, there are serious calls to change South Korea's constitution – to strengthen its institutions and limit the powers of the president - to guard against this happening again. However, it will take a particularly patriotic future president to sign off on reducing their own authority.

South Korea more polarised than ever

As Yoon leaves office, he leaves behind not just a shaken country, but a divided one. In the aftermath of that shocking December night, South Koreans were mostly united in their disgust for the president and what he had attempted to do.

But Yoon showed no remorse. He dug in, fought his trial at every step, and continued to dangle the same unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that he used to justify his military takeover.

He claimed that the country and his political opposition had been infiltrated by North Korean and Chinese spies, and that these "anti-state forces" had rigged past elections.

Gradually more and more people believed him. Through his belligerence, Yoon has turned himself into a political martyr for many – the victim of an establishment that has been overrun by "communists".

His conspiracy theories have firmly taken root, and far-right extremism is flourishing. Thousands protest every week in the centre of Seoul. They were on the streets on Friday, and will be there again Saturday, claiming the country's politicians and judges are corrupt and elections are rigged.

And these are not fringe views.

More than a third of people now say they do not trust the Constitutional Court while delivered Yoon's verdict; more than a quarter do not trust the voting system.

Within this climate of distrust, South Korea must head to the polls. Yoon's successor needs to be chosen in the next 60 days. These days are sure to be fraught and even more divisive. Many may not to accept the result that comes.

Yet South Korea urgently needs a new leader who can advocate for the country as whole, having been without one for months.

It quickly needs to figure out how to deal with President Trump, having started on the backfoot. His 25% tariffs on cars and steel have dealt Seoul, and its ailing economy, an early a blow, but many believe worse is coming; that it is only time until Mr Trump turns his gaze to the Korean peninsula, and when he does he will try to force South Korea to pay more for its defence and cut a deal with Seoul's arch enemy, Kim Jong Un.

Yoon's legal team has accused the court of politicising the ruling.

"The whole process of this trial itself was not lawful and unfair," said one of his lawyers, Yoon Gap-geun.

"I feel regrettable that this completely is a political decision," he said.

But politicians are calling for unity, asking everyone to accept this verdict, so South Korea can at least start to move on.

Yoon's political party, the PPP, has conceded, but Yoon himself has not. In a statement he apologised to his supporters for his "shortcomings" without mentioning the ruling.

"I am truly sorry and regretful that I could not live up to your expectations," he said.

"It has been a great honor to serve the Republic of Korea. I am deeply grateful to all of you who supported and encouraged me, despite my many shortcomings," he said.

He cannot appeal, as the decision was made by South Korea's top court. But, having repeatedly vowed to fight to the end, he could still refuse to go quietly.

How did we get here?

In an unprecedented televised announcement on 3 December, Yoon said he was invoking martial law to protect the country from "anti-state" forces that sympathised with North Korea.

At the time, the embattled leader was in a deadlock over a budget bill, dogged by corruption scandals and several of his cabinet ministers were under investigation.

Less than two hours after Yoon's declaration, 190 lawmakers who gathered, including some from Yoon's party, voted to overturn it.

Yoon was impeached by parliament and suspended from his duties on 14 December.

He is also facing separate charges for insurrection - making him South Korea's first sitting president to be arrested and charged with a crime - which he will be trialed for at a later date. He is now on bail.

Yoon is not the only South Korean politician to have faced impeachment in recent months.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was reinstated as the country's interim leader last month - a role he took up when Yoon was suspended - after he himself was impeached over his move to block the appointment of new judges to the constitutional court.

In 2017, former president Park Geun-hye was forced from office over her role in a corruption scandal involving a close friend.

Celebrity doctor and former TV host Mehmet Oz has been confirmed by the US Senate to run the agency that oversees the healthcare of millions of Americans.

Oz, who has never held public office, was picked last year by President Donald Trump to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

On Thursday, he was confirmed to the role by the Republican-controlled US Senate by a party-line vote of 53-45.

The 64-year-old, whose approaches have come under scrutiny, trained as a surgeon before finding fame on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the early 2000s.

Health experts have previously criticised Oz's promotion of what they deem to be bad health advice about weight-loss drugs and "miracle cures", and for suggesting malaria drugs could be used as a cure for Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic.

After picking Oz to lead CMS, Trump said in a statement there "there may be no physician more qualified and capable...to make America healthy again".

Ahead of his inauguration, Trump's transition team said Oz would "work closely" with US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to "take on the illness industrial complex".

The CMS oversees the country's largest healthcare programs, providing coverage to roughly half of Americans.

It regulates health insurance and sets policy that guides the prices that doctors, hospitals and drug companies are paid for medical services.

In 2023, the US government spent more than $1.4tn (£1.1tn) on Medicaid and Medicare combined, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Oz also hosted The Dr Oz Show, in which he offered health advice to viewers, from 2009 to 2022.

But he was scrutinised for recommending homeopathy, alternative medicine and other treatments that critics have called "pseudoscience".

Democrats have previously claimed a review of his financial records suggests Oz may not have paid $403,739 in Medicare taxes on more than $10 million of income from his media company between 2021 to 2023.

However, a spokesperson for Oz said a review by the Office of Government Ethics found he had complied with the law.

Veteran Bollywood actor and director Manoj Kumar has died at the age of 87 in India's financial capital, Mumbai.

The actor died of "age-related health issues", Dr Santosh Shetty of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, where the actor was admitted, said.

His son, Kunal Goswami, told ANI news agency that Kumar had been battling health issues for a long time.

Kumar leaves behind a rich legacy of patriotic films, which propelled him to fame in the 1960s and 1970s.

Kumar, who was originally named Harikrishan Goswami, was born in 1937 in the northern state of Punjab.

He carved a niche for himself in the Hindi film industry with films like Shaheed, Roti Kapada Aur Makaan and Kranti. Known for their patriotic fervor, his films struck a chord with the Indian public.

Kumar received numerous awards over the years, including the Padma Shri - the fourth highest civilian award in India.

His contributions earned him the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest cinematic honour.

Tributes have been pouring in on social media to mourn his death.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him an "icon of Indian cinema".

"Manoj Ji's (a term of respect in Hindi) works ignited a spirit of national pride and will continue to inspire generations," he wrote in a post on X.

Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit said his death was "a great loss to the [film] industry" and that the entire industry would miss him.

Stock markets in London, Paris and Berlin fell as trading began on Thursday after US President Donald Trump's sweeping announcements on tariffs.

The UK's FTSE 100 share index was down 1% while France's Cac 40 fell 1.7%.

Earlier Asian markets had slid, while the price of gold, which is seen as a safer assest in times of turbulance, climbed to a record high.

Traders are concerned about the global economic impact of Trump's tariffs, which they fear could stoke inflation and stall growth.

Markets across Asia had fallen sharply after Trump's announcement, with the Nikkei in Japan closing down nearly 3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index 1.5% lower.

The price of gold hit a record high of $3,167.57 an ounce at one point on Thursday, before falling back.

A combination of a 10% baseline levy and higher duties on a number of other trading partners reverses decades of liberalisation that shaped the global trade order.

"This is the worst-case scenario," said Jay Hatfield, chief executive at Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

"Enough to potentially send the US into a recession," he added, echoing nervous market sentiment.

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George Saravelos, head of FX at Deutsche Bank Research, said the new US trade tariffs were a "highly mechanical" reaction to trade deficits, rather than the "sophisticated assessment" the White House had promised.

He warned the move "risks lowering the policy credibility of the [Trump] administration".

"The market may question the extent to which a sufficiently structured planning process for major economic decisions is taking place. After all, this is the biggest trade policy shift from the US in a century," he said.

Last year, on 17 September, at around 15:30, a pager which a nurse called Adam was given at the start of his shift at a hospital in Lebanon received a message. The devices had been distributed by Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim group, to thousands of its members, including Adam, and he said it was how he and his colleagues expected to be alerted of emergencies or a disaster.

"The pager started beeping non-stop and, on the screen, it said 'alert'," Adam, who did not want to use his real name for safety reasons, said. The text appeared to have been sent by the group's leadership. To read it, he had to press two buttons, simultaneously, with both hands. Adam did it many times, but the beeps continued. "Then suddenly, as I was sitting at my desk," he said, "the pager exploded".

On his phone, Adam showed me a video of the room, filmed by a colleague minutes after he was rescued. There was a trail of blood on the floor. "I tried to crawl to the door because I had locked it while I changed my clothes," he said. The blast had opened a hole in the wood desk. I noticed a beige-like object. "That's my finger," he said.

Hezbollah is known for being a powerful militia and is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by countries including the UK and the US. But in Lebanon, it is also a significant political movement with representation in parliament and a social organisation. Here, being a Hezbollah member does not necessarily mean you are a fighter. In fact, many are not. Adam told me he had never been one. People can work in the group's large array of institutions that include hospitals and emergency services, for example.

Hezbollah had decided to equip members with low-tech pagers for communicating rather than smartphones which it feared could be used by Israel, its arch-enemy, to gather sensitive information about the group. It turned out, though, that the devices which Hezbollah had distributed were part of a years-long elaborate Israeli plan: an explosive compound had been concealed within the pagers, waiting to be activated – and that is what happened on that day.

In the attack, Adam, who is 38, lost his thumb and two fingers on his left hand, and part of a finger on the other. He was blinded in his right eye, which has been replaced with a glass eye, and has only partial sight in the other. He showed me a picture of him in a hospital bed, taken an hour after the explosion, with his face burned, entirely blooded, covered with bandages. Despite his wounds, Adam remained committed to Hezbollah. I asked him how he felt when he looked at himself like that. "Very good," he said in English. Then, in Arabic, he told me: "Because we believe that the wounds are a kind of medal from God. Honouring what we go through fighting a righteous cause."

But the group is no longer the force it was since being dealt a devastating blow in Israel's bombing campaign and invasion of Lebanon, which followed the pager attacks, and faces serious challenges. At home, there is discontent among some supporters over the lack of funds for reconstruction, while the new government has vowed to disarm the group. In neighbouring Syria, the ouster of Bashar al-Assad's regime has disrupted the route used by Iran, its main supporter, for the supply of weapons and money.

I visited communities in southern Lebanon that were destroyed by Israel's attacks, and saw that support for Hezbollah appeared undimmed. But, in views rarely expressed to media, others who backed it said the war had been a mistake, and even questioned the group's future as a military force.

You can listen to more from Hugo in his radio documentary - Crossing Continents: Hezbollah in trouble - here

Hezbollah, or Party of God, was created in the 1980s in response to Israel's occupation of Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. To this day, the destruction of Israel remains one of its official goals. Their last war had been in 2006, which was followed by years of relative calm. Violence flared up again in 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. When Israel started bombarding Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets in around northern Israel, saying it was acting in support of Palestinians. Israel responded with air strikes on southern Lebanon, and tens of thousands of people were forced to flee on both sides of the border.

The pager attacks were a turning point in what had been, until then, an intensifying but relatively contained conflict. The devices exploded as people were working, shopping or at home. About a dozen people, including two children, were killed, and thousands wounded, many of them maimed. The attack caused anger in Lebanon, because of what was seen as its indiscriminate nature. A day later, walkie-talkies used by the group suddenly exploded too. I was at a funeral of some of the victims of the pagers when there was a loud blast. Hezbollah members, desperate, asked us to turn off our cameras or phones, as no-one knew what else could explode.

In the following weeks, Israel carried out a relentless bombing campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Across the country, around 4,000 people were killed and almost 18,000 others wounded. For Hezbollah, the conflict proved to be catastrophic. The group's top leaders were assassinated, many of its fighters killed and much of its arsenal destroyed. Among the dead was Hassan Nasrallah, who had been the head of Hezbollah for more than 30 years, assassinated in a massive air strike on the group's secret headquarters under apartment blocks in the Dahieh, where Hezbollah is based in Beirut.

At the end of November, battered, the group agreed on a ceasefire that was essentially a surrender.

Southern Lebanon is the heartland of Lebanon's Shia Muslim community, which is the bulk of Hezbollah's support base, and one of the regions of the country where the group has traditionally had a significant presence. I travelled to the border town of Kfar Kila, which had a pre-war population of 15,000 and was one of the first to fall when Israel invaded. Israel's stated war goal was to allow the return of residents to its northern communities, which had been emptied because of Hezbollah's attacks. In Kfar Kila, there was almost nothing left standing, and yellow Hezbollah flags dotted the huge piles of broken concrete and twisted metal.

A 37-year-old woman called Alia had come with her husband and three daughters, aged 18, 14 and 10. The youngest was wearing a badge with a smiley picture of Nasrallah. "I only knew that this was my house because of the remains of this plant over there, the roses, and this tree," Alia told me. From the street, she pointed at what she could identify in the rubble. "This is the couch. There, the curtains. That was the living room. And that was the bedroom. That's my daughter's bicycle," she said. "There's nothing to recover".

According to the World Bank, costs related to reconstruction and recovery are estimated at $11bn (£8.5bn) across the country. One of Hezbollah's immediate challenges is to give financial help to people affected by the war, which is crucial to keep supporters on board. Those who lost their houses have received $12,000 to cover for a year's rent. But the group has not promised money to rebuild what was destroyed or to give compensation for destroyed businesses. The limited support is already fuelling discontent. Aila's shop had stock worth $20,000, and she was concerned no-one would cover her losses.

Iran, Hezbollah's backer, is one of the group's main sources of funds, weapons and training. But Lebanon's international allies want to cut off any financial support from Iran, to put even more pressure on Hezbollah, and say there will be no help if the Lebanese government does not act against Hezbollah. With the group weakened militarily, critics see this as a unique opportunity to disarm it.

Alia told me: "We don't want any aid that comes with conditions about our arms... We won't allow them to take our dignity, our honour, take away our arms just for us to build a house. We'll build it ourselves."

It is not surprising that Hezbollah's supporters remain defiant. For many, the group is a fundamental part of their lives, essential in their identities. But Hezbollah's power is seen - and felt - beyond its base. Before the war, its military wing was considered to be stronger than the Lebanese national army. A solid parliamentary bloc means that virtually no major decision has been possible without Hezbollah's consent. Because of Lebanon's fractured political system, the group has representation in the government. In short, Hezbollah has had the ability to paralyse the state, and many times has done so.

But the war has diminished the group's domestic position too. In January, the Lebanese parliament elected a new president, former army chief Joseph Aoun, after a two-year impasse that critics had blamed on Hezbollah. In the past, its MPs and allies would walk out of the chamber when a vote was scheduled. But Hezbollah, severely wounded and with its communities in need of help, felt it could no longer block the process, which was seen as vital to unlock some international support. In his inauguration speech, Aoun promised to make the Lebanese army the sole carrier of weapons in the country. He did not mention Hezbollah, but everyone understood the message.

Ultimately, Hezbollah's future may lie with Iran. One of the reasons for Iran to have a strong Hezbollah in Lebanon was to deter any Israeli attack, especially on its nuclear facilities. This is now gone. Other groups backed by Iran in the region, part of what it calls the Axis of Resistance, have also been significantly weakened, including Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. And the fall of the Assad regime in Syria has interrupted Iran's land corridor to Lebanon - and Hezbollah. Even if Iran decides to rearm Hezbollah, it will not be easy.

Nasrallah has been succeeded by Naim Qassem, his former deputy, who is not seen as charismatic or influential. From time to time, rumours emerge of internal disagreements. And whispers of dissent among the rank and file are spreading. In southern Lebanon, I met a businessman who did not want to have his name published, fearing that he could become a target on social media. On the wall of his office, he had pictures of Hezbollah's leaders. Now, he was critical of the group.

"The mistakes have been huge," he said. "Hezbollah decided to engage in a war to support Gaza without proper calculations, without consulting the people or the Lebanese state". (To date, Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.) He told me a lot of supporters shared his view. "If Hezbollah don't do a proper reassessment of the situation... they will destroy themselves and harm us along the way. We brought this destruction on ourselves, and we're now suffering".

As part of the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah agreed to remove its weapons and fighters from southern Lebanon, and a Western diplomatic official told me the group had largely done it. Israel was required to withdraw its troops, but has remained in five positions, saying this is needed for the safety of its border communities. The Israeli military has also carried out air strikes on targets and people it says are linked to Hezbollah. Lebanon says the Israeli permanence in Lebanese territory and its attacks are violations of the deal.

Discussions about Hezbollah's disarmament are likely to be difficult and long. A source familiar with the group told me one of the options was for Hezbollah's arsenal, believed to still include long-range missiles, to be put under the control of the state, while its fighters, estimated to be several thousand, could be integrated into the Lebanese army.

The businessman told me: "A lot of the families, especially those of wounded and martyred fighters, are totally dependent on Hezbollah. These people won't disengage from Hezbollah immediately… Without a plan, it would be a recipe for internal conflict. It would drive Lebanese to fight against each other".

For weeks, I tried to interview a representative from Hezbollah, but no-one was made available.

Adam, the pager casualty, has now returned to his work as a nurse. He no longer does nightshifts, however, as he cannot see well. The explosion also left shrapnel in head and chest. As he gets tired easily, he needs to take constant breaks to rest. Physiotherapy sessions are helping him adapt to using what is left of his left thumb and middle finger.

Prominent in his living room, is a picture he framed, of himself, with his injured hands, holding a pager. He shared with me another picture, of his maimed hand, only now it also bore a tattooed message which expressed that his wounds were a cheap sacrifice in honour of Nasrallah, the late Hezbollah leader. He, like many, still believes in the group's purpose, and the role it plays.

Denmark will not give up Greenland to the US, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said during an official visit to the Arctic Island.

Responding to repeated threats from Donald Trump, Frederiksen offered closer collaboration on security but told the US president: "You can't annex other countries."

Frederiksen stood alongside Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and his predecessor Mute Egede in a show of support and unity in the face of US threats on Thursday.

Her three-day trip to the territory follows last week's controversial visit by a US delegation headed up by Vice President JD Vance, which was widely criticised in both Greenland and Denmark.

During his whirlwind trip, Vance reiterated Trump's ambitions to bring Greenland under United States' control for security reasons, criticised Denmark for not spending more on security in the region, and claimed it had "not done a good job" for Greenlanders.

After arriving in Greenland on Wednesday, Frederiksen said: "It is clear that with the pressure put on Greenland by the Americans, in terms of sovereignty, borders and the future, we need to stay united."

Frederiksen said on Thursday that Denmark was fortifying its military presence in the Arctic and offered closer collaboration with the United States in defending the region.

But she added: "When you demand to take over a part of... Denmark's territory, when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally, what are we to believe in, about the country that we have admired for so many years?"

Frederiksen rode around the capital Nuuk in a Danish navy patrol boat, alongside Egede and Nielsen.

According to Danish public broadcaster DR, many people cheered at seeing the Danish prime minister, with one resident shouting from a window: "Hey Mette! Thanks for being here."

Egede, who served as prime minister for almost four years, said the island had cooperated with the US on security for almost 80 years - including the construction of the Pituffik Space Base following a 1951 agreement between Denmark and the United States.

The former leader insisted Greenland was not for sale, but added the island wanted trade with the US, Greenlandic national newspaper Sermitsiaq reported.

Trump first floated the idea of buying Greenland during his first term - and his desire to own the island has only grown with time.

Mikaela Engell, an expert on the Arctic territory who previously served as Denmark's High Commissioner to Greenland, told AFP news agency "it's very, very important and it's very reassuring for Greenlanders to see a Danish head of government."

Greenland - the world's biggest island, between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans - has been controlled by Denmark, nearly 3,000km (1,860 miles) away, for about 300 years.

Greenland governs its own domestic affairs, but decisions on foreign and defence policy are made in Copenhagen.

Five of the six main parties favour independence from Copenhagen, but disagree over the pace with which to reach it.

A new Greenland coalition government was formed in March, led by the centre-right Democrats party which favours a gradual approach to independence.

Polls show that the vast majority of Greenlanders also want to become independent from Denmark, but do not wish to become part of the US.

Since 2009, Greenland has had the right to call an independence referendum, though in recent years some political parties have begun pushing more for one.

Tom Cruise has paid tribute to his Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer, who died earlier this week aged 65.

Appearing at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Cruise led a crowd in The Colosseum theatre in a moment of silence to "honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer".

"I can't tell you how much I admired his work, how much I thought of him as a human being and how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun," Cruise said of Kilmer, who played his rival Ice Man in Top Gun in 1986.

The 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick marked Kilmer's last movie role. Kilmer, also known for his roles playing Batman and Jim Morrison in The Doors, died Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

In Las Vegas, Cruise bowed his head in the cavernous theatre, which was packed with movie theatre owners and others who work in the industry.

"Thank you, Val - wish you well on your next journey," Cruise said afterwards.

Cruise was speaking during the Paramount Pictures presentation at CinemaCon. He also showed off a sneak peek trailer of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, which is set to be released later this year, and honoured the film's director Christopher McQuarrie, who was named CinemaCon's director of the year.

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The trailer showed Cruise, who is famous for doing his own stunts, in a series of action-packed scenes - on fighter jets, in explosions and wing walking on a vintage plane.

As Hollywood paid tribute to Kilmer, Cruise had been one of the few stars who waited to publicly commented on the actor's death.

The star has been vocal about how much he enjoyed working with Kilmer. He said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he cried having him on set for Top Gun: Maverick.

"I was crying, I was crying. I got emotional," Cruise said on the show about working with Kilmer. "He's such a brilliant actor. I love his work."

Kilmer's family told US media that he died after coming down with a pneumonia. The actor had two tracheotomies while undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

The procedures forced him to use a voice box to speak, and in the 2022 film, he types on a screen to communicate with Cruise's character. Toward the end of their scene together, Kilmer's Iceman gets up from his chair and coarsely tells Cruise: "The Navy needs Maverick".

The two embrace and then Iceman pokes fun, questioning Cruise about who is the better pilot.

At least 27 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in northern Gaza that was serving as a shelter for displaced families, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

Dozens more were wounded when the Dar al-Arqam school in the north-eastern Tuffah district of Gaza City was hit, it cited a local hospital as saying.

The Israeli military said it struck "prominent terrorists who were in a Hamas command and control centre" in the city, without mentioning a school.

The health ministry earlier reported the killing of another 97 people in Israeli attacks over the previous 24 hours, as Israel said its ground offensive was expanding to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory.

The spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, Mahmoud Bassal, said children and women were among the dead following the strike on Dar al-Arqam school.

He also said a woman who was heavily pregnant with twins was missing along with her husband, her sister, and her three children.

Video from the nearby al-Ahli hospital showed children being rushed there in cars and trucks with serious injuries.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the site in Gaza City that it struck had been used by Hamas fighters to plan attacks against Israeli civilians and troops.

It added that numerous steps had been taken to mitigate harm to civilians.

Overnight, at least 12 people were killed when several homes in Gaza City's eastern Shejaiya district were struck, the Civil Defence said.

It posted a video that appeared to show the bodies of two young children being pulled by rescuers from the remains of a collapsed building.

A witness, who asked not to be named, told BBC Arabic's Gaza Lifeline programme that he had been sleeping when he was "suddenly shaken by a violent explosion and discovered that it occurred at the house of our neighbours, the Ayyad family".

There was no immediate comment from the IDF, but on Thursday morning it ordered residents of Shejaiya and four neighbouring areas to immediately evacuate to western Gaza City, warning that it was "operating with great force... to destroy the terrorist infrastructure".

This week, the IDF issued similar evacuation orders for several areas of northern Gaza, as well as the entire southern city of Rafah and parts of neighbouring Khan Younis, prompting around 100,000 Palestinians to flee, according to the UN.

Israel renewed its aerial bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza on 18 March after the first phase of a ceasefire and hostage release deal agreed with Hamas in January came to an end and negotiations on a second phase of the deal stalled.

The IDF's chief spokesperson, Brig-Gen Effie Defrin, told a briefing on Thursday that its operation had "progressed to another stage" in recent days.

"We have expanded operations in the southern Gaza Strip with the goal of encircling and dividing the Rafah area," he said. "In northern Gaza, our troops are operating against terrorist targets, clearing the area, and dismantling terrorist infrastructure."

He added that over the past two weeks Israeli forces had struck more than 600 "terrorist targets" across Gaza and "eliminated more than 250 terrorists".

Before the strike in Tuffah, Gaza's health ministry had said that at least 1,163 people had been killed over the same period. A UN agency has said they include more than 300 children.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were establishing another military corridor that would cut off Rafah from Khan Younis.

He argued that military pressure would force Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages it is holding, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

However, Hamas said it would not engage with Israel's latest proposal for a new ceasefire, which is said to have been co-ordinated with the US, one of the mediators in the negotiations.

The Palestinian group said it accepted only the plan put forward by the two other mediators, Qatar and Egypt, for a 50-day truce.

The full details of that plan have not been disclosed, but it is understood the regional proposal would see five hostages being released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of Gaza where they have recently redeployed, and the influx of humanitarian aid. There would also be negotiations on ending the war.

Israel wants a larger number of hostages be released at the start of a new truce.

In another development on Thursday, the IDF said the general staff's fact-finding mechanism was investigating the killing by Israeli forces of 15 Palestinian emergency workers near Rafah on 23 March, as well as their burial in what a UN official described as a "mass grave".

"We want to have all the facts in a way that's accurate and we can also hold accountable people if we need to," an IDF spokesman said.

A Palestinian paramedic who survived the attack, speaking to the BBC, challenged the Israeli account of how five ambulances, a fire engine and a UN vehicle were fired on while responding to emergency calls.

The military said the vehicles were "advancing suspiciously" towards its troops without headlights or emergency signals. It also said a Hamas operative and "eight other terrorists" were among those killed, but named only one.

The survivor, Munther Abed, insisted that "all lights were on" until the vehicles came under direct fire. He also rejected the military's claim that Hamas might have used the ambulances as cover, saying all the emergency workers were civilians.

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 50,520 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.