A "miracle" baby has become the first child in the UK to be born to a mother using a donated womb.

The baby's mum, Grace Davidson, 36, was born without a functioning uterus, and received her sister's womb in 2023 – in what was then the UK's only successful womb transplant.

Two years after that pioneering operation, Grace gave birth to her first child in February. She and her husband, Angus, 37, have named their daughter Amy after Grace's sister, who donated her womb.

Holding baby Amy - who weighed just over two kilos (four and a half pounds) - for the first time was "incredible" and "surreal", new mum Grace says.

"It was quite overwhelming because we'd never really let ourselves imagine what it would be like for her to be here," she says. "It was really wonderful."

Grace and Angus, who live in north London but are originally from Scotland, hope to have a second child using the transplanted womb.

The couple initially wished to remain anonymous, but following the safe arrival of baby Amy are now speaking to the BBC about their "little miracle".

The surgical team told the BBC they have carried out three further womb transplants using deceased donors since Grace's transplant. They aim to carry out a total of 15 as part of a clinical trial.

Grace was born with a rare condition, Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, where the womb is missing or underdeveloped, but with functioning ovaries. When the BBC first spoke to her in 2018, she was hoping her mother could donate her uterus to allow her to have children - but it proved to be unsuitable.

The BBC met Grace and husband Angus again in 2019 when one of Grace's two sisters, Amy Purdie, was being assessed to find out if she could donate her womb to Grace. Amy and her husband already had two children and did not want any more.

Prior to surgery both sisters had counselling. Grace and Angus also had fertility treatment and still have several embryos in storage. Grace says she was given the option of surrogacy or adoption, but carrying her own baby felt "really important".

"I have always had a mothering instinct," she says, "but for years I had been suppressing it because it was too painful to go there."

The first baby born as a result of a womb transplant was in Sweden in 2014. Since then around 135 such transplants have been carried out in more than a dozen countries, including the US, China, France, Germany, India and Turkey. Around 65 babies have been born.

Originally scheduled to take place in late 2019, the sisters' transplant operation fell through and then looked in doubt for several years during the Covid pandemic.

When it eventually took place, in February 2023, it took a team of more than 30 medics around 17 hours to remove Amy's womb and transplant it to Grace.

Isabel Quiroga, the surgeon who led the transplant team at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, says although the procedure carried risks for both sisters, it was "life-enhancing and life-creating - and you can't have better than that."

Amy says she did not feel the sense of loss some women experience after a hysterectomy, because of the "dramatic" and immediate benefits to her sister. Grace had her first ever period within two weeks of the transplant and became pregnant on the first attempt at IVF.

It was "incredible" to feel her baby's first kick, she says, adding the entire pregnancy had been "really special".

Baby Amy was born by Caesarean section at Queen Charlotte's hospital in west London on 27 February. Grace and Angus say they hope to have a second child - as soon as the medical team say the time is right.

The donated womb will be removed after the birth of a second child. This will allow Grace to stop taking the daily immunosuppressants she is currently on to ensure her body does not reject her sister's womb. Taking these drugs can increase the risks of developing some cancers, especially if taken over many years - but surgeon Isabel Quiroga says these risks should return to baseline once the womb is removed.

Prof Richard Smith, a gynaecological surgeon at Imperial College London, who led the organ retrieval team, has been researching womb transplantation for more than two decades.

He says his team is thrilled about the birth of baby Amy and that she will give hope to many of the 15,000 women in the UK of childbearing age who do not have a functioning uterus, of whom around 5,000 were born without a womb.

Mr Smith heads a charity called Womb Transplant UK, which paid the NHS costs for Grace's transplant operation. All the medical staff gave their time for free.

He told the BBC around 10 women have embryos in storage or are undergoing fertility treatment, a requirement for being considered for womb transplantation. Each transplant costs around £30,000, he says, and the charity has sufficient funds to do two more.

The surgical team has permission to perform 15 womb transplants as part of a clinical trial, five with living and 10 with deceased donors. No details have been made public about the three women who have so far received wombs from deceased donor organs. NHS Blood and Transplant told the BBC extra consent is sought from families for such rare donations.

Baby Amy's father, Angus, says he and Grace will never be able to thank his wife's sister enough for enabling them to become parents. It was an "absolute no brainer" that they would name Amy after her aunt, Angus says.

The baby's middle name is Isabel, after the surgeon who led the womb transplantation team.

For Grace, having baby Amy has brought her even closer to her sister.

"It was incredibly difficult to let her do that for me," she says, "it's a huge act of sisterly love."

King Charles and Queen Camilla have arrived in Rome to begin their state visit to Italy, which will see a mix of soft-power diplomacy, greeting the crowds and also romance, as the trip coincides with the couple's 20th wedding anniversary.

They flew into Ciampino airport, stepping out into late afternoon sunshine, with Italian government officials and a guard of honour to greet them.

The UK's ambassador to Italy, Lord Llewellyn, part of the welcoming party, said this was an "historic" moment and such visits had an "intangible but priceless" impact.

Against a backdrop of international uncertainty, the visit is part of the UK's post-Brexit "reset" in reinforcing links with European allies.

"This state visit comes at a key moment," said Lord Llewellyn, "as we reset our relations with our European partners".

There had already been reports of "royal fever" and the Italian public valued the King and Queen's enthusiasm for their history, culture and cooking, said Lord Llewellyn, speaking to reporters ahead of the visit.

"Their love for Italy... and all things Italian resonate deeply here," said the ambassador, predicting a warm welcome ahead of the trip to Rome and the historic city of Ravenna.

The state visit was originally intended to include the Vatican, where the King had been due to attend events including a service in the Sistine Chapel, but that had been postponed because of the ill-health of Pope Francis.

The Pope seems to be recovering, appearing in St Peter's Square at the weekend, but so far there are no plans for a private meeting, although there has been speculation it might be something that would appeal to both sides if possible.

State visits, carried out on behalf of the UK government, are an eclectic mix of elaborate ceremony, charming the crowds, flying the flag for business, trying local food and addressing serious international diplomacy.

It will be pizza, pasta and policy.

The visit comes at a time of economic and diplomatic upheaval from US President Donald Trump - and accompanying the King is the UK's Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

There will be an emphasis on the UK's closer military ties with Italy, which Lord Llewellyn said was "vital in a changing Europe, as both our countries stand steadfast in our support for Ukraine".

Italy is also the UK's ninth biggest trading partner - and a popular tourist destination, with Rome's historic sights currently overflowing with holidaymakers.

There was a nod to Canada too in the ambassador's comments, saying that a trip to Ravenna would reflect that King Charles was also King of Canada, with tributes to be paid to Canadian forces who helped to liberate Italy 80 years ago during the Second World War.

The King has had a complicated diplomatic balancing act, as head of state of both the UK and Canada, at a time when Canada has been put under great pressure by the Trump administration.

Scottish whisky producers, worrying about US tariffs, might also welcome a plug for their produce at a food festival in Ravenna, where it will be paired with parmesan cheese.

Over the next three days, the royal couple will visit the Colosseum, watch a joint Italian and UK airforce flypast and learn about Italian slow food. The King will also meet Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni and become the first UK monarch to give a speech to both houses of Italy's parliament.

The culture-loving royals will also have visits associated with the writers Dante and Lord Byron.

The evening of the King and Queen's wedding anniversary on Wednesday will be spent at the Quirinale Palace for a state banquet. It will be a big personal moment for the couple, but these are also glitzy public events, with celebrities and politicians on the guest list, with a menu that showcases the country's cuisine.

Ahead of the trip, there was an Italian dinner at the King's Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire, attended by guests including film stars Stanley Tucci and Helen Mirren, and former footballer David Beckham.

The state visit is going to be an intensive set of engagements and follows a recent "bump in the road" for the King's health.

He had a brief stay in hospital after suffering side effects from his cancer treatment, but was well enough to return to a series of engagements last week.

Ambassador Lord Llewellyn said he was confident the trip by the royals - described as "Carlo and Camilla" in the Italian press - would leave a "meaningful and broad legacy".

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The owners of a small family-run business say they have been left £40,000 out of pocket after their van became trapped in a mechanical stacked car park in central London more than two years ago.

Mark Lucas, co-owner of HCS Furniture in Buckinghamshire, parked his electric Vauxhall van at Rathbone Square, a building complex near Oxford Street, in December 2022.

After being unable to retrieve the van because of a "mechanical malfunction" in the car park, he was told in January 2023 that new parts were required by engineers but 26 months on, no update has been provided.

The BBC has approached Rathbone Square and the car park installer, Double Parking Systems, for comment.

A stacked car park is a system where cars are parked on top of each other, using mechanical platforms and lifts, in order to save ground on space.

"It was about six o'clock that evening, we went back to the concierge and said, 'can we have the van back?' To which he said, 'we're very sorry, but you can't, because the stacking system has malfunctioned'," Mr Lucas said.

Mr Lucas was reassured his van would soon be returned, so he and company co-owner Steve Davies decided to temporarily hire another van at a cost of £800 a month.

Mr Davies said: "We were told it's just a bit further away. So we carried on renting, expecting to get the van back, but it never did. We get the occasional update, but we call them constantly to say, 'what's the news? what's happening?' And we get little or no response."

The High Wycombe-based company's costs continued to mount as they hired the second vehicle while also paying off the monthly loan for the trapped van.

Mr Davies said: "After a couple of years of renting, we decided we can't afford to do this anymore, so we gave the hire van back and took out another loan to buy a second van. In total, I estimate we are currently about £40,000 out of pocket."

Initially, the delay to the repairs was blamed on engineers needing new parts and in January 2023 the head concierge at Rathbone Square said this would take 40 weeks.

A year later, Mr Lucas was told the repairs were unlikely to take place before May 2024 but that any losses would be recoverable from the party found to have overall responsibility for this incident.

However, until this happens, the business owners are unable to claim back any money through insurance.

"I was very upset, we had a six-month-old van that we no longer had access to. I've been quite frustrated with a lack of communication," Mr Lucas said.

He added: "While we're trying to grow the business, we can't, because we have all this, this money tied up, how can you plan for anything when you don't know what is going to happen in in the near future'?"

Double Parking Systems, which designed and installed the car park, said it could not publicly comment as it had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

The BBC has also approached the management for Rathbone Square.

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More than four years after he stabbed his colleague, plastic surgeon Jonathan Peter Brooks has been found guilty of attempted murder.

On Monday, the 61-year-old was convicted over the 14 January 2021 attack on Graeme Perks in Halam, Nottinghamshire, which a court in Loughborough heard could easily have been fatal.

It can now be reported that Brooks was never seen by the jury, repeatedly refusing to engage with the trial.

In a legal saga stretching from his arrest, during a coronavirus lockdown, to his conviction, a judge outlined the "extraordinary" case, labelling Brooks a "highly intelligent" man who used hunger strikes and sacking his lawyers as tactics to try to manipulate the system to avoid justice.

Why did the trial take so long?

Brooks was arrested on the day of the attack, and appeared in court four days later.

He dressed in camouflage gear and went to Mr Perks's home equipped with petrol, matches, a lighter, knife and a crowbar, but insisted all the items had been "stored in his garage and had been acquired for innocent purposes".

His trial was told he smashed conservatory doors to spread petrol around the ground floor of Mr Perks's house, and then stabbed him in the abdomen.

Brooks was facing an online NHS disciplinary hearing, which started on 11 January 2021.

The court heard the burns specialist "hated" Mr Perks, who was a witness against him in those disciplinary proceedings.

A trial originally began in July 2022, but the jury was discharged the following month after Brooks was admitted to hospital, suffering osteoradionecrosis - a medical complication of radiotherapy, which required surgery.

This set in train a long chain of legal delays, with numerous occasions when hearings were listed but Brooks refused to turn up, forcing his case to be relisted and impacting on other court hearings - as barristers and judges had to move around their workloads.

The trial has been listed on "no fewer than nine occasions", and the latest got under way despite Brooks sacking his then legal team with one day to go - the fifth time Brooks had dismissed one or more of his lawyers.

Brooks had also embarked on a hunger strike 11 days before his trial was scheduled to start.

Judge Edward Pepperall said this was not new.

"I identified no fewer than eight occasions since his arrest in 2021 when Dr Brooks had used hunger strikes or the threat of some other self-harm to achieve some advantage whether within the prison estate or in hospital," he said.

Why was Brooks not co-operating?

Brooks claimed he was not medically fit to stand trial, that accommodations were not being made in order for him to attend trial, and that the trial was unfair.

By the time another trial was due to take place, he was left in the unusual position of acting as his own legal counsel.

The dangers of defendants representing themselves without legal support are well-documented, and with Brooks also indicating a refusal to engage - while repeatedly claiming he would rather die than be wrongfully convicted - the court was faced with trying to arrange a trial in which an unrepresented defendant was not likely to turn up.

Combined with Brooks's hunger strike, it presented the possibility that even if he was fit at the start of the trial, his condition could deteriorate during the weeks it was scheduled to run, and could mean a second trial would not reach a conclusion.

Were allowances made for Brooks?

In short, yes.

The hunger strike meant the defendant had become increasingly weak, which led to the case being moved to Loughborough due to the defendant's new requirement for a wheelchair, something the original court could not accommodate.

On 3 March this year, he did not appear for the slated start date, and the prosecution asked to continue the trial in the defendant's absence.

Judge Pepperall came to a decision about whether it was fair for the trial to go ahead, with his ruling made on 6 March, a copy of which was sent to the defendant.

In the 30-page document, he addressed the concerns prompted by Brooks going on hunger strike, and set out how he would ensure any trial would be fair.

"It is not too late for [Brooks] to change course and let the court know that he wishes to attend his trial... that he has already stopped his hunger strike, and that he is accepting all reasonable treatment so that he can in time recover sufficient health to put his case to the jury," he said.

What happened during the trial?

Tracy Ayling KC led the prosecution case against Brooks, who remained absent while also acting as his own legal representation.

The situation was explained by Judge Pepperall to the jury, when he warned them not to take the defendant's absence as any sign of guilt.

Evidence was then heard in the usual way, but on 11 March the judge said he had received a letter from Brooks, who was being held at HMP Bedford, in which he further objected to the trial continuing without him.

A three-page response gave short shrift to Brooks's latest protests.

"Dr Brooks cannot refuse to engage with both the court and his lawyers, and then complain that he was not properly kept updated as to his case," he said.

The trial continued, and on 24 March Stephen Leslie KC was brought in to cross-examine Mr Perks - a measure made to provide balance to the prosecution case.

On 25 March, a new five-page ruling was made to allow Brooks to appear via video-link from prison should he so wish, rather than go in person.

In the ruling, the judge spoke of Brooks's "sporadic" engagement.

"On no fewer than 13 occasions, he has declined to attend court, sometimes even when only required to appear by prison link, without good reason," he said.

Addressing the behaviour of the defendant, the judge added: "Dr Brooks has deliberately made himself ill in order to seek to manipulate the court process and prevent his trial from proceeding. Such conduct was the voluntary decision of a well-informed medical man with capacity."

Following the ruling, the defendant continued to complain about his condition and the trial, and after assessment from doctors confirmed he was fit to attend but remained absent through his own choice, the prosecution case concluded.

During a debate on Brooks's fitness during the trial, Ms Ayling said her prosecution team "has anticipated" such requests being made by the defendant.

"Yet again he's attempting to put off the trial," she said. "He is deliberately manipulating the court and voluntarily absenting himself."

Brooks did not turn up for his own defence, which was scheduled for 27 March, but on 1 April he finally made an appearance, addressing the trial in the absence of the jury via video-link from HMP Norwich, where he had recently been transferred.

He requested a four-week adjournment so he could prepare his case, but he refused the offer of a 48-hour extension, ending up in tears as he said he felt he could not accept the judge's offers to accommodate a late speech from him.

By the time the jury was brought in that day, Brooks had gone back to his cell, and so he was once again absent when the judge summed up the evidence.

What can the courts do with defendants who will not engage?

The criminal justice system stresses the importance of not only there being a fair trial, but there being seen to be a fair trial, so even though Brooks refused to co-operate, measures were taken to ensure due process was followed.

For Brooks, a lawyer was brought in to challenge witness evidence, and while legal rulings were not discussed in front of the jury in order to avoid prejudicing their views, they were discussed before the press, so the legal discussions could be reported after trial.

Ultimately, courts have to give the opportunity for defendants to appear, and if they refuse they must ensure the process is still fair, even if that leads to long delays.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the trial "was extremely unusual".

"The lack of participation meant that straightforward and non-controversial evidence could not be agreed as would usually happen when a defendant is present and represented," a spokesperson said.

"This meant that some witnesses had to give evidence to the jury and have statements read out in full that would otherwise have been treated as agreed facts."

A number of recent sentencings - including Kyle Clifford and Axel Rudakubana - saw defendants refuse to appear, and as a result the prime minister has promised to give judges the power to make criminals appear in the dock.

Judge Pepperall said that he would write to the governor of HMP Norwich, where Brooks is currently held, to request that he attend in person for his sentencing hearing, which is due to be held on 3 June.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly acknowledged for the first time that his troops are active in Russia's Belgorod region.

"We continue to carry out active operations in the border areas on enemy territory, and that is absolutely just - war must return to where it came from," he said on Monday.

His comments also referred to Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine still holds a small area after a major offensive last year. Moscow has since retaken most of the territory.

Zelensky said "the main objective" was to protect Ukraine's Sumy and Kharkiv border regions, and to "ease the pressure" on other parts of the vast front line, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russia's military had last month reported Ukrainian attempts to cross over into the Belgorod region - but said such attacks had been rebuffed.

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

In his video address late on Monday, Zelensky said he had been briefed by his top commander Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi about the situation on the front, "including our presence in the Kursk and Belgorod regions".

Zelensky thanked several army units defending Ukraine, including the 225th Assault Regiment deployed in the Belgorod region.

"Well done, guys! I'm proud of each and every one who is fighting for Ukraine!" the president said.

He provided no further details. It is his first explicit acknowledgement of Ukrainian troops in Belgorod.

On 18 March, Zelensky had indirectly confirmed that Ukrainian troops were there.

"There is an operation there," he said when asked by reporters to comment on a Russian defence ministry statement that Ukrainian troops had unsuccessfully tried to enter the western part of the Belgorod region.

Russia had said that all Ukrainian attempts to advance towards the villages of Demidovka and Prilesye had been rebuffed, and a cross-border raid had been prevented.

However, several Russian military bloggers at the time reported fighting in Demidovka itself, which lies about two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) had also said in an update on 21 March that "Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Belgorod".

"Russian milbloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces advanced and are consolidating positions on the outskirts of Demidovka and Prilesye," the ISW said, adding that such claims were unconfirmed.

In the past two days, Russian military bloggers had reported that Ukrainian forces were withdrawing from the Demidovka area.

Ukraine's operation in Belgorod is believed to be on a much smaller scale compared to its actions in Kursk, where Kyiv at one point seized a number of villages including the regional town of Sudzha.

Zelensky and his top commanders have repeatedly said that such incursions have forced Moscow to redeploy troops from the Donetsk region, where Russian troops have been making steady - although slow - advances in recent months.

Ukraine could also be hoping to exchange the Russian areas it holds for parts of Ukrainian regions occupied by Moscow in any future peace negotiations that are being pushed for by the US.

A number of war analysts - both in Ukraine and the West - have questioned the military expedience of Kyiv's operations on Russian soil, pointing to reported high combat casualties and weapons supply difficulties.

• Election rumours swirl in Ukraine – could Zelensky be mulling a summer poll?
• Rosenberg: Trump takes US-Russia relations on rollercoaster ride
• US says Putin will make decision on ceasefire in 'weeks, not months'

Stock markets across Europe and Asia plunged on Monday as fears over the global impact of US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs deepened.

The FTSE 100 opened more than 5% lower, following its steepest fall in five years on Friday.

Germany's Dax plummeted 10% in the first few minutes of trading, before recovering ground, after Asian markets dropped steeply overnight, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng experiencing its fourth-biggest one-day decline ever.

US markets were also set to open lower as economists warned that a recession in the country is now looking increasingly likely.

'Medicine'

On Thursday, Trump announced tariffs on the US's trading partners, many of which were steeper than economists had expected.

As traders digested the news, US markets experienced their worst week since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020, with more than $5 trillion (£3.9tn) erased from the S&P 500.

Economists speculated that may countries would attempt to negotiate deals on the tariffs.

But on Sunday night Trump doubled down, telling reporters that "sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something".

Economic hits

If world leaders are unable to negotiate deals with Trump, the tariffs may have a destructive effect on economies globally, analysts have warned.

"Fundamentally, investors are worried about a big hit to corporate earnings and a massive slowdown in economic growth," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

On Monday, economists at US banking giant Goldman Sachs predicted a 45% chance of a recession in the US if Trump does not negotiate deals on the tariffs.

That came after JP Morgan, another US bank, said it saw a 60% chance of recession in the country.

The tariffs could lead to a 0.8% fall in the UK's GDP growth in 2025, added economists at KPMG.

"There is a strong incentive to seek a negotiated settlement that diminishes the need for tariffs," said Yael Selfin, KPMG's chief economist.

Meanwhile, worries about a trade war between the US and China sent the price of Brent crude oil down more than 4%, following a fall of more than 10% last week.

That came after China hit back at the US's announcement, with its own 34% tariffs on goods going into the country.

Copper, a good indicator for confidence among manufacturers, fell.

However, gold, which is usually seen as a "safe" investment when share prices are falling, also dropped slightly.

Markets are reeling from US President Donald Trump's tariff announcements, but the American leader is standing by his decisions, defending his policies and saying "sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something".

Experts answered some of the questions you sent us as the world tries to make sense of the turmoil and wonders how long it will continue.

Read their answers below.

How does a stock market index work?

Simon Jack, the BBC's business editor, said the FTSE 100, which represents the 100 biggest companies publicly listed in the UK, were all "put in a big bucket back in 1984" and given a certain weighting in that bucket depending on how big those companies were.

The stock market is a reflection of their total value over time. The bigger the company, the more weight it has in the index. For example, an AstraZeneca or an HSBC has more weight than others.

It works the same in the US with the S&P500, which is made up of the 500 biggest companies, with an enormous concentration in some names like Apple, Nvidia and Amazon.

The stock market tells you how the value of the shares in those companies has changed - with a focus on those biggest names.

Generally speaking, it is an indication of what some of our biggest companies are worth, and when they go up or down, it tells you something about the sentiment of whether their profits are likely to rise or fall in the future.

How does a market downturn affect pensions and daily life?

Jack explains that what happens in stock markets is not necessarily the same thing that happens in the economy. They can be linked, but they are not exactly the same.

Some people invest directly in shares - and this will definitely affect them. These are some big falls, some of the biggest we have seen in a couple days since pandemic panic gripped the markets back in 2020.

The other way that people are exposed to these changes is through their pension funds. Pension fund investing is a long term game. Not all of your money will go into shares - some will go into government bonds, and the closer you get to retirement, the more weighting you will have in things like cash and government bonds, so the less this will affect you.

There are two types of pensions: a defined benefit pension - where you get a promised percentage of your salary at retirement - and defined contribution - where your pension pots value will rise and fall with financial markets.

Pensions are exposed right now, but pension investing is a long term game.

The warning sign flashing here is not the value of your pension pot - it is what is going to happen to the economies in which we all live and work.

A lot of people are saying the chance of recession in both the US, UK - and even globally - have gone up a notch, which has implications for things like jobs and wages.

How popular are tariffs in the US?

Bloomberg's politics editor Laura Davison said tariffs, both before last week's announcement and currently, are quite unpopular.

The initial numbers for Trump on how he is handling the economy - what people think about his economic policies - are actually quite poor.

This is sort of a surprising turn: one of the reasons that Trump beat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election is because voters were perturbed by high prices and what they perceived as a poor economy.

But what may actually come to fruition in these tariffs is that prices may increase substantially for US consumers, as essentially all of these overseas goods become far more expensive to purchase.

There could be inflation and we could also see an economic downturn, and potentially a recession.

How much of this is about China?

Some think that the whole exercise is about an economic proxy war with China and the entire game is about just trying to level that playing field a little bit, Jack said.

But Trump is right in one regard, which is that American markets are much more open to foreign goods than a lot of foreign markets are open to US goods.

The UK, for example, puts a 10% tariff on US imported cars, 14% on some kinds of beef, and 8% on other things. So there are barriers both ways.

And while Trump says that other countries have been ripping off the US, it is American corporations that have reasonably pursued shareholder value by trying to put their production facilities in the strategically and economically best places.

It is the head of American corporations who opened subsidiaries in Ireland, where there is a low tax rate, and put manufacturing in Vietnam or Cambodia. In a way this has been the sort of rational pursuit of maximum profit, a system which has made the US very rich indeed.

China is getting very rich indeed as well, and it is certainly moving up the value chain.

There is a feeling that the US was very comfortable when China was making cheap sneakers and t-shirts, but when China starts making supercomputers and missiles the US gets a little bit more concerned, and that is one of the reasons you are seeing some of these tensions come to the fore.

Will the markets recover?

That is really the unknown question right now, Davison said, but one thing we can expect is more volatility.

We got a little bit of a sense of how markets react on Friday when Trump said he had spoken with Vietnamese officials and there was potentially a deal in the works for Vietnam.

The country has been hit with a 46% tariff by the US, which is quite a significant level, and Vietnam has indicated that it could reduce to zero all its tariffs on US goods going into that country. Stocks like Nike and Lululemon actually increase on that news, because these are apparel companies that have a very big presence in Vietnam.

Broadly, I believe we are going to see markets go down, but you could see particular stocks moving in a more positive direction as there are indications that there may be some exemptions allowed.

We do not know what Trump will allow - he has sent some big signals at times saying that his policies will never change, but has also suggested that some deals are possible.

Listen to this article on BBC Sounds

Ministers, health staff and the public gathered in London last week for a summit to discuss the 10-year NHS plan in England. It was the final roadshow in a nationwide tour to help set out the strategy the government says will rescue the "broken" NHS, which has a waiting list of nearly 7.5 million patients and public satisfaction of just 21% - a record low.

Not for the first time, moving healthcare away from hospitals and into the community is being touted as a way of treating people better and for less. Research suggests that every £100 spent on community care would otherwise cost £131 for hospital care.

This helps explain why Health Secretary Wes Streeting has promised to turn the NHS into a neighbourhood health service.

Washwood Heath, a community health clinic that was set up in a deprived part of east Birmingham two years ago when the Conservative government was in power, is a living, working example of what this could look like. Here, hospital doctors, GPs, nurses, occupational therapists, council social care teams, mental health professionals and charity staff work under one roof.

The three-story building combines an urgent treatment centre offering some of the services usually provided by hospitals, as well as a diagnostic service (for MRI scans, X rays and ultrasounds), alongside mental health care and wider social support.

In practice, this allows for addressing social problems such as housing issues, alongside treating physical health conditions, plus arranging support for daily tasks such as washing and dressing.

The target is the most frequent users of health services - and the aim is to keep them well and out of hospital.

"We want to work with the 10% of the population that is responsible for 70 to 80% of its use," explains Richard Kirby, head of Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, one of the key partners at Washwood Heath. "The NHS cannot meet their needs on its own – it requires partnership working."

Streeting himself is on board. Speaking to the BBC this week, he said that Washwood was a "pioneering service" and he is firm that the model could "be the future of the NHS".

However not everyone is convinced. And while few argue against the principle of more care within the community, there are wider questions around just how feasible it is on a bigger scale.

A model system to unblock beds?

In the middle of the clinic, staff gather around five touchscreens, each containing up-to-date information about patients from east Birmingham who are in hospital or making calls to the ambulance service. Their goal is to get these patients discharged from hospital as swiftly as they can - and keep them out.

One way of doing this is by arranging remote monitoring from the 'virtual wards team' (which allows doctors to keep an eye on patients who would otherwise have to stay on the wards), as well as ordering equipment such as mobility aids and medicine dispensers to be delivered to their homes.

The team is also automatically alerted if a patient registered at the clinic calls for an ambulance or is admitted to hospital. There is a live link to the local Heartlands Hospital, where the clinic's own team of therapists and paramedics see patients face-to-face on the wards and liaise with hospital staff to try to get them home.

"Our job is to identify which patients will benefit from our help," says nurse Dani Fullerton. "It's so different from anything I have done before."

Tackling loneliness to save money

One issue the neighbourhood teams are honing in on is loneliness - they have identified this as a way to keep down hospital numbers.

Government commissioned research published in 2020 suggests the cost of severe loneliness to be more than £9,500 for each person in that category, due to the combined impact on wellbeing, health, and work productivity.

So, at the centre, local neighbourhood teams plan intense support for the most vulnerable residents, knitting together not just what the NHS and council provide, but what charities can offer too.

"We have patients going to GPs and A&E basically because they are lonely," says Christine Francis, who is employed as a 'social prescriber'. Her job is to help find new activities and groups for the lonely and then accompany them until they are settled.

"The NHS cannot solve [loneliness]. But I can link patients in with befriending services or, if they can get out and about, local groups such as knitting groups or organised walks."

Ms Francis also works with groups who can help with house cleaning and tackle other issues associated with poor mental health, such as hoarding.

At present some doubt there is enough robust evidence from the research to show the effectiveness of social prescribing. The neighbourhood team is adamant their approach is making a difference, however, based on what they've seen first-hand.

Hamzisah Aslam, an occupational therapist at Birmingham Council, recalls visiting one patient with health and alcohol problems, whose home was littered with cardboard boxes and rubbish. The visit, also attended by a GP, mental health professional and social prescriber, lasted more than an hour.

"Afterwards, we had a five-minute debrief and drew up a plan and it was actioned the next day - you would never be able to do that if we were all working individually."

Some GPs I spoke to have also observed a positive impact. Dr Subeena Suleman says the neighbourhood team worked with two patients from her practice who were frequent visitors because of their range of health and social issues. An estimated 100 appointments at the GP surgery were freed up over six months.

"It meant we had more time for other patients," says Dr Suleman. "We even started offering longer appointments of up to 30 minutes for those that need it."

In the first 12 months since Washwood Heath began operating, GP visits among the local population supported by the centre fell by 31%, A&E attendances by 20% and admissions to hospital by 21%.

However, there is not yet robust evidence to quantify how much more efficient the new model would be if expanded across the city.

The knock-on effect for hospitals

The most recent addition to the centre is an emergency service for patients with respiratory illness that opened in December to address the fact that around 40% of admissions to the nearby Heartlands Hospital related to lung and breathing conditions.

So far the service, which is staffed by UHB respiratory specialist nurses and doctors, has taken in 670 patients. Christopher Thomas is one of them. He used to be a builder and worked with asbestos. Now 77, he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which he believes has links to his job.

Recently, he went to hospital after coughing up blood, and was told he had pneumonia - but rather than being kept in hospital, he was discharged into the care of Washwood clinic's respiratory service.

This, he says, worked far better for him. "I was able to stay at home to rest and take my medications and I can just ring the team at Washwood if I have any concerns."

Respiratory medicine consultant Dr Rifat Rashid is also positive. "Here we can see and test patients quickly – there are not the delays we have in hospital waiting for results."

But there are broader benefits for the hospital too in her view - she says GPs are starting to refer their patients directly to Washwood Heath and ambulances are also now bringing patients to the centre rather than the hospital.

Despite the benefits of fewer admissions, ultimately hospitals are no less full - while fewer people in the Washwood area are being admitted, patients from elsewhere have filled the beds.

The model is being expanded across the city - the aim is to have a network of six community hubs and 25 to 30 integrated neighbourhood teams, covering Birmingham's population of 1.4 million people.

Not every centre will be identical. For example, in the north of the city, there might be a focus on helping with frailty to support the older, more affluent population demographic.

There are of course costs - these are estimated at less than £100,000 as the six hubs as the centres will use existing buildings and redeployed staff.

Richard Kirby thinks the model could easily be replicated nationwide. "We believe this is the right model," he insists.

But there is a catch. As he puts it, "It only works when the whole system buys into it."

Tight budgets and a 'cynical' sector

Part of the problem with making the whole system buy into it is money. Ruth Rankine, an NHS Confederation primary care director, believes that during times, such as now, when money is tight, collaboration generally becomes harder.

"People are too focused on their budgets and making sure it goes on where they immediately need it," she says.

But clinics like Washwood Heath require collaboration and pooling resources.

The other issue, she argues, is that the hospital sector has, in places, "been a bit cynical". "The problem is that it takes time to get results – you need to invest in front and then it can be years before it has an impact."

Another concern is around finding suitable premises. In Birmingham, officials I spoke to acknowledged they were lucky to have a network of large health centres (as they were beneficiaries of a short-lived finance programme launched in the 2000s to improve community NHS buildings) but many other places around the country do not.

This is a concern for Dr Richard Vautrey, a GP from Leeds who has been involved in national NHS politics since the early 2000s in his role as a British Medical Association negotiator and, more recently, as president of the Royal College of GPs.

"There just isn't enough of the right premises," he argues. "In many places, GPs and community colleagues cannot work side-by-side because the buildings are too outdated and cramped.

"We've had all the talk over 40 new hospitals, but where are the 1,000 new neighbourhood clinics?"

Political pressure and short-term thinking

There are deeper rooted political pressures too that make a nationwide rollout of centres like those in Birmingham a challenge.

Even though the work in east Birmingham ticks a lot of the boxes set out by independent peer and NHS surgeon Lord Darzi in his report for the government last autumn, after being commissioned by Wes Streeting, this is not the first time such calls have been made. Lord Darzi himself set out similar goals in a report for the Blair government in 2007.

Ms Rankine has had a front-row view of this. She worked for the Department of Health and NHS executive for more than a decade from the mid-1990s. "We've been talking about this for 20, 30 years, but failed to achieve it on any sort of scale."

And today, there are a series of contradictory priorities facing the NHS. Often it is those considered the most pressing that are addressed first.

Hugh Alderwick, Director of Policy at the Health Foundation think-tank, who advised Labour in opposition, points out that the big focus is on hitting the 18-week hospital waiting time targets.

"It's pulling in the opposite direction of this ambition to move care out into the community," he observes.

So can the government really reshape the NHS into a neighbourhood health service? Dr Vautrey, for one is optimistic.

"It can," he says. "But it will take determination, effort – and money."

Top picture credit: Getty Images

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