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There are few US presidential actions more sensitive, more fraught with peril, than when and where to use American military force.

If such information were obtained by American adversaries in advance, it could put lives – and national foreign policy objectives – at risk.

Fortunately for the Trump administration, a group chat with information about an impending US strike in Yemen among senior national security officials on the encrypted chat app Signal did not fall into the wrong hands.

Unfortunately for the Trump administration, the message thread was observed by an influential political journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg.

The Atlantic Magazine editor-in-chief, in an article posted on Monday on his publication’s website, says he appears to have been inadvertently added to the chat by White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

Members of the group seemed to include Vice-President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, among others.

A National Security Council spokesman told the BBC the text message thread “appears to be authentic”.

Goldberg says the group debated policy and discussed operational details about the impending US military strike – conversations that provided a rare near-real-time look at the inner workings of Trump’s senior national security team.

“Amazing job,” Waltz wrote to the group, just minutes after the US strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen took place on Saturday 15 March.

He followed up with emojis of a US flag, a fist and fire. Other senior officials joined in on the group congratulations.

These White House celebrations may prove short-lived after Monday’s revelations, however.

That an outsider could inadvertently be added to sensitive national defence conversations represents a stunning failure of operational security by the Trump administration.

And that these conversations were taking place outside of secure government channels designed for such sensitive communications could violate the Espionage Act, which sets rules for handling classified information.

“This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe,” Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, posted on X.

Democratic congressman Chris Deluzio said in a press statement that the House Armed Services Committee, on which he sits, must conduct a full investigation and hearing on the matter as soon as possible.

“This is an outrageous national security breach, and heads should roll,” he said.

Criticism wasn’t limited to Democrats, either.

Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, told the political website Axios that the administration’s action was “unconscionable”.

“None of this should have been sent on non-secure systems,” he said of Waltz’s messaging. “Russia and China are surely monitoring his unclassified phone.”

With Republicans in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Trump’s own party would have to initiate any kind of formal congressional investigation into the matter.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appeared to downplay such a possibility as he told reporters that the White House had admitted its error.

“They’ll tighten up and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “I don’t know what else you can say about that.”

Trump, for his part, pleaded ignorance when asked by reporters in the Oval Office about the Atlantic story, saying that it was the first he had heard of it.

The White House then released a statement defending the president’s national security team, including Waltz.

By Monday evening, however, rumours in Washington were swirling that high-level resignations may ultimately be necessary, with attention focusing on Waltz, whose invitation brought Goldberg into the group conversation. The White House has provided no further comments even as this speculation has grown.

In its afternoon statement, the White House noted that the strikes were “highly successful and effective”. That could help minimise some the political fallout from the chat-group discussions, which also revealed some divisions within Trump’s national security team.

JD Vance was the highest-ranking participant in the Signal text group that discussed detailed plans about the US military strike on Yemen.

While the vice-president has typically marched in lockstep with Trump in his public comments on foreign policy, in the private discussions he said that he thought the administration was making a “mistake” by taking military action.

He noted that the targeted Houthi forces in Yemen posed a larger threat to European shipping, while the danger to American trade was minimal.

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance wrote. “There’s a further risk that we see moderate to severe spike in oil prices.”

The vice-president went on to say that he would support what the team decided and “keep these concerns to myself”.

“But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”

This is far from the first time a vice-president has disagreed with their president on matters of foreign policy.

Dick Cheney clashed with George W Bush in the later years of his presidency over handling of the Iraq war, and Joe Biden believed that Barack Obama’s covert operation to kill Osama Bin Laden was too risky.

This is also not the first time that the handling of sensitive national security material has generated headlines. Both Trump and Joe Biden were investigated for their possession of classified information after leaving office. Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump for alleged violations related to his refusal to turn over material stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence – a case that was dropped when Trump won re-election last year.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for communications while US secretary of state became a major issue during her unsuccessful presidential campaign.

Like this White House group chat, some of those messages provided insight into the inner workings of Clinton’s team.

Their revelation also proved to be political damaging. A handful of her stored messages were later deemed to contain “top secret” information.

“We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified,” Trump said during that campaign – one of many attacks on Clinton for what he said was a clear violation of federal law.

On Monday afternoon, Clinton took to social media to posted her own, brief comment on the revelations of the White House group chat on Signal.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she wrote.

Two women who were part of a Russian spy network run from the UK are named for the first time today by a BBC investigation.

Bulgarian nationals Cvetelina Gencheva and Tsvetanka Doncheva took part in elaborate surveillance operations against people spied on by the cell.

Neither woman answered questions when contacted by the BBC.

Ms Gencheva, an airport worker, hung up when contacted by phone, and said she did not want to comment on the case in response to a subsequent letter.

Ms Doncheva denied being herself and walked away when approached near her home in Vienna, Austria.

Six other Bulgarians are awaiting sentencing in London for their roles in spying for Russia as part of the cell.

Police described the network as a “highly sophisticated” operation that threatened lives. Three pleaded guilty, admitting knowing they were working for Russia, while three more were convicted this month after a trial at the Old Bailey having failed to persuade the jury that they didn’t.

The cell was directed from abroad by Jan Marsalek, originally from Austria, who was a business executive in Germany who became a Russian intelligence asset. The cell’s targets included journalists who have investigated Russian espionage. One, Roman Dobrokhotov, told the BBC he believed Vladimir Putin was ultimately responsible.

The court heard about two mystery women who took part in surveillance operations in Europe.

The BBC tracked down and confirmed the identities of both women through open source digital research and speaking to sources.

Ms Gencheva, who lives in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, exploited her work in the airline industry to obtain private flight details of people targeted by the cell.

Spies followed the people onto planes and were booked in nearby seats, getting so close as to see what was being typed into their targets’ mobiles phones, even at one stage identifying a Pin number for a phone belonging to journalist Roman Dobrokhotov.

Ms Gencheva was part of a team sent to Berlin to spy on Mr Dobrokhotov, and she was a member of chat groups with three of those convicted of spying in the UK case – cell leader Orlin Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova – which were used to co-ordinate the spying.

She provided flight details for journalist Christo Grozev, and was tasked with gathering as much travel information as possible on another target of the cell, Russian dissident Kirill Kachur.

During the Old Bailey trial, the mystery airline worker was known as “Cvetka” or “Sveti”.

The BBC first identified Ms Gencheva through her social media profiles. On Facebook, she had interacted with Katrin Ivanova and Biser Dzhambazov.

We then found she was an airline worker.

According to her Linkedin profile, she has held positions in ticket sales for travel companies. Bulgarian company filings say she is the sole owner of International Aviation Consult.

Screen captures of travel data found on a hard drive belonging to cell leader Roussev were from airline industry software known as “Amadeus”.

On her LinkedIn profile, we found Ms Gencheva noted her proficiency with the software.

After the BBC’s research identified Ms Gencheva, a source confirmed to the BBC that she is known to the Bulgarian security services as being connected to the spy network. She is not charged with any offence.

We contacted Ms Gencheva on a Bulgarian phone number she uses for real estate work. She hung up when informed the call was from BBC News and was being recorded, not even waiting for an explanation of what we were calling about.

In response to a letter setting out the evidence relating to her, she said she did “not wish to comment on the case” and did not consent for her name to be used. Writing in Bulgarian, she claimed not to speak English well. However, her public LinkedIn profile lists her English ability as “full professional proficiency” and says she has studied in English to degree level.

Ms Doncheva helped spy on the investigative journalist Christo Grozev in Vienna, occupying a flat opposite where he lived and operating a camera that took images of his home.

She was paid to conduct an anti-Ukraine propaganda campaign, which included putting stickers on locations including Vienna’s Soviet war memorial and was intended to make supporters of Ukraine appear like neo-Nazis.

The BBC identified Ms Doncheva through her social media profiles after the Old Bailey trial heard about a “Tsveti” who had worked with the cell. Sources in Austria then confirmed her identity.

In Vienna, she met at least three of those convicted of spying in the UK case – Vanya Gaberova, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova.

Senior Austrian officials, including the head of the Secret Service Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, were among those selected for surveillance by Ms Doncheva, alongside the Austrian investigative journalist Anna Thalhammer, who has written about Russian espionage.

Ms Doncheva, who is unemployed, was arrested by Austrian police in December.

Court documents first reported by the Austrian magazines Profil and Falter, and later seen by the BBC, reveal she is “strongly suspected of having committed the crime of secret intelligence to the detriment of Austria”.

She told investigators she conducted surveillance after being asked by long-time friend Vanya Gaberova – one of the six Bulgarians awaiting sentencing. She said Gaberova provided her with a list of names, addresses and photographs.

She initially told police she had been misled by the others, who first told her they were conducting a “student project” and later that they were working for Interpol. But Austrian investigators are recorded as saying it is “incomprehensible” that Ms Doncheva believed such “dubious stories”.

The documents say the intelligence cell in which Ms Doncheva operated was ultimately controlled by Jan Marsalek from Moscow on behalf of the Russian intelligence services and that evidence seized by investigators shows she was contracted by Marsalek and the UK cell leader Orlin Roussev.

The documents say Marsalek directed that Anna Thalhammer be targeted. Ms Doncheva admitted to police she had photographed the journalist’s then workplace and sought to watch her from a nearby restaurant.

Ms Thalhammer, now editor of Austrian news magazine Profil, told the BBC she was first told about being spied on last year by police, and she is now aware of being watched for some time.

“She obviously sat in front of the office in a very nice fish restaurant. I really can recommend it. She complained that it’s too expensive, that she needs more money. She got that money.”

She says “that woman” also spied on a number of “high-ranked people”.

Ms Thalhammer does not know where else she was followed, but that some of her sources were identified and attempts were made to break into their homes.

She says “Vienna is the capital of spies” but no one has been sentenced in the city for espionage and the “law here is great for spies”.

“I’m frustrated and I’m also honestly a little bit scared,” she added. “I live alone with my daughter. It’s not so nice to know that the state doesn’t take care if somebody is threatening journalists, politicians or anybody else.”

A prolific social media user – even her cat has a TikTok account – Ms Doncheva posted a photo of herself on Facebook in a Vladimir Putin T-shirt in 2022 and 2023. When someone commented that in Russia a large percentage of women want to have Putin’s baby, Ms Doncheva replied saying not only in Russia, followed by a lip-licking emoji.

Ms Doncheva denied being herself when approached by the BBC in a Vienna street and refused to answer questions, but we have verified that the woman was indeed Ms Doncheva.

When approached, she was wearing clothes and carrying items seen in Ms Doncheva’s social media posts: a distinctive blue tracksuit, a pair of glasses, and a patterned mobile phone case. We also observed her entering Ms Doncheva’s registered home address less than 20 minutes after she denied being Ms Doncheva.

She has not responded to a letter offering her a chance to comment.

The two women worked alongside the six Bulgarians who were convicted of conspiring to spy for Russia.

A cache of almost 80,000 Telegram messages between Roussev and his controller Marsalek was recovered by UK police.

The messages revealed multiple operations carried out by the cell in the years before February 2023, when their activities were disrupted by police.

The UK-based spies even targeted Ukrainian soldiers thought to be training at a US military base in Germany. Roussev and Marsalek discussed kidnapping and killing journalists Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov.

Unlike the six spies convicted in the UK, Ms Doncheva and Ms Gencheva are not in custody and have not been convicted of any offence.

The Austrian public prosecutor’s request for pre-trial detention of Ms Doncheva was rejected and she was released.

Austrian court documents state there is “no risk” of Ms Doncheva absconding because she is “socially integrated” in the country and cares for her mother, and that a risk of further crime is not particularly high given the imprisonment in the UK of others involved,

Ms Thalhammer told the BBC she “can’t understand” why the person who spied on her was released.

“Maybe [they] shouldn’t believe everything a spy says.”

She said the Austrian secret service thinks there are other spy cells and that their activity has continued after the arrest of the six Bulgarians in the UK.

Ms Gencheva has remained free in Bulgaria, publicly presenting herself as an experienced airline and travel industry professional.

After being contacted by the BBC, Ms Gencheva changed her profile name on Facebook and LinkedIn. She continues to list her proficiency with the Amadeus airline software.

If you have information about this story or a similar one that you would like to share with the BBC News Investigations team please get in touch. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can contact us in the following ways:

Email: security.investigations@bbc.co.uk

Signal: +447811921399

Click here to learn how to use SecureDrop, an anonymous whistleblowing tool that works only in the Tor browser and follow the advice to stay secure.

Chad has condemned a senior Sudanese general’s threat to target its airports, calling it a “declaration of war.”

Its foreign ministry said it would respond according to international law if a “square metre of Chadian territory is threatened”.

The warning follows comments from Lt-Gen Yasir al-Atta, the deputy commander of Sudan’s army, who said the UAE was using Chad’s airports to deliver weapons to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The Sudanese army has repeatedly accused the UAE of supporting its rival, the RSF, throughout the brutal two-year civil war, which has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

UN experts have described accusations of the UAE smuggling weapons to the RSF through Chad as “credible”, but the UAE has denied this.

Lt-Gen Atta’s comments follow Sudan’s recent decision to take the UAE to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its alleged support of the RSF.

Speaking at a ceremony for an army officer killed in a drone attack by the RSF on Friday while the army was recapturing the presidential palace, he said airports in Chad’s capital N’Djamena and the eastern city Amdjarass were “legitimate targets”.

Lt-Gen Atta said “retaliatory action” would be taken against the UAE, South Sudan and Chad’s President Mahamat Déby.

South Sudan has also been accused of backing the RSF. It has denied backing any side in the conflict.

“We know what we are saying, and our words are not a joke at all, nor are they spoken lightly,” Lt-Gen Atta warned.

The BBC has reached out to Sudan’s authorities for clarification on his comments.

They reflect the Sudanese army’s deep frustration with not only the UAE, but neighbouring countries, accused of allowing their territory to be used as supply routes for the RSF.

In December, Sudan’s defence ministry said that the weapons supplied included strategic drones that carry guided missiles.

Chad has positioned itself as neutral, but the war of words exposes the growing regional instability caused by Sudan’s civil war, which is complicated by the involvement of external players.

“General al-Atta should stop uttering foolish threats and focus on the urgent need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and engage without delay in a constructive dialogue in favour of a peaceful and lasting solution,” said Chad, highlighting that it is hosting hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees, mostly from the neighbouring region of Darfur, which is largely under RSF control.

The harsh exchange came as the RSF claimed to have seized al-Malha in Darfur, a town located on a vital trade route from Chad and Libya.

It also serves as a key crossroads leading to el-Fasher some 200 km (125 miles) away, the last state capital in Darfur still in army hands, which the RSF has besieged for nearly a year.

The group said it had “encircled the enemy… leaving behind 380 dead,” after months of fighting with a coalition of armed groups allied to the Sudanese army known as the Joint Forces.

It claimed to have “liberated” the area and declared that it “remained steadfast in [its] determination to end this war in favour of the Sudanese people”.

The BBC spoke to two members of local activist groups, known as Emergency Response Rooms, who had been coordinating humanitarian relief for the town.

We are not using their names to protect them and their families.

They say that after the RSF took control of the town, it closed off roads to prevent people from fleeing and imposed a lockdown.

Institutions are not working, says Ahmed (not his real name).

The hospital isn’t functioning, the main market’s been looted, and no-one’s getting water, normally delivered from storage tanks by vendors.

Estimates so far of those killed in the RSF advance range from 35 to 48.

Ahmed, who monitors Darfur from outside the country, said this was because the group had cut off internet communications in al-Malha.

He has not been able to make contact with his mother and 11 brothers and sisters to find out what happened to them

Ismail (not his real name) managed to flee with his family during the night, to the village of Kenana, where many of those displaced from al-Malha are also struggling to get food and water.

Others took refuge in the valleys among nomadic goat and camel herders, they told the BBC.

Ismail said a lot of the people killed were merchants in the market, because they belonged to the Zaghawa community, the ethnic base of the Joint Forces.

The RSF also burned down the homes of those they thought had a connection to either the military or the government.

At least two traditional community leaders were killed, said Ahmed.

Analysts say the RSF seems determined to consolidate its grip on its Darfur stronghold after months of army gains in central Sudan, and the capital, Khartoum.

The leader of the group, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, has vowed to fight on in Khartoum despite the army’s significant advance last week.

The paramilitary fighters remain scattered in parts of the city centre including the airport, as well as the capital’s south and west.

But the army says it’s been steadily seizing key infrastructure and buildings, including the central bank and state intelligence headquarters, as it consolidates control over the area.

Fully reclaiming the rest of the capital would mark a pivotal point in the war, giving the Sudanese army a strategic advantage in the country’s other battlefields.

The military and government ministries moved their headquarters to Port Sudan after the RSF overran Khartoum early in the war

But many observers believe there’s a danger of de-facto partition, with the two warring parties and their backers entrenching themselves in their zones of influence.

A mother in northern Nigeria is visibly upset as she clutches her two-year-old child, who has burns and discoloured skin on his face and legs.

The 32-year-old used skin-whitening products on all six of her children, under pressure from her family, with results that she now deeply regrets.

Fatima, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s identity, says one of her daughters covers her face whenever she goes out in order to hide her burns.

Another was left with darker skin than before – with a pale circle around her eyes, while a third has whitish scars on her lips and knees.

Her toddler still has weeping wounds – his skin is taking a long time to heal.

“My sister gave birth to light-skinned children but my children are darker skinned. I noticed that my mother favours my sister’s children over mine due to their skin tone and it hurt my feelings a lot,” Fatima says.

She says she used creams she bought at her local supermarket in the city of Kano, without a doctor’s prescription.

At first it seemed to work. The grandmother warmed towards Fatima’s children, who were aged between two and 16 at the time.

But then the burns and scars appeared.

Skin-whitening or lightening, also known as bleaching in Nigeria, is used in different parts of the world for cosmetic reasons, though these often have deep cultural roots.

Women in Nigeria use skin-whitening products more than in any other African country – 77% use them regularly, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

In Congo-Brazzaville the figure is 66%, in Senegal 50% and in Ghana 39%.

The creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinone, which can be harmful if used in high quantities, and in many countries are only obtainable with a doctor’s prescription.

Other ingredients sometimes used are the poisonous metal, mercury, and kojic acid – a by-product from the manufacture of the Japanese alcoholic drink, sake.

Dermatitis, acne and skin discolouration are possible consequences, but also inflammatory disorders, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.

The skin may become thinner, with the result that wounds take longer to heal, and are more likely to become infected, the WHO says.

The situation is so bad that Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) declared a state of emergency in 2023.

It is also becoming more common for women to bleach their children, like Fatima did.

“A lot of people link light skin to beauty or wealth. Women tend to shield, as they call it, their children from that discrimination by bleaching them from childbirth,” Zainab Bashir Yau, the owner of a dermatology clinic in the capital, Abuja, tells the BBC.

She estimates that 80% of the women she has met have bleached their children, or plan to do so.

Some were bleached themselves as babies, she says, so are just continuing the practice.

One of the most common ways to tell whether someone is using skin-whitening products in Nigeria is by the darkness of their knuckles. Other parts of people’s hands or feet get lighter, but knuckles tend to remain dark.

However, smokers and drug users also sometimes have dark patches on their hands, due to the smoke.

So users of skin-lightening products are sometimes mistakenly assumed to belong to this group.

Fatima says that is what happened to her daughters, aged 16 and 14.

“They faced discrimination from society – they all point fingers at them and call them drug addicts. This has affected them a lot,” she says.

They have both lost potential fiancés because men do not want to be associated with women who might be thought to take drugs.

I visited a popular market in Kano, where people who call themselves “mixologists” create skin-whitening creams from scratch.

The market has a whole row of shops where thousands of these creams are sold.

Some pre-mixed varieties are arranged on shelves, but customers can also select raw ingredients and ask for the cream to be mixed in front of them.

I noticed that many bleaching creams, with labels saying they were for babies, contained regulated substances.

Other sellers admitted using regulated ingredients such as kojic acid, hydroquinone and a powerful antioxidant, glutathione, which may cause rashes and other side-effects.

I also witnessed teenage girls buying bleaching creams for themselves and in bulk so that they could sell them to their peers.

One woman, who had discoloured hands, insisted that a seller add a lightening agent to a cream that was being mixed for her children, even though it was a regulated substance for adults and illegal to use on children.

“Even though my hands are discoloured, I am here to buy creams for my kids so they can be light-skinned. I believe my hands are this way just because I used the wrong one. Nothing will happen to my children,” she said.

One seller said most of his customers were buying creams to make their babies “glow”, or to look “radiant and shiny”.

Most seemed to be unaware of the approved dosages.

One salesman said he used “a lot of kojic” – well over the prescribed limit – if someone wanted light skin and a smaller quantity if they wanted a subtler change.

The approved dosage of kojic acid in creams in Nigeria is 1%, according to Nafdac.

I even saw salesmen giving women injections.

Dr Leonard Omokpariola, a director at Nafdac, says attempts are being made to educate people about the risks.

He also says markets are being raided, and there are efforts to seize skin-lightening ingredients at Nigeria’s borders as they are brought into the country.

But he says it was sometimes hard for law-enforcement officials to identify these substances.

“Some of them are just being transported in unlabelled containers, so if you do not take them to the labs for evaluation, you can’t tell what is inside.”

Fatima says her actions will haunt her forever, especially if her children’s scars do not fade.

“When I confided in my mum about what I did, due to her behaviour, and when she heard the dangers of the cream and what stigma her grandchildren are facing, she was sad that they had to go through that and apologised,” she says.

Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistake.

“Even though I have stopped… the side-effects are still here, I beg other parents to use my situation as an example.”

A mother in northern Nigeria is visibly upset as she clutches her two-year-old child, who has burns and discoloured skin on his face and legs.

The 32-year-old used skin-whitening products on all six of her children, under pressure from her family, with results that she now deeply regrets.

Fatima, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s identity, says one of her daughters covers her face whenever she goes out in order to hide her burns.

Another was left with darker skin than before – with a pale circle around her eyes, while a third has whitish scars on her lips and knees.

Her toddler still has weeping wounds – his skin is taking a long time to heal.

“My sister gave birth to light-skinned children but my children are darker skinned. I noticed that my mother favours my sister’s children over mine due to their skin tone and it hurt my feelings a lot,” Fatima says.

She says she used creams she bought at her local supermarket in the city of Kano, without a doctor’s prescription.

At first it seemed to work. The grandmother warmed towards Fatima’s children, who were aged between two and 16 at the time.

But then the burns and scars appeared.

Skin-whitening or lightening, also known as bleaching in Nigeria, is used in different parts of the world for cosmetic reasons, though these often have deep cultural roots.

Women in Nigeria use skin-whitening products more than in any other African country – 77% use them regularly, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

In Congo-Brazzaville the figure is 66%, in Senegal 50% and in Ghana 39%.

The creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinone, which can be harmful if used in high quantities, and in many countries are only obtainable with a doctor’s prescription.

Other ingredients sometimes used are the poisonous metal, mercury, and kojic acid – a by-product from the manufacture of the Japanese alcoholic drink, sake.

Dermatitis, acne and skin discolouration are possible consequences, but also inflammatory disorders, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.

The skin may become thinner, with the result that wounds take longer to heal, and are more likely to become infected, the WHO says.

The situation is so bad that Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) declared a state of emergency in 2023.

It is also becoming more common for women to bleach their children, like Fatima did.

“A lot of people link light skin to beauty or wealth. Women tend to shield, as they call it, their children from that discrimination by bleaching them from childbirth,” Zainab Bashir Yau, the owner of a dermatology clinic in the capital, Abuja, tells the BBC.

She estimates that 80% of the women she has met have bleached their children, or plan to do so.

Some were bleached themselves as babies, she says, so are just continuing the practice.

One of the most common ways to tell whether someone is using skin-whitening products in Nigeria is by the darkness of their knuckles. Other parts of people’s hands or feet get lighter, but knuckles tend to remain dark.

However, smokers and drug users also sometimes have dark patches on their hands, due to the smoke.

So users of skin-lightening products are sometimes mistakenly assumed to belong to this group.

Fatima says that is what happened to her daughters, aged 16 and 14.

“They faced discrimination from society – they all point fingers at them and call them drug addicts. This has affected them a lot,” she says.

They have both lost potential fiancés because men do not want to be associated with women who might be thought to take drugs.

I visited a popular market in Kano, where people who call themselves “mixologists” create skin-whitening creams from scratch.

The market has a whole row of shops where thousands of these creams are sold.

Some pre-mixed varieties are arranged on shelves, but customers can also select raw ingredients and ask for the cream to be mixed in front of them.

I noticed that many bleaching creams, with labels saying they were for babies, contained regulated substances.

Other sellers admitted using regulated ingredients such as kojic acid, hydroquinone and a powerful antioxidant, glutathione, which may cause rashes and other side-effects.

I also witnessed teenage girls buying bleaching creams for themselves and in bulk so that they could sell them to their peers.

One woman, who had discoloured hands, insisted that a seller add a lightening agent to a cream that was being mixed for her children, even though it was a regulated substance for adults and illegal to use on children.

“Even though my hands are discoloured, I am here to buy creams for my kids so they can be light-skinned. I believe my hands are this way just because I used the wrong one. Nothing will happen to my children,” she said.

One seller said most of his customers were buying creams to make their babies “glow”, or to look “radiant and shiny”.

Most seemed to be unaware of the approved dosages.

One salesman said he used “a lot of kojic” – well over the prescribed limit – if someone wanted light skin and a smaller quantity if they wanted a subtler change.

The approved dosage of kojic acid in creams in Nigeria is 1%, according to Nafdac.

I even saw salesmen giving women injections.

Dr Leonard Omokpariola, a director at Nafdac, says attempts are being made to educate people about the risks.

He also says markets are being raided, and there are efforts to seize skin-lightening ingredients at Nigeria’s borders as they are brought into the country.

But he says it was sometimes hard for law-enforcement officials to identify these substances.

“Some of them are just being transported in unlabelled containers, so if you do not take them to the labs for evaluation, you can’t tell what is inside.”

Fatima says her actions will haunt her forever, especially if her children’s scars do not fade.

“When I confided in my mum about what I did, due to her behaviour, and when she heard the dangers of the cream and what stigma her grandchildren are facing, she was sad that they had to go through that and apologised,” she says.

Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistake.

“Even though I have stopped… the side-effects are still here, I beg other parents to use my situation as an example.”

It was an invitation from a classmate 15 years ago that changed the life of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar now facing deportation from the US over accusations he is linked to a Hamas member.

On that summer evening, Mr Suri had been sitting outside his department at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university when a classmate announced that an international aid convoy was set to go to Gaza – the Palestinian territory run by the armed Islamist group Hamas and under blockade by Israel.

To students of conflict studies, the caravan – of more than 150 people from several Asian countries – offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness one of the world’s most contentious disputes up close.

Mr Suri happily agreed to participate, a classmate recalled to the BBC.

It was during this trip that he met Mapheze Saleh, a Palestinian and the daughter of a former Hamas adviser, whom he married a few months later.

After living in Delhi for almost a decade, the couple moved to the US where Mr Suri joined the prestigious Georgetown University as a postdoctoral fellow.

He had been living in Virginia for nearly three years when the police knocked on his door on the evening of 17 March and arrested him.

Three days later, on 20 March, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted that Mr Suri was being detained for his “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, a senior adviser to Hamas”. He has denied the allegations.

This action follows President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants and activists involved in pro-Palestinian campus protests which authorities have accused of fuelling antisemitism and supporting Hamas. The group is designated a terrorist organisation by the US. India, however, has not banned Hamas.

Although Mr Suri, who entered the US legally on a student visa, has had his deportation blocked by a US court, the Trump administration’s allegations have shocked those who know him back home.

His acquaintances describe him as a soft-spoken, shy and hardworking student with a broad knowledge of the world, while his classmates and teachers said they found allegations of him having ties with Hamas “tenuous”.

India has historically supported the Palestinian cause. But it has also developed close, strategic ties with Israel in recent years, with Delhi often refraining from criticising Israel’s actions.

Even then, “by no stretch of imagination can Suri be associated with anything unlawful”, one of his professors from Jamia told the BBC.

“Having a view on the ongoing conflict is not a crime. As a conflict studies scholar, it is well within his professional mandate to share his analysis of the war in Gaza.”

Those who accompanied him on the trip held similar views.

Feroze Mithiborwala, one of the organisers of the caravan, remembered Mr Suri as an intelligent, young man.

“He always took a secular stance in our discussions. He was not some right-wing Islamist type of character,” he said.

The trip began in December 2010 from Delhi. As India’s neighbour Pakistan refused to give a travel permit to the group, the convoy had to travel to Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt before finally reaching Gaza.

The route, most of which was covered by bus, offered much for a student of peace and conflict studies, one of Mr Suri’s friends who also went on the tour said.

Throughout the trip, he was deeply moved by the sufferings he witnessed in Gaza and focused on providing aid to the widowed and elderly, he added.

The caravan, in many ways, “brought Mr Suri closer to the Palestinian cause”, but his interest was largely academic, said another classmate who was in touch with him until days before his arrest.

The second and the last time Mr Suri went to Gaza was for his own wedding with Ms Saleh.

A US citizen, Ms Saleh had been working as a translator and volunteer in Gaza at that time.

Her father, who has lived in the US, is a former adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed by Israel last year, according to a statement submitted by her in court.

In 2010, her father left the Gaza government and “started the House of Wisdom in 2011 to encourage peace and conflict resolution in Gaza”, it adds.

When Ms Saleh and Mr Suri first met, they did not speak much. But they connected again a few months later, a friend who accompanied him on the caravan told the BBC.

Their wedding made headlines in India, as the couple moved back to Delhi and continued to live there for about eight years.

Ms Saleh enrolled herself for a masters degree in Jamia and later worked at the Qatar embassy. In 2023, Mr Suri moved to the US and Ms Saleh followed him.

He was months away from completing his fellowship when he was arrested.

Mr Suri’s father said it pained him to see his son in this situation.

“He has no connections with Hamas or Palestine [other than his marriage]. His sin is that he is married to a Palestinian woman,” he said.

But he is hopeful that his son will not be deported. “After all, these are merely allegations. There is no proof of any wrongdoing,” he added.

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As US second lady, Usha Vance fills a position traditionally relegated to the sidelines of White House life, which may well suit a political spouse who has never sought out the limelight.

Yet, according to her friends, the 39-year-old has played anything but a subordinate role in the rapid rise of her husband, US Vice-President JD Vance.

And she has occasionally found herself in the media eye after her husband’s rise to power – including with a controversial planned trip to Greenland.

As a hard-working child of immigrants who has moved between the rarefied cloisters of Cambridge, Yale and the Supreme Court to reach the pinnacle of public life, Usha Vance is for many admirers a living embodiment of the American Dream.

Even her husband, 40, seems overawed by her elite credentials. The former Ohio senator has said her accomplishments leave him feeling “humbled”.

Usha Vance (née Chilukuri) was born and raised in the working-class suburbs of San Diego, California, to a mechanical engineer father and a molecular biologist mother who had moved to the US from Andhra Pradesh, India.

She graduated with a BA in history from Yale University and was also a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University, where she came away with an MPhil in early modern history.

It was as a student at Yale Law School in 2010 that she met Vance, when they joined a discussion group on “social decline in white America”.

The experience influenced her future husband’s bestselling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, about his childhood in the white working-class US Rust Belt. It became a 2020 movie directed by Ron Howard.

In his book, Vance writes how he “fell hard” for Usha at Yale, describing her as a “genetic anomaly” because she possessed so many ideal qualities.

Vance recalls how he “violated every rule of modern dating” by telling her he was in love after one date.

Classmates remember her as someone who stood out in the hyper-competitive world of Ivy League law for her willingness to lend a helping hand.

Charles Tyler, now a law professor, told the BBC that Usha Vance would take time to advise other students on how to apply for the highly prized judicial clerkships that she herself wanted.

Another classmate, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, recalls a similar lack of sharp elbows in Usha Vance.

“She was an excellent student, like, top of our law school class,” she says. “And sometimes when students are like that, they also, you know, want to maintain an edge over other students.

“But she was someone who would always share her outlines [class notes]. They were, like, perfectly organised, you know, colour-coded, the works.”

Tyler says Usha Vance has a great deal of influence over her husband, although they “have a very equal partnership”.

The other friend concurs.

“She’s always like a sounding board for him,” she says. “And, you know, she’s been his spirit guide pretty much since Yale.”

Usha Vance’s own political views have been the subject of much conjecture.

While her husband has often railed about “woke” ideas he says are pushed by Democrats, she was a registered Democrat as recently as a decade ago. Until last summer she was a trial lawyer at San Francisco law firm Munger Tolles & Olson, which boasts its reputation as “radically progressive”.

Yet she once clerked for Brett Kavanaugh, now a Supreme Court justice, on the District of Columbia court of appeals, then clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts – both men are pillars of the highest court’s conservative majority.

One thing the power couple do seem very much to agree on is the importance of family.

The Vances wed in Kentucky in 2014 and have three children: two sons, Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter, Mirabel.

Usha Vance told Fox News last August that her husband’s emphasis on the cultural importance of a loving home stems partly from his own upbringing, but also from “knowing that the stability and sort of calm that I provide in our family life comes from all the support that I had, the faith that things would be OK, because I had people behind me”.

In India, there is immense pride in Usha Vance’s storybook life, not least of all from her own relatives.

Her great-grand-aunt in Andhra Pradesh told the BBC that she is not surprised by the US second lady’s success, given that she comes from a long line of Hindu scholars.

Chilukuri Santhamma, a physics professor from Andhra Pradesh, said: “Not everyone can climb to the top in a foreign country and achieve accolades and it’s fortunate that Usha has reached to the position that happens for one in millionth.”

Additional reporting by Soutik Biswas in Delhi

Tens of thousands of people across Turkey have been protesting the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Protesters have been fired upon with tear gas and rubber bullets in what has become the worst unrest in the country for more than a decade.

Demonstrations began in Istanbul on 19 March, sparked by the arrest of leading opposition politician Ekrem Imamoglu earlier the same day.

It came days before Imamoglu was due to be elected as presidential candidate for the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP). He was confirmed as the party’s candidate for the 2028 election from his prison cell on Sunday, following a symbolic vote.

Prosecutors accuse Imamoglu of corruption, which he denies. More than 100 people have also been detained as part of the investigation.

He was formally arrested on Sunday and charged with “establishing and managing a criminal organisation, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender”. He has also been suspended from his post as mayor of Istanbul.

His CHP party said the arrest represented a “coup against our next president” and called for supporters to take to the streets in protest.

Students demonstrated at multiple universities in Istanbul, chanting “We are not scared, we won’t be silenced, we will not obey” – a common opposition slogan in Turkey.

Protests started off relatively small in scale for a city with more than 16 million people.

But they have since spread to dozens of other cities across Turkey and are now on a level not seen for more than a decade.

Demonstrations have been largely peaceful, though there have been clashes with police using water cannons and tear gas.

There has been a major nationwide crackdown in recent months with authorities targeting opposition politicians, journalists and figures in the entertainment industry.

Some protesters say the demonstrations also represent wider concerns over Turkey’s shift toward autocracy, as well as the economy and healthcare.

Many of those protesting Imamoglu’s arrest are university students.

Students from different universities gathered in front of Istanbul University near the Beyazit area on Wednesday, breaking through a police barricade and moving towards Sarchane, where the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality building is located.

Protests on Thursday were also held on multiple university campuses in Istanbul before spreading to the streets.

More than 1,100 people have been detained since demonstrations began, according to Turkey’s interior minister.

At least 10 journalists covering the protests have also been detained in Istanbul and Izmir during dawn raids by police.

The CHP continued its vote for the party’s presidential candidate on Sunday with supporters heading to the ballot box in a symbolic vote for Imamoglu despite his arrest.

Speaking to AFP near Istanbul’s city hall, 29-year-old voter Ferhat said: “Whenever there’s a strong opponent [to Erdogan], they are always jailed.

“There is a dictatorship in Turkey right now, nothing else. It’s politics in name only.”

Meanwhile, Sukru Ilker, 70, said protesters did not want to “confront the police” but to protect the candidate the city had voted for.

Ayten Oktay, a 63-year-old pharmacist, said Turkey had “woken up”, adding: “We will defend our rights until the end.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the protests, saying his government would not “surrender” to “vandalism” or “street terror”.

“We will not accept the disruption of public order,” he has said.

Turkish authorities have banned public gatherings, but this has not deterred protesters.

Erdogan and his administration have also denied claims Imamoglu’s arrest was politically motivated, insisting that Turkey’s judiciary is independent.

Turkey’s president says the CHP has not been able to respond to the corruption allegations and accused its party chairman, Özgür Özel, of sowing unrest on the streets.

The European Commission urged Turkey on Monday to “uphold democratic values” as a country that is both a member of the Council of Europe and a candidate for joining the EU.

Erdogan has held office for the past 22 years, as both prime minister and president of Turkey for the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) he founded.

Due to term limits, he cannot run for office again in 2028 unless he changes the constitution.

He and his AKP government survived an attempted coup in 2016 which saw clashes on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, leaving 256 people dead.

To his supporters, Erdogan has brought Turkey years of economic growth, but to his critics he is an autocratic leader intolerant of dissent who harshly silences anyone who opposes him.

The UK Foreign Office has not updated its advice for travelling to Turkey since the current demonstrations.

But its advice page does note that demonstrations in cities can become violent, with police known to have used water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds.

It advises to avoid all demonstrations and leave the area if one develops.

The Foreign Office advises against all travel to within 10km (6 miles) of the border with Syria due to fighting and a heightened risk of terrorism.

Further advice on travel to Turkey can be found here.

Golfer Tiger Woods has announced he is dating Vanessa Trump, the former daughter-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

Vanessa, 47, was married to Donald Trump Jr for 13 years. The pair, who have five children, divorced in 2018.

On Sunday, Woods, 49, posted pictures of Vanessa and himself on social media saying: “Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side! We look forward to our journey through life together.”

“At this time we would appreciate privacy for all those close to our hearts.”

It is unclear what prompted the public announcement, but rumours of their relationship had been reported in gossip magazines in recent weeks.

Woods, who has won 15 major championships, is known for being guarded about his personal life after exposure of his marital infidelities and sex scandals damaged his public standing in the 2000s and affected his playing career.

He admitted himself into a sex addiction rehab clinic, and went through an acrimonious split from his first wife Elin Nordegren months later after six years of marriage. The couple have two children together.

US media outlets report that Tiger Woods’ children attend the same school as Vanessa Trump’s.

As the former wife of Donald Trump’s eldest son, Vanessa had been a regular attendee at official events involving Trump’s extended family during his first term in office.

Woods, the former world number one, is also known to have played golf with President Trump on several occasions, including last month. Trump loves golf and owns more than a dozen courses.

In February, Woods attended a meeting with Trump and Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) heads at the White House about the future of the sport’s tournaments and current division with the Saudi Arabia-LIV league.

Woods wore his Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was bestowed on him by Trump in 2019 during the president’s first term.

Woods announced an achilles tendon injury earlier this month that has sidelined him from professional competition. He has not suggested a timeline for when he might return to the courses.

He has not competed in a PGA Tour event this season, following the death of his mother, Kultida, in February.

The new couple both have children who are junior golfers.

Kai Trump, 17, has announced her commitment to playing collegiate golf at the University of Miami in 2026.

She and Charlie Woods both played at a junior invite-only tournament in South Carolina last week.

Woods has previously announced relationships with World Cup champion ski racer Lindsey Vonn and Erica Herman, his former restaurant manager.

That relationship ended badly – Herman filed law suits against Woods and his trust in 2023, which she later withdrew.

The South African ambassador who was expelled from the US after a row with Donald Trump’s government has said he has “no regrets”.

Ebrahim Rasool arrived back home on Sunday and was welcomed by hundreds of raucous supporters at Cape Town International Airport.

Tensions between South Africa and the US have been on a downward spiral since Trump came into office in January.

Rasool, 62, was declared unwelcome in the US after Secretary of State Marco Rubio called him a “race-baiting politician who hates America”. It followed a statement by the ambassador that Trump was “mobilising a supremacism” as the States’ white population faced becoming a minority.

Rasool defended his comments on Sunday morning after touching down in Cape Town.

The remarks, made during a webinar organised by a South African think tank, were meant to “alert” South African intellectuals and political leaders “to a change of the way we live, to a change of the way we are positioned in the United States, that the old way of doing business with the US was not a good one”, Rasool said.

While waiting for Rasool to arrive at the airport, members of the African National Congress, South African Communist Party and trade unionists sang and danced.

Some held placards reading “Ebrahim Rasool, you have served our country with honour!!!”

Rasool’s expulsion marked a rare move by the US – lower-ranking diplomats are sometimes expelled, but it is highly unusual for it to happen to a more senior official.

But ties with South Africa have been deteriorating for months.

In January, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill allowing the state to seize land without compensation, provided it was in the “public interest”.

The move followed years of calls for land reform, with activists and politicians seeking to redistribute farmland from the white minority.

In response to the law, Washington cut aid to South Africa. An executive order cited “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners – descendants of mainly Dutch settlers who first arrived in the 17th Century.

South Africa has strongly denied this claim.

On Sunday, Rasool lamented that he had not been able to challenge the Trump administration’s views.

He was appointed as ambassador to the US just last year, because of his experience and extensive network of Washington contacts.

He had previously served as US ambassador from 2010 to 2015, when Barack Obama was president.

Having a chip in your brain that can translate your thoughts into computer commands may sound like science fiction – but it is a reality for Noland Arbaugh.

In January 2024 – eight years after he was paralysed – the 30-year-old became the first person to get such a device from the US neurotechnology firm, Neuralink.

It was not the first such chip – a handful of other companies have also developed and implanted them – but Noland’s inevitably attracts more attention because of Neuralink’s founder: Elon Musk.

But Noland says the important thing is neither him nor Musk – but the science.

He told the BBC he knew the risks of what he was doing – but “good or bad, whatever may be, I would be helping”.

“If everything worked out, then I could help being a participant of Neuralink,” he said.

“If something terrible happened, I knew they would learn from it.”

Noland, who is from Arizona, was paralysed below the shoulders in a diving accident in 2016.

His injuries were so severe he feared he might not be able to study, work or even play games again.

“You just have no control, no privacy, and it’s hard,” he said.

“You have to learn that you have to rely on other people for everything.”

The Neuralink chip looks to restore a fraction of his previous independence, by allowing him to control a computer with his mind.

It is what is known as a brain computer interface (BCI) – which works by detecting the tiny electrical impulses generated when humans think about moving, and translating these into digital command, such as moving a cursor on a screen.

It is a complex subject that scientists have been working on for several decades.

Inevitably, Elon Musk’s involvement in the field has catapulted the tech – and Noland Arbaugh – into the headlines.

It’s helped Neuralink attract lots of investment – as well as scrutiny over the safety and significance of what is an extremely invasive procedure.

When Noland’s implant was announced, experts hailed it as a “significant milestone”, while also cautioning that it would take time to really assess – especially given Musk’s adeptness at “generating publicity for his company.”

Musk was cagey in public at the time, simply writing in a social media post: “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.”

In reality, Noland said, the billionaire – who he spoke to before and after his surgery – was far more optimistic.

“I think he was just as excited as I was to get started,” he said.

Nonetheless, he stresses that Neuralink is about more than its owner, and claims he does not consider it “an Elon Musk device”.

Whether the rest of the world sees it that way – especially given his increasingly controversial role in the US government – remains to be seen.

But there is no questioning the impact the device has had on Noland’s life.

When Noland awoke from the surgery which installed the device, he said he was initially able to control a cursor on a screen by thinking about wiggling his fingers.

“Honestly I didn’t know what to expect – it sounds so sci-fi,” he said.

But after seeing his neurons spike on a screen – all the while surrounded by excited Neuralink employees – he said “it all sort of sunk in” that he could control his computer with just his thoughts.

And – even better – over time his ability to use the implant has grown to the point he can now play chess and video games.

“I grew up playing games,” he said – adding it was something he “had to let go of” when he became disabled.

“Now I’m beating my friends at games, which really shouldn’t be possible but it is.”

Noland is a powerful demonstration of the tech’s potential to change lives – but there may be drawbacks too.

“One of the main problems is privacy,” said Anil Seth, Professor of Neuroscience, University of Sussex.

“So if we are exporting our brain activity […] then we are kind of allowing access to not just what we do but potentially what we think, what we believe and what we feel,” he told the BBC.

“Once you’ve got access to stuff inside your head, there really is no other barrier to personal privacy left.”

But these aren’t concerns for Noland – instead he wants to see the chips go further in terms of what they can do.

He told the BBC he hoped the device could eventually allow him to control his wheelchair, or even a futuristic humanoid robot.

Even with the tech in its current, more limited state, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing though.

At one point, an issue with the device caused him to lose control of his computer altogether, when it partially disconnected from his brain.

“That was really upsetting to say the least,” he said.

“I didn’t know if I would be able to use Neuralink ever again.”

The connection was repaired – and subsequently improved – when engineers adjusted the software, but it highlighted a concern frequently voiced by experts over the technology’s limitations.

Neuralink is just one of many companies exploring how to digitally tap into our brain power.

Synchron is one such firm, which says its Stentrode device aimed at helping people with motor neurone disease requires a less invasive surgery to implant.

Rather than requiring open brain surgery, it is installed into a person’s jugular vein in their neck, then moved up to their brain through a blood vessel.

Like Neuralink, the device ultimately connects to the motor region of the brain.

“It picks up when someone is thinking of tapping or not tapping their finger,” said chief technology officer Riki Bannerjee.

“By being able to pick up those differences it can create what we call a digital motor output.”

That output is then turned into computer signals, where it is currently being used by 10 people.

One such person, who did not want his last name to be used, told the BBC he was the first person in the world to use the device with Apple’s Vision Pro headset.

Mark said this has allowed him to virtually holiday in far-flung locations – from standing in waterfalls in Australia to strolling across mountains in New Zealand.

“I can see down the road in the future a world where this technology could really, really make a difference for someone that has this or any paralysis,” he said.

But for Noland there is one caveat with his Neuralink chip – he agreed to be part of a study which installed it for six years, after which point the future is less clear.

Whatever happens to him, he believes his experience may be merely scratching the surface of what might one day become a reality.

“We know so little about the brain and this is allowing us to learn so much more,” he said.

Additional reporting by Yasmin Morgan-Griffiths.

In an old gun barrel factory in Sheffield’s industrial heartland, hundreds of people are raving under the fluorescent lights of Hope Works club for one of the last times before it closes. One young woman has dressed all in black to signify the loss of her “favourite place”.

“This is a landmark of Sheffield,” says one reveller. “It’s the reason a lot of people come to university here,” adds another.

Its owner Liam O’Shea believes that nightlife venues like this are “the vital underbelly of everything”.

“It’s where people find themselves,” he says. “It’s where people find their tribe.”

Mr O’Shea, who calls himself a child of the “rave generation”, started Hope Works because he wanted to tap into that original spirit. Only now, Hope Works has gone. It closed its doors permanently in February after 13 years.

And according to Mr O’Shea, grassroots clubs in the UK – places where up and coming artists often perform live – are “dropping like flies”.

In the last five years, around 400 clubs have closed in Britain – more than a third of the total number.

In London, a dedicated taskforce is being launched by the mayor’s office to help boost nightlife and save venues at risk of closing.

“A complex matrix of factors are all conspiring against and placing pressure on the sector, making for a perfect storm for nightclubs,” says Tony Rigg, music industry advisor and programme leader at the University of Central Lancashire.

There are many factors that could be at play – among them, rising costs, less disposable income and changing lifestyle choices.

But the closures prompt broader questions too. Some experts have suggested, for example, that the lasting impact of the Covid-19 lockdowns may have led to people going out less than they once did

And if that is the case, could the closure of so many clubs nod to a wider cultural shift, particularly among Generation Z?

For several years during the pandemic, young people were unable to experience nightlife in the same way previous generations had, so perhaps it is not surprising that there have since been shifts in the way they socialise.

A recent Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) study of more than 2,000 people aged between 18 and 30 found that nearly two thirds were going out less frequently than the year before.

Psychologist Dr Elizabeth Feigin of Dr Elizabeth Consultancy says Gen Z is being driven by a number of factors – both offline and online. Part of this seems to be a rising consciousness around health, both physical and mental – and “we are seeing less of a drinking culture”.

A YouGov survey of 18 to 24-year-olds shows Gen Z continue to be the most sober group overall, with 39% of them not drinking alcohol at all.

Dr Meg Jay, author of The Defining Decade, suggests there are several factors driving this change. “Although some might imagine that young people are going out less post-Covid because depressed Gen Zers are still sitting around in their rooms, I don’t think this is the case.”

There is more awareness about the dangers of substances as well as messaging on social media around healthy lifestyles, she says.

When lockdown restrictions were in place, Dr Jay recalls some young clients saying they’d have to find new ways to have a good time. “[I had] clients telling me how much happier they were as they spent less time feeling drunk, hungover, or broke and more time feeling in charge of their lives.”

Of course social media is also playing a role in how people socialise. For some, “social media and texting with friends scratches some of the itch of meeting up”.

This rings true with Mr Rigg. “We have a massive dependence on social media that has taken us away from more social pastimes,” he argues.

But Dr Feigin believes that the lag in social communication across the younger generations predates the lockdowns. “I think it’s been exacerbated by the pandemic. But I think it was already declining on the back of social media and technology and also helicopter parents.”

There might be some healthy reasons for the decline in night life, she points out – but she also thinks that there’s “some damage as well”.

“[This is] potentially around mental health, of social anxiety, loneliness and people actually not having the skills – not even bravery – to go out and socialise anymore because so much has become dependent online.”

“It’s getting harder and harder for young people to socialise face to face… I do think that we are seeing higher rates of social anxiety and high rates of loneliness”.

Not everyone is convinced that this is the reason for the club closures. Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, thinks that finances play a big role. “The reality is, is people can’t afford it”.

Entry fees vary depending on the club. Early release tickets in some city centres can be around £10, while on-the-door entry or last-minute tickets will likely be more. Then comes the cost of any drinks, taxis, late-night trips to the kebab shop.

In an NTIA study, 68% of people reported that the current economic climate had reduced how much they go out.

“Clubbing is becoming a luxury, and that’s just crazy,” says Sherelle Thomas, DJ on BBC 6 Music. “You should be able to enter a club and be with friends at any time you want because it’s something that makes you happy.”

Mr Rigg suggests there is a “storm” coming for clubs, as a result of new economic challenges such as national insurance hikes.

If clubs cannot absorb economic challenges and so put prices up, this could make them less affordable and a less attractive proposition still, argues Mr Rigg – particularly at a time when consumers are burdened with rising living costs.

In 2024, the company which owned Pryzm and Atik, two well-known nightlife chains, went into administration. It closed 17 and sold 11 venues (which included clubs and bars), citing changing student habits as the reason for closures.

Russell Quelch, CEO of Neos, which runs the remaining venues, believes students have less money than they used to. “People really care about how they spend their money,” he argues. “Gone are the days of students going out four or five nights a week”.

The company now has several “party bars” which are open in the day too, meaning the trading window is longer. Many are themed, with events such as bingo, and they are not as alcohol orientated.

The Acapulco in Halifax has seen thousands of people on its dancefloor since it opened in 1961. It is thought to be the UK’s oldest nightclub. Its bar is lit in red and blue, and the beat of the music ebbs through its doors as people spill in to dance, often several nights in a row.

But its owner Simon Jackson has noticed some shifts in the way people go clubbing. Some will come before the night properly begins and film themselves dancing for TikTok, he explains.

The Acca, as it is known locally, is defying its environment. In Yorkshire, 40 percent of clubs have shut down since 2020 – the most out of any region in Britain. Mr Jackson attributes the club’s longevity – in a challenging market – to, among other things, “value for money”.

There are also other models of clubbing that are seeing some success.

Gut Level, a queer-led community project in Sheffield that runs inclusive club nights, is built on a membership model with reduced prices for those on low incomes.

Co-founder Katie Matthews says: “The music scene was run a lot by guys and it maybe didn’t think about the safety of people like women and queer people as much.”

Then there is the safety aspect. In 2023, more incidents of drink spiking occurred in bars (41%) and clubs (28%) than anywhere else, and many people say they have experienced sexual violence during a night out.

“It’s about safety of members,” says Katie Matthews – at Gut Level, people have to sign up in advance.

Ultimately, though, many clubs that continue to thrive do so because they are built around a sense of community. DJ Ahad Elley (known as Ahadadream), who moved to the UK from Pakistan at the age of 12, believes that this is a valuable aspect of many clubs.

“For some people it’s almost the only place they’ve got where they can go and feel a sense of belonging and real community,” he says.

Cat Rossi has spent years researching the creative significance of nightclubs, in her capacity as a design historian and professor of architecture at University for the Creative Arts Canterbury. “Since the dawn of civilisation we’ve needed to go out and dance and be together at night,” she says. “Social gathering is a core part of our social fabric.

“I think that nightclubs are really undervalued as these hugely creative forms of architecture and design, but also nightclubs and club culture more generally are these huge engines of creativity.”

Many fashion labels have been born in clubs, she points out, making them part of a “bigger creative ecosystem” along with theatres, opera houses and television studios.

In 2016, a German court officially designated Berghain, a famous Berlin nightclub, as a cultural institution, which gave it the same tax status as the city’s opera houses and theatres.

The following year, Zurich recognised techno culture as part of its “intangible cultural heritage” in partnership with Unesco.

It is a sentiment is shared by some in Britain too. As Mr Kill puts it: “They are a British institution. There’s no two ways about it.”

And the key to preserving this, and ensuring the future of nightclubs, is evolution, argues Mr Rigg.

“Nightclubs do need to evolve to maintain relevance due to the cultural behavioural shifts and also modify the business model to mitigate some of the other economic pressures.”

But without that transformation, the UK risks losing more of them.

Additional reporting by: Laura Lea, Fran Whyte and Harriet Whitehead

Top picture credit: Getty Images

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US President Donald Trump revoked security clearances from his previously defeated Democratic election rivals, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, as well as a number of other former officials and critics.

Trump said in February he was revoking security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden. His order confirmed that decision, adding that he was also revoking the security clearance of “any other member” of the Biden family.

“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump’s memorandum read.

Former US presidents and top security officials usually keep their security clearance as a courtesy.

Trump ordered department and agency leaders to “revoke unescorted access to secure United States government facilities for these individuals.”

“This action includes, but is not limited to, receipt of classified briefings, such as the President’s Daily Brief, and access to classified information held by any member of the intelligence community by virtue of the named individuals’ previous tenure in the Congress,” the order stated.

For several named figures, the loss of access to classified material and spaces will have a more symbolic impact.

It may limit the materials they are able to review, or restrict access to some government buildings or secure facilities.

The lawyers and prosecutors named by Trump, however, could potentially face roadblocks in accessing or reviewing information for their cases or clients.

Trump’s revocations focus on top Biden administration officials, as well as prominent political critics and attorneys who have challenged Trump or his allies in court.

Biden’s secretary of state Antony Blinken, national security advisor Jake Sullivan, and deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco all lost their clearances.

Trump also targeted two of his own former officials from his first term: Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman, who testified during his first impeachment trial that began in 2019.

Trump also revoked access for high-profile Republican critics, former Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

They were the only two Republican lawmakers who joined a US House investigation into Trump’s role in the 6 January 2021 attack on Congress.

Both also voted to charge Trump in his second impeachment, which a Democratic-led US House of Representatives instigated after the riot. Trump was acquitted by the Senate on the charge of inciting the 6 January riot.

Trump has also singled out top legal opponents in his latest decision on security access. His order revoked clearance for New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought multiple lawsuits against Trump and his businesses.

In a civil fraud lawsuit that concluded in 2024, a judge found Trump liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Trump is appealing the decision.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted and won Trump’s criminal hush money case last year, also lost his clearance.

Trump’s legal targets went beyond elected prosecutors. He withdrew security clearance for Norm Eisen, an attorney leading multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce.

Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor who joined an investigation of Trump during his first term and later provided media commentary about the hush money trial, also lost his clearance.

Previous media reports had indicated that the administration had pulled the security clearance for a top whistleblower attorney in Washington, Mark Zaid.

Friday’s order listed him among the individuals who would lose access.

However, Mr Zaid told the BBC that “despite being told three times that my clearance has been revoked, I still have not received anything formally.”

He claimed losing his security clearance would harm “the federal employees, including Trump supporters, who count on me to handle cases few other lawyers could.”

Several of the individuals chosen by Trump derided his order in social media statements.

“I don’t care what noises Donald Trump makes about a security clearance that hasn’t been active for five years,” Mr Vindman wrote on X.

Mr Eisen wrote on X that being targeted by Trump’s order “just makes me file even more lawsuits!”

Trump had earlier pulled security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials whom he accused of meddling in the 2020 election in Joe Biden’s favour. He provided no evidence for these claims.

In February, Trump announced he was revoking Biden’s security access. In a social media post, Trump said Biden “set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents”.

In 2021, Biden – serving as president at the time – barred his defeated rival Trump from having access to intelligence briefings citing his “erratic behaviour”.

A 2024 Justice Department special counsel report found Biden had improperly retained classified documents from his time as vice president. The report noted that Biden had cooperated with federal investigators and returned the discovered documents.

In 2023, Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith indicted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents following his first term in office and obstructing their return to the government.

Trump pleaded not guilty and a Florida federal judge dismissed the case in July 2024. Smith officially dropped the case that December after Trump won re-election.

Prime Minister and Liberal leader Mark Carney has called an election in Canada, kickstarting five weeks of campaigning before Canadians head to the polls.

Voting day will officially be on Monday 28 April.

It will be the first election in a decade without former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the ballot, and the two major parties in Canada – the Conservatives and the Liberals – are neck-and-neck in the polls, making it a race to watch.

While Canadians don’t vote for prime minister directly, the leader of the party that wins the most seats will traditionally become head of government.

Here is a breakdown of the leaders of Canada’s major parties.

Carney, 60, is the incumbent prime minister of Canada, but he has only been on the job for a few days.

His party overwhelmingly chose him – with more than 85% of the vote – to succeed Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader earlier this month. He became prime minister shortly after, following Trudeau’s resignation.

For many in Canada and the UK, Carney is a familiar face. He was head of both the Banks of Canada and England, serving at the former during the 2008 financial crash and the latter during Brexit.

He was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, making him the first Canadian prime minister from the north. Carney later grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, before he attended Harvard University and then Oxford, where he studied economics.

Carney is hailed for his financial expertise. He has also taken a defiant stance against US President Donald Trump, vowing retaliation against his tariffs and stating that Canada will never become the 51st US state.

But Carney is politically untested. He has never been elected to public office in Canada, and this general election will be his very first. His French is also weak, which could be a liability among voters who feel strongly about preserving Canada’s French-speaking heritage, especially in the province of Quebec.

Recent polls show his party is slightly trailing behind the Conservatives, but more Canadians say they think Carney would be a better prime minister than his opponent Pierre Poilievre.

Poilievre, 45, originally hails from Calgary, Alberta. He has been in Canadian politics for nearly two decades – first elected to the House of Commons at age 25, making him one of the youngest MPs at the time.

Since then, he has consistently advocated for a low-tax, small government in Canada.

He is known for his confrontational style of politics. In recent years, Poilievre has tirelessly attacked the Liberals and Trudeau, saying that their “disastrous” and “woke” policies have worsened the quality of life in Canada, while promising a return to “common sense politics” if his party were to form government.

It is a message that has resonated with many Canadians who have been worried about the country’s housing crisis, stagnant wages and high cost of living. Poilievre has led in national polls since mid-2023, and analysts had projected a near-certain win for his party in the upcoming election.

But the Liberal Party has since caught up to him in the polls, following Trudeau’s resignation and the rise of Carney as Liberal leader.

Poilievre has been criticised for his populist style of politics and has drawn comparisons to Trump at a time when Canadians have rejected the US President’s tariffs and his rhetoric that Canada should become the “51st state”.

Poilievre has sought to shift his messaging since, distancing himself from Trump and vowing to put “Canada first.”

Trump himself has said that Poilievre is not “MAGA enough”, though the Conservative leader has been praised by Trump ally and tech titan Elon Musk.

The Bloc Québécois is a Quebec nationalist party that only runs candidates in the French-speaking province, meaning its leader is unlikely to become Canada’s next prime minister.

Still, they are a key player in Canadian elections, and their popularity in Quebec could determine the fate of the other major parties looking to form government.

Blanchet has led the party since 2019. He is known for his frankness, calling Trump’s 51st state rhetoric nonsense.

“It’s enough jibber-jabber,” Blanchet said during an address on Trump’s tariffs earlier this month in Montreal. “We can say whatever we want, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.”

He has also dismissed Trump’s tariffs, saying: “I’m sure there will be somebody on his plane between a basketball game and a baseball game to tell him, don’t do that, because it’s bad for us. I’m sure that at the end of the day, the voice of reason will prevail.”

On domestic issues, Blanchet has pushed for Quebec to diversify its trade partners, and has asked for a prominent seat at Canada’s economic planning table, noting that his province is home to the largest aluminium sector in the country – a commodity that has been targeted by US tariffs.

Blanchet has also suggested that the appetite for an independent Quebec will “come roaring back” when and if the US-Canada relationship stabilises.

Polling shows the Bloc – who are going into the election with 33 seats in Parliament – have been trailing behind the Liberal Party in Quebec.

Singh, 46, is leader of the NDP, a left-leaning party that traditionally focuses on worker and labour issues. He made history in 2017 when he became the first ethnic minority and practising Sikh to lead a major political party in Canada.

In 2019, the former criminal defence lawyer was elected as an MP in a British Columbia riding, where he has served in public office since.

The NDP had helped the Trudeau Liberal government keep its hold on power since 2021, providing needed votes in Parliament in exchange for support on progressive legislation like dental benefits for lower-income families and a national pharmacare programme covering birth control and insulin.

But in late 2024, Singh tore up that “supply and confidence” agreement, after Trudeau’s cabinet directed its industrial relations board to impose binding arbitration to end a work stoppage at Canada’s two largest railways.

At the time, Singh had said that the Liberals “let people down” and didn’t “deserve another chance from Canadians”.

But his party has struggled to shore up support. Polls show that only 9% of Canadians intend to vote for them as of mid-March, with their ground shrinking while support for the Liberals has risen.

A big question will be whether the NDP will be able to grow the number of seats they occupy in the House of Commons and maintain official party status.

In the early 2010s, the party had enough support to form the official opposition, meaning it was the party with the second-most seats in Parliament. By 2021, their seat number had shrunk to 24 out of 338.

The main rival to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been formally arrested and charged with corruption.

Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, is expected to be selected as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) 2028 presidential nominee in a ballot on Sunday.

He has denied the allegations and said they are politically motivated. “I will never bow,” he wrote on X before he was remanded in custody.

His detention sparked some of Turkey’s largest protests in more than a decade. Erdogan has condemned the demonstrations and accused the CHP of trying to “disturb the peace and polarise our people”.

Imamoglu was one of more than 100 people, including other politicians, journalists and businessmen, detained as part of an investigation on Wednesday, triggering four consecutive nights of demonstrations.

On Sunday, he was formally arrested and charged with “establishing and managing a criminal organisation, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender”.

He was remanded in custody pending trial. AFP and local media reported he had been taken to a prison in Silivri.

In social media posts, Imamoglu criticised his arrest as a “black stain on our democracy”, and said judicial procedure was not being followed.

He urged people across the country to join protests and to take part in Sunday’s vote. Imamoglu is the only person running in the CHP’s presidential candidate selection.

Large crowds had already gathered near Istanbul’s city hall by early evening, and could be seen waving Turkish flags and chanting in front of a row of riot police.

As night began to fall, officers were seen firing water cannons at some protesters.

The arrest does not prevent Imamoglu’s candidacy and election as president, but if he is convicted of any of the charges against him, he will not be able to run.

The jailed politician is seen as one of the most formidable rivals of Erdogan, who has held office in Turkey for 22 years as both prime minister and president.

However, due to term limits, Erdogan cannot run for office again in 2028 unless he changes the constitution.

Opposition figures say the arrests are politically motivated. But the Ministry of Justice has criticised those connecting Erdogan to the arrests, and insist on its judicial independence.

Imamoglu has meanwhile been suspended from his post as Instanbul’s mayor, Turkey’s interior ministry said in a statement.

Prosecutors also want to charge Imamoglu with “aiding an armed terrorist organisation”, but the Turkish court said it was not currently necessary.

The CHP had a de facto alliance with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) in connection with last year’s local elections.

DEM has been accused of being affiliated with the PKK – or Kurdistan Workers’ Party – which it denies.

The PKK declared a ceasefire early this month, after waging an insurgency against Turkey for more than 40 years. It is proscribed as a terrorist group in Turkey, the EU, UK and US.

Meanwhile, Istanbul University announced on Tuesday it was revoking Imamoglu’s degree due to alleged irregularities.

If upheld, this would put his ability to run as president into doubt, since the Turkish constitution says presidents must have completed higher education to hold office.

Imamoglu’s lawyers said they would appeal the decision to revoke his degree to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

The Supreme Election Council will decide whether Imamoglu is qualified to be a candidate.

Thousands have taken to the streets across Turkey in largely peaceful demonstrations since Imamoglu’s detention on Wednesday.

An initial four-day ban on gatherings in Istanbul, designed to stifle protests, now covers the whole country. It was extended for another four days on Saturday.

More than 700 arrests have been made since the protests began, according to Turkish authorities.

Riot police have repeatedly clashed with protesters and have been seen firing pepper gas and water cannons towards them.

On Saturday, tear gas hung in the air outside the mayor’s office in Istanbul before the protests had even started.

As the crowds grew throughout the evening, it became hard to breathe as round after round was fired to disperse demonstrators.

Chanting “rights, law, justice”, people of all ages defied the government ban to protest against what they saw as an unlawful detention.

One young woman, dressed in black and wearing a face mask, told the BBC she was not protesting for political reasons or because she supported the opposition, but instead to defend democracy.

“I’m here for justice, I’m here for liberty. We’re free people and Turkish people cannot accept this. This is against our behaviour and culture.”

Another woman, who had brought her 11-year-old son to the protests, said she wanted to include him because she is worried about his future.

“It’s getting harder to live in Turkey day by day, we can’t control our lives, we can’t choose who we want and there is no real justice here,” she said.