Category: Trending Now

An argument in the White House tore apart the US alliance with Ukraine, shook European leaders and highlighted JD Vance’s key role in forcefully expressing Donald Trump’s foreign policy. The vice-president has come out punching on the global stage – so what is it that drives his worldview?

Vance’s first major foreign speech, at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, caught many by surprise.

Rather than focusing on the war raging in Ukraine, the US vice-president only briefly mentioned the bloodiest European conflict since World War Two.

Instead, he used his debut on the international stage to berate close US allies about immigration and free speech, suggesting the European establishment was anti-democratic. He accused them of ignoring the wills of their people and questioned what shared values they were truly banding together with the US to defend.

“If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people,” he warned.

It was a bold and perhaps unexpected way to introduce himself to the world – by angering European allies. But days later he was back in the news, at the centre of a blistering row with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he accused of being ungrateful.

For those who have been studying the rise of Vance, these two episodes came as no surprise.

The vice-president has come to represent an intellectual wing of the conservative movement that gives expression to Trumpism and in particular how its America First mantra applies beyond its borders. In writings and interviews, Vance has expressed an ideology that seems to join the dots between American workers, global elites and the role of the US in the wider world.

On the campaign trail with Donald Trump last year, Vance spent much of his time sharply criticising Democrats – the usual attack-dog duties that traditionally get dished out to running mates – and sparring with reporters.

And while Elon Musk’s outsized and unconventional role in the Trump administration initially overshadowed him, that Munich speech and the Oval Office showdown have raised the profile of Trump’s deputy.

It’s also led to questions about the winding ideological journey he’s made during his years in the conservative movement – and what he truly believes now.

“He’s much more of a pragmatist than an ideologue,” said James Orr, associate professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge and a friend whom Vance has described as his “British sherpa”.

“He’s able to articulate what is and is not in the American interest,” Orr said. “And the American interest is not the interest of some abstract utopia or matrix of propositions and ideas, but the American people.”

Vance has repeatedly returned to this “America First” – or perhaps “Americans First” – theme in speeches, drawing a line between what he castigates as Washington’s economic and foreign policy orthodoxy abroad and the struggles of the left-behind American working class at home.

At the Republican National Convention last summer, for example, he lamented how in small towns across the US “jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war”. And he attacked then-President Joe Biden, saying: “For half a century, he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”

But Vance is also someone who, after a tough upbringing in an Ohio family with Appalachian roots and sudden fame on the back of a bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, has tried out many different views.

Not only is he a former “Never Trumper” who described the US president in 2016 as “reprehensible” and “an idiot”, his book places much of the blame for the plight of the rural poor squarely on the choices made by individuals.

More recently he’s shifted that blame to elites – a group he’s variously defined as Democrats, conventional Republicans, liberals, corporate leaders, globalists and academics.

In speeches, Vance regularly argues that “America is not just an idea… America is a nation.”

He couples this statement with an anecdote about his family’s ancestral graveyard in Kentucky, where he says he, his wife and their children will one day be buried, arguing that family and homeland are more important than some of America’s traditional core ideas.

In Vance’s view, the Trump administration’s priority should be to make life better for Americans who have been in the country for generations, and yet have little of the nation’s vast wealth.

Rod Dreher, a conservative American writer who is also a friend of the vice-president, said Vance’s thinking arises from a belief that “moderate normie Republicans… failed to offer anything to stop the so-called forever wars, and they also failed to offer anything to ordinary Americans like where he comes from, who are suffering economically from globalism and from the effects of mass migration and fentanyl”.

“He got red-pilled, so to speak, by Donald Trump,” Dreher told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme this week.

“Red-pilled” is internet slang for suddenly waking up to a supposedly hidden truth, as featured in The Matrix movies. It’s commonly used by those on the right online who believe they have special access to reality and that people with liberal, centrist or establishment views are uncritical thinkers.

Vance is a vice-president who, more than his boss, seems extremely plugged into internet culture. He’s an enthusiastic user of X, often jumping directly into arguments rather than using it, as many politicians do, as a platform for announcements.

His appearances on fringe right-wing podcasts, while he was trying to drum up support for a Senate run, provided fodder for his opponents, as did provocative trollish comments such as that the US was being run by “childless cat ladies”.

Married to the daughter of Indian immigrants, he has rejected and been rejected by members of the alt-right even if he does echo some of their views. However, he does have friends and allies both at the top of Silicon Valley and in some of its lesser known corners.

After graduating from Yale Law School, he was brought into the world of venture capital by influential Silicon Valley conservative Peter Thiel, who later funded his US Senate campaign.

He has cited people like the blogger Curtis Yarvin, a key guru in the “neo-reactionary” movement which dreams up fantasies of technologically-assisted, hyper-capitalist societies led by powerful monarchs.

His familiarity with the internet’s fringes was further demonstrated when he spread false rumours about immigrants eating pets and an allegation about Ukrainian corruption – which the BBC traced back to Moscow.

“He sort of stews in this online world,” said Cathy Young, a writer for the conservative, anti-Trump media outlet The Bulwark.

At the same time, Young said, his anecdote about family graveyards and homeland suggests another political tendency – a “disturbing undertone of nativism”.

“That bothers some people and rightly so,” she said. “Part of the American legacy is that we are a nation of immigrants. [Former Republican President] Ronald Reagan talked about that, about one of the distinctive things about this country is that anyone can come here from any part of the world and become an American.”

Vance’s “Americans First” thinking clearly extends to the issue of the war in Ukraine. When he was a senator, he was often critical of America’s involvement in the war and the huge sums spent on it, his former Senate colleague Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, recalled.

“His position then was very much like what it is now… that the conflict must end,” Hawley told the BBC. “It needs to end in a way that’s maximally advantageous to the security of the United States and it needs to end in a way that gets our European allies to take increased responsibility.”

Vance regularly accused the Biden administration of being more interested in Ukraine than in stemming illegal immigration. Writing in 2022, during his Senate campaign and after the Russian invasion, he said: “I will be damned if I am going to prioritise Ukraine’s eastern border right now when our own southern border is engulfed by a human tsunami of illegal migrants.”

His views burst out into the open during that dramatic argument with President Zelensky in the Oval Office. Vance accused Zelensky of lacking respect, of sending politicians on a “propaganda tour” of Ukraine and of being insufficiently thankful for US aid.

“Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country,” he told the Ukrainian president.

The argument left European leaders scrambling to defend Zelensky, while also trying to maintain negotiations over a possible peace deal.

Vance then prompted widespread outrage from allies when he poured scorn on the idea of security guarantees in the form of troops “from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.

He later denied he was talking about the UK or France, the only two European countries that have publicly stated their willingness to send peacekeepers to Ukraine.

But the vice-president’s willingness to step on the toes of allies reflect a world view which, in his words, has little time for “moralisms about ‘this country is good’, ‘this country is bad’”.

“That doesn’t mean you have to have a complete moral blind spot, but it means that you have to be honest about the countries that you’re dealing with, and there’s a complete failure to do that with most of our foreign policy establishment in this country,” he told a New York Times columnist last year.

His tone has shifted from the two years he spent in the US Senate before being picked by Trump. Democrat Cory Booker remembered Vance as “very pragmatic and thoughtful”.

“That’s why some of this stuff surprises me,” Booker told the BBC.

Others detect the same disconnect.

David Frum, now a writer for The Atlantic magazine, said that Vance’s views have changed significantly from when he first commissioned the former marine, who was attending Ohio State University at the time, to write for his website on conservative politics more than 15 years ago.

“He was not in any way the culture warrior that he is today,” Frum said.

Frum, a former George W Bush speechwriter and staunch critic of Trump, said that Vance’s view of Russia represented “ideological admiration”.

In Munich, as he spoke about free speech, the vice-president cited cases involving conservatives and Christians in Western countries but avoided any mention of Russia’s harsh clampdowns on expression.

Vance and his allies reject that he is sympathetic to Putin.

“I’ve never once argued that Putin is a kind and friendly person,” Vance, then an Ohio senator, said in a speech at the 2024 Munich Security Conference.

“We don’t have to agree with him. We can contest him and we often will contest him,” he said. “But the fact that he’s a bad guy does not mean we can’t engage in basic diplomacy and prioritising America’s interests.”

The BBC has asked the White House for comment on Vance’s stance in relation to Ukraine and Russia.

A quick end to the conflict in Ukraine is, in Vance’s view, not only about putting a stop to billions of dollars being spent thousands of miles away.

He himself has said that there are bigger issues for the US and its friends to focus on than Ukraine, namely the threat of China, which he has called “our most significant competitor… for the next 20 or 30 years”.

Vance’s views on Ukraine and his willingness to publicly air them provided a dramatic moment in the early days of Trump’s second presidential term.

But it also offered a vivid illustration of the vice-president’s ideology, his prominence in the Trump administration and how he views America’s place in the world.

With reporting by Rachel Looker and Anthony Zurcher in Washington and Lily Jamali in San Francisco

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

A plane carrying the former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has left Manila, hours after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity over his deadly “war on drugs”.

The 79-year-old was taken into police custody shortly after his arrival at the capital’s international airport from Hong Kong on Tuesday morning.

Current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr confirmed Duterte had left Philippine airspace, en route to The Hague in the Netherlands, where the ICC sits.

Earlier, his daughter Sara – who said she would accompany him to the Hague – said he was being “forcibly” sent there.

Duterte has offered no apologies for his brutal anti-drugs crackdown, which saw thousands of people killed when he was president of the South East Asian nation from 2016 to 2022, and mayor of Davao city before that.

Upon his arrest on Tuesday, he questioned the basis for the warrant, asking: “What crime [have] I committed?” in a video posted online by his daughter Veronica Duterte.

“If I committed a sin, prosecute me in Philippine courts, with Filipino judges, and I will allow myself to be jailed in my own nation,” he said in a later video.

In response to his arrest, a petition was launched on his behalf in the Supreme Court – urging them not to comply with the request.

In it, Duterte urged the court to refrain from “enforcing or assisting in the enforcement of any ICC-issued warrants… and to suspend all forms of cooperation with the ICC while the case is pending”.

According to a statement from the court’s spokesperson, the former president also called for a declaration that the Philippines withdrawal from the ICC in 2019 “effectively terminated” its jurisdiction over the country and its people.

The ICC says it still has authority in the Philippines over alleged crimes committed before the country withdrew as a member.

Some of Duterte’s supporters rallied at the gates to Villamor Air Base, within the airport compound, where the former president was taken following his arrest. State media said more than 370 police had been deployed there and to other “key locations” to ensure peace was maintained.

While his supporters have criticised the arrest, activists have called it a “historic moment” for those who perished in his drug war and their families, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) said.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but today, it has bent towards justice. Duterte’s arrest is the beginning of accountability for the mass killings that defined his brutal rule,” said ICHRP chairman Peter Murphy.

Duterte had been in Hong Kong to campaign for the upcoming 12 May mid-term elections, where he had planned to run again for mayor of Davao.

Footage aired on local television showed him walking out of the airport using a cane. Authorities say he is in “good health” and is being cared for by government doctors.

“What is my sin? I did everything in my time for peace and a peaceful life for the Filipino people,” he told a cheering crowd of Filipino expatriates before leaving Hong Kong.

Duterte’s arrest marks the “beginning of a new chapter in Philippine history”, said Filipino political scientist Richard Heydarian.

“This is about rule of law and human rights,” he said.

Heydarian added that authorities had arrested Duterte promptly at the airport instead of letting the matter take its course through the local courts to “avoid political chaos”.

“Duterte’s supporters were hoping they could go berserk in terms of public rallies and [use] all sorts of delaying tactics… [to] drag things on until the warrant of arrest loses momentum,” he said.

The demand for justice in Duterte’s drug war goes “hand in hand” with the political interests of his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Heydarian said.

The Duterte and Marcos families formed a formidable alliance in the last elections in 2022, where against the elder Duterte’s wishes, his daughter Sara ran as Marcos Jr’s vice-president instead of seeking her father’s post.

The relationship unravelled publicly in recent months as the two families pursued separate political agendas.

Marcos initially refused to co-operate with the ICC investigation, but as his relationship with the Duterte family deteriorated, he changed his stance, and later indicated that the Philippines would co-operate.

Duterte served as mayor of Davao, a sprawling southern metropolis, for 22 years and has made it one of the country’s safest from street crimes.

He used the city’s peace-and-order reputation to cast himself as a tough-talking anti-establishment politician to win the 2016 elections by a landslide.

With fiery rhetoric, he rallied security forces to shoot drug suspects dead. More than 6,000 suspects were gunned down by police or unknown assailants during the campaign, but rights groups say the number could be higher.

A previous UN report found that most victims were young, poor urban males and that police, who do not need search or arrest warrants to conduct house raids, systematically forced suspects to make self-incriminating statements or risk facing lethal force.

Critics said the campaign targeted street-level pushers and failed to catch big-time drug lords. Many families also claimed that the victims – their sons, brothers or husbands – were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Investigations in parliament pointed to a shadowy “death squad” of bounty hunters targeting drug suspects. Duterte has denied the allegations of abuse.

“Do not question my policies because I offer no apologies, no excuses. I did what I had to do, and whether or not you believe it… I did it for my country,” Duterte told a parliament investigation in October.

“I hate drugs, make no mistake about it.”

The ICC first took note of the alleged abuses in 2016 and started its investigation in 2021. It covered cases from November 2011, when Duterte was mayor of Davao, to March 2019, before the Philippines withdrew from the ICC.

Since taking power, Marcos has scaled back Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign and promised a less violent approach to the drug problem, but hundreds of drug-related killings have been recorded during his administration.

Duterte remains widely popular in the Philippines as he is the country’s first leader from Mindanao, a region south of Manila, where many feel marginalised by the leaders in the capital.

He often speaks in Cebuano, the regional language, not Tagalog, which is more widely-spoken in Manila and northern regions.

When he stepped down in 2022, nearly nine in 10 Filipinos said they were satisfied with his performance as president – a score unseen among his predecessors since the restoration of democracy in 1986, according to the Social Weather Stations research institute.

His populist rhetoric and blunt statements earned him the moniker “Donald Trump of the East”. He has called Russian President Vladimir Putin his “idol” and under his administration, the Philippines’ pivoted their foreign policy to China away from the US, its long-standing ally.

Marcos restored Manila’s ties with Washington and criticised the Duterte government for being “Chinese lackeys” as the Philippines is locked in sea dispute with China.

China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it was “closely monitoring the development of the situation” and warned the ICC against “politicisation” and “double standards” in the arrest of Duterte.

Duterte’s daughter and political heir, Sara Duterte, is tipped as a potential presidential candidate in 2028. The incumbent, Marcos, is barred by the constitution from seeking re-election.

Additional reporting by Virma Simonette in Manila and Kelly Ng in Singapore

Syria’s interim leader has appealed for unity, as violence and revenge killings continued in areas loyal to ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.

Hundreds of people have reportedly fled their homes in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus – strongholds of Assad support.

Local residents have described scenes of looting and mass killings, including of children.

In Hai Al Kusour, a predominantly Alawite neighbourhood in the coastal city of Banias, residents say the streets are filled with scattered bodies, piled up and covered in blood. Men of different ages were shot dead there, witnesses said.

The Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam and makes up around 10% of Syria’s population, which is majority Sunni Muslim. Assad belongs to the sect.

People were too scared to even look out of their windows on Friday. The internet connection is unstable, but when connected they learned of their neighbours’ deaths from Facebook posts.

One man, Ayman Fares, told the BBC he was saved by his recent imprisonment. He had posted a video on his Facebook account in August 2023 criticising Assad for his corrupt rule. He was arrested soon after, and only released when Islamist-led forces freed prisoners after Assad’s fall last December.

The fighters who raided the streets of Hai Al Kusour recognised him, so he was spared death but not the looting. They took his cars and continued to raid other houses.

“They were strangers, I can’t identify their identity or language, but they seemed to be Uzbek or Chechen,” Mr Fares told me by phone.

“There were also some Syrians with them but not from the official security. Some civilians also were among those who carried out the killing,” he added.

Mr Fares said he saw families killed in their own homes, and women and children covered in blood. Some families ran to their rooftops to hide but were not spared the bloodshed. “It is horrific,” he said.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented more than 740 civilians killed in the coastal cities of Latakia, Jableh and Banias. A further 300 members of the security forces and remnants of the Assad regime are reported to have died in clashes.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the death toll.

Mr Fares said things stabilised when the Syrian army and security forces arrived in the city of Banias. They pushed other factions out of the city and provided corridors for families to access safe areas, he said.

Ali, another resident of Banias who asked us not to use his full name, corroborated Mr Fares’ account. Ali, who lived in Kusour with his wife and 14-year-old daughter, fled his home with the assistance of security forces.

“They came to our building. We were too scared just listening to the fire and screams of people in the neighbourhood. We learned about the deaths from sporadic Facebook posts when we managed to connect. But when they came to our building, we thought we are done,” he said.

“They were after money. They knocked on our neighbour’s door taking his car, his money and all the gold or valuables he had in his home. But he was not killed.”

Ali and his family were picked up by his Sunni neighbours, who follow a different branch of Islam, and are now staying with them. “We lived together for years, Alawites, Sunnis and Christians. We never experienced this,” he told me.

“The Sunnis rushed to protect Alawites from the killing that happened and now the official forces are in town to restore order.”

Ali said families were taken to a school in a neighbourhood that is predominantly Sunni, where they will be protected until members of the factions that carried out the killings are ousted from Banias.

The violence started on Thursday after Assad loyalists – who refused to give up arms – ambushed security forces around the coastal cities of Latakia and Jableh, killing dozens of them.

Ghiath Dallah, an ex-brigadier general in Assad’s army, has announced a new rebellion against the current government, saying he was establishing the “Military Council for the Liberation of Syria”.

Some reports suggest that former security officers of the Assad regime who refused to give up arms are forming a resistance group in the mountains.

Mr Fares said most of the Alawite community reject them and blame Dallah and other hardline Assad loyalists for the violence.

“They benefit from the bloodshed that’s happening. What we need now is official security to prevail and to prosecute the killers from the factions who did the mass killing so the country restores safety,” he said.

But others also blame interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, saying he dismantled Syria’s security, army and police establishments with no clear strategy for dealing with thousands of officers and personnel left unemployed.

Some of these individuals, especially among the police, had nothing to do with the killing during Assad’s regime. The new authorities also dismissed thousands of public employees from their work.

With 90% of Syria’s population living below the poverty line and thousands left without an income, it’s fertile ground for a rebellion.

There is a split in views in Syria over what is happening. The wider community condemns the killing of any civilians and demonstrations have been organised in Damascus to mourn the deaths and condemn the violence.

But over the past two days, there were also calls for “Jihad” in different parts of Syria. Residents in Banias said that along with the factions, there were some civilians who were armed and joined forces in the killing.

Syria’s majority Sunnis have faced atrocities at the hands of the Assad regime’s forces over the past 13 years. This fuelled sectarian hatred mainly towards the Alawite minority, where members of the community are affiliated with war crimes.

According to human rights groups, there is evidence that Alawite security officers were involved in the killing and torture of thousands of Syrians, the majority of which are Sunni Muslims, during the Assad regime.

Those members of the army and security forces who were killed are mostly from the Sunni community and now some in the Sunni community are calling for retaliation, but the president has called for calm.

Sharaa, whose Islamist forces toppled Assad three months ago, must now balance providing safety for all with pursuing justice for the crimes of the Assad regime and its henchmen.

While he has authority over some of the troops who helped him to power, some factions are clearly out of his control. Those factions also include foreign fighters with a radical Islamist agenda.

To lead Syria into a safe and democratic future, many argue Sharaa needs to end the presence of any foreign fighters and deliver a constitution that protects the rights of all Syrians, regardless of their background or religion.

While he is seen to be working towards the legal framework for such a constitution, controlling the violent factions and expelling foreign fighters will prove a major challenge.

Six months ago, a viral TikTok trend made us obsessed with being very demure and very mindful – but now, modesty has taken a back seat among celebrities who have made see-through outfits all the rage on red carpets and catwalks.

At the Brit Awards last week, big winner Charli XCX went full brat as she wore a sheer black dress, prompting hundreds of complaints to media watchdog Ofcom.

She used one of her acceptance speeches to address the controversy of her outfit. “I heard that ITV were complaining about my nipples,” she said. “I feel like we’re in the era of ‘free the nipple’ though, right?”

The nearly naked look has been a talking point at other award ceremonies – including last Sunday’s Oscars and the Grammys in February, when Kanye West’s wife Bianca Censori dropped her coat on the red carpet to reveal an almost entirely invisible dress.

The love for transparent textiles has continued at London and Paris fashion weeks, with many of the celebrities watching on also getting the memo.

At Stella McCartney’s Paris show, US actress and Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson wore a translucent black off-the-shoulder maxi dress with only a nude-coloured thong underneath.

Rapper Ice Spice sported a black lace catsuit with a feathered coat at the show.

Naked dressing was a key trend in some designers’ spring/summer collections, and the theme has continued in autumn/winter looks too.

As Vogue wrote in January: “For a period of time, sheerness was few and far between, but nowadays, ‘naked dressing’ is commonplace every season.”

Dior’s latest collection embraced see-through material and presented it in an ethereal way, with intricate detailing and gender-fluid silhouettes.

Creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri described her collection as “demonstrating how clothing is a receptacle that affirms cultural, aesthetic and social codes”.

The trend divides opinion but is certainly part of a wider movement – last summer Charli XCX’s definition of being a brat included wearing “a strappy white top with no bra”.

Sheer dressing is a nod to the minimalist looks of the 1990s – think transparent blouses and Kate Moss wearing a thin slip dress – and with our love for nostalgia fashion, it’s no wonder it is taking off again.

The trend also had a resurgence a decade ago. The “free the nipple” movement was everywhere in the early 2010s, with Rihanna stirring up headlines with her sheer crystal-embellished dress at the CFDA awards in 2014.

Charli XCX’s Brits outfit was praised by some on social media. “Stop policing women’s bodies,” one person wrote, while another said she looked comfortable in her outfit so “why is society judging?”

But many found it too risque for prime-time TV. Ofcom received 825 complaints about the Brits ceremony, the majority relating to Charli’s outfit and Sabrina Carpenter’s eye-opening pre-watershed performance.

“Maybe think about putting this on at a time when kids ain’t gonna be watching,” one person wrote on social media.

Fashion stylist and CEO of clothing brand Mermaid Way, Julia Pukhalskaia, calls the choice to wear revealing dresses a “provocative statement”, but says it’s a “way to reclaim the right to govern one’s body”.

The controversy around it feeds into a wider dialogue about women’s rights and double standards when it comes to dress codes, she adds.

Abhi Madan, creative director of fashion brand Amarra, believes the trend “is about embracing freedom and boldness in fashion”.

The idea of freeing the nipple “isn’t just about exposure – it’s a movement towards body positivity and challenging conventional fashion norms”, he argues.

“Designers are now integrating sheer elements not just for shock value but to create a refined and elegant silhouette that empowers wearers.”

It seems many Hollywood stars this year were feeling empowered as chiffon, lace and tulle were in plentiful supply at the Oscars.

Shock value is surely a factor for some, too, though.

At Vanity Fair’s Oscars afterparty, Julia Fox wore a mesh dress with only long wavy hair to cover some of her modesty.

There were other interpretations of the naked dress – Megan Thee Stallion wore a green dress with strategically placed foliage and nipple coverings, while Zoe Kravitz opted to cover up the front but expose the back as a beaded mesh panel revealed her buttocks in her Saint Laurent dress.

“This year, naked dressing seemed to particularly thrive at the event,” the New York Times noted.

However, not everyone is on board. The Times fashion director Anna Murphy wrote that she’s over the trend because “it’s only women who do this”.

“It is not an equal opportunities endeavour. It is, rather, a manifestation of the kind of thing that keeps this world unequal. That women’s bodies are for public consumption and men’s, usually, aren’t,” she wrote.

Some men have been embracing the nearly naked trend, though. In 2022, Timothée Chalamet wore striking a backless red top at Venice Film Festival, and at the 2023 Grammys Harry Styles freed the nipple in a plunge harlequin jumpsuit.

It’s the women who will continue to cause more of a stir on runways and red carpets – and society will still be split on whether it’s redefining conventional notions of modesty in fashion, a product of misogyny, or simply seeking attention.

A sell-off in the US stock market gathered steam on Monday, fuelled by rising concern about the cost of the trade war to the world’s largest economy.

The S&P 500, which tracks the biggest American companies, fell about 2% in early trade, while the Dow Jones dropped 0.9% and the Nasdaq sank more than 3.5%.

The falls came after President Donald Trump ducked questions about whether the US economy was facing a recession or price rises as a result of tariff moves, while warning instead of a “period of transition”.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, however, insisted there would be no contraction in the US, although he acknowledged that the price of some goods may rise.

Investors fear that tariffs – which are taxes on goods applied as they enter the country – will lead to higher prices and ultimately dent growth in the world’s largest economy.

“The level of tariffs that Trump is imposing, I think no doubt, will have to cause inflation somewhere down the line,” Rachel Winter, investment manager at Killik & Co, told the Today programme.

Economist Mohamed El-Erian said investors had been optimistic about Trump’s plans for de-regulation and lower taxes, while under-estimating the likelihood of a trade war.

He said the recent falls in the stock market, which started last week, reflect the adjustment of those bets.

“It’s a complete change in what the market expected,” he said, noting that investors are also responding to signs that businesses and households are starting to hold off on spending amid the uncertainty, which could hurt economic growth.

Tesla shares fell about 8% on Monday, while tech stocks Nvidia and Meta were both down more than 4%.

Speaking to Fox News in an interview broadcast on Sunday but recorded on Thursday, Trump appeared to acknowledge the concerns, responding to a question about whether the US was facing recession: “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.”

“It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us,” he added.

The US president has accused China, Mexico and Canada of not doing enough to end the flow of illegal drugs and migrants into the US. The three countries have rejected the accusations.

He imposed new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada last week, but then exempted many of those goods just two days later.

Trump also doubled a blanket tariff on goods from China to 20%.

The US is now facing retaliation, including new tit-for-tat tariffs from China targeting US farm products that came into effect on Monday.

They mean US exports including chicken, beef, pork, wheat, and soybeans face new tariffs of 10% to 15%.

Ontario premier Doug Ford, who leads Canada’s most populous province, also said he was going forward with a 25% surcharge on energy exports to the US, announced in retaliation for the tariffs.

If Trump escalates, “I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,” he warned.

Speaking on NBC on Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged: “Foreign goods may get a little more expensive”.

“But American goods are going to get cheaper,” he said.

But when asked whether the US economy could face a recession he added: “Absolutely not… There’s going to be no recession in America.”

Former US Commerce Department official, Frank Lavin, told the BBC that he thinks the trade war is unlikely to escalate out of control.

But while tariffs will eventually “fade a bit” they will still be an “extra burden on the US economy,” he said.

Han Shen Lin, China country director at consultancy firm The Asia Group, told the BBC’s Today programme: “You’re seeing a lot of tit for tat between both sides to demonstrate that neither side will back off easily.

“That said China has realised it probably can’t export its way to GDP growth in the way that it used to so it is focusing a lot more on the domestic economy right now.”

Mark Carney’s thumping victory in the race to succeed Justin Trudeau makes him not only leader of the Liberal Party but, by default, the next Canadian prime minister.

It’s an extraordinary result for a man with very little political experience. He has never been elected as an MP, let alone served in a cabinet post.

What Carney does have though – as Governor of the Bank of Canada during the global financial crisis and Governor of the Bank of England during the Brexit negotiations – is a long track record in global finance during times of economic turbulence.

And at a moment like this, Carney has been arguing, that could prove invaluable.

Politics in this country has been turned on its head as a result of what’s happening south of the border, with US President Donald Trump launching a trade war and threatening to make Canada the 51st state of America.

Addressing a crowd of Liberal supporters after the result of the leadership contest was announced on Sunday evening, Carney promised to face down the threats from Trump, over the tariffs and the claims on Canada’s sovereignty.

“Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape or form,” he said. “We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.

“Americans should make no mistake”, he warned. “In trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.”

He repeatedly referred to the US president by name and said his government would keep retaliatory tariffs in place until “America shows us respect”.

How he will translate his strong language on the stage in Ottawa into practical solutions to those twin challenges was, however, far less clear.

Liberals might hope that Trudeau’s exit from the stage will, in itself, help clear the air.

Instead of the frequent mocking of Trudeau by Trump as a “weak” leader, they might dare to believe that Carney will at least be able to reset the personal chemistry.

On the other hand, if he has to push hard in an attempt to win concessions, will he also risk incurring the wrath of a man who uses unpredictability as a political art form?

Much of that will depend on how serious the US president is in his insistence that he wants to impose real economic pain on Canada and annex its territory.

And that’s a hard question to answer.

After Carney had accepted the party’s nomination, I caught up with former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, who served for a decade from 1993 and who’d taken to the stage earlier in the evening.

Did he think Trump was being serious?

“You know, I don’t know,” he told me. “Do you know? Does anyone know? I’m not a medical doctor or a psychiatrist. He changes his mind every two or three hours. So [for him] to be leader of the free world, it is preoccupying for everybody.”

While the US threat is dominating Canadian politics – Carney described the current situation as “dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust” – there are still domestic political matters to focus on too, not least the prospect of a general election.

Once sworn in as prime minister in the coming days, Carney will have to decide whether to call a snap election. If he doesn’t, the opposition parties in parliament could force one later this month through a no-confidence vote.

Before Trudeau said he was stepping down, the Liberal Party was facing electoral oblivion.

After nine years in power, he’d become a liability and a lightning rod for public anger over the rising cost of living despite record levels of government spending and a ballooning national debt.

The stage appeared to be set for the Liberals to be swept from power by a Conservative Party under the stewardship of the young, populist leader Pierre Poilievre, who had turned lambasting Trudeau into something of a sport.

Now, not only has he lost the advantage of a deeply unpopular opponent, his political style is at risk of appearing out of step. In the current environment, even a loose alignment with the politics of Trump is a potential liability with Canadian voters.

The Republican president, for his part, recently said Canada’s Conservative leader was not Maga enough.

The Liberal Party is suddenly feeling a sense of rejuvenation – the gap in the opinion polls with the Conservatives, once a gulf, has narrowed dramatically. And you could feel that palpable sense of optimism in the room on Sunday evening.

Aware of the danger, Poilievre accused Liberals of “trying to trick Canadians” to elect them to a fourth term. But his statement also highlighted how Trump is changing the political messaging on this side of the border.

“It is the same Liberal team that drove up taxes, housing costs, and food prices, while Carney personally profited from moving billions of dollars and thousands of jobs out of Canada to the United States,” Poilievre wrote.

“We need a new Conservative government that will put Canada First – for a change.”

Trump’s election has led Canada to rally to round its flag and has propelled a former central bank governor – an archetypal member of the country’s political elite – to the highest office in the land.

The Conservatives may still lead in the polls, but for the first time in a long time, the Liberals believe that, under Carney, they have a fighting chance again.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Elon Musk have clashed with Poland’s foreign minister over the use of the tech billionaire’s Starlink satellite internet system in Ukraine.

Musk said on X that Ukraine’s “entire front line” would collapse if he turned the system off. Radoslaw Sikorski responded, saying his country paid for its use in Ukraine and a threat to shut it down would result in a search for another network.

Rubio dismissed Sikorski’s claims and told him to be grateful, while Musk called him a “small man”.

The exchange appeared to lead to Polish PM Donald Tusk calling on his country’s allies to show respect for their weaker partners, rather than arrogance.

Starlink’s system is part of SpaceX’s venture to provide high-speed internet to remote and underserved areas. It has been used extensively by the Ukrainian military.

Sunday’s exchange started when Musk posted that Starlink was the “backbone of the Ukrainian army” and that “their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off”.

Sikorski then responded, saying that Poland was paying for the service.

“Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year,” Sikorski wrote. “The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers.”

In response, Rubio said Sikorski was “just making things up… no-one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink”.

“And say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now,” he added.

Musk later responded to Sikorski’s post calling him a “small man”.

“Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink,” he wrote.

On Monday morning Polish Prime Minister Tusk, without specifying who or what he was referring to, wrote on X: “True leadership means respect for partners and allies.

“Even for the smaller and weaker ones. Never arrogance. Dear friends, think about it.”

The Starlink terminals are key to Ukraine’s army operations and have been used since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

There are tens of thousands of terminals in the country, including up to 500 bought by the US Department of Defence in June 2023.

Starlink is one of, if not the most, reliable means of communication for Ukrainian troops.

It is used for reconnaissance drones, which stream troops real-time battlefield data that allows for quick reactions to attacks.

This compensates for Ukraine’s disadvantages in manpower, as the military does not need to keep large numbers of soldiers along the entire defensive line.

Drone footage also helps to direct artillery fire and identify targets for kamikaze drones.

Requesting evacuation or providing the exact location of a target would also be much slower and more complicated without Starlink, as regular radio stations may be out of range, jammed or compromised.

Additional reporting by Abdujalil Abdurasulov

A couple who discovered a migrant had clung to the back of their vehicle all the way home from France have been issued a £1,500 fine.

Adrian and Joanne Fenton said they called police when they found the person zipped inside the cover of a bike rack at their home in Heybridge, Essex, in October.

They later received a fine from the Home Office for failing to “check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” in the motorhome. The pair said they were drafting an appeal.

The Home Office said penalties were “designed to target negligence rather than criminality”.

“At no point did I believe I would be fined by taking correct and moral action,” said Mr Fenton, writing in an email exchange to the Home Office, seen by the BBC.

“This action taken by Border Force to impose a fine only encourages travellers [or] holidaymakers in this position not to call the police but to let the stowaway abscond.”

Speaking to the JVS Show on BBC Three Counties Radio, Mrs Fenton said the pair had been travelling in France with friends and returned to the UK via ferry on 15 October.

The 55-year-old said border officials in Calais and the UK had not inspected the bike rack or the cover before or after the crossing.

Retired firefighter Mr Fenton, 57, had been at the wheel for the six-hour journey before the pair arrived home at 22:15 BST.

Mrs Fenton said her husband unzipped the “really tight” cover they had been using for their bicycles on the back of the motorhome.

“He sees two trainers… goes to have a look, and there’s two legs attached to it,” she recalled.

“He’s gone ‘Jo, you need to phone the police. We’ve got a stowaway.’”

Mrs Fenton said she offered the young man a bottle of water, to which he said “thank you”.

She said he told police he was from Sudan, and that he was 16 years old.

The Essex couple were travelling in Australia over Christmas when they received an email from the Home Office with details of the offence and fine.

It said they failed to “check that no clandestine entrant was concealed in the vehicle”, but Mrs Fenton contested that technically he was clinging to the outside rather than aboard the motorhome.

The email also said the “entrant” was found by an authorised search officer, despite the couple saying they called the police the night they found him.

The fine referenced asylum and immigration legislation.

Maldon Conservative Sir John Whittingdale – their local MP – has written to the Minister for Border Security and Asylum Dame Angela Eagle, asking her to review their concerns.

A couple who discovered a migrant had clung to the back of their vehicle all the way home from France have been issued a £1,500 fine.

Adrian and Joanne Fenton said they called police when they found the person zipped inside the cover of a bike rack at their home in Heybridge, Essex, in October.

They later received a fine from the Home Office for failing to “check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” in the motorhome. The pair said they were drafting an appeal.

The Home Office said penalties were “designed to target negligence rather than criminality”.

“At no point did I believe I would be fined by taking correct and moral action,” said Mr Fenton, writing in an email exchange to the Home Office, seen by the BBC.

“This action taken by Border Force to impose a fine only encourages travellers [or] holidaymakers in this position not to call the police but to let the stowaway abscond.”

Speaking to the JVS Show on BBC Three Counties Radio, Mrs Fenton said the pair had been travelling in France with friends and returned to the UK via ferry on 15 October.

The 55-year-old said border officials in Calais and the UK had not inspected the bike rack or the cover before or after the crossing.

Retired firefighter Mr Fenton, 57, had been at the wheel for the six-hour journey before the pair arrived home at 22:15 BST.

Mrs Fenton said her husband unzipped the “really tight” cover they had been using for their bicycles on the back of the motorhome.

“He sees two trainers… goes to have a look, and there’s two legs attached to it,” she recalled.

“He’s gone ‘Jo, you need to phone the police. We’ve got a stowaway.’”

Mrs Fenton said she offered the young man a bottle of water, to which he said “thank you”.

She said he told police he was from Sudan, and that he was 16 years old.

The Essex couple were travelling in Australia over Christmas when they received an email from the Home Office with details of the offence and fine.

It said they failed to “check that no clandestine entrant was concealed in the vehicle”, but Mrs Fenton contested that technically he was clinging to the outside rather than aboard the motorhome.

The email also said the “entrant” was found by an authorised search officer, despite the couple saying they called the police the night they found him.

The fine referenced asylum and immigration legislation.

Maldon Conservative Sir John Whittingdale – their local MP – has written to the Minister for Border Security and Asylum Dame Angela Eagle, asking her to review their concerns.

Hackers thought to be working for the North Korean regime have successfully converted at least $300m (£232m) of their record-breaking $1.5bn crypto heist to unrecoverable funds.

The criminals, known as Lazarus Group, swiped the huge haul of digital tokens in a hack on crypto exchange ByBit two weeks ago.

Since then, it’s been a cat-and-mouse game to track and block the hackers from successfully converting the crypto into usable cash.

Experts say the infamous hacking team is working nearly 24 hours a day – potentially funnelling the money into the regime’s military development.

“Every minute matters for the hackers who are trying to confuse the money trail and they are extremely sophisticated in what they’re doing,” says Dr Tom Robinson, co-founder of crypto investigators Elliptic.

Out of all the criminal actors involved in crypto currency, North Korea is the best at laundering crypto, Dr Robinson says.

“I imagine they have an entire room of people doing this using automated tools and years of experience. We can also see from their activity that they only take a few hours break each day, possibly working in shifts to get the crypto turned into cash.”

Elliptic’s analysis tallies with ByBit, which says that 20% of the funds have now “gone dark”, meaning it is unlikely to ever be recovered.

The US and allies accuse the North Koreans of carrying out dozens of hacks in recent years to fund the regime’s military and nuclear development.

On 21 February the criminals hacked one of ByBit’s suppliers to secretly alter the digital wallet address that 401,000 Ethereum crypto coins were being sent to.

ByBit thought it was transferring the funds to its own digital wallet, but instead sent it all to the hackers.

Ben Zhou, the CEO of ByBit, assured customers that none of their funds had been taken.

The firm has since replenished the stolen coins with loans from investors, but is, in Zhou’s words, “waging war on Lazarus”.

ByBit’s Lazarus Bounty programme is encouraging members of the public to trace the stolen funds and get them frozen where possible.

All crypto transactions are displayed on a public blockchain, so it’s possible to track the money as it’s moved around by the Lazarus Group.

If the hackers try to use a mainstream crypto service to attempt to turn the coins into normal money like dollars, the crypto coins can be frozen by the company if they think they are linked to crime.

So far 20 people have shared more than $4m in rewards for successfully identifying $40m of the stolen money and alerting crypto firms to block transfers.

But experts are downbeat about the chances of the rest of the funds being recoverable, given the North Korean expertise in hacking and laundering the money.

“North Korea is a very closed system and closed economy so they created a successful industry for hacking and laundering and they don’t care about the negative impression of cyber crime,” Dr Dorit Dor from cyber security company Check Point said.

Another problem is that not all crypto companies are as willing to help as others.

Crypto exchange eXch is being accused by ByBit and others of not stopping the criminals cashing out.

More than $90m has been successfully funnelled through this exchange.

But over email the elusive owner of eXch – Johann Roberts – disputed that.

He admits they didn’t initially stop the funds, as his company is in a long-running dispute with ByBit, and he says his team wasn’t sure the coins were definitely from the hack.

He says he is now co-operating, but argues that mainstream companies that identify crypto customers are betraying the private and anonymous benefits of crypto currency.

North Korea has never admitted being behind the Lazarus Group, but is thought to be the only country in the world using its hacking powers for financial gain.

Previously the Lazarus Group hackers targeted banks, but have in the last five years specialised in attacking cryptocurrency companies.

The industry is less well protected with fewer mechanisms in place to stop them laundering the funds.

Recent hacks linked to North Korea include:

• The 2019 hack on UpBit for $41m
• The $275m theft of crypto from exchange KuCoin (most of the funds were recovered)
• The 2022 Ronin Bridge attack which saw hackers make off with $600m in crypto
• Approximately $100m in crypto was stolen in an attack on Atomic Wallet in 2023

In 2020, the US added North Koreans accused of being part of the Lazarus Group to its Cyber Most Wanted list. But the chances of the individuals ever being arrested are extremely slim unless they leave their country.

The Trump administration believes Ukraine’s leadership is “ready to move forward” with the US’s demand for a ceasefire process with Russia, according to a senior US state department official.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz are due to arrive in Saudi Arabia for Tuesday’s talks with their Ukrainian counterparts.

US President Donald Trump has stepped up pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to accept his demands for a quick ceasefire with Moscow – but without any immediate pledge of a US security guarantee.

Ten days ago the two publicly clashed at the White House, with Trump claiming Zelensky was not ready to end the fighting.

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

“The fact that they’re coming here at senior levels is a good indication to us that they want to sit down and they’re ready to move forward,” said the state department official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the talks with Ukraine in Jeddah.

While Zelensky is also due in the Gulf kingdom to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the former is not expected to play any formal role in the talks with the Americans.

The Ukrainian team will be represented by Zelensky’s head of office Andriy Yermak, the country’s national security adviser as well as foreign and defence ministers.

In his video address late on Sunday, Zelensky said: “We hope for results – both in bringing peace closer and in continuing support.”

Zelensky has been under strong US pressure to make concessions ahead of any peace talks, while he has been pushing for firm security guarantees for Kyiv, stressing that Putin violated previous ceasefire deals.

On Friday, Trump issued a rare threat of further sanctions against Moscow in a push for a deal. Russia is already heavily sanctioned by the US over the war.

Trump said he was contemplating the move because “Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now”.

Soon after the White House row, Zelensky expressed regret about the incident and tried to repair relations with the US – the country’s biggest military supplier.

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, later said that Trump had received a letter from Zelensky that included an “apology” and “sense of gratitude”.

Witkoff said that in Saudi Arabia the US team wanted to discuss a “framework” for peace to try to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

A major minerals deal – derailed because of the row – is also reported to be back on the agenda in Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine has offered to grant the US access to its rare earth mineral reserves in exchange for US security guarantees.

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said he believed Zelensky needed to secure the US-Ukraine relationship “at any cost” during his trip to Saudi Arabia, while making clear “what our red lines are”.

“Otherwise, if there is a deal outside of these terms, then we will just say no, that’s all. Because it’s our army fighting,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The clash at the White House also resulted in the US pausing all military aid to Ukraine and stopping sharing intelligence.

But when asked on Sunday whether he would consider lifting the intelligence pause, Trump answered: “Well, we just about have. I mean, we really just about have and we want to do anything we can to get Ukraine to be serious about getting something done.” He provided no further details.

On 18 February – before the US-Ukraine row in Washington – Rubio held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia. It was a follow-up to Trump’s controversial phone conversation with Putin.

The comments come as the Ukrainian military said that it shot down 130 Russian drones overnight.

Over the weekend, a wave of Russian drone strikes killed at least 25 people – mainly in the eastern Donetsk town of Dobropillya.

Elsewhere, Russian forces have stepped up their pressure on Ukrainian troops holding parts of the Kursk region seven months after a cross-border assault that Kyiv launched in part to gain a bargaining chip in possible peace negotiations.

It follows reports by Russian bloggers that Russian special forces had crept for miles through a gas pipeline near the town of Sudzha in an attempt to surprise Ukrainian forces.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

US President Donald Trump has said that “nobody has ever heard of” the African country of Lesotho – a comment that has “shocked” its government.

It is a small country in southern Africa that almost entirely consists of mountains and is completely surrounded by South Africa.

Here are nine things to know about the country:

The Kingdom of Lesotho is made up mostly of highlands, where many villages can only be reached on horseback, by foot or light aircraft.

It is known as the “Kingdom in the Sky” and is the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,000m (3,281ft) in elevation, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Its lowest point is at 1,400m.

It is known to have one of the world’s most intimidating airstrips to land on – the Matekane Airstrip has a short runway and with long drops at both ends.

The Business Insider website describes flying from the airport as “essentially the same as when a bird is pushed out of the nest in order to learn to fly”.

Lesotho is completely encircled by South Africa, but separated by the forbidding mountain ranges.

Not much of its land is available for farming, with its population vulnerable to food shortages and relying on income from jobs in South Africa. Over the decades thousands of workers have been forced by the lack of job opportunities at home to find work in South Africa.

The people of Lesotho, who number more than two million, share some cultural and language similarities with South Africans. Their language, Sesotho, is also one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. In fact, more people speak it in South Africa – 4.6 million – than in Lesotho.

Resources are scarce in Lesotho – a consequence of the harsh environment of the highland plateau and limited agricultural space in the lowlands.

Its biggest resource is water – known locally as white gold – which is exported to South Africa. Diamonds are another major export.

When you think of skiing and snowboarding, you may imagine the snowy slopes of Europe and North America.

But Lesotho has been making itself known on the snowsports scene. It has the highest ski resort in sub-Saharan Africa, one of just a handful on the continent.

Afriski is situated 3,222m above sea level, high up in Lesotho’s Maloti mountains and attracts visitors from Africa and beyond.

People from Lesotho are referred to as Basotho.

Some of the cultural items associated with the Basotho people are their blankets and the Basotho traditional conical hats, known as the mokorotlo. The hat is a national symbol and appears in the middle of the country’s flag.

The blankets are made from thick wool, with their intricate and colourful patterns each telling a different story of the Basotho people’s history. The Basotho wear them as shawls at special events and give them as gifts.

Lesotho has one of the highest rates of HIV prevalence in the world, with one in five adults living with HIV, and more infections per 100,000 people than most other countries, including neighbouring Namibia, Botswana and Eswatini.

The US government has committed nearly $1bn to help the country deal with HIV since 2006, including for prevention, care and treatment services, according to the US State Department.

Like the United Kingdom, Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy. This means that although it has a royal family, an elected prime minister runs the country.

Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso – the younger brother of current King Letsie III – is close friends with the UK’s Prince Harry.

The pair have set up a charity in Lesotho – Sentebale, which means “forget me not”. The organisation works with local communities in the country at grassroots level, helping young people affected by HIV/Aids.

Prince Harry first went to Lesotho as a 19-year-old and has returned to the country many times since then.

Jeans have long been associated with the American West but nowadays, many of the pairs worn in the US have come from halfway across the world, in Lesotho.

Lesotho’s garment factories have made jeans for iconic American brands such as Levi’s and Wrangler in recent years. As a result, Lesotho has become known as the “denim capital of Africa”.

And it is not just jeans – Lesotho is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest exporters of clothing in general to the US.

Last year, Lesotho exported $237m (£184m) worth of clothes and textiles to the US through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which allows eligible African countries to send some goods to the US without paying taxes.

It is ranked second by value of goods exported under the deal.

Many of Lesotho’s clothing and textile factories are owned by Chinese and Taiwanese migrants.

The mountain kingdom has the world’s highest suicide rate, with 87.5 people per 100,000 of the population taking their own life every year, according to the UN World Health Organization.

This is nearly 10 times the global average of nine and more than double the country with the second highest rate, Guyana, which has about 40.

There is no single reason for this shocking statistic – experts point to the abuse of drugs and alcohol, the shortage of jobs and the lack of mental health counselling.

Additional reporting by Wedaeli Chibelushi

The US and Israel have rejected an Arab plan for the post-war reconstruction of the Gaza Strip that would allow the 2.1 million Palestinians living there to stay in place.

The proposal, endorsed by Arab leaders at a summit in Cairo, is their alternative to President Donald Trump’s idea for the US to take over Gaza and permanently resettle its population.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas welcomed the Arab plan, which calls for Gaza to be governed temporarily by a committee of independent experts and for international peacekeepers to be deployed there.

But both the White House and Israeli foreign ministry said it failed to address realities in Gaza and stood by Trump’s vision.

The summit took place amid growing concern that Gaza’s fragile ceasefire deal could collapse after the six-week first phase expired last Saturday.

Israel has blocked aid from entering the territory to pressure Hamas to accept a new US proposal for a temporary extension of the truce, during which more hostages held in Gaza would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas has insisted the second phase should begin as agreed, leading to an end of the war and a full Israeli troop withdrawal.

The $53bn (£41bn) Arab plan for rebuilding Gaza once the war ends was presented by Egypt at an emergency Arab League summit on Tuesday.

A statement endorsing the plan stressed “the categorical rejection of any form of displacement of the Palestinian people”, describing such an idea as “a gross violation of international law, a crime against humanity and ethnic cleansing”.

The plan envisages reconstruction taking place over three phases and taking five years, during which some 1.5 million displaced Gazans would be moved into 200,000 prefabricated housing units and 60,000 repaired homes.

In the first phase, which would last six months and cost $3bn, millions of tonnes of rubble and any unexploded ordnance would be cleared.

The second phase, lasting two years and costing $20bn, would see housing and utilities rebuilt. An airport, two seaports and an industrial zone would be built during the third phase, which would take another two years and cost $30bn.

The Arab plan also proposes that an “administrative committee” made up of independent Palestinian technocrats run post-war Gaza for a transitional period while “working towards empowering the Palestinian Authority to return”.

Hamas – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, UK and others – took full control of Gaza in 2007, ousting forces from the Fatah-dominated PA in violent clashes a year after winning parliamentary elections. The PA was left governing parts of the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the PA, told the summit that he welcomed the Arab plan and urged Donald Trump to support it.

Hamas said it appreciated “the Arab position rejecting attempts to displace our people”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any future role in Gaza for Hamas or the PA.

However, Israel’s foreign ministry swiftly rejected the Arab League’s statement endorsing the Egyptian plan, saying it “fails to address the realities of the situation following 7 October 2023, remaining rooted in outdated perspectives”.

“Now, with President Trump’s idea, there is an opportunity for the Gazans to have free choice based on their free will. This should be encouraged!” it added.

“Instead, Arab states have rejected this opportunity, without giving it a fair chance, and continue to level baseless accusations against Israel.”

White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said the Arab plan did “not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance.”

“President Trump stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas. We look forward to further talks to bring peace and prosperity to the region.”

Trump proposed last month that the US would “own” Gaza and relocate its population, so that it could be rebuilt and turned into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

He said the displaced Palestinians would have no right of return because they would have “much better housing” in Egypt, Jordan and other countries.

The Assistant Secretary General of the Arab League, Hossam Zaki, told the BBC on Wednesday that Trump’s approach was unacceptable.

“It is based on the forced displacement of Palestinians out of their homes and of their land. This is against international law and, we have said this time and again, this is not a way to treat this man-made crisis,” he said.

“This is a war that has been waged by Israel partly with the aim of driving Palestinians out of their territory,” he added.

He also described the Israeli foreign ministry’s response to the Arab plan as “against humanity and against morals”.

Palestinians fear a repeat of the Nakba – the Arabic word for “catastrophe” – when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven from their homes before and during the war that followed the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Many of those refugees ended up in Gaza, where they and their descendants make up three-quarters of the population. Another 900,000 registered refugees live in the West Bank, while 3.4 million others live in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the UN.

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

More than 48,400 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza’s population has also been displaced multiple times. Almost 70% of buildings are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

A PhD student who has been convicted of drugging and raping 10 women “may turn out to be one of the most prolific sexual predators that we’ve ever seen in this country”, according to the lead detective on the case.

Chinese national Zhenhao Zou, 28, attacked two women who have been identified and another eight who have yet to be traced, his trial at Inner London Crown Court heard.

The University College London (UCL) student filmed nine assaults as “souvenirs”, and kept a trophy box of victims’ belongings including jewellery and clothing.

Judge Rosina Cottage said Zou was a “dangerous and predatory” offender and warned him he faces a “very long” jail term when he is sentenced on 19 June.

The Met Police’s Cdr Kevin Southworth said the video evidence showed there may be as many as 50 further victims, whom they are “desperate to trace”.

“Such is the insidious nature of these offences, I think there is a possibility that many more victim survivors may not even know that he has, in fact, raped them,” he said.

Following the trial and as a result of the media coverage, the Met confirmed that one woman had already been in touch about Zou.

As well as 11 counts of rape, Zou was found guilty of voyeurism, possession of extreme pornographic images and false imprisonment.

The crimes he has been convicted of took place between 2019 and 2024.

Hidden cameras were discovered by the Met Police in his bedroom, as well as ecstasy and an industrial chemical the human body turns into the “date-rape” drug GHB.

Seven of the rapes happened during the pandemic in China. The evidence of those attacks was videos shown to the jury that Zou kept of him having sex with unconscious and semi-conscious women. Police have never identified them.

Four of the rapes took place in London. Two women were identified and gave evidence; the other two rapes were of the same woman, but she has never been tracked down.

Jurors had to watch footage of nine of the rapes during court proceedings, appearing visibly upset and being given regular breaks as the material was shown.

Some of the attacks were filmed at his flats in Bloomsbury and Elephant and Castle, others at an unknown location in China.

The prosecutions relating to attacks in China were possible because foreign nationals who are living in the UK can be charged with an offence committed abroad that is also illegal in the country where it took place.

In his defence, Zou told the jury he had discussed sexual preferences with one of the women he filmed, and she had said she liked “uniform role play”.

“We specifically discussed the kinds of role play I like, which was rape role play,” he said. He told the court this was how the videos came to be made.

The student comes from a wealthy family, and had enough money to afford a Rolex watch, a wardrobe full of designer clothes and cosmetic procedures including a hair transplant and facial surgery.

He paid £4,000 a month in rent.

Zou moved to Belfast in 2017 to study at Queen’s University before heading to London in 2019 to do a master’s degree and then a PhD at UCL.

The Met Police has launched an appeal to find any other victims.

“If you’re a woman who’s in any way had a one-on-one encounter with this man Zou, then we would like to hear from you,” Cdr Southworth said.

The force said it was particularly keen to hear from women from the Chinese student community who may have met Zou and were living in and around London between 2019 and 2024.

The Met said it would also like to speak to potential victims who may have met Zou while he was living in China. Reports to the force can be made online via the Major Incident Public Portal.

UCL president Dr Michael Spence said:  “We have been appalled by these horrific offences.

“Our thoughts are with the survivors and we wish to pay tribute to the bravery of the women who reported these crimes and gave evidence at the trial.”

Saira Pike from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks to the courageous women who came forward to report Zhenhao Zou’s heinous crimes.

“They have been incredibly strong and brave – there is no doubt that their evidence helped us to secure today’s verdict.

“Zou is a serial rapist and a danger to women.”

The jury found Zou guilty of:

• 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim
• Three counts of voyeurism
• 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image
• One count of false imprisonment
• Three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence

He was cleared of two further counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, and five counts of possession of controlled drugs to commit a sexual offence.

Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has told the BBC she takes US President Donald Trump’s remarks on making Canada the 51st state of his country “very seriously”.

“This is not a joke anymore,” Joly told Newsnight. “There’s a reason why Canadians, when they go out on a hockey game, are booing the American national anthem… We’re insulted. We’re mad. We’re angry.”

Her comments come after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on products entering the US from Canada on Tuesday. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called that a “very dumb thing to do” and announced retaliatory tariffs.

However, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump would “probably” announce a deal to reduce tariffs on Wednesday.

In response, Joly told the BBC that “at the end of the day, the only one that really takes a decision is President Trump”.

She said no Trump administration secretaries had contacted their Canadian counterparts on Monday or Tuesday about tariffs.

Trump and Trudeau, however, are expected to speak over the phone on Wednesday morning, according to sources who spoke to CNN and the Toronto Star.

Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on 4 February, but delayed implementation until 4 March. Canadian energy imports face a 10% tariff.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford implemented a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states, and if tariffs escalated, said he would consider cutting Michigan, New York and Minnesota off from Canadian power.

Trump also imposed a 10% tariff on goods worth more than $800 (£645) from China in February, which doubled in March. China responded with its own tariffs.

The White House said when it introduced the tariffs that it was “taking bold action to hold [the three countries] accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country”.

Fentanyl is linked to tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the US each year.

Trudeau said his country was responsible for less than 1% of fentanyl entering the US.

Canada had introduced new border security measures in December, in response to Trump’s tariff threats before he took office.

“We didn’t want this trade war. We did everything that was required under the executive order to make sure our border was safe and secure,” Joly told the BBC, but said “this is a bogus excuse on the part of the Trump administration against us”.

Joly said Canada was the “canary in the coal mine”, with the Europeans next, and the UK after that. Trump has threatened 25% tariffs on the European Union as well.

She said Canada and the UK should work together: “That’s also why I went to London to make sure that if there are tariffs imposed, we should work on counter-tariffs well.”

Joly said Canada’s public displays of displeasure against the US are not “against the American people. We’re the best friends of the American people”.

She called the tariffs on the US’s biggest trading partner an “existential threat”.

“We cannot let our guard down,” she said. “We need to make sure that we fight back.”

In his address to Congress, which ran for more than an hour and a half, President Donald Trump made a series of claims about the state of the US under his predecessor Joe Biden and the achievements of his first weeks in office.

He returned to key campaign themes including illegal immigration, rising prices and what he called “appalling waste” in government spending.

BBC Verify has looked into the facts behind some of his key claims.

Trump said he inherited an “economic catastrophe” from Biden.

This is misleading. The US economy was growing at an annual rate of 2.3% in the final quarter of 2024 under the previous administration. It expanded by 2.8% over 2024 as a whole according to official US statistics.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that the US growth rate in 2024 was faster than any other nation in the G7.

On rising prices, Trump added “we suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country”.

Inflation under Biden peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 – the highest level since 1981 – so not quite as far back as Trump claimed.

The 2022 peak was in the context of high inflation in the rest of the world in the wake of the Covid pandemic and a global energy shock. The inflation rate had dropped to 3% by the time Trump took office.

Inflation has also been much higher than 9% at several other points in US history, including the 1940s and 1920s.

Trump went on to blame Biden for egg prices, claiming he “let the price of eggs get out of control”.

Prices are high, but this has been linked to a bird flu outbreak in the US.

Egg prices rose under Biden in 2023, and in January a dozen eggs averaged over $5, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). That is 53% above the average for the whole of 2024.

The USDA has said a bird flu outbreak has led to US farmers having to kill millions of chickens, creating egg shortages, and has announced a $1bn (£780m) plan to help combat the issue.

The outbreak started in February 2022 and last year the Biden administration allocated more than $800m to tackle it.

The Trump administration recently fired a number of USDA officials who worked on the government’s response to bird flu as part of cost-cutting measures by the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). They are now reportedly attempting to rehire some of them.

Trump praised Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and claimed the advisory body had found “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud” in federal government spending.

No evidence has been provided for this figure.

On its official website, Doge states that it has saved an estimated $105bn, from fraud detection, contract and grant cancellations, real estate lease terminations, asset sales, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.

However, that figure cannot be independently verified as, so far, Doge has only published “receipts” for contract, grant and real estate lease cancellations on the website. These add up to about $18.6bn. We have asked the White House for evidence of the remaining $86bn of savings.

US media outlets have also highlighted some accounting errors. For example, Doge initially listed its largest saving of $8bn from scrapping an immigration agency contract – it later corrected this to $8m.

Speaking about his actions to tackle illegal immigration, Trump said that “as a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded”.

This is true.

In February 2025, 8,326 encounters of migrants at the south-west border with Mexico were recorded by US Border Patrol.

This is the lowest level since monthly records began in 2000.

By comparison, there were 140,641 encounters by US Border Patrol at this border in February last year under Biden.

Numbers fell to 47,316 in December 2024.

Continuing with illegal migration, Trump claimed: “Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States”.

There is no evidence for a figure this high.

Encounters with migrants at the borders – a measure of illegal migration – reached 10 million under Biden but this does not mean this many people stayed in the US.

It is impossible to know exactly how many illegal immigrants have come to the US, as many will have evaded law enforcement agencies, but several estimates put the number at around half what Trump stated.

A report published by the Office of Homeland Security last year estimated the number of illegal immigrants living in the US, as of January 2022, at 11 million.

It says about a fifth of them arrived in 2010 or later but the majority arrived before this time, some as early as the 1980s.

On US aid to Ukraine, Trump claimed: “We’ve spent perhaps $350bn… and they [Europe] have spent $100bn. What a difference that is.”

BBC Verify is unable to find any evidence for Trump’s $350bn claim and some figures suggest Europe has spent more as whole when all aid to Ukraine is included.

The US is, by some margin, the largest single donor to Ukraine. But Europe combined has spent more money than the US, according to the Kiel Institute think tank.

It calculates that between 24 January 2022 and the end of 2024, Europe as a whole spent $138.7bn on Ukraine, while the US spent $119.7bn.

The US Department of Defense has a higher figure of $182.8bn – taking into account a broader range of US military activity in Europe – but this is still considerably less than Trump’s figure.

We have asked the White House where it comes from.

Correction: an earlier version of this article stated that migrant encounters at the south-west border fell to 96,000 at the end of 2024. While this is correct for overall encounters here, the number recorded by Border Patrol was 47,316.

Additional reporting by Shayan Sardarizadeh & Anthony Reuben.

China has warned the US it is ready to fight “any type” of war after hitting back against President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs.

The world’s top two economies have edged closer to a trade war after Trump slapped more tariffs on all Chinese goods. China quickly retaliated imposing 10-15% tariffs on US farm products.

“If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” China’s embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement on Tuesday.

It is some of the strongest rhetoric so far from China since Trump became president and comes as leaders gathered in Beijing for the annual National People’s Congress.

On Wednesday, China’s Premier Li Qiang announced that China would again boost its defence spending by 7.2% this year and warned that “changes unseen in a century were unfolding across the world at a faster pace.” This increase was expected and matches the figure announced last year.

Leaders in Beijing are trying to send a message to people in China that they are confident the country’s economy can grow, even with the threat of a trade war.

China has been keen to portray an image of being a stable, peaceful country in contrast to the US, which Beijing accuses of being embroiled in wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

China may also hope to capitalise on Trump’s actions relating to US allies such as Canada and Mexico, which have also been hit by tariffs, and will not want to ramp up the rhetoric too far to scare off potential new global partners.

The Premier’s speech in Beijing on Tuesday emphasised that China would continue to open up and hoped to attract more foreign investment.

China has, in the past emphasised that it is ready to go to war. Last October, President Xi called for troops to strengthen their preparedness for war as they held military drills around the self-governing island of Taiwan. But there is a difference between military preparedness and a readiness to go to war.

The Chinese embassy in Washington’s post quoted a foreign ministry statement in English from the previous day, which also accused the US of blaming China for the influx of the drug fentanyl

“The fentanyl issue is a flimsy excuse to raise US tariffs on Chinese imports,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

“Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China,” he added.

The US-China relationship is always one of the most contentious in the world. This post on X has been widely shared and could be used by the China hawks in Trump’s cabinet as evidence that Beijing is Washington’s biggest foreign policy and economic threat.

Officials in Beijing had been hopeful that US–China relations under Trump could get off to a more cordial start after he invited Xi to his inauguration. Trump also said the two leaders had “a great phone call” just a few days before he entered the White House.

There were reports that the two leaders were due to have another call last month. That did not happen.

Xi had already been battling persistently low consumption, a property crisis and unemployment.

China has pledged to pump billions of dollars into its ailing economy and its leaders unveiled the plan as thousands of delegates attend the National People’s Congress, a rubber-stamp parliament, which passes decisions already made behind closed doors.

China has the world’s second-largest military budget at $245bn but it is far smaller than that of the US. Beijing spends 1.6% of GDP on its military, far less than the US or Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

However, analysts believe China downplays how much it spends on defence.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter.

Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

“China will fight to the bitter end of any trade war,” the foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing declared, after China announced tit-for-tat tariffs on agricultural imports from the US.

This came within minutes of a new 10% US levy on Chinese imports that came into effect on Tuesday – which adds to existing tariffs both from Trump’s first term and those announced last month.

But China’s latest retaliatory measures are an opening swing, not a direct punch.

It shows some strength, and it has the potential to sting parts of the United States, but also leaves room to negotiate or escalate if necessary.

“We advise the US to put away its bullying face and return to the right track of dialogue and co-operation before it is too late,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian added.

This is the second round of tariffs the two countries have imposed on each other since February. But this time China is hitting Donald Trump where it has the potential to hurt – by targeting farmers, who are some of his core supporters.

Almost 78% of farming-dependent counties in the US endorsed Mr Trump in 2024.

China is one of their biggest customers for produce such as chicken, beef, pork and soybeans and now all those products will face a 10-15% tax which will come into effect on 10 March.

“The tariffs are broadly negative for US agricultural markets. It is going to have a bearish influence on prices. There are enough corn and soybean supplies in the world for China to make a switch, it is more of an issue for the US, because 30% of US soybeans still go to China,” Ole Houe, of Ikon commodities, told Reuters news agency.

Beijing may hope that this will apply some pressure on the Trump administration ahead of any potential negotiations.

The latest announcements raise the prospect of an all-out trade war between the world’s top two economies and in various ministry statements, China is making two things very clear.

Firstly, it is prepared to continue to fight.

“Pressure, coercion and threats are not the right way to deal with the Chinese side,” said Mr Lin.

But secondly, it is also willing to talk.

Beijing is not ramping up the rhetoric or the tariffs in the same way it did in 2018, during the last Trump administration. Back then it imposed a tariff of 25% on US soybeans.

“China’s tariffs impact a limited number of US products, and remain below the 20% level. This is by design. China’s government is signalling that they do not want to escalate, they want to de-escalate,” according to Even Pay, an analyst with Trivium China.

The prospect of talks was raised last month. The White House said there would be a call between President Xi and Donald Trump. That never happened.

So will these talks take place and who will make the first move?

China is unlikely to want to go first. It will not want to be seen kowtowing to Washington.

And in contrast to Canada and Mexico, Beijing has not announced new measures to target the flow of fentanyl. It simply repeated past statements that fentanyl is a “US problem” and that China has the strictest drug policies in the world.

On Tuesday, the State Council released a White Paper titled “Controlling Fentanyl-related substances – China’s contribution”.

It outlines the measures Beijing says it has already made to crack down on Fentanyl-related crimes and the precursor chemicals used to make the drug. It adds that it is “diligently fulfilling international drug control obligations”.

So, while China hasn’t picked up the phone to Washington, this document forms part of the country’s message which appears to be saying – we are already doing what we can on fentanyl.

Despite stating that China “will not yield”, these latest tariffs are bound to sting.

The cumulative 20% tax on all Chinese goods comes on top of a slew of tariffs Trump imposed in his first term on tens of billions of dollars of Chinese imports. And China’s population is already concerned about a sluggish economy.

Thousands of delegates are gathering in the capital this week to take part in an annual parliamentary session, most of which will focus on the economy.

House prices are still falling, and youth unemployment remains stubbornly high. A potential trade war with the US could prompt more money worries for businesses and consumers across the country at a time when the Communist Party wants people to spend to help the economy to grow.

But Beijing will also see an opportunity as Donald Trump sows uncertainty among his international allies.

It can partly place the blame for any further economic woes at Washington’s door and state that it’s the fault of the US for starting a trade war.

The state media outlet Xinhua has in recent days released a series of parodies poking fun at a United States that is prepared to tax its allies and neighbours. The skits portray Washington as a bully echoing the words coming from the leaders of Canada and Mexico.

At the same time, China’s Commerce Ministry has reiterated that it is prepared to work with other countries around the world to combat Mr Trump’s tariffs.

Beijing appears to be looking for potential allies in this trade war while also trying to cast Washington as a troublemaker who is prepared to target friends and foes alike.

All at a time when Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine has many in Europe and the UK wondering if the US-led world order is already in doubt.