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“The best salesman in history.” This was what Donald Trump once called Volodymyr Zelensky because of the amount of aid the US has given Ukraine.

Whether or not a fair comparison, Zelensky’s role in keeping his country in the spotlight and convincing allies to invest has certainly been crucial for Ukraine’s fight.

His transformation from prime-time comedian to wartime president has long been cast – it dates back to 2022 when he decided to remain in Kyiv as Russian troops closed in. That decision meant Ukraine would go on to defend itself to this day.

In the years since, I’ve stood across from him in person dozens of times, and Zelensky now casts a more authoritative, perhaps battle-hardened figure, moulded partly by his increased isolation on the international stage.

But with the unpredictability of Trump’s second term – not least following the pair’s Oval Office bust-up in February – Zelensky may now have to transform again.

Politically it is no longer a story of oppressor versus oppressed. Rather, it is muddied by the dual challenge of voicing an appetite for peace whilst protecting his country’s interests.

But is a man used to having so much authority at home and being so influential abroad really going to stage a second big transformation, shifting his focus to Trump-era diplomacy? Or will he decide the best way of standing up for Ukraine is to yield little?

Later today the “coalition of the willing”, a group of nations who have pledged to stand with Ukraine, will meet at Nato headquarters – notably without America.

Before Trump’s chapter two began, Ukraine’s leader had effectively lobbied for western support. He appealed for air defences, tanks, rockets and fighter jets, with nations such as Germany hesitating over fears of the war escalating, before yielding to his requests.

His message was rigid and he was successful in procuring support.

“Zelensky was very clever and calculated in the early days of the war,” says Ed Arnold from defence and security think tank, Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).

His decision go to the Munich security conference two weeks before the invasion, despite being advised that this would be a security risk, was pivotal, argues Mr Arnold.

“It personalised support to Ukraine within the minds of people who personally attended.”

Serhiy Leshchenko, an advisor to Zelensky’s office, explains: “We have to be visible to the world. If public opinion is on Ukraine’s side, there is a better chance to get help from the international community.”

Leshchenko points to Zelensky’s daily video addresses, which he has created since start of the invasion. “It’s unusual to be so open.”

Ukraine’s victory in the battle of Kyiv cemented Zelensky as a symbol of the country’s survival, and boosted his case for continued military aid from western allies.

Later in 2022, Zelensky was able to demonstrate the difference their supplies were making when swathes of Ukrainian territory, including the city of Kherson, were liberated. He had initial success with European allies.

“They are invested in Zelensky personally and Ukraine,” says Mr Arnold. “He’s gone through four UK prime ministers since the start of the war … and they’ve all signed new declarations with Ukraine, again through Zelensky.

“He’s been able to weather the changes in national politics within Europe throughout his tenure.”

But when further successes failed to materialise, Zelensky’s message did not change – and as time went on, this would be to his detriment.

After Ukraine’s failed counter-offensive in the summer of 2023, for example, the merits of supporting Kyiv were increasingly questioned by an influential minority of US Republicans and pleas were starting to be passed over in some quarters.

Maria Zolkina, head of regional security and conflict studies at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, a Kyiv-based think tank, believes Zelensky is partly responsible.

“He and his close circle relied on the logic that they must always be demanding when speaking with their partners – pushing the argument that Ukraine simply needs something. That worked really well during 2022, but with the US and others this kind of messaging stopped working in 2023,” she argues.

“But his diplomacy really didn’t adjust quickly enough.”

On 27 September 2024, in a lobby in New York, things truly changed for Ukraine. Only the driving force was not approaching Russian armour but the political reincarnation of Ukraine’s biggest ally: the US.

On that day, just over a month before the US Presidential election, Zelensky had a last minute meeting with Trump in Trump Tower.

Tensions between the pair had heightened before this meeting: Zelensky had claimed a few days earlier that Trump didn’t “really know how to end the war”, after he asserted he could do it in “one day”.

After the Trump Tower meeting, the two men emerged looking awkward.

Despite announcing a “common view” of wanting to end the war, their body language suggested a lack of chemistry.

The pair would not meet again until five months later in the Oval Office, where their now famous encounter would be a diplomatic disaster for Kyiv.

“Trump should have liked him,” says Vadym Prystaiko, who was present when the pair first met after Zelensky’s election win in 2019. “Zelensky saw Trump as more or less as himself, as a media guy who moved into politics, who was anti-establishment,” he says.

Mr Prystaiko was Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, before he was sacked in 2023. Kyiv gave no official reason for the dismissal, but it came after Mr Prystaiko criticised Zelensky’s response to a row over gratitude for British military aid. He said there had been a “little bit of sarcasm” in his president’s response, which he believed was “unhealthy”.

“Zelensky has never been a diplomat,” Mr Prystaiko adds. “He has never been a usual political leader who kisses babies and shakes hands.”

“The relationship with Trump is like a rollercoaster,” says Volodymyr Fesenko, director at the Pento Center for Political Studies. “Sometimes there is constructive cooperation, and then, all of a sudden, some kind of crisis appears.”

Then there is their war of words. Trump has blamed Zelensky for starting the war, calling him a “dictator”, while Ukraine’s leader accused his US counterpart of “living in a Russian disinformation space”.

While Mr Fesenko believes Zelensky is continually changing tactics to find a working relationship with Washington, Ms Zolkina believes the issues go deeper.

“There is a triangle between the US administration, the Kremlin and Kyiv,” she claims. “Ukraine is considered to be a weaker part of this triangle. For Trump, Zelensky is not in the same league, and that’s the problem.”

When it came to the now infamous Oval Office meeting with Trump and his Vice President JD Vance, this was the first time I’d seen Zelensky seemingly run out of political rope as he was accused of “not showing enough gratitude” and “playing with World War Three”.

His defensive body language, the folding of his arms for example, also seemed new.

Zelensky has always appeared comfortable hosting or visiting other leaders. He is at ease on a stage and often injects timely humour — but this was different.

A mineral agreement, in which Zelensky had originally suggested trading a portion of Ukraine’s mineral resource wealth for continued military aid, was never signed, and has since evolved into a less favourable proposal for Kyiv.

The US would also briefly pause its military aid and intelligence sharing to ensure Ukraine danced to its tune.

But the official view from some is that the Oval Office meeting was not a calamity.

“Nobody took it as the end of something,” claims Ihor Brusylo, the deputy head of the Presidential Office, who travelled to the White House with Zelensky. “We discussed how to move forward. It was not a disaster.”

When the US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told them the meeting was over, “we just shrugged our shoulders and decided to go back to the hotel,” he recalls.

“My presumption is that on a personal level, they [Trump and Zelensky] get on well,” he adds. “They understand each other better, and are frank and honest.”

Whatever the truth about their relationship behind closed doors, there have been signs of a willingness to bend from Zelensky since that meeting – European allies are said to have convinced him to subsequently take a more compliant tone, because of the inescapable truth that they, and Ukraine, still need the US to combat an aggressive Russia.

Yet others argue more bend still is needed.

“The war changes everyone, it has changed us all in some sense. But I don’t think fundamentally Zelensky has changed – for good or bad in some instances,” says Olga Onuch, professor of Comparative and Ukrainian Politics at the University of Manchester.

“It is very clear that certain actors have decided it’s difficult to negotiate with Zelensky. Why? Because he has red lines that he is sticking to.”

Mr Brusylo agrees. “It is very difficult to bend Zelensky,” he says. “It’s like watching a spring, the more you press, the bigger the pushback.”

And yet whenever Ukraine is attacked, politically or diplomatically, increased political unity follows. The Oval Office clash was no exception, as Zelensky’s popularity rating soared to around 70%.

“Zelensky is very powerful, and his authority is made up of himself and a certain circle of people,” argues Ms Zolkina.

Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House says it’s interesting how Ukrainians rallied around Zelensky after the Oval Office, almost like they took it as a personal insult of Ukrainian statehood.

“People rally around him, what he represents and how he behaves”.

Mr Prystaiko argues if the Americans wanted him to be replaced “they’ve shot themselves in the foot as he might easily be re-elected”.

Some political experts, like Ms Zolkina, do not think this is a certainty. “I don’t think he understands that this boost is a direct reaction to what Trump is doing, not his personal position,” she says.

“He has pretty strong political ambitions for a second term, and is pretty politically egocentric, as all leaders are at his level.”

Prof Onuch does not think that pursuit of political power alone motivates Zelensky. “[He is] much more of a careful and considered and tactical political operator than people give him credit for”.

Still, imagining a Zelensky second term can be difficult, simply because of the sheer demands of the job. Even post-war challenges would be considerable.

For now, Mr Arnold suspects that an exhausted Zelensky would not want to stand again and suggests that he may want a way out from at least the frontline politics.

As for the near-term, Zelensky cannot afford another Oval Office. So, given that Trump is a keen player, will Ukraine’s leader ever join him for a round of golf?

“He is a quick learner,” says his Mr Brusylo. “When there is a need to play golf, I’m sure he will tackle this task.”

Top picture credit: Getty Images

Additional reporting by Hanna Chornous and Vicky Riddell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“If you don’t contaminate the containers, you have two options: leave the job or end up dead.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evidence suggests consumption in the UK is rising.

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

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

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

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

Its victims take many forms.

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

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

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

The NCA also warns that the drug exacerbates domestic violence.

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

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

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

He told the BBC: “The chain that ends in ‘UK fun’ involves a lot of violence.”

“What’s fun for one person probably involves 20 homicides along the way.”

Additional reporting by Jessica Cruz

Seven police officers have been injured in a crash during a pursuit that closed part of the A1 on Tyneside.

The collision with a BMW happened just before 02:30 BST near Denton Burn, Newcastle, Northumbria Police said.

Five police vehicles were involved in the pursuit, with pictures of the crash site showing four marked cars badly damaged – one with its roof off – and a car on its side, with debris scattered across the northbound carriageway.

A man in his 20s has been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, with a woman, also aged in her 20s, arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting dangerous driving.

The road between Swalwell, in Gateshead, and Denton, Newcastle, has since reopened in both directions after being closed for several hours.

Northumbria Police said officers attempted to stop the BMW in the Whickham area of Gateshead at about 02:00 over “concerns about the manner it was being driven”.

It was later sighted in the Swalwell area and a pursuit was “authorised”, the force added.

The officers were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and four have been discharged, while two remain for observation and one is being treated for a leg injury.

The two occupants of the BMW were not injured.

Supt Michelle Caisley said work was under way to determine the full circumstances of the crash and asked people “to avoid speculation both online and in the community which could impact the investigation”.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it had not received a referral about the case yet and it was for the force to decide if the incident met the criteria for one.

One resident described the scene as “absolute carnage”.

He said: “You could hear a helicopter through the night, it was very strange, I knew something big had happened as I’ve been stuck in the traffic.”

Another resident said she was in “disbelief” at seeing what had happened.

“I live round the corner and at 3am all we could hear was helicopters going around,” she said.

“I came down to see the crash this morning and I’m shock, disbelief, I just hope everyone’s OK.”

At about lunchtime, the damaged vehicles were being lifted on to low loaders and being removed.

A police detection dog was also sent into a black BMW which was wedged between the police cars.

The ambulance service said it had sent five crews, a specialist paramedic, a duty officer and two crews from its Hazardous Area Response Team.

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service said it sent five appliances from across Newcastle and crews left the scene just before 04:00.

The Great North Air Ambulance Service was also dispatched.

A spokesperson said: “Our team worked alongside the North East Ambulance Service to assess and treat multiple patients.”

The crash hit the morning rush hour, with motorists forced to find alternative routes over the River Tyne.

It led to 30 to 40-minute queues over the Redheugh Bridge and about 40-minute delays through the Tyne Tunnel.

BBC Radio Newcastle’s Andy Watson said traffic had been “snarled up all morning” and the National Highways had told him the site would take some time to clear.

Labour’s Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Susan Dungworth said she was being “regularly updated” by the chief constable.

“My thanks go to all the emergency services who attended the scene, and I wish all officers involved a speedy recovery,” she said.

Additional reporting by Mark Denten and Rebecca O’Neill.

An adventurer who claimed to be the first woman to solo traverse Canada’s largest island has been criticised for her “privilege and ignorance”.

Camilla Hempleman-Adams, from Wiltshire, covered 150 miles (241km) on foot and by ski across Baffin Island, Nunavut, completing the journey on 27 March.

However, members of the native Inuit population said her claim was incorrect and came from a “dangerous colonial attitude”, with people there having travelled the same route for generations.

The daughter of adventurer Sir David Hempleman-Adams has since apologised, adding: “It was never my intention to misrepresent any historical achievements or cause distress to local communities.”

The solo trek across Baffin Island took Ms Hempleman-Adams from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung, crossing through Auyuittuq National Park.

Ahead of departure, she wrote on her expedition website: “Parks Canada has confirmed that there are no historical records of a female solo attempt from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung.”

But Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, who is Inuit and based in Ottawa, said this was because crossing the terrain is considered “a normal way of life” for them.

“The article hit people really hard in a very sensitive spot, because of our history and the difficulties we face every day in combatting Western colonialism,” she said.

“This woman is coming here from such a place of privilege and ignorance that it seems dangerous.

“It was almost like she was bringing back news of a new continent to Europe and saying ‘there’s nobody here!’ We were and still are.

“It’s such a clear example of how colonialism benefits from dispossessing indigenous people of their land and writing us out of history.”

In a statement, Ms Hempleman-Adams apologised for the offence caused by her expedition coverage.

“I have deep respect for the land, its people, and their history,” she said.

“I have travelled in this region multiple times and hold immense admiration for its nature, culture and traditions.

“I am truly saddened that the coverage of my journey may have caused concern or upset, and I remain committed to learning from this experience and engaging with the community with the utmost respect.”

Ms Kabloona said the matter had affected the community because many people who lived traditional nomadic lifestyles had now passed away – raising concerns that cultural practices will gradually be lost to time.

She is now in the process of mapping out the route her family has taken for generations while migrating south in spring, towards the caribou hunting grounds.

On one of these annual 186-mile (300km) journeys, Ms Kabloona’s grandmother went into labour and gave birth to her father in a tent along the way.

“Two days later, she got up and carried on walking,” Ms Kabloona said.

“She did that in every single one of her pregnancies, traversed our land, because that is our way of life and always has been.”

Ms Kabloona said she welcomed visitors to the region but disapproved of the “outdated” term “explorer”, as it carried with it connotations of imperialist expansion.

“If you want to come and enjoy the outdoors, please do so,” she said.

“The danger is going back with this colonial attitude and disseminating information like the Inuit don’t have history there.

“Saying you’re the ‘first person’ to do anything in an indigenous country is insulting.

“Show respect to the land and the people who have kept it pristine for your adventures.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the RSB said it was “devastated” by news of Mr Coatti’s killing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Todd Brayman is no longer buying his favourite red wine, which is from California.

A veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, he is one of a growing number of people in Canada, Europe, and other parts of the world, who are avoiding buying US products due to President Trump’s tariffs and treatment of US allies.

“I have in my life served alongside American forces. It is just profoundly upsetting and disappointing to see where we are given the historical ties that our two countries have,” says Mr Brayman, who lives in Nova Scotia.

“But I think right now it’s time to stand up and be counted, and in my mind, that means buying local and supporting Canadian business.”

Together with his wife, Mr Brayman has replaced all the American products he used to buy, including his previous wine of choice, with Canadian alternatives.

“Luckett Phone Box Red wine, which is from right here in Nova Scotia, is great,” he says.

Determining which products are Canadian isn’t always easy however. “Sometimes labelling can be misleading,” adds Mr Brayman.

To help, he now uses an app on his phone that can scan a product’s barcode and identify where it’s from. If the product is identified as American, the app suggests Canadian alternatives.

The app, called Maple Scan, is one of numerous emerging in Canada to help people shop local. Others include Buy Canadian, Is This Canadian? and Shop Canadian.

Maple Scan’s founder, Sasha Ivanov, says his app has had 100,000 downloads since it launched last month. He believes the momentum around buying Canadian is here to stay.

“Lots of Canadians have told me, ‘I’m not going back’. It’s important that we support local regardless,” he says.

Canadians like Mr Brayman are boycotting American products in response to a raft of import tariffs introduced by Trump. These included tariffs of 25% on all foreign cars, steel and aluminium, and 25% tariffs on other Canadian and Mexican goods.

Meanwhile, other European Union exports will get tariffs of 20%, while the UK is facing 10%.

Trump says the tariffs will boost US manufacturing, raise tax revenue and reduce the US trade deficit. However, they have spooked global markets, which have fallen sharply over the past month.

Trump has even expressed a desire for Canada to join the US as its 51st state, something the Canadian government was quick to strongly reject.

Ottawa has also responded with C$60bn ($42bn; £32bn) in counter tariffs, as well as additional tariffs on the US auto sector.

And there has been a substantial drop in the number of Canadians travelling to the US.

Groups dedicated to boycotting US goods have also emerged in European countries. Momentum behind the boycott is particularly strong in Denmark, whose territory of Greenland Trump has said he wants to acquire.

Denmark’s largest grocery store operator, Salling Group, recently introduced a symbol, a black star, on pricing labels to denote European brands.

Bo Albertus, a school principal who lives in Skovlunde, a suburb of Copenhagen, says joining the boycott was his way of taking action. “Statements that Trump made about wanting to buy Greenland, that was just too much for me,” he says.

“I can’t do anything about the American political system, but I can vote with my credit card.”

One of Mr Albertus’s first moves was to cancel his subscriptions to US streaming services, including Netflix, Disney Plus and Apple TV. “My 11-year-old daughter is a bit annoyed about it, but that’s the way it is. She understands why I do it,” he says.

Mr Albertus is the administrator for a Danish Facebook group dedicated to helping people boycott US goods. In the group, which has 90,000 members, people share recommendations for local alternatives to US goods, from shoes to lawnmowers.

Mr Albertus says: “It’s a movement that is quite a lot bigger than just our little country, so it all that adds up.”

Mette Heerulff Christiansen, the owner of a grocery shop in Copenhagen called Broders has stopped stocking American products, such as Cheetos crisps and Hershey’s chocolate, in her store. She is substituting them with Danish or European products where possible.

Ms Christiansen is also swapping out products she uses at home. She’s finding some easier to replace than others. “Coca-Cola is easy to substitute with Jolly Cola, a Danish brand,” she says. “But technology, like Facebook, that’s totally difficult to avoid.”

She believes the boycott movement in Denmark is helping people to channel their anger at Trump’s policies and rhetoric. “I think it’s more for the Danish people to feel good that they are doing something,” she says.

Douglas Irwin, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College in the US, who specializes in the history of US trade policy, believes the economic impact of the boycott may be limited. “It is hard to judge how economically significant the consumer boycotts will be in terms of reducing trade with the United States,” he says.

“In the past, boycotts have not lasted long and have not achieved much. It starts as a hostile reaction to some US action but tends to fade with time,” he says.

For now though, the rising Buy Canadian sentiment in Canada is boosting sales for many local brands. The CEO of Canadian grocer Loblaw posted on LinkedIn that weekly sales of Canadian products were up by double digits.

Bianca Parsons, from Alberta in Canada, is behind an initiative to promote locally-made goods, called Made In Alberta, which she says has had a surge in interest since the tariffs were introduced. “We’re now getting over 20,000 hits [to the site] every two weeks.”

Ms Parsons, who is the executive director of the Alberta Food Processors Association, adds: “I’ve had producers reach out to us and say: ‘I’m selling out at stores that I would never sell out before, thank you so much’.”

Several Canadian provinces, including Ontario and Nova Scotia, have removed US-made alcoholic beverages from their liquor store shelves in response to tariffs, a move the boss of Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman has said is “worse than tariffs”.

Among the American businesses feeling the impact is Caledonia Spirits, a distiller based in Vermont, near the Canadian border. Ryan Christiansen, Caledonia’s president and head distiller, says his business had an order on track for shipment to Quebec cancelled directly after tariffs were announced.

“My sense is that everyone’s just being a little too aggressive and, unfortunately, I think America started that,” says Mr Christiansen. “I do understand that the action America took needed a counter reaction.

“If it were up to me, I’d be at the table trying to resolve this in a friendly way, and I’m hopeful that the leaders in America take that approach.”

Ethan Frisch, the co-founder of Burlap & Barrel, an American spice company based in New York, which also exports to Canada, says he’s more concerned with the impact of the tariffs on his company’s imports and rising inflation in the US than the consumer boycott.

He says: “I think there’s this assumption that, if you boycott an American company, it’s going to have an impact on the economy and maybe change the situation. I think that assumption, unfortunately, is not accurate.

“The [US] economy is crashing all up by itself. Businesses like ours are struggling without boycotts.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second 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 new Universal theme park will be built in the UK, the government has confirmed.

It will be constructed on the site of the former Kempston Hardwick brickworks near Bedford and is expected to generate 28,000 jobs before it opens in 2031.

Universal estimated the 476-acre complex could attract 8.5 million visitors in its first year and generate £50bn for the UK economy by 2055.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the muti-billion-pound investment by the company would “see Bedford home to one of the biggest entertainment parks in Europe, firmly putting the county on the global stage”.

Universal Destinations and Experience said 80% of those employed in the new jobs will be from Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas.

Universal, which produced films such as Minions and Wicked, currently has theme parks in Orlando and Los Angeles in the US, as well as Osaka, Japan, Sentosa, Singapore, and Beijing, China.

The park will be the first Universal-branded destination in Europe.

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy said: “This landmark investment is fantastic news for our economy, for UK tourism and for the British public, who will be able to enjoy the biggest and best theme park in Europe on their doorstep.”

A full planning proposal will be submitted to the UK government with construction expected to start in 2026.

The prime minister added: “This is our Plan for Change in action, combining local and national growth with creating around 28,000 new jobs across sectors such as construction, artificial intelligence and tourism.

“It is not just about numbers; it’s about securing real opportunities for people in our country. Together, we are building a brighter future for the UK, getting people into work and ensuring our economy remains strong and competitive.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves added: “At a time of global change, this investment is a vote of confidence in Britain as a place to do business.

“Universal’s investment will bring billions to the economy and create thousands of jobs to the UK, putting more money in people’s pockets.”

According to plans from Universal Destinations & Experiences the UK site would include a theme park, a 500-room hotel and a retail complex.

These proposals remain subject to a planning decision from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Universal has already bought 476 acres for the project, but could buy more land to increase the plot to about 700 acres, which would enable it to link the site with transport routes.

Residents living in surrounding villages have responded positively to the plans, though some are concerned infrastructure will not be enough to support the amount of expected visitors.

Universal said it surveyed more than 6,000 local people and organisations and 92% of those supported the project.

Universal said it would make upgrades to the Wixams railway station and build a new station on the East West Rail line near the resort.

It will also add new dedicated slip roads to the A42, which flooded in October after heavy rainfall.

The government has said it will commit to investing in infrastructure that supports the project and makes it more accessible.

On Thursday Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander approved expansion plans at London Luton Airport.

Universal had previously described the Bedford site as “an ideal location with convenient, fast rail links to London and London Luton Airport”.

Mike Cavanagh, the president of Comcast Corporation, which owns Universal, said he was excited to expand the parks brand into Europe.

He said: “We appreciate the leadership and support of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Minister for Investment Poppy Gustafsson, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and their teams, as we work together to create and deliver a fantastic new landmark destination.”

The company said it will work with Bedford Borough Council on the project.

The local authority was one of six councils to support the plans last year, alongside Central Bedfordshire, Luton Borough, Milton Keynes City, North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire councils.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The ball is now in America’s court,” he added.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Netanyahu said last year that Israel had hit an Iranian nuclear site in retaliation for a missile attack.

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

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

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

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

In his first few weeks back in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump made several extraordinary decisions on foreign policy.

He threatened to annex Greenland, announced plans to “take over” Gaza, and started to remove the US from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Paris climate agreement. He has also shuttered the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the government’s main overseas aid agency.

Many of these moves are not very popular with ordinary Americans, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Centre. It surveyed 3,605 US adults in late March – just before Trump imposed sweeping trade tariffs on countries around the world.

Here are four takeaways from the Pew research.

Trump has increased his rhetoric on “getting” Greenland, and Vice-President JD Vance recently took a controversial trip to the Arctic island.

But Pew found that most survey respondents (54%) did not think the US should take over the Danish territory. When asked if they think Trump would actually pursue the plan, 23% thought it was extremely likely, but a greater number (34%) said they believed he would not carry through with it.

Trump also proposed an American takeover of the Gaza Strip, resettling two million Palestinians in neighbouring countries with no right of return. This would violate international law and has been described as “tantamount to ethnic cleansing” by the UN.

Of those surveyed, 62% of Americans opposed such a move, compared to 15% who favoured it. Opinions were divided as to whether Trump was likely to actually pursue it. Again, the greater number (38%) thought it very or extremely unlikely.

Trump signed executive orders to remove the US from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Paris Agreement on climate change, and said USAID largely would be shut down.

More Americans disapprove than approve of such moves, the survey suggests – although the results are not a landslide.

• 45% disapprove of ending USAID programmes (compared with 35% who approve)
• 46% do not agree with leaving the Paris agreement (32% approve)
• 52% disapprove of leaving the WHO (32% approve)

At the start of his second presidency, Trump said he would “work together, very closely” with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine – a very different approach to that of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

The Pew research found 43% of respondents thought Trump favoured Russia too much – a higher number than the 31% who said he was striking the right balance between both sides.

Since the survey was conducted, however, Trump’s mood appears to have changed. He has said he is “very angry” with Putin over Ukraine negotiations.

Meanwhile, Trump’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has grown increasingly close this year.

Answering a question about whether Trump was favouring Israelis or Palestinians, 31% of those surveyed thought he favoured Israelis too much. Close behind at 29% were those who thought Trump was striking the right balance.

Larger than either of these, however, was the group of respondents who were not sure (37%). Just 3% felt he was favouring Palestinians too much.

While Pew Research Centre is non-partisan, those surveyed were not.

The results showed that most of the respondents (64%) who described themselves as Republican – or Republican-leaning – supported the move by the Republican president to end USAID, for example.

That compared to just 9% of opposing Democrats – or Democratic-leaning – respondents who felt the same way, indicating a high level of polarisation.

Generally, it is older adults who support Trump’s foreign policy actions, more than younger adults, the research suggested.

Pew also asked about tariffs on China, although this research was carried out before the situation escalated sharply into the trade war that is now under way.

Generally, more Americans said the tariffs would be bad for them personally, but those who were Republican, or leant more towards that party, believed the tariffs would benefit the US.

A full-scale trade war with China and the US is in prospect after President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs of more than 100% on Chinese goods imports from Wednesday 9 April.

China has said it will “fight to the end” rather than capitulate to what it sees as US coercion, and has already raised its own trade barriers against the US in response.

What does this escalating trade conflict mean for the world economy?

The trade in goods between the two economic powers added up to around $585bn (£429bn) last year.

Though the US imported far more from China ($440bn) than China imported from America ($145bn).

That left the US running a trade deficit with China – the difference between what it imports and exports – of $295bn in 2024. That’s a considerable trade deficit, equivalent to around 1% of the US economy.

But it’s less than the $1tn figure that Trump has repeatedly claimed this week.

Trump already imposed significant tariffs on China in his first term as president. Those tariffs were kept in place and added to by his successor Joe Biden.

Together those trade barriers helped to bring the goods the US imported from China down from a 21% share of America’s total imports in 2016 to 13% last year.

So the US reliance on China for trade has diminished over the past decade.

Yet analysts point out that some Chinese goods exports to the US have been re-routed through south-east Asian countries.

For example, the Trump administration imposed 30% tariffs on Chinese imported solar panels in 2018.

But the US Commerce Department presented evidence in 2023 that Chinese solar panel manufacturers had shifted their assembly operations to states such as Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and then sent the finished products to the US from those countries, effectively evading the tariffs.

The new “reciprocal” tariffs due to be imposed on those countries will therefore push up the US price of a wide range of goods ultimately originating in China.

In 2024 the biggest category of goods exports from the US to China were soybeans – primarily used to feed China’s estimated 440 million pigs.

The US also sent pharmaceuticals and petroleum to China.

Going the other way, from China to the US, were large volumes of electronics, computers and toys. A large amount of batteries, which are vital for electric vehicles, were also exported.

The biggest category of US imports from China is smartphones, accounting for 9% of the total. A large proportion of these smartphones are made in China for Apple, a US-based multinational.

The US tariffs on China have been one of the main contributors to the decline in the market value of Apple in recent weeks, with its share price falling by 20% over the past month.

All these imported items to the US from China were already set to become considerably more expensive for Americans due to the 20% tariff the Trump administration has already imposed on Beijing.

If the tariff rises to 100% – for all goods – then the impact could be five times greater.

And US imports into China will also go up in price due to China’s retaliatory tariffs, ultimately hurting Chinese consumers in a similar way.

But beyond tariffs, there are other ways for these two nations to attempt to damage each other through trade.

China has a central role in refining many vital metals for industry, from copper and lithium to rare earths.

Beijing could place obstacles in the way of these metals reaching the US.

This is something it has already done in the case of two materials called germanium and gallium, which are used by the military in thermal imaging and radar.

As for the US, it could attempt to tighten the technological blockade on China started by Joe Biden by making it harder for China to import the kind of advanced microchips – which are vital for applications like artificial intelligence – it still can’t yet produce itself.

Donald Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro, has suggested this week that the US could apply pressure on other countries, including Cambodia, Mexico and Vietnam, not to trade with China if they want to continue to exporting to the US.

The US and China together account for such a large share of the global economy, around 43% this year according to the International Monetary Fund.

If they were to engage in an all-out trade war that slowed their growth down, or even pushed them into recession, that would likely harm other countries’ economies in the form of slower global growth.

Global investment would also likely suffer.

There are other potential consequences.

China is the world’s biggest manufacturing nation and is producing far more than its population consumes domestically.

It is already running an almost $1tn goods surplus – meaning it is exporting more goods to the rest of the world than it imports.

And it is often producing those goods at below the true cost of production due to domestic subsidies and state financial support, like cheap loans, for favoured firms.

Steel is an example of this.

There is a risk that if such products were unable to enter the US, Chinese firms could seek to “dump” them abroad.

While that could be beneficial for some consumers, it could also undercut producers in countries threatening jobs and wages.

The lobby group UK Steel has warned of the danger of excess steel potentially being redirected to the UK market.

The spillover impacts of an all-out China-US trade war would be felt globally, and most economists judge that the impact would be highly negative.

The daughter of an 80-year-old man who died after being punched and kicked by a boy while a second teenager filmed the attack has branded their behaviour “utterly disgusting”.

Bhim Kohli died the day after the “intense attack” on 1 September, in which he was racially abused by a 15-year-old boy who slapped him in the face with a slider shoe while he was on his knees.

Meanwhile, a 13-year-old girl encouraged the assault and laughed as she filmed it on her phone. Both were convicted of manslaughter on Tuesday.

Speaking outside Leicester Crown Court after the verdicts were returned, Susan Kohli said the family felt “anger towards the teenagers who took dad away from us”.

Mrs Kohli recalled the moment she found her dad, who had been walking his dog Rocky, at the park “screaming out” in pain after the attack at Franklin Park, in Braunstone Town, Leicestershire – just yards from his home.

Mr Kohli, the court heard, had told his daughter he had been punched in the face, kicked, and racially abused. He died from his injuries in hospital.

His cause of death was given as a neck injury causing spinal cord damage, and he had a number of other injuries including fractured ribs.

“It was horrendous, we have never seen him like that before. We all thought he would go to hospital to be treated and he would then be fine. We never imagined he wouldn’t return home. My dad passed away before our eyes, surrounded by his family,” she said.

“We feel anger and disgust towards the teenagers who took dad away from us. They humiliated an 80-year-old man, assaulted him, filmed it and laughed at him.

“The boy… used violence so severe that he broke three of dad’s ribs and neck which caused trauma to his spinal column.

“Dad did not deserve this, and we wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone else.”

Mrs Kohli told of watching the video of her father being hit by the slider shoe.

“A loud horrible slapping sound is heard when the boy struck dad,” she said. “Hearing the girl laugh at this assault on dad is utterly disgusting. This sound plays over and over in our heads. Also captured on video is dad’s attempt to call for help as he shouted out for his grandson.”

The boy was charged with murder and manslaughter, but was acquitted of the more serious charge.

Neither defendant can be named because of their ages.

The boy was remanded in custody, while the girl was released on conditional bail.

They will be sentenced on 19 and 20 May.

When the verdicts were read out, the boy leaned forward in the dock while the girl cried, and hugged her mother when she was released.

Addressing the girl, Mr Justice Turner said: “I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that the fact that bail is being granted should not be taken as any indication as to the sentence when the time comes.”

The judge, who will consider a media application to lift reporting restrictions on 19 May, thanked the jury – which deliberated for more than six hours – for its “obvious hard work”.

Both defendants were among a group of children who encountered Mr Kohli in the park on the day he was fatally injured, the trial – which lasted more than five weeks – heard.

Opening the prosecution case, Harpreet Sandhu KC said: “[Bhim Kohli] left his home on Bramble Way. Having left his home, he walked a few yards to the entrance of Franklin Park, where he was going to take his dog for a walk.

“However, Mr Kohli would not get the opportunity to walk his dog for long and never would he return home. That is because in Franklin Park, Mr Kohli had the misfortune to encounter these two defendants.”

Mr Sandhu told the court the boy and girl had spent the afternoon together at Braunstone Park before going to the boy’s home, where he changed his clothes and wore black sliders – a loose-fitting type of shoe similar in appearance to flip-flops – which the barrister said were used in the attack.

He said CCTV footage showed Mr Kohli walked with his dog to the park at about 18:18 BST, followed by the two defendants and three other children a few minutes later.

The footage of the fatal assault was shown to the jury.

Jurors heard Mr Kohli was discovered by two of his children “on the ground and in obvious pain”, before he was taken to hospital where he died the next day.

The boy told a friend he would go “on the run” to Hinckley, in Leicestershire, the day after the attack but was arrested by police minutes later while hiding in a bush, the court heard.

In a letter written by the boy, after he had been charged, to a professional who was working with him, he said: “I am so nervous, well scared and worried. I accept I did it and I’m doing time, I’m just scared about how long I have to do.”

He also said in the letter that his girlfriend had broken up with him and he had been “struggling with that”, so he “needed anger etc releasing”.

When the professional told the boy that the contents of his letter would need to be disclosed, the boy said “that’s my manslaughter plea gone”, Mr Sandhu told the jury.

Speaking alongside Mr Kohli’s family outside the court, Det Ch Insp Mark Sinski, of Leicestershire Police, called the case “truly tragic and heartbreaking”.

“Both the case and the subsequent trial have been complex and extremely sensitive due to the young ages of both defendants,” he said.

“Today’s verdict will now mean that they will have to face the enormity of their actions that evening and the consequences that will now follow.”

Paying tribute to her father, Mrs Kohli said he was a “devoted life partner to my mum for 55 years”, as well as a retired businessman, a close friend to many and a “very active” man who had three allotment plots where he grew fruit and vegetables.

“He was an amazing man who loved life. He never took himself seriously. He was good fun to be around and very chatty,” she said.

“He was the person who knitted our family together and we miss him every second of every day.

“The area we have loved for so many years and called home feels so different now and we will never feel safe.

“Having happened only a minute’s walk of where we live is something we cannot get away from and it is a constant reminder.

“Every time my mum opens the front door she thinks about what happened to her husband.”

US President Donald Trump has urged Americans to trust in his sweeping tariffs, which have spooked markets and threaten to upend global trade, urging them: “Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!).”

He did not clarify who he meant by the term, which he coined in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday.

The word “PANICAN” could be a portmanteau of “panic” and “Americans”, although an alternative theory suggests that it combines “panic” and “Republicans”.

A growing number of influential voices within Trump’s Republican Party have joined opposing Democrats and foreign leaders in attacking Trump’s trade policies, while his officials stand by them.

Trump himself has sought to justify his global programme of tariffs – import taxes – by claiming the US has long been the victim of unfair trading practices, and by vowing that his plan will bring jobs and manufacturing to American shores.

In Monday’s online post, he wrote: “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!).”

He went on: “Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”

Although he was reposted by a vocal ally – Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – Trump has also received some dissent from certain key supporters, including business figures and a top conservative commentator.

Ben Shapiro, the Daily Wire co-founder who has 7.2m YouTube subscribers for his podcast, The Ben Shapiro Show, used Monday’s episode to rail against the trade policy of his long-standing ally.

He said Trump’s new raft of tariffs that were due to begin on Wednesday could be economically catastrophic, and that the messaging behind them had been muddled.

“The biggest problem here is that the Trump administration has not made clear what they want to accomplish with these tariffs,” he said.

Shapiro said there were times when trade barriers could be justified, like to bolster the defence industry or apply pressure on other countries to reduce their tariffs on the US. But they had no merit in themselves, he argued.

“The idea that this is inherently good and makes the American economy strong is wrongheaded; it is untrue,” Shapiro said. “The idea that this will result in massive reshoring of manufacturing is also untrue.”

Pete Sessions, a Republican congressman from Texas, said Trump’s tariffs had “ignited many capitalists” who were against them.

The agricultural sector in his state was fearful that tariffs would make the price of the food they want to sell uncompetitive, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“All Texans believe that a tariff is a tax and it’s not in America’s best interest, nor people in the free world, to pay that extra money.”

Other Republicans in Congress who have issued warnings include Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

They have been joined in recent days by big-name Wall Street figures. Billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman – who supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election – has warned of “a self-induced, economic nuclear winter”.

Even one of Trump’s top aides, billionaire businessman Elon Musk, is reportedly against the tariffs, and spent time over the weekend lobbying the president to reverse them, according to two anonymous sources cited by the Washington Post.

The tariffs have been designed to target almost all of the world’s countries.

Trump claims that a 10% tariff on all nations and much higher rates on individual countries will boost the US economy and protect jobs.

Companies that bring the foreign goods into the country have to pay the tax to the government.

Goods arriving from China, for example, could be taxed 104% if Trump follows through with an additional rate threatened against Beijing on Monday.

Global stock markets have endured days of turmoil after Trump made most of his announcements on 2 April.

The White House says he does not plan to back down, and have downplayed the risk of a recession that has been prophesied by some economists.