Linda Kelly, 67, has advanced breast cancer which has spread to her bones and chest wall, but says a new pill has given her extra years of life and time to travel with her husband.

“It does let you have a normal kind of life and you forget you have cancer,” she says of the new drug capivastertib, which has been recommended for NHS use in England and Wales, and is funded from today in England.

Linda is one of more than 1,000 women with incurable breast cancer who could benefit from the drug, which can slow progression of the disease.

It’s another possible treatment option for those with this cancer – but a charity said breast cancer drugs should be approved more quickly.

Linda is a keen gardener who keeps active by cycling 60 miles a week and also does pilates.

She says she’s had “fantastic” results from the new drug, which is taken twice daily in tablet form.

The side-effects for her were minimal and it’s allowed her to go on holiday to New Zealand with her husband Neil last year and plan a trip to the US this year.

“You feel the drug is working and you can be a lot calmer – it’s given me nearly four years of extra time,” she says.

She says the drug has also given her hope.

“It does make you think about your life, and what you want to do with your life in the future – but at least you feel well enough to make those plans and confident enough as well to fulfil some of those plans.”

But not everyone is likely to have such positive results from the drug.

In trials, in 708 women, when combined with hormone therapy, the drug doubled the time the cancer took to grow, from 3.6 months to 7.3 months, and shrank tumours in 23% of patients.

“It presents a very effective option that can work for a long time – many months, and in some people it can be years,” said Prof Nick Turner, lead researcher and professor of medical oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden.

“It can substantially delay chemotherapy which many women fear because of the side-effects,” he added.

“Advanced breast cancer is highly treatable and we want kinder, better treatments.”

The drug, which has been approved the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), will be funded through the Cancer Drugs Fund in England but funding has not yet been confirmed in Wales.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with one in seven women affected in their lifetimes and 75% surviving for 10 years or more after diagnosis.

If the cancer returns and spreads to other parts of the body, treatments aim to control it, reduce the symptoms and improve quality of life.

Possible treatments include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and drugs that help to stop the cancer growing – either by blocking hormones, boosting the body’s immune system or targeting what makes cancer cells grow.

This new drug capivasertib is a targeted therapy. It works in a new way, blocking the activity of a protein molecule called AKT which drives cancer growth.

Scientists started working on the drug’s development 20 years ago and say it’s the most effective cancer drug they’ve seen for advanced cancer. AstraZeneca is the manufacturer of capivasertib.

The drug is suitable for those with certain gene mutations that affect up to half of people with hormone receptor positive secondary breast cancer – the most common type, which grows in the presence of oestrogen.

Prof Peter Johnson, clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said it offered “an additional option” for some whose cancer has progressed despite previous hormone therapy – but it wouldn’t be suitable for everyone.

Claire Rowney, chief executive at charity Breast Cancer Now, said she was “delighted” that the drug would offer some people “the hope of more precious time to do what matters most to them”.

But she said patients had “faced unnecessary delays in accessing it” after the drug was initially rejected by NICE, and breast cancer drugs should be approved more quickly for those who need them.

“NHS England must now put in place prompt genetic testing to ensure those eligible receive capivasertib without further delay,” she said, adding that Scotland should also consider funding the treatment quickly so that patients across the UK would have access.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Prof Johnson said NICE had to work through the evidence when approving new drugs for the NHS, and those discussions included how much the drug will cost.

“We have to make sure the treatments we bring in are good value for money for the NHS and come in under the cost threshold that we expect, because obviously, particularly in these hard times, money is not plentiful and we need to make sure that the price of the drug and the way it’s being used really do constitute… good value for money for the NHS,” said Prof Johnson.

NICE says it has approved 24 out of 25 breast cancer treatments it has assessed over the past seven years.

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The New York Police Department (NYPD) has said a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River and killed all six people onboard including a family of five from Spain.

It is very much an active investigation, but here is what we know so far about the fatal crash:

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has given some details about the fatal helicopter ride.

She said the helicopter was operated by New York Helicopters and took off from the Downtown Skyport on the lower side of Manhattan at 14:59 local time (19:59 BST).

According to the popular real-time flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the helicopter was in the air for about 15 minutes.

It started its route heading towards the Statue of Liberty and pivoted north towards the George Washington Bridge.

Then, the helicopter circled back down the Hudson along the New Jersey side and plunged into the River Hudson near a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey, at 15:15 local time (20:15 BST).

The helicopter was upside-down when it hit the water, Tisch added.

Police boats assisted in the rescue efforts and Bruce Wall, who was nearby when the crash happened, described what he saw.

“It started falling apart in mid-air and then the tail came off and then just flipped over in mid-air and started falling to the ground,” he said.

In total there were six people onboard the helicopter when it went down – including one American pilot.

According to reports, the Spanish family of two adults and three children were taking the helicopter ride to see sights of New York.

While authorities have yet to release their identities, the family has widely been named as Agustín Escobar and his wife Mercè Camprubí Montal, who were both executives at Siemens, and their children, aged four, five and 11.

Dive teams worked to recover the bodies and despite CPR efforts, all six people were pronounced dead.

Four victims were pronounced dead on scene, the other two victims were pronounced dead at an area hospital, officials have said.

The cause of the crash is currently under investigation and early details are vague.

But, NYPD Commissioner Tisch has said the “aircraft lost control” and hit the water “just a few feet off the coast of a pier”.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said the helicopter was a Bell 206.

Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate – with the NTSB leading the investigation.

Thursday’s incident was the deadliest helicopter crash in New York City since at least 2018, according to the New York Times.

In that incident, all five passengers drowned and only the pilot survived when a sightseeing helicopter that was flying with its doors off fell into the East River and flipped over.

A record shop owner who suffered a cardiac arrest after being stabbed with a syringe full of a power anaesthetic says he fears he may never know why he was attacked.

Gary Lewis, 65, almost died when he was injected with rocuronium by 58-year-old nurse Darren Harris at Betterdaze in Northallerton on 2 July last year.

Harris, who is due to be sentenced later, was found guilty of attempted murder after a trial at Leeds Crown Court, but offered no explanation for the attack.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Lewis said: “It leaves you with the quandary, sometimes bordering on paranoia, about why somebody would go to those lengths.”

On the day of the attack Harris travelled from his home in Middlesbrough, where he worked as a nurse at James Cook Hospital, to Northallerton, where he stabbed Mr Lewis in the backside before leaving the shop.

Mr Lewis said he had followed Harris outside to confront him, but collapsed a short time later.

CCTV footage shows him leaving the shop to remonstrate with Harris, before neighbouring shop keepers come to his assistance and police arrive to detain Harris.

“Apparently I died on the footpath, my heart stopped on the footpath,” he said.

“I regained consciousness and they tell me I had a second cardiac arrest in the ambulance.”

Mr Lewis said he had been told it was his decision to leave the shop, which he puts down to his training during 30 years in the police force, that saved his life.

“The doctors are absolutely certain,” he said.

“If I’d stayed where I was I would have had the heart attack without anyone being around me and the next person to walk in the shop would have found me.”

When Harris was arrested he repeated claimed the syringe had been full of water, but it was later found to have been filled with rocuronium.

Harris did not give evidence during his trial but in a police interview he claimed he had been pushed out of the shop by Mr Lewis following an argument.

CCTV footage showed no such altercation took place and no other motive for the attack has been put forward.

Mr Lewis said: “Nobody in the family can get their head around it. It’s baffled the police, it’s baffled the barristers, it’s baffled the court, it’s probably baffled the hospital.

“I’m not going to plead with the guy, but if he’s got any humanity he will give me an explanation.

“It wasn’t random, it couldn’t have been more deliberate and targeted. Whether I’ll ever find out, I almost have to deal with the possibility that I might not and that is psychologically impacting.”

Mr Lewis said he was back at work within days of the attack, but said he had struggled with the idea that had he not made it out of the shop his heart attack might never have been revealed as attempted murder.

“The drug clears your system, which is why I would have died if I’d stayed in the shop,” he said.

“It would have disappeared and nobody would have looked for a pin prick, it would have been put down as a cardiac arrest.

“But the psychology of it, there can’t be many victims of such a crime who have to return to the scene of the crime every single day and sit in the same seat where you were attacked.

“I do not think it will ever be over and done with unless I am given a reason and I can’t imagine what that reason would be.

“You wrack your brains but you’ve almost got to not think about it too much because I may never get an explanation.”

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said Harris’ employment was terminated in August 2024.

It said a review into the storage of medications, including controlled drugs, in cardiac theatres and general theatres was carried out in light of the incident and concluded “all theatres were fully compliant with national guidance”.

It was a typical Friday lunchtime in Beirut’s southern suburb. Then, a single warning, posted in Arabic on X by a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), triggered panic and chaos in the densely populated area known as Dahieh.

“Urgent warning to those in the southern suburb of Beirut,” it read. The post included a map of a residential area, marking a building in red and two nearby schools. The IDF identified the building as a Hezbollah facility, and ordered the immediate evacuation of the schools.

An air strike was imminent.

What followed were scenes of sheer panic. Parents rushed towards the threatened area to collect their children from the schools, while residents fled in the opposite direction, visibly shaken and fearful.

“It was total chaos,” recalls Ahmad Alama, the director of St Georges School, one of those highlighted on the map. “We tried to contain the situation as much as we could, but it was crazy.”

The area was soon cleared, and Israeli forces destroyed the marked building, which they said was a warehouse storing Hezbollah drones.

The strike, carried out two weeks ago, was the first on Dahieh – an area with a strong Hezbollah presence – since a ceasefire ending the war between Israel and Hezbollah took effect last November.

It came hours after two rockets were launched from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel. Israel said it intercepted one rocket, while the other fell short of the border.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant and political group, denied involvement. Israel described the rocket fire as a ceasefire “violation”, while the office of Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the Israeli strike as a “violation of the agreement”.

“We thought the war had ended with the ceasefire,” says Mr Alama, “But unfortunately, we’re still living it every day.”

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued near-daily strikes on people and targets it says are linked to Hezbollah, saying it is acting to stop Hezbollah from rearming. The strikes have mainly occurred in southern Lebanon, but the recent bombings in Dahieh have sparked particular alarm.

On 1 April, a second Israeli strike hit the area – this time without warning – killing a Hezbollah commander and three other people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Mr Alama has been running St Georges School for 30 years. It serves around 1,000 children of all ages, boys and girls. Although religion is part of the curriculum for older pupils, he describes the school as secular.

It is also well-known in the community for its association with the Lebanese pop star and talent show judge, Ragheb Alama – Ahmad Alama’s brother and the school’s owner.

The recently destroyed building lies just metres from the school. It isn’t the only nearby scene of devastation. Another building, opposite one of St Georges’ gates, remains a massive pile of rubble – brought down by Israeli air strikes before the ceasefire.

During the war, the schools were closed. They didn’t have to deal with situations such as the one they faced. Now reopened, they are braced for the possibility of more bombing.

The school has devised evacuation plans, designating emergency meeting points in the basement and routes for pupils and staff to follow in case of any danger.

There are also new communication plans with parents to prevent a repeat of the chaos of last month’s strike. Children are now routinely reminded of these procedures, with regular evacuation drills.

Students, staff, and parents alike are traumatised by what happened, Mr Alama says.

Initially, the school considered cutting back on extracurricular activities to make up for lost learning, but they changed their minds.

“We decided otherwise,” Mr Alama says. “Pupils shouldn’t pay the price for something they aren’t responsible for. We’ve actually ended up increasing these activities – these kids need to release some of the pressure on them.”

Nearly five months into the ceasefire, the return of Israeli air strikes to Beirut has intensified fears of a return to all-out war.

The ceasefire was meant to end more than 13 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which began when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israeli military positions the day after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, saying it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The conflict escalated in September 2024, when Israel launched a devastating air campaign across Lebanon and invaded the south of the country.

Dahieh, deserted during the war, is bustling again. Shops have reopened, hookah smokers are back at crowded cafes, and the suburb seems as busy as before, with its persistently paralysing traffic.

But amid these signs of normality, scenes of destruction serve as a reminder of the pounding this area endured just months ago.

Some 346 buildings in the area were destroyed and another were 145 partly damaged by Israeli air strikes, according to a municipal official. Israel said it targeted Hezbollah facilities and weapons caches.

In many neighbourhoods, the rubble is still being cleared. The roar of bulldozers and jackhammers drilling into piles of debris is almost constant.

Some of the mounds of debris have Hezbollah flags planted on top of them, while large and small portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah leader killed by Israel during the war, line the roads.

However, amid the customary signs of defiance, many are now expressing a deep concern not always voiced – at least in front of cameras – by residents of Dahieh.

“The destruction is terrifying. I see the destroyed buildings and I cry,” says Sawsan Hariri, the headteacher of Burj High School, also in Dahieh.

The school, which also sits opposite a flattened building, sustained damage from nearby strikes.

“It’s depressing. Walking on the street, driving your car – it’s all just depressing.”

Ms Hariri used to live on the top floor of the school building with her husband and daughter, but their home has been destroyed. They now rent a flat nearby.

Before the war, Burj High School had around 600 pupils. Now, it has barely 100.

Many parents are reluctant to send their children back amid the scenes of destruction and the constant buzz of machinery. Others were concerned about the health risks, with thick dust still filling the air.

After the ceasefire, owners of the private school made some basic repairs at their own expense.

Hezbollah, which is banned as a terrorist organisation in many countries but in Lebanon is a political and social movement as well as a paramilitary force, has given those who lost their homes $12,000 for a year’s rent and has offered to cover the costs of repairs to apartments. However, schools and other institutions have not received any aid.

The Lebanese government has pledged to set up a reconstruction fund, which the World Bank estimates will cost $11bn nationwide. But international donors are believed to be insisting on the disarmament of Hezbollah and political reform – conditions that appear a distant prospect.

Though the clearing of rubble is expected to be over by the end of the year, few expect large-scale rebuilding to follow anytime soon.

The young cast of Alex Garland’s film Warfare had to bond pretty quickly, to play a US military unit whose lives depended on each other, during the Iraq war in 2006.

Familiarity was crucial, so before filming began, the cast were sent on a three-week military bootcamp.

They lived together, learning military jargon and gun safety and were pushed beyond their limits – all of which brought them closer together.

First off though, they agreed to shave each other’s heads to look the part, boosting trust and familiarity.

“We shaved our heads on day one, and got tattoos at the end of the process, so it bookended the experience,” Poulter tells the BBC.

The actor, who recently appeared in The Bear and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, plays Captain Eric, who was part of a group of US soldiers and Iraqi scouts on a surveillance mission.

We see how it goes wrong, with devastating consequences.

Heartstopper star Connor plays newcomer Tommy, hitting home how young the soldiers were – he’s just turned 21, the same age Tommy was at the time.

The actor says the decision to get a shared tattoo with his castmates after filming wrapped was a “no-brainer”. The casts of The Avengers and The Lord of the Rings did the same thing after their final films.

Warfare’s actors decided their tattoo would say “Call On Me”, to reflect their brotherhood, while referencing Erik Prydz’s 2004 dance hit, which kicks the film off.

The cast features some other big names, including Reservation Dogs’ D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Shōgun’s Cosmo Jarvis, Stranger Things and the forthcoming Beatles biopic’s Joseph Quinn, and Riverdale’s Charles Melton.

“It was really formative for me,” Connor says about his time on the film. “I’ve made friends I really do believe I will know for a long time.

“We all wanted to commemorate it – we are so proud of the work we’ve done together.”

-The movie is based entirely on a real-life mission that took place during the Iraq war, and is built on the memories of the US soldiers who were there.

The group was embedded in the home of an ordinary Iraqi family, who we briefly see in the film, in Ramadi – an area controlled by Al-Qaeda forces.

The military’s goal had been to slip into and observe the area under the cover of darkness, to ensure the safe passage of ground forces there the next day.

What they didn’t know what that they were next door to an insurgent house, making them the target of an attack.

Shot in real-time, Warfare has no music or flashbacks, so there’s no let-up for the audience. You’re dropped into the thick of the action for the whole film.

The soldiers in command have to make split-second decisions amid the pain and chaos, with the Iraqi family caught in the crossfire.

Oscar nominee Garland, whose back catalogue includes the 28 Days film franchise and Ex Machina, got the idea for Warfare when he was making last year’s film Civil War.

He was working on the battle scenes with Hollywood stunt man and gunfight co-ordinator Ray Mendoza.

“During the edit process of Civil War, I was able to really focus on some of the work Ray had done, and how sophisticated and how nuanced it was,” Garland recalls.

They got chatting about Mendoza’s previous life as a US Navy Seal, and about the Ramadi operation, where he was its communications officer.

Mendoza said he’d always wanted to make a film about that mission.

The veteran had a very big reason for wanting to recreate what happened that day – to help replace the lost memories of his colleague Elliott Miller.

Miller, a former Navy Seal, was so badly injured in Ramadi that he suffered traumatic brain injury and memory loss, and had to have a leg amputated.

During the mission, Mendoza carried the unconscious soldier to the rescue tank that ultimately saved his life.

“Elliott doesn’t remember it, and when he woke up, he had a lot of questions,” Mendoza says.

“No matter how many maps we drew, or how many times we wrote it out – without that core memory, I think he’s had a hard time.

“It just raised more questions than answers. So I wanted to recreate this one.”

So Garland and Mendoza decided to make Warfare together, sharing writing and directing credits, and dedicating the film to Miller.

The crucial question is whether seeing the film helped Miller piece things together.

“It did, yeah – he was a sponge,” Mendoza says.

“We walked him through it – he had a lot of questions, he’s got kids that have questions.

“It’s now a film memory, but it’s as close as he’s gonna have – he’s super grateful.”

Miller was played by Jarvis, who calls him “a funny guy… he’s great – a living embodiment of perseverance”.

It was a “unique situation to be in when you’re entrusted with portraying somebody that’s sitting right across from you”, Jarvis said, about having the person he was playing actually on set.

“But because he didn’t remember [what happened], a lot of my references had to come from his colleagues.”

The soldiers’ casting has caused some excitement online, with some publications breathily calling the actors “all of the internet’s boyfriends” and “red hot rising stars”.

Garland arches an eyebrow at this, and Mendoza jumps in to talk about why those actors were chosen.

“I’ve said this to them, so I’m not trying to offend them, but we weren’t looking for the best actors. They’re all great actors. We were looking for the right actors,” he says.

“So what that means is their willingness to push their bodies past a comfort level that they’re maybe not used to. ‘You’re gonna be exhausted. You’re gonna be required to rely on other people. It’s not about you, it’s about the team’.

“And the ones that jump at that opportunity, you’re like, ‘Yep, that’s the attitude that we need’.”

Collating and cross-checking the soldiers’ memories was a big job, largely undertaken by Garland.

“I think there’s an inherent value in attempting to be honest and truthful about something as serious and significant as war,” he says.

He shot the film in a studio in a suburb north of London, on a former World War Two airfield, making it in real-time to recreate “a real incident of combat… as honestly, forensically and accurately as possible”.

Not surprisingly, while sharing credits with Garland, former US Navy Seal Mendoza ran the actors’ bootcamp.

He was played by Woon-A-Tai, who calls him “a brilliant instructor who instilled a lot of confidence in us”, while also making gun safety a top priority.

The actor was also fascinated by the narrative not being “dramatised or Hollywoodised”.

“To see these guys not obey orders – and do what they needed to save their platoon was interesting to me,” he says, talking about the soldiers’ evacuation process.

Mendoza thinks the film may also help veterans who are struggling to express what warfare can be like.

“Some of these things are harder to explain in words,” he says. “So art imagery is how I’m able to communicate that.”

Connor echoes this, saying: “A lot of these men are very much less inclined to talk about themselves in these situations, whether it be to be due to humility, or a difficulty in really articulating it.

“A lot of them just don’t really enjoy talking about their involvement.”

The film has been called “the most harrowing – and honest – depiction of modern combat ever made” by the Telegraph, while the New Yorker said it offers a “hyperrealist rebuke of the American war movie”.

The Guardian said the “film-makers’ message gets lost in the deafening blizzard of battle”, while Empire added: “It may well be cinema’s most effective, purest anti-war film: there is no sentimentality, no hand-wringing, but most significantly not a second of it makes war look cool, or attractive.”

Poulter says he admires the film-makers’ determination to make Warfare purely factual.

“Hopefully this film contributes to a better understanding of just how negative, and how the consequences of war are characterised by a lot of loss…

“I think this is as much an anti-war film as you can possibly hope to hope to see.”

Warfare is out in cinemas on Friday, 18 April.

Fewer starlings are visiting UK gardens, according to the conservation charity, the RSPB.

It says its Big Garden Birdwatch, which took place over the last weekend in January, recorded the lowest number of starlings since the survey began in 1979.

Starlings are common garden visitors, but one of the UK’s fastest disappearing birds, with a sharp population decline since the 1960s.

They are known for their spectacular winter acrobatics, flying in huge flocks or murmurations.

RSPB chief executive, Beccy Speight, said though this year’s results are a reason for concern, “we can all do our bit to support these threatened birds”.

The RSPB recommends taking small actions that can benefit starlings and other garden wildlife, such as avoiding the use of pesticides and putting up nest boxes.

Beccy Speight added: “While our homes and gardens often provide the perfect place for individual people to help, we also urgently need governments and businesses to join us in the wider fight to restore our natural world.”

Almost 600,000 people across the UK took part in The Big Garden Birdwatch this year, counting more than nine million birds over the course of an hour in their garden or local park.

Prior to the year 2000, the starling was regularly the most numerous species recorded in the survey.

This year it dropped from third to fourth place behind the tree sparrow, the blue tit and the wood pigeon.

The blackbird remained in fifth place.

The survey gives a snapshot of trends in garden birds, with data on the starling mirroring findings from long-term studies.

Starlings are a red listed species in the UK, considered a high conservation concern due to their declining numbers.

The UK breeding population declined by 82% between 1970 and 2022.

There is not enough evidence to explain what is causing the declines, but one reason could be that there is less grassland and insect food than there used to be because of intensive farming.

Modern housing and development have also reduced the availability of suitable nesting sites.

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Suddenly, Donald Trump’s trade war is in much sharper focus.

Rather than a fight on all fronts against the world, this now looks far more like a fight on familiar Trumpian territory: America v China.

The 90-day pause on the higher “retaliatory” tariffs levied on dozens of countries still leaves a universal across-the-board tariff of 10% in place.

But China – which ships everything from iPhones to children’s toys and accounts for around 14% of all US imports – has been singled out for much harsher treatment with an eye-watering rate of 125%.

Trump said the increase was due to Beijing’s readiness to retaliate with its own 84% levy on US goods, a move the president described as showing a “lack of respect”.

But for a politician who first fought his way to the White House on the back of an anti-China message, there is much more to this than simple retaliation.

For Trump, this is about the unfinished business of that first term in office.

“We didn’t have the time to do the right thing, which we’re doing now,” he told reporters.

The aim is nothing less than the upending of an established system of global trade centred on China as the factory of the world, as well as the once widely held view that underpinned it – the idea that more of this trade was, in and of itself, a good thing.

To understand just how central this is to the US president’s thinking, you need to go back to the time before anyone ever thought of him as a possible candidate for office, let alone a likely winner.

In 2012, when I first reported from Shanghai – China’s business capital – increased trade with the country was seen by almost everyone – global business leaders, Chinese officials, visiting foreign governments and trade delegations, foreign correspondents and learned economists – as a no brainer.

It was boosting global growth, providing an endless supply of cheap goods, enriching China’s army of new factory workers increasingly embedded in global supply chains, and providing lucrative opportunities to multinational corporations selling their wares to its newly minted middle classes.

Within a few of years of my arrival, China had surpassed the US to become the world’s biggest market for Rolls Royce, General Motors and Volkswagen.

There was a deeper justification, too.

As China got richer, so the theory went, Chinese people would begin to demand political reform.

Their spending habits would also help China transition to a consumer society.

But the first of those aspirations never happened, with China’s ruling Communist Party only tightening its grip on power.

And the second one didn’t happen fast enough, with China not only still dependent on exports, but openly planning to become ever more dominant.

Its infamous policy blueprint – published in 2015 and entitled Made in China 2025 – set out a huge state-backed vision of becoming a global leader in a number of key manufacturing sectors, from aerospace to ship building to electric vehicles.

And so it was that just one year later, a complete political unknown began an outsider-run for US president, making the case repeatedly on the campaign trail that China’s rise had hollowed out the American economy, driven rustbelt decline and cost blue-collar workers their livelihoods and dignity.

Trump’s first-term trade war broke the mould and shattered the consensus. His successor, President Joe Biden, kept much of his tariffs on China in place.

And yet, even though they have undoubtedly caused China some pain, they have not done much to change the economic model.

China now produces 60% of the world’s electric cars – a large proportion of them made by its own homegrown brands – and 80% of the batteries that power them.

So, now Trump is back, with this tit-for-tat escalation on levies.

It would, arguably, be the biggest shock ever delivered to the established global trading system, were it not for all the other on-again off-again tariff measures the US president has rolled out in recent days.

What happens next depends on two key questions.

Firstly, whether China takes up that offer to negotiate.

And secondly, assuming it eventually does, whether China is willing to make the kind of major concessions that America is looking for, including a complete overhaul of its export driven economic model.

In answering them, the first thing to say is that we are in completely unchartered territory, so we should be wary of anyone who says they know how Beijing is likely to react.

But there are certainly reasons to be cautious.

China’s vision of its economic strength – one based on strong exports and a tightly protected domestic market – is now closely bound up with its idea of national rejuvenation and the supremacy of its one-party system.

Its tight control over the information sphere means it will be unlikely to drop its barriers to American technology companies, for example.

But there is a third question, and it is one for America to answer.

Does the US still believe in free trade? Donald Trump often suggests that tariffs are a good thing, not merely as a means to an end, but as an end in themselves.

He talks about the benefit of a protectionist barrier for America, in order to stimulate domestic investment, encourage American companies to bring those foreign supply chains back home, and raise tax revenues.

And if Beijing believes that is indeed the primary purpose of the tariffs, it may decide there is nothing to negotiate anyway.

Rather than championing the idea of economic co-operation, the world’s two biggest superpowers may find themselves locked in a fight for winner-takes-all economic supremacy.

If so, that really would mark a shattering of the old consensus, and a very different, possibly very dangerous, future.

A share of the revenue streaming services make from subscription fees should be paid into a fund to support British high-end TV production, an influential group of MPs has said.

In a new report, the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) committee urged the government to improve support measures for producers while safeguarding the creation of distinctly British content.

It follows an inquiry into the UK TV and film industry which examined the effects of the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV.

The report noted how “vital” dramas such as Adolescence are to the country’s “identity, national conversations and talent pipeline”, which they say is now “under threat”.

It is “time for streamers to put their money where their mouth is”, the report read, suggesting that streaming companies pay “5% of their UK subscriber revenue into a cultural fund to help finance drama with a specific interest to British audiences”.

Chair of the CMS committee, MP Dame Caroline Dinenage, noted how recent “big box-office blockbusters made in Britain have showcased the UK’s world-class film and high-end television industry like never before”.

“But the boom in inward investment of recent years now risks crowding out our many talented independent British producers,” she said.

She added: “While streamers like Netflix and Amazon have proved a valuable addition for the industry and economy, unless the government urgently intervenes to rebalance the playing field, for every Adolescence adding to the national conversation, there will be countless distinctly British stories that never make it to our screens.”

Adolescence, created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who is charged with killing a female classmate.

This week, it became fourth most popular English-language series in Netflix’s history with 114 million views.

A Netflix spokeswoman said: “The UK is Netflix’s biggest production hub outside of North America – and we want it to stay that way.

“But in an increasingly competitive global market, it’s key to create a business environment that incentivises rather than penalises investment, risk taking and success. Levies diminish competitiveness and penalise audiences who ultimately bear the increased costs.”

The Association for Commercial Broadcasters and On-Demand Services (COBA) said a levy risks damaging streamers’ investment in the UK.

Coba executive director Adam Minns said: “Especially in this economic climate, a levy risks impacting existing content budgets for UK shows, jobs, and growth, along with raising costs for businesses.

“Ironically, it could actually damage public service broadcaster dramas by reducing co-production budgets at streamers.”

He added pressure on domestic production stemmed from the real terms decline in the TV licence fee.

The report released on Thursday noted how last year there was a 27% decrease in the number of domestic high-end TV productions made in the UK and a 25% fall in spend.

The calls for greater help come after Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky told the BBC last month that the industry was in crisis, and that public service broadcasters including the BBC and ITV could no longer afford to make high-end British drama.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) said: “We acknowledge the challenges facing our brilliant film and TV industry and are working with it through our industrial strategy to consider what more needs to be done to unlock growth and develop the skills pipeline.

“We thank the committee for its report which we will respond to in due course.”

The report also noted while the introduction of tax breaks for independent British films, and for film and TV studios in England may have helped, it was not a “silver bullet” for solving many of the issues facing British producers.

As well as providing greater support and resources for UK TV production workforces, the report also suggested that lawmakers should consider cutting VAT on cinema tickets as well as doing more to meet the challenges posed by AI.

Paul W Fleming, general secretary of Equity, which represents British performers, said the government should “heed the call” for the licensing of creative works in all cases where they are used to train artificial intelligence models.

“AI is being built illegally by stealing Equity members’ life’s works,” he said.

Big tech firms “must be held to account”, he added, “brought to the table and made to pay creators what they owe.”

The cross-party committee recommended the government and British Film Institute (BFI) should launch a national awareness campaign, highlighting the employment opportunities offered by film and high-end TV, and “the range of skills the industry requires”.

It stressed how the industry “benefits hugely from the flexibility afforded by a predominantly freelance workforce” and therefore more should be done to “support freelancers when they are out of work”; such as the introduction of a minimum hourly wage or guaranteed basic income.

Head of industry union Bectu, Philippa Childs, said: “We welcome this timely and incisive report from the committee which identifies many of the urgent challenges currently facing the industry and its workforce.”

She added: “It’s essential that the industry does not become too skewed towards large streamers, which risks the homogenisation of content and the loss of much of the UK’s unique and distinctive output.”

A source close to the Universal UK project has told the BBC what fans can expect from the new park being built in Bedford.

James Bond, Paddington and Lord of the Rings are among the brands set to appear at the park, the BBC had learned.

Rides and attractions related to Harry Potter are not expected to be included.

On its website, Universal Destinations has claimed “it is too early” to know what attractions will be at the park.

Construction on the site at Kempston Hardwick, Bedfordshire, is expected to start next year if planning permission is granted.

While the source is confident that these concepts are happening, the theme park is not expected to open until 2031, which means some plans could change.

Universal aims to provide distinct attractions at each of its parks, with the Bedfordshire one set to feature unique attractions not found elsewhere.

The BBC has been told that other themed zones and rides at the park will be inspired by Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Minions.

The source insisted “contracts have been signed” and it would be unlikely things would change.

“At this point it will be little details they tweak, like ‘Let’s use a different shade of paint on that Lord of the Rings castle’,” they said.

The locations can be seen on the map of what the site could look like, although specific details, such as the Hill Valley clock from Back to the Future, have been obscured.

Rides have already been designed, with the majority planned as indoor attractions.

Rollercoasters based on Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Minions are among the few rides that will not be under cover.

There will be a stunt show based on 007, similar to the The Bourne Stuntacular in Florida.

“If you look at Epic Universe, the newest park they’re opening in Florida, a lot of those rides are indoors, too,” the source said.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told BBC Breakfast the theme park would be an opportunity to show off “great British creations to the world”.

“These are things like James Bond, Paddington Bear, these are things like Harry Potter. We’ve got so much to be proud of,” she said.

Notably, a Harry Potter-themed area will not be part of the park, as it is situated just a 40-minute drive from the Warner Bros Studio Tour in Leavesden, Hertfordshire.

The source told the BBC that “watertight exclusivity contracts” made it difficult to include Hogwarts in the plans, although it could be reconsidered alongside other brands such as Nintendo or Wicked if the park were to expand in the future.

“Warner Bros has the UK rights to Harry Potter attractions. They tried to find a way round it but couldn’t. That could change in years to come, though,” the source said.

Warner Bros Studio Tour has been invited to comment.

Universal Destinations and Experiences is expecting 8.5 million visitors a year at the park.

Transport links close to the site will require significant improvements to accommodate the new arrivals, which the government says it is committed to.

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

The borough’s mayor, Tom Wootton, a Conservative, said: “Bedford is the perfect place for this investment – well-connected, full of talent and ready to grow.

“We’re proud to be chosen as the home of Universal in the UK. I’m delighted that our residents and communities will benefit in the years and decades ahead.”

Luton Airport is hoping to double annual passenger numbers to 32 million by 2043, after Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander recently approved its expansion plans.

Visitors to the park who land at the airport could catch a train at Luton Airport Parkway on the Midland Main Line line to Wixams, which will be Universal’s nearest station.

That is currently expected to open next year with two platforms, but Universal said it would upgrade the station, potentially with extra platforms, to meet visitor demand.

The East West Rail line is currently being built to link Oxford and Cambridge. Although it is not expected to be fully operational until the 2030s, Universal has said there would be a new railway station near the park.

A car park is in the conceptual art of the park. Drivers would access it via the A421, which was closed last year after it was flooded during heavy rain.

Universal plans to install new slip roads on the A421 to meet increased demand.

Maximo Peña had been coming to the Jet Set nightclub every single Monday for the past 30 years.

This week, excited to see a concert by the popular Dominican singer Rubby Pérez, he took his wife and his sister. Now all three are buried beneath the rubble of the collapsed discotheque, after the roof caved in part way through the performance, leaving at least 184 dead.

“I haven’t heard any news about any of them,” says Shailyn Peña, Maximo’s 17-year-old daughter as she sits on a wall outside the devastated venue.

“It was just another Monday night for them. In fact, my dad invited my mum to come too but at the last minute she decided not to go. It was a blessing in disguise.”

Behind her as she speaks, a team of rescue workers is meticulously going through the rubble inside the building, listening for the slightest sound of a survivor beneath them. They have been joined by Israeli and Mexican search teams and are using sophisticated heat-seeking equipment to try to locate anyone still alive.

Shailyn tells me her cousin is one of the rescue workers, sifting through the debris for her own uncle, which brings her peace of mind that a relative is inside, doing everything in her power to try to track him down.

But the uncertainty and the endless wait for information are becoming unbearable, Shailyn says.

“I feel the urge to just go in there and push aside all the rocks and pull him out. But as much as I want to, I really can’t. I just have to sit here and wait it out.”

For their part, the authorities are doing what they can to keep the public informed, delivering grim updates on the number of dead, which has risen steadily with every passing hour. At regular intervals, a team emerges from the site carrying a body covered by a blanket on a stretcher.

Occasionally, although more rarely now, someone is brought out alive, bolstering the hopes of the relatives. The emergency services insist survivors can still be reached in the debris.

“Nothing can be ruled out,” said the Director of the Emergency Operations Centre, Juan Manuel Mendez. “We are going to go over every inch of the rubble here to give the families of those caught up in the disaster some kind of closure.”

The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, declared three days of national mourning, a reflection of the scale of the tragedy unfolding at the site.

Among those confirmed to have lost their lives in the accident were some well-known national figures including Pérez himself, two much-loved former baseball players, Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco, and a regional governor. And alongside them, scores of merengue music-lovers and Pérez fans also died in the collapse.

For as long as there is a feasible chance of success, the authorities’ focus remains on the search and rescue operation. However, eventually the questions will turn to the cause of the collapse and government investigators will have to provide meaningful answers to the families in due course.

One theory is already circulating outside the venue. Many are pointing the finger of blame at a fire at the nightclub around two years ago. Some fear the blaze structurally weakened the site or that any repairs carried out were insufficient or not up to code.

The owner of the Jet Set nightclub, Antonio Espaillat, delivered a video message via social media expressing his condolences and those of “all the Jet Set family”, to the victims’ relatives.

He also insisted that he and his team were co-operating “totally and transparently with the authorities” over the disaster.

Shailyn Peña has heard about the fire at the nightclub and is among those who thinks it played a part. However, for now she has bigger worries. Despite the family’s efforts to protect them, her younger stepsisters found out that their father and mother were trapped under the rubble from other children at school.

They are “terrified”, she added.

It is Shailyn’s birthday on Thursday, a day she would normally celebrate alongside her father, stepmother and aunt.

Instead, she must endure it in the worst possible circumstances, waiting for news of her missing loved ones, caught inside the worst such tragedy in her country’s modern history.

Many of Thursday’s papers lead on President Donald Trump suspending his slate of punitive tariffs while singling out China.

The Financial Times says Trump showed the “first signs of retreat” when he ordered his 90-day pause.

For the Times, Trump performed a “dramatic U-turn” when he said he wanted “fair deals with everyone”. The paper says it was a radical change in tone from the night before, when he told Republican senators that countries were “kissing my ass”.

The main editorial in the Daily Mail says the president’s mind may have been changed by a fire sale in US government bonds.

“Donald Ducks” is the Sun’s headline.

“Great WAR of China” is the Daily Mirror’s, as it describes Trump as “erratic” and “making a new gamble”, with his elevated 125% levy on Chinese goods.

The Daily Telegraph’s leader column says Trump is taking the world on an increasingly bizarre and dangerous rollercoaster ride. The paper warns of “considerable implications” for UK pensions and mortgages if turmoil on the bond markets continues to push up government borrowing costs.

The i Paper reports that ministers are considering bringing forward announcements planned for the Spending Review in June aimed at protecting the steel, medicines and car industries.

The Daily Express leads on the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urging the prime minister to, in the paper’s words, ‘maximise the UK’s Brexit freedoms’, in the face of global economic turmoil. In an interview with the Express, Badenoch says Labour appears to be “just sitting back and letting it happen” instead of reaching out to countries in a Pacific trading bloc, whose British membership she negotiated as a minister.

Meta is expanding Teen Accounts – what it considers its age-appropriate experience for under 18s – to Facebook and Messenger.

The system involves putting younger teens on the platforms into more restricted settings by default, with parental permission required in order to live stream or turn off image protections for messages.

It was first introduced last September on Instagram, which Meta says “fundamentally changed the experience for teens” on the platform.

But campaigners say it’s unclear what difference Teen Accounts has actually made.

“Eight months after Meta rolled out Teen Accounts on Instagram, we’ve had silence from Mark Zuckerberg about whether this has actually been effective and even what sensitive content it actually tackles,” said Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation.

He added it was “appalling” that parents still did not know whether the settings prevented their children being “algorithmically recommended” inappropriate or harmful content.

Matthew Sowemimo, associate head of policy for child safety online at the NSPCC, said Meta’s changes “must be combined with proactive measures so dangerous content doesn’t proliferate on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger in the first place”.

But Drew Benvie, chief executive of social media consultancy Battenhall, said it was a step in the right direction.

“For once, big social are fighting for the leadership position not for the most highly engaged teen user base, but for the safest,” he said.

However he also pointed out there was a risk, as with all platforms, that teens could “find a way around safety settings.”

The expanded roll-out of Teen Accounts is beginning in the UK, US, Australia and Canada from Tuesday.

Companies that provide services popular with children have faced pressure to introduce parental controls or safety mechanisms to safeguard their experiences.

In the UK, they also face legal requirements to prevent children from encountering harmful and illegal content on their platforms, under the Online Safety Act.

Roblox recently enabled parents to block specific games or experiences on the hugely popular platform as part of its suite of controls.

How Teen Accounts work depend on the self-declared age of the user.

Those aged 16 to 18 will be able to toggle off default safety settings like having their account set to private.

But 13 to 15 year olds must obtain parental permission to turn off such settings – which can only be done by adding a parent or guardian to their account.

Meta says it has moved at least 54 million teens globally into teen accounts since they were introduced in September.

It says that 97% of 13 to 15 year olds have also kept its built-in restrictions.

The system relies on users being truthful about their age when they set up accounts – with Meta using methods such as video selfies to verify their information.

It said in 2024 it would begin using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify teens who might be lying about their age in order to place them back into Teen Accounts.

Findings published by the UK media regulator Ofcom in November 2024 suggested that 22% of eight to 17 year olds lie that they are 18 or over on social media apps.

Some teenagers told the BBC it was still “so easy” to lie about their age on platforms.

In coming months, younger teens will also need parental consent to go live on Instagram or turn off nudity protection – which blurs suspected nude images in direct messages.

Concerns over children and teenagers receiving unwanted nude or sexual images, or feeling pressured to share them in potential sextortion scams, has prompted calls for Meta to take tougher action.

Prof Sonia Livingstone, director of the Digital Futures for Children centre, said Meta’s expansion of Teen Accounts may be a welcome move amid “a growing desire from parents and children for age-appropriate social media”.

But she said questions remained over the company’s overall protections for young people from online harms, “as well as from its own data-driven and highly commercialised practices”.

“Meta must be accountable for its effects on young people whether or not they use a teen account,” she added.

Mr Sowewimo of the NSPCC said it was important that accountability for keeping children safe online, via safety controls, did not fall to parents and children themselves.

“Ultimately, tech companies must be held responsible for protecting children on their platforms and Ofcom needs to hold them to account for their failures.”