BBC News Briefing

4 April, 2025

Alex has short blonde hair and blue eyes. She is smiling and wearing a black turtleneck.

Alex Binley

Hello. The risk of a global trade war is escalating, with the world's two superpowers - the US and China - appearing unwilling to back down over tariffs. From Lebanon, Hugo Bachega looks at Hezbollah's uncertain future, and we report on the capture of a hawk that's been terrorising inhabitants of an English village for weeks. Plus, try your hand at our weekly quiz.

TOP OF THE AGENDA

China and US are at each other's throats on tariffs, and neither is backing down

Trump and Xi walk around a table. There are large US and China flags at the end of the table and smaller ones on the table. Both men are wearing suits, in this picture from 2019

Neither Donald Trump nor Xi Jinping looks like they are going to back down on tariffs soon. Credit: Reuters

"The world's two greatest economies are now at each other's throats with no indication that either is preparing to back down," writes China correspondent Stephen McDonell. From next week, Beijing will impose additional import taxes of 34% on American goods, in response to US President Donald Trump's tariffs of 54% on Chinese goods. As the global trade war escalates, trillions of dollars have been wiped from world markets in just two days, following Trump's Rose Garden announcement. US markets have continued to tumble after opening for trading on Friday, while the UK's main share index, the FTSE 100, has had its biggest one-day fall since the Covid pandemic five years ago.

More on tariffs

GET UP TO SPEED

Russell Brand charged with rape

The 49-year-old denied he was ever "a rapist", adding: "I've never engaged in non-consensual activity."

Read more >

An aerial view image of the damage in the yard of a destroyed school, following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City

Aftermath of Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter

BBC Verify explains what we know about the Gaza air strike, which killed 27 people, after reviewing videos posted online.

Watch now >

Papers reveal new details about Andrew's ties to 'spy'

Papers detail how an ex-adviser saw Yang Tengbo as Andrew's "light at the end of the tunnel" after his Newsnight interview.

More on this story >

A phone has the TikTok symbol on it and the words 'TikTok' on a black background. The US flag is in the background

Trump extends deadline to keep TikTok running in US

The deadline for TikTok's parent company ByteDance to sell the popular video app to an American buyer had been 5 April.

What next? >

AT THE SCENE

Southern Lebanon

Hezbollah at crossroads after blows from war weaken group

Two women wearing black walk through piles of rubble that look like they may once have been homes. One of the women carries a yellow Hezbollah flag over her shoulder

Some of Lebanon's border towns were almost completely destroyed by the Israeli military during last year's war. Credit: Reuters

Hezbollah, the militia and political movement in Lebanon, has been battered by its war with Israel, with September's pager attacks that left around a dozen people dead and thousands wounded, proving a turning point. Its leaders have been assassinated, hundreds of fighters killed, and many of its communities lie in ruins. Until recently, a formidable power with the ability to paralyse the country, Hezbollah now appears a shadow of its former self. For the first time in decades, even some supporters are questioning its purpose, others though, remain staunchly loyal.

Hugo has short brown hair which is parted on the side and wears a black puffa jacket

Hugo Bachega, Middle East correspondent

Adam, a nurse at a hospital in Lebanon, was on shift when his pager began beeping. "I was sitting at my desk," he said, "and the pager exploded". In the attack, the 38-year-old lost his thumb and two fingers on his left hand, and part of a finger on the other. He was blinded in his right eye, which has been replaced with a glass eye, and has only partial sight in the other.

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Despite his wounds, Adam remains committed to Hezbollah. I asked him how he felt when he saw pictures of himself wounded. "Very good," he said. "Because we believe that the wounds are a kind of medal from God. Honouring what we go through fighting a righteous cause." On his injured left hand he now has a tattooed message which expresses that his wounds were a cheap sacrifice in honour of Hassan Nasrallah, the late Hezbollah leader. He, like many, still believes in the group's purpose, and the role it plays.

Keep reading

What is Hezbollah?: And why has the political and military group in Lebanon been involved in a series of violent conflicts with Israel?

Story behind pager attacks: Two ex-Mossad agents tell the BBC how members of Hezbollah came to have Israeli made walkie-talkies and how they were detonated in a surprise attack.

Four killed: An Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs earlier this week killed a Hezbollah official and three others, Lebanon's health ministry said, putting further pressure on the fragile ceasefire.

PICK OF THE WEEK

The tiny Caribbean island where residents are vanishing without a trace

A woman sits on a wall near to an outdoor swimming pool which is surrounded by sunloungers. She is wearing a black T-shirt, gold flip-flops and jeans which end just below the knee. She has short black hair and wears glasses.

Hyacinth Gage was last seen six years ago, close to a hospital where she had gone for blood tests. Credit: Patricia Joseph

An ever-increasing number of people on the tiny Caribbean island of Antigua have disappeared without a trace, in what some have dubbed an epidemic. At least nine have vanished in the last two years alone. Speculation is rife. Theories range from the banal - a lack of will to investigate by an under-resourced and under-paid police force - to the sinister - gang activity or organ trafficking.

A church and a house with a creamy white front and brown roof standatop of a snowy slope against the backdrop of the Dolomite mountains glowing in a pink and orange light at sunset

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SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Magic of 'enrosadira'

A rare natural phenomenon paints the Dolomites pink at dawn and dusk.

How it works

And finally... in England

Villagers in Flamstead, Hertfordshire, are feeling relief after a resident was able to capture a Harris's hawk that had been terrorising them for weeks. It is estimated that the bird of prey had swooped on at least 50 people since early March, drawing blood from several victims. In an ironic twist, the falcon-catcher is called Mr Harris. Read about how he trapped his nemesis and watch as an attack takes place.

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– Alex

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