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BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
Donald Trump has heaped praise on Elon Musk at a press conference marking the world's richest person's exit from the U.S. government. The president said his billionaire backer had led one of the most consequential reform programs in generations. Sarah Smith is in Washington. Elon Musk couldn't stay in the White House forever as a special government employee. He was restricted to doing only a 130 days work and that time was almost up. But he is leaving quite abruptly in the same week as which he took a swipe at Donald Trump's big spending bill, saying that it was just going to increase the deficit and wipe out all the savings that his DOGE cost-cutting team had made. So is there a rift between the two men? Well, Elon Musk has been a lot less prominent by Donald Trump's side recently but he got a very warm send-off from the president. Donald Trump has told a rally at a U.S. Steel plant in Pennsylvania that he intends to double U.S. steel import tariffs to 50%. The president said the increase would offer the country's steel industry more security. "We are going to be imposing a 25% increase. We're going to bring it from 25% to 50%, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody's gonna get around that." The White House said the higher levies would take effect next week. On Thursday a federal appeals court granted the temporary suspension of a lower court's trade ruling that the bulk of Mr. Trump's global tariffs were illegal. The U.N. says what it calls the current mass starvation in Gaza can be stopped but this will take political will. Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the U.N. agency supporting Palestinians, said Gaza's people were both starving and trying to survive heavy bombing. Charles Haviland reports. Mr. Lazzarini said the aid now being sent in was a mockery as it met only 10% of needs. Without mentioning Israel, Mr. Lazzarini said the U.N. and its partners must be allowed to do their work and assist people in need. Israel has alleged that U.N. staff were not picking up the available aid once it had entered the territory. But U.N. officials say their operations are hampered by insecurity, looting by unnamed armed men and Israeli restrictions including on what type of aid to let in. The U.N. secretary-general's spokesman said on Friday that the situation in Gaza was "catastrophic, the worst since the war began." Israel has launched airstrikes in Syria's coastal cities of Latakia and Tartus, the first such attack in nearly a month. The Israeli military said it hit what it described as weapons storage facilities. Syrian state media said one person was killed. BBC News. A Guatemalan court has sentenced three former paramilitaries each to 40 years in prison for raping six indigenous women during the country's civil war in the 1980s. The men were members of so-called Civil Defense Patrols which were armed groups formed and supported by the army. One woman told the court she'd been held for 25 days. Taylor Swift has bought back the rights to her first six albums ending a long-running battle over the ownership of her music. The U.S. singer lost control of the master tape six years ago when a record executive, "Scooter" Braun, took over her former label. Swift objected to the deal, accused Braun of bullying and began re-recording her own versions of the albums. The boss of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, is on track to receive bonuses worth well over a hundred million dollars in what's thought to be one of the biggest payouts in European corporate history. He's due to be rewarded because shares in the budget airline closed above their target price for a 28th consecutive day. Loretta Swift, who starred in one of the most successful ever shows on American television, M*A*S*H, has died. She was 87. This report from Regan Morris. Loretta Swift was Emmy-nominated ten years in a row for playing Major Margaret Houlihan, the demanding head army nurse in M*A*S*H. She won the top TV prize twice in 1980 and 1982. Swift also had a long career on stage and screen and ran a charity for animals. But it's her role in M*A*S*H for which she will be most remembered. Set during the Korean War and filmed in the hills of Malibu, M*A*S*H originally portrayed Major Houlihan as a stereotypical blonde bombshell known as "Hot Lips" Houlihan. Swift urged the writers to ditch the nickname, which they did in later seasons, and show Major Houlihan more respect as a complicated professional at war. BBC News. |