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BBC News China has launched military drills in response to a much-anticipated meeting between Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. They met in California on Wednesday, a week after President Tsai was feted in New York with a leadership award. Ms Tsai hailed their "strong and unique partnership", and Mr McCarthy said that arms sales to Taiwan must continue. Beijing, in turn, has vowed a "resolute response" and sent warships into the waters around the self-governed island. Taiwan, it appears, is caught in the middle of a dangerous love triangle. The timing of Ms Tsai's visit is hardly a coincidence. In the US there is deep and growing hostility to China. And this is driving ever more open displays of support for Taiwan, with Democrats and Republicans competing to out-do each other.

The crisis facing the US banking system "is not yet over," the head of America's biggest bank has warned. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, made the comments in an annual letter to shareholders just weeks after the dramatic collapse of two major US banks. He said he did not expect the turmoil to lead to a global crisis akin to 2008, noting that it involved "involved fewer players and fewer issues". But he warned the impact would linger. "While this is nothing like 2008, it is not clear when this current crisis will end," he said. "Even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come." Mr Dimon is a veteran of Wall Street, who steered JPMorgan through the 2008 financial crisis, when exposure to bad home loans in the US caused problems throughout the global financial system. In recent weeks, he worked with government officials to coordinate a rescue plan for the California-based bank First Republic, which many feared was also on the verge of collapse.

China's military has adopted a policy of keeping at least one nuclear-capable submarine at sea at all times, the U.S. military has determined. The Pentagon announced the discovery in a little-known report in late November of last year. China maintains a fleet of six nuclear-capable submarines, carrying missiles that could hit the continental United States from the South China Sea. Analysts say China's new policy will place further strain on U.S. and allied forces in the region as they attempt to track China's vessels

The British pound crashed to a record low last fall as investors rebelled against budget plans by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. Now, it’s enjoying a comeback. Sterling hit its highest level against the US dollar in 10 months on Tuesday, topping $1.25 for the first time since June 2022. The pound, which has advanced about 3.3% versus the greenback since the start of 2023, is the best-performing currency among developed economies this year.

NASA has announced who the next four humans will be to fly around the Moon, in the next leg of the Artemis mission launching next year. They include the first woman and the first Black astronaut to travel to the Moon. More than 50 years since the last mission to the Moon, the next team of astronauts to go includes three US astronauts and one Canadian. They will be the first astronauts to fly in NASA's Orion capsule, which will be launched by NASA's most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). Late last year, the SLS fired an unmanned Orion capsule to the Moon, with the spacecraft conducting a flyby and returning safely to Earth, in a hotly anticipated - and much-delayed - test flight.

In the Sau reservoir, teams in small boats are hard at work hauling out fish with nets. The idea is to remove them before they die and rot in the water, making it unusable for human consumption. The water level has dropped so low here - to below 10% of the reservoir's capacity - that there is already a risk the water will be contaminated by silt. Therefore, while the fish are removed, Sau's remaining water is being emptied downstream to another reservoir. "We are trying to transfer the water as quickly as we can, because the quality right now in the winter was good [but] in the spring it will become really, really bad, and we're trying to extract all the fish we can find there," said Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA). The Sau reservoir, 100km (about 62 miles) inland from Barcelona, has been supplying water to the city and other towns in the north-eastern region of Catalonia for half a century. But in recent months it has become the most visible symbol of the worst drought this area has seen in living memory.

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's rocket company Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy in the US after failing to secure new investment. The satellite launch company halted operations weeks ago but it hopes to find a buyer for the business. The company, based in California, announced last week that it would cut 85% of its 750-strong workforce. Earlier this year, a Virgin Orbit rocket failed to complete its first-ever satellite launch from UK soil. Virgin Orbit's boss Dan Hart said that although the company had "taken great efforts" to address its finances and secure more funding, "we ultimately must do what is best for the business." He said that Virgin Orbit will now concentrate on finding a buyer for the business "to provide clarity on the future of the company to its customers, vendors, and employees".

BBC News Finland has become the 31st member of the Nato security alliance, and its flag will soon be raised at the alliance's headquarters. The Finnish foreign minister handed the accession document to the US secretary of state who declared Finland a member. Finland's accession is a setback for Russia's Vladimir Putin, who repeatedly complained of Nato's expansion before his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The length of Russia's border with Nato member states has now doubled. Finland shares a 1,340-km (832-mile) eastern frontier with Russia and formally applied to join Nato with Sweden last May because of Russia's war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that Russia would be "watching closely" what happens in Finland, describing Nato's enlargement as a "violation of our security and our national interests". Finland and Sweden had previously both adopted a policy of non-alignment. But after the Ukraine invasion, they chose the protection of Nato's Article Five, which says an attack on one member is an attack on all.

North Korea is warning its southern neighbors and the United States that it is not making "empty talk" on its nuclear capabilities. The rhetoric came in a commentary published on the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) which condemned South Korea and the United States for the joint 11-day Freedom Shield exercise held last month.

The New York Times has lost its blue tick on Twitter after it said it would not pay to remain verified. Twitter has started removing verification badges from accounts which already had a blue tick, after announcing they would be part of a paid subscription from 1 April. The New York Times, along with several other organisations and celebrities, said they would not pay for the tick. It prompted Elon Musk to launch a volley of insults at the newspaper. "The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn't even interesting", Mr Musk, who owns Twitter, wrote on the platform. "Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It's unreadable," he added.

Former US president Donald Trump is "gearing up for a battle" ahead of his scheduled court hearing on Tuesday, his lawyer has said. Mr Trump is expected to fly to New York City from his Mar-a-Lago home on Monday to face charges related to hush money payments made to a porn star. He then plans to return to Florida following his court hearing, where he will address his supporters. Mr Trump has continued to deny any wrongdoing. His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, promised that any charges against the former president will be fought vigorously. "He's someone who's going to be ready for this fight," Mr Tacopina told ABC's This Week programme on Sunday. "We're ready for this fight. And I look forward to moving this thing along as quickly as possible to exonerate him." Media reports have said that Mr Trump will be facing more than 30 charges related to business fraud over a $130,000 (£105,000) pay-out to Stormy Daniels in 2016 that was made in an attempt to buy her silence over an alleged affair. What happened between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump? 'He'll be our next president': Florida protesters stay faithful to Trump Trump indictment: A simple guide to what it means

The cost of constructing a fence in Finland at the Russian border is estimated to run into hundreds of millions of euros and could take around three to four years to be finished. The work is continuing with Finland's membership of NATO now imminent. 'Welcome to NATO': Turkey's parliament ratifies Finland's membership It's set to be the longest European border stretch between the security alliance and The Russian Federation. Between 130 and 260 kilometres of partial fencing are to be built along the frontline that's more than 1,300 kilometres long.

rld AudioLive TV Log The oceans just reached their hottest temperature on record as El Niño looms. Here are 6 things to watch for By Laura Paddison and Rachel Ramirez, CNN Updated 7:10 AM EDT, Sat April 1, 2023 CNN — Scientists have watched in astonishment as ocean temperatures have steadily risen over the past several years – even as the cooling La Niña phenomenon had a firm grip on the Pacific. The oceans have been record-warm for the past four years, scientists reported in January. Then in mid-March, climatologists noted that global sea surface temperature climbed to a new high. The incredible trend worries experts about what could lie ahead, especially as forecasts predict El Niño is on its way starting this summer – and along with it, impacts like extreme heat, dangerous tropical cyclones and a significant threat to fragile coral reefs.

Finns go the polls on Sunday, in an election seen as a neck-and-neck race between right-wing populists, conservatives and Prime Minister Sanna Marin's centre left. Finland may be days from joining Nato, but the war in Ukraine has had no impact on the vote, even though Finland shares the longest border with Russia. The election battle ground has instead been over the economy. And Finns are making a big choice on their country's future direction. The main challenge to Sanna Marin's Social Democrats comes from the right. After four years of opposition Petteri Orpo's conservative National Coalition Party has high hopes of forming a coalition, but this could be the populist Finns Party's best chance to lead a government yet. When Ms Marin, now 37, burst on to the scene four years ago, she was the world's youngest prime minister at the head of a coalition of five parties, all led by women. Although her poll ratings are still high, she is seen as a polarising figure and came under heavy scrutiny last summer when a video emerged of her singing, dancing and drinking at a party.

When 31-year-old hot dog vendor Dirk Frazel heard the news that Donald Trump had been indicted, he "knew he had to do something", so he got in his car. His destination was Mr Trump's home at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, a five-hour drive from Mr Frazel's home in St Augustine. The Mar-a-Lago rally, along with a second event held outside a nearby Trump-branded golf course, totalled no more than several dozen people on Saturday, despite earlier calls for protests by Mr Trump ahead of the indictment. "I heard he was indicted on Twitter and knew there would be people down here," Mr Frazel told the BBC, standing on a bridge near Mar-a-Lago where he was handing out "Trump hot dogs" to passing motorists. Inside the resort a few hundred metres away, Mr Trump has reportedly been meeting with his advisers and legal team to plan his legal defence against criminal charges in connection with a $130,000 (£105,000) pay-out to porn star Stormy Daniels.