Health secretary says chaos caused by fears of a global trade war will be ‘another layer of challenge’

US tariffs could adversely affect the supply of medicines to the UK, the health secretary has warned.

Donald Trump announced a wide range of “reciprocal” tariffs on goods imported into the US from countries across the world including a 10% levy on the UK, as well as 20% on the EU, 34% on China and 46% on Vietnam.

In focusing on the multilateral bonds that were forged to defeat Hitler, this entertaining account offers fresh disclosures about the course of the conflict

Can anything new be said about the second world war? Unexpectedly the answer is yes. Here are just a few of the surprising facts that I learned from this revelatory book. The Belgian army in 1940 was twice the size of the British Expeditionary Force. (The US army in 1940 was smaller still, smaller than those of Portugal or Sweden.) Almost all the French troops evacuated at Dunkirk chose to be repatriated rather than join the Free French. In 1942 pro-Russian feeling in Britain was so strong that War and Peace became a bestseller. Even in January 1945 the Japanese still had 1 million troops in Manchuria. The Indian prophet of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, considered Hitler “not as bad as he is depicted”. And so on.

Tim Bouverie has reverted to a traditional form to present the past afresh. His focus is not on the battlefield, nor on the Home Front, but on the relations between the allies who opposed Hitler. In the foreground are the leaders, especially Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, of course; but there are also walk-on parts for the foreign ministers, the ambassadors, the emissaries and others who participated in their discussions. This is a work of old-fashioned diplomatic history, which provides new perspectives on subjects that seemed familiar. One of its merits is to present the choices that faced the allied leaders as they appeared at the time, rather than with the benefit of hindsight.

Playing the troubled teen in a school production of Peter Shaffer’s drama resulted in West End roles and then a new career

Psychotherapy is about storytelling, about roles that we assume, the veil between our truth and our invention. But for me, as a therapist, it is always a piece of theatre – a series of roles and characters that are played out.

In 1986, I was just coming up to 14 with no thoughts of such things. Until I found acting I had lived quite an isolated, secluded little life, but theatre suddenly gave me opportunities to try on different lives – a bit like Mr Benn , really. And I felt as if I could take on the world.

The drama department at my school was quite progressive and decided to put on Equus by Peter Shaffer, a deeply traumatic story about sexual fantasy. It is about the relationship between a psychiatrist, Dr Dysart, and a teenage boy, Alan Strang, and their wrestling over Alan’s dangerous passion for horses and for God, which have become entangled in a way that leads him to acts of appalling violence.

I was cast as Alan and it was pretty extreme. I remember rehearsing a scene in which he goes deeply into the beauty of the horses and the pleasure he derives from them. There was a kind of explosion, a firework display in my mind. I remember just breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably.

A swift loss of £4tn from global stock markets has led some to liken Trump’s trade war to 1929 Wall Street crash

Donald Trump’s escalating trade war has plunged global financial markets into the steepest rout since the spread of the Covid pandemic five years ago.

Drawing parallels with the 1929 Wall Street crash and the ensuing 1930s Great Depression, the US president’s “liberation day” tariff plan has led to warnings of a global recession from leading economists.

FTSE 100 up as investors hope reports of planned US trade talks with Japan mean it will be open to negotiations

• Business live –latest updates

European stock markets opened higher on Tuesday in early signs of a rebound from the punishing global sell-off triggered by US trade tariffs.

Stock markets in the UK and across the EU were in positive territory in early trading on Tuesday, as some investor optimism returned after heavy falls as a result of Donald Trump’s “liberation day’” tariff announcements last Wednesday.

Despite Thai advisers, the series failed to escape the western lens of its rich protagonists and the history of the country’s representation

• Contains spoilers for the finale of The White Lotus series 3

One of the first things I noticed when I sat down to watch the eagerly awaited third series of The White Lotus was the birdsong. The distinctive call of two species peculiar to Thailand – the coucal and the Asian koel – conjure up precisely how it feels to be there, in the midst of a tropical soundscape. Then there are the exquisite opening credits, which plunge the viewer into a visceral experience of the Thai cultural environment: based on reimagined traditional Buddhist temple painting, the key protagonists are “Thai-ified” as they merge into the mural motifs.

The expertise of an array of famous Thai actors, pop stars, fashion models and celebrities – along with the somewhat heavy hand of the Tourism Authority of Thailand – have helped this series achieve a cultural authenticity like no other previous western drama set in Thailand. Things have certainly come a long way since British governess Anna Leonowens (played by Deborah Kerr) waltzed gaily around the royal palace of Yul Brynner’s shiny-headed King Mongkut in the 1956 hit musical, based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage production, The King and I (perhaps unsurprisingly banned in Thailand for its derogatory portrayal of a highly revered monarch). Gone too are the crass depictions of Bangkok from the 2011 comedy The Hangover Part II; or the classic Lord of the Flies - style narrative that is explored in Danny Boyle’s 2000 adventure The Beach . In both these cases, the ill-fated western tourist faces crude symbols of the dangers posed by the tropics – from predatory sharks to kleptomaniacal monkeys and gun-toting cannabis farmers.

Rachel Harrison is professor of Thai cultural studies at Soas University of London

Backbench groups revive controversial issue to tackle threat of Reform and crack down on illegal migration

More than 40 Labour MPs from three influential backbench groups have called on ministers to introduce digital IDs, which they claim would boost productivity in delivering public services and crack down on illegal employment.

The open letter – organised by the Rother Valley MP, Jake Richards – is signed by the co-chairs of the Labour Growth Group, Chris Curtis and Lola McEvoy, as well as Jo White, who convenes the Labour Red Wall Group. Other signatories include Dan Carden and Jonathan Brash, members of the Blue Labour group of socially conservative MPs.

As Trump’s divisive second term threatens the liberties of many Americans, movies from Z to Spartacus to V for Vendetta have become more and more relevant

From its opening frame, Costa-Gavras’s political thriller Z promises to be an unflinching denunciation of authoritarianism. The kinetic camera work matches its forthright narrative of state-sponsored violence and the erosion of democracy. The Greek expatriate director’s film is loosely based on the 1963 assassination of the democratic leader Grigoris Lambrakis and although it was released in 1969, when Costa-Gavras reigned as a political storyteller, the film still has something to say today in this “golden age” for the United States.

In the flurry of Donald Trump ’s executive orders, I found myself watching Z again as I contemplated how we arrived at this political moment – the polarization, disinformation, corruption and complicity by individuals and institutions that precede and abet the collapse of democracy – and what cinema can reveal at a time of censorship, deportations and protesters vilified as domestic terrorists.

My bank is in the process of repossessing our former marital home over mortgage arrears he was instructed to pay

When my husband and I divorced, the family court ordered our house should be sold. In the meantime, it ruled my ex was to live in it and pay the mortgage, which was in our joint names. I warned the court he had a history of missed payments.

The house has proved hard to sell, and the mortgage is now five months in arrears. The bank is about to start repossession ­proceedings. My credit rating has already plummeted and a repossession will leave me struggling to get a mortgage. My lawyers tell me that I can’t go back to the family court about the damage to my credit ­rating because its outside its remit, even though the court imposed this situation on me in the first place.
GS, Dorset