Beijing accuses US of blackmail and adding a ‘mistake on top of a mistake’ as Wednesday deadline for latest levies looms

• Tariff market reaction –live updates

China’s government says it will “fight to the end” if the US continues to escalate the trade war, after Donald Trump threatened huge additional tariffs in response to China’s retaliatory measures.

On Tuesday, China’s commerce ministry accused the US of “blackmail” and said the US president’s threats of additional 50% tariffs if Beijing did not reverse its own 34% reciprocal tariff were a “mistake on top of a mistake”.

The married couple jump into cold water in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Plus: Ben Fogle encounters stone-age living. Here’s what to watch this evening

8.30pm, BBC Two
In case you’ve missed it in the Guardian’s pages over the past 10 years, wild swimming is really good for you! Julie Wilson Nimmo and Greg Hemphill are testament to this – they have been married for 25 years and seem very happy. In this six-parter, they explore the best cold water spots across Scotland, starting with urban locations in Glasgow and Edinburgh. But first, they must “warm up” by plunging into an ice bath for something “colder than you’ve ever experienced” for more than 10 minutes. Hollie Richardson

Exclusive: Scale of looming job losses prompts NHS leaders to ask Treasury to cover costs

Hospitals in England could axe more than 100,000 jobs as a result of the huge reorganisation and brutal cost-cutting ordered by Wes Streeting and the NHS’s new boss.

The scale of looming job losses is so large that NHS leaders have urged the Treasury to cover the costs involved, which they say could top £2bn, because they do not have the money.

Series of events mark 165th anniversary of birth of forgotten pacifist who exposed conditions in British concentration camps

She took on the might of establishment and empire to expose the suffering of women and children held in British concentration camps but her story has “faded” from the history books.

From 12 April a series of events are being held at the Cornish home where the pacifist, whistleblower and activist Emily Hobhouse grew up, around the 165th anniversary of her birth, part of efforts to shine a new light on her fight for justice.

Report released as Labour admits it will break promise to enact law by 36th anniversary and rewrites key proposals

Bereaved families have urged ministers to introduce the Hillsborough law in full, according to a new report, as Labour admitted a promise to bring legislation by the 36th anniversary would be broken.

The justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and the Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds attended the “family listening day” event on 3 February, which the Ministry of Justice funded, organised by the campaign group Inquest.

Underbelly Boulevard, London
Eschewing the customary conjuror’s hype, Frayne’s new show follows traumatic illness and delivers high excitement in an unusually low key

What do you get when you subtract the hip alter ego from magician Steven Frayne? And, for that matter, most of the showmanship from onstage conjuring? You get this set from the artist formerly known as Dynamo, his first performed under his own name, after a stint in hospital (Frayne suffers from Crohn’s disease and arthritis) left him doubting he’d ever perform again. It’s an unorthodox show, because our host eschews the usual hype that inflates great magic into dramatic theatre. In its place, vulnerability and a seeming emotional honesty, as 42-year-old Frayne reconnects with his craft and builds a new identity out of the ashes of his old persona.

The tricks are strung together by autobiography, as Frayne gives us a slideshow of family photos, remembers the grandad who encouraged him to take up magic, and screens a video of his recent medical woes. Ostensibly, the tricks are tailored to the personal story – and to Frayne’s recent insight that “the magic is in other people”. In practice, this means audience participation, and the illusion that his stooges are the ones supplying the wonder.

At Underbelly Boulevard, London , until 11 May

With a byelection looming, the focus is on Runcorn where people voted for Labour in great numbers last year – but so far they feel short-changed

Crises suit him – whether in Southport, Ukraine or the White House. Facing the headwinds of the Donald Trump storm, Keir Starmer’s “we have your back” pledge yesterday at a car factory in Solihull heralded a welter of “further and faster” and “fight for the future” to match his apocalyptic “the world as we knew it has gone”. The psephology supremo Prof John Curtice says of the prime minister: “He’s brilliant at bad news.” Coping with catastrophe is his forte.

Yet the planet-wide tremor didn’t feature on the doorsteps of voters last weekend, as I listened to their conversations with Labour canvassers for the Runcorn and Helsby byelection next month. Fear of economic cataclysm as a result of Trump and his tariffs hadn’t arrived yet. But it is coming.

Elections set for 3 June after months of political turmoil triggered by Yoon Suk Yeol’s shock declaration of martial law and subsequent impeachment

South Korea will hold a presidential election on 3 June, the country’s acting president said on Tuesday, after predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and removed from office over a disastrous declaration of martial law.

The government “is to set June 3 as the date for South Korea’s 21st presidential election”, prime minister Han Duck-soo said, adding that the day would be designated as a temporary public holiday to facilitate voting.

The UK is known for its national parks: areas of outstanding natural beauty with rolling hills and crystal-clear streams and lakes. But research has shown that England’s most protected rivers are full of pharmaceuticals.

In episode one of a two-part series, biodiversity reporter Phoebe Weston tells Madeleine Finlay about the problem of chemical pollution in our waterways, and how it could be contributing to what the World Health Organization has described as ‘the silent pandemic’ – antimicrobial resistance.

‘Rivers you think are pristine are not’: how drug pollution flooded the UK’s waterways – and put human health at risk

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