It was a nerve-wracking night for Ukrainians and the anxiety goes on.
Having a nuclear power plant in enemy hands has been the cause of deep concern for Ukrainians throughout the war. Never more so than now.
They have just heard warnings from their president and intelligence chiefs that the plant has been mined with explosives – but also worrying statements by the Russians.
When Russians claim the Ukrainians are about to do something it often means they are about to do it themselves, most recently with the Kakhovka dam shortly before it’s believed the Russians blew it up.
So claims by Russians that the Ukrainians were about to attack the Zaporizhzhia power plant last night were deeply worrying.
The Ukrainian government issued instructions on how to leave a radiation zone last night too on social media, doing nothing to calm nerves.
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Possible threat to nuclear plant
This is what we know about the plant.
Sky sources at the plant say they have noticed a reduction in the number of patrols there and Ukrainian military intelligence says it believes Russians have partially withdrawn from the plant. That may or may not be a sign they are planning to create an incident there.
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The good news is, a few days ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency said there were no signs of explosives being laid there.
We are in the thick of an information war and the Russians have had no qualms about using their control of the plant to spread fear before.
What worries the Ukrainians most is what Russia did to the Kakhovka dam a month ago and the muted response from the rest of the world.
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Aerial view of Kakhovka dam damage
It created a massive disaster by unleashing the contents of Europe’s second-biggest reservoir, flooding the homes of tens of thousands of people downstream and depriving the same number of water upstream.
Voices in the West condemned the move but a delegation of African leaders came to Ukraine the week after and made little of it, urging both sides to de-escalate instead. Their determination to find a moral equivalency between the invaders and the invaded utterly infuriated the Ukrainians.
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If Vladimir Putin was testing the water for his next act of mass destruction he will hardly have felt deterred, making the Ukrainians’ jitters over Zaporizhzhia all the more understandable.
Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.
While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.
All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.
The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.
Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.
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Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.
The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.
And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.
Image: US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters
Trump holds trade deal talks – reports
It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indianand Israelirepresentatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.
The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.
Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.
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China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.
Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.
Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.
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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’
“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Image: Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Image: The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.