Up to 90% of young people in Taiwan have myopia but eye experts say the growing global trend can be reversed

In the final days of their eight-week bootcamp, dozens of young Taiwanese conscripts are being tested on an obstacle course. The men in full combat kit are crawling underneath rows of razor wire and through bunkers as controlled explosions blast columns of dirt into the air. Pink and green smoke blooms in a simulated gas attack, requiring the conscripts to quickly don gas masks so they can rush the zone. But it’s here where many of them pause, stopping the assault drill to spend precious seconds removing their glasses so the masks will fit.

The conscripts mostly look to be in their early 20s. Statistics suggest that means anywhere up to 90% of them have some degree of myopia, otherwise known as shortsightedness.

Hopes of swaying the White House on Ukraine look bleak as US prioritised theatrics over security commitments in a volatile world

Europe hoped that concerted efforts could have some effect in bringing round Donald Trump to a more reasonable position on Ukraine, and mitigate the worst of his administration’s instincts. After the combined persuasion and flattery of Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron brought out a somewhat tamer and more jovial version of the US president, there were modest hopes that the Ukrainian president’s visit to Washington might be more productive than feared – even if there was no sign that they had succeeded in tempting Mr Trump towards the security assurances so desperately needed.

Instead, his Oval Office meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy soon exploded into acrimony, with the US president berating his guest for ingratitude. Mr Trump had earlier spoken of partnership with the Ukrainian president. But he and his vice-president, JD Vance, teamed up to deliver a public kicking. It would, the president added, be “great television”.

The exit of a soft-left intellectual politician from government highlights a growing unease about the reordering of the party’s priorities

The resignation of Anneliese Dodds, the international development minister, from Labour’s cabinet may not have been entirely unexpected. Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to cut the aid budget to “pay” for increased defence spending was wrong. Making the world’s poorest foot the bill for Britain’s security is reckless and self-defeating. Slashing aid fuels instability – it won’t buy safety. From her perch in government Ms Dodds, who was Sir Keir’s first shadow chancellor, knew this better than most.

The former cabinet minister’s letter is right to warn that the cuts will mean the UK withdrawing from many developing countries and having a diminished role in global institutions like the World Bank, the G7 and climate negotiations. She pointedly argued Britain will find it “impossible” to deliver on its commitment to maintain development spending in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine with the shrunken budget. Sir Keir rebuffed this charge, but Ms Dodds is right to say his move is being seen as following the Trumpian lead in cutting USAid – a framing that implies the UK is losing its independent foreign policy direction.

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Hundreds of thousands demonstrate amid outpouring of anger over state’s handling of Tempe tragedy

Two years to the day since 57 people died and dozens were injured in Greece’s worst train crash in history, hundreds of thousands of protesters filled plazas around the country and a general strike paralysed the transport network in an outpouring of anger over the government’s handling of the tragedy.

By 11am on Friday, more than 100,000 people had already gathered in Syntagma Square in Athens. Thousands who could not get to the area due to packed metro trains instead vented their anger outside stations in the capital’s suburbs.