UK politics: Trump says UK’s aircraft carriers are just ‘toys’ – as it happened

Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of his cabinet Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

6.00pm GMT

Early evening summary

• Donald Trump has dismissed British warships as “toys” in his latest jibe at Nato countries for their lack of involvement in the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Speaking at the White House on Thursday, he claimed he had told the UK: “Don’t bother, we don’t need it.”

• The SNP, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives have all launched their campaigns for the Holyrood election.

• Keir Starmer has said he will tackle “addictive features” in social media amid increasing signs the UK government is preparing to crack down on risks to children after a US court verdict that held Meta and YouTube responsible for harms caused by designing addictive technology.

• Downing Street has said it is “categorically untrue” to suggest that there was a link between Morgan McSweeney’s phone being stolen and the humble address motion passed by MPs saying messages with Peter Mandelson would have to be exchanged. (See 12.28pm.)

• The UK government has said it will ban trail hunting, the rural sport that police and animal rights activists have long accused of being a “smokescreen” for illegal foxhunting.

• The government has announced the formal start of the promised official inquiry into the violent policing at the Orgreave coking plant during the 1984-85 miners’ strike and the discredited prosecutions of 95 men that followed.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

5.47pm GMT

Almost 900 Afghan ex-special forces members given path to UK resettlement

Almost 900 former members of the Afghan special forces have been given a path to resettlement in the UK after a government review of previously rejected cases, the Press Association reports. In a written ministerial statement, Luke Pollard, a defence minister, announced 884 decisions, affecting ex-soldiers from two elite units known as the “Triples”, had been overturned. They will be eligible to stay in Britain under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap), subject to visa checks.