A threat from Iran prompted the US Secret Service to boost protection around Donald Trump before Saturday’s attempted assassination of the former president, though it appears unrelated to the rally attack, according to two US officials.

Upon learning of the threat, the Biden administration contacted senior officials at the Secret Service to make them aware, the officials said, adding it was shared with the lead agent on Trump’s protection detail and the Trump campaign. That prompted the agency to surge resources and assets. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations dismissed the allegations as “unsubstantiated and malicious”.

The additional resources did not prevent Saturday’s attack at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania that left Trump injured to the ear, killed one rallygoer and severely injured two more when a 20-year-old with an AR-style rifle opened fire from a nearby rooftop.

“As we have said many times, we have been tracking Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years, dating back to the last administration,” said the national security council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson. “These threats arise from Iran’s desire to seek revenge for the killing of Qassem Soleimani. We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority.

“At this time, law enforcement has reported that their investigation has not identified ties between the shooter and any accomplice or co-conspirator, foreign or domestic,” Watson added.

Trump ordered the killing of Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force, in 2020. He reportedly later told friends that he was afraid Iran would try to assassinate him in revenge.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations said: “From the perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law for ordering the assassination of General Soleimani. Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice.”

In 2022, the US charged an alleged member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with attempting to hire a hitman for $300,000 to kill John Bolton, the former national security adviser in the Trump administration.

The Department of Justice said Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, offered the money in November 2021 to an unidentified person in the US to “eliminate” Bolton, apparently to avenge the drone killing of Suleimani.

Poursafi is alleged to have said that after Bolton was killed, there would be another job, for which the hitman would be paid $1m.

When Poursafi’s indictment was unsealed in August 2022, Iran denied the allegations.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting

The former Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis will address the party’s convention on Tuesday, as Donald Trump looks to consolidate the support of their primary voters in his rematch against Joe Biden in November.

DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, has been generally supportive of Trump since abandoning his White House bid in January. Haley, who dropped out of the presidential race in March, offered some sharp criticism of Trump during her campaign, but she has since indicated that she will vote for the former president in November. Her appearance at the convention, which was a last-minute addition to the schedule, offers Trump the chance to present a united Republican front as Democrats clash over Biden’s candidacy.

Other Republicans set to speak on Tuesday include Mike Johnson, the House speaker, and Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who had been on Trump’s shortlist of running mates. Senate candidates from key battleground states – including Kari Lake of Arizona, Eric Hovde of Wisconsin and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania – also had the opportunity to address convention attendees.

The speeches come after Republicans opened their nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on a high-energy note. Trump began the convention on Monday with the announcement that JD Vance, the Ohio senator, would serve as his running mate, ending months of heated speculation over who would join the former president at the top of the ticket.

“Let’s make America one again,” said Reince Preibus, former chair of the Republican national convention, in his remarks on Tuesday evening, continuing the unity theme that Republicans are hoping to employ for the rest of the election year after years of dehumanizing and violent rhetoric.

That decision to change the tone of the campaign comes after Saturday’s assassination attempt at a Trump rally, in which Trump’s ear was injured and one attendee was killed.

Kari Lake, a Trump ally and Republican candidate for senate in Arizona, meanwhile, used her speech time to launch an attack on the media, which she called “fake news”, and said more Americans were no longer tuning in to mainstream news.

She then turned her attention to illegal drugs and crime, part of the Tuesday theme, “Make America Safe Once Again”. She attributed the issues to the Biden administration and Democrats. “The problems we face are huge – the problems caused by the Democrat party – but the solutions are simple. First of all, stop the Biden-vasion and build a wall,” she said.

The convention floor erupted with chants of “build that wall”.

Immigration reform has become a rallying cry for Republicans, with Trump and his allies repeatedly and falsely accusing Biden of supporting “open borders”.

Trump has previously called for the deportation of 15 million to 20 million undocumented immigrants if he wins re-election, and Vance voiced his own support for mass deportation in an interview with Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, on Monday.

“We have to deport people,” Vance told Hannity. “We have to deport people who broke our laws who came in here. And I think we need to start with the violent criminals.”

While Republicans rally, Biden and his Democratic allies are resuming some campaign communications after suspending their planned anti-Trump ads in response to the assassination attempt. At a press conference in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Biden campaign officials said that the assassination attempt against Trump would not change their messaging strategy.

“The president and the vice-president have been very clear on their vision when it comes to the agenda that they want to put forward for Americans. Our campaign has been talking about that for months,” said Quentin Fulks, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager. “And we’re going to continue to draw the contrast of what that work actually means and what it means for the lives of those American people.”

As of now, it seems like Biden still needs to sell more voters on that message. National polls show a neck-and-neck race, and Biden appears to be in trouble in several states he won in 2020. In a more worrisome sign for Biden, 19 congressional Democrats have called on him to drop out of the race following his disastrous debate performance last month.

Speaking at a brunch in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Chris LaCivita, the co-manager of Trump’s campaign, expressed the utmost confidence in their chances of victory this fall.

“We have nearly 20 paths to get to where we need to get,” LaCivita said. “They have one, maybe two.”

Despite the warning signs, Fulks insisted that the Democratic National Committee would move forward with its earlier plan to nominate Biden via a virtual roll call vote before its convention in Chicago next month. Democrats initially proposed the virtual roll call because of a ballot deadline of 7 August in Ohio, but state legislators passed a bill to address that issue. Still, Biden’s team is undeterred.

“We have moved forward. We instituted this before they had a fix, and we’re going to continue on that path,” Fulks said.

The New Jersey senator Cory Booker traveled to Milwaukee for the press conference to express his robust support for the president’s agenda, and he appeared to grow frustrated as he listed the many policy differences between Biden and Trump.

“We know what we have. And so all of our jobs is to simply tell the truth,” Booker said. “In this moment in our democracy, please vote for decency and kindness and empathy and grace. Those are the best American values.”

Police officers in Milwaukee shot and killed a man about a mile from the Republican national convention on Tuesday, authorities and witnesses of the shooting said.

Security arrangements for the convention have come under the microscope since Saturday, when Donald Trump, the former president and Republican nominee for president in November’s election, was the subject of an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

The officers involved in Tuesday’s shooting were from Columbus, Ohio, a police union statement said, adding that no officers were injured. Officers said they saw him brandish a knife while patrolling the area and fired at him after he turned toward them, according to the New York Times.

Neighbors said the man killed was a regular at a homeless encampment in the neighborhood. The man did not appear to have any connection to the convention, or any plans to go closer.

“Milwaukee has blood on its hands,” said Ryan Clancy, a state representative from Milwaukee. “This is not near the RNC. The police should not be here.”

About 4,000 officers from other states and cities are in Wisconsin for the convention. Columbus, Ohio, provided a “police dialogue team” to work on demonstrations.

The Milwaukee fire and police commission suspended the city’s policy of releasing body camera footage within 15 days of a police shooting for the duration of the RNC. Alan Chavoya, outreach chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression – a group that lobbied against the suspension of the body camera policy – decried the Ohio officers for “coming here and treating our people this way”.

“I was shocked,” said Sonia, a resident of the apartment complex adjacent to the site of the shooting, who spoke to the Guardian but asked to be referred to by her first name for privacy. “The police let people in the area know before the [convention] we wouldn’t have to deal with out-of-town law enforcement, but here you go.”

Citing law enforcement sources, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said the shooting happened near North 14th and West Vliet Streets, about a mile outside the Republican national convention security perimeter.

Linda Sharpe, who identified herself as the cousin of the man killed, said she wanted answers. “He had a dog, he loved people and he loved animals,” she said.

At least 60 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, health officials have said, including in an attack on a school sheltering displaced people and another on an Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone”, as ceasefire talks in the nearly 10-month-old conflict appeared to stall again.

The Red Crescent said on Tuesday that 17 people were killed in a bombing near a petrol station in Mawasi, an area on the Mediterranean shoreline packed with hundreds of thousands of displaced people that Israel had previously declared an evacuation zone. Another 16 were killed in a strike that targeted the UN-run al-Awda school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, medics at a nearby hospital said.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hamas militants were present at the school. There was no immediate comment on the strike in Mawasi but the army said the air force had struck about 40 targets in Gaza on Tuesday, including sniping and observation posts, military structures and buildings rigged with explosives.

The armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally, said their fighters had attacked Israeli forces in several locations with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs. Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said it had fired missiles at Sderot in southern Israel, but no damage or casualties were reported.

Over the past two weeks, Israel has hit the besieged Palestinian territory with some of the fiercest bombardments in months, the deadliest of which targeted Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s military commander, in a bombing in Mawasi on Saturday that killed more than 90 people. It is still unclear whether Deif, wanted by Israel for decades, was killed in the strike.

In a statement on Tuesday, the IDF said it had “eliminated” approximately half of the Hamas leadership in Gaza and 14,000 soldiers since the war broke out after the Palestinian militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October in which 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage. More than 38,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory operation in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-administered territory, and the population of 2.3 million people is in dire need of food, water, medicine and shelter.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas on Israel’s claim. Killing Deif would be a much-needed morale boost for Israel, which in almost 10 months of fighting has so far failed to take out any of the top three Hamas leaders in Gaza.

The targeting of Deif and subsequent deadly attacks on Gaza appear to have contributed to an impasse in ceasefire and hostage-prisoner swap negotiations being held in Qatar and Egypt. The talks stalled on Saturday, Egyptian mediators told local media.

Hamas has sent conflicting messages over its future participation in the talks, which were the most promising of a series of failed negotiations since an initial ceasefire and hostage release deal brokered in November. That truce broke down after a week, following what the US said was Hamas’s inability or unwillingness to release more Israeli captives.

The latest statement from Hamas’s Qatar-based political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, on Sunday stressed that the group was pulling out of the indirect talks in protest at the recent Israeli “massacres” but that the group was ready to return to the negotiation table if Israel “demonstrates seriousness in reaching a ceasefire agreement and a prisoner exchange deal”.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations told Reuters that Hamas did not want to be seen as halting negotiations despite the stepped-up Israeli attacks. “Hamas wants the war to end, not at any price. It says it has shown the flexibility needed and is pushing the mediators to get Israel to reciprocate,” the official said.

The group has accused the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of seeking to derail a deal and an end to the war for his own political gain. On Tuesday, however, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, still appeared hopeful, telling the families of five female soldiers kidnapped during Hamas’s 7 October attack that “this is the closest we have ever been to a deal”, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

Disagreements over the identities and numbers of the Israeli hostages and Palestinians held in Israeli jails have repeatedly scuppered truce talks. The situation has been complicated by the fact that in May Israel seized control of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, which Hamas and international delegations insist must be returned to Palestinian control.

The US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told reporters that two senior advisers to Netanyahu had said Israel was still committed to reaching a ceasefire. He also criticised the “unacceptably high” civilian casualties of the last few days.

Washington, Israel’s most important ally, has provided significant military and diplomatic cover for Israel’s war in Gaza, despite domestic blowback.

Also on Monday, the EU added to a wave of international measures against extremist Israelis, announcing new sanctions on three well-known Israeli settler leaders in the occupied West Bank and a pro-settlement group, Regavim, which was founded by the current Israeli finance minister, the far-right Bezalel Smotrich.

Under American pressure, Israel has pledged to deliver large quantities of humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. But at the same time, the US and Israel have allowed tax-deductible donations to far-right groups that have blocked that aid from being delivered.

Three groups that have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza – including one accused of looting or destroying supplies – have raised more than $200,000 from donors in the US and Israel, the Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim have found in an examination of crowdfunding websites and other public records.

Incentivizing these donations by making them tax-deductible runs counter to America’s and Israel’s stated commitments to allow unlimited food, water and medicine into Gaza, say groups working to get more aid into the territory. Donations have continued even after the US imposed sanctions against one of these groups.

By not cracking down on these groups, Israel is showing a “lack of coherence” in its Gaza aid policy, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli non-profit that has long called on Israel to improve conditions in the territory.

“If you’re on the one hand saying you’re allowing aid in but then also facilitating the actions of groups that are blocking it, can you really say you’re facilitating aid?” she said.

Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment. The US state department said it was committed to ensuring the delivery of aid, but had no comment on the fundraising efforts by the far-right groups.

Israel has said repeatedly it does not restrict humanitarian aid and that the United Nations has failed to distribute thousands of truckloads of goods that have reached the territory. The UN and aid groups say deliveries have repeatedly been hampered by military operations, lawlessness inside Gaza and delays in Israeli inspections.

The three groups examined by AP and Shomrim have slowed the delivery of aid by blocking trucks on their way to Gaza at the main Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.

While these organizations are not the primary impediment to aid shipments, they have received tacit support from some Israeli leaders. Israel’s ultranationalist minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said aid shipments to Gaza should be blocked and he supported the right of opponents to demonstrate.

One of the groups, Mother’s March, has raised the equivalent of over $125,000 via Givechack, an Israeli crowdfunding site, the AP and Shomrim found. The group also raised some $13,000 via JGive, a US and Israeli crowdfunding site. Donations to charitable organizations are tax-deductible in Israel and the US.

Mother’s March does not raise the money directly. Instead, it works with an allied group called Torat Lechima that raises funds on its behalf.

Torat Lechima, whose name translates loosely as “combat doctrine”, is active in Israeli nationalist circles and works to “strengthen the Jewish identity and fighting spirit” among Israeli soldiers, according to its website. Torat Lechima continues to solicit funds for Mother’s March on the JGive site in the US.

Until it was sanctioned last month, a third group, Tzav 9, raised over $85,000 from close to 1,500 donors in the US and Israel via JGive. JGive said that donations made to Tzav 9 were frozen even before the sanctions were imposed and not delivered to the group.

All three groups, which have ties with Israel’s ultranationalist far right, say Israel should not be aiding the Palestinians as long as Hamas is holding dozens of people hostage. They also claim that Hamas is stealing much of the aid, though they have not offered any evidence to support that allegation.

“No to ‘humanitarian’ aid that grants fuel to the enemy who kills us! No to the hundreds of trucks that pass every day through Kerem Shalom – and drag out the war!” Mother’s March said in a recent crowdfunding campaign.

Hundreds of activists set up tents at Kerem Shalom for several nights in early February to stop the delivery of aid. The head of Mother’s March, Sima Hasson, was briefly detained by Israeli police in January after temporarily blocking trucks.

Israeli news reports have shown large convoys of cars blocking aid trucks from traveling on Israeli highways, as well as activists looting trucks and destroying supplies.

In its sanctions order, the White House accused Tzav 9 of violently blocking roads, damaging aid trucks and dumping supplies on the road. Last week, the White House imposed sanctions on the group’s co-founders. On Monday, the European Union also sanctioned Tsav 9.

Israeli police, who fall under the authority of Ben-Gvir, have made few arrests, though the group appears to have stopped its activities in recent weeks.

Tzav 9 defended its actions as “within the framework of the law, in a democratic protest”. It called the sanctions from the US “anti-democratic intervention”.

Neither Mother’s March nor Torat Lechima responded to requests for comment.

Those who violate the sanctions against Tsav 9 could have their assets frozen or face travel and visa bans.

It is unclear how effective these sanctions will be. Extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank say similar US sanctions imposed on them have had little effect, in part because Israeli leaders helped circumvent them.

The office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, declined to comment. The justice ministry, which regulates non-profits, said it would investigate but had no further comment.

JGive said it complies with Israeli laws. In addition to freezing Tzav 9’s donations, it noted that the Mother’s March campaign ended over four months ago.

Hary, of the Israeli activist group Gisha, said that the efforts of Mother’s March and Tzav 9 appear to have quieted down in recent weeks, but could resume activities at any moment.

“They’re getting signals from various places in the government that Gaza should be completely cut off,” she said.

Philippine officials say a suspect in the killings last week of two Australians and their Filipino companion has surrendered.

A hotel worker found the bodies of three victims, whose hands and feet were tied, on 10 July in a room at a hotel in the popular resort of Tagaytay city, south of Manila.

The victims were Sydney man David James Fisk, 57, his partner, Lucita Barquin Cortez, 55, a Philippine-born Australian citizen, and Cortez’s Filipina daughter-in-law.

Tagaytay’s police chief, Charles Daven Capagcuan, told the Associated Press that the breakthrough in the week-old case came when at least three hotel employees identified the suspect based on his image captured by security cameras showing a part of his masked face.

Capagcuan said the suspect’s identification eventually led to his home province of Batangas, near Tagaytay, where he decided to surrender.

Footage showed a man wearing a mask and a hoodie and carrying a sling bag walking out of the victims’ room a few hours before their bodies were discovered.

Tagaytay city mayor Abraham Tolentino and Capagcuan presented the handcuffed suspect, wearing a hoodie, dark eyeglasses and a face mask, at a news conference on Wednesday. The man’s name was not announced.

The mayor repeated his apology to the relatives of the victims and to Australia for the “brutal crimes” that took place in his city.

“He wanted to get back at the hotel management for his dismissal,” Capagcuan told reporters, adding that the suspect used to work as a swimming pool cleaner at the hotel.

Officials planned to file criminal complaints of robbery in addition to the killings against the suspect, who allegedly acknowledged he took Fisk’s watch and shoes after attacking him with a knife and suffocating Cortez and her daughter-in-law, Capagcuan said.

The couple had flown from Sydney to Bali for a holiday then went to the Philippines on Monday to visit Cortez’s two children, and decided to take a short break in Tagaytay before returning to Australia, a relative of the woman said.

Fisk was a business developer executive at Australian-owned software company Jiwa Financials, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was previously a sales representative at debt collection software company Debtrak and had a long career in business technology.

Elon Musk announced on Tuesday he will move the headquarters of his companies X and SpaceX from California to Texas.

In a post on Twitter/X, Musk cited California’s new law banning school transgender notification requirements as one of the reasons for the move, calling it the “last straw” and saying such bills “[attack] both families and companies”.

“This is the final straw. Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas,” Musk wrote. Hawthorne is a suburb in the Los Angeles metro area.

He added later: “And X HQ will move to Austin … Many will follow.”

Signed into law by the California governor, Gavin Newsom, on Monday, the bill will prohibit school policies that require parents to be alerted if their child wishes to change pronouns or identifies as transgender. The legislation comes after several school districts in the state put such rules in place.

“The state will take away your kids in California,” Musk added in a subsequent post on X.

Musk has been criticized for his inflammatory statements about transgender people in the past, including regarding his own daughter, who asserted in court documents: “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.” She legally changed her name and gender recognition. Musk’s biographer said the CEO blamed his daughter’s art school for changing her politics to “full-on communism”.

Musk also previously stated on X that he “will be actively lobbying to criminalize” gender-affirming care for transgender youth. A 2023 report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found tweets accusing people of the LGBTQ+ community of “grooming children for sexual abuse” had increased 119% since Musk purchased Twitter in 2022. Musk later sued the CCDH over the report, alleging its “misleading claims” scared away advertisers. The case was thrown out in 2024.

Musk in 2023 quietly revoked X’s rules protecting users from being purposefully misgendered or deadnamed – using a transgender person’s name from before they transitioned. Those policies were again reinstated in 2024.

The movement of Musk-owned headquarters will affect thousands of employees across X and SpaceX, as both require employees to work in their offices. After acquiring X in 2022, Musk ordered almost all his employees to return to the office, demanding that they be “extremely hardcore”. Earlier this month, Twitter began seeking sublessees for its 800,000 sq ft office in downtown San Francisco.

Musk in February said he moved SpaceX’s incorporation from Delaware to Texas after a Delaware judge invalidated his $56bn pay package from his electric vehicle company Tesla. Shareholders voted to uphold the pay package in late June.

Reuters contributed to this report

Six people have been found dead at a luxury hotel in central Bangkok, in what authorities say could be a case of poisoning.

The bodies of three women and three men were found inside a hotel suite on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel by a hotel worker late on Tuesday afternoon.

They were Vietnamese, and two had American citizenship, the Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, said.

It is assumed the six had been dead for at least 24 hours before their bodies were discovered, police said, adding that the room had been locked from the inside, but that the staff member was able to enter through a separate door.

The cause of death is not yet known. However, Srettha said there was no sign of robbery or an attack, adding the cause was “presumably something related to consumption which needs to be investigated”.

Police shared images of hotel food found in the suite, which was still sealed in clingfilm and appeared to be untouched. However, six cups did appear to have been used, police said.

“The food was untouched but all six cups were used. We will check all of it. We could not find anything else around, even on the floor, but we found some kind of powder in the bottom of a cup,” said Metropolitan police bureau commissioner Thiti Saengsawang.

“We need to find out the motives,” he said, adding that the deaths were not the result of suicide, but of a “killing.”

Srettha said he had met the Vietnamese ambassador to discuss the matter and has ordered a swift investigation into the case.

The deceased had been booked to stay at the hotel as a group of seven people, but only five checked in, police said, while six people had been found dead. Police said they were now searching for the seventh individual.

“We are tracing every step since they got off the plane,” Thiti said.

Part of the group were staying on the fifth floor, and were due to check out on Tuesday, while others were staying on the seventh floor and had been due to check out on Monday but did not do so. Images from inside the hotel showed their luggage had been packed up.

Earlier a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity denied initial reports that the six had been killed in a shooting, saying the investigation was currently focused on a “link with a toxic substance.”

Some of the six foreigners appeared to be on their first trip to the country, while others appeared to be return visitors, he added.

The Grand Hyatt Erawan is a five-star hotel in Bangkok’s commercial and diplomatic district.

“The prime minister has ordered all agencies to urgently take action to avoid impact on tourism,” the Thai government said in a statement.

The US state department was “closely monitoring the situation and [we] stand ready to provide consular assistance,” a spokesperson said.

The incident comes at a time when Thailand is trying to boost its tourism industry, which was badly affected by the pandemic and is crucial to the economy.

The tourism sector has previously been shaken by a shooting at a luxury mall in Bangkok last October, in which two foreigners were killed.

Six people have been found dead at a luxury hotel in central Bangkok, in what authorities say could be a case of poisoning.

The bodies of three women and three men were found inside a hotel suite on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel by a hotel worker late on Tuesday afternoon.

They were Vietnamese, and two had American citizenship, the Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, said.

It is assumed the six had been dead for at least 24 hours before their bodies were discovered, police said, adding that the room had been locked from the inside, but that the staff member was able to enter through a separate door.

The cause of death is not yet known. However, Srettha said there was no sign of robbery or an attack, adding the cause was “presumably something related to consumption which needs to be investigated”.

Police shared images of hotel food found in the suite, which was still sealed in clingfilm and appeared to be untouched. However, six cups did appear to have been used, police said.

“The food was untouched but all six cups were used. We will check all of it. We could not find anything else around, even on the floor, but we found some kind of powder in the bottom of a cup,” said Metropolitan police bureau commissioner Thiti Saengsawang.

“We need to find out the motives,” he said, adding that the deaths were not the result of suicide, but of a “killing.”

Srettha said he had met the Vietnamese ambassador to discuss the matter and has ordered a swift investigation into the case.

The deceased had been booked to stay at the hotel as a group of seven people, but only five checked in, police said, while six people had been found dead. Police said they were now searching for the seventh individual.

“We are tracing every step since they got off the plane,” Thiti said.

Part of the group were staying on the fifth floor, and were due to check out on Tuesday, while others were staying on the seventh floor and had been due to check out on Monday but did not do so. Images from inside the hotel showed their luggage had been packed up.

Earlier a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity denied initial reports that the six had been killed in a shooting, saying the investigation was currently focused on a “link with a toxic substance.”

Some of the six foreigners appeared to be on their first trip to the country, while others appeared to be return visitors, he added.

The Grand Hyatt Erawan is a five-star hotel in Bangkok’s commercial and diplomatic district.

“The prime minister has ordered all agencies to urgently take action to avoid impact on tourism,” the Thai government said in a statement.

The US state department was “closely monitoring the situation and [we] stand ready to provide consular assistance,” a spokesperson said.

The incident comes at a time when Thailand is trying to boost its tourism industry, which was badly affected by the pandemic and is crucial to the economy.

The tourism sector has previously been shaken by a shooting at a luxury mall in Bangkok last October, in which two foreigners were killed.

Joe Biden plans to endorse term limits for supreme court justices and a new ethics code, the Washington Post reported, as an emboldened rightwing court continues to upend US legal precedent despite operating under the cloud of multiple ethics scandals.

Biden is also mulling whether to call for a new constitutional amendment that would eliminate a sweeping immunity for presidents and other officials, the Post reported, citing two unnamed people familiar with the president’s thinking.

The court’s ruling on 1 July establishing sweeping immunity for US presidents has been widely criticized as an attack on the rule of law that gives presidents the power of a king.

In recent weeks, Biden had a phone call with Laurence Tribe, a leading constitutional scholar, to discuss Tribe’s opinion piece in the Guardian proposing concrete steps to reform the supreme court, which included new term limits, an “enforceable ethics code”, and an amendment limiting presidential immunity, the Post reported.

Among additional reforms Americans should consider, Tribe wrote in that piece, was also the idea of potentially creating “several added seats [on the court] to offset the way Trump as president stacked the court to favor his Maga agenda”.

But adding justices to the court, as some Democratic members of Congress have advocated for, was not among the reforms Biden is currently considering, according to the Post. Biden has long been seen as unwilling to expand the court.

Tribe did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

The president previewed his plans for supreme court reform in a Zoom call with the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Saturday, the Post reported, citing a transcript of the call that included Biden telling members that “I’m about to come out with a major initiative on limiting the court” and that he had been “working with constitutional scholars for the last three months”.

The supreme court’s approval rating in polls of the American public have dropped sharply in recent years, as the court has overturned the constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights, and seized regulatory power from federal agencies and taken it into its own hands. In one recent poll, 61% of respondents said they disapproved of the job the court had been doing.

Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese business tycoon whose criticism of the Communist party won him legions of online followers and powerful friends in the American conservative movement, was convicted by a US jury on Tuesday of engaging in an enormous multi-year fraud that ripped off some of his most devoted fans.

Once believed to be among the richest people in China, Guo was arrested in New York in March 2023 and accused of operating a racketeering enterprise that stretched from 2018 through 2023.

Over a seven-week trial, he was accused of deceiving thousands of people who put money into bogus investments, with the aim of preserving a luxurious lifestyle. He was convicted of nine of 12 criminal counts, including racketeering conspiracy.

Guo’s lawyers said prosecutors had not proven he had cheated anyone.

Guo, who is also known by the name Miles Kwok, left China in 2014 during an anti-corruption crackdown that ensnared people close to him, including a top intelligence official.

Chinese authorities accused Guo of rape, kidnapping, bribery and other crimes, but Guo said those allegations were false and designed to punish him for publicly revealing corruption as he criticized leading figures in the Communist party.

He applied for political asylum in the US, moved to a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park and joined Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

While living in New York, Guo developed a close relationship with Trump’s former onetime political strategist, Steve Bannon. In 2020, Guo and Bannon announced a joint initiative to overthrow the Chinese government.

Prosecutors say hundreds of thousands of people were convinced to invest more than $1bn in entities Guo controlled. Among those businesses and organizations was Guo’s media company, GTV Media Group Inc, and his so-called Himalaya Farm Alliance and the Himalaya Exchange.

In a closing argument, assistant US attorney Ryan Finkel said Guo “spouted devious lies to trick his followers into giving him money”.

He said Guo made hundreds of broadcasts and videos in which he promised followers that they would not lose money if they invested with him.

“I’m rich. I’ll take care of you,” the prosecutor said Guo told them.

The high-profile California Democrat Adam Schiff told donors Joe Biden remaining on top of the ticket for November would cost the party the presidency and probably the House and Senate too, the New York Times reported.

“I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” Schiff told donors in East Hampton, New York, last Saturday, the paper said, citing “a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event”.

“And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.”

According to the Times, Schiff spoke before Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally.

As the paper noted, Democratic calls for Biden to stand aside, stoked by concerns about his age and cognitive fitness for office, surged after a disastrous debate with Trump in Atlanta last month but have dropped off since the Trump shooting, in which one rallygoer was killed and two injured.

Nineteen House Democrats and one senator have publicly called for Biden to quit.

Schiff is not among them but he is an influential voice in the party, a former House intelligence chair who led Trump’s first impeachment, sat on the January 6 committee and is now a candidate for US Senate.

The Times said the fundraiser was in support of Schiff’s Senate campaign and those of Elissa Slotkin (Michigan) and Angela Alsobrooks (Maryland), who both face competitive races.

“At least one donor … left dejected,” the Times reported, “believing that Mr Biden’s chances of winning were now slim and that they should concentrate giving their time and money to down-ballot candidates in the hopes of salvaging something.”

Schiff did not comment. Biden’s campaign told the Times he “maintained strong support from members of Congress”.

Biden remains defiant, telling NBC on Monday: “Look, 14 million people voted for me to be the nominee in the Democratic party, OK? I listen to them.”

He also attacked NBC and other outlets for their coverage of Trump’s debate display, asking, “Why don’t you guys ever talk about the … 28 lies he told?”

Regardless, Biden’s party remains in turmoil.

On Tuesday, Axios reported a move by the Democratic National Committee to conduct a virtual roll call, the process by which the presidential nominee is confirmed, before the party convention in Chicago next month.

Politico then reported a draft letter in which dozens of House Democrats opposed the plan.

The virtual roll call was “a really bad move by the DNC”, Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who has not called publicly for Biden to quit, told the site.

“Somebody thinks it’s a clever way to lock down debate and I guess by dint of sheer force, achieve unity, but it doesn’t work that way.”

At least two people died and thousands were injured after police fired teargas into crowds of protesting students, and paramilitary forces were deployed across the country.

Protests first broke out on university campuses across Bangladesh a fortnight ago as tens of thousands of students demanded an end to “unreasonable and discriminatory quotas” for government jobs.

The quotas – which reserve 30% of jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 – were abolished in 2018 but reinstated this month after a court order.

The reintroduction of the quotas provoked fury among students, who say the job market in Bangladesh is already extremely tough amid high unemployment, heavy inflation and a flailing economy. With the private sector diminishing, government jobs have become the most secure and sought-after form of employment yet are heavily restricted, with 50% allocated through quotas.

The new ruling on quotas was paused by the supreme court last week, but students said they would continue protesting until they were permanently overturned. Many blocked highways and railways and broke through police barriers to stage demonstrations across the congested capital, Dhaka.

On Monday night, the protests turned violent as police and heavily armed members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the governing Awami League party, attacked the protesting students.

In Dhaka, police fired teargas and charged at the protesters with batons while pro-government groups attacked them with machetes, bamboo rods and hockey sticks, injuring thousands. Paramilitary forces were also deployed across the country.

The violence continued to escalate on Tuesday as campuses across the country became battlegrounds, with at least two deaths confirmed by the Guardian. Local media reported that five people have been killed.

In the city of Rangpur, Abu Sayeed, a student involved in the protests, sustained fatal injuries, while another man caught up in the violence at Dhaka college was dead on arrival at hospital.

The situation was further inflamed by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who referred to the students protesting using the derogatory slur “Razakars”, meaning those who betrayed the nation by collaborating with the enemy, Pakistan, during the war of independence in 1971.

“If the grandchildren of freedom fighters don’t receive quota benefits, should the grandchildren of Razakars?” Hasina said.

Her comment angered student protesters, who accused Hasina of authoritarianism. “We are not Razakars. If anyone fits that description in this context, it is the prime minister herself and her forces who are steering this country toward a dark era,” said Rakib, 17, a student at Dhaka City College who took part in the protests.

Rakib emphasised the students were not opposed to all quotas, especially for the underprivileged, but said the current system was “profoundly unfair and discriminatory” and meant few government jobs were given on the basis of merit.

“We are fortunate to have been born in an independent country and are eternally grateful to the freedom fighters,” he said. “Yet, this does not justify granting their descendants endless, undue advantages generation after generation.”

Lamiya, a student at Dhaka’s Birshreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public College, joined the protests despite her family benefiting from the system. “I am the granddaughter of a freedom fighter, yet I oppose the quota system,” she said.

“I support this movement because my friends, many from lower to lower-middle class backgrounds, have striven for excellence in their education and aspire to serve the country. Students outside the quota categories are not any less patriotic or meritorious.”

Political analysts said the current wave of protests was a direct response to prolonged repression under the authoritarian regime of Hasina and her Awami League party, who have ruled consecutively since 2009. In January, Hasina won a fifth term in power after an election that was widely documented as rigged, with tens of thousands of her political opponents jailed.

Many protesting students said that those in Hasina’s Awami League party, which was founded by her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – who fought for independence and was the country’s first prime minister – were the primary beneficiaries of quotas for freedom fighter descendants.

Zahed Ur Rahman, a Dhaka-based political analyst, said that the protests had been fuelled by student anger at soaring inflation, a grossly ignored unemployment crisis and frustrations at the crackdown on basic democratic freedoms under Hasina.

“The Awami League had fostered an environment of fear, silencing dissent with overt force from government mechanisms,” said Rahman. “However, this repression has now backfired, and even teenage students are openly challenging the authorities.”

Amnesty International was among those that condemned the attacks on the students, calling on the government to respect “people’s rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.

The US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said the US was closely monitoring the protests. “The freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are essential building blocks of any thriving democracy, and we condemn any violence against peaceful protesters,” said Miller.

Ingrid Andress has responded to criticism of her out-of-tune performance of the national anthem before Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby.

The 32-year-old country singer announced on her social media that she was drunk during a wildly off-key rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Monday evening, and would be entering rehab.

“I’m not gonna bullshit y’all, I was drunk last night,” she wrote in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter. “I’m checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need.

“That was not me last night,” the statement continued. “I apologize to MLB, all the fans, and this country I love so much for that rendition. I’ll let y’all know how rehab is I hear it’s super fun.” She signed the note “xo, Ingrid”.

Speculation was alight on social media that the singer was struggling with more than just in-ear microphone issues during her performance, which started off-key, strained for high notes and was out-of-character for an artist otherwise known as a pro. Many online called it one of the worst national anthem performances heard before a major professional sporting event, with some comparing it to Fergie’s disastrously jazzy rendition before the 2018 NBA All-Star game.

Earlier on Monday, Andress sent a message to her email list previewing her upcoming single, Colorado 9. In the email, according to Variety, she explained some time away from the public eye as the result of depression after severing ties with people who had been part of her career’s beginning. She said she found peace by spending time in Colorado.

Andress, born in Southfield, Michigan, and raised in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, has two studio albums under her belt, 2020’s Lady Like and 2022’s Good Person, as well two singles that reached the Billboard Hot 100, More Hearts Than Mine and Wishful Drinking. She also co-wrote the 2017 Charli xcx hit song Boys and Bebe Rexha’s Girl in the Mirror.

She has earned four Grammy nominations over her career, including best new artist in 2021 – along with Doja Cat, Phoebe Bridgers and winner Megan Thee Stallion – and best country song. She has toured solo and alongside such artists as Stevie Nicks, Keith Urban, Dan + Shay and Tim McGraw.