A massive tech failure has caused travel chaos around the world, with banking and healthcare services also badly hit.

Flights have been grounded because of the IT outage – a flaw which left many computers displaying blue error screens.

There were long queues, delays and flight cancellations at airports around the world, as passengers had to be manually checked in.

Cyber-security firm Crowdstrike has admitted that the problem was caused by an update to its antivirus software, which is designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks.

Microsoft has said it is taking “mitigation action” to deal with “the lingering impact” of the outage.

Here is a summary of what we know so far.

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This is still a little unclear.

Crowdstrike is known for producing antivirus software, intended to prevent hackers from causing this very type of disruption.

According to Crowdstrike boss George Kurtz, the issues are only impacting Windows PCs and no other operating systems, and were caused by a defect in a recent update.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” he said.

“This is not a security incident or cyber-attack.”

What exactly was wrong with the update is yet to be revealed, but as a potential fix involves deleting a single file, it is possible that just one rogue file could be at the root of all the mayhem.

It could be some time.

Crowdstrike’s Mr Kurtz, speaking to NBC News, said it was the firm’s “mission” to make sure every one of its customers recovered completely from the outage.

“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies,” he said.

He has since told CNBC that while some systems can be fixed quickly, for others it “could be hours, could be a bit longer”.

Crowdstrike has issued its fix. But according to those in the know, it will have to be applied separately to each and every device affected.

Computers will require a manual reboot in safe mode – causing a massive headache for IT departments everywhere.

Something important to note here, is that personal devices like your home computer or mobile phone are unlikely to have been affected – this outage is impacting businesses.

Microsoft is advising clients to try a classic method to get things working – turning it off and on again – in some cases up to 15 times.

The tech giant said this has worked for some users of virtual machines – PCs where the computer is not in the same place as the screen.

“Several reboots (as many as 15 have been reported) may be required, but overall feedback is that reboots are an effective troubleshooting step at this stage,” it said.

It is also telling customers with more in-depth computing knowledge that they should delete a certain file – the same solution one CrowdStrike employee has been sharing on social media.

But this fix is intended for experts and IT professionals, not regular users.

The problems have emerged across the world, but were first noticed in Australia, and possibly felt most severely in the air travel industry, with more than 3,300 flights cancelled globally.

• UK airports saw delays, with long queues at London’s Stansted and Gatwick.
• Ryanair said it had been “forced to cancel a small number of flights today (19 July)” and advised passengers to log-on to their Ryanair account, once it was back online, to see what their options are.
• British Airways also cancelled several flights.
• Several US airlines, notably United, Delta and American Airlines, grounded their flights around the globe for much of Friday. Australian carriers Virgin Australia and Jetstar also had to delay or cancel flights.
• Airports in Tokyo, Amsterdam and Delhi were also impacted.

Meanwhile, the problems have also hit payment systems, banking and healthcare providers around the world.

Railway companies, including Britain’s biggest which runs Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern, warned passengers to expect delays.

In Alaska, the 911 emergency service was affected, while Sky News was off air for several hours on Friday morning, unable to broadcast.

The outage might also impact people getting paid on time.

Melanie Pizzey, head of the Global Payroll Association, told PA news agency that she’d been contacted by “numerous clients” who couldn’t access their payroll software.

She said the outage could mean firms are unable to process staff payments this week, but there may be a knock-on effect too.

“We could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end, which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage,” she said.

If you’re worried about your own, personal devices, we have some good news.

The software at the centre of this outage is generally used by businesses, which means that most people’s personal computers won’t be impacted.

That means if you’re wondering whether you need to delete a certain file to avoid your computer restarting constantly, the simple answer is no, you don’t.

It’s a reminder of the complexity of our modern digital infrastructure that Crowdstrike, a company that’s not exactly a household name, can be at the heart of such worldwide disarray.

The US firm, based in Austin, Texas, is a listed company on the US stock exchange, featuring in both the S&P 500 and the high-tech Nasdaq indexes.

Like a lot of modern technology companies, it hasn’t been around that long. It was founded a mere 13 years ago, but has grown to employ nearly 8,500 people.

As a provider of cyber-security services, it tends to get called in to deal with the aftermath of hack attacks.

It has been involved in investigations of several high-profile cyber-attacks, such as when Sony Pictures had its computer system hacked in 2014.

But this time, because of a flawed update to its software, a firm that is normally part of the solution to IT problems has instead caused one.

In its last earnings report, Crowdstrike declared a total of nearly 24,000 customers. That’s an indication not just of the size of the issue, but also the difficulties that could be involved in fixing it.

Each of those customers is a huge organisation in itself, so the number of individual computers affected is hard to estimate.

The boss of cyber-security firm Crowdstrike has admitted it could be “some time” before all systems are back up and running after an update from the company triggered a global IT outage.

Experts are warning that it could take days for big organisations to get back to normal.

Although there is now a software fix for the issue, the manual process required will take a huge amount of work, they said.

The global outage has led to almost 1,400 flights being cancelled, while banking, healthcare and shops have all been affected.

The issue was caused when an update from Crowdstrike caused Microsoft systems to “blue screen” and crash.

The problem piece of software was sent out automatically to the firm’s customers overnight which is why so many were affected when they came into work on Friday morning.

It meant their computers could not be restarted.

Writing on X, Crowdstrike chief executive George Kurtz said: “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

In an interview on NBC’s Today Show in the US, Mr Kurtz said the company was “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers”.

“Many of the customers are rebooting the system and it’s coming up and it’ll be operational,” he said, but added: “It could be some time for some systems that won’t automatically recover.”

The fix will not be automatic, but what the industry calls a “fingers on keyboards” solution.

Researcher Kevin Beaumont said: “As systems no longer start, impacted systems will need to be started in ‘Safe Mode’ to remove the faulty update.

“This is incredibly time consuming and will take organisations days to do at scale.”

Technical staff will need to go and reboot each and every computer affected, which could be a monumental task.

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Crowdstrike is one of the biggest and most trusted brands in cyber-security.

It has about 24,000 customers around the world and protects potentially hundreds of thousands of computers.

The wording of Mr Kurtz’s statement suggests the overnight update was supposed to be small, describing it as a “content update”.

So it was not a major refresh of the cyber-security software. It could have been something as innocuous as the changing of a font or logo on the software design.

That could potentially explain why the software was not as rigorously checked in the same way that a major update would have been. But it also poses the question: how could a small update do so much damage?

One struggling IT manager said the process to get computers back up and running is quick once an IT person is at the machine, but the problem is getting them to the machines.

The person, who wished to remain anonymous, is responsible for 4,000 computers in an education company and said his team were working flat out.

“We have managed to fix all of our servers using the command prompt as a workaround, but for many of our PCs, it’s not easy to do manually as we are spread out across five sites. Any PCs that are left switched on overnight are affected and we’re rebuilding them,” he said.

IT experts say this manual process will be particularly hard in large organisations with thousands of computers that are potentially under-resourced in IT.

Small and medium-sized businesses without dedicated IT teams or which outsource their IT issues might also struggle.

The larger, more resourced companies, like American Airlines, appear to be fixing the problems rapidly.

Interestingly it looks like many in the US might be less affected as computers that are potentially not yet switched on can be started up to download the corrected software instead of the bad version. But that might still involve a level of manual operation.

Mr Beaumont said that one of the world’s “highest impact IT incidents” was “caused by a cyber-security vendor”.

Ironically if a customer was affected by this it was because they followed all the usual advice that is issued by cyber-security experts – install the security updates when you receive them.

While some security companies in the past have accidentally sent out a dodgy software update, we’ve never seen one at this scale and this damaging.

While this incident has caused widespread disruption, the WannaCry cyber-attack in May 2017 was potentially worse.

That was a malicious cyber-attack that affected an old version of Microsoft Windows and spread automatically to any computer that had the old and unprotected Windows software.

It affected an estimated 300,000 computers in 150 different countries.

It hit the NHS for days, affecting doctors’ surgeries and hospitals around the country.

In that case it was an attack thought to be carried out by North Korea that got out of hand.

The NotPetya attack a month after that was eerily similar in method and damage.

In contrast, the outages on Friday are a mistake and not an attack.

A single update pushed out from an anti-virus company in the US has managed to cause global havoc today.

It’s being described as the biggest outage ever, and while there have been a few lately, it’s certainly hard to recall something that has taken out as many services and companies across the world as this one has. I stopped updating my list of brands reporting issues within an hour of starting it because there were simply so many names to keep track of.

You may never have heard of the anti-virus firm Crowdstrike before but something it did to its virus scanner Falcon had a very adverse effect on computers running Windows software – in their millions.

Blue Screen of Death reported worldwide. You probably don’t need me to tell you what that is. Microsoft was quick to say it was a “third-party issue” – in other words, not its fault. Apple and Linux users, unaffected, rejoiced.

• Follow live updates on this story
• What we know about global IT outage
• What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed?
• GPs, pharmacies and airports hit by outage
• Watch: Airport chaos around the world

Crowdstrike says it has now issued a fix but several IT contacts have told me every single machine in their organisations will require a manual reboot in safe mode, and some of these devices are likely to be more physically accessible than others.

There is currently no suggestion that it was malicious, or that anybody’s data has been compromised, accessed or stolen. The cyber-security world still advises that it’s a good idea to keep on top of software updates – although perhaps today is not the day to bang that particular drum.

Crowdstrike’s statement, when it arrived, stopped short of an apology, which infuriated people online.

However, shortly after the statement was released, CEO George Kurtz told US broadcaster NBC News: “We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies.”

It is a poignant reminder of how reliant the world has become on devices managed remotely by huge companies, and how powerless it leaves us when they fail.

These enormous platforms are bombarded all the time with attempted cyber-attacks, and ill-thought out software updates, and most of them are caught by the tech giants’ robust systems. There will no doubt be a post-mortem at Microsoft as to why this one was not.

Timing is also everything. “Never push an update on a Friday,” sighed one computer scientist I spoke to, head in hands.

That’s because if something goes wrong and it takes time to fix, firms typically have fewer people working at weekends so it will inevitably take even longer to resolve.

For that reason, many big firms do tend to prefer updates during the middle of the week.

If you are a Crowdstrike customer, there are details on its support website explaining the fix. If you work for a company with an IT team, they may well be co-ordinating a company-wide response.

Often by the time you’ve noticed an outage, it has fixed itself. This is certainly not the case here. It is likely to be a few days at least before the world returns to normal.

The UN’s top court has said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law, in a landmark opinion.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and end its “illegal” occupation of those areas and the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the court had made a “decision of lies”.

The court’s advisory opinion is not legally binding but still carries significant political weight. It marks the first time the ICJ has delivered a position on the legality of the 57-year occupation.

The ICJ, based at The Hague in the Netherlands, has been examining the issue since the beginning of last year, at the request of the UN General Assembly.

The court was specifically asked to give its view on Israel’s policies and practices towards the Palestinians, and on the legal status of the occupation.

Delivering the court’s findings, ICJ President Nawaf Salam said it had found that “Israel’s… continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal.”

“The State of Israel is under the obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” he said.

He said Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 did not bring Israel’s occupation of that area to an end because it still exercises effective control over it.

The court also said Israel should evacuate all of its settlers from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and pay reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by the occupation.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. The court said the settlements were illegal. Israel has consistently disputed that they are against international law.

The ICJ said Israel’s “policies and practices amount to annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, which it said was against international law, adding that Israel was “not entitled to sovereignty” over any part of the occupied territories.

Israel claims sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem, the eastern half of which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It considers the city its indivisible capital – something which is not accepted by the vast majority of the international community.

Among its other far-reaching conclusions, the court said Israeli restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied territories constituted “systemic discrimination based on, inter alia, race, religion or ethnic origin”. It also said Israel had illegally exploited the Palestinians’ natural resources and violated their right to self-determination.

The court also advised states to avoid any actions, including providing aid or assistance, that would maintain the current situation.

Israel’s prime minister swiftly issued a blunt statement rejecting what the court had determined.

“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land – not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria” (the West Bank), Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.

“No decision of lies in The Hague will distort this historical truth, and similarly, the legality of Israeli settlements in all parts of our homeland cannot be disputed.”

But the court’s findings were welcomed by the Palestinians.

Hussein Al Sheikh, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the Palestinians’ main umbrella group, called it “a historic victory for the rights of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination. And the collapse and defeat of the Judaization project through confiscation, settlement, displacement, and racist practices against a people under occupation.

“The international community must respect the opinion of international justice and force Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories,” he said.

The court’s findings will now go to the UN General Assembly, which will decide how to respond, including the option of adopting a resolution. That would be significant and could constitute a catalyst for negotiations and set the legal parameters for a future negotiated settlement.

This case is separate from another active case brought to the ICJ by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the war in Gaza.

US journalist Evan Gershkovich has been found guilty of espionage by a Russian court and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony, after a secretive trial decried as a “sham” by his employer, his family and the White House.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter was first arrested last March while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg, about 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow, by security services.

Prosecutors accused him of working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), accusations that Gershkovich, the WSJ and the US vociferously deny.

It marks the first conviction of a US journalist for espionage in Russia since the Cold War ended more than 30 years ago.

Both sides in the trial have 15 days to appeal against the verdict, the judge said.

“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour and Editor in Chief Emma Tucker said in a statement.

“We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family.

“Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now.”

Western politicians have roundly condemned the verdict. US President Joe Biden said Mr Gershkovich had “committed no crime” and was “targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American”.

“Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength,” Mr Biden added. “Journalism is not a crime. We will continue to stand strong for press freedom in Russia and worldwide, and stand against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Russia was punishing journalism with its “politicised legal system”, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the sentence as “despicable”.

Washington accuses Russia of holding Gershkovich as a bargaining chip, to be used for a possible prisoner swap with Russian citizens in foreign jails.

But Moscow knows that the US is prepared to make swaps in order to release its own citizens, and the two countries are known to have been discussing such a swap.

Russian observers say a quick conviction could mean that an exchange is imminent. According to Russian judicial practice, an exchange generally requires a verdict to be in place already.

In February Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted at a possible exchange in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson.

It is thought he was referring to Vadim Krasikov, a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) hitman serving a life sentence in Germany for shooting dead a former Chechen rebel commander in Berlin.

Evan Gershkovich’s trial began last month, and the last two days’ proceedings had originally been scheduled for August. Prosecutors had asked for an 18-year prison sentence.

But in an unexpected move, the hearing was brought forward to Thursday, and the judge gave the verdict late on Friday afternoon.

In a charging indictment, prosecutors accused Gershkovich, 32, of acting “under instructions from the CIA” to collect “secret information” about a factory that produces tanks in the Sverdlovsk region.

The reporter has consistently denied the accusations, and in a statement on Thursday the WSJ called the trial a “shameful sham” and his detention an “outrage”.

A number of other high-profile US citizens – including Paul Whelan – remain detained in Russian prisons. Mr Whelan was detained in 2018 and accused of espionage.

In his statement on Thursday Mr Biden said he had “no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad”.

A US police officer has been fired for saying that an Indian student’s life was of “limited value” after she died last year.

The Seattle Police Department said that officer Daniel Auderer’s comments about Jaahnavi Kandula’s death were “vile” and callous”, The Seattle Times reported.

Kandula, 23, was fatally struck down in January by another police vehicle while she was crossing a street near her university.

Daniel Auderer – who was responding to the incident – was recorded laughing and saying that she was a “regular person” and the city should “just write a cheque”.

The footage was captured on his body camera while he had made a call to a colleague.

“But she is dead,” the officer was heard saying before laughing. “No, it’s a regular person. Yeah, just write a cheque,” he said, before laughing again.

“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value,” he added.

The video was widely circulated on social media and sparked outrage online.

On Wednesday, Seattle Police Department’s interim chief Sue Rahr announced the policeman’s termination through a department-wide email.

His actions had brought shame on the entire department and the police profession, she wrote.

Interim chief Rahr added that his “cruel and callous laughter” and the pain it had inflicted on Kandula’s family could not outweigh Daniel Auderer’s good reputation among his colleagues and his years of service to the community.

“For me to allow the officer to remain on our force would only bring further dishonour to the entire department. For that reason, I am going to terminate his employment,” she said.

Daniel Audered had been placed under investigation after the incident.

The Office of Police Accountability – the agency that investigates police misconduct – had recommended his termination for unprofessional conduct and showing bias in recorded statements, the Seattle Times reported.

Jaahnavi Kandula was a graduate student at Northeastern University in Seattle.

The officer who rammed her with his patrol vehicle was going at 74mph (119km/h) and she was thrown more than 100ft (30m), US media reports said.

Former North Korean diplomat Tae Yong-ho has been named the new leader of South Korea’s presidential advisory council on unification.

This makes him the highest-ranking defector among the thousands who have resettled in the South – and the first to be given a vice-ministerial job.

Tae, 62, was Pyongyang’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom before he fled to South Korea in 2016.

Pyongyang has denounced him as “human scum” and accused him of embezzling state funds and other crimes.

Mr Tae became the first former North Korean to win a seat in South Korea’s 2020 National Assembly.

He failed to secure a second term in parliamentary elections in April, but in his new role, he will be be advising South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office on peaceful Korean unification.

“He is the right person to help establish a peaceful unification policy based on liberal democracy and garner support from home and abroad,” the presidential office said on Thursday.

Born in Pyongyang in 1962, Mr Tae entered the foreign service at the age of 27 and spent almost 30 years working under three generations of the ruling Kim dynasty.

He said in earlier statements that he left North Korea because he did not want his children to have “miserable lives”. He also cited disgust with Kim Jong Un’s regime and expressed admiration for South Korea’s democracy.

In a memoir published this year, Mr Tae wrote about the excesses of the North Korean elite and the depths of the personality cult built around the Kims.

Since his defection, he has advocated for the use of “soft power” to weaken the Kim regime and called for prisoner swaps between the North and the South.

Tensions between the Koreas have risen over the past few months, with Seoul resuming propaganda broadcasts towards the North on Friday, in response to Pyongyang floating thousands of trash-carrying balloons into the South.

Reports based on satellite imagery also suggest that North Korea may be strengthening its military presence and building walls along its border with the South.

As of December last year, some 34,000 individuals have defected from the North to the South, according to estimates from Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

Many do so by crossing into China and then to South Korea. In South Korea, they automatically receive citizenship and are given some resettlement money.

Earlier this week, Seoul’s spy agency cofirmed another high-profile defection of a former diplomat most recently stationed in Cuba.

Local reports identified the man as 52-year-old Ri Il Kyu and quoted him as saying that he fled because of “disillusionment with the North Korean regime and a bleak future”.

“Every North Korean thinks at least once about living in South Korea,” the Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted him as saying.

Last Sunday, South Korea marked its very first North Korean Defectors’ Day, during which Mr Yoon Suk Yeol promised better financial support for defectors and tax incentives for companies that hire them.

Authorities in Bangladesh have imposed a nationwide curfew, after further rioting in the capital Dhaka left an additional 35 people dead.

Days of violence have been sparked by students calls for the government to axe a rule reserving scores of public jobs for the families of veterans of the country’s independence war in 1971.

The prime minister’s office announced the curfew after an attack on the Narsingdi prison on Friday saw hundreds of inmates released.

Government Press Secretary Naeemul Islam Khan said the army would be deployed to the streets in a bid to restore order.

“The government has decided to impose a curfew and deploy the military in aid of the civilian authorities,” he said in a statement.

Some 67 people have now died since violence broke out – although the exact toll is difficult to assess due in part to an almost complete communications shutdown, with mobile internet and telephone lines reportedly down.

Bus and train services have reportedly also been halted, while photos from Dhaka show large numbers of police in riot gear on the streets.

Schools and universities across Bangladesh have also been shut until further notice.

But this has done little to stop the protesters, who vowed to continue with their own “Complete Shutdown”, which has seen them blockade roads across the city.

On Friday, students chanting “merit, merit” and “we won’t let the blood that has been shed of our brothers go in vain” were joined by a number of parents outside Dhaka university.

The students are arguing that the quota system is discriminatory, and are asking for recruitment based on merit. Critics say the system unfairly benefits the families of pro-government groups who support Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who won her fourth straight election in January.

A march organised by Islamist parties was met with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.

Protestors also stormed the Narsingdi district jail on Friday, where several hundred inmates were reported to have escaped onto the streets. Multiple witnesses confirmed the incident to BBC Bangla.

The main opposition Bangladesh National Party has also called for protest, with the exiled acting chairman Tarique Rahman asking people to support “these tender-hearted students” in a post on Twitter.

The party said one of its senior leaders, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, had been taken into custody. Police did not give any reasons for Mr Rizvi’s arrest.

Attempts to end the protests with talks have so far failed.

Law Minister Anisul Haque told BBC Bangla the government was open to discussing the issues: “I’m sure they are also discussing whether they will come to the talks or not.”

But student Nahid Iqbal told the BBC on Thursday they would not consider joining the talks at present.

“The government has killed so many people in a day that we cannot join any discussions in the current circumstances.”

Earlier, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam told the BBC that authorities had decided to ban rallies in the city in order to protect lives and property following Thursday’s violence.

Separately, the police confirmed to BBC Bangla that two people had died on Friday.

Police said 100 officers had been injured on Thursday, while a government minister said several vehicles parked outside government buildings were set on fire.

The clashes have also not been confined to Dhaka, with 26 districts reporting incidents.

The protesters who occupied and set light to the state broadcaster BTV had left by Friday morning, although the channel had not started broadcasting again.

A senior reporter told BBC Bangla the newsroom, studio and canteen had all been damaged in Thursday’s fire.

Vietnam’s long-serving leader Nguyen Phu Trong has died “after a period of illness”, marking the end of a political era.

The announcement came days after the government said he was stepping back to focus on his health and had handed duties to President To Lam.

As the general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party since 2011, and at one point also double-hatting as president, Mr Trong was seen as one of the country’s most powerful leaders in decades.

Besides overseeing the supercharged growth of Vietnam’s economy, the 80-year-old was known for his “blazing furnaces” anti-corruption campaign.

Mr Trong’s death comes at a time of political turbulence for Vietnam’s Communist leadership. In recent months three top leaders quit following unspecified accusations of wrongdoing.

According to an official statement released on Friday, Mr Trong died “due to old age and serious illness”.

It comes a day after the Vietnamese government said in a surprise announcement that Mr Trong needed time to “focus on active treatment” for an unspecified medical condition. It added that the president would take over Mr Trong’s duties in running the party’s central committee, politburo and secretariat.

On that same day, the government also awarded Mr Trong the Gold Star, the highest honour given in Vietnam, for contributions to the party and country.

Mr Trong was seen as recently as late June, when he welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin on a state visit.

But after that he failed to attend several events, including the official launch of a book compiling some of his speeches.

In recent years, there were several instances where he would disappear from the public eye for long stretches of time. In 2019, he was reported to have had a stroke.

Little would be said about these absences by the state, though Mr Trong occasionally acknowledged he had health and ageing issues. Observers say the state’s discretion over the health of party leaders and government officials is one way of portraying Vietnam as a stable nation under single-party rule.

In 2018, the country passed a law classifying top officials’ health as a state secret, prompting the already tightly-controlled local media to be even more cautious. Intense speculation over his health has long thrived on social media.

Observers say he leaves behind a deep but incomplete legacy. After rising to power in 2011 he stayed on as general secretary for a rare three terms. During this period he also acted as president from 2018 to 2021.

He saw the need to open up Vietnam’s economy – under his watch, the country’s GDP per capita more than doubled and Vietnam inked a series of free trade agreements with the West and Asian neighbours. Mr Trong was seen as more keen to engage the world than his predecessors, building relationships with US leaders as well as Mr Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

At the same time, he fervently clung on to his socialist ideals. “He was a career lifelong ideologue… he was a true believer, and I think that’s why in some ways relations between Vietnam and China have grown so close,” said Zachary M Abuza, a professor and Southeast Asia expert with the National War College in Washington DC.

“He always believed in making the party clean and relevant so that the party could live with the country for another 1,000 years – that’s his quote. So he saw the fate of the Vietnamese Communist party and the nation as bound together,” said Giang Nguyen, a visiting senior fellow with the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and former BBC Vietnamese editor.

Mr Trong launched his “blazing furnaces” campaign to root out corruption that deepened in tandem with Vietnam’s growth. Close to 200,000 officials are estimated to have been criminally charged or to have faced disciplinary action since then.

But there are few signs it has truly succeeded in stamping out the problem. The country still performs dismally in international corruption rankings. In recent months Vietnam has been rocked by one of its biggest fraud scandals ever, involving a staggering $44bn (£34bn) filched from banks.

The anti-corruption drive has been seen as sparking a critical shortage in the public service sector. It’s also been seen as contributing to instability within the Communist Party, where so many top officials have been purged – due to corruption or infighting – that very few are left as possible successors, particularly in the paramount political leadership team, the Politburo. Only two currently meet the conditions to inherit his post: Mr Lam and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

“The talent pool hasn’t been prepared by Mr Trong. It shows he couldn’t control the forces within the party anymore,” said Mr Nguyen.

Dr Abuza pointed out that the anti-corruption drive in many ways “served to delegitimise the party in ways that [Trong] didn’t expect, because it exposed just how sweeping corruption is at the highest level of the party”.

During his rule Vietnam also continued to tighten its control on human rights and freedom of speech. It has jailed or deported scores of dissidents, activists and bloggers, and passed draconian laws limiting the press and internet.

His death, and the question of succession that it poses, puts Vietnam in uncharted waters. For many Vietnamese, “we share the feeling of anxiety of the unknown”, said Mr Nguyen.

“It is the end of an era. That version of communism or socialism, the old times, it’s now gone. What’s next is going to be very difficult to foresee. The system is still there, but without that veneer of ideology and ideals.”

US President Joe Biden is looking forward to “getting back on the campaign trail next week”, fortifying his commitment to stick in the race as more Democrats on Friday called for him to step aside as the party nominee.

“The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win,” he said.

His statement comes amid conflicting reports of conversations within Mr Biden’s circle and the larger party about the president’s future.

Over the last several weeks, the president has been caught in a whirlwind of political pressure to step down: Calls from within his own party’s leaders to withdraw from the race, a loss of big ticket donors and the added pressure that his decision could cost Democrats control of Congress.

Nearly a dozen Democrats called for him to step aside on Friday alone as his campaign pushed back in media appearances.

Mr Biden’s re-election campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday, telling the program that the president is not withdrawing.

“Absolutely, the president’s in this race,” she said when asked about Mr Biden’s plans.

She described him as “more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump” and said he’s the “best person” to take on the former president.

In his statement, the president referenced former President Trump’s Republican National Convention speech to say he will continue “exposing the threat” of the former president while “making the case” for his record.

“Donald Trump’s dark vision for the future is not who we are as Americans. Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” he said.

As the conflict played on on Friday, the president was under quarantine at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He tested positive for Covid-19 while traveling in Las Vegas earlier this week. Mr Biden is experiencing “mild symptoms”, the White House said.

Since his poor debate performance last month, Mr Biden has insisted he will continue to run, though his perspective on what it would take for him to step down as the Democratic nominee has evolved.

First telling ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos “only the Lord Almighty” would make him stand down, Mr Biden said this week during an interview with BET (Black Entertainment Television) that he would re-evaluate the campaign if a doctor told him he had a serious medical condition.

According to a campaign memo released on Friday, Mr Biden isn’t going anywhere.

“Joe Biden has made it more than clear: He’s in this race and he’s in it to win it,” according to the memo. “Moreover, he’s the presumptive nominee — there is no plan for an alternative nominee. In a few short weeks, Joe Biden will be the official nominee. It is high past time we stop fighting one another. The only person who wins when we fight is Donald Trump.”

Time is running out for Mr Biden to decide if he will step down.

The Democratic National Convention begins 19 August, but the Democratic National Committee is expected to meet virtually the first week of August to nominate Biden as the official party nominee to meet state ballot deadlines.

The DNC rules committee is holding a meeting on Friday morning to discuss the procedures for the virtual roll-call vote.

On Friday, Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich, of New Mexico, became the third Democrat in the upper chamber to call for Biden to step aside.

“By passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest leaders and allow us to united behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and safeguard the future of our democracy,” he wrote in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

His statement follows that of Democratic Senator Jon Tester, of Montana, who called on Biden to end his re-election bid on Thursday.

“While I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term,” Mr Tester wrote in a statement on X.

In the House, Congressman Jim Costa, a Democrat from California, also called for him to withdraw on Thursday.

Democratic congressmen Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas, Chuy Garcia of Illinois and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin released a joint message on Friday saying “the most responsible and patriotic thing” Biden could do is “step aside as our nominee”.

“With great admiration for you personally, sincere respect for your decades of public service and patriotic leadership, and deep appreciation for everything we have accomplished together during your presidency, it is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders,” they wrote in the joint statement.

Illinois Democratic congressman Sean Casten wrote in the Chicago Tribune on Friday that he doesn’t think the president can defeat former US President Donald Trump.

“It is with a heavy heart and much personal reflection that I am therefore calling on Biden to pass the torch to a new generation,” he wrote.

Other members of the House joined the calls for the president to step aside on Friday, including Zoe Lofgren of California, Kathy Castor of Florida, Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, Greg Landsman of Ohio and Betty McCollum of Minnesota.

Reports this week suggested senior Democratic leaders are leaning in the same direction.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have all reportedly expressed concerns during private conversations with Mr Biden about his candidacy. In public statements, Ms Pelosi’s staff insisted her comments have been misrepresented and Mr Jeffries affirmed his support for Mr Biden.

Former President Barack Obama, Mr Biden’s previous running mate, has reportedly said Mr Biden’s chances of winning the election have greatly diminished.

Lawmakers haven’t been the only ones turning their backs to Biden. Big name donors – including actor George Clooney and Disney family heiress Abigail Disney – have closed their wallets.

Despite the defectors, some are sticking by his side.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most influential progressive voices in the House, has supported Biden over the last few weeks. She broadcast live on Instagram on Friday morning and spoke about the risks of entering the convention without Biden as the presumptive nominee, including potential legal challenges and ballot access deadlines.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has about 40 members, and the 60-member Congressional Black Caucus, have both met with the president and also indicated their support for his re-election bid.

Donald Trump told the Republican National Convention he was “not supposed to be here,” reflecting during a marathon speech on a recent attempt on his life.

His address on Thursday night came just five days after his ear was pierced by bullets fired at him by a would-be assassin during a rally in Pennsylvania.

The speech, delivered to a hushed crowd, struck in parts a sombre tone and only once mentioned the name of his rival, President Joe Biden.

His wife Melania also made a rare public appearance, joining her husband on stage with other family members.

During his 90-minute speech, there were familiar targets of Trump attacks such as undocumented migrants, Biden foreign policy and China.

But the start was very different, as he recalled the details of last Saturday’s attack in Pennsylvania, describing how a bullet narrowly missed his head and grazed his ear while he turned his head to present a chart of immigration figures.

One man, Corey Comperatore, was killed in the attack, after which the suspected gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by authorities.

Mr Comperatore was honoured at a memorial service on Thursday, as major questions continue to be asked over security lapses at the event.

Trump praised the Secret Service agents who shielded him after the shots were fired, and said he was only alive to tell the story “by the grace of almighty God”.

Observers said his speech was relatively subdued, in spite of the overall bombast of the evening, which included a shower of balloons and a crowd-rallying appearance from wrestling legend Hulk Hogan.

Trump had pledged to re-write his address in the wake of the attack, after which he had what he called a “very cordial” conversation with Mr Biden. The finished item was critical of the current president’s policies, although he spoke his adversary’s name only once during his range of attacks.

He again promised to curb illegal immigration, vowing the “largest deportation operation in the history of our country”, and said he would “end every single international crisis that the current administration has created”.

Trump also said he would create a version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, and pledged to restore “peace, stability and harmony all throughout the world” – though he gave few details on how.

ROUNDUP: Five takeaways from Trump’s speech

FACT-CHECK: BBC Verify looks at Trump’s claims on crime, immigration and tax

WATCH: Trump describes the moment he was shot at

VOTERS: Republicans put abortion disagreements aside at ‘unity’ convention

The speech concluded with a rare on-stage appearance from Trump’s wife, other family members and prominent supporters. It capped off a triumphant four-day convention for Trump, during which he formally became the Republicans’ nominee for president and unveiled his running mate for November.

In his debut speech in the role, that man – 39-year-old Ohio Senator JD Vance – told the convention that he was a “working-class” boy, and insisted that Trump’s policies would help left-behind voters.

Among the others who made notable appearances at the convention were Mr Vance’s wife Usha, as well as Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara and his teenage granddaughter Kai, who gave her first public remarks.

And Trump’s former rivals for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, came together to voice their support for him.

Their message of party solidarity was echoed in Thursday’s speech by Trump, who also spoke of working for “all of America” if he won back the White House.

In addition to the applause of his supporters at the convention, Trump has been buoyed by polling on Thursday from the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.

This has suggested that Trump has assumed his clearest poll lead of the campaign so far, and is riding five points ahead of his rival, Mr Biden.

The numbers appear to further indicate that Trump’s conviction last month in a New York criminal hush-money case has not dented his appeal. Pundits have suggested his survival of the assassination attempt could strengthen his image.

Trump received further good news on Monday when he learned that a Florida judge had thrown out another case against him relating to his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021. Prosecutors are likely to appeal.

Meanwhile, Mr Biden has endured a difficult week, and is currently self-isolating with a bout of Covid-19. His re-election campaign is under further scrutiny amid reported concerns about the presidential election from Barack Obama.

Mr Obama is reported by the Washington Post to have privately stated that Biden’s chances of beating Trump in November are greatly diminished. Spokespeople for the former president have declined to comment.

It follows reports that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the two most senior Democrats in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, have told Mr Biden of their own concerns. All have rejected the reports.

Mr Biden’s campaign has dismissed the reported concerns of top Democrats, insisting he will remain the nominee.

POLICIES: Where Biden and Trump stand on key issues

SWING STATES: Where the election could be won and lost

GLOBAL: What Moscow and Beijing think of rematch

ALTERNATIVES: Who else is running for president in 2024?

China-born actress Cheng Pei-pei, who starred in Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has died in San Francisco at the age of 78.

A pioneer of martial arts roles for female actors, Cheng became a major performer in action films after she starred in Come Drink with Me by King Hu in 1966. The film achieved critical acclaim and won Cheng international attention.

After moving to the US she inspired a new generation of directors from East Asia to Hollywood to make female-driven swordplay films.

Cheng’s family said she had been privately battling a neurodegenerative brain disease with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s since 2019 and passed away on Wednesday.

“Our mom wanted to be remembered by how she was: the legendary Queen of Martial Arts… a versatile, award-winning actress whose film and television career spanned over six decades, not only in Asia but internationally as well,” her family wrote on Facebook.

Born in Shanghai in 1946, Cheng moved to Hong Kong in 1962 and soon won acclaim as an actor with the release of Come Drink with Me. The film is considered one of the best examples of “wuxia” films – a period movie genre celebrating legendary martial artists from ancient China.

In the film she played the role of Golden Swallow, the sister of an important leader who was kidnapped by a band of thugs. A kung-fu master, her character was dispatched to rescue her brother.

The film, selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 39th Academy Awards, launched her career at the age of 19.

Coupled with its 1968 sequel, Golden Swallow, the role saw Cheng win scores of parts in martial arts films as a fearless swordswoman.

Her character went on to establish the motif of the lone female assassin, sent out to seek revenge. The genre would heavily influence Quentin Tarantino’s box office hits, Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2.

Cheng moved to California in the early 1970s and played dozens of roles as an iconic action heroine during the golden age of Hong Kong martial arts films.

Her biggest role came in 2000, in director Ang Lee’s wuxia-inspired Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where she played the villain, Jade Fox. It was one of the first mainstream martial arts films to feature a female lead.

The film became a global hit, winning 10 Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture. It earned $128 million at the North American box office and won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, as well as at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs.

It became the first foreign-language film to gross more than $100 million worldwide.

Her final role was in the live-action Disney version of “Mulan” in 2020, where she played as the matchmaker to the eponymous heroine.

Her Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon co-star Michelle Yeoh hailed Cheng in a message posted to Instagram. “We will miss your kindness and shining talent,” she wrote.

After her illness was diagnosed five years ago, Cheng chose not to make her condition public and instead spent time with her four children and grandchildren.

Her family said she had requested that instead of flowers, donations be made to the Brain Support Network (BSN) where she donated her brain.

A man has been killed and at least eight people injured in a drone attack in central Tel Aviv, Israel.

A block of flats was hit by what an Israeli military official said was an Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which had been modified to fly long distance.

The Houthi movement in Yemen – over 1,000 miles (1,600km) away – said it carried out the attack, and vowed to stage more. Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an initial investigation pointed to the attack having originated in Yemen.

If the Houthis are responsible, it would mark a significant escalation in their attacks on Israel which began in the wake of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

Until now, almost all Houthi missiles and drones fired towards Israel have been intercepted. None are known to have reached Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military official said its defence forces had detected the incoming drone but had not tried to shoot it down because of “human error”.

Dramatic video filmed from the beach, said to capture the moment of the attack, appears to show a drone flying in over the Mediterranean Sea and buzzing loudly. It flies over buildings before disappearing, followed by a huge explosion moments later.

Pictures from the scene of the blast, near a branch of the US embassy, show a building with its windows blown out, and damaged cars and debris on the street below.

Local media named the man who was killed as Yevgeny Ferder, 50, who moved to Israel from Belarus two years ago.

The attack happened at 03:12 (00:12 GMT) and the explosion was heard for several miles around.

The Times of Israel news site quoted the Israeli Air Force as saying the incident “shouldn’t have happened”, and that it took full responsibility for the failure to prevent it.

Senior military correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, Yonah Jeremy Bob, said “The Israeli defense establishment is in a state of complete shock” over the attack.

“Though the writing was on the wall, no one saw it coming from a couple thousand kilometers away,” he wrote.

Following the incident, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant held a security briefing with the country’s security chiefs.

“The defense establishment is working to reinforce all defense mechanisms and will bring to justice anyone who harms the State of Israel,” Mr Gallant said afterwards.

He hinted at possible retaliation, saying they had discussed “intelligence and operational activities required against those responsible for the attack”.

A military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said the strike had been conducted with a new drone capable of bypassing interception systems.

He declared Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital, “an unsafe area,” and said it “will be a primary target within the range of our weapons”.

The Israeli military said it was increasing air patrols, while Tel Aviv’s mayor said the city was on high alert, local media reported.

Alon, a local resident, told Haaretz newspaper that when the blast happened “the whole building shook.”

“My neighbours’ windows shattered, so I was sure something had hit the building. It was only when I went outside that I realised that several buildings had been damaged.”

The incident also came after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire across the border since Hezbollah launched rockets a day after Israel began its military offensive on Gaza in response to Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel.

Hezbollah and the Houthis, which are both backed by Iran, say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The UK will resume funding UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, the foreign secretary has announced.

David Lammy told MPs he had received reassurances about its neutrality in the wake of a review of alleged links between its staff and terror groups.

The UK was among 16 Western countries to halt donations in January, after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the October 2023 attacks by Hamas.

An internal UN investigation into allegations related to that attack is ongoing.

But a separate UN review, published in April, found Israel had not provided evidence for its claims hundreds of UNRWA staff were members of terror groups.

The announcement brings the UK into line with other countries that have resumed funding since then, leaving the United States, UNRWA’s single biggest donor, as the only country not to have restarted donations.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Lammy said “no other agency” was able to deliver aid at the scale required to alleviate the “desperate” humanitarian situation in Gaza.

He added UNRWA was feeding more than half the territory’s two-million population and would be “vital for future reconstruction”.

He said he had been “appalled” by Israel’s allegations, but the claims had been taken “seriously” by the United Nations.

He had been reassured the agency “is ensuring they meet the highest standards of neutrality” in the wake of the April review, he added.

This included “strengthening its procedures, including on vetting,” Mr Lammy said.

He told MPs a resumption of the UK’s £21m annual funding would include money put towards “management reforms” recommended by the UN review.

The Foreign Office said £6m would be given to UNRWA’s flash appeal for Gaza, and £15m to the agency’s budget to provide services in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and wider region.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told the BBC the agency welcomed the announcement, which came at a “critical time as humanitarian needs in Gaza continue to deepen”.

She added that the agency had reassured the UK it was implementing recommendations from the April report, “especially with regards to continuing to follow the principle of neutrality in our programmes”.

The review, by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, found Israel had “yet to provide supporting evidence” for its claims that a “significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations”.

Israel has said more than 2,135 employees of the agency – out of a total of 13,000 in Gaza – are members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK, US and other countries.

However, the review concluded the agency must do more to improve its neutrality, staff vetting and transparency.

Israeli authorities suggest the report ignores the severity of the problem, and claim UNRWA has systematic links with Hamas.

Israel initially alleged that 12 UNRWA staff took part in the Hamas attacks on southern Israel, which saw 1,200 people killed and about 250 taken hostage.

More than 38,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the attacks.

UNRWA sacked the 10 of the 12 employees who were still alive when the allegations emerged and the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight launched an investigation into the claims.

In April, the body said eight employees remained under investigation, with inquiries suspended in four of the cases because of insufficient evidence.

It added it had also begun investigations into an additional seven staff members, and six of those cases were ongoing.

During his Commons statement, Mr Lammy also rejected calls from some Labour MPs to impose a ban on all UK weapons sales to Israel.

Alongside Green MPs and pro-Gaza independents, some 14 Labour backbenchers want to table an amendment calling for an arms embargo during a debate next week on the King’s Speech, the government’s law-making plans.

The foreign secretary said it would “not be right to have a blanket ban” as Israel was surrounded by enemies in “one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the world”.

He added that arms export licences would be kept under review “in the normal way” by reviewing assessments of Israel’s compliance by government lawyers.

A “comprehensive review” was under way and he would update MPs once it was complete, Mr Lammy said.

However, he did not commit to publishing internal legal advice – something he called on the previous government to do when Labour was in opposition.

A 22-year old Serbian man has been arrested in France a week after the fatal stabbing in Germany of a 74-year-old man, named locally as former Rolls-Royce car designer Ian Cameron.

Bavarian police said that after a public manhunt the suspect had been located in a flat to the north-east of Paris and arrested by French special forces on Thursday.

Ian Cameron, 74, was reportedly attacked last Friday night at his home in Herrsching, south-west of Munich. His wife fled to a neighbour’s house and raised the alarm.

Police later released an image of the suspect taken in a local supermarket before the killing. They said the man had been in the Herrsching area for several hours.

Ian Cameron moved to the lakeside village of Herrsching 11 years ago. Former Rolls-Royce colleagues have said they are deeply shocked by what happened.

Police have not publicly named him as the victim and have not suggested why he might have been targeted.

After police found his body they searched neighbouring gardens and roads close to the east bank of Lake Ammersee with a helicopter and police dogs.

The suspect is thought to have escaped on foot and police warned the public not to approach him themselves. A red backpack was later found next to the lake and other objects were found during a search of woodland close to the victim’s house.

Images of the outside of the victim’s house indicated that a cable powering an outdoor security camera had been cut.

In a statement on Friday Bavarian police said that after a week-long manhunt a suspect had been detained.

They said the man had escaped to Munich and then travelled to Innsbruck in Austria and through Zurich to France.

The Serbian suspect was alone in an apartment near Paris when he was detained by French special forces and offered no resistance, they added. He is due to appear before an investigating magistrate in France on Friday.

The chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Chris Brownridge, said this week that his thoughts were with Ian Cameron’s family and friends.

“[Ian Cameron] led the design team for all Phantom family and Ghost models, creating thoroughly contemporary motor cars that remained sympathetic to the marque’s design,” he said.

Donald Trump’s elusive wife Melania has appeared in public for the first time since the former president narrowly missed an assassin’s bullet.

Wearing Republican red she walked, alone, into the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee accompanied by classical music – a marked contrast from the country music anthems and rock ballads we’ve been hearing all week.

Glossy and glamorous, she looked more like she was walking down a catwalk than into a political convention. She seemed as inscrutable and distant as ever.

She joined him on stage after his lengthy acceptance speech, walking to the podium just before balloons rained down on thousands in the crowd. Donald Trump greeted her with a hug and the pair shared a kiss on the cheek.

He then grabbed her hand and walked across the stage as other members of the Trump family joined them.

Ever since her husband was first elected in 2016, Melania Trump has broken all the rules of normal American presidential politics.

In the White House during Trump’s first term, she was a reclusive figure compared to other first ladies, focusing on a narrow set of interests. The US national archives descibes her as having been an “ambassador for kindness” and an advocate for children’s issues.

And since her husband left office, she has refused to be seen by her husband’s side on many occasions when the public would expect her to be present.

She wasn’t there when he had his mugshot taken in Atlanta. She wasn’t there in New York when he became the first former president to be convicted of a crime. And she wasn’t there when he officially won his party’s presidential nomination, for the third time, on Monday.

• Trump recounts shooting in marathon Republican convention speech
• Five takeaways from Trump’s speech
• Watch: ‘It can only be a bullet’ – Trump describes moment he was shot at
• Republicans put abortion disagreements aside at ‘unity’ convention
• The Trump family: A guide to an American dynasty

“Melania does what Melania wants,” said Mary Jordan, who wrote The Art of her Deal, a biography on the former first lady. “She is fiercely independent and won’t do something just because other people do it. She doesn’t feel any obligation to do it.”

We are now all accustomed to the fact that she doesn’t turn up at many of Donald Trump’s events, but on Monday, when he walked into the arena here in Milwaukee to a roaring welcome, greeted like a Messiah after his survival of the assassination attempt, her absence felt particularly obvious.

It was certainly noticed by the Republicans gathered here, but that didn’t mean they weren’t excited for her appearance, when it finally came.

Melania is the most enigmatic first lady in modern history and we rarely hear what she thinks.

An exception was the lengthy statement she released after the shooting targeting her husband, which read as though she may have dictated it directly.

“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion – his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” she said.

“The core facets of my husband’s life – his human side – were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”

It is traditional at party conventions for the candidate’s spouse to give a speech and tell heavily-scripted anecdotes about family life.

On Wednesday evening, Usha Vance – the wife of Trump’s newly-minted running mate JD Vance – did just that. She called her husband a “meat and potatoes” man, but – in an apparent sign of his devotion – said he now cooked her Indian vegetarian food.

And while Donald Trump’s oldest son Don Jr, middle son Eric, daughter-in-law Lara and granddaughter Kai have all spoken at this convention, Melania has declined the opportunity to speak. She very clearly does not do anything she does not want to do.

When she did introduce her husband at the 2016 convention when he first ran for president – things went horribly wrong.

She was criticised for plagiarising the speech Michelle Obama gave in 2008 when she introduced her husband Barack at the Democratic convention. Melania’s speechwriter later accepted the blame.

First ladies are always heavily scrutinised for the image they project, the causes they adopt, and the clothes they wear.

But Melania Trump is the first who was previously a professional model. She looks fabulous in photographs and is well aware of the power of her image. By offering so few photo opportunities, she makes each one infinitely more powerful.

“She is very savvy and has cultivated the mystery woman mystique by going underground and then when she does come out, it’s a much bigger deal,” says Ms Jordan.

“She doesn’t appear very often, but she does show up when Donald Trump really needs her.”

After Saturday’s attempt on his life, Melania felt MIA. But on Thursday night, as she slowly walked the stairs to the VIP section, paused at the top and waved to all corners of the arena, she showed her mastery of the power of an image.

Her absence may, at times, be her strength.

Donald Trump has addressed the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, accepting the nomination as the party’s presidential candidate.

His speech – which lasted one and a half hours – contained plenty of claims about his record as president versus Joe Biden’s.

BBC Verify has been checking some of them.

CLAIM: “Our crime rate is going up, while crime statistics all over the world are going down”

VERDICT: Violent crime in the US fell last year.

Mr Trump did not specify what kind of crime he was talking about.

Violent crime was down 6% in 2023 and there was a significant drop of 13% in the murder rate, according to preliminary FBI data.

These statistics aren’t a complete picture as some local police departments have not yet submitted their figures. The official FBI figures for last year will be released in October.

The latest FBI crime data, which is also preliminary, indicates this downward trend in violent crime in the US has continued into 2024, with reported incidents falling 15% in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year.

Recorded murders dropped by more than 26% in the same time period, according to the figures.

CLAIM: “We’ve had the worst inflation we’ve ever had under this person [Biden]”

VERDICT: Under President Biden, inflation reached around 9% before falling to around 3%. That’s nowhere near the worst in history – the record was 23.7% in 1920.

Inflation rose significantly during the first two years of the Biden administration, hitting a peak of 9.1% in the year to June 2022.

This was comparable with many other Western countries, which experienced high inflation rates in 2021 and 2022, as global supply chain issues as a consequence of Covid and the war in Ukraine contributed to rising prices.

But some economists say Mr Biden’s $1.9tn (£1.5tn) spending plan in 2021 was a factor as well.

Since then, US inflation has fallen steadily with the latest monthly figure at 3% as of June.

Mr Trump also said “we had no inflation” under his administration.

When Mr Biden came to office in January 2021, inflation was low – at 1.4% – but prices were still rising.

CLAIM: “Our opponents inherited a world at peace”

VERDICT: There were dozens of conflicts globally in the last year Mr Trump was president, according to experts.

Mr Trump followed this claim by saying the world was now a “planet at war” and he highlighted the current conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

He’s right that they didn’t happen on his watch but he’s wrong to claim that he left “a world at peace” to President Biden.

In 2020, the last full year Mr Trump was President, there were 56 active conflicts around the world, according to the Peace Research Institute in Oslo.

It classed eight of these as wars, including ones in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.

CLAIM: “If somebody wants to buy a gas-powered car or a hybrid they are going to be able to do it, and we’re going to make that change on day one”

VERDICT: The implication here is that Americans cannot buy these cars or will not be able to. There is no current ban on vehicles which run on gas (petrol) in the US and Mr Biden has not set out a plan to introduce one in the future.

In March, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new emission standards for cars built between 2027 and 2032.

It estimates the car industry could meet these standards if 56% of new vehicles are electric by 2032.

The Biden administration has said this is not a ban and new petrol-powered vehicles can still be sold beyond 2032.

CLAIM: “The jobs that are created [under Biden] – 107% of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens”

VERDICT: We can’t find any evidence for this figure and the data shows millions of new jobs have gone to US-born workers.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics produces figures for both US-born and foreign-born workers.

But it does not have a separate category for illegal immigrants and Mr Trump did not say where he got his figure from.

Since President Biden took office in January 2021, the number of US-born workers has increased by 7.8 million.

Over the same period, the number of foreign-born workers in the US rose by 5.5 million.

CLAIM: “The biggest tax cuts ever”

VERDICT: As President, Donald Trump did bring in big tax cuts but they weren’t the largest in history.

Mr Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 brought in sweeping cuts to taxation across the board. These are due to expire in 2025 unless the next administration extends them.

According to analysis done by the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Trump’s tax cuts were the eighth-largest since 1918 measured as a percentage of the size of the economy (GDP), and the fourth-largest in dollar terms since 1940 adjusted for inflation.

Although, Mr Trump didn’t introduce the largest tax cut overall he did pass the largest corporate tax cut in US history.

The 2017 law reduced this tax rate from 35% to 21%.

That was more than the cut passed under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, which lowered the rate from 46% to 34%.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

The father of the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump called police before the Saturday shooting because he was concerned about his son, according to media reports.

The call is one of a number of red flags revealed in recent days that law enforcement was notified about before gunshots rang out at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. Law enforcement – specifically the US Secret Service – has faced mounting questions about security with calls by some lawmakers that the head of the agency should resign.

Matthew Crooks’ father called police because he was worried about his son and his whereabouts, a law enforcement source told the BBC’s news partner CBS. It’s unclear when the call was made but it was before the shooting.

It is unclear what his father told police. Fox News reported that Crooks’ parents, Mary and Matthew, told officers “they were worried” about their son and that he had disappeared without any advance notice.

His parents are both co-operating in the investigation, the FBI has said.

Law enforcement sources have told US media that the gunman had conducted online searches into a major depressive disorder and the Democratic National Convention scheduled for August.

He had also saved images of Trump, President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Chris Wray and a member of the British Royal Family, according to reports from the Washington Post and Associated Press.

Investigators are still trying to trace a potential motive for the 20-year-old gunman, who was shot dead by Secret Service snipers after opening fire. His attack left one member of the audience dead and several others wounded.

The preliminary investigation has found that Crooks climbed onto the roof of a nearby building outside the rally by climbing onto an air conditioning unit. The units were located next to the building, the unnamed official told CBS.

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• Trump gunman flagged by Secret Service 20 minutes before shooting
• Trump to address buoyant Republicans in first speech since shooting

A counter sniper flagged a suspicious man using a rangefinder to the US Secret Service some 20 minutes before the attack started, according to members of Congress briefed by law enforcement this week.

A rangefinder is an instrument that can be used to help measure the distance to a target.

Local police initially spotted the gunman, who was acting strangely and had a backpack, about an hour before the shooting. They lost him in the crowd, but he was spotted again by the sniper.

Officers were alerted by radio about a suspicious person and searched the area where Crooks had perched his rifle on a rooftop.

Finding no one, one officer decided to check the roof. The officer was hoisted on to the roof by a colleague and came face-to-face with the suspect, Butler Township Manager Tom Knights told CBS.

The suspect pointed a rifle at him and the officer, who was in a “defenceless” position, let go from the roof and fell to the ground.

He then alerted others to the gunman. Moments later, the shooting started.

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No weapon was spotted by law enforcement when Crooks was seen in the crowd and officials are trying to determine how no one saw his AR-style rifle.

Investigators are examining various theories, including that he had stashed it earlier in the day near the air conditioning units or that he was somehow able to smuggle it inside his backpack.

Retracing his footsteps in the hours before the attack will be key to understanding how the shooting unfolded, officials say.

Officials told CBS that the semi-automatic rifle he used had been legally purchased by Crook’s father in 2013.

When the gunman was found, he was carrying a remote detonator and his car contained explosives, law enforcement sources have told US media.

It continues to remain unclear what motivated the attack, and whether any political ideology is to blame.

• Around 17:11: local officers spot Crooks and notify other law enforcement but then lose track of him, according to briefings between police and lawmakers
• 17:45: A counter sniper officer calls in with a report and a photo of a man – who turned out to be Crooks – acting suspiciously around a building near the rally, according to local media reports
• 17:52: US Secret Service become aware of a suspicious person with a rangefinder on the ground, according to sources familiar with the briefing to lawmakers
• 18:03: Trump begins speaking at the rally
• Around 18:09: Rallygoers spot Crooks on the roof and attempt to tell law enforcement
• 18:11: Crooks opens fire. He is fatally shot by Secret Service counter snipers 26 seconds later

After a tumultuous few weeks that have upended American politics, Donald Trump pitched a message of unity and strength as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination for the third time on Thursday night.

Trump appeared after Kid Rock delivered a version of his song American Bad Ass, an introduction from Ultimate Fighting Championship chief Dana White, a shirt-ripping endorsement from wrestling legend Hulk Hogan and a singalong version of his rally anthem God Bless the USA.

His name was written in giant lights behind him as he strode on stage.

But after that bombastic introduction, the former president seemed relatively subdued as he spoke – often veering off-script – to the Republican faithful for more than 90 minutes.

He told the hushed crowd in detail about the recent attempt on his life, suggesting he had been saved by divine intervention.

But despite stressing a message of national togetherness he could not resist sharp jibes at Democratic party leaders.

Here are five takeaways:

Trump began his speech by recounting his experience of last Saturday’s attack.

“As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life,” he told the assembled Republican delegates.

He said he turned his head slightly to view a chart about immigration projected on a teleprompter screen.

“In order to see the chart, I started to – like this – turn to my right, and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I’m very lucky I didn’t do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me, really, really hard, on my right ear.

“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that – it can only be a bullet.'”

Trump called the Secret Service agents who rushed the stage “very brave”.

“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God,” he said. “Many people say it was a providential moment. It probably was.”

He credited the crowd at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, for not panicking and causing a stampede.

“They just didn’t want to leave me, and you can see that love written all over their faces,” he said.

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Although his speech contained sharp criticism of Joe Biden’s policies on several fronts, Trump made just one direct mention of his rival’s name, calling him one of the worst presidents in history, as he frequently does at rallies.

“The damage he has done to this country is unthinkable,” he said, “just unthinkable.”

Uncertainty continues to swirl around the future of Mr Biden’s candidacy. On Wednesday, he was diagnosed with Covid-19 and is recuperating at his home in Delaware.

Mr Biden has vowed to stay in the race, despite reports that leading Democrats, including Barack Obama, are now questioning his position, and a growing number of Congressional lawmakers have urged him to step aside for a new candidate.

Trump pledged to build the rest of the southern border wall, “most of which I have already built”. That claim isn’t accurate, with fewer than 500 miles (805km) constructed during his first term.

He also painted a picture of massive inflation, saying “groceries are up 50%, gasoline is up 60 to 70%, mortgage rates have quadrupled”.

Inflation is a major issue to American voters, but since Mr Biden took office in January 2021 prices have risen by a total of about 20%.

Trump also mentioned at several points his baseless assertion that fraud in the 2020 election cost him the presidency.

The convention ended with the usual family gathering on stage. But Trump’s clan is more than just a show – they are now truly Republican power brokers with the potential makings of a dynasty.

Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr, were given high-profile speaking slots, and Don Jr was reportedly a key influence over his father’s vice-presidential pick.

Earlier in the week Eric’s wife, Lara Trump, took to the stage. As co-chair of the Republican National Committee, she will play a key role in the election campaign.

The convention also heard from little-known members of the clan, such as his eldest granddaughter, Kai Trump, a keen golfer. Aged 17, she will not be eligible to vote in November.

Other Trumps had much lower profiles. Melania Trump turned up on the final night in a rare public appearance, but she did not take to the podium to speak as US candidates’ wives usually do on such occasions.

Neither did Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who – with her husband Jared Kushner – only attended the convention on the final day. Once a close adviser to her father, she left politics after her father departed the White House.

Trump generally attempted to continue the overall theme of national unity that kept coming up this week at the party convention – but at several points he digressed into sharp attacks on Democrats and their policies.

Early on in the speech he told the crowd: “Together, we will launch a new era of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, colour, and creed.”

“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”

Still, he could not resist ad-libbed lines criticising top Democrats and the leadership of the United Auto Workers, one of the country’s largest unions. In addition to his criticism of President Biden, he called Nancy Pelosi – the former House speaker – “crazy”.

Referring to the legal cases against him, he said: “They’ve got to stop that because they’re destroying our country.”

Trump also demanded that “the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponising the justice system”.

Much as it has been throughout his political career, immigration was at the top of the agenda.

He called illegal immigration an “invasion that is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year” and promised the “largest deportation operation in the history of our country – even larger than that of President Dwight D Eisenhower many years ago”.

More than one million Mexican immigrants were deported from the US in 1954.

In a lengthy section of one of the longest convention speeches in memory, he blamed immigrants for crime, and said: “We have become a dumping ground for the world, which is laughing at us, they think we’re stupid.”

South Africa parliament appears to have entered a new era – one of political maturity.

The atmosphere was remarkably different from what had gone before – no interruptions, no chaos and no scuffles, as President Cyril Ramaphosa laid out plans for the first time since the coalition government took office.

This was a result of the African National Congress (ANC) failing to secure more than 50% of the vote for the first time in the democratic era.

Former President Jacob Zuma – who leads the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party but was barred from running as an MP just before May’s election – snubbed the invitation to attend Thursday’s sitting.

With the parliament now open, the MK – a party founded less than a year ago – was recognised as the official opposition.

Its leader of house, disgraced former Justice John Hlophe, had promised not to engage in petty politics.

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Also, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – who have a reputation for disrupting, heckling and brawling in parliament – had promised to change, with party leader Julius Malema saying the EFF would be a constructive opposition.

Members of the Democratic Alliance (DA) – formerly South Africa’s official opposition but now part of the coalition government – nodded and clapped during an hour-long speech as the ANC’s President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the top priorities.

These included rapid, inclusive economic growth, job creation and tackling the high cost of basic goods.

Mr Ramaphosa’s humbled ANC had streamed into parliament with the least number of members since it came to power 30 years ago.

After losing its parliamentary majority, the ANC formed an initially shaky coalition with nine other political parties. Mr Ramaphosa’s address followed the coalition government’s first cabinet meeting since the vote was held.

That meeting “underscored the determination of all members of the Government of National Unity to work together to advance the interests of all South Africans”, he told parliament.

The priorities he has announced fuse mostly ANC policies with some concessions made to accommodate the concerns of the DA, South Africa’s second-largest party and the ANC’s long-time rival.

The pro-free market DA is ideologically at odds with the ANC’s social welfare traditions, and seen by many as catering to the interests of the white minority, which it denies.

In his address, Mr Ramaphosa firmly stated economic growth must “support the empowerment of black South Africans and women and those who in the past had been relegated to the fringes of the economy”.

The government, which is backed by 70% of the MPs, promises to make “massive” investments in infrastructure and turn the whole country “into a construction site”.

The second area of focus will be to expand the basket of essential food items exempt from the VAT sales tax, in order to address the high cost of living.

This is an initiative that the DA had been lobbying for in an effort to eliminate poverty, TK Pooe, a senior researcher at the Wits School of Governance, told the BBC.

Another part-concession, the ANC’s plan to launch compulsory universal healthcare for all, will now proceed subject to consultation with stakeholders. The DA and private medical insurance groups had threatened legal action, arguing that the scheme violates the right to choose a service provider.

“Court will be the last resort,” DA leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen told journalists outside parliament.

“We are in government now and have a forum in which we can negotiate.” He welcomed Mr Ramaphosa’s speech.

New sports minister Gayton McKenzie was also pleased, saying the address was Mr Ramaphosa’s “best” ever.

However, John Trollip from Action SA, a political party that is not part of the new government, said the president’s address was thin on credibility and sounded like lots of previous speeches.

The EFF’s Mr Malema told national broadcaster SABC that “it’s very clear that the president has got no plan to transform South Africa for the better”.

But Mr Pooe said what the president did not explicitly mention – foreign policy and the ANC’s ties to Gaza and Russia – is equally important as the priorities he outlined.

“It’ll be interesting to see how now the statements about Israel and Russia might become a bit more muted to accommodate the many voices in the room,” he said, in reference to the DA’s support of Israel.

The MK’s John Hlophe agreed.

“He didn’t address the issue of Palestine because the DA is watching him,” he said. Mr Hlophe added that the speech was “appalling” and silent on land reform without compensation – a central MK policy as well as a key issue nationally.

White people, who make up just 7% of the population, own the vast majority of farmland that is held by individuals.

There has long been a debate about whether the state should redistribute this land without paying its owners for it.

Mr Pooe believed the president’s speech did not over-promise.

“We are not expecting to see radical change and that might be a positive. [The speech said] these are the choke points holding the country back: energy, infrastructure local government and this is what is going to be addressed,” he said.

“If the grand coalition can stick to those things and then allow private actors to come in on the other matters the better for South Africa.”

Perhaps deliberately, the opening of parliament coincided with the birthday of the country’s first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela, who at the time symbolised hope and renewal for a nation in crisis.

Thursday might not have recaptured that hope entirely. But Mr Ramaphosa said the unity government would “seek to build consensus on issues we don’t agree on”.

He acknowledged that they would have to work hard to reach this consensus.

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• Jacob Zuma’s MK – the political wildcard in South Africa’s election
• The ex-gangster who has become South Africa’s sports minister

Joe Biden’s campaign has been thrust into a pressure cooker of doubt, as panic and worry about his election chances pour in from the highest levels of the Democratic party.

In recent days, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have all reportedly expressed concerns in private to Mr Biden about his candidacy.

Even his former running mate, former President Barack Obama, has reportedly said Mr Biden’s chances of winning the election have greatly diminished.

A 6 July letter from high-ranking congressman Jamie Raskin was made public on Thursday, where the Maryland representative compared the president to a baseball pitcher whose arm has “tired out”.

Mr Biden, 81, has repeatedly and defiantly declared he is “not going anywhere”, urging his party to refocus on the task of defeating Donald Trump.

But the calls to exit are nearing a crescendo as Democratic politicians, donors and voters speak out against the president’s candidacy.

Lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol are coming out in growing numbers against the idea of Mr Biden staying in the race.

It began five days after the June 27 debate with Lloyd Doggett, a 15-term Texas congressman, who said that it was time for Mr Biden to “make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw”.

Mr Doggett, 77, who sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, said he respected “all that President Biden has achieved” but that the Democrat had failed to “effectively defend his many accomplishments” on the debate stage.

Only three members of the Senate have so far publicly called for Mr Biden to drop out. They are Peter Welch of Vermont, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Montana’s Jon Tester, who is fighting for re-election.

They have been joined by House colleagues including the likes of Adam Schiff, California’s likely next senator, and several members in tight re-election races of their own. The others are:

• Raul Grijalva of Arizona
• Seth Moulton of Massachusetts
• Mike Quigley of Illinois
• Angie Craig of Minnesota
• Adam Smith of Washington
• Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey
• Pat Ryan of New York
• Earl Blumenauer of Oregon
• Hillary Scholten of Michigan
• Brad Schneider of Illinois
• Ed Case of Hawaii
• Greg Stanton of Arizona
• Jim Himes of Connecticut
• Scott Peters of California
• Eric Sorensen of Illinois
• Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state
• Mike Levin of California
• Brittany Pettersen of Colorado
• Jim Costa of California
• Sean Casten of Illinois
• Jared Huffman of California
• Marc Veasey of Texas
• Chuy Garcia of Illinois
• Mark Pocan of Wisconsin
• Greg Landsman of Ohio
• Zoe Lofgren of California

Other prominent figures have also joined the growing chorus:

• New York Lt Gov Antonio Delgado, a former member of the House of Representatives, said Mr Biden “can add to his legacy, showing his strength and grace, by ending his campaign”.
• Ex-Ohio congressman Tim Ryan, former housing secretary Julian Castro and self-help guru Marianne Williamson – all former primary opponents of Mr Biden – have called on him to withdraw.
• George Clooney, the Hollywood actor and major party fundraiser, said in The New York Times that Mr Biden could not beat time. His article was titled: “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
• Disney heiress Abigail Disney, another megadonor, said she was suspending donations to Democrats “unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket”.

Senior Democrats, including party leaders in Washington, have parsed their tongues in public on whether Mr Biden should continue his 2024 bid.

Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, had previously declined to directly answer whether she wanted him to keep running. She did so on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the president’s favourite news programme.

“I want him to do whatever he decides to do,” she said, adding that “time is running short” for him to make that call.

CNN reported that since then, Mrs Pelosi had met with Mr Biden privately and told him that polls show he cannot win in November. She later slammed the reporting as a “feeding frenzy”, but did not deny that a conversation with Mr Biden had taken place.

Her replacement as House Democratic chief, Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have reportedly also met Mr Biden to privately express both their concerns about his ability to win re-election and the potential impact of his candidacy on Democratic hopes of controlling the House and Senate.

Many politicians have declined to outright call for Mr Biden’s removal, while expressing respect for his record and raising concerns over his campaign’s poor standing.

Patty Murray, of Washington state, said Mr Biden “must do more to demonstrate he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump”. Michael Bennet, of Colorado, warned that Mr Trump was on track to win “by a landslide, and take with him the Senate and the House”. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has also publicly aired her doubts since the debate.

But the president is not without his backers.

Vice-President Kamala Harris has not wavered in standing by her boss, as have potential replacement candidates such as Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, and his Michigan and Maryland contemporaries Gretchen Whitmer and Wes Moore.

Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has continued to defend Mr Biden, telling MSNBC “we’ve got to stop the nitpicking”.

The powerful Congressional Black Caucus, which represents about one quarter of House Democrats, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have recently reaffirmed their backing for Mr Biden.

More than 1,400 black women backing the Biden-Harris ticket, including former DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, wrote an open letter to reiterate their support.

Also standing by Mr Biden, and enthusiastically so, are outspoken figures on the Hill such as two-time presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minnesota firebrand Ilhan Omar, and John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania senator.

As Lara Trump strode on to centre stage at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, it was a moment that symbolised a change of guard in the Trump family that has taken place since his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

Wearing a black dress and a shimmering USA flag brooch, Ms Trump – wife to Donald Trump’s son Eric – used the primetime spotlight to sell voters on her father-in-law’s softer edges, focusing on his role as a grandfather to her two young children.

And the party faithful roared as she raised a fist and spoke about a gunman’s attempt on his life on Saturday, mirroring Trump’s actions on the rally stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a bullet narrowly missed his head.

“Maybe you got to see a side of Donald Trump on Saturday that you were not sure existed, until you saw it with your own eyes,” she told the crowd.

Ms Trump, 41 and now the co-chair of the Republican Party, was hand-picked by her father-in-law for that role as he runs for another White House term and stands atop a party apparatus firmly under his grip.

Ms Trump, husband Eric and his older brother Don Jr have emerged as the family’s leading voices in Donald Trump’s campaign against US President Joe Biden, and they are some of the most influential figures in his political orbit.

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By contrast, Ivanka Trump, Trump’s eldest daughter, and her husband Jared Kushner – a power couple who enjoyed a high profile in the White House after Trump’s 2016 win – have kept their distance from politics over the last four years.

Lara was the first family member to officially speak at this convention and her presence has ignited interest in not just her role in the family but also any further political ambitions.

“I thought she was fantastic,” said Alina Habba, Trump’s legal spokeswoman who shot to prominence defending him in his civil sexual assault case in New York.

“I think she spoke from the heart. She spoke about moms. She spoke about him being a grandfather – things that only she can speak about.”

Long-time observers expect Lara Trump’s prominence in the family to only grow.

“Her speech was her introduction to the nation in a big way because while she’s had roles in campaigns previously and while she’s been a part of Trump’s inner circle and family orbit for the last eight years, this is the first time she is positioned in a role that has real power inside the Republican Party,” said Eric Cortellessa, a reporter who recently interviewed Ms Trump for a Time magazine profile.

“And she’s in a position where she’s out to prove herself as not just an effective surrogate for Trump, but a political operator. And we’re going to see that play out in the next four months as she’s co-chairing the RNC.”

Michele Merrell, a Republican state committeewoman for Broward county in Florida, said the appointment of Ms Trump in the RNC had made a “world of difference”.

“The fundraising is going through the roof… we were not doing very well before in that. The change in leadership has been all the difference,” she said. “It’s reignited the party, it really has.”

Some see parallels between the role of Lara and Eric Trump in this presidential campaign, and that of Jared and Ivanka in 2016. However, Eric has a prominent role in the Trump Organization and would probably act as the eyes and ears for his father’s sprawling business empire if Trump was to win the White House.

Lara is positioned to continue her ascent in the Republican Party, but there’s another Trump who might also have aspirations of building a political dynasty, said Eric Cortellessa.

“Don Jr says he’s not interested in politics, but everybody else around him, including his sister-in-law and brother, think that he’s got a real itch for politics,” he said.

“In fact Lara Trump, said to me in a recent interview – ‘if there’s any Trump who is going to run for higher office, look out for Don’.”

Eric and Don Jr are a constant presence around their father, and have rallied around him since the attempt on his life. They were also reportedly some of the loudest voices when it came to picking JD Vance as Trump’s running mate.

Don Jr, a favourite of the Make America Great Again (Maga) base, appeared tearful on Monday night when Donald Trump walked into the convention hall to a hero’s welcome.

Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the convention, he spoke charismatically of his father’s softer side – and like his sister-in-law sold him as a grandfather and family man.

He even introduced his 17-year-old daughter, Kai Trump, onto stage, who described Donald Trump as a “normal grandpa”.

“When I made the high honor roll,” she said, “he printed it out to show his friends how proud he was of me.”

It’s a public messaging strategy that attempts to blunt Democratic attacks on Trump as an authoritarian threat to democracy should he return to office.

“We’re having perhaps world-changing types of conversations and he’s interrupting and talking about his grandchildren for 15 minutes,” Don Jr told the room.

But the emphasis on the unity and love of the family does not hide that some key members are a missing presence so far at the Republican National Convention.

Trump’s wife Melania rarely appears in public with her husband and has not been seen publicly by his side since the rally shooting.

Their son Barron, 18, has not yet appeared at the convention either. He has been kept out of the public eye for years but stood to receive a standing ovation at a recent Trump rally in Miami, signalling that he might have a political future too.

Linda Stoch, the vice-president of Club 47 USA, which hosted Trump for his 78th birthday in June, dismissed the idea that Melania and Barron would not appear at the convention.

“His family have always been with him, from day one,” she said.

When asked if she saw any particular Trump family member ushering in the next phase of Maga politics, Ms Stoch said we would have to wait and see.

She then paused, and added: “Maybe Barron.”

“If Greece is the cradle of the Olympics, Paris represents its home.”

So begins a somewhat partisan account of the city’s long association with the Games, published ahead of its failed bid (to London) for 2012.

Paris, wrote the author hopefully, is where the Olympic movement “rediscovered its vigour after an interminable historical amnesia,” and where there took place “so many important steps in its modern-day growth.”

Step one was the founding congress of the International Olympic Committee, chaired by the French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin at Sorbonne university in June 1894.

And then came steps two and three: the second and eighth Olympic Games, both organised in the French capital.

Today there are still traces of both those Games. Here and there, if you look, their “legacy” is still very much alive.

Exhibit one is the magnificent vélodrome in the Bois de Vincennes known as the Cipale (short for Municipale), which continues in use 124 years after the first Paris Games.

Cycling was one of the most popular sports back in 1900, but the Cipale was also used for gymnastics, football, rugby … and cricket.

It was on this hallowed turf that the (until now) only ever Olympic cricket match took place – between England and France.

England won – but that still means France is the title holder of the Olympic silver. That will presumably end in 2028 when cricket returns for Los Angeles – but who knows?!

There have been renovations at La Cipale over the years but apart from the roof, the viewing stand is unchanged.

So is the concrete track with its raised curves at either end, and there – forgotten behind the bushes in the corner – the original urinals, the relief of generations of hard-pressed cycling fans!

The 1900 Games were strange ones, and are only just accepted today as part of the Olympic canon.

Talking of cannons, one of the unusual events was artillery firing. There were also boules, fishing, crossbow-firing, barrel-rolling and long-distance ballooning. The winner of that one landed near Kyiv.

The difficulty was that the Games took place at exactly the same time as the Paris World Fair, and many people – including competitors – thought the sports were part of the World Fair.

But they served an important purpose in establishing – after the first Greek edition in 1896 – that the Games were to be international, and not forever Hellene.

And they helped advance the growing idea that sports were something to be taken seriously, and not just a frivolous pastime.

The work of the French scientist Etienne Jules Marey was significant in this regard. Famous for his photographic studies of sportsmen in action, he persuaded many 1900 athletes to perform at his outdoor studio (under what is now Court 1 at Roland-Garros).

Less brilliantly, he also sent round an anthropological questionnaire to Olympic participants seeking elucidation on such vital points as: the colour of their beards; the physical strength of their grandfathers; and whether they’d been fed as babies on breast or bottle.

The 1900 Games were the first to see the participation – in golf, tennis, sailing and croquet – of (a few) women. By 1924, the sports of swimming, diving and fencing had been added, and 135 women took part.

The main legacy of the 1924 Games is the Colombes stadium in the north-western Paris suburbs, where the opening ceremony and much of the subsequent sporting action were staged.

The stadium – built on a former horse-racing track – went on to have a famed life, becoming for much of the last century France’s pre-eminent football and rugby venue, before being superseded by the Parc des Princes and then the Stade de France.

Today it is very much still standing – and will be used in these Olympics as the venue for field hockey events.

“For French people who love sport, Colombes is a place full of emotion,” says sports historian Mickael Delepine. “So many famous people have run and kicked and tackled here. It is full of ghosts.”

For British sports fans, the ghosts are of sprinters Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell who won the golds here that were later immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire.

The film faithfully recreated the stadium at a venue in the Wirral, Merseyside. In Colombes, the track is exactly where it was 100 years ago, overlooked by the same iron stand.

The1924 Games were the first to take advantage of advances in communication – and winning athletes for the first time became household names. The Flying Finns Paavo Nurmi and Ville Ritola dominated middle-and long-distance racing, and long-jumper William de Hart-Hubbard was the first black man to win an event.

Colombes also saw victory for the Uruguayan football team – setting up its triumph at the first World Cup on home turf in 1930. And there was a famously dirty rugby final between the USA and France, whose violence contributed to the game being excluded from future Olympics. (The USA won).

The 1924 Olympics were also the first to display the Olympic motto – Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger); and the first to use a 50-metre swimming pool with lanes painted on the bottom.

Among the heroes availing themselves of this innovation was one Johnny Weissmuller – later to find fame as cinema’s Tarzan.

It all happened at the purpose-built Tourelles swimming pool in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. A century on the pool is still there, and in use as a practice venue for today’s Olympic stars.

Speeding along a road in the foothills of the Swiss Alps, Fariba Hashimi rises out of the saddle of her £15,000 bike and works the pedals even harder to close the gap between her and her sister, Yulduz, a few metres up ahead.

Training rides like this are the last steps on a journey that began with the two siblings from rural Afghanistan racing in disguise on borrowed bikes, before having to escape when the Taliban came to power.

Now they’re on their way to the Olympic Games in Paris. And, despite a Taliban ruling banning women from sport, they will compete under their country’s flag.

In a world where many elite athletes take up sport almost as soon as they can walk, Fariba, 21, and Yulduz, 24, came late to cycling.

They grew up in Faryab, one of the most remote and conservative provinces in Afghanistan, where it was practically unheard of to see women on bicycles.

Fariba was 14 and Yulduz 17 when they saw an advert for a local cycle race and decided to take part.

There were two problems; they didn’t have a bike and they didn’t know how to ride.

The sisters borrowed a neighbour’s bike one afternoon. After a few hours, they felt they had got the hang of it.

Their next challenge was to avoid their family finding out what they were doing because of the stigma around women taking part in sport in conservative areas of Afghanistan.

The sisters used false names and covered themselves up, wearing big baggy clothing, large headscarves and sunglasses so people didn’t recognise them.

Race day dawned, and incredibly the sisters came first and second.

“It felt amazing,” says Fariba. “I felt like a bird who could fly.”

They kept on entering races and kept on winning until their parents eventually found out when they saw pictures of them in the local media.

“They were upset at first. They asked me to stop cycling,” Fariba says. “But I didn’t give up. I secretly continued,” she smiles.

It didn’t come without dangers – people tried to hit them with cars or rickshaws as they rode or threw stones at them as they cycled past.

“People were abusive. All I wanted to do was win races,” says Yulduz.

And the situation was about to get worse.

In 2021, four years after the sisters started riding, the Taliban retook control of the country and clamped down on women’s rights, restricting their access to education and limiting how they could travel. They also banned women from taking part in sport.

Yulduz and Fariba had dreamed of one day competing in the Olympics. Now they knew if they wanted to race at all they had to leave Afghanistan.

Using contacts in the cycling community they managed to secure seats on an Italian evacuation flight, along with three teammates.

Once in Italy, the women joined a cycling team and got proper coaching for the first time.

“Back in Afghanistan, we didn’t have professional training,” says Yulduz. “All we used to do was take our bikes and ride.”

But leaving their homeland and family was not easy.

“The biggest thing for me is to be away from my mother,” says Fariba. “I never thought that because of cycling I would be separated from my brothers and sisters.”

“I’ve sacrificed a lot.”

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan also threw into doubt whether the country would even be allowed to compete at the Olympics.

National Olympic Committees are supposed to select athletes for the Games without any government interference.

As the Taliban’s ban on women playing sport breaks this rule, by preventing women being chosen for Afghanistan’s team, it led to calls for the country to be banned from the Olympics – as it had been when the militant group was last in power.

But the International Olympic Committee wanted to find a way to allow Afghan women to compete at the Games.

Behind the scenes talks took place between the heads of Afghan sporting bodies, including some now living in exile, about putting together a special team to represent the country in Paris.

As time ticked by, and Paris 2024 got ever closer, it looked as if no Afghan athletes would be at the Games.

Then, in June, International Olympic Committee announced that it had arranged for a special gender-equal team representing Afghanistan to go the Paris Olympics. It would be made up of three women and three men. And both the sisters are among them.

“This was a big surprise for both of us,” says Fariba.

“We always dreamt of taking part in the Olympic Games, this is our dream come true,” Yulduz adds.

“Despite all the rights that were taken from us we can show that we can achieve great success, we will be able to represent 20 million Afghan women.”

The IOC say no Taliban officials will be allowed to attend Paris 2024.

The sisters are preparing for the Olympic road race event while riding for a development team run and funded by the UCI and based at the World Cycling Centre, an ultra-modern facility in the Swiss town of Aigle.

The elite facilities are a world away from the dusty roads in Afghanistan where Yulduz and Fariba first taught themselves to cycle.

But their spirit remains the same.

“We are each other’s strength – I support her and she supports me,” says Yulduz.

“Our achievement belongs to Afghanistan,” adds Fariba. “This belongs to Afghanistan women. I am going to the Olympics because of them.”

From causing seismic activity at Harry Styles concerts to Swifties boosting the UK economy during the Eras Tour, the power of teenage female pop fans shouldn’t be underestimated.

For playwright Yve Blake, the danger of dismissing these youngsters is the inspiration behind her new comedy musical Fangirls.

Following the life of 14-year-old Edna, who is obsessed with a boy band resembling One Direction, Fangirls explores “what it means to love something without apology”.

The idea came to Blake in 2015 after she witnessed a pivotal moment in the lives of thousands of teenage girls – Zayn Malik left One Direction.

Despondent and heartbroken fans across the world were shown weeping inconsolably – but for Blake, something even more interesting caught her eye.

“People started calling these young girls crazy, hysterical and psycho,” the writer explains. “I asked myself the question – would the same words be used to describe male football fans?

“The girls screaming at the top of their lungs at Taylor Swift concerts are cringe, but men running around with their tops off and fist pumping the air because England scored a goal are just supporting their country.

“It seems like there’s definitely a double standard there.”

But the musical doesn’t just praise fangirls.

“It’s a lot more nuanced than that,” Blake explains. “We look at the dark side of worshipping celebrities as well as praising the decision for girls to make an empowered choice to love something free of judgement.

“I’d describe it as a glittery trojan horse.”

The hit musical premiered in 2019 in Blake’s home country, Australia, and has been met with critical acclaim across three runs.

Its stint at the Sydney Opera House was awarded five stars by Time Out, which said “it deals with the exquisite pain of being a teenager, of having little agency and lesser respect from the world around you”.

In a four-star review, the Guardian called it “witty and agile” and said it “balances serious social reflections with a loving twinkle in its eye”.

Blake says the show “retains its fearlessness, cheekiness and naughtiness from Australia, but the screws have really been tightened”.

She is both excited and nervous about bringing the show to the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith, west London.

“Brits are definitely a lot more repressed than Aussies, so I don’t know if they can match the energy of previous runs,” Blake says.

At one point in the show, the stage is transformed into a concert venue and audience participation is encouraged.

“Theatre is so polite normally, but Fangirls is about unleashing your feral excitement and screaming like you’re 14 again.”

In Australia, Blake had no problem getting the audience involved – she tells the BBC that an older lady in the front row accidentally flashed the actors because she “was so in the moment and excitedly dancing”.

Playing the lead role of Edna is Jasmine Elcock, who got a golden buzzer on Britain’s Got Talent in 2016.

The singer was 14 when she reached the talent show final, and this is her first major acting role.

“I’m excited for people to be able to see the world through the eyes of a young girl,” Elcock says.

As a self-proclaimed fangirl, Elcock can relate to the feelings and emotions that the play delves into.

“I am a mega fangirl and at the moment I am absolutely obsessed with Little Simz. I can spend hours in my bedroom dancing and singing along to her,” she says.

In comparison, writer Blake explains she was a “victim of my own cringe growing up”.

“I was socially embarrassed to be a fangirl so I definitely repressed it as a teenager,” she says.

“As an adult that’s what made me interested in exploring this topic – I woke up to the fact that my cringe was a symptom of internalised misogyny because it’s only the things that teenage girls like that are ever called cringeworthy.”

It seems that for Blake, this play is a way for her to tell her younger self, and all teenage girls out that, that it’s OK to let lose and embrace being a fangirl.

An Italian journalist has been ordered to pay Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of €5,000 (£4,210) over social media posts making fun of her height.

A judge ruled that two tweets by Giulia Cortese, who was also handed a suspended fine of €1,200, were defamatory and amounted to “body shaming”.

It followed an exchange in which Ms Cortese described Ms Meloni as a “little woman” and told her: “I can’t even see you.”

Reacting to the verdict, Ms Cortese said the Italian government had a “serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent”.

The pair first clashed in October 2021, when Ms Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party was still in opposition, after Ms Cortese posted a mocked-up image of Ms Meloni on X, formerly Twitter.

Ms Meloni was seen in the image standing in front of a bookshelf on to which a framed photo of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini had been artificially added.

In a post on Facebook, Ms Meloni said the image was of “unique gravity” and that she would be taking legal action.

Later the same day, Mr Cortese said she had deleted the image after realising it was fake, but accused Ms Meloni of creating a “media pillory” against her and said the Facebook post showed that she was a “little woman”.

She later said in a separate post: “You don’t scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you’re only 1.2m [3ft 9in] tall. I can’t even see you.”

Ms Meloni’s height is reported in Italian media to be 1.63m (5ft 3in).

Ms Cortese was cleared for posting the initial image but convicted over the later tweets.

She has the option to appeal but has not yet confirmed whether she will do so.

Ms Meloni’s lawyer said she would donate any money she received to charity.

Responding to the verdict on X, Ms Cortese wrote: “Italy’s government has a serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent.

“This country seems to get closer to [Viktor] Orbán’s Hungary: these are bad times for independent journalists and opinion leaders. Let’s hope for better days ahead. We won’t give up!”

She later added that she was “Italian and proud to be” but that “we deserve better than this appalling and shameful government”.

A selection of the week’s best photos from across the African continent:

A drug has increased the lifespans of laboratory animals by nearly 25%, in a discovery scientists hope can slow human ageing too.

The treated mice were known as “supermodel grannies” in the lab because of their youthful appearance.

They were healthier, stronger and developed fewer cancers than their unmedicated peers.

The drug is already being tested in people, but whether it would have the same anti-ageing effect is unknown.

The quest for a longer life is woven through human history.

However, scientists have long known the ageing process is malleable – laboratory animals live longer if you significantly cut the amount of food they eat.

Now the field of ageing-research is booming as researchers try to uncover – and manipulate – the molecular processes of ageing.

The team at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Science, Imperial College London and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore were investigating a protein called interleukin-11.

Levels of it increase in the human body as we get older, it contributes to higher levels of inflammation, and the researchers say it flips several biological switches that control the pace of ageing.

The researchers performed two experiments.

• The first genetically engineered mice so they were unable to produce interleukin-11
• The second waited until mice were 75 weeks old (roughly equivalent to a 55-year-old person) and then regularly gave them a drug to purge interleukin-11 from their bodies

The results, published in the journal Nature, showed lifespans were increased by 20-25% depending on the experiment and sex of the mice.

Old laboratory mice often die from cancer, however, the mice lacking interleukin-11 had far lower levels of the disease.

And they showed improved muscle function, were leaner, had healthier fur and scored better on many measures of frailty.

I asked one of the researchers, Prof Stuart Cook, whether the data was too good to be believed.

He told me: “I try not to get too excited, for the reasons you say, is it too good to be true?

“There’s lots of snake oil out there, so I try to stick to the data and they are the strongest out there.”

He said he “definitely” thought it was worth trialling in human ageing, arguing that the impact “would be transformative” if it worked and was prepared to take it himself.

The big unanswered questions are could the same effect be achieved in people, and whether any side effects would be tolerable.

Interleukin-11 does have a role in the human body during early development.

People are, very rarely, born unable to make it. This alters how the bones in their skull fuse together, affects their joints, which can need surgery to correct, and how their teeth emerge. It also has a role in scarring.

The researchers think that later in life, interleukin-11 is playing the bad role of driving ageing.

The drug, a manufactured antibody that attacks interleukin-11, is being trialled in patients with lung fibrosis. This is where the lungs become scarred, making it harder to breathe.

Prof Cook said the trials had not been completed, however, the data suggested the drug was safe to take.

This is just the latest approach to “treating” ageing with drugs. The type-2 diabetes drug metformin and rapamycin, which is taken to prevent an organ transplant being rejected, are both actively being researched for their anti-ageing qualities.

Prof Cook thinks a drug is likely to be easier for people than calorie restriction.

“Would you want to live from the age of 40, half-starved, have a completely unpleasant life, if you’re going to live another five years at the end? I wouldn’t,” he said.

Prof Anissa Widjaja, from Duke-NUS Medical School, said: “Although our work was done in mice, we hope that these findings will be highly relevant to human health, given that we have seen similar effects in studies of human cells and tissues.

“This research is an important step toward better understanding ageing and we have demonstrated, in mice, a therapy that could potentially extend healthy ageing.”

Ilaria Bellantuono, professor of musculoskeletal ageing at the University of Sheffield, said: “Overall, the data seems solid, this is another potential therapy targeting a mechanism of ageing, which may benefit frailty.”

However, he said there were still problems, including the lack of evidence in patients and the cost of making such drugs and “it is unthinkable to treat every 50-year-old for the rest of their life”.

A collection of 3,404 eggs have been seized in Australia after a European operation into the illegal bird trade.

Investigators discovered the haul – believed to be worth A$400,000 to A$500,000 (£207,000 – £259,000) – at a property in Granton, Tasmania on 9 July.

The eggs had been blown – or hollowed out – meaning they only had ornamental value.

A 62-year-old man was being investigated but no arrests had been made, according to officials.

Environmental and wildlife crime has become one of the world’s largest and most profitable crime sectors and continues to grow as it pushes many species to the brink of extinction.

It is expected that the Australian suspect will appear in court at a later date for offences in contravention of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999.

“[The man] is alleged to have been involved in the collection and harvesting of bird eggs from the wild and trading of both Australian native and CITES-listed bird eggs with people overseas,” a spokesperson from the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) said.

CITES-listed means a species is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement between governments that aims to protect endangered plants and animals from international trade.

Analysis of the eggs is now underway to confirm what species they belong to, but they are believed to include rare and threatened species facing a high extinction risk.

Investigators believe they include eggs from the forty-spotted pardalote, which is found only on Tasmania’s Bruny Island, the swift parrot and the shy albatross.

The eggs in this collection were all blown or hollowed eggs, meaning the egg white and yolk had been removed.

In 2023, European authorities launched an investigation in relation to the illegal harvesting, collecting, trading, buying and selling of bird eggs within Europe and internationally.

A number of search warrants were undertaken resulting in the seizure of over 56,000 eggs.

CITES estimates international wildlife trade is worth billions of dollars – ranging from live animals, to products derived from them.

More than 40,000 species are covered by the agreement, with more than 180 countries agreeing, including Australia.

Tasmanian ecologist Dr Sally Bryant told ABC News that egg collecting “was probably happening more than any of us realise”.

She said: “We are well aware of these sorts of activities, but they’re very, very outdated — they are morally, ethically, legally corrupt.”

Collections of this size were put together by “skilled operators” over “many years”, she added.

The interference of threatened and migratory birds can carry a penalty of seven years imprisonment, a fine of A$138,600 or both.

The export of Australian native specimens, including eggs, and the export or import of specimens, including eggs, on the CITES list has a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine A$330,000, or both.

The possession of CITES-listed specimens, including eggs, can carry a penalty of five years imprisonment, a fine of A$330,000 or both.

Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water, said: “Illegal trafficking and wildlife crime is fast becoming a threat for many of our species that are already at risk of extinction.

“We have to stamp out this terrible trade which sees our native animals captured in the Aussie bush and sent overseas to be sold.”

Millions of lives are at risk unless urgent and radical action is taken to stop drug-resistant malaria spreading in Africa, scientists warn.

Malaria parasites that can shrug off the effects of the critical drug artemisinin are now well-established in East Africa.

Resistance levels have soared in some areas from fewer than 1% to more than 20% of cases in the space of three years.

The last time resistance to an antimalarial spread in Africa it led to a tripling in the number of children dying.

Twenty-eight leading malaria scientists from 10 countries have made the call to action in the journal Science.

Artemisinin kills the malaria parasite and is the cornerstone of treatment.

Parasites that could resist artemisinin evolved for the first time in Africa in Rwanda, and then separately in Uganda and Eritrea.

These resistant parasites have spread within their countries and across borders.

Now, more than 10% of malaria cases are caused by resistant parasites in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

“Now is the time to act before millions of people die due to increasingly ineffective antimalarial treatments,” said Prof Olugbenga Mokuolu, from the department of paediatrics at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria.

In 2016, resistant strains were hardly being detected in northern Uganda. By 2019, more than 20% of parasites tested were resistant in several regions.

The group of scientists say the further spread of these resistant parasites is “inexorable”.

Dr Mehul Dhorda, from the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Thailand, told me it was still uncertain how quickly that would happen.

However, something similar has already played out in South East Asia, where artemisinin-based treatments started to fail.

“The time from first detection to when it was overwhelmingly prevalent was 10 to 15 years,” he said.

A similar story has happened before. The parasite became resistant to a previous drug – chloroquine – in East Africa in the 1970s, and resistance reached the west coast by the 1980s.

Malaria deaths on the continent trebled from about 493,000 in 1980 to 1.6 million by 2004.

“I’m hoping this is not something we will see in Africa,” Dr Dhorda told me.

“If artemisinin combination therapy starts failing, then cases and deaths will go up.”

The authors have made a series of recommendations targeting both the parasite and the mosquitoes that spread the disease.

They suggest adding a third drug to the artemisinin combination therapy to make it harder for the parasite to evolve resistance to therapy.

Dr Dhorda says this will cost money but: “We might spend a little more now, but if not we’ll be spending a lot more to control the fire rather than putting it out before it became widespread.”

They also call for:

• Expanded coverage of insecticide-treated bed nets and long-acting insecticides that are sprayed in people’s homes
• Target the newly developed malaria vaccines to people of all ages (rather than just children) in areas with artemisinin-resistant malaria
• Supporting community health workers, so treatment is available close to everyone’s home
• Ensuring data on the spread of resistant strains is shared rapidly, because at the moment there can be long delays

“We ask funders, specifically the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the US government’s President’s Malaria Initiative, to be visionary and to step up funding for malaria control and elimination programmes to contain the spread of artemisinin resistance in Africa,” said Ntuli Kapologwe, director of preventive services at the Ministry of Health in Tanzania.

A nesting seagull added almost £500,000 to the cost of knocking down Newport Centre.

A council report showed the demolition scheme spent £460,000 more than planned last year.

The authority blamed delays on the bird that resulted in additional costs.

The council confirmed about 40 days were lost because of the nesting bird.

The report said the overspend will be paid for by “Coleg Gwent and a revenue budget contribution from the councils in 2023-24”.

Costs it said, were being finalised.

Newport Centre, which was in Usk Way, has now been knocked down in preparation for a new Coleg Gwent campus.

Demolition began in April 2023 at the site, which for decades was one of the city’s main leisure destinations.

It included a swimming pool, and hosted big gigs with David Bowie and Elton John among stars to play there.

The council said it was focused on delivering a new leisure centre for Newport that will be built about 100m from the old site.

A massive tech failure has caused travel chaos around the world, with banking and healthcare services also badly hit.

Flights have been grounded because of the IT outage – a flaw which left many computers displaying blue error screens.

There were long queues, delays and flight cancellations at airports around the world, as passengers had to be manually checked in.

Cyber-security firm Crowdstrike has admitted that the problem was caused by an update to its antivirus software, which is designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks.

Microsoft has said it is taking “mitigation action” to deal with “the lingering impact” of the outage.

Here is a summary of what we know so far.

• Follow live updates on this story
• How a single update caused global havoc
• What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed?
• GPs, pharmacies and airports hit by outage

This is still a little unclear.

Crowdstrike is known for producing antivirus software, intended to prevent hackers from causing this very type of disruption.

According to Crowdstrike boss George Kurtz, the issues are only impacting Windows PCs and no other operating systems, and were caused by a defect in a recent update.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” he said.

“This is not a security incident or cyber-attack.”

What exactly was wrong with the update is yet to be revealed, but as a potential fix involves deleting a single file, it is possible that just one rogue file could be at the root of all the mayhem.

It could be some time.

Crowdstrike’s Mr Kurtz, speaking to NBC News, said it was the firm’s “mission” to make sure every one of its customers recovered completely from the outage.

“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies,” he said.

He has since told CNBC that while some systems can be fixed quickly, for others it “could be hours, could be a bit longer”.

Crowdstrike has issued its fix. But according to those in the know, it will have to be applied separately to each and every device affected.

Computers will require a manual reboot in safe mode – causing a massive headache for IT departments everywhere.

Something important to note here, is that personal devices like your home computer or mobile phone are unlikely to have been affected – this outage is impacting businesses.

Microsoft is advising clients to try a classic method to get things working – turning it off and on again – in some cases up to 15 times.

The tech giant said this has worked for some users of virtual machines – PCs where the computer is not in the same place as the screen.

“Several reboots (as many as 15 have been reported) may be required, but overall feedback is that reboots are an effective troubleshooting step at this stage,” it said.

It is also telling customers with more in-depth computing knowledge that they should delete a certain file – the same solution one CrowdStrike employee has been sharing on social media.

But this fix is intended for experts and IT professionals, not regular users.

The problems have emerged across the world, but were first noticed in Australia, and possibly felt most severely in the air travel industry, with more than 3,300 flights cancelled globally.

• UK airports saw delays, with long queues at London’s Stansted and Gatwick.
• Ryanair said it had been “forced to cancel a small number of flights today (19 July)” and advised passengers to log-on to their Ryanair account, once it was back online, to see what their options are.
• British Airways also cancelled several flights.
• Several US airlines, notably United, Delta and American Airlines, grounded their flights around the globe for much of Friday. Australian carriers Virgin Australia and Jetstar also had to delay or cancel flights.
• Airports in Tokyo, Amsterdam and Delhi were also impacted.

Meanwhile, the problems have also hit payment systems, banking and healthcare providers around the world.

Railway companies, including Britain’s biggest which runs Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern, warned passengers to expect delays.

In Alaska, the 911 emergency service was affected, while Sky News was off air for several hours on Friday morning, unable to broadcast.

The outage might also impact people getting paid on time.

Melanie Pizzey, head of the Global Payroll Association, told PA news agency that she’d been contacted by “numerous clients” who couldn’t access their payroll software.

She said the outage could mean firms are unable to process staff payments this week, but there may be a knock-on effect too.

“We could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end, which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage,” she said.

If you’re worried about your own, personal devices, we have some good news.

The software at the centre of this outage is generally used by businesses, which means that most people’s personal computers won’t be impacted.

That means if you’re wondering whether you need to delete a certain file to avoid your computer restarting constantly, the simple answer is no, you don’t.

It’s a reminder of the complexity of our modern digital infrastructure that Crowdstrike, a company that’s not exactly a household name, can be at the heart of such worldwide disarray.

The US firm, based in Austin, Texas, is a listed company on the US stock exchange, featuring in both the S&P 500 and the high-tech Nasdaq indexes.

Like a lot of modern technology companies, it hasn’t been around that long. It was founded a mere 13 years ago, but has grown to employ nearly 8,500 people.

As a provider of cyber-security services, it tends to get called in to deal with the aftermath of hack attacks.

It has been involved in investigations of several high-profile cyber-attacks, such as when Sony Pictures had its computer system hacked in 2014.

But this time, because of a flawed update to its software, a firm that is normally part of the solution to IT problems has instead caused one.

In its last earnings report, Crowdstrike declared a total of nearly 24,000 customers. That’s an indication not just of the size of the issue, but also the difficulties that could be involved in fixing it.

Each of those customers is a huge organisation in itself, so the number of individual computers affected is hard to estimate.

US President Joe Biden is looking forward to “getting back on the campaign trail next week”, fortifying his commitment to stick in the race as more Democrats on Friday called for him to step aside as the party nominee.

“The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win,” he said.

His statement comes amid conflicting reports of conversations within Mr Biden’s circle and the larger party about the president’s future.

Over the last several weeks, the president has been caught in a whirlwind of political pressure to step down: Calls from within his own party’s leaders to withdraw from the race, a loss of big ticket donors and the added pressure that his decision could cost Democrats control of Congress.

Nearly a dozen Democrats called for him to step aside on Friday alone as his campaign pushed back in media appearances.

Mr Biden’s re-election campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday, telling the program that the president is not withdrawing.

“Absolutely, the president’s in this race,” she said when asked about Mr Biden’s plans.

She described him as “more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump” and said he’s the “best person” to take on the former president.

In his statement, the president referenced former President Trump’s Republican National Convention speech to say he will continue “exposing the threat” of the former president while “making the case” for his record.

“Donald Trump’s dark vision for the future is not who we are as Americans. Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” he said.

As the conflict played on on Friday, the president was under quarantine at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He tested positive for Covid-19 while traveling in Las Vegas earlier this week. Mr Biden is experiencing “mild symptoms”, the White House said.

Since his poor debate performance last month, Mr Biden has insisted he will continue to run, though his perspective on what it would take for him to step down as the Democratic nominee has evolved.

First telling ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos “only the Lord Almighty” would make him stand down, Mr Biden said this week during an interview with BET (Black Entertainment Television) that he would re-evaluate the campaign if a doctor told him he had a serious medical condition.

According to a campaign memo released on Friday, Mr Biden isn’t going anywhere.

“Joe Biden has made it more than clear: He’s in this race and he’s in it to win it,” according to the memo. “Moreover, he’s the presumptive nominee — there is no plan for an alternative nominee. In a few short weeks, Joe Biden will be the official nominee. It is high past time we stop fighting one another. The only person who wins when we fight is Donald Trump.”

Time is running out for Mr Biden to decide if he will step down.

The Democratic National Convention begins 19 August, but the Democratic National Committee is expected to meet virtually the first week of August to nominate Biden as the official party nominee to meet state ballot deadlines.

The DNC rules committee is holding a meeting on Friday morning to discuss the procedures for the virtual roll-call vote.

On Friday, Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich, of New Mexico, became the third Democrat in the upper chamber to call for Biden to step aside.

“By passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest leaders and allow us to united behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and safeguard the future of our democracy,” he wrote in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

His statement follows that of Democratic Senator Jon Tester, of Montana, who called on Biden to end his re-election bid on Thursday.

“While I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term,” Mr Tester wrote in a statement on X.

In the House, Congressman Jim Costa, a Democrat from California, also called for him to withdraw on Thursday.

Democratic congressmen Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas, Chuy Garcia of Illinois and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin released a joint message on Friday saying “the most responsible and patriotic thing” Biden could do is “step aside as our nominee”.

“With great admiration for you personally, sincere respect for your decades of public service and patriotic leadership, and deep appreciation for everything we have accomplished together during your presidency, it is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders,” they wrote in the joint statement.

Illinois Democratic congressman Sean Casten wrote in the Chicago Tribune on Friday that he doesn’t think the president can defeat former US President Donald Trump.

“It is with a heavy heart and much personal reflection that I am therefore calling on Biden to pass the torch to a new generation,” he wrote.

Other members of the House joined the calls for the president to step aside on Friday, including Zoe Lofgren of California, Kathy Castor of Florida, Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, Greg Landsman of Ohio and Betty McCollum of Minnesota.

Reports this week suggested senior Democratic leaders are leaning in the same direction.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have all reportedly expressed concerns during private conversations with Mr Biden about his candidacy. In public statements, Ms Pelosi’s staff insisted her comments have been misrepresented and Mr Jeffries affirmed his support for Mr Biden.

Former President Barack Obama, Mr Biden’s previous running mate, has reportedly said Mr Biden’s chances of winning the election have greatly diminished.

Lawmakers haven’t been the only ones turning their backs to Biden. Big name donors – including actor George Clooney and Disney family heiress Abigail Disney – have closed their wallets.

Despite the defectors, some are sticking by his side.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most influential progressive voices in the House, has supported Biden over the last few weeks. She broadcast live on Instagram on Friday morning and spoke about the risks of entering the convention without Biden as the presumptive nominee, including potential legal challenges and ballot access deadlines.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has about 40 members, and the 60-member Congressional Black Caucus, have both met with the president and also indicated their support for his re-election bid.

The UN’s top court has said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law, in a landmark opinion.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and end its “illegal” occupation of those areas and the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the court had made a “decision of lies”.

The court’s advisory opinion is not legally binding but still carries significant political weight. It marks the first time the ICJ has delivered a position on the legality of the 57-year occupation.

The ICJ, based at The Hague in the Netherlands, has been examining the issue since the beginning of last year, at the request of the UN General Assembly.

The court was specifically asked to give its view on Israel’s policies and practices towards the Palestinians, and on the legal status of the occupation.

Delivering the court’s findings, ICJ President Nawaf Salam said it had found that “Israel’s… continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal.”

“The State of Israel is under the obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” he said.

He said Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 did not bring Israel’s occupation of that area to an end because it still exercises effective control over it.

The court also said Israel should evacuate all of its settlers from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and pay reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by the occupation.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. The court said the settlements were illegal. Israel has consistently disputed that they are against international law.

The ICJ said Israel’s “policies and practices amount to annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, which it said was against international law, adding that Israel was “not entitled to sovereignty” over any part of the occupied territories.

Israel claims sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem, the eastern half of which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It considers the city its indivisible capital – something which is not accepted by the vast majority of the international community.

Among its other far-reaching conclusions, the court said Israeli restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied territories constituted “systemic discrimination based on, inter alia, race, religion or ethnic origin”. It also said Israel had illegally exploited the Palestinians’ natural resources and violated their right to self-determination.

The court also advised states to avoid any actions, including providing aid or assistance, that would maintain the current situation.

Israel’s prime minister swiftly issued a blunt statement rejecting what the court had determined.

“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land – not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria” (the West Bank), Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.

“No decision of lies in The Hague will distort this historical truth, and similarly, the legality of Israeli settlements in all parts of our homeland cannot be disputed.”

But the court’s findings were welcomed by the Palestinians.

Hussein Al Sheikh, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the Palestinians’ main umbrella group, called it “a historic victory for the rights of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination. And the collapse and defeat of the Judaization project through confiscation, settlement, displacement, and racist practices against a people under occupation.

“The international community must respect the opinion of international justice and force Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories,” he said.

The court’s findings will now go to the UN General Assembly, which will decide how to respond, including the option of adopting a resolution. That would be significant and could constitute a catalyst for negotiations and set the legal parameters for a future negotiated settlement.

This case is separate from another active case brought to the ICJ by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the war in Gaza.

A number of Democratic lawmakers are calling on President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign after his botched debate against Republican challenger Donald Trump.

At least 30 lawmakers in the House of Representatives, three US senators and a number of leading donors – including actor George Clooney – have publicly joined the growing Democratic chorus.

The party’s fallout has stretched on for weeks, with prominent lawmakers like Adam Schiff – a California congressman running to be the state’s next senator – asking Mr Biden to “pass the torch” of leadership.

Adding further pressure, a series of opinion polls since the debate suggest Trump may be edging ahead in key states.

President Biden has continued to insist that he is staying in the race, using a handful of campaign appearances and an hour-long news conference at Nato to try to make his case.

As the pressure builds, attention has turned to who could replace him if he changes his mind about running – or he is somehow forced from the race.

Various scenarios could play out over the coming days and weeks, but there are two ways Mr Biden’s campaign could end: he could pull out willingly, or be forced to step aside by his own party.

The first option is more straightforward.

Mr Biden has won the support of nearly all of the Democratic delegates who will vote on whether to make him the nominee. If he drops out of the race, they would be released to vote for another candidate. Whoever is able to win a majority of delegates at the convention would be the new nominee.

The second option would be much messier, with time running short and logistical circumstances complicating the process.

Democrats plan to hold a roll-call vote to formally elect Mr Biden as the party’s nominee before Ohio’s 7 August filing deadline – 12 days before the convention is slated to begin. For those hoping to derail the president’s nomination, that could be their last opportunity to do so.

But Leah Daughtry, the party’s chair of the convention rules committee, said at a meeting on Friday that “any challenger would have to have the verified support of hundreds of delegates” at the virtual vote to upend the process. That would be very difficult to pull together.

Mr Biden won 3,896 delegates in the Democratic primary. A candidate only needs 1,968 to lock up the nomination on the first ballot, which means there would have to be a number of defections.

“Such a challenge has never happened over the past half century of competitive primaries,” Ms Daughtry noted.

Party rules say that delegates are not technically required to vote for Mr Biden, but they do stipulate that they “shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them”.

If President Biden did suspend his campaign through either path, who would be the leading contenders?

Vice-President Kamala Harris, who is already on the ticket, is an obvious and increasingly popular choice within the party to replace Mr Biden.

As his deputy, she has become the face of the administration’s campaign to protect reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.

Ms Harris has proved to be a loyal ally to the president and fiercely defended his debate performance. After the event, she admitted the president had a “slow start” but argued he went on to provide more substantive answers than Trump.

Days after the debate, as concern grew about the president’s ability to stay atop the ticket, Ms Harris reiterated her support for Mr Biden.

“Look, Joe Biden is our nominee. We beat Trump once and we’re going to beat him again, period,” she said Tuesday.

“I am proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate.”

Ms Harris has the strong name recognition that comes from the job of vice- president, but has struggled with low approval ratings throughout her tenure.

Fifty-one percent of Americans disapprove of Ms Harris, while 37% approve, according to polling averages tracked by FiveThirtyEight.

Gretchen Whitmer, the two-term governor of Michigan, is an increasingly popular Midwest Democrat who many pundits speculate will run for president in 2028.

She has campaigned for Mr Biden in the past and has not been shy about her political aspirations.

She told the New York Times she wants to see a Generation X president in 2028, but stopped short of suggesting that she might fill that role.

In 2022, she led a campaign that left Michigan Democrats in control of the state’s legislature and the governor’s mansion.

That political control allowed her to enact a number of progressive policies including protecting Michigan abortion access and the passage of gun safety measures.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is one of the Biden administration’s fiercest surrogates. He frequently appears on cable news networks praising Mr Biden.

But Mr Newsom has political ambitions of his own.

He is often listed as a possible 2028 candidate, but many Democratic pundits now say he could be a stand-in for Mr Biden.

Mr Newsom raised his national profile in recent years by being a key party messenger on conservative media, and via a debate against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year.

He was a top surrogate at Mr Biden’s disastrous debate in Atlanta in June, and dodged several questions in the spin room about whether he would replace Mr Biden.

For now, he is publicly standing by the president. He travelled to Washington to attend a Wednesday meeting with Mr Biden and other top Democratic governors, and headlined a Biden campaign event in Michigan on the 4th of July holiday.

It is no secret that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has presidential aspirations.

He ran for president in 2020 and is often touted as one of the Biden administration’s best communicators.

Mr Buttigieg has managed a number of public crises during his time as transportation secretary.

He helped to oversee the government response to the East Palestine train derailment in Ohio, the Baltimore Bridge collapse and Southwest Airlines’ scheduling crisis in 2022.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has seen high approval ratings since he was elected in 2022 in a swing state Mr Trump narrowly carried in 2016.

The governor, who previously served as the state’s attorney general, has worked across party lines during his tenure.

He made national headlines last year after quickly rebuilding a collapsed bridge on a crucial Philadelphia highway – a major political victory for a first-term governor.

The speedy repair was hailed by many as the perfect infrastructure talking point for a potential 2028 presidential candidate.

JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, has raised his profile in recent years by going after Trump and defending Mr Biden.

The billionaire businessman – heir to the Hyatt hotel chain – is quick to post criticism of Trump on social media.

After the debate he called Trump a “liar” and said he is a “34-count convicted felon who cares only about himself”.

Like Ms Whitmer, Mr Pritzker has a track record of completing agenda items on progressive Democrats’ to-do lists on issues like abortion rights and gun control.

The list of potential nominees stretches beyond these Democrats, as the party has developed a deep bench of possible future presidential candidates.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a two-term Democratic governor in a very conservative state, has earned growing national attention since his re-election last year.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore found himself in the spotlight in recent months following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

Senators Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker have run for president in the past and have some name recognition among Democrats.

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, who won a closely contested Senate race in a swing state, also has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Mr Biden.

A Reuters IPSOS poll released Tuesday found the only person who could beat Trump in November was Michelle Obama. But the former first lady has repeatedly said she does not have presidential aspirations.

China-born actress Cheng Pei-pei, who starred in Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has died in San Francisco at the age of 78.

A pioneer of martial arts roles for female actors, Cheng became a major performer in action films after she starred in Come Drink with Me by King Hu in 1966. The film achieved critical acclaim and won Cheng international attention.

After moving to the US she inspired a new generation of directors from East Asia to Hollywood to make female-driven swordplay films.

Cheng’s family said she had been privately battling a neurodegenerative brain disease with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s since 2019 and passed away on Wednesday.

“Our mom wanted to be remembered by how she was: the legendary Queen of Martial Arts… a versatile, award-winning actress whose film and television career spanned over six decades, not only in Asia but internationally as well,” her family wrote on Facebook.

Born in Shanghai in 1946, Cheng moved to Hong Kong in 1962 and soon won acclaim as an actor with the release of Come Drink with Me. The film is considered one of the best examples of “wuxia” films – a period movie genre celebrating legendary martial artists from ancient China.

In the film she played the role of Golden Swallow, the sister of an important leader who was kidnapped by a band of thugs. A kung-fu master, her character was dispatched to rescue her brother.

The film, selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 39th Academy Awards, launched her career at the age of 19.

Coupled with its 1968 sequel, Golden Swallow, the role saw Cheng win scores of parts in martial arts films as a fearless swordswoman.

Her character went on to establish the motif of the lone female assassin, sent out to seek revenge. The genre would heavily influence Quentin Tarantino’s box office hits, Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2.

Cheng moved to California in the early 1970s and played dozens of roles as an iconic action heroine during the golden age of Hong Kong martial arts films.

Her biggest role came in 2000, in director Ang Lee’s wuxia-inspired Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where she played the villain, Jade Fox. It was one of the first mainstream martial arts films to feature a female lead.

The film became a global hit, winning 10 Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture. It earned $128 million at the North American box office and won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, as well as at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs.

It became the first foreign-language film to gross more than $100 million worldwide.

Her final role was in the live-action Disney version of “Mulan” in 2020, where she played as the matchmaker to the eponymous heroine.

Her Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon co-star Michelle Yeoh hailed Cheng in a message posted to Instagram. “We will miss your kindness and shining talent,” she wrote.

After her illness was diagnosed five years ago, Cheng chose not to make her condition public and instead spent time with her four children and grandchildren.

Her family said she had requested that instead of flowers, donations be made to the Brain Support Network (BSN) where she donated her brain.

The father of the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump called police before the Saturday shooting because he was concerned about his son, according to media reports.

The call is one of a number of red flags revealed in recent days that law enforcement was notified about before gunshots rang out at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. Law enforcement – specifically the US Secret Service – has faced mounting questions about security with calls by some lawmakers that the head of the agency should resign.

Matthew Crooks’ father called police because he was worried about his son and his whereabouts, a law enforcement source told the BBC’s news partner CBS. It’s unclear when the call was made but it was before the shooting.

It is unclear what his father told police. Fox News reported that Crooks’ parents, Mary and Matthew, told officers “they were worried” about their son and that he had disappeared without any advance notice.

His parents are both co-operating in the investigation, the FBI has said.

Law enforcement sources have told US media that the gunman had conducted online searches into a major depressive disorder and the Democratic National Convention scheduled for August.

He had also saved images of Trump, President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Chris Wray and a member of the British Royal Family, according to reports from the Washington Post and Associated Press.

Investigators are still trying to trace a potential motive for the 20-year-old gunman, who was shot dead by Secret Service snipers after opening fire. His attack left one member of the audience dead and several others wounded.

The preliminary investigation has found that Crooks climbed onto the roof of a nearby building outside the rally by climbing onto an air conditioning unit. The units were located next to the building, the unnamed official told CBS.

• Witness says he saw gunman on roof near Trump rally
• Trump gunman flagged by Secret Service 20 minutes before shooting
• Trump to address buoyant Republicans in first speech since shooting

A counter sniper flagged a suspicious man using a rangefinder to the US Secret Service some 20 minutes before the attack started, according to members of Congress briefed by law enforcement this week.

A rangefinder is an instrument that can be used to help measure the distance to a target.

Local police initially spotted the gunman, who was acting strangely and had a backpack, about an hour before the shooting. They lost him in the crowd, but he was spotted again by the sniper.

Officers were alerted by radio about a suspicious person and searched the area where Crooks had perched his rifle on a rooftop.

Finding no one, one officer decided to check the roof. The officer was hoisted on to the roof by a colleague and came face-to-face with the suspect, Butler Township Manager Tom Knights told CBS.

The suspect pointed a rifle at him and the officer, who was in a “defenceless” position, let go from the roof and fell to the ground.

He then alerted others to the gunman. Moments later, the shooting started.

• What we know about the Trump attacker
• Democratic mood darkens as Biden faces new pressure

No weapon was spotted by law enforcement when Crooks was seen in the crowd and officials are trying to determine how no one saw his AR-style rifle.

Investigators are examining various theories, including that he had stashed it earlier in the day near the air conditioning units or that he was somehow able to smuggle it inside his backpack.

Retracing his footsteps in the hours before the attack will be key to understanding how the shooting unfolded, officials say.

Officials told CBS that the semi-automatic rifle he used had been legally purchased by Crook’s father in 2013.

When the gunman was found, he was carrying a remote detonator and his car contained explosives, law enforcement sources have told US media.

It continues to remain unclear what motivated the attack, and whether any political ideology is to blame.

• Around 17:11: local officers spot Crooks and notify other law enforcement but then lose track of him, according to briefings between police and lawmakers
• 17:45: A counter sniper officer calls in with a report and a photo of a man – who turned out to be Crooks – acting suspiciously around a building near the rally, according to local media reports
• 17:52: US Secret Service become aware of a suspicious person with a rangefinder on the ground, according to sources familiar with the briefing to lawmakers
• 18:03: Trump begins speaking at the rally
• Around 18:09: Rallygoers spot Crooks on the roof and attempt to tell law enforcement
• 18:11: Crooks opens fire. He is fatally shot by Secret Service counter snipers 26 seconds later

A US police officer has been fired for saying that an Indian student’s life was of “limited value” after she died last year.

The Seattle Police Department said that officer Daniel Auderer’s comments about Jaahnavi Kandula’s death were “vile” and callous”, The Seattle Times reported.

Kandula, 23, was fatally struck down in January by another police vehicle while she was crossing a street near her university.

Daniel Auderer – who was responding to the incident – was recorded laughing and saying that she was a “regular person” and the city should “just write a cheque”.

The footage was captured on his body camera while he had made a call to a colleague.

“But she is dead,” the officer was heard saying before laughing. “No, it’s a regular person. Yeah, just write a cheque,” he said, before laughing again.

“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value,” he added.

The video was widely circulated on social media and sparked outrage online.

On Wednesday, Seattle Police Department’s interim chief Sue Rahr announced the policeman’s termination through a department-wide email.

His actions had brought shame on the entire department and the police profession, she wrote.

Interim chief Rahr added that his “cruel and callous laughter” and the pain it had inflicted on Kandula’s family could not outweigh Daniel Auderer’s good reputation among his colleagues and his years of service to the community.

“For me to allow the officer to remain on our force would only bring further dishonour to the entire department. For that reason, I am going to terminate his employment,” she said.

Daniel Audered had been placed under investigation after the incident.

The Office of Police Accountability – the agency that investigates police misconduct – had recommended his termination for unprofessional conduct and showing bias in recorded statements, the Seattle Times reported.

Jaahnavi Kandula was a graduate student at Northeastern University in Seattle.

The officer who rammed her with his patrol vehicle was going at 74mph (119km/h) and she was thrown more than 100ft (30m), US media reports said.

Donald Trump has addressed the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, accepting the nomination as the party’s presidential candidate.

His speech – which lasted one and a half hours – contained plenty of claims about his record as president versus Joe Biden’s.

BBC Verify has been checking some of them.

CLAIM: “Our crime rate is going up, while crime statistics all over the world are going down”

VERDICT: Violent crime in the US fell last year.

Mr Trump did not specify what kind of crime he was talking about.

Violent crime was down 6% in 2023 and there was a significant drop of 13% in the murder rate, according to preliminary FBI data.

These statistics aren’t a complete picture as some local police departments have not yet submitted their figures. The official FBI figures for last year will be released in October.

The latest FBI crime data, which is also preliminary, indicates this downward trend in violent crime in the US has continued into 2024, with reported incidents falling 15% in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year.

Recorded murders dropped by more than 26% in the same time period, according to the figures.

CLAIM: “We’ve had the worst inflation we’ve ever had under this person [Biden]”

VERDICT: Under President Biden, inflation reached around 9% before falling to around 3%. That’s nowhere near the worst in history – the record was 23.7% in 1920.

Inflation rose significantly during the first two years of the Biden administration, hitting a peak of 9.1% in the year to June 2022.

This was comparable with many other Western countries, which experienced high inflation rates in 2021 and 2022, as global supply chain issues as a consequence of Covid and the war in Ukraine contributed to rising prices.

But some economists say Mr Biden’s $1.9tn (£1.5tn) spending plan in 2021 was a factor as well.

Since then, US inflation has fallen steadily with the latest monthly figure at 3% as of June.

Mr Trump also said “we had no inflation” under his administration.

When Mr Biden came to office in January 2021, inflation was low – at 1.4% – but prices were still rising.

CLAIM: “Our opponents inherited a world at peace”

VERDICT: There were dozens of conflicts globally in the last year Mr Trump was president, according to experts.

Mr Trump followed this claim by saying the world was now a “planet at war” and he highlighted the current conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

He’s right that they didn’t happen on his watch but he’s wrong to claim that he left “a world at peace” to President Biden.

In 2020, the last full year Mr Trump was President, there were 56 active conflicts around the world, according to the Peace Research Institute in Oslo.

It classed eight of these as wars, including ones in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.

CLAIM: “If somebody wants to buy a gas-powered car or a hybrid they are going to be able to do it, and we’re going to make that change on day one”

VERDICT: The implication here is that Americans cannot buy these cars or will not be able to. There is no current ban on vehicles which run on gas (petrol) in the US and Mr Biden has not set out a plan to introduce one in the future.

In March, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new emission standards for cars built between 2027 and 2032.

It estimates the car industry could meet these standards if 56% of new vehicles are electric by 2032.

The Biden administration has said this is not a ban and new petrol-powered vehicles can still be sold beyond 2032.

CLAIM: “The jobs that are created [under Biden] – 107% of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens”

VERDICT: We can’t find any evidence for this figure and the data shows millions of new jobs have gone to US-born workers.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics produces figures for both US-born and foreign-born workers.

But it does not have a separate category for illegal immigrants and Mr Trump did not say where he got his figure from.

Since President Biden took office in January 2021, the number of US-born workers has increased by 7.8 million.

Over the same period, the number of foreign-born workers in the US rose by 5.5 million.

CLAIM: “The biggest tax cuts ever”

VERDICT: As President, Donald Trump did bring in big tax cuts but they weren’t the largest in history.

Mr Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 brought in sweeping cuts to taxation across the board. These are due to expire in 2025 unless the next administration extends them.

According to analysis done by the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Trump’s tax cuts were the eighth-largest since 1918 measured as a percentage of the size of the economy (GDP), and the fourth-largest in dollar terms since 1940 adjusted for inflation.

Although, Mr Trump didn’t introduce the largest tax cut overall he did pass the largest corporate tax cut in US history.

The 2017 law reduced this tax rate from 35% to 21%.

That was more than the cut passed under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, which lowered the rate from 46% to 34%.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

A single update pushed out from an anti-virus company in the US has managed to cause global havoc today.

It’s being described as the biggest outage ever, and while there have been a few lately, it’s certainly hard to recall something that has taken out as many services and companies across the world as this one has. I stopped updating my list of brands reporting issues within an hour of starting it because there were simply so many names to keep track of.

You may never have heard of the anti-virus firm Crowdstrike before but something it did to its virus scanner Falcon had a very adverse effect on computers running Windows software – in their millions.

Blue Screen of Death reported worldwide. You probably don’t need me to tell you what that is. Microsoft was quick to say it was a “third-party issue” – in other words, not its fault. Apple and Linux users, unaffected, rejoiced.

• Follow live updates on this story
• What we know about global IT outage
• What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed?
• GPs, pharmacies and airports hit by outage
• Watch: Airport chaos around the world

Crowdstrike says it has now issued a fix but several IT contacts have told me every single machine in their organisations will require a manual reboot in safe mode, and some of these devices are likely to be more physically accessible than others.

There is currently no suggestion that it was malicious, or that anybody’s data has been compromised, accessed or stolen. The cyber-security world still advises that it’s a good idea to keep on top of software updates – although perhaps today is not the day to bang that particular drum.

Crowdstrike’s statement, when it arrived, stopped short of an apology, which infuriated people online.

However, shortly after the statement was released, CEO George Kurtz told US broadcaster NBC News: “We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies.”

It is a poignant reminder of how reliant the world has become on devices managed remotely by huge companies, and how powerless it leaves us when they fail.

These enormous platforms are bombarded all the time with attempted cyber-attacks, and ill-thought out software updates, and most of them are caught by the tech giants’ robust systems. There will no doubt be a post-mortem at Microsoft as to why this one was not.

Timing is also everything. “Never push an update on a Friday,” sighed one computer scientist I spoke to, head in hands.

That’s because if something goes wrong and it takes time to fix, firms typically have fewer people working at weekends so it will inevitably take even longer to resolve.

For that reason, many big firms do tend to prefer updates during the middle of the week.

If you are a Crowdstrike customer, there are details on its support website explaining the fix. If you work for a company with an IT team, they may well be co-ordinating a company-wide response.

Often by the time you’ve noticed an outage, it has fixed itself. This is certainly not the case here. It is likely to be a few days at least before the world returns to normal.

Donald Trump took the stage on Thursday night at the Republican National Convention like a conquering hero. He had cheated death. His Democratic opponents were tearing themselves apart.

His loyalists, who now fill the ranks of his party, packed the Milwaukee arena and cheered enthusiastically throughout his hour-and-a-half speech.

He pledged to serve all Americans if elected then recounted, in a subdued, but almost messianic tone, his brush with a spray of bullets. Some delegates even wore bandages over their right ears like their injured political idol in tribute to him.

“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God,” he said. “Over the last few days, many people have said it was a providential moment.” He spoke of dropping to the ground as bullets flew past him and how his supporters had “great sorrow on their faces”.

“When I rose, surrounded by Secret Service, the crowd was confused because they thought I was dead,” he said.

The unity message and its powerful delivery made for a unique convention speech and a remarkable Trump one. But the rest of his speech was more traditional convention fare.

Although he called for ending the “partisan witch hunts” against him, he avoided the extended forays into 2020 election denial that have at times dominated his rally speeches, and he mostly replaced his normal pointed attacks on individual opponents with calls for unity.

There was classic Trump in there too – dark and false claims, sometimes during extended improvisations.

Trump’s performance hinted that for all the talk of a changed man after the attempt on his life and for all the more organised, focused operation behind him, the former president is still inclined to veer off-script, even in the most momentous of occasions.

The question many Americans could be wondering now is which version of Trump will lead the country should he beat Democrat Joe Biden in November. Looking back at the last four days offers some clues.

The address, weakly delivered though it may have been, still represented the culmination of a remarkable stretch for the former president, starting with President Joe Biden’s disastrous presidential debate performance in Atlanta three weeks ago that prompted an uprising in his Democratic Party.

Since then, the US Supreme Court ruled that Trump had broad immunity from criminal prosecution, a judge delayed sentencing for his New York conviction in a hush-money case and another judge entirely dismissed the case against him for mishandling national security documents.

Then he was nearly assassinated. The attempt on his life by a 20-year-old gunman left Trump’s face bloodied and provided the iconic image that was emblazoned on T-shirts and signs at the convention.

All of this meant he and his supporters converged on Milwaukee with a sense that their time had come.

For four slickly produced and relentlessly on-message evenings, the Republican party positioned itself as a welcoming place for all Americans and the former president as a uniting force who would return the nation to greatness.

While there were still partisan speakers throwing red meat to the crowd, they were largely limited to the early-evening slots, when fewer Americans were tuned in to the proceedings.

As the final hour each night arrived, the focus softened and a string of speakers described the former president in deeply personal terms.

It began on Monday, with Trump receiving an exuberant welcome as he entered the convention centre for his first public appearance since the shooting.

He sat in the VIP section of the building and watched as model and social media influencer Amber Rose defended him against accusations of racism: “Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re black, white, gay or straight.”

On Tuesday, former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders recounted Trump hugging her young son at the White House while Lara Trump painted her father-in-law as “an amazing grandfather”.

Earlier that evening, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who had been one of Trump’s fiercest critics on the 2024 Republican primary campaign trail, was urging voters who didn’t support Trump “100% of the time” to back his re-election.

“When times are really tough, when he’s got everything to lose and nothing to gain,” Steve Witkoff, a friend of the former president, told the audience, “Donald Trump shows up, and he’s there for you.”

Trump’s first term in office was marked by sharp political divisions within American society. The day after he was inaugurated, millions marched through the streets of Washington in protest.

His attempts to ban nationals from a list of Muslim-majority countries caused chaos at American airports early in his presidency and border restrictions implemented later led to an outcry about crying children separated from their parents at detention centres.

Trump’s four years in office ended with him refusing to accept his defeat in the presidential election – denialism that culminated in the 6 January riot at the US Capitol, where thousands of his supporters attempted to block certification of President Biden’s victories.

He was denounced by many in his own party, and faced a second impeachment by the House of Representatives. Although he was acquitted in a Senate trial, seven Republicans broke ranks and voted for his conviction. After leaving office, the former president was indicted four times, found culpable for sexual assault by a civil court and convicted of fraud.

That was then, however, and here in Wisconsin – within the security bubble of the Republican National Convention – it was decidedly different now.

The overriding message from the Republicans this week was that those divisions and distractions are things of the past, and that the Trump that America sees today is not the one they might remember from his first White House tenure.

If the rest of the nation agrees, it would represent a remarkable comeback story or a collective act of political amnesia, depending on one’s perspective.

“I think that we really now are the party of unity and inclusiveness,” said Jennifer McGrath, a delegate from Las Vegas, Nevada. “We really are the place to be at this point.”

David Botkins, a member of the Virginian Republican Party’s State Central Committee, said he thought the assassination attempt had changed Trump and that he would be “different, better and more effective” in a second presidential term.

“I think the policies are going to be the same, the conservatism is going to be the same, but there may be a tenderness and a compassion and a gratitude and a respect for divine providence that will inform the tone with which he conducts himself as president for the next four years.”

As for those policies and proposals, the Republican convention offered scant details.

The first three nights of the convention each had a theme – the economy, safety and foreign policy. They formed a framework for the former president’s acceptance speech and offer a useful guide for the key points the party is seeking to emphasise in the campaign ahead.

While Trump only mentioned President Biden by name once, he noted that “this administration” was presiding over soaring inflation (which has now eased), knowing that economic concerns are the bread-and-butter of bids to oust an incumbent officeholder.

Crime and immigration, two issues on which Republicans joined at the hip all week, served as the centrepiece on “safety” night. Polls show that a majority of Americans now favour lowering immigration levels and support Trump’s call for removing millions of undocumented migrants residing in the US. During Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s speech, some convention attendees waved pre-printed signs reading “mass deportation now”.

Conflicts abroad were another prong of the Republican case against Mr Biden. In a particularly dramatic moment on Wednesday, families of six of the 13 US soldiers killed by a car bomb during the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan took the stage to blame the current president for the deaths and claim that the president wasn’t fit to lead the nation’s military.

“With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness and chaos will be over,” Trump said in his speech.

And while there were more specific policy discussions in events held on the sidelines of the convention, they took place well away from prime-time network television cameras.

For instance, on Monday, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, hosted a “policy fest”, where former Trump administration officials and Republican politicians offered their views on topics like foreign policy, education, immigration, the economy and energy.

The Heritage Foundation is behind the 1,000-page Project 2025 blueprint for a second Trump presidency, which has generated controversy, media attention and relentless attacks from Democrats – and many of the speakers defended their efforts to provide a detailed plan for a new Republican administration.

On Thursday, Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita made it clear what he thought of these outside efforts, describing Project 2025 – which many officials from the first Trump administration are part of – as a “pain in the ass”.

“The issues that are going to win us this campaign are not the issues that they want to talk about,” he said.

Eight years ago, when Donald Trump first ran for president, the Republican National Convention in Cleveland was a sometimes chaotic event, with then-establishment conservatives making last-ditch efforts to deny him the nomination.

Trump’s 2024 campaign is run by wily operatives, rather than political fringe characters, and they kept the convention participants on a tight script this week. The party, from the top to the grass-roots, has been fully remade in the former president’s image.

In 2016, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who finished second behind Trump in the primary voting, pointedly declined to endorse the winner, saying only that Republicans should vote their “conscience”. He was roundly booed.

This time around, he started his speech by saying “God bless Donald Trump” and went on to lavish the former president with praise.

Trump’s other Republican critics were nowhere to be found. His former vice-president, Mike Pence, spent the week on holiday in Montana. Senators like Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine stayed home. Former President George W Bush also kept his distance.

On Wednesday, it was Trump’s new vice-presidential running mate, JD Vance, who laid out the core tenets of this new, Trump-dominated Republican Party in his nomination acceptance speech.

“We won’t cater to Wall Street, we’ll commit to the working man,” he said. “We won’t import foreign labour, we’ll fight for American citizens. We won’t buy energy from countries that hate us, we’ll get it right here from American workers. We won’t sacrifice our supply chains to unlimited global trade, we’ll stamp every product ‘Made in the USA.’”

The political festivities in Milwaukee were Trumpism from start to finish – a carefully calibrated machine, promoting the party’s most popular agenda items and focusing criticism on one man, President Joe Biden.

But what if Republicans are going after the wrong guy? A growing number of Democrats have called on Mr Biden to be replaced as their presidential nominee and speculation is growing that he might actually listen.

The Democratic convention isn’t until the end of August, leaving time for the president to step aside either for his running mate, Kamala Harris, or for an open process to select another candidate.

On Thursday evening, the Trump campaign sought to highlight their candidate’s strength and vitality by giving him a raucous entrance, preceded by appearances by former wrestler Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Fighting Championship impresario Dana White and a performance by Kid Rock.

The campaign’s intention – to draw a contrast with Mr Biden’s perceived frailty and target younger male voters – was obvious.

That strategy may be less effective against Ms Harris or one of the more youthful Democratic governors who are mentioned as possible Biden successors.

But for the moment, the Republicans are riding high and optimistic about their victory in November, convinced that the former president’s run of good fortune is just getting started.